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thebestofoneshots · 7 months

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WOLFSTAR X READER SERIES

Gilded Constellations | THE INTERLUDE

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Summary: You meet Sirius and Regulus at a family vacation in the Caribbean, but things don't go as planned and you end up losing contact once the trip is over. Years later your family moves to England and you get accepted at Hogwarts where you finally meet Sirius once again, along with all of his friends. One of them with a mysterious secret, that you'll uncover as you embark on your own Hogwarts adventure. This IS a wolfstar x reader fic, but it's incredibly slow burn. They won't start all dating each other until we're very deep into the story, but I promise the long wait will be worth it.

Hey Lovelies, welcome to “The Interlude” of Gilded Constellations. We’ve basically already gotten to 100 k words in this story and that’s absolutely insane!!! Which is why I thought of doing a little thing where I could interact with my readers. As a thank you for being there and supporting me so much through this journey.

And so… this little Q&A was born. Those who didn't get to ask their questions, don’t worry my darlings, my ask will be open all week for you to ask whatever you want. It’s a mini event that will last from today ‘till next wednesday.

But yes, it does mean this week we won’t get a new chapter D:

Don’t worry, it will definitely be worth it since the next couple of episodes are two that I’ve put absolute extra care on crafting, and I will put just as much care on revising. I’ve been quite literally posting non stop for 15 weeks consecutively. That’s almost 4 months, what?!?!

I needed my tiny lil break, besides I wanted to dedicate this bit of time to work on my Maraudween Special smutty series that will include some interesting mini AUs, so those that read my other stuff and not just Gilded Constellations will be quite literally treated this Halloween. There will be a lot of posts these next few weeks. Although, I might be releasing some of the Maraudween stories at the beginning of November. Unfortunately, I’m not a machine and I can’t write in seconds like Chat GPT.

Without further ado, let’s get on with those questions!

Where did you get the inspo for the fic?

Oh my god if I tell you guys about this… It all started when I was in class, sometimes when I’m bored, my little mind starts to wander. I’m a total daydreamer, I can’t deny that, but at that moment in particular I was quite literally thinking of nothing and everything at the same time. And then, out of nowhere, this phrase came to me:

“You look at them the same way you looked at me when we met…”

And I was like, “omg that’s so freaking angsty” and “That’s a great freaking line for a poly story” And I quite literally wrote it down with a little tag that said, “-the start of a poly relationship story because I’ve never read enough of those.”

And then I closed the notebook and went back to class. But I guess the idea had already set in my brain because next thing I know, I’m writing down more things down. And let me tell you, before Gilded Constellations I only wrote Oneshots because a story seemed like too much commitment. So I kid you not, I wrote down:

“Not a short story, but maybe a 3-5 chapter long fic”.

Jokes on me though, we’re 15 chapters in, like 20-something written and we’re probably going to end up with longer than 200k words and I’m not even sorry about it. Besides, I'm really pumped to finish it because I want to get it printed in Lulu and have my own little copy as a “Damn you wrote that.” kind of evidence thing. So worry not about being left with an unfinished fic, I’m going to complete this story even if it’s the last thing I do.

Besides, if I’m being honest, when I’m not writing, I miss my boys, so I’ll definitely miss passing the time with them when I’m done with GC. (Luckily I’ve already got another series planned and spoiler alert: This one will be Poly!Marauders x reader, a lot spicier aaaand, PIRATES.)

That’s how the fic started, well that and a dream that was basically most of Chapter 3 and I thought it was so cute that I wrote it down and then I was like, “hold up, this could be the start of the Poly story I was talking about…”

Are there any real-life experiences that influenced your writing?

Well I mean, I’d say that art imitates life and life imitates art, but in regards to real-life romance I don’t really know that much. But there are definitely some things here and there that have been sprinkled from my real life into the fic. Not sure if I could think of a particular one but I can say sometimes Remus gives me the same vibe that a boy I “used to” have a crush on. “Used to” in quotation marks because I kinda still do even if we haven’t seen each other in years.

So I guess a lot of Remus comes from my crush, but also Remus is his own little boy as well and I love him more for it. Even If I’m torturing him so much with his heartache, I promise it will be worth it Remus, reader and Sirius will take care of you, eventually.

Other than that, I guess I like to pay attention to things around me, you’ll see me looking at nature, the sky, the way leaves move, the way people interact with each other. Especially at that actually, I like to pay attention to people, how they move, how they interact, and their reactions. Sometimes I do it irl, and sometimes I just watch movies or series, and since my writing process is like seeing a movie in my head and then putting it into words, it’s always useful to pay attention to the world around me. Even if I sometimes struggle to put into words exactly what I’m seeing in my head.

Did you already have everything planned, or did you just go with the flow? If you have already, how far? all of it? Or just some chapters ahead?

Well, yes and no. I do have various key points of the story planned, a lot of plot points that are going to happen and that’s kinda what I’m sustaining myself on. I know the big points and then I just have to write what happens in between them. And I’ve got it planned all the way ‘till my babes all start dating. After that, if I’m honest I’m not sure how I’m going to end it. Some parts of me want to go for the saddest ending possible because it would go along with cannon and the other side of me, the one that can’t bear to see my boys being sad, wants to just deviate completely and/or leave an open ending.

But so far, I really cannot tell what exactly I’m going to do, I just know that time will tell. Because sometimes the characters just do what they want and I love to see where they take me. Which is why the ending is not set in stone just yet.

Without giving too many spoilers, can you tease upcoming plot twists or surprises we can expect in future chapters?

My sly little foxes have already guessed some of the major plot twists that are upcoming in the story. And there definitely will come some surprises along the way, some you will love, some you won’t so much. But I promise you it will all be worth it!

Remember in Gilded Constellations, everything happens for a reason.

THE FANCAST

What's your fancast for the fic? Did you pick the reader too or just leave it be? // I wanted to know if you have a fancast for everyone…

I did mention that I basically see stuff as a movie in my head right? So yes, I do have a fancast! Although I most definitely see James as Aaron, Sirius as Ben, Remus as Andrew and Peter as Dane, I have also twisted them in my brain. Like it’s them, right? But my version of them. Like my Sirius is so fucking ethereal in my head that sometimes I myself blush with his beauty. And Remus, well, he is probably most similar to Talita Asami’s from instagram. Especially this one.

There’s something about the way she contrasts his soft features with the scars that’s just perfect. It’s that sexy pirate vibe I cannot get out of my head, if that makes sense. But also I’ve been toying with AI lately (Talkie) and ended up with these two versions of Remus and Sirius and they have absolutely taken over.

Sidenote: I made way to many of these, so do tell me if you wanna see them.

The reader: Uhm… well, I kind of just see her as me, hehe. Which is kind of the point, you should all just see the reader as yourselves, if you’re comfortable with that of course.

The rest of our babies though? Lily Evans, Marlene and Mary, are kind of like the boys as in I see them as their fancast but also not entirely. And Lily especially, she’s just so freaking pretty in my head, there’s no one I know to match her, all thought Sophie Skelton and Kennedy Walsh (@/c4tluvr666 on Tiktok) are super close.

Now, outside of canon characters, aka all of these OC’s I’ve been creating with time, some of them do have a fancast and some of them don’t. Let’s focus on the ones that do, because some of them I literally had in my head since the very, very beginning of the fic.

Tom Harrow- This boy actually started as a younger version of Tom Hiddleston in my head, but the more I wrote him, the more he said, “Luv, that’s not what I look like!” And, almost out of nowhere, baby Tom Hiddleston became Rober Sheehan, and let me tell you, it stuck. And it stuck so bad there is no way I could see Tom as anything other than Rob. Especially with his role as Klaus in Umbrella Academy having a rather similar personality in the entire open-minded spectrum that he’s got going on. And, talking about teasers, this boy is actually going to be a key point on the romance between our golden throuple to develop, so keep an eye out for him. I love him so much tbh.

Then we’ve got Beth Doxon, this girl is my wifey, I freaking love Beth so much and if you’ve been paying attention you may already know who I based her off, at least in looks. It’s Anya Taylor Joy as Beth Harmon in Queen’s Gambit, redhead queen (can you tell I really, really like redheads?) . Also that’s why she has such a strong character, even if my Beth is a lot more of a Party Animal than the original character.

Alexander Wood in my head is just a carbon copy of his son Oliver, but in Hufflepuff, and the rest of the Quidditch teams, I’ve got a good idea of what they look like in my head, but not really a fan cast for them. Suggestions accepted.

Well, except for Minho Yun, since his role in the story is going to be as a pretty strong supporting character, in fact, he was meant to be somewhat of an alt love interest that was going to help build Sirius’ jealousy, but in the end, I decided to completely scrap that to further develop him as a character. Some interesting things that you’ll actually learn on the GC Halloween special. Oh, and Minho is actually based on Sang Heon Lee (on looks) and Ki Hong Lee (on character, specifically on his role in Maze Runner). Had I based Minho on the character of Sang Heon Lee who inspired him, we would have way too many slutty boys in the same room, with Tom and Sirius and him, It’d be chaos, which is why he ended up being a little shier.

Nox, Neil and Todd, literally are just Nox, Neil and Tod from De*d Poets Society. I was rewatching the movie to nail that boy friend group interactions and to get in the Dark Academia Vibes and I wanted to give my boys a happy ending.

Also Neil just gives me the most massive Prongs vibe I cannot.

And lastly, there’s Nina Blythe. Nina to me is a totally angelic girl, I’ve got a very vivid picture of what she looks like in my head but I don’t really have a fancast for her. Maybe a little bit like Aurora (the singer), in regards to her soft features, but Nina has longer hair and it’s a little wavy. I kind of think of her as a girl from a Renaissance painting, emphasis on girl, since she is supposed to look younger than she is. Any ideas for a fancast? For her and for anyone I missed, I’m completely open to your suggestions.

THE TEACHERS

Professor Nightshade is definitely Eva Green from Miss Peregrine or Jessica Chastain from Crimson Peak. She’s got that tall, regal and dark but elegant vibe to her that is just so freaking gorgeous and awe-inspiring. I totally have a crush on Seraphina, can you tell?

Professor Aurelius Spellman is kind of inspired by Kingsley Shackelbolt. However, if I had to cast someone for the role it would be Djimon Hounsou, he has that attractive and rough vibe to him. Like scary, demanding but also alluring things going on, he’s just got the magician type I suppose.

This one’s going to be silly, but I can’t imagine Kettleburn as anyone other than Gobber the Belch from HTTYD, like, take away the horned helmet and give him a pointy hat, and boom, Kettleburn ladies and gentlemen. Down to the messy personality, honestly.

And Donovan Pendragon (the teacher for Magical Theory) I feel like he isn’t mentioned enough, because I literally had no idea what his name was even going to be and I just left a line for it until I was editing the chapter before posting. So he doesn’t really have a cast. He’s caucasian in my head, but that’s about all I’ve got from him. Any ideas?

Do you have any headcanons for any of the characters and their relationship that you haven’t talked about in the story?

REMUS: Well I feel like this one has been talked about several times in the story but Remus being a beast in bed? I feel like everyone loves to tease him about it in the castle but to me, he’s also a total soft boy? Like especially the first time, I feel like he’s going to be so overwhelmed by both Sirius and Reader that he will basically just melt in the hands of his lovers.

SIRIUS: Smitten little puppy of my life.

SIRIUS AND REMUS: They’ve totally kissed in the past. At least once, and Remus still dreams about it. Sirius, well… maybe he’ll get some memories of it every now and then.

READER: My girl thinks she’s so freaking smart and yet is the most oblivious to her own feelings; she could be considered an idiot. She’s also so selfless it hurts, but like literally. Also, she loves flirting with Sirius way too much. Still, they definitely will need Rem in their relationship because there is no self-preservation sense when her personality is just as chaotic as our Puppy. Side note: Remus will 100% blush when she starts flirting with him in the same way he does with Sirius. And let’s not talk about what a tomato he will be when Sirius does it as well.

PETER: He kinda disliked the reader at first, especially since he felt like she was taking away his friends, but eventually he warmed up to her, and loves their friendship.

LILY: She enjoyed the kiss with Reader, and it made her realize she’s totally bi, because she also enjoyed the kiss with James.

TOM: My boy is clever as hell and he knows a lot more than he lets on. Also, he secretly ships the golden throuple.

BETH: She’s Tom’s bestie and she knows a lot of things too. She will also ignite chaos with the ultimate goal of being Gryffindor Tower’s own cupid. Do you think what happened at Marlene’s Party was a coincidence?

REGG: My beautiful Reggie is still sad about the incident. He’s still trying to find a way to reconnect with you and it pains him that you think he’d rat you out. Even then, he values the fact that you are with Sirius and that you’re helping him through everything that’s been going on, especially since he saw how red Sirius’s eyes were when he left the Black’s house with a trunk in hand sobs stuck in his throat. Reg cried like a baby that night, just wishing for time to go by as fast as possible so he could go back to school and see his big brother again. (I’m so sorry for that guys).

MINHO: Has a secret crush and you would not believe me if I told you who it was.

NINA: Has a secret crush and some of you have probably already guessed who it is.

DAMOCLES: You don’t know him yet but omg he’s just so clever, thank you Kles for existing.

And let's be honest, I totally have a bunch more of this but I think this is way more than enough, for now…

Out of all the chapters so far, what’s been your favorite?

This is too fucking hard to decide. But If I had to choose my top three, and in no order in particular, I’d say, for the released ones:

Fooled around and Fell in Love

Because, can we talk about the kiss scene? I feel like this one will come back bite my kiddos in the back so they finally realize what they actually fucking need.

Do Ya

I’m a total sucker for Sirius, what can I tell ya? But also the flying scenes were so much fun to write, totally an adventure to go through, still among my favs.

Maybe I’m amazed

“Do you like Golf?”

From the unreleased episodes:

Tonight’s What It Means To Be Young

The calm before the storm. Or is it the storm before the storm?

Bad Moon Rising

The FUCKING storm. But also one of my favorite things I’ve ever written. I think I like action scenes a little too much.

*** On The Run

The storm continues. But also, the calm after the storm.

Do you have a playlist that you always listen to when you're writing?

Not a specific playlist, but I have been listening to a lot of ‘70s rock. Things like Queen, Bowie, Boston, Foreigner, Kansas, Fleetwood Mac, Nazareth, The Police and some others. All of them help me get in the mood for writing. At least in the mood of the era, if that makes sense.

