#the fact that the 'moon' is alive and is evil would have been a REALLY great thing to know sweetheart

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

really like how absolutely no one apologized to maxwell for all the clowning and grief everyone gave him over using 'moon' in quotation marks. calling him superstitious or just a weird little freak. its been almost four years and i haven't heard one 'you know what maxwell, maybe you were onto something when you knew half of everything there was to know about the constant'

#its so fucking funny. babygirl just be more specific #the fact that the 'moon' is alive and is evil would have been a REALLY great thing to know sweetheart #*I* believed him. i listened to maxwell i trusted him. #granted i thought he wouldn't call it a proper moon for like. some science related reason #like. if the constant wasn't a planet then technically it couldn't have a moon. since moons have to orbit planets #whatever

[fjorests-of-wildemount]

Just thinking this morning about how an episode ago Orym literally screamed out how lonely he his to his friends *twice* and no one ever addressed it.

"Orym's got some shit going on" Ashton's been saying for months, but never brings it up *with* Orym.

He knelt in front of Fearne and watched her slip even further from his comprehension.

"Orym's fine" "Orym's the normal one" Sure, Orym's *sad* but that's normal, too, right? He isn't possessed by an evil archmage or anything. Time for that later.

Thinking about Beau walking into Isharnai's hut and very nearly trading her future with her family away so Veth could have hers. How resigned she was that it was simply fact, she didn't matter, but Veth did.

I wonder if anyone will even ask Orym this time? Will anyone even notice? Or will he have a new spring in his step, an even more determined focus, and they'll think, "Well, it looks like whatever's going on doesn’t matter right now"?

He asked for all of them to make it back from the moon alive, so I'm going to assume that means him, but what state does Morrigan the Fatestitcher consider "alive"? And for how long after their arrival back on Exandria do they have to remain so for the deal to be complete? Does he really think he won't make it back in order to have the deal be moot anyway?

There's every possibility Fearne finds out her best friend plans on staying trapped in the Feywild forever and tears Orym out if the deal. But she has to know about it first and I'm not sure what would make Orym tell her at this point.

#cr spoilers #critical role #bells hells #orym of the air ashari #c3 e81

[mugentakeda]

thoughts on Zhao ? are u as shocked as I am that Iroh never ended up killing him with his own bare hands ? do u think he was bummed he never got to ?

HONESTLY?!!!!! we have a complicated relationship. i really like zhao as a villain and i say that so very honestly. i think people make him out to be a lot stupider than he really is but at the same time he really is stupid in the way that evil men are always stupid. i think hes extremely despicable and hideously vain and his vanity clouds his judgement and causes him to make rash decisions.

this is all stuff we know about him already though its just that somehow that makes him come off as less scary to fans somehow?? but theres nothing scarier than a big loud man with a temper when youre a teenager with trauma from a dad like ozai. that agitation he so easily draws out of zuko is familiar to me.

i think that the way he makes himself seem SOOO above zuko while simultaneously licking ozais boots to get more power makes him even more ridiculous. and in an ironic way yeah because of all that i think hes a moron but unironically no i dont think hes stupid at all. it doesnt take a stupid man to work your way through the viper nest thats the fire nation high court. i dont think it takes an idiot to find wan shi tongs library and somehow manage to slither back out alive despite clearly lying to wan shi tongs face under his own roof. i dont think it takes an idiot to deduce who the blue spirit is. however it DOES take an idiot to think that killing the moon spirit to be rid of waterbenders when you come from a literal island nation in the tropics and your military relies heavily on its navy and you LITERALLY are using an armada to launch this grand attack

but then however comma yeah i do honestly agree with the popular vote that him going out of his way to harass and intimidate zuko is very slimy and strange and based on zukos immediate attempt at evading him this is something that has been going on for a While and the fact that iroh didnt notice or whatever really bothered me. Maybe its just because im an older sibling and i take that shit serious whenever kids are discomforted in the presence of specific adults (specific Men really) but whatever. i honestly doubt bryke wrote zhao with #that kind of weirdness in mind but that doesnt change the fact that hes a slimeball and iroh shouldve mollywhopped him right in his fat forehead. thats just what i personally wouldve done though like idk. like he is definitely the kind of adult i would keep a specific eye on because bitch!!!! hes just very unusual as hell and when youre a guardian looking after a kid then you need to keep an eye out for shit like that seriously

(one day ill make a post discussing how much more at ease zuko is in the presence of only women btw. One Day.)

and yes i DO wish that we got a missing scene or whatever with iroh and zuko after zhao Literally blew zuko and his whole ship and everything he owns up. like do you know how infuriating that is. waited until iroh and the crew were down the road to get zuko alone in his fucking pjs. a whole group of grown ass pirates doing all that with bombs for revenge over one bratty 16 yr old. i DO wish we saw some of irohs rage during the siege bleed back and forth from "anger over the moon spirit being killed" and "anger over you also nearly killing my fucking nephew" just as well anon.

and the fact that zhaos ambitions were centered on making himself more powerful and admired and he was doing literally everything to get zuko out of the way to make that happen when zukos reasons for capturing aang were so much more desperate and sad (not that that makes it ok but yall know what i mean). Like its just sooo aggravating and thats when i stop caring about how cool Zhao The Conqueror is as a villain and when i start wanting to pummel him with a cartoonishly large hammer

#I HOPE THIS ANSWERS YOUR QUESTION ANONSIE PIE!!!!!! #you all know i love going on these atla tirades lalalalalalaaaaa #asks

[robininthelabyrinth]

The Other Mountain - ao3 - Chapter 11

Pairing: Lan Qiren/Wen Ruohan

Warning Tags on Ao3

———————————————————————-

Lan Qiren had done something while he was gone, Wen Ruohan thought to himself, observing the other man as they meandered down the paths of the Nightless City. More than likely he’d gone to confront his demons in the Crescent Moon Courtyard – he’d largely hidden it by the time Wen Ruohan had found him being harassed by Lu Qipei and Shen Mingbi, but his eyes were still a little reddened in a way that suggested he had been crying earlier.

Also, his cultivation had increased. A lot.

Irritatingly, it didn’t seem that Lan Qiren had even noticed it yet. He had a remarkably solid foundation, the sort that you built up over years of effort focused on the basics, and that meant he could amass a rather large amount of spiritual energy without feeling the strain. Presumably, he’d done just that – though it was impossible to tell whether the extent of the sudden increase was from having removed the emotional entanglement that had been tripping him up, a breakthrough on account of enlightenment, or simply, denials aside, having gotten closer to a qi deviation than was strictly healthy.

(Personally, Wen Ruohan suspected that the technique of getting stronger by going a little too close to qi deviations without dying was how the Nie sect had started out, with their wild tempers and vicious sabers that were so intertwined that it was impossible to tell which one had come first. Of course, only someone who subscribed to the Nie sect’s insane belief that fighting evil was more important than living well, or who was already inclined to die of rage, would be willing to deal with the way the technique later backfired. But as a matter of pure efficiency, it was probably second only to outright demonic cultivation as a means of building power…)

The cultivation style of Gusu generally didn’t lend itself to those sorts of sudden increases. Their tradition was the orthodox of the orthodox, all hard work and good living, very focused on slow and steady accumulation, and Lan Qiren was no exception to the rule. As Wen Ruohan had personally observed, Lan Qiren really did meditate and practice his swordsmanship or music every day and, knowing his ridiculous addiction to his sect rules, probably also genuinely tried to honestly love all beings, not be unreasonable, all those sorts of things. In fact, Wen Ruohan had also noticed that his golden core had an unusual purity, shining brighter than others of the same level of power. He hadn’t yet figured out why that might be, though, or if it had any particular effects – perhaps that would be something to look into, eventually?

Wen Ruohan hadn’t bothered with anything medical in literal decades, his sect’s fame in that regard aside. He far preferred arrays, which let him play with power directly, with talismans as a second choice, and only then physical weapons, such as the sword, every cultivator’s standby, or the spear, his long-ago lost brother’s preference; in comparison, needles, medicines, and the finicky human body, at least in its healthy and intact form, were much less interesting to him. He’d only ever bothered to learn medicine in the first place because he distrusted others’ motives in tending to him and wanted to be able to verify that they were doing what they said they were doing, and these days he only exercised that part of his brain when he was keeping people alive to better torment them.

Still, he’d found to his amusement that everything about Lan Qiren interested him these days, even to the point of picking up long-unused skills. For someone like him, who had been bored by everything for so long, that glimmer of interest far outweighed the boredom of medicine…

It was a pity he couldn’t explore Lan Qiren’s fascinating core through dual cultivation instead – which wasn’t a thought Wen Ruohan had ever thought he’d have. Dual cultivation required significant vulnerability from both sides, especially for the weaker party, but unfortunately the benefits usually went to the weaker party, too. Wen Ruohan was much more powerful than his partners, and his cultivation style was too orthodox to use another person as a furnace, so it was inevitable that it would be his partner who got most of the benefits rather than him. And Wen Ruohan was not inclined towards generosity, nor to vulnerability.

With Lan Qiren, though…it could be fun.

Wen Ruohan would be willing to bet that Lan Qiren had never noticed any increase in his cultivation, much less learned to enjoy the rush of power filling your body and going to your head that came with it – it might be enjoyable to give him a bit of a shock. Or at least knock him off balance a little, as Lan Qiren’s ability to keep his composure in bed was one of his most charming and also most irritating traits…

Unfortunately, it was highly unlikely Lan Qiren would ever agree to dual cultivate with him, given how much it would leave him at Wen Ruohan’s mercy. Oh, well.

Wen Ruohan indulged himself by reaching out to put his hand on the back of Lan Qiren’s neck so that his fingertips just rested on the pulse point by his jaw. Perhaps he could satisfy the urge if he evaluated the exact extent of the increased power…

“– are you even listening to me?!”

“Not at all,” Wen Ruohan said cheerfully, not removing his hand. “Were you saying something important?”

Outraged, Lan Qiren opened his mouth.

“Important to me.”

“…well, it should be.” Lan Qiren rolled his eyes at him. “They are your wives, Sect Leader Wen.”

Wen Ruohan attempted to review the last few moments of the conversation, without success. He hadn’t bothered to pay attention to anything about his wives since Shen Mingbi had survived birthing Wen Chao, not even when they were scheming against him. They were predictable to the extreme, and exceptionally boring as a result.

For instance, Lu Qipei was, in his opinion, a vicious backstabbing harridan whose sole weakness was her fondness for being fawned over and admired. He’d married her for her family’s then-notable influence and she’d never once hesitated to lord it over everyone else, even though he’d long since swallowed that family into his own sect. She’d always treated him as if he was a fool, simultaneously scheming to try to make him fall in love with her in order to secure her status as mistress of the Nightless City and yet unable to resist sneaking some of her former admirers into his household as servants, presumably to more efficiently cuckold him after he’d given her the son he’d promised her.

She could mercilessly manipulate people better than half his spies, a trait that Wen Ruohan thoroughly approved of, but despite all her cleverness, it had seemingly never crossed her mind that the reason he didn’t continue to favor her after he’d fulfilled his obligations under their marriage was because he simply didn’t like her, just as she didn’t very much like him. He didn’t mind that she had other lovers – in truth, he’d expected as much, and was unsurprised to have his expectations fulfilled – but he was considerably annoyed by the fact that she continuously tried to hide them from him, as if she thought him stupid enough to remain ignorant despite how obvious she was. She had the position he’d promised her, yet she persisted in feeling as though she were entitled to his affection, and even that she only wanted to better control him; worst of all, she tended to blame her inability to obtain it on the scheming of others and acted accordingly.

Shen Mingbi, in contrast, was a fundamentally stupid woman who could only not be called vicious because it would imply a level of cunning she lacked. To her general misfortune, she was not an especially strong personality, so she followed Lu Qipei’s lead in most things, and never seemed to learn her lesson no matter how many times it blew up in her face. Her primary virtue was her persistence and fearlessness; she’d been the one to crawl into his bed, back when she’d been nothing but an overlooked middle daughter sent to serve as a maid in a greater sect than her own, hoping to improve her personal lot in life even if it meant the eventual downfall of her family. Wen Ruohan could appreciate that level of ruthlessness, and he had – in both of them, really.

They were each of them in their own ways perfectly suited for their positions as his wives, the two of them together keeping a tight grip on the social scene of the Nightless City, queen bees reigning in their hive. They kept the place lively, made the Nightless City a sparkling gem that attracted talent to his side, and ensured that Wen Ruohan didn’t have to worry about being outmatched by other sects. He appreciated them for that. 

But that didn’t make them interesting.

