#you decide which disciple knows about the hack

[aromanticduck]

Phillip: Lord, we have a problem.

Andrew: There are 5000 hungry people here and the only food we have is this boy's bar of chocolate.

Jesus: Not a problem. *pulls out a knife* 11/12 disciples don't know about this cool hack.

[wangxianficfinder]

In the mood for...

May 7th

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1. any fics of lwj groveling for wwx? thank u <3

我的皇后是農民 | sowing seeds in the cold palace by sweetlolixo (E, 84k, WangXian, Imperial Palace, Emperor LWJ, Imperial Consort WWX, Farmer WWX, Angst, Romance, Wingman LJY, Wife-chasing-LWJ, Arranged Marriage, Best Boy A-Yuan)

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2. Hello, I am currently in a reading slump and I'm in the mood for a fix that will get me out of it. XD

A) Could you recommend some of your favourites?

B) And maybe if you know of any great alpha/alpha wangxian as well. That would be great, thank you! @broodyelii

2A)

Mod Favorites pt.1 (I couldn't decide which to choose so have the whole comp :') ~Mod L )

2B)

In This Reality (it could only be you) by Khashana (E, 5k, WangXian, A/B/O Dynamics, fluff and porn, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Oblivious WWX, Lan Disciple WWX, very light somnophilia, blink and you miss it really, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Alpha-Alpha Sex, Rut Sex, Knotting, no dubcon, Alpha LWJ, Alpha WWX)

Rutbrain by catsandmaps (E, 6k, WangXian, Non-Traditional A/B/O Dynamics, Rutting, Mildly Dubious Consent, because of said rut, Unreliable Narrator, Alpha/Alpha, Intercrural Sex, Spanking, Anal Sex, Convienant bottle of lube, that unconvienantly disappears again sorry lube lovers, Muzzle, Knotting, copious amounts of cum (honorable mention), Misunderstandings, Getting Together)

Yours Shamelessly by kmichee (E, 35k, WangXian, A/B/O Dynamics, Alpha/Alpha pairing, Alpha WWX, Alpha LWJ, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Knotting, Scenting, Discrimination, letter writing, Courtship, Swordfighting, smut then fluff then smut then fluff, Epistolary, Alpha/Alpha, Rough Sex)

Habits of Defiance by Feynite (Not Rated, 5k, WIP, WangXian, A/B/O Dynamics, Alpha/Alpha, Alpha LWJ, Alpha WWX, Introspection, Homophobia, (of a sort), Canon-Typical Violence, Canon Divergence)

Body Language by Scourge Daughter (scourgedaughter) (E, 33k, Female WangXian, Modern, Office Romance, Hacking, hacker au, A/B/O Dynamics, Alpha/Alpha, Alpha WWX, Alpha LWJ, They both have dicks, Arranged Marriage, arranged marriage is not between wangxian, there is no wangxian/others, WangXian Endgame, Happy Ending, madame yu’s a+ parenting, Boston, Suicide mention, Canonical Character Death, Sexual Harassment, Drunk! LWJ, ruts, Anal Sex, spitting, Biting, Switch wangxian, Top/Bottom Versatile | Switch LWJ/WWX, Genderbend, Meet kinda ugly, Vibes of enemies to lovers but it’s wangxian so)

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3. For the itmf: does anyone have anything with the Jiang siblings realizing that wwx has a better relationship with the Wen siblings than he does with them? thank you!

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4. Itmf fics where wwx is more innocent (like the drama characterization) and the jianghu/cultivation world learn about the frame up while he's absent. Like during the 13yrs dead, or maybe he's in hiding, etc

foliage by antebunny (G, 7k, WangXian, JYL & JL, Canon Divergence, Angst, Non-Linear Narrative, Canon-Typical Violence, JL and his many many uncles, JGY is morally ambiguous but okay, BAMF WWX, WWX is innocent of literally everything, for plot purposes, JYL Lives, Not Everyone Dies AU, Hopeful Ending)

gather by antebunny (G, 10k, WangXian, JL & WWX, WWX & JC, LXC & LWJ, Canon Divergence, Fix-It of Sorts, Angst, Non-Linear Narrative, Canon-Typical Violence, BAMF WWX, JL and his many many uncles, Found Family, Fluff, JYL Lives, they're soft your honor, Domestic Fluff, Happy Ending)

Loneliness Knows My Name by Jaywalker_Holmes, Treef (T, 208k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Eventual Happy Ending, Unreliable Narrator, Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It of Sorts, mutual idiots)

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5. Hi, the other day I read a fic in which wwx was Olivia Rodrigo (as in he was a singer and her songs where his songs, idk if I'm explaining myself), and I was wondering if anyone has something like that except wwx is Mitski 😭

Thank you!!!

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6. Are there any good fics, that stay true to canon characteristics, where Jiang Fengmian lives? Specifically ones where the core transfer still happens?

I have this plot in my head that idk when I'll write it cause life right now is chaotic. The story would diverge at the lotus pier attack. JFM would have gotten stabbed trying to save YZY and passed out. Everyone presumes he's dead and YZY dies like canon. He wakes up around the same time WWX & JC comes back but stays still. When everyone leaves the area, he rolls himself into the water and swims to shore. Some how his body isn't noticed to be missing. JC gets captured like canon and WWX collects him with the help of WN. WWX asks WN to collect JC's parents bodies, WN comes back and said he was only able to save YZY body. They presume the JF body was dropped in the lake/burned. JF makes it to JYL and is reunited with JC later. (How would the plot diverge with JF leading lotus pier, being an active general in the war who is senior to everyone else, understanding the benefits of backing WWX, & who may be grateful for WN & WQ help retrieving his wife's body and securing his heirs life).

If anyone wants to write this, please do!! I would love if it stayed true to canon characteristics. @myblurryreality

Yearning for Miles by Murahi (M, 378k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Angst, Fluff, Slow burn, Mutual Pining, seeing the future) not sure if this is similar to what you want but jfm and madam yu both live and (spoiler) wwx gives his core to madam yu

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7. any fics of wei ying marrying into the lan sect? thankss <3

🧡 a stone to break your soul, a song to save it by rikke ( M, 180k, WangXian, Arranged marriage, Canon Divergence, Hurt/comfort, Light angst, Canon typical violence)

Concord by Deastar (T, 41k, WangXian, Arranged Marriage, Gūsū Lán Sect Rules, Depression, Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending)

🧡 Stunted, Starving Juvenility by TomatenMark (E, 803k, WangXian, WIP, Fix-it of sorts, Talisman master WWX, Not JFM Friendly, Study Arc, Getting together, Fluff and Angst, Engagement)

the river and the sea by sasamelons (T, 7k, WangXian, Soulmates, Arranged Marriage, Misunderstandings, Angst with a Happy Ending, Idiots in Love, Falling In Love, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Mutual Pining)

a light hidden and singing by occultings (microcomets) (E, 48k, WangXian, Arranged Marriage, Canon Era, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, Slow Burn, brief family abuse, mentions of wangxian’s canonical kinks, Misunderstandings, Blood and Injury, Rimming, Outdoor Sex, Blow Jobs, Anal Sex, First Time, Miscommunication, Canon Divergence, Happy Ending)

forever is home (with you) by moonsteps (T, 23k, WangXian, Arranged Marriage, Canon Divergence, Intimacy, Sharing a Bed, Strangers to Lovers, the inherent romance of the forehead ribbon)

🔒 In Agreement by kuro (T, 9k, WangXian, LXC & LWJ, Arranged Marriage, Canon Divergence, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Domestic Fluff, Developing Relationship)

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8. Itmf fics where wwx essentially becomes a god or protector spirit in some way

the past drifts away with the waves by thelastdboy (E, 58k, wangxian, WWX & Wen remnants, LWJ & LSZ & WWX, graphic depictions of violence, major character death, canon divergence, fall of lotus pier, major characger undeath, YZY being an asshole, implied/referenced child abuse, minor character death, major character injury, amputation, loss of limbs, transformation, merpeople, fierce corpse WWX, kind of, merperson WWX, resentful creature WWX, undead WWX, riverspirit WWX, it gets worse before it gets better, heavy angst w happy ending, no sunshot, hurt/comfort, politics, not cultivation world friendly, slow burn, getting together, revenge, demonic cultivation, WWX pov, dark WWX, monsterfucker LWJ, wen remnants live, sect leader WQ) WWX becomes a river spirit in this one. idk if that counts

🔒 Of Destruction and Rebirth by demoniqt (M, 88k, wangxian, JYL/JZX, major character death, rape/non-con, underage, graphic depictions of violence, Slow Burn, Canonical Character Death, God WWX, God Verse, BAMF WWX, Grieving LWJ, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon Divergence, Gods & Goddesses au, JC & WWX Reconciliation, Rabbits, Fix-It, Attempted Sexual Assault, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Canon-Typical Violence, Blood and Gore, Castration, Lots of it, repeatedly, Punishment, Hell)

Meet you at a different place by tawaen (M, 57k, WN & WQ, WN & WQ & MXY, WWX & WN & WQ, WangXian, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Ghost General WN, Ghost WQ, Eventual WangXian, Canon Divergence, WQ comes back to haunt the cultivation world, Bad idea to kill the one person who didn't kill anyone, Cultivation World Critical, Not JC Friendly, Wen Remnants Deserve Better, Sīsī Deserves Better, MXY Deserves Better, POV WQ)

You still sound like a song by Moominmammashandbag (M, 64k, wangxian, WIP, Ghost!WWX, Mystery, LWJ plays inquiry, AU from after the Wens came to Lotus Pier, Most people lived, not everybody died, Angst with a Happy Ending, river spirit!WWX, Angst and Feels, description of murder, imminent smut, Execution, bad dog names, Poisons, Discussion of Attempted Murder, BAMF WWX, Family Feels)

🧡 Vow by draechaeli (E, 216k, Canon Divergence, BeliefGod!WWX, Adoption but WWX birthed them all, Pregnancy Kink, Mpreg, minor male lactation, Consensual Non-Consent, Light Bondage, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con because JGS, Mentions Canon Typical Incest, Canon Typical Violence)

Death of a Ghost by Gotcocomilk (E, 107k, WangXian, LXC/JGY, MXY & WWX, JL & WWX, WWX & JC, JL & LJY, JL & LSZ, Family Bonding, Fluff and Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Mutual Pining, Parental WWX, BAMF WWX, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Canon Divergence, Ghost Sex)

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9. hi!!! if this has been asked before feel free to point me towards the relevant post, but for your next "in the mood for" post, could you recommend some fics where wwx dies in the battle at nightless city instead of jiang yanli? any canon goes! @tiesanjiaoshenanigans

💖 Shattered Dreams by pupeez4eva (Not Rated, 8k, WangXian, Time Travel, Angst, lots and lots of angst, Character death, but it's WWX so he is coming back, WWX time travels back to the Nightless City And doesn't let JYL take the blow for him, Post-Canon, Angst with a Happy Ending, And then just lots of fluff and WangXian and Yunmeng sib feels to make up for all the angst) link in #16

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10. ITMF angsty wx gf where Jiangs (all of 'em) are present. But not for bashing ok. I just want a full wx family. Thankyou

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11. Are there any fics where wwx finally snaps the question " what do you want from me?!?! What do you want me to even do?!? " to Jiang Cheng? Not in jiang Cheng bashing way ok? Thankyou

~*~

12. Itmf a fic where canon diverges around where qiongqi path happens in the timeline, but not specifically the ambush changing. Maybe something happens before or after. Ig more like Jin ling's celebration. Does wwx get attacked at the party? Does the party go well to lure him into a false sense of security as part of a long con to get to him later? Things like that. Maybe Jin zixun doesn't get cursed, but wwx is blamed for nmj poisoning instead? Etc.

the cycle of regret by KouriArashi (T, 14k, WangXian, Groundhog Day, Fix-It, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Alternate Canon) A LWJ-centric timeloop fic set around the Qiongqi Path ambush that explores some different outcomes during the loops

Obedient and Bellicoseby thunderwear (T, 20k, Wangxian, Ella Enchanted AU, Canon Divergence, Fix-It, cursed LWJ, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Good brother LXC, LQR loves his nephews you cant change my mind, LWJ crying, Protective LXC, Pining, First Kiss, Love Confessions, Brief Depictions of Violence, meaning at least one of the people you really want to get stabbed does in fact get stabbed)

💖 A Crying Shame by thunderwear (G, 16k, wangxian, canon divergence, fix-it, burial mounds settlement days, getting together, pining, domestic fluff, love confessions, first kiss, sharing a bed, marriage proposal)

My Leaves Reach Ever for the Sun by nonplussed (T, 26k, WangXian, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fix-It, Crossdressing, Idiots in Love, Sharing a Bed, Canon Divergence, Happy Ending, Mutual Pining, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies)

To Be Named by Suibian_613 (T, 39k, WangXian, XuanLi, WIP, Canon Divergence, Out of Character, WQ is out of character, Everyone is probably ooc, canonical violence, Canonical Character Death, JYL lives, Somewhat Sentient Burial Mounds, WN and JC Rivalry, Sibling Rivalry)

Birthday Party by waffles_4_breakfast (E, 100k, WangXian, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Fix-It, Canon Divergence, Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Misunderstandings, Sharing a Bed, Angst with a Happy Ending, Happy Ending, Getting Together, Mutual Pining, Canon-Typical Violence, Pining, Slow Burn, Poison, Torture, Requited Unrequited Love, First Time, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Rough Sex, Oral Sex, Come as Lube, Bondage, Dom/sub Undertones, Spit As Lube, Rimming, Consensual Non-Consent, Safe Sane and Consensual, Additional Warnings In Author's Note)

~*~

13. In the mood for all ur fav fics that update rarely, but when they do u get super excited.

see you yesterday by glyphic (M, 138k, WIP, WangXian, Modern with Magic, Ghost Hunters, Time Loop, Case Fic, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Loss, Angst with a Happy Ending, Slow Burn)

Ghost of Mine by SasukiMimochi (E, 139k, LSZ & WWX, LSZ & LWJ, LSZ & WWX & LWJ, wangxian, Golden Core Reveal, Gūsū Lán Forehead Ribbon, Demonic Cultivation, YLLZ WWX, Canon Temporary Character Death, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Supernatural Elements, Canon-Typical Violence, Post-First Siege of the Burial Mounds, Romance, Domestic Fluff, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicide, Past JYL/JZX, WIP)

Kingfisher Feathers by anonymous (E, 165k, WIP, WangXian, Royalty AU, Emperor LWJ, Concubine WWX, A/B/O, Mpreg, Mutual Pining, Angst with a happy ending)

~*~

14. Hello! For itmf,

So I recently read this fic by covalentbonds named Linearly above. It's a fic exploring canon story with married Wangxian but from an older generation then they originally are from. Do you know any similar fics?

Or Any fic with older generation WWX and LWJ?

Thank you!!!

~*~

15. Hi! Itmf dragonji hoarding wwx as his treasure. Thx so much!

💖🔒 Hoards and treasures by  apathyinreverie (T, 21k, WangXian, Siblings, Family, not particularly Jiang friendly, YZY Bashing, slightly darker Gusu Lans, LXC being the   best brother, Some manipulation, But with the best of intentions, and   not between wangxian, Dragon LWJ, Fox WWX, Smitten LWJ, Fluff, perfect   happiness, adorable WWX, Romance, Some worldbuilding, courting)

A Baby Dragon’s Guide To Seducing Your Huli Jing by sweetlolixo (M, 102k, wangxian, Fantasy, But still in the Cultivation World, Dragon LWJ, Fox WWX, Younger LWJ, Older WWX, Fluff, Humor, Eventual mpreg, Angst with a Happy Ending, Best Boy A-Yuan)

🔒 Turnabout by apathyinreverie (T, 7k, WangXian, LSZ & WWX; LSZ & LWJ, WIP, Dragon LWJ, Fox WWX, Tiger cub A-Yuan, Mischievous WWX, Smitten LWJ, Possessive LWJ, Oblivious WWX, Domestic WangXian, LXC does his best, LQR wishes his nephews had better taste in men, Fluff, Romance, Mpreg mentioned, courting, creature shifts)

a siren's tail by sweetlolixo (M, 3k, WangXian, Dark Fantasy, Dragon LWJ, Siren WWX, Dark LWJ, Dark LSZ, Dragon LSZ, lying by omission, Manipulation, mpreg mention, Royalty, Happy Ending)

These Mortal Treasures by ChilianXianzi (T, 9k, WangXian, Fantasy, Canon Divergence, Dragon LWJ, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Possessive LWJ, Domestic Fluff, implied eggpreg, Dragonji’s hoard is 1 (one) weiying, The Cultivation World’s canonical fuckery, eggyuan!, Gift Giving)

~*~

16. Can the mods and the readers please give me the saddest wangxian fics they've ever read? The sadder, the longer, the better. No bad ending though please.

Ps: please no Jiangs bashing.

💖 where the shore meets the sea by pale_and_tragic (T, 14k, WangXian, Modern, Anxiety, Agoraphobia, Panic Attacks, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Misunderstandings, Angst with a Happy Ending, Getting Together, LWJ Needs a Hug, Bunnies, With Ridiculous Names) don't know if they're the saddest there are but here's a couple that made me cry so... ~Mod L

💖 symmetry by bleuett (M, 44k, WangXian, Space, Science Fiction, Happy Ending, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Holding Hands, Blow Jobs, Hand Feeding, Cultivation in Space, Yearning, Reunions, Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Canon-Typical Violence, Minor Injuries, Grief/Mourning, Unconventional Time Travel, Burial Mounds)

💖🔒 I will find you by ThisIsWhereTheMagicHappens (T, 13k, WangXian, Modern, Angst, A LOT of Angst, with a bit comfort at the end, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Happy Ending)

💖 Shattered Dreams by pupeez4eva (Not Rated, 8k, WangXian, Time Travel, Angst, lots and lots of angst, Character death, but it's WWX so he is coming back, WWX time travels back to the Nightless City And doesn't let JYL take the blow for him, Post-Canon, Angst with a Happy Ending, And then just lots of fluff and WangXian and Yunmeng sib feels to make up for all the angst)

💖 I would wait for a thousand years by bleuett (T, 10k, wangxian, Post-Canon, Canon Divergence, Memory Loss, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Reunions, Curses, Intimacy, Yearning, Happy Ending, Chinese Mythology & Folklore, Immortality, Fluff, Angst)

💖 the best good thing by almostsophie1 (T, 12k, WangXian, Space, Post-Apocalypse, Touch-Starved, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Hurt/Comfort)

💖🔒 you are safe / loved / worthy / enough by everythingispoetry (T, 150k, WangXian, Modern, College/University, Social Media, Mental Health Issues, Healing, self-care, Anxiety, Hurt/Comfort, the mortifying ordeal of self-acceptance, Falling In Love, Depression, Slow Burn)

💖 Take Root, Come Home by piecrust (G, 3k, WangXian)

🧡 like speaking to my heart by SnowshadowAO3 (T, 613k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Daemons, Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Some people live!, additional warnings in specific chapters, if you don't know what daemons are that's ok because I explain it in the author's note, also by slow burn I VERY much mean slow burn) i don't usually read extremely sad fics but this one had some sad scenes in it iirc - mod c

🧡 Misunderstood by Silver_Flame_2724 (M, 250k, wangxian, heavy angst, fluff, eventual happy ending, implied/referenced rape/non-con, misunderstandings, self-harm, self-hatred, family fluff, mental breakdown, cannibalism, reincarnation, WIP 31/33)

🧡 Discarded by teawater (E, 178k, WIP, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Dying Lan children, Hurt/Comfort, YLLZ WWX, Golden Core Reveal, Case Fic, Depression, Family Issues, Self-Esteem Issues, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Worth Issues, Angst with a Happy Ending, and it's not always dark, POV Multiple, BAMF WWX, dubious morals in the Lan sect Feels, Pining, Grief, Fix-It, BAMF LWJ) i haven't actually caught up yet but the beginning was pretty sad - Mod C

🧡 (Un)Hidden truth by Sarah_R (M, 122k, WIP, WangXian, Suicide attempt, Time Travel, Hurt/comfort, Angst, Self-Harm)

🔒 Salt to the Sea by Starmins (M, 31k, wangxian, JYL & WWX, modern, grief/mourning, roadtrips, canonical character death, love & loss)

134340 by silverclaw (M, 18k, WangXian, Space, Space Opera, Heavy Angst, Character Death, Grief/Mourning, Closure, Parallel Universes, Coco the robot, LWJ accidentally adopting creatures as he goes, LWJ also has a nose ring, The following are SPOILER tags, there are two lwjs and one of them dies, wwx mourning lwj, Hopeful Ending, in terms of closure and healing, parallel!lwj and wwx form a bond, mentions of captivity, dystopian themes)

~*~

17. Hi! I am looking for red thread of fate soulmate aus. Especially ones where you trace the thread back to your soulmate. Preferably canon era, but honestly I am fine with any genre au. Thank you so much!

the heartlines on our hands by occultings (microcomets) (E, 47k, wangxian, Soulmates AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Mutual Pining, First Time, Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death)

lost my fear of falling by thefireplanet (E, 30k, WangXian, HuaLian, Bodyswap, Wei "My Intrusive Thoughts Are Totally Not Winning" Wuxian, Hua "My Husband Said I Had to Help You" Cheng, YLLZ WWX, WWX-centric, WangXian-centric, Post-Canon, Canon-Typical Violence, Case Fic, Canon-Typical Wangxian Sex Things, One (1) Obscure War Movie Reference, mawage, Mawage is what brings us togeder tooday)

~*~

If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***

[neerbear]

To celebrate reaching (over) 1k followers on here, I am opening up a DTIYS challenge!

