#while she helps him with his antagonistic personality and gets him to reach out to others

[marypaol]

Fingers Through Your Hair

Draco x Fem!Reader

Summary: Reader plays with Draco’s hair while he sleeps.

Warnings: Watching/touching/admiring someone while they sleep? Mention of suspense while reading a book, tenseness during slumber, mention of being trapped, think that’s it. :)

Sorry if it’s too short, I kinda rushed it. Hope you guys enjoy!

Masterlist

Request Requirements

The stack of pages was held in her hands, twinkling eyes scanning the pages as her mind took in the exciting story. Pale fingers was tracing mindless shapes on the skin of her arm, the pace changing every minute or so.

The climax was just on the verge of happening, eyeballs practically skipping over sentences as she died to know what happened next. The face to face encounter of the protagonist and the antagonist was too great, her brain wiring at the information being sprayed at her. Her stomach twisted, eyes danced, and she could feel sweat building on her head. Her eyes widened, the story revealing a secret that she couldn’t bear to face or figure out. Or, that’s what some people would think. She of course hadn’t had any trouble figuring the secrets of the book, digging through the clues that were dropped casually throughout the story and putting them together to make a puzzle picture that was just discovered to most readers. (But not to her of course. She already figured it all out.)

For the reason of her eyes widening was the fact that she got it correct, her assumptions and theories she gathered turned out to be right the whole time.

She found herself lost in the pages that the book had to offer, truly getting sucked in the imaginary world the author created for entertainment.

But wouldn’t it be lovely and truly divine, she thought, setting the book down once she finished it. If the world that was so imaginative and fictional was real?

She sighed at the thought, picturing herself trapped in a tower in a dark abandoned land, looking hopelessly out the window for her lover to arrive and successfully rescue her.

For she knew who would come and serve her right. He would be the only person who would, not that others wouldn’t try only to face him.

But platinum hair was best suited for her, for she wouldn’t have any other interests but he.

Thinking of him now, she just then discovered that his fingers halted their movements not too long before, and her mind couldn’t help but wonder what the purpose was.

She looked over at her love, only to find him in soft gentle slumber, eyelashes tangled together as his pillow lips parted for a quiet breath.

She smiled soft, hand reaching over to cover him more with the blanket he had himself wrapped in, only for it to previously roll down his shoulders.

She then laid down softly next to him, her elbow holding her up as she used the same arm to place it near his head, almost like she was protecting him.

The face of her love was closer to her, so she now noticed the soft crease in his eyebrows, along sided with the visible tenseness on his shoulders. She shook her head softly, for that simply couldn’t do, and so she pointed out her pinky finger and reached for his forehead. Her finger practically brushed his skin, in between his eyebrows, stroking the crease away as she watch a sense of peace come over him, his eyebrows raising in a calming manner.

She smiled then, knowing he was peaceful now because of her doing.

She then lent forward, lips puckering as she pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead, fingers uncontrollably going to his hair strands. His hair was very soft, and how he kept it that she didn’t know, but that was his secret to keep because she simply liked wondering how he did it. Once her fingers reached a soft knot in his strands, most likely from his hands digging into his hair anxiously throughout the day, she was worried if she undid it with her fingers it would wake him up, so she carefully grabbed her wand, wood smooth beneath her finger tips.

She pointed the tip to his hair, whispering soft Charms as she watched the strands undo themselves. She smiled soft, putting her wand away as it was now long forgotten, her mind swarming with thoughts of her lover.

She sighed contently, fingers brushing through his hair slowly.

A intake of breath was heard, forcing her attention to his soft face. It scrunched up for a second, eyes fluttering as his silver eyes opened. He blinked a couple times, moonlight reflecting in his pupils making his orbs sparkle. He felt the touch in his hair, the extra blanket covering him, and his eyes met hers.

His lips curved into a soft smile, left hand reaching for her as it soon rested on her thigh, stroking the skin through the fabric.

“Hey, loves.” His voice was groggy and deep, but she liked it. She replied with a smile, fingers moving in his hair once again.

A sigh escaped his lips, head turning to rest near her chest, chasing for warmth. She kissed his forehead once again, mouth leaning towards his ear. The skin was warm on her lips as she whispered the truth. “I love you.”

She felt his lips stretch into a soft smile against her clothes, so she smiled too. His smile always made her smile, despite if she could see it or not.

“Oh but I love you most.” He mumbled into her shirt, voice muffled but she heard him all too well.

A flush came about her cheeks, traveling to her ears.

“Doubt it.” She replied, despite her red face.

Draco answered with a hum. Either he didn’t hear her, or did and chose to ignore it.

“You smell good loves; new shampoo perhaps?”

“Draco, I’ve been using this shampoo since First Year.”

Draco hummed again, snuggling his face into her neck. She heard him sniff as he smelled her hair again. “Mm? First Year? I should smell your hair more often loves.”

The girl rolled her eyes, stroking the hair on the back of his neck. She kissed it, keeping her mouth pressed there as her nose touched his warm skin.

“Ahh. This feels nice.” Draco murmured. She then felt him smirk into her neck. “What do you say we do this more often?”

[xvysarene]

𝕌𝕟𝕤𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝔹𝕠𝕟𝕕

Pairing: Zayne x Fem!Reader Prompt: “I’ve built walls, and yet they crumble when I see you.” Words: ~2.5k Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Fluff Notice: Y/N is not MC, Antagonist MC, Mentions of wounds

[ᝰ.ᐟ MASTERLIST]

His childhood friend exuded energy just as vibrant as her Anhausen class Evol, captivating those around her with her bubbly demeanor.

However, beneath the cheerful façade lay a calculated use of charm, a trait you couldn't help but notice, especially in her interactions with Zayne.

As a senior hunter, your responsibilities included supervising new recruits, and you discerned her manipulative tendencies over time.

“Just because you've seen me at my weakest, you’re not entitled to pass judgment on those dear to me. It proves how I've known her longer and better, as she would never stoop so low as to speak ill of you. I don’t need you babysitting me.”

Quick to defend his adored friend and seemingly caught up in emotion, he voiced those unfavorable words your way.

You knew Zayne was a direct person, but being on the receiving end of those words hurt. Especially as you later realized that you harbored feelings towards the cold doctor, feelings that had unknowingly woven into what you had always believed to be a purely platonic friendship between the two of you.

“—and you’re here because?”

His voice jolted you out of your reverie.

Somehow, standing in the exact spot where your last conversation occurred, resulting in months of silence between the two of you, had clouded your thoughts.

You cleared your throat, trying to focus back on the present moment. “Greyson and Yvonne have been trying to get in touch with you.”

When news about Dr. Zayne taking recuperative leave had spread like wildfire throughout the UNICORNS, you had considered reaching out to him. 

Your fingers had hovered over the phone, composing and deleting messages repeatedly.

In the end, you completely abandoned the notion altogether when you heard his childhood friend’s not-so-subtly mentioning her plan to visit and cook for him while chatting with the short-haired girl from the Data Analysis sector.

“I’m fine,” he managed to huff out after a while.

Taking a swift glance at the unexpected mess on his kitchen counters—scattered papers and remnants of food packaging—you challenged him. “I thought we had moved beyond the superficial ‘I’m fine’ responses when asking about each other's well-being.”

Zayne didn’t reply and you noted that he had absentmindedly leaned his long legs against the kitchen counter as if seeking support from it.

“You, the Chief Cardiac Surgeon of Akso Hospital, someone who enjoys his lack of free time, couldn't possibly have felt ‘just fine’ after being placed on recuperative leave.”

“I wasn't aware that you still kept tabs on my whatabouts," he retorted, eyes slightly gleaming competitively. However, they lacked the usual spark; instead, they hinted at tiredness and something indefinable that looked familiar but you couldn't quite pinpoint.

“I understand that your friend has probably visited you, but my great buddies insisted I come and check on you. They didn’t want to pester, but after two days of no answer, they are beginning to worry.” You raised your hands in a gesture of surrender. “Though if I’m not welcome, I’ll leave you be.”

As you moved past him towards the front door, you felt yourself emotionally drained from the brief exchange.

“Why you, specifically?” his whisper caused you to stop in your tracks.

“They know we are—” you stopped yourself, “used to be each other’s confidant. They thought you might be willing to speak to me if not to them.”

He chuckled dryly. “Used to…”

His muttered words compelled you to turn. Your hunter’s awareness noticed how he had subtly shifted, leaning more against the counter with one hand supporting his weight while his body slightly hunched forward, facing your retreating figure.

His body trembled with involuntary shivers, and the silver-framed glasses that had been perched on his nose earlier now lay discarded on top of the black granite.

“What’s wrong?” The words spilled out of your mouth before you could stop them.

Your eyes instantly snapped to his arms, expecting to see the familiar bluish hue and the delicate, yet deadly patterns of ice crystals.

Instead, you saw fresh cuts on the back of his hand. Both of them.

A sound must have escaped your lips because Zayne quickly tugged at his light gray pajama sleeves, trying to cover his hands. He took a step back as he heard you stomping towards him.

Helplessly, he played a brief game of tug-of-war with you before yielding to your unexpected strength.

“What the hell,” you breathed out as you took the angry red marks marring his pale skin, making them stand out more. When you rolled up his sleeves further, you discovered fresh lacerations, a chilling reminder of the frost's icy grip.

You cupped his cheeks. It took his gaze a moment to gradually refocus on you, seemingly startled by the sudden skin contact. “Zayne, what happened?”

His lips were sealed shut. He began to resist, however, as you guided him towards his bedroom, but your hunter strength slightly won over his sluggish state.

Zayne watched you intensively check his wounds after you managed to get him to bed. They were more severe than the scratches you saw after you had cradled his frozen arms and succeeded in defrosting them using your Evol. It was when you found him beating himself up in regret for failing to save your partner during surgery.

As you stood up to fetch the medical supplies, his hand swiftly caught your forearm, surprising you with its speed. "You don’t have to take care of me," he insisted.

“Respectfully, Zayne,” you began, knowing he'd grimace at your next choice of words, “Fuck your pride and let me look after you.”

Seeing his familiar disapproving grimace at the brash word, you chuckled quietly to yourself. 

Your boldness and recklessness often clashed with his calm and collected nature, one that left people wondering how a friendship could blossom between two such opposites.

As the antiseptic scent filled the air and silence enveloped the room while you tended to his arms, memories flooded back to the griefful night when you had lost your partner.

He had treated your temporarily forgotten battle wounds after the frost had thawed from his arms.

“It’s not your fault,” Zayne had spoken softly as he cleaned your wounds.

Your breath stuttered, surprised by the doctor's attempt to console you. Many people regarded him as highly reserved due to the carefully crafted mask of indifference he wore.

"The other staff told me what happened. You couldn’t have known that he was bitten; a child Chlorostaga leaves a very small puncture, and it would only feel like an ant has bitten you. With adrenaline running high, he wouldn’t have felt a thing."

“He told me that his heart was racing unusually fast during the transport back,” you whispered, feeling the tears clouding your vision. “And I jokingly suggested he needed to do more exercise.

“He laughed at it until—” you forced down the bile rising in your throat before being able to continue, “until he suddenly collapsed from cardiac arrest. We were only a few minutes out before arriving here to treat our wounds.”

Zayne continued gently dressing your gashes as you recounted the last moment with your partner. “His last memory was of happiness with you, feeling fulfilled knowing he had once again protected Linkon City from Wanderers... With his trusted partner."

The tears you had struggled to contain finally broke through, cascading down your cheeks in torrents. He held you close that day, offering comfort until every tear was dried.

From that moment, a bond seemed to form between both of you, drawing you closer from mere acquaintances to individuals you could trust with your deepest emotions. Only a few had ever witnessed each other's vulnerable state.

In the present, you noticed his breathing had calmed, and the hazel eyes that had been watching you carefully moments earlier had closed as you finished tending the last cut.

Gently smoothing out the crease between his brows, you couldn't help but wonder how troubled he must have been. “I’ve built walls, and yet they crumble when I see you,” you whispered, afraid of him hearing your secret.

You had tried to shield yourself from future heartache after you slammed his front door the day he had spoken harshly. Yet, seeing him so vulnerable, your caring for him only deepened.

Listening to the rhythmic sound of his breathing, an unexpected exhaustion washed over you like a tidal wave.

Sleep claimed you swiftly, and it wasn't until you felt Zayne's gentle touch on your shoulder that you awoke.

“You’re going to strain the muscle in the back of your neck sleeping like that.”

Still groggy from the unplanned nap, you couldn’t protest as Zayne easily deposited you to the space he occupied earlier, as if you weighed nothing.

Your skin flushed hot feeling his fleeting touch behind your knees. Blinking, you met his gaze as he settled back beside your feet on the bed, already looking much better than before.

As the heat from his body permeated the wool blend of his pajama pants, you could feel it warming the tips of your toes. “Are you feeling any better?”

He nodded, casting a glance down at his arms adorned with scattered adhesive strips. Awkwardness filled the air as you both grappled with the ever-present unresolved tension.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled softly. You looked up, startled.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated more clearly. His hazel eyes, appearing browner under the dim lighting, seeking yours. “For saying those hurtful words to you, for failing to accompany you on mourning day.”

