#with how good the thing with Rin and her becoming a traitor for that is

[fragmentedblade]

I think taking the kids to a park or something could make Kalpas a little better. Violent-playing with them may make him laugh. There's no cure for whatever Aponia, Vill-V, Elysia, Kevin and Fu Hua have going on. Su is on very thin ice and needs to chill. Pardofelis is kind of there. Mobius can stay I guess. Sakura is so bland she too can stay but for literally the opposite reason. Eden is on the same page as Kalpas imo

I can't believe Kalpas is literally the most normal and bearable person among the Flame Chasers

[panharmonium]

@dreamersscape said: 

Part of why I like Shikamaru testing the would-be chunin with Kakashi’s principles so much is that Kakashi living by those words keeps Obito alive through them, right?  And Obito already had those values, but he was verbalizing them in connection to why he believes Sakumo was a hero, so this combined principle that defines who Sakumo, Obito, and Kakashi are, is now going to live on in Naruto, Shikamaru, and the rest of their generation.  And ofc “don’t put the rules above your comrades” is a good way to live regardless of whether any of their names are attached to it…I dunno, is it dumb to just want this to be Kakashi’s legacy over his other prowess/renown? (x)

NO IT IS NOT; I AM RIGHT THERE WITH YOU!  (And I agree with what you said, that this is likely already how he’s going to be remembered - and I’m so grateful for that, because I think we know that there are many things in Kakashi’s life that have brought him renown but that he doesn’t want to be remembered for.  Thinking specifically about that scene where Kakashi takes out an enemy and Yamato makes that comment about “keep this up and you’ll be famous,” and Kakashi is clearly so uncomfortable with that...Kakashi doesn’t want that kind of recognition, the kind you earn from being particularly efficient at killing people.  He doesn’t want to go down in history as “cold-blooded Kakashi” - that was never something he wanted to be known as in the first place.)

Anyway, I was partway through writing the below post when I saw your replies about Kakashi’s family/legacy in relation to the new Chunin exams, and I just went, “we REALLY are having the exact same thoughts about this show” 🤝 so I’m just turning the rest of this post into a response to your comments, because I could not possibly agree with your angle on this topic more, and I knew my response wasn’t going to fit in the replies XD

The thing I kept thinking about when I saw that Shikamaru’s version of the Chunin exams was passing/failing students based on Kakashi’s criteria was that this is a HUGE paradigm shift for the Leaf Village (and for shinobi culture as a whole).  The new exams say that if you abandon a teammate to complete your mission (aka to pass your test), you’ve made the wrong decision.  The mark of a worthy shinobi, in this new framework, is your commitment to choosing people’s lives over the success of your mission.  But to have something like this enshrined into the Chunin exams would have been unthinkable in earlier generations.  When Kakashi’s father made a decision like this, he was breaking the law, and nothing about his choice was considered honorable or worthy or in any way acceptable.  He was blamed for it by the Land of Fire and the Leaf Village, “slandered and vilified” by his peers (even the ones whose lives he saved), and hounded to the point of suicide.  And even as little as four years ago, when Kakashi started working as a Jonin Leader, his philosophy for evaluating genin was still notorious, and his standards were considered to be abnormal (“It’s a good thing we didn’t get that jonin everybody talks about”/“Who does he think he is, making up his own criteria?”).  

But just a few short years later, the script has been completely flipped.  Now you can’t even become a chunin unless you demonstrate your commitment to putting your comrades’ lives first.  And I just keep thinking about how that must feel for Kakashi, to see the systems that punished his father so mercilessly finally start to crumble and fall.  To see a shift in the culture that indoctrinated Itachi and brainwashed Yamato into murdering family and friends, on the pretense that it was necessary for the sake of a mission.  To see the values Kakashi has tried to live by ever since Obito’s death incorporated into the official structures of the shinobi world, when previously they were grounds for vicious persecution.

To have Sakumo’s choices validated and affirmed by the shinobi world’s promotion structure when just a few short years ago those choices were universally reviled and earned Sakumo nothing but shame, hatred, and harassment must be such an emotionally overwhelming experience for his son, who went through his own kind of crucible in the wake of Sakumo’s departure but ultimately came out the other side more committed to his father’s ideals than ever.  To finally see things changing, and for these changes to be the direct result of Kakashi’s own teaching choices - I can’t imagine what that must feel like.  I don’t even think that Kakashi ever expected to see a world that’s progressed this far, to be honest.  He made a decision to embrace his father’s values, yes, but he did so long before they were considered acceptable, long before they were something he could ever expect to be rewarded for.  That’s why Obito told him “no matter what the village or anyone else may say, I think you’re a great jonin” - he knew Kakashi broke the rules to rescue Rin the same way Sakumo broke the rules to rescue his comrades, and he knew it was entirely possible that Kakashi would catch flak for it upon returning home.  In the shinobi world, the mission is absolute, and people who buck the system are branded as traitors.  If the Battle of Kannabi Bridge had gone poorly because of the detour Kakashi and Obito took, Kakashi may not have been welcomed home quite so warmly.  

Kakashi never really expects his choice to be rewarded or respected.  But despite this, and despite the fact that he knows the potential consequences better than anyone, he chooses to stand by his father’s values anyway.  He makes that decision the day he loses Obito, and he never looks back.  No matter how lost he becomes, or how much pain he goes through (I’ve thought this world was hell, too), he never loses sight of this one thing: he’ll never abandon a friend, and he’ll never bow to anyone who tells him that his mission requires him to do so.  That’s true throughout his time in ANBU (if your orders are to kill a friend, then those orders are wrong.  and the one who gave you those orders is wrong!), and it’s true when he becomes a teacher, too.  He persists in his convictions, no matter how unpopular they are, and he teaches them to an entire generation of children, even when people keep giving him the side-eye for failing entire teams of genin year after year.  

He never expects his behavior to make this kind of difference, and he’ll probably never give himself credit for any of the changes that we’re starting to see now, but the only reason these things are happening is because of the choices he made back then.  The new world we’re on the brink of building now is a direct result of Kakashi having taught his students the values that his father and Obito died for.  Kakashi’s teaching is what helps Naruto go from “when I become Hokage, the whole village will have to stop disrespecting me and start treating me like i’m somebody important” to “how could i ever become hokage if i can’t even save one friend/a true hokage never steps over his comrades’ bodies.”  It’s what helps Sakura go from “you obsessed about Sasuke, who was gone, while Naruto was right in front of you and you wouldn’t lift a finger to help him” to a decision to put her feelings for Sasuke aside in order to release Naruto from the promise he made to her, which is killing him.  It’s what helps Sasuke go from "you thought [your teammates] were so far beneath you they were worthless” to “I don’t ever want to see that again - my trusted comrades falling right in front of me,” as he offers to die for them against Gaara.  It’s what helps even Neji Hyuga go from a disdainful “who does he think he is, making up his own criteria” to an affirmation of those same criteria when telling the Hidden Rain ninja “it’s just the Chunin exams.  The safety of our teammate is more important than passing.”  

All of the changes that we’re seeing now are happening because Kakashi was committed to teaching the next generation the lessons he feels are important, contrary to widely-held public opinions and in defiance of the people who made a near-successful attempt at turning him against his own father: We never abandon our friends.  We never sacrifice our comrades.  If your orders are to kill a friend, then those orders are wrong.  We do what’s right, not what we’re told.  

The Hatake clan may not have a hereditary jutsu to be passed down to others, but THIS is their legacy.  This massive sea change in shinobi culture, the hard-fought shift away from a repeat of the tragically sacrificial Sakumos and Itachis and Tenzos of the old shinobi world, the total inversion of Mission > People to People > Mission - all of that started with Kakashi’s father, who died before he could see his work completed, but whose torch was picked up by Obito, and then by Kakashi, who made it his mission to pass on those ideals to the Leaf Village’s children, some of whom are now making policies that affect promotion criteria for the entire shinobi world.  

Just...I’m thinking about Kakashi taking Sakura out to celebrate and to hear all about her test, and I know she won’t even give Shikamaru’s last question a second thought, because to her it’s just natural that they’d be tested on that; Kakashi’s been testing them on that stuff since day one; it doesn’t even occur to her that there’s anything novel or strange or revolutionary about it; it’s just expected and accepted by her entire class that the principle “people are more important than rules” is something all shinobi should understand - when in reality, things have NEVER been like that before, and it’s taken SO much work to get here.  A question like this being included as pass/fail criteria on the Chunin exams would have been unimaginable just a few short years ago.  Kakashi’s father was harassed to his death for answering this question in the exact same way that is now required of anyone who wants to pass the test.  

What an incredible feeling that must be for Kakashi, who worked so hard and endured so much to keep these values alive.  To see how far the world has come - and to know how much of this progress is the result of his own choices, which he never thought would amount to anything so substantial - what a bizarre, beautiful, bittersweet feeling that must be.

[arnekev]

Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/Stay Night, Or any subsequent pieces of fiction there in. This is purely a fictional work by an amateur Fanfiction Author.

Fate/Stay Night: Shattered Destinys

Chapter 0: History doesn’t repeat, it merely rhymes

Shirou’s eyes snapped open, his hand clutching at his heart, breath labored from the nightmare he had escaped.

He was there again, the hell that had ruined and changed him, a Crucible for the man he’d become. That was the norm, he’d never allow himself to forget that night, he didn’t deserve to be saved from it.

What most certainly wasn’t normal was the man shadowing him. Like a shadow cloaked in darkness, nothing distinguishing him from any other. The man stepped toward him, grasping his arm.

“Hey, that’s hell you're walking into”

The most memorable part of his dream. Made all the strangers by the fact it was the last thing he heard.

_____________________________________________________

“Mhmm damnit, 5 more minutes….”

The alarm didn’t take her advice to heart

Despite her best efforts, the alarm refused to cease its cacophony. It’s harsh ringing penetrating even the thickest blanket. Tohsaka rin was many things;

A first rate magus,

A genius in all but title,

And even a pretty good Bajiquan practitioner,

But never a morning person.

_______________________________________

“Kirei, how is it that a servant of god can justify atrocities against man?”

The king spoke jovially with his partner. In life, he would’ve probably preferred better than a fallen priest, but a contract was a contract, and no True king would ever renege on a promise

“I believe it was a great philosopher who once said…”

The dying child’s final breaths causing only a moment's pause in talk

“… that the only difference between Angels and Devils is often where one stands at the time”

_______________________________________

“You Vile Witch!”

She should have known this would be the outcome, even if he wasn’t a wretched excuse for a mage, no one likes their life being messed with by others.

“Caster, I order you by my command spell, Kill yourself!”

The red Stigmata shone bright as the mana was fully depleted. A smile grew across Atrum’s face, but soured when Medea’s did the same.

_______________________________________

“Sakura, we need to talk”

The hollow eyes of a girl who just wanted to be loved gazed into those of a man who wanted much the same.

“The war will begin soon, you’ll need to prepare for the summoning, grandfather says you should meet him in the cellar”

He visibly tensed whenever he spoke of Zouken, even if he never truly had been harmed by the Lich-patriarch of his family.

She began to disrobe, not like it wasn’t anything shinji hadn’t seen before, and it would be better for everyone if her good clothes weren’t ruined by the worms.

_______________________________________

Illiyasveil gazed onto the morning dew from on high, the windows of the Einzbern castle clear of morning frost.

“My Lady, we’ve found him”

Her smile twisted into a sickly grin, like a mad man who’d just escaped the asylum

“And what did the traitor name him? What did the bastard who killed mother call him?”

She spat the final words out, unladylike and Inpatient.

“His name is Shirou, Shirou Emiya”

And with that, her war had begun.

_______________________________________

Bazett Fraga Mcremitz, bearer of Fragaroich, Master Of Ireland’s child of light, A sealing designated magus of the association….

Complete fool.

Her servant stolen, her pride destroyed, her arm taken, her life…

“Those wounds are grievous”

It wasn’t Cú, it wasn’t that bastard kirei….

“arghh”

He lifted her up into his arms.

“Hold on, your not dying tonight”

She’d never been the religious type, but thanking god is appropriate when you’ve been saved by an angel.

_______________________________________

“I’m running out of patience, and time”

The old lich played with the catalyst, a white ceramic mask, stained with dried blood on both sides.

“Heheh”

The cellar door creaked open, the clack of shoes on cobblestone unmistakable. She was rather quick to come, perhaps in her own twisted way, she was beginning to enjoy these sessions.

Even if she failed him like the others, he’d have his backup.

_______________________________________

Soichiro Kuzuki.

He’d have to keep repeating it to himself or he could ruin his persona. A simple man, teach students, care for the shrine, shepherd Issei. Was it the ideal retirement, no, But it was better than a shallow grave.

The wet soil underfoot squelched with every foot step, his path deviated every night, learning the land, knowing paths, finding places to hide if need be.

And on this night, finding a stranger. Bloody and beaten, she’d probably be dead within the hour, several severe external wounds and more than likely more internal injuries.

Leave her, she’s already gone

Complications get you killed

Yes, she’s more trouble than she’s worth.

But then again….

All people are opportunities waiting to happen

Maybe I’m going soft

He let out an inaudible sigh

“Those Wounds are grievous”

She spat blood onto his suit

He’d made up his mind

“Hold on, your not dying tonight”

_______________________________________

He was Furious, she’s not even blood and he chose her. Who the hell was she to take away his chance at the grail. A filthy whore who won the generic lottery in all aspects.