Aside from the ’70s classics, I’ve also been listening to a lot of Lord Huron, Hozier, and Aurora (I sort of discovered her recently and I’m obsessed with some of her songs). Also some of The Killers, Dotan and Vian Izak sprinkled here and there. Bastille and Imagine Dragons are always and forever so of course they wouldn’t be missing from my list.

But when I’m struggling, like really struggling with writing, then I go to this Best Instrumental playlist, where they have everything from the Narnia and Peter Pan 2003 soundtracks to Vivaldi and Ghibli. It really does help with the concentration.

How long for the guys to understand that they fancy each other?

Well, when you say the guys do you mean Sirius and Remus? ‘Cause then it’s not thaaaaaat far away from now. Now from then to them all dating, well…

I know Remus kind of struggles with feelings, and probably even more now that Sirius and the reader are together. But when he's gonna say "hey, can I come in?" 😏 lol I just want them together so baaaad!

Ahahahahahaha, Well that’s not exactly how it’s gonna go, but it’ll happen sometime after Christmas.

After wolfstar and the reader get together, the fic will end? or we're gonna have a lot of them together to compensate for the agony? 🥺

I’m not sure about the ending yet, but I’m definitely going to add so much fluff of the three of them together that you’re all gonna get cavities. Also, I’ve been writing The 5 Senses and the Halloween special (that might be finished until after Halloween) to practice for the spice, so I’m def compensating for the agony.

Also, I kind of want to explore the social implications of being in a throuple, of making that public in the `70s. Seems like a whole lotta issue bringer that kinda interests me… Sorry, you’re not completely getting rid of the angst even when they’re all together.

I don’t remember if I already asked you about this, but as a Regulus’ wife, I need to know. He'll come back, right? She will talk with him and he will be able to explain everything to her? I need this, I really need this! I can leave without this closing. THEY NEED TO BE FRIENDS AGAIN!

Your husband is safe with me. I promise. I’m not gonna say it’s gonna be very soon, but he will be safe because I love baby Reggie and I too can’t stand him being mistreated either.

Not a question. I just want to say that I really love this story. It's one of my favorites, and I just put it on my masterlist for how much I love it.

Aww shut up, I love you so much <3

Will we have some Sirius jealousy? ‘Cause I'm really interested in that. Oooh... will he notice that Reader and Remus are... more than friends before they even know it? I dunno, he's just oblivious about everything around him.

Funny that you ask, yes we will have a lot of Jealous!Sirius, in fact, it’s a huge part of how the throuple will develop. And you will have it so soon, even if it’s not exactly what you expect it to be. I can’t wait for next week!

And in regards to noticing, well… Sirius is not going to be the most oblivious about his own feelings in this story. I mean… not always.

Are there any particular scenes or moments in your story that were especially fun or challenging to write?

Well, I’m actually finding it a lot harder to write stuff atm, so I’d say the limbo between the Bad Moon Rising Arch and the next big thing that’s going to happen has been the hardest. Especially since I’m already going to get to a key point in which some shit is going to go down and I’m still not sure how bad and angsty I want to make it. Don’t worry, our golden throuple will be alright but…

In regards to fun, I must say the parties are some of my favorites, Potion Pong was incredibly fun to write ‘cause I literally transported myself to it and it was like actually living it, even if it was in my head. Also the flying scenes, they’re always fun to write, the race was incredible tbh.

I love to write the fun banter and the teasing too, it brings me joy. But I bet you could tell I’m one for the teasing from the very first chapters of Gilded Constellations.

Nina fancies Reader, right? She does. I just need a yes. I already know that 😌

( ≖‿ ≖ )

Can you share any behind-the-scenes trivia or Easter eggs that readers might not have noticed in your story?

I feel like there’s a lot of behind-scenes I shared so far but I guess I could share a few pics of my organization systems. Things like…

Your schedule:

The cover:

Some of you have already been theorizing about it too, you can look at some of those theories over here, and here, and also here.

Alt Covers I designed but weren't chosen:

Something you might not know:

GC is also available on Wattpad and AO3. The AO3 chapters usually drop like 30 minutes or an hour before Tumblr because it's easier to post there. And the Wattpad releases are actually way behind in comparison (there isn't much engagement over there).

Some Shots of my Plot notebook (0 spoilers):

And also, have you noticed the special little thing in the names of the chapters? 10 housepoints to whoever notices

I just thought of this, but what if we make a little housepont system and from things that you guys guess of the story you get housepoints and then we have a houseprice in the end? OMG I'd love to do this, if you're on tell me your house in the comments. So far Sytherin would have like 40 points just beacuse of dear @cometsghost and I'm not sure what is @blacksgarden house but they would also have like 40 pts.

How do you stay motivated and inspired to keep writing, especially in moments when you might experience writer's block?

It may or may not be healthy, but I just force myself to type? I never really have writer’s block, rather I’d call it writer’s overload. It’s when I’m running through so many possibilities in my head and I can’t pick which is the one I want to go through with. So I keep thinking about it and I don’t type. Which is why I just force myself to type, more often than not I’ll end up writing something I really like.

And as for the motivation, honestly just getting to see my boys again. To be able to submerge back into Hogwarts, that’s enough motivation. I seriously get an urge to go back because I miss them. It's kinda crazy. Like I might be chilling at home and suddenly the thought “I wish I was at Hogwarts” crosses my mind, not even joking.

The other motivation is finishing my book so I can get a printed version to place in my bookshelf and show it off. Not that anyone would know what it is, but I’d know, which is enough, hehe. And also to be a better writer, they say you should write every single day, which is kind of what I’m attempting to do with GC. By writing a chapter every week, I literally force myself to write every single day, even if just a couple of words.

Can we have cute moments with Remus? uuuh, Will he be cute when she notices that she really likes him?

Yes! We can have all the cute moments with Remus. Even before they all notice they’re into each other, we’re gonna have so many cute moments because even if Reader is dating Sirius I can’t leave my beautiful boy on the sidelines. Besides, how can I torture him if he doesn’t get a taste of how good it would be to be with them?

What can readers look forward to in the next chapters, and do you have any long-term plans or goals for GCs development?

Angst. Don’t hate me for this. But also comfort, and some fun little adventures and then a bit more angst, hehe…

Well, that’s the end of the questions I got sent ahead. Hope you enjoyed this rollercoaster of a Q&A. If you have any more, or if my answers have provoked further questions, then by all means, share them with me, I’d love to be able to interact with you a bit more.

Love ya, Lily xx

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evilgaygothgf · 1 year

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How easy would they fall in love?

How easy would the the group chat members fall in love (imo)

a/n: this is kinda short since it’s my first post here 😞

Isaac

I feel like he wouldn’t pay you much mind at first, but as soon as you laughed at something he said or did or made a witty comeback at one of the other other boys, he’d be hooked

Like you’re all hanging out at the group house and he’s trying to jump into the convo and make a comeback at one of the guys, but like everyone is loud so they can’t hear him the first time, but he looks over and sees you laughing at whatever he said

You boost his ego (as if he needs it any bigger 🙄 /j ) and he eats that shit up

He can NOT hide his feelings for shit

This guy things he’s Mr Stone Cold out here and that you don’t have a clue

But he visibly gushes like big ol googly eyes boinging out of his head at you THIS FOOL CANNOT KEEP HIS COOL AROUND YOU

Softwilly

I think this man would swoon as soon as he saw your smile.

His pov would be like those movie scenes where everything goes blurry but you, you’re surrounded by an ethereal glow, birds singing and shit.

Boy would start floating like Tom and jerry when there’s a delicious pie smell in the air all 🤤 and wtv lmaoo

Yumi

Idk but I feel like he’s a tough cookie when it comes to stuff like this

Like you’d definitely be catching feelings first in this situation

He would probably start falling for you after you’ve known each other for a good bit of time and you’ve started rubbing off on him

He realizes you’re the only person besides him with an ounce of logic when you’re around the boys /j obv

You playfully mock him like the guys do, but he likes it when you do it and just plays like he hates it

Larry

He’d be besties with you at first I think

You’d join in on his and Tanner’s antics

The three of you would be dumb & dumber & dumbest

And like one day the two of you are hanging out alone and he realizes he has feelings for you 😑😐😑😐 (pretend they’re like blinking or smth idk)

And suddenly it’s like every time you come around now, Tanner is nowhere to be seen and it’s just a “coincidence” that you and Larry have to hang out without Tanner

Boy is crushing so hard but he really drags it out before ever saying anything to you bc I feel like he would like how pure it all feels…like he’s got his own little secret to himself yknow? Little mischievous guy

Tanner

This sweet boy

Not playing favorites here but like

He’s a grown ass man but he’s babygirl and I’ll fight to the death over it

He’d fold. 😐

So fast

You play into whatever mischief he cooks up and it gets him all giggly and shit swinging his legs kicking his feet type shit

He’s so obvious about his feelings for you

Y’all send 0.5 selfies back and forth to each other and he is dying every time he gets one from you

Puts it in a special album on his phone and everything

Please be good to him

Grunk

Lil Grunky boy

He’s kind of like Isaac where he thinks he seems all cool and collected, but he’s so visibly nervous when you’re around

Tripping over his words

Blushing like crazy when you talk to him

Boy is SMITTEN

He tries to treat you like “one of the bros” thinking it’ll keep his crush on you secret

But if the group chat guys find out he has a crush on you it’s OVER for him

0 secrets at that point

Every time you’re around they’re making obvious pokes at Grunk about you

Obv all in fun, but like, if this boy gets in his feels over you, you’d know so fast

Thanks for reading!

#thegroup #the group chat #Grunk #bigt #bigtstreamingservice #isaacwhy #Yumi #Yumi main #softwilly #larrycroft #tgc

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leopardom · 1 month

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✨ sappy post incoming ✨

(and a little trigger warrning for the vague mention of suicide)

i’m not gonna do any gig reports for now because last week still feels like a fever dream and i can’t really put my thoughts in an order that makes sense. but i just wanted to stop by to say how much i love the vibes and creativity of this fandom and how happy everyone was when it came to meeting and trading/giving out their creations while queueing for the gigs or even when they were over

in Munich, Milan and Padova i got to meet so many people from here. with some of them i chatted more and with some others less. but in any case it absolutely warmed my heart to finally see all those people i see on tumblr but like, in real life! i got to trade my stickers for bracelets/stickers/art/fan stuff, got to see everyone have a good laugh because of my stuff and also got to complement people for their crafts. and i'm telling you i really meant every single word because as i already mentioned, i love the creativity of this fandom 💕

last weekend i began my trip with pretty much nothing on me and now i'm back home with a bag full of bracelets, a folder full of art and a heart so full i wanna cry. i mean look at that:

1) idek where to begin with the tags of the artists, i’m still confusion but i’ll try to come back to this post again later with a clearer mind

2) “big juicy” bracelet you will always be famous @greensolsikke <3

this last week was a tiring experience with many ups and downs but at the same time it was probably the best week of my life so far

i'm getting especially emotional about it all because this whole frenzy concided with my birthday (on the 29th of March). this may sound cringe or what, but on the actual day of my birthday and when everything was over, i was sitting alone on my hotel bed in Milan and was thinking how this last year of my life started in the worst way possible and how it was only escallating towards the worst every single day. during my 26 i reached a new level of low, a bottom lower than the one i had reached when i was 20-21 (and that was a bad bad time). and yes, there were a few times when i was close to ending it all because it was too much. my 26 was pretty much like hell

but now i'm glad i didn't give up and pushed through all the struggles. because if i hadn't, i wouldn't be able to experience last week. i wouldn't be able to see some of my dearest friends again, to meet all the amazing people from here and from twitter, to see one of my favourite bands perform for three nights in-a-row and to listen to all my fave songs of theirs live and even cry my eyes out to some of them (Barve Oceana in Munich, Padam in Milan and Metulji in Padova really were an Experience). can safely say that my 26 ended with a bang and it was a very good one 😌

i'm feeling sad that this is over but at the same time i'm so warm inside and so happy that it happened. and i would do it all over again, especially if it meant meeting you all again or meeting even more of you from in here. i have never felt so welcome by people who technically only knew me as a tumblr user and i never thought this would happen, considering how awkward i am when it comes to interacting with people online and in real life

anyway i think i've talked too much and i'm slowly loosing my train of thought because the thoughts and emotions are so many right now. i just wanna thank each and every single one of you for making the past week so special and one of the best weeks of my life. i'm beyond gratefull 💖

sincerely, the curly head with the meme stickers 🫶

#okay this is long but i had to do it #i needed to do it #i miss last week so much already :(#this is emma speaking #joker out

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ninacytosis · 3 months

Text

For the time lost

Summary: Zuko wants to erase every reminder of his past mistakes, and Katara will take him on a journey to, quite literally, heal both of their scarrings.

Contains: Angst, Fluff, Katara has burns scars from Aang's first attempts to firebend, Katara tries to get over her resentment towards the FN, Zuko doesn't hate Azula.

Dear reader: I hope you enjoy it! <3 Let me know if you want me to continue posting.

Find chapter two here.

Also if you prefer reading in ao3 here's the link.

┊┊┊┊☆┊*🌙*┊☆┊┊┊┊

Chapter One

“Dear Zuko:

I hope this letter finds you well. Since you didn’t respond to my messages from the previous weeks, I couldn’t help but do a little investigation on my own. Aang told me he last visited the Fire Nation a couple of days ago, and to his surprise, you weren’t there. Honestly, this got me even more curious. What are you up to, Fire Lord? What juicy secret are you keeping from us?

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that my dad made some octo-fish soup this weekend. I bet you have never tried it, well, maybe on your finding-the-avatar days you stopped by and tried. But that doesn’t seem like you. One day Sokka and I will cook you some, but only if you tell me why you’re being so distant lately!

We’re always here for you, Zuko.

Hugs,

Katara”

Zuko read the letter while waiting for the water to boil. He had never heard of octo-fish soup to this day, but he wasn’t opposed to trying new dishes. In fact, most of his favorite dishes weren’t even from the Fire Nation. After trying the Omashu noodles, who could blame him?

“Dear Katara,

I hope you enjoyed that soup and the company of your family. Knowing that you spend good quality time with your family brings me so much joy and relief because all of you deserve it. I hope that every good memory makes up for every bad one, though unfortunately, healing doesn’t work like an exchange, does it?

