#the monster will be my child and will properly inherit the family name | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

esamastation · 3 years

Text

Somehow it leaks into the press that Cloud Strife is the bastard son of Late President ShinRa. Unrelated, the news is Vincent Valentine being the biological father of General Sephiroth also makes it into the news.

It begins with a news article.

It's nothing too shocking, at first. Old ShinRa scandals are gil-a-dozen now, with investigative reporters digging them up on particularly boring news cycles to shock and horrify the masses with all the terrible things that had been going on right under their noses. This week it's detail on all the cloning business, all about Jenova, the SOLDIER project, mako. That week it's about the countless people died in various human trials, be they medicine, materia or weapons. That week it's the waste of resources, how much money was wasted on useless, ridiculous projects for no other reason than because ShinRa had the money to spend.

There's always something new and thrilling to be dug up in the grave of ShinRa to entertain the masses and so it's become kind of mundane. You can only shock and awe people with the crimes of a select group of people so many times in a row before it becomes, more or less… mundane. And this article had seemed more of the same.

Affairs, Bastards and Coverups – the numerous scandals of the ShinRa Elite!

Cloud scanned the first lines of the article and then dismissed it. Some reporter has compiled months worth of data and stolen documents concerning the personal lives of the Shinra family the various heads of department – and it turned out that they were living it up in the lap of luxury, cheating on their spouses, having secret love children, covering them up with money and non-disclosure forms, oh my. It's nothing new – everyone knew the President had mistresses and bastards in every ShinRa town, and it's not surprising the others followed suit.

At least it wasn't yet another secret ShinRa super weapon about to kill them all, Cloud thinks, moves to throw the whole paper aside, when sub header further down the article catches his eye. At first he doesn't quite understand it – he sees his name in the papers plenty, and maybe it's a mistake, maybe it's something unrelated – maybe he misread… but no.

Cloud Strife – or is it Cloud Shinra?

Then, then he stops to read it the article in full – and what do you know, it does have some surprises after all. And not, it turns out, just for him.

Vincent announces his arrival by grinding gravel under his metal heel – and by pressing a cool beer can against Cloud's shoulder in silent offering.

Ah, Cloud thinks, and accepts it. "You knew?"

"Suspected it," Vincent agrees and sits beside him on the cliff, overlooking Edge and the Ruins of Midgar. He's holding the paper in hand. "There's a family resemblance."

Cloud hums and opens the can, reaching the paper. It's open on the Article, of course it is – Vincent has even highlighted sections of it. "Family resemblance," Cloud repeats, running a thumb over the underlines – pressed in hard with a ballpoint pen. "I don't know – definitely didn't inherit the old bastard's chin."

Vincent hums. "You and Rufus. There was also another Shinra bastard in company employment with files left – Lazard Deusericus. You all have very similar features."

Cloud frowns a little at that, trying to remember – but if he ever met Lazard, it's not coming to him. Zack might've known the guy, but… most of those memories were faded now. "Well," he says and turns the page to the second section of the article – dedicated entirely to the family drama of Professor Hojo, and the Child Stolen – Sephiroth.

How the reporter had found out so much about Vincent, Cloud has no idea, but they had his whole career as a Turk down – right down to his disappearance under mysterious circumstances in Nibelheim, and his resurface as one of the Heroes who Saved the Planet, decades later.

Of course, Cloud's crew has been in the public eye long enough that none of their lives are secret anymore – everything that could be found out about them had been by this point, and that included the mystery of Vincent Valentine, as well as Nanaki's history and Yuffie's royal heritage. So maybe it's not that big of a surprise, that people figured out the rest of it.

They hadn't done enough try to hide their histories, Cloud muses. They hadn't realised that it might be something they should do – not until it was too late.

"You don't seem surprised either," Vincent points out, glancing at the paper, and the picture of young Sephiroth on it.

"You ever see Sephiroth standing beside Hojo? Definitely no family resemblance there," Cloud muses, giving him a look. "Sephiroth was always too pretty to be Hojo's kid."

Vincent looks away, blowing out a slow breath into his scarf. Cloud takes a drink of the beer and then reads the pertinent lines again.

Really, what's most surprising about the whole damned thing is how surprising it still manages to be. None of this really matters anymore. ShinRa family is all but gone, Rufus is pretty much powerless, Sephiroth is trice-over-dead, even Hojo is properly back in his grave, and none of this actually affects anything anymore. They all had some suspicion, before, they all had some theories, so it's not a shock. Except that it is and it does affect things.

"The things we could've done," Cloud mutters wryly, shaking his head. "If only we'd known."

"Hmph," Vincent answers and relaxes a little. "It likely wouldn't have changed things. Not unless we had known… years before."

"Yeah, and even then I doubt ShinRa would've much cared, considering how those assholes went about dealing with their bastards," Cloud says and drops the paper in between them. "I probably would've gotten shot – and you did get shot."

"I did get shot," Vincent agrees. "I suppose it makes more sense now. Why he didn't… really, kill me."

Cloud grimaces at that and takes another drink. Yeah – Hojo could get rid of obstacles without qualms and not think about it twice, but what he did to Vincent, oh, that was personal wasn't it? It was probably revenge – and not just for loving the woman Hojo had wanted, but being the father of the son Hojo had coveted. And how like Hojo, to have a loose end of that magnitude, and then just… drop it, when it stopped entertaining him.

Maybe it'd been the same with Cloud – and Zack. They got their taste of Hojo's personal interest for daring to kill Sephiroth, and then Hojo dropped them too and moved onto whatever else interested him. It's been years now, and Cloud dares to think he's mostly over it, but thinking about it now… Had Hojo known about his relation to the Shinra family – had he cared? Had it made the whole thing that much more fun for the asshole, did he get some sadistic delight in tearing into his boss' progeny?

"Yeah," Cloud muses and lets out a quiet, smothered belch. "I don't know about you, but I really could've done without this knowledge."

Vincent hums in answer. "Truth is neither good or bad. It simply is," he says. "It is always better to know, than to wallow in ignorance."

Cloud makes a face and glances at him. "Speaking of wallowing, how personally are you taking this?" he asks then, looking him up and down. Vincent has the tendency of drowning in guilt and blaming himself, and this, as little as it changes things, as much as it morbidly just amuses Cloud…

Finding you're the bastard son of a dead rich guy is one thing – finding out you had a son and were part of killing said son, several times now, that's something else.

Vincent looks down and says nothing for a long, windswept moment. "Very," he says finally and shakes his head. "How else can I take it?"

"You must've suspected," Cloud says and then grimaces – shouldn't have said that.

"Well," Vincent answers, his voice dipping lower, almost inaudible. "I must have."

Cloud sighs and then reaches one hand over, rubbing it up and down along Vincent’s tense back, fingers snagging on belts through the ragged cape. "I'm sorry, Vincent," he says. "Really, sincerely sorry."

Vincent says nothing, but he doesn't move away from the touch, which for him is the same as leaning into someone's shoulder and wailing out in grief. Cloud lowers the can he's holding and then releases a sigh. The whole thing blows, really, and it changes nothing – just another scandal for people to be entertained by. Another horror to add into their ever growing collection.

But it's something to imagine it – if Vincent had known, if he could've done something about it. Half of the whole mess was the hellish upbringing Sephiroth got in Hojo's hands – if something had interrupted that, if someone, anyone, would've interfered, then maybe, just maybe... Cloud's relation probably wouldn't have mattered much, he was just one ShinRa bastard among many, but if Sephiroth got an actual loving upbringing… who knows.

Maybe the guy wouldn’t have gone megalomaniacal world ending monster on all of them. Who knows.

tentatively dipping my toes in the waters of ff7... it’s been a while, i don’t even know if i know how to write these guys anymore

#fanfiction #ff7 #cloud strife #vincent valentine

355 notes · View notes

robininthelabyrinth · 4 years

Text

prompt: Bodyswap of Nie Mingjue and Baxia?

link to ao3 because this is long

There were a lot of rules about the saber spirits, but the most important one was always: You control the saber, do not let it control you.

The line between being a hero and being a monster was a very thin one, easy to overstep: with the horrible temper that was as much an ancestral inheritance as their cultivation style, it was all too easy for members of their family to become corrupted. Cultivating the saber spirit gave them power, but it also inspired rage – it would be all too easy to start making excuses for your conduct, to become corrupted by your own desires, to say “Oh, it’s his fault, he made me angry” or “He shouldn’t have gotten in my way” when what you meant was “I decided he didn’t matter.”

That was unacceptable.

If people didn’t matter, then nothing mattered, and all the sacrifices that had ever been made in the name of upholding justice and righteousness, using violence for good, were for nothing.

Control and principle – those were the foundations of Nie cultivation.

The saber spirits heightened the tension of it: the balance between power and responsibility, between blind rage and principled justice. Each saber spirit belonged to a single master, reflecting the quirks of their personality, but at the most base level they were all the same, simple and straightforward: they wanted to destroy evil.

All evil.

Without exception. Without mercy or nuance or – anything.

That’s why it was the job of the saber’s master to keep them in check. A saber spirit would make no distinction between a lost ghost draining a little yang energy to preserve its own life or a fierce corpse murdering people left in right, between a yao that took in the energy of the sun and moon and a yao that fed on corpses, between a small child stealing bread to feed their family or a criminal stealing in through the window to commit a rape – only a human could make those sorts of decisions.

Or so Nie Mingjue had always been taught.

“I don’t know,” he whispered, late at night, Baxia lying on the bed next to him instead of properly in her case where she belonged. “I think you could probably learn to tell the difference, if you wanted.”

Baxia purred in his mind, temporarily calm and sated – he’d gone night hunting the day before, accompanying his father, and he’d been the one to take down the creature: a maddened yao that had once been a boar, and which had recently taken to ripping people to pieces with its tusks.

His father had been very proud. He’d ruffled Nie Mingjue’s hair as if he were still a child – he wasn’t, he was a big brother now, his little brother born just last month – and called him his prodigy, ignoring the way the other Nie cultivators on the night hunt frowned.

They always frowned.

Nie Mingjue wasn’t supposed to get his saber until he was twelve. Before that, it was all practice sabers: heavy wood, to help strengthen the arms and shoulders, and eventually dead steel, to learn to finesse and how to not cut your own head off, and only once you’d shown sufficient skill in those could you finally get a spiritual weapon of your very own.

Nie Mingjue picked up Baxia for the first time when he was six.

There’d been fighting, an incursion into the Unclean Realm by assassins – some small sect, probably egged on by Wen Ruohan in a way that could never be traced to him, but anyway they were all dead now – and when he’d heard the screaming, it hadn’t even occurred to him not to help.

Suppress evil, no matter where it lives; uphold justice, no matter what it takes.

He’d been only a child, but there had been children screaming, children his own age confronting fully grown cultivators, and that hadn’t been fair at all.

Nie Mingjue had sprinted to the armory, hoping to find something – anything he could use, even just one of his practice sabers, and that was the first time he’d seen her.

Baxia – though she hadn’t been Baxia back then – had only been half-forged then, enough spiritual weapon to channel his qi but not enough to really respond to his commands. That was fine: he didn’t know the techniques to wield her properly back then, anyway.

The basics were good enough against cultivators who never expected that the young child heir of the Nie family would be able to lift a sword longer than he was tall, much less wield it.

He’d aimed low at first, going for tender ankles and vulnerable knees, and then when they’d tried to leap up against him he brought his saber up against them, aiming for their bodies.

There was a lot of blood.

Nie Mingjue was descended from a butcher: his father had been taking him to see animals get hacked up for their kitchens since before he’d started walking, a way to inure him to blood and guts and gore, to animal screams that weren’t so different from the screams of the battlefield.

It was still strange, seeing blood on the flood, blood on his blade, to see the light fade out of a man’s eyes and know that he made that happen – that his soul would be irrevocably marked with the stain of having taken a life.

As a reward, Nie Mingjue’s father had ordered that Nie Mingjue could take up his saber early.

A lot of people in the sect didn’t agree with that decision. Even now, two years later, they still frowned whenever Nie Mingjue did something, muttering warnings about how children couldn’t be trusted to control themselves, how the saber spirits were unpredictable, how a cultivator’s life might already be cut short and how there was no need to cut a childhood short as well.

Nie Mingjue’s father ignored them. Nie Mingjue ignored them, too.

He liked Baxia.

And he thought, maybe, that she liked him, too.

No one had ever told him that he shouldn’t have been able to tell.

The first time they switch, it’s to save his life.

It wasn’t the first time they’d gotten closer than they should: Nie Mingjue had figured out if he channeled not only qi energy but vital energy into Baxia, circulating it through her as if she were an extension of his meridians, they would fight better – she would be light in his hand, anticipating his movements, putting her force behind his blows alongside his own. He’d even noticed that he could almost ‘see’ things differently – flickers of pulsing qi in cultivators, ghostly flame in corpses – and he thought it might be that he was seeing things the way she saw things, if a saber spirit could be said to see.

He’d done it more and more, only for one of his teachers to notice and scold him fiercely. Allowing something into his vital qi was opening himself up to possession; it might help his cultivation in the short term, an emergency measure, but in the end, the saber spirit would turn on him, devour him – after all, who was truly free from evil?

At first, Nie MIngjue tried to be good, to stop, but Baxia all but sulked at him – his swings dragging a little more than could be blamed on air resistance, a feeling of dissatisfaction and unhappiness even when he killed some fierce corpses for her, randomly waking him up in the middle of the night with fake alarms because his saber figured out long ago that he hated that – and eventually he just gave it up.

Every Nie saber was different, after all; like all spiritual weapons, they reflected their master. Maybe he and Baxia were just – different?

(And if it made it just a little easier to keep an eye on little Nie Huaisang, who’d just learned what crawling was and that he liked utilizing it to get to the most dangerous places possible, well, that was just an additional perk – how people ever took care of children without having a second pair of eyes, Nie Mingjue had no idea.)

And then they were at a night hunt, fighting something especially big and bad and vicious to the extreme, and all of a sudden Nie Mingjue felt something that reminded him of Sect Leader Wen, of the slick nauseating feel of his cultivation, and his father’s saber shattered.

Everyone panicked, shouting, and the beast roared, seeing its chance, and it jumped forward, goring Nie MIngjue’s father – still stunned – in the belly and knocking him down, and then rushing towards Nie Mingjue himself who was frozen in horror.

The next thing he knew, he wasn’t – he wasn’t knowing, anymore, or at least not the way he had before.

Everything around him was qi, and qi was in everything: different colors-textures-flavors (flavors?!) that showed him the difference between a living person and the dead, between plants and animals and the dirt beneath them, and even the subtle gradations inside the three souls and seven spirits, the way the qi-flame varied in color, the lightness of the soul slowly corrupted with rot – with evil.

It was vile.

He watched as his body leaped to the side, avoiding the beast’s charge – the movements were a little jerky, he thought, and Baxia sent some frustration back that he thought might roughly translate to listen it’s a new body and I’m trying here if she were capable of speech – and then spinning around, leaping up, and then bringing him down on her.

There was an encouraging sort of feeling from Baxia – go on, do the thing, you can do it – and somewhere along the way down, aided by the force of muscle and gravity, Nie Mingjue figured out that he was supposed to bite down, the sharp end of him all a single tooth, sharp and vicious, and he grabs onto the beast’s qi with all his might, tearing at it furiously, venting his rage.

A few more swipes with the blade and the beast died, Nie Mingjue drinking in its vital energy as if it were water as the creature’s souls and spirits scattered – he even purified the ones he could reach, making sure that nothing would remain behind, rotting and infecting the world with its madness and evil.

It felt good. To see that evil disintegrate into the wind, to know it would never hurt anyone again – good.

He wanted more.

There was a tug on his mind, Baxia calling him back as if he risked going too far, and habit kicked in: he turned in response to her call, trying to come to her side or have her come to his, and suddenly the world went off-kilter again and he was standing up on two legs (he had legs?) and the beast was dead in front of him, stinking of blood and bile –

He was human again.

Nie Mingjue dropped his saber, staggered to the side of a tree, and vomited.

Baxia returned to her place on his back, a quiet vibration that conveyed no feeling, only a reminder of her presence. He didn’t know what to say to her, what to think, what – anything.

You’ll leave yourself open to possession indeed.

Luckily, no one in the clan had noticed the lapse: the other Nie cultivators who had been on the hunt with them, both young and old, applauded Nie Mingjue for the steadiness of his nerves (a lie) and one of the elders even commented that it seemed as though his cultivation had increased substantially.

It had, too, but what was Nie Mingjue supposed to say? That he’d literally eaten another creature’s cultivation, drinking its blood and gnawing on its bones, until his spirit has become swollen with power?

That he’d enjoyed it?

He had three days to wonder and worry about it, trying to think about how to handle it, and then his father opened his eyes for the first time after the coma from the wound inflicted from the beast, eyes full of madness and fury aimed at every living being around him, and then he had other things to worry about.

After he became Sect Leader, Nie Mingjue spent a great deal of time telling his saber that he couldn’t just stab Wen Ruohan across the table of a discussion conference.

In his head, of course – Nie cultivators were known to be close to their sabers, even closer than most cultivators of other sects were with their beloved swords, but it would still be seen as strange to actually talk to your sword as if it could respond.

Baxia couldn’t talk back, of course – she was still a sword, in the end, incapable of human speech – but that never kept her from talking back, albeit in her own way.

She liked to highlight parts of Wen Ruohan’s body that would make for good cutting – Nie Mingjue’s eyesight had never quite returned to normal since that first switch, and he could always see a very faint ghostly overlay of qi on all living creatures around him, especially cultivators – and send encouraging feelings to him, like a mother cat nudging her kitten towards its first mouse, and Nie Mingjue would press his lips together and not smile because that would be weird.

It was one of the only things that made the discussion conferences – sitting across the table from his father’s murderer – bearable.

Nie Mingjue was perfectly aware that if anyone, even those in his own sect, ever found out about his unusual relationship with his saber, they would condemn him as unorthodox, possibly even crossing the line into demonic cultivation, even though he never touched resentful energy for his own use, never summoned ghosts or demons, nothing of that sort.

But he couldn’t stop.

Even if he wanted to – and he didn’t really want to – there was going to be a war soon, and his sect depending on him. His brother needed him.

And he needed Baxia.

After the first time, it had gotten easier than ever to slip sideways into her – to let her be the man, and him the sword. Nie Mingjue was, if he did say so himself, a very good saber, Baxia laughing in agreement at the thought, and it was so freeing to be nothing but a weapon, to have no concerns but wanting to kill and kill and kill.

Naturally, that was why he couldn’t permit himself to do it too often.

Connecting with Baxia was no longer something he had to try to do, as it had been when he was younger, but rather the opposite: he would have to try very hard to try to seal the connection between them, something he did only when he was extremely upset about something, and even then he wasn’t sure the link ever closed down all the way.

She was an extension of his body, a part of him; his vital qi poured into her, unreserved, and when he cultivated, her cultivation increased apace as well, her saber spirit strengthening to new heights of power – what helped him, helped her, and what helped her helped him.

It could almost, embarrassingly, be considered a form of dual cultivation.

It never felt wrong.

Nie Mingjue prided himself on his adherence to principle, to ethics; he knew people said he was too strict, too harsh, even unmerciful, but there was forged steel in his soul now, unyielding, and every year that passed he found his tolerance for evil grew less and less.

Evil in the world – and evil in mankind.

He knew there was evil in himself as well. He never deceived himself on that front: if Baxia were free to do as she pleased, to massacre all evil as she wanted, he would be one of her targets, no matter how she grumbled whenever he thought that. Virtue could be as corrupting as vice; he wasn’t any better than the people he condemned.

The only thing he could say for himself is that he always tried to do the right thing. He tried never to take action solely for his own benefit, to lift his saber only in the defense of a just cause, to do what he must and go no further.

Excepting only, perhaps, for Baxia – but as long as he controlled it, as long as he turned her only against evil, then surely, it was still within the boundaries of the limits his ancestors had laid out, that strange cultivation style of the saber spirits.

Well. Mostly against evil.

If perhaps during an especially boring discussion conference where his only job was to look fierce and disapproving, he let himself drift a little, and someone else (equally good at fierce and disapproving, if not actively better than him) take his place – if sometimes when he slept he let her go for a walk to stretch out legs she didn’t have and play around with the feeling of having thumbs – if occasionally she would coax him into letting her be the one to sharpen him, rather than the other way around, so that he could feel exactly how it ought to be done –

That didn’t seem too wrong.

The ability to detect evil in the souls of men did not actually mean that Baxia was good at people.

On the contrary, in fact – in many ways, she was very much a typical saber, wanting only to destroy, and it had taken years of explanations before she reluctantly applied some human standards to her perceptions of what constituted evil.