As far as he was concerned, their behavior was as inevitable as the dawn: Lu Qipei, bitter at having been formally demoted from the position of first Madam Wen even though he’d explicitly ensured that she retain all the power of the position and personally reassured her of it to boot, would refuse to believe that Lan Qiren wasn’t out to get the rest of her power, and so first try to bully Lan Qiren; when that failed, she’d probably turn to subversion and then sabotage, neither of which would win her his favor or get Lan Qiren to go away. For her part, Shen Mingbi, who would probably have been content to remain focused on herself and her son if not incited by Lu Qipei, would mock and insult Lan Qiren simply for existing in her vicinity, throwing pointless temper tantrums when he was around as if she inexplicably hoped to be indulged in them, and later would invariably allow herself to be used in one of Lu Qipei’s schemes.

In any event, absolutely nothing of any use would be accomplished.

Wen Ruohan rarely even bothered to undermine their plots anymore. He didn’t even think Lan Qiren would notice most of them…

No, his attention had more or less shut off entirely after they’d finished with the subject of what Lan Qiren was going to call him –

(Feeling contrary, he’d refused to grant Lan Qiren permission to use his name. This had led to a long lecture about inappropriate behavior and quite a few invocations of the fact that they were married, but hilariously enough it turned out that Lan Qiren was too polite to just go ahead and call him by name when explicitly denied the privilege. So they were still at “Sect Leader Wen,” just…notably more sarcastically.)

“Intolerable,” Lan Qiren grumbled, stepping away so that Wen Ruohan’s hand fell back down to his side. “Absolutely intolerable. You were not listening at all, were you? I was saying that I should move out of your courtyard – ”

“Absolutely not.”

Lan Qiren glared. “Then how exactly do you propose to satisfy your duty to your wives? You certainly are not going to be doing it with them whilst I am in the room.”

Wen Ruohan smirked. “Well – ”

His words cut off despite himself. Lan Qiren, ears gone red again, had just used the Lan sect’s silencing spell on him, even though he knew it was the work of only a moment for Wen Ruohan to break it.

The silencing spell. On him. In his own city!

Shen Mingbi wasn’t the only one who was fearless. Only Lan Qiren had every bit of cleverness that she lacked; he knew exactly what he was risking by confronting Wen Ruohan the way he did, and yet he did it anyway, wholly naturally and without hesitation. It was as if he really, truly wasn’t afraid of him…

How novel.

“What is your alternative suggestion, then?” Lan Qiren asked. “Without the innuendo.”

Chuckling, Wen Ruohan shook his head and snapped the spell.

“As a start, if I wanted to,” he said dryly, tucking his hands behind his back as he walked, “I could always go and visit them in their courtyards before returning to you in mine – ”

“The same evening?! That would be unsanitary – ”

“– but I wouldn’t, and it’s irrelevant anyway,” Wen Ruohan continued, overriding Lan Qiren easily. “On account of the fact that I don’t sleep with them.”

Lan Qiren seemed completely taken aback by this statement.

“I agreed with each of them in advance of our marriage that I would give her the power of a position as my wife and a son of her own,” Wen Ruohan explained. “In each case, I’ve done so. The only reason I would have to sleep with them now is if I wanted to, and I don’t want to.”

Certainly any actual interest he’d had in either of his wives hadn’t survived their other lovers.

It wasn’t that he objected to them having other lovers. Wen Ruohan’s ambitions made him a busy man who didn’t have time to lavish attention on others, and that meant he was not the type of man to properly keep a wife. That had been a lesson he’d learned from his first wife, the one who’d died many years ago along with his first family and whose name he had since declared taboo even to himself; she had been the first one to explain to him that wives had high requirements for affection and indulgence and that they would invariably turn elsewhere when he grew too busy for them, no matter what he might try. When he, at the time still young and stupid, had offered to try to do better by her, to slow or divert his plans to make more time for her, she had merely laughed in his face and informed him that she’d already found others that suited her taste more than him, presenting them to him as a fait accompli. At the time, caught up in the battle for succession, he hadn’t had time or energy to fight her on it or divorce her over it – which was, he supposed, her point.

Still…at least she’d had taste. He’d encouraged all his wives to take lovers if they so wished, yes, and was unsurprised when they did, but at the same time, the sort of people his current wives allowed into their beds was simply depressing. If Wen Ruohan ever started feeling inclined towards one or another of them, usually after they’d impressed him with some profoundly wicked bit of scheming, he need only remember that they categorized him with those other idiots and his interest tended to melt away faster than morning dew in midsummer.

“But – ”

“They have other lovers,” Wen Ruohan said, mostly for the pleasure of seeing Lan Qiren shocked and appalled all over again, which he was. “Although we live separate lives, they’re both kept quite satisfied, I assure you.”

Lan Qiren scowled.

They walked together a little longer, Wen Ruohan thinking idly of what else he could say to shock Lan Qiren’s easily troubled sensibilities, and then Lan Qiren managed to shock him by grumbling, “All for the best, I suppose. Scheduling was always my least favorite part of being sect leader.”

Wen Ruohan disguised his bark of amusement as a cough. “Is that your objection? The scheduling?”

“I cannot say that I enjoy the concept of sharing,” Lan Qiren said – he just said it! flat out! and without so much as missing a beat. How utterly shameless of him. “But on the other hand, as I am married to the second most obnoxious man in the world, I assume that at some point I would be likely to enjoy a reprieve.”

What sort of Lan are you? Wen Ruohan thought, finding it harder and harder to keep from outright cackling. As ruthless with your own heart as with anything else – I like it.

“The second most obnoxious man in the world?” he asked, smirking. “I’m offended. Who’s the first?”

“Pretending to be ignorant does not suit you. Your lover, of course.”

“You?”

“Sect Leader Nie.”

And that, too, came as a surprise. Wen Ruohan twisted his head to stare at Lan Qiren: “You know about that?”

Lan Qiren scoffed. “Were you under the impression that the two of you were being subtle? You were so blatant that even I noticed, and everyone knows that understanding social situations is hardly my forte.”

That was true, everyone did know that about Lan Qiren. But what they didn’t know, though, was that Wen Ruohan had been sleeping with Lao Nie for years, almost invariably on account of the fact that anything they saw that suggested it was immediately dismissed out of hand as implausible. Two men who weren’t particularly known for cutting their sleeves, each of whom was powerful enough to find and marry a beautiful female cultivator if they wanted, coming together without any plausible political motivation…no one believed it. Why would they bother with each other when there were other options, easier options? So even when other people saw evidence of it, they assumed it was all a convenient fiction to cover up something else or, at most, a joke being played deliberately, meant to provoke.

Presumably the doubt hadn’t even crossed Lan Qiren’s mind. Of course he would be the one to notice, with his tendency to deduce social situations as if they were logic puzzles and the clear-sightedness that that approach gave him. And just as typical, even though he’d noticed, even though noticing had meant that he’d had tremendous leverage he could have employed over two other Great Sects, he hadn’t done a single thing about it in all these years.

Of course he didn’t. Lan Qiren, a blackmailer? Never!

Wen Ruohan was now grinning outright. Even his bone-deep paranoia was having trouble believing that Lan Qiren would ever genuinely try to manipulate him.

After all, that was just who Lan Qiren was, wasn’t he? It was the same thing as all the rest of him: he really believed in those stupid rules of his and tried to live up to them, no matter how ridiculous. He had morals and principles and he genuinely cared about them for their own sake, for his own sake, regardless of the outside circumstances. He wasn’t going to turn himself into an extortionist, not for anything, no matter what it might get him. The possibility had probably never crossed his mind.

Just as it probably had never occurred to him to scheme for Wen Ruohan’s favor, the way Lu Qipei and Shen Mingbi did, and then immediately turn and throw it away…

“Do you actually call Lao Nie ‘Sect Leader Nie’?” he asked, side-stepping Lan Qiren’s question. “No one does that, not even me.”

“I thought it appropriate, since apparently you are so devoted to sticking with formalities – ”

Wen Ruohan cracked, giving in and starting to laugh. “All right, all right,” he said, feeling refreshed. “Have it your way.”

“It is not a matter of my way or your way,” Lan Qiren said, sounding long-suffering. “It is not about winning. It is about establishing a relationship – ”

“You have my permission to call me by name,” Wen Ruohan interrupted. Personally, he thought it was entirely about winning, and also that Lan Qiren was very clearly signaling that he wasn’t prepared to lose.

“Thank you.”

Wen Ruohan sent a pointed look at Lan Qiren. “Thank you, what?”

Lan Qiren choked on his words again, and that made Wen Ruohan laugh once more. That was the most ridiculous part of this little argument, of course: that this was the thing Lan Qiren was choosing to put his foot down on, his hill to die on, given that it was pretty obviously something he didn’t even especially want.

Wen Ruohan decided, somewhat uncharacteristically, to have mercy. “While you can use my name if you want,” he said generously (and in as pointedly condescending a tone as he could manage), “you can also continue to address me as you always have.”

Lan Qiren looked relieved.

“I merely wished to have the option,” he said stiffly. “Your wives pointed out to me that there are certain circumstances where I might wish to exercise the use of a – ah – a greater level of intimacy – ”

“No, no, that’s not part of the agreement, you definitely have to keep calling me Sect Leader Wen in bed,” Wen Ruohan said, smirking when Lan Qiren gave him an exasperated look. He raised his eyebrows in return, making clear that he wasn’t going to bend on this one – and he really wasn’t, either. There was a certain piquancy to the way Lan Qiren used what ought to be a term of respect when they were in bed together that he was loath to give up. It wasn’t disrespectful, exactly, he’d never tolerate that, but Lan Qiren did have a tendency to invoke it when he was being especially mean. Absolutely delicious, absolutely unexpected of him, and all the more enjoyable for being unexpected.

“…at other times, then,” Lan Qiren conceded with bad grace. “As appropriate.”

“We must certainly always take care to abide by propriety,” Wen Ruohan agreed, ignoring Lan Qiren’s annoyance at his sarcasm. “Isn’t that one of your rules?”

“You are thinking of ‘propriety suggests reciprocity,’” Lan Qiren said in a way that suggested that Wen Ruohan deserved exactly none at the moment. “Although, on that note…”

Rather uncharacteristically, he trailed off.

Wen Ruohan waited for him to complete his thought. There was no point in even bothering to formulate a guess as to what it might be, he thought, quite pleased by the notion. With Lan Qiren, it might be a reversion to his usual type, with more lecturing and invocation of rules, or it could be something completely unexpectedly, completely off the wall –

“I think it would be only right to inform you that I have developed the intention to use you.”

Wen Ruohan blinked.

Somehow, even when he’d braced himself, Lan Qiren found a way to be weirder than he’d anticipated.

“Use me?” he asked, bemused. “How so?”

If it had been Lao Nie, Wen Ruohan would have assumed that he was referring to something sexual, but with Lan Qiren that was highly unlikely. Yet the only other alternative that came to mind was political, and that seemed if anything even more unlikely –

“I haven’t decided yet.” Lan Qiren was looking straight ahead, and his ears had gone red again. “However, propriety demands reciprocity. You have been upfront – well, relatively – with the fact that you intend to use me and my talents to advance your schemes for power. I am informing you that I intend the same.”

Wen Ruohan had no idea what to do with that.

“You,” he said blankly. “You want to scheme for more power?”

Lan Qiren finally turned to look at him, glaring. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he snapped. “I intend to use the fact that you have power in order to find a way to help my nephews.”

That made much more sense. Wen Ruohan relaxed, the world that had threatened to teeter off its axis resuming its regular spin. Lan Qiren was still Lan Qiren.

In fact, now that Wen Ruohan was no longer distracted by shock, his primary feeling on the subject turned out to be…glee.

Incredible, overwhelming, profusive glee.

I did that, Wen Ruohan thought to himself, delighted. That was all me.

Hadn’t he just been thinking earlier that Lan Qiren would never condescend to scheme for his favor? And he wouldn’t, either, because he’d just come out and told Wen Ruohan about his intentions – just as it had never occurred to him to become a blackmailer, it had just as obviously never occurred to Lan Qiren that he could try to manipulate Wen Ruohan into doing what he wanted without telling him in advance. Based on how he’d phrased what he’d just said, he probably thought that merely intending to personally benefit from Wen Ruohan was already some sort of betrayal of the innate concept of marriage that existed only in his head, or maybe in his sect rules.

But he had.

Despite his rules, despite his ideals, I have developed the intention to use you.

That was Qishan Wen ambition, not Gusu Lan restraint.

The rigid and unimpeachable Lan Qiren, whose morals everyone trusted to remain forever pristine…it was almost like watching a fawn take its first few steps, shaky and uncertain.

