#Thank you for not forgetting the story

[deiaiko]

#18.1 Rak

Rak let out a huff and sat down next to Agni. Agni peeked over at Rak, who was looking far ahead, as if his past were replaying right before him.

TW: Self harm and suicide…in a way? (Sorry if it gets too dark. I put the TLDR on the tags)

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"I met him back when I was young, about a hundred years ago," Rak started.

Agni was taken aback at how long the gap between their time travel was. He wondered how much his Rak had changed.

"It was getting cold, which meant it was hunting season. I got bored and picked a fight with the toughest and biggest prey I could find."

Agni hummed when Rak paused for a moment too long, "Let me guess. You underestimated it and you lost?"

"The river was slippery!" Rak crossed his arms defensively. "And I didn't lose!"

"Sure," Agni rolled his eyes, one corner of his lips upturned. "How come?"

"I didn't lose, but I didn’t win either." Rak looked away, probably in embarrassment. "Another spear pierced its head before mine. That's when I met him."

From the way Rak's expression turned fiery, Agni had a suspicion that that exact moment had affected Rak more than what he spilled out. It didn't surprise him however, since he knew Rak’s ego.

"He was around for a while, acting like he cared about me." Rak huffed again, more fondly this time, eyes closed and arms still crossed. "He taught me a few fancy tricks with rocks and how to hunt better. He talked a lot about turtle this and turtle that. There were so many, I don't remember. But Black and Blue turtles were the ones he talked about the most, saying something like 'no one else will be more worthy prey than them.'"

Agni felt his chest tighten. To think that their Rak had acknowledged them and even bragged about it…it filled him with a sense of pride and longing.

"I didn't believe him then, since turtles are boring and no way they could do what he said they could." Rak paused and untangled his arms, eyes focusing and turning predatory, "But when he said that these turtles were unlike what we had there, I have been wanting to meet those turtles he told me about and hunt them."

Rak's story was intriguing. But even if it flattered him, Agni was more curious about his Rak's whereabouts. "What happened to him then? Wasn't he…badly injured?"

Rak frowned and went silent. But when he found his voice, it lacked its previous vigor. "He was. It looked fresh and so impossible to walk with, but he did. I asked if it was painful, but he said he didn’t feel a thing."

Third-degree burn. Agni thought to himself. But there was no way it spread evenly. Some areas must've been painful.

"He definitely lied," Rak voiced Agni's thought. "He was just acting to look tough."

The edge of Agni's lips twitched in an attempt to suppress his smile. That's him alright. And of course Rak could figure his own self easily. 

"One day he challenged me in an all out duel," Rak's gaze turned dark. "His wounds had weakened him over the months, and it was obvious who would be the winner."

Agni frowned at the implication.

Wordlessly, Rak called out his arms inventory which held a familiar looking spear that shouldn't have been in his possession at this point in time. Agni would recognize that design anywhere, "...Mad shocker."

"He said he wanted to test me, and he gave me this." Rak glared at the spear as if it was responsible for his misfortune. "And later told me that I should be proud, for only a true hunter was allowed to defeat him."

Agni felt his throat going dry, and gulped. "He died, didn't he?"

Rak's eyes sharpened. Whether it was in regret or anger, Agni couldn't tell. "I killed him." 

Agni didn't know what to feel about that. On one hand, he could empathize with how much pain Rak must've felt from the injury, especially with the lack of proper treatment that could cure or even just lessen the pain. But on the other hand, it meant that his Rak was truly gone, in such a way, and he still couldn't wrap his head around it.

Rak put his pipe back to invisible mode, like looking at it had brought him so much grief. "I've never used that spear since."

The silence stretched, with only the loud noises coming from the training ground to fill it. Agni wasn't sure how to reply to that without being overly friendly nor physical, and he definitely wouldn't do that to Rak, who only met him today.

Sitting beside Rak like this reminded him of their chat before the workshop battle, on the balcony. It was when Rak truly let him see his buried feelings, his desire to climb the tower together with him and Grace. And with that, the grief finally started to dawn on him. The scar on his face felt itchy and his hand was already clawing at his mask before he registered the motion. He sighed and put his hand back on his knee, pushing the tangled feeling to the back of his mind to be dealt with later. And since the silence had stretched out for too long, he asked; "What was he to you?"

"A rival," Rak looked thoughtful before adding, "and family."

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#TLDR: current Rak was good friends with Agni's Rak #They met about a century before current Rak entered the tower #Future Rak is dead #--end of TLDR-- #I do love Rak. but this is the price he must pay for being one of my favorites #ok but did you know that spear inventory is called pipe? i was surprised too #to everyone who was excited last week for future rak comeback...I'm not sorry #it was very entertaining to see your comments (and imagining the despair) hahaha. I thank you for that #anyway. life been very hectic right now. i consider taking a break after valentine update to stock up some chapters #i barely have time to write now. let alone drawing #I'd rather keep my weekly updates than posting once a month. Lest you forget the story and had to reread previous chapter(s) eachtime #tower of god #tog #two sides of the same coin fic #my fic #my art #khun #koon #khun a.a #khun aguero agnis #rak wraithraiser #rak

[arthursfuckinghat]

For no matter what, my friend, my heaven is wherever you'll be.

