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drconstellation · 2 months

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The Cupperty Ceremony

Every bit of food and drink in both seasons has a metaphorical significance, even if you don't realize it.

Tea is no exception. Its one of the few times an eastern philosophy creeps into Good Omens, but it still meets with a western ideal. It's also intrinsically linked to Aziraphale and his affected British style.

Coffee gets more of a focus in S2, and has a specific meaning around freedom and liberty, whereas tea appears more in S1. But the metaphorical meanings around them are fairly consistent across both seasons, with stereotypes for the British drinking tea and the Americans only drinking coffee put aside.

Lets start with Muriel on the doorstep of the bookshop, at the beginning of S2E3, asking to come in, because its noisy outside.

Aziraphale, after a moment to take in who they are, is the epitome of politeness as he welcomes them inside.

You might think "well, isn't this just Aziraphale being typically Aziraphale?" in this moment, but soon we shall see its a relevant part of a ritual going on here.

The bookshop is noticeably quieter on the inside. There is just the two of them. Aziraphale offers Muriel tea in a fine china cup, with a blue pattern, and gold trim.

Muriel is not sure what to do with it so they just hold it. Aziraphale makes a point of demonstrating what should be done: He tells Muriel the tea is "to drink," then looks at it, sips, and makes both an appreciative expression and sound.

Muriel seems repelled by this, and declares they are just going to look at theirs. Aziraphale patiently, still polite, lets them do so.

Up to this point, there are actually two levels of meta happening at the same time. The first one is a tea ceremony (which I had a go at once before, and got the wrong one!) and the other is about trying to get Muriel to take the first step in "going native."

A tea ceremony always starts with a courteous invitation. The tea is prepared, then served and offered to others. It should be taken in a tranquil, peaceful setting, perhaps in a harmonious natural environment (such as a Garden) and with only a few people at a time (two people is considered a "superior" experience.) The tea ware is important, as it should allow the fragrance of the tea to be appreciated (we have some fine china, Heavenly-coded.) Appreciation of the tea's qualities is undertaken, first with the eyes, then by smell, then tasting. It is considered an art, a process of spiritual enjoyment, a means of cultivating the moral character - and then Crowley bursts into the bookshop with his flirty comment about going by train and breaks the fragile connection Aziraphale had been trying to establish with Muriel.

*sigh* Timing, Crowley! Can't you see I'm in the middle of trying to subvert a fellow angel here?

I was recently reminded that tea and coffee have a connection in GO, in that that they are both linked to the American War of Independence. While the speech that gives us "Give me liberty, or give me death!" conjures the stormy winds of war sounding trouble approaching, the Boston Tea Party was the initial spark of the brewing conflict.

I realize there is a LOT of stuff written about this particular bit of history, and it can get quite political even in these modern times, so let me frame it in a Good Omens frame of reference if you aren't familiar with it - the colonists in the New World were upset at how they were being ruled from afar by the British and staged a small protest about some new laws imposed on them by dumping ship-loads of valuable tea leaves (a daily consumable pleasure people had become hooked on) into Boston Harbor on the night of 16th December 1773. To disguise themselves they dressed themselves as indigenous people, or "native Americans" as one might have said. This was just the beginning of further rebellion that led to war a few years later.

So here is another reason Aziraphale offers tea to Muriel, and not cocoa; he can see how fascinated they are with with everything Earthly around them, and he hopes to ignite a spark of rebellion in them, too, by introducing them to the more civilized pleasures (*ahem*) that he knows and enjoys so well.

While there is little tea to be seen in S2, there is plenty to be seen in S1. Perhaps the most prominent one for this discussion occurs right near the beginning, when Gabriel surprises Aziraphale in the sushi restaurant in S1E1.

Aziraphale offers to tea to Gabriel, and Gabriel shuns it. He, like most of the angels we meet, have no real interest in Earth. It's "gross." Ah, well. He gets to change his mind in S2.

So where else do we see tea in S1?

The Four Horsepeople: War orders four teas, one black, and a cheese sandwich in the diner where they all meet up together for the first time on Earth. We don't know who the sandwich is for, but I'm going to guess its for Famine. Reasons below, with Shadwell. (Cheese and tea make a nice savoury pair for a snack, if you haven't tried it. I'm partial to tea with cheese and crackers on the side from time to time.)

The Tibetan Tunnelers were on tea break from digging tunnels all over the Earth when we meet them, where they mention they were transported into the tunnels when they themselves stopped for tea back in their real lives on the surface.

Shadwell's infamously sweet tea, with either nine sugars or condensed milk, needs a mention as well, as it appears several times. Shadwell is an Aziraphale parallel-character, living on the fringes of society and starving for attention, even though he makes feeble swipes at Madam Tracey's attempts to care for him. The sugar represents the amount of care or "sweetening up" he needs.

When he first meets Newt he gets the young man to buy him a tea and a packet of cheese and onion crisps. Remember the cheese sandwich War ordered for Famine? A packet of cheese flavoured crisps is a parallel here. Newt has turned up and finally given someone Shadwell someone to sink his teeth into.

Finally, we need to return to Crowley - its coffee, as black as his soul for him, please, and extra strong (six shots is for the number of Hell.)

Because he's already "gone native," just like Aziraphale, and he wants to maintain his freedom. He's left the Garden, and Heaven, behind him, and he'll do anything to keep it that way, thank you.

I'd like to thank my mutual and other food meta writer @vidavalor for discussing some of this off-list some time ago. We mostly see things the same way, I believe, but one must tread one's own path sometimes. They have some different ideas around some of this, but I'll let them say it in their own words.

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #aziraphale #muriel #gabriel #four horsepeople of the apocalypse #shadwell #the tibetan tunnelers #and a cheese sandwich #six shots of espresso #gone native #gross matter #it's what humans do #tea ceremony #cup of tea #cupperty

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ifearzombies · 1 year

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The Little ‘I Love You’s

Lucifer:

- Wakes you up early so you can have quiet moments alone with tea or coffee and food that Beel won’t have a chance to steal. - Brings you little things back from the human world when he goes. While he knows you want to stay where you are, he knows humans miss ‘home’ too. - Steals a smooch when no one else is looking.

Mammon:

- Steals from you less than anyone else. He can’t help his nature, but he avoids your room for items to steal as much as he can - On days you’re feeling down, he will interject and tell you that you’re doing something. He never tells you why, but it’s clearly to distract you. - Nights when you have nightmares he is always the one that hears you and comes to cuddle you and hold you. You don’t know how he always knows, but you’re glad all the same.

Leviathan:

- He’ll wait for you for the latest episode of whatever “has too long a title” anime he’s been passionate about. Fantasy is an experience, and it should be shared. - He makes you outfits you see in the shows you say you like. They’re made just for you- your size and shape despite him not having ever measured you. - His snack and ramen rations now include some of your favorites so that the next time Beel destroys the kitchen, you can come to him.

Satan: - He cleans his room on the nights you want to spend in his bed. Well. He makes a path and clears off the bed- but you can at least walk through the room and use the bed with him. - He has a shelf with just books he thinks you’ll like based on what you’ve told him. A mini library in his room for your quiet night time moments where you cuddle and read. - Like Lucifer he steals smooches when no one is looking. You will never tell him of this shared habit of theirs. Asmodeus: - He paints your nails and brushes your hair while he tells you how beautiful you are inside and out. He’s more complimentary when you’ve had a bad day - You are allowed to use his bath, even if you do not want him to join you. - He tucks a flower in your hair every chance he gets. Beelzebub: - He saved you a snack from his snack bag. He heard you mention you were craving it and wants to share it with you. - He carries you every chance he gets and uses that as an excuse to give you affectionate nuzzles. - He lets you climb him like a tree to sit on his shoulders to reach stuff and holds you steady. Belphegor: - He will go to demon form just to wrap his tail around you while you cuddle. - Invite you to the attic for what he and Beel call ‘Sandwich Cuddles’ and when you do, you get to use his favorite pillow - He makes it a point to drink stuff with high amounts of caffeine when you have plans to stay awake just for you. -------------------------------------------------------- MC: - On days Lucifer runs himself ragged and it’s his turn to cook, you message the household and say you feel like cooking. Lucifer knows why you do it and says a secret thank you once the meal is over. - You know Mammon can’t help but steal. You have a place in your room that you know Mammon looks through. You put some money in there whenever you see it empty. Mammon knows you do this and never steals from anywhere else in the room. - You show up for your anime-fest with pizza and drinks and bring your futon mattress so you can cuddle on it while you enjoy the fantasy anime together. - You bring a new mystery book with you every time you spend the night with Satan. You haven’t clued him in that Cat Mystery is a genre of mystery novels yet, but with each one you bring, he’s started to catch on. He’s eager for the next one. - You treat Asmo to a spa day and get facials and massages with him. You tell him that maintaining his beauty is a lot of work and he’s SO GLAD someone finally sees that!

- Beel is an easy man to please. The way to his heart is quite literally his stomach. It takes days of planning, but Beel always loves when you do a feast day and spend an entire day cooking to make enough food to make him full. He’s cried literal tears of happiness over it. It can only be done once a month, but the absolute pure joy in his eyes is worth it.

- You hold Belphie and tell him. He struggles so much with thinking you could never forgive him for literally killing you. But you hold him and tell him you love him. You run a hand through his hair and tell him you forgive him. And when he says he doesn’t deserve it, you remind him that forgiveness is a gift. And you gave it to him a long time ago.

#obey me #obey me one master to rule them all #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me levi #obey me asmo #obey me beel #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphie #obey me belphagor #obey me shall we date

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xamaxenta · 6 months

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ASL all being raised on violence so they genuinely don’t understand softer touch, genuine kindness at first

Like these three feral jungle kids bit kicked scratched each other full on brawled one another because it was the only way they knew how to show affection

(Garp’s fist of love is not exactly a great point of reference for any of them, Dadan was also likewise heavy handed but lets be real these brats kicked her ass more than she kicked theirs lmao)

Luffy clicks with Zoro because Zoro’s just built like that, he’s built walls and his dreams to become the worlds greatest swordsman and nothings gonna stop him, So when Luffy decks him, hauls ass flings him about, its how Luffy shows affection, rocketing at top speed towards Zoro whilst yelling his name because he knows Zoro can take it, the same doesnt really go down well with Nami or Usopp, theyre not built the same way— bruises and bumps and scratches, Nami whacks him over the head all the time for stupid stuff she says and Luffy finds thats familiar, to which Usopp is like my guy my dude thats actually pretty effed up holy hell

Usopp and Sanji being the first of the crew to show Luffy that affection doesnt have to be violent (like usopp sharing a cool beetle he found, Sanji ruffling his hair because hes mad hes gotta wait until dinner for more food)

Ace fights a lot because it’s all he knows how to do right, hes good at it, he wins alot mostly but loses just as many times because he overestimates himself, maybe after fighting Whitebeard 100 times he doesnt let up and Whitebeard catches on immediately after Ace has taken his ink like son, just because i can kick your ass doesnt mean you have to go looking for it. Ace confused is like huh? But isnt this like a bonding activity and WB concerned asks Ace what his childhood was like and Ace shrugs uh. Absent everyone? Like everyone, kinda acted out a ton for attention and stuff, the WBP appalled at Ace’s viewpoint on violence versus affection look to multiple ways in which they can smother their newest brother with actual kind affection, naturally it starts with Marco approaching him with food and no other motive than to be kind — Ace used to fighting tooth and nail to eat looks so suspicious its almost heartbreaking

Sabo who’s never known a kind word from his blood parents and only begruding respect and tolerance from Dadan — hes perceptive, the fact this bandit lady with the crazy intense face is allowing him to freeload with Ace n Luffy tells him a ton about her, she’s coarse and rude and everything Sabo’s parents hate so naturally Sabo loves her, (its a shame we never got more Dadan and Sabo :(((((() gravitates towards Ace because he’s everythinf his parents hate too, wild uncouth loudmouthed and violent and they get along, they beat each other up bc its how they tell each other theyre strong ive got your back

And then he loses his memories and maybe thats a good thing because Sabo learns kindness with the revolutionaries, he feels seen and heard and respected (Big Applause to Dragon and Iva for listening to kid Sabo beg and plead not to go back to his old life and went okay hes ours now chadmindset love to see it) he learns that violence and affection are a double sided coin, that he can use his skills to fight and protect those that cant do it for themselves

ASL are a rowdy set of rabble rousin kiddos but its really nice to see how they develop as they got older bc of the people they encountered who help them understand theyre not alone as they think they are

#ASL brothers #crying in dis chilis thinking abt all of them #and how fuckin much theyve all been throufh #shakes fistss at oda PLEASE WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THAT TO RHEMEMEM

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thegoldenappleofdiscord · 7 months

