#when you unintentionally become a target because you're with someone

[edenpoise]

why are you doing all of this ? - also from lilith, for the revengeful wrath verse. c: hello!

⁽ @gctchell ⁾ ― ： meme. from here .

E . ― IT WAS ALMOST LAUGHABLE HOW A SIMPLE QUESTION COULD INVOKE SUCH FESTERING EMBERS. as if she didn't know, as if she wasn't a direct cause towards her own undoing. eve could barely settle her expression from morphing to portray those inner feelings. no. she was better than that. BLACKENED eyes stared down at the once proud figure- the ( first woman ) hellish queen that stepped the line of being pitiful &. pathetic. " you're ignorance knows no bounds, lilith. "

her voice betrays her expression. a disgust leaking from the tone as chains rattled and looped- tendrils of blacken threads tightened their VICIOUS hold. it kept the powerful monarch from resistance. it kept eve in control. just they way she liked it. the way it should ALWAYS be, of all people within this wretched world ... she deserved it the most. had she not suffered for CENTURIES- ? watching the consequences that clung to her sins. the constant belittle within the time of history. everything heaving on her shoulders- had she not earned this right alone to finally get what she d e s e r v e s? it was long overdue ... and simply enough ... lilith was simply a key in this all. eve would bend- fingers hooking underneath the sharp chin of the elder woman, eyes blazing as they locked together, " but that's not you're fault ... my true HATRED doesn't lie with you ... but unfortunately for you- you married a man that ruined me. " a otherworldly being who's words brought temptation into a peaceful garden where it was never meant to be. for consequences to weigh so heavily. for years she had blamed herself, but why continue such actions when truly- how could she N O T blame the one responsible for introducing her to such possibilities? he had to know the consequences, what would happen to her- to her f a m i l y.

did lilith have to suffer the sight of her children fighting?? did lilith have to witness the fruits of her labour fall to ruin and rot?? DID LILITH HAVE TO WATCH HER ELDEST CHILD MURDER THEIR SIBLING- eve takes a breath, eyes closed for a moment before she straightened herself. she managed to bring the looming smile back to her lips, her eyes flickering with satisfaction. she was close to her goal now, lilith was with her- lucifer was suffering. soon heaven shall follow with that ruin- the path of right and wrong would become so blurred one could barely tell what the line was. and eve shall once again obtain that peaceful place in the light. " i'm doing what i need to. simple as that. "

it was a swift turn on her heel- the once dim gem upon her neck gleamed a faint g l o w. her skin turning a pale purple- her hair curling and draping further to her feet. a blonde hue taking over the colors of auburn. eve turns towards lilith, the woman's own visage staring back at her with her eased smile,

" it's my turn to find my happiness. "

[fawnfictions]

Can I request general hcs for Wukong and Red Son crushing on a reader who uses a female reader?

little crushes

— wukong & red son x fem!reader

yessir, yesSIR !! apologies if red son is ooc, still not confident in writing his character <//3

;; romantic, no warnings.

WUKONG

- he is in DENIAL at first.

- he's found people attractive before, sure, but he's never had a crush on someone.

- doesn't know how to act, and may distance himself in an act of rash panic—he's scared of losing you as a friend, or getting too close and dealing with the loss of a mortal loved one.

- once he starts coming to terms with the fact that he likes you, he's scared.

- scared that getting too close to you will have you in danger of people that he regrets messing with, scared of eventually losing you and dealing with that pain, scared that you don't like him back.

- thankfully, he only really gets lost in these thoughts when he's alone.

- around you, he'll be a lot more touchy than he already is.

- loves wrapping an arm around your shoulders, or picking you up on his somersault cloud.

- if you're around when the Spider Queen attacks, or the Demon Bull King goes on a rampage, he's hauling your ass to safety.

- but when its more calm, and he has nothing else to do, theres a good chance that he'll drop by your house to freeload off of your snacks—definitely not because he desperately wants to spend more time with you.

- we all know that this monkey is LAZY, so he will be laying across your couch, packet of chips in hand, watching a movie based off his self, and living his best life while you're sitting there like,,, 'man? don't you have humanity-saving to do?'

- MK will absolutely notice how clingy his mentor is to you, and will not be ashamed to bring it up during one of his training lessons.

- Wukong will deny everything he says with an obvious blush across his face.

- but the young successor will try his best to play wingman, but he's not exactly subtle about it.

- cue him slyly walking up to you, like, "so, uh... what're your thoughts on Monkey King? brave, cool, handsome guy, right?"

- he will probably be the reason you two ever get to together, he'll accidentally end up confessing FOR Wukong.

- this monkey is so obvious, no one understands how you DON'T realise his crush on you.

- the way his face turns red when you wear a dress for a fancy occasion, or when he tells a joke and that harmonious laugh you have captures his heart.

- he will do ANYTHING to keep a smile on your face.

- unintentionally uses pet names on you, "hey, peaches—" "what did you call me?" "uh, n-nothing, nothing."

- if you let him, he'll love playing with your hair and styling it.

- human hair feels so different to monkey hair, it feels more fragile and delicate, soft and silky—plus, it smells nice.

- you get bonus points if your shampoo/conditioner is fruit scented, you'll catch him sniffing your hair and holding himself back from rubbing his face in it.

- please brush his hair, too, he'll fall more in love with you since its common for monkey's to show affection by picking through each others hair.

- he gets a little protective sometimes, as once certain demons realise his feelings for you, you'll become a target of kidnapping and being used as bait for their attempts at attacking the Monkey King.

- but, since you two haven't acknowledged your feelings for each other, you aren't as protected as you would be if you were his outright girlfriend.

- so enemies like the Spider Queen or the Lady Bone Demon, possibly even Macaque at one point, would definitely take their chances in taking you in their grasps to get a one-up on Wukong.

- and its probably during one of these moments, after he saves you, that he'll properly confess how he doesn't want to lose you because he loves you :))

RED SON

- this spicy boy—oh my goddd.

- immediately assumes he doesn't like you.

- thinks his crush on you is a feeling of annoyance, it will take him a while to realise its quite the opposite.

- since he thinks he 'hates' you, he'll spend a lot of time bickering back and forth with you, uselessly throwing insults around.

- its not until he doesn't see you for a while, whether its because he's busy with a project, or you've taken some sort of vacation, that he realises he misses his interactions with you, that he misses you.

- he'll be a lot nicer to you afterwards, which gives you a bit of whiplash.

- i feel like he'd be the type to buy you gifts and nice things, like he'd anonymously drop a pretty red dress off at your doorstep, or he'd give you a necklace claiming he just "happened to find it, and thought that it complimented your eyes".

- way to not be obvious, red boy.

- but he'd still playfully argue with you, he just wouldn't outright insult you as much.

- if you're friends with MK and go on his adventures with him, whenever Red Son goes to insult that group as a whole, he'll be like, "you guys are all insolent peasants... except you".

- i reckon he'd be reluctant to tell his parents about his feelings, and probably has a hard time on himself, thinking that he should've fallen in love with another demon, powerful enough to assist his family.

- but he forgets about those worries when he's around you <3

- when neither of you are busy, he just 'so happens to be in the same place as you, at the same time', an excuse he uses too many times for it to be a coincidence.

- you're out in the markets, just wandering around? he was in the middle of shopping there, himself!

- taking a stroll in the park? oh, he had just taken a step outside to clear his mind!

- at Pigsy's Noodles? he was on his way to conduct an 'evil plan' on Monkey King's successor!

- during the Spider Queen's attack, when the Demon Bull King was possessed by the Lady Bone Demon, he might come to you for comfort at first.

- definitely focuses on keeping you safe, though—no way in hell is he letting you be turned into a spider.

- you're definitely one of the very few people who help him with his temper.

- he doesn't lose it as quickly around you, instead, finding you rather calming, and often seeks you out when MK has gotten him particularly annoyed, or if his parents have upset him.

- will shy away from your physical touch, but deep down he does kind of crave it.

- is the type to blush if you brush hands walking past each other, or if your fingers touch when passing him an object.

- and my god—if anyone dared to flirt with you or look at you a little too non-platonically... he'd go off at them, yelling at them to respect a lady such as yourself, calling them a peasant for their advances on you, etc.

- and you're standing there like,, 'all he did was compliment my dress and wink at me'.

- if anything, you'll probably have to be the one to confess to him that you love him, but i can see him confessing his love after some pushing from other people ahem, MK, ahem...

- he'd act like it was a proposal, getting down on one knee or something <//3

- i said it before and i'll say it again, his love languages are gift giving and acts of service!!!

- expect plenty of gifts (probably more expensive ones, too), and inventions that will either, 1.) look really cool, or 2.) protect you in some way.

[quitealotofsodapop]

Not to mention if he had shown Tang, a scholar who lived and breathed JTTW, his memories... I'm pretty sure Tabg would have straight up attacked him for trying to describe what happened to Wukong while he was held captive by Heaven had been anything less than what it was: Torture. For example, at this point, Sun Wukong is more than a fairytale or storybook character. He's more than just some demon who lived thousands of years ago as a footnote in a history book. He's a person, not only that, but he's someone who has since become part of Tang's family! He's a flawed but still wise master who is impulsively self sacrificial to the point of unintentionally hurting the people who care about him, he's temperamental and tends to be forgetful about the limits of normal mortals because he's never had a baseline, he's petty, but ultimately... Sun Wukong is someone who cares deeply and honestly about the people who manage to get past the ironclad walls he has erected around his heart, someone who is selfless at heart even when his actions seem selfish, someone who has had a very difficult life and is still learning to let other in and trust them. Tanghas read Wukong's story a hundred times over, analyzed his written actions a thousand times, out of everyone he is probably the one who knows the ksot about Wukong's past besides the Demon Bull King and Macaque, the person who pribavly raised Wukong the most besides the Sentinels and his mate respectively. He recognizes how much Wukong has changed for the better, how he's still learning after all these centuries, and how he's trying so very hard to be a good mentor for MK and teach him the lessons he never had so he doesn't suffer the same way he did even while his own past comes back to bite him.

So no... Tang would absolutely be offended by Azure's narrative

YUP. referencing.

Tang about to bust out his Bachelors in ancient Chinese history and literature to poke a million holes in Azure Lion's whiteashed narrative:

(In the Scroll of Memory as Azure is showing his memories of the Rebellion): Tang, suddenly appearing in the memory: "Where is Erlang Shen?" Azure, startled: "How did you get in here?" Tang: "As someone who lives for this era in history - I can poke so many holes in your story. Sun Wukong was strong enough for the Jade Emperor, but fell to his nephew Erlang Shen, his Plum Hill Lads, and Lao Tzu's binding ring. From there he was tossed into the Trigram Furnace and was forced to endure 49 days of the Samadhi Fire to extract his immortalities." Azure, pleasantly impressed: "You know your stories well monk-" Tang, interupting: "AND-! I am not finished. The great Tang Monk, aka Tripitaka, did not yield to the Taoist gods! Only to the Buddha and his diciples! To call him an Agent of the Oppressors greatly overlooks how many times he helped his fellow mortals, even at the threat of being executed for his faith!" Azure: "You're becoming overwhelmed-" Tang, angry tears: "And I know Wukong! He wouldn't have targeted you guys at Camel Ridge unless you did something warranting his anger! How can you call him a traitor when YOU left him to burn!?" (*Azure's memories dispate, instead showing Wukong when he was with the Pilgrims - from the perspective of Tripitaka. Wukong is laughing along with his brothers Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing, and Ao Lie*) Tang, volume increasing: "Wukong didn't stay with the Pilgrims to hurt people. He stayed because he knew that his mind and emotions needed healing after such a tremendous amount of pain. They cared enough for him to address this pain and help him towards being a true sage. Something your *Brotherhood* obviously never bothered to do! HE DIDN'T BETRAY YOU AS MUCH AS YOU BETRAYED HIM!!" (the memory scroll completely disapates back to reality. the entire MKrew + the Brotherhood are staring shocked at Tang's show of power*) Tang: *breathing heavily and angry crying* MK, wide-eyed and impressed: "...whoa" Pigsy, proud: "Yup. Don't try to twist what happened back then Azure. My Tangy knows his history." Peng, whispers to the others: "The Golden Cicada lives on. I knew I wasn't mistaken." Yellow Tusk: "I suggest we retreat for now. Once the Celestial Realm senses our escape, they are sure to have increased their defences." Azure, eyes narrowing: "No. We go forward with our plan. No matter what this monk-" Tang: "I'M NOT A MONK!" Tang: *casts Magic Missile*

Because at the end of the day, Azure understimated the receipts that Wukong's new dad-friend would have on their political movement.

[inkirasity]

Willow

CW!: attempted r*pe, violence, fem! reader

°This took me a while and I am surprised this finished first than the Yasuo fic I was writing. I haven't proofread this so you have been warned!

Kayn had yet to wander around the woods again.

Or any place that has woods really.

He had successfully beaten Rhaast unintentionally but with a cost of loneliness. Talking to the scythe or per se the Darkin was all he had after Zed died and killing Jhin.

This happens whenever he slanders groups or goblins that he finds in his way. Stealing their valuable belongings and selling them to merchants. It's rare for him to take any interest in them, he just wants power—to kill. He would then go to the nearest forest, walk around or take a stop and listen to the whispering sounds of the trees.

He thinks it's much better than silence and denying the fact that he missed Rhaast's Darkin ramblings.

Today was different or so he thought.