#thank you weetabix for being by our side #take care of arthur for me #that's my second playthrough almost finished then #time for johns story now #I forget how quickly the end of chapter six sneaks up on you #I'm just as heartbroken as when arthur died the first time #i need to go lie down #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #mick squeaks #arthur morgan #red dead redemption community #red dead redemption 2 spoilers #oh arthur #weetabix my horse #sobbing so hard

[titsthedamnseason]

okay my darlings, you know what time it is…..SURPRISE SONG GAME TIME!!! except this time it’s extra super duper special because this post is actually queued because today is MY SHOW 🤭🫶 aka it’s atlanta n3 therefore i am BEGGING you to manifest the absolute best of your best picks and leave them in the tags or replies for me to see later and then give you an internet smooch if you win 💗 HAPPY GUESSING

i’m going to guess my absolute dream combo of hey stephen and dorothea

#ps i would love if a lot of people played tongiht 🥺 so since i cant be obnoxious about reblogs if anyone wants to give it an extra rb or two #i will love you FOREVER #just so people don’t forget about it and keep playing through the night #THANK YOU LOVES ❤️ #seriously i’ll be happy no matter what but send me good vibes please and thank you #but it’s okay if you don’t because i too am i bitter wench that wishes terrible songs upon everyone else so taylor saves the best for me. #so i’ll forgive bad guesses. BUT NOT CHANGE. PLEASE JUST DONT MANIFEST CHANGE OR IFTYE #honorable mentions for hits different rwylm yoyok hoax happiness evermore hygtg ikp iwyw cornelia street #better man too #renegade in my biggest moments of clownery #THE STORY OF US #IDK I LOVE EVERYTHING #i’ll probably be posting my list of top picks before this posts anyway #okay i’ve talked too much sorry i’m going crazy rn because it’s so soon #mine #surprise song game #taylor swift #it’s a good thing i don’t believe in self sabotage or jinxing or anything like that bc historically i am a TERRIBLE guesser lmao #my eras show

[pemprika]

hnk ch. 100 thoughts (spoilers)

Making a full-on separate post because I thought there was a lot to draw from in this recent chapter... I needed to document it, so here is my veryy long thought bubble on hnk 100:

The chapter felt like a depiction of Phos in transition to accepting themself and adapting to a new phase of peace that they hadn’t experienced before. While young Phos had a carefree life, they were perpetually stuck feeling useless, never satisfied with the way they lived, and gradually lost all their friends, selfhood, and purpose.

It’s a little difficult to emotionally match the pacing of the story considering how often the series goes on hiatus now, but note that Phos had only recently come to terms with their own flaws and the reasons why everything ended up the way it did. They had a wish to be happy, and meeting these lifeforms allowed them to realize the meaning of their existence and be more content with it.

That poetic verse was introspective and contemplative. Rather than placing worth based on certain levels, like the gems’ hardness levels or Lunarians’ caste system, these rudimentary rocks perceive that all life is made equal. For thousands of years, gems tied their own value to a designated role, and if they couldn’t fulfill it, they devalued their existence. We saw a lot of perspectives throughout Phos’ journey, including how Rutile “failed” as a doctor for being unable to fix Padapradscha on their own, or how Dia “failed'' to live up as a diamond with refined fighting skills compared to their rivaled counterpart. Again, these are just flawed traits passed down from their human predecessors and the curse of immortality.

The chapter ending conveyed a hopeful conception that all things, primitive or refined, come from the same place (nature). I struggled to connect the details mentioned in ch 97 before, but it gave us sooo much foreshadowing to this new world. Dr. Ayumu said that, “the inorganic things that we had been using for ourselves will soon have a world of their own'', alluding that these little guys that Phos met are the new world.

 Interesting how Dr. Ayumu wanted Adamant to “build the bridge” and Phos to “burn the bridge” in order to create this “beautiful, rational world” to be a more freeing and less destructive place, and refresh the Earth to avoid relying on human values and qualities to stay self-fulfilled.

I was talking with @/mlkinis who brought up an interesting theory of using rocks in this new arc to symbolize the reversion of materialism. The rocks, elements derived from basic nature, have vastly different virtues compared to the gems, a class of refined minerals that developed a habitual routine of upkeep socially and culturally. While gems are also made from the Earth, they are perceived as high-value and are often polished to be artificially beautiful. 

One Buddhist principle reflects on detaching oneself to worldly possessions and desires, such as wealth, in order to attain inner peace, and it seems that having these primitive rocks is a representation of Phos “letting go” of the gem society, which may be another way of showcasing that the world is returning back to life as the way it once was, and that Phos is on a path to attaining ultimate happiness. I’m wondering if Dr. Ayumu’s line, “When you cross that bridge, burn it” refers to Phos leaving their suffering behind as they’re going forth to being happy in this new world that is coming to be...