“I’ll show her and grandfather I can, she’s nothing but a Usurper, a stand in. She’s nothing more than a catalyst”

He’d prove it, to them and all the rest. The Matou, no, The Makiri weren’t out of this race yet.

_______________________________________

Author's note.

I know this is a weird way of doing an intro chapter, but I’m still trying to get the hang of proper writing, I’m no Neoalfa or Coeur Al’Aran yet, so If I can’t out write them, I’ll at least make it interesting.

I wanted to do an intro of general characters who are going to be important, mostly excluding servants. I don’t know if I want to do an intro for servants, as they really shine when interacting with their respective masters and opponents.

As for the story going forward, as the title suggests, I’m trying to only use original source material (the OG visual novel and HAs visual novel along with the various anime and manga) but doing something along the lines of a “what if masters and servants flipped and a couple plot points caused a butterfly effect?” So while it’s going to in parts be treading over some of the same stuff, it’s going to be a bit different in a bunch of ways.

Feel free to suggest ideas or critic, I’d much rather hear hurtful criticism than disappoint people that care.

[dawning-star]

One solid strike of the leg to the dummy. A second with the fist. The third jab quick to follow. A feint with the fourth.

There was a feeling gnawing at her with each motion, eating her from within. It threatened to devour her fully if she weren’t ready for it. That keen desire for more. Unable to settle for less, for any loss she was given as of late, of which there felt to be many. Far, far too many for her tastes.

Sure, losses were unavoidable. Inevitable. Yet she was damned if they didn’t always feel disappointing; as though they were a personal failure of her own making in some way. It was almost too easy to play it off, chalk it up as being rusty or yet unaccustomed to the hardware keeping her walking. That it was the first real bout in moons. Most...most seemed satisfied that she had just gone out there, done it in the first place.

Yet that much didn’t cut it, not for her. Despite the uphill battle to get to such a point she so keenly yearned for more. To be more. Why couldn’t she just be satisfied with that instead of playing it off as if she were? When could enough ever be enough.

If she couldn’t take that much with some grain of pride, what more would it take? Winning? Beating at least one fight? Taking the top? Being unstoppable?

With each thought, each frustration came another motion, another swipe at the fake target. Nevermind the bruising of the knuckles. The sweat of the brow. Those thoughts were beyond her, motions fluid yet automatic almost. Reinforcing the prosthetic with a focus of her own aether was all but an afterthought compared to her own worries.

Feeling truly useful to others or herself seemed to be eternally out of grasp. Like a dream that taunted her from one, two paces ahead. Beckoning her forth, urging her. Yet being just beyond. It had always been that way, even before the injury. Even before she had to learn to walk, to run, to fight. To kick, to punch, to roll with the punches dealt to her. As long as she has been part of the Pearl has she been seeking to prove herself.

No, longer than that. This was something that had plagued her ever since becoming free. Or, well, the shell that was her freedom before and only true freedom in years since. From early on Rin had fought, building from the ground up the skills actually needed to survive and excel on her path. That path which had grown, evolved in the years since but ever walked upon and sought out the right route for herself.

Wasn’t it natural, when surviving, to try to be the best at things? The sneakiest rogue, the toughest combatant. The one who could walk away at the end of the fight. She fought for it, every bit of ground she could gain, yet much like that path it was far beyond where she always was in that moment. Taunting, testing.

Each traitorous thought would drive the next hit, the next drill. What motions that had once flowed like water were becoming haggard, sloppier than early on. Fatigue was clearly building within those self-tested muscles.

Kaito had told her once, a while back, that she didn’t have to be the best. That it was alright. She was herself. How nearly she had accepted it then, a bitter pill it could be to swallow. Yet even now she seemed to be fighting that sense, and herself. Truth of the matter was, she couldn’t say she knew what was good enough. When such a pinnacle could be reached. What would happen if she did.

Wouldn’t it all be downhill from there? That was something that she couldn’t accept the most.

Just like how much more ground it felt like she had to recover physically. To get back to the peak she had been at, once before.

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

Yet unprocessed Unlimited Blade Works thoughts:

Damn Shirou was such a fucking Shounen Protagonist. Give me literally any of the Zero masters back.

The concept of Fighting Yourself To The Death is really really fucking tragic though. Archer was fucking awesome. And the implied literal endless cycle of hellish disillusionment is very “Kiritsugu’s life but make it worse”

Like did Archer even die? Heroic Spirits die all the time but they still exist. Is he still just suffering somewhere??

Also I am SO SURPRISED my crack theory about his identity was correct. I didn’t even guess that who he was in life was like... important until Aust mentioned it. And then I was like “lol he said he also had an injury like Shirou’s, clearly he’s just an alternate reality version of him” and then it kept looking more likely and then ended up being correct??????

It’s embarrassingly basic villain stan of me to be like Kirei is my favorite character. But... here we are. I think the sheer pettiness in UBW is what cinched it. Anyway I cannot believe this show made me sit through like five episodes after he died. What is the point of having an unhinged evil priest if he’s not even there for the final showdown??

I did NOT guess that he was Lancer’s master. Also lollllllll the moment where Rin’s like “so you’ve been a traitor since the beginning” and he’s like “WELL WHAT DO YOU COUNT AS THE BEGINNING (BTW I KILLED YOUR FATHER)” I think it would’ve been slightly more effective if Kirei had been more of a legit father figure to her, as her guardian, but I kind of suspect that he’s physically incapable lmao.

Illya’s bitterness was so so good. Also looooved the evil gremlin vibes. The dichotomy of murder child and gigantic fucking monster attack dog was also hilarious. Her random death as a side character was fine within UBW as a stand-alone but having the backstory in Zero already made it fucking heart rending. That family just deserved so much better.

Still can’t believe she died before randos like Shinji and Assasin though.

Because of things like how Illya was handled, and how the narrative kept referencing Kiritsugu (almost taking for granted the audience’s familiarity with him) I really want to see how the og Stay Night anime or the game were written. They came out before Zero, while UBW kind of felt like it depended on Zero in a lot of ways.

I think it’s very evident that this is an adaptation of a game though. As a result, the pacing and structure were unwieldy in a very specific way. Also lolll Sakura just completely disappearing halfway through season one because Unlimited Blade Works isn’t her route.

ALSO I cannot BELIEVE she was taken from her family, went through worm pit hell, and Kariya (who turned out to be not great, but still) went through All Of That and she didn’t even become a mage?

Rin was great, but she’d be better with less Shirou 😂 Her dynamic with Archer was a lot of fun but I wish we’d seen more of it before he swapped sides.

Saber. God Saber was done so dirty. She was hardly ever where the main action was, and that several episode long fanservicey damsel in distress thing she had going on was... not good. Zero was bad about delegating women to Wives and Children (who die for man pain), but UBW was pretty annoying about fan service.

I don’t fucking understand Gilgamesh but that’s fine lmao. I have no idea how this series could get away with not one, but two, motivation free villains here to commit atrocities for the lolz. But somehow it works? No choice but to stan.

[animebw]

Binge-Reading: Fate/Stay Night VN, Heaven’s Feel Day 10

In which Shirou’s dragged to how lowest point, a new ally swoops in to save the day, and Sakura Doesn’t Fucking Deserve This(tm)

Stopping Point: Dawn of Day 9

Ripped Away

You expect things to go wrong over the course of a route of Fate. Allies die or turn traitor, teams fall apart, stability you took for granted suddenly isn’t there anymore. No matter what path Shirou walks, he always takes heavy losses before he finally comes out on top. Heaven’s Feel has almost cut out the middleman on that front by starting him out with the smallest team he’s ever had. Rin’s still an ally, but she’s not staying in his house like usual, and she’s got her own agenda to fulfill. Fuji-nee’s peaced out to her own devices much earlier than usual. It’s pretty much just been Shirou and Saber, with Sakura just on the war’s periphery, watching from the outside and seemingly helpless to do anything (don’t worry, we’ll get to that later). It’s the kind of situation you look at and say, “Well, I don’t see how things can possibly get worse.” And then, of course, you’re sure to curse yourself with the realization that you probably just jinxed it and things are going to get worse somehow.

If only you knew how right you were.

Holy fucking hell, we just lost Saber. We lost Saber. The most stable rock across every single stretch of Fate, the character who pretty much defines this franchise’s image, gone. Not captured like in UBW, but seemingly wiped off the face of the earth for good. Devoured by the cruel black shadow that’s been skulking in the darkness and only just showed itself for the first time. She just fucking died. Maybe; knowing how Nasu’s magic system works, I’m not ruling out some magical last-minute save where she returns to us at some point down the line. But for now, yeah, Saber’s fucking gone. The most essential tether tying Shirou to this war is gone. All she can do is go out in a blaze of glory, slicing Assassin’s nasty-ass Grim hand off before he can steal her heart, and succumb to the darkness swallowing her. Shirou’s lost Rin, he’s lost Fuji-nee, and now he’s lost Saber herself. Kirei still isn’t completely to be trusted, Ilya’s resolved to take her revenge the next time they meet, and potential Best Bro Lancer has already been carved into mincemeat. He’s up against the most terrifying foe he’s ever faced, and he’s got literally no backup. For the first time, Emiya Shirou is painfully, utterly alone.

At least, he would be were it not for a shocking betrayal from the Servant we’ve underestimated the most.

Death Rides Again

So, I know I predicted early on that Rider was going to kick some ass this arc. I know I suspected that once she was free from Shinji’s influence, we were finally going to see what she was truly capable of. But let me tell you, when she showed up out of nowhere to spear Assassin and swing him around like a living flail, I lost my goddamn shit. Holy fuck, what an entrance! What a spectacular snatching of victory from the jaws of defeat! Just when all hope seems lost, the servant who’s always been the first to die betrays her team and drags Shirou out of death’s door. And my suspicious on her potential were correct, because she is a fucking beast. Her brutal beatdown of Assassin was one of the most cathartic turnarounds this VN’s ever had. Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between, Rider has gone rogue. She’s turned against Zouken who once supported her and defied the role Shinji and the Matous asked her to fulfill. And sure, she says it’s because her new Master has ordered her not to let Shirou die, but she also offers to walk Shirou home safely explicitly of her own volition. Rider has stepped into the spotlight, and she has chosen to be on our side. The first true obstacle of Fate has become our guardian angel for the final, most difficult battle. God, this is so fucking exciting! This is a character dynamic so different from any other dynamic we’ve seen yet! I have no idea what story will spring Rider and Shirou’s uneasy alliance, but I’m sure it’s gonna be something remarkable.

Loss.jpg

For now, though, Rider is sadly just as distant an ally as everyone else this arc. All she can do is watch from a distance, hoping her master doesn’t tell her to change tactics and go for Shirou’s throat instead. And all Shirou can do is thank her as she goes, the one pitiful gift he can still give. For now, Shirou really is alone. No direct allies, few sources of outside contact, and now his very connection to the war itself is severed. God, the way the pain of losing Saber hits him hit me just as hard. She was his rock. She was our rock. She’s the only reason he’s been able to stay alive as long as he has. Not just literally in the sense of her incredible healing powers- Shirou’s gonna suffer every last wound he takes from now on- but as his emotional crutch through all this insanity. It’s only been through Saber’s support and advice that he’s been able to survive the toll this battle takes. How is he going to manage now that she’s gone? How can he repay the girl who served as his sword for six short, endless days? As he lies awake at night, he resolves to let this be the only night he trembles in fear; once he wakes up the next morning, he needs to stay strong so Saber can be proud of the warrior she left behind. But it’s gonna take more than relentless determination to survive the horrors to come. It’s going to take more than self-denial to finally take this shadow down. And already, Shirou is making the worst possible choice by distancing himself even further from the one person he still has left to fall back on.

And he has no idea yet just how catastrophic that choice is going to be.

Tremors in the Night

Let’s get one thing straight: there is no way that Sakura isn’t part of this war. She seemed to know what was going on the moment Shirou’s command spell started to welt his hand. Hell, I highly suspect that she’s currently Rider’s master; after all, who else has both access to Rider and the desire to keep Shirou safe no matter what? For Sakura, nothing is more important than seeing Shirou come home safe. She would do anything and everything in her power to keep him out of danger. When she finds out that Saber’s gone, she can’t help but be relieved at the thought that Shirou won’t have to put himself in danger anymore. But that hope is cruelly shattered almost instantly. Shirou was never going to give up so easily. He was never going to stop punishing himself for all the mistakes he’s made. And no matter how much Sakura cares about him, she’s quickly becoming aware that simply caring for him is not enough. She wants him. She wants him in every selfish way imaginable. But tonight has made it clear that Shirou thinks keeping her away for her own protection is the best thing he can do. He’s going to keep fighting, keep getting hurt, keep pushing her away and refusing to let her in. And deep within her, there’s a voice she can no longer ignore. A voice telling her to take Shirou and never let him go.

A voice telling her to give in to everything she hates about herself.

