#she just others herself so much. distances herself so much from her existence. comparing herself to the real Minfilia

[aphroditesmoon]

Hiiii! Love your clarisse oneshots ^^. Could you possibly do one where Fem!reader is the daughter of Hades and has a hellhound as a pet that absolutely adores clarisse? Reader also has a similar personality to clarisse, loves to fight and has a big pride but only lets her guard down around Clarisse.(also possibly has her own electric weapon of your choice)Thank you!!

creatures of the night

clarisse la rue x fem!hades'cabin!reader

warnings: none

a/n: sorry this is so short, hope u like it<3

wc; 1.1k

You would never consider your relationship with your father as better than anyone else's relationship with their own parent in camp.

But when you had been claimed by Hades as well as being gifted a long black javelin with gold wrapped around the sharp edge on the same night you arrived at camp Half Blood, it seemed well established to everyone else and including yourself, that your father acknowledges your existence proudly.

Being one of the people in the small list of forbidden children, had created a fearsome reputation around your presence, and honestly speaking, you enjoy the privileges that come with it.

Although it was hard making friends considering your less friendly personality, some campers stuck by your side anyways. Those who bore you enormous respects and had been intrigued by your mysterious air instead of intimidated.

One of them being the infamous child of Ares, Clarisse La Rue.

Beautiful, strong and hot headed, Clarisse La Rue.

The two of you are often compared as the two sides of the same coin. Your personalities differ from eachother in many ways, but when it came to your goals and aims, you both are usually on the same team.

It's safe to say that you are less hostile than Clarisse. You prefer to keep to yourself whilst she prefered to assert dominance onto the other campers. And yet you are the more feared than her.

Clarisse is commonly brutal and unrelenting, but you usually saved up the worst of your tricks for when necessity calls for it. For now, intimidation worked well enough.

What's funny enough, is how Clarisse herself had a certain trepidation when she first befriended you. She learned soon that you were just another demigod girl just like she was, glory aside.

One of the instances where she felt that she had truly seen you as you are, all the facade dropped down, was when you first introduced her to your hound, Cerberus.

Your father had gifted him to you for your 15th birthday. It was one of yoir proudest moments in life. Demigods are almost never cared for that much by their parents, and so to have your coming of age be recognised by your father was a huge thing.

"Is that not the same name as Hades' own three headed hound?" She asked, staring at it for afar from the corner of your bed.

"I know, that's why I named him that." You explained to her as you're sat criss-crossed on the floor, scratching the beasts' chin.

Cerberus, once he deemed Clarisse as not a threat, rolled down on the ground on his stomach.

"Look at him, such a good boy." You were distracted by your new pet all day, ignoring your poor girlfriend who had come over to your cabin to spend time with you. "He's almost as tall as you." Clarisse spoke sarcastically, picking you on your height.

"That's not a fair observation. Most things are almost as tall as me." You responded, still not looking up.

"Are you just gonna keep standing there staring at me?" You asked her finally, realising just how weird the distance between you two were.

Clarisse was hesitant, frowning at your pet like he was some sort of threat. "I...think I'm good here." She muttered loud enough for your ears. "Oh, come on."

Clarisse shook her head as you complained about her irrationality. "Look at him, he's friendly." And he was, Cerberus had warmed up to you quickly and have not shown a single tendency for violence against your girlfriend.

"Come and say hello to him, Clarisse." You called out to her again.

You hear her sigh from the other side of the room. After a few more minutes pass, her footsteps grow louder as she moves nearer to you.

Clarisse squats down to meet Cerberus and flinched as he lifts his head up to sniff her. You reached for her hand, trying to get him to smell it. She pulls her hand back at first, but after a few more pulls, Clarisse relents and lets the hound give her knuckles a lick. "That tickles." She mumbled under her breath.

"He likes you, see." She gives a resigned look, like she's just going along with what you're saying. "No, I'm serious, look at how nice he's acting." You nudged your head towards Cerberus' head, encouraging her to give him a pet

Clarisse braves herself to give him a few strokes on his ears and found that he particularly likes that notion. "I guess he's not that bad." She admitted at last, pulling out a smile from you. "I told you."

"So what is he then? Some sort of guard dog?" She inquires. The gods would gift their children with tools that can be used, never something useless, like a domesticated pet. And from the looks of it, Cerberus is definitely not meant to be a some cute little friend.

"I don't know." You answered honestly.

"It's not like my dad does a lot of talking to me, but he gave me something from the underworld, something that's set as a reminder of him and his place above. I'd like to view it as some sort of stepping stone. Like I'm one step closer to him because of Cerberus."

It's not surprising that your end goal is to follow on your father's footsteps, no one really knows what the real secret to make their godly parent to care about them is.

It is often assumed that glory was the key, and yet, the best fighters in camp a

re usually the ones who resent their parents the most. You often prayed and hoped that you wouldn't ever have to cross that threshold.

"I'm sure he sees it that way too." Clarisse offered kindly. She knew all too well how much it meant to be noticed by their absent fathers, even if so slightly.

She slso knew deep down that even if your father refused to notice the lengths you would be willing to go for him, she did. And she would break the world in two for you if your father wouldn't. And you would do the same for her.

Clarisse leans her back against the lower frame of the bed, a small smile on her face as she watches you scratch the hound's chin whilst kissing the spot in between his eyes.

It is truly rare to catch sight of either daughters of Ares or Hades' being as gentle and playful as this, and Clarisse is grateful that these kind of intimacies are reserved for small private moments.

That same night, as she sleeps with her arms around your waist, Cerberus laying down by the foot of the bed, Clarisse realises that she would do anything for the bond between the two of you to prevail.

#clarisse la rue #clarisse la rue x reader #pjo series #pjo #pjo x reader #pjo tv show #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson x reader #percy jackson #dior goodjohn

[agendabymooner]

SOMETHING SPOILED !!! FERNANDO A. X FEM!READER (18+)

summary: she could easily get away with things and when she couldn’t, he always made sure to put her back in her place

content warning: smut (minors dni!), pwp(ish?), what is context, explicit language, themes of jealousy and sugar daddy/baby relationship, degradation, dumbification, spitting, dacryphilia, impact play, brief mention of oral sex (m receiving), brat taming (dom!fernando), brief lance stroll x reader interaction, shitty smut, what’s beta reading we just rawdog our writing in here

note: i will be making a separate masterlist for this i think… lmk what you think and enjoy xx

a - n masterlist

o - z masterlist

send your 💌re:moony’s planner requests here!

she can get away from a lot of things. she knew that. fernando knew that. 

in fact, fernando would even reward her for it. after all, she never demanded too much and all he wanted was to give her the world.

she wanted a new pair of shoes? he’d buy her the sneakers AND a pair of red bottoms. she wanted something from macy’s? fuck that; he’d have his assistant book the whole floor of harrods just so she can pick out new clothes for her closet. 

he would give her everything. even if she tends to be very playful and hilarious, he’d give her everything just to see it.

her cheekiness was a welcome distraction from his busy life as a professional racer. she’d often tease him in different ways but not once did she ever cross the lines and tested his patience and limits. she wasn’t really a brat, to say the least— she’d often give up by the time fernando would wrap his arms around her and press kisses all over her face.

and if she didn’t give up her act, he’d put her back to her place. it rarely happened, and when it did— they were rough. she would continue to act up just so he could punish her. she welcomed the pain with no hesitation and allowed him to control her like she was nothing but a body to be tossed around. 

she could get away from a lot. whenever she couldn’t, her excitement would soak through her knickers while thinking about his next move.

but right now, she wasn’t really at fault for being so bratty. her petulant attitude toward him wasn’t something that she expected from herself, but when her partner continued to ignore her throughout the party after arriving separately— the least she could do was throw his attitude right back at him. more petulantly, if you were to compare her actions to his.

she sat by the bar counter and quietly sipped on her drink, her ears ringing at the sound of his laughter from the distance alongside other men while they spoke about the happenings during the race earlier today.

she looked so pathetic like this; dressed up in the prettiest slip dress that turned to be a fabric of despair. she was the prettiest woman to have ever existed, and even the rest of the grid thought so, yet she looked so alone. she blamed fernando for this. 

all she wanted was him. she only wanted him right now. nothing more, nothing less. 

yet, in a world where he’d give her everything, he wouldn’t hand himself over to her. instead, he was laughing with lewis and carlos as they chatted about whatever the fuck it was. 

“you’d make a good renaissance painting,” her head shot up at the sound as she found lance stroll sitting next to her. the canadian beamed at her teasingly before sipping on his whiskey on the rocks. 

she scoffed, “if you want to see me naked, just say that.” 

lance laughed over the club music that continued to bust everyone’s eardrums. he then continued, “i would say that but do i really want to get my engines busted by a certain teammate before the next race?” 

her thoughts drifted back to fernando, who, from afar, had gone quiet (not that she knew that), before she rolled her eyes. “don’t be stupid,” she said, “i don’t think he’d care enough to ruin your car.” 

“you’re underestimating the man,” lance chuckled, “way too much, if anything. he could kill with just a look if anyone’s made a passing comment about you.” 

“i really should stop showing up at these stupid races,” she muttered quietly, “it’ll get worse as soon as people find out i hang out in the garages or paddock.”

“why?” lance asked, his frown an evident of concern as he said, “are you two not a…” 

“no, we’re not,” she interrupted with a huff, downing the rest of her drink as she continued, “it’s still the same arrangement. i could just stay at home and still get an allowance— i dunno why i said i’d come with him. look where i am now. he’s doing the same shit he does whenever he’s arriving at the paddock— i have to go after him so nobody knows who i am.” 

it was so obvious that she and fernando should be more than a mutually beneficial arrangement. he showed her something more than financial support and casual intimacy— yet he kept it on the down low as if she’s just a pastime. 

“damn,” lance muttered, offering her a sympathetic smile as he said, “is the money that good?”

“i don’t even care about the money anymore,” she laughed quietly, her eyes pausing from their track as she saw the obvious glare from her partner. he certainly wasn’t happy with what he was seeing.

yet she ignored his heavy scowl as she beamed, “i’m sure you’d be able to provide more if it was about it.” 

lance smirked lazily, now realizing what she was implying as he replied, “i’m sure i would’ve given it to you already if you weren’t as attached to fernando as you are now.” 

looking away from fernando, she covered her excitement and petulance with a giggle before she shoved lance lightly. “shut up.” 

sure, she could get away from a lot of things. but the way fernando stared at her coldly while she was acting all playful towards lance told her enough about the kind of treatment a spoiled brat like her would get from him. 

all she could do was squirm at the thought. 

her mouth let out a shrill cry as fernando pulled her mouth away from his cock, saliva dribbling down her chin to her chest as she felt a sharp pain on the roots of her head. he continued to grab a handful of her hair as he looked down at her. 

his eyes showed nothing of affection. his face offered nothing but mockery and anger. not towards her— but her bratty attitude that she showed tonight. 

he never felt so jealous until he saw lance talking to her up close. and he’s never been angrier than what he felt when she let his teammate get close like that. like she could just move on after talking to the man with a flirtatious smile and get away from her crimes that easily. 

her petulance and constant refusal on the way back to the hotel led to where she was now. her thighs rubbed against each other while tears trickled down her reddening cheeks.

she was desperate for his cock and his touch. both of which she didn’t even deserve despite being his spoiled girlfriend.

she tried to be prideful and strong as she refused to listen to his orders. 

it was too bad for her because while she thought that her pride was big, fernando alonso’s pride was bigger. his ego and his desire to control were what she enjoyed most about this— and these were his tools to tame her. 

“did you think that you can get away from that, hermosa?” he spewed out, watching her as she shut her eyes tightly and shook her head. “not listening to me and letting those men get near you— you’re not very smart, are you?”

“m- fer—“ she babbled, only to be interrupted by the clicking of his tongue as his other hand gripped her chin tightly. finally letting go of her hair, he tilted her chin up to his direction without a word. 

he growled quietly, “you’re such a disobedient girl. a very ungrateful and disobedient girl. you don’t deserve my cock after all of this, hermosa.”

“n- no! please-“ she exclaimed, squirming against the hold on her chin as she pleaded with him, “‘ll be good! i’ll be a good girl, i pr- promise. jus’ wan’ your cock- please nando!” 

his breath fanned on her face as he chuckled quietly, “you don’t listen to me unless you want it, hm?”

his hand let go of the grip for a moment, only for his palm to strike her cheek as he gripped her face once more. “open.” 

her brain, feeling hazy from the impact of his slapping and being deprived of his touch and his cock, short circuited. fernando tsked, tapping her reddening cheek once more as he crooned, “look at you, amor. you’re so dumb for my cock, eh? such a stupid bratty girl— wanting my cock when she doesn’t deserve it— open your mouth, hermosa.” 

she obliged, not wanting to disobey him anymore as he grinned. his grin eventually turned into a frown before spitting in her mouth as he demanded, “you know what to do.”

closing her mouth, she swallowed without a hesitation while her glistening eyes looked up at him.

“so you listen then,” he laughed mockingly, “i thought i’ve already fucked your mouth until you turned stupid.” 

she rubbed her thighs against each other, hoping for some sort of relief as a whine escaped her throat. “what’s wrong, hermosa?” tears escaped her eyes as she continued to plead with him wordlessly. “that’s not going to get you anywhere right now— not after you pulled that shit earlier just so you can piss me off.”

she couldn’t find a way to speak, humiliation and pleasure mixed with her adrenaline as she babbled, “i- i wan’- ‘m…” 

“speak up,” he laughed once more. “you’re way too mouthy earlier— what is stopping you now?” 

she whimpered, feeling too frustrated and already feeling too fucked out. she really wasn’t going to get away with all of those things that she did just to catch his attention earlier.

she just wanted him, but she couldn’t seem to get it all out because of the immense pleasure that she received from being disciplined. 

he chuckled quietly, “you want my cock?” 

she nodded frantically, a series of murmurs escaped her mouth as she meekly cried out, “want you to fuck me, please, please, please nando~ ‘m a good girl.”

“no, you’re really not, hermosa,” he grinned wickedly, “if you were you would’ve known not to flirt with those people. but i guess it was my fault that i’ve left you hanging and horny before we went, no? otherwise you wouldn’t have been that stupid to tease them like you would with me.”

she squirmed again, whimpering at his words as fernando continued, “but i’ve given you so much that you always find a way to get some more. i think that my little slut should be thankful for what she’s getting instead of acting like a spoiled brat.”

she couldn’t even find herself to protest. she was so drunk in lust and his dominance that she couldn’t find herself to fight back against his words. 

her love for him would have to wait. she was in too deep right now and if it meant that she’ll get an orgasm and maybe more then she’d do whatever it takes to please him. 

after all, she was spoiled already. working hard didn’t sound too bad. 

