#well almost a happy ending

[chaos-is-neutral]

Lyria, The Quiet Songbird 🕊️

Class: Bard

Race: Half-Elf

Chaotic Neutral/Neutral Good

Pronouns: They/Them

Sexuality: Bisexual

In a relationship with Karlach and Halsin. They are the only two who truly know Lyria, yet they will not sing for them.

Astarion is surprisingly their best friend despite their arguing all the time.

They play their flute out of necessity for the camp to heal them, but they will not play any more than that

Backstory: They were abandoned by their parents at a circus that frequents Baldur's Gate. They were only three and have no real memory of them, so Lyria never missed their parents and instead found a family among the people they performed with. Growing up Lyria developed a love for music and art. They taught themselves to play the lute, flute, and harp. When they were sixteen the ring mistress took notice of them. She moved them to her tent where she helped Lyria hone their skills. When they sing the crowd goes quiet and all will listen. It is a voice that is a once in a generation. People will come all over to hear them perform. Lyria's musical abilities even had magical healing. The ring mistress called them her songbirds. For a while, everything was okay until Lyria wanted to move out of the tent and into their own. The ring mistress grew angry at Lyria and said that they were hers and they did not belong to anyone else. That is when the abuse began. Lyria was caged by her. If they even looked at someone else in a different way things went bad. One night Lyria attempted to escape with a man they had fallen for. They were sadly caught though. Someone had reported it to the ring mistress. In a fit of rage, she carved the symbol onto Lyria's forehead, chin, and neck. It was to show who they belonged to. After that, the bard became a hallow of who they once were. They stopped singing, stopped performing. Lyria vowed to never play again. The abuse didn't stop though. Instead, it got worse. Years had passed before they had the courage to escape again. It took a lot of planning, but the night had come. They took only their flute with them as they escaped. Sadly they had only made a half-day travel before the mindflayer abuducted them.

Post BG3 Ending: When Karlach was dying they sang for the first time with tears in their eyes. Thankfully at the last minute, Wyll took Karlach back to hell. Lyria fell into a deep depression but Halsin figured out how to bring her back and Wyll. Once they had Karlach back the three of them went back to the Shadowlands and created a grove there. The three adopted Thaniel and Oliver. Lyria keeps to themselves mostly. They can be found in their meadow painting or writing music. They help Halsin from time to time with council duties. Slowly and bit by bit Lyria becomes truly happy again.

(I won't continue their post bg3 ending, because I am going to be writing a fanfic where Lyria gets it a little rough lol and we get possessive and distraught Karlach and Halsin)

[opikiquu]

my life a movie (PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR)

[lovesickeros]

☆ de fontaine

{☆} characters furina {☆} notes cult au, imposter au, drabble, gender neutral reader {☆} warnings angst, suicidal thoughts, hurt / no comfort {☆} word count 1.4k

This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair!

She thought, for one moment, she could put the mask down and breathe – for one moment of daydreaming, she thought she could just be Furina. She thought she would finally get to live the live she should've had in the first place, the life she threw away to play God to an audience who saw her as nothing but a circus animal, dancing to their whims. Furina just wanted to be selfish for one brief and fleeting moment..and it was gone before she could even grasp it in her hand. A comet soaring past far out of her reach.

She can barely keep her hands from violently shaking as she looks down at them – broken and bloody and more a corpse then a person – and she feels so numb she can't even feel the rain pelting against her back. None of this is fair, she wants to scream, why is it always me? But her voice is silent beneath the torrent of rain. She wonders if the ocean would take her if she sank into it's depths – just for a moment, she wonders how it would feel to finally be able to sleep at ease.

Furina is tired.

But Furina is nothing if not useful, isn't she?

So she forces her feet to move, dragging against the stone beneath her heels, and drags their bloodied body into the nearest empty building, letting the rain do the work of washing away the smeared blood following her path. The smell makes her feel sick, the feeling of it sticking to her hands and gloves makes her lightheaded, but she persists. Because Furina is useful, because Furina won't let them die out in the rain, because Furina won't stand by and just let them rot on the streets like some..pest.

Furina wants to go home. She wants to sleep and she isn't she if she wants to wake up, this time. But she keeps going anyway.

Because it's all she's ever done, and the habit sticks.

