#unrelated my back really hurts and has done for the past. forever? but its really annoying me now

[brw]

being cringe is so liberating.

[hezuart]

That anaversary aizen looks absolutely fabulous, he looks like a figure skater xd.

I heard along time ago the last arc of the anime was being animated finally bc they pulled a 90s sailor moon were the last season was not either animated or dubbed untill decades later.

I recall near the end of the current 366 episodes there was an episode were the creapy demon ppl woke up in hell and we're all bitter, and there was the other guy who was like, iM cOmEiNg FoR u IChIgO, but then is never mentioned again after and I'm like,why? Why is lt there just plopted randomly into a different arc that seams unrelated.

And locking aizen up underground seems ok, but It deff won't hold, and he will. Escape, and he will kill, you either need that one spell from star, dubbed, the darkest spell of moon the undaunted, a powerfull dark spell that killed immortal beings, that came from best character, eclipsa, the queen of darkness.

We need that.

Or stick him I'm crystal like eclipsa was in star. Is there no one who could trap him in ice or crystal for all eternity.

How about throw him into the centre of a volcano trapped and caged , forverr being killed by heat?

I assume there's space travel, send I'm into a black whole, were a black whole don't fuckin care if your immortal or fat, you will die

:3

Yes, I love anniversary Aizen. His original octopus-butterfly hollow design was ugly so I'm glad he's back to being the fashion icon he is.

Locking Aizen up underground once is one thing, doing it twice after saying he got more powerful by just sitting there, and he escaped to battle the Quincy Soul King God... is another. I think he should have escaped at the end of the Quincy arc. That is the only feasibility.

I heard the anime is coming back for the Quincy arc as well, but because of COVID its probably going to be delayed. (I'm not gonna watch it until the Rain section of the arc then I'm dipping out. I'm only here for Zangetsu)

and funny that you mention that hell scene in the manga :)

-> spoilers for the new BLEACH 73 page anniversary chapter / thoughts/critique on it

So hey you had a premonition! Syazel .... returned? And his hole is outside of his body??? for some reason???

(I didn't understand the explanation or why / how that happens and what that means for the hollow)

And my friend and I were laughing because out of ALL the things. Kubo could do in this anniversary. He gave Syazel his dick back after going to hell. That is iconic. (that's where his hole was located, and now that its not on his body ... well...) This is the funniest thing Kubo has EVER pulled. Kudos to you, sir.

The entire internet is freaking out over Ukitake being in hell. Honestly Kubo has done far worse, and we've established that Soul Society is a corrupt system that hasn't changed, so I'm not surprised he would pull something like this.

At the same time, Kubo 1. cheated his audience. 2. continues to prove me right that he cannot bring himself to kill his characters

1. Hollows who have commit murder in their human life are sent to hell. Syazel and Aaorniero are two of these hollows, and yet, when they are killed, there is NO gates of hell scene. We see them there later in the hell chapter (which was more of a promotion for the fourth movie and I didn't believe it would hold any merit)

But the same goes for Ukitake. We never see the gates of hell take him. What, was hell late? Did hell's gates get lost like an uber before picking him up? It's bull. Withholding such vital information from your audience, not showing the gates of hell when they should pick up this soul IMMEDIATELY is ... I mean its a lie. Kubo lied to his audience.

2. Now we are told powerful shinigami are sent to hell when they die. First of all that sounds like a security threat. Wouldn't shinigami want revenge for that? Or attempt to escape? Why would they still hold loyalty after being sent to a prison of eternal suffering?

Also "Yhwach and Aizen" were the only ones keeping Hell's gates closed is way too convenient and doesn't really make any sense. I feel like Aizen should have deliberately gone to hell to retrieve powerful shinigami / hollows for his army instead of keeping it /closed/.

This is definitely a Kubo-doesn't-know-what-he's-doing-and-is -making- stuff-up-as-he-goes, but it might have a pinch of merit because of previous plot lines.... but either way, there's some big plot holes here, but again, its Kubo, so I expected nothing less.

Again, he can't kill off his characters. He introduced zombification, he introduced immortality through the hougyoku, he has Orihime and Hachigen's reversal / rejection abilities. He brought back Luppi, friggen.... a character who's entire upper half of his body was incinerated. Like.... come on. No. He's dead, you can't bring him back like that. That's a cop out and just weird. You're taking away consequences and grief.

(Also Yamamoto and Unohana deserve to be in hell far over Ukitake, they've done some fcked up stuff in their pasts unlike him)

Also Kubo's favorite character is Mayuri, which.... you're allowed to have a favorite problematic character. But Keeping said character alive and bared from the consequences of abusing his daughter, murdering innocents, and experimenting on your own squad members? Nah. Nope. Kill him, Kubo. Kill this dude.

(his weird attachment to Mayuri is probably why he keeps bringing Syazel back, since Syazel is Mayuri 2.0, but Syazel is the bad guy who does face consequences for his actions while Mayuri is not)

~

Also, I'm certain Kazui and Orihime are going to be THRILLED that their precious husband/dad is going to hell when he dies :)

(I just... Rukia teased Ichigo about leaving Orihime at home. She teased him about having a house wife who he leaves all the chores to. Orihime had two panels. She checks on her son who promised he would be at home and sleep. Kazui fcking breaks his promise like it never mattered to him and JUMPS out the window after pretending to sleep in front of his mother. ... An 8 year old... alone... in the middle of the night.)

Orihime is abandoned. She is not invited to SS, she is not informed of what is going on, her son leaves her.... I...

Orihime is a side character. She doesn't matter anymore. She hasn't mattered for a long, long time.

A part of me is glad she had little screen time, since she tends to waste it, but another part of me is embroiled with rage.

I've even see people try to defend this. "Orihime and Ichigo can't be together ALL the time, that's an unhealthy relationship!" and I'm like guys... that's not the point. The point is Orihime is not part of Ichigo's other life. Any shinigami stuff from now on is none of her business. She's going to stay at home while Kazui and Ichigo go off and save the world. Ichigo is going to be fighting by Rukia and Renji while Orihime watches from the sidelines, or worse, doesn't even know what is going on with her husband and son. Orihime is going to be uninformed and abandoned, because she has not proven she is capable of fighting by their sides(go on, @ me. I will fight this. She's a failure.), and also because she prefers a human life over a dead one. Which is ironic, because she married a dead man. Ichigo is a shinigami, and he will be one forever. god forbid she ever meets his Zanpaktou. She would tremble in fear at the monsters her husband harbors in his soul, especially when she realizes they don't care about her and would rather see her dead. (Zangetsu would absolutely kill Orihime. Not sure about Kazui, but Orihime has not accepted Zangetsu, she does not like either of them, and the feeling is assuredly mutual.) frick now I want to make a comic about this

Also still frustrated over Zangetsu's shikai / bankai regression. Kubo once again lied to his audience. Ichigo has no bankai. How ridiculous is that? The main character of BLEACH doesn't have a bankai. Insulting.

(RIP to Chad. He doesn't exist anymore. He's just gone. No mention, no cameo. Gone.)

Kazui is a demon child. That character from the novels? Hikone? They're the same character. Literally same personality, same power level. Its worse because Kazui is a liar. He constantly goes behind his parents' backs. He can summon creepy fish and creepy eyeballs and open portals like is ANYONE aware of this? How has SS not kidnapped Ichigo's son and experimented on him / locked away his powers yet? All substitute shinigami require a reiatsu controlling / spy badge to keep them in line. Where is Kazui's? Or is he just a weird fullbringer?

I was worried Kubo was gonna try and pull a knock off Boruto but luckily he kept the focus on Ichigo and the others. But that being said, Ichika and Kazui are now just... sort of there? Kazui was kinda just.... having his own adventure that doesn't matter to the plot at hand, and Ichika had some nice characterization at first but she just hid behind her dad the whole time.

I have a feeling Kazui is gonna step in at the last minute or do some major behind the scenes thing that indirectly interferes with the main plot so no one will realize how powerful and dangerous he actually is. Its sad because Ichika is the superior character in personality and likability, but she clearly is not going to have a bigger part in this.

Ichigo having a normal life after everything still feels extremely boring and uncomfortable to me. Everyone's like 'I'm still bLEACH!" but.... BLEACH just... doesn't feel like BLEACH anymore. It hasn't for a while now.

~~~

There's two new shinigami characters. Didn't care for the girl, but the Sign Language kid who talks to animals is adorable ... however... he just reminds me of Chad, and I just... it hurts knowing Chad has essentially been deleted. Chad and Orihime are officially benched. They have chosen the human world, and Orihime has given Ichigo his spawn so she has no more use/purpose to him anymore... ////sigh

~~~

Also. This is claimed to be a new "arc". So is the BLEACH manga coming back? What is happening. I thought Kubo was tired and didn't want to do BLEACH anymore. I thought Shounen Jump cut him off. People made so many excuses for Kubo and why the past two arcs have been so badly written the past 6 years and now almost everything they've attempted to defend him with has been revoked.

BLEACH is going to continue to screw up its plot lines and characters, so Its probably best for it to stay dead but I've seen a lot of Kubo stans drooling over this content, they're desperate for BLEACH's return, but its already given out all its possible revelations. There's really nothing else to top here. It's just going to make things up as it goes along ,and I'm not really here for half-assed writing like that, especially since the damage of rushing the previous manga has already been done. Kubo and Shounen Jump are riding off a money nostalgia. None of this was planned.

Honestly though.... overall feeling of this chapter, not as bad as it could have been.

Syazel stole the spotlight, and he's my friend's favorite character, so that's all that really matters.

[dumbsnakefan]

Thou Shalt Love

Chapter 2: In You I Take Refuge

A/N: This took longer than expected but here it is! Also, if you want me to tag you in the next chapter please let me know!

Hidden away in a small Inn in a town surrounded by only nature, Nea watched over Allen’s prone figure. A thin layer of sweat covered his nephew’s body from exertion. His mind still tried to fight the inevitable of his awakening. Well, Nea supposed that Allen was too stubborn to ever give in so easily. Not that it wouldn’t make a difference in the end. The Noah memories were like an unrestrained storm as they tore into the brain.

Letting out an aggravated sigh Nea said to himself, “Why did that bastard Cross have to die on me like that? He always manages to piss me off.” His eye twitched as he remembered the debts the man had hoisted upon his former host. Despite all his hatred for the General there were too many questions left unanswered. From what Timcanpy had shown him Allen had forgotten everything. What’s more, he had gotten younger. It was like trying to put together a puzzle without most of the pieces.

Had Cross not had answers for that at least Nea could have used his magical skills. That four eyed idiot had done something strange and outside his own abilities. As best he could figure, however, their “separation” hadn’t accounted for the Noah gene. He could laugh if not for the absolute mess of it all.

There was something strange about this memory as well. It was like none of the others as far as he could tell. Allen’s inner Noah was swaddling him in a thorny embrace, like a babe in need of protection. Compared to his own, a destructive thing that had him clawing at his skin in agony, it was soft. Nea felt an urge to pull his nephew close and never let go again. The strangeness of Allen’s memory was oddly fitting.

Lacking any new information to dissect Nea could only move on to other things. Specifically how the Noah family would react to this. Like Nea they had to have felt the surge of a new memory breaking into the world. They would want to pull him away from the dreaded 14th as soon as they could, lest he “corrupt” their new brother. A smile stretched across Nea’s lips as he swore to keep his dearest friend by his side.

What a family reunion they’d be having. If Mana had any real sanity left Nea would have liked to share one last tender moment before the end. Fate and that detestable God were not so kind as to give any Noah such a merciful gift though. They would forever seek to destroy them for being in the way. Should Nea succeed he would put an end to their farce. His brother would be freed at long last.

Keeping Allen far away from this whole affair was very important. The attachment he’d formed with Mana could turn into a crushing weight when the truth was revealed. Those bonds of father and son were already so entangled with tragedy; Nea wouldn’t let another disaster play out. Mana’s insanity could drag them all down if left unchecked.

From what Timcanpy had shown of Allen’s time as Red, his brother had been attached at the hip with him. Nea knew that he’d forgotten it all just by the way he treated his nephew. That didn’t mean that Mana wasn’t drawn to him, oh no. Even when not a wisp of Nea’s presence had been visible the Earl had targeted Allen. Drawn like a moth to a flame, they circled each other. Now under the calming lull of the Noah memory inside Allen Mana would chase him wholeheartedly.

Then there was the other Noah to consider. Road and Joyd seemed to have the strongest bond with Allen of the family. While the others weren’t as close, they all appeared interested when interacting with him. Being a true part of the family could only grow their connection. It made Nea sick just thinking about it. The need to keep Allen close and out of their grubby hands echoed from his own Noah.

Wasn’t keeping Allen by his side the best way to make sure he was safe? Those disgusting roaches that scuttled about the Order were still searching for Allen. Nea had seen how easily they had hurt their beloved comrade. All throughout the past Timcanpy had shown Nea there had been pain. His nephew’s past was a constant spiral of suffering. Taking him away from the world that was so ready to tear him apart could only be a kindness.

Tension had built to a boiling point in Nea’s body and he forced himself to release it. In an attempt to calm down he scouted closer to the bed. A new bead of blood pooled along Allen’s stigmata that Nea wiped away. Unconsciously he pushed into the contact. Warmth bloomed in Nea’s chest. Seeing his dearest friend like this, utterly peaceful, was something he’d truly missed.

His senses registered the Noah memory shift from it’s dormant state and Nea braced for another wave of pain. More blood flowed down from Allen’s forehead as he became restless. The once lax expression of sleep twisted in pain. That’s when the screaming started, scratching Allen’s throat raw. It was hard not to wince at the sheer volume of his screams.

As the screams faded out Nea felt a new presence join them. Annoyed and reluctant to leave Allen’s side Nea turns to face the intruder. Standing before him is the Demon Eye, expression a mask of indifference. Rage so obviously simmers behind the facade but Nea finds it as threatening as a wet kitten.

His smile is packed full of malice as he says, “Didn’t know they’d let you come alone to see me kid.” The twitch of annoyance from Wisely’s reincarnation is so sweet. “You’d think with how easily I killed you last time you would all be a bit more careful.” Bloodlust oozes off Nea in waves, making the air thick with it.

Only when Allen’s scream rise back up does he stop. Nea is so tempted to return to his side to comfort him. The possibility of an attack is what holds him back. Wisely would be more than happy to slit his throat and take Allen away for good; or at least attempt to. There was no way Nea would give him that kind of opening.

“Would it kill you to be nicer, dearest 14th? I’m here to give you some friendly advice after all.” The moniker has Nea gnashing his teeth. He knows that smug bastard is enjoying himself. What an asshole.

Tilting his head Wisely says, “Like you’re one to talk. You really hold the title of world's biggest asshole.” Of course the little creep was reading his mind. Even in his new life Wisely refused to learn what privacy means.

Moving closer to the other Noah, Nea glares down with cold eyes. “Cut this bullshit and tell me why you’re really here.”

“We won’t let you keep him from us.” The brat dares to step closer to Allen and Nea watches him like a hawk for a single misstep. “You can’t hide no matter how hard you try. Someday soon we’ll bring our brother home, where he belongs.”

Something in Nea snaps. Anger grips his heart like a vice. Unwilling and unable to hold back, he shoots towards Wisely. His hand wraps around the bastard's neck. Blood drips from where his fingernails bite into WIsely’s skin as Nea squeezes his windpipe. The choked panic gives him no satisfaction. Painting the walls red with his blood is what he needs now.

His grip tightens, drawing a wheeze from the pathetic Noah. “He’s mine. Allen is mine.” Nea says with unhinged glee. “You can never take him from me. I’ll kill every single one of you if you try.”

It’s only when a burst of stabbing pain sweeps over Nea’s mind that he returns to reality. He let’s go reluctantly, Wisely falling at his feet. Such a shame he couldn’t kill him, but Nea is patient. Now is not the right time to crush Wisely beneath his foot. Later he’ll make sure to make his end painful.

Between satisfying coughing fits Wisely manages to bite out, “Ru-Road said to, guh, give you a warning for old t-times sake.” The venom behind the glare he gives Nea is almost impressive. “Shouldn’t have listened to her. You deserve to watch as your world crumbles around you and you fail.” It makes him laugh, the thought that Nea would lose to the likes of him.

