#the more time that goes the less things i like

[thetelekineticfrog]

Caution

Super long text blocks below. They are also disorganized and unedited

Conversely, magic is helpful to your body (goes through your blood stream and increases the efficiency of blood circulation, fights infections and such because it is directed by your will and your body really wants to survive, can form membranes in place of damaged tissue, many things) and while not necessarily malicious on it's own, your body becomes reliant on it because why continue expending resources on processes that are now happening "on their own"?

Magic will do whatever you want it to do, you need only think it. However it will not continue doing something if nothing is causing it to. This has been likened to a container of gass. If you remove the balloon, the air inside will not stay fixed in the same position. And if you stop willing magic to do anything it will stop doing that thing, as there is always thought happening. Mending another's wounds can be a horrific thing to do to someone and while it might be hypothetically possible to use magic to transform existing matter into flesh to heal someone, the magic is practically impossible to remove from the wound as you would have to think about it without thinking about it.

Magic makes your thoughts better at commanding magic, but either thoughts can draw in magic without having any, or all living things have some magic that can not leave (until they die or otherwise somehow completely stop thinking? Unknown/writer's decision)

It is horrifying that a fundamental and inescapable aspect of existing makes it dangerous to think. Thankfully it will effect you less if you avoid using it.

I just thought of a way gods or spirits could work. Thoughts can rub of on magic, and over an unknown but very long time this has, and surely still is, forming magic that is capable of thought. Spiritsand gods, like magic and all other things, can never be destroyed. They can only be changed. Thus immortality. Of course will can fade from magic over time so gods and spirits need to be around thoughts, or preferably thought about, or even better worshiped. Due to this who and what they are can be affected and even controlled by how they are perceived.

Particularly Complex thought

I am not sure whether the difference between gods and spirits lies in terminology or power, but the difference between spirits or gods and ghosts I have come up with. Ghosts were alive as mortals. A ghost is what happens when someone is fully ship of theseus'ed. Once all living tissue is replaced by magic (this can be due to dying, none of the tissue is living) your entire body must constantly be held together by your mind. This makes doing anything rather difficult, so ghosts get tired out from doing things like:

Making noise

Physically existing, even partially

Particularly complex thought

Being visible

And so on. Hypothetically a ghost could become a spirit/god, but this would take a lot of people working very hard (mentally) and/or literal divine intervention.

Since magic is controlled by thought, being more magic makes you more able to control magic, a magic user is more vulnerable to magic the more powerful they are. Kinda. The more of you is magic, the more magic you can control, but the more magic there is, the harder it is to control. So while someone with more magic would be more effected by the magic in them being altered or moved they also have more to alter or move so it is harder to do so. The more firmly planted in it is the more damage is done if it's removed, but it is easier to remove if it is less attached. Of course it is very difficult to remove magic as you would need to focus on the person or object you are removing it from and the magic without just directing the magic into what you are thinking about

Some of my favorite magic side effects:

-Nosebleeds. Never gets old.

-Coughing up blood. The good ol’ “cough into your hand and pull it back to see blood” also never gets old.

-Headaches. You keep fighting as your head pounds, desperately telling you to take a break. At first they fade within minutes when you stop using magic, but overtime, they become chronic.

-Fatigue. After a big battle, you stand triumphant, and then just fall asleep on the spot.

-In a similar vein, overuse causing you to straight up faint rather than just fall asleep. Darkness begins to overtake your vision in the middle of battle, unconsciousness abruptly looming over you.

-Any of the side effects happening to another person. Maybe two close characters are connected, and whatever side effects character A would normally endure are transferred to character B. When A uses a blast of magic B screams loudly because holy shit that hurt.

-Magic gradually deteriorating your mind. Using it too much eventually caused hallucinations and an inability to retain memories, or even larger scale memory loss. 

Feel free to add more, I’m looking for some to steal

[ogwintersmind]

Bakugou Katsuki headcanons

When you first meet:

He HATES you. He hates everyone but something about you just really makes his blood boil.

Everytime Aizawa forces him into a group with you he complains nonstop about how "stupid" and “annoying” you are and now he'd much rather do the project/assignment himself.

He hates it when Kiri or any of his other friends talk to you because he doesn’t understand now anyone could hold a conversation with someone as annoying as you.

Dare I say he finds you more annoying than Deku? (No that's impossible… right?)

After he gets to know you:

He's learned to tolerate your presence these days, though he still finds you annoying.

He'll attempt to have conversations with you over text but he ends up forgetting to respond most of the time.

He “helps” you with your homework while throwing insults about how stupid you are out the whole time.

He also doesn't mind you talking his "friends" anymore.

When he starts catching feels:

He tolerates your presence even more now, dare I say he loves it? (Winkie wink)

He initiates conversations with you first over text and in person, the name calling doesn't stop tho. It’s just apart of who he is.

He’ll offer to help with your homework and training and gives his own... Katsuki compliments. (though you swear they're just less harsh versions of the usual insults he gave others.)

Kirishima is the only one who has conformation that katsuki likes you, though everyone else definitely has speculations.

After you guys start dating:

He listens to you ramble about whatever it is that's on your mind, whether it be good or bad. (He doesn't even insult you!)

If he goes to the store he'll pick up items he knows you like and things that remind him of you.

If you don't respond to his message(s) quick enough he'll think you hate him and text kiri a bunch asking what he should do and if he's a bad boyfriend or not (he's not.)

When listening to music he adds songs you like to his playlist so when you're around you two can enjoy the playlist together.

He holds your backpack/ purse for you even if you don't ask.

After you marry:

He was nervous to propose ... What if you say "no" what if you didn't like the ring???

Good thing you said yes and loved the ring.

The wedding was a small intimate event with close friends and family, kirishima as his best-man.

You two buy a nice sized home together and a cat (he swears he hates "that damn thing” but it's really his best friend.)

Housework is 50/50 you clean, he cooks.

After a few months of marriage you're begging for babies so... He gives them to you.

The end.

Hi friends!! I hope you enjoyed reading! I haven't wrote in a longgg time so its rusty I'm sorry lol..

This post is not proofread so sorry for any grammar mistakes!

Thank you for reading, have a good rest of your day/afternoon/night!

XO - winter.

(I really rushed the end because I bored sorry)

Dividers not mine (i don't remember who i got them from sorry )!

[stollengoods]

Let’s Get Wild

REQ. Tha-gyu x Reader Smut~

Warnings: Cursing, drug use, and threesome/lots a smut (like someone needs to take my phone away from me cuz this was filthy bitch haha)

Summary: Your dumbass friends take Viagra.

————

Most people would think a single woman renting out a home with two men as your roomates would be a cause for concern. Especially if those same roomates, did all kinds of random substances on the daily but to you they were harmless goofballs; they could be dumb and annoying at times but harmless non-the-less.

You guys met at the club, Nam-gyu worked there as a manager, Thanos was a famous rapper so he was there almost every weekend, and you used to work there as a dancer until you finished college and went on to become a nurse.

You’re shift usually ends at 11 PM and you would get home around 11:30 - 11:45 PM. Most of the time you would get home before the boys because the club didn’t close until 2 AM, but sometimes your job would ask you to stay for a few more hours and you would for the extra pay.

Tonight was one of those nights, you texted the boys in the the group chat not to worry if they didn’t see you at the house because you probably weren’t going to be home until later.

On the way home they decided to stop at McDonalds and buy dinner for everyone. They wanted to surprise you and also knew that you most likely weren’t eating enough as you should for how hard you work.

When they got home, they set the food and drinks on the table. They didn’t know exactly how long you would be, but typically when your boss asked you to stay an extra few hours you got home no later than 3 AM.

They went into the fenced off backyard to smoke some weed before coming inside. They both sat down at the table engulfing their food in minutes.

Thanos burped, leaning back in his chair, “Alright, what do you got for us tonight ?”

Nam-gyu smirked pulling out an orange prescription bottle from his coat pocket.

“I pickpocketed this old fucker.” He said, shaking the bottle and listened to the sound of rattling pills.

Thanos made a face, “Why an old guy ? He’s probably got heart issues and shit. No way he’s taking anything fun.”

Nam-gyu shook his head, the corner of his eyes red due to the marijana they smoked earlier. “No dude, I specifically picked him because he was dressed like a rockstar and plus you should’ve seen all the woman he was picking up, that dude was a chick magnet ! Whatever he’s on I want.” Nam-gyu pointed his thumb to himself at the last statement before opening the pill bottle and shaking one out onto his hand.

“What even is it ?” Thanos asked, his eyebrows raised in curiosity now.

Nam-gyu handed Thanos the bottle, “That’s the thing, the labels kind of worn out, so I can’t really tell.”

Thanos inspected the bottle label closely but ultimately shook his head, “Yeah I can’t make it out either.”

He fished a pill out of the bottle and pinched it between his fingers looking at the front and back of the pill. “It doesn’t look familiar.”

Nam-gyu bit his lip in excitement, “I know, im telling you dude I’ve got a good feeling about this one.”

Thanos smiled, “Alright, down the hatch it goes.” He slipped the pill into his mouth, Nam-gyu following suit as they both swallowed it in sync.

————

“Dude, it’s been almost an hour and all I feel is a headache and my heart beating like crazy.”

Nam-gyu sighed, “Yeah, I know, this fucking blows.”

The sound of the door lock turning made them look back to see you stumbling into the house, closing the door behind you and sliding down it onto the floor.

“Hey there’s are Meredith Grey, how was work today ?” Nam-gyu called out to you.

Him and Thanos sat on the couch, watching a movie, with their heads turned to peer at you.

You could barely keep your eyes open, “Fucking exhausting.”

“Well we got you some food on the table, if you’re hungry.”

You perked up at the sound of food, you made yourself stand and walk over to the table. “Aww, thank you guys, this is a really sweet gesture.”

“Oh yeah, no problem, we know the long hard hours you work and wanna make sure you get the energy you need.”

You smiled at them, before grabbing your food and putting it in the microve. Once done, you sat down at the table and began munching down on your hot McSpicy with fries and washing it down with a coke.

You tilted your head, noticing the orange bottle of pills on the table in front of you for the first time. You picked it up and looked at the label, noticing that it wasn’t either of their names.

You rolled your eyes as you realized Nam-gyu must have stolen it from someone at the club. Curious though, you tried to look for the name of the drug but the label was too tattered to read it.

Thanos got up from the couch and joined you at the table, “Oh yeah, maybe you can help us out and tell us what this is.”

You huffed, “Please tell me you guys didn’t take one already, without knowing exactly what was going into your body ?”

