#what is going on in the main branch

[wolf-saint]

The Curse of the Moriyama Family

In another novel, our protagonist is a young woman. Married off to the Moriyama clan, she lives a solitary life, trapped before she could run away. Her husband Kengo does not kiss her; he does not have dinner with her. Her only company are her bodyguards... Until she has her first son: Ichirou Moriyama.

Part of her wishes that he was never born. For when he is birthed, it is Kengo who holds him. It is Kengo who does not give him back. Her heart screams when she realises. Ichirou's last embrace from his mother was in the womb. Even his name has no trace of her. He is branded as what he is: Kengo's first son. Kengo's heir. He never sees her again.

Her loneliness prevails; every day seems meaningless. The sliver of intimacy she gets is when Kengo is tired and has to rest in their apartment. Knowing he is in the building is more warmth than she gets from him in a year. It cannot be said what changed if it is Kengo's pale complexion, the dullness of the season, the tension in the main branch... Except that one evening, her husband joins her in her room, a chessboard set up in front of the fire and an empty chair.

It's a small stroke of fire; it burns slowly. When Kengo is not home, she resigns herself to watching television. Her brother-in-law has amassed a following for a new sport; they call it Exy. Her husband laughs at it but she sees the stubborn glint in the Tetsuji's friend's eye. Kayleigh Day says that Exy is the future; she believes it.

It is a mistake, in retrospect, for her to forget the cruelty of the Moriyamas. But she has become so cold. Kengo is the only sun she gets, the warmth that makes her days bearable. He kisses her sweetly and for a night she believes he is just a man. A man who cares for her. She forgets the unkindness of Moriyama men; she wakes up alone.

Many moons later, her hands drip blood onto the ivory tile, her mirror smashed into thousands of pieces - morning sickness. She knows where this is going.

It isn't worth screaming over: Kengo tells her that she cannot have her baby. His empire does not need a second son. Her tears trail down her face; her lip quivers at how he says the words. Cutthroat. Like her baby can be discarded. As if she won't feel the pain of him being taken away. Flashes of her first birth stab her heart over and over again. Her knees buckle to the floor and all she can do is beg. His face remains unchanged.

It is the night of her surgery, she sits in her bathroom, hugging her wrists and staring down the blade. She cannot lose another child; she feels like she may die. Her hands shake as she tries to psych herself up to the task, to pick up the sharp knife. The fluorescent lights drown her vision, tears flood her face... It reminds her of her wedding night, when she tried to escape through the venue's back window, crawl out the bathroom and run to god knows where-

-Her hand stills.

Motels are hard to come by, her racing heart hates the lack of exits in hotels, and nobody seems trustworthy... She finds it easier to sleep in back alleys. The lack of rest and food makes it so she has not grown too big and a kind stranger lent her a large duffel coat to keep away the cold (it swallows the signs of her belly). Money has been hard to come by and she cannot get on another bus. She hopes not to give birth soon.

Having a fever is not the worst part of giving birth, but it does not make it any less unbearable. It is a laborious process, and after it is done, she passes out, but not before sneaking a glance at her new baby. Wrapped in her old clothes and flushed with winter's cold, he lets out a soft cry. She hugs him tight, shielding him from the harsh winds, before her vision bleeds black at the edges and she hears the gasps of crowding strangers.

When her eyes burst open, the sterile walls of the hospital and a hand on her arm made her realise that it was not death who was speaking to her. Kengo was stroking her skin, muttering a prayer above her before his eyes met hers. Wet with tears. Wet because he was mourning. Later, the nurse hands her son, and her husband gives her that same remorseful gaze. Straight through her. Like a ghost.

"Jiro sleeps well," he whispers. He has an eerie smile on his skin, one that she wishes she could claw. Jiro. Second son. Her heart burns; her fingers clench.

"His name is not Jiro."

It is the first time she sees Kengo's mask slip from his face. It makes her death almost worth it.

Kengo's right-hand man is a hideous beast: Nathan Wesninski. Many men have been tortured by his knife, squealing like pigs. Under the Baltimore Butcher, death is welcomed eagerly. She peers up at him, and she can't help but shudder under his pale blue eyes.

From the beginning, she never expected a good life. Death always loomed over her. But in this moment, she waits, finally ready to accept it. Her husband sits in the chair furthest from the crime scene, cigarette puffing grey clouds from his lips as he avoids her hardened stare.

"You never told me what our son is to be called, Riko," he calls out, "I will give you that... before your death."

There is not much time to research baby names while on the run from the mafia. Her baby's health and survival always seemed to be the bigger priority. Now, she is at the guillotine. It is time for her baby to be taken from her once again.

Riko knows that it is a small price to pay- her life in exchange for her baby's. Unlike her firstborn, he will never be held by Kengo. Her husband has told her that he is to be discarded - left to his brother. Tetsuji will raise her son in Castle Evermore, the nest for tomorrow's Exy prodigies. Kayleigh Day's smile flickers in her mind. It is news that lets Riko be at peace.

Yet, here, she has unfinished business. The chance to do what she could never do before. Her baby will always hold a trace of her.

Riko can finally run away.

(A:N: This is me trying to avoid working on my WIP,,, Just straight up writing then posting,,, less structured than I'd like but GOD the idea of this unnamed character was so intriguing!!! The mafia side of AFTG ....)

