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#this tag is going to be full of lore details now sorry
Note
yandere rhaenyra x sorceress fem reader (light yandere not really dark preferably) headcanons or another format if you like. -reader can possibly have kids w/ her (which might help when rhaenyra is with laenor is you make her a sorceress from descended from old Valeryia so has the targaryen look & later she can be the one to get pregnant if wanted) -she could also be a dragon rider at one point -viscerys may even love her no matter what the hightowers say because she has magic from old valaryia (might give her more influence than the hightowers do) -meaning rhaenyra could stay in the keep. - laenor stays or you make them get with daemon (or they get together privately if you want to keep laena alive cause the reader can save her)
- reader even be able to save jeoffry I'm going to stop with my ideas as they may go on and on, sorry this was so long I got carried away (I or someone else, or you if you want may be able to turn this into a full on story one day)! Some side platonic yandere shorts could be made from this
hey lovie! so happy to receive this request it was very fun to write :) <3 i would be happy to write more detail in a fic but unfortunately i couldn't go too in depth on this current post but if i do write one up i will tag you :)
pronouns: she/her warnings: both sfw and nsfw sections
SFW
now as a blueprint i'm going to go through a little thought process of reader & rhaenyra
i went down the route of reader keeping majority to Valyrian lore
and i think in this case Rhaenyra would be more of an obsessing yandere
lets say that reader is a descendant of Valyrian blood, perhaps her family escaped The Doom because they foresaw it, perhaps later aligning with Aegon I as he conquered Westeros so long as he kept their family a secret and so he ensured both their safety and their stay under his rule
however things sour after he has passed and they flee
they become a mere rumour and legend which King Viserys ends up telling to his children with fervent delight, dreaming of the day they might return
Rhaenyra drinks this up not only because it is intriguing but also because the beautiful artwork he shows to her look magnificent, fire encircling them and blood locking their promises
she will have pretended as a little girl to be one of these sorcerers, twirling with her mother in patterns befitting ceremonies and copying their olden styles
however as she gets older she pretends to forget the mysterious sorcerers and instead focuses on maintaining her title as heir, demanding the same respect she is sure her ancestors' dear allies must have
and yet one night, when she is tending to her courtly duties, she hears the most humorous little rumour
that there is a witch among the grounds, they whisper
and then it is brought up at a council meeting and her blood heats, a gasp drawing from her mouth in match with the Queen's
they both share a glance, recalling the games they had played as children before the pattering of feet
they expect to see a fearful lamb pleading for sanctuary but instead they find you
beautiful, regal you
Rhaenyra thinks you look more a Queen than either of them and she stands in respect, shocking the court
the men around you gape but you simply smirk in approval "Your grace," You greet, only holding contact with her as you curtsy only so slightly
Alicent coughs and stands also, determined to maintain composure
you explain that you have been orphaned and bring forth the written promise of Aegon I to care for your little family
Alicent requests proof with a concerned stiff expression and you gladly provide
with the flick of your wrist you summon a dragonglass candle from the skirt of your dress and stare deep into the spot in which a wick should be placed
in a flash it alights and broadens before your eyes
gasps enrapture but again you snap your sights on Rhaenyra and only Rhaenyra
she gives the barest of nod "we...hope you enjoy the comforts of court." she merely says and instructs her own personal guard to escort you to the guest chambers closest to her own
she can't get the image of your self-assured expression out of her mind
you are utterly bewitching with your snowy hair and tussled skirts
her sights linger on the ankle that peaks through as you hike up your said skirts
Alicent clears her throat and gives a pointed stare but it takes all of Rhaenyra's self control to settle herself back in her chair but everyone at the table share wary glances
she doesn't see you again until late the next day, requesting your presence for dinner and conveniently forgetting that her husband will be off for a hunt with his...dear friend
excitement shoots through her in powered waves
however she is disappointed to learn that her father too has requested your presence and her family have decided upon a collective dinner so that they may all meet the curious sorceress
Viserys is instantly engaging conversation with you the moment you sit down and before that, greets you in a warm embrace
he is a curious man who knows you too must carry the stories of your ancestors and he is eager to learn
for most of the evening Rhaenyra watches in curiosity, watching how your hair sways and your angelic features resemble her most ardent dreams
she has to restrain herself, grip tightening on her fork
it's that night that she makes her intentions clear to you and she's relieved to see your acceptance
Rhaenyra Targaryen is not one to hide her emotions nor her desires
your relationship is turned into a powerful storm of heat and danger, Otto's eyes narrowing everytime you enter a room
he proclaims you as a most unholy being and one to be banished which Viserys does not take kindly too