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hit me with your best will solace hcs please, i can take it

will solace headcanons or something

gonna be real honest i forgot half of my headcanons and i'll probably remember them the minute i post this but:

healing and hymns: i don't think the healing process in chb is specified beyond "ambrosia and nectar," but i think a combination of powerful voice (stentorian) + correct hymn + natural talent = higher chances of healing success; i don't think will has a voice that's very pleasant to listen to. i think he can carry a tune, sure, but he isn't someone you want to listen to for extended periods of time. the thing i think makes him such a good healer is his strong voice - he's able to keep singing at a steady pace with consistency. he can heal his siblings of small bruises and paper cuts through a single song, but you won't catch him leading a campfire. [i thought way too long about how hymns work in the infirmary for my fic jdsjgfdg]

texan will: i've seen a lot of headcanons revolving around texan will that have always been a little odd to me, seeing as i'm texan and half of these hcs are just blatant stereotypes lmao. i think i even once saw someone say that because he's from the south he can't be a vegetarian, which is pretty absurd (coming as someone who fasts.) honestly the only one for this i can think of is that he uses "ya'll" constantly. also occasionally indulges in fried food, because fried chicken slaps (none of that fried oreo/snickers bs. miss me with that will would NOT go near that stuff.)

assorted appearance headcanons:

he has freckles all over him! apparently he doesn't have them canonically and we all just. collectively decided that he did, and i love that.

likes pockets. anything with pockets. also, flip flops, crocs, basically any open-toed shoes. sometimes he'll just go barefoot, because why not. i also think he wears a lot of bracelets - things made by his younger siblings (some alive, some not.) they're his version of camp beads.

from here i give up on categorizing my hcs:

gets more irritated during winter/fall months

tea person

the type of person to belt out songs when he thinks nobody is watching

is actually rather chill during shadow travel, and doesn't get nauseated because he's done it with nico so often

lets the cocoa puffs hitch a ride on him whenever he's in the infirmary, and always has to explain who they are to new patients.

doesn't curse often but when he does it's a storm

friends with drew because i said so and also because i think he, jake, and drew have "i became a camp counselor too early" solidarity. i think they all became friends post tlo and have maintained a tentative relationship since! those cabins have each other's backs.

big spoon

wants to get more tattoos (maybe a tattoo sleeve?)

doesn't want to become a doctor, but rather a vet, or maybe a teacher. reasoning being that he'll have to relearn everything, but also that he'll have to deal with the loss of his patients again, this time knowing he couldn't heal them magically because he's relying on modern medicine. plus, he would have to spend a long time away from his siblings, and seeing as how he's a year rounder, i don't think that would bode well for him.

really really likes planning events - especially birthday parties

wants to travel the world, but is also afraid to leave everything behind

was once afraid of growing up, and still sort of is. doesn't think much of his birthday, because he used to celebrate it with his mother, and he didn't really get a chance to start celebrating with his siblings before being thrown into war

terrible dancer, even though his boyfriend is really good at it

loves to garden! there's a garden for the infirmary where he gathers ingredients for salves and poultices, but he also just loves the scent of flowers. he likes to care and nurture things, and plants are something he pours a lot of energy into. he and nico also go strawberry picking a lot.

fast fast fast runner

post tsats: persephone will occasionally call him using an angel trumpet flower (this is like. a very specific vision but search up one of those flowers and imagine holding it up to your ear like a telephone:)

anyway she calls him on one of these bad boys and asks how he's doing. they have long chats about flowers and sometimes him and nico are invited for picnics in the underworld.

him and nico have a travel bucket list

he has possibly the worst handwriting ever. absolutely terrible

is pretty bad at using technology, but still has to pretend like he knows how to use it when he's helping nico navigate the internet.

aand that's all i remember for now!

#also i'm well aware that trumpet flowers are poisonous #seph has particular taste lmao #will solace #will solace pjo #will solace headcanon #nico di angelo #nico di angelo pjo #solangelo #drew tanaka #tsats #pjo #toa #rrverse #reeseanswers #lets not talk about how i used vocation forgetting what it actually meant mkay?

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twisted-lover-boys · 7 months

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I'm glad you're back and in a better place!

If it's possible could you do diasomnia boys with a Pokemon trainer reader

(maybe even add in what you think the boys' favorite pokemon would be if you're up to it)

Diasomnia w/ a Pokémon trainer partner

You, my good man, know how to reach my heart

Absolutely

I will enjoy this so much

. . .

Mind you, I scoured the Pokédex just to find the perfect match for them

Also, sorry for being slow! I literally got sick as soon as I opened the box lmao

{not proof-read}

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🐲🦇⚔️⚡️🐲🦇⚔️⚡️🐲🦇⚔️⚡️🐲🦇⚔️⚡️🐲🦇⚔️⚡️

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When you told Malleus you had a surprise for him, he was so ecstatic that it showed in the clear weather. Whatever surprise his boyfriend had prepared for him, he would be happy with it. But you introducing your Pokémon team to him was something he wasn’t expecting

He’d only heard that you had a team of other-worldly creatures but actually seeing them was something else, so of course he was interested in them

Oh if you let him feed your team he will be over the moon. Please let him give them berries or any Pokémon-safe dish. It could be the smallest one on your team or the biggest grunt you have, he will be happy to feed them

If you ask him to help clean your Pokémon, Malleus will fumble a bit since Pokémon require different types of care but he’d be more than happy to help. Honestly, to him, it’s like you have your own little pet family

Imagine randomly finding a Pokémon egg that wasn’t from your team. It just showed up in Twisted Wonderland. You don’t really have any safe way to store or care for the egg since you’re in a foreign land (no boxes sadge) so you give it to Malleus!

Dragon instincts immediately kick in for him. This Pokémon, whatever it ends up being, will be your “child” no debate. I full heartedly believe that Malleus would be a master of dragon types (or dragon-looking types) so I would either give him a shiny Charizard (Charmander) or a Garchomp (Gibble). I think they look cool with his style/color palette

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Lilia has seen a lot of things throughout his rather long life, but you wanting to introduce him to your Pokémon team was a pleasant surprise and experience for him

He thought they were so cute! From the smallest one to the biggest one, all of them were adorable to him! He really wanted to build a connection with them not only to get closer to them, but to you as well

Do not let this man feed your Pokémon any food that he makes. It’s alright if you give him pre-made stuff that’s safe for them but do not let him feed them unattended! Some of your Pokémon are smart enough to notice, others aren’t!!

Again, parental instincts. It’s like second nature to him when you ask for help in cleaning your Pokémon, like he already knows what they need

So when you suddenly find an egg that didn’t come from your party, you decided to give it to Lilia since you had no way to take care of it.

Lilia getting an egg from you and treating it like a child brings back memories of his past. Pleasant ones. I would give Lilia either a Swoobat (Woobat) or a Noivern (Noibat) solely because they have a bat motif to them

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Silver knew how big the world was solely because of the stories his father loved to tell him when he was young. Never did he once expect a simple surprise from you would be you introducing your Pokémon team to him

He had heard that you used strange creatures to battle but he never thought he’d be able to see these creatures first-hand. He absolutely loves these creatures

Silver loves feeding your Pokémon with you. He thinks it’s an opportunity to bond with your team and relax with you. He’s super careful about feeding them and only gives them what you tell him to give

When it comes to cleaning your Pokémon, Silver is kinda a hit or miss. With some of them, he might be really skilled. Others, not so much. Oh well, at least it’s easy for him to learn new things

Finding a random egg that your team hadn’t created was a shocker to you. You had no way to care for it since Pokémon weren’t a thing in this world so you decided to give it to Silver

He was a bit slack-jawed when you gave him a Pokémon egg. He doesn’t really know what to do or how to care for an egg but he was thankful he had his father to help him learn

It doesn’t matter to him what he gets when the egg hatches. It’s something you gave him and trusted him with. He has every intention of fully caring for it. If I had to give Silver a Pokémon, it’d either Galarian Rapidash (Ponyta) or Gallade (male Ralts) since I think he’d do well with psychic types. Besides, they work well for a knightly character

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Sebek had heard the rumors that you used other-worldly creatures to fight but he never knew whether to believe them or not. So when he allowed you to take him away from his duty and show him your surprise, he was stunned

So the rumors about you having strange creatures was true! But now this opens a whole can of questions for him. How did you get them? How do they fight? Are there different types? Different colors? Be prepared to answer a lot of them

Sebek is helpless when it comes to caring for your Pokémon. He only feeds your Pokémon what you say they should eat. As much as he wants to pamper them, he has to keep his composure and do as you tell him. He wouldn’t want to hurt them or lose your trust

Again, helpless. He wouldn’t be able to clean your Pokémon, especially if they’re the mischievous type or just don’t like baths. As much as he would like to help, he feels he wouldn’t be super good at it. Oh well, at least he’s willing to help and learn

So imagine finding a random egg that is in no way connected to your current team at all. There’s no possible way you’d be able to take care of him because of your lack of boxes so you decided to give it to Sebek

Although he was initially against having his own, it took only a few seconds to convince him because it was a gift from you and it can provide an advantage in fights…it was mainly because it was from you that he agreed to care for it to the best if his ability. Croc boy was the hardest for me actually but I narrowed it down to shiny Chimecho (Chingling) and Krookodile (Sandile). Just look at their entries. Trust me

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🐲🦇⚔️⚡️🐲🦇⚔️⚡️🐲🦇⚔️⚡️🐲🦇⚔️⚡️🐲🦇⚔️⚡️

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#twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland imagines #twisted wonderland x male reader #twst x male reader #diasomnia #malleus draconia #malleus draconia x gn reader #lilia vanrouge #lilia vanrouge x gn reader #twst silver #twst silver x gn reader #sebek zigvolt #sebek zigvolt x gn reader

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trashpandacraft · 10 months

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hi! ok so i'm going to talk about one of my top-five favourite things, which is: dyeing stuff! this is going to be specifically about dyeing protein fibres (animal fibres—wool, alpaca, silk, etc) in a pretty low-key way in your kitchen.

to be clear up front: this is not the most scientific, most perfectly reproducible, or most Objectively Correct way to dye things. i get a lot of fibre that i like this way, though, and i think that other people can, too.

fibre i've dyed that i think is neat:

you can also dye yarn like this:

yes, i like blue a lot. i also really like variegation and heathering, which is why most of the fibre here has patches of white—it's an intentional choice that i've made. you can make different choices.

here is what you need to dye things:

fibre, vinegar, dye, a pot, heat, and some water.

that was so you don't get overwhelmed by the impending wall of text. here is what you need to dye things (it's the same stuff!), but with way more detail:

fibre or yarn. this is the big one, obviously. i tend to dye in 100-200 gram batches, because that's approximately what fits on my stovetop easily. if you're very nervous about felting or harming your fibre, you can use stuff that's been treated to be superwash, start with yarn (which is harder to felt than fibre is), or use a felt-resistant breed like dorset or suffolk. honestly, though, i learned with merino because that's what i had, and it was fine. again, though, this guide is only for protein fibres. it will not work for things like cotton. the only exception to this is nylon, which will take on some colour, but less than a protein fibre will.

a mordant. this is a fancy way of saying a thing that makes dye stick, and for what we're doing here, it's citric acid or vinegar. your grocery store definitely has at least one of them, though if you can choose, i prefer citric acid, because i love wet wool smell but i do not always love wet wool vinegar smell.

dye. i use acid dyes, and am personally deeply loyal to dharma acid dyes, but ashford and jacquard acid dyes work the same way. if you don't want to buy dye or don't have access to it, food colouring will often work, as well, though i haven't tried this with natural food colourings and have no idea how well they'll work.

a dedicated dye pot. ok, if you're doing food dyes, you don't need this. if you're not, it's definitely best practice, though i don't know how dangerous it is not to. any large metal pot will do, but my favourite option is hotel pans, which are those huge metal pan/tray things that hold food at buffets and the like. i have a full-size one that's 15cm deep, and a half-size one that's 4cm deep. they're great because they let you lay out the fibre you're working with so you can see most of it in a single layer.

dedicated dye utensils. as before, i don't know how much of a huge deal this is. i'll be honest and admit that for several years i had a single pair of tongs that got used for all tong-requiring events, including dyeing, and i'm still alive. i suggest that you have at least a big spoon, and a big spoon and tongs are even better.

something to mix the dye in. yeah, i use empty plastic sports drink or soda bottles for this. you can be fancy and get mason jars or little squirt bottles or whatever, and if you get super into dyeing you'll want to mix up dye stocks, but that's way outside the scope of what we're doing here. i like the powerade bottles that have a little squirty mouthpiece, because it's fun to squirt dye onto things.

personal protective equipment. i think this is the part of things that freaks people out. ideally, you wear plastic gloves and a mask (yeah, like your covid masks) when you're working with dye. realistically, i almost never remember to put on gloves and just accept that my hands are going to be blue sometimes. you should wear a mask, because dye is an irritant, but the world is an imperfect place and i have wicked bad adhd and sometimes i forget. this isn't advice. i'm just being honest. you should use some kind of safety stuff. you probably won't die if you don't.

you might also want some little random bits: an old toothbrush or paintbrush, a pipe cleaner, some toothpicks, etc. this is mostly if you like speckles, or if you want very small patches of colour.

so first: there are a million ways to dye things, and i'm not convinced that any of them are objectively correct. i do what i do and it works for me. some of the things i do are the opposite of what most guides suggest, but i do them because i like the effects they create.

ok, that's all the background stuff you need. let's dye some stuff!

the number one most important thing to remember when you're dyeing is this:

you can always add more colour. you cannot take it away.

that's in fancy writing and bold because every once in a while i forget this, and every single time i end up regretting it.

here is how to dye things:

put water, citric acid (or vinegar), and fibre into a pot. add dye and heat. let cool completely. rinse the fibre in cool water, then hang to dry.