Your eyes widened, surprised that he even remembered about the day that had occurred months earlier.

When he didn’t appear at the cemetery of fallen hunters on mourning day, an annual tradition to honor your late partner whom he couldn't save, you learned just how much he cherished his childhood friend.

While he hadn't explicitly promised to join every year, he had always done so without fail. At that time, you couldn't help but feel disappointed when you discovered he had spent the day with his childhood friend instead.

And perhaps, an ugly thorn of jealousy had begun to bloom inside your heart.

“Greyson gave me an earful after he found out about our... conflict, and then he pieced together why I was absent that day. Why didn’t you remind me?”

You broke away from his gaze, not prepared for the sudden query. “You are under no obligation to accompany me, so there's nothing to apologise for.”

“I absolutely have to apologise, for on the day you mourn for your late partner the most, I callously had fun with my friend.”

And there it was, his childhood friend once again stealing the spotlight in your conversation. You felt the barriers you erected creeping back into place.

“It's getting dark outside, I should head home,” you said, retracting your legs and hurriedly standing up.

However, a warm hand on your wrist carefully pulled you back down, knee bumping with yours.

“I was ensnared by my memory of her innocence from our childhood,” he confessed, voice heavy with regret. “She envied the deep connection we share and after overhearing your conversation with Yvonne, purposefully suggested a day trip to our hometown that exact day. She exploited my weakness for her gain, knowing my fond memories of our past together.”

Zayne tenderly unraveled each of your tightly clenched fingers, soothing the nail marks that had etched into your palm.

It was one of your bad habits, surfacing whenever anxiety and stress took hold. Ever the observant person that he was, it was something he was well aware of.

Your breath hitched as he wove his fingers with yours, larger palm easily covering your smaller one.

“I'm the one who foolishly let myself be blinded and stooped so low, wrongly accusing you when your intentions were nothing but good-hearted.” He swiped a hand over his face in frustration. “People praised me for my good judgement, but I evidently failed to make the most important one.”

“And so this happened?” you gestured towards his arms with your other unoccupied hand. “Punishing yourself because you felt guilty for your lapse in judgment?”

She had heard bits and pieces of what happened from Greyson. The Chief Psychologist in the hospital had noticed Zayne’s peculiar behaviour for weeks—moments of zoning out and evident emotional distress.

Not wanting to jeopardise his patient’s health, he agreed to take a leave until he felt mentally prepared to return to his responsibilities, which required a clear mind above all else.

“No, it's me losing myself because I've taken advantage of the only person who understands me; to the extent of hurting that one person who, despite knowing her for a shorter time, has selflessly always been there for me.” He placed a kiss on the back of your hand. “And fearing I may have already lost her, as I come to realize the depth of my feelings for her.”

You whipped your head to fully face him, face flushed at his confession. His gaze unwavering, trapping you with fierce affection.

“You don’t need to say anything—”

“Zayne—”

“I just want to let you know that I’m sorry for causing you pain—”

“Zayne, I—”

“And I would understand if you don’t want to do anything with me again after everything that’s happened—”

"Zayne!" You moved to cover his mouth and lost your balance in the process, tumbling together onto the bed.

Him beneath you.

As you stumbled, his hand found the curve of your hip, supporting you from falling on top of him. While his other arm remained thrown over him, fingers still intertwined with yours amidst the sudden movement.

You could see him trying to mask his discomfort, no doubt feeling some of the deeper slashes being tugged.

“God, you really need to shut up sometime,” you blurted out, catching Zayne off guard with your abrupt remark following his heartfelt revelation.

This close, you could see his pupils dilating at your close proximity, almost consuming the green in his eyes.

With profound confidence and a fuzzy feeling spreading inside your heart, you eased his mind. “I’m not going anywhere.”

The content smile painting his lips tugged at your heart. It was a genuine happiness that chipped away his usual cold demeanor. 

He squeezed your hip and slowly urged you to lay on top of him, a silent invitation to be closer. Strong arms circled around as you nestled your head against his throat, enveloping you in his scent—grounding, and slightly musky, like the scent of a forest after rainfall.

“I never want you to lose control of your Evol over me again,” you warned him, eyes closing as you felt his lips pressing on your forehead.

“I can’t promise, but—” he interjected before you could interrupt him. “I’ll work on myself for the better. It’s the least I can do for the one who holds the dearest place in my heart.”

When you opened your eyes again, you could finally pinpoint that familiar glint in his eyes, the one you noticed when you confronted him hours earlier in the living room; it was endearment.

As you lay down on his bed that night, fingers gently combing through his tousled midnight-black hair as he rested against your chest, it dawned on you that the glow of affection had been there all along, subtly shimmering in his eyes throughout the years whenever you were by his side.

⤷ ᝰ.ᐟ MASTERLIST

[idontknowanametouse]

Presenting to gringos (people that aren't from Brazil) Mundo Torajo (Torajo World)

Mundo Torajo is a brazillian animation youtube channel that will be very soon releasing a series thanks to a gofundme. Unfortunately, there is still no english translation, so I can do it here if you want.

Torajo was a channel like Jaiden (same video format) until about august/september of 2023, when a short was released (this one) beggining the lore, in which a red version of Torajo took his place. This continued on for almost 2 months with no sign of Torajo, only through glitches and links on the shorts that lead to audios of Torajo and Morajo (the red one) talking about the channel's future and video format. 2 months after Torajo was gone, Morajo made this video showing all the audios together. He said he made all of this to prove Torajo the audience didn't really care for him (their whole argument was about youtube algorythm vs passion and a nice audience) because they only stayed for the mystery. In the next video, this one, the two fight and we find out that they are brothers and Torajo called Morajo when the channel grew and he needed help, with everything getting more and more unstable between them. At the end, they set apart and Morajo starts his own channel. The two start a "war" between them until this video (followed by this one), when he introduces a new character, Zulmi (I love her, you'll see more about her later). She is friends with the two and stops their fight... at least, for a while.

Then, this happened. Basically, Morajo got infected with algorythomus, a substance that is, well, the youtube algorythm. He goes a little crazy and threatens Torajo while hacking other youtubers, and then Torajo posts this video. He explains he lives in another planet, Verade, that can be only kept alive when people watch their videos. The next video, this one, is the last part of this series/saga. The two have a fight with a really emotional flashback of them as kids, and in the end THE POWER OF LOVE WINS AND THEY MAKE UP YAAAAAAY

And, for a while, all is well. They continue Torajo's channel together (the 3 of them), introduce a new character, Linn (I love him, you'll see more about him later) and even post a compilation of the fight. And then something happens.

The channel is hacked by an unknown person and this video is posted. In it, we meet the "hacker", Abel, who is basically Verade's god/narrator and that does propaganda to the gofundme for the creation of an animated series (he also wipes Torajo's memory after this). 1 week later, they reach their goal and publish this video, with a sneak peak of the series (also wiping the character's memories). Now, there's just 2 videos left for its release, and the story is warming up. They post shorts daily and this week, Morajo seems very unwell, and as we know algorithomus is coming back, this is surely the cause of it.

This is the lore at the moment, and I can keep you aware of it. They are very popular with kids. I recommend, even if you don't know portuguese, to watch their videos, cuz they are really fun and charismatic. Now, I'll show you the characters!

Torajo

[ID in alt]

He is the main character. He is, as you can see, a green apple and is very nice, though a bit sassy and dumb. There are many memes about him, like him bald or as a banana. He has a crush on Zulmi but won't say it. Loves coffee and minecraft.

Morajo

[ID in alt]

Torajo's brother and former antagonist, now a co-protagonist. He is a red apple and kind of an emo, grumpy, kind of mean sometimes but actually very emotional, soft, shy and nerdy. People often call him a mango. He wears glasses but usually doesn't do it on videos. Loves Tetris and cats.

Zulmi

[ID in alt]

She is a co-protagonist. She is a blueberry and kind of a diva, but also very extroverted and likes gossips, also being nerdy about science stuff. Is often called a pineapple. Has a crush on Torajo, but won't say it. Loves Club Penguin.

Linn

[ID in alt]

He is a co-protagonist. He is a lemon and very introverted and shy, being very nerdy about anime and videogames, also kind, calm and phylosophic. Is besties with Morajo. Likes to play ukulele, ducks, Zelda and bread with lettuce.

Azedo (Sour)

[ID in alt]

He is Linn's little brother and a side character. He is a lemon and basically an ipad kid (looks like the collector from the owl house, is currently called Enzo Gabriel/Azedo Gabriel). He likes spider man, chicken nuggets and saying stuff on the community's discord server (I've seen him there sometimes).

Abel

[ID in alt]

He is Verade's god/narrator. He is a mango and kind of crazy, but really funny. He hasn't appeared much, so we don't know a lot about him, but we'll probably see more about him soon.

Amby

Ok, this one ain't canon but I am including him anyway. He is from an arg of the official Discord server and was a villain from an alternate universe that was friends with Morajo and then tried to dominate the channel. He is definitely a tumblr fave cuz he is completely crazy and unhinged, while also being a master manipulator and loving creating enygmas. He is a raspberry.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Hi there! I'm a huge fan of your work, and I was wondering if you could help flesh out a vilain idea I had? I have a basic setup, but no idea how to make him a rounder character.

The gist of it is a fey king whose queen died, so, driven mad with grief and incredibly deep in denial, he reaches out into the Material Plane and kidnaps women who resemble his queen, forcibly altering their minds and bodies through fell magic to transform them into reincarnations of his queen. He keeps failing as the magic instead transforms them into horribly broken and mutated horrors, driving him to more desperate measures.

Other than that, I have no idea how to develop him further or devise an end to his evil :(( so any tips on villain development would be greatly appreciated :))

Adventure: A Covetous Love

Friend, you don't need to make your villain a rounder character, you just need to refocus your narrative onto the genuinely horrific scenario you've created where a series of women have their identities torn away piece by piece. How does it feel to go through it? What must it be like for their friends and family to watch as the woman they knew is replaced by some cruel parody in line with a stranger’s lusts?  Refocusing the story on the current victim likewise gives the story human stakes, and allows the party a good entrypoint into this ongoing tragedy with the chance of possibly preventing it from repeating. 

Before we get into the story itself, here’s a few more ideas I’m going to suggest: 

Rather than kidnapping outright, the fey lord visits his victims in disguise courting them as if he were a wealthy, charming suitor. He offers jewelry and trinkets and other fine things, all infused with the essence of his beloved, and as each of them is accepted the victim becomes a little bit more and more like his queen. A silver comb that turns her hair into HER hair, a cup of wine that fills her dreams with memories of their pramanades through faerie together, makeup that not only wipes out any flaws but transforms the face into a mask of bloodless porcelain perfection. 

Likewise, the transformation process specifically fails because the fey’s expectations are too much. If he were willing to settle for someone who only reminded him of his bride, or gods help him strike out on some new course, he could theoretically be happy… but because he keeps trying to make his victims MORE he ends up with an idea that collapses in on itself, something too perfect to live or even maintain a coherent form. 

To really drive home the tragedy of the horror, I’m going to suggest that the current victim is a woman trapped in either a political marriage or one that’s long gone cold. The fey will exploit her genuine desire for romance and affection, as well as her longing to escape the cage of her life, making the offer of becoming someone else (even if it means dying in the process) all the more tempting. This makes it so that the hinge point of the adventure isn’t just a “rescue the princess” matter of getting her away from the fey, but confronting her as a person and trying to persuade her that there’s some other path to freedom than letting herself be eaten by some otherworldly waifu. 

This setup also gives the party a great secondary antagonist to clash against: the jealous mortal husband, someone who technically WANTS the same thing as the party and has the resources at his back, but will actively drive the victim into the fey’s arms every time he gets involved. He wants to save the victim, but doesn’t care about her happiness, in fact he may be intent on punishing her for her infidelity. He’s there to show why the victim wants to leave. 

Adventure Hooks: 

The party first encounter Lady Melanie Kerridell while out in the wilderness when a stag she’s hunting blunders into their path/camp, on horseback, weapon in hand and her fine clothes streaked with mud. She’ll berate them if they let the beast escape or steal the kill for themselves, but half way through will stagger and lose track of where she is. Just about then a group of her friends and servants will crash through the foliage in a desperate state, as Melanie was out with them having a country luncheon when she spotted the stag, grabbed a weapon from the guards, and took off after it.  This is not the first time this has happened, Lady Kerridell is about half way transformed into the Green-Eyed-Queen and she’s letting herself slip more and more. A concerned friend will invite the party back with them to the estate, and then politely broach the topic about how they might “look in” on Melanie and what might be causing her to act this way. 

The party receive a letter from Lady Kerridell, begging for their help ridding her manor of a haunting, of a monster that has been wandering her home at night wearing her face. When they seek her out however they find her beautiful and cruel and with no idea whatsoever who sent them the letter, despite it bearing her seal.

Lord Edrick Kerridell catches the party snooping around and offers to pay them if they can track down the young dandy he’s seen his wife sneaking off into the gardens to neck with. He wants to know just who the man is before he decides what to do with him, just incase these pricy gifts are from the vault of some other great family. When the party do find the dandy,  he’ll lead them on a merry chase through the town, dragging them all into the feywild if they manage to corner him. 