instead he is sent far away and Alicent is brought to the highest frustration as you attend almost every family outing or event with Rhaenyra proud at your side in the space her husband used to occupy
if anyone even slightly threatens or questions your presence at court she will be quick to scold and imprison them
going so far as to threaten their head
it's late in your coupling that you whisper sweet words in her ears, describing the imagery of her father's crown atop her head and a child born of you both
she knows all of your family's hidden secrets by now and while she and Laenor have not been graced with an heir by the Gods, you offer both a dream and solution
instead of accepting your offer of fertility in regards to her husband, she tucks back your hair and caresses your face
her lips dip down on yours and then breathes into your ear three sweet word "I want yours," she slips her kisses down your neck and presses your palm to her soft stomach
once the babe is born it doesn't matter whose dominant genes he inherits because with a gentle stroke of his hair it can turn as pale as winter snow
some may still question the child's true parentage considering the early birth and supposed consummation's circumstances do not quite align
but it matters not for your future Queen is determined to instil the confidence of a monarch
where Rhaenyra's tendencies come in I think she could become very smothering and clingy, sticking to you every possible moment that she is able
i could see this being a big relief for both Viserys and Laenor
Viserys' line will be continued and his daughter is happy, he wants to preserve this happiness, if you did request to return to your original home or to wander elsewhere i could see him suddenly developing a 'very important' project that he needs your assistance with
i think Laenor would also attempt to keep you close with his wife
i think i could picture Rhaenyra tricking you into a traditional Valyrian wedding or at least attempting to without explaining the possible repercussions of this
she's impulsive and devoted to you, nothing is out of her sphere of protection
her presence engulfs you with sweet words and soft promises
in this au i could imagine a much happier Rhaenyra in all aspects but it also means giving her the daughter she has always wished for
even more, she adores the fact that you are beside her while whichever one of you births the beautiful darlings with hair so regal and beauty gifted from you
NSFW
she's all too eager to pleasure you
you are the most magnificent beautiful and powerful being she has ever witnessed and she want to show you in every lewd and respectable way she can imagine
her most ardent desire however is the promise you whisper against her soft thighs, speaking of golden crowns and forsaking your duties in favour of delighting your Queen
her favourite though is when you sink your fingers between her lower lips and glide your tongue along her slick
the way your nails tickle her thighs and slide up to pebble her nipples and playing with those sensitive buds
she likes to let go with you
it's freeing to be finally enact upon the fantasies of her teenhood
she says often and plays with the words of you bewitching her, it sends a delightful shiver down her spine
tags: @gracielikegrapes
Hotd Taglist: (bold and italics means you need to check your settings, it didn't work)
@wrendermedone @hopelesswritergall @blackdreamspeaks @its-actually-minicika @gettheetoanunneryimmediatly
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pebiejeebies · 5 months
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This is cancelled sorry
Update on my new object show!! BLISS!!
BLISS: Beware *whats* Lurking Inside *this* Sweet Sanctum (Object show name :3c)
Tw: mentions of mental abuse, full caps, curse words, eyestrain
So basically, the story is about a host (Semi colon) who has tried to get contestants to join her show, but NOBODY cared! So she slowly lost her sanity (haha reminds me of someone.. uhm.. not me..) and thought, “Hey?! What if I just.. MANIPULATE THEM into joining my show by saying ‘Oh look! Cool thingy that cares for objects health blah blah, then BAM! OBJECT SHOW!!” Because in Semi colon’s world, nobody talks about their health, so if there was some sort of free therapy for the inhabitants, they won’t say no! (I know, it’s stupid-)
This is generally a sort of dark humor show (if it wasn’t obvious), about (idk yet) number of “patients” will fall for the trick, thinking they were going for some sort of offline group therapy sessions, to be met with a lame object show that slowly makes them turn on EACHOTHER!! (Yayy another unoriginal show!!! *sobbing*)
And of course, Semi colon.. is going to make sure, they play in her show this time! Not make everyone forfeit before the show starts!!
(Visual reference is going to be hidden for now, I just need to see if anyone is actually interested in this shit lmao!!)
Of course, “we” (as in me for now) will make a separate blog that me, and said team that want to help with this, we will post our beautiful comic type object show, on tumblr!! With extra details like polls and asks!!
I have very big plans, if we all have what we need, this will work out!! 
These are all the roles:
Artist(s) Answers: none - (a person or two, three or four, who will draw/answer most of the asks on the blog!)
Storyboarder(s): none - (a person or two, three or four, who will storyboard my words into action for the comic artists!)
Background artist: none - (a person who will draw backgrounds for the show with full credit!)
Character Model/Prop artist: none - (a person who will draw the models so that the comic artists could use for the show with full credit!)
Comic artist(s): none - (a person or two, three or four, who will make the characters walk, talk, and interact with eachother by making the storyboards into action!)
