#now i can finally tick 'participate in a major battle in the war of the ring' off my bucket list

[masterelrond]

where’s my “Survived the Battle of the Hornburg” shirt!!!!!

#now i can finally tick 'participate in a major battle in the war of the ring' off my bucket list #while i've treasured the company of Nona Horn and Corudan i'm ready to see my babygirls (grey company) again!!!! #Linewen misses Radanir terribly and the fate of Lothrandir weighs ever on her mind #and while the plains of Rohan were beautiful the neverending tasks and padding grew redundant much too quickly #now let's get ready to beat Saruman's ass!!!!!!! #lotro #nori disrupts air

[inkyjaguar]

The History Of George Lore

Okay, so this is the history of George Lore in my fic The King’s Final Battle . This is the first character sheet that I plan on making for all the characters. I’m not an artist so please use your imagination of what he would look like!

George was born in the town of Camarvan in Wheat Valley to some (you guessed it) wheat farmers. Unfortunately, he was an only child and from what he remembers of his parents, they weren’t as present in his life than Sapnap’s parents (his best friend) or his aunts and uncles were. When he was 10, his parents slipped into a mysterious coma out of the blue and died in their sleep. He then lived out the rest of his childhood with his aunt and uncle. 

Now, George was diagnosed with narcolepsy at a young age and it was common to send him out into the field to work only for him to return back hours later than normal because he fell asleep while working. That didn’t stop him from playing with his friends and having a great childhood. 

His friends growing up were Sapnap, Punz, Alyssa, Callahan, and Purpled. He knew about Tommy and his friends but they were very rude to them so George didn’t pay much attention to them. One day, he woke up from sleeping in the field and met a kid his age with a strange mask on him. The new kid was very curious and though George didn’t like him at first, they grew to be great friends in their group; adding Dream to his list of childhood friends at 13. 

In the town of Camarvan, there was always contention concerning the state of the kingdom. The king was known as the “puppet king” because he was considered useless. When George was 17 a sorcerer named Wilbur Soot started a business that brought a lot of that tension to a peak. Wilbur had gathered a significant portion of the village to follow him and his ideals of a new country. George didn’t care much about this new ‘country’ even though Dream seemed really upset by it. George fell asleep one afternoon and when he woke up, he found his village raided by Wilbur Soot’s followers. The followers had stolen potion ingredients and while he had slept, Sapnap, Dream, Purpled, Punz, Tubbo and Eret had retaliated for what the followers did. 

That was the start of the L’Manberg Revolution. 

Wilbur’s nation split off into the woods around Camarvan and set up camp. Before the puppet king could send troops to help the war, Dream gathered an army of the remaining villagers (George included) to stop this revolution while they could. There were many trench battles and sneak attacks that George participated in with his friends but ultimately, he slept through most of the major battles like the Burning of the Wheat Crops and the slaughter of Alyssa when she was caught burning the woods around the Revolution.

During the final battle, George thought for sure that they were going to win and that L’Manberg would be history after Eret betrayed them. Dream had easily bested Tommy (who wasn’t even old enough to work in the field yet) in the duel, but Tommy pulled Dream aside and they made a deal. George didn’t know what that deal was, but Dream came out saying that L’Manberg was its own state within the Esempe Kingdom. 

And when the puppet king came with his knights, the king said the same and announced that he would be stepping down from the throne for his long lost younger brother, Eret. King Eret quickly invited George and all his friends to the castle to be trained as official knights for the bravery they showed in the L’Manberg Revolution. George was quick to accept and even quicker to dismiss the L’Manbergians who were also invited. 

For the next few years, George trained with his friends to become knights. However, he fell behind in training and progression mostly due to him sleeping through practices. His narcolepsy got worse as time wore on to where he was missing half of the day to one of his sleeping episodes. He always had the most boring dreams as well; sitting in a cream box with nothing in it but him. Sometimes, Dream would be there but mostly, he wasn’t. 

While Sapnap became a Captain of the Guards in a year, George was assigned to be a personal guard for King Eret. George was extremely mad about this assignment but all his old Camarvan friends were not around to hear him complain. The only person who he could talk to, was Dream. 

Now, George didn’t know what Dream’s role was in the castle, because he didn’t train with the rest of the knights but he was able to just walk in and talk with King Eret whenever he wanted. Dream always had time to talk to George though and even encouraged him to take advantage of his new position of being around court members. Geroge couldn’t stand Wilbur and Squire Tommy but he did become best friends with another squire Quackity. 

When George was 19, Quackity woke him up and asked him to be his running mate for the representative seat of L’Manberg. George eagerly took that title and helped campaign with Quackity. He was finally getting recognized for his talents and skills but after the final debate with Wilbur and Tommy, the two approach him and ask him to step away from the election in exchange for him to be on their council once they get reelected. George is tempted but dismisses them after Tommy insults Dream. He finds Dream later to report this to him and falls asleep before he can get everything out. 

The next time George wakes up, it’s been a full day and the elections are over. He had slept through the entire thing. That had never happened to him before. Still groggy, he’s told that Schlatt (an old sorcerer turned politician) has won with Quackity, and that George, Tubbo and Fundy are on their council but that Wilbur and Tommy have been exiled. Confused and concerned about the growing rate of his sleeping episodes, Tubbo and Quackity send him to Philza, the Court Sorcerer, for advice. Philza advises him to head to The Badlands (a neighboring kingdom) for treatment and Dream advises him to do the same. 

George heads to The Badlands and stumbles on the Pogtopia rebellion while he does so. He sends a letter back to Philza about his son before starting to get treatment from the Court Sorcerer there; Antfrost. Antfrost makes a break through and finds out that George has a sleeping curse that is similar to one made in an ancient civilization called The Eggpire. This curse makes whoever holds it and those binded together by blood and magic degrade until they fall asleep forever at the age of 30; like what happened to George’s parents. That is all they learn about until one day, George gets overwhelmed with magical energy and falls into a coma. In this coma he finds Dream (like all the other times he has fallen asleep) and tells him about his worries. Dream doesn’t take it like George thought he would. Dream is happy that one day George will be able to spend forever with him in this dream cube. He wakes up a week later to learn that George’s sleeping curse now has a ticking time bomb that will put him into an eternal sleep by the age of 21. 

Hearing this shocks George and he wonders why he has less time than his parents did, but he goes back to the Esempe Kingdom to live his life to the fullest before he dies. Antfrost and Ambassador BadBoyHalo promise to continue their research in case they find anything more. George comes back to Dream calling him into the throne room and crowning him king in front of everyone. While George loves this new opportunity, he can’t help but let his feelings of frustration leak onto the awake!Dream after what sleeping!Dream said when George slipped into the coma.

With all this power at the age of 20, George tries his hardest to be the best, neutral king he can but everything changes when Technoblade, the Commander of the Army, tries to kill him in the name of Pogtopia. He is sure that he died but he wakes up after passing out to find that Dream is the only one to step in and save him. George feels horrible for being mean to awake!Dream after everything he has done for him. He tries to thank Dream, but Dream feels guilty about putting George on the throne and tries to make him step down. George refuses and so Dream makes him agree to the Esempe fighting against Pogtopia. George also refuses because he wants to remain neutral but before he can say another word, Dream grabs his head and he falls asleep only to realize that Dream could control when George had a sleeping episode this entire time. 

George wakes up a couple days later and fights out that Dream lead the Esempe knights and representatives of The Badlands to fight against Pogtopia with Manberg. George is furious with Dream and tries to arrest him when he gets back from the fight only for Dream to have disappeared from amongst the troops. Wilbur is dead, Technoblade and Dream have run after betraying both sides, and Tubbo has stepped up to be the new representative at the age of 17.

George continues to rule and has mysterious meetings with Dream in and out of his sleeping hours where their feelings get confused after drunken kisses. Still, he is declining in health and falls asleep for a week. After he wakes up, he finds out that Camarvan has been burned to the ground by Tommy. Tommy swears that it wasn’t him and that he was possessed by whatever was in these records he has had posession of for the past 6 years. George looks at the records and finds a familiar symbol that Antfrost had shown him when looking at the old records about his sleeping curse. 

To make up for burning their home, Geoge demands that the LManberg cabinet go with him to help him break his sleeping curse. The crew sets out together and Dream joins them. They approach old ruins near Camarvan and find an enderman hybrid tending to the ruins of Camarvan. The enderman helps in translating some of the words in the ruins where Tommy had found the records and Dream reacts weirdly to the place. When George tries to help him around this fit, Dream says that if George’s breaks his curse, Dream would make him pay. George continues on with his plan and is able to break his curse with the help of the others and with the help of the ancient lab they found. 

They all come back to the castle to find that Dream has reinstated Eret on the throne. As King Eret’s first decree, he exiles Tommy. George is furious and confronts Dream with Sapnap. Dream won’t stand down and so George leaves to make a new state named El Rapids with Karl, Sapnap, and Quackity.

Even after George has left, Dream still visits him in his dreams, but he’s different now. This Dream doesn’t wear the mask and is more kind and confused. George gets the feeling that something is going on with Dream and sends a letter to Antfrost for help.  

 After a year of establishing the new nation, and secretly planning Dream’s downfall with the L’Manberg cabinet, the second festival of L’Manberg happens. George shows up as a representative of El Rapids and the festival is attacked by Technoblade, Tommy and Dream. The three blow up L’Manberg and George and Sapnap fight Dream on the battlements. George brings up who the mysterious person is in his dreams and sees a physical switch in Dream. For a split second, a new person comes out and they plead with George to save them. After that cry, Dream slips the mask back on and runs away from George. 

Tommy is brought back to his senses and he swears that he was possessed again. George gets a letter back from Antfrost inviting him to come research with him. George agrees and asks Tubbo to also research here for them after the bombing opened up a crypt covered in the same language that the ancient lab George was cured in was covered with. George discovers the existence of dreamons in The Badlands and watches as Dream is escorted into the prison here in The Badlands by the Warden Sam. 

Convinced that something is happening with Dream, George goes to visit him where Dream tries desperately to convince him that dreamons don’t exist. George won’t believe him and Dream tries to seduce him as a way to prove to distract George. However, George reacts with disgust and knocks Dream away from him. The mysterious second person comes back for a split second and George is able to see that he had not imagined anything at the second festival.

