#this was in Drafts for a while despite just being FACTS and CORRECT and so on

[teh-nos]

thing about them Thor movies is that i reckon if you depose a king you've pretty much commited yourself to murdering him (preferrably via a method that doesn't look like murder, but either way that guy's toast) but nobody else seems to agree with me in this fandom and so i look like the weirdo fixated on regicide :'(

[love-quinn]

— COMPLETELY UNREAL

summary — despite your best efforts, remus lupin is determined to get to know you.

warnings — reader with general anxiety

pairing — remus lupin x fem!reader

pronouns — she/her

word count — 2.1k

note — clearing out my drafts, this has been here 5ever. enjoy

The common room was one of your least favourite places to be, but your dorm room was worse, so there you were. It was getting late, and you had a potions assignment due the next day, so you were sitting in a quiet corner trying to work on it. Well, trying to want to work on it. You were only just passing by the skin of your teeth, and if you failed this essay then it would bring your grade down from an Acceptable to a Poor, and that meant that you wouldn’t be able to get the NEWTS you needed. You weren’t sure what those NEWTS were, as the idea of having to do anything after finishing school filled you with fear, but you figured it probably would have something to do with potions. You sort of just picked the electives you enjoyed and then did your best.

Unfortunately, your best didn’t seem to be good enough with this essay, as you had been working on it nonstop for the past four days and you still had another 10 inches of parchment left.

“Disfigurement,” a voice came from above you. You looked up from your homework at a boy, looking bashfully at your parchment.

“Excuse me?”

He had the good graces to look embarrassed by the way you were looking up at him. “Disfigurement is one of the major side effects of using lacewing flies in the potion, a big part of the reason that it’s level three restricted by the ministry,”

Now, normally, a man standing above you and explaining something that you already knew would absolutely ruin your day, Merlin only knew it happened often enough. But normally, the men doing it didn’t look like they were talking about it out of pure interest.

His eyes got slightly dimmer as he realised your annoyance, a darkened honey colour that people wrote songs about. “Sorry, I should’ve- Just because you paused writing doesn’t mean you didn’t know what you were talking about. Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” You decided on after a minute. You knew who he was, of course, you didn’t spend seven years in the same grade as someone without learning their name, but you were nearly one hundred percent certain he didn’t know yours.

“I just came over for…” he gestured uselessly at the small collection of cups on the table beside you, with a metal pitcher of ice cold water that stayed full no matter how much you poured it. A group of boys in your year had tried to use it to flood the common room one time. You had a sneaking suspicion the boy in front of you had been involved, despite the fact that he never received detention for it like the others did.

“Go for it.”

He poured two glasses of water and paused, looking at you. “I really am sorry. I’ve offended you.”

“I’m not offended,” you replied honestly. “I normally would be, but I’ll allow it just this once.”

The boy cracked a smile, slightly crooked, and it evened out his whole face, as though he had been created just to smile like that. “Thank you, then.” He corrected softly. “For not being offended by my interruption.” He put the cups down gently and looked for a moment as though he might shake your hand, before thinking better of it and leaving them hanging uselessly by his side. “I’m Remus.”

“So I’ve heard,” you didn’t mean to sound pretentious. “I just mean- we share a lot of classes, so I’ve seen you around a lot.” Now it was your turn to be embarrassed.

Remus continued smiling. “No, I know. I see you all the time. You always snag the good table in the library.” He gestured to you, testing your name out experimentally on his tongue, as though afraid to get it wrong. You nodded.

You liked studying in the library because it made you feel like an actual student. Doing homework on your bed, while the more common alternative, made you feel as though you were doing it wrong somehow. As if, because you hadn’t put in the effort to go all the way to the library and bring your study materials with you that you didn’t deserve to do well on whatever it is you were working on. “Do I?” your voice sounded far away, even to yourself.

“I’ll forgive you, though,” Remus said good naturedly, noticing your change in tone. This interaction had gone on far too long for your liking. You were beginning to feel exhausted. How embarrassing.

Talking to strangers for longer than ten seconds makes my stomach do a backflip, you thought bitterly to yourself. That was why your dorm room didn’t feel as welcoming as it was perhaps meant to. The girls in there talked, like they were friends. And they were friends, it was easy to see that.

You’d been so removed when you first started at Hogwarts, when you were only eleven. So overwhelmed by the hundreds of rooms and the hundreds of students, that when your roommates stayed up all night chattering and getting to know one another, you had felt nothing inside you aside from a desire to go to sleep. It took weeks before your nerves calmed enough to even attempt to contribute to their conversations, and by the time you had realised that maybe you did want to be friends with them, they had accepted your silence.

You gave Remus an awkward smile, the polar opposite of the one he’d given you. As if your grinning was a defect, not something you were designed to do. Sometimes it felt like maybe you weren’t.

He was still standing there. How could you make him go away without explicitly telling him to? You felt nauseous, squirmy under his gaze. Why hadn’t he left yet? “That essay Slughorn gave us is a real doozy, isn’t it?”

You cracked a real, genuine smile at his word choice. You didn’t know anyone who used the word ‘doozy’ and the best part was, it seemed to be entirely unironic. “Yeah, I guess.”

“I was planning on spending the afternoon up in the library, working on it.” His hand fiddled with the hem of his button-up. “Any chance I could sit at the good table?”

You nodded almost instantly. “Yeah, no, sure. It’s all yours. Sorry, I didn’t mean to hog.”

“You’re not,” he let out a breathy laugh. “You’re jumpy, aren’t you?” You felt it, and your cheeks burned at the notion that he could tell. “If you wanted to still study at your same table, and I was also to study there, both of us in complete silence, then I don’t think that would be so bad?”

Remus could see that you wanted to say no, and he didn’t want to push it if you were clearly uninterested, but he also knew that it had been seven years of you being the only Gryffindor girl he’d never spoken to, and also being the only Gryffindor girl he’d ever felt a strong desire to speak to. The others were great, sure, Lily and Marlene had become friends to him more concretely now that Lily and James were seeing each other, and Alice had always been sweet. You, on the other hand, had been described by your roommates as sad. Not ‘pathetic’ sad, but a more deep sadness.

“She’s awfully kind,” Marlene had told him once, hushed in the back of a History Against Magic Lesson. He hadn’t remembered how your name had been brought up. “Think she just likes it quiet.”

“The table’s yours,” you offered. “It’s okay. I can just study down here, it’s warmer.”

“It’s louder, though,” Remus reasoned. “Up there there’s no… well, no guys coming over here to explain something you probably already understand.”

“I thought you said you were going to be there?” You were genuinely confused at what he was asking of you by this point, but he laughed it off. You staved off a frown.

“I always find that homework is nicest when you’ve got someone there,” he offered finally. “Even if you’re not talking, just purely sitting there.”

You didn’t see how that would help at all. You’d probably be too distracted by anyone to even get any work done. But, you realised with a start, the notion of someone wanting to spend time in your vicinity, as innocent as Remus’s intentions were, made your heart ache.

He probably just wanted to be able to sit at the good table without putting you out, you understood that. But at the same time, if he really wanted to sit there, and he really wanted to not disrupt your routine, then you didn’t see why not, even though maintaining eye contact with him for any longer than a second felt as though you were going to combust in a caramel-irised explosion.

“You can come,” you conceded, gently, hoping as not to come off rude or too territorial about your space. Perhaps it would be better if you studied outside, or in an empty classroom. That way you weren’t getting in his way.

“Excellent,” he was talking too loud, and he could tell that by the way you shrank back in your seat.  “Maybe I can finally get my transfiguration grade up, Merlin knows you’re doing well in that class.”

Why would he say that? That made him come across as a stalker who knew all your grades. He hoped you didn’t think that implied you did need help in potions. Your reactions weren’t giving him much, and it was making him nervous. He definitely shouldn’t have come over here, but he had been scrambling for something to say, and now he had to take water over despite the fact that no one had asked for water.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine.” You closed your textbook so gently it didn’t even make a paper noise as the cover closed. “But if you really do need help, then I might be able to.” You offered him one final smile, cheeks tinged with a visible blush.

You hoped he couldn’t see how dizzy you were getting. You wanted to go to sleep and pretend this was all a dream so you could go back to ignoring Remus’s existence like he could go back to ignoring yours.

Unfortunately for you, though, he’d found your little hidey-hole study space that you occupied yesterday, coming in to tease you light heartedly about abandoning him for transfiguration. You didn’t not want to talk to Remus, it was nothing about him. He’d been nothing but sweet and funny in the very limited interactions you’d shared, you were the issue.

“Should’ve known you’d ditch me,” he’d said with a sigh as he sat down, opening his textbook up. You found you didn’t mind his being there as long as you weren’t expected to contribute much to the conversation.

“Thought it would be obvious.” You’d attempted to match his airiness in your tone. It came out strangled.

He sighed gently. “I wanted to pretend it wasn’t so, sweetheart. I thought you and me had something special. I told you about disfigurement in potions and you tell me about disfigurement in transfiguration.”

He’d been attempting to do the spell for about an hour, trying to turn a ball of yarn into a scarf. It was a simple spell that’d normally be of no issue to him, but he just couldn’t get it this time.

After nearly forty minutes of mumbling all but silently to himself so as not to disturb you, you had enough. You reached over and, so delicately he’d thought at first it was simply a breeze, uttered the spell while controlling his hand movements. A long, thickly knitted navy scarf burst from the ball of wool, landing pooled by his crossed legs. You looked up at him, expecting to be reprimanded for the touching, knowing you would have done exactly the same.

“You’re not real,” he said after a moment. Sometimes you felt that way too. “We’re officially studying together every time now.” He grinned to himself, picking up the scarf and wrapping it securely around your neck multiple times, tucking the ends into your jumper. It was soft. “Every single time, you little wonder.” You maybe didn’t mind as much this time as you had when he’d last suggested it. Your smile was almost hidden behind the mass of fabric you’d just helped him conjure, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t see it.

[mclzandaya]

kinda #sad but i've completely given up on my candy love new gen,, i've played up to episode 3 and then i just... gave up lol. i'm legit coming back only for the events but feel so uninvested that most of the times i'm not even able to get everything which is super frustrating.

i really wanted to like this game bc beemoov's games have been such a huge part of my life!! and despite my frustrations i always loved those games!!

but having the MC being black only in appearance when i thought i'd be able to relate to her a little more; interactions with the LIs still as ridiculous as in CL and LL (pls someone tell me i was lied to and ysaline didn't actually throw up on jason EDIT: thanks for correcting me!! she did /not/ throw up on him, thanks god); having to pay to get full scenes even as VIPs already paying every month (just the fact that you have to pay point blank); personality system which doesn't amount to anything and none of the LIs personalities being truly interesting for /me/,,, was such a disappointment.

i truly didn't expect jason to be so cringe,, it feels like the only use they have for roy is having him half naked most of the time; amanda i would've never gone for bc i just — don't care for a rich white girl; devon's pretty petty and childish at times (same as jason imo to be fair) and thomas i guess is the only one i'm okay with. and it's only bc i feel like they did a 180 on his personality since HSL and the fact that they portray him as seeming autistic (in /my/ opinion!! not derogatory!!!) just make him straightforward enough for me not to be annoyed with him.

idk i guess we could say that it's bc it's supposed to be a game whose targets are ~teens, but considering that it's clear (imo) that their true targets are paying players (consumers) rather than F2P players,, then obv you'd think their targets are at least adults? but it doesn't feel like it considering how ridiculous the plot feels at times and how little depth they put into the characters. to be fair i felt that the same could be said for eldarya a new era, campus life and love life. i know they changed scenarists? (idk the word in english but the ppl that draft the stories/plot + the actual ppl who write the dialogues and branchings) but i just truly realised it while playing the few episodes i've played + the events.

i saw a lot of french ppl thought new gen was better than CL or LL tho so i will give it a shot at some point (+ i've actually spent money on the game lol, so might as well see it through), but i never thought i'd feel so sad and unmotivated to play one of their games after playing since 2011.

anyway this was just a lil rant of my personal feelings and why i haven't been active on here lately, pls don't attack me it only engages me!! and /my/ point of view!! not even talking abt chinomiko here bc as far as i know it's not like she can do much abt all of this besides providing a v basic draft of what should happen in the story (but do tell me if i'm wrong! nicely pls). truly no hate towards her!! i'm legit sad that she didn't continue her game beneath our scars bc it was so interesting and i was super excited to get a game of hers outside of potential directives again :( even if it probably will never be finished if i remember correctly there were two eps out so if you have a lil bit of time on your hands you should check it out!!

edit: just realised beneath our scars isn't available on the app store anymore :( but she seems to be working on a potential future new game with a sort of dungeons and dragons theme? so i'm super excited for that!! hope we'll be able to play it!! + only one ep was out actually (oops) but i was told you can play it on the website still!!

[lemonade4wanda]

New to town

Prologue | Part 1

Minors dni!! Masterlist°•☆

Summary- the darkest days of your life could lead to something new. Prologue for a series

Warnings- death, breakups, plane crashes, lonely reader

A/n - hii!!! :3 I'm so srry for not writing anything in like 4 months I swear I'm gonna get back into the habit of it as soon as <33

You always hated being new. Since your were a little kid your parents would move up and down the country at least twice a year which in turn caused you to never have any kind of concrete friendships and to eventually stop trying to make them. When you'd turned eighteen and moved out and were sure you'd stay where you'd picked to be forever.

City living however didn't agree with you one bit. The tiny flat, that could barely fit a fanily if mice, you resided in, cost about an arm a month despite the electrics barely working and the terrible drafts keeping you cold all night. When you'd arrived you were sure you'd make it your own and decorate to make it look less depressing but you mever had the time. You were sure you'd adjust to the noisy neighbours next door and whatever your upstairs neighbours were doing at four in the morning. That hope and optimism for the bleak city had since left and now you lay in the cramped flat at night trying to get comfy on your cheap second hand mattress which creaked awfully whenever you moved as you tried to drown out next doors noise.

Outside tour flat was no better either. You'd struggled to make a single meaningful connection since being here and now some people could say it was the fact you didn't really know how to keep things going in relationships since you'd never had to have a friend longer than six months but you wanted to believe it was the people in the city. Yeah, that sounds better, people from the city were just that bit less extroverted and already had their own groups.