PRIZES:

Fully shaded character half body

Fully shaded character bust

Flat colour character half body

HOW TO ENTER:

You have 2 options - you can either redraw the same pieces as me (the one above) OR you can choose EITHER (or both!) of these characters and ANY of their designs (see ref sheet below) and draw them in ANY pose + setting YOU want!! This DTIYS challenge is supposed to be as open/free as possible, so I suggest you go with the second option and let your imagination run wild!!

OUTFITS REF:

I'll have a quick bio about each character at the end of the post - so check that out as well to get inspo!

I will be reblogging ALL the entries I find! If I didn't reblog yours - feel free to DM me, I might have missed it.

RULES:

No tracing!

Absolutely NO AI (at all, in any shape or form)

Must follow me (if you post on multiple social medias, following me on just one of them is enough)

Use the #neerDTIYS and @ me!

Gore and nudity (nsfw included) are ALLOWED, just tag them properly so others can filter easily!

ABOUT THE CHARACTERS:

This is just for those that will be drawing from their own imagination (or just want to know more)!

Master Hua / Lin Meixiu

Former Goddess of War. In her human life, she used to be a general, who got gravely injured during war and decided to spend her last moments with the people, leading to her hearing how everyone was grieving losses or dying from injuries, cursing the war, the rich and the generals themselves. A strange man saved her - the (then) God of War - and appointed her as his disciple. She trained under him and after his demise, she became the new Goddess of War, with everyone praising her strength and intelligence. After the Great Heavenly War against the devils, Goddess Lin Meixiu concentrated on trying to protect peace, so no more wars would ever happen. Her companions, the other Gods, took in disciples after that, yet she was the only one who refused any disciple, stating that the best God of War is self-made and only by being strong enough to defeat her can anyone hope to replace her. This angered a student who desperately wanted to become her disciple, to the point where he'd train every day and challenge her every year - but he would always lose. He and his friend (who turned out to be the son of one of the devils she killed in war) hacked a plan to get rid of all the current Gods and replace them. Their plan was successful, and after watching all of her brethren die, Lin Meixiu was prepared to join them, but (because of her great inner strength) she survived, injured and weak. Instead of returning to the Heavens, she stayed in the mortal realm and lead a simple life there.

Xiao Shuilong / Guo Xifeng

Her true form is that of a dragon, but she has successfully cultivated a human form. When she was little, her dragon village faced a great disaster. The Heavens blamed the dragonfolk so they sent the Goddess of War to investigate and kill them. When she arrived, however, she quickly understood the situation and saved the dragons, instead. Before she left, she performed a dance for them, as a gift to the young hatchling of noble blood. The dragons then swore their undying loyalty to her. When Guo Xifeng grew up, she decided to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming the Goddess' disciple, so she headed to the heavens to sign up as a student. She won every competition and caught the eye of all the Gods, who allowed her to choose any God she wanted as her master (assuming that God agreed to it, as well). She instantly asked for Goddess Lin Meixiu, but was informed of her passing. During her moment of shock and horror, she was appointed as the disciple of the current God of War, instead. Every day, she would ask about her Goddess, but no one gave her a truthful answer about her passing. One day, long into her training, she overheard her teacher discussing the matter of Lin Meixiu's death, in which she found out the truth. In a fit of rage, she decided to avenge her Goddess by murdering the two Gods, but she was defeated and sent to the dungeons. There, the devil's son poisoned her with his demonic energy and she went mad, turning into her dragon form and destroying half of the place before being defeated again and sent crashing down to the mortal realm, heavily injured and with amnesia.

THEM

The injured dragon was found by a woman, who helped heal the dragon enough to give it a human form and drag it back to her home to further heal it. When the dragon lady woke up, it was obvious she had lost her memories. The strange woman introduced herself as an ordinary flower spirit named Hua. She named the dragon Xiao Shuilong, since she was found in the waters outside. Although Hua wanted to continue living her life, Xiao Shuilong was determined to retrieve her memories, so the two of them started investigating her origins. Every so often, the demonic energy in Xiao Shuilong's body overwhelms her, making her go crazy and turn into her dragon form - but Master Hua found that with dual cultivation, she is able to suppress demonic energy and bring Xiao Shuilong back to sanity. This might have heavy consequences later down the line... The rest you'll just have to read when the novel comes out 😉

[nancywheelxr]

Word of Honor prompt suggestion: WKX and YBY play the drunken ancient Chinese equivalent of Truth or Dare. The situation rapidly escalates from throwing Wolong Nuts to property damage, while a horrified ZZS attempts to restore order. In the end, Gu Xiang smacks both of them down.

anon, i am delighted by this prompt, thank you so much

*

Zhou Zishu loves having an extended family.

It’s great, so great. Amazing. Really, just lovely. A blessing.

“Who are you calling blind? Twice that distance, it would still land true!”

A blessing. Especially when they all decide to visit at the same time. Lovely surprise, truly. So great. Zhou Zishu is just so happy. Estactic even. Look at him, he’s a shining beacon of happiness.

“Shifu,” Chengling says, frowning up at him from the where he’s supposed to be meditating, “are you alright? You look stressed.”

“What nonsense are you spouting now?” Zhou Zishu snaps, “who’s stressed? If anything, it’s your laziness that’s stressing me!”

Chengling doesn’t look too convinced because, unfortunately, somewhere down the line, the kid seems to have lost all common sense. Personally, Zhou Zishu blames Wen Kexing. “Sorry, sorry, I promise I’m not being lazy,” he grins, eyes going wide and pleading-- another thing, that, personally, Zhou Zishu blames Wen Kexing for. “As soon as we stop hiding, I’ll go back to training!”

“Who’s hiding!” Zhou Zishu takes a deep breath. He’s been told to manage his stress levels. Besides, he’s not stressed. Beacon of happiness. Shining, that’s what he is. This is all fine. “We’re not hiding. We’re meditating away from the mess your Shishu is making with Ye-qianbei.”

Chengling nods once, serious. “A warrior knows when to retreat.”

“That’s not--” He stops himself. Somewhere, probably in the courtyard, there’s a crash loud enough to echo in the room they’re using. This is fine. 

“Where would that count? I dared you to strike down that tree, not take a statue’s head!”

“What’s wood compared to stone?! Have you gone senile? Your dare was too stupid to consider, I made it better!”

Wen Kexing is slurring his words already, Zhou Zishu can tell, and it’s with a startling clarity that he can see it in his mind: Wen Kexing, drunk, throwing his fan around the courtyard on a dare, and Ye Baiyi, not drunk, unbothered by the very real risk of someone losing a limb if he deemed it entertaining enough. 

They had been throwing those blasted nuts around, the last time Zhou Zishu checked on them. Shooting them around like arrows and leaving dents all over his walls. Then, he had been merely grateful for their unspoken agreement of not ever choosing truth, just in case someone stepped in one of the several emotion landmines scattered in their past-- if anyone starts crying, Zhou Zishu is walking out, he’s decided this very early on.

Well, he supposes, if it’s Wen Kexing, he would probably stick around to sober him up, tears and all, but he’d really rather not. 

It was a mistake though, it seems, to leave them unattended for too long. Now the dares have escalated and one of the statues is allegedly missing a head.

So great.

“Stay here,” he tells Chengling, just in case the kid’s luck strikes again, and goes investigate the noises. Following the chaos is always sure to lead him back to Wen Kexing. 

The several disciples scurrying away from the courtyard is also a good indicator he’s on the right path.

“Old Monster,” Wen Kexing is saying, and in his arms there’s a large stone that might at some point have been a statue’s head but has been hacked at too much to retain any semblance of its former image. Hacked at too heavily to have been done by a fan, lined with steel or not. Which means-- “I dare you to-- I dare you to cut this in half now!”

“Ha!” Ye Baiyi snorts, sword already unsheated, and there’s a faint flush to his face which is all sorts of terrible because if even Ye Baiyi is a little drunk, then how much have they drunk? And could people, please, stop waving around sharp weapons while inebriated? “You call that a challenge? Brat, I could be in my death bed and that would still be too easy. Don’t waste my time, come up with something better.”

Yeah, no, it’s definitely time for an intervention. “Alright, alright,” he calls, stepping out into the courtyard and promptly tripping over an entire watermelon. What the fuck. “What the fuck?”

“A-Xu!” Wen Kexing grins, waving at him while hugging the head to his chest, and it’s horribly endearing, yes, but also, terrible because Zhou Zishu is trying to hold on to his annoyance. “A-Xu, be careful! I won that fair and square, it’s my prize! Isn’t it good? We can have it after dinner but not the Old Monster, he can’t have it, A-Xu!”

“As if I wanted! It’s probably rotten--”

“Oh, it’s good that you’re here, A-Xu, I’ve missed you, and now you can stand guard on our watermelon!”

Deep breaths. “Where did you get the watermelon?”

“I won it.”

Ye Baiyi scoffs. “You cheated.”

“You won it. From where?”

“No, he cheated,” Ye Baiyi repeats as if speaking to a particularly slow child, “I’ve already told you that, stop making me repeat myself.”

“Don’t listen to him, A-Xu,” Wen Kexing walks over with his stone head, swaying as he goes, “no cheating was involved. Look, isn’t it a good watermelon?”

The question is accompanied with a genuinely distressed look, as if it was of paramount importance that Zhou Zishu agree with him on this, as if the whole world is hanging on this thread, so Zhou Zishu finds himself picking up the damn thing and awkwardly inspecting it around. “Yes, it’s very good.”

Immediately, Wen Kexing spins around, using the statue head to point at Ye Baiyi vindictively, “see? Take that, Old Man! How about it? A-Xu says it’s good, so it’s good, it’s not rotten!”

Well, in truth, it might be a little past its prime, but Zhou Zishu decides to keep that to himself and not think about where it came from anymore. This, he figures, is going to be a problem for Sober Wen Kexing when he wakes up tomorrow. So he places the watermelon back down and steels himself for the task of prying the head from Wen Kexing. “Yes, yes, I’m always right, and now A-Xu is saying it’s time to go to sleep.”

For his troubles, he receives a most betrayed look, “A-Xu, it’s still so early, A-Xiang isn’t even back yet,” something seems to click on his head, “and the Old Monster hasn’t completed the dare!”

Zhou Zishu curses silently. Having deemed Wen Kexing’s ramblings boring, Ye Baiyi had retreated back to the his seat at the table and been about to pour himself some water, but now he perks up again, throwing one of their precious nuts at them. “Come up with a worthy dare, then! Qin Huaizhang’s disciple, bring more wine.”

Hearing this, Wen Kexing rushes forward, waving the statue head. “Don’t change the subject! If you think it’s too easy, how about I throw it in the air first, huh? I dare you, cut it in half before it touches the ground!”

I’m going to have to rebuild this place again, Zhou Zishu realizes with a morose sort of resignation. The manor might have survived the Window of Heavens, but he’s not so sure it’ll survive these two drunk idiots. 

This epiphany takes some time to be processed, so Zhou Zishu doesn’t feel too guilty for not noticing Gu Xiang arriving with Cao Weining until they’re at his side, gaping like little dumb fishes at the scene. “Ah, Zishu-ge! Why did you let them get like this!”

“A-Xiang, A-Xiang,” her husband says helplessly, and Zhou Zishu snorts, magnanimously forgiving her slap at his shoulder, “don’t be so harsh, it’s not so bad! Wen-gongzi is...” without anything other than drunk out of his mind to finish his sentence with, Cao Weining trails off.

“What a mess,” she grumbles, “what a mess. You were supposed to keep an eye on them!”

“Me? How am I to do that? Do you think I can grant miracles?”

She hits his shoulder again. “Zishu-ge! You just had to keep an eye on him! That’s the one thing you like doing!”

“A-Xiang!” Cao Weining gasps, grasping at her sleeves to keep her from going for another slap, “Zhou-xiong, we’ll help clean it up, it’s the wine we brought anyway.”

“Pah,” she scoffs, shaking Cao Weining off and marching towards the two still squabbling about how best to throw the statue head, “who’s we? Honestly!”

From their spot by the door, Zhou Zishu watches as Wen Kexing beams at her, saying something too garbled for him to make out, while Ye Baiyi just squints like he’s seeing a new weird-looking bug.

A-Xiang’s screeches are very clearly heard, though. In a minute, she’s prodded and bullied Wen Kexing into giving up the head and poured them both healthy servings of tea, taking advantage of Ye Baiyi’s seemingly internal debate over insulting a little girl to shove the glass at him.

“Huh,” Zhou Zishu says, admittedly impressed. She really is efficient when she wants to be.

“Ah, A-Xiang really is amazing,” Cao Weining sighs in a horrible smitten way, so Zhou Zishu has to fetch and toss the nearest broom at him, on principle. “Ah?”

“It’s very good that Cao-gongzi offered to help,” he smiles, knowing Wen Kexing will laugh about this come morning, “now if you excuse me, this one has a very drunk husband to rescue.”

Feeling very satisfied with himself, he labels the mess a problem for Cao Weining now. 

Zhou Zishu loves having an extended family. A blessing, truly.

[mischiefandspirits]

Oldest and Newest

Damian tugged down his face mask as he looked out over Gotham city. He was finally here.

After two decades of anticipation, after nearly a decade of work, it should have been a happy occasion.

He tugged the mask back up as he heard a scream nearby.

He stopped three muggings, saved a woman from assault, and stopped a robbery by the time a flicker of purple started following him.

He scared off some men that were following a woman then pretended to take off northward before ducking around a water tower and sneaking up on his pursuer as they tried to follow. He took them in before approaching.

They looked about five foot six. The dark body armor and cloak hid their build some, but the way they carried themself proved they were muscular even if not overly broad. As he grew closer, he could see that the armor was primarily black with dark purple detailing that matched the cloak’s color. They also wore a full face mask like his friend Vesper’s, though theirs had white lenses that stood out against the black fabric instead of being completely black like the older vigilante. They were cautious, yet sure-footed as they raced over the rooftops which showed a familiarity with the territory and an understanding of its dangers.

Similarly, their growing annoyance showed they’d realized they’d lost him so Damian swooped in to pin them against an air conditioning unit. They tried to throw him off, but his larger size and superior skills kept them pinned long enough to bind their hands and tie them to the unit.

“Who are you and why are you following me?” he growled, crossing his arms and looming over them.

They stared at him for a moment, head tilting to the side, then snorted. “No wonder he got mistaken for B a few times. Are you seeing this guy?” the young woman -- judging by her voice -- muttered to herself before saying, “I’m Spoiler and I’m following you because you randomly showed up in Gotham and started playing vigilante. Don’t you know Batman doesn’t like that?”

“And yet, here you are doing the same.”

“Excuse you, I’m Batman’s partner. I earned my place on these rooftops.”

“Right.”

She tilted up her chin and crossed her arms. “I am!”

Damian frowned, but didn’t move to redo the ties she’d slipped. Vesper had told him that his father was a solo hero. Batman worked with the Justice League and the Birds of Prey as necessary, but he’d never had a permanent confidant or taken on an apprentice like some of the other heroes. The closest thing he had to partners were the Batgirls. According to Vesper, though, neither ever developed a close bond with the man. The two might be called in as backup or would team up with his father when their paths crossed, but they never depended on one another. His father was more of an inspiration, patron, and occasional teammate than a partner to either woman.

Spoiler didn’t seem to be lying, however, and appeared too forward to be capable of deceiving him. Had something changed in the four years since he’d talked to Vesper? Perhaps he should have gone with his original plan of waiting to go out until after he’d spoken with her the next day after all.

Hindsight and such were not going to change the present, however.

He looked over the woman again. Girl, he realized. Given her proportions, she was likely in her mid-teens though he could be wrong as the armor was rather concealing. An apprentice, then, which explained why she had not fallen beside her supposed partner. The mission his father perished on must have been deemed too dangerous for her to accompany him.

He carefully thought over his next words. He was not ready to announce his presence yet as clearly he had some research to do and he needed to speak with Vesper. He also didn’t know how trustworthy Spoiler was. Even if she was telling the truth about being his father’s partner, that did not tell him just how far his father’s trust in her went and therefore how far he should trust her in turn.

He stepped back from the girl, dropping his arms and attempting to take on a less antagonistic posture. “Then I am sorry for your loss.”

“Loss?” Spoiler questioned.

“Batman’s death,” he answered slowly. Had no one told her?

“What? Batman’s not dead.”

Oh, no, she was simply trying to hide the truth. “My contacts within the Justice League say otherwise.”

Batman's death had left Flamebird uncharacteristically despondent of late, understandably given how close his father and Damian’s were and the fact Flamebird had been on the mission where Batman perished.

“Someone’s going to get an ass beating,” she muttered, storming to her feet. She poked him in the chest. “So what, you find out Batman’s gone and decide that means you have a free pass to just do whatever you want in my city.”

Damian pushed her hand away, fighting down the urge to stab it. “As I think we’ve established, I had no idea you existed. I simply had business in Gotham and thought I’d do some good for a recently undefended city.”

“Yeah, well, now you know the city is being defended.”

“By a child, yes,” Damian scoffed before he could stop himself and the girl bristled.

“Who the fickle frack are you to judge me?”

After being momentarily stunned by her euphemism, he answered, “I am Ẓill.”

She stared at him and slowly shook her head. “Yeah, no offense, it’s def a me problem, but if I try to say that I will totally beat it to hell and back with a tire iron then set it on fire and spit on it just for good measure. Is that an alien language?”

“Arabic.”

“Shit. Yeah, okay, that’s why I’m sticking to the Romance languages for now.” She glanced to the side. “Do you know Arabic?”

“I-” he started, but she waved him quiet.

“I thought you were going to learn after the last run-in with… Okay, yeah, that’s fair. So… Well of course he can, the little polyglot.” She turned back to Damian as he started to wonder if the girl was insane. “So your name translates to Shadow. Mind if I just call you that because, again, I will not be responsible for the atrocity that leaves my mouth if I try to pronounce Arabic without time to practice.”

“Shadow is fine.” She wouldn’t be the first, as it had taken both Flamebird and Beacon awhile to learn how to pronounce his name properly, and the Ismoian still called him that on occasion as a nickname. More accurately she called him Shadow the Hedgehog, but that was a reference he refused to investigate given Flamebird’s reaction to it. “Who are you talking to?”

She gestured to the side of her head. “Augur. He’s our eye-in-the-sky computer guy. Hacking, running comms, information gathering, strategy, all that fun stuff.”

“I thought Oracle worked with Batman when he needed assistance with that.”