George convinces Sam to let George take Dream with him to the ruins where they can find a way to exorcise him. Tubbo sends word of a book that could potentially help them and George escorts Dream back to the Esempe. Dream fights the whole way and desperately pleads with George not to exorcise him and it pains George to watch him scream in agony as the exorcism takes place. However, the whole time the exorcism happens, George is the only one conscious after everyone reacts as if being burned by fire and pass out. 

After the exorcism, George finds the new person and starts to bring him back to health. 

Everything after that is Clay rehabiliating, George establishing peace, Clay remembering and atoning for the sins of Dream and a happy ending. Except not, because George gets kidnapped by DreamXD. 

I know this is long but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!

#thekingsfinalbattle #georgenotfound #dream smp #dreamwastaken #dreamxd #dnf

[priorireverte]

Congratulations Ash!

Your application for Katie Bell has been accepted. Katie is a character I’ve rarely given much thought, frankly, but I’ve completely fallen in love with her already. You’ve given her so much depth and involved her so closely in everything that is happening. I can’t wait to see what she gets up to!

Please look to the checklist for the next steps and reach out if you have any questions!

OUT OF CHARACTER

NAME & PRONOUNS: Ash, she/her.

TIMEZONE: PST

ACTIVITY LEVEL: I reckon I am about a six or seven out of ten. I am constantly on mobile and accessible for plotting, but prefer to do all of my replies once I am home from work and have access to a computer.

ANYTHING ELSE: I have ten plus years role-playing experience and I am looking forward to this amazing opportunity to potentially write Katie again for the first time in years. She was one of the first characters I ever wrote in the Harry Potter world and holds a very special place in my heart.

CHARACTER DETAILS

NAME: Katherine Emery Bell ( Katie Bell )

BIRTHDATE: 21 April, 1978.

DEATHDATE: 10 October, 1997 N/A, still alive and kicking.

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Katie is a cisfemale who uses she/her pronouns. She is bisexual, as she was taught to love and embrace everyone for who they were at a young age. It doesn’t matter what they are; she only weighs who they are inside.

BLOOD STATUS: Half-blood.

HOUSE ALUMNI: Gryffindor.

OCCUPTATION: Unspeakable, Death Chamber.

FACECLAIM: Poppy Drayton, though I might want to switch if accepted / after having some time to sleep on it.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND

POSTBELLUM

Like many, Katie too has scars from the war. They are weighted far heavier than she cares to admit and she carries them with her everywhere. In the pocket of her favorite cloak, tightly wrapped around her not just for warmth, but security too; on her broomstick whenever she needs to escape from the static background noise; or to one of her best mate’s houses where she is sure to find relief at the bottom of a shared bottle of fire-whiskey.

Katie shies away from intimacy’s pervasive touch. She does not give her trust away so freely like she once did as a carefree girl. Every instinct to share a piece of herself and love others is met with restraint. These are a few of the repercussions she faces because of the damage inflicted on her. She has been to a dark place; tethered between the realms of life and death while being neither here nor there. She clawed her way back to stable ground, though there are times she questions its permanence. In fact, if anything the war has taught her everything is fleeting. Now she leaves claw marks on everything, but can’t seem to hold onto any of it.

Practically everyone she knows has been touched in some way by the war; some of their scars running far deeper than her own. She lost friends and a part of herself, but many had it off far worse. Katie tries not to linger on her own pain and psychological trauma for that reason. At the end of the day, she survived; the heart beating in her chest confirms she is alive despite sometimes feeling anything but.

Since the war came to pass five years ago ( though at times it feels like a separate lifetime ago ), Katie has channeled her experiences and emotions into molding a successful career as an Unspeakable where she works in the Death Chamber. Since her brush with death at seventeen, Katie found herself unusually fascinated with the subject matter. She spent six months hospitalized in St. Mungo’s, a majority of which she was at what felt like death’s door. She swore she did die, but that was a difficult pill for her to swallow—let alone anyone else, so she kept that secret sealed tightly under lock and key. Katie figured that was the better alternative than being labeled crazy.

It took a long time for her to cope with what occurred, and even longer to bring up the occurrence with those closest to her. Being cursed certainly had its affects; it changed who she was and what made her tick. When she returned to Hogwarts and participated in the final quidditch match of her school-career against Ravenclaw, the game did not give her the same adrenaline filled rush it once had. She unknowingly battled depression and PTSD that year struggling to hold onto all the things she loved. They no longer provided her with sustenance, but she confused these arbitrary feelings with lackluster consequences from a progressive war with what felt like no end insight.

PERSONALITY

As a girl, Katie was known for being carefree and reckless. She was an untamed spirit who had not yet learned about the world’s cruelness. She had no reason then to be the emotionally guarded woman she would become. The final years of the war forced her to grow up much sooner than she ever planned for herself. Her overly-competitive demeanor was combated by a sudden instability. Trust no longer comes as easily for her as it once did. When she was imperiused during her last year of school and subsequently cursed by the Opal Necklace, she felt like she lost a part of herself. She no longer enjoyed many of the same hobbies she once did. She questioned everything, from the motives of her friends to the intricacies of life. She was no longer left in control, but instead reeling with trust issues in the present day—the most concerning being the lack of trust she feels in herself. It is an unspoken feeling, but it looms above her like a dark cloud.

Since being cursed, Katie has been keenly inept at desensitizing and disassociating from reality whenever it doesn’t fit perfectly in the box she has crafted for it. The war left her jaded and its scars provided an unwanted resilience she transformed into armor. She has survived many battles, but even the ones she lost were never for naught. They each made her stronger—just a mere fraction of the woman she will become, but still knowingly has many lessons to learn before fully evolving. However, Katie is plagued with self-doubt. Perhaps that is what holds her back from achieving her full potential.

Katie is now far more reserved than she once was. Her desire for love and ability to share it with others has diminished since she was a child, muted by a perverted sense of drive. She has a bad habit of shutting not only the world out, but those closest to her too. It can be a lonely road at times, so she throws herself into her work with hopeless abandon. She is driven and sees every project through to the very end. Ironically though, her never-ending need to answer life’s most challenging questions is exactly what holds her back from living life to the fullest. She has a one track mind and can become so preoccupied, or short-sighted, she forgets to hold onto what is really important.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY

Katie grew up in a happy family with very relaxed core values. Her parents always demonstrated love to her and her brother, Christian, even when they weren’t the most deserving or receptive. Olivia and Rhys Bell loved each other fiercely; that was one consistent factor in Katie’s life. As the youngest Bell in the family of four, she was spoiled and fussed over more than she cares too admit. She recalls all the arguments and tiffs her and Christian got into over the years—a trait that seemed to follow the pair into adulthood. Their parents on the other hand hardly ever fought. Katie believed there must be occasions they clashed with one another, but it was evident they were far more emotionally reserved than their children. They made a point not to fight in front of them, which always raised the question of where their children’s argumentative tendencies came from.

It was important for Olivia and Rhys to make their children feel empowered starting at a young age. They wanted to instill in them a strong sense of confidence that would allow them to break through any obstacles in their way or complete whatever task they set out on. As survivors of the first wizarding wixen war, and Olivia being a muggle-born, it was imperative to them their children didn’t embody the same fear or embrace any limitations as they once did. This nurturing mindset is exactly how Katie got into flying. Her father gifted a toy broomstick to her one Christmas when she was no more than six years old. She can recall the sheer horror on her mother’s face that morning; it was evident she was not in on the surprise, otherwise there probably would have been no broom at all that year. Christian had received one a few years prior and Olivia’s excitement over the matter quickly disintegrated when he lost control and spiraled into their garden trellis. Christian didn’t fly again until his first year lessons, however his sister’s abilities came far more natural than his own.

Once Olivia realized her daughter was more agile than her first born, she quickly warmed up to the idea. After she mastered and eventually outgrew the dainty toy broomstick, it was her mom who splurged for her first trainer’s broom. Katie excitedly whipped the new broom around their property, memorizing every trace of it from the new safe haven she had discovered. Flying became an escape for her. Quidditch always brought much excitement, but flying was what truly made her feel at peace with herself. Over the years she fully mastered the skill ( while running through her fair share of broomsticks ), and Katie knew she had her parents to thank for supporting her in spite of themselves and pushing her forward every time she wanted to quit. Though her quidditch career eventually faded away, her love for flying never wavered as her unconditional love for her parents and brother never has.

Present day, Katie and her family still share a special bond. Her parents continue to support all her endeavors even if they don’t necessarily agree or understand them. At times Katie is aware there is a disconnect between them, but it is something she can’t seem to avoid. Olivia and Rhys witnessed their daughter go from a bubbly and charismatic girl to someone almost unrecognizable at times, but since the war is still so fresh for everyone it has become easier to turn the other cheek.

HISTORY

Katie always considered her life very ordinary. Her parents worked hard to ensure her and her brother had a good life. They were a close-knit family and, though they got on her nerves on occasion, there was nothing she wouldn’t do for them. Katie recalls her childhood fondly. Olivia read books to both her children frequently, however Katie found herself to be easily distracted. Her head would wander to the sky where she would pluck shapes out of the clouds. Christian was the calm and retentive child—it was much easier for their parents to hold his attention. Katie on the other hand was a bumbling ball of energy since she was of crawling age. She would color the walls or demolish Christian’s toys if left unattended. It was much easier to hold her attention whenever baking was involved. Katie had a knack for sweets, though the thought of giving her more sugar didn’t always appeal. Still, she somehow persuaded her mum into baking cookies with her often. These were some of the best days of her childhood.

As soon as Katie was gifted her first toy broomstick, a spark ignited. Flying undoubtedly was her first love. Whenever her and Christian had a sibling squabble or he was getting on her nerves, she would run to her broomstick immediately and take flight; and when it was his time to leave for Hogwarts and she was left behind for three more years, flying became her therapy and release. It remedied the loneliness.