The meaningless office job you worked only made things worse. 45 hours a week slogging away for a meager paycheck and little recognition for any of your time. You'd been there a handful of years since moving into the city and still coworkers regularly got your name wrong or forgot about you completely. Your boss clearly didn't like you, not that he had it out for you by any means but you always had an unfair workload compared to others at the company.

At night you'd lie awake listening to the sounds of the city wondering how many more months you could make it in this bleak existence before an improvement came. How much longer could you hang onto the wagon of life. You weren't much of a betting man but if you were you would of said you'd only make it couple of months.

That's when things took a much worse turn.

The next week your boyfriend of eight months broke up with you over text. You'd known things were over for a while since he'd stopped coming over so much and being going around town with this other girl you'd never cared for. Infact you were more upset about the loss of a warm body, the comfort and stability of a relationship than you were losing him. He wasn't a bad man just.. immature, shown clearly by his breakup message he couldn't even be bothered to call or try to be grammatically correct in his small message. He'd never treated you bad but he wasn't great either, he'd cancel dates to go out with friends, spend the night at yours when there was sports on just because he knew you had the TV channels. You could do better than him. You knew that.

Still, you were desperate to persevere throught these tough times. Yeah it looked poor now but good things were sure to happen when you least expect it... or not.

A few weeks after your breakup as you lay across the old leather couch that took up most the living room space in your apartment. As you meagerly picked at your dinner. That was when it happened.

Your phone ringing suddenly was confusing enough, you hardly had any contacts other than your parents and well they were on a flight to Barbados so definitely couldn't be ringing at this hour. You check the phone and the illuminating letters read out no caller id. Assuming it could be important you decided to answer it, slowly putting the phone to your ear.

"Hello?.."

"Is this y/n/l/n?" A middle aged woman asks, her voice sounded glum and her signal not so good.

"Yeah. Yes, yeah it is. Why?" You responded with a string of awkward yeses mentally facepalming yourself for the stupid response.

"I'm speaking on behalf of United Airlines and we regret to inform you but your parents plane has crashed. They.. they..." Her voice faltered slightly or perhaps the signal cut but you knew what was coming as you felt you could throw up at any moment. A cold sweat plaguing you. "They didn't survive. Sorry." There it was; the news that would change your life. Both of them gone in one swoop. Even if you hadn't been talking so much with your family since your big move you certainly weren't ready for something as catastrophic as this to happen.

[dontbesoweirdkira]

Can we get some more dark Raiden 👉👈

(ignore this if it makes u uncomfy at all)

Like what is like with a darling who needs a wheelchair regularly, maybe the darling has a genetic malfunction with their legs idk

(based off of my legs but it's up to u)

A/N: Hii thank you so much for requesting! I absolutely do not mind writing this. We need that representation in the writing department. 😫🫶I’ve had this in my drafts for a while because I’m very cautious to hopefully not offend or make anyone uncomfortable with this. Please *respectfully* correct me if I got something wrong or may have accidentally used offensive language. I mean no harm to anyone and I want to be able to respectfully give representation for everyone!

That being said this focuses specifically on being disabled and the changes it makes in the relationship.

Warnings: Toxic and abusive behaviors, stalking, slight patronizing/ infantilization, over protectiveness, ect.

Masterlist

Requests: open 24/7

I don’t really think that the relationship would change too much other than that I think sometimes Raiden would unintentionally be a bit patronizing. (But then again when is !dark¡ Raiden not???)

Raiden loves you a lot and he knows that you’re just as capable as the others despite your disability. Your resilience and intellect alone was enough to win his evil little heart buuuttt…that doesn’t change the fact that he’s still a bit flawed in his ways

We all know this dark side of him is extremely authoritarian so he can’t help but be a little too overbearing when it comes to you.

I want to start off with some of the good things first though.

!dark¡ Raiden is sweet in the ways that matter I think. If you’re having a flare up or in pain. He doesn’t mind dropping everything to come to your aide. Even if the medication isn’t working. He’d hold and massage you until you’re feeling better.

The other nice thing about Raiden is his thick skin. You don’t phase him even on your worst days, not even when you’re a bit snippy do to your pain and frustration. He won’t take it personally. Staying up with you all night also isn’t a hassle for him in the slightest. He actually appreciates that his darling yearns for him when they aren’t feeling too well.

If physical therapy is something that you partake in, he’s eager to learn and help you the best ways he can.

Secretly searching for ways to alleviate some aches you may face with your disability, even if that means going against the elders and seeking help from darker powers.

He’s also unapologetically obsessed with you, he feels no shame when you’re beside him. He wouldn’t wish for you to be any different from how you are now.

Raiden would be just as jealous and possessive over you as he would be with an abled body S/O.

Speaking of this, he has no issues with disposing of anyone who has anything disparaging to say about you.

Oh and he especially hates when someone touches you or your wheelchair. He knows how uncomfortable it makes you when people try to wheel you or lean/sit on it without your permission. This easily sets him off.

It doesn’t matter who it is that touches it, how dare they disrespect you like that? Have they have no manners?

“I fear that I did not hear y/n speak up and give you any kind of consent to touch their chair. Release your hands from it or I will do it for you..”

He’s 100% willing to be your advocate anytime you may need. I mean honestly you don’t even have to ask, he’s tussling the second he sniffs an ounce of disrespect towards you. Lol

Okay here is some of the more unfavorable headcanons. This touches on a bit of patronizing behavior and infantilization. I feel like Raiden would struggle with doing this a bit in the relationship.

Raiden doesn’t like when you go off or do things without telling him first. Yes, you are capable of protecting and providing for yourself. Even though he’s seen this capability first hand, he just can’t help thinking about if something were to go wrong. What if that day you’re too fatigued and you end up hurting yourself?…or worse…what if someone severely injures you? what then??

This is why he prefers to keep you couped up in his temple, right by his side. He even had things around there altered to perfectly suit you.

No more stress about the outside world and how frustrating it can be for a wheelchair user. Plus Raiden made arrangements so you can have 24/7 access to outworlds best doctors and remedies to help with any issues you may run into.

How could you even think of leaving when you got everything you need right here?!

Best of all, he knows exactly where you are at all times in the temple and it keeps his mind at ease that you’re okay.

He has a bad habit of immediately rushing to assist you with very mundane tasks and sometimes wheeling you even when you don’t need it. (Ironic because he hates when other people do it to you but because you’re his darling he thinks it’s automatically okay for him to.😭)

This has to do him worrying about your safety and trying to make your life easier but it instead makes things worse.

Raiden can also quite bossy with what he allows you to do and what he doesn’t. Sometimes this means speaking to you very sternly and even down to you. This often ending up in a back and forth with each other.

To him he’s just doing what’s best to help keep you safe and according to him these rules will ensure that. Raiden couldn’t live with himself if you got hurt, especially when he could easily prevent those things. This is his way of loving you, he genuinely doesn’t mean any harm to his darling by doing this.

You protest this behavior and tell him how hurtful this can be for you but I fear it might take a little while for him to fully realize what it is that he’s doing wrong. Just like a lot people in everyday life, he’s convinced he knows what’s best for you.

“I’m afraid I do not understand, Y/N. How is keeping you safe, hurtful? I can assure you I am only simply doing the duties as your lover.”

he’ll slowly give in by letting you go out and do things “without” him. Just know that he is always lurking behind each and every corner making sure that you’re safe.

And if he can’t, he’ll send a servant to hang around you and report back to him.

Yeahhhhh. I know. He’s so damn-

Just bear with him, he doesn’t process others feelings the same way as you and I. Empathy isn’t his strong suit but he will try his best to correct any errors, simply because he does truly love you.

Notice I said ‘try’. He’ll try but there are just some things he just won’t budge on. !dark¡ Raiden can be stubborn and rather selfish at times if he seriously believes in what he is doing is right.

For example you are absolutely not allowed to be anywhere near the tournament or Kombat in general. He doesn’t care that you may fight well. It’s far too dangerous for you. He will immediately shut down any conversation that has to do with it.

But I will say that I don’t think that this really has to do with the fact you’re in a wheelchair. I think he’d be against any of his darlings doing anything that could potentially harm them. He’s already lost so much, he refuses to let you go too.

I can also see him occasionally brushing you off when you offer to do certain tasks. He’ll immediately order someone else to do it even if you are the better fit.

(There he goes babying you again)

“I appreciate your willingness to help but your efforts will not be needed. Stay here and rest, Y/N. Liu Kang will handle this task instead.”

I guess one other change is that maybe he’s a bit more physically gentle with you?

I could see him being a bit more restrained when it comes to punishment? I think they’d be more among the lines of mental harm or emotional deprivation. (Locking you up, social isolation, food deprivation, avoiding affection ect.)

He’s cautious of man handling and weary of using his electricity too close to you because he’s afraid that it might conduct through the metal on your chair. No matter how angry he is with you, you’re the one person who Raiden would never turn against like that.

I think the only times he’ll get physical is when you’re being extremely defiant towards him when he’s trying to “protect”you.. He wouldn’t hit you but he’d pull you, carry and throw you down roughly. Worse he’d do is bruise you from his grip on you.

Ultimately though I feel like Raiden is just a bit more ignorant with some things. He really hadn’t spent time around humans on a deep emotional level so I think he’ll do unacceptable stuff sometimes. I don’t feel like Raiden would mind that you’re in a wheelchair or try to ever put you down because of it. He’s just so stuck in his ways at times he comes across a bit…::

Like I said I think He would be just as overprotective with any-other darling, only some thing’s slightly change.

[twig-tea]

Let's Talk about Cheum

I've had multiple Cheum posts in my drafts since at least episode 6, and the main reason why I haven't posted them is because I keep waiting for the show to give me more. There have been some great posts reflecting on her character this week, so I thought I'd give it a try anyway right before the finale this weekend.

@waitmyturtles laid out her thoughts on Cheum here and this was followed up on with some excellent context by @ctl-yuejie re: the split in the audience around their reception of Cheum.

@my-rose-tinted-glasses tied the way that folks seem to want to iterpret Cheum's character to the trailer, which was an interesting take I hadn't considered! I like it.

I've been pushing back on Cheum being the voice of the audience or the only character who has it together for the entire time we've been watching this show [one of the places I've done this most explicitly was in my scene-by-scene breakdown of ep6]. Nothing in the actual show, to me, encourages us to see Cheum as the one who 'has it together'. She gets sloppy drunk out of the gate in ep1; she's rude, she's catty, she seems like a party girl. She's kind of mean about her girlfriend's films behind her back, she constantly insults Boston, Ray, and Mew in subtle ways, she supports Top as a "good candidate" for Mew even when we all in the audience know that he's a player, and even after she knows he betrayed Mew's trust (we can debate over whether it was "cheating", this is how Mew saw it and how Top knew he would see it); she says she's tried to help Ray in the past but we only see her enable Ray's alcoholism--in other words, I have been baffled this entire time why anyone would see her character as the voice we're supposed to trust as a reliable narrator or moral voice of the show, when the audience has enough information to know she's very often wrong. I said after episode 10, in which Cheum accused Boston of assaulting her brother despite her knowledge of Boston's character and the fact that the photos did not support Atom's story, and with the audience knowing she's in the wrong, that I was so thankful this would have to be the nail in the coffin of the theory that Cheum is supposed to be the "voice of the audience" or the "correct" one in the show, and I am aghast that this still seems not to be the case.

In my post about Cheum after ep 10, I said:

When Cheum realizes that Atom lied, though, if she just shrugs it off the way she did Top sleeping with Boston or Ray bringing drugs to the hostel...my rage will be fierce. Part of unconditional belief is holding your sibling to account if they abuse that trust.

But of course I wrote that because I suspected she would, because that's how her character's been to date. So my own previous post is evidence that Cheum has actually been legibly and predictably written, at least to an extent.

And while I like @my-rose-tinted-glasses' theory that maybe folks are being influenced by their memory of the trailer (in their post linked above), I also suspect that a lot of that comes from the audience bringing their sexism to their viewing experience, and assuming that a female character has to be The Voice of Morality if they are not an Evil Seductress, and cannot simply be as messy and nuanced as the other characters. And also maybe from the assumption that SOMEone in this show must be right, when I think that's a faulty assumption to make.

To be fair to the audience, a lot of what's going on with her is subtle, because the show to date has not often explicitly called her out on her bullshit. I remember being so happy to get the confirmation that she knew Ray was in love with Mew this whole time (during the big blow-up at Yolo bar) for example, because it confirmed what I had thought: that she was not oblivious, she intentionally was not acknowledging the tension between them in order to keep harmony within the group. But I would not necessarily expect everyone watching to put that together, especially not as a reveal in the middle of that dramatic scene where so much else was going on.

Cheum is, like @wen-kexing-apologist said in the fantastic post about hypocrisy, just as young as her friends, and just as flawed. She's a bit of a nag, a bit of a party girl, a bit of a people-pleaser, and a bit of a selfish 20something. But so many viewers are refusing to see her that way, and I don't think that's all on the show. And none of this makes me hate her. She's actually the character I relate to most (I know I said I'd be mad at her for not holding Atom to account, and I am, but I don't hate her for it).

Knowing to pay more attention to the rudeness of her language has helped me with this too, because I was looking for a lovable personality trait, and I think @ctl-yuejie's point (linked above) is a great theory as to what's missing for the English-speaking audience. The difference between an asshole character I hate and an asshole character I love is often (a) intention and (b) eschewing social/societal expectations (as opposed to being an asshole in order to meet societal expectations). I don't think we are given enough about Cheum to tell much of the former (though she says she cares, and I do believe her to some extent, I just think she's also blind to how selfish she often is); but knowing she has been doing the latter helps me connect with her in ways I may have been struggling to before.

That being said, as I hinted at above, I do still agree with a lot of what folks have been saying, in that I think she has been under-written, because what I don't have for Cheum (in the same way that I don't have this for Top) is any sense of what motivates her, whether she really does love her girlfriend or she's just riding out the relationship she's in, how much work she's actually doing at the hostel (we see her work the party, but otherwise it's just implied that she's the one doing all the work on the ground, but we never get to see it and in a show full of unreliable narrators, it's hard to know what's true); and how much she really cares about these friends of hers, since most of what we see is her saying she's a good friend but not actually doing things that a good friend would do (or doing things a good friend would not do, like inviting the ex you're still mad at to the party, or yelling at her friend as he's being arrested, or listening to his explanation after he's been accused of a crime). We don't even really know why she wanted the hostel project to be a thing to begin with, or why she cares enough to keep working on it.