He saw a camp with small bandits and thought of a chance to swiftly kill them and steal goods. The unlucky part was that they called reinforcements, almost catching Kayn and leaving wounds around his body as he escaped.

Almost

He thought, it was fine at least. It is better to go home with heavy wounds than to be dead.

Kayn limped to a village, a possible scenario coming in his head: as he limps towards the village, someone would spot him, help him clean and heal his wounds, and with him fully healed he can have the chance to steal—if they resisted he would not give them any chance to live.

Instead of lively markets and kids running around—he found an abandoned village.

"Today is not my lucky day, I see."

Despite the calmness, he wanted to throw a fit and scream. He can't die because of blood loss from a big wound given by a stupid hunk taller than him. He shouldn't be!

Kayn rested his back on the brick wall of an abandoned house and sat. He couldn’t see or hear any noise but the wind passed by his ear as it sang.

The sun was going down, a sunset. Colors of orange-red and the faint yellow slowly disperse as a deep blue color rises into the sky with the glittering stars. Other than listening to the silent melancholy of the forest, Kayn thinks the sight of the night sky is beautiful. He can make out the constellations or even make a new one.

He looked down at his resting body, dried blood and grime. Kayn grimaced when he moved his body to make himself comfortable. He should think of something that could help stop the blood, wrap a cloth around it before he could drop on the sandy floor and slowly die from blood loss.

A soft melody he heard. His ears perked like a cat hearing its prey. Kayn shakily stood up, the scythe as his support. Putting his weight on the brick walls Kayn limps again to follow the sound lingering to his ear.

The moonlight glowed on a tree—a weeping willow tree perhaps. Its leaves softly danced with the wind, the melody becoming louder. There he saw a lone girl, sitting under the tree a lute cradled with her hands.

Kayn stopped and stared at the girl in silence. Eyes would move to the birds flocking around the girl and look back at the girl. He could see her fingers strumming on the strings and her eyes closed as if she is also drowning in her music as Kayn is.

He felt tired. The heaviness on his shoulder didn’t help, his head then started to spin and his vision went blurry.

Pain shot his side, Kayn gasped for air and cupped his hands at the side to grab his scythe. His heart fell when he couldn't feel the familiar weapon. Noticing he was sitting on a bed almost smaller than him and the bandages neatly wrapped around his wounds.

"You're… awake." A soft voice emerged from the door he didn't notice. 

His eyes widened at the person standing at the door, "You… you are that person playing the lute." Kayn internally cringed at the roughness of his voice, he saw the flinch of the girl's body.

An easy target

You placed down the wooden tray beside him and poured tea on his cup and gave it to him, "Drink it, it will regain your strength—or at least help you."

Kayn reluctantly accepted the cup from you. He couldn't trust you immediately, though he is injured and the scythe is nowhere to be found so he is helpless in your hands.

At least he could try befriending you before killing or selling you.

He quickly drank the tea clean and right after Kayn asked your name.

"...I don't tell my name to people like you."

Kayn's fake smile fell, "What?"

"No—I can't tell you my name." You didn't elaborate why and left him alone in the room, leaving the tray beside Kayn.

He tried to stand up and catch up to you but the gash on his torso sent him a painful feeling. Kayn cursed under his breath, the wound had opened and blood started to seep in the pristine bandages. 

Have you ever tried to stitch his wound while he was unconscious? Or were you doing it on purpose knowing who he is.

Nothing to do, Kayn laid down on the bed and stared at the dully looking ceiling, cobwebs in each corner of the room. His eyes squinted, there were drawings on the ceiling from stick man to trees and ugly looking houses. This might have been a child’s room, he wouldn’t know at first because there was nothing in the room other than the dresser and the bed he’s using. 

What are you doing right now? Maybe you found out that he is a wandering assassin and also found his scythe—

He shot from his bed, he winced loudly enough for you to hear.

“What is wrong with you!?” You cried as you ran to the assassin curling in the bed. 

You shoved his arms away from his torso to take a look at his bandages. Horror filled your face. The bandages you wrapped around him in the morning have been soaked by his blood, you lightly touched the bloody part of his torso, red painted your whole palm.

“Ev-everything is blurry.” 

The assassin weakly stretched his hand toward you as you hurriedly took your lute.

“Don’t move.” You said as you prepared your lute. Surprisingly, he followed and slowly lay down on the bed. His eyes never left you.

You closed your eyes and started to strum your lute.

Slowly, Kayn’s eyes were closing and his breathing became calm, but you didn’t stop. The faint green glow from the assassin’s torso brightened as you quickly played the instrument. Your breathing became rigid and your heart quickly ran, you needed to at least close his wound completely, forget the anesthesia later.

When you felt the wound slowly closing you stopped playing and took a deep breath. You never healed a person for awhile, especially this critical. You were taught to heal small scratches and cuts from knives, not in this kind of situation.

You placed the lute beside the bed and opened the dresser to take the bandages. 

Slowly, you removed the soaked bandages with a swift cut after you reached out to pluck a tone out of your lute. You throw the bandage somewhere in the room, you take note to throw it in a proper place later after patching the man’s wounds.

You took your lute and the bloody bandage and left the room.

Bard! That man is dangerous!

“I couldn’t let him lay there bloodied.” 

He is a wandering assassin! Zed’s child!

“You, little bird, should stop snooping around people’s business. Also I don’t know who Zed is and I don’t want to know what he does.”

You shaked off the sparrow and walked outside the house to do the things you usually do. You swing the lute behind you and throw the dirty bandage beside the work table.

Were you injured!?

Bard there is an injured fawn! Help him!

You ignored the question and hastily followed the forest wolf to the woods.

“Ah, stepped on a bear trap.” You winced as you looked at the trap gritting on the fawn’s left leg. The fawn turned its head at you and tried to run but fell. You slowly walked towards the forest animal, careful not to startle it.

“It’s okay, I can help you.” You said with softness in your voice, scared that it would try to run and hurt itself even more. You reached your hand to pet the fawn’s body and it calmed, its head slowly laid on the grass. This was your time to use your lute again.

Thank you for treating my son, bard of healers. Said the mother. You are the only one I trust among the humans.

“There are others that are like me, you don’t see them often.” You said to the mother deer who is laying down in front of you with her children, the fawn you healed is on your lap as you continuously pet his head.

Quite unlucky then. Unlike you, they hunt us and use our heads as trophies, I am glad a person like you exists. A gem.

“Well I exist to help the injured, nothing special about the bard of healers mama doe.”

Hmpf! Nonsense, you do not place traps in the forest.

“Speaking of traps, I will remove them so you and the other families can roam freely.”

You stood up, the mother followed you and her other children. The fawn who laid on your lap ran to his mother.

What do you say to her?

Thank you bard!

“You are most welcome.” You said, putting your green cloak on and its hood over your head.

You waved the family goodbye and started to walk back to the village to get your pack for taking out traps and ropes scattered in the forest.

“I did not know you were strange.”

You froze on your tracks, the crunch of leaves slowly drew near you. It stopped when a hand grabbed your arm and forced you to turn around. Gosh you hate having those eyes stare at you like you were prey. You tried to shake his grip on you but it tightened instead.

“Let go of me.” You gritted between your teeth. How could this man recover so quickly even losing that much blood, you couldn’t imagine the possibilities that this man is immortal.

Your heart dropped when he chuckled, his wicked smile fading when he looked at you.

“Not until you explain what you did to my wound.” 

Kayn aggressively dragged you down the hill, ignoring your trips on rocks here and there. When you two reached the house Kayn’s grip on you let go as he almost threw you on the wall. You gripped on the chair beside you.

“Sit.”

It was risky if you tried to fight him and you were drained from healing two things an hour apart. So you sat, quietly as you stared at his eyes. He stared back at you while he leaned on the door frame, ready to capture you if you tried to escape.

“Obedient. You are smart not to go against me.” Kayn said as he lifted himself from the frame, slowly advancing his way towards you.

“I recommend you not to hurt me.” You spoke, clutching your back to ease the aching pain Kayn had caused. “That will cause you problems.”

Kayn scoffed, leaning down at the level of your face. Your noses an inch close to touching, “Why? A healer isn’t rare around the place, no?”

You bit your lip. Healers… were not rare— not, until slave traders raided the village and took everyone except for you. This person might not know about the abduction years ago or he is insulting you and your people.

“You don’t know what is circling in your veins.”

“My veins?” Kayn’s eyes widened as he stood away from you, his brows then furrowed. “What do you mean by that?”

“Your wound, the big one on your torso is infected. The weapon used might be spelled by venom, if you kill me no one will heal or help you.”

“Why?”

“You’re a wandering assassin.”

You quickly raise your arm and slashed Kayn’s arm with a whip. He quickly dodged but the end of your whip still hit him, earning a slash on his arm. You saw him raising his hand to his back, his face fell when he realized there was nothing hanging on his back.

“Where is it?!” Kayn screamed, his panicked cries caught you off guard. He looks like a child throwing a tantrum because he couldn’t find his toy. You would expect more anger from him, charge at you immediately when he noticed his little toy was taken away from him.

Kayn looked around the empty room, hoping he could find his scythe and kill this girl for threatening him. You rolled your temporary whip and hung it at the back of your waist, walking up to him you looked down meeting his eyes.

“Let me be your companion, then I can heal you.” As you stared at him you pointed the lone cabinet at the other side of the room. Expected, Kayn scrambled up to his feet and ran towards the cabinet and opened it.

Kayn smiled as he raised his scythe as a trophy, “Hah I have you again—” he turned around, “Oh I can not wait to have your blood on my scythe hea—”

You were not in the room. Kayn had realized, his smile becoming sickening knowing that you had run away—scared of the scythe, him. Kayn likes a swift death, a death the victim could not expect but he likes it when people try to run away from him, beg for his mercy—it was his definition of fun . With his grip on the scythe Kayn walked out of the room to chase you down.

Or so he thought.

He saw you, instead of running, was on the floor packing things in your big bag. Kayn stood there, confusion painted on his face, confused why were you not running away—crying for your dear life. You had noticed his gloomy presence behind you as you finished packing your things with a big zip of the bag.

You stood up from the dusty cement and swinged the bag to your back.

“I do not think you have anything with you, we should go.”

"You know I could kill you—"

"But you did not." You said as you whirled around to face the assassin. His messy hair, uneven breathing as he desperately gripped his scythe gave you the hint not to push his buttons. Simply, you turned against him and continued with your business.

Walking to the workshop standing at the back of your house, you gave it a swift brush on the surface and whispered i will miss you and stretched your hand to let the birds rest. Years of using the desk, you finally—maybe buy a new one if the possible journeys with the assassin give you money.

You looked at the empty desk, remembering the memories and the things you made with it.

‘I’m going to have a better one’

Stay with us!

I miss you already!

She is old enough to make her decisions, let her be.

Glancing at the birds on your arm, their bickering and attempts to talk to you made your lips twitch a smile. A yellow bird flew on your shoulder, you can hear its small chirps in order to talk to you.

“Now now,” You laughed, as a hoard of animals surrounded you. “Let’s not be mushy, it will be hard for me to leave.”

“I have not accepted you coming with me, healer.” A hushed voice hissed at you, making your eyes roll and politely made the animal get off you.

Looking at him with a hard gaze, you crossed your arms, “Then you can leave without me,” Your face softened, but your lips pressed in a thin line, “But you are going to die in a few hours or so.”

“What is it?!” Kayn desperately asked, his eyes intensely looked down at your form.

“A venom spell from black magic, only born of healers, could remove that from a human’s body.”

A white barn owl flew past Kayn, hitting his head on purpose and landed on your shoulders. You smiled as you communicated with your feathery friend, as it asked to be your animal companion in your adventures.

Kayn could only stare at you, if he is fully healed by you, later on he will kill you.

Kayn thinks of how he could kill you in a hundred ways while traveling city to city, while you on the other hand are talking to your now new companion. Animals who talk to you don't necessarily need to open their mouth and speak with barks, meows, or chirps—they would look at you and speak in your mind, you don’t know how that is possible but you are determined to figure it out while on your journey with the assassin.

Be careful around him, I can’t be that much of a help—but I will try my best to protect you.

“Do not fret about it, there is a reason I own a work desk for items I use around the forest.”

I trust you, bard. I am your animal companion after all.

The owl broke his gaze from you for a second and turned his neck to you.

He is deep in thought I suppose.

You looked at your back to see Kayn talking to himself, you couldn’t figure out what he was saying, you hoped it wouldn't be the ways on how he could kill you.

“I mean, he is the first man who came here after a few years… of the raid. So he would be a good shot, I can’t wait for another ten years for a person to find this place.” 

I agree, Ishlacan Village is a hidden place.

‘was’  You frowned at your thought of the hidden place of your village being found.

Your owl noticed the change of your expression and flapped his wings to get your attention.

Let us… call the assassin, he might lose his mind.

"You," you called, earning the assassin's attention, "Your name."

He looked at you, both of his eyes going up and down to yoir form as if you were something before replying to you.

"Kayn."

" Kayn? " you narrowed.

He glared, "Kayn."

"Alright, Kayn. I decided to be your traveling companion until I found clues about my people's disappearance, and of course, until the venom is cured and you are fully healed."

"A horrible decision."

"But it benefits us both, is it not?"

He didn't say anything to your commentary, so you think he agreed. He slightly agreed . Walking up to him, you handed a bottle to him—it was runny and clear like water, but it was sparkling.