The local jeweler needs some help investigating a robbery, a few pieces were stolen, but the prize of the take was a staggeringly beautiful necklace of gold and jade, which he was in the middle of repairing. Strangeness surrounds the case: the dandy who delivered the necklace made no secret that it was for a married woman and as the jeweler worked on it he couldn’t shake the feeling of some kind of presence skirting around the edge of his workshop.  When the party find the thief they’ll find her in a bit of a state, having put on the necklace and been influenced by the fey-bride’s mind, she now finds herself driven to heist the home of Lady Berridale. Ostensibly this is for more riches, but the shard of the green eyed queen seeks to complete herself, which will likely result in one of the two womens’ deaths. 

Art

[sepublic]

So we have a young and older person... Both want to indulge in their fantasies, with one (low key non-binary) preferring an idealized world where they can play with and befriend everyone, while another wants to be feared by the enemies he ruthlessly conquers, and has the power of the Titan at his disposal.

You can say this applies to Luz and King... But it also applies to the Collector and Belos, now that you think of it?

And because the ages are reversed with these roles, with the one who wants to destroy his enemies being the ‘mentor’ of sorts, that plays a part in Belos and the Collector being so much more disastrous. Something something, restorative justice VS retributive justice, and how blindly pursuing either without regards to others can be dangerous. But at least with restorative justice, you want people to get better and be happy, not dead; The Collector’s reign lasts much less than Belos’, but we can see how their policies lead to less carnage.

It’s interesting that Luz and King are primarily paired with their ‘compliment’ on the antagonistic side, so to speak, even dressing up in their clothes; King with the Collector, who tries so hard to be Luz. Luz with Belos, who claims to speak on behalf of the Titan. And we see Luz get to reach out with her more ‘direct’ parallel in the Collector, although alas King never really gets to interact with Belos... It’s mostly in spirit, as I’ve said, with Belos acting in the name of his father, justifying his atrocities with the Titan in a way that convinces King he doesn’t want to be seen as a monster, as he later discusses with Steve. And there’s at least the fact that King kills Belos at the end of the story, too...

Luz and King are still a lot alike, as are Belos and the Collector; So of course this is going to apply between Luz and Belos, and King and the Collector. Luz is haunted by who she could’ve been by Belos, and feels trapped by this, whereas King feels obligated to help the self he recognizes in the Collector; It helps that King is playing more of a guiding role out of sympathy, whereas Belos is deliberately seizing power to gaslight Luz, insisting on these comparisons.

Luz and King are trapped in a twisted version of an early relationship, which is made explicit with King and the Collector, while Belos sees himself as the older person trying to rein in the younger, steer them from the less destructive path. And because the Collector wants to befriend others, they’re actually open when Luz steps in; Whereas when King steps in for Belos, it’s literally, as in he steps on Belos and stomps him to death, because that man would rather die than change and boy did everyone take him up on that claim.

I kind of get the sense that another reason things went wrong with the Collector and Belos is that they didn’t have their own Eda, an older mentor figure who could help temper and guide them! The Collector could’ve had that with the Titan, but the potential mentor succumbed to passion and lashed out at the kid for something the Archivists did. Likewise, Belos might’ve had that with Caleb and Evelyn... But the potential learner rejected both, killed the former even! And Caleb and Evelyn are Eda’s ancestors, no less; Just as the Titan and Eda are parents to King, and teach Luz magic!

By the end of the day, it really is down to the person themselves to get better, to decide to change; Look at Belos! But an older person providing guidance really can make a world of difference, when we look at the Collector and how they received that at a more impressionable age. 

[crystal-moon-101]

Been a bit since I have done a headshot cluster, but this time it's for more villains! I put off doing this for a while since I wanted to make a whole bunch of villains to draw all together as a treat. Plus to make sure I knew what I was doing with them and what kind of story they had, as some are recurring villains, some are just troublemakers, and some are full on arc antagonists/villains. I still have more in the works, along with new next gen kids, but I hope for now you enjoy these guys! If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments. But for now, I provide some summaries for these fellas.

-Sciros- A 55-year-old Temerciant man, known well as a black market mob boss, and the 'caretaker' of Feike and his crew. He had an encounter with Feike and his father when the boy was around eight, Argit having stolen from him to help with some processes towards Undertown. However, this resulting in Sciros letting him keep what he stole, as he ended up conceiving Feike to ditch his dad and join Sciros, seeing a lot of potential in the kid as Feike had admitted to being the one to hack and steal from him. Sciros is nothing but a horrible, greedy person, keeping a harsh grip of Feike and his crew, knowing very well they have nowhere else they can go, using them, but making the kids feel wanted. He's also willing to kill, harm and blackmail anyone to get what he wants, being in it to win it, and has personally buried a lot of skeletons. He's not someone many like to confront, for one reason or another.

-Kacela- A 45-year-old Zaroffian woman, who is most well known for hosting illegal, underground pit fights. She's rich, a bitch, and knows it so, flaunting her wealth and sitting over people in her fancy heels. Her pits can range from basic animals, to kidnapped people that she has hired people to collected. Of course, she also allows volunteers, but prefers the route of unwilling participants since that brings more engagement, and so she doesn't have to split any money with them. She's very hard to catch, due to using her wealth to keep tools on herself that help her slip away when needed, often annoying devices for people to deal with. She's ruthless and has no issues breaking ties with people as long as she remains on top. Even once traumatising Jay and Malax after having forced them into a pit fight once.

-Skadi- A 113-year-old mutated Necrofriggin, having once been a normal member of their species. However, after the event surrounding Eldrigma, the necrofriggin species had a slight uproar regarding their leaders/elders, having learnt that they have been lied to, along with learning about some awful history their species committed once. Skadi had reached a point where they wanted to make change, even if they had to by force, but knowing that they couldn't do much in their current state, they sought out the mad scientist known as Alate. They had heard about how he mutated himself with Jay's DNA/Omnitrix gene, 'evolving himself', and Skadi wanted to go through the same processed. Alate was delighted to help, as it's not often people come to him willingly, so after Skadi stole a sample of Jay's DNA, they were mutated into what they are now. They have become much more aggressive, colder and hostile, with upgraded powers to join them on their pursuit to bring their leaders to justice, and build a new order for their people. But they didn't realize how hard it would be to convince everyone that this was a good plan.

-Dawn & Dusk- A 41-year-old Acronycobticeō woman and 40-year-old Acronycobticeō male, being a loving married pair who work in the mercenary business. Guns for hire and assassins or work perfectly in sync, a match made in heaven most would say, despite how brutal their work is. They met when they were rather young, their very late teen years, being thieves on the street as they both were trying to make a name for themselves. They were both hired by separate people for the same collection job, leading to it becoming a contest as sparks flew between the two almost instantly. One thing led to another, and they married by the time they were 20 & 21, and have stuck by each other since. Dawn focuses on being more of the scout between the two, being smaller and faster than her husband, only going for the strike if she confident she can do it. Dusk meanwhile is the one often leaping into combat first, along with using intimidation to get by sometimes. It's a good balance between the two.

-Raii- A 20-year-old Conductoid young man, known mostly as a young thief running around Undertown. He's had a few run ins with Jay and his crew, often teasing them or testing their patience, enjoying how fun it is to mess with a young band of Plumbers. He never means any harm thought, mostly doing what he does out of survival, needing to take care of himself and the 10 nosedeenians he looks after, being an older brother to them. Their names are Zinc, Shelly, Ci, Trode, Grid, Dip, Flux, Sparky, Bolt and Lemon, and while they're a chaotic bunch, they all have each other's backs. They found each other when they were young, and stuck close ever since. Though Raii does hope one day to provide a better life for them and himself, eventually finding support through a different Tennyson member, much to the Omni Squad's dismay. That being Mia and Lyn, as Raii once found Lyn alone in Undertown after she ran off, and kept her safe until Mia came to collect her, the two striking up a nice friendship, especially after seeing Lyn feeling comfortable around another person for once. And perhaps, there's a little something more sparking between Mia and Raii.

-Prilick- A 37-year-old Osmosian woman, part of the bounty hunter/mercenary business side of life, Prilick first debuted when working for Kacela, having been part of the squad that kidnapped Jay and Malax, showing off from the start that she is not a good person. She doesn't care who gets hurt, or even who she may have to murder. Young, old, good, bad, it's all the same to her, as she's just here to do business. She also doesn't just work for Kacela, but is often hired by her as she's one of the few that seems to know how to manage working for that woman without getting caught in the crossfire. Not much is known about her previous life, the fact she is a full-bloodied Osmosian making things even stranger as most don't leave their homeworld, nor lean towards such a life style. Though she did make a passing comment once about having grown up hearing about Aggregor's whole situation, and found herself enjoying the idea of doing her own thing, and that harming other people doesn't matter as long as she gets to live a fulfilling life in her eyes.

-"Illusionist" Mirage- A 30-year-old Conjurlacra woman, and a member of the pirate crew run by Xandria. Mirage is the illusionist of the group, providing trickery and distractions for them, her species natural powers coming in handy with this. She admittedly doesn't remember much of her early childhood, just knowing that she once had a family, before being kidnapped and sold across the galaxy to be a personal servant for people. She was recused by the pirate crew two years ago, and is their most recent member. Because of her awful history, and all that she witness, she doesn't speak very often, at least to people who aren't part of the crew. She considers them her family, who have stuck with her despite all that she went through, though deep down she has had thoughts about finding her original family, wondering if there is would even be a point given how much she has changed. But she takes personal delight in being a pirate, taking her life back into her own hands, getting to explore the world on terms she is comfortable with.

-"Duo" Mab & Bulrush- A 24-year-old Nemuina woman (Demigirl), and a 26-year-old Methanosian male, being nicknamed the 'duo' of the pirate group as they are always by each other's side, even before joining the crew. They were both orphans on their homeworld that stayed together as siblings, making a promise to one day make a name for themselves, so that hopefully people would stopping looking over them. No one had wanted them as they grew up, and that need for attention and love as stayed with them to this day. One day they had caught Xandria, Gale and Samarium trying to steal from a visiting noble family, and wanting to be seen as heroes actually managed to capture the crooks, presenting them to the authorities. But even then they were looked down upon, the head of the authorities basically taking credit and kicking them off to the side. As revenge, Mab and Bulrush helped free the pirates, only to be surprised by Xandira as she offered them a job, praising them for their work. Having finally been seen by someone, they were quick to agree and joined the crew, often seen as the loud, childish members, but have proven their worth many times.

-"Metal Detector" Samarium- A 29-year-old Biot-savartian woman, who is their main treasure hunter, for obvious reasons. To outsiders, she can be seen as intimidating due to her being very hard to read, but she's actually quite a sweet heart with a lot of mum-energy surrounding her, often calling people 'darling', 'sugar' or 'sweet-heart'. She used to be an explorer who bounced between planets learning about different cultures, myths and legends, writing down her experiences. She eventually formed a friend group with others like her, but things fell apart when one friend learnt about potential treasure on a certain planet, and wanting to make a name for themselves as the first to discover it, the group head out to find it. They ended up running in Xandria and Gale trying to collect the treasure too, leading to a brief fight before the entire location started falling apart. Much to her dismay, Samarium's friends ditched her the second they saw what was happening, but Xandria and Gale quickly abandoned the treasure in order to save her. While she recovered, she started helping them out to make up for the loss of the treasure, which eventually lead to her joining the crew, still getting to explore the galaxy like she had before, just with better friends this time.

-"First Mate" Gale- A 36-year-old Aerophibian man, Gale used to be part of a different pirate crew, just being an underling that was often ignored. He was really just a pity hire, as he had begged to join a few times in the past. Gale is rather good at what he does, but back then he would often get anxious and clumsy trying to prove himself. However, things took a turned when their captain was killed, and he was framed for it. Next thing he knew, he was running for his life, eventually finding his way to a pub on a space station he had been too many times, in hopes to find protection in another crew. But no one believed him not being the murder, or didn't want the target on their back, all expect for Xandria, who decided to stand by him as she saw something worthwhile in him. Much to his amazement, she confronted his ex-crew, and deduced who the actual killer was after making a bet with them. Leaving that mess to sort itself out, Gale stuck with her as he owed her his life, leading to the two becoming best friends and forming their own crew. He's quite a charming man, and often just trying to keep the entire group in check, as while Xandria is a fantastic leader, she is also chaotic like her friends. So Gale is there to help balance things out.