I'd like to give the show the benefit of the doubt and say that could be intentional; Cheum is a bit of a fringe member of the group; she doesn't hang out with them with her girlfriend that often, so she's not always around, and she's clearly not best friends with any of the three others. She's who people go to in order to vent and decompress after something happens, and so most of the time we see her, she's helping someone else process their emotions, usually with an eye to reconciliation--though again, the advice she gives is often not good lol. She gets the most mad when someone does something that disrupts the harmony of the group, which is one of the reasons why I read her as the peacekeeper in the group, or the "link" as her name means in Thai I think, that holds them together. Ironically it's her who severs the group in the way that's most permanent to date, by kicking Boston out of the project. But if this is what they were doing with her character, keeping her as the solder rather than a member of the chain (apologies for this belaboured metaphor), I don't know that it was successful; as always gotta wait to the end to be sure.

In the final episode, I would love to get a peek into the core of who Cheum is, or alternatively, Cheum herself saying she feels lost and unsure of who she is. I would also love for someone to point out Cheum's bullshit to her face so that more people understand that what she says is not the moral backbone of the show, though I'm trying to let go of that part of me that wants everyone to get it with this show because I know that's just not possible (and thanks to all of the excellent previous conversations we've had around that). It would be an exciting reversal, and very in character, if Cheum makes Atom's lie and her subsequent banishment of Boston all about her, and then someone calls her on that, for example. And I'd also like more Cheum and April together on screen because they are very aesthetically pleasing and I am a simple creature.

Also just to say, I am hesitant to chalk up Cheum's character having gaps as a 'men writing women' situation because Yo is given the grace to be a full character in fewer scenes than Cheum; also Top as a character suffers from the same problem. So I think this is uneven writing, rather than sexist writing. But I'm open to debating it (and it's not something that we'll ever necessarily know for sure).

[sev-on-kamino]

✨WIP Wednesday✨

thank you for the tag @wolffegirlsunite @deejadabbles @anxiouspineapple99 @dystopicjumpsuit @wings-and-beskar 💙💙

It’s coming along well, so here’s a lil sneak peak at the rough draft of:

In Pieces Ch. 2 - (Never Had A) Friend Like Me

pairings: Rex x fem!reader, Cody x fem!reader, Fox x fem!reader, Wolffe x fem!reader

warnings: suggestive af, MINORS DNI

They kept you in a haze of pleasure the rest of the night. Soft touches, lingering kisses, their lips against your ears, whispering to you, as they took you higher and higher.

“Don’t think I could ever get enough of you.”

“It’s so tempting to keep you, mesh’la.”

“You belong in my arms, just like this.”

“We fit together too well. Must have been made for me, cyare.”

Rex watched, fascinated, as you came down from your high.

“So good for us, aren’t you?” He asked softly.

You hummed affirmatively, pressing your face against his neck, while he listened to you working to catch your breath. He noticed your fingers were loosely tangled with Fox’s, while your free hand drew aimless little shapes against his skin. They’d made your body sing for them, and what a beautiful song it was. One Rex could listen to over and over again.

The spell that had bound the four of you was broken as Fox’s alarm went off. The real world was calling.

“Damn!” Fox swore, moving out of your reach, so he could get dressed.

He’d meant to leave a couple of hours ago, but you’d buried your fingers in his curls and pulled him in for another kiss. Instead of leaving he’d given in to your unspoken request, and coaxed another slow, sweet orgasm out of your blissed out body.

As he snapped on his armor, he realized you were a problem. The soft look on your face, as you watched him held so much affection. He hated that he couldn’t be the man you looked at like that every day. It would require time he didn’t have, and you deserved more than he could give.

You whined softly in protest, and Fox’s lips twitched toward a smile before he pulled on his helmet.

“Duty calls, mesh’la. I know you understand,” he explained, his voice firm, yet gentle like your hands had been against his skin.

He knew the brat in you would love nothing more than making him late, and part of him would enjoy it too. He knew the healer in you would relish in sending him off relaxed, and fully satisfied, but he couldn’t follow that train of thought. He couldn’t let himself linger in fantasies, no matter how sweet. He consoled himself with the fact it was a one-time thing, and he’d never be in this position with you again.

You nodded sleepily, before resting your face against Rex’s chest.

“You di’kut, why didn’t you tell us you were on duty today?” Wolffe asked, frowning at his brother.

“It wasn’t relevant,” Fox replied easily. “I’ve got enough caf to give a rancor a coronary. I’ll be fine. Make sure she gets some sleep.”

“Wasn’t relevant my ass,” Wolffe grumbled, rolling his eyes. He was completely unsurprised that Fox easily placed your well-being over his own despite the fact that you couldn’t have been in better hands. “We’ll make sure she gets rest. You worry about yourself.”

Fox opened his mouth to deliver a snarky reply, but he was cut off by your soft voice, “Bye, Fox. Thank you…”

Cody chuckled and gave your thigh a playful tap.

“Bye, Commander Fox. Thank you, sir,” you corrected with a giggle.

“Good girl,” Cody said, smiling at you.

“Bye, Stitches, thank you,” Fox said, saluting his brothers before he left Rex’s quarters.

“I think our gorgeous girl has had all she can take,” Cody said, catching your chin, pulling you close to press a kiss to your temple.

“Maybe,” you admitted, looking up at him.

“You took all of us so well last night. Let us enjoy you like we wanted,” Cody said, rubbing your back.

“And I’d do it again, Commander. Any time,” you yawned, covering your mouth like you could hide your exhaustion.

“I’m going to hold you to that, mesh’la,” Cody replied, leaning down to kiss your shoulder before he followed Fox’s lead and got dressed to head out.

“You know I will,” Wolffe said, drawing you close to kiss your face before getting dressed as well.

You beamed up at him, before relaxing once more. Warm and safe in Rex’s arms, you slipped into a peaceful sleep, your body finally reaching its limit.

taglist: @secondaryrealm @iamburdened @sunshinesdaydream @dukeoftheblackstar @rexxdjarin @808tsuika @sleepingsun501 @starrylothcat @ladyzirkonia @pb-jellybeans @clio3kantarella @staycalmandhugaclone @stardusthuntress @idontgetanysleep

please also consider this my no pressure invite to share for WIP Wednesday, if you’re so inclined 🥰😌

[deadlygronkle]

Ancestors Legacy Chapter 18

The Desert: Chapter 8

word count: 7064

Ao3 Prev

Time was pacing back and forth in front of the small spring. It had been hours since Twilight and Warriors left on their hunt. Since they left the others had woken up and have been getting progressively impatient at the fact they were stuck in here.

To alleviate that boredom Four and Wind have taken to playing a game of tag, bouncing over the lying bodies of Wild and Hyrule. The latter two originally played with them but after nearly stepping on Four, it was quickly deemed that they couldn’t actively play with the otter and mouse.

Legend was near Time, drinking from the spring and watching Sky try to fly. It was going well for the most part, in the beginning it was a lot more falling than flying. Now however Sky could glide down from the top of the stairs to the spring with ease. Actually flying was another matter altogether given how there was no wind draft for Sky to practice with.

“You are doing remarkably well for someone who has only recently achieved this form,” The Great Fairy commented as Sky landed after his most recent attempt.

“Thanks! Training with Loftwings since I was young definitely helped,” Sky answered as he righted himself, out of breath, “I still can’t fly properly though,”

“All things take time,” The Great Fairy smiled softly, “Go and rest, you will need energy for the fights to come,”

Sky nodded, quickly getting a drink of water before hopping over to the other Links. He laid down in between Hyrule and Wild, his feathers puffing up slightly as he tried to nap. Wind and Four took to being extremely careful not to fall on him while they were jumping.

“Stop your pacing old man,” Legend grumped, hopping over to the wolf, “It isn’t doing anyone any good,”

“I am not pacing,” Time huffed, his ears going back.

“Sure you aren’t,” Legend rolled his eyes, “Just like Warriors isn’t causing any problems, and Wolfie is protecting him despite the problems he is causing,”

“That’s not what I’m worried about. Who knows what those ‘interlopers’ would do if they caught them? Especially since Warriors accidentally saved one of them,” Time’s good eye narrowed slightly at the pink rabbit.

“Like that overgrown mutt wouldn’t allow that to happen,” Legend scoffed, adjusting his small red tunic, “He could probably smell a needle out of a haystack if given the chance,”

“The interlopers have magic on their side,” Time argued, “Who knows what they are capable of?”

“Ok, you got me there, Although,“ Legend started to hop away, glancing over his shoulder, “You’ve been worrying too much. Who knows what kind of tricks that mutt has up his sleeves here?”

With that Legend went over to the others, watching as Four used him as a barrier from Wind. This didn’t work as intended as Wind barreled into Legend, knocking both of them to the floor. Wind and Four laughed as the rabbit shoved the otter off, complaining loudly as he did so.

Still, there was something nagging at the back of his head while he watched the others have fun. That poe was enraged at him for no reason he knew of. Did he do something in the future for that poe’s fate to be his fault? Why was it here in the Zone of all places?

“The pink rodent is correct, you worry so much,” The Great Fairy’s voice made him jump, “Why?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? There are just too many unknowns to not worry,” Time shook his head as he sat down, his head swarming with everything.

“Concerns like that are unnecessary. Worrying will not help you prevent what is to come or what could come. Only action can prevent it,” The Great fairy had her arms folded in front of her, watching the Links play.

Time sighed, “Easy to say, harder to do,”

“You are the Ancestor of this Era’s hero,” The Great Fairy’s eyes looked away at something Time couldn’t see, “Just because it was hard, never stopped you before. Even now it hasn’t,”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Time felt himself unconsciously bristle at her words.

Her words struck him as odd. She was talking to him, yes, but her words sounded like she was addressing someone else. It was like a threat, that she knew his fate, that she knew far more than anyone here could fathom.

The Great Fairy simply tilted her head and looked down at him, “You are the ancestor of the Hero of the era are you not? Or have I mistaken you for someone else?”

“Well- no that’s accurate- but that isn’t what I was referring to,” Time floundered slightly, his voice gaining a hint of frustration towards the end.

“I have been alive for many years, and seen many things in my time,” The Great Fairy responded in a gentle, calm tone, “Your allies will be entering soon,”

Almost as if on cue, Legend perked up, his pink ears swiveling. Time could hear light thumping as Warriors came into the view. He looked no worse than he did when he left, in fact he seemed a lot more chipper than when he left.

“I’m baaack!” Warriors called out, jumping down the stairs easily.

“Cap!” Wind squeaked, abandoning his game to skitter over to the lion, “What did you two find out there? Was it dangerous? Where is Wolfie?”

“Food. No, not really. And he is up stairs dragging the corpse down a flight or two of stairs,” Warriors answered, his ears flickering slightly.

As if on cue there was a loud crashing noise that came from above. Silence followed it before the crashing noise continued until it stopped suddenly . Warriors shook his head, almost in a fond way as they others looked at eachother with confusion.

“Okay back up,” Legend stood up, “What the hell did you bring, a bear? Also why are you so happy? Last I saw you you were ready to tear Wolfie apart,”

Warriors did his best to shrug, “Things change, now everyone get up there and eat. It took a while to find something for everyone,”

“And do you even know what floor it's on?” Four asked, scurrying up on Wild’s head.

“I left after we got it down to the second floor,” Warriors thought for a moment, “So probably the third floor if anywhere, you can’t exactly miss Wolfie,”

Everyone then began to make their way up the stairs to the next floor. Warriors lagged behind, and rather than leading the others up to Twilight, stared at Time, his expression a mix between grave and sadness. Time, in turn, froze, tilting his head with confusion.

The other seemingly didn’t see that this was happening behind them as they finished climbing the stairs. The sound of their talking slowly faded into the distance as the two continued to stare at each other.

“Do you need something Captain?” Time asked after a moment.

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice….” Warriors murmured, Time just being able to hear the words.

“What?” Time, letting out a small confused whine.

“Nothing,” Warriors sighed, giving the wolf a sad smile, “Say Time? Mind doing me a favor?”

“What is it?” Time padded over to where Warriors was in confusion, “Did something happen out there? Did you and T-Wolfie fight?”

“No nothing like that- well sort of,” Warriors winced a little bit, “Just… if you have any issues, or get any lingering regrets or whatever, mind telling me? I hear it’s better to talk about them rather than keeping it all buried,”

Time nodded along, “What brought this about exactly?”

“I just realized you're there for the others, but no one is there for you,” Warriors walked towards the stairs, “So just…. Let me know if you need to talk about something alright? Just like when you were apart of the war in my world,”

“That was decades ago for me Cap,” Time responded with an amused huff, “But ok, I’ll tell you if something is bothering me,”

Warriors looked back, letting out a relieved chuff, “Thanks. Now let’s go get food shall we?”

“Sure Cap,” Time let himself try and grin in his wolf form.

In reality, despite the smile he had on his face he was concerned. Just what happened out there to bring this up so suddenly. He didn’t like how Warriors was keeping something from him and the group. Maybe it wasn’t as serious as Time was thinking, and just his hungry brain making everything seem more serious.

The two walked up floor after floor, hearing the sound of the others get closer and closer. The two reached the fourth floor seeing the others surrounding a pile of plants and a giant boar. Time saw dried red sand clinging to the stringy hair of the best along the gaping holes on its neck.

Twilight, apparently hearing them enter, looked up from the other, smaller Links and croaked out, “Ah, looks like everyone is here. Now shall we dig in?”

Twilight looked a bit more worse for wear from the last Time saw him. His fur was a lighter color due to all the sand in it. The fur around his mouth and paws were stained a deep crimson, probably due to the giant boar that laid before him. Though he seemed in high spirits despite it.

Time didn’t quite understand why Twilight chose to make his voice sound so forced and gravely. It hid his identity, yes, but it sounded painful to even speak like that. There could have been so many other voices Twilight could have chosen rather than sounding like he ate a mound of gravel and sand.

“Are we going to have to eat this raw?” Sky asked, a talon going to poke at the corpse.

“Yep,” Twilight confirmed, “No one here has opposable thumbs for a fire, and we are underground. Should be fine though, your bodies have digestive systems meant for this,”

“Should?” Sky’s feathers puffed out slightly, “What if it doesn’t work like that?”

“Then pray to the goddesses that The Great Fairy’s spring still has some healing properties,” Twilight retorted dryly, earning a small snort from Warriors.