"What is that?" Kayn eyed the bottle like a picky kid, his eyes looking at you and to the bottle.

"Medicine for the venom in you— I do brews with my magic, it is convenient when I can't use my magic." you replied, crossing your arms after Kayn reluctantly accepted your medicine.

"Does it fully heal?"

"No,"

Somehow you think you saw Kayn's ears flop like a sad wolf for a minute before you continued.

"I have them packed with me so do not worry. You drink once a day—when emergencies then you will drink extra."

What happens when the emergency comes with no medicine of yours, bard?

'Then we have no one to guard us.'

"Does this actually work?"

"Obviously,—are you doubting my magic?"

"This is brewed—"

"By my magic, I made it so we won't be stopping minute by minute to unwrap your bandage and heal you directly inside the deep forest."

"You get tired by using your magic?"

"Like all people who wield magic, it drains us like how people fight using their energy."

He looked at you before drinking the whole bottle, wiping his mouth clean with the back of his palm. You reached your hand to him, he stared at it before realizing that you needed the bottle back. 

The bottle now stashed in your bag, you whispered to your owl before he flew away.

“Where is it going?” Kayn looked up at the sky trying to look for your animal companion.

“Tyto is scouting for anything unusal.”

The walk was silent, you were actually nervous as you disabled the traps you see. Kayn could kill you here and there in the deep woods, after all that is what an assassin does, excecute you in times you don’t excpect, or in the dark—but fortunately he was just there following you, the crunch of the dead leaves against his boots audible to your ears.

It was a bad idea to have him follow you at the back, but you know Tyto is looking down at you—ready to call for assistance from the animals living in the forest.

After you disabled a trap, you heard Kayn clear his throat.

“What?” You said, not looking at him but looking for the traps you could find.

“What happened to your people?” He asked. It made you stop. You never get that question very often, not only there were no people stumbling on your abandoned village but the animals you talked to had witnessed it.

“Gone. Kidnapped by raiders.” You continued on your way.

It was silent. You sighed.

“You want a story time? Sure.”

You took a stick and used it to poke the ground.

“My ancestors were mages, but a few hundred years ago we were seperated in groups by what magic we could do. I was born with the hands of a healer, we are named Ishlacan—we often have special abilities when we reach the age of six. And I, can speak and understand animal language.” You raised your sleeve and showed your inner wrist to the assassin, a green tattoo of the caduceus to distinguish your people from others and to be a proud healer.

You lowered the sleeve to your hand where it couldn’t be seen, “ I remember it was daylight when it happened, children my age are running around with me near the fountain waving their hands to boast their newly formed magic. We would laugh and run away from their scolding mothers telling us not to play the magic blessed to us.”

Your grip on the stick tightened, “There was a scream, then before I knew it the raiders found our village. Taking children, women, and even men—the ones who go against them were knocked conscious or beaten into submission.”

Both you and Kayn immediately looked up after a familiar screech. Tyto flew to your shoulders.

A marketplace up ahead, there are swarms of people.

“What did it say?”

“A marketplace,” You placed your hood up and looked at Kayn, “Are you coming?”

“No,” Kayn replied, his brows knitted as if you said something wrong, “I prefer in the shadows.”

You handed out your hand to him. Kayn looked at it questionably.

“Give me your coins, I know you have them.”

He deadpanned at you, shoving his hands in his pockets and aggressively handed you a handful of coins—some fell on the ground but you didn’t bother to crouch down and take them.

“This will do,” You turned away from Kayn and faced your owl. “Stay here, we won’t want people to look at us.”

Will do.

You then walked towards the marketplace Tyto directed you before going back to the forest by your command. You never did look back, thinking there would be people alreadly looking at you, so you walked with the swarm of buyers in the marketplace.

There were nothing but meat and skinned animals hanging on each stall. You scruched your nose and immediately walked to another place where no stink of dead meat invaded your nose.

The crowd never died, some people still pushed you here and there though you do not mind. Around you were filled with vegetables and fruits, some sell spices and sweets in the corner. 

Now this is what you want.

You wanted a healthy dinner later, especially for Kayn—he was healing after all and needed the energy for his athletically fit body, so it is possible he needed big portions and healthy food. This was never your first time cooking for someone (who is human), your grandparents would teach you how to cook the basics—what is good and what is to avoid eating. You would get compliments as a kid, the people telling you that you indeed have the hands of a healer even without magic.

With those ego boosting words, you’re hoping you still have it to this day.

In a flash, you stood at the front of the vegetable stalls. The greens are freshly laid on the wooden crates on display for you to choose. After picking the ones that passed your “who is the best” test, you hand them to the trader with the coins Kayn has given to you.

Thanking the old man, you proceeded to the next stall which was filled with oranges. You could feel the freshness of the oranges by just a touch.

“They were freshly picked just this morning.” the merchant said, moving a crate full of oranges.

This would be good for his skin while he heals.

When you didn’t respond to the merchant, he eyed you up and down. You were… ordinary, like those people who are obsessed with hiding their faces or cloth themselves head to toe. As you reached for another orange his eyes squinted at your wrist, something green popping out from your sleeve. His eyes widened, just to be sure the shopkeeper reached his hand to yours while you were busy looking for the perfect orange to feed to Kayn.

“I will buy five of these—” 

You gasped when a body collided onto yours, hands a snake— it slithered around your waist with lips near your ears for you to hear the whisper.

“Play along,” whispered by a familiar voice. “I was looking for you and here you are standing in front of a stall that sells… oranges.”

The man was hooded like you, but you knew that voice—spiteful and hushed. Right now he sounded like he was trying hard to be enlightened by finding you standing in an orange stall. You could feel his firm hand grip your waist tightly, he wanted you to respond.

“O-Oh, I was looking for fruits for us to eat at home.” you half-truthfully said.

“Then I will pay for it, you already paid enough let me do it for you.” 

With a swift you and Kayn are already outside the marketplace with five oranges in your bag. Kayn removed his hood and stood in your way, his amber eyes angrily stares you down.

“You almost got caught. ” he said with gritted teeth.

“What do you mean by that,” you looked at yourself, there was nothing visible even your hair. “I have myself perfectly covered.”

You gasped when he took your hand, showing your tattoo peeking out of your sleeve. When you get a good look he lets go of your wrist.

“I saw the orange merchant reaching out to your wrist, he saw your tattoo.” Kayn angrily said, his eyes looking around if there is someone lurking at the both of you. He sets his gaze on you as he reaches the hood to place it on his head.

“We need to stay low, stay in the forest.”

“What? That is dangerous!” you resisted.

Staying in the forest for the night was the least you wanted. Sure you talk to animals and you live near a forest but that doesn’t ease you anyhow. Even when you can talk to animals, some you can’t persuade.

“It would be more dangerous when we go straight to a city, they can easily spot us,” he turned around. “After all there are a dozen or more of them in the city.” 

“But—”

“If you want me to be with you,” Kayn bent in front of you, his eyes directly staring into yours, almost making a hole. “You listen to me.”

‘How atrocious!’

You could only curse in your mind before stomping to follow Kayn into the woods. Tyto flew back on your shoulders, his wings flapped gently before settling down to rest on you.

What did he say?

‘We are staying in the woods for the night.’

Hm, I can rest on branches how much I would like then.

‘Please not also you’

I could not help myself, sorry in advance.

The walk to the woods was silent, only Tyto’s fluttering wings were heard whenever he flew back to you after surveying the area. Other than that there was nothing but you and Kayn’s light footsteps.

“Do you have at least a blanket to lay on?” you asked him when he found a good spot to stay in for the night.

“No,” he said. “I don’t need one.”

Your lips pressed into a thin line. How can this man be comfortable resting in this forest? You could only sigh and place your bag down and take out the things you needed for the night: a blanket, a small pot, and a knife.

Here are some sticks, bard.

Tyto laid a few sticks in front of you. Thanking the owl, you started to make a bonfire.

Kayn stared at you before walking to another direction. His scythe in hand.

"I will look for more." he said before disappearing into the shadows.

Sighing, you rested your shoulders and took the food you bought from the marketplace. Luckily you had the small wood for you to cut the ingrefirents and poured the water from your waterskin into the pot and lit the bonfire.

While waiting for the water to boil. Would you play music, bard?

"If you say so.”

With a swing from your hand, music played out in your lute. Humming in the tune your grandparents taught you when you were a child. It was a song mostly played in your village, a classic, like by old people to children, maybe it is because it was one of your people’s traditions.

“It’s late to play music,” in a swift Kayn appeared from the shadows, startling you. He noticed you immediately putting away your lute and grabbed a stick to poke it to the fire.

Putting the scrapes of wood he collected, Kayn sat down across you with his eyes staring down on the cooking pot with eagerness.

You knew he was hungry, so you took a cup and poured the soup in it with a spoon and handed it to Kayn. He thankfully accepted it with his right hand, amber eyes now bore at you.

"You have been doing this for…?"

"Almost ten years."

Kayn hummed in reply. Softly blowing the hot soup served to him. You told him more about your people while both of you were eating dinner, he would ask things like what your village’s customs were and so on. Thankfully he didn’t ask anything about you. Like you have something to say about it anyways.

“Your tattoos, are they part of your clan?” you asked, gazing over Kayn’s bare body. You never pay attention to human features even when you patched Kayn while he was unconscious. You were too busy trying to save his life.

“No, they are not—though I was a part of an Order.”

You raised your brow, “Order?”

"Order of Shadows, it was run by my old master, Zed, but later on he was killed by the Golden Demon we were trying to catch. After my master's death, I searched for the Golden Demon high and low until I found him and killed him myself."

Zed

You remembered a bird mentioning that name to you. With curiosity you asked Kayn about the order, what happened after his master died, why is he wandering instead of becoming the new master?

He looked at you for a moment, disbelief painted on his face. Are you not scared that you asked too many questions about him and his order? You should be, yet you are here sitting across him, eager to hear his story like a child.

Kayn shifted on the lumpy ground, then told you the story and even answered your questions. He was there, Kayn’s eyes not leaving Zed’s bleeding body. There were no words exchanged between them, only silence and the shifting of brushes from the escaping Golden Demon. He gave his master a proper burial, the Order in chaos, of course, knowing that their master had been killed by the Golden Demon himself after they faced each other. 

At some point in his life he wanted to be the master and surpass Zed. But all he is after right now is the Golden Demon, Jhin. Not so long he met the demon, but before he could strike him down something has taken control of him and woke up to a dead Jhin a few steps away from him, brutally stricken down by the scythe multiple times.

“Does that explain your appearance right now?” you asked.

“It… doesn’t, I shouldn’t be like this or be even the Kayn you know right now.”

You gave him a confused glance, he could only shrug at you.

“So the whole thing taking you over was supposed to be permanent?” you shifted, more eager to know about him now, “Did you bargain with the Devil?”

Kayn gave you a look, “No,” he turned away, “It’s late and we should rest for tomorrow’s energy.”

You groaned, “Tell me about it?”

“No, what I said tonight is enough. Ask another day.

Kayn grunts as he lays on the tree trunk, his scythe beside him. You looked at him before turning to your bag to shuffle at something, throwing an old sleeping bag in his way, he caught it with his hands. He raised his eyebrow and glanced at your way but you were already laid on the sleeping bag with your blanket, your back facing him.

His face softened, unfolding the sleeping bag and laid on it, not engulfing himself inside the fabric knowing that there are still dangers lurking in the woods.

☤

“Kayn,” you said, poking Kayn’s shoulders.

He slowly opened his eyes as he adjusted from the rising sun’s light. You sat besides his resting body, a vial in your hands. After he saw the vial, he rose up looking at you expectantly.

“Drink this, then remove your bandages after I’ll try to heal it faster.” you said, turning around to stir the pot after Kayn took the vial from you.

He removed the cork and drank the contents of the glass then started removing the bandage around his torso. Kayn waited for you, looking at your form, your arms moving from putting food into the bowl.

Turning around you handed him his serving and took your lute.

“Have you eaten yet?” he asked.

You only nodded, not having the energy to talk.

You hummed, slowly but steadily strum the strings of the lute. Your hands began to glow faint green so does Kayn’s bruised torso. He could only stare at you, the bowl you gave him was untouched because of how mesmerized he was while you were healing his wound.

With the last strum you sighed, plopping yourself on the ground.

“The venom should be gone by the next few hours, you might get your strength back soon,” you breathlessly said, “Tyto found a nearby city, I think we should hit up there, he said there is a library. I should not miss it.”

You looked at him, he did not notice until now how tired you are, sweating like it was a hot summer day even though it was just morning and the day’s winds are cold and breezy.

“Did you sleep last night?” he asked, putting the bowl down.

“Yes.”

“Properly?”

“Uh… somehow.”

Kayn stood from the sleeping bag, took his cloak and grabbed your bag.

“H-Hey!” you shouted, wanting to stand up but exhaust washed over you, “At least take a sip of the soup I made? It’s not good to drink a magical medicine and leave it with an empty stomach.”

He looked at you before snatching the bowl and took a big gulp, finishing it an instant.

“We should go to the city and find an inn, I don’t trust you having a ‘proper’ rest, you could not even stand up by yourself.”

Your face turned red, suddenly you feel hot, though you did not try to stand up on your feet. You are tired. Kayn sighs, walking up to you and outstretched his hand for you to reach out. He helped you to your feet and placed the cloak over your shoulders and fastened it above your chest.