“Eh, I wouldn’t worry too much y/n.” Thanos shrugged, “We took it an hour ago and still feel nothing except for our hearts racing but that could just be the weed we smoked earlier.”

You closed yours eyes at the mention of weed, “You mixed it with another substance ?”

“Yeah, but it’s just weed.” Thanos defended, “That’s not harmful, it’s like drinking alcohol.”

You smacked your hand in the middle of your face at his ignorance. “Thanos, mixing prescription drugs with alcohol can be lethal.”

“We only smoked weed, I was just comparing it to alcohol.”

You pinched the bridge of your nose, “No, Thanos, I get that I was just saying-“ you sighed, “You know what nevermind, let me see if I can figure out what this is before I give myself a heart attack.”

You popped open the bottle and shook one out onto the palm of your hand. The pill looked fairly familiar and it wasn’t until you looked very closely at it to read the writing that you let out a laugh.

“What ?” Thanos asked, “What is it ?”

You closed your eyes, shaking your head with a big smile on your lips. “Hey Nam-gyu ?” You called out to him.

His head turned around, “Yeah, what’s up ?”

“Come here please.” You motioned him with your finger.

He raised his eyebrows and got up walking around the couch, your eyes along with Thanos’s were instantly drawn to the prominent hard on showing through his grey sweats. Nam-gyu sat down across from you completely oblivious to his situation.

“Who’d you get this from ?”

His eyes went to the blue pill in your hand, “Some older guy at the club tonight. I thought since woman were practically throwing themselves at him, he would have something that we would want, but turns out it was nothing. This shit is ass.” He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

The smile on your face grew even more, “Well typically Viagra only works if you’re sexually aroused.”

Nam-gyu’s eyes squinted in confusion not completely catching on yet, “Viagra ?”

Thanos froze for a second and then looked down, “Fuck.”

Nam-gyu’s head snapped to him, following his gaze and he chuckled, “Dude why are you-“ He blinked his eyes a couple times before looking down at his own erection.

You bit your lip to keep from laughing, “Yeah… so you guys took Viagra-“ You checked the pill again, “-And at the highest dose as well, wow.”

“Shit.” Nam-gyu commented, looking anywhere but at you.

“Good news is, since you only mixed it with weed there shouldn’t be too many side effects besides Tachycardia. Plus weed can increase the amount of Viagra in your system, making it last longer and amplifying its effects.”

They both looked at each other with worry and confusion. “What’s Tachycardia ?” Nam-gyu asked, looking back at you.

“It’s just means a faster than normal heartbeat.” You explained.

“Shit.” Thanos cursed under his breathe, “Y/n you gotta help us.”

You laughed, getting up from your seat and throwing your trash away. “Yeah not gonna happen, you two can suck each other off, I’m going to go sleep.”

You went to your room and shut the door, quickly switching into comfortable pj’s and snuggling under your covers.

A few hours later you awoke to someone shaking you lightly and whispering your name. You barely peeled your eyes open enough to make out the color of Thanos’s purple hair.

“Thanos…” You groaned, “What the fuck do you want ?”

“Y/n, you gotta help us.” His voice sounded panicky.

You whined, stretching your limbs, “Huh ? What are you saying ?”

“The Viagra we took earlier, remember ?”

You let out a soft laugh recalling the event suddenly, “What about it ?”

“It’s been two and half hours and we’re still hard as rocks.”

“Alright TMI.” You rolled over onto your side, your back facing him.

“Y/n-“ He pulled your arm down having your back lay against the mattress. “I’m not playing around, we both tried jacking off and came but nothing changed, we’re still hard and it’s starting to become painful.”

“Okay, I still don’t know what you expect me to-“

Thanos cut you off, attaching his lips to yours. This wasn’t the first time you two have kissed, sometimes when you would drink with them, you guys would get really steamy. Not just with Thanos but Nam-gyu too.

You moaned into the kiss, your fingers lazily running through his hair. He rolled himself on top of you, making you instantly feel his hard on pressed against your leg. You felt yourself clench at the thought of him inside of you.

You felt the bed dip next to you and looked over while Thanos kissed along your neck. It was Nam-gyu, he was feeling himself over his sweats as he watched you and Thanos play with each other.

When Thanos pulled away to remove his clothing, you crawled over to Nam-gyu. He leaned back onto his elbows as you made your way on top of him. You could hear his breathing pick up, as your face inched closer to his. You attached your lips to his and he moaned into the kiss as he tried pulling you more into him.

That’s the thing you loved about getting intimate with Nam-gyu, he was so needy.

One of his legs was trapped between your thighs and Nam-gyu bucked his hips up & down, humping your leg. He broke away from the kiss, releasing such loud sensual whines of desperation.

You began kissing his neck and his eyes rolled to the back of his head, hands clutching your hips to pull you even closer to him.

“Y/n.” You heard a deep voice call next to you.

You looked over to an exposed Thanos laying on the bed stroking himself, “Suck me off.” He commanded.

And this is what you loved about being intimate with Thanos, he was very dominating.

You licked your lips, nodding your head and crawling over between his legs. You grabbed the base of his cock and saw as his eyes glaze over with lust watching you. You licked a strip from where your hand was to his tip and felt him shiver beneath you before taking him into your mouth.

His hand tangled in your hair as you started to bob your head on him. You gagged around him when he shoved you down on his dick more, loving the sounds of you struggling to take him all in.

He released your head and you came up for air, a string of saliva being the only thing connecting you two at the moment. You wiped your mouth and Thanos sat up, swiftly unbuttoning your top.

You gasped at the cold air hitting your exposed skin, your nipples rock hard from it.

Thanos attached his mouth to one while his hand messaged the other. Your hand went to his hair lightly pulling on it. You felt vibrations against your skin as you heard him moan and noticed Nam-gyu, now fully naked as well, behind him. His arm was reached around Thanos’s waist, stroking his dick.

Thanos stopped what he was doing to you and turned around to focus on Nam-gyu. Attaching their lips as he fondled with his balls. Nam-gyu’s nails dragged down Thanos’s chest and he hissed into the kiss.

Thanos then detached his lips to spit in his hand. He reached down stroking Nam-guy’s leaking cock and watched as his mouth hung open, releasing such pretty moans for him as he looked at him through half lided eyes.

“God such a needy fucking slut for me, huh ?”

He whined, nodding his head as his hands hung onto his shoulders for support as he came undone; his cum spilling onto Thanos’s cock and lower abdomen.

Thanos grabbed him by the neck, his face only a few centimeters from his. “You better clean this shit up.”

“Y-yes sir.” Nam-gyu squeaked out.

Thanos released him, throwing him against the mattress. You watched as Thanos layed down and Nam-gyu quickly got up and crawled on all fours licking the cum from around his stomach.

You bit your lip at the sight, Nam-gyu was usually a shit talker who acted like he was a tough domineer but when it came to sex he was the complete opposite. Such a submissive, needy partner.

Nam-gyu was about to lick the cum off of Thanos’s dick but he stopped him. “Y/n-“ He used two fingers to motion you over and you listened crawling over to replace Nam-guy’s position next to him.

“Yes ?” You asked.

He rested his hands behind his head, “I want you to ride me.” You broke eye contact to look over at his cock that was decorated in Nam-gyu’s cum.

“Now.” He growled.

You swallowed, removing your shorts/underwear and positioning yourself on top of him. You grabbed his dick to line up with your entrance and felt the sticky substance coat your fingers. Nam-gyu’s cum mixed with your arousel made it very easy for you to sink yourself down onto him.

“That’s a good girl.” He moaned, placing his hands on your hips helping you bounce on his cock.

Your pace quickened when he slapped your ass with one of his hands and you moaned out his name. You felt him twitch inside of you and knew he was close. He pulled you into his chest and swiftly rolled you over so he was now ontop of you.

You didn’t have time to think as he thrusted himself into you, deeper and quicker this time. Your mouth hung open, moans falling out of it one after the other.

“Gonna cum.” Thanos grunted.

“P-please.” You begged, feeling yourself too close to the edge as well.

“Please what kitten ?” Asked, “You want me to cum in this tight pussy of yours, hmm ?”

You clenched around him in response and he groaned. “I need to hear you say kitten.”

Your nails marked up his back as you tried to form words, “P-p-please c-cum in me…”

He caressed his thumb on your cheek, “Such a good girl for me.” He said with a smile, “How could I say no ?”

His hand then went to your throat as he did three last hard thrust into you before spilling his warm cum into you. You came at the feeling of his cum filling you like a pastry and spilling out of you when he pulled out.

You never worried about either one them getting you pregnant because of all the drugs they took. Thanos layed beside you, instantly wrapping his arm around your waist with his head in the nap of your neck. It only took a few seconds for him to start snoring softly into your ear and you giggled a bit.

Nam-gyu who was fast asleep after Thanos had jerked him off; unconsciously rolled over pressing his chest against his back and you smiled at how cute they looked while sleeping. It didn’t take long for you to follow suit.

————

In the morning, it was your day off so you didn’t care too much that you slept in. The clock read 12:34 PM and you groaned as you stretched your limbs. You felt your ass damp and looked beneath the sheets suddenly remembering the events that took place last night.

You looked over and noticed the boys were no longer in your bed. You yawned, walking over to your bathroom and took a shower. Once done you threw on your clothes for the day and walked out your room into the kitchen. It smelled of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns making your mouth water.

“Well look who finally decided to wake up.” Nam-gyu snarked and you stuck out your tongue at him taking the chair across from him at the table.

Thanos scrapped the eggs out of the pan onto Nam-gyu’s plate that was full of food already. He pointed his spatula at you, “How many eggs you want ?”

“Two.” You said holding up two fingers as well.

Nam-gyu took a bite of his food and then stood up, “Mmm, before I eat I’m going to throw your sheets in the washer real quick.”

You nodded your head, “Thank you.” You called after him.

It wasn’t long before Nam-gyu returned and Thanos had made you and him a plate of food. Thanos sat in the chair next to Nam-gyu and everyone chomped down on their food.

“Do you need money for a plan B ?” Thanos asked, with an eyebrow raised.

You shook your head with a chuckle, “No. I’d be lucky enough if either of your guys’s sperm lasted two days in me.”

Nam-gyu looked at you confused, “What do you mean ?”

“You guys are so hopped up on drugs that your sperm cells aren’t the best. Even if they got me pregnant, I’d most likely have a miscarriage after a couple of weeks and not even know it.”

Nam-gyu’s eyes looked concerned, “Damn… that’s-uh kind of depressing.”