Character Lore Keeper(s): none - (a person or two, three or four, who will collect all the details for all the characters and keep them safe and private, unless I ask you to post about it)
Co-Host: none - (a person who will take care of all the roles above, and keep everything in its place, while solving the problems that the host couldn’t fix, and a lot more.. btw I’m still going to make some sort of test for this, but tell me if ur interested anyways, )
Host: @pebiejeebies - (me)
and dw, I will give everyone their full credit on the blog! I’ll never steal your work and call it mine <3 (do tell if I’m forgetting an important role too!)
(Keep in mind, I’d like at least two or three artists that are willing to answer the asks! They could go with the flow in the answering section, from scribbles to very detailed and colorful art, this is basically fun for the viewers so they don’t feel useless! The asks will be either about a question for a certain character, or just a curious/normal question!)
What’s the prize? Freedom!! Imagine being forced into an object show, on a very small and limited island, every day losing a part of your sanity with OTHER contestants that are ALREADY are losing their sanity!!! THIS IS GOING TO BE CRAZY FUN!! (crazy? I was crazy once—)
Anyway, that’s about it for the show atm, I still don’t know how many contestants, or who is willing to help me with what exactly or be my co-host incase anything happens to me.
but for now, I need to know if anyone actually is interested in this! 
Do I make the blog?
@bliss-object-show (will be its name, don’t be a bitch and steal it..)
(tagging: @woodrocko, @sillyosclover, @smoken-bagel, @trashbins-stuff, @yourfriendlyshapeshiftermonsters)
because you offered to help me, so yeah, if you like this, dm me what role you want, with an example or two, the more examples, the more likely I’ll choose you!/nf
You can basically show me any scraps of old art, or make new ones, anything will work! But do keep in mind.. I have the complete right to say no.. so even if I hate hurting somebody’s feelings, I will not say yes if I don’t like it.. okay? Okay
I hope you had fun reading this! Tell me what you think, be completely honest (I love hearing other opinions, so don’t worry about sharing a new idea or a recommendation, etc!)
Bye bye!
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sleepyowlwrites · 11 months
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Sleepy's Organic Blorbo Salad
I'm so sorry, dear Kyanite. I was watching Father Brown with my parents.
As per my exchange with @blue-kyber, an organic blorbo is one who springs up and ends up being much more complex and important than previously intended. So here's my salad of organic blorbo vegetables.
Catlan, from my last last line tag, who is an ally of the protagonists in Thief Story. Her thing is that she's from a rival thieving group but mostly does what she wants. (actually I think I spelled her name Katlan when I first invented her so we'll see what I stick with)
Ben Averis, from apocalypse story. He was just a guy from that story I kept not developing, and then he became a proper blorbo when I kept having Thoughts about him, and he's become full of detail and interesting.
Dair Sin'Claybeak, from Summon Story was just going to be an npc, but he's on track to join the questing party now.
the Abisos siblings, from Guild Story. Marz and Mareye were always supposed to have a lot of siblings but I hadn't intended them to be feature characters. but then SIBLINGS FUN! and now they are. we've got Martain: the oldest, he's a good egg, Marisse, eldest daughter, practical and pretty, Marlin, the lore-obsessed inventor adventurer, he's quiet, Marelli, the spunky one, she can't keep her mouth shut, Mareye, the skinstich, she doesn't remember signing up to be the mom friend, and Marz, the youngest, our plucky young lad for this wip.
Teshek, from Portal Story, which barely exists. he's the personal bodyguard to Era, and trying desperately to keep her from harm when she's pretty much incapable of not wandering into trouble at any and all available opportunities. he's always Tired, and has exactly the right amount of mistrust for Era.
Xiyun Jinan, from Guild Story. she's one of those gorgeous and deadly types, with some creature undertones. she'll duel with you, she'll complain about you breaking curfew, she'll take a contract that pisses you off because she thinks it's only logical, and she'll flip her hair at you when she's annoyed. she always tips servers and servants and steals small trinkets from the houses she fulfills contracts for. she's always hungry. she's very smart.
Jemmi, Vern, and Sardha, from Rain Story. I needed side characters and these three came along and were like "did you mean more protagonists?" and I was like, "uh, sure?" Jemmi is the lively daughter of a retired sailor and he and his wife own a tavern now. their food is AMAZING. Vern is a blacksmith's apprentice and wants to learn detailed jewelry and fine weapons work. Sardha is a seamstress with a talent for embroidery who has latent material magic! she doesn't know that.
is that enough for now? I also have a bunch of seedlings, but since my current crop of blorbos is so big, I'm content to leave them growing for now.
uh, is this a tag? might as well be. tell me about your organically grown blorbos! @oh-no-another-idea @zmwrites @ashen-crest @strangerays @incandescent-creativity @memento-morri-writes OR ANYBODY
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yannysif · 10 months
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hello hello, it’s me again! (this is cherookue’s main lol) and i had a question!!
what are your boundaries for asks? such as, are we allowed to discuss nsfw topics, interact with the characters directly, etc? or would you prefer if asks only discussed the game and lore?
