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daydream-cement · 6 months

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The Depths of Hell

Lucifer Morningstar x Reader

Chased through the mazes of hell.

Author's Note: This is the second week of Spooky Season with @alexusonfire!!!! The prompt is monsters!! I really wanted this to be scary, but I've never really written anything scary before so I hope this is a good first attempt :D

You must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Over the course of an afternoon, you had been enjoying the local botanic gardens. As you rounded a corner of the hedge, you had expected to see a water feature according to the map in your hand. There was no water feature, rather there was a large dark sculpture that seemed to resemble a twisted up snake.

You continue between the hedgerows towards the sculpture, glancing down at your map to see where you had lost your way.

An eerie feeling overwhelmed you.

The overwhelming urge to check your surroundings took over, causing your head to swivel about as you searched for the source of your unease. There was a shutter of leaves and the path you had been walking on was gone - shrubs now created a wall preventing you from turning back.

The faint buzzing of fear tinged at the base of your skull, but you kept walking towards the statue in hopes of finding a way out. You were caught off guard by how dark your surroundings had gotten. Was it really that late into the evening already?

The snake was deep black in color with sharp scales that glittered in a way that made it seem as if it was shifting back and forth ever so slightly.

A rustle of leaves. The snapping of a twig. You jerked your head around, searching for the source of the sounds, but you found nothing. You turned back to the sculpture, and soon you were unable to look away. You studied it for a long while, walking around its base, but far too fearful to reach out and touch it.

A snarl drew you from your trance-like state.

You spun around to see a creature cocking its head at you. It spoke in a language you couldn’t understand, but its presence was threatening to say the least.

When it took a step towards you, you took a step back. Then it took another with you backing up in response. Your back hit ran up against something before a growl resounded. Spinning around you saw another creature, perhaps uglier than the first.

Your heart began to beat faster as you quickly realized you were surrounded. The creature closest to you made a move to grab you, but thankfully you were quick enough to dodge its attempt. You fell into fight or flight mode and picked flight without hesitation.

You dodged the beast's second attempt to grab you, falling to the ground when you did. You scrambled off towards an opening in the hedge, finding your footing as both of the creatures started after you.

With each turn you seemed to run into more beasts, diving past them only for them to join the pack of most trailing after you.

You ran and ran, glancing back over your shoulder periodically at the monstrous creatures following you. They were easily six feet tall with horns and claws. Their faces filled you with horror as they looked to be an odd amalgamation of a boar, human, and a toad.

You couldn’t understand why you were being chased. You didn’t know what they wanted. You watched them gain on you, their longer strides making it incredibly easy for them to get closer and closer. Not looking where you were going, made you stumble. You recovered quickly, hands brushing against the grass as you pulled yourself into an upright position.

You sprinted until your legs ached. Your heart beating in your ears. Your body was screaming for you to find safety.

You made so many turns that everything began to look the same. Escape felt utterly hopeless.

You rounded a corner quickly, your shirt brushing against the leaves and the branches scratching against your shoulder. You hear the monsters shrieking and braying as they krept closer. Their claws snagged at your clothes as they tried to pull you back to them. You wanted to turn to look back and see how close they had gotten, but you needed to round another corner first.

When you did, you made it two strides before colliding with something. You fell to the ground and scrambled around the object that sent you to the ground. The snarling and growling of the creatures immediately went silent. You draw your knees to your chest and squeeze your eyes shut, hoping if you held your breath and made no sounds, the monsters would forget you entirely.

“What is the meaning of this?” A voice called from

above you. You chose not to respond, hoping whoever it was had directed their words at the creatures.

“My lord… That… human was wandering your gardens.” A gravelly voice responded, causing chills to prick up across your arms.

“You think I hadn’t known? Off with you! You terrified this child half to death.” The being hissed. There was a stillness as you waited for the monsters to slink away, then came a hand on your shoulder. “They won’t hurt you, lamb.”

The voice sounded nice and gentle, but after everything you had experienced, you were still unsure of trusting whoever this was. You had to force yourself to lift your chin and glance up to the being speaking. Your eyes were met with a beautiful face framed by perfect curls.

“Did they hurt you?”

You shake your head, taking the moment of perceived safety to register the beings full height. They were taller than anyone you’d ever seen, and they had wings. Great big wings that looked most magnificent, but you inherently longed to see them all stretched out.

“Stand for me, lamb. Let me look at you.” The being took you by the forearm, and displayed their great strength by pulling you to your feet with one arm. Their hand remained on your arm as they surveyed you. “I am known by many names, but you may call me, Lucifer.”

“Like the-”

“Devil? Yes, pet. Now, how did you get into my maze?”

“I-I took the wrong turn…” You sputtered, eyes glued to their divine face.

“Happens to the best of us, I suppose. Would you care to accompany me on my walk?”

“You want to walk… with me?”

“Yes.” Lucifer answered plainly, taking your hand in theirs as a wing slowly expanded around you. Curiously you turned your head and watched the wing shield you. Through all of the terror you had experienced today, the protective wing around you made you smile.

“How am I supposed to get home?”

“Why don’t we discuss that after our walk, darling?”

Taglist: @charymobile, @bri-sonat, @opheliauniverse, @enchantressb, @renravens, @whenyouhaveanobsession, @scream-queenlover, @shyladyfan, @rubberduckiesbathing, @peanutbutterprincess, @larissaoftarthweems, @lvinhs, @myzzjolanda, @principal-weems09, @imlike-so-gaydude, @emilynissangtr, @xuukoo, @brienneswife, @dumbasslesbi, @oculusalien, @sweetderacine, @giogwensversion, @milciak, @gela123, @thevillagegay, @katiemcgrathsbitch1, @naomi-m3ndez, @mysaviorfalsegod, @salems-spaghettios, @imgayforwoman69, @bychrissi, @h-doodles, @alexusonfire, @weemssapphic, @lilfartbox1, @mountain-bikingwitch, @willowshadenox, @aemilia19, @mommyslittlebaby, @agathaandgwenslesbian, @gay-frogs08

#lucifer morningstar (sandman) x reader #gwendoline christie #fanfic #lucifer morningstar (sandman)#the sandman #gwen christie #its supposed to be scary #but its me we are talking about so it probably isnt

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datcloudboi · 4 months

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List of Video Games Turning 10 Years Old in 2024

Alien: Isolation

Assassin's Creed: Rogue (the one where you play as an Assassin turned Templar.)

Assassin's Creed: Unity (the one set during the French Revolution.)

Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky

Azure Striker Gunvolt

The Banner Saga

Bayonetta 2

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea (the DLC where you go back to Rapture)

A Bird Story (a sort of spin-off of "To the Moon")

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! (is this a sequel to 1 or a prequel to 1? I forgor)

Bravely Default (in North America)

Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (the one with K*vin Sp*cey)

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (to date, the last new Castlevania game to release)

Child of Light

The Crew (going offline at the end of March)

D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (a wonderfully strange game from the guy that made Deadly Premonition)

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (in North America)

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (in North America)

Dark Souls II

Deception IV: Blood Ties

Demon Gaze

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

Disney Infinity 2.0

Divinity: Original Sin (from the team that would go on to make Baldur's Gate 3)

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Dragon Age: Inquisition (the winner of GOTY at the very first TGAs)

Drakengard 3

Earth Defense Force 2025 (EDF! EDF! EDF!)

The Evil Within (from the creative director of Resident Evil)

Fable Anniversary

Fairy Fencer F

Far Cry 4

Freedom Planet

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign

Hyrule Warriors

Inazuma Eleven (in North America. And digital only.)

Infamous: Second Son (as well as its expansion, First Light)

Kirby: Triple Deluxe

The Last of Us Remastered (just one year after the original version came out...)

The Legend of Korra (the game from PlatinumGames that you can't buy anymore)

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

Lego The Hobbit

The Lego Movie Videogame

Lethal League (from the team that would go on to make Bomb Rush Cyberfunk)

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (the third and final chapter of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy)

Lisa: The Painful (yes, really)

LittleBigPlanet 3

Lords of the Fallen (not to be confused with Lords of the Fallen, which came out in 2023)

Mario Golf: World Tour

Mario Kart 8 (the original version)

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes (the prologue to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which came out 18 months later)

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Might & Magic X: Legacy

Murdered: Soul Suspect (it's like Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, but not as good)

Natural Doctrine

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! (a from the ground up remake of the first Oddworld game from 1997)

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (yes, it got a sequel. I don't know how or why.)

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

Pokemon Omega Ruby & Pokemon Alpha Sapphire

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy (the last time that Professor Layton himself was the protagonist. At least, until the New World of Steam comes out)

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Pushmo World

Risen 3: Titan Lords

Sacred 3

Samurai Warriors 4

Shadowrun: Dragonfall

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (the 3rd one)

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

Shovel Knight (yes, really)

Skylanders: Trap Team (the 4th one)

Sniper Elite III

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Steins;Gate (in North America)

Strider (the one from Double Helix)

Sunset Overdrive

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS (or Smash 4 for short)

Tales of Xillia 2

Tales of Hearts R

The Talos Principle

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call

Thief (the reboot)

This War of Mine

Toukiden: The Age of Demons

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (this game merged the storyline of the War for/Fall of Cybertron games with the storyline of the Michael Bay movies. I’m not joking)

Transistor

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Wasteland 2

Watch Dogs

The Witch and the Hundred Knight

The Wolf Among Us (sequel this year!)

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z

Yoshi's New Island

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raayllum · 3 days

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Gift Giving & Primal vs First Elves :: Or Going Off Into the Deep Lore Deep End

Remember that meta I compiled about Greek mythology, deceptive gift giving, and TDP? Yeah it's time to talk about the gift motif properly as well as some other deep lore things because these excellent thoughts ( @spicyviren, @kradogsrats, and @its-leethee) got the wheels in my brain spinning.

AKA an unknown amount of sectioned word vomit into the nature of magic, where it comes from, how deep magic operates, some gifts and motifs, and Leola, just a little.

Let's go.

Gift Motif

The gift motif is one that's a bit of a slowburn in TDP. While characters will often pass and hand over objects — tools, artefacts, metaphorical responsibilities or trust (handing over the egg, for example) — to one another, there's not a big emphasis on gifts in the first three seasons.