“Oracle? I mean, she helped train Augur and helps out when he needs a hand, but she’s got the Birds of Prey and Vesper, not to mention helping out the Justice League sometimes. I think she used to do a lot more for Batman back before Augur, but she’s got her own shit to do now. Augur’s our main man.”

He really should have waited to speak to Vesper. Clearly his information was more out of date than he thought.

“So, Shadow Weaver, what brings you to Gotham then?”

“Shadow Weaver?” He growled when she nodded, radiating amusement. That was clearly another reference he didn’t want to know anything about. “My being here is none of your concern.”

“Random unknown vigilantes being in my city are, like, the definition of my concern,” she said, cocking a hip.

“Your city?”

“Yeah, my city. So either tell me why you’re here or get lost.”

“And if I don’t?”

She shifted into a fighting stance. “I’ll make you.”

Damian snorted at the threat, then was yanked backward by his hood. He brought his hand up to defend, which was knocked aside.

He froze when he recognized the featureless mask staring down at him.

“I told you to keep your head down,” Vesper reprimanded, poking him in the forehead.

“If you had warned me that Batman had picked up a disciple this wouldn’t have happened,” he huffed and Spoiler pretended to gag.

“Ew, gross, don’t call me that. Makes it sound like I worship B or something, which, yeah, no.”

“Stop picking fights with Spoiler,” Vesper said and poked his forehead again. “Batman is already going to be mad enough.”

Damian’s eyes darted away from his friend and, behind Vesper, he saw Spoiler flinch.

Vesper let him back up and shoved him away. She turned to Spoiler. “I’ll deal with him. He’s a friend. Sorry.”

The girl nodded and left.

“Come on.”

The older vigilante led him to the rooftop of a clock tower. She used a biometric scanner to unlock a hidden hatch and they slipped inside, dropping down ropes into a workspace.

There was an elaborate computer setup in one corner, oddly lacking a chair, and a workout space in the other. Mirroring that was a modest medical area in one corner and a kitchenette in the other with seating at the island. Elevator doors stood between the computers and medical area while a couch and some chairs sat at the center of the room.

Pulling off her hood and mask, Cassandra led him to the couch. He removed his own hood and mask then pulled his katana off his back to lean against his leg as he sat next to her on the couch.

“You look good,” she said, glancing over him.

“You too. It’s good to see you again.”

She nodded, then lightly slapped his arm. “What were you thinking, Damian? I know I told you how protective Batman is of his territory.”

Damian’s left hand came up to trace the phoenix engraved onto his right bracer. “When was the last time you spoke to someone in the Justice League?”

She frowned, studying him. “I have been on an Outsiders mission for the past month, and was busy with a show the month before that. If Oracle has worked with them in that time, she hasn’t said anything. Why?”

“A little under a month ago, a JL team went on a mission. I don’t know the full details, but it had something to do with Darkseid and… Batman did not make it back.”

She didn’t react visibly, but her voice was soft when she asked, “You are sure?”

“Jon was on the mission. He said Batman was vaporized right before their eyes. I’m sorry.”

She bowed her head and closed her eyes. After her moment of silence, she looked up at him, face blank. “Why?”

“Why?”

“Why are you here? Why do you care? You’ve always been interested in Batman, but this is… more.”

He sat up straight, hands fisting on his thighs. “I told you my name was Damian Naji, but that was a lie. My name is actually Damian al Ghul. My mother is Talia al Ghul… and my father was Batman.”

She studied him. “Batman… did not know?”

“Not as far as I am aware. Mother told me she told him she miscarried because I would be a distraction to him and the cause. After everything you’ve told me about him, I think she and Grandfather were just worried he’d take me from them. If she told him after I left, I don’t know.”

“Why didn’t you tell him? You could have come to him for help when you ran away from the League.”

“Tt. You know how I was back then. I was everything Father stood against. He wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with me. Not until I could prove I was worthy of him.”

She reached out to take his hand. “That’s not true. He knew my past and he accepted me.”

“You killed one person, instantly regretted it, and never killed again. I spent almost ten years as an assassin. It’s not the same. Besides, you were just an occasional teammate. I’m…”

“His son. Which is exactly why I know he would have loved you. Batman cares deeply for those who he considers his own. Even Oracle and I. He keeps -” She frowned and looked down. “He kept his distance from us, but only because he felt he didn’t have a right to us. Oracle had a parent and was independent, only needing help getting her feet under her. I was an adult, legally, when we met and Oracle took on my training since she was the one who found me and had practice working with younger heroes due to assisting Black Canary with the Justice League’s minor division. Had he found you, though, he wouldn’t have hesitated. You would have been his.

“He would not have been happy about how you were raised, but he still would have loved you. He would not have turned you away, even if you had wanted to continue down the path of an assassin. He would have seen that wasn’t what you wanted, though, and taught you a new way. You would not have had to do it on your own.”

Damian shook his head. “No, I had to prove that I wasn’t what my mother made me. I had to prove I could follow his rules, only then could I present myself as his heir.”

“You wouldn’t have had to prove anything to him.”

He pulled his hand away to trail it against his bracer again. “Perhaps you are right. You knew him better than I. But I did have to prove it to myself.”

She shook her head and wrapped an arm around his shoulders despite him being a head taller and twice as wide. “How?”

“My first kill was on my sixth birthday. I was fifteen when we met and I decided to leave behind the League’s ways in favor of Father’s. It… took me longer than I liked to push through the instincts to kill so on my sixteenth birthday I made an oath. Ten years of saving lives to atone for ten years of taking them. Only if I reached my twenty-sixth birthday without taking another life would I come to Gotham.”

“That is why you’ve come.”

“No, my birthday is still a few months away, but… Jon told me what happened. I realized I was too late so I am here to… I thought if I could never present myself to Father absolved of guilt, I could at least protect the city he devoted himself to since I believed it was now undefended.”

“You did not know about the others,” she chuckled.

“You told me he worked alone,” he growled.

“He did when we last spoke.” She pulled away, tilting her head. “Am I your only source for information?”

“Yes. I did not know if I could trust any other source given his reclusiveness.”

“But I only told you about Batman. What about behind the man under the cowl?”

He slumped back against the couch.

“You do not know who he is,” she said, amusement in her voice.

“Mother always told me I would learn who he was when I’d earned it. The only things I know are that I am his only family and heir. That’s why I asked you to meet me. I wanted to do this properly and cover his responsibilities in and out of the mask, but I can’t do that without knowing who he is. I’d hoped that either you would know or you could help me figure it out.”

She hummed and glanced to the side.

He followed her gaze to see a clock on the wall. It was nearing two in the morning.

Suddenly she hopped to her feet and dragged him up. “You said you are staying at Hotel Belle Monico?”

“Yes, room 3215.”

“Go straight back there and get changed.”

He nodded, figuring she wanted to get some rest. “Alright. I’ll see you later then.”

After getting her confirmation, he climbed up the ropes and did as told. It only took him fifteen minutes to get back to his room and another twenty to change out of his vigilante attire, lock all his gear away, shower, and put on his sleeping clothes. Once that was done he started to debate whether or not to get some sleep or do a bit of research first.

A knock came at his door.

He grabbed the small dagger he kept on him at all times and palmed one of the knives he’d hidden around the room as he approached the door. He peeked through the peephole, then tucked both weapons into his waistband and opened the door.

Cassandra had lost her own suit in favor of a casual teal dress and gold-brown leggings. She frowned as she took him in and started shoving him further into the room before he could say anything. “Get dressed.”

“What’s going on?”

“Clothes.”

Well aware he wasn’t going to get anything out of her, he slipped into the suite's bedroom and changed into some slacks and a polo.

“Good,” she said when he came out, then turned on her heel and left.

He quickly followed after grabbing his wallet and one of the room’s keycards.

“Where are we going?” he asked once they were in the elevator, but she just smiled at him.

The silence continued as they climbed into her car and she drove them through the city. He tried to ask again when they crossed a bridge out of the main city and into a neighborhood filled with mansions and old manors, but she remained tight-lipped until they pulled up to the gate of a larger manor.

She rolled down the window and hit the call button, which was soon answered over the video screen by an older gentleman in a butler’s uniform.

“Ah, hello, Ms. Cain,” the man said in a warm, British accent. “I was told you might make an appearance, but I didn’t think it would be so soon.”

“Hello, Alfred. Should this wait?”

“No, you might as well come in now. They’re all still awake after tonight’s events,” he sighed and the gates began to creak open.

“Sorry,” she said and he waved her off before the screen went dark.

Curiosity itched at Damian, but he stayed quiet as Cassandra drove up to the front door and they climbed out.

Alfred met them at the door. He gave Cassandra a kind smile then turned it to Damian. “Always a pleasure, Ms. Cain. And who is this?”

She looped her arm around one of Damian’s. “An old friend. Alfred, this is Damian Wayne. Damian, this is Alfred Pennyworth.”

He didn’t react to the name, assuming she’d just given him an alias, but the calculating expression on Alfred’s face as he stared at Damian’s had him second-guessing the assumption.

The expression was quickly replaced by a sad smile, however, as the man stepped back to allow them into the manor. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Master Damian.”

“You as well, Mr. Pennyworth.”

“Just Alfred, my boy. Please come in. The others are winding down in the family room.”

“Thank you, Alfred,” Cassandra said, then led Damian into the house by his arm. They went up the main staircase in the entrance hall and into the first door on the left where they found a room inhabited by a group of children.

The oldest were a pair of teenagers sitting on the couch.

The girl was white, but tanned with long blonde hair pulled into a messy braid and dark green eyes. She was thin but muscular and he could see her arms were covered in small scars thanks to her Gotham Sirens tank top. She was cradling a sleeping infant who was wrapped in a Wonder Woman blanket and clutching a stuffed Batman.

The other teen was more androgynous, body hidden under an overly large White Arrow hoodie and Supergirl sweat pants. They were Latine with their skin a pale brown and their eyes a silvery blue. Their hair was black and chin-length. They had a video game controller on their lap and a tablet in their hands.

The next oldest was a preteen boy with a book sitting sideways in an armchair, back against one arm and legs draped over the other. He was fair with freckles speckling his face around his navy eyes. His hair was short and a dark red, almost black color. He was thin and muscular like the girl, but there was a touch of broadness to his shoulders that spoke of a bulkiness to come with puberty. A German Shepherd was squeezed onto the chair with him, half-tucked under the boy's legs with his head on the boy's stomach for pets.

The last child was a few years younger than the preteen. He both had the most conditioned and the least combative build of the children, having more of a gymnast's figure. His skin was of a similar olive tone to Damian’s, though a few shades lighter, and his curly hair was brown-black. Damian couldn’t see his eyes as he was dozing on a rug in front of the tv with a three-legged pitbull puppy, both curled around a large stuffed elephant. A video game controller was abandoned behind the boy.

The three awake children turned to Damian and Cassandra when they entered. They all greeted her warmly, but the girl and boy eyed him warily while the androgynous teen studied him with sharp curiosity.

“Who’s your friend, Cassie?” the boy asked.

Cassandra shoved Damian further into the room. “Your brother.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So last month I made a post asking if anyone had written a story where the Robins' ages were reversed as is the trope, but they still got taken in by Bruce in the same order as well as giving some ideas for how that could work. No one ever got back to me on if that was already a thing so I figured I might as well write out one of the scenes that really caught my interest when brainstorming.

[satan-chillin]

Hereafter (4/7)

Wei Wuxian is sent off of Cloud Recesses, bade by his fathers to “have fun and make friends” which, now that he thinks about it, sounds like a gross oversimplification of what the next six months away from home will entail.

If he happens to form unlikely connections, start a matchmaking, and gets unwittingly involved in the presently strained political state of the cultivation world, those are just par for the course.

Chasing after one of the famed Twin Jades of Lan, however, is an added bonus.

(Or, WWX was sent to Gusu by his fathers Wen Kexing & Zhou Zishu)

Part 2 of Spirited Away Series. Part 1 here.

Also available in Ao3. Hereafter Chapter 1, 2, 3

❆❆❆

Wei Wuxian stumbled, sputtered, and shivered—exactly in that order.

“Lan Zhan, are you alright?!”

The question was apparently unnecessary seeing as Lan Zhan was already standing, unfazed as if they hadn’t been dragged into some—Wei Wuxian’s eyes darted wildly everywhere to take a stock of the white rocky walls—cave underneath a cold spring.

He hauled himself steadily on his feet amidst his heavily drenched clothes weighing him down to the fortunately shallow (but fucking cold brrrr) water. Resolutely, he cleared his throat to hide a cough and another shiver, straightening his appearance as much as he could, sweeping back his wet hair on his now thankfully numb back.

“We’re in a cave,” said Wei Wuxian uselessly. “Ah, do you happen to know the exit?”

Lan Zhan’s mouth remained that firm line before trudging ahead in dismissal. Wei Wuxian followed after him and found that continuous movement helped fend off the chill. After composing himself in silence, he managed to abate the chattering of his teeth and regulated a bit of his internal body heat, a trick he learned young and grew up using in particularly frigid winter nights.

Wei Wuxian paused. Frowning, he reached for his sleeves and found the item he was searching for missing. He had been holding that pouch before falling, hadn’t he?

Oh no.

“Crap.” His voice was loud enough to ring within the cave, halting even Lan Zhan though not exactly turning to look back at his companion to ask. “Wait. Let me go back a bit—the pouch—your ribbon!”

The statement warranted Lan Zhan’s attention this time. Wei Wuxian felt rather sheepish under the stare. Stupid. He was supposed to return it as an apology and then they would go on their merry way and forget Wei Wuxian’s moment of weakness (and stupidity). Resigned and chastised the longer the pointed stare lengthen, he said, “Look, I’m really sorry about what happened. I don’t know if you believe me, but I honestly didn’t know no one’s allowed to touch it.”

Lan Zhan did not blink, and it would have been eerie if he wasn’t doing a great job imitating a magnificent statue carved in jade. The shade of color that stood out the most from him was the gold of his eyes amidst the reflection of what little light there was within the cave walls, like a relic hidden and untouched by time.

Wei Wuxian swallowed down the poetics threatening to spill from his tongue. Not the time.

Wordlessly, Lan Zhan unclenched a closed fist to reveal the familiar pouch and pulled out the ribbon within, blessedly dry, and without breaking eye contact tied it around his forehead before turning his back once more and proceeding ahead.

Wei Wuxian could only blink after him.

… Was that a smile?

His mind must be playing tricks on him, or it could be the cold, come to think of it. It wasn’t hard for him to come to the conclusion that he was indeed still dazed, probably from the rough tumble earlier into this cave and the low temperature, or both, when the next thing he was seeing was rabbits.

Fluffy white bunnies with tiny Lan forehead ribbons. Wei Wuxian wanted to laugh at the absurdity this day was turning.

To be fair, though, those were really cute bunnies with beady eyes that noticed their visitors and sniffed at the ground. Wei Wuxian resisted the urge to gather a bunch of them to cuddle for warmth.

“Lan Zhan,” he called, barely taking his eyes off the little animals that littered the narrow outcropping to the side. “Are you seeing what I’m—”

Wei Wuxian collided with what felt like an invisible force that slammed him back to the water. Indignantly, he rose, hacking out water. “Oh, come on!”

While Lan Zhan didn’t appear to be worried, he was equally confused between the white guqin that was simply sitting there, unassuming, and Wei Wuxian waddling through the water.

He had seen it the second time, a strike that came from a single, resounding note that went from behind Lan Zhan and straight to Wei Wuxian as if it knew he was an offender—and damn if he didn’t terribly regret not having Suibian or at least his fan to counter that. His reflex kicked in, diving narrowly to the shallow surface and twisting.

The next one followed immediately as he was about to pivot his heel and maneuver toward the dry ground. This one, however, did not reach him in time, Lan Zhan’s blade effectively blocking the assault.

Wei Wuxian figured that it was a protective measure of some sort, and whatever this cave was, it was clearly guarding something. Interestingly, it didn’t care enough to throw Lan Zhan out despite the fact that the two of them were technically intruders, recognizing that he wasn’t an outsider like Wei Wuxian was.

Sharply, he glanced back at the harmless rabbits that were seemingly imitating Lan disciples with their snowy fur and little forehead ribbons that, now that Wei Wuxian realized, could only be seen among the inner disciples of the Lan Sect. He was yet to get an explanation why that silk ribbon was too much of a big deal to be considered sacred, although...

Hold on.

“Lan Zhan! You’ll probably hate me for this, and I swear I’m sorry in advance, but unless you want me to die, you’re going to have to let me touch that ribbon again!”

For a split second, Wei Wuxian had an ugly feeling that Lan Zhan actually wanted to be rid of him permanently, and, oh, his cold-hearted muse, a beguiling, unsmiling—

Lan Zhan was on his side in the next beat, the silk ribbon coiled around his and Wei Wuxian’s forearm. The cloth was pulled taut between them, a mere couple of inches that Wei Wuxian was certain he could close with a strong tug.

He raised an eyebrow, lips pursing into a quirk at the edges. “Thank you.”

In lieu of ignoring Wei Wuxian’s eyes and slight grin, Lan Zhan stared at the guqin and led the way back to where he had been. Still a little mesmerized, Wei Wuxian was going to pretend that Lan Zhan’s pace wasn’t slow for his sake.

“I wonder what kind of treasure this is,” he said, humming appreciatively at the craftsmanship of the instrument in ivory and the delicate engraving of patterns, “that it’s not letting strangers near it.”

“Don’t touch it,” Lan Zhan warned needlessly as if Wei Wuxian would dare lay his wet hand on a fine creation. “This instrument is hard to obtain and has magical value. It knows how to target people with a different family name using Chord Assassination.”

Well, damn, that was the longest he’d heard from Lan Zhan. Also, Chord Assassination? Wasn’t that the one Lan Qiren mentioned in one of his lectures an ultimate move passed down from generation to generation in the Lan Sect?

“One of Lan Sect’s heirlooms then?” Though he wondered why hide this exquisite instrument when it could be displayed; why the magical protection for this thing alone? “Hm. Can we investigate?”

“Don’t touch it,” came the same warning. “You’ll be disrespecting my ancestor’s possession.”

“Fine. How are we supposed to investigate it without touching it?”

Lan Zhan moved around and to the other side of the guqin, sitting. Wei Wuxian decided to situate himself next to the instrument, watching raptly at the long fingers that tuned the strings, a pale hue of qi danced across the surface where he touched.

Wei Wuxian was aware that Lan Sect’s expertise lay in musical cultivation, and he had to admit that there was something enrapturing to observe a Lan performing it even if what Lan Zhan was doing was one of the basic aspects of it.

He did not recall closing his eyes, though when he next opened them, Lan Zhan was pointedly looking at the spot where Wei Wuxian sat. Consciously, he stood, patting nonexistent dirt away from the instrument.

Then the notes came, a response to Lan Zhan’s playing. A flash of what must be a surprise lit Lan Zhan’s features.

“It’s her.”

“Who?”

From the walls, there echoed a sudden noise of a hundred thundering steps, of multiple voices clamoring at once. They were both on high alert in an instant upon hearing the recitation of the names of the five major clans. Lan Zhan withdrew his sword, and Wei Wuxian, subconsciously, positioned himself a step in front of him.

There were loud chants of killing a holy mountain and destroying the Stygian metal, of demands for a Xue Chonghai to give up the said Stygian metal. The yells alone were enough to determine that the five major clans were to attack a clan of this Xue Chonghai.

“What is Stygian metal?”

“I’ve never heard of it,” Lan Zhan admitted.

The noise settled into a deafening silence before a clear and gentle feminine voice said: “Stygian metal is cursed. It’s best not to talk about it.”

At the place Lan Zhan previously occupied, a woman in blue of the shade of skies sat down, her face serene and timeless, not a hair out of place as she regarded them.

Lan Zhan went to his knees, bowing deeply, the gesture pulling Wei Wuxian down with him. “Gusu Lan Sect disciple, Lan Zhan, greets Elder Lan Yi.”

Wei Wuxian paid the same respects, almost floundering doing so. “Four Seasons Sect disciple, Wei Ying, greets Elder Lan Yi.”

At him, Lan Yi said, “You came a long way.”