Hello Eden! (is it ok if I call you that) Thank you for your interest in the game, it means a lot!
Hmm my boundaries for asks... that's a tough one for me to articulate since all of this is very new to me - I can't say what I might not be uncomfortable with/good at until I give it a shot at least, so right now I'd say I'd welcome pretty much any kind of ask!
To go a bit more in detail, at the moment I would probably prefer asks about characters rather than for them in-character; I think I need to take more time to be more in-tune with them before I can try it myself - it looks fun when others do it! And naturally, asks about game and lore are more than welcome.
As for nsfw... full disclosure, I'm an ace creator and I'm personally not sure if I can do that aspect justice just yet asdfhgjkl. I'm fine working with suggestive content, but full-on nsfw is a different ballpark.
That's not to say I avoid it completely; I know plenty of ace creators who make amazing nsfw content, but I've always mostly looked into it for it's intimacy aspect, rather than the act itself, if you get my point? So, I haven't personally dabbled into that part yet, and I figured it's time to do some actual research on this end of things 😭
Honestly the 18+ tag is mainly for the suggestive and horror aspects, and to keep it open for the possibility I might add nsfw to it, since it's generally very popular in the yan community? But again, atm I have no clue if I'd be any good at it haha... as a hint, I guess I could say I like those fics where the authors write nsfw like it's poetry? Not exactly so but, it really brings out the kind of intimacy I enjoy, and there's a good chance when I try to write something, it will probably try to emulate that feeling as well.
In terms of asks, I could probably answer some general stuff, but nothing too explicit just yet? But at the same time, anyone is free to send in the asks anyways, I could probably set it aside as points for research regardless!
If anything makes me truly uncomfortable I'll make sure to tell you all, but I generally have a good...tolerance? For such things (idk what's the word to use here lol)
Sorry for rambling on, thank you for the ask!
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halfbit · 8 months
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vampire hunter family tree? uh yeah, i sure hope it does
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alright i won't lie i've started like 3 different projects while trying to avoid completing the family tree so for everyone's sake i'm just going to share it in it's current state + some info. feel free to ask about any of the characters on here. most of them are Dead, due to the Passage of Time, but i have at least one detail about pretty much everyone
context
vampire hunting in my vampire x prodigy wip is a family business, and a very old one. these families have a lot of money and dedicate their whole lives to this job, and get into a lot of drama and history with each other in the process. normies get into the business sometimes, but it's very uncommon, they usually end up contracting under one of these larger families.
the top banner is it in its current state, fully zoomed out. there are color markers, here's the key.
orange - current head of family green - living family member yellow - married in (usually keeps surname, unless they were from a non-hunting family) purple - adopted into the family (usually constitutes a surname change) red - disownment
now to zoom IN
this is going to be awful i just realized i cant actually crop things cleanly, bear with me
The Goldenblood Family
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oh this is so unsatisfying. nice.
so the goldenbloods (which was a placeholder name at first but honestly its just kinda stuck, whoops) are the family one of the protagonists is from, and they're pretty unusual and a difficult topic in the vampire hunting scene since rumor has it, they rejected their humanity in order to be the strongest hunters. they have their own circle, and keep close working ties with the owens, arcenciel, wake, and fairhunt families.
few goldenblood tidbits:
iori is named after the fucker from king of fighters. ibis nonbinary really likes birds. devon is transphobic yes this causes tension aunt clara is Scary do NOT fuck with her they're part of the "old families" that have been doing this since it became an occupation, but not the oldest very wealthy even by hunter standards
The Theron Family
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+ the darlings
the theron family is actually complete! they're also a fucking mess. full of bullshit and the source of a great deal of drama. they tend to run in most major hunter circles, but their ties lean hawthorn at the end of the day. especially since the darling family (a family that was founded by a theron member and has always been funded by them) has recently been able to marry in with the hawthorns. the theron family has domain over the sullivans, the farroes, ashdowns, and cardots.
theron facts:
homophobic the current percy is cool though, he's doing his best inheritance drama beware of incest in the middle of trying to pull some bullshit to one-up the winter family two major disownments in their history, and one that they (think) is minor
the other families have a lot less planned out so im just gonna stick to showing these ones for now but yeah :D
i haven't worked on this wip for awhile but it's an old favorite. i got a little wild with the lore.
tagging @macabremoons since they were interested! sorry you have to read all this nonsense.