As the Fire Lord, certain duties demand my presence in the other nations. So, as much as I wish my lack of responses were due to a secret vacation of mine, they are more like business trips. Might as well call me the Fire Businessman now. (Don’t let anyone read this to Toph because she most certainly will call me that.)

It was nice hearing from you. Send as many letters as you please. Even if I’m not home, I’ll promise I’ll read them. By the way, how are your little waterbenders doing? I’m sure it was harder to handle Aang, you know, back in our teaching-the-Avatar days.

Best,

Zuko”

He sat down and frowned at the piece of paper. It’s not that he wanted to hide things from her, or his friends. But it was almost embarrassing to write and send a letter describing his last weeks. It was a path of emotions he was unready to walk through. She would probably forget it in a couple of weeks anyway, and then he would be able to tell her everything.

“Dear Zuko,

Or should I say, Dear Fire Liar?

Even though I don’t have a lot of time in my hands, I still managed to get some information about your mysterious “business” trips. Sokka’s been of great help, for once, and a little bird told him that people from the Northern Water Tribe have spotted you in very weird places. But being honest, I still don’t know what is it that you’re hiding so hard. You got yourself an Ice Lady?

On another note, it’s very exciting to see both of the Nations exchanging goods and, you know, not trying to slit each other’s throats. I always wanted the war to end of course, but it was very hard to imagine a future so full of prosperity. It’s hard to grasp sometimes.

I hope I’m not getting overly emotional but it makes me think about my mom a lot. She never lived in a world without war in it, isn’t that fucked up? Some days I feel a strange guilt running through my body because I get to move on and she will always stay there. This seems like I’m getting all over the place. I don’t usually say this stuff to anybody, but I know you would get it. And today seems like a good day for letting it all out.

When I’m down, I like to think that she sees the world through the eyes of Sokka, or dad’s, or even mine. It’s silly, I know. But it makes me feel closer to her.

Well, enough about me. Tell me more about your trips, about your uncle’s new place. I’m dying to know. Maybe next time you should try doing business in the Southern Water Tribe and pay us a visit. We all miss you!

Hugs,

Katara”

Zuko took a long breath. No amount of tea would cure the unmeasurable shame that he felt reading Katara’s letter. He knew how empathetic she was, and how much he loved her family, and he could never forgive himself for what his family did to the world. Every day he looked at himself in the mirror and was reminded of a past he could never erase, his face became no longer his once his dad put his palm on it.

His sudden state made him forget about Katara’s little quest. He was not only full of shame but also full of passion to help others. Every reminiscent of the war also reminded him of the resilience of people during difficult times. And every time Katara changed the subject, Zuko needed to excruciatingly tell her how much her strength motivated him to be better. And after writing that letter, he decided it was time to invite her to the palace.

#atla #zutara #zutara fanfiction #zuko x katara #it's my first fanfic pls be kind :)#also i'm not a native english speaker so plsss forgive me if the dialogue sounds unnatural #or if the grammar feels off #FTL :)

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jerzwriter · 1 month

Text

Three months after the chemical attack at Edenbrook, Tobias asks his friend, Casey, to join him on a trip back to his hometown of Washington, DC. It's turned into a bit of a competition about whose city does Christmas best, and both are determined to win. In part two, join Tobas & Casey on their journey from Boston to the Nation's Capitol.

Book: Open Heart Characters: Tobias Carrick & Casey MacTavish (F!MC) Sienna, Aurora, Jackie (Briefly) Rating: Teen Words: 1,060 A/N: This is an altered version of a fic I wrote in 2022... but as I'm finally filling in the gaps of my Tobias/Casey headcanon, I needed to make some changes. If you're following the HC, this story would take place after Part One: A Proposition. Parts Two and Three will be the second and final leg of their trip. I originally posted it as one ridiculously long fic, and that was just crazy stuff. lol I'm also in the process of updating my Tobias/Casey masterlist to make this a little less confusing... for me, more than you! lol. Thanks to anyone who checks this out!

Series Masterlist | Tobias x Casey Masterlist Masterlist

Sienna’s brow was furrowed as she watched Casey close her suitcase.

“You’re sure you’re OK with this?” she asked.

“Yes, Sienna. For the third time, I’m fine. Tobias got a suite so we can each have our own room, and… I trust him. He’s done nothing but help me since… well… you know.”

Sienna plopped on the bed with a sigh. “I guess if you’re OK with this, then suppose I should be as well.”

“You think?” Aurora asked from the doorway. “Si, I understand being worried. But this is a good thing!” She turned to Casey with an approving grin. “I mean, look at you! Going away for a couple days – you’ve come so far, and I’m proud of you. Plus, I know you’re in good hands with T. Uh, I mean, not that you will be in his hands. Unless you want to be, and no judgment from me if you do, that’s just not what I meant.”

“I know what you meant,” Casey smiled. “And you’re right. I will be in good hands. He… he really cares about me, and he’s proven that.”

“I have to admit, he has.” Sienna conceded, “But I’m still making it clear that he better treat you well before you leave. If anything goes wrong, I will hold him accountable.”

“Don’t worry, Sienna,” Casey laughed. “Neither of us would expect anything less.”

The doorbell rang and Casey immediately grabbed her coat and hat. Flushed with excitement, she had to admit, this was the first time she had looked forward to something since the attack, and it felt good.

“Hey!” Tobias lit up the moment he saw her, taking the wattage down when he saw Sienna looking on sternly from behind. “Good to see you, too, Si.” he winked. He went to pick up Casey's sole suitcase and turned to her with astonishment.

“One bag? That’s it?”

“Yeah,” she shrugged. “It’s just a few days... unless you’re planning on kidnapping me?”

“Nah, I’ll have you back right on time. But you have to understand, I grew up with a mom that packed four bags for a weekender. So forgive me if I find this remarkable.”

“Four bags for a weekend?” Casey gasped.

“Yeah, she’s a bit high maintenance. If you ever meet her, you’ll understand.”

“What do you mean?” Aurora teased. “You’re not introducing her while you’re in DC?”

“Are you freaking kidding me?” Tobias shot back. “I love my Ma, but she can be... a lot. Besides, she’d probably be working on an engagement invitation within an hour. No way would she believe we’re just friends.”

A soft blush settled on Casey’s cheeks, but her friends wouldn’t let this opportunity pass.

“Yeah,” Jackie yelled from the couch. “Most of us call bullshit on that one.”

“Jackie!” Casey reprimanded, but Aurora supportively tapped her friend's shoulder.

“Ignore her. You two should get going; if you leave now, you’ll avoid rush hour traffic.”

“That’s the plan,” Tobias said, lifting Casey's bag. “All set, MacTavish?”

“All set!”