Wen Ruohan was so proud.

Mostly of himself, of course. Who else could say that they had made inroads into corrupting the incorruptible? Amazing, really; at times, he impressed even himself. Now this was a power rush…

“I know that expression,” Lan Qiren sighed. “The desk again, I assume?”

Wen Ruohan wouldn’t mind getting fucked over his desk some more; it was one of his favorite places for it. But no, this was a personal triumph, not a political one. The bed would do just fine…or maybe he could finally enact that plan he’d made early on and never acted upon.

“I have other plans,” he said. Lan Qiren looked at him suspiciously. “How about a bath before dinner?”

“I mistrust the tone in which you said that, but I also cannot think of how you could pervert the purpose of a bath,” Lan Qiren said, revealing the limits of his experience and imagination. “At any rate, I have been overly active this morning, so I could use one. Very well, lead the way…and in the meantime, you should tell me what it was that you wanted from me when you called me away from your wives. I assume it was not for this.”

It had better not have been for sex, Lan Qiren’s tone suggested, or else Wen Ruohan wasn’t going to be getting any.

“I had a real purpose,” Wen Ruohan protested mildly, still too gleeful and full of himself to mind. “Upon my arrival, my head disciple reminded me that it was time to organize the trip to Yunmeng for the discussion conference. I’ve decided to put you to work.”

Lan Qiren visibly brightened.

The good mood carried him through dinner with Lu Qipei and Shen Mingbi that evening, even though his attempt to use a high collar to conceal the bite marks Wen Ruohan had purposefully littered his neck with was completely unsuccessful – in classic form, the women had conspired to deliberately not bring their sons to the table as an insult, only to be so appalled by the obvious marks of Wen Ruohan’s favor that they could barely bring themselves to speak at all, much less point out the insult to him, and so Lan Qiren blissfully floated through the dinner completely unaware of the snub. Lan Qiren even voluntarily stayed awake past his usual bedtime in order to read up on all the things he felt he needed to know before he spoke with the sect quartermaster about logistics, full of excitement and anticipation.

Really, Wen Ruohan hadn’t even noticed how listless and depressed the man had been until he suddenly wasn’t. It was almost funny – but what was really funny was how, with his improved mood and something useful to do with himself, Lan Qiren’s notoriously finicky temper finally returned in full force.

“You will have to forgive me,” he overheard Lan Qiren saying in a tone that suggested he meant it as an insult. “I have been trying to manage the transportation, feeding, and upkeep of the completely unnecessary full delegation we are apparently sending to Yunmeng at Sect Leader Wen’s insistence and which Wen sect tradition apparently mandates to be at least one and a half times larger and three times fancier than a full delegation from any other sect would be. As you can imagine, I have been quite pressed with everything I have to do. And you want to waste my time by telling me about protocol?”

Wen Ruohan choked back laughter, listening from around the corner as his poor disciple stammered and stuttered in response.

“I – that is – it’s traditional – ”

“I would be more than willing to pause the four urgent tasks I need to accomplish within the next shichen to listen to you, but only if you can explain to me exactly what new information about proper protocol you, a member of the Wen sect, quite possibly the rudest and most arrogant sect in the cultivation world, are going to impart to me, who served Gusu Lan as its sect leader for ten years.”

His disciple looked like he maybe wanted to cry, which was quite notable in a man of at least forty who’d been trained for years to deal with Wen Ruohan’s own very particular temperament.

Wen Ruohan’s ribs were starting to hurt with the effort of keeping silent.

“Is there some unique aspect to protocol in the Wen sect that I am unaware of, perhaps? I must admit I have not observed any in the last few discussion conferences that I personally attended, but if you insist...” Lan Qiren paused, then turned and scowled at where Wen Ruohan was standing. “Do you think I cannot hear you snickering over there? Stop skulking in the shadows. It’s unbecoming of a sect leader.”

“I was not skulking,” Wen Ruohan said, though he did start walking again, turning the corner. “I just happened to overhear you. Have you spoken with the armory yet about which sect flags we’re taking?”

“You have multiple – what am I saying, of course you do.” Lan Qiren huffed. “I’ll go there now.”

Wen Ruohan watched the other man storm off in amusement, then glanced at the disciple next to him. It was a kinsman of his, though he couldn’t remember his name; there were too many of them for that.

“Really,” he said, drawing out the word, and watched the man go pale gratifyingly fast. “He does have a point, you know. Instructing a son of Gusu Lan on propriety? Do you also teach fish to swim in your seemingly plentiful spare time?”

“But it’s traditional!” the man bleated, and Wen Ruohan had to at least give him credit for standing his ground. “There’s always an introduction to protocol before the first public event involving someone who’s just married into the sect, especially if they’re acting in any sort of important position.”

Wen Ruohan was just about to point out that the circumstances were surely materially different if the other person involved was formerly a sect leader of a Great Sect in his own right and therefore painfully familiar with all matters of inane discussion conference protocol when the most beautiful revelation abruptly struck him.

Lan Qiren might know all the protocol, yes, and probably ten times better than Wen Ruohan ever had –  but everything he knew was applicable to him in his role as a sect leader or, at most, sect disciple. Only…he wasn’t attending the conference as either sect leader or sect disciple.

He was attending as Wen Ruohan’s wife.

And as far as Wen Ruohan had determined, Lan Qiren had yet to realize that.

“What are we introducing him as?” he asked, thinking it through himself in sudden delight: wives often helped host discussion conferences held at their homes but rarely traveled to the ones hosted by another sect, although it wasn’t unheard of – for instance, Jiang Fengmian often brought his wife, although everyone not-so-secretly speculated that that was because Yu Ziyuan was afraid that her husband would make a stupid concession if she wasn’t there to help. But that was the exception: sect leaders’ wives would generally not attend the actual conference, politely withdrawing while the sect leaders were talking and rejoining them only later on for the banquets held each evening. “I’ve given instructions that no one leak any information about him until we’re there, of course, but – for the first banquet, they’ll have to introduce us. What will they call him?”

“I…I would imagine they would address him as Madam Wen, Sect Leader? It isn’t as though he has a personal title to use instead, the way Madam Yu – ah, that is, the way Madam Jiang might be called the Violet Spider…”

Wen Ruohan grinned.

(His smile made the other man’s soul seem to flee his body.)

“Don’t tell him,” he instructed. “I want absolutely no one to address him by his title until we’re there, all right? I want it to be a surprise.”

“A – surprise, Sect Leader?”

“I want that banquet to be the first time he’s formally addressed as Madam Wen,” Wen Ruohan clarified, still grinning and entirely unable to stop. “Until then, all the servants and disciples are to address him only as Senior Lan. Pass the word around to everyone, and make sure they know that anyone who errs will be facing my personal displeasure. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Sect Leader! I’ll go at once!”

Wen Ruohan nodded his consent and then resumed his initial path. This discussion conference was going to be hilarious, he thought to himself, still gleeful. Between the other sects finding out about Lan Qiren’s new status and Lan Qiren himself finally figuring out his proper role in their relationship, it was going to be absolutely hilarious. Lao Nie was going to find it hard to stop laughing…assuming he didn’t lose his temper at Wen Ruohan first, of course.

Hmm. It belatedly occurred to Wen Ruohan that Lao Nie might not be as pleased with his brilliant plan as he was – for whatever reason, Lao Nie had always been quite fond of Lan Qiren, and even genuinely, not in the outwardly affable but inwardly scornful way he was with most of his fellow sect leaders. That was quite odd in and of itself, really, since Lao Nie tended to only like people who he thought were dangerous…which was an interesting thought. Maybe there really had always been more to Lan Qiren all along and he’d just missed it.

Annoying, to find an oversight like that. Still, Wen Ruohan had repaired it now, hadn’t he? Lan Qiren was his, and he wasn’t giving him back.

Not even if Lao Nie wanted him to.

Come to think of it, Lao Nie had mentioned Lan Qiren a few times in the rare letter or two he sent to the Nightless City. Complaints that Lan Qiren hadn’t responded to his letters, at first, and later expressing some concern about the notion of Lan Qiren going into seclusion, as if he couldn’t figure out or possibly admit to himself that it had obviously been involuntary. Wen Ruohan hadn’t written back, which wasn’t uncommon, but now that he thought about it, there was in fact a chance that Lao Nie might object, and strenuously, to what he might perceive (not incorrectly) as something being forced onto Lan Qiren against his will…

Anyway, it didn’t matter. Even if Wen Ruohan were inclined to give something up for Lao Nie’s sake, which he didn’t, he couldn’t. A marriage was a marriage. Wen Ruohan wasn’t going to just up and divorce Lan Qiren, giving up all his plans and embarrassing Lan Qiren in the process. Anyway, if he did, that awful brother of his would almost certainly find a far worse fate for him once Lan Qiren was back in his clutches, and Wen Ruohan very much did not appreciate being considered the lesser evil.

Actually, come to think of it, that was another pleasure to be found in the upcoming discussion conference: Qingheng-jun was undoubtedly going to be hideously disappointed to find Lan Qiren whole and intact and even thriving. Maybe Wen Ruohan could find a way to arrange a way for them to meet right after they’d fucked – Lan Qiren didn’t ever really look properly fucked out, or at least Wen Ruohan hadn’t gotten him there yet despite a few half-hearted attempts, but after a particularly enthusiastic session he did have a sort of relaxed glow to him that was rather distinctive. If Qingheng-jun saw it…

Hah!

Wen Ruohan felt, for the first time in a very long while, the distinct urge to hum as he walked. Maybe even whistle, though of course you couldn’t whistle around a Lan, they got jittery with that.

He didn’t give into the unexpectedly childish urge – but he wanted to.

And then, soon enough, the time to set out for the discussion conference was upon them.

Wen Ruohan spent about half the time involved in getting out the door being pleasantly surprised at how smoothly and efficiently everything was working, finding that Lan Qiren was every bit as good at organizing things as Wen Ruohan had expected him to be. Unfortunately, he spent the other half of the time thoroughly appalled that the morning’s work was such an improvement from his sect’s usual efforts, which he’d already considered to be quite efficient. They made it out of the gate of the Nightless City before noon on the first day, which had never happened before even once.

“I can’t believe it took us until midmorning to set out,” Lan Qiren complained when Wen Ruohan finally managed to pull him away from scolding people and back into the carriage they would be sharing for the duration of the trip. “The exit time was set for dawn, yet no one seemed prepared. Some of the disciples weren’t even awake!”

“The exit time is set for dawn because my ancestor said that all important delegations leave at dawn, and we obey it about the same as we do all of his other teachings – which is to say not at all,” Wen Ruohan informed him. Sadly, Lan Qiren did not seem to appreciate that wisdom. When he instead looked inclined to continue to complain, Wen Ruohan opted to distract him by offering him his choice of a blowjob or paperwork on next year’s tax collection.

(Predictably, Lan Qiren picked the paperwork. Wen Ruohan wasn’t even offended by it. He knew Lan Qiren would make it up to him later, and he also had the sneaking suspicion that when Lan Qiren had finished going over their taxes, he’d find that his sect’s income for this year was going to be a significant improvement over the last without anyone being able to pinpoint exactly how.)

“Oh, lest I forget, I overturned one of your decisions yesterday,” Lan Qiren said at one point, finally rousing himself out of his number-induced daze long enough to eat something and interact with another living being. “You are not permitted to torture the seamstresses. They got the robes done in time.”

“In time for our trip, not in time for me to see you in them in advance,” Wen Ruohan groused. “You should be dressed in my colors.”

“White is one of the Wen sect’s colors. I am wearing white.”

“You look like you’re in mourning.”

“No one mourns in this much embroidery,” Lan Qiren said, voice dry as dust. “I shall change when we get there and no sooner.”

Wen Ruohan supposed he’d have to be content with that. But he wasn’t happy about it.

“Are you bored? Is that the problem?” Lan Qiren inquired, then put aside the paperwork with only a mild grumble. “I can return the offer you gave me, if you like.”

“I most certainly would,” Wen Ruohan said, because he wasn’t an idiot. And then, because he was sometimes maybe a bit of an idiot, he added snidely, “Though I thought you intended to finish reviewing the tax collection regulations before evening.”

Lan Qiren looked strangely thoughtful at that.

“…what?”

“It occurs to me,” Lan Qiren said, “that if you can stay still, I can likely multitask.”

And then he did.

Wen Ruohan had a new appreciation for the intricacy of the tax code his ancestors had implemented.

Less so for Lan Qiren’s fastidiousness – change clothing after bathing was a rule, apparently, and bathing after sex was less a rule than an obvious practice – but either way it did pass the time extraordinarily well, and soon enough they were arriving in Yunmeng.

