#the only OC you would have got would have been the main dragon from number one
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mythalsknickers · 1 month ago
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For DADWC and OC of your choice: “Despite what you think, I am completely capable of taking care of myself”
TITLE: Lavender and Sleepless Nights PAIRING: Crow! Rook x Lucanis Dellamorte/Spite RATING: Teen? WARNINGS: Injured Main Character, Hurt Comfort, Spoilers for Act 1 of Dragon Age Veilguard Quest Sea of Blood Word Count: 1,530
The contract had been completed, both Lucanis' and his own, taking the long way to the Diamond had been chosen for the fact, well going the short way could be challenging and with Lucanis just being freed. The risk was not worth it. It was safer to take the long way and it gave them all some time to decompress a little.
Slipping into the casino through the back door, Teigue lead them to the stairs. Once upon a time he had the number of steps counted and memorized, now though he could not remember how many stairs there was, taking a slight breath he started the ascent to the top of the Diamond.
"I did not know it was possible to build this many stairs." He glanced back towards Bellara and Lucanis' chuckle caught him off guard, his cheeks growing warm. Some things never changed in a year it seemed. Twisting back he felt a sharp pain, biting his cheek, face scrunched up he reached down adjusting his belt leaving his hand resting against his hip. It had been a risk it would open back up, but they would not be here long and he could fix it when they got back to the Lighthouse.
"Some of the houses make the fledglings walk the steps to build stamina." that warmth made it hard to focus on the task of getting up the staircase and to Viago and Teia harder, even harder to focus on keeping pressure on his hip. Darkspawn looking nug cursed Venatori. Teigue hummed his agreement shifting his hand pushing more into the hip. Slowly as the climbed the sounds of the casino filtered away and the sounds should have replaced with the sounds of dueling, petty arguing over how to sew banners, and comparing mark throws.
His shoes hit marble and he took a breath looking over at the zipline. "Teigue, we are never taking the stairs again, in fact I am letting Harding cook tonight." His eyes widened as he jerked to look at Bellara, biting his cheek to silence the hiss burning in his throat. "Bells! That is cruel!" he protested watching as Lucanis, he was tense a hint of a smile pulling at his lips, but even Teigue had felt the growing apprehension with how quiet the climb had been. Sliding his hand away from the wound it rested on his spellblade as they started the last flight of steps.
Lucanis had gone ahead of him if only by a few steps, and Teigue peaked around him. The top floor of the Diamond was in disarray, and he could hear Teia and Viago yelling at each other or someone else. His brows knitted locking gazes with Lucanis, it was a moment of both of them speaking with only a few looks. Straightening up Teigue took a purposefully heavy step onto the balcony.
The realization of Catarina dead...it had made for a quiet trip back to the crossroads and the Lighthouse. He stared into the mirror taking a shaky breath, starting the process of removing layers of leathers and the linen shirt. Small whimpers met with his furrowed brows, and hisses were greeted with clenched teeth, he was pale. It had taken longer to get back than he had wanted. Crimson stained the linen shirt.
Pain. Anger. Sorrow Catarina brought all those emotions, she was an intense woman and now the seat of First Talon was vacant. Carefully he turned to his mirror, twisting and gently pressing along the edges of the cut, eyes watering as he hiss. It went deep, and felt too hot, there was the familiar tinge sickening pink. "Meirda!" He growled pulling his fingers away. The mage bane explained his present lack of appetite and the fade around the Lighthouse looking nauseatingly displaced. He could feel blood rushing to the would from his prodding, placing his hand over it he tired to bend down to pull his pack up onto the couch. He knew he had a linen bandages that would tied him over while he gathered herbs from the kitchen. Biting his cheek he pulled the bag up, another small whimper leaving his lips. Digging through it he finally found the linen wrap or at least one of them. It was methodical, he had done this before. Start from the dominant side, apply a safe amount of pressure while he wrapped the bandage.
He tried to wait until he was sure no one lingered in the courtyard before dipping out of the library and walking as quickly as the injury would allow to the kitchen. His brows knitted as he pushed against the door until it opened enough for him to slip through. Carefully he closed it. Now he just needed to head over to the stove and gather the elfroot, yarrow, lavender and a little honey for the salve. Creeping across the room it was not until about half way a wisp caused him to jump and the board creaked. Hissing in antivan under his breath he waited. Blood. Why ROOK. Blood? Spite pushed against his mind through the fade. Fuck. He tried to convey it was nothing to worry about. He quickly finished crossing the room and began to look around the cabinets before spotting the herbs where he could not reach. Narrowing his eyes, a sigh left the mage as he took another breath and forced him up onto the counters, his hip and side starting to feel like fire, and he was growing dizzy. Leaning against the wall he pulled a few sprigs of elfroot down.
"Fine Spite, I will look." He jerked his head to the pantry door, oh meirda. The maker was funny. Reaching up he wobbled pulling some lavender down. "Teigue what are yo--Meirda!" Oh shit, He did not have much time to get the last of the herbs he needed.
"It looks worse then tis. I promisse" He reached to grab the yarrow and the dull fire twisted turning into a sharp shard like pain causing him to fold in on himself, hand pressing against the bandages realizing they where damp and sticky. He could admit that was not good. He was not entirely sure when Lucanis closed the space between them but he felt an arm around his hips. "Meirda estupidus." the older crow growled pulling him down into his arms. They felt warmer than he remembered. "Teigue how long has this been bleeding?" Lucanis shifted his arms getting him into a carry, with an arm supporting his back and one at the base of his knees. His face felt hot was he blushing. Fuck. "Ehhhh it opened at the diamante thought there was a..." his brain struggled for the common word. "Potion in my bag." He managed as his back made contact with a blanket. "'Spite what you are thinking...Imm completely capable of taking care of myself." He grumbled only to be acknowledged by a hum and the flash of a dagger was the only warning he had before the linens were cut away.
"Meirda, Teigue! no wonder it opened up." The older crow glared at well it was hard to put to words what they were, with a suffering sigh as blood inner mingled with the ooze of mage bane trailed down his hip. Teigue winced as the man dug through a bag before producing a potion. It was pressed to his lips. "Drink." It brokered no argument, the potion tasted like elfroot and dawn lotus his nose wrinkling as he downed it. Then he felt hands back on his gash pushing along it for to pull the last of mage bane out, teigue whimpered, biting his lip holding as still as possible. Liquid splashed across the wound and he felt like he screamed maybe just hissed but he did try to get up only to be met with a hand on his chest. "Stay Put." The edge in the voice and the way Lucanis stared at him pinned him in place. There was sharp stabbing pain. "If you squirm Teigue, I will miss and have to re do the stitches." He did try to hold still, counting helped or rather it did if he didn't lose count around fifteen.
"He has been asleep for awhile Bellara." Lucanis' voice cut through the warm breeze of the treviso summer. "Mage bane can take alot out of a mage, especially if it was in his system awhile, It will take him a bit to wake up." He heard the boards shift and felt the weight of Lucanis leaning against the bed. "mio cielo..." that sounded like a lecture and he could not stop the yawn.
"Mhm Lucanis?" he yawned again reaching up to rub his eyes. Their relationship was complicated but...they were always there for each other. "Finally awake, here eat an orange, it will help. Don't do that again." The orange was held to him and he grabbed it peeling it and starting to snack on it. "I will do my best, are you going to let me up." Lucanis leaned back looking at him, those brown eyes just deadpan. "Right. I will stay here tonight."
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honeybewrites · 7 months ago
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OC Intro: Asset 703
Look at me! I finally got an OC intro I promised!! We will not discuss how long this took or how long it has been sitting in my drafts.
Quick note, I have the drawing skills of a snake, so I have used picrew to create the closest picture of the lovely Asset 703 as possible. If you are interested, I used this one.
Also, the picture provided is of A-703 in her namuh form, not her natural Tanimoriem form, which is why she looks human. It's also because I couldn't find a picrew that would let me create a humanoid dragon like creature
With that out of the way, let's meet one of the Echoes of War Chronicles stars, Miss 703!!
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Name: [Redacted]
Mors Asset Number: 703
Age: twenty-three
Birthdate: [Redacted]
Pronouns: She/Her
Species: Dragon, Tanimoriem (Genetic enhancements and experiments have occurred to alter this individual's biology)
Physical Description: Dark brown, nearly black skin. Pearl/white freckles cover her entire body. Crisscrossing scars cover her right eye. She has short, white textured hair, nearly always kept in braids. Her eyes are silver, like stars at night. Various and numerous scars cover her entire body. She is short for her species, coming in at 5'2 (157 cm). She has a large amount of muscle from her work and is extremely fit.
In her natural Tanimoriem form, her skin color and freckles transfer onto scales. Her hair remains the same, with large, low twisting horns the same color as her scales/skin. Silver spikes run down her back, all the way to the tip of her tail. A large spike ends her tail, also silver, and filled with venom. Her wings are an average size, coming in at 20'5 (6.25 m) wingspan. The arms of her wings are the same color as her scales/skin, while the membrane and protective scales are silver.
Skills/Abilities: elemental, multiple forms of combat, infiltration, pilot, certified healer, wilderness survival
Greatest Fear: the Mors
Personality Type: INTJ-T
Love Language: acts of service
Typical Outfit: Mors certified field suit
Method of Manipulation: blackmail/threats (though is also skilled at seduction)
Created from Project Viall, 703 has been with the Mors her entire life. Trained from birth to be the most deadly weapon in the Realms. It's the only life she's known, and she long since accepted that fact. However her partner, Fres, couldn't. Having far more loyalty to her partner, the two attempted to escape the Mors. They failed horribly, ending with the two getting separated. Fres was free, believing 703 had chosen the Mors over them, while 703 was still under the Mors control, believing Fres had abandoned her. The two ended up on opposite sides of the war, enemies.
Relationships
Master Gerd: As her main handler, 703 has a very controlling relationship with Master Gerd. She is expected to follow his orders without question. If she disobeys, he carries out her punishments. He is responsible for her training and has been with her since the beginning. 703 has a deep respect and fear of the man, but it’s one of her most long term, consistent relationships in her life. It’s how all assets are treated, right?
Healer Asurr: As her creator, 703 interacts a lot with Healer Asurr. They are constantly putting her through tests and experiments to tack and improve her abilities. 703 hates them. But like the good Asset she is, she keeps her mouth shut and followed their orders without a word.
Ronan “Rage” Airvix: Assigned to be her field handler and healer, Airvix hasn't been with 703 very long. He attaches to her very quickly, becoming protective, because it's his job and not because this poor girl has no parental figure in her life. 703 quite likes Airvix, not that she would ever admit it. He at least treats her like a person.
Fres: 703's partner and closest friend since birth, the two were inseparable. She loved Fres with everything and as long as they were together, she didn't care where they were. But Fres left, freed from the Mors in their escape attempt, leaving 703 behind. 703 determined no relationship was worth it after that. She was far better off alone, doing what she was created for.
That's pretty much all I got for today. Like I didn't ramble enough haha. Anyway! Trying out my new tag lists! If anyone wants to be added/subtracted, you can comment or DM me!
General Tag: @orions-quill @fractured-shield and @leahnardo-da-veggie
EoWC Tag: N/A
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lostfirefly · 1 year ago
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You’ve Got the Same Dream as Me (Ch.4)
Hello, kiddos! The idea for this fanfic came to me from a dream (again) I had about a month ago. Тhe main characters were Tom Cruise and Henry Cavill (don't ask me why), but with a light hand they have been replaced (sorry, guys). The main action of the dream took place somewhere in the sands. Аlthough this fanfic will feature Sir Crocodile and our beloved Buggy, the action shifts to the desert. No marines, ships etc. Sorry, not sorry :) The devil fruit's abilities are preserved. Catch the Mummy and Indiana Jones vibes :) I have no idea how many chapters there will be. Different titles and names from the original source material will be used to emphasise the general OP's vibe.
Since English is not my native language, errors may occur. As always, feel free to share your thoughts :) 
And thank you to my dear @yujo-nishimura and @laurasoretta for believing in me :)
Description: Catherine, a librarian who is searching for the trail of her sister who went missing on an expedition. Notes in books and diaries lead her to Cairo. There she finds a retailer from an artifact shop who, in exchange for selling her a map and equipment, insists that Catherine take her along. They get into a little (or maybe a big) adventure.. 
Warnings: 12+, I think. As always, no smut, angst, violence. Adventures and fun only. Buggy x OC, Sir Crocodile x OC.
Words: 1236
The title is taken from «You've Got the Same Dream as Me» (Sonya Belousova & Giona Ostinelli) (One Piece, Netflix)
✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
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Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3
✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
"A car?" Catherine looked in amazement at the big black jeep. 
"What did you expect?" Buggy asked, leaning back on the bonnet, taking off his striped bandana. 
"Well, I don't know. We’re in Cairo… But.. You got people around town who look like fish. And there's… just a car", she said, glancing at his long blue hair.
"Sorry, cotton candy, my personal flying dragon is at home. I can take you for a ride next time", he replied with a sneer in voice, wrapping his hair into a ponytail.
"Ew, jeez", Catherine pursed her lips.
"If you keep yucking, I'm not taking you with me,. You can go to the nearest rental shop and book yourself a magic carpet if you want". 
"Tell me, were you born to be such an asshole? Or did it come with age?" Catherine drilled Buggy with her eyes. 
"Stop it, both of you. Save your love quarrels for later!" Rika said loudly, locking the shop door shut. "By some completely idiotic irony, we all need to get to the same place. Let's focus on the case. Cathie, get out your maps and records".
"He started it first!"
"I don't care! I'm not going to be your mom or dad. I said, get out your maps and records now! Here's your book by professor Alabasta", Rika put it on the bonnet.
It was a large book, in a brown cover with golden monograms on it. The pages were a little yellowed in places, but fortunately the text was legible.
"Woooow", Catherine whispered and gently ran her hands over the sheets.
"You see?" Rika opened one of Cathrine's diaries and pointed her index finger at one of the entries. "The numbers here and here match. I think that old man Alabasta knew something. I don't know if they point to the location of the treasure or not, maybe it's just one of the dots, but I'm more than sure that this is where we should be heading".
"But if he found treasure, for example, why didn't he take it? Maybe it's not there anymore", Catherine asked, "and why did my sister go there? She and I are both adventurers, but I still don't understand".
"Maybe she didn't go looking for the treasure. Maybe your sister got so tired of your endless whining that she decided to join a caravan and hide from you forever. That's what I would do", Buggy said, leaning between the two girls, glancing briefly at Catherine and putting his hand on her back.
"You're pissing me off already", she whispered.
"Well, I don't know your sister, so her motives are unclear to me, - Rika said, shaking her head, "but I know what I want to find there".
"And what is that?" Catherine asked with surprise.
"It doesn't matter".
"Look, there are several routes", Catherine ran her finger along the lines on the page. "I think we should take the shortest route so we can get there faster. The less time I spend in the car with this clown, the better".
"No, no", Buggy shook his head negatively. "You see, this short cut is guarded by Baroque Works men. We can't make two steps out there. We'd be quickly captured and sent to some underwater prison. Believe me, you won't like it there. We'll take this way", he pointed down the long road, "sorry, you'll have to bear with me".
He started to put the bags in the boot of the car.
"Trust me, you'll be happy to be in those places with me. Because if we meet a man with a hook there, I'll be your best bet for salvation".
"A man with a hook? Have you been drinking since this morning?" Catherine moved closer to his face to test her hunch.
"Where the hell did you come from, cutie biscuit?" he whispered in her ear.
"Loguetown, why are you asking?"
"Oh, just curious. Alright. Hop in, girls. Rika. And my cotton candy", he said with a wink, getting into the car.
"Stop calling me that!"
⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥫⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭⥭
The journey to the coordinates indicated on the map took about two hours. The car stopped somewhere in the middle of a hot desert. There was only a small building, which looked more like an old barracks.
"Well, where are we? You said you could read maps", Catherine got out of the car and looked around, "I thought we'd be in the right place on time".
"Can you stop nagging, I'm getting a headache", Buggy said, looking for something in the boot of the car.
"Don't tell me what to do and what not to do. You're the one who brought us here", Catherine walked briskly over to Buggy. "Fuck, if I'd known you didn't know anything, I wouldn't have messed with you in life".
"Listen, pie", Buggy grabbed her arm and hissed, glaring at her with his green eyes. "I'm sick of your hysterics. If you don't stop acting like this, I'm gonna leave you here in the middle of the desert to be eaten by the local sand creatures. And drive back. Believe me, I'd rather be in a bar than stuck here with you right now".
Catherine felt his warm hand squeeze her arm with force.
"Okay, people, break", Rika said, getting closer to them. "According to the coordinates, we're in the right spot now. Catherine, anticipating your question, no, we're not at the final point of our journey yet. While you two were arguing the whole way, I was trying to get a good look at the map. But it was difficult, with your love dialogues distracting my attention".
Catherine rolled her eyes.
"And? What's next?" she asked.
"We should go into that building over there. There must be something important in there, since it's marked on the map. It looks like a shop or a small hotel. I don't know. At least it's on the map and in the diaries. You see it?" Rika pointed her finger in the notebook.
Catherine noticed Buggy re-hiding a small black, oddly shaped box.
"What's that in there?" she asked, placing her hand gently on his back, peering over his shoulder.
"It's nothing special".
"Okay… We'll go to that building then, see what I can find out".
Catherine took two steps forward and stopped. She turned round and was about to take half a step back.
"Buggy…"
"What?" he sounded annoyed.
"I'm s... You know. Never mind".
Catherine and Rika walked into a small building together. Inside, there were shelves with some bags of herbs and jars of oddly coloured water. The place smelled of coriander and lavender for some reason.
"What can I do for you, young girls?" a hoarse voice came from the corner of the room. A grown big-boned man with a grey beard and long grey hair sat in a chair.
"Good afternoon, sir. We seem to be a little lost. We need to go to the Sab...", Catherine didn't have time to finish her sentence because Rika stepped on her foot, silencing her.
"Rayleigh, I bet they're going there for the same reason I am", a low voice came from the front door.
"Sab... what? The Sabaody Desert? Why would you want to go there?
" the man asked, rising from his chair.
The tall man slowly began to approach the counter.
"Well, lassies, tell me what you're looking for there?", he asked, placing both hands on the table.
Catherine whispered in Rika's ear.
"Do you see that too? Does he have a… a hook instead of a hand?"
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ipreferfiction · 1 year ago
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20 questions for fic writers
@spyscrapper tagged me (shocking for everyone, i'm sure). thanks beloved
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
26!
2. What's your total AO3 word count?
337,006 (a chunk of which is cowritten)
3. What fandoms do you write for?
posted, i have star wars (totj, kotor, swtor, prequels, and tcw), lockwood & co., and asoiaf. i've also written hotd-era asoiaf fics, a couple of unfinished mdzs fics, and something for grimm floating around.
4. What are your top five fics by kudos?
The Bond Between: fic i wrote for a tcw zine, Ahsoka & Obi-Wan. 137 kudos.