“Then let’s go! Your chariot awaits!”

~~~~~

The decision to fly was nixed in favor of driving. They both loved road trips, and neither regretted the choice. The ride was punctuated with pleasant conversations, Christmas music, a couple of stops to partake in local delicacies, and even an impromptu snowball fight at a rest stop in Maryland. When they arrived at their suite, they were so tuckered out there was little more to do than wash up and head to bed. After all, they had a big day waiting for them.

They were up bright and early to enjoy the Willard InterContinental’s breakfast buffet. Casey eyed the opulent surroundings and nervously looked over her attire. This definitely wasn’t the Holiday Inns she was used to, and she felt a little out of her league. But her trepidation melted away when Tobias returned to the table, his plate stacked with food.

“Trying to get a lot of sustenance in,” she laughed.

“You better believe it! I have quite an itinerary planned. We’re walking the Mall. I have a checklist of all the museums we want to see. I need fuel. Are you sure you had enough?”

“I’ve had plenty,” she rubbed her stomach with delight. “And it was delicious.”

Sitting back in her chair, she watched Tobias scoff down his food, but he noticed immediately when a bit of discomfort encroached upon her happy mood.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

“I just… this place and all, it’s a little more than I’m used to. I feel like I’m out of my element. And it had to cost a fortune. I don’t like that you had to take on such an expense.”

With a tender expression, he instinctively reached over and placed his hand atop hers, then flinched when he realized he may have crossed a line. He gave a squeeze, then quickly retreated.

“This is as much for me as it is for you. It’s been a long time since I treated myself, and it’s been a long time since I gave a damn about the holidays at all. So let’s just enjoy it.”

“I’ll try.”

“Come on,” he said, scooping the last bite of food from his dish. “Let’s get going. We have a long day ahead.”

He gave Casey a full tour around the city, only to learn that she had been there several times before, though never during this time of year. As a history buff, she spent an inordinate amount of time at each monument, and Tobias did his best to ignore that he was freezing. After all, the look of delight on her face was worth a tiny bit of frostbite. He soon figured out how to work museum stops to allow a chance to defrost, but that was all undone when they reached Capitol Hill. There was enough snow on the ground to partake in a sleigh ride, and neither was about to pass up on that opportunity. Throughout the day, they had seen just about every Christmas tree in town, but as night fell, they approached the Capitol tree, the most impressive of them all.

“So, what do you think?” He asked boastfully.

“I mean, it’s nice,” Casey half-shrugged. “Very nice, even.”

“But?”

“You’ll see when we get to Philly,” she grinned. “You’ll see.”

“Wow! You’re a tough customer. Are you saying today hasn’t been magical?”

“I said no such thing!” She smiled, her face lit up by a million little lights twinkling on the tree, Tobias was sure this was the most magical moment of all.

“It’s been amazing. But let’s see what tomorrow holds.”

Next Stop: Philadelphia.

@choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

Like last time, just tagging some Tobias stans @alj4890 @kyra75 @coffeeheartaddict2 @brycesgirl @icecoffee90 @storyofmychoices

#open heart #open heart choices #choices open heart #tobias carrick #tobias carrick x mc #tobias x casey #holiday fics #revised

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comfortabletogether · 12 days

Note

Hello hope your having a good day idk if your still active on this given that no one is 💀 but can you write a Sdra2 x reader scenario were the girls suspect their S/O of cheating only to realize that that was their cousin the whole time

Thank you for request! It means a lot to get this kind of stuff. I only write for 6 characters at a time btw. You can rerequest if you wanted Setsuka or Kokoro. Anywho, this was a fun request and like last time it was almost no spoilers. Actually that’s a lie, I can’t write without spoilers whatsoever. And yeah I’m still active. I need to rewatch a play through of DRA though.

That was or maybe not be the reason I’m trying to hold off on DRA request because I’ll definitely fuck them up.

WARNING: Kanade, IMPLIED SPOILERS, SUSPECTED CHEATING, idk y’all

~ Mod Haruhiko ✈️

Emma Magorobi

🎬 Emma would probably be tagged many many times in some popular paparazzi page. And that post was a picture of a person who looked just like you holding hands with some other person.

🎬 She’d probably feel heartbroken and would definitely be extremely upset about it. But then she’d see that the person who looked like you didn’t look all that like you. Sure, you looked similar but not exactly the same.

🎬 But unfortunately her anxieties got the best of her and just assumed it was a weird lighting. And Emma probably wouldn’t confront you in person instead opting for doing it via text.

🎬 When Emma finds out the truth, she’ll expect you to also have some proof to back it up. But when she finally is convinced of it not being you, she’d apologize immediately.

Yoruko Kabuya

🍷Yoruko would see a girl who looked shockingly like you from across the bar. And you were with someone else. Yoruko didn’t think much of it at first, just a little mad you didn’t say hello. Or that was until you had kissed this person.

🍷 She tried to get over there to go yell at you and about how you had betrayed her trust. But unfortunately Minako had kept her behind the counter serving people as it was an extremely busy day.

🍷 Then the real you had come in and taken a seat on a bar stoll. And Yoruko immediately got confused because how could you be on two different places at once.

🍷 As she was serving you, she’d ask about what was going on and once you have explained. Yoruko be so thankful for Minako putting her behind the counter. That would’ve been an embarrassing first meeting with your family members.

Sora

❔ You were the only person who recognized Sora and you were the only person she recognized. Although not remembering much about what you did, she remembered that she loved you.

❔ For a motive, Mikado or well Monocrow handed out pictures. And in those pictures it was of a person who looked suspiciously like you and another person kissing, and many more the you look-alike and them going on a date.

❔ Sora is put off with this motive at first, questioning in her mind if it was actually you or not, but instead of confronting you on it, she slept on it.

❔ In the morning she went to go ask you about it, and she had come to the conclusion that you were the one in the picture and she was mad and questioned you over it.

❔ Sora was very embarrassed to find out that she got worked up over her S/O’s cousin making out with their boyfriend. She did apologize

Kanade Otonokoji

🎵 Another one to hear about this via social media. One thing she hated about your public relationship was that you lacked privacy when you went out in public. Kanade kind of knew once she saw the picture.

🎵 Kanade understood almost immediately that the person in that photo wasn’t you. But she wanted to play up her innocent girl persona with you. So she faked crying and showed up at your place.

🎵 She would intentionally try and make you feel bad for her. Kanade would start up an argument showing pictures that were on social media. But that argument did dissolve quickly.

🎵 Once formally told by you, Kanade would try and guilt trip you for not introducing her to your family beforehand. And she would only then cuddle you as a make up for the argument.

Iroha Nijiue

🎨 Iroha would see a picture taken by one of her older siblings of you and another person. They had multiple pictures of dates and kisses as if her sibling had been stalking you. Which that made her upset.

🎨 She was straight up in denial as she assumed that they were doing this to get her much more focused on her masterpieces. Until Iroha was told by either Emma or Hajime that they had seen you going around with another person.

🎨 Iroha would feel so hurt by this, and would just lock herself in her room and cry for hours. She would draw her ocs getting trauma to cope with the feelings of hurt.

🎨 She would also probably make someone else go and confront you about it, record the situation and send it to her. And which in this case she made Emma do it. After knowing that it was just your cousin she would pretend like none of that ever happened whatsoever.

Hibiki Otonokoji

🎶 Hibiki would hear about this through Kanade, who would also show proof of a video of you and the other person kissing. Intentionally Hibiki would lash out at Kanade for ever assuming that would’ve been you before breaking down crying for her sister to comfort her.

🎶 She wouldn’t confront you for a while, she would just ghost and ignore you. Avoiding places that you could’ve seen one another in public. Hibiki just felt so betrayed, so many people had left her. Why you too?

🎶 Eventually you two would see each other somehow again, and Hibiki would start crying demanding for an explanation. It created a whole scene but you loved Hibiki so why did it matter?

🎶 Once you told Hibiki that it wasn’t you in those pictures and that it was your cousin, going as far as to FaceTime them to prove it. Hibiki’s blind trust in Kanade’s words would begin to dwindle.

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clementine-thedestroyer · 1 month

Text

Aroura Borealis - König x reader - Part 2

Series master post - Read on Ao3

Chapter specific tags/warnings: None really, slight PDA.

The whole thing reminded you a bit of an overgrown shed.

A nice overgrown shed, but still in essence something designed for practicality, not curb appeal.

Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5

Please go to part 1 to read the tags and warnings (which have been added too) associated with this fic. As with last chapter, most of them don't apply to this chapter, but here's your warning that they will start to apply next chapter.

You had tried again to help with bags, picking up one you recognized as your own before starting your trek up the path, only for König to meet you halfway on his way back to the trucks.

“Here, I’ll get these for you. You go look around.” He says, intercepting you and trying to take the bag from your hands.

“No- König, let me help bring stuff in.” You say, holding the bag close, knowing that if König had his way, you’d not be allowed to help bring things in at all.

“But it’s a vacation!” König teases, taking the bag from you before turning to start walking back the way he came.

“It’s a vacation for you too!” You protest, having to take long, fast strides in order to keep pacewith König’s massive figure.

“But it’s a surprise for you! I planned it, I already know where we’re staying.” He says, and even with the scarf pulled up and his hat and hood pulled low, you can see the crinkles at the corners of his eyes. “Go look around, Schatz! It’ll be dark soon. Go choose your side of the bed and find all the coziest blankets for us, yeah? I just want you to have fun! To relax!”

You open your mouth again to retort, but König beats you to it, stopping and turning to face you at the end of the trail- where it opens up into a clearing with a small cabin and a few other structures- catching you as you nearly walk into him.

“I do this, and you can unpack later, fair?”

Reluctantly, you nod, giving in. Half the bags were brought in by now anyways, by the time you would have got him to let you help he'd probably be done anyways. And it was true that you had been excited to look around- König had hardly told you anything about where you two were staying or the trip in general.

König smiled, tilting his head slightly to the side as he looked down at you.

“Good girl.” He said, and you nearly gawk at his public use of the phrase. König seems to not think twice of it, ruffling your hair slightly through the hood of your jacket before leaving you with a light pat on the ass.

After a few steps away, he looks back at you over his shoulder, grinning and clearly pleased with himself.

“Horangi says there’s a marten den in the woods behind the cabin, you should go see if you can find her.”

You’re left standing at the mouth of the trail with a red face and stiff stance- situation only made worse when Horangi walks past you, hands stuffed deep in his pockets and giving you a mean side-eye.

The realization he heard König’s words is enough mortification for you to quickly avert your eyes and attempt a quick get away- starting towards the back of the cabin without so much as another glance at either of the two men.

You almost wanted to go straight inside and start unpacking things, just to spite König, but the the promise of a moment to yourself (along with the possibility of seeing a cute animal) was more appealing at the moment- even if for no other reason than having some time to clear your head and cool your face.

The cabin at the center of the clearing was on the smaller side, but it would be more than enough space for you and König. The exterior was painted a dark green and not much else. There was no trim around the single window or front door, and what little other color there was came in the form of wood or the galvanized metal.

The building itself was a single cell structure with a small shed to the north side. Both were topped by a slanted metal roof and the cabin had a small protruding wood stove chimney poking out of one of the upper corners of the roof.

It was raised up, not quite on stilts, but you could tell it was built for heavy snow and long winters. The only window was south facing and quite large, and there was a set of wooden steps leading up to a small porch area with black, slightly peeling traction strips laid down on them and an old, well used coir doormat in front of the door.

The whole thing reminded you a bit of an overgrown shed.

A nice overgrown shed, but still in essence something designed for practicality, not curb appeal.

When you rounded the side of the house, you found a large, metal firewood rack up against the side of the house behind the shed. The rack was mostly full and was covered by an old, well used gray tarp. There was paracord looped through the silver grommets along the tarp’s back corners and edges and tied to the short legs of the rack, while the front was simply held down by a few large logs where the tarp’s edge laid on the ground. There were also a few bungee cords stretched over the tarp, seemingly to keep the wind from catching it.

At the back of the house, close to the wood pile was what appeared to be a designated wood-splitting stump. It was relatively big with nicks from an axe littering the top and old bits of bark and slivers of wood mixed in with the snow around it. It also looked right out of a movie or some “Life Below Zero” style TV show, all it was missing was an axe stuck in the top of it.

Behind the house, there’s about 10-20 feet of clearing before the trees get too thick to easily move through. You’re not exactly sure what a marten looks like- let alone what to look for to find one’s den- but you think it’s something like a ferret or weasel.

Either way, you see no sign of one during your relatively quick and shallow walk through the edge of the treeline. You do, however, find something that looks vaguely like a trail- though you don’t follow it, opting instead to leave that sort of exploration to when you’re not running on fumes and more likely to get yourself lost than find anything interesting.

Circling around to the front, you pass by the final side of the house you’ve yet to see.

You find the building’s sole window- a big thing entirely blocked out by blackout curtains from the interior and facing out into the trees, where a small bird feeder sat on one of the closer trees.

Back at the front of the house, you find König and Horangi standing near the door. König has his back to you and Horangi’s side is to you. Both of them are in the same closed off, stiff posture you’d seen them in earlier in town- arms either crossed or stuffed deep in their pockets and backs stiff as if at attention.

As you walk towards them, you’re able to make out certain parts of their conversation despite the distance.

“Should — safe———the well.”

The words come from Horangi, judging by the movement of his jaw under his mask.

“— the solar—————enough?”

The second part comes from König- who’s even harder to hear since he’s facing away from you.

“So—————not a dumbass.”

Just as you’re getting in range to hear more than vague snippets of their conversation, Horangi sees you in his peripheral, making a small nod in your direction to König and going quiet. When König turns around, you see his serious expression slip into one of general pleasantries- furrowed brow and pursed lips quickly hidden by a smile.

“What are you guys talking about?” You ask, taking big, high steps to more easily move through the thick snow. Along the trail, the snow hadn’t been too bad. The tree canopy kept some of the snow from reaching the ground and what did reach the ground was packed down by König and Horangi before you. But in the clearing, the snow was thick and for the most part, undisturbed. It was almost up to your ankles, and you’d quickly discovered that trying to drag your feet through it and walking normally was going to leave you with sore legs and not much else.

“Nothing important.” König replied immediately, side stepping the inquiry without a second thought. “So how do you like it? Cozy, right?” He continues, placing a hand at your back when you’re close enough to direct you to his side.

“It’s nice.” You say placitivley, leaning against König’s side as he drew you close, but unable to feel any of his warmth through all the layers between you two.

König practically beams at the praise, focusing his attention on you to pinch your cheek and start going on about how he’s glad you like it, how perfect the whole trip is so far, ect.

Horangi seems mildly displeased at your interruption, although maybe more about its effect on König than your actual presence.

“Do you need anything else from me?” Horangi asks, tone flat and not bothering to wait for a break in König’s words to speak up. You can’t really blame him for being ready to leave, especially considering that König seemingly has no qualms with PDA in front of the man.

“You can go.” König says, dismissing Horangi with a wave and no more than a glance. König doesn’t seem to care at all about the potential rudeness of the gesture, but neither does Horangi- who simply turns and starts his walk down the trail, completely unbothered.

Before you can think about it more, you’re swept up into a König-tornado: a rare event where König’s excitement to do or show you something leads to you occasionally being dragged along if you fail to keep up. In this case, it’s about showing you the interior of the cabin.

The second Horangi is gone, König takes your hand and practically drags you up the wooden steps to the cabin.