Running late, of course, but that was always Wen Ruohan’s preference. He rarely had any patience for the social mingling that typically preceded the first day’s official meeting. The regular crowd would be gathering and showing off to each other, while the sect leaders would gather for a late morning meeting in order to reach a formal agreement on rules for the conference – the usual sort of reassurances that violence would not be tolerated, no acts of retribution, that sort of thing, always the same every year. It wasn’t until the second day that the discussion conference would be formally opened, with events for the disciples to compete in and time reserved for the important political negotiations.

Arriving late would give Wen Ruohan the perfect opportunity for an impressive entrance, which he always made – and this time, he had something special to show off.

As expected, Lan Qiren looked absolutely splendid in his new robes.

Wen Ruohan had ordered him several new sets, but had agreed, mostly for his own amusement, that the one he would wear for the first day would be the most conservative one, something not entirely dissimilar to Lan Qiren’s old robes, mostly white with a touch of color at the hems and on the inside layer. Except, of course, that the color was red, not blue, and the white was subtly embroidered with suns rather than clouds. Wen Ruohan was sure it would take a little while for people to notice, as most of them didn’t bother to look more closely once they saw the telltale forehead ribbon that denoted a Lan.

Sure enough, when they first walked into the already crowded pavilion at the Lotus Pier, the Jiang sect disciple at the door greeted them with a proper welcome to Wen Ruohan and a somewhat more sincere but significantly more confused “Welcome, Sect Leader Lan! The rest of the Gusu Lan delegation arrived a little earlier – ”

“I am no longer acting as sect leader,” Lan Qiren gently corrected him. “That term of address is no longer appropriate.”

“Oh, right.” The Jiang sect disciple looked embarrassed. “Sorry about that, Teacher Lan. Please come in.”

“One of your former students?” Wen Ruohan asked in a low voice as they went in, and was pleased to see Lan Qiren suppress a sigh and nod. “I see.”

“You act as though you are successfully making some sort of point. I regret to inform you that you are most assuredly not.”

They’d see about that.

Just as they’d see how long it took for anyone to notice that –

“Qiren! There you are!”

It was said that the shout of one of the Qinghe Nie could be heard halfway across the country. Whoever had come up with the saying had known what they were talking about, Wen Ruohan thought as he resisted the urge to rub his ears. That had been deafening.

Lao Nie cheerfully shouldered his way through the stunned and pained-looking crowd, many of whom were now staring at them – specifically at Lan Qiren, standing at Wen Ruohan’s side.

“There you are,” Lao Nie said again, stopping in front of them. “What kept you? I was starting to get worried, I didn’t know what to think when I didn’t see you with the Cloud Recesses delegation earlier. And now you’re coming in with Hanhan – nice to see you too, Hanhan – ”

Wen Ruohan was going to kill Lao Nie if he didn’t stop using that dreadful nickname.

“ – but Qiren, you’re never late. Did something happen? Were you delayed on the road?”

“It is good to see you as well,” Lan Qiren said, greeting the other man with a nod. “And no, I was not delayed. I am not part of the Cloud Recesses’ delegation this time, I am here with the Nightless City.”

The room, already mostly quiet as people blatantly eavesdropped, abruptly went completely silent.

“With…Qishan Wen?” Lao Nie echoed, then stared at him as if actually looking at him for the first time. Taking in the new robes, no doubt, and all the small details that had taken the seamstresses the better part of two months to finalize. Not the sort of thing that could be done overnight. “You’re with Qishan Wen this time? Is that what you said?”

“That’s right,” Wen Ruohan interjected. This was going to be so good. “I married him.”

Silence. Lao Nie looked at Lan Qiren, who nodded in confirmation –

And then the room exploded.

Everyone was talking at once, at exceptionally loud volumes. Shouts, yells, cries, and Wen Ruohan’s name were in everyone’s mouths, including the normally reserved delegation of Gusu Lan, which abandoned their usual grim-faced rectitude to huddle up and hiss at each other like a flock of angry geese. It seemed like Qingheng-jun had successfully hidden Lan Qiren’s marriage even from them.

Wen Ruohan was having such a good time right now.

For his part, Lao Nie just kept staring at the two of them, head revolving back and forth between them. But there was a storm brewing between his brows, that famous Nie temper clearly starting to rear its head, and he was just opening his mouth to say something when a very loud crack silenced the entire hall.

“Honorable guests,” Madam Yu said calmly, as if she hadn’t just cast out that lightning whip of hers in a sizzling arc right over everyone’s heads. “The time for the morning meeting has begun. For those of you who will be attending, please find your seats. The rest of you: kindly leave.”

“We will talk about this later,” Lao Nie said to them in a low voice, then stalked back towards his own sect.

Lan Qiren looked after him with a frown, clearly not sure what the problem was, and glanced back at Wen Ruohan, who responded with a very faint shrug. He knew what Lao Nie’s problem was, of course, even if he didn’t know exactly how the other man would end up expressing it, but at any event now wasn’t the time to talk about it.

Somehow Lan Qiren seemed to understand all of that from the shrug, and he nodded in acknowledgment, the frown disappearing in favor of the more studied neutral expression he usually had at sect conferences. He stepped back and let Wen Ruohan lead the way, settling down in the seat Wen Ruohan indicated for him, immediately to Wen Ruohan’s right. Normally that would be the place for whoever Wen Ruohan had picked to play the role of his head disciple, but there was still space for Wen Yingjiu to sit to his left, and that was sufficient for his purposes. Unlike some other sect leaders, Wen Ruohan rarely resorted to his nominal head disciple for anything other than taking notes, and putting Lan Qiren to his right meant that he could more efficiently look at the rest of the room and Lan Qiren at the same time, which best maximized his view of both everyone’s horrified glances at Lan Qiren and Lan Qiren’s completely unperturbed expression of calm.

Fantastic.

Wen Ruohan was just settling himself in for a gloriously entertaining meeting when someone suddenly said, very loudly, “Senior Lan, is this entirely appropriate?”

The room abruptly went silent.

The speaker was the sect leader of Wangdu Pei – not quite an official subsidiary sect of Lanling Jin, but not far from it. One of Jin Guangshan’s useful idiots, someone he could use to feel out a situation without risking a sect as valuable to him as the likes of Laoling Qin.

If this was going where he thought it was, Wen Ruohan was going to kill Jin Guangshan for daring to question his arrangements in public. Unfortunately, the query had been directed at Lan Qiren, not him, and that meant Lan Qiren had to be the one to respond to it.

Lan Qiren turned his head slowly and met Sect Leader Pei’s gaze.

“What do you mean?” he asked, voice stiff and extremely even, dull as dishwater. Really, it was no wonder that Wen Ruohan had overlooked him for so long, if this was the persona he adopted in public.

Sect Leader Pei looked a little uncomfortable, having presumably assumed that Lan Qiren would understand his implication without him having to make it explicit – more fool he, given that Lan Qiren had never taken a hint once in ten years – but then forged on. “I mean…where you’re sitting.”

“What is wrong with where I am sitting?” Lan Qiren asked. His hands were folded in his lap and his posture was picture-perfect. He couldn’t have looked more like a good proper Lan if he’d tried. “I am here on behalf of Qishan Wen. Naturally I should sit with them. It is not inappropriate.”

“Perhaps it wouldn’t be inappropriate later at the banquet, but now?” Sect Leader Pei said, a sneer twisting his lips. “I’m not sure you’ve noticed, Senior Lan, but this meeting is reserved for sect leaders and their chief advisors only. Wives are not invited.”

Wen Ruohan’s fists clenched on his knees, his nails digging into flesh. How dare this man? He would slaughter this man the first moment he had the chance – he’d slaughter the man’s whole sect, he would eradicate it from the world for daring to insult him like this. For daring to mess with his plans like this! He’d wanted to embarrass Lan Qiren by calling him Madam Wen later, to be sure, but that would be when it would be purely funny and not lose anyone any face. But just as importantly, this discussion conference wouldn’t be any fun without Lan Qiren at his side. He hadn’t expected this to happen – he hadn’t thought anyone would dare to challenge him. Not directly, not like this…

Unexpectedly, Lan Qiren didn’t react to the taunt.

Instead, he just frowned.

“I am not sure what you mean,” he said, seeming genuinely confused, his voice still mild as before. “Wen Ruohan is the sect leader. Surely it would be by far more inappropriate for me to dismiss him from this gathering just for being my wife.”

Silence.

A beat.

And then the room erupted into utter pandemonium.

As for Wen Ruohan…

Wen Ruohan had to bite his lower lip to keep from bursting out laughing.

Before had been good, but this?

This was perfect.

#mdzs #wen ruohan #lan qiren #sect leader nie #my fic #my fics #Megafic #one of my favorite chapters

[willow-springpaw592]

My thoughts on the newest main story quests, some positive and some...slightly on the fence:

First of all, I like that Linda is shown to actually have a backbone and will snap back at people if they insult her. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but for a while it seemed like she was just the token intelligent one of the group who never got into conflicts. So I really liked seeing her stand up for herself this time against the dark riders!

I like how the druids can send messages via runestones to each other in times of crisis. It's something I never would've thought of, and although the way the runestones just grow out of the ground could seem silly and nonsensical in a way for some, I personally really like it!

Also, the magnetising void! It was so cool! I wonder what past Soul Rider performed it with Concorde? I would say Elizabeth, but that just seems too obvious. I love that we got to see a more dangerous side to the magic of the Sun Circle, and I really hope that this is something they will continue with for the rest of the Circles. Maybe for the Moon Circle, Linda could be able to cast dangerous illusions to confuse the dark riders? Or send visions that can drive people mad? It's probably too 'evil' for the Soul Rider circles, but I think it would be cool to see the dark side of the Keepers' magical abilities.

Now, onto the bombing of Dark Core Headquarters. I find it really difficult to believe that DC was never actually drilling any oil. They couldn't have partnered with GED forever, could they've? How could they have made money otherwise? At some point in history they must have drilled for oil, and then stopped for some reason. Maybe to put all their money into the equipment to build the Hadal gate (which btw confirms that Garnoks prison is indeed super deep under the sea, and not in some untouched corner of Pandoria) Anyways, I really hope this is not SSEs attempt at portraying DC as somewhat redeemable with 'oh no they actually weren't polluting the island at all, they were doing nothing wrong!', nevermind the fact that they are working towards releasing Garnok, who has made it very clear by now in regards to his plans for the island.

Well whatever, moving on from that, Erissa! Finally! I was hoping she'd have some lines of dialogue, but I did love her cartwheel/flip coming out of the portal. It's nice to see that Mr Sands is back in action again after not being present in the story for damn, what 5, 6 years now?! I though he and the Dark Riders would've been a bit more annoyed about the oil rig's destruction, so I guess the Soul Riders have got their war crime charges dropped for now at least.

Now for the obligatory Darko mention. With every new release of the main story, I get increasingly more worried about what SSE is planning on doing with him now. He should've been in the ending of this quest, yet he wasn't, and there's been absolutely zero mentions of him ever since the saving Anne quests from other characters, even though he was probably a massive source of trauma for Anne if he was the one who guarded her prison cell, and she seemed to have a very deep hatred of him going off of her mentions of him at past seasonal events. I can't find my screenshot of her one at Midsummer but she said something along the lines of, "What do you think happened to Darko? He had better still be alive. I won't let him take away my chance for revenge." Yes I know, I remembered one line of dialogue at an event years ago, can you tell I'm obsessed yet? I want to say that they're planning something big with him and the Nightmare Institute, but I've got this horrible feeling that they'll either reveal he's dead( even though the soul riding missions are proof that he isn't) or they'll just totally write him out of the story from now on because they've got the new Dark Rider models now, so they can do more with them. I know most people hate him, but I think he has the potential to be a really interesting irredeemable mad scientist type character, so I really hope they haven't given up on him yet. I'm probably being really over dramatic right now XD, but he's been my no.1 character hyperfixation since 2018 so that's my excuse lol.

I really didn't think this would be so long but to summarise: Anne and Linda are badass, I want Avalon to deck someone across the face, and I want Darko to make his dramatic appearance again someday :''(

Well, goodnight! Please share your own opinions with me if you'd like, I'd love to know everyone else's thoughts!

#ssoblr #sso anne #sso linda #sso mr sands #sso avalon #sso darko #sso soul riders #sso dark riders #sso spoilers #sso

[meme-streets]

dollars event day 4. prompt: spirits ---

He was frightened when he died. The thought comes to him one night with unexpected conviction.  Teetering just on the edge of sleep, snatched back near-violently by forces unknown.