There are some, such as Callum's letter from Harrow (that he's given by Claudia once again initially as a goodbye), Ezran giving Bait to Barius in S3, and Rayla's family pendant, but most of these, as you've might already noticed, are contextualized within Goodbyes. Whether the gift motif will amount in arc 2 to escaping this "final gift" context remains to be seen, but that's how it tends to work in interpersonal relationships.

There is an element of peace offering in hoping that returning Zym — a gift and/or gesture of good will — will help usher in peace, but I think (as of now at least) that ties further into the series' theme of Reciprocal Exchange (the assassin mission being an eye for an eye vs olive branch for olive branch) than outright gift giving. (Although we will probably talk about Exchange and gift giving at some point because there is also a thematic tether there.)

However, there is one other thing that is more and more often referred to as a gift in Arc 1, and that's Magic. Specifically, dark magic.

Now, this actually isn't that dissimilar from what the Goodbye gifts amount to, either. In Harrow's letter, he gifts Callum the Key of Aaravos believing it to be a powerful magical relic of some kind; Rayla's pendant makes its way from Ethari to her to Callum, who then uses it for magical purposes; and Bait, as a glow toad, is connected to an arcanum himself.

I do think it's noteworthy though that in Arc 1, (dark) magic being a gift is emphasized upon, specifically because of these lines for Khessa:

Upon first watching it back in 2019, it made sense that dark magic would be referred to this way, even when I just thought maybe it was that humans had been given 'nothing,' as Claudia says. Dark magic is closely tied to ideas of theft and thievery — stealing magic from others to harness its power for yourself — and the series is deeply interested in concepts of ownership or who has 'true' ownership over something, in magic, a throne/crown, a price to pay, etc. This follows neatly into Arc 2 (for ex: why Karim seeking to steal the Sun Seed is a metaphorical dark path even if it didn't outright involve dark magic through Kim'Dael), which we'll build on later.

That said, given the depth of the knowledge at the Great Bookery that is open to Sunfire elves more than any other type of elf, and the information that Tales of Xadia and Ripples gives us...

While elves warned that if humans were meant to wield magic they would have been born with it, [Leola] gifted the wisest humans with secrets: the language of the dragons and the runes that shaped spells. With the unicorn’s gift, the most determined minds among the humans could finally harness primal magic.

It happened long ago, when humans had only just learned to hold fire in their hands without burning. They nurtured their precious primal flames secretly—in the dark of night, beneath shadows and shrouds—as cultivating its glow drew the eyes and ire of monsters [...] Humanity had been given something it was never meant to have. And so there came a calamity.

It makes it more than likely than, unlike other elves such as Lujanne or Ibis, Khessa had reason to believe/know that there used to be primal human mages in the past... and that it wasn't 'enough' for them ultimately, because they still hungered and developed (and were given?) dark magic. "Your kind could not be satisfied with what you were given" was about the rejection of primal magic from Leola (the unicorns) in favour of a darker kind that involves theft and "dirtying yourself" (5x08) with dark magic.

But at the same time, this complicates the Gift Giving motif of including not just dark magic, but being also for primal magic — for humans, at least.

And also for elves. (Ignoring how "great orb" is very similar to "great one" for now.)

Janai: It was a gift. But there's more to it than that. The great orb began as this. Karim: This is... a sun seed?

Now, the Great Orb being grown from a Sun 'literal' seed makes sense. We've known for a long time that in Xadia, "magic is everywhere. It's just part of the vibrance or spirit of things" (1x05). Primal magic naturally occurring in plants, animals, and elves likewise makes sense on that note. Just as not "many could bear the gruelling path of a rune mage," Karim cannot bear to have patience and faith in something that will only come to fruition centuries later.

That said, I raise the question: how functionally different is the Great Orb from say, a sun primal stone would hypothetically be? If primal stones and primal magic were gifts to humanity from unicorns — from creatures connected to the Star arcanum, for lack of a better understanding — then why not magic from Startouch (?) elves to other elves.

How do we know that all magic isn't simply a gift that was given once upon a time?

From the First Elves to the Primal Elves.

Primal vs First Elves

So what's the difference between First Elves and Primal elves?

Well we have a few pieces of lore:

1) Zubeia's status as a "heavenly majesty" (which we'll come back to in the next section) gives her authority to speak in the name of the first elves, who are effectively gods to humankind and/or Xadians ("Have our Gods died? / Where do the fabled Great Ones hide?" —the Epic of the Void

2) It seems that the First Elves are, as of now and for a while, exclusively in reference to what would otherwise be called Startouch elves, although the latter is seemingly a name that came later given Rayla's affirmation of "ancient legends". This is reaffirmed in Tales of Xadia's two lone mention of First Elves:

No group of elves presents a greater mystery than the Startouch elves. Sometimes called the First Elves, those bound to the Star primal are rumored to have made great marks on Xadia’s ancient history—but beyond story and legend, little real evidence is left to us today [...] Among the few extant records of Startouch elves are the Scrolls of the First Elves, now kept in the Great Bookery of Lux Aurea.

3) At a post-S2 con in 2019 (how's that for a far reach?) we got a timeline of the events of Xadia laid out for us. The description of the very first piece of history and era we know of goes as follows, with the Rise of Elarion happening 2000 years ago re: the Dragon Prince era ("The Return of Aaravos"):

The Era of the First elves is the first recorded era 5,000 years prior to the current era. Dragons and elves were not allied during this period. There were no distinct primal elves. This is an era before all that. Humans suffered during this period.

—2019 con timeline

4) Justin and Aaron reaffirm this at the 2:30 ish minute mark of this video (a couple of months before even S3 was released) by reaffirming distinctly to Primal elves. Later (7:40-ish mark) we see this distinction reaffirmed again through the statement of, "The patterns have been that these primal based elves have grown cultures and civilizations that have become separate and differentiated from kind of whatever the early days were with the First elves were."

Okay, so there was 100% a time where there were only First Elves, and humans, and Primal elves as we knew them (maybe still with the hands and horns, but no arcanum? Or no singular, distinct arcanum) didn't exist. Why does this matter?

This is where the deep lore timeline gets tricky, as we don't know precisely when 1) humans received magic and 2) at what stage the First Elves / Great Ones / Startouch elves 'left' Xadia, only that they did, apparently, when Elarion (the human city) needed help: "Elarion, unworthy whelp / Wept as the stars turned black the sky / They donned their masks / They turned their backs / And left Elarion to die". Why abandon the city (beyond indifference/cruelty as Aaravos would likely claim), who knows.

However, we can assume the timeline looks something like this:

Era of the First Elves

Primal elves (and presumably archdragons *) are crafted / develop into being, whatever that means

Humans are magic-less and are having a bad time

Unicorns / Leola extend sympathy despite the fact that the First Elves tell her not to (Book One: Novelization / Tales of Xadia)

Humans have primal magic (Ripples / Tales of Xadia)

This attracts negative attention, consolidated in Elarion ("the stars she asked their light to cast / and stop the dragons’ fiery might" / "as cultivating its glow drew the eyes and ire of monsters. Eventually, for the audacity of their fire, they were hunted")

Elarion asks for help and the Stars leave

Aaravos, the last star — presumably already Fallen from the First Elves — gives them dark magic under the guise of protection even though it will inevitably help him (i.e. give him the ability to possess people)

Dark magic replaces primal magic as the primary form for humans

Tension and violence escalates (unicorns are hunted to near extinction). Sol Regem is removed as King of the Dragons

Under Dragon Queen Luna Tenebris, the daughter of an elven leader suggests the Judgement of the Half-Moon, causing for humans to be banished rather than eradicated, and the continent split in two

Again, nothing too crazy / not too much we haven't already known or guessed at for a while.

But like I said, I'm gonna propose two theories, so bear with me:

Theory #1: What is Deep Magic?

The First Elves engaged with what we're gonna call Deep or Old Magic, for lack of a better term. There can be an assumption at times that this magic would be more 'pure' or less 'diluted' than dark magic or even the primal magic we've seen on screen. However, I think that's less than likely. Dark magic is often times a bad path for good outcomes, and primal magic can be a 'good' magic for bad outcomes (the blood freezing spell, for example).

While dark magic is a more textually malevolent magic system and primal magic is more true neutral — able to be used as a tool and a source of connection for the user — I don't think this necessarily means that Deep Magic is inherently enlightening (we see with the Ocean arcanum and S5 that knowledge can be an immense burden) or that it's on the opposite end of the spectrum and is outright benevolent.

What, then, am I suggesting Deep Magic to be? Well, we have some clues likewise from the same old interview post-s2 that we haven't had much basis to (potentially) understand until now, in which it's stated:

Deeper magic and deeper gifts that the original beings received [...] practical, usable, powerful magic is drawn from the six primal sources, right? But there is this idea that there's this earlier, less differentiated power kind of magic that's deeper and more - I don't kind of want to say what all of them are. It's not that important now, it has more to do with the history of beings and their interactions with each other. But Aaravos cares about some of this stuff. The best I can say is that one of them's Power — but well, what does that mean?

The six primal sources — potentially just five (hence why only 5 gemstones seem to occur naturally in nature, and Star seemingly doesn't) — are all based around physical, somewhat tangible principles. Earth, Ocean, Sun (fire/light), Sky (wind/weather) are perhaps the most tangible, with only Moon dipping into something into something more metaphysical: illusions and questioning the nature of reality, the nature of death, etc. However, I'd argue that the Moon arcanum's emphasis on death still makes it something that is particularly important to creatures who are mortal (but more on that later).

What I am arguing for is then, therefore, that Deep Magic is magic drawn from Concepts and Ideas > tangible things found in nature or parts of other magical creatures.

Three concepts, to be exact: (translated dark magic screenshot from Cartoon Universe spells reversed).

Zubeia: He chose as his instruments those who had strong hearts and strong minds, but who had an insatiable thirst and fascination with magic (power).

Three quasar diamonds, three deep magic concepts. Heart, Mind, Power.

("To know something truly and deeply, you must know it with your head, hand, and heart. Mind, body, and spirit." / "She laid before me her scales, her blindfold, and her sword, and told me to choose.")