Anyway, upon reading the passage, along with meeting the sentient rocks and hearing its rock friend sing the verse, I felt like Phos reconciled with their own self and existence, and melted from feeling at peace 🥺😭!! Thank you, Ichikawa as always… This was a very cool and comforting chapter for me.

#hnk #hnk spoilers #hnk 100 #houseki no kuni #very very introspective read between the lines kind of chapter #thank you for reading!! #the pacing of the story has been a little wacky considering how many hiatuses it's been going through #you often forget the context of previous chapters... it can get a little hard to piece together #i'd love to hear other peoples' thoughts too =)

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

I've always wondered if you happened to have a discord? If not have you ever considered making one?

i do have one! however i use it very sparingly because 1) new people (especially groups) scare me & 2) brain's been fucking weird for a hot minute and i barely talk to people i'm already friends with let alone strangers

#so i say this So Neutrally and Impersonally #please don't ask me to join your group chat lmao #i promise you i will appear Once and then ill never open it again bc ill get nervous and awkward and guilty #its too much stress! #Also dont ask to chat there same rules apply Sorry Sorry #like... the Only exception is if we've already been chatting but that very rarely happens bc #again! my brain's fucked and i have the mental constitution of a wet cat! #rambles from the bog #i havent opened discord in. a while #when life gets stressful enough i just Shut Down and huddle into a proverbial corner with a blanket over my head #there are like. two people on discord i have / want to actively talk to #and one of em is an irl friend ahaha #so if you were thinking of sending me an invite or something: Thank You For Thinking Of Me! Please Don't. #i think... i think this generally extends to dms too #abrupt dms frighten me. so do random @s. apologies im a Very nervous person <3 #and then even when i Do chat over dms or somethin with someone i can see myself befriending #i often forget to reply for a while and then it gets to the point where its been so long and i feel so guilty #that i Cant Bring Myself To #sigh. anyway. long story short Yes i have a discord

[goombasinastack]

splatoon 3 hot take turned impromptu essay

was stuck offline in splatoon 3 because internet was actin up and i realized how pretty the photomode splatoon 3 filters are compared to the actual game

i was taking photos on brinewater and thought. damn. this game looks fine but i miss how VIBRANT splatoon 1 was! i wish i could play sploon 3 with this photomode filter on all the time. and brinewater is the best map for this because of the sunset lighting! so i went to one of the worst offenders mapwise for general color—undertow spillway. it is a warm gray mess:

for someplace underground, it’s WAY too warm of a tone—even if there are skylights, they aren’t very well defined, as they’re off in the background—they’d be better with some light shafts to pop out more, imo.

so here’s undertow with photomode filter #6 (this would’ve been a video but tumblr limits to 1 video per post):

and i think this looks a lot nicer, colorwise! the icky warm gray is shifted to a soft pink—and while that’s still not in keeping with the lack of obvious skylights, it works better than warm gray.

so then i opened ibis x paint and got to work on a filter that would hopefully help elevate the entire game’s look:

on top is photomode filter #6, in the middle is the original screenshot, and on the bottom is my proposed filter.

i upped the contrast, brightness, and saturation a bit, then added a 5% pure magenta (#FF00FF) overlay layer on top of that. then i added a slight gaussian blur to emulate antialiasing, which nintendo refuses to do for some reason!

and i wanna play splatoon like that! i miss the vibrancy and intricacy of splatoon 1…

incoming splatoon 1 essay‼️

not only were the colors eye-bleachingly bright, but the overall game feel was much more immersive—especially in ink physics. you could paint trees, and the ink would drip down through leaves as if it were rain… ink splatter would respond to the movements of platforms, keeping its intertia as it dripped! you could see the textures of surfaces through the ink, as if it were an actual liquid instead of a layer of thick oil. 3 doesn’t have any of those special touches.

there’s also the music… 1’s ost feels so much more WEIRD and experimental than the later games, and that really helps cement that this is not human society—this is a new thing—which tracks for splatoon 1, as it was so zany nobody had ever seen anything quite like it before! splatoon 2 follows this sheer melting-pot of brashness and creativity with evolving and varied styles—where once was punk and weird samples in Squid Squad is now groovy rock in Wet Floor, jazz in Ink Theory, and also whatever Sashi-Mori was. also i <3 chirpy chips. splatoon 3’s music goes back to that punk, but i feel that it loses some of the charm and creativity of the first two games. C-side is pure metal, and hardly uses any weird instruments. there have sparsely been other splatbands involved with regular battle music—Yoko&tgb call back to the jazz of Ink Theory which i love! Off the Hook’s new tracks delve into a new style in piano rock. but the main band kind of falls flat to me. :(