Blondie hasn’t been sleeping well since he left Sad Hill.  Partly he blames the solitude.  From a purely practical standpoint it was safer sleeping in pairs with a man he could, for whatever short period, rely on having reason not to cut his throat in the dead of night.  Now it’s only him watching his own back, and for all the long years he’s spent doing it, for the comparative drop in the bucket when he wasn’t, he’s somehow out of practice.  The silence, too.  Tuco snored.  He got used to the way that covered the other sounds of the night. If he’s honest (a rare thing): perhaps a little sentimental attachment. Still, that’s not all of it.

Daily now he scans the horizon, squints off into the white-blue distance till the strain of it nearly makes his eyes water, sees neither smoke nor track nor distant rider.  But Blondie cannot shake the feeling, deeper than gut level, that he is being followed. Nights it’s worse.  He keeps his fires low to avoid being seen, lies awake cold and uneasy trying to hear something he’s sure is lurking out in that drone of scouring wind.  He awakes frequently and sometimes with a heavy feeling on his chest, like a hand, and always finds nothing.  Gets up over and over to check on the horse.  A gorgeous animal, he admits that readily.  Coal black so he can’t hardly see her on the new moon.  The same one he’d rode out of the cemetery on.  He’s sort of attached now.  The saddle though, and the gear: that he had sold and bought his own.  He has the money.

He’s not superstitious, but.

He was frightened when he died. Blondie doesn’t know why he’s so sure of it suddenly, but he can’t let it go.  He remembers, now, without that initial satisfaction.  A week’s worth of stubble.  Bloodshot eyes.  Dust on his too-slick duds.  Nothing but a man, and with nobody to protect him anymore.  Just a man and his two hands and his gun. Blondie was the one with a quickdraw holster.  Blondie was the one who knew about Tuco’s empty gun.  Blondie had emptied it.

It had felt so goddamned good at the time, though.  And like not enough.  Those long days riding, before he knew for sure that Tuco was still alive, he had contented himself picturing how the bullet would pass through, would rend the flesh.  How the blood would turn black fabric glossy.  How those beady eyes would widen, how those long legs would buckle.  He was not a man to waste bullets but he had thought about rope and desert sand, had dreamt up a dozen bloody ways to dispose of a man trying to find something violent enough for the lowdown bastard who'd been fool enough to leave his partner's blood staining the floor.  In hindsight he wondered if that was the way Tuco had felt. He had never wanted to hurt somebody like that.  Cold, calculated.  Not even all those miles into the desert, angry as he had been.  That was different.  Was something animal, something frightened, something clawing to stay alive.  No, it hadn’t been like that at all, in the cabin or after it.  That was purely human.

Pay evil unto evil.  He heard that once. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.  He heard that once too.

He becomes aware one night that the ever-present feeling of solitude is absent, and he looks then across a dying fire at a darker shape against the darkness like a new moon in a star-strewn sky.  All edges and corners and angles. Blondie doesn’t go for his gun.  Maybe he ought, but he doesn’t.  Doesn’t move, at all really, unsure if he can’t or doesn’t want to, feeling hazy and drunk despite the fact he hasn't had a drop.  He just lies back with his head in his saddle while they look at each other and don't speak.  He wouldn’t know what to say if he wanted.  They look at each other for a long time before eventually he must fall asleep. In the morning there is no disturbance in the sand.

Somehow he ends up back in the cemetery.  He doesn’t think he had meant to.

The grave is filled in.  The shovel’s still wedged in the dirt beside it. Tuco was always superstitious.

Blondie stares down at the grave for a long time, the sun beating down on them both.

“I’m not sorry, you know.”

#dollarsfandomevent #harry's writing #fanfic #the good the bad and the ugly #dollars trilogy #blondie and angel eyes

[herlondonboy]

Kinks

Pairings: natasha romanoff x gn!reader / avengers x platonic!reader

Summary: the og 6 hunts a serial killer that attacks people that look like one of their dearly beloved

Warnings: dark!reader, murder, mentions of sex, weird kinks. This was originally written as a Jennifer Jareau fanfic, so its set in a Criminal Minds Universe. No powers or anything.

Word Count: 1.8k

You wondered how long you would be in the conference room before you could leave. You were beginning to get antsy. Sitting around, cooped up all day, waiting to catch the unsub. The serial killer with an obsession for your wife. Natasha wasn’t allowed out of the police station and was under strict watch when they realised that she was who the unsub was fantasising about. You also hadn’t seen her in 25 hours, 26 minutes and 43… 45 seconds.

It was eating you alive to say the least.

“Maybe the unsub isn’t a crazed teenager with weird sexual fantasies.” Bruce suggested, deviating away from your original profile. “There’s one twice a week, right? Well, maybe they are messy. Maybe the unsub really didn’t mean to kill these people and they just got carried away.”

“How does that retract the idea of it being a teenager?” Steve asked, a frown on his face.

“Well, look.” Bruce pointed at the burn marks where the victim had been electrocuted. “Now Tony, can you pull up a picture of how the the Widow Bite stun batons burn people.”

“On it.” Tony nodded and within seconds there was a picture that was almost identical. It was barely noticeable, but the faint outline of a web was there. This person had been in the building.

Those batons your wife designed. She had been nicknamed the Black Widow because she lured men with her looks and voice before bringing them to their demise. She wanted something of her own and the BAU liked the idea and started making them. She was so proud. You were so proud. But now they were being used for evil. She’d never look at them the same again.

“Its a sex thing. We know that they engaged in consensual intercourse before the women’s death. I think this unsub likes when their partners are in pain. They might even have dacryphilia or be a masochist. The baton is probably how they inflict that pain. Nat could’ve turned this person down a while ago and with the news of her going through an adoption, they could’ve erupted. Hence, the trigger.”

“Good work, Bruce.” Steve patted him on the back. “Y/L/N, go ask Nat to write a list of boyfriends and girlfriends that she dated in high school that she kept in touch with, and people who she met in bars.”

You nodded and slowly stood up before making your way to see your wife. You were more than giddy. Hell, you were over to moon you got to hug and kiss the woman you loved more than anything in the world again.

“Distracted, love?” Nat asked when you walked in, practically looking at her with heart eyes.

“You’re so pretty, Natty.” You whispered, wrapping your arms around her waist, pulling her into you. “There’s no one that I love more than you.” She was the reason you woke up in the morning. Without her you’d be nothing. She kept you breathing, you loved for her and her only. You don’t know what you’d do if this unsub got their hands on her. In fact, you’d kill them yourself.

“I could say the same to you, handsome.” Natasha grinned, kissing your cheek.

“Ugh.” You groaned, pushing away from her. “You’re trying to woo me with those gorgeous eyes, aren’t you?”

“Oh, you know me so well.” Nat rolled her eyes. “What are you in for then?”

You blew a raspberry. “I need a list of all ex-boyfriends or possible suitors. Anyone that has approached you in a bar. He wouldn’t have taken it well when you told him you were married. Even descriptions are good.” You stated.

“Do you have a pen and paper?”

“Of course.” You nodded, handing her the items.

-

“All of these people are clean.” Tony said in shock. “How often does that happen, huh?” He chuckled. You were currently with Natasha, tending to her needs as the rest of the team, Bruce, Steve, Tony, Clint, and Thor. “I guess that just leaves y/l/n.” Tony joked, But something in Clint’s mind clicked.

“A few weeks ago, three or so days before the killings started, Natasha came to me. She said that y/n had asked to do something during their sex. Nat said they pulled out their batons with a foreign smile on their face. Nat shot them down obviously and they never spoke about it again, but I’m sure you guys noticed a change in how they act around Nat, right?”

“Holy shit.” Thor breathed out. This was news. A shock to everyone around. You couldn’t… you wouldn’t. Their sweet y/n? You were the baby of the team. The youngest. Their child. Yet you… How could they be so blind? All of the signs were there. The way your arms would tighten ever so slightly whenever someone so much as looked at Natasha. How distant you had been during the investigation. They were disgusted with the thought that their genius, Anthony Stark’s own protégé, could be so cruel.

The way the knots around the woman’s wrists were tied with such care, shows that you were still the innocent little being, that you didn’t mean to kill them. But they knew what Natasha would think. If there was one thing she hated more than men, it was a cheater. Her mother had cheated on her father and ruined their family dynamic. You had taken Natasha’s heart and ripped it out of her hand and though she didn’t know yet, you were about to punch her in the gut.

You were sat on your phone, scrolling mindlessly through tweets when you were suddenly yanked to your feet. “You have the right to remain silent.” Clint said. He was on your right with Thor on your left.

“Hey, what the hell?” You asked, writhing around in your friend‘s arms.

“Anything you say can and will be used against you in a caught of law.” Clint said, ignoring you. “You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.”

“I know my rights, Jackass. Let me go!” You yelled. you were placed into a chair in an interrogation room rather aggressively before being handcuffed to the table. “Let me out, Assholes! Let me out!” You continued to call out as the door was shut behind Clint.

“Calm down.” Clint said softly. You were shaking in anger. Your eyes were red and there were veins popping out of your neck. It was a scary sight. “We know you killed those people, y/n. Natasha turned you down so you got angry and went for the people that wouldn’t. You’re an attractive person, you take of that ring and everyone wants you, it’s crazy. But Natasha loves you. How could you do that to her?”

“I didn’t do shit.” You sat back in your chair, allowing your breathing to even out. Your fists still clenched and unclenched as did your jaw. Your anger and the look in your eyes was uncanny. Nothing they had ever seen before. “You think i’m what Natasha hates most? You think i’m her mother?” You scoffed before chuckling. “Well, kudos to you, Clinton! You cracked the case. I’ve been having sex with and accidentally murdering people with red hair, that all are 5’4 and that have the same body type as my wife before she doesn’t give me more than i deserve!” You raised your voice, slamming your hand down onto the table.

“I said calm down.” Clint repeated.

“No, i will not calm down! I did not murder those women, now i demand you let me go and allow me to see my wife.” You said. You saw Clint look down in thought and you assumed he heard something through the communications device planted in his ear.

He got up and left the room, shortly swapped with Natasha who had been filled in on everything. “Why did you do it, y/n?” Was the first thing she asked and you gulped. You couldn’t lie to her. You promised you wouldn’t. “Fucking look at me when im talking to you! Why did you do it?” She repeated lowly as you looked up at her. “Are you not going to talk?” She scoffed. Now that you got to look at her you could see the unshed tears in her eyes. It broke your heart.

“You’re too pretty to cry.” You murmured. But that seemed to be the wrong thing to say, but it was true. She was gorgeous, and now mascara was running down her face. You wanted to ravish her, to show her that she was the only one you could ever love. Her silent crying just spurred you on. It took a while, but she noticed you were getting horny when she heard you groan and saw you roll your head back in pleasure, rubbing your thighs together.

She jumped up in shock, slamming her hands on the table, making you jump and look up at her through hooded eyes. “You are crazy.” She spat.

“I did it because i love you! I love you unconditionally and yet the second i ask to do something for me you blow up. I didn’t bring it up again. I pushed it down and ignored it. But then Jennifer came along. You looked so similar and she was willing to please me. I could imagine she was you! That you were pleasing me.” You told her.

“How does any of that mean that you love me?” Natasha shook her head.

You ignored her, carrying on. “I took it too far with the electrocutions and killed her. But i apologised. You saw the note. I mourned. I experience the same emotions anyone else does. I am not crazy, Natasha. Im in love.”

It was so hard to believe. You, you of all people. You weren’t a murderer and yet you were categorised as a serial killer. You were a monster. Natasha couldn’t grasp the fact that she was going to raise kids with you. She would’ve taken one out of the adoption centre and placed it right in hell. And just like that, she was crying again. You wanted to beg her not to cry, but she stormed out almost immediately. Well, that could’ve been worse, right? She could’ve murdered you right then and there. Clint could’ve too. He and Natasha were basically siblings. You’d hate to be the one on the receiving side of their wrath. Oh, wait.

You didn’t have enough time go think before you were struck in the face. With the power of a thousand Gods. Your whole body convulsed and the chair slipped from under you as toppled over. The skin of your wrists broke around the metal cuffs and you gasped, collapsing to the ground with your hands up. You looked at the man that you once considered a brother and that once considered you a sibling through teary eyes. “Not so fun when its you crying, huh?” He asked. “Pathetic.”

#natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff #natasha romanov #natasha x y/n #Natasha x you #Natasha x reader #natasha romanoff x you #reader insert #criminal minds #avengers x reader #the avengers #avengers x y/n #the og 6 #elijah random #uhm #so i did a thing #marvel #fanfiction

[underagoldenmoon]

COULD THE UNDER A GOLDEN MOON PROTAGONISTS SURVIVE CASTLE DRACULA? 