Time looked over to the herbivores of the group. Legend was examining the plants on what appeared to be a torn up saddle with Hyrule standing over him. Four had accepted his fate and took a fruit, using his small claws to open it and ate the flesh inside. Four even offered some to Hyrule who very gently took it and awkwardly ate it.

“Where did you even find this?” Legend asked, his nose wrinkling as he sniffed some of the plants.

“With the Bullbo when we killed it. Finding plants is harder than meat out there,” Twilight responded.

“Took us a while to even find that beast,” Warriors added, walking over to the boar with Time in tow, “though how exactly are we supposed to eat it?”

“You just… eat it?” Twilight tilted his head, his ears flopping slightly, “Have you never dealt with an animal carcass before on what’s good and what isn’t?”

“No? Why would I?” Warriors asked in equal confusion.

“City boy over here has never needed to before,” Legend snorted from where he was eating the middle and not the ends of the plants, “Always had someone else to do it for him,”

“Oh like you are one to talk buck teeth,” Warriors tail flickered with mild annoyance, “I doubt you ever even cooked for yourself during your adventures,”

“Like you wou-” Legend started to retort.

“ENOUGH!” Time found himself barking it out, coughing, and looking to Twilight, “Humor us please,”

“Follow Wild’s lead: Grab a leg and go to town, mind the bones though,” Twilight nodded down to Wild.

Wild had already dove into the large bull, taking a front leg and ripping it off. Currently Wild was eating the meat from the leg a little away with practise ease. Honestly, Time would not be surprised if this wasn’t the first time he did something like this.

“....What?” Wild asked, looking up from the leg, a bit of meat hanging from his mouth.

“Nothing, just go back to eating,” Twilight spoke, managing a surprising amount of softness despite forcing his voice to be that gravely.

Once Wild did just that Twilight looked down at Wind- who was unsuccessfully doing just that- saying, “Not you, your teeth are much too small- just- here,”

With that Twilight went over to the back of the Bullbo, where claw marks made holes in the flesh, and took a large chunk out of it. With a sickening tearing sound, he tore it out and dropped it at Wind’s paws. The small otter looked surprised by the hunk of meat twice his size.

“There, the most tender piece of meat boars or pigs can have,” Twilight said after a moment, “You and Sky can share that, just let me know if you need more,”

Wind nodded, starting by taking a nibble, diving in eagerly afterwards. Sky did much the same thing, albeit a bit more composed. Perhaps it was the hunger, but Time found himself ripping out a hind leg and digging in. Warriors did the same after a moment of giving Twilight a look of slight confusion.

“Why aren’t you eating?” Warriors asked, everyone else already halfway through their meal, while Twilight hadn't even started his.

“I’ll eat once everyone else has their fill,” Twilight responded, not taking his eyes off of the exit to the upper floor.

“No,” Time side eyed the larger wolf, “You need to eat. Now,”

“I will wait until y’all have had your fill,” Twilight snapped, a small growl following it.

“Have you even eaten while in here Wolfs?” Wild joined in, noticeably frowning.

“Yes. The ‘night’ before I found you all,” Twilight answered snippily, “You all need it more,”

“You are bigger than anyone here-”

“I SAID I’M FINE!” Twilight snapped, snarling without a hint of remorse.

Everyone stopped eating, turning to look at Twilight with a shocked expression. Twilight, much less wolfie, never snapped at the others. Getting annoyed was common, but never full blown yelling at anyone. Even if they did know about how bitter he was after his journey.

It only took a moment for Twilight to realize what he did. His tail and ears went down, as his eyes widened. The gray wolf opened and closed his mouth before letting out an audible sigh.

“I- Sorry…” Twilight spoke slowly after another minute of complete silence, “I shouldn’t have snapped,”

“You’re good,” Wild almost unconsciously replied, “But like what was that? You’ve never done that before,”

Twilight’s ears were still flat against his head as he looked around the waiting Links. Time almost thought that Twilight would continue to be secretive. Though that was quickly pushed away as Twilight sat down with a deep sigh.

“... I heard the interlopers talking while they thought I was asleep. Part of the side effects of my larger form is being more ‘volatile’” Twilight finally managed to say, “That with enhanced senses, strength, and speed make for a dangerous combo,”

“Interesting,” Time tilted his head, “How long will you be like this?”

Interesting would not be a word Time would use alone, he was enraged. Twilight was captured and from the sounds of it, only recently escaped when they found him. No wonder the other wolf was blinded by rage and nearly harmed Warriors. It probably brought him back to the beginning of his journey, when he was forced into a cell.

Time found the manacle hard to not look at.

“Yeah, is there anything else with this curse we need to know?” Warriors added, pawing at the Bullbo leg he had.

“One of the interlopers said a week, and…” Twilight looked away, “...He told the others I will probably need more food than a typical wolf,,”

“Oh so you are just a dumbass then,” Legend groaned, “Why are you so determined to be a martyr?”

“You all need it more than I,” Twilight spoke, still looking away, “Transformations take a lot out of people, especially if you aren’t prepared,”

“All the more reason you should be eating,” Warrior coughed, “I mean- your body is now not only fighting the Zone’s corruption, but this spell and its’ side effects,”

As Twilight shot Warriors a slight glare, Time felt himself tense up. Did Warriors know Twilight’s secret? When did that happen, if ever? Twilight was decent about not slipping up, so how?

“Wait, what do you mean ‘corruption’?” Legend pointed out, now fully turned around.

“We saw a Bulbin corrupted by the Zone. According to Wolfie here it happens to all the monsters in the zone. We are protected because of our triforces, but he says it has never affected him,” Warriors explained, shooting a not so conspicuous stink-eye at Twilight, “That’s gotta use more energy than we do,”

“Animals aren’t affected by the Zones,” Twilight managed to growl out, “Not the cats in Castle Town, nor the chickens in Kakariko. I don’t know why, but that’s how it works,”

“Huh, well at least the triforce comes in handy for something,” Legend spoke sarcastically, raising a mock eyebrow while he looked at the pink paw that held his triforce, “That being said, you need to eat. We can’t have our guide passing out mid fight or something,”

“I said I would eat,” Twilight defended, “Just… after everyone else has their fill,”

“Nope, you gotta eat now,” Legend shrugged, “Everyone but you agree that you need to eat. So eat now, or we will tie you up and force you to,”

Twilight tilted his head, a small grin on his face, “Now how would you go and do that? Last I checked none of you are bigger than me,”

“Shouldn’t wolves know all about strength in numbers?” Warriors butted in, smirking, “Now fucking eat, or else the old man will butt in, and I know you- you do not want that,”

Twilight looked over to Time, his eyes wide and ears down. Time could not find it in himself to feel pity for the other wolf, not when he was purposely ignoring his own health. He needed to eat, just like the others said.

So, Time tilted his head slightly, giving Twilight a pointed look from where he sat across the Bulbo. Twilight huffed in defeat, and using his giant maw, Twilight took a chunk from the Bullbo’s shoulder.

Twilight flopped overdramatically a few feet from the corpse, the only noise coming from him was the noise of him eating the chunk of meat. The other Links went back to eating, the carnivores of the group going faster than the herbivores.

Time was finished quickly all things considered, looking up to see Warriors about done too. He needed to talk to Warriors about what he was saying earlier. Even if it leads to nowhere he needed to know.

“Captain,” Time spoke, waiting for Warriors to look up, “I need to speak to you. Alone.”

“Oooo,” Wind grinned, his tail wagging, “Cap is in trooouubbllleeee,”

Warriors scoffed, gently pushing Wind over, “Yeah right, I’ll be back in a minute,”

The two went down to the floor below them, the sound of the others talking fading into the background. Once on the lower floor, Time turned to look at Warriors, seeing the lion’s confused look on his face. Time held eye contact for as long as he could in this silent standoff.

“So why did you want to talk to me?” Warriors finally spoke, his head turning away from the staring contest.

“Do you know?” was all Time asked.

Warriors had a look of confusion before realization, “What- OH, yeah I know,”

“Know what exactly?” Time specified, hid nose wrinkling slightly.

“Probably more than you do,” Warriors walked up to Time, circling him teasingly, “Like how Twi’s a wolf in goat clothing, who exactly that Shade is, the magic that allows him to transform, and how CREEPY shadow Bulbins look,”

“What was that middle one?” Time asked, widening his one open eye.

“How he transforms? Yeah, it's that crystal that he wears on his neck. There is a whole traumatic story behind it. Though I have reason to suspect the stone gets lodged into his skull, cause of what Dusk did at the castle,” Warriors shrugged.

Time felt a headache coming along, “Not that- I already know how it works- You know who that poe is?”

“Oooohhhh yeahhh,” Warriors drawled out, his tail twinkling slightly as he came to the front of Time, “That was an interesting conversation- say did you know Twilight can actually hear the bastard when he talks? It was very confusing only hearing half of what was said between them,”

“Well who is it?” Time asked.

“Well, that’s the thing,” Warriors sighed, “You know I hate to lie to you, but Twi asked me to keep it a secret. Sorry squirt,”

Time let out a huff or irritation. So much for learning who that malicious spirit was to find out why it hates him so much. At the very least he now knew that Warriors actually knew Twilight’s secret. Though calling him by that nickname was unwarranted.

“So, we good? Or are you still going to put me through the ringer like the over protective wolf that you are?” Warriors teased, a grin showing off his large teeth present.

“I am not-” Time started.

A loud angry bark echoes through the chamber. It was followed by a loud pitched scream. A loud pitched human scream. The two Links shared a look, there was only one person that could make a bark that loud upstairs.

The wolf and the lion ran up the stairs, Warriors leading the way, and bounding up 4 stairs at a time. Time was close behind, trying his best to hear what was going on. The screaming had stopped but that didn’t mean whatever was going on stopped.

Once they were back in the chamber with the dead Bullbo, two things gained Time’s attention. First Twilight and Wild were gone, all that was left in their wake was cleaned off bones. Secondly there were crossbow bolts littering the floor, the only place being spared was the area underneath the stairs and the entrance.

“By the goddesses what happened here?!” Warrior yelled, his fur raising as he spoke.

“The interlopers came and started firing crossbow bolts,” Legend replied, hopping over from where he was hiding, “Wolfie drew their fire and chased those fuckers out. Wild went after him right before you two came back up,”

“Is everyone alright? Did anyone get hit?” Time demanded, his muscles tensing.

“We were all lucky,” Hyrule spoke up, sniffing an arrow as he got up, “Wolfie got nicked while distracting them, got real mad about it too,”

Time’s eye widened, smelling the air only confirmed what Hyrule said. The scent of blood was thick in the air, and as he looked around the room he saw the drying droplets on the stone floor leading up the stairs and out of sight.

Warriors saw the same thing, cursing as he asked, “What was the screaming about?”

“Wolfie got a hold of one of them on the upper floor,” Wind skittered in between Hyrule’s legs, only stopping because he ran into them, “He ran up those stairs faster than I’ve ever seen him move,”

“Like a bat out of hell,” Legend agreed, nodding as he stood on his hind legs, “Anyway, better go after the mutt before he does something he regrets. I’ll get the others down to the Great Fairy incase one of them comes back,”

“Good idea, but-” Warriors frowned, his ears pinned backwards, “How many did you see?”

“Two, a tall one and a short one,” Legend answered, “Don’t know where the third is, but I don’t think that matters at the current moment,”

“Right,” Warriors nodded, turning to Time, “Let’s go find him shall we?”

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

They were lost. A sandstorm had appeared so suddenly the wolf and lion had no chance to try and avoid it. The droplets of a bloody trail that they were following disappeared as the Sandstorm got worse. Neither could even smell the distinct iron scent that the blood had anymore, all of it lost to the wind.

“DO YOU SEE ANYTHING?” Warriors yelled, his voice quickly disappearing into the wind.

Time’s good eye squinted through the storm. He could barely see Warriors who was walking shoulder to shoulder with him, much less a foot away. That, paired with the darkness that the Zone was constantly in, made it nigh impossible to properly see anything.

It wasn’t like they could retreat back to the Cave of Ordeals if they wanted to anyway. All sense of direction was lost when they entered this sandstorm. Left and Right became foreign with how everything looked the same, even their pawprints disappeared soon after they were made.

“NO,” Time hollered at the top of his lungs, “LET’S GO STRAIGHT, MAYBE THEN WE CAN GET OUT OF THIS AND REGROUP,”

It was grueling in that sandstorm. It was like the wind was fighting them specifically, trying to keep them from getting out. Eventually though the sandstorm slowed down enough that Time and Warriors could escape.

Warriors and Time, now that they were no longer in the sandstorm, took to searching the endless twilight looking for their lost companions. They weren’t having much luck however. The trail of blood and paw indents in the sand had long since disappeared thanks to that storm. Nor could either hear anything over the howling wind.

It wasn’t like the two could go back to the cave and wait for Twilight and wind to come back either. They were just as lost as Twilight and Wild were to them. With no prior experience in this desert, everything looked the same. Even the small amount of cacti that could be seen all seemed to merge together.

That sandstorm ruined any and all trace that Twilight and Wild left in their wake. For the same reason they couldn’t even go back to the Cave of Ordeals to wait it out. Time couldn’t even track their scents, granted he was wildly inexperienced in such things, but that didn’t bode well for either of the links.

What Time would give for Twilight to start glowing again.

“Man, wouldn’t it be incredible if Rancher had a bell on him?” Warriors huffed, his tail twinkling as he surveyed the area, “The noise would help us find him at the very least, and then we could use his nose to find Wild,”

“Like Wild would leave Twilight’s side,” Time shook his head, a puff of sand leaving his coat, “Still can’t believe you found out his identity,”

“I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to put everything together,” Warriors sighed, his eyes squeezing shut for a moment, “It should’ve been so obvious. When one leaves, the other appears,”

“It does help that he had a few others covering him,” Time nodded, looking out, “That hardly matters now though. We either need to find them, or get back to the Cave. Either is extremely difficult without someone who knows this place,”

“Knows this place?” Warriors' eyes widened as he bared his teeth in lieu of a smile, “I have an idea, Come on!”

“What is it?” Time trotted after Warriors, tilting his head as they went to the top of a nearby sand dune.

“So do you know about the guy who taught Twilight all his fancy sword moves?” Warriors asked, looking around the top of the dune.

“Yes, the Hero’s Shade. But how do you know of him?” Time asked, his ears flicking as the sand picked up.