“Let me show you inside, Schatz.” He says, herding you inside before shutting the heavy door behind you two. “I put our bags by the foot of the bed, we can unpack them after we start some food and a fire.” König says, roughly pulling open velcro of the zipper cover on his windbreaker open and unzipping the jacket with a sharp zip noise before yanking off his hat and scarf.

His hair is messy from being under a hat all day- all you want to do is run your fingers through it, even if only to mess it up further- and his cheeks are tinted a light pink from the cold outside.

It was nice to see his face again. Despite spending the entire day together to get here, you’d hardly seen him without either a face mask or some other face covering since you two left home. It makes sense- airports were very public places, but it still made something inside you happy to see him so relaxed around you.

The cabin’s interior turns out to be mostly 1 room, with only one small room separated by a wall.

Of the main room, one corner had clearly been designated as a kitchen with a sink, countertop oven, hotplate, a landline marked “for emergencies”, and a few cupboards, while another held a small couch, quilt rack, coffee table, small wood rack, and a black wood stove with a metal chimney going up and through the ceiling. The rest of the space was separated by a large, partially drawn burgundy curtain that seemed to block off a bedroom type space.

In general, it was nice- cozy and comfortable in a way that felt warm and inviting even as a new space. Most everything’s either some form of wood or black metal, with occasional dark pops of color like the curtain.

In the entryway, there’s a small rug, a hinged bench that appears to be some sort of shoe chest, and a row of hooks on the wall where König hangs up his snowgear and motions for you to do the same.

König is already on his way to the pile of bags nearby as you do so, making sure to leave the entryway rug under the jackets and boots to catch any drips of water from the snow on your clothes melting.

The cabin wasn’t quite warm- in fact, it’s not at all, really. The only thing it had going for it over the outdoors was a lack of wind and some insulation. Even though you still had your hat and undermost jacket on, you still felt cold.

You follow König to the pile of bags, starting to look through them and formulate a plan for unpacking as he pulls the big curtain to the side, only to notice König frowning down at you.

“Are you cold?” He asks.

You look at the man in nothing but a compression tee and khakis in front of you and asking if you’re cold- slightly dumb founded.

“Are you not??” You ask, looking up at him with an incredulous expression.

He seemingly thinks for a moment, eyes staring ahead blanket before he seemingly comes to a conclusion.

“I guess it would be cold in here.” He says, starting to walk towards the wood-stove in the corner. “Sorry Schatz, I guess they don’t keep the heat running in the offseason- I’ll start a fire.” He says, ruffling your hair on his way past, his tone slightly lighter.

“Please.” You affirm, watching him for a moment as he walks away before going back to unpacking.

For about the next hour you unpack you and König’s things into the various draws and shelves available to you. As you do that, König first starts a fire before announcing he’s going to bring in more wood and make sure the power is fully on.

As you unpack, you find that the only room in the cabin- aside from the main room- was a small bathroom with a combination bath shower, toilet, sink, and some cabinet space. You find some towels, washcloths, and even some basic pads and tampons under the sink (and you decide you actually quite like Horangi at that, even if the feeling’s not mutual). You also find a large first aid kit in the bathroom, and you end up putting the (massive) one König brought next to it- along with the rest of you two’s bathroom stuff in one of the two drawers.

You also find that the area behind the curtain was in fact a bedroom, with a large bed shoved against the walls with a heavy comforter, assortment of pillows, and extra blankets over the foot board. There was a small night stand on the side of the bed not against the wall- which, you could already tell König would claim as his own- and a window above the other side. The window itself was covered by heavy black out curtains, and when you nudged one aside and wiped away the condensation from the glass, you had a perfect view of the bird feeder and forest. Finally, there was also a set of drawers and a rug beside a wardrobe past the bed’s foot.

By the time you were done, König had come back inside and the house had warmed up enough for you to take off your hat and unzip your jacket. Dinner that night was a box of Mac and cheese made in a pot you found in one of the bottom cabinets and the hot plate from the back of the counter. The meal was spent cuddled up on the couch with König in front of the fire and watching a show you’d downloaded on your laptop ahead of time.

All in all, you were enjoying yourself. It was nice to finally be able to relax for once. The cold weather and short days were going to provide the perfect excuse to sleep in late and cling to König, who- being the bear of a man he was- made a great personal heater, and the cabin really was homey, you already felt comfortable there despite the short time frame. König was right, this was a great idea- you just needed to be comfortable letting someone else make the plans and handle things for once.

When you two do go to sleep, you do so bundled up under a mass of blankets and curled up against König’s chest, feeling safer and more relaxed than you have in a good long while. It’s perfect, and you’d live in this moment forever if you could- or at least try to keep your eyes open just a bit longer to savor it- but you’re too tired to do much, and it’s hardly a minute before you’re out cold.

Only to wake up in a cold sweat not even half past midnight.

#fem!reader #könig x reader #könig #könig call of duty #könig x you #konig x reader #könig cod #fem reader #cod modern warfare #call of duty modern warfare #konig call of duty

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boqvistsbabe · 2 months

Text

Update!!!!!!!!

Hey Y’all!!

Here is the start of hopefully monthly updates. I know in my last update I said I was going to be more consistently here and active. Obviously, that didn’t happen lol. Trying to hold myself to that rn. So this is probably going to be the format for all of my update posts, just so they are easier to follow.

Refresh:

So I am almost completely done with the blog refresh. I think all that is left is updating links and getting some other posts (ex: theme days) made/redone. Most of that got put on the back burner due to how long they were going to take lol. But hopefully, over Spring Break, I’ll be able to get those done (no promises, another thing I’m trying to do, is be more realistic about what I want to get done by when so).

Writing/Other Content:

Ik I said I’d write more. Once again didn’t really happen. Well, I have written a decent bit, but never finished anything. There is one fic that I am going to try and work on after this week (midterms lol) and have someone look over it (the first time I’ve had a beta reader, look at me go lol). Like the blog as a whole, I am trying to organize my writing, like requests and my ideas and what is going out when etc. (@ any of the other writers if you have any suggestions of what to/where to organize my stuff so it doesn’t get all confusing and mixed up you should def let me know). Speaking of requests, I am going to try and do at least two requests a month. That doesn’t sound like a lot but for me, that feels like something I can realistically do. I will be doing old requests first because even though they are years old at this point, I liked the ideas so I genuinely want to write them. I am still going to be accepting new requests (esp because sometimes that helps spark creativity/help with writer’s block so feel free to send in any ideas!!) but I will try to get those older ones done first. As for any other content (playlists, moodboards, IG edits, drawings, etc.) I am also taking requests for those so feel free to send in any of those requests too.

Another Blog?!

As of rn the second hockey blog has not been “released”. I want to catch up on things for this blog before I throw that into the mix and try to grow that as well. I am hoping to add that sometime this summer. Also, I do technically have a sideblog already (@samistheman) which is normally where I reblog random things, and I don’t really have tags for that blog I just kinda willy-nilly reblog there (it used to be mostly PJO stuff but now that’s kind of here because of how much of it there is lol).

Life Update:

College is a lot rn. I’m doing 17 credit hours and tbh do not know what possessed me to do that. At first, I was doing pretty good, but now not so much. Like I said earlier I have midterms this week. If y’all didn’t know this, I’m shit at taking tests so not doing great rn. Thankfully one of my classes ends on Sunday so at least I don’t have to worry about that. I’ve had a lot going on in my personal life recently that is impacting a lot so trying to navigate that as well. I am moving out in May, which is yes months from now but there is still a lot that I need to do beforehand. Anyway, I’m going to a college hockey game on Thursday and I am super excited. I haven’t been able to go to a game since October. Also little fun update, I’m going on a weekend (work) trip to Boston. Super excited for that. I’ll be getting to go to a Celtics game and a Red Sox game (I’m a Royals girlie tho). I’ve never been to an NBA game so that’s for sure gonna be really cool. I’ve been to many MLB games before but this will be my first at a different stadium. Anyway, I think that is it for this update. Hope y’all are doing well!!

As usual, if y’all ever want to talk dms/inbox are open <3

I am going to tag some moots, I am totally forgetting some people so I am sorry for that (if y'all could reblog that would be amazing)

@2manytabsopen @krugstrash @jimmystrudel @andreburakozy @sidneycrosbyhoe @fallinallincurls @timstuetzle @typical-simplelove @ilyasorokinn @drei-mrssvechii

#blog things

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potato-jem · 1 year

Note

hello nero my beloved soulmate!! <33

i’m back and i am already suffering from severe PHD (post holiday depression, i decided it is a thing). my friend left last night and i hate this. it’s so unfair that we live in two different countries and we can’t see each other as much as we would like to. i’ll probably see her soon, i should have another week off in august and we were talking about me visiting her this time so hopefully i’ll be able to go.

anyway, on to the trip!! it was so cool!! i mean the first week we stayed in tuscany, we went around florence and a few other cities around here, and we got tattoos!!! i told you about this already but they are so cute!!! our little irish dinosaurs (they’re irish because we met in ireland <3 they’re named saoirse and niamh).

then for the second week we went to rome!! oh it was so nice!! we found the perfect weather. it was always sunny and warm enough to go around in shorts, but never too hot not to be able to explore. we went for the usual places: the colosseum, the pantheon, the squares and fountains, all that. but also we accidentally found ourselves into the roman forums and they were amazing!! i’d never been in them, only seen them from above, but they are so big, you can see a whole city. but the highlight was ostia antica. it was this archeological site near rome and it’s so quiet because not may people know it. it’s an 84 acres site where you can literally walk into houses and shops and temples and theaters from the roman period. and it’s amazing because usually rome is very protected, like there are fences and barriers everywhere, you can’t get too close to a lot of stuff, but in ostia antica we could literally touch the ruins, walk through them and find our way back in a maze of doors and corridors. it was so cool!!! also that’s where i found the cats!! they were so cute and friendly 🥺

last thing before i close this letter. the food!!! oh the food. we found this little restaurant on the very first night, which was actually so close to the trevi fountain, and it was so cheap and good (very rare combination to find in the middle of rome). they had some of the best spaghetti i’ve ever tried. also we kept going back there in the next days so they recognized us and they were so nice because they offered us appetizers and wine and they always remembered that we liked to order three plates of pasta to share between the two of us. they were so nice!!

i really needed this trip. i needed to be off work for a few weeks and just disconnect from all the drama and stress. and the good food and wine helped a lot with that lol. but seriously i’m so happy, it was an amazing trip and it was so good to see my friend again after so long <3

but enough about me now!! how are you doing nero?? what have you been doing these last two weeks??

also, about our last letter, i am very happy that you are following my orders and planning a very relaxing trip :) you deserve to not even think about uni when you’re on a trip. and it’s gonna be so fun to dance to that kind of music!! can’t wait to hear all about that one!!

and i’m very happy you’re obsessed with me getting tattoos because this is turning into a sickness. i can’t stop now :’)

but here are my other two tatts!!! the little rainbow one is very simple but very personal. i’ve been waiting forever to get it and it looks perfect 🥺 (yayyy you can start booking stuff!!! that means tattoos coming soon!!!)

i’m enclosing a hug and a really big plate of cacio e pepe (a kind of spaghetti with cheese and black pepper) just because one can never have too much pasta <3333

hi cece my beloved soulmate!!!!

i believe phd (post holiday depression) is a thing, i get it every time. it’s sad that your friend has gone home, but think about august!!! that should be so fun!!!

i’ve seen pictures of tuscany and it’s so beautiful!! and yes tattoos!! the fact that they are irish dinosaurs named saoirse and niamh because you met in ireland is the cutest story behind a matching tattoo ever 🥺🥺

oh rome!!!! that weather sounds lovely, i’m glad it was around for the entire trip!! sounds like you got up to quite a lot!! i’m literally imagining you walking around and pointing out these little tourist attractions 🥺 but ostia antica sounds so beautiful. a whole 84 acres to explore and experience the ancient roman life?? i would go crazy in there, especially with all the cats!!

oh the food sounds incredible!!! it’s so amazing you found something good and cheap!!! but those people sound so nice 🥹🥹 i’m glad they also added to such a wonderful break you had! i feel like pasta now…

you definitely needed that trip!! just a refresh is sometimes all you need, and good food and wine are recommended to help relax by doctors actually 😌😌😌 but i’m so happy you got to see your friend after so long and i’m so glad that you enjoyed yourself!!!!

i’ve been doing alright!! i had my trip to sydney and my twice concert, and it was so much more fun than i thought it would be!!! so i took my best friend and a family friend of mine, and my manager from work came too, but we all booked our concert tickets together so it was me and my friends, my manager and her brother and his partner. (don’t even ask me how stressful buying six tickets was)

the japanese place opened up again, and we were staying somewhere even closer to it. we basically walked everywhere, because the train station is in the shopping centre next to the japanese place, and that was only ten minutes away. so i took my friends to eat more ramen than we could see and we shared a bottle of soju (my friends are lightweights and it was VERY funny to watch. i had to finish the bottle off though)

and then we did lots of activities on the tuesday before the concert and we went to that album shop and book shop again and i spent way too much money, cece’s orders 😌😌 i spent so much money in the album shop they gave me a free album and preorder benefit photocards (which are really rare!!) and i had to show my id in the book store because i bought a level one restricted novel (actually banned in my state, but my professors made me too curious), which was quite funny

the twice concert was so fun, literally everyone in the audience were dancing and singing, and i was gay panicking and it was wonderful! each of the members of twice also had a solo performance and they did so well! one of them, momo, had this dance where she HAD A POLE?!?!? AND SHE HAD NEVER POLE DANCED BEFORE?? she was so good, i will save your eardrums by not sending the video i took 😌

anyways, here’s the photo they posted at the end!! we are in the centre and slightly to the right <3 (i’m sure you’ll see me 😂😂)

and then we actually got the chance to go to the harbour bridge and the opera house, which are in the same place, so we didn’t waste too much time there! and then we went to this room of claw machines near the eateries and i managed to win two things!! (one of them i spent way too much money to grab out, but he looked so lonely and i had to get my son out 😭😭) and then we had gelato mochi, which my friend found. so they get a scoop of ice cream and wrap it with mochi! we all got two, because none of us can make a decision and it really was a good end to the trip 🥺

other than that, i am running a little behind on uni, but i decided to use some of my leave and take the week off work. i’m just going to smash out the essays i have due (and overdue) and i’ll probably be able to rest better during the big exam session 😌

i’ve been looking forward to seeing these two and you didn’t disappoint! the rainbow one is adorable and the font for the script on your ribs is beautiful!!! i think i might be addicted to your tattoo addiction 😂 (yay!!! i’m so excited!!)

i really wanted this cacio e pepe, all this talking of food made me hungry! i’m squeezing you back real tight and i’m giving you a bowl of ramen <3333333

#nero attempts to socialise #cece my beloved!!!#<3333333333

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eflen-n-reegee · 8 months

Text

Field Trip to the Field Museum II - Members Night (Chicago, IL)

Hi! I went to the museum members night way back in April, and I’ve been meaning to write this ever since; and I finally got around to it! As with the first part, this is a self-insert imagine fic where the reader is an age regresser and the author is their caregiver. All pictures were taken by me (with permission from museum staff to post online). Also, heads up, this includes pictures of dinosaur bones, taxidermied animals, deceased animals in preservatives, LOTS of mounted insects and bugs (ya gal Eflen loves bugs), and a brief instance of anxiety. (Long story short, I have OCD and bumping into some people upset me IRL, and I decided to incorporate it.) Also under the cut ‘cause it’s long. 😆