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hii!!!
i just wanted to say thank you so much for all of your writing!!
the past month has been really really rough for me and the only thing thats gotten me through is reading your work.... i ummm might actually have read through every single work you have on ao3 😅 the way you write is just incredible, i love the personal touch added to everything you write.
its funny because i think you truly excel at writing novels with detailed lore and backstories but my favourites are the cute domestic ones where theyre just neighbours or roommates or whatever. the way you write apartment living is so obviously drawn for your own real perspective in the best way possible and feels so real that i couldnt help but constantly agree with everything you were saying.
your dialog is so natural and fluid i often forget im reading tbh and you never write perfect people, theyre always realistic and fucked up and flawed and amazing. i always believe the world you write around them, and i constantly found myself at the edge of my seat at 5am desperate to know how the fuck they would fix everything.
i appreciate that you take the time to add the trigger warnings in the notes of each chapter, i always felt like i was prepared for what was ahead, or if something was too heavy before going in so i could walk away or go to sleep until i was slightly more ready.
i have maybe accidentally left a few essays in the comments of some of your fics already but i just wanted to let you know at the end of my journey (for now until you write more because frankly im obsessed and will probs go reread something after this just to fill the void) how much your writing has meant to me <3 thank you so much i cant imagine the amount of time, effort and love goes into writing so many full-length novels for free in such a short time span <3
Hello Anon! 
I’m really sorry to hear you’ve been going through a hard time lately, I hope that things have improved since you sent in this message ❤ And if you were able to find an escape even for a few minutes in any of my fics, I’m really glad I was able to help you, even if just a little bit 💕💕
Thank you so much for your kind words ;~; I’m so glad that you enjoyed both the lore-based fics as well as the slice-of-life fics XD And that’s good that it’s realistic enough to obviously stem from real life haha. I’ll be honest some things are fading from memory though (I legit cannot remember how periods in school work, but like, I don’t feel like I should have forgotten that??? I think I just purged school from memory because it was awful HAHA) 
And thank youuuuuu!! I have so much fun with dialogue orz I try sometimes not to write too much of it because I know I write it a lot but it’s just really fun to me XD And everyone’s got flaws, no matter how perfect we all think we are pfft ;) 
I find sometimes something needs to be warned about without being a legit tag, so the end note warnings are the easiest way I found to do that, especially in situations where it’s a spoiler. That way people can read safely without worrying about being triggered because I’m defo not about that |D 
You are seriously so sweet, thank you so much ;~; I’m seriously so glad you enjoyed my stuff and I hope that you keep finding things to enjoy in the fandom as a whole because it’s a fun one :3 Thank you so much for the lovely message, and for any essays you left me on Ao3 <3<3<3<3<3<3<3
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threedrops · 2 years
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MOBILE RULES.
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ANDY  •  21+  •  ANY PRONOUNS  •  LATINO NONBINARY LESBIAN.
indie, private, & selective roleplay blog for snow white from dc’s fables and telltale’s the wolf among us with heavy influences from various iterations of both snow white & the seven dwarves and snow white & rose red. (in order of strongest influence to least influence.)
worldbuilding and affiliation with redveils.
BEFORE YOU PROCEED…
this blog is 18+ due to the nsfw (sexual and otherwise) nature of this blog. minors and blogs without age listed will be soft blocked.
heavily triggering topics will be present on this blog with tagged warnings through writing. examples include sexual / verbal / physical abuse, torture, death, violence, politics, war, the list goes on. visuals are unlikely but will be tagged and put under readmores as needed. triggers are tagged with “ #trigger tw”
my most prominent AU verses are going to be my DC verses - metropolis and gotham. its worth noting i am no expert in dc lore and ive only recently started getting more into it with my girlfriend. i have a competent enough understanding but just be easy on me if im confused on details. im extremely knowledgeable on fables lore, having read every single comic and played the game 100% through, but thats the extent of any in depth dc knowledge for the time being.