Which leads to possibly the single most heartbreaking scene of the entire VN thus far: Sakura’s masturbation scene. Yes, really. No, I’m not joking. After so much time being the butt of every single joke about this franchise, we finally got an erotic scene that doesn’t just work, it fucking wrecks you. It’s one of the single most brutal, gutwrenching expressions of guilt and self-loathing I’ve seen in a long time. It’s an explosion of all the selfishness Sakura tries to bury, all the desires she’s tried to run from, all the parts of her that don’t want to help Shirou, but have him. The joy of realizing that once again, he is all hers. The shame of feeling that joy. The hatred of whoever or whatever hurt him this badly. The guilt of desiring him in such a way. The humiliation of her own sexual desires that she’s unable to repress. The agony of hating herself for every last second of her weakness. The implication that she’s done this so many times already, hating herself more and more every single time. Fucking god, by the time she’s apologizing to Shirou in the middle of climaxing over him, I was close to fucking tears. TEARS. Nasu almost made me fucking cry here. How long has she tried to bury these feelings? How long has she felt she deserves to be punished for them? How long have she and Shirou unknowingly blamed themselves for their hormones around each other, mutually thinking they’re sinful for desiring each other?

Sakura Matou doesn’t fucking deserve any of this. She doesn’t deserve for Shirou to shut her out. She doesn’t deserve to hate herself for wanting to keep him safe. She doesn’t deserve to hate herself for having all-too-human selfish desires. She doesn’t deserve to be tangled in a web of sexual trauma and shame with no way to escape. She doesn’t deserve to give into her worst impulses and throw her kindness away for the sake of keeping Shirou alive at any cost. But with no support system and no way to process all the shit she’s been through- all the shit she’s still going through- she has no other choice but to sink down, down, down, and let the darkness within swallow her whole. God, I’m so fucking scared for what comes next. For what Sakura’s about to do. For how far she’s going to fall. For how hard Shirou’s going to have to fight to pull her back up. For how dark and lonely the night ahead are going to be with literally no one left to turn to. Shirou, as much as I hate to say it, I think we’re going to need the bone of your sword before too much longer.

And Zouken? I hope you’re fucking ready to find out what kind of granddaughter you’ve raised. Because the moment she finds out just who’s been causing him all this misery? Not even true immortality will be able to save you anymore.

Odds and Ends

-”It’s warm and smells like ripe fruit.” Eeeeeeew.

-”The darkness is probably swarms of worms.” nNNNNNNOPE

-”Maybe Sakura noticed right away and was waiting all this time.” God, she would, wouldn’t she?

-”It’s because I threw up the tea I drank because it stung my stomach.” Fucking ouch, dude.

-dfkhdsfhdskfh Sakura you thirsty ho

-”She rarely gets sick.” You say, after being sick so many times over the past few days. Sakura, what’s going on with you?

-”I don’t like it when people are killed by someone other than me.” Let’s be real, when even Gilgamesh thinks you’re too dangerous to keep alive, something has gone terribly wrong.

-”There are worthless things, but no meaningless things.” Wow, even Kirei’s calling out GIlgamesh’s bullshit. I like him more every day.

Happy Halloween, all you freaks and geeks. See you next time!

[somegirlsnerdywords2]

Anime i’ve Watched

That begin with a A (Part 2)!

Yep this is how i’m going to bring over all the anime and manga i’ve watched and posted about on the old blog. It’s not so detailed but it will have to do. Anything new I watch or read from this point on will have their own posts.

Angel Beats!:

Genres: action, comedy, drama, school, supernatural

Synopsis:  Otonashi awakens only to learn he is dead. A rifle-toting girl named Yuri explains that they are in the afterlife, and Otonashi realizes the only thing he can remember about himself is his name. Yuri tells him that she leads the Shinda Sekai Sensen (Afterlife Battlefront) and wages war against a girl named Tenshi. Unable to believe Yuri's claims that Tenshi is evil, Otonashi attempts to speak with her, but the encounter doesn't go as he intended. Otonashi decides to join the SSS and battle Tenshi, but he finds himself oddly drawn to her. While trying to regain his memories and understand Tenshi, he gradually unravels the mysteries of the afterlife. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 10/10

Finished airing in 2010 with a total of 13 episodes. 

My Thoughts: A masterpiece and a classic. Now that I think about this one probably deserves a rewatch! Tragic and beautiful with one hell of an opening theme. This one really takes you for journey in 13 short episodes and it’s not one that you’ll soon forget.

Ani ni Tsukeru Kusuri wa Nai! (Please Take my Brother Away):

Genres: comedy, school, slice of life

Synopsis: Shi Miao simply cannot stand her lazy, stupid, and unreliable elder brother Shi Fen, who is one year above her at the same high school. Though the two siblings can only depend on each other, Shi Miao's violent tendencies combined with Shi Fen's knack for causing trouble cause them to fight constantly. And so, Shi Miao can only hope that someone might take her brother away—even though, when push comes to shove, Shi Fen always tries to do what he believes is best for his cute younger sister. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 9/10

Finished airing in 2017 with a total of 12, 3 minute episodes. 

My Thoughts: Three minute episodes of pure comedic bliss. A short and light anime that’s perfect if you’re looking for a bit of a pick me up series but don’t have a ton of time. Highly recommend. 

Ani ni Tsukeru Kusuri wa Nai! 2 (Please Take My Brother Away 2):

Genres: comedy, school, slice of life

Synopsis:  As always, Shi Miao is tired of her brother's ridiculous antics, and Shi Fen can only hope to escape the clutches of his violent sister. With their friends and classmates in tow, the two continue their dysfunctional relationship as reluctant but devoted siblings. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 9/10

Finished airing in 2018 with a total of 24, 3 minute episodes. 

My Thoughts: The hilarity continues, this time with a 24 episode run! A must watch for fans of the first season. 

Ao no Exorcist (Blue Exorcist):

Genres: action, demons, fantasy, shounen, supernatural

Synopsis:  Humans and demons are two sides of the same coin, as are Assiah and Gehenna, their respective worlds. The only way to travel between the realms is by the means of possession, like in ghost stories. However, Satan, the ruler of Gehenna, cannot find a suitable host to possess and therefore, remains imprisoned in his world. In a desperate attempt to conquer Assiah, he sends his son instead, intending for him to eventually grow into a vessel capable of possession by the demon king. Ao no Exorcist follows Rin Okumura who appears to be an ordinary, somewhat troublesome teenager—that is until one day he is ambushed by demons. His world turns upside down when he discovers that he is in fact the very son of Satan and that his demon father wishes for him to return so they can conquer Assiah together. Not wanting to join the king of Gehenna, Rin decides to begin training to become an exorcist so that he can fight to defend Assiah alongside his brother Yukio. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 7/10

Finished airing in 2011 with a total of 25 episodes. 

My Thoughts: Great look in terms of art/ animation/ character design. Great setting and premise but overall the series fell a bit short, in large part (my opinion only) because of the anime original ending. An ending that WAS ignored when they released a second season years later. I’d recommend this series for the simple fact that watching it would enable you to watch the second season which was much, much better! Pretty good opening theme though. 

Ao no Exorcist: Kyoto Fujouou-hen (Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga):

Genres: action, demons, supernatural, fantasy, shounen

Synopsis: The ExWire of True Cross Academy are beset with shock and fear in the aftermath of discovering that one of their own classmates, Rin Okumura, is the son of Satan. But for the moment, they have more pressing concerns than that of Rin's parentage: the left eye of the Impure King, a powerful demon, has been stolen from the academy's Deep Keep. After an attempt is made to steal the right eye in Kyoto as well, Rin and the other ExWires are sent to investigate the mystery behind the Impure King and the ultimate goal of the thief. While this mission has them cooperating for the time being, Rin has never felt more distant from his fellow exorcists. In his attempt to reconcile with them, he undergoes specialized training to control his dark power. However, when the right eye is stolen not long after their arrival, the unthinkable threat of a traitor amongst them leaves them in need of all the power they can get. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 9/10

Finished airing in 2017 with a total of 12 episodes. 

My Thoughts: Took years and a less than stellar anime original ending in the first season to get here but finally a second season came! Great art, music and story. An odd case where the second season is far better than the first and truly makes up for its predecessors missteps. If you decide to give this series a try be aware that what you’re really coming for is this gem of a second season and not the first! 

Aoharu x Kikanjuu:

Genres: action, comedy, sports, shounen

Synopsis: Hotaru Tachibana has a strong sense of justice and just cannot help confronting those who choose to perform malicious acts. Furthermore, Hotaru is actually a girl who likes to disguise herself as a boy. After hearing rumors that her best friend was tricked by the popular host of a local club, Hotaru seeks to punish the evildoer. Upon arriving at the club, however, she is challenged to a so-called "survival game" by the host Masamune Matsuoka, where the first person hit by the bullet of a toy gun will lose. After a destructive fight which results in Hotaru's loss, Masamune forces the young "boy" to join his survival game team named Toy Gun Gun, in order to repay the cost of the damages that "he" has caused inside the club. Although she is initially unhappy with this turn of events, Hotaru quickly begins to enjoy what survival games have to offer and is determined to pay off her debt, much to the dismay of Tooru Yukimura, the other member of Toy Gun Gun. As time goes on, Hotaru begins to develop a close friendship with the rest of the team and hopes to take part in realizing their dream of winning the Top Combat Game (TCG), a tournament to decide the best survival game team in Japan. Although Hotaru tries her best, there are just two little problems: she is absolutely terrible at the game, and Toy Gun Gun doesn't allow female members on their team! [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 9/10

Finished airing in 2015 with a total of 12 episodes.

My Thoughts: I freaking loved this anime when it came out... though I doubt i’d be quite as generous with the score now. Good chance I was distracted by the cute glasses wearing male character which would have heavily impacted my score. A strong female lead masquerading as a male, attractive male leads (both with glasses and not) and some killer theme music. Even if I wouldn’t rate it quite as highly now i’d still argue that it was a pretty decent anime. No where near perfect but a bit of fun. 

[atopearth]

Fate/hollow ataraxia Part 3 - Chibi is Justice (Phase 3)

Lmao, I love how Avenger thought the way Bazett died against Assassin was so hilarious. It seems she's pretty numb towards the repetitive resurrections now though. Avenger is right though, Bazett is so violent lmao, she solves everything so practically and violently, it's pretty hilarious, especially when she got impatient at Avenger taking too long to unlock the gate to a Master's (looks like Rin's) house so she just broke in loll. It's pretty cute how Avenger protected her from the milk trap lmao. I wonder if the world Bazett is in, and the world Shirou and them are in aren't connected yet? It seems kinda connected since Shirou and Saber supposedly saw stuff like the house where those randoms died, and they saw the place where Bazett resurrects, but considering the fact that even though they both patrol around at night, yet haven't seen each other, do we need to get through a bit more things for it all to escalate?

I'm not sure if Avenger is the same Avenger that was supposed to be born in Heaven's Feel and whether his story is the same since he just kinda tells Bazett that Angra Mainyu isn't his real name because a friend sacrificed his life to save him, so he kinda just took the friend's name and repaid the world with it, so his hero name is basically honouring his friend whilst he's lost his identity. Anyway, lmao at Bazett telling him her background as if she's sharing her practical work experience lol. Her story in a sense is similar to the Matou since she's from an elite family that retained their unique power but lost influence as an important family, so she kinda tries to prove herself within the Magic Association even though they don't care or like her because their traditions and families are so ingrained, there's no place for anything else to shake the balance. It's funny how Avenger justifies it that he's right that she's technically 30+ (she's 23 lol) because she never really had a childhood so she's been an adult most her life lol.

Ohh so the reason why Shirou could never really "progress" was because of his lack of training. He hasn't done any sort of magic and training in so long! Aww the little kid Saber was watching playing soccer looks like a mini Shirou haha! Lmao when she threw the ball into the goal and everyone was stunned hahaha. HAHAHA, Saber kicked the ball and it broke🤣 so cute how Shirou fixed the ball for them. Wow, they've really upped their game for this fandisk! The battle sequence between Shirou + Saber against Archer was so fluent and cool! I really loved how Shirou was able to think of a pretty good plan of getting Saber to Archer super fast using his last Command Spell, so that she can cut him down right after he shoots his arrow and won't have time to react against her attack. It all looked really good too! I'm also really glad that Shirou was able to use his skills again. It's really been a while! However, when Saber asked if this was really all right, I wasn't really sure. Like, obviously they had no choice since Archer was out to kill them, but at the same time, if Archer was so ready to kill them, there must be something big going on that they're not aware of.

Okay, I legit died laughing when the mini game to defeat Illya and her castle came up lmaooo. It was so hilarious!! The chibi characters are so cute and lmaoo at Saber saying food names when she fights. Legit died when I used Excalibur and she said chashu men/noodles hahahahah, I couldn't concentrate on fighting hahahah. I love how Caster uses Assassin to fight, and it was so funny when Rider rode her Griffon because it looked like some chibi horse hahahaha. I loved the mini game, it was absolutely great. I want to play it again now lmao. Illya losing and then pressing a red button to destroy everything was such a funny finale hahaha. I love seeing the Taiga Dojo Taiga lmao. The quizzes are pretty funny lolll! I love the night quiz where Taiga wants to be the main heroine of Fate so bad lmaooo. Oh, and Sella giving Shirou a storeroom to sleep in was hilarious, poor Shirou🤣 HAHAHA at Sakura getting petrified when Saber told her that Servants don't get fat from eating etc, especially since Sakura tries hard to maintain her weight and everything hahaha. I loved how Rider had to drag the Sakura who turned into a rock away lolll. It was so funny when Sakura called Rider a traitor since she never told her that her body won't change no matter how much they eat🤣🤣 Sakura is so cute, her and Shirou fighting over who should bath first was cute, but when he pushed her in and she started going crazy with her delusions thinking that they were going to bathe together in their swimsuits was just hilarious🤣 Saber being scared of sinking in the water was pretty cute, lmao when she was dashing through the water though hahaha. Never thought she would be able to walk on water because she had the blessing of lake fairies lol. Aww it was so cute how Saber sunk into the water when Shirou said her body shape was nice and everything hahaha. Also lmao at Archer and Lancer invading their little picnic at the poolside and stealing their food lolll. I never really thought about it, but hearing Archer complain/give tips on how Shirou can improve his cooking is kinda cute and funny at the same time since he would know best what he needs to improve on🤣 Anyway, I love it when Saber is such a sore loser that she forces Shirou into competing with her (in this case, swimming) until she wins and is satisfied with her wins hahaha. She's so proud of winning after it all too lmao.