Wei Wuxian was tempted to ask how in the world did she know and if that meant his fathers’ sect could be traced as far back as the ones in the cultivation world. He held his tongue, observing her quite taken with a rabbit that had wandered over to her. She stroked its fur fondly, and for a moment Wei Wuxian could believe that she wasn’t an elder of centuries old.

“Elder, do you raise those rabbits?” he asked.

“Yes. To keep me company,” she answered. “My magic has waned over the years,” she said evenly. “They love to play so they frequently run outside.”

“Elder, they said you passed away years ago,” said Lan Zhan. “Why...”

“Is it related to the Stygian metal?” Wei Wuxian could gather as much from what they’d heard.

A flicker crossed her face, akin to a disturbed surface of perfectly tranquil water. “It is the biggest mistake of my life. Because of it, I’ve used all of my spiritual energy as the price for suppressing the Stygian iron.”

On her palm, she produced an old piece of chipped metal, tarnished but not rusted. This must be the Stygian metal, and Wei Wuxian’s mind raced with questions upon questions and settling for two.

“What’s up with this metal? And the yelling earlier, where do they come from?”

“Since it has been unsealed, my psyche, along with my magical powers, weakens day by day,” she said. “And then you two came. It must be fate.”

Lan Yi spoke of a few hundred years back, when the Stygian metal hadn’t been broken into pieces, and what was presently named Yiling Burial Mounds was then called a holy mountain. She mentioned Xue Chonghai who had been the most powerful advisor to the emperor, and how the facts had been muddled by time as to why he had wielded the Stygian metal to absorb resentment and used human beings as sacrifices. With the Stygian metal, he had controlled a notorious beast known as the Tortoise of Slaughter. Formidable, Xue Chonghai slaughtered cultivators of various sects, both big and small.

“The five major sects,” Wei Wuxian began. “They banded together to bring him down.”

“Indeed. It cost a lot of lives, and the Yiling holy mountain became the Burial Mounds for the fallen.”

“Elder, where was the Stygian metal after that?” Lan Zhan asked.

“It absorbed numerous living beings’ spiritual awareness, and all the resentment couldn’t be contained.”

“The metal was capable of spirit consumption?” Wei Wuxian asked in disbelief.

He’d read of theories and the subjects that encompassed spiritualism, and he would wager that not all the scholars who scribed and penned those in old books and dusty scrolls had seen half of what they’d written in practice, one of those about how a spirit could transform into its own awareness that was capable of destroying either itself or another, or capable to growing itself by multitudes through absorption or consumption.

“The Stygian metal was originally a national treasure that could absorb nature’s natural aura,” Lan Yi said. “Xue Chonghai used that ability to absorb living beings’ awareness and cultivators’ spirit essence, and because of this the resentment completely polluted the metal and can never be cleansed. The closest to suppression the five greatest clans managed was to divide the metal into pieces, stored in four locations where the spiritual vein is in abundance in four cardinal locations. To prevent the same mistake of Xue Chonghai, it was agreed not to pass the knowledge of Stygian iron to any of the future descendants.”

“Forgive me for speaking directly, Elder, but using the logic of absorption, why not absorb instead the opposite of resentment, an amount that can overwhelm the resentment within? And the iron must have its limits too for it’s not a pocket of unlimited space to contain everything there is. Why not stuff it full of resentment until it cannot contain all in itself? It doesn’t have to be the living; the dead or beasts, like the Nie Sect’s way of cultivation. Or—or what if we utilize the resentment within the metal? It won’t be like Xue Chonghai if we—”

“Wei Ying!” exclaimed Lan Zhan. In truth, his volume hardly rose a level, but it was as much of a sound of incredulity at what Wei Wuxian was saying.

She shook her head. “What Young Master Wei said was exactly what I had in mind then. The folly of youth is arrogance and the inexplicable need to prove oneself.” She turned wistful. “As the first female sect leader who wants prestige for her sect and to prove them wrong, I carried those follies through the years and pursued the Stygian iron. It was futile, in the end.” Lan Yi smiled ruefully. “Baoshan Sanren was right.”

Wei Wuxian jolted. “B-Baoshan Sanren?”

“She was a good friend, and she tried to stop me. I’m a fool for not listening.” Her eyes were distant, regretful. “I thought I could enlighten it on my own but merely ended up unsealing the iron. Once unsealed, it couldn’t be reversed. Now here I am in Han Tan Cave, unable to leave after I used my psyche instead. I might not have passed away all those years ago, but I’ve been fading away since then.”

A slow death and dying alone. Wei Wuxian couldn’t think of anything worse.

“What happened to my grandmaster?” he asked quietly.

“Grandmaster?”

Wei Wuxian nodded. “My mother, Cangse Sanren, was a disciple of Baoshan Sanren. She lived with her master and came down from her mountain. She met my biological father afterward and had me.”

“I didn’t know.” Lan Yi stared at him in wonder. “Who would have thought that Baoshan Sanren would take a disciple? We were both young back then, and last I heard of her she went to seclusion. I was… ashamed to seek her.”

“Elder, I have a question,” Lan Zhan spoke. “Are you the one who brought us here?”

“No, not with my weakening state, but I suspect that it’s the Stygian metal. It has been restless since the past decade when the other pieces resurfaced.”

Wei Wuxian shared a look with Lan Zhan. Someone was aiming to be another Xue Chonghai, and it didn’t bode well for their generation and the next.

“The pieces must be gathered together to seal the iron once more.” Her lips pursed. “Only then will the resentment quieten, and hopefully will be laid to rest here forever, frozen in this cave.”

Lan Zhan clasped his hands in front of him, kneeling. “As a descendant of Gusu Lan Sect, Lan Zhan vows to fulfill this obligation to Elder Lan Yi.”

Wei Wuxian imitated the gesture, much to Lan Zhan’s surprise. “Wei Ying of the Four Seasons sect vows to accomplish this with Lan Zhan.”

“This is a matter of the Gusu Lan alone,” Lan Zhan protested.

“I might be from a different sect, from somewhere far away from here, but it doesn’t mean I’ll stand by when there’s potential harm to many. I might have been raised in jianghu, but my fathers raised me to care for the lives of others,” he declared, glancing briefly at Elder Lan Yi and noticing her soft gaze at them. “Besides, Elder is right. Maybe it is fate that brought us here.”

Personally, Wei Wuxian hadn’t been a believer of fate for it only happened to him once: his baba finding him in that terrible snowstorm, way before Sect Leader Jiang or even death itself found him. He felt the tight grip of Lan Zhan’s silk ribbon against his forearm, connecting him to his owner.

Perhaps this, too, was fate.

❆❆❆

Lan Yi’s fading was inevitable, though for it to happen in front of his eyes brought a disquiet in Wei Wuxian’s stomach. What was left of her spiritual essence exploded into blue fireflies, enchanting and separating into several little lights that would never come together again to form a whole.

They stumbled past an egress that magically appeared on a wall, with Lan Zhan half-dragging him out like he was eager to set out as soon as possible to find the remaining pieces of the Stygian iron.

Heh. He probably was.

Completely forgetting being tied to Lan Zhan, Wei Wuxian misjudged a step, foot tangling with Lan Zhan’s, throwing them both together on the rocky dry ground.

“Well,” began Wei Wuxian, grinning down coquettishly, after finding himself on top of an alarmed Lan Zhan. “This is a nice end to our escapade, Lan-er-gongzi.”

It would be forever etched in his mind, that adorable shade of scarlet.

[glazelilyy]

quick trigger warning/content warning for people with emetophobia, i will be mentioning the word v*mit once

hi luce!! (am i allowed to call you this)

OK so um, about my original character: dendro archon!reader reminds me of her is mostly because of her special ability, which i will get to at the end,,,

it started with a thought. what if there was another more accurate way to teleport (because god knows how far a sepcific spot can be sometimes), and then i remembered about ley lines, and how they supposedly have ‘roots’ that run to every corner of Teyvat.

imagine if someone can directly utilize those ley lines to travel instantaneously from one place to another. i haven't decided whether what species she should be; i wanted her to be an adeptus at first, one that didn't need a dendro vision—her ancestors just had a natural talent to teleport using ley lines; but it wouldn't match her occupation as a courier/mail deliverer, who delivers stuff all over Teyvat, not just limited to Liyue.

another reason is because i just really want to see more dendro visions kxjskdnsnnzjsn. the ley lines take the form of plants, no? it’d be a missed opportunity. (besides being an adeptus or human, forest nymph crossed my mind but that seems more out of place,,, idk)

there are limits to this, though—if the ley line runs under buildings or paved roads, she can't go there because the way her powers work is to grow a special flower that can directly connect to the ley lines. another identical one on the final destination will sprout: that's how she’s able to be precise with where she’ll end up. it’s important she does this, or she could get trapped within the ley line flow.

she also can't go to places with ley line disorders— she tried to once, and she ended up in a completely different place and vomitted from terrible nausea.

anyway i think that's all for now! i don't wanna bother you with too much rambling, however i need your honest opinion:

does she sound,,, believable? as in, she doesn't look too out of place in Teyvat’s lore??

- mushroom anon

(for those that don't know, emetophobia = phobia of vomiting)

OOOH after digesting this info and reading it over a bunch, i offer you my very mismatched thoughts because my brain is small LOL

(you're absolutely allowed to call me luce! everyone is hehe :>)

you know, i've always been sort of confused about the properties of ley lines (especially in spiral, all i did was hack n slash with kaeya and hope for the best PFBFBT) but your explanation actually helped me understand the game's lore better, so thanks!! :D

your oc is really interesting!! i can see her being a disciple of the dendro archon themself given that one must have potent power to be able to form life itself and travel through it. but the idea of an adeptus or forest nymph are really cool to explore as well!! the dendro adeptus could be someone who survived because they didn't accumulate any karmic debt that corrupted their soul (since dendro seems to be primarily used for healing and buffs i believe). and a forest nymph isn't far outside the realm of genshin's world given that we have a literal plot of land in a frickin teapot LOL (and we have mystical creatures like the bake-danuki in the game already!)

her occupation as a courier/mail carrier is so frickin smart!! she's famous for her speedy delivery and no one knows how she does it! :D i can also see her selling information and traveling using the ley lines on the down low to avoid a physical footpath for people to follow and ambush her :D

(you're not bothering me at all!! i love hearing about ocs, especially with how creative they tend to be!!)

though my opinion shouldn't matter (because she's a really awesome oc!!), i will still give it because im in love with this concept: she absolutely fits into teyvat's lore!! dendro is a power we have yet to know much about but your ideas are actually sound in genshin's logic and make sense!

thank you for sharing this with me, i really enjoyed reading about your oc!! (do you have any drawings/picrews for her? or perhaps a name? :D)

[relenaonice]

Ready Player One

Chu Wanning didn’t exactly know how he got into VR games, let alone ASMR ones.

Just, one day, after a bad break up, he saw a VR headset through a shop window, thought he could do with an outlet to vent about his actually-very-shitty life, and he bought it.

He had never been an impulse buyer but he hadn’t thought of asking the clerk for advice either, so after browsing fruitlessly through the online store, he still had no idea about which game would suit him the best.

He yielded and decided on playing soothing videos for the time being, at least VR should make the experience much more immersive. He had trouble sleeping, so he had recently gotten into ASMR videos: some days it was cooking videos, others guqin music or someone whispering as they read a book. As long as they let him relieve stress and distracted him from unpleasant thoughts, everything went.

It was then that he saw the ad for “Sisheng Peak’s Novelties”, the ‘best ASMR VR game out there’, according to the reviews on the net.

It was a Chinese online platform with a xianxia setting. People could choose between different routes, e.g. they could start out as disciples and grow into full-fledged cultivators as they unlocked all kinds of achievements in a highly relaxing haven. Everything was reworked so that each task and adventure was so very therapeutic and recreational. Chu Wanning looked at lots of walkthrough videos for this game and found it was simply perfect. Everything was neat, organized and thought for maximum enjoyment.

You could cook in Mengpo Hall, meditate in Yanluo Hall, plant flowers in the Red Lotus Pavillion, do some body training in the Mountain of Dagger and Sea of Flames or be rewarded for your accomplishments in the Platform of Sin and Virtue. Everything was accompanied by background music: every player could choose among a vast catalog and organize the songs in a playlist.It could be ASMR music, nature sounds or whatever they wanted to listen to at the moment.

If he had one complaint it was for the naming sense of the developers. Like, the Aaaaaaaaah peak (which, why? But you could learn to fly there, so… he guessed it made sense) or how some of the names didn’t exactly evoke peacefulness. But well, as long as it didn’t impede enjoyment, he didn’t really care. He could get used to the eccentricity of meditating in a place called ‘Yanluo Hall’, and exercising in a Mountain of Dagger and Sea of Flames.

He bought from the online store the starting package and set an account. He could choose his avatar appearance and his own name of course, but an option to randomize this features also existed, so to produce minimum stress in the account. He thought about it for a while, as he browsed through the options available. There were human avatars at every stage of life, creatures and even animals, or he could use a scan of his own face to customize his outward appearance.

In the end he settled for human form, adult stage of life, not customized after him. He chose long silky hair and white clothes and as a name, Yuheng. It wasn’t what he looked like but it was a good rendition of himself and his aloof character. As a matter of fact it would have been a waste of good looks on him to choose a lovable appearance if he couldn’t match it with a lovable character. He drove away the negative thoughts about himself and hurried to start the game.

He decided early on to avoid the disciple route and to become one of the elders. In order to play that route, he had to create a routine that encompassed teaching some classes (he just had to choose some subjects and the system would make it a viable choice for those who were on the disciple route), training, meditating, eating and occasionally repairing the barrier in the Ghost Zone behind the Mountain that hosted Sisheng Peak.

This way he wouldn’t need to leave Sisheng Peak for missions at all: he’d have all the time to explore the area as he hunted for relax. This sounded perfect for him.

—

In time Chu Wanning found a passion for what passed in the game as “mechanics”: there were sets he could put together that didn’t quite work as puzzles, they were more like sequences he had memorized that he could exercise everyday without thinking too much about them and worked well as a stress-relieving activity.

He also loved the Red Lotus Pavillion so much that he cleared all the missions related to it and moved inside a house he unlocked there on a lotus lake. He would mute the background music and listen to the sounds the wind and the rain made against the water. It was quiet and there were no disturbances, no noises and no one to answer to.

Eventually he got addicted to making some dish he could find on the menu in Mengpo Hall, a sweet variation on wontons that had haitang flowers as a filling (which he was not sure was edible at all, but he liked the ending result enough not to question things). The wontons had a rosy pink tint on them and they looked lovely on the plates.

As a plus, if you headed to Mengpo hall early enough in the morning there was also this snack item you could find in limited numbers that had the shape of a flower and it tasted really good. Everyday it would give the player different goods and he liked the element of surprise.

Chu Wanning liked indulging in all these little things.

Then, on a Sunday morning, as Chu Wanning logged expectantly into his account, everything suddenly changed.

—

Something was very wrong with his line of vision.

All around him other players were running around and Chu Wanning had to distressingly raise his chin to look at their faces. Some people were messily shouting something through the voice chat filters, superimposing each other. What even—

“We were hacked!”

Chu Wanning paled. He opened the settings in a hurry and had a quick look. All his progress on the game was still there, but he now had the appearance of a child and he couldn’t reverse the change!

He quickly changed passwords and logged out.

Not knowing what to do, he logged in again and tried changing the settings again to no avail, so he wrote to support and included some screenshots of everything that was altered without his consent. In the meantime he opened the general chat and tried fishing for information, which wasn’t helpful at all but at least calmed him down.

When the support’s answer came in, it was an automated message with a short notice added in, which said that they were aware of the hack, that the team was working on it, that the platform was now safe but it would take time to reverse some of the changes, so they advised to have patience and ignore the issue in the meantime.

Chu Wanning took a look at ‘Xia Sini’, five years old, and choked.

—

So, Xia Sini, ‘scare to death’. Ahah, the hackers were so NOT funny. Since there was no real damage done to the platform, then someone just thought it would be fun to make a mess of a place with people in search of a safe haven. So messed up.

He needed to unwind and since the platform was still functioning, why not use it? Xia Sini could still serve his purpose, there was no reason to make a fuss. He was set on the disciple route, so this was his opportunity to try something new.

He headed for Mengpo Hall hoping to find his favorite item of the day; there he saw some dog sniffing around the pantry but he gave it no mind as he reached for the last snack item available.

Just to have the dog bite into the packet at the same time as him.

Please no. Just let me have this. Chu Wanning pulled firmly on his side of the packet hoping to snatch it from the beast, which in turn growled and shook it vehemently with his fangs.

“Leave it!”

The dog—a husky, snarled. Chu Wanning was tiny in this form and the dog was almost as tall as him. Nevertheless, he had no intention to give up. This was not a real dog, this was a person that had no qualms stealing from children.

He had to do something.

Chu Wanning liked to think of himself as a man of integrity, even his real life appearance being one to elicit dread and respect in those who surrounded him. But in this place he could do as he pleased, appearances be damned. What lay behind the disguise didn’t matter, whatever mistakes he made because of his pride to end up here, didn’t matter.

So Chu Wanning, 35 yo, burst into tears.

The dog froze, the packet still half into his mouth, while the child in front of him started wailing very very loudly. Big fat tears were sliding down his face endlessly, like a downpour.

Chu Wanning didn’t remember ever crying like that, not even when his parents died. Maybe it’s that he needed to, that he unconsciously regrets not doing so. Maybe he was hurt more than he liked by the whole break up thing and that’s why he ended up here, broken, but still willing to heal.

The husky let go of the packet and inched closer, all the while emitting a low whine. They rubbed their muzzle against his cheeks and licked at his tears.

Chu Wanning broke into hiccups and raised a hand to rub that soft head. That caused the dog to rise up their ears, rear up on their hind legs and lean their front paws on the child’s shoulders while wagging their tail madly and licking his face.

“Stay down, down!”

A low whine followed as the dog let go of Chu Wanning, turned, took the snack and left it at his feet.

Chu Wanning turned a little red but he still picked it up in the end.

“You want half?”

The husky barked excitedly, so Chu Wanning opened the snack item, tore it into half and gave it to the dog, who ate it from his little hand.

“You’re a player character right?”

Another enthusiastic bark. Oh my, he really made a fool of himself in front of a stranger. And he was actually licked by this same person, yay.

“You’re like that because of the hack.”

A loud bark followed by a whine. That was a mortified ‘yes’ if he ever knew one.

“So you can’t talk at all? You’re going to bark until they reverse the changes?”

A whine. Wow, they sure got it way worse than him.

“Did you try looking into the forums? Maybe there’s an option buried somewhere.”

The husky raised their ears and twirled in excitement while panting. Seems like they didn’t think to check.

“Okay, I’ll help you sort through them, give me a minute. You’re new to the platform?”

One single decisive woof. New, then.

“I’ve got you. Wait here.”

Chu Wanning’s entire line of reasoning rested on the basis that barking all the time must be too stressful to the player for there not to be a way to communicate freely if they ever needed to. As it turned out, he was pretty spot on: there’s an option but it might not be selectable after the hacking. There was no alternative other than to try.

When he came to, the husky was sitting obediently wagging their tail and by their side lay the item of the day. They pushed it towards Chu Wanning with their snout, as a sign of gratitude. It was a mechanical piece, to go with the pieces he had already collected.

“Can I really have this?”

As an answer, the giant dog licked his face again.

“Stop it!”, exclaimed, while cleaning the drool off his face with a sleeve, “I found you a way to be able to speak, but it uses some kind of filter, so I warn you, it’s not ideal.”

But the husky erupted into a howl and started jumping and twirling around. Okay, it doesn’t matter then, it seemed. Chu Wanning promptly told them what to do and then waited for the dog to exit their suspension status.

When the dog opened their eyes, a distorted male voice coughed through and said:

“—I swear those hackers are dead meat. Wait, do you hear me now?”

Then, before Chu Wanning could answer, the voice filter kicked in: “…woof, woof!”

An absurdly cartoonish ‘woof’ by all standards too. That was like a chihuahua barking.

The husky looked at him with sheer horror in his eyes. Long seconds of silence stretched on and Chu Wanning… He couldn’t help but cover his face with both his hands and try to suppress the laughters.