“Never mind that,” Warriors turned to look at him, his blue eyes bright with excitement, “Turns out that prick of a poe? Yeah that’s Shade, and being such a hardened old bastard, he HAS to know where those two are!”

Time blinked with confusion, “Why would he know that?”

“Think about it old man,” Warriors used one his paws to gesture to the desert expanse, “That bastard has been following us around for ages now. Twilight specifically, but he knew exactly where we were in comparison to Twilight and pointed us there. Therefore it stands to reason that he knows where Twilight is and where we are!”

Once again, Time was left wondering what exactly did Warriors see on his hunt out with Twilight. It made sense, but yet there was an odd look lingering in Warriors’ eyes. A knowing look that was muted just enough so that Time couldn’t understand why he looked at him like that.

It had been happening far too often for his tastes.

“That is a stretch by all standards Captain,” Time did his best to raise an ‘eyebrow,’ “How do you know that this will work?”

The lion had a somber look on his face a brief second before he went back to grinning, “Well you're here aren’t you? From your last encounter we know he HATES you with as much hate as his undead self can! So he might just do it out of spite or something,”

“....Really?”

“Yup! Don’t think too much about it right now!” Warriors cleared his throat before letting out a loud roar.

Time winced, leaning away as he heard Warriors roar out:

“SHAAADDDEEEEE I KNOW YOU'RE LISTENING! HELP US FIND WILD AND TWILIGHT!”

Silence overcame the two as they waited to see if anything would happen. Nothing did, but the air held an expectant note to it. Honestly it wouldn’t surprise Time if that poe was just waiting for Warriors to say please. It’s what he would do in this situation.

“.....Please?” Warriors added once the silence became too much.

Like clockwork, a soft glow appeared in the distance. It was the same golden color that radiated off of the poe before, but was much softer than what came off of Twilight during his rampage. It wasn’t too far away, but far enough that Warriors and Time would’ve taken ages without the soft beacon.

“See? Told ya,” Warriors looked smug, his tail twitching, showing just how smug he was, “Come on before Shade gets tired of waiting!”

Time shook his head, following at a slower pace over to the light. It was somewhat difficult for him to gain footing on the sand, he slipped every couple of feet. Eventually though he made it up to where Warriors was, and saw a peculiar sight.

Time could see Wild easily. The younger Link was pacing back and forth around a large hole that seemed oddly Twilight shaped. Time couldn’t see in the darkened hole from his position above it. From Wild occasionally sticking his head in the whole, Time assumed that’s where Twilight was.

The oddest thing was that across from Wild was a stag. An ancient one at that with unbelievably large antlers with vines and moss hanging from the end of each of the points. The fur was golden and white, it had a similar pattern to Time’s own fur, the difference being how the white on the stag was far more connected than it was on Time. Said fur was practically see through for Time, showing a hollow skeleton if he looked hard enough.

Time felt himself freeze as the Stag looked up at him and Warriors. It had one ‘good’ eye that glowed bright red as it looked at him, the other socket was completely black and hollow. It did not breathe, the only sign of life was its one eye that slowly filled with hate as it looked at him. It lifted up one of its cracked hooves, stomping it harshly against the ground.

The sand didn’t even stir at this movement.

Time’s hackles raised slightly. This was the shell of a man that Twilight was afraid of disappointing? A thing that Time has only seen with hate in its eyes, someone who used to be his descendant before Twilight? What a stain on the title of Hero that it bore even in death.

Blue met red as the two had this silent staring staring contest. The deer’s ear ever so slightly twitching at the sound of Wild’s voice. Out of the corner of his eye Time could see Warriors watching this with a frown, looking in between the two. Captain, after a moment, loudly sighed, shaking his head as he looked on with pity.

Wild’s ears perked up, turning around and looking up at the two, “Hey! When did you two get here?”

Warriors started to slide down, saying “We just got here a minute ago, say what’s with the hole?”

Time slowly followed, his eye never leaving Shade. He didn’t feel dread pooling in his gut this time but rather a feeling of uneasiness overcame him. During their last encounter he had never gotten so close to it. Now though, as Time shivered slightly, something in him told him that this poe would do nothing, not while Wild, Warriors, and Twilight were nearby.

“No clue,” Wild bent down slightly to peer into the hole again, “Wolfie started to dig, told me to stay up here to keep watch. That’s when the ghostly deer over there showed up,”

“Have you even heard anything from that damned Goat lover?” Warriors asked pointedly ignoring how Wild went slack jaw in favor of also peering down into the hole, “That had to be a cavern before he dug his way down there. Wonder what's down there that made him go down,”

Wild looked frantically between Warriors and Time, his eyes wide. The stag, for this first time, huffed with amusement, the one glowing eye now looking at Wild. Time frowned at the deer before looking back at Wild.

“He knows Cub,” Time grunted, ignoring how the Stag’s eye slowly turned back to him.

“Really? How did you find out his secret?” Wild practically demanded, his attention fully turned to Warriors, his ears perked.

“Eh, something just clicked after seeing how Twi and ‘Wolfie’ reacted the same to stuff,” Warriors briefly glanced up at the Stag, “Have you heard anything from that guy?”

Time stared at Warriors. He was lying, or at least partially. He used that tone of voice in the war to lie to Artemis about his plans. Not to mention how Warriors immediately changed the subject to something else. Something that was usually connected to the truth, but how?

Wild shook his head, not picking up on the lie, “I’ve heard Twi say some things, But deer has uttered a word since it got here. It has just been standing there, staring,”

“I can believe that,” Time tilted his head slightly, “How long have you two been waiting?”

“Not too long,” Wild noticeably frowned, “In fact, this is the quietest he has been,”

“Should we go after him?” Time glanced down for a second before looking back up at Wild.

“I don’t think we should,”

Both Time and Wild turned towards Warriors. He was staring at the Stag, his head tilting ever so slightly. Shade, in return, tilted his head slightly, the red eye softening slightly. Time shook his head at the sight, it seemed like this ‘Hero’s Shade’ just hated him in particular.

“What?” Wild tilted his head, looking in between the two, “Why?”

Warriors flinched slightly, his head quickly turning to survey the area, “I mean- he told you to stay up here for a reason. And he might need us up here to help pull him out of there,”

Time took this chance to actually look into the hole. The entrance was straight down, a limestone like wall lined the side Shade was closest to. The other side had a well worn passage down, like it was carved specifically for travel. If Time had to guess, this tunnel was made back when the Gerudo were still around. But how or why did Twilight find it?

“How would we even do that?” Wild nodded to the hole, “We don’t have hands anymore to help drag him out. Not that he would exactly let us do that,”

“Well, maybe he will find something down there, like a rope or something,” Warriors’ fur bristled ever so slightly, glancing at the deer.

Before Time could reply, Twilight’s slightly distorted voice echoed up to them:

“Everything still good up there Wil- What the fuck?!”

Shade had actually moved, far too quickly for Time’s liking, at the sound at Twilight’s voice. Its antlers were far too large for the entrance, so the stag’s head was hovering just above the hole, looking down into it. It even went so far as to lower its front half down to properly look at Twilight.

“Shade?! How did you- Time and Warriors are up there? Also why are you- Ah, right. Still doesn’t answer why you are here,” Twilight paused for a moment, “I got distracted and lost them,”

Time watched as the stag was motionless as it looked down, not a peep was coming from the poe. So this is what Warriors meant when only Twilight could hear the poe. But if this was the case, what was that voice he heard before?

Wild spoke up, his ears going straight back, “You lost them?! They SHOT you, what could have distracted you after that??”

Twilight’s voice was defensive, “I just got nicked, but I found something far more important. Just… give me a second to get out of here and we can continue this conversation,”

Time could hear the scraping of claws against stone, the manacle rattling as Twilight cursed. A light thud could be heard before the manacle rattled against the stone, picking up pace as the sound of scraping continued. Shade briefly lifted its head out of the entrance, as Time saw Twilight’s ear reach the top before descending back down with a loud thud.

“Pup are you alright!?” Time almost ran to the hole, but was frozen by the glare Shade sent him.

Time growled at Shade, hackles fully raised. Yet he did not walk any closer. It was just a poe, just what could it do to help? Time had a better chance of helping that it did.

“Fuck- Yeah I’m fine! Looks like it's going to be harder to get out then I thought,” Twilight voice was a relief to Time’s ears, distracting him from glaring at the poe.

Time watched as Shade slowly tilted his head, carefully adjusting until a large antler went through the hole as far as the Stag could manage. Its head was still out of the hole though, staring silently at the group. Its hooves now made an imprint into the sand, shifting slightly like it was preparing for something.

“Are you sure about this?” Twilight asked, his voice shaking ever-so slightly, “Ok, ok- give me a second for a running start,”

The sound of Twilight’s manacle grew quiet before the sound grew louder and louder. The sound of the manacle quieted as Shade’s head jerked down abruptly, a loud thud and whine echoed. Shade snorted, slowly pulling his head back up, its hooves digging in the sand as it backed up.

Soon after Twilight’s ears slowly became visible, then the rest of his head. Twilight was biting down on the antler with intense focus as his front paws managed to find a grip in the sand, pulling the rest of him up. He didn’t let go of Shade’s antler until he was completely clear of the hole.

“Thanks,” Twilight spoke as Shade bent down to sniff at the top of his head, “Yeah, I’m fine, just got the air knocked out of me,”

“See what I mean,” Warriors whispered to Time, “Confusing to hear only one side of the conversation isn’t it?”

Time didn’t respond, but he couldn’t help but agree.

As Shade stood back up fully, Time was surprised by the tender look in Shade’s one red eye. Despite the gray wolf’s large size, he was still easily dwarfed by the stag, only barely reaching up to the base of its neck. Time could now see a healed cut on Twilight’s shoulder.

The Stag looked at everyone one more time (sending a bone chilling glare at Time) before running up over a nearby sand dune. The golden stag’s light disappeared as it went over the dune. Twilight shook his head, a small smile on his face as he looked at where it disappeared to.

“Well, what did you find?” Wild asked, making Twilight jump and look around.

“Where are they…” Twilight mumbled, going back to the edge of the hole.

Time felt himself bristle as he spoke, “What are you doing? Get back from it!”

“Give me a second,” Was Twilight’s response before his voice softened, “It’s safe to come out,”

A soft pink light emanated from the hole as two small fairies floated out from it. One dragging a tied up paper, and the other a shard of pottery. Twilight gently took the paper from the fairy, placing it on the ground in front of the other 3 links. The small fairy then floated over to the other, helping to lift the pottery shard onto Twilight’s back.

“So you got distracted with a pot?” Warriors shook his head, “Where would you even put the rupee?”

“No, I didn’t,” Twilight glared at the smirking lion as he pawed open the map, “I found one of the containers The Great Fairy’s power, some captive fairies, and this map of their hideouts in this Zone,”

“But you still broke it?” Warriors said smugly, “Sounds to me like you were still distracted by a pot,”

“Captain…” Twilight growled, his ears slowly going back.

“Rancher…” Warriors replied, sounding like he was about to start laughing.

“Enough you two,” Time warned, earning a huff from the lion and wolf simultaneously.

“How are you sure this map is the real deal?” Wild asked, staring down at the map.

“I don’t,” Twilight nodded to the map, “The Great Fairy might though. Let’s head back and regroup,”

“What will we do after that?” Wild asked, helping to roll the map back up with his paws, gently grabbing it with his maw.

“Simple,” Twilight grinned, it looking more like a snarl, “We take those bastards down,”

[anadorablekiwi]

The candle guttered in the draft coming through the open window. It’s frosty touch slithered and seeped across the back of Jean’s neck, and she shuddered a little at the chill. It was too early in the year to really have the window open, especially this late at night, but the trade reports had just come in. With winter beginning to settle in, it was important that Jean make sure all the proper imports were being made, the correct deals being sought and fulfilled, and all forms filled out to perfection, in order to ensure a safe and comfortable winter for all of Mondstat. However, the reports had all come in at once, and in a very intimidating pile at that, and jean had been working on them all day, after a week of shorter nights than Barbara would like to hear.

After a while, the dimness of the room, the long days and little sleep, and the warmth of the fire—they’d all began to slide together into a heavy weight attempting to drag down her eyelids.

So she’d opened the window, in hopes that a sharp, fresh breeze would keep her alert enough to—to—

Jean blinked heavily, pinching the bridge of her nose, striving to focus on the words on the paper, which had begun to waver and blur. The reality was that the air she let in was indeed cold, but it was also damp, and somehow seemed to add to the sleepiness instead of relieve it.

She leaned on one elbow, her fingers massaging her eyelids, trying to rub wakefulness back into them. Maybe if she kept them closed for a moment, they would reset and start working properly again… just for a moment, or two…

…or three…

~*~*~*~

The Darknight hero scowled up at the Knights of Favonius Headquarters. This was not for the reason one might expect—after all, it was clear that the Darknight Hero operated without the approval of the Knights, even to the layman. To those in the know (a select group of people, mainly consisting of the Traveler, Paimon, and the Cavalry Captain of the Knights, Kaeya), there might have been an even more obvious reason—that being that the man behind the mask, Diluc, had a distinct, ever-burning distaste for the Knights.

And yet, this, too, was not the reason for the Hero’s profound scowl.

It was the open window—a window, open, in the first fortnight of January—that belonged to the office of the Acting Grandmaster herself. What’s more, the faint yellow glow that could be seen within made it clear that the Acting Grandmaster was still within, working. As always.

At three in the blasted morning!

(Never mind the fact that Diluc himself was at work at three in the blasted morning. It was the principal of the thing, Barbatos take it, and the principal was that Jean was going to work herself into the sickbay at his rate, if not worse)

He shoved a hand through his hair, gritting his teeth and growling under his breath. “Just what am I going to do with you, Jean?”

~*~*~*~

The moment or three seemed to stretch into something syrupy and soft, warm and sweet as honey, and Jean slowly pulled herself out of it’s sticky warmth, blinking eyes open to—daylight?

Jean jolted in surprise, her elbobanging against the edgeo f her desk as she flopped and scrambled to orient herself.

She was at her office. The early morning sun was shining in, lying like ethereal blankets of liquid gold upon everything it touched. She… she… she must have fallen asleep at her desk last night, despite all her best efforts.

A hot prickle of shame danced up her spine. Some grandmaster she was, falling asleep on duty with a window open and candl—

With a candle lit!