[iinryer]

i know tommy is a tertiary character or whatever but after rewatching all the begins i desperately want to hear him talk more about that time at the 118 from his perspective. i want to know if he was afraid! i want to know if he wasn’t! how much did he know about himself by then, an inkling? nothing at all? all of it?? i want to know about his guilt and bridging the gap to friendship and if having made amends back then feels any different now that he isn’t hiding anymore…

[sob-dylan]

i’m probably going to, finally, at long last, finish the neapolitan quartet/my brilliant friend series today. i don’t have that much more left, but i am considering slowing down to one page a day so i can drag this out. i’ve fallen so deeply in love with these girls and idk what i’m gonna do without them 😭

[kirkwallguy]

I'm upset about the lack of choices and the likelihood that the solas romance is going to be pushed more but bringing up the new characters as something that could have been replaced by old ones is a pretty bad faith arguement imo. It's a new game, of course there's going to be new characters? The cameos were never the forefront or the cornerstone of my enjoyment. I mean if you hate the game and only play it in the hopes of getting scraps of your favorite characters from the previous games then ok but why torture yourself like this lol

i mean as long as they don't repeat the mistakes of inquisition and expect us to have read extra material to understand what's going on, i don't care about the new characters THAT much, i just think it's funny to act like they're actual cameos when most people don't know who they are. a charitable read would be that they're rewarding hardcore fans but likeeeee... they're trying to sell books lol

tbh cameos wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me normally, i can take them or leave them in da2 and obviously there are none in origins. but combined with everything else we know about the game i AM still on the fence about getting it... no worldstates means it's unlikely they'll bring up any of the plots i was interested in having resolved or explored further 😑 so it all comes down to the quality of the writing and plots they introduce, which is very hard to judge from the promo esp since apparently everything they're showing is from act 1

[sysig]

My kingdom for a "So you say” (Patreon)

[platypusisnotonfire]

OMG

Fanfic writers. If you want some source material.

I start this post off that way because full disclaimer this show was cancelled on a total cliffhanger.

But holy crap.

The POTENTIAL. The thousand interwoven plotlines and character arcs.

The vibes

Please PLEASE go watch Night Sky.

It moves slowly especially in the first 2-3 episodes but, at least to me, not in a boring way but in a ‘creating tension’ way and boy does it pay off. Except that….it sort of doesn’t

Meaning it absolutely starts to take off and you’re suddenly SO on the hook and then…well it was canceled after episode 8.

I have literally never been motivated to WRITE fanfic before. I have wanted more of a media franchise and gone to ao3 to READ loads of fanfic, but this is the first show that made me go “I viscerally need to explore this universe creatively”

So if you’re already the sort to write fanfic, this show will probably be like straight cocaine to you.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent game related things .. hrmm...

[cak31ssuperi04]

Throwing my hat in the relationship chart ring. 1bit/beat charts credit to @//likesaly and @///silvercrane14, if this bothers either of you please let me know so I can delete it!

1bit relationship spaghetti breakdown:

Platonic

Romantic

Familial

Negative

[nailtagyuri]

when i was 12 this was the coolest most mindblowing shit ever i was genuinely so obsessed with it I'd read it very day like the bible. I would die for a version of this with the post 3D world content over my country

[radioactive-earthshine]

They should let Querl have those "I'm way too tired to even begin figuring out what you are on about" low empathy moments.

He definitely does have a spectrum of degrees of expression when it comes to his own feelings/responses to others but yeah.

In general we need to see more of that low-empathy but high compassion, bring it back, because it makes for great dynamic and story telling to drive home that just because someone is nice and may show empathy doesn't mean they are a good person and someone you can trust. I feel it's important for people to really recognize this.

[attractthecrows]

retconning stroud out of the deep roads so i can shove laure amell and the hawke siblings and varric and anders all into the same little camp. they would all have such a bad time

[tawna]

if microsoft was smart they would make a dedicated crash bandicoot studio called "wumpa studio" or something and make crash 5 along with spinoffs (like a puzzle game for coco, tomb raider-style game for tawna, cooking simulator for dingodile, etc etc)

[nightly-ruse]

Cats have always been a huge part of my life and the more I think about my story and how it’s growing I’m unsure of what kinda cat I want to go with.

While kinda used a lot lions are always a great option especially because they are social by nature. Tigers are used as much but also stripes are a bit tiring to draw lol.

Some interesting extinct species (from the wild/generally extinct) that could be interesting are the cape lions, American lions, South African lion, or the snow leopard.

If I want to go more old extinct saber toothed cats are a option.

Orrr I could stay sorta easy terrain and just go with some wild cat species like the ocelot, European wild cat etc

Idk just stuck

[missescalientee]

The fic for this au is here

Had a silly dream where JD and Floyd came back to the troll tree before the last trollstice but after singing killed their grandma and decided to doodle and expand upon it a bit

Clay never left the tree but was too scared to return to the families pod since he didn’t want things to go back to how they were before, he did try to find his brothers during the escape but got separated by the cave in.

John Dory was the one to find Clay and see him get caught by the cave in, when he came out of the tunnel without Clay and holding his wristband they all just assumed he was dead. Even so JD still searches for Clay with the hope that he might’ve escaped and is alive out there.

They know Bruce is alive but after JD got the post card he assumed Bruce didn’t want to be found

Some more doodles that kind of show their dynamic

Also-

JD always brings home souvenirs for the brothers both as an apology for being gone for so long and also because of this:

[icewindandboringhorror]

The evil slow creep of it being like "haha these will just be quick little side quests, not much effort at all!" and then noticing each one is getting progressively longer than the last, thus no longer being minimal effort.. auGh....

[aberooski]

I've really got my work cut out for me this time I have NO IDEA which GX character I'm gonna draw on the cover of tortured poets ✋😭