“THE FUCK WAS THAT??? Woof, woof.”

The mortified dog kept howling and whining, probably too embarrassed to speak again if every sentence had to be followed by a woof. Chu Wanning couldn’t help but laugh. It wasn’t graceful and he felt shame in that. But behind Xia Sini’s appearance he felt safe to do as he wanted, so he had let it all out and that felt… liberating.

“I heard you, loud and clear.”

An offended bark made its way back to him.

“As I was saying the voice filter is annoying but it can’t be removed. At least you can talk now.”

The husky opened his jaws and closed them a few times, before steeling himself and replying sorrowfully under his breath:

“At what price though, woof, woof.”

—

In the end they stuck together. Taxian-jun, which was what the dog was randomly renamed to after the hacking, agreed on showing him the disciple route, that he never got to play since he started.

“The best missions are the ones you can find down to the city. Also, it’s best to stock up on your XPs before heading out. Is that okay for you? Woof, woof.”

Chu Wanning had never been outside Sisheng Peak. He emitted a low ‘mh’ while lost in thought. He was definitely interested, he really had wanted to try taking on a mission outside. Taxian-jun led him to the stairs and they started to go down by foot, since as a dog he couldn’t hold a sword and Xia Sini after a session of flying lessons on the Aaaaaaaaah peak decided it wasn’t for him.

“How do you replenish your XPs?”

“By eating, woof, woof.”

“We could have done that at Mengpo Hall.”

“There are better places. I have enough coins for two, let me treat you since this is a first for you, woof woof.”

Chu Wanning’s cheeks warmed up in embarrassment.

“Mh.”

The city was really lively. There were a lot of player characters but the background music had a soft and lively tone to it that ensured the crowding wouldn’t get too overwhelming. Taxian-jun dragged him to a food stall not far from the main square and there he ordered soup for two.

“Make it mild for me, I can’t stand spice.”

The husky’s gaze turned sharp for a moment, before saying so to the vendor. The soup was ready in a few minutes and it was really delicious, nothing to do with the austere version available for free at Mengpo Hall.

“It’s good.”

“Told you. Whoever came up with this game knew how to soothe even your taste buds, woof, woof.”

Taxian-jun had his own bowl placed on the ground and lapping at it, he made a mess of it. Chu Wanning turned up his nose at the sight and took a step back. Such a disgraceful way of eating, he hadn’t seen it in awhile. Some memories started flooding into his brain and he forcefully repressed them. It wasn’t the right timing to get depressed.

“Where are we getting our mission from?”

“In the main square there’s a board, you’ll see. There you can choose which one you like best and reserve it so that no one else can take it. There’s difficult and easy ones both, woof, woof.”

“Then I want to try one that’s difficult.”

The husky looked at him with disbelief.

“That depends on the amount of training you got done in Sisheng Peak, let me check, woof, woof.”

Taxian-jun put his muzzle against Chu Wanning’s raised palm and unlocked his stats.

“Wow, you mentioned that you were here much longer than me, woof, woof.”

The hackers had not erased the progress players had made in the game nor their stats but still his current height wasn’t ideal. He had no reach even with a weapon, so he could rely only on magic in case of emergency. He had a companion though: he had someone to watch his back, a giant dog at that, so yeah, that was nice.

On the board there were all kinds of missions, difficulty stated by the number of stars on the notice.

“What do you think about this one, woof woof.”

It was three stars out of five and they had to retrieve a magical flower from a cave. It was a good quest. But Chu Wanning snatched another one and showed it to the husky.

“This one.”

It had four stars and they had to search for a child. Her mother had lost sight of her in Butterfly Town and since then there had been no signs of her.

“You sure? For an ASMR VR game it’s pretty ruthless in how fast you can fail missions. Once failed it becomes available to other players and you have to spend some time training in Sisheng Peak before you can venture out again. Woof, woof.”

“I want to do it.”

After that Taxian-jun said nothing else. He reserved the mission and they were equipped by the system with all the necessary for the travel.

Luckily the town wasn’t as far away as he thought. In order to make the game realistic it could take a while to reach the outer regions but thankfully this wasn’t the case. Once there, they started asking around and unlocking achievements one after another, until they obtained a reliable info on where the lost girl could be. Apparently she was reported to be kidnapped by some forest spirits and locked up in the mountains. No one had been able to free her because the way up was riddled with traps.

They had been prepping for the hike when Taxian-jun stopped him.

“Are you okay? You’ve been kind of tense since you saw the notice for this mission, woof, woof.”

The husky was looking at him with a dark penetrating look, and Chu Wanning thought it was impressive how on the money his perceptions were. He knew of no one by his side that had ever been able to glean what’s under the surface. That’s how impassive he usually was.

Chu Wanning sighed. It was too late anyway to start on the next part of their quest; they had been gaming for the last several hours and it was time to stop. Tomorrow was a work day and he had to sleep at least a little. So he sat down and actually tried answering his question.

“It’s stupid, really. But if you want to know, my parents died when I was that girl’s age. I guess this tiny form is finally getting to me.”

“That’s tough, man. Is that why you’re playing this game? If I read you right, you’re not a gamer, you’re more the type that’s got a reason to be here, right? Woof, woof.”

“That’s not it.”

It came out bluntly, like a warning. Taxian-jun looked at him attentively, while staying a bit on the defense. He was sitting far away from him, watching his every move.

“You know, I asked because I’ve also got a reason to play this game. I just thought you were the same as me, woof, woof.”

Chu Wanning softened.

He really liked this person.

“Can you play tomorrow in the evening?”

“Yeah, I can make it. See you tomorrow then? Woof, woof”

“See you.”

Chu Wanning quickly disconnected the device and pulled his head out of the headset. He rested with his head on the chair looking at the ceiling for a long time, too many feelings in his chest to discern them all.

—

When Chu Wanning logged in again, Taxian-jun had already begun clearing the surrounding area of all the traps. Some of them must have got him and his fur was bloodied on his right side but that didn’t seem to deter him much.

“You should have waited for me”, reprimanded Chu Wanning, to which the dog replied under his breath: “Yeah, leave it all to the runt, what could go wrong, woof, woof.”

Annoyed, Chu Wanning whipped out Tianwen, his divine weapon, and got rid of some spirits about to ambush them.

“WHAT? Where the fuck did you find that now?! Woof, woof.”

“Some cultivators getting back to Sisheng Peak found it while on a mission but couldn’t get it to work. Apparently they didn’t have the right stats and the weapon deemed them unworthy.”

“You’ve got luck on your side, you know that, right? That’s rare. Woof, woof.”

“I know. There’s only another one like it, it’s red and no one has unearthed it yet.”

The husky grumbled something like “That you know”, before getting back to clear out the area once again.

By the end of the gaming session, they had fought their way up to the top of the mountain and found the caged girl. The story behind it was actually impressive: as it turned out she had not been kidnapped at all, she had been locking herself up in a cage in order to protect her adoptive mother, since she discovered she was only half human and feared cultivators would go after her mother in order to imprison her. So, the girl had been pretending to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace of her existence; she couldn’t imagine her mother would get indebted in order to publish a notice on the city board and hire actual cultivators in order to find her. All the other players attempting this mission had actually been terminated by her.

Chu Wanning had been tearing up a little and Taxian-jun had noticed this. But Chu Wanning didn’t care, he was just glad this had a happy ending. After fighting her, since she was a spirit, she entered a contract with them, so that she wouldn’t have to worry anymore about cultivators seeking after her mother. She was a powerful weapon, so she definitely was worth the trip and all the difficulties they had encountered on the way.

“Let’s do it again.”

Taxian-jun, who was just a step away from dying of blood loss, looked at Xia Sini like he had betrayed him.

“You’ve got no right to say that, half of these injuries were me trying to protect your sorry ass! Woof, woof.”

“Oh? Were they?”, he said, while coyly looking at him through lowered lashes.

That reaction must have taken him by surprise, because Taxian-jun stared at him a beat longer than what was appropriate. Embarrassed, Chu Wanning lowered his gaze, pretending to have not noticed, when he heard the giant dog talk as if lost in thought.

“You… really remind me of someone. But at the same time you don’t. And it’s painful to me when you do, but when you do resemble them, I’m really happy too. Woof, woof.”

Chu Wanning knew those feelings well. They threatened to swallow him up if he wasn’t careful, if the lid on the box wasn’t properly sealed shut. He couldn’t sleep anymore because they were always lurking in the shadows, ready to clasp him and drown him. It hurt.

“You know, it’s really hard taking you seriously when everything you say is followed by a woof.”

This seemed enough to spite Taxian-jun out of his trance.

“Remind me, why do I even bother with you? Woof, woof.”

“Oh wait, wait, now I get it, you were talking about your master just now!”

“You deserve nothing, man, nothing! Woof, woof.”

He turned around and made to leave, when Chu Wanning called out to him once again.

“You know, I get how you feel. I get it. I was abandoned too, so that’s why I ended up here, you were right to assume that.”

“But even if it hurts, I’m still happy I came here. That I feel I can open up to someone, that I’m on the same page with them, that I don’t have to feel inferior, all that is new to me. But it’s thanks to you that I can feel this way. It’s all you.”

“So, please, let’s do it again, gege.”

Taxian-jun didn’t say anything for a very long time. Then, he just walked towards Chu Wanning, put his muzzle on his shoulder and whined until he felt better. In return Chu Wanning hugged that soft head and pet it, again and again.

—

The next day, Chu Wanning was actually looking forward to meet again with the husky. At work he botched some of his tasks and then called it a day a little early: it had been months since the last time he had felt so alive.

On the way home he looked at the notifications on his smartphone and although he usually felt a pang in his heart at how barren it was now, today it didn’t matter. Sure, people still wrote to him but that wasn’t really the point. Since the break-up he had found himself empty and useless, like something worn and thrown away.

Today though, it felt different. He had expectations. He hurried through the entrance door, undressed, found something comfortable to wear and turned on the headset. They had decided on taking on another quest, so they had to wait for one another at the city board. Chu Wanning had wanted to arrive a little early to have the time to peruse through all the notices, curious about what Taxian-jun had to say about them.

He wanted to know more about him. He had an easygoing attitude that Chu Wanning really liked about him. But at the same time, he wasn’t cool in the slightest, all mopey as he was about someone leaving him behind. He was just like Chu Wanning, human.

His ex wasn’t like that. His ex was beautiful and perfect, and not the type of person one would want to break up with. Chu Wanning had always orbited around him like a moth to a very bright light: it was always bound to end and it was a given that his ex would be the one to do it. But when it finally happened, Chu Wanning had felt betrayed. One part of him had always hoped they could work it out.

But they couldn’t and soon his ex had had enough.

Chu Wanning hadn’t even thought of asking him why. His head had been empty and the only thought swirling in his mind was: ‘you knew this day would come to pass’. So in the end he had just asked him to leave him alone.

The notices present on the board were all very varied and Chu Wanning really liked one set in the outer regions, the poorest and the most dangerous. This game was at its core an ASMR experience but it was also a video game, so if the players wanted an adventure, that they would get.

Taxian-jun finally joined him and Chu Wanning immediately showed him the mission that caught his eye. They were discussing the merits of it when a red banner invaded their sight with the words:

【 System notice: the effects of the hack have been reversed, please log out to allow for the recovery of the account 】

Chu Wanning pressed ‘OK’ and looked in the direction of Taxian-jun.

“Well, it seems like neither of us will have to suffer my barking anymore, woof, woof.”

“It suited you. It wasn’t that annoying.”

“Well, same, you know? I can’t imagine you like an adult. All this cuteness wasted, what a pity. Woof, woof.”

Taxian-jun hadn’t even finished talking that Chu Wanning had already drawn Tianwen out, ready to strike.

“I’m joking, what the hell! Let’s log out, all right? Woof, woof.”

Saying that, he entered suspension mode and then vanished. Chu Wanning sighed and did the same. When he logged in again, he found his line of vision was turned to normal. He checked his settings and yeah, everything was exactly like he left it: dark long hair, phoenix eyes and white dress, the Yuheng elder was back at it again.

He quickly resumed the game and found a man standing in Taxian-jun’s place. He turned and saw a youth in a high ponytail, blue robes and…

“Mo Ran?”

Chu Wanning couldn’t breathe.

It was his ex. Taxian-jun was his ex. He must have customized the avatar on his physical appearance, because he was a perfect carbon copy.

“How do you know…”

The man was confused for a moment, then it seemed like he connected the dots because his expression changed to one of desolation as he murmured: “Wanning.”

“Chu Wanning.”, he corrected him. ‘Why do you always do this’, he told himself.

So unnecessary.

Chu Wanning couldn’t stay there. No wonder he had liked Taxian-jun so much, how could he have been so blind? No, he knew exactly why: he had wanted Mo Ran back by his side so badly, that he had chosen to ignore the obvious. That, and the avatar the hackers randomized for him had a voice filter on, or he would have noticed.

“Wait, let’s talk—”

Chu Wanning logged out and took his head out of the headset.

He couldn’t do this. To think he had started looking forward to this, that this game was really working miracles for his anxiety and now he had not many options left beside stopping using it.

Chu Wanning lay against the backrest of his chair.

Mo Ran had his heart broken by someone he loved that had rejected him. This knowledge both angered and surprised him. When did it happen? Is that why Mo Ran left? He had been cheating on him? Or maybe it was after. This embittered him even more, so quick to fall in love with the right person.

He couldn’t imagine anyone rejecting Mo Ran, he was perfect. Even the way he had left him was fitting, given the way their relationship developed. They had jumped into it without too much of a care and it had ended the same way.

His smartphone started ringing. Wary, Chu Wanning reached for it and, yeah, it was Mo Ran. Chu Wanning panicked and didn’t answer.

Half an hour later, it rang a second time. Mo Ran, again. Chu Wanning didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to talk about it, there was nothing to talk about! It was just an unfortunate coincidence, right? So in the end he answered.

“I am on the street outside your house.”

Chu Wanning threw himself against the windows and here he was. He was wearing such unflattering clothes, a stark contrast from the person he knew then. He must have rushed to take his car in order to be here so soon.

“I don’t… There’s nothing to talk about, just forget about it.”

He heard Mo Ran inhale sharply.

“So you weren’t talking about me in the game. I guess you can love and open up to anyone as long as that person isn’t me.”

Chu Wanning scoffed.

“What?”

“I didn’t even know your parents died!”

“What does that have to do with it? Why are you even talking about this now!”

“Wanning, who were you talking about in the game?”

He sounded angry.

“W-who were you talking about?”

“I was talking about you! Who else?!”

What?

“But you left me.”

Chu Wanning was dumbfounded.

“Hell yeah, I left you! You didn’t tell me anything, you were a wall and when I tried telling you I felt alone you even told me I was free to seek others!”

“I meant your friends! I thought you were asking me for some space! Also, I didn’t word it like that. I wasn’t asking you to break up!”

“Space? But we barely saw each other! What—Please, can we talk? Can you come down?”

Chu Wanning was frozen. Mo Ran was implying he loved him. This was absurd.

Mo Ran had really been talking about him all the while though.

“I… was talking about you too.”

Mo Ran let out a trembling breath.

“Wanning, you told me you felt you were inferior, that we weren’t on the same page. Is that true?”

“…”

“Wanning, please.”

“I’m coming down.”

“Good.”

Chu Wanning could feel the warmth in his voice. He liked that.

“You didn’t fall in love with someone else then.”

“How could I? Have you even seen yourself?”

Chu Wanning, that had just closed the entrance door and was heading down, tripped on his feet. At this pace, he wasn’t guaranteed to arrive safe and sound.

“But you’re beautiful.”

“So are you.”

“You’re easygoing.”

“Yes, but you’re kind.”

“…I’m going to miss you as a husky.”

Mo Ran laughed. What a nice sound.

“You tell me, Xia Sini was a cuteness overload. When you called me gege you nearly broke me.”

“I was supposed to be five.”

“You were not, though. And when you broke into tears after we fought for the snack, I was so agitated. To think you could cry like that. Unbelievable.”

“I’m human too.”

“Yeah, I noticed. You cried when we saved the girl too. You being so emotional while still reminding me so much of ‘you’ was painful but it gave me hope too. If you could open up to me, maybe it wasn’t me the reason the adult you couldn’t love me. That made me accept myself. It soothed me.”

Chu Wanning turned red. He hurt him so much. He was almost out in the street but he had no face to say as such to Mo Ran. He was afraid. Even if they got together again, all those months of pain and distrust would not be easy to overcome. His anxiety would project every sort of scenario where Mo Ran could leave him again and flare it up into blown-up terror and rejection.

Still, he liked him. He had loved him since the first time he had smiled at him. If Mo Ran came to hate him one day, he could always think back to this moment, when he thought he was hated but instead he was so loved.

He steeled his nerves and came out into the street.

“Wanning.”, he heard and for one moment he saw a very soft and good boy barreling into his arms. He was not so different from his furry companion, he thought. How did it miss that about Mo Ran? He was so much about a dog, so loyal, so hopelessly waiting for him to look and pet him. He wasn’t perfect at all.

Chu Wanning really really liked him.

—

“Cover me on that side!”

“There’s too many enemies, I can’t!”

“Don’t worry, just do it!”

Chu Wanning did as he was asked and saw Mo Ran summoning a new weapon.

It was a red Tianwen.

“Jiangui!” he called, and with a single lash he cleared his exposed side of all the enemies.

After the battle ended, Chu Wanning grabbed both Jiangui and Tianwen, freaked out of his mind about the unexpected development.

“How, when!”

Mo Ran was sheepishly scratching his head.

“I won it on a raffle when I first arrived. One chance in one thousand.”

What. He was gobsmacked.

“You were SO lucky.”

“Yeah, I was. But one chance in a thousand is still… roughly ten times the chance I had of running into you here. So, you see, I’m VERY lucky.”

Chu Wanning flushed red and lowered his lashes.

Smiling, Mo Ran took his face into his palms and kissed him silly, until he couldn’t take it anymore.

[makoto-nanami]

Miraculous Rewrite: Origins Part 1 (Chapter 1)

Hi, this will be my first Miraculous fan fiction, while I love the show, I most definitely have my gripes with it, how they treat their characters is something that infuriates me, and while this fic may get salty sometimes, I do love the characters, it’s just because of the status quo that the writers are instant on maintaining, they can’t grow or act sometimes completely out of character. So I’ve decided to have a try at writing a fic with my own OC in, to act as the voice of reason when Marinette starts going overboard/borderline cringy or when Adrien is a innocent baby who doesn't understand the world or when he thinks it’s okay to have a tantrum or flirt with ladybug. I’ll be following the episodes, so they won’t be too different, just told from a different perspective. Again I apologise in later chapters if I seem too have ingested a ton of salt, but know if I salt on a character I plan to resolve it at the end of the episode. I hope you enjoy!

- Also, if anyone could suggest which tags this needs because I blanked when I tagged this... (-_-’)

Origins Part 1 - Chapter 1

Many millennia ago, concepts of life were born, however, these beings realised they had too much power, a power that could easily be abused. So, they gathered to a kind human who had chosen to live in isolation from the rest of his kind and protect the world when needed, a bestowed their blessings in hopes that the human would help them. The human was confused by the seemingly god-like beings’ request, how could they trust a lowly human such as himself, a coward who turned his back on the rest of the world after witnessing the corruption such power brought to his brethren? These gods simple smiled upon this man and said you are no hero, you are no villain, you are simply an observer, a helper, someone who despite his hate to the world, chose to protect it in its time of need.

So, the man heeded their call, creating magic jewels embedding them with extraordinary blessings from these gods, the Kwami, binding them to the jewels restricting their powers. These were… the Miraculous.

Throughout history, heroes have used these jewels for the good of humanity. However, The Creator of the Miraculous realised, that two of these jewels were more powerful than the other despite his efforts of balance; the earrings of the Ladybug, which provided creation; and the ring of the Black Cat, which granted the power of destruction. The Creator knew that whoever controlled both blessings would achieve absolute power, a power that the Kwami had feared would be manipulated with malicious intent. After realising his mistake, The Creator promised that no matter what, he would observe the Miraculous, personally in their times of use, as he could not stop humanities tragedy on his own; leaving the Jewels with his disciples allowing them to distribute when humanity cried out in suffering.