“Wait here, I’ll pack up the rest.” he said, putting your bag down and taking the things from the camp and stuffed them into your bag.

Kayn stopped, “Did you eat?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Why did you look tired then?”

You sighed, “I put all of my effort removing the venom, thus I am tired. You see two big bowls there?” Kayn looked at where you were pointing at, “That’s how big I ate before I healed you. I did have a proper rest.”

“Good then,” Kayn stood, your bag on his shoulder, “Where is your owl.”

You two stared up at the sky when Tyto screeched, earning your attention. Kayn looked at you and began to walk by your side, following Tyto who is leading you to the nearest city.

The city is bustling with merchants and shops. Children screaming and running around the streets with laughter passed by you and Kayn. The assassin stuck by your side, as if he is going to lose you to the noisy crowd. Tyto was nowhere to be seen but you can feel his sharp gaze on you.

“There,” Kayn pointed, “An inn.”

He pushed through the crowd, you still by his side as the both of you walk towards the inn. With a shut of the door the noise was muffled by the wooden door and was replaced by soft clinks of glass and someone playing the drum followed by soft chatters and laughter.

“We would like to rent a room,”

“Twenty for two, sir,”

“One is enough."

Kayn placed ten coins on the shopkeeper’s counter. You gave a look at Kayn, he was not looking at you but to the shopkeeper who walked out of her counter and led the way to the room.

“Here’s your room,” she said, “Though I recommend not to be loud, especially at night, I don’t want angry customers drumming on my counter. Call me when you need anything.”

Before you could explain that she misunderstood the shopkeeper had already left and Kayn closed the door. He placed the bag on the floor and removed his cloak to reveal his bare body. You looked away before he could even catch you staring at him, walking towards the bed to sit.

“Go and rest, I’ll go outside to scout anything unusual.” Kayn said, putting his scythe behind him.

“What about you?”

“I slept and felt better than ever thanks to you,” he stopped, “You should really rest.”

After hearing an  ‘okay’ from you Kayn left the room. He walked down the stairs and opened the inn’s door and stepped outside, hearing the clamorous place again. He leaned back on the wall, observing the city street. Normal he thought and very noisy . Kayn could only shake his head, if he wanted to settle down, the city would not be his fit with all of the noise coming from people and the wagon’s noise.

“Hi mister!”

Kayn looked down to see a child, about the age of six, he had a stick in his mouth and his other hand holding something, a candy.

“You look lonely,”

He gets that commentary often, he did not mind. After all, he is destined to be lonely after Zed’s death and Rhaast’s mysterious disappearance. You being his companion will be temporary, knowing after you found your people you will leave too.

“Here,” the kid stretched out his little arm, holding out the candy to him, “To keep you happy.”

Kayn took the candy from the kid, saying thank you after. The kid waved him goodbye and left. He looked at the thing, hard and somehow translucent when it’s color red.

He put the candy in his pocket and stood there for a while, until frantic claws found its way to Kayn’s bare shoulder.

“Wha—”

He turned around to see Tyto flapping his wings aggressively, small screeches coming out from his beak. Kayn can’t figure out what the owl was saying, he doesn’t have your magic to understand and talk to animals, he could only see an owl trying to scream at him.

Tyto, forgetting that Kayn can’t understand him flew over the inn’s door, pecking it frantic like something is—

“Fuck!”

Kayn opened the door, entering the inn, Tyto following him. He hurriedly took the stairs, almost tripping on one of them. Opening the door, he found you on the bed, a buff man’s arm around your neck and a mage’s hand beside your head, visible electricity running on the mage’s hands. He looked at you, your face terrified as you gripped on the muscular arm. You mouthed no at Kayn when he reached for his scythe.

“An inn,” said someone. “Not likely to be used by an assassin I’m afraid.” They came out from the shadows—no it’s not him, looking at his light armor and an obvious mark on the shoulder pads of his armor says that he is a raid leader.

He could be the one who took all your people or maybe another person. He has white hair, a bald spot on top of his head, face covered with freckles and  wrinkles.

Too old

Kayn reached out for his scythe, only for the arm around you to tighten—threatening to break your neck. Kayn lowered his hand and the arms loosened around you, giving you time to breathe.

“You will get your dearest here with her severed head if you try to take a hold of your… weapon there.” the old man said as he eyed Kayn's scythe.

Kayn gritted his teeth, not knowing what to do when you are held hostage.

“Put your weapon down, slowly, kick it towards the guy in the cloak.” the man nudged his head to the left. Kayn had no choice but to slowly put his weapon down on the floor and aggressively kicked it to the person in the cloak.

The man chuckled at Kayn’s attitude, a biter, he thought.

“Zubair is my name,” said him, “and you are?”

“Is it necessary for you to know?”

“Yes, your information is helpful when it comes to shipping you out. Less work.”

“What do you want?”

“Not telling me your name?” Zubair scoffed, “Zap the healer to dea—”

“KAYN!” he screamed, earning Zubair’s attention, “Kayn is my name.”

Zubair smiled grimly, “Kayn, I see, what a beautiful name.”

“Are you going to hurt her?”

“If you do what I tell you, then she will be safe as a pet living in luxury.” Zubair turned around to face you, gripping your chin for you to face him, “It is a waste to kill off a rare breed of a descendant of ancient mages. A pretty face too.”

You winced when Zubair flicked your face to the side. You are scared, you don’t know what to do now that Kayn is unarmed and open. You don’t even know destruction magic, healing magic and healing magic only. Tears started to swell up but you tried to stop them, not wanting any of these men see your weakness, or even Kayn.

“Anyways, sack their heads, tie up Kayn and don’t let a single scratch leave on the healer. We are going now.”

Darkness engulfed your vision, the constant shuffling of cloth and metal was heard. No noise, not even from Kayn, everything is quiet. You let out a gasp when unfamiliar arms wrapped around the back of your knees and brought you up on someone’s shoulder.

With a few steps, you were placed on something wooden, and suddenly something—or someone was thrown besides you.

“Bastard.” you heard Kayn’s whisper.

“Kayn,” you called out to him with a shaky breath, “Where will they take us?”

“I don’t know.”

“Kayn, I’m scared.”

“I know,” he softly said, “I’m here, I won’t leave.”

Kayn shifted towards you, bumping his knee against yours as an attempt to calm you down. There was this warm feeling inside your chest, you could not figure out what it is, though that is the least of your problems and you two are facing a big one. What matters right now is Kayn at your side. You leaned your head on his shoulder and closed your eyes, hoping that sooner this will end.

You were woken up by a demanding voice booming in front of you. Kayn is forcefully dragged away from you, your face dropping on the wooden floor. You winced at the pain stinging on your cheek, before you could recover a hand grabbed your arm and dragged you down the wagon (or what you thought they used).

“Kayn?” you said in worry, not knowing where he is because of the sack still covering your vision.

“I’m here,” you heard his faint reply. To your demise he is far away from you he won’t be at your side as you are to be surrounded by unknown strangers.

“Walk.” a deep voice commanded you.

You did, following where the person is leading you. They stopped, their hands still tightly holding your arms, you heard a door opening and you were led again. You were forced down to sit on a soft chair, the sack removed from your head.

You were in a room, a bedroom to be specific. It is not big nor is it small, a normal room that can be used by one person. The color of dark red painted most of the room, even the sheets of the bed are dark red silk. Brown dresser beside the door and a vanity from the corner of the room where the bed is, and the floors are completely covered with velvet carpet.

“Am I supposed to be in jail?” you asked the large man leaning on the door frame.

He shaked his head, somehow he looked like you are not supposed to be here. Or somewhere worse.

“To women like you captured by Zubair, this IS prison.”

Your heart dropped, “What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t think he will care talking about him,” the man sighed,

“Zubair is a raid leader, he also takes the people he raided as slaves, some were sold off to rich people.”

“Am I going to be sold off?”

“No.”

Your heart lightened.

“What will happen to me?"

“Something not good.”

The door opened, revealing Zubair. He walked inside the room with women scarcely any clothing covering them followed behind him. Zubair stood in front of you but kept distance as the women surrounded you like pigeons flocking on little pieces of bread. They swarmed you, touching you with no permission. Gaze at your skin, your face complimenting how perfect they are, and even look at the whole of your body judgingly.

A clap stopped the women from touching you further, when Zubair flicked his wrists the women who surrounded you were out in a flash. It was only you and Zubair in the room, the bodyguard you talked to earlier was long gone, maybe was told off by Zubair when the women looked over you.

“What do you want?” you spoke, hard even you know you are scared of what will happen to you.

Zubair smiled, he stayed put, no intentions to go near you or touch you.

“Oh it’s nice to see an Ishlac again.”

Again

You felt anger bubbling inside you, “You were there—it was you.”

“Surprising isn’t it?”

“What did you do to them?” you kept yourself intact, even if you tried to attack this man your fate won’t end well.

Zubair only shrugged, “I don’t know exactly, they could be everywhere—slaves— dead .”

“What did my people even do to you?”

“Nothing really, it is my line of work. No grudges, nothing personal, just about work.”

“Selling people? Hurt them? Put them as slaves? What are you trying to achieve here?”

“None of your business.”

He walked to the door before he could go outside, Zubair looked back, his smirk not leaving his wrinkly face.

“Oh, to inform you Kayn will be shipped out tomorrow. Though I don’t give goodbyes to my employees.”

You sat on the stool, Ravika, a woman you met who is nice, paced from the vanity to you as she was doing your makeup. You shifted on your seat, uncomfortable in the clothes provided to you by Zubair himself. It was disgusting, there was barely any cloth covering you, only shining rocks hung around your skin.

“You’ll get used to it,” Ravika said after seeing your discomfort with the dress, “There, it’s finished I’ll lead you to the sofa room where he is.”

After she placed jewelry from top to your ankles, she led you to where Zubair was waiting. The gold and diamonds you wore tinkle every step you take, eyes are on you as Ravika assisted you to the sofa room.

“Ah, Kalos,” Zubair greeted. He sat on the biggest couch you’ve ever seen, you could even sleep there if you want to.

Ravika patted you on the shoulder, you gave her a nod and she walked away. This man for sure loves the color velvet, every furniture and things were in color of velvet and gold. But mostly velvet.

“Come, sit, here.” he pointed beside him.

No

With no choice, you obeyed, walking up to him and sat.

Please

Uncomfortable, you could only think, your attention was caught by something in front of you. It was the nightclub, neon colors filled the dim room, you tried to find Ravika only to see her serving drink for those filthy men.

“What do you want from me exactly?” you asked, so boldly.

Zubair raised an eyebrow, but answered your question nonetheless, “You are the only one left of your people, you are deemed to be a big-ticket.”

He is telling you you are worth something so much that he wants to flaunt how rich he is and how horrible of a person he is. You could only stay in silence, not wanting to have a conversation with Zubair no more. Your worries lay more on Kayn, you don’t know where he is or what they could be doing to him. You need to find a way.

As Zubair minds his own business looking over the nightclub you look around the room. Everything is decorated with expensive things, even throphy animals were hung on the wall. How cruel . You saw a jug of water placed on a glass tray with golden cups surrounding it, it was beside a metal pot. There were no guards inside or even outside the room, you know since the room has a doorway, the outside is empty.

“Say, should I pour you a drink?” you ushered, hoping that he will say yes.

He looked at you and raised an eyebrow at your action, you could only shrug at him, “Isn’t it more flashy if the last of the Ishlac is serving you?”

He smirked at your statement, “Smart, go on, I could use a drink for myself.”

You stood up from your seat, walking up to the metal pot, looking behind you making sure he was watching the nightclub. To be less suspicious you used the jar and poured wine on the cup, putting it down and reaching for the pot.

Slowly, you walked towards him, the metal in hand.

“Why are you taking a while to pou—”

Before he could fully turn around you, you smashed the pot on his head giving him a good night’s sleep. You grabbed his collar before he could fall on the floor and slowly laid him on the sofa, you placed the metal pot on the floor. Looking at his body, you turned around and ran for the doorway only to be stopped by a large figure. Your heart dropped, looking up to see the man you saw in your room earlier looking down at you.

“I—I—”

“Turn three lefts and the fifth right, you can see the dungeon where your pretty boy is.” he said, “Go, before he wakes up.”

He steped aside for you to walk out, you looked at him, shock still plastered on your face. You could only whisper a thank you and rush out of the room, not looking back.

You followed the man’s directions given to you, after entering the fifth right, dark metal gates loomed. It was open, you took a peek looking left and right if there was someone inside. You entered, trying to find the cell where Kayn is.

“Kayn?” you whispered.

“Kayn?” you said. Louder this time.

“Healer?”

You ran to the voice that seemingly called you, you never told your name to him. Grabbing on the metal bars you saw Kayn walking up to you, his face inches away from yours, the bars keeping you from him.

“I—I don’t know where the keys are.”

“No need for keys,” he still has his eyes on you, scared that you might disappear, “Take the scythe and give it to me.”

You looked at where he pointed, the scythe was laid on the brick wall, besides it was your lute. With haste, you ran to the scythe and took it. Before you could take another step towards Kayn’s cell, your hair was immediately pulled making you scream in pain, letting go of the scythe having it fall and slide on the floor, you tried to grab the hand gripping your hair.

“You dare to smash a metal pot on my head?” Zubair whispered to your ear, “You will regret that.”

You were thrown on the cold floor, knocking off your flute in the process.