Whoa, I didn't expect the H-scenes in Eclipse, I was so shocked lmao, I had to look behind my shoulder to make sure no one saw me because it was so sudden hahaha! Anyway, I've never been a fan of the Fate H-scenes so yeah, this wasn't any better imo. Lmao, I love how Himuro is so interested in Mitsuzuri's love life and wants to know who her boyfriend is, she's so weirdly obstinate, it's kinda funny🤣 I'll admit that I'm definitely warming up to the trio of Himuro, Makidera and Yukika now haha. It's so stupid yet hilarious how they're so insistent on finding out who Mitsuzuri's dating lol. They've got some crazy dedication haha, legit died when Taiga started thinking Shirou was becoming more and more of a player with all these girls lol. Honestly I know Minori (Mitsuzuri's younger brother) doesn't mean harm, but he really gets out of hand when it comes to his dislike for Shirou. Anyway, I'm glad Himuro dragged him away lol, and with that, I think I kinda like the idea of Minori and Himuro together hahahah. Lmao at the Mitsuzuri dating thing was actually because she was desperately looking for someone to be her boyfriend to win the bet with Rin, so she told her brother to disguise and pretend to be her boyfriend, that is pretty embarrassing hahaha.

LMAO at Archer and Lancer having a fishing battle or something, it's hilarious how petty Archer seems towards Lancer hahaha. Omggg Saegusa can see Kojirou and they're so cute and friendly together!? It's such a random match but I love them. They have such a peaceful atmosphere. LMAOOO when Shirou bluntly asked Illya if he could use her castle dining room for a dinner date and Illya thought it was her and there were like pigeons flying in the background, and then Shirou says for Sakura and she sulks in her chibi sketch form hahahahaha. I nearly died from laughter with that transition.

 Awwww! Sakura in the pink evening dress with ribbons on her hair (kinda like Rin) is so cutee! The dress in itself is kinda ugly tbh but Sakura is adorable. Awww Shirou in a tuxedo is pretty cute too! Anyway, I honestly think it's so sweet of Shirou to have granted Sakura's wish for a fancy dinner like this. Like sure, he really didn't do much besides have the guts to ask Illya for help, but the fact that he remembered her wish and did what he could to grant it was sweet enough. The way Shirou accepts everything about Sakura including all her flaws, and saying all that in his own clumsy way makes my heart so warm. Hearing Illya talk about some memories of Kiritsugu fondly makes me happy that there were at least a few memories they were able to cherish together. Seeing Illya so happy and excited to play and talk with Shirou always makes my heart so warm tbh. The CG of Shirou and Illya sharing a bed together is so heartwarming, I love it. She never got to see Kiritsugu ever again, but at least Illya now has Shirou who will always dote on her and do his best to protect her. Tbh, in the beginning, I really didn't like Illya and always thought there's no way I'll like this murderous little girl, but omg she's invaded my heart so much, I love her, and her relationship with Shirou. Sella and Liz interactions are so funny, I love how Liz is just outing her to Shirou about how Sella is afraid of ghosts lmao. HAHAHA, I loved how Shirou got so scared of whatever he saw in the wine cellar, he ran out and pulled Sella along with him, and described it to her when she told him not to hahaha. The funniest thing was that it was actually Liz with a halberd lmao, that is definitely scary😂 It's interesting to know that Liz is actually the Dress of Heaven to kinda complete Illya, I'm not sure if I forgot that or if it was never mentioned, but now it's kinda understandable why Liz is a guess a bit more different compared to Sella who is basically full maid. Lmao, the more Sella and Liz appear, the more I love them. It was so funny when Liz gave him that possibly 200 years old card that is most likely cursed and then laughed as she left hahahaha. Omgg, it's so funny but I never really thought that Sella, Liz and even Illya drive to and from the castle!! Lmao when Shirou asked Illya if she drove a Bersercar HAHAHA😂😂😂😂 To be fair, that's what I would have assumed😂

Archer saving the kitten stuck on top of a tree and then going on a long ass rant about heroes of justice was hilarious. But, I have to say, the things he said were pretty interesting and right to an extent, especially the idea of heroes stunting the growth of people like this kitten who will start to always think that someone like a hero will save them so they don't need to think about saving themselves. Anyway, now that Gilgamesh isn't in a "serious" game as he says, his silliness and ridiculousness is so much more funny. I love how careless he is to get caught up in crap but be too prideful to ask for help hahahah. And it was so funny when Rider dragged Saber away calling them losers for their masters' affections since Shirou and Sakura are going to the pool together and she doesn't want to interfere even though she probably wants to join lol. Aww Sakura in her swimsuit is cute. Okay, I change my mind, her side angle is hot hahahha. I can understand why Shirou was so stunned hahahah. HAHAHA, I nearly died of laughter when Sakura told Shirou she's not good at backstroke, and he said that would be awesome hahahahaha, he's a pervert🤣🤣 Omg that underwater kiss though! Shirou was being silly as usual, trying too hard to make Sakura happy and staying underwater past his limits, so she gave him "air" through the kiss haha, Shirou is lucky~ LMAO when Rider and Saber popped up at the pool hahahaha. Omg Rider's swimsuit is hot though, I love it. Sakura and Shirou holding hands back home is so adorableeee, I wish their date lasted longer~~ Aww Saber being fascinated by the penguin shaved ice machine is so cute! To be fair, I've always been interested in those too, they're so adorable! I would eat shaved ice just to play with it loll. Well, Bazett's "Noble Phantasm"-like thing is pretty much a cheat if you can negate Saber's Excalibur. But I wonder why everything keeps repeating itself? Oh, and I died when Shirou and Shinji had a "duel" at the harbour LOL, it was so random but hilarious hahahah.

Anyway, yayyy, I'm finally up to the next phase lol! Sure took me a while to finish this one up, I got distracted by so many things hahaha. But yeah, even though I take a long time to get through this game, I honestly really love it whenever I take the time out to read it. The slice of life shenanigans are the best way to brighten up my life lmao, they're all so funny!! I love how this phase really developed Liz and Sella, they're so much more likeable than I initially thought haha. All the swimming pool shenanigans were so funny and nice too. I'm definitely loving Sakura much more than before haha, and Saber has such a special place in my heart now, she's so silly lolll. I really hope to see Rin soon though!

[bapydemonprincess]

Picrew used: https://picrew.me/image_maker/17569

AAAND now it’s time for soooome FIREBENDERS!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

(And a nonbender who is an assassin hired by the Fire Nation. ;3 )

Tanaka is known very well as a kind and gentle soul in the water tribe that Ciel and Sebastian hail from. He has aided Vincent and his family in the tribe for many many years after resigning from the Fire Nation Army. Who knows the full story of what made such a powerful and well known general become a traitor, but somehow, at some point, he was trusted by the water tribe to join them, like family. Then, once tragedy struck that same family that welcomed him in, he swore to follow Ciel and Sebastian in wherever they went, and protect the remaining member of Vincent’s once loving family. 💙

Bardroy was actually in the middle of trying to escape the clutches of the Fire Nation Military when Ciel and co. came upon him. He was sorely wounded, despite how far he had come to get away, and nearly collapsed at their feet right there, still in some of his military clothes. (The big protective armor he’d thrown off and away.) Eventually, as he recovered, he told the others he might as well join them, as he had no idea really where to go!

Mey Rin (who actually came before bard but oops I uploaded them out of order oh well 🙈) is a nonbender, unlike Tanaka and Bardroy, but she IS from the Fire Nation, and much like in kuroshitsuji, only managed to survive by using her skills to her advantage! Being a human weapon for the fire nation! An Assassin! At one point, she was given orders to look for and take out two travelling water tribers, one being a VERY powerful bender and the other the only remaining member of the water tribe chief’s family! So, quick as can be, she slipped out and managed to find them, then tried immediately taking them down with BOW AND ARROWS, which was her weapon of choice! And she is a MASTER at this. With not only normal arrows, but fire lit arrows, as well as arrows that are meant to numb the target, like a tranquilizer in the real world! She ALMOST took out the weak little nonbender boy, but his guardian turned out to be a faster, deadlier foe than she assumed he’d be! Ice sharp as KNIVES being thrown at her, practically slicing her to pieces! But Sebastian never meant to KILL her. He captured her, and then struck a deal that if she came with them, helping him protect the boy on the way, she would get the best deal: Getting to live and not be HUNTED DOWN by the Fire Nation for her failed job! XD Sooo she of course joined!

FINALLY~

Grelle is clearly always going to be a sneaky one~ Even though she’s in such an obnoxious nation as the Fire Nation, she still knows how to get what she wants. >:3 And ended up getting a mission to go out into the world and do some subterfuge! Gathering up information about the other nations so the Fire Nation could use it to their advantage~ However, what she DIDN’T EXPECT, was once near the edge of the globe and close to a water tribe of all things, to happen upon a kindred soul. This poor woman named Angelina who had clearly seen her share of woes, taking out all her boiled up rage in a fellow water tribe villager! The point was that this person was simply a female bender, and An was grieving her loss of her own abilities due to a horrible accident she suffered! So, despite having no bending, An was using what she COULD to take out other gifted souls in her tribe, but secretly and at night so no one would know it was someone linked to the Chief and his family! Ohhh, Grelle absolutely adored this kind of sweet, bloody revenge, and swore to help her! ... Alas, when it turned out she wasn’t so cold as to kill the last remaining family member, and possible bender, as well as the other (Though sexy and mysterious~!) powerful bender, Grelle SNAPPED and BURNED HER UP. For she wasn’t worthy of the passion fire held after all. >:( And then Grelle had to face that waterbender alone for a bit, before other fellow Fire Nation benders came to drag her back home, as she’d clearly gone a tad off course. XD; But would she ever be reunited with that mysterious and powerful waterbender and his little bratty charge who turned out to not have any powers at all? Who knows...

WHEW hope you like all that!! I have only Earthbenders left to do!! Sooo we’ll see if I find any good picrews for those types! Thank you for reading! ❤️❤️❤️

[moonraisedsunchild]

Do you have a My Hero academia OC? Also have I been an blind idout this whole time and your name is Deku???

Short answer: Yes!

Long answer: fuck yes, i have so many! How much time do you have?

I have a draft on here of just ideas. Not all my ideas panned out or haven't been fleshed out though (some were just a scenario i daydreamed about which i didn't add) and quite a few involve transfer students or something like that. I have like 3 oc ideas for like next gen ocs, i won't put them here though, (one is an Ot3 child, one is a midotsuyu child, and one is a shinsocha just cause i planned the quirk first and uraraka fit best)

Example:

I have one that is essentially if an oc of Fma/fmab was sent through the gate/portal thing similar to in the '03 anime tied with something sorta similar to @nightstorms-universes 's Blair. Like they were sent through the gate before the big battle thing and ended up being born in another universe but still retaining their memories of fma verse. (I am totally leaving out so many details lmao) so they have a mha verse which they have a magic quirk alongside the alchemy from fma, they have a Hp verse, and literally any other fandom i want. Idk how they change universes yet though death is one option or maybe truth pulls them through another portal when they have "learned" something.

I have an oc that is Deku's twin which i named Midoriya "Haruto" Haruo. She was a late bloomer in the quirk department as her quirk didn't manifest until Izuku received OFA. Her quirk is a stronger version of their mother's quirk.I had it where she received a scar on her face from Bakugou when she got between him and Izuku. I paired her with Todoroki.

I have one that is a Todoroki twin oc. Her name is Todoroki Atsuko and there are two Versions of her storyline.

Raised by Endeavor storyline: Grew up alongside her twin, has similar abilities to him except she can change the properties to her flames which allows them to heal instead of harm. She learned this by accidentally healing herself and Shouto a bit not long after their mother scarred them. It wasn't completely healed but it is a lot less bright or noticable. Unlike her Twin, She was not trained by Endeavor or given a recommendation into UA. Shouto helped her a lot with training and was a better and kinder teacher. She took the same entrance exam thing as Deku but was in the same group as Kirishima. I am not 100% on a ship but either Deku, Kirishima, or (if he isn't Touya) Dabi.