However, no one can live forever without a cost. Many have tried, all of them have failed with various degrees of success. Immortality is a fickle thing. Wishing for eternal youth, cursed to never grow, burying loved ones and always begging for an end to your torment. The Creator had witnessed this, one of his many mistakes, one he most definitely wanted to learn from. So, he wished to be reincarnated, to watch the miraculous in humanities time of need. Unfortunately, souls and memories of humans are just as fickle as the body. While he would reincarnate he would inherit the life his successor, cursed to watch as the loved ones drift away, fade and die, cursed to watch with red eyes.

But that’s just a silly story my mother would tell me as a child. She would tell me how maybe I could be the next reincarnation of this strange man; I’d laugh when she would tell me that. Then suddenly out of the blue; I started having strange thoughts, dreams of another time, voices of people crying out for help. My mother, Evangeline, a woman who raised me, a woman who while not connected to me in blood, still cared for me as if her own, one day told me this story again, this time… I did not laugh, I cried. I looked at my mother; realised… she had not aged a single day since the day I had met her all those years ago, she smiled and told me I was ready. She told me of her friend who trained to protect the Miraculous and how she housed and protected him in his early days after the temple was destroyed. She then explained how it was time for me to fulfil my promise to the world and how I would be going to Paris, France to work with her friend to protect the Miraculous.

Why though? It wasn’t my responsibility; I never made any promise to the world! All I wanted to be was slightly successful, hanging out with friends and working towards achieving my dreams as a P.I! I never wanted this! But as I was on the plane to Paris, I couldn’t deny it… I felt the pull of that man’s promise; I won’t give in though, no matter what I will not be that man! I will observe but I will not change myself, I will not become him, not while I still have my dreams of friendship and life.

Once in Paris, I find myself outside of a massage shop… this looks shady. Why the hell would Eva send me to a massage parlour? Well, I need to figure out what’s going on and figure out my living accommodations, so might as well bite the bullet on this shady place.

Knock-knock.

The door opened at the force of my knock; that’s some security for world-ending jewels. I make my way into the shop and spot an old man meditating… this is just getting weirder. As I’m about to announce myself, he speaks. “Welcome, Young Creator.” He opened his eyes, widening as he took in my appearance. “Well… this was not what I was suspecting at all.” Rude. “But worry not, come and I shall explain the gaps in your memory.”

“Excuse me, but I am not that man, obviously. I am my own person, while I intend on helping him fulfil his promise… I have no intention of becoming him.”

“But…”

“I’ll help you but know that I am not him.”

He stared at me considering my words before gesturing for me to sit down. I sit as he pours green tea into cups.

“I understand. Now allow me to introduce myself, I am Wang Fu, Evangeline has told me a lot about you.”

“Likewise. However, I am a little confused about the situation here in Paris. There is no media mention of any Miraculous holders, so obviously neither the Ladybug nor Black Cat is in circulation as the powers they hold are less than subtle when used, so why am I here?”

“I see, you are correct in your deduction of the state of the Miraculous’, however, you were drawn to Paris, correct? We believe that that pull indicates humanities potential ruin. As soon as you started to have visions of the past, Evangeline contacted me, I was already here in Paris so we decided it may be best to let you settle in and learn about your role and responsibilities hopefully before the path to ruin forms. Of course, due to your age as well, we have been forced to enrol you in a local school high school.”

I blanched at this, having already graduated from a high school for the gifted where it wasn’t considered strange for children to skip grades depending on their academic standing. Great… just freaking fantastic… Fu looks at me as if looking for my opinion, I simply sigh and shrug, excepting my fate, begrudgingly.

“So… Where exactly will I be living? I mean, not to be rude or anything, but this shop/apartment isn’t exactly big.”

“Yes, my home is only so big, and I already have a littler of picky roommates. Evangeline and I have decided to let you stay at her old home while she lived in Paris many years ago. She assured me that it would be to your tastes and it isn’t too far from your new school.”

Eva’s old home? I kinda worried now, she’s the sort of person who loves antiques and old dollies, sure she grew out of it when she adopted me but if this is her ‘old’ home… It’s not exactly a place I want to be, surrounded by creepy dolls and old stuff, at least I didn’t have to pay rent… wait…

“What about money? If I live alone, won’t I have to buy food and stuff?”

“Ah yes, Evangeline told me, that while she is more than happy to supply money for food and essentials, it will be sent to an account that will record what you buy, she stressed that I tell you that money is for essentials only.”

“Sounds like Eva… did she mention anything else?”

“Oh, she told me to give you this note when you asked about money.” He hands me a small note.

-       If you want games, junk, comics/books, anything not essential… GET A JOB!

-       Love you, Eva!

Yup… that’s definitely Eva. I laugh weakly, thinking who would hire a 13-year-old kid for more than a paper-round. Suddenly a flash of green whizzed around the room, I instinctively tensed ready to defend myself but quickly feeling foolish, seeing a green Turtle like creature.

“Wayzz…” I find myself muttering, having no idea of where the name came from… perhaps one of his memories.

“Master, Master! Master, the Moth Miraculous, I felt its aura!” Wait, what?

“I thought it had been lost forever!” He lost a Miraculous?! What?!

“But Master, it’s a negative aura. I fear it may have gotten into the hands of a dark power!” Oh just great!

“We must find Nooroo and his Miraculous. If it has gotten into the wrong hands, it means the path to ruin has formed and there’s no telling what evil will come to the world!” He stands raising his fist hand to the ceiling, a green turtle shell charm bracelet reviling itself. I find myself stammering.

“Hh-hey wait a sec- “

“Time to transform! Wayzz- Hack!” He doubles over in pain. If I wasn’t so confused, I’d find this almost comical… almost. Wayzz floats over to him almost exasperated.

“Please Master. Be reasonable. You are- “

“Still young! I’m only 186.” Only?! Then again, I just found out the woman who raised me is an immortal child, so what do I know. “But you’re right, Wayzz. Young One, I can no longer do it alone, it is time… We’ll need some help.” He walks over to the gramophone and revealing a box with symbols I somehow knew all too well, a box that housed the most powerful jewels in the world, the Miraculous.

As we roam the streets of Paris, I notice a school. Other kids making their way inside, chatting about their summer vacation. I feel myself dread at the idea of enrolling during the second year, everyone already knows each other, it’s gonna feel weird, dammit. We get to a crossing and I see a short navy haired girl rush out of the bakery across the street with a box in her hands, as I am about to dismiss her from my thoughts, Fu started to walk forward acting frail and old despite the light still being red for pedestrians. “Hey, wait!”

“Uuuhhaawh?!” The girl rushed out and grabs him by the hand, taking him to the other side of the street, dropping the box in the process. The light changes and I rush over, noticing people stepping on the baked goods that fell out the box.

“Thank you, miss. Oh! What a disaster.” Yeah, I wonder who’s fault that is, old man. I pick the box up and hand her it back.

“Sorry about your macarons, he just walked into the road suddenly.”

“Don’t worry, I’m no stranger to disasters, besides, there are still a few left. Would you like one?” She said kindly, offering the box to pick one out. Fu reached out and took one before eating it.

“Mmmh. Delicious! Do you attend Françoise Dupont? My friend’s child here is enrolling today for the second-year class.” Wait, what’s he doing?

“Oh really? Welcome to Dupont then! Do you know which class you’ll be in?”

“Erm, I believe Miss Bustier’s class?”

“Same here! Would you like me to show you the way?”

“Oh no, there’s no nee- “

“Oh thank you, it’s reassuring that this little one will have such a friendly face in class.” What the hell old man!? As if reading my thoughts, he looked at me innocently. “After all, it’s normal for a child to attend the first day of school, right?” Ack… he goddamned planned this! I don’t know how but he definitely planned this! Aren’t I supposed to help you find the holders for the Miraculous, Fu? Again, he simply smiles as he looks at me. “I’ll inform you of my progress when school finishes.”

“Oh no, we’re gonna be late! Ah, have a nice day, sir! Come on!” She cries as she pulls me along. “Oh, how rude! I don’t think I’ve asked your name!”

“My name? Oh, it’s Alice.”

“Alice, eh? Nice to meet you, and I must say, what lovely red eyes you have!”

[eliotquillon]

mark walden and politics in h.i.v.e

as you probably all know by now (thanks to the j.k rowling fiasco), art and politics are inherently linked; whether it’s intentional or not, it’s difficult to extricate an author’s beliefs from the way they manifist in literature. and with that in mind, let’s talk about politics in h.i.v.e.

h.i.v.e is a series that has never exactly shied away from criticising the politics of the year each book was published in, and you can probably see this best in the character of matt ronson, who is the most obvious stand in for mitt romney that i’ve ever seen in my entire life. romney was running against obama in the 2012 election, and, coincidentally enough, matt ronson appears in deadlock, which was published in 2013 (and almost certainly written during 2012). in case you’ve repressed the events of deadlock (which i wouldn’t blame you for lmao), ronson’s a senior member of the disciples - he’s actually head of an entire cell - and is running for president in order to secure the disciples’ control over the united states. it’s not exactly subtle imagery. it’s definitely the boldest walden gets in terms of critiquing the state of late 00s-early 2010s politics, and is also the example that i think is easiest to pick up on, because of how similar ronson and romney’s names are, and how in-your-face the whole scene is. i mean, otto leaves ronson to die in a plane pre-programmed to crash in the middle of the ocean because when raven tells him that a bullet would’ve been quicker, his response is, quote, “too quick.” for further proof, if you check walden’s twitter, he’s pretty positive towards obama on the whole, which i imagine is why he decided to kill off obama’s presidential challenger.

but that’s not the first time politics gets infused in h.i.v.e. the first time - the one that actually serves as the catalyst for, well, everything - is otto deposing the prime minister by making him moon the nation on live television. book 1 was published in 2006; this was when tony blair was prime minister in the uk. if you’re unfamiliar with uk politics, blair is pretty harshly criticised on both sides of the political spectrum for his role in the iraq war/the 2008 financial crash (although he resigned and appointed gordon brown as his successor in 2007), and the fact that he created ‘new labour’, a movement which pushed the predominantly working class, leftist labour party further towards the ‘moderate centre’ in an attempt to capture more of the middle class vote as opposed to labour’s traditional post-industrial ‘northern heartlands’. the prime minister that otto deposes is blair, or at least a stand in for him; i’ll give proof below.

the important thing is that otto decides to get rid of the prime minister because st. sebastian’s is closing down, and st. sebastian’s is closing down because of the prime minister’s childcare reforms that result in, quote, “the restructuring of local childcare provision.” whether or not st. sebastian being closed would’ve been an overal net positive or not is debatable (otto mentions that the building was starting to become “genuinely unsafe”), but if you don’t know much about blair, he was BIG on restructuring, especially in london, where st sebastian’s is located, and something in particular that blair was fond of was giving more powers to local councils (essentially, shifting the uk to more of a federal system than a centralised one). you’ve probably already guessed, but yep, the letter that announces st. sebastian’s is closing comes from the local council. it’s also mentioned that the childcare reforms have “the prime minister’s personal backing”, and, yep, childcare budgets and early years spending increased exponentially under blair (he even renamed the department of education to the department of children, schools, and families, which was promptly renamed AGAIN once labour left office, but that’s a rant for another day). there’s also the fact that otto goes to brighton for the prime minister’s party conference - this is where the labour party conference is held, whereas the conservative party conference alternates between birmingham and manchester. finally, in zero hour (published in 2010) it’s mentioned that the prime minister resigned and that his party lost in the next general election - this is exactly what happened to blair and new labour after the financial crash. of course, this evidence is very circumstantial, but i don’t think that this is a coincidence, and, anyway, i struggle to see how walden could’ve been more explicit in implying that this is blair without facing parental backlash.

now onto the political commentary; i’ve already mentioned how everyone hates blair, and walden is no exception. the statement that otto makes the prime minister is absolutely damning. it’s too long for me to copy and paste the entire thing (i say, when this post is going to be ridiculously long anyway), but here are some highlights: “we hold you and your families in nothing but the deepest contempt”, “i don’t think that we get enough credit for having to put up with your constant whining”, “half of you can barely read or write, and the way the education system’s going, that’s not going to change any time soon”, “we don’t care” “all we care about is power and money”, “shut your mouths and cut the moaning, because we don’t give a monkey’s.” i think it’s pretty safe to say that this is not exactly positive. personally, i think that the “moaning” and “whining” walden refers to here is a reference to the anti-war protests about the us/uk invasion of iraq, and there were complaints about the scrapping of grammar schools/“dumbing down” of the GCSE qualifications (regardless of whether or not that was intentional) across the board for years both before and after blair got into power. but whichever way you look at it, this is not a glowing representation of blair. and if you look on walden’s twitter (again), he tends to retweet a lot from michael rosen and owen jones, both prominent labour members who are very staunchly anti blair and anti ‘new labour’.

also, while searching walden’s twitter for blair references, i also came across this 2019 tweet:

where, as you can see, he shares an anecdote about how his old house used to be next to an army range and that his neighbour told him that military helicopters were often “flown by a 21 year old with a hangover”. and, like, i’m not saying that that’s the inspiration for 13 year old laura being able to hack a military base so she could spy on her classmates, but i’m totally saying that.

anyway, there’s one more political figure i want to cover here, and that’s duncan cavendish, aka the prime minister in zero hour. anyway: duncan cavendish is former conservative prime minister david cameron (notice the identical initials). i did actually ask walden about this on twitter, and he said he ‘couldn’t possibly comment’, which imo most likely means that he’s unable to confirm because of contractual reasons. but anyway: zero hour was published in 2010, the year of the election which put the conservatives (for clarity’s sake, i’m going to be referring to them as tories for the rest of this post) back into power for the first time in 13 years (albeit in a coalition with the centrist libdem party), meaning that it was written in 2009 when cameron was party leader, and after the 2008 crash. i don’t think walden knew for sure that cameron would come to power (after all, in zero hour it’s stated that cavendish’s party won by a landslide, whereas the actual 2010 election resulted in ‘hung parliament’), but it wasn’t exactly a hard guess to make that labour would lose after the events of 2007/8 and their record in iraq.

something that particularly sticks out to me is cavendish thanking nero for switching him from the polfi stream to the alpha stream - in real life, cameron has an a level in economics, and studied philosophy, politics, and economics at oxford and his father is also a stockbroker, all aspects which certainly scream polfi to me. personally, i think this was a dig at cameron’s fairly elitist background, and the fact that he’s historically been seen as an opportunist rather than a real leader. also, cameron was once approached in the former soviet union by two men he suspected were KGB agents trying to recruit him, and i’m not saying that walden used this connection when linking cavendish to pietor furan and the disciples, but....yeah. there’s also the fact that nero references cavendish’s academic record of going to an elite boys’ school being fudged, and, yeah, cameron attended eton (he also got suspended for smoking cannabis, which is just. a lot to think about for a man who helped push through legislation that further penalised cannabis users). again, on twitter walden has been extremely outspoken against the tories in general, specifically about brexit, the referendum for which occurred under cameron’s government. also walden kind of predicted the future: in zero hour, cavendish is blackmailed by nero into resigning. in real life, cameron resigned the whip (left both his post and the tory party as an MP) in 2016 after the uk voted to leave the eu. obviously that’s not proof of anything but it just makes me laugh.

those are the specific figures - now let’s talk more about walden’s general ideologies. he’s very anti-gun on twitter, and this obviously links to wing and his refusal to wield guns/shoot people; wing’s arguably the most staunchly moral character in the series, which i don’t think is a coincidence. walden bashed mass surveillance by having otto abhor (and later destroy) echelon; echelon is actually a real international government project that was originally designed for military surveillance but later branched out into greater mass surveillance (also, fun fact! i only live about an hour’s drive from an echelon radome base, so i hope my mi5 agent is enjoying this post). we see walden criticise mass surveillance again with the existence of the artemis project (and also the disciples’ use of facial recognition software), and while i have no idea whether or not that’s real, i think everyone knows that there are multiple international coalitions devoted to gathering and sharing data on world citizens (google the nine eyes partnership if you want to give yourself a bit of a crisis). walden has reposted a picture that says ‘make orwell fiction again’ on twitter, so it’s pretty clear where he stands on that. in general, walden is left wing, and that shows in his books - while i’ve corroborated all of my assumptions here with evidence i found on walden’s twitter, i came to most of these conclusions on my own just from reading the source material.

and this is why i’m only 90% joking when i talk about walden lagging behind on book 9 because there’s so many different things he needs to satirize. the global stage has changed dramatically since deadlock’s publication, and if walden’s passionate about critiquing those in power, he’s got a lot of content to choose from - trump, obviously, but also boris johnson and theresa may over on this side of the pond (and he really, really hates johnson). h.i.v.e as a story is inherently political, and not just because of the more obvious “morally grey villains” trope. walden uses his fictional world to critique the real-life authority figures in control, and does so while keeping it subtle enough so as to not tip off most casual readers. overall, it’s pretty impressive.

[unik0rnu]

Page 6, Enterprise

(re-written)

As the night already fell upon Nuka Town the duo decided to delay the first trip till morning and give the new Overboss much needed sleep. But with the patio windows broken and exposing the whole area she just couldn’t relax. After turning around way too many times, side to side, she jumped out of bed pulling the knife from under the pillow and walked to the Porter’s room.

- Hey...listen. She looked from behind the wall to make sure she is not disturbing the raider and to her relief he wasn’t sleeping yet either, sitting at the table and tapping buttons on the terminal.

- Ye, Boss? He turned his curious eye to her.

- Do you mind swapping beds for few nights? I just...can’t sleep in the open like that. Makes me nervous. She approached him with crossed arms, looking at the him and then at terminal.

- Seriously? You prefer to sleep here, in my shithole? He shat down the terminal, screen blacking out.

- Yes. She sighted. - Fuckin, please?

- Okay okay, u don’t have to ask like that. Just don’t dig around my shiet, Boss. He stood up, grabbing his rifle and left towards the patio.

- Thanks. She whispered and waited till the she could hear the door closing behind him in the hallway before giving terminal another look. - Hm....he even knows how to use them, i wonder for what tho....

She couldn’t resist the temptation and sat down at the table, turning the screen back on. She looked over the panel, noticing some buttons with a small scratch on them and hacked herself in after few tries. Numerous messages showed up, old ones from Colter but also few from other leaders. The one on the top appeared coming straight from Mags the same day. Lucy spotted a pack of cigarettes opened next to her and snatched one. Upon lighting it she paused as the note started showing up lines, mentioning her and the vault.

- Ekhem. Gage grunted low, leaning on the wall, not precisely happy with her current occupation at his table, smoking his cigarettes.

- I took just one, i swear. She left the smoke in the ashtray and stood up from the table, turning off the screen.

- Nosey type, are you Boss? He smirked at her and walked to the table, pushing the button again and looking at what she was reading. - Look, Boss. We also need to know what we deal with, which is well, you. You don’t look like anyone else who walked here and with your....uhm posture. Of course folks got curious what’s the freaking deal with ya. He handed her the smoke back. - Since you took it already, might as well finish it.

- I have to be aware of my surroundings too Gage. Trust was a luxury for me, before the war. I mean....She scratched the back of her neck avoiding his look nor continuing onward.

- So Mags and her suspicions were right. You are from the fucking vault, hell from before the world went to shit. His eye opened wide, looking at her and waiting to share a bit more.

- World was shit even before, believe me. Now its just more...dirty and no one gives a damn bout politics since guns are answer to every problem. She pulled out her lighter and flickered a fire towards him as he took out a cigarette as well.

- And what was your position before, Boss? You mentioned you ran with some gang. He looked down at her, curiously.

- I was just a private tool of some important criminal figure back then. Gathering data...killing some people on a way but the pay was good and since justice proved to be blind and corrupted i found my place there, eventually. She shrugged her arms and finished the smoke, crashing it in the astray placed next to him on the table. - That’s all you need to know for now. What about you, Gage? What is it that you are trying to play behind my back and Colter’s before?

- What ya mean, Boss? He raised the eyebrow.