Wisely’s face twists up in amusement. Nea keeps himself in check as he moves towards Allen. Fighting this close to Allen could only end in disaster. Even as the rat bastard patted his nephew’s head he held back. Truly, his restraint was worthy of the highest praise.

“I can’t wait to see what our new brother is capable of. He was already such an interesting human...” The little shit was lost in his own mind as he brushed hair off Allen’s forehead. It’s a herculean effort on Nea’s behalf to stay his hand. Perhaps killing him was worth the risk after all?

However, what Wisley said next stopped him dead in his tracks. “I do wonder why the Earl is already so attached to Allen?” What? No, this can’t possibly be happening; it’s too early. “I knew that you’d have answers. There’s something slipping just outside my reach, no matter how hard I search.”

Desperately Nea snaps his mind shut to leave only unrelated drivel in its wake. He needs to throw the Demon Eye Noah off his scent. Now. “Why don’t you ask Mana yourself?” The wince he gets is a good sign. Raising his voice and stepping into Wisley’s space Nea tells him, “Now get out of my sight.”

Gold meets gold as they assess each other for weakness. Finding nothing, Wisley moves to finally leave them be. With every step Nea feels better. On the threshold of the door, however, he turns back. Body going tense Nea prepares for whatever the creep plans to throw his way next.

“Before I go, you might want to find a new hiding place. There are some Akuma out there who aren’t very good a t playing nice.” An Explosion rocks the building, punctuating his statement. The string of curses that Nea lets out would have a sailor blushing. “Hope you enjoy yourself 14th!” His smug face watches on as Nea fumbles for their things. The Ark gate behind him swallows Wisely up but Nea pays it no mind.

Screams fill the air in a terrible crescendo of horror. With Allen out of commision Nea can only run. Scooping up his struggling nephew Nea makes sure Tim grabs their luggage. Ignoring the town below he calls up his own gate and the three disappear from sight. The humans left behind in that remote town are mowed down with mercy. Chaos creeps around every corner and the scent of blood blankets the air in a red mist. No one will discover the scene of pure carnage until weeks later.

[ultsoobins]

drifting in the night - CYJ

requested:

no

notes:

angst! kind of vague lol

summary:

yeonjun says something that has no place being said

for the fourth day in a row yeonjun is pacing your living room, hands curled into fists at his sides, when you get home from work. you smell him before you see him, and you realize that he hasn’t showered after dance practice, yet.

by the looks of it, he’s too pissed to.

you haven’t seen each other much during this week, with your job pulling you in one direction and his job pulling him in the other. he’s been home before you every single day so far, always too ticked off about something to talk to you. you’ve let it slide up until today in the hopes that he’ll work through it himself, but by now you’re sure that he needs someone to talk to. 

it’s up to you to be that someone - you feel as if its part of your job as a significant other.

that, and you’re terrified that if you don’t say something now, the two of you will drift apart. it’s been days since you’ve both talked without squabbling over something small and weeks since you’ve been able to hold a proper conversation with each other.

it’s been months since you’ve been on a date. 

this growing divide between you and your boyfriend has been more and more obvious this week, with you coming home tired and him coming home irritated. it is something you want to fix - yeonjun’s been a constant in your life and has seen you through your highest points and your lowest, and you know that it’s vice versa. more than any reason, you love him with all your heart. you can’t give up on him. 

“babe?” you ask tentatively, and yeonjun raises his head to meet your gaze only for his scowl to hit you full force. on instinct you draw a breath in - he’s never looked this angry before. he tears his eyes away from you after a silent moment, rolling his neck out in the process. 

he doesn’t respond to you. 

“babe,” you try again, louder this time, as you set your bags down on the couch and phone and keys on the table. “i can draw you a bath if you want? and last night’s left-overs are in the fridge.”

he shoots you a glance, brow still furrowed, running a hand through his hair instead of saying anything back. droplets of sweat go flying, and you find yourself wincing in disgust. 

“jun, do you want to talk about it?” you chew on the inside of your cheek as you ask, worried for your boyfriend. his fists tighten at this, but you don’t notice, your focus stuck on his face. you hate seeing yeonjun like this - it makes you feel almost anxious. you can’t just leave him without trying to help him through whatever he’s feeling.

“yeonjun, baby, what’s wr-”

 “can you leave me the fuck alone for one goddamn instant?” yeonjun explodes, turning fully to glare at you. you wince and shrink back on instinct, not knowing what else to do but blink. before you can say anything, he continues. 

“you’re so fucking annoying sometimes, god! all you ever do is talk and talk and talk, and i can never get the fuck away from it! people need fucking space, (name)! can’t you see th -”

“i can’t.” you cut him off, your initial fear short-lived as its replaced with your own anger. you turn away to hurriedly wipe away the tears that have betrayed you by falling when you don’t want him to see how his words affect you. yeonjun has no right to yell at you for caring about him, and you know this. he’s being unfair - you know this, too. there’s no telling if he means what he says, either - not when he’s this pissed over something completely unrelated.

your logic tells you all of this. 

and yet, you still find that his words wound you deeply enough to cause salty tear tracks to mar your face. you try to will them away, forging on through your angry response. 

“i can’t see what’s wrong with you, because you won’t fucking tell me! and honestly? now i don’t want to know, you complete asshole.”

“you really want to know, huh? yeah? well, it doesn’t fucking matter. the real problem is that i have to come home to this everyday, when all it does half the time is piss me off worse!” 

he gestures wildly to your surroundings, in a way that tells you that even he doesn’t know what he’s saying. he’s reached a breaking point, and you just happen to be here.

and yet, you’re irate - rightfully - at the words he says. they feel too authentic.

it hurts you. 

“...this?” your voice is suddenly quiet, and he has to strain to hear you. “this?” you repeat, your volume growing.

“what do you mean by this?” you finally ask, eyes sharp and accusing. they glisten with unshed tears that, for now, you manage to ignore. your anger is taking over instead. before he can respond, you continue.

“do you mean our apartment? how we live? or do you mean me, and how awful i am for actually giving a shit about you?”

“(name) -”

“or do you mean the fact that i still cook you dinner every night, even though for the past month, you’ve ignored it? the fact that i’ve been trying, for weeks, to start conversations with you and keep them alive, only to be brushed aside for work, or the boys, or something else?”

“i -”

“even when i try to talk about how we’re obviously drifting apart, you ignore it. it’s as if you don’t want to fix us! and at this point, if you’re so damn done with us that you’re willing to mistake my love for not being able to give you space, well, then - i’m happy to supply you with the space you need so fucking dearly.”

“what the hell does that mean?” yeonjun finally gets out, more dumbstruck than enraged now.

“it means i’m done.” you respond. “i’m fucking leaving.”

your words are far steadier than how you’re feeling, and you speak while gathering your things up again, throwing your bag over your shoulder. yeonjun’s breathing is labored with rage as he watches you turn off your phone - deliberately slowly for him, so he knows that he won’t be able to contact you once you leave - and slip on the flip flops you always keep by the door. 

“don’t wait up tonight.” you finish, making sure that you have your carkeys before slipping out the door. you’ll sleep on your best friend’s couch for the time being. 

“don’t -” yeonjun starts, but the door slams shut in his face.

“shit,” he whispers after a moment, sinking down onto the couch. “shit.” he mutters again - with more fervor this time - tears falling as the exact words he’d spoken to you hit him full force. 

as he folds in on himself, wracking sobs taking over his body as he realizes how badly hurt you must feel, you sob as you drive slowly through backroads, taking your time to get to your friend’s apartment. as you turn away your friend imploring you to eat, yeonjun finishes the leftovers, hoping that you’ll find this endearing when (if, his mind whispers) you get back. as he drafts text after text to you, deleting every word once the image of you shutting your phone off resurfaces, you sob anew as you wonder if you’ll go back to take all of your belongings tomorrow or the day after. as you fall into a fitful and dreamless sleep on their old, worn couch, yeonjun stays awake the whole night, plagued by his work problems and, far more importantly, but how he’s treated you of late.

you’re right - his effort in you and in the relationship has been far outweighed by his consistent bad moods of late. as memories of the past few months rush back to him, yeonjun can barely breathe through the crushing weight of the embarrassment, dread, and sadness he feels. 

it hurts him. 

it hurts him because he loves you - he loves you more than anyone he’s ever loved before, and, he’s sure, more than anyone he might ever love. he’d exploded on you unfairly - he’s aware of this. yeonjun himself is shocked at his reactions, and he knows very, very well, that he might have fucked everything up with you forever. the fact that he might have ruined this love from your perspective does not affect him lightly. 

as he lays awake staring at your empty side, wondering how many weeks its been since he properly held you and if he’ll ever have the experience again, it’s all he can do to hope - through jagged, jagged tears - that you come back to him, and come back to him soon so he can make up for his harsh words with soft embraces.

and it’s up to you if you do come back at all or not. 

[lordsister]

Three Months Waiting (Nobunaga Oda x Reader)

A/N: Started playing Ikemen Sengoku and am absolutely in love with Nobunaga.*sighs* I couldn't manage to get the premium story for his dramatic days gacha, but hopefully it's similar to what the story revealed from his POV. 

I do not own Ikemen Sengoku or any of its characters. 

My ko-fi: ko-fi.com/lordsister

Warning: Contains spoilers for Nobunaga's dramatic route!

You disappeared in the fog, his name resounding on a desperate scream, and just like that his heart shattered as easily as glass, violent, glittering shards piercing the most vulnerable areas of his soul. A few heartbeats passed after you vanished in which he couldn't believe that you were actually gone, that you were 500 years away from him now, far beyond his reach.

Nobunaga had believed your story about being from the future easily enough, but the fact that you had just been sucked back to your strange, modern world was jarring nonetheless.

It was just...he couldn't believe it. You couldn't just be gone. Except you were. So terribly, impossibly gone it tore a gaping wound deep within him, defying his understanding of the natural world and making it all too clear how special you had become to him.

It was more painful than any physical wound he had ever endured, too painful. One second you were right in front of him, reaching for him, crying for him, and the next you weren't, torn away from the man who loved you most by the cruel hand of fate. Sure, he'd been the one to push you into the wormhole, saving you from dying in this storm, but that didn't make it any less painful.

Grief and hurt welling inside of him, Nobunaga tipped his head back and cursed every god that ever was, roaring at the heavens even as lightning fell in deadly spears around him and rain pelted his tear-stained face. The world had never been quite fair with him and now to have the one person he loved so deeply ripped from his grasp? It was too much, even for him.

Despite knowing it wouldn't make any difference, he screamed your name, demanding you be returned to him. He received no answer accepting bone-rattling thunder.

For all his strength and ambition, Nobunaga barely had the will to drag himself out of that storm and not just lay down and let the lightning strike him or let the rain drown him in the mud. Now that he'd found you, he didn't want to live in a world without you and it would be so easy to give up.

In the end, it was his promise to prove that he loved you across 500 years that gave him the determination to escape the storm. If he was truly never to see you again than he had to prove how much he loved you, how every part of him would always belong to you, just as you had once belonged to him. In the last moments before you were lost to him all he'd been able to say was "I love you." Maybe he should've come up with something more flowery and elevated, but he had never been one for over-complicated language and at the time it was all he could think to say.

He certainly hadn't said it enough when you were with him, something he regretted to his core.

Nobunaga was prepared to face an eternity without you, an eternity devoid of love and true happiness, but the gods he cursed for taking you away from him were apparently more merciful than he had given them credit for.

When he returned to Azuchi, battered and heartbroken, he received news that made him actually feel hopeful for the first time in his life, if tentatively so.

Mitsunari was pacing outside the castle gates, a strange book in his hands and an anxious expression on his face. Even though he knew his vassal was probably awaiting his return, Nobunaga walked right past him as he went through the gates, his eyes forward and distant as the other man followed insistently at his heels.

"Lord Nobunaga! You've returned! I have something of the utmost urgency that I need to show you!"

"Not now, Mitsunari," he grumbled, his pace unrelenting as he headed towards his rooms in the tenshu. He just wanted to be alone with his grief for a few more moments before he was forced to begin his life without you. Just a little while longer...

"But, my lord-"

The Demon King spun around, a snarl on his lips as he ground out, "Not. Now."

Gentle face pinched in concern and utter seriousness, Mitsunari continued, undeterred, "It's about (y/n)!"

That made him stop. Why was even the sound of your name suddenly so precious to him? He recovered quickly, advancing suddenly on his vassal and making him take a few steps back.

"She's gone." The words tasted bitter on his tongue. "What news could you possibly have about her? Whatever it is, I suggest you say it quickly. I'm not in the most patient mood at the moment."

"A ninja, Sasuke I believe his name was, arrived a while ago and gave me this." Mitsunari held up the book in his hand. It had a strange, shiny surface for the cover and what appeared to be metal spirals going up the side. "It's full of calculations I've never seen before, but the fact of the matter is that (y/n) may be able to return to this time!"

Nobunaga was rendered speechless, made silent by the sudden wave of cautious relief that weakened his knees and left him breathless. You could...come back to him? Swallowing, he forced him to speak, question this possibility in case he got his hopes up only for them to be mercilessly dashed by fate once more. If there was even the slightest chance that you could return to him...

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's still rather unclear to me, but before he left, Sasuke mentioned something about a wormhole. If he's right, another will appear in three months, connecting this time to 500 years in the future and-"

"Allowing her to come back."

"That's correct."

"I see." It was an odd feeling, feeling so lost one moment and so driven the next. But it all seemed too simple. "Was there anything else?"

"Yes. He said there was one thing that needed to be done to ensure she isn't forced back again." An uncertain look spread across Mitsunari's face and Nobunaga lifted a brow.

"And that would be?"

"History has to adhere to that of (y/n)'s timeline...for that, you have to die."

Humming, Nobunaga averted his gaze from Mitsunari. Really, he should've expected something like this, but he wasn't concerned either. He had no intention of dying, at least not truly, not when there was a possibility you would come back.

Thus, Nobunaga formed a plan to fake his death. His ambition to unite Japan still remained at the forefront of his mind, but if this was the only way to keep you here, then so be it. He couldn't bear having you taken away from him a second time.

In the end he only had to wait three months for you to return to him. Three months of hell as he tried to piece his broken heart back together with promises that you would return to him and crying himself to sleep without you in his arms, but only three months.

The first month saw an overabundance of planning.

Nobunaga threw himself into his work, making plans to fake his death and leave everything to Hideyoshi. He wasn't going to give up on his goal, not at all. He was just going to make it so he could reach that goal with you permanently by his side.

By the time everything was in place, Nobunaga was beyond exhausted, taking little time to rest. Part of this was because he kept checking the strange notes the ninja had given Mitsunari to make sure everything lined up, but the larger factor was that he just couldn't sleep without you. Despite knowing you were going to come back to him, he still missed you so much his heart ached.

He didn't forget his promise to you either. Before faking his death, Nobunaga wrote a formal letter to be saved for posterity and entrusted it to his vassals. Enclosed within the letter was your name, the name of the woman he loved so much, his goddess of mercy. He had no idea if it would reach you, 500 years in the future, but he hoped to the gods it would, that you would know he would always love you.

It was almost a relief when the act was finally employed and he was accepted as dead by the general public. Now all he had to do was wait.

The second month saw unbearable longing.

Waiting was easier said then done, but Nobunaga would have gladly waited for you forever if it meant he could hold you and kiss you one more time.

He finally managed to rest by imagining you in his arms, conjuring your figure from memories. It worked, your gentle eyes and loving smile there to guard him against the childhood trauma that still lingered deep in his psyche, but it made it all the worse to wake up and remember that you weren't there, red eyes staring at the empty space beside him on the futon where you should be.

It was in the second month that darker parts of his mind whispered that you weren't coming back, that you would choose a life of comfort in your world over a life at his side. He didn't doubt your love, not in the slightest, but the Sengoku period had done unfair things to him, things that made him unsure of the promise of happiness.

Nobunaga did his best to push his doubts away, looking at the night sky from the tenshu balcony and wondering what you were doing at that very moment, 500 years away. Were you making plans yourself? Saying goodbye to your old life?