Now, I don't know if it's these three concepts exactly — I could Truth, or Justice, or something like that — or even if it's three. But given what little we know about Deep magic thus far and how much the series' likes its threes, I think that's the likeliest number and combination.

We've known for a while that there's something weird with the connection between dark magic, spells that use blood, and 'star' magic. We know it's unlikely that Aaravos being able to possess people who have used dark magic was just a happy accident discovered after humans started using it. We know that when Callum is offered the dark magic version of the cube in his dreams, the symbol is blood red: "You can have unlimited power." And that dark magic "became the key that unlocked a place of power for humans in Xadia" (Tales of Xadia).

So what if dark magic stems from the vein of Deep magic that's taken from the concept of Power? What if when Aaravos offered his pawns "unlimited" Power, or when Kpp'Ar accused Viren of (potentially using star magic) "making the same choice you always made: the one that gives you Power," they meant it?

Alternatively, this could mean that most other Startouch elves — their longevity, their indifference — comes from the vein of Mind and subsequent intellectual detachment? Enough intelligence and reason not to hunger for more (Power), but not enough compassion and empathy to sympathize with others (Heart).

And it would also tie into Leola being unique among her own kind for her heart taking pity on the humans, and giving them primal magic — perhaps in the vein of Heart, if we're keeping things consistent — and why love ("To know something truly and deeply [...] I love you with all of myself, and I always will" / "To love is simply to know this: the tides are true as the ocean is deep") has been consistently tied to Callum unlocking arcanums. The "Narrative of Strength (power)" vs "Narrative of Love" being even more literal than we thought.

This wouldn't be too out of line since Moon arcanum philosophy already borrows heavily from Plato's idea of the forms/reality (Plato's allegory of the cave, anyone?) and the forms basically mean "your imagined ideal of the object in your mind is going to be more perfect than any tangible, 'real' version of the object could ever be." That being applied to living beings who are literally in the sky would track a certain amount, in addition to the idea that however primal magic is set up in Xadia right is "the whole world is like a giant primal stone; sky magic is all around us, and it's also in me, with every breath we take." But I digress.

With the distinction of Deep Magic as 1) separate and a sea that flows into the primal as well as 2) older and earlier than primal magic, now onto the next theory:

Theory #2: First elves and the Archdragons?

Now admittedly this one is more speculative since beyond knowing 1) the First elves = what we'd call Startouch elves, 2) the rest of them except Aaravos 'left' Xadia a while ago, and 3) the aforementioned possible 'Mind' deep magic thing, we very quickly run out of set knowledge into full blown speculation. Beyond

With that in mind, I wanna talk about the... weirdness, I suppose, between the Archdragons / draconic royal family and the First Elves.

There's a few notes to this: we know that Ancient Draconic is the language of primal magic, indicating that dragons existed and presumably had primal magic before elves did, and that elves had to be given that linguistic knowledge at least to a certain degree.

Then we also have the way Zubeia is referred to being mirrored with the way she describes Aaravos later:

Likewise, the one person/creature we've seen referred to as a god outside the Epic of the Void poem is Avizandum by Harrow (bonus points for the game motif of "entire armies have fallen like toys" because of him):

Bloodmoon Huntress also asserts that from an elven point of view (or at least Lain and Tiadrin, and presumably Runaan, too) that "Dragons are the lifeblood, the very core of Xadia" and generally assumed that dragons have the most powerful connection to their individual primal sources.

So I'd be willing to wager (esp since Sol Regem is at least 1,2000+ years old) that Archdragons at least once upon a time had been contemporaries of the First Elves if not peers. What and why that connection exists and how relevant it is for today, I don't know, but I do think there's something there, especially since the one example we have of a First Elf-Dragon relationship in Aaravos, Avizandum, and Zubeia, was perceived to be positive somewhat on all sides — a matter of trust on his end (in order to be "betrayed") and a matter of reverence and importance on theirs; "admired and loved by all" / "you meant something to him".

There is also something to be said for the Archdragons being the most powerful embodiment of the primal sources (alongside maybe some rare and noteworthy elves, like Queen Aditi) still being "unable to risk a direct confrontation" with only one singular and Fallen Startouch elf. What would a whole slew of them at the height of their power look like? (And yet it is implied that the Nova Blade is "ivory draconic" so... maybe you just have to get a First Elf close enough to the mouth to be consumed / bitten? Or perhaps the Nova Blade is made from the tooth/claw of a 'Star' arcanum dragon.)

TLDR; it's looking more and more like Startouch elves as we understand them and First Elves in generally are — while emotive and feeling the way humans and elves are — something very different from anything else we've seen thus far in terms of knowledge and power skill, and that distinction is only going to be made more and more apparent as the story goes on.

Theory #3: Where do we go from here?

So if Deep Magic is distinct from Primal, and is distinct from 2/3 kinds of Deep Magic in dark magic (derived from 5-primal and Power deep magic thoughts)... where do we go from here, magically speaking?

Well, the important thing to note is that the story has given us some thematic clues. Aaravos is concerned with exile and power, both things we see thematically most represented by human characters (with some elven exceptions like Karim and Kim'Dael). The other Star touch elves are very on brand for "Xadian exile" as their favourite punishment as well as extreme isolationism ("I knew I had to be strong alone" etc). Therefore, whatever answer we give Magically also has to reconcile these issues from a thematic and character based standpoint.

It seems like a switch of where people are concentrating energy — for Startouch elves and humans — needs to have a drastic shift to one of the other veins/concepts of deep magic that will hopefully heal the rifts. If Aaravos is Power (humans) and the others are 'Mind' (Xadian indifference/isolation and banishment) for lack of a better idea, then subverting that binary and shifting more to a third 'Love' path seems to be very on brand for TDP. Holding both at the same time but being guided by a higher principle of peace and harm reduction is what Ezran's 4x03 speech is all about, after all.

Something something both Xadia and magic and the First Elves being reunited with Xadia / humanity and elvenkind as TDP's endgame, something something.

Other Gift Giving Thoughts

The other thing I wanna talk about now that everything else is laid out is how gifts are Given, in TDP. We see time and time again relationships and magic systems being framed on the idea of whether they are giving, taking, both in a bad way or in a good way. There seems to be two main indicators for gift giving, therefore, either that in the receiver is worthy, or that the exchange is going to be reciprocal.

At its best, a gift works as intended.

Humans (and elves?) are given primal magic and generally use it for exploration and to care for themselves / one another The sun seed is given to the Sunfire elves, but they must nurture it. Callum gives Rayla her father's bow and she uses it to protect them. Callum achieves enlightenment and understanding of him and is rewarded with primal magic twice, even if the Ocean in particular is a bit murkier than he'd probably like. Gifts and belongings are relinquished or restored for freedom, for hope, for peace.

Here we have to wonder if Leola's Last Wish reconciles both the Goodbye gift motif and the gift of Magic motif, possibly resulting in the gift of the sun seed or more likely something to do with primal magic / alleviate the fallout of dark magic's consequences.

For example, to get an answer from Rex Igneous — a seeming wealth of knowledge — you have to give him a worthy gift that is also a sacrifice of some kind, according to Nath'an.

However, Ezran points out the major flaw in this line of thinking, as "We offered gifts that meant a lot to us, but the truth is, they don't mean anything to you." Not everyone is going to value the same thing or think the same thing is worth the price that was paid.

We see this interpersonally most with the mage fam ("Maybe the world would be better off without magic" from Soren, whose life was saved with it) and with Rayla and Callum (as Rayla's gift of sacrifice by leaving is something Callum did not want and rightfully did not receive well, alongside her moonstone pendant). Again: what is defined as worthy, or worthiness, is in the eye of the beholder.

Just like one of the initial thoughts that inspired this meta, Khessa asserts that dark magic is a magic that "takes" > being reciprocal for both parties, nevermind a gift. The irony, however, runs a bit deeper, as Aaravos thinks the same of his fellow stars:

But the stars kept from them one secret still: that their first lesson—patience—was not a gift of the stars at all. You see, patience is a lesson the humans taught themselves. No, the stars do not know patience, for they have no need for it. The stars want for nothing, and take all to their liking.

And we see this idea of a 'false gift' show up time and time again in the series. Nyx pretends to offer passage but actually wants to steal Zym; Rayla's act of love in leaving is a curse upon Callum's heart and wellbeing; dark magic itself is a false trade of sorts, given how unevenly it tips scales in Aaravos' favour and how much it ruins both the environment and body of its caster.

[The elven thief Lasair] never saw the precious blossoms fade and turn to cold ashes when exposed to the dawn. They never learned their gift was perceived as a curse, not a trade.

—Tales of Xadia

Kim'Dael goes to Queen Aditi under false pretences ("The Queen's Mercy") but the gift that Aditi gives her is nothing good at all:

What pretty bauble, she wondered, had she tricked the queen into forging as a token of protection? What could be powerful enough to ward away the wrath of dragons?

Just as humans sought the stars' help to protect them from the ire of the dragons, Kim'Dael sought Aditi's. And just as Aaravos offered them a false magic that would protect and ultimately trap/destroy then, so does Aditi, with magic that doesn't seem to be entirely dark or primal:

“But know this: the binding around your neck—it is made with magic not unlike your own. It is a magic that demands, that takes."

A form of magic even maybe that demands sacrifice for that kind of Power.

You could almost say it's something Deeper.

Conclusion

Hope you enjoyed going completely off the rails with me, and that this long (winded) post got you thinking! I'll probably do a followup discussing the implications of what we have here for potential Laurelion-Aaravos later. In the meantime, take the fruits of my labour, and spin your own hamster wheels if you'd like.

#the dragon prince #tdp #tdp meta #gift motif #analysis series #dark magic #primal magic #worldbuilding #analysis #deep lore dive #i'm also pretty sure aaravos or someone got cast out bc of the primal magic thing too #stars wanted a punishment of some kind. yeah #but more on that later #something something 'but this isn't true strength. it's only power'

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tiredly101 · 1 year

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A picture not ment to be seen part 4

Pairing: Wally Darling x Writer!Male reader

New Neighbor Masterlist

Summary: Wally was sitting in his tree while his mind was plaged by multiple memories, all of them involving you but then one hit him with a strength he didn't know existed...