He saw the lute, he smirked and took it, smashing it on the wall, green smoke emmits from the lute then it disappeared. Leaving only a dull broken lute.  You could only look at the broken lute in horror, all those wood from your village, the handicraft made by both of your grandparents. Gone.

Zubair loomed over you, his hand wrapped around your neck, choking you. You tried to gasp for air as you squeezed on Zubair’s hand. His other hand started to take a hold of your clothes, you panicked, you tried to wriggle while his hand was around your neck.

You choked a cry, Zubair smiled, “You look beautiful this way.”

Disgusting

You closed your eyes and screamed, “Kayn!”

Then it was silence, the hands prying on you were gone, you heard a thump followed by a warm liquid pooling around your feet.

“Don’t open your eyes, stay here.” said Kayn, you followed what he said, in fear of what you see in front of you after you heard a loud thud earlier.

Everything was silent, though you could hear muffled thuds through the walls of the dungeon. You still have your eyes closed, followed by heavy breathing from you, you heard footsteps. It stopped when it found itself in front of you. You felt a cloth placed on your shoulders, keeping you from the cold and giving you warmth. Arms found itself around you to help you stand on your feet, you felt the warm ooze on your sole. You decided to ingore it and followed the arms that are guiding you.

“We are safe now.” Kayn whispered into your ear, “Don’t open them yet.”

You only nodded, finally knowing that you are now safe in the assassin’s arms.

“Steady your stance,” Kayn said, “Swing it towards me.”

You swung the dagger to Kayn, he easily dodges it.

“Not fair, I don’t have your skill.”

“That is why we are doing this,” he positioned himself, you could only groan in frustration.

After the incident and knowing what happened to your people, you and Kayn ventured around taking small quests or even participating in Kayn’s work and meaning by his work means him killing bandits, stealing their things and selling them. You were willing to help him, not knowing what it is, and when you knew you promised to yourself you won’t be helping him anytime soon.

He asked you what you will do now that most of your people are gone or scattered around the world. It is almost impossible for you to find them, you just told him you will be his company from now on. He was silent, of course, since you knew in your first meeting with him he was not willing to take you as his temporary company until you found out what happened to your people. You told him it’s fine if he doesn’t want you—though he cuts you off, telling you he likes your company.

Then here you are, getting trained by the assassin Kayn.

“Okay, time out, that was tiring.”

“I’ll be cooking this time then.” Kayn said, walking to your camp, leaving you in the temporary training grounds you use.

“Well at least your cooking is getting better, so go on.” you smiled, placing your dagger down on the stump and followed Kayn.

You sat on the ground, looking up at the sky. Night will soon take over.

“Hey,” you called out.

“Yeah?” Kayn replied.

“Come look at this.” your eyes never left the turning sky, colors of orange-red disperse as the darkest blue took over with glittering stars in the sky.

You heard a soft thump beside you, Kayn sat close to you.

“Beautiful,” Kayn smiled, “Reminded me of a senario that happened a few months ago.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is the same sky, same time where I first saw you in your village, playing the lute under the willow tree.” He looked at you with such intensity in his eyes, too close to each other, you were liking it. “Such a melody caught me almost in trance, before I fell.”

His face was an inch away from yours, “Hey I—”

You kissed him on the cheek, cutting him off guard. You could only look at him and smile.

“Kayn you’re too obvious, even Tyto noticed it too.” you laughed, a screech from Tyto you both heard.

“Dang bird, did he tell you?”

You nodded, he smiled.

“Well my intentions have been exposed,” he held your hand, “Then?”

“I have nowhere to go, my people are gone, some are around the world far away from me to which it is impossible to find them. You accepted me as your companion with your adventures… and as your look out when you do your assassination work. I think this is obvious too, Kayn.” you said, giving his hand a squeeze.

“More than that actually, as my—uh—parnter?”

“Of course, aren’t we already?”

“Oh,”

You could only laugh, you felt his shoulders shake, trying to prevent himself from laughing.

“Do you love me then?”

“Depends.”

“...”

“...I do.”

You smiled, placing your head on Kayn’s shoulders as you two both lay on the soft grass while looking at the starry night. Bodies cuddled together for warmth from the cold night. You liked this, no doubt Kayn too. You hoped this would last forever, forever in his arms.

[overtlydinosaurian]

It's terrifying how normal it is to be exposed to porn and sexual material online. I used to play flash games (on non-adult sites) and get pornographic ads playing on the sides! Sure, they weren't for me necessarily but being online ""apparently"" just means being exposed to explicit materials whether you're looking for them or not, whether you're a minor or not. People have taken that idea and become completely complicit in it, and making the internet a worse place to participate in.

I can name times where people thought they were being funny and spammed a group chat or a server with porn. Or guy ""friends"" DMing me porn of women because its "funny." It's even worse if you ban nsfw stuff or say you don't want to talk about sex. It's taken as a challenge.

Intentionally or unintentionally showing porn (including lewd images; don't pretend naked but still wearing underwear isn't included here) to people who don't want to see it IS SEXUAL HARASSMENT. Pretending seeing porn is a normal part of being in online communities is just another way to desensitize people to sexual harassment and ultimately, sexual violence (as showing the porn is sexual harassment, and porn itself often depicts sexual violence).

If people spamming the tags are reading this, can someone who doesn't see a problem with this answer with what your line of thinking is?

Flashing is still flashing, digital or not. Is it about the target? Is it about the level of nudity allowed? When will it be agreed upon that this and everything I've listed above are sexual harassment?

I wish I didn’t see porn when I open the explore tab because my recommended tags are spammed with it

and I really shouldn’t have to say “I wish I didn’t have to see porn”. everyone spamming these tags with porn is committing a sex offence. Not only are they aware they are exposing people (they don’t like) to sexual content, largely their own penises, not all that different to flashers, but this app has banned porn. There’s no tag I can block or setting I can change to not see it like on other platforms.

also they are knowingly exposing children on this platform - largely trans kids - to pornography. It is a sexual offence against women, specifically feminists, and children.

If you are trans and you are ashamed of your community being full of these kids of sex offenders then stop being quiet about it. I have seen NO ONE from that community speak up about the disgust of having not only trans tags, where kids will be, filled with 50% porn, but anti-porn feminist tags. Are you cowards or are you complicit? Will you speak out against sexual violation? Would you protect a woman or a child from it?

[epicspheal]

Hi again! Just wanted to know your opinion on the Pokemon villains, especially towards a chance of redemption. I think the only villains that kinda got redeemed was Archie and Maxie, learning that what they did was a mistake ( a little too late tho) and maybe Colress ( being the true neutral he is), through the Alola games. But yeah, what's you're opinion on them?

Hi Ihopethisendswell!

I’ve been sitting on this ask for a bit just trying to gather my thoughts. To be honest, the Pokemon Villains are some of my least favorite aspects of the games, mainly because in my opinion they’re rarely handled well (except for original Team Plasma and Team Skull, those guys are amazing and I except no slander of either)

I’ll start with Team Rocket. They have a very basic but realistic evil goal (especially in a setting as fantastic as the world of Pokemon). I honestly can’t say I dislike them. I would like to see more teams using their concept of just taking advantage of Pokemon for profit and selfish reasons rather than trying to tie in some philosophy (because to be honest in my opinion most of the teams who try to use philosophy to justify their extremism just end up looking really stupid for the most part). I like Kanto Team Rocket better than Johto’s plot and Rainbow Rocket was only good for the “what if” aspect and adding to the new multiverse lore. As far as redemption...I don’t think Giovanni or the grunts really deserve it.

For Team Aqua and Team Magma, I actually like them in a “so bad it’s good” type of way (definitely nostalgia based as even though I got into Pokemon during the original anime, I didn’t get to play a main game until  gen 3). Like the idea of having two separate evil teams competing against each other to see who can enact their plans first is a super cool concept in my opinion but wasted on the idiocy of the “expand the land/expand the sea” goals. I will say I enjoyed their Emerald enhanced plot and ORAS’s expansion on them in the Delta Episode. I think the Emerald clash of Kyogre and Groudon was the most logical conclusion to their schemes. As far as redemption goes, I do think Maxie and Archie should’ve served some jail time like Chairman Rose because their plan was just as catastrophic if not more so.

For Team Galactic, ugh. They’re my second least favorite. They were just boring and made an already painfully slow game even more intolerable. This is where I give the Pokemon Anime credit, they made them more interesting in the games and I actually really loved how it was adapted (proof that when they want to the anime can have some really solid writing). Redemption for them? Nope, you literally tried to rewrite the world. Even with Cyrus’ tragic backstory...still nope.

Now for Team Plasma. This is how you do an evil team. Easily one of my favorite teams to actually go up against in game. I like that they actually tried to tackle an ethical question with Pokemon in Team Plasma.  N was a fantastic antagonist and I’m glad he saw the light at the end and he definitely deserves the redemption. And all of the Team Plasma grunts who actually believed in N’s goal deserve redemption. I really enjoyed what they did in BW2 where they had the Plasma House with the misguided former grunts and the confrontation between the old team plasma and Neo Team Plasma about how ostracized the reformed grunts are. Although I don’t like Neo Team Plasma as much (although the outfits are 100 times cooler), it does make sense that the ones still loyal to Ghetsis would try for another attempt. Also it took me a second runthrough of White 2 to really appreciate Colress and his “this is for science” mantra but you know what, I love him. Him and N are really awesome and deserve the redemption. Ghetsis can go jump in a fucking volcano though, him and his followers (:  As for Team Flare, they suffer a lot from not getting a sequel or third version. But like Team Galactic the anime adaptation did a lot of good for them. Team Flare is like Team Aqua/Magma for me in that I think they’re so bad it’s actually good. They actually had some funny dialogue bits and there was actually a lot of potential for them storywise if we had of gotten another Kalos game. The Great War, and AZ all had a lot of potential. Plus having an Elite 4 member working with them? That was more of a twist than Lysandre being the boss. And the Xerosic post-game plot was heartbreaking. Redemption wise though, it’s kind of hard to do with a group who literally tried to nuke the world. 

Team Skull. I love these guys. I love them so much. This is another example for me personally of an evil team done right. I really liked how they weren’t even evil, just frustrated youth who were failed by Alola’s tradition. Like I could seriously go on about how toxic the Alolan community really is if the fact that a child failing the island challenge (a coming of age journey) somehow makes them feel so down about themselves and feel like rejects to the point they join a literal gang to find some sort of belonging (this is of course not talking about the origins of Team Skull being from a disgraced Kahuna who incurred the wrath of the tapus). Like I feel so sorry for them and I wanted to yell at the Kahunas in game for them not recognizing that their traditions were creating the Team Skull problem. Team Skull definitely deserved their redemption as they reformed in the post game

Aether Foundation though, ugh. Easily my least favorite. I really disliked the Aether Family as a whole as I felt they were invasive to the plot and that the focus should’ve been on team skull and how traditions while important can have harmful consequences. I will say it was nice to have female antagonist and I vastly prefer SM Lusamine to USUM Lusamine. USUM Lusamine was more redeemable but she was less interesting and USUM really screws up Lillie’s development which I dislike (which is saying something because I really can’t stand Lillie). 

Team Yell was a disappointment. Honestly there was so much potential because like Team Skull they are a very grounded team (as you can see, I like the grounded in reality teams more so than the philosphical extremist ones). Like I can totally understand why they would form considering how dilapidated Spikemuth is. The issue is that they aren’t given a chance to do much actual evil. Even though Team Skull wasn’t really all that bad, they still did bad things. Which is realistic given their desperation. As desperate as Team Yell was to get Marnie to become champion I was expecting more sabotage and outright hostility. Which while being bad, would be realistic given their situation. That and the fact that no one really calls out the fact the irony of their sabotage actually delegitimizing Marnie’s strengths as a trainer. Like is Marnie truly one of the strongest trainers from the gym challenge or were their people who could’ve beat her who got targeted by Team Yell and ultimately dropped out? Not to mention the implications of ongoing beef between Team Yell and Chairman Rose. Again so much potential wasted. If they had of just made them just a tad more hostile and had someone point out how they were unintentionally making Marnie look bad, they’d easily be one of my favorites.

Macros Cosmos. I think this was the team most screwed over by the plot, and the controversial anime adaptation did them only a few favors. I’ve said this before, but the royal twins historical manipulation plot was more interesting than Rose’s “I’m going to start the Galarian Apocalypse to save Galar” plot. And the sad part is Rose could’ve been a very compelling antagonist. I’ll say that if they really wanted to make Rose an antagonist, they could’ve taken away the Eternatus plot and just used his poor communication skills to cause problems for the gym leaders and champion. A bad boss with impatience and crappy communication skills is something many people can relate to, and I think would’ve been a more interesting plot than trying to force philosophical extremism on to him because.

And lastly the Royal Twins. Man I hated them, but also they’re some of my favorite antagonists. I think people at times look solely at their goofy hairstyles and entitledness and forget how dangerous these two actually were. They had a whole network of spies loyal to them? Imagine a game with them as the main protagonists where it gets to the point you can’t trust the NPCs because who knows which one supports them. Also their historical revision plot is something so relevant today with textbooks being written in a way to minimize horrible atrocities such as the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Granted their plot in game left a lot to be desired, but they had so much potential and honestly a better reasoning to want to awake Eternatus than Rose did. As you can see I prefer the more grounded teams such as Rocket, Plasma, Skull and Yell (in theory) and the Royal Twins given how their goals relate to the real world. I also think in many ways Gamefreak does better with those plots wiriting wise than the philosophical extremist teams. 