She spun around in horror—how could she have slept all night with a candle burning and the window open, it was a miracle she hadn’t burned down the headquarters and it’d be a second one if she didn’t end up sick with a headcold—

The candle was extinguished, and yet it was not the hardened pile she expected from a candle that had been left to burn and melt overnight.

No, the candle was hardly shorter than she remembered it being last night.

Besides that… the window was closed.

Jean certainly didn’t remember closing it herself.

Neither did she remember sanding the ink on the forms she had been working on, before properly stacking them on the desk out of the way, her pen returned securely to it’s place. What’s more, one of the flags hanging on the wall had been taken down, folded neatly, and placed under where her head had lain like a makeshift pillow.

Most importantly of all, there was a note laid atop the neat stack of papers on her desk, with a simple message scrawled upon it.

“Go to bed next time, or you’ll catch a cold.”

Jean picked up the note, and after a closer inspection, she found exactly what she expected—a familiar handwriting. Dare she say it, a very familiar handwriting.

She knew exactly who had left that note—and if she knew who had left the note, Jean suspected she knew who had left the warm, thick cloak she had found draped over her shoulders.

She lifted the cloak to her nose and took a deep breath. It smelled… warm, like sunsoaked earth, sweet grapes, and a hint of smoke.

Jean allowed herself the indulgence of one more sniff before standing up and stretching the kinks out of her back. She removed the cloak slowly, in what an outside observer would think was a reluctant fashion, before folding it neatly and walking to the other table and setting down.

As she did, she paused. Her eyes widened, and a faint, rosy flush crawled across her cheeks.

Next to the omnipresent tea set that Jean kept always at hand (one never knew when one might require the restorative effects of a properly brewed cup), there lay a single stalk of lamp-grass, the blossom glowing faintly in the shadow cast by the teapot.

The flush deepened, and Jean lifted a hand to her mouth, though there was no one else to see what expression she made.

“Honestly,” she muttered, as her ears pinkened to match. “That man.”

~*~*~*~

Later that day, a package was delivered to the Dawn Winery. In it was one dark cloak, folded neatly and wrapped in paper to ensure safe travel—and a letter.

It was short, and read, “I shall promise to go to bed next time, but only as long as you promise to use my door next time.

Love,

Jean.”

If Diluc smiled as he read it, well... that, only the winds can tell.

 

Happy birthday 💖💜💖

GJDHDHDHEJEBDGSIDVDJSS

Ahsbdhsbdjsbe

ANON AAAAAAAAAAAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH

[a-pale-azure-moon]

WIP Wednesday

It's done.

There will be revisions and tweaks to make between now and when I post it in a few days, but I have finished the final chapter of Someday We'll Shine Together. At long last, it is complete.

I'm struggling to distill all of my emotions into words at the moment. This fic has been a part of my life for about three years now. I'm feeling accomplished and proud of myself for really and truly finishing it despite the fact that when I first had the idea, I was convinced this was another of those fleeting inspirational flashes that would never go anywhere and would forever languish in my WIP folder. I got very attached to this story in the process of creating it, and I got even more attached to it when it was one of the things that helped see me through a very difficult time in my personal life. As such, I'm also grieving that it's over and that I now must let it go. Sure, it'll always exist for me to revisit whenever I want, but that feeling is never the same as the one derived from actively working on it.

While I'm still digesting all of these emotions, here's a rough timeline and some background of the fic's development, so you can all see how I finally got to this point. This is pretty personal too, because the two are irrevocably intertwined. (Content warning: death/grief)

Summer 2020: Initial inspiration hits after I rewatched Utena during COVID lockdown.

Fall 2020: Brainworms are on-and-off active, writing short blurbs in a Google doc when they come to me, but there's no true shape to the whole plot yet, it’s just random scenes. It's more or less still strictly a 3H-esque retelling of Utena, and I'm not expecting anything to actually come of these blurbs.

Winter 2020: More blurbs trickle in here and there. The story in my head is starting to divert more drastically from the show.

February 19, 2021: Draft of the pivotal scene at the end of Chapter 15 written. I remember the specific day for this because I wrote it the same day we put down our dog, Clancy. (Writing emotional scenes often helps me process my own emotions.)

April 11, 2021: Creation of my dedicated author's notes file to keep track of the various threads and ideas I'd come up with, especially the backstory about Faerghus and how Dimitri became the Lion Prince. I filled it in like an extended summary or wikipedia entry about the 'verse and the overall plot of the story. I jotted a lot of stuff down between April and June as the brainworms really got to work again.

Summer 2021: I'm starting to entertain the idea of actually seeing this project through. Chapters 1 and 2 are drafted over the summer months, but I hit a block and the self doubt comes roaring right in to deter me.  A LARGE part of my struggle with getting this fic out of development hell was me being unable to get out of my own way.  Every stumbling block I hit (especially early on) was an invitation for my inner critic to resume browbeating me into giving up this “stupid” idea.

September 2021: I finally make up my mind that I'm really going to do this, and I spend the next six weeks ironing out the bumps in the plot and making a chapter-by-chapter outline highlighting the key scenes/plot points/character beats within each one. I organized the various blurbs I had into chronological order and put them under the correct chapter headings. I also started thinking of the best way to get myself to see this project through, as well as what would be a realistic timetable for its completion. I estimated that the final length of the whole thing would be around 350 pages or roughly 150K words. (This is hilarious to me in hindsight.  I severely underestimated the scope of this fic!)

November 2021: I try to do the NaNoWriMo challenge (50K words in a month) to draft as much of the fic as I can. I "only" produce about 35K words in the end, but it was enough to draft Chapters 3 and 4 and write at least one decent-sized blurb within each of all of the remaining chapters.

December 2021: I took a short hiatus from working on SWST to finish Beneath the Ethereal Moon. When that's done, I went over my outline yet again to refine it further and then cleaned up my draft of Chapter 1 with an eye on posting it after right after New Year's. I determined that posting (and writing) one chapter per month should be doable, especially since I have a generous buffer to start with.

January 2022: I get a bad case of cold feet/anxiety and don't post Chapter 1. I'm having trouble getting a feel for Chapter 5 and fail to finish it before the end of the month. (This naturally doesn't help alleviate my self-doubt or silence my very loud inner critic.)

February 2022: Cold feet strike again and I fail to post Chapter 1 a second time. I'm still stuck on Chapter 5 (though I've at least made some progress), and while I'm extremely aware that I'm being my own worst enemy, that doesn't make it any easier to beat back old habits.

March 2, 2022: In the wee hours of the night (it was after midnight), I finally posted Chapter 1 and went straight to bed after. I slept terribly of course, haha.

I wish I could say "and you know the rest from here," but that's not true. Posting Chapter 1 was a huge mental hurdle cleared, but there were other things going on behind the scenes that almost derailed this project for good. The timing was such that if I were more prone to hubris, I'd think that the universe itself was testing my resolve. Or possibly mocking me.

On March 3, 2022 (yes, the day after I posted Chapter 1), my father was admitted to the hospital with a debilitating pain in his lower back. Initially, we thought it might be a flare up of his sciatica or maybe something like a kidney stone, but the truth was far worse. What he had was a spinal epidural abscess caused by a bacterial infection in his blood. He was transported to the ICU of a larger (further away) hospital once the severity of his condition was discovered, and he was pumped full of massive doses of antibiotics. Thanks to that, he stabilized, but what followed after was a long period of uncertainty as he would start to make gains only to suffer a setback. Even once the infection and his pain level were under control, he'd been so severely sick that the bacteria had ravaged his various body systems, leading to issues with his kidneys and his heart.

For 91 days, my family and I were stuck on a wretched rollercoaster of getting hopeful (he was transferred to a rehab facility three different times when it looked like he was improving) and then having our hopes dashed when something would happen that would see him sent back to the hospital (falling out of bed, chest pains, difficulty breathing). Hope began to fade in mid May when he was transferred back to the ICU due to diastolic heart failure, which caused his lungs to fill up with fluid. They tapped his lungs thrice, removing at least a liter of fluid each time, but they kept filling up again despite all the diuretics the doctors were giving him. Then his kidneys began to shut down too. We kept hoping right until the end, but he passed away on June 1, 2022, the day before what would've been his and my mother's 49th wedding anniversary.

(Proof that real life can be even crueler than fiction.)

I was only able to continue updating SWST while my father was sick because of that buffer I'd had, and I very nearly deleted the story from AO3 altogether after he died. I remember ruminating about how futile it was to continue with this project; I'd written almost nothing while he was sick, so my buffer was now gone and I questioned whether or not I'd be able to write, let alone write consistently, with the promised months of grief and general upheaval ahead. Even writing a story that I had, to that point, been passionate about felt utterly pointless.

It was strange though. I woke up on June 2nd thinking that maybe I should go ahead and post chapter 4 anyway, since it was already done and it was one of the chapters I particularly liked. So I did. And in the following days, we had my father's funeral and a part of me felt like I could breathe again. I was grieving yes, but the constant daily stress and uncertainty from his illness was gone, and I think that freed my creative drive to start working again. I remember the first day I sat back down at my computer with the intention to write and how much better I felt in general after I got some words onto the screen.

It's hella ironic that I planned SWST with grief and loss as major themes and it turned out I'd be processing such things myself while writing most of it. I know my own grief affected the story, though it's impossible to say to what degree; I get a lot of catharsis in general from writing emotional scenes, so I tend to go hard on them regardless. It didn't change the plot or direction of the story at all, since that was already planned, but it's certainly safe to say that I channeled a lot of my own feelings into some of the most intense moments. The ending of Chapter 9 stands out in particular as something that felt like it was coming straight out of my own heart.

Even on the hard days when I was feeling too overwhelmed and/or the words just weren’t coming, this story gave me a reason to keep going.  Just keeping the goal in mind and reasserting my resolve to be consistent and see this project through to the end helped me cope.  It both kept me grounded and helped me process what I was going through and it gave me something to look forward to when I uploaded each chapter and anxiously waited to see what the readers would think.

I started this fic as a means of testing myself: testing my commitment to writing consistently, to finishing a long-term project, and to getting over at least some of the many, MANY mental hurdles that have held me back from writing for way too long.  I knew that this story would always be near and dear to me if I managed to finish it, but it became even more precious than I ever could’ve imagined back in 2020.  It hurts that I must say goodbye to it, but…it’s forever mine.  I can say with my whole chest that I MADE THIS THING and I’m so very proud of it! <3

[apothecaryau]

Apothecary AU - Nightmare & Gash The Youngest Concubine: Draft

When researching about concubines during the Edo period for feudal Japan. I found out about the ages that concubines usually were. During that time concubines were usually around the ages of 13 and 15 when they first became one. I do not like how young these girls were, when they became a concubine what-so-ever. But I’m also trying to be accurate to the time period that they are in.

It grosses me out so much when I learned the youngest age a concubine could be made. Grosses me out still, so much so that it makes me nauseous just remembering that fact. I get that’s just what was considered normal for the time, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t gross me out still.

Gash (XGaster) himself also finds great disgust in the young ages of many of the concubine that are from other Empires. He prefers his concubine being older. But the question is, why is one of his own Concubine so young? Despite the pure hatred he feels when it comes to young Concubine.

------

Nightmare thought as he quietly worked. Carrying a basket strapped to his back as he made his way back to the apothecary building. He had gone out with some guards earlier in the day, beyond the X-Empire gates to gather up supplies from the forest. He had found many useful ingredients that he and the elderly white fox monster. Aoi is his name. The old monster while wise… He still has his moments where he doesn’t fully trust Aoi’s judgment. Mostly due to his old age and how the monster didn’t realize that the cause to the poison sickness that had plagued Mo and Arch when he had been first captured and brought to the inner walls of the X-Empire.

That white powder make-up the human ladies in waiting wore nearly caused their deaths after all… Nightmare shook his skull at that memory. He really needs to get past those thoughts, he’s been getting better after all. That white powder make-up hadn’t been as popular when Cross would’ve been a baby. So it makes sense that no one in the X-Empire would’ve known how dangerous that powder was.

Stopping and looking up as something his the side of his leg. Looking down he saw a spinning top that laid next to his foot. Then glancing to the side he saw a human child. They wore a very fancy silk kimono. Ones that royals normally ware. ‘Is Gash holding a meeting with another Empire? Is this child, the child of a guess?’ He mentally questioned. Looking the child over.

This child is a girl, with a light olive toned skin. She stood around 4 feet and 6 inches in height. Their eyes are a bright green with a red ring around them. Her long black hair was up in a tamagusubi style. She looked no older then 12 years of age. She had on some basic make-up on her face. Making her lips red and red eye shadow.

(Note I tried to look up the skin tones people had during feudal Japan. The search results I found didn’t have much for conclusive answers, and I’ve mostly gotten information about the make-up history during the time, and how everyone wanted to have pale white skin, with brightly colored lips and eye shadow. From the bits of info about skin tone I could find, I’ve got no clue how accurate it is. So if people didn’t have olive tone skin in Japan during that time. If my research is wrong, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! Since this is just a draft. I want to go through and be able to correct anything if the information that I find while researching is wrong/inaccurate. I don’t wish to accidentally offend anyone due to inaccurate information found while while researching.)

“Concubine Fumiku! There you are!” A lady in waiting called out as she ran over. “You know better then to run off.” The lady then looked up at Nightmare. Seemingly confused for a moment.

Nightmare raised a brow at them. ‘Concubine Fumiku? A child? Maybe they are the concubine to the crowned air for the other empire that is here? He did over hear from someone that Cross had taken his first concubine Horror when he was 13 years of age. So it doesn’t sound strange. Maybe Emperor Gash suggested that Fumiku and the crowned air play out here while the other Emperor’s spoke to one another?’ His mind wondered.

Clearing his throat before bowing towards the two of them. “I am apothecary Nightmare. Poison taste taster for crowned prince Cross and his concubines. It is nice to meet the two of you.” He straightened back up and looked the two over. Thinking as he looked the child over once again. Reaching down and picking up the spinning top. “Here you go.” He handed the top over to the child.

The child slowly took the spinning top and looked Nightmare over. She tilted her head a little and slowly backed away.

“Come concubine Fumiku.” The lady in waiting said. Taking the child’s hand and took them away.

Nightmare watched them leave. Shrugging a little as he continued making his way to the apothecary building. Maybe he could asked Aoi about that child he ran into? He thought as he continued to walk.