Illustrated Au, picture done by @nonomives

Wally was now staring at the tree, he has never shown anyone where he hid from others for some quiet and peace but apperently he showed M/n. The beautiful man who was hunting him and whom he also didn't remember.

Wally stared at the distance while feeling someone leaning on him, he looked briefly to see M/n with a huge smile while giggling softly and then he was gone which made Wally sight heavily and then he felt drops; rain started pouring down at him and he climbed down the tree.

When Wally was going to walk towards his house he felt a hand drab his and he could swear he could actually feel the warmth radiating in his palm and the little squeeze he received from however was holding his hand, he knew it was M/n because it felt familiar. It felt like if he was finally at home...

"Go to the little star's house, she is one of the few that can actually give you answers to your questions... Love you my artist," said a voice softly in Wally's ear and he fastly recognized it as M/n's. He knew it was his brain playing cruel tricks on him but he couldn't help but whimper when he felt the warm presence holding his hand leave, when M/n soft hold on his hand left.

Wally walked towards the only star he knew and that was Sally's house and quite literally open the door with brutality which made Sally squeak when she saw him. She tried to kick him out but it was too late, he saw the pictures that had M/n which decorated her walls and the stack of scrips that had in a soft handwriting the words "Written by M/n Cherry" which made his heart clench painfully.

"Sally, I want answers...," said Wally softly feeling how his blue hair was starting to get on his face letting him know that the rain ruined his pompodur.

"NOW!," Screamed Wally making Sally, who was previously looking at the ground with guilt, flinch at the sudden raise in Wally's voice. This is the first time she has ever heard him scream but Wally soon felt his anger dilate when he felt that familiar warm presence hug him from behind making Wally shake slightly since he wanted to actually see and hear M/n. Snapping his attention back to Sally when she stumbled while moving some things around until her hands stopped taking a hold of something, it seemed like a... notebook?

"M/n said to give you this, I took it and never gave it to you but I think is time...," Said Sally while Wally held the notebook in his hands with curiosity picking at him. Wally ran his fingers through the broken spine of the notebook and his confusion was clear on his face so Sally told him what the notebook was.

“It's M/n's diary”

Part four is done peeps! Let me know if you wanna join the tag list!

Tag list from New Neighbor because this is season two:

@farleyis @whynot5243 @fluffyart5000 @blueberricowboi @bonesbonesbonesuponbones @who-let-me-write-this @pr5is1ng @just-random-post @smiling-carcass @nettaw @sleepyscxry @theorchardcollective @thelostboys11 @darling-w @ametistacollinsworld @vampyrefay @cloudeecheer @lacunaanonymoused @waywardstardustcollector @welcome-home-puppets @redjeanjacket @fried-lotud @waywardstardustcollector @frindtheshapeshifter405 @lotusflowerexe @sleepyscxry @the-gayest-toad @mythjustiice @backyard-bear @beu-is-here0 @just-random-post @fic-fortress @elegantkidfansoul @eyesarefun @one-green-frog @beu-is-here0 @waywardstardustcollector @24-7lazy @azyimnothere @fluffyart5000 @chesterthejester12-blog

#welcome home #wally darling x reader #wally darling x male reader

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emanuro · 1 year

Photo

Common toads (Bufo bufo) breeding season is on here in Italy and the first males are finally congregating and calling. Testosterone is up high and every moving object into the water is a possible female not to be missed. First shot: male with visible “skin folds” that helps them breathing underwater during the breeding season. Second shot: damn! He saw me!! Third shot: my hand abused by the same male :-) Disclaimer: my hand is safe and the toad hopefully found an actual female to mate with last night. Shot with Nikon d850, Isotta Housing and Anglerfish external monitor. #toad #photography #spring #italy #macro #underwater @ilcp_photographers @isotta_underwater_housings @anglerfish_creative_lighting https://www.instagram.com/p/CqNOVPRqF6g/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#toad #photography #spring #italy #macro #underwater

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hey-hamlet · 1 year

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Quirk Analysis: Frog (Asui Tsuyu)

The quirks from My Hero Academia have always been my favourite bit, so I'm gonna have some fun doing some Izuku style quirk breakdowns. The science here will be both real and theoretical. Feel free to use any of this in fics. My science background is basically exclusively biology so expect that to be the basis for any of my fake quirk science. Have a quirk you wanna see next? Just tell me!

First things first - her quirk counselor should be dragged out into the street and shot - her quirk isn't frog - it's chameleon.

Now, you may say "but she looks like a frog" and true! She does! But so do her parents - Tokoyami's bird mutations are unrelated to his quirk, as are Spinner's Lizard-like traits, and were inherited from one or both parents. I'm sure Asui's are too, given both her parents have frog/toad like traits (another thing - frogs and toads aren't distinct types of animal, they are the same animal with different names based typically on aesthetics but without any taxonomic background. but. I digress.) Her other frog-like traits (regurgitating her stomach, mild toxins, etc) are likely also inherited mutations.

The tongue of a frog is attached at the front of the mouth, giving in the ability to sort of flap forward and back. It's very soft, sticky and actually rather short, but that forward attachment lets it extend quickly and a decent distance. This is nothing like Asui's long, flexible and muscular tongue. It more closely resembles a chameleon tongue, sans the bony support it has on the end, though she does seem to have a similar tongue pad. I'd actually say its a pretty even mix between the musculature and dexterity of a human tongue.

Her camouflage ability - its true some frogs can change colour, but its typically from one standard colour to another, often during the breeding season. A fine control over colour change is seen in chameleons, though its a communication tool rather than a camouflage. She has the ability to camouflage her uniform too, so we are just going to have to assume that's due to a DNA infused fabric or some sort of inbuilt translucency, otherwise she has a mild light manipulation quirk in addition to everything else and I don't want to think about it.

The colour change mechanism in chameleons is really cool too! They have a few layers of cells in their skin called chromatophores, each layer is either pigmented or reflects a certain colour of light (they have names, but just know the colours are red, yellow, black and blue, like a standard printer (yes i know its cyan and magenta not blue and red but my point still stands). The chromatophores can expand, showing more of their colour, or shrink, showing less giving us a a shade through optical colour mixing!

Blue is the colour that's only reflected light, not a pigment, it's colour is purely structural. This is true in all animals! Any time you see a blue animal (or admittedly a green one) the blue on them is due to a structural quality of their skin/scales/feathers. This is not true for plants (and possibly invertebrates? i don't know much about them).

So, basically, a more accurate description of her quirk is 'chameleon-like traits with frog-like vestigial mutations'.

Some extra questions

can she breathe through her skin? If she can, she'd be able to stay underwater/holding her breath much longer than any standard human, though it wouldn't be sustainable (surface area to volume ratio - she doesn't have enough skin to get enough oxygen to fulfill her needs).

cold triggers an involuntary hibernation - the idea she can hibernate at all is just wild. It requires a lot of very specific adaptions to do so, which we'd have to assume her quirk gave her. This means her heart-rate and metabolic rate can slow dramatically without any ill-effects - chilling her would be an effective way to stop her from bleeding out, or a way to conserve energy during a famine/siege.

some frogs which hibernate in areas that reach below freezing have natural mechanisms which prevent damage to tissues when frozen - a natural antifreeze. she should be highly resistant to frostbite and death by hypothermia. you could also cryogenicly freeze her and then defrost her at a later date.

chameleons can control both eyes individually, giving them a great degree of vision while sacrificing depth perception - could tsuyu? given practise, any human can do it, so it's not impossible, but the increase in visual field would be limited and not particularly practical.

#bnha #quirk analysis #bnha asui #tsuyu asui #mha #boku no hero #asui tsuyu #asui #tsuyu

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restlesschilled · 2 months

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TMagP 007 Reaction

Note: I'm a backer so this was done on Tuesday the 20th and set to post on Thursday the 22nd

Pre Statement

Same Night?

oh butterfly skins lovely

CELIA ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

"your sure"

Celia what a queen is she trying to find Jon and Martin?

okay so there is no way she doesn't know shes gotten pulled into a new reality right?

is Celia an audience plant?

Statement

hi chester

IM SORRY WHAT

HILL TOP CENTER BRANCH IN OXFORD

HILL TOP ROAD HILL TOP ROAD WE HAVE A HILL TOP ROAD ALERT

CHESTER REALLY WENT "HI CELIA I SEE YOU"

thats really jon in there isnt it?

LINE MANAGER YOU SAY (i know its just a term in the UK but it will always make me think of stellar firma)

"chill" and it was "all good" HAHAHAHAHAHA

ITS THE ANATOMY STUDENTS??

oh so the fur rug had teeth? oh that's nice

WAIT IT HAD TEETH, LIKE THE APPLE?

they're just trying to offload stuff a get a big tax deduction lol

sabbatical reminds me of the time Tim tried to ditch the institute and kept getting payed but was compelled by eldritch horrors to come back

"It was at this point I began to sense that I was starting to lose control of the situation." this statement is so season 1 Jon coded

TAXIDERMY ALERT

everyone these may be avatars of the buried

DING DING DING ITS THE BURIED

WEVE GOT A HUNTER EVERYONE

Post Statement

"The voice threw me" YEAH I BET IT DID CELIA

"Better than Norris, whiny little toad" dsfjgalkjgeruyiaog I MEAN SHE ISNT WRONG BUT DAMN ALICE THATS COLD

Oh god imagine when she hears Norris for the first time

IM SORRY WHAT

SAM WHAT

WHY DO YOU KNOW THAT

WHAT

THE

FUCK

HE SENDING EMAILS

WHAT DID THE EMAIL SAY??

"i have multiple copies of you FAILING TO DO SO" AHAHAHAHAHA

I still don't think Lena is willfully evil and I feel like this further makes my point, shes pushing people away to keep them from getting as deep as she is, like shes basically an archivist.