An Archon she may not be, not anymore, but the expectations of five hundred years still linger like eyes on the inside of her skull. They watch her, pry and prod at her thoughts, mocking laughter and judging eyes following her as she forces herself to dance to the song they weave with glee. Furina never stepped off that stage – she's still there, she thinks, watching the crowd stare at her in disdain as the curtain call looms above her like a guillotine. She still hears Neuvillette deliver her damnation and salvation with a trembling voice, still feels her hair stand on end when electro crackled like the crack of the whip, Clorinde's blade aimed at her like a loaded gun.

She's trapped on that stage and she never left, not really.

She hates it. She thinks she hates them, but it's not their fault. They didn't ask for this, didn't ask for everyone to turn against them, didn't ask for her to save them. Neither did she..yet here they are, she thinks.

She tries to tell herself she's in control this time, though. She can stop performing her part in this horrible, bloody play any time she wants. It makes her feel better, just for a little while, if she convinces herself she's still Furina, painfully human.

And Furina has always been good at lying.

It's the believing that's the hard part.

There isn't time for her to wallow in her own self pity, though. They're still bleeding out onto the dusty, creaky floorboards of some random, broken down house and she's just standing there as the blood stains the wood. She can fix it – she's good at fixing things. She's done nothing but fix things – try to, anyway – for five hundred years. She can fix a little wound, how hard could it be? Her hands are clenched so tight they ache as she kneels down, wincing at the creak of the floorboards beneath her heels– she hesitates just long enough to wonder if she's making a mistake before she peels away just enough of the outer layer of their clothes to see the deep, bloody gash across their chest. She tries not to think about it – it's deep, too deep, and she feels dizzy just looking at it, but she's handled worse, right?

Furina can fix it. That's what she's good at.

She doesn't feel so confident when she tries to wrack her brain for..something. Five hundred years, and a little wound stumps her? No, she had to have learned something, right? She's decidedly not trying to buy time because she's panicking, parsing through hundreds of years of memories like flipping through a book. Furina isn't made for this, not really – she's running on nothing but adrenaline and she's really not sure what she's doing, but she's trying. And just like before, it won't be enough, will it?

She'll fall short again – she'll be too late to fix it before she's alone again.

Furina was an Archon..used to be. What use would she have for that sort of knowledge? Which makes her predicament all the more harrowing and bleak. What was she supposed to do?

Furina had heard it first hand, that vitriol in Neuvillette's voice. She isn't sure she's ever heard him that..angry before. She's not sure he would listen to her if she tried, either. And that scares her more then anything. All of Fontaine was up in arms about this..imposter, yet here she was, staring down at them bleeding out in front of her, and she was trying to save them.

Why? Why is she throwing away her only chance at normalcy for a fraud? Why didn't she just turn them in?

They were dying – that should've been a good thing, shouldn't it? So why didn't it feel like it?

"Why you?" Her voice breaks as she speaks in harsh tones, grabbing the front of their shirt in trembling, bloodied hands. "Why now?" She wants to scream, to demand answers they can't give, to claw back the reprieve she was promised after five hundred years of agony..and all she can do is sob into their chest, pleading for an answer that will not come. "Why me?"

Silence is their answer, and it hangs heavy on her trembling shoulders as she cries.

Of course they don't, she thinks bitterly, no one has ever answered her pleas spoken in hushed sobs. Not her other self and certainly not them.

Furina has always been alone. Furina will always be alone.

Because Furina never left that stage, never left that moment when she looked at herself in the mirror and took up a mantle too heavy for her to bear. She always finds her way back eventually. There's no one on the other side anymore – she stands alone on a stage, waiting for an inevitable end she isn't sure will come.

"Please," She pleads through tears and choked sobs, clinging to them like they are all that keeps her from sinking. "Please don't leave me, too." The words burn on her tongue – how pathetic is she that she craves companionship from the bloodied body of the imposter? Perhaps she's truly lost her mind after all these years..perhaps she's finally gone mad. She must have.

But their presence is like the first feeling of gentle warmth upon her skin as the sun crests the horizon, like the gentle lap of tides along her heels, the sway of branches and leaves as the wind blows through them like an instrument all it's own. They are the soothing sound of rain against the window as she watches the dreary skies in fond longing, the first bloom of spring as color blooms upon the landscape like paint had been spilled across the hills and valleys.