#fernando alonso x reader #fernando alonso au #fernando alonso imagine #fernando alonso smut #formula 1 imagine #formula one smut #formula one imagine #f1 smut #f1 imagine #formula one fanfiction #♔ something sinful ⎯ f1 smut

[magicgalatica]

My Lioness~

Yandere! Apollo (Record Of Ragnarok) x Amazon Warrior! Female Reader

“You’ll Be Mine, Sunshine.”

——————————————————————————

Apollo had met many woman in his life…. Some of Royalty, Maidens, Worshippers, and Nymph’s. Who all adore and admire him for his beauty and charm. Praising him. Drawn to him like moths to glowing light. To which Apollo rewarded them gracefully, pleased to himself. For these woman before him are always at his feet. Come to his beckoning call. To please him if needed.

That was until he saw……

You.

Unlike of those he seen throughout his existence and him roaming onto the mortal realm. You were different….. very different. Instead of focusing on beauty or fashion compared to most woman within the Roman towns. Y/n had no interest. Her eyes focused on something else. Battling beast and challenges set before her. What caught his ear was that you were well known within the Roman town. Known as: The Lioness. Apollo himself wondered why such a title was given to you. Until he learned why. Due to the strong pride you carried when you fight. Either men or monster. Along with your lions that follow your every path. Wearing a lion helmet, shield in one hand and spear in the other. Eyes holding focus. Apollo wondered how such woman would have very strength. Till his question was quickly answered by one of his worshippers. You were a Amazon. A powerful one at that. Able to throw a man onto his back or take a large boar down with ease. Apollo couldn’t help but be so drawn by a very beautiful powerful Amazon. His worshippers took notice and grew jealous. However he ignored them. Plotting on how he should face you directly to introduce himself. Which it wasn’t long for him to figure out since there’s on spot you enjoy to yourself away from everyone. A soft grassy area. Under a large tree that gave shade. Y/n leaned against it to rest herself by her male lion that laid beside her. Breathing softly. Breeze gently brushing. Inhaling air once more. Enjoying silence that held. Only to last for a second as light beamed near her. Y/n opened her eyes, adjusting before moving her gaze to see a male with long blonde hair and clothing the gave of royalty or rather just godly. Apollo gazed upon Y/n who was gazing at him with her e/c. Apollo grinned at her.

“Hello dear maiden, I am Apollo.” He said in a soft tone and gave her a seductive wink.

Y/n however didn’t seem to budge nor flinch at his wink. Or just wasn’t interested. Mainly just registering what he said to her. To which surprised Apollo, normally adjusted to woman immediately falling for him quickly or praise him. But for you, you didn’t show any signs of quick interest. Just a plain gaze.

“Oh you must be the sun god.”

Even tho her voice held respect, her face remained the same. Y/n stood and faced him.

“My apologies for not realizing it was you.”

Oh how her voice sounded lovely to Apollo’s ears.

“It is alright my dear.”

Y/n stood in front of him. Her eyes locked onto his own. Getting a better view of each other. Or rather Apollo getting a better view. Admiring. Her muscles. Her gaze. Her aura. A few scars here and there but it didn’t bother him much. Like she was tiny drop of sun in front of him. So dazzling. So beautiful. He badly wanted his fingers to trace onto her. To feel her. Hold her close to his own body.

“LADY Y/N!” A voice shouted, disturbing them.

Anger flowed within Apollo of the disturbance. Y/n turn away to the voice that sounded within air. No. You were supposed to be focused on him. ON HIM.

“What is it?” Y/n spoke, focusing on the man.

“Beast… Beast are attacking the village.”

Y/n tensed before turning to Apollo.

“I apologize my lord. I must go.” She says to him, taking her spear and shield. Running down the hill to the village to aid.

Apollo stood, watching her disappearing into the distance. Yet the anger still lingered in his body. Why must these mortals request YOU to defeat these monstrosities when they themselves are cocky enough to fight. Especially since they a disturbed their little greeting to each other. Apollo took a deep breath to relieve his anger. He will just have to try to gain your attention again…. Without disturbance.

It became constant. Him facing you. Greeting you. Often bringing gifts. Praising you. You didn’t mind it. But you did point out he didn’t have to bring gifts and praising her. Yet he insisted. Even if you were stubborn about it.

He adored how stubborn you were about it. Like if you were scolding him but not really. Flustered, yet it was so rare for her to be. Though his flirting doesn’t get through her. Pushing that aside rather quickly.

He loved her.

No.

He was obsessed.

To a point he ignored other woman. His eyes focused on her and her alone. Truly like a moth to a dazzling light. Drawn more and more. Obsession growing deeper into him. Causing his emotions to go berserk when near her. To a point he’ll hold her close if they ever enter Roman towns. Nobody dared to bother them, not wanting to enrage the god. Yet Y/n was… dense about it but did question the sun god of him having her so close to him.

“To make sure no one would dare dirty your purity and beauty my sunshine.”

He was true to his own words.

He wouldn’t allow anyone to do so.

That was until a drunken man tried to. Whistling and yet tried to be handsy. Although that ended with him being thrown onto the ground by Y/n. Knocking the wind out of him. However in Apollo’s eyes….

That wasn’t enough.

Maybe a little Devine punishment would teach him a manner… even if it means having to join underworlds gates. Having to excuse himself away for his personal reasons. His eyes glowing with anger. Following where this drunken man has went. Noticing a stumbling body a few feet in front of him. His anger boiled as the man heard his footsteps. Turning to him. Eyes blinking. Trying to get a better view. Then he sobered up when reality hit him. Seeing the sun god standing before him.

“L-Lord Apollo-“

“Silence.”

The man become silent as Apollo glared at him intently. Causing the man to shiver.

“You dare to put your filthy hands onto her beauty.”

“My lord I’m sorry..”

“Sorry won’t take back the action you attempted.”

Apollo twitched his finger as a bow glowed with his hand.

“My lord please-“

Apollo pulled back the string, his cold gaze focused on the man that quivered before him.

“Pleading won’t save you.”

Y/n noticed a glow within the forest. She took a step forward but froze when a wave uncertainty course through her. Like if it was telling to not enter. Apollo appeared before her. Grinning.

“I apologize my sunshine. I had to talk to him to make sure he apologized for his behavior.”

Y/n however, felt like that wasn’t the truth. She didn’t question him about it. Especially when a part of her didn’t wish to push for it to anger him.

Months passed by as many begin to disappear. Y/n begin to question the people of what may caused this. Some believe animals may have gotten to them or moved away. Which was left unknown of the true happening of the missing. Making Y/n concerned although Apollo suggested to worry much of it. Y/n wasn’t at ease tho. Leave but abandon their items. To which was off in Y/n’s eyes. But for now this isn’t at her concern as much it bothered her.

“Lord Apollo. I believe this may be our last time we might speak.”

Apollo raised a brow.

“Why is that sunshine.”

Y/n gazed at him.

“I’ve been summoned in aid for a battle that will commence.”

Apollo’s eyes narrowed as anger filled him.

“I must rest at my housing before I head off in the morning to join the Spartans for the battle.”

Apollo though not showing it, was enraged. Why must humanity deserve your strength and power. Your beauty. Do you not understand. Their using you. Y/n breathes out. Facing him once again.

“I bid you farewell my lord. For I must rest now. Till we meet again.”

Y/n turned away as Apollo stared at her. Watching her walk away from him.

Agitation ignited in Apollo. Humanity doing this. They didn’t deserve you. And you didn’t deserve to be near them. He had to take you away. No.

He needed to take you away.

Night took the sky for Nyx stepped out. Y/n breathes out as she laid amongst her bed. Easing her body. Adjusting before darkness took her eyes to sleep. Tension in her body easing up. Resting slowly into the bedding.

Outside, a dim light glowed as Apollo stood next to her bedding. Staring down at her with glowing eyes. Seeing her asleep peacefully.

Perfect.

Gently moving the hair away from her face as she slept. Sliding her arms under her body. Making sure with movement, he couldn’t wake her up. Lifting her up. Bodies closed together. Apollo walked outside with her in his arms. When you awaken. You wouldn’t be in the human realm no more for you didn’t belong there. You belonged at his side. You were his sunshine.

If you didn’t understand.

He’ll make you understand.

That humanity is what you don’t need. He’ll be all of what you need. He’ll spoil you. Praise you. Pleasure you.

He is yours, and You are his.

#record of ragnarok #apollo #apollo x reader #amazon #female reader #yandere #obsession #oneshot #yandere themes #anime #shuumatsu no valkirye #possession #snv apollo #ror apollo #x reader

[seabirdtxt]

.Irminsul --amend -m 'Scaramouche'

Nahida has called in the book club to try and start discussions about the Creator's situation. Cyno actually kinda knows what he's talking about and Alhaitham is... mostly there for moral support... [< prev] [Blog Tag] [next >]

Notes: SAGAU, reader is the Creator but no cult shenanigans. Separate warning for my writing being all over the place on this one. all relationships are currently platonic!

WC. 2.6k

----- ⚘ -----

There’s not much to do except wait for Alhaitham and Cyno to show up, unfortunately, so you have taken to chatting with Nahida and Aranyani about some of the games and toys that exist back on Earth. Aranyani seems to be interested in the mechanics of each, comparing them to existing games in Teyvat, while Nahida is more interested in trying them out for herself, someday.

Scaramouche doesn’t seem interested in the conversation, but he sits with the three of you anyway and watches the shadows of birds moving beyond the stained glass windows. 

You’d just been explaining the concept of the rubix cube and algorithms to the two gods when a sure knock is heard on the sanctuary doors. Scaramouche takes the opportunity to make his escape from the conversation, shuffling to the door and opening it for the newcomers. 

Cyno steps in, followed by Alhaitham, and the two of them hold each other at a polite distance as they walk down toward the dais, where the rest of you stand to greet them. 

“Hello, my friends!” Nahida exclaims, smiling brightly and clasping her hands together even as she and Aranyani take a gracious step back to allow you and the newcomers space. “Thank you so much for being here! We have a lot to discuss!” 

“We came as soon as we heard,” Cyno replies, nodding. He then turns to you with a little salute. “Your Grace, it is an honor to be in your presence.”

You put your hands up placatingly. “Please, there’s no need for formality…” you say, shuffling awkwardly on the spot as everyone looks at you. You clear your throat and gesture for the newcomers to continue. 

“We heard about the circumstances after your arrival in Teyvat,” Alhaitham states, stepping around Cyno, stopping at his side and crossing his arms. Straight to the point. “Do you remember the circumstances that led up to your descent? It might help point toward the root cause, and shed light on the ‘how’s and ‘why’s.” 

“Uh, good question,” you mutter, scratching your head about it for a second. “I was probably hanging out in my room or something, really. Playing, uh, games on my phone.”

You wonder if it’s too early to mention that said game was Genshin, AKA. controlling their world. You know they’re marginally self-aware, but the extent of which still escapes you. 

“Alright, and did you do anything different while you were playing on this ‘phone’? See anything strange?” Cyno picks up, pulling out a small notepad and quill. “Anything out of the ordinary, things that you don’t normally do or notice.”

“Well, my phone has been glitching a lot when I play games, lately,” you muse. “And I kept getting these buggy screens while I was in-game, but I figured that was just because my device was overheating or something. You know, they build them faulty on purpose so they can sell you a new one every few years? Apparently in France or something they made companies give people the right to repair their own phones, but we don’t have that where I live…” 

Cyno writes down most of the first half of what you say, but you seem to lose the crowd as you ramble. He looks up from his notepad to fix you with a level stare, though you can tell there's just a hint of confusion behind his expression.

“Can you say something that makes sense to people who live in this world?” Scaramouche interjects somewhere in the middle of your rambling, the first time he spoke since you guys first teleported to the Sanctuary of Surasthana. “Or at least stay on topic, or something.” 

“Oh,” you reply, blinking. “Right.” 

Cyno nods to you again, though he keeps glancing at Scaramouche out of the corner of his eye. Alhaitham doesn’t bother with subtlety, fixing the Balladeer with a level, analytical stare. Cyno clears his throat after a few seconds of awkward silence, preparing his notepad once more. “So, you were saying you played on this ‘phone’ device, aside from the problem you noticed, was there anything else you did differently?”

“Not really,” you shrug. “I was playing the game like I normally would, doing commissions and stuff. No, wait, actually I did do something a bit weird.” 

This causes Cyno to perk up, and he leans forward onto the balls of his feet as he listens attentively. 

“Because the game was overheating my phone, my ping was super slow,” you explain. “So I was lagging pretty badly. I was doing one of the leylines in the jungle and I was spamming the interact button on the flower because I was getting impatient…”

“And then?”

“... And then I think another dialogue box popped up, but I didn’t notice what it said.” You finish, sighing. “After that, I just remember waking up beside a leyline thingy right here in Teyvat.” 

“Do you remember the exact location of the leyline?” Alhaitham asks, to which you shake your head.

“The Traveler and Wanderer found me not too long after that, and took me straight to the city. They probably have a better idea than I do, honestly. I didn’t really have a chance to figure out where I was, at the time…” 

“Do you recall any distinctive landmarks? Anything that stood out in an otherwise unremarkable location?” 

You shake your head again, trying to remember what you saw. “No, uh, I was a little bit distracted by discovering I was suddenly in- uh, in Teyvat, and-”

“So you were not already aware of your location when you descended?” Cyno clarifies. You nod quickly.

“I only figured out it was Sumeru when the Traveler started bringing me closer to the city,” you agree, wringing your hands nervously under the general’s gaze. “The few little houses and tents that started popping up, the architecture kinda gave it away…” 

“Were there any inconsistencies you noticed between your knowledge of Teyvat and the actual Teyvat when you arrived?” Cyno asks, his head tilted to the side ever so slightly. “Just to make sure you’re in the correct version.” 

“Well, funny you should mention that,” you figure it wouldn’t hurt to share this, given the result of it sitting right next to you. Out of the corner of your eye, Nahida is giving you a thumbs up. “I got hurt touching a leyline, not the same one as when I first got here, though! I got a little cut on my hand, because the leaves are a bit sharper than I was expecting…”

Alhaitham’s attention shifts from the Balladeer back to you. “What happened when you were injured?”

“I, uh, I accidentally made Irminsul recover some deleted information.” You simplify as best as you can. “And now there’s several things that were added back to the world that aren’t technically supposed to be here...”

“I’ve never heard of leylines doing that, before,” Cyno remarks. “Then again, it’s not every day the Creator descends to Teyvat.” 

“Have you tried going back to the same location to see if it yields reverse results?” Alhaitham wonders aloud, seeming amused by the strange predicament. 

“And what is that supposed to achieve?” Scaramouche interrupts again, snorting as he crosses his arms. “Besides going for a leisurely stroll through the jungle, I mean. Irminsul already recovered the missing data, and the location itself doesn’t matter, if you haven’t noticed already, since you can find a leyline just about anywhere.”

“It’s certainly an unprecedented behavior for leylines,” Cyno agrees. “But again, the Creator has never descended before-”

“We heard you the first time,” Scaramouche deadpans, earning him a smack upside the head courtesy of you. “Ow! Do you want to figure this stuff out or not?”