Sometimes, Nie Mingjue agreed with her – Jin Guangshan was a pathetic waste of a man, a worthless good-for-nothing no matter how decent his cultivation was – and sometimes he couldn’t even begin to understand her perspective – Jiang Fengmian was lukewarm about everything, which was irritating beyond belief, but Baxia wanted his head on a pike yesterday and sulked when he told her that absent a very good reason she was not going to get what she wanted.

She babied Nie Huaisang the same way he did, and bullied his saber into being obedient to him – very much not how that was supposed to go, but Nie Mingjue had always been weak where his baby brother was concerned – but she viewed most of the world with intense suspicion and not a little bit of rage.

She didn’t like Meng Yao.

It was a bit like Jiang Fengmian, actually. There was no reason that Nie Mingjue could think of, and even shifting into a spirit to study the other man didn’t reveal anything other than the usual evil one would expect to see in any person, and it wasn’t as though Baxia could tell him – she just hated what she hated, and no matter how much Nie Mingjue pointed to Meng Yao’s good acts, his defense of the common folk, his merits on the battlefield, she never gave in.

Still, good help was hard to find, and Meng Yao had never done anything that didn’t fit in well with Nie Mingjue’s standards – even if there was something wrong with him, deep down, did it really matter, as long as it never showed its face?

Nie Mingjue tried to keep his distance, emotionally, but it was hard. Meng Yao seemed on the surface to be a good man, efficient and capable; he was intelligent and well-spoken, creative and stubborn, talented to the point of brilliance.

Nie Mingjue didn’t have many friends, and Meng Yao was – there. Even Lan Xichen, who he trusted (and Baxia agreed, even if she thought Shuoyue was a bit of a priss), liked him; the conversation between the three of them flowed easily, pleasantly, and Nie Mingjue almost felt as though he were something other than the leader of a sect at war, as though he were a regular cultivator chatting with his generational cohort about all manner of things.

Baxia howled in the back of his head, wanting to rend Meng Yao limb from limb.

He ignored her.

In the end, she was right, and he was wrong.

The evil buried deep in Meng Yao’s soul could not be denied.

His betrayal at Langya, premeditated murder and then a personal attack; his decision to change his colors and join the Wen sect, his murder of helpless Nie sect cultivators; the cool manner by which he traded his war glory to the Jin sect for a place and a name that only shone gold to the outside world –

It was a disappointment.

Nie Mingjue should have trusted Baxia.

(He agreed to swear brotherhood with the man because Lan Xichen wanted it, because he still hoped against hope that he could purify the evil in Meng Yao’s heart the way he did the evil of ghosts, could bring back the friend he’d once thought he’d had – but it was still a disappointment.)

Maybe that was what gave him pause, during the competition at Phoenix Mountain – he’d only met Wei Wuxian in passing before, never spent much time with him, and even less once he’d become the fearsome Yiling Patriarch that wielded demonic cultivation as a scythe against their mutual enemies.

He’d expected to have to talk Baxia down from trying to kill him at once. After all, according to the stories, he stank of resentful energy, having pulled it inside of himself until it tainted every inch of him; it followed him like a cloak of power and cruelty.

The reality was – different.

Him? Nie Mingjue thought at Baxia, mildly appalled. You like him? Really?

Baxia purred, pleased.

This I have to see.

He usually tried not to let Baxia take over in front of his fellow sect leaders, who were by now all very well trained at spotting abnormalities of even the slightest sort, but the curiosity was killing him.

In the eyes of a saber, Wei Wuxian was – a man.

Just that, nothing more. He had some virtues and some faults, good and evil mixed together in no greater or lesser proportion than Meng Yao, and while he was surrounded by resentful energy, was shot through with it, it did not infect his souls or spirits with rot any more than anyone else. It passed through him like any other type of qi energy did, the ghostly flame sliding through his meridians as though he were on the verge of becoming a demon himself and yet not absorbed within, not kept – he used only what he pulled at any given time, letting the power run through his fingers like water, and never stored it inside –

He lacked a golden core.

No wonder he couldn’t store any power; even if he wanted to, he couldn’t, the taint injuring him as it flowed through his system without purification – it was as if he were drinking alcohol while lacking a liver – but at the same time he lacked the ability to build it up inside of him.

Nie Mingjue wondered what had happened.

He waited until later – after a number of embarrassing incidents, mostly involving Jin Zixuan’s confession of affection to Jiang Yanli, a love affair which Nie Mingjue had absolutely no interest in but which made Nie Huaisang roll around on his bed, clutching his fan to his chest and sighing dreamily – and then he went to where the Jiang sect was housed and asked to speak with Wei Wuxian.

“You know it’s quite late, Sect Leader Nie,” Wei Wuxian drawled, his arms crossed in front of him defensively. “And I’m not any more inclined to give up the Stygian Tiger Seal because of the hour.”

“What?” Nie Mingjue asked, bewildered, and then – “Oh, that. It’s a vile thing and ought to be destroyed, but that’s on your conscience. If you misuse it, I’ll turn my blade against you; if you lose it to someone else, I’ll drink at your funeral; other than that, it’s no business of mine.”

“…oh,” Wei Wuxian said, his arms loosening. “Sorry, I assumed. You came to speak with me and not Jiang Cheng…”

“I’ve been speaking with Sect Leader Jiang all day,” Nie Mingjue said, impatient. “About everything from matters of principle to fishing rights in small rivers that only three people even know exist – and we’re scheduled to do it again tomorrow. Why would I bother him after hours?”

Wei Wuxian laughed, then looked surprised at himself and coughed to cover it up; he stepped out of the doorway to let Nie Mingjue inside. “All very good points. So it is me you want to talk to…what about? If it’s not the Stygian Tiger Seal…my cultivation, perhaps?”

“In a way,” Nie Mingjue said. “I should warn you in advance that you may find my questions rude.”

Wei Wuxian waved that away and turned to fetch them some jars of wine. “I don’t care about rudeness. As long as your question isn’t ‘why do you still do it’.”

“Why would I ask that? It’s always better to be a cultivator, however unorthodox, than not at all.”

Wei Wuxian stopped moving after having picked up only one jar, his hand still outstretched towards the second one.

“Now that’s an odd way to phrase it,” he said, and his voice was low and sounded dangerous, but Baxia didn’t so much as quiver, so Nie Mingjue knew there was no real threat of a fight. “Second Young Master Lan spends a great deal of his time imploring me to resume orthodox cultivation; I would have thought you’d be of the same opinion.”

“But orthodox cultivation is impossible without a golden core,” Nie Mingjue said, puzzled as to why Wei Wuxian would care about what Lan Wangji thought enough to mention him, or for that matter why Lan Wangji apparently spent all his time pestering Wei Wuxian in an effort to make him mend his ways.

Wei Wuxian dropped the jar in his hand with a deafening crash.

Wei Wuxian sent Nie Mingjue a letter after he’d settled down in Yiling.

In it, he very politely (the man knew what politeness was?) apologized for the disturbance he had caused, explained that the Wen sect remnants were composed entirely of old men and women, a child, and only two young people, one of which was now the Ghost General, that had helped him before, on the occasion which they had once had the opportunity to discuss, and so there was a life debt between them. He stated that if Nie Mingjue wished to visit and review the situation himself, he would gladly open his gates to one who did not seem prejudiced against him, who might judge the situation fairly; he requested, very humbly, that if Nie Mingjue wouldn’t mind considering lending his voice to the Jiang sect, which was even now negotiating a marriage with the Jin sect, and which had undoubtedly been put in a very bad position as a result of his apparently inexplicable actions.

Nie Mingjue snorted at the mix of earnestness, presented as slickly as any diplomat – Wei Wuxian had clearly been trained by the Jiang sect to be their ambassador, and sometimes the training even managed to overcome his extremely irritating personality – and took Nie Huaisang with him when he went.

A gesture of good faith.

It turned out to be necessary, since Baxia took one look at Wen Ning and all but begged to chase him around, promising not to hurt him but please oh please –

Nie Huaisang smacked Nie Mingjue in the face with his fan, which had never happened before, and Nie Mingjue snapped out of the daze he was in and recalled Baxia to his hand at once, his face coloring in embarrassment.

“Forgive me,” he said to Wei Wuxian, voice stiff; he couldn’t believe he’d just done that. “I meant no offense to either you or to Wen Qionglin.”

Wei Wuxian’s extremely angry expression abruptly vanished off his face, leaving behind only confusion. “You – know his courtesy name?”

Nie Mingjue frowned. “I wasn’t aware that my reputation indicated an inability to utilize common courtesy.”

“…most people just call him the Ghost General, nowadays.”

Nie Mingjue didn’t know what to say to that apparent non-sequitur (who cared what other people did?), and looked to Nie Huaisang to see if he had a better response.

Nie Huaisang shrugged. “I thought you said he was conscious, Wei-xiong? If he is, then he’s a person, and if he’s a person, he has a name. It’d be as rude as me calling Baxia ‘that old stick’.”

That was, in fact, something Nie Huaisang had done once, when he’d been a teenager and angry about having to go to the Wen sect’s camp – in fairness, Nie Mingjue hadn’t been exactly pleased about that either – and Baxia had chased him up and down the hallway, smacking his ass to make him jump every time she caught him, until he was out of breath and apologizing and also laughing more than a little.

Nie Mingjue put his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “He doesn’t have that much of a death wish.”

Wei Wuxian laughed. “I keep forgetting you have a sense of humor under there. Would you like to come inside? I don’t have much here, but we can talk about whatever you need to give yourself comfort that the Wen sect remnants aren’t going to hurt anyone.”

“It’s not necessarily a matter of future harm,” Nie Mingjue said. “There is also the past.”

“They’re non-combatants –”

“Wen Qing ran a Supervisory Office.”

Wei Wuxian winced.

“It’s something we can talk over,” Nie Huaisang said. “She might need to submit to a trial or something, but I don’t think death is necessarily the only outcome. Maybe something in which she uses her abilities in service to the community..?”

“She’d be happy to, if anyone would allow it,” Wei Wuxian said wryly. “Oddly enough, not too many cultivators are willing to allow someone surnamed Wen to examine them.”

“We can set a good example,” Nie Huaisang chirped. “My brother and I – why not? Maybe she can explain why he acted so uncharacteristically earlier.”

Nie Mingjue sighed. If there was one lesson he’d never managed to get into Nie Huaisang’s head – there were many, actually – it was that family laundry shouldn’t be spread out in front of others. He couldn’t have waited until after they’d left?

Wei Wuxian blinked at them both. “You’ll have to forgive me, Nie-xiong; I’m not that familiar with your brother. What was uncharacteristic?”

“He let Baxia do as she liked instead of stopping her,” Nie Huaisang said promptly. “It was impulsive, and he normally would never.”

“And you think it’s a medical issue?” Nie Mingjue asked, doubtful. More likely all those years of jointly possessing his own body with Baxia was starting to need paying for. “Huaisang…”

“It’s worth checking!”

Wen Qing didn’t find anything other than some disturbed qi, which could be the result of just about anything, and Nie Mingjue told Nie Huaisang to drop the issue in a tone that brooked no dispute.

Still, since it was clearly worrying his brother, there wouldn’t be any harm in asking Meng Yao – no, Jin Guangyao, he was Jin Guangyao now – to come over to play Clarity for him a little more often.

They could talk a little about Jin Guangshan’s frankly unseemly attempts to weasel the Stygian Tiger Seal out of Wei Wuxian at the same time. Based on everything he’d heard from Wei Wuxian, including the man’s willingness to destroy at least a half of it as a gesture of good faith, there was really no basis to claim that it ought to be confiscated from him. And with the Nie sect standing alongside the Jiang sect, the Jin sect would have no chance to use this as an opportunity to rally the cultivation world against Wei Wuxian and use the excuse to extract the seal for their own unknown purposes.

The whole situation would probably irritate Jin Guangshan immensely, even if only as proof that he was not in fact the obvious successor to the Wens in terms of dominating the cultivation world.

Chief Cultivator – hah!

If one had to be selected, and Nie Mingjue was against the whole idea, then it wouldn’t be Jin Guangshan. It wouldn’t be anyone from the Jin sect; every time he visited Lanling, Baxia shook on his shoulder and he agreed with her anger – the entire place was shot through with corruption, festering in evil, ambition and greed the only virtues they recognized. Allowing them to sit, fat and comfortable, at the top of the cultivation world for no other reason than their ambition and their wealth, the fact that they’d hung back and let others do the majority of the fighting and so didn’t need to waste money in rebuilding…it was unacceptable.

He’d have to make that clear to Jin Guangyao, somehow.

He hoped his sworn brother wouldn’t be too disappointed.

Severe qi deviations were said to be horrifically painful, with every vein in your body bursting, every meridian cracking, your blood boiling, your bones breaking as your qi reversed course and began destroying you from the inside –

Whoever said that was right.

Nie Mingjue felt his mouth fill with blood, his eyes dripping with them, and he saw Jin Guangyao everywhere around him, laughing at him, Meng Yao mocking his weakness in trusting him over his own instincts, over Baxia; he tried to lash out against him, only for him to disappear in front of his eyes, reappearing elsewhere, and he wanted nothing more than to kill – to kill – to stop him before he hurt anyone else – before he laid a finger on Nie Huaisang, before he deceived Lan Xichen, before – he had to kill him – he had to –

There was so much pain.

Pain and rage, fear and fury; it was like a tide that rose up, inexorable, to swallow him.

He screamed – and everything stopped.

There was no pain.

Steel did not feel pain.

Nie Mingjue was a saber once more, his qi still sick and pounding inside of him, going the wrong way, his rage still overwhelming him, but for a saber that was all right, it was all right not to know anything but rage and fury and the desire to kill: you control the saber, it doesn’t control you.

As long as his master held him back, he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone he shouldn’t.

He himself would not be hurt.

Steel did not feel pain.

Baxia complained about scratches in her surface, sulked about them, but that was just vanity, which he’d inadvertently taught her; she didn’t actually suffer, as long as she never broke –

Baxia.

If Nie Mingjue was the saber, then she was the human: she was the one in the body that was self-destructing, she was the one who was bleeding out of every aperture, she was the one who was screaming.

Baxia!

She shook him off, pushing him firmly back towards the blade and away from the flesh; steel felt no pain, and she was steel all the way through her soul – a little pain was not going to stop her.

She straightened his spine, stood up tall, and bared his teeth at Jin Guangyao, who was even now backing away, his arms around a frantic Nie Huaisang, who did not understand. She pointed Nie MIngjue at their enemy, their mutual enemy, and he wanted so badly to fly forward, sharp end first, wanted to pierce that traitorous dog through the heart and make sure he would never harm anyone again.

He wanted to rend him to pieces with his teeth, like a wild dog himself; he wanted to drink his vital energies and purify his innermost soul, to send him to his next reincarnation before his soul could even think of lingering – let him be reborn as a dog, as a snake, as a worm! Let him pay for the wrongs he has committed!

No. No, on second thought, he shouldn’t die. He should live – live and face the penalty for his actions. Let him be cast off from his comfortable life, let him live forever in seclusion with no friends and no succuor, let him know that all of his ambition has come to nothing.

Nie Mingjue roared in silent fury, and Baxia opened his mouth and roared as well: the sound that emerged from his throat was inhuman, the scream of steel scraping steel, a sound no human should ever be able to make.

“Er-ge!” Jin Guangyao shouted, his eyes white all around the irises; he clearly hadn’t anticipated Nie Mingjue surviving the qi deviation to this point. “Er-ge, come here – da-ge has gone into qi deviation, and he’s trying to kill me!”

“He’s not trying to kill you!” Nie Huaisang shrieked. “She is –”

And then, as if realizing what he’d just said, he turned shocked eyes on Jin Guangyao, abrupt realization filling his face.

“She’s trying to kill you,” he repeated dully. “Kill you – she only wants to kill evil, to punish wrongdoing. What have you done?!”

In the end it turned out that Wen Qing’s expertise was useful after all.

She came to Lanling and went to work immediately, but it still took nearly two weeks for her to set all of Nie Mingjue’s meridians and spiritual veins back into place, working on each one at a time; the entire process would have been agonizing enough to kill any man just from the pain alone.

It was a good thing that the one undergoing the process was not a man.

“So, this is weird, right?” Wei Wuxian asked Nie Huaisang, who’d refused to leave his brother’s side; he ate and slept on the floor next to the bed where Wen Qing operated, and his fingers were clenched around the saber’s hilt in silent supplication. “You Nie – you’re not all half-swords, are you?”

“Sabers,” Nie Huaisang corrected, rubbing his eyes. “And no. It’s just my brother. He and Baxia have always been very close.”

“Close,” Wei Wuxian echoed. “Close. Yes, I suppose that’s – a way to put it. He’s literally letting himself be possessed by his own apparently sentient saber spirit right now; I suppose you would need to be close, for that.”

“At least Baxia serves only one master,” Nie Huaisang said sharply. “Can your Tiger Seal say the same? Or is that honor reserved for your Suibian, which even now is gathering dust on your shelf, and which you will never use again?”

Wei Wuxian stopped and grimaced. “I’m being obnoxious. Forgive me.”

Nie Huaisang waved a hand, dismissing it. “And I’m tired; think nothing of it. As long as – as long as this works. As long as we can get him back.”

Wei Wuxian only ever took the briefest glances at the table where Wen Qing operated; he did so now and immediately turned away, shuddering in memory – it was even more gruesome than what he’d endured. “Is he…in there? Being suppressed by her?”

“No, thankfully not,” Nie Huaisang said, and tapped the blade of the saber. “He’s in here.”

Wei Wuxian blinked. “He’s – in the saber?”

“He is the saber. They’re – sort of joined, I think? If they were once separate entities, they’re not anymore; the saber and the person are both part of a single body – no, two bodies, two bodies with two consciousnesses. Most of the time, da-ge possesses the human body and Baxia the saber, but sometimes they switch and she takes the body and he the saber; that’s what’s happening now.”

“How did that even happen?” Wei Wuxian wanted to know. “It makes my unorthodoxy look almost boring – a heresy, sure, but one that flowed naturally out of how things are typically done, the sequel to a book, written in the same style. What he’s doing…it isn’t even from the same library!”

“It is for us,” Nie Huaisang said with a shrug. “We cultivate saber spirits, like I’ve explained. This is – different, yes. But on the other hand, he might be the first Nie cultivator in a thousand years to survive the qi deviation that comes from cultivating the saber spirit.”

“Probably would have been better to test that theory a few decades later, though, huh?”

Nie Huaisang grimaced. “Yes. When I think about what Jin Guangyao nearly did…! And I liked him, Wei-xiong; I really liked him. Da-ge liked him, and da-ge doesn’t get close to people, not easily. It always hurt him, what Meng Yao did to him, but he still swore brotherhood with him so that he could try to teach him good from evil…”

He shook his head.

“I can’t believe you’re even considering not executing him,” Wei Wuxian said, shaking his head as well. “Is permanent seclusion really going to be enough?”

“Well, there’s going to be a trial,” Nie Huaisang said. “Though it’ll be fairly short, given that da-ge survived and Wen Qing already indicated that there appears to be the effects of spiritual poison – I would never have thought he’d be using that stupid song to do it. The one er-ge taught him so that he and da-ge could make up…! You’re not wrong, Wei-xiong; seclusion might be too good for the likes of him. But er-ge is insisting we give him a chance to explain.”

“He’s good at manipulating emotions,” Wei Wuxian said. “Aren’t you concerned he’ll play on whoever you have as judge?”

“Not if they’re appropriately objective.” Nie Huaisang looked at Wei Wuxian sidelong. “What do you think?”

“Me?”

“Well, you and Jiang Cheng. The Jiang sect is the only one of the Great Four sects not implicated by all this – though I suppose your sister is engaged to Jin Zixuan. Do you think that would be enough to disqualify you?”

“No, we’ve never gotten along; I wouldn’t be biased. Which I mean…I guess that means I could do it?”

The saber in Nie Huaisang’s hands trembled, moving forward a little as if straining to fly up and go somewhere.

Nie Huaisang looked down at it, and nodded. “Da-ge’s right – there’s something else I should mention. Something we just found out, in the basement of Koi Tower…”

“In the basement? What did you find?”

“A boy by the name of Xue Yang,” Nie Huaisang said. “And he has a very interesting story to tell.”

#mdzs #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #baxia #jin guangyao #wei wuxian #my fic #my fics #yes this is the one that ate my soul #close

296 notes · View notes

dreamersleeps · 3 years

Note

Hey, have been reading your blog and it is the kind of goldmine I’d brave the dangers of the Klondike for. It is SO GOOD. But I’m also curious on your thoughts on Endeavor playing god, but not understanding the science behind his creations? He seems to think Shouto has an Icyhot Quirk when it’s more likely Shouto is a Chimera. He has two phenotypes, thus one side can only use Icy and the other can only use Fire. Shouto like has TWO Quirks instead of a combination of both. And Enji seems to think Touya inherited Rei’s constitution, yet that might not be the case as according to the Singularity Theory, humans’ Quirks are evolving at a faster pace than the body can keep up with. So Touya might not even HAVE his mother’s constitution but Endeavor just THINKS he does. Also, there is his rivalry with All Might that is completely one-sided. Allmight as All For One which is the Quirk of not a single person but more eight Quirks in one. Endeavor thinks he’s going up against a single man when in reality he’s facing eight men in one.