They are like the faint spark she carefully nurtures and stokes, so fragile even the smallest wind could blow it out like a candle. She cradles it within her palms, pleads with whoever will listen – prays that someone finally listens, because if not for her, then for them.

She's failed to protect too much already, let too many people with so much trust in her fall between the cracks of her fingers like grains of sand. She won't let them go – she can't.

If nothing else, if she couldn't be saved when she begged for salvation from that five hundred year long agony, even if she never got that chance..

Furina will make sure they do.

[marblerose-rue]

click for better quality!

requests from twitter ^_^

adderfang, goosefeather, dawnpelt

crowfeather, heathertail, frostpaw, sandynose

[0vergrowngraveyard]

the end nine’s story really was an “alls well that ends well!” moment

[kyurochurro]

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! here's a cozy lil drawing of Rosalina and he Lumas for the Christmas season :D 🎄💫

[bambimeadows]

*Minor spoilers*

The ending was so shit and rushed and anti climatic like it ALWAYS is, be fucking for real.

BUTTTTTT Adler is gonna be in the next black ops hahahahahah, im really gonna reach 30 years old at this point and still be simping for that man huh💀 so be it

I’m gonna post a full review soon once I’ve gathered my thoughts

[greenerteacups]

oooh please someday tell us what you think of GOT

oh, no, it's my fatal weakness! it's [checks notes] literally just the bare modicum of temptation! okay you got me.

SO. in order to tell what's wrong with game of thrones you kind of have to have read the books, because the books are the reason the show goes off the rails. i actually blame the showrunners relatively little in proportion to GRRM for how bad the show was (which I'm not gonna rehash here because if you're interested in GOT in any capacity you've already seen that horse flogged to death). people debate when GOT "got bad" in terms of writing, but regardless of when you think it dropped off, everyone agrees the quality declined sharply in season 8, and to a certain extent, season 7. these are the seasons that are more or less entirely spun from whole cloth, because season 7 marks the beginning of what will, if we ever see it, be the Winds of Winter storyline. it's the first part that isn't based on a book by George R.R. Martin. it's said that he gave the showrunners plot outlines, but we don't know how detailed they were, or how much the writers diverged from the blueprint — and honestly, considering the cumulative changes made to the story by that point, some stark divergence would have been required. (there's a reason for this. i'll get there in a sec.)

so far, i'm not saying anything all that original. a lot of people recognized how bad the show got as soon as they ran out of Book to adapt. (I think it's kind of weird that they agreed to make a show about an unfinished series in the first place — did GRRM figure that this was his one shot at a really good HBO adaptation, and forego misgivings about his ability to write two full books in however many years it took to adapt? did he think they would wait for him? did he not care that the series would eventually spoil his magnum opus, which he's spent the last three decades of his life writing? perplexing.) but the more interesting question is why the show got bad once it ran out of Book, because in my mind, that's not a given. a lot of great shows depart from the books they were based on. fanfiction does exactly that, all the time! if you have good writers who understand the characters they're working with, departure means a different story, not a worse one. now, the natural reply would be to say that the writers of GOT just aren't good, or at least aren't good at the things that make for great television, and that's why they needed the books as a structure, but I don't think that's true or fair, either. books and television are very different things. the pacing of a book is totally different from the pacing of a television show, and even an episodic book like ASOIAF is going to need a lot of work before it's remotely watchable as a series. bad writers cannot make great series of television, regardless of how good their source material is. sure, they didn't invent the characters of tyrion lannister and daenerys targaryen, but they sure as hell understood story structure well enough to write a damn compelling season of TV about them!

so but then: what gives? i actually do think it's a problem with the books! the show starts out as very faithful to the early books (namely, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) to the point that most plotlines are copied beat-for-beat. the story is constructed a little differently, and it's definitely condensed, but the meat is still there. and not surprisingly, the early books in ASOIAF are very tightly written. for how long they are, you wouldn't expect it, but on every page of those books, the plot is racing. you can practically watch george trying to beat the fucking clock. and he does! useful context here is that he originally thought GOT was going to be a trilogy, and so the scope of most threads in the first book or two would have been much smaller. it also helps that the first three books are in some respects self-contained stories. the first book is a mystery, the second and third are espionage and war dramas — and they're kept tight in order to serve those respective plots.