Raised by Dabi (who is Touya) storyline: Endeavor basically disowned her when she is still really small because he thought she was quirkless (Touya hasn't disappeared yet). Touya was the one that she had first reached out to as a baby and had gripped his finger. He had taught her to walk, talk, and ride a bike. He had seen her use her quirk (if she has one in this version). If she has a quirk it would be the same as the RbE storyline, Dabi is less scarred though potentially he still would smell like burnt flesh (if that is what he smells like lmao). When Touya becomes Dabi, Atsuko becomes Rin. Probably at least starts as a Villian Au. Maybe she goes undercover in UA and she is the traitor. She is close to Toga. Would probably be shipped with Deku or maybe Kirishima or Denki? There is definitely potential for them to change her side, both for the LI and for her twin. Dabi likely didn't let her know everything just as a precaution since he would know her really well.

More recently i have been playing the beginning idea that gave me Atsuko until the idea of a character with a phoenix quirk hit me (ngl i have had many daydreams involving a phoenix quirk but this one panned out best into an oc). I ship her with Fatgum who is her boyfriend at least. She isn't a hero as she was always verbally shot down by people saying her quirk was not offensive enough to be a hero quirk (or something like that) but idk what job she would have. I ended up daydreaming that she ended up basically strong arming her way into helping Endeavor's kids after his wife was not there so that Fuyumi wouldn't have to act as a mother to her brothers. So fatgum and the oc become like aunt and uncle figures to the kids. Once all might gets injured, the oc kinda pulls him and sir nighteye into the folds. Once they start getting sidekicks; like Tamaki and mirio and kirishima and deku, the oc just adores them all and acts motherly/auntly(?) Toward them. (I currently love this one the best but i need to plan it better *screams*)

I have a quirkless oc with two potential versions. In both, the OC was born in America (i am projecting so :P) and moved to Japan with their father.

Transfer student version: Moved to Japan when her father got a job offer just before she went into High school, the job offered her the chance to apply at UA which she took despite being quirkless, which was another reason she moved as her mom was very much against her ambition to be a quirkless hero, as well as have a translation device in order to help her communicate until she became able to communicate in Japanese by herself. Her dad was a bit worried about that but he went out of his way to give her training she might need from Karate and first aid classes as a child, self defense and boxing classes in middle school, and he taught her to fight with polearms himself. He always encouraged her to figure out ways to counter the quirks of people she met or saw in the media and she became really good at it. She gets into class 1A because she never planned on fighting the robots, she always planned on saving people and because that was her plan she succeeded. Not everyone is happy about it and she almost was last in Aizawa's test thing on the first day but she just barely beat Izuku. She isn't really tactical but she is good at thinking on her feet and taking the option that makes the most sense to her, it often is not the simplest or most logical but somehow works out for her. I ship this version with Shinsou.

Childhood friend version: around the time she learned she was quirkless as a small child, Her dad got a job offer that woyld take him to live in Japan. with little convincing towards her mother aside from not revealing his plan, She was allowed to go with him. He hoped that in Japan, She might be able to accomplish her goal of being a hero despite lacking a quirk. She befriends Izuku on her very first day and often lands in fights with Bakugou which leaves her with a lot of scars but none are very noticable unless looking for them. She ends up either in the general studies or maybe support class? I ship this version with Deku.

That is all i got off the top of my head. Though like i said, i only put the ones that actually panned out into an oc. I have had so many ideas that just stayed as self inserty daydreams that i didn't flesh out or write down and ngl so many of them were shipping with Deku cause i am a huge dork. I did have a few with like Tamaki, Hawks, Kirishima, and Toga too haha.

Just in case @melyaliz / @insideoflit (don't want you to miss it haha)

[kob131]

according to mordred semiramis has the same feel as morgan le faye ( which adds to how she was the one to fight semiramis in the ending ) but it makes me wonder what was morgan like I mean I saw shirou X morgan fics which parallel morgan with sakura and artoria with rin but I want your thoughts

Makes sense that Mordred would remember why she wanted the throne in the face of a woman akin to her mother.

If I had to guess, Mordred was probably referring to how Semiramis was a well known traitor and schemer. Honestly she isn’t even that bad in Fate.

I’m kind of excited to give my own take on Morgan considering that I’m actually making a fanfic with her as a central antagonist so I’ve been holding onto it for quite a while.

I’ll make a quick Tl:Dr for you Anon in case I end up going on a tangent: Think Mordred if she never let go of her pain and anger, someone whose also lived a shitty life filled with many of the same issues but never tried to be a better person.

I’m honestly basing Morgan off the traits that can be found in her children (I.e. The Orkeny Siblings) but especially Mordred (since Morgan would be the person who influenced Mordred when she was in her short childhood.)

Morgan’s extremely moody, hiding a fearsome and deadly temper beneath a mask of a cold woman she had to wear for most of her life. She’s violent when angered, often coldly threatening or even sliently beating whoever enraged her...unless it relates to Arturia or Lancelot, where she’s much crueler, much more vocal and much more sadistic. She feels like her life has been one failure or traumatic event after another, with the only thing she even considers good to come out of it is her own children, who have all left her. Thus, she feels justified in ending Arturia’s life in the cruelest, most painful way possible. 

However, even she still has another side to her. Like how Mordred deeply loves her father, Morgan deeply loves her children (aside from Mordred) and her desire for the throne is routed in the family she had before Arturia. So she tries her best to keep them out of her vengeful crusade and even refuses to hurt them. Likewsie, she has a soft spot for children because they remind her of the only good moments in her adult life. The reason why she doesn’t treat Arturia and Mordred the same is because she doesn’t view them as family, to her Arturia is a stranger who was shoved into her family and Mordred isn’t even a person to her: more like a machine or applicance that she expects to do as she wants without question.

Overall, Morgan is a woman broken by life being cruel to her as well as her own stupid decisions. She’s constantly on the verge of lashing out and destroying everything around her because she’s in constant pain. All she knows anymore is her revenge, even as it costs her everything. She’s had her chances to become better and have a better life, the last of which was to just raise Mordred away from Arturia, the daughter who ends up the most similar to herself. 

Which kind of makes their history tragic: Morgan could have known her child’s love again and Mordred could have had a happy upbringing (Gawain, Agravain and Gareth all turned out as pretty good people which tells me Morgan was at least a good mother once) but her lust for revenge destroyed her last chance for any happiness.

That’s my take.

[adoranymph]

That’s right! It’s been far too long, and I need to do another discussion of, what remains to this day, my #1 anime: Fate/Zero. Oh darling, how I’ve missed talking about you.

First off, I’m probably one of the few people on the planet who, for the most part, doesn’t take too much issue with the concept of prequels. I get why such stories are flawed and inherently so. Going into that kind of detail on something that was only mentioned in passing as a previous event in an original work can be detrimental to that work, punching in plot holes and whatnot. Plus, it takes away the mystery that some find more appealing about the “story before”: giving a detailed account of that takes away that mystery.

Speaking for me personally though, I kinda like it. I mean, I’m the kind of person who squees on the inside at stuff like Thranduil at the end of the third Hobbit film telling his son Legolas that he might want to look into finding a Dunedain ranger named “Strider”, a.k.a. Aragorn, son of Arathorn, a.k.a. the once and future king of Lord of the Rings, timeline consistency be damned! I love Easter Eggs in all their forms.

Which means perhaps I’m biased on this opinion, and to a degree, I am. But, I still think objectively as well as subjectively that Fate/Zero really does work well as a prequel.

Why?

A few reasons, but:

The short answer? It’s a tragedy.

In both the classical and the emotional gut-punching sense.

In the classical sense, we’re talking about actions that have consequences that are inevitable. In the emotional gut-punching sense, it’s that those consequences utterly destroy our heroes and heroines in their feels.

Anyone who’s experienced the original Fate/Stay Night, either in anime or visual novel form, or both, already knows that the consequences to many of the actions taken by the characters in Zero are inevitable. At the same time, for anyone who’s watching it before watching any of the other Fate material as a stepping off point for the franchise, it still works as a strong story of characters who sabotage their own goals through their own flaws, made tragic by how earnest they are in endeavoring to overcome them. Not to mention the sheer number of feels and brutal deaths and OMG this anime. (They didn’t give its original light novel writer, Gen Urobuchi, the sobriquet of “Urobutcher” for nothing.)

Sure, in the end, some plot threads are left frayed and fluttering in the breeze because the main Stay Night plot points are all set up here at Zero‘s conclusion (though that does produce the disadvantage of no longer making the story twists in Stay Night…well…twists). Despite that though, there is still a completeness to the ending.

Somehow the loose ends are written so they don’t feel loose. Sure we find out in the Heaven’s Feel route of Stay Night that Illya is Kiritsugu’s precious daughter that he was unable to save. Sure, in the Unlimited Blade Works route, Kirei gets his just-desserts for that little infraction of killing Rin’s father, Tokiomi Tohsaka. Sure, in the Fate route, the revelations that Saber was a gender-bent King Arthur and was Kiritsugu’s servant in the previous Grail War come to light.

And knowing those things, or lack thereof, can affect how you watch Zero. Knowing them can fill you with excitement when you see these addressed in the prequel (at least for me, since again, this is something I actually like about prequels). Not knowing them gives them their own fresh and engaging life in the flow of the narrative.

When watching Zero, we last see Illya waiting hopefully in the snowy Einzberns’ castle for her beloved father Kiritsugu to come back to her, only to learn that because he’d tried to destroy the Grail (because it’s corrupted), the Einzberns considered him a traitor and shut him out, preventing him from seeing her ever again.

We last see Rin at her father’s funeral. Kirei (who presided over that funeral no less) gives her the ceremonial dagger that her father himself had gifted to him for being his pupil in magic, only to immediately use it to literally stab him in the back. It’s only upon receiving the knife and learning that it was her father’s, that Rin finally allows herself to cry, Kirei secretly relishing her tears and the knowledge that he just gave her the weapon he’d used to murder her father as a present, and she’s none the wiser.

We see Sakura resigned to her fate as a future vessel for the Grail while carrying the weight of the Matou Family crestworms inside slowly killing her, despite her “uncle” Kariya Matou’s efforts to save her by winning the Grail for his wicked father. Efforts that were, for lack of better term, “ill-fated“.

We see Saber summoned at the conclusion of the first episode, with Kiritsugu believing that King Arthur was well a King, only to learn right off the bat that she was a woman in disguise the whole time (and that becomes a thing).

Regardless of knowing these things prior, the writing itself gives the scenes that are meant to allude to these later plot points a gravitas of their own worthy of praise. I am in a bit of a weird position where I started watching Fate/Stay Night (2006), which followed the first story route, the Fate route, with Saber (Arturia) as the heroine. Then I dropped it about a quarter of the way and bypassed straight to Zero. I was just too excited to wade through the lackluster production values of F/SN ’06. So I both knew and did not know things going into Zero. I had the opportunity to see certain things with a well-crafted setup in Zero, and still be engaged by both them and by things that were new to me in the sense that I wasn’t aware of their relevance not only to the Fate route, but to Unlimited Bladeworks, and Heaven’s Feel routes respectively.

Though I knew that it was going to come up that Kiritsugu was Saber Arturia’s Master in the Fourth War, I was still jarred by how frigid their relationship was pretty much from the word go. And it was interesting seeing someone as openly passionate about justice as Saber was getting stonewalled by someone like Kiritsugu, seeing as how his own passion for justice turned out to have been just as great. It’s just that he’s already let “reality” turn all that into a cold, calculating fire that’s compelling to watch burn so slowly, that struggle between that BBC Sherlockian sense of “Will caring about them [people] help save them?” and caring too much being the whole reason for what he does. That idea of wanting to bring the world salvation through an end to conflict, weighed movingly against how much he cares for his own family. It’s something that craftedly underpins his whole character. And anything like that will never be boring for me.

Rin meanwhile, even at a tender age, shows great potential as a mage, having started her education in magecraft in Zero. There’s an entire episode in there dedicated to how far she’s come and how far she still has to go. And it’s still exciting for those who already know that she’s going to be the capable Master of Archer in the Fifth Holy Grail War of Stay Night because of how well those parts showing such are executed in Zero, as equally exciting as it is to see it as someone going in blind.

Kariya Matou is motivated by the purest of things, love, to save Sakura Matou (formerly Tohsaka as Rin’s little sister) after she’s adopted into the Matou family simply to be used and abused in the worst ways. But for all that, it isn’t enough for him to succeed and failure is one of the most brutal things to watch.

Just about one of the most precious things I’ve seen in anything, never mind anime, is the scene of the walnut-finding game Kiritsugu and his daughter Illya would often play, because we see them play it one last time before Kiritsugu leaves for the Grail War at the beginning of the show. Even without being aware that this is the last time that they will ever see each other again, the hug goodbye that Kiritsugu gives Illya is still bittersweet because of how Kiritsugu’s character has been set up as this sober and reserved man carrying the heavy burden of his wife’s inevitable death, the cost for his wish to save the world, beautifully and poignantly juxtaposed against him acting playful, happy even, with their only child. (That, and well, there’s me who’s outed herself as a sucker for daddy-daughter relationships in fiction.)

Being a tragedy then, not only are all of the characters’ fates inevitable, and consequences of their own flaws, but they all end up spiraling apart into ultimate despair, with just the tiniest ray of hope at the end (which is the tease for Stay Night‘s continuation of the story, all three story routes accounted for). So what we’re left with is characters who either died broken, or survived broken, and for those who survived broken, we see that despite that, they find some reason to go on living (even if not for very much longer, and or even if not for the best of reasons). Just the same, it’s inspiring. Very Bluthian, actually. Despite all the trauma, it’s given worth of its own in that very last scene with Kiritsugu and his adopted son, Shirou, the protagonist of Stay Night, promising that things can be turned around for the better. That always gets me. From the very first time I watched it, I knew I had watched something incredible. An unduplicatable experience in the vein of finishing Harry Potter or Avatar: the Last Airbender.