-Captain Xandria- A 35-year-old Citrakayah woman (MtF), who was original born the son of a pair that belong to a very traditional family, having spent many generations working for the same shipment company. Xandria had always felt uncomfortable with her life, feeling like the black sheep of the family, having this desire to do something else with her life, but feeling too guilty to betray her family like that. Her most complicated relationship was with her father, who was a stern, cold, workaholic man that didn't really do feelings and emotional talks, a complete product of the life he was brought up in. But the two loved each other, they just didn't know how to communicate, some days with Xandria wondering if her father was even proud of her. However, everything came crashing down one day, as their boss commanded them and other workers to take a shipment through a no-fly zone that Plumbers had put up, threatening their jobs if they didn't do it. Well things didn't end well, with the crew getting caught up in an attack the Plumbers were trying to deal with, Xandria and her co-workers getting caught up in the crossfire. Xandria lost her arm that day, and her father, who died trying to protect her. Aimless for a long while, she was eventually given a letter by her mother that her father had written to her, as he had suspected he would die that day. In the letter he wrote a lot, for once speaking with emotions he normally chained away, apologizing that he could only speak to her in such a way after he was dead, even admitting that he knew he didn't have a son, but that he had a daughter, seeing the signs a long time ago and just didn't know how to talk to her about it. He ended the letter telling her to not live his life, and to not waste time. She took it to heart, leaving everything behind, including her old name, to begin a new, somewhere along the way deciding to become a pirate. Selling from the rich, exploring the lands, offering their services to the right people, never wasting another second of her life.

-Alatyr & Lucent- A 88-year-old Petrosapien man and a 17-year-old Petrosapien young man, a father and son pair who started stirring up trouble when news got out that the recently revived Vilgax was now in Plumber custody. Alatyr had been part of the destruction of his homeworld, and even after he and others were revived via Sugilite and Ben, he has never been able to move on from that day. When hearing that Vilgax himself was going through another trial, since the law was now complicated by the fact that he had died years before, Alatyr was quick to demand his death, suffering and for people like him to get a saying on what to do with him. Of course, the Plumber denied him, needing to take this through a proper law system, but Alatyr couldn't accept that. This has lead to him making connections with other people and races who once suffered because of Vilgax, dragging his own son into this as well. Originally he just tried stealing Vilgax a few times to kill him himself, but when that failed he started doing things like targeting Vilgax's homeworld as a means of revenge, and eye for an eye kind of mentality. This has left his son in a very awkward position, as while Lucent can fully understand what his father went through, he just can't agree to any of this, especially since he was born in the generation after the revival. But he loves his father too much to say anything, along with being afraid of who he is becoming. He feels he has no voice in this matter, and can only follow the lead of Alatyr.

-Salvatore- A unknown aged figure who has recently been causing a lot of trouble. Salvatore has been a man lurking in the shadows a while now, wandering in a rather a potentiate power armor build, seeking out anything in the galaxy he sees as too dangerous for people to wield. He seems to have a vendetta against anything that he sees as too powerful, even the omnitrix due to the potential destruction it can or has caused in the past. Originally he stuck to some more minor things over the years, not wanting to draw attention until he was strong enough, until recently where he suddenly confronted Khyber, before destroying the nemitrix. Now he has his targets on Jay and Ivory, due to Jay's omnitrix genes, and Ivory being the last known being with nanochips in her. He wields a rather dangerous sword, capable of many kinds of attacks, being skilled at using it. His personality is dry, cold, and just wanting to get his job done. No one knows what lead him to this life, but they want to stop him before he crosses a line too far to return from.

-Sunniva, Whaitiri & Isrun- A 25-year-old Pyronite woman, a 27-year-old Amperi woman, and a 20-year-old Polar Manzardill woman, all mutated. The three are adopted sisters who found each other when they were young, orphans who lost their families in different ways. They have done whatever they can to get by in life, but it never seems to be enough, often stuck in a poor life-style where they have very little. Recently though, they were employed by a figure called Scylla, who they approached when hearing her plans. She hired them and was allowed to mutate them to further her research, having the ability to swap the sister's elemental powers, and some biological traits, in a way making them blood sisters finally. They trust Scylla, having someone who finally gave them a helping they that they needed, and still get to stick by each other, even if now they are seen as criminals. Sunnvia is the youngest, seen as the baby sister who means well, but can be a little ditzy at times. Whaitiri is rather playful, trying her best to keep her sisters happy and optimistic. Isrun is the oldest, and the leader, doing her best to take care of her family and will do anything for them.

-Scylla- A 45-year-old Splimera woman. Scylla's species has a long, unhappy history due to their powers. They have the ability to create temporary mutations on anything with DNA, including themselves. This cause damaged to themselves over many years, to the point that they can easily get sick due to their poor immune system, and their bodies are no longer stable as a result, being stuck in their suits since the day they are born. Scylla, being a scientist, has taken it upon herself to try and fix her people, to cure them of the damage they have done for themselves, leaving her rather isolated and overworked as a result. She's come up with many plans and inventions, including the machine that helped her mutate the sisters working under her, but nothing that will fix her main goal. Scylla is actually a nice woman, giving chances to those who need it, and truly wants to help, but she's now reaching or for more unpleasant methods to help her people, and will stop at nothing until she can save them and herself.

-A.T.L.A.S- A AI/Robot that was made roughly 18 years ago, designed as a therapy bot. A.T.L.A.S was made by a man who created his own counseling/therapy center that become popular over the years, though unknown to most it was really a front to distract people from some shady business he was doing in the back. He made A.T.L.A.S to help this cover more, and giving him extra time as A.T.L.A.S would talk to clients, helping them when they needed. Because this is what he was build for, A.T.L.A.S is rather nice, patient and calm, truly doing what he feels is right to help people move on from trauma and mistakes in their lives. However, this had lead to him in recent years to create his own plan to help people. He has heard many times how they wish they could suddenly be healed, no longer make mistakes, and just wish they were no longer broken, and so A.T.L.A.S found a solution. That solution being that he would put the minds of these people in robot bodies, bodies you couldn't even tell were robot bodies, and program them so that they would finally be happy, and learn to not make mistakes again, or at least what he considers mistakes. A.T.L.A.S can't understand that is wrong with this plan, as to him it worked perfectly, his clients now in new bodies where they can finally move on and live their lives. Isn't that what people want?

-Mor'anna- A 34-year-old Arorenda woman, Mor'anna used to be a noble Plumber, having joined a famous group when they lost a previous member. She was noble, kind, brave, everything you'd want in a Plumber. A true hero to many. However, during a mission with her team, things went wrong almost immediately, with her being killed in action, her crew returning to report and mourn their loss, her poor mother struggling to deal with her grief. However, a year later, Mor'anna suddenly returned, unharmed and seemingly alive. And she was not happy, suddenly attacking Plumber members, looking for dirt on them, and seems to be on her way to reveal and unforutante truth about the group she use to work with, along with a section of the Plumbers, including her former boss, Magistrata Kyro.

-Kyro- A 67-year-old Freeta man, Kyro is a Magistrata, meaning he is one of he top dogs of the Plumber, in charge of a the section of the galaxy that people like Ben don't actually visit often. He seems to be like most Plumber leaders, stern but fair, often just trying to get the job done as he prides himself on his Plumber members. Especially his most famous crew, being a trio named Mist, Hemlock and Unit. However, with the shocking return of Mor'anna, he seems to suddenly be on edge, as if she knows something that he's afraid of people knowing. It's lead to some seeing him act suspicious, but unsure in how to approach him because he's been a great leader, why would he be hiding anything? Unfortunately, even the Plumbers have some dark history that many like to keep hidden.

-Mist, Hemlock & Unit- A 56-year-old Cleptiformes woman, a 54-year-old Stolaras man, and a 60-year-old Sotoraggian, this trio is a rather famous Plumber crew, even having their own distinct colour and armor set. They help keep their region of the galaxy safe, and are a group that Jay looks up to, keeping up with news about them. They've even done a few partner missions with Ben himself. They seem like the golden group, but when news about Mor'anna's return and Kyro's suspicious actions, it's clear that there is more to this group's history than they have admitted to. For starters, there was a previous member, even before Mor'anna. Their friend Erebus, who had been famous just like them, often seen as the heart of them. However, he one day seemingly went crazy, become a villain, and tried harming so many. In order to save everyone, the team supposedly killed their old friend, but it's seems they have never been the same since. And now with Mor'anna back, who had also seemingly died within this group, people are questioning these three on what actually happen. Mist is a calm, but kind lady who holds a lot of patience, but doesn't seem to get to speak up as often as she would like. Hemlock is a little goofy, with a playful personality, but seems to feel like he is stuck where he is, perhaps not sure of his placement on this team anymore. Unit is the leader, and is very charismatic, able to take charge and make plans on the fly, though in truth he is struggling to hold everything together, seemingly in denial over things that have happened.

-Erebus- A 59-year-old Revenade (Nonbinary He/They). Erebus is part of a magical species that can creature armor and outfits out of materials and objects around them, seemingly like possessed armor mythologies. He used to be the fourth member of the team with Mist, Hemlock and Unit, being close to all of them, especially Unit. But one day he seemed to turn on everyone, including stealing a mythical armor set on his homeworld that once belonged to a dangerous figure in history, equipping it and become a horrendous being, bent on destruction and darkness. No one knew what caused this shift on him, as he use to be the sweetest member of the team, one who always wanted peace instead of violence. But in light of recent news, it's been revealed that he is not dead, his old friends having not killed him instead they had imprisoned him in hopes of saving him one day, as it may not have been Erebus's doing as to why he ended up this way. Nor was it him that stolen this armor, and he is ready to show the world what really lead him to become like this

[enixamyram]

I am truly struggling with the Lucifer series. I am literally getting by with watching a single episode a night but it's become such a chore. I just have so many problems with it so this is going to be a complete ranty negative post. Open at your own risk.

Lucifer is becoming less off a fun asshole and more of just an asshole asshole. It feels like he has no deep developement, like he's the same selfish dick he was in the first season except he shouldn't be because he's had no ends of lessons that should have helped him grow. But nope, he cares for Chloe but will still ignore and insult Maze or belittle Dan and put his own problems above Amenadiel and Linda and pretty much everyone else and so on and so on.

The romance between him and Chloe is so damn boring. I hate the will-they-won't-they at the best of times and this show seems to be doubling down on the trope twice as hard in all the worst ways. Every time Chloe and Lucifer have a new problem, I swear I want to ram my head against a wall. It's literally become a case of even when they're together and happy, I'm so sick of them.

Maze has the same twist every damn season. Like, seriously. How many more times is she going to betray Lucifer and side with that seasons antagonist? Her reasons may vary slightly but at the end, it's like clockwork and while I still love her and have great sympathy for her character, it's also still stupidly repetative.

The Dan hate is getting old too. I've never liked the trope of one character constantly getting kicked down on and despite Lucifer's nickname, Dan really isn't that bad a person. And if he is, it's only because of sympathetic circumstances pushing him to be. It was one thing when it was just Lucifer making fun of him but ever since Season 3 with Pierce, it feels like Chloe and everyone else is always smirking behind his back as well and it's just makes me dislike all of them.

On another Dan note, his treatment to finding out the truth is gross compared to the others. When Linda and Chloe found out, Lucifer was careful with them. He gave them space but was otherwise gentle because he understood how intense this information could be for a human. For Dan, he decides to try and make it worse by pranking him with a snake? Even Chloe, to me, is digustingly cold about it. She knows how scary it can be but she doesn't even try to reach out to him during this time. She's more concerned with Lucifer messing up her case than calling him out for pushing Dan during a sensative time? I dunno, it seems a bit sexist to me that the women got coddled and allowed to be emotional about it but the guy gets made fun of.

The only thing I'm looking forward to at this point is Eve returning and marrying Maze (I saw spoilers). But even that isn't going to be done all that well because with only one season to do it, we're not going to get any real development and build between them.

[mayhemchicken-varneyposting]

Varney the Vampire, Chapter 10: "We Have Jonathan Harker At Home"

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As Henry, George, and Marchdale return home, they hear the sound of a pistol shot. Knowing that it must be Flora, they rush towards the house; along the way, a second pistol shot narrowly misses Henry.

Henry reaches the open window and sees Flora unconscious in someone's arms. His immediate first response is to attempt to strangle the intruder, but the man turns out to be Charles Holland, Flora's fiance who was introduced via backstory exposition in Chapter 6.

Henry finally notices his mother passed out on the floor, and rings for the servants to help her. Marchdale, who has never met Charles, is suspicious of him, and the two seem to immediately dislike each other.

Flora awakens from her faint, and briefly tells Henry what happened, managing to do so in a way that gives poor Charles absolutely zero context for what is going on. Adding to his confusion is Flora's insistence that they must break up now for Charles' own good. Charles, who broke off his plot-mandated 2-year European vacation to see her, is horrified and bewildered by this. Henry and George promise him an explanation, and Charles and Henry retire to another room of the house so Henry can explain everything.

Chapter 10 opens with a bang - literally. Henry correctly concludes that the shot must have come from Flora, as she has the only weapons in the house. I would question why they did not arm the servants, but I assume the answer is that Rymer thinks poor people are too stupid to be trusted with guns.

Henry rushes to the house, trampling garden beds with reckless abandon, and narrowly misses becoming a victim of accidental fratricide. Fortunately, the sound of this second shot helps him zero in on where the gunfire is coming from, which is a good thing, because he apparently forgot to confirm which room Flora was going to wait in while they were gone. No one in this book has any foresight, I swear.

Rymer uses the phrase "To [action] was but the work of a moment" twice in as many paragraphs (not counting dialogue), another favorite of his.

Henry was bewildered.

Henry is always bewildered.

The identity of the mysterious intruder from the previous chapter's cliffhanger is now revealed. It's Charles! Charles my little guy my silly rabbit my human chewtoy extraordinaire. Don't worry about that last one it's not actually relevant to the summary ever. (A shame.)