You shrugged your shoulders, “It’s not like you’re starting a family anytime soon and when you want to just slow down on the narcotics, yeah ?” He nodded his head going back to eating his food.

Once finished you set your dishes in the washer and thanked Thanos for the delicious food he prepared. You told them that you were going to go get your nails done and to not wait up for you. Thanos stopped you at the door handing you a wad of cash.

“What’s this ?” You asked.

“Money for your nails.”

You tried giving him the money back, “I’ve got it, you don’t have to-“

He shook his head, “I insist.”

“Really Thanos I don’t-“

He smirked, “Let me spoil you.”

You smiled, rolling your eyes at him, “Thank you.” You pressed a kiss to his cheek and walked out the door as he shut and locked it behind you.

[futfemfantasies]

I need pregnant!reader x kcc pregnancy one 🙏

Hurt doesn't explain it ~ Kyra Cooney-Cross x Williamson!reader

You and Kyra are around 24/25 in this :)

Sorry it took so long nonny!!!

Warnings: angst

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You wake up with a cold spot next to you and a frown on your face. A slightly burnt smell wafts through the bedroom and you’ve found the location of your fiancé. Sliding on your favourite hoodie and slippers, you quietly make your way downstairs to see a mess. Various mixing bowls are half washed and a stack of burnt toast sits near the bin. You stifled a laugh but it didn’t work as Kyra turned around with a frown on her adorable face.

“No, no, no. You’re meant to be asleep so I can surprise you.” Kyra groans as she feels you wrap your arms around her waist.

“You can do that another time, but for now would you like help?” Kyra nods and you give her a kiss on the cheek before getting to work on the French toast. 

As you were cooking the french toast, Kyra set up the table with all the other food she prepared without fail. You bring in the French toast and you both dig in, talking about the upcoming schedule for your club Arsenal. Just as you put your glass of juice back down, an unnerving feeling begins to stir. You run to the bathroom, with Kyra hot on your tail, and empty the contents of your stomach into the toilet. Kyra holds your hair and rubs your back soothingly. 

Once you finish, you sit down and Kyra gets you some water and tablets before cleaning you up. Kyra explains she texted Reneé about you being sick. Kyra quickly changes into her training kit and helps you back into bed. Kyra worries something will happen while she’s not home and is reluctant to go. You reassure her that she’ll call if something extreme happens.

“Please call if you need anything on the way home,” Kyra reminds you as she gives you a kiss on the forehead before leaving. “I love you baby.”

“I love you more Ky.”

You decided to try and sleep whatever this is off before Kyra gets home in a few hours. You jolt awake from your nap with a thought lingering in the back of your mind. You race into the ensuite and fish through the cupboards for the box. A few minutes later you’re staring at a little stick waiting for the timer to go off. In a panic, you check the test 10 seconds before the timer goes off and you can’t believe it. You and Kyra are going to be mums. You want to surprise Kyra so you call one person who can help.

“Hey little sis, how are you feeling? Ky said you were sick?” Leah questioned.

“Yeah, I just found out why. Can you come over?”

“Of course I can, Ky’s going out for a quick coffee with Less so she won’t be back soon” You check your messages and Kyra messaged in that moment. Well that’s scary, you thought.

“Okay sounds great, I’ll see you soon”

After many debates on how to tell Kyra, you and Leah (mainly you) thought of the perfect way. You wanted to get confirmation that you were in fact pregnant so you told a small white lie to Kyra about staying back with Leah to work on corners, when you were actually getting a blood test and ultrasound by the team doctor. 

“Congratulations Y/N, you are in fact pregnant. It seems you are a little over 10 weeks so you should be showing soon”

Tears were flowing out of both you and Leah’s eyes and you both knew the next in your plan was to see Reneé. After a quick chat and run down of the plan, Leah quickly ordered the things needed and got to work.

At the next team meeting, before Reneé went through tactics for the next game, what drills the team is completing when she mentions you have an announcement. Kyra looks at you with a weird and confusing look as Leah hands you a small bag. 

“As all you know, I was out sick the last training session and I had a pretty good reason,” You turn around, taking the small kit out of the bag that reads ‘mum’ with Kyra’s 32 under it.

“Kyra and I are having a baby.” You say as you turn around showing everyone the kit. Kyra jumps out of her seat and runs over to hug you, tears streaming down her face.

“You’re serious? It worked. I’ll be here every step of the way, I promise.”

You and Kyra go and sit back down as Reneé states that this weekend's game will be your last until you come back. 

Back home, you start making dinner while Kyra starts her research on all things baby. She has notebooks spread out and her iPad and laptop open with different articles and scientific journals stopped at random points. You lean over the kitchen counter and see Kyra with her glasses on and tongue poking out a little in concentration and smile in adoration and love. You know you’ve picked the best partner and mum to your little one.  

Since you’ve stopped training, it seems like Kyra is going more and staying late. Kyra’s driving herself to the bone at training and in games, it’s clear she’s becoming exhausted and burnt out. She’s missed at least three doctors appointments she said she’d make and it’s starting to take a toll on you. All those feelings and promises about being there every step are slowly fading away. Of course you confide your older sister who just reminds you that with the new signings, Kyra is just trying to keep her starting spot and not purposefully missing appointments. 

You sit on the couch, doom scrolling through tik tok which has now become pregnancy tiktok but you’re not complaining. Kyra drops her duffel bag at the door and sits on one of the single loveseats near you. Kyra lets out a huge sigh that causes you to look up from your phone. You roll your eyes as you get up from the couch, deciding whether to save your breath. But no, this was too important to ignore and push down.

“You didn’t even call,” Your voice was tight, but the frustration was barely contained.

Kyra sighed, again. Lifting her head up from the back of the chair to look at you. “I was training. I lost track of time.”

You let out a sharp laugh, shaking your head. “Because football is all that matters, right? Not me, not this baby - just the game.”

“That’s not fair,” Kyra shot back at you, with her jaw clenched. “You of all people know what it takes to be at this level.”

“I was alone Kyra” Your voice cracked, emotions seeping through. “I sat there alone. I watched our baby on that screen. I found out if we’re having a son or daughter without you holding my hand.”

Kyra’s face softened as the guilt started to sink in. It was gone quickly, as stubbornness replaced it. “I didn’t do it on purpose. I-”

“You didn’t even try to be there,” You interrupted. 

“This isn’t easy for me either,” Kyra muttered, barely looking into your eyes. “I hate that I let you down, it breaks my heart. But I swear, it’s not because I don’t care. It’s because I care too much.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.” You frowned, arms crossed over you ever growing bump.

Kyra leaned back against the counter, rubbing her hands down her face. “Football is all I’ve ever known. It’s all I've ever been good at. Now with bubba on the way and everything changing, if I don’t give everything to my career I’ll lose it. And if I lose football, I don’t know who I am.”

You blinked, not expecting that to come from Kyra. Your frustration turned into something softer. You walk closer to Kyra and pull her in your arms as best you could. Anger forgotten about for a split second as you comforted your fiancé. 

“I’m scared Y/N,” Kyra admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “I’m scared that if I take my foot off the gas for even a second, I’ll lose my place, and then what? What if I can't give our child the life they deserve? What if I fail at being a mum?”

 You let out a slow breath. “Ky, baby, you are not going to fail. But if you keep going like this, you are going to lose something a hell of a lot more important than football.”

Kyra looked into your eyes, you could really see the fear in her eyes - the real fear of losing you and the baby.

“I just…I don’t know how to do this.”

“Neither do I. But we will figure it out together,” You hesitate before continuing. “If you actually want to.”

“I do, I swear.” Kyra declares.

“Then prove it,” you said. “Be there. Show up. Not just for me, but for her”

Kyra’s eyes go wide at the mention of the gender. “I will, I promise you,” She drops to her knees and lifts your shirt to kiss your bump. “I promise you too princess. I love you so much.” 

Kyra stands up and puts a hand on your cheek. “I love you Y/N.”

“I’m still mad at you,” You muttered as you pulled Kyra closer. “But I love you too.”

“I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”

One day, the medical staff contacted you to do some blood work, just to make sure everything is going smoothly. Kyra offered to take you but you remembered Leah was going in for a physio session on her knee so she’s taking you. Kyra kisses you goodbye as you hop into Leah’s car and not even a minute later, the furniture truck and Steph, Beth and Alessia arrive to help. 

Once all the flat packs are in the spare room, Steph and Beth get to work on painting the feature wall while Alessia and Kyra get started on the crib and change table. A few hours later, Kyra is getting a little worried about where you are. She messages you and you reply quickly saying Leah is nearly finished and you’ll be back in 40 minutes, Kyra goes into a panic. The four of them quickly get the finishing touches on everything before the door is closed, ready to reveal to you.   

The three helpers leave just before Leah pulls into the driveway. Kyra hears a beep out the front and races out to greet you before Leah can even drive off. Kyra invites her in but Leah declines.

“Hi baby, baby girl. How did you go?” 

“We were finished hours ago but Leah kept flirting with the new physio saying she had knots everywhere so you tell me.” You say laughing.

“I would’ve picked you up baby.” Kyra whines, thinking about how bored you must have been.

“Oh no it was great, I’ve got blackmail against her now.”

“I have a surprise for you, follow me” Kyra grabs your hand and takes you to what is now your baby girl's room. 

Kyra nudged for you to open the door and you nearly started crying then and there. The soft colours and boho theme is everything you wanted. The furniture was everything on your list and it was styled to perfection. 

“Ky.”

“No baby, it’s what you and baby girl deserve and more. This is just the start.”

You pull Kyra into a soft but passionate kiss and a thank you. You pull away and look in her closet of tiny outfits. Of course replicas of your and Kyra’s kits were front and centre. 

“You’ve definitely proved yourself Ky, thank you.”

“I’m not a promise breaker baby.”

“Well-”

“Okay that was one time!” Kyra groans.

[shin-kenooubu]

Confession Headcanons!

featuring: Ranpo Edogawa

(sfw, fluff, gn!reader, no content warnings)

• author's note: more ranpo because i love him.

Ranpo isn't used to being uncertain about things, in fact, there is nothing in the world that he is less accustomed to. He always has things figured, it's always taken him seconds and it somehow takes him Even Less Time to blabber out the answer.

But that certainty comes from cold hard facts. Feelings are far, far, faaaar trickier.

So obviously. Instead of figuring out a way to put his feelings into proper words and going through the grueling feeling of vulnerability and heat rushing into his face and down his neck.

He makes you do it.

Eventually, you won't be able to keep quiet about your feelings and he knows this. But at the rate you're going, it's going to take ages. So he's going to help speed up the process! Because someone needs to confess.