You excited, kiddo? We’re gonna get to see some pretty cool stuff, things we wouldn’t normally get to see! This is gonna be so fun! Oh, look at this, sweetheart. There are table all over the museum with cool little pins. Wanna see how many we can find? Alrighty! Let’s go in!

Ooh, look! Such a cool little dinosaur- you’re right, it’s a stegosaurs! You’re pretty smart, aren’t you, pumpkin?

Watch your fingers, sweetie, the crab might pinch them! You’re right, this one’s dead… But maybe I’m a crab! Pinch! Oh, you’re too big for that kind of stuff? Sorry kiddo, I’ll try to remember.

Oh, check out this thing! Know what it is? A giant isopod? So freaking cool. Do you know if they bite? I’d like to hold one!

Pretty great view, huh? Look, they’ve got a t-Rex puppet down there! We’ll try to see it up close later.

Holy cow! So people found out a while ago that platypuses glow under UV light, but they only found out recently that other animals do too! And even crazier? Scientists still don’t know why! Nature is nuts.

So there’s some kinda creepy stuff in here- Okay, okay, I got it. Just let me know if it’s too much, okay?

Whoa… So these animals were mutants for some reason… No, I don’t think anybody knows for sure why things like this happen.

Some animals can live really good lives, even with these kind of issues. But yeah, it’s a bummer when they don’t make it.

Jeez, it’s busy in here. Careful not to bump the bones, kiddo. Oh wow, look at this one! Came from a ground sloth… Can you believe how big they used to be?

Wow, look at these teeth! I wish I could take this one home, teeth are so cool.

Jeepers, what a skull…

Hey, what’s going on? Okay, deep breaths, sweetheart, deep breaths… Let’s go out in the hallway, okay?

Here, it’s quiet over here, you can sit down if you want- okay, you don’t have to. Can you tell me what’s wrong? Yeah, that room was pretty crowded, huh? I know you don’t like when people bump into you… What do you think will help you feel better? Yeah, when we get home you can take a bath- a shower, no problem. Is there anything else- No, sweetheart, I don’t think you’re being a baby. Everybody gets upset sometimes, and everybody cries sometimes. You’re still a big kid as long as you say you are. Okay? There you go. How about we take a break from the new stuff to look at the dinosaurs? Alright.

Looks like they brought a few new things in here… These bones are pretty cool, huh? I love how the gray and white looks. Why do you think it looks like that?

There’s a crowd around the table over here… Oh, it’s because they have pins. Do you want to wait here a second and I’ll get you a pin? No, I don’t mind. Okay, be back in a second.

So, how’re you feeling? Want to look at some of the stuff upstairs? Okay.

Oh, they’re talking about lichen in here- It’s not BORING! Look how cool these antlers look! You’d think they were tree branches if you didn’t know better.

Well, you can think what you like, but I think lichen is cool. … No, kiddo, I’m not angry. I’m just being silly. People like different things sometimes, it’s no big deal.

Oh, I didn’t know the museum had a library! No, they probably only have books about history and biology. But it’s always cool to see some new books, especially old books like that one, or- Oh!

Look at THIS! This book must be four feet across - at least! It’s massive! I’d love to look through the whole thing. What kinds of things would someone put in a book this big?

Oh, cool! They have a room just for bugs? Awesome! I wonder what ki- Walking sticks?! Oh my gosh, I didn’t know there were ones with wings!

Look how leafy that one is! Or… No, it’s not a real leaf. I thought maybe they stuck one in there to trick people.

Oh wow! Look how big these spiders are! I know some people are scared of them, but I think they’re amazing. And I’ve held a tarantula before - they’re very soft little critters.

Hm, I’m not sure I’d want to wear jewelry with bugs on it. That’s a little too much for me… I guess it works for other people, though, so it’s fine.

Oh my gosh, look at them! I wonder if bugs like these are where people got the idea of fairies. The one with the purple wings would definitely look like a fairy princess if you saw it from far away.

That reminds me, next year the seventeen-year cicada will be coming back to our area. They live underground for seventeen years, spend a couple weeks singing and laying eggs, and then they all die. Wild.

Ooh, some of these guys are creepy. I like scorpions, but they do scare me a little - and that’s good, since they can be dangerous. It’s smart to be at least a little afraid of dangerous things.

Holy cow, this big one looks like an owl! Yeah, if I’M getting freaking out, I bet all the predators are terrified.

Look at all the legs- Hey, I saw that! No, it was definitely a yawn. You getting tired? Yeah, I’m tired too. We’d better head out.

So, did you have a nice time? I’m glad. How’re you feeling? Yeah, you can still take a shower, no problem. Do you want to nap in the car and I’ll wake you when we get home? Okay.

Alright, all clean and ready for bed. Yeah, you got a pretty sweet set of buttons, huh? We’ll get some more for the collection next year.

~🦀~🦕~🫙~🦥~🦬~🐪~😢~🪵~📚~🕷️~💍~🦗~🦂~🌃~

#sfw age regression #sfw agere #age regression #agere #age regression field museum #age regression field trip #agere field trip #agere field museum #age regression museum #agere museum #age regression imagine #age regression fic #Eflen writes #Eflen Field Trips

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prpfs · 30 days

Note

🗡️🦉🌙

Hi! 24F here!

So this is probably a long shot, but I thought I'd try anyway. I'm looking for a Disney roleplay! Specifically I’m hoping to play Cassandra from Tangled the Series/Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure roleplay! I’m desperate to do an f/f romance with her, and while my preference would be to pair her against Rapunzel, I’m honestly happy to try pairing her against other ladies from the show/other Disney ladies in general. I’m also not against trying out doing Unknighted Dream— though I’ve got no desire to wind up maining Eugene constantly. I'm not interested in playing against OC’s!

Don’t have a set point in canon I’d prefer or anything— I’m just as happy to do something pre-canon as I am to do road trip stuff set during season two, or something angsty with moonstone Cass, or something fix-it set post canon, as long as we have an interesting plot worked out! I can honestly take or leave smut, but if we are going to include it I really don’t want that to become the entire roleplay.

I tend to write in third person past tense, going anywhere from short paragraphs, to 2-4 paragraph responses depending on the scene in play. Obviously sometimes trying to eek out longer responses can get a bit tortured especially in dialogue heavy scenes, but I’d rather not be getting 1-2 line responses consistently? I’m generally a quick replier (and I’ll let you know in advance if for some reason I won’t be able to check for a few days), and would prefer to match with someone who’s decently consistent, but I get that life happens and writers block can be the worst so please don’t feel like I’m going to be harassing you to reply all the time.

I’m GMT but I work odd hours so I can’t make any promises you won’t get responses from me in the middle of the night/the early hours. Oh, and if the plot is going well there’s a good chance you’ll have to put up with me sending you moodboards and playlists and stuff, sorry 😂

If you interact with this post I’ll message you on here, but I’d rather move to discord once we’ve talked things through a little!

Oh, and a quick thanks to the brilliant mods for posting— apologises this was so long!

Leave a like, and anon will get back to you!

#disney roleplay #disney rp #fandom roleplay #fandom rp #cc x cc #f/f

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neufer · 2 years

Text

My thoughts after rereading TWS

Currently on a reread and just finished The Whispering Skull! Once again, here are my many, many thoughts + just stuff that stuck out to me (another long post, of course). PS - I love this book a lot more than I thought I did.

1. Right away, this book is chuck full of humor, sass, snide remarks, and sarcasm -even more so than TSS and I absolutely love it.

- “Fittes agents,” I said. “Oh great,” George growled. “I think I preferred the Wraiths.”

- Lockwood shook his head. “No, I’d always be tripping over him, or losing him down the back of the sofa.” (In regards to Bobby Vernon).

- “I had to speak out,” George said. “Sorry. It was either that or punch him, and I’ve got sensitive hands.”

- ‘George groaned audibly. “We’ve had near-death experiences,” he muttered, “we’ve had domestic fights, we’ve had a pitiful amount of sleep. But this is going to drive me over the edge. If I leap on the table and start shrieking, don’t try to stop me. Just let me howl.”’

- “Sorry, can you repeat that? It’s those shorts. I couldn’t concentrate on what you were saying.” (Might I add, this was George’s response to Lockwood being mad at him).

- “If there’s one thing more stressful than being attacked by ravenous ghost-rats, it’s finding that you’re going to a fancy party and you haven’t got a thing to wear.” Lucy only speaks the truth.

- “Sure you’ve got your shirt tucked in, George?” “Quit worrying. I even brushed my teeth as well.” “My God, you have made an effort.”

2. Speaking of humor, sarcasm, etc., we get the Skull and Flo in this book!! They’re both such great additions, and I had a lovely time picking out some of their best moments/mentions.

- First, I love how after not saying anything for seven months, the Skull leads with, “Feeling rough?. . . Because you sure as hell look it.”

- He is SO dramatic too. “Bickerstaff? No. That wasn’t the way it happened at all.” “How can you know?” “Very simple. I was there.”

- “I saw [Flo] chuck an agent into the river once. Just lifted her up by the leg and tossed her in. Flo was in a good mood that day too, as it happens. But she’ll like you, I’m almost sure. Just don’t say too much, and stay out of stabbing distance.” Flo❤️.

3. Lucy’s clear (even though not to her) attraction to Lockwood is definitely more noticeable, to us and to other characters as well.

- ‘I stole a quick sidelong glance at him now. He was standing with his sword held ready: tall, slim, as nonchalant as ever, watching the slow approach of the second Visitor. The lantern light played on his thin, pale face, catching the elegant outline of his nose, and his flop of ruffled hair. He wore that slight half-smile he reserved for dangerous situations: the kind of smile that suggests complete command. His coat flapped slightly in the night breeze. As usual, just looking at him gave me confidence.’ Lucy, honey, come on. This is like, 3 pages in btw.

- ‘His face was serene, his hair glistened; his eyes shone with dark intent. I watched him from the door. “Yes, I’ll have a slice, thanks,” George said. “If you can tear yourself away.”’

- ‘I had a fluttery feeling in my tummy and my legs felt weak. It was probably the late night catching up with me.’ Haha. Hahaha.

- ‘George gave a skeptical snort. “Oh, come on. You love all that mystery about him. Just like you love that pensive, far-off look he does sometimes, as if he’s brooding about important matters, or contemplating a tricky bowel movement. Don’t try to deny it. I know.”’

- The whole necklace for the Fittes party is so them just being cute little teenagers and I love it. Lockwood being so casual about it (“Just something I had” my ass) and Lucy not even comprehending what’s happening? And then not wanting to take it off later when they crash the auction? Beautiful.

- And of course, them holding hands as they jump into the Thames🥰.

4. Once again, the side characters fall victim to Lucy’s brutal/outrageous descriptions.

- ‘Being diplomatic, I’d say Kipps was a slightly built young man in his early twenties, with close-cut reddish hair and a narrow, freckled face. Being undiplomatic (but more precise), I’d say he’s a pint-sized, pug-nosed, carrot-topped inadequate with a chip the size of Big Ben on his weedy shoulder. A sneer on legs. A malevolent buffoon.’

- [Kat Godwin] was good-looking, though her jaw was a bit too sharp. If she’d repeatedly fallen over while crossing soft ground, you could have sown a crop of beans in the chin holes she left behind.’

- ‘[Barnes’s] face was as lived-in as ever, his pouchy eyes still sharply appraising. As usual, though, it was his impressive mustache that attracted my attention. To me, Barnes’s mustache closely resembled some kind of hairy exotic caterpillar, probably from the forests of Sumatra, and certainly previously unknown to science. It had a life of its own, rippling and ruffling in accordance with its owner’s mood.’

5. Jack Carver dying on their entryway floor is truly the kind of thing that could only happen to Lockwood & Co. We get so many good lines from that one scene, but the best has to be ‘George sat back with a cry. “Juice! He wants juice! Can we give him that? Are we allowed to give him juice?” He hesitated, frowning. “Have we actually got any?”’ (And of course the one about the dodgy tattoos).

6. I can’t think of a good word to describe Lockwood as a preface for these quotes, but I think you’ll get the idea.

- ‘“Who knows? Maybe it’s my natural style he envies, maybe my boyish charm. Perhaps it’s my setup here -having my own agency, no one to answer to, with fine companions at my side.” He caught my eye and smiled.’

- “Well, it’s that time of the afternoon. I’m going to stick a sword into a straw woman.”

- “Hardly. It was only because I could already see that you saw who I was that I stopped myself driving the pommel of your own sword sharply back into your abdomen using the Baedecker-Flynn reverse-strike maneuver. Lucky for you that I did, and so didn’t.” 🤦‍♀️

- “Just a quick look, and then we’re done. Burglary’s more fun than socializing, I always say.”

- “Well, if you judge success by the number of enemies you make, that was a highly successful evening.” One of my all time favorite lines.

7. On the other hand, Lockwood is also just such a good leader/hero character. It’s called balance, okay? I love him.

- The first time I noted this was when he sticks up for the annoying night-watch kid. This moment also proves what a badass he is (and Lucy). “Then [Shaw] turned and punched Lockwood hard in the side of the face -or tried to, because Lockwood swayed back and dodged the blow. Shaw’s momentum carried him forward; Lockwood took hold of his flailing arm and twisted it sharply to the side and back. At the same time he stuck his boot behind one of Shaw’s ankles. Shaw cried out, lost his balance, tripped over his own feet and fell. . . Shaw’s face flushed purple; he instantly sought to rise, but he found the point of my rapier gently resting against his chest.”

- And of course we have to talk about the whole, ‘“The entrance stairs are locked, and I’ve shut off the catafalque mechanism from below. No one can get down, unless they want to jump twenty feet into a pitch-black hole. And who would be prepared to do that?” There was one person I knew who might.’ Because yeah. Lockwood IS that person. This isn’t him being reckless and throwing himself into danger for unhealthy reasons, this is him being prepared to do whatever it takes to help his friends.

- Furthermore: “[Joplin] pointed the gun at me. A polite cough sounded beside us. I looked up; Joplin turned. Anthony Lockwood stood there. He was covered in grave dust, and there were cobwebs on his collar and in his hair. His trousers were torn at the knees, his fingers bleeding. He’d looked neater in his time, but I can’t say he’d ever looked better to me.”

8. On a similar note, it’s time to examine just a couple of the Lucy Carlyle Badass Moments in this book.

- First up is throwing her rapier like a javelin to save George and Joplin from Bickerstaff’s ghost. Iconic, certified Badass moment.

- And then there’s of course fighting off Bickerstaff’s ghost AGAIN, this time by swinging an iron chain. Listen, when the chips are down and I’ve got my back against the wall, I want Lucy on my team because she’ll for sure get me out of it. “I ran toward Kipps, toward the ghost. As I did so, I bent down and grabbed one of the lengths of iron chain that had been scattered by Joplins fall. I picked it up, went on without breaking stride. Even as I reached the chair, I was already swinging it in front of me. I met the ghost of Dr. Bickerstaff head on.” Um? Hell yeah. If you look up the word ‘badass’ in the dictionary you’ll see a picture of Lucy fucking Carlyle.

9. Don’t think I’m leaving George out of this conversation. George really is That Bitch there at the end, pretending to die and then ‘coming back’ with the element of surprise. Truly one of his more iconic moments. And I LOVE “At that distance, I’m totally blind. I couldn’t see a thing.”

10. This book has more hurt/angst than I remembered. A lot of it stems from George fighting the influence of the bone-glass, and then the subsequent tension between him and Lockwood whenever Lockwood blames him for not prioritizing the right things. The tension between Lucy and Lockwood in terms of Lockwood being too secretive is also very real. I wanted to highlight a few excerpts that I think show the angst very well.

- “George had been very subdued for the past few minutes. He had barely spoken, and there was an odd expression on his face. His eyes showed numb distress, but they also held a yearning, far-off look; he kept gazing back toward the pit as if he thought he had left something there. It worried me.”

- ‘“All I’m saying,” I said, “is that it’s not right the way he keeps everything to himself. I mean, we’re his friends, aren’t we? He should open up to us. It makes me think that-” “Think what, Lucy?” I spun around. Lockwood was at the door.’ I swear my heart drops every time I read this.

- “Sometimes, George, we have to act on the spur of the moment. Life’s not all fiddling around with ghost-jars and paperwork.” “Listen, I’m in the front line too,” George growled. “Who was it that got a face full of that haunted mirror the other night? I can still feel the effects now. It’s like something’s tugging on my mind, calling to me. I reckon I wasn’t far from meeting the same end as that relic-man we found, and that’s not a nice sensation.” 💔

- “Funny how an actual death always hits you so hard. Visitors are scarier, sure, but they don’t have quite that power to shock. Lockwood seemed as cool and in control as ever, though. Maybe deaths didn’t have the same effect on him.” Gee, Stroud. I wonder if you could be alluding to something there. Ouch.

11. This is angst too, but I wanted to talk about it by itself: “Always, when you’re alone and vulnerable, emotions seek to undermine you. Mine went haywire now. I thought of Lockwood, fighting for his life upstairs. I thought of George -and the haunted, yearning expression on his face after glancing at the mirror five nights before. I thought about how easily everything I cared about could be destroyed.” Talk about heartbreaking. This one sentence speaks volumes when you think of what happens in THB and just hits so much harder when rereading the series.