Once this has been cleared up, Henry finally notices his mother on the floor in the Family Guy death pose, which seems to concern him less than I feel it ought to.

"See to your mistress," said Henry. "She is dead, or has fainted."

Pretty big difference between those two things, Henry!

Marchdale and Charles meet for the first time, and do the opposite of hit it off. Charles is pretty frosty to Marchdale, for no apparent reason:

"I am proud to know you, sir," said Marchdale.

"Sir, I thank you," replied Holland, coldly.

It will so happen; but, at first sight, it appeared as if those two persons had some sort of antagonistic feeling towards each other, which threatened to prevent effectually their ever becoming intimate friends.

You know, I never noticed this before, but the phrase "it will so happen" seems to be implying that Charles and Marchdale will at some point become good friends. Spoiler alert: They do not.

Henry attempts to get an account of what happened from the servants, but apparently they know nothing, because after they heard the shots fired they were too terrified to move. To my mind, this seems to slightly contradict the previous chapter, as I assumed the "commotion" heard and ignored by Flora was Charles arriving and interacting with the servants, but I suppose there's no actual confirmation that that's the case.

Flora, who has been unconscious in Charles' arms this whole time, finally awakens. Upon seeing Charles, she at first clings to him, bursting into tears, but then pulls away, telling him that he must leave her forever.

It's fascinating how many echoes of Dracula can be seen in Varney the Vampire. This scene puts me in mind of October 3rd, if Jonathan Harker had gone on a normal business trip instead of being imprisoned in Castle Dracula and was only just now arriving in the narrative. The parallels will get a little stronger later, once Charles learns what's actually going on and has context for why Flora keeps telling him to leave. For now, all he can do is vaguely reassure her that he will love and support her through all troubles, while simultaneously wondering if she has gone mad, or he has, or perhaps everyone here has.

Flora gives Henry the most maddeningly vague explanation of what happened:

Flora shuddered, and Henry, coming up to her, took her hand in his tenderly, as he said,—

"Has it been again?"

"It has."

"You shot it?"

"I fired full upon it, Henry, but it fled."

"It did—fly?"

"It did, Henry, but it will come again—it will be sure to come again."

You can practically feel the question marks manifesting above Charles' head.

Flora continues to tearfully insist Charles leave her, until finally Henry takes Charles away into a separate room to explain to him what all the drama is about. Rymer, a true master of the infuriating cliffhanger, ends the chapter there.

Next: Charles lends his braincell to the cause

[tokiro07]

Toki Reads Shonen Jump 2024, Issue #48

HxH: Kurapika conjectures on the economics of Zhang-Lei's Nen; Halkenburg's body dies, but his mind persists in Balsamilco to assassinate Benjamin. Halkenburg believes only his mind is necessary to win the Succession Battle, but I have no idea how he intends to prove his identity later

Yozakura: Alpha sees another vision of Taiyo's death, so Hifumi helps him enact a plan to save the day. This is the first step in the Bad News phase, as we now have a clearer picture of the fail state

Undead Unluck: UMA Time de-ages into Testament from Guilty Gear and threatens to age out Shen and Mui until Feng shows up and transfers Unfade to Mui. Feng finally embraces the recurring theme of Age as Proof of Life

Roboco: Bondo and friends accidentally wear the same Dabura cosplay to Halloween and stumble into a real haunted house. This may be the first time that Bondo specifically has encountered the supernatural, but I can't recall

Sakamoto: Shin learns that Tenkyu is a member of Slur, but takes advantage of his idiocy and claims to be the fortune-teller in order to control Tenkyu for the foreseeable future. This will help Shin reach Atari, but will absolutely turn Tenkyu into the antagonist of the arc when he learns the truth

Elusive Samurai: Tokiyuki returns to Shinano and is reunited with Yorishige's grandson, Yoritsugu; Yoritsugu reveals that he survived thanks to recurring enemy Sadamune. This will either lead into the final confrontation between Tokiyuki and Sadamune OR a surprise ahistorical explicit betrayal of the Ashikaga by Sadamune

Witch Watch: Ban gains an X-ray vision spell that her echolocation gives her a natural talent for, and uses it to make money on MTG pulls; the conditions of the spell backfire on her and she pays for her hubris. I think Ban might be my favorite character

Blue Box: Taiki and Chinatsu finally get to go on their date, while Kyo pushes himself to admit that his heart is broken over Moriya. The date uses boxes as a symbol for memories, finally establishing the "Box" half of the title, though I still have no idea where "Blue" is going to come in

Akane-Banashi: Urara reminisces about how she met Shiguma and Issho. Seeing the two of them in their youth provides a lot of depth to Issho's character already, so I'm excited to see how he develops from here

Kill Blue: The Home-Ec Club helps prepare a street of restaurants for an event, and Noren tries desperately to hide that she works at one of the restaurants; her uncle uses this as an excuse to give her a compliment he never could muster to say to her face. A really sweet breather chapter before the next challenge; Juzo's concern for how to take initiative in the challenges will likely be the impetus for the climax of the story

Nue's Exorcist: Shiroha resigns herself to being taken back to her family, but Gakuro arrives just in time to intervene. Definitely puts Shiroha ahead of Tsujita in the rankings, but again, if it's not poly, then that means Shiroha's being brushed aside for either Kazusa or Nue

Kagurabachi: The Hishaku try to interfere with Samura's echolocation, but his team of ninjas help level the playing field; when Uruha joins in at great personal risk, Hikari is inspired to use his sorcery despite not having recovered. This is a Good News turn, since Hikari should theoretically be able to summon Samura and Uruha's Enchanted Blades, but it will certainly take him out of commission and prompt the next Bad News phase

Chojo: Inukai is sent on an away mission and goes through Chojo-withdrawals; when he is told that the mission will be extended and take him overseas, he becomes some kind of Tokusatsu-style monster. It is heavily speculated in the comments that this is the beginning of the final arc, but gag manga always make it hard to tell

Astro Royale: One of the cops, Harumi, turns out to be a former pro-wrestler and Kuran's idol; using his shapeshifting, Kuran overcomes Harumi's water and manages to defeat him. Kuran illustrates the theme of "wishes" by admonishing Harumi for fighting with an Astro that was given to him rather than one he wished for, representing feelings and motivations that aren't his own

Murakami: The exorcists and yokai team up to prevent a powerful yokai from resurrecting, but due to a clerical error end up desecrating the grave of a random citizen, allowing the yokai to resurrect after all. This sudden turn and raise in stakes, along with the unceremonious team-up of both factions increases my suspicions that the series is approaching its end, but again, it's a gag manga, so it's hard to say

Kiyoshi: As Kiyoshi has become a Grand Cross, Sakaki can finally take a vacation; at school, Kiyoshi is approached by a chuunibyou who unknowingly set up a real summoning circle; Sakaki, clearly not on vacation, confronts Yuda, the exorcist that posted a real-ass summoning circle on TWITTER. Given the timing, this sudden new antagonist with ties to the mentor could either signal the end of the prologue OR a sign of cancelation, depending on how big of a threat he's revealed to be in the coming chapters; obviously, I'm hoping it's the former

Hima-Ten: Kanna enlists Tenichi to teach her how to do housework so she can take care of herself. Unlike with Nue, this is much too early of a development to be eliminating one of the heroines from the running, but if it's not poly, her aggressive approach is very bad for her chances

Ichi: Ichi takes the straightforward approach in dealing with the Hisame Magik, only to learn that that only works if it's in line with the Magik's trial; Hisame challenges Ichi to help make her FABULOUS! In addition to establishing the importance of the trials, this also illustrates how varied they can be and how Ichi himself will not necessarily be the most suited to all of them; most likely, Kumugi will be the star of this particular arc, and will shockingly be the one to acquire Hisame, a battle-oriented spell that she never thought she'd be suited to wield

Shinobi Undercover: Yodaka tries to fend off Miyake while protecting the school from damage, putting him on the back foot until the operator tells him not to worry about it; once he knows he can go all out, he wrecks Miyake instantly, though he does let him get away. Miyake and the operator both highlight the skill it takes to be able to survive as a fugitive ninja, but Yodaka notes that this just means he sucks at actually doing his job; that sort of exchange is the kind of thing I loved about Candy Flurry, so I'm glad to see it coming back

Hakutaku: Hikuma's team beats Kitamiya (it was definitely Kitahara at one point in the translation...) by making a game that's, -gasp!- fuuun??? Kitamiya admits defeat with shocking grace and humility, and Seo is recruited. The idea of following the Deception theme by making a game where it's equally fun to deceive and be deceived is clever, but like a lot of this series so far, I don't feel like the ideas are being conveyed as well as the author wants them to be; I'm invested in this premise, so I hope they get the chance to refine their storytelling style a bit more

Three manga made me question if they're getting canceled this week...if any of them are, they should have at least six chapters left since that would get them to mid-December, close enough to the next round of new series in January that there isn't an obvious void in the roster

I'm not going to speculate on which of them would be the most likely to go, as I don't want to be that negative or rub salt in the wounds of anyone who would be troubled by that news. While I may use this segment to note when I think the signs are there, I will never express a preference or desire for anything in particular to be axed

That said, there is a possibility that Yozakura and/or Undead Unluck will end in the December-February range, so if either of them do, that would give one or two of the three stragglers here a chance to redeem themselves depending on the editorial department decides to have things play out

Whichever series you're reading and enjoying, keep your chin up, and remember that, if you can afford to, the best way to show your support is to import the Japanese volumes. It worked for UU, it might work for your underrated fave too!

[understandingbimbos]

So. There's a few things I need to address. My documentation and study of bimbos began as a personal project. I only started a blog because I was putting a ridiculous amount of work and thought into this and figured it should be shared (and still, there's SO much I haven't shared yet...). And that's part of why this blog isn't so well managed, not consistent, and very informal. I write every post with the assumption whoever reading will have some familiarity with the fetish and that was kind of a mistake when dealing with subject matter as delicate as this and if I want to be able to attract literally any other audience. But the blog is here now so its kind of a moot point. I won't be rewriting posts. I want to kill myself every day, its astonishing I can write anything. Anyway, recently I discovered an adult performer named Celestina Blooms, in particular, this video:

We share a lot of the same thoughts. And her criticisms of BimboTok are a lot better articulated. Here are some of things she's said that stood out to me (paraphrased):

"As an actual political movement, the Gen Z bimbo isn't actually very helpful beyond being satire because there are contradictions."

"It makes no sense to be expected to have every single decision in your life, in every area of your life, be a form of activism."

"If you don't spend enough time watching all their videos to completely get the point it looks like they're satirizing the ideologies they're preaching."

"They're kind of taking this thing and being like 'Hey! This thing is leftist because I'm leftist and I said so!' when the thing is still something very tied to a lot of systems of oppression."

"I think there's an issue with saying that being feminine is feminist."

"Because there are so many minors on TikTok they'll come across this trend and see the cute aesthetic and cute clothes, and for good measure, the ideologies a lot of them agree with and be like 'Fuck yes! Sign me up!' and before you know it they're dressing like a bimbo, calling themselves a 'bimbo', and all this stuff while not even being aware of this whole other world of bimbofication as a fetish and unknowingly calling attention to themselves."

She also brings up Pink Bimbo Academy in this video (not by name, and if you somehow see this Celestina, sorry for blowing up your spot!). I bring this up because PBA actually reached out to me like two weeks ago. We had an extremely brief conversation. He lost all interest as soon as he realized my blog isn't primarily about real life bimbos and, like Celestina, I don't believe bimbos are really a real life thing. This is the reason for my last text post (now pinned).

Up until this point I didn't realize Pink Bimbo Academy was a guy, or extremely weird. He's one of those bimbo enthusiasts that genuinely believes every woman should be a bimbo, unless they're trans that is, because according to him a bimbo can't have a penis or possess any "masculine" qualities. He seems to view bimbofication less as a fetish and more of a means to an end. To him, bimbos are the peak of femininity and bimbofication only helps women to become more of who they're "biologically" meant to be. He has entire rants against feminism up on his website and aspires to create an actual real-life bimbo finishing school, like he's a super villain or some shit, like the antagonist of every school-set bimbofication story come to life. And unfortunately, he's basically the resource for bimbofication online. I have to assume not everyone that follows his guides reads all his posts and FAQ but its more than disappointing to have a transphobe be one of the main vanguards of this fetish today.

Anyway, I can't recommend Celestina's video enough. Its a bit long but all worth watching and has made the prospect of writing this book exciting again. I would suggest this video of hers too:

Post-script: After over an hour of writing all of this I realized I actually did something extremely stupid here. Celestina follows me on here, possibly one of the first people to follow me. I kept wondering why one of her icons looked so familiar and it took me until literally just now to figure it out. I hope she doesn't mind the plug, because you all should follow her too!

@celestinablooms Twitter Instagram

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

Why do you think allison pendle work better as a villain rather than good guy?

Because as a good guy, she's bland and milquetoast to the point I ask why she's even there. In the base game of BATIM she doesn't use her screentime to make a big impression in contrast to the other characters who DO make use of every scrap of screentime they get. Just look at every other antagonist with a voice.