GWEN NO

GWEN DON'T DO IT

CAT2RC3338-03022016-12022024 the date of this shift is the same as last weeks episode which I assumed it would be because of Alice showing Celia around

I'm legit shaking

#the magnus protocol spoilers #the magnus protocol #tmagp #liveblogging #tmagp 007 #tmagp 7 #celia ripley #alice dyer #samama khalid #sam khalid #colin Becher #gwen bouchard #gwendoline bouchard #lena kelley #and klaus!#the buried

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love-sapphirerose · 22 days

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Yashahime: Awful Sequel

When the first of the information came out that Inuyasha was getting a sequel, everybody was excited but it was a really awful show that was overhyped. It became a failing sequel to the Inuyasha franchise just like Boruto became to the Naruto franchise. It's a show about a hanyo version of kagome and/or rin who inherited the obsessive clingly nature, a hanyo female version of sesshomaru who barely has a personality that doesn't involve slaying and playing the violin, and a weak comic relief shihanyo who inherited her parents worst traits, who are majority of the time always winning fights.

Rushed

Just like with Inuyasha the Final Act, Yashahime was extremely rushed and boring. The Final Act was quickly wrapped up in 1 season as the manga was longer.

2. Constant Copying

In one of kohakuxrin's post there is massive recycling from the previous inuyasha content and especially the final act manga material that wasn't made in the rushed anime. As they

Ex.

1) Mistress Centipede with Mistress Three-Eyes

They're trying to remake the first villain from the past.

2) Hitokon

3) Bone Demon and a Father

4) Cat Demon

5) Meioju

6) Ginka and Kinka

7) Mizuchi and Nuwamatari

8) Nikosen

9) Sayo

10) Yuki and her brother

11) Wakana

12) Kodoku

13) The two onis

14) Snow Panther

15) An incarnation of the main antagonist interested in a member of the dog demon clan

16) Not alone anymore

17) A moth demon destroyed by a hanyo in a mindless state

18) Kao and the bug in the chest

19) Shibugarasus, Toads, Kumogashiras

20) The giant bug with someone within

21) The Rainbow Crystals

- The Silver Crystal was split into the seven Rainbow Crystals so as to seal away Seven Great Yōma. And as Sailor Moon shed a tear for her lover Tuxedo Mask who was mortally wounded, it caused the seven Rainbow Crystals to react and merge into one, forming the Silver Crystal itself. - As Zero shed a tear onto the Sacred Jewel, upon learning the death of Toga whom she was fond of, the seven rainbow pearls came out of it.

22) Chibiusa and the Door of Time

- Chibiusa has a key that leads to the door of time which leads to the future, and she was being hunted by bad guys. - Akuru has a pinwheel that activates the windmill of time opening a path to the future, and he was being hunted by Kirinmaru.

No question in those two because Katsuyuki Sumisawa was involved in the first anime version of Sailor Moon and in the same episodes in which the rainbow crystals assembled and Chibiusa took the Sailor Warriors to the doors of time (episodes 34 and 82).

23) Walking Around Naked

24) Pulling Out A Sword

25) Wondering About Name and Bullying

26) Recycled Moves

In episode 20, 2 lizard yokai attempting to break into the hanyo village look very similar to the two lizard yokai in the original series.

moroha trying to touch rion's ears like kagome with inuyasha's ears.

3. Contrived Powerups

Majority of the time, you would notice that towa, Setsuna, and moroha get these power ups to easily defeat an opponent by emotions or hearing about something.

4. Miroku and Sango's Family

Other than Hisui, they are barely seen.

Miroku spent the majority of the series on a 1000 day training and in the last episodes of the season he was suddenly powerful and taking on the grim butterfly. In episode 22, miroku was easily defeated by zero and had kin'u take his place.

Sango, who was known to be a strong female fighter in the original, was reduced to simply miroku's wife and hisui's, kin'u's, and gyokuto's mother. In the last episode of the final act, sango retired from being a demon slayer but could've come out of retirement to lead the new demon alongside kohaku but instead she's reduced to making mask and supplies. In the last episodes of season 2, sango comes out of retirement to fight with a rushed weapon called the black hiraikotsu.

Hisui could've continued to learn under miroku while being a demon slayer despite kin'u being a monk first. Sango, who was the original owner of the hiraikotsu, should have been the one to inspire hisui to be a demon slayer instead of kohaku. The hiraikotsu doesn't have the abilities it achieved in the final act.

The creators of yashahime decided in season 2 to give hisui feelings for setsuna, making it offiical in episode 48, to make it opposite of riku and towa since hisui is a full blooded human riku is a incarnation of a full blooded yokai.

Kin'u and Gyokuto, who appeared the least in the show, only appear to make a character shine. sango, who is a skilled fighter, didn't even train kin'u and gyokuto in combat as the only thing they do is throw sutras and powders. The creators didn't put any thought into their character designs as kin'u and gyokuto should've had different hairstyles and lengths from each other as the only difference in kin'u's hair was the small ponytail and gyokuto's hair didn't change at all. While kin'u's attire did change, the difference between gyokuto's attire from childhood was her apron and woven sandals.

They could've appeared more in the series and developed their personalities and abilities.

And when shippo appeared again especially in episode 48, kin'u and gyokuto reverted back to their personalities when they were little children.

5. Kohaku and the Demon Slayers

kohaku's face looks like iruka from the naruto franchise. Despite opposite character designs and weapons, rokuta and nansuke barely have personalities and don't even have backstories

How could the demon slayers, especially kohaku and hisui, not know setsuna was a hanyo after seeing her abilities and sensing her aura.

Kohaku and the Demon Slayers really don't think things through sometimes and aren't very bright.

Ex. Nikosen was poisoning a mountain and instead of thinking of other ways to defeat him, the only way they thought to defeat him in their minds was to burn the mountain.

6. Secrets

It seems to me nobody wants to talk about the past.

Despite living in the modern era for 10 years, the higurashi family never mentioned or seen pictures of kagome to towa until she was about to leave for the feudal era.

kaede never told kohaku, hisui, and the other demon slayers that setsuna was a hanyo or was sesshomaru's daughter. After 10 years of not seeing setsuna, kaede never once told her about sesshomaru, rin, or towa and even when she returned she still didn't explain. It only took 21 episodes for kaede to tell towa about rin and even then it was quick information about how they lived together for many years and she disappeared shortly after she and setsuna were born.

kaede never even told moroha about inuyasha and kagome.

I wonder why nobody especially miroku and sango told kohaku about towa and setsuna being sesshomaru and rin's daughters and not even a letter.

Even when kohaku found out about towa and setsuna being sesshomaru's daughters, he only mentioned something to them in episodes 5 and 31.

When miroku first met towa, he was informed that she was setsuna's older sister and instead of telling her about their parents he just stood there silently.

When the higurashi family realized that moroha is kagome's daughter, they never told her information about her and inuyasha and tried to fix this in season 2 especially in episode 28.

7. Underage Pairings

The creators of yashahime really don't care about the sick relationships.

sesshomaru and rin, knew her ever since she was 7-8 years old.

riku and towa, he knew her before she was born

homaru and tamano, kidnapped and tried to force her to love him.

moroha flirting with bokuseno.

I don't have an opinion on hisui/setsuna or hisui/aiya.

8. Rushed and Failed Backstories

They really didn't think much into the childhoods.

In episode 15, towa and setsuna were taken away and placed in a forest for 4 years and moroha was sent away to the koga and ayame by hachiemon.

In towa's childhood after being separated from setsuna, there's not much known as we see her meet sota, have a weight set and trophies to explain her life, a flashback of a pinky promise, and they gave of these rushed memories in episode 36 like they gave kagome rushed memories in the final act.

With setsuna, her being taken away from the burned forest, being accepted into the hidden hanyo village, training under 2 orders, defeated 2 lizard yokai, flash forward 6 years later, a recycled flashback from episode 3, returning to the hanyo village, a quick copy and pasted of episodes 51 and 52 except the soldiers are yokai, and leaving the hanyo village.

With moroha, a quick flashback of her last training day with yawaragi, battling a recycled character kodoku, being sold to jyubei, battling the birds of paradise, and giving quick images of her as a baby in episode 39.

9. Contrived Emotional Moments

The scenes that are supposed to be emotional are bland, rushed, and cringe-worthy.

Ex.

sota and towa's relationship wasn't sad for me as in season 1 and 2 they had very little interactions and were forced.

Ex. in episode 4, sota and towa talking and saying goodbye and in season 2 sota and towa meeting again and goodbye again after he tells he will always see her as his own blood daughter as they transform appearance when they first met.

A female wolf yokai named yawaragi was mentioned in episode 14, appeared as a small cameo at the end of episode 15, and official debut. She has a few flashbacks, a quick fight, then they tried to give us this emotional dying scene of her with moroha but i'm not attached to the character and everything goes back like nothing ever happened except for a new ability.

towa and setsuna tearfully hugging each other and apologizing when setsuna regains her memories.

riku tearfully killing zero.

moroha reuniting with Inuyasha and kagome while towa and setsuna, which is weird for her, tearfully watched.

moroha keeping the black pearl with the beni.

towa and mei's moments plus the final goodbye.

riku confessions of love to towa especially before everyone battles the grim butterfly and him dying.

Inuyasha, kagome, and moroha having a family moment on the bone-eater's well.

rin hugging towa and setsuna while sesshomaru and jaken having a conversation while 2 other families watched them.

towa and Setsuna hugging moroha in their new attires.

towa confronting a disguised riku in jyubei's shop.

moroha hugging Inuyasha and kagome before leaving their home.

Basically episode 48 was one of the worst episodes in the entire two seasons.

10. Terrible Characters

Majority of the yashahime series characters were boring and confusing.

Ex.

In season 1, she looked more like she was the big bad of the series than Kirinmaru, who didn't even act like the villain.

Zero possessed much more of a threat to our main characters, as she is responsible for the forest fire that separated Towa and Setsuna and indirectly separated Moroha from Inuyasha and kagome. She's done various other things, blackmailing Sesshomaru by cursing Rin. She feels very much that she had the same level of connection that she had that the same connection Naraku did with Inuyasha.

zero's back story as well seemed uninteresting and confusing, having feelings towards Toga, and when he dies her love for him drives her to kill his descendants. She could have become more interesting as the series progressed. If the rainbow pearls sealed away her emotions, then why is zero taking revenge on toga's descendants and got angry at sesshomaru's mother.

But that was not the case, as when season 2 aired, is when Zero started to run down downhill by gathering the rainbow pearls, for revenge, kidnapping towa, and basically holding rin's life hostage, and it all ends in episodes 36 and 37.

