#what are the odds of picking up a child who is the same element and has the same talent in the same field your teacher had huh

[bunathebunny]

my crack theory is that yanqing is jingliu after transgenderism and amnesia

[frost-queen]

Elements in Harmony (Reader x Sokka)

Requested by: Anon Forever tag:@missmelodramatic, @merlin-dahlia, @alex--awesome--22, @elllie-does-the-posts, @floatlosers, @merlieve, @queen-of-books, @glimmering-darling-dolly @denkisclown, @wildieflower, @meyocoko, @bubblybrianna, @justanothercoco, @subjecta13-thefangirl, @m-rae23, @harleyquinnswifeyfrfr, @swampthing07, @melsunshine, @panhoeofmanyfandoms, @venomsvl, @the-uncoordinated-house-cat, @rosecentury,  @imagines-by-her,  @evilcr0ne, @vviolynn, @iixchloee

Summary: Reader is Zuko's sister. You and Sokka always argue and fight. You keep infuriating Sokka as you won't leave his head, something he can't stand. Certainly not from a fire nation girl. When one encounter leads to an almost kiss. It draws a line when some guy starts flirting with you, leading to Sokka to show you just how infuriating you are to him.

Appa roared deep, flapping his tail up. Aang petted his furred friend as Momo sat on his shoulder. Katara was poking in the fire to keep it going. Sokka arrived with new wood. His gaze fell upon you from afar. Near the cliff were you practising. Performing graceful moves without actually bending. Your performances calm and at peace. Anything but what Sokka was used to seeing a fire bender do.

Mostly their sequences were brutal and hard. Their fire filled with anger. You seemed odd among them. Anger wasn’t what filled your bending. It was a combination of being soft and tough at the same time. Something your uncle Iroh taught you when you were younger.

Sokka threw the wood on the ground, startling Katara. – “Hey.” – she called out annoyed.  – “Sure let us prepare the fire while princess fire nation over there is just dancing.” – Sokka outed gesturing at you. Katara sighed loud. – “Can you only ever complain?”

Sokka grumpily sat down on a log. Glaring your way. Aang approached them holding a bag open. – “We’ll need to stock more food.” – he held the bag upside down. A fruit fell out as Momo immediately jumped for it. Sokka shooed Momo away, picking up the last fruit. – “And that isn’t for you!” – he called out to Momo who flew above his head. Katara got up holding her hand out to Aang. – “I’ll go see if a town is nearby.” – she suggested.

“No, no.” – Sokka answered getting up as well. – “Let fire girl over there do something.” – he pointed at you from afar. – “Her name is Y/n.” – Katara answered crossing her arms. Sokka came closer to her. – “and I don’t care.” – he outed with a sarcastic smile. Sokka whistled loud catching your attention.

You stopped your practise, making your way over. Sokka snatched the bag from Aang’s hand, tossing it at you. You caught it  as he was aiming for your face. – “We need supplies.” – he said bothered. – “Please.” – you responded wanting him to ask nicely.

Sokka puffed loud. – “I didn’t know you had manners.” – Sokka answered. – “Unlike you I wasn’t raised in an igloo.” – you responded loud. – “Yet I’m not the one banished.” – Sokka fired back. – “Sokka!” – Katara called out, shocked at his rudeness. As a response you threw the empty bag at Sokka. It bumped against his chest as he moved his head back to not get hit in the face.

“Apologize right now!” – Katara insisted with a sisterly scowl. Sokka looked back to you, seeing how his words made you feel. Somehow he felt a bit guilty for being so cruel. Yet he didn’t act upon it. He took the bag in his hand. – “I’ll just go by myself.”  - he spoke turning away. Momo flew on top of Sokka’s head making him stop with a deep sigh. – “We’ll all go.” – Aang spoke to maintain the peace.

The four of you entered the woods in search for food, hoping you’d come by a village soon. You were walking behind Aang and Katara when you noticed Sokka falling in step with you. – “No bending.” – he simply said to you. You mimicked his words like a child, teasing him. – “Oh real mature princess.” – he responded.

 “I’m just lowering myself to your standards.” – you answered with a smile. Sokka stepped in front of you, making you stop all of the sudden. He was brazing, glaring down at you. Your words annoying him. Sokka was glaring at your eyes, his face inches away from yours. His gaze fell down to your lips. He caught himself stare at them, making him turn away.

You gasped breathlessly, slouching back as if you were about to pass out. Sokka caught up with his sister, wanting to be as far away from you as he could. Looking briefly over his shoulder to you, falling in line. Grunting soft, he hated how much you messed with his head. Your presence consuming his mind as if you never wanted to leave. No matter how many times he casted you out. It infuriated him.

You were from the fire nation. Zuko’s sister, the one chasing Aang. The one who caused his village pain. – “You know you can just be nice to her.” – Katara spoke looking briefly at her brother. Sokka sighed loud. – “She’s from the…” – he outed as Katara finished his words in a voice that mimicked his. – “fire nation.” – she then giggled at her own imitation of her brother.

“Not funny.” – Sokka said annoyed as it made Katara just giggle more. Sokka looked over his shoulder again, seeing you chat with Aang.

Katara nudged him hard in the side. Sokka tore his gaze away from you. Some twigs snapped underneath his shoes. – “Aang needs her.” – she told him. – “I know, I know.” – Sokka sighed out. – “Then…” – Katara began as Sokka shushed her. She glared at him a bit for cutting her off. – “Don’t shush me.” – she said annoyed, moving her hands to her hips. – “Stop talking.” – Sokka told her, his focus elsewhere.

Katara groaned loud as he covered up her mouth. It was the only thing he thought would shut her up. – “Why have we stopped?” – Aang asked confused. Sokka was looking at every direction, listening in to nature. His eyes widened when he saw a fireblast fly their way. It hit a tree trunk close to them. – “Fire nation!” – he yelled out. The four of you started to run as more fire benders came from out of the bushes. – “It’s an ambush.” – Katara outed, puffing loud. – “You think?” – Sokka responded to her sarcastically.

Aang swayed his stick across, sending an air blast at some fire benders.  Katara stopped a moment to bend some water out of a puddle nearby. Letting it whip against a fire bender. Sokka grunted as they couldn’t outrun them. They needed to stand and fight. He pulled out his weapon, standing ready.

A fire bender was coming your way as you deflected his fire blast by ducking down. You then kicked at him. He stumbled back making you punch his stomach a few times. Sokka ducked down a punching arm, punching the man in his stomach. He then pressed the back of his weapon on his back. The man dropped to his stomach with a loud oof. He saw fire blasts coming your way as you kept avoiding them with just manoeuvring.

“What are you doing?” – Sokka called out to you. You looked back at him confused. – “Bend!” – he outed, stating the obvious. You kicked a guy away from you. – “You told me not to bend!” – you shouted back at him. Sokka jumped back from a blast. – “Just do it!” – he insisted upon annoyed. Suddenly you smiled with a new set off attitude.

Performing a sequence you conjured fire, attacking your fellow fire nation soldiers. Aang jumped above your head, landing in front of you as he flashed a blast of air at them. You moved back assisting Katara. – “I got it.” – she breathed out. You nodded at her. Looking over your shoulder, you saw Sokka getting cornered.

You ran over to him just as a blast of fire was coming his way. Sokka’s eyes widened seeing the blast come his way from his side. You jumped in front of him, arms forwards, palms pressed together as you split the blast in two. The fire flared beside Sokka and you. Sokka blinked stunned at you. You then attacked with fire of your own. Sokka was staring at you, admiring you despite his infuriation with you.

He was so caught up with you, that he hardly saw the punching fist come his way. He jumped back, avoiding the hit just in time. He was about to knock the soldier on his head with his weapon as a blast of fire pushed him away. Sokka looked confused, till he turned his head. Seeing you in a position, one fist out, panting. You had once again protected him. Sokka smiled admiring at you till his expression turned to shock. You were hit by a blast, sending you rolling on the ground. – “Y/n!” – Sokka called out.

You came to a stop, panting loud. Forcing yourself to get back up. Just as you almost stood up straight, were you hit with another surprise blast. It was if the soldiers were turning their anger towards you. One of their own fighting against them. You got hit as the blast pushed you back.

You screamed when you felt a loss of ground under your feet. An in-sinking in the ground made you slide down the hill. Tumbling and rolling down, you met with the ground hard and fast. – “Y/n?” – Sokka called out concerned. He threw his boomerang at the soldier, hitting him in the head. His boomerang returned as he caught it. Running up to the way where he lost sight of you. – “Y/n?” – he panted out nearing where you last where.

Sokka felt the ground underneath his feet crumble away. A scream caught in his throat as he slid down, arms swaying around. On the ground, you groaned in pain. Slowly pulling yourself up by your elbows. Your eyes widened seeing Sokka slide down. At the bottom, he came to a sudden stop, his chest falling forwards. He fell forwards falling hard against your chest as your back smacked the ground again.

Sokka groaned soft when he set his hands beside you, trying to pull himself up. He lifted his head up, his gaze catching yours as he paused. Paused as his face was inches away from yours. Heart pounding loudly as you were captivated in his gaze. Sokka’s gaze went down to your lips  as it made you feel shy. He neared his head a bit as you sensed he had an urge to kiss you. Your gaze flashed up and down from his eyes to his lips and back. If Sokka was about to kiss you, you wouldn’t protest. Sokka felt himself fall deeper, drawing closer to you. What if he wanted to kiss you in this moment. Would it be that bad?

You were bringing your chin closer to him to decrease the distance. Sokka slowly closed his eyes, feeling his lips tingle with the urge. A gush of wind caught him off guard. His eyes flashed back open, suddenly aware of what he was doing. He rolled over, away from you just before Aang landed down. – “So here you are.” – Aang said. You were staring at the sky, panting loud. Feeling extremely hot that Sokka was this close to kissing you.

Katara had climbed down joining Aang. Sokka had gotten up, dusting some dirt off him. Aang decided to head back to Appa and search a town from above. All of you agreed, walking back to Appa. You climbed on Appa, sitting at the back. Avoiding eye contact with Sokka. Sokka was staring down at his own hands.

Katara looked from you to Sokka. – “Is something going on between the two of you?” – she asked. – “No.” – Sokka answered loud. You lowered your head on Appa’s saddle, watching the scenery you were leaving behind. Momo came landing on your head, laying himself down.

Appa roared loud as he descended. Aang had spotted a town. A small village at the edge of the earth kingdom. Appa landed as all of you climbed down. You held the empty bag following Aang into the village. There were many curious heads turning at your friends. They certainly stand out with their watertribe attire and air nomad clothing. You didn’t receive that much attention as you were earth kingdom clothing.

You had left your fire nation clothing long behind. The moment your father banished you after Zuko’s banishment, you gave them up. There was no hope in finding a new home when you wore enemy clothing. Zuko had been given an ultimatum to return. You never did. Not acceding his expectations and questioning the flaming fist of his way of ruling led to your banishment.

The youngest of your siblings, apart by just one year with your sister Azula. You saw more to fire bending then power and anger. Fire could be beautiful if one found a balance between them. Harmony. Your father found that a weakness. Soft. Not something he could have in his daughter.

You went over to a stall where they sold fruits. Sokka’s eyes fell upon a different stall, making his way over to it, without his friends knowing. You bargained with the owner for some of his best fruit. Katara wondered where her brother was, spotting him at a stall that sold herbs. She furrowed her brows, watching her brother buy a patch of leaves. He turned around holding a little patch as he suddenly noticed his sister watching.

Sokka cleared his throat from afar, moving the patch behind his back. It made Katara quirk her eyebrow up. He joined the others once more letting his sister know to stop staring to weirdly at him. – “Look Y/n a herb stall!” – Aang pointed out. You turned your head to look as well. – “You can make that delicious tea of yours again.” – Aang said pushing you towards it.

“Actually…” – Sokka started feeling the patch in his hand. No one heard him as Aang was too enthusiastic to show you the herbs. Aang pulled you to a stop after having pushed you all the way over. – “Anything you like?” – the owner asked as you looked at his products.

“Do you have any jasmine leaves?” – Aang asked for you. – “I certainly do boy.” – the owner answered. – “Actually I…” – Sokka began wanting to let you know he already bought the jasmine leaves. The owner presented Aang with a patch of jasmine leaves. Aang nudged you to accept them. – “Aang we really don’t need them.”  - you told him. – “Of course we do, you love jasmine tea.” – he encouraged you to take them.

“Your uncle taught you to make it.” – Aang added with a smile. – “Y/n I…” – Sokka spoke wanting to place a hand on your shoulder and reveal his patch to you. A new pair of hands grabbed the patch from the owner. – “I’ll pay for her.” – all of you turned your head to a boy. He smirked flashing a wink at you.

His wink baffled you as you weren’t used to that kind of attention. The boy tossed some coins in the owner’s hand. Sokka got shoved aside as the boy wanted to be closer to you. He held the patch up for you to accept. – “You really don’t have to…” – you said feeling a bit embarrassed someone paid for you.

“Nonsense.” – he grabbed your hand, facing your palm up, placing the patch in your hand. – “Anything should be paid for a pretty girl like you.” – he finished. Sokka puffed with a roll of his eyes. The boy slid his arm over your shoulder, moving you away from your friends. – “You look like a girl who likes tea.” – he spoke as Aang followed behind him. – “How does he know.” – he asked happily astonished that he had guessed. – “We literally stood by a herb cart.” – Sokka answered bothered.

The guy was leading you to a tea shop. His arm was still around you as Sokka found himself glaring at it. Katara and Aang clearly unbothered with Sokka’s concerns. – “Has anyone told you, your smile is like a blossom on a spring day?” – he said. It made you touch your lips shy. – “No.” – you answered. Sokka tensed his jaw. You were about to enter the tea shop when a pull on your wrist pulled you to a stop.

You slowly turned as Sokka had taken a hold of your wrist. Aang, Katara and the guy walked further in. – “Something wrong Sokka?” – you asked confused. – “Are you seriously following a guy like him? Just because he flashes a smile at you and gives you a compliment, you girls fall hard.”

You smiled teasingly. – “What’s so funny?” – Sokka expressed loud. – “Nothing.” – you answered with a shake of your head. – “You are cute when you are so worked up.” – you patted his cheek teasingly. The guy came standing behind you. – “Are you coming sugar?” – he asked placing a hand on your hip. Sokka saw it almost making him lose his mind. – “She’s not!” – Sokka stated clear, grabbing you by your wrist. – “Hey!” – the guy called out when Sokka dragged you away. – “Sokka… Sokka.” – you breathed out as he kept pulling you away.

He went into an alleyway, pushing you against the wall. Sokka groaned loud as you could only stare confused at him. He turned around, grabbing you by the waist as he pressed his lips on yours. Eyes wide with shock, you blinked startled at the touch of his lips on yours. He pulled away half angered at himself for kissing you.  – “Why are you so infuriating.” – he outed. Sokka noticed you were still holding his patch with herbs so he slapped them out of your hands.