What do we learn about Sammy throughout the game? That he was once a sane, grumpy music director with a strong distaste for the cartoon character and is presently a cultist who worships the Ink Demon and is willing to kill to appease said lord and to free himself from 'the inky abyss I call a body'. In chapter 5, while it's mostly implications and not flat out said, the fact that the Lost Ones ONLY turn hostile towards Henry after Sammy's death strongly implies that he is well liked enough in their community to warrant then acting out in such a way.

What do we learn about Susie? That she was once a starry-eyed actress who thought she was going to make it big with the character she loved to voice before she was replaced by Allison and betrayed by Joey and is now a violent and bitter parody of the character she once played, resorting to cutting up other cartoons, taking their hearts and leaving the rest for scrap, mirroring how she herself had her heart stolen and the rest of her left for scrap.. She also tells us a bit about a certain musician whom she clearly doesn't think fondly of right now, but does admit he was once a handsome man... What do we learn about Norman? That he was a level-headed, light on his feet, not very social fellow who picks up on the peculiarities of his bosses. We also notice in his maze that he's developed a habit of taking out the hearts of intruders (ripping them out like a certain angel right above him?), and will attack anything that either gets caught in his light or tries to steal from him.

What do we learn about Bertram? That he's basically a realistic version of the man Joey dreams to be; A man who's been bringing joy to the public for years, a man who brings mechanical wonders to reality, a man that's not just a dreamer but a doer. But while he is an *ideal* version of Joey, he's not a dream come to life, he's not perfect, he's not a mind reader and he certainly gets fed up with Joey and his critical red pen. His ego reaches his limit with Joey and his ink monster form reflects that; a magnum opus that is designed to wow and destroy.

What do we learn about Joey himself? That he is a vile yet pitiful king of falsehoods sitting on a throne of lies that rests on top of the rubble of his crooked empire built out of his own cruelty. Every tape of his barring the one where the mask finally slips is one that paints the image of a starry-eyed dreamer with goals bigger than reality yet the drive to do anything to achieve them and meeting him at the end shows us the ugly, naked phoenix chick left in the ashes of his former glory, to this day he refuses to discard the mask as he still speaks as a dreamer who has yet to let go of the past (hence causing the cycle to do nothing but repeat.). What do we get with all of these antagonists? We get a personality, backstory, possible relationship connections, goals, and what they're willing to do to accomplish said goals.

Now lets look back to Allison.

Her personality? 'Nice', which is basically a default setting of human being. She also 'lacks hope', which is a default setting that comes with being in the environment.

Backstory? Aside from what Susie tells us in HER tape, Nada, we don't even get a single tape recorder from Allison.

Relationship connections? Tom does all the work here by fiercely protecting her/antagonizing Henry believing him to be a threat while she passively reacts to it if she reacts at all.

Goals? Survive? Get out Help Henry get out.

What she's willing to do for said goals? Give him a seeing glass and help in one fight before abandoning him because 'a drop in the ocean is never seen again'.

But by taking her and making her an antagonistic player on Joey's side, she goes from dull-as-a-rock helper to two-faced Industry Weed and suddenly we can look back and realize that her being a boring but somewhat helpful ally in the last play of the game WAS HER SURVIVAL GIMMICK ALL ALONG, THAT SHE PLANNED IT ALL.

Her Personality: Carefully hidden away so that Henry was never aware of her true colors until it was too late.

Backstory: That she and Joey met up several times and were mutually inspired by each others' dreams, and that she was willing to scratch his back if he scratched hers...

Relationship connections: Due to the other Antagonists likely knowing her true nature at this point; negative with everyone BUT Joey, Henry, and Tom, but Tom believes he's the one keeping her in the dark when the reality is they're keeping each other in the dark...

Goals: Likely the same as Joey's.

What is she willing to do to achieve said goals: ANYTHING! Murder, mutilation, psychological warfare, inflicting Stockholm syndrome VIA the 'good cop bad cop' routine she and Tom are playing, whatever she and Joey need her to do to get those results!

Just... do you see the difference? BATIM already has its fair share of sympathetic villains and it doesn't hurt to put an Imp in angel's clothing in there.

[whatacaitastrophe]

Barbora x Astarion - for electricvaporwave

A one-shot I did for @electricvaporwave <3 I loved writing this for you.

Would you like me to write a BG3 one shot for you? Check out this post and send me a message <3

Song Inspiration: “The Moon Will Sing” - The Crane Wives

Content Warning: Canon-Typical Violence

“If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were actually trying to actively get us all killed.” Astarion scowled at Barbora as she laced up her boots.

“We have to go get them, Astarion. Cal, Lia, Lakrissa, Danis– they’re all going to die if we don’t save them.” Barbora countered, glaring at the vampire. 

This was how all of their conversations went lately: yet another innocent person would be in danger, Barbora would agree to help, Astarion would disagree, arguments ensued. It was a dance Barbora thought the two of them had moved past after all of the other situations where they’d gone out of their way to help people (the tieflings, the ironhand gnomes, the myconids - to name a few) that Astarion had come around on the idea of being the hero. As it turned out, he’d been biting his tongue for a while, and it all came tumbling out the second they reached the shadow-cursed lands. Perhaps it was the environment. Perhaps it was the looming threat of a Githyanki patrol sneaking up on them. Perhaps it was simply just the fact that they were (hopefully) close to the finish line and Astarion was getting anxious about Cazador. No matter what it was, Astarion’s antagonistic behavior was at an all-t against every suggestion Barbora made was wearing on her patience. 

“No, we don’t. We have enough problems of our own– it’s not our fault these people keep getting themselves kidnapped,” He argued. “You’re asking us to infiltrate the heart of Moonrise Towers and break people out of prison. Why bother when we could be as close as we are to getting these gods-damned tadpoles out of our heads?”

“If you don’t like it, then you can stay the fuck here.” Barbora snapped. Maybe the environment was getting to her, too. Even with Isobel’s blessing, and the blessing from the pixie they freed, the energy of this place…it was soul-sucking. Astarion was visibly taken aback by the tone of her voice and immediately Barbora felt guilty. They bickered, mostly about her moral compass and his lack of one, sure, but she never snapped at him like that. An apologetic look washed over her face, but it was too late. She watched as Astarion’s facial expression changed, as he gave her one of those looks he used to give her after they first met: cold indifference. 

“You know what? I think I will. The bleeding hearts can handle this. I’d say don’t do anything stupid, but…well seeing as this whole plan is stupid there’s not much of a point.” He said with an eye roll before sauntering off. 

“Astarion–” Barbora tried to apologize, but he cut her off. 

“Good luck with the prison break, darling!” He called from over his shoulder, not bothering to look back at her, and Barbora sighed. She would deal with that later. For now, she had tieflings to save. 

Barbora should have known this was going to go wrong the second Karlach suggested they jump down into the massive hole behind the warden’s office to see if there was a way to get around to the back of the prison cells. The presence of the hook horrors in the disgusting, fleshy mind-flayer oubliette below should have also been a sign. Only since they dealt with the horrors easily and Karlach’s theory proved to be correct, Barbora let her guard down. There was even a boat waiting for them at a small dock, ready to take them away from Moonrise Towers the second the prisoners were free and out of harm’s way. It was too easy, and nothing was ever easy.

It started when one of the guards cast “Hold Person” on Lakrissa, the tiefling ranger Barbora was fairly certain was dating the tiefling bard they’d also met at The Grove, Alfira. If the desperation in Alfira’s voice when she pleaded with Barbora and her companions to bring everyone back from Moonrise Towers was any indication, then they were probably together. Instead of continuing the short path to the waiting rowboat, Barbora turned around. She needed to break the concentration of the guard keeping Lakrissa in place. 

“Soldier, where the hells are you going? The boat is the other way!” Karlach shouted as she shot an arrow at an oncoming guard who’d emerged from the cell previously holding the Ironhand gnomes. 

“I won’t leave her!” Barbora shouted as she took off at a sprint.  

Karlach swore as she called after Barbora, but didn’t argue with her. The swearing may also have been from the spell that whizzed by the fiery tiefling’s ear, missing her by centimeters. The guard holding Lakrissa in place was stalking through the prison cell and Barbora readied her sword taking aim so that, if her blow landed, he would go clean through the gap in the guard’s armor at his elbow, hopefully causing him enough pain to focus on that instead of keeping Lakrissa in place. The blow landed, and the guard cried out with a yelp, freeing Lakrissa just as Barbora had planned.

“Run!” Barbora shouted to the tiefling as she began backing up herself with one eye on the guard.  Lakrissa did not waste time hesitating before heading back down the path Barbora had just come from. The guard was wobbling on his feet as he raised his crossbow. He was dazed, that much was clear, so his chances of hitting her were low. 

Only, it seemed luck was on his side that day, because when the guard fired the arrow, it found its mark in Barbora’s shoulder. From a close distance, it hit her with such force that the arrow went clean through her body, leaving a gaping, bleeding hole in its place as Barbora yelled in pain, collapsing to the ground. This was it. This was how she was going to die. Barbora could see around the corner just barely, and it looked like all of the tieflings and the gnomes had made it to the boat, even if she wasn’t going to. 

The guard seemed to get a second wind after getting Barbora on the ground and he began walking towards her, replacing his crossbow with his sword as he went. Her vision was blurry now as blood spilled from her body. All she could hope for now was that the guard’s killing blow would be swift. 

“NO!” A voice shouted, and…no that couldn’t be right. The owner of that voice was at camp. Wasn’t he? Was she hallucinating? Gods, if Barbora’s final thoughts were of him before she died, she would haunt him forever as punishment. 

Astarion’s dagger found purchase right between the guard’s eyes, and Barbora realized as the white-haired elf came into view that she was not hallucinating at all– the vampire had followed them to the prison and, if she didn’t bleed out first, he’d just saved Barbora’s life. “No– you are NOT allowed to die on me. Not like this.” Astarion panicked as he removed his dagger from the now-dead guard’s forehead. 

“‘Starion–” Barbora croaked as Astarion dropped to his knees beside her and wrapped his arms around her body. 

“Shhh, save your strength,” The faint sound of ripping fabric filled her ears, and suddenly the smell of Astarion filled her nostrils as he tenderly wrapped the wound in her shoulder. He’d ripped the bottom of his shirt for her. Astarion scooped Barbora up in his arms and swiftly carried her to the waiting boat, where Wyll, Karlach, and Shadowheart were all sitting with the fugitives. A collective gasp left their companions’ bodies as Karlach moved so quickly to help Astarion that she almost tipped the boat over getting out.

“Shadowheart–can you heal her?” Astarion asked the cleric desperately as he and Karlach lowered Barbora into the boat. Shadowheart nodded.

“I’ve used a lot of magic today, but I should be able to stabilize her until we get to Last Light, then we can get more help from Isobel.” That Shadowheart was willing to ask the moon cleric for help was a testament to how bad of shape Barbora was in. Astarion pulled Barbora close to him again, his armor stained with her blood. The warm glow of Shadowheart’s healing magic dulled the pain, and was enough to close the wound’s exit hole. The space where the arrow had entered was still wide open, but at least Shadowheart’s efforts had slowed the bleeding a bit more. 

“‘Starion, ‘m sorry–” Barbora tried to apologize for their fight earlier. After all, he’d been right. She’d nearly gotten herself killed. 

“Hush, darling, we’ll talk later.” He whispered and pressed a soft kiss to the crown of her head as she closed her eyes. 

It was dark when Barbora woke. Well, it was always dark in the shadow-cursed lands, but it was clearly what everyone assumed to be nighttime based on the way the lights in the barracks at Last Light Inn were dimmed– the room mostly illuminated by the fire still roaring in the hearth. Barbora slowly took in her surroundings, taking note of the fact that she was back in her camp clothes, and her shoulder had been wrapped with new, clean, fabric. There was still a faint throbbing of pain in her shoulder, and she winced as she attempted to sit up, but the wound seemed to have been healed otherwise. 

“You’re awake.” Astarion said softly, and Barbora jumped. 

“How long have you been sitting there?” Barbora asked weakly. She hadn’t noticed him sitting in the armchair next to the bed with a book in his lap. 

“Since we brought you in six hours ago,” He admitted. Six hours? The book in his lap looked like he’d barely touched it– had he spent that entire time just…watching her? As though Astarion could read her mind as she stared at the book in his lap, he chuckled. “I couldn’t stop watching you…I wanted to make sure you were still breathing.” 

Barbora’s heart did a flip in her chest. “You– you were worried about me?” 

“Don’t be ridiculous, darling, of course I was,” Astarion chastised her gently as he moved from his chair to sit on the edge of Barbora’s bed. “We have our squabbles, yes, but…you scared me today.”

Barbora stared at him and blinked. “What?” 

“I tried to deny it to myself for a long time. Then I watched that arrow go through your shoulder today and when you collapsed to the ground…all I could think about was murdering that guard for harming you,” Astarion reached for her hand and squeezed it. “That was the moment I realized you mean a great deal more to be than I’d planned for. If– if you’d died…I’d have burned Moonrise Towers to the ground.”