[tokiro07]

I was looking at things about medaka and I read your post about "the end".She can really recreate abilities just by hearing them but that makes me debate whether that ability that she hears that exists really needs to exist.I mean. If I say that I have seen someone use a skill based on creating objects from clay, she needs to know that she really exists to copy it or she can recreate it without actually existing. I hope you understand what I say. I do not speak English very well.

The second part of relfexion is. Do you consciously recreate them? In case you "copy" or recreate them unintentionally, you could invent a detrimental ability to defeat it.

If I'm understanding you right, you're wondering if Medaka can use The End to "copy" Skills that don't actually exist, as it's been proven that she doesn't need to actually witness a Skill in use to do so

I've been wondering about this for a very long time, and I think that Medaka can in fact create new abilities if she thinks to, but probably doesn't because she doesn't quite realize she can

Consider this: The End's ability isn't actually to "copy" Skills, it's to "perfect" Skills. Weaknesses, drawbacks, limitations, and deficits in potential are all wiped away until the ideal form of the Skill is realized. Well, wouldn't requiring firsthand exposure to a Skill be a limitation? In fact, wouldn't requiring that a Skill exist in the first place be a limitation?

Genetically, The End is a combination of both Maguro's Analysis and Naze's Remodeling: Medaka analyzes a target Skill and any physiological changes her body would need to undergo in order to facilitate it, then automatically remodels her body to fit those changes. In its incomplete state, The End needs a reference to know what changes it's going to make, tracing the existing Skills before altering and improving them

Once The End has been perfected by its own analysis of itself, naturally it would be able to intuit the changes it needs to make to Medaka's body without a reference point, aside from knowing what ability it wants to make

And therein lies the problem: no matter how good it is at making abilities without reference materials, it still requires that Medaka have something in mind to make, otherwise it would just be randomly generating powers non-stop, which would itself be a greater weakness than the alternative

So why doesn't Medaka use this aspect of The End whenever she needs a new ability to match a situation?

Well...because she NEVER needs to

Medaka has proven time and time again that she's perfectly capable of doing anything through sheer willpower and might alone, even if she didn't have The End. In fact, having a utility belt of a power that allows her to just make up new powers on the fly isn't Medaka's style, it's Ajimu's

The mentality necessary to rest on one's laurels and generate powers to match situations rather than using the abilities already at one's disposal is closer to a Not Equal than an Abnormal. That's how Ajimu got 13 quadrillion Skills in the first place; she didn't even choose to have them appear, they all just did naturally as she needed them

Therefore, if Medaka were to allow The End to truly perfect itself, she would lose an important aspect of herself, ceasing to be an Abnormal that views herself as Normal and becoming a Not Equal

Honestly, solely based on mentality? Medaka shouldn't even be called an Abnormal or a Plus or anything like that. She should be her own class altogether: Equal. She doesn't view anyone as below her or above her in terms of skill level, Skill type, seniority, economic class, etc. She believes in the equality of human value, and she herself is no exception to that

Y'know, when Medaka Box ended, I thought it was a huge shame that Medaka lost The End as she grew older, but now that I think of it, that was really the ultimate way to perfect Medaka: actually making her equal to other people. I'm sure she's still incredibly strong and intelligent, but having god-like superpowers was only ever going to alienate her from other people no matter how old she got or how good she was at controlling it. Having The End leave and allow Medaka to live as a Normal truly was the most fitting end

[littlemisssquiggles]

Hey Squiggles, I saw your post about Ruby being the hero to stop Salem. I think you're onto something! I recently re-watched V6C3 to put in more into perspective.Ozma was never tasked to stop Salem but to reunite humanity so everyone can live in peace and restore magic to its former glory. I have always thought Sliver Eyes was the way to stop Salem since they can destroy grimm. Plus, it would explain why Salem hunted all the SEW down...Why else would she if they weren't a threat to her.

Exactamundo m’dear Dagger. That’s basically the same deduction I made too. Then again, the way how I’m looking at it now is, I believe Salem firstly targeted the Silver Eyed Warriors purely due to them being a threat to the Grimm. When we first learnt of the Silver Eyed Warriors back during the finale of V3, Qrow mentioned that the Silver Eyes were feared by the Grimm given their ability to immediately eradicate them with their power.

It was also mentioned in V5 by Raven Branwen that Salem is the leader of the Grimm. It would make sense since currently Salem is the only being in Remnant who is able to control and create the Grimm---a power that one belonged only to the God of Darkness.

The God of Darkness was the original Master of Grimm as their creator. Now Salem has unintentionally become his successor inheriting such abilities after diving into the depths of the God’s Grimm Pools. I’m sticking to my guns on the Grimm Pools being what granted Salem reign over the Grimm. It makes sense since she was never shown to possess this ability until after her baptism into darkness. This detail was also foreshadowed briefly by Jinn during the Lost Fable after Ozma had reincarnated into the body of Diggs and went searching throughout New Remnant to find Salem until his travels brought him to her disgruntled hut in the dark woods.

“…Ozma had found himself in a world completely unfamiliar to him. Cities look different. Creatures known as the Faunus bore fangs and claws and were locked away in cages. And without the blessing of the Gods; no one could perform magic like mankind was once capable of. No one but himself and a woman known as the Witch.

During his years of travel, he heard the same frightened whispers that spoke of a terrifying sorceress who commanded dark powers in the wilds amongst the beasts and monsters. Ozma was convinced that this witch was Salem…”

“…A terrifying sorceress who commanded dark powers in the wilds amongst the beasts and monsters…”

So bearing that in mind, one could concur that Salem didn’t possess the ability to rule over the Grimm until she fell into Grimm Pools. Right now, the Creatures of Grimm who were once described as humanity’s greatest threat is under Salem’s command, thus in turn making Salem just as much of a threat as the Grimm as she is there master.

This brings me back to my original point. I think Salem only hunted the Silver Eyed Warriors at first since they were a threat to the Grimm.

If the Silver Eyes possessed such an ability and such a power became more common knowledge then more people might’ve began to have more faith in the Silver Eyes and thus, loose fear over the Grimm.

As evidenced before, Salem exists to divide the people. Any shred of hope she sees, she will do everything in the her power to snuff it out. The Silver Eyed Warriors were no exception.

The Silver Eyes were killed because their power posed a threat to Salem’s army of Grimm. 

However, I don’t think Salem realized how much a threat the Silver Eyed Warriors were to her until she encountered one for herself.

This is why I’m digging my hunch about Summer Rose being the first Silver Eyed Huntress who came close to harming Salem with her power. 

If Salem’s scars were to come from one source, this squiggle meister believes it’s from Summer.

Either that or…Salem’s scar came as a result of her encounter with the First Silver Eyed Warrior to walk Remnant’s depths and it’s that particular Silver Eyes’ bloodline that the Roses----meaning Ruby Rose and her mother Summer Rose---are descended from.

I once shared a small RWBY Musing around the possibility of what if…Ruby is a descendent of the first Silver Eyed Warrior to walk Remnant?

Because that’s an origin story we still have yet to see. If Ozma was the first Wizard of Light, then who was the First Silver Eyed Warrior? What’s their story like and how does it connect to Salem?

Not sure if we’ll ever get these answers within the series anytime soon but for now, I strongly want to believe that Summer’s death had something to do with Salem earning her scars. 

I really think it’s a case where Summer must’ve figured out that her powers were derived from the Fountain of Life and Creation that belonged to the God of Light. It was also the Fountain of Life and Creation that caused Salem’s immortality after Light dropped her into its depths.

Therefore…it wouldn’t surprise me if Summer somehow made this discovery on her own and based on these findings, she determined that the Silver Eyes might just be humanity’s chance at stopping Salem giving its ancient connection to her.

So using that info, Summer set out to kill Salem herself since she was the only being in Remnant with the power to do so. This ties into my hunch where I believe that Summer is the first Silver Eye who came close to actually touching Salem. 

But of course, Summer failed in her mission but not before leaving a lasting impression on Salem in the form of the vein-like markings we see on the Witch’s body.

I think Summer caused that with her power. I think Summer  Rose came close to stopping Salem but failed in her sacrifice. Now Ruby may be what is needed to finish the job; taking over where her mother left off. That’s my theory for now. 

While Summer’s death may have been in vain, I don’t think it was for nothing either.

I think Summer revealed something about Salem when she chose to challenge her. While she failed and didn’t live to reveal this truth to others, I do think the truth is recorded somewhere. In history---the chronicled stories of time and space itself.

As revealed in V6, while the Lamp of Knowledge can’t reveal the future, it can reveal the past. 

And do you know what’s story from the past we desperately need to know right now?

What really happened to Summer Rose?

Here’s what I’m thinking : We’ve all been theorizing the possibility of Ruby or someone else asking Jinn for a way to stop Salem that we’ve neglected one other significant possibility.

Do you know what would be an interesting twist? What if… instead of asking Jinn for a way to stop Salem, Ruby instead asks the knowledgeable genie of the lamp to answer a question that we know has been bugging our little red rose for a long time. 

What if…for the final question, Ruby asks Jinn to show her the truth about what really happened to her mother?

“…Jinn, what happened to my mother?”

And in doing this, Jinn’s revealation of the past surrounding Summer’s death simultaneously reveals Salem’s vulnerability to the power of the Silver Eyed Warrior---thus revealing to Ruby that the one person who can stop Salem is her as she is the last living Silver Eyed Warrior. 

BOOM! There’s your story right there.

But y’know…as always, these are only just my squiggly theories.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020) 

[a-rebellious-waffle]

...alright, if you're not willing to fact-check, let me do it for you. I get that this isn't a big thing for you. That's fair. But, as a historian and someone who is following this war closely, I feel it's my duty to correct this.

No. No, it is not "infested with Nazis."

The Azov Battalion was estimated to be about 30-55% Nazis pre-war, and has taken heavy casualties in the fighting. That number has likely dropped significantly.

The Azov Battalion is a single battalion out of many. They are not the majority of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces are fighting for the independence of Ukraine, which is an admirable goal. The Russian government has repeatedly attempted to genocide Ukrainians through a variety of methods since the time of the Tsars; under Stalin, there was a genocide known as the Holodomir, I believe, and Ukrainian was not taught to Ukrainians. Russian was. The Russians are committing an act of genocide against Ukraine, methodically and deliberately identifying and destroying targets that are civilian in nature—see the bombings of hospitals, maternity centres, schools, and civilian shelters that were clearly marked as civilian buildings—and killing Innocents that were not involved in the fighting in deliberate executions—see the Bucha Massacre.

The reason that NATO is supplying weapons to Ukraine is because Ukraine is fighting an aggressive, expansionist neighbor that has repeatedly invaded nearby states under shaky pretenses, and if you do not support people fighting fascism you open the door to them. Ukraine is a democratic country, with a democratically-elected leader, that is fighting a country which can, has, and will genocide it, which is under the control of an election-rigging dictator. Ukraine is not going to turn its guns on NATO unless they become a Russian client state or puppet because NATO is the best safeguard against international aggression from anywhere. As is essentially NATO's motto: "Mutual Defense Assures Stability".

If they do see us as betrayers for cutting off aid, they'd be right to. That would be a betrayal of a sovereign democratic nation—akin to the Allies betraying Czechoslovakia in the Munich Conference.

I agree, every Ukrainian Nazi should drop dead. So should every Russian Nazi. Guess which side has a lot fucking more of them? Because people talk about Azov incessantly, but the Russian government until recently was funding a mercenary group called Wagner that had similar if not worse fascist and alt-right ties, and worse conduct.

You may only be Some Cunt Online (which, respect, that's why I follow you), but I am someone who is following this conflict closely, and I'm here to tell you that you're unintentionally feeding directly into the Russian propaganda.

Russian propaganda right now is focused not on making anyone pro-Russia, but focused on making everyone think that Ukraine and Russia are just as bad as each other. This is not true. There are, to my knowledge, two instances of Ukrainian war crimes; both related to the killing of surrendering troops. There is ample evidence for thousands of Russian war crimes, ranging from the execution of civilians to drunken Russian soldiers neutering captured Ukrainian soldiers with pocketknives to Russian artillery targeting a building clearly marked with "civilian" that was being used to house refugees to the bombings of hospitals.

To think that Ukraine is just as bad as Russia is to give in to that propaganda.

To think that Ukraine does not deserve our help is to betray our own principles of self-determination and equality.

Ukraine deserves to be free of Russian tyranny. Ukraine deserves to be a free, democratic nation. I'm normally against the MIC, but I have to give it this: the US is the Arsenal of Democracy and it is well-stocked. The best defense against fascism is a coalition of free nations and that coalition is called NATO. So, when a democracy is threatened, I am more than willing to see NATO and the US ship aid to Ukraine. (Even if it's a rarity—I know about the US's overseas track record.)

The path to victory will not be an easy one—it'll be long and painful. But, it is worth walking, because the alternative is to watch a genocide and know that it could've been stopped.

When going through hell, keep going. Slava Ukraini.

Hey you reblogged some vatnik propaganda that was like:

Durr Hurr the Ukrainians are untrustworthy nazis Herpa Derp they will betray NATO boopy doopy the counter offensive will fail!