(note: technically the second fic is one that got hit by the kudos bot, so i am taking it out of the ranking because i cannot trust its numbers)
How Far We've Come: Lockwood & Co., written and set right after TCS. Kipps and the crew. 62 kudos.
Wasteland: prequels/tcw/original trilogy, Obi-Wan on Tatooine having a truly questionable time. 60 kudos.
Dragon's Rise: asoiaf, post-series. Dany, Jon, Tyrion, and Arya go to Old Valyria so Dany can break the Doom and rebuild the Valyrian Freehold. i hate several things i did with characters here, truly, and i am never going to finish it; i'm keeping it up so i can see comments and kudos, because it got a lot of engagement (posted right after the show ended), but i would change so many things now. 54 kudos.
tremble for yourself, my man (you know that you have seen this all before): kotor - Cassus Fett dies on Malachor and wakes up six years in the past, with the knowledge that something is manipulating the war. he kidnaps Revan and Alek right off Dantooine at one point to help him. extremely full of torture! also the cousin of found family, sibling acquisition via kidnapping. 50 kudos.
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
i try to, but i haven't been great at it for a while. so occasionally it takes me a few months, lol
6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
posted? probably my mando wars novelization. none of the really angsty stuff is finished, and i also tend to shy away from bitter endings because they make me depressed. and i do mean depressed, i have depression and i tend to get a little too into my characters' heads, which is not great when they're having bad times.
7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
uh. um. the... ahsoka and obi-wan one maybe??
8. Do you get hate on fic?
the only ones that actually hurt me were on a years-old asoiaf fic. i've gotten two or three in recent years when i've been writing star wars stuff, but they're so out of pocket they're absolutely hilarious to me. i make fun of them with my friends. shoutout to the person who told me not to use bitch because it was a slur against women when the context was literally a man calling his long hair a bitch to deal with. i am NEVER getting over that, it's so funny.
9. Do you write smut?
periodically, yeah. it's fun, i just am also horribly embarrassed trying to write it lol. i have very little posted, but i've got a handful of half-finished ones in docs.
10. Do you write crossovers?
nnnnnnot really? i toss them around for some of my OCs and original works (between each other), but i don't really write them or post them. now, fusions? yeah, i write those. the hp au is the only one i've posted, and also is my favorite. read the main fic before you read the oneshot, though, because besides being utterly awful (affectionate) it also makes no sense without context. not that the series has given basically any of that context yet, but, yk. it's coming. eventually.
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
not as far as i know. there's less theft in really niche communities like the stuff i tend to write.
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
nope
13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?
yes!! @spyscrapper (i keep typing revanchxst as your url beloved when will you change it back) is my coauthor for the hp au and for our big swtor novelization, plus a couple of totj fics.
14. What's your all-time favorite ship?
frankly, a couple of my ocs who live rent-free in my head at all times, from one of my original works. 1920s monster hunters, secret government organization, repressed queer people (person. the others are not at all repressed he's just a dumbass about emotions), constant threats of violence, morally grey pov characters, murder. i am literally insane about them. also a different set of ocs from fic that developed their own original work as well: magic university, depressed gay people, Plots, the usual. i am constantly chewing on them. in fandom, knight/scourge and cassus/ultimate, probably.
15. What's a WIP you want to finish but probably won't?
most of my asoiaf stuff, tbh
16. What are your writing strengths?
prose. give me a good several paragraphs and i will give you gorgeous prose. flowing, poetic, great imagery, the works. i am not afraid to say that's what i'm good at
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
FUCKING dialogue. i hate dialogue so much. no more talking society has progressed past the need for talking. i can do a sentence or two, but full conversations? evil.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics?
I'll throw in a word or two without translating, because single words are easy to remember and write a glossary for at the end of the chapter. full sentences, though? They're either in italics (if the fic is generally speaking one language and this is another), or unmarked except by dialogue tags (much rarer, generally only do it if the pov character would mostly be speaking another language and so marking it as unusual doesn't make sense. e.g., Cassus talking to other Mandalorians isn't gonna be italicized because it being in Mando'a is expected.)
19. First fandom that you wrote for?
sherlock, i think? i wrote an OC fic that has now evolved into its own original universe because i ended up hating sherlock after season 4, and also the fandom was so fucking annoying. i was writing doctor who and supernatural OC fics around the same time, but i'm pretty sure sherlock was first.
20. Favorite fic you've written?
tremble for yourself, my man (linked above) or start a war, for posted fics. for unposted stuff, a cassus wip i will eventually. eventually finish
tags: @zaolat, @hermitmoss, yeah that's all i've got lee got all the other people i know lol
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jaesrri · 16 days ago
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Music Hunt
Despite being completely terrible at actually listening to new musics, I'm feeling the desire to collect some. So, if anyone feels like pitching:
-What's your favorite character songs? Ones that make the blorbos go *brrrrr*.
Bonus: tell me about the blorbos
-What's your favorite story song? Either in the sense of the song *tells* a story, or the song *evokes* story vibes
Bonus: storytime
-Wildcard- what songs do you just want to chuck at me for reasons of your own?
Some from me below the cut in fairness:
Blorbo and story vibe songs: many. This is largely how I musics of late, songs attach to OCs or plotlines, playlists grow, and my entire wrapped is pretty much connected to my TTRPG games
Bones by Imagine Dragons is a core song for my changeling enchantment wizard politician antagonist as is Early in the Morning by Rob Thomas, and Immortals by Fall Out Boy is firmly attached to their relationship with their lich necromancer bestie. These two are antagonist/ally/foils for the main party of that campaign.
On the main side of that campaign we've got Walking the Wire by Imagine Dragons and Desert Rose by Sting and Cheb Mami for my Fighter Cleric main character and her bard husband, plus White Flag by Bishop Briggs, Awaken by Valerie Broussard, and Legends are Made by Sam Tinnesz for her more general badass vibes.
The campaign's primary songs are Warbringer by The Fat Rat with Lindsey Sterling and Evan Maxwell (if you only check out one thing make it this it's sooo epic), Glory by Friday Pilots Club, and The Violence by Rise Against.
We do be having a time of it in that campaign :p
My *other* game is tonally quite different- Triangle Agency is an absolute *delight* with Crazy=Genius by Panic! At the Disco serving as the core song, Pressure by Billy Joel, Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie, and Land of Confusion by Genesis backing it up.
My plant lady first character brought Strangers Like Me by Phil Collins, Wolves by Selena Gomez, and Secrets by One Republic
One of the factions we interacted with was well represented by Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots and People are Strange by the Doors
Clocks by Coldplay was originally brought in for another player's time traveler, but ended up a core song with such lines as
Am I a part of the cure
Or am I part of the disease? 
And
The lights go out and I can't be saved
Tides that I tried to swim against
Have brought me down upon my knees
Which at various points in the story just completely took us out at the knees. Our poor characters were put in *situations*.
On a different note both because tis the season and because the story it tells is *so fucking cute* and the mood of the song is *so goddamn relatable* and people frequently don't seem to know about it, I will also call out Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses. Bail now to avoid excessive burbling about it lol.
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It's by FAR my favorite holiday song, partly because of aforementioned vibes and also because it's simply a banger. I mean we got a strong beat, electric guitar, holiday vibes, good energy and then it opens with:
Bah Humbug; now that's too strong! Cause it is my favorite holiday But all this year's been a busy blur Don't think I have the energy
And if that isn't the goddamn vibe of every holiday season since adulthood (granted I wouldn't call it *favorite* but still)
Then they go btw we're telling a love story here:
To add to my already mad rush Just 'cause it's 'tis the season The perfect gift for me would be Completions and connections left from last year Ski shop encounter most interesting Had his number but never the time Most of '81 passed along those lines
Also. Sort of comforting that the damn season's been like this since before I was born.
So deck those halls, trim those trees Raise up cups of Christmas cheer I just need to catch my breath Christmas by myself this year
Vibe. Then we get to hear a little about what lead up to it:
Calendar picture, frozen landscape Chill this room for twenty-four days Evergreens, sparkling snow Get this winter over with! Flash back to spring time saw him again Would have been good to go for lunch Couldn't agree when we were both free We tried, we said we'd keep in touch
Didn't of course 'till summertime Out to the beach to his boat, could I join him? No This time it was me Sunburn in the third degree Now the calendar's just one page Of course I am excited Tonight's the night I've set my mind Not to do too much about it
Like damn. Haven't we all been there.
And the chorus- look I love seeing fam n everything but there hasn't been a year in over a decade where this hasn't spoke for at least part of the leadup
Merry Christmas, merry Christmas But I think I'll miss this one this year
The cute story and intense relatability continues:
Hardly dashing through the snow 'Cause I bundled up too tight Last minute have-to-dos A few cards, a few calls, because it's RSVP No, thanks, no party lights It's Christmas Eve, gonna relax Turn down all of my invites
Last fall I had a night to myself Same guy called, Halloween party Waited all night for him to show This time his car wouldn't go Forget it, it's cold, it's getting late Trudge on home to celebrate In a quiet way unwind Doing Christmas right this time
The perfect frustration in this one gets me, and then we follow it up with the ghost of a dead grocery store and the cutest most adorable and relatable conclusion:
A&P has provided me With the world's smallest turkey Already in the oven, nice and hot Oh damn! Guess what I forgot? So on, with the boots, back out in the snow To the only all-night grocery When what to my wondering eyes should appear In the line is that guy I've been chasing all year
"I'm spending this one alone," he said "Need a break, this year's been crazy" I said, "Me too, but why are you? You mean you forgot cranberries too?" Then suddenly we laughed and laughed Caught on to what was happening That Christmas magic's brought this tale To a very happy ending
Can you handle the cute? I can't. And then it wraps with the transformed chorus
Merry Christmas; Merry Christmas Couldn't miss this one this year.
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cultivating-wildflowers · 2 years ago
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Top 5 OCs or original stories?
Oh goodness. Uhhhmmm we'll go with stories. That's easier lol.
My dragon book. I don't know what it is about this story, but it's one of the most important ones to me. It taught me a lot, and I stayed with it for years and years before I was ready to move on to other things. And it still resonates with people, which is cool? (It's like the only story I still have posted on Wattpad and I regularly get a couple of notifications, haha.) I mean....it has dragons. What more can I say?
The Tides That Bind, obviously, now that I no longer hate it 😬.
My Beauty and the Beast-inspired haunted forest story. Again, it taught me a lot, and I really leaned into some of my writing strengths with it. It's also the story I was working on when I found my writing group, so it's special for existing at that time of my life.
Zenith Station. One of my first truly successful short stories (I think? I'm still confused on where the different word count length ranges are.) Wrote it thanks to the first Inklings Challenge, which led me into a circle of very cool internet acquaintances, and I'm proud of the story in general. I even sent it to my dad. (With the heading "for the next time someone asks you about your daughter's writing, so you can stop bringing up the one book I'm embarrassed about.")
And There Shall Be Laughter. I dunno, man. Something about this one. It's simple and a little bit shallow and yes I can't read it without cringing but I like it, ok?
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theros · 3 years ago
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12, 23, 37, 49 for OC questions!
wasn't actually expecting to get asked anything holy crap!
12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot
@acheyri's FFXIV character Svee! I have never been so obsessed with an OC that wasn't my own, but I genuinely love Svee so so much, both her design and her story. She's complicated and messy and real, and Ripley's art and discussions about her are absolutely fantastic.
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23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?
Ough, that would be Sira, my very first OC. I don't have any pictures of her first design (when I was 8-10) because I never took photos of it and have long since lost the journal she was doodled in, but she was a completely human girl with brown hair and ordinary human blue eyes. She was one of three protagonists of a very very YA "series" I was writing about three human girls who became nonhuman through shenanigans and had perfect nonhuman boyfriends and saved the world lmao. Then when I first joined the furry community, I reworked her into a cat/dragon (and supposedly wolverine but I was 12 and this was literally never shown in her design) hybrid:
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(old art by @felisrandomis - like, 11 years ago old lol)
over the years i reworked her again and sort of merged her with another character of mine, a werecat assassin, and bounced her through several design changes. I made her dark gray with light gray rosettes, dark gray with blue rosettes, then finally settled on and stayed with silvery gray with darker gray rosettes.
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(art by Chandraken - also 11 years old; i went through changes for Sira rapidfire for a while there lol)
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(crop of the last ref i did for her a few years ago. she does have a fully human form but I used to draw her as an anthro or neko 90% of the time so)
Her story is also waaaaay different than the original iteration. Rather than a 13 year old girl who magically saves the world with no pain or consequences and also gains cool powers and a hot boyfriend, she's now a bitchy, traumatized adult assassin/ex child soldier locked into a life contract with an employer she wants to kill. She also murdered her husband (he kinda deserved it). Her storyline... really does not have a happy ending any more.
37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human
How human do they have to be/appear to fit the "not quite"? By my definition Sira would qualify, as would my answers to number 49, and also this dude!
Greirat, local satyr boy. One of two different satyr OCs I have and definitely the more wild one despite having such a sweet face. He's lowkey a shapeshifter and his true form is a cat-satyr creature created by @.Felisrandomis, so this is about as human as his appearance can get:
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His ref sheet is like. The only art I've ever drawn of him and I really oughtta fix that sometime. Maybe tweak his design a little, now that I think about it.
49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes
My MTG oc Mestas, hands down. Lovac, one of my FFXIV ocs, would be a very close second, and it's probably a good thing those two exist in totally separate universes, because they'd likely drive their friends batshit constantly memeing back and forth with each other.
If social media was a thing on Ravnica, Mes would totally be a tumblr blogger. She'd constantly post memes about her friends, the guilds, and any prominent characters from canon. She'd @ Jace Beleren in every single one. He has no idea who she is or how she got his contact information. He's blocked her 16 times and she still manages to do it. She doesn't even have multiple accounts.
No pics for these two cause I'm redoing Mestas' ref and I changed Lovac's skin tone, and my only saved screenshots of him are from before that. He's not my main file so I rarely play him OTL.
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kineticallyanywhere · 3 years ago
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got tagged by @writingondaisies! 
How many works do you have on AO3?
14 (there’s one I should move from ff.net soon, but it’s not there now)
What’s your total AO3 word count?
270,817
How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
In order of recencey... Dungeons & Daddies, RWBY, Red vs Blue, The Flash/Arrowverse, Danny Phantom, Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, (back into ff.net days, Kim Possible, American Dragon: Jake Long, a Percy Jackson one-shot... another thing... Warriors)
What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Mind over Matter (Red vs Blue)
Fourteen, and four thousand, years old (RWBY)
Flying, falling, stand your ground (RWBY)
The Way Out (Red vs Blue)
Washin’Boose (Red vs Blue) 
Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
I try to for long-running fics and for especially long or intense comments, but I’m usually just so nervous ;<; they all warm my heart tho, there is not one that I haven’t read more than once
What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?
I’m typically allergic to straight tragedy, but... I think probably Put your Stampler in a box (D&Dads), since the whole thing is a hypothetical lead-up to a magic teenager going on a rampage. Mind over Matter has a really emotional ending, but I like to think it’s more bittersweet than straight angst. Fourteen, and four thousand, years old swerves into angst, but nobody’s dying or anything so... yeah!
Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?
Heroes Under Drinking Age is the incomplete MASSIVE thing which is supposed to ultimately crossover Danny Phantom, RC9GN, American Dragon, and Kim Possible. I hit a hard writing wall on the ADJL and KP side and just never got over it :( I still dream of finishing it
Oh I guess there’s also a TMA-D&Dads crossover I’ve put some thought into, where after s5 Jon and Martin land in Faerun to replace The Library, and they get to decompress in this strange world, meet the Likelys, and hear about the eldritch-adjacent beings from other worlds. 
Have you ever received hate on a fic?
Nope! (knocks on all the wood) at least not if you’re not counting someone pointing out spelling stuff unsolicited or stuff like that. 
Do you write smut? If so what kind?
n o p e 
when I did Demons not sold separately (D&Dads) they kiss like two times and talk about the prospect of doing more, but it doesn’t go anywhere cause there’s kids nearby. I tagged it as “ace writing allos” just in case, cause boy howdy do I not know what I’m doing in that department ^u^’
Have you ever had a fic stolen?
not that I know of? I wouldn’t know where to start checking for that and if it’s happened, no one’s told me about it
Have you ever had a fic translated?
only in my dreams
Washin’Boose got a pod-fic tho!! 
What’s your all time favorite ship?
I don’t ship too much and I slide around a lot when I do, but Clark KentxLois Lane 4ever
Whats a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?
Heroes Under Drinking Age, my beloved...
I’ve also got a number of AUs for DnDads, some with enough written that I may as well post some of the stuff as one-shots to maybe expand on later. One is a high school au where Hen (14) comes to Earth early, another is an exploration of what it might be like to be a sort of demi-god descendant of a chaos entity with the Doodler Cult coming back (called Puberty, ????, and You). Idk if Done Sons and Dragons counts, cause that’d be a whole comic. I’d love to publish something of at least one of these
And then there’s a half-baked idea for Yet Another Oscar Time Travel AU for RWBY, that would take place starting after v8 and would feature Oscar and Emerald traveling back to the series start (on purpose.)
What are your writing strengths?
I’ve gotten quite a few compliments on my prose and scene pacing! I like writing prose like it’s the thought process of the character I’m following, and I often find myself getting a bit poetic about it. I’m a big fan of parallelisms and using repetition for impact. 
I also put a lot into trying to match the original tone of the content I’m writing fic for, and have gotten quite a few compliments on my character dialogue. I just get their voices in my brain and they don’t leave. On only one occasion have they paid rent. The freeloaders. 
What are your writing weaknesses?
I bite off more than I can chew and never finish 
I worry a lot over making sure emotional beats connect, and that it doesn’t feel like I’m jumping from point A to point C, and I’m afraid that makes me over-explain point B. Like I was rereading HUDA: Alpha after I posted it to ao3, and I have a lot of grace for my high school self, but some parts of that fic could have been smoothed out quite a bit. Parts of Mind over Matter are a bit wordier than they needed to be, too. 
What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
I feel like it’s best done by people who are fluent in a language. Language isn’t just changing words from A to B, it comes with cultural connotations and altered meanings and layers that are only going to come across perfectly when it comes from someone who knows exactly what they’re talking about. so like if I were ever to use more than a few words or a common phrase in another language in a fic, I’d find someone who actually speaks it to help me out. 
as for how to format it... if the meaning needs to be understood by the reader, you may as just put it in the fic’s main language and alter the formatting (like with itallics) or dialogue tag to denote that they’re speaking another language. If it’s small bits, I don’t super mind footnotes at the bottom or just leaving it untranslated, like a special bit for people who speak the language or are willing to look it up. 
What was the first fandom you wrote for?
warrior cats! me, my best friend, and my older sister all had OCs and were part of RainClan, our OC clan. Their camp was made in the trunk and branches of a big willow tree that made a kind of sheltered dome. I didn’t even know what fanfiction was back then
What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?