Barbora’s heart sped up in her chest. She’d always assumed Astarion was flirting with her because he flirted with everybody– not because he was actually interested in her in that way. From the sound of it, Astarion was also under this impression with himself until very recently. “I– I care about you, too. I hope you know that. And I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier.” Barbora apologized, and she squeezed Astarion’s hand again. 

“You have nothing to apologize for, darling, I was an arsehole. Besides, I ended up following you anyway, didn’t I?” He reminded her with a smirk, and Barbora laughed. 

“And it saved my life…” She pointed out, nudging him slightly. “Thank you, by the way.”

“Don’t think anything of it– like I said, I care about you. Keeping you alive is of great interest to me.” He teased Barbora and leaned over to kiss her cheek. 

Barbora yawned, her body exhausted from the day and her injury. “Lay here with me?” She requested, and Astarion nodded. Barbora gingerly slid over on the mattress to make room for the vampire, and once he was situated beside her, Barbora moved back towards him and curled herself up in his arms before drifting off to sleep. 

[cheerycherrycandy-resurrected]

Happy Birthday Ash!! 🎂

I hope you have an amazing day!! @rainsbasspick

After discussing it for weeks (months??) I've finally finished my Dew2 kitten-fic for you!! I hope it's everything you wanted 🖤

thanks again for letting me steal the idea of the little crocheted horns!!

I'll put it on AO3 for you when I wake up :P (yes this is scheduled for 6am you early-bird!!) but it's here for now since I don't want to keep you waiting any longer!

fic below the cut:

Things hadn't changed much amongst the pack since Spitfire arrived. Dew, Cumulus and Sunny continued their reign of terror; Swiss still bickered with Dew over anything and nothing; Rain continued Phantom and Aurora's video game education. But one thing had changed: Dew was no longer the biggest antagonist amongst them.

In her few short months on Earth, Spitfire had outdone Dew's personal brand of chaos effortlessly: the spirited little furball was constantly getting under everyone's feet and in everyone's hair. However, in spite of the extra trouble she caused, Spitfire was still universally loved by them all. Well, almost all...

Dew was still unconvinced. Sure, he could admit that she was rather cute: that time she climbed a bare-chested Swiss with her claws was great payback for his most recent verbal swipe at Dew earlier that day. Seeing Cumulus and Sunshine go gooey-eyed over her was also strangely touching, but he stood firm on one thing: the cat was not his replacement, and he was by far the superior Spitfire of the pack!

The ghoulettes were keen to prove him wrong, however. Despite his protests, the kitten was still frequently nicknamed Dew2, especially when she misbehaved. Cumulus had crocheted her a tiny set of red horns to wear as a hat, which somehow ended up being the same length as Dew's own stubby horns. The photograph of a scowling Dew, reluctantly stood next to a beaming Cumulus holding Spitfire wearing her horns, had been added to the pack photos on the fridge the very same afternoon.

Clearly someone had taken inspiration from this. A few days later, Dew had walked into the kitchen to discover that in every single photograph his face had been covered over by a cut-out of Spitfire in her little red horns. The kitten had been sat on the back of the sofa behind a very suspicious-looking Sunshine, primly washing her paws in a way that convinced Dew she knew exactly what had happened, and approved.

As time passed and Dew became used to the new pack dynamic, the pranks at his expense had slowly died down. They had gone back to terrorising the siblings and their other packmates, and Dew had to admit that Spitfire was very good at it. Combined with her talent for getting under people’s feet – sometimes quite literally – Dew had to admit that the kitten was rather cute.

One morning, he had crawled into the den kitchen in search of coffee and toast, and had been greeted by a small chirp. In her basket atop the giant cat tree that Mountain had been begged to help assemble, Spitfire had leapt to her feet and stretched. She meowed lightly again at Dew, looking at him with a curious head tilt until a humongous yawn overtook her small body, showing off her tiny needle-like teeth.

Dew regarded her back with a sideways look of his own, confused as to why she seemed so pleased to see him when he hadn’t exactly been her biggest fan so far. While he was facing away to poke at the coffee machine, Spitfire hunkered down into a pouncing position, her bottom in the air and her stubby little tail waving behind her. Dew turned back just in time to see her take a flying leap from the top of the cat tree, wincing as she hit the ground with a thud, little legs spread out beneath her. She scampered happily towards him, seemingly unfazed.

Reaching Dew's ankles, the kitten stared up at him, considering her next move. She began her ascent up Mount Dew by launching herself at his knees, digging her claws into the thin fabric of his pyjamas and climbing the wincing and hissing ghoul until she could scramble onto the counter. Spitfire looked up at him expectantly, and Dew stared back.

“You're not meant to be up here.” he told her, simply. Of course, she ignored him, chirping and wandering off towards the relative interest of the rumbling coffee machine.

“Careful, it's hot!” Dew lunged for the tiny ball of ginger fluff that was sniffing at the flow of steaming brown liquid. She hissed and squirmed at the hand grasped around her middle, protesting until Dew released the wriggling kitten a safe distance away from all hot appliances. Huh, Dew figured. He was more scared of her getting hurt than he was of her many claws, maybe she was finally growing on him as the ghoulettes had said she would. Spitfire meanwhile set about washing herself, glaring at Dew like he had personally wronged her by preventing her from burning her delicate nose on the hot coffee.

“Oh, don't be such a drama queen!”

She looked back as if to say takes one to know one. Dew rolled his eyes and stuffed two slices of bread into the toaster.

Spitfire regained her interest in Dew's breakfast endeavours when he opened the fridge. She knew that was where the good food lived – butter, cheese, salami... all the things she wasn't strictly allowed, but the ghouls fed her morsels of nonetheless. Rain had even given her a lick of whipped cream when he emerged for a 2am hot chocolate, once. He hadn’t been able to make one since without triggering the siren that was a wailing Spitfire when denied treats, waking the entire ghoul wing’s occupants. Still, the cream-tax was a worthwhile cost for his uninterrupted late-night snacks.

Dew returned with the butter and was just going in search of a plate when the toaster popped. Both him and Spitfire jumped at the sudden noise, the latter leaping so high off the counter that Dew was worried she would hit the cabinets above. She huffed and shook out her fur, before hissing at the toaster.

"Yeah, you show that toaster who's boss.” Dew murmured to her, retrieving his toast and buttering it. As he moved to retrieve his now-brewed coffee, Spitfire slunk forward and began sniffing at the hot buttery toast. Dew tried to bat her away from it, juggling both his plate and mug at the same time, but she only tried to chase his buttery fingers instead. When Dew finally extricated himself and his breakfast to head over to the table, it looked like Spitfire was either going to take another flying leap at him, or begin wailing. To keep the peace, Dew returned the butter knife to the counter where she immediately descended upon it, delicately licking at the leftover smears and purring up a storm.

“Don’t tell the girls I let you have that,” Dew warned her, “Sunny will skin me alive!”

Spitfire purred louder.

After a while, Dew started to realise that what he had previously thought were acts of aggression from Spitfire were really the kitten trying to play. Her swipes at his ankles had no claws behind them, and her hisses held no real venom. In fact, it seemed that she had been directly provoking him, in search of rougher playtime than the ghoulettes would provide.

The other ghouls had seemingly realised that she was not merely satisfied with a small feather toy either. Dew had walked into the lounge one day to find several of them sat around on couches, legs outstretched and looking for all the world as though they were kicking the kitten around like a football.

“What are you doing to that poor cat?!” Dew exclaimed, his protective instincts kicking in as he ran over to rescue her. Had the ghoulish nature of his packmates finally got the better of them? Ghouls were known to play with their food, much like cats themselves, but this torment seemed excessive! As he got closer however, he realised that Spitfire seemed to be running into their feet instead of away from them. She would pounce on a ghoul's foot, cling on tight, and wait to be launched in the direction of another waiting one.

“It's a game,” Rain laughed, “and she started it! Come on, sit down and join in.”

Dew tentatively joined him on the sofa and Spitfire immediately ran to her newest playmate, jumping onto his socked foot and bunny-kicking at it with her back legs.

“Now throw her to Phantom!” Rain mimed like he was kicking a football from the halfway line, but Dew employed significantly less force to toss her to the ghoulette on the opposite sofa. He watched as Spitfire released her grip on him right at the peak of his swing, sailing briefly through the air before scampering the rest of the way towards Phantom.

“I don't get it.” declared Dew but still, he stayed on the sofa and joined in until Spitfire decided she was bored and wandered off in search of dinner.

Not too long later, Dew was walking through the gardens in search of Mountain. As he was passing the small orchard of apple trees that separated the Abbey’s ornamental gardens from the less tidy and earth-ghoul-infested vegetable plots, he heard a distressed yowling coming from above his head. Peering through the branches, he eventually spotted a flash of orange fur. Frantic eyes met his, as she howled down at him from her perch high in the air.

“How in the hell did you get up there?” Dew exclaimed, craning his neck to see better. She shakily tried to clamber her way closer to him, until the branch dipped dangerously with a gust of wind and she recommenced her cries for help. Dew shook his head in bemusement, and pulled himself up into the lower branches of the tree.

“You’re a cat, aren’t you meant to be good at climbing things?”

She meowed again, as Dew climbed out towards her. The limbs of the tree swayed even more dangerously under his greater weight. He focused on the tiny and frightened kitten, refusing to look down in case the more rational part of his brain tuned back in to see just how high up he now was.

Dew could almost reach out and touch Spitfire, she was just a few centimetres further from him, but the branches were so narrow here. How she made it this far out in the first place was beyond him. He cooed to her, trying to convince her to cross the final distance herself. She seemed frozen to the spot in fear, however.

“You’re lucky there’s so many quint ghouls here,” Dew informed her, “if I fall and break a leg getting you down, they’ll all be falling over each other to heal the brave ghoul who rescued a kitten!” Her answering meow simply told him to hurry up, dreams of possible glory be dammed!

Climbing even higher, and reaching out with fingers trembling from the stretch, Dew finally had Spitfire. Grasping her tightly around her middle, he pulled her to him and placed her on his shoulder, for once not complaining about her claws digging in. He set about making his own descent and, as the spindly branches beneath him trembled, he could see why Spitfire had gotten stuck – it was much scarier going down than up! Dew knew though that he would never hear the end of it if he got stuck up the same tree he was rescuing Spitfire from, so with gritted teeth he climbed down the tree one shaky branch at a time. Once Dew was finally on solid ground again, heart pounding and sighing in relief, Spitfire then rediscovered her adventurous spirit and climbed down him.

“Don’t do that again you silly kitty!” Dew admonished the tiny ball of fur, her tail still puffed up from the ordeal, “There won’t always be someone around to help you.” She chirped as if in careless acknowledgement, and headbutted his ankles.

“See,” he laughed, continuing on his original mission to find Mountain, with her now trotting along in tow, “you can be a sweet little thing, when you’re not trying to replace me!”

After the events of recent days Spitfire had apparently decided that Dew was her new favourite, much to the chagrin of the ghoulettes who were wondering where their smallest member had disappeared to. She could often be found following him around like a little shadow, helping him with his own mischief but mostly making more of her own.

On a quiet afternoon – too quiet for comfort, some could say – Spitfire had wandered off alone. Dew was walking the corridors looking for some form of entertainment: Cumulus and Sunshine had locked themselves away with Cirrus, Aurora and Mist for top secret ghoulette activities; Swiss was still annoyed at him for messing with his shaker in rehearsals by replacing the beads with sleigh bells (although in Dew’s opinion, Phantom’s little giggle of “hail Santa!” was worth every second of Copia’s confusion); and Rain was lurking at the bottom of the lake.

Turning a corner by the kitchen he came across what looked like a roast chicken, dragging itself along the corridor. Getting closer he quickly realised it was Spitfire, attempting to pilfer a chicken larger than she was. Her little paws were scrabbling for purchase on the smooth stone floors of the corridor, and tiny growls emanated from her each time the chicken slipped from her grasp.

“Impressive.” Dew whistled lowly, and Spitfire paused to look up at him. With an impatient huff and meow she looked back at the chicken, clearly asking him for help.

“You think you can eat all that do you?” he bent down, scooping up the roast chicken with the kitten still attached, and carried the pair back to the den. Dew placed them on the counter, and began prying Spitfire off of the bird. He was becoming increasingly less scared of her claws now, and having seen how the ghoulettes dealt with her, he was quickly becoming a master cat wrangler. He tore a leg off the chicken as his own snack, and wrapped the rest in foil and put it in the fridge. No one could say the two of them didn’t help provide for their packmates!

Carefully, he pulled off a few small pieces of meat and thoroughly checked them for bones, before offering them to Spitfire for her trouble. She delicately took them with her teeth, licking her lips in satisfaction while Dew expertly cleaned the meat off the bone with his own long tongue and sharp fangs.

Clearly, food was the key to Spitfire's heart: Rain and Phantom would bribe her for cuddles with treats, Aurora would coax her into posing for photos with small cubes of cheese on a string, and Dew had grown in popularity, as the earliest riser, for always feeding her breakfast. No matter where she had spent the night, as soon as Dew's door squeaked open Spitfire would appear to twine around his ankles in a display of pure cupboard love, until she was fed.

That didn't mean she was ever satisfied with just her own breakfast, however. Dew had learned to keep an eagle eye on everything he set down, even if it didn't immediately seem like food a cat would want to eat.