And its certainly not going to be him. For obvious reasons.

So heres now it goes:

- All up in your space. He knows you get flustered when he's near. Filing some paperwork? He's sitting on your desk. Taking a break on the couch? He's sitting down and draping his legs over your lap. You're taking your lunch break? He's hungry too!!! Buy him a treat!!!

- Makes you accompany him whenever he gets sent out. It doesn't matter if you can drive or not, he'll tell you everything he's already figured out about the case on the way there regardless! He's basically figured it all out already anyways. Isn't that impressive? Isn't he the best? Praise him, please and thank you.

- Compliments you. Indirectly. All the other members of the ADA always mention how highly Ranpo seems to think of you. It's clear that he values your input, he finds you incredibly dependable as well, y'know, he's even mentioned that you're pretty easy on the eyes. Don't tell him they told you that, though. (It's all part of his master plan.)

- Shares. His supply is dwindling even faster because of you! You should feel honored. Or maybe not. He doesn't actually mind, don't feel bad for taking anything. Hurry up and eat the damn thing already.

- Listens to you. Actively. He makes sure to show that he's paying attention to you because he knows that you appreciate it. He doesn't really get it, he's always listening even if it looks like he's busy playing around. But feelings are weird and fragile. He'll be a little extra careful with yours.

- Makes an effort to not insult your intelligence. Not that he ever actually means to, his wording is just off. Which is why recently you've found him growing quiet in conversations for a few seconds. A small pout on his lips as he considers his words before snapping right back into place and continuing whatever tirade he was going on. All without throwing out an indirect jab. It's cute, and also very thoughtful.

- Minimizes the opportunities you have to get hurt in his plans. Obviously some things don't come together as neatly as one might hope but damnit if he isn't finding a way to keep you safe. You can be useful And out of harms way.

He's obvious, he doesn't trust you to not brush off his vaguer advances as him simply being friendly. He wants you to get the hint. Needs you to, really, because he's sick of pining just as much as you are.

When you do eventually ask to speak to him privately, invite him into your space and sit him down, his heart pounds.

Ranpo knows the outcome of this, he's set it in motion for weeks, maybe even months, but theres still Doubt.

He can't see the future.

He can infer it, maybe. Can imagine a future where you and him are happy, where everyday, the two of you lay in bed together, and you smile at him as you run your fingers through his black hair and his mind grows muddy.

But this isn't like any simple murder case. He knows some facts, yeah, but none of it will ever, ever be enough to be Certain. Certain of you and him. Together. It scares him.

But when you take his hands in yours, a little clammy from nerves, and whisper your feelings to him, he can't help but surge forward and press his lips to yours.

A wide smile. A simple, "I know."

You can feel his quiet laughter on your face.

He's lucky he didn't wheeze it out, with how tight his chest feels from pure giddiness.

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

hi - do you have any fics with scenes like the one in "but the world won't stop turning" where derek time travels and meets his mom? in this one she knows it him by scent (in her time he's 7-ish) and they just have lunch and talk bit. it's very bittersweet. i was hoping there might be more like it?

Hi anon. Let's see.

But The World Won't Stop Turning by thepsychicclam

(1/1 I 19,906 I Explicit I Sterek)

Derek glances at Stiles, who is watching him with a curious expression.

“Oh shit,” Stiles exclaims as comprehension dawns on him. “Everything makes sense now. Derek, I know what the witch did, she cursed you with – “

But before Stiles is able to finish his sentence, everything fades away and Derek is surrounded by darkness.

***

A Chance Worth Taking by ash_mcj

(1/1 I 1,885 I General i Sterek)

When Derek woke up, he thought he was in a dream.

There were posters littering the familiar forest green walls that he hadn’t seen in years—Star Trek, Black Eyed Peas, even a Destiny’s Child one he had completely forgotten was on the back of his bedroom door that he’d stolen from Laura’s wall when she’d left for college. A burgundy and white letterman jacket was slung over his desk chair, bold letters spelling his surname and his basketball number across the back with Beacon Hills Cyclones Basketball on the lower half.

This wasn’t possible—this room had burned to ash years ago, and his nightmares almost never featured such simple scenes as this one. There were no foreboding feelings, no sharp smell of smoke, no guilt-inducing screams. 

And just as he was about to dig his clawed hand into his thigh in an attempt to wake himself from this maybe-dream, he remembered. ___

[or: with the help of some magic, Derek and Stiles go back in time—giving them the opportunity to save not only their future pack, but also the first one Derek lost]

Days Like These. by Missy_Moo

(6/23 I 8,801 I General I Sterek)

Derek and Stiles mated right after Stiles finished highschool, they had been trying for a baby ever since. Unfortunatly nature was against them and everything they tried had failed. Until their third and final round of IVF, they were pregnant! Deaten finds the spell to send Derek back to stop the fire on the very same day that they find oout about their pup. Now its Dereks choice, his new family or his old one.

-

Or where Derek goes back in time stops the fire, forgets about Stiles and has to find his mate all over again. While Stiles pouts his way through a virgin mary style pregnancy.

Blood of my Veins, Bone of my Body by DaoOfGay

(4/? I 10,679 I Explicit I Sterek)

Derek Hale was a stupid and very proud teen. He always regretted the words he told the one that was his Soulmate... That day was the day he threw away his chance at happiness while pushing someone down a path of no return.

He regretted it so much...

Now, at such old age, he lived a lonely life. His friends, family, and others he loved- he pushed them away slowly, and he didn't even notice it. So, as he died alone, all he wanted was to go back...

"-rek, tell me this freak is lying and that you two aren't Soulmates-"

He hadn't even come to his senses- everything was so weird, but when he heard those words, his entire being screamed and he opened his mouth to say: "Of course we're Soulmates-"

There was only silence in the school cafeteria.

Back to the Beginning by erraticallyinspired

(7/? I 18,532 I Teen I Sterek)

"The last thing he can remember is turning his back to Jennifer-Julia. It was stupid, of course, because she was the Darach and knew perfectly well how to handle werewolves. [...] He has to be dead."

Jennifer knocks Derek out in the elevator, but he doesn't wake up there.

A Simple Wish by monkeyihihji

(5/5 I 23,022 I Teen I Sterek)

In less than seven days, his girlfriend had randomly broken up with him and kicked him out. He was forced to move back home to a family that seemed to not really want him. His bed was too small. And his former childhood best friend--who he just figured out he was in love with--was with someone else. Happy Birthday, Derek. It was a great week, really. The candle flickers and seems to mock him. He takes a deep breath and blows.

"I wish I could go back and fix this whole mess."

Time To Say Goodbye by matildajones

(1/1 I 34,323 I Teen I Sterek)

Derek finds an older version of himself at his front door, along with Stiles, a boy from the future.

[whoreiorcats]

That passage in the you you are where mark and Ricken get into a fight is another example of mark wanting to keep the grief of Gemma to himself.

How could some idiot like Ricken understand his pain or even share in it? Mark’s grief is so vast he can’t imagine how anyone could bear even a fraction of it. Mark can’t bear it (goes on to microdose on suicide)

But the truth is Ricken does feel it. Gemma was kind to him and indulgent in ways Mark certainly never was and might’ve been more so than his wife at times (when you live with someone you have to draw a line, lol)

I really think that anyone obsessing over severance rn should go and read/listen to The You You Are and I’m about to spoil the juiciest part of it so go!!!

Anyway, Ricken is trying to get a gift he gave Gemma before she died back from Mark and mark can’t find it. Mark blows up at Ricken and tells him that Gemma actually made fun of his gift, that the joy she received from it was at his expense. That “everyone laughs at you the second you walk out of the fucking room” Gemma included.

He’s trying to tarnish Ricken’s memory of Gemma severely and it works to some extent. Ricken recognizes that this mocking laughter will effectively be the last thing he ever “hears” from Gemma.

Ricken tries to make seem like he’s healed from this fight but it’s clearly stung him badly. The whole book is obviously Ricken processing his emotional wounds from childhood to today which actually makes the book an interesting read.

Mark wants people to have liked his wife less so he doesn’t have to think about or consider their pain in regards to her death. GOD mark is just such a good depiction of grief: it’s not beautiful or gentle or anything it’s ugly and it’s isolating. And I feel for them both in the end.

Also reading it from the perspective of Innie Mark will make you insane highly suggested!

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 136 (Twists and Turns)

The next morning, Heather woke to a fresh blanket of spring snow (must be Canada 😂). She was hit with another bout of nausea, and stunned by news that one of her vet techs, Rico Garrison, had been unceremoniously culled killed in a shock drowning accident in Dachshund's Creek. This left her down a tech and about to commit to a months-long rebuild of Buttercup Pet Clinic.

Despite the unseasonably snowy holiday and feeling less than stellar, Heather had to go to work to cover Rico's appointments. She felt horrible for her best tech, Kaori Hayashi, who had been dating Rico since late winter. They were even expecting a child, which meant Heather would soon lose Kaori to maternity leave, too. At least Thaddeus, her most recent hire, could help pick up the slack, but this was undoubtedly a tragic setback.

Despite the unseasonal snowfall, J Huntington came in with his dog, Archimedes, thanking Heather for her advice over working with Landgraab Corp. "I signed the contract to give them the company. They'll take care of straightening out George's books, and for the first time, my guys will get healthcare, so everyone's on board with the change."

Heather forced a smile. She didn't care much for things that would please Nancy Landgraab, but she knew a strong presence at the docks was important after everything they'd been through over winter. "I'm happy for you," she said, and it wasn't a total lie.

She returned home in mid-afternoon, finding her younger sister back from Henford in the living room. "Hey Hazel! How was Easter dinner?"

"It was great." She fiddled with the hem of her jacket as she sat on the sofa. "I'm sorry I got upset with you while you were away. I was freaking out about all the marriage talk, but I shouldn't have put that on you."

"It's okay," said Heather. "I'm not upset, but I couldn't tell you what you should do. What if I had said no?" (That option won the poll, by the way!)

"I would've been more upset," she admitted. "I'm not ready to marry again right now, but I want to be with her for a long time."

"Did you talk to Suri?"

"I did. She said she's been feeling like she needs to hold on to the important people in her life since she lost her aunt so suddenly, and I totally understand what she's going through. But it's too soon to get married. We want to live together first - just the two of us."

"Here in Brindleton Bay?"

Hazel nodded. "I like working with Alex Goth, and the deal's almost done for Suri to buy the Salty Paw. She said when the owners found out her grandmother was Clara Bjergsen they did their own renovations and upped the price, but once a deal goes through, I'll move in with her in the small apartment over the bar."