When it was finally time for Katie to head off to Hogwarts, her natural charisma and energetic personality really shined through in all she did. She made friends quickly and they became a forefront in her life. She fed off the energy of those around her and subsequently became a member of numerous school clubs. Joining the Gryffindor quidditch team her second year was the highlight of her entire school-career. She considered those initial years to be the best of all; her original teammates quickly became a second family to her. It was a feeling that still echoed long after their glory days on the quidditch pitch.

When Lord Voldemort returned, Katie found herself at a loss for words. She considered Harry Potter a friend and teammate. No one in her inner circle doubted him nor did she, however she did have a difficult time comprehending just what that meant. Cedric Diggory was also a friend; like many, seeing his body in the aftermath of the Tri-Wizard Tournament was Katie’s first brush with death. It was evident to the then fifteen year old that only something vile and cruel could take the life of someone like Cedric—someone with so much potential. She jumped at the opportunity to join Dumbledore’s Army for that reason. She believed in the cause and, reflecting on the pain the first war put her own parents through, Katie had to believe there was a reason she wound up here when she did.

Katie genuinely did not believe anything could be more difficult than that period of time, but her seventh year was one of the most challenging of all. Katie was not sure when the trip to Hogsmeade went awry on that beautiful fall day. There was excitement in the air despite the frigid temperature that brought the first snowfall of the season. That is one of the only memory’s Katie holds onto from that day. She later woke up in St. Mungo’s where she was told she had been for six months recovering from a fatal curse.

With a hoarse voice and fear filling her eyes, Katie asked the first healer she saw if she was dead.

The healer laughed as if she made some kind of joke. “ No honey, you’re lucky to be alive. ”

Lucky to be alive.

Except the problem was Katie didn’t feel anything, least of all alive. She spent the last six months in a foreign place, but didn’t feel nearly as lost or confused there as she did now that she was back in the earthly dimension.

The phrase continues to haunt her six years after her near-death experience. Maybe the Healer was right and she should feel lucky, but she doesn’t. Now that the war has come to pass, she is riddled with guilt. She cannot walk away from what happened to her six years ago despite making it out of the war alive. That alone should be enough reason to celebrate, but it is not. There are too many unanswered questions and Katie understands better than most who survived the war that everyone is borrowed time. She cannot unsee the place she spent six months of her life trapped in. She is desperate to understand it and even more desperate to know if the souls of her lost friends now inhabit the same space.

OOC EXPLORATION

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO?

This group captivated my attention immediately upon discovery. The Trio Era is what originally got me into role-playing Harry Potter and the Marauders is what kept me, so this role-play truly is the perfection combination. I have been looking for a group to join for some time now and your group has one of the freshest and most unique concepts I’ve ever seen! Plus, it is obvious the passion and care that has gone into creating this group. I am excited to potentially be a part of the journey and see where the story takes us all together.

EXTRA FOR NON-BIO CHARACTERS

CHARACTER CONTRIBUTION

Katie possesses a lot of versatility with her character. She naturally has an outgoing and charismatic personality, and is quick at adapting to her surroundings. She has always been an integral part of whatever community she is a part of—ranging from her time at Hogwarts on the quidditch team, in the dueling club, or Dumbledore’s Army; to her career beyond the castle’s walls. She has proved herself a loyal friend to many. I think her experience being cursed by the Opal Necklace makes her an imperative character because she has knowledge from that ordeal others might not be equipped with, which she has channeled into a career within the Ministry of Magic as an Unspeakable.

I headcanon that when Katie was cursed by the necklace during her seventh year, she spent a large portion of her time in St. Mungo’s unconscious. During this period she had an out of body experience where she thought she was dead. She tightly holds onto the secret that she visited what may be known to some as limbo, purgatory, or the underworld out of fear of being labelled crazy. She doesn’t dismiss her experience though; she clings to it, and it to effects every aspect of her life.

Katie’s brush with death made her obsessed with the idea of it. Since the war’s conclusion she has tried to dissect the mechanics of life and death, but had no success. Everyday feels the exact same; she is capped out with little to show for her efforts. That is, until the first of the returned makes their appearance through the veil. This ignites a new obsession in Katie all over again.

PRESENT

“ Have you heard? ” A stocky Unspeakable buzzed with excitement as he pushed passed Katie and exited the elevator lift.

“ Heard what? ” The woman quipped in his direction as she rubbed her tired eyes, but by the time she gathered her senses he was already hurrying off down the corridor. Katie shrugged her shoulders back and dismissed the interaction before continuing along in the same direction. Unusual occurrences were the norm in this part of the Ministry so she didn’t think much of it. She was already getting a late start on her day anyway so she decided to quicken her pace as she rounded the corner leading to her dual office/laboratory, where she was forced to stop abruptly when she came across a throng of other Unspeakables littering the hallway. Katie quirked a brow upon the realization everyone was huddled near the Death Chamber.

“ What is going on? ” She asked the same Unspeakable who she spotted standing nearby.

“ You don’t know? ” Emerson gaped, which annoyed Katie slightly. “ They are saying someone has returned through the veil. ”

“ What do you mean ‘returned through the veil?’ I didn’t realize we were trying to send anyone to the other-side— ”

“ No, someone no longer living returned through the veil. They came back from the dead. ”

“ Impossible, ” Katie uttered in protest, but her own near-death experience quickly replayed in her head. She was only seventeen when she swore she too briefly died, so maybe it wasn’t impossible for the dead to return after all.

“ No really, a boy was found wandering the corridors naked this morning. Creevy is what they’re calling him. ”

Katie stood silent for a moment as she processed what she had just been informed. “ Someone came back to life? Through the veil? ” The witch repeated as her dark eyes swirled with sudden intensity. Emerson merely nodded. “ I sure picked a hell of a day to be late. ” She concluded completely gobsmacked.

“ You won’t make that mistake again, ” Emerson chuckled before disappearing off into the crowd to try and sneak a closer look.

And he was right. From that day forward, Katie was never late again. She always put her best foot forward when it came to her career, but the stakes suddenly felt like they had been raised even higher upon the departed’s return. The one thing she now knows for certain is that this might be the only opportunity she has to find answers to the questions that have been tormenting her for the last six years—and she doesn’t plan on letting this moment pass her by like she did unwittingly the last one.

#prioriacceptance #katie bell

[shockdowndefiance]

You've been visited by the random OC question fairy! :D ~☆

Pick five of your character's most influential milestones (moving away from home, a first kiss, a death, etc.). Why and how did these milestones affect your character?

Thank you for the question! Once again I am answering for Allison Shepard as she’s the only MC I really have fleshed out. I sat down to write out her most influential milestones and narrowed it down to the five I felt would be most interesting. In chronological order:

1. Finding out she was a latent biotic and suddenly developing biotic abilities at the age of sixteen 2. Meeting her first boyfriend, Finn

After she was expelled for punching and injuring another student, and moving to a different human colony, she enrolls in a new school and meets Finn on her first day there:

A teen boy slouched casually against the wall opposite the office, moving to stand up when Allison shut the door behind her. His dark hair flopped down into his bright blue eyes as he moved, his hand almost continually going up to move it out of the way.

"Finnegan Osmani. Call me Finn," he said once he was close enough, holding a hand out. Allison took it and gave a brief shake before she pulled back. "You're that new kid, right?"

"I am," Allison said, turning and looking around. "I hear you’re my chaperone."

Finn laughed. "That's one way of putting it. Hey, rumours going around; you are a biotic, right?"

"Sure am," Allison said, turning back to look at Finn with a cool glare. "You gonna make something of it?"

"Nope." Finn grinned. "My lil sis is a biotic, she'll love to meet you."

Allison smiled herself.

Maybe introductions weren't going to be so bad.

Outside of family everyone treated Aliison and her twin brother Elliot like a ticking time bomb. Finn was the first one to fully embrace who she was, biotics and all. This was in part because of his younger sister also being a biotic, so he had some knowledge of what being a biotic meant.

Walking in to that new school, she had put her hair up and left her amp fully visible - she didn’t care what anyone thought of her, whispered about her. Hating her for being a biotic was the same as hating her for having green eyes, and if it meant she rounded out high school as the ostracised creepy biotic whom no one talked to...well, she didn’t care.

And then Finnegan showed her that, no, not everyone was going to act like that. Some people would be accepting of who she was, biotics and all.

Again, this has gotten really long so the rest is under a cut!

3. Enlisting in the Alliance 4. Getting dumped by Finn 5. Defending Elysium from pirates and slavers 6. Being awarded the Star of Terra for her actions on Elysium

Allison didn’t do anything special on Elysium.She didn’t do anything more than any other marine would have done (and in fact some of them willingly laid down their lives so that others could be saved). Being hailed as the Hero of Elysium is an aggravating and unnecessary epithet, and doubly so when her status as a biotic soldier is emphasised.

(This does create positive associations with biotics so it’s at least something but, again, she’s an average biotic. Nothing special. Stop advertising it on recruitment posters so much.)

She receives the Star of Terra (among others: namely her officer commission, invitation to ICT school, and a special commendation) for her actions, but despite all the pomp and circumstance, unless she needs to wear it it stays hidden away in its box in storage.

It doesn’t help that she’s the daughter of Hannah Shepard, well-regarded veteran of the First Contact War. People expected a lot from Allison, and barely four years since enrolling in the Alliance, they had humanity’s newest hero on their hands. She brushes off most applauds about her status; they take it as her being modest, she intends it as a stop bothering me about it but she can’t not keep it.

(This does later cause a bit of friction between Allison and Ashley later, but that is 8-9 years later in the timeline.)

7. Being invited to participate in the Interplanetary Combatives Training course 8. The untimely death of her paternal grandfather In the late 22nd century, the average life expectancy for humans is around 120, with some individuals reaching 150 years old.

As such, Allison’s paternal grandfather dying in his early nineties was a shock to all. It occurs in the middle of Allison’s ICT learning, and as a result it delays her graduation by a year. Completing ICT can be done in a year, but Allison spread it out a little because she wanted to pace herself - being one of the first biotics invited into the program, she didn’t want to crash and burn (despite there being no shame in being able to complete the first rank, she personally would have hated having done so).