“Hey!” – you called out as Sokka gave you his with some roughness. – “I bought these because I knew you liked them.” – he told you. – “I don’t know why I bought you them, because I shouldn’t. Certainly not for a fire nation girl!” – he went on. – “So why do I care for you. Why can’t I get you out of my head, and why did it bother me that, that guy was hitting on you!”

You smiled coming up to Sokka. – “Oh hush.” – you told him, grabbing him to kiss him. Sokka gladly accepted your kiss, holding you by your waist. – “You are cute when you get worked up over things.” – you told him, making him smile sheepishly. Sokka held you again, kissing you once more just because he could. Certainly now when he made peace with himself and simply let himself fall for you.

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Read more of my fics on my Masterlists!

[a-998h]

Hello! Before I ask for this request I just wanted to apologize, I hope I’ll be able to make my requests more organized and shorter, so it’ll be easier to digest! And my time is Eastern Time Zone so yeah!

SAGAU + MODERN!TEEN!READER

Instead of asking for the usual Child!{Reader} who’s technically from another universe and fights monsters, I would like to request one where {Reader} was from our world, but is still around 13-14 years old

Also I would say that {Reader} had just began to play the game, so they would barley understand how the world works when they were Isekai’ed into said game—while panicking at the same time because oh my god they’re in a game—But they have school tomorrow, and their homework!

When {Reader} descends to Teyvat they go through the whole “Oh my god the Creator!” From characters and endless praise, with only confusion on their part—

But while they question their life choices—they also decide to interact more with most of the characters, as they begin to question how this magical world exactly works

Of course people like the Archons were confused on why you seemed like you had forgotten all about your creation of Teyvat and that you came back in the body of a child—though they decided to put off those thoughts for now as they explained Elements like Geo, Pyro, Dendro—you get the idea [though I myself barely know what half of those powers or called or how they work]

I headcannon that in Teyvat—while they seem far advanced despite being thousands of years younger than {Reader}’s world, I feel like in certain areas of study like Medical and Science is often ignored

Of course not fully ignored but is far underdeveloped [Unless I’m completely incorrect than just ignore this whole ask I guess💀] since in Genshin you can easily cook up foods that have odd healing abilities, even to the point of reviving dead people [If we’re sticking to game lore even when {Reader} arrived in Genshin] people have Visions which allow them to wield powers to let them heal or harm things, and this also goes for the statues of ‘The Seven’ that can heal your party

And I would suspect that they wouldn’t know too much info on things like cells, atoms, energy and more [Ex. Water is made up of H2o, but in Genshin water is water and also used for Hydro] or how their Medical equipment would be like as advanced only up to like the 40-60’s in {Reader}’s world, and only have basic medicines and cures—since humans exist in Genshin and they most likely don’t have powers from what I know

So to say the least {Reader} would be confused and questioning everything about Teyvat and how it works

Like when the Archons explained elemental powers {Reader} would question if some powers branch off of others, and if {Reader} accidentally taking it literally—like they think that Electro was actually summoned from the clouds, so they’re like “Oh so Electro is made from Pyro and Anemo?” And when the Archons are like: “?? Wha—“ And {Reader} is gonna be like ‘🤓👆’ “Because thunder is when the lightning channel’s temperature reaches up to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit which immediately after the air cools it down and caused the sound of thunder from the rapid contractions. So Electro would be made from Pyro and Anemo—right?” [Yes I had to look that up to write that, I don’t even know if that’s correct—]

And after that the Archons just look at {Reader} like they’re crazy but also very worried for them

Soon a few characters, who probably are smart—at least in Teyvat they would be considered would approach {Reader} with questions about science and more, thinking that since {Reader} is the Creator they would obviously know more, and would basically treat their knowledge like the greatest gift they’ve ever received

And just imagine a scenario where {Reader} gathers a group of characters [Which you can pick who would want to learn more] who are interested enough in science to want to learn more, as {Reader} pulled out their phone—which somehow teleported with them to Genshin, as they play a YT video about Life Science, and after the video ends the characters are amazed and in awe, as one speaks on how this has to be the most informative piece of film, and how many scientists must have had to research for this video— and {Reader} is just like “This video is made for like 11 year olds to learn” and the characters are like “Wha-“

And a lot of times people like Tighnari [who I think would be interested enough] would spend time with {Reader} by listening them ramble about Life Science

I feel like {Reader} would be really interested in characters who have inhuman characteristics—especially the ones with animal ears and tails

Like when {Reader} first met Kirara they found Kirara’s toe beans adorable, and was amazed by her two tails

And {Reader} would pet Gorou if he let them [Of course he would since {Reader} is the Creator🙄/j]

Aswell as when {Reader} met Sara they were really interested in her wings and asked if they were real and if they worked

And another scenario where it’s late and an Archon[of your choice] goes to the depths of the Avidya Forest where Tighnari resides, since they had dropped {Reader} off there to spend time with him, and they find {Reader} and him in his hut/house, with him sitting on the ground while {Reader} had gloves on and was in the middle of piercing his ears—Tighnari just gives the Archon a little wave, while {Reader} happily talks about putting little ropes in the holes where they pierced his ears so they can go out and get earrings for him tomorrow!

That’s all I request! I hope it was easier to read this time! Have a good day!

-🍉ANON

Teen Creator Isekei Adventures

When they see you

Everyone across Teyvat was awaiting the return of their beloved Creator. There were many artist who have drawn depictions of the Creator over the centuries by now they get to see what you look llike. The archons are the ones who will greet you. They weren't expecting a teenager by they can work with it.

The reacts are mixed. Some are filled with joy and don't notice the fact that their God is a teenager, some brush it off, and some are worried/ wondering if it's like how Nahida was born after Rukkhadevata's death. They all notice one thing, and it is that you seem to be freaking out.

Everyone tries to comfort you, and try to figure out why you keep mentioning home work and school, you're a god you know ow everything.

Having world mechanics explained + Life Science

Well, they're a bit worried that you seem to have forgotten that fact that you created everything. So when the archons, shcolars, historians, etc sit you down and explain stuff to you they hope it makes sense. You then hit them with this.

"Oh so Electro is made from Pyro and Anemo?” you ask.

They'll all very confused because what are you talking about and they ask you to explain.

“Because thunder is when the lightning channel’s temperature reaches up to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit which immediately after the air cools it down and caused the sound of thunder from the rapid contractions. So Electro would be made from Pyro and Anemo—right?”

They still don't understand but a few such as Tighnari, Xianyun, Alhaitham, Albedo, Surcorse, Layla, and literally any character who can be affectionately be classified as a nerd.

When you find that your phone, not only came with you but that it also still worked you get an idea.

In the halls of the Akademiya you pull out your phone, go onto YouTube and play the first video you can find about Life Science.

They enjoy it a lot more then you thought they would. Thye all praise how much research went into his amazing piece of film and you responded with.

“This video is made for like 11 year olds to learn”

This confused them but they still enjoyed it, especially Tighnari.

Ears, toe beans, tails, and wings

When you learn Kirara has toe beans, your next course of action is to walk unto her after her work day ends and ask her if you can touch them. She is shocked at first but let's you touch them. Did you know that cat claws are retractable? And that pushing slightly on toe beans causes the class to come out, well you do now. You put a little pressure on Kirar's toe beans to watch her claws go in and out. Then you ask her if you can touch her ears and tail, to which she lets you. She blushes as you fawn over her two tails. She also tries to answer your questions about how she has two tails.

Gorou would blush a bit when you ask if you can pet his ears. Under his tough general facade he is a good boy it needed headpats. He blushes the whole time you pet his ears. When you get close to his tail though... in the words of Kuzco.

"No touchy! no touchy! no touch."

He keeps his tail away from you. It's very sensitive and he just doesn't like people touching his tail.

While expressionless on the outside, Sara smiles on the inside everything you fawn over her wings and ask her many questions about them. She doesn't mind you asking questions, but she doesn't let you touch them.

Adventures in the Avidya Forest feat. Tighnari

After your Life Science stunt in the Akademiya Tighnari was genuinely curious about you knowledge, because he is a curious fox boy.

The archons think you need to de social in order to grow into a well rounded god. Well, at least Nahida thought so. When your life science stunt was over Tighnari asked if you would like to come to Gandharva Ville with him.

You said yes and he let your rant about life science. Now everyone you go to Sumeru it is a priority to visit Toghnari. The archons thought this friendship was cute while some people were jealous.

One day Zhongli dropped you off at Tighnari's and told you two to have fun. You two were having the best time two people could have. As night came Zhongli went to puck you up. He walked in and saw you, with gloves, trying times piece Tighnari's ears. Tighnari waves at Zhongli. Zhongli sighs and tells you it's time to go home. You say no and that you need to finish Tighnari's ears. Zhongli offers to let Tignari stay the night with you two, and then will help him find a good place for ear piercing. You both agree and have an awesome sleep over.

[pikahlua]

I don’t agree with everything said here but: [link removed]

For context, someone sent me a link to a post about elements of fascism and copaganda they feel are present in MHA. I've removed the link for anonymity purposes.

I have no interest in responding to this essay point-by-point. As a brief, BRIEF, BRIEF summary, the linked post makes claims such as:

MHA is pro-authoritarian

MHA is pro-cop

MHA doesn't have these elements promoting fascism on purpose but the elements are there regardless

MHA's ending endorses philosophies it previously criticized

MHA readers who don't pick up on these things lack critical thinking

MHA's hero system is comparable to the fascistic element described in Umberto Eco's "Ur-Fascism" that "everybody is educated to become a hero"

Nothing in MHA's hero society changes

They say a lot of stuff I really don't see as relevant at all, a lot of nonspecific platitudes and philosophical nothings. They frame the story in MHA as if it says a lot of stuff or does a lot of things that I personally don't see or agree that it does. It also goes on to talk about elements in the story it fails to explore like themes of child soldiers and punishment before crime.

I appreciate that the post acknowledges they see these elements in MHA as unintentional. That makes it easier for me to consider their POV and understand where they're coming from.

That said, my response can only be: it's not that deep.

If I want to, I can read elements of ANYTHING into any story. It's very easy to do. There are whole arms of literature study basically dedicated to reading certain philosophical angles into stories that they know are not intended elements in said stories. But there needs to be some self-awareness here before we take anything that far. Equating heroism in MHA to Humberto Eco's concept of a cult of heroism that equals a cult of death is just another version of the same take I've debunked before. I don't agree with the essay's interpretation of this theme at all. My impression is THEY had a certain reading on MHA in its earlier arcs that conflicts with later arcs, but I have a reading that reads the arcs as harmonious. We are at too many odds here.

But because I acknowledge that the major difference between me and this essayist is that we have VERY different readings of MHA in the first place, I don't really wanna take the time to answer all of their points. They all clearly come from a logical place based on their own interpretation, and I don't see anything wrong with that. If that's their reading, they are welcome to it. It's a little obnoxious to claim the rest of us lack critical thinking just because we don't point out these elements they see as fascistic. To me, the stuff they identify that fuels their branching criticisms is stuff hopefully everyone has to acknowledge before they even start reading the shounen genre. I have to suspend my disbelief in the first place when I'm reading about superheroes as a social system. I have to suspend my disbelief in a shounen action manga where the fate of the world is at stake. These are things we all have to understand going in. Not every story aimed at young teenage boys is going to have the space to explore the nuance in all these social systems. It's just not that deep.

So is MHA copaganda? Setting aside the dissonance of comparing western forms of copaganda to Japanese shounen manga forms, sure, fine--so far as the story depicts an organization, particularly one with law enforcement powers, as not wholly incompetent or corrupt goes. But like, the story itself does pose the question of whether the existence of this organization (the heroes) is necessary, which is posing the fundamental question of anti-copaganda at the narrative too. The question is, what answer to this question do we get from the ending? You can read the ending as, "Everyone needs to be heroes (cops)," or you can read it as, "Everyone needs to be good to each other and then the hero system becomes unnecessary," but no matter what, the ending still says, "The hero institution as it is is not the answer." This is what I mean about gradualism and collectivism easily being co-opted by fascism or by socialism. MHA does basically say, "The current system sucks, so we have to change it," and then changes it. It's just not a satisfying change for anyone who wanted a radical revolution. Gradualism is a position that has MANY critics for this exact reason.

But even on the topic of gradualism, I think it would be a mistake to say that MHA teaches us, "Only incremental change is possible." The way I read its themes are that it's saying "Trying is important; even when all you can achieve turns out to be incremental, it's still worth trying."

As for the themes of collectivism in MHA, collectivism can easily read like paternalism to a western (white) audience, which is a whole other issue. This is why there's so much debate about whether or not people are coming from a place of good faith when their criticisms don't seem to acknowledge the eastern philosophies at play in MHA. In truth, I would be hard-pressed to name an anime that doesn't have an ending that feels weird to me. Every single anime ending I know has an element I find confusing or disquieting or off, and my conclusion has been to acknowledge that anime isn't made with me in mind as its audience. Oftentimes, stuff happens in anime that just doesn't jive with my upbringing, but I recognize it is coming from a different worldview that my upbringing has often caricatured as evil and oppressive and wrong without any nuance. It highlights for me how the media from my general worldview must also look ridiculous at times to others not in the know. So while I think it's perfectly acceptable to point out elements that do seem fascistic in any media and to stay vigilant about them, I do also take care to be open-minded about learning what other things may be going into these stories that could provide a completely different perspective.

As @siflshonen would say, sometimes all I can do is say, "I'm too western for this," and move on.

[ghostcatssecretblog]

Attack On Titan: Modern AU

(Or as I call it the highschool sweet heart au.)

Some of you may have seen my post based on my Attack on Titan Modern AU! But I've only ever posted photos. (I have more on my tiktok. Feel free to check it out)

So I'm gonna share my notes from this AU and my personal take on the characters in a modern universe.

Some starter notes:

I tried to bring elements from the original story over, but obviously, it's not just a complete modern retelling, and to be honest, I mostly focused on Eren bc like...that's my boy. I have some thoughts on the others and they're listed below but I don't touch on everyone bc I just don't have enough thoughts about them.

The modern AU does not take place in our world. It's still theirs, so the setting and map is the same just...modern. You can honestly take this as a reincarnation AU.

So let's go!

Eren:

• Eren's mom died in a car accident when he was nine. He was there to see it but luckily was mostly unharmed. His mom however died due to the impact.

• His father is a doctor, and because of this, he is rarely ever home, so his brother Zeke has to take care of him. Zeke is overly protective and tries to prevent Eren from doing things he considers to be reckless.

• Zeke and Eren have a weird relationship because while Zeke is the one who raised him and took care of him, Eren resents the fact that Zeke mothers him so much, especially as he gets older and tries to have more freedom to do what he wants with his life.

• As kids Armin, Mikasa, and Eren stuck together. Eren defended them from bullies, but the trio always managed to find themself in trouble. Mostly due to Eren always getting into something or starting fights of his own.

• He was already a bit of a trouble maker, but when his mom passed, he seemed to spiral. Zeke, only being 20 when he started taking care of Eren, means having to juggle college, a job, and raising a child. Needless to say, Eren went unsupervised a LOT in middle school.

• During freshman year of high school, Eren started attending Scout High, where he met a lot of his friends. He struggled at first but eventually formed a rag-tag group that only grew. One of those is Arte, who, like Reiner and Berthold, is a year above him. Their friendship was rocky at first, but they eventually came to an understanding.