like, sure, we're going to go into way more detail, but push come to shove, if you do that, you're going to end up with dyed fibre. there are a lot of tutorials telling you that you must soak your fibre first, or you must add your citric acid this way, or hold the water at exactly this temperature, and i'm here to tell you that while any of these things can give you different results, those results aren't necessarily better.

the only way that you can totally screw this up is by accidentally felting your fibre, so before i get into the way more detail part of things, i'm going to talk about that.

how not to felt your fibre

i feel like if you've read this far, you know how things felt: wool, heat, and agitation. you may also notice that at least two of these things are required for dyeing. this can be stressful! but you don't have to be afraid of it. there's only been one time that i felted something to the point that it was unusable, and that happened because i literally fell asleep for several hours while the pot was on the stove. you can avoid doing this by simply setting an alarm—this is a good idea anyhow, because you'll want to check on your dye pot!

when you're dyeing, use the lowest heat that you can while still keeping the water at a simmer. if your stove, like mine, has one burner that's wildly unpredictable and sort of out of control, you may want to look for some sort of flame diffuser, also called a flame tamer or a simmer ring. i bought one on amazon for about fourteen dollars, and it's literally just a thick metal circle. it works fine.

you can also keep the heat low by using a pot with a thick bottom, though in my experience those are expensive, and if i had one i would be using it for soup, not wool.

avoid shocking your wool—never put room temperature wool into hot water, and never put hot wool into cold water. leave your wool in the dye bath until it's cooled completely, which for me usually means overnight.

finally, obviously you have to move the fibre around some. you'll need to peek under it in the pan, and when you're done, you have to rinse it and squish out the water. try to minimise handling, though. don't run water directly onto the fibre, don't get a wooden spoon and stir your dye pot around, don't wring the fibre dry when it's done.

you're probably never going to be perfect. i often find that i lose a gram or two of wool where fibres have grabbed onto each other, or where parts of the ends clumped up. it's not really felted, just sort of compacted, but it's not great to work with, and i'd rather lose a gram of fibre than fuss with the clumpy bits.

back to how to dye things

let's take it step by step, assuming a hundred grams of fibre.

put your pan on the stove and fill it halfway with water. add either a teaspoon of citric acid or a tablespoon of vinegar. this is going to help the dye strike, or stick to the fibre. the teaspoon/tablespoon is a guideline, but one that it's fine to exceed. adding more will help the dye strike faster, which can be useful if you're trying to create blocks of colour on your fibre. i usually err on the side of a little more than the guidelines, and just eyeball this—if you feel like the dye isn't taking well, you can add more later.

add your fibre to the pan. this is the first place you have to think about what you want the finished fibre to look like! you can put it into the pan any way you want, but i suggest trying to keep it in a relatively even layer, regardless of what that layer looks like. here are some ways to get specific effects:

if you want a gradient from one end of the fibre to the other, use a rectangular pan and lay your fibre out so that the line of it is parallel to the short sides of the pan

if you want a short, repeating gradient, use a rectangular pan and lay your fibre out so that the line of it is parallel to the long sides of the pan

if you want something that starts with very close repeats that get further apart as you go down the fibre, make an approximate spiral

if you don't want A Pattern (i usually don't) just lay things out in a single layer, more or less

here comes the next exciting part! decide if you want to let your fibre soak or not. again, doing or not doing this gives you some different effects!

soaking your fibre will mean that dye takes more evenly. if you want consistent colours, you'll want to soak.

not soaking your fibre means that the dye takes less evenly. the fibre on top will have less acid available to it, spends less time in the dye bath, and also has to actually get wet before it will start to dye. i actually love doing this, and think it affords a lot of cool opportunities to play with and layer colours.

if you're soaking, leave the fibre there until it's submerged. if not, don't.

now you're going to add dye! decision time, again.

you can add dye when the water is cold, which will give you more even dye coverage, and in my experience gives the colours more time to mix together

you can add dye when when the water is hot, which will give you less even coverage, and tends to encourage the colours to stay more delineated

probably surprising no one, i tend to heat the water first unless i'm starting with a base colour or i'm doing a two-colour gradient.

time to mix up some dye

as i mentioned earlier, i'm assuming that you're using powered acid dyes for this. if you're not, this mixing up part is technically optional—but doing it gives you way more control about how and where you place your colours, so i'm going to assume that you'll do it.

i usually mix dye in some sort of empty drink bottle. regardless of what you're using, before you add dye to anything, put some water in the bottle, wipe off the lip, put the lid on tightly, and shake the bottle vigorously. if there is any leakage at all, do not use that bottle. find a better bottle. if your bottle cap doesn't seal well or if you have an empty condiment bottle that's just a little wonky or whatever, you will get dye all over the kitchen, and your landlord will be really really mad about it, and you will regret your life choices. (if you own your kitchen, you can do whatever you want, but this isn't about you and you know it.)

so you have a bottle that seals tightly! great job. dump out the water and carefully put some dye powder into the bottle. remember earlier how i said you should be wearing a mask? this is the part where you should be wearing a mask.

i know that people are reading this and going, ok, but how much dye do i put in?

my answer is put in the amount that feels right in your heart, and don't forget the number one rule of dyeing things, which is that you can always add more colour, but you cannot take it away.

this isn't a very scientific answer. most dyes have a guideline about how much to use, expressed as a percentage of the dry weight of the fibre, which is what you use to get the whole quantity of fibre dyed evenly. for dharma dyes, it's like 1.5-2%, i think ashford is 1%, and jacquard is more like 2-4%, depending on the colour.

here is the problems with doing that in your kitchen: first, using that much dye will get you an evenly dyed piece of fibre, which—for me, at least—is basically the opposite of what i want. second, and more importantly, unless you have one of those teeny tiny scales used by jewelers and drug dealers, your kitchen scale will not weigh out such tiny quantities with any accuracy. third, if you do it like this, you really have to plan what you're doing ahead of time, because there's a point after which no more dye will bind! the fibre will be like enough thank u that's it i'm good and that'll be it, so you lose some of your ability to decide that actually, you want more green.

you can probably guess, at this point, that i don't weigh the dye. once you've done a couple batches of fibre with a given brand of dye, you'll start to get the vibes for how much you should use. if you really want a guideline, for a hundred grams of fibre, start with a quarter teaspoon of a given colour. you can add more—either more of this colour or a different one—later, as desired.

put your dye in the empty bottle, and then fill the bottle partway with hot water. the amount of water doesn't really matter here, nor does the specific temperature of the water. i usually fill about 3/4 of the way, because that way there's plenty of room for this next step, which is: wipe the lip of the bottle, recap it tightly, and then shake it up real good. the dye powder is going to dissolve into the water, and you now have a bottle of dye!

if you're going for a gradient, you might want to mix up your second colour so you can add them at (basically) the same time for more even mixing. if you're not, or if you only have one mixing bottle, you can do them one at a time.

oh my god we're finally putting dye on the fibre

are you ready? it's time!!

you have basically infinite options for how to do this, and many of them will give you different effects. here are some ideas:

pour the dye all at one side of the pan. and if you don't add anything else, your fibre will fade from the colour of the dye to the natural colour of the fibre

pour two colours, one at either side of the pan. depending on how much dye you use (and remember, you can always add more), this will give you either chunks of colour surrounded by white, or a two-colour gradient

add all the dye to unheated water and mix it gently, then let the fibre soak for a few minutes longer before turning on the heat. this will give you a fairly even colour

pour randomly all over, and you'll either end up with a tonal yarn or a heathered one, depending on how much dye you're using

add the dye to the water under the dry fibre, which will sink in and take up more dye on the bottom of the fibre than the top

if your heat wasn't on before, it should be now, and you're going to let the dye hang out in the hot but not boiling water for a while. how long? well, one of the cool things about dyeing with these dyes is that they exhaust, which means that when the dye has been sucked up by the fibre, the surrounding water will be clear. how long this takes will depend on the specific dye, how much of it you used, how much mordant you used, etc. i try to check every fifteen minutes.

reminder: if you started with room temperature water, the dye's not going to start taking until the water heats up, so don't check it after fifteen minutes and freak out that nothing has happened. it is fully normal for it to take up to an hour for the dye to exhaust. don't turn up the temperature, just give it time.

yay it worked!

at this point, you have a pot of hot water with some beautifully coloured fibre in it! but maybe it's not beautiful enough. maybe you want...more colours.

that's cool as hell and you should go for it. we mentioned two-colour gradients up there, but what if you want something else?

the answer, probably obviously, is adding more dye.

first, a caveat: while you can successfully make multicoloured gradients like this, it's more difficult than you think, and if it gets messed up—all the colours bleed into each other, say—it turns into a muddy mess. my suggestion is to stick to two (or three at most!) colour gradients until you have a much better feel for what you're doing.

let's talk about ways you can add more colour. you have two options: big colour and little colour.

big colour is going to add a lot of colour—you're going to mix up the dye and pour it just like you did before, but paying more attention to places that don't have dye yet. sometimes it's the middle of a gradient, or the white splotches from random pouring, or the half of the fibre that wasn't submerged when you started. or maybe you dyed the whole thing yellow, and now you want to add a blue gradient over top. whatever!

if you don't want to freehand pour, consider buying a couple large syringes, or a bottle with a squeezy top. these are also fun because you can easily get more colour between the laid-out fibre, or even under it.

in the pictures at the start of this post, the red-and-gold top and both yarns were dyed by adding big colour.

little colour isn't going to add big patches, but is going to add speckling, tonal depth, or smaller patches of colour. all of the blue-base fibres and the yellow-and-blue yarn were dyed like this.

if you're still reading this closely, you might have caught that i just said both yarns were dyed with big colour, and that the yellow-and-blue yarn was also dyed with little colour. these are both true! the base colours of the yarn were done to make big colour, but if you look at the full-size image, there are also a bunch of speckles. you can do whatever you want! no one can stop you!

here are some ways to add little colour:

mix up some dye, but use less water. add drops of the dye, either directly onto the fibre (more dramatic!) or in the water (tonal!)

use a toothpick to grab a little bit of dye powder and drop it into the dye bath (similar to the previous one, but a little less predictable)

put on a damn facemask. take a clean toothbrush, paintbrush, or pipecleaner, and just barely touch it to the dye powder. gently flick or tap the brush to add speckles of that colour

find a salt shaker that you're never going to use for anything but this. put citric acid, salt (to make it distribute better), and dye powder into it, and shake it up (with the holes covered, please cover the holes) to make sure they're evenly distributed. gently shake this over the fibre to add speckles, but more of them, and clustered together

put a little dye in a spray bottle and gently mist the exposed fibre, kinda glazing it with colour

another thing is that if you like a natural coloured yarn with dyed speckles, you can do any of these techniques without doing big colour first. the only thing to note when doing this is that you'll want to be very sure to spread out the fibre well, and maybe to consider dyeing one side, then very very carefully flipping it over and getting the other side.

ok, now what?

let's say that you've added all the colours that you want, and you've let your bath simmer long enough that the water is clear, or nearly clear. (if it's not, check troubleshooting, below.)

put the lid on your pan and walk away. if you don't have a lid, just walk away, but it's less dramatic.

the super frustrating part here is that the safest thing to do is wait until the water and fibre is fully cooled before you do anything else.

have i ignored this? yes

has it ever gone horribly wrong? not horribly wrong, but it's definitely caused me to lose an inch or two of roving on occasion

is it way more stressful if you don't wait? absolutely yes

honestly maybe just go to bed and deal with your fibre in the morning

so now let's say that it's morning and you slept long enough that your water and fibre are both room temperature, which often actually feels quite cool on your hands.

you have to drain your fibre. there are two ways to do this:

lift the fibre out of the water. this has the upside of not risking dumping your beautiful fibre into your sink, and not needing to maneuver a full pot of water, both of which are admirable. the downside is that wet fibre is fragile, and you'll want to be careful to support it.

dump the water out of the pan. this has the upside of minimising how much handling you're doing of the fibre, as well as (in my opinion) making rinsing easier. the downside is attempting to keep the fibre into the pot while you dump the water into the sink, and also needing to carry around a full pot of water.

secret third option: dump the fibre (and the water) into a strainer. upside: very easy, and you can keep the fibre in the strainer while you rinse, minimising both how much it needs to be handled and the weight on the fibre. downside: i never remember that this is an option until i'm already elbows-deep in acidulated water, discovering every tiny cuticle tear.

you're going to fill your dyepot with water again so that you can rinse the fibre. you want to minimise thermal shock, so keep the water temperature as close to the temperature of the fibre as you can, and don't run the water directly onto the fibre. i like to pull all the fibre to one side of the pan, and fill the pan on the other side.

side note: if you, smart person, remembered that you can use a colander, simply fill a pot with water, put the colander in the pot, and gently agitate the colander.

if you, person who is deeply relatable, did not remember you can use a colander and now have a pot with clean water and fibre, gently move your fibre in the water to encourage any excess dye and also citric acid to get out of there.

drain your fibre again, and this time, you're going to squeeze it dry. you're still trying to minimise agitation, so this isn't a 'wring it out' situation, it's a 'gently squish it between your hands and/or a hand and the side of the pot' situation.