It made him long for you even more.

The third month saw impatience.

He wanted you back and he wanted you back now.

Nobunaga truly believed that one day was far too long to go without holding you and he couldn't wait to make up for lost time, couldn't wait to have you in his arms once more and kiss those lovely lips of yours. In the private confines of his rooms, he would whisper his love against your skin as he relearned the curves and dips of your body, showing you he loved you through both words and actions as he made love to you again and again and again.

He kept a mental countdown of how much time remained until the wormhole opened again and he swore the days and nights had never been longer.

At long last the day arrived when he waited impatiently in front of the ruins of Honno-ji, carefully watching for something, anything that would signal your return to him. He stood waiting all day until night fell and the fear that you weren't coming back began to gnaw at the corners of his hope.

When the fog set in, the same one that had appeared when you'd been sucked away three months ago, Nobunaga didn't even realize it, but before he knew it he couldn't see three feet in front of him and he was surrounded in murky grey.

Heart beginning to race in his chest, he strained to see through the cloud, walking forward in slow steps. "(Y/n)!" Your name erupted from his lips unbidden, the word filled with power as if he was trying to summon you to him.

"Nobunaga Oda?" an unfamiliar voice asked, a male figure appearing through the fog.

Stiffening, he replied, "Yes. And who might you be?"

The fog began to clear, revealing a bespectacled, brown-haired man, but the Devil King paid very little mind to his features. All of his attention was solely fixed on the unconscious individual held in his arms. You. His (y/n).

"My name is Sasuke Sarutobi. I'm the one who gave Mitsunari Ishida those notes."

"So I've heard," Nobunaga muttered, his eyes still on you.

Without a word, Sasuke moved forward and Nobunaga opened his arms to receive you, cradling your head against his chest delicately, tenderly. He was faintly aware of the ninja's eyes on him, regarding him, but he didn't care, too wrapped up in the soft rise and fall of your chest and the warmth of your body against his. You really had come back to him.

"She passed out on the way through the wormhole but she should recover soon enough," Sasuke finally said.

Tearing his eyes away from you, Nobunaga finally met his gaze. "Good. Thank you. I'll take care of her from now on."

Sasuke smiled softly. "I trust that you will."

The fog had fully dispersed at this point, and with that Sasuke turned and strode off, leaving you to your Devil King. Returning his attention to you, Nobunaga's knees gave and he sank to the ground with you in his arms, hugging you close. Tears seeped down his cheeks as he pressed his lips to your forehead. After three months, he finally had you back and he would be damned if he ever let you go again.

"Thank you for coming back to me. I love you," he whispered into your hair and rose on relief-weakened legs once more, making his way towards the inn where he would wait for you to wake up and look at him with those beautiful eyes he couldn't live any longer without.

[iwaizumilovesme]

I. Hajime x Reader

SONGFIC

You can also find this on Wattpad @iwaizumilovesme

Let's Fall in Love for the Night

By: FINNEAS

(Bold and italicized means lyrics)

Angst

Breaking up with a partner that you've been with for nearly two years took an incredible toll on you. How could it not? Being with Kuroo Tetsurou was an amazing adventure when you two first got together. But as time moves on, you realize that Kuroo wasn't the same man you met in the beginning. He's a jealous and overly-possessive type. Sure, having a possessive attitude once in a while seems sweet, right? But having to put up with outrageous scenes in public just couldn't sit right with you. You were a doctor, and you can't help the fact that both men and women see you for appointments. But it really didn't really bother Kuroo that you took care of random men and women, it was mainly the other male doctors that you interacted with. You always explained that in a hospital, it's strictly professional. There's no time to fit in unrelated topics unless you were on break. And when you were on break, Kuroo would harshly drag you out of your work environment and scold you.

Then came the time where it was time to stop. You decided enough was enough and you broke it off with Kuroo. No matter how many times you tried to fix things, your feelings just wouldn't go through his head and his heart. It hurt you, but what added salt the wound was the fact that he agreed. "I couldn't agree more. I'm tired of you," he said.

So here you were, laying on your bed buried in blankets and pillows, sobbing uncontrollably in the dark. The tears just wouldn't stop falling. After a good cry for who knows how many hours, you sniffed and sat up, searching hastily for your phone. When you found it, you scrolled through your contacts to message your best friend: Iwaizumi Hajime.

~

Iwaizumi POV:

7:35 a.m.

I trudged into my apartment, settling my keys, wallet and phone down on the small table by the door. I had just come back from a jog, and I wanted to freshen up. As I walked out wearing clean clothes, I heard my phone buzz.

You need a pick-me-up?

Phone:

Y/N: ...Iwa? Can u come over? Sorry to bother you by the way...

Me: I'll be there in 25.

Delivered

Read

Y/N: Ok...

~

I rushed back out of the house forgetting that I needed to eat breakfast. But, judging by the way she's texted me so unenthusiastically, she must be having issues with Kuroo. I stopped by the store to get all her favorite snacks, like (Candy name), (Chocolate name), (Chip brand), (Type of ice cream), and (Soda/drink). I also got her some instant noodles in case she wanted me to stay past dinner.

I arrived at her house and knocked on her door. It took a few minutes for someone to answer, and when the door opened, I was met with (Y/N) wearing her favorite pajamas. Despite her puffy eyes and tear-stained face, I thought she was as beautiful as ever. Before I could greet her, she grabbed my wrist and forcefully pulled me into her house and slammed the door behind me. She didn't say anything and silently dragged me into her bedroom.

When we reached her bedroom, I awkwardly stood at the door and stared at the mess she's made with it. Her bed was not made, there were empty tissue boxes as well as used tissues that littered the floor. The blinds were shut, and the lights were off. The only source of light was coming from the tv right in front of her bed. She dragged her feet on the ground as she made her way to her bed, nearly tripping on an empty tissue box while doing so. When she sat on her bed, she turned towards me and held her arms open wide and whimpered. I took that as an invitation to join her in bed, but before I did that I dropped the snacks I bought by the door. I picked up the empty tissue boxes and I put the used ones inside the tissue boxes. I stacked them on her desk and decided I will throw them away later.

I'm your boy that your boy hoped that you would avoid,

When I turned to make my way toward her bed, and found that she was buried in blankets again. Her arms probably got tired. I took off my shoes before joining her in bed. I searched through all the blankets and finally found her sleeping peacefully. Or so I thought. "Finally, you took forever, Hajime. I was lonely, and no one wanted to take care of me," she sniffed and held her arms out again. "Hm...You haven't changed at all (Y/N)," I lifted her up and put her in my lap. I then held her close as if to assure her that she was okay. She wrapped her arms around my body tightly and buried her face in my chest. "Or should I say 'Baby (Cringey childhood nick name)'?" I laughed as she groaned, still not lifting her head up, "Hajime...! We're not babies anymore! I mean- I'm not a baby anymore!" I combed my hand through her hair soothingly and didn't respond. "It's okay, (Y/N). No need to pretend now. You can cry, you know?" She shook her head and finally looked up at me. "No...I'm done crying. I want to forget for a little bit. He just-...I just-" she stuttered with her words. "I should have seen it coming, you know? Like," her eyes watered a bit, "how come I didn't do this sooner?" I wiped her eyes with my thumbs carefully as I held her face. "Don't waste your eyes on jealous guys. Fuck that noise," I kissed the top of her forehead, and she nodded and smiled a little.

I know better than to call you mine.

~

We remained in that same position for the remainder of that morning. She refused to let go of me, so wherever I went she came with me. We watched her favorite animes and movies while binge-eating the snacks I bought for her. I made sure she was drinking water, and later I saw her mood began to lift. "Hajime, did you know that...happened?!...and the new manga is coming out...Oh! And there's something about...might unlock...top secret ultimate powers!!! The creator said so himself!" I drowned out some of what she said, and admired her adorable personality. She was talking about some characters in a manga, and the creator announced something and I don't really know. But I love it when you talk that nerdy shit. "Oh, really? Didn't you say that he died or something?" She laughed out loud and hit me playfully, "Hajime! You didn't listen! I said, 'He got fatally wounded, but he didn't die'! You need to clean your ears. Let me see?" She grabbed my head and turned my head to the side to check my ears, "Hajime! Look there's a huge piece of earwax the size of a Pokeball!!!" I was glad to hear her laugh, and I just wanted to see smile and laugh more. "Alright, (Y/N), you asked for it," I pulled her off my lap and tickled her sides, causing her to squeal in laughter, "Ha-Hajime, stop! I was- kidding its not a-haha-as big as a  Pokeball! It's just ha-haha- half of one!" I stopped and let her catch her breath. She flopped on to her back and giggled, and I lay beside her smiling. She rolled over and suddenly her face was super close to mine. Don't make moves, Hajime. Remember you said that you'd sacrifice your happiness for hers? I thought. But she's single now, it's your time! Another part of me argued. She won't like you, moron. I thought again. Fuck it, let's do it. I finally decided.

I slowly leaned in and kissed her lips softly. I expected her to pull away, but she kissed me back. I pulled back and blushed furiously. "I'm sorry I- I didn't mean to take advantage like that! It was selfi-" I was cut off, "It's okay, Hajime. You're just trying to make me feel better. You aren't selfish."

That low-key made me irritated. Okay, not low-key, high key. I've been holding in these feelings since middle school. I've protected her for forever, and not being able to call her mine hurts too much. "...(Y/N). It's not okay." She looked at me confused and I continued, "I've liked you- no. Loved you for as long as I can remember. I know you probably just think of me as your best friend and big brother, but please. Tonight. Please see me as a man. Let's Fall in love for the night, and forget in the morning. You won't stay with me, I know, but you can have your way with me until you go. Accept my feelings just for today, (Y/N), please." It was silent for a long time, and I began to regret saying what I did. But it also felt like the world just came off my shoulders. She whispered, "I didn't know...That you felt that way? I'm so sorry, I didn't know..." She began to tear up, "Hajime, I've hurt you all these years and all you do is care for me? I thought...I thought you wouldn't see me that way. I'm sorry I don't see you in that way. Right now, at least. But I don't know how to pay you back for all you've done for me...and I can't fix your heart for all those years of damage," I held her close to me for a little bit, and I stopped her crying, "Don't cry. You can fix it by letting me stay with you tonight. Tonight, and only tonight you're mi- with me...Okay?" She nodded, "Okay."

I know better than to all you mine.

That night I was able to love her like she was actually mine. And she pretended to love me like I was hers. But we all know she doesn't feel that way about me. Early the next morning I ended up leaving without saying anything. She was asleep and I have to get to work. But being her best friend is better than not being with her at all. Her heart still belongs elsewhere, and being alone isn't that bad. At least I was able to be with her for a little bit. I stretched a bit and I made my way out of her house. I shut the door behind me before saying,

"I know better than to ever call you mine."

~

Hey everyone! Sorry it's a bit long. Also sorry Iwa gets an angst. But we needed a little angst for some interesting-ness? Eh. Let me know if you enjoyed this!

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Justice of the New King

Collection Title: Under Comet’s Tale||Title: Judgment of the New King Characters: Juudai, Dark World Monsters||Ship: N/A Collection: 1-6||Story: 1-1||Words: 3,042 Genre: Drama, Angst||Rated: G Challenges: Diversity Writing, GX canon, I24, 1-shot collection centering around 1 person: Juudai Notes: This begins moments after Juudai defeats Brron. This is also a set of six one-shots that will feature Juudai during his rule over Dark World. Each one is self-contained and will be posted by itself. Summary: Kings must deliver justice. Even when they’re new at the job and don’t even know they’re kings yet.

He could hear their voices, whispered words cast among one another. Their gaze rested on him, skittering uneasily away whenever he twitched, as if he might kill them as he’d killed Brron.

It wasn’t that bad of an idea, Juudai thought vaguely. They kept staring at him. They’d cheered him on when he’d fought – would they still do it so happily when he turned on them?

If. If he turned on them. Not when. He wasn’t – he couldn’t – he wouldn’t.

Juudai started to raise his head. His fingers twitched, and someone took that as a reason to dart out of the arena, tiny noises squeaking in his throat. Juudai blinked for a heartbeat, not at all sure of what he could or should or might do about any of this.

He’d never been this unsure in his entire life. Always before he’d simply wanted to enjoy a good duel, win or lose. Losing annoyed him – it would annoy anyone, right? But it didn’t upset him. Even when he’d lost against Edo that first time, he hadn’t been upset. It had been – something else – that upset him then.

He swallowed and tottered to his feet. He wasn’t sure if he had a coherent thought in his head. Any time he thought something, the words and images just dipped and swirled and wandered off to do something else altogether.

Juudai had no idea of what to do. No, that wasn’t true. The longer he sat there, the more certain he felt that he knew what he needed to do. But he couldn’t bring himself to get up, to do anything at all.

Slowly, he raised his head higher. There were still a few of the spirits that crowded the area there, but most of them had vanished, off to who knew where. He didn’t care. They didn’t mean anything to him.

But as he lifted his head, he saw something else: Brron’s Duel Disk. One card had fallen out of it. He recognized it after a moment: Super Fusion. It still looked mostly blank, but the harder he stared at it, the more he knew what it could do.

But then his gaze shifted past that to Brron’s Disk and the rest of the deck. Slowly, ever so slowly, he reached over and picked the deck up, his fingers shaking so much that he dropped the cards, each one spilling before him.

He’d seen Dark World decks before; he’d even fought against one in his first year. The duelist, a Ra Yellow, tried very hard and played the deck very well. But he’d beaten it then.

Just like he’d beaten it this time, by a duelist who had been a lot better than that half-forgotten Yellow.

But that deck hadn’t had a card like Super Fusion. No card like Super Fusion existed anywhere.

Juudai stared at the cards scattered before him and automatically started to gather them up. As he did so, he could feel something twitching, and somewhere in all of that, the sensation that someone was there rose up strong and unmistakable.

“A human?” He didn’t recognize the voice. But he looked up now and in front of him there stood a tall, somewhat bony creature, wrapped in a deep green cloak, holding a book close to him.

Juudai blinked once or twice more before he glanced back down at the cards in his hand and then up again. He knew this one now. Gren, Tactician of Dark World.

“It shouldn’t be possible. Humans aren’t that good at dueling.” This one was Beiige, Dark World’s Vanguard. Complete dismissal colored his words. “What did he do to Brron-sama?”

The Hunter of Dark World, Broww, moved closer. “Well, human? What did you do?” He raised his bow. “Don’t think you can escape us.”

“I don’t know.” Another Dark World monster laughed derisively. “Some of those humans can run awfully fast.”

A whisper of chill followed the next to speak. “Watch your words, Goldd. There is more to this one than meets the eye. Gren, did you not say earlier that a strange human from another world defeated both Scarr and Zure?”

Gren’s eyes didn’t lift from Juudai. Juudai didn’t even feel like replying. Still broken and disconnected words tossed themselves inside of him, nothing making its way to his lips at all.

“Yes, I did. That’s why Brron-sama wanted to duel him.” Gren shifted away from Juudai. “I saw a great deal of that duel. it’s – not impossible that this human could have defeated him.”

“You didn’t see all of it?” The frost-voiced one asked. Juudai’s eyes flicked around until they landed on a woman’s form, tall and garbed in white, leveling a thoughtful gaze on him. Juudai tilted his head. For the first time in what he thought might be forever he spoke.

“Who are you?”

The lady of ice tilted her head into a nod of greeting. She was as bony and cold as any of the others, carrying a long staff in one hand.

“I am Snoww, Magician of Dark World. And who are you, human who has slain Brron-sama?”

Juudai swallowed. His heart lurched in his chest. Sweat tingled on his brow.

“Yuuki Juudai.”

It wasn’t his voice. Neos stood beside him, arms folded over his chest, fierce eyes staring at the monsters, as if he could take them all on without so much as cracking a sweat.

Juudai wasn’t sure if Neos did sweat. He’d created him but he’d never thought about it, really.

But now he nodded; as long as he had his deck by his side, then he could do anything. He could even take on all of these monsters. Neos would help. All of the Elemental Heroes and Neo-Spacians would. He could feel them there, ready to stand by his side.