• During freshman year, he joined the soccer team. By junior year he became captain.

• During sophomore year, the changes slowly began. Zeke became more overbearing, pushing Eren to be sneaky, and his father was around less and less.

• Then the incident happened. It was during a house party At Historia's right after homecoming. Everything was fine at first until Reiner made a foul comment about Eren's mom being dead. A fight broke out between them, resulting in Reiner having to go to the hospital. Because Arte, and a few others vouched for Eren and said that Reiner instigated the fight Eren got left off easy but was made to go to therapy and was put on probation.

• During junior year of high school, Eren becomes more reckless and starts to isolate from his friends more. He hangs out with the wrong sort of kids (Floch and Samuel), gets into fights more often, skips class, and overall stops caring as much. He picks up skateboarding as a hobby.

•

Extra notes:

• While he plays soccer he also does skateboarding as a hobby.

• He's into metal bands such as 5FDP and SOAD.

• His grandparents (dad side) are very conservative. They also don't approve of Grisha divorcing Dina and Marrying Carla (partially bc she was younger than him). They tend to favor Zeke and consider Eren to be nothing more than a trouble maker.

Arte

• In contrast to Eren's more middle class suburban life, Arte grew up your stereotypical white trash sort of home with a neglectful mother and an alcoholic father

• They grew mostly isolated, living too far from the city to make friends and considered too much of an odd kid to make any at school.

• That is until middle school. When they met Winnie.

• Winnie comes from upper class. She's rich but considered the back sheep of the family and because of this her and Arte become close friends. Closer than friends even

• But in 8th grade they split. Winnie wanted to stay in public school to be with Arte but Arte pushed her away, ensuring Winnie would go to boarding school. Art thought she was better off there.

• Arte then attends the same highschool as Eren their freshman year.

• Arte is friends with Annie (both are lower class and have bad parents) and Hitch - designated sunshine and rich girl of the group.

• Absolutely loves automotive and English classes. They help fix Eren's car on the regular.

• Their relationship when they first meet is weird and mostly bickering. Very friend/enemies through Eren's freshman and Sophmore year.

• Around his junior year he's getting in a lot more fights. Arte helps patch his face up in the boy's bathroom. There's a heart to heart and they become actual friends soon after.

• Arte Annie and Hitch start hanging around Eren's friend group more - leads to Armin and Annie dating.

• For the rest of Junior year Arte and Eren end up sneaking out (arte sneaking into his room, going to the skatepark, wandering the neighborhood, late night McDonald's runs)

• Eventually they end up dating but it's a bit of a slow burn bc neither wants to admit they like the other.

• Arte keeps Eren as far away from their home life as possible bc they don't want him seeing how awful it is but also bc they're fairly certain if he were to their dad hitting them Eren would end up in prison for murder

• Eren does find out via seeing the scars and bruises on Arte and loses his shit

• The one time he did catch Arte's dad putting his hands on them Arte had to drag him back into the car to avoid a fight.

Extra notes:

• AAH have matching friendship bracelets

• Likes music like Radiohead, Nirvana, Deftones...

• They go to football games (hitch is a cheer leader) and Eren's soccer games together. As well as Parties, homecoming, prom (Arte asks Eren for their senior year and vise versa for his), haunted houses, carnival, etc.

• Arte stays over at Eren's a lot bc bad home life.

• They also get Eren into smoking weed. Zeke does not approve.

• Arte graduates first but takes a gap year to wait on Eren so they can apply to colleges together (with zekes help)

• During this time Arte temporarily moves in with Zeke and Eren.

• Unfortunately neither knows what they want to do with their life atm

• I really feel like Eren would be the kinda person to go to a lot of protest though. He probably organizes half of them.

• Arte -> Enginering Major

• Eren -> Social Justice Major

• Zeke and Yelena are married. They end up moving to Liberio, Marley and try to take Eren with them.

• Eventually end up getting dog together named Titan. He's a chow and Tibetan mastiff mix

Armin:

• He still lives with his grandpa

• His parents are alive they just travel a lot for work so he doesn't see them very much

• It's part of the reason he wants to see the ocean and travel.

• Ends up a marine biologist

• Armin x Annie !

• Takes a lot of IB classes in High-school.

• Likes softer music. I'm thinking Cavetown vibes.

Mikasa:

• Her parents are alive! Yay!

• Her, Armin and Eren all lived in the same neighborhood. Armin and Eren were friends first and she joined them when her family moved into the neighborhood.

• She almost had a little brother but he didn't make it. Thus, she projects big sister energy onto Eren and Armin.

• Listens to Lana del Rey and Mitski. Unless she's working out, that is.

• Ends up a physical trainer after highschool.

• Jean x Mikasa bc that boy adores her and would actually give her the domestic life she craves.

Friend groups:

1. Eren Armin Mikasa

2. Jean, Sasha, Connie and Marco are all friends.

3. Annie Hitch and Arte

4. Reiner and Bertholdt

5. Historia <3 Ymir

Porco, Piek, Marcel aren't really ever relevant but I imagine they go to a rival school in Libero. Porco is on the boy's soccer team and he and Eren have beef bc of it.

Reiner:

• Reiner's issues in this AU stem from growing up in a conservative household. His mother is reglious and his dad went out for milk...

• He's also a closeted homo. His feelings for Historia are merely him hetero-compensating. Hence, his issues towards Eren, who is very openly Bisexual. (Also idk but there's homoerotic tension there. Have you seen them fight??)

• But by college he figures his shit out. He's a changed man! I like to think he ends up dating Ploam's OC Logan.

• Anyway, just imagine your stereotypical closested football joke but then he grows up, gets him a bf and a shelter dog and LIVES HAPPILY

Annie:

• Kinda already summarized her in the previous notes but

• She's still adopted in this au. Her dad still sucks. Her and Arte have bonds bc of it

• AruAnnie! They get cats when they get older. Colossus the maincoon and sphinx (idk what to name it)

• I like Yama's take on her music taste. She definitely listens to Evanescence and Avil Lavigne.

• Professional MMA fighter after Highschool

I don't really have thoughts on Bertholdt, and I'm sorry I just don't have any thoughts on him :p

Sasha and Connie are still best friends! I think It would be really cute if Niccolo was from the same school as Porco and Piek and Sasha met him during a bake sale and liked his baking so much he went into Culinary after HS and ofc eventually got his own restaurant. Sasha is a food blogger and is constantly posting his dishes on the gram which just brings in most business for him. (Listen I need these two TO BE HAPPY)

Marco doesn't die! For once, omg. He and Jean become good friends. He, just as with the show, that starts Jean's character arc. Instead of dying, he ends up having to move away but it forces Jean to realize he needs to open up and make friends with other people too.

That's all I have so far! But feel free to ask questions about the AU!

[seventeendeer]

finished rewatching ATLA so here's my obligatory hot take on the age-old discourse of "should Aang have put on his big boy pants and killed that guy or what"

my perspective is that either choice would have ended the show in a bad place. no, Aang should not have killed that guy; a child being forced to give up his own individuality to become a tool for violence has terrible implications in a story about war that is intended to have a happy ending, and so does the notion that if you just kill the right people the world will be saved. yes, Aaang should have killed that guy; ATLA as a whole has an uncomfortably centrist perspective on the concept of war, and by giving the protagonist an easy way out of having to do anything "too drastic" to save the day, it cements its status as a fundamentally flawed narrative that pussed out of every opportunity to say something meaningful.

in order for ATLA to stick the landing, Ozai would have had to be dead and alive at the same time. there was no way out of this story that wouldn't give the kids watching the wrong idea about the very concepts the writers were trying to introduce them to.

in my opinion, the problems with the ending are not a question of "kill that guy/don't kill that guy", but rather the fact that the writers clearly designed this narrative to make "don't kill that guy" the only reasonable option. the writers chose to have a vulnerable, bright-eyed child protagonist; they chose to have him descend from a group of monks who valued non-confrontation and peace; they chose to center his character around themes like "joy and hope perservering against all odds" and "choosing your own destiny"; they chose to make the central conflict of his character about wishing to resist a destiny that was incompatible with his personal values; they chose to make the goal of his journey "stop a guy who won't stop until he's dead in the ground" - and then render in loving detail how Aang finds a way to avoid putting him in the ground after all.

from my perspective, ATLA is at its core an exercise in bending over backwards to make kids believe violence isn't the answer. it's a centrist's dream. fuck all of those scary people who had to punch a guy or fire a gun or drop a bomb as a last resort to try to save innocent lives - surely they simply weren't trying hard enough to find a morally stainless way to defend themselves and their loved ones from harm ..!

this is why, even though it has some fun elements, I have a bitter disrespect for this show and for bryke. these writers wanted to preach about the virtues of keeping your own hands clean in the face of injustice, and they found some cool "exotic" Asian philosophies to cherry pick ideas from to make their perspective seem deeper and more insightful than it is, slapped all of that together in a blender alongside some "chosen one" power fantasies for little kids who want to be cops, and with some nice art and some elbow grease, they managed to make it into one of the most influential cartoons of all time.

ATLA was always going to pull punches until the bitter end, because as far as bryke is concerned, refusing to punch anything at all is the point of the show.

[spicyraeman]

ooh for the tav asks maybe 2, 4, 10, 22 and 56 for Emra and Virranan (and any other tav you wanna ramble about) :)

Ty for the ask! This one got a bit long so its going under a cut 😅

[Tav Ask Game]

2. What is their class (+ subclass) and why did you choose it?

Virranan: Gloomstalker Ranger, originally they were a beastmaster, but as I fleshed out their backstory gloomstalker just ended up fitting better. As for why I chose it, Vir was my first tav and in every game where I have the option I will always start with a ranger/bow user.

Emra: Great Old One Warlock, picked because of an old convo me and my buddy had about the insane 600ft eldritch blast you can get in Dnd and a hypothetical sniper character you could make with a gun as the focus.

4. Is there a reason why your Tav starts out as Level 1?

I haven't really thought about it much, but its probably mostly just the tadpole for both of them with a mix of Emra being out of his element and Vir being drunk enough to kill 3 grown men before his abduction.

10. What was your Tav like as a child?

Virranan: Before their father's death they were a quiet, curious, and incredibly observant child. Most of their time was spent reading or people watching or wandering the woods around their house. The only friend they had was their raven familiar Quothe, but they didn’t care too much as other kids tended to think they were…odd.

The year after the death of their father, she became despondent and spoke little, he spent most of his time to himself and was content to simply watch the world happen around them.

Emra: An incredibly unassuming child, he tried his best to blend into the woodwork. Being the top dog of the creche meant a lot of pressure and falling to the bottom got you killed so staying in the middle of the pack was his primary goal. 

22. What is your Tav's first impression of the other companions (Astarion, Gale, Karlach, Wyll ...)

Virranan

Astarion: Trying to pull a knife on them isn't the best first impression, but it is familiar. She has a feeling that they might have a lot in common, maybe a bit too much.

Gale: Reminds him of the men they used to escort, upper class and too talkative for their own good (even if she actually enjoys listening).

Karlach: Big, loud, and from what she can see, completely honest, probably the most trustworthy out of the lot so far.

Wyll: There's more to this man than meets the eye, he’s too good to be true, nobody acts like that unless they’ve got something to hide. He does seem genuinely nice though so they'll try to put that suspicion to the side till he lets something slip.

Emra

Astarion: Bit of a bastard but who isn’t and it's not like this is the first time he’s had a knife pulled on him so no harm no foul. Dealing with him is like herding cats though, which he could definitely do without.

Gale: Talks way to much but at least he's got an okay voice to listen to, and a wizard is always a good this to have on your side.

Karlach: It’s been a long time since he’s almost been eye-to-eye with someone, seems a kindred spirit and like she’s got a good head on her shoulders. 

Wyll: He seems like a genuinely good man, but men who burn as bright as him burn out just as quickly, and he's got a sneaking suspicion he's got a secret something to keep him going, maybe the same something as him.

56. What did your Tav think of the Mindflayer colony?

Virranan: Not much honestly. Disgusted? Mildly, but this is around the time when they realize things are truly getting serious and they’re too busy focusing on the tasks at hand to take in the entirety of the horrors that surround them. Even thinking back on it all he can really remember is freeing Zevlor and Mizora, and killing Ketheric, everything else is a messy blur.

Emra: That place is definitely making it into his top 10 worst places he’s been. He just tries to go through the motions to get where he needs to be without getting covered in too much gore. The one redeeming moment was getting to see Lae’zel accidentally drench Astarion with the gore shoot.

[queenofzan]

Arevin family background

So changing some of the things about the set-up for Jaz and Sasha to meet necessarily meant changing some things about the backstory I stole from the Vorkosigan Saga. One of the decisions I made early on was that I didn't want Helen (Elena, if you couldn't guess) to be a romantic interest for Sasha at all, and to have her own things going on. I also thought, if Sasha and Helen are several years older and Sasha has gone through the entire Academy before getting drummed out, it really would be silly for Sergeant Arevin to come with them. So he's actually at home, fretting about Baby Girl's First Big Bodyguard Job Solo, safe and sound.

And I mean, since I'm not starting with Delara and Emil's courtship, and Arevin is just like. Taken for granted in the household in order to keep some plot elements equivalent (which simply makes rewriting the civil war bits of The Warrior's Apprentice easier for me, lol) there was no reason I needed to keep some of the more problematic elements of his/Helen's backstory the same.

So rather than the product of rape, Helen is simply adopted. This is not to say Sergeant Yuri Arevin didn't rape people, but he didn't do it without Boris Kasharik pushing him into it and setting it up. (I also think it is just wildly unrealistic that an adult soldier capable of getting pregnant would not be using birth control. Like I guess based on the pregnancy fetish thing they could have removed implants or whatever, but like. Come on. That's harder to cover up.)

Anyway, rather than the product of rape that Arevin feels ~responsible~ for, Helen was simply born at the same brothel Arevin was born at, to a woman Arevin had definitely hired in the past, and who didn't make it through Helen's birth or infancy. The Petrovs were at the time already pregnant, and Arevin was specifically looking for something to help ground him and maybe deal with his trauma a little bit without, like, going to therapy (which on Kavagor at this time would have been...difficult to find). A baby needed adoption from what is essentially his family, and he would have the example of the two people he trusted the most in the world to follow as far as parenting went, and if he had to take care of a child he wouldn't be able to space out and lose time so much. So he adopts Helen without bothering to check if she is biologically related to him, because it's plausible and the brothel can't really afford to have that young a child hanging around.

When Helen is a child, people are like "IDK if she's related to you man she's pretty good-looking and you're. not." but as she hits puberty and becomes A Big Girl it seems more likely she is, in fact, Arevin's daughter. He literally never bothers to check, because he figures she's his daughter either way, and neither does Helen, for the same reason. What's the alternative, finding out she has a biological father who visited a brothel ten months before she was born and almost certainly was not expecting a baby to result from it? What good does that do her? If she was very lucky, this would be a man who wasn't shitty, but like. The odds of just gaining some controlling adult Kavagoran who feels entitled to boss her around are too high.