hang your fibre to dry. remember what i was saying earlier about it being fragile? let me suggest, here, that you do not simply drape the entire length over a single hanger or something and hope for the best. if you literally have a single hanger, at least drape it back and forth a bit, but better if you can use more than one hanger, or a clothes drying rack, or that weird metal wine rack thing that came with your fridge that you've never used, or whatever.

important reminder: drip-drying things will make your floor wet! if you live somewhere very clear with no major roads or pollen nearby, you can probably dry things outside, but if you don't, you'll probably want to position the drying rack in a bath, shower, laundry area, or otherwise over something that will catch and/or absorb the water.

how long it takes for the fibre to dry is another unknowable variable. if it's warm and dry where you are, it might literally be overnight. if it's damp and cool, it can take days. the batch i posted a couple days ago literally took almost a full week to dry. spread it out as best you can, gently squeeze out the water you can, and otherwise you just have to wait.

you're done!

when it's dry, that's it, you're done! you might find that you need to pick off some little lint balls or a bit of compacted or slightly felted fibre from the tips, but other than that, you should be good to go.

like most fibre stuff, this is best maintained by handwashing in cool water. you may see a little bit of dye or colour loss the first time you wash it, which is pretty normal and nothing to worry about.

congratulations! you made it to the end of this incredibly long post, and if you followed along, you've just dyed some fibre!

troubleshooting

this isn't dyed enough! i want more colours!

add more dye! i'm not the boss of you.

this is true even after the fibre is all done and dryed. there's nothing that says you can't dye it again—you can, and i have.

some fibre seems to require more dye than others. silk, for example, dyes beautifully with acid dyes, but also needs way more dye than i expect it to.

remember that if you're dyeing something that's a wool/cotton blend, for example, the cotton isn't going to dye. the only exception is nylon, which will kinda dye, but not as dramatically. this guide will not work for plant fibres.

this is too dyed! i want fewer colours!

please refer back to the number one most important thing about dyeing, which—as you know—is: you can always add more colour, but you cannot take it away.

pull out some more fibre and try again. this has a learning curve, just like any other fibre craft.

these colours don't look like i expected!

this can be about a lot of things.

colour guides, especially if you're looking at them online, aren't always very accurate.

colour guides tend to assume that you're dyeing a single colour at the suggested dye percentage of weight, and using less than that will give paler colours.

dyes, especially if you're mixing brands, can interact with each other and behave in ways you didn't expect.

dyes can also break, which is when they split into their component colour molecules. this happens commonly with blacks and browns, food colouring, and anything that dharma trading has marked as 'advanced'. some people find this very desirable and seek it out; some people are very frustrated by it.

the ph of your water can sometimes affect your dye. i've been lucky enough that i've only lived places with lead problems, not weird ph stuff, so i haven't investigated this closely, but if you're consistently not getting the results you expect, even going for a single, solid-colour dye, look at the ph.

my dye water's not clear!

if you used a quarter teaspoon of dye and a hundred grams of fibre, and it's been, say, 45 minutes of actually hot water and your water still isn't clear, you probably didn't use enough mordant, and you should add some more citric acid or vinegar to encourage the dye to get in there and do its thing.

if you used you used more like a teaspoon of dye, or if the citric acid doesn't change anything, you used too much dye for your fibre. you can either shrug and pour it down the drain, or you can add some more fibre and dye that, too.

my rinse water's not clear!

you probably used too much dye. it's ok—just keep rinsing it, gently, until it's more or less clear.

some colours just like to run—you know how every once in a while you get a yarn and it just bleeds a little bit every time you wash it? sometimes it's just like that. i wouldn't worry about it too much.

my fibre has felty/clumpy bits!

a little bit of this is normal, especially at the ends of a fibre that felts easily (this means you, merino!)

pick off the bits that you don't like—this is generally fairly easy, and involves very minimal fibre loss. i don't bother doing it until i sit down to spin, and then just pull off bits as i come to them.

if there's a lot of felty/clumpy bits, more than you can reasonably pick out, you agitated the fibre too much. there's not much for this other than trying to card it out, which may or may not work.

sometimes this happens because your stove got weirdly aggressive and boiled your fibre. especially for wool that's prone to felting, the bubbling and jostling can be enough to encourage more clinginess than you'd like.

i want my dyeing to be reproducible!

this is kinda doable. it's a handmade thing, so it's always going to have some natural variance, but you can do it.

buy a jeweler's scale that measures in fractions of a gram.

start measuring your dye and acid, and take detailed notes about what you do.

follow those notes in the future, and you'll be probably 90% of the way there.

i want to dye with natural dyes!

i fully support this and have played around with it a little bit myself, but absolutely do not know enough about it to advise you.

the internet is very large and full of many people who are much smarter than i am, and i feel confident that at least one of them is desperate to tell you all about how to do natural dyeing.

i am, at this point, not that person.

i want to dye plant fibres!

i am begging you to find another guide, because this one will not work.

you didn't answer my question!

that's what my inbox is for

i have to reiterate that i'm just a person with real specific interests who started dyeing things because i couldn't find or afford the kinds of colourways that i wanted.

i am not a professional

i will do my best to answer questions, but sometimes the answer is 'just fuck around until you find out'

plant fi—

shhhhh

the end

thank you for reading this incredibly long post! i might make another one in the near future, either so i can show pictures or because i took out an entire section about how to choose colours and pick a colour scheme and work with colours, and i kinda want to talk more about that, but this is no joke almost six thousand words long, so i thought, you know. maybe not tonight.

anyhow, i hope that this was useful to someone! thank you for letting me talk about one of my very favourite things.

307 notes · View notes

eiilese · 9 months

Note

Love the designs and descriptions you did for the straw hats!! I do want to ask, since they all have different roles and skills do they meet the crew at different points in the story? Like, since Robin is the shipwright would she have met the crew at Water 7 or would it still be Alabasta but under different circumstances? Since she’s not an archeologist she wouldn’t have been raised on O’Hara, right?

Just curious to see what your thoughts are😊 - thanks.

thank you so much for the ask!! sorry this took so long to answer it took awhile to gather my ideas. i’m so happy with how well this au thing was received ;u; TY to people who left tags and replies!! i read everything 🫶

here is the original post for role swap! this post has explanations for backstories! i really did try to have drawings to go with everything but i burned out as this month went on so not every character has doodles :(

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i kept everything mostly the same in terms of when the strawhats meet each person. i didn’t want to change too much to avoid changing important character moments that happen in canon

this isn’t a super heavy rewrite, there’s a lot of backstory to juggle and i’m not equipped to write such an in-depth au rn 😭 but i might make separate posts for arcs like water 7 or wci!! though i kept a lot of backstory the same theres a lot of rewrite potential for those sagas

i hope these are fun to read about nonetheless ^_^ i included some stuff from @flute-of-pan pan and @onethousandsunnies because they left tags on the original post that were cool ideas

nami, vice capt.

not much changes!! instead of forcing her to chart maps, arlong might just have her around as a servant girl. regardless, the deal to buy back cocoyashi village still stands and nami works hard for it

generally i think her selflessness and loyalty to her village makes her fit to be a vice captain. she looks out for people at her own detriment and was willing to take the fall for such much ahhh

in my opinion she’s good vice captain material!! perhaps a cowardly one but still reliable. also a good treasurer for the crew as always

zoro, cook

zoro grew up training to be a swordsman and competes against kuina, but he also has a knack for cooking as a hobby. he’s mostly the same but sanji’s “stuck on a rock in the middle of the ocean with zeff” happens to him instead (flute-of-pan suggested the cook always suffers the fate of starvation)

kuina decides to run away and zoro is roped into her plans. it goes wrong and they get stranded on a rock, eventually arguing and ending up on opposite sides of the rock with the little food they brought

zoro finds out kuina gave him everything they had soon after she stops replying to him. he’s rescued thanks to kuina’s dad, who tracked them down with vivre cards. kuina’s had long since burned up

similar to canon, zoro continues striving to become the world’s strongest after her death. i think this backstory coupled with him eating those stomped riceballs at the very beginning of the story is so….(GESTURE) it’s very reminiscent of sanji’s no-waste-policy which he would absolutely also have

sanji, sniper

germa 66 has a mafia aesthetic now 👍i only have the willpower to draw reiju here she ended up kind of cluttered but i like my vision

sanji’s backstory is mostly the same: he and his siblings are genetically modified to be the perfect soldiers, but he had a kind nature that made him the target of abuse. after reiju helps him escape, he ends up with zeff and worked as a janitor. zeff loses his leg while trying to save sanji in a maritime accident; though they don’t get stranded anywhere, sanji has to be indebted to him somehow

when the baratie is opened, he works as a busser/guard against unruly guests. flute-of-pan mentioned that he could fire the canons of the ship

when the strawhats meet him on the baratie, sanji still gives don krieg’s crew food. i don’t think his kindness around that would disappear just bc he doesn’t have a whole starving incident

usopp, navigator

on top of bluffing about being the leader of a huge pirate army, he would create fake maps and brag to everyone in syrup village (especially kaya) about these places he so evidently visited. kaya loved his drawings even if the places weren’t real

his dream is to create a Real map of the whole world, not a fake map that he makes up out of stories. drafting the real world makes him a brave explorer of the seas, which he also wants to become :)

when the strawhats meet him, they were basically relying on nami’s limited sailing skills to get around. not only do they get the going merry but they have a real, reliable navigator now! AND he’s multitalented B)

chopper, helmsman

from a young age he set his sights on sailing the seas to escape from the isolation he faced on drum island. he would routinely make little boats for himself to escape the island on, failing each time, and hiriluk would always nurse him back to health

instead of studying to be a doctor, chopper has a general desire to be helpful and acted as an assistant to hiriluk’s medical endeavors

both flute-of-pan and onethousandsunnies pitched that chopper studied stuff like ocean currents!! overall he studied the ocean real hard but would never leave the island without hiriluk

hiriluk’s death would glue him to doctor kureha’s side and it isn’t until the strawhats come that he has the courage to embark on a new journey

franky, muscian

bro grew up running around water 7 trying to get people to join his band. tom and iceberg are still his family. his shipbuilding skills don’t go past an amateur level in this au. he would develop a line of dinky guitars (or instruments in general) that also had lasers/canons/confetti in them. his dream is A FRANKY WORLD TOUR 🤞FREE ADMISSION

many of his weaponized instruments littered the shipyard, spandam uses them in his attack

after the whole tom/spandam situation unfolds, iceberg is the one to find and reconstruct franky into a cyborg after getting run over by the sea train. but he won’t implement piano key abs no matter how much franky asks 🙄

the newly formed franky family protect the city and throw unsolicited concerts in the middle of the street B)

robin, shipwright

though she’s not an archeologist, she still grew up on ohara! instead of archeology, she’s a gifted engineer. her devil fruit made her an outcast and her strange, misunderstood inventions did not help her case

when jaguar d saul gets stranded on ohara, robin constructs the raft for him :) the buster call unfolds the same as canon except this time, everyone’s actually not lying when they say robin can’t read poneglyphs! she never learned!! again flute-of-pan had the cool idea that she is wrongly accused. still, she’s pursued and branded as a devil child

she ends up with crocodile, who believes she can read poneglyphs. she takes advantage of this and earns his protection from the government but her ruse is uncovered when she lies to croc about what alabasta’s poneglyph says (girl cannot read that!)

robin dreams of creating a ship that can carry her and the friends she wishes to have. after meeting robin in alabasta she joins the strawhats!!

brook, doctor

he was the doctor of the rumbar pirates. an injured laboon came to like brook after he nursed him back to health!! when yorki became sick from disease brook tried his hardest to cure him, but failed :(

he was doomed to watch his crewmates die to poison that he cannot hope to cure because he himself was also dying. when he came back thru his fruit it was already too late :( the rumbar pirates Do record a song for laboon though this event cannot be edited 🤞

met in thriller bark; ik that’s a long ass time to go without a real doctor on board

by the time they meet brook everyone’s already so battered that he has to go to town on them with gauze and stitches. the company delights him ^_^

jinbei, archeologist

i mentioned this in the first post abt this au but his interest in history sparked thanks to the history of joyboy and fishman island being so intertwined. at some point in his youth, jinbei frequently visited ohara (prior to the buster call) and grew a strong relationship with the scholars there (i’m just assuming they wouldn’t be racists 🤪) he runs into robin a handful of times

he secretly learns how to read poneglyphs here leading up to the buster call. he wasn’t on the island when it happened so he managed to avoid robin’s fate

his story proceeds the same from there with the neptune army, joining fisher tiger, meeting koala, etc…

i enjoy the idea of getting invited to be a warlord by the government while simultaneously being one of the most wanted people in the world for knowing poneglyph secrets

—

also i’m sorry if there are things i forgot about or details that don’t make sense >—>o

the anime’s pacing has ruined my enthusiasm for awhile lol and i’ve consumed a lot of media since catching up!! everyone’s backstories/canon events aren’t too fresh in my memory but i did some researching to remedy it 🫡

#one piece #art #ei98 art #one piece usopp #nico robin #one piece fanart #roronoa zoro #monkey d. luffy #nami #franky one piece #one piece brook #one piece jinbe #tony tony chopper #one piece sanji #vinsmoke reiju #role swap au

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cerise-on-top · 4 months

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heya, could you deliver someone kate head canons on how’d she’d be in a relationship! i adore your stuff by the way!!!! Thank ya

Yeah, of course I can! Glad to hear people like my silly HCs, imagines and drabbles! Thank you for the request, I hope you can enjoy it!