It’s also something of a reset button where the anime adaptations of the Fate franchise are concerned. Somewhat ironically, the anime was produced so that the later adaptation of the Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s Feel story routes from the visual novel would work as sequels. Sequels to the prequel, as it were.

Then there’s the bottom line. It’s just a damn good show. Beautiful animation, beautiful music, beautiful character writing. Of all of the adaptations, it’s the one that works best as a standalone as probably Fate fans are ever going to get, given the nature of the source material. And with it being so good, it also has considerable rewatch value, which means that those “twists” that get “spoiled” are worth watching in the same regard that anything that has a known twist going in it is still worth watching.

And that…is why Fate/Zero actually works as a prequel.

Keeping this link up!

Why Fate/Zero Works As A Prequel That's right! It's been far too long, and I need to do another discussion of, what remains to this day, my #1…

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Three Hundred Twenty-Four: Loss of Memory ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Uzumaki Naruto, Ebisu ] [ SasuHina, blood ] [ Verse: Like Magic ] [ AO3 Link ]

It all began in that bookstore.

Rescuing Naruto from his no-good Summer guardian (which, in all fairness, was mostly Shisui’s hairbrained idea to use his Merlin-forsaken enchanted car) meant that Sasuke and Naruto visited Diagon Alley together with the former’s elder brother Itachi leading them through their school supplies list. They’d met up with their friends - the Hufflepuff Hinata and the Ravenclaw Sakura - on the way, barely able to fit into the bookstore. A so-called famous author, Ebisu, had been there signing copies of his books...and Mikoto had begged Itachi get her a signed copy of one of his tomes.

And it was there they ran into the last people they wanted to see: another Slytherin, Gaara, and his father Rasa. After a rather tense standoff, Rasa calling Hinata a blood traitor as a pureblood mucking about with those ‘lesser’, they’d all failed to notice the book he’d slipped into her cauldron of supplies.

It was that book that would shape the coming year in terrible, terrible ways.

The first attack left the entire school shaken: the caretaker’s cat petrified, and a bloody message written on the wall just beneath her form:

“The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware.”

A Chamber of Secrets…? Not an entirely unfounded idea in their four young minds. After all, Hogwarts was old, and even the headmaster had claimed there were still things undiscovered and unknown about it. But given the impressions from the staff (and some students…), it had seemed such an idea had been heard of before.

Only through their history teacher did they learn of the rumors of the Slytherin founder’s alleged secret chamber: a place housing a terrible monster to cleanse Hogwarts of those Salazar found to be ‘unsuitable’ for learning the arts of magic.

A monster within Hogwarts...and one bent on eliminating those of so-called ‘impure’ blood...a terrifying thought. Especially given that one of their own, Sakura, was Muggleborn. And Naruto himself was a halfblood.

But the strange happenings didn’t stop there.

During a Quidditch match, Naruto found himself being chased by a seemingly-rogue bludger. Only after it broke his arm (and the incompetent Ebisu vanished his bones) did Naruto come to know it was Shukaku - a house elf bent on keeping Naruto from the castle - behind several incidents thus far. He revealed that the Chamber had been opened once before.

...and the attacks continued. The school began a dueling club in hopes of preparing the students for trouble. And it was then during a typical rivalry escalation that Sasuke learned something about himself he’d never known before:

He was a Parselmouth.

Immediately, suspicion began to grow against him. Salazar, after all, had been famed for his ability to speak to serpents. And now Sasuke - part of a pureblood Slytherin-frequenting family - was revealed to have the same ability?

...could he be the heir…? The one attacking the Muggleborns? Maybe his friendship with Sakura was fake...after all, they’d been seen bickering at times.

Desperate to find the real mastermind, the group decides to use a Polyjuice potion to interrogate Gaara, figuring his family’s sketchy history may be a clue. The broken bathroom they used was always occupied by a peculiar girl ghost, who later revealed a key clue: a strange diary someone had left in her haunt.

Sasuke did all he could to uncover its secrets, discovering it belonged to a young man named Madara. He had been present during the last attack, showing his valiant capture of the previous perpetrator: the current groundskeeper.

But that did little to solve their problem. As the headmaster and groundskeeper were removed...one last attack seemed the final straw:

Sakura.

But she provided the clue they needed: in her bookish ways, she’d finally found the answer. The monster was a basilisk: a giant snake, explaining Sasuke’s ability to hear a strange voice all year coming from the walls. They then realize that the student killed when the chamber was last opened was none other than Rin, the lavatory ghost...who tells them all they need to know.

But upon their attempts to rally the last of their group...they find Hinata gone. Taken into the Chamber for her status as blood traitor. Desperate, the boys go to enlist Ebisu’s help.

...only to find him quick busily packing.

“...going somewhere, professor?” Sasuke asks, stepping into the room and drawing the man’s gaze.

Ebisu, as it turns out...is a fraud. But that doesn’t stop Naruto and Sasuke dragging him into the bathroom where Rin waits, Sasuke opening the chamber at last with a command of Parseltongue.

One ride down the pipes later, and the trio find themselves beneath the castle.

“...bloody hell,” Naruto mumbles, pointing. “...is that…?”

“A snake skin,” Sasuke replies. “And a huge one. That’s got to be from the basilisk. Remember...keep your eyes closed if you think it’s near.”

“Oh...well…” With a roll of his eyes, Ebisu simply...collapses.

Both boys give him a glance. “...he’s fainted,” Naruto mutters. “Git.”

Making to poke him with his patched-up wand, the blond gives a holler as the professor snatches it, leaping up and grinning.

“Well now...that’s better. Can’t have you two telling anyone what you know! Now, let’s see...how to spin this little story...ah, yes. We were...too late to save the girl. You both succumbed to shock and madness at the grisly sight. All that remains...is to wipe your memories. Obliviate!”

Before either boy can react, there’s a sparking glow from the split in Naruto’s wand...and then Ebisu crashes against the wall.

And then with a rumble, the chamber begins to crumble…!

“Look out!” Each skittering backwards, the boys duck for cover...and as the rubble comes to a standstill, it’s piled high and wide between them.

“Sasuke!”

“I’m all right! But...I don’t think there’s a way through.”

With a groan, Ebisu then lolls his head up to look at Naruto. “...oh...well hello. Who...who are you? And…” His brow furrows. “...who am I?”

“...I think his spell backfired, he’s lost his memory...but what do we do now?”

Sasuke hesitates. “...stay here, and try to move some of this rock, if you can. I’ll go find Hinata! And...keep an eye on Ebisu. Who knows if he’s faking again, so...be careful.”

“...right. You too.”

“Not sure there’s much point in that now,” Sasuke mutters to himself, continuing down the rocky corridor...only to find another door.

“...all right. Er…” Swallowing, he gives another murmur of Parseltongue, the ornate serpent lock coming undone and revealing a huge chamber. At the rear, a giant stone statue of Salazar, flanked by snakes.

And at the end...a motionless Hinata.

“...no…!” Heart clenching in fear, Sasuke dashes forward and crashes at her side, seeing her skin as pale as death. “Hinata...Hinata!”

“...she won’t wake.”

Gasping, Sasuke looks into the shadows, where a familiar young man walks. “...Madara…? But…? Look, we have to get out of here! There’s a monster!”

“It won’t come until it’s called.”

Sasuke pauses...and then lifts his gaze. In Madara’s hands, forgotten by his own, is his wand. “...give that back.”

“Oh, you won’t be needing it.”

“Didn’t you hear me? There’s a monster! And...we…”

“I can’t let you leave. You see...the weaker this blood traitor gets...the stronger I become. It was she who opened the Chamber of Secrets.”

“No...she couldn’t, she -!”

“She unleashed the basilisk, let it seek out the Mudbloods in the castle...and it was she who wrote the warnings on the walls.”

“But...why?”

“Because I told her to. My instructions were rather...convincing...” A smirk grows across his face. “But not to worry. It was I, not she, who was in control. To finish what Salazar aimed to do.”

“Why would you…?”

“Because I...am the heir of Slytherin. His blood courses through my veins. Veins which, soon now, will be living again. Resurrected from a memory preserved in a diary for fifty years. And very soon now...I will be reborn. And this time...nothing can stop me from purifying the wizarding world. Not even you...your precious headmaster is gone. No one is left to stand against me.”

“You’re wrong...he’s never gone. Not so long as students remain who believe in him…!”

As the pair stare each other down, a trill sounds at the front of the cavern.

“...Fawkes…?”

With a toss, the phoenix drops a worn piece of fabric Sasuke struggles to catch. It’s...the Sorting Hat…?

“...ha...so this is what your loyalty earns you? A songbird, and an old hat. Well...let’s see how it matches up against the power of Salazar Slytherin…!” Eyes wide with malice and grin bearing teeth, Madara turns to the founder’s likeness. A chant of Parseltongue sees the statue’s mouth begin to open.

“Now what will you do…?”

Staggering back, Sasuke watches with wide eyes as a rustling fills the air...and the basilisk emerges with a geyser-like hiss.

“Very soon now, the process will be complete. Hinata Hyūga will die...and I will be born anew. And by then, you’ll be rotting in the basilisk’s belly!”

Barely breathing, Sasuke does all he can do, wandless and alone.

He runs.

                                                              .oOo.

     (This is a sequel to days 28, 230, 299, and 316!)       Well this is...a lot more rushed than I'd like, but it was the first thing that came to mind. And after wasting WAY too much time reading a summary and then checking film pieces to refresh MY memory (ahaha, get it?), I couldn't back out xD I love this crossover, but obviously I need to find more roles, cuz uh...I had to leave quite a few blank, and some of these are a little...hurried, lol      BUT! We have a crossover with Chamber of Secrets. And it's valiant Sasuke off to save Hinata! Well...he doesn't look too valiant running away at the end there, but he needs to plan! And not get eaten! Not to worry, I'm sure he'll save her in the end.      I know this is an evil cliffie, but...at the same time, we all (or most) know how this goes, right? Forgive me xD Limited time and word count is a killer, lol - maybe I'll do more another time!      Buuut anyway, it's...very late, so I better go ^^; Thanks for reading!

[shinobi98]

Since I recently started Black Clover and I'm already invested in it I'd like to do a rating of the characters I've met so far at ep 35 (basically when Yami and Licht are fighting in that cave).

Asta: all his shouting gives me headache and he'd a weird mix between Naruto, Rin Okamura and Midoriya but I love him. I have a feeling I'll dislike him later on when he inevitably will become OP, but for now he's a really sweet boy. My only problem with him is that he already has 3 love interests, how?? 8/10

Yuno: he reminds me a lot of Yukio Okamura from Blue Exorcist, but ten times more likable. I thought he would be the rival turned villain who Asta would chase across the world (cough Sasuke cough) due to his character design but now I think he was just introvert and competitive and a little smug, but he's real nice. When he does his little smile he's really cute. Not as big of a jerk as he could have been. 6/10

Noelle: when we first see her, I thought she would be a shy and soft spoken, blushing useless healer, so I was pleasantly surprised when we actually got to see her personality. A bit too tsundere sometimes, but it was surprising. I wish she'd learn to control her magic some, though, so we could actually see her in battle. Also her love story with Asta is kinda cringey, hope they develop into a nice friendship. 6/10

Black Bulls:

Magna-senpai: I thought he was part of the main trio, but looks like Asta and Noelle have a different sidekick ever arc. Shame because I liked him. A delinquent version of FFXV Ignis. His baseball themed magic is really cool, like his broom. He's like Asta big bro. 7/10

Luck: what kinda name is Luck? Anyway, I thought he was 12 and turns out he's 18 OMG, he looks like a baby. Not sure if he's cute or a maniac with that creepy smile lol his obsession with fighting annoyed me at first but after we learnt his story I'll cut him some slack. 7/10

Finral: aka Loke from Fairy Tail. I feel bad for him because he's always bossed around but damn, does he fight at all? His magic his hard to use in combat, I'll give him that, but he's like Yami's transport and nothing more. RIP. He's still funny though. 6/10

Vanessa: her surname cracks me up because it literally means "wine shop" in my language, although it's pretty fitting I guess? I also refer to her as Cana because she's totally Cana from Fairy Tail minus daddy issue. For now she ain't much, but I hope she'll get an arc focused on her later on because she seems interested and a good person. 6/10

Gordon: he looked like a goddamn villain. Then we find out he's just really shy... But also a creep that keeps a journal about his "best friend" Asta so idk what to think about this guy honestly. 5/10

Gray: idk. Cool magic, but he never talks. 3/10

Gauche: his back history was so interesting! He think he's the first Black Bull to be introduced as noble (besides Noelle)? Poor guy had it rough. And he doesn't go on and on about saving people like the rest of the Knights, which is nice because it gives him and interesting character flaw but... Stop. Obsessing. About. Your. Sister. That's creepy. At first I thought it was a joke but now idk. He's on thin fucking ice. 6/10

Charmy: she's not just a comic relief. She's badass??? She got promoted up so many ranks?? Does that mean she's highest ranking after Yami? Anyway, she's really funny and nice! Just stop that romance thing with Yuno, it's unnecessary. 7/10