Arevin is also either less of a traditionalist butthead than Bothari, or Helen is more stubborn than Elena. This is probably helped by the fact that Helen does get Large, so when she's like "yeah I'm gonna be an armsman and bodyguard like my papa" he doesn't go "Aww sweetie, girls don't do that," he goes. Well let's see if you like it.

This is also a practical decision, since by this point she and Sasha are as close as siblings but she is much more physically capable than he is, and having someone his age to ride herd on him that is both willing and able to like. Pick him up and carry him away from bad decisions sounds great. That also leaves Sergeant Arevin more free to do his duties for Emil and the household, rather than babysitting the kids all the time.

So by the time Helen and Sasha meet Jaz on the Stolas, Helen is Sasha's full-time bodyguard and sworn in as a man-at-arms. They had to fight with the tailor to get her official livery, but she has it. They got around how annoyed the Baron was by having her sworn to Sasha directly, so she isn't a House armsman, she's Sasha's personal guard.

Helen does take liberties and talk to Sasha in a manner her father would never address Emil or Delara--or tbh even Sasha, once he's an adult--but she also has a strong handle on Work Mode and being properly formal when it's necessary. Which does sometimes surprise people when they don't know she and Sasha grew up together and they overhear them when they're off-duty, and Helen is like "You little shit, you promised to warn me," because like. Yeah that's her boss and her liege lord but he is also effectively her little brother.

Yuri Arevin is very much still inclined to cling to traditional rules, because they at least provide a framework through which to understand the world, but raising a GNC daughter alongside Obviously Bisexual Sasha (with his co-parents being Openly Bisexual Nobleman and Pansexual Gnillesian Scientist) means that he's less aggressively tightly wound up about some things. He is honestly much more upset that Helen comes home with a deserter boyfriend than that Sasha brought home Jaz, especially since Jaz quickly proves ze can fight and Delara loves zem. Helen has to be like "HEY. I didn't ask you. Fuck off." while Dimitri is like. Trying not to piss his pants.

(Jaz and Sasha both vouching for Dimitri probably helps also. Arevin never really Gets Dimitri, or why Helen likes him, but she has her own hang-ups from growing up a gender non-conforming girl on a very patriarchal planet that Arevin just. Very much does not have.) (Helen is like, I love my non-threatening queer engineer boyfriend who thinks my specific brand of gender is sexy and could never take me in a fight or want to, whereas Yuri Arevin Needs a partner he can trust to defend themselves against him if necessary and could never in a million years date someone who could not at least make him work for it in a sparring match.)

Helen and Yuri both do still fall into the themes I'm evidently working with in the Kavagoran project; Helen has a non-normative body and a non-normative gender presentation, despite being cis and straight-passing enough for Kavagor to pretend, while Yuri has a physically admirable body but a face and background that is undesirable, not to mention his extremely problematic sexual proclivities, both of which have led to some estrangement from his self. Helen, like Sasha, is extremely attractive and desirable...to people not from her home planet. Yuri has only ever been desirable for his usefulness, which unfortunately Emil and Delara don't do a whole lot to correct even though that is a misapprehension on his part, and he's just kind of written himself off as Intrinsically Bad when he's not playing a well-defined role.

Helen did manage to have a much less fraught relationship with her sexuality than her father, so when she can finally believe Dimitri actually likes the things about her that have historically made her undesirable to Kavagoran men, she's like, "Oh hell yes," and doesn't take much further convincing, whereas her father is in his sixties before he starts actually dealing with his shit.

And Helen at first tries to keep her distance from Maria, mostly because like, yeah her papa needs friends and apparently a girlfriend, but Helen doesn't want another entitled Kavagoran older than her trying to force her into a square hole. Maria is also pretty abrasive, but her obvious disinterest in having a maternal relationship with Helen makes it easier for them to get along. By the time Yuri realizes he wants to marry Maria, Helen is ready to take a bullet for her, because actually this crusty bitch of a trans woman has a lot in common with her and really sincerely loves her papa. Helen ends up yelling at the baroness and chasing her out of the fitting room while they're shopping for Maria's wedding dress, because the things this kind of butch older common trans woman needs in a wedding dress are not the kind of things a younger, more femme baroness needs.

I suspect that Maria bitches some times about how bigger tits would get her misgendered less, and Helen is like YOU'D THINK THAT, WOULDN'T YOU but noooo you wear trousers because that way you have fucking pockets and can ride a horse in a pinch and go into low-g environments without flashing everyone and no one even notices your tits, they're like Oh hello sir what can I do for you. And then they're swapping stories about times their goddamn haircuts apparently tricked people about their genders.

[call-me-double-trouble]

Double Trouble fankid: Charlatan’s little sibling, Masquerade!

Ohhoho, did you think Charlatan was my ONLY DT kid OC? Think again!

Like Char’s intro, this will be a long post, so all the info on Masquerade is under the cut!

Masquerade, or Quera (pronounced like “Kera”) for short joins the family when Char is 13. Unlike Char, Quera isn’t adopted. I headcanon that DT can reproduce asexually (some lizards can), and that’s how Quera happened. DT was terrified when they first laid the egg. Would it survive? What would they do if it didn’t? How would Char react? Since they weren’t even sure if it’d hatch, they told no one about the egg. They stored it somewhere safe and warm, trying not to get their hopes up in case the baby didn’t make it.

They did eventually tell Char so that he’d have time to mentally prepare. They were worried he’d get jealous, as he always was a little clingy, but Char actually seemed excited about the prospect of a little sibling and vowed to take care of them. They finally told the others when Quera did hatch. Baby Quera was a handful for DT and Char. They took after their moddy more than Char in the troublemaking department, and their favorite thing to do was biting Char (much to his dismay). However, there was one big difference between DT and Quera—despite how much DT loved the sound of their own voice, Quera rarely spoke at all. She just didn’t seem to like speaking very much and preferred to communicate non-verbally when she could. They found it odd at first, but learned how to understand her gestures and didn’t force her to talk when she didn’t want to. With the lack of speaking, her sensitivity to sounds and touch, and her stims, it became apparent early on that she was autistic, but that wasn’t a problem for their family. DT and Char did their part to understand Quera’s needs and how to keep them happy. As Quera got older, they developed a habit of picking on kids twice their size and starting fights with anyone who irritated them. Char did his best to discourage this and teach Quera to communicate her feelings better.

When they found out Quera merely had an interest in fighting, they channeled that with video games at first (which she LOVED), and then training and competitive fighting when she got a little older.

Char and Quera became very close, and Char does his all to take care of her and be there for her. He protects them when need be and helps DT with parenting duties. When Quera acts up, though, Char is quick to yell, “Moddy! Come get your child!” XD

Quera discovered they were agender when they were about 8. As they put it, “Pronouns are just words. They don’t define me. Call me whatever you want.” DT primarily uses they/them, and Char often uses they and she interchangeably.

As an adult, Quera forms a gang in the Crimson Waste and keeps it secret from everyone except DT, Catra, and Finn. Char eventually discovers it as well, and though he doesn’t condone crime (he’s become a hero at this point in time), he won’t snitch on family, and he even acts as her bodyguard every now and then. Besides, Quera doesn’t carry out violent crimes, only theft. She only fights when she needs to, and that’s usually when they encounter rival gangs.

While running their secret crime ring, Quera meets their girlfriend and makes her their right-hand-woman. They’re very much a chaotic crime lesbian duo, and DT loves that for them.

Quera’s weapon of choice is a metal staff that can retract to be travel-sized and has both the ability to cast spells (Quera knows sorcery) and the ability to destroy magic sigils (wouldn’t want to get trapped like their moddy did in season 4). Quera is also known for her strong punches. They’re a lot stronger than they look, though they are still a bit buff under that leather jacket. Though, adult Char looks stronger and scarier than she does, so if they’re in the same room, people mistakenly believe Char is the one they have to worry about. Quera enjoys the element of surprise, though.

Quera can shapeshift just as well as DT can, and Char never really gets to that level. Quera can also act, and they find it easier to talk when pretending to be someone else, but they don’t quite end up doing the same espionage game DT does and never become as good an actor as them. She does prove to have a lovely singing voice, but refuses to sing for anyone other than her loved ones.

———

Thank you for reading all that! As alway, if you want to know more about my OCs, feel free to ask! Or if you want to see more drawings or fanfics starring them!

[baboonflask]

Icepick Joe really is in Goncharov. I really mean that.

I want to be absolutely clear here: there is no film called Gonacharov directed by Martin Scorcese. The thesis I want to put forward is this:

“The combination of all the posts about Goncharov constitute a form of media, which I call the Goncharov Totality. Goncharov the film does not exist in real life, but it does exist within the Goncharov Totality. To deny that Ice Pick Joe is in the the film Goncharov within the context of this piece of media would be as foolish as to deny that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father within the context of Star Wars”

A comparison is helpful here: consider H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “The Hound”. This is the first text which mentions the fictional book “The Necronomicon”. Of course, the Necronomicon is not actually real, but to say that The Necronomicon was written by JFK would be incorrect, as it was of course written by Abdul Alhazred. These statements are not factually true, but are instead “fictionally true”.  

What kind of media is the Goncharov Totality? I can’t point to another piece of media of the same kind as the Goncharov Totality, but it is something like a folk tale and also something like a performance. I find its unique features as a piece of media very interesting. Here are some of those features:

Goncharov is its own metalanguage: when someone argues that the relationship between Goncharov and Andrey should be interpreted in a particular manner, their commentary is a part of the Goncharov Totality. However, it also functions as a commentary on the Goncharov Totality itself! Their post makes an argument about the best way to collectively reconstruct the film Goncharov: that the film should focus on these themes or those relationships. Thus, elements of the Goncharov Totality are also able to comment on the Totality itself. In this way, it is truly the child of Tumblr: a piece of media which consists of its own criticism.

Diffuse authorship: Unlike more traditional forms of media, Goncharov is what you might call a “collective fiction”. As a piece of work, it is added to by many different authors, working independently but in dialogue with each other.

Lack of canonicity: This is mostly a result of the last point: with Goncharov there is no one definitive author who can determine what is and isn’t canon. Instead the canon is determined through a process of consensus and elaboration. For example, there are several conflicting accounts on tumblr as to which book Goncharov was adapted from, or why it has sat unreleased for so long. Unlike most media, these details may well stay unresolved, and even if they are, they will be resolved in a different manner to what is normal.

Monism: This is at odds, but not incompatible, with the lack of canonicity. Everything in the Goncharov Totality supposedly refers to the same original film, and disputes about Goncharov take on the character of disputes over matters of fact about this film. As a comparison, consider the how many fanfiction communities build up a shared lore and set of tropes around a piece of media. However, individual works of fanfiction may be contradictory, and this poses no issue because they are simply set in different universes. In the Goncharov Totality, there is no recourse to such an explanation.

The Goncharov Totality is in a sense “parasitic” on another piece of media which exists within its internal world. Consider the Necronomicon again: The book “The Hound” is not dedicated exclusively to exploring the Necronomicon. Rather, the Necronomicon is just one part of a much larger world. The Goncharov Totality on the other hand is almost entirely dedicated to exploring and reconstructing another, internal, piece of media.

Performative: The Goncharov Totality, while supposedly being a tale of a fictional film also has aspects of a performance. Engaging in the Goncharov Totality is about pretending, in a consistent and interesting way, that something false is in fact true.

Participatory: A key part of why the Goncharov Totality is engaged with is for its participatory nature. The Goncharov Totality is as much meant to be written as it is to be read, and its joy is found in the playful and inclusive aspects of its creation.

The comparison to the Necronomicon is more apt than I initially realised: other authors (e.g. August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith) mentioned the Necronomicon in their own fictional works and Lovecraft approved of this as he thought it created “a background of evil verisimilitude”. So considered more broadly, the Necronomicon might take on the same diffuse authorship and lack of canonicity exhibited by the Gonacharov Totality. But it does not have these attributes to nearly the same degree as the Goncharov Totality does.

In conclusion: Icepick Joe is in the film Goncharov, and if you disagree with me on that then you’re not only wrong but foolish.

[viciousoverlord]

It was the early hours of darkness on Sadala, the time of sleep for children both of raven and snow having now fallen amongst the dwelling. In the wake of the preparations for their slumber, the saiyaness called Kolra had gotten them ready. Everything required for the toddlers time of dreaming had been completed, freshly bathed and put in snug nightwear, little teeth brushed clean with only a little bit of trouble from Kimiar who was still getting accustomed to some thing. After which they were placed in the livingroom where slowly they were dozing off from the long day of play.

Kimiar was the first to drift off, currled up with his head resting on the small pillow that normally went with nap-time. Breath shallow as he was now in dream land, gently picked up by Kolra to.be moved to the bed big enough for the three little ones to share; a kiss laid upom the forhead of the small boy. Next was the son of Kolra, Ruco who was in clutches of sleep when his mother would come back to fetch him, picking him up just as gently as Kimiar, being moved to the same bed where she would lay him, hand passing through well cared for hair to lull him into a complete state of sleep.

However the last child wouldn't be so easily to put down as she would scurry away, determined to stay up so she could see what she wanted to see. In the halls she ran despite her sleepy mind, her desire to see the stars greater then her bodies desire to sleep. Making it to one of the windows who's curtains were drawn closed, Kolra having shut all of them out of habit, they were to heavy for tired little hands to open as no matter how hard she tried. A little sound of disappointment, she didn't have a choice but to wait for either saiyan to come get her now.

"Nngh, I want to see the stars..."

Her sleepy little voice murmurs, sitting on the floor in defeat. Her body to exhausted to try and avoid her fate of a light blanket and soft pillow. She wouldn't evven put up a fuss of she were to be picked up.

He had just returned from an annoying mission. Although it was rare for him to be tired, he wasn't in the best of moods. He wanted to take a shower and do something to take his mind off things. As he headed for the bathroom he shares with Kolra, he passed the door to the three children's bedroom. Although he had no blood ties with them, he saw them as his children. Kolra's child was the wisest of the trio and, against all odds, Lucy was no longer the disruptive element. Her brother had taken her place. He was used to supervising children with horrible temperaments, so Kimiar was no problem. He was delighted that Lucy had someone she could trust. The Saiyan hoped this would remain the case forever. With his highly developed hearing, he could hear noises that very few could. Although the door was closed, he had heard Lucy's wish. She was supposed to be asleep, so he entered the room and set eyes on her.

He sighed, closed the door behind him, walked over to her, took her in his arms and drew the curtain. A moonless night, as to be expected from a planet with three suns. They had a moon, but it only showed up once every 76 years. It was thanks to the missing moon that the stars shone brightly. He turned his head towards the door, then decided to open the window to get out and give Lucy a better view of the dark sky. He hoped this would be enough to keep her from deciding to open the window and go out to see the stars in the near future. Some wild animals were stupid enough to approach his house. He'd have to find a way to keep an eye on the kids even when he was away. He didn't want to put any more pressure on Kolra's poor shoulders. She was an angel for taking care of the trio without ever complaining. He should take her out sometime. Fortunately, he has a multitude of years of vacation time just waiting to be used.