“Be nice,” you grumble, though you do feel slightly annoyed at the repetitive line of questioning. “He’s just ruling things out, right?” You turn to Cyno, nodding encouragingly for him to continue. 

“Ley lines are a complicated but fascinating subject to study,” Cyno states, crossing his arms and tucking his notebook under one elbow. “However, I’m afraid interdimensional travel is a little bit outside Spantamad’s realm of expertise.”

“Honestly, that’s fair,” you give a resigned sigh, but Scaramouche cuts you off.

“But how’s that supposed to help you?” He sneers and rolls his eyes, shaking his head. “It’s like you want to be stuck here forever with no explanation for how you got here in the first place.”

“Can we just chalk it up to magic or something?” You ask sheepishly, a little embarrassed at having taken the time out of two of Sumeru’s most important figures’ days.

“I was looking forward to hearing about how you got into this predicament with your own two idiot hands, honestly.”

“What I want to know,” Alhaitham suddenly interjects, surprising everyone else with his initiative. “Is how the Creator and the Dendro archon are here, cozying up to a Fatui harbinger?” 

Four pairs of eyes blink at him in surprise, while Cyno nods in agreement.

“I think that’s the more pressing matter, here,” he agrees, and you can sense the tingle of static in the air as his previously-relaxed grip on his notebook starts to tighten. 

“Okay, see, that’s one of the things I was talking about!” You say quickly, the words leaving you in a rush in hopes of stemming the building tension in the sanctuary. “He was a harbinger before, but he’s all better now!”

“You say that like it was an illness,” Scaramouche snorts, to which you can only laugh.

“Yeah? As if you didn’t act a little bit sick in the hea-”

Nahida, who up until now has been doing an excellent job of pretending to mind her own business, decides to chime in before the general can come to his own conclusion.

“I apologize for not warning you two earlier, but I do have it on good authority—that authority being myself,” she hides her giggle with the palm of her hand, “that the Balladeer poses no harm to either of you, or the Creator!” 

“It’s also kinda my fault that he’s here, so I mean…” You trail off and give an apologetic shrug.

“How did you know I was a harbinger?” Scaramouche’s eyes narrow at Alhaitham and he crosses his arms as well, mirroring both the scribe and Cyno. “As far as I've been told, the memory of ‘me’ was erased from Irminsul.”

Cyno shakes his head. “No, there is recorded evidence of the Balladeer’s involvement with the sages’ god-creation plan,” he corrects, relaxing very slightly after Nahida’s reassurance but not dropping his guard completely. 

“I was present at the time of the Traveler’s investigation of the Joruri workshop, where they confronted the mechanical false god,” Alhaitham adds. “The person who fell from the machine indeed bears striking resemblance to you, but was confirmed to not be the Balladeer himself. However, Lord Kusanali’s own interjection confirms that you are indeed the Balladeer.” 

“He’s been reformed,” you say cheerfully, but your mind is running a mile a minute. Evidently Nahida and Aranyani are on the same page, because the two goddesses drift closer with curious looks on their faces. 

“So Irminsul has already started patching the holes in Teyvat’s history,” Nahida muses, hands on her hips. “It’s much faster than I anticipated, given the circumstances.”

“Not as surprising as you would think, little sprout,” Aranyani pats her head. “Irminsul is capable of very rapid computation, but the problem lies in resolving as many conflicting histories as possible. Two is faster, but three will cause some things to be shuffled around for a few days, still. The justification of the existence of multiple incarnations of the Balladeer may yet be subject to change.”

“So you’re saying that what we currently perceive as fact, is instead false?” Cyno asks, having retrieved his notebook once more. As the goddesses continue to muse on the subject, he writes down their theories and makes some notes of his own. 

“I’d say sorry for that workshop fight,” Scaramouche says, addressing Alhaitham with a smug grin. “But I honestly didn’t even remember you being there. I guess you just weren’t that noteworthy to me at the time. No hard feelings, right?” 

Alhaitham doesn’t even bother to grace him with a look, much to Scaramouche’s annoyance. Instead, the scribe quietly listens in on the Irminsul discussion.

Meanwhile, you try to remember what team you had when you took on the Archon quest fight. It’s been a while since then, and you’re not sure if you’re thinking of the right fight. Maybe you used Alhaitham in one of your weeklies? Speaking of which, do those boss fights exist in the world of Teyvat, or is that just for you as a player of the game? If they exist, how do the characters feel having to go beat up the same people on a weekly basis? What about the characters who are weekly bosses, like Wanderer, Childe, and Ei?

Thinking about it is starting to give you a headache. 

You decide to tune back in as Nahida and Aranyani finish bouncing ideas between themselves, with Cyno furiously scribbling annotations in the margins of his notepad. What was it they were talking about again? You get the sense that maybe you should've paid a bit more attention. 

“- that’s the case, then we should contact Inazuma and see if there is a new history that came up.” Cyno offers, to which Nahida shakes her head.

“If we ask directly, the answer we will get is the same.” She explains, wringing her tiny hands. “To them, this knowledge will have always existed. They will perceive it as an unchanged fact, in the same way you and the Scribe believe the circumstances of the Balladeer to be a fact. The better people to ask would be the ones involved in the anomaly.” 

“Alright, and how do we find them?”

“See, that’s the funny part…” You begin, only to be interrupted by a sudden swirling pressure in the chamber.

It’s strange to see the teleportation from an outside perspective. You watch as Wanderer shimmers into existence, adjusting his hat. The metal charms on the ends of it chime as they settle. He looks up, catching sight of you first and raises a hand to wave, only to stop short when he sees the other guests.

“... Looks like I’m late to the party,” he remarks, drifting over to Nahida’s side. “Wanna catch me up to speed? Not that I care, but I might as well get the full picture so I can correct you where you're wrong.”

“I asked for the General and the Scribe to come visit so that we could get a better grasp on the Creator’s situation!” Nahida explains, smiling brightly at him. 

“Great, and how did that go?”

Everybody chooses to look in different directions, unable to look Wanderer in the eye. You hear him heave an annoyed, but resigned, sigh. 

“We might’ve gotten somewhere if Buer hadn’t sidetracked,” Scaramouche adds helpfully. 

“And you might’ve gotten the groceries like you guys said you would, too, but here we are,” Wanderer crosses his arms, pinning you and Scaramouche with a pointed look. 

You wince and turn around, subtly leaning over to Scara, whispering: “I actually forgot about that…”

“Me too…” he replies, not quite as quietly as you. You both startle as hands come down on both of your shoulders, Wanderer’s grinning face appearing between the two of you. 

“Isn’t this just a splendid opportunity for you two to go find the traveler and restock our pantry, while Buer and I go over the details of what you clowns didn’t explain right?” 

Scaramouche wastes no time wresting his shoulder out of Wanderer’s grasp with a noise of disgust. “Who do you think you are to order me around, teacher’s pet? I’ll go when I feel like it.” He sneers, stalking off toward the doors of the sanctuary.

You offer a light chuckle and a wry grin of apology to the others, who watch unimpressed at Scaramouche’s display, while Wanderer dismisses you with a shooing motion.

Right. Time to get those supplies. 

#genshin sagau #sagau #self aware genshin #genshin self aware au #genshin isekai #genshin wanderer #sagau wanderer #genshin scaramouche #sagau scaramouche #sagau x reader #scaramouche x reader #wanderer x reader #seabird.txt #glitch in irminsul au

[iamanoccasionaldoodler]

It does make me insane that it seems like Pyrrha was the OG cult member who both liked and was liked by John the least. He's constantly belittling her accomplishments and even when she helps them he calls her a "pet cop" and doesn't give her the credit for having chosen to join them.

And SHE didn't seem to like him either! She's the first to doubt him at every turn and when she is on his side it seems like she's more in it for G- than for John. I think if she'd been able to convince G- to leave she would have been gone in a heartbeat, but he was too damn stubborn.

And when Pyrrha dies in the attack on the compound John doesn't even describe it! We know how everyone else dies, either by seeing it happen or having John describe where they were, but all he says about Pyrrha is "I felt (her) go." Where was she! What was she doing! She wasn't in the room everyone else died in, and she didn't go back for them at the end!

Pyrrha is obviously distanced from the other Lyctors by the end of Harrow because just speaking up about her existence would send them all into catastrophic meltdowns, but it seems like she was ALWAYS that way. She doesn't really seem like she believes in or cares about John or his empire. She was there for Gideon, and now Gideon's dead, so she immediately cuts her losses at the end of Harrow.

The other Lyctors don't even seem to have KNOWN her that well. I don't think Augustine, Mercy, or John say anything about Pyrrha other than "she was hot" - compared to the other Lyctoral gang members (Cassiopeia collected ceramics! Ulysses threw parties! Valancy painted nude portraits of herself!) - Pyrrha is a black hole for much of Harrow. This could just be because we actually get to meet her, so who cares about 10,000 year old anecdotes, but it's striking that the remaining Lyctors (minus Gideon) don't seem to know or care what kind of woman she was.

And on top of all THAT we also get the knowledge that Pyrrha liked Alecto. I'm not sure what liking Alecto meant - did Pyrrha think her mannerisms were funny? Did she feel bad for her? Did they hang out? - but the fact that she seems to have liked Alecto more than any of the other Final Four while also liking John the least....... Much to think about.

#pyrrha dve #the locked tomb #tlt #tlt spoilers #nona the ninth

[mikodrawnnarratives]

TW IMPLIED CHARACTER DEATH

TW BLOOD

(Just like last time, it isn't really graphic but I'm tagging just so you know)

@naffeclipse

Part 1 | This is Part Two | Part Three | Extra

It. Probably won't need a part 4

I'm doing this all on one cps file so I sure hope so kjlfdkfljs

i'm at like- 750+ layers i'm so sorry my file

...there might be a part 4 but it'll be small sketches and aftermaths

Once again, long post under the cut:

I am not the only traveler, who has not repaid his debt.

I've been searching for a trail to follow again

Take me back to the night we met

- The night we met by Lord Hurdon

Alright, I didn't make too much of an effort to hide it but how many of you guessed it was gregory and how many of you didn't see it coming?

Gee I wonder who Gregory's companions are

Okay if you don't have a nugget of who these companions are then my rambling below makes it a little more obvious

Anyway, this little comic of self indulgence to mend my broken heart says "YO what if Gregory and other characters saved Vanessa like they did in canon"

It certainly would NOT be easy for Vanessa once she wakes up to that realization. But there are factors that make it a little bit easier for Vanessa to cope compared to other children.

Since Gregory and others proved they could fight and free her as Vanny, it gives her mind a little reassurance that they aren't completely helpless.

Plus, I like the idea of the GGY story (Dr Rabbit) existing as this au's equivalent of the same experience, that would mean Gregory has had his own bad experiences with Glitchtrap and so it wouldn't be like some random kid going against a threat he was unfamiliar with

She still distances herself a lot earlier on and the more time passes, the older Gregory gets, the less he looks and sounds like a kid.

Those make it much easier for Vanessa to stand being around them as time goes by. Earlier on, she only really interacted when absolutely necessary. But she did grow a small soft spot for them.

She remained pretty closed off about herself over the years and never delved too deep about her past. Ness left frequently for her own hunting jobs and at one point Gregory asked where she went. Somethings made it seem like these hunts weren't just random and different

He didn't get an answer of course. But later that day, Vanessa told him about Y/n. In vague terms. This is the most information he ever gets about Vanessa's past.

So Gregory's got no idea who to expect to see showing up to the gravestone ltr on and is just like

Gregory: cool, ur mysterious enough for it to be believable ur related to my mysterious older sister/mentor figure Wanna hear a story

Y/n: ...yes.

Forgive him his brain is ever so foggy from grief and no slep

Anyway, Y/n picked a day to visit Vanessa when they knew they were stable enough not to lash out and attack any humans that may happen to also be visiting the graves. They had eaten pretty recently but not so recent that they were vulnerable.

It's pretty early in the morning where it is still dark and the rain provides some more protection.

If you couldn't tell before, many MANY years have passed since Y/n has been human. Think somewhere between 20-30 years. And while, they still hate who they are now and aren't mentally okay, they've gotten a semi-solid understanding of their limits and what they can and cannot tolerate and when.

And, even though they are nervous, they can manage to have this conversation with Gregory for now.

Why are they talking to Gregory so willingly? despite the risks?

well

the next part will explain that

#Last Goodbye and First Hello comic #my art #MDN art tag #cryptid sightings #cryptid sightings fanart #vampire!y/n #the lost episode #cryptid sightings the lost episode #fnaf vanessa #vanessa a. #fnaf vanessa a. #dcamv #daycare attendant multiverse #gregory fnaf #fnaf gregory #gregory fazbear #cryptid hunter!y/n #cryptid hunter y/n #tw blood #blood #cw blood #cw character death #character death #implied character death #tw character death #fancomic

[pap03]

Okay so I originally wrote this on Discord so apologies for any jank

But I need to get out my mega LOVE theory for Deltarune somehow, and Discord is the only place I've wrote it down lol

Anyways what got me going was this here difference in stats

Both being a post-Snowgrave Kris, just one from the Light World and the other from the Dark World

And this discrepancy would be strange right? If both LV's stood for the same thing

Which I'd why I claim that they do not

Rather that the LV in the Light World still refers to the LOVE of UT

While the LV in the Dark Worlds stands more properly for a "Level" a way of gauging the amount of Experience the Fun Gang have

Doubly true as the Dark World stats measure nowhere "EXP" aka "Execution Points"

From what I can tell Level only goes up upon reaching certain HP values, as Noelle goes from Level 1 to Level 2 in the Dark World

Since Noelle "Levels up" upon finishing just one act of violence in the Dark World

So I think it'll be possible later on to Level up early if you're violent enough

Sorta opposite of how it worked in UT, where you needed to LOVE up to get HP

In Dark Worlds you need to get your HP up to Level up

But that’s a bit of a tangent; continuing on

With the ground rules laid out that LV and LV can exist synchronously the next thought in my ramblings was that I need some proof that Noelle will continue to be our main Puppet, to explain why this LV theory should be relevant

And on that front, I got several bits

Easiest for me to lay out here is that the Survey taker at the beginning of ch 1 has special dialogue if you name yourself after a majority of the party members

This includes: Kris, Susie, and Noelle

All 4 share the same reaction

Secondarily Noelle lays out herself in the hospital that she's gonna figure out what's going on with Kris, which means to me that she'll keep coming around Kris, even despite the coercion into murder

And lastly, Noelle’s crush on Susie has so much unmissable screentime that Chekov would shit his grave if there were no resolution to it

This established leaves the first 2 core tenents of my theory

1. LOVE exists

2. Noelle will be the sole Snowgraver as the game progresses

For the sake of it, let's tackle the ramifications of both of these in order, as 1 heavily leans into 2