Yami: he's so annoying. I don't even know why. He does nothing, he sleeps all day and bosses people around, yet all Black Bulls are there kissing his ass. Needs some class on anger menagement too. 4/10

Others:

Klaus: he's my favorite character, I simply love him. After the Dungeon he was so sweet omg I can't. He's just very bad at conveying his emotions but he's definitely the best senpai. He single-handedly made my like the Golden Dawn. 10/10

Mimosa: Despite my hate for healers in these kind of settings, I really like her. Hopefully she'll be endgame with Asta. 8/10

Fuegoleon: His name is a bit too much and hard to spell he is my favorite character ever. He seemed just simply another royal jackass but he's so nice, loyal, strong, caring, he's perfect. 11/10

Leopold: after his brother and Klaus, definitely one of my faves. His brOTP with Asta is really nice too. Lowkey ship him with Noelle but I'm still figuring out whether they are relatives or not lol. 10/10

Nozel: disliked him from square one. He's entertaining to watch, but he's mean without a reason. Improved a little at the end of the attack on the royal city, since he wants to avenge Fuegoleon, but not much. 4/10

Solid/Nebra: crazy madman bitch, too full of himself for his own good and the same, but female. I don't like either of them. 2/10

Julius Novachrono: or whatever it's his name. He should take things more seriously, but he's overall nice. Too bad he's probably a traitor, I can't trust him. 7/10

William Vangeance : this one definitely is a traitor, but tries to be nice too hard. Besides, he's dressed like a clown. 4/10

Baddies:

Licht: he cares for his comrades so that's good but he doesn't care when civilians or kids are harmed or killed, which is less cool, especially since he's a self-righteous asshole. Also terribly OP. 5/10

Sally: (is that her name?). Hanje Zoe's from SnK and Franken Stein's from Soul Eater love child, but crazier? Calm down girl. Why are you so obsessed with dissecting Asta lol or poor random orphan children, which is probably worse. But she's the best out of the Eye of the Midnight Sun. 6/10

Rades: is he going to be a big deal? I surely hope not. For a change we could have a villain that is not completely bat shit crazy 3/10

That's it. I made it mainly because when I get to the end I'll look back at this and laugh at what I said, or cringe.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 198: A Pair of Chuunis

Previously on BnHA: Shinsou, Tsuyu, Kaminari, Kirishima, and Kouda (henceforth known as Team A) faced off against Shiozaki, Tsuburaba, Shishida, and Rin (Team B). Kiri, Kouda, and Tsubu were captured, making it 3 VS 3. Tsuyu covered Shinsou and Kami with her disgusting frog mucus in order to mask their scent so class B wouldn’t be able to track their movements. They then purposely allowed Kaminari to get captured as a distraction to let Shinsou get close enough to Shiozaki to ensnare here with his quirk. Realizing what had happened, Shishida stopped talking so as not to fall under Shinsou’s control himself. However this also left him unable to communicate with his remaining teammate, and Rin was shortly thereafter taken out by Tsuyu. Shishida was knocked out shortly after that, and so Team A ended up winning the match, giving class 1-A the lead as we enter the second round.

Today on BnHA: Aizawa and Vlad provide their respective students with constructive criticism following the match. Meanwhile the remaining 8 teams begin to plan out their strategies, including Monoma who is excited to have the chance to work together with Shinsou, particularly after witnessing the first match. It turns out he’s not the only one interested in what Shinsou can do, as Aizawa and Vlad reveal to All Might and Midnight that today’s exercise is doubling as Shinsou’s exam determining whether or not he should be admitted into the hero course. The second round of battles begins, with Team MomoYamaTokoKure facing off against Team KendouKuroMangaToadette. Kendou is excited to be battling Momo, as she considers the two of them to be rivals, and feels that up until now Momo has been outshining her. Meanwhile Kuroiro from class B bonds with Tokoyami over their mutual goth aesthetic before the two teams split off to get things started. Toko sends out Dark Shadow to do recon, only to have Kuroiro -- whose quirk allows him to move freely within the color black -- hitch a ride back to Team A’s location. The two prepare to clash, and Toko gets ready to show off a new technique he’s apparently learned from Hawks.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 222, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

my man Aizawa out here making sure I continue to stan him

this is school after all!

and oh my god this title

you know it’s the Momo chapter when...

goddammit Kirishima’s self-esteem issues are acting up again

does anyone know if that “staring at yourself in the mirror and psyching yourself up by reminding yourself that you’re cool and awesome” thing actually works? maybe he should try that. he’s so good at complimenting other people but he’s so damn hard on himself. why are all shounen characters like this

Kouda says he needs to get better at issuing detailed orders to insects

good god Kouda, if you improve on your quirk you’re going to be fucking terrifying aren’t you

and I know I just said all shounen characters are too hard on themselves, but then along comes Kaminari to prove me wrong!

you were great, buddy. 10/10 I stan one adaptable and clever electric boy. I would pit you and Mina up against Rat Principal all over again because I bet you two would crush it now

(ETA: not to mention that as Jirou will shortly point out, he’s skirting on the edge of falling into his usual derp mode here -- but he’s managing to retain his senses for the most part, which is extremely impressive given how much electricity he put out in that fight, first against Shishida and then later against Shiozaki. Kaminari!! you’ve become stronger!)

Tsuyu says she wanted to win without any casualties and she regrets losing two of her teammates

Shinsou, who did amazing for his first time, says it was “incredibly frustrating” and that he wasn’t able to apply even ten percent of what he’s learned

kid, take that frustration and channel it into becoming even more determined to fulfill your dreams! that’s the upside of being a shounen character who’s too harsh on himself! you learn and you keep getting stronger, okay?

see, and Aizawa’s telling him the same thing

wow so he didn’t master it until he was out of school, then? or did he start on that before he entered U.A.?

say, aren’t we due some Aizawa flashbacks soon? this is the arc the manga was on when I first started reading, so it seems to be about that time I’d say

(ETA: so what is it exactly that made people have all these headcanons about him knowing the Iida family as a kid? I know he and Tensei are both in Vigilantes, so I’m guessing now it has something to do with that. lol and here I thought we were going to get a whole backstory. instead we’ve had all of one panel’s worth of flashbacks, and that was very recent and we apparently don’t know what the deal is with that yet except that he had some sort of cloudy friend that he doesn’t want to talk about. not that I’m not loving that, mind you; it’s just not what I was expecting. I really gotta start Vigilantes don’t I. maybe this weekend)

oh my god

I’m a simple girl, I see Jirou losing her damn shit over Kaminari and I hit like and subscribe for more great content

and yes, Aoyama, they do seem to be taking this much more seriously than the others. thinking about what would have happened in a real life situation. and I mean, that’s not a bad thing per se, but it’s just... they’re still kids. and already thinking about death and other worst-case scenarios because they’ve experienced it firsthand now. and man but that’s rough

now Aizawa is giving them his own pointers

he’s such a good teacher I love him so much

meanwhile Vlad is chewing out his own students

didn’t Horikoshi describe his teaching approach as being gentler than Aizawa’s? was that just because he doesn’t expel entire classes at the drop of a hat? sure not seeming real gentle right now lol

(ETA: strut strut)

excuse me Monoma who is the teacher here

but he says that despite the loss, he’s satisfied because they showed the rest of them “something marvelous”

(ETA: strut strut)

yeah, I’ve been wondering about that. he probably can’t wait to try that quirk out for himself

man if Monoma bonds with Shinsou and then Shinsou ends up joining 1-A I am going to laaaaaaugh

(ETA: lol except for the fact that I sorta kinda ship it now oh shit)

and they have an advantage over the class A Shinsou team since they actually have some time to prepare

wow they’re all strategizing now

friendly reminder that I love all of these kids and would die for them

and yes you, Todoroki. humility is all well and good but let’s not kid ourselves. you’re a powerhouse and you need to own it

I have no doubt that Team BakuJirouSeroSatou is going to crush this and I can’t waiiiit

(ETA: THEY SO CRUSHED IT)

and who fucking asked you, C-3PO. maybe they can’t have spare parts installed, but human bodies literally heal themselves given just a bit of time and rest. we don’t need to sit here and be dragged by someone who can’t even pass a damn turing test okay

All Might is reflecting on how much everyone has grown. he sure does that a lot

I guess. and also a way to finally introduce the other 20 U.A. first years after 200 fucking chapters lol

hey what

what is it. what’s with those faces. y’all wanna throw down or what?? bring it

oh they just want to know what they thought about Shinsou

All Might is so good I love you All Might

!!

oh shit. so spoiler alert I guess he passes lol

is he aware that it’s a test? is this another one of your Logical Ruses you deceitful hobo

yessssssssss!

I honestly can’t fathom how a team with both Momo and Tokoyami could possibly lose. they’ve even got Aoyama “saving the day in the clutch” Yuuga and Hagakure “I’m the friggin’ traitor” Tooru for fuck’s sake

by the way, Hagakure’s right fist is facing out but isn’t that weird? wouldn’t it make more sense to have your fist facing toward you for this kind of “pumped and ready to go” gesture? idk why it bothers me. maybe because she’s literally only hands so you could at least get that one detail right lmao

and have I mentioned how much I love Momo’s cape. now if only they’d get her a fucking zipper good grief

that kid from class B who speaks in literal dialogue bubbles is freaking named Manga and I can’t you guys

I have no problem with calling Kuroiro by his name, but I’m pretty sure that legally I have to continue referring to Komori as Toadette. I don’t make the rules you guys

Kendou is asking Momo why she didn’t enter the beauty contest during the cultural festival

have I mentioned lately that Aizawa is the best dad? I have? well it never hurts to say it yet again. Momo had more important things to worry about than participating in the least rational annual event this school puts on

oh right, somehow I forgot that these two did their workplace experience together. actually can I just call it a fucking internship even if it wasn’t an internship internship? y’all still know what I mean anyway so come on

this is an odd thing to bring up now and I can’t help but think Kendou’s trying to get into Momo’s head somehow

(ETA: nope. just bein’ rivals)

oh, Hagakure’s bringing up that one guy at the festival who kept cheering for Momo. I had been wondering about that. so he was a fan of theirs from the commercial they did then? who the hell stans someone from just a single commercial

yes

ooh, hidden dark side from Kendou all of a sudden!

I mean, on the one hand I don’t like Kendou getting jealous because these badass ladies should be supporting one another, not harboring jealous thoughts and insecurities

but on the other hand she’s not wrong about Momo though trufax

okay good, this seems healthy enough

A WHOLESOME LADY RIVALRY, EH? BRING IT

oh my god

imagine going from drawing Shiozaki to drawing this guy. Horikoshi must be filled with relief right now

oh my god Kuroiro’s quirk is apparently amazing!?

holy shit?? WHIP OUT THAT DARK SHADOW AND TEST IT OUT! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR

lmao

if these two don’t watch it they are gonna cut themselves to ribbons on ALL THAT EDGE

so then is Hagakure gonna clash with Toadette. or Manga

so now round two is officially starting, and Sero is asking his friendly neighborhood Tetsutetsu about Kendou, Tetsu’s crush

I ship these two kids so hard. he adores her

lol he says that if she wasn’t around the whole class would have been “indoctrinated” by Monoma

he says she’s the big sister of class B

yeah, so basically the Momo

and now Todoroki is thoughtfully chiming in

you know, operation? as in scheme? as in whatever plan Momo’s thought up using the intellect that’s put her on at the very top of what is probably the most brilliant class in U.A. history?

so now we’re cutting to Team B, and Kendou is saying that they should wait and see what Team A has in store first, since even though they know their basic quirks, they don’t know what improvements they’ve made and what special moves they’ve come up with

go fuck him up Kuroiro! I know I shouldn’t be rooting for you, but I’m so fucking curious to see if you can use Tokoyami’s quirk against him omg

meanwhile we’re cutting back to Team A, and Tokoyami is reporting to the others that Dark Shadow has located Team B

oh shit

TOKOYAMI THEY GOT YO BOY

Dark Shadow’s zooming toward them now and Tokoyami’s shouting at everyone to disperse

HE LOOKS SO SAD OH NO

KUROIRO YOU ASSHOLE WHY ARE YOU MY NEW CLASS B FAVE

Hagakure is all “Kuroiro popped out from inside Dark Shadow!” as though everyone else didn’t just watch that happen right along with her

Momo’s flinging some ninja nets at Kuro but he’s dodging!

I LOVE IT

HOLY SHIT TOKOYAMI IS RIPPED. WHEN DID THAT FUCKING HAPPEN. WHERE WERE THOSE ARM MUSCLES DURING THE POOL EPISODE, JESUS

(ETA: and I’ll have you know Horikoshi even specifically described his arms as “fairly thin” when he did his little bio in chapter 101! so this is a recent fucking development. bird boy been hittin the gym)

also he sure does have a lot of natural enemies doesn’t he. his quirk is so powerful but it has a lot of weaknesses

and lmaoooooo at “a pair of chuunis” holy fucking christ

how is this chapter over already?? oh well, we’re almost at 200, let’s keep going and check out Toko’s new technique

[lonelypond]

Moonlight Becomes You: Apocalypse Midnight Dance Party: Nico Protects

NozoEli, NicoMaki, KanaMari, Love Live, Love Live Sunshine, 2.5K, 3/?

Summary: Nico can't reach Eli while Maki realizes she's not where she wants to be.