"There's an apartment over the bar?"

"Not much of one, but we're going to try to turn it into something nice."

"I'm happy for you, Hazel. And I'm happy you handled this so maturely with Suri."

"You didn't think I could, did you."

"I hoped you would."

"Are you sure you guys won't miss me when I'm gone?"

"The Salty Paw's only about fifteen blocks away."

They laughed together and Hazel smiled. "Thanks for everything, sis. You're the best."

Heather still wasn't feeling great as she tried to get a few chores done around the house. She'd started to feel like she was fighting off an infection; it was time to see a doctor, so she left Conrad at home with Lavender to visit her gynecologist.

But she came home in a daze, stunned by the doctor's diagnosis. She found Conrad and Lavender upstairs, chatting as Lavender tried to bargain for another story. "When you're five, we'll talk about a later bedtime, but until then, that's now. Time to get into your pajamas." Conrad's attention turned when Heather shut the bedroom door behind her. "Hey! What did the doctor say?"

Heather sighed. "Well, I have a UTI. But that, the nausea, the fatigue...they have nothing to do with the spider bite."

Conrad's face fell. "What's up? You're okay...right?"

"I'm pregnant. About seven weeks."

She smiled as his expression flipped from concern to ecstatic joy. "Heather, that's incredible!"

Lavender glanced at her parents with confusion. "What's pregnen?"

"It means you're going to have a baby brother or sister."

Lavender still wasn't sure what they meant. "I have a brother awreddy. Can it be sister?"

"We don't choose, sweet girl."

"I hope it's a sister!"

After tucking Lavender into bed they settled onto the sofa for a comfortable night in, but their movie was interrupted when Heather's phone rang. She checked the call display before she connected the call. "Malcolm? What's going on? Is Ash there?"

The line was quiet for a long time. Too long, and Heather felt the phone start to shake in her hand. Finally, she heard Malcolm take a breath.

"Heather...I...It's...Ash is missing. H-he's been kidnapped." ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 2.1 Summary

Gen 1 Start | Gen 1 Summary

NOTE: Sorry I buried the baby news, but I didn't have enough content to make a whole other post and I set myself another arbitrary deadline to get to a certain point in the story by a certain date. And Heather was supposed to learn she was pregnant later than this, but the mod-generated UTI sent her to the gynecologist and she/we found out earlier than planned. No offense to this very wanted baby but ASH IS MISSING!!

NOTE 2: @purplesimmer455 the way I couldn't react with the excitement I wanted to your meme share on Sunday knowing I paid homage to it in this very post ("What's pregnen?") and didn't want to give the truth away yet! 😅 Shout out to @matchalovertrait who also guessed this, and @changingplumbob who I think was thinking it when she asked why Ash's room had bunk beds. I made up a small fib about repurposing the tiny nursery space, but actually I still need it for the new nooboo!

NOTE 3: On one hand, it's very sad that Rico was culled when he's expecting a baby. On another hand, this is a setback on my likely-fruitless search for a five-star rating because now I have to train up a new tech! Tragic!!

WCIF Phone Poses: Unexpected Phone Call by @starrysimsie and Shocked News by @simmireen. I used @nataliaauditore-blog's iPhone 11 accessory in both poses.

[dross-the-fish]

Love Never Dies- Thoughts and Reactions

This might end up being split into multiple parts but I am not finished talking about Love Never Dies. I did give it a rewatch to refresh myself and...oof. This play needs to be taken out back and shot because that is what it did to every single character in it. NO ONE looks good. Not even Christine. Let's start there. Let's talk about what this show does with Christine because we have completely reduced this character to nothing but her voice. What does Erik miss about Christine after ten years of pining? Her voice. He just wants her to sing for him one more time. The only thing he ever really mentions about Christine is her voice. Though I can't really fault him because if we're being serious about Christine's character...

What does she have outside of her voice? Nothing. Somehow LND Christine has even less personality than she did in the OG musical. She is a cardboard angel that other people pine over, try to control, or envy. She has almost no agency. I said before, I suspect that Andrew Lloyd Webber hates women and Christine does not come out of that unscathed. She spends pretty much all of the musical being bullied by Raoul, mothering Gustave, or being threatened by Erik when he and she aren't reminiscing about that one time they banged 10 years ago. Seriously what even the fuck was "Beneath a Moonless Sky?" For a song about how two characters couldn't resist each other neither of them seem particularly filled with desire. Christine is recoiling in horror and disbelief and Erik looks like a 15 year old who thinks sniffing his crush's hair is peak sensuality.

Mmmm....sexy. But whatever. Christine says at the end of the song she woke up to swear her love and was ready to dump Raoul but Erik had skedaddled so she ran back to Raoul. You read that right. Christine was going to pick Erik after they banged it out and he left and that is the only reason Christine is with Raoul. Seriously Andy? You're going to make her regret picking Raoul over Erik when she didn't even actually DO that? Erik made the choice for her?

*internal screaming* Erik, seriously, how are you going to be upset that she's moved on with Raoul if YOU left HER? Do you really think you have the right to coerce her to sing for you one more time when you were the one who broke it off? The hell is wrong with you? Of course when Christine resists he immediately goes to threatening her child.

When I say Erik is the WORST I mean it. He is reprehensible in this.

But this is about Christine. We'll get to Erik later. LND Erik deserves his own post.

There's honestly not much more to write about Christine. She spends a lot of time cowering from or trying to appease Raoul. She worries about her son and her death is honestly so unwarranted. When I say ALW's work has an undercurrent of meanspiritedness I mean shit like this. Christine hasn't really done anything wrong. I guess she cheated on Raoul 10 years ago? But well she was going to leave him and only stayed because her first option bailed on her? She didn't do anything to Meg. She's been living 10 years in an abusive marriage and her crazy ex who kidnapped her came back to threaten her kid and coerce her to sing his music one more time. Then she just...gets shot. She dies. It adds nothing to the story that she dies. It doesn't feel earned or justified in anyway. It just feels miserable for misery's sake. It's almost unceremonious the way they ax her off because it's not even intentional. Meg misfires the gun because Erik fucks up in trying to talk her down. Christine's death isn't even about Christine herself. It's about Meg and Erik. It's such a useless and stupid death to give this character. How old even is she? Supposedly she's around 18-20 in the original musical (we're ignoring the 2004 movie that puts her at 16) and this is 10 years later? She's barely 30 but she ends up a casualty to everyone else's vanity, jealousy, and selfishness. I feel like we're supposed to find it tragic but it doesn't hit. It's a meaningless and undignified end to a character that was given no agency over her own life or her death.

[celtrist]

RADIOMOTH BAD END ROUTE

In these endings, it's more or less assumed Alastor has gotten out of his deal (if the route doesn't involve his owner)

In this ending, Vaggie successfully catches Alastor and marries him much like Charlie's bad end (and this one like her can have the option of Charlie also being married to them or not). Depending if you want to go the force transitioning route: Alastor either gives up once Vaggie successfully forces a transition surgery onto him or (if you don't want to go that route) he just gave up too tired to fight Vaggie and her traps.

Transition or not, Vaggie dresses him as a woman, forces him to grow his hair out, and just generally takes on a more feminine appearance. She goes as far as to rename him "Alison" and only refers to him as female in public. In private she will at times refer to him as a male but in past tense and in a degrading way. She makes it a point to make sure he doesn't have his antlers. Whenever they start growing back, Alastor panics and hurries to rip them off before Vaggie sees them. It's painful, but always less painful than when Vaggie does it as she's very violent with her approach. She will sometimes hit him for having antlers or even seeing signs that they've regrown.

Anytime Alastor remarks discomfort with himself, Vaggie gets frustrated and berates him about it. When she notices him turning to accidental self-harm to deal with his discomfort (hair pulling, claw scratches, etc.), she admonishes and at times hit him as well (like if he pulls his hair, she'll pull his hair yelling at him "isn't this what you like?").

Vaggie hides this poor behavior from Charlie (whether or not she's still in a relationship with Charlie or not in this route), and forces Alastor to keep quiet about it as well. If he gives any indication otherwise, she will punish him in private. While I'm not sure if Alastor would or would not have all his bells and whistles (I feel like it would make sense in this route if Vaggie would find a way to "depower" him to make him easier to handle, but not sure how she'd do that. Maybe have him drinking diluted holy water over time?), Alastor more or less has just given up on this route. He doesn't feel like he can do much else and is unmotivated to attack back.

Vaggie doesn't touch him if he says "no" or gives a strong indication of "no". But she will touch if he bare minimum doesn't give an answer. She'll start slow and build up to more as it goes on (given the situation of course. She's not doing more in the middle of the hotel with others). It's not uncommon in the private sensual moments for her to get violent and belittle Alastor and how she's the only one who would love a woman like him. In the case of a transitioning route, Vaggie will taunt him about having used to be a man. And if Alastor gives an indication that he wishes he never transitioned, she will taunt him more and abuse him further until he says he's happy to be a woman. These more violent times occur when Alastor begins to show distress, typically for either the sex or his forced gender but not exclusive to those. She will lightly degrade him when she's not angry too, but it's mixed with sweet words as well. Afterwards of any sort of serious abuse, Vaggie will give Alastor a lot of aftercare. She'll stop touching him a little bit if he tells her to, but generally makes it a point that she has to at leat help him clean up either with a cloth or in the bath at least.

Most sensual times Vaggie does genuinely try to be nice and try to find what Alastor likes (whether he likes it or not). It's when Vaggie is already angry or frustrated with Alastor that she gets into the more abusive sensual moments. Vaggie isn't really abusing Alastor 24/7 (well, other than enforcing an unwanted gender identity and relationship I suppose). Anything nice she would do for Charlie she'd do for Alastor. Surprising him with things that he doesn't expect (like sinner meat or masculine clothing) is one of her favorite ways to show affection to see the brief light in his eyes from the gift.

Vaggie is as protective of Alastor as she is of Charlie, and she is also as very loving of him as she is of her. Vaggie will shower Alastor with genuine compliments, even in private sometimes she just wants to shower Alastor with love rather than any sort of abuse. Whenever Alastor does something particularly good (like introducing himself as Alison the first couple of times and holding her hand out of his own volition), she'll praise him and reward him for it. Vaggie takes more into consideration of attire for Alastor rather than what she just wants to see. While she still puts Alastor in "less than Alastor styled" outfits from time to time, those clothes are mainly for private or special occasions. For the most part, Vaggie gives (and allows) Alastor clothes more up his alley, even suits as long as he still looks feminine enough. While Vaggie will get violent with Alastor for showing discomfort with his forced gender, she normally first tries to comfort Alastor about his body and self. It's when Alastor begins getting more upset that she'll go into the abuse as described above. Even when the circumstance isn't sensual, however, she will always follow up her abuse with comfort for Alastor. This would, I can imagine, grow into a stockholm syndrome situation, especially if Alastor wanted to deny the situation he's in.