General Dating HCs for Laswell

First things first: There’s a chance you might not see her as often as you’d like. She has a very high position at the CIA, and thus works a lot in other countries as well. While Laswell does her best to make time for you, this isn’t always possible due to her job. However, when she does finally have time for you she doesn’t particularly want to leave your side either. Regardless of whether the two of you are relaxing while sitting on the couch and drinking tea or you’re at an amusement park, chances are Laswell will be by your side.

She’s not a fan of PDA, and that’s something you’ll have to respect. Laswell, generally speaking, isn’t that into physical contact with other people, not even you. You can ask her to cuddle every once in a while, you can ask her for a hug too, she won’t mind that too much, but too much physical contact is just suffocating to her. Laswell prefers to show her affection through other means. She has an amazing memory and remembers just about anything you say that might be useful. If you ever wanted a certain gift, Laswell has the means and the money to get it for you, even if you just made an off-handed comment once a few months ago. It will be yours eventually. And because she has a good grasp on how people react to certain things, chances are most of her gifts to you will be something you’ll like.

While she may not be a chef, she’s a pretty alright cook too. Cooking isn’t something she does very often, not that she hates it either, but she, more often than not, doesn’t have the time for it. Usually she just gets something on the go, eats out or orders takeout, but with you, if cooking is something you like, she’s more than happy to help you out. Just give her the order to cook the noodles or cut the tomatoes and she’ll do it. While she does like to make some chit chat with you at appropriate times, especially during cooking, if you prefer silence so you can focus better, then that’s okay as well. When she thinks a meal turned out especially well then she’ll have you try it by spoonfeeding you a bit.

Laswell is an older, but classy woman, she will want to go to fancy restaurants with you at some point just to drink some wine and maybe eat some fresh seafood. Naturally, you don’t have to eat some salmon and shrimp, but you don’t have to hold back either. If you want the pizza, the schnitzel or the burger, then that’s more than alright as well, but please, at the very least, consider the steak and the champagne. Considering the restaurants she picks are very expensive, it’s very likely that she’ll be paying for the food there. You can return the favor by paying next time you’re out to eat Chinese at the buffet or, if you want to, you can also just help her a bit with the chores and do a few more of them. This isn’t her trying to get out of doing them, though, she just wants to spoil you and show you the world of upper class people.

If you want to spoil Laswell as well, then I can tell you that unless your workplace pays you very well, you likely won’t be able to afford the things she likes. Whiskey or wine of several hundreds of dollars are not very cheap, so Laswell won’t mind you not getting her anything like it as well. However, she can appreciate you remembering the small things about her. You remember her liking lambs and got her a cute keychain? You made her the salmon filet she likes so much? Bought her favorite movie on DVD? Yeah, she notices and will be grateful. Those small things, however, might sometimes turn into something bigger with how she always likes to repay her “debts”. And so, an I love you has turned into a vacation in the Maldives at one point.

Will want you to be acquainted with either Nikolai, Price or both, preferably. Because she’s aware something bad can happen any time, she wants you to know them so that, in case something bad happens, you have someone to turn to. Besides, they’re her closest friends, she knows she can trust them with you. If you get along with them? Even better! That way she can invite you to the occasional drink with them and you can talk about anything and everything. And if you ever were in trouble and couldn’t reach her, then either of them would always pick up, no matter what. Your safety goes above all else, of course, but sometimes, some things can’t be prevented entirely, so it’s for the best you know them.

Overall, she’s a very caring partner, regardless of whether she’s your girlfriend, fiancée or wife, she’ll make sure you’re always happy. She’s been through enough herself to know what it’s like to be unhappy with where you are in life, so it doesn’t matter to her what she needs to do in order to see you smile again. Make sure to return the love and you’ll find yourself with one of the most loving, loyal partners out there. She’ll go to the end of the world and beyond to find you and make sure you’re okay. Make her a warm meal, give her some nice gifts and spend your time with her, the last thing is all that Laswell really wants in her life. As long as the two of you are together, she’s sure everything will be alright.

#cod #cod x reader #kate laswell #kate laswell x reader #overnight came four requests and I genuinely don't have all the time in the world to work on all of them immediately #even if they're good #so if requests keep coming at a rate like this then I might have to close the ask box for a few days so I can work on them #I've never gotten requests this quickly on my other blog but then again that game wasn't as popular either #I'm glad I took on this HC style again because I don't think I could write scenarios with this many requests #might also implement a character limit sometime in the future #saves me some time since working on requests does take up quite some time actually #I might just rework my entire introduction post in general and implement some rules in the future #it doesn't look like much as it is right now after all #but anyway #thank you for requesting! as I've said many times before I love Laswell and it makes me happy that people love her as well!

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justalittlesolarpunk · 5 months

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hi! i have been experiencing The Horrors lately (just general hopelessness about the state of the world and especially in regards to climate change) and i am just wondering - do you have any advice for incorporating climate action into one’s everyday life? i need to do something about this but the problem feels so big that i feel like i can’t, like i am drowning in it and i need to learn to swim

Hi my love, sorry it took me a while to respond, I’ve been quite tired!

So first off, the Horrors are reasonable, it’s a very sensible human response to the state of things around you and shows you have empathy and that you care. I say this because it’s all too easy to shame yourself for despair, but it’s natural that we fall into it sometimes.

In terms of doing climate action a little every day, there’s so much you can get your teeth into. For starters, there are personal choices, like giving up flying or meat and dairy if you can. Sure, these don’t add up to much, but they can really change how you feel and working with a smaller burden of guilt can be life-changing. Similarly making choices like switching your electricity and heating and getting an electric car (or even better, taking the train, bus, tram, your feet or a bus) can help you get into a more positive mindset as you feel like you are ‘doing your part’. Check if you have any savings or pensions invested in fossil fuels and switch them over. Even buying from zero waste shops can help shift your mood, even if it’s too small to shift the whole economy.

Once you’ve got all these little changes out of the way, it’s time to think systemic. Most places will have a local activist group you can join, which usually only involves a commitment to weekly meetings - can you attend XR, A22, Greenpeace or Friends of The Earth gatherings in your neighbourhood? These will usually allow you to start attending protests and keying into wider campaign networks.

Something else you can do is bring the subject up with people in your life, to contribute to a wider cultural shift where climate conversations are normalised, and you can agitate for changes at your job or university/school that will bring the institution’s emissions down.

Try to consume a more balanced media diet, seeking out what is going right in the world as well as what is going wrong. Sites like Positive News and the Good News Network are helpful for this. Supernova is a purely positive social media app if you’re looking for a more uplifting scrolling experience.

But much more important is to get outside and to make real-life community. If there’s a conservation or gardening volunteer group in your area I’d highly recommend getting involved with it - nothing has helped me as much as getting my hands in the dirt, doing meaningful work to grow food to feed my neighbours. A lot of our climate anxiety stems from fear that we won’t be able to feed ourselves or that natural beauty will vanish, so connecting with crops or landscapes is a great way to soothe some of that. Building relationships with neighbours or affinity groups (such as LGBT, POC or disabled organisations) can help you feel part of a more resilient network of people who can help each other out in a crisis. Plus if you get to plant trees regularly I guarantee that will help you feel like you’re contributing.

Solarpunk content is great for improving your outlook too - whether it’s optimistic sci-fi, utopian cityscapes or anarchist politics, it all uplifts you and reminds you of what’s possible. Check out people’s stories of what they’re doing to make the world a little better to remind yourself you’re not in it alone.

If you can afford to, a regular donation to groups working to reforest, re-wet peatland, re-seed mangroves or combat soil erosion is a pretty tangible way to fight the climate crisis. Be sure to do all the obvious stuff like voting and engaging with other political pathways too.

A fun weekend’s activity could be seedbombing with friends or building a bee house - there’s lots you can do that’s crafty or creative that also helps your local environment, even if it’s just growing food or pollinator friendly plants on your windowsill or letting your lawn rewild itself. Taking an attitude of grateful, affectionate kinship with all the plants and animals around you will aid in building a sense of connection with the ecosystem and reminding you that you’re part of a grand, resilient web of life.

Put together the emergency kit I detail in an earlier post, so you feel prepared for facing extreme weather and taking part in mutual aid. Teach yourself to forage or at the very least recognise the common plants in your area. This counteracts species blindness and makes you more considerate of the non-human.

You could even consider altering your career path, if you’re an adult, and re-training to work in the climate movement, though this will not be accessible for everyone. If you’re a younger person you could look into pursuing an educational path that will allow you to join the green sector.

If you can get some, therapy with an eco-informed professional can be hugely beneficial for channeling your very reasonable feelings of terror into meaningful action that benefits you and the planet, though admittedly there’s only so much individualised therapy can do for such a huge problem - perhaps there’s a support group you can go to?

And finally, make sure you take some time every day, preferably an hour if you can spare it, but certainly at least fifteen minutes, to do something you really love, that brings you genuine joy, and has nothing to do with the climate crisis. You can’t pour from an empty cup and you can’t put out fires if you’re burnt out. Rest, regeneration and self-care are prerequisites for sustainable movement building and you deserve to have moments of unalloyed happiness. You are categorically NOT in this alone, you are part of a huge, ever-growing moment full of people who are working towards the same goal even though most of you will never meet. And so while we need you now more than ever, there’s also enough of us that you can take a few minutes to feel better and it won’t cost us the fight. As an older activist said to me recently, even when we sleep our comrades across the world are waking up ready to face the day’s struggle.

Ultimately, a lot of these are just things that have worked for me, and they won’t all be accessible or appropriate to you. Some of them are more about changing your viewpoint than radically altering the status quo around the climate. But I know I fight better when I feel optimistic and well in myself, so these are my suggestions. I hope some of them help, and I want to commend your strength and bravery in reaching out for advice and connection, because that’s how we keep fighting, and that’s how we win.

The Horrors are real, but so are the Wonders. And one of those Wonders is you.

#solarpunk #hopepunk #environmentalism #social justice #cottagepunk #community #optimism #bright future #climate justice #positivity #looking forward #keeping on #activism #sustainability #the wonders

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jimmy-dipthong · 1 month

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Translation of Sekai no Owari - Habit

I love this song, and the choreo is fucking crazy. I'll attempt to explain some of the decisions I made in the translation below the cut!

First a little explanation about this song. I have been thinking about my gender for a few years now, and I recently had a few conversations that have made me realise I'm probably agender. My partner showed me this song at the peak of when I was thinking about it the most (she didn't know at the time), and I was shocked at how relevant the lyrics were to my thought process and especially to our relationship. This song means a lot to me, and I felt like I just had to translate it.

Anyway, let's talk translation. I've had a look at some other translations, and mine slightly differs in that I feel I've attempted to convey the core message of the song more strongly than the others. For example:

陰キャ陽キャ "What's your MBTI?"

This line could be translated to something literal like "are you cheerful or gloomy" but I felt it was better to use an english-world equivalent of a popular system of putting people into boxes. Also worth noting that this line is extremely short, and my subtitling software warns you when the amount of time the subtitle appears for is too short, based on how many letters are in it. The translation needed to be like, 3 short words. I'm honestly pretty happy with this, I think it fits well and introduces the premise of the song well.

気付かない本能の外側を覗いていかない？　気分が乗らない？ Nice dichotomy idiot, what exists outside it?　Wanna take a peek? Not in the mood?

Ok, obviously this isn't a direct translation, but I love that post and this song is basically "nice dichotomy idiot" the song, so I really wanted to work it in somewhere. A literal translation would be like "Won't you peek outside your subconscious instincts?" and I had trouble making that sound song-y in english until I decided to work in the meme.

やってるのにイケないヤツ and the ones using skills they don’t have

The Japanese here is a bit of a double entendre. It could be translated to "people doing stuff who really shouldn't be doing that" (いけない being kind of equivalent to ダメ in such an interpretation), but it could also mean "people who are fucking but can't cum". I tried really hard to work in similar sexual imagery ("the ones who go but don't come"??) but it just didn't work and in the end I just made it mirror the preceding line.

I almost want to say that was the hardest line in the song but that award has to go to this:

大人の俺が言っちゃいけない事言っちゃうけど説教するってぶっちゃけ快楽酒の肴にすりゃもう傑作でもって君も進むキッカケになりゃ

Most adults won’t admit it, but what the hell, Lecturing is such a guilty pleasure This, plus a drink - that's heaven And if this gets you to grow up?

Making this catchy and natural was really tough. I actually stole a bit of the first line from another translation because I liked the way they handled the 大人の俺 part. 酒の肴にすりゃ is also a difficult thing to translate - in the English speaking world we don't really have this idea that food needs to accompany a drink.

But the line I'm most happy with is this:

すぐ世の中金だとか愛だとか運だとか縁だとかなぜ2文字で片付けちゃうの？

It’s all about cash, or love, or luck, or fate How neat, summing up the world in 4 letters.

This wasn't a particularly hard translation to come up with ("love" and "luck" are basically the only translations for those words which locked in "4 letters", and it wasn't hard to find 4 letter words for 金 and 縁), but I was surprised to find that none of the existing translations I could find did this. One went with "Why do you want to wrap it all up with a single word?" and another even further abstracted, "How can it be so simple?"