- Don’t play me a fool. I heard things, he didn’t want to be a leader, you talked him into it and when it longer suited you, you got rid of him. You want also to treat me like a puppet attached to your strings? To be thrown away later when i slip away? I know a lot about being in someone’s grip, ohh trust me. She squinted her eyes at him.

- Fuck, look. I’ve been in this raider shit for a long time but i went through a lot of crap too. People always pissed on my advices, trying to make the gangs something more than just bunch of drugged, stupid savages and in the end i was the one always ending up with a gun to my head. I want to survive just like everyone in this shit but i want to be smarter bout it, if ya know what i mean. He released a cloud of smoke her way, sighting.

- And how that approach goes with trusting each other in the end? She shook the smoke cloud away from her face.

- We don’t have to trust each other. We just need to do the job and keep our heads on the fuckin neck. And then count the caps, Boss. He crashed the cigarette in ashtray with his thumb.

- Sounds familiar...she whispered.

- Then it might be easier to do if it sounds so, Boss. Get ya rest, tomorrow we head out, at last. He snatched the pack of smokes from the table. - Also i’m takin it before you steal all of em. Lucy kept her word this time and went straight to bed as the raider disappeared in the patio.

----

- So where should we head out first? Lucy asked as she was strolling towards the exit, early morning with Gage by her side.

- It’s your call afte rall but i think, Bottling Plant would be the best first strike. They both fastened their steps once on disciples territory.

- Why? She asked.

- Mirelurks...if we let them nest there any longer their numbers will only fuckin grow. Gage handed her a pistol with a fairly long muzzle. - Also take it, you can’t go on everything here with just a freaking knife, Boss.

- Fair enough. She took a pistol and pushed it behind the belt.

As they were walking through the desert land, covered thickly in dry tall grass, surrounded by just old, silent music of the pre-war park Gage could feel a bit of tension in the air as they weren’t talking almost at all.

- I don’t like to talk much myself Boss but...that will soon feel awkward even for me. He pointed out.

She looked up at him and shook her head. - I just ain’t used with much company since...you know. And i would rather be focused for now that....

- That we don’t trust each other, yet. Okay, Boss.

As they arrived to the park the glow of the river almost blinded them, the blue quantum tone shining in the air, raising from the fluid flowing out of the tunnel.

- That’s gonna be..sticky, ugh. Lucy left the sound of disgust as they stepped into the cola river and headed inside the tunnel.

- I sure ain’t pushing a boat for that sweet ass of yours. She looked at him with her mouth half open but decided to just leave that comment behind.

- I have one more question Gage, before we go fishing for crabs. She stepped up on a small garbage lump mixed with mud, shaking her leg off the cola. - You have like hundred of raiders there, why only the two of us is taking care of it?

- Because they already took their part before, in taking the Nuka Town. I cannot decide which park will belong to whom, they hate me for now, i told ya and if you leave that decision to them...well, there will be half less raiders and hell of a more problems to fix. He explained brushing off some droplets that landed on his cheek.

Suddenly the lump started to move beneath Lucy and mirelurk raised from underneath it with her still trying to hold herself on top of it.

-Shit. Raider fed it a few bullets, more than he expected, in a face before its pincers would cut them both. Upon falling Lucy got thrown away to the river.

- Fuck, ughh. She appeared shortly, standing up all wet, her skin glowing from the concentration of quantum and hair sticking to her face. Gage couldn’t hide his smirk as they carefully moved onward. - Let’s leave questions for later, Boss eh? She agreed.

They were ripping through the mirelurks onward, Lucy swiftly approaching them, shoving the knife under their protective shells in a soft meaty structure, Gage face looking more and more annoyed from a guide voice and glow of nuka cola. Walking through the water was also more tiring for the legs so as they arrived to the staircase leading towards the generator room they didn’t hesitate to force open it. They got welcomed by something more dangerous than a pair of pincers clacking in their faces. A red bright beam of laser pushed them apart to the door frame as it welcomed them upon entering.

- Fuckin assaultron. Gage armor was hissing from the heat it caught from the laser, releasing a thin cloud of smoke into the air.

- No time for chit chat. Lucy didn’t hesitate with taking action, approaching fast the machine and shoving the blade into its eye. She jumped back as it started to spin around, waving its claws, reaching her wrist in the process and throwing her to the ground.  -Fuck, take it off me!

Gage didn’t hesitate either, shoving bullets at it on a way and kicking the robot off her. They bashed it together till it was no longer showing any signs of movement. - Thanks, Gage. She checked her lower arm for any wounds.

- Don’t mention it Boss, we are partners after all in that small fight of ours. She looked at him, her expression softened.  

- Lets see what’s down there and then clean the rest.

-----

The generator was pumping quantum so much they could barely look at it, bright, almost toxic for any human gaze. They stumbled upon a small camp, or at least what it looked like with remains of it.

- Gunners, again. It must be part of that patrol i heard about on a station. Lucy searched the bodies, finding some notes and ammunition, more advanced than what raiders currently had.

- There is more of them coming here? Gage asked.

- Yes, they wanted to come with the last train but i ruined their trip. She smiled under her nose and handed him some of the ammunition.

- Good call, Boss. We managed to push them back on some old bridge but since then they just duck there. Now i know why.

- They wait for reinforcements from outside, to push again. They nodded at each other and started heading back.

- We will take take of them before that happens. Fuckin gunners, always sitting like a goddamn pin under our asses. Gage growled softly, under his nose and looked at Lucy as she stopped at the terminal near the generator.

- Just give me a sec. I want to see what that button does. She leaned and tapped some buttons on the keyboard.

- Big red buttons never do anything good, Boss. Gage joked and watched her working.

- This one indeed might not to anything good, but only for the rest out there. She pushed the button with her fist, nearby metallic door forcefully opened with an impact revealing a red-white massive set of power armor.

- Holy shit. Gage whistled, almost tempted to jump right in and kick some ass.

- Cmon, get in. It looks like it still has some power. Lucy jumped to see if the core spot was still filled with something. Gage grinned at her idea, opening the structure and hoping right in. - Now let’s crack us some seafood, Boss.

-----

Gage ran and slammed the door open along with a mirelurk, leading to the outside parking of the building. As Lucy was trying to catch up with him the signal appeared on her pipboy and a message. It was Institute with their sudden directions in the current place.

She leaned on her knees to catch a breath as she finally caught up with Gage outside. - Go check the upstairs, i will make sure there are no more eggs around that pond and make sure the queen never arrived here.

- Alright, Boss, just be careful. Gage nodded and headed up, stomping heavily onto the metallic structure of the bridge. As Lucy made sure he is out the sight she slam kicked some eggs laying around the water, stepping slowly in, with her pipboy stretched forward, weird red beam of light seemed to scan the surface, screen showing a progress bar. As it finished she stepped out in a rush, still not sure if its fully safe but after a few seconds another confirmation message poped up, with directions for the reward drop spot. - That was easy. She smiled and ran back up to join Gage and give him half the news.

- Porter was laughing, stomping onto the big lizard body, smashing it into a paste in a process. He did enjoy his time in a suit, indeed.

- We are lucky, there is no queen. Was....that last of them? She pointed at the mix of scales and guts splattered around, raising her brow.

- Looks like it Boss. Now for the last part of this job. He stepped out of the power armor and handed her three pieces of rough looking cloth pieces. - This is your decision and only your Boss to whom you give that territory.  

- A flag? Really? That’s what’s gonna keep em away from beating each other for it? She looked over them, symbols of each painted in a decent, artistic manner.

- Surprising i know, but it will. They are still simple fuckers so these rules works for their dumbass heads. He pointed towards the tall pole. - Pick one and show them we mean business this time, get things moving at last. He patted her back as she turned away.

Lucy walked towards the pole, shuffling the flags in her hands and trying to decide on one. As the Operators showed the most promise to her and Lizzie gave her a hand on a gear she chose them as the first gang to get the hands on fresh piece of land. She attached the cloth to the rope and pulled it vigorously, Gage was smiling in the back.

- Done. That should turn away all these doubtful looks. At least from the Mags boys, and there still might be some caps around, its a fuckin factory after all. She handed him the rest two flags back and looked at the armor. - Does it still have some power to take it back with us?

- Not much but it should make it to the Fizztop. Gage walked up to her, his eye gazing on her in a calm manner. - Good job, Boss. I can’t believe we actually fuckin doin it.

- You did most the fighting for now Gage. She looked up at him.

- But you filled the missing cogwheel we needed here, to get us moving. Hope ya wanna keep it up like that, Boss. It looked almost weird seeing a soft smile appearing on this rough face of his, showing up a feeling of missing promise he wanted so much to deliver.

- Since i didn’t trip on your leg to my “accidental” death yet i guess we are good. She joked and smiled back at him for a second and looked away towards the power armor. - Now how about you give me ride back?    

[barbaricjester]

So... Yeah. The epilogue. I haven't read it. After seeing people's reactions, I don't want to read it. Fuck Hussie.

I'm making my own ending. A happy ending. Here's how it's gonna be for me:

Davekat is Canon. They're married and in love. They're gay and dumb and work through their trauma together.

Rose and Kanaya love each other very much. They spent months putting their house together, and it was promptly messed up by grubs. They couldn't be happier.

John isn't alone. His dad is back. He helps his sister in her garden. They grow the biggest pumpkin ever and call it their child. They cry together when it rots and make a grave for it. Every year, Dadbert bakes a cake to commemorate the pumpkin.

Everyone is alive and well and happy, ancestors included, minus Condy. They'd somehow been pulled from the bubbles. The Grand Highblood has chilled out. He delights in teaching the humans about Alternian history.

Their civilization is growing, but slowly. They refuse to make the same mistakes their worlds did. Every detail is thought out, to make sure everything is fair. Everyone has food, and shelter, and love. Maybe they're not happy all the time, but they're there to help each other.

Dirk and Jake reconcile their past. Maybe they'll get back together, maybe they won't. They're taking it a day at a time.

Roxy has become the badass bisexual aunt we all want. She and Jane help the Porrims in the nursery.

Eridan and Cronus find their passion for magic again. They buy those diy kits meant for wrigglers. But you know what? They have fun.

Damara and Rufioh are cool now, especially after seeing Aradia and Tavros hanging out.

Gamzee is... Better. He's broken and afraid and won't leave his house, but Karkat, Kurloz, GHB, and others come to check on him daily. He's recovering.

Sollux is back on his hacking shenanigans. Eridan makes sure to remind him to eat every day.

Tavros is delighted to see Summoner and will sit with him for hours, listening to his stories. Summoner himself is over the moon, glad to have his Mindfang back.

Nepeta and Equius are still morails. They also help with the grubs, but Equius is too scared to hold them. Instead, he works on making devices and toys for grubs to play with. Darkleer and Disciple try out being morails, too, upon seeing the relationship they have.

The Pyropes deal with most of the law making and justice. They also cause the most chaos.

Feferi and Meenah are working on plans to make a school. Many of the Ancestors have already volunteered to be teachers.

Vriska is back! She's on house arrest until they decide what to do with her. She runs a DND group from her hive, which Mindfang and Arenea join.

Dualscar is put in charge of exploring the planets oceans and studying the creatures there. There are creatures no species has ever seen before.

Signless and Disciple are still painfully in love, and Signless and Psiioniic are still pale as fuck. Delarosa wept when she saw Signless' eyes turn red again, instead of white.

Handmaid is anxious about many things, but Aradia is there to help her.

Calliope is back, too! She and Roxy are madly in love. They got married. While Roxy works at the nursery Calliope stays home to learn all she can about humans.

Kankri is still annoying, but he's learning to tone it down. He's taken to blogging about things instead of preaching them on the street.

Mituna and Latula are still happy together. With Psiioniic's help and a lot of practice, he starts learning how to use his psionics again. It's slow going, but he can do little things. Baby steps.

Meulin, Rufioh, and Horuss teamed up to be an exploration team. They scour the woods, looking for new creatures and plants.

Kurloz is busy taking care of Gamzee, but still finds time to hang out with Mituna.

Porrim has her own clothing line and tattoo/piercing parlor Everything is top notch and fairly priced. She's an idol for young trolls.

Aranea runs the local library. With everyone's help, they're slowly building the collection of books.

No one is ever alone. They're all loved and happy and cared for.

None of them age physically, though curiously, the grubs do! Even when they grow up, they still look up to the others who are dubbed The Originals™️, much to the amusement of them all.

One night, while laying in bed, John comes to a realization: this was the reward they'd been looking for. It was hard fought for, but by God it was worth it.

[aeriesite]

ROLEPLAY PLOTTING CHEAT SHEET.

want new & exciting plots for your character ?     long to reach out to more of your followers, but don’t know where to start ?     fear not !     fill out this form & give your RP partners both present & future all the of juicy jumping off points they need to help you get your characters acquainted.     be sure to tag the players whose characters you want more cues to interact with, & repost, don’t reblog !     feel free to add or remove sections as you see fit.     template here.

ᴡʜᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴇᴄᴋ ɪꜱ ᴍʏ ᴍᴜꜱᴇ, ᴀɴʏᴡᴀʏ ?

Kamishiro Yuuko. (神代 悠子) Heir of Kamishiro Enterprises. Anonymous Food critic. Notable digimon partner is Rizegreymon - > Gaioumon.

Yuugo. (ユーゴ) Leader of the infamous hacker group, Zaxon. Fearsome yet just. Notable digimon partner is Mugendramon.

Enjoy! Chat avatar is a grey wolf named Yuugo.

ᴘᴏɪɴᴛꜱ ᴏғ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴇꜱᴛ.

KAMISHIROU HEIR:

(POST GAME) Now that they have gone to a universe where the events of their home had never happened, Yuuko is focused on preventing the tragedies that had occurred then. In order to do so, they know they need to know all they can about the company and how to stop it from falling into the hands of that woman.

Yuuko and the other members of their group still carry the memories of this other world and have to learn to adapt to plenty of changes — such as their father’s murderer becoming his fiance in this world. Unfortunately, she is also a strong member within their company, so they tolerate her behavior so long as it doesn’t interfere with their family.

(DURING GAME) Their father grew the foundation and established the form of communication used throughout the game. The invention of digivices (such as how theirs take the form of goggles) allow users to enter cyberspace in the form of virtual reality. Both the virtual reality cyberspace, later named EDEN, and the digivice were a creations of their father. As such, Yuuko pours their heart and soul for their last remaining family member, Yuugo (who is comatose), and the last product they have of their father, EDEN.  

Throughout the game, Yuuko carries about the backing and power of an important member of the board, enough to bring back those who are loyal to her father and take command of the company before accompanying the protag in facing the final boss and taking back their brother.

YUUGO THE ZAXON LEADER:

(DURING GAME) Taking the split image of their twin but with the opposite color scheme, Yuugo (ユーゴ) has established themselves as a highly capable leader of one of the largest and most (if not the) most powerful hacker groups in EDEN. He praises the ideals of freedom above all else, encouraging hackers to do as they wished, with some limits. He encourages them to create, but also to act as such to help others. Those who go against his wishes are often avoided as its seen as a death wish. They are well known for their Mugendramon and Rizegreymon.

In a sense, he takes after a chivalrous rogue.

With this title, he has trained many hackers within their group and even enabled others to become hackers. (Such as the protag) Unfortunately, his ideals tend to be too unrealistic and too ‘well intended’ that they had to take down a group that had splintered from them, the Demons.

Those who do get to know him will see that Yuugo does tend to ramble when it comes to topics that he enjoys, such as digimon, hacking, and foods.

The only ones aware of Yuugo (ユーゴ) being Yuuko are Fei, Rie, the CS crew, and Kisuke.  

HACKER:

(DURING GAME) see above, later in game they lose mugendramon and rizegreymon becomes gaioumon.

(POST GAME) Even after everything had been said and done, Yuuko still considers themselves a hacker. Although, it is trickier to work (analog) as opposed to working along side a digimon.

FOOD CRITIC: Yuuko is a foodie gourmet. It may seem like they have a bottomless stomach considering they could eat as much to make a restaurant owner cry and still have room for 7+ bowls of ice cream. For example, it may look like this.

On their free time, they offer reviews on how the food was for them. It does help that they have a rather poetic yet extremely informative way of describing their food and how to properly consume them. For example: this scene.

UNINTENTIONAL VILLAIN: Because of their often quiet demeanor, it may seem as though they do not have the power to stand up for themselves. Yet, they’ve been cast the role of a villain in some events, in which it’s surprising how easily they’re able to slip into the role. The power / charisma they carry as a child raised to be the Kamishiro Heir is something they usually have control over. Sometimes, it reveals itself unwittingly, particularly in moments like this.  

BIG BROTHER COMPLEX: For their big brother, they would throw everything. During the game, it was initially shown through the guise of Yuugo in which they had tossed away their name and face, in order to take up their role among hackers. It’s seen again later when Rie threatens them about disabling their brother’s life support.

ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇʏ’ᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴜᴘ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴄᴇɴᴛʟʏ.

(DURING GAME) Yuuko’s doing whatever they can to defeat Rie, taking care of their brother, and disproving the ruling on their father’s death. — All while protecting EDEN in anyway they can.

(POST GAME) read “KAMISHIRO HEIR (POST GAME)”

(EDEN LOST) Essentially a different route, should they never be able to leave the digital world. In this case, they are a wandering hacker, despised by many digimon as the reason for their world’s destruction, while searching for a way home.

ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴛᴏ ғɪɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇᴍ.

EDEN:

(EDEN IN GENERAL) During the game, whatever free time they have, they spend in EDEN if they’re not eating.

(ZAXON FORUM): It’s the main base for Zaxon. Very few people outside of the hacker group are able to enter and usually have the blessings of Yuugo, himself.

(KOWLOON): A hacker’s playground. Not recommended for new hackers to explore too far on their own. The checkpoints at each level are an attempt in regulating hackers.

(KAMISHIRO ENTERPRISES): Yes. There’s an EDEN version of their company. It’s easier to spot them here post-game due to certain circumstances.

NAKANO BROADWAY: More so during game, because of it being the protag’s headquarters. And the food they serve is excellent.

HOSPITAL: Because Yuugo’s there. They may not be pleased if encountered while seeing him, but they do take a long while deciding what to eat because of the array of choices those vending machines have. It’s fine if it’s highway robbery, they’ve got the wallet for it.

ANY RESTAURANT: Foodie. ‘nuff said. Bonus points if the manager looks as though he wants them to leave/cry because of how many finished bowls they have.

LIBRARY: They’re probably researching something that can be difficult to find online. For example, ‘how to make friends.’ … yes, this is something they actually went to library to find. and worse, they found a book and tried to utilize its teachings.

ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ᴘʟᴀɴꜱ.

Nothing big at the moment.

ᴅᴇꜱɪʀᴇᴅ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ.

any tbh. it would be interesting for them to have a disciple / underlings. friends are appreciated although they may face the wrath of fei should they come too close. enemies / rivals would be interesting.  

ᴏғғᴇʀᴇᴅ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ.

all things considered, crossovers are welcomed. it would follow more along the lines of EDEN LOST as that enables them to cross over easier. and yes, they have a pkmn verse.

ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ᴏᴘᴇɴ ᴘᴏꜱᴛꜱ.

n/a

ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴇʟꜱᴇ ?

think of this post as a permanent starter call for yuuko. like or reply — do not reblog — if you are interested in interacting with them. in the case of replies, please put down your character’s name if you have more than one character or your url if you’re okay with all.

[iamalivenow]

It starts as a joke, probably. A quick thrown out “eat me” in the middle of an argument that Accord overhears late one night. This particular branch is so slow moving she just had to involve herself. It's definitely not at all that she was too bored or anything. No definitely not- It had everything to do with the fact that this one required a sort of hands-on approach. A little bit of nudging, that's all.