1. LOVE as we know it in Undertale exists in some way form or fashion in Deltarune

Natural questions that raises

- Do Darkners count for EXP? Yes, I'd say so, given the inverse effect on how Levels contribute to HP compared to how Undertale's LOVE and HP work, and the fact Noelle gains HP faster than the rest of the Party when they commit violence I'd argue there's a secondary element increasing her vitality, that being her LOVE increasing

- If LOVE exists why isn't Noelle a complete psycho killer in the Light World? Because that's not how LOVE works, by sans's admission LV contributes to making it easier to hurt others, and easier to distance yourself, but never expresses that it creates a want to kill, although that does seem to be a side effect which I'll get into next section

Mechanics of LOVE across Undertale and Deltarune:

For most people who've played a neutral run of Undertale, you'll be remiss to note anything going on as you gain LV. As much as I love Frisk as the blank slate of a protagonist that they are, their lack of emotions makes it hard to tell what exact the differences are between an LV 3 individual and an LV 7 one, differences sans can tell, but we can't really

So then we have to look elsewhere, mainly the Genocide run and comparing characters who may have killed in UT to their murderless counterparts in Deltarune

- Early LV's 1-6

At this point a person has killed a bit, but is also where the effects of each individual LV is the most noticeable, as sans has unique dialog for every LV here

What this tells me is that your first kills change you the most compared to later kills

Also during this LV range we see Frisk start their way through Snowdin in a Geno run, where they skip puzzles without our input, and are generally quieter than even before

I call this part of the LV grind "Getting Colder" for many reasons, partially for the pun, but also how we see Frisk act much more distant, aka cold, towards their surroundings and walk through situations, giving of an energy of "I don't care, let me through"

Considering this is also the LV's you'd end the game at for killing just Toriel or Undyne (two impassable bosses without killing or their special sparing method) that general sentiment persists

For the sake of it, I also reference Gerson and Asgore, Gerson was in the War of Humans and Monsters and has intimate knowledge about human combat and abilities, and while it's canon that no human casualties were suffered through the whole War, I would not be surprised if Gerson had to put down a fellow monster or two during the chaos after the Barrier was first erected. Yet despite that idea, Gerson is still just a bubbly, slightly traumatized, old man in Waterfall telling me that you can work past Early LVs. Yet there's also Asgore, as of the time of me writing this the only character who has canonically (and confirmed to) taken the life of anything, and as of our time encountering him, he's distantly removed from the act he's doing, which is another murder. However I must mention that there's a lot of shit there for Asgore compared to Deltarune's Asgore that could lead to the state he's in beyond LOVE so take that with a grain of salt

- Middle LV's 7-14

This is where an interesting switch occurs, specifically at LV 9 but the larger grouping together sorta encompasses it all. This is where Frisk (yes Frisk I'll elaborate if I have to) begins to enjoy the act of killing, smiling before every encounter, and even reveling in the fear of others, such as when Frisk intimidates Monster Kid just before the Undying fight

Now above I talk about how wanting to kill isn't a symptom of LV, and I still believe that

While this seems to be contradicting evidence to that claim I don't think so, as I think it's around this point that one becomes so distant that the act of killing someone else doesn't invoke any feeling of remorse anymore

Where Frisk's enjoyment is derived from is their "Determination" as at the point they're smiling they've killed every monster they could find up to this point, so they're happy to "finish what they started" and also why the Smile goes away if you abort Geno at this point forward as that goal of eradication is gone

- High LV's 15-19

This is the grouping we know the least about, as the majority of these are Geno exclusive, CORE/Hotland exclusives no less which at this point the whole Underground is on lockdown so any unique traits from here are lost in translation, from best we can tell, anything shy of all kills isn't labeled as "True Evil" by MTT and LV 17 is labeled as "Bad at being evil" by sans

So perhaps there's some room for redemption at this point? Idk, sans doesn't think so at LV 19, but it's an interesting thought

- LV 20

This one gets a special mention just because of how everything goes down

The Mercy Button is gone

Frisk is able to make inputs without Player input

And at this LV it's possible to summon the Demon, a manifestation of the evils you caused and power you gained by pushing this world to its limits that quite literally has the power to attack the game box Undertale is played in

This demon is the single most powerful being we've encountered inside of UT/DR outside of maybe Asriel

Now, with everything LOVE-related established we can also use it as a symptom list to diagnose Noelle at where she's at and take a rough estimate as to how much LOVE a single Snowgrave run would allow for

And well, I won't run yall through the numbers so to speak but she's solidly in the Early LV's

She still has remorse for the deaths she did cause

But she's also able to distance herself from her actions there, could be grief but her interactions with her father on Snowgrave compared to a Main Route shows to me that she's a little more reserved, which also falls in line with Early LV symptoms

So what does that leave?

Well, as someone pointed out to me before, Noelle has some violent tendencies

They're reserved, but come out when say, Berdly also has a crush on Susie, or if it's encouraged (see what this whole post is about lol)

See also the theory that the damage at the beginning of the Cyber World was caused by Noelle, not Queen, and there's reason to see where things may go as Noelle breaches into the Middle LV's

I see her, like Frisk, enjoying the slaughter as things continue on

So to conclude my little LOVE Theory I see the rest of Deltarune going as such

1 more route of us manipulating Noelle into killing, she'll be far more resistive, but I know we'll break through, with the boss of that area that she kills (secret boss or another Lightner) the last we'll see of Noelle she'll have cracked a smile

Then from there on she'll easy, fights will break out just from her instigation, or from others more heroic trying to get in her way

By the end I think we'll have to fight her, and she'll kick our asses

Or we'll have to fight Kris

It's hard to know that far ahead

But using LOVE alone, that's how I see things going

Thanks for reading if you did! Feel free to comment and discuss or ask me questions through my ask box. Hope you enjoyed my transcribed madness lol

#deltarune #noelle holiday #noelle #noelle deltarune #kris dreemurr #kris #deltarune chapter 2 #kris deltarune #deltarune noelle #deltarune snowgrave #snowgrave route #snowgrave #undertale #undertale theory #deltarune theory #frisk ut #frisk undertale #long post

[mari-lair]

It’s wild when I see people say Aoi is written only to be Akane’s love interest, cause Akane never hid that he is her boy.

He goes the extra mile just for a hint of her attention and had given the classic childhood friend heroine speech of "I’ll love my crush even if they never look my way."

It's framed as a joke but he is genuinely happy as long as Aoi exist, he can enjoy his life and look forward to all his days no matter how shitty they are (Teru bullies him, the clock keepers work him dry, he gets rejected constantly, and so on,) as long as Aoi is alive and happy.

He is ridiculously easy to please when it comes to Aoi.

And while Aoi does loves Akane, visibly being affected by him: As seen by her possessive attitude, her wish to be closer to him, and the way his hard work influenced her, she doesn’t try or want her world to revolve around him.

Yes, she will cry and crumble if he doesn’t like her because she cares deeply, their relationship is a solid part of her character, but she has plenty of hobbies and plans without him, most of her problems are caused by herself or society's views and expectations of her, she wouldn’t do what Akane asks of her or change for him, not unless he is asking for something she also wants for herself.

Let’s compare how they talk about each other for a bit.

The only time Aoi talks about her feelings for Akane is in chapter 84, which is very far into the manga.

And this exposition shows her envious and insecure side, how she admires kindness and wishes she was as lovable: It shows a conflict that says as much about Aoi’s character as it does about Akane’s character.

Meanwhile, Akane consistently talks about her, and most of his expositions don’t offer any substance to his character, other than “he is in love”.

The only exposition that says as much about himself as it does about Aoi is the one in chapter 24, which shows he stalks her, and Aoi encourages it, since she trusts him, and unfortunately, she have been in need of constant protection from a young age:

Even when Akane explicitly says he’ll talk about himself.

He doesn’t.

He  proceeds to spend the whole chapter talking about Aoi.

The only thing he says about himself in that entire rant is “I hate that part of you”, which he later admits was a lie, something that he used to have her stay and listen.

He isn’t just her boy, he has a life outside her, a very busy life.

As Aoi put it, “He works hard and is dutiful.” which mostly translates to ‘helpful and trust worthy’, so he is constantly seen giving other characters advise that works or making them snap out of their bullshit: He is the reliable one.

His classmates respect him , Teru trusts his judgement, and hell even Kou, who barely interacted with Akane had called him and not a close friend like Nene, when he felt powerless and needed help.

But no matter how seriously he may take his duties or want to help people, Akane has decided he was born to love and protect Aoi.

That’s his priority, always.

His only long term goals involve Aoi, he devoted all his heart and soul to her.

If she wanted Akane to change his style to clothes he would never wear on his own, or make him get into new hobbies, or tell him to score lower than her, he would do it right away: He is comfortable being her boy, he’ll throw his pride away with no hesitation for her and do anything to make her happy to an extreme even most ‘heroines’ I see wouldn’t cross.

The one thing Aoi made VERY clear despite never saying out loud is “Keep your eyes on me. Don’t flirt with anyone else.” and that’s a wish that Akane took to heart, to the point that he is the only character that stays ‘loyal’ to his love interest even on silly extra events, like the ‘kiss day’ arts.

Everyone else send a kiss, no matter if they have a love interest or not, since is just a fun little bonus.

Akane only starts to touch her when he is confident Aoi likes him too: When he assumes she wants him, before that he always kept a certain distance, understanding he ain’t entitled to shit just because they are childhood friends.

Akane is far from perfect, he can be selfish and self centered, his approach to help usually tactless, but at his core, he always seek to do what Aoi wants, no questions asked.

His devotion is extreme to the point of being unhealthy, but he isn’t lying or trying to please Aoi here: As long as she is alive, and enjoying life, he will be delighted doing any of the things she wants. Her best hairstyle in his eyes is always the one she chose to style, the best clothes are always the ones she wants to wear.

There is nothing he likes more than her. Or to make her happy.

Even what Akane loves to do the most, which is to gush about Aoi nonstop until he looks batshit insane, is something that she had encouraged and never complained, no matter how much it escalated, so he was convinced she loved the attention.

Once she is honest and admits she doesn’t like it, he immediately tries to drop it.

He still has an ‘I was born to love you’ mentally, he just stop putting on a show, or trying to make her heart flutter. Most of his displays of worry, affection, or ‘ill protect you’ became either quiet or casual.

...Still.

He can’t help but show his love loudly from time to time, he is cringe at heart, truly hopeless, but he is trying his best.

In short: Aoi is in desperate need for more character focus, but the one determined to make their life revolve around their love interest is clearly Akane.

#while everyone wait for the chapter to be translated here is a post to pass the time #akane aoi #aoi akane #aoikane #tbhk #toilet bound hanako kun #and yes i wrote this because of bad takes i saw on twitter #but also cause i'll take any excuse to talk about them #jibaku shounen hanako kun #jshk #tumblr i love you pls show it in the tags #character analysis

[period-of-nocturne]

You know there's a logic behind each team leader in pjsk and it's funny to me how nobody noticed it seems

The first reason is obvious in main story, they're all the reason the group currently exist, they're the ones who brings everyone together even if it wasn't on purpose

Minori is a good example because she's the reason the three others hasn't quit being an Idol, she brought them back to the Idol industry and without her MMJ wouldn't even exist. As the first April Fools proves by the way since it's a huge "And what if X and Y hasn't met, or this went differently"

Kanade is obvious too since without her Niigo had no reason to be. Mafuyu Ena and Mizuki all ended up here after seeing Kanade's work and without that they would never met

Tsukasa is less obvious, but he's the one who agree to help Emu first to save WonderStage, then he dragged Rui around, then he made Nene face her fears except he made it in a pathetic way, then he dragged Rui around again. Like he was the cause for the three of them to change in the first place

Kohane is a curious one but I don't believe An third wheeling the guys would have work... actually she might have refuse to team up with them if she was alone, so Kohane was the last piece they needed to form VBS. Also the formation of the team and the relation between the 4 revolved around her apparition in main story

And Ichika... It's hard to explain, because Saki coming back did a lot for them going back together too, but I think Ichika was the one who act on what they both wanted the most at the time. She was already trying her best to keep contact with the two others before, but Saki's support and energy what just what she needed to finally affirm herself again and speak openly to the two others. Actually, it's her personality as a whole and how she steps in and act on her feelings when she thinks is needed that makes her the one tying everyone together. Also at the times Hona and Shiho distanced herself from Ichi partially because of what the random NPC said about her so it was kind of all revolving around her since the very start.

... I could point out a lot of things like that but I'll just tell you the check L/N main story again with that in mind or it won't end

The second trait they share is that they're all the one... leading... wow...

No I mean they're the person in the front most of time, like Ichika is the singer and MC, Tsukasa is most of time the leading role of the play, Kanade isn't exactly leading in any way but she's still Niigo's core

I believe Minorin will become the front Idol in the team in time (I only know the details of the stories in EN server so I can't talk much about the JP one but from the little I know I wouldn't be surprised if I'm proven right soon)

It's less obvious with Kohane, no maybe it became a bit obvious since Kick it up a Notch!, but she's the front in her own way. How to explain it...

It's her voice that makes it obvious, as higher pitch voices are often put in front while the low tones are used for background. Toya sings in low-tone because he's kind of "The backbone of the team" "The supporting voice" as he was called, and Kohane is the opposite here, her high-pitched voice being easily heard. + Her compared to Nagi and everything around her that insinuate that she's the one with the most potential (I refuse to agree because the 4 are amazing but it's what the story says) and everything else.

It gives her that 'leading place', though VBS doesn't have an official leader story-wise. Actually aside WxS and their self proclaimed leader, there is no team leader story-wise anyway.

So yeah it isn't revelant story-wise for the team in itself but the leaders are the leaders for a good reason. So the next time someone says An should has lead VBS or Shiho lead Leo/Need I will- get hit by a truck

#project sekai #hatsune miku colorful stage #pjsk #project sekai colorful stage #projectsekai #ichika hoshino #hoshino ichika #hanasato minori #minori hanasato #kohane asuzawa #azusawa kohane #tsukasa tenma #tenma tsukasa #kanade yoisaki #yoisaki kanade

[monstersdownthepath]

Herald of Milani: Courage Heart

CR 15

Chaotic Good Medium Outsider

Adventure Path: Reign of Winter: The Shackled Hut, pg. 84-85

The baby of the bunch among the Heralds, Courage Heart here also has the dubious honor of serving the youngest of the gods we've seen thus far, with Milani becoming a full-powered deity only a century ago with the death of Aroden, for whom she formerly served as a saint. Courage Heart is even younger, being only a few decades old, having perished as a mortal in the upheavals of Galt, only to have her soul rescued by Milani and transformed into a being of divine freedom. She is so young that she still has immediate mortal family, as in brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, parents... but she refuses to ever see them if she can help it, and has cast aside her past name in favor of her divine title so that no connections can be made between her and her family. Not out of shame, or pride, or hatred, but because Galt isn't a very nice place to live, and if anyone ever found out who her mortal family is, that's a weak point that could be exploited.