let’s talk stages. in splatoon 1, stages were wildly different from each other, including skateparks, construction sites, underpasses, malls, sewage plants, and other locals that are culturally underground. the rest of the trilogy moves away from this in a story standpoint, as ink battles evolve from punky, diy competitions into full-fledged championships in 2 and 3, with advancing battle infrastructure as time progresses. that’s fine, and honestly it’s cool to see that kind of worldbuilding! but in 1, each stage was designed about and influenced by the area it represented. Arowana Mall is a straight line with high vantage points on the second/third story because it’s a mall. Pirahna Pit features convenyor belts that shuffle refuse around because it’s a trash plant. Blackbelly Skatepark has so many hills and valleys because it’s a skatepark, for goodness sake. splatoon 3’s original stages have some of this charm, but it feels lost in ambiguity. why doesn’t Mincemeat Metalworks have small moving platforms on cranes or other heavy machinery? Idk, have some grates and one-way drops, and a car on a post. why isn’t there any water incorporated into the stage design of Brinewater Springs? Idk, have 2 paintable walls and a tetris piece. 3’s original stages have little to no connection between their locals and the geometry, which make it feel same-y compared to previous games.

maybe this is because of the inflexible philosophy of the designers—or their corporate oversight, maybe. for stages, you need to make a straight line or tetris piece with few routes to push, in an effort to promote the game’s main premise of Chaos. for music, you need to make punk songs that aren’t too weird so they don’t drive away the parents. maybe the little ink touches could have been missing because development was rushed?

i honestly dont know why it happened out this way—perhaps the splatoon team just needed more time to cook, in order to squeeze out that extra 20% of game feel? or maybe it was that speculated corporate oversight, i dunno. things WERE missing on launch—notable exceptions being X rank, online tableturf lobbies, and no more than three salmon run maps. i know we’ve yet to even get the DLC but for being about 75% of the way through the game’s content lifespan, but splatoon 3 feels incomplete. there have been improvements, yeah! i just wish there could’ve been more. i would rather have waited another year for splatoon 3 if it were polished that much better, y’know?

i honestly feel like splatoon 1 captured that creative, no-holds-barred mantle of Chaos better than 3 does. 3 feels… flanderized, in a way. the curse of trilogies, perhaps? writing about it more, it feels like not only have the in-game sports of turf war been ripped out of its seedy home and thrust into the spotlight, and gone “mainstream” (see: massive squidsport companies investing in multimillion battle lobbies with holograms and lockers [sunken scroll about that!], flying coffee machines that grant you brief invincibility, new rules and techniques that allow squid surges and rolls, etc.), but also the Real Life Physical Video Game Cartridge of Splatoon has been popularized massively with the sequels on the Switch. maybe i’m not missing the “vibrancy” of splatoon 1 when i look at the colors and photomode filters of splatoon 3, but instead the inherent punkiness and counterculture inspiration that i see in the original.

fuck capitalism, i guess!

#splatoon 3 #long post #i did not think i’d be writing an essay tonight #on SPLATOON no less. i feel like im on storming the ivory tower #thats a good blog site btw i love their stuff #but anyways... i was like 12 or 13 when i first got splatoon 1 #i was an orange n-zap/carbon roller (i forget which kit) main #i never played any of the splatfests but i imagine they were really fun! #my internet connection in the basement was never really that good so i never played much.... i never finished story mode until years later #this also means that i'm probably misremembering specific splatoon 1 tidbits. let me know if i messed anything up? or whatever you think lo #it's 2:11 am and i need to wake up early lmao #goodnight and thanks for reading

[esteemed-excellency]

CATEGORY 5 IRRIGO EVENT

#HELL YEAH thank you lady in lilac!! #the story is: you have to accompany 2 messengers to the canal to bring a message from the captivating princess to the surface #if one of them goes they die (been in london too long) #they're in love so you can choose to encurage them to go and hope return / sacrifice / go yourself instead #if you go you deliver a message AGAINST the princess from the brooding captain (the royal family is messy) #and the brooding captain's contact is the lady in lilac!! and if you give the message to her you forget #and that's what saves the messangers couple!! #this story was super cool #fallen london

[irieora]

burning up the sun

misawa ♡ 17.2k ♡ rated t ♡ angst

no archive warnings apply

summary:

Sawamura starts disappearing from practice not long after he begins his isolated training and Kazuya wishes he realized sooner.

or

A series of errors and mistakes made by Miyuki Kazuya.

read more

#daiya no ace #sawamura eijun #miyuki kazuya #misawa #daiyadaily #ace of diamond #daiya #miyusawa #diamond no ace #my writing #my fic #I meant to post this awhile ago but kept forgeting #I’ll try to post my other stories too #also I kept forgetting to reply but thank you to those of you that commented!! 💕 I’ll try to reply soon

[fairweathermyth]

this is fun to meee lol

#in-universe high fantasy casual discussions of queerness in a series that is not an explicitly queer story how fun #the b in lgbt is for BASHA lest you forget #anyway i looooove you denna 😩🙏 #and i am endlessly charmed by denna and kvothe's whole Thing. they're so sweet and stupid ahhh #the kingkiller chronicle #the wise man’s fear #patrick rothfuss #reading updates! #again thanks to the tumblrina who recced this series wherever you are #beyond this it really hits all of my sweet spots :)

[tennessoui]

For the ask game, 5, 18, and 30??