INTRODUCTION.
hey! i’m andy! i wrote snow for like… a month a few years back and now im back full force. my activity on this blog will be sporadic and low activity. my girlfriend is redveils / jusright so you’ll be seeing a lot of her and her other characters on this blog; i work a part time, do freelancing, i’m in a committed relationship, have an active social life, and i prefer to write in the novella range which takes a lot of time. oh, and i have adhd. sorry in advance </3
PORTRAYAL.
my portrayal will be preeettyy canon divergent from a character study perspective which will be explained in headcanons and all that. the basics of her character remain the same though so no need to ask about it unless we’re plotting or you’re just curious, for basic interactions not much will change.
i prefer to write ask prompts, drabbles, headcanons, one-offs. i will absolutely do threads but due to my activity i don’t offer them often. i prefer to write multi-paragraph and novella but any length is fine.
dupe friendly but i won’t follow first since a lot of people aren’t. please don’t make it my problem, just block and go if my blog existing bothers you. if you do like dupes, though… hit me up <3
SHIPPING.
this blog, like most of my others, is selective & exclusive multiship. this means i am very picky with my ships and i will only ship with one version of a muse. 
snow’s extremely difficult to ship with without EXTENSIVE plotting due to her tragic ass backstory and tragic ass life. trust issues galore, among other things.
despite this, i am completely aware that snow is going to be one of the most beautiful women in a room at all times. if you think your muse would flirt with her, compliment her, be jealous, or anything else? go for it. i won’t take it as pushing a ship onto me. that happens to snow on a daily basis, just adds some more realism into the thread. and of course the flip side also stands, i’m not expecting your character to come onto her either just because she’s pretty. just like… dont make your character hold back is my point.
my main ship is with redveils ’s red riding hood.
i do not really like snowby (snow white & bigby wolf). my snow does still bear his children in most verses, but i don't care for them together romantically.  i enjoy them as a complicated, tense, messy dynamic and nothing more than that. i will still write with bigby blogs and i have no qualms with him having romantic interest in snow but know that it will not be reciprocated on snow’s behalf. i’d only consider it with a bigby that’s based more in the wolf among us canon than comic canon, but…
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dogcopter · 4 years
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Deepest lore: i was so used to thinking of cat Steven as a stand in for pink pearl that I didnt notice they put Steven and Rose next to each other like the Rose and Cat Steven paintings above them
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and then in Everything’s Fine they pull a classic Rose’s portrait move when hiding Cat Steven’s eyes while Steven is in denial, but once he’s confronted into “exposing” his true feelings, the bkg is now at an angle where Cat Steven’s face is visible again
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The cat Steven portrait was also right next to Rose’s (because of the scale), but notice how far away she is from the Crystal Gems painting. Just like the painting of Garnet and cherubic classic!Steven is about the idea of classic!Steven, the distance between Cat Steven and the team is Steven’s distance from his family (emotional and now literal). Amethyst tricks us into paying attention to Rose’s portrait instead of Cat Steven’s by saying “it’s not the placement, it’s the frame”, but in the end both are relevant.
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northern-passage · 3 years
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Love your writing! I’ve played a few IFs and very few of them stand out in terms of quality: A compelling plot, three dimensional characters, an enjoyable MC, and relevant player choices. Yours is one of them!
Do you have any favorite IFs?
thank you so much!!
since i've started writing, i haven't really been reading IFs like i used to, and there are a lot of newer games that i haven't had the chance to play, and others that i've not had the time to catch up on. but here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:
god of the red mountain by @friendlybowlofsoup - i love this game so much. there is a lot of replayability here and i love the setting & the huge cast of characters. i could go on and on but honestly just go play it if you haven't!
diaspora by @diasporatheblog - another game with a lot of replayability and a lot of really interesting characters. the opening of this game has always stuck with me. also the game design itself is something i aspire to with tnp.
virtue's end (18+) by @crimsiswrites - my fellow monster hunter... another game where i really love the setting, and the worldbuilding with helvlings and their keepers. currently undergoing a rewrite, & i recommend checking out all the info on the blog before playing through the old demo.
project hadea (18+) by @nyehilismwriting - every time i read this game i get an uncontrollable urge to write sci-fi and watch alien. writing is very compelling and i love the alien designs, refreshing to actually see something... alien!!
scout: an apocalypse story by @anya-dev - i am behind on updates (sorry fake fan) but i love scout so much, one of the few games where i really love all of the companions, also we all know i am weak for friends to lovers.... i also really love apocalypse stories that feel... hopeful? and that are about community, rather than individual survival.
crosshollow foundations by @townofcrosshollow - i love the character creation in this one, and i love being an "observer" and guiding the characters in their choices. i've linked crosshollow's itch.io page here because jasper has a few other games that revolve around the universe of crosshollow.
snakeroot & walk with me by @cerberus-writes - cer has such a beautiful way with words... he knows this i scream about his writing all the time & i can't recommend them enough. snakeroot is a modern horror fantasy, another fellow monster hunter! walk with me is a bit different, with bitsy gameplay, where you take a walk and have a conversation with a god.
a tale of crowns (16+) by @ataleofcrowns - another game i am unfortunately not up to date on (i’m so sorry) but i did stay up super late reading the first three or four chapters all at once! a really great fantasy game with a refreshing setting and a really great cast of characters. also love the attention to detail and the small touches that go into personalizing the crown.