Snoww’s gaze hadn’t shifted from him by so much as a hair’s breadth. “Human called Juudai, you killed Brron. The law of this world is the law of the strong over the weak – you proved that you are stronger than Brron was.”

Juudai wasn’t at all sure of what to say about that. He grasped for the first words that came to his lips.

“I don’t care.” Being strong wasn’t going to bring back his friends. It wouldn’t take away the words that still burned inside of his heart, seared in marks of flame and etched with Shou’s voice.

Snoww’s lips curved for a breath, something somewhat like a smile. He wasn’t sure if it really was one or not. Did the monsters of Dark World know how to really smile?

Before he could ask that, the monster that had spoken before – Goldd – did again.

“Are you as good at running as your little friend? The squishy one? He ran so well he went right off a cliff!”

He and another one, Sillva, cackled in eerie echo of one another. Sillva tossed a glance towards where the others had been – Manjoume and Asuka, Fubuki and Kenzan – with all that was left of them being the chains they’d been in.

“Looks like he’s not the only one who died, though. Brron-sama finished them off.”

Ice far deeper than whatever Snoww possessed wrapped itself all around Juudai’s heart and soul. When he spoke, there wasn’t anything in his voice that echoed of forgiveness or kindness.

“What do you know about my friends?”

Goldd and Sillva glanced at him; Goldd answered. “Brron-sama wanted us to bring them to him. They weren’t that hard to catch. A little mouthy, but we shut them up.” He raised his weapon menacingly, lips parted in an expression that Juudai thought was meant to be a smile. “Took us longer to run the squishy one down, though.”

“And he jumped off a cliff before he let us catch him. What a wimp!” Sillva mocked, wings rustling in the pale wind. “Couldn’t handle being killed with everyone else, I guess.”

Brron killed his friends – set it up so that Juudai attacked even when he didn’t want to. But he wouldn’t have had them there to kill in the first place if these two hadn’t brought them.

Hurt them.

Run Shou off a cliff.

Rage spiked in his heart. This was their fault. Still a lot of his – his mistakes with Yubel remained at the root of all of this – but they’d done enough and he wasn’t going to let them get away with it.

He didn’t need to duel them. He didn’t want to duel them. They didn’t deserve that honor – they didn’t deserve an honorable death in combat.

“Juudai…” Neos rested a hand on Juudai’s shoulder and Juudai threw it off without a single word, stepping forward.

Anyone looking at him – Snoww and Gren, Goldd and Sillva, Beiige and Broww, all of the others there – saw Juudai’s eyes melt from confused brown to furious molten gold. All around him there flared an aura of shadows, deeper and darker than any ever seen even in this world of night.

“You hurt my friends.” The words fell like tiny drops of hatred. “You’re not going to live.”

Goldd laughed, raising his sword higher. “Pretty eyes, but what can you-”

Juudai gave him no time to finish the question. He moved forward, hands grasping onto Goldd’s arms. Juudai caught a brief glimpse of confusion in Goldd’s eye before power surged through him. Life and death were his to command – he could feel all of that power surging at his fingertips in this moment. There wasn’t anything that anyone could do to stop him.

Not the Dark World monsters.

Not the Elemental Heroes.

Not the Neo-Spacians.

Not Hane Kuriboh.

In the space of a heartbeat, Goldd changed from a living, breathing creature to nothing more than dust in Juudai’s hands. The echoes of his final scream hung in the air and for a few seconds, Juudai savored them. They faded far too quickly, though, and he turned to where Sillva stood. The moment those eyes touched on him, the Army God of Dark World stumbled back.

He’d seen the unrelenting, unforgiving gaze of something far beyond a god.

“Run.”

Juudai said just that one word. Sillva didn’t hesitate, whirled and scampered out of the gates of the fortress, covering huge amounts of territory in a matter of moments. Juudai let him run – for now. There wasn’t any forgiveness in him now.

He’d done that before. He’d forgiven Kagemaru. He understood that Saiou hadn’t been in control of his own actions. Yubel – Yubel hated him personally. That was his own fault.

But this was different. This was someone who hurt the people that he cared about and Juudai would never forgive that.

He just wanted to play with his food. Just a little. To give Sillva the chance that Kenzan and Asuka, Fubuki and Manjoume, and Shou hadn’t been given.

If they hadn’t chased Shou would he have thought differently when he got there? Or would he have hated Juudai regardless? Would he have listened?

Juudai didn’t know. Juudai found, with a bit of amazement, that he also didn’t care. What happened was what happened. Time to finish things.

He ignored Neos’s attempting to speak to him. He started out of the arena, his steps taking him to a stretch of shadows. When he came out of the other side, he wasn’t anywhere near the fortress’s arena. He wasn’t sure of where he was, but not there. He could feel that Sillva wasn’t there. Too far away.

He’d have to learn to control this. He wasn’t sure of what this was but he liked it. It felt natural; felt right as almost nothing had since this last year of school began.

Again he entered the darkness, casting about as he did. When he stepped out again, he knew he was even farther from the fortress where he’d fought Brron. But he was closer to Sillva.

Once more he moved. And then again. He thought as he grew closer, Sillva knew he was coming. He did hope so. He wanted Sillva to fear him. He wanted Sillva to know that death stalked him.

“Juudai.” Again Neos tried to tug him from this path and again Juudai ignored him. This was his decision. This was his choice.

Now.

Sillva stopped; probably to catch his breath, probably for a drink of water. Juudai didn’t know. Didn’t care. But Sillva slumped for a few moments, barely looking as if he could take another step.

He didn’t need to. Juudai eliminated his need to move in moments. He didn’t give a chance for talking – Sillva had nothing that Juudai wanted to hear.

“Juudai, what are you doing?” Aqua Dolphin spoke up, hovering there briefly. “This isn’t -”

“Go away.” Juudai said quietly. “I don’t want to talk to you. To any of you.”

He didn’t think that he wanted to talk to anyone ever again. He could feel that it was getting close to what passed for night in this world. He started to walk, entering the shadows again. When he stepped out of them this time, he stood back in the arena. The other Dark World monsters hadn’t left; stood close to one another, talking in quiet tones.

When he entered, Snoww turned towards him right away. “Has your judgment been delivered?”

Juudai nodded. No words wanted to be said, so he didn’t say them. He stared again at the cards of Brron, now neatly stacked. Had he put them there like that? He didn’t remember – cared even less.

But that card remained with him. He’d picked it up before they arrived – never set it back down. Now he tugged it out and stared at it again before he looked at them all. Something hung in the air – something was about to change.

“How do I create this?”

He wanted Super Fusion. His reasons were simple – if he had it, then they hadn’t died in vain. If he had it, they would remain with him – Manjoume and Kenzan, Asuka and Fubuki.

Shou? No. Shou remained out there somewhere, with Jim and O’Brien. Shou didn’t want anything to do with him anymore. He wasn’t sure if the other two did either. He didn’t think that the others did – not that they had a choice now.

He would make up for what he did. He would make up for the mistakes that he’d made, with them and with Yubel.

Gren moved forward in the brief space that those thoughts took to filter through him.

“Death. Everyone that dies near enough to that’s card presence will become a part of the card. The stronger the duelist, the more they will contribute to Super Fusion’s birth.” Gren hesitated, cast a glance at Snoww, then back to Juudai. “The four deaths that it already soaked up did a great deal for it. The fifth person – the carrier of Doubt – could finish the card with his death.”

The carrier of Doubt. Shou. It had to be Shou. Juudai didn’t know what that actually meant but he recognized Shou regardless.

“No. If anyone sees him – leave him alone. If – if there’s a way back to where we came from, put him there. Let him go. Same for the other two with him. Just let them go.”

Gren bowed low. “As you wish.”

He’d given orders. An order, and someone else accepted it. He’d never done that before. He liked to bull ahead with what he wanted to do – he’d done that for so long. People listened when he wanted things – mostly.

But it hadn’t been like this. They feared him – feared what he could do to them. What he would do to them.

Just the thought of them not listening – of hurting someone when he’d told them not to – made him think about killing them already. They would have to know that disobeying him wasn’t allowed. He’d make that very clear from now on.

“Yuuki-sama,” Gren started to speak and fell silent when Juudai cut his golden gaze toward him.

Dreadful silence stretched out between them. Juudai broke it at last. He hadn’t really thought in that time, but the words came regardless.

“Don’t call me that. Call me ” It came in a single interior bolt, a word that he’d heard once before, falling from the dying lips of Birdman. “Haou.”

He hadn’t understood what Birdman wanted then. He didn’t know if he did now. But that would, perhaps, be a good place to begin.

“Haou-sama,” Gren repeated before he dropped to his knees in front of Juudai. The other Dark World monsters followed one by one, each one murmuring his new title as they did, until only Snoww stood on her feet before him. That icy stare did not change, nor did her expression.

Then she knelt, her head bent respectfully. “Haou-sama,” she acknowledged. “What are your orders?”

Orders. Right. He needed those. He needed to kill people. For Super Fusion.

All right. Better all of this entire world than Shou or Jim or O’Brien.

Or Johan. If Johan wasn’t already dead.

Which he probably was. Brron said so. And if Johan wasn’t dead, then so much – so much…

That thought got shoved out of his head very fast. Juudai took a look around the arena and made up his mind.

“Get everyone in this place out of it. I don’t want anyone to stay here. Is there another castle? Somewhere else we can move to.”

Gren and Snoww exchanged a quick look and Snoww nodded. “Yes, Haou-sama. It hasn’t been lived in for some time but I think it will suit your needs. It will take perhaps two cycles of the comet to reach it – at least for most people. Perhaps you can reach it more quickly.”

That wasn’t a really bad idea. Juudai nodded. Then he looked at the other monsters. “You’re all going to do what I tell you.”

No one so much as twitched a finger in denial. Juudai knew this was just the beginning. He wasn’t a student anymore. Shou was right. Right and wrong.

He hadn’t killed Brron to make himself a king. He hadn’t done any of this to make himself a king.

But now that he had the job, he was going to be very, very good at it.

The End Notes: I’m going to post a one-shot every Saturday until this little collection is finished. They should be about this length, though that may differ.

[jumpboy-rembrandt]

hey do yall wanna hear an au idea i’ve had abt the seven birds as a superhero team? the plot is constantly changing, but here’s what i’ve got (warning it’s a lot and bullet points are used gratuitously):

an alien object falls to the earth, breaking apart as it falls. it scatters around a small city, and the pieces seem to hone in on the nearest living human once they near the ground.

(psst – this is the light of creation)

these seven (mostly) unrelated people slowly realize that they now have…unusual abilities

another alien entity follows, and its agents begin wreaking havoc around this city searching for the missing pieces of the light

(psst – this is the hunger)

individually, each person touched by the light ventures out to fight off these beings, especially since they themselves tend to be targeted.

these agents can get a vague sense of where the shards are, but not who exactly has them. thus, there is some degree of investigation done to find the individuals.

said agents can either be sentient or monster-like

the light-holders are all disguised as they fight – some for anonymity, some so that these agents have more trouble seeking them out, and some just because it seems like the right thing to do.

none of them knew each other before now, but they cross paths often enough that they realize they should probably group up.

most of them want to keep their identities secret, so they agree to do that while also making a few other decisions:

they should all have each others’ numbers. they won’t seek each other out, but it is important to keep in contact.

they should get better costumes (a plea from taako, who subsequently makes them)

they should have a theme

so they decide upon uniform colors and the title of “seven birds” because…idk, maybe they all like how poetic it sounds?

anyway, here’s a breakdown of each member:

magnus was struck by the light while sparring with carey behind their apartment complex. he was knocked over and carey kinda panicked?? but then he got up and said “did you do that?” and she responded “how would i hurl something at you from the sky, you’re fucking huge” and they moved past it

carey and magnus are roommates, so she’s the first one to notice when he starts accidentally breaking things and can knock her down more easily.

the weirdest part was when he was carving a little figurine and she jumped up behind him – to be fair, she thought he was drawing plans for something at the carpentry shop. they both saw the knife go directly towards his fingers and…bounce off. being magnus, he immediately tried to stab his hand and nothing happened. carey, being carey, poked the edge to see if it was dull and, ow, no, it wasn’t.

so, magnus has super strength and armor-like skin. a downside to this is that the changes weren’t entirely magic (think commitment), so he has to eat a lot more than usual and that’s. not insignificant.

the superhero name he chooses is eagle, which he called out immediately bc he wanted the best bird. his color theme is orange. his uniform doesn’t have sleeves, and it was a struggle for taako to even make him wear a shirt.

merle was hiking through the woods, and when he got hit he actually blacked out for a little bit. he woke up in a bed of flowers and, huh, that’s really convenient how it broke my fall

he works part time as an EMT and spends the rest working in a plant nursery. i. think you can guess how he notices what’s going on.

merle’s power is accelerating and manipulating organic growth, which means that he can both control plants and heal wounds. this does take a physical toll, as it is his energy being transferred. he also needs to eat a lot.

his superhero name is dove bc ~peace~ and stuff. his color theme is, naturally, green.

taako and lup were. uh. not getting in trouble. they were just having a misunderstanding. fortunately, said misunderstanding was not as fast as they were bc the misunderstanding was missing their shoes. they stumbled and fell as the light split at the last second and hit them both, but they quickly jumped back to their feet, turned a corner, and were home free.

both of them are studying masters level chemistry, so their discoveries are in public and require a bit of covering up. taako was trying to work out the chemical structure of a fairly simple crystal when it moved. he jumped, then tried it again, and found out that he could even separate out certain parts without needing a reactant.

lup gets bored waiting for a solution to boil and suddenly it explodes

taako’s power is manipulating chemical structures and lup’s is causing combustion or explosions. both require a knowledge of chemistry; taako has to understand the structure of what he’s moving or separating, and lup needs to know about boiling/ignition points and pressure changes etc. again; the energy comes from them. you get the point by now, i think.

taako is starling and purple, and lup is phoenix and red.

they both have pockets containing little beads of easy-to-change materials if they can’t find anything else to use

barry is a phd student, and was in the basement bio lab of the local university when the light phased through the ceiling and hit him. he stumbled backwards and fortunately didn’t hurt himself, bc he basically lives in there and no one would check on him for a while.

the next time he’s forced into a university function, he’s shrinking against a wall wishing he wasn’t there, and then he…isn’t. he falls over into the next room bc he just went through the wall.

i’ll be honest – barry basically has danny phantom powers. the tricky bit is that if he’s exhausted, instead of losing his powers, he can’t keep a physical form very well. finally, a reason for this man to get some sleep already.

his codename is nightingale and his color is blue. thank goodness he can make his clothes and glasses ghost with him, or else he’d be recognizable and useless.

davenport was relaxing with a short flight just outside of town. he notices some strange lights, then realizes one is coming towards him, then barely manages to keep the plane from crashing when it hits him in the head. he quickly lands and checks the plane for damage, but there’s no trace of it.

his mind is wandering during a pretty boring meeting one day when everyone suddenly stops. davenport tunes in and notices that, um, there’s a small boat appearing to float across the table. this completely snaps him out of his thoughts, and it disappears. it’s a good thing the old people on the board like to brush over unexplainable things, bc after a few moments, the meeting picks back up.

he works at a nerd museum. he mostly enjoys it, but also wants to save up enough to move to the coast.

his power is creating illusions and, depending on his energy, materializing them. the illusions barely cost anything, but the materialization is really draining.

his hero name is canary and his color theme is gold.

i wanted it to be albatross at first, but that sounded a little…eh? i liked canary better, esp since it’s yellow

+ instead of having half the symbolism of a curse, it symbolizes freedom!! i think that’s an important dav trait.

finally, lucretia was riding home on her bike and, unlike dav, did crash. strangely, she and her bike were totally unharmed.

lucretia works part-time as a secretary to save up for college, while also working at a bookstore bc she is a Nerd. she got lost in the Deep Shelves and, when a pile of books fell and set off a domino effect, she stretched out her hands to stop them – and they actually did stop.

lucretia can create force fields of any shape, and move them around. that may seem simple, but she can ride them like a hover board, trap people, and, if she’s strong enough, slice things.

her superhero name is bluejay and her color is teal.

other characters include:

julia, magnus’s coworker/boss’s daughter, and they’ve been in love since forever. when the light stuff started though, magnus figured he should slow down.