She still remembers being mortal and will sometimes return in the guise of one to avoid suspicion from fiendish onlookers, taking on the shape and abilities of a Ranger of 4th or higher level, staying only long enough to fulfill whatever mission she saw fit to accomplish before departing, never revealing her divine form or purpose until she's safely back in Elysium. She never stays long enough to form attachments and purposely hardens herself against any attempts to know her, not wishing to put any allies (or potential friends) through the grief of watching a beloved companion vanish without a trace. One must imagine it a terribly lonely existence, but at least she has the benefit of friends she's made in Elysium waiting for her between missions.

Despite her appearance preceding Inner Sea Gods by a full year, Courage Heart really benefits from the two-page spread she's afforded in the book. Compared to the rest of the Heralds who have their stats, art, and lore crammed onto single pages with no room to breathe or stretch, CH has a fully realized lore block, beautiful art, and a statblock that puts an enormous number of other Heralds to shame despite being younger and, thus, much less experienced than any of them. There's a few Heralds who punch above their weight class, and CH is one of them. Let's see just what that looks like...

Almost immediately, one's eyes are drawn to CH's weapon of choice: A +3 Anarchic Morningstar, a weapon a full +1 tougher than any other Herald's. Her attacks are both highly accurate (+29 to the first hit, +14 on the last) and powerful, dealing 1d8+11 damage (+2d6 vs Lawful targets) up to four times a round, or 2d8+11 once via Vital Strike if she can't make a Full-Attack... though if you stay out of her melee range, she may instead decide to swap to her even more intimidating ranged option.

Oh yes, from a distance, her silly little rose may not seem all that impressive as a weapon, but anyone who knows anything about Milani knows just how dangerous a rose can be in the hands of her believers (that link to her article above? scroll down a bit until you read what she does to Wall of Thorns). Indeed, CH's Bloody Rose is not just a token she can hand out, but a shockingly potent weapon: A +1 Anarchic Dart, meaning it deals 1d4+9 damage on a hit (+2d6 vs Lawful) and it can hit up to four times a round, as CH can conjure as many as she wishes as a free action. While seemingly less damaging and less accurate than her melee morningstar at first, she has two to back it up: Point-Blank Shot and Rapid Shot, the first adding +1 to attack and damage rolls vs nearby creatures, and the latter giving her an extra attack if she Full-Attacks with her dart... And ALL of her weapon attacks benefit from her Favored Enemy ability, to which she has +8 vs Lawful Outsiders, +6 vs Evil Outsiders, +4 vs Undead, and +2 vs Humans giving her even more damage than she first appears to have when opposing tyrants and fiends.

Her dart isn't her only ranged option, just the only one that can critically strike: she's also got both Chaos Hammer and Holy Smite at-will to deal a burst of damage to multiple Lawful or Evil targets... but her true power lays not in what she can do on her own, but what she adds to an ongoing rebellion. As servant to the goddess of uprisings, Courage Heart gives hope to the hopeless and bolsters them with the strength to fight back against their oppressors; allied soldiers will feel the most benefit from CH's presence, but even peasants and commoners will feel new strength welling up inside them.

CH's Rebellious Aura quite literally gives hope to the hopeless, granting every ally within 60ft a +4 to saves versus fear effects and a permanent, undispellable Good Hope effect, granting a +2 to every d20 roll and weapon damage roll they make until they're no longer in the aura. In addition, her spell-like abilities benefit others far more than they benefit her, as she can grant Darkvision out despite having it herself, Magic Vestments and Magic Weapon when she already has fully magical equipment, and Protection From Arrows when she's already got the Deflect Arrow feat. All of the mentioned spell-likes can be cast 3/day, and they're not nearly all she can do to aid an ongoing cause; if she can help it, no one will die in her care. She does have Cure Moderate Wounds 3/day, but that pales in comparison to her Martyr's Blood, granting her the power to lower her own Fast Healing 10 by 1 to grant Fast Healing 1 to an ally for an hour, meaning the target regains 600 HP over the course of that hour, one round at a time. There's no limit to how many times she can grant someone her blood, just that she's restricted to only marking 10 targets at a time (lowering her own healing to 0/round for an hour), basically allowing her allies infinite out-of-combat healing. If you can't kill someone under her protection, they'll be back on their feet at full health an hour later.

But a true uprising isn't built on defenses alone, her fellow freedom fighters must be ready to take up arms when needed. Not everyone in her makeshift militia will have proper weapons, but whatever they grab off the ground will serve as a fine weapon thanks to her 3/day Peasant Armaments, a spell unique to Milani followers which allows anyone nearby using an improvised weapon to A) do so without penalty, and B) treat them as their closest equivalent simple weapon. The spell amusingly states that even a butterknife or broken chair leg can be treated as a dagger and a club (respective) while under the effects of this spell, letting a group of peasants fight back against trained soldiers with planks torn from the ground, tree branches, silverware, and furniture. With Magic Vestments and Magic Weapon being handed out, even people in scavenged armor can have a better chance at surviving long enough to escape a tyrant's grasp. Anyone who cannot or will not fight can be shrouded by her 1/day Mass Invisibility to sneak around what cannot be fought.

Also, when I say 'handed out' in regards to her magic, I mean it literally. CH can't be everywhere at once, but she can freely use Imbue With Power to grant anyone she touches the ability to cast one of her 3/day spells, expending one of her uses but allowing the target to cast it themselves at a later time. She can hand out quite the lengthy list: Cure Moderate Wounds, Magic Weapon, Peasant Armaments, Protection From Arrows, Shield Other, and Status! With the power to divide the workload between herself and her allies, it leaves her hands free to go on the offense while other people 'holding' her magic for her can get it to the ones in need, removing any potential for her enemies to try and split her focus. About the only one she might want to keep for herself is Shield Other, as it allows her to take damage meant for a chosen champion, with that damage crashing into her long list of defenses: DR 10/Lawful, and 20 Resistance to Acid, Cold, Electricity, and Fire. With Fast Healing 10 ticking her up each round, she's an excellent Shield Other battery, and even beyond all this she STILL has more tricks!

She can use Tactician to grant all allies within 30ft of her the use of her Outflank, Lookout, and Swap Places feats for 11 rounds, giving them additional DPS, initiative, and maneuverability in a single action. All the while, her allies are benefiting from her long list of buffs, both active and passive. Were it not for the shackles of divine law requiring her to operate in secrecy, there's little doubt in my mind that Courage Heart would actually whip Galt into proper shape in a matter of weeks, if not days... were it not for some factors assuring that her homeland remains in its tumultuous state. But who's to say those factors wouldn't allow CH to shed her disguise and fight at full power? Perhaps, over the course of a specific module, the players see fit to call the Herald of Freedom back to her homeland to finally free it from the parasites that have been ruining it...?

You can read more about her here.

#Holy Heralds Month #Monster Spotlight #CR 11 to 15 #Pathfinder #dungeons and dragons

[sepublic]

            I love Fullmetal Alchemist, but I will admit I was a bit disappointed with how Arakawa handled Sloth the Indolent, who came across as very bare-bones compared to the other Homunculi, and basically just felt like a more muscular Gluttony at times. So for fun, I’ve come up with my own fanon version of Sloth the Indolent, basically an OC at this point; Think an AU where everything about Fullmetal Alchemist is more or less the same, it’s just that Sloth is a different character, which does change a few things here or there… But in the long run, it’s the same.

         We have Sloth, who resembles a young woman, younger in both appearance and age than Lust. She’s got a short black dress and platform boots, and always looks bored with her arms crossed; Sloth is basically an edgy goth teenager who’s always complaining about what a pain everything is, expects everyone to hear and cater to her whining and discomfort, and is deeply unenthusiastic most of the time.

         She’s a spoiled brat; Sloth wants everything to come easy and be easy, she prefers consistency and simplicity, because thinking and adapting, growing, these are all too troublesome for her. She’s sympathetic to a point, but after a while, she gets frustrating; Sloth is the kind of person who will go through the most convoluted, roundabout method that ends up more frustrating in the long run, to avoid something, rather than just going through the thing and getting it over with.

         Appropriately, Sloth doesn’t even do her own work; She relies on her ‘thralls’, various victims she’s implanted a parasite into. The parasite comes from Sloth’s own body, so in a way they’re her own children, yet she makes them exist purely for her own benefit… Like Father, like Daughter. She communicates with these parasites via ultrasonic frequencies, not that Sloth actually realizes this; To her, this command simply works, and she doesn’t have the curiosity nor passion for life to look any further into this, taking that ability for granted.

         This does backfire eventually when the Armstrongs and Curtises devise a transmutation circle that disrupts Sloth’s frequencies by emitting its own, thereby preventing her from controlling her thralls; More on that later.

         The parasites take control of Sloth’s thralls, forcing them to follow commands; Sloth needn’t control each thrall individually, their brain does the rest of the work in interpreting a command and carrying it out, and relying on the host’s own memories and knowledge so that Sloth doesn’t have to peruse through them herself. There’s a limit to this ability; Probably how many parasites Sloth can have operating at once, and the distance they can operate from Sloth.

         When infected with a parasite, right below your brainstem, you aren’t 100% doomed yet; There’s a very slight possibility that with precise surgery (or Scar’s deconstruction), you can remove the parasite and be free. But after a while, the parasite fully acclimates and shuts off your free will, killing a person and the soul; All that’s left behind is a reanimated brain. When outside Sloth’s range, thralls who pass this threshold will simply collapse and remain inert.

         This is why Sloth hasn’t infected central command with her parasites to keep them in line; Eventually, she’d have to remain in range 24/7, which would distract from her other responsibilities. Likewise, the figures in central command are supposed to be leaders who regularly make complex decisions and appear in public, which is far too bothersome for Sloth, who prefers the same approach to everything because ingenuity takes too much effort. This means Olivier doesn’t have to worry about Sloth’s parasites when she’s recruited.

         Sloth hates doing things on her own and fully abuses her thralls, having them carry her, move her own limbs for her; Ironically, it looks as if she’s being puppeted by her own thralls at times. Because of her Philosopher’s Stone, Sloth’s body doesn’t atrophy from this lack of use, but still. Sloth will work her thralls down to the literal bone, doing only the bare minimum to keep them alive, apathetic as their muscles tear and bones crack.

         It is said the human body is capable of much more than people realize; But to achieve that strength would damage the body, hence why it only emerges in times of crisis and high adrenaline. To rely on this power consistently would kill someone… But Sloth doesn’t care, so she wrings every last bit out of her thralls until they’re broken beyond repair; In which case she discards and grabs another victim. At that point, Sloth carefully gauges potential victims to see which one seems the most fit; But some days she’ll just get it over with by infecting the first person she sees. Other times she’ll control the Chimeras lurking beneath Central.

         Sloth is a manipulator, unwilling to do her own dirty work, and griping about having to do Father’s. And she’s often looking for a way out of her tasks, such as by getting one of her siblings, usually Gluttony, to do things; But Gluttony often requires oversight from Lust, who will then call Sloth out and lecture her. Sloth is deeply unpleasant and unreliable to work with, as a partner will have to do everything just to get her to do more than the bare minimum of her job, and sometimes she doesn’t even do that; Father had to resort to many threats of violence, and even then had to make some concessions before Sloth finally agreed to her tasks. Sloth makes sure to wring out as much as she can out of others in a manner almost greedy, to minimize her own work and offerings.

         Sloth is irreverent and apathetic; She doesn’t care for the drama of her siblings. She doesn’t care for them at all, period; Too much effort. Nor does Sloth care for Father, she only goes along with him because defying Father is more effort than it’s worth in her eyes (or eye, one of them is covered by a red node). When Greed defected, he extended the offer to Sloth, hoping she’d reciprocate after picking up on her dissatisfaction… But Sloth decided that having to deal with Father’s forces going after her was much too stressful.

         Besides, for all of Father’s faults, he nevertheless gave Sloth security and resources, as well as consistency; Without Father, Sloth would have to figure life out for herself, which would be such a burden. It’s simpler and safer under Father, no risks for Sloth! For that reason, Sloth feels some need to defend Father, if only because he’s a bastion of resources and security such as additional souls and the like, which secures her own comfort. It should also be noted that even without Father pushing her, Sloth would still choose to rely on and enslave others, so keep that in mind.

         When Greed returned, the Homunculi were all gathered together… And Sloth legitimately did not care about Greed’s return, nor his impending execution. The whole time she just stood there unenthusiastically, using her thralls as a chair, before snapping at one point that they should just get it over with, and questioning why she even needed to be there, which earned a lecture from Pride, who insisted Sloth be more grateful for the dignity of serving Father. When Greed died, the other Homunculi felt various emotions, mixed feelings such as resentment, but Sloth felt nothing and was simply glad it was wrapping up.

         For Sloth, only the ends/destination matters, not the journey nor means. It’s all about shortcuts and results for her. Comfort is her only goal in this world, because it’s the only thing that grants her reprieve from the inherent suffering and misery that is life. A part of her might, deep down, desire death and thus be suicidal… But that would also be too much of a pain, too difficult to go through with. Or is living more of an effort? To ponder is a pain in and of itself… An object in motion stays at motion, or in rest stays at rest, Sloth has a stubborn, unbudging inertia at times.

         Sloth’s function in Father’s system is simple; Carve his nationwide transmutation circle into the earth. But Sloth isn’t really doing it, it’s her thralls, whom she supervises as they bleed and wear themselves away as much as they wear away at the bedrock. Sloth meanwhile, comfortably sits a distance away, relying on earmuffs to deafen the noise (usually a thrall’s hands over her ears) as she lays back, minding her own business as other thralls pamper her.

         Sloth is just thinking, maybe having a drink, because Sloth enjoys the worldly pleasures to some degree; It’s all about comfort and relaxation to her. She’s a spoiled daddy’s girl who felt entitled to being accommodated by everyone, and because of her parasites, Sloth was able to get Father to assign her –with insistence- the seemingly arduous, yet simple, task of mining, while offloading all other tasks to her siblings. To Sloth, this is the easiest and most leisurely job. She's the underachieving sibling who operates in the perfect, comfortable middle ground between the leader who's responsible for figuring things out, and the worker who does all of the grunt labor.

         Sloth loathes stress, and she loathes unexpected assignments that distract her from her role as manager; Not for love of the job itself, but because it’s simple and easy and consistent, and she never has to expect anything else nor respond to change. Sloth is impatient and grumpy during these other missions, seeing them as a breach of contract, the compromise Father painstakingly got out of Sloth in order to utilize any of her contributions. Sloth wishes to get things out of the way as quickly as possible, or else she will procrastinate and put it off to the last second, with no in-between. With how stressed out she is, Sloth doesn’t care too much about the sentiment behind her mission, instead preferring to accomplish only the literal definition of her orders, and never go any further because that’s unnecessary work.