Mind over Matter. Hands down. For one, it’s actually done. That would put it in contest with The Way Out, which is also multi-chapter and complete, but MoM is WAY longer and took SO much more work but was SO worth it. It started as just scratching an itch and then grew into something that helped me prove to myself that I can do a long-term project, including themes and foreshadowing and narrative hootenanny and character arcs and character relationship arcs. the html coding. It was a great time, I’m so proud of it, editing it helped build one of my best friendships, and there is nothing I would trade that experience for. 
tagging @aryashi, @cinaed, @hedgiwithapen, and @glowstickia
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cospinol · 3 years ago
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charlotte can i get a like Factions And Locations Overview TM for scverse im trying to decide where my scverse oc would be
YES sorry this took ten thousand years. as you can see i spent most of my time on this ultra high quality map↓. click it to actually see anything on this
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theoretically it wraps around, all one sad little planet. OKAY with that visual reference in mind let's do factions/locations !
The northern Four Kingdoms (area labelled West Realm/Rose Domain/East Realm here it doesn't say four kingdoms on it sorry) is the setting of centre of the sun. Verdant & idyllic fantasy kingdom without much intl political clout or significant military power (tho it did recently experience a very bloody civil war); it's united primarily by devotion to sun deity Akadia, who blessed it with the four chosen ones known as sunborn, you know the drill (but even moreso by dislike of the realm due south)
The South Realm (due south of the northern four kingdoms.. you know) has been the fourth of the Four Kingdoms for several centuries, but spent nearly a thousand years as an empire that spanned much of the world; people still often refer to it as the Tasier Empire to this day. Its territory was already much decayed when one of its sovereigns chose to cut his losses and declare allegiance to the high king of the then-Three Kingdoms, but every Tasier king since has had ambitions of reclaiming their former glory, (up to and including their current sovereign Ehen . you may have heard of him). Because of the centuries they spent at best encroaching on the borders of the northern 4k, there's some ultra-enduring bad blood between the two lol
The Illyn Islands/Shallow Sea (east of the 4k) is the only place with more bad blood with the South Realm than the north, lol, the Tasiers have always been at war with all their neighbours but they've REALLY always been at war with the Illyns. The Illyns also spend most of their time at war with each other; it's not really a nation so much as a collection of micro-principalities ruled by dozens(hundreds?) of little branches of the Illyn family. It's also not really a sea; though it does have some larger bodies of water, in many parts the 'sea' that separates its 'island'-principalities is only a foot or two deep, and large stretches of it are actually just dry land. false advertising
The Izar Empire, a dry and arid nation on the east side of the shallow sea, prides itself on being the world's oldest empire, with its royal line going unbroken for upward of two thousand years; whether that's serving them very well is up for debate since that imperial core is historically poorly-governed, and it's supported mainly by the prosperity of semi-independent provinces around its edges + thru trade deals with its little neighbours. Fwiw they do boast of some pretty impressive temples designed by Akadia herself to commemorate where the deities first touched down on earth (though the Illyns contend hotly that Akadia's first step on the planet was actually in the shallow sea)
The most notable of the Izars' more successful neighbours btw are the Moon Twin City-States, the three cities lined up along the eastern edge of the Shallow Sea; they're well-placed b/w the izars/4k/sea and have historically prospered on trade. Also worth mentioning is the Laevin Administrative Region to the Izar's southeast (or kevin to its friends. whatever), a collection of cities ruled by an oligarchic council created specifically with the intention of (profiting by) mediating relations between its neighbours
Due north of all of this btw (chain of islands all across the top of the map, i know they look very great) is Ciellan, a technocracy historically devoted centrally to magical & technological progress, especially piecing together partial designs/ruins of ancient pre-divine machinery/etc. They boast some of the world's best libraries & a great education system but huuuge economic disparity/it’s a miserable place to live for most ppl, and in the past several centuries they haven't advanced much at all. They're the home country of the coalition of architects that worked to create floating cities according to whose blueprints the deities' city was built, and they also later built their own floating city; in retribution moon god Ilida (seeing their 'imitation' city as a slight to his mother's sacrifice) hit them with the first of his three curses upon humanity; this one prevents anyone born in Ciellan or w/ Ciellais ancestry from wielding magic relics in any capacity ww
Anyways, back to main continent, to the east of the Izars is the Aua Empire, which also claims to be the world's oldest empire, and is also technically correct; Aua was founded first, but has spent much of its time split into 1-7 provinces viciously at war with each other. Its sovereignty changes hands often, & it's tradition for its aristocrats/royals to send their children away to be raised by other people so that they can select their heirs with as much objectivity as possible... Aua is resource-rich and largely prosperous despite its political instability; it's currently been under the same very successful leadership for the past few decades, though those current sovereigns are ambitious +tending towards war w/ their neighbours
East of Aua (and west of the four kingdoms) is the Dai Empire, which is referred to as an empire basically as a joke; it's not even really a country, it's scattered with towns and settlements and stuff but they really are scattered and there's no larger governing body of any kind. Dai is commonly considered a land forsaken by the gods both because it's the only area of earth that none of them ever took to/chose to live in/acted as patron to and also bc it has a lot of other weird stuff going on; it's very difficult to navigate and downright impossible to map, a random collection of biomes in random orders that seems to change every time you come back to it. It also has the highest yield of relics (more on them later) than anywhere else in the world, but they're also considered weird/undivine. It's also affected by a wide variety of curses, some divine & some others, also more on those later lol
with factions out of the way we can now do species / special features!!
Human ok you know what humans are. Worth noting that all humans on earth are descended from fish ppl who were given the ability to live on land by the deities, but functionally they're humans yeah
Magic users make up about 30% of the world's population, though it's a hard number to measure since magic here mostly manifests in pretty mundane ways; its three branches are prophecy (visions of the future, to varying degrees), communication (over long distance, & with plants/animals), and body (healing, mainly). It's largely an academic art (healing magic requires an understanding of the medical process you're trying to recreate, star prophecies are more useful with knowledge of standard star charts etc), but there are always little prodigies who can talk to bugs perfectly from birth or w/e. Magic use can manifest in members of any (sub)species !
Relic Bearers are people chosen to take care of divine relics (mysterious objects with some unusual magic property or other, artifacts from the mysterious civilization that existed on earth before current humanity; a handful were discovered by the deities during their time on earth, and the rest were discovered after their arrival and dedicated to a deity by their followers), generally by way of a gentle glow appearing around the relic when the new bearer is in its vicinity. Most relics' locations/bearers are kept track of by the followers of the deity they're devoted to, and bearers generally live a life of relative luxury. Dai relics btw are usually not devoted to any deity/traced by a specific church, tho they’re generally just as potent
Seam Holders are a new phenomenon; about ten years pre-hbtw the first large-scale divine manifestation since the deities left earth occurred, in the form of weather god Aema physically appearing to announce to a whole city that he was dedicating a portion of his power to a human chosen one (Emery Illyn! :)) and that other deities would be following suit soon. Word spread immediately, obviously, since a full-body manifestation/projection a deity hadn't happened since the deities left earth (& it wasn't his real physical form obv, but even a large-scale projection like this is completely unprecedented), and many other deities manifesting to announce chosen ones did follow suit. The mechanic behind this is that those chosen ones are stumbling across 'seams', portions of the deities' power used to 'stitch' the world back together when evil god Jarun tried his best to tear it apart back in the day... 2500 years on those deep-buried seams are resurfacing them again, when a mortal with potential comes across them they enter into a contract with the deity that allows them to channel a pretty big portion of the deity's power+ they get a direct hotline to the deity at all times +can sometimes manifest projections of them. Whee!
Dead Sea witches are a small portion of the population of one small kingdom (Pelagia), who can interact with the ghosts of the creatures that lived in the primordial sea where their dry-land country now exists. Many of them can also interface with a little pocket dimension referred to as the Dead Sea which may or may not be a preserved version of that ancient sea!
Back to more basic stuff, dragons are a human subspecies, who got slightly different biology from regular humans from [perpetually unnamed deity of strength]. Io a pretty typical example; they're blue, their skin is scattered w/ little inset scales, they have big flaps for ears (+sometimes horns), they're several times stronger and more durable than humans
Worms are another human subspecies, optically identical to humans (their skin colour always nearly exactly matches their hair colour, but that's not necessarily a tell) but several times stronger and more durable even than dragons. They're also even more devoted to the pursuit of strength (their deity is battle-focused); while most dragons live as part of regular society, most worms live in travelling mercenary-bands and spend most of their time at war. They have a fun feature where they can regenerate lost limbs (albeit slowly) and relish losing em in battle bc they generally come back stronger
Anemones are the only amphibious species on earth, and aren't considered fully human since they took a slightly different deal from the rest of humanity, which allows them to divide their time between land and sea at the cost of being much more fragile than humans. They come in a fun variety of colours & patterns & often have tentacles for hair :)
Moonblue is the term used to describe bearers of moon god Ilida's second curse upon humanity (this one on the aua empire for its participation in the floating city coalition, but it also affects large portions of the dai empire too because ilida's aim isn't great); it's randomly occurring and not hereditary, & gives its bearers unusual magic powers in exchange for severe physical remunerations. There are a number of other curses that occur in dai w/ similar features, but the moonblue curse is recognizable because its bearers all have blue/white skin and hair
Demons are the result of Ilida's third and final curse (chronologically the first, i'm all out of order here rip), bestowed specifically upon first demon king Ruka+his village+all their descendants entirely for pissing him off on a personal level. This one gives you cute horns + a lifespan about double that of humans, because it really was tailored to piss of one specific guy & most of its inheritors don't consider it a curse / they're essentially just another human subspecies
IS THAT EVERYTHING AHHHHHHHHH... i wish i had cute imgs/chara examples for all these areas/factions. theres also mooore if theres a spot on the map i haven't explained let me know... but that's a general overview :D!!!
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curly-bangtan · 5 years ago
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Heatwave Drabble #4: like a best friend
[Heatwave // Godless // Heatwave Drabbles] <- have to read first
Pairing: Taehyung x reader
Summary: You and Taehyung run into his infamous cheating ex, only for him to introduce you as his current girlfriend. As you play along with his narrative, you can’t help but feel insecure and jealous.
Genre: drabble, very fluffy, angst, f2l, bit of fake dating
Warnings: typical emotional constipation from these two, jealous!oc, heartbreakingly boyfriend!taehyung, indirect confession that they’re both unaware of lol
Word count: 5.8k
A/N: Oh look, more jealousy? Are we even surprised at this point?? Requested by my little muffin @taexxxiiaa. Sorry to all the Heatwave fans for this constant torture of unresolved feelings. 
.
Taehyung has a habit of stuffing his face with too much food and consequently eating in pout. As he is doing right now. You watch him merrily wolf down another soy sauce-dipped slice of raw salmon and stack the miniature plate with the rest of his conquests. It’s his sixth plate.
When he’d first shown you the email he received for ‘all you can eat' sushi, your response was a firm “No.” You’re not even a fan of seafood in general, let alone raw fish. But Taehyung was persistent, insisting on what a bargain it is and how it’s sushi season right now. Sushi season, what bullshit. Another “No.” Yet when Taehyung has his eyes set on something, especially when it comes to food, there’s little that can stop him. He knows how to use his assets - batting is lashes, huffing like a baby, nuzzling into your neck - until you finally let out a defeated sigh.
So here you are, plotting how best to sneak in some wasabi into his food. This wimp has a full on breakdown at the slightest taste of spice, you can just envision his face when the wasabi burns up his nostrils and through to his ears.
That will teach him not to drag you out to sushi again.
“Why aren’t you eating your udon?” Taehyung’s eyes are wide and innocent, unsuspecting of your mischievou scheme. “Too hot?”
“Yeah, don’t want to burn my tongue.” You stir your steaming noodles, smiling to yourself.
The two of you had managed to secure a four-person booth due to his non-stop nagging to come early to avoid the queue. The restaurant is now bustling with customers and stressed waiters, the smell of Japanese food infused in the warm air. You’re both sat on one couch, while sat across you is another couple who are just finishing with their lunch. This arrangement is due to the busy demand of the restaurant, squeezing in however many impatient hungry people as they can. Though you didn’t have a problem with sharing a booth with strangers at first, Taehyung’s ravenous gorging of sushi after sushi has made you particularly self conscious.
As soon as the couple leave after paying their bill, you turn to hiss at Taehyung. “Why are you eating like that?”
“Like what?” His words are barely audible with his mouth full. “Are you gonna eat your udon or not? I can help you out if you can’t finish the whole thing.”
Ah, there it is, his infamous line - I can help you out if you can’t finish the whole thing.
Honestly, his appetite is abominable.
“Order your own udon!” You begin eating your noodles to prove that you are hungry, and you will finish the whole thing.
Taehyung tucks his hair behind his ear (you’ve recently noticed that his ears are abnormally big, which you guess explains the massive dick). Just a few days ago, you had managed to convince him to get a perm. The main selling point was: ‘all the bitches will go crazy for it, trust me’. Bitches being you.  And indeed, all the bitches are crazy for it. In the timespan at which you’ve been in this restaurant alone, you’ve caught almost every single girl checking him out, eyes flickering too often towards your booth for it to be coincidental.
When their eyes fell onto you, you would smile at them politely, yet to your surprise, they’d wear a sour expression and ignore your courtesy. You soon realised that they think you’re Taehyung’s girlfriend. Girlfriend! The thought had made you shudder and scoot further away from him.
“Nah, I need to save room for the sushi, baby.” He pats his stomach that remains annoyingly flat despite his feasting. “I need to pee, I’ll be right back. Can you order some more California Rolls and the Dragon Roll please? Oh, actually, and one more Soft Shell Crab Roll and a Tempura Shrimp as well please?”
You glare hard at his back as he scuttles out the booth and hurries to the toilet. Stupid dork. It’s only noon and he has already eaten a whole day’s worth of food. He’s going to end up vomiting his guts out if he keeps at this rate.
Still, you wave the waiter over and place his order for him. The waiter’s kind of cute, he’s got that soft wholesome look, the kind of boy you bring home to your parents. You wonder why he’s avoiding your eye and not slipping you his number. You hope it’s not because he thinks you’re with Taehyung.
A new pair of customers are being ushered to your booth across from you to replace the departed couple; it’s two pleasant looking girls this time, chatting away in blithe. This time, they reciprocate your smile with nods of their own.
Taehyung returns from the bathroom shortly, yet as he approaches your booth, he halts in his step so abruptly that you spin to face him.
“Ryujin?” The shock in his voice is unmistakable. His eyes are locked on one of the girls that’s just arrived opposite you. Static.
“Taehyung?” She gasps, returning the same surprise, pupils widening.
Ryujin? Taehyung’s never mentioned a Ryujin to you before? Who is she?
Taehyung’s face is stoic, completely stripped of its normal cheeriness. Lips pressed in a thin line, jaw screwed firmly shut. Shit… You turn to assess the girl, digging through your memory for a Ryujin, yet failing. Who the hell is she to have Taehyung react in such a way? If she were just a friend, he’d be rushing over to greet her. If she were someone he slept with, he’d subtly acknowledge her but make no big deal out of it.
Instead, he’s clenching his fists, feet planted an arm’s length away from your table.
You clear your throat, snapping him out of his trance. “You know each other?”
Finally, he glances over at you for the first time in what feels like ages. And right away, you see the disorientation in his eyes. Taehyung slowly makes his way back into the booth, sliding in beside you until your legs touch.
“Yeah, she’s my ex girlfriend.”
Oh.
Oh.
That cheating bitch.
If it weren’t for the firm hand placed quickly on your thigh as if he’d known you’d react in such manner, you would have leapt up and started screaming at her. The anger is rushing to your head all at once. You’re struggling not to chuck the stack of plates at her face.
So this is the girl who had broken Taehyung’s heart. This is the girl who gave Taehyung trust issues. But also, this is the girl who lead to you and Taehyung meeting. In every way you look at it, she is the reason why you’re in each other’s lives in the first place. So you guess you owe her a thank you after you throw a drink at her.
Taehyung doesn’t speak much about her, or at all. It’s been years since their relationship anyway, and since all his ties to her have been cut, it makes perfect sense that he’s forgotten about her. Even at the beginning, he was adamant about not thinking about her, he said it had hurt too much to even say her name. And so you were always careful about not bringing the topic up in conversation; it was none of your business anyway, it wasn’t relevant to his life anymore. There were occasional jokes here and there, but only ever made by him, and even still, you could sense the underlying hurt.
“Taehyung, it’s been so long…” Her attention was utterly transfixed on Taehyung. You might as well have been a cardboard cutout for all that matters, she wouldn’t have noticed anyway. But it must be bewildering to run into your ex who you cheated on like this. Anyone would be thrown off.
What are the chances that, not only did you come to the same all-you-can-eat-sushi place, but have also been sat on the same booth? Just your luck.
Your eyes wander back to Taehyung, fearing for his current state of mind. Your roommate is an emotional guy, as much as he likes to mask it in ridiculous humour. It would not surprise you if he just stands up and leave right now, even with his food on its way. Yet his features are calm, unbothered, his initial surprise melting away to neutrality.
“Hm… Yeah.” He doesn’t ask how she fares as she’d expected, you can see the disappointed drop in her face at his apathetic souciance. Then he turns to you. “Did you order the stuff?”
Unsure of how to interpret his sudden maturity, you just nod slowly. Quiet Taehyung is scary…
Disregarding her friend’s apparent discomfort, Ryujin presses on. “It must have been, what, more than two years now? How are you?”
Why can’t this bitch take a hint? Just shut the fuck up and order your fucking sushi. Leave him alone.
But Taehyung remains unmoved. While you are the one quietly fuming in the corner. Sensing your aggravation, he brushes his thumb on your thigh soothingly. When you lock eyes again, you’re stunned to find him completely at ease, the corner of his mouth even perking up to reassure you that he’s fine.
“I’m doing well actually.” Ryujin frowns again at his short answer. You think she’s going to give up now, but then she continues.
“You look good.” You tense. Oh don’t she dare... “I’m not doing too bad myself, I-”
Just then, the waiter cuts off the monologue she was headed towards as he brings over the plates of food you’d ordered for Taehyung. His eyes immediately flash in excitement, resuming his usual childish manner as he peels his hand from your leg and snatches his chopsticks.
“Can I get anything for you two ladies?” The waiter asks Ryujin and her companion, whose face appears flushed from the awkwardness of this situation. Ryujin, evidently annoyed by the interruption, proceeds to order.
While her attention is diverted, you quickly take this opportunity to mouth to Taehyung, “you okay?”
Striking you with an honest smile as he swallows his sushi, he nods. “Yeah, don’t worry, completely fine. Eat your udon, or it’ll get cold.” His voice is hushed, and you don’t know why you get startled when he leans closer to whisper to you.
Not entirely convinced, it’s your turn to pat his leg, almost subconsciously, as if to make sure that this really is Taehyung, your Taehyung. How is he this calm right now? Well, he’s always been a silent sulker when he’s mad, but… He doesn’t even seem one bit troubled by the sudden appearance of his ex. Not even that eyebrow twitch he gets when he’s annoyed. And in the meantime, you’re silently plotting how to magically get wasabi in this bitch’s eye.