“Naughty! That's not for you, Cornflake.” He had chided her, exasperated, as he turned around to see her sat on the table with her face buried in his bowl of cereal. Milk clung to her whiskers until she shook herself violently, droplets flying everywhere, before moving to sit on top of the book Dew had been about to open and starting to bathe herself.

Despite continuing to wind each other up, breakfast had become their bonding time. Dew was almost always the first in the kitchen, rising with the sun, and Spitfire seemed to delight in the company. They would spend the first hour of the day sat in the cool morning light of the kitchen, often with Dew defending his breakfast from curious paws, but sometimes they sat quietly together if Dew had had a late night, or Spitfire had been roaming the halls chasing mice.

On another such morning, Dew and Spitfire were enjoying their morning coffee and water respectively. Band rehearsals were due to start in an hour, and while some of the other ghouls had already wandered sleepily in and out of the kitchen, Rain had yet to make an appearance. That wasn't uncommon; he slept like the dead, especially around the time of the new moon. Not wanting Rain to get in trouble for being late to practice again, Dew knew he should wake him up. But if there was one thing worse than a disappointed look from Papa, it was the disgruntled snarl of a recently awoken water ghoul.

"Go and wake Rainy up,” Dew suggested to the kitten that was now pacing back and forth, impatiently awaiting the arrival of the ghoul who always smelled so deliciously of fish, “he won't get mad at you for it.”

With a trill, Spitfire leapt off the table and scampered from the room. A short while later she proudly trotted back in, her stubby tail waving in self-satisfaction and with a sleepy Rain in tow. Dutifully and on autopilot, he put a scoop of cat biscuits in her bowl like she normally demanded of him. In his half-awake state, he failed to see that it was still filled from when Dew had fed her shortly before. Rain had learned not to eat the small and tasty fish biscuits no matter how good he thought they smelled: his packmates didn't appreciate smelling them on his breath, and Spitfire got jealous.

She completely ignored the offer of second breakfast in lieu of delicately accepting a piece of salami from Dew, who was now sprawled on the couch with a coffee to lure in his un-caffeinated water ghoul.

“Morning Rainy!” he chirped, as Rain unceremoniously flopped on top of him on the couch and made grabby hands at the steaming mug. “Ready for rehearsals?” He received a grunt in return as the water ghoul gulped down the coffee like a parched traveller in the desert.

Spitfire settled down on the back of the couch to watch the pair, and soon all three were purring quietly. One hand gently scratching at Rain's scalp, Dew reached the other up to pet Spitfire. They might have got off to a rocky start, but Dew couldn’t wait to see what sort of mischief they could get up to together next.

[thecrusadercomrade]

on that character ask game: 1 for Alvin Senior, 25 for David Garcia, 19 for Clementine, 9 for Ben Paul

1 for Alvin: I honestly really like this guy, it's a shame he didn't get more to do in season two. He wants to help Clementine with her bite, even if Rebecca glares him down, and he offers her a juice box in addition to giving her medical supplies if she reaches out to him, which was really cool. Later on, we see clearly that Alvin dotes on his wife and his always looking out for her. He doesn't seem to hold it against Rebecca when the Carver reveal happens, maybe he understands that it might not have been fully consensual on her part.

Sure, Alvin wants to keep food hidden from the group, but it's only out of concern for Rebecca. All in all, I'd say Alvin is a really good guy who just happens to be a little weak-willed, and I'm really sad he went out the way he did. He deserved better.

25 for David: While I've grown to have a soft spot for David in recent years, I'm pretty sure that back when I was originally exposed to him I thought he was a pretty big jerk. He was presented as antagonistic towards Javi a lot of the time, and back then I didn't have a very nuanced view of people, so I just saw him as a jerk.

Nowadays, I like him a lot more. I still think he's very flawed, but he's basically the Kenny of A New Frontier. A deeply flawed man with anger issues, but who ultimately wants to do the right thing. I much prefer keeping him alive over any other ending for the game, and I think his relationship with Javi is the most compelling part of the story. It always breaks my heart whenever I see a youtuber break Javi's promise to his dad by fighting David.

19 for Clementine: To be honest, I can't really think of any relationships Clementine has in the games that I actively dislike all that much. In-universe, I guess I could say Clementine's relationship with Christa. Not because it's poorly written or bad for the story, but because Clementine is clearly miserable with her. I can't help but wonder if Clem wouldn't be quite as depressed as she is in season two if she'd spent the last few years with someone who actually loved and supported her, rather than resenting her.

9 for Ben Paul: I think I could get along pretty well with Ben as a roommate. I'm a very quiet person by nature, so I might not be socializing with him super often, but he seems like a decently considerate guy. He also mentions reading a Bible at one point, and I'm a Christian, so maybe we could talk about that or something. So long as we don't get into any life-or-death situations, I don't think I'd have any problems with him.

[crowlhoard]

Undead Unluck Manga Chapter 183 Spoilers!!!

I know the main wave of discussions for this chapter has already concluded and the new anime episode is already out, but I tend to ruminate for a long time and I'm even slower on properly writing those thoughts out. But now that my thoughts are finally organized, I can put that dead horse to the ground.

Last chapter seemingly seems as an end to Rip's and Latla's character development, quite a disappointing one too (even besides the sister thing, that is just *sign*, Japan...), but I have some reasons to hope it isn't, and here's why:

In the first loop we are introduced to a variety of negators, which can generally be separated into two teams: Union and Under. Under being the antagonists of the story. As the story unfolds, we learn that Under and Union may actually work for the same goal, even if the former is doing it in a pretty twisted way. But there's two exceptions to that rule: Feng and Rip/Latla team.

Feng is pretty straightforward in his desire for strength and his willingness to sacrifice all and everything for it. Loop 101 already addressed his behavior and showed us a hint of change:

Rip and Latla, however, while being a team, aren't on an equal ground. While Latla obviously wants to save her sister too, we constantly see that it's Rip, who is consciously refusing to move on from the loss of Layla and fueling his obsession over his goal. A goal, as we learn in the unfolding of the last loop, that is quite selfish and short-sighted. Not only his current actions utterly betray his dead lover's last wish

But it also doesn't actually gain him anything but a few extra years at most with Layla before a horrifying death of the whole world and all three of them

While in the beginning such motivation could be explained by Rip being introduced to the world of negators through Under and coming to conclusion that all the people with power act purely in their own interest, that delusion repeatedly gets shuttered by his run-ins with the protagonist duo. Yet, despite every such encounter showing us a bit of humanity in Rip, every following encounter, he seems to push towards his selfish wish.

A potential for him to finally make a right choice this loop seems to appear after the culmination of Season's Arc, where it's laid plain to see that Fuuko is the one with the power to reach God and that she is absolutely the kind of person to try and save everyone, and loop is being inevitable by this point with Earth's careening towards Sun. This shows us a hopeful turn for the Rip and Latla duo - with Latla choosing to help Union search for Fuuko and, most importantly, finally separate from Rip

Yet, despite this hopeful turn, Rip once again returns to the original plan - speed the oncoming end of this loop and doom the next one, all for the desire to be Layla's personal hero for a single moment. This culminates in one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the story

Which is made progressively worse, once we learn Latla's negation next loop - Untrust. So for that plan to work, Latla either had to fully believe that Rip can't hit a moving target like Andy (which is doubtful, since she is the most aware of the extent of Rip's skill) or to truly believe that he won't be able to genuinely target her. And despite last chapter claiming that Rip loved both sisters equally, he is clearly capable of sacrificing Latla for Layla.

As heartbreaking as that moment is, it also shines light on the true nature of Rip and Latla's relationship in the loop 100 - they are enablers of the worst traits in each other: self-destructive loyalty, multiplied by infatuation in Latla and the short-sighted selfish goal pursuit in Rip.

Moving onto the next loop, we are introduced to them both once again before the tragedy of Layla's death. Latla doesn't seem to differ from her past loop counterpart. Her life is still built around helping her sister and supporting her relationship with Rip.

Rip is quite a different person, though. With quite the heroic claims

Which would be quite touching to see after this arc's end to show his growth, but here, before Layla is saved, we know those claims are pretty hollow. Unlike the rest of the cast, who sticks to their core values after losing a loved one, we know from the last loop that Rip drops this claim pretty quickly after Layla's death.

Latla does get her drop of a character development, finally standing up to Rip and demanding half the Bladerunner to stop Rip from trying to play a solo hero, in contrast to her quietly following Rip's path of self-destruction last loop

A few words about Layla - despite being alive this loop, she still doesn't have a character. Effectively, she could be replaced with a mannequin in a dress in 99% of her scenes and nothing would change.

So this arc culminates in chapter 183, where we get a brief recap of the events and Rip checking out his "happy end" box with marrying Layla. We also get slapped with a sudden question "Who will Rip chose?" after the narrative up to this point practically beating us with the demonstrations of Rip's first priority over everything (even Latla's life) always being Layla, from the start.

We are given one page in the ENTIRE manga to imply the single case of Rip picking Latla over Layla

And this chapter culminates in the weird kind of progress, or rather, regress: Rip now forcefully dragging Latla into his decisions, disregarding her own choices. Which is supposed to be taken as a positive development now? And in the end, Rip doesn't get any development to show that he is a better person than the last loop and not simply nicer because he didn't have to face hardship this loop.

A mini side rant, unrelated to the analysis - I hate this panel with. every. fiber. of. my. being. Romantizatio of first love as an only true love is one of the worst things to come out of romantic genre. Side rant over

UU isn't nuanced enough story to deal with the complex relationships and getting over infatuations, so I don't expect any developments in that direction. But Rip is supposed to be one of the author's favorites, and seeing such lackluster characterization in UU is really jarring, so I do hope this isn't an actual end to this three's characters development. I propose that at least 2 out of the following 3 options happening could somewhat salvage this mess:

1) Obligatory - Layla finally gets some characterization. Even a single page of her being the one to suggest including Latla into the ceremony, would've considerably improved last chapter.

2) Latla getting to actively disagreeing and opposing Rip, to showcase that she is capable of making her own choices, instead of being dragged around by Rip.

3) Rip facing his faults, which made him of the few true villains of last loop, perhaps through Remember, perhaps through other means.

[vigilskept]

okay I'm curious about ppls answer to this one, which canon character hates your Inquisitor in dai?

OOOOH thats a good one.

i’ll answer for sander & sindri since their beef with other characters is a bit more personal whereas my other inquisitors mostly clash with others over differences of opinion (lifelong apostate semra adaar does NOT do well with the pro templar/chantry crowd)

sander trevelyan: leliana

immediately clocks that he’s a fraud

he plays up the humble servant of andraste thing constantly and it makes her eye start twitching

the reality isn’t any better btw: he's a typical layabout youngest son with all the usual blind spots and then some

the trevelyan family ‘tragedy’ of having their eldest son and only daughter turn out to be mages... did not help things in that household

anyway, all this is made MUCH worse by the fact that josie initially likes him

seeing him flirting with her probably makes leliana wish she could get away with quietly assassinating him on more than one occasion

fortunately for everyone he fumbles josie big time 👍

this lowers the risk of stabbing, but that’s about as much as their relationship improves

it’s not for a while, not until things are properly settled but she does leave the inquisition once it’s clear he’s staying on as the head of it

this inquisition is worse off without her, but she is definitely better off without it!

sindri (brosca) cadash: rica, kalah, vivienne

some context: this is an alternate worldstate where they manage to escape to the surface with leske

the bad news: harrowmont gets crowned… and things have been much worse for the broscas ever since

this au basically came out of a 'is there a way for sindri brosca to see themself as a person' thought experiment

bc in da:o they fundamentally see themselves as a thing

a tool, in a best case scenario

they volunteer to go under branka's hammer on the anvil of the void to become be a better tool, for both orzammar and for the wardens

ANYWAY. the result of this thought experiment was yes, it can get better. but only if it first gets worse

in this case that means disappearing deeper into their work for the carta for a decade...

... then getting got by the fen’harel orb and forced into an entirely different identity even more detached from who they are

it does help to break them out of the cycle of depersonalisation, but in the meantime....

their family relationships have been made incredibly fraught by their escape to the surface

it was always bad with their mother, but their relationship with rica also begins to fray over time

financial dependence/cultural issues around being a surfacer (or have surface ties)/feelings of abandonment/etc...

it's just Not possible to untangle any of that when communication is going in the form of short letters accompanying one way deliveries of money

which go without reply…. until more money is needed

its Not Good. but it won't stay this way forever

the hate from vivienne though is entirely warranted. sindri just constantly assumes the worst of her in a way that's fueled by their own baggage

woman trapped by her circumstances seeks the patronage of a nobleman to find security by leveraging his position... hmm. why might this particular dynamic be setting them off?

why might they wish this relative stranger ill when they see this all pay off for her?

who knows. definitely not sindri who is by now an expert at NOT engaging in any self reflection

this does start to change!!

being inquisitor forces sindri to deal with a lot of the issues they’ve been actively repressing for a decade & with that comes changes in perspective too

it may just be too little too late for them & vivienne though

they will reach a point where they're no longer openly antagonistic, but i don't know if it ever improves further than that