         Because of this, Sloth might sometimes fail to see something all the way through, such as assassinating someone; If it seems they’re dead, no need to look further, she’s done and can finally relax! All she’s looking forward to is getting a task over, never the task itself. She won’t derive enjoyment from the task, she refuses. And because of her paradoxical aversion to effort, Sloth doesn’t give it her all and thus gives opportunities for the protagonists to survive; They don’t know just how easily she could and should’ve killed them by now, if it weren’t for Sloth’s laziness. She’s deeply frustrating to supervise, for both Pride and Father, for these realizations.

         A part of Sloth did ponder what would happen after the Promised Day; Because that would be an end to her job, right? And she didn’t like the idea of losing that secure routine, so sometimes she stalled, calculating when to get it done by the last second before the eclipse. But she ultimately realized that even as God, Father would still need others, and would still use Sloth; So long as she blindly trusted in him, Sloth would be taken care of, more or less. Sloth did, to some capacity, see the folly in Father’s efforts and goals, though she wasn’t much better herself. She was similarly perceptive in deconstructing herself and her siblings, but never bothered to do anything with this self-awareness; Sloth was fully conscious of her demons yet indulged them anyway.

         Sloth is actually incredibly strong; In fact, she’s physically the fastest and strongest of the Homunculi, and the most gifted in terms of academia and intelligence. Not that Sloth ever makes use of these abilities; She’d much prefer to rely on her thralls. Remember what I said about Sloth being the kind of person to rely on methods so roundabout they prove more troublesome than just doing the thing? That’s Sloth. She hates having to move and use her own body so much that she’d rather use her thralls, which are far less effective, and thus less efficient in accomplishing tasks.

         So Sloth is her worst enemy; If she just mustered in the effort for a bit, she really could get it over with… But she hates applying effort, and thus just makes herself more miserable and for longer in the end. But there does come a point where Sloth has to rely on her own strength…

         During the Promised Day, Olivier leads her rebellion, and is targeted by Father for her treachery. He sends Sloth to kill Olivier, but Sloth accidentally murders a member of high command, not that she nor Father care, of course. With Alex and other reinforcements showing up, Sloth is suddenly forced to apply more and more effort than she’s ever used in her entire life;

         Suddenly Sloth is pushing herself to her limits. She welcomes her new siblings, the lesser Homunculi, by proceeding to immediately exploit them with her parasites. Sloth uses more thralls than she ever has at once to form an amalgam around her to defend and attack with, stretching out the tendrils from within her body. But with the Curtises, this shell is chipped away at, and eventually the protagonists disrupt Sloth’s high frequency signal to control her parasites with.

         Without her army, Sloth should be handicapped, and she’s certainly stunned at this happening, and what is required of her next… But now the heroes see what Sloth has truly been hiding (and wasting), when she’s forced to stand on her own legs and fight with her own fists. Sloth is incredibly fast and powerful, and enraged at the protagonists for stressing her out this much. Normally she wouldn’t take it personally, that just causes pointless stress, getting invested into things like winning or losing interferes with personal peace.

         But even Sloth has limits, even Sloth begins to look forward to winning, and starts caring about being vindictive and making people suffer as she has. Sloth’s body gets bigger as her muscles bulge and reach their true potential, turning her into a hulking brute resembling her canon counterpart; But eventually she takes too much damage. Normally, Sloth procrastinates and is very slow on regenerating damage to herself, since it’s bothersome; Sometimes she’ll leave wounds because her body still functions, only the results matter so if the job can still be done, who cares, right? Pride does and he lectures her about maintaining a respectable appearance worthy of a Homunculus, but whatever.

         And there’s another reason to this; Because Sloth’s ‘body’ isn’t actually her body. What everyone thought was her body is actually just another host, one synced to Sloth’s true form and Philosopher’s Stone, which is how she’s able to regenerate it. Previous incidents would chip away at Sloth’s host to reveal something inside, just a brief glimpse and hint to her true nature.

         Sloth’s host is destroyed, and she’s forced to unveil her true self; A flying insectoid monstrosity, the queen of the parasitic hive she’s relied upon all this time! Sloth is even faster and stronger in this form, but luckily, more soldiers show up to aid the protagonists in defeating her.

         Sloth is seething, and mentally unraveling; She can’t remember the last time she had to buzz her own wings. She can’t even recall ever struggling this much; Everything usually came so easy to her because of talent, now it’s not enough and she needs hard work?! Since it’s been forever since she relied on her own natural strength and speed, Sloth hasn’t bothered to hone her talent with actual skill; As a result, she’s a bit clumsy in her rushes, which provides openings for the heroes to survive and maneuver.

         Still, Sloth begins to get the hang of things, and despite herself, finds herself more and more dedicated to killing Olivier; At this point, it’s no longer about just getting the job done so Father won’t hound her for it. It’s no longer about what comes after; Right now, Sloth is going to kill that damn stubborn general, whatever it takes!!!

         Sloth’s unprecedented rage unlocks an ability she herself didn’t even know she had; She spew energy beams from her own Philosopher’s Stone, which does devastating damage in how they can slice and burn through anything. This burns up souls fast, but at this point all Sloth cares about is this one goal of killing Olivier and everyone, she just wants to win and in a way is more alive in the lead up to her death than in her entire life otherwise.

         That’s the thing about Sloth; She CAN care. And she isn’t as objective as she thinks, obviously. She is subject to irrational emotions that interfere with her supposed efficiency that gets it over with for maximum relaxation at minimum effort. Her quiet life has always been fundamentally undermined by Sloth herself, it’s why she chose to remain a servant to Father and suffer that way, than find true peace by working for it. For someone who thinks only the results matter, surely putting in the effort for self-actualization is worth it, versus the eternal suffering in the long run of not growing.

         Maybe Sloth comes to realize this in her final moments… Or not, because she’s so pissed that eventually, after constantly failing, she just rage quits. Screaming and screeching, Sloth decides she’s going to kill Olivier, no matter what; And is similarly so frustrated and tired and done with life, raving and ranting, that she gives up. No more! She’s done with this, she’s not gonna do it anymore! You know how some people will rage quit by turning off the console, even thrashing it in a moment of passion?

         Sloth opts to self-destruct by concentrating her remaining energy and souls, all of her mass, into one singularity point that burns with the light of a thousand suns; And then detonates. It’s a devastating explosion that our protagonists somehow survive, but it does wipe out a good chunk of the army. And to think what Father later pulls off as God is even worse…!

         The final battle against Sloth is one of the most arduous and difficult ones, out of the other conflicts with her siblings; Sloth puts up the biggest fight, she has more souls than the rest due to saving on energy by making thralls do the work for her across centuries. And now all she’s saved up, she uses up and wastes. If only Sloth weren’t so slothful, she might’ve made good use of her potential and changed the world for the better… Or done anything with that potential. Or at least NOT used it to harm others.

         But Sloth barely utilized her efficacy, and as a result, indirectly contributed to Father’s failure by not giving it her all much more than she did. This was of course something Pride observed and suspected, and resented Sloth for, believing her Philosopher’s Stone would be so much better used by him! If only he’d gotten to absorb her instead of Gluttony… Oh well. Sloth finally gives up on life and earns the sweet release of death she was searching for, the eternal rest, by simply concentrating all of her effort and power into one moment. Now Sloth has achieved her consistent, everlasting, unchangeable, rest.

#Fullmetal Alchemist #Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood #Sloth the Indolent #fma #fmab #seven deadly sins #homunculus #homunculi #fanon #au #oc #ocs #my ocs

[spotsupstuff]

What do you think about the RW ships? just curious is all.

hmmm.. well! first i do wanna preface this with the obligatory "i'm not hating on anybody with this, u do u and i do me is my genuine philosophy. i'll respect u from the distance if you do the same for me"

aight so i'm not gon list every ship in the fandom that has spawned in outta the stardust n give my specific opinion on it, cuz i'm not exactly keepin up

the only two ships i don't mind n find cute on the paper are NSH x Moon and Arti x Gour cuz both of them have that Old People Love Each Other in Easy Peace Despite The Circumstances Surrounding Them kick to them. i'm a weak bitch for that type of troupe for romantic relationships. not gon do anythin with 'em in my own stuff, though

i find myself more interested in the entirely and wholly platonic interpretation of everything in the game. platonic love is a matter of course, makin the story flow feel more smoother to me for that while also stayin nicely close to that religious narrative of the game (u can fight me on this but the Ancients' religion isn't *wrong*. the bad thing that happened with it is that it was taken to extremes and variety wasn't allowed. i could tell you why riddin oneself of the third and fifth sin isn't a bad idea at all- afterall, i kind of live by that myself!- and what they probably meant by riddin yourself of the sins without the extremist approach)

for the other ships... 🤔

well, the iterators are far too rooted in my head as sibs to vibe with ships with them, but more properly told: • Suns and Pebs are too much of "teacher and naive student" to me and i also find this dynamic more interesting to explore. uuuuu how spicy it is to think of Suns brainwashing Pebs but meaning it well uuuuuuuuuu • Suns and NSH are... let's just say that if i was in NSH's place and Suns talked to me like that i'd slap them so fuckin hard n if i WAS in a romantic relationship with them i'd dump them then and there (not in a bitchy ex kind of way, i'd be still down to talk, but i can't imagine bein in a relationship where the other half calls the most likely inevitable death of your closest friend a "setback" to their brainwashing of that friend's little brother would be Very healthy) • n i think what is the only other iterator ship left, Sliver and Moon... i find it kind of silly, honestly? like as far as *i* know the main reason why that exists is cuz Moon remembers what happened with Sliver after being given her own pearl about some notes she wrote herself on Sliver despite being baround three gazillion bagillion braincells short. i don't really see that as a strong incentive to start shippin 'em cuz like. you give Moon a very solid memory jogger and right in her second set of monologue she states that Sliver is literally a legend among the itties-titties. the best i can compare it to a real life thing is asking an american if they have any idea who Abraham Lincoln was at all. or asking a slovak if they knew who Finally managed to solidly establish our language after centuries of oppression. like of Course you're going to know That even on ur deathbed??? those are incredibly important historical figures for you n your home!!! also c'mon she remembers the feckin bug pupae, if THAT stuck in there this big boy info is def gon be kickin around

as for the slugcats... well ehh..... you can probably guess from what i mainly draw that i'm not Too focused on the slugs, only maybe Hunter so my slugshippin lore knowledge is p weak. when i first saw the slugshippin take off before i started postin bout RW again i thought it was silly to ship animals n still kinda do? 🤷‍♀️ doesn't help that canonically they have no business meeting each other except Monk n Surv (that is a strong No to shippin) and Hunter's writhing corpse n Gour (we are Not ducks we do not support necrophilia). i generally like to stick to the timeline, personally. good world-building. i respect good world-building too much to deviate too hard

BUT! i am going to use my status as pre-Downpour RW veteran and tell you to not listen to the whiny wrinkly babies in the tag that wail about how slugshippin is ruining the fandom. fuck 'em bitches, you do what u wanna (within moral common sense)

#Spot says stuff #rw #sorry you probably didn't want me goin on a spiel about RW shipping in general but yanno if we are already here #there's also not really much i have to say to the matter in the more specific shippin kind of sense

[d1stract-and-daydream]

MY LITTLE INFERNI (NIKOLAI LANTSOVxOC)

WC: 3k Summary: Following a heartbreak with a certain childhood friend, an inferni asked to be stationed somewhere as far away as possible–to heal, while also serving her country. It's going well, until she realised her feelings were, in fact, requited.

[This is the longfic I had in plans after 'You Made it Easy'. I update once a week/every two weeks on Ao3, but will update here as well.]

CHAPTER 1: SCORCHWITCH

“How much for the plums?” 

Dasha picked up the ripe purple fruit, squishing it in her hands to check for rot. Next to them are various fruits; apples, pears, perfect round peaches—and her mouth waters at the thought of having peach jam to go with her bread. For a country known for its never ending winter, it’s quite surprising how they can grow the amount of fruits that they do. She’s not even surprised if illegal grisha labour is involved somehow. Saints know how they treat grishas in Fjerda. In fact, being forcefully indentured might sound better to some than getting killed for simply existing.

The village market was nothing compared to the perfectly arranged stalls they have in Djerholm—but Dasha finds it endearing; almost whimsical in its own way. She preferred the Ravkan market more, though. The wares were more colourful, especially in the summer and spring. Rows and rows of stalls full of produce, flowers, cloth and the Zemeni spices her brother used to love. He’d buy something from the spice stalls every time they visited the marketplace and use those to make his famous hot chocolate. Dasha knew it was only delicious because of the spice,but Stepan never got the chance to tell her what the exact ingredient was before he left. She missed his hot chocolate. She missed Stepan.

The sky grumbled. It was such a lovely day this morning, but she can see dark clouds approaching from the distance, sensing a storm coming soon. Just as the snow had stopped falling for the day. Great.

“Oh, dear Astrid!” The stall owner greeted her. “Good to see you today. Doing some shopping for the mister?” 

Dasha smiled, still not quite used to the identity Zoya had given her. She had been undercover in Fjerda for almost a month now, disguised as a housewife to a leatherworker;a member of the Hringsa. She repeated her new name to herself the first week she arrived— Astrid Karlen, Astrid Karlen, Astrid Karlen— just so she wouldn't be an idiot and say her real name; Dasha Lenkovya, whenever she had to introduce herself. The story she had concocted was that she’s a girl from a rural Fjerda village looking to marry someone who can take care of her—and live somewhere closer to the city for better opportunities. It was simple, but so far, no one had mentioned anything about it.

It was her request to be sent somewhere far away for work—heartbreak makes you do weird things—but she didn't expect Zoya to assign her somewhere this  far.

“Yes,” she replied, “although I’m not sure I will get anything else done today with a storm around the corner.”

She turned to look at the sky, and the lady at the stall followed her gaze. Her mouth twisted downwards, and Dasha grinned. Her fruit stall seems wonky and there was nothing to cover its wares and owner from the torrent of bad weather Fjerda has been experiencing lately,so the lady will have to close shop sooner than she planned.

“Djel must be angry.” She states, as her eyes scanned through her unsold produce. “You know what? Any other fruit you want, I’ll give it to you for half the price. At least I’m getting something instead of leaving them to rot .”

Dasha laughed and picked herself a variety of colourful fruits; apples, plums, peaches, and pears—some for dinner, some for pies, some for the jams she plans to make. She reached into her coin purse for the payment, when she overheard two ladies in her periphery sounding distressed.

“It’s just a precaution,Clara.”  

She arranged the produce neatly in her netted bag—taking her time, focusing her attention on what the ladies were saying. If there’s anything Zoya had taught her, it’s that even gossip from the townspeople can offer valuable information. She just had to be diligent enough to sift through and separate idle talk from intel.

“They probably arrested him,because you know—he’s not actually the upstanding civilian you think he is.” A pause. “When they find out he’s done nothing wrong,they will release him.” 

“That’s easy for you to say. He’s my brother!”

Hmm , so people have been missing . She had heard the same words from different people over the course of two weeks now.