Entering the apothecary medicine building and slid the door behind him. Glancing over at the elderly white fox. “I’ve returned from the herb search.” He simply stated as he placed the basket full of herbs down on the table for them to sort through.

“Ah that’s good.” Aoi smiled as he got up from the spot he was sitting at. Holding onto the handles of the stone roller that he had been using. A smile on their face as they walked over and joined him at the table. “Ah such a large collection you’ve found.” He said while picking up a stick that had a bunch of leaves on the end. Sniffing them a little.

Nightmare nodded with a slight grin to himself. Sorting out the achyranthis radixs (achyranthis root) into their own little pile to be stored away. “I got lucky on my search. Though on my return I ran into a child. I haven’t seen her around the empire before and she is a concubine with her own ladies in waiting. Which empire is here for a meeting with Gash?” He raised a brow as he continued his sorting.

This made Aoi raise a brow in confusion. “Haven’t heard anything about another empire being over for a visit. Did you happen to catch the child’s name by chance?” He looked over at the octoskele.

Nightmare hummed a little. “Her lady in waiting called her Fumiku.” He pointed out.

Aoi blinked. “Oh young Fumiku. Yes she is a concubine. But not for one of another empire.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I keep forgetting that you normally don’t listen to everything that goes on in the empire unless needed.” He made a sound. “You see Fumiku is-”

Nightmare blinked as he stared at Aoi and listened to him. From outside the building all anyone in passing could hear is Nightmare yell out. “SHE IS WHAT!?” He yelled out in disgust and rage. One guard noticed the skeleton had left the apothecary building and stormed off. Rage engraved on his face. No one stopped him. Thinking that someone was in emergency need of the apothecary.

Gash hummed a little as he drank his tea while reading through some papers. His concubine with him to keep him company and give advice. When they heard someone running. Looking up everyone jumped in surprise as Nightmare slammed the door open. Looking at Gash in rage. “WHAT THE FUCK?!” Nightmare yelled.

------

After taking some time to calm Nightmare down. They were able to close the door behind him and have him seated across from the Emperor and his concubine. Though Nightmare still looked enraged.

Gash took a breath as Aoto managed to calm Nightmare down enough to better explain his anger. “Now that we are all calmed down… Nightmare.” He leaned forward slightly. Raising a brow. “What has you so enraged?” He knows that outside of Nightmare’s usual work as an apothecary and poison taste taster. He had asked him to help them figure out an odd mystery about those omamoris with the different colored fire powered and what someone could be using them for. He wants to know what messages those different colored flames are suppose to mean. Even if it is merely a guess.

Nightmare tightly clenched his fists. “I just learned of the age of your youngest concubine and I’m disgusted by your… taste in girls.” He hissed behind clenched teeth. He knows that he’ll get in a lot of trouble for what he’s doing. Gash is the emperor after all, and the word of the emperor is the word of their gods. But oh he can’t stop he’s anger. He knows that in some empires the Emperor’s like their concubine young… But fucking 12 years of age?! And the fact that Gash got their youngest concubine 2 years back!

Akira blinked in surprise. “Oh you mean Fumiku? Well yes. We can understand your rage and disgust you feel.” The female human concubine sadly sighed. Leaning forward in her sezia position. “Trust my word when I say that Gash did not like the choice he was forced to make.”

Himawari hummed in agreement. “Yes. When Fumiku was offered to Gash… Oh I can’t tell you how much I wished to kick them out of the X-Empire gates myself!” The female skeleton monster said. A look of anger edged into her face.

Aoto nodded. The male nine tailed fox monster hummed. “We all wished we did so. Gash especially… Would you like some tea?” He questioned Nightmare while holding up the tea pot.

Nightmare looked between them. Raising a brow and slowly unclenched his fists. Noticing the same look on Gash’s face that his elder concubines wore. Confused by what they meant as he slowly lifted his cup for Aoto to fill. “If you were all just as disgusted by the offer… Then why take her? Why even play with that gross idea?” He frowned while bringing his filled cup to his face.

Gash hummed a little. “Yes… I know that it isn’t something easy to explain…” He sighed a little and took off his benkan. Placing it down on the table next to his tea cup. Wanting Nightmare to know that he wished to be more… On more of an equal level with the other. That what he I speaking is not just because he is the Emperor but as a person/monster.

“It is best if we start this off at the beginning.” Gash took a sip of his tea. Aoto joining him and wrapping two of his tails around him before he continued. “It was 2 years back. The Empire furthest south by the southern coasts. The Coral (Or mermaid. Haven't fully figured out which one I wish to use more for the name) Empire.”

(I don’t know if I’ll be using the English translation or Japanese translation for this empire. So if I do go with the Japanese translation in the future. The translator says that Coral in Japanese is Kōraru. While Mermaid in Japanese is Māmeido. If these translations are wrong please let me know so I can use the correct translation.)

Nightmare thought for a moment. “That one Empire that is known for it’s sparkling beach. A lovely sunset, and good ocean trades?” He raised a brow. For the X-Empire to get most of their ocean fish they need to be traded for and transferred all the way here by horse and wagon. Since magic can only preserve the freshly caught fish for so long.

Gash nodded. “That one exactly. You see 2 years back their Emperor and crowned Prince came here to the X-Empire as we were holding a celebration.”

Nightmare thought for a moment. Slightly remembering some of that celebration. The brothel had been very busy that day as well. As the X-Empire had won in finally taking down a large group that called themselves the Serpants Flame. This group had been filled with barbarians, exiled fighters, and many others that had gathered together in attempts to bring down a bunch of Empires to take for their own. “Yes I recall that celebration.”

Aoto nodded. “It was a grand celebration within the X-Empire walls. Just as big as all the celebrations that were held outside the walls and down in the Village.” He smiled happily as he remembered some of the guards that had went into the Village to celebrate with friends and family that were down their.

“I recall all the Empires that had come to join in. Six out of all the empires that were a part of the fighting had replied to the invitation to celebrate along side us. There was the Coal Empire, the Rapids Empire, the Cavernus Empire, the Mist Empire, the Herbal Empire, and the Molten Empire. They had all come to join. Bringing gifts and some wishing to open new trade routes. As with where our Empire is located. Some of the others were forced to take a longer route, to go around the X-Empire territory.” Himawair explained.

Akira huffed a little. “While most of the Empires were very respectful the Coral Empire could use the most work… The Molten Empire… Well their Emperor has some temperament issues to work on.” She huffed from behind her fan.

“The Coral Empire Emperor decided to bring a few gifts along to give. Wanting to not only try and get better trade deals with the Empire. But hoping to some how get on to my good side. He did not.” Gash glared at his tea. “That Emperor and his eldest son both seemed to like their concubine being… on the much younger side.” He said with pure disgust. “From what I’ve had the displeasure in learning. Two of his concubine at the time were 8. Another was 10, and the youngest was 6.” He shook and looked like he was about to throw up from the memory.

Nightmare made a face as well. He’d had probably started throwing up himself if he hadn’t decided to hold off on eating his lunch that day. “If that is just the ages of that Emperor’s concubine… I fear what the ages of the crowned princes concubine are…” He shivered a little. Faintly feeling some of the waves of magic that was radiating off of the Emperor.

“That I really wish I did not know either.” Gash grumbled under his breath before continuing. “Eventually the Emperor came up to me with the offerings that he had brought. One of those offerings had been Fumiku.” He huffed slightly. Really wishing to start war with that Empire but for now he can’t. Though that wont stop him from using his influence in the future to get a different person to rule the Empire instead. “He said that Fumiku was one that he had personally picked. Quote for not only her,” Gash gagged on the words Beautiful body. He needed to take a large mouthful of tea before continuing. “But also for her obedience.”

Nightmare couldn’t help but show how grossed out he was as well. “Now I wish to poison him.” He simply stated.

Gash laughed at that. “Oh how I wish for that as well. I couldn’t allow Fumiku to return to the Coral Empire for that… Thing to put it’s hands on her. So I did what I believed to be the best option so she could be saved.”

Nightmare slowly nodded. “I see.” He thought about it. “So you merely took her so that she would not suffer under the watch of that Empire.” He slowly blinked and looked up at Gash. “I apologize for my… Brash actions before.” He bowed his head a little.

Gash hummed a little. “No need to apologize. You had an understandable reaction. Fumiku is much too young for my tastes. I prefer my concubine to be much older as you can see with Aoto, Akira, and Himawari.” He leaned on Aoto and hummed slightly. “For now Fumiku is living the life that a child like her should be living. Happy, full of joy, and with as few responsibilities as possible. She’ll actually be starting classes once she turns 13 years of age. When she’s closer to around 17 or 18 years of age then she’ll be given a new title more fitting of her nature. If she does not wish to be a concubine for me then that is of her choice to choose.” He explained.

Nightmare nodded as he listened. “I see.” He finished up his tea. Surprised by Gash’s beliefs. Gash is well known for being a very strict and fearful Emperor. Just as his father was known for creating fields of blood after a battle. Even some old rumored stories about how Gash’s father would bathe in the blood of the enemy soldiers that he’d slay. “At least she’ll be given that choice once she’s older.” He hummed a little. Looking back at the door as it slid open.

“Fath… Nightmare?” Cross blinked as he looked at Nightmare in confusion. Fumiku was standing next to Cross. Holding his hand.

Gash laughed a little. “Ah Cross. You wish to join us for some tea?” He raised a brow at his eldest son.

“Oh um… Maybe later Father. Fumiku wanted to ask you something.” Cross lightly motioned Fumiku into the room.

Fumiku made a sound at that. Nervously standing their before bowing a little. “C… Could I um… Learn about herbs and um… other stuff… from the apothecaries?” She nervously questioned.

Gash smiled at the question. “I see no harm in you learning from our apothecaries.” He chuckled a little. “If you wish. Nightmare here could take you to the apothecary building and start you on the basics with Aoi.” He offered.

Nightmare blinked and looked back at Gash for a moment. “I have finished what I’ve come here to speak of.” He placed his cup down and stood up. Brushing himself off before looking at Fumiku. “We can go now if you wish.”

Fumiku nodded as she took his hand. “Y-Yes!” She squeaked out. The two of them leaving the room.

Cross slowly walked inside and raised a brow as he closed the door behind him. “Um… what was that about father?” He looked at his dad.

Gash sighed a little. “Nothing to worry about son.” He smiled a little. “Nothing to worry about at all.”

[emmondsokolov]

// I don't really like or care for labels and don't feel comfortable advertising that about myself much, but for my OCs it can be an interesting development point, though I'm still not sure how I feel about talking about it openly, but here goes...

-

Marloix has said to a few people that he "doesn't do the whole 'love' thing." And he does genuinely mean that. He's not just trying to be edgy nor inviting any challenge to make him fall for someone. Man's an Aromantic Homosexual, he's not built that way, he just wants to be fecked and then left alone. He'll help out and do work and favors for the people around him to keep his mind busy, but he's not in it to make relationships with anyone. He's not quite above making friends though. He may think he is. And truthfully he's a horrible friend who tries not to get attached to anyone too deeply though, for reasons. But it still happens on occassion. Sex is just another way to pass the time for him, and in his canon he wastes a lot of his meagre earnings on prostitutes and brothels. I'm still not sure enough of the ff lore to be able to comfortably bring this sort of thing up outside of his canon though... Surprisingly Marloix is also extremely respectful when it comes to consent and privacy, sexual jokes and teasing aside, so it probably wouldn't come up anyway. On a sidenote, since I started drafting this post up Marloix has been called a Masochist after he started to speak a little more openly on such things. And... hmm... while I suppose the sentiment isn't entirely false, its also not exactly accurate either. With his nerve damage and severe, deep depression in general, he's rather addicted to seeking out any kind of high he can get, not necesarily through pain, he doesn't even like pain, but pain is definitely an option. He didn't correct them though, he'll let anyone weave and believe whatever story in their head they hold about him.

-

Nelandrie is possibly one of the Straightest characters I have, and likes men in almost every aspect. She stubbornly believes herself to be above falling for anyone though, and remains aloof and uncaring. She has the elven lifespan to justify not rushing into any sort of deeper romance and her work is far more important to her than any kind of relationship, beyond a fast means of stress relief. Sex is a huge stress reliever for her, and she is stressed a lot of the time. A lot of men who push her into a rage may unintentionally find themselves sharing a bed, or more accurately, a broom closet with her. (Though I'm not in any way going to write anything even remotely like this with people I don't know, god no!) Despite being completely straight, Nela is not against showing off a bit of skin for the ladies though, they can stare all they want for all she cares, she'll take it as a compliment. And honestly she would be as polite as her snarky, prickly nature can manage at turning them down if any woman ever came forward about it. She is particularly fond of an ugly little workaholic halfling man though. Not romantically of course! Its just nice to finally meet a man with very similar ideals and takes their job seriously. Definitely nothing romantic about it. Certainly not. No. Never... sips.

-

Urzula is both Biromantic as well as some flavour of Grey Asexual. She develops crushes on anyone who is nice to her for more than a few minutes and tends to get taken advantage of because of it. She has no idea what to actually do with these feelings and has no desire to act on any on them other than staring and pining from across the other side of the room with sad puppy eyes and not saying a word. Urzula also has almost no concept of long-term commitment to a relationship and is largely oblivious and obtuse to the fact that anyone could actually want that from her, she has unintentionally broken a few hearts this way. Her self doubt is far too strong, and most people only end up with her out of a sense of pity anyway, "I can fix her," etc. It's no surprise they get heartbroken when she doesn't respond in the way they expect. She's far too set in her ways, and most people see that as a bad thing or something that needs to change, rather than simply accepting it. Urzula's a little autistic in this way, combined with a lot of past trauma. She doesn't feel safe with change, and will shy away from anyone who insists she can, or worse, should change. Losing the relationship is just the safer option. No hard feelings intended.

-

I guess I'll mention Emmond since he's listed here too. He is an Aromantic Asexual who thoroughly believes himself to be a perfectly healthy and normal straight guy. His marriage didn't work out but he has a daughter, Aleks, as a result. He loves his daughter and would do anything to keep her safe.

[itsyaboighostie]

With Winter Birds a WIP, here are some little things I decided to add with some possible future fics votes at the end 😉

Some notable tropes, AUs, and Headcanons I decided to add are some of the following: Dual Obsession, Ghost Hunger, Good Vlad, Parental Vlad, and Ghost Purr.