So now I have to go on an Adderall fueled essay to counter it:

The Ukrainian combined armed forces, like any modern military, is made of relatively normal people. Thus they need food, weapons, supplies, and reassurances that their families are safe. NATO nations have blatantly provided all those materials and taken in the families of soldiers. NATO members have also arranged supply pipelines to the frontline that will last for years. Furthermore, commanding Officers in the UA have been recieving accurate intelligence from NATO analysts.

I'm not a professional sociologist/psychologist but I do believe that close cooperation which yields positive outcomes does result in closer social bonds between participants. Those kinds of bonds will prevent people from harming each other. It's a fact that Ukraine has yet to invade Poland while the Wagner Group attempted to arrest political opponents on their own side. So I'd say the West's logistics & loyalty between it's proxies is better than the East right now.

All of this isn't enough to make fortified trenches and mine fields disappear overnight. That would take months of organized operations, which are possible because of the factors listed above.

Back to the subject of Betrayal: I will admit it is possible for NATO Nations and "Western" Ukraine to break up:

NATO support could be taken away if the majority of western European leadership suddenly became Pro-Russian American-style Libertarians, like what happened in the UK or the USA. And the Ukrainian armed forces could turn on NATO if the Russians were right and the defenders of the Zelensky regime were actually satanic, queer, far-right, Zionist nationalists thirsting for blood for their bioweapons and any European or American will do.

Only in those realities could such betrayals occur. Notice that the former situation is possible through Russian influence. The latter was (might still be) a major talking point in Russian state media.

Imperialism and war crimes are bad. It's bad when the United States does it, it's bad when Russia does it, it's bad when any country does it. It's bad like the plague.

The Russian Federation's stated objective is the assimilation of Ukraine. So blaming the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex for supplying Ukrainians with weapons seems like... I don't know. Like blaming a venomous snake for your Bubonic Plague infection, which you got from a rat?

The point of the original post I reblogged was "We're giving a lot of fucking guns to a country whose military is positively infested with blatant, actual Nazis, and when NATO/The US military industrial complex no longer sees any benefit in supporting Ukraine against Russia, these cunts specifically are going to be very fucking pissed off about it and will turn those weapons on those they see as their betrayers". This is not a huge leap of logic, and also I am neither a historian nor a political scientist who actually has the time, the fucks, or the platform to justify a Propaganda Check on my one monthly post about the Ukraine conflict. I am simply Some Cunt Online, i hope every Ukrainian trooper with a fuckin SS badge eats their sidearm as soon as possible, and furthermore Carthage Must Be Destroyed.

[thedyingmoon]

🖤 I See My Future Before Me 🖤

~ A V X Reader set in an Alternate Universe wherein ugly feet are a big deal (?!) 🤔

~ "Too Much Fluff Can Kill You" Volume 2. 😂

~ Tagging my friends, @heaven-on-a-landslide , @krazy06 , @diabeticsugarush , @ehrzeth , @ceruleanworld , @lessy86 , @simmy-ships , @boundbysoul , and @gxthghoulfriend . 🖤

~ Once again helped by my special anonymous adviser who stayed up late with me! And it's all worth it! I hope you like this. ❤

~ Just an important piece of instruction: Please watch the video below before proceeding to the next paragraph. 🖤

~ LET'S DO THIS! 🖤

***

XIV

***

Dante stood in the lobby as he read the latest issue of his favorite magazine.

Already in his best formal attire, the man unceremoniously waited for you. The gig this time required the two of you to infiltrate a party to rat a certain Demon out, and at the mere thought of you in a dress had him intrigued.

Of course, he found you quite fetching. But, the clothes you wore on a daily basis? With your fondness for loose, oversized, and unflattering pieces of clothing, he honestly thought that you got nothing compared to either Trish or Lady, who were two of the most beautiful, if not lethal, women he had ever seen.

Yes, he thought that all the beauty you got were wasted on your conservative tastes,...

"Are we gonna go, or what?" Dante, who failed to notice you as you came down from your room, heard you loud and clear and turned.

"Hey, what took you - ?"

The man stopped dead in his tracks, for there, right before his very eyes, was,...

You raised an eyebrow and placed your hands on your hips. "Are you gonna stare at me the whole evening? We still have a job to do."

"The lady is right." Morrison, who just entered the building, said. And when he saw you, his eyes widened in complete awe. "And surprise of all mother of surprises. You look like the most gorgeous star in the galaxy, my dear."

"Thank you, Mr. Morrison." You said, taking the Broker's hand and letting him lead you outside towards his car.

"Your partner seems to be tongue tied."

"Yeah, he's busy with that magazine of his."

You carefully entered the vehicle as Morrison opened the door for you. A few moments later, Dante followed.

The ride towards your destination was a really quiet one. You would occasionally look at the front at Morrison as he drove but, most of the time, your eyes were just glued to the window beside you. Despite that, you could not shake the feeling of heaviness in your body. It's as if you have been the subject of someone's intense stares for far too long.

Still, you smiled, not letting yourself be tempted to indulge your silent companion.

Your resistance persisted until you two reached the place.

And Dante could not hold it in any longer.

"Hey," he began, isolating you from the other guests by leading you to an empty hallway. "You've been keeping things from me."

"Wha - ?" You started to argue but, then, realized he was right. "Well, yes."

"What else can you do?" Dante demanded, your overwhelming scent of a very addictive vintage wine assaulting his nostrils and driving his patience to the limit. "Witchcraft? Sorcery? Voodoo?"

You only chuckled at his question. "They're the same thing."

The man grabbed your shoulders and made you look up at him, his light - colored eyes more intense than ever before. "Tell. Me."

Unfazed, you only smiled up at him, grabbed his huge hands, and removed them gingerly off you. You then took one of his hands and led him back towards the living area where the party was taking place.

"What are you doing?"

"See that lady?" You whispered to him in a lover - like fashion so as not to make yourself obvious that you're plotting something dangerous. "That's your target."

"How did you even - ?!"

"Sshh! Don't ask. Okay?"

Dante looked at the said female, who happened to be the host of the party.

"So, in two minutes, she will come our way, introduce herself to you, and start flirting with you. You will flirt with her for, like, five minutes."

The man looked at you suspiciously. "Why did I suddenly feel nervous about this?"

"Oh, you'll be fine. Anyway, her lover will come out of hiding. You will kill him."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Who said anything about killing an innocent man?!"

"And," you went on, ignoring Dante's complaint. "... you will use the Rebellion and drive it through his skull, then she will attack you. You will use the Ebony and Ivory against her. And, guess what, all the guests in here? They're all Demons. You will finish them in, like, ten minutes, tops. Then, you will join me in the balcony and wipe Demon blood off your face."

"And why am I supposed to believe you?"

"Because your two minutes is up and she's coming towards us."

And surely enough, with hips swaying seductively and eyelids fluttering like butterfly wings, the gracefully tall and slender host of the party was coming towards the legendary Devil Hunter. Dante looked back at you and realized you weren't there any more.

Approximately fifteen minutes later, the man, who was covered in Demon guts and chandelier glitter, came out to join you on the balcony. He wiped the Demon blood off his face and leaned against the railing beside you.

"You didn't even help me." Dante told you wih a huge sigh. "And we're supposed to be partners."

"Convinced?"

"Whatever."

"Hey, at least you got to flirt with her, right?" You cheerfully answered.

Dante looked at you with every intention of giving you a piece of his mind but, you were already walking away from him.

"Hey!"

You turned back, winked at him, and held up a finger to your lips.

"Sshh,..."

***

You and V hustled towards the empty building, sheltering yourselves due to the very sudden and heavy rainfall.

Once inside, V heard you grunt in dismay and as he turned to look at you, he saw you as you put your black violin case down on the cold floor and strip off your wet parka, revealing your simple white dress underneath.

Now, V may have no idea, whatsoever, what you'll need the violin for during the Demon hunt, but he was definitely flabbergasted as to your taste in clothing. It's as if you were not going on a Demon hunt, at all.

You felt a pair of eyes boring down on you as you picked up your violin case, and when you looked up, you ultimately saw him staring at you.

Then, there was that feeling again - of your cheeks burning, of your heartbeat going wild, of your knees getting weak and wobbly.

It's as if the man's mere gaze put your mind in a trance, and your senses into a total discord.

You shyly looked away, trying to escape his longing look, until you finally noticed where you really were.

"Hey, this is a dance studio!" You exclaimed breathlessly as you ran towards one of the doors that led to a huge rehearsal room. You entered it and took in the achingly familiar atmosphere of the place, from its floor, the huge glass windows, to the mirrored walls.

The exact moment when V entered the room after you, Griffon materialized and flew towards you.

"Where did ya just take us to?" The bird irritatingly questioned. "It's too damn creepy in here!"

"Why? You afraid of mirrors?"

The bird squawked and flew towards one of the abandoned chairs, perching and settling himself comfortably.

You ignored the Demon and went towards the window, seeing the angry outpour outside and the eventual streak of lightning from the sky, followed by the loud boom of the thunder.

"It seems that we have become stranded here for a while." You heard V's low voice as you sensed him walking closer towards you.

You simply nodded, still unable to look the man in the eye. "I hope it stops soon."

"I wish for the opposite."

The very noticeable purr in the man's voice made your heart do flips. You turned around, and as another streak of lightning painted the sky, you saw the unmistakable mischief in those eyes and grin of his.

Suddenly feeling both nervous and giddy, you hastily walked towards one of the chairs near Griffon, sat, and removed your boots.

"Okay, these are getting heavy as hell!" You said, unintentionally making your voice loud due to your nerves. "I'm taking these off!"

"Ew!" Griffon exclaimed as soon as your feet came into view. "Did ya step on a fuckin' corpse or are those yer actual feet, eh sweet pea?!"

You narrowed your eyes at the demonic bird, who started laughing at your pitiful, scarred little feet.

"Hahaha! Ah, haha, eh, well, no offense, sweet pea. Just sayin' the truth."

"Beauty cannot be comprehended by small minds, my Demonic friend." V, who, of course, followed you, fortunately came to your rescue.

You gave Griffon a triumphantly evil grin as you placed your wet boots under the table. "I'm a dancer. It would make perfect sense for me to have ugly feet." You looked up at V and spoke with him instead of the bird who got grumpy. "I got these scars from years of dedicated dancing."

"Hmm,..." V mused as he sat on a chair beside you. "Those scars,... symbolize the true enjoyment and will that you felt doing that special something you adore." He uttered, then leaned closer towards you. With a soft whisper, he said, "Those feet, my Lady,... I would kiss,... over,... and over again,... if I could,... "

Thump!

"Shoes! Shoes! The floor is cold! I need shoes!" You literally yelled, feeling your traitorous heart triple in heartbeat. With hot cheeks and trembling limbs, you hastily stood up and roamed aimlessly all over the room in search of those shoes you mentioned. As lame as you might have looked then, you knew what's truly going on between you and the poet, you just could not handle your own chaotic feelings. And now, you must have looked like a total mess right before him.

"Yeah, no shit, Shirley!" Griffon sarcastically whispered at V. "Ain't that right, V? I mean, if ya like her, just tell her already! Dangit! Fuckin' stop beatin' 'round the fuckin' bushes! Look at her, ya broke the thing!"

Surely enough, V saw you wandering around the room, muttering something uncomprehensible under your breath.

Taking pity on you and feeling guilty at himself for making you uncomfortable, he stood up and walked to where you were.

You felt the man as he neared you and instinctively halted your silly, panic mumblings. You cleared your throat, bravely faced him, and saw the worried look in those deep green eyes of his.

"Well, I do not exactly enjoy it. Dancing, I mean." You told the man, making yourself as calm as you could. "It was more like a,... survival kind of thing."

"Survival, you say?" V answered, instantly feeling intrigued. How would one consider dancing as survival? But, of course, he had no idea what you've been through as a child. "Can you, please, explain?"

You slightly got nervous, feeling as if you revealed more than what was necessary. You were only talking about your ugly feet, damnit! No need to drag the man further into your own, dark past.

Once again, you looked around for something, anything, that could save you from your blunder. And there, right on the corner, you saw, as the lightning lit up the dark sky, a pair of forgotten ballet shoes. You looked at the thing with much intent, then back at your male companion.

"Shall I just show you how they made us dance, instead?" You offered. Well, since you'd be moving a lot from now on, you might as well have a sort of a warm up.

And what a perfect way to do that than that accursed piece those pale people made you dance for six whole years.

On the other hand, V felt concerned about you. You considered dance as survival, and yet, here you were, offering to open up what must've been a deep wound from the past.

Then, he had an idea.

"If dancing felt like a challenge to you," he said, suddenly offering up a hand. " ... then, would you allow this fool to ease the burden and join you for this dance?"

Thump! Thump!

Went your heartbeat once more. But, this time, escaping and saving your shy self would not do you any good. So, instead, you took a deep breath, nodded, and looked up at him with much resolve. You took his hand and began with the simplest of steps.

Well! The man surely had instruction! He was sensitive enough to know when you'll turn, when you must be lifted, and when you'll change positions. Not to mention his graceful movements! Where the hell did he learn ballet?!

Meanwhile, V only had to thank the endless dance lessons he took when he was only a boy! And not only that, he also had to actually thank his stupid twin for skipping them, for, if not, he would never have received more difficult extra lessons that involved doing a pas des deux ! And who knew it will become useful in the future?!

For a while, it seemed as though nothing could disrupt the little, yet warm environment that engulfed the two of you. Not even the bleak weather. Even the foul - mouthed Demon perched on the chair close by dared not utter any piercing word.