— Well, it's time for you to get some sleep.

He returned to the bedroom, closed the window behind him, and put Lucy in her crib.

— If you don't go to bed now, you won't be allowed to watch cartoons for three days.

He placed a kiss on her forehead, then walked towards the door.

— Sweet dreams and a good night's sleep.

[karendlipton23]

Lets Build A Snowman! Some of our students sent this to us. Arent they cute?!

How to Teach a Kid to Read – Easily Teach Your Kids to Read

|

How to Teach a Kid to Read – Easily Teach Your Kids to Read

Regardless of your age, learning how to read can be a rewarding experience. A good way to start is by teaching your child the right strategies and skills to help him or her get started. However, many parents do not know where to start. If you’re stuck wondering what to do, check out these tips to make the reading process fun and easy.

Read aloud to your child at least three to four times per day. This will help him or her develop a love of literature. While a storybook with big, colorful pictures is a good choice, you can also choose books about other subjects to help your child learn. For example, if your child likes dinosaurs, you could read a book about them. It’s also a good idea to read several different types of books, including fiction and nonfiction, so your child will be exposed to a variety of material.

Use the same methods you would use with your own kids to teach your child to read. For example, ask questions before, during, and after a storybook is read. Let your child know that he or she can make mistakes, and that you are willing to help. As your kid gets older, point out words and things in the book as you read. Practicing the skill of looking at words while reading will help them become familiar with the alphabet and letter sounds.

Educators have said that children who are able to decode words can read and understand text, even if they don’t recognize them. They’ll be able to figure out what the words mean in the context of the story. The same goes for the other important skill of understanding phonics.

One of the best ways to learn the correct letter sounds is to play games. You can use flash cards, a song, or other interactive activities. These are fun ways to introduce the letter sounds and teach your child about the different word families. Using a game like this will also help your child see the connections between letters and sounds, which will increase his or her odds of reading fluently in the future.

You can also encourage your child to write his or her own stories. Kids enjoy thinking up new and interesting stories. Whether you want to create a book with pictures and short, interesting stories or you simply want to have your child tell you a story, writing is a great way to make the reading process more fun.

Finally, it’s a good idea to take a look at your child’s school’s curriculum. You can always ask to see how their teachers teach literacy. Also, you may be able to pick up some tips and tricks from your child’s teacher. In fact, your teacher may have suggestions for what to do to boost your child’s phonics knowledge.

When it comes to how to teach a kid to read, it all boils down to using the right tools to do the job. The best way to do this is by introducing as many elements of the development process as possible.

Via https://www.howtoteachakidtoread.com/lets-build-a-snowman-some-of-our-students-sent-this-to-us-arent-they-cute/

source https://howtoteachakidtoread2.weebly.com/blog/lets-build-a-snowman-some-of-our-students-sent-this-to-us-arent-they-cute

[howtoteachakidtoread2]

Let’s Build A Snowman! Some of our students sent this to us. Aren’t they cute?!

How to Teach a Kid to Read – Easily Teach Your Kids to Read

|

How to Teach a Kid to Read – Easily Teach Your Kids to Read

Regardless of your age, learning how to read can be a rewarding experience. A good way to start is by teaching your child the right strategies and skills to help him or her get started. However, many parents do not know where to start. If you’re stuck wondering what to do, check out these tips to make the reading process fun and easy.

Read aloud to your child at least three to four times per day. This will help him or her develop a love of literature. While a storybook with big, colorful pictures is a good choice, you can also choose books about other subjects to help your child learn. For example, if your child likes dinosaurs, you could read a book about them. It’s also a good idea to read several different types of books, including fiction and nonfiction, so your child will be exposed to a variety of material.

Use the same methods you would use with your own kids to teach your child to read. For example, ask questions before, during, and after a storybook is read. Let your child know that he or she can make mistakes, and that you are willing to help. As your kid gets older, point out words and things in the book as you read. Practicing the skill of looking at words while reading will help them become familiar with the alphabet and letter sounds.

Educators have said that children who are able to decode words can read and understand text, even if they don’t recognize them. They’ll be able to figure out what the words mean in the context of the story. The same goes for the other important skill of understanding phonics.

One of the best ways to learn the correct letter sounds is to play games. You can use flash cards, a song, or other interactive activities. These are fun ways to introduce the letter sounds and teach your child about the different word families. Using a game like this will also help your child see the connections between letters and sounds, which will increase his or her odds of reading fluently in the future.

You can also encourage your child to write his or her own stories. Kids enjoy thinking up new and interesting stories. Whether you want to create a book with pictures and short, interesting stories or you simply want to have your child tell you a story, writing is a great way to make the reading process more fun.

Finally, it’s a good idea to take a look at your child’s school’s curriculum. You can always ask to see how their teachers teach literacy. Also, you may be able to pick up some tips and tricks from your child’s teacher. In fact, your teacher may have suggestions for what to do to boost your child’s phonics knowledge.

When it comes to how to teach a kid to read, it all boils down to using the right tools to do the job. The best way to do this is by introducing as many elements of the development process as possible.

source https://www.howtoteachakidtoread.com/lets-build-a-snowman-some-of-our-students-sent-this-to-us-arent-they-cute/

[genshin-impact-fics]

Streamer!Genshin Reacting to Character!(Y/N) Dying in Game

!Warning!: Major character deaths & angst

Characters: Diluc, Venti, Childe, & Zhongli

Diluc:

It was a race to get inside one of the bases of the Abyss Order to put a stop to whatever plans they were in the process of executing that could potentially put many lives in danger. Diluc was rather calm while playing though it would be a lie to say that it wasn’t a bit annoying that the route to the domain was timed

It was once inside the domain did things pick up fast as it seemed to be a fighting wave system which after beating the first two rooms there was a short scene where in the end Lisa and Amber stayed behind to hold off the incoming enemies so the rest of the group could go further. It seemed like forever doing some of the puzzles to unlock the doors to reach the next fight

In that fourth room after the defeat of hilichurls and abyss mages did suddenly a short cut scene appear to show the appearance of an Abyss Lector. As remembering how much he hated fighting this guy in the spiral abyss he already knew what he was in for; however that was until your character stepped forward with your weapon ready. Diluc was actually sad to have to leave you behind as he was hoping that you’d be one of the characters that went with him to the very end

“I think I’ve watched enough shows and movies to know what this could be leading up to.” He’d comment to his viewers as he finally reached the destination where the Abyss Herald was. Finishing the fight triggered another cutscene as the traveler’s sibling appeared and was making their small speech, asking if the lives of the “friends” the traveler made were worth losing

Diluc is watching with a straight face as he kinda expected this but the who was what he wasn’t sure about and truthfully the only one he’d be truly heartbroken about is your death, but they wouldn’t kill you now of all times right? Wrong; soon the cutscene finally came across where they had left you and you were leaning against the wall extremely injured with your weapon laying beside you. Diluc is frowning cuz he has to watch you die now

Listening to your final words as you spoke to no one Diluc would sulk in his chair a little. In the last moment before your eyes closed, if you mentioned something about not getting to tell his character your true feelings it is visible that Diluc looks like he wants to cry(but he doesn't). Once the screen showed the mission complete he’d grab the plush he had of your character and hold it looking at his camera. “Of all the characters I thought were going to die, I wasn’t ready for it to be (y/n).” At that point he’d probably call it a day from there but he’d still talk to his viewers as he probably would watch the tribute videos that fans had already made

Venti:

Everything was in chaos as it looked like archon war 2 was going to be taking place, but this time it was a war between the Abyss Order and the Archons. He was heading to Mondstadt to help and to check on you. Dvalin was flying around sending attacks at the abyss members. “Ah traveler there you are!” The sound of your voice as you landed before him; as weird as it was to see you in your archon robes was odd but you looked so good! After a short conversation you had gone flying off and it was time to get back to fighting

Things were looking good as it seemed like they were winning against the abyss order though it wasn’t over yet. It was until up in the air did a cutscene starting showing you and the traveler’s sibling fighting going at it. Venti is so captivated by how serious and cool you look fighting, but it all changed when the sibling landed a blow that caused you to fall from the sky ending up falling into the Whispering Woods

Venti couldn’t run fast enough to get to the woods to check up on you but when he did the first thing he saw was the sibling standing before you. He’s already sad and yelling at the sibling for hurting you though it seemed that now he was there the sibling went and disappeared revealing the real condition you were in. “No, no, no! This better not mean (y/n)’s dying.” He’d say in denial as he’s already starting to cry a little

“A-Ah Windblume h-haha… Sorry you have to see me like this.” Even in a moment like this you gave him such a cheesy grin until you seemed to grimace in pain. “Unfortunately it seems like… This is it for me. As long as the winds blow I will always be with you, so please watch over Mondstadt for me.” Your words were making Venti cry as it was like back in your story quest but only ten times worse. And to think it was already painful as it was your next words that did him in. “Maybe in another life we will find each other again and maybe then we can be together.”

Watching you start to glow until you turned into partials of light till nothing of you was left, Venti is devastated. The chat is crying with him as he’s saying how awful it was that his sibling had killed the love of his life! His viewers are going to send him fanart and fics to look at that was an alternative that you lived in the game

Childe:

It was a big fight with the confrontation of the Fatui Harbingers, facing off against one of the other stronger members that blocked the path to proceed to seeing the Tsaritsa. The boss’ first stage was fine; however during the second stage it seemed after losing a certain amount of health the damage that Childe was dealing significantly decreased.

It was when the cutscene started that Childe was already dreading the foul legacy form he’d be facing this time. You suddenly came out of nowhere and already in your foul legacy form yourself Childe is going crazy over how cool you look; he’s also swooning at the fact that you’ve come to his rescue. The fighting progressed until you landed a successful hit that weakened the other harbinger; however, at that same time the other harbinger managed to hit you with a powerful attack

Childe is screaming at the sight of your mask breaking while you fell to the ground. He’s so glad that his character is running over to check on you instead of the fight picking right up, but he’s already feeling the feels hit him hard cuz he hates seeing you hurt. Seeing you back to normal, the damage you sustained was really bad; then the worst thought came to his mind. “This-This better not be what I think it is,” he’s saying not looking away from the screen listening to you weakly talk

“Haha don’t give me that look sweetie, I couldn’t just let this be where your journey ends.” Hearing those words and the nickname you used for his character was sad. “To think we’d be able to travel together more, but hey… Promise you won’t stop fighting and could you look after my siblings for me.” Childe is literally crying now that the reality of the situation is clear. If he gets a choice of dialog to choose from he is going to pick the choice that says that he pinky promises

If your character smiled at the choice he wanted to smile but he’s also just sad, you were dying in his character's arms. If you had given a small love confession in the little bit of life that was in you, he’s going to ugly sob and once the fight was starting again he needs to pause by going into his bag

Immediately he goes getting his big plush of you and coming back to hug it and cleaning his tears with his sleeve before looking at the camera. “I wasn’t ready for this, my baby!” He was not expecting to be losing you; he figured that some characters would possibly die but you were the last character he thought would be killed off in the game. There’s Fs in the chat all around and the crying emote; it’s sad boi hours in this chili’s. He doesn't wanna do the fight but also he gotta avenge you so this last stage fight was for you. Afterwards he’s gonna go look at fanart and video edits

Zhongli:

After helping some of the other nations and their archon’s fend off the abyss order it was time he headed to Liyue to find you. Of course as usual it wasn’t going to be as easy as running around the harbor until he got word from Xiao that you were in Cuijue Slope. So he headed over to help you before anything seriously bad could happen to you

Getting to the open area there you were fighting against the sibling as you were even in your archon robes. Going in and interrupting the fight his sibling clearly looked annoyed and proceeded to try to get him to side with them which of course he didn’t. A Herald appeared to allow the sibling to get away which the fight with the Herald commenced

Just when Zhongli finished up the fight thinking he had won it strangely went to a cutscene as his character and you started to talk; however it was when the fallen Herald came out of nowhere about to attack his character but must to his surprise you shielded him not only taking the hit, but also using your elemental burst to finish off the enemy. Zhongli is frowning at how badly you were hurt as he already has a bad feeling this wasn’t going to end good; the traveler was helping you sit up after having fallen over

“I’m glad to see that you aren’t hurt my friend.” You said as you certainly have seen better days. “Sadly I believe my time has come… Do not be sad dear friend, I have lived many many years… As knowing you has been life changing. Though rocks change from erosion, know that no time will change how I felt about you.” Your words broke his heart as you had such a soft expression on your face as your body began to glow and before he knew it you turned into particles of light and disappeared. He probably wouldn’t cry at most maybe a tear but he is clearly upset about your passing in game and would take a break to talk to his viewers and maybe look at the fanart that surprisingly had been put out already

[gumnut-logic]

A reblog because I was discussing it with a friend. Just a scene from a long ago wip :D @onereyofstarlight

-o-o-o-

He must truly have some kind of sibling radar because there was no way in hell he could have recognised his brother otherwise.

“John?”

“Hey, Virgil.”

And yes, that was a smirk on that face.

He eyed the man from bottom to top. High heeled boots in shiny black leather. Black tights! High cut, buttoned up, deep blue coat sequined in an elaborate filigree with almost ankle length tails. The ends of his sleeves flared out like flowers over leather gloves. And a white silk cravat wrapped his throat with about ten layers of frills.

But all that didn’t live up to the hair. Oh, god, the hair. Gone was the familiar red, replaced with a fountain of silver white, springing in strands from the top of his head like a spray of leafless weeping willow, long enough to reach his chest.

Virgil stared. “Are you wearing makeup?”

The smirk widened and, yes, there was some kind of lip gloss to go with the elaborate eyeshadow arching into his brows.

Blink. “Wh-who are you?”

“Why, my dear child,” and John tapped him on the head with his ornamental riding crop. “I’m the Goblin King.”

Another blink. “Who?” He couldn’t recall ever seeing a goblin who looked quite like that.

And the more familiar John rolled his eyes. “A friend of mine advised me that this would be easier if I made myself completely unrecognisable. She is a fan of old movies, so I picked one.”

Virgil narrowed his eyes. “She?”

“She.”

“Okay.” He eyed his brother again. “I’ll take your word for it.”

The riding crop nudged him in the belly. “So, who are you supposed to be?”

“Trade secret.”

One of those elaborate eyebrows arched at him.

Virgil pointed back at his room. “Oh, and warning, the terrible two have already been at the candy.”

The Goblin King’s shoulders slumped. “Great.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Virgil looked at his brother again, still a little wary. “Any sign of the royal first born?”

The Goblin King’s mouth quirked sideways. “Same as last year.”

“Again?”

“Yep.”

“Did he at least change the costume?”

John pondered the question. “A little, I think. Remember the spaghetti sauce? Well, apparently the dry cleaners couldn’t get it out so he’s poured some fake blood on it.”

Virgil just stared.

A shrug. “Hey, I don’t know why you’re looking at me like that. You know he does this every year. The gladrags even have a poll going to see if he will wear it again.”

“What’s our time frame?”

“Limo is ready. Maybe another fifteen minutes.”

“Give me ten.” And Virgil stalked around his brother and went off in search of another.