…yeah, she figures it out pretty soon. magnus is bad at keeping secrets.

carey, magnus’s roommate and constant alibi/excuse-maker/back-up

killian, who works security at the business lucretia secretaries at, and keeps bringing her out to social stuff bc the girl needs it. they also talk abt girls a lot bc they’re both Gay™ – lucretia especially enjoys teasing killian about carey with the “really great calves” from the gym.

killian accidentally said weird shit when first gushing about her and, of course, lucretia will never forget it

noelle was saved by the team from whatever the hell lucas ends up doing in this au. carey offers to share her room, esp since magnus is uh. working a little more irregularly these days and they could use the split rent.

noelle and carey also talk about girls, including killian who could “probably throw me across a room” from the gym.

angus was looking into all this nonsense and figured it was easiest to track down twins who seem to know a lot about chemistry. it wasn’t too hard. taako and lup were appalled that his parents Just Let Him Do That and so there’s a 50/50 chance that angus is in their spare room at any given time.

listen they got a two-bedroom apartment, but apparently they’re still too clingy to sleep alone. nerds.

ren is taako’s coworker and best friend. she knows Something is up, but isn’t entirely sure What. she also knows better than to try and find out. taako will tell her when he tells her.

honestly i low low lowkey dig the idea of noelle/ren but you didn’t hear that from me. if it happens to show up though. oh well.

avi makes frequent deliveries for the hammer and tongs, and is pretty tight with magnus. he’s even tighter with magnus’s dogs, which stay at the h&t bc his apartment is run by ruthless monsters.

johann is the town’s dramatic and overtalented musician, who is almost always in the background. i’m not sure what his deal is, but he sure is good at music.

hurley is a cop who keeps trying to figure out what is going on, but isn’t having much luck

artemis sterling is the very frustrated mayor

certain people are given powers by the hunger, a la hawk moth. these include gundren, magic brian, jenkins, sloane, the hammerheads, cpt cpt bane, lucas, etc.

the major manifestation of the hunger is john, but only merle manages to see him.

unlike miraculous, the hunger is dangerous to its hosts if they become disagreeable. the birds can save the people possessed, but it’s not easy.

there are Mysterious Third Parties that can grant additional powers

one is known as the raven queen. she grants kravitz the power to possess non-organic materials, as well as a scythe that can temporarily dislocate souls and do mild portal shit.

kravitz was a coroner trying to get a gig in the orchestra, but then he almost died and the raven queen resurrected him and he’s got a really strong sense of duty so he’s doing this now, he guesses. at least he still gets to have a normal life when he isn’t busy.

i like to think that after sloane rejects the hunger, the raven queen scoops her up and also grants the ability to possess non-organic objects. she was a good mechanic before, and is super good now. she gets hurley to give up on the whole investigation thing and join her and they live happily ever after, and also kick the occasional ass.

at first, RQ’s orders are to retrieve the light so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, but taako persuades kravitz that the birds are able to use it to defeat the hunger once and for all.

after that, the mission is just to keep as many people out of danger as possible.

istus and pan can also grant powers, but i’m not sure how they’d fit in yet

more random facts:

taako, lup, and barry are actually at the same university even though they never see each other. the mascot is a mongoose.

at some point the bio and chem departments are doing a joint conference thing. taako and lup are wandering around while spamming the birds’ group chat with really awful memes with magnus. meanwhile, barry is trying his best to ignore his constantly-vibrating phone as he talks to a professor about something actually important.

do they find each other in this truly ridiculous way? You Decide.

lucas is in the same department as barry, and even though he’s kind of a genius, he is also. how you say. a dick.

ren and taako work as chefs at the davy lamp. ren is almost definitely going to own it one day, and taako is proud of her.

lucretia and magnus meet via carey and killian, and quickly become close friends. because magnus is incapable of keeping a secret from anyone he knows, she finds out that he’s eagle and so they now know each other’s secret identities.

anyway that’s all i’ve got for now, thanks for coming to my ted talk

[dauntless-dragayn]

Life is Strange fanfiction: All Wounds

   HEY ALL, somethin different for today. I will honestly say I don't read tons of fanfic, call me picky or just, see the truth as being i don't have much spare time to read, period so I've never reviewed one.  BUT. I really want to call attention to one this time, and what better way to do that then by helping out the author with a review? I don't think people realize how much criticism is worth to writers, even taking the time to type out something small is great. (quick note: this review contains spoilers for Lis and BtS. spoilers for the fic itself will be left to the end)   All Wounds by @destiny-smasher is a fic taking place in the Life is Strange universe, almost directly after the 'bae' ending. Throughout, it switches between Max and Chloe's PoVs, however Max is still the main protagonist here. But this is no fluffy feel-good fic (though there is some spots of fluff here and there) it's real and it's painful. It deals with the trauma and emotions that have built up in these women over that fateful week, even their teenage years - stuff that doesn't just magically disappear after the climax. That premise hooked me, because the kind of nitty gritty that often gets ignored in the fandom is exactly what tends to interest me. It actually (minor spoiler!) timeskips after a bit to when they're adults, and when things finally start crashing around their heads .. again.   I will say outright, this isn't for the faint of hearted. It's lonnnng, at 3.5 k words, which rivals many novels!! And it deals with PTSD, mental illness, suicidal ideation, and even a certain amount of psychological horror. Themes present in both games definitely come up again. And no, Max and Chloe's relationship isn't without its bumps. Or rather catastrophic crashes. Don't worry, it'll hurt you but patch those wounds up, by the end. see what i did there   Truthfully, I tried to read it in a RIDICULOUSLY short time frame for Reasons™ (unrelating to the piece) but just could not. I would continuously find myself compelled to slow down, sink into each sentence, into Max’s head or Chloe’s frustrations. I was living in their world more than mine for a few days. It was great - a piece of fresh writing hasn’t done that to me in a while.   I highly recommend taking the time to appreciate this story; it’s ups and downs, romance and time fuckery. If you loved Life is Strange (duh) there’s little reason you wouldn’t love this, too.   You can absolutely tell that this is a project woven together of heart and struggle. Art is never easy when you truly care about the outcome and the fact that this took years of the creator's time and attention stuns me. She did all that mind you, for FREE. Not for publishing, not for profit, not for fame. For a fandom she cares about. Serious writing for fandom is tough, because frankly it's not the easiest medium to sell (sell being used nonliterally here of course, and also, this applies outside of fandom too, just especially so in it) I have an INCREDIBLE amount of admiration for creators like her who dive into these characters they love - but did not create! developing them further, taking them in new directions or continuing them on paths they were already set on -  and write novel length stories or comics for absolutely nothing. You have thoroughly earned my respect.   That’s not to say it’s flawless! Nothing ever is, psh. I do have criticisms here and there, but with those I’ll be more specific, which means they’ll be put under the cut. This is mostly for Destiny-Smasher’s sake, since she is in the process of turning the fic into a visual novel! I’ve read the first few chapters of that too, it’s a cool adaption.   So yeah, if ya haven’t read it, please stop here.   (Also before you go, check out her girlfriend’s art, I’m in love with that too!!)

SPOILERS BEYOND

   Some of these tend to be on the side of minor and nitpicky, I feel, but I'll still go into them. Not trying to be annoying !

  Okay so OBVIOUSLY the repetitiveness of certain scenes or conversations was purposeful, and a big part of how you told this story. And that's GREAT I think you used that unusual element well, certainly paying attention to details. There were some times when it felt repetitive in the wrong places though I think, and I guess I mostly mean some conversations. Or sometimes rather than being repetitive they just felt unnecessary as a whole. If I'm remembering correctly sorry its been a little while by now the conversation between Chloe and Steph in the diner before Chloe realizes she can rewind time now felt like that - just unneeded, like if you had cut or shortened it nothing would be lost. I can't think of any more examples right now, but maybe just keep that in mind?   In general there are definitely a few filler scenes but I hesitate to condemn that because like I said, this world really breaths and feels genuine, and I think those are part of why.   The addition of quotes and especially linked songs was an awesome touch I thought, since ya don't normally get auditory nods like that in writing. There were a few times it broke my immersion but for the most part it was a very appealing layer to your storytelling, so I look forward to seeing that carried out with the adaption.   One thing I didn't like much in general were Chloe's pirate dreams in the second half. I understand that there were some important nods and revelations about what was going on in her psyche, not to mention the role of dream weaving being hinted at, but for the most part they just left me pretty confused.   As far as inconsistencies, I know you were worried about that, but I really think you're fine? Like other than the stuff involving Before the Storm and what that revealed/changed (which you can't be blamed for because this story was written over yEARS) there was nothing major that I noticed. And considering the utter insanity of the timelines n shit, I'm seriously in awe you kept it relatively smooth. I have a HUGLY less complicated story in the works (no time travel) and I still managed to fuck up the timeline. Moving on. :')    I’m embarrassingly forgetful, and that’s all my initial notes on the subject had to say, so I may be missing some things? But yeah, I honestly don’t have much in the negative to say.    So let’s talk about THE plot twist. Yes that one. I remember around, chapter 16.4, the idea piecing together in my mind .. the title of the chapter, her behavior, speaking patterns, the fact that yes, this wasn’t a deviation like any of the others, it was in fact the canon divergence of timeline.... hoLY CRAP ITS OTHER MAX SHES REAL AND - yeah I fangirled a bit. (I was freaking so badly about my theory that I was so sure had to be true - and I was right, heh - that I tried to explain it to my dad. Who, FYI, has minimal knowledge on Life is Strange’s plot, and no hope of understanding the convoluted details of the fic thus far. I finally gave up and went back to reading while squealing excitedly over it in my head. And then I shut up because things got dark)   Just, gods, the details! That was the most satisfying fucking feeling, seeing all these seemingly little or random things come to be crucial. Things like Max clinging to her reality with the wedding bands on her finger, or like Other Max’s particular personality, from being aggressive and upfront more than Max has ever been, to her freaking sexual behavior. Her having red streaks in her hair to represent both sides to her, the cover of the fic and the visual novel not being a symbolic picture but an actual look at the End of Time and Other Max!!   Her falling in love with Stella was definitely a curveball I did not expect, and admittedly I was pRETTY weirded out. Cuz like.. she's engaged to Chloe in the other timeline, and obviously I ship them over anyone else.. I'm not complaining! Just, a very fresh take on Stella and their relationship. Speaking of- it did seem a little strange to me that, after the awkward start to their dating and the mention of how it was going right after, that it never came up again. Obviously things got cut short, but, how was it really working? Did Stella turn out to actually be gay? I interpreted that she was doing it out of a sort of obligation and platonic love for Max, and that she was 1000% straight. Maybe you left that open on purpose? It seemed coded that way, though..   All in all I loved what you did with Other Max. She was an edge of a concept in Life is Strange, in that confrontation scene after the nightmare of episode five - which I loved for its implications - and you took that and RAN with it. So I go in thinking "okay. she's a more literal form of this mental battle Max faces, made so much worse by death shes surrounded by after the storm" And for a while that holds up.. Max finds herself moving on, as a teenager, with Chloe's pushing, and things get better for a while. Great!! Woohoo!   Except ..  the past will always find you .. especially when that past is yourself ... and not even time travel can keep it away forever.   That's the shit you don't see delved into. This power is like, a drug. A limb she's gotten used to and relies on as much as any other. I've never believed she would just, drop it. Does it go away when the storm hits / chloe dies? Maybe, I always thought. But that's so convenient. And without an explanation for why it showed up, we have no basis for why it would go away.   And why not use it, Max convinces herself. ‘I must still have the power for a reason.’ Maybe so, and you've certainly grown, Caulfield, but you are still avoiding consequences. You are still a god amongst mortals, but guess what? That immortal facade can only be contained by a human body for so long. Things start crumbling, and as a reader you see the inevitability of all, feel the hopelessness. She's keeping things from Chloe, BIG fucking things, and I want to reach over and grab her by the shoulder and shake her. "CHLOE YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS MINDFUCKED"   I literally couldn't breath for a minute when I realized the implications of the car crash scene, where Max says she's been regularly getting lost in time for months. But, no biggie. Quick weed, call, and you’re right back where you should be. Right? Just wipe the blood off your face, no one will notice.   Damn.   Anyway, enough about that. Remember earlier, when I said 'psychological horror'? Truthfully I don't know if that's the right word for it, or even if its a real thing. But whatever it is, I live for it. People's mind are their own worst enemies, and that bit is ultimately and personally relatable. Max is constantly arguing with herself. But this time, the nightmare - mine, and hers - is creeping into real life. The Other is ripping control from her shaky hands. Its twisting her into someone she never wanted to be - a literal worst version of herself, and, we find out - a real version, just from a different timeline. A broken one. A nonhuman one .. or that's what she says. But as we see this Other raise her voice, and read on in bafflement alongside Max, we get to see that her intentions, aren't necessarily evil. Has she done evil things? Yes. Did Max see her as evil? Yes, and even Chloe did for a while. But the big question I found myself asking, and Chloe eventually challenging is.. is the Other.. still Max? Is the worst reality, the worst view in the mirror, still us? All Wounds says yes. But not to give up hope, far from it - instead that we MUST confront these self made demons, we MUST accept these wounds for them to ever heal.   While spurred by a morality grounding near-death experience, that last fight at the End of Time - while a supernatural slew of symbolism, time travel, and dreamscapes - also sung to me of reality. That's what the best fantastical fiction is.   Amazing.

  To top it all off, the ending chapter was perfect. I'm not gonna lie, I teared up a bit. It felt right, and more importantly, real. Not some overdone fictional fanservice crap. But still the happy ending these women MORE than earned.   Through it all, the exploration of characters who didn't probably get what they deserved in LiS (I'm thinking about Victoria, but also Stella and even Joyce..) was really satisfying and ultimately shifted my perception of them.

  Honestly, there are so many quotable moments throughout this thing. (I have a ton of screenshots of some on my phone, actually.) But I'll go with .. "You Power isn't what makes you special, Max. Stop worrying about fixing. Focus on being. Yes, even those parts. That's all in the past. All I care about now is the future. And I want to share that future with you."

-Chloe 

 What you called experimental bullshit, I applaud. So.. Thanks for writing All Wounds.

[simkjrs]

black dirt under your feet

villain au, drabble, 6k. content warnings for: murder, instances of suicidal ideation, self harm through inaction, past/referenced/implied child abuse

**EDIT: this story is separate from and unrelated to the villain!izuku comedy au

———

On his fourteenth birthday, Izuku murders his father.

For all that this man has lived for centuries, has manipulated Japan from the shadows, has stolen so many Quirks – it is almost simply, stupidly easy to kill him in the end.

Father isn’t the only one who can steal others’ quirks. Back at the hideout, Shigaraki is lying catatonic in a back room; Izuku now has hands that should not be touched. He steps into the room and stands there quietly, waiting.

“Izuku,” Father says from behind his horrendous skull mask. Wires and tubes hiss and shake as he speaks.

“Father,” Izuku acknowledges. His heart thumps in his chest. He made sure to loop the camera footage so it looked like Shigaraki was just sleeping, but what if Father noticed? What if this – stupid, desperate – plan fails?

Father taps his fingers on the armrest of his seat. “I see you’re turning fourteen,” he says.

No shit, Father, Izuku thinks sardonically.

“You’re progressing along nicely in your studies,” he muses. “Your last assignments went well.” The next moments are laden heavily with thought, and then he says, “Do you want anything for your birthday?”

The correct answer here is no, Izuku knows, and Father knows that he knows – but Izuku very deliberately hesitates a half-second too long before he says so.

Father tilts his head. “Be forthright with your wishes when you speak to me,” he says, an implicit command to speak his mind.

Izuku swallows. Here is where it begins. “I…um, I would like to go see my mother again, please. Sir,” he tacks on. It’s weird, play-acting as himself, but it’s so easy, too. Performances are so much more real when you put yourself into them, right?

There is a silence, and then Father says, “I thought I disabused you of the notion years ago.”