When the waiter leaves, Ryujin turns back to Taehyung once again, scanning his ethereal features and beautifully curled long hair. No doubt regretting her shitty decision of infidelity when they were together. Finally, her eyes flicker over to you, for the first time since Taehyung’s arrival. “So who’s thi-”
“Y/N, my girlfriend.”
You choke so hard on the fat noodle you are slurping that some of the savoury broth goes up your nose. Wheezing and spluttering for air like a cat choking on a hairball, you feel all your blood rush to your reddening face, both from the lack of air and the embarrassment. Taehyung’s careless whacks between your shoulder blades isn’t helping at all. Only after downing the whole cup of green tea does your coughing finally subside.
“You okay, babe?” Taehyung realises his smacks on your back are too harsh to be boyfriend-like, so he eases it into gentle rubs. But the concern in his large brown irises are genuine nonetheless.
You glare at him. Long, hard. Before nodding and flashing him a sickly-sweet smile. Oh boy, is he going to get kicked in the ass later for putting you up to this. He seems to see the dangerous flare of your nostrils, a warning sign that he has really, most fucking definitely, made the wrong move. He gulps and smiles back nervously.
Girlfriend? Girlfriend?!
What the fuck is he playing at right now? Why did he have to lie to her like that? Is he trying to make her jealous? Or just act like he’s moved on just fine without her? You clamp your mouth shut to prevent any angry words from tumbling out. There’s nothing to do but to play along right now - there’s an enemy to face.
“Oh right, girlfriend…” Ryujin says so softly that you almost feel bad for her before remembering that this is her own doing. “I guess that must be why you haven’t replied to my text asking you to meet up then… Right?”
At that, your entire body goes rigid.
She- Does that mean- Wh-
You look over at Taehyung, mouth hanging open in utter disbelief. Ryujin has been texting Taehyung. And he hasn’t mentioned a word about it to you. Although it really shouldn’t affect you so much, it feels like a stab of betrayal.
His lips are pursed again, as he gazes up at her reluctantly. “Yeah, that’s right.”
Then his arm circles around your back and pulls you into him, fingers gripping your waist in a display of possession. At the unforeseen momentum, and still in your state of shock, your frame falls feebly into his chest. Your heart leaps to your throat. You don’t understand why but… your cheeks feel hot.
His arm, around you. His hand, holding your side. His neck, pressed on your forehead.
You’re hyper aware of everywhere he is touching you. Why, all of a sudden?
“Oh okay, um, I really wish you all the best…” Ryujin mumbles, no longer looking at you and Taehyung anymore, not sounding one bit like she means what she’s saying. Her friend beside her has resorted to scrolling through her phone at this point, cringing from this awkward exchange.
“Thanks, Ryujin. I’m really happy - never been happier in my life, in fact.” The vibration of Taehyung’s Adam’s apple reverberates into you as he tugs you even closer, arm fastened around your middle. You struggle for room, bending your neck to peer up at him from your squished position.
He’s grinning radiantly at you, and at your wide-eyed confused expression, he can’t help but lean down to press his lush warm lips onto your forehead.
You blink.
Truly, you think your brain has stopped functioning. What is going on?
He’s definitely doing this to make Ryujin jealous. That is the only plausible explanation. It makes your chest clench in bitterness. Why does he still care what she thinks? This is completely unnecessary. Does he still care about her?
And why didn’t he tell you that she was texting him?
What has she been telling him?
All this doubt, this uncertainty, manifests into a suffocating lump in your throat. You have always been completely open and honest with each other about every aspect of your lives - family, friends, work, grades, relationships, sex. Not that he owes it to you to tell you everything, but you’d just thought that it was how things worked between you. What else is he hiding from you?
But at the same time, your focus can’t stray from the way he is holding you, and the confidence in his tone. How certain and sincere he sounded. And how he pecked you so casually in public, in front of everyone. Your stomach feels funny.
As you resume your eating, you stay quiet, thinking. On the other hand, Taehyung is quiet due to fact that he has no room to speak in between engulfing California Roll after California Roll. Happily humming under his breath as he chews. The waiter returns with a tray of food Ryujin and her friend had ordered. “Here you go, would you like some green tea?”
“Oo, can you fill mine up too please.” You hastily pass him your empty ceramic cup.
“Of course. Be careful, the tea is very ho-” Just as he warns you while he refills your cup, he over-tips the pot and sends scalding tea all over your hand.
“Ow!” Quickly drawing back your boiled hand out of instinct, you yelp out in pain. Fumbling over his sorry, I’m so so sorry’s, the waiter bows his deeply apologetically, scurrying to clean up the steaming spilled liquid in a panic.
“Mate, watch out!” Taehyung sits up immediately, scrambling to wipe your soaked hand with tissues. The glare he throws the waiter could cut through glass. “Are you okay?” The concern clouding his eyes when he faces you floods your veins with a security.
“Yeah… Don’t worry, it’s just a burn.” You watch him examine your hand intently as if it’s some ancient priceless artefact that could shatter from a poke; you’ve noticed lately that he tends to do this when you’re injured. With his fringe frizzed over his forehead, lips puckered in concentration as he caress over your pink tender skin, you are helpless and unmoving. Staring at him.
“Are you sure? It’s getting kind of red…” He refuses to let your hand go. Your fingers scorch under his touch and it’s not from the tea.
“Yeah, baby, I’m fine.” Taehyung’s head whips up instantly at the way you address him. Confused for a good second, before realising that it is to play along with the fake girlfriend narrative.
Right…
Reluctantly, he lets you pull your hand out of his clutch, and only when you pick up your chopsticks to prove to him that it’s only a minor injury does he resign in his coddling and return to his food. As you glance up, you notice Ryujin’s blazing glower at your direction. You quickly look away.
In the presence of his cheating ex-girlfriend, you two no longer feel at ease to banter away as normal. You aren’t even at the liberation to have a regular conversation without her listening in on everything. So the meal passes rather wordlessly.
However, the silence births a different kind of interaction between you and Taehyung. You can’t tell if it’s just for show, or due to his innate affectionate nature, but he suddenly feels the need to display his love for skinship. Under the table, his hand once again strays to the land of your thighs, gently stroking. When you shoot him a warning glare, lest he gets any vulgar ideas, you find that he possesses no lustful intent at all. Just pure fondness for you.
Something inside you softens. You’re starting to think that he isn’t acting out of spite against Ryujin, but rather simply enjoying your company as usual.
But you know what? Screw that bitch. Not once, to your knowledge, did she apologise to Taehyung when she’s had two years to own up to her mistakes. Not until now, of all times. She deserves to get riled up.
“Taehyung-ie, can I have a bite of your shrimp?” You smile at your pretend-boyfriend sweetly. He gives you a perplexed look that says: But I thought you hate shrimp? before he clocks on with your intention.
“Of course, baby.” And without fail, just like a scene straight from a drama, he picks up the tempura shrimp and feeds it to you, eyes crescent in mirth as you open up and take a mouthful like a hungry little child. You feel a crumb flake away onto your chin, yet before you can wipe it away, Taehyung reaches it first. Chuckling, he sweeps the small speck into your mouth. But not without the slightest, most fleeting, brush of his thumb against your tongue.
The action feels… intimate. Like weirdly intimate, even for you and Taehyung’s dynamic.
Why does your breath keep hitching?
Perhaps after a second too long, you conjure a giggle in response, attentive of Ryujin’s gawk in your periphery. “Thanks, love.” The syrup in your voice is sickly sweet. God, even you want to barf.
“You’re too adorable, honey buns.” Taehyung cups your face in one hand, fingers digging into your squishy cheeks as he shakes you. Your smile drops. Adorable? Honey buns? HoNEy bUnS? Kim Taehyung is so dead.
But before you could kick him in the shin under the table, he leans in and plants his lips on yours. Soft, supple.
Oh.
Just as you think it’s only meant to be a peck, he deepens the kiss, his plump pink mouth gliding over yours smoothly. Anyone who sees would know that you’re accustomed to such action with each other from the natural comfortable manner of your kiss. Anyone could tell that you’re used to each other’s lips.
You pull away abruptly when you become conscious of many’s attention on you. With your face so near his, all you can see is how his lips draw into a smirk.
It’s unusual for you two to kiss outside of a sexual context. Because why would you? Friends don’t kiss each other unless they’re: A) dating, or B) banging. And especially in the past few weeks, you’ve been progressively kissing each other less, even during sex. Almost as if you’ve both realised how intimate it is, and all the romantic connotations that come with it.
Yet here he is, kissing you so openly in public.
Yeah, it’s just for show for his ex. But it’s still…
You don’t know.
.
After Taehyung had finally eaten to his heart’s content, the two of you had gone to study in the library. Ryujin wore a sour face in the entire duration of the meal, and you would hear low grunts of irritation from her direction. You practically felt her venomous glare on the back of your head as you were leaving the restaurant. Acting has never been your strong suit, but even you’ll admit that the two of you are putting on an Oscar-worthy performance.
You’ve been quiet, you know. It’s because of that bitter taste in the back of your throat that you still can’t get rid of at the thought that Taehyung might still care about Ryujin. Why else would he lie to her and say that you’re his girlfriend if not to get a reaction out of her?
But more so, why does it bother you so much? You wish you don’t care this much for this stupid sushi-demolisher who doesn’t deserve your time and efforts. He’s probably thinking about his next meal again while you’re here lamenting over your weird feelings.
So you keep your mouth shut throughout your study session, brewing in your acrid thoughts.
Taehyung watches you nibble at the end of your pen. How is he supposed to focus on his coursework when you’ve got that pouty expression? And since when did you not take every chance you get to take the piss out of him? He wonders what’s going on in your head.
Seeing Ryujin had been a shock, a blast from the past. It hadn’t bothered him too much to be honest, he simply doesn’t care about her anymore. A few days ago, she had sent him a message out of the blue. Out of politeness, he’d responded but kept his replies brief; it was difficult to decipher her intention at first, but it soon revealed itself. Apparently, her and Jimin went on to date for a while - good on them, Taehyung truly could not give fewer shits anymore. But their relationship deteriorated due to their incompatibility, which was predictable knowing them both. It was when she started showing interest in Taehyung, apologising and kissing his ass about how good he was to her that he decided to stop answering.
The thought of getting back with her gave him shivers.
Your reaction to Ryujin back there wasn’t unexpected at all, of course you weren’t going to react mildly to his ex. Taehyung is lucky you didn’t ‘accidentally’ spill soy sauce onto her, or start yelling at her about faithfulness and morality. Your wrath towards her actually kind of warms his heart…
You aren’t one to talk about your feelings openly, but your actions definitely speak volumes about how much you care about him.
Taehyung smiles to himself.
There is so much loyalty between the two of you, complete trust and devotion. At the end of the day, no matter what goes on between you when you’re horny fuckers, you’re best friends above all else. Fighters for each other.
Your journey back home was also rather mute, consisting of him prodding you with jokes and teases, and you putting on a half-hearted smile. Maybe you’re annoyed at him for putting you on the spot and leaving you with no choice but to cooperate as his pretend girlfriend. All this relationship-y commitment-y crap repels the shit out of you. Basically the bane of your existence.
He probably shouldn’t have kissed and coddled you that much in front of Ryujin. You detest PDA like it’s some scandalous taboo, despite being the freakiest girl he knows in the sheets. But hey, you guys had to make it convincing and believable...
Yup, the more Taehyung thinks about it, the more he’s sure you’re annoyed (or even scared off) about the fake dating thing.
“You’re quiet for someone who just met her supposed archnemesis. I thought you’d be going on and on about what a bitch she is.” He glances at your sullen side profile for the hundredth time during your commute home.
“I don’t know, not it a great mood I guess? Probably just tired.” You mumble, searching for your keys in your coat pocket. The weather is getting cold these days; Taehyung knows your fingers are very prone to freezing, especially with your refusal of wearing gloves because ‘they’re ugly’ nor would you keep your hands in your pockets because ‘it’s a safety hazard incase you trip over’.
He gets a strangely overwhelming urge to hold your hands every time he sees you wiggling your fingers to warm them up. Hmm.
Wordlessly, you enter the house with him trailing behind you. He watches your moody steps from behind as you remove your shoes and head inside. Why can’t you just tell him what you’re thinking?
With a great sigh, Taehyung slumps onto the couch, focus still on you hanging your coat on the rack and tossing your keys into the holder on the shelf. “Hey.”
You turn, regarding his wide manspread with piqued interest. “What?”
“Come here, baby, sit on my lap.” He pats the top of his thighs in beckoning. Sometimes it’s like trying to get a stray cat to come to him.
Your eyes widen at his request. But very reluctantly, you stroll towards him until you’re standing between his extended legs. “Why are you calling me baby, we’re not pretending to be dating anymore.”
Taehyung stiffens as he senses the acrimony in your tone. So this is about the girlfriend thing? It’s a risky move but he sits up and pulls you in by the back of your thighs until you have no choice but to succumb to falling onto his hips. Lips still in a tight line, your limbs come around him to hold yourself upright. In order to prevent you from escaping, Taehyung encloses his arms around your waist, trapping you in his embrace. He tries not to think about how your crotch is directly on his right now.
“Why you sad?” He looks up at you, your eyes unreadable as always. Heat from your exhale fans his forehead.
“I don’t know. Nan molla.” You shrug and do that face scrunch thing you do whenever you’re unsure that he loves. It makes you look so cute.
“Hey…” Taehyung nudges your cheek with his nose in an attempt to get you to look at him. You have a habit of avoiding eye contact, and he knows it’s stems from the intimacy issue. “What’s up, honey buns?”
“Honey buns again? Seriously?” You jerk away from him like he insulted your mother or something.
“Well, since I can’t call you baby, honey buns it is.” His chest vibrates with his deep rumbling laughter, pleased with himself to see the slightest hint of a smile finally beginning to appear on you.
“Oh my god, Taehyung. Fine, just stick with baby, I swear…” You thump him on the back, yet your stone cold exterior now being invaded by a spark of humour.
“Good. Now tell me what’s wrong, baby.”
You’re quiet for a good few seconds, contemplating. Your legs around his torso tense, you bite your lip hesitantly. Come on, just talk to me, he wishes.
“Do you still… care about her?” Voice so soft that even he struggles to hear you this close.
“What? Ryujin?” Oh, so this is about her. Taehyung knew you hated her, but never thought that you would feel… insecure? Jealous, even? “Of course not. I don’t give a single fuck about her.” At his answer, you let out the breath you’ve been holding. A breath of relief? “But you clearly seem to care too much about her.”
“I- I do not!” In a tone of disbelief, you scorn. “I just- She’s not the one I care about.”
Fuck, you’re being too cute right now.
Taehyung pecks at your chin, unable to contain his affection anymore. You continue, “Plus, why didn’t you tell me she was talking to you again? Friends tell each other this sort of thing. I always tell you everything…”
The worry on your face is truly so endearing, he feels his chest constrict.
“I didn’t mention it because that’s how little I care. She is honestly so insignificant to me right now, I could not even be bothered to waste my breath bringing it up. Yes, she meant a lot to me for a period of my life. But. That was a long time ago. I’ve moved on, no thanks to you, remember?” Your eyes gradually dare loiter up his face. “You silly sausage.”
“But-” You’re pouting again. You need to stop pouting or he won’t be able to control himself, dammit. “Why did you lie and say I’m your girlfriend then, if you weren’t doing it to make her jealous.”
Taehyung blinks. Well… Um, about that... He didn’t want to have to explain it to you but...
“It just slipped out.”
Your turn to blink vacantly. Taehyung feels blood tinting his cheeks under your gaze. Even he doesn’t know why he said it back then. It just kind of… rolled off his tongue. Should he be worried? Yeah, he should definitely be worried.
When you still fail to say anything, he hurriedly asks, “Are you mad?”
“N-No. Why would I be mad?” The way your arm slides down his neck to brush pass his chest leaves his skin tingling. He pulls your legs closer around him, hand unintentionally trailing to your rear.
“I don’t know, you just hate that kind of lovey-dovey stuff. Just figured that you’d be annoyed that I forced you to act like my girlfriend.”
“Well, I was a bit annoyed… It’s not just me, you hate that kind of lovey-dovey stuff too!” Well, not exactly accurate, but Taehyung decides not to correct you. “But did you see her face?” Your tone begins to lighten. Remembering the acerbity tainting Ryujin’s features brings you amusement.
“She looked like she was going to murder someone.” You both laugh.
“She was thirsting over you like a hound, Jesus Christ. It’s because of your perm, trust me.” Grinning, you twirl his curly fringe around your fingers. You seem to do that quite often since he got the new hairstyle.
“Wow, you really like my perm that much?” He fishes, failing to control his forming smirk. You like to give him shit about his ego, yet no one strokes it more than you do.
“No comment.” You can’t contain your radiant smile either. Taehyung makes a mental note to keep the perm.
Seeing your mood lifted makes Taehyung feel much better, safer. His arms run up your back, and he feels you shudder under his touch. You fit into his embrace so well; it’s difficult to not hug you close to him every chance he gets nowadays. There’s a dull ache in the back of his neck from craning up to look at you for too long, but he doesn’t mind it. Your fingers fall from his hair, tracing his jaw frivolously, mindlessly. It leaves an unwarranted tremble within him.
“Look, there’s absolutely nothing for you to mull about in that overthinking head of yours. I don’t even remember Ryujin’s last name if I’m being honest with you. She lost me the moment she broke my heart, and I’ll never even remotely consider getting back with her. Ever. I promise.
“So don’t act all jealous and sulky just ‘cause you misunderstood. You’re my best girl. You’ll always be my best, favourite and only girl, understand? I, Kim Taehyung, belong to you, Y/N Y/L/N. Period.” The smile of satisfaction tells him everything. You’re not as hard to please as you appear to be. “I’m yours, happy?”
“Happy.” Fuck, Taehyung’s heart is going to explode from the joyous beam growing at your lips.
“Good, because she means nothing to me at all. But you, Ms. Needy-But-I-Won’t-Admit-It? You mean everything to me. Everything.” He bounces you on his lap for emphasis, eliciting another buoyant giggle from you.
Then you do something that you don’t normally do.
You kiss him - passionately and ardently. Fingers surfing the waves of his hair, you readjust your straddling position on top of him to minimise the distance. Taehyung feels all reason in his head incrementally ebbing away. You shouldn’t be kissing, you really shouldn’t. It’s not normal to make out with your best friend. But fuck the rules. Taehyung doesn’t want to stop kissing you right now, his silly adorable honey buns.
“Just admit it. You love me.” He taunts between breaths. You freeze at Taehyung’s words. Completely freeze on his lap, hand dangling from his face, as if you’ve been shot. “Like a best friend.” You deflate, evident relief at the joke.
Taehyung has to restrain from laughing out loud. God, you’re such an easy target. The second anything one step further from platonism is suggested, you act like you’re going to pack your bags and run for the hills. But here you are, kissing him and acting all possessive. He enjoys the irony.
“Yeah I love you. Like a best friend.” You flick the tip of his nose in reprimand for his teasing.
“Good because I love you too. Like a best friend.” He holds you tight against him, proceeding to blow raspberries in your neck.