body count (18+) by @bodycountgame - oh this game is so fun, fun writing, fun characters, a fun premise! this is actually my favorite kind of modern horror, where a group of fun young adults are off to have a cute adventure or something but then... something terrible happens! murder! maybe an unexpected twist or two! also i love bad reality television so like... truly it’s perfect.
a limber love by @copperspines - ohh i love this game, i’ve played through for all seven endings and i just love speculative horror fiction like this. good atmosphere and i love the illustrations.
the spirited: origins by @yuveim - my other favorite kind of modern horror: ghost hunting!!! really good horror writing in this, and i’m excited to see how the relationships between all the characters unfold going forward, and how exactly we’re going to deal with the whole demon thing...
the exile (18+) by @exilethegame - another game where i really like the character customization and the worldbuilding, and no one should be surprised i like playing characters like the commander. this game has a lot of replayability and lots of secrets to uncover.
blood moon (18+) by @barbwritesstuff - werewolves, ghosts, and vampires, oh my! updates when the moon is full (yes i am behind on this one barb writes so fast it’s insane). a great cast, lots of choices and branching and replayability. werewolves are the superior supernatural love interest and i will die on this hill.
the goodfellows & creature’s cradle by @thecuriouseye - the goodfellows is so interesting, again the worldbuilding and lore in this one is just chef’s kiss!! dark fantasy with giant monsters and heavy consequences. creature’s cradle is a supernatural post-apocalyptic story with zombies, vampires, werewolves, and more. the current demo is short and sweet but i’m excited for more.
boundary pass by @boundarypass-if - as someone who has worked as both a park ranger and a forest ranger, this game really gets me. i love the kind of horror you can only experience when you’re alone out in the wilderness....
when it hungers (16+) by @roast-ifs - i love the setting of this one: fantasy 1910s. really cool species available for character customization, and some good horror writing. i love the team dynamic of the main cast, and how the main character struggles to find their place in it without their memories.
greenwarden by @fiddles-ifs - yet another fantasy horror game! modern setting this time. really interesting main character, with a past that seems to be haunting them... but right now there’s a mystery to be solved and a monster to track.
contrition by @nihilnovisubsole - i’ve recommended this one before but i really love it, the atmosphere, the writing, everything about it... it’s stuck with me and it’s a great read.
this is by no means a complete list of IFs i enjoy but hopefully there is something new for you in here that you like. i’m sure i’m forgetting some that i will curse myself for later... there’s a lot of talent in the IF community and there are a lot of new stories just getting started that i just haven’t had the time to read, but you can always browse my other games tag for newer intro posts as well.
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adarlingmess · 3 years
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Ugnayan
Summary:
Filipino word, noun: connection between persons, groups, countries, etc.
A collection of works detailing a manananggal clan’s relations with the Treses, and their allies.
II: Bad Habits
Summary: After disrupting one of House of Arko’s operations, one of the Kambal meets up with their informant.
Words: 4540
Characters: Basilio, Crispin, Sabina (OC), Alexandra Trese (mentioned only), Ammie (mentioned only), Reyna Manananggal (mentioned only), Dominic Villaceran (mentioned only), Mama Grande (mentioned only)
Relationships: Basilio/Original Female Character
Language: English, with a few Filipino words and phrases sprinkled in.
Rating: 16+
Warnings: Strong language, violence, mentions of abortion, references to human trafficking + sexual trafficking, sexual themes
Author’s Notes:
I am: back on my bullshit again
People were looking for a part 2 so have more Basilio x OC stuff. Spoiler warning for Verdugo: Takutan because this story heavily references its lore and events! The comics are known to be darker in tone, and so is this fic, so heed the warnings above. No Taglish version this time, Darling niyo pagod na 😩
This was supposed to be a simple job.
Get in, rough up House of Arko’s operation while Bossing is paying them a visit in their mansion, get out, and watch as Bossing confronts them about it at the next social gathering they’ll host.
But nothing was ever simple about the aswang, right?
Now there’s a huge one trying to eat Basilio alive.
“Damn it, Basilio. Your recklessness is a bad habit that’ll bite us in the ass later!” his older brother berates him.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever! Now might be the right time to call for backup kuya,” he strains, attempting to pull the  magubat’s jaw apart with his superhuman strength. His fingers slip from the drool and it almost bites his hands off.
Crispin’s busy with a horde of mailap, taking turns in taking pot shots from him in the shadows. “We should’ve taken a page from Carlos’ book and brought palm fronds. Who should we call?”
“What about Maliksi?” Basilio suggests.
“What’s one tikbalang to all these aswangs? We need something bigger, maybe a higante to take on that magubat!”
“Gago, a higante can’t get here as fast as a tikbalang!” Basilio snaps.