“I��” Izuku presses his lips together. “I know you disapprove, but – I’ve – I mean, I’ve done good this year. I’ve done better. I can get around places without being caught, and I know how to wipe my tracks – and wipe memory too, if I need to, a-and – I’ll be careful. I can do it–”

His carefully constructed babble is cut off when Father shifts. “Izuku,” he says, and clicks his tongue. “How long will you cling to your mother? Are you still a child? You cannot stay blind to everything but her forever.”

“I’m not blind,” Izuku says indignantly. “You said it yourself. I did good on my last assignments. And I don’t – I don’t even want that much, I just. I don’t want her to think I’m dead. She doesn’t deserve that. Can’t I see her? Even just once?”

The silence that follows is even longer. Izuku pretends to jitter his foot, then stops. His heart beats loudly in his ears as Father says, “It seems I have not taught you as well as I hoped.”

Hook.

“Come here,” Father commands.

Line.

Izuku doesn’t obey immediately, painting subtle lines of hesitance and anger and fear in his body.

“Come here.” Father’s voice is colder, now. Izuku lurches forward and takes deliberate steps towards the chair Father sits in, stopping just outside arm’s reach.

“Closer.”

Izuku takes one step closer.

Father turns his head towards him. “You are too naive,” he says. “Do you think your mother would still want to see you, after all these years? She has grieved already. You are selfish for wanting to bring back that pain, and more selfish to willingly endanger our secrets by revealing yourself to a soft, civilian woman who has no power and no strength.” Izuku feels punched in the stomach. “I thought perhaps you had tempered yourself, but it seems you are still soft and ruled by emotion. You have no sense at all. Remember, Izuku, you brought this on yourself.”

Father stretches his hand out to touch Izuku’s forehead.

Sinker.

Izuku snatches Father’s wrist before he can touch him. Father doesn’t realize what’s happening until it’s already started – and then he screams, a terrible and ugly sound whose sonic force shreds Izuku’s skin and peels sheets of blood from his arms. He’s wrenching himself up from his seat, pulling away with all the force of his strength Quirks – but Izuku snatches the Quirks away, pulls them to himself and steals them for his own. His grip does not break. He watches with dispassionate expectation; it’s too late. Father is already disintegrating – his arm, his torso, and then his legs and head, all crumbling to ash on the chair and dusting to the ground.

The end of Izuku’s world is so soft.

Izuku stares at the ash. He feels like he should feel something, but there’s nothing there, just the same aching emptiness that he carries with him every day. Izuku tries smiling, and whispers to himself, “You did it,” but it is small and hollow in this space. He stops smiling.

It’s a shame, Izuku thinks, that Shigaraki’s Quirk doesn’t work on its wielder.

Izuku sits down in the chair Father once occupied, and the ash stirs around him, but he can’t find it in him to care other than a mental, This is kind of fucked up. He curls up, and accidentally brushes the chair with his hand. The chair arm crumbles under him. When his hand lands on the chair, it disintegrates under him as well, and Izuku makes no move to pull his hand away. The crumbling chair deposits him in a soft pile of dust.

He doesn’t care. This is good enough. There’s nothing left to do now but to wait for someone to discover what he did and kill him. Izuku lays down and lets the world fade away until it’s nothing but ash and cold tile pressed against his cheek.

And then nothing more.

–

“–zuku! Izuku! Wake up!”

Izuku mumbles as the voice pulls him out of the heavy darkness. “Leave me ‘lone,” his voice says, and it bounces loudly in his skull, pulling him further to consciousness. He tries to hang onto the oblivion of sleep, but cruelly, it begins slipping away.

“Oh, thank god,” the voice says, and then Izuku feels a pair of hands hooking under his arms and pulling him up. Izuku lashes out instinctively, and then he flinches back.

“Don’t touch me,” he says hysterically, or maybe it would be hysterical if he had the fear to fuel it. “I’ll disintegrate you. Don’t touch me.”

“Shh. I know,” says the voice. Whoever it is picks Izuku up carefully, bridal style, and Izuku pulls his bleeding hands close to his chest. He looks up blearily and squints.

“Kurogiri?”

“Not quite.”

But it’s so dark in here. “What do you want?” Izuku says. “I killed him.”

“I know,” says the voice.

It doesn’t make any sense. If they know, Izuku should be dead. He wants to ask what happened, what changed, but he’s so tired, and his eyes slide inexorably shut. It doesn’t matter anyways, does it?

“Sleep well,” says the person carrying him, and Izuku slips back into a blissful, dreamless dark.

—

Izuku slowly moves back towards wakefulness. He opens his eyes, feeling too hot and too cold all at once. His head hurts. His hands are stiff with scabs and dried blood. The room is dark, the wooden walls worn; he recognizes it instantly as his room behind Kurogiri’s bar. I’m still holding onto Shigaraki’s Quirk, he thinks. He has to give it back. Izuku swings his legs out of his bed; they feel shaky and heavy as he stumbles towards the door and goes down the hall to Shigaraki’s room. He pushes the door open. It crumbles to ash, the doorknob bouncing onto the floor. Izuku cringes; he accidentally touched it with all five fingers.

Shigaraki looks thin and ill, his blankets draping over his limbs and dwarfing his form. Izuku kneels down by the bed and carefully places four fingers on Shigaraki’s forehead, slowly releasing the hold he has on Shigaraki’s Quirk. It flows quickly back to its rightful owner, and Shigaraki opens his eyes with a gasp.

His eyes dart immediately to Izuku. “YOU,” he hisses in a horrible scream, lurching out of the bed with his hands outstretched for Izuku’s throat.

Izuku rolls out of the way, but Shigaraki catches his jacket, and it dissolves in his hands. I liked that jacket, Izuku thinks, staring blankly at the ash pile. When he looks up again, Shigaraki is looming above him, his hands inches from his face.

Izuku flinches back, already knowing it’s too late to dodge – but no touch comes, and he opens his eyes again to see black rifts opened in the air in front of him. Shigaraki lets out an incoherent scream of rage even as Kurogiri says sharply from the door, “Shigaraki. Stop.”

What?

“He attacked me!” Shigaraki howls, pulling his hands out of Kurogiri’s warp portals. “He stole my Quirk!”

“And evidently, he just gave it back,” Kurogiri says drily. It’s hard to see any movement of his head behind the black miasma he uses to obscure his face, but he seems to tilt his head towards the ashes of Izuku’s jacket.

“What are you doing, Kurogiri?” Izuku says.

He gets the distinct impression of Kurogiri lifting an unimpressed eyebrow. “I’m mediating a conflict between members of the Villain Alliance.”

“Members of the Villain Alliance,” Izuku repeats, and laughs disbelievingly. “Are you – are you kidding me? I just murdered my father. I just murdered Sensei.”

This time, when Shigaraki tries to kill him, Kurogiri opens a portal that sends him tumbling into the wall. Shigaraki screams and curses, but doesn’t try again.

“You did,” Kurogiri says calmly. “But the Villain Alliance is not disbanded just for that. We simply need a new leader. Until then, Izuku-kun, you are the one who knew the logistics behind funding and managing our base the best.”

Izuku looks at him. Then he says, “That’s a stupid reason to keep me around; you know enough to figure it out without me. What do you really want?”

Kurogiri sighs and mutters something under his breath that sounds a little bit like damn precocious children. “I have my own reasons. Just know that in the meanwhile, you may stay here without reprisal from other members of the alliance. That includes you, Shigaraki-kun.”

“He killed Sensei,” Shigaraki snarls. “I don’t care what you say. I’m going to kill him. And who put you in charge, anyways? I’m the one Sensei chose to be his successor, not you! You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Kurogiri is an actual adult who knows what he’s doing,” Izuku says.

“Shut up!”

Kurogiri reaches up and pinches the bridge of his nose, presumably. It’s hard to tell. “We can discuss arrangements more later. Why are you out of bed? You have a fever.”

“Oh.” That would explain why Izuku feels so shitty right now. Why does he have a fever, though? He hasn’t done anything lately that would put him at that kind of risk –

Except sleep on the cold floor of a medical lab for who knows how long. Izuku grimaces, and then he remembers – “Kurogiri, who brought me back here?” Pause. “Why?”

Kurogiri, once again, somehow manages to give off the impression of raising an eyebrow. “You seem quite certain that everyone here is ready to throw away their connections. Kaminari brought you back. He has been quite worried about you.”

There’s something reproachful in Kurogiri’s tone, and Izuku doesn’t even know where to begin making sense of that, let alone the fact that – Kaminari came looking for him. Kaminari found him in Father’s lab – and how? Father never told anyone its location besides Izuku and Shigaraki – and Kaminari still brought him back here?

Izuku doesn’t get it.

He still doesn’t get it when Kurogiri herds him out of Shigaraki’s room and back to his own, or when Kurogiri tells him to go back to sleep, or when Kurogiri closes the door behind him and leaves Izuku sitting all alone in the dark.

–

When he sleeps off his fever, another seven hours have passed. The Villain Alliance has been without a leader for nineteen hours.

And Izuku, for whatever reason, has not yet been killed. He’s alive. And as long as he’s here, then – he should take responsibility for his actions.

First he goes back to Father’s lab and looks through all the files and papers there. There are books on Quirks and Quirk biology, and more medical textbooks than he can skim in a night; he sets those aside and instead turns his attention to the connections, contacts, and projects that Father had set up. He looks through the books – for the equipment, for the properties they use, for the fake companies and bank accounts they front. The money and supplies have to come from somewhere, Izuku knows – because he’s the one Father usually sends out on these errands.

So Izuku maintains Father’s network. Nothing he does really changes from before – except that he’s the one making all the final decisions, now.

Kurogiri periodically checks on Izuku to see how the progress is going. At first, Izuku gives Kurogiri summaries of what he’s working on, and tries to give the big decisions to Kurogiri. And sometimes, Kurogiri shoulders the responsibility. But he also asks Izuku for his thoughts and opinions on the current situation, and sometimes he only gives his thoughts and leaves the final choice to Izuku.

Izuku isn’t sure if Kurogiri is leading him, or if he’s being pushed into leading Kurogiri.

Kaminari hangs around, sometimes. Izuku doesn’t really know what to say to him, so he doesn’t say anything to him at all. He just ducks his head and looks at his papers and finds an excuse to leave the bar. He can always feel Kurogiri’s judgment and Kaminari’s gaze when he does that.

Shigaraki is still seething with hatred. He wants Izuku dead. This is the only thing that really seems to make sense to Izuku these days. But Kurogiri always calms him down, turns his murderous intent aside, and instead tells Shigaraki that Izuku is still needed.

In fact, sometimes Kurogiri sits Izuku and Shigaraki down and asks Shigaraki what he wants to do now, with the Villain Alliance. Without Father’s guidance, they are all searching for direction. For the most part, the conversations go a little something like this:

“I’m going to take the noumu and kill All Might,” Shigaraki hisses.

“The noumu are stable, but they’re not ready,” Izuku says. “We don’t have anyone with the medical know-how to integrate the different body parts properly. And at any rate, the noumu are a wasteful project; it costs too much money and time. We should be focusing our attention on our human resources.”

“The noumu aren’t ready because you killed Sensei,” Shigaraki snarls, and lurches across the table to attack, and then Kurogiri has to step in and stop them from getting into a fight.

They never get much done, those conversations.

It makes Izuku wonder why he’s doing this, as the days go on. Why he’s still with the Villain Alliance, why he’s still working so hard to make sure everything goes smoothly, why he’s so… compliant. Because he doesn’t know what else to do, maybe. Because he doesn’t know where to go. But – he’s still alive. He thought he would be dead at this point, but he isn’t, and – Father isn’t here anymore. He doesn’t have to stay. 

He could do anything.

…

A few days later, instead of returning from one of his self-assigned tasks negotiating with a party of interest, he takes the train to his old home in Musutafu.

It’s almost exactly the same as he remembers – old, sun-faded streets and slightly run-down apartment houses scattered down the side – but at the same time, it’s not. He walks gingerly down the sidewalk as if at any moment it could come alive and eat him. Everything feels soothing and jarring at the same time, as though he turned away for a moment and when he came back, everything was three degrees off from where it was supposed to be.

Mom’s apartment still has the same faded green-patterned curtains on the windows, the same vases on the windowsill. Izuku can’t quite bring himself to walk across the street up the stairs and knock on the door. Instead, he stands on the sidewalk, agonized with indecision. Can he just – could he just – is it really so easy?

Is coming home really so easy?

His foot, poised to take a step forward, retracts and returns softly to the ground. There’s a lump in his throat. What if – what if Mom doesn’t recognize him? What if he tells her who she is, and she doesn’t believe him – and then, if she does believe him, then – the questions. Where has he been, and why hasn’t he come back before now, and – why didn’t you kill your father earlier – or maybe even, you shouldn’t have killed your father at all–

– and even if he does get his happy ending, what’s to stop someone from finding him again and dragging him back into the criminal underworld?

He clenches his fists, feeling the nails dig into his palms. Father was right. He shouldn’t have come back. Mom has already mourned her lost child, she must have moved on by now. Izuku, here – all he’ll be doing is stirring up trouble.

But he wants. He so desperately wants.

He’s so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he doesn’t even notice anyone approaching him until they snap out, “Hey. Who the fuck are you?”

Izuku’s flinch is carefully suppressed through years of practice. He slouches into a deliberately relaxed pose and shoves his hands into his pockets, giving a calculatedly lazy glance to the side. He’s greeted with spiky blond hair, suspicious and narrowed red eyes – the realization hits him in the chest. This is Kacchan, grown up, taller than him and wearing a flannel shirt with jeans that sag.

“Just passing by,” Izuku replies, moving his lips to smile pleasantly at his childhood fr… well, he’s not really sure if they were friends. Maybe they were.

Kacchan scowls at him. “Well, pass by faster. Don’t fucking stand around and stare at people’s homes. Shit’s creepy.”

Izuku isn’t sure why, but his first reaction is just to laugh in Kacchan’s face. Creepy. Heh. He has done far worse than benevolently loiter in a neighborhood. This doesn’t even register on his radar. Kacchan, thunderous, takes a threatening step forward, but Izuku holds up a hand to stave him off and says, “Sorry, sorry, no, you’re completely right. I’ll just be on my way, then.” He smiles at Kacchan, then turns to walk away.

But Kacchan grabs his arm before he can go, turning him back around and staring at him with burning red eyes. He scowls. It’s almost funny, the way it’s supposed to be threatening, when it feels like such a distant and small thing. Izuku raises an eyebrow, lips curling into a smile. “Yes?”

“Where do I know you from?” Kacchan says suspiciously. Izuku bursts into laughter, but quickly composes himself.

“Like I said, I’m just passing by,” he says, amused. “I mean, it’d be quite a coincidence if we’d met before, wouldn’t it?”

He pulls away then, raises a hand in a lazy wave and saunters away. Surely, the body language and confidence will throw Kacchan off.

He can feel Kacchan’s eyes on him as he goes.

–

Izuku can’t go home. Not yet. He needs to craft a plausible excuse, a foolproof background that will hold up against all police investigation. In it, Izuku has to be completely blameless – otherwise, how can he go back to his life?

But more than that – he needs to make sure that the Villain Alliance can’t drag him back ever again. And to do that, Izuku needs to destroy the Villain Alliance entirely.

The Villain Alliance is his mistake, too, in part. It may not have been entirely willing on his part, but he has been helping it grow and maintain power for the past six years. He did this; he’s responsible for cleaning it up before he goes home.

It wouldn’t be hard to throw the Villain Alliance into chaos, he thinks. He’s not the official leader, but unofficially, with Father gone, Izuku is running everything behind the scenes. He knows all of their weak points. Izuku could easily make arrangements to leak that information to the Police Force.

But – if he leaks it all at once, there would be too much for the Police Force to investigate at once, and he can’t trust them to be competent and keep quiet about it. Someone would notice. Izuku would know; he has spies in the right places. Kurogiri would take action, and the Villain Alliance would survive and regroup. Izuku wants complete annihilation.

He could let the entire criminal underworld find out that Father passed away, he supposes, because there will be a period of violence and upheaval as everyone tries to claim the territories that were once Father’s. The fighting will weaken the Villain Alliance. But an outbreak of crime isn’t what he wants, and he doesn’t want any of Father’s people to simply be absorbed into another criminal group, either.