(inspired by Tumblr user @canyourfavesurvivecastledracula)

HAZEL: 

So first things first, we need to de-ghostify Hazel, because ghosts Do Not Have Blood. And blood is. Kind of Dracula's thing. Plus she can't die as a ghost except under certain circumstances :)

So yeah that's Happening. 

So Hazel would probably accept the crucifix, but that doesn't matter so much; she doesn't carry a mirror so she wouldn't die shaving. 

She knows that ghosts exist (she is one. Well, was for the purposes of this. No I'm not explaining how she comes back to life, this isn't canon.) I'm not sure that she'd know what vampires are, but from the start she's seeing clues that Dracula is Not A Normal Human Being. 

She had to become a people-pleaser while she was alive to keep herself safe. So she's mainly fine on the Not Annoying A Rich Jerk front. 

I'm assuming that the characters aren't aware of who Dracula is beforehand, and similar to Jonathan Harker they initially assume he's just a normal guy. So she has no reason to bring a weapon. She doesn't own one anyway (Starry is the only one who does. Unless you include Golden's whittling knife). 

The second she's told not to explore, she gets suspicious. She assumes that Dracula has a Dark Secret. At this point she starts trying to imply about how she used to be a ghost because she doesn't realise it's an Evil Dark Secret she thinks it's a Cool Dark Secret (not a Sexy Dark Secret because she is a lesbian). But as time goes on, she realises that Dracula is not to be trusted. 

She's had to learn to be stealthy; there are cats who hunt ghosts. So she won't necessarily get caught. 

She's choosing the castle over the wolves if it comes to that. All of them are, really. They're teenagers they're too young to die /hj

If she happens to be Romantically Staring Out of the Window™ while Dracula is climbing, she does get curious. "Curiosity killed the cat" type situation - but actually, this convinces her that Dracula really is dangerous. 

She might try to mislead him with a few lies about England once she realises this; she's been trustworthy up to this point, since she knows her way around well, but Dracula might be able to tell. In which case she's dead. 

But if she doesn't try to be too clever and doesn't get too obvious in her attempts to drop hints that she's a ghost, Hazel would survive Castle Dracula. 

GOLDEN: 

Golden, too, would take the crucifix. Ze reads a lot of fantasy stories. Never ignore the strange old woman's warnings. 

Let's be honest – ze is not going to put up with being forced to stay up all night. Ze needs a regular sleep schedule, and ze would rather die than have hir circadian rhythm messed around with. 

Also, hir instincts are pretty good – ze's going to work out that there is something going on. 

Unfortunately, this does not help hir. 

Ze is not going to put up with any jerk for long, let alone a rich one. 

And ze's wanted to try lock-picking for a while… and all these locked doors are so tempting…

You'd think that the fact that ze reads a lot would save hir. But no. Ze's clever, but ze has no common sense. Negative amounts, really. If ze's lucky and works out Dracula's a vampire, even that won't save hir. 

Because ze died picking that lock to try to get into the room. 

Sorry. 

Golden would not survive Castle Dracula. 

MOON: 

Honestly, I think Moon is the protagonist who would last the longest if they were all to die at any point. Golden dies after being caught lock-picking, Hazel (if she dies) is too clever for her own good, and Starry… well, you'll see. 

Moon would accept the crucifix out of awkwardness if nothing else. Because how do you turn it down without making it a thing? That doesn't really matter – he's not going to shave anyway, he's a cat. But still. 

He trusts Dracula at first – why wouldn't he? 

He works out, as time goes on, that there's something dodgy about Dracula, and since he's been raised to distrust ghosts and gods, he's going to Panic. Like when Jonathan was just. Running around the castle. He would do exactly that. 

He would avoid doing anything to anger Dracula once he realised there was something weird – he's used to the idea of supernatural creatures that can destroy you if you look at them the wrong way, though he hasn't met one. Yet :)

He would probably try to help Dracula – the idea of tricking him would occur, but he'd decide against it. He knows some supernatural creatures can tell if you're lying. He's not going to risk it. 

He spends a lot of time staring out of the windows, so he sees Dracula climbing the walls. At this point he is certain that there's something going on. 

But don't worry – he has a plan. 

A terrible one. 

He tries to climb out of the Castle. And he nearly makes it. 

He's bested Dracula, he's escaping, he's –

Fallen off a cliff to his death. Sorry. 

Moon could not survive.

STARRY: 

I think that Starry was the hardest to get an idea on. She's the newest protagonist, so she's not been floating around in my brain for… two to three years, I think? I think I started version one in 2021. Certainly during Covid lockdown.

Good grief. 

Anyway, Starry takes the crucifix because she knows by now that if there are rumours about strange things, it's better to be safe than sorry. She decides pretty early on that he's a ghost, which makes her distrust him. She doesn't like ghosts. 

She does everything perfectly most of the time she's there. She's learned to act; she's had to. 

She does nearly break when Dracula takes her stuff. After all, how will she live without her knife? 

But she manages to control herself. 

She's doing well; Dracula doesn't suspect. She makes sure to follow his rules whenever there's the slightest shadow of a chance that she could be discovered. But she quietly rebels, too. 

Then she decides she's had enough and tries to fistfight him. 

Life hack: do not fistfight a vampire. It will not end well. 

Starry would not survive.

And I can't work out how to draw this so. Uh. Sorry about that.

#under a golden moon #character: golden #character: moon #character: hazel #character: starry #my art #art #This was actually really fun and a cool way to develop the characters!

[ladynightlark]

Hi! Just moved to tumblr here and I wanted to tell you how much I love your story. I saw A LOT of kny roleswaps cuz I love this trope so damn much. There’re many good ones but it’s rare to find one that hits me right in my kokoro like yours did. Since the first chapter, the way Nezuko repeatedly thought “Takeo was dead… Mom was dead… Rokuta was dead… But Tanjiro was still alive” was so haunting yet beautiful in such a heartbroken way. It hurts even more when you realized Nezuko was only twelve when her whole world was shattered in blood, and not to mention the amount of feels that is Zenitsu. I’ll admit that the rollercoaster of emotions it gave me was what got me so invested in your fanfic to the point of keeping on coming up with one theory after another though.

But one question first, I saw you saying Tamayo’s husband will be an OC, does that mean her three children are OCs too? Their no-nonsense attitude and the cold glares they gave Genya really remind me of the certain someone though*stares at the girl with plum red eyes*

And before I delve into my theories, remember when I brought up Dabi’s infamous quote? Let me tell you I honestly didn’t expect Kai and Zen’s development to be actually inspired by Endeavor and Dabi’s storyline here. It’s does make a lot of sense though as your Kaigaku really has many things in common with Endeavor now that I think of it, especially with how they thoroughly ruined someone’s life out of their own selfishness and the way it’s gonna come back to bite them HARD later. And the fact that I was today years old when I found out Dabi and Zenitsu have the same VA*surprised Pikachu face* 

Wait, does that mean Nezuko’s gonna be Shoto in this scenario?

Regardless, while I admit that my knowledge of MHA is limited since I didn’t really watch the show, I have watched enough clips scattered all over YouTube to get the gist of it. So, if Endeavor’s reaction to Dabi’s reveal is anything to go by, I’m so looking forward to how Kaigaku and Zenitsu’s “Dabi’s Dance” will go. Even more so if you decide to throw in the Hashira’s reaction when/if they also learn of Kaigaku’s crimes. And if he still did what he did to Himejima and other kids, I honestly can see a few of them straight up calling for Kaigaku’s execution right then and there.

As for my Upper Moon guesses, the angry male demon, I saw a few comments saying that it was Sanemi but I doubt it. The meeting occurred ten years ago so Sanemi would still be a kid back then. So nope, not him for me. Therefore, I’m gonna go for unconventional choice and guess that it was Hairo, former Lower Moon 2, as he’s legit the only character whose rage surpasses Sanemi’s. And since Gyokko was downgraded into a common demon, I’m crossing my fingers that there’ll be a canon lower moon who got upgraded into an Upper Moon here.

But other UMs’ identity aside, Upper Moon Two gotta be Shinobu. Something about Koku and the DK asking for UM Two’s opinion about the chance of reanimating Zenitsu’s corpse just screams Shinobu to me. And for that reason, I’m gonna guess that Kanae is in Tamayo’s place judging from her character tag. It would put the Kocho Sisters in the opposite side of the war but what can I say, I’m always in for Sibling Drama*evil cackling*

Hi! Welcome to Tumblr! And thank you so much!

Honestly, role-swaps are one of my favorite fanfic tropes to read, and there were just so many goods ones within the KNY fandom that I decided to bite the bullet and try my hands at it. I've been having a lot of fun with it and the direction it has been going, so hearing that readers have been enjoying it never fails to make my day!

I honestly didn't even expect it to turn out this angsty in the beginning (lol). The main goal I had when initially writing the first chapter was just to capture how tragic/horrifying the attack on the Kamado family would be from Nezuko's POV, while making it unique compared to what must have been going through canon Tanjiro's mind. Twelve and thirteen are really young ages to experince so much trauma, and then having to uproot your entire life to find a way to protect your remaining family is a heavy burden to bear.

The same goes for Nezuko's interactions with Zenitsu, as both of them were barely even teenagers when so much happened to them. I definitely think underlying tragedies with character relationships and confrontations of the past are going to become more prominent themes than I initially intended, and I'm excited to show those as I continue to write more of the series.

(Slight Manga Spoilers Ahead)

But to answer your question, yes, I do plan on making Tamayo's children OCs for now. Like her husband, we only got a brief mention of them by Muzan and Tamayo during their final confrontation in the Infinity Castle Arc. I wasn't able to find anything on what their canon appearances/personalities would be, so I figured unless more information comes up about them, I'll make them OCs. I suppose one benefit of this is it gives me a little more room to plan out how they will impact her role/arcs as leader of the Corps in this AU (oh, and more info will be given on the girl with the red eyes later...because I do have plans for her...).

In terms of the Dabi & Endeavor similarities between Kaigaku & Zenitsu, it sort of just started happening as I was planning out that specific storyline. Sometimes my writing unintentionally picks up things from shows and books I've read in the past, and I think it was around the time that the Dabi v. Endeavor & Shoto fight was animated that I began to see the potential similarities between the encounters.

I've had many conversations with friends about MHA's take on the Todoroki family drama, especially in regard to Endeavor's character development and change from his negative actions toward his children and wife to being a better father/hero. And one of the things that I've come to understand coming out of those discussions was that although forgiveness and forgetting aren't satisfying solutions in moving past that part of his character, there are still ways to make things at least a bit better by striving for atonement and mitigating what damage has already been done by taking responsibility for it without any excuses.

As I've said in posts before, the one thing I definitely wanted to make clear early on is that it is totally up to readers to decide if Kaigaku is worth rooting for. He's done terrible things and hurt a lot of people, but he's trying to make a change for the better. But doing that isn't as putting the past behind him, especially since there are characters who do know the bits and pieces of some of the damage he's done (such as Kuwajima and, very soon, Nezuko).

So as predictable as it may be at this point, there definitely will be a Kaigaku v. Zenitsu fight in the late future, which will be one of several major confrontations of Kaigaku's past coming back to haunt him and the people he's learning to become closer to. Kaigaku will have gone through a lot of change by then, along with us getting a closer look at his past (as I have ideas to fill in the gaps of his early life that the manga didn't really touch on yet, though that may change depending on how much the anime decides to add when Infinity Castle gets animated) and understanding a bit better the motive behind some of his actions. It won't be an excuse for what he's done, but a build-up to him learning to take responsibility for what he's done, and what he can do now to fix the damage he's done.

So I guess that would make Nezuko the Shoto of this confrontation, being caught in the middle of the conflict, but knowing that this is still a fight she has to take part in to put Zenitsu to rest.

(Also yeah I was shocked when I found out both Zenitsu and Dabi share a Sub VA (lol). You'd be surprised how many VAs share roles in MHA and KNY. I think one of my favorites is the fact that Genya's Sub VA voices Bakugo and his Dub VA also voices Hawks!)

I will say this, almost all of the bad stuff Kaigaku did in the manga is canon in this series. And I can confirm that at least THREE of the hashira know some of the terrible things Kaigaku did in the past (with at least one of them knowing EVERYTHING about his past). But as for if more hashira will find out about his past, that is yet to be confirmed...

And regarding your guesses on the Upper Moons...I will say those are some VERY interesting theories that I can't wait to confirm if they are correct or not...