“Mas gago ka! What about that playmate of ours from when we were kids, y’know, the one that tipped Bossing off about this whole trafficking operation anyway? Think she can fly her way here?” Crispin growls, shooting down a mailap who was foolish enough to ambush the more cautious twin from above.
Ah, yes. Sabina.
Boyish, intimidating, hard to figure out- but still hot enough to flirt with, despite being aswang; that’s how Basilio would describe her. This Sab was a far cry from the Sabina Marie he once knew years ago, the one who used to wear an all-girl Catholic school uniform, shyly shared her snacks and books with him, and kissed him farewell when her mama told her she’ll not be coming with her to meetings with the lakan anymore.
A few days after they caught up with each other, she turned up at the Diabolical not too long ago with a flash drive for Alex’s eyes only. She didn’t even breathe a word to him, much less look at his direction, but Basilio could only surmise that it’s his fault.
“Sabina? Well, manananggals who follow the queen can shoot. It’s- ungh- worth the shot!” Basilio answers back, straining as he gets swatted to the side with one gigantic claw. “You make the call, my hands are full!”
“Give me your phone, I don’t have her Facespace.”
Basilio looks down from several feet, and gives his brother a sheepish smile. “Uhhh, okay, but she’s been seenzoning me.”
From behind his mask, Crispin frowns. “What did you do?”
“She might’ve seen me tagged in Ammie’s story when I was supposed to watch her gig. I got there when her set was ending, and she was pissed.”
Grumbling, Crispin takes his frustrations off on a mabangis charging towards him, a flurry of bullets raining upon its body. “What did Bossing say about getting personal with informants?”
“What? It’s Sab. She’s-”
“An aswang who might have an ulterior motive in helping us. Tangina Basilio, think with your head sometimes! The one between your shoulders!”
Distracted, Basilio failed to stop the jaws of the magubat from closing in on him. As quickly as his reflexes allow, he tosses his brother his phone.
“Just call already! Tell her it’s an emergency.”
The older Kambal flies up and extends his free hand to catch it. Crispin launches Basilio’s Facespace app and begins to search for their informant. He found her under the name Sab Evasco. Crispin pretended not to see the string of messages Basilio left for her, all left on read.
Her phone rings. One time. Two times. Three times. Crispin dials again. Twice. Thrice.
Someone picks up. He puts the call on the loudspeaker.
There’s someone strumming a guitar in the background, accompanied by a drumset’s cymbals. They come to a halt and Crispin hears a frustrated woman’s voice from the other end of the line.
“Ulol gago, fuck you Basilio, you can tell me if you’d rather go on Starbreaks coffee dates with a wind girl than watch me play.  I’m a grown woman, I can handle a simple ‘no’. I’m not in the mood for your games! Now fuck off, I don’t want to hear from you. I have a gig to practice for.”
Basilio cringes as he listens to Sabina’s tirade. Crispin guns a charging mabangis down, and his mask dematerializes for a brief moment, just enough for him to mouth to his brother “Gago ka talaga.”
“Sabina, it’s Crispin. We could use some backup here. We’re being swarmed by aswang.”
The sound of a guitar being unceremoniously dropped and the mad shuffle to catch it can be heard from Sabina’s line, followed by quick footsteps. Sabina talks again, calmer this time. “What? Couldn’t Basilio get his own ass on the phone and tell me himself?”
With an exasperated expression, Crispin turns on the camera, and points the phone at Basilio, who’s caught between the magubat’s jaws. “He said you were ignoring him, and he can’t get on the phone right now, as you can see.”
The Kambal heard her fumbling with more equipment, which sounded like a guitar case being zipped up and carried. A brief argument with her bandmates follows, then Sabina talks again.
“I’ll be there. Stay on the line.”
Now they wait.
As much as Crispin wanted to help his little brother, his hands were full with the wave after wave of aswang coming after them. They’re relentless. This is their food supply the Kambal are cutting off, after all.
“Any luck with Sab?” Basilio asks, attempting to shoot the roof of the mabangis’ mouth.
The bullets barely penetrate the thick membrane. He’ll need to transform the Armas Infinitum into a more powerful weapon to lobotomize the gigantic aswang, but seeing how he’s separated from his twin, it’s impossible at the moment.
“She said she’s on the way. She’s still on the phone. Here!”
Crispin throws the phone back to Basilio, who catches it with one hand, while his other arm continues to struggle with the magubat trying to swallow him whole. He tucks it in his breast pocket, and he jumps near the row of the magubat’s front teeth, prying it open with both arms.
Through the aswangs’ growls, Basilio could faintly hear a woman cursing and the jingling of keys from the other side of the line.
“Hey Sab