I hope you enjoyed the song/translation! Let me know if you would have translated something differently or if I've made a mistake, I really love seeing your responses!

#langblr #japanese #japanese language #language learning #learning japanese #translation #agender #language #jimmy blogthong

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makerofmadness · 9 months

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What's with Balloon Boy and the Daycare Attendant?

The Balloon World arcade machine exists, it's in the DA's room and both characters are involved in it. It's probably one of the most cryptic minigames in the FNAF series as a whole, but while we could ponder what exactly it's supposed to mean (maybe I'll do that for all the security breach minigames eventually), the main question I have is this:

WHY Balloon Boy specifically? Why is the minigame about HIM?

Is there a connection between the two characters? Or was it a completely random decision?

Out of nowhere, thinking about Balloon World, I came to a realization:

The Lights.

Balloon Boy's entire gimmick in FNAF 2 was that if he got into your office, he would disable your flashlight and vent lights (...somehow. I know we all make the jokes about him taking the batteries [and then that FNAF 57: Freddy In Space thing in FNAF World said he just straight-up steals your entire flashlight], but you never see the battery icon disappear or appear empty in FNAF 2 itself when he gets into your office. And the vent lights also stop working, so unless they also operate on batteries, then... does he actually take them from you?).

What's the one rule in the daycare?

Keep the lights on.

His mechanic is the antithesis to what Sun wants and exactly what Moon would want. Balloon Boy doesn't keep the lights on. He prevents you from turning them on at all.

(which also makes me kinda sad there wasn't a Glamrock version of BB. Then again, I don't know how exactly he would've uniquely affected like anything. Regardless I am hoping for the day someone in the fandom makes a glamrock bb who is arch-enemies with sun and gets along well with moon skseijdndndnd-)

It feels kinda obvious and I'm guessing I'm not the only person to think about this, but I have never seen anyone else bring this up. Not on YouTube, not on tumblr, nowhere. Maybe if I go looking for it I'll see, but i'm surprised I haven't bumped into anyone else saying this just naturally. I go into the BB tags a LOT, surely SOMEONE would've said something, right? I don't even see it noted in the trivia on the page for the arcade game on the fnaf wiki.

...but is this supposed to mean anything? Or is it just a cute little reference or callback? it's hard to say, especially with how ambiguous the minigame is.

Though I DID think of ONE thing... (possible minor spoilers for Ruin under the cut):

Saw this pointed out in a youtube video that the BB World screen (with Eclipse, who makes their proper debut in Ruin after effectively being foreshadowed by the minigame in SB's base game) can be seen on the ceiling in the DA's room. Which makes sense, obviously, but also take note of the pirate-themed windows in the hallway leading to it.

...now, which character do most of us tend to associate with Balloon Boy? His "tag-team partner," of sorts?

Foxy. The Pirate.

With this, I found that there's more Foxy-related stuff associated with the daycare area than I had previously realized because I had never made any connections before. I mean, Kids' Cove is directly linked to it for god's sake.

Like. I hope i haven't forgotten to mention anything (I've been writing this post over the course of hours 'Cus I had stuff to do in the middle of it all). My brain's kinda starting to fry. But basically: Was Foxy originally meant to be the Daycare Attendant, in-universe? Was there gonna be a Glamrock Balloon Boy with him, like as his first mate or something??? Were they gonna be connected to Fazbear Theater????? (Uh basically Sun/Moon to my knowledge from confirmation in the books and a lot of more subtle implications in-game mainly involving environmental pieces were originally meant to be in the Fazbear Theater as a stage animatronic but got moved to daycare duty instead and being reprogrammed. Which actually explains a lot about them when you think about it-)

Like. Ok I'm forgetting where I was going with this, I'm sorry, but I guess it's food for thought/adds to the weird connections between DA and BB, I guess. Idk. I can't focus that well right now to keep making new ideas.

felt like sharing my interpretation of the Balloon World minigame itself at least since earlier I did kinda finally get it down concretely:

I kinda developed a theory that Eclipse is Sun/Moon's "safe mode" and that rebooting DA reactivated Eclipse as a result. Like, they're their own AI that was at one point implemented. but then Vanny happened and locked them out thanks to the whole Glitchtrap virus thing (albeit it only seemed to reach Moon, while Sun remains seemingly unaffected. Guessing it's because they're different AIs [finally implied/basically confirmed by their Ruin dialogue). Eclipse has seemingly not been active for some time, or at least never post-pizzaplex closure, given how they're seemingly completely oblivious to the fact that this place is closed with no signs of opening.

So the minigame was foreshadowing Eclipse's existence and implying their "trapped" nature, which also could be seen as paralleling Vanessa's whole "Vanny" situation, especially given how iirc one of the messages related to princess quest can be found near the arcade machine.

#This post kinda crumbled toward the end but I hope it's still interesting enough :'3 #fnaf #fnaf sb #fnaf ruin #fnaf eclipse #fnaf sun #fnaf moon #daycare attendant #balloon boy

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resident-idiot-simp · 8 days

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I love the Black dog idea so much!!! And it doesn’t go against the premise at all. Imagine Simon’s human his whole life and thinks Mythics are just lazy spoiled princesses only to become one himself also gaining his new name Ghost. The symbolism between life and death with Soap and Ghost and how opposites can attract and balance each other vs Farah and Hadir where the opposites can tear people apart instead.

People absorb magic their whole lives and while it’s most common to hybridise as a small child if an adult needs to absorb a lot of magic quickly to survive a dangerous situation it’s possible they will also hybridise. In cases like those the area, type of danger, internal magic they’ve absorb in there life and the persons desires would affect the creature they became ie wanting to survive vs wanting revenge would affect the outcome. Being English and being buried alive in an unmarked grave plus wanting revenge = a very pissed black dog hybrid!!!!

In this universe wendigos are a thing with all the magic around but they’re not hybrids they are full creatures. The American military tried using them but they couldn’t control them they had no intelligence beyond hunting for food and couldn’t distinguish between allies or foes.

Fae and a bunch of other creatures are also a present, them returning to the world is what brought back the magic. Soap being a unicorn is fae adjacent and he gets along with the fair folk surprisingly well (the fae courts also completely disregard human royalty (Soap finds this hilarious Ghost doesn’t)).

Roba was also a mythic he was an “old coyote” trickster and used his power to torment people. Hey got away with it so long because mythics are basically above the law in most cases. They will always be treated better than a regular hybrid even one like Ghost. People are lerry of of death affiliated hybrids like vulters or ravens and there are a few nasty stereotypes floating about. Alex probably gets called dumb a couple times a month and the amount of freedom jokes Graves cops a beyond count. Nick’s viewed as a violent brute stuff like that.

Valeria almost died on the mission where she usurped the previous cartel leader and became a regular hybrid to survive. She was unarmed, injured, and surrounded by enemies. She need a way to defend herself and she found one (she’s super venomous).

SOAP GOT HIS NAME FROM SOAPWART because when he uses his magic that shit starts growing everywhere and when Ghost uses his it kills them off. The only reason their home isn’t overgrown with it is because Ghost keeps it incheck.

Ok that's good I'm glad it works because it really feels like it works. I see so in a moment of desperation or dire situation they can transform to survive, it makes sense. The symbolism between Soap and Ghost is amazing an it feels important honestly because it can also delude the godly nature of the Mythics. Them being opposite of Farah and Hadir works so well.

That explanation works well I man after all who wants to fuck with pissed a black dog?

heheheheh Wendigos that makes a lot of sense honestly you can also have it to where they are just smart enough to know they want NO part in the military BS. However I still have the question of what can and can't be a hybrid. Dragons can but not Wendigos, Black dogs but not fae. What is the deciding factor of what can and can't be a hybrid?

I love the idea that Soap and the Fae are just besties and Ghost is just there. ALSO FAE COURT! (poor Ghost)

OLD COYOTE TRICKSTER ROBA IS SO SMART! I like the negative stereotypes it makes the world feel more real and honestly I think it is necessary. The Jokes made at everyone expense is absolutely something that would happen.

Valeria backstory is perfect for her character I love it so much!

I LOVE THAT THEY ARE PERFICT FOR EACHOTHER!

#call of duty modern warfare #cod modern warfare #john soap mactavish #soap x ghost #ghoap #hybrid au #simon ghost riley

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redhothingz · 2 months

Text

!!!Mafia Boss HC!!!

This is for COD MW2, requested by mindscape123

They said -

Hey, how do you the 141 would collectively react to a reader who’s a mafia boss and like, just buys them stuff all the time? Like guns? Done. Hot tub? No problem! Hideout which is just a penthouse in the Bahamas? Whatever makes you smile.

I love this so much! Imma assume that they already know that they are a Mafia Boss, so here is the back story, then onto the HC!!!

Y/N pays off political members around the world so they can sell guns and things of that nature. Y/N was in the military for years before they left, and became something like Shadow Comp. Contracted arms if you will, they will go on missions if needed but not a lot. They normally send help, so they can run their shit. Y/N is a contact of Price and Laswell. Y/N also doesn't see any buyer in person, Y/N wants to be safe in public and hides who they are from most people.

John Price -

He trusts you, I mean, he met Y/N through Nikolai after all.

John always feels kinda bad when you make bigger purchases, but gets over it. If it’s for a mission, he won’t care about the Price (wink wink). But when it’s you with the mates and you buy all the drinks and food, he tries to keep it to water and a cheaper food at first.

He gives in and gets what he wants after the boys order whatever they want and slam all the drinks they want.

Price definitely thinks that there is a plant at one of your safehouses, and worries for your life and safety, and has talked to you about it many times before.

Information is Need-To-Know, meaning y’all don’t just spill the beans about what you do. Just if you need something from the other person.

You mostly provide passages and equipment for Price and his squad in “off the books” missions, and Price will take care of anyone getting in your way of money or products. Fair trade after all.

After he returns, you make sure he is given at least five packs of his favorite cigars. You normally can’t wait for 141 to get back from a mission so this is something you do as a tip for a job well done.

Once asked for a private bar for him and his mates, you opened a ton of them all over the UK. Yes, it is also a smoke shop. They all have VIP ofc.

When you told him, he smiled. :>

Kate Laswell -

You and her have worked together for years, when y’all both had boots on the ground. You two are still close, but not really when it comes to work.

She tries to follow the books, but will contact you if she has no other choice.

You two never really work together because of this, but you’ll still buy her drinks or send her wife gifts like a new wardrobe or diamonds. On Kate’s request, of course.

You went to her wedding and paid for it, it was a dream wedding for them. Kate still thanks you time and time again.

Kate and her wife asked you to leave the Mafia life and live normally. A safe life. You declined, but still consider what a normal life would be after the Mafia. But there is no leaving after all.

Soap -

He doesn’t really know what you do, he just likes to have a good time.

Deff will take any gift from you, and will try to get you something in return. It’s normally something from Scotland like a little flag.

He loves doing your jobs because he knows that there will be a huge dinner with the mates.

You love getting him drunk, because he starts to pick on Ghost. His accent really spikes, then he's only speaking Scottish.

Trust you to buy him great food, he doesn’t really think about trust past that when it comes to you.

Soap is 100% the first person to order drinks and food. No shame here.

He is also the first to thank you for dinner. It always makes the rest of the guys mad because it sounds forced from them.

Ghost -

He just listens to Price. Ghost doesn’t trust you per say, but trusts Price.

He just looks at you.

When having dinner, you saw that he had his food in a to-go box. The next time you took 141 out for food you gave Ghost a loose mask, kinda like a blanket. Just so he can eat with everyone.

Make sure y’all are in a VIP room, just for him.

He brings it with him everywhere so he can eat with his mates.

Ghost will order food and a few drinks, but doesn’t like spending other people's money.

Ghost deff babysits Soap the whole time.

He has only asked for one thing, and that was for Lady GaGa tickets for soap.

Gaz -

Respectful. He is in the same boat with Ghost about ordering anything.

He will ask for stuff for his family. You always do more than he asked.

You get his family passes for Disney World, and pay for the whole trip. I mean, flight there and back, hotel, everything.

Gaz will feel bad, but Price explains to him that that's just how you are and to not feel bad about any gifts.

He was sad that the Lady GaGa tickets are expensive (Wink Wink).

Alejandro -

He LOVES it, I mean, you sell out anyone causing trouble in or near Mexico, and he keeps quiet about anything you do. You keep sales out of Mexico, he keeps his operations out of your sales. Best duo, really.

Loves a good party, at any time. You don’t really have to pay for it, but you do.

He also asks for stuff for his family, but he will be the one to bring any gifts to them. He wants to keep them safe, after all.

Also asked for Lady GaGa tickets…..for……family……yeah……

Konig -

He doesn’t know how to react. I mean, he’s grateful but feels bad. Like Gaz.

He loves his shirt-mask and bike helmet combo too much to get anything new.

Will take a new sniper anyday, you even bought him displays for his collection.

He also asked for Lady GaGa tickets.

You folded and bought VIP tickets for everyone.

I really loved this topic! I tried to keep it GN, sorry if I messed up anywhere! Please tell me what to write next!