Hello! First of all I’d like to give a huge apology for how late my response is. Due to the start of the spring semester and some other unexpected life events, this took way longer than expected.

Thank you so much for your kind comments! 😩💕 It really did put a huge smile on my face and it made my day! It makes me feel very giddy~ When I first started posting on Tumblr, I wasn’t expecting people to actually like or even read the stuff I was writing about or send messages to my inbox since most of my posts kind of make me look like the guy in this meme here:

I very much appreciate all the comments and asks I receive in my inbox, so thank you for sending yours in.

Anyways, I’d like to address this from the beginning but, unfortunately when it comes to quirks and how they work, I’m not too sure if I will be able to answer your questions properly. For example I am aware of the Quirk Singularity Theory but I don’t know if I have a good enough understanding of it to form a response I am confident in.. That being said, I will try to answer your other questions and comments the best I can.

Endeavor Playing God

So, what are my thoughts on Endeavor playing god, but not understanding the science behind his creations? Back when we had the Touya reveal and we got more information about the Todoroki household from the perspective of Todoroki Enji, there were a lot of differing thoughts and opinions about the flashbacks that were floating around Tumblr. I think if I were to give a simple answer to your question, I’d say it was Endeavor’s youth and stubbornness. Looking back at Chapter 291, we can see that Endeavor looks quite young in the flashbacks with Touya, but I’m going to attempt to do the math.

Seeing that we know that Fuyumi is currently 23, and that Dabi is older than her (I suck at guessing ages) and I’m guessing here that he’s going to be four years or older, since quirks normally manifest around four years of age. That being stated the youngest age Dabi may be currently is 27? Maybe 26.

Keep in mind that I may be off with the “math” I’m doing here but let’s guestimate Dabi’s age as being 26 or 27. Endeavor is currently 46 years old so that means he was 19 or 20 years old when he had Touya. For comparison, Natsuo is currently 19 years old as well.

At that young of an age, he already had his eyes set on wanting to surpass All Might. His hero name, Endeavor, summarizes his career pretty well: an attempt to achieve a goal.

With the hellflame quirk he has, and the wealth and power that came with his family name, he really was given a position to act as a “god.” For the sake of his ambitions, Touya, Fuyumi, Natsuo and Shouto were born, as his “creations.”

Touya’s “Weak Constitution” and Shouto’s Quirk

I’m not going to say that his youth was the main factor for why things happened the way they did because the answer is more complex, but I do think that a combination of his youth and stubbornness fueled Endeavor’s recklessness. He essentially bought his marriage with Rei in order to pass down some sort of combination of the hellflame quirk and Rei’s ice quirk to his children. I think when it comes to the question of whether he understood the science behind what he was doing, I think I can confidently say that he didn’t know in the beginning, or at least it was not something he really looked in to. I think he just saw it as hellflame + ice quirk = child with both quirks as we kind of see in the panel below.

As you state, Endeavor does see the combination of the two quirks as one. We can see below that he refers to it as, “the ideal quirk.”

I think that it is also important to point out that Endeavor was, I guess you could say, content when Touya was born even though he only had the hellflame quirk. From the first panel, Endeavor states, “the fire power he possessed was greater than my own.”

He continues to say, “He didn’t have a way to overcome the inescapable downside of overheating but... I nevertheless sought to raise the boy to be a hero.”

That was until it was revealed that Touya’s body could not handle the extreme heat which came with the hellflame quirk. This is when Endeavor began to refer to Touya’s “weakness” as inheriting Rei’s weak constitution.

Now, the Quirk Singularity Theory and just the genetic science behind quirks has always been kind of difficult for me to wrap my mind around so because of that I do not think that I will be able to give an opinion on it that I would be confident in. However, @/redphlox has a post which has some opinions that I agree with that have to do with Endeavor’s belief that Touya had “a weak constitution and Shouto’s quirk. I will link it here.

As for Shouto’s quirk, unless the actual meaning and its nuances was lost in translation, his quirk is referred to as “Half-Cold Half Hot” in the English official translation which I think further reinforces the idea that it is not really a singular quirk but a combination of two separate quirks. I agree that Shouto is most likely a Chimera.

According to Britannica, a chimera is:

In genetics, an organism or tissue that contains at least two different sets of DNA, most often originating from the fusion of a many different zygotes.

The term is derived from the chimera of Greek mythology: a fire-breathing monster that was part lion, part goat, and part dragon.

As seen below we can see the white hair, gray eye and ice quirk on his right side (our left) that he inherited from his mother Rei, and then on his left side (our right), the red hair, teal blue eye and hellflame quirk he inherited from his father Enji. He can only use his ice quirk on his right side and his fire quirk on his right side.

Shouto’s appearance reminds me of a particular tortoiseshell cat named Venus from a while back. You may have seen her back when photos of her went viral. Tortoiseshell cats are usually chimeras, however Venus was nicknamed the “Chimera Kitten” or “Chimera Cat” even though it is most likely that the chimera mutation isn’t the cause behind her unique (and cute!) appearance.

Another definition of a chimera is:

“A chimera... is a composite individual that was made up of cells from at least two different original embryos. If they fuse together early enough, they will become a single organism whose genetic input is from two completely different individuals. In a mosaic, there’s only one individual and it just happens to have different genetic components active in its cells. A chimera would be a much more unusual and unlikely event. - Columbia University Professor of Genetics and Development Virginia Papaioannaou

The image above depicts Venus the cat however the original source of the photo is unknown.

Considering that in real life, a chimera is an individual made up of cells from at least two different embryos I think we could kind of apply that sort of argument to Shouto although this is all speculation. To our knowledge, the other Todoroki children were born with only one of their parents’ quirks while Shouto was born with both.

On Shouto’s fan wiki page, it states:

If he overuses one element without utilizing the other, then his own body temperature will suffer; the ice half will cause frostbite and the fire half will cause heatstroke, Until his bodily limit is reached however, neither has any visible effect on his body. Shouto can easily negate his weakness by alternating between ice and fire.

Endeavor had been training Shouto to use his fireside and I think he mostly saw the ice quirk as something that could be used for temperature regulation however, as you suggest Shouto has two separate quirks, both equally strong in their own right. If he used his ice quirk too much, he may have to rely on the hellflame quirk to regulate his body temperature. Both quirks have very high potential on their own and with the aid of the other.

Anyways going back to the Chimera stuff, I think that although the movie, Heroes Rising isn’t canon, I do think that the inclusion of the villain, Kon Chojuro going by the name of “Chimera” with the quirk of the same name was interesting. He also fits the second definition of the Greek mythological chimera that we had above.

Even more interesting was that it was with the team of Tenya, Kirishima, Asui and Shouto that took Chimera on, with Shouto making the last blow using his ice quirk. He takes his ice quirk to the extreme and we see his body covered in ice (frostbite?) as a result before he passes out.

All Might and Endeavor’s One-Sided Rivalry

Whenever I write about this particular character I feel that I must include a little note like this but everything you see above is not an excuse for what Endeavor has done but a little exploration in to the complexity that is Todoroki Enji. I personally think that he is a very interesting character to look in to.

As you mention, the rivalry between Endeavor and All Might was completely one-sided. I think a large part behind it had to do with their differing ideas of what it means to be a hero. It is from All Might where we tended to see the more ideal-focused concepts of a hero. He was the symbol of peace, the light of hope and an inspiration for children and people all across Japan. In simple terms, a hero is someone who saves, kind of like how we saw Midoriya throughout most of the series.

As for Endeavor, he fits more in the role of the concept of a hero being an occupation. He had a hard time trying to figure out how to portray himself to the public after All Might retires and even asks him for some advice of what it means to be the number one. Endeavor wanted to be the number one because that meant he is the strongest man/person in Japan. He was constantly training and he was so focused on wanting to achieve his goal that if he was not able to then he wanted to make sure that his own blood would surpass All Might. For him, simple terms a hero meant someone who surpasses and wins. This is kind of like how we saw Bakugo throughout most of the series until recently.

(I’m not going to go too deep in to this as many other blogs have written amazing analysis and meta posts on Tumblr already but the adults they are often compared to Midoriya and Bakugo’s storylines have been slowly changing to incorporate both saving and winning in to what it means to be a hero.)

With this one-sided rivalry came Endeavor’s recklessness. I do not think that before and early stages after Touya was born that he really considered the science behind his “creation.” However as soon as it was revealed that Touya could easily get harmed by his quirk, Endeavor definitely should have recognized the consequences of his actions.

As his hero name suggests, one of his main goals and purposes of being a hero was to accomplish his greatest endeavor, to surpass All Might, which he calls his “eternal goal.” There is an implication here that at the age of 19 Endeavor already believed that there was a good chance that he may not be able to surpass All Might with his own quirk and strength. That is why he sought out a Quirk marriage.

“Because Toya had more potential than me... I placed my ambitions on his shoulders.”

Endeavor has a bias towards his own quirk as he wanted an heir with his quirk and blood to become number one. Fuyumi was born and she had inherited Rei’s ice quirk but unless we get some sort of explanation, I think we can assume that Endeavor did not bother trying to training her. I think the same can be said about Natsuo.

Then Shouto was born and this changed a lot of things. It seems that there was a highly likely chance that Endeavor either greatly diminished his focus on or halted Touya’s training and turned his attention towards Shouto. After all, he was born with what Endeavor believed to be “the ideal quirk.” He probably saw more potential in Shouto carrying his legacy than he did in Touya to become number one. It is likely that it was during this time that Touya “perished” in the fire.

Now that Endeavor had lost Touya, he was only left with Shouto. Driven by grief and desperation he put everything he had now onto Shouto. Looking back to Chapter 252, Endeavor tells Natsuo:

“Believe it or not... I was never trying to neglect any of you. But... all I could do was blame others and dodge responsibility.”

His actions and the past state otherwise however if we take his word, then I kind of visualize a man who was aware of the consequences and hurt caused by his actions and cruelty but had refused to actually acknowledge it: whether it was because he was afraid to confront reality, a mix of his stubbornness and desperation, the desire to become number one surpassing every other desire or a combination of all of this.

I always got a feeling from his character that he was someone who chose to believe that “the end would justify the means” as he “lost more” if that makes sense. “Everything that happened could not be all in vain” (although I’d like to point out that acting in this way is very selfish of him) which is why he continued to keep his eyes on the horizon at his goal instead of towards his family.

As you state, Endeavor was going up against All Might, the carrier of the One for All quirk, and yes, it is interesting that kind of like All for One, it is the carrier of multiple quirks. One of the main differences between how the two quirks function is that one has the ability to pass on quirks and power while the other is the ability to take other quirks and powers. Unfortunately, unless the secret of AFO and OFA come to be known to the public, Endeavor would have never known what he was truly up against and in a nihilistic view, one can say that everything he was and did ended in vain.

Although I would argue otherwise as this implies the assumption that the birth and existence of the Todoroki children would then had also been “in vain.” This is not true. This would imply that they would only be an extension of his legacy. We see the struggle to separate ones’ identity from their parent and their “destiny” through the contrasting stories of Shouto and Touya.

In the end, Endeavor did become the number one hero although it was not in the way he envisioned it to be: it was given to him as he was the next in line as the number two hero due to All Might’s retirement. He didn’t win the position by surpassing All Might hence the embarrassment and anger he may have felt when the news was announced. Now that he is (ehhh maybe was? considering where we are in the manga) the number one hero, it seems like that everything he’s been doing and thinking keeps going back to the thought of “because I am the number one hero.” The position he worked hard for, trained hard for and hurt his family for across the decades of his life, forfeited to him by the previous symbol of peace.

I always return back to the High End vs Endeavor fight whenever I talk about him but that is because there are great symbolic and narrative points that are made during it. Again, it is what establishes him as the number one hero but this is also where he acknowledges the past (however to what extent is debatable).

I remember when the episode first came out back in 2020, anime watchers were going crazy. It felt like with some viewers, they focused more on the action than the narrative that was taking place. The reason why Endeavor flies so high and captures the hearts and support of the people of Japan in BNHA and a wide majority of us, the watching audience, is so that we can feel the blow later on when he plummets down. Even when I was watching it, I couldn’t help getting goosebumps while listening to the ost and seeing the way the manga panels were interpreted and animated.

While I had been reading the chapters which I did first, I did not even really care about what was going on. I just kind of brushed Endeavor off to the side at the time. However when I was watching it I even got a little emotional, although I’d like to blame that on the fact that I had just finished a really difficult semester and watching the episodes felt like a cathartic release of stress (hahaha). It was only afterwards I went back to actually re-read and look at what was going on in the manga.

I hope that I gave the answers, thoughts and opinions that you were looking for. Again, huge apology for answering your questions and comments really late. Thank you @thewilderstorm for sending your thoughts in, I truly appreciate it and loved responding to them!

#todoroki enji #endeavor #todoroki shouto #bnha analysis #bnha meta #mha meta #luna answers

39 notes · View notes

samshogwarts · 3 years

Text

My review of 2020

Or: I say thank you.

First of all, sorry for the long post 😅. You guys know I don'tike long posts without a "read more under the line". But I nade the post with my mobile phone.... Aaaaaaaanyway. Also sorry for all the tags. I hope I don't annoyed someone with it <~<. So let's continue:

I think this year has been a particularly difficult year for everyone. As 2020 is drawing to a close, I mentally let the year pass again.

The bottom line is that I have to say that 2020 was turbulent for me, but not necessarily bad. Much good, but also bad, has happened. And I want to start with the bad things right away.

At the beginning of the year, my depression and eating disorder relapsed. I've always had trouble talking about it because I know my friends can't handle this issue. I felt pressured because they wanted to do things with me, but I couldn't. So I withdrew completely, hiding my emotions and wearing a mask.

At that time I created this blog. At first I didn't want to create my own content, just follow the content of @ladycibia, @hogwartsmystory and @kyril-hphm. Incidentally, that is also the reason why I call these 3 blogs the Big Three. So it's their fault that I'm here. Lol.

And then the first Hyops message came at the end of March. A very good friend of mine got Corvid-19 and lost the battle against the disease a few days later. I still remember how the news pulled the floor from under my feet. It feels like I completely lost faith in everything and I started to realize how dangerous this year could be.

But life goes on and so I visited a friend and her family in early July. It was the anniversary of her husband's death, who was also a very good friend of mine. He died of cancer last year and I couldn't go to his funeral. So I wanted to stop by on the day he died. I actually thought I could do it. But when you read a friend's name on a tombstone for the first time.. Guys, that's a punch in the stomach like no other and I can't really describe how it feels. I had made up my mind not to cry in front of his wife or children because it was hard enough for them. Didn't work.

And of course this year meant to go one better.

Another friend of mine died of the virus in mid-August, leaving behind a wife and a child. Again, I was unable to attend the funeral. And to be honest, it still bothers me way more I want to admit. In two years I lost three wonderful people who meant a lot to me and I couldn't say goodbye to any of them. When I see the three of them again after my death, you can be sure I'll kick their butts for it.

But August was the worst month for me in many ways. In addition to the death of my buddy, my father's family also volunteered. And that means only one thing - trouble. And properly. I haven't had contact with this family for over 12 years for good reason. Now one person from this family has passed away. And first of all, I don't really care if anyone of them would die. I don't even know the person who passed away. But I wasn't told either by my grandmother or my father. So my deadline to cancel the inheritance has expired. Of course it was debts. You have to know that the inheritance rights of my country are very complicated. The reason my father or grandmother didn't tell me about it was because they didn't want to bother with the paperwork. They always had the opportunity to contact me via Facebook or my half-sister. But that would mean work for them. And while I was walking from lawyer to lawyer to court to court, I was allowed to hear sayings from my grandmother that I apparently have achieved nothing in my life. Nice to know that some people never change. I'm still struggling with this matter to this day and will probably not be able to fully clarify this until the beginning of 2021.

At the end of October everything seemed to be taking its revenge and I passed out at a friend's house. Nobody knows exactly what happened until today, but my friend took me to the hospital where I had to stay one night. That was Halloween. And I'm such a big fan of hospitals hahahaha hahahaha. After that I was allowed to wear an ECG for 2 weeks and it turned out that my heart values had deteriorated. Why not. Let's just take everything with us this year!

Rounding out the negatives this year was my (as a teenager) best friend's suicide. I have to say that I haven't had any contact with this person for 9 years. However, it is the one who cut herself in her youth and then called me afterwards because she didn't know what to do. It was also the one I tried to get into therapy for 2 years. But her mother was always against it. And it was exactly this mother who was standing in my mother's shop, telling her about her daughter's suicide and that I was probably in the farewell letter. I don't know exactly what it said, but the mother now blames me for her daughter's suicide. And do you know what's craziest about the whole thing? I agreed with her! I really thought it was my fault because I knew how sick my former friend was. Yet I was the one who ended the friendship (for many reasons that had nothing to do with her depression). And I still wonder what would have happened if I had acted differently.

But enough of the negative things! A lot of nice things happened this year too. Among other things, I have found a new job within my group, earn more money and have pleasant working hours. I've renovated my apartment and I've started saving money on a new one. My two nieces are now going to school and I am a proud aunt. My male best friend and his girlfriend (my best harry potter friend) are pregnant and are expecting their first child soon and my mother's health is better.

But one of the best things that happened to me this year is this blog.

I already mentioned that I actually only created this blog to stalk the Big Three. I didn't want my own content at all. But I discovered more and more blogs and these incredibly great MCs that I thought I wanted to do whole too. And so Samantha O'Connell was born.

I received so much great support and encouragement on this platform. I don't think many people even realize how much that means to me. Especially this year.

I have also found great and lovable people here, some of whom I also call my friends. Even if we come from other countries, speak other languages and may never see each other in real life, you are my friends and I am grateful to know you.

@annabelle-tanaka-official : I'll start with you of course! XD on tumblr you are just my best friend. I don't write as much with anyone as I do with you. You are such an incredibly talented person and so warm hearted! Over the year we have invented so many insiders that soon nobody will know what we mean. Be it the monster hug, or that my cats are your spies or our many RP scenarios, which I really enjoy and which always make me laugh. I thank you for that!! I love you so much and I am so glad that we are friends! *minster hug*

@lunasilvermorny / @lunasilvermore : you are next to you !!! XD the next person I write to almost every day. What started with a little conversation about among us has turned into a friendship. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to streaming with you next year (and this year)!!! You are such a good listener that strengthens me. Your support is so nice of you too! Just the fact that you have subscribed to my YouTube channel xD (because of the language I even have an idea). I'm looking forward to the next year with you! Thank you so much for dealing with my craziness and still likes me!

@kyril-hphm : muahahahaha. You can't escape me !!! Yes, what should I say? One of my big three even made friends with me. One of my Senpais noticed me! And then it's a lovely fluffy marshmallow! I still think it's funny that we have such similar circuits and hearts! Nevertheless you are an incredibly honest, loving and talented person. I've never told you before, but sometimes I stare (for 20 minutes +) at your drawings to improve my style (just not working so far). You are an honest person and I am happy every time we talk, or when you react to my content. I would like to say thank you for that too! You are great and you can trust yourself more.

@carewyncromwell : my Chinese fireball, my Disney princess. Yes, for me you exude the aura of a Disney princess and nothing can change my mind. So! You were one of the first friends I made here on tumblr and one of the first to write with me! I still remember how proud and nervous I was back then! Just when I was in the hospital on Halloween and couldn't sleep that night, you kept texting me and distracting me from my fear. That means a lot to me. You are such a creative and lovable person too. Ah, that's just amazing. Your comments or hashtags always make me grin or laugh. Thank you for all your support and help!

@catohphm : my fluffier Ravenclaw brother!!! Of course you can't be missing either. I also write with you almost every day and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your kind words and your support. I just love the energy between Samantha and Cato. And it's always fun to write RP with you! Thank you for being such a lovely and kind person!

@mira-shard : MIRAAAAAAA! It's kind of funny how long we've basically walked next to each other without talking to each other. And now I don't want to miss you anymore! You are such a fun and happy person. Writing with you is just fun! I also love your cosplay photos. Someday I'll come to visit you, and then we'll do cosplay shootings together until the camera bleeds! I would also like to thank you for your support and your kindness.