12. And to remedy the hurt/angst, here is the trio being their own little found family and some moments that may be a little sad but at the same time sweet😭.

- The moment when Lucy talks about her and Lockwood protecting George in the Bickerstaff house always gets me. “George had become subdued. He moved slowly and spoke little, passing up several cast-iron opportunities for sarcastic or insulting remarks, which, frankly, was unlike him. . . Subtly, without drawing attention to ourselves, Lockwood and I moved so that George was between us. We protected him on both sides.” I know they’re also just being good agents here but, ugh❤️.

- Something else that always gets me is Lucy and George at the end. They really went from not being able to stand each other to being loyal friends. And when George comes to after being knocked out? And then it’s “I’m so angry with you I could burst.” “I know. I’m really sorry.” and “If you do this George Cubbins, I’m going to be so mad.”?? Yeah, that did me in.

13. A few other things that I noticed that didn’t really relate to anything else:

- “[The Winkmans] had owned the place for twenty years, since their predecessor had been accidentally crushed beneath a piece of Indian erotic statuary.” I truly had never noticed this tidbit of backstory before. I’ve been enlightened.

- Whoever designed the Black Library did a great job because it sounds like that room absolutely fucks. “The Black Library of Fittes House proved to be a vast octagonal room, rising the height of two full floors toward a glass dome in the roof. . . The walls were bookshelves, tier upon tier, with a metal balcony running around them at first-floor height. In two places, spiral staircases descended from this to the ground level, where we stood. The floor was made of wooden tiles, mostly of dark mahogany; but in the center, a design in paler woods depicted a rearing silver unicorn.”

- I know he probably only had it because it was the only drink being served at the Fittes party, but I will forever think of Barnes as a cocktail man from now on.

14. Lastly, Stroud really loves a cliffhanger, doesn’t he? I will give credit where credit is due. Revealing the Skull can talk to Lucy was pretty good, but he really stepped it up with the dead sister reveal.

Onto THB❤️.

#lockwood and co #the whispering skull #anthony lockwood #lucy carlyle #george cubbins #the skull #jonathan stroud #rambles #college girl hyper analyzes a children's book series #this was a lot #it's fun though

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stillness-in-green · 1 year

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Chapter Thoughts: 370 — HIStory

Sorry for how late this one is, all. Between Spinaraki Week, Life In General, and having, holy crap, SO MUCH I want to talk about this chapter, I'm running a bit behind. I may come back to try to finish out some fills for the rest of Spinaraki Week eventually, but I wrote all my really burning ideas at the start, so my desire to get back to my reams of meta was much more pressing. I'll try to hit the ask backlog before the next big post! (As you might be able to guess, I'm going to have a lot to say about Chapter 371, too.)

That said, hey, guys, guess who’s in hella Talking Point instead of Bullet Point Mode this chapter; that’s right, it’s me. WHAT a chapter. I’ll work my way through it in a broadly chronological fashion; the big stuff starts in the third section.

Kurogiri At the Hospital:

The narration calls Kurogiri “the closest thing to a masterpiece out of all the High Ends,” and I wonder just whose value judgment that is? After all, Kurogiri was completed years ago and Ujiko clearly isn’t the type to rest on his laurels. He’s never called Kurogiri his masterpiece; indeed, he explicitly says Hood-chan and the other High Ends are his finest work to date. So who else would talk about Kurogiri like that?

The narration tends to default to Deku, but it’s a weird statement to give to anyone other than AFO or Ujiko. What exactly makes Kurogiri the nearest thing to a masterpiece in the narrator’s opinion, anyway? His capacity for independent action is the only thing he really has up on his competition, and his independent action has been shut down since Aizawa and Mic pulled out the might-as-well-call-it-a-vestige of Shirakumo Oboro.

That’s a long-winded way of saying that if the story’s going to call Kurogiri the most advanced High End, the only thing Kurogiri can be said to be the best at is his ability to mimic a human being, so we’d damn well better see him getting another chance to do that as Kurogiri, not as the remnant of Shirakumo.

While we’re talking about Kurogiri, I do have to ask who tipped off AFO about his location and when. Per Chapter 325, if you’ll recall, it was supposed to be a secret.(1) Of course, AFO has ever so many conveniently placed friends who can do anything the plot needs them to do, but I can’t help but think that if he found out where Kurogiri was prior to this clash, he’d probably have done better to, I dunno, send in Toga or something, especially if he could have had her rendezvous with someone on the inside.

(Note that if we get AFO’s inside man next week, it will make for a nice parallel to Endeavor and company being greeted by their plant inside Jakku General Hospital in 259. Since a certain 1-A student wants to bring up hospital raids and all.)

As to Present Mic thinking of Kurogiri solely as Shirakumo, I can only continue to hope that this stubborn refusal to acknowledge even the possibility that Kurogiri might in some way be a meaningful existence will be back to properly bite him and Aizawa in the ass. The heroes have a consistent pattern of refusing to acknowledge the humanity in villains—their trauma, their motivations, their close relationships—beyond whatever little personal tidbit they trip over that they can’t look beyond. I would very much love it if, with Kurogiri, we get a direct consequence of that via Kurogiri choosing the boy he basically raised for a decade+ over the school friends the person he was constructed from knew for like a year and a half.

In and About The Crowd:

First things first, I want to mention that I got a few asks about racism in response to the leaks for this chapter—one about the way the fandom talks about this plotline and one about how the story itself is handling it. I do want to answer those, as I definitely have thoughts on both fronts (especially considering the content of Chapter 371), but I also want to do some research first.

If I haven’t said as much before, I’m white myself, so when I talk about these topics, I always want to make sure I’m doing so carefully and respectfully. In the case of Rock Lock's role this week, that’s going to take me some time. Be expecting an ask round-up about fandom shorthand, the iconography of the CRC, the heteromorphs shouting ignorance at Rock Lock, and anything else I get on that topic in the interim, sometime in early-ish November.

That said, this certainly is a crowd with some…accessories, isn’t it? CRC heads on pikes! Or possibly just masks, though if that’s the case, they’ve stuffed something else in there that fills the cowls out more than just the bare pole.

If it is just the masks, though, it’s in line with something the mob does three times in this chapter: unmasking. They pull Koda’s mask and mouthguard off, tear the helmet off one of the police officers, and, of course, my favorite pint-sized firebrand consciously chooses to unmask himself. The count goes up yet again if you include Shouji’s mask being torn apart, though in his case, it’s just the rigors of battle, not anyone specifically removing it.

(The above is another post I might write eventually on the extremely consistent pattern of heroes only being unmasked against their will, while villains—usually—choose when and under what circumstances to unmask themselves, and how that ties to the overarching themes of heroes staunchly resisting any sign of weakness while villains are more open to showing vulnerability, be it for the strategic value of doing so or out of a genuine desire to connect. Keep an eye out!)

On top of the crowd’s growing mask collection, they also have Spinner flags! You love to see it. Or you would, if Spinner weren’t in such dire straits right now. I’d still buy one, though.

As to the actual characters present, it’s nice to see some familiar faces with the Spinner fanboys and the USJ guy, who’s particularly notable here for being the very first person in the series to use the term heteromorph. He self-identified with it, exhibiting—at least on the surface—none of the distaste Spinner would later express for the word.

I’d love to know what the percentage breakdown is on this crowd’s membership. We have dissatisfied civilians, PLF remnants and, as evinced by the USJ guy, also some prison escapees, for the completely wild total of 15,000 people. While my primary response to that is, “I don’t think Horikoshi understands numbers very well,” taking it at face value, no matter how you cut the numbers, it is a bad look for the heroes.

I suppose we can assume there aren’t too many prison escapees here, since the narration didn’t even see fit to mention them as a factor, so that leaves mainly PLF and civilians. So is what we have here mostly civilians—nearly fifteen thousand people willing to take their lives and their futures into their hands for this cause? Or do we instead have many thousands of escaped PLF members, quite contrary to the pathetic number we were told were in the wind after the war arc?(2) Or is it about half and half?

There’s no good answer! It’s Real Bad no matter what!

That all said, we all know who I’m really here for, right? Let’s talk about the returning PLFers. (Alert: Incoming non-canonical advisor names.)

It’s long been eyebrow-raising to me that Spinner’s Number 2 advisor (hereafter called Scarecrow) does all the talking, while his Number 1 advisor (hereafter Nimble) never says a single word. While I appreciate that it’s yet to joss my headcanon that she actually can’t talk because she doesn’t have a mouth, I would really like it if we could get some demonstration as to why she outranks her extremely verbal subordinate.

We saw her exactly once in this chapter, on the second page, advancing through the crowd just ahead of Spinner. If she’s managed to keep up with him, this would seem to suggest that Shouji ought to be getting up close and personal with her next week, especially if the pattern of MLA types getting very angry when people attack their leaders holds (and it seems to be doing so; more on that below). I’d be really quite happy to watch her and Scarecrow tag team this, with her taking on Shouji physically while Scarecrow fights him for the crowd’s morale.

(Edit in light of Chapter 371: *pause for bitter laughter* Well, maybe she can be sneaking into the hospital instead.)

As to Scarecrow, while I didn’t get everything right, I’m thrilled that I did call him correctly as an insect heteromorph! I initially thought that his hands and fingers looked the way they did because they were prosthetic replacements for missing limbs; now I think it’s just that they’re segmented in an insectile fashion. Here, they look more consistent with the way his shoulder-mounted bug legs are drawn than they did at first,(3) and, with the clarity of the official scans, you can see that his knees and possibly his ankles are also segmented.

I love his row of mandibles, I love his head stripes (and wonder what color the anime will make them, since his coloring as of Season 6 Episode 2 is a very uninteresting light gray), and I have definitely noticed the prominent scar.

But enough about how Scarecrow looks. Far more interesting are all the things he says.

Scarecrow’s Speech | Historical and Modern Discrimination:

Everyone and their mother has talked about the Star Wars references, and I don’t have enough Star Wars knowledge to say anything new or compelling there, save to note that the implications are incredibly grim.

Much more interesting to me is the variety of phrases that crop up this week in regard to heteromorphic discrimination. The first of those was the phrase the Viz translation renders as “those who don’t fit the mold”—the same phrasing Re-Destro used when he was talking to Giran back in Deika about how societal mores lag behind the new reality of the world. I immediately wanted to know if the wording was the same in Japanese as well, as that would be a good tell about how consistent the MLA messaging is.

Having checked the raws, as it turns out, the wording is completely different! I can’t be mad, though, because the language Scarecrow’s using is exactly in line with a phrase I’ve been using in my (ongoing) evidence-gathering about heteromorphobia, and I love it when I’m right about things.

So, the phrase Scarecrow uses there is kotonaru katachi, katachi meaning form or shape, kotonaru meaning to differ/vary/disagree. Thus, being more accurate to Scarecrow’s use of punctuation: “The history of the Paranormal is that of oppression of ‘differing forms.’”

This is important because one of the big gotchas a lot of people try to use to discredit this whole plotline is the protestation that people like Hawks and Jirou and Iida are all technically heteromorphs, and they aren’t being discriminated against, so clearly heteromorphobia is totally bogus. If you look back through the series with Scarecrow’s phrasing in mind, however, the pattern becomes much clearer. It isn’t about quirk types; it’s about body types. There’s overlap between the two categories, the same way there’s overlap between heteromorphic quirks and “villain quirks”, but they’re distinct categories nonetheless.

Interestingly, if you look at the kanji—異なる形—the phrase is very close to the kanji used for “heteromorph”: 異形, igyou. Literally all the phrase does is tack in some verb conjugation and use different readings of the kanji, and suddenly the whole tenor changes!

Speaking of igyou, though, for a chapter that’s all about anti-igyou discrimination, the term hardly crops up at all this week—even in the narration! It calls the civilians there, “ordinary citizens who sympathize with [the PLF’s] cause.” Scarecrow, as discussed above, uses “differing forms.” There’s also a lot of “our kind” in the Viz release that’s implicit rather than explicit in the Japanese text (e.g. the old man who snarls at Koda calls him merely a traitor, not “traitor to your kind.” But “heteromorph”? It’s used exactly once: by one of the people throwing rocks at Shouji in his chapter-opening flashback.

Yikes.

The flashback people use much worse language than that, though, language the Viz translation particularly gets at it when it uses the word “defiled.” As that word choice implies, the vitriol being hurled at Shouji in that scene is specifically telling of religious belief. The two terms to consider are kegare (汚れ) and imi (忌み), both more tied up with Shinto practice than Buddhist.

Imi was translated simply as “dirty” in the line about “dirty blood.” Online dictionaries give translations such as mourning, abstinence, or even holiness or religious purification, but the throughline—and another offered translation—is simply “taboo.” Imi isn't necessarily a bad thing,(4) but it is that which is to be shunned and denied, especially in the context of religious rituals. It is clearly intended as a negative thing here, though!

Even more charged is kegare, a concept of spiritual uncleanliness that is thought to further be spiritually contagious, the sort of thing that can spread if not purified and/or contained. Crucially, kegare is not nominally about moral failing necessarily; it’s not quite the same thing as sin.(5) Kegare is a natural state that one picks up via exposure to things like death, disease, and waste, but also childbirth, menstruation, and so on. Obviously, those are things that everyone is going to encounter eventually; the solution is appropriate acts of purification and boundary-setting.

…Except that’s just the party line on kegare. People who have enough sustained exposure to sources of kegare—butchers, tanners, executioners, morticians—came to be considered incapable of purification, and so were classed prior to the pre-Meiji period as something very like an untouchable caste,(6) eventually coming to be called burakumin, and subject to severe discrimination in housing, marriage, and employment, as well as more generalized oppression that endures even today to those of burakumin lineage.

Shouji’s story here feels very akin to that. The people hounding him are not doing so because of any exposure he’s had to a source of kegare, but because he himself is said source! If he personally is the source of the corruption—corruption that will spread to his entire village, spiritually polluting other people and even the land itself—that is not something that can be purified. Rather, the only thing to be done is A) drive him away or B) force him to never leave his house.

More on this next chapter, where we get even more awful details.

The last bit of descriptive terminology I want to touch on is ”human-faced people.” I’ll talk about it more in the ask round-up, but I’d really love to know where the phrase came from, in-universe. The heteromorphs are human, too! Therefore their faces must de facto be considered human faces! But that Spinner fanboy sure is yelling it with enough vitriol to suggest that he doesn’t agree, and I wonder how many times he had to be told that himself to internalize it in such a raw way.

Terminology aside, what else can be gathered from Scarecrow's speech? Well, one thing that stands out is the conflation of the history of quirks with the history of heteromorphic discrimination. And he's obviously over-simplifying—there are emitters in some of those early images of meta-abilities, and there are cases where it can be difficult to tell transformers and heteromorphs apart when a transformer's quirk is active, so they'd have been targets as well. Still, whether Scarecrow is omitting that because he's priming this specific crowd to be angry or because he truly believes it himself, the words are not entirely without basis.

I can't remember if I've talked about this before here, but something that's always been very striking to me about the timeline of quirk acceptance and historical villainy is the suggestion that the original Meta Liberation Army and the Creature Rejection Clan are contemporaries. Both groups are dated to the period in which society was beginning to stabilize after the chaos of the advent of quirks.

So, while Destro and his cohort were getting angry about laws that would restrict the outside-the-home use of natural-born abilities to only those with a license, the CRC were getting angry about laws that would tacitly admit the equal humanity of people the CRC considered to be much less than human. They started with protests, but soon moved into hate crimes, and in that, we get to something else that's very notable about the group: they were never banned.