the trouble begins with A Feast for Crows, and arguably A Storm of Swords, because GRRM starts multiplying plotlines and treating the series as a story, rather than each individual book. he also massively underestimated the number of pages it would take him to get through certain plot beats — an assumption whose foundation is unclear, because from a reader's standpoint, there is a fucke tonne of shit in Feast and Dance that's spurious. I'm not talking about Brienne's Riverlands storyline (which I adore thematically but speaking honestly should have been its own novella, not a part of Feast proper). I'm talking about whole chapters where Tyrion is sitting on his ass in the river, just talking to people. (will I eat crow about this if these pay off in hugely satisfying ways in Winds or Dream? oh, totally. my brothers, i will gorge myself on sweet sweet corvid. i will wear a dunce cap in the square, and gleefully, if these turn out to not have been wastes of time. the fact that i am writing this means i am willing to stake a non-negligible amount of pride on the prediction that that will not happen). I'm talking about scenes where the characters stare at each other and talk idly about things that have already happened while the author describes things we already have seen in excruciating detail. i'm talking about threads that, while forgivable in a different novel, are unforgivable in this one, because you are neglecting your main characters and their story. and don't tell me you think that a day-by-day account tyrion's river cruise is necessary to telling his story, because in the count of monte cristo, the main guy disappears for nine years and comes hurtling back into the story as a vengeful aristocrat! and while time jumps like that don't work for everything, they certainly do work if what you're talking about isn't a major story thread!

now put aside whether or not all these meandering, unconcluded threads are enjoyable to read (as, in fairness, they often are!). think about them as if you're a tv showrunner. these bad boys are your worst nightmare. because while you know the author put them in for a reason, you haven't read the conclusion to the arc, so you don't know what that reason is. and even if the author tells you in broad strokes how things are going to end for any particular character (and this is a big "if," because GRRM's whole style is that he lets plots "develop as he goes," so I'm not actually convinced that he does have endings written out for most major characters), that still doesn't help you get them from point A (meandering storyline) to point B (actual conclusion). oh, and by the way, you have under a year to write this full season of television, while GRRM has been thinking about how to end the books for at least 10. all of this means you have to basically call an audible on whether or not certain arcs are going to pay off, and, if they are, whether they make for good television, and hence are worth writing. and you have to do that for every. single. unfinished. story. in the books.

here's an example: in the books, Quentin Martell goes on a quest to marry Daenerys and gain a dragon. many chapters are spent detailing this quest. spoiler alert: he fails, and he gets charbroiled by dragons. GRRM includes this plot to set up the actions of House Martell in Winds, but the problem is that we don't know what House Martell does in Winds, because (see above) the book DNE. So, although we can reliably bet that the showrunners understand (1) Daenerys is coming to Westeros with her 3 fantasy nukes, and (2) at some point they're gonna have to deal with the invasion of frozombies from Canada, that DOESN'T mean they necessarily know exactly what's going to happen to Dorne, or House Martell. i mean, fuck! we don't even know if Martin knows what's going to happen to Dorne or House Martell, because he's said he's the kind of writer who doesn't set shit out beforehand! so for every "Cersei defaults on millions of dragons in loans from the notorious Bank of Nobody Fucks With Us, assumes this will have no repercussions for her reign or Westerosi politics in general" plotline — which might as well have a big glaring THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT stamp on top of the chapter heading — you have Arianne Martell trying to do a coup/parent trap switcheroo with Myrcella, or Euron the Goffick Antichrist, or Faegon Targaryen and JonCon preparing a Blackfyre restoration, or anything else that might pan out — but might not! And while that uncertainty about what's important to the "overall story" might be a realistic way of depicting human beings in a world ruled by chance and not Destiny, it makes for much better reading than viewing, because Game of Thrones as a fantasy television series was based on the first three books, which are much more traditional "there is a plot and main characters and you can generally tell who they are" kind of book. I see Feast and Dance as a kind of soft reboot for the series in this respect, because they recenter the story around a much larger cast and cast a much broader net in terms of which characters "deserve" narrative attention.