@sirfluffig : ha. I hope you didn't think you were escaping me! Where should I start with you? Maybe that you were one of the first to give me such lovely feedback on Samantha? Or this super funny stream and that you helped me to stream in English? Or just like that, when we talk about our MCs or pen and paper. It's definitely always fun. I want to thank you for that and I'm looking forward to playing together again soon (get Among us)

@nightrhea-hphm : * run into you in slowmotion * Night! My wonderful supportive Gremlin! I've grown very fond of them over the years. And your support and feedback are just amazing. I also love the friendship between Night and Samantha. I think it's very similar to ours, right? You are also such an incredibly creative and lovable person. You make you feel like it's ok to be who you are. Thank you!

Of course there are many, many more like @rosievixen, @wangxianforever000 , @mollydarling-hphm , @morningstarinwinter , @hogwarts9, @hphm-brooke , @raymondhope-writer , @nikyiscreepy , @immagrosscandy , @mizutoyama , @ariparri-hphm and many many more.

I want to thank you all for your encouragement, support and feedback. You are the reasons why I am adding more and more details to this blog, why I dared to start with the fan comic and many more.

It's still so amazing for me to meet so many talented, creative, kind and funny people.

This year showed me again that life isn't just black or white. Life is Grey. Good things and bad things happen. Sometimes one side more than the other side. But as long we are taking the next step, life wl continues. Just keep in mind, as like you support me, I want to support you. So if you ever wanna talk, no matter what, remember you guys can always contact me.

I'm really looking forward to next year and already have so many plans. I can not wait any longer. Enjoy the last days of the year, stay safe and most important: they the way you are guys!

Love you all so much.

#My end of the year thank you #Personal #Ooc #My year 2020 #God my heart beating so fast #Don't know why but these post makes me nervous #Very personal #Cry counter while writing this: 4 #Yeah so adult xD #Like I care #Hope you all enjoyed the Christmas holidays #Love you all #Such a great community #Never saw this before #💙❤️💚💛

40 notes · View notes

bindi-the-skunk · 3 years

Text

The Son Of Frankenstein

Chapter seven: flashback

WARNING: CONTAINS BIRTH AND CHILD ABANDONMENT

Victoria walked down the dark trail, her belly burdened with a child that would soon be in the world.

What was she even going to do with it? Victoria did not even know she was pregnant till three months ago! Every tragedy making her sickness and changing mood seem normal, at least till she felt the kicking.

Both the ones she loved, who would have helped raise the child, were gone, the life-weaver had no one left, her remaining family could very well choose to completely forsake her if they ever found out about the little one currently living under her heart.

Being on her own for now meant she still stood to inherit her title as Frankenstein heir, which meant a better life going forward.

Traveling was not a bad way to live though, she could go where she wanted, eat, sleep and do what pleased on a whim, food was not hard to come by with the berries and small game Victoria used traps to get, the hearty kicks signaling her child approved of the meals given to it.

The monster had thankfully not bothered her for a while, either bored with the chase for a moment or finding something else to occupy its time, Victoria Frankenstein did not know, nor care what the reason was.

Cramping in her back drew the young woman's attention making her chuckle "Found something else to kick at, did you? Silly like your father was...both he and Elizabeth would have loved you" yes, they would have adored the little one, feeling her belly and talking in stupid voices in an attempt to draw a reaction.

A small kick was her response, which made her smile, already so smart! She would be able to teach them everything she knew and learned about life! Her creation might have been a failure, but that did not mean there were no other things to discover out there!

A girl would be nice...a mother and daughter team discovering the world...a boy would be good too, she could see a child with her messy hair and demeanor...but, with Harry's eyes, eyes like the roses that bloomed in her family's garden that he had loved to pick from and stick the buds into his shirt, everyone called those eyes brown, but they were red, burning with a lust for life, the life that had been snuffed out too early before she could share the creation they made together with him.

The sound of heavy footsteps on the leaves made a chill go down Victoria's spine.

No! It can't be...not now...

Only one thing to do

Run

Her new shape made it difficult to walk, much less run and she nearly tripped several times, leaves blowing up from the force of her bolts, the crunching of dead flora sounding like the roar of sea waters as Frankenstein forced tired legs to keep moving, willing her body to make it a few more steps, perhaps bumping into a good Samaritan or two, of whom would be armed with weapons, hopefully.

She did not notice the muddy slope till it was too late to stop and not even her sturdy hiking boots could slow the descent as Victoria landed hard on her back and slid about ten feet downhill, small rocks and twigs hitting her backend all the way down before she rolled another what seemed like countless miles to the pregnant woman until she finally smashed her side into a sapling which stopped her from rolling into another pathway that was in no better shape than the other.

Ouh, everything hurt now, felt like she jarred something loose...and she was muddy, and her pants were all wet...that was gross, she would need to find a-

Wait, wet?

Looking down, she saw her pants had indeed become soaked, in more liquid than possible from simply loose mud, that could only mean...oh come on!

You have got to be JOKING!

Victoria was torn between being worried for her baby, which had gone scarily still, praying it was just stunned from the unwanted ride their mother had taken, and being annoyed at how her body had betrayed them both.

Somehow finding the strength to get to her feet, legs shaking as if they had been filled with jam, Victoria found her way down the hill, the lights from a town now being visible, she would go to the nearest doctor or midwife, get her baby delivered and then figure out what to do next...but..what would come next...

No one would know who she was here, they would just see a single, pregnant woman in labor wandering around, even if she truthfully said her lover had died, whoever the one who delivered the child was, might not care or not believe her and steal her newborn away.

No! This was her baby! Hers!

A sudden jolt of pain took Victoria out of her thoughts and nearly sent the laboring woman to her knees, the monster was at her heels no doubt, she had to get someplace safe quickly, a tree caught her attention, it had been overturned by a storm and had just enough space for her to squeeze between the roots, the little cave of sorts was thankfully dry and had no animal currently inhabiting it, it would do, women delivered in worse places, after all, at least she had not been tied to a pole to let gravity do its job.

Taking off her scarf, once a gift for Henry, even having his name on the stitch work, now only served as a reminder of his murder and allowed her to still cling to the smell of roses and those smelly peppermints he stuffed his face with to the point of obscenity, she worked her way down her jackets, slipping out of the heavy boots and thick wool pants that had done nothing to stop the bloody liquid coming out of her.

Victoria's long hair fell in greasy strands around her face, sticky and hot, getting in the way of her important work.

Ripping a part of her coat that was getting ready to come free anyway, she tied the straw-colored mop back with the rag and out of her face, a breeze of air at the action momentarily refreshing her.

Perhaps she should have been worried at how fast her child fell out as if the bloodied waters made her birth canal into something similar to the hill she slid down only moments before.

No cry

That was not right...why wasn't it crying? Babies are supposed to cry!

Looking down she saw a pair of watery eyes that reminded her too much of a time months ago that led to all this, her mind did not register the color of, nor could she be bothered checking her child's gender, the babe was so blue it was almost purple and thinking fast she grabbed the scarf and rubbed the child's too skinny body down, even slapping it's back, begging it to cry, scream, anything!

Soft grunts before a wail erupted which eased Victoria's heart before it stopped and more grunts came, sticky mucus coming loose at the wail, but the single cry being all the babe seemed to have in it and the new mother deflated.

It was going to die, she knew it, too small, and had no strength to cry properly.

She did not want to see it!

If the monster caught her with the babe in here...what would it do to it? Throw it in anger at a tree? Angry this new creature got more love than it at its birth?

It was human, it needed to perish in a proper place.

Victoria wrapped the babe in the scarf "I'm sorry! Forgive me!" she didn't want it to die here, climbing out of the hole, she looked around and saw the town was close, her exhaustion temporarily forgotten she limped the rest of the way.

A random porch caught her attention, a woman inside with her knitting, oblivious to what had happened just feet from her door.

Another grunt as the newborn was settled on the porch, its mother not noticing how it was reeling up for something.

knock knock

The woman opened the door and screamed, no one around but a bloodied scarf with a now screaming bundle inside encouraged by her noise.

"Edwina Jekyll what are you screeching about!?"

Well, this chapter was FUCKED UP...

Fun fact; mom said I slid out of her so fast it was like I was on a water slide! she did not even make it into the delivery room...I almost fell off of the LABOR table! Only the nurse (who had her back turned...)flipping around and grabbing me up was what kept my ass from faceplanting to the floor.

And my grandma's cousin birthed her baby in her pant leg, she was walking down the HOSPITAL HALLWAY and her kids sliding down her pant leg, and NO ONE fucking moves to help her!

#the glass scientists #The glass scientists AU #TGS #tgs jekyll #Tgs Hyde #tgs frankenstein #flashback #Jekyon #Robert Lanyon X Henry Jekyll #labor #birth #not a happy chapter #Son of Frankenstein AU

7 notes · View notes

sage-nebula · 3 years

Note

So since you're taking fandom asks uhhhh do you have any more thoughts/ideas about your pokemon fantasy au? Specifically about Alan? I just love him and that au a lot<3

Just so you know, I am always taking fandom asks. I might not answer them right away because I haven’t spent as much time on tumblr ever since I got my new job last year (because tumblr is blocked there for being a “video sharing site,” hilarious though that is), but I love talking about fandoms and am always down to take questions about them.

That said, I sure do!

I don’t know how much of this I’ve shared here before, and if I repeat anything you already know then my bad, but what I have so far is:

— Alan hails from the Kingdom of Kalos, and is one of the Keepers of the Spirit of a Mythical Pokémon — in his case, Keldeo.

— And on that note, before we proceed further, that is a change I made. I originally had him as the Keeper of Victini, but I decided to change it to Keldeo because even though Victini is my favorite mythical and fire-type suits him more than water-type, Keldeo fits Alan to a T. Orphaned at a young age but happily adopted, determination to become stronger, so determined it has a resolute form, and Alan’s leitmotif in The Strongest Mega Evolution / XY&Z is actually sampled from Keldeo’s theme from its movie, “The Legend of the Sacred Swordsman”. Everything fits. So in conclusion, the boy is the Keeper of Keldeo, I don’t make the rules. I mean, I do, but my hands are pretty tied on this one. Moving on . . .

— Soon after his birth, one of King Lysandre’s mages, Xerosic, identified infant Alan as the Keeper of Keldeo. Highly motivated to bring as many Keepers into his service as he could (and raising one from infancy to be loyal to him was the best situation he could ask for), Lysandre sent his knights along with Xerosic to obtain the child and bring him back. Lysandre’s knights did find baby Alan and his parents living in a remote town, but unlike in canon, Alan’s parents were not willing to hand their baby over to the king and a fight broke out. Alan’s mother’s family’s guards fought against the knights, and ultimately, were unsuccessful. Many of the guards and pretty much all of Alan’s family, his parents included, were slain. But somehow, Alan himself was lost in the battle. Lysandre’s knights searched through all corpses and burnt wreckage, but they couldn’t find the infant anywhere. Assuming him to have died and his body too mangled to identify, they reluctantly returned to the castle to deliver the news.

— In reality, what actually happened is that Alan’s mother, knowing that the battle was going to be lost and not wanting her son raised by the king, did what any panicked and terrified mother would do and put her son in a sling around the neck and shoulders of one of the family’s Charizard and sent the dragon away with baby Alan and the Charizard’s own baby Charmander (who, incidentally, hatched from his egg the very same day Alan was born). The Charizard was offended — she felt she should get to stay and fight — but ultimately the safety of the babies won out (particularly since, like any other pokémon, the Charizard could sense the Spirit of Keldeo within baby Alan and knew that he was someone to be protected) and so she took off with both human infant and Charizard baby in tow.

— And so, for the next few years, Alan was raised by a Charizard in the mountains, an absolute feral child. He didn’t know how to speak human language, nor did he know how to speak Charmander / Charizard (he made growls and similar sounds, but that’s not the same as language), though he could communicate with them well enough. Mama Charizard made sure that Alan stayed fed, fed him curing berries when he got sick (which didn’t work as well as they did for pokémon, but she tried), and he grew up with her baby as his brother. The two often wrestled and play-sparred, which resulted in quite a few injuries for Alan at first as the Charmander didn’t quite realize that Alan’s human skin wasn’t as tough as a fellow Charmander’s scales, but the two bonded exceedingly quickly and would remain inseparable for the rest of their lives.

— However, as mentioned, this only lasted for a few years. Neither King Lysandre nor Xerosic truly believed that Alan had perished in that battle, and so Xerosic had continued scrying for him ever since while Lysandre sent out search parties to the mountains. Every time they got near, Mama Charizard took both her babies and flew to another remote location, deeper and deeper into the mountains. It was deep in a cavernous ravine that tragedy struck; an earthquake triggered by Lysandre’s knights battling wild Tyranitar caused a rockslide, and though Mama Charizard managed to get her sons out of the way, she didn’t manage to escape herself. Boulders too heavy for her to move and at too awkward a position for her to melt pinned her to the ground. Her wings were crushed; she wouldn’t be able to properly defend her babies if danger came.

— Fortunately, danger did not come, but help did. A powerful sage named Olympia foresaw this tragedy, and though she knew that she couldn’t do anything to interfere with it happening because that would put the future too far off course, she could prevent it from getting any worse. She arrived soon after the tragedy struck, and though Mama Charizard was at first very defensive against her (believing her to be one of the humans out to hurt her human son), Olympia was able to convince her that she was there to help. Olympia’s psychic pokémon moved the boulders pinning Mama Charizard, freeing her so that she could move again . . . but only in limited capacity, given the breaks and tears in her wings. It was then that Olympia told Mama Charizard that she could take her and her babies to someone who would keep all three of them safe. Still wary, but with no other options, Mama Charizard relented.

— It was a long journey, given that Mama Charizard could not fly and would not consent to a pokéball, but eventually Olympia moved all three safely to a quiet village — and, more specifically, to the home of an alchemist named Augustine Sycamore. Sycamore was, of course, pretty shocked to see Olympia show up with a severely wounded Charizard, a toddler Charmander, and a feral human toddler in tow, but after Olympia explained the situation (Mama Charizard was too injured to survive in the wild anymore, the toddlers wouldn’t survive on their own either, the human boy should probably become civilized and was also the Keeper of Keldeo and needed to be protected by a trustworthy guardian), Sycamore agreed to take them all in.

— As an alchemist rather than a monster trainer, Sycamore didn’t exactly have the qualifications to care for injured dragons. Despite this, he had a very spacious plot of land that he had inherited from his family, and as such Mama Charizard had more than enough room to recover, even if she would never be able to leave again due to her injured wings. Additionally, Sycamore made sure she knew that he wasn’t intending to take her babies from her, although in the eyes of the law he was adopting the human boy, but that didn’t mean he would prevent Mama Charizard from being part of his life. (Also, Mama Charizard could not fly, but she could still melt boulders, so Sycamore wasn’t going to push his luck on that one.)

— That said, if he was going to be adopted by a human parent, the feral child did need a name, and calling him “Keeper of Keldeo” would do the exact opposite of what Olympia said needed to be done to ensure his secrecy and safety. As such, Sycamore named him “Alan”, and set about teaching him how to do things like read, write, speak, and otherwise live in human society.

— When it came to being civilized, three-year-old Alan did not go quietly into the good night.

— For starters, he hated clothing. He’d never worn clothing before in his memory before Olympia found him and yanked things over his legs and tugged something over his head, and he’d been just fine. He didn’t understand why Olympia or Sycamore wanted to put him in clothes all the time and thus took them off at every opportunity. He also pitched a fit every single night he had to sleep indoors in a bed versus outside with his mother and brother. Eventually a compromise was made that both Alan and the Charmander would sleep indoors in the bed, but even then, Sycamore woke up no few mornings to find them both outside with Mama Charizard again. (And Mama Charizard was of no help in this department; if nothing else, she looked Smug when Sycamore saw the boys curled up against her chest beneath her wing.) Additionally, for the longest time Sycamore thought he was making no progress teaching Alan human language; he went over books with him every single day, but still Alan wouldn’t say a single word to him, with his only vocalizations being growls instead. It wasn’t until a full six months had passed before Alan looked at Sycamore one day and said, “Why don’t you call my brother anything?”

Sycamore stared at him for a long moment before he sputtered, “You can talk?”

“Yes.” Alan’s glare was unwavering. “Why doesn’t my brother have a name?”

Sycamore didn’t know whether to be elated the lessons had worked, bewildered why it took Alan so long to show that the lessons had worked, or a bit defensive at being so suddenly interrogated.

— Eventually, Sycamore told Alan that he and the Charmander should work out a name for said Charmander together, along with Mama Charizard’s input perhaps, and the name the two eventually came back with was Lizardon.

— Although Alan put up a stubborn fight pretty much every step of the way, by the time he was five he’d mostly acclimated to living like a human, and by the time he was six he took an active interest in Sycamore’s alchemic studies. By age seven he was helping with some of the experiments, and by age nine he considered himself Sycamore’s apprentice and hoped to one day become an alchemist himself. In other words, though it took time, the two bonded and came to love each other as father and son, and Alan came to be quite embarrassed about all the times he bit Sycamore when they first met. (It was quite a bit. He really didn’t like that whole “wearing clothes” thing.)

— As for Mama Charizard, she too gradually warmed up to letting Sycamore co-parent the boys. She also came to fall in love with Sycamore’s Garchomp, Gabrielle, so soon Alan and Lizardon basically had two moms and a dad. All in all, things were going quite well for them.

— And then, as it always does . . . misfortune, steered by destiny, came knocking.

— All these years, Xerosic never stopped searching for the Keeper of Keldeo, and by the time Alan was 13, Xerosic finally found him. This time, Lysandre took a more measured approach to things; at age 13, Alan would not be as malleable as he would have been had Lysandre been able to take him as an infant. If Lysandre had his soldiers abduct Alan now, no doubt he would put up a fight, and the Spirit of Keldeo was one of Determination. If the Keeper wanted to leave, he would leave. Lysandre had to find a way to make him want to stay. As such, he decided to stage a danger that would convince Alan that he needed to join Lysandre’s knights. Once he did that, everything would fall into place.

— So Lysandre sent his spies, led by Malva, to gather recon. They returned with intel that Alan was being raised by an alchemist and aspired to become one himself. They reported that he seemed very attached to his family and his home, and that it would be unlikely that he’d want to leave . . . but that there was a high probability he’d want to protect his family and his home. As a result, Lysandre staged things in three parts:

1.) He and his knights visited the village so that they could “check in” to see if there was anything they could do to enrich the lives of the people there. When Lysandre spotted Alan in the crowd, he made particular note to introduce himself to the boy, and make a comment about how perhaps Alan would like to join the knights one day, to help protect the kingdom. With Sycamore’s hand on his shoulder, Alan replied that he wanted to be an alchemist. Lysandre smiled and said, “Well, you never know what the future will hold.”

2.) A few days after that, he staged a disaster; I don’t have a clear idea in mind for what the disaster was at the moment, but it was something that put Sycamore, Mama Charizard, Gabrielle, and others in danger. Alan and Lizardon did their best to defend but they didn’t have training to do very much. I think Lysandre probably staged this so that it looked like an attack from one of the neighboring nations (perhaps the Kingdom of Galar) to make it extra clear why it would be wise for Alan to join the knights to protect his family and his home.

3.) A few days after that, Lysandre and the knights visited again to help the village recover from the attack. He also, while there, once again suggested that Alan could learn to defend against attacks like these if he joined the knights.

— And that was all it took. Alan didn’t want to leave home, but he also couldn’t stand the thought of anything terrible happening to his family. So he asked Sycamore if he could join the knights—pleaded, even. Sycamore didn’t want to say yes for multiple reasons, the warning Olympia had given him about Alan being a Keeper and thus needing to be kept away from those who might use him in mind—but he could also tell by the fire in Alan��s eyes that he was not really going to take “no” for an answer, and so he relented on the condition that Alan write weekly letters. Alan agreed without hesitation. Mama Charizard, meanwhile, had no use for letters, but she agreed only so long as Lizardon went with Alan, because she believed them stronger together. Of course, neither Alan nor Lizardon had a problem with this, and as such they both left with Lysandre that afternoon. Just as planned.

— Things changed for both of them pretty quickly once they got back to the castle. For one, Lysandre forced Alan and Lizardon to begin using a pokéball, as was kingdom law. For another, while Alan was technically a squire like any other beginning knight, he was also much younger than the rest and thus would receive personal lessons from Lysandre himself in order to get him where he needed to be in terms of strength and training. Alan had no qualms about this, of course; he wanted to get as strong as he could as fast as he could.

— The first bit of training they went through was Alan testing out different weapons to see which one he was best suited to using. In honesty, he had aptitude for multiple; his sharp eyesight made him proficient with a bow, and he wasn’t half bad with a sword and shield. Ultimately he chose to specialize in polearm, though he would still practice with sword and bow semi-regularly in the years to follow.