Also, in case anyone was curious or confused about demons being Kizuki, the canon Lower and Upper Moons aren't guaranteed to be Moons in this AU unless they are explicitly stated to be ones. For example, Wakuraba (the winged demon Nezuko and Tanjiro ran into in Chapters 3-5) was Lower Three in canon, but was just a regular demon in this AU. And Gyokko, who was Upper Five in canon, was also a regular demon that took the place of the Hand Demon from Final Selection in canon. Some of the Moons MAY change ranking in the AU, but if they aren't stated to be Kizuki, then they are just regular demons.

But I'll definitely will give the canon Lower Moons some chances to shine since they didn't get much of a chance in canon. Who knows, maybe the next demon Nezuko meets will have been a Lower Moon in the canon timeline...

Thank you so much for commenting!!! I hope you have an awesome day!!!

#demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #ask #ask me questions #demon slayer fanfic #children of fuchsia light and demon fire #kaigaku #tamayo #twelve kizuki

[ikamigami]

So about today's episode!

Oh Lord! Showrunners don't have any mercy for Sun... like no at all...

That was so unfair to rub reminder of Lunar's death and their argument before Lunar left the Daycare straight into Sun's face... Like holy moly! Sun truly deserves better...

Just like @basilbots said Sun wouldn't end the same way this Lunar ended being. But I'm 100% sure that showrunners tries to set up the bigger plot point in Sun's overall character arc. At first I thought that it's just only me stretching what was happening in the show and I was just stating wild theories about Sun and what could possibly happen to him. But things that are happening in the show prove me more and more that what awaits Sun is a tragedy...

Because it isn't only that Sun has low self-esteem and depression and that he blames himself for most of things that happened to his family. It's also that others more or less, alongside things that are happening, constantly remind Sun of his mistakes to the point that Sun might start to take them completely out of proportions, to treat his mistakes as something so horrendous and bad that they're just unforgivable. He may start to view his actions as some great decisive factor with bigger impact on what's happening than they actually have. I mean he already expressed to Earth that he thinks that he had much more control over things that was happening despite the obvious fact that Sun didn't have any control over what was going on with Moon. He didn't knew that Moon went to his own head and that he needs his magic to get out safely. Heck, he didn't even know that the bunker where Eclipse was had magic circle with Moon's mana pool. Moon had never talked with Sun about his own things. Moon didn't even talk with Sun about things regarding Sun. He was basically deciding about most of the things for Sun.

And to better get my point across let me explain you what impact the situation with Evil Lunar might leave on Sun. Because I saw that some of you realised the parallels between this conversation that Sun had with E Lunar and the conversation he had with our Lunar. And Sun also realised that this conversation is basically what happened between him and Lunar. But we know that isn't exactly the same situation just like @basilbots said. But it's pretty much obvious that Sun doesn't view this the same way we fans do. But there is also something else that Sun could take out from this encounter which is something more... dangerous to Sun's mental state and which I think fans didn't realise yet. What I'm trying to say is that I think that Sun might "realise" that what happened to the E Lunar might as well have happened to their Lunar. Sun might look at his actions towards Lunar disproportonally to what they truly caused. Because E Lunar said that "why do you think Lunar left? maybe he felt left out (pushed away), unwanted (unneeded)" or something along those lines. I think that Sun could easily read that as a "I'm not only responsible for Lunar's death but if Lunar was alive I could've easily pushed him over the edge" and I mean that Sun could easily "realise" that he could've been a reason for Lunar's mental breakdown which could end up with Lunar losing it. I hope that you understand what I'm trying to say here. Because I think that Sun might really see that he's actions have much more impact than they actually have.

I really doubt that Lunar would be completely safe from Eclipse's clutches if he didn't run away from the Daycare or I definitely don't think that how Sun acted towards Lunar in their fight would make Lunar so bitter to the point that Lunar would start lashing out on others or would try to get revenge on those who wronged him.

But I'm really afraid that Sun might start to view his actions as something that leave such a heavy impact on others or have such a big influence over what's happening that the guilt will completely crush him.

And it really seems that I am right with my analysis about Sun and that he feels or will start to feel like he's the one who is evil. Because if he's the one at fault or if his actions caused all those horrible things that happened to his family then what does it make him? What does it make Sun, other then the villain, the bad guy?

I hope that you don't mind that I tagged you @basilbots because I thought that your post about Sun and latest episode was really spot on!

And about computer... I'll make stand alone post about it and its relation to Sun i.e. how it treats Sun.

#sun and moon show #sun and moon show sun #fnaf sb #fnaf sun #sams sun #sun and moon show lunar #sams lunar #sams evil lunar #sun and moon show spoilers #sams spoilers

[odysseys-end]

Newbie

He could barely hold in his excitement. His senior may have to forgive his disrespectful behavior just once because this discovery is just simply phenomenal. Why, he's probably the only first-year with such forbidden knowledge! Forbidden but precious. If Tsukasa closed his eyes and tried really hard, he could just imagine Tori seething with envy right about now. He has to clasp his hands over his mouth, fearing that he may just say something to ruin this moment.

Never mind the fact that his senior looked only a second away from cursing out his entire bloodline. Judging by the way Sena Izumi's hand tightened on the book he held, he was trying. So maybe Tsukasa shouldn't tease him too much.

Sena Izumi, a former student of Primavera Institute of Magic. Expelled for practising the Dark Arts. Blacklisted by the Diviner of the Sanctuary. It's been years since his banishment from the kingdom, yet here he is, alive and irritable. The portraits of Izumi shown to them did not do any justice to his actual appearance. Yet another stigma that evil has to look ugly or plain. The youth before him is reminiscent of pure, untouched ice.

If Tsukasa were to have encountered his senior wandering the hallways of their school, he wouldn't have associated dark magic with him. Back on track, he came here to learn things from his senior. Magic that couldn't be taught in school, expressly forbidden but tempting all the same. His mentor probably wouldn't scold him, he might even say something along the lines of: magic is a medium to express one's soul and desires. easier to translate than the convoluted nonsense that is human speech!

His mentor would probably laugh like an incredibly annoying goblin.

"If you're just going to stand around like an idiot, just get out of my way instead of wasting my time." Sena Izumi growled. Right.

"Sena-senpai... eek! You don't have to look so scary!" Tsukasa protested when Izumi shot him a venomous glare. It made him want to recoil but if he backed down now, this chance would be gone forever. In record time, he immediately ducks down just as something made contact with the wall behind his head.

"You're resorting to throwing things now?! Are you not dignified, senpai?" exclaimed Tsukasa, aghast. Peeking cautiously at his senior, Tsukasa catches a glimpse of a smile on Izumi's mouth before it's gone. He's still standing there, not a hint of any movement except the book he held earlier is no longer in his hand.

"Look, I did not wake up this morning to get harassed by some rich and pampered neophyte. You're pretty daring to come in here, unaccompanied, Suou Tsukasa-kun." The air turned frigid. A few seconds had merely passed but Izumi had managed to turn this whole floor into a wintry domain. In the corner where he huddled, Tsukasa tried to summon a small ball of flame in his hands. Upon hearing his name, Tsukasa faltered, the feeble attempt at fire fizzled out.

Izumi stalked closer. Tendrils of ice seemed to spread out wherever he stepped. When he was finally in front of Tsukasa, he knelt down. with a small action, he managed to completely dispel whatever fear Tsukasa was beginning to harbor and also evicted him from his domain. Izumi flicked him.

"Go home, reckless brat."

The windows were still open in his dorm room, the curtains fluttering wildly- an after-effect from a teleportation spell. Tsukasa stared blankly at the cold, pale moon. He was sprawled on the floor, with a book in his hand. What just happened? How was he sent back here without alarming the defensive magic the school had around its perimeters? How is he not suffering from any repercussions from coming into contact with black magic when Izumi had approached him and even used glacial magic to touch him-

Oh.

Slowly, he sat up. The book he held was innocent, bound with a cranberry linen cover. The title was embossed in gold letters: Article of Faith, by Sena Izumi and... Tsukinaga Leo. Huh. Every copy of this book had been burned, the Elders claimed that it was teaching aspiring mages to reject the Sanctuary. Then this must be...

Tsukasa flipped through the pages, some sort of trepidation gripped his heart. Countless annotations made by flawless handwriting filled the paper. Most of it was directed at certain passages written by the co-author. I've got the last remaining copy, and it's Sena Izumi's.

"If he wanted to give this to me, he could've done so nicely." He pouted.

#wys' drabble #izumi sena #tsukasa suou #mage tsukasa #dark mage izumi #leo is tsukasa's mentor if that wasn't obvious #song titles being used because i'm very creative #knights enstars #leo tsukinaga

[lansplaining]

Why didn't the murder of Chang Ping cause more shockwaves? Someone murdered in the most cruel way possible the last surviving member of a dreadful case concerning Xue Yang (which JGY believes to be dead), a demonic cultivator (which might get Jiang Cheng's attention), who was presumably executed by the Chief Cultivator precisely for the crime of murdering said Chang clan (so Nie Huaisang may want to snuff out a bit to get dirt on him). Lan "goes where chaos is" Wangji is presumably out of the ice by then, so he might want to take a look as well.

And even after the "investigation" concluded the sword used for the crime was Shuanghua, wouldn't that still cause a lot of talking? The last male disciple of Baoshan Sanren became a dark evil overlord, and if Xiao Xingchen really is the man responsible for this snafu, they might as well start looking for him to make sure he won't cause trouble in the future!

It does seem to have been a pretty massive deal! But I guess there are a few factors here.

Chang Ping had already been pressured into recanting, which I think can't be overlooked as a factor that would have taken the pressure off, first because some people would probably just accept the recantation, and those who were suspicious of it would probably recognize that it happened because somebody pressured him in a very compelling way, and what if they decided to turn that pressure on anyone else who spoke out about the matter? There's also Chang Ping himself turning down the pressure (quote from the wiki, I think from the official translation): "What can I do aside from this? If I don't tolerate it, the rest of our clan's people wouldn't be safe for long. I'm really grateful, Daozhang, but… please don't help me anymore. Now, helping me would be harming me. I don't want the Yueyang Chang Clan to end yet."

So Chang Ping has deliberately turned attention away from the case by the time he's murdered, and presumably brushed off anyone who tried to raise it or help in the interim. Suspicious, obviously, and he doesn't even try to hide it! But see above-- what would happen to anyone else who tried to push?

The fact that it's supposedly Xiao Xingchen does seem like it should be compelling, and I actually do kind of like how the donghua frames the whole thing as this "what the hell, why did Xiao Xingchen murder somebody?" mystery at first. But the fact that he's this wandering rogue cultivator seems really key-- nobody knows where to find him, nobody is responsible for him, and now there's nobody alive to pressure anyone to do anything about it. And then he doesn't seem to cause any further problems, so it's easy to forget.

It's intended in large part, I'd argue, as commentary on the society at large: without someone as blunt and righteous as Nie Mingjue applying pressure, cases like this just... disappear. Xiao Xingchen took revenge on the guy who recanted his accusation on a murder XXC really stuck his neck out to uncover, seems a bit out of character, but oh well, people change. Seems like he got it out of his system, not our problem.

I do think documented Bright Moon and Gentle Breeze stan Lan Wangji of CQL could easily have gone to investigate, but it does seem like this may have been relatively recently after he left seclusion. And honestly one of my favorite performance moments in CQL is how even just talking about this whole situation clearly just makes Lan Wangji so, so sad. At the end of the day, maybe he was showing a bit of side of him that's more like Lan Xichen: he couldn't change it, so he just didn't want to know.

#ask answered

[druidposting]

The more i think about it, the more baffled i become at the people saying this campaign feels significantly more railroaded than the others.

I mean, i can see why people might think that. At a glance, its like, “wow, Matt’s really pushing hard for this moon plot, like everything’s connected to it and they have this date to meet and they cant get anyone else’s story in!” But i feel like thats such a surface level analysis, and is likely born from people who have never dmed before. As an avid dungeon master myself, the Ruidis plot reads quite clearly to me as a set piece - This is an event fixed in time, fixed in the world, and the villains orchestrating it will do what theyre gonna do no matter what. Its actually quite similar to the chroma conclave arc in C1, or even more poignantly, the whitestone arc with Percy as the “main character” focus for an extended period of time, an arc that was anchored to a set place and a set time because thats what the villains were doing.

When you DM, one of the key things you learn is that when the players arent engaging with a plot thread, that thread continues to run its course in the background. Its what breaths life into the world, its what makes it feel real. Its also what nudges your players to engage with the world. When you telegraph this to them, they pretty quickly learn that if they hear of something bad thats gonna happen, and they choose not to engage for whatever reason, then that bad thing is Going To happen, and they will then be playing in the consequences.