She hurried down the gravel away from the market square, not wanting to be caught out there by any authorities, or worse, Druskelle. Sure, the Druskelle rarely patrols this far down from Djerholm, but with what had been happening lately—the miracles blooming here and there in what she was guessing was a part of Nina Zenik’s plan—it’s normal to be scared.

Her role in Fjerda is to be a dormant agent, to be used only to send messages or news to Ravka. She hasn’t stumbled into anything that requires active work yet, so to her this kind of feels like going on a vacation. Except she has to pretend that she’s happily living with the man of her dreams who she had only known for a month now. It’s already hard enough for her to form bonds, but Zoya had to pair her with someone as ill-tempered as Henrik Beck, who reminds her of the boys who pull on your pigtails just for the fun of it. 

It also took her a while to get used to the ways of Fjerdan women, to be obedient and prude, or in her case seem like it, but other than that, things were going swimmingly. Well, sometimes she wishes the weather was less harsh on her skin—her nighttime routine consists of slathering herself with animal grease so she wouldn't shrivel up like a prune.

She stopped by a house a little further left to the market square to pay its tenant a visit. It took her three knocks before a boy a little younger than her answers, his face a welcoming olive against the harsh colour of snow.

“Dasha,” Adya Yul-Naran whispered as he ushered her into his home. His assigned home. Dasha had known Adya’s sister Zaya since she was a fresh-faced student, still struggling to control her abilities in Baghra’s hut. They have been close enough for her to share some of her secrets, and for Zaya to ask her to take care of her brother as a favour. Dasha treated Adya like her own brother already, so she was planning on doing that, anyway.

“It’s Astrid, Oswin Westegaard. Common Fjerdan name for common Fjerdans, remember?” She reminded Adya, sitting herself in his comfy armchair before he even had the chance to extend the invitation to sit. She placed her bag of fruits by the side of the chair, sinking into the chair like it was made for her.

“Aye, Astrid, I daresay you got that aright. Please, make yourself at home. Fjerdan hospitality,” Adya mimicked as he poured her a steaming cup of tea. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

Dasha laughs, threatening to hurl one of his many throw pillows at him. “Just curious as to how my charge is doing. That, and I’m seeking refuge from that nightmare outside,” she replied as she took a sip from her cup. 

Adya crossed over her to pull the curtains down, so that they could talk away from prying eyes.

“You know how those Fjerdan are,Dash. You can’t just visit the home of unmarried men when you have that six feet hunk of a husband to return to.” 

Dasha’s mouth hung open. “Adya, are you lusting over my fake husband?” She asked, a grin spreading on her face.

“Please.” Adya rolled his eyes. “I have better taste. Though I have to admit, Zoya picked a fine one for you.”

Dasha giggled at his admission, though she can’t say she had the chance to look at Henrik thoroughly enough to agree.

They exchanged a couple of pieces of information regarding the mission before Adya slapped his knees and stood, claiming, “You best get going, Dash. That storm cloud looks like it’s going to chase us with a cane,” and Dasha agreed as soon as she saw how close it was. She packed her stuff and rushed out of his doors hurriedly lest she got caught in the storm.

She manages to return just as the sky starts sprinkling its first wave of rain. The house she lives in is situated in Kvívik, a quaint village further east from Djerholm, with most of its building still made up of timber—a stark contrast to the brick and concrete Djerholm is packed in. It was near enough to the capital for her weekly visit, but not that near that it became a common patrol route for Druskelle. 

Bag hanging from her elbow, she unlatched the door to the small snow cabin she had been living in the past month. Well, to Fjerdans, it’s just a normal house. She pushed her wet hair away from her forehead as she entered. The light from outside shone a path from the front door to a small dining table and a modest kitchen Dasha had helped set up.

She hung her coat on the hook by the door, shook the dirt and snow off her boots before removing them. He’s not home yet. Her shoulders sag in relief, though she doesn’t know why she was so tense to begin with. 

Dasha hummed a Ravkan lullaby as she emptied the fruits from her bag to a basin full of water so she could rinse them. She watched as they bobbed up and down, thinking about the summer festivals in Ravka, then realised that her teeth were chattering. 

Changing to something dry, a modest dress that Fjerdan women often wear, she wrapped herself with the blanket she had brought with her from Ravka—blue fleece embroidered with gold stars—and approached the fireplace. Her fingers were numb as she struck her flint to conjure a small kindling of flame to start a fire. It’s probably wiser to use the match propped on the stool to the side of the fireplace, but her hands were too shaky to even attempt to strike a match.

She sits there for a while and watches as the flame grows, the dancing of fire taking her back to the nights spent with an old friend. Someone she probably should try to forget by now, the reason she was here to begin with. She tried to tear her eyes away from the fire,but the rhythmic movement was too hypnotising—her mind too quiet. 

“I find fire mesmerising,don’t you?” Nikolai told her one night, and she agreed. He took a swig out of an amber bottle and continued, “Yellow and orange, like autumn leaves. The sway of them almost looks musical, dancing and playing like the silk ribbons they sell in Noyvi Zem.” She listened to the poetry pouring out of his lips, remembering how the subject of it illuminates his facial features. If she was drunk enough, she would have kissed him.

A loud creak startled her out of thought. She looked to the door, tense, hand on her flint, to find out it was Henrik just returning from work. Saints, how late is it? When the outside wind from the open door crept in, she scoots nearer to the fire to find out it had burned out to a pile of ash on the hearth.

Henrik dropped his tool belt on the dining table, scowling.

“Stupid girl, why didn’t you start the fire?” 

Dasha cringed at the scornful tone that came out of his mouth—she does not like this man, and it doesn’t matter if Zoya says that he’s helpful towards the cause. 

Standing up to grab some more firewood, she replied, curtly, “I did, but got distracted .” 

“I should’ve asked the Stormwitch for more competent help.” Henrik dashed past her to the woodrack before she did.

Her hands trembled, movement so minute that most would just assume it was out of cold or nerves. Then he swiped the matches off the stool and took one out to restart the fire. What would Zoya do if she found out that Dasha had singed their valuable intel’s eyebrows off? She could do it right now—could enlarge the sparks from the matches to make it big enough to reach his face. She chose not to, but there’s a surprising comfort in knowing that she can.

“First of all,” Dasha crosses her arms, “I’m not here to be the help.”

Henrik grunts, more focused on feeding the fire so that it gets big enough to warm the entire house instead of just himself.

“I’m here for my country. And secondly—” she flicks her hands, making the flames roar, barely licking the cuffs of his coat. “—have you forgotten that you were talking to an Inferni?”

The corners of her mouth rose in a smirk, satisfied as she made him tumble back on the heel of his feet. 

He stood up to make himself dinner, rubbing the charred cuff at his wrists, and Dasha heard him call her something under his breath.

“ Scorchwitch .”

***

Dinner was frugal, butter smeared toast and smoked deer meat—though Dasha wished she had jam to go with her bread. She added that to her mental list as she grabbed a couple of plums to snack on as she wrote Zoya a message regarding the stuff that was happening in the market square earlier. Reports of missing people, some saying that they were taken to the Ice Court for trial.

She doesn’t think that the missing people were taken there, because the Ice Court is—according to the Fjerdan—a place for people who were considered the bottom of the barrel. So, Zoya, the infamous Stormwitch, would definitely count as the average barrel dweller. Maybe she would be considered one, too. She’s pretty confident that she could wield her ability well enough to annihilate an entire town. If she tries.

Dasha shook her head, once again distracted by her weird musings. This is why Nikolai called her a ‘space cadet’, which is quite a fitting nickname for her in general. Though she knows it was mostly because her head was always in the clouds—and not because of her love for the stars and moon that adorned the night sky.

She finishes the letter complaining about Henrik,as usual—bless Zoya for putting up with her—and folded it neatly into an envelope. She’ll ask someone from the network to send it out tomorrow, but today she just wants to relax and not have to think of anything else.

With the last bite of her plums, Dasha stood up and walked to the washbasin to splash her face clean before going to sleep. She looks into the mirror and inhales sharply—a little alarmed at the person staring at her in the mirror. Oh, she whispered to herself. She forgot that Genya had tailored her face to fit the usual Fjerdan features. It’ll take a while for her to get used to the new face. Blue eyes, the bridge of her nose a little too high that it looks weird if she were to have it with her original face. And Saints , her hair. She preferred her auburn curls much more than the limp blonde she had to settle with. What would Nikolai say if he were to see her now?

She tucked herself into her bed, her body weary. She hasn’t used much of her power lately, and the dark circles under her eyes were getting too prominent. Today was the first time in almost two weeks that she had even had a reason to use them. And one of them was out of spite. She smiled—Genya would be proud of her. No more being careless, though. It’s far too dangerous to display even the tiniest hint of Grisha abilities, even this far away from Djerholm. Just like Ravka has the Hringsa everywhere in Fjerda as eyes, so does Jarl Brum. It’s hard to trust anyone these days.

***

“Dash!”

Dasha jolted up from her cot, startled. She took a moment to process her surroundings, using her flames to disperse the darkness she woke up to. Droplets of rain pitter pattered the roof of the tent they had been living in the past months, and Dasha shivered as a gust of wind blew into the slight opening of hers.

Who was calling her? She peeked out, dimming her fire so she wouldn’t leave soot on the walls of the tent. Her eyes widened. Several steps north of their camp, before the trees lining the Sikurzoi, a pyre was set up. Smoke haze her vision, but she can see that something was propped up on the pyre, and the burnt smell of it was so overpowering that her eyes teared up. She looked around—assessing her surroundings for danger—and found that the camp was eerily empty, almost like a mass exodus had happened in the span of one night. When she was sure that nothing would sneak up on her, she raised her hands to diminish the burning pyre, but stumbled when she heard someone calling her. From the pyre. “Dasha…” the person—or rather, creature—croaked, burnt hands outstretched towards her. The voice seemed oddly familiar, and fear tingled up her spine. As the smoke started clearing, she noticed something new that she had missed before. It had wings. And talons. Its eyes as black as the charred wood that was used to prop up its body. It’s—

Dasha’s eyes shot open, sweat beading down her forehead. That was the third nightmare she had had in two weeks. She was at the campsite in all of them, reliving the horrors of the slaughter her mind refuses to let go. This was the first time Nikolai was in it. As the demon. She was pretty sure that when Nikolai’s creature first visited her several moons ago; she was not that scared. So why was she dreaming of it?

Clank!

Dasha’s back straightened, startled. The damn neighbour’s cat is always running into things at night. She was about to return to sleep when she heard the soft pit-pat of footsteps on snowy grounds. Who’s up this late ? She rises and knelt on her bed to take a peek outside. Darkness would’ve cloaked the neighbourhood had it not been for the moonlight providing a wash of dim light against white snow. A figure silhouetted against the walls of the shed to the left of the house. She considered telling Henrik to come and see before another figure joined the first. She wanted to conjure her flames to see the faces of the figure, but decide against it. Should she tell Henrik about this? Maybe in the morning when she feels fresher to deal with his sour self. 

She pressed her ear closer to the frosted glass of her window to try to catch a glimpse of what sort of dealings were going on in the dead of night. The winds were not helping her,at all, but she managed to catch one word that gives her an idea of who one of the figures is.

Scorchwitch.

It’s Henrik.

Here's the prologue.

#nikolai lantsov #nikolai lantsovxoc #grishaverse #kingofscars #Fjerda #shadow and bone netflix #grisha #inferni #friends to lovers #unrequited love #not actually unrequited love #eventual romance #eventual smut #king of ravka #sobachka #sturmhond #original character

[toaarcan]

Okay, so I got linked a post questioning why people like to undo Fiona Fox's heel turn and make her into a protagonist again, stating that, from their perspective, her being evil and awful was what made her interesting, and insinuated that it's rather sexist to deny her agency in the turn she makes early in Ian Flynn's run.

I'm not gonna directly respond to that post or @ the person who made it, they probably won't even see this, but it made the cogs start turning and I want to go off.

Gonna get the sexism angle out of the way first. I don't buy it. This is a fictional character being written by a dude and her villainous incarnation exists almost entirely as an accessory to her male partner. Even when they're separated, all she's doing is building a team so she can get him back. She's a satellite to Scourge, and her own stated personality and morality are completely removed in order to get her there. She retains zero of the (admittedly thin and underutilised) traits she exhibited before her turn once she turns evil.

Onto the bigger things.

My problem with Fiona's heel turn is that it is an inherently broken story, and it is built on a prior inherently broken story. Ian Flynn's version of Fiona is built on Ken Penders' version of her from the Hell Run, whom is herself incompatible with Karl Bollers' version of her from around the same time.

Of all the characters in Archie, Fiona is the one who suffers the most from Bollers' plans being scrapped and the handover between three different writers. She was left in the lurch with nothing to do until Flynn showed up, and it means that a lot of people view her turn to villainy as a vast improvement over the previous white noise, and that's fair. In many ways, it's a microcosm of the Sonic fandom thinking that Ian Flynn is a writing genius, because their only frame of reference is Ken Penders or Pontaff, and he compares much less favourably to writers who are actually good.

Back on topic, none of those three writers were particularly interested in her as a character. They are far more interested in her as a love interest. For Sonic and kinda-sorta-Tails under Bollers and Penders' pens, and for Scourge under Flynn's, and her own traits are largely ignored in favour of making her a Sally Clone.

Don't believe me? Bollers outright stated in his plans that he brought her in to replace Sally as Sonic's mature and grounded love interest, whom he wanted to write out. Flynn writes her as straight-up the Sally to Scourge's Sonic, and her own traits barely come up. All the ones she had before her turn are gone. Her medical knowledge? Never referenced again. Her connections with the other members of the group? Non-existent. Her history as a treasure hunter? Irrelevant. Everything she has now is just a reflection of Sally.

Flynn's Fiona isn't driven by her anger at Sonic, she challenges him twice and little comes of it, because she's constantly hanging around one of Sonic's actual rivals, who gets the primary focus. Fiona trades barbs with Sally more often, and with more success, because she is framed as Sally's rival on account of dating the evil version of Sally's love interest.

Flynn's Fiona spends the vast majority of her existence glued to Scourge's arm and acting smug. And that's kinda it.

And it doesn't work out well for the other characters involved either.

Scourge absolutely comes off the worst, just because... well, it's rooted in Issue 150. That Flynn based so much of Scourge's early appearances on Issue 150 baffles me to this day, I'd have thought any sane person would distance themselves from that trashfire as much as possible, but nope, Flynn decided to make that sonofabitch load-bearing.

Because the Scourge/Fiona pairing, and thus Fiona's turn, are rooted in Issue 150, there's an inherently creepy aura to the whole thing. It started because Scourge was pretending to be the real Sonic in order to try and score, and she was just one of his potential victims.

The origins of their relationship were only ever told, and not shown, and I think that's because there's no way to write it in a way that doesn't come across as incredibly skeevy.

And going back to Fiona herself for a hot minute here, why does this work on her? Scourge is everything she accuses the real Sonic of being, and her first impression of him is dishonesty. That is a crimson flag, and a character with her specific trauma should be outright repulsed by this.