Everything seemed at peace, the steps you made, perfect. The lightning streaked the sky once more, splashing very little light into the cold, studio. You made another pirouette, longing to end the little dance with flourish, until the loud bang of the thunder came booming down, startling you and making you stumble on your feet. V thankfully caught you just in time before you fall.

"(Y/N),..."

"I'm fine, thank you." You reassured the man, at the same time getting back up on your feet with his help. "You know, my body's condition was not how it used to be compared to when I was a bit younger."

The man smiled gently at you as he took your hands once more, pulling you closer. "Age matters not, as long as you enjoy dancing."

You sheepishly smiled back at him. "Now that you mentioned it, yes. I enjoyed this dance."

The man may not have chosen to mention it to you but, he definitely enjoyed the little performance with you. Much more so than you did. For you were there with him, smiling, and forgetting the chaos of this world.

For at least a few minutes, it felt intimate for V.

However, he saw the smile on your face slowly vanish as you let go of his hands. The man looked at you in confusion, then you told him, "There is, was, only one person in the world who could outdance me in the past."

The man's face fell, seeing the sadness that was creeping up on those (E/C) eyes he had come to adore.

With glistening eyes, you simply uttered, "My sister."

"I'm so sorry." V whispered achingly at you. "It must be,... "

"She was," you went on, managing a smile despite the hurt that suddenly made its way onto your chest at the reminder of your lost, beloved sibling. " ... how to put this? She was perfect in every way. She was the most beautiful girl in the world, and everybody adored her. She,... died,... to save me, V."

V looked away from her. He had,... someone,... very special whom he lost a very long time ago. Hearing you tell your own tale regarding the person you lost brought back those hurtful memories of the one he loved above all else,...

... her,...

He took a deep breath and faced you once more, not wanting you to worry about him.

"What matters is that you still have precious people around you, my Lady." He said, his voice hoarse and raw with untold emotions and unshed tears. "You must focus on not losing them, as well."

You smiled at him, aware of the melancholic feeling you had evoked in the already cold and lonely atmosphere. You took both his hands and guided him to sit on the floor.

Confused, V glanced at you as you positioned yourself in the middle of the empty dance floor. Griffon noticed this change and flew towards his master, settling himself right beside him.

"V," you began. "... let me tell you the story of a man who regrets the loss of a loved one and the woman who loves him the most. The love of his life. Whom he could no longer be with."

You took a deep breath and began a slow movement that gradually turned into a series of steps that seemed to tell a story, like what you mentioned.

Every turn, every gesture, every sweet and graceful hand movement told V some numerous, little words forming into silent sentences that seemed to whisper directly at his heart. The steps to the very raw yet beautiful dance you performed honestly moved him, feeling a different kind of an ache within his own heart. The steps turned more radiant as it came to the heart of the story,...

... of a very graceful woman,...

... and the man,...

... who was foolish enough to let her go.

And when you finished, he was both speechless and mesmerized. You looked at him with concern, confused by his uncharacteristic silence.

That was when you saw it,...

... genuine tears falling down his face.

"Ah!" You stuttered, not knowing what to do upon the realization that you just made V cry. "I'm so sorry! I would never do this again! I - "

You were immediately silenced as V stood and gave you a hug so tight, yet so gentle, that you felt that he did not want to let go of you.

Like he did not want to ever lose you.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

You knew he was still crying, so you took the initiative to wrap your arms around him and pull him closer.

"Hey, it's okay." You gently whispered at him, calming him down with your caress. "I'll never leave you. I promise."

And just when things were getting more and more cozy between the two of you, Griffon, who seemed to get touched by your performance, as well, flew towards you with large, melancholic eyes. How strange for a brazen creature such as him!

"Hey, do ya know any more stories that won't make ya cry?" The bird asked in a sad and weird tone.

"Okay! Let's see,... "

V smiled as he let go of you, wanting to hear what you were about to say. He just could not help but become excited for your story.

"There was a warrior who was protected by three Goddesses." You began. "However, he mysteriously vanished, making the Goddesses scatter all over the world in search of a temporary vessel until he returns. They found her and dwelled within her for a hundred years.

"Then, one day, he returned and two of his Goddesses returned to him. Aside from the last one who got attached to the woman. But, to gain complete power, the man must have all three with him. So, he took the third Goddess from the woman by force."

"What happened?!"

"Ah,... she died."

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SHITTY STORY?!"

You became nervous as cold sweat trickled down your forehead. "I made it up,... "

"WHAT IN THE FUCKIN' - ?!"

"Hush, you Demon,..." V chuckled as he watched the two of you argue,...

But, the fun and peace of mind you had didn't last long,...

For, only after a few hours, Griffon, who was rendered useless by the Diabolical Amalgam, was screaming your name as you made your way towards the frightening creature, unarmed, wounded, vulnerable, and above all, stripped naked.

"SWEET PEA!" Griffon pleaded as he tried once more to attack, only to fail yet again. "YOU WILL FUCKIN' DIE! STOP!"

But you only looked back at him, winked, and held up a slender finger to your bloody lips.

"Sshh,..."

***

🖤🖤🖤

Note: That's Simone Cameresi for you! A very graceful dancer. I imagine her as the Reader in that very sweet and heartfelt moment as she danced for V. So, I hope you followed my instruction and watched her before reading the next paragraph. 🖤

Another Note: The title of the song is Turning Page by Sleeping At Last. 🖤

P.S.: In ballet, a pas de deux is a dance duet in which two dancers, typically a male and a female, perform ballet steps together. The pas de deux is characteristic of classical ballet and can be found in many well - known ballets, including Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Giselle. Yeah, the more you know. 🖤

🖤🖤🖤

[justinjslone]

Bounce Rate and 4 Other Vanity Metrics You're Paying Too Much Attention To

A vanity metric looks good on paper and yields seemingly impressive results but doesn’t actually indicate anything related to revenue generation. The numbers vanity metrics capture tend to be high because they’re tracking things that happen in high quantities like page views and visits.

People like to equate high numbers with good results, but that’s not necessarily true. You have to look at vanity metrics on a scale. For example, 30,000 website visits might seem like a lot, but if the industry standard is 300,000, you’re not doing very well.

Marketers commonly place too much value on vanity metrics that don’t necessarily mean a lot in terms of revenue generation. Instead, these metrics are behavioral indicators. They could still be valuable to measure as KPIs toward other goals not related directly to revenue, but, for example, a Facebook “like” on its own can’t tell you whether or not you’ve generated a customer because it’s pretty far away from the closing of a deal.

Here are five vanity metrics that you shouldn’t be focusing on in isolation:

1. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that immediately bounce, a term that simply means to leave a website. Bounces consist of people coming to your site, looking at one page and then leaving, which causes a session duration of zero since there are no subsequent page visits.

Bounce rate is an indicator that your website doesn’t contain the content the visitors are actually looking for. This could mean you’re ranking organically for a keyword irrelevant to the content actually on the page or you’re targeting people with an ad who aren’t a good fit.

Bounce rate isn’t going to make or break anything. It’s important to know how relevant your page is to the people who are being driven to it, but if you have a high bounce rate and your other metrics are fine — in other words, if you’re converting leads at a rate that meets your goal — then you don’t need to worry about it.

You could be unintentionally ranking for a keyword that isn’t relevant and getting unqualified visitors who’ll bounce. Even if you’re effectively reaching the right audiences, by indirectly reaching other people, you’re going to have a high bounce rate. However, you’re still doing what you need to do to convert qualified leads, so you don’t need to stress about bounce rate.

Conversely, if you have a really low bounce rate compared to your industry standard, but site visitors aren’t converting, then the low bounce rate doesn’t really contribute to your overall goal and isn’t that valuable.

2. Impressions

For ads and social posts, impressions are the number of times someone could have seen your content.

In the context of social media, it means your content was in the news feed as someone was scrolling through Facebook, but it doesn’t tell you if they scrolled past it super fast or even looked at it at all. The same goes for ads. Impressions measure the number of people who were served the ad but doesn’t indicate how many people engaged with it.

If you want to figure out the engagement rate of your content, impressions can be used as the overall population, so you can divide the number of engagements by the number of impressions. That can help you understand how effective your content is, but is frequently pre-calculated for you.

Impressions by themselves can also gauge if your reach is changing as you tweak your ads, but that only impacts revenue if conversions and interactions also change.

3. Likes, Shares and Reactions

These social media interactions are valuable, but not for generating revenue. You can see the number of people who “liked” your content on social media, but that number doesn’t necessarily match up with the number of people who liked your content enough to convert and become a customer.

Paying too much attention to social media engagement can artificially skew your perception of how people interact with your content. You might be getting a lot of likes, but those people could like it without even consuming it. Likes don’t even tell you how many people truly engaged with your content.

Social media engagement metrics are useful for enabling organic reach. The more interactions a post gets on Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin, the more organic reach it’s going to get because those platforms’ algorithms favor engagement.

4. Email Open Rate

Open rate is commonly looked at as a primary performance indicator of email efforts, but all open rates can really tell you is how effective your subject lines and preview text are.

The only two things people can see before opening your emails are the subject line and preview text, so looking at the open rate as a holistic measurement of email success isn’t accurate.

Low open rates can be used to tell if you’re targeting the wrong people or have weak subject lines, but don’t indicate anything about the body content of your email.

Examining click-through rates in relation to open rates is a much more effective metric of your email marketing success since it takes the body content into account too.

5. Scroll Rate

Scroll rate measures the amount a visitor scrolls on a page. It’s relevant for site design and architecture and can be useful for people trying to design an engaging website. However, in the context of marketing, scroll rate doesn’t tell you how effective the page content is or whether it’s helping you drive revenue.

Scroll rate should be examined in relation to the location of conversion points on a page. If your main call-to-action is at the bottom of your page and people aren’t scrolling that far, you need to move it so it can be seen. You can’t effectively measure how a piece of content is converting if people are never seeing that content to begin with.

If you’re looking at the effectiveness of your web design and whether the content is formatted in a way that’s encouraging people to scroll all the way through and consume all of it, then scroll rate is a good metric to look at, but it doesn’t indicate whether or not your site is generating customers.

The Takeaway

All these vanity metrics are high-level behavioral metrics that help you understand what actions audiences are taking with your content, but they don’t gauge how effective your marketing is due to the distance between the actions they measure and revenue generation.

They’re still important to measure — you just need to put them in context when measuring them. You shouldn’t weigh a BOFU conversion equal to a Facebook like, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be tracking that Facebook like at all.

A Facebook like could lead to a website visit, which could lead to a conversion, which could lead to a conversation with sales, which could ultimately lead to a deal.

[redshiftsinger]

Yeah, the thing is, it's true that intent often does matter, but like... to an extent. Not "innocent intent excuses literally anything". If you did something unintentionally hurtful, you still owe someone an apology and you still need to learn from the experience and do better next time.

Like, if you're in a grocery store and some stranger misgenders you from behind like "excuse me sir/ma'am" and you turn around and they're like "oh sorry ma'am/sir" having seen more of your presentation and now get it right, it's pretty clear that they didn't intend to misgender you and were just drawing incorrect conclusions based on an incomplete data set, and are fully willing to correct the error. That should inform how you respond to them vs. someone who continues to aggressively misgender you after being clearly told what the correct way to gender you is. They still owe an apology for the mistake, but in the example scenario they've given it and everyone can just move on with their lives without anyone having to be considered a jerk.

If a young child hears an adult using racial slurs, and repeats them, it's likely the child has no INTENT to be racist. But they're still being racist, and should be corrected and have it explained to them why that's a word that shouldn't be used and the behavior they were copying was wrong and hurtful.

it's just... people broadly like to pretend that nuance doesn't exist. Either you judge people 100% by their intention, or 100% by their impact. Neither is actually a very effective rule by which to navigate human interactions -- the first involves not correcting the child who copied their racist uncle's casual use of racial slurs, leaving the kid thinking that saying racial slurs is ok actually. The latter involves berating the child for not magically knowing that the new word they never heard before is a rude one, teaching them to be terrified of ever making a genuine mistake (or maybe, leading to them being easy radicalization targets by those with malicious intent, who very definitely recruit via "you know you weren't trying to hurt anyone, these mean mean (minority) just get so upset about every little thing, it's ok you can be imperfect over here with us while we tell you more about how bad that minority group actually is" tactics).

But if you say that intent matters AND impact matters, then you can address the ignorant and the malicious each more appropriately according to the context in which you encounter them. Then you can accept that genuinely well-meaning people fuck up sometimes and it doesn't make them irredeemable monsters, and when YOU fuck up you can remember that it's your responsibility to fix your fuckups to whatever extent you can (like, apologize and make whatever amends are appropriate and possible), learn and do better next time.

And you can realize that simply experiencing sexual desire for someone who is not ever going to be interested in you back is morally neutral, because there's no impact. Unless you act on it by like, aggressively hitting on them, at which point you become a creep because you've chosen to actively act creepy.

Most of society, including very progressive spaces, has a big issue with sex and sexuality where people think of it them not as inherently neutral, or positive things that can be used in harmful ways or be the source of pain for people in bad circumstances, but as fundamentally bad things that need to be justified, redeemed and pass as test of purity in order to be excused or tolerated.

And that is why we end up with takes like “desiring a person who can’t/won’t date you is predatory” and so much more bullshit.