The derivation occurred when the Intoner known as Three had gotten away, run off to hide in the Land of Sands with all of her countless army. So the anomaly known as Zero had no chance to take a break between her corrections. The search was... tedious. Either way, it started as a joke. She thinks. For all of Zero's exclamations, she can be shockingly dry in her humor. One of her disciples- not her's “just loaners, don't put that shit on me”- spreads his fingers in a V and sticks his tongue between it and Zero kicks him in the shin. Hard, presumably, as he almost doubles over and starts complaining in a higher pitched voice than usual. Another disciple makes groaning noises, and Zero rolls her eyes. And yet another remarks on how his bone is certainly strong enough to- “Hey, do you eat?” Accord's optics click once between she turns to look at Zero. “Oh, only recreationally.” “Just say no, god.” But it's not sharp- she doesn't believe it to be. “I'm hungry!” Her dragon says, tail whipping the sand around and making half of the party groan. “Stop- I know-” Accord stands through the night, watching them quietly, feeling sand graze against her face and get stuck in her hair. Zero coils around her dragon, the three disciples lay on their sides near the fire. She watches the sun slowly rise over the horizon, and the sky shift colors. This branch really is a waste of time.

…

“Lady Zero?” Accord stands on a dune, heels sinking into the sand slowly. It is mid-afternoon, and the sun hangs heavy in the sky, her system flashing a tiny alert every time the temperature rises by a degree. If worse comes to worst, she supposes she could remove her armor, but the disadvantage to her personal safety to doing so seems worse then any heat damage this model could sustain. “What?” “Well,” The disciple looks around, directionless. “There doesn't seem to be any food- or anything that can function as food. Nearby.” “And?” “Just worrying about your strength, Lady Zero. That's all.” “Worry about yourself.” Accord makes a note, for her personal future convenience that showing concern for the anomaly will result in a pleasant micro-expression. She will save a picture of it at a later time, when the lighting is not as harsh. “And Lady Zero, Mikhail is-” “He's fine!” She snaps and flings her sword at the disciple, just a few degrees off mark, which must be intentional. “Instead of acting like a baby, you could make yourself useful, for once, and dig up a cactus or some shit.” “R-right away, Lady Zero.”

…

A week later is the first day they do not find food, and the whining is audible from a mile away. Of course, it doesn't matter, as it seems like everything in the nearby area is either dead or scared enough of the whining to risk starvation. Which does seem to be the imminent end of this branch- forced to wander the deserts until madness, the regular human kind not the flower induced kind, takes them. It's rather bleak, definitely not her taste, but she's already decided to see this one out to the end. And even with the sand getting in places that will definitely require maintenance later, she gets to spend time with Zero. Doing valuable recorder work,  finding out how the anomaly operates in a different kind of stressful situation. It's fascinating. And Accord is glad that she's the model to get to do it. The party sits around a fire at night with the large disciple trying frantically to bring up the food scarcity and Zero getting more and more irritated by the moment. “We're all just one step away from resorting to cannibalism.” The older disciple says and the other three sound off instantly, Zero shouting them all down. “Get over yourselves for fucks sake-” “I call dibs on your thighs.” “Keep talking, and you won't have any fucking legs.” She walks away from them, in Accord's direction, a few steps past her before stopping. “Why are they so fucking stupid?” “Ah- Poor animation magic.” She says, her head tilting to ensure she could see all of Zero's angles in the moonlight. For research of course. “Piece of shit weed can't do anything right.” Accord doesn't say anything while Zero stands there and fumes and doesn't say anything when Zero sits down on the sand dune. “If it does come to cannibalism, do you have a preference?” Zero throws her arms up. “Just for the record.” “No, I don't. Decadus is too gamey, Dito doesn't have any meat on him, and Octa's basically leather.” “I think I would prefer eating you too. Objectively. If I am presented with no other options.” “Yeah well.” She gets sand in her face, and she supposes that's deserved, but Zero's so close that if she were to jack up her skin's pressure sensitivity, she could feel the petals on her face. “Good thing you don't eat.”

…

Four days after that, Zero makes the executive decision to hack her legs off and regenerate. Accord stares at her from a distance, just like the disciples stare at her up close and the Dragon makes pathetic sobbing noises until she yells “Enough.” and the desert becomes exceptionally silent. “You need to eat.” She jabs the dragon on the face. “Otherwise you're useless to me.” “B-but Zero- But Zero it's- it's you!” “Yes.” “And you're- But Zero!” “End of conversation.” And then she turns to the angry one and holds her sword out, pommel first. “Happy birthday.” It's not anyone's birthday, but the disciple looks so elated Accord doesn't feel the need to correct anyone. “Lady Zero-” “The idiot gets one and a half, you can split what's left.” “Can't I take more? I mean-” “Be grateful I'm feeding you at all.” She doesn't scream, when they finally decide to do it. It's good data, even when faced with such horrific bodily harm, that the anomaly will sooner grit her teeth and bear it then yell. Though, Accord hypothesizes that it might be for the dragon's sake. The sound of dragon bone against intoner skin and muscle and finally bone is good data too, considering their models are so rarely present when an intoner gets put down. Later, Zero sits next to Accord and watches them try and hack the meat off of the bone. The smell of burning flesh must spread out for miles. “Don't want to join them?” “Would you like me too?” “...It'd be weird to have you lord this over me. In other timelines.” “It would just be more information.” And they do so love their information. “You're really weird.” “Maybe to you.”

…

Five days later, when Zero's new stomach starts to ache with a desperation, she lets her disciple take an arm in addition. “Does it hurt?” Accord asks, once she crawls out of the flower tacky and naked. “If you could describe it in detail, that would be so very advantageous. For future branches.” “It just sucks at the end.” Zero tries to fix her hair and yells when the ribbon keeps slipping in the viscera. “Crawling out. The reformation is- not nice but.” She tries again, and the ribbon slips down into the sand through her hands. “Do it for me.” Accord sets her suitcase down, and once she's sure it won't slip down the dune and damage the contents, she walks over and picks up the black ribbon. The smell is even more metallic than usual, and the sickly sweetness of rot and the faint hints of chilled lily overwhelm her. She remembers that she altered her sensitivity almost as a passive thought but now? Why lower it. Zero's hair is soft, even under the gore, and she pulls it tight like how Zero prefers to wear it- but then there's no need to rush. She must have a few more seconds before Zero's hairline temper flares up so if she allows herself an unnecessary run of the fingers so that the hair slips along her wrist and makes her sensors flare with so much information it almost makes her organic dizzy then no one other than the Recorder models have to know. “You're very indifferent to the cannibalism.” She says instead of anything else. “Yeah well, been there done that. And moral gripping is for piss babies.” Zero turns around, and Accord remember vaguely that Zero is still naked. “It's just meat.” “Don't want to know what you taste like?” “Better they get extra and don't whine about it later.” Accord takes a step back and picks up her suitcase again. The familiar weight is what she chooses to latch on to while she lowers her sensitivity back down to its designated range. “Is it care or convenience?” “Ha.” She says without a hint of amusement. “Can't you tell?”

…

“Are we ever going to get out of here?” “You always do,” Accord says after another messy resurrection. “We're full of faith in you.” “We, huh?” Accord doesn't answer, so Zero gets up and goes to sit with her group. Accord sits for an hour alone before Zero finally comes back. “Here.” There's a sliver of meat between her fingers. “Recreationally.” “Professionally, if anything.” And she opens her mouth and lets Zero place it in her mouth. Her tastebuds aren't exactly designed for flavor profiles so much as they are designed to separate components, to analyze, and she can, at least on a surface level tell that it's Zero's thigh, that Zero's blood sugar was low and that she was dehydrated and that there was no fear ruining the meat. But it's really rather hard to read the popups when Zero's fingers are still in her mouth. They prod along her teeth, along the inside of her cheeks, almost all the way down her tongue. “Professionally?” She asks tracing the sensors at the back of her throat. “Who needed you to eat people professionally?” She means to say 'classified', but again, long, pretty, sharp fingers in her mouth, so who knows what jumbled mess comes out instead. “And?” Her mouth is empty, and she feels woefully hollow. “And?” “How do I taste?” “I'm unsure.” Accord lies for the first time since her model's creation. “More experimentation is required for an adequate answer.” “Professionally.” Zero nods along slowly. “Of course.” She really shouldn't be surprised when Zero pushes her down until she's sitting on the edge of her suitcase and Zero pulls at the lacing of her shorts. Maybe there's something to be said about the grim and dull routes after all. She doesn't taste of anything other than skin until Accord does something she has at the very back of her data logs with her tongue and then she tastes miserably human. She dismisses the absolutely useless information of ph value, blood pressure, somehow still low blood sugar, and focuses instead on how much she wants to burry inside of her and never leave. “Did 'They' give you something fun to play with?” Zero whispers, those long fingers coiling in her hair and tugging her around. “Or am I going to have to make do?” Accord doesn't bother answering, just keeps licking her open, trying to learn more and more and more about this thing that doesn't make sense, that doesn't function normally, that breaks time and space apart just because the end goal doesn't work for her. She learns Zero doesn't mind gloved hands. Which is, of course, nothing short of vital information.

[infragments]

ROLEPLAY PLOTTING CHEAT SHEET.

want new & exciting plots for your character ?     long to reach out to more of your followers, but don’t know where to start ?     fear not !     fill out this form & give your RP partners both present & future all the of juicy jumping off points they need to help you get your characters acquainted.     be sure to tag the players whose characters you want more cues to interact with, & repost, don’t reblog !     feel free to add or remove sections as you see fit.     template here.

ᴍᴜɴ ɴᴀᴍᴇ  :  generic ᴏᴏᴄ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀᴄᴛ  :  discord --- ask for it

ᴡʜᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴇᴄᴋ ɪꜱ ᴍʏ ᴍᴜꜱᴇ, ᴀɴʏᴡᴀʏ ?  

Kamishiro Yuuko. (神代 悠子) Heir of Kamishiro Enterprises. Anonymous Food critic.  

Yuugo. (ユーゴ) Leader of the infamous hacker group, Zaxon. Fearsome yet just.

Enjoy! Chat avatar is a grey wolf named Yuugo. 

ᴘᴏɪɴᴛꜱ ᴏғ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴇꜱᴛ.    

KAMISHIROU HEIR: 

(POST GAME) Now that they have gone to a universe where the events of their home had never happened, Yuuko is focused on preventing the tragedies that had occurred then. In order to do so, they know they need to know all they can about the company and how to stop it from falling into the hands of that woman. 

Yuuko and the other members of their group still carry the memories of this other world and have to learn to adapt to plenty of changes --- such as their father’s murderer becoming his fiance in this world. Unfortunately, she is also a strong member within their company, so they tolerate her behavior so long as it doesn’t interfere with their family. 

(DURING GAME) Their father grew the foundation and established the form of communication used throughout the game. The invention of digivices (such as how theirs take the form of goggles) allow users to enter cyberspace in the form of virtual reality. Both the virtual reality cyberspace, later named EDEN, and the digivice were a creations of their father. As such, Yuuko pours their heart and soul for their last remaining family member, Yuugo (who was comatose), and the last product they have of their father, EDEN.  

Throughout the game, Yuuko carries about the backing and power of an important member of the board, enough to bring back those who are loyal to her father and take command of the company before accompanying the protag in facing the final boss and taking back their brother.

YUUGO THE ZAXON LEADER: 

(DURING GAME) Taking the split image of their twin but with the opposite color scheme, Yuugo (ユーゴ) has established themselves as a highly capable leader of one of the largest and most (if not the) most powerful hacker groups in EDEN. He praises the ideals of freedom above all else, encouraging hackers to do as they wished, with some limits. He encourages them to create, but also to act as such to help others. Those who go against his wishes are often avoided as its seen as a death wish. They are well known for their Mugendramon and Rizegreymon.

In a sense, he takes after a chivalrous rogue. 

With this title, he has trained many hackers within their group and even enabled others to become hackers. (Such as the protag) Unfortunately, his ideals tend to be too unrealistic and too ‘well intended’ that they had to take down a group that had splintered from them, the Demons.

Those who do get to know him will see that Yuugo does tend to ramble when it comes to topics that he enjoys, such as digimon, hacking, and foods.

The only ones aware of Yuugo (ユーゴ) being Yuuko are Fei, Rie, the CS crew, and Kisuke.  

HACKER: 

(DURING GAME) see above, later in game they lose mugendramon and rizegreymon becomes gaioumon. 

(POST GAME) Even after everything had been said and done, Yuuko still considers themselves a hacker. Although, it is trickier to work (analog) as opposed to working along side a digimon. 

FOOD CRITIC: Yuuko is a foodie gourmet. It may seem like they have a bottomless stomach considering they could eat as much to make a restaurant owner cry and still have room for 7+ bowls of ice cream. For example, it may look like this.

On their free time, they offer reviews on how the food was for them. It does help that they have a rather poetic yet extremely informative way of describing their food and how to properly consume them. For example: this scene. 

UNINTENTIONAL VILLAIN: Because of their often quiet demenor, it may seem as though they do not have the power to stand up for themselves. Yet, they’ve been casted the role of a villain in some events, in which it’s surprising how easily they’re able to slip into the role. The power / charisma they carry as a child raised to be the Kamishiro Heir is something they usually have control over. Sometimes, it reveals itself unwittingly, particularly in moments like this.  

BIG BROTHER COMPLEX: For their big brother, they would throw everything. During the game, it was initially shown through the guise of Yuugo in which they had tossed away their name and face, in order to take up their role among hackers. It’s seen again later when Rie threatens them about disabling their brother’s life support. 

ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇʏ’ᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴜᴘ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴄᴇɴᴛʟʏ.    

(DURING GAME) Yuuko’s doing whatever they can to defeat Rie, taking care of their brother, and disproving the ruling on their father’s death. --- All while protecting EDEN in anyway they can. 

(POST GAME) read “KAMISHIRO HEIR (POST GAME)”

(EDEN LOST) Essentially a different route, should they never be able to leave the digital world. In this case, they are a wandering hacker, despised by many digimon while searching for a way home.

ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴛᴏ ғɪɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇᴍ.    

EDEN: 

(EDEN IN GENERAL) During the game, whatever free time they have, they spend in EDEN if they’re not eating. 

(ZAXON FORUM): It’s the main base for Zaxon. Very few people outside of the hacker group are able to enter and usually have the blessings of Yuugo, himself.

(KOWLOON): A hacker’s playground. Not recommended for new hackers to explore too far on their own. The checkpoints at each level are an attempt in regulating hackers.

(KAMISHIRO ENTERPRISES): Yes. There’s an EDEN version of their company. It’s easier to spot them here post-game due to certain circumstances. 

NAKANO BROADWAY: More so during game, because of it being the protag’s headquarters.

HOSPITAL: Because Yuugo’s there. They may not be pleased if encountered while seeing him, but they do take a long while deciding what to eat because of the array of choices those vending machines have. It’s fine if it’s highway robbery, they’ve got the wallet for it.

ANY RESTAURANT: Foodie. ‘nuff said. Bonus points if the manager looks as though he wants them to leave because of how many finished bowls they have.

LIBRARY: They’re probably researching something that can be difficult to find online. For example, ‘how to make friends.’ ... yes, this is something they actually went to library to find. and worse, they found a book and tried to utilize its teachings. 

ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ᴘʟᴀɴꜱ.    

Nothing big at the moment.

ᴅᴇꜱɪʀᴇᴅ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ.    

any tbh. it would be interesting for them to have a disciple / underlings. friends are appreciated although they may face the wrath of fei should they come too close. enemies / rivals would be interesting.  

ᴏғғᴇʀᴇᴅ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ.    

all things considered, crossovers are welcomed. it would follow more along the lines of EDEN LOST as that enables them to cross over easier. and yes, they have a pkmn verse. 

ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ᴏᴘᴇɴ ᴘᴏꜱᴛꜱ.    

n/a

ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴇʟꜱᴇ ?    

think of this post as a permanent starter call for yuuko. like or reply --- do not reblog --- if you are interested in interacting with them. in the case of replies, please put down your character’s name if you have more than one character or your url if you’re okay with all.

[go-redgirl]

This Past Week was President Trump Keeping his Promises DB Daily Update ^ | David Blackmon

Today's Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends)

Well, the day of decision is here, the time to decide whether you are going to stick with President Donald Trump all the way. The fake news media and the Democrats, along with establishment Republican warmongers like John McCain, Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, are throwing everything they have at the President and his supporters, now going full ahead with the contention that supporting the man who was elected in 2016 is tantamount to treason.

The fuse that touched off the latest – and most intense to date – explosion of leftist, establishment, globalist heads in Washington was, of course, the President’s press conference performance as his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin came to a close. Mr. Trump’s sin, as I pointed out last night, was to publicly question the veracity of the allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections contained in indictments brought down by a proven liar and stonewaller, Rod Rosenstein, and a Special Counsel’s office filled with Clinton/Obama activist hacks. Those indictments were ostensibly based on information compiled by an FBI led by the likes of proven liars like Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and James Comey.

Hard to imagine why anyone would question the work product of such a sterling cast of characters, right?

If the U.S. intelligence community wants to command the respect of the American people, then it might be a good idea for it to stop working against the interests and the will of the American people. It might be a good idea to stop sending clear, practiced, transparent liars like Rosenstein and Strzok up to represent it in open congressional hearings. It might be a good idea to start complying with information requests from congressional committees trying to perform the oversight responsibilities mandated to them in the Constitution. It might have been a good idea for Mr. Mueller to avoid filling his staff with partisan hacks.

In order to command respect, these myriad alphabet agencies should work on earning it. What a concept.

But the presser with Putin was just the conclusion of a week filled with events and presidential actions and statements that the leftist, globalist, DC establishment detests, actions that President Trump promised to take throughout the 2016 campaign that ended with his victory over the establishment’s preferred sock puppet, Hillary Clinton. Those actions included the President pointing out the reality, in clear and blunt terms, that NATO is a long-outdated and costly organization populated mainly by deadbeat European countries who refuse to fulfill their financial obligations.

Those actions included calling out Germany for agreeing to partner with Russia – the ostensible “threat” against which NATO is supposedly there to defend – on a multi-billion dollar natural gas pipeline project. Those actions included blunt and honest talk about the long abuse of unfair tariffs on U.S. goods by EU nations, and their desire to continue their practice.

Those actions included the President talking about U.S./Russia cooperation with our allies in Israel to ensure Iranian troops and militia in Syria are kept away from the Golan Heights. They also included Trump’s ongoing commitment to bring our military personnel home from the Syrian hellhole once ISIS has been wiped off the face of the earth, another cooperative effort with Russia that is about 98% complete. And finally, they included conciliatory public statements towards Putin and Russia (we can be sure he was more forceful and pointed with Putin during their private meeting) in an effort to begin establishing an actual, productive working relationship with the world’s other major nuclear power.

Again, what a concept.

Throughout his 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump proved he was a disciple of the likes of George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower, warning against the needless perpetuation of our military ventures all over the world, many of whose roots go all the way back to World War II. I end up saying this so often in these Campaign Updates, but I’ll say this again: None of the things President Trump said and did over this past week in Europe should have come as any surprise at all to anyone who actually has a desire to understand him. Which of course excludes all Democrats and fake news reporters and warmongering GOP senators.

This is Donald Trump keeping his campaign promises. He made them repeatedly and without nuance – because he’s pretty much incapable of nuance, after all – and he fully intends to carry them out, just as he has gone about carrying out all of his other campaign promises.

To a large extent, it is Trump’s hyper-focus on keeping the promises he made to the American people that makes him such a foreign, almost alien-seeming entity to the corrupt, globalist DC establishment and fake news media. They have all become so accustomed to having politicians who say all sorts of stuff to get elected, but then come to DC and just bend to the will of the embedded deep state that they just don’t know how to react to anyone whose behavior doesn’t conform to the DC Borg’s hive mind.

Everything President Trump said and did over this past week were things he promised to do, repeatedly and clearly, throughout the 2016 campaign that got him elected. The corrupt, globalist DC establishment is incredibly upset that it cannot contain him, and is now refocusing its sights not only on the President, but on his supporters as well.

Supporting Donald Trump was never going to be an easy thing, because he was elected to clean out the greatest den of corruption and sleaze ever created by American society. He has made an amazing amount of progress in a very short period of time, but there is so much more that remains to be done. The more he pushes, the harder the deep state establishment and its media minions will fight back, so this is only going to become harder still.

If you abandon him now, they win. It’s really that simple.

That is all.

Follow me on Twitter at @GDBlackmon