The heroes aren't looking too hot either. Getting Fiona to the point where she doesn't trust them anymore kinda requires them to act like dumb assholes for a hot minute.

Fiona's backstory not being revealed to the group until Flynn's run requires Sally to be titanically stupid about who gets to join the team that she leads. She is not only the leader of the most famous and effective Freedom Fighter unit on the planet, she is the de facto leader of the Freedom Fighter network as a whole, and the heir to the throne of the nation Eggman spends most of his time trying to conquer. And Flynn is asking us to believe that they don't do background checks. Eggman could hire/build an assassin and send them to "Join the Freedom Fighters", in order to get close to Sally and kill her, and it would actually have a chance of working.

The idea that Fiona could get on the team without Sally knowing who she is and where she came from is, frankly, intensely stupid. Especially when three of the four people who know her backstory already are already in the city and on the same team. Even if Fiona herself didn't spill, Sally should've been able to get at least some of that information from Sonic, Mighty, or Ray.

I honestly and firmly believe that Issue 130-159 were written under the assumption that the FF knew Fiona's deal already, and Flynn made Sally much stupider in order to break the heroes' trust in her.

Also, it's just never made any sense that "I was a small-time thief and I didn't tell you because I was afraid of not being trusted" is so horrible a secret when they have no issues at all trusting Rouge, who did all the same things (but was actually successful), did actually work with Eggman (which Fiona never did), and will eventually be willing to let Blaze's universe die rather than give up a Sol Emerald (Yes, that was also bad writing, but one shit story at a time please), and Shadow, who tried to destroy the world. Why is this a bridge too far for Sally? Oh, because Flynn needs Fiona to be on the rocks with the FF so she can turn evil.

And then there's Sonic himself. Sonic's already looking fairly dodgy before that point. He doesn't end Penders' run smelling of roses. But Flynn manages to make it worse.

We're told in Issue 172 that Fiona tried to find a spark with the real Sonic, but he was boring to her. And then in Issue 179, we find out why: He was never into her to begin with. On his end, their entire relationship, which lasted 17 issues IRL, was actually a harebrained scheme to try and force Tails to move on from his crush on her.

This is, in full honesty, the stupidest plan ever conceived by anyone in any Sonic story, ever. Plans concocted by Scratch and Grounder in AoStH are smarter than this idea. All of them. This is eight consecutive Natural 1s on an Intelligence check. He's making Scott Pilgrim look like a sensitive and mature person.

Hey, Sonic, have a look at your friend Amy and ask yourself whether "My crush is in a relationship with someone else" is actually an effective deterrent to crushing on that person.

Also, the person you are putting in this sham relationship has a history of not trusting you, and has unresolved trauma from the last time you (inadvertently) fucked her over. Maybe consider not using her affections for a harebrained scheme to help your friend, who neither asked for nor appreciated your 'help.'

Literally all Sonic manages to achieve from this plan is making two people angry at him instead of just one.

And that's a giant stumbling block for me, because I look at this story and I don't say "Sonic and Sally fucked up in how they treated Fiona and thus she turned on them," I say "But they wouldn't act like that."

The root cause of Fiona losing her faith in the FF is a "He would not fucking say that" for me, and if I can't retcon it, I'm gonna try and ignore it. It may have happened, but for the purposes of writing further, it does not exist.

The hand of the writer is blatantly fucking obvious in this particular story. Sonic is being an ass and Sally is being an idiot and Fiona's trauma applies only to her anger at Sonic and not to her reaction to Second, Even Shittier Sonic, and Scourge has appreciable qualities besides "Is a Sonic." None of these moving parts work, and said Hand of the Writer is looming so large that I have to fight every urge in me to not justify that Hand by actually making it a "Hand of This Villain with Something to Gain from the Outcome", who is somehow causing all of this OOC behaviour.

If I write a scene where Fiona goes off at Sonic about how he hurt her, then Sonic's response, his first response, is going to be to apologise to her, for all of it. Because yeah, it's really fucking weird that he hasn't already, so that's what he's gonna do.

And then what? If Fiona accepts it, she's not exactly a villain anymore. If she doesn't, then she's become fully one-dimensional. She got what she wanted and she's not accepting it because... reasons.

Furthermore, I have a hard time viewing Fiona's end-of-canon normal as an improvement on her situation from before. Yeah, Scourge accepts her shittier side. Great. He's also an egomaniacal nutbar with genocidal intentions bubbling under the surface, who has cheated on every partner he's ever had, and definitely verbally and probably physically abuses her. The best thing for her is to get the fuck out of there and find someone who won't decide to blow up the planet she's standing on just because he can. And yeah, she could go and live her best life as a villain, but... what is she going to do, what's she going to achieve, and how is that actually going to work? Flynn didn't give her any goals outside of being with Scourge, I don't have a lot to work with here!

If she decides she wants to get even with Sonic, she's going to win that immediately, as I said above. If she wants to beat him physically for it, that's only going to happen if he lets her, because he is much, much too fast for her to even land a hit.

The other thing is, to take an even more external perspective for a minute, I am never going to be in the position of writing for an ongoing comic that is designed to last forever. I will only ever be writing a story that is designed to end. Every villain in anything I write is going to eventually lose permanently, or at least, they'll be planned to do so. And I don't like leaving loose ends. So every last one of those villains is going to end up redeemed, imprisoned, or dead.

I'm a firm agreer with the "Banality of Evil" as a concept. Ain't nobody going to actually be able to live their best life by being a shit. Evil is unfulfilling, and villains do not prosper, because you can't build something great if all you do is destroy things.

And that's why I'm not going to write something where Fiona stays evil and still has a good time of things. It's just not happening. I can have her stay on the path Flynn put her on, which will only ever end badly, break away from that but stay antagonistic and fall because of it, or heal. And of those three, I find the latter the most interesting to explore with her. I already got a dozen villains who will fail and/or die because of the inherent self-destructiveness of their actions, I don't need another.

With characters like this, I'm more interested in healing than I am in stasis.

That's also not to say that Fiona can't be interesting as a hero. Someone with actual, legitimate grievances with the main protagonist, who has every reason to hate them, but finds a way not to? Fascinating stuff. I will loudly and proudly say that pre-evil Fiona is one of the most underutilised characters in Archie, in a way that post-evil Fiona just isn't. I want to know more about the character Bollers was writing after his original plan got scrapped, and before he got shoved out the door by Penders' bullshit. I can't say the same of Flynn's version, she's basic.

And heck, exploring a redemption arc for her can be fun too. Just because she's returned to the light, doesn't mean she's going to automatically get better. Especially if part of it involves seeing Scourge for what he really is, perhaps painfully so. There can still be a bitterness, an anger in her.

I didn't get particular far with it before the burnout hit, and I haven't done anything with my Sonic fic for like five years now, despite often saying that I want to go back to it, but my take on Fiona in that story was mending bridges with her old friends, finding common ground with Bunnie and Amy as former targets of Scourge, discovering a new connection with Sally through both of them escaping from abusive situations, albeit with deep scars in the process (because I had Sally finally acknowledge that her father was abusive), and most importantly, reconnecting with Nic, another character that Archie did dirty. She also has a building new friendship with Emerl, and is heavily involved in the efforts to resolve the mystery of the Gizoid's origin. I built that idea on an extrapolation from her backstory- my version of Fiona is kind of an amateur archaeology buff, she can read ancient languages, and she's familiar with the fall of the Fourth Great Civilisation, so she knows more about Emerl than most others.

And that's not to say that she's wholly good now. There's still a darkness in her, her amount of trauma has only increased and her first instinct is to lash out at the causes of it. Her newfound allies might be opposing that course of action, but that's only causing her to get sneaky about it. Sonic won't train her to fight someone with his abilities? That's fine, she can ask Emerl. And her less-heroic ideals aren't just lip-service either. The Mecha Sally saga changed things, and Sally's own recent heaped serving of trauma has pushed her in a less Lawful Good direction. Fiona's less-pure ideas have a seat at the table now, and I do plan to eventually address some of the bad writing that her villain stint was founded upon.

Of course, there's still a lot that I'd change about the parts I've already published, but that's old writing for you.

TL;DR: Fiona's heel turn and motivations are rooted in a giant case of "They would not fucking say/do that" on the part of Sonic and Sally, and are shaky at best when it comes to Fiona herself and Scourge. I cannot appreciate it as a result, and even Flynn's version is more of an accessory for Scourge than a character, so I don't feel remotely obliged to honour it. I'm also much more interested in healing and I do not tend to have villains prosper in general, because I view evil as inherently self-destructive, and I also write with an ending in mind and don't like leaving loose ends, so "Riding off into the sunset to be evil another day" is not on the table.

For a less serious answer, stapling a new personality onto Fiona is something everybody that ever touched on her in canon did, who am I to break the trend?

#Sonic #Sonic the Hedgehog #Not sure if I should tag Fiona #this is technically a big long rant about how her character is badly written #and her story is founded on everyone else being badly written

[witchcrash]

Some analysis of Cass's relationship with It, and how she understands & worships It in the modern day, compared & contrasted to the other Yellowjackets who do so:

LOTTIE - seems to view It as something to be kept at bay, kept back there in the wilderness where It belongs. “I thought we left It there when we were rescued. But now I realize, we brought It back with us.”

In the wilderness, Lottie was Its mouthpiece, until she taught the other girls to hear It too. She thought It only meant to help them survive, she thought she was only spreading hope, but . . . It tricked her. "I never meant -- "As a result, she feels responsible, not just for her own actions, but for everything.

In the modern day, omens of death & blood make Its presence known to her, and she is terrified. She sacrifices her blood to It as a form of appeasement. There's a sense of desperation to the gesture.

Please take this from me and nothing else.

TAISSA - only interacts with It in a dissociative state. It's unclear if the Other emerged as a facet of Tai in the wilderness or sometime prior, but she became increasingly active & prominent there, displaying an innate understanding of their surroundings & how to survive them.

"Something inside you is connected to this place."

Tai refuses to accept the existence of It -- until her actions as the Other force her hand. Upon being rescued, she stops believing in It, but the Other doesn't. At some point, she erects a shrine in secret & begins making sacrifices.

The primary purpose of the Other seems to be protecting Tai & the things she holds dear in ways she's unwilling or unable to do consciously. The ongoing worship may be a function of this . . . but it's also transactional.

When Taissa wants something -- like the Senatorship -- but won't play dirty enough to get it, the Other finds ways to provide. Sacrificing the family dog to It is one of those ways.

As much as they are one in the same, the Other has assumed the role of mediating conflicts for Tai -- her body's needs with her physical circumstances, her ambitions with her principles, her life post-rescue with It's continued presence . . .

& FINALLY, CASS - does not recognize any clear distinction between herself & It. While the other women have found ways to distance themselves from It in their worship, she's dissolved herself into It.

They have their own shrine & their own rituals, because rituals are important -- blood is important -- but their worship is primarily intuitive & internal. She doesn't fear It like Lottie or bargain with It like Tai because Its desires are hers, and vice versa.

"It's not evil. Just hungry, like us. Let It in"

When It hungers, she hungers, and when she feeds It, she is fed. They use their own instincts, emotions, & desires to understand what It wants & act accordingly. And when Its presence & will do become apparent . . . she feels relief because now she knows exactly what she has to do to keep them both strong.

-- Because It needs to be nurtured out here, far from the wilderness' womb for the first time. The other survivors have largely abandoned It, feeding It on scraps or leaving It to wither & rot & turn to poison inside them. Not Cass.

Out in the wilderness, she & the others bore witness to something as powerful as it was lonely and violent and misunderstood. There was a learning curve, for sure, but that was where she realized -- all Its power is hers to wield if she just lets It in, if she just learns to love It.

For Cass, that part comes so naturally.

#i. AUTOPSY NOTES #ty in advance 4 reading all that damn #ok like a lot of the lottie & tai stuff is my analysis/extrapolation of a somewhat cryptic show but. #i feel good about it!!!!

[limeade-l3sbian]

What’s your opinion on some black people on twitter distancing themselves from certain online activism in regards to palestine due to how horribly anti black muslims can be and are oftentimes, how it is alleged that even bisan(i say alleged bc i only saw ppl say there was proof, not post the proof itself) has been dismissive of the black experience/ anti black?

at a certain angle i can honestly get it. we do not see the same passion or care for what is happening in sudan and congo so to see people shame black people, especially during black history month, about focusing on that instead or critiquing other ppls lack of attention towards those issues. it is not coincidental that the genocides and tragedies happening to black people somewhere else is what’s being neglected compared to the much paler counterparts.

my biggest issue with the whole situation of distancing is honestly other black ppl shaming those individuals. i’m tired of seeing black ppl, especially black women, constantly fight others battles and accept their own neglect. so many bw will go to war to fight for others who wouldn’t even piss on them if they were on fire.

i’m not saying anyone should distance themselves from caring about literal genocides. i’m just saying i get understand the feeling of neglect and constant sacrifice expected of oneself despite never getting even a smidgen back.

I can understand it.

For me, it's like this: There are some genuinely repulsive, racist women who fall into my net of feminism (all women). If I were to ever step in their neighborhood, they would call the cops. If I ever got into an argument with them, they might call me the n-word. If I were to ever get hurt, they would say I deserved it.

If a crime happened involving a black criminal, she would post repulsive shit that has genuinely sent me in a spiral. I will just stare at the ceiling and wonder how so much hate for darker skin can exist even after so much progress. She will uphold beliefs that have left me wondering what it feels like to live without being aware of my skin.

This woman is the worst person I have ever known. I want to punch her in the face and given the chance, I probably would.

But I don't think she should be raped. I don't think she should be abused by her husband. I don't think she should be used as a prop in war. I would not celebrate if she was violated in any way that could scar her for life.

And that isn't because I'm some sort of "above it all, so sanctified, look at me I'm so righteous" asshole. Because, as I said, I want to punch this woman and if she tripped in front of me, she can get the fuck up herself lmao.

BUT, my humanity is not conditional.

Especially on the subject of women. The ignorance of one group does not negate my own sense of morality and feelings of what is right and what is wrong. I hold a certain anxiety in my chest for all the women caught in this war, because regardless of "sides", women remain the ransom and the spoils of every conflict.

I certain do feel anger when I think about how a lot of black women's activism and support FREQUENTLY goes unreturned. It pisses me off, to be honest. So I can understand and I would not judge the black women who pull back. Because how many times can I take the punches for you (people) before I get tired of no one tagging in?

But for me, personally, and I don't say this on some pedestal above the women I just mentioned in any way whatsoever, I guess I just think even the most ignorant women need support. And not that activism is transactional, but there have been demonstrations by muslims for BLM.

I guess my closing statement is that my fight is with the system, not the people who had no say in growing up in it.

*I'm not calling Palestinian women ignorant. I'm speaking on the hypothetical I said earlier as well as the select ignorant muslims that anon mentioned. So don't start.

#ask