To start with, Setsuna learns from Rin that she must save Zero to stop the curse from killing her. Really wished we knew that before. Thanks, Rin, which leads into the next episode.

At this point, Zero has been emotionally torturing Towa for the entire night by reminding her of her sadness and suffering, and is pretty much trying to get Towa angry enough so that she can kill her, and in doing so kill Rin. She's almost successful when Setsuna shows up, shows Towa the dream butterfly, and suddenly Towa loses all the anger she has towards zero in a matter of seconds.

towa then thanks zero for what she's done and it is really annoying. zero prepares to kill herself and Setsuna cuts the thread of fate tying Zero to Toga and she removes the curse from Rin and commits suicide by Riku.

All of these in a matter of minutes, they make Zero, this threatening and uninteresting villain and rendered her more pathetic. They had to give her a redemption arc when she's been the most villainous character in this sequel. Kirinmaru felt more like an obstacle the same way Koga was in Inuyasha. But this, this was so dumb, and when I was watching episode 36 and heard what Rin said, I knew what this was leading into but it was so much worse when Towa thanked her for it. She really didn't need to thank the person who separated her from her twin sister and tried multiple times to kill her, sister, and rin because it's just wrong.

The creators of yashahime couldn't even give zero an actual conclusion that fitted with her character, and she's forgiven so easily. You didn't see Inuyasha thanking Naraku for setting him and Kikyo against each other and killing Kikyo, Sango thanking naraku for killing her village and controlling her kohaku, and miroku thanking naraku for cursing his bloodline. Could you imagine how messed up that would have been?

11. Timeline Error and Wrong Ages

The story takes place after 18 years after the final act but they keep getting the timeline wrong.

In episode 3, kaede said the bone-eater's well stopped working after 15 years.

In episode 39, kagome said she hasn't seen her family in 14 years.

Despite the yashahime creators making jaken and the tree of ages saying that rin is supposedly 18, she is really 15.

The true creator, Rumiko Takahashi, explained in databooks that rin is 7-8 years old in the beginning, sota is 8-9 years old, and kohaku is 11 years old.

In the 3 year time skip at the end of the final act rin is 11, sota is 11-12, and kohaku is 14.

4 years later when towa, setsuna, moroha were born, rin would be 15, sota would be 15-16, and kohaku is 18.

When they were 4 years old, Rin was 19, sota was 19-20, and kohaku was 22.

10 years later in the present as they are 14 years old, rin is 29 not 32, sota is 29-30, and kohaku is 32.

The reason the creators tried to age sota and rin up is because they forgot.

12. Copied Information

If you watched yashahime, you would immediately notice the constant copy and pasting from the original series and the final act. They're trying to do this to bring back memorable feelings to the new series.

Ex.

Even though the rainbow pearls were created from the sacred jewel and have its essence, as they just copied lesser powerful versions of it.

towa, setsuna, and moroha fighting mistress three eyes to remember the fight between inuyasha and kagome with mistress centipede.

setsuna not wanting to be a hanyo is a reference of sesshomaru disliking hanyo.

towa being controlled by the hitokon like the little boy, but how did it appear in the modern era without being seen.

setsuna remembering mei thanking her is to remember rin smiling at sesshomaru.

moroha appearing in the room naked without shame just like inuyasha.

grandpa higurashi giving moroha, who had a weird look on her face, a kappa foot just like he gave kagome, who also had a weird on her face, a kappa foot as well.

13. Sesshomaru

Personally, I've never really liked sesshomaru as just like miroku, jaken, sango, especially shippo and kagome. As in yashahime, sesshomaru became bland and terrible.

Out of all of the characters whose personalities and motives changed from the original series, The one who got it the worse was Sesshomaru. Despite him not being on screen for very long in the first season and the currently ongoing second season, he's barely said anything. To be fair, Sesshomaru wasn't having full-blown conversations with everyone, but he at least has some conversations with other characters. Here he barely says anything.

He's also not very emotional, which was the same in the original series, but with what has happened in the second season of Yashahime, you'd think the writers would give him some kind of emotional moments not the sick ones of sesshomaru holding rin when the curse was placed on her in episode 27 and it being taken off her in episode 37.

In season 1, sesshomaru has barely appeared and mostly made short cameos and flashbacks.

Ex. In episode 18, sesshomaru only appeared for a short time to quickly fight kirinmaru, orders jaken to not say anything then they leave.

The plot for him is really bad and doesn't make any sense, sesshomaru takes towa and setsuna shortly after they're born, stay away from them and refuses to help them when they were 4 years because homura and zero, who he can easily defeat, who kill them herself and kill rin, who said she would rather die than let them be sacrificed for her sake, but changed his mind when they were 14 years old. And sesshomaru idiotically listened to jaken sealing into the tree of ages and sealing inuyasha and kagome away into the black pearl because they thought they would go after zero and killer which would also kill rin, even though they would find another way to save her.

Even though, sesshomaru secretly gave setsuna items and tasks over the 6 years she's lived in the hidden hanyo village, he's a terrible father as he doesn't tell them anything, basically an absent father, left towa and setsuna to face kirinmaru and setsuna was killed, completely left the task of setsuna saving rin to her and didn't do anything as kohaku and sota were more fathers to them instead of himself.

The creator of yashahime could've made janis or kaname kururugi canon in the series and giving them a story of how they came to permanently live the feudal era, or a new female character with a background but instead they disgustingly chose rin, a girl he knew since she was 7-8 and mostly treated like a daughter.

In Yashahime, sesshomaru is a terrible husband as he doesn't see rin as an equal and majority of the time still has the father-daughter dynamic and treats her like a pet.

Ex. shortly after towa and setsuna, sesshomaru didn't say a word to rin and took the twins without a single explanation to anyone other than a rite of courage and cowardice, commanded her to follow him and stay like a dog especially in episodes 46 and 47 when he commanded her watch him battle kirinmaru, and even in episode 48 when he still ordered him to follow him. The only time sesshomaru is ordered around is in episode 35 by rin.

In season 2, sesshomaru majority of the time just stands and watches things happen for plot, even when he's in the grim butterfly, in a coma, and letting others such as towa, setsuna, and moroha to do the work.

For an example, In Inuyasha, the final act, when they are in the underworld and Kohaku tells him that Rin isn't breathing. Sesshomaru shows genuine fear and concern, which I believe is the only time he acts this way. Then when he learns that Tenseiga can't revive her, he blames himself for it and says that nothing was worth losing her. It's one of the most powerful moments for Sesshomaru and shows just how far he's come. Whether you see Sesshomaru care towards Rin as Fatherly or not, this scene shows just how much he cares for her.

Let's compare that to in Yashahime.

After Sesshomaru kills the dream butterfly, it causes the Silver scale curse to spread more quickly, which will eventually kill Rin. She's pretty much dying in front of him, and he has no way to stop it himself. So how does he act?

He says nothing, even when she talks to him and he keeps the same face.

sesshomaru separated moroha from inuyasha and kagome for 14 years and the one who gets scolded for badmouthing him was inuyasha, who was rightfully so, and he was instantly forgiven, kagome saying 'i'm sure he had his reasons', sat inuyasha, and scolded him for blaming towa and setsuna, even though he wasn't. setsuna also shouldm't have to apologize on sesshomaru's behalf.

He later kills the dream butterfly to motivate Setsuna to be able to use her Yukari no Tachikiri, which nearly causes Rin to die because of him and finally, he doesn't go and save Towa when she is being tortured all night by Zero and Nanahoshi by his minature galaxy.

It feels like they were trying to frame it as Sesshomaru could be genuinely working with Kirinmaru, but in doing so, they make him look like he's the worst father of the year. And with how long this mystery dragged out, it didn't make Sesshomaru look any better.

It definitely it's completely different writing when it comes to Sesshomaru in both series, with Inuyasha, Rumiko wrote him a clear goal and a conclusion. In Yashahime, they're trying to one-up the audience with their mystery and are unintentionally wreaking his entire character.

14. Not Naming Characters

Despite new characters such as moe higurashi, mei higurashi, and aiya receiving names there are lot of characters that still don't have names such as sesshomaru's mother, weasel man, gokoku village headman, northern demon slayers leader, the granny, the lady, the muscle, the ninja, and so many others.

Despite knowing that his name is toga, they still refer to him as the great dog demon.

15. Nerfed

Just like Boruto and Dragon Ball Super, the power scaling doesn't make any sense. In Super, beerus, who is a god, is fighting goku, who turned into a super saiyan god, after a period of time transforms back into a simple super saiyan but doesn't make any sense that he can still can fight beerus, they tried to explain away this through beerus but it doesn't work. In Boruto, there have been many multiple fights where the older generations are nerfed to make the younger generation shine like when jugo hit konohamaru and he couldn't move for a few days but when jugo hit boruto he easily recovered, when karin had to become weak with her chakra chain in order for sarada to be strong, or when in the time travel arc with urashiki that sasuke was constantly weak in order for a genin naruto, boruto, and jiraiya to shine. It also happens in more sequels like in yashahime.

Ex.

kirinmaru, who is equal to toga, can receive massive injuries from towa and setsuna, hanyos, and moroha, a shihanyo.

Zero, who possessed all of her 7 rainbow pearls that contain her immense yokai power that can summon an even greater demonic power that is far too strong and dangerous to even exist and the essence of the sacred jewel, can easily be killed by a feral towa.

The grim comet/grim butterfly, that has vast amounts of demon energy that it took toga, kirinmaru, sesshomaru, and inuyasha to defeat small fragments of it, was being completely held back by miroku and kagome, not even combined can match midoriko and kikyo.

towa creating the twin azure dragon wave but not sesshomaru.

16. UnInteresting Fights

Majority of the fights are boring and rushed.

Ex.

In season 1, you would notice that more than half the fights are recycled from the final act manga and the original series.

towa battling the human boys.

totetsu battles against miroku, hisui, towa, and setsuna.

totetsu and riku battling each other.

In season 2, the fights are stale and lack originality.

towa and setsuna battling rock fiends.

riku and rion battling kirinmaru.

osamu battling riku and towa.

Ex. In the final fight against kirinmaru and sesshomaru, the fighting moves sesshomaru uses are recycled from his fight against magatsuhi.

17. Bland Characters

Most of the yashahime characters lack character and are boring.