-o-o-o-

Scott Tracy hated the Halloween Charity Ball. Sure, there was always great food and the ladies could sometimes be entertaining, but it was really just a Tracy brother parade for the press. It did good things and Scott was thoroughly behind the money and the humanitarian value of the whole event, that was the only reason it still existed. But after twenty-odd years of the Tracy boys parade, he found no joy in it at all.

The terrible two adored it, totally in their element. Gordon managed to out do himself each year, his costume getting more and more outlandish and elaborate. Alan just seemed to have fun. John hated it even more than Scott and tried desperately every year to get out of it. He even managed it once by breaking his leg, an event that to this day Scott suspected might have been slightly on purpose. So had Dad, and there had been a therapist after that as well...so his brother could attend the following year.

Virgil took it like he took everything, calmly and in his stride. Scott suspected his younger brother did enjoy it, at least in part, but there was a worry factor as well, since the brothers either side of him tended to bleed stress leading up to the event.

Yes, stress, Scott Tracy was stressed. And not because of the costume, but because of standing in for his father, the speech and the damn handshaking and smarmy smiles of rich people, a good percentage of which wouldn’t know a hard day’s work if it up and slapped them.

But it was for a good Cause.

And because of the Cause, it was one of the few opportunities the press had access to both the Tracy brothers and the operators of International Rescue. Consequently, they took full advantage.

Scott had faced raging volcanoes with less concern.

There was a knock on his door, but before he could answer, Virgil barrelled in holding a plastic wrapped coat hanger of clothing in his hands. “Take it off, and put this on.”

“What?”

Virgil was staring at his shirt. “There is no way you are wearing that stained monstrosity. You’ll give Grandma a heart attack brought on by shame. You’re wearing this.” And his brother held up the coathanger and unwrapped it.

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Strip.”

“Virgil...”

“You are not going as Dracula for the third year in a row.”

“It was perfectly fine last year.”

“Only if you didn’t read the news articles. Which you didn’t because of the quake in Japan, and because I had John hack your tablet.”

“You did what?!”

Virgil sighed. “You didn’t need the crap, Scott. Now shut up and put this on.”

The costume was shoved in his face, the glare of two brown eyes above it punctuating Virgil’s point.

Scott stared at outfit for a moment, reaching out to touch the deep red fabric. An internal sigh. Perhaps Virg was right, and the costume wasn’t too bad. It didn’t have a spaghetti sauce stain on it at least.

He snatched it from his brother. “Fine.”

“Good.”

Virgil turned to leave and it was only then Scott realised what his brother was wearing. “Nice suit? Does Kayo know?”

“Of course.”

“Well, this will be interesting.”

Virgil shrugged. “I kinda liked the idea.”

Scott hung the coat hanger on the back of a chair. “I’m looking forward to Kayo’s interpretation.”

His brother grinned. “Not as much as I am.”

“I bet.” A sigh. “Now get out of here. I’ll see you in the car.”

“Will do. And Scott...” He looked up to see his brother giving him a sympathetic smile. “See you for a beer on the balcony tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

His elegantly dressed brother left him staring at his new costume.

Man, that was a lot of leather.

-o-o-o-

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Protector

Prompt: if prompts are still open: virgil as an adventurer who keeps accidentally befriending the monsters he’s supposed to be fighting (aka the other sides)? have a wonderful day! (and don’t feel any pressure to do this at all, and if your inbox is meant to be closed absolutely delete this ask)

Thanks for the prompt, babe!

Read on Ao3

Warnings: sympathetic remus & deceit, some ptsd flashbacks but nothing super explicit

Pairings: LAMP, DLAMP, DLAMPR, can be platonic or romantic but Virgil’s definitely got some gay panic in there

Word Count: 8153

 Virgil’s got a simple code when he’s not on a hunt. Don’t hurt whatever you don’t absolutely have to, and odds are, it won’t hurt you. Now and then there’s a bit of an, um, incident where that doesn’t quite work out as well as they’d hoped, but by and large they get by.

Or: 5 times Virgil helps a monster he was supposed to kill, and 1 time the monsters help him

He sighs as he walks outside, grabbing the pair of gloves from the rickety tray and tugging them over his weathered hands. The front garden isn’t nearly as overgrown as it was when he found this little cabin in the middle of nowhere, but it’s got a long way to go before he can walk through without tripping over at least one overgrown bramble.

 There’s a very persistent mint plant that’s slowly and surely trying to choke the flowers. Virgil bends down and starts to toil in the dirt.

 “Come on,” he mutters, because he’s allowed to talk to plants when no one else is listening, “let’s stop doing that, you don’t have to be literally everywhere…”

 The mint doesn’t protest verbally, because it’s a plant and plants can’t talk, but Virgil would swear it tries to hold onto the dirt as he pulls it up, holding his hand under the roots to catch the dirt.

 ���Alright, come on out, then, let’s just…put you in here.”

 There’s a plot of dirt in a crate resting at his knee. He pats the soil. Fresh enough. The mint plant looks almost contrite as he tucks it into the corner.

 “Next time I go see the townspeople I’m sure you’ll make some tea-shop owner very happy.”

 The rest of the garden goes similarly. By the end, he’s filled the crate almost halfway when his hand catches something sharp.

  The blade gleams as it flashes through the air. The child screams. His eyes widen—

 “No,” he grits out, flattening his hands into the dirt, “no, it’s…it’s okay. We’re okay. It’s…hhhh.”

 As he exhales, his shoulders slump, head bowing almost to his chest. The sounds of blades swinging through the air fade as the breeze rustles the leaves surrounding the cabin. The faint smell of mint cleanses his nose of blood.

 Virgil opens his eyes and carefully moves his hand away from the rose.

 “When’d you get here,” he mutters, carefully lifting the leaves to examine the stem, “don’t remember seeing you.”

 The thorns snag on the little pieces of dirt hanging from his gloves. He glances around. There aren’t any other roses nearby, not that he can see. And it’s probably not very good for it to be growing in the middle of this choked soil patch.

 He stands and makes his way back for the sharper trowel.

 Something hisses.

 His grip on the trowel doesn’t waver but he turns his head casually to glance over his shoulder.

 Something crouches in the garden, just barely visible over the crate. A tuft of hair, not dark enough to be a bear cub, not light enough to be a squirrel. His arm relaxes against his side, trowel snug against his thigh.

 “Hello,” he calls, watching closely, “is someone there?”

 He blinks in surprise when a cat pokes its head over the crate.

 “Uh, hey, there,” he manages, “uh…what’re you doing all the way out here?”

 In response, the cat leaps elegantly over the crate. It’s a slim thing, but not underweight. Its fur is bluish-gray, almost like a stormcloud. As Virgil watches, the cat sneezes and its fur turns a dappled brown.

 Virgil sighs. “So you’re the mischievous sprite I’ve been told to get rid of.”

 The neighboring village has tried several times to make him seek and destroy the sprite’s nest. Apparently, it’s been causing all sorts of problems. Books going missing, glasses breaking in the middle of the night, jars of preserves broken into. Now, that’s not really what Virgil calls a punishable offense, but the villagers were insistent that he find it and fight it. He’s done one of those things.

 Well, technically, the sprite found him.

 “There’s not much here that would interest you,” Virgil says, gesturing at the unkempt garden, “but if you want to tell me what you do want, then—hey!”

 The sprite, of course, doesn’t wait for him to actually finish inviting it inside. Instead, the door creaks as the cat darts between his legs and vanishes.

 “Be careful,” he warns, “there are sharp things.”

 He pushes open the door to see the cat perched on a precariously high shelf, sniffing at the books. He sighs.

 “I can get those down if you want, it might be easier than doing whatever the hell it is you’re doing now.”

 The cat ignores him, pawing at the thick leather cover. He sighs and pulls off his gloves.

 “Alright, just—wait a damn minute.”

 Virgil grunts as he lifts the book of the shelf and carries it over to the table, opening it and waiting. The cat jumps up onto the table and sniffs at the pages. Its tongue laps at a word.

 “You want more about that? Okay, let’s just—“

 Yes, Virgil is talking to this sprite. He’s allowed to do that in his own home.

 He turns the pages until the cat chirps.

 “This? This what you want?”

 The sprite stares at the page. It goes unnaturally still.

 The hairs on the back of Virgil’s neck stand up.

 Then it breaks; the cat shakes itself off and jumps down.

 “That’s it? You done now?”

 The cat’s tail twitches gracefully as it struts back to the door. Virgil rolls his eyes and follows it out.

 “Well, I’m glad I could be of service,” he mutters as he closes the door.

 Something rough touches his hand. He looks down. The sprite looks back up at him and licks his hand again.

 “…you’re welcome.”

 The cat sneezes, its fur changing back into the deep bluish-gray. Without another look, it takes off, leaping effortlessly over the crate and disappearing into the woods.

 Well, stranger things have happened in Virgil’s life.

 Shaking his head, he gets back to his garden. He glances at the rose before deciding that, eh, what the hell, it can stay another day. He finishes filling the mint crate and sets it near the front door, ready for his trip to the village tomorrow.

 “Ah, thank you!” The tea shop owner beams as he hands it over. “I’m sure this’ll be plenty.”

 “I’ve got more than enough, I promise.”

 “Well, since that sprite disappeared, I won’t be running out nearly as often!”

 Virgil blinks. “Huh?”

 “Oh, the sprite you got rid of!” She smiles. “Thank you kindly for that, it was ever so pesky.”

 Virgil just nods.

 ————————————

Virgil opens his eyes and doesn’t quite reach for the dagger he keeps in the nightstand but it’s close.

 “There’s a dog in my bed,” he mutters, “standing on top of me, drooling on my face.”

 The dog just barks. And changes color.

 He sighs. “Are you the same one from last time? Was the book not enough for you?”

 The dog barks again, jumping off the bed and trotting to the kitchen, its nail clicking on the floor. Virgil lets his eyes close for a second before getting up and following it.

 “Alright, the book it—whoa.”

 The dog is, um. Not a sprite.

 A huge mastiff elemental sits in the middle of his kitchen. It looks up from when it was nosing at what remained of a chicken carcass and rumbles. Virgil raises his hands.

 “I’m not going to hurt you,” he says lowly, “even though you did break into my house and wake me up. What do you want?”

 The elemental turns and moves through the house, out toward the woods. Virgil stuffs his feet in his boots and follows, tucking a slingshot and his knife into his pockets as he goes. The elemental moves through the trees with an inhuman grace, the very edges of the leaves it passes smoldering. A thin tendril of smoke wafts past Virgil’s nose.

  “She’s still inside!” The guard shouts as Virgil wrenches his arm away. “I have to go get her!”

  “Sir, you’ll die!”

  “She’s still—“

  The top of the house crashes down as—

 Virgil closes his eyes and brings his kerchief up to his nose. He breathes deeply. Freshly baked bread. Honeysuckle. The slightly tacky smell of leather oil. Breathe in, breathe out.

 When he opens his eyes again, the elemental has paused, glancing back at him.

 “I’m coming,” he says quickly, “I’m coming. Keep going.”

 He shrugs the old ghosts off his shoulders and follows.

 The elemental leads him to a clearing. Underneath a large, dead white tree, there’s a small den of moss. Virgil’s breath catches in his throat.

 The villagers had sent him a warning about a curse in the area. Fires had been going out. It had been impossible to keep warmth in the houses over the long winter nights. They’d been seeing figures in the smoke, sightings of, well, a mastiff. They’d contacted him to try and get it to leave.

 Well, the mastiff elemental is here, under the tree, looking back and forth between Virgil and something he can’t see, buried in the moss.

 “Is there something you wanna show me,” he asks softly, coming a little further into the clearing, “in there?”

 The elemental whines. He walks forward until he catches sight of a stone in the middle of the bed of moss. It’s cracked in two.

 “Is this what you wanted to show me,” he calls, shifting into a crouch, “this stone?”

 The elemental huffs, nudging his hand. It reaches past him and tries to pick up the stone in its mouth, only for it to drop. It puts its nose down and whines.

 “…was this your favorite stone to play with?” The elemental butts its head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry it broke. How’d it happen?”

 The elemental points its nose toward a jagged boulder in the corner of the clearing.

 “Ah, I see.”

 And you know what? Yeah, Virgil gets it. He’s dropped shit where he shouldn’t have dropped it before and it broke. What does it matter that this elemental is so upset over accidentally breaking its favorite toy that its warmth is so low the nearby villagers think it’s a curse?

 “Hey,” Virgil murmurs, reaching out to cup the two halves of the rock in his hands, “it’s okay. This rock—good choice by the way, very good choice—it’s part of the Perse Mountains, right? So it’s susceptible to fire magic.”

 He reaches into his slingshot bag and pulls out two small rocks. Using one on either side, he sandwiches the two halves of the broken rock together and holds it out to the elemental.

 “Now breath on it.”

 The elemental exhales carefully, bathing the rock in a steady stream of fire. Sure enough, in a few moments, thanks to Virgil holding it steady, the rock glows a soft yellow and reforges.

 “That’s good.” He takes it carefully between the stones and rolls it around the moss, trying to cool it. “Okay. Try now.”

 The elemental takes the rock gingerly between its teeth and yips.

 Virgil chuckles. “I’m glad I could help.”

 The elemental spins in a circle before turning back into the dog and licking Virgil’s cheek, barking excitedly.

 “Okay, okay, you’re welcome, jeez.” He half-heartedly shoves the dog’s head away. “You’re getting slobber all over me!”

 The dog pulls away and takes the rock into its mouth again, snuffling happily. Virgil shakes his head and gets up.

 “If that’s all, then I’m gonna go home.” The dog licks his hand one more time. “Yeah, yeah, okay.”

 And if a fire is already burning when he gets back home, well, that’s just a surefire way to know there was never a curse for the villagers to worry about.

 Get it? Surefire?

 Shut up, he’s hilarious.

 ————————————

“Ah, Virgil!”

 Virgil turns. The blacksmith waves at him from the market stalls. Dodging fruit carts and weaving his way through passers-by, he stops in front of the man and gestures to the new wares.

 “Good season, Anbel?”

 “Oh, the best!” Anbel gestures to the coin chest behind him. “You know how it is, goes in and out of season.”

 Absentmindedly, Virgil rubs at the scars on his arms. “I know the feeling.”

 “Anyways, I got that dagger you gave me to repair.”

 Anbel reaches behind him and pulls the dagger out of a leather bag. He holds it up. The deep gouges in the blade are gone, the handle isn’t tarnished anymore, and it looks…good.

 “Thank you, Anbel,” he says, reaching for it, “so how much?”

 “No charge.”

 “Come on.”

 “No charge,” Anbel repeats, “not for you.”

 Unbidden, a flush rises to his cheeks as he tucks the dagger into his belt. “Anbel…”

 “Alright,” the blacksmith says, holding up his hands, “I’ve got a favor to ask.”

 Virgil sighs. “What’d you do?”

 “Why do you assume that I did something?”

 Virgil just gives him a look.

 “…alright but this time it wasn’t me.”

 “Uh-huh.”

 Anbel smacks his chest. “I’m serious, there’s something wrong in the woods outside of town.”