[juliusblevins]

I'm not pushing anything away...Or at least I'm not trying to. I just rather deal with this at another time. When I'm more prepared to mentally. I don't feel like I am right now. {He lets out a sigh} I don't know. It very well could change that. It's another reason why I want to put it off for now. {He glances away before continuing} The thing is Derek, being a slut is who I've been even before dating Aiden & Theodore. I really enjoyed sleeping around back when I was single, and I still do now. Although I've been meaning to do it less, only doing it with certain people.

{He looks at Derek again} Like if I get the chance to have with sex you tonight, there's definitely no way I'm gonna turn that down. {He chuckles before sighing again as he goes back to serious} This whole boyfriend thing, I'm not great at it. Like at all. Being someone's mate, Aiden's mate specifically...is at least good motivation to become better at it. I guess we'll see one day if it'll be enough to change my...habit.

And yet you want to go through it, though you may have to anyway if this feeling is true. I pushed people away for a long time, even potential lovers. I know well how it is to push away things. [He sighs and takes a bit to answer on hist comment. He even sips his beer]. Be with more people. Afterall, you are here with me, flirting with me. There is even a possibility that we will even have sex. Would being his mate change that?

[lsunstreakerl]

Seconding the matching tattoo ask but except of in darkbull in SH and done in a safe environment

900 words for you, a little Search History slice of life :)

Daniel is blinking at him. Max stares at him over the table, their plates empty in front of them at the restaurant.

"Max. Do you seriously think I would have this many if the pain was anything like a car crash?"

Max wrinkles his nose.

"You do not need to make fun of me Daniel. I am of course just wondering."

Daniel rolls his eyes, bumping their feet together under the table.

"You'll barely notice it, I promise. Honestly, it's kind of impressive you haven't ended up with one already, considering how much you partied."

Max had almost gotten a stick and poke at one of Marc's parties in Catalonia, but thank god for Bezzecchi, who'd talked him out of it.

Granted, he'd then gone and sat right where Max had been planning on sitting and gotten his own, but-

Those guys are odd as a default.

Max also has zero intention of letting Daniel know about that, because it means admitting he was at a Catalonia party, which means inadvertently admitting to about fifty other things that happen at those parties.

He'll spare himself the embarrassment.

"What were you thinking of? You weren't exactly very clear in your text, mate."

Max lights up, feels a smile pulling at his mouth.

"I was thinking about a marigold flower, yes? Up my forearm- here, I worked out a sketch with the artist-"

He pulls the photo up on his phone. It's two orange Marigold plants- one has three leaves on one side of the stem, with three leaves on the other. The second has one leaf on one side, six on the other. Max had worried it would look unbalanced, but the way the artist had twined the flowers together- it still looks natural.

Daniel's face does that weird thing where he really wants to hug Max but isn't sure if he's allowed.

"They grow up so fast- and you two are nauseatingly cute, by the way."

"Shut up."

Max pockets his phone again, heart buzzing in his chest. He's excited about it- had never considered getting tattoos before, never really had anything so world-encompassing that he felt the need to ink it into his skin.

Charles, though.

He's worth it.

------

"Okay, but would it hurt more or less than your hair transplant- ow, why the fuck did you kick me?"

Pierre scowls at him.

"Say it a little louder next time, I don't think the people in the freezer section could hear you."

Charles turns his nose up as he inspects a bell pepper.

"I'm just wondering."

"That one is shit- get the one next to it, it'll be good longer."

Charles frowns.

"How can you tell? Also, what if I want to make it tonight? Max will not tell me where his is going, so I have no idea-"

Pierre leans over to take the pepper from Charles, setting it back in the stand and grabbing the other that he'd pointed out.

"The color- if you are not careful I will have Esteban give you the fruits and vegetables presentation. We both know you aren't cooking anything tonight, don't be stupid- and why does it matter where Max's goes? Pick what you like for you."

Charles dutifully takes the pepper, dropping it into the basket.

"I think between my shoulders? Or maybe my sternum, I cannot decide."

Pierre makes a face.

"Both of those would hurt."

Charles stares at him.

"I think crashing a Formula 1 car hurts worse, so I am not worried about my pain tolerance, Pierre."

He grabs an orange.

"I just wonder where he would like it better."

Pierre sighs, long and drawn out- exhausted enough that a nearby shopper looks at them weird. At least- Charles assumes that's why they're being stared at. That they're both still in their race suits has nothing to do with it.

"That is also a shit orange, Charles. I'm going to make Esteban give you the speech, and you're going to take notes, yes?"

"I thought it was a nice orange."

------

"I find it hard to believe you two need this much moral support."

Oscar's voice is dry where he's squished next to Fred in a corner of the tattoo shop. Pierre snorts, not even looking up from his phone.

"I won't speak for Max, but Charles is afraid of needles."

Max's head whips over to Charles.

"You did not mention that?"

"Thanks, Pierre. I am not that scared of them, I just don't like them. It is worth it for you, Max."

Arthur makes a disbelieving hum from another corner, but it's cut off with a strangled grunt as Logan elbows him in the stomach.

Daniel laughs from where he's sitting on an unused countertop.

"Well, I'm happy to hold whoever's hand needs it. And by that I definitely mean Max, no way he doesn't cry."

Max balls up a paper towel to throw at him, but it isn't quite dense enough, floats to the ground between them.

Charles bites his lip not to laugh.

"Don't be a asshole Danny, you said it wasn't going to hurt-"

"So maybe I stretched the truth a bit-"

------

The tattoo artist lifts the gun off, carefully wiping at Max's forearm.

"What do you think?"

"Oh wow- That is much nicer than the stick and poke Bez got."

Charles chokes on his water- they'd finished the morning glory between his shoulders a little bit earlier, and he's been watching the work on Max's since then.

"Sorry, what-"

[shaymincafe]

Ask Karma

Okay so since we're dispensing advice into the community for our newer members, I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring with an ask blog etiquette item that I think people have somewhat neglected recently: ask karma.

Ask karma is the practice of sending asks back to people who have sent you one. When someone sends you an ask, it is generally expected that you will send one back in return. It is to your mutual benefit to do this since now not only do both of you have asks in your inbox to work with, but it also exposes your blogs to each others' followers and can potentially gain you new readers.

Ask Calls are a Two-Way Street

Generally speaking, when someone makes an ask call, you should view it as a quid pro quo situation. Unless the person explicitly states in the post otherwise, they usually wants asks back in return for the ones they're sending out. While this is not always the case, like with me where I have way too many asks already and don't need more, more often than not, this is the expectation and it's bad form to not do so.

It's the equivalent of borrowing someone's pencil in school and never giving it back. At the end of the day, it's not super consequential, but the person whose pencil you just took isn't going to be super happy that they gave that to you and got nothing in return. You feel me?

This is especially true for written blogs, who I have noticed tend to get hit by this the most. Written blogs can get through their posts a lot faster than most art blogs and therefore need asks more often. But they also tend to get a lot fewer asks!

I experienced it myself during the PokeAskMagi event where I sent out around 20 asks from @askthewhiterocket and got back 7 in total for the entire event. By comparison, Shaymin Cafe also sent out around 20 asks and got approximately 12 in return. Not a lot more but it's still a better ROI especially consider Shaymin Cafe was the far less active of the two blogs during the event.

Everyone who sent an ask to Ask the White Rocket also sent one to Shaymin Cafe, despite the majority of the blogs I interacted with getting asks from BOTH of my blogs. In addition, during my final ask call for Ask the White Rocket, I got 1 ask in return for like 5 sent out, even after explicitly stating that the inbox was empty and I wanted asks.

I realize Shaymin Cafe is a popular blog and since I had two blogs, people probably ended up just sending an ask to the more popular blog of the two since Shaymes is a fun character and such. But the same thing happened last year when Shaymes wasn't even an active character and I was really only answering asks from Kyo's blog. To be quite frank, that's unfair to the written blogs, and unfair to me too.

It takes time to send asks. Ask hints make it easier, sure, but not everyone has them. Additionally, not all ask hints are incredibly straight forward. Some require you to read a bit in the blog's backlog if you aren't familiar with it to craft an ask that a person can work with (this is why I tend to link stuff with my ask hints). Some people might also want to double check the rules of a blog first or read up on the characters to ensure they're not sending a human character to a blog that doesn't allow them, or a Gengar to a character with trauma from ghost-types without expressed permission from the creator first. This goes doubly so when you're sending asks out from multiple blogs, like I was during the event.

That effort should not go unrewarded, so the least you can do is send an ask in return! It's just good manners.

This also goes for Munday asks

Admittedly, I am pretty bad about this myself, so we're going a little pot calling kettle black, BUT it's generally good form to also send Munday asks back to people who send them to you. Now if they're not open to Munday asks or w/e then no sweat it's fine, but let's be real, we all like to yap. We all like to talk about our characters. We all enjoy answering Munday asks, so spread the love and send asks back to people who send them to you.

Part of the reason I don't really make the effort to send out Munday asks much anymore and part of why I don't open for Munday as frequently either is candidly I got very tired of sending out like a dozen Munday asks to everyone I saw open for Mundays and then getting like... 2 in return. There were a couple weeks back in like July-August were I quite literally got 0 Munday asks, and it was incredibly disheartening. Like, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed coming up with questions for other people, but it was also a total downer to sit there the entire day waiting for asks to come in and then never getting any. Not even one asking how my day was or how my weekend went. Total and complete silence.

And sure, thinking of questions is hard, I get it! You wanna know my secret? When I was sending out Munday asks regularly, I googled first date questions or improv icebreakers. There's so many great questions to ask people from those. Sure, they can be be incredibly shallow and I'm sure any veteran ask blogger whose been at this a while has probably asked and answered whether they like coffee or tea better. But I'd rather answer that ask for like the fourth time than get nothing because then I'd at least get the opportunity to talk about my thoughts on both for a minute.

This also goes quadrupley so for the memes. There are times where I see people reblogging memes and going the whole day without any interaction because they're a smaller blog. And I'll admit, I straight up have sometimes gone on anon and sent them like three asks back to back because I didn't want them to feel like no one cared about them or their characters. They deserve to get a bunch of asks too, that's part of the fun!