Ex.

Despite Raita and Futa having their parents killed by different species, different abilities, and opposite appearances, they're basically the same as one said something and the other agrees and repeats what the other said, they say 'take this' and attack. Raita and Futa's appearances didn't put much thought into them and when they're older the difference they get is armor.

With Mei Higurashi, we're told about her personality from towa but she's annoying and reminds me of kagome and rin when she wants to run into dangerous situations to resolve problems, bossy, and whiny.

Moe Higurashi rarely has a personality as the naive overly cheerful person that reminds us of ms. higurashi and her appearance looks like a light brown haired kagome and the only thing we know about her is that she's a traveling violinist.

takechiyo wasn't much of a character as is a less annoying version of shippo and a boring background story with his twin brother.

18. Sudden Recovery

In the original, inuyasha sustained damages from powerful and mst of them took him a while to heal but in yashahime mostly everyone, including towa, setsuna, and moroha, heals instantly from their injures even hisui.

It feels like when characters are facing powerful enemies they instantly get up without a scratch despite having injuries. I know they're hanyos from a powerful dog demon but it's contrived.

Ex. setsuna becomes injured after being restrained by mistress three eyes but quickly recovered to defeat her.

towa was weak after being released from hitokon's control but instantly recovered when setsuna wanted to remove the hitokon from mei's face.

miroku battled gaga gozen and was instantly defeated and weakened but instantly recovered when he battled setsuna.

In episode 18, towa, setsuna, and moroha battled kirinmaru and easily lost but instantly recovered.

19. Plot

The plot was really stupid and to be dramatic.

Ex.

In season 1, ever since episode 2 when towa and setsuna separated, they constantly remind us for drama by memories and/or through other people in episodes 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, and 20, especially episodes 8, 10, and 14.

placing a seal on setsuna and her main weapon to keep her demon blood in check but during the series she's never fully tries to master it, only a small piece of it known as the blood blade. they made setsuna have a seal but not towa, that's not fair.

Throughout season 2, everyone was saying that towa needed to fight with a demon weapon and not something made by humans but at the last episodes she's fighting with the kikujmonji, a weapon made from humans.

moroha getting through mount musubi's barriers.

In episode 17, setsuna, who doesn't even know anything about sesshomaru and the dog demon clan, suddenly knows the dog demon clan is capable of discovering demonic energies from a distance with their unusually sharpened sense of smell but in episode 23 she questions her clan.

In episode 24, riku stabbing kirinmaru, who had his guard down, to weakened him for towa, setsuna, and moroha and towa stabbing kirinmaru.

In episode 24, setsuna dying so towa and moroha can instantly power up.

In episode 38, towa, setsuna, and moroha attacking kirinmaru and sesshomaru taking kirinmaru's attack and sending them into the black pearl.

In episode 39, kirinmaru showing up and demanding sesshomaru to come out before battling inuyasha, kagome, and moroha.

osamu kirin, who barely appeared in the series, was suddenly the villain of the last episodes of season 2.

riku and rion battling kirinmaru and later riku, who was heavily injured, easily taking rion away from kirinmaru.

In episode 47, towa dying so rion can face fear who ended up dying again anyway.

It doesn't make any sense, Rin was stuck in the tree for 4 before the silver scale curse slowly started to spread but suddenly when the dream butterfly was killed it spread all over her body within a few episodes.

20. Rushed Abilities

The abilities within the yashahime series are quickly inherited and lackluster.

Ex. towa instantly receives the energy blade after meeting the mistress three eyes.

towa receiving the azure dragon wave.

after myoga explains inuyasha's tessaiga absorbing demon energy, towa instantly receives the skill to absorb demon energy with her energy blade.

moroha receiving the crimson backlash wave.

towa receiving twin azure dragon wave.

In the original, the tenseiga was able to revive people once with no time limit as it revived goshinki and rin but in yashahime they decided to give it a stupid 1 hour time limit.

setsuna quickly mastering the yukari no tachikiri after 2 incidents with sea snake woman and mayonaka.

towa instantly mastering the zanseiken.

setsuna instantly achieving vermilion bird ambush.

moroha instantly mastered the bow she received from her parents.

21. Background Characters

The creators of yashahime really didn't put any thought into what to do with the characters.

Ex. The higurashi family basically didn't do anything as in episode 2 they were just get kidnapped and standing there and in episode 3 when towa, setsuna, and moroha were interacting with each other, all they did was silently standing there and didn't speak to them.

With shiori, they barely changed anything about her appearance except she now wears woven sandals and different hairpins and worst short as she doesn't and let's little children fight for her.

With koga and ayame, they only make a very small non-speaking cameo at the end of episode 15 and don't even have children of their own.

22. Hairstyles

The creators of yashahime really didn't put much thought into most hairstyles such as takechiyo, kikunosuke, kin'u, gyokuto, rion, and futa have the same styles.

23. Bad Animation

In episodes of season 1 and 2, you can see multiple terrible animation mistakes.

Ex. Setsuna flying away from towa and moroha.

zero laying on the ground and rin coming out from her slumber when zero died.

#anti yashahime #anti princess half demon #anti hanyo no yashahime #anti sesshomaru #anti sessrin #anti sesshomaru x rin #anti kagome higurashi #anti kagome x inuyasha #anti kagome #anti inukag #anti miroku #anti sango #anti riku #anti rion #kirinmaru #anti shippo #anti mei higurashi #anti mei #anti rin

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kdrawingblog · 6 months

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This are the first 20 entries for this year's Inktober, from Jake Parker's official list. I'm so happy with how it turned out and for the fact that this is the first time I finish an Inktober.

As you can see, all of theme are fanarts.

1. Dream_Dream of the endless and Hob Gadling from the Sandman series (Netflix)

2. Spider_ The Widow Von'Du from season 12 of RuPaul's Drag Race

3. Path_ Lån Zhan and Wei Ying from the Untamed (the grandmaster of demonic cultivation/ Mo dao zu shi)

4. Dodge_ Just a Dodge Coupe 1949

5. Map_ the map to the Lonely Mountain from the Hobbit book and movies

6. Golden_ Baek Youngchan from the BL manwha Perfect buddy

7. Drip_ Namor's feet from the Black Panther movie (Wakanda Forever)

8. Toad_ the glamorous toad, Ginger Minj from Drag Race all stars season 5

9. Bounce_ Red, from Cow and chicken and also from I'm weasel.

10. Fortune_ Joo Jaekyung and Dan Kim from the BL manwha Jinx.

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feyofmay · 8 months

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The Righthand Man

Laurie x March!Reader Summary: Assisting in making the costumes for Jo's upcoming show, Y/N, who is love with Laurie, is forced to spend time with Laurie, who is in love with Jo. Angst ensues. word count: 2.8k Warnings: Fluffffffffff, all platonic, angst, reader gets called "Ducky"

This story is a snippet from my longer Laurie x reader story, Foolish, Honest Love on ao3.

Also, I am taking requests for Laurie x reader drabbles/minifics in my asks!!! :)

STORY STARTS UNDER THE PAGE BREAK

A trickle of syrupy scarlet begins to pool and form a bubble on the tip of the young girl’s finger. However, the sight of blood does not squeeze even a squeal out of her. Rather, all she does is sigh and place the finger between her lips. Between her lips, a row of pins rest beside her finger like a line of spiked fences, a warning to wandering souls. With her free hand, she guides the loose fabric to curl around her waist.

“I must be the prettiest. I am the princess,” her younger sister declares like true royalty as she remains still under the middle March’s touch. Humming in agreement, she pulls her finger from her lips and leads the needle down a familiar trail. Although the house is always a little bit of a mess, in the most recent days it has grown into a beast of its own. Pieces of fabric are strung about everywhere, and loose pages of noted and edited scripts cover the floor as a gray and white layer of snow in autumn. A sheen of dust and the stink of old paper and musty fabric smothers in the autumn air. Without a knock, a boy enters, carrying the autumn breeze on the edges of his footsteps. Lost in her work, the middle March doesn’t pay any mind to anything outside of the glimmer of her needle as she works to avoid the wrath of her younger sister. If the needle is to even brush against her skin, the younger March will inform the whole neighborhood of the atrocity her sister has committed. Adorning a heather gray wool skirt, of which some other sisters have surely worn in seasons past, her heather purple bolero pinches around her collar and floats over her white collar shirt and black bodice.

“I’m sure you will-” She begins, speaking around the pins in her mouth.

“Ducky, how’s the costume coming along?”

“- be. Just don’t paint the fabric without asking me first again,” Ducky continues while their older sister speaks around her. Like a knight in battle, the eldest of the three forces through the chaos of their home.

“Jo, you better have removed the part where I have to kiss a toad!” the youngest of the present sisters yells out to Jo. Ducky places her palm against the youngest’s stomach as a way to calm her and tell her to refrain from moving.

“Amy, you have to stay still, or I’ll poke you,” Ducky reminds her before returning to sewing the draping robin blue fabric. All of their conversation overlaps and forms a symphony of dissonant harmonies.

“I’m nearly finished with Amy’s, and all I have of Meg’s is final fittings, she’s putting hers on right now -” Ducky begins as she begins looping the thread into itself, forming a knot.

“Perfect, we’re just behind schedule!” Jo continues her own tangent while she stations herself besides Ducky and begins to digest Amy's appearance.

“- and then all I have left is to make your jacket, and figure out Laurie’s ensemble, and I’m unsure what you want for me, regarding ‘my part’ in the show, itself,” Ducky trails off as she picks up her scissors and frees her needle from the taut thread caught in the knot of Amy’s dress. A heap of tulle the color of a robin’s egg and a mellow baby blue silk cascade from underneath her beaded white bodice like a waterfall. Hours and hours have been spent on beading the bodice, alone, and, with sweat, time, and a minimal amount of blood, the middle March has managed to piece together the costumes for Jo’s newest and best show.

“You’re going to be the wise old witch who lives in the forest -” Jo starts to fall into her tangent as she waves her hands. In her right hand, the newest version of her script resides.

“I’m only acting because Marmee’s done getting involved in your shows,” Ducky confirms.