#cod modern warfare #cod fanfic #video games #gaz #simon ghost riley #john soap mactavish #john price #konig cod #alejandro vargas #kate laswell #lady gaga

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headspace-hotel · 2 years

Note

i was gonna ask about the vegan, but you already answered that lol. so instead i offer absurd things that vegans i know have told me.

first: anything about "complete protein" and "variety", i have yet to see a vegan answer anything beyond vague generalizations.

second and my personal favorite: human meat is vegan. (tbf, the only irl time i heard this, i was probably guilty of entrapment)

third, straying into animal-rights territory: advocating the genocide of domestic species that have come to rely on human assistance. i don't recall the exact quote, but it was something like "it's better they all die than be reliant on humans"

bonus: many vegans do not consider themselves, or even humans in general, to be part of the food web (tho they usually call it the food chain)

I personally get it if people aren't comfortable with animals being killed to feed them, like, yeah I understand why you wouldn't want to eat animals that you know had to die for your meal basically.

But in terms of like, eggs and wool and milk and stuff, it's just like:

Internet vegan: These animals are treated badly! This is horrible!

Other internet person: Yeah so we should try to get eggs and milk from small local farmers that we can personally verify are treating their animals well

Internet vegan: No, veganism is about ZERO exploitation of animals, and anyway, you can just choose not to torture animals for your own pleasure

Other internet person: But they're...not being tortured? People get eggs from chickens that are loved and cared for like pets?

Internet vegan: Eating the SECRETIONS of an animal's BODY is inherently exploitative and also misogynistic probably

Like you can't really make the case that backyard eggs from chicken breeds that aren't bred to over-produce, or milk from a goat that is treated better than most pets, is "cruelty" unless you're applying human concepts of things like "freedom" and "exploitation" to them.

Anyways, domestication isn't evil any more than any other symbiotic relationship is. And the argument that there's something innately unethical about eating animals makes no sense unless you do hold that humans are "higher" or have a greater responsibility than other animals, because animals eat other animals? Humans are part of the ecosystem like everybody else. I would argue that we *are* different in that we can make choices about how to manage resources and ecosystems with consideration toward the future. But I don't think that means that eating animals is inherently wrong.

And like...ultimately, everything does in fact die, and if humans aren't eating it, something else will be. I don't know what the alternative is. Let large mammals live to old age past the point where they would be eaten by predators (which is *mercy*, not cruelty, because it's a much quicker end to suffering than just letting the creature's body age and decline until it can't take care of itself or move around without pain. and unlike a human, a horse or cow can't understand the aging process or make active decisions about its own treatment and care.)?

If no one ate meat we would still have to manage the white-tailed deer population, in the absence of their natural predators, or they would overpopulate and die slower, more painful deaths of disease and starvation. People make a big deal out of nature being "cruel" but a healthy ecosystem with lots of predators does wonders to reduce the suffering associated with death.

Also it bothers me how a lot of vegans seem to dismiss the idea of plants as potentially sentient in some ways because like...they are aware of and respond to their environment, and we are just now scratching the surface of how they sense their world and communicate (yes, communicate).

It's silly to totally dismiss a tree as inert and unfeeling, really. Trees are capable of sending messages to other trees. They sense, they feel. It's totally unlike anything we can imagine but plants possess some kind of awareness that we are only now beginning to understand. If the foundational reasoning of veganism is that "animals are sentient and can feel so don't eat them, but it's okay to eat plants" then ?????????????

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mikashisus · 3 months

Text

Arsonist’s Lullaby

“you got a taste for blood when you were licking your own wounds”

summary: You had won your Games at the mere age of fourteen. The days of the arena still haunt your memories, even years after it all had happened.

Now, you find yourself back in the arena, fighting for your life a second time as you struggle to grasp the reality you’re living in.

pairing: genshin x fem!reader

content warnings: lots of blood and gore, heavy angst, character death, panic attacks, ptsd, su!cidal thoughts, su!cide attempts, feral behavior, hallucinations, hospitals, alcohol and drug use

other disclaimers: genshin hunger games au, mc is known to be unhinged bc of trauma, xiao & lumine are katniss & peeta here, mentor venti, a few andrius mentions, fluff and hurt/comfort

ch.1 wc: 4.9k

author’s notes: y’all gonna hate me once this fic ends, cause im killing off a lot of the characters. im sorry in advance.

it took me so long to decide who to include in this fic & who would be part of what district. i included a few of my ocs in here too!

i adore the relationship i created between venti and the mc. it’s literally just father daughter dynamic, but venti is also the mc’s safe space. he understands her so well and knows exactly how to calm her down when she has outbursts.

i couldn’t decide on a singular love interest, so there’s multiple. most of them will die though (sorry not sorry).

plot follows catching fire and mockingjay! there are a few mentions of previous events just for plot purposes.

cross-posted on ao3!

CHAPTER I: silent brewing of a storm

This victor party could’ve been way better than it was. The drinks were bitter, the food was bland, and the outfits were way more extravagant than you would’ve liked.

It almost made you sick thinking about it. You downed another glass of beer and hoped with all your might that you’d get so blasted that you couldn’t feel any nerve in your body.

This was all for show: the parties, the dresses, the accessories… all of it. You hated it here in the capitol where all eyes were on you. You wanted so badly to go back to your home in district seven, to fall onto your couch and cuddle your cat close to your chest as you cried and prayed that you wouldn’t have to spend another day here in the capitol— that you could live the rest of your life peacefully.

You knew that was an empty dream.

Grabbing yet another glass to drown your sorrows, a hand pulled it from your grasp just as the rim was about to meet your parted lips.

“I think that’s enough alcohol for one night, huh wolfie? I’m surprised they let you off the leash.”

That voice. A headache began to pound against your skull. Of course your mortal enemy had to come and ruin your already sour night.

“Go away, Ajax.” His name felt like a burden on your lips. Upon hearing your slurred words, he frowned.

“Now now, if I let you go on your own, you’d drink the last of the capitol’s reserves. You’d finally catch up to Venti,” he joked, taking a sip from the glass he had snatched from you. His face twisted in disgust. “Gross. What is this?”

You rolled your eyes. “Beer.”

Ajax made a disgusted noise as he placed the glass on the table you were leaning against. “How can you stand that stuff?” he asked, watching as you shrugged. “Does that alcoholic mentor of yours have you addicted now?”

Venti was your mentor— a former victor, and a man who had won his games at the age of twelve; the first year his name was put in. He was the youngest victor in history, which naturally gave him a surplus of popularity within the capitol. Now, he was well into his early thirties, yet his youthful glow still lingered. He didn’t look a day over sixteen.

How? That was the world’s greatest mystery.

Scanning the room, you found him passed out on one of the tables, a wine bottle still clutched tightly in his limp hand that hung off the side of the table. His cape and vest were long gone, discarded elsewhere in the room as he was left only in his corset, dress shirt, and dress pants.

You awkwardly turned away from the sight. When he was mentoring you, it had been hard to get him to be serious. when he was serious, he was the best mentor the capitol had ever seen.

He was way better than Ajax’s mentor, that was for sure. You had only met Skirk once, and in those five seconds, she had completely blasted your self confidence to bits. Needless to say, you prayed on her downfall after that.

“Nonsense,” you spoke, your voice hoarse. “Venti could drink the entire nation’s supplies in one gulp if he could. Drain the entire capitol’s wine industry to the ground.”

Ajax snickered into his glass of red wine before taking a more lengthy sip. He sighed in relief afterwards and handed the empty glass to a nearby waiter. “Can’t argue with that. Hey, how ‘bout we get out of here, huh?”

You sent him a teasing look. “You sure you wanna get involved with me? According to Andrius, I’m dangerous.” You grabbed a glass full of beer and chugged it down before making your way over to Venti.

It was true. Andrius, an older man who had been Venti’s mentor for his games, had an impeccable intuition. As soon as he had laid eyes on you in the capitol, he didn’t hesitate to tell you and Venti that you would be incredibly dangerous if you ended up winning your games. Except… there was no “if” when he told you.

Confidently, he stated in a rough voice,

“You will be so dangerous that even the capitol won’t be able to control you.”

Venti had told you that Andrius told him the exact same thing before he entered his games. You later found out that Decarabian, the man who had mentored Andrius and was now long gone, said the exact same thing to Andrius.

You guessed it was tradition for mentors in your district to tell their tributes that. You didn’t yet realize how much weight that statement held.

Ajax followed you, chuckling all the while. “Yeah, I’m well aware. I saw your games. I know you killed eight people at once with an axe and a net. I also know you went batshit crazy after returning from your games. What was the exact word the capitol used? Ah yes, feral.”

You sent him a glare before you lugged Venti off of the table. He pulled the table sheet with him, hitting the floor with a loud thud. You winced at the sound and slapped him over the head with flowers that were previously in a nearby vase. The man startled, babbling on about beer as he began to wake.

“Leave, Ajax— Venti! Get up, you fucking embarrassment! Everyone in the room is staring at us!”

They really weren’t, but you were so used to eyes being on you, that you had a permanent paranoia. You grabbed Venti’s arm and attempted to pull him off the floor. He hiccuped as he stumbled, his half lidded eyes staring at you as you draped one of his arms around your shoulder.

He smiled when he realized it was you. “Ah, if it isn’t my favorite victor! Can I have another beer?”

“No.” You didn’t bother saying goodbye to Ajax as you led Venti towards the exit. “But you can have water when we get back.”

Venti grumbled, only to brighten up again at the sight of a certain white haired gentleman. He waved happily, “Kazuha! Hello!”

Venti hadn’t mentored Kazuha, but they were closely acquainted because Venti was always fussing over you like a mother hen. It was quite adorable that he was so protective over you, but it also felt like he was smothering you at times.

You smiled softly as you made eye contact with Kazuha. You and Kazuha had back to back games. After yours, the capitol considered putting you down like a dog because of how feral you had gotten. However, after your outbursts had slowed down and gotten more under control, they just barely allowed you to live.

If it weren’t for Venti and Andrius advocating for your cause, you most likely would’ve died.

Kazuha’s games were a year after yours. Venti came to you with the idea of mentoring Kazuha shortly after you had started calming down from your trauma. The memories you had wouldn’t go away that quickly, but at least you were learning to cope in a healthy way.

You didn’t like the idea of being a mentor at first, especially since you were so young. You didn’t know the first thing about being a mentor, and you weren’t very good at talking to other people. Venti encouraged you to try, and he co-mentored Kazuha with you since you were so uncooperative.

But because he wasn’t assigned as an official mentor for Kazuha, there were certain times where he couldn’t help you with the right words to say or tell you how to comfort Kazuha. You were on your own, and you eventually got the hang of mentoring, even if you still weren’t the best at communicating with others.

You were always thankful for Kazuha’s patience with you. Not once did he yell at you or tell you that you were doing a shit job. Not once did he push you away or insult you behind your back. Not once did he criticize you or laugh when you relapsed because something triggered you. Instead, he was calm. His presence was comforting, and he always knew what to say to you. He was a good listener, and he was patient. He never crossed any boundaries and he was always kindhearted, even if the games had messed him up the same way they did to you.

Kazuha was the only tribute you mentored, and also your favorite. You understood why Venti acted the way he did with you. It was because he felt the same way towards you, even if you caused way more trouble for him than Kazuha did for you.

The boy in front of you smiled gently as he held your gaze, crimson eyes softening at the sight of you. “Do you want help?”

You snapped out of your daze and shook your head. “It’s okay, but thank you. I got him. He’s my responsibility after all.” You chuckled softly.

Kazuha nodded, though you knew he didn’t believe that you could handle this on your own. After all, you looked just about ready to punch Venti in the face because he kept tugging on your arm. You absolutely despised being touched, but you tried not to mind it when it came to Venti.

You knew his love language was physical touch, and so you were smothered in hugs and forehead kisses before your games. However, after your games, you’d lash out at the mere ghost of a touch on your skin. That resulted in more than a few doctors being killed.

Right now, you were fighting off every voice in your head that was screaming “danger” and tried to focus on just getting Venti back to his room in the hotel you two were staying in.

Kazuha stepped forward, “Are you sure? I don’t mind helping—“

Something in you snapped as you squeezed your eyes shut and shouted, “I have him! I said I’m okay!” You panted heavily as your chest heaved. When you opened your eyes, you were surprised to see that Kazuha was still standing so close to you.

Instead of running away like anyone else would’ve done, he simply smiled warmly at you— sweet and full of kindness. “Okay. At least allow me to go with you just in case.”

A little shaken up, you nodded. Your hands trembled as you continued to lead Venti out of the party venue and outside. Kazuha followed, keeping a reasonable distance from you.

After you safely got Venti into his hotel room, you sighed heavily and collapsed onto the couch, your gown billowing as you did so. A little annoyed at how the fabric itched your skin, you tore the dress off, now being left in your silk chemise that you wore underneath the gown.

Kazuha picked up the gown, gently folding it over the back of the couch. He sat down in a nearby chair, giving you your much needed space. After awhile, you broke the silence that settled between you both.

“I’m sorry,” you muttered. “I didn’t mean to yell back there.”

This happened often, way more often than you would’ve liked. It happened a lot with Venti because he was so persistent, but he was also calm and patient. If he set you off, he’d be right there to calm you down too. He’d apologize and sing comforting songs that made you relax.

Kazuha shook his head. “You don’t need to apologize, I understand.”