The other part of this misperception of c3 being railroaded i think comes from the players having a much stronger and more cohesive sense of morals. The c2 gang was characterized by a rag-tag group of miss-fits with nebulous morals and motivations and histories, and who were much more self serving in their group goals. None of this is bad!! It made for a very interesting game to watch, and even more interesting characters. But this is very different from the way ive seen Bells Hells act as a team. BH has been seen to be at least somewhat altruistic in their motives - maybe individually theyre more self-serving - but as a team, theyve consistently made decisions that benefit “the greater good” without much question of whats in it for them (giving up Treshi to the government and helping the Greenseekers in the mines come to mind). So of course theyre going to chase the Big Bads when they hear about a world ending plot!! And this doesnt even factor in that like, as players, why the fuck wouldnt you want to chase the evil moon plot? The campaign i run is explicitly a sandbox, and yet my players have latched on to the main intrigue and have been following it as if “on a railroad”. When your main intrigue is constructed well, the players will want to follow it, because this is a game to be played for fun, afterall.

With these two facts in mind, this isnt Matt forcing them down a particular path, nor have the Bells Hells been bound to it by him at any point in the campaign. At any moment they could jump off this thread and go do something else. And maybe you’d say “but if they dont stop Ludinus, then the world will go to catastrophe!!!” Yeah. It would. Thats dnd, baby. That outcome would be just as beautiful as the Bells Hells success.

As an aside, i could see several paths this Apogee Solstice day could go. Everything could go off without a hitch, BH destroys the key, crashes the missile ship, and gets out unscathed. Or they could completely fail, Ryn destroyed, Predathos released, TPK. Or they fail in stopping Ludinus but manage to get out alive and have to deal with the consequences. Or they succeed but Ludinus and his lackies live and chase the Hells through to the end of campaign with an eternal burning hatred. There are endless possibilities here because Matt is a good DM who clearly values player agency and choice.

#critical role #bells hells #critical role campaign 3 #cr bells hells #matthew mercer #this has been on my mind so much #i have so much more to say on it but i shall leave it on that for now lmao #cr meta

[celestialmango]

Interesting situation, Sun and Moon are apart of an adventuring party (only for money otherwise they wouldn't be) the pary is sent to find an extremely rare creature (reader) because supposedly that creature makes/does something that no other can do or a rich noble wants to add reader to their "collection" (and the boys aren't entirely aware of that fact)

Reader is probably very hard to find because very small and very crafty. For a horrifying factor that would get the boys to immediately hide them. Reader has dragon fly like wings, they can be torn off and turned into a miracle like medicine and also a delicious seasoning. They also grow back.

Moon would probably catch them first cause boy is sneaky and a rogue, reader will start panicking, crying and expressing terror babbling about the adventures before that were sent before to take them and tear off their wings repeatedly, how it hurt, please, please no, no more pain, no more please, and it just dissolves into begging in terror for no more pain on repeat

Needless to say Moon is shook like horror wise about what they may have actually been sent here to do to the cute little (and extremely expensive so maybe he should steal) creature. His immediate reaction when hearing his party start to get close, well there's an edible berry bush right next to them, so he eats them finding out, no wonder people want their wings so bad them and their wings are both extremely delicious, then starts eating berries to cover up his decided theft of the tiny creature who's now squirming wonderfully in his stomach. He's had to eat other organic things before to steal them but never anything alive and this is just the best.

So the party and his brother find him over here eating berries, his excuse, reader got away, they were too fast and he was getting hungry so decided to take a break and eat, Sun doesn't expect anything because that's pretty normal for his brother. Reader is still panicking and squirming, hearing all of this lie, Moon covers up his enjoyment with "these are really good berries" as he pops another into his mouth.

So they send the fastest of them Moon, who then lies again saying they he saw the creature once but it escaped and no one has seen it since then so it must have moved areas and they just cant find it, while reader is right there curled up in his stomach, Moon knows they'll never be able to go to this return to this area, but while Moon's alone in the woods on the way back he's going to explain that he's stealing reader. Smuggling them out of the country to where rare species like them are illegal to hunt.

So he's saving them, reader has their doubts, Moon just lets them know they're going to have to hide in there for awhile till the heat dies down. Knows full well his brother will be mad at him but Sun's going to be madder tonight after Moon do what rogues do best, especially since he's evil, guy has his own set of morals he follow though but they usually end with murder, so he stealth kills all the other party members while they're sleeping and steals their stuff, it is indeed something he's done before, also drugged his brother so Sun would sleep for about a week, sold everything, got on a ship and that's where Sun wakes up and he just knows Moon murdered another party.

Starts berating him, "if you knew what I knew you wouldn't be saying that." Sun becomes confused because his murder hobo brother usually kills people 'because he felt like it.' Moon then tells the true, Sun is horrified about what they almost did but also horrified Moon ate reader, some of the words being "and they were delicious." Even those who are evil have morals sometimes, his ment reader was not caught, but he also didn't mention he's not actually going to let them go, that place he's going? Just because hunting things like them is illegal doesn't mean they can't be made pets and that's what makes hunting them illegal.

so why wouldn't he steal them? Sun of course wants to be sure Moon isn't lying about what would have happened to the creature so Moon spits them up, they confirm and Moon immediately eats them again. Reader is not going to be too happy about being Moon's pet and him repeatedly eating them but on the bright side no more fear and pain because Moon despises being stolen from and is good to them, the eating just to keep them hidden when he needs to hid them. He does let them out when he's in his tent, in a dungeon, in his room at an inn, if they want to go outside his tent he will go with them, not because he doesn't trust them but because he doesn't trust anyone but his brother around them.

They became even more valuable when he finds out a little while after stealing them they can use healing magic to the same degree as their wings can heal so tiny portable healer and healer's are extremely expensive to hire so if reader was a healer for hire they would be the most expensive one to ever exist but he got them for free, stealing them was a great choice, tiny and cute healing snack. They're saving so much fucking money on healer's now it's not even funny.

#mango answers #☀️🌕

[tempportal]

Number Five would very much like it on the record that the decisions he has made and the resultant actions he has taken in the last week are all absolutely necessary evils--unfortunate but essential, thoroughly unpleasant yet unarguably and irrevocably logical--and, as abhorrent as this particular scheme is turning out to be, he can stand satisfied that he has done all he can to combat the rising threat.

He has been exceedingly lenient with the Puppet Master these past few months (perhaps too lenient -- he sees that now), has given her a pass for her sudden string of petty crimes, has turned a blind eye to all her mayhem and destruction--she’s fairly new on the scene, after all, so she’s obviously just trying to establish herself as a proper bad guy, she’s just trying to demonstrate that she is a credible threat, and he certainly can’t blame her for that. How long did it take him, in the early years, to convince the city to take him seriously, to look past the unfortunate exterior and see the danger underneath?

And, really, up until last week, the Puppet Master has been... disappointingly predictable, to say the least. What kind of self-respecting criminal hasn’t robbed a bank or two, or blackmailed or bribed a government official to get things done here and there, or scammed the clueless masses out of a few hundred grand once or twice? It’s like she’s been going down a goddamn checklist! Not even a single spark of creativity!

So Number Five has ignored her.

Clearly, that is no longer an option.

Not when her latest attack involved such a blatant and brazen attempt to snatch his city right out from under him. No, he has worked his ass off to climb the ladder, get to the top, to make sure the whole goddamn world knows his name--to make sure the whole goddamn world knows that he is the most dangerous man alive, that he is death itself, and he cannot allow some uppity little newcomer to defy him without severe consequences.

That’s the real issue here. That’s what he’s got a problem with. That’s why he cannot permit this infraction to go unpunished.

It has nothing to do with some nameless, forgettable little girl that almost got turned into collateral damage (Claire, her name was Claire, with frizzy brown hair tied back in two puffy pigtails on the sides of her head, and when she grows up, she wants to be an astronaut and go to the moon like her Uncle Luther, and she’d only just moved to the city two weeks back, following her parents’ explosive divorce, so she didn’t know who he was, she didn’t know anything about him, so she--she wasn’t afraid of him, she didn’t even know that she should be afraid of him, and she didn’t shrink away from him when he spoke to her, didn’t flinch back when he grabbed her hand and pulled her through space with him, away from that psychotic bitch) because that--that unfortunate occurrence was absolutely not what it looked like.

Number Five did not save a little girl, and he certainly didn’t stay with her until she had located her mother. That would just be preposterous.

Supervillains don’t save little girls.

Look, this is--this is all entirely irrelevant, okay? The little girl has nothing to do with the fact that the Puppet Master has reached an utterly unprecedented level of sheer audacity, and now he has to show her exactly what happens to a criminal who steps out of line in his city.

But she’s... powerful, very powerful, and he’ll have to play his cards exactly right if he wants to keep this whole thing under his control. The criminal underworld is already going to be a real headache and a half, no easy way around that, but... it couldn’t hurt to have an alliance--a temporary alliance, of course, a short-lived cease-fire with the other side.

So. He doesn’t launch an immediate attack the second Gaira shows up on the rooftop--he clasps his hands behind his back, the picture of elegantly relaxed (his fingers running lightly over the glass face of his black leather wristwatch to throw up his shield just in case--he certainly hasn’t lived this long, made it this far, survived the unsurvivable so many times, by trusting the Good Guys) and locks eyes with her, shoulders back and chin up, head held high.

“Contrary to what I’m sure our previous encounters have drilled into you, I’m not particularly inclined toward combat at the moment,” he tells her, clear and strong, no hint of hesitation. It is imperative that she does not see his apprehension. “Quite the opposite, actually. After all, it appears we have a common enemy at present.”

@dvarapala​ ; liked

#dvarapala #GOD I LOVE THEM ALREADY #v: oh sinnerman

[crackedlemonade]

Ineffective Villains -Part 1

In my post about Zordon not being Trustworthy I pointed out that from the first episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita Repula had a large tactical advantage over the power rangers knowing their secret identities. It's an advantage that she never really fully takes advantage of even without the threat of revealing their identities. Across the board in the 90's all of the shows that Saban adapted from Japanese Series VR Troopers, Big Bad Beetleborgs and Power Rangers had incredibly bad villains.

Rita Repulsa set up shop on her moon base where she constantly watched the moves of the Power Rangers through her telescope plotting her next move. She said she wanted to take over the world but through her actions the Power Rangers became the focus of her attention. Most of the episodes involve Rita watching the kids at the Juice Bar, in school and just doing everyday things which is a very bad thing in terms of making a villain. What a character does on screen basically builds out what they would be doing off screen so between episodes Rita is just creeping waiting for her next idea to come. Not a good look at all.

So let's take a look at some victories associated with Rita Repulsa. I would say the birth of the Green Ranger was a victory despite how it ended. It was a major shake up that really caught the Power Rangers off guard. It's a very memorable story arc as well. Another victory would be the Green Candle, which was the candle created to drain Tommy's power away. It's a footage assisted win in that in the Japanese version the Green Ranger died and the Power was keeping him alive and the Green Candle was the representation of that power diminishing. Power Rangers had to write the Green Ranger off because his death in the Japanese version was the end of footage for them. However, this still counts as a victory for Rita.

A victory that I would also like to highlight would be when Rita Repulsa kidnapped the parents of Angel Grove high students in Return of an Old Friend. Rita got the rangers to highly consider giving up their power coins to protect the kidnapped parents of Angel Grove. A huge tactical advantage and she almost won for real. This was the return of Tommy after fan backlash from him being originally written off the show and it led to the legendary Power Ranger that we had today.

The fact of the matter is that Rita could have used the family angle or attacking the school directly more often to create a bigger threat to the rangers. The problem with that was the writing. Because of how Rita focuses on the rangers and knows their civilian identities makes it more of a crime that she did not take advantage of making the Power Rangers daily lives more difficult. Had Rita been focused more on taking over the world and worked on mobilizing strong monsters and learned the identities later in the show it would be more of a forgivable offense.

The reason I think something like this is fun to think about is because Super Hero shows present a moral compass. It shows the viewer what is good, what is evil, how good people act, how bad people act and how they react to certain things. Having poorly written villains gives us a tainted skew of what evil actually is. When evil is written as incompetent and constantly failing, it allows types of evil that fall out of that norm to fall under our radars.

As I was writing this I originally thought I could cover Rita and Lord Zedd in one post. However, I will have to talk about Lord Zedd in a part 2.

#90s television #90s nostalgia #mighty morphin power rangers #rita repulsa #lord zedd