— Other forms of training included Alan sparring with Lysandre himself (which especially in the early years consisted mostly of Lysandre kicking Alan around the training grounds), and melee matches with other knights and their pokémon. It was in one of these matches that Alan was seriously injured; Lizardon, a Charmeleon now, let out a startled cry as one of the knights hit him with the blunt end of an axe and knocked him to the ground. Distracted, Alan rushed to Lizardon’s aid, only to be hit by Lysandre’s Pyroar from his blind spot. Pyroar’s claws raked down the side of Alan’s face, blood everywhere, and the training session was halted. Lysandre scolded Alan, telling him this was what happened when he got distracted in battle, before he sent him off to the infirmary for treatment. The wounds healed, but scars remained down his cheek from then on.

— For what it’s worth, Alan did write weekly letters back home. But after a year of never receiving a response he stopped, figuring that Sycamore must be too upset with him for leaving in the first place to want to write back. In truth, Sycamore never received those letters. Lysandre ensured that they were never sent.

— Ultimately, harsh and cruel though it was, the training paid off. By the time he was fifteen Alan could best most of the other knights in combat, including the generals, earning him the rank of General himself (as well as Lysandre’s top General, though that was due to his nature as a Keeper in all honesty; Lysandre wanted to keep him on a short leash). This, naturally, made him very unpopular with the other knights, who felt he was an upstart who didn’t deserve such a high rank, but Alan didn’t join the knights to make friends and so he mostly ignored their scorn.

— While he had standard armor at first, Lysandre’s training fast-tracked Lizardon’s evolution, as well as his and Alan’s ability to Mega Evolve. Charizard scales shed naturally, and by the time Alan was 17 enough scales were collected from Charizard’s mega evolved form that they were able to forge custom armor from them. This armor, naturally, was fireproof, and his ability to withstand flames—along with the Spirit of Keldeo giving him unnatural determination that allows him to keep fighting even after sustaining what should be life-threatening injuries, that fire inside him only burning out once the battle is through—earned him a fearsome reputation. Being sighted standing engulfed in flames, his refusal to go down . . . both of these earned him a reputation as a “demon knight.”

— Once Lizardon evolved into Charizard, he became Alan’s sole sparring partner. Unlike the play wrestling of their youth, Alan and Lizardon’s sparring was much more skilled now, with Alan using his polearm and Lizardon deftly avoiding strikes while trying to pin Alan to the ground. So far, Lizardon has ultimately won every spar, successfully pinning Alan to the ground and drenching his face with kisses. These moments are pretty much the only time Alan really laughs after joining the knights.

— At the time the story kicks off, Alan is Lysandre’s top general and he does not know that he is the Keeper of Keldeo. He is also completely unaware of Lysandre’s sinister machinations and aims. Sycamore is incredibly worried about him and has been ever since he went to the castle never to be heard from again, and has been making contacts across the kingdom to get as much information as he can. (He has tried to seek out Olympia for her console, but her whereabouts are unknown.) Lastly, Alan ends up saving a young aspiring bard named Manon when she’s attacked by brigands, and she immediately attaches herself to him, deciding that he is the perfect inspiration for her ballads and stories, no matter how many times Alan stresses to her that he is King Lysandre’s top general and he goes into battle a lot and she will get hurt and die if she continues to follow him.

“If you’re a general, then where’s your platoon?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Then how’re you a general?”

“It’s just a title. A rank. I’m different from the others.”

“And that’s why you’ll be great epic poem material!”

“[long suffering sigh]”

Eventually, Alan will learn the truth about the king’s intentions, but whether he learns the truth in time or not . . . that remains to be seen.

#pokemon fantasy au #champion alan #the bond that overcomes reason #stay tuned for Sycamore's upcoming book ''How to Co-Parent With a Charizard''#guaranteed to be 1 on the Kalos Best Sellers list #Anonymous #also - Broke: Killing Mama Charizard so Sycamore can adopt Alan #Woke: Keeping Mama Charizard alive & having her co-parent with Sycamore & giving her a Garchomp Wife #in this house we don't fridge (important) moms and also Love Wins

10 notes · View notes

dazeandhaze · 4 years

Text

What is the kagerou project?

This post is for those who are interested in interacting with my muses Kido, Kano, and Konoha, but maybe don’t know enough about the series to really know where to start plotting wise. I’ll be linking this post to their abouts (when I make them) and I welcome any questions you might have on it!

First off, the Kagerou project is originally a set of vocaloid songs / videos that later got translated to a manga, novels, and an anime. It’s a story told achronlogically, meaning pretty much out of order and not straight forward at all - another reason I wanted to make this post so newcomers don’t feel confused. That and all the mediums help tell the full story - so unless you’ve taken in all of them it’s hard to piece together the story from start to finish, and there is still a lot of details we don’t know. The kagerou project isn’t perfect but it’s a good story overall.

The actual story / character info will be below the cut cause this is gonna be a super long post.

Also if you get weirded out by snakes it’s probably not the best idea to read this - there’s no pictures but the word ‘snake’ comes up ALOT. Also please don’t read this if Suicide is a trigger for you, as that is something that I will be mentioning a few times aswell.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

First off I’ll introduce the characters / what their powers are and then explain the songs then the story and how the powers are significant and how the characters play into the story as a whole.

Azami - the medusa. Creator of the abilities.

The Mekakushi Dan - the ‘blindfold’ gang. It started as a childhood fantasy but Kido, Kano, and Seto kept the group name after Ayano’s death. Kano was the one that came up with the name.

Ayano Takeyama - Number 0, Foster older sister to Kido, Kano, and Seto. Has the snake of favoring eyes. She is able to project her feelings and memories onto others.

Tsubomi Kido - Number 1, technically the leader. Has the snake of Concealing eyes. She can make herself effectively invisible and unable to be perceived by others as long as she doesn’t touch anyone. She can use this ability on other people, and any sound they make while the ability is active is unheard of by others.

Kousuke Seto - Number 2. Has the snake of Stealing eyes. He can read people’s minds and when used to its full potential, he can read a person's memories.This ability also lets him understand the thoughts of animals, though they can still not understand him.

Shuuya Kano - Number 3. Has the snake of Deceiving eyes. It allows him to change what people perceive him as. He can change his appearance to impersonate other people and even animals. He can only use this ability on himself and not others.

Marry Kozakura - Number 4. Has two ‘eye’ abilities technically, Locking Eyes and Combining eyes. Locking eyes she inherited from her mother Shion and her grandmother Azami. It allows her to temporarily stop the movement of whoever meets her gaze. She is not able to turn people into stone, but it can paralyze them for a short amount of time. The Snake of Combining Eyes can combine and therefore control all snakes. It was directly given to her by Azami when she died and entered the Kagerou Daze. This ability causes her to automatically obtain a snake after its owner has died and also allows her to take a snake directly from them.Combining Eyes also passively causes the other snakes (and thus their owners) to be drawn towards its owner.

Momo Kisaragi - Number 5. She has the snake of Drawing Eyes. This ability can draw peoples' attention to herself regardless of their preferences in tastes or interests. She is also able to tell where a person's attention is drawn to.

Ene / Takene Enomoto - Number 6. She has the Snake of opening eyes. This allows her to to split her consciousness from her body, which then can reside in electronic devices (such as a cellphone) as a cyber-being. After regaining her body as Takane, she is still able to send herself to other electronic devices as Ene, but doing so causes her body to lose consciousness.

Shintaro Kisaragi - Number 7. Has the snake of Retaining eyes. This allows him to remember everything he sees. When his ability is fully activated, he is able to remember the events of past routes and speak with the Snake of Retaining Eyes.

Hibiya Amamiya - Number 8. Has the snake of Focusing Eyes.This has the power to perceive objects and details that are far away from an aerial view.

Konoha / Haurka Kokonose - Number 9. Has the snake of Awakening Eyes. This gives him the power to remake his body into one that he finds to be his "ideal" - as Haruka was physically weak and sickly, this meant for him to become supernaturally strong. He can also heal from even fatal injuries with this ability, which looks like multiple black snakes wrapping around his body when activated.

Hiyori Asahina - Number 10. Depending on the route she will have the snake of Focusing Eyes instead of Hibiya. 9/10 times though it is Hibiya. Just mentioning this fact for technicalities sake.

The Snake of Clearing eyes - the story’s main antagonist. This ability can interfere with and stop the use of other eye abilities completely. It normally possesses either Ayano’s father or Hibiya depending on the route. In every route it will always possess Konoha towards the end - as he is the strongest member and none of the others in the Dan can stand a chance against him. (if you see me reblog a black haired konoha, it’s him being possessed by this ability)

SONGS

As mentioned before, this started off as a set of vocaloid songs. So I will list SOME of the songs below - there’s over 33 songs related to the kagerou project but these are ones with MVs (or at least fan made ones) that have the main characters as the focus.

Shinigami Record - Azami Song

Jinzou Enemy - Ene and Shintaro song

Mekakushi Code - Kido’s song

Headphone Actor - Takene song

Imagination Forest - Mary song

Kagerou Daze / Heat Haze Days - Hiyori and Hibuya song

Konoha’s state of the world - Konoha song ft Hiyori and Hibuya

Yobanashi Deceive - Kano song

Shouen Brave - Seto song

Kisaragi Attention - Momo Song

Ayano’s theory of Happiness - Ayano song

Yuukei Yesterday - Takene and Haruka song

Children Record - everyone is here lmao serves more like an opening if anything

Moon Viewing Recital - Momo and Hibuya song

Outer Science - Clearing eyes song / The Bad ending

Lost time memory - Shintaro song

Summer time record - everyone is here but there is a focus on Haruka / the good ending

Additional memory - Ayano in the daze song

Never lost world - kido post story song

THE STORY

the first thing to know about the kagerou project story is that it is a time loop story. Each medium contains its own loop (or in the manga’s case, multiple), which is why someone has to consume all the mediums to really get the full story. Some character details or interactions only happen in one route / loop. I’ll be going over what people are most likely to find out through google searches / the easiest medium (the music or anime) but will mention other routes here and there for context. Generally most routes we know of follow most of the same story beats but some differ dramatically - and I don’t want to confuse people.

For the overall story though - it starts with Azami. She is the medusa, but not in the traditional greek myth sense. It is just what humans started referring to her as thanks to her snake-like features. Truthfully she doesn’t know entirely what she is, she was born at the beginning, and lasted through the ages with not even a physical form until she met two beings - humans and a snake. The humans tried to kill her on first sight while the snake was kind and explained what the humans were to Azami. Her physical form ended up being a mix of these two species, hence humans calling her a medusa. (pictured below is azami from the novels)

Overtime she tried to interact with humans but they always shunned her and tried to kill her until one day she met an albino man named Tsukihiko. I will skip over the specifics but she ends up falling in love with him and building a family with him. They were both considered ‘monsters’ by society and thus made a perfect pair. They even had a daughter, Shion.

Now it’s important to note that during this time she made her abilities. considered ‘eye’ abilities or ‘snakes’, Azami had the ability to create almost sentient forces within her to help her solve problems. For example, the ‘favoring eyes’ ability was created so she could properly show her emotions to her infant daughter, pass on all the love that she had onto Shion in a way she would understand even as a baby.

However after Shion was born, after creating these abilities, she realized that both Tsukihiko and Shion were going to out live her and die. She had lived thousands, maybe even millions, of years by now and hadn’t aged a day - but her husband obviously had. In this fear a new power was born, the snake of clearing eyes. It offered a solution to Azami, for them to create an entirely new world where death and time didn’t exist, where she could simply be happy with her family. She does this, and tells her husband and child they would leave the world together. They agree, but Tsukihiko wants to officially marry Azami before they leave the world. She allows him to go back to his old home to get wedding rings and someone to marry them officially, but doesn’t return. What does return are humans, out to kill Azami and her daughter. Azami defeats the men with ease but believes now her husband is all but dead. In her grief, she escapes to the world she made - the Kagerou Daze - and leaves her child behind.Tsukihiko manages to return, escaping from the confinement the other humans had put him in, and knows once he finds his daughter alone that his wife left the world. They are not upset with her, and continue to live out their days in their home in the forest.

Tsukihiko eventually dies of old age and Shion grows up. Shion has her own daughter called Mary, who is a quarter medusa. Shion is extremely protective of her daughter after the events of her own childhood, and tells Mary never to leave the house. However being the fun loving child she was, Mary disobeyed her mother once. It wasn’t long after she was found by humans who were proceeding to beat her to death when her mother found her. They were both about to die at the hands of these humans when Azami decided to intervene.

She wasn’t gone completely, she had been watching over her daughter and grandaughter from the Daze. Knowing what was about to happen to her family, she issued a command to the world to take in the two people dying and bring them up into the world. The date? August 15th.When the two arrived in the world they were dead. The world brought them back to life but they couldn’t leave back to the ‘real’ world without a new lifeforce. Azami, wanting her daughter to live, gave her the core of her power - the snake of combining eyes, also known as the ‘queen snake’. But Shion wanted her own daughter to live, and passed it onto Mary. Mary was able to return to the real world, but had no memory of the Daze or what her mother and grandmother had done for her - she was now alone.

The combining eyes was the core of Azami’s power, and without it she could no longer control the Kagerou Daze. She couldn’t tell the world to stop bringing people into it, to stop giving them powers,and to stop returning people to the real world. This was the mistake that costs the main character’s so much grief.

Each of the members of the mekakushi dan (besides Shintaro) died on the day of August 15th. The Kagerou Daze, still fulfilling its order, took them and whoever they were with at the time up into the world, and if they resonated with one of Azami’s abilities, gave them the snake before putting them back out into the real world - the snake/ eye ability being their new life force and the reason they’re alive.

Kido died in a fire with her sister, and got the snake of concealing eyes. Seto drowned with his dog and got the snake of stealing eyes. Kano died in a robbery with his mother and got the snake of Decieving eyes. Momo also drowned and got the drawing eyes ability. Takene was poisoned and got the opening eyes ability. Haruka had a heart attack and got the awakening eyes ability. Hibuya and Hiyori were in a traffic accident and depending on the route - one of them gets the Focusing eyes. As stated above, 9/10 times it’s Hibuya, Hiyori only gets it in the manga route/loop.

Ayano is a special case. She committed suicide with the goal in mind to go to the Kagerou Daze. She stays in the daze with her eye ability for a reason which I’ll get to later.

Now Shintaro does have an eye ability of his own, however it was NOT one of Azami’s abilities. I will also get to this later.

Kido, Kano, and Seto all end up being orphaned around the same time and ended up in the same orphanage. Forced into the same room together as they were the ‘strange’ kids. They were all adopted by the Tateyama family, Ayano’s family, who were researching the Medusa aka Azami. they took these kids in for their research but also genuinely cared about them. With the help of Ayano - the three children come to be not so scared of their abilities and learn to like humanity again. The hoodies the three wear were gifts from their foster parents and Ayano to hide their eyes - as when their abilities were being used / went out of control, their eyes turned red.

One August 15th, Ayano’s parents were involved in a mudslide. They went to the Daze, and her father returned with the snake of clearing eyes. This wasn’t apparent to Ayano or any of the children at first, but Ayano soon found out that her father planned to kill her two friends at school (Haruka and Takene, who have pre existing health conditions and were in his ‘special education’ class) on August 15th so that they would go to the daze and get more snakes.

She found the clearing eyes wanted all the snakes in the real world for some reason, and thus on August 15th, she committed suicide by jumping off the roof of the school building, going into the daze and holding one of the eye abilities hostage by never returning from the daze. The clearing eyes still continued with his plan, Takene and Haruka died that day as well and got their respective powers. Haruka and Takene were strange cases though, they didn’t die with another person. Instead the clearing eyes tricked the world of the Kagerou Daze, getting it to recognize the mind and body as two different entities. So Takene’s body was left in the Daze while her mind returned to the real world as ‘Ene’, and could only exist within cyberspace. Haruka’s mind was left in the Daze and the perfect, healthy, body that he wanted returned to the real world as Konoha, who had no memories and seemingly little personality.

But left the only one of their friend group, Shintaro, alive with all of his friends having died on the same day. He became a shut in, and for two years did not leave his home. The story officially ‘starts’ with Shintaro and Ene. Ene pretending she did not know Shintaro at all, found his computer during the two year timespan and proceeded to make his life hell, but also give him company within those two lonely years.

It’s important to note that Ene is crucial to Shintaro’s overall development. In some loops, her presence wasn’t enough and he ends up committing suicide out of grief. But emotions and lessons learned are kept throughout the loops, and eventually Ene came to realize that she had to help Shintaro no matter what.

Anyways, in a series of unfortunate events, Shintaro ends up needing to leave his house to go shopping as August 14th is a part of the obon holiday in Japan and he couldn’t survive one day without his precious computer being operational. On his one outing in two years - he ends up being wrapped into a robbery / terrorist attack on a shopping center and meets the rest of the Mekakushi dan (at this moment, only Kido, Seto, Kano, Mary, and Shintaro’s sister Momo). They help diffuse the situation at the shopping center and Shintaro ends up passing out (just due to nerves or he actually gets grazed by a bullet, depends on the loop), and brought back to the Mekakushi Dan hideout aka their apartment. It’s here he learns about the eye abilities, how his sister has one, and the exact events after this differ from loop to loop. Either way Shintaro becomes a sort of ‘unofficial’ member of the Dan and spends time with them over the next few days as he tries to wrap his head around the mysterious powers of the Dan and what they mean.

How the Dan ends up recruiting Hibuya and Konoha differs as well, but generally the group comes across the traffic accident that Hibiya and Hiyori were involved in and Konoha being there as well. Sometimes Ene will ask Shintaro to chase after Konoha, recognizing him as Haruka, and then they end up at the hospital and wait for Hibuya to be released / able to have visitors so they can talk to him. At this point in some of the loops, the Dan knows that August 15th is an important day to them, they’re just not sure why.

Hibuya leaves the hospital, determined to find Hiyori - not quite sure what has happened to her but knows she might be dead or lost or looking for him. Momo manages to get Hibuya to calm down and control his new eye ability, just in time for the Dan to be put into trouble.

It should be noted that technically, Azami had only 10 powers. And now with the exception of the power now taken by Ayano, all of those powers are in the real world. Which means it was time for the Clearing eyes to make its move. In the Novel and Anime route, the Dan ends up taking the fight to the Clearing eyes. (Possibly in the manga route aswell, I haven’t finished it).

Regardless, the Clearing eyes objective becomes clear rather quickly - it plans to kill every member of the Mekakushi Dan except for Shintaro (who doesn’t have one of Azami’s powers, but he still dies in some routes just for getting in the way) and Mary (who has the queen snake / snake of combining eyes, which clearing eyes wants). With each member of the Mekakushi Dan that dies, Mary gains their ability and grows closer to a full medusa. When she has five snakes - she can control the Kagerou Daze itself. The Clearing Eyes plans to kill the Mekakushi Dan, possess Mary, and become immortal + have control over the Daze and all of Azami’s abilities.

This is how most routes end. As soon as Mary has five snakes (four or more of her friends die), she has the power to control the Kagerou Daze and she has the world take in the Clearing eyes and thus trapping it there forever. After this she uses her new found powers to rewind time to sometime after her mother’s death but before everything else happened. This is how most routes start.

In the manga route specifically, the only ones alive after Mary has trapped the Clearing Eyes is Ayano (as she didn’t stay in the Daze in this route), Shintaro, and Mary. Everyone else is dead and gone and Mary is about to rewind time. Before she does though, she has Mary do something - give Shintaro an eye ability. Ayano gives up her life so that Mary may make her life force into an ability - the snake of retaining eyes. It is so that Shintaro ‘will never forget the tragedy that occurred here’. Shintaro has the ability to retain everything he sees, even across timelines. This route happens early on in the number of routes, but it’s never told to the audience when exactly it happens.

But, the problem with this is that he doesn’t remember he has an ability, it has to be triggered somehow. But it’s because of this that Shintaro killing himself out of grief in some timelines is so detrimental to the overall story - if Shintaro dies then he can’t activate his power and he can’t help save everyone. So for the story to truly be realized and head towards a good ending, Shintaro can’t die until after he remembers his ability.

In the novel route, only Seto, Mary, and Hibiya are alive after the confrontation with the Clearing eyes, and they live out their lives for almost two years before Mary decides to rewind time. Hibiya is able to contact the people who died and are now stuck in the Kagerous daze (death doesn’t exist there, so people are ‘alive’ there but trapped forever) and they all collectively make the decision to turn back time. Shintaro even comments that they’ve probably done this dozens, or maybe even hundreds or thousands of times by that point.

In the Anime route is when Shintaro remembers his ability. He remembers this due to something he knows but he shouldn’t have known. While he was friends with Ayano in school, he never knew that her siblings that she spoke about were Kido, Kano, and Seto. Yet while at the Mekakushi Dan apartment, he finds a picture with them all in it - and somehow knows that it’s the truth despite being surprised to find it out. This one event was enough for him to get things rolling and eventually remember his ability. He ends up killing himself and going to the Daze to see Ayano.