Her grandfather’s death causes her to step back and reevaluate things a little. She idolised her grandfather so much (I have an idea for an art piece when Allison was about eight years old, on the back porch of her grandfather’s house; Allison is pulling a face because she and her grandfather are eating liquorice; she despises it but her grandfather adores it, and because he adores it she reckons that she must also adore it) and losing him punches a hole in her career plans.

She stays in the Alliance (not much else for a biotic to do, and her family going back many generations has been military, so she doesn’t quite know what else to do) but she misses him for a long time. 9. Completing her Interplanetary Combatives Training course and being awarded N7 rank 10. Accidentally interfacing with the prothean beacon on Eden Prime and getting the first glimpse of the impending Reaper invasion 11. Becoming a Spectre, part of the Citadel's specops group 12. Rescuing both Kaidan and Ashley from the near-doom mission on Virmire 13. Allowing herself to fall in love with Kaidan This harkens back to Finn and him seeing her as a whole. For Allison, being in the Alliance and having a relationship doesn’t mesh - initially she’s working on her career, aiming to get her officer’s commission, then Elysium happens and people are more interested in her as Commander Shepard, Hero of Elysium than they are of Allison.

Kaidan’s different. Heck, all of the Normandy crew are different (barring those who knew her prior like Anderson and Adams) - while they respect her as their XO/CO, they don’t idolise her like other people she’s met. She can pull off heroic feats and achieve the near-impossible, but a large part of that is down to her crew and how they are all able to work together.

But Kaidan sees beyond rank, sees beyond medals, sees beyond her service history, and does indeed see Allison, the person. Admittedly at the point in time this occurs, Allison hasn’t seen how bad things can get, and she doesn’t know how much of a rock Kaidan will be to her, but to realise that he loves her, the entirety of her, and not the hero plastered across the recruitment vids, or the thin line between reverence and rejection biotics often get.

But they’re military, she’s his CO and he’s her HOMD. She’s gotten a lot of leniency running as a Spectre ship but she still answers to the Alliance. Fraternization is not allowed, and so they push their feelings to the back once the Citadel is saved and Saren and Sovereign are killed. Kaidan requests to be given a new posting, a space halfway across the galaxy, given a few months and then start an official, public relationship, and allow Allison a shot at a normal romantic relationship. 14. Dying and being ressurected 15. Finding out that the Collectors are protheans, enslaved and mutated by the Reapers 16. Leading a team through the Omega 4 relay, a place where no one had returned from, to destroy the collector base and returning victorious 17. Blowing up a mass relay in batarian space, killing over 300k batarians and being put under house arrest 18. Almost losing Kaidan after an ambush on Mars 19. Uniting the galaxy against the Reapers and delivering the killing blow, ending their message for ever 20. Waking up to a post-Reaper galaxy with both physical and mental injuries, and learning how to manage with those

Allison wakes up in a hospital bed for the second time in her life after a major battle and she almost cries. Let me rest, she thinks, fearing that Cerberus has gotten to her again and they’ve rebuilt her again to go rogue and save the galaxy again. Hasn’t she earned her rest?

Well, yes. She has.

She’s in a hospital in London, her mother at her bedside as medics struggle to sedate her, worried that Allison will injure herself more without it. Miranda, the one who rebuilt her after the Collector attack, is leading the team. Allison is officially awoken from the induced coma/sedation about a month later and told what happened.

She lost her lower left leg, replaced with a prosthesis in the short term and a tissue cloned leg in the long term. One arm was dislocated, the other broken; a scar now bisects her face from forehead to nose, before curving around her cheekbone to her ear.

The Normandy has disappeared, no one knows where her or her crew are, including Kaidan - whom she had married just hours before the final assault against the Reapers.

Allison gets a multitude of diagnoses - acute stress disorder, anxiety, depression, panic attacks. Physically she recovers without issue, though she considers the clone tissue leg a waste (I can manage just fine on a prosthesis thank you) when there are others around who could benefit from the resources used on her.

But she’s got one more epithet to add to her collection - saviour of the galaxy, and a one-of-a-kind medal to accompany that. Her immediate family survived - her parents, her twin brother, her younger sister. And somehow Kaidan and nearly everyone on the Normandy survives too, reunited about three months after Allison officially wakes up.

But she struggles with her mental health, lashing out at Kaidan for his idea to take her to inner British Columbia, to his family’s orchard. Logically she knows it’s the best idea - remote and peaceful - but her brain rebels, another choice made for her, another change to her life that she has no control over.

But she apologises, rests, and recovers. Takes up Anderson’s apartment on the Citadel when it’s habitable once again and considers, maybe, retiring from the Alliance and pursuing a normal life.

Maybe.

(It doesn’t stay that way for long.) 21. Choosing to get pregnant and raising children with Kaidan

#oc memes #questions and answers #allison shepard #mass effect #random oc questions fairy #thank you #if anyone wants to know some of the other events feel free to ask me #I talk a lot #random-oc-questions-fairy

[vex-bittys]

Snake Charmer: An Underfell Story (Finale)

The lamia skeleton, Edge, may be the King now, but he still owes Grillby a favor. Edge only has one thing that Grillby is interested in: his mate, Red. Red is torn between his ex-lover and his current mate. How can this complicated love triangle be settled? 

Contains: NSFW (18+ only), language, explicit sexual content, fontcest/fellcest (mention), Sansby sex, voyeurism (slight), cuckolding (slight), major character death

READ ON AO3

Sometimes violence proves necessary to ensure peace. After the bloody coup against King Asgore, the Underground changed for the better. Monsters no longer killed for fear of being killed if they didn’t have a high enough LV. The toll of despair no longer drove monsters to fall down. The reign of the new skeleton lamia king ushered in an era of a previously unheard of concept- hope.

At first, powerful boss monsters went into hiding, fearing that they may become the next targets of a ruthless and bloodthirsty monarch. Contrary to the previous regime, Edge felt no need to dust monsters who already acknowledged his superiority, and this philosophy spread through the Underground. Boss monsters staked out territory, and weaker monsters swore fealty to them in exchange for protection. Displays of power settled disputes now rather than outright murder.

Clever monsters with low battle stats offered their services to the Royal Scientist, Alphys, and soon the creepy lizard monster had her lackeys repairing the infrastructure of the entire kingdom. The pittance of EXP that weak monsters provided paled in comparison to the value of labor, so Edge sat upon his throne, unchallenged, watching his domain prosper and his children grow strong before his watchful eyelights.

Edge kept himself busy by breeding his rarely-clothed queen, the skeleton monster named Red, as often as possible while his children were distracted by other pursuits, taking the submissive skeleton whenever and wherever he pleased, including on the floor of the throne room during a particularly uninteresting audience. Red had produced no additional offspring, but Edge didn’t mind in the slightest. He’d grown quite fond of his mate and enjoyed watching him squirm and scream in pleasure when Edge fucked him. The mantle of King truly suited the lamia well.

Though his kingdom flourished under his competent rule, one thing still weighed heavily upon Edge’s mind: his unpaid debt to Grillby. Without the fire elemental’s grudging actions, Edge would have dusted, and the throne left unclaimed, sparking further war and bloodshed in the Underground. The enormous skeleton lamia knew that Red had manipulated Grillby’s feelings for him to coerce the fire elemental into helping him, but regardless of the reason for the assistance, it had been given. Edge waited impatiently for Grillby to collect his favor, but the fire elemental took his sweet time, leaving his new king in frustrating suspense as each hour, day, and week ticked by with no communication.

Grillby took advantage of the changing hierarchy in the Underground to further establish his dominance of Snowdin, where he lived and conducted his business. No monster in the region could match his power, and few monsters in the entire Underground even had the privilege of seeing that power for themselves and surviving. The fact that a fire elemental chose to live in a land of perpetual winter stood as a testament either to Grillby’s tremendous fortitude or his complete insanity; nobody dared to speculate which.

The purple-flamed monster ignored the uncollected debt that the new king owed him. He swept the street in front of his shop, indifferent to the flakes of snow sizzling in his flames. He knew that a powerful boss monster like Edge would hate to have such an open-ended obligation hanging over him, but Grillby opted to let him stew in it. The skeleton lamia only possessed one thing that Grillby wanted, and the fire elemental doubted that Edge would be willing to give up his mate, life debt or no life debt.

Would Red even want to be with him? Grillby recalled his suffering during the time that Red had been missing. He remembered the yawning maw of despair in his mind at the thought that the stocky skeleton could be dust, settled somewhere that Grillby would never find him. He had mentally kicked himself so many times for not confessing to Red how he really felt, for not admitting to emotions that monsters couldn’t afford to acknowledge in a kill or be killed world. Back then, he suspected that Red also harbored the type of love for him that had nothing to do with violence and everything to do with desire for companionship. Now, doubt gripped him, preventing him from even visiting the Capitol since Edge took the throne.

The unanswered question gnawed at Grillby incessantly, stealing away the potential comfort of a peaceful Underground. Time passed, and idle wondering turned into obsessive brooding. Grillby examined the possibilities from every angle, played out every scenario in his head. He had to find out. He needed that closure. Grillby decided that he would make use of his royal favor after all, and once that decision was made, there was no longer any reason to wait.

Grillby visited the palace for an audience with the King.

Edge never deigned to sit properly upon the gilded throne in his Throne Room. He preferred to coil around it as if it were prey that he intended to strangle the life out of and crouch over the spires of the back like a hulking gargoyle. His mate, Red, usually perched on one of the velvet padded arms of the great chair or lounged nonchalantly at the base, leaning against the giant lamia’s thick tail.

The royal children- twelve young lamias and a skeleton babybones- wrestled playfully on the smooth marble floor of the Throne Room under the diligent eyelights of their doting parents. When a fire elemental arrived to conduct business, escorted by the Captain of the Royal Guard herself, the little ones made themselves scarce, scattering into the hidden depths of the palace just as their father taught them. This was Edge’s insurance policy in case a second revolt aimed to unseat him from sovereignty.  No matter what happened, his children would survive.