but if you're making a season of television, you can't do that, because you've already set up the basic premise and pacing of your story, and you can't suddenly pivot into a long-form tone poem about the horrors of war. so you have to cut something. but what are you gonna cut? bear in mind that you can't just Forget About Dorne, or the Iron Islands, or the Vale, or the North, or pretty much any region of the story, because it's all interconnected, but to fit in everything from the books would require pacing of the sort that no reasonable audience would ever tolerate. and bear in mind that the later books sprout a lot more of these baby-plots that could go somewhere, but also might end up being secondary or tertiary to the "main story," which, at the end of the day, is about dragons and ice zombies and the rot at the heart of the feudal power system glorified in classical fantasy. that's the story that you as the showrunner absolutely must give them an end to, and that's the story that should be your priority 1.

so you do a hack and slash job, and you mortar over whatever you cut out with storylines that you cook up yourself, but you can't go too far afield, because you still need all the characters more or less in place for the final showdown. so you pinch here and push credulity there, and you do your best to put the characters in more or less the same place they would have been if you kept the original, but on a shorter timeframe. and is it as good as the first seasons? of course not! because the material that you have is not suited to TV like the first seasons are. and not only that, but you are now working with source material that is actively fighting your attempt to constrain a linear and well-paced narrative on it. the text that you're working with changed structure when you weren't looking, and now you have to find some way to shanghai this new sprawling behemoth of a Thing into a television show. oh, and by the way, don't think that the (living) author of the source material will be any help with this, because even though he's got years of experience working in television writing, he doesn't actually know how all of these threads will tie together, which is possibly the reason that the next book has taken over 8 years (now 13 and counting) to write. oh and also, your showrunners are sick of this (in fairness, very difficult) job and they want to go write for star wars instead, so they've refused the extra time the studio offered them for pre-production and pushed through a bunch of first-draft scripts, creating a crunch culture of the type that spawns entirely avoidable mistakes, like, say, some poor set designer leaving a starbucks cup in frame.

anyway, that's what I think went wrong with game of thrones.

[lunarharp]

being attached to that moment qifrey held a baby one time and my ideas for the future :)

[capricores]

pisces/virgo placements... it's about time you took care of yourself, too, ok?

you burn yourselves out allowing yourself to be pulled by so many people in all different directions. you exhaust all your resources and empty your cup - no, your entire well - to help those around you, even people you don't know. it's such a beautiful thing, and i know you genuinely love helping others, supporting people, seeing them thrive. it's such a beautiful trait! but you constantly end up neglecting yourself, right? you don't realize that you have permission to set aside time to care for you, to cater to your needs for once. you often feel like no one puts a drop in your cup, the favor is never returned - it's exhausting; you might think if you just keep giving your all it will come back; i understand. you will find the people that give the same energy back to you one day, but regardless of whether you've found those people yet, you need to learn to step aside and fill your own cup!

setting boundaries and saying no is the most important thing you will learn to do in this lifetime. it will not be easy for you, sometimes it will feel painful. but you cannot help the world if you're constantly drained and tired! you deserve to take care of yourself in the same way you do for others. be gentle to your kind soul, nourish yourself; do the things you love to do. learn to worry about others less, as hard as it is, and focus on yourself more.

[transthatfag]

theyre doing a sick cover of the winner takes it all

[hellomehlo]

the thought of playing veilguard for the first time with no approval guides or idea of how our choices in inquisition are impacting the narrative…

ngl I feel a little nauseous

[fujimiiiya]

Goyuu Hanahaki disease AU with a twist, so instead of hana (flower) it's baby so it's Babyhaki disease, where instead of flowers grow inside your lungs when you have a crush on someone, you grow a baby in your belly instead. If the love is requited, the baby will look like the one who is crushed on, and the bigger and deeper the feelings involved, the more the baby will take after the 'father', but if the love is unrequited, the baby will either be miscarriaged, a stillborn, or in a rare chance continue to live, they'll look exactly like the one crushing on or the 'mother'. So when peace finally comes down to Jujutsu and Gojo-sensei is saved like the others, Choso, Higuruma, Nanami. And out of nowhere Yuji starts showing symptoms of morning sickness with a slight bump on his belly that keeps growing by the weeks, throwing everyone out of the loop of discovery.