(from this ask game)

ahh thank you for sending these in!!

5. first sentence of the fifth paragraph of an unpublished WIP

ok so i have 7 tabs open and all of them are either new chapters or unpublished wips but here is the first sentence of the first tab - and a second sentence for a little bit more context lol:

'Watto has wings, a set that isn’t much to look at but that he’s rather proud of showing off anyway. And because Watto has wings, little Ani cannot, lest he grow up and get ideas.'

(that's wing fic au which i have been meaning to finish and post for forever)

18. If you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic

ok so i don't keep my deleted sentences or paragraphs - they are gone with the wind as soon as i don't like them lol BUT i can definitely talk about one of my first draft ideas for a fic that i didn't end up writing which i've definitely talked about before. in foolproof foolhardy, when i started writing what would become the last 2 chapters and the final arc of the story, i was totally sold on the idea that when they're in the ship on the way to their mission they would end up fucking ('to get it out of their system') as a one-time thing and afterwards they can just pretend they don't care about each other at all and the sex would be very angry and bitter except for the moments where they couldn't help but betray their real feelings (aka master skywalker caresses obi-wan's face, obi-wan kisses his pulse, etc etc)

and then during the mission the prince of the planet would be interested in obi-wan in a way that would prove to be Perilous (because obi-wan tries to pretend he can just go back to having fun and sleeping around and so he courts the prince's attention, but it turns out that actually he doesn't want to do that anymore because now he knows how anakin would hold him)

and anakin would do something very dramatic like start a full on war with the planet and or threaten assassination of the prince because hes a jealous lil guy and will use obi-wan's discomfort as cover for his actions without examining the root of the emotions which is in fact love (but twisted)

and then they fuck AGAIN and finally actually talk it all out (but it was already such a long story and that whole mission arc seemed needlessly dramatic when tensions were already high, so they just talked it out the first time they fucked on the ship, which i'm happy with)

30. share a fic you’re especially proud of

ooo interesting question! i definitely feel various amounts of proud of all my fics because of who i was and what i was trying out when i was writing each of them, but i think i'm especially proud of let my love be the knife that implicates me aka the rots compliant fic where obi-wan raises luke on tatooine alone and does as good of a job as he knows how. i just really like the concept of it - where obi-wan deals with his grief by talking about the agony and joy of loving anakin, luke's father, while also still so fresh off of mustafar and the fall of the Jedi, knowing he can only talk about this now because when luke is old enough to remember he shouldn't bear the weight of his secrets....only for luke to remember not the words themselves (about the empire, about sidious, about anakin's betrayal) but the emotion behind them, which was almost always love.

it's a sad fic but it's not so sad that i think it's unreadable and i really am so proud of a lot of the phrases and the pacing of it! mostly because i almost always avoid anything even resembling 'canon compliant' and so this was a really big moment for me lol

#asks #thank you for sending! #as you can see the foolproof foolhardy almost arc still haunts me sometimes lol #but honestly i really love how the story turns out #and how obi-wan is like fuck you for making me the more emotionally mature one here #when you're the jedi master. we're talking about this #i just could also see that obi-wan being like hey we should fuck because i feel like we'll never recover from the choice i made #and if i don't have even a small part of you im not going to be able to carry on #so dont you want to get this out of your system and go back to ignoring me #we've proven very capable of that (forgetting literally everything qui-gon told him not 24 hrs ago)

[todayisafridaynight]

I’ve seen you say that u like that mine is a mystery til the end of yakuza 3 when asked abt a minedai saga i completely agree , so i feel like it would be better if kiwami 3 did happen the saga would be unlockable agter u finish the game

//sagely nodding// you get it.....

#snap chats #it'd be so funny playing as the antagonist after the game tho lmao #on that note tho i always forget mine is. technically an antagonist #LIKE I KNOW HE'S AN ANTAGONIST BUT it just doesn't feel the same as the other antags #maybe its cause he starts to do heinous shit only after daigo goes under. in that case it's just really funny #idc if we all seen the joke its still funny that Area Man Makes It Everyones Problem Pookie Wont Wake Up #to go back on topic tho. itd be so funny flvkejlLVKEJLV #at the very least they could adapt mine's character story if not all of them yk like i wouldnt EXPECT all of them. despite my selfish ass #idk. if not the rggo stories at all i dont know what a hypothetical mine saga would consist of #cause its veyr true i like mine being a mystery and to add on to that i kind of like what we see as is #maybe its just the thought of playing as him is weirding me out. not that i wouldnt kill to play as him of course #maybe its just cause thatd mean mine became playable as part of the a main game before daigo himself vjaKLVJAELKJ #AND I SAY THAT EXCLUDING GAIDEN CAUSE THAT'S DLC AND SIDE CONTENT #tho ig you colud argue a hypothetical mine saga WOULD be side content but it'd be story-relevant side content yk what i mean #im rambling. anyways. i just want the gay bar seen in 4k mk thank you.