And I think with memes the not sending asks in return is far less excusable because usually there's emojis or numbers that you can literally just copy and paste into the ask box. I cannot tell you how many times I saw blogs I'd never met before reblogging a meme post and it took me all of five minutes to go pick a random emoji and a name from their cast page and drop that into their inbox. It is quite literally that easy.

You should also, generally speaking, send an ask to the person you got the meme from too. Whether they were the one who created it or simply just brought it into popularity, sending them an ask for the meme is a nice way to say thank you for letting you use it too. It took time and effort to create and/or find that meme, and I guarantee you they did not do it simply because they wanted other people to use it on their own blogs. They did it so THEY could answer asks from it on their OWN blog. So give them the opportunity to!

FAQ

The blog I want to send an ask to has (insert species of character) and my blog doesn't interact with that (or vice versa).

That's fine! You don't have to send an ask in character if you don't want to. Sure that's the norm, but if the casts of your blogs are incompatible for some reason, then by all means just don't send an in character ask.

The blog I want to send an ask to doesn't have readily available/up to date asks hints.

You have a couple options here. You can read back through the blog to see what has recently happened to get a feel for what might be a good ask. If you're lucky maybe they'll have a taglist somewhere that'll make backtracking easy. But if not, skimming is fine too. Otherwise, just directly DM the blog and ask them what kind of ask they want. I've done this several times and that can be a great way to get a blog exactly what ask their looking for.

The blog I want to send a Munday ask to is doing a meme I don't want to engage with.

Send them a normal question then! I guarantee you they wouldn't be opposed to answering something opposed to the meme, and even if they don't respond, they'll at least know you tried to return their ask.

The blog that sent me an ask said in their ask call they don't want asks in return.

No need to send one back then! If they said they don't want any, then they aren't expecting any in return. I do this all the time! Sometimes we just like sending out asks for fun and that's a-okay!

The blog I want to send an ask to has closed their inbox.

That's okay! In this instance, it is perfectly reasonable to not send an ask in return. If they've closed their inbox, they're likely not expecting asks back. So you're totally in the clear to not send one in return. No need to go crawling through their submission box to send one in (people actually don't usually like this). Just maybe keep an eye out in the future for if their inbox reopens!

Unless they like explicitly made a post asking for asks within like the last day. In that case please tell them because they probably forgot to open it again (happens more often than you think).

The blog I want to send an ask to doesn't have an organization system making their story, characters, hints, and other materials used in ask crafting difficult to find.

In that case, the burden lies with that blog, not you. Organization is EXTREMELY important. Skins covers this a bit in their ask blog advice post. Having easily accessible tag lists, ask hints, and casts pages can really help with getting asks sent your way. In the same way it isn't fair to someone to not send asks in return, it's equally unfair to make someone scroll through a bunch of meme reblogs just find materials to send an ask with.

The best you can do in this situation is message the blog to ask them for what they want. But if the materials to craft the ask aren't readily available to you, that is on them not you.

In short, please exercise Ask Karma. If someone sends you an ask, please send one back! Thank you!

[itsabouttimex2]

Oh! Can you rank macaque ships too?

69, shadowpuppet ect

Macaque Ship Ratings

(Scores rank from -10 at the lowest, and 10 at the highest)

(Sun Wukong)

Before reading this list, please keep in mind:

1. Not every ship has enough content for me to remark on, and some ships contain dynamics that I find triggering!

2. My social media usage is limited, and I don’t use every site.

3. I have not consumed every piece of artwork and fanfic in the fandom, so I’m just remarking on trends from what I have seen.

Shadowpuppet

Name Rating: 10/10. I’ll admit- this one is good! I like the reference to: Macaque’s powers, the Mayor’s status as a (willing) pawn of the LBD, Macaque’s status as a (sort of willing) pawn of the LBD, Macaque’s actual use of shadow puppetry… it’s a good name!

Canon Rating: -5/10. Look. C’mon. The Mayor and Macaque have literally no positive interactions at all, they have barely any screen time together regardless. Anything the Mayor does to Macaque is immediately harmful and he takes glee in it.

Fanon Rating: -3/10. In general you’ll notice a running trend that Fanon!Macaque in general is your generically rancid and one-note “He never did even a single bad thing ever at all!” that woobified villains tend to get, and Shadowpuppet goes hard on this trend by portraying Macaque purely through the lens of him being a flat and uninspired “eternal victim”- but it only gets a -3 because it is somewhat appropriate when the person in question genuinely is an awful person who has only ever hurt Macaque.

Personal Enjoyment: 0/10. Sorry, y’all. I just don’t see it.

Shadowpeach

Name Rating: 5/10. Basic, but rolls off the tongue. Started the trend of Sun Wukong having extremely basic ship names, unfortunately.

Canon Rating: 0/10. Whatever they had in the past, Macaque simply treats Wukong far too awfully to really justify the two of them ever getting together. Even the attempts at reconciliation feel more like extremely forced ship baiting, given how it goes from one of the two being marginally kinder to the other than usual, then immediately dropping it for more sniping. (Past!Shadowpeach receives 5/10.)

Fanon Rating: -10/10. I've spoken at length about this, but fans love to distort Wukong into a drooling abuser so stupid he can't breath through his nose, usually while turning Macaque into a Possession Sue who only serves to be the author's simpering self-insert who is the most perfect little baby of all time who has never ever done anything wrong at all even once. If there is an attempt to be “nuanced" or "unbiased" it manifests as "Sun Wukong "killed" (re: defended himself against) Macaque so he's worse." It's an awful, extremely pervasive dynamic that rots any fandom enjoyment I could have had for this couple.

Personal Enjoyment: 6/10. Getting to write Macaque as the legitimately awful person that he is takes off the edge of seeing constant “uwu sadboi" Macaque content. Still, I rarely touch anyone else's Shadowpeach content because of how pervasive “Fanon!Macaque” is.

Blackberry

Name Rating: 10/10. Macaque actually gets like… really good ship names. Whoever is coming up with these is putting in more effort than whoever came up with all of Sun Wukong’s ship names, at least. The name references both Change’s association with food, and is a color that both characters share! Also- I have a serious weakness for ship names that reference real things.

Canon Rating: 0/10. There’s not even any indication that the two know that the other exists. Maybe they’ll meet up at some point, but as for right now

Fanon Rating: -5/10. Hey, remember what I said above two times already? That Fanon!Macaque is a big simpering bitch baby who only exists to serve as an eternal victim for the writer to coddle like a saint whose only crime is being too perfect? Same applies to Blackberry, to no surprise! It’s less egregious in that Chang’e is legitimately a sweet and loving lady.

Personal Enjoyment: 3/10. The fanart can be cute, but that’s about all that Blackberry has going for it that appeals to my taste. Maybe I’ll come around to it if they have some interaction in the show proper, but I’m not banking on it.

Inkypages

Name Rating: 7/10. This is a simpler name, but I like it! Again, Macaque’s (and Tang’s, too!) ship names are willing to go beyond trying to confine him to a single aspect of his character and actually utilize several aspects of his personality and being beyond just one food. (Yes I’m still mad about the peach prioritization that Sun Wukong’s ship names have.) Inkypages isn’t bad! I like saying it! It’s a logical thing to say!

Canon Rating: -10/10. Okay. Okay, I know. I talk about this a lot. Macaque in the story doesn’t really have logical growth as a character because the show isn’t willing to center any significant time around his flaws and misdeeds outside of MK being hurt by him and then in turn throwing him second chances like cheap candy, which means that Macaque’s genuinely villainous actions have no weight because even the people hurt the worst by him don’t actually get to have thoughts or feelings on how he’s hurt them, and even at his absolute most rancid all of his wrongdoings are simply forgotten, which means his dynamic with Tang is literally: Be a piece of shit -> degrade him -> violently attack him -> try to manipulate him -> be defended by Tang after releasing the Samadhi Fire -> nothing.

It’s... it’s just not good. I still don’t understand why Macaque was going to be a villain at all if nothing he did reflects back onto him in any way or is hard to grow past. It’s just... their dynamic is bad. Most of Macaque’s dynamics are bad because the majority of his growth happens offscreen and away from the people that he’s hurt, which leaves reduces what could’ve been a genuinely intriguing and complex character arc to nothing.

Fanon Rating: -8/10. Hey, do you guys like seeing Tang be turned into a snarky lid-eyed whore who hates Wukong? No? Then you won’t like Inkypages. Hey, do you guys like seeing Macaque be reduced to a blubbering pants-shitting baby who needs to be coddled past whatever misdeeds the author invented to be mad at Wukong for supposedly committing? No? Then you won’t like Inkypages. Hey, do you guys like blatant character assassination for the sake of babying villainous blorbos and over-angstifying old men? No? Then you won’t like Inkypages.

Personal Enjoyment: 0/10. This is the longest section of this rant for a reason. I just… it’s a lot like Shadowpeach, where to a large degree the fans have kinda turned me away from any portrayal of the ship- except Shadowpeach has an interesting enough dynamic that I like engaging with it anyhow, at least on my own.

End Result

(Scores ranging from -40 to +40)

Shadowpuppet= 2/40

Shadowpeach= 1/40

(Past!Shadowpeach would be around 20)

Blackberry= 8/40

Inkypages= -11/40

[kaibutsushidousha]

Thoughts on Shuten and Ibaraki (separately)?

Really challenging (separately) there since Shuten and Ibaraki are part of the same myth, introduced in the same event, and generally depicted together, but sure, I can work with that. Shuten and Ibuki, however, are part of the same character and have to go together. Also, see this post if you haven't yet.

Ibukidouji/Shutendouji

In 2002, Colorful Tsukihime established that oni come from two possible origins. Shimousa adds a third kind later, but what matters is that Shuten and Ibaraki were conceived as examples of the original two. Unworshipped gods, those who failed to abide to the rules of civilization, and their bloodlines (Shuten) or mutants with power far beyond what falls within the human category, those perfectly unrecognizable as human, and their bloodlines (Ibaraki).

Her backstory is horribly fragmented, even for Sakurai's standards, but assuming we already have all the pieces (and it really looks like we do), I believe it goes like this. The Hii River existed as part of nature, and the faith of the ancient Izumo tribes deified the river spirit (who was also a dragon for some reason) into Yamata-no-Orochi, who was then slain by Susanoo. Orochi's eight heads continued existing as eight mountain gods, one of them being Ibukidouji at Mt. Ibuki. Yamato colonization happens, despite Yamato Takeru's death at Ibukidouji's hands, and Ibukidouji loses her worship. She takes a wholly unelaborated trip to China during the process, and around the late 900s, returns to Japan now with her divinity pretty much fully degraded. After a minor stop at Mt. Sagara, she eventually takes nest at Mt. Ooe, meets Ibaraki and spends the rest of her life as a freeloader in Ibaraki's place until Kintoki cuts her neck.