This is also shown in Route 1 of the lost time memory music video. He gets shot trying to protect Konoha (who was getting possessed by the clearing eyes, and thus tried to kill himself so that he wouldn’t hurt his friends), and he appears in the Daze to speak to Ayano and bring her back to the real world. The combination of Shintaro’s Retaining eyes, and Ayano’s favoring eyes, is enough to help get Mary to calm down. Ayano’s ability also lets her put the memories of others into other people, so she helps Shintaro show Mary that everything will be fine and that no matter what happened in every other route, they all love and care for her. This was enough to get her to calm down and for her to take everyone up into the Kagerou Daze, not just the clearing eyes.

Once trapped there, the Clearing eyes had nowhere to go and also was tricked by Konoha and Haruka into becoming the new snake / life force for Hiyori so that she could come back to life. I should note here that it is possible for those with snakes to sort of come and go from the Kagerou Daze as they please - people in the daze just can’t leave without a snake, so Mary also returns the snakes to those who had died up until this point so that they could leave the kagerou daze afterwards. Haruka is able to get back into his body after Konoha willingly gives it over, Takene gets her body back, and they are all able to have a few moments with those that they had died with to get some closure.

They then leave the daze together, and are able to continue on with their lives. (also shown in sumertime record)

Again, I skipped over ALOT here. But this is overall the major plot points of the kagerou project.

The Kagerou project is about dealing with loss, about looking forward to the future, about learning that you don’t have to deal with everything alone - there is always someone willing to help you. It’s about overcoming fear and despair, and learning to take a step forward. There is a lot of death and sadness in this story but there’s also a lot of goofy fun moments too - to remind us that even dark moments have a little light in them.

#suicide tw #snakes tw #this is over 4000 words so i hope it's worth it wheezes #i hope it's not too confusing either the kagerou project is a mess but i love it #tsubomi kido  ➼ headcanon #shuuya kano  ➼  headcanon #kousuke seto  ➼ headcanon #konoha ➼ headcanon

8 notes · View notes

sheanam · 5 years

Text

Outliers Who’s Who!

Actually you know what, it’s been a long time since I talked about my characters to any degree at all, and I’ve seen friends make fun posts about their own crews lately, so between all the goofy random doodles I do with little explanation and my webcomic Outliers being on hiatus for several months due to unavoidable irl circumstances, I feel it’s probably a good time to introduce all you lovely recent followers to the people I like to draw all the time, and also give a refresher to the awesome patient folks who’ve been following for a while! And properly introduce a couple new faces I’ve only just started drawing!

Outliers is a romantic slice-of-life focusing on Walt and Chary, a long-time gay couple, and assorted other characters doing their best to live their lives in a world full of superpowers and aliens and magic and other comic book cliches; it follows them through the years and there’s all manner of life events and such. Shit Happens now and again, but there’s lots of positivity and cute people and occasional goofiness. And date nights. And bird monsters.

The following are (plot spoiler-free!) blurbs on the two main characters of the comic, plus several assorted supporting characters, some of whom I don’t draw as much as I should but are important and who I’m fond of, and some who won’t actually show up in the comic for a looong time but I love them very very much and can’t stop drawing and thinking about them. There are other background characters, lots of ‘em, but (most of) these guys are the ones you’ll see me draw the most often on this here blog!

Zachary ‘Chary’ C. Milford

One of the two mains. A big, chubby, gentle guy with sleepy sad eyes who’s genuinely a nice person, occasionally grumbly but soft-hearted to a fault. Indiana Hoosier and midwestern as hell, raised by a single mom. Loves dad jokes and puns, cheesy ties and collecting records, is bi and has been dating Walt for the better part of a decade. They’re pretty damn inseparable at this point. A few years back was horribly injured and left disabled and scarred after getting caught in a terrible supervillain attack. It can be tough, but he tries not to let it slow him down. Is the good sort of lawyer and rarely swears, radiates pure Dad Energy at all times.

Walter T. Corvi

The other of the two mains. Short-ish, slender, swears like a boatload of sailors. Currently identifies as a gay nonbinary man and uses he/him and they/them pronouns, is pretty feminine in most of his presentation choices, going between fashionable as hell and frumpy comfort depending on mood. A middle child, hails from one of the rich parts of Long Island, but it doesn’t take much for him or his large Italian family to sound like extras from The Nanny. Is a metahuman with the superpower to turn into a big ‘wereraven’ type bird monster, which runs fairly commonly in their family, but chose to stay out of the hero business. Works as a cook and is great at it, it’s a passion of his.

Hoshiko ‘Iko’ Nieri

Iko is of mixed race, but primarily identifies as Japanese. She’s also a lawyer, tough as nails and also the good sort, and Chary’s co-worker and friend. She’s cis, but prefers and feels happy not being particularly feminine most of the time. Works out a lot and has a mean right hook and a delightfully obnoxious laugh.

Keeg-Ok

Keeg’s a weird huge gargoyle monster dude from a magical pocket dimension who got dumped out into the ‘main’ one. Exceptionally friendly and sunny, he adapted to modern everyday life quickly, building a career as a cook (he loves fancy cooking) and a family of his own. Walt’s co-worker and friend. Your best spiky friend if you let him be.

Mary Hell

The young daughter of a human man and a demon from ‘down under’. Cheerful, pleasant, and eager to please, she’s taking steps to become a fully licensed superhero and use her powers for good. A member of the metahuman support group Chary and Iko support as its legal team. Yes, her name’s a pun.

Edmund Irving Rudyard Hawke II

Edmund 2.0 is probably more accurate, honestly. Edmund Hawke Sr. was your standard evil comic book CEO, like Lex Luthor or Kingpin, and when he died heirless he had his organization make a clone of him to inherit and take over the company and continue their work. It was very successful...except that in terms of personality and morals, Ed turned out absolutely nothing like him. Excitable, eager to please, anxious, lonely, slightly flamboyantly gay and full of all sorts of emotional and mental and existential issues, Ed does his very best to be his own person and be more than a figurehead puppet, using his resources and power for good. Was ‘born’ in the US but has a British accent from being ‘tweaked’ to better match the original Edmund. Lacks context for a lot of things and imprints on people who are nice to him like a baby duck.

Dustin Smalls

Somehow fell into the position of being Edmund’s personal assistant, a position of unexpected power and influence. Mostly runs around keeping Ed out of trouble and educating him on things, and protecting him from people taking advantage of or outright abusing him. To his surprise, wound up becoming super best friends with Ed, which evolved into a complicated but deep queerplatonic relationship. Tired Trans, actually has albinism to a small degree but he doesn’t have cliche red eyes so it surprises people. Cranky, loves shitty memes and video games, hates ‘You’re killing me Smalls’ jokes and will tell you exactly why The Sandlot is problematic shit. His other best friend is Pam, his wife who he’s in an open relationship with.

Pamela Flores

Wife and other best friend of Dustin. They’re nesting partners; it’s a very well-functioning open marriage agreed to by both parties, she has a girlfriend who’s her primary romantic interest, and Dustin dabbled around now and again before meeting Edmund. Also trans; the two actually met at a fertility clinic where they’d both gone to freeze some of their DNA. Sweet, supportive, can be deadly serious and firm when the need arises.

#outliers #chary #walt #iko #keeg #mary hell #edmund #dustin #pam #long post #original characters #character list #VERY long post

37 notes · View notes

writing-frenzy · 5 years

Text

Wuxia/Xianxia/Xuanhuan BL story ideas for anyone who wants them.

This is basically a dumping place for the said genres, because after reading so many, I just couldn’t help but think them up, even if I will never write them. But others might like them, so I thought why not? (though if anyone ever does write something, or has seen anything similar elsewhere, please tell me so I can read them.)

Warning: ideas got long, and some themes maybe sensitive: ie: Violence, Murder, Child abandonment, fighting, torture all that good stuff you find in these genres

First Idea: the things a Good Teacher can alter

So, basically, MC was a guy from our world, who ended up dying and being reborn into another one... centuries before a certain book he read even takes place. Needless to say, he doesn’t remember it. (after all, one can only read about so many stallion protags and their harem fun times before they all kind of bleed together into one mash up.)

But on the other hand, being able to literally do magic and all is still very much a thing he would like, so why the hell not become a cultivator? So he joins a sect, manages to pass it’s entrance trial by the grit of his teeth and becomes an outer disciple of one of the Peak Lords, learning all he needs to from his senior brothers and sisters. Everything should be great, right?

Well, here is the thing: it is hard as heck; Turns out, he has a constitution that makes cultivating near impossible for him. Getting out of the first stages of Qi Refining and forming his Golden Core took forever it seems, and when he finally made it to the Immortal stage, he feels as if he had been run over by a bus after he was rung out of all his energy. it’s like whatever a normal person has to do to make it, it takes him not two, not even three, but a hundred times more to accomplish. But hey, he has a thirty-ish young body for all the years he’s really been alive and he still has magic, so it could have been worst.

(though if one wants to give him a golden finger of sorts; he has an absolutely insane pain tolerance :D things that would cause even the most mighty of Martial Heros to fall would be like, ‘huh, is something poking me?’. or chronic pain is also a thing if you want to be mean :) )

Only... Now that he has time for the actual world, he notices how his Sect’s state of affairs seem to be on the decline, with less and less people there now, most of them moving on to bigger and better things, bigger and better Sects and Clans. How the politics in his own Sect seem to be going to bigger and higher stakes, and how disagreements and feuds even end up almost destroying everything, a few Peak lords even dying from it.

These reasons all combined end up making MC one of the very few Immortals Golden Core Cultivators in the sect. It is because of this, that he ends up becoming a Peak Lord.

And Irony of Ironies, he is actually pretty damn good at it. (My idea is that in a previous life, MC was a Teacher or an Office worker, or maybe even both.)

Now, MC does not have want one would usually consider a golden finger, he is not the one who gets good things in life; in fact, he usually suffers and gets little to no reward from it... The same, on the other hand, can not be said for his disciples.

Disciple 1: ends up being the long lost son of an extremely wealthy family, who dies in the original novel for tragic backstory/emotional motive/character development for a novel character, only for MC to have saved them, then kept them because oh, high constitution for cultivation + bad idea for a grieving child this pretty to go to an orphanage. (glaring at them slavers out of the corners of his eye)

MC: Hey, I know it sucks what just happened, take as long as you need to recover. and hey, if you feel up to it, after you decide what to do, you can even join my sect and learn cool things.

D1: *sees things he can learn* ... I will never be so helpless again.

*Years later*

Wandering Clan: Young Master! You are well and alive! and they have been treating you well, even letting you learn Cultivation? Truly a noble sect, worthy of our loyalty!

MC’s Sect: + 1 business division, + a bunch to treasury

Disciple 2: Sibling to one of the Harem members, had thought she had been left for dead/slavers in the original novel by their sister and had been a tough, regularly appearing villain for a while until the protag has her see the error of her ways and became a harem member as well. Only once more, does MC save her from her situation, ending up getting him her gratitude and has her actually look really close at her situation and helps her look into the mystery of it all even as he takes her as his student.

MC: yeah, I’m only hearing about this second hand, and even I can see the holes in the story couldn’t even cover a hobo’s modesty. There is obviously more to this tale then meets the eye.

D2: ... *sparkles as she learns more on how to be a detective, Cultivation style*

*Years later*

Big Name Clan head: Ah, once again you have solved such a terrible crime and even this time shown how I have been framed! Truly a noble lady such as yourself have wishes? Please let me reward you!

MC’s Sect: + 1 Big Backer, + 1 to fame + a bunch more disciples for other Peaks

Disciple 3: the actual main villain of the series, he joins his sect when, during a night hunt, one of the Sect’s Elders watches him actually manage to kill the monster due to luck and a bit of skill; unfortunately he has some sort of dark inheritance + abusive teachers and fellow students in his sect who made him disillusioned with the lighter path and chased him into darkness... only here, MC strikes again, with him finding this poor abandoned child first, saving them from getting injured and taking them home to be well cared for and properly coached through the troubles of life.

MC: Crap, damn it, oh fuck that is more blood spilling then I am comfortable with, hang on little guy I will have this treated soon.

D3:... No one has ever cared for me so much. *Childish hero worship + instant loyalty.*

*Years Later*

Fangirls and boys: AHHHH D3 is just so cool, he is so awesome, so handsome!

MC’s Sect: +1 for fame, plus a bunch of more disciples for the sect.

Disciple 4: Female Canon Fodder, originally in the novel to act parallel to the Female Lead and make her look one hundred times better in comparison in looks, personality and even morals. But here is still insecure teenage girl who, before she could be blacken and disillusioned, wants more in her life then to be an ornamental vase for a future wealthy husband, finds out that MC’s Sect not only takes women, but also actually trains them in ways of Martial arts/Cultivation/Pill Refining/Whatever? (Sign her the fuck up.)

MC: oh, you want to learn? Sure, let’s start. *is a great teacher who actually teaches equally*

D4: *is a wide-eyed sponge* I will follow.

*Years Later*

D4′s Clan: Ah, yes, that great girl is indeed a daughter of our clan, bringing glory and honor to our names, with men lining up only in hopes she will but glance at them.

MC’s Sect: + a Big Backer, + Fame, + more followers

Disciple 5: The Hidden Boss; the illegitimate son of a family (from wife or husband, whichever you desire), was outcast from them all without ever knowing why, not even allowed to learn his family’s martial arts and abilities even though he was incredibly talented and skilled at everything else he learned. In the original novel, he at first seemed like a helpful NPC family member of Protag/Harem member who would explain or even help the Protag and his harem, them all unknowing that he was in fact causing 30% of their problems. But here, MC notices Hidden Boss’s potential, sees how these people just seem to be wasting talent and goes;

MC: Hey, I can take him in!

Those who actually care about the kid: *sees all his other ducklings and the good rumors of his teachings.* sure, better with you then here.

Those who don’t care about the kid. *Sees the funny, ‘weak’ Peak Lord of a dying sect who is pretty far away from them* sure, as long as he’s not here.

*Year’s Later:

D5: *very successful, powerful, strong, and wealthy* Hello.

D5′s Clan: *sweats*

MC’s Sect: + 1 Fame, + Money, + Honor, + a whole bunch more.

Disciple 6: Female character who was basically created solely for the need to give the Protag character, emotional, and background development in the story, and then die in the most fan pissing off way imaginable. yeah, you know what I’m talking about, a girl giving only one dimension to her structure, who has a profound effect on the main character for how little time they were together, and then just killed off before we even get the chance to even learn more! Only here, instead of staying wherever she was before, she either gets picked up by MC early on on one of his recruitment drives or hears of the sect’s growing fame and awesome female disciples and decides she wants more (like she deserves)

MC: oh, you’re pretty good at that! I can see real talent for you here; would you like to learn more?

D6: Yes please! ^_^

*Years Later*

D6: *A Noble Empress, eyes cutting just like her sword arts, her elemental affinity working in twine with it as she delivers a finishing blow to her monsterous foe* Huh, I’m pretty sure these are some prime ingredients for Cultivation, I must be careful to preserve and dismantle effectively!

MC’s Sect: + Fame, + Fortune, + a crap ton of good things.

Whatever order you want them to come in, it’s up to you, just have fun with it.

But yeah, these are not the only changes from the original novel; for example, MC’s sect should have been destroyed/abandoned/deserted, only a footnote because of some obscure fact that needed to be know. (example: This monster is so terrible, it destroyed three sects! or MC’s Sect is the only one who knew of a technique to cure this poison; either find a survivor/search the ruins) Only for luck, the MC, and his lucky students to have saved it all in the end.

Note: To makes things more interesting, I think it would be funny if there were more Reincarnations/Transmigrators closer to the story line, but in shock of the differences to add to the comedy value.

Idea Two: The System messed up, like a boss!

Now, how this idea starts out is a bit different: it’s just a bit before the MC dies, showing that they have been a normal guy before they had found themselves held captive by some obsessed stalker/killer for a long time, who has made it to where if they MC ever tried to harm them in any way or form, it would just end up guaranteeing his own death.

And after enduring this literal hell for what feels like years now, here are MC’s thoughts on the matter.

MC: Okay then. *proceeds to rip his tormentor's own throat out with his teeth*

(Now, it is up to the writer if they want to hide this dark history or not, maybe hinting here and there about it.)

Cue them suddenly being connected to the system!

MC: ... what?

System: Hiiii~ I’m-

ERROR!

*Suddenly cut off, MC goes through one hell of a disorienting experience, only to wake up in some child’s body.

MC: What

Child’s Soul that still barely remains in the body: Please, I just want to see what’s beyond these walls, just once.

*sudden mindwammy of memories of the slavery this child has gone through, the torture from their masters, the cruelty of bystanders that just stand by.*

What the child’s words in a way mean: (I want to see one good thing, just one about this world, before I die.)

MC:... Okay then. *proceeds to rip out their current body’s Master’s throat, due to surprise, his soul not be the one that is enslaved, and a strange sort of energy*

(And maybe here it could be hinted about what happened if one wants to hide the MC’s past, about how this wasn’t the first time he’s tasted blood on his teeth or ripped out a person’s throat.)

This in the end erases the remaining slave binds on him, and makes it easy to escape the mansion he is being held in. Even better, it seems the place is also being raided by some group, so it’s even easier for MC to be lost in the confusion. When he is finally far enough away, when the distance finally feels just enough, the MC lets himself fall to the ground, right next to a shrub of some sorts before he finally takes a breath and fully taking in his surroundings.

Only to lose it as he finally takes in the scenery: a pretty jade like valley of some sorts, soft hills of green turned darker and yet still shining in the moonlight from a full moon and the stars all around them. You know those pictures of places with no light pollution on islands and such? This is what he see in this moment.

And both souls are in complete awe of it.

Child Soul: so beautiful... I never knew it (the world) could be so beautiful.

MC: I forgot it could be.

Child Soul: ... Thank you! Thank you so much! *smiles and passes on to bigger and better things.

It is after this bit of peace and quiet, that finally the system comes back.

System: Ah, sorry, technical difficulties, did not expect that; Anyways, I am the System, to help you in your role for your next life!

MC: ...Role?

System: Yes! You are the “Villainous Boss’ of -insert story name here-! I am the ‘Like a Boss’ System, ensuring one will act as a truly terrifying villain!

MC: *thinking* You said the VB of that story, aren’t they -insert villian’s name-?

System: Yes!

MC: The young Master who fell from the mountains and ended up following dark paths and murky unknowns?

System: Yes.

MC: the Villain who was dark haired and eyed, who’s skin was pale as jade was said to be, and could make man and woman go mad over his charm?

System:... Yes?

MC:... I think there has been a mistake.

1:Considering that this was a child who was sold into slavery very young, to a point they don’t even know about parents, has dealt with the hell that is slavery to cruel masters, and would have in fact died just now if MC didn’t make a way through. {2} actually does have a name, and isn’t the same at all as the Villain. {3} the Body does not in anyway have dark hair or eyes, and the skin is not pale as jade (not to mention charm, unless someone is weak for poor orphaned waifs).

Yeah, a mistake has been made.

System: ah.... oh dear; maybe you do a switch a roo?

only, turns out that they find that would be impossible as well, because not only are they way before the story line even starts, MC’s constitution is very... Strange. (Basically, because MC could be classified as a Vengeful spirit, if only for the way he died, but due to him already getting said revenge, and even helping another soul pass on to the pure lands, he has a very high, very good constitution for Cultivation... both righteous and demonic. and his body needs to maintain an about equal level between the both of them, otherwise it gets out of wack and could cause most painful death.)

So, MC has to maintain tasks from the system, acting like a boss, and do certain things (like joining certain sects, to betraying a comrade, to even slaughtering a group of people sadistically ); luckily, he doesn’t actually have to be a villain, but he does have to act like it, which gives ideas.

MC: Okay, I will be the red herring Villain! The, it’s so obvious it just can’t be them kind of guy!

System: DX ... why not, it might work.

And hilariously enough, it does :D I imagine MC would act like a combination between Ichimaru Gin from Bleach and Murkuro from KHR, clever, twisting, manipulative, and yet surprisingly playful and cruel when one least expects it. (that he has loyal fanatical followers with yandere tendencies goes without saying, though he has no idea; He has high intelligence, can understand emotions and motives, but does at times not realize just how much people have actually bonded with him himself.)

Examples of his relationships.

Twins he found: the famous mirrored twins, one going down the path of darkness and cruelty, even as one heads for the path of good and light; maybe in the original story they had been separated, or a distance was placed between them due to misunderstandings and jealousy. MC had gotten a get one and get the other free tag a longs, finding them when they were young and hadn’t yet joined a sect, only ending up bonding with them. Though he is admittedly worried about betrayal and being put down from them in the future, he still bonds and helps them as much as he can.

Though-

Twin 1: MC! MC! I’ve gotten even better in my Demonic cultivation!

Twin 2: shhhh, not so loud! But anyways, I have gone even farther levels in my out Righteous Cultivation.

MC: ... That’s nice?