The volume extra note on them says that, because people disapproved of their turn to violence, they lost popularity and splintered off into factions. But this is a group that was and is committing hate crimes, that bases their whole identity around that hatred. Why in heaven's name weren't they targeted legally?

Well, firstly, because while Japan has ways to limit the freedoms and financial prospects of certain groups (primarily organized crime and terrorist groups), it doesn't actually criminalize membership in such organizations.(7) Still, there's no indication that even the controls the government can enact were ever utilized against the CRC—again, the thing that led to their diminished influence is simply that people at large thought they were going too far.

This, I think, is down to the other issue: Japan has basically no interest in anti-hate crime legislation. From my research, there is exactly one federal law about hate crimes, one activists regard as woefully insufficient because it contained absolutely zero criminal provisions targeting offenders; the only things it actually required at the time of its ratification were that the government "begin implementing preventative measures"—things like community education or banning displays of hate speech/writing in public areas—as well as respond to "requests for consultation" from victims. Consequences for offenders? Absolutely none.

There have been one or two prefectures that have gone one small step farther in the institution of fines for repeat offenders, but one crucial thing that's nowhere to be found is one of the most basic features in hate crime legislation: the enactment of stricter sentencing guidelines for crimes proven to be committed due to demographic bias.

Finally, if those laws have remained unchanged in HeroAca Land Japan, none of them would protect heteromorphs anyway, because they're only aimed at discrimination against those of non-Japanese ethnicities! Which plainly doesn't apply to ethnically Japanese heteromorphs! Here again, we can connect heteromorphs to burakumin, who have only been granted legal equality (way back in the Meiji Era, when the laws declaring them a separate caste were repealed), but no greater legal protection.

Small wonder this crowd is so big.

Moving on, Nedzu's presence in that image of accepted-and-well-off heteromorphs is really fascinating—Nedzu is really fascinating. Like, we know he has a nasty history with humans, and he certainly doesn't consider himself to be one of them, as we see when he talks about the various failings of humanity as a species. But there he is, being considered a successful and integrated heteromorph.

And sure, by the base considerations that go into determining quirk type, he is a heteromorph: his body is permanently altered from the baseline state of his species(?) by his quirk. But I wonder how much oversight he's subject to, what his citizenship (if he even has it) was contingent on, and stuff like that. Nedzu feels very much like someone whose acceptance could be revoked at any time it became inconvenient, so he's worked hard to make himself as indispensable as he can. And, in fact, he's done such a good job of it that he can even push back against government officials sometimes!

As the heteromorph giantess demonstrates, however, no matter how stable such positions seem, there's always a level of chaos that can destabilize them. (More on her next time.)

As a final note on the content of Scarecrow's speech, I will point out that we can see just a smidge of his MLA origins here. He doesn't ask for justice or reparations; what he says Spinner and this movement will do is lead heteromorphs to "prominence in society." It's not enough that they be equal; they have to be, if you will, the new main characters.

That aaaaall said, let's turn to Shouji's response.

Shouji’s Response:

It’s a mess. The whole scene is, but since I’m running behind, I’ll save the full breakdown on why for next time, as 371 will round out Shouji’s response somewhat more than just the little we get here. Focusing just on that little opening, then, let’s break down—as a lot of people already have—the fallacies involved here. Because there are a ton of them in only the one penultimate page, holy shit.

“What’s any of that got to do with attacking a hospital?”

Shouji, please. Spinner said it right before you hit him with a x8 punch multiplier: they’re here for Kurogiri, without whom they won’t win this, and society won’t change. It’s the exact same reason the heroes raided a hospital at the start of the last arc; they believed that securing the creator of the Noumu was an essential part of guaranteeing their victory.

The villains are not just attacking a hospital for kicks; they are doing it to secure a valuable strategic asset. And it’s not as if this hospital is completely defenseless, so the heroes can’t claim ignorance of this outcome! They saw an attack coming because an attack was easy to predict, and they chose to leave Kurogiri here anyway, rather than—at least temporarily—moving him back to more secure holding.

That doesn’t magically make the people who masterminded this attack blameless, of course, but the heroes do have to take some of the responsibility here for the same reason UA had to take responsibility for Bakugou’s kidnapping(8) and police had to do the same for the League’s highway attack on the convoy transporting Overhaul.

Bakugou’s safety was UA’s responsibility just as much as a prisoner’s safekeeping is the responsibility of the state once they’re in custody. That’s why it’s called custody—because it confers custodianship.

“Back in Jaku, the first thing the heroes did was take action to make sure the patients and staff were safe.”

No. No, it was not. In fact what happened was that they stormed the building without warning with part of the team dedicated to evacuation and the other part dedicated to securing Ujiko. The two teams took action simultaneously. They didn’t even have everyone out when they confronted Clone!Ujiko in the middle of a hallway within line of sight of two innocent (and clearly not notified of the ongoing evacuation!) staff members. They still didn’t have everyone out when the Noumu came up through the floor.

The fact is, the heroes couldn’t spring their trap with a more generous lead time to guarantee civilian safety because doing so would have tipped off Ujiko. And, indeed, given that Ujiko was already talking about the heroes' presence when the POV cut to the real man in the lab, he clearly did get tipped off, though the story doesn’t say how exactly.

*** Minor tangent:

I might guess he found out via Mandalay’s telepathy, but, again, it didn’t seem like the pair of staff members that came to his defense had been notified of an emergency, which suggests the telepathic message only initially went out to the people in the immediate lobby, rather than "everyone on the premises except Garaki Kyudai the clone I have mistaken for Garaki Kyudai."

When I worked at a hospital, there were emergency codes for various circumstances; I would think something like that being called would be the immediate reaction to a bunch of heroes showing up and saying to evacuate the building, and yeah, of course a facility-wide evacuation code would do the trick for alerting him!

Frankly, it’s a heap of nonsense that the heroes got everyone out as quickly as they did. For heaven’s sake, given Mirko’s speed and the ease with which she ripped through the Noumu in the basement, it cannot possibly have been more than ten minutes between her leaping through the main entrance and her kicking down Ujiko’s front door, and Mandalay reported a completed evacuation mere moments after that. The hospital is four stories with at least two sizeable wings, and given that it was the middle of the day, it’s very likely that there would have been surgeries and other such procedures in progress. Unless the heroes snuck Quicksilver onto their team, evacuation categorically could not have happened in ten or so minutes.

But, me griping about how flawlessly the heroes’ raid plans tend to go off given the hurdles they ought realistically to be facing is not new. I now return to the rest of the chapter post. ***

Shouji, in any case, wasn’t at the hospital, so his word on what the heroes did is unreliable. The students didn’t even know what they were doing at the start of that day, so anything he knows about the details of the Jakku raid is going to rely on hearsay from classmates or the media, none of whom were in the hospital advance team, either.

Moving back to the hospital currently in question, I have to ask Shouji how much authority over the space does he think a mob of 15K people actually has? Even though the Jakku team wasn’t holding the building to start with, they still had the societal cachet to walk unimpeded into a bustling hospital, say, “Everybody out,” and be listened to with minimum fuss and maximum police backup.

The mob, conversely, is attacking a building from which they are being vigorously denied entry. Their number is composed of malcontents and villains, people who have no authority to make any demands of those inside the building save whatever obedience they can brute force their way into commanding with numbers and threats.

And even so, you know what the mob spends most of the chapter saying? Spoilers: it’s not screaming for blood and vengeance. They have a few very common refrains—make way, clear a path, push the enemy back. When they come up against Rock Lock, there are calls to get his hands, to tie him up. Their intent is to restrain him, not to kill him, not even to knock him out! When the crowd briefly overwhelms Koda, the elderly beaked heteromorph does nothing but tear off the kid’s mask and call him a traitor.

I’m not saying no one would get killed in the case of a villain victory; certainly, when violence has already broken out and emotions are running that high, with so many angry people there, it’s entirely likely that things would continue to escalate (though if Scarecrow were able to continue rallying the crowd, he would likely be able to direct them somewhat(9)). Still, Shouji asks what their plan is to avoid innocent suffering, and I would point out that their modus operandi seems to be to not inflict undue suffering even on the people actively opposing them, much less the civilians inside!

No, one thing changes the mood of the crowd for the worse, and that’s Shouji’s attack on Spinner.(10)

That’s when the content of the cries suddenly gets more bloody-minded, calling explicitly for death, just like back in Deika when the MLA rank-and-file would go nuts when their leaders were attacked. (Though, honestly, Spinner’s guesses back then notwithstanding, it’s not like that’s so strange or cult-like. Attacking leaders of social or political movements directly is always going to piss off their followers. Feels a bit like a foul, you know?)

I don’t have a lot to say about Spinner this week, because frankly the situation with him is just too damn depressing. More on that—and on the matter of who’s expected to plan and who gets away without plans—next time.

“Do you have a plan here? Because if not, I won’t let this stand!”

“I won’t let this stand” lolol does that mean Shouji would let this stand—just step back and roll out the red carpet for them—if they did have a plan?

Well, no, because his actual line there is the well-worn, “I won’t forgive you.” According to Translator Sis, it’s kind of a Whole Thing in the American translator community that no one wants to just translate that line straight, so you see all kinds of weird permutations to get around it. I'd venture to guess this is because the phrase has Cultural Baggage in Japanese that it lacks in English; I remember reading once, years ago, that the reason Sailor Moon concludes her speech every episode with, "I won't forgive you!" is that forgiveness is considered a Very Big Deal in Japan.

Of course, I should think forgiveness is a pretty big deal in most parts of the world, but Japan values societal harmony very highly, so yeah, I can see that declaring one's refusal to forgive someone (et tu, Natsuo?) would be regarded as a very grave statement indeed.

(More on that next time, too.)

Stray Notes:

O The chapter opens with, “Turning back the clock a bit…” and it strikes me that there’s not much point in turning back the clock if Spinner isn’t going to win here. I mean, I obviously thought that already—there are far too many loose plot threads on this battle for it to be wrapping up yet—but as VFO foreshadowed last chapter, I think we must be right on the cusp of a shift in fortunes.

After all, if Spinner and the rest were just going to be defeated here, it wouldn’t matter that all this was happening slightly earlier than the (seeming) climax of ShigAFO’s defeat. So while things look dire here, and look even worse in 371, I’m all but positive at this point that the hospital fight will represent the tides turning again. We wound back the clock so that no one would be confused when Kurogiri and whoever-all else teleport into the middle of the UA battlefield right where we left Deku and ShigAFO last time.

O My schadenfreude at the police and Rock Lock’s complaints about how organized the mob is cannot be overstated. Lolol, “There’re only 200 of us, we’re so short-handed, and they’re so mean for splitting us up, weeeeh!” YEAH, THAT’S HOW IT FEELS. SUCKS WHEN THE ENEMY SPLITS UP YOUR FORCES AND CUTS YOU OFF FROM BACKUP, DUNNIT?

O A point to Horikoshi. I’ve been complaining for months now that the alleged shortage of heroes is empty talk because Team Hero still always had all the people they could ever need to attack and defend all their objectives. Well, here we finally, finally have a shortage that matters: not enough people to defend Kurogiri is going to mean they fail to defend Kurogiri, with all the consequences that come after. It’s about time.

O Koda is a sweetheart, and he doesn’t deserve to be called a race class allegorical discrimination victim traitor to his face. I do, however, feel less bad for him in the wake of 371 than I did just after this chapter.

O The blood splashed on the ground is an evocative touch, and I particularly like the panel layout of Scarecrow, arms up and reciting his toll of grievances as the image of the crowd he’s talking to today gives way to that image of spilled blood, and then to a crowd from times past, where heteromorphs are on the opposite end of the violence, and then even further to the image of the surface peace people fool themselves into believing exists today.

It’s really excellent in the way that it matches Scarecrow's verbal addressing of all this—the crowd, the history, the social veneer—with an image of his visually addressing it. He’s even the only one who isn’t contained in a panel, the ledge he’s standing on jutting out subtly in front of the other images, giving the impression that he’s standing in front of this gallery of horrors and explaining them to an audience like a particularly fire-and-brimstone museum guide.

Fantastic work!

O In terms of translation, I don’t love the choice to render Spinner’s broken language as caveman-speak. I realize that it’s not really possible to get at the same effect in English—indeed, it wouldn’t be possible to get across the effect in spoken Japanese, either! Still, I think a closer equivalent would be to leave Spinner’s language as-is, but spell it all phonetically, like a grade-schooler trying to write words they’ve heard but haven’t learned how to spell yet. That’s a much closer replica of the way regular kanji are broken down into their component sounds or the wrong system of writing is used.

O With Scarecrow waving Spinner onward like that, I have to wonder how cognizant he is of Spinner’s dysfunction, and what he thinks of it if he does know? Next week’s chapter is unclear on this as well.

O Someone please save me from civilians standing around with slack looks of shock on their dumb faces the moment a hero makes an ill-considered rhetorical point. Cripes, I’m so tired of civilians in this story not being allowed to have opinions, beliefs, or motivations that are well-considered enough to stand up to a single conversational parry.

----FOOTNOTES----

1: So much a secret that Horikoshi himself hadn’t figured it out at first, judging by Kurogiri’s presence in Tartarus circa Chapter 297.

2: “Gigantomachia’s rampage allowed one hundred and thirty-two of them to escape. Their bases scattered around the country were hit too, and the sympathizers were rounded up.”

3: In his villa raid appearances, his shoulder-mounted bug legs and his hands looked different enough that I didn’t read them as being of the same material. In particular, the segments of his bug legs had a very ball-and-socket joint look, whereas his hands and fingers looked connected by cables in between their individual segments.

4: I might compare a sacred avoidance to, say, the Jewish prohibitions on how the names of God are to be written or not written.

5: Tsumi would be a better word for that concept.

6: There's a certain amount of scholarship around exactly how the burakumin came to be, and to what degree their status was as a result of a sincere belief in kegare or more political in nature. Much of said scholarship is paywalled or in Japanese, but from what I can find, kegare was certainly used as a justification, even if there were other factors in play at the time.

7: Largely because the idea of giving the government the power to start reenacting the March 15 Incident is massively unpopular with the voter base.

8: It shares a lot of circumstances with that, in fact. Both the location of the training camp and Kurogiri being moved to Central Hospital were supposed to be cloaked in secrecy. Both the training camp and Kurogiri were recognized as possible targets. The training camp attack involved the villains getting information from an inside source, which is likely how AFO found out Kurogiri’s location as well.

9: Direct them to do what? Well, he’s got no reason other than crowd morale management to spare the hospital’s defenders, but much less reason than that to call for anything very awful to be done to the hospital’s civilian occupants. I’d have said the same thing about Hose Face bringing up Midnight’s death, though, so far be it for me to deny the possibility of nonsensical cruelty from the villains Horikoshi isn’t asking us to care about.

10: In fairness, because Spinner is about to crush a pair of cops with his Mega Sword-Sword. Spinner is not thinking straight enough to be thinking at all about incapacitation versus maiming versus death; he’s just cutting a path ahead.

#bnha #bnha 370 #plf advisors #octolad #heteromorph discrimination plot #bnha civilians #chapter thoughts #bnha meta #my writing #bnha worldbuilding #(musing about the canon's worldbuilding that is)#stillness chanting that advisor's name like she's cheering him on at a cage match #SCARE-CROW SCARE-CROW SCARE-CROW

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