Maybe even more, he wonders.
.
27/11/19
© Copyright 2019
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dragonrajafanfiction · 3 years ago
Text
Cassell Cynics: Part 5 (End...?)
OCs are @hectab ‘s . Dinnae Steal! :D that’s my job. :3c
Hana sprinted from Nathan’s dorm towards Guderian’s class room, full of desperation. She kicked off the silly heels Cassell forced her to wear and let the pavement pound through her bare feet. As she ran, she called the professor on her cell phone again and again, but he didn’t pick up. She imagined him teaching a class. She would disrupt it. She would get into trouble maybe she would be disciplined. But they were making a mistake! She had to get them to change their mind!
How come Fingel got to stay as rank F and Nathan was getting expelled as a Rank C? It wasn’t fair! Nathan had way more potential than Fingel and even if he didn’t do anything... why was his mental health not a concern to them? They were the ones who decided to keep him! This is partly their fault. But all Guderian regretted was not being able to refund his tuition! 
She took the twenty stairs up to the main teaching hall in a single bound. Her dark ponytail flying behind her. The doors were already propped open but no one was in the halls. She kept running, expecting resistance. But finding none at all. In fact, all the lights were off as if the classes were finished for the semester.
She dialed Guderian’s number again and it rang and rang. She could hear it ringing in the classroom ahead of her. How could he just ignore her calls like this!
Hana burst through the double doors into a classroom that was empty and dark.  The lights were out and the shades were drawn. The person standing at Guderian’s usual desk was Schneider! He was like a gargoyle in a dark trenchcoat. His sharp eyes glared from behind the half mask over his face. He was holding Guderian’s phone.
“You sent those texts?!” Hana gasped.
Strong arms seized Hana from either side of the doors and dragged her forward, pushing her into a chair in front of him. Hana was overtaken with confusion. “What’s happening? Where’s Professor Guderian?”
She looked up at either one of the people holding on to her. They were members of the Executive Board. Not students, full members!  “What’s going on? Where’s Nathan?”
“You’re too late. He’s already in with Toyama. His brainwashing has commenced.” Schneider said smoothly, setting the phone down. “And you will not be allowed to interfere.”
---
Nathan kept his head up high as he faced the psychologist Dr. Toyama. “It was a nice run.” He grinned. “Wish it could have lasted.”
Toyama, dressed in his usual brown tailored suit raised his eyebrows in surprise as he took a seat across from him. “You’re the cheeriest patient I’ve had the pleasure of working with.”
“Really? I’m guessing that they either don’t know what you really do or ... they’re here against their will. I’m neither of those things. I would have preferred to let my tuition run out first but... hey I get it. I’m not supposed to be here so... here we are!”
“Do you really not feel the Blood Cry at all?” Toyama asked. He picked up an iPad and started writing with a stylus.
“What difference does it make? I’m C-ranked. I don’t qualify for College. You don’t ask students if they feel the Blood Cry if they fail the 3E do you? You just kick them out.”
Toyama smiled, his eyes kind and gentle. “But you didn’t fail the 3E.”
Nathan gave a nervous laugh, his arms crossing over his chest. He glanced around and his eyes fell on hidden cameras very quickly. “You people were the ones who told me I got a C-rank. That’s a fail by your own rules. Why are you suddenly saying I didn’t fail. Did someone falsify my records?”
“I’m required to be present during the 3E. So I remember you. You were nervous but I remember you had a glimmer of excitement in your eyes. You didn’t seem to doubt yourself going in. But after the test was over...”
Nathan interrupted. “The 3E sucks. There are people who have to go to the hospital after! You’re there so they don’t blow their brains out after seeing their visions.”
“It only ‘sucks’ if they actually resonate...” Toyama said coldly.
Toyama sat in silence for several seconds and watched Nathan start to sweat. He rubbed his hands on his pants then suddenly relaxed. “Oh! I have my book with me. I figured I’d go for uh...Jason Bourne. You know, a secret spy who was ‘decomissioned’ by a black government program.” He opened to the correct page and showed it to Toyama. “Give me that memory please.”
Toyama took the notebook from him. There were over a hundred different scenarios of different reasons to explain the lost year from an erased memory, each one getting more and more elaborate as the time went on. But Toyama flipped to the first page.
“Hey! Don’t just go flipping through all of it!” Two members of the discipline committee caught Nathan before he could snatch the book back and restrained him back into the chair.
Toyama read out loud. “August 12th... isn’t that the first day you enrolled? That’s also the first day you wanted to leave.”
Nathan glowered as he was being strapped to the chair with belt like attachments. “Why do you care? Fine, you know what? I quit! I quit and I drop out. I drop out right now!”
“You wanted to leave immediately after the 3E. You could have dropped out then but you didn’t....” Toyama closed the book. “But now you’re suddenly eager to go. What changed?”
“I wanted to enjoy my time here... But you won’t let me...” Nathan snarled.
“We won’t let you enjoy your time? You’ve been here a year and have done nothing but break the rules without consequences.” Toyama said.
“Stop. Just stop! You want me... out there. Fighting in this stupid war! That’s why I’m here. If you really thought I was useless you would have kicked me out! Right?”
“Who wants you fighting in the war against dragons..?” Toyama asked slowly.
Like quicksand, Nathan felt like the more he talked, the deeper he sank. “Do you not hear me! I said I quit! I quit!” He roared louder and louder. “You can’t keep me here!”
“You feel the Blood Cry more strongly than you admit. If I erase your mind the consequences could be disastrous.”
“Why are you stalling? What did she tell you?!” He pulled against the restraints.
“Why don’t you let us help you?”
“I don’t WANT your help!”
Toyama stared in wonder. It wasn’t that he was angry or frustrated. This man was terrified. “Why are you so scared of staying here?”
-----
His brainwashing was already in progress? Hana felt like the wind was knocked out of her.
"No! You have to stop it!”  Maybe if she ran, she could make it! The sharp click of a gun was loud against her head when she tried to stand. Her eyes turned to the sound and she stared down the bottomless barrel of a pistol. “Are you going to shoot me? Why? What’s going on...” Her voice was shaking and betrayed.
Schneider expression was completely pitiless. He looked like the Phantom of the Opera as he set a stop watch on the desk. “You have 10 seconds to explain or our decision is final.” 
“9...8...7...”
“I...” She stared at it, mind racing. “I promised him that I wouldn't say anything about what we talked about... Please he’s my only friend!”
“6...5...4...”
“He won’t survive out there, I know he won’t! Just let him stay! He never caused any trouble!”
“3...2...1..”
“He quit the test on purpose!”
The stop watch beeped and Schneider silenced it with a gloved finger. Hana was still out of breath from running and now she was panting from terror. “Please, just let him stay.”
“The test. You mean the 3E? No one ‘quits’ the 3E, but you said he did.” Schneider kept his frigid stare on her. “He’s not C-ranked and you know it. Why did you lie and say he was?”
“I don’t know if I lied.” Hana’s heart had never beat faster. “I don’t want to lie.”
“But you did.” Schneider raised a single scarred eyebrow. “Which makes this all the more remarkable.”
Schneider walked around the desk and sat down, resting his elbows on the desktop and twining his fingers in front of his face. “You’re a good student. One of the best. What are you doing, Hana?”
“I don’t have anyone else here. I think he’s a good guy. We can be friends. I just want you to leave him alone.” She said.
Schneider waved his hand slightly and the two Executive Board agents turned and left, closing the door.
“EVA!” He raised his voice suddenly. “I need you to remove yourself from this room for the next ten minutes.”
A female voice acknowledged from the PA system. “For the next 10 minutes, I will have no access to this classroom..”
Schneider kept his piercing pale eyes on her. “Everything you say from here on out will be strictly confidential unless you repeat it to others. If anyone asks me, I’ll never tell what you say here today.” She kept a guarded look so he added. “I have many, many secrets I never tell anyone, Hana. You can tell me.”
In their chat over dinner, Nathan had kept asking her if she was on his side and she was. She really was. She didn’t believe he was really high on drugs when he told her about the 3E exam, the vision he had of the dragons’ true nature. But the excuse that he was high when he said those things was too perfect to resist. It was a ‘get out of jail free card’. She had thought that all she had to say was he was high and she wouldn’t lie to the professors and they would go back to ignoring him. But now she found herself in even deeper trouble, facing down the head of the Executive Department. The most dangerous man on Earth! “You really promise you won’t tell anyone else?” 
-----------------
“You risk your mental health if you continue on this path. It’s self destructive.” Toyama continued to try to reason with Nathan. “I just want to make sure you understand the great risk you’re taking and that your decision is not being made rashly.”
Nathan hung his head, as though he were being led to the gallows. "It’s not being made rashly. I know exactly what I’m doing. I know I could just... end up jumping off a bridge once my memories are gone. I’ve been preparing for it. Seeing what works. Marijuana helps a lot. But the problem is you build up a tolerance over time. Especially as a hybrid. Music, weed, regular sleep... it all helps take the edge off the Blood Cry. Alcohol makes it worse alone but with weed it’ll help you sleep.”
“You’ve been experimenting on yourself this whole time?” Toyama ran his fingers along his chin. “You really are serious. If that’s the case, you’re right that I can’t keep you. I just want to know why. Both professionally and personally. I’ve never met anyone like you in my entire career.”
Nathan kept his silence. He didn’t look at Toyama any more.
Toyama’s phone suddenly buzzed. “Excuse me.”
Nathan nodded without looking up.
Toyama stepped out. His voice sounded through the door. He was talking to someone for a very long time. The two disciplinary committee students were still there and he glanced up at one. “I’m sure you guys are curious too...?”
“Not really. I don’t care if you’re here or not.” The square jawed man looked down on him contemptuously. “Frankly, I wonder why they’re wasting time hesitating.”
Nathan laughed softly and looked down. So long as he insisted on leaving, they wouldn’t be able to hold him. This was the final push. No doubt they were trying to force him to stay for their own reasons. They knew he was hiding something precious and they didn’t want to let him go.
--------------------
Hana looked up at Schneider on the phone. 
“Cancel his expulsion.” Schneider said simply.
A pause. Schneider asked. “Did he say why?”
Another longer pause and Schneider licked his lips. “Have you tried to dissuade him?”
Another pause. “Alright. I’ll see what I can do.”
Schneider hung up. “Well, it appears your friend is determined to leave. Unless you could convince him to stay, Toyama has no choice but to wipe his mind. You said you’re his friend right? What do you think?” Schneider’s manner had completely changed. While he wasn’t a warm personality, that frigid atmosphere was gone.
“I don’t want him to go. I’m afraid at what might happen. But he doesn't believe in Cassell or the mission.”
“Toyama seems to feel nervous about wiping him as well but he has been unable to convince him to stay so far. Do you think you can?”
“Professor Schneider. When you look at me, do you think I could be someone who could actually kill a dragon given the opportunity? Please. Be honest.” Hana Sato asked.
The hiss of Schneider’s oxygen tank was audible in the silence, and it hissed 3 times before he finally answered. “When humans battle with dragons, our victory tends to be a pyrrhic victory.”
“What’s a pyrrhic victory?” She tilted her head.
Those light eyes sparkled and then softened into something akin to a great sadness. “A pyrrhic victory is when the cost of the victory is so great, it can be reasonably be called a defeat.”
Hana swallowed hard as another layer was peeled back and once again Nathan was revealed to be correct.
“Do you think the fight against dragons is unwinnable?” she asked.
“It’s not about winning or not winning.” Schneider said. “It’s about survival. If we don’t fight against the dragons, it will simply mean the certain end of all human society. If it is impossible, as he says, then I can understand why he would rather have no part of it. But I don’t share his hopelessness. I believe we can win. And even if it comes at the great cost of many lives, if it means the future of mankind, it will have been worth it.”
-------
Toyama returned to the room and shooed away the two disciplinary committee members. Once they were gone he said. “Your expulsion has been canceled.” 
Nathan let out a short laugh, sadness filling him. Hana must have talked. He supposed he couldn’t expect Hana to sacrifice herself for him. They hardly knew each other after all. “Oh really? Are they changing my rank too?”
“No one has said anything about that. To change your rank you will need to retake the 3E. Are you still going to drop out?”
“Yeah. Go ahead and do it. Sign whatever paperwork. Go ahead. I’m ready.”
“Now why are you upset?”
Nathan turned his head away. “I’m not.”
“You are. You were happy to leave at first. Now that I’m letting you go, you look terribly sad. Close to tears even”
“I’m sad because I don’t have any weed. Once I’m out of here, just make sure to stash my marijuana in my backpack. I’ll smoke and feel alright.”
Toyama paused to give him one more chance to think of a way out and when nothing was forthcoming, he unstrapped Nathan from the chair, unbuckling the restraints. “You said Jason Bourne? There were a few more pleasant scenarios in there. The last one was a artist running from the dictator in Korea.”
“I have no artistic talent. I was just spitballing.”
“Witness protection program?”
“Seems to require a lot of staff.” Nathan massaged his wrists.
“Plane crash coma victim?”
“Make it car crash and I think we have a winner.”
“Alright.”
A knock at the door surprised both of them. Toyama went to answer it. “You are just in time. We were about to start.”
“Hana?” Nathan was surprised, delighted and then wary to see his soon to be former fellow student. “What are you doing here? Here to say goodbye after ratting me out?”
Hana stood taller than Toyama. Her face was serene when she looked at him. “No.” She said. “I’m leaving too.”
------
Hana sighed. Her mind was a jumbled mix of thoughts. Her first question was where am I? Nothing came to mind for a split second, only for the thought to pop up unbidden.
She was at Cassell. Cassell... how did she get here?
Another brief silence from her mind and then an image appeared unbidden. She had been on an escort assignment. Everything seemed normal until they were on their way back and got T-boned by someone who red light. She didn’t remember anything after that.
She opened her eyes to the white hospital room.
Toyama was sitting next to her bed. “How are you feeling, Hana?”
“I’m fine... Nathan... Where’s Nathan?” She sat up and was suddenly assaulted by dizziness.
“Nathan is fine.” Toyama said, reaching out to steady her. “He’s where he usually is. You remember right?”
She smiled gently. “Yes. I remember. On the bench... smoking.”
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polar-stars · 4 years ago
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ok. i must know the music tastes of *preparation cough* [insert all of your ocs here] :}
Thank you for enabling me to talk about this 🙏
Kimiko Yukihira 🍳
Kimiko has her own little radio in her room and this radio is pretty much her main source of exposure to music. She therefore listens to a lot of Pop and is especially fond of the upbeat kind. Thanks to the men in her family she has been introduced to various Rock or more Alternative songs as well though. 
Favorite Artists: I feel she’d like Owl City & possibly also Paramore
Hiroshi Aldini-Tadokoro ⚓️
Hiroshi listens to soft things that ease him down. His playlist is full of cute, soft-sounding pop songs and acoustic stuff. 
Favorite Artists: Hm, Jason Mraz, Sleeping At Last & Ai Means Love, I think
Mika Aldini ☀️
As an avid dancer, Mika mainly listens to songs that you can also dance to. So her playlists mainly consist of very fast-paced, exciting songs. Her favorite Genre is Latin-Pop, but she listens to a lot of regular Pop as well (as long as it’s good for dancing). She also does enjoy some Reggae once in a while, especially if she does feels like relaxing.
Favorite Artists: Shakira & Jennifer Lopez 
Kaori Hayama 💐
Kaori listens majorly to Soul, R&B & Blues. She considers it very relaxing and she does mainly listen to music in order to relax. Kaori does also have a little soft spot for a lot of older jazzy tunes from her mother’s favorite movies.   
Favorite Artists: Aretha Franklin, Sade, Alicia Keys & Adele
Lola Nakiri 🦊
Lola is Daddy’s little girl when it comes to the matter of music. When Lola Nakiri puts on headphones, she’ll be blasting her ears off with Rock & Heavy Metal. She’s also known to have a rather impressive collection of band T-shirts. She can find some appreciation in the sassy Pop her mom listens to, but ultimately Rock & Metal is where her heart is. 
Favorite Artists: Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin I guess. And probably another Metal Band. I sadly only know a few and only by name because I do not listen to Metal, ever. 
Mona Nakiri 🐺
Techno. Mona walks around with her headphones a lot more than Lola does and what she listens to is all sorts of Techno sub-genres and House, with a good number of  Remixes in-between. 
Favorite Artists: Lea doesn’t know any tbh sfghgfhg
Takayuki Hojo 💥
Takayuki listens to Rock like the tough cookie he is. Should he ever listen to anything that isn’t Rock, his father or Suzume most likely made him listen to it. His two favorite songs of all time are “T.N.T” by AC/DC & “Eye Of The Tiger” by Survivor (Takayuki loves the Rocky movies)
Favorite Artists: As long as it’s Rock he doesn’t care who sings. Okay but he is pretty fond of AC/DC and Guns n’ Roses
Kazuo Mimasaka 💕
My boy Kazuo surely has one big playlist that is filled with nothing but the most sappiest and emotional love-ballads imaginable. And I don’t even want to think about how long it would be. Kazuo can listen to almost anything, the exception being Hardcore Gangster Rap, but what he listens to privately is...yeah, Ballads. 
Favorite Artists: Lionel Richie & Celine Dion are the first names to come to my mind. “My Heart Will Go On” is at the very top of Kazuo’s playlist
Yasu Ibusaki 🌲
Shun passed his liking for Rock down to Yasu. When growing older, Yasu additionally also developed a love for all things Indie & Folkish. Has been called a Hipster for his music taste more than once by Hideyoshi. 
Favorite Artists: Arctic Monkeys, Twenty One Pilots, Hozier 
Chieko Marui 📚
Chieko does listen to a lot of LoFi or Movie/Video Game Soundtracks for studying and relaxation. Her favorite movie soundtrack is that of “The Theory of Everything”. However, when it comes to casual listening her mother got her into Pop. And also thanks to her father, Chieko kinda became accustomed to Pop from all decades. She majorly listens to all sorts off love songs. 
Favorite Artists: TAYLOR SWIFT, Chieko is a confirmed Swiftie. Also really likes Britney Spears tho I feel. 
Hideyoshi Kawashima 🎤
Hideyoshi listens mainly to things you can #party to. Out of all the characters he’s the one who keeps up with the charts the most. Likes Pop and also K-Pop! His dad did successfully get him into some HipHop as well though. Hideyoshi also has a secret soft spot for the boybands of the 90s.
Favorite Artists: Jason Derulo, Backstreet Boys & BTS
Daisuke Aoki 🎸
Daisuke is our Retro-Kid. His music libraries is mostly 80s and 70s, with some songs of the 50s and 60s that his father likes in-between. Is usually the last one in Polar Star to discover the newest hit in the charts, because he’s too busy bopping to the past. Lea can relate. 
Favorite Artists: Queen, A-ha & Huey Lewis & The News
Hiraku Yukihira 🐙
Hiraku likes the modern Rock from the 2000s and 2010s. Occasionally he will stumble over something in the Indie and Alternative department and then be real proud over being the only one who knows a particular song. 