They are like his most trusted advisors/Inner circle members (of course he would have one, any good villian would :D ) completely willing to do what must be done for their brother in arms and most trusted friend. (the one who had been there for them at their lowest, the one who was able to keep them all together, sacrificing what he needed, adding so many scars to his one body just to spare them. They are the ones who best know about the man he is, for they were the ones who saw how he was forged, turning his words, his looks, and even his smiles into the terrifying weapons they are today. He is the one who showed them you can be bathed in darkness and still be ever so good, something they will help with as much as they can.

His First Disciple: Now, MC does take his teaching duties seriously, whether he is an elder in the sect or even a peak lord (though I would think it would be awesome if he was a Librarian), so he would be very attentive with his pupil, even if he teases and gently picks on them, messing with them as they grow older. MC originally took this kid because he remembers them from the novel as the one who helps the protagonist, who was thought to be an enemy only to be the secret ally. So he is pretty sure the kid will betray him eventually, especially since he let’s them in on all his shady practices and dealings with demonic cultivatior and/or actually demon folk. And with them being a complete Kuudere, it seems that way..

Only...

1st D: I will follow my Master to the end of my days. and if my death could be of service to him, I will have died with a light heart.

MC: wtf no! No dying for me!

The kid turns completely and utterly into his proud minion, happily doing what ever his dear Master asks of him. (after all, who was it that pulled him from the darkness, who showed him such care and attention, always there with a kind word and a joke whenever he was troubled? There was no one but him who wanted him, not during these long years, only for him to be pick specifically? ha, he will follow all his days, just as long as he can remain at his side.)

Very powerful Demon Lord (not king): Someone MC met while still young and unattached to a sect thought; hey, let’s get my consorting with darkness task down! After all, this guy was a well known villain in the series, a troublemaker through and through, who betrayed and sacrificed his minions and others like pawns. Once again, MC thinks he’s going to get betrayed eventually, but hey, the guy ain’t all bad and he’s pretty friendly even! though...

Demon Lord that is in fact in control of a very terrifying and large territory: Sir, would you like me to take your coat? maybe even a drink? *orders a very expensive and luxury wine.*

MC: *eyes him suspiciously, but nods* I am willing.

why they insist on waiting hand and foot on him always weirds them out. (For the Half-demon, half-human, it only makes sense; this person is their benefactor, so overwhelmingly powerful, just being near them strengths them, who he has picked him up even while he was a weakling and saw promise, made a gamble on that promise and even to this day still profits. Who is honestly even more terrifying then the demon King in DL’s eyes, and desires to please him all the more, so that he too can always serve this higher life form in his eyes.)

And these are just some examples, mostly all of them would probably be the inner circle I said he had XD

But wait, you might ask; what about those tasks you mentioned, how could betraying a comrade or slaughtering a group of people sadistically be good? here we go :D

betraying a comrade:

MC: okay, so, this guy is embezzling funds, this asshole is abusing his students, and this.. one...

System: ...?

MC:... “This one is raping their own Disciples, huh?” is said ever so softly, their eyes half-lidded even as they stare at the profile picture of the filth. “When they go on their next mission, make sure I am one of their backups, hmmm? I haven’t had the chance to push anyone off a cliff yet, have I?”

Answer: In a big sect, everyone should be your comrade; that you are betraying their expectations, their values, or even ratting them out all make it up. (and cold-hearted murder always works for the scum of the earth too!)

slaughtering a group of people sadistically:

System: so, we have a group of Demonic cultivators consorting with slave dealers, we have some criminals over here doing despicable things there, and we have traitors over here, what do you want to do?

MC: how about all of them?

Answer: what about those no one would miss :D

Notes: I would find it so funny if the MC was actually an animal magnet; like, birds will happily eat from his hand, deer will sleep right next to him, guardian beasts will want to protect him and keep him safe because god damn it, hasn’t this poor soul been through enough?! (be cool if this was one of the reasons why the sect leader actually trusts him; he has a bond with a guardian beast that can maybe read the soul or something, which MC has no clue about, so thinks nothing about how this beast keeps wanting to cuddle him.

but you want to know what? Out of everything, with all the the MC is doing? All they truly want in life is peace and rest, maybe even a shoulder to rest his weary head upon when life gets to much. (but thanks to the system and it’s tasks, he will never be able to truly have it.)

huh, this got pretty long.... eh, I had more ideas, but I think I’ll leave it here for now. If anyone wants more Wuxia/Xianxia/Xuanhuan , I might make a part two!

#Wuxia #Xianxia #Xuanhuan #story ideas #fantasy #I thought these were cool

58 notes · View notes

vheyyyy-blog · 4 years

Text

Erik Erikson’s 8 Stages of Development

PRENATAL

Summary

Having a healthy pregnancy is one of the best ways to promote a healthy birth. Getting early and regular prenatal care improves the chances of a healthy pregnancy. This care can begin even before pregnancy with a preconception care visit to a health care provider. Prenatal development is the process of growth and development within the womb, in which a single-cell zygote becomes an embryo, a fetus, and then a baby. The first two weeks of development are concerned with simple cell multiplication. This is the most critical stage of taking care of a child; there are many things to do for us to raise a child. We all know that both men and women have 23 chromosomes and if you combine that it would be 46. A healthy mother Reduce the risk of pregnancy complications. Following a healthy, safe diet; getting regular exercise as advised by a health care provider; and avoiding exposure to potentially harmful substances such as lead and radiation can help reduce the risk for problems during pregnancy and promote fetal health and development. Controlling existing conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, is important to prevent serious complications and their effects.

Reflection

Women can help to promote a healthy pregnancy and birth of a healthy baby by taking the following steps before they become pregnant first the woman should develop a plan for their reproductive life, for example they need to increase their daily intake of folic acid (one of the B vitamins) to at least 400 micrograms. Making sure that their immunizations are up to date. Avoid smoking, drinking alcohol, and using drugs. Attain a healthy weight. Learn about their family health history and that of their partner.

Seek help for depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues. During this stage parents should be financially stable in order for them to give the exact needs. And also, one more important things for the parents should be financially and emotionally stable for the upcoming needs of the baby.

Infancy

Summary

Newborns typically sleep for about 16–18 hours a day, but the total amount of time spent sleeping gradually decreases to about 9–12 hours a day by age two years. At birth infants display a set of inherited reflexes involving such acts as sucking, blinking, grasping, and limb withdrawal. Infants’ vision improves from 20/800 among two-week-olds to 20/70 vision in five-month-olds to 20/20 at five years. The infant’s understanding and mastery of the physical world begins with the reflex movements of newborns. These movements progress within three months to such actions as sucking, grasping, throwing, kicking, and banging, though these are purposeless and repeated for their own sake. During the 4th to the 8th month, the infant begins to repeat those actions that produce interesting effects, and from the 8th to the 12th month he begins coordinating his actions to attain an external goal knocking down a pillow to obtain a toy hidden behind it. The infant’s physical actions thus begin to show greater intentionality, and he eventually begins to invent new actions in a form of trial-and-error experimentation.

REFLECTION

In the first few years, your child has specific nutritional needs to ensure his/her growth.

Human milk and infant formula have all the nutrients your baby needs for the first 6 months - protein, fats, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals. Human milk contains additional components that are not present in infant formula. In this stage the parents should take this action first is The New Baby Talk

There is no “too young” to talk to babies. It doesn’t matter if baby doesn’t understand words as parents give him details about sorting the laundry or explaining why I chop carrots before putting them in the soup. Infant knows hir/her mother’s voice and can sense my tone. And also parents should be sensitive enough to know that his/her child are in the safest place.

EARLY CHILDHOOD

Summary

Early childhood is a stage in human development. In this phase there is significant synaptic growth and myelination of neural fibers in the brain, especially within the frontal lobes. For example, between the ages 2 and 6, the brain increases from 70% of its adult weight to 90%. The growth of the brain is followed by a surge in cognitive abilities. Around the age of five, children start speaking properly and master their hand to eye coordination.

It is optimal that an environment is provided that encourages physical development and allows the children to explore and try out new things. The physical development in children follows a pattern. The large muscles develop before the small muscles. The large muscles are used for walking, running and other physical activities. Small muscles are used for fine motor skills such as picking up objects, writing, drawing, throwing and catching. This includes children understanding a sense of 'self', relationships with others and sociability. The emotional development includes expressions, attachment and personality. Children manifest fear of dark and monsters and around the age of three notice whether they are a boy or a girl and start acting that way. Boys are usually more aggressive, whilst girls are more caring. However, aggression is manifested in two different ways: boys are more physically aggressive, while the girls are more socially aggressive. In this stage the individual differences become more prominent.

Reflection

In the earliest years of life, especially from pregnancy to age three, babies need nutrition, protection and stimulation for healthy brain development. Recent advances in neuroscience provide new evidence about a baby’s brain development during this time. As a result, we know that in their earliest years, babies’ brains form new connections at an astounding rate. In the brain-building process, neural connections are shaped by genes and life experiences namely good nutrition, protection and stimulation from talk, play and responsive attention from caregivers. This combination of nature and nurture establishes the foundation of a child’s future. Yet too many children are still missing out on the ‘eat, play, and love’ their brains need to develop. Put simply, we don’t care for children’s brains the way we care for their bodies. Parents should be more hands on in taking care of their child and to give guidance. Because in this stage, the child is in the curiosity stage. The child ask a lot of question regarding to the things that surrounds them, making the presence of the parents very important, to answer those questions.

Middle Childhood

Summary

Middle Childhood (Ages 6-12)

A child’s developmental path in their middle childhood years (between 6 and 12 years of age) contributes substantially to the adolescent, and adult they will become. Middle childhood is a stage where children move into expanding roles and environments. Children begin to spend more time away from their family and spend more time in school and other activities. As they experience more of the world around them, children begin to develop their own identity. Children in this age group are entering the ‘age of reason’ because they begin to: be more flexible in their thinking, develop self-awareness, and

identify and understand others’ feelings or emotions. During middle childhood, children work towards four important milestones, including: adjusting to school; achieving new academic skills such as learning to read, learning to get along with peers; and learning the rules of our culture or society.

Reflection

In this stage, the child spends most of their time to the environment that surrounds them especially in school. They are often far from their families. It is also the stage where they find themselves, they develop their identities as an individual. As this things happen, different characters and lifestyle will be seen and experience by the child. This is where the role of the parents comes in. The parents should guide the child on what is wrong and right, make them understand that some of the behaviours that he/she will encounter is wrong and by knowing so, will also do the right things, act the right things. This is also the stage where puberty strikes in, it is also the stage where personal matters should be taught to the child. Number one of it is proper hygiene. Parents should make sure that in this stage of their child, they know how to handle themselves, top priority of it is hygiene. Because the child will become very active in this stage, they will meet a lot of people and know themselves, cleanliness should also be established.

Adolescence

Summary

Adolescence is the period of transition between childhood and adulthood. Children who are entering adolescence are going through many changes. This article offers advice for adolescents and parents to negotiate these changes. Adolescence is the period of transition between childhood and adulthood. Children who are entering adolescence are going through many changes (physical, intellectual, personality and social developmental). Adolescence begins at puberty, which now occurs earlier, on average, than in the past. The end of adolescence is tied to social and emotional factors and can be somewhat ambiguous. There are three main physical changes that come with adolescence: The growth spurt (an early sign of maturation); Primary sex characteristics (changes in the organs directly related to reproduction); Secondary sex characteristics (bodily signs of sexual maturity that do not directly involve reproductive organs).

Reflection

Adolescent thinking is on a higher level than that of children. Children are only able to think logically about the concrete, the here and now. Adolescents move beyond these limits and can think in terms of what might be true, rather than just what they see is true. They are able to deal with abstractions, test hypotheses and see infinite possibilities. Yet adolescents still often display egocentric behaviours and attitudes. Adolescents are also developing socially and emotionally during this time. The most important task of adolescence is the search for identity. Parents should support healthy adolescent development. While adolescence can be a trying period for both youth and their parents, the home does not have to become a battleground if both parents and young people make special efforts to understand one another.

Early adulthood

Summary

The life stage called early adulthood defines individuals between the ages of 20 and 35, who are typically vibrant, active and healthy, and are focused on friendships, romance, child bearing and careers.

Yet serious conditions, such as violent events, depression and eating disorders, can negatively impact young adults. Theorist Erik Erikson (1902-1994) maintained that individuals develop in psychosocial stages, and that early adulthood marks the time when individuals seek to form intimate relationships. And Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) argued that a healthy adult is one who can "love and work." Simply stated, this developmental stage is characterized by relationships and work. Intimacy can be actualized through close friendships, romantic relationships, starting a family, or all three. Erickson argued that a firm sense of identity, gained in earlier developmental stages, was integral to entering intimate relationships, and research has supported this argument. Studies repeatedly find that those lacking a strong sense of identity have less satisfactory relationships, and they tend to be more emotionally isolated, lonely and depressed.

Reflection

Early adulthood can be a very busy time of life, many tasks are coming to the young adults. These include: Achieving autonomy: trying to establish oneself as an independent person with a life of one’s own. Establishing identity: more firmly establishing likes, dislikes, preferences, and philosophies. Developing emotional stability: becoming more stable emotionally which is considered a sign of maturing. Establishing a career: deciding on and pursuing a career or at least an initial career direction and pursuing an education. Finding intimacy: forming first close, long-term relationships

Becoming part of a group or community: young adults may, for the first time, become involved with. various groups in the community. They may begin voting or volunteering to be part of civic organizations. This is especially true for those who participate in organizations as parents. Establishing a residence and learning how to manage a household: learning how to budget and keep a home maintained. Becoming a parent and rearing children: learning how to manage a household with children. Making marital adjustments and learning to parent.

Middle adulthood

Summary

Middle adulthood refers to the people who are experiencing changes and development in their central lives. it is basically about the midlife transition or the period of life beyond young adulthood but before the commencement of the late adulthood. From the male perspective, is frequently associated with loss of physical and mental functions and vitality. The implied stigma that comes with the secondary aging often prevents men from dealing with important health issues. The change in physical appearance is some of the most notable parts for many people as they experience middle adulthood physical development. Hair begins turning grey or white as teeth fade from yellow. More wrinkles appear, especially on the face, and skin begins to sag. As adults pass their strength begins to diminish as some of their muscle is replaced with fat. Flexibility also decreases, and the reaction time of individuals in middle adulthood decreases as well.

Reflection

Middle adulthood is the time for forgiveness and happiness away from stress and unhealthy doing.

This is the time where an individual should settle every ounce of emotional, personal and psychological matters. Plans should be well organized and should be establish. This is also the stage where an individual should be open minded about the things that are happening around him/her. He/she should also be open for changes of the society to the reason that not all things will remain and should also be open to new knowledge and idea that he/she will encounter along the way of their lives. It is also in this stage that a person should be more mindful of their health as their immune system in this times are starting to get weaker. Stress should be lessen and enjoying the essence of life should be the main purpose of their remaining years.

Late Adulthood

Summary

During late adulthood the skin continues to lose elasticity, reaction time slows further, muscle strength and mobility diminishes, hearing and vision decline, and the immune system weakens. The aging process generally results in changes and lower functioning in the brain, leading to problems like decreased intellectual function and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Many of the changes in the bodies and minds of older adults are due in part to a reduction in the size of the brain as well as loss of brain plasticity. Memory degenerates in old age, so older adults have a harder time remembering and attending to information. In general, an older person’s procedural memory tends to remain stable, while working memory declines.

Reflection

Late adulthood is the stage of life from the 60s onward; it constitutes the last stage of physical change. Average life expectancy in the United States is around 80 years; however, this varies greatly based on factors such as socioeconomic status, region, and access to medical care. In general, women tend to live longer than men by an average of five years. During late adulthood the skin continues to lose elasticity, reaction time slows further, and muscle strength diminishes. Hearing and vision so sharp in our twenties decline significantly; cataracts, or cloudy areas of the eyes that result in vision loss, are frequent. The other senses, such as taste, touch, and smell, are also less sensitive than they were in earlier years. The immune system is weakened, and many older people are more susceptible to illness, cancer, diabetes, and other ailments. Cardiovascular and respiratory problems become more common in old age. Seniors also experience a decrease in physical mobility and a loss of balance, which can result in falls and injuries. In this stage also, happiness and contentment should be present as the remaining years will past until the moment of death, the person will have the guts and proud to say that “I have lived my life the way it should be I am ready.”

1 note · View note

determination-and-familiars · 5 years

Text

fill out the angst application below.

Tagged: @sakuraari

Tagging: @galaxythebat (I don’t remember all the urls but you can do this for other characters, not just Galaxy if you want) @refiinedrogue @platinum-performer @suplexqueen (just in case you wanted to do it for both your blogs) @princess-of-diamond (hi! You recently started following my Deltarune rp blog) @determination-personified @child-in-the-undergrounds @strykingback

None of you have to though! <3

There are 7 muses here. I’ll do them all, however other than Flowey, I will put Frisk, Cagney Carnation, Arial, Violet, Cory and Olivia under a read-more. Flowey’s the most angst-filled out of all of them. And Arial and Cory probably have no place here but including them because eh, didn’t feel like leaving them out. But they have like no angst to them. I’d have done this for my Deltarune blog but Ruby, Garnet and Mina don’t have any angst. At most Mina is blind, and Garnet is a little self-conscious he’s green and named garnet.

basics

> Name: Flowey Garcia

> Age: (verse dependent) Main: 10-11, Bouquetshipping: 20+

> Species: Flower/Monster/Witch’s Familiar

bold what applies

drinker (Adult verses only)

smoker

done/does drugs (Do anti-depressants and medication for panic attacks, PTSD and anxiety count? He doesn’t do them recreationally. All talked about with his therapist and prescribed by a doctor after making sure it’s safe for a plant. But medication although prescribed could be called drugs)

knows what a broken heart feels like.

has committed a crime. (A Lot of them)

suffers a physical disability.

suffers a mental disorder

has experienced severe trauma.

details

> Biggest fear: Losing his emotions again and harming his new family

> Recurring nightmare: Memories of his past homicidal or self-harming actions. Sometimes losing a current family member

> Something they miss: His first sibling Chara, A timeline where he was adopted by the skelebros

> Biggest regret: He has two: Failing his original sibling’s plan, and then when he first turned to murder

> Pressure point: Reminding him of his past misdeeds. That’s the quickest way to strike a nerve

> A secret: He doesn’t feel like he deserves his new sister or last name/family. Even into his adulthood with a partner and children, Flowey doesn’t fully feel he deserves that either. It’s a thought he has far less often the older he gets, but it’s still a thought he has.

pick one

fire or water

mother or father

to hurt or be hurt

eerie or gory

unrequited love or no love

basics

> Name: Franziska “Frisk” Garcia

> Age: (verse dependent) Main: 15-16, Bouquetshipping: 20+

> Species: Human/Witch (and in a far future verse, a skeleton monster. When you fuse your very soul with a monster, you become one when you die)

bold what applies

drinker

smoker

done/does drugs (Similar to Flowey, though a lot less. Dying over and over in the underground leaves an impact. She needs PTSD medication for her time down there)

knows what a broken heart feels like. (well her soul/heart DID shatter upon every death…)

has committed a crime.

suffers a physical disability. (She’s blind af without her glasses)

suffers a mental disorder

has experienced severe trauma.

details

> Biggest fear: Having to get into another fight with another monster

> Recurring nightmare: Reliving some of her deaths in the Underground

> Something they miss: Not really anything big. Usual old friends that drift away. Other family members who live far away

> Biggest regret: She doesn’t have the Best relationship with her mother

> Pressure point: Her poor eye sight, treating monsters like they have no rights, her short height

> A secret: Frisk will act more confident than she actually truly is

pick one

fire or water

mother or father

to hurt or be hurt

eerie or gory

unrequited love or no love

basics

> Name: Cagney Carnation

> Age: 20+

> Species: Flower. Specifically half violet and half carnation

bold what applies

drinker

smoker

done/does drugs

knows what a broken heart feels like.

has committed a crime.

suffers a physical disability.

suffers a mental disorder

has experienced severe trauma.

details

> Biggest fear: Losing his sister and losing his lover

> Recurring nightmare: The Devil coming and claiming his soul

> Something they miss: His parents, though he wasn’t old enough to fully remember them when they died

> Biggest regret: Not finding a way to help save his sister that didn’t involve him selling his soul

> Pressure point: He grew up isolated in his garden with his sister taking care of him. So he doesn’t know a lot of things other than gardening, it bothers him if this is pointed out. Similar to how large his large nose is. The quickest way to anger him is to harm a plant

> A secret: Cagney loves Flowey, but sometimes he worries about him. He’s afraid that there may be a time when he can’t reach him anymore. He knows about the things Flowey did without a soul and how he spent years having extreme self-hatred

pick one

fire or water

mother or father

to hurt or be hurt

eerie or gory (He really doesn’t like either but if he was forced to choose)

unrequited love or no love

basics

> Name: Arial-Rose Carnation

> Age: 7-9

> Species: Flower/Monster hybrid

bold what applies

drinker

smoker

done/does drugs

knows what a broken heart feels like.