Nico Protects

Nico was glaring at her phone...Maki Nishikino aka DJ Diamond Princess was on a two week tour of all the Ontario and Quebec hot spots. And so Maki was all over EVERYONE’S social media, in cute and huggy and air kissy poses with all the hot hot young female celebrities. Not that Nico cared. Not that the pictures were any good. Not that with the time difference and Nico’s insanely early morning shooting schedule for an actual live action show Nico had any time to do more than text and send selfies. Maki’s texts were usually rants about people wanting to take pictures and messing with her equipment or touching the vinyl. She was ready to stop being away from home. And Nico was ready to stop seeing her with so many women in so little clothing draped all over her.

Nico glanced at the clock. Maki would have usually texted something by now. And Eli should be done with Day Two of her weekend of dance at the Ohara on The Beach, getting the choreography down in 20 hours worth of dance sessions. Why wasn’t Eli back? Nico hopped up from the couch to check the kitchen calendar. Nope, another week until the full moon. So why wasn’t Eli home?

Quick text: Hey, Eli, did you get lost. Or meet a cute girl?

There was a reply.

“Sorry, I’m still busy.”

Nico frowned, “Sorry, you’re not Eli, WHY DO YOU HAVE ELI’S PHONE?

“Who is this?”

Nico hit call. The person on the other end actually answered so Nico only YELLED a little, “Who are you?”

There was a cough, and a shuffle, and a high silly voice and a muffled bark in the background that put Nico on alert. Then Nico heard a high voice giggle with the distance Eli’s phone on speaker would give. “Eli can’t come to the phone right now. She’s not feeling well.”

“Who is this?” Nico got quieter but sharper, “Tell me right now where Eli is or I’m calling the cops.”

Nico heard another voice, frazzled, “Mari, let me talk to her. Is this Eli’s roommate?”

“Yes.”

New person now had the phone. Her voice was a cool breeze compared to the previous. She switched the phone from speaker. “I’m Kanan. That was my wife. She likes to play jokes. I’m sorry but...”

Nico wasn’t that easy and cut off what she knew would be a lie from Kanan, “Where is Eli?”

“She isn’t feeling well. She had a sudden…” a pause…”seizure.”

“I’ll be right there. This is that hotel right?” Nico was on her feet, already deciding what to bring along.

“Yes, but…”

The other voice was back. “She’ll be fine, Bella. Kanan and I know what to do…”

Nico paused…’knew what to do’. Now she was positive Eli had switched her four legged form. No more discussion. “I will be there in a half an hour. If Eli isn’t somewhere Nico can see her, Nico will tear through your hotel room by room.”

“But....”

“Yeah, bye.” Nico ended the call and her phone buzzed again. She was about to answer with a snarl when she recognized Maki’s icon. Why now? Why the sudden switch from texting? Did no one realize Nico needed some normal as she raced to be the number one actor on any coast.

“Maki! Hey! How was your gig?” Nico tried to remember how much she’d been looking forward to Maki checking in.

“Exhausting.” Maki sounded growly grumpy. It might have been kinda cute, but Nico had seen too many pictures of Maki with her arm around a half dressed dancer or three. “SO many people hanging on me.”

“I know.” Nico knew her sentence would come through gritted teeth, “Nico saw all the snaps.”

“Rin just wouldn’t shut up either and I so want to get on a plane and just cancel the next three gigs and finally take you out to dinner and talk about anything but this or….”

Nico interrupted before Maki could get into full rant flow. “Maki, Nico completely agrees with where you’re going, but I can’t talk…”

“What’s wrong?” Maki’s tone instantly changing from complaining to concerned.

“Eli’s being held captive in a hotel.” Nico tried to speak as if that were an everyday thing Nico could obviously cope with.

“WHAT?” There might have been a phone dropping into a cushion noise. Then a scrabbling sound and Maki breathless, “What’s going on?”

“Nico doesn’t know….” Nico knew now she was sounding scared and frantic but she didn’t have the time to smooth things over for Maki. And it was a relief not to have to lie to Maki. “And I have to find out. So can we talk tomorrow?”

Maki sounded...mad…”Sure. I’ll text you.” And the call ended and Nico could feel the sourness left in the silence. Her hand tightened around the phone and there might almost have been a tear, but Eli was missing. And people Nico didn’t know had taken her roommate’s phone.

###

Maki wanted to pace, to punch. EVERY conversation with Nico seemed to stall at Eli, every plan Maki wanted to make...how much of Nico’s life revolved around her roommate? Before Maki had left town, Nico had made it seem like things were back to normal for Eli...But then Maki remembered the snarling, vicious sounds the night she’d gone to Nico’s to check on them,...was that how Eli was now all the time? Was Nico in danger? Maki checked her calendar, full moon next week. Didn’t Nico say she thought the early changes were more violent...Maki put her phone on speaker. Why pay a lawyer so much money if not to get DJ Diamond Princess out of things that Maki Nishikino didn’t want to do. Rin would be disappointed, but…

“Call Aya” she said as she opened her laptop to get to her travel account.

###

Nico stormed right up to the front desk. “Call Kanan Matsuura. I’m here to see Eli Ayase.”

The clerk frowned, typing a quick message into the pad in front of her.

“I said call…” Nico’s clenched fist rested on the desktop, ready to provide emphatic punctuation to her request.

The staffer smiled and pointed behind Nico, “Ms. Ohara will see you in her private suite. Please follow Ms. O’Hara’s assistant to the elevator.”

Nico turned to see a polite young woman in an exquisitely tailored suit, a pad tucked under her arm. “Good evening, Ms. Yazawa.”

“How do you know my name?”

“You’re listed as Ms. Ayase’s emergency contact. Ms. Ohara wishes me to assure you that Ms. Ayase is physically unharmed…”

“Shut up and walk faster.” Nico snapped, managing not to push the staffer along.

###

The elevator opened up into a foyer, with fountains and sculptures, a few tables and divans scattered, there were several floor to ceiling windows that looked out on the Pacific, Nico could see stars twinkling and the majority of the currently traitorous moon. It would have been breathtaking but Nico was on a mission.

No one was in sight so Nico just yelled, “ELI! WHERE ARE YOU? ELI!”

Nico heard a bark and a growl and someone, not sprinting, but hastening in her direction. A busty blonde, nearly falling out of a sundress, came around the corner and stopped in front of Nico, wagging a chiding finger.“You didn’t have to do that, silly. We just got her settled.”

Nico stepped right up to the blonde, who was slightly taller than Eli, “If you don’t let Eli go, I’m going to go through you, get her, and then maybe leave your front counter standing.”

“Oh, bella, you’re so cute, so tiny, so stizzoso…” the woman giggled.

Nico, seething, squared her shoulders and prepared to do her blitz move through this increasingly annoying obstacle. Another woman came into view, dark haired and solid, arm in a cast. Kanan Matsuura, Nico recognized her from Eli’s TWIG posts.

Kanan was shaking her head, hands in the kangaroo pocket of a sweatshirt,“You know Mari, I’m not going to defend you.”

The blonde whirled, pouting, hands reaching out. Nico just strode forward, busting the connection before the two women could even lock hands, shouting again, “ELI!”

A bark to the left, and a confused howl, then a whine of pain and a growl. Nico stopped, eyes the most dangerous of reds, “What did you do to her?”

Kanan put both hands up, “We just moved her to a safe space once the transformation seemed to be over. But she keeps…”

Nico didn’t let Kanan finish. “That doesn’t happen. It’s not even a full moon, that’s next week,” Nico knew she was starting to sound panicked, but Eli had been acting so oddly recently. “Something must have happened…”

“She’s in our guest room, Nico,” Kanan started to explain, “But I don’t think you should see her, she’s…” Kanan’s purple eyes were kind, but nothing like the amethyst Nico had been daydreaming about. She pulled up her sleeve and showed Nico a recently bandaged forearm, “It’s why we didn’t meet you downstairs. Eli’s lashing out. She’s terrified.”

Nico felt her knees buckle. What was happening? Why couldn’t Eli keep her transformations under control. “Eli hates changing. She usually sedates herself, but she wouldn’t have been expecting this not ‘til next week.” Or she would never have come here. Nico knew that.

Mari asked. “What does she use? We could slip some in her food?”

Nico froze. She’d been talking too much. These two already knew too much. Eli would be pissed. But they had to solve this immediate problem before Eli hurt herself or someone else. Racing through her knowledge of Eli’s habits, Nico grudgingly offered a suggestion, “Try playing Tchaikovsky, start with the Nutcracker. That usually relaxes her some.”

Mari pulled out her phone, swiped twice, and typed in letters. Classical music began to play. Kanan had a gentle hand on Nico’s shoulder and was leading her to a couch, “Are you hungry?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Nico shook her head, “Is she really okay?” And then suspicion kicked in, “And why are you so calm?”

“She’s physically uninjured, but it sounds like there’s been recent upheavals in her usual routine, which would be a long term concern.” Kanan sat next to Nico, “And I have some experience with a similar situation.”

“Kanan’s not nearly as fluffy, though.” The super annoying blonde giggled. Nico glared, not wanting to encourage what seemed to be silly jokes.

“Mari.” Kanan’s voice was stern, a warning. Then she turned back to Nico. “We know people who can help.”

“How? Who?”

Mari laughed, “LA is one of those places where you can find anything. It’s why so many of us come here.”

“So you know other werewolves…”

Kanan shrugged, “Mermaids, jiaos, selkies, frogpeople, dark watchers...we have friends who help them get help...very quietly.”

“Have you told Eli?” Nico didn’t like having this discussion about Eli without Eli.

Kanan sighed. “We didn’t know she needed it. Until tonight.”

Nico stood. “Then Nico doesn’t say anything else. This is Eli’s business. Nico’s just here to make sure you’re not going to skin her or turn her into the government.”

More giggling. “She’s too adorable to…”

“Mari…” Kanan snapped, her patience finally fleeing to join Nico’s somewhere else. “Please forgive my wife, she has a very questionable sense of humor.”

Nico frowned and crossed her arms, ignoring the blonde irritant. “Where’s the room, Nico wants to tell Eli I’m here.”

Kanan stood, “Follow me.”

###

Nico’s phone buzzed and the room she was lying on pillows in front of exploded in a crazy frenzy of barking. “Damn it…” Nico pulled out her phone. Maki...calling....

“Hey.” Nico winced as she thought of what Maki was hearing on the other end.

“Are you at home?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Long story, Maki.” Nico sat up, pulling the blanket Kanan had gotten her up to her shoulders. “Can we speed this up. I need to quiet Eli down.”

A pause. “Where are you?”

“The Ohara BeachFront. Where Eli rehearses.”

“Fine. I’ll be there as soon as I clear customs.”

“What? Why aren’t you in Canada?”

“Do you need anything?” Maki ignored Nico’s question.

Nico frowned, she hated to say what she was going to say next but it was already after dawn and Eli was still sounding furrier than usual, “Bring a muzzle.”

Another silence and then Maki blew out a long breath. In her mind, Nico could just see the arc of the redhead’s jaw sharpen as she processed that request.

“All right.” And then Maki’s voice got kinder, “Be careful, Nico, please.”

“Nico is trying.”

“Good.” Maki muttered something away from the phone, then came back, “I’ll see you soon, Nico.”

“Are you all right, Nico?” Kanan’s voice came out of nowhere as Maki ended the call and Nico jumped.

“Don’t sneak up on Nico.” Nico knew it might be unreasonable to scold someone for walking around their own house, but Nico was not in a polite mood.

“Sorry.”

“My friend is coming to help me get Eli home.” Nico pocketed her phone.

“Eli can stay here as long as she needs to. You too.” Kanan offered Nico her hand, “Are you ready for breakfast. Mari had the staff send up everything.”

“Including raw chuck roast? Eli likes to chew on that.” Nico stretched. Next time she was in a fancy hotel for a sleepover, there would be comfy mattresses.

“I’ll get some.” Kanan started down the hall.

Nico put her hand on the door, whispering. “It’s okay, Eli. Nico’ll get you breakfast and take you home.”

Growling. A thump as Eli lunged at the door. Nico closed her eyes, frustrated at both the situation and having an audience.

“It might be better…” Kanan had stopped.

Nico’s temper flared, and she only barely held back a shout. “You don’t know anything about Eli. I need to get her back in a familiar place as soon as possible. She’s…” Nico chose her next word with some thought, “sensitive.”

Kanan smiled, but Nico wasn’t open to friendly, “Mari and I just want to help. We consider Eli a friend now.”

Nico snapped her fingers at Kanan, “Well Nico can’t really talk to Eli about your new BFF status now, can I? How does Nico know you didn’t dose her with something.”

Horrified, Kanan’s eyes widened, “I would never…”

“How would Nico know?” Accusation. Strong. Fierce. Nico was back to something solid, protecting her friend.

Kanan hung her head, Mari was better at winning over skeptics, but she’d had to deal with handing off her morning tasks so it would be a half an hour or so before she would return. “I promise we’ll help with whatever you and your friend want to do. Just eat some breakfast first.”

“Order Eli’s.”

Kanan pulled out her phone. This was something Nico was going to allow her to do. Maybe after breakfast Kanan could get everyone working together.

A/N: Just finished up 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' which was excellent but exhausting fun so getting back in the writing game. Is it too darn hot wherever you are?