They begin speculating, from Yuji got another curse he ingested (to which Yuji swore he didn't, the last time was his big brothers the Kusouzu but Choso confirmed they had all dissolved within Yuji's soul fully), to Yuji was conceiving a cursed womb after unknowingly got impregnated by an unregistered curse (which is unlikely because Yuji would've known unless he was taken while being unconscious. In that case, Choso who was monitoring him would've also know). So none of the speculations were likely to happen.

As Yuji's condition can only be explained as extraordinary pregnancy and everyone is at their wits' end with his belly getting bigger.

Yuji who (despite trying hard to pretend, saying he'll be fine and doesn't want to abort the baby, wanting to keep them at least until the day they should be born because doesn't want to object whatever it is growing inside him as another case of aborted fetus, just like all his other big brothers) begins to show signs of demotivation, is sapped of his usual bright energy, and is getting sickly every other day. Until one day Nanami comes back from the library, showing him a ripped part of an old scroll, which explains a rare ancient curse that caused the phenomeneon called the babyhaki disease, and that whatever illness is eating away at Yuji's body and soul will be cured once the fetus is out of his system, alive or not.

"Perhaps, this is the one," Nanami explains, "it could be due to the effect of last time ancient curses and incarnations alike surged after the CG and disappeared along with Sukuna's parting, but maybe this ancient curse lingered and infiltrated the very person whose body attracted and was conducive to host it. Itadori-kun's body constitution as an innate vessel which had hosted a dormant curse for a long time before, ever since he was born without himself knowing, now said curse was gone, leaving his body void, it was plausible if something like this were to happen."

All the people in the room stared hard at Yuji, still reeling from the shock of the only plausible explanation of what could be the 1st time they ever encountered in his lifetime. But then again, the case of Sukuna's vessel was also the only time they had ever witnessed and it was all tied to Yuji, so this being another case w/ the boy is far from impossible.

Yuji could only shrink under all the hard and questioning stares directed at him. Just like the others, he'd never heard about that ancient curse and it was true, that he had never realized he was born with a curse residing within him before, until he got acquainted by jujutsu. Perhaps after Sukuna, it made his soul and body just sensitize and is prone to other curses to keep residing inside him.

"It says if both parties are human then the fetus will be human, not a cursed womb," Nanami continues, still not making any of them relieved, except for Yuji, yet he tries to hide it by avoiding everyone's stare.

"Who is it, Yuji?" Gojo suddenly asks, his voice cold and detached of any emotion.

"What do you mean, Sensei?"

"If this is the only plausible explanation for this rare phenomenon than it could only be what really happened, surely you would know who the other person is?"

Yuji goes silent and at that point, everyone gets the message. Yuji doesn't want anyone to know who the other party is. Most likely because it's unrequited.

Even after weeks of being coaxed, Yuji still refuses to say anything, opting to just avoid everyone's entirely, much to everyone's dismay bcs his health gets deteriorated further, so they all agree to leave it for now and focus on keeping Yuji and the fetus healthy till the day of delivery. Because stillborn or not, that's the only way to get the sickness out of Yuji's system entirely.

Yuji of course knows who it is, it's none other than Sensei...

But, if the curse is true, then it'd be better to just keep it himself. If the baby is alive, he'll look exactly like Yuji himself, he's 100% sure of it, so no one is gonna be the wiser and he won't cause any trouble to his Sensei by forcing him this burden.

This is Yuji's one-sided feelings, so he's the one gonna be responsible for it, not the other. He doesn't want to tie Sensei to him out of obligation that none of them thought was even possible if not for this shitty curse that came out of nowhere and due to his weird body constitution of being a vessel. No, his Sensei is too important for this world and the others. It won't do him any good if Sensei has to have another responsibility under him when he already got too many in his hands, Yuji thought, especially since Gojo-sensei wouldn't have wanted it in the first place but will be forced to take the responsibility as an adult.

So when the day the baby is due, after 1 hour of difficult surgery and another half an hour of recovery, where after Yuji finally awakes to the sight of everyone having another shock of their life, himself included, as he's face to face with the sight of tiny Gojo Satoru swaddled in cotton blanket and put on his bare chest.

Yuji, unable to comprehend the situation still, moves his eyes to a rare sight of (Yuji has to rub his eyes once because he thinks he must be dreaming), Gojo-sensei's face with a drying tear tracks on his cheeks, holding his hand tightly

"S-Sensei..." Yuji whispers hoarsely but soon clams up, not able to form another word.