has committed a crime.

suffers a physical disability.

suffers a mental disorder

has experienced severe trauma.

details

> Biggest fear: She doesn’t really think about those. She should. One should probably be ‘eaten by birds while exploring and climbing trees’

> Recurring nightmare: She doesn’t really have nightmares. Or rather she does but she finds them fun. Like “experiencing a horror movie!” in her own words

> Something they miss: N/A

> Biggest regret: N/A

> Pressure point: She doesn’t start to really grow until her teens. So she’s a little touchy about being only eight inches tall

> A secret: The only secrets she tends to keep are her plans of sneaking out to go exploring. She inherited just about ALL of Mama Flowey’s curiosity.

pick one

fire or water

mother or father (She couldn’t pick, even if someone tried to force her, she loves Flowey and Cagney almost equally)

to hurt or be hurt

eerie or gory

unrequited love or no love

basics

> Name: Violet Carnation

> Age: 20+

> Species: Flower. Specifically half violet and half carnation

bold what applies

drinker

smoker

done/does drugs

knows what a broken heart feels like.

has committed a crime.

suffers a physical disability. (Her petals don’t work properly, her once fatal illness has flare-ups, and she’s infertile.)

suffers a mental disorder

has experienced severe trauma

details

> Biggest fear: Losing those she cares about

> Recurring nightmare: When she was younger it was her parents’ deaths, then it became being unable to protect her brother, and then losing her new family: her partner Cory and adopted daughter

> Something they miss: Her parents, her childhood

> Biggest regret: Not allowing herself happiness until her adulthood

> Pressure point: Her floppy petals, inability to have children, and criticizing how she raised her younger brother

> A secret: She knows she probably has a co-dependent relationship with her brother because of how she had to start raising him when she was still just a child herself. She asked Flowey for the name of his therapist (not just for the co-dependency, but also with dealing with memories of past trauma and insecurities) and asked him not to tell anyone. She keeps the therapy a secret because she sees needing it as a weakness that she wasn’t strong enough to keep going as she was. Flowey is the only one who knows about it

pick one

fire or water

mother or father

to hurt or be hurt (She spent her life being hurt or sacrificing for others, and she’s tired of it, but she could never bring herself to hurt someone else. She seems unable to put herself and her needs first)

eerie or gory

unrequited love or no love

basics

> Name: Cory Coreopsis

> Age: 20+

> Species: Flower. Specifically a coreopsis

bold what applies

drinker

smoker

done/does drugs

knows what a broken heart feels like.

has committed a crime.

suffers a physical disability. (Unlike typical coreopsis, he can’t handle too much sun or he starts to wilt. He also prefers a lot more water than normal)

suffers a mental disorder

has experienced severe trauma.

details

> Biggest fear: Most things. He can be a bit jumpy and hates confrontation

> Recurring nightmare: N/A

> Something they miss: N/A

> Biggest regret: N/A

> Pressure point: That he grew up in a train station flower-stand and that messed up how he handles sun and water

> A secret: He keeps where he bloomed a secret, he’s embarrassed it was a train station flower stand

pick one

fire or WATER

mother or father (He didn’t know either of his parents)

to hurt or be hurt

eerie or gory (He doesn’t like either and will refuse to choose)

unrequited love or no love

basics

> Name: Olivia Carnation

> Age: 6-8

> Species: Flower. Specifically a violet

bold what applies

drinker

smoker

done/does drugs

knows what a broken heart feels like.

has committed a crime.

suffers a physical disability.

suffers a mental disorder (Anxiety and depression)

has experienced severe trauma (Losing her parents)

details

> Biggest fear: Losing her adoptive parents

> Recurring nightmare: That her adoptive mother and father might not want her anymore because of how easily she’s frightened and how she’s afraid of being away from family

> Something they miss: Her birth parents

> Biggest regret: She thinks that maybe if she wasn’t sick that day when her parents went out maybe they wouldn’t have left. She never found out what happened, just that they never came home. She thinks maybe it was her fault somehow

> Pressure point: Someone talking bad about her adoptive parents, uncles, aunt, cousins etc

> A secret: She’ll say she’s ok even if she isn’t

pick one

fire or water

mother or father

to hurt or be hurt

eerie or gory (She really doesn’t like either)

unrequited love or no love

2 notes · View notes

usaikopath · 4 years

Text

AC #178

May 6th, 2020

A Korean woman in her late thirties had entered inside the Houghton Resorts, questioning the women at the front desk asking about the party that was under the name Soleil and Hoshi. Lying to the employee was the only thing that she could to just to barge in for a moment and leave her present at the table and disappear without a trace. In her company was a Puerto Rican man who looked at her with concern. ''You sure you want to do this Preciosa?'' Sunhee looked over at her boyfriend before nodding her head slowly. ''It's all I can do...after so much time I would be afraid to shock my daughter..who is no longer that six-year-old child that was ripped from her mother, the same way I was ripped from mine years ago.'' Saying this in a hushed tone that only her partner could hear.

As the two were escorted towards the ballroom that was reserved for the evening, the employee opened the door before leaving the two of them there alone. Taking in the Disney and enchanted decor the pale woman's lips lightly curled into a smile. ''I'm glad to know despite her being an adult now she still hasn't lost her interest in fantasy and things that are cutesy.'' Taking a couple of footsteps in the room she started to look at the table where there were various photos of Aisha and Juniper together. ''She's all grown up...but it wasn't by my side. I feel so guilty that the timing to be reunited wasn't there..'' Picking up a framed photo from the table as her slender fingertips grazed along with the photo. ''Even in this photo she is smiling so happy..despite being under the care of a monster for all these years I am relieved she hadn't lost a reason to smile..at least if these smiles are going to whom she calls her fiance.''

Ezekiel had moved close to Sunhee as he glanced down at the portrait that was in the woman's hands. ''She's a spitting image of you..'' The dark-haired woman looked at Ezekiel for a moment, slowly nodding her head before looking back towards the photo. ''When Reina was by my side people would say we looked like sisters..when in reality I was a teenage mother raising a child that was a product of-'' She then started to stutter as her hands started to violently shake, something that occurred whenever the discussion of Aisha's origin or she was bringing up her beginnings of motherhood. Shaking her head lightly Aisha's mother carefully put down the portrait. Hearing the words from Ezekiel managed to catch her off guard.

''You know Sunny..don't you think it's time to maybe come out of hiding and let your daughter know that you are alive? That your sudden disappearance when her father was thrown into the slammers wasn't just on purpose? Kenichi's men came after you after he was thrown in jail.'' His words were blunt but true. The Korean woman was hiding and it didn't seem to make much sense, the one who raped her and made her become his prostitute was thrown in the slammer and after the encounter with Kenichi's henchmen, everything was starting to go back to normal for her. Confronting her daughter face to face and letting her know that she was alive and well seemed terrifying but also heartbreaking. ''I'm scared...she might just explode on me. She inherited her father's temper you know and at times I wasn't sure what to do when she would get mad. Reina looks so happy but I have no idea if the rage I saw in her that was like her father has gotten any better or worse than last time.'' Despite the years passing Sunny just wanted to have a little bit of wishful thinking that her beloved daughter was perfect in some aspects. Ezekiel wasn't wrong for mentioning his concern, it seemed a little unfair that her daughter was thinking she was gone when that wasn't the case.

Aisha's mother had been hiding in fear after being assaulted by Kenichi's yakuza members. The Puerto Rican man was sensing how shaken up Sunny was from the discussion. He started to rub her back lightly as a way to try and help her calm down. ''Forgive me, I didn't mean to be so harsh about it. Your daughter thinks you are long gone.'' A heavy sigh escaped from the woman's lips. ''She inherited being gullible like her mother..that's for sure. Since being with her father for so long the opportunity to go to school and become a lot smarter than that asshole and me combined was taken from her.'' But at the moment it wasn't the time to mention what if's if the universe decided to change their fate.

Sunny had accepted that her daughter no longer went by the name Reina but Aisha and that her daughter had grown up without her mother by her side as it should be. She was feeling a lot of emotions, mostly negative. Sadness that as a mother she hadn't watched her child grow up properly, anger that her child was taken away from her care. ''Even if I wanted a restart in life one thing I wouldn't change is wanting to be her mother all over again. Even if I couldn't give her the best of circumstances she gave me unconditional love that I couldn't get even from my mother.'' Walking over towards the table in the ballroom that already had gifts from people who weren't able to attend. ''I'm sorry that I can only see you from afar Reina..'' Placing the present box at the table as some tears slowly started to trickle down her small face. ‘’I can’t even tell you how proud I am of you for choosing the same career path as me and wanting to continue my legacy in the candy-making business..’’ Sunny didn’t leave her name on the gift, part of it due to being terrified of spooking her daughter and another part of her not doing so out of fear of everything being blown out of proportion. When Aisha was younger, her captivity of forgiving was big. Sunny was a mom that wasn’t able to provide well, oftentimes they would be in circumstances that left them to eat nothing but eggs and rice at all meals of the day and go to their beds with five or six blankets just to try to stay warm. But Aisha had never had been resentful of it. Seeing Sunny upset the way she was made him feel sorry that he was pressing his blunt opinion too quickly. The Korean mother felt like a failure, she failed at being a mother, despite the fact that she didn’t necessarily ask for motherhood in the first place. ‘’I have a lot of regrets on how you were brought into this world Reina..I tried giving you all the love in the world to make up for the fact that you had a monster for a father..and you still wanted to know about him.’’ Recalling those brief conversations where her once adorable six-year-old was questioning every little thing about her father. Those questions irritated the living hell out of the thirty-eight-year-old woman, partially due to the fact that her child was a product of rape. She didn’t want to ever reveal to her child that her existence wasn’t what she had expected. Sunny thought she was going to return to her impoverished family with the lack of love from her parents and eventually forget about being abducted as a young teenager. All she wanted to do was be away from her abductor and be able to erase all the horrible memories she accumulated from her life in captivity. Despite having a family that was poor they had wanted to think things could go back to normal. But as a month went on she was showing symptoms of becoming pregnant. Due to how strict her family was they wanted her to abort the child which only triggered the Korean teen at the time to run off.

She didn’t feel it was fair to abort an innocent baby, let alone not being able to have the chance to find the light at the end of the tunnel from a horrible situation. ‘’She made my decision to be a mother despite everything worthwhile. Her ability to love and accept the living situation we were in made me glad I never gave her up.’’ The Puerto Rican male could tell how much love the woman had for her child. It was a love that seemed a lot stronger than the mere fear of rejection. Sunny looked at the other gifts that were placed on the gifts table, there were a lot of gifts, knowing that they were for her daughter and the woman that her daughter chose to get married with. There was a stinging pain in the parent’s heart, it was difficult to even admit out loud that her daughter was getting married and she wouldn’t even be able to go to her and tell her that she is happy for her. The woman knew she probably could not even try meeting the daughter-in-law she was about to meet without some repercussions in the future. Though mentioning all these positive aspects that her daughter possessed there was that fear in the back of her mind that everything would backfire. Her daughter Reina that was now called Aisha could very well be angered that she was appearing now and not want to listen to the full extent of the truth. Ezekiel had lightly wrapped his arm around the petite woman’s body as he looked down at her. ‘’Don’t cry, it’s going to be fine. The opportunity to be reunited may come sometime and with all those nice things you say about her, I feel like she will be able to understand.’’

0 notes

littleindigochildx · 4 years

Text

Savvy and Zee: pt 2

Savanna arched a brow as the woman spoke. Who was this Lilith Zelda was speaking of, and why was her name so terrifying? “You are in Limbo... That’s where I live.” The seven year old tried to explain. “This is my house. I live here with my mommy and my big brother, Timmy. Sometimes my daddy stays here too when he an’ mommy are gettin’ along.” Victoria and Declan had a complicated relationship. It seemed Declan had his hopes set on getting back together once he was released from prison, but Vic knew it was no longer a possibility. They’d keep it civil for the children, but it was time for them to close this chapter of their lives. Working things out was no longer an option. That ship had sailed and no amount of sweet talking (coming mostly from DC) was going to change things.

Now that some of Zelda’s questions were answered, Savanna had some of her own to ask. “Who’s Lilith?” She looked up at the curly haired woman with her bright blue eyes. “Ya said...What in Lilith’s terrifyin’ name...Who is she an’ why is her name so terrifyin’?” The seven year old furrowed her brow. “Does she live where you do?” Savanna’s eyes widened. Until now she had completely overlooked the fact that magic was real. It had to be, otherwise Zelda would be stuck on the pages of her new notepad. She wouldn’t be standing in the child’s bedroom.

“Zelda...Where did ya come from? Where is yer home?” Savvy asked. She took notice of the woman’s features and how they softened. Zelda Spellman was a hard woman to read. Savanna still couldn’t figure out whether or not she was evil. She wanted to believe her new friend was a good person (or witch), but there was something about her that made Savvy cautious of her. Perhaps she could be dangerous, but Savanna didn’t think she was there to cause any physical harm to herself or the rest of the Deschaine family. “How long do ya think ya get’a stay here?” The little brunette quipped.

Savanna wasn’t aware of it at the time, but Zelda had been sent there with a purpose. She was there to save Limbo from something unexpected...Something the seven year old didn’t see coming yet. Zelda was their savior, but neither one of them knew it yet.

“If yer gonna hang out in Limbo for a while...We’re gonna need ta get ya some regular clothes.” Savvy loved Zelda’s clothing, but it definitely wouldn’t help her blend in in such a small town. Victoria probably had something that would fit the witch, but their taste in clothing was definitely different. “Want me ta find ya somethin’...Or can ya use magic?” She still didn’t know how all of this worked. She only had Harry Potter to reference, and she wasn’t sure how accurate those movies were to Zelda’s world.

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

With all the excitement of Zelda’s arrival, Savanna completely overlooked the fact that she had school in the morning. Her day started at 3am, so by the time Victoria came in to officially wake her, the seven year old was exhausted. “Get dressed, butterfly. We can’t be late today.” Vic told her youngest before heading to Timothy’s bedroom to wake him. Zelda’s presence was still unknown to Victoria. Savanna thought it was best to wait until after school to introduce her new friend to her mother.

“I forgot I have’ta go ta school….” Savanna groaned. “Yer gonna have’ta stay here an’ wait for me. Ya can’t come cause school isn’t for grown ups... Not unless yer’a teacher.” The seven year old explained. She was less than thrilled about having to leave, especially when she was so exhausted, but she knew Victoria wouldn’t let her stay home. Not when they just got back from winter break.

“Unless…” The little one smirked as she brushed her messy hair from her eyes. “...I got’an idea!” The wheels were turning in her overactive mind. “...Do ya trust me?” Savanna asked with a mischievous expression. She was definitely cooking up something. “Ya might need’a use some magic though.” The little brunette warned. In order for her plan to work, Zelda would need to make it to Palm Valley Elementary and she would need to play along with the plan Savanna was about to share with her.

“Mommy won’t let me take the day off, but if you came ta school ta pick me up…” Savvy’s grin widened. “We can tell um yer my-- my aunt.” This is where Zelda’s magic would come into play. Savanna knew the school would try to contact Victoria to make sure the woman picking her daughter up was actually family. Zelda would need to intercept the call and forge a note in Vic’s handwriting so Savvy could get out of class. “I’m gonna need yer help for this, and we need’a make sure I’m back before the busses come. If I don’t come home with Timmy, my mommy is gonna be very worried.”

Savanna proceeded to tell Zelda her plan in further detail. The goal was to skip most of the school day so she could show Zelda around Limbo… Maybe even get to take a peek into the witch’s world… If that was even possible. As long as she was back on time, Savvy didn’t see how anything could possibly go wrong. It wasn’t like she’d miss much in terms of work. This week was more about reviewing older material and catching up on work than it was learning. Who cared if the seven year old missed a day? Savanna certainly didn’t.

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

An hour later, the little brunette finished getting ready and was off to the bus stop to head to school. Zelda knew what she was supposed to do. Savanna hoped she’d follow through with it. She was stuck in a world she was unfamiliar with and the only person who knew who she was, was a 2nd grader. What other options did Zelda really have? Clearly she was there for a reason and getting home meant fulfilling whatever request Savanna was about to ask of her. They went over it a dozen times before the little girl left. Zelda was to pick her up for a dentist appointment at 9am. The forged note would do the trick since the handwriting was an exact match to Victoria’s, and the number provided would go directly to Zelda if the school had any questions.

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

Savvy watched the clock. Each minute passed more slowly than the last. The seven year old was nervous… Not because she didn’t think this was going to work, but because she was worried they might not make it back in time for her to catch the bus home with Timothy. That wasn’t the only thing she had to worry about though.

While she was getting ready for school, Timothy wandered into her room and took the notepad she forgot to hide again. He needed paper for a school assignment and Savvy always had more than one notebook laying around. He didn’t see the harm in borrowing one. What he didn’t realize was the power it held. It looked like an ordinary notebook. The only thing that made it special was the fact that it had Savanna’s name on it. Timmy shoved it into his book bag without her knowledge, making a mental note to return it when he got home. He only needed a couple pieces and he knew she wouldn’t miss them.

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

The classroom telephone rang at 9 o’clock on the dot. It was the front office asking the teacher to send Savanna down with her belongings. Whether she’d be back or not was unclear, so they didn’t want her to leave her things behind. “Good luck at the dentist, Savvy.” Her teacher said as she handed the child a hall pass and sent her on her way. This was actually going to work. The little girl thought to herself as she made her way down the hall. She could already see Zelda sitting in the lobby, ready to sign her out. “Aunt Zee!” Savanna grinned, playing along with the story they made up. She needed to make it believable. “I’m ready when you are.” She told the curly haired woman.

So there were no similarities other than their eye color, but Zelda’s performance was good enough that no one questioned her relationship to the Deschaine’s.

Once Savanna had been properly signed out, she and Zelda were free to go. They had to be careful wandering around town since Limbo was small and the odds of running into someone Savvy knew were high. “Maybe we should start with you showin’ me where you live.” The little girl said. She wasn’t even sure if that was feasible. If it was… Would Zelda be taking orders from a child? “Do ya know how ta get back home?” Savanna’s expression softened hoping Zee wouldn’t be stuck in Limbo forever. That was not her intention when she created the witch in her imagination. She didn’t know something like this would happen.

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

While Zelda and Savanna were contemplating what to do with their day, Timmy was still in class. The students were assigned the task of coming up with their own creative story. The eight year old pulled Savvy’s notebook out of his book bag and opened it to a blank page. “A creative story…” He spoke softly to himself. Timothy inherited the creative gene from Victoria, just like Savanna, but coming up with stories didn’t come to him as naturally as they did for his little sister. “Maybe if I draw’a picture…” Sometimes it was easier to come up with a story when he had a visual, so Timmy began to draw.

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

“What is that?” Savanna asked as her blue eyes widened. The sky ahead of them was getting dark and rain in Limbo was rare. “Zelda…Look.” She pointed out. The clouds were an ominous grey, like a storm was coming, but it wasn’t exactly a storm they were headed for. It was a creature from Timothy’s imagination. Everything he put down on paper was starting to come to life. He had no idea of the danger he was putting the town in. “Is that--” Savvy began. For the first time in a long time she was actually scared. She had seen this beast before but she couldn’t remember where. In her dreams? In a movie? ...That’s when it finally hit her. “--The mind flayer!” The seven year old gasped. “He’s real?” Savvy questioned in disbelief. How was all of this possible? The mind flayer was a fictional monster from a show she and Timothy had seen on Netflix. How did it end up in Limbo?

“We got’a stop it, Zee.” The little brunette told her. “We need’a stop it before anyone gets hurt.” Savanna didn’t know if Zelda had the strength or the power to fight such a creature, but they had to try. It wasn’t in her nature to back down from a fight. She was a Deschaine. Fighting back was in her blood.

“We’re not gonna be able ‘ta do this alone. I think we’re gonna need some help…” Savvy spoke again after a few minutes. She had an idea. “We need’a go back ‘ta my house. We need’a get my notebook.” She didn’t know it was with her brother, but her reasoning was simple. If the notebook she drew in brought Zelda back to life, surely it had to work again. Maybe she could draw up a creature powerful enough to defeat the mind flayer (Timmy’s version of it) before it destroyed the whole town. “We’re gonna need some’a yer magic.” The seven year old’s eyes met Zelda’s briefly. “Do ya know anyone who can help us?” As brave as she tried to be, she was worried. This wasn’t the world she was familiar with and she wasn’t going to be able to save Limbo without Zelda’s help.

#savanna ♡ thorne #zelda spellman #auntie zee #savvy and zee #au limbo

0 notes