[clickerflight]

Y’all ever go to create a character and then decide to give them a background in a different continent and then realize you know next to nothing about any countries besides America and then start doing research and then start regretting writing your story on Earth but with vampires?

Yeah, so I’m having a rough time.

(Continued rant in the tags if you want)

#this post brought to you #by me wanting t make a vampire from Russia #and then my friend reminding me about the war #which then made me feel terrible for forgetting that existed #because I’ve been so caught up in trying to survive in the economy here #and then hit with these conflicted feelings about wanting to portray #my stories realistically #vs not wanting to make people remember terrible things about the world #this is why I typically write about made up world #and I’m really hoping this doesn’t turn into writers block #and I know this is a short story on tumblr.com #so it doesn’t actually matter that much and I’m overthinking all of this #but also I want my story to do well #so add some more conflicting feelings to the pile #anyways #thanks for coming to my Ted talk

[technicalknockout]

YOU ALSO LIKE THE HTTYD BOOKS??? HELL YES. i have. been losing it over hiccup the second for. hours. and how hes the whole reason the story of the httyd books YET DOESNT EVEN FUCKING APPEAR ONCE IN THE HTTYD MOVIES. theres no hiccup the second equivalent. what the fuck. i could fit them in so easily. make them background context for why the majority of the archepeliago is hostile with dragons. hiccup the seconds death happened and the whole dragon rebellion happened very far ago leading to this sort of hostility but it was so long ago nobody really remembers and hiccup the second is vaguely remembered but nothing important about him actually is. furious doesnt even need to still be alive for this to work. hiccup the second. hautning the narrative. i like him

Ok first off. AHHHHHHH YES YES YES HELLO FELLOW HICCUP THE SECOND STAN!!!!! i actually watched the movie first and then the book so i was like "wow cool" on the first watch but Oh my god i would be so lying if i said i never once wished for a hiccup the second in the movies. Like i KNOW the movies are basically like a whole different thing from the books after the first one but?? BUT???? Idk im very biased i love the guy. Ik you pointed this out but he really is the reason for literally everything in the books if you care enough to look into it and i really do think him being some sort of background lore in the movies would be so cool.. *digging thru the httyd ao3 tags*

incidentally if you ask me to choose between the movies and the books i would say the books in a heartbeat. i love the movies it's one of my favorites but a) the books made me cry harder b) theres no hiccup the second OR hiccup the first c) the book lore is absolutely golden and ive never seen anything else top it and d) the movies overwrote fishlegs into almost non-existance which. HELLO?? EXCUSE ME???????

#hello mutual thank you for freaking out abt this book with me #also IF. IF you ever decide to write abt the hiccup the second in the movies NOTIFY ME INSTANTLY #and to everyone else: go read it if you havent already please i promise it's worth it. spread the httyd brainrot virus #bonus content: #im so so so angry about fishlegs you have no idea #i think at this point we should all just forget that the movie was based on the book series. it would be better for everyone #it's not even one of those 'bad movie adaption' things the movies are so GOOD!!! #have you listened to the soundtracks holy frick it's THE soundtrack ever #moral of the story. read the books and watch the (completely unrelated) movie #asks

[amethystpath-writes]

Someone Will Arise- But It Won’t Be You

NOT A PR0MPT

******

“It never gets easier,” Leader said, “seeing them go. You think about their bravery, their selflessness, and you think, ‘How unfair?’ It’s never easy to grieve them.”

Sidekick nodded along as they watched Hero’s casket lower into the ground. “How do you get through it?” Leader was old- a mentor to tens of heroes before Hero, and Sidekick could never imagine living through so much sorrow.

“You understand it, then you come to terms with it. None of them died in vain, but they would if we were to deny their deaths. You must face it,” Leader explained. “Only then can you honor them.”

“Do you think the villains ever regret killing our heroes?” After seeing so many people at the funeral, even Sidekick felt guilty. For what, they weren’t sure. It felt like they could have done something- could have asked what Hero was up to before they left base so suddenly.

Leader’s eyes never strayed from their neutral squint, but they found Sidekick’s eyes. “I think villains have a cause of their own, and though our heroes’ deaths are necessary to them, they grieve the messages they failed to send with their deaths.”

“Will we ever find them?” Sidekick asked. “The messages the villains can’t send?”

Looking back to the arch of the lid, Leader watched Hero disappear beneath the dirt. They let out a breath. “What do you define a villain as?”

It was a change of subject, but Sidekick thought about it. “Someone evil. Someone who kills. Someone hopeless. Someone who has stopped caring about happy endings.” They could ramble on and on.

With a hum, Leader said, “Maybe you’re right.” The funeral company was lessening, leaving Leader, Sidekick, the and gravediggers among polished headstones. “You can never be sure, can you? Some of them have everything they could ever want, and that is precisely why they turn to villainy. Imagine,” they said, “never having to fight for anything at all. How miserable.” As if they felt Sidekick’s curious stare, they defended, “I don’t condone villainy, of course.” They shrugged. “But I understand it.”