 Virgil sobers, taking a step closer. “What is it?”

 “Dunno. But my horses won’t go past a particular stretch of land and I need to be able to make the trip next moon.”

 Virgil chews on his lip, thinking. “Did they run away or just refuse to go near?”

 “Refused to go near.” Anbel shakes his head. “Don’t know what’s gotten into them. They’re good mares.”

 “Have any others reported anything?”

 “Cindi had trouble getting through too.”

 “Where is it?”

 “Just before the bend in the river. Near the trees.”

 Virgil sighs. “I’ll have a look.”

 That’s how he finds himself wandering down the main road on the next cloudy day. He glances around to make sure there aren’t any other villagers nearby before he starts looking around. There’s a small grove of trees near the riverbank, a mound of rocks next to the bend in the road, and a rapid system rushing just out of sight.

 Maybe the horses were scared of the rapids? They’ve been known to spook before. But no, Anbel makes this trip every season. If the horses were going to spook at the rapids, they’ve done it before.

 Virgil frowns, coming to a stop in the middle of the grass between the road and the river. What could they’ve been startled by? There’s not enough space to hide anything here. The rocks are on the wrong side of the road. The river isn’t close or loud. And the trees aren’t close enough together to hide anything between them.

 …between them.

 Virgil holds very, very still.

 Out of the corner of his eye, one of the trunks shifts.

 He doesn’t move quickly, doesn’t draw his dagger, just lowers his eyes to the grass and turns, facing the trees, and takes a step backward. Then another. Then another. When he’s over ten yards away, he looks up.

 “I mean you no harm,” he calls, “I have no wish to interfere. I was told that there was something that scared a few horses and wanted to make sure everything was alright.”

 The breeze rustles through the leaves.

 “I am happy to leave you here,” he continues, risking a step closer, “but I know that…this is probably not where you’d like to be. This isn’t an especially damp forest.”

 The trunk shifts again.

 “If there’s something I can do to help—“ he risks another step— “I’d be happy to.”

  There.

 The trunk shifts and seems to shrink inside as a jaculi unwinds itself from around its base. It blinks lazily at him with amber eyes, golden scales rippling in the faint light from the cloudy sky.

 “Hello,” Virgil waves, “can I—will you let me come closer?”

 The jaculi hisses and lays its head near the ground.

 “Thank you.” Virgil walks forward carefully, stopping a few feet away and crouching down. “Now, what brings you here? You look like you’re an awful long way from home.”

 The jaculi hisses again, its head swiveling toward the river. Virgil looks. Across the bank, he can see a much denser forest and what looks like a storm brewing.

 “You’ll be hurt,” he realizes, “if you try and stay here…”

 The jaculi coils tighter around the tree trunk.

 “How’d you get over here,” Virgil mutters, “you’d’ve needed to swim across…and that also won’t go well for you.”

 There’s a soft rustling as the jaculi buries its tail in a pile of leaves near the base of the tree. Virgil glances over to see it rubbing its face halfheartedly against the bark.

 His eyes widen.

 About a month ago there had been a terrible storm. His little cabin had barely held together. He’d heard reports from the tavern owner that it’d blown one of the old trees right over.

 “That’s how you got across,” he murmurs, mostly to himself, “you climbed across the tree. And now it’s gone and you’re stuck.”

 The jaculi blinks remorsefully at him.

 “Okay,” Virgil mutters, “okay, we can…we can figure this out.”

 They’ll have to do it at night. There’s no way the jaculi will feel safe enough to move while it’s still light out. There’s an old barn that never finished construction just over the ridge. One of those timber pieces is probably long enough to get over the river. And he can make a bridge wide enough to support the jaculi’s weight.

 He explains his plan to the jaculi, feeling a little ridiculous, but he’s allowed to explain what he’s doing to help someone, it’s fine, and says that he’ll be back. Promise.

 The landowner gives him a weird look when he asks to borrow the timber.

 “It’s too long for you to do anything with it,” he says, still helping Virgil load it onto a sled, “and much too tough for you to cut by yourself.”

 “It’s fine just the way it is,” Virgil says, “and thank you.”

 He waves Virgil off. “Keep it. You’re doing better than I am with it.”

 Virgil’s back at the river bend by sundown. He can’t see the jaculi anymore—it’s probably hidden itself for safety—but he calls out when he arrives.

 “I’m going to use these to make a bridge for you. It shouldn’t take me too long.”

 The pieces of timber are ungainly, to make a colossal understatement, but Virgil grits his teeth and slides them out of the sled. He wades a little into the river and—

  The water is so cold it burns. He has to keep going. It’s gaining on him. He’ll be safe in the water.

  The growls get closer and his foot slips—

 “No,” he mutters, “no, it’s not that. I’m fine. I’m standing, I’m not hurt, I’m not drowning.”

 He blinks down at his boots, the water swirling around his ankles. The timber in his hands shifts as he breathes. He’s fine. He’s fine.

 “Okay…okay.”

 He grits his teeth again and heaves, bringing the piece of timber with him. He wades further until it’s swirling around his waist. The piece of timber is just long enough to reach the other side. Onto the next one.

 He gets the five of them stretched across the river just as the last of the light vanishes. Panting, he struggles back up onto the side of the river bank and splays out onto his back, eyes closed.

 A low hiss sounds in his ear.

 He just manages to avoid a scream.

 “Hey,” he gasps instead, eyes flickering open to see the jaculi coiled up a few feet away, “uh…please don’t do that.”

 The jaculi just blinks at him.

“Uh…why don’t you, uh…” Virgil holds a hand to his chest, trying to get his breathing back under control. “…try out the bridge?”

 The jaculi slithers closer, flicking its tongue out against the timber. It looks back at Virgil.

 “Go on,” he encourages, “you can do it.”

 It slithers on, testing the boards against its weight.

 Virgil holds his breath until the jaculi vanishes into the trees across the river banks, slipping further and further into the darkness.

 Anbel leaves on his trip the next moon.

 ————————————

Honestly, when the kraken explodes out of Virgil’s well, he just sighs and fetches his bath so he can get the poor thing out.

 “Easy,” he grumbles when the kraken squirms so much he almost drops it, “you may be a young one but you’re still heavy.”

 Panting, he drops the tentacled beast into the full tub, his arms flying up to shield his face from the shower of sparkling drops. Judging by the happy trills and clicks, the kraken likes it in there. He shakes his head.

 “So that’s why I’ve been asked to fight a monster in the sewers,” he muses, watching the kraken’s tentacles writhe giddily in the metal tub, “just how did you end up so far inland?”

 The kraken, of course, does not deign to answer. Instead, the tentacles latch onto the side of the bath and threaten to tip the whole thing over.

 “No, you idiot,” Virgil shouts, grabbing onto the other side and weighing it down. He winces when more water spills onto him, drenching him head to toe. “Now look what you’ve done.”

 What the kraken has done, apparently, is get Virgil close enough so that its tentacles can haul Virgil into the tub.

 “Hey!”

 Virgil spits water out of his mouth, much to the kraken’s delight.

 “That was rude.”

 The kraken just chirps happily and wriggles around. Its tentacles stick to Virgil’s clothes and pull him through the water.

 Virgil’s chest tightens.

 One of the first things they teach you about krakens is never get in the water with them. The second thing they teach you about krakens is do not get in the water with them. The third thing they teach you about krakens is not to get too close to their tentacles so they don’t pull you into the water with them.

 And yeah, this is Virgil’s bathtub, not a river, a tide pool, or the open sea, but you can drown in an inch of water.

 Virgil presses his back up against the rim of the tub. The kraken seems to realize something’s wrong and settles, burbling softly.

 “Hey, bud,” Virgil says shakily, “I, uh, what’re you doing here?”

 The kraken twitches a few tentacles and more water slops over the edge.

 “Right…” Virgil shakes his head. “Okay, well, uh, I would rather not sit here and soak through all of my clothes, so I’m just going to—“

 As soon as he tries to move, the kraken wraps a tentacle around his leg and tugs.

 “Okay, okay, not leaving, not leaving, um—“ Virgil reaches down and takes a handful of the grass. Worst comes to worst, he can tip the tub and get the kraken back in the well.

 The kraken lets go as soon as he settles back in the water. Virgil looks at the creature carefully.

 There’s a mark on its head. Discoloration, probably, but still obvious. As he watches, the kraken burbles to itself and starts making little ripples in the surface of the water with its tentacles. After a moment, it starts gently pushing the water towards Virgil.

 The water laps at Virgil’s knees in little waves, not enough to wet him anymore—not that it would matter at this point—but enough to bounce back and make more patterns. The kraken trills softly and keeps doing it.

 Does it…want to play?

 Slowly, Virgil lifts his hands up and starts to push the water back. The kraken, realizing that Virgil is indeed committing to the idea that he is going to play with this kraken, trills louder and uses more of its tentacles to move the waves bigger.

 “Yeah? Is that how it works?” Virgil moves his hands. “Like that?”

 The kraken chirps.

 He’s not really sure how long they stay there, playing with the water, but it’s long enough for the sun to go down in the sky and Virgil to get more than a little chilly in the water.

 When the kraken notices that the water is rippling more around Virgil and he’s not moving his hands any faster, it wraps a tentacle around his ankle and tugs.

 “What? You tired?” The kraken leans its head against the side of the tub. “Okay. Well, I don’t know how long you can stay in here—“

 He cuts himself off when the kraken jabs a tentacle toward the well.

 “You wanna go back in there? It’s so small and cramped, and the sewers in town aren’t much better.”

 The kraken insists.

 Sure. Why not.

 Virgil grunts as he lifts the kraken back into the bucket, carefully lowering the creature down into the well. He hears one more trill before splashing sounds indicate that the creature is gone.

 Funnily enough, reports of the sewer beast vanish overnight.

 When Virgil wakes up panting from a nightmare of ropes around his neck, the glass of water on his bedside table is perfectly cold.

 ————————————

Virgil curses as the sole of his boot slips. He just manages to catch himself against the cliffside before splitting his knee on a harsh spire of rock. Gritting his teeth, he forces himself onward.

 The cliffs frown over him as he makes his way up the pass. The rocks crumble threateningly as his boots crunch, crunch, crunch. The sword on his hip feels too heavy. He curses, tugging his glove the rest of the way onto his hand.

 He never was one for dragon hunts.

 The message came in a week ago. Some poor terrified soul had come screaming into the town, ranting about dragons, missing people, curses, the whole lot. Virgil had taken up the call and set off, promising to get to the bottom of it.

 He never promised to hurt anything.

 Thunder rolls ominously in the distance and he bites back another curse. There’s a cave up ahead, he can see it just over the next ridge, he’ll rest there.

 In all honesty—and he can be honest, now there’s no one else around—he hates these kinds of missions. Finding something is one thing. Going to get something is one thing. Rescuing someone is one thing.

 This feels like something else.

 There’s something in his boot. There’s a wrinkle in the thinnest shirt he’s wearing. The sword belt is digging into his hip. The voices in his head won’t shut the fuck up.

 The cave is right there.

 He all but collapses to his knees as soon as he makes it inside, just as the first drops of rain land on the back of his armor. He breathes a sigh of relief, heading further into the cave, into the safety, out of the storm.

 It’s quiet here.

 He takes the knife out of its loop on his belt and sets about setting up a fire. There’s a reasonable stash of dry wood here, probably enough to keep him going throughout the night. He makes a small bundle and lights it, blowing on it until it catches and burns merrily.

 Shrugging off his pack, he leans it up against the wall and starts to dig out the dried meat. He tears off a long strip with his teeth and chews slowly, staring into the flames.

 There’s something nice about fire. Not all fire—he’s got the burns to prove that—but this fire. Controlled fire. He sits back on his hands, brushing aside the eggshells to lean against the cave wall.

 Controlled fire is…justified chaos. It’s strange, to think of chaos as being justified. But that’s what it is. A controlled burn. Snapping and sparking amidst a small mound of wood, warm. Safe. It’s strange to think of fire as safe, too.

 Virgil sits back, finishing off his meal and closing his eyes. The fire is very, very warm. Much warmer than he would expect for just a small campfire. And a little irregular, too. It comes in waves, pants, almost.

 …wood, eggshells…

 Okay, look.

 Look.

 Virgil’s tired, okay?

 It’s not like this is what normally happens to him on hunts.

 He knows what he’s doing.

 He does!

 It’s fine.

 This is fine.

 This is so utterly fine right now.

 But…okay, yeah, maybe Virgil’s not been paying as much attention as he should be. And maybe he’s fighting down a panic attack right now. And maybe he’s frozen in fear to the floor of this cave and not sure how he’s survived this long.

 Whatever.

 Virgil cracks an eye open.

 “…hey, there, dragon.”

 Surprisingly enough, his head does not get immediately bitten off. Instead, the dragon looks at him, nostrils puffing hot air into his face. The smell of dank cavern air mixes with what Virgil really hopes isn’t decomposing human.

 “Um…fancy seeing you here?”

 The dragon huffs louder, still staring into Virgil’s soul. He risks a glance over its shoulder to make sure that yes, this is the only dragon in this cave, there aren’t suddenly going to be five of them. He spies the scales trailing further into the darkness, muscular legs, long, powerful tail. The dragon growls, snapping his eyes back.

 “Hey, uh—didn’t mean to invade your cave.” Virgil scoots backward. “That was absolutely my fault. I can, uh—well, I can’t really promise to leave you alone, but I, uh…rain check?”

 As if on cue, thunder booms from outside.

  Shit.

 A lower growl sounds from the dragon as its mouth curls up. Wow, those teeth are long…

 “Can you, uh—so I know that this is a pretty big request, considering I just, you know, invaded your cave, but uh—maybe don’t eat me?”

 Judging by the growl, that’s a no.

 “Okay, I, uh—“ Virgil risks a glance around. His fire is still burning. Maybe he can at least get the dragon to back up before he—

 He pauses.

 Near the fire, the dragon’s leg looks…wet. Its scales are stained with a dark splotch coming from somewhere higher up. As he watches, the dragon shifts its weight and it gets wetter.

 “You’re hurt,” he says softly, “you’re—oh, god, you’re hurt.”

 He looks back up. The dragon’s snarl doesn’t quite soften, but its mouth relaxes a little.

 “I’ve got salve and bandages in my pack,” he says cautiously, “if you let me get them, I can—I can help?”

 Slowly, ever so slowly, he moves his hand to his pack, keeping the other one raised as he opens the flap and takes out the bottle and the bandages.

 “Can I have a look, please? I’m just gonna…”

 The dragon huffs cautiously as Virgil turns, moving around its body to crouch next to its injured leg. Now that he’s closer, he can see what’s happened.

 A shard of metal is lodged in the soft space between two of the scales. Every time the dragon moves, it shifts, spilling more and more blood. Judging by how loud the dragon is breathing, it must really hurt.

 “You poor thing,” he mutters, “how long has this been here?”

 No response.

 “We gotta get it out,” he says instead, looking for something he can use, “if we leave it in you might get infected, or…something else bad will happen.”

 He pulls a pair of pliers from his pack and the dragon snorts.