Favorite Artists: Panic! at the Disco, Coldplay and Imagine Dragons
Akio Hayama 🌱
The same as Kaori. This is a thing they have in common, they both do enjoy the same music pretty much. Though I can picture Akio liking some Reggae once in a while in addition. Also just a few days ago, I established that he’s a secret theatre kid who also listens to a lot of Show Tunes. 
Favorite Artists: Stevie Wonder & Marvin Gaye 
Suzume Hojo 🔥
Out of all the characters in the cast, I’d say that Suzume probably has the broadest music taste. She is capable of enjoying a lot of stuff. Being the Meme-Lord that Suzume is, she does love to put on some Meme- and Guilty Pleasure songs. Though of course, there is irony playing into that enjoyment. When it comes to the songs she enjoy unironically, they’re mostly very fast-paced and energetic. I guess you could say her favorite genre is bouncy pop of all decades. Her favorite song of all time would be “Girls just want to have fun”. 
Favorite Artists: Lizzo, Beyoncé and Cindy Lauper. 
Shigeo Eizan 💎
Jazz is Love. Jazz is Life. Shigeo listens to Jazz ahdhd. A lot. He basically always has Jazz going on in the background when he’s working. When he finds the time to listen more attentively, he loves listening to Swing the most. 
Favorite Artists: Frank Sinatra. Also likes Michael Bublé tho I feel. 
Noboru Shinomiya 🍂
Noboru loves nothing more than his collection of classic French Chansons. It’s what he listens to on his long autumn walks through Paris and it makes him happy and content. He also does like the Enka-songs his mother enjoys though.
Favorite Artists: Joe Dassin and Édith Piaf
Kiyoko Saito 🌸
Kiyoko really loves Classical Japanese music a lot but she only really does listen to it on special occassions. She does also enjoy a lot of modern Pop and also K-Pop as well though and she really loves to put it on whenever she dresses up, paints her nails... etc. (Also I can see her being into Vocaloid tbh). 
Favorite Artists: BLACKPINK. I can also see her liking Ariana Grande
Masashi Eizan 🍜
Okay this is our true Classic-Fanatic. All of Nene’s efforts to bring Masashi to operas, ballets and just plain classical concerts have paid off. Masashi listens majorly to Classical Japanese music or Western Classical music. He also does really like Enka. 
Favorite Artist: His favorite Western composer is Beethoven, I haven’t figured out anything else yet. 
Ran Mimasaka 🖋
Ran listens to a lot of operas actually ahdh because, well, she likes operas. Aside from that, she does also enjoy Rock and ChillHop though shdhf. To some this might be a weird combo, but it do be like that sometimes.  
Favorite Artists: In the Rock-department it’s David Bowie. 
-
I admittedly only did the most important high schoolers here, I will need a Part 2 I guess ahdhdf
But still thanks for asking ☺️
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gloves94 · 4 years ago
Text
Kingdom of the Sun [Fire Lord Zuko] 4
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Chapter Warnings: None Story Rating: M Pairings: Zuko/OC
Kingdom of the Sun MASTERLIST Last Airbender MASTERLIST My MASTERLIST
Two Years Ago…
"Have you ever heard the story of 'The Man that Fell in Love with the Sun?' It's a story about a man made out of wax, that- as the title says- falls in love with the Sun and everybody warned him not to get too close, but he didn't listen, and he did. Because of it he got too close and melted which resulted in his death."
Tsai eyed her brother oddly with a disturbed expression in her features. This was very… uncharacteristic of her brother. Mecha didn’t read anything unless he had to. Much less novels and less for pleasure.
"That's pretty morbid…"
He lowered the book and tossed his head back in frustration on the chair in which he was reading. "Do you think Mai will like it?" He asked raising his head looking at her with a dreamy expression on his face.
She couldn't help but roll her eyes and turn her eyes back to the reflection on her vanity. Starring down a blemish on her face. "I'm sure she'll love it," she retorted mindlessly while brushing her wavy auburn hair back. "It's right up her alley… Although, It's not like you. To actually read to impress a girl."
"Ha!" He let out a chuckle and stood up. "But she's not just any girl." Her brother said before approaching her and messing up her combed hair. She glowered at him. “Also – I do read. I just don’t care for entretaintment literature.” "Get out of my room Mecha!" She barked pointing at the door.
"Very, very unlike you to take time off work to go visit your boyfriend in the Mainland." He teased leaning on the doorway with his arms crossed over his wide chest.
"I'm not taking off time. I'm going to go negotiate," she let out an exhausted huff while glaring at a single hair that remained standing up in defiance of her hairbrush. "And you know he can't just take the day off, I mean he is the Fire Lord."
She was excited to visit Zuko in the Fire Nation's capital. It had been a year since the end of the One Hundred Year War, and both had last seen each other since sometime after the war. Long distance was hard, the fact that he was an absolute monarch at the age of eighteen and she was back home in the colonies attempting to hold a revolutionary uprising or a civil war from happening made things even harder. Regardless, the two were trying their best sending each other letters and gifts on the daily to stay in contact. Life without him was hard; specially after a year of being around each other both day and night.
Visiting wasn't only hard because of the distance and both of their terrible schedules. There was also another problem…
"Whatever, I've warned you plenty of times and mom has warned you. It is not safe. You're going to get yourself killed or assassinated in some brutal way." One of their main enemies was her own father. Azah had been the Vice-Royal Governor of Yu Dao, after the end of the war his post was overtaken by his son Mecha, and he fled that same day. The man hadn't been seen since then. He was considered a fugitive and enemy of the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom and was currently leading the Colonial Liberation Movement. A movement dedicated to the liberation of the colonies as one independent governmental identity which was neither affiliated with the Earth Kingdom or the Fire Nation. His ideology wasn’t wrong, it was shared with his children and some of the other citizens of the colony. However, his means to achieve his goal, terroristic attacks, bombings and kidnappings… That’s were morality drew the line and things went awry.
Xxx
Mecha had been right.
Tsai had taken a warship to the Mainland. On her way there was a pirate attack. Nothing her and her troops couldn't handle, but it was something that she definitely wasn't going to tell Zuko. What would be the use in worrying him? He already had enough on his plate as things were.
A couple of days later the warship had docked in the Fire Nation. They arrived earlier than expected.
Her stomach flipped in excitement and nervousness. She was so excited to see him, to hug him. Just to be around him. She missed him so much her heart would leap every time she got news or even a letter from him. She took in a deep breath in hopes of soothing her jumping nerves.
She walked on the docks, adjusting her clothes, running hands through her hair, pacing. She couldn’t contain the smile on her face as she rushed down the ramp ready to see Zuko. But he wasn’t there. Instead, she was surprised to see Mai out of all people waiting for her at the docks. She stood surrounded by a handful of Fire Nation guards. She thought the maximum security was a little odd but decided not to comment on it. The scene was almost reminiscent of the time she had welcomed her and Ty Lee from prison about a year ago.
Mai looked just about the same as Tsai remembered. Midnight jet black hair that was straight and reached past her midback, it was styled in the same fashion. Her skin remained a flawless porcelain composure and she stood tall looking as graceful and elegant as always. "Mai!" She said surprised and gave the girl a friendly hug.
"Welcome to the Mainland." Mai said dully in the same tone she always spoke in. She didn't hug back. It was hard to tell if she was happy to see her or not. "It's good seeing you Tsai." Then again, Mai did not seem like the touchy feel type.
"I'm afraid the Fire Lord is in a meeting, but he'll come and see you as soon as he's out." She explained, hands hidden inside her sleeves. "I'll show you to your room."
From what Tsai knew Mai was one of Zuko's advisors. Considering they lived in times where they didn't who to or who not to trust it had been a good decision to appoint her. After all, Mai was educated and one of his oldest friends. Her brows turned up in disappointment when Mai turned away from her. He still had meetings scheduled during her visit. They had been planning this for weeks! Why couldn't he just take a day off?
Mai lead her to the room where she would be staying in inside the Royal Palace. She could never quite get used to the intimidating feeling she got from looking up at the golden dragon carved walls of the entrance.
"This is your room," Mai said dully standing outside. The guards behind carried some of the luggage that she had brought back with her from the colonies. "If he takes too long, I'll be in the study room. You can join me if you want." Tsai nodded at the invitation.
"He shouldn't be long." She added. "Oh and be ready, you're in for one hell of a weekend." The slightest of uncharacteristic sly smiles made way to her face. Why did it sound like she was… hiding something? However, her tone did not seem to hide any ill intentions.
‘What was that all about?’
She stepped into the royal guest room. One that had a queen bed and looked as if maroon had thrown up in here. Maroon bed covers, matching curtains, a rug of the same color and even canopy arches with more curtains. The room was austere. The guards left after a moment and said they'd be waiting outside ready to escort her anywhere she wished to go. It was a very different feeling being here as a guest and not as a prisoner…
She leaned against one of the window's arches and looked out to see the vast kingdom that magnificently spread out until it blended in the horizon with the ocean. To her this was a foreign land… “What to do now…” She pondered to herself. Maybe she just would take up Mai in that offer and go hang out in the study with her.
Suddenly the door was slammed wide open.
"- It's not my fault her ship got here early! Now, go, go, go! Before she gets to her-" A voice that was foreign to her dropped. A handful of servants stepped in each one of them carrying heavy porcelain vases that seemed to be hundreds of years old and intricately carved. Each one of them had been filled with sun flowers the size of her hands all in colorful shades of yellow, orange, vermillion and bright red. "Room…" the voice finished.
Boxes and boxes of gifts large, small, medium all professionally wrapped and decorated were also ushered in.
Her eyebrows went up to her hairline as she looked at everything they had brought into the once austere room which was now crowded in presents and flowers. She suddenly felt a little guilty considering she hadn’t brought him anything.
"Ah, sorry about that. You must be Lady Tsai from Yu Dao." A mousy man a little older than her stepped in. His hair was light brown and worn in a bowl cut style tied back in a low ponytail behind. "I'm Nezu," he lightly bowed. "I'm Fire Lord Zuko's assistant." He said clumsily tripping over an edge in the carpet.
"Nice to meet you?" She said eyeing the man oddly. Zuko had never mentioned that he had an assistant to himself.
She was so distraught interacting with the assistant and glancing at the overwhelming number of flowers and gifts in her room. That she didn't even notice the Fire Lord walk into her room.
"Tsai!"
She knew that voice. She snapped her attention away from the assistant rudely and turned to see Zuko standing beneath the doorway. She felt warm, her heart jumped to her throat, stomach prickling with butterflies which made her feel like a schoolgirl.
“Zuko!” She beamed and ran into his arms.
She relished his touch, the warmth of his body. Both were so engrossed in each other they didn’t even realize when everybody scattered out of the room just as quickly as they had arrived. She buried her nose on his shoulder and in took that familiar scent she had missed so much. Firewood and that odd hint of eucalyptus they washed his clothes with.
He was taller, he also felt stronger. “Your hair, it’s so long!” She said holding on to the sides of his face. Brushing a hand through the bangs that not fell past his eyes and were split in the middle.
He didn’t waste another second and kissed her. Chastely, innocently, very much like the type of love they had. “I missed you too,” she responded and kissed him back.
But maybe not as innocently…
Her arms tangled around his neck and she pulled him to her pressing their bodies together. Her feet almost moving on their own stepped back into the bed pulling him forward. Maybe their love had been innocent when they were teenagers, but now that they were adults. She wanted more, she needed more of him. “Woah,” He broke the kiss and held on to one of the bed’s posts for support remaining standing. He let out a nervous chuckle. “We have to get going,” he said his eyes darting back to the door behind them and she didn’t know if he was oblivious to the hint she had just dropped or if they really had to be somewhere else. “There’s someone I want you to meet.” She leaned back on her elbows sitting up and tried to meet his avoidant gaze. With a frustrated sigh she blew a lost hair out of her frustrated face.
"Come on," He said reaching for her hand pulling her up.
“Who are we meeting?” She asked as he led her through the Fire Nation’s palace corridors. “Are we meeting the Minister of International Affairs? Do you think he’d sign for the liberation of the colonies?” She asked. “No…” He said avoidantly not wanting to touch on the subjects. “Well, do you think he’d sign? I mean if you’re signing on it on, he can’t tell you no, right?”
Again, he remained silent, not wanting to discuss the topic. She looked at his face profile oddly. Zuko was signing on it, right? The liberation and secession of half of his territory. Territory that had been unfairly taken away from the Earth Kingdom and sowed and exploited under the cruel fist of colonization. However, his silence said otherwise.
Xxx
The two arrived at a nice restaurant that was close to the palace. They walked in and were ushered to a private room in the back where there was a table with four chairs. Sitting in one of the chairs was a dark-haired girl that didn't look older than seven and a woman with matching straight, dark hair that reached her mid back.
The woman stood up and turned around smiling warmly at the two of them. Her eyes were a matching shade of gold and her hair was parted down the middle. She was beautiful. Both of them greeted Zuko excitedly and hugged him. Tsai looked at them with a perplexed expression confused at who these people were. All this time she thought they would be attending some type of political cabinet meeting.
"Tsai, I want you to meet my mother. This is my younger sister Kiyi." Externally she looked at both of them and smiled pleasantly just like she had been taught to do her whole life. She even straightened out her back standing a little straighter. Internally she could've murdered him in the spot.
‘WHY DIDN'T HE MENTION HE HAD MEET HIS MOTHER?! HE COULD'VE GIVEN ME A HEADS UP OR SOMETHING. ANYTHING.’
She let out a surprised  "Oh!"  taken back by the introduction.
"Uh- It's very nice meeting you!" She said bowing her head in respect before his mother. "I really wish Zuko would've told me I was meeting you two." She rambled nervously shooting him a deathly glare before smiling back at his family.
She wasn't expecting his mother to actually hug her. She looked at her surprised at the sudden contact. She held her as if she had known her whole life. "It is so nice to finally meet you. My son has told me a lot about you." She held her at an arm's length. "I'm Ursa." “And I’m Kiyi!” The younger girl said hugging her waist. They were both to welcoming. It was hard to believe that Ursa was actually related to Azula and well had actually been married to that monster Ozai.
Tsai took a seat before Ursa and next to Zuko. Kiyi sitting in front of her brother.
"Yeah, Zuzu always talks about you." Kiyi laughed lightly. “Your hair really is the color of tomatoes. Can I touch it? Can I be one of your bridesmaids when you marry my brother?"
"Kiyi!" Both her mother and brother turned to give her what looked like a warning gaze. Zuko panicked and defensibly stomped on Kiyi's foot. "Ouch!"
"...I look like a tomato?" She asked weakly, this time actually resembling a prime red tomato. "Only sometimes?" He said sheepishly placing a panicky kiss on her cheek.
She shot him an angry glare. Today was really not what she had been expecting.
"A cute tomato!”
"So," She began awkwardly. "I'm very happy that you two- you three found each other." She said looking between the family with a small smile. Her tone was friendly but Zuko understood that she demanded an explanation. Why the hell had never mentioned it? He seemed to hear past her friendly tone and understand her true question.
"I wish I could've told you. I wanted to tell you, but you can never be too careful. What if the message was intercepted? It was too risky."
Right. So why the hell couldn't he have said anything in the past hour that she had been here?!
"I'm afraid it's a long story," Ursa apologized with a small smile.
They ordered their food and tea and Ursa explained how she had been exiled for what she hinted at as the assassination of Fire Lord Azulon. She explained how she ran away, went to the Mother of Faces, traded in her memory and face for a new one and rekindled with her young love, married him and had Kiyi. It really was more complicated than she had let out. Lunch was pleasant. Tsai really liked both his mother and sister. Both were warm people with good hearts. She definitely felt welcomed into the family and right at home with the two.
"Fire Lord, I don't mean to interrupt." Zuko's assistant interrupted poking his head in. "But we have a situation." He said poking his head into the small room. Zuko sighed, his expression shifting into a stressed one he apologized and stood up. Kiyi chased after him saying his name.
It was only Ursa and Tsai together alone in the room.
There was a brief shared moment of solemn silence between the two. Tsai took an awkward sip of her hot tea.
"I know what you must be thinking," Ursa began. "About what I did to be banished and hide away from my children for as long as I did… But I did what I had to do to save my son and the rest. I'm just happy to have my memories and my son back."
She looked at her a little struck. "Actually… I really wish I could've known I was meeting you and Kiyi. I would've brought some candies from Yu Dao, souvenirs or something." “Oh no, no, don’t worry. Like I said we were both just really excited to meet you and for you to move here” Tsai blinked twice confused and lowered her beverage, “Move here?” What did she mean by that?   Ursa looked a little struck by the younger woman’s perplexed reaction. Both heard Kiyi walking back with her older brother. She laughed at something and Zuko looked flustered at something she had said to him. “Zuko tells me you partake in herbalism and botanics too!” Ursa steered the conversation topic with ease. “It’s more of a hobby,” the girl followed. “I originally became interested in plants because of their tea properties. I make a great cup, probably as good as Uncle Iroh's. I'd love to make one for you one day!” Despite the smile on her face her thoughts were still distraught with Ursa’s comment. What exactly had she meant by that comment? Other than that lunch was great.
“It was so nice meeting you,” she said sincerely to Zuko’s mother. “But we have to go get ready. We’ve got tickets to see Love Amongst the Dragons.” “Really?”
Zuko nodded with a smile and wrapped an arm around her side pulling her close to him. He was obviously excited to show it to her, after all it was his favorite play. “You’ll have a great time!” Ursa said clapping her hands together wishing them well.
They bid Ursa and Kiyi farewell and returned to the palace.
“I’ll meet you in the parlor room soon,” Zuko bid a momentary goodbye to his girlfriend before retreating to his room to change into his own evening robes. Already on edge from the long day’s travel, the surprise introduction to his mother and sister, and his disposition to not speak about the liberation of the colonies, she was more than happy to catch a moment to herself alone.
She walked in and slowly closed the door behind her resting her palms and leaning against it letting out a draining breath she had been holding all day long.
Suddenly her breath caught. A surprised scream trapped in her throat as she looked at the mess in the middle of the room. The maroon covers had been tossed to the ground and the white sheets were stained and smeared with black tar mud spelling one word: blood. The muddled message was clear. Mud-blood. A most derogative name given to Fire Nationers that mixed with Earth Kingdom people. She wasn’t welcomed here. Her eyes darted around the room dangerously looking for any sign of the intruder but there was none. She was ready and on the offensive, ready to strike with one or the two hidden blades underneath her long sleeves. There didn’t seem to be anybody else in the room. She looked down at the message on the bed sheets. It was obvious, somebody clearly didn’t want her to be here…
She swallowed the nervous lump that had formed in her throat and angrily wrapped up all the sheets together in a bundle before throwing them under the bed. There was no way she was letting this ruin their evening. There was also no way she was sleeping in this room tonight. It was best she kept this to herself for now. It was then that there was a knock on the door. She flinched towards it with a raised arm ready to strike whatever was behind the door.