After years of being by your side, he learned how to handle any outbursts you have. He first learned how to when you were mentoring him. Both of you had been fifteen at the time.

You would be triggered by something so easily back then. You couldn’t even walk freely because of it. An escort would always be with you, keeping a close eye on you and ensuring you didn’t accidentally kill someone again.

Kazuha had never feared you, even when you lashed out at him a few times during your mentoring. Something would trigger you and you’d leap into an outburst. Nearby peacekeepers would try to interfere, but Venti and your District escort, Signora, would hold you down to the ground and tell security that they had it under control.

Even though you were severely unstable the entire time you mentored Kazuha, somehow someway your mentoring had led him to winning his games.

You could still remember even now, his petrified expression once he realized he was the last one in the arena, and how he broke down into tears the moment you saw him directly afterwards. You could still remember how he hugged you, clinging onto you like a lifeline.

His tear stained face dug into your shoulder, and you turned your back to the cameras so that he could cry in peace. You put your hand on his head to ensure he had at least a little bit of privacy as he cried, and you held him tightly with your eyes squeezed shut until he finally pulled away from you and mustered up a small smile.

You had told him that he didn’t need to force himself to smile, that he could cry into your shoulder as much as he needed to. He shook his head, saying that his tears had already dried up. That was obviously a lie, as when you went to leave him that night, he scrambled out of bed and begged you to stay with him. His voice had been so shaky when he told you he was scared of being alone because of his traumatic memories in the arena.

You stayed with him every night until the pain got somewhat better. Due to your own experiences, you couldn’t sleep. You’d stay awake, staring up at the ceiling and being a comforting presence for Kazuha if he had a nightmare.

The games had affected him almost the same way they did to you. There was one huge difference though: you left the games as a killer, while he left as a survivor.

You had killing tendencies after your games, while he was left with nightmares of someone targeting him. The both of you had very different types of trauma and dealt with it in two very different ways, but you stood by each other through it all. And now, you could confidently call him your best friend— besides Venti.

As Kazuha left for the night, promising that he would check back in on you in the morning, you made your way back into Venti’s room. The man was sleeping soundly on the bed, the covers all askew and one of his legs hanging off the side of the bed. You smiled at the sight and sat down next to him.

You pushed his bangs away from his face and gently placed a kiss to his forehead. Tomorrow, you’d help him nurse a hangover, and you’d be there right as he woke up, just like he always was for you.

The train ride back to District 7 was more than peaceful. Due to your sensitivity to loud noises, Venti and Signora decided to take their constant arguing to another room while you and Kazuha sat in silence.

The white haired man across from you was wearing a pair of glasses while he skimmed through a book. After his games, his eyes were banged up real good and he had to get glasses for things like reading.

You always thought they looked good on him, which made him feel better about wearing them. Silently studying the man in front of you, you noticed his cheeks beginning to turn a faint shade of pink.

Kazuha was undoubtedly very pretty— so pretty you found yourself staring at him for long periods of time whenever you were with him. He usually didn’t mind, or at least, pretended like it didn’t bother him. It really didn’t bother him, but it made him quite flustered.

He should’ve been used to the staring by now, but the truth was that he wasn’t. He softly cleared his throat and avoided your gaze, “Everything alright? Do you want me to go get Venti?”

The fact that he knew you so well to the point where he knew when you needed Venti made your heart melt. You meekly shook your head.

“No… I’m fine.”

“If you say so,” he muttered.

He was able to tell whenever you needed Venti’s support. There was always this look in your eye that told him that you needed Venti to be with you at that moment, and you were currently making that face despite telling him that everything was alright.

Venti was your safe person, your lifeline. If anything was wrong with you, he’d always be right by your side in a heartbeat. It made Kazuha feel a little pang inside his chest, even though he knew that you didn’t see Venti that way. That you and Venti were more akin to a father and daughter dynamic than anything.

Kazuha met your prying eyes. “I’ll be right back-“

“I said I’m fine!” you called after him, a little agitated that he wasn’t listening to you.

He waved you off despite your protests, and Venti was rushing in a second later, his eyes blown wide with worry and panic and his heart beating fast. He had thought that you had one of your outbursts again.

As soon as he saw your relaxed form, his shoulders relaxed and he let out a huge sigh of relief. “You had me worried something happened again,” he muttered before taking a seat next to you. You immediately moved to curl into his side like a cat.

You weren’t a huge fan of physical touch unless you were the one initiating it because of past trauma. Often times, you opted for no physical touch whatsoever, even if it was something so small as holding hands or a brush of a touch against your skin.

The smallest bit of touch could set you off on most occasions. It could have you screaming and gasping for air, clouding your brain with one word: danger.

Venti understood this, and so he never initiated anything with you. If he wanted to give you a hug, he wouldn’t unless you asked him for one. If he wanted to kiss your forehead, he wouldn’t unless you told him he could. He was always careful, making sure not to trigger an outburst or send you into a panic attack.

“I’m fine,” you grumbled, crossing your arms over your chest.

Venti huffed, “I don’t mean to scare you, but if you so much as look at anyone the wrong way, the peacekeepers won’t hesitate to put you in chains again.”

You knew what he was talking about.

After your games, you had gone a little batshit crazy because of your trauma. You refused to let any doctors treat you because you were scared of being touched. Venti and Signora had tried to hold you down, but it only made matters worse.

It wasn’t until they realized why you were making such a fuss that they tried to calm you down, but at that point it had been too late. Your brain was already clouded and filled with thoughts of getting away from whoever was touching you. You were seeing them as threats, and they didn’t know how else to calm you down other than sedate you.

When you woke up, you were strapped to the hospital bed, which made things even worse . You screamed and kicked, until Venti had rushed in with a panicked look on his face and a kind smile. The familiar sight made you relax a little, just enough for him to distract you from the doctors who were just trying to do their job.

You were deemed too unstable to be left alone, and so Venti decided to join you in Victor’s Village. He lived with you for the next two years, and his comforting presence was what helped you to find healthy coping mechanisms.

For an entire year after your games, you were put in chains because of your tendencies to lash out at anyone who got within five feet of you. You had killed multiple doctors by that point, and when the capitol attempted to turn you into their plaything, you absolutely lost it. You killed every client until the capitol had enough and tried to put you down like a dog.

That was when Venti and Andrius intervened, advocating for your cause and defending you because you were just a poor, traumatized fourteen year old girl who would never be the same again. All you had wanted was to go back home to district seven and forget about everything that happened in that arena.

Your games had been way too traumatizing, and way too bloody. You refused to ever speak up on it again, and everyone knew better than to ask you about it— lest they end up dead.

“I just want to go home,” you whispered.

In truth, you had no home to return to. The capitol had taken everything from you: your childhood, your innocence, your life, your sanity, and your family. There was no one else except Venti and Kazuha left— your only last traces of home.

Signora was technically part of that home, too. She was the district seven escort, and also the woman who fashioned outfit designs for you. She was a hopeless romantic at heart, and she always loved having girl time with you before your games.

Afterwards though, you were too traumatized to say or do anything with her. You clung onto Venti like a lifeline, and your relationship with her all but fell apart. If it weren’t for Venti bringing you both back together through Kazuha, then you probably wouldn’t have ever spoken with her again.

Now, you were back on good terms with her. Though, you were still a little too unstable for her to deal with. You could sense that she missed having lively conversations with you over tea and sharing a plate of coffee cake, but anything could set you off at any moment— like a grenade. This made her keep her distance, as she was not that good at comforting others or dealing with people with PTSD.

That only resulted in you becoming closer to Venti, though you knew that even if you had become close with Signora, you probably still would’ve been closer with your mentor.

“I know, cecilia.”

There it was, that nickname that always brought you back to reality. No matter what you were going through, that nickname that Venti had given you always seemed to ease your mind and calm your nerves. You clung onto him tighter, afraid he might disappear if you let go.

He hesitantly placed a hand on your back, unsure if you were okay with reciprocated touch right now. When you didn’t show any signs of tensing up, he gently rubbed circles into your back with his thumb.

Eventually, you fell asleep.

Your “welcome home” was not a welcome at all. After arriving in district seven, the three of you disembarked the train and made your way back to your houses.

The people bid small hellos to Kazuha and Venti, who both returned their greetings with kind smiles and greetings of their own. However, as soon as the people saw you, they shuffled out of the way and went dead silent. They refused to meet your eyes.

Venti quickly led you back to your shared home, easing both yours and the people’s worries. You sighed in relief upon arriving back home, immediately flopping onto the couch and curling into a ball.

“Andrius wanted to stop by and see you,” Venti told you, rummaging the kitchen cabinets for a mug. He could tell you could use some warm tea right about now. “But I know how much you hate visitors.”

You hadn’t had visitors in years, but Andrius was different. You perked up at the mention of him, meeting Venti’s brilliant eyes. “Not if it’s him,” you said with a small smile.

If Venti was like a parental figure for you, then Andrius was like your grandfather. Although he preferred to be alone most of the time, he would occasionally come to visit just to see how you and Venti were doing. He would stay for just a little while, with Venti offering him something to eat or drink. He would ask you a few questions about your current mentality and your overall health.

If you hesitated to answer, he took that as a sign that you weren’t doing so well. Venti would often speak for you, carrying the conversation because he knew how much you hated talking. Despite your lack of interaction in that regard, you quite liked Andrius’ company. That, and he usually brought small gifts with him whenever he visited.

They weren’t anything special, just some snacks he knee you liked or some wooden carvings he recently finished and wanted to give to you. You had a few of them sitting on your windowsill from the last time you saw him.

The simple three knock pattern alerted you immediately, and you all but jumped up from your spot on the couch to go open the door. Venti chuckled at your excitement, watching in amusement as you threw open the door to greet Andrius.

The steadily aging man donned some wrinkles and a few gray hairs now. His bright blue eyes were significantly duller than the last time you peered into them, and his usually combed back navy hair was rather messy.

He held a neatly wrapped gift in his hands. Upon seeing you, he attempted a small smile. You knew he wasn’t one to smile or show much emotion in the first place, so you were surprised with the sight in front of you.

You stepped aside to allow him in, and he chuckled softly. “I see you still have it smelling like pine and cinnamon in here.”

“Of course!” Venti chimed in from the kitchen. He set down three mugs of tea in the living room. “Perfect timing! I just made us some tea.”

“Tea?” Andrius asked incredulously, almost as if he was offended. “What happened to all the alcohol?”

You smiled as you took a seat on the couch again. Grabbing your own mug of tea, you took a lengthy sip. “Venti finally drank it all.”

Andrius sat down in a chair across from you and shook his head with a knowing look. “I’m surprised it took him this long.”

“Hey!” Venti collapsed onto the couch next to you. “I’m not that bad!”

You were silent for a moment as you eyed the bottle of wine in his hands. It took one glance from you for him to whine and complain that he didn’t have a drinking problem. Which, of course, was a lie, but you knew the reason why he had a drinking problem in the first place.

It was all to forget what he experienced in the arena.

Everyone had different ways of coping, and not all of those were considered healthy. Andrius turned to smoking after his games as a way for him to cope with his overwhelming win. Venti turned to drinking, washing away all of his sorrows with way too much alcohol. And you?

You just dealt with it. At least, that’s what you claimed to do, but the scars on your arms and legs said otherwise. They told stories of dark nights alone on your bathroom floor, sobbing as you smudged your thumb over the new line of crimson that tainted your skin.

You got away with it for awhile… until Venti finally caught you in the act and had a breakdown right there with you on the floor. You could still remember the way he hugged you so tightly even though you tried to push him away. You could still remember the way he cried and how he promised he’d always be there for you.

It stopped after that day, but the reminders of your unhealthy coping mechanisms still lingered on your skin even now.

A small beep interrupted this oddly domestic moment you were sharing with Venti and Andrius. You flinched at the noise, the sound almost sending you into a panic attack before Venti gently shushed you and managed to calm you down. A second later, the screen of your tv lit up with the face of the wonderful President, Phanes.

The sight of her face had you lurching out of your seat. Venti abruptly pulled you back, immediately letting go of you when you looked like you wanted to punch his face in.

“It’s just an announcement,” Andrius reassured you in a somewhat comforting tone. “It’s about time for the annual games, it’s only natural that there would be an announcement.”

You nodded at his words, trying to calm your beating heart by repeating his words over and over again in your head. It was just an announcement.

You quickly found that it was more than just an announcement once Phanes issued that all previous victors were to be reaped again at the next annual reaping.

Everything faded into nothing. You remembered hearing a bloodcurdling scream as your heartbeat echoed loudly in your ears and your vision went blurry. You remembered being tackled to the ground by someone stronger than you, and you could vaguely remember the scent of metallic iron.

When you woke up, your eyes met Kazuha’s, and your heart dropped to your stomach once the events of a few hours prior flooded into your brain.

You would have to be reaped again.

author’s notes: chapters after this point will be extremely long, therefore it’ll take me awhile to write them. please be patient with me 🙏

and in the meantime, feel free to read my other works!

masterlist

#genshin #genshin impact #angst #genshin x reader #venti #kazuha #kazuha x reader #tartaglia #hurt/comfort #la signora #the hunger games #genshin kazuha #genshin venti #genshin tartaglia #genshin signora #— ✦ arsonist’s lullaby 🔥

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