What he needs is a slow demolition that no one notices; the heroes chipping away at the Villain Alliance’s resources until a single strike is all that’s needed to crush it, once and for all. But if the Villain Alliance was weakening, Kurogiri and the others would definitely notice – the other criminal elements in their areas of operation would jump on their weaknesses like sharks.

So to set up the Villain Alliance’s complete destruction, he needs to weaken everyone else at the same time. But how…?

An idea starts to take shape in his head.

It is a terrible, horrible, ambitious and bad idea. It is unreasonably audacious. It will take at least a year to set up, and another to orchestrate it. But – if everything goes right – if Izuku pulls it off – he wins, and he gets to go home.

And the other bonus, well… Izuku smiles thinly to himself. He did used to dream of being a hero. He was disillusioned long ago, but… this, he can do.

Izuku gets to his feet from the park bench he was sitting on and makes his slow, winding way back to Kurogiri’s bar.

–

Izuku throws himself into his work, no longer concerned only with maintaining the bare-bone operations that allow the Villain Alliance to keep functioning. He has heroes, criminals, people and their backgrounds and skills and motivations to check. Before he starts playing the game, he needs to know all the pieces on the board… especially the ones that are his.

The first person he really talks to is Kaminari.

He falls in step with the other boy as he leaves the bar, one day. Kaminari gives him a surprised look, probably because Izuku hasn’t initiated or participated in a conversation with him since killing Father.

“Kaminari,” Izuku says, hands in his pockets and eyes trained on the street, “why did you come looking for me, that day?”

There’s a beat of silence. Then, “Did you not want me to?”

Izuku lets out a slow breath and slides his gaze to the side, looking at the other boy from the corner of his eyes. Kaminari is looking at him with something that looks an awful lot like melancholy, or hurt, and Izuku isn’t sure why. He… the two of them don’t have anything in common.

“I don’t understand why you’d do it,” he says. “I’ve never… we’ve never really talked. We’re not friends.”

Kaminari frowns at him. “I did it because I like you, Izuku,” he says.

What?

“You’re always quiet and tired, but you do your best. You get things done. I admire that. And besides that, you’re kind. You’ve helped me on assignments before, even when you didn’t have to, and you never asked anything in return. You take care of your own. But you’re always on your own, so I figured I’d keep an eye out for you, too.”

Izuku doesn’t know what to do with any of that, so he just huffs a little bit and says, “You tracked me down to Father’s most secret, hidden, and well-defended hideout just to ‘keep an eye out’? Isn’t that a little much?”

“Your visits never take more than an hour, and it looked like you were planning something. I was worried,” Kaminari says.

It looked like he was planning something. Izuku shoves his hands further into his pockets at that. What signs did he leave behind…? “I killed the leader of the organization you chose to follow,” he says, instead of any of the other questions he wants to ask.

“…Did you think we were going to kill you?”

Izuku doesn’t say anything. That’s answer enough.

“Izuku,” Kaminari says, sounding almost in disbelief now, “everyone in the Villain Alliance respects you for the work you do.”

Izuku snorts.

“No, you listen to me,” he insists. “You take care of your own. You get things done. Do you think people don’t notice that? People may say there’s no honor between thieves, but it’s not entirely true. We recognize you for your strength and ability as a leader. Some of us may not like you, but we sure as all hell respect you. All for One may have been the one passing down decisions, Shigaraki may have been the heir, but you were the one who carried everything out and made sure we all came back.”

Izuku closes his eyes. This isn’t something he’s proud of. “There’s no need to waste human capital,” is all he says. “It was an impersonal decision. You’re reading too much into this.”

“Bullshit,” Kaminari says. “You think I don’t know who requisitions supplies for all of us? You got Hagakure her favorite food and the book she wanted for her birthday. She’s still hounding me to tell her who did it so she can thank them.”

Izuku clenches his jaw as he looks for the right words to say. “Fine,” he grits out. “Fine. If you know so much about me, then you should know how I even came to be part of the Villain Alliance, shouldn’t you? I don’t – I don’t belong here.”

Kaminari smiles slightly, though not out of any seeming joy. “Yeah. You never wanted to be a villain.”

“… I didn’t even plan on still being alive at this point, Kaminari.”

The other boy looks at him, serious and still.

“You’re the one who brought me back,” Izuku says. “I don’t know what I’m working to do anymore. Tell me what you came to the Villain Alliance to achieve. I’ll make it happen.”

“Wha – wait, what? Why me? I mean – isn’t that a little too much?”

Izuku comes to a stop and turns to face a wide-eyed Kaminari. “You were the one who wanted me to keep living. So give me a reason to live.”

“I – I–”

Maybe he’s put too much weight on Kaminari, out of the blue. He hopes not – he’s just trying to fish information from Kaminari, as well as determine their bond and forge a deeper sense of connection between them. But it’s too late to turn back now, and besides, Izuku thinks, if he hadn’t found a reason to keep going in the thought of returning home, he really might have latched onto Kaminari instead.

“–I hate our current state of society,” Kaminari says, finally. “I want… I want to force everyone to question what they’re doing. Confront the corruption within the hero industry. Address the myriad problems running rampant and unchecked among the poor, the ostracized, the downtrodden.” His voice grows stronger, more powerful, as he speaks. “I want to be part of an organization so great and so terrible, it exposes the dirty, crawling underbelly and the rotten core of this society, pretending so hard to be at peace.”

Izuku listens, and waits. And Kaminari looks at him again, his eyes burning with the passion of revolution and the promise of great and terrible things. “I want to change the face of Japan.”

Izuku smiles then, mirthless, but satisfied all the same.

“If that is what you want,” he says. “We’ll change the face of Japan.”

–

The second person Izuku talks to, he doesn’t plan on.

Izuku steps into the bar after a long day at one of the Villain Alliance’s fake company’s properties, filling out fake tax forms and checking in with some of the local informants, only to Stain lurking in the shadows by the door. Stain melts out of the darkness, his mask grimy and rough in the dim light. “Hey, brat,” he says, mouth drawn up into that terrible grin of his. “I’ve been waiting to speak to you.”

Izuku eyes him warily, but he still tilts his head towards the back door and heads out so they can speak in private. Stain follows him out into the alley, where the cracked pavement is littered with the hazy dirty shapes of trash and discarded furniture. The sun is setting; the alley is almost entirely cast in shadow, with only the dim, grimy amber light from Kurogiri’s bar to spill out the door and light the street.

“What can I help you with?” Izuku says.

Stain grins at him, exposing the unsettling gleam of his teeth. “Heard you killed All for One.”

Izuku just looks at Stain. He feels – well. Nothing much, just an odd and utter flatness like a metal sheet, in which Stain’s conversation opener is nothing more than a distorted reflection that only touches the surface.

His lack of reaction must be telling, because Stain throws his head back and laughs. “It’s always the quiet ones,” he says mirthfully. “So? Why’d you do it?”

“Does there have to be a reason?” Izuku replies. “I was tired of him, so I killed him. That’s all.”

The other villain seems amused, but he doesn’t press Izuku for more details. He just says, “What next, then?” Izuku raises an eyebrow, prompting Stain to explain, “What’s the Villain Alliance working towards now?”

“Ask Shigaraki.”

Stain grins at him again. “Can’t fool me, brat. You may be keeping Shigaraki around, but you’re the one calling the shots.”

“…At Kurogiri’s discretion. Ask him.”

This time, Stain doesn’t even bother to give any credence to Izuku’s response. “What are you plans for the Villain Alliance?”

Izuku deliberately relaxes his shoulders and puts his hands in his pockets, eyeing Stain. He’d ask why he wants to know, but… well, it’s pretty obvious. Izuku was the one who persuaded him to join the Villain Alliance in the first place; of course he’d be interested in what the Villain Alliance is doing.

“Before I answer that question,” he says, “how did you find out that I killed All for One? I’ve been keeping it quiet. Only the people immediately involved in the aftermath should know.”

Stain grins. “Can’t keep something that big hidden forever. The Villain Alliance has been a little too quiet for a while, and the modus operandi has shifted. There’s rumors started spreadin’ in the underground that the leadership’s changed. I did a little digging here, myself.”

“Who talked,” Izuku says flatly.

Stain laughs and doesn’t answer. “So, brat, what’ve you got planned?”

Izuku regards the other villain, deliberating on what to say. In the end, he settles with the truth – or, as close as he can get to the truth.

“I’m going to change the face of Japan,” he says. “Hero society will never be the same again.”

Stain smiles, slow and wide and horrible, and with that, Izuku knows – he’s got him hooked.

–

The talk with Stain really hits it home: the villains are starting to consider him the successor to All for One, and he intends on taking as much advantage of it as he can. Izuku talks to more people in the Villain Alliance, after that – the key figures, the low-level lackeys, just about everyone he can – feeling them out for their motivations, their goals, their allegiances. He starts moving his pieces, sending people out on new assignments, and setting things up.

The last person he talks to is Shigaraki.

He asks Kurogiri to set up one of the “talks” between himself and Shigaraki. The talks, as a whole, have improved; Shigaraki no longer tries to kill him every time, and instead has settled into a silent, resentful simmer where he refuses to talk to Izuku. Still, though; it’s about time they broke that stalemate. Kurogiri regards Izuku with his strange, blank eyes, but dips his head in agreement.

Shigaraki stalks into the room with a temper, throwing himself into his seat and not looking at Izuku, evidently intent on continuing to ignore Izuku. That’s fine. Izuku says, “I’m sorry for killing the person who saved you.”

Shigaraki twitches, his head swinging around to face Izuku. If there wasn’t a disembodied hand covering his face, he would probably be baring his teeth at Izuku right now. Actually, there’s no way to tell that he isn’t. Not that it really matters. “I’m not sorry for killing the person who took everything from me.”

“You took him from me,” Shigaraki snarls – perhaps the first words he’s spoken to Izuku in days.

“Yeah, I did,” Izuku says. “And it’s too late to do anything about that now. The Villain Alliance has gone too long without a tangible goal to strive for; we need to work things out and get it back together again.”

The other boy doesn’t respond; he turns his head away and crosses his arms, as if to say, I’m not talking to you again.

“Father intended for you to be the heir, didn’t he?” Izuku presses. “I’m trying to work with you, you know. I think it’s about time we have our negotiations.”

“Negotiations,” Shigaraki spits, like a dirty word.

“Negotiations,” Izuku agrees. “Everyone else who joined the Villain Alliance – they had the choice, and they knew what they were signing up for and what they’d get. I’m the only one who never got that. So we’re doing it now.”

“You killed Sensei,” Shigaraki says lowly, in his hoarse and rusty voice. “You get nothing.”

“I’m keeping the Villain Alliance on its feet while you’re throwing a temper tantrum about me killing Father,” Izuku returns. “You owe me.”

It’s the wrong thing to say. Shigaraki shoots to his feet, hands slamming down on the table as he looms above Izuku. The wood is beginning to crumble under his grip. “You owe me,” he hisses. “Making connections? Getting us funds? You could do it for the rest of your life and you would never pay enough to make up for Sensei’s death.”

Izuku feels a flash of rage at that, but he can’t lose his temper here. He takes a deep breath. “I’ll never owe anything for killing Father,” he says as calmly as he can, but it still comes out more heated than he meant to be. “He deserved it. He had it coming.”

“Shut up,” Shigaraki snarls, sweeping his arm across the table and knocking off the glasses of water Kurogiri gave them. They shatter on the floor. No one blinks an eye. “Sensei saved me! He gave me everything! A home! Guidance! Power! And what have you done? You’re nothing but a cheap bootlegged copy! What gave you the right to kill him?”

“Because I hated him,” Izuku hisses in a burst of vitriolic rage, and then he pulls himself up short, because – he didn’t mean to say that. He didn’t mean to be that honest.

But Shigaraki is actually looking at him now, and – and Izuku’s not going to throw that away. If it’s honesty Shigaraki wants, he’ll show him honesty.

“He was always telling me what to do,” Izuku snarls out accusingly. “He always made my choices for me. I hated being here, constrained and confined and always under his thumb. I hated that he used me like a fucking tool and nothing more. I hated him because I was never allowed to be my own person. So I killed him. He can’t make me do anything anymore. I’m never doing anything I don’t want to ever again.”

The words tear out of him, so angry and full of hate, it scares him – like if he gives it any more voice, then it’ll grow out of his control. He stops, mouth still drawn back in a snarl, and he lets out a breath shaky with such a burning hatred he’s afraid to say more.

Shigaraki is still staring at him. He doesn’t move, for a long moment, and then slowly, ever so slowly, he sits back down in his seat.

“I’m staying here, Shigaraki,” Izuku says, when he’s finally wrestled his emotions back under control. “I want to be able to work with you. But I’ll do it because I choose to, and not because you have any power over me. So we’re negotiating. Ask me what I want.”

Shigaraki shifts in his seat, and from between his fingers, under the fringes of his dry white hair, Izuku glimpses an eye staring out at him. “What do you want?”

“I want the Villain Alliance to grow,” Izuku says. “I want to make it greater than it ever was under Father’s rule. I want to make it the most feared, most reviled, and most powerful group in Japan – so powerful, no hero can take us down.”

Shigaraki’s eyes are fully trained on his now, boring into his skull. “How?” he queries, tilting his head and leaning in closer. The shadows in the room seem to dim and descend on them.

Izuku smiles thinly.

“I’m going to tear down the Symbol of Peace.”

[ciathyzareposts]

Curse of Enchantia: Final Rating

Written by Alfred n the Fettuc

Oh this is going to be a good one. Like I said in the first post, I’ve already tried playing Enchantia a very long time ago but never really got past the underwater section. Now that I’ve been forced to do so, I discovered what can only be described as a masterpiece in bad game design. Let’s see how it fares in the PISSED system. Spoiler alert: it probably won’t go very high.

Splat indeed

Final Rating

Puzzles and Solvability

This category is, in my humble opinion, one of the most, if not the most, important in the PISSED rating. After all, an adventure game can look rubbish and still be very fun to play because of its clever puzzles. Even the story can sometimes take backstage if the meat of the game (the puzzles, riddles and brainteasers) is a success. Not so much here. Almost all of the puzzles of the game feel random. I can’t count the number of times I felt like a puzzle could be solved in one way or another and ended up doing something completely stupid or counter-intuitive.

Some games contain obtuse puzzles which usually come with a funny or nonsensical world, but most of the time it feels kinda logical, even if sometimes only after the fact. Here, each section contains its own nightmare. Most of the time you just need to pick up random objects to activate a flag somewhere completely unrelated so you can make some progress. Throw a computer on a plank in a cavern literally filled with big rocks. The magician doing random things while you have no reason to think so. The blu-tack puzzle is one of the most stupid things I‘ve ever seen, if only because you have no way of telling what item is in your inventory (more on that in the inventory section). And the examples keep piling up. Even the ending section, where you actually do things that are a bit logical to advance, feels rushed and unsatisfactory.

Stupid blue rock

The only redeeming quality is the fact that you can’t be dead-ended, but putting invisible barriers to avoid that is not the best way to go. It’s the only thing that avoids this category to score a 0.

Final Score : 1. No sense at all in most of the game. Pick up random items and something might occur somewhere else.

Interface and Inventory

Different interfaces tend more often than not to be a miss than a hit. This interface might be the worst thing I’ve seen in my entire life as a gamer. Everything is overly complex and counter-intuitive. I’ve spent more hours in this game trying to do things just because the way the developer wanted me to do it was completely absurd. It’s the graphical equivalent of a bad shareware 80-something text parser, where you have to type TURN DOORKNOB instead of OPEN DOOR. Add that to the stupid puzzles and it’s no wonder I spent so much time on the game. Having so many options with verbs that seem to vary from time to time (once, you need to use ATTACK, another time you need to use PUSH to do the exact same thing) render the whole game sluggish and obtuse. I’ve actually really felt the interface working against me the entire time.

Just give me a real LOOK or WHAT IS option please.

And this inventory. If you go for nondescript items, at least make the graphics of said items look like something, not some blotch of color pixel that could literally be anything. The blu-tack, the deodorant and the golden cloth come instantly to mind. Add the random red herrings that have no purpose whatsoever and items that seem to disappear from your inventory when they want and you have a recipe for disaster.