She opened it only to reveal three terrified stylists standing outside with their briefcases and tools. The three looked horrified and clearly shaken up. It was a hair stylist, make-up artist and a fashion stylist holding several outfits. Oh. Some moments later Tsai was escorted to the parlor room where Zuko was waiting for her. He was wearing an elegant set of maroon robes with a gold trim. He wore his hair piece crown and his hair up, bangs covering most of his forehead. He looked absolutely regal. She looked like his proper match, a lady from the Mainland wearing a long evening ochre Fire Nation styled dress. Half of her hair pulled up in a top knot fashion and bangs split down the middle. He looked at her struck and grinned broadly as she took her arm and they both made way to the Royal Theatre.
Maybe this was just what the two needed an evening at the theater to clear their heads and forget about everything that had happened earlier. The clothes she was wearing were nice, but it wasn’t what she was normally used to wearing. This fashion was foreign to her, it just reminded her how much more she did not belong here. All eyes were inconspicuously fixed on the two of them as they walked into the theatre. She didn’t want to stop and think if the prying eyes were fixed on them in admiration or in judgement of their relationship. She wanted to push it to the back of her head and forget about it, but the words still lingered there: mudblood. It wasn’t only that, she felt violated. Somebody had intruded on her space with threatening means. Her eyes scanned the unfamiliar faces in the crowd. Who would it have been? She wondered if the person responsible was also in the same room as them. The two were escorted to the Fire Nation’s Royal viewing box were the two sat alone in private with a perfect view of the stage. Fire Nation guards keeping guard right outside for their safety.
Thankfully there was also wine. That should put both of their nerves at ease. “I have a surprise for you,” he whispered against her ear. “Really? What is it?” She asked in an excited tone before her expression rapidly shifted to a sardonic one. “Do you want me to meet your grandmother now too?” She teased still a little upset at the fact he hadn’t warned her about introducing her to his mother and sister.
“Believe me, I really wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t. You can never be too careful when sending mail during these times. You never know who’s reading our letters or what an enemy would do with that information.”
Yeah, you also never know who’s opening our mail or lurking the Royal Palace swearing mud on people’s sheets. An unpleasant chill went down her spine at the thought. She chugged her glass of red wine and agreed with him.
He noted the uneasy look on her face and reached for her hand. She smiled at the comforting gesture and kissed his face. “I’m really excited for this.”
They watched the play and Zuko was literally mouthing the words. He was such a dork. The production really wasn’t as terrible as the time they watched “The Boy in the Iceberg” with the Ember Island Players.
“So, what’s the surprise?” She whispered during one of the intermissions already on her third glass of wine. All of the day’s problems in a faraway place. She placed her hand on his upper thigh and he tensed under her touch. It took him a moment and he grabbed her hand carefully removing it from the area. “Are you going to tell me?” She leaned even closer to him, placing a hand on his chest. Fingers lightly stroking the soft fabrics. Zuko sat like a wall, completely hard, not caving into the dangerous look in her eyes. “It-It’s about to start,” he stammered, before nervously clearing his throat. She sat back in her chair displeased and glared at the stage.
Xxx “Zuko where are you taking me?” She asked him as he led her inside and down the stairs of an ancient Fire Nation temple, one that was almost as old as the nation itself. The guards that had been escorting them throughout the capital waited outside. “You’ll see,” he said looking back at her as they walked down the ancient stone stairs. The humidity in the air was dense, moisture greeting them as they reached several levels underground. Several Fire Sages bowed to their Fire Lord. She held on to his hand as they advanced and she noted that his palm was sweaty, he also had a tense look on his face.
They walked inside of the Dragon Crypts. A graveyard. A hollow stone room filled with the majestic skeletons of hunted dragons. She could smell the moisture in the air blended with the scent of incense and myrrh. What the hell were they doing here? It was actually kind of spooky. “Hmm,” She hummed now hugging onto his arm. They walked into the Dragon Crypts which are filled with dragon skeletons, it smells like myrrh, its dark, there are candles lit everywhere. It's low key creepy. There are actually people buried here. “So mysterious…”
“I told you I could be mysterious,” He said slyly. That he had. He led her through the labyrinth of rows, bones, craniums caskets carved out of polished marble and stone were his ancestors remains lay. Actually, it wasn’t spooky, it was a little unsettling. She was about to ask just where the hell he was taking her when they stumbled upon a glowing chamber. The small chamber at the end was illuminated by what she swore were almost a hundred candles. They lit the room with a warm glow. They were all placed around the front of an empty carved stone slab where a casket would one day go. She gave him a confused look, and both took a seat on the empty slab. She looked around the room oddly and noted that one of the caskets in the chamber was engraved with his grandfather’s name the one opposite of the room had the name of Sozin, his great-grandfather.
She couldn’t help but smile a little at him. Only he could find an evening spent in the family’s crypts to be romantic. She still had her arms wrapped around his, chin propped on his shoulder.
“I’m so happy to be here with you,” she confessed closing her eyes for a moment. She wasn’t sure if it was her or the wine talking. “Even if it’s a creepy graveyard filled with dead people and skeletons.” He looked at her and smiled a little before catching her lips in his. His kiss was soft, innocent. They broke for a moment and she smiled provocatively at him. She pressed her lips against his kissing him harder, wanting more, needing more from him. Her hands were exploring his chest, wrapping around his neck as she clung to him. However, he was wary of her touch. Almost shy. He put his hands on hers shoulders and lightly pushed her off his body. Unaware of this, she groaned slightly and sat up, bringing her knees on the slab, leaning forward planting a kiss on his jaw, on his neck, behind his ear. Every kiss becoming hotter and more lustful.
“I brought you here to ask you something,” he interrupted brashly removing her body from his and holding her at an arm’s length again. She looked at him skeptical, almost upset. “Why don’t you want to touch me?” She demanded transparently, almost cross.
“I need to ask you something,” he emphasized again. His hands shaking slightly as his fingers sank into the flesh of her shoulders.
She arched an eyebrow frustrated and remained silent expecting his question. “These are the Dragon Catacombs,” He explained. “It's where Fire Lords are buried. My grandfather was buried and so was his grandfather as well as the rest of my ancestors and one day too, I will be buried here." He explained the morbid concept. Her face shifted to a perplexed expression; eyebrows furrowed with concern. She had no clue just what he was getting at. He took her hands in his and held them in a slightly tight grip, his thumbs stroking her knuckles. Hands clammy and uncomfortably warm. “Lie in the same grave with me?”
She moved her head to the side still looking at him with an odd expression. There was a hopeful glint to his eyes. She hummed a little, as she sought her words carefully. This seemed important to him for some peculiar reason. “Would we… fit?” She drawled out slowly testing her confused tone.
He pulled her hands closer to him and lowered his head for a moment.
“Tsai... What I’m asking you-” he let out a deep breath that he had been holding. “I’m asking you to marry me.”
She looked as if she had been split by a bolt of lightning.
Now everything made sense.
All of the little looks that Mai had been giving her. His mother and his sister’s comments towards her. She was expecting everything but this. She didn’t smile, her face didn’t flush with a colorful joy, he wasn’t sure if she was even breathing.
She hadn’t even realized he had been pleading her to say something anything. She looked like she was in shock. He looked at her concerned, his expression dropping. This was supposed to be one of the happiest memories of their lives. He felt a tightness in his chest. His heart dropping at the look on her face. “Why don’t you want to have sex?” She dead panned, her eyes glazing as they stared blankly at him. “What are you talking about?”
Oh, he knew what she was talking about. The fact that he was playing dumb made her even more peeved. “Every time I try to get intimate with you, or touch you, you freeze up. Why?” “We don’t have to talk about this right now,” he clammed up in denial wanting to avoid the subject all together. It was just like he had done earlier when she had asked him about the liberation of the Fire Nation’s colonies. “Actually-“ Her eyes widened as she looked at him in disbelief. “Since you just asked me to marry you, we do.” She dropped her arms to the sides. “Do you not find me attractive?” “What? No-No,” He shook his head. “I do. Trust me. I do.” She looked at him with a baffled expression her eyes fixed on his still demanding an explanation. Probing if he was being truthful or not. It took him some time to choose his words carefully. “It just seems disrespectful.” He divulged after a moment. The puzzled look in her eyes never left her face. ‘What the fuck did that mean?’
“We’re not married. It would be wrong.”
She fought the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. She had the gut feeling that this might be the issue, but really hoped- she prayed that it wouldn’t. There was a reason why Mainlanders of the Fire Nation had spread that nasty rumor that people from the colonies were stereotypically promiscuous. It was because of the conservative nature of the relationships Mainlanders had. Mainlanders believed that one had to remain pure and save themselves for their partners by remaining pure until marriage. It would be a respectful stain not too. However, since life in the colonies had been off to a rough start when the colonization of the lands began, death tolls were high, because of that morals became looser as colonizers were encouraged to copulate in order to populate the land faster. “No it wouldn’t,” she shot back. “We’re both consenting adults and we love each other. How can that be wrong?”
A hopeful smile grew on her features as she wrapped her arms around his neck again. Yet eyes didn’t meet hers. She looked at him intently, hopefully. “I’m not ready.” Looking at him with disbelief she removed her arms from him. They rested on his shoulders for a moment and she sucked in a deep breath. “Okay,” she said weakly. She wrapped her arms around herself and hung her head feeling rejected. In all honesty today had been a terrible day. Everything about it had been awful. This was going to be hard, but she could work with it. She could be patient. She had to be mature and respect his decision despite the terrible urge she felt.
He looked at her concerned and stood up rounding around her and dropping in one knee in front of her. Again, he reached for her hands taking them in his. “Let’s get married,” it didn’t sound like a question, it sounded more like a statement.
“I’m not ready.” She stood up, walking away from him. Both looked away from each other uncomfortably. She really wasn’t ready. It wasn’t the right time. Not right now. Not like this. She knew he was the man that she was going to marry, she had no doubts about that. It just really wasn’t the right time. There were still mountain loads of work that she had to do back at home. She wouldn’t feel comfortable committing to such kind of engagement without prioritizing her own dream of accomplishing the liberation of the colonies. His colonies. Much less moving all the way across the ocean to the Fire Nation to be… Fire Lady. Tsai kept her gaze away from his. She didn’t want to look at the hurt expression on his face. At the way his body slouched, and his fists trembled at his sides from what one could only interpret as anger or frustration. Maybe both. She couldn’t bear looking at the dejected expression on his face. Zuko’s mind was pounding as a pulsating migraine quickly set in making it feel as if he had just splattered against a cinder brick wall. His heart ached. He had only been planning this his whole life. If they loved each other and wanted to be together why did anything else have to matter? “You know what you’re acting like?” He snapped hurt. The flames surrounding them growing with his ire almost touching the ceiling which made the room feel smaller, hotter, more unpleasant. His tone fueled with anger as he turned towards her. It was that infamous temper he was known for. “You’re acting like a-“ He tried to swallow his angry words. “Like a-!” The word vomit was threatening to spill. She looked at him expectantly. Waiting for the ball to drop for him to strike her with his sharp words.  He almost let out a growl. A look on his eyes. He scowled let out a rumble and turned away from her once again.
“Like a what?” She challenged stepping forward her eyes blazing with resentment. How could he react in such a graceless matter? He wasn’t being fair. He was being selfish. She had gracefully and patiently accepted his choice, but he couldn’t accept hers? “Say it!” She barked her words echoing the small chamber. She knew what he was thinking. She wanted to hear him say it. She wanted to make him angry.
Instead he remained silent averting her furious gaze. Looking away from her. Growing dead silent. “Like a damn colonial?” She spat out the ugly stereotype as it was venom.
“That is not what I was going to say.” He defended.
“Oh yeah? Then what were you going to say?” She challenged.
“You’re putting words in my mouth Tsai!” He shot back.
“Well I have to put them there since you won’t communicate! You’ve been egg shelling around me all day long. You talk about taking this next big step together, but you can’t even bring yourself to do it physically, much less emotionally.” “What about you? I am trying to talk but you won’t listen. All that you’re thinking about is sex.” She gritted her teeth together. “That’s not all I’m thinking about. What about the colonies? Where would I live? I can’t come and live here, not until the colonies are independent, which may I remind you – they are not! What would I even do here? Also- your people, they hate me!”
“What would you do? Plenty! You can do whatever you want- have anything you want. My people don’t hate you and even if they did why would that matter? The Fire Nation’s been closed off from the rest of the world for a hundred years, naturally they are mistrustful of strangers. Give them time and they’ll love you just like I love you.”
But it wasn’t just that. It wasn’t the fact that she wasn’t from here. It was the fact that half of her person, half of her culture, half of her family was from the Earth Kingdom. An ethnic group and nationality that had been an enemy of the nation he led for the past one hundred years. Sure, maybe half of her was Fire Nation, maybe her whole heart was Fire Nation, but as long as that part of her still ‘tainted’ her blood with mud… She thought of the sneering looks that the Fire Sages gave her when they walked into the temple. They’d never accept her, and he’d never understand. Her eyes welled with tears at the thought. The dark words smeared on her mattress mudblood. The thought they couldn’t be together, the thought that there would always be an obstacle between them. It pained her. She felt her heart twisting in pain, stomach churning at the horrible realization. “You want the colonies to be free?” He looked down at her pausing for a moment. “Fine! Consider it done.” He shouted. She flinched at his aggressive tone and looked at him shocked, her eyes glassy and loaded with tears threatening to spill. “It’s not the right time…” She whispered tears spilling down her eyes. “For either of us. There’s still a lot I have to do before leaving my life, and it’s obvious that we both still have a lot of growing up to do.”
He looked at her crying face and he suddenly felt guilt wash over him. He shouldn’t have done that. He shouldn’t have said half of the things he said. His expression softened. “Tsai…” He whispered her name shaking his head lightly. He looked at her red nose and at her swollen face. Sure, it had been a bad fight, but it wasn’t worth the rivers of tears that were streaming down her face. “I want to marry you,” she admitted meekly. “I do, but we can’t do that.” She lowered her gaze shifting on her feet uncomfortable. “Not right now anyways…”
The anger melted off both of them and she embraced him burying her head on his shoulder. He could feel her tears seeping through his clothes. He held her tightly, mellowing in their sadness.
Then they suddenly heard a brief flickering. It sounded like a rapid clicking. Both of their eyes turned to look at a particular candle that was flickering peculiarly. It suddenly stopped; the flame dying giving both the most awful feeling. They made eye contact and their eyes drifted back to the candle. Uh-Oh…
It was a bomb. The candle exploded.  Both fell back with the recoil from the explosion. He barely managed to bend a sphere of fire that barely shielded them. Both sat up in the floor, heaving, coughing the black smoke that filled the small chamber. Rocks, and other parts of the catacomb crumbled everywhere. “Are you okay?” She reached for him concerned. Her eyes scanned the ceiling hoping it wouldn’t collapse on them. “Fine. You?" He mumbled dusting his clothes off. She sighed.
There was that too…
The constant assassination attempts.
“I'm sorry, this is all my fault. This was a mistake. My brother was right. I shouldn't have come."
“What?” He sat up and looked at the debris around him. “The bomb. Someone's been trying to kill me.” “You’re not the only one.” She looked at him in shock, neither had said that to each other. She thought about the hordes of Fire Nation guards and escorts that seemed to follow them around everywhere. Well, that made a lot more sense now. She stood up first and helped him rise. He stumbled weakly. Still with his hand in hers she led him away and out of the catacombs, but his steps were low, stumbling. She looked back at him, he looked pale. She stopped and he seemed to wave for a moment. He reached for his temple seeming pale. She had only seen that look on his face once before. “No, no. Please! not right now,” she cried out and managed to catch his dead weight before he collapsed unconscious.
xxx
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notalwaysthevillian · 3 years ago
Text
My Whirlpool of a Life
Ships: Kaminari/OC
Word Count: ~2.k
I will not be doing a tag list for this fic.
Masterlist
Chapter 5: Hero Costume
My phone chimed the next morning, making me groan. It was definitely before my alarm was set to go off.
Reaching over, I turned the screen on, wincing as the bright light filled the room.
1 New Email From: Power Loader We’ve received your hero costume if you want to pick it up before class. I’ll be in the Studio all day, whenever you want to pick it up.
Suppressing a squeal, I jumped out of bed and got ready as fast as possible. Grabbing some toast, I ran over to the Development Studio.
“Mr. Power Loader?” I called out as I walked in.
An explosion to my left had me throwing up a wall of water as a protective measure. Smoke filled the air, making me cough.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen!” A female voice yelled. “My baby will work! I know she will!”
“Hatsume, can we keep the explosions to a minimum until after lunch?”
The air cleared, revealing Power Loader and a girl with pink hair looking over some kind of…cannon? I wasn’t really sure what I was looking at.
“Yes, sir!”
The girl noticed me then, her face brightening. “I’m Mei Hatsume! If you need any new toys, let me know!”
She went back to working on her invention, without waiting for me to say anything.
“I’m Nami Kota, um -”
“Oh, you’re here for your costume!” Hatsume darted off to the back, Power Loader on her heels.
“Hatsume!”
“I’ve got it!”
She ran back out, a case in her hands. “Don’t worry, I haven’t had a chance to add anything to it. But I can if you want anything!”
I couldn’t help but marvel at her energy. “I’ll be sure to let you know, but I’m gonna try this out first.”
“Wait! You’re going to Training, right? Why don’t you try it on?”
“Sure!”
I changed into the suit, loving the way it felt. I’d gone for a basic black bodysuit, though I’d asked for it to be water resistant. There was a blue vest overtop of it, that I could use as a life vest in an emergency. A white belt around my waist could hold extra water. I filled it up, frowning at how sloshy it was.
The shoes felt nice though, made for being in the water, but also had the same form as sneakers.
I showed it off to Hatsume, who had a hand on her chin.
“I could fix the belt. The way it is now, it could throw you off balance. If we section it into smaller portions, it wouldn’t slosh as much.”
“Oh that would be great!”
Hatsume reached over and unclipped the belt. “Shouldn’t take more than a day!”
“Thanks! Here, let me give you my number and you can text me when it’s done?”
By the time I’d gotten everything all cleared with Hatsume and Power Loader, I had to race to get to class on time. Everyone was already gathered as I walked in the door.
“Oh, your hero outfit is amazing!” Hagakure squealed. “Super cute!”
Momo nodded. “Cute and functional.”
I caught Kaminari staring at me and winked. He blushed instantly. “It looks - you look…it’s great!”
Training started, mostly the same as yesterday. I was mostly there with what I was calling Geyser, but I still had the occasional slip up that would either shoot me way too far into the air or not high enough.
The third time I landed on Midnight by not going high enough, she laughed. “Alright, you need to work on hitting that sweet spot in your power level.”
Glancing around at my classmates, I winced. I knew exactly who I should ask.
Midnight caught my look. “He would be able to help you out.”
We continued on with practice until the end of class. Midnight gave me a smile as she left, as well as a “good luck”.
We all headed to the main campus buildings for our next classes. It took me all day to work up the courage to ask what I needed to.
As we went back to the dorms, I took my chance. I quickened my pace, keeping in step with Kirishima and using him as a buffer between me and Mr. Explosion.
I waited for a lull in their conversation before clearing my throat. “Hey, Bakugo?”