Ibuki/Shuten has been through multiple self-identities there and displays completely personalities each time, but there are things are a couple of things that are consistent in every version of her. The first and more outwardly obvious is her free-spirited hedonism. Her moral compass doesn't judge in terms of beneficial vs harmful, it judges in terms of pleasant vs unpleasant. Drinking obviously poisoned sake? Fun. No regrets, no grudges against Raikou. Getting her head lopped off by a sexy blue-eyed blonde? Fun. No regrets, no grudges against Kintoki. But what is her criteria of what's fun and what's not? That's where the other consistent trait of all of her personas comes in.

Shuten describes herself as a devoted oni. Despite her lack of inhibitions, she's very loyal and devoted to the ones she likes. You can see that since her debut event, where she orchestrated temporarily giving her powers to Ibaraki, but the extreme extents of her subservience only show for real when you see her multiple personas. Ibuki/Shuten is, above all else, loyal to the labels assigned to her. She will be what she's expected to be, at all times.

Ibukidouji originally identify as a god, and while this is not a timeframe ever covered on screen, in a few moments, mainly through her Heian portrayal and her costume, she shows her ability to behave regally and imposingly as expected of a god. She also assigned brutal trials to Saburou like he believed a god should and did the same to Dorothea during his own tenure as a Divine Spirit, but I don't know which of the two started this cycle. There's also the one time Yamato Takeru got fatally owned, but we get surprisingly little detail on that.

Ibuki's 1st Ascension aka Tinybuki is, as shown on her interlude, Ibuki with her divinity pretty much fully degraded. It's Ibuki/Shuten at her most serious ever, acting less like a god who does what it wants and more like a part of nature teaching young Kintoki its rules. It's an interesting phase where she lost the freedom of her god label and has yet to discover the freedom of her oni label, so she's kinda just vaguely bitter and no-nonsense. In different terms, it's after she stopped being loved by many and had yet to come to terms with the liberating idea of being the enemy of many idolized by a close few.

Then Shutendouji is the textbook oni. A walking disruption of human normalcy. Shamelessly depraved, violently monopolizing of anything that piques her interest, selfish as selfish can get (superficially) and easily prone to harming, killing, and eating people. An oni so oni that Ibaraki fell in love with her ability to perform the oni label. More on that in Ibaraki's half of the post.

But then Assassin Shutendouji doesn't eat people because her new label is Fujimaru's Servant and Fujimaru doesn't want her to do that. Then she makes a silly magical girl persona for Ibaraki's sake. Then Fujimaru's Ibuki just takes it a step further and adopts a whole new persona as a nice lady from Fujimaru's era. Compare and contrast to the Douman-summoned Ibuki, who stuck consistently to her most divine persona because Douman only wanted power out of her.

Heian's ultimate self-sabotage gets funnier the more you understand the characters, honestly. Douman gave up last minute on making Ibuki a new Beast because he couldn't trust that Ibuki would remain loyal to CHALDEAS like he is, but Ibuki is all about being who others want her to be. And Douman failed to realize despite her use of absolute loyalty to compensate for her lack of a more self-originating personality being something that Douman shares with her identically. I've talked about this before.

Her last major identity is her summer form. Arctic Summer World and her profile phrase her change into a Berserker Saint Graph as "redefining her self as a goddess of summer" and iirc there's even some mention of dismantling and rebuilding herself in there, making the concept feel more literal than it sounds. It shows how radical Ibuki's label swaps are, if true. There she tries to make an eternal summer for Fujimaru to enjoy (mixing her labels as a summer goddess and as Fujimaru's Servant) and then asks to be pacified in combat when rejected (mixing her Berserker and oni-god labels). It's only when her main collaborators Skadi and Douman tell her to stop that she does, because Ibuki/Shuten always is what the people she cares about want her to be, and this reaction proved she was using a persona literally no one wanted.

Then there's Samurai Remnant portrayal that's just weird. She mixes and matches traits from all her versions in FGO, with no intention of trying to be what Yasuhiro wants her to be. I guess having an identity independent of her Master is a that's a mark of impartiality characteristic of the Ruler class, but I think I'll have to come back to this one after the Ordeal in April.

Still, there are a few characteristics that are wholly unique to Shutendouji. Things that clearly came as a product of time and experience rather than as her nature to comply to expectations. The first being that Shuten is far more protective of her Shuten identity. Ibuki is willing to immediately throw her more divine persona to be Fujimaru's sweet neighbor figure, but Shuten, even becoming Oni Cure for Ibaraki, remains very recognizable Shuten. Also, when the Ibuki side of her Saint Graph tries to take her over in her Interlude, she very aggressively says she's Shutendouji and her older self doesn't get a turn on her Shuten Saint Graph. Ibuki and Shuten are otherwise very unshakably flippant, so Shuten's rejection of her past behavior stands out as her rare moment of vulnerability.

The other trait exclusive to Shuten is her clever talent to attend to her friends' needs. Ibuki is described as a corrupting force that ultimately kills everything she touches, but Shuten is very helpful to the one she cares for in very thoughtful ways, while ensuring the circumstances still make her look evil.

Her debut has knocking herself unconscious for the whole event give Ibaraki the power she needed to prove herself and overcome her complexes about not being oni enough. The pair's dialogue is designed to resemble interactions between an employee and an abusive boss, but in reality, Ibaraki is the real boss who only lets Shuten have control because she loves Shuten as an example of a what an oni should, and takes Shuten's fake authority as a lesson that lets survive leading her army of oni. She orchestrates the whole first tower event to help Tomoe sort through her denial of her oni blood while under the pretense of self-interest in human-oni relationships. And so on.

Disclaimer: I hereby promise that I really, really tried to fit a "snake sheds skin" metaphor to describe Ibuki's ability to easily discard personas, but I couldn't a proper place for it in the text. Sorry.

Ibarakidouji

Ibaraki, despite being the more interesting part of the duo, has a lot less things to talk about. She's surprisingly straightforward. Her backstory is as fragmented as Shuten's, but her fragments are clearly meant to be a neat puzzle the player is meant to solve. I have a past post about it. Plus addendum.

Ibaraki's deal is that she's a naturally conscientious, diligent, non-proactive, and cowardly kid trying and failing to be live up to the capricious, arrogant, and decadent image of an oni as described by her dear mother. Ibaraki was raised without freedom and instilled with the idea that should embody freedom as an oni. But when she kills her mother and begins living by her oni identity, she doesn't know how to be free.

In her very human-like way of thinking, she becomes the leader of a band of oni, something unprecedented because a true selfish oni would never think of grouping together. Through that she discovers Shuten and grows enamored with the ex-god's ability to embody the platonic ideal of an oni. So while Ibaraki remains the leader on paper, she made Shuten the freeloader who call the shots. As someone who processes the world as rules that need to be followed, having a role model like Shuten around is the most reassuring thing ever.

What Ibaraki can't possibly know is that she struggles so hard to be an oni correctly because there's a complicated human behind her oni mask, while Shuten, as shown mainly through Ibuki, can perform any label effortlessly because there's a blank slate behind her multiple masks.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Okay brief post before I sleep, re: the problem of "fantasy dwarves"

Obviously I am no authority on any community that I'm not part of, so I cannot be a final voice on whether or not any particular use of various fantasy people and creatures are good or bad.

However, it also means that when I run into issues like this, it's important to me to get info from multiple sources (even if I don't reblog or share everything I've found) in order to make my own choices for my work. And I recommend the same to everyone!

Because human history is the way that it is, it's pretty much inevitable that the common fantasy people or creatures you want to use in your own new work have at some point, maybe even a lot, been portrayed in ways that are very offensive and bigoted towards real human people. (and this goes for scifi too)

Orcs have commonly been portrayed as some manner of "barbaric savages" with aesthetic details that call to mind Mongolian warriors, Native Americans, and African people, frequently combined with animalistic features.

There was a huge debate on the antisemitic features of goblins in mainstream fantasy, especially around the time JK Rowling was becoming more and more openly bigoted and the issues of racist caricature goblins and house elves in Harry Potter were being made more relevant.

The lore of drow in Dungeons and Dragons is a whole mess of racism and misogyny with their evil matriarchy and slavery situation, not at all helped by their dark colored skin.

Elves are certainly not exempt from this, though they're often taken in the opposite direction and portrayed as wise and beautiful white people who are more civilized than everyone else. And a lot of people have decided to subvert that by making elves into the oppressors. I've done that a little myself.

I'm also writing a lot of characters who don't match my own identity, including some in rather sensitive categories like being trans or having dissociative identity disorder. Those are my two main characters in the book I'm currently writing. I've seen people with DID write very passionate posts trying to dissuade people from ever writing any character with that condition. And I've seen other people with DID encourage the existence of those characters.

Fact is, there is no universal answer to the conundrum of whether or not a particular type of character or fantasy people or creature should be written. There are, I think, clear traits and tropes to avoid because they just can't be subverted in a meaningful way, especially not by people who aren't part of the marginalized groups that are harmed by them.

Like I don't think anyone who isn't Jewish should try to lampshade and openly subvert the antisemitic goblin tropes like the ones you see in Harry Potter.

I have been using fantasy dwarves in my writing, and I've reblogged a post from a person with dwarfism who is very much on the side of fantasy dwarves no longer being used. And I respect that, which is why I reblogged it and why I am still pondering a name change for my own "dwarves". But while I have not posted any links to it, I have in fact watched a video by another person with dwarfism who thinks fantasy dwarves are cool! There is no singular answer here. I'm still thinking about using a different word, and I plan to keep on hearing out different opinions.

I think the most important thing, though, is whether or not my many fantasy people come across as nuanced and respectable or if they come across like bad stereotypes and offensive caricatures. I can rename them all I like, but whether I'm using the word "orc" or "boarin" or whatever you like, does that make it any less offensive if I write them to be savage uncivilized evil barbarians regardless? Is it less offensive to remove the title of "dwarves" and replace it with "cavern folk" if you're still going to write them as angry little men with big heads who only exist for comedic effect?

It is important to be careful of the use of specific words and I think coming up with your own names for fantasy people is a great idea, of course. It's why I have the stroi as another species of elf. But it does kinda bother me when people act like the very use of a word is the main problem and not just one more detail on top of a pile of problems.