 “Easy, easy—“ the dragon’s eyes go wide at the glint of the flame off the metal— “hey, it’s okay, I’m gonna use these to get that metal outta you, yeah?”

 It seems an hour before the dragon calms, gingerly stretching out its leg so Virgil can see the shard. Taking a deep breath, he hooks the pliers around the edge of the metal.

 “Ready on three, okay?” He grits his teeth. “One…two…three!”

 He yanks.

 The dragon roars as the metal shard comes out in his hands, the side release almost sending him toppling back into the fire. Quickly, he discards the tools and reaches out to soothe the dragon, petting its scales and hushing it gently.

 “Shh, shh, it’s out now, it’s okay, it can’t hurt you anymore.” He runs a hand over the dragon’s heaving back. “I’m gonna help you, okay? I’m here to help.”

 It seems to calm the dragon, its breathing slowly but surely calming down as Virgil continues to speak softly to it. Honestly, if it were this easy to calm himself down, he would have a lot fewer problems.

 “I’ve got to clean it,” he says after a minute, “just to make sure you don’t get infected. Then I’ll be done, okay?”

 The dragon swivels its massive head around, looking at the wound, then back at Virgil. It heaves a great sigh and its chin comes to rest on the floor, staring at him. Guess that’s as close to permission as he’s gonna get.

 “Thank you. This, uh, this may sting a bit.”

 He barely gets a flinch as he starts cleaning the cut. Dragons. Once he’s wrapped the dragon’s leg as best he can, he turns to peer at the shard of metal he pulled out of the wound. He holds it up, examining it in the firelight.

 It looks…wrong.

 It’s too thick to be just something that happened to get in there, but too jagged to be something natural. It looks like it snapped off of something, but it’s not the right shape to be an arrowhead or a piece of a building. So what…?

 He turns when the dragon starts to move.

 It heaves itself to its feet, testing out its weight on all four legs. When the pain doesn’t shoot through, it lumbers off, further into the cave. Its head dips down, out of sight for a moment, before it turns and starts back toward the fire, dragging something in its mouth.

 Virgil’s eyes widen when another bag is dropped in front of him.

 “Is this…is this someone else’s?” He lays his fingers carefully on its surface. “Did…did you…did someone else come here before me?”

 The dragon huffs.

 With trembling fingers, he flips open the bag. There’s a good store of meat in here, a change of clothes, something for armor, it’s a provisions bag. One side has a little loop attached with nothing inside.

 “…someone tried to stab you,” he realizes in horror, looking back up at the dragon. “Someone tried to fight you but couldn’t. So they stabbed you in the leg.”

 His fists clench.

 “They hurt you.”

 Another huff. Then the dragon nudges the bag toward him again.

 “Is there something else in here?” Virgil starts sorting through the possessions. He lays the clothes to one side, the bottles to another. When he gets to the food, the dragon leans forward and snorts, blowing hot air into his face.

 “This? This is what you want me to get?” He looks at it. It’s just more dried meat. It, uh, it actually looks a little better than his. “Are you hungry?”

 The dragon snorts at Virgil’s pack, then at the food in his hands.

 “…are you…giving this to me because I’m still hungry?”

 Another huff, longer this time, and the dragon’s head comes to rest on the floor, eyes staring up at him.

 Virgil swallows around the sudden lump in his throat. “Well, that’s—thank you.”

 The dragon rumbles as he starts to eat, eyes blinking lazily. Virgil tries not to mind too much.

 And…honestly? It’s not that bad. He’s had worse audiences when he’s just trying to eat. The dragon switches its tail every now and then, huffing gently to keep the fire going. It’s…nice.

 Virgil finishes eating as much of the food as he wants and tucks the rest away. He takes a moment to just…look.

 “The other person,” he says eventually, “the one that hurt you…they—I think they wanted to kill you.”

 The dragon stares at him like he just said the sky is blue.

 “No, really, I—I don’t think they wanted anything else.” He shakes his head. “We’re not near enough to any villages for that to be the reason, there aren’t any traveling paths through here, there’s…there’s no other reason. I think they just wanted to kill you.”

 The cave falls quiet as the rain pours outside.

 “…I think they wanted me to kill you too.”

 Virgil’s chest aches. Something in his right hand tingles.

“Why do they always want me to kill you?”

 And he’s not just talking about the dragon now.

 It’s always the same.

 Fight this. Kill that. Rescue us from this. Save us from that.

 What if you’re not the ones that need to be saved?

 Virgil lets his chin drop to his chest and sighs. His sword hangs heavy at his hip. His hands tremble in the burning light of the fire.

 “I hate to impose,” he manages through a sluggish tongue, “but…may I stay? Just until the storm passes?”

 A low thud makes him look up. The dragon shifts, its tail curled in a half-circle around Virgil and the fire. It huffs softly.

 “Thank you.”

 ————————————

Sometimes he has sleepless nights. Drifts in blackness and emptiness until it’s time to get up. Or he’ll close his eyes for what feels like an instant before he wakes up the next day.

 Sometimes he has restless nights. Can’t sleep, can’t manage to get more than a few minutes of tense darkness before his eyes shoot open and he has to reassure himself that’s he can sleep.

 Sometimes he has good nights. Dreams of sunshine and warmth and the safety of a hot drink between his palms. Closing his eyes and just hearing the peaceful hum of his cabin.

 Most of the time he has nightmares. The good ones are just mixes of monsters he can’t see coming, kills he wishes he didn’t have to make. Losing someone he should’ve been able to save.

 This one’s a bad one.

  Jaws close down on his arm. The creature whips its head back and forth, shaking him like a rag doll. He grits his teeth and tries to—

  His eyes widen as the burning roof collapses on top of him. A heavy beam falls onto his chest and he can’t move, he’s going to—

  The cliff face collapses under him and he plummets, fingers scrabbling for a hold against the crumbling face. He can’t reach, he can’t reach—

 “….shut up, you’re gonna wake him up!”

 “If you stop shouting, then he won’t.”

 “Shh, the both of you.”

 “This is certainly working, I think we should all keep talking like this.”

 “Oh, don’t you start!”

 “Hey, hey, shh! He’s waking up!”

 Virgil is waking up, as a matter of fact, and he also has no idea where he is or what’s going on. He does know there are at least five people in this room with him though. That’s either a good thing or a really, really bad thing.

 He can feel rocks under his head. Is he still in the cave, then? How other people…here? Where’s the dragon?

 “Hey,” one of the voices says, “are you okay? You kinda, uh, well, you weren’t looking very good for a little bit there.”

 “Back up, you morons, you’re gonna scare him!”

 “We’re not scary, shut up.”

 “You’re scary.”

 “All of you be quiet,” the first voice says, before it softens again. “Hey, can you open your eyes?”

  Well, I’ve definitely made worse decisions.

 He wholeheartedly concurs with that thought when the first thing he sees is genuinely one of the most attractive people he’s ever had the pleasure of meeting face to face.

 “There you are,” the beautiful person says, “good morning. Is your head alright?”

 “Uh—“ not now gay panic— “uh?”

 “Back up, Logan,” another person says, “let me see.”

 Logan—great name, sure, why not—moves out of the way, and oh god there’s two of them.

 “Hi!” The other attractive person leans over Virgil and gods— “are you hurt? You looked a little upset while you were sleeping.”

 “You—“ Virgil does not squeak— “you watched me while I was sleeping?”

 “Well, you fell asleep and Roman got worried, so—“

 “I’m sorry,” Virgil interrupts, “who—who are you?”

 The person in front of him tilts his head. “Don’t you recognize us?”

  I would absolutely fucking remember meeting you, and I do not.

 “Patton,” Logan says, “he’s a mortal. He won’t—we are not as we were when he met us.”

 The butterflies in Virgil’s stomach ice.

 These…these are creatures. Is he—what supernatural force did he piss off?

 Logan smiles at him and winks. First off, rude, but—

 Virgil squints. One of the man’s eyes is a deep bluish-grey. The other one—the one he just winked with—is a dappled brown.

 Oh.

 “…you’re the sprite.”

 “I am,” he says, “my name is Logan.”

 Something nudges his shoulder. Virgil looks over to see Patton offering him a round stone.

 “…the mastiff elemental?”

 “Patton, actually.” Patton smiles and gestures over Virgil’s other shoulder.

  Why are there five of them and why are they all so pretty?

 “Can you guess who they are?”

 One of them rolls his eyes. “Yes, that sounds like a perfect use of time that isn’t at all a waste.”

 “Okay, so you’re the jaculi.”

 He smirks. “Janus.”

 The one near the entrance to the cave just cackles and bounces on the balls of his feet. Almost like…

 “You made me spill the bathtub over my whole yard!”

 He cackles louder. “Yes, I did!”

 Virgil rolls his eyes. He’s not fond. He’s not.

 “Remus,” Logan scolds, “you said you were just going into the well.”

 “He took me out!”

 “Yeah, because that thing is cramped as hell.”

 “Aww,” Patton coos, “how sweet.”

 “Well,” the last one says, smiling softly from one of the darker corners of the cave, “we knew that, didn’t we?”

 Virgil turns, looking hard into the darkness. The last person stands, walking over slowly, leaning most of his weight on one leg. As he moves into the light, he sits down on the log and reaches down. Virgil’s eyes widen as he gets handed the last of the dried meat.

 “You’re still hungry,” the person says softly, “I can tell.”

 Virgil cannot eat right now, thank you very much. Instead, his eyes are fixed on his bandage, still tied sloppily around the person’s leg.

 “You’re the dragon.”

 “I am. But you can call me Roman.”

 “…does it still hurt?”

 “Oh, this?” He smiles and moves his leg. “A little. But it’s almost better,” he finishes, reaching over to gently bump Virgil’s shoulder, “thanks to you.”

 Yes, hello? Virgil would like for someone to explain what’s going on, please.

 “I’m sure you’ve got questions,” Logan says, also sitting down, “and we can do our best to answer them. But first…are you alright?”

 Uh, no. “Why do you think I’m not?”

 “You’re breathing faster than most mortals do at rest, your face is more flushed than it was, and you were troubled while you slept.”

 …shhh…

 “I, um…I was having a nightmare.”

 “Ooh,” Remus says, plopping down on the floor with his chin propped up on his hands, “was it a bad one?”

 “…you could say that.”

 “Remus,” Patton chides, “don’t.”

 Remus pouts but hushes, reaching out to toy with a stick. Patton rolls the stone between his hands.

 “You did seem upset,” Janus says, “can we help?”

 “H-help?”

 Janus raises an eyebrow. “Yes, help. Or is that not a thing most mortals do?”

 Um. Well. Uh, hang on.

 “Are you just going to be mean to him,” Logan sighs, “or are we actually going to make an effort to be friendly with the person we have decided to befriend?”

 “Can one of you explain what’s going on?” Patton nods to Virgil. “Before he decides we’re all mad?”

 Roman sighs. “Virgil? Are you still hungry?”

 “Huh? No, no, I’m…I’m okay.”

 He smiles. “Good. This…this might sound a bit strange, but…try and keep up?”

 “As weird as it might sound, this isn’t the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

 Roman blinks in surprise, a small smile coming over his face. “Isn’t it?”

 “Well, you must have some idea of what I do for a living.”

 Roman’s smile only grows. “Yes, as a matter of fact, we do.”

 Logan clears his throat. Virgil turns, seeing the book from his cabin appear in Logan’s hands.

 “Did you—is that my—“

 “I can assure you,” Logan says softly, “that I did not steal your book from you. Rather, this is a copy, generated from the information I was able to learn.”

 “What did you want?”

 “We were cursed.” Logan closes the book with a snap. “Cursed to take on forms that were hated or feared or simply a nuisance.”

 Virgil’s stomach drops. Cursed?

 “I’m sorry,” he mumbles, “that sounds…awful.”

 “It was,” Janus mutters, “completely inconvenient and an utter waste of time.”

 “You say like it wasn’t your fault.”

 “Oh, right, it was absolutely only my fault.”

 “You two,” Patton huffs, “enough.”

 Virgil’s still trying to wrap his head around everything. “Wait, hang on, so—you were cursed? Were? Past tense?”

 “Well,” Janus gestures to himself, “I don’t exactly look like a snake anymore, do I?”

 He raises a finger when Virgil opens his mouth.

 “Careful, dear.”

 Virgil snaps his mouth shut.

 Roman rolls his eyes and places a hand on Virgil’s shoulder. “You broke the curse, my friend. Or at least…you helped us break it.”

 “But how? I didn’t—I didn’t do anything.”

 He raises an eyebrow and gestures to the bandage. “You don’t consider this doing anything?”

 “Or this?” Patton holds up the stone.

 Logan taps the cover of the book. “You helped us. When you had no reason to, past the goodness of your heart.”

 “We would’ve been hurt,” Janus says quietly, “or hunted without you. They certainly would’ve killed me.”

 “And me,” Remus says.

 Patton nods. “And me.”

 Roman simply taps his leg. Right. They already tried to kill him.

 Virgil blinks. “So…me helping broke the curse?”

 “You caring broke the curse,” Logan corrects gently, “and, well, when you...when you seemed to be in need, we wanted to care for you too.”

 Oh.

  Oh.

  Oh, fuck.

 “So,” Roman says, smiling up at Virgil, “how can we help?”

 “Help? With—with what?”

 “The nightmares.”

 “Oh,” Virgil mumbles, averting his eyes, “you, uh, can’t. Not really. They’re not a curse or magical or anything. They’re just nightmares.”

 “But there must be something we can do.”

 He shakes his head sadly. Believe him, if there were anything five unfairly attractive people could do, he’d tell them. But there isn’t. “They come with the job. There’s not—no one can do anything.”

 He can practically hear Patton frowning. “That’s not very fair. You do so much for others, don’t they—don’t they care?”

 Virgil shrugs. “Life isn’t fair.”

 “So take what it won’t give you.” Janus folds his arms. “They don’t care for you. Even though you care for them.”

 “They do care for me,” Virgil argues, “they’re kind. They help me.”

 “Not with this,” he shoots back, “not with what you really need.”

 “You protect everyone,” Roman says softly when Virgil opens his mouth to argue again, “who protects you?”

 Who protects the protector?

 “…no one.” Virgil shakes his head. “No one but me.”

 “Well, you’re right. That doesn’t seem fair at all.” Logan sets the book aside and it vanishes into the darkness of the cave. “Perhaps we should endeavor to fix that.”

 “F-fix it?” Virgil’s head jerks up. “How?”

 “Let us protect you.”

 “Protect me?”

 “Do keep up,” Janus sighs, but he’s pretty sure he can see him smiling over there, “at the very least, we have magic. That should offer you something.”

 “You don’t have to decide right now,” Roman says quickly, “but…thought we’d offer. Think it over.”

 …well, if ‘protection’ involves seeing them more often, Virgil can definitely work with that.

 “While I think it over, will you tell me how you got cursed?”

 “So it was entirely Janus’s fault—“

 “It was not!”

 “Yes, it was!”

 As Remus and Janus start arguing, Virgil smiles and leans back against the wall of the cave. Roman waves his hand and the cave wall warms, almost cradling Virgil. Logan settles on his other side, weight solid against his arm.

 Yeah, he could get used to this.

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