Maddie is a Draft Halfa, her hands, right arm, small chunk of her hair, stomach and left thigh are all inverted.

Brain Cookies live in the forest surrounding Amity, with Maddie unable to go out into public, Jack and Vlad end up both being the breadwinners. Despite Vlad still living in Wisconsin.

Jack and Maddie have a Hunting Obsession dualed with Family, Vlad has a Family Obsession, Jazz has an Altruistic Obsession paired with Family as well, and Danny has the classic Space Mode and Protection Obsession.

Maddie and Jazz are Shades, Jack is a Siren, Danny a Banshee, and Vlads a Demon.

Newly formed ghosts have underdeveloped cores, children ghosts (matured core or not) often have power accidents from constantly expelling energy and need a more mature and older ghost to help regulate their output. Jazz and Danny are both which means more family cuddles.

Children ghost are called Spooks

Jazz will be 6 and Danny 4

The FarFrozen are the protectors of those (literally) frozen in time, often caused by time, universal, or dimensional travel.

The kids occasionally like to chew on Vlads arm

Vlad doesn't care about ghost hunting but joins Maddie and Jack in hunting anyway because he likes spending time with them.

He's the funky rich uncle/godfather.

Jack loves to play with 'scary eyes' around Danny, the kid goes feral with excitement and tries to copy him sometimes

Jack and Vlad can control when the kids transform because they constantly feed energy off of them their cores are connected. So when either one transforms the kids do too unconsciously.

Jack and Vlad have a fire core, Maddie a Water core, Jazz Electric core, and Danny an Ice core

Jazz likes to sleep listening to the adults talk

She also likes to occasionally lay on top of Danny bc she sees it as her protecting the baby

When the Frostbite shows Jack and Maddie the kids for the first time while they're still frozen, Jazz was curled around Danny.

Future Votes

Muon

In which the Ghost Portal wasn't just made to be a gateway between realms, but also a biologically engineered ghost trapper made from artificial ectoplasm. Meaning the portal was alive at some point till Danny happened. The Portal still works, of course, it's just that no one knows what happened to the trapper. Wonder where it could be 🤔.

Mama's Children

Danny, Tucker, and Sam all met as children because of their parents' famous professions as hunters. The Fentons built a portal to access The Infinite Realms to eliminate ghosts once and for all, The Mansons caged a vampire to learn its secrets, and the Foleys corrected rouge technology by giving life to blood-infused microscopic nanobots. Human children are naturally curious things.

Inspired by this post, Detroit: Become Human, and the song Mama's Boy by Dominic Fike. An angsty story about coming to terms with the fact your parents are gonna be the ones to take your life despite making you what you are today.

Arpeggios

Author's first cosmic horror story on how Danny went from being a witch living amongst Witch Hunters to the God of Life, Death, and Magic. (WIP)

Inspired by this song, the Corpse au and the No One Knows au. A twist on the Fantasy AU in which Danny still ends up a ghost.

Townies

Classic Halfa trio AU but with the twist that ghost children have uncontrollable cores and because they don't have a matured ghost core to help constantly stabilize them, they take whatever energy they can get from other sources. This of course has consequences. (WIP)

When you wanna make your first DP fic but don't know which stupid idea of yours to choose from, you go to Tumblr. So here's a series of potential fics I wanna make bc my mind is rotten and rotting. Be warned some of these ideas aren't so kid friendly.

Muon

In which the Ghost Portal wasn't just made to be a gateway between realms, but also a biologically engineered ghost trapper made from artificial ectoplasm. Meaning the portal was alive at some point till Danny happened. The Portal still works, of course, it's just that no one knows what happened to the trapper. Wonder where it could be 🤔.

Cookies to those who see the Ghost Busters reference here 😛

Oh Klahona

A story about one of Vlads master plans going a bit too far causing the permanent destruction of Dannys timeline, forcing said ghost to travel to another universe where he was never meant to be. This however is easier said than done obviously bc this boy isn't allowed to get a break, especially from me. Stuck thousands of years into the past of the Ghost Zone, Danny is frozen in time. Cursed to forever grieve his old family and remain conscious all throughout his punishment. The small Ghost eventually accepts his fate, becoming a legend told by the undead through whispers on how he came to be. Until a certain girl finds his resting place.

Ft Halfa Jazz, title inspired by Oh Klahona by Jack Stauber. More specific this line "Tears falling down at the party, saddest little baby in the room, fears, tell me fears, don't get me started, I get a little gray hair for every scare you share."

Winter Birds

Sister fic to Oh Klahona where Maddie, Vlad, and Jack get hit together while they're in college. Maddie and Jack are of course together while Vlad is a close friend. Brain Cookies decide it's high time they start a family together after years of protecting Amity from ghosts, however because of their half-dead status they're unable to conceive children of their own. Of course, this doesn't stop them from looking for a way, and with some research, and help from the Fruitloop, they discover the Ghost Zone adoption system. Things don't go to plan however when they find two children that look suspiciously like them frozen in time. (Description and finer details still a WIP)

Ft Fenton Family Bonding (Everyone is a Half Ghost Edition :D), Tiny Danny and Jazz, some questionable parenting choices, kicking dead ass as a family while causing property damage, and learning how to parent. Title from Winter Bird by Aurora (Sending many hearts to my fellow Sky Kids)

[littlemissaddict]

Had this in my drafts since the Paris con? idk it's been a while so I figured it was time to share it 😅....

RPF so if it's not your thing please keep scrolling.

The sigh of relief left her lips as soon as she stepped through the door of the fancy hotel in the centre of Paris that she and Joe were staying at for the week while he was appearing at the comic con there. She could still hear the shouts and cries of the fans waiting for him to arrive, albeit they were now muffled by the glass door behind her but at least she was away from their prying eyes even though they had no idea who she was considering she and Joe had kept their relationship private especially since he'd shot into the public eye after playing Eddie Munson.

"Not a fan of crowds dear" a female voice came from a little way away from her and after a quick glance around she saw the kind face of an older lady watching her. The fact that she spotted her meant that she stood in the doorway far longer than any normal person and she shook her head as she made her way further into the lobby. “Must be hard especially with your boyfriend’s job” she commented, unaware of the panic that the unassuming words set off in her.

“Oh uh” she stuttered as she stumbled over her words, not wanting to correct this lady who clearly had very good perception skill but not also wanting to confirm her words in case it accidentally got around to the fans. She gave the lobby a quick glance and found it empty before she settled on the truth, “It can be but it’s easier that they don’t know about us” she admits, shyness creeping up on her as she spoke hers and Joe’s secret out loud.

“Don’t worry my lips are sealed” she smiled, her hands mimicking pulling a zip along them as if to prove a point. She doesn’t know why but it immediately puts her at ease and as she moves to ask the lady, Maria according to her name badge, it seems she could already tell what she was about to ask and answers her with a kind smile. “It’s in the eyes, you can see the love he holds for you in them everytime he looks at you and again when you look at him” then she shrugs as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Maybe it is but she doesn’t have long to ponder Maria’s words as she’s instead startled by the feeling of two arms wrapping around her from behind, though she soon relaxes against the familiar feeling of being in Joe’s arms.

“Hello love” he smiles in greeting even though she can’t see it but she can feel it when he presses a kiss to her cheek despite still being in full view of the doors and the waiting fans outside. He then turns his attention to Maria, making small talk and being his usual charming self before the both bid her goodbye as they turn towards the elevator. “Lovely lady” he comments as the elevator door closes behind them.

She nods in response, “Very perceptive too” she adds as Joe gives her a confused look, his head tilted to the right as a frown appears between his eyebrows, “well either that or we are just not as subtle as we think we are” she hums, her hand sliding up his chest until it meets the collar of his shirt where she rubs her thumb over the material as she looks up at him.

“Yeah that fits” he chuckles, the smile on his face is one of the ones that always seems to light up whatever room he’s in and as cliché as it sounds she knows exactly why his fans love him as much as they do, except with one little difference, she gets to know exactly what it feels to be loved by him as well. The thought has butterflies swarming in her tummy but then again that could just be because he’s right at that moment cupping her cheek in one of his hands and pulling her face close so that he can kiss her. It’s soft and sweet and stops the moment the elevator door dings signalling that they have reached their floor, she’s almost reluctant to let him go until she’s reminded of the fact that once the door to their room is closed they no longer have to hide their affections for each other and then she’s bounding away, pulling him along so that they reach their room quicker and she can shower him with affection.

[iceslasher]

Oh I just realized I didn’t post this here. I wanted to draft up a few blurbs about my headcanons and how my Ice is pretty canon-divergent in some regards and very headcanon based after having him as a muse for a gazillion years.

I think I did a decent write up about these two in my doc but it’s always fun to reiterate that they are the same person whilst being two very different entities all at once.

---

 On “Soldier” and “Commander” the double A.I. inhabiting the same shell.

“Soldier”

     Typically what most associate as Ice Man himself; a childish, effeminate and sweet intelligence known for being a crybaby and attention-seeker. He has lazy tendencies; yearning to vacation often. This is his way of acting out in a sense as while exploring the vast arctics does well to sate his curiousity it leaves him lonely and homesick. Vacations are just an excuse for him to visit Light and his robots to recharge his extrovert battery.      Soldier is curious and easily influenced by those he considers cool (such as Roll or Elec Man); tending to look up to strong willed or leader types being as he’s more of a follower.       Highly emotional, physically affectionate and ready to release waterworks when happy or distressed, Soldier is somehow both very dependable and selfishly bratty.

“Commander”

     Opposite to his neighboring A.I. in more ways than one. Completely mature and masculine, Commander is highly analytical, work oriented and fiercely bossy. His mannerisms are cold, matter of fact and snappy. When it comes to the science facet of exploration he is on top of his game and more than ready to engage in night long discussions with the human scientists on top of managerial duties and constant computations.      Though he might appear cruel to outsiders, he is quietly compassionate and patient to his other half. They experience emotions in tandem and are synched in this way but he knows Soldier wont get anything done without a little push... constantly.      Despite existing as long as Soldier, no one has ever gotten to know Commander. Whether it’s because Commander is withdrawn and disinterested or Soldier is just more personable and thus deemed more suitable for social interaction by Commander himself is a topic I’d love to explore more in rp.

Ice Man

     Together they form the DLN we all know as a fashion loving, dedicated and utterly huggable bot. His two A.I. talk to each other so rapidly it leaves others confused whenever they vocalize their thoughts aloud, nowadays opting to communicate internally a good portion of the time. However their mannerisms are so distinctive it’s simple enough for those who are familiar with Ice to gauge who is interacting with them, even through posture and expression alone. 

     It is also worth noting that while these two have given each other the names of “Soldier” and “Commander” they both share the name Ice Man, especially to anyone that isn’t themselves. Never having been singled out, simply calling either by their codenames would comically confuse them. They talk to each other only, everyone else talks to Ice Man. (This is not a hard rule, I encourage any muses that actually get close enough to him to use his codenames more naturally. Or even perceptive muses who take notice of his swapping pov speech to curiously direct conversation to one AI or another.)

     Now it’s easy to assume that such stark personalities would clash. This assumption would be correct as one side is always fighting to play and goof off the other is pulling at his hair to get work done. Only a healthy mixture of their interest can bring any bout of equilibrium in their head.

And together they are never truly alone on the job.

[catlokis-blog]

do you have any gubby scenarios i am DYING for old men in love and so far you are the only person in this fandom i have seen since 2020 have correct takes on them

(PUNCHING THE AIR IN TRIUMPH) YESSS IVE BEEN DEEMED THE QUEEN OF OLD MEN IN LOVE CONTENT

im actually writing a vampire au fic right now featuring gubby and boomer ... but i wont bring that up until its closer to completion

(right now i have it roughly a third done before i do my final edits, but note that's because i just do basic planning, rough draft, and then final draft. its a pretty simple writing process and its why i dont write chaptered fics)

since you asked for gubby specifically ill focus on them especially considering theres a lot of boomer content out there but no love for the space man and the man who loves space.

read more and a headcanon dump time. you know how it is!

bubby almost DEFINITELY made the first moves to gman. i like to think it was encouraged by coomer after bubby was like btw im polyamorus and i also cant stop thinking about gman can i go ask him out. and then coomer became #1 hypeman and would try and force them into scenarios together LMFAO

gman isnt really ever forced into anything though? luckily for bubby he DID hold interest in the bastard and would go along with coomer very unsubtly trying to have them get some one-on-one time

during tommy's birthday party bubby almost definitely started flirting with gman. something about the atmosphere making even mister money bags space god start to relax and have fun a little was when he decided to make his first moves on the guy despite having eyes for him earlier

The train incident was his first attempt to talk but we all know how often gman cameos around in half life 1... bubby almost certainly took notice of black mesa's Latest Old Man Babe

gman probably barely knew how to process being flirted with at first because he's used to being treated with fear and such, and when he does get flirted with it's usually in a way that's like "oh, you're so above me", but bubby would approach it in the way you'll approach someone at a bar

as in shitty pick-up lines and very overt "you're hot as fuck, make out with me" comments. but the phrasing is more bubby's personality than bar etiquette - he's not exactly romeo.

eventually once gman gets used to bubby flirting with him after a while though the script WILL get flipped on him. because gman is no fool. in fact he is VERY observant. half of the time he spent listening to bubby's nonsense flirting (and, occasionally getting responses he didn't know he was even capable of, like an involuntary "oh my" and a blush when he said a particularly romantic line that was probably fed to him by bubby's personal cupid, dr. coomer) he would be picking up on what made bubby a little more nervous to say, a little more hopeful in how gman would respond, and what he seemed to like to hear from dr coomer

after constant passive reception of bubby's moves on him he'll fire back onto bubby with everything he had observed up to that point. even the little comments he'd whine to benrey, coomer, and even gordon when he was willing to listen to bubby. all those offhanded whiny things like "why can't he just x already" would come BITING HIM BACK.

at the end of the encounter bubby is probably rendered speechless and gman toys with him a little more through baby's first kiss from a god. he and coomer would have their own little mini celebration about this later

( and, a little bonus, despite coomer's encouragement, bubby would never actually ask gman out. he's very stubborn on waiting to be confessed to instead, which is why it took so long for him to get with coomer after literal years of flirting. gman ended up learning this too and had to research how the hell you ask someone out since he had literally never had to do that before - he was usually getting asked out and rejecting people because they were doing it for some kind of personal benefit / he doesn't have much interest in dating randoms in the first place. )