As the dirt was beat flat atop Hero’s casket, Sidekick asked, “What happens now, then?”

Hero was gone, and in their place, no one volunteered their bravery. Villain was loose with no one to stop them.

“Someone else will arise. They’ll listen to our villains, they’ll understand, and like every hero before them, they’ll die.”

Wise. That’s what Leader was supposed to be, but speaking to them now, Sidekick was only confused. Why did Leader expect every hero to die?

“What if I became the next hero of the city?”

“You wouldn’t deserve that,” they remarked. “But I know someone who does.”

******

#not a pr0mpt #hero x villain #hero x villain story #hero x villain drabble #hero x villain snippet #heroes and villains #hero #villain #betrayal #I don’t have any funnies this time because it is late and I am sleepy without being able to sleep #BUT I can say that I appreciate you guys :) #thank you for all my continuous readers who are there no matter how far apart I post #to the ones who turn post notifs on because they’re excited to see what I’ve conjured next #to the ones who might even forget about me but become excited when I’m on their dash #to those who might have even left tumblr altogether but think back on my blog fondly as a small stage in their life #to those who don’t follow or interact and read anyway #to those who don’t think my writing is their style but they read anyway #to everyone #you are all equally amazing <3 #goodnight loves

[vox-ex]

ghost stories and fairytales

Supercorptober Day 31 “Spookycorp"

thanks to kmsdraws for the prompts

In most stories the knight saves the princess, but in this story the princess saves the knight. 

Esme asks Kara for a bedtime story. But more than one story unfolds. 

////

"Hey Bug, you ready for bed."

Kara stepped into Esme's room, trying to hold back a smile at the sight of her niece tucked into bed with her stuffed zebra and a slight pout on her face.

"But I'm not tired." Esme said, her voice slightly muffled by the covers.

Kara sat on the edge of the bed and gently pushed Esme's hair out of her face. "I know, kiddo, but it's late, and you need your sleep. It's a big day tomorrow, and you don't want to be too tired to go trick or treating."

"I know," Esme sunk down further into her bed, "but I want to stay up with you and Aunt Lena."

Kara gave her a small smile and brushed her thumb over Esme's cheek.

"Well, I'll make sure Lena comes in and says goodnight before you fall asleep, and we are all going to have breakfast in the morning together too."

"Okay." Esme conceded, squeezing Lovey to her chest a little tighter, "but can you tell me a story first?"

"Hmm, I tell you what," Kara poked Esme's nose lightly, "I'll tell you a story, but only if you promise not to tell your Moms I let you have ice cream and pizza."

"I promise!" Esme said, her eyes wide.

"Okay, okay," Kara chuckled, "what kind of story would you like?"

"Do you know any ghost stories," Esme asked suddenly, very contemplative.

"Are you old enough for ghost stories?" Kara looked at her with a raised eyebrow and a slight squint.

But Esme just huffed, sticking her head up a little more from underneath the covers, "I'm eight," reaching up with her hands and showing her fingers to emphasize her point.

And really, what was Kara to say after that.

"Alright, alright, well, scoot over then."

She climbed onto the bed, leaning back against the headboard as Esme made room for her.

"How about a story about a knight and princesses and ghosts?"

"And dragons."

Esme said as she snuggled closer.

Kara nodded her head emphatically at the suggestion, agreeing that the idea that one could tell a story about knights and princesses and ghosts without dragons was simply ridiculous.

"And, of course, dragons."

But underneath the silliness of story time, Kara couldn't help but let her mind wander for a second. Couldn't stop it from flipping through all the villains of her own life, through all the real ghosts that had come and gone and come again. She wore some of them on her sleeve more than others, but didn't really speak of any of them very much. She was trying to get better at that. Maybe that's why she said what she said next — did what she did next. Because maybe sometimes it's easier to say things without really saying them. And maybe it's easier to hide your monsters in a fairytale than confront them in real life.

"There once was a princess and a knight who were both on a quest to save the kingdom from an evil dragon."

Kara began, her voice soft and maybe just a little shaky as it bounced off the walls of the room. She took a breath and reminded herself it was only a story.

"The two of them fought bravely alongside their friends and the Knight's sister. The Knight with all her strength and armor, and weapons. And the princess armed with all her wit and her heart and her bravery.

The princess lured the dragon out so the Knight could try and capture it, but the dragon cursed the Knight, sending her away to a dark forest filled with ghosts."

She mimed the trees with her hands, fingers casting shadows on the walls.

"The dragon hid the forest using dark magic so the princess would never be able to find her way to the Knight. The princess was heartbroken but vowed to find the dragon and save the Knight.

She searched with the Knight's sister and her friends for days and weeks until they finally found the dark forest. But they still needed a way to free the Knight from the dragon's curse."

"Was the knight okay all alone?" Esme looked up at her, and Kara quickly reassured her, maybe the both of them.

"She was scared, but she knew the princess and her family would find her."

"Did they?"

Kara let her voice grow alongside Esme's eagerness.