“What, extra?” He snapped, whipping his head toward me.
I threw my hands up in front of me. “Um, nevermind.”
“Just spit it out already.”
“How do you control your power output so well when you’re flying? I’ve been trying to figure out my power levels and I’m not getting the hang of it.” The words would’ve kept coming and I would’ve continued to ramble if he hadn’t spoken.
“It’s like making sure your volume isn’t too loud when you’re listening to music.” He twisted his hand in the air, as though he was turning a dial up and down. “You’ve gotta make your own marking of how much in your mind, and remember.”
“That makes a lot of sense, thanks!”
Bakugo looked around, seeing everyone staring at him. “Whatever.”
Then he sped up, dragging Kirishima with him and leaving me behind.
“Wow, I’m surprised he didn’t blow you up.” Kaminari whispered, linking our fingers together again. “I was sure I’d be a widow.”
“That’s if we’re married.” I couldn’t help but giggle. “And you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
“Good. I kinda like you.”
The night passed like the previous one had, with the study group meeting and then everyone having dinner together. We had some time afterwards to relax and do our own thing, so I headed out into the back to practice just a little bit more.
I nearly slipped down icy steps, thankful when an arm grabbed me to keep me upright.
“Sorry.” Todoroki waved his left hand, steaming the ice off of the steps.
I activated my own quirk, swirling the steam in front of me and then breathing out, making it look as though the steam was coming from me. “Look, I’m a dragon.”
“Don’t dragons breathe fire?”
“Well, I can’t do that, but you could.”
Todoroki smiled ever so slightly. “Maybe that should be my special move.”
“It would probably burn your throat though.” I pointed out, seeing him nod. “What are you doing out here, freezing the steps? Trying to hurt your classmates to get to the top?”
He looked appalled. “I would never do that.”
“Sorry, that was a joke.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Not very funny I guess. But what are you doing?”
“Practicing.” Todoroki waved his right hand again, freezing the grass instead of the steps we were standing on. “When I’m a pro, I might not get as much downtime. I’ve got to get used to it.”
“Todoroki, no.” I put a hand on his arm. “It means you need to savor the moments when you do have downtime. If you practice constantly, you’ll overwork yourself.”
He looked at me, his bi-colored eyes staring me down. “Am I wrong in saying that you came out here to practice too?”
I opened my mouth, before closing it again. “Okay, but that’s different. I was just going to work for a little bit and then go back in again. Actually, could I take you up on your offer? I think my quirk is probably the closest to yours.”
“Based on Midoriya’s notes, I’d say so.”
My head snapped up. “You read his notes?”
“He was offering, and they’re very thorough.” Todoroki took a step back. “Can you demonstrate your quirk? It’ll be easier to help if I see it in action.”
Taking in a deep breath, I focused on the frozen grass in front of me. The ice melted, turning to water as I held my hand out. I pulled it towards me, leaving it swirling around my feet. “Once it’s close enough, it’s basically an extension of me. I’m the best at using it to shield, but we’d started on combat before I came here.”
Todoroki looked at me for a second, before tilting his head. “Copy this.”
He threw his right arm out, creating a small ice wall that separated the yard in half. It was smaller than the one I’d seen at the sports festival, which meant he was holding back. Probably because we were at the dorm.
I threw my arm out, the water slicing through the grass, leaving a divot in the ground. As soon as I put my arm down, the wall fell, the water swirling back to me.
“Faster.”
“What?”
He walked around behind me, adjusting my fingers. “Like this. If you make it move faster, you’ll be able to push people away quicker. You seem like more of a long ranged fighter, like me.”
I repeated the action, the water moving with the same force as my whip. “Cool!”
“We should train together more. It would be beneficial for both of us.”
A cough came from behind us. I turned to see Kaminari standing in the doorway. “Todoroki, why is your arm around her?”
I hadn’t even realized his arm was still on mine. I stepped away from him, heading towards my clearly jealous boyfriend. “It wasn’t anything, he was helping me out with some practice is all. Our quirks are the same, just different elements.”
“I am not interested in her.” 
The bluntness of his words made me start laughing. “Damn, Todoroki, tell me how you really feel.”
“I just did.”
An arm slid around my waist, and Kaminari pulled me close. “Nothing happened?”
“I promise.” My lips met Kaminari’s cheek, making him blush again. “I kinda like you, not Todoroki.”
The other boy looked at us blankly. “You only kind of like each other? Shouldn’t you love each other?”
Kaminari started to sputter, unable to explain. My cheeks burned, but I was able to speak. “Well, at some point. Hopefully. But we’re still getting to know each other and everything. The ‘kind of like you’ thing is a joke.”
“I see.”
He walked past us, heading inside. Kaminari’s brain caught up to his mouth as soon as Todoroki was gone. “You know I really like you right?”
“I really like you too.” I said with a giggle. The giggling intensified when Kaminari started kissing my forehead and my cheeks. “Come on, we’re gonna get in trouble if we’re out here too late.”
“Maybe I’m a troublemaker.”
“Not today you’re not.”
I dragged him inside, sitting down on the couch next to Mina. He sat on my other side, dragging me into his lap.
I gave him a look. “What’s that for?”
“Now more people can fit on the couch.” He flashed me a grin, arms pulling me as close as possible. “And I get to hold you. Win-win.”
“Get a room!” Jirou called out, fake gagging. But I could see her hiding a smile.
Kaminari nuzzled into my shoulder. “We could.”
“No, absolutely not.” I slipped off his lap, back onto the couch. I maneuvered his arm around my waist instead.
“What, never been kissed before?” Mina teased, poking my side.
I rolled my eyes. “I have, thank you very much.”
“What?”
I glanced over at Kaminari. “Bug, I dated someone before you.”
“Bug?”
“Lighting Bug, just...shorter.”
He grinned, before remembering what I’d just said. “Do I know him?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Did I say it was a him?”
“WHAT?”
My classmates were all staring at me now. I flushed under the attention. “Yeah, I like guys and girls. But there was a boyfriend before you.”
Mina jumped to her feet. “Okay, we’re playing Never Have I Ever, right now. If you want to play, circle up.”
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seyaryminamoto · 4 years ago
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Anon-Nemesis - Right, I’ve got some free time, so I’ll have to make this a quickie, but I thought about my answers while at a boring family lunch thing.
Favorite Character: Ozai (The way you write him anyway, he’s pretty meh in canon))
Least Favorite Character (one who’s constantly there): I do have a few less than liked minor characters, but none of them are “Constantly There” So I have no good answer for this.
Favorite “Antagonist”: Ozai & Ol’ Spooky (Seethus) Lets face it, Ozai is the big papa of baddies, quite literally, and Ol’ Spooky spooked me good in his arc, at least till Azula and Xin handed him his own ass on a golden platter. I’m listing them together because you sort of portray them as a team where Seethus is just an extension of Ozai’s will personified (I might’ve picked Zhao too, but he hasn’t actively opposed our main duo too much so far, so instead I will pick)
Favorite OC: Rui Shi, duh. The guy has been there nearly from the start and has had Azula back even back in the early days when she was quite a jerk and hadn’t been, uh, tamed by Sokka (lol, not my best choice of words but I’m sticking to it, Azula might find the idea privately amusing these days but would kill me for sure for saying it like that) I feel like Goro would be high on this list, as would Ol’ Spooky, but we seen too little interaction with either for me to list them.
Favorite Gladiator: Aside from Sokka and Toph; My fav is The Millennium Dragon. Runners up The Alchemist (Well his sponsor is more interesting than him) Special Shout Out to the Dart Slayer, he jobbed so hard he got Sokka recruited (Was it Dart Slayer? Shit, it was so long ago) and a last conflicted entry, Rhone, I like what he represents (Basically Evil Sokka) but I don’t like him as a person, the dude is a straight asshole who needs a good thrashing.
Favorite Suitor or a Suitor I wished would make moves on Azula: Toph, I don’t mean in a shipping sense, but just Toph could mess with Azula and offer to marry her as a joke or something. Azula’s reaction would be priceless. A more serious answer, Zhao, He may be a douche, but I kind of like the guy in Gladiator, he’s not quite morally grey, but he does seem to only want the best for Azula, or his idea of the best, which ain’t actually the best for her.
Most Relatable Character: The young dude who works the desk at the Royal Dome, Shouji I think its spelled, such a timid little fellow, yet so composed since he’s always coming face to face with some of humanities mightiest people, the Gladiators, and scummiest people, sponsors. Plus he knows his business and does his job effectively. Supporting Sokka’s career is also nice. Also, special shout out to Keno. Wait, who was he again? Ah nevermind, probably nobody important. Anyway, where was I? …
Character I’d like to see more: Ol’ Spooky, mainly, that creeper really fascinates me, Its funny how he and Azula are frightened of eachother even though Azula would effortlessly waste his ass. I want to know how Ozai keeps the loyalty of someone that dangerous. Is he even human? Or some ancient fire spirit? He’s one of the biggest mysteries you’ve got going. Goro is one I really hope you develop, He’s got a nice fatherly, or grandfatherly vibe that could be a much needed point of stability for Azula in part 3.
 Favorite Canon (Gladiator canon)Pairing: Main Duo aside, Rui and Song were my number 1, but lately Ozai/Ursa has stolen it (Even though Ursa is gone.
Favorite Non-Canon Pairing: I can only come up with joke pairings I’m afraid, but. One sided Ty Lee X Ozai (The mental image of Mr. propper n serious, but buff, handsome Firelord with that bubbly bundle of joy hanging off his arm, bugging him to take her somewhere fun. I can’t stop laughing, he just wants her to get lost, and Azula is deeply worried about her friend’s sanity) Azula X O'l Spooky, or Azula X Sparky Sparky Boom Man (No matter which way you slice it, its one big, powerful and passionate fire storm, loud and explosive, silent and deadly, and each hella destructive) Okay fine, I’m only thinking of their bending, not the characters themselves. Sokka X Boomerang/Sword/Club (Wholesome until you realize he’s having a foursome with his own armory. Hell, let’s throw Azula into the mix, she can bring her own sword. Man, that’d be a dangerous bed, so many sharp and pointy accidents waiting to happen. But maybe Space Sword X Wolf’s Bane, they fight together, and snuggle together, just like their owners.
Favorite Arc: Tough call. Its a rivalry between Giving In arc, Slave Riot arc, Fire Lord’s Shadow and Air Temple arc for 2nd place. But 1st Place goes to combined Whaletail Island/Shu Jing arcs with how well they flow together, you outdid yourself with them, fluffy as half of them were
Favorite Place/Location:
 Part 1 or Part 2?:
I wished to see Sokkla more in/like … :
Guessing Game: Guess how good/bad I am at guessing games.
Finish the following sentences: “They don’t? I guess they were probably too busy looking at your… a-at… y-your ? ? ?” (Yeah, spot that one motherF-ers, I dare you.)
I think Azula & Sokka’s relationship will be revealed when/like/because of … Their own inability to exert willpower over their horny impulses. In other words their own reckless stupidity.
I believe at the end of Part 3 … Ozai gonna die, that’s about all I’m certain of. The invasion happens, lots of death and destruction. Since Aang ain’t a killer, my money is on Aang defeating Ozai but its Katara or The White Lotus who kill him. I don’t think Azula could do it though no matter how much she comes to hate her dad. Sokka won’t either since Azula still cares about Ozai, he’s still her papa. Besides, Azula may be too busy having a violent ass knockdown drag out deathmatch with Ol’ Spooky to keep him off the heroes backs, she wins and Ozai loses his two greatest assets. Ozai fights to the bitter end, ignoring Azula’s pleas for him to surrender, he’s too far gone in his hubris, his ego and his rage at Azula’s betrayal by then. Afterward, happy-ish ending, bittersweet, but Azula becomes Fire Lord, Sokka becomes Fire Lady, and has lots of kids and rule happily everafter, of 5 minutes ever after since those two can’t stop attracting trouble.
I’m glad you had a chance to join in! :D thank you for that submission, my friend!
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quilloftheclouds · 4 years ago
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Quill’s STS Catchup
I’m playing catchup with STS asks! Some of these are... from well over a year ago. Oops. ^^’
Thank you folks for all sending such marvelous asks, and I’m sorry it took me so long to get to answering them!!
@ettawritesnstudies asked:
Hello there! For STS: what is your favorite type of sea creature that you wanted to put in OSS but weren't able to? If this doesn't apply, what are your top 5 favorite sea creatures that did make it into OSS?
I have an absolute ton of cephalopods that I wanted to put in but wasn’t able to! Like the mimic octopus, or dumbo octopus, or cuttlefish? I love them all so much but I just couldn’t find a place for them. ALSO SEA OTTERS. I really wanted sea otters. :c That said, a few of my favourite sea creatures I was able to base sirens off of! Like the firefly squid, a speckled flying fish, a leafy sea dragon, several betta fish, and a sailfish!
@musicofglassandwords asked:
storyteller saturday!! who's your most secretive OC and why is this? Do you have any OP characters and if you do, how are they OP? Favorite snack/dessert of your favorite OC?
I think Dione fits both the first and second question! She definitely keeps a whole lotta secrets, and mostly because one: she’s scared of what will happen if the truth gets out, and two: she’s protecting others from the truth! The reason she’s OP? She’s just. A heckin’ powerful three centuries old sea witch.
And Xuân’s favourite snack is munching on dried nori! I personally love this salty snack so much and if I can get my hands on it, it’ll disappear in less than a minute.
@ccwritesstuff asked:
happy STS! If your characters had to choose, what would be their favorite games to play, be it board, card or video games! ive been playing a lot of three houses recently so... yah. kinda inspired or stm like that
I don’t really know many board games that existed during the time of OSS! I’ll tell you that Emery, from my new wip CIRCUIT, absolutely loves UNO. He wins every time.
@maxgraybooks asked:
Happy sts! Who are your most eccentric characters?
Oh my good stars. Pretty much EVERY one of my characters is super eccentric! That’s just the way I am. XD I think Captain Xuân would be my most eccentric, though? Based on the way they act, plus the way they dress... they love to act especially weird, since they love being the center of attention!
@geth-consensus asked:
Storyteller Saturday! What's the most ridiculous scene you've ever written? As in what's actually occurring in the scene itself.
Probably when my two characters who are over three centuries old stick their tongues out at each other.
@livvywrites asked:
STS!! Do you have strong associations with any of your characters? If so, what are they? | What are your mains favorite weather conditions? | What originally inspired you to write One Siren’s Soul?? | Do you have any other large projects planned for the future??
Ohh!! I have a bunch of strong associations but a lot of them are spoilers, because I LOVE foreshadowing through symbolism! Let’s just say... storms play an important role for Celestine~
Favourite weather conditions! Celestine: Dry as a desert - Dione: Gentle snow - Caelin: Light rain that he can run around in - Phoenix: Clear night, somewhat cool, perfect for a bonfire
And original inspiration? I mean... I was obsessed with pirate and adventure stories for a while there... PoTC, Our Bloody Pearl, Treasure Planet? Plus then there was all the ocean stuff I was doing in biology at the time. ^^
And I have CIRCUIT and The Mirror’s Rifts that I’m also working on!
@ditzysworld asked:
Storyteller saturdayyy!!!! what colours do you associate with your main OCs and why?-ditzysworld
OH STARS. I love colours so much!!! I won’t explain why because that tends to be spoilerish, or really obvious!
Celestine: Dark blue, celestine blue, maroon.
Dione: Inky black, deep brown, pale green, vivid leaf green.
Caelin: Browns, beiges, dark blue.
Phoenix: RED. BRILLIANT RED.
@evelyns-spilled-tea asked:
Oh shoot it's that time already; Happy Storyteller Saturday! What're the differences between your characters and the idealized versions of themselves they wish they could be?
Celestine wishes she could get rid of her stupid fear.
Dione wishes she could be less of a coward, and could make up for the mistakes she did in the past. Also, she wishes she could control her temper.
Caelin wishes he would be less useless and oblivious.
Phoenix wishes she could be less scary.
@lordkingsmith asked:
story teller saturday trying again lol: what symbolism shows up in your works and what's your favorite to write about?
SYMBOLISM IS A MAJOR THING IN OSS. Some main things to look out for: Storms, ice, colours, and flowers! My favourite thing to write about? Uhhh... I really heckin’ love writing about geology and gemstones. I’m a Rock Nerd~
@lottieiswriting asked:
Storyteller Saturday but a day late (is storyteller Sunday a thing?) What would you say is the biggest flaw of your main character, and who would you say out of all of your characters has the worst / biggest flaw that causes the most problems? Hope you don’t mind my late ask!
I’M PROLLY A NUMBER OF MONTHS LATE SO NO SWEAT, MATE.
Celestine’s major flaw is her inability to trust people! And Dione’s flaws, her selfishness, is the one that causes the most problems throughout the story!
@timefirewrites asked:
Happy Storyteller Saturday! I'm sure you know at least one scene where there's suddenly a clone/doppelgänger/etc. of a character and they have to convince their friends that they're the original. How would your ocs do that? Would they succeed? What's a dish related to your ocs? (Be it inspired by them, or relating to their story in some way or simply by being their favorite food)
alfkjsldgkjsdg I love this trope. I don’t think it pops up in OSS? But it does in CIRCUIT! But if Celestine had a doppelgänger: she would likely convince everyone it’s her by insulting people with the unique insult-nicknames she has for everyone. XD For example: she only ever calls Phoenix “idiot”! Poor Nixi. And Celestine’s favourite dish of all time is PANCAKES.
@ditzysworld asked:
happy storyteller saturday! do you have any WIP ideas that you never really ended up pursuing, and why didn't you? -ditzysworld
My first attempt at a major novel that actually got anywhere was Soul Tied! It was about shapeshifters and dragons and the chosen one trope, but with twins! Mainly, I never really had an idea of where the story was going to go, and my outlining skills sucked at that stage.
@aslanwrites asked:
STS!! Would you ever write a self insert? Which OC do you relate to the most?
I actually make a small cameo in OSS! The lighthouse keeper that tries to stop Phoenix from destroying their lighthouse is based almost completely on me~
And as for who I relate to the most: Caelin! Originally, Caelin’s character was a persona of mine!
@tragedyshow asked:
sts!! what would your MCs animgi forms be? Their patronus and boggarts?
I know next to nothing about Harry Potter, but let’s see! (I actually see their patronus and animgi forms being the same creature, so I’ll just be answering with two!)
Celestine: Magpie, a giant heckin’ tidal wave.
Dione: Stag, a giant fire creature.
Caelin: Puppy!! Pup!! He literally turns into a border collie in canon!! AND FREAKIN’ MANNEQUINS I HATE THEM.
Phoenix: Can I make it a phoenix? Is that allowed? And a zombie or other clearly undead thing!
@fair-folk-nonsense asked:
Happy STS! What are your character’s worst fears and how do they deal with them? ~fair-folk-nonsense
Celestine’s worst fear is water! Or getting close to someone only to lose them again. And they usually deal with it either by running away as fast as they can, or denying everything. :/
That’s 15 asks answered! Phew~ Tune in next time for even more. XD
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