The slim gold chain connecting Red’s spiked collar to his master and lover jingled as Red jolted upright in surprise. Other denizens of Snowdin, some of them old pals of Red’s from what seemed like a lifetime ago, came by regularly for Royal Guard reports or simply to pay homage to their new king, Grillby had avoided them since the day Red’s children were born, and the rejection stung. Grillby barely glanced at Red who lowered himself back into his position at the foot of the throne, scowling at his former friend and ex lover.

“SSSPEAK!” hissed Edge, eyelights narrowed and body tense. The purple-flamed bartender wanted to discuss business, but Edge wasn’t eager to hear his request. His code of honor forbade him from simply killing Grillby to make his own life easier which meant that he would hear the fire elemental’s demands, however ludicrous they might be, and they proved to be quite ludicrous indeed.

“I’ve come to collect,” replied Grillby, as cool as a monster composed entirely of fire could be. His almost indistinguishable eyes, hidden behind the sunglasses that he wore despite the lack of any sun in the Underground, fell on Red, namely on Red’s collar.

“AND?” Edge’s impatience seeped into the solitary syllable, conveying the nature of the very dangerous ground upon which Grillby tread.

“I want Red.” Grillby pointed unnecessarily to the short skeleton. He stepped out of the way a millisecond before Edge’s heavy tail struck the floor where he’d been standing, shattering the marble and sending splinters of it flying in every direction.

“HOW DARE YOU!” roared Edge, rearing back to strike Grillby. The fire elemental summoned flames into his hands, squaring off with the enraged lamia. Red leapt between them to prevent a fight that could only end in the death of one or both combatants. “CONSSSIDER YOUR CONTINUED EXISSSTENCE REPAYMENT OF MY DEBT,” spat the seething lamia.

“It’s not your debt I’m collecting on, Your Majesty,” sneered Grillby, injecting as much contempt into the title as Edge had injected his venom into the former king. “It’s his.” Once again the fire elemental’s finger jabbed in Red’s direction. “He left Snowdin behind along with a mountain of unpaid bills to my establishment.”

Ever since he met the skeleton lamia, Red had trusted Edge to make the important decisions. Aside from their initial confrontation, Edge always kept Red’s best interests in the forefront of his actions. This situation, however, required Red to speak for himself. His long list of IOUs had once been a running joke at Grillby’s bar, a joke that both Red and Grillby participated in, but somehow that camaraderie had turned to bitterness, with jealousy the driving force behind it.

“ya really think treating me like some commodity ta be traded is gonna fix things between us? i thought ya knew me better than that, Grillbs.” Red’s words were sincere, but they hit Grillby like a slap in what passed for his face. At least the fire monster had the decency to shuffle uncomfortably at the admonishment.

“NOW GET OUT,” added Edge, who harbored no soft spot for Grillby, no patience for diplomacy or logic, and no intention of relinquishing his mate.

“Afraid of a little competition?” Grillby suggested, voice full of malicious antagonism. The air in the Throne Room vibrated with Edge’s mounting rage, and Red feared that he wouldn’t be able to keep the two monsters from fighting for much longer. “How about a compromise?”

If Grillby were any other type of monster, the intensity of the skeleton lamia’s glowing crimson glare would’ve scorched him to ashes. Grilly’s devil-may-care demeanor faltered slightly, and he hurried to deliver his offer before Edge wrote Red off as collateral damage and charged him. He didn’t doubt his skills in combat, but injury to Red was an unacceptable risk. Red may have trusted Edge with his single HP; Grillby did not.

Grilly addressed Red directly for the first time. “Let me have just one night with you, Red. Let me prove myself to you, and if you still prefer him-” He jerked a thumb at Edge. “-then I won’t bother either of you again.”

Edge snarled, showing his venom-dripping fangs. “WHAT MAKESSS YOU THINK-”

“i accept,” Red interrupted, making Edge blink comically in surprise. He had never considered that Red might want to sleep with Grillby, and a seed of doubt embedded itself in his SOUL. Red wore his collar for now, but what if he planned to leave, to choose another monster as his mate? Edge could kill Grillby. He could force Red to stay with him, force Red to submit to him, but he couldn’t force Red to want him.

Grillby smirked, but Edge silenced him with a growling hiss before turning to his mate. “I’M NOT LEAVING YOU ALONE WITH HIM,” Edge stated firmly, and Red nodded.

“ya wanna watch? kinky…” Red chuckled, not blind to the gravity of the situation, but choosing to make light of it anyway. Some coping mechanisms never changed. At least Red’s concession placated Grillby, whose victorious smirk could only be read by those who knew him well enough to recognize his expressions.

“Shall we go back to my place and-”

“YOU’LL TAKE HIM HERE AND NOW OR NOT AT ALL,” Edge cut in. He would not permit Grillby to leave the palace with Red unsupervised and outside of his immediate control. Red nodded in agreement. If it would set his mate’s mind at ease, he could perform just fine in the Throne Room with the massive lamia watching. Red hardly considered comfort or privacy a necessity for sex.

Grillby snorted but didn’t argue. Let the skeleton lamia watch; maybe the asshole would learn something about pleasuring Red properly instead of treating him like a disposable fucktoy. The lesson would start with removing the ridiculous collar that marked Red as claimed property. Grillby reached for the slim leather band circling Red’s neck, mindful of the spikes meant to discourage removal. Red brushed his hand away.

“i’ll take off the leash, but the collar stays,” he said flatly, not allowing any room for negotiation. Red unclipped the leash and let the delicate gold chain drop to the floor. He wore no clothing to remove, so he stood before Grillby, naked and willing, a dream come true for the fire elemental… almost. The collar still irked him, but Grillby took what he could get. If he played his proverbial cards right and Red chose him, he’d be setting that leather and gold atrocity aflame soon enough.

Grillby’s purple flames crackled in a mixture of anticipation and poorly concealed ire at the ludicrous rules. Slowly, he unbuttoned his shirt and let it fall onto the polished marble next to Red’s leash, partially covering the symbol of Edge’s ownership with a rippling pool of expensive silk. Next he removed his belt, taking his time with his pants, unfastening them at long last to reveal a thick cock covered in vibrant, undulating flames. Red flushed unexpectedly as the purple light from Grillby’s glowing shaft played across his ivory bones.

Toeing off his shoes to complete undressing, Grillby cast aside his pants and did a quick twirl, more for Edge’s benefit than Red’s. The stocky skeleton had seen the fire elemental naked before, the one and only time they’d had sex. That very same night, Red had slipped away under the cover of darkness, not sure which he feared more- learning that the impassioned sex was simply a casual hook-up for stress relief or allowing true emotions and genuine affection to bloom in the violence and deprivation of the Underground with no sunlight to nourish it.

The fire elemental reclined his well-proportioned body on the dias, not quite daring to take up temporary residence on the throne with the giant lamia coiled around it. Grillby doubted that Edge would uphold his end of the agreement if he fucked Red right on top of him.

“Come,” Grillby invited Red, patting the gleaming marble next to him.

“pfft, i got more stamina than that!” joked Red, but he seated himself next to Grillby, close enough to invite contact without instigating it. The flames of Grillby’s body warmed the frigid stones pleasantly causing the reflective surface to glimmer. If not for Red’s flippant attitude and the threat of two blazing eyelights hanging overhead, the setting might have been romantic.

Grillby didn’t waste any more time with words. His hand snaked out, a single finger trailing down Red’s sternum, featherlight and fever hot. Red magic, the same color as the maraschino cherries that Grillby used for cocktails in his bar, swirled in his pelvis, waiting for Red to manifest it into flesh with a hesitancy that had become unfamiliar to Red since he became Edge’s mate. When the lamia approached him with lustful intentions, Red’s magic snapped into the form of a pussy instinctively, responding to Edge’s undeniable dominance. With Grillby, Red had to focus on what he wanted.

Red’s magic coalesced in his pelvic inlet, developing into luscious pussy lips that swept back and up into the curves of a full, round ass. Grillby admired the new additions to Red’s pelvis. Without his impeccable control, he would’ve tackled Red to the floor and fucked him senseless immediately, but Grillby needed to prove to Red that he was the better lover, the better monster, the better mate. A fast and messy romp on the unyielding floor wasn’t going to suffice.

The hand on Red’s sternum meandered off track to caress the underside of his ribs, drawing him closer. Grillby leaned in for a kiss, and Red tipped his head back to accept it. Grillby let his fiery mouth skim Red’s jawline instead of going straight for a kiss, and he was rewarded with a soft little gasp of surprise. With a mate like Edge, Red had surely forgotten what foreplay felt like, and Grillby intended to remind him, one brush of the lips or slip of the tongue or stroke of the hand at a time. He lived for the moment when Edge had to watch Red come fully undone at his hands.

The fire elemental’s mouth found the leather of Red’s collar next, and he belligerently left a small scorch mark on it as he nuzzled it upwards to tease at Red’s neck with his tongue. Red’s lids eclipsed his sockets. The prolonged wait for the kiss made his magic buzz and tingle, and Grillby’s gentle attention lulled him into a blissful haze of desire. Grillby’s hands weren’t idle either; they toured each foramen and process along his spine like eager sightseers, unwilling to bypass a single dip or divet in Red’s bones without thorough exploration and leaving a trail of heat and arousal in their wake.

Red sank into Grillby’s embrace, loving the way the warmth saturated his bones. Finally, the ghost of the fire elemental’s breath haunted Red’s upturned mouth. The skeleton parted his jaws, and Grillby accepted the invitation, delivering a long lingering kiss in which he sought to communicate the depth of his feelings for Red first through the rough movement of his mouth against Red’s, then with the intricate swirling of his tongue against Red’s, and finally with his hands sliding down to the skeleton’s hips to position his body so that he laid back on the dais.

Breaking the kiss with reluctance, Grillby straddled Red’s body, staring down at him with a surprisingly honest expression that Red couldn’t quite place. Humming so softly that the skeleton struggled to separate the vibrations of the sound from the fire elemental’s breathing, Grillby placed kisses, one after another, across Red’s clavicles, then down his sternum, a parody of a religious gesture that meant nothing to the denizens of the Underground but symbolized a sort of worship between the two monsters on the dias nonetheless.

Grillby dipped his head lower, stroking the supple ecto-flesh forming Red’s pubis with his hands while he tenderly nuzzled the skeleton’s inner thighs. The heat pouring from Red’s pussy matched the heat of Grillby’s flames as the fire elemental slowly spread his glistening folds to expose his swollen clit and fluttering entrance. When the fiery tongue found its way past his plump pussy lips and into his tight hole, Red tilted back his head and let out a satisfied sigh.

The bartender from Snowdin never failed to ignite Red’s magic with his touch, and his very bones burned with a desperate need. At the risk of viewing the experience through the scope of a barrage of fire-related puns, Red held an undeniable torch for the fire monster, yet somehow the sexual encounter with Grillby failed to fan the dying ember into a flame, leaving Red missing something despite the pleasure of Grillby’s tongue curling inside of him.

Sensing the fading intensity of his lover’s reactions, Grillby switched from tongue-fucking the skeleton to fingering him slowly. His mouth migrated to Red’s clit, settling over it and beginning to gently suck on it. Red’s back arched and his hips tilted upwards against Grillby’s hand. Grillby’s fingers were long and nimble, and they found all of the sensitive places inside of Red’s pussy that his tongue had toyed with, only this time with the added sensation of the clit stimulation.

Pleasure overwhelmed Red, and his phalanges scrabbled for purchase on the smooth marble beneath him. Pressure built low in his abdomen; he ached for release as he hovered at the precipice of orgasm. Grillby changed his strategy again, letting Red tremble with the tension of being so close. The fire elemental used one thumb to continue to play with Red’s clit while his tongue joined his fingers inside of the skeleton’s deliciously wet pussy. No meal he served in his establishment compared to the taste of drawing an orgasm out of Red with his fingers and tongue.

Flavor exploded in Grillby’s mouth when Red came, and he lapped it up eagerly. The skeleton’s pussy clenched around his fingers and tongue, and the thought of that same tightness squeezing his cock once again tempted Grillby to rush things. He resisted once again as well. If this was truly his last chance to be with Red, he planned to savor every second starting with licking Red clean of his arousal. Once his saliva slickened Red’s folds instead of the skeleton’s own fluids, Grillby stuck his fingers into his mouth, sucking the same tangy stains from his flaming digits, not letting a drop go to waste.

Red’s eyelights pleaded for more, and Grillby would not deny the object of his affection for a moment longer. Breathing harshly, the fire elemental lined himself up with the skeleton’s trembling pussy, rubbing himself up and down the glistening slit to get lubricated. Red moaned, low and loud, coaxing fat drops of pre-cum from Grillby’s cock with only that single sound. No more waiting. With a groan, Grillby sank into the welcoming embrace of Red’s pussy.

Grillby moved slowly, deliberately, letting every inch of his cock stretch Red’s hole as it filled him. Red cried out at the maddeningly languid pace set by the fire elemental. The drag of Grillby’s thick shaft, the way it caught on his entrance as it slid inside of him, so gradual, so controlled, drove him insane with lust.

Red wanted to be utterly destroyed. Red wanted it hard and rough, not soft and careful. Red wanted his face shoved into the floor while his pussy was railed until his throat became raw from his empassioned screams. Instead, Grillby made tender love to him, the steady, unhurried rhythm of his hips at odds with the fervor that consumed his SOUL.

Moans mingled between sharpened teeth and fiery lips only to be swallowed into silence when Grillby and Red’s mouths met. During the confusion of tongues and hot breath, the fire elemental’s hands found his lover’s, and their fingers, purple fire and pale bone, intertwined. Grillby’s powerful thrusts gained speed, rocking Red’s smaller body beneath him.

The fire elemental’s hips stuttered to a halt, slamming into the willing body of his lover with fierce finality as orgasm swept over both of them. Red’s body stiffened, and stars exploded behind his sockets. He gave in to the soothing waves of euphoria, closing his sockets and letting his greedy cunt tighten around Grillby’s cock again and again, milking the searing cum from his flaming lover.

As Grillby’s hot magic pumped into his pussy and the first blinding rush of orgasm faded, Red came to a stark realization. He didn’t love Grillby, and he never had. His relationship with Grillby had never extended past friendship and one desperate hookup to chase away some of the loneliness of his life in Snowdin. Sleeping with Grillby now and subjecting him to a glimmer of hope that would never truly materialize was unfair. He owed Grillby honesty at least, especially considering that he had little else to offer. There is no consolation prize for unrequited love.

How do you tell someone who is willing to give up everything for you that you don’t harbor the same feelings? How could Red explain that Grillby’s saccharine affection was just another rut to fall into, just more motions to go through while the oppressive nature of their lives continued to crush them while they waited for a merciful blow to speed the act of falling down? Grillby’s love followed the same desolate path that Red sought to escape, a path that eventually led to dark, endless emptiness no matter how hard he fought. Falling from a greater height causes a more painful landing.

Red decided to be straightforward. Explanations wouldn’t soften the blow.

“I can give you everything you ever dreamed of,” Grillby murmured against the side of Red’s skull, oblivious to his thoughts.

Grillby had no idea what Red dreamed of. If Red chose Grillby, they would live two miserable lives, together but somehow also separate, and always aware of the gap that existed with no possible way to bridge it.

“I choose Edge.”

The words sounded strange coming from Red while another monster’s cum dribbled from his still-throbbing pussy, but they also rang true. Edge’s savage vitality breathed life into Red like nothing else in the entire Underground. The huge lamia’s protective and possessive nature left Red feeling both valuable and secure, like he belonged in this world, like he mattered to it... and when they fucked? Edge’s hunger for Red was palpable, visceral, inexorable, and insatiable.

The lamia in question’s entire thick body encircled Red, separating him from Grillby and obscuring him from the fire elemental’s vision. Edge flipped Grillby’s clothes to him with the tip of his tail, a clear and callous dismissal.

“YOU HEARD HIM,” hissed Edge impatiently as Grillby quickly and wordlessly dressed himself. “NOW GET OUT OF MY PALACE BEFORE I EXTINGUISSSH YOU WITH MY PISSSSS.” Grillby obeyed without protest, numb to the threat, Red’s words tumbling around in his head and refusing to make sense.

As soon as the door closed behind the forlorn fire monster, Edge retrieved the slim gold chain from the floor and clipped it onto Red’s collar. The lamia then used the newly refastened leash to pull his mate close.

“YOU ARE MINE, AND I WILL NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO TAKE YOU FROM ME,” Edge rumbled, and his words reverberated through Red’s bones and down to his very SOUL.

This was as close to a declaration of love as the lamia would get, but Red had become well-versed in interpreting Edge’s often gruff statements. Red had not missed the brief flash of fear in Edge’s eyelights, despite how quickly Edge’s usual arrogance replaced it. Sometimes even the King needed some reassurance of his place in the world.

Tiny skeleton faces peered around the archway leading into the Throne Room. The presence of the children prevented Edge from reclaiming his mate then and there, but they also served as a reminder of the one final thing that Edge and Red provided for each other- a future to look forward to.

“i love you too,” replied Red, and Edge made no comment about his mate’s translation of his words except for holding him a little tighter.

---------- (The song used here is Almost Lover by a Fine Frenzy) ----------

And when you left, you kissed my lips You told me you would never never forget These images

Grillby stumbled out of the Palace and into the streets of the Capitol, sunglasses-shielded eyes unseeing. Other monsters moved aside to let him pass, assuming him to be drunk or possibly injured. Nobody asked, though Grillby couldn’t have formed the wrenching pain in his SOUL into sensical words anyway. He barely grasped what happened, his mind refusing to accept the reality of losing Red, not to death and dust, but by his choice, to another monster.

Well, I’d never want to see you unhappy I thought you’d want the same for me

The fire elemental hunched his shoulders as the scenery changed from the Capitol to Hotland to Waterfall, unnoticed. He struggled to process the possibilities of the future. Red’s choice to be with Edge wasn’t something he could fight. If he killed Edge, Red would never forgive him. No amount of begging or coercing would change Red’s mind, and honestly, Grillby wanted the skeleton to find happiness, even if it meant letting him go. Unfortunately, letting him go left Grillby with nothing.

Goodbye, my almost lover Goodbye, my hopeless dream

Grillby ignored the blasting snow flurries that announced his arrival in Snowdin. The fluffy snowflakes that rode upon the back of the frigid, blasting winds sizzled in his purple flames, but more than steam rose in their wake. Little grey flakes like ash drifted upwards to mingle with the pristine white snowflakes the same way that the dancing light of Grillby’s flames had mingled with the pale ivory of Red’s bones in the Throne Room.

Goodbye, my luckless romance My back is turned on you Should’ve known you’d bring me heartache Almost lovers always do

Grillby’s feet knew the way back to his bar and restaurant, but the fire elemental himself was lost, unable to move forward mentally and therefore also physically. He stood in the blizzard swirling at the entrance to the town of Snowdin and blinked as if waking from a dream. He had no choice but to accept that Red was gone, forever out of the reach of his aching heart, and nothing else really mattered to him beyond that.

I cannot wake up in the morning Without you on my mind That’s what it came down to. Nothing else mattered to him without Red. But now you’re gone and I’m haunted And I bet you are just fine Did I make it that easy To walk right in and out of my life?

Grillby continued to stand, flaming yet frozen as the wind gathered up his dust and scattered it across Snowdin, indistinguishable from the ever-present ground cover of snow…

Should’ve known you’d bring me heartache Almost lovers always do

… until nothing remained but memories.

PREV | INDEX

#vexy writes #underfell lemon #sansby lemon #underfell sans #uf!sans #underfell papyrus #uf!papyrus #underfell grillby #uf!grillby #fellcest #fontcest #underfell

[subetei-noykin]

Do ALL of the boss prompts.

I’m so sorry in advance. Credit to @clover-hawthorne​ for the inspiration for the majority of this.

What would the setting/arena look like?

The battlefield would initially start off in a closed-in building, tables and chairs scattered off to the sides against the walls to create a deliberately closed in arena. One large set of double doors the party enters from, behind Subetei the only doors to advance into the remainder of the building.

Four large columns support the room from inside, with small amenities. A fireplace, a thick fur carpet on the stone floor, no windows.

At the fight progresses, environmental damage from Subetei’s attacks would begin to open the arena up. Walls cave in, pillars collapse and fall over, chunks of the ceiling create hazards that must be dodged and piles of rubble form that cut off line of sight or escape routes, or must be used to dodge certain attacks.

When phase two begins, the entire room collapses onto both parties and creates a rubble-filled, open sky battlefield for the fight.

What would the music sound like?

Phase One Theme - Battlefield by (Megalobox OST)

Phase Two Theme - Power Worship (Extended) 

What would the mechanic(s) of the fight be?

Phase One (Pre-Trance)

Primary mechanics are initially simple, dealing with Subetei’s rotation of Overpower > Cyclone > Upheaval which are, in order, a cone AoE pull-in, a point blank area of effect knockback and his tank buster. Cyclone applies a ten second duration slow to any hit by it and colliding with terrain inflicts a short duration stun as well. Upheaval is simply a damaging tank buster.

As Subetei rotates through this pattern, the arena is collapsing around the party. Pillars fall in random patterns creating obstacles that must be destroyed before the next Cyclone phase or the entire party risks being thrown into terrain and being stunned, in addition to the ceiling raining down from above creating area of effect nukes that apply stacking vulnerabilities.

At 75% health Subetei binds the tank via Holmgang, creating a target able effect, and then begins charging Onslaught. If the Holmgang isn’t destroyed before Onslaught finished charging, Onslaught is a high-damage party wide damage that’s going to wipe the party. If Holmgang is brought down it’s a line AoE charge that sends Subetei across the room, but can be dodged well enough and knocks back anyone hit, with vulnerability stacks.

Once Onslaught is over, Subetei’s rotation changes. His Overpower now also pulls in chunks of debris as well as players and his cyclone also creates multiple line AoEs that players must avoid. Players hit by Cyclone will have difficulty from the slow, and those who are slammed into terrain and stunned are always put in the same path as the lines, causing double stacks of vulnerability and longer stuns.

Phase Shift

At roughly 50% health or a set duration of the fight Subetei rushes into the center of the arena and begins charging Stormbringer. A gauge representing Subetei’s focus appears, and the room begins to collapse in earnest. Patterned AoEs will begin to fall and any player hit will be encased in Rubble, requiring them to be broken free before they can participate further. Subetei does not directly attack during this phase, but the debris and Rubble make it difficult to stay still and do damage.

If Subetei’s focus is at 100 when Stormbringer finishes charging, the party wipes as Subetei unleashes a Limit Break style Decimate that craters the entire room and buries the party in rubble, ending the fight.

If Subetei’s focus is under 100 when Stormbringer finishes, the room still collapses but the party takes a scaling amount of damage depending on how high the gauge was when he completed Stormbringer.

Subetei is likewise buried under the rubble when the dust clears, revealing the new open air arena and the music changes as Subetei bursts his way out of the rubble.

Phase Two (Post-Trance)

In this Phase Subetei has a permanent gauge marked Trance, which starts at 100% and ticks down rapidly as he takes damage. His mechanics remain mostly the same, but gain additional effects. Overpower always pulls in debris now and also sends out multiple additional aftershocks in wave patterns around the room. Getting hit by these waves causes the slow debuff to apply. Cyclone remains the same, with the line AoE effect afterwards, but now sends up piles of target-able debris that function as the pillars from Phase 1, in random positions.

Upheaval gains the biggest change, requiring both tank and off-tank to stack as it applies an Akh Morn-style repeating effect that lowers in damage as hits are delivered. He almost immediately follows this up by charging Uproar, which will knock up anyone hit by it. If the off-tank isn’t fast enough in getting out of range they will be hit too.

At 35% health the Onslaught phase repeats, except that Subetei also throws out Tomahawk, several line AoEs radiating out from him, that repeat in the opposite direction, usually aimed to hit around the tank. If the tank is not broken free in time the party wipes, as before. If the tank is successfully freed Subetei performs a similar line charge to before, with the added effect of knocking up and stunning anyone in the path instead of slowing them.

Any time Subetei’s trance gauge drops to 0 during this stage he stops attacking, dropping to one knee. He is especially vulnerable during this state, but damage must be dealt quickly as when he recovers Subetei will use Thrill of Battle, regaining a percentage of his HP and gaining a full Trance gauge once more.

At 10% health Subetei uses an immediate Cyclone that affects the entire party, knocking them back to the edges of the arena as he begins charging Stormbringer again, except without a Focus bar this time. It is a DPS race to finish him off before he completes the charge, else the party will wipe from the damage.

What would their Ultimate/Enrage attack be?

While Stormbringer is Subetei’s ultimate during multiple phases of the fight, including the end, his enrage timer would be marked by him gaining the Berserk status and executing Fell Cleave, a room-wide attack that visibly shatters the floor in multiple directions. The party dies.

What would the theme of their weapon drops be?

Honestly much like Subetei himself I like the idea of the weapons being very mixed in theme. Crude and hand-made with tribal or nautical elements. Prefix would be Scarred.

PLD: Scarred Cutlass + Scarred Mantlet (BIG SHIELD)

WAR: Scarred Ship Cleaver

DRK: Scarred Saber

WHM: Scarred Branch

SCH: Scarred Quarto

AST: Scarred Sextant

MNK: Scarred Punching Daggers

LNC: Scarred Trident

ROG: Scarred Dirks

SAM: Scarred Gunto

ARC: Scarred Longbow

MCH: Scarred Bombard

BLM: Scarred Cane

SMN: Scarred Octavo

RDM: Scarred Spardoon

Bonus: Voice Lines

Intro: “Well ah be out o’ m’ depth…But ah job be ah job, aye?”

“C’mon t’en, ‘ero. Let’s see where ye stand.”

Phase One Lines: “Harr! Ye sweatin’ yet?”

“Yer guard be down, salt!”

“Ah’d duck!”

“T’at look like ih ‘urt…”

Onslaught: “Yer lookin’ tired…”

“Sit ah spell, ah’ll ‘andle ter rest!”

Stormbringer: “Gettin’ cramped ihn ‘ere…”

“Time ter bring ihn ah little air!”

Phase Two Lines, pre combat: “Ah’m startin’ ter t’in…Ter job nah be worth ter coin…”

“Ah’ve got ter…make ih back…”

(Voice lines are replaced by grunting and growling sounds)

Onslaught, Phase Two: “Yer ah worthy fight…But ah canna die ‘ere!”

“Ah’ll rend ter lot o’ ye!”

Trance reaches zero: “Wha’? Ah shite…Ah can’t…”

Trance returns to full: “Ah’m nah done yet…!”

Stormbringer Phase 2: “No…Ah won’t stop till ah’m…!”

“Yer goin’ ter ‘ave ter pry m’ life from m’ ‘ands, hero!”

Upon Defeat: “…’yuki…Ah’m so…sorry…”

Focus 100 Stormbringer/Final Stormbringer/Fell Cleave Enrage: “Dodge t’is ye whelp!”

@whitemxge and @shard-kilamarii who also sent in asks on this!

Thanks for the ask! - OC As a Trial Asks

Holy crap this is so self-indulgent but I can’t not love this idea in my head.

Since I answered all the asks I’d received on this subject in one fell swoop, I’ma make a sort of reward for the folks who want to send in more asks on it; All asks I get from this meme from this point forward will be for one of Subetei’s AUs.

You can specify, or leave it up to me. Applicable AUs are; Magitek!Subetei, WoL!Subetei and ???!Subetei.

#ffxiv #subetei noykin #headcanons #game mechanics #answered asks #this was kind of uh #inspiration #I love this idea so much

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasWatches: Violet Evergarden

Ugh, I hate writing about good shows. It’s always so difficult to find something to talk about. With bad or average material, it’s so much easier to point at weak points and say ‘Yes, that wasn’t good. Here’s what I would do.’ Which is my favorite exercise when watching things.

But Violet Evergarden is good. Real good. The only complaint I could imagine lobbying is that Netflix didn’t simuldub it stateside. The villains.

I mean, it’s a show with a blonde protagonist who, out of love, lost limbs and had them replaced by mechanical prosthetics, with the actual story happening in a quasi-european setting approximately after a WWI analogue. Somehow, it’s not Fullmetal Alchemist, nor does it try to be. Freaking Magnus Bride had less superficial similarities, and it still fell into that trap.

It’s laudable.

What Violet Evergarden does do is done amazingly.

Spoilers, by the way. Go watch the show now, it’s that good.

I don’t cry for fiction. This isn’t a macho claim, I honestly view it as a minor failing of mine. I can identify sad and tragic parts of a piece, and I have emotions,[1] but when it comes to fiction, there’s just too big of a separation for me. I can see the strings.

This remains true for Violet Evergarden, but there are some real strong attempts to coax tears. Strong and original.

I like the ‘Girl learning to be Human’ trope.[2] Well, Person learning to be human, but, well, cute girls make everything better.

Point is, there’s a charm to watching someone who, through their personal circumstances, has zero idea how to operate in society, and approaches everything with naivety and a hunger to learn.[4] It’s a good character premise that gives ample comedic potential (Faux Pas, satire, general oddity), dramatic potential (lost time, awkwardness, satire again), and fanservice if you feel the need to provide it. It’s a great tool for side stepping ‘As You Know’ exchanges and still actually teach your audience about your fantastical world![5]

Violent is given this status by, initially, being raised as a tool for war. She doesn’t know her family, her age, nor have a name when she’s gifted to The Major by his brother, and from there begins her journey to learn to be a human.

It’s not until she’s finally removed from the context of war and loses the man she devoted herself to that she can truly begin learning the hardest part: empathy.

And you thought my ‘don’t cry at media’ tangent was unrelated! Ah-ha!

Up until Violet begins her job as an Auto Memory Doll[6] people existed in one of three categories: Enemy (people to kill), Allies (people not to kill), and The Major (Person to take orders from). Sure, The Major gave her a name, and taught her to read and write, but on the battlefield, where most people have to be broken down into a state of “Kill or be Killed”, it’s hard to teach a young girl to be a person.

We begin the story right at the point of transition: Violet has lost both her arms, hasn’t heard from The Major since their last operation, and the war’s pretty much over. And her broach is missing. A lot’s happening suddenly, and she’s being taken off by a retired officer turned postal company president, Claudia Hodgins. It’s a confusing time for those involved.

Here’s a fun trivia fact I had to have explained to me: you may ask yourself ‘Why does Violet bite things? It sure helps make her seem alien, but why did she develop the habit?’ Well, Violet doesn’t have hands anymore, so that leaves her sensitive lips to feel things with![7]

Anyways, per The Major’s wishes, at first Hodgins attempts to leave her with some of The Major’s relatives (The Evergardens), the matriarch of which expresses hope that she and Violent can help comfort the other after losing family to the war.

Violent, of course, misreads the intent and explains she won’t be able to replace to Ms. Evergarden’s son. Violet is also generally uncomfortable with this prospective life of not doing anything or receiving orders, so runs after Hodgins, rejecting the Evergarden home.

She does, apparently, have no qualms taking the surname, which seems like a weak justification for it. She’s closer to The Major, shouldn’t she have adopted that complex noble name instead?

Speaking of which, an anime trope grosser than Student/Teacher relationships: The Usagi Drop![8] It’s a romantic relationship where one of the participants (literally or essentially) raised the other! Ah-ha, what a disgusting abuse of a power structure.

Now, to the anime’s credit, there’s at least ambiguity to Violet and The Major’s exact feelings towards each other. The Major isn’t around to clarify if he views Violet Paternally or Romantically, and Violet’s still working through being emotional stunted. However, it’s ambiguous enough to make both options equally likely.

During the first couple of episodes, the meaning of The Major’s ‘I love you’ being a romantic confession could’ve been kosher, and even expected. But as Violet’s backstory is revealed, and we learn that The Major pretty much raised Violet, romance ceases to be charming and instead shifts into worrying.

This isn’t helped when a parallel is drawn with a diplomatic engagement between a 14-year old princess and a prince at least 10 years her senior.

Surprisingly, when it comes to royal pairings, I find myself a bit more forgiving about more squickier elements. Yes, the massive difference in ages isn’t an ideal depiction, and the princess being underaged by modern standards doesn’t help, and the fact it always seems to be an older man courting the younger woman is troublesome.

However, what the situation does have is extenuating circumstances. It’s not just a precocious crush being exploited; it’s years of bad tradition, diplomatic planning, and the fact that it’s two individuals obviously trying to make the best of a bad situation.

The princess is going to get married off to someone for diplomatic gain, might as well be to someone who’s shown empathy for the princess and the situation.

But for Violet and The Major, I would hope the final call comes down on The Major viewing Violet as an adopted daughter

There’s a second major point of ambiguity surrounding The Major to drive the plot: is he dead? Most of the cast accept that his Missing in Action status after a major bombing of the building Violet was found in means the man’s likely dead, but Violet holds out hope.

In most stories, if The Major was still alive, there’d be more hints than provided by the anime, or they’d just accept he was dead and continue forward.

The Major being dead provides a stronger break and arc for Violet. Not only has the war she’d been existing for ended, but the man she’d been devoted to entirely is also gone. At the start of the series, Violet has nothing and must rebuild herself. To deny closure of that chapter by letting The Major be in hiding would just undermine the entire opening premise.

So, of course, the last shot of the series is an ambiguous shot of Violet arriving at the house of an unseen client and stumbling with her well rehearsed introduction, giving the audience a winking ‘Is he?’.[9]

If he is alive, it’d be a massive jerk move because it’s not just Violet’s life he’s derailing and introducing tragedy to. Major Gilbert Bougainvillea has a family, after all, including a mother who mourns him and a brother with undirected rage over the loss of his younger brother. Also friends probably. We’re not given any real reasons for The Major to crawl out of that final battle, put his fists on his hips and say ‘Sweet. I’m gonna abandon my old life!’ Admittedly the backstory of The Major is very light in the anime adaption, but that lightness also paints a lack of past tragedy.

The rules of ‘show don’t tell’ and ‘write the story about the most interest point in the character’s life’ also implies that which is not depicted is not interesting.

Thus, The Major should be dead and should stay dead.

Which concludes my… review of a single character…

Let’s talk about the show proper.

Much like Isle of Dogs, it ticks off a few items on my favorite things list, but more of the narrative devices.

It’s a series of vignettes with a reoccuring protagonist acting as bridge, set in a light fantasy world that is much closer to modern day than is traditional, and has major emphasis on writing as a narrative device. And alsi fantasy prosthetics, a fondness that will go unexamined today!

Also, one of the other Auto-memory Dolls wears glasses.

It’s produced by Kyoto Animation, which I think is tying with Studio BONES for my favorite studio (based solely on the works they produce), which is a major plus.

The individual episodes are very character-driven, including one about a playwright that made me really want to get back into writing plays myself.[10]

Most episodes explore Violet from the perspective of the episode’s client, while offering some world building. Episodes one and two, as a pair, exist to introduce Violet and the world, and thus don’t have much for Hodgins (who gets his development through the rest of the series) and Erica (who doesn’t actually get much besides explaining the origins of typewriters and the term ‘Auto Memory Doll’).

Episode three is when the series rolls up its sleeves and says “Ah, we’re learning what it means to feel emotions? Get ready to choke!” and sends Violet to school, where everyone’s soul goes to die!

While trying to earn a coveted accreditation, Violet meets Luculia, who lost both her parents in the war while her brother returned home with an injured leg and a chip on his shoulder. During the course, Violet shows she can get the practical skills down easily enough, but when it comes to putting any actual soul into her letters, she turns in only tense reports.

Luculia graduates top of the class while Violet does not. Still, Luculia has decided she’s friends with Silver Arms, and sets to help Violet do better. Luculia’s attempts fail, and instead the two have a short heart to heart. Luculia’s brother has fallen to drink and hasn’t come to terms with coming home from war to find his parents gone, and Luculia doesn’t know how to tell him that it’s nice that they still have one another.

Violet takes that in, writes a letter for the brother, and repairs the relationship! Yay!

But that’s the formula. Everyone knows those beats! Got to earn the heart-wrench.

Episode four, Violet escorts her co-worker Iris back to Iris’s hometown for a surprise birthday party. Iris isn’t happy about this turn around, due to a rejection of her feelings and her parents not really supporting her life path.

Again, Violet writes a letter, makes everyone feel better. As you do.

But we also learn the origins of names: Iris got hers from the flowers blooming when she was born, and Violet… got hers at the training center when The Major awkwardly realized Violet didn’t have a name. Thus strengthening the parent/child relationship of The Major and Violet and they better not make this gross, I swear!

Then we reach the royal engagement. I mostly discussed that in the relationship dissertation, but episode five is a strong examination of making a relationship work, despite distance, age, obligations, and other fragile matters. The episode also gently nods to the fragile state the continent’s in after the war, with dissidents to the results of the war still out there, waiting to take center stage.

Episode six is fine. It is. Massive library, Violet meets a reclusive nerd scared to follow the path of his parents. Reclusive nerd crushes on Violet. Violet is ignorant of his feelings because of course, and she accidentally inspires him to change jobs from researcher to Action Archivist! Roaming the world searching for lost texts! Good world building, not heavy on the emotions.

And so we come to Episode Seven: probably the closest I’ve arrived at crying in years.[11]

Violet is hired to transcribe a famous playwright’s newest play. He’d been out of the public eye for a while, but he’s much lauded. However, his house is a mess, he’s slow to get the work started with Violet, using her as a maid for a bit and inspiring her to try cooking.[12]

Anyways, Oscar Webster is writing a children’s play. His first, I believe.  Which is a dead give away for his emotional problems.  Still, the snippets we get really showcase the creative writing process and hit me with nostalgia for the Theater for Young Audience class I took once, and the child’s theater summer camp I worked for.

Then we get flashbacks to Oscar and his daughter moving into a new place after his wife’s passing,[13] then watching his daughter progress through what is one hundred percent cancer as we get the snippets of what inspires the play.

And Violet meets him living alone in his ill kept house.

Which is where I’m ending my summary.

Violet Evergarden is a good anime. Beautiful visuals, distinct characters, strong world building, and amazing writing.

Go watch it now.

Though, on your way over, consider supporting my Patreon. Then, after you watch all of Violet Evergarden, come talk to me about it. And maybe check out the other things I’ve written and drawn and otherwise created. Especially since I’ve decided I’ve procrastinated long enough on a certain project.[14]

After all, August 1st is coming. Sounds like a good day to go camping and/or catch a wave.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Often strong ones! [2] A specific variant of the Fish out of Water trope that, unfortunately, TV Tropes doesn’t seem to have an entry for, as it hasn’t been applied to Violet.[3] [3] Wait, found a video essay. “Born Sexy Yesterday”. Which, admittedly, examines the trope’s problemsome aspects, but,eh, I stand by its strengths. [4] This is why Starfire is the best character on Teen Titans. fight me. [5] I keep meaning to use it myself, but the concept I have would spoil a major setting secret for my current project. [6] A scribe with a typewriter. Anime has an ability to give fanciful names to things at a level I hope someday to emulate. [7] Why she did it during the flashback when The Major got her the broach is anyone’s guess. Maybe it relates to that anecdote about a kid eating a letter from Maurice Sendak. [8] Named for a manga that was apparently pretty cute until it suddenly really wasn’t. At all. I haven’t read it, but reputations do flourish. [9] The light novel isn’t as ambiguous, but I won’t spoil it. Also, totally looking forward to picking it up once it gets translated. [10] I guess I do have that play about tabletop rpgs that needs another draft with a better plot… [11] Since I came downstairs after bedtime at exactly the wrong time of a medical drama show. Was like, four or five. Saw a man coughing up blood. Good times. Before my soul froze up and withered to the merry husk I have now. [12] I really like seeing cooking used as a narrative device. [13] Moving after a spouse dies is a very sad and subtle trope. [14] Though a Three Leaves, Three Colors review may pop up first. It’s the current bedtime anime.

#CanvasWatches #violet evergarden #anime #netflix #CanvasReviews