The room goes into pregnant silence, until Shoko is the one breaking the ice.

"It's alright, Itadori, this is also the 1st time for all of us to see Gojo crying, some of us thought he didn't even have tear ducts..."

"But..."

"Honestly, I'm not surprised this is how the baby turns out. Now, if you'll excuse me, anyone can stay, but I need to take the baby."

"What? Why??" Yuji begins to feel anxious and moves his free hand that isn't held by Gojo to hold his baby but Shoko is faster.

"Your baby is small, and he didn't breath simultaneously upon delivery. And yes, it's a boy, Itadori, so congrats to the Gojo family I guess. We all actually thought the Gojo bloodline will end with this idiot, he himself thinks so."

"But for now, the baby needs to be put into the incubator and observed for a while.

"Don't worry Yuji, the machine is right beside you here, see?" Choso is sitting on his other side, smiling and stroking Yuji's hair gently and pointing to a glass box behind him where Shoko puts the baby inside and deftly attaches all kinds of tubes and wires, including a pediatric CPAP ( mechanical oxygen supply) to cover his tiny nose and mouth. Only now Yuji realizes how small and pale the baby looks. Tears well up in his eyes in an instant, seeing his baby conditions.

It's because he wasn't healthy during his pregnancy, he was restless, and despite hiding it, he was heartbroken, thinking his baby won't even get the chance to know who his father is. So it affects him because the baby is human. The guilt starts eating away inside his chest.

"Yuji..." Gojo softly calls, he rubs his moist eyes several times and drags a palm down his face. His tone somewhat heavy with regrets

"Yuji...yuji..yuji..."

Yuji pushes over the lump in his throat and croaks, "Sensei, so-sorry...I-"

"Yuji, why did you never say anything to me? Even when I asked you who the other is? We could've saved so much time..." Gojo was looking at him square in the eyes, there's no blaming in his eyes, only sadness and regrets.

"You shouldnt try bearing the pregnancy alone, if I had known, I would've been around you more, but I was worried I would be annoying you."

"But...I never thought, I never thought you would feel the same way about me, Sensei..."

"Why not? did you ever ask me before?"

"No...but, you told me about how you got sealed back then and it was because you thought of that man, right? I asked Ieiri-san about him, and I, I just assumed from the stories..."

"But did you ever ask me directly?"

Yuji lowers his eyes and says nothing.

"Suguru is my best friend, a comrade, at one point in my life I considered him a confidant, a family, the way I felt about him is the way Yuji feels about Megumi and Nobara. It's not the same way I feel about Yuji." Gojo squeezes his hand tighter.

Yuji looks up at him and gasps, "R-really?" unable to hide the hope and warm beginning to seep inside all the pores in his body and voice.

"Truly." Gojo nods, nothing but sincerity in his voice. He brings Yuji's hand to his lips and pecks it gently, raising the blush on Yuji's cheeks.

Choso clears his throat loudly and glares at Gojo, but it goes ignored by the other sorcerer.

Yuji is at loss for words, and Megumi chimes in. "Tbh, Itadori, Gojo-sensei was not being subtle at all, though I know he tries hard to."

"Huh? Seriously? I didn't know that?"

"It's true though..." Gojo confirms.

"Then, Sensei! Shouldn't you also say something to me?" Suddenly Yuji feels they are both in the wrong for wasting so much time when they can actually be together.

"But Yuji! Think about it from my perspective Yuji, I'm your teacher and an adult, you're my student and still a minor, even if the Great Teacher Gojo Satoru, the strongest sorcerer of modern era, lives by his own rule, I'm still concern about what's right or wrong for the people I care about!

"Plus, I thought Yuji have always had eyes for Nanamin, so I don't want to interfere your feelings unless I'm sure, if not for this curse...no maybe it's not a curse, but actually a blessing??"

Nanami groans, "Whatever it is, don't bring me into this," he sighs, "Gojo-san was just doing what adults should've done at this situation, Itadori. What's important is now everything is finally out in the clear and hopefully the sickness is cured now the baby is born."

"Oniichan thinks Nanami or Fushiguro is the better option, Yuji." Choso comments randomly.