“- Well, yes, but that doesn’t make your role any less important,” Jo reminds her as Ducky rises to her feet and brushes off her skirt. Blood rushes into her legs and feeling finally slips back into her feet after sitting for hours on the rickety wooden stool. As the teen boy discards his jacket, Jo is alerted of his presence and her attention shoots over to him. Rushing over to him, her arms shoot out to greet him.

“Teddy!” Jo shouts when she’s engulfed in a hug. The two prattle on in a quick back and forth of banter and quips, and Amy waddles off to the mirror so she can properly admire herself. Leaving Ducky all by her lonesome, she sets down the pins between her lips and straightens up her makeshift sewing station. As she collects the spools of thread that had attempted to escape the nest of odd bobbins and spools of an assortment of colors of thread, she can't prevent her eyes from glancing over at the teen boy who’s attempting to swallow Jo in a hug. While she’s too young to wade deeper into her own emotions, she’s perturbed by the small pest named Envy that nips at the walls of heart. She’s not mad, not angry at either her sister or the boy, but she wants to be hugged like that. She wants to be seen & touched with the same feeling of “I feel you, and, therefore, I know you”. For a brief moment, the stories of far fetched courtship and romance are a faint taste on the tip of her tongue, real and tangy. Seeing her younger sister and being old enough to swim in the depths of her own feelings, the eldest March strolls over as a wreath of wisdom hangs around her head. With a knowing gaze and sturdy smile, she bends down so her lips are the same height as Ducky’s ear.

“Do you think he’s handsome?” she whispers to her younger sister as her words bubble up into a giggle. Ducky’s head shoots around to look at her older sister. A similar shade of red to the wound on her finger soaks into her entire face. Her nails dig into her palms, and her chest shutters from the pounding of her heart.

“Shut it, Meg!” she mutters out while gathering the last bobbins and placing them back into the small heap of thread. Laughing over the embarrassment of a young lover, Meg presses a hand against Ducky’s shoulder before gliding over to assist in admiring Amy’s dress by the mirror.

“Ducky, what have you planned for the right hand man to the hero, the protagonist, of my tale?” Jo enthuses as she rushes over to the younger sister’s station. Scooping up a pile of concepts and measurements all messily scrawled across different sheets of paper in looping, unfocused handwriting, the middle March digs through the loose scraps of paper until pulling out several ideas all scribbled on with a stick of graphite and colored pencils. Jo leans over to peer at the drawn figures, and the teen boy mirrors her movements. Sketched onto the paper in coagulating shapes, a drawing of a man clad in a puffy nectarine orange jacket in gold trim and forest green waistcoat dawns the garments over a pair of orange slacks in a matching shade and white high collar shirt with a forest green and orange striped cravat.

“Perhaps the costume will make up for the fact that you can’t act,” Jo quips out as the two gaze at the young girl’s sketches. Teddy whips his head around to glare at the elder sister as she begins to leap away. Never does Jo simply “walk”, rather, her spirits carry the heels of her weathered leather boots just an inch above the physical Earth. To Ducky, Jo is beyond what any human can promise to be. After all, no mere human of flesh and blood could survive carrying the weight of tenacity and creativity like her sister does. Jo flings her body around and contorts it like a hanging rag left to dry in the wind, and the taupe skirt of her dress wrings her as she flips around to face Teddy.

“You wound me so,” he replies with a filling smile. Jo’s hand flies up to smack Teddy’s forearm.

“Good, make use of that anguish in scene fourteen,” Jo quickly snips back as she starts to float away with the spirit of genius, her true paramore, “Now, stand here and do whatever Ducky tells you to do without any complaint.”

“What if she stabs me?” Laurie whines while he finds his place where Amy had recently stood before him.

“I don’t want to hear any of it! You most likely deserve it, anyways,” Jo declares before rushing away to join her two other sisters by the mirror. A squeal of delight leaves Amy’s lips as she scampers away, chasing a distant thought that rattles around in her head.

“I’ll paint my shoes to match!” Amy giggles as she rushes off, leaving the two other sisters to follow her in quick pursuit. With a small smile, Ducky attempts to silently apologize for her sisters’ behaviors.

“Never a dull moment, eh?” Teddy eases her with a knowing glance, and she shares the look while flipping to a blank page in her notepad. Grabbing her measuring tape from around her neck, the middle March brushes back a few strands of hair that had escaped from her makeshift updo, kept together only by a single piece of loose, pale pink ribbon. Lightly gripping his forearms, her fingers sink into the billowing fabric of his watery gray shirt.

“I’ll need to take your measurements. If I touch you in any way that’s discomforting, let me know,” she explains to him as she guides his arms up to extend out like a child’s when they’re pretending to be an airplane. The tips of his fingers brush against the fading cream and pink flowers that orner the sage green background of the wallpaper that, over the past years, has been dented and scraped from calloused yet tender fingers of youth. Nodding in reply, he stands stalk still as she wraps the measuring tape around his arm before jotting down the measurements in her small notebook.

“Jo told me that you're some sort of expert seamstress,” Laurie informs her, speaking to try and swallow the silence that the two of them are sinking in. As the tips of her fingers brush against his, a pursed smile tucks itself into her lips.

“I’m nothing close to that, but I do sew,” Ducky corrects him while she slips the tape around his neck, continuing her work.

“Is that your big dream? Jo will be a writer, Meg will act, Amy will paint and Beth plays, and you’ll sew?” he asks with a sense of genuine inquisitiveness, tilting his head back as she leans in to better see the faded numbers, leaving about a hand’s width of space between his face and hers. However, as she’s consumed by her work, she isn’t sent awry by the lack of distance between the two. Whispering the measurement to herself, she ushers back to her notepad and copies down the digits, pausing from the conversation to focus on her craft.

“No, no, that’s Jo’s dream for me,” she admits while shuffling to loop the tape around his bust.

“Well then, what will you be?” Laurie continues as he raises his hands above his head to allow Ducky to reach around him comfortably. She pauses for a moment, both engulfed in her work and unsure how to answer his question. Tendrils of sunlight begin poking through the window as the sky starts to fade to a rusty hue.

“I’m not quite sure,” she begins as she turns to copy more digits before adjusting the tape to next measure his hips, “Far. Free, not depending on any man to live how I want to.” Listing off her floating aspirations, Teddy gazes down and watches her precise fingers whisper a secret against the rippling powder blue, silk fabric of his waistcoat.

“What about you? What’s your dream?” she swings the question back to him, and he’s slightly taken aback by her forwardness. Often entranced by Jo and her wild acclaims of the future, he’s yet to think about what it is that he wants. Pursing his lips, the boy considers several archived visions of an ideal future that he’s contemplated in the past.

“Well, I want to marry a woman. I want to spend my days free from tutoring, content to do whatever I please whenever I’d please. Maybe I’d settle down and put my musical talents to some use, as they’re the only talents my grandfather thinks has worth,” Teddy admits, and, as he discusses his aspirations for his future, a dull ache washes over Ducky, and she’s faced with an answer that’s unfamiliar to her. When her sisters are faced with the question “what do you dream?” every single one of them has a secret truth that is inlaid in the very foundation of their mind. They dream of safety. Of a home that is good enough, and a husband that is kind enough. Of a life that is fulfilling enough. They dream of the brink of enough, of simply a little more than bearable. A man can dream of happiness, but a woman only hopes for enough. Only has Jo honestly strayed from this path, as even Amy, with age, begins to share the three other March’s mindset. Jo continues to strive for greatness, and Ducky can do nothing but admire her for it.

“I sincerely pray for a safe and speedy recovery to any woman who falls for your ‘charms’,” Ducky retorts, and, for a second, her own tone reminds her greatly of Meg. The eldest sister always spoke with a sense of grace and intellect that Ducky found surreal. How could one speak like a bubbling brook flows? For a moment, as the words dribble out from her lips, Ducky is filled with the same rush of ease that she often feels when Meg is teasing Jo. As if called on by a greater divinity, just as Ducky finishes her measurements, Jo and Meg rush back over, with Meg sporting a new, oily black mustache painted onto her face.

“Teddy, come quickly,” Jo commands to her companion, snatching his arm and dragging him along before he has time to digest her words. There’s no goodbye or reply as he follows behind Jo like a puppy on her heel. As he’s hurried away, Ducky’s eyes linger on his stumbling frame as the timid smile from her lips falls. The middle March begins to curl into herself as the eldest ushers across the dining, over to her sister. Meg rests her cheek against the side of Ducky’s head as, with her embrace, she shields Ducky from the world’s eye.

“Ducky, tell me plainly and you mustn't lie. Do you fancy him, Teddy?” she asks her younger sister, but both of them already know the answer without speaking. Closing her notepad, Ducky doesn’t even glance up at her sister as she presses her weight into her older sister’s frame. The younger March curls up into her sister’s embrace and folds herself into the young girl that used to hide in Meg’s nightgowns as shrieking thunderstorms raged through the night.

“It doesn’t matter how I feel. He’s already in love with Jo,” she mutters into her sister’s chest as she wallows and wades in her own misery. Of course he loves Jo, who couldn’t fall in love with Jo? When she’s basking in the light of her own flowing talent and erudition, everyone falls in love with her. Jo is everything every mother never wants her daughter to be, and, in that right, she is what every mother prays her daughter becomes. She has never changed and, yet, is constantly born anew with each day. Never a lady, but yet an adult, wise yet naive to the weight of the world, everybody is in love with Jo, and this love holds no romantic intention. Rather, it is a deep well of devotion to a person that fills a lover’s stomach and renders one completely whole. To love someone entirely is to find peace within yourself and be content with one’s nature when in the presence of the one you love. So, in this manner, Ducky is entirely in love with Jo.

“It matters a great deal to me how you feel,” her older sister reminds her while strands of Ducky’s hair begin to curl around and hug Meg’s finger, “I’ll always want to hear about your feelings, no matter how large or pointless they may seem.” Silently, the two of them bask in each other’s embrace, and, without a word, Ducky knows her older sister understands her emotions inside & out. In her arms, she feels protected from everything, come snow or hail. In her arms, she is safe to be a young, scared girl.

Please comment & repost, & check out the whole fic :)). If you want me to add u to a taglist, lmk, & please send any laurie x reader drabble/fic requests my way!! I'd love to hear y'alls ideas! Have a lovely rest of your day, friends! <3

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