"Of course. They fought their way through the forest, avoiding the traps set by the dragon and defeating the ghosts."

"But what about the curse?"

"Part of the curse made things in the forest seem like they weren't real. So even if the princess found her, the Knight wouldn't be able to know if she was real either."

"What happened next?" Esme asked, head peaking more and more out of the covers.

"Well, what the dragon didn't know was that the Knight loved the princess. And because the Knight loved her, she could tell by her heartbeat that she was real."

"Did the princess love the knight too?"

And it was an innocent enough question. And it should have had an innocent enough answer. A simple yes. A simple, of course. This was supposed to be a fairytale, after all.  Was there any other option?

But still, Kara paused, a crinkle creasing her brow.

And maybe the story would have ended there if someone else didn't start it again for her.

"Yes."

Kara turned her head towards the door to find Lena leaning against the doorframe.

"Yes," she said again, pushing off the door, coming over by the other side of Esme's bed, and sitting down next to her.

"The princess loved the Knight; it's what helped her find the Knight in the forest. She could hear her heartbeat too."

Esme looked between Kara and Lena.

“Did they stop the dragon?”

But it was Lena who kept going.

"Yes, they did. The Knight, the princess, and all their friends and family went back to the kingdom and stopped him together."

"If they both loved each other, does that mean they got to live happily ever after?"

Lena leaned down and kissed Esme on the forehead, "Yes, my love. They lived very happily ever after."

Kara swallowed hard, her throat tight, finally finding her voice again,

"Yes, they all did."

And as Esme's eyes finally started to grow heavy, Lena stepped away to turn off the light and make sure everything was put in its place. Kara pulling the covers back up and giving Esme a forehead kiss of her own, "Goodnight, Bug."

Kara eased herself gently off the bed and took one last look before slipping out of the room and joining Lena in the hall.

They only took a few steps before Kara stopped, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes. "Are you okay?" Lena asked, coming to stand in front of her, more out of reflex than anything. They both knew the answer.

Kara shook her head anyway, "No, not really."

Lena didn't say anything. Instead, she just wrapped her arms around Kara and held her tight. And Kara let herself fall against her.

It had been a fairytale. But it had also been something real. And in real life, people had gotten hurt. She had been gone. She had been gone, and then she came back. But in between, there was so much hurt. For her, her family, her friends, Lena — for all of them.

Lena stroked Kara's hair, "you're not there anymore," she whispered.

Kara nodded, her head following the slump of her shoulders.

"I know."

But it didn't mean she still wasn't scared. Scared of different dragons and different ghosts and different endings.

Lena pulled away slightly so she could look at Kara.

And Kara did her best to wipe away her tears, offering a crooked, watery smile that Lena matched instead.

"Maybe in the future, though, you should avoid using story time with your niece as an impromptu therapy session, hmm?"

"Yeah, probably," Kara said with a raspy bit of laughter, her head tipping back against the wall.

"Come on." Lena said as she takes her hand and pulls her forward, starting to lead her down the hall again. "let's get you to bed too."

They turn off the lights as they move through each room.

Kara lets herself be pulled along, her hand tightening around Lena's as they walk.

But eventually, there are no more lights and no more rooms to go through. Eventually, there's just the two of them standing in the faint glow of Lena's bedroom.

Standing half in and half out of the light.

Standing half in and half out of a story.

It had been a fairytale, but it had also been something real. And in real life, people got to fall in love, too, didn't they? Get happy endings sometimes too even? 

"So the princess loved the knight too, huh?" Kara asks hope, threading through doubt with each word.

Lena lets go of Kara's hand and lets it settle onto her hip instead, "yeah," kisses her as they both step back into the light of the room completely, "yeah, she does."

#supergirl #supercorp #supercorptober #supercorptober2022 #softness disguised as heaviness #heaviness disguised as softness #these two deserve so many hugs #and kisses #and happy endings #thank you for reading #I hope it makes some kind of sense #another post PZ story I know I know #but I was so lost on this prompt #No i didn't forget October had 31 days #but listen there is so much there to unpack #and the whole chaos of US politics just made my brain hurt

[amethysts-prompts]

Prompt #218

“My ghost will still be around to tease you about your obsession with the weather, at least.” Villain chuckled before sputtering red.

“Sit up, Villain. You’re going to choke. Just- just wait for my team to get here. Please. Please just hold on.”

Villain shook their head at Hero. “Even if they are coming, they won’t save me, my love. I’m the villain, remember?”

“They’ll help,” Hero promised. “I’ll convince them- tell them you’re no villain at all.”

But that wasn’t true, no matter how Hero wanted to believe it. “This is it, my dear. Just hold me. Tell me every happy thing you can remember.”

#prompts by dee #prompt #prompts #writing prompt #writing prompts #hero #villain #heroes and villains #hero x villain #hero x villain prompt #hero/villain #villain/hero #thank you for 200 followers on this prompt blog! #don’t forget- I have a whole writing blog where I post actual stories versus prompts <3 #username is amethystpath-writes