"Hush you! I'm your brother-in-law now, so be nice to me from now on, big brother."

"Same goes to you, it means I'm your elder now so you should obey me. Don't you even think of hurting Yuji or breaking his heart or I'll k!ll you when you sleep and kidnap Yuji and his baby."

"CHOSO!" Yuji yells.

"Let him try, Yuji, he won't be able to do it anyway. Besides, I don't plan on leaving Yuji ever again let alone hurt him!"

"Good, then I dare you to make a binding vow for that with Yuji, so if you so much as accidentally violate it, you'll get repercussions."

"I don't want that!" Yuji says.

"Maybe what you mean is a vow of marriage, Choso-san," Nanami supplies, "but that's gonna have to wait until Yuji is 18."

"Technically, Japan's laws can allow under 18 as long as the parents' give permission," Higuruma adds, seeing as Yuji's guardian is now Choso-"

"Then, oniichan, thank you for your help! I owe you big one this time," Gojo bows slightly.

"Hmph, if Yuji wants it, I'll think abt it after you make that binding vow."

"No problem!" Gojo finally backs to his cheery self.

"What? Wait, Sensei!"

"Don't worry, Yuji, I mean what I said before, I won't break it no matter what."

"But the baby, the baby is sick...will he...survive?"

"Of course he will! He's our baby, isn't he? So he must be also The strongest baby! Just so you know, Yuji, Sensei was also born prematurely, weighed only 2,4 kg, and length 46 cm, and look how tall and healthy I am now! So don't worry he'll pull through and grow big and strong like us too, hell, he may even surpass me in height!"

Yuji chuckles.

"Hmm I prefer he'll be cute like Yuji, though," Choso says. "But since he has your face, he's not gonna be cute. Yuji, make sure your next baby looks like you, okay? So oniichan can play with little Yuji to his heart's content."

"Oi, choso, don't be weird," Yuji sighs. "In the first place, I can conceive due to a curse, is it possible for me to conceive again after this, I mean, now that Gojo-sensei and I know about our feelings-" He stops himself, suddenly it dawns on him and everything still feels so surreal.

To know that his unrequited love he had hid since forever, determined to bring it to his grave with him, is somehow not just reciprocated but is given back stronger, if the fact that his baby's face looks nothing short of Gojo Satoru's carbon copy, albeit a tiny version of him. Unable to hide his shyness, Yuji buries his face in his hands.

"Oh, we'll never know till we try, don't we?" Gojo singsongs with a sly tone in his voice, "I'll make sure we'll try many times to make lots of babies after this, Yuji~"

Yuji buries his face further, pulling his blankets through his head so only charming sight of his red ears and nape are showing.

"Binding vow first!" Choso shouts again, to which Gojo only laughs heartily.

Looking at both the adorable sight of his beloved Yuji and the baby secured within a blanket inside the incubator beside them, a sudden tranquility and warmth wash over his whole being.

Satoru always thinks himself belongs to no one but his own. And that the world should bow to him in exchange of him being responsible to maintain its peace

And that he's the only one should carry that burden, without relying to anyone or do it for anyone.

But now there are two other most important things in his life, that he would prioritize over everything in

This world, over everyone else first. And suddenly he doesn't feel very alone anymore.

The thought only brings calm and serenity.

He now has a family to take care of.

Ah, maybe this is what those people talk about, how it feels.

The feeling of finally settling down.

His indomitable spirit with strongest ego finally being tamed by something as domestic as having two babies he love over everything else.

For once and the first time in his life, he starts envisioning to grow old and live a long peaceful life, away from the monster inside him.

• • •

(And so after Yuji's recovery, out of being bitter that their relationship started backwards in process, Goyuu gives it their all to make up for their lost time together and tries to make babies day and night)

[frobby]

one of my favorite senarios to imagine to put yukio in is sending him 10 years into the future (with the exwires usually) and everyone from their class are like chill adults including himself working their boring ass exorcist job and hes trying to assert dominance over them as the teacher™ but they're all like bro why so serious?

[unordinaries]

presented without comment

(chapters 280 + 344)

[amazingspider-z]

a quick sketch page i like to call: what if eyes but fucked up ft. my continued saga of trying (and. ahem. not succeeding) of drawing fire