Final Score : 0. The worst examples of interface and inventory I’ve seen in my entire gamer life.

Story and Setting

What story? I mean, Brad is captured and needs to fight the enchantress to go back home. At no point did I have any feeling of advancing through a story but more felt like I was transported from random location to random location. At no point did I feel like I was progressing toward one goal or willingly going to some place (except when you’re set on a linear path like the seabed or the cliff where you just advance on the path until the next roadblock). Even the final encounter feels like you entered the wrong room by accident.

Woops. Sorry about that, I was looking for the restrooms.

The setting suffers from the same problem where you just feel like locations have been constructed randomly, without rhyme nor reason, from some kind of graphical bank they bought wholesale. At least the scrapyard of madness is kinda funny and original but too much of your time in the game is spent in ugly locations: the grey seabed, the lookalike caves or the neverending cliff are not exactly a joy to explore.

Final Score: 1. Incoherent and random, the world of Enchantia is a chore to explore. And no story whatsoever.

Sound and Graphics

As predicted, this category is the only positive point of Enchantia. The graphics are nice and the animation can sometimes be pretty funny. A few sprites, like the yeti, the parrot or the sea dragon are really nice and well designed and a few bits of slapstick comedy are animated well enough so that they can be funny. I understand that a few critics of the time were impressed by the overall looks of the game. Add to that the little bits of digitised voices now and then (you’re pretty bored by the HELP and HI by the end of the game, but the SHUT UP and a few screams are spot on).

Really nice and big sprites now and then.

Other than that I have to insist on the fact that the music is simply unbearable. From what Laukku has said, there are multiple tracks on MT-32 and I know the Amiga version has no music, but I have to judge the version I played on. Who thought that putting a bland five notes ditty on a loop for ten hours would be a good idea? It’s infuriating very fast and completely annihilates the few moments of tension the game could have had for itself. The sound effects are nothing to write home about with a lot of sounds effects reused ad nauseam for completely unrelated things.

Final Note: 6. Let’s say it’s a 7 for the graphics, but the music only is enough to make me subtract a whole point.

Environment and Atmosphere

Meh. The atmosphere really tries to go for a medieval comedy setting à la Monty Pythons but it kinda falls short in every category. The randomness of the whole world really hurts the atmosphere and the environment alternate between the nice and the bland. There is nothing that really stand out and a few things that could have been nice don’t really come together. It’s not enough to put tutus on orcs if you just leave it at that and think “Hey, the orcs have tutus, it’s funny, that’s good enough”. What really made Secret of Monkey Island stand out in its atmosphere is that it cleverly parodies the swashbuckling tropes and runs with it. Curse of Enchantia is more akin to making a pirate fart joke and calling it a day.

The graveyard has a nice atmosphere but it’s too little, too late.

A little coherence would have gone a long way in helping the game. Seeing again one of the one-legged monsters from the beginning corridor for example, or another meeting with the giant parrot. The village streets are blocked by a roach-monster, a tutu-wearing orc shepherd and two sleeping mexicans. Not to mention the red and white road barrier that suddenly appears out of nowhere at one point to stop you from going where you want while wearing the pig disguise… What could have been a controlled and fun mess ends up being a simple mess.

Final Score: 3. Incoherent world-building and non sequitur atmosphere.

Dialog and Acting

HI. HELP. OPEN SESAME. I can add one point for the SHUT UP and another one for a few of Brad’s mimics, but that’s about it. I can dig the fact that the goal was to make a dialogue-free game so that anyone could play, but then it misses the point by adding signs and written puns. Nothing much to say here.

Behold : the quest giver.

Final Score: 2. Making a game without dialogue or written words is commendable enough but don’t stop halfway and write things anyway!

Final Score

So the final score of this masterpiece of adventuring is (1+0+1+6+3+2=13/0.6) = 22! Putting it between Hugo II and III. I won’t remove any more points because I think I already rated this game rather harshly but considering how bad the whole experience was, this score seems only fitting.

Laukku, you were the only one guessing low enough to earn some CAPs! Well done!

Thank god it’s all over now. I think I’ll play through the entire Lucasarts collection once or twice now in order to forget all about this game. I hope this blog will stay online forever and that anyone even remotely thinking about playing through Curse of Enchantia will read these words and choose instead to go for something more fun, like learning how to juggle with chainsaws. Thanks for reading!

CAP Distribution

100 CAPs for Alfred n the Fettuc

Blogger Award – 100 CAPs – For suffering through aptly named Curse of Enchantia for our perverted pleasure

50 CAPs for Ilmari

Classic Blogger Award – 50 CAPs – for playing through Secret Diary of Adrian Mole for our enjoyment

27 CAPs for Laukku

Low but not low enough prediction award  10 CAPs – for almost guessing one of the lowest scores in the blog history 

Yahtzee award – 3 CAPs – For pointing a let’s play from Yahtzee

Steel Sequel award – 4 CAPs – For telling us about the Beneath a Steel Sky sequel

Blu-tack award – 5 CAPs – For giving a little bit of sense to the blue rock puzzle with the blu-tack theory 

Scott Mc Cloud award – 2 CAPs – For the link to Scott Mc Cloud’s comic transitions categorisation 

Spatial awareness award – 3 CAPs – For explaining to me where you end up when exiting a grave by the side. 

7 CAPs for Michael

Spatial awareness award – 3 CAPs – For explaining to me where you end up when exiting a grave by the side. 

FAQ user award – 4 CAPs – For trying to give a few pointers about the red herring objects in this game 

5 CAPs for Alejandro Romanella AKA Alex Romanov

Enchantia master award – 5 CAPs – For knowing this terrible game like the back of his hand 

4 CAPs for Deano

Obscure english show reference award – 4 CAPs – For being the first to point out the reference to Mr Benn 

3 CAPs for Charles

Carpenter award – 3 CAPs – For talking about In the mouth of madness and helping me find the title of my next post 

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/curse-of-enchantia-final-rating/

[somedaypast-thesunset]

My roommate freaked out tonight and directed most of his anger towards me because of our shitty neighbours. At first he was just yelling and throwing things and didn't bother to confront me. I really did not know what to do so I told a friend and they offered to come get me.

I called him after freaking out this morning about having no will to live and feeling like I'm not wanted in the world, let alone by him. I told him what was happening and he mostly repeated that he didn't know what to do and if I wanted to stay with his mother. I did not. I told him a friend was coming. He asked for my roommates number and that he would talk to him.

Which is dumb. And useless. It would probably escalate the situation and it's unsafe and I think puts my safety in danger when this man just wants to talk shit on a phone but I have to see them in person.

My roommate said he would rather kill my friends and I at this point and that all this stuff happened with the neighbors who have literally been spying on me and monitoring everything I do and they concluded that since I have men's clothes in my laundry that I do excessive amounts of laundry cleaning my boyfriends clothes. None of this is close to true - I'm too depressed to do my laundry often enough even for myself and it is literally no ones business why I have men's clothes but I wear my boyfriends clothes! Frequently! He has never left anything at my place, I've only brought things there on my back and legs.

We asked when I should expect to move. He wouldn't give a straight answer. Maybe end of July, maybe end of August, maybe 2020. He said he would put the neighbors head on sticks, even when she did in fact step outside when we were trying to leave.

I called and told him what had happened and he was moderately angry on my behalf. He replied, "you wear my clothes!" I said I know. He suggested maybe looking for a new place to live (obvious) then insisted that I get his cell number so he can call him and my roommate told him he could call him and he wants to and I need to get the number for him.

I did not reply because this is not about his solutions. It's not about his advice. I am totally aware of what I need to do. I'm not brain dead. Of course I need to move! I needed to like a month into living there and it's only gotten progressively worse despite never using the kitchen - not even to store food, never using any other room but my own and the bathroom which I sometimes but not often clean because of the state of the house. When it becomes unsanitary for myself, I clean it. My roommate rarely cleans. My cats live in my room and almost never come out unsupervised. Until this week, I slept there maybe 4 times a month. Maybe.

But now I am facing possibly what's always been there at its full capacity and it's not pretty at all. It is staggeringly more unsafe than we previously thought.

I am telling him this because he needs to sit with this knowledge. I want him to sleep on the fact that as I am crying about feeling unwanted by society there are people systematically trying to take away my home. I did nothing wrong. Hurt no one. Kept to myself, was polite, treated the animals and children kindly. Spent 90% of my time alone watching video games. I have no bad odors coming from my room,ive damaged no property. And this is what I get and oh they're mentally ill - they've all been mentally ill! Do you not see at all that when I'm whining and bitching that so much of it is something happening to me that is unrelated to any amount of trying or improvement. And it deeply affects my life I have to live. Don't you see I'm not wrong? That my assessment of being unrightfully attacked and ignored and neglected and misaligned and disadvantage isn't an excuse but a reality!

I don't even want him to save me. I don't want him to come back. I want him to regret not bringing me. I want him to feel guilty about taking on a responsibility then leaving it. I want him to put himself in my shoes and feel 1% of what it might be like to be me and experience these things.

How do I meet new people and have new experiences when I can't even find stable housing? I'm in a cycle of poverty! And of course I appreciate I had a person to take me out of the situation. Funny enough, he suggested a male friend were both uncomfortable with and that's the situation now. Think about that. For all the I'm always going to help you I'll do what I can, one of the solutions is a less unfavorable person.

If nothing else I'm almost glad a tangible situation arose during a time where I'm trying to explain my feelings and fears in life because it validated that I was not crazy and that I am and should feel anxiety. I'm not making this up. Thanks I guess for proving that I'm not making this up.

It is a blessing that I was born at all and a god damn miracle that I'm still here.

I feel justified but it's not an excuse to continue to feel certain ways. I'm just justified in feeling they way I do. I have a right to feel this way but I can't use it as an excuse to forever feel this way as one situation does not define a whole and it's important in these moments to FIND gratitude - not have gratitude because again I am justified but in order to define the whole it's important to acknowledge moments where I was not shit on so I can wake up with. 00001% more hope that one day things could change or maybe the next attempt will be different.

I hate that the person who has helped and given me the most is him and it's not just like money. I know that he took me to the island to give me a positive experience in what he knew most likely would be rough times coming up. And now this is what I am thinking about. I hated the boat ride but I think about it alot because I've never been on a big boat. I've never been or done alot of things. He gave me those memories. All the hikes - these were my most peaceful times in the past few years.

I've been telling myself that maybe maybe I'll go into the city by myself at the start of next month. I want to die so this feels like the biggest thing of all time like I have to wake up and get dressed and like think about it and go on a train possibly and a subway and exist with so much no safety net. And I want to but I don't because I also don't care and it's pointless and I'll return to shit anyways.

I guess as long as the thought even lingers, I have a chance because it means a will to be exists. Somewhere. Even very very small. But even if it's very small it means I cannot die yet.

[orneryadventures-blog]

Stockmarket terminology!

So one of my favorite things about the investment/stockmarket community is that, other than being a disarming glimpse of everymen (and women!) from all walks of life, is some of the hilarious sayings and slangs are commonplace in our midst. So I have decided that for this post i’m giving everybody.... an ORNERY STOCKMARKET TERMINOLOGY TUTORIAL.

In Australia the largest investment community is a forum called HotCopper. And much like the market itself, its a wondrous place full of a similar quantity of gems and cancer. Everybody’s on their own noble quest to make a buck and secure their financial future, and that makes it really human when you get down to it, past the initial compulsory internet bullshit. Some of those quests end in success, others end in tears. Lest we forget poor old denbo:

To add a comment somebody made on this image on the facebook investor group i read:

"The day SGH goes in to trading halt will be the most beautiful day of Denbo's life. His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted." - Tyler Durden

Now, SGH is now valued at 7.5c/share. In their last half-year report, it was recorded that they their net tangible asset backing per security was NEGATIVE 41.76 cents. In layman's terms, that means they are in so much debt, the debts principal is more than 5x greater than the value of the company itself. 

Look up at that little smiling picture. That is the face of a man who, if his word can be taken as truth, lost over half a million dollars in the last year. And that HURTS me inside. But there is no room for pity here. We all put our money down knowing exactly the risk we’re taking and we accept it. We are accountable for our actions and we live or die by our wisdom or our foolishness. The stockmarket doesn’t know what colour you are, and it doesn’t care. It is the purest meritocracy on this earth, and I find it beautiful in all its brutality.

 I wanted to check up on denbo, so I did. And he aint dead. I don’t know if he’s on his way to becoming a veterinarian but he aint dead, and good on him for it. Poor bastard. But enough about that, its time for your lesson!

THE BASICS

Long and short To be “Long” on something, means that you are positioned such that you will benefit from the price going up. The simplest way to do this is to simply own shares, but you can also do things like buy call options (or sell put options). Vice versa, to be “short” on something means you are positioned such that you will benefit from the price going down. This is most commonly done by short selling or buying put options. I know you don’t know what call or put options are, but options aren’t in the scope for today’s post, I’ll talk about it another day if people care. Also, the terms “long” and “short” are NOT to be confused with “long term” and “short term”, which are completely unrelated. You can be long for the short term, or you can be short for the long term. People cocking that up is the rookie beacon, but nobody makes fun of rookies because investors usually have better things to do than be cunts on the internet. Bullish and bearish While long and short refer to your own situation, with regards to your portfolio, bullish and bearish refer to your outlook. If you are bullish you think something will go up in the future, if you are bearish you think it will go down in the future. Likewise if you are bullish on something, you ARE a bull, and if you are bearish on something you ARE a bear. The market is often termed as a competition between bears and bulls. Often if you are bullish on something, you’ll have some long positions in it, because you expect it to go up and you want to make money from that, but its not necessarily so; there are lots of stocks and commodities I have a bullish or bearish outlook on which I’m not confident enough in to cough up money and bet on it.

Ramping Ramping is posting (typically on forums or social media, but is occasionally extended to refer to broker analyses) which contains (usually baseless) declarations about future success/failure of a stock. The term is a reference to attempting to indirectly manipulate the price via public opinion - you’re not DRIVING the car, so you obviously can’t affect it directly, but you’ll still try and put a ramp under it. Negative ramping is usually called “downramping” to be explicit, and its frowned upon because pretty much nothing a ramper says is worth reading and is just wasting everybody’s time.

Dead cat bounce “Even dead cats bounce!” it is often declared, when a stock falls off a cliff and then bounces back up somewhat. While i’ve never tried throwing a cat off a cliff, dead or otherwise, and I have no idea whether they ACTUALLY bounce, it is still sage advice. Just because it goes up, doesn’t make it a good investment. Nobody wants to buy a dead cat.

(Nobody wants to) catch a falling knife Before the bounce comes the fall -- a security that is in freefall is often an attractive target to contrarian investors. However people who are tempted to buy something thats in freefall are soberly reminded that people who attempt to catch falling knives are very likely to lose some fingers. Speaking of fingers....

Trying to pick the bottom will just get you stinky fingers This is a real thing which real people say, and I love it from the deepest depths of my heart. Much like catching a falling knife it is a warning of the dangers of trying to anticipate where the bottom of a bear market is, but - at the risk of over-explaining it - ends in a juicy double-entendre about putting one of your digits in a literal butthole.

“Please explain” This is probably my favorite one, so much so that i’ve refrained from putting the actual slang term in the paragraph title to foster a proper comic delivery. A “Please explain” is one of a few colloquialisms which refer to the issuing of an “ASX Aware query” in australia, or whatever similar ritual your country’s exchange has, wherein a company is served with a notice asking it whether it is in compliance with the exchanges disclosure rules which are designed to prevent insider trading. I wont’ go into exactly what the rules are, but suffice to say that when a stock skyrockets for no explainable reason, or falls off a cliff under similar circumstances, the exchange issues one of these notices. We like to call em “Speeding tickets”.

THERE YOU GO LADS, now you know shit about TALKING INVESTMENTS! Ah, but what would any investment post be without signing off with DYOR? That inescapable achronym that seems to follow every single statement made by every single investor. It appears there is one final hole in your lingo lesson which I need to fill.

Even if you trust the word of the person you’re reading, and ESPECIALLY if you like what you hear. Never take a thing another person says for granted when you’re putting your own money on the line.

Always and forever: Do Your Own Research.