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rillils · 3 months

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how do explain stucky from the moment they met to where they are now (together in each others arms) to my friend who knows nothing about marvel

ohh this is a tough one, honey! i think i've got two options for you:

the short answer:

stucky is a compendium of all the best tropes out there, and i'm sure i'm gonna miss a few:

soulmates? check! star-crossed lovers? check! battle husbands? super check! mutual pining? check! 'and they were roommates'? check! best friends to lovers? check check check! long-lost lover comes back from the dead? fuck yeah, check! temporary amnesia? check! dude in distress trope? check! 'they will always find each other and choose each other in every lifetime'? also check! identity porn? extra check! saved by the power of love? you guessed it: check! slow burn or childhood sweethearts? you decide!!! did they share their first kiss when steve was 16, as per a popular fanon theory? did they only confess their feelings during the war? did they only get together much later, when bucky was healing in wakanda? you can pick literally ANY point in their timeline, and it will still make sense! they're all equally valid! you can even have multiple different headcanons at once, i mean who's gonna stop you??? all you have to do is join in the fun! 💕

the long AF answer, aka:

STEVE & BUCKY'S LOVE STORY, UNABRIDGED SOMEWHAT ABRIDGED, part 1/3

all right, let's set the scene:

imagine two young kids, let's call them steve and bucky. they meet, they immediately take to each other, they become instant besties! and as they grow up together, facing many hardships, their bond deepens. not only are they best friends; they are also each other's family. they take care of each other, and they both know they can always rely on one another in times of need.

when steve's mom (and only remaining relative) passes away, bucky reminds him that he's not as alone in this world as he thinks he is: bucky will always be by his side. bucky will always love him unconditionally, will always be there for him, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, and he wants steve to know that.

in fact, he asks steve to move in with him, thus offering steve both a literal and a metaphorical home.

and steve says yes!

SO. they are each other's home, they're living together, they're getting by all right. but then war breaks out, and eventually it reaches their little home as well: bucky is drafted, and steve, due to his many health issues, and despite his best intentions, can't follow the boy he loves onto the battlefield.

it's a very difficult time for them both - so much so that they can't even bring themselves to talk about it.

they have no choice but to say goodbye for now, knowing that they might never see each other again. but here's something you might not know yet about steve: he's the most reckless, most stubborn fucker america's ever seen. he's not gonna let this stop him!!! instead, he goes and gets a very sweet, kindly scientist to fucking experiment on him, because screw it, he's going to fight in this war if it's the last thing he does. and that's how he goes from Smol Steeb to Lorge Premium Steeb.

of course, things don't go exactly as he predicted, and steve is made to be the star of a war propaganda-fuelled musical kinda thingie, which he resents (but he looks fucking precious in his costume)

BUT! he does get closer to the actual battlefield. which is where he discovers that bucky has been captured by the enemy (!!!!!!!) and is most likely dead by now. but steve isn't willing to give up so easily! he'll believe bucky's dead when he sees it with his own eyes. so, he embarks on this suicide solo mission in the attempt to get bucky back, even if it means wandering on his own. into enemy territory. where he would be shot. on. sight. with no protection for his dumb ass except for a bunch of theater props!!! but such is the power of love, y'all.

against all odds, steve finds bucky very much still alive! and as soon as bucky recognizes him, even as confused as he is, he pulls out this beautiful, ecstatic, angelic-ass smile, like he's just seen god or he got high on some real good edibles or maybe both idk, like my man here was having a serious Religious Experience™ you guys

and i just wanna say, they could have totally kissed here and it would have made plenty of sense. but that's true of like 90% of their scenes in this franchise, so *shrugs*

ANYWAY steve takes bucky in his arms (well technically yes he does) and brings him to safety, and on their way there, bucky proves once more just how hard he meant that "with you til the end of the line" from before

afterwards, steve is finally given the chance to fight, just like he wanted.

bucky, on the other hand, could very well leave the war behind and go home; but when he learns that steve is staying, he chooses to stay too, and fight by his side. and he tells steve so in this very intimate, softspoken, delightfully suggestive conversation, which can be summed up like this:

and so they walk right back into the heart of the fight, only this time together, as they were always meant to be!

but. during an especially tricky mission, they're surprised by the enemy, and as a result, bucky falls to his death into a deep ravine.

steve is devastated. overwhelmed with guilt, grief and rage, he vows to bring down the people responsible for his loss, even if it costs him his own life.

and um, it kind of does? cost him his own life?

victorious after his last vis-a-vis with The Antagonist™, steve still chooses to sacrifice himself to prevent the catastrophe set into motion by the aforementioned Antagonist™. he's flying a jet over the frosty expanse of the atlantic, and you know, from the outside, you could easily argue that he could try to save himself. if he really wanted to. but with bucky dead, and the people responsible for all this pain, either dead or captured, it seems like all the will to fight is gone from steve; and so he plunges the jet straight into the ocean, and himself with it.

is this the end of their story?, you might ask.

the answer is: of course not!!!! the best is yet to come, babes!!!

EDIT: here is part 2

#stucky just stucky #personal #stucky #yes this is very dumb but dumb is my middle name lmao #i hope the read more works??????????#are all the pictures even there????#i'm too tired to check agsdjahkasdjk #sorry it took me a while to reply honey!!!!#i hope you're having a fantastic day!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 #the silly stucky recap you didn't ask for #rillers scribbles

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fandom-anthropology · 1 year

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Fandom Dissection: The Owl House

Warning: This post will contain spoilers for The Owl House

The Basics:

The Owl House is a Disney Channel cartoon that began airing in 2020, and just recently finished.

The story follows Luz Noceda, a human girl obsessed with magic who discovers a portal to The Demon Realm. There she meets Eda The Owl Lady, a wild witch as well as someone hiding from The Emperor’s Coven. She also meets King, the adorable self proclaimed “King of Demons”. Luz decides to stay in The Demon Realm so she can learn magic.

The show became immensely popular for various reasons. These include the characters, writing, animation, music, world-building and LGBT representation. However, these things do not solely build a fandom. So let’s apply my Six Elements to this show.

1. Recognizable Art style/Aesthetic:

The Owl House has a very recognizable aesthetic, very much playing into the fantasy genre while also having it’s own spin. It is more monstrous and macabre then your average fantasy school story but that’s part of the charm. And despite that, the imagery and backgrounds are surprisingly gorgeous.

In regards to character designs, many of the residents of The Demon Realm look like normal humans, save for the pointy ears. However some characters like Boscha inexplicably have more monstrous features. This makes the options for oc designs pretty expansive.

2. Faction System:

The Owl House has its own Faction System, that being The Covens. These nine forms of magic are a major element of the shows world building. The nine types of magic are: Abomination, Bard, Beast Keeping, Construction, Healing, Illusion, Oracle, Plant and Potions. Despite the coven system being criticized in the show, I often see fans associate themselves with one or multiple of the nine types of magic. The system is very much built to use as a jumping off point for a self insert or sona. This system also is interesting from a world building perspective.

3. World Building:

Speaking of world building, The Owl House has quite a bit of interesting world building. The Boiling Isles is a world that many people are fascinated with. The world is fascinating and filled with mysteries. The rules are set up and correlate with the story in an interesting way. The world and characters are also fit for many different types of AUs. Wholesome AUs, angsty AUs, or both.

4. Theories and Headcanons:

Like many modern cartoons, The Owl House had a strong theory following. It set up interesting mysteries about the lore of The Boiling Isles, Hunter’s Origins, Belos’s plan and The Collector as a whole. All of which were heavily speculated on in the fandom. The series is also perfect for headcanons. The characters are so expansive and likable, and due to many plot threads being cut by the shortened series, there’s room for fanon to step in where canon was unable to be fully developed.

5. Shipping:

Many people jumped on this show as a result of the viral news of Luz being canonically Bi, Amity being canonically a lesbian, and the possibility that they might get together being revealed near the end of Season One. This was when the show really became well known. And as such, Lumity (Luz X Amity) became the most talked about element of the show.

However there are other ships that heavily impact the fandom. The two big ones being Raeda (Raine X Eda) and Huntlow (Hunter X Willow), sometimes called Winter.

These three ships make up the bulk of shipping content for The Owl House, however some rarepairs exist like Alador X Darius. 6. Tumblr Sexyman:

Speaking of Alador and Darius, they are the two who fit the tumblr sexyman mold the best. However there are also similar followings for Raine and Eda.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, The Owl House is a very special show. It is unlikely we will ever see a show like it again. Despite how much it was screwed over by Disney, the show managed to have a pretty satisfying finale. Plus it made huge steps in representation, with canonical same-gender couples, non-binary characters and even an aroace character. It was dark but funny, sweet but heartwrenching, it was truly something special. It makes sense why it gained such a massive following.

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strangertheories · 11 months

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1,9,10,18

1. That one character that everyone gets wrong. There are quite a few to be honest as I, along with my mutuals, are the only person in the fandom with correct takes (/j). But off the top of my head, Mike. Even if Byler isn't canon, Mike is still a traumatized child who grew up with parents who didn't love each other and also bullying. He's emotionally immature and says regretful things, but he's mostly just trying to cope with his feelings and insecurities. I saw an edit to him to First Love, Late Spring by Mitski that kinda puts it simply for me; "I was so young when I behaved 25 yet now I find that I've grown into a tall child".

9. The worst part of canon for me is the six nuggets comment. Just S4 Steve in general to be honest. I'm not exaggerating, it really puts me off rewatching S4 which is one of my favourite seasons outside of that. Yes he was worse in S1, but that was intentional. Now they've got a character who evolved through his relationships to others and got over Nancy barely hanging out with said people and instead just becoming that babysitter who likes Nancy. Not to mention Nancy's nightmare is becoming a suburban mother and the script seems to imply she liked that comment so now they're screwing over their strong female character as a reward for a guy becoming not shitty.

10. Similarly, fanon Steve drives me insane. I'm not a Steve anti, by the way, I really love his character's moments and S3 Steve is one of my faves in that season. But fanon Steve is literally canon Johnathan if he played sports. I was gonna put this for a misunderstood character but I put it here because it annoys me. It just frustrates me how people have this perception of Steve and then completely ignore Johnathan because (in my opinion) they are less attracted to him than Steve. Not problematic or anything, but it annoys me because Johnathan is super underrated.

18. The fandom needs to stop sleeping on Lucas Sinclair, although I think that's been getting better post S4 unless I'm just surrounding myself with pro-Lucas account. But he's so cool and funny and also the best boyfriend ever and I love him and it's so frustrating how this fandom will love the most mediocre white dudes ever and then ignore him.

And secondly, Jargyle! You cannot tell me that they don't get high and make out. They are so cute, my fave weed smoking boyfriends, and I do not see enough fic or fan art of them. I feel like they'd be way more popular if Charlie Heaton was more conventionally attractive (I'm a lesbian and think he's pretty but a lot of people don't) and if Eduardo was more conventionally attractive and white. I feel like every fandom goes insane for vaguely hot white dudes interacting with each other and yet Jargyle flies under the radar which is so annoying.

Thanks for the ask, in reference to this post. Also just to clarify, I am white so if someone who isn't thinks I'm overstepping then I'll gladly correct myself, but these are just some things I've noticed in the fandom!

#byler #mike wheeler #lucas sinclair #jargyle #steve harrington #anti stancy

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sketching-shark · 1 year

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What do you think of the show's portrayal of Wukong and Macaque's relationship now? I know before you've brought up the possibility that Wukong simply doesn't care about Macaque. But now we know that isn't true. Those two were basically living on FFM as one big happy monkey family. And now we know that abandoning Macaque is one Wukong's regrets. Not to mention all that stuff about Wukong promising to live forever on FFM together with Macaque, and Wukong imprisoning his brothers in the memory scroll. With this new context, I wanted to know what your viewpoint is on all this.

Spoilers for Monkie Kid & general kvetching below sdfewaf

I have to be honest anon their relationship as it currently stands is somewhat giving me whiplash on account of the fact that we've got Sun Wukong not caring like at all about Macaque exploding in season 1 (and not seeming to realize that him literally killing his past BFF would have influenced Macaque's hostility in any of their previous encounters) to him betraying the shadow simian apparently being one of the great regrets of his life, but I guess Macaque has with this new context been proven to be a little more consistent in that him being BFFs with the Monkey King before Sun Wukong betrayed him does explain his desire to tell anyone who will listen what a terrible person Sun Wukong is, and I guess it does provide a slight explanation for Macaque going out of his way to repeatedly beat the tar out of Qi Xiaotian for the crime of Associated With Sun Wukong. And this does confirm that the lego show decided that their versions of Sun Wukong and the Six-Eared Macaque would deviate completely from the og classic in favor of the currently popular trope of "wah we were besties but then we weren't because it turns out the 'hero' suuuuuuucks & also the 'villain' ends up warping his/her entire life around hating/getting back at the 'hero' but for some reason this is considered a good foundation for rekindling a relationship." Fully aware I'm an outlier here, but needless to say I'm not a fan aweageraw.

I guess at the end of the day I'm not really liking this change not simply because of my love for the og classic (and the really interesting implications about morality and identity that underlay the True & False Monkey King arc) but because I feel like this turn to a currently popular story type is really limiting these characters' potentials. It's like now their relationship is just another example of how Sun Wukong hurts literally everyone around him, while Macaque is once again confirmed to have basically nothing going for him outside of Sun Wukong's influence.

And yes, OF COURSE any retelling of an old story is going to deviate sometimes significantly from the work it's based on, even if and sometimes especially if it's a sequel, as with Monkie Kid. And when you're working with something like Journey to the West, while I still think some of the best adaptations are those that stick closer to the source material, such changes can be a good thing. I mean, I've joked enough how what with this being a children's show you wouldn't want to stick to a Sun Wukong who smashes people into meat patties! But at this point it almost feels like with fanon & increasingly canon insisting on these two being the Most Important Person to each other & also for Macaque to be the completely wronged party that their conflict just makes for one monkey that has 0 identity outside of the other while the other is little more than a selfish ass. I mean hell, it's even got to the point where the current writer of Monkie Kid felt compelled to go on twitter to drop the big spoiler that Sun Wukong is NOT Qi Xiaotian's bio dad, and while we can speculate why he did this it seems at least part of the reason was because a not insignificant amount of people were saying that on top of all his other screw-ups Sun Wukong is a deadbeat dad. But then again, why wouldn't they? Monkie Kid has been hammering it in time after time again that basically there isn't a single person, least of all the Six-Eared Macaque (the definite show/fandom meow-meow), that Sun Wukong hasn't hurt horribly from being impulsive and thoughtless and selfish, so why would anyone think differently in regard to his relationship to Qi Xiaotian? Add all of that to the uber-violent betrayal of all his brothers that he apparently didn't do anything about even millennia after the fact, and you can see why parts of this fandom have been primed to believe the worst about Sun Wukong. Really does make the popularity of scenarios of him rekindling his apparently deep past relationship with Macaque kind of baffling.

Of course, it does need to be acknowledged that even now we don't have the full story, and that Sun Wukong's failure to defeat the Jade Emperor (despite the Azure Lion K.O.ing him in one hit) was compounded by him being literally tortured into becoming heaven's lapdog and betraying his brothers. And who knows! The Monkey King's eyes glowing gold in all of the past scenes after he gets the headband could be a hint that it wasn't just torture through a massive headache but also some version of mind control, kind of like how his eyes glowed blue when he was being possessed by the Lady Bone Demon. But either way we still have no idea what Sun Wukong's perspective is about any of this. We only know that his brothers saw him surrendering to heaven and AGREEING to serve the Jade Emperor to save his own hide, and that even after the headband was taken off he did nothing to try to save them from the scroll. This isn't the full story, but that's what we have to work with.

ANYWAY, even with this context I still think that the best thing that could happen with lego Sun Wukong & Six-Eared Macaque is for Sun Wukong to find a way to fully embrace the fact that *lego Batman voice* just because you lose people doesn't mean you stop letting them in even though a lot of people won't ever forgive you and that's okay, and for the Six-Eared Macaque to find a way to start carving his own identity outside from being the guy violently obsessed with Sun Wukong.

#monkie kid #monkie kid spoilers #anon answered

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blackbloodredpepper · 1 year

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Haikyuu Fic Master List pt. 3

Part 1 is here part 2 is here

Part 1 is JUST IwaOi and Pt. 2 consists of MastuHana and EnnoTana so if you’re looking for those pairing, click the first two links!

I apologize that my lists are so long, but when you’ve been in the game for as long as I have, it’s bound to happen lol the sad part is that I have way more fics for way more fandoms haha but maybe that’s for another time

Kuroo Tetsurou x Kozume Kenma

Penne For Your Thoughts

Word count: 8,408

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kenma is the kitchen manager of Crow’s Restaurant, and unfortunately, he’s in love with none other than the head chef, and best friend, Kuroo Tetsurou. He’s managed to survive nearly two decades of being in love with him. So why does everything have to fall apart now?

This one is quite funny, minimally angsty, and best of all, really cute

the snow keeps falling

Word count: 17,323

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: kenma and kuroo have been in a relationship for seven comfortable years, until a freak accident leads to kuroo forgetting kenma. and only kenma. the two of them are forced to navigate a new life - one of them still painfully in love, and the other blissfully unaware.

This one hurtssss my heart but it’s so amazingly well written and while incredibly angsty, it has a happy ending and I love it

You Don’t Have to Kiss Me <3

Word count: 3,690

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kuroo has managed to miss the fact that he’s dating Kenma. He is very confused about why Kenma wants to practice kissing all of a sudden. Kenma simply wants to kiss his boyfriend.

Kuroo is the biggest idiot I love this pairing

All Along There Was Some Invisible String Tying You To Me

Word count: 7,555

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kenma slaps himself on the head, almost in hopes that it’ll reset his brain somehow, but the annoying song doesn’t leave his head. So how does he know it? How is it stuck in his head? Oh. /Oh./ This must be Kenma’s first hearing, and apparently his soulmate is the most obnoxious asshole on the planet. Kenma groans, hitting his head against his desk. He’s totally screwed, isn’t he? / In which Kozume Kenma can hear the music his soulmate is listening to, and is determined to find him so he can yell at him to improve his music taste

This one isn’t my favourite but it’s worth the recommendation. Soulmate AU where Kenma is just totally over it

us three <3<3<3

Word count: 5,137

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: the actual summary is pretty long but I’ll throw in this lil blurb: Kuroo’s gaze flits over to the utensil. His eyes bulge out of his skull. “Wh—is that a meat hammer? Put it back!” Akaashi’s head recoils back in confusion. “I don’t understand the problem here.”

This might just be one of the funniest fics on the planet and it captures the fanon characters really really well! Please just read it!

throwing oranges

Word count: 1,808

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: "Please, Kozume-kun?" the third girl says, now that Kenma has seemingly checked into the conversation. "What does Kuroo-senpai like?" ...what. "Volleyball," Kenma says shortly, ignoring their annoyed little sighs, and returns his expression to the screen. He's died. Figures. After that he starts paying attention. More attention to the social aspects, at least. Kenma always pays a fair percentage of his attention to Kuroo. He sort of demands it. And. Kuroo does get a lot of female attention.

This one is really cute and I love it!

Of Apple Blossoms and Yarrow

Word count: 4,150

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: It's usually weekly or bi-weekly that Kuroo brings over flowers of some sort, a kind of habit he's kept up over all the years they've been friends. Sometimes Kenma wishes he had asked the first time it ever happened, because he can't help but wonder now. Why don't you just keep them in your room if you like them? Does this mean anything to you?

I quite like this one, it’s fun and sweet!

i say it in everything that i do - every touch and blink and swallow

Word count: 3,763

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: 5 times Kenma confesses to Kuroo (and one time he does it for real)

5+ 1 fics are so so good :)

Liked, Commented and Subscribed

Word count: 45,729

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 17/17

Summary: Everyone is a youtuber and tumblr ships KuroKen. A lot.

Am I a sucker for YouTube AUs? Yes I am. This is one of the first KuroKen fics that I bookmarked after getting my ao3 account. This isn’t my most favourite pairing in the whole world but I truly do appreciate the work that goes into their fics!

of broken but beautiful souls

Word count: 3,595

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Like others too, Kenma wished that his soul is beautiful.

This one’s kind of heartbreaking but it has a happy ending and it’s quite sweet

tastes like peppermint

Word count: 5,389

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed 1/1

Summary: they’ve been friends for so long kuroo already knows kenma’s sleeping pattern and isn’t the least concerned when he shows up for cuddles in the middle of the night.

This one is super duper adorable!

One Day

Word count: 4,503

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kozume Kenma thought it would be fun to one day have one of his live streams break the 700k viewer barrier. Kuroo Tetsurou thought it would be fun if one day his and Kenma’s relationship was made public. Kodzuken’s viewers thought it would be fun to one day learn a bit more about the elusive youtuber’s personal life. That one day is today, though none of them found it particularly funny at the time.

This one is actually really good. It’s definitely interesting, and the plot is unexpected but it’s really good! (Hostage AU)

Fall Damage

Word count: 3,762

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kuroo barges into Kenma's streams, his fans go apeshit, Kenma suffers the consequences.

This one is a funny fake dating/break up AU and it’s my jam

someone special, who could it be?

Word count: 1,614

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: “He’s lanky, but he’s a good blocker. Loud and obnoxious, but still encouraging. His eyes look like they were robbed from a poor cat. Oh, and he has a terrible case of bed head too.”“Oh my god, it’s Lev. You have a crush on Lev."

This one is so funny! Kuroo is such a moron

petals: blue, red, yellow

Word count: 12,088

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 2/2

Summary: The feeling in his throat was back and Kenma quickly shoved his game in his bag, standing up to leave the room before he coughed too loudly and woke the whole team up. Kuroo looked at him worriedly. “Kenma, are you---” “I’m fine,” he answered, his voice nearly inaudible. He didn’t wait for a response as he rushed out of the door in the direction of the bathroom, trying his best to contain the rising feeling in his throat.

This one’s angsty and sad (with a happy ending) I really love hanahaki AUs tho :)

Nothing Short of a Miracle

Word count: 1,353

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kuroo decides that it's about time to propose to the love of his life.

This one is short and sweet

curiosity kills

Word count: 41,426

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 5/5

Summary: Kenma rescues a cat. Later on, the cat saves him in return.

I really do love this fic. It’s a total classic and absolutely worth the read

over the weekend we could turn the world to gold

Word count: 1,372

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: The thing is, Tetsurou is well aware that he could ask for the futon. It isn’t offered to him anymore, because he hasn’t used it in years, but he could still ask. But then Kenma would be suspicious, and his parents might ask if they were fighting, and Tetsurou doesn’t even really want the futon, because he always sleeps best with Kenma tucked against his side, head resting on Tetsurou’s arm, so maybe he’ll just settle for being painfully obvious and hoping he doesn’t get questioned about it until they get home.

There’s only one bed. That’s it. That’s the fic

It’s Big

Word count: 710

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: “You have big feet Kuroo.” The locker room went quiet. Kuroo fell on his head.

This one made me giggle

Proximity Makes the Heart Grow Fonder <3

Word count: 3,590

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kenma rolls his eyes. “Yeah, but still. It’s a hassle. Besides, it’s not a big deal, right? We’ve shared beds before.” Kuroo bites back a remark about how that was at a time when he didn’t even know what a crush felt like, and sighs. He clenches his fists briefly, trying to remedy how cold and sweaty his palms are getting.

There’s only one bed pt 2 but this time it’s porn

top 10 worst pet names <3

Word count: 8,967

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 2/2

Summary: What if your team was too stupid to tell the difference between a wasp sting and a hickey and your best friend thought that was the perfect prank opportunity?

Super duper big classic and super duper big funny

The Case of Kuroo Tetsurou: Uni Student and House Wife Extraordinaire

Word count: 1,322

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: With Kenma raking in the big bucks, Kuroo is left to balance university and keeping their apartment clean.

I quite like this one! It’s funny and cute

Good to You

Word count: 2,186

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: "You’re childhood friends with Kozume-kun from Class 3, right? Do… do you know if Kozume-kun is dating anyone?”

At the words, Kuroo’s brain malfunctions. Kozume-kun, he thinks with wide eyes, and then, dating anyone? Kenma? Dating anyone? Is it possible? His brain knows the two phrases separately, but he’s never thought of them in connection before. Kenma. Dating someone. Suddenly the anchor he’s been clinging to cracks just the slightest bit. / When a girl from Kenma's class approaches Kuroo for advice on how to ask out Kenma, Kuroo comes to the realization that his feelings for Kenma might be more complicated than he'd originally thought.

I love jealousy turns to feelings of realization tropes

Wouldn’t it be Funny?

Word count: 1,445

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Bokuto and Kuroo plot a prank on their friends. Kuroo is not prepared for Kenma's reaction.

This one isn’t my favourite, but I like it well enough

good luck charm

Word count: 8,979

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: The shop is freezing, the instruments are breaking, the lights won't stop flickering, and dammit, Kuroo has some terrible luck.

This is part of possibly my favourite Haikyuu series ever but this is the only KuroKen fic that’s part of the series so

I Must be Dreaming

Word count: 11,210

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kenma Kozume, university student and soulmate skeptic, is not fond of all of pop rock band Neko's frontman, Tetsurou Kuroo, believing him to be a party boy and a corporate sellout. However, his world turns upside down when Tetsurou's soulmark gets leaked to the media - and it's a mark that's all too familiar.

This one is really good and I really like it :)

Five Times One

Word count: 4,828

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Five times Kuroo defends Kenma from other people. One time Kenma defends Kuroo back.

This one is sweet and I’m a sucker for protective bfs

Operation: Observe Kenma

Word count: 3,700

Rating: N/A

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: “So you’re telling me” Hinata started off slowly. “You spend basically all of your free time together, you feed one another, take care of each other when one is sick or drunk and he lets you steal his clothes with no objections. Yet you guys aren’t dating” Hinata wasn’t buying it. Kenma flushed under the realisation. WAS he dating Kuroo?

This one is so cute and a great little study of their relationship but not that deep

Superposition <3<3<3

Word count: 102,801

Rating: Mature

Status: Completed; chapters 12/12

Summary: "Well, I bet I’ll be seeing more of you in the future then, huh? But hopefully soon it’ll be me watching you on stage," Tetsurou tells him. Something flickers across Kenma’s face - something like bright, childlike hope. “D’you actually think so?" “Call me crazy,” Tetsurou says, grinning a stupid grin that shows all his teeth, “but I’d be willing to bet on it." // Tetsurou Kuroo, the lead singer of alternative band Neko, meets Kenma Kozume, aspiring musician, at one of his shows, a meeting that sets into motion a series of events that change their lives - and the alternative music scene - forever. Or, the early 2000s pop punk band AU.

This is quite literally my favourite KuroKen fic in existence. Superposition is my fav song and knowing the lyrics while reading the fic hits so different. Nothing that sad happens (though it is angsty and slow burn) but this fic had me in actually tears and suffering an existential crisis. Seriously. The portrayal of the characters, the beauty of the writing. It just makes me cry so damn hard. I could not think of a better recommendation for you if I tried. I will never ever get over how much this fic has affected me as a person.

If You Want It

Word count: 3,495

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kenma’s eyebrows narrow - it sounds almost like the interviewer is implying that they’re together, together. As in more than just best friends. The funny feeling in his chest doesn’t leave. But he tells himself she has no idea what she’s talking about. They’re just close best friends, after all. Close bandmates. That’s all.

Another band AU. It’s not nearly as angsty as superposition so this is a good one to read afterwards :’)

Candied_Apple

Word count: 2,809

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Everyone knows Kenma does video game playthroughs and live streams himself gaming; his ex-teammates teased him for weeks when they found out, until they saw how many followers he had. Then he was kind of like a celebrity. The name username ApplePi is becoming well known in the gaming community. And in another part of the web, Candied_Apple is becoming just as well known.

This one is short and smutty. Not my fav writing in the world but I’m still a relative fan

open doors

Word count: 1,578

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kuroo Tetsurou grew up in a home with open doors.

This one’s really sweet!

the idiot with the painted face

Word count: 6,173

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: “What are you—get that phone out of my face!” “But it’s for this app! It says it can tell what mood you’re in with just a single picture.”

The title is a Mitski song but the fic is not sad

Schrödinger’s boyfriend

Word count: 3,692

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: "I have plans for next week." A week before Valentine's day Kenma finds out Kuroo has plans. Plans he was keeping secret from his best friend. Why does he suddenly feel so betrayed and rejected? Will this rollercoaster of emotions and sudden realizations awaken something in him? But most importantly, will he do something about his feelings in time for Valentine's Day?

It’s a cliché but it’s good

you are the music in me

Word count: 5,421

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kuroo Tetsurou was suffering from a long streak of writer's block. The melodies seemed to come back to him after he first listened to an arrangement made by music producer Kozume Kenma. And he knew immediately they had to meet.

ANOTHER music AU

Jealousy

Word count: 1,644

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: After coming back from summer training, Kuro starts acting strange.

I am a sucker for jealous bfs

The Kenma Counter <3

Word count: 734

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kuroo had the strange habit of mentioning Kenma any chance he got. The boys started counting. The boys started discussing the wildest topics hoping Kuroo wouldn't find a way to bring Kenma up. The boys give up.

Short and sweet and funny

Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life <3

Word count: 3,168

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kuroo Tetsurou runs a private Twitter account where he's constantly tweeting about how desperately in love he is with Kozume Kenma. Little does he know that Kenma sees all the tweets and keeps referencing the account in an attempt to get Kuroo to confess to him. / Or, five times Kuroo didn't notice Kenma hinting about his private Twitter account, and one time he finally did.

This one is cute and funny and a fan favourite!

can’t stop thinking ‘bout it

Word count: 3,247

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: 5 times Kuroo and Kenma kissed by accident + 1 time it was no accident

This one is really fun to read!

Running Home

Word count: 1,331

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kenma tried to catch his breath while he stumbled into Kuroo's arms. He knew he was making a scene with other third years mingling in the hallway watching him, but for once he didn't care. Couldn't care.

Mid A/B/O fic. I’m not hating on the author though, btw, I’m just letting you guys know how I felt about it :)

Japan’s Most Subscribed <3

Word count: 3,613

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kuroo Tetsurou @blacktetsurou changed his bio : volleyball player, co-owner of Bouncing Ball Corp. and so much more ;)

This one is really sweet I love it + it’s a classic one!

Spark a Flame in Me

Word count: 3,623

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kozume Kenma's never had a crush before. He's never come across anyone he's drawn to in that way. That is until he officially meets his next-door neighbor, a friendly firefighter named Kuroo Tetsurou.

This one is quite popular and good

Komorebi

Word count: 16,789

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 2/2

Summary: Against better judgement Kuroo follows Oikawa's suggestion of getting a summer job and they end up working in a large multistory electronic goods store in bustling Ikebukuro. Oikawa is, not surprisingly, placed in the women's beauty section, while Kuroo has been relegated to the video game department. So, he spends the rest of his summer trying to convince himself that things will get better. (Spoiler: It does.)

This one is a great classic! Def worth the read!

No, I Need It

Word count: 1,849

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kenma has severe pregnancy cravings, and Tetsurou's wallet suffers.

This one is an mpreg A/B/O but I swear it’s funny and kinda cute ToT

beyond castle walls

Word count: 16,724

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kenma doesn't realise that the guy he's brought home for the night is Kuroo Tetsurou, the crown prince of the kingdom, until there are photos posted online the next morning. The royal family has to save face by announcing a marriage, and Kenma's life is never going to be the same.

This one’s alright. Not my fav but if you want a royalty AU here you go

Principles of Chemistry <3

Word count: 32,419

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 4/4

Summary: In which Kenma ends up being sorted into the wrong group and has to endure his new, exhausting lab partner for the next month.

This one is classic funny and sweet! Relative slow burn and little to no angst

pretty girls make me nervous <3

Word count: 6,906

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kuroo does everything he can to get Kenma a significant other. Meanwhile, everyone bets how long it'll take before Kuroo realizes that Kenma's sorta already dating him.

This one is probably the ULTIMATE classic KuroKen fanfiction. If you haven’t read this yet, you legally have to to become a part of the Haikyuu fandom

pushing boundaries

Word count: 4,432

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Kuroo glanced up, still bent as he pressed a final kiss to Kenma’s hipbone. “Is this okay?” Kenma didn’t think he could summon the words if he’d tried. 'Please,' he figured he wanted to say. 'You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this.' Instead, he nodded, a bit breathless.

Cute and sweet vanilla sex with our two favourite cats

two cats

Word count: 19,886

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 5/5

Summary: (12:01) From: Kenma :3 and why won’t you tell me what the secret is?(12:02) To: Kenma :3 there r some things even i won’t say over txt

This one should technically be read before pushing boundaries but at the end of the day I don’t think it actually really matters

There’s No Tutorial for This <3

Word count: 21,500

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: “I think maybe Kuroo-senpai likes him, and that’s why it was hard for him to tell us.” “On the fucking nose, Lev.” Kuroo likes Kenma, but he can't figure that out for himself. Kenma likes Kuroo, except he's never had a crush on anyone before and has no idea how to cope. Hopefully they can both figure it out by the time their summer vacation ends. "...I swear to god I’m going to die Bokuto, he’s so cute and I’m so fucked.”

This one is an OLD classic. Like 2015 old. Can’t believe I read this around the time it was published.

Home, At Last

Word count: 5,549

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: While gathering supplies in his abandoned neighborhood, Kozume Kenma comes across a half-dead vampire with a familiar face. A face he hasn't seen in over a year.

Kuroo as a vampire??? Yes please

You and Me, Together Forever

Word count: 20,147

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Years after college, Kenma and Kuro face the ups and downs of their new relationship, growing closer and stronger than ever before.

Just pure porn

We Belong Together <3

Word count: 4,712

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Six years after the emperor sent him to the border for falling in love with the crown prince, Kuroo Tetsurou receives an invitation to return to the palace.

Oh my god?? This is the best royalty AU and I love it

Water and Brimstone <3 <3

Word count: 41,549

Rating: Mature

Status: Completed; chapters 7/7

Summary: Kuroo and Kenma are assigned to go undercover as a result of Bokuto’s awkward attempt at playing matchmaker... but their simple case turns out to be a lot more dangerous than they expected.

I fucking love detective AUs this is literally so good holy shit

Best Friends

Word count: 6,307

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: During the two weeks he spends manning his uncle's ice cream booth on the coast, Kenma decides that maybe he likes his best friend back, after allegedly

Another oldie but a goodie! This one is a classic from 2014, and it’s on almost every single KuroKen fic rec list ever

How Kuroo Found Kenma

Word count: 37,641

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 5/5

Summary: "Oh my God," Kuroo said, eyes growing wide. He slowly turned to fully face Oikawa, "I'm in love with Kenma." Oikawa brought his tea to his mouth. "Yeah," he said, smiling through the steam rising in front of his face, "I know."

This is yet ANOTHER classic. And I think I’ve changed my mind as to what the ultimate KuroKen fic is, because it’s actually this one. You have not lived if you haven’t read this. Slow burn, kinda angsty, beautifully written (the author is the same as conquering the great king, so you know it’s good)

Azumane Asahi x Nishinoya Yuu

Salamanders Know <3 <3

Word count: 12,652

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: It's Asahi who notices first so it's his responsibility to alert Nishinoya to the situation: they are soulmates. Now if only Asahi's tattoo would stop running away every time he tries to approach him, that would be great. With Daichi and Suga's help maybe he can find a way to get around his own shyness?

This one might be one of my favourites for this pairing tbh. Super adorable soulmate AU and a study of Asahi’s character

Sharing a Space (In My Heart) <3

Word count: 7,282

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Soulmate AU where you can feel your soulmate's emotions, and Nishinoya is worried that his soulmate is in serious danger.

A classic! Great AsaNoya fic and truly a sweet one

Oral Fixation <3

Word count: 3,554

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: “So.” Noya shot him a mischievous look, full cat-ate-the-canary in its devilish charm. “I’m not imagining things. You have been staring at my mouth.” “Wha- I- Um… ” Asahi blushed red, tripping over his words. He hadn’t realized Noya had noticed, probably should have known he wasn’t being subtle in his attention. “M-Maybe?”

Hot dog this is a good one. Mostly porn no plot but damn

Cherry on top but not for long

Word count: 2,654

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: "I want to get into your pants, Asahi-san!" Noya says it so stoutly, so resolutely, that all Asahi can do for a moment is stare at her. Noya's cheeks are puffed out with the strength of her conviction, bleached bangs poofing out of her ponytail. Asahi buries her face in her hands. "Shame should be taught in schools," she mumbles, and Noya squawks.

AsaNoya genderbend fic to soothe the soul

Sleepless in Saitama <3

Word count: 12,559

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Noya is a restless sleeper, frequently flailing in his sleep and rolling over his teammates at away camps. The problem seems to be solved when he wakes up one morning snugly wrapped up in Asahi's arms, until a whole new set of problems begin...

I love this one! It’s really cute and sweet with a side of smut

Propriety

Word count: 6,013

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: The collective hive mind head canon of Noya being the "atypical" omega and Suga being the "model" omega taken to a logical conclusion.

Light angst, really nice. I personally love it. It is A/B/O so if ur not into that, skip it

come and take a walk on the wild side

Word count: 4,605

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: There’s a bloodcurdling scream of terror, and then Noya remembers that, right, there’s a new person moving into the apartment next to him. Oops. (in which Noya is accidentally the Worst Neighbor Ever, Asahi loses twenty years of his life to stress, and Rolling Thunder is the star of the show.)

Great fic! Really funny, Noya owns exotic animals. Asahi is his new neighbour and is less than impressed

I’d Like You Anyway <3

Word count: 7,167

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Yū believes in soulmates, but that doesn’t mean he believes in them.

Completely classic AsaNoya fic!

close to your heart <3

Word count: 1,902

Rating: General Audiences

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: It is often thought that the second button is close to your heart. Therefore, the act of giving someone the second button of your uniform conveys the message that you think of that person as the most precious person to you.

So well written and I love this one! This is a popular AsaNoya fic :D

Top of the World

Word count: 119,248

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 33/33

Summary: Noya is a sports photographer who can't stand watching volleyball. So far, he's managed to avoid attending volleyball games at the local college, but one day the only other member of his department is out sick, so he has to take on the job. He does so reluctantly, and drags himself to the game without the intention of paying any sort of attention at all - he'll just snap a few pictures, get a quote from the team captain, and then get out and never come back. Once he's at the game, though, he lays eyes on a perfectly good reason to stick around in the form of Asahi Azumane, the team's star player. He's immediately fascinated by Asahi; he wants to meet the guy, get to know him a little, and then... well, to be completely honest, Noya kind of just wants to bang him. A lot. But of course, stuff like this rarely goes Noya's way, and this time is no exception.

Very very popular! So well written, truly a classic, slow burn and really cute! Can you imagine a world where Noya hates volleyball?

Wild Horses

Word count: 5,425

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: While at the beach with her friends, Nishinoya runs into the biggest, hottest lifeguard she's ever seen.

Another gender bend!

Daydreamer <3

Word count: 762

Rating: Mature

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Nishinoya decides to get nipple piercings. Just one more thing for Asahi to obsess over how amazing her girlfriend is.

And another one!

the most important meal of the day

Word count: 6,427

Rating: Explicit

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: When Nishinoya returns from a two week trip overseas with her volleyball team, she and Asahi have a lot to catch up on.

…Another one..?

And yet here you are <3

Word count: 38,302

Rating: Mature

Status: Completed; chapters 12/12

Summary: His classmate rolled her eyes. “Of course Nishinoya-kun asked you to come over tonight.” Asahi blinked. “Well… he found a training video of the Japanese Olympic team, and he wants to—” The girl stood with an exasperated sigh. “He knows when the athletic department’s mixer is. It’s only been plastered on every message board across campus for two weeks.” “Maybe… maybe he just doesn’t want to go?” Asahi tried. He had the definite impression he was supposed to know why she was annoyed. Unfortunately — and not uncommonly — he was just confused. “You mean he just doesn’t want you to go,” she muttered.

Read this. I’m begging you. Please. Noya is a little shit

No Harm, No Foul <3

Word count: 9,832

Rating: N/A

Status: Completed; 1/1

Summary: "The thing about Asahi, if Noya were pressed, is that he's huge."

Dude. Angry Asahi is so fucking hot. I’m with Noya on this one. Definitely one of my favourite fics :D

Resolution

Word count: 2,928

Rating: Teen +

Status: Completed; chapters 1/1

Summary: Nishinoya and Asahi used to be the perfect couple. Then life got in the way. On the verge of breaking up, Nishinoya finds out he's pregnant. Of all the things for life to throw at him.

Not my fav but I like it well enough :)

Alright, all done with part 3. If any of you guys read these let me know how you feel about them!

14 notes · View notes

ao3feed-zentan · 2 years

Text

The Brothers Grimm - Story board

by Just A Kid Icarus (Lightningstrike5757)

“When happiness is destroyed, it is always followed by the scent of blood.”

When two orphan boys stumble upon the Kamado family household, the family take them in without question. As the years go by, the two earn their place in the household. The eldest of the two teaches Tanjirou how to fight with a sword and defend the house from wild animals and Oni. The younger of the two helped with chores and added an extra spark to the house. The two were practically family, and so when the boys went down to town for the first time, Tanjuro introduced the two as such.

“Meet Yoriichi and Muzan, my eldest son and my third son respectively.”

[This work contains spoilers for the entire upcoming series. If you do not wish to see these spoilers and wait for the series to come out properly, please ignore this book.]

Words: 3314, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of The Brothers Grimm

Fandoms: 鬼滅の刃 | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Anime), 鬼滅の刃 | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Manga)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

Categories: Gen

Characters: Kibutsuji Muzan, Tsugikuni Yoriichi, Kamado Takeo, Kamado Tanjirou, Kasugaigarasu | Kasugai Crows Ensemble (Kimetsu no Yaiba), Hashibira Inosuke, Agatsuma Zenitsu, Rengoku Kyoujurou, Shinazugawa Genya, Tokitou Muichirou, Kaigaku (Kimetsu no Yaiba), Sabito (Kimetsu no Yaiba), Demon Slayer Corps Hashira | Pillars, Upper Demon Moons Ensemble (Kimetsu no Yaiba), Rui (Kimetsu no Yaiba), Enmu (Kimetsu no Yaiba), Demon Slayer Corps Ensemble (Kimetsu no Yaiba), Tamayo (Kimetsu no Yaiba), Yushiro (Kimetsu no Yaiba)

Relationships: Hinatsuru/Makio/Suma/Uzui Tengen, Agatsuma Zenitsu/Kamado Tanjirou, Kibutsuji Muzan & Tsugikuni Yoriichi, Kamado Tanjirou & Kibutsuji Muzan, Kamado Takeo & Kamado Tanjirou, Kamado Takeo & Kibutsuji Muzan, Kamado Takeo & Tsugikuni Yoriichi, Kibutsuji Muzan & Everyone

Additional Tags: Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Kibutsuji Muzan is OOC, Tsugikuni Yoriichi is OOC, Human Kibutsuji Muzan, Demon Kibutsuji Muzan, Reincarnation, Kitsune Sabito, Everyone forgets the Kakushi exist and I think that's a crime, Some moments are indistinguishable from canon, other times its just like, canon? whats that, Im going to be completely transparent here, I just hate Nezuko, So the first thing I did was kill her, and then spend the rest of the book making Tanjirou as different to her as possible, I wont apologise, If you want Nezuko this isnt for you, Takeo is the god of this world, Takeo is too powerful and cannot be stopped, You can tell who my favourite characters are as they are introduced, i am biased, I am not ashamed, Not Canon Compliant, I wanted Akaza redemption and he said no u, Screw you then I get Kaigaku redemption instead, I'm the writer dammit I'll force you to at least give me that, Yoriichi's grave, Good brother Michikatsu Tsugikuni | Kokushibo, I dont feel anything for Inosuke and it shows, Fanon Muzan is the biggest Diva ever and I'm not sorry, Worldbuilding, so much worldbuilding it hurt while writing, I had to iron out so many plot holes, they kept popping up everywhere like Jigoro's traps, No I will not explain why Muzan or Yoriichi Exist, I make demon Muzan less of a dick, Character Development, The Kizuki are reffered to as the waxing and waning moons, Sorry for the tag dump it still doesnt include everything, Demon Kamado Tanjirou, Demon Slayer Kamado Tanjirou, Demon Slayer Tsugikuni Yoriichi, These will be fixed eventually, Demon Slayer Kibutsuji Muzan, Kakushi Kamado Takeo

From https://ift.tt/JIxEGtp https://archiveofourown.org/works/41153436

#ao3feed zentan #ao3feed #fanfiction #zentan #zenitsu x tanjirou #agatsuma zenitsu x kamado tanjirou

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sohotthateveryonedied · 3 years

Note

so i’m trying to write duke and i don’t think i’m writing him right. how would you describe his personality because with don’t trust fanon lmfaooo

(this was only supposed to be a paragraph or two i swear to god)

1. first things first, duke is a hardcore gryffindor. don’t let the yellow color scheme mislead you, okay. and while most of the time he’s depicted in fanon as “omg this family is crazy and i’m the only sane one,” it’s actually pretty much the opposite? if anything, i think the other batkids would be like “oh finally, someone who can match our level of chaotic energy. HEY DUKE WANNA BUNGEE JUMP OFF WAYNE TOWER—” and an hour later they’d all be in the batcave getting lectured by bruce for leading poor sweet innocent duke astray when really he was already planning on doing that this weekend.

listen, this is the kid who once jumped off a bridge to escape police. this is the dude who decided to fight criminals while they’re still eating their wheaties at 6am in a bright yellow suit. and while duke seems to be the best at following bruce’s command at the moment due to having been trained by him most recently compared to the others and is still figuring out how to be a hero, i’m positive that if bruce weren’t here to guide him, duke would be running around gotham taking down criminals anyway. i mean, he literally did do that with the “we are robin” kids. plus there was the whole thing when he was like ten years old and decided “i am going to singlehandedly stop the riddler in my light up sketchers and pikachu backpack. try and stop me.”

duke is headstrong and has a strong drive toward heroism. he’s an extremely enthusiastic and passionate person in general, and i try to capture a little of that when i write him, even with mundane things like trying to beat his siblings to the last cupcake.

2. another thing i noticed is that duke swears like a sailor in comics? seriously, this boy could give jason a run for his money with how many “@#!%” speech bubbles there are. i don’t know if this is just a trend the writers added in the comics i’ve read of him, or if it’s a genuine trait throughout every comic he’s in, but that’s something to make note of when writing dialogue for duke. after all, he did grow up in the narrows, so it makes sense that he’d use a lot of swearing and slang in his everyday vernacular.

3. i would also make a point of noting that duke is fairly young compared to the rest of the batfamily, being the second youngest after damian. duke is still a teenager in high school, and he acts like it. he’s got homework and friends and is eager to make a difference in gotham, trying to juggle everything and make it all work somehow. he’s stubborn and doesn’t give up easily, so it’s important to write him as someone who is trying to save the world while also struggling with finding time to study for his next math test. he's human. he doesn’t get to dedicate all of his time to fighting crime like cass or jason might be able to, since duke is still a mostly normal teenager with teenager problems.

4. and don’t forget that unlike the other batkids, duke still has two living parents. sure, they’re jokerized and might not ever be the same again, but they’re alive and that’s what holds him back from letting himself get as close to the waynes as he wants to. duke won’t be calling bruce “dad” anytime soon, and i think he’d have some internal struggle over stuff like holidays and birthdays with the waynes, remembering what his parents are missing out on and wondering if joining the wayne family is a betrayal to them. duke is very conflicted over this, even if he doesn’t say it directly. stuff like ducking out of movie night early or feeling a bittersweet pang during thanksgiving dinner makes sense for someone in his situation.

(i usually ignore that aspect in my fics because i want duke to just be adopted and part of the family already, but not everyone does that, and that’s perfectly fine.)

5. honestly, duke is such a caring individual and we as a fandom need more of him being a shoulder for people to lean on because he’s?? so soft?? duke can be so sympathetic and rational when it comes to emotional problems. it seems like duke internalizes every bit of advice he gets from the people around him and uses it to inspire others and help them through their own problems. as tough and hotheaded as duke can sometimes be, he really is good when it comes to emotions.

6. duke is a smartass. he will 100% use sarcasm against any and every authority figure he meets, usually just for the hell of it.

7. he’s very frank in general, usually the first to be like “okay full disclosure, we’re about to die right now. that sucks. anyway—” in a situation. he’s honest and tends to be upfront about his fears/anxieties, usually for comic relief, but i think it still counts.

8. okay i have to add that duke is also kind of a punk? he and jason have a lot in common because of this: they both grew up in one of gotham’s worse areas (jay in crime alley and duke in the narrows) and they’re both highkey deliquents. duke has no problem getting into fights or talking back to authority figures, and it’s gotten him in hot water on more than one occasion. it’s why he kept getting moved around the foster system before bruce took him in because no one wanted to keep him.

9. he’s also gotten so close with the other batkids and we love to see it!! duke calls cass “sis” and treats damian like the annoying little brother he never had and i adore every second of it. we haven’t gotten a lot of interactions between duke and the others aside from training and stuff, but he and jason have the whole “punk kid who got adopted by batman and is baffled by how rich people live” going for them, so they can bond over that. and duke is a thinker like tim, so they can hang out and do puzzles or play chess or whatever it is that smart people do. (and duke and steph are BESTIES i don’t care what anyone says.)

10. most of all, duke is still learning how the whole hero thing works. he’s young and he’s trying his best, but he also makes mistakes. he will be impulsive and screw up, and he’ll try and merge the lessons batman’s taught him and that his parents taught him and that other heroes teach him until it all makes sense in his own mind. duke isn’t experienced like dick or even damian, so he’s going to be lagging behind for a while until he grows until the role he’s made for himself.

other miscellaneous details to include:

- duke is dating izzy, who used to be part of the “we are robin” gang with him - he used to live at the manor and now lives with his cousin jay, but honestly i just have him living at the manor in everything i write because i like it better that way - he can control shadows and light now! what a king! - duke secretly writes poetry and is good at creative writing in general - this:

- duke is super smart?? he figured out that agent 37 was dick grayson without even trying?? i’m so proud of him - his biological father is this supervillain called gnomon so now duke has got four parents: his mom, his dad, his supervillain dad, and bruce (plus selina if you count her as the batkids’ stepmom, which i do) - jason calls him “narrows” and i love that

- and, lastly, the most important panel in the history of comics:

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childishfluff · 3 years

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Pet Regression/Animal Hybrids AU (Dream SMP)

So a little while ago, someone sent an ask to my inbox about a possible au, involving the Dream SMP characters as pet regressors, accept they gain animal traits based off of the animal they regress as, and these traits come and go with their headspace.

I don’t think I’m writing a fic or anything, but I did wanna brainstorm some ideas for how this could’ve happened, how it works, and how people react to it, and then go over some possible fic plots/scenarios in this AU. Have fun reading, and reblog with your thoughts if you’re interested!

BTW, this is sfw pet regression, not pet play or any sort of kink! Pet regression is when someone falls into a headspace where they act like some animal or critter, it’s a more ‘for fun’ type of regression, and can easily tie in with age regression. Okay, continue on...

How this Happened:

So I imagine that someone messed around with some magic, starting a chain of events that somehow lead to some members of the server having animal features part-time. The explanation I found that made the most sense to me, was a situation where Tommy was trying to find out how to bring people back to life without Dream’s help, and he messed up this spell he tried, managing to put a conditional ‘curse’ on everyone in the server.

(bc, yk, he’s a teenager unsupervised with a spellbook he somehow got ahold of, he could very possibly mess up THAT much)

A lot of people in the server already regressed, knowingly and unknowingly, and some discover their petlike headspace after the “curse” is set in place.

Now, Tommy knows he cursed everyone, due to a crytid message that appears in the weird spellbook he was using, but he doesn’t know what he did. So, it’s a waiting game to see what happens because he doesn’t know how badly he screwed up and he hopes he can maybe get away with it.

How this Works:

Basically, the animal traits appear on the person whenever they regress into their petspace. For some, this means cat ears and tail, sharper nails and teeth, and for others, this means bunny ears and an extreme like of vegetables. (The traits can be physical and otherwise)

For the most part, it basically works the same way fanon ‘hybrids’ do, where the character has some human, some creature/animal traits, while kinda leaning to the humanoid side.

The traits will appear when a character is at least mostly in their petspace, and more traits will appear the deeper they get into this headspace. For example, the kitten and cat regressors may get the ability to legitimately purr when they’re deep in their headspaces.

How (some) People Reacted:

For those who had already identified as pet regressors knowingly, like Karl (cat/kitten regressor) or Sapnap (puppy regressor), they made the connection between the animal traits and their regression immediately, they just didn’t know why this happened. They don’t really know who to ask, either, because Tommy doesn’t admit that he cursed the entirety of the server on accident until after he knows what he did.

The original pet regressors assume they’re the only ones affected until later, and realize eventually that they’re gonna have to be the ones to teach everyone about petre if the curse really is based on that.

The day after the curse is set is a calm one, so a lot of people regress and gain their animal traits. Since many of them didn’t know what pet regression was, they were just relaxing when they gained animal-like traits. At first, many people think they’re gonna remain hybrids forever.

(They know hybrids are possible because of people like Fundy, Sam, Puffy, and Schlatt, ect)

The first one to freak out is George, who has little cat ears for some reason? Who messed up? Who pranked him? He immediately discovers that Sapnap also has animal ears and tail, and discovers more and more part-animal people just by asking around.

Tommy just kinda avoids everyone, because he knows he caused this, because he missed his brother and just messed up in the process of getting him back. Tubbo finds Tommy, dog ears and tail included, and the teenager fesses up to his friend, who convinces him to tell everyone.

the people who have yet to be effected freak out, a lot of people are mad at Tommy. For some reason, the first time people get their animal traits, they stick around (petspace or not) for 24 hours. So when people freak out and aren’t relaxed anymore, the traits stick around and confuse them.

Eventually, they disappear (there’s a mild moment where people think it was a short-lived curse, everyone becomes an hybrid for 24 hours only), but they come back. The pet regressors eventually step up and explain what’s happening and everyone learns about petre, blah, blah, blah. And people slowly learn to live with it, experimenting with the idea of petspace and having fun with it, because it wasn’t much of a inconvenience when they could control it.

Possible Fic Plots/Scenarios:

1. “How do you do this, every day?”

The already-existing hybrids get questioned by the new pet regressors on how they deal with the creature traits every day of their lives. It’d be a comedy-focused fic, including the hybrids being confused because they were born this way and don’t know the difference.

2. ‘Tommy Cat’

The first few people to get their traits kinda put together how it works, and everyone who doesn’t get theirs just assumed they aren’t regressors and continue on with their lives. Some of them, however, later discover their pet spaces.

Tommy assumes he isn’t part of this, and kinda brags because he’s one of the only people left who isn’t a hybrid part-time. And of course, he gets unlucky and regresses for the first time right then. Cat ears, tail, cute little meow and EVERYTHING. He tries to hide it, but is discovered by someone who teased him about it (remember, the 24 hour rule), like Karl or Quackity. Of course he’s supported, but he’s embarrassed and it’s funny,

The fic would be fluffy, and somewhat comedy-based, focusing around Tommy exploring his kittenspace.

3. ‘Kitten in Prison’

Did I mention that Dream is in jail during all of this? Like he has no idea what’s going on until George visits him with cat ears like a whole month after this started. Dream is all sad that literally everyone forgot to keep him in the loop, like everyone forgot about him/hates him that much, and regresses bc he’s in his feels

very angsty, ‘kinda-sorta-makes-you-feel-bad-for-the-villain-but-only-a-little’ type fic.

That’s just some! I’ll reblog this post and add more later if I get inspired. I’ll keep fleshing out this idea and come back to it maybe when I have less projects/fics going on (I have a lot). I hope you enjoyed reading through this, and feel free to reblog with your thoughts on this au!

#petre #pet regression #dsmp #dream smp #dream smp agere #tommyinnit #dream #wilbur soot #fundy #tubbo #dream smp petre #dream smp age regression

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recurring-polynya · 3 years

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soul reapers to get paid and their salaries are even quite high! if i remember correctly, lieutenants make around $7k while a captain’s salary is almost triple(nearly $19k)

(cont) that is if my conversion was right, in a JET interview kubo said captains make 2million yen, lieutenants - 700 000yen and an unseated officer - 200 000yen. but then again, i think the living cost in ss is much higher, i remember matsumoto mentioning that clothes in the living world are much cheaper

I have to say this is one of the liveliest discussions on Bleach meta that I have ever participated in on this website. I feel like I can definitively report that is is both fanon consensus and supported by the creator himself that Soul Reapers do, in fact, get paid. For the record, my husband, who started this, conceded days ago and I am sure has not thought about it since.

In any case-- I was very surprised by these numbers, and at first I thought that maybe they were in kan, the fictional currency used in Soul Society, rather than yen. I mean, $19k/year is a terrible salary (for those of you who are not American it is roughly minimum wage). I attempted to figure out the conversion rate between kan and yen once, and at the time, came to the conclusion that kan were worth somewhat more than yen, but I no longer have my scratch pad, so I cannot show my work. Looking at it again, they seem pretty close.

Then, just to get an idea, I googled the salary of a four-star general in the American military, which I thought should be a rough equivalent, and the article I found reported all its numbers in monthly salaries, which I am not used to seeing, but maybe they are more common in other countries. In any case, according to the article I found, the highest salary you can make in the US military is $15,800/month ($189,600/year), which is pretty close to what a Gotei captain makes. I realize that is a lot of money on an absolute scale, but that actually seemed shockingly low to me, in the sense that there have only ever been 246 four-star generals in the history of the U.S., but this is the sort of salary that, say, a C-suite executive might make. A president of even a public university can make 2-5 times this. Now, a career in the military comes with a lot of other perks-- free room and board, free healthcare, etc, but I think this is going to make a much bigger difference to the people in the lower ranks.

The more I thought about it, I do think this tracks, though. Gotei captains are immeasurably valuable and basically impossible to replace. One of the more chilling moments leading up to the Winter War was the part where Hitsugaya is basically like “we don’t know how many Arrancar Aizen has, but if it’s more than 10, we’re screwed” and then it cuts to Hueco Mundo, and Aizen is just surrounded by guys. So, yeah, it honestly makes perfect sense to me that captains are paid a “good living” but it’s insulting compared to the wealth of the nobles that live around them. I don’t usually have a lot of nice things to say about Byakuya, but I do want to emphasize that this has to be chump change for him. This guy definitely works out of a sense of duty, he is not in it for the Benjamins.

The vice-captain salary (~$84k/yr) comes closest to an O-4, which corresponds to a major or a lieutenant colonel, and usually entails about 10 years of service. I guess years count for less when you’re immortal, so I guess that works out. One thing that doesn’t fit is that in another interview, Kubo states that Renji’s sunglasses cost half a year’s salary, but their price is listed in the Bleach Bootleg as 84,700 kan. If a kan is roughly equal to a yen, this is wildly off. I will get back to this later. In WDKALY, there was some mention of vice-captains and captains being given “mansions” to live in (if they chose to). I absolutely cannot accept this fact as canon. I can’t. I mean, there are numerous omake about Hisagi trying to score free food out of Omaeda, yet this man lives in a mansion? And do not tell me he (or Matsumoto or Iba) would pass up living in a mansion if they had the option, even if the commute were an absolute nightmare. Maybe he can’t afford the cost of utilities and furnishings. I don’t know. Please, someone write me a sitcom of Hisagi and Kira living in giant mansions next door to each other, but it’s just like the Bluths living in the sample house in Arrested Development. [Aside: Renji would take the mansion, but he would turn it into an indoor soccer field and continue to sleep in the barracks search your heart you know it’s true]

Back on topic! The unseated officer salary of 200k yen/mo works out to an E-3, which is what an enlisted service member makes after a year. Everyone in the Gotei is considered an officer, and unseating people are awful, so, once again, this seems fine. Well, it seems shitty, tbh, but consistently shitty.

To really answer the question of “is this shitty?” though, we need to consider buying power. Earlier, I mentioned that Gotei service includes free room and board, and that alone is equivalent to a lifetime of wealth for someone from the lower Rukon. I mentioned earlier that I once tried to calculate the exchange rate between kan and yen using a variety of prices for various items. I wish I had kept better notes, because my main takeaway was that prices for things were not very consistent. A copy of the Seireitei Bulletin is 380 kan. Using a straight kan to yen to dollar conversion, that’s $2.80 (I am using 100 yen = $1 because it’s close enough, in case anyone was wondering). Sexy photo books of the captains cost ~$25. The budget of the Shinigami Women’s Association is $2500/year, and the Men’s is $900/year, which is roughly the cost of one pair of sunglasses. I think it must have been the sunglasses that threw me, because I kept trying to peg the cost of a pair of sunglasses to a half year’s salary. The club budgets are just honestly confusing because I have no idea what a calligraphy club budget should look like. It seemed... fine... that a club budget should be equivalent to half a year’s salary? To be honest, I think a kan should be roughly equal to a yen and the sunglasses are just priced too low. (Not a statement I ever thought I would be making).

The comment about clothes being cheaper in the World of the Living makes a lot of sense! Cloth in Soul Society is probably hand-dyed, rather than mass printed, and sewed by hand, rather than by machine. On the other hand, if you wanted goods made in traditional ways, it would be a lot cheaper to get in Soul Society. A chusen-dyed kimono is a luxury good in 2021, because you have to option to order a cheap t-shirt and sweatpants from Amazon. Everyone wears hand-made kimono in Soul Society because that’s what there is, so the price is going to be relatively lower. I do think that cost-of-living jumps sharply inside the walls of the Seireitei, and that it’s very common to do your shopping in the upper districts of Rukongai, where there are lot of highly skilled artisans making goods for the city-dwelling market. I figure that one of the few opportunities for upward mobility, aside from selling your soul to the military is to make enough money to buy your way inside the gates (either through overpriced business licenses, getting a noble patron, or by arranging a marriage to someone who already lives inside)

That being said, I have thought a lot about importing items from the WotL--shinigami usually travel through senkaimon, which do not allow for matter conversion, so they wouldn’t normally be able to bring anything with them. I imagine that it’s sort of a perk of the job that when you go on a mission where you have to go through a matter converter (which would include any time you are bringing a gigai over) you could smuggle back whatever you can fit in your kosode. It’s very strange which technology is adapted from the World of the Living (washing machines, treadmills, urinals) and what isn’t (coffee). In fanfic, it’s common to see shinigami wearing Living World clothing in their off-hours, but I don’t think that’s supported by canon or filler in any way. For my own fanfiction, because it’s fun and world-buildy, I like to pretend that Ichigo is a very popular figure after the Winter War and that World of the Living fashion, music, etc becomes popular, starting during the two-year timeskip, particularly among the younger denizens of the Seireitei, and that there are special bars and such that specialize in that kind of thing. Shinigami who have done extensive stints in the Living World are considered cool for their knowledge of such esoteric subjects as “rice cookers.”

I am done now! I swear! Thank you, everyone for reading all the way down to the bottom of possibly the nerdiest and most boring post I have ever made on this website! (wait, no, I just remembered the one on senkaimon transfer protocols. Second most boring.)

#soul society #bleach worldbuilding #weirdly enough i have just been talking about a number of these topics in my latest chapters of a little in love #i took exactly (1) economics class and it made me a monster

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bestworstcase · 3 years

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hi! I love your lost lagoon reviews :) reading the last one, I was interested in your take of Cass and Eugene's relationship in TTS, but I felt that maybe it's more nuanced than "cass makes legitimate criticism and eugene insults her"? There *are* moments which show us that Cass is not helplessly being insulted for being right, but does go out of her way to annoy Eugene (I have in mind specifically her seating him at the kids' table in BEA and the eviction letters she apparently sent him, which show that she's not only reacting but also can be unpleasant to him just for the sake of it, because she doesn't like him much at that point). It's not really a counterpoint, I do think you're right, but it read a lot as if she was helpless in their animosity, and that's not exactly how I see it, so I wanted to ask you about it more! Hope that's okay

oh yeah there’s def moments where cass acts in retaliatory ways or lashes out or loses her temper - & like i said in the post itself i don’t think she’s necessarily *bothered* by the insults per se so much as they create this cumulative dynamic where eugene has sort of blinded himself to the reality that cassandra does have feelings and that contributes to the problem, in s2, of cassandra’s relationships with *everyone* on team corona becoming very toxic for her! she’s def not like - i wouldn’t call what eugene does bullying and i wouldn’t describe cass as a victim of bullying, because she can give as good as she gets.

my point was more - i feel like tts broadly frames the conflict as a completely equitable thing. in cassandra vs eugene, the whole conflict begins when: 1. eugene asks cass to borrow her halberd, 2. cass says no, 3. eugene takes it anyway and shaves with it and purposely leaves his hair all over it so that cass will KNOW he messed with her stuff after she explicitly told him not to, 4. cass blows up at him, and 5. eugene escalates the argument by telling her she shouldn’t be upset because she should have known he wouldn’t listen when she said no. but - rapunzel’s point of view on this conflict is “cass and eugene can’t stand each other and keep picking petty fights, they just need to spend some bonding time together!” and that point of view is ultimately validated by the narrative. it’s clear that eugene thinks he deserves an apology from cass because she got mad at him, and he’s never taken to task for this. he never apologizes for stealing her stuff, but cass goes out of his way to cover up HIS mistakes, which happened because he stole one of her weapons and screwed around with it like it was a toy.

like eugene is, clearly, demonstrably, objectively the instigator - but the narrative acts as if *cass* is equally, if not perhaps even a little more, responsible for their argument? it’s weird. anyways

then there’s the tts fandom which in general i think has a tendency to gloss over the crummy things eugene does to cass, and then turn around and say: why does cass hate him so much? why is she so mean to him? poor eugene, cass is bullying him :(

and then you get stuff like lost lagoon / the popular fanon that cass hates eugene because she has a bias against “criminals,” which, like i said, takes that tendency a step further to frame eugene as a victim of cassandra’s bigotry. it drives me nuts, because - while yes they both do jerkish things to each other, and cass is not above retaliating in petty ways - i think *overall,* eugene treats her a lot worse than she treats him, and i read her moments of pettiness as coming from a place of frustration with how unrelentingly awful this guy is to her at the beginning and hitting back at him however she can. (he is, after all, the princess’s consort and has clearly been given carte blanche to act however he wants, which limits puts a degree of restriction on how cassandra handles him - like, i don’t think she could have gone to crowley and been like “the princess’s boyfriend is harassing me, make him stop” and had that enforced in any significant way. so she puts him at the kid’s table [implication: eugene is childish and rude and doesn’t deserve to sit with the adults] and gives him fake eviction notices and finds otherwise to passive aggressively suggest he Doesn’t Belong in the palace instead.)

and of course cassandra’s pettier or passive aggressive behaviors toward him taper off even faster than does her criticism, pretty much as soon as she develops a modicum of respect for him .

also, again like i said, once they settle their differences i really don’t think cass is bothered by his insults - the snarky banter becomes part of their relationship and she makes little jokes at his expense too, like when she makes fun of his goatee in rapunzel’s enemy.

which i guess tldr my stance here isn’t cass is blameless and eugene is picking on her so much as it is eugene is an ass to her at first, and i think he is significantly nastier to her in the first few episodes of s1 than she is to him, and when she insults him it’s 95% of the time about actionable behavior, not intrinsic things, and so i read her overall hostility towards him as her going “this dude is a jerk and i’m going to treat him with the respect he deserves,” as opposed to eugene evidently not liking her because she’s “icy” or “joyless”

#anonymous #but yeah thanks for asking this was good to clarify!

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thinkingisadangerouspastime · 3 years

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I hate to be an asshole, but I see this a lot and I'd like your take because while we have differing opinions on some things, your metas are spot on (and I binged half your stories last weekend, oops) and I know you'll be straight up with me on this. What "chemistry" between Zuko and Katara? I keep seeing that and not getting it? The chemistry when he roughed up her grandmother and threatened her village? The chemistry when he tied her to a tree and violated her boundaries? (1/3)

The chemistry when he hired a trained assassin to stalk her good friend and if collateral damage happened, oopsie? The chemistry when he stabbed her in the back after she was nice to him in the crystal catacombs? The chemistry when he demanded that she accept him? Or the chemistry when he showed he didn’t know her at all? The chemistry when both of them were grossed out being thought a couple? Or is it the chemistry when he saved her and Katara couldn’t wait to kiss another guy? (2/3)

I dislike r/eylo from Star Wars fandom. I think it sends the wrong message. But as much as I hate it, there was chemistry there from the first. Rey is attracted to him and Kylo is attracted to her. They don’t want to be, but they are and it plays out in the next two movies. There was none of that in ATLA and I can understand z/ks saying it but other people? What am I missing? Where am I not looking? I’m not even that huge on Katara/Aang but Zuko/Katara chemistry where? (3/3)

Obligatory disclaimer: this is my personal response to anon’s questions and my personal thoughts on Zvtara’s chemistry. I’m not going to put this into the main tags - much less the Zvtara tag! - because while I believe this is a genuine question, I don’t doubt there’s at least one person out there who will misconstrue it as “hate” because the A:TLA fandom is, uh, aggressive in its ship wars lol. However, if I have any Zvtara shippers following me, I encourage you to reblog this post with your own thoughts! Please refrain from sending your commentary on anon unless you’re going to be friendly about it, lol; I like to keep my blog positive and welcoming! Thank you :)

Firstly, I am EXTREMELY flattered that you enjoy my metas so much and binged half my fics!! I was grinning so gleefully as I read that part of your asks,, y’all are too sweet to me. 💛

Okay. Moving on.

So, the main question here seems to be this: What chemistry exists between Zuko and Katara in A:TLA?

Short answer? None, in my opinion.

Longer answer? For all the reasons you outline in your asks, I do not perceive any romantic chemistry between Zuko and Katara within the series run of A:TLA. Note the qualifiers: “romantic” and “within the series run.” I’ll try to break down what I mean!

“no romantic chemistry”

For one, a romantic interest with anyone in the Gaang would have undermined Zuko’s entire redemption arc, full stop. Yes, I mean anyone. For Zuko to have joined the Gaang because of romantic interest* would have been… counterproductive. Zuko joined the Gaang because he realized - to put it very simply - that the Fire Nation was wrong. He realized how he’d been indoctrinated since birth. He realized that he could help the Avatar (instead of trying to, uh, kill him lmao) by teaching him firebending. He realized he could help Aang defeat the Fire Lord and bring peace to the four nations. Zuko realized he could help end the war. He could help break the cycles of violence and abuse that had in part made his own life so miserable. For him to join the Gaang because of romantic interest? Completely takes away from all of that. A key theme of A:TLA is dismantling imperialist power, propaganda, rhetoric, etc. Zuko’s decision to fight against Fire Nation imperialism is crucial to his redemption. He could not have been redeemed without making that choice. Thus, if Zuko had joined the Gaang because of romantic interest, it would have been completely counteractive to his redemption.

(*That is, the relatively popular [? I think?] implication that Zuko and Katara’s moment in “The Crossroads of Destiny” was romantic-coded and thus Zuko should have joined the Gaang at the end of Book 2 because he had romantic interest in Katara and she in him. I genuinely am clueless how people interpret that moment as romantic - like to me it’s honestly heartbreaking! Katara offers Zuko tentative sympathy only for him to stab her in the back minutes later - so if someone would like to share some thoughts, please feel free to do so!!)

On a similar note, for Zuko to take the lightning for Katara at the end of the series because of romantic interest would also undermine his redemption arc. Please note: this does not mean Zvtara shippers cannot interpret the Agni Kai as being romantic-coded. Of course they can! That’s what fanon is for! Transformative works! But in terms of canon, Zuko did not try (and fail, rip) to redirect Azula’s lightning because he was romantically interested in Katara. (I mean, in terms of canon, Zuko and Katara were both romantically interested in other people, too, so… Moot point, lol? But I digress.)

Zuko taking the lightning is about him learning to earn forgiveness and accept unconditional love from his family (both Iroh and the Gaang). It is a selfless act, and it directly parallels Zuko’s selfish act in “The Crossroads of Destiny” to stand silently while Azula strikes Aang with lightning, thus becoming complicit in Aang’s death. The point of his “sacrifice” is that Zuko would have taken the lightning for anyone (and don’t get me wrong - the moment is doubly powerful with Katara, as she’s a primary protagonist!). Zuko did not attempt but fail to redirect the lightning because it was Katara he was protecting; he took it because it was the right thing to do. Zuko has learned to differentiate between “right and wrong” on his own. To at last put others before himself. To make his decision about romantic interest? To make Zuko’s most selfless act in the series (not to mention one of his only 100% selfless acts!) about out-of-the-blue “romantic love”? That not only lessens the impact of his decision, but it is also reductive to Zuko’s entire character and arc. There’s no romantic chemistry there.

Again, of course, fanon exists for purposes such as interpreting Zuko’s failed misdirection of the lightning to protect Katara as romantic. Go wild!! I’m talking strictly about canon.

So that pretty much summarizes why romantic interest with anyone in the Gaang would have been detrimental to Zuko’s redemption, hence why Zuko doesn’t have any canon romantic chemistry in the Gaang. It just ain’t there! It would have screwed over his arc! And again, because of all the reasons you outline, I cannot comfortably interpret any romantic chemistry between Zuko and Katara within the series run of A:TLA. Personally, romantic Zvtara would have been too sudden, too unexpected, and too… well, as I said: uncomfortable. Why would Katara have romantic interest in a guy who’d hurt her so many times? Who she’d only just forgiven? Why would Zuko have romantic interest in Katara, a girl he barely knew for most of the series? Especially when he already had feelings for a childhood friend? I, personally, just don’t get it.

But. You know what Zuko and Katara do have in canon?

A phenomenal platonic bond.

It develops very late, admittedly; Katara has only forgiven Zuko for the last five episodes of the series (5 out of 61… Katara was only on good terms with Zuko for 8% of the series, lmao). But Zuko and Katara are very, very similar personality-wise, so it follows that (eventually) they’d be great friends! Yeah, Zuko acts like an entitled dick for a good portion of “The Southern Raiders” lmao, but he ultimately respects Katara’s decision to spare Yon Rha (love that scene so much 🤧). Katara recognizes that Zuko is trying his best (if sometimes falling short) to redeem himself and earn the Gaang’s trust, and she also understands how - while she is completely justified in her anger! - holding that hatred close to her chest isn’t good for her. So she offers him a third chance (and honestly, Zuko should be forever grateful for that lmao!).

So what can a strong platonic bond lead to? Well, if it’s in your taste, a romantic relationship!

“within the series run”

As aforementioned, I don’t see any romantic chemistry between Zuko and Katara within the series run of A:TLA. I think Zuko has hurt Katara in too many ways - and again, she has only just forgiven him by the end of the show - for there to realistically have been any blossoming romance between them. I think romantic interest for anyone in the Gaang would undermine Zuko’s redemption. I also think M@iko and K@taang are well-implemented romances into A:TLA, so romantic Zvtara would not have fit into the narrative. (Doesn’t mean someone has to ship them!! I just mean they made logical sense and had narrative purpose within canon. That’s all.) But again, Zuko and Katara have a great platonic bond. So while I don’t see romance within the series run, I can understand why people might be attracted to Zvtara in post-canon!

Post-A:TLA (disregarding LOK, which I haven’t even seen lol) Zvtara has some solid potential. I’m personally intrigued by the idea of how they’d navigate their relationship amidst all the politics! Basically, any relationship with a strong platonic bond can have potential for “more.” That’s why people ship T@ang, that’s why people ship Zvkaang, Zvkka, M@ilee, etc. So while Zvtara may not have romantic chemistry within the show - in my opinion! - they’ve got one of my favorite platonic bonds, so I can totally get people wanting to explore that bond in post-A:TLA and possibly translating it to romance.

So for some people, then, it might be less about “chemistry” in A:TLA itself, but more how their relationship could grow and change after the end of the series!

Quick sidebar: I mentioned that while I do not interpret the final Agni Kai as romantic, I’m fine when other people do. It’s fanon! Ain’t no big thing! But also, Katara has forgiven Zuko by that point. I, personally, am not comfortable with reading any of Zuko and Katara’s TSR-and-earlier interactions as romantic because of the imbalanced power dynamic. Example: I don’t think Zuko tying Katara to a tree and manipulating her with her mother’s necklace was romantic, and I don’t like the resulting implications when people do treat it as such. Zuko was still so indoctrinated by Fire Nation propaganda… Yeah, from Book 1 to about halfway through Book 3, I personally don’t feel comfortable shipping Zuko with anyone outside of the Fire Nation. Pre-redemption Zuko was not the most fun person to be around if you were non-Fire Nation.

But as I’ve said, these are all just my opinions! Again, if I have any Zvtara shippers following me, please feel free to reblog with your own thoughts! I would love to know where the idea comes from that Zvtara had chemistry within A:TLA, since I personally don’t see any romantic vibes (though platonic chemistry, of course, abounds.)

(For the record, I don’t know anything about Star Wars, which is why I haven’t brought up R.eylo, lol.)

TL;DR - To me, there isn’t any canon romantic chemistry for Zvtara. Narratively, I think it would undermine Zuko’s arc. Logically, because of how Zuko treated Katara for 92% of the series, I personally cannot interpret any of their interactions as romantic. But their platonic bond? Beautiful!! Thus, if people want to explore post-A:TLA, fanon Zvtara, I am all for it.

#hope this at least partially answers your question anon!#anon #amy answers #amy analyzes

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stillness-in-green · 3 years

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Part 2 of the response to this ask:

Part 1 was about where I think Geten’s story is going, and if I think it’s likely that Dabi will kill him; it dealt mainly with how those characters are set up in canon. Part 2 is far more about the fandom, and the assumptions people make that lead them to theories like the one above--specifically, the assumption that the League was always planning on bailing on the PLF. Hit the jump below with me and I'll go over why I think the common arguments for that are misguided at best, and willfully misreading the text at worst.

WARNING: Contains some generalizations about parts of the fandom that I have mostly taken steps to avoid seeing on my dash, so some of my characterizations may be out of date. I’ve tried to desalinate this post as much as possible, but as an unapologetic fan of the MLA and of Spinner (who I do not bring up incidentally), this is a topic I feel particularly strongly about. Apologies, but I Have Seen Things.

DISCLAIMER: I like Geten better than Dabi. I don't think he's better developed; I don't think he's a better character--I just like him better. This is largely down to the fact that I find the MLA fascinating from a worldbuilding perspective and its members compelling personally, whereas I’m less interested in Dabi personally than I am the Todoroki Drama on the whole, and have been tired of Fanon Dabi for approximately 83 years. I’ll also be the first to admit that my take on Dabi is pretty mercenary--hardly the irredeemable psychopath the Hero Stans on Twitter see, but nothing close to Secretly Soft Big Brother Touya, either. If that’s not your bag, you may want to skip this one.

So, here's a bullet point list of the reasons I have personally seen on why the League was always planning to turn on the MLA:

Dabi and Toga mention "getting started early," and Shigaraki mentions a plan, suggesting that the League had a plan in place independent of the one they arranged as the PLF.

Shigaraki says he won't forgive the Liberation Army for messing with peoples' feelings, so he would never really mean it when he forges an alliance with them.

The MLA is quirk supremacist, like Endeavor, so Dabi would never work with them.

Dabi is just using Skeptic against Skeptic's will; it’s not a willing partnership.

Mr. Compress rejects the PLF moniker for Shigaraki, ergo Mr. Compress didn’t genuinely associate Shigaraki and the League with the PLF.

Toga hated Curious, so she wouldn't want to work with the MLA either.

Twice would never forgive them for what they did to Giran.

[Error: argument about Spinner's opinion on the PLF not found.]

So, let's go over those, shall we? Note that a lot of what I'm going to lay out below isn't conclusive. What I want to establish is simply that the canonical evidence isn't conclusive, certainly not as much so as the people who support this view espouse.

|| Dabi and Toga mention "getting started early," and Shigaraki mentions a plan, suggesting that the League had a plan in place independent of the one they arranged as the PLF.

In responses to my recent Overhaul post, I defended Viz’s official translation as an accurate rendering of the dialogue in question. In general, I feel like Caleb Cook is pretty reliable in his translations, if sometimes kind of stiff or dry in localization. However, there are times he makes assumptions about lines--as indeed a translator for a currently-running series will sometimes have to--and sometimes, those assumptions don’t pan out. This is one of those times.

Dabi's line, "Shall we get started early?" is based on an assumption Cook made about a line that doesn't have an actual subject. In the original dialogue--Hayame ni hajimaru ka--there is no “we,” not even in the form of some implicit collective in Dabi’s grammatical inflection, nor is there a question of "should." All Dabi’s doing is musing that the start (again, there’s no subject, and so no indication of the start of what, or the start as initiated by who) is happening early.

Toga's line communicates much the same, save that she does specify that the schedule/plan/arrangement is happening earlier than expected--which is totally true, since her line is in response to Dabi observing that Machia moving must mean Shigaraki's awake, and Shigaraki was supposed to be down for another month.

Shigaraki's line, like Dabi's, lacks a subject to describe what exactly is supposed to start as soon as Shigaraki wakes. He's saying something that would, in a more stilted way, be, "I wake up and then it's the start, right?"

None of these lines suggest that the characters are necessarily talking about any plan other than the one the PLF laid out. Yes, it looks somewhat damning that Shigaraki's first action (after getting himself a cape, anyway) is to have Machia bring him the League, but heck, maybe that was always the plan. Just because Shigaraki wants to rejoin his comrades doesn't mean the rest of the PLF didn't already have machinations that they were supposed to set into motion the moment Machia left. After all, the plan as Hawks understood it did involve simultaneous attacks on major cities--maybe the League was going to be spearheading one of those attacks. Further, Shigaraki knew something was wrong from the moment he regained consciousness, and we don’t know how that knowledge affected the call he made. Hell, maybe the original plan was for the League to be brought to meet him somewhere in a chartered limo; we don’t know.

It's telling that this idea that the League had a Secret Plan to screw over the MLA rarely seems to account for Mr. Compress and Spinner being confused over the suddenness of events. The response to questions about this seems to be that the "villain trio" knew about it, so the ignorance of the rest of the League can just be handwaved--the important members knew, and that's enough. This is ungenerous towards both Twice and Mr. Compress, but I have got particularly little time for Spinner, the narrator of MVA and guy who decided to devote his all to Shigaraki, being disrespected in this fashion. More on that later.

|| Shigaraki says he won't forgive the Liberation Army for messing with peoples' feelings, so he would never really mean it when he forges an alliance with them.

Shigaraki does say he won't forgive the MLA, but consider what he did to the MLA and its leader. He destroyed most of their stronghold, killed scores of them, is directly responsible for Re-Destro losing his legs, and saw that vaunted descendant of Destro about six inches shy of full forehead-on-the-ground dogeza. The League Shigaraki commands killed a great many more of them, including one of their inner circle. He commandeered the Liberation Army, its resources, and its grand cause. I think it’s safe to say he’s more than responded in kind!

I'm not saying Shigaraki feels for the MLA the same way he does about the League, far from it, but I do think he's practical enough after two hundred chapters of character development not to throw them away out of spite. In Chapter 246, he tells Ujiko explicitly, "When someone offers me something, I take it," and, "I'm done taking the heroes lightly. I'll use everything I've got to obliterate the dregs All Might left behind." From a purely practical standpoint, if he intends to throw everything he has at the heroes, he has no reason to throw the MLA under the bus, and 116,000 reasons to keep them around. I'm altogether sure that, so long as they stood to be useful to his plans, he would have kept them around.

|| The MLA is quirk supremacist, like Endeavor, so Dabi would never work with them. + || Dabi is just using Skeptic against Skeptic's will; it’s not a willing partnership.

I hadn’t seen the second point in the wild, but I suppose it must be how the “The League will betray the MLA” theorists are getting around Dabi and Skeptic’s clear collaboration and how that collaboration totally scuttles the first point, huh? Hilarious.

Anyway, setting aside the fact that Dabi showed up to the one planning session we were shown when even Geten didn’t, there’s evidence in the canon that Dabi was working with Skeptic since even before the raid. Consider that Dabi’s video was filmed at the villa (the wall paneling and the style of the couch both match) and ask yourself where the camera he used came from. Once the filming was complete, where was the video stored such that Skeptic could access it from his laptop? If Dabi’d had it on an SD card and Skeptic was seeing it for the first time, why didn’t Spinner, Compress and Toga watch it alongside him? Surely Skeptic would need to watch it through at least once to know when to splice in the footage of Jin’s death for maximum dramatic impact? On that note, by far the most telling piece of evidence is this: if Dabi wasn't already working with Skeptic, then why was he wearing one of Skeptic's body cameras during his confrontation with Hawks?

Further, Skeptic's protest when he’s pulled onto Machia isn't that he doesn’t want to be with the League; it’s that he doesn’t want to leave Re-Destro behind. Once he's resigned that it's going to happen, though, he's cocky about his talents and complimentary of Dabi's big reveal, even if he is exasperated about the League's antics. It's ambiguous, I admit, but given that Dabi's wearing his cameras, he had to have known Dabi had a reason for them--and given that he is both abrasive and mouthy, I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have demanded to know what that reason was.

Hell, Dabi even thanks Skeptic for his editing work, which is more direct positive approval than he's ever shown anyone in the League (give or take the high-five with Twice, which, genuine or not, he would have known he was doing on camera). That much-vaunted panel of Spinner telling Toga to come back to the League? Dabi's grinning, which in isolation you could read as a certain rueful affection, but with the full context of the chapter, it becomes apparent that Dabi is grinning at Skeptic's laptop, seconds after telling Skeptic to "hurry up." Skeptic is, at that moment, probably gearing up the video to project nationwide, and Dabi’s more focused on that than he is Toga’s crisis, even when Compress directly appeals to him for aid. He tells Compress he doesn’t care, the same way he told Hawks he doesn't give a damn about the League.

Let me be clear here: I'm inclined to take Dabi at his word. I think Dabi hangs around the League because, for all that he says one man's conviction can shake the world, he also knows his own limits, and the League offers safety in numbers and an avenue to pursue his revenge. Maybe he finds them acceptable enough company, maybe he even does like them a bit despite himself, but I think any affection he might have for them is entirely incidental to his views on their usefulness. In the same way, while he's willing to bail on the MLA when the heroes attack, I don't think it was his plan to do so, especially not given his apparent immediate regard for Skeptic, as seen in the deleted scene here. Sure, he dislikes Geten, but ultimately, Geten is a stupid kid too tied up in his care for Re-Destro--who's now worshipping the ground Shigaraki walks on--to really be getting in Dabi's way.

Maybe if the MLA really were as quirk supremacist as Geten makes them out to be, Dabi would be actively looking for a way to see ‘em burn, but as I’ve said countless times before, Geten is not a reliable narrator vis a vis the MLA's doctrine. Now, obviously I don't expect Dabi to give them an unearned benefit of the doubt,(1) not after what he heard Geten say, but if Dabi has been working with Skeptic, it doesn't take a genius to realize that while Anthropomorph is a perfectly good quirk, it is categorically not what primarily defines Skeptic’s "worth" in the MLA societal microcosm.

Nothing that Skeptic does reflects the way Geten talks about "elevating one's ability" or "sheer strength" in the way that HeroAca fandom tends to understand as referring to flashy and offensive quirks. And yet, Skeptic is a ranked advisor warranting an introductory panel with RD's inner circle and Geten is not. Perhaps, just perhaps, this might have led Dabi to reevaluating his initial assessment just slightly?

|| Mr. Compress rejects the PLF moniker for Shigaraki, ergo Mr. Compress didn’t genuinely associate Shigaraki and the League with the PLF.

So, this one's pretty wild, because, in the same chapter that had people crowing about Mr. Compress's dialogue, Mr. Compress's actions show the exact opposite of the conclusion this theory would demand. Specifically, if it was always the League's plan to ditch the MLA, Mr. Compress would have darted right past Skeptic, ignoring the man's cries for help. He doesn't--he picks Skeptic up on the way past and (at least in the volume corrections) deposits him safe with Dabi in Spinner's scarf. Of course, Skeptic still stands to be useful, but if one acknowledges that Skeptic's usefulness is reason enough not to abandon him, then what exactly is the argument for leaving 116,000 perfectly useful warm bodies behind?

But let's set aside Compress rescuing Skeptic and focus on the actual point, because that point in itself is still flawed. Mr. Compress's thoughts on the PLF in the specific talk bubble in question are somewhat ambiguous. It's another case of the Viz translation making a couple of assumptions that are just that--assumptions.

Compress's words in the Japanese are as follows:

Chōjō Kaihō Sensen.… Viran rengo no Shigaraki Tomura ga…

Viz then renders the line like so:

The Paranormal Liberation Front's… No, the League of Villain's Shigaraki…

Note that in the Japanese, the possessive no is only included once, to indicate Shigaraki's association with the League. Further, the original doesn't indicate any negation in Compress's thoughts. Yes, he could be rejecting the PLF association for Shigaraki, but he could as easily be narrowing his scope to Shigaraki as the figure he represents to the League, rather than the figure he represents to the PLF--not rejecting wholesale, but rather becoming more specific. Compress might also be thinking first of the PLF as a general organization, then narrowing down to Shigaraki specifically.

Rather than reading this line as an indication that Compress regards the PLF as temporary, I was heartened by the fact that Compress thought about the PLF at all! If the League really had been planning to discard them this entire time, then there's no reason for Compress to have ever taken the Front seriously enough to have thought about them in that moment of crisis. You can carry this back further, too. In Chapter 258, when Twice is asking Hawks for help, he says that Spinner and Compress have been in meetings for days. Coupled with Compress's first thought about the entity that will carry out Harima's desired reformation being the Liberation Front (or possibly "the Liberation Front's Shigaraki"), this indicates to me that Compress was taking it seriously, not just gorging himself on sushi on the MLA's dime.

Indeed, back in Ujiko's lab, when it was just Shigaraki talking about his backstory and his dreams of destruction, Compress looks the opposite of impressed; we know from his narration in 294 that he liked the League because they didn't place any importance on one another’s pasts. Yet, at some point, his view shifted to believing that fulfilling his ancestor's ambition, his bloodline’s duty, really might be back on the table. We as readers don't quite know when that shift happened, but given, again, his initial mental invocation of the PLF, I think we can assume that it's tied to that alliance, those resources. And sure, when the moment of crisis happens and he's really defining who and what Shigaraki is to him, and where his values and priorities lie, it's with the League and Shigaraki as the leader of the League. But that doesn't mean he never had his hopes for the PLF at all, or was partaking in plans to ditch them.

Also too, this is a man who was lamenting the loss of their partnership with Overhaul, a man who personally maimed him, on top of killing a comrade. You're telling me the guy who shrugged off his animosity towards Overhaul would willingly allow the League to plot sabotage against even wealthier collaborators against whom he has even less reason to hold a grudge? Come on, guys.

|| Toga hated Curious, so she wouldn't want to work with the MLA either.

This one's easy: Toga pretty explicitly hated Curious, but she's even more explicit that she likes the MLA because she thinks the world they want to create is wonderful. She says this verbatim at the end of 225, after Curious has spent the entire chapter hounding her with explosions and intrusive questions. What turns her animosity on Curious is not some reveal that the MLA's world would be terrible after all, but Curious calling Toga's "normal" miserable and tragic. Essentially, she doesn't object to the world the MLA wants to bring about; she objects to being turned into a martyr for that world, especially when that martyrdom requires that the things that make Toga happy be characterized as horrific misfortunes.

Toga doesn't like Curious; she kills Curious. And then she comes into a position of leadership, and we don't know a lot about how that position takes her, but she seems delighted to be walking out onto the stage to be announced as such, and she makes active contributions to the discussion of the PLF's plans in Chapter 245. We are, again, given no indication that her lethal response to Curious means that she's planning to ditch the MLA on the whole.

Incidentally, Curious asserts what she does about Toga only in the context of the world as it stands. The world's rejection of Toga's normal, and the extremes that rejection drove Toga to, are what Curious considers tragic and miserable, not Toga's fascination with blood in and of itself. She clearly believes that, in the world the MLA envisions, Toga's life would not be so miserable because she would never have been oppressed to the degree that she snapped. And frankly, Curious isn't wrong. The only reason she is a villain in that scene is that she's willing to murder Toga to project that tragedy to the world. If she'd been willing to sit down and have a civil interview with Toga to print it in a relevant magazine, she would have been fine.

|| Twice would never forgive them for what they did to Giran.

You know, this is a totally fair point. It is, however, somewhat complicated by the fact that Giran himself never left the PLF. Now, there’s almost certainly something to be said about Giran’s whole information broker shtick being terminally compromised by his capture, his maiming, his client list being hacked, etc. He had a bunch of identifying items strewn all over the country that were covered in the national news, items that people who associated with him closely certainly would have recognized. Maybe he’s laying low for a while?

I don’t know why Giran was still around by the time of the raid. I can theorize about his pragmatism or what have you, but the canon really doesn’t give us anything to go on. Still, if he really hated the MLA all that much, as he would be totally justified in doing, it’s pretty bizarre that Horikoshi showed him twice in PLF crowd scenes post-Deika looking nothing worse than kind of confused and uneasy. Heck, you’d think he would at least have merited a better seat in the crowd for the big merger announcement.

Giran aside, the fact that Twice never does hit it off with anyone in his regiment is, I think, telling. If there’s anyone in the League that intentionally kept himself at a distance from the MLA because of hard feelings, it’s likely Twice. After all, if he had befriended anyone, he presumably wouldn’t have needed to go to Hawks for tutoring almost an entire month after Deika. That said, the fact that Twice does go running to Hawks for tutoring shows that he’s at least doing his best to act in accordance with what he thinks Shigaraki and the rest want. That doesn’t preclude the League having a secret plan that he’s either in on and playing along with, or hasn’t been told about because he might not be able to stop himself from vocalizing about it. Still, while absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, obviously absence of evidence is not evidence of presence. So, lacking any sign that the rest of the League is planning treachery, I’m not inclined to assume Twice’s lack of forgiveness is indicative of anything other than his own feelings.

|| [Error: argument about Spinner's opinion on the PLF not found.]

:: INCOMING SALT WARNING :: INCOMING SALT WARNING ::

This is the one that really gets to me. I have never seen an argument that the League is planning to betray the PLF that convincingly explains the fact that Spinner, to all available evidence, threw himself wholeheartedly into trying to make the PLF succeed. To be more precise, I have seen one explanation, and that explanation is that the plan to ditch the MLA was a secret that only Shigaraki, Dabi and sometimes Toga knew about, and to reiterate, that is bullshit.

In my experience, this is an explanation proposed by people who care about Spinner only insofar as he can be a Soft Gaymer Boyfriend or score them rhetorical points, but have little to no interest in his ongoing--and, indeed, increasing--importance to the League generally and Shigaraki’s arc specifically. The dude who talked about how Twice’s home was the League, who got through to Toga while still respecting her choice when no one else could, the guy who recognized the hollowness within Shigaraki but also bonded with him over video games, the man who Mr. Compress said was Shigaraki’s most devoted follower(2)--this man did not do all of that for people in this fandom to say, “Oh, well, the others probably just kept it a secret from him because they thought he’d be bad at lying.”

Really? “Bad at lying?” And that’s an adequate justification, is it, for Shigaraki letting Spinner toil for months under false pretenses? For lying to the man who adores him the most? Of course it isn’t, but the people who theorize this don’t really care about Spinner’s adoration for Shigaraki, or the fact that Shigaraki rewarding Spinner’s feelings by allowing him to dedicate himself unstintingly to something Shigaraki was planning to discard from the beginning would be a blatant abuse of Spinner’s trust.

I have never seen anyone try to argue that Spinner was in on a plan to betray the MLA all along. That’s because it’s patently obvious that Spinner--forthright, direct Spinner, who named the merged organization with Re-Destro, spends all his time in meetings, has a direct exchange with Re-Destro about the state of their plans, and is probably the reason RD started wearing polka dots--went all-in on the PLF. But for the people who propose the “the League was always going to bail” theory, Spinner and his labors are an afterthought.

Spinner is not an afterthought. Where Mr. Compress has been captured, Toga could hypothetically be peeled away from the League via Uraraka, and Dabi almost certainly will be peeled away via the Todoroki plot, Spinner’s driving motivation at this point is Shigaraki himself. He connected to Shigaraki’s nihilism, his hatred, but also his humanity--the humanity in Shigaraki Tomura, not in Shimura Tenko. His empathy didn’t spring from contrived psychic glimpses of crying 5-year-olds, but from long months of observation, doubt, and gradually deepening wonder. He’s the only person currently with Shigaraki that I can see caring enough about Shigaraki’s welfare that he might sacrifice his own goals and desires to help Deku save him.

Spinner is not an afterthought, and I refuse to build or entertain theories that treat him that way. So as to his opinions on the MLA? Despite having his own reasons to be leery of them based on how shabbily Trumpet treated him, he was obviously trying to make the Paranormal Liberation Front succeed, which means he must have believed that Shigaraki wanted it to succeed. Therefore, unless you’re prepared to assert that Shigaraki (and everyone else who was in on it!) was cruel enough to lie to Spinner about something he was devoting so much time and energy to, the inescapable conclusion is that Shigaraki also wanted the Front to succeed.

(Note: After letting a friend pre-read this, I have been informed that there is, in fact, one explanation offered for Spinner knowing the League was going to abandon the PLF but working his ass off on the venture anyway, and that explanation is, “Something something wants to prove himself because low self-esteem.” This is so ridiculous I can’t even bring myself to edit this post accordingly. Low self-esteem! Because nothing would alleviate Spinner's low self-esteem like toiling for months over something that holds no worth to the people he actually cares about, right? Right?? Bah. Humbug!)

And but so, to wrap all that up: I fundamentally disagree that the League viewed the Paranormal Liberation Front as a temporary arrangement, at least to the extent that they were actively planning to betray their newfound--new won--allies. The fact that I don't think the League intended to discard the MLA out of hand does, thus, influence my opinion that, whatever Geten's fate will be, I'm pretty sure it's not going to be, "He gets murdered in a way that resembles nothing so much as a sick revenge fantasy dozens of chapters after the last point when such a death would have been remotely tonally appropriate."

Thanks for the ask, anon! Sorry about-- *waves at all of this*

-------------------------------

(1) Not that Mr. “Burns Random Delinquents Alive For Not Measuring Up To His Standards For Villainy” has any moral standing to criticize others for how they determine the value of peoples’ lives, mind.

(2) Other translations for the verb in Mr. Compress’s Japanese line of, “You are the one who ____s Shigaraki the most,” include yearn for, long for, pine for, miss, love dearly, adore, idolize, and revere. “Most devoted follower” is accurate enough, but considerably less homo than some of the things we could have gotten there.

#bnha #stillness answers #paranormal liberation front #league of villains #stillness has salt #spinner defense squad

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selfawarejester · 3 years

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5 shows that make me happy:

I was tagged by @magellanicclouds, thank you so much! So, in no particular order, 5 shows that make me warm and fuzzy on the inside! (Mostly cartoons, but whatever)

1. Teen Titans (2005)

This was one of the shows that I watched when I was a little bby, and I loved it! The character development, the dynamics, the soundtrack, the humor — 20/10, definitely recommend watching. The way it flicked from stupid banter about waffles to real life issues like racism, identity and so much more was so amazing to me as a tiny tot. Also, ROBSTAR FOR THE WIN!

2. Ben 10 (including Alien Force, Ultimate Alien, Omniverse — NOT the Reboot, because I haven't watched it yet so I dunno what's going on there.)

Benjamin Kirby Tennyson was my first ever crush, and he will always hold a special place in my heart. These characters were amazing, and intelligent, and funny (and so not heterosexual, but that's a different post) Sure, there were certain aspects they could have done better (BenKai, Benlie, BenElena, basically Ben's relationships as a whole) and there were some plot holes, but overall this was a mind-blowing show; when they needed to be witty and funny, they were very much so. When they wanted angst and sad stuff, they were tear-jerking. When they wanted something disturbing, they brought it. The aliens and lore were (mostly) incredibly interesting and engaging. Nice artwork, lovely soundtrack and I like that up until Omniverse, they didn't treat any of Ben's relationships as the one that would last forever because, like, he's fifteen/sixteen. He's gonna date for a bit before settling down. And outside of fanon, he isn't some womanizing superhero douchebag, he just plays at being arrogant and is honestly super clueless around women.

You can see how much I love it from this long para. 10,000/10. (Wink, wink)

3. The Flash

The show that brought me into the Arrowverse. The earlier seasons were the best, hands down. I haven't watched s6 fully yet, but it won't compare to S1 I know already. The characters go through so much trauma, and it's never talked about, but god, these actors bring their A-game! I never fail to get misty-eyed at the emotional scenes they deliver. Their humor is on point, and sure, some storylines seem recycled, but hey Barry screwing up the timeline never gets old! 10/10.

4. Castle

*Pterodactyl screaming* Caskett was the one that introduced me to shipping characters! No ship will ever, ever come close to Caskett for me, because that's the kind of relationship I want to have: one of mutual respect, adoration and a-grade banter! Their chemistry was off the charts, and the story was amazing (excepting the last seasons) because it was centered around the female lead, for the most part, despite the male lead being the name of the show. The cast had great dynamics, and great character development, and I've watched it 20-30 times and I can watch it again easily.

5. The Mentalist

Simon Baker's Patrick Jane is the one of the most charismatic assholes I've ever seen and I love him (He's not as obvious as bastard magician John Constantine <3). His mind games never cease to amuse and piss off his team. He's wicked and incredibly intelligent, and he wants you to know. He's always ready to make a fool out of someone while drinking tea and subscribing to borderline/full on illegal feats that make his police co-workers scream and pull out their hair. His tragic backstory consists of a dead wife and child, which is an overdone trope, but they carried it off well, and Baker delivers a sobering performance each time. I like that they didn't pursue the main relationship until he gets justice for them. While I don't like the conclusion to Red John, the characters are able to hold their own against Simon Baker, charismatic and interesting in their way.

I know people were expecting Lucifer (I love buddy cop dynamics, and I love his development but also, he's literally one of the most powerful beings to ever exist, next to y'know, GOD and I'd like to see more of that), Arrow, Agents of Shield, Merlin and The Originals (they kinda biffed it at times, but mostly very good (except Klaroline, screw that mess)) but yeah, it's these guys!

Tagging @catxsnow @justagirlinafandomworld @spacesnappy @mrs-chief Hope I didn't double tag anyone!

#teen titans #ben 10 #castle #the mentalist #the flash #this is so long i'm sorry #but i had fun making this

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missallisonargent · 3 years

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Answer the questions and tag 10 people!

So I was tagged by @mostly-vo1d and here goes!

1. When and why did you start watching Teen Wolf?

I was over at someone's house around 2017 and they started the first episode just wanting to try the show. Well before I went home we had watched almost all of the first two seasons. To say I've been hooked since then is an understatement.

2. Who’s your favorite character? Are you like this character in any way?

So for seasons 1-3 Allison (hence the username) was most definitely my favorite, and then that shifted to Lydia in seasons 4-6. Though the two were always close.

I share the wanting to be in controlling at times with Allison. The whole hating to feel powerless. I like control. Not to mention I'm a perfectionist that has picked up this or that hobbies (photography being one of them like her character) and dropped them when I wasn't very good. I'm not bad with a bow though no where near Allison good. I'm also very prone to self doubt and questioning my abilities and choices (in the way of the elevator scene of when she admits shes not fearless and she's always terrified). Allison is probably one of the fictional characters I relate to the most. (I don't admit it but shes also the reason I took French)

Then with Lydia, I mostly relate to being the smart friend. The one who would suggest making a molotov cocktail out of the things in the school's science lab. Always the top of the class, and I just loved how for once the smart friend wasn't portrayed as the nerd.

3. What’s your favorite season?

To be honest season 3, I could quote Motel California and Insatiable, it has the episodes that I've rewatched the most.

The Stydia lover in me also like 6A, though 6B not so much. Season 1 holds a special place in my heart due to it being what started it all. They were still all so innocent.

4. Is there a scene that is really emotional for you?

Being a such an Allison fan, a lot of her scenes really hit home. When she's in the elevator with Noah near the end of season 3 and has the "I'm not fearless. I'm terrified. I'm always terrified." scene I felt it, I really did.

Then her death was a really emotional scene for me, mostly due to thinking more about. Knowing that Scott would have heard her heart stop. Knowing that Lydia really lost her only true friend. Knowing that Chris lost the only person he had left and his little girl. A lot of afterthought made her death worse, plus I watch it years after the fact so I knew she was really dead. I wish we would have gotten funeral though. Or at least flashbacks to the aftermath and grief.

5. Who’s your favorite villain?

Kate. I think her being one of the longest running villains made an impact. Though a big part of this was due to her complexity. We really saw all sides of her and not just a monster. We saw her cover for and care about Allison but we also saw her slaughter innocent people. I think as crazy as it sounds she felt her deeds were justified and followed the code, however screwed up that was. Where like the nogistune was pure evil, I don't think Kate saw herself as a villain. The scene where she talks about her "Scott's not your little hero." really shown her true dimensions.

6. What’s your favorite canon/fanon romantic relationship?

Canon: Scallison, let's be honest, I'm basic. I feel like they would have fit the whole "find my way back to you". Stydia is a close second though and they're actually one of my few endgame ships.

Fanon: I can't really think of one that I hardcore ship. Most of mine are more "they happened but they didn't last". I read a fanfic with Malia/Kira as a side ship and it was kinda nice.

Wait update, for some reason I feel like Allison/Malia has potential. I got on a Mallison kick a little while ago but there's not much content for them.

7. What’s your favorite canon/fanon platonic relationship?

Canon: Familial wise it's most definitely Chris and Allison, I loved their relationship. Then Friendship wise Allison and Lydia (I couldn't help it there my two favs). The whole "I believe you" scene in Motel California made them my favorite friendship.

Fanon: Stallison. 100% no arguements given. They have such similar but different personalities and the only true interaction we got from them was when Stiles was acting as the messenger between Scott and Allison. I mean they both threaten to "shove it up your..." and are the only two humans. I absolutely love the concept of them being siblings and wish we saw more between them.

8. If you could have one thing in canon that’s not ship related, what would it be?

I really wish Allison would have gotten the bite, but I understand why she didn't. So my logical thing to make canon was that instead of Stiles mother filling the void when the ghost riders took Stiles, that Allison would have. I feel like that would have been a much harder situation all around. Not only would it have been much more emotional, but I think Allison being "back" would have made much more sense. Lydia was able to get Stiles back because she had that void in her life. If Allison was there it would have been 10x and more emotional on the characters and viewers alike.

9. If you could have one thing in canon that is ship related, what would it be?

I'm basic but I want my nonendgame loves together. Specifically Scallison.

10. Tell us something positive about Teen Wolf!

I love the community and how open we are!

So I'm not really sure who has and hasn't been tagged so I'm going to leave it to open and say that if you see this and want to do it. I tagged you!

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eldunea · 4 years

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So You Want To Run Through Preuzien?

i’ve received a fair few messages from people interested in having their muses go through prussia, with one person even being interested in making a preuzien OC, so i thought i’d do this post setting up some necessary boundaries and limitations for any character who intends to challenge the prussian league and make a name for themselves in my fakémon region. this applies primarily to muses who wish to start their prussia arcs before lotor became champion, although some of these points still apply to a certain extent even after he won the position.

without further ado…here we go. >:3

[TW: Mentions of death, animal abuse and human abuse. If these topics trigger you, do NOT have your muse do a run through pre-Lotor Preuzien.]

First Things First: Your Muse Probably Won’t Be Champion Anytime Soon

i’ll be blunt. unless your character 1) is willing to kill lotor and all of his pokémon, most of whom are sapient, 2) is willing to risk their life and the lives of all their partners in the championship battle, and 3) can also singlehandedly defeat a five-core complete forme/ragnamax zygarde that has world-ending capabilities and is comparable in power to eternamax eternatus, they don’t stand a chance. for #1 and #2, though lotor has dismantled most aspects of the fight to kill clause, he still keeps the part that says all official championship battles must be fought to the death. he does this as a deterrent to challengers--and he is not afraid to slaughter his opponents in their moments of hesitance should they express any reluctance to kill. and while he doesn’t own ragnamax zygarde, he has definitely single-handedly defeated it, as it’s how he became champion in the first place.

i want to make it clear that this doesn’t mean he’s unbeatable in every scenario. he can still be defeated in a less high-stakes setting where he isn’t allowed to kill or cripple his opponents, or destroy everything around him in a 5-mile radius. one of his big weaknesses is that ever since his championship battle in kalos against diantha he’s gotten real rusty in traditional 6v6 style battling; this is because he has spent all his time perfecting the prussian style of battle, and because if any criminals are stupidly polite enough to do a traditional 6v6 against him, his unprincipled bitch self will just bring out his entire team to gangbeat their ass. but in an all-out campaign match where he gets to use deadly force and unleash the full apocalyptic extent of his pokémons’ power, he is not going to lose to any muse who 1) is not as fully psychologically ready to shed blood as he is, 2) is not psychologically able to handle seeing their pokémon get killed or the mere thought of their pokémon being killed, OR 3) could not also pull off what he did. that is a FACT.

i do hc that lotor stops being champion eventually, but i haven’t figured out when would be a good time for lotor to lose his spot, or even whether i’d want him to lose it rather than stepping down. there are many different possibilities that can be explored and i may make different verses for them, such as the possibility that he loses/steps down from the championship some time in the near future (5 - 10 years) when he feels that his work is done/feels the pressure is too much, or the possibility that he feels his work will take literal decades and he steps down as an old man once he is satisfied that the region has finally reformed. if you are interested in lotor’s championship spot though, please know that as of writing this, i am IFFY about any plot where a muse defeats lotor and then returns prussia to its original ways. this is because despite my love of “ow the edge,” as the creator of preuzien i do want to write a happier ending for a region whose people have seen nothing but suffering. if this does end up happening, it will have to happen in a separate verse.

Be Prepared for a Long and Potentially Traumatizing Haul

the prussian league is a thirty-six-badge-long, MULTI-YEAR ordeal. there is no way around that. i hc other leagues usually take about a year to complete. the prussian league, on the other hand, takes a MINIMUM of 4 years to finish for trainers who start their journeys in preuzien, 3.5 years for trainers who have already entered the hall of fame for a foreign league, and 2.5 years for trainers who have entered the hall of fame in more than one foreign league. for some perspective on its difficulty--lotor, the guy with the 200+ IQ who beat ragnamax zygarde and stopped ragnarök during his championship battle, STILL took multiple years to complete his league challenge. can your muse clear the league in, say, half a year or a year less than the time it normally takes? yes, but i will be selective about who gets to have that honor. please don’t be “that person” and say “well my muse is capable of doing it in less than a year”--no. they can’t. why? because i said so.

another thing to note about the prussian league is its difficulty. this is part of why it takes such a long time for any trainer to get through preuzien: your muse will not have an easy time going through it, NO MATTER WHAT. yes, even if your muse has legendaries…joke’s on them, preuzien’s entire culture is geared toward beating the shit out of legendaries, and i daresay they’re damn good at it. yes, even if your muse is “really, really strong”…everyone in preuzien is also really, really strong, and not to mention, strength in preuzien is different from strength in most of the pokémon world because historically, the prussian league has put its trainers through situations--both on and off the field--approximating WAR. again, for perspective: lotor has one of the highest IQs on planet pokéarth and literally saved the world from the previous deity champion, and preuzien still had times when it PUSHED HIM PAST HIS LIMIT. so if you state that your muse is somehow able to just breeze through every gym and the national tournament like it’s nothing, that’s something i’m going to have a real hard time believing.

as to the trauma part of this section, prussia is a much friendlier place now that lotor is champion…provided you’re not an abuser or a member of a corrupt ruling class. but if your muse is entering the league pre-lotor’s championship, when the region was still under the rule of wilhelmine von hohenzollern, your muse WILL suffer some sort of trauma. there is also no way around that. if they started in preuzien, they would have started in mandatory trainers’ school, where they would have been both physically and emotionally abused by their teachers. the only ways to avoid this abuse are to 1) be a junker’s child whose parents are the rare prussian unicorns that do not support child-beating or 2) become a total kissup to the teachers and other authority figures of the school, screwing over your fellow students to save yourself, and i doubt most peoples’ muses would want to do that. if they started outside the region and came in…they still have the below section to deal with.

Your Muse Will Lose Pokémon

this is no longer a guaranteed if your muse is joining the prussian league under lotor’s rule. but in the time of wilhelmine, under the fight to kill clause, you may be ordered to kill your opponent and their pokémon for the entertainment of the crowd. and you can’t back out from this either, because if you do, you will be publicly executed for failing to provide the audience entertainment. this aspect of the fight to kill clause is no longer in effect, but when it was, it was responsible for so many young peoples’ deaths that the region’s age dependency ratio went completely out of whack. what’s more, the fight to kill clause also states that gym leaders can choose whether they wish to kill you without warning and/or your pokémon at any point during their matches, which only adds to the danger. in a region where the league literally requires you to fight for your life, it is NEARLY INCONCEIVABLE that anyone could get through this without losing at least one of their trusted partners. there is only one person in the entire history of wilhelmine prussia who managed to go through all the gyms and the prussian national tournament without losing a single one of their pokémon (and his name, by the way, is not lotor). i am going to keep it that way.

what’s more, if the brutality of the battles don’t get to you, the lack of healthcare will. preuzien in its pre-lotor days was infamous for the shortage of both human and pokémon healthcare that plagued its system. healthcare was only guaranteed to junkers, the military, and those who are deemed “victors,” aka those who fought long and hard enough to get the government’s attention and be seen as worthy. for the rest, they have to struggle through long and potentially life-ending lines at pokémon centers and doctors’ offices, all of which come from the fact that preuzien glorifies pokémon training and militarism to the point that almost every other profession is suffering a shortage in professionals and that includes healthcare. even if we go with the fanon that nurse joys are always in abundance because they’re actually ditto spawn that can be mass-produced, preuzien would deliberately make it so that there’s a lack of healthcare so they could force people to kill each other over who gets treated. so yeah. under wilhelmine, this is a region in which losing at least one pokémon is a 99.99999% certainty.

Your Muse is More Likely to Fail than Succeed

i’m gonna be straight up right now: i won’t let more than a handful of muses succeed in winning the prussian national tournament--at least, in proportion to the rest who fail. why? because if i as preuzien’s creator let too many people have a successful run through prussia, the difficulty of the league will lose its meaning. it’s not “the hardest league in the world” if every muse and their mother is capable of receiving all 18 type specialist badges, receiving all 18 other strategic badges, and clearing all four stages of the 256-person prussian national tournament. by having too many muses being able to achieve this extraordinarily difficult feat, it cheapens the accomplishment of the few who did. i might be more lenient on this for muses that enter the league after wilhelmine is deposed, seeing as the fight to kill clause is abolished and that explains a big chunk of the prussian league’s difficulty. but even so, given the unique demands that prussian-style battling foists on its trainers, they’ll be hard pressed to rise to the challenge--especially if they were not raised like most prussian trainers are to take it on.

if you want your muse to succeed, i will be tough about this. i will play devil’s advocate and come up with every single possible way in which your muse could fail, whether psychologically or strategically. even the best strategists which basically every muse seems to be can crumble and be broken by a league specifically designed to mentally shatter its participants in order to “weed out the weak.” and even the strongest-willed people which basically every muse also seems to be may lack the particular intelligence needed to handle strategic situations that require one to think less like a trainer and more like a MILITARY COMMANDER. this applies mainly to wilhelmine’s preuzien, because her league is brutal on a scale that is unseen anywhere else in the world and what’s more, it’s not afraid to play dirty. if doing a run when lotor is champion i will be less exacting, but i still want to keep the success to failure ratio low. please don’t take it personally when i start grilling like it’s a BBQ--i just want to be realistic and a hardliner about whether your muse really has what it takes. like the officials of the prussian league itself, i want to make sure that ONLY THE BEST OF THE BEST make it through.

i will, however, say this: just because your muse fails to get to/through the prussian national tournament, doesn’t mean it’s the end for them. they could join tournaments for the badge level at which your muse stopped, or join the coordinating scene that has gained new life under lotor’s leadership. they could move on to another region and enjoy their newfound capacity to beat the shit out of almost everyone they come across, because sometimes even the people who fail in preuzien are leaps and bounds stronger than those who succeed outside it. or they could divert their efforts from trying to climb to the top, thank their lucky stars that they still have their mental health mostly intact, and start taking care of pokémon who were abused by the system. there’s still plenty to do after an unsuccessful prussian run--your character’s story will not necessarily end there, and even in prussia’s darkest days, it would not necessarily end in disaster. to sum it up, failure to complete the league is still a plot point that you may find worth exploring.

in closing, i would like to say: your muse will have it extremely rough going through prussia but honestly…the struggle is half the fun of writing it. >:3

#worldbuilding. || PREUZIEN #rea varda; our destiny. || POKÉMON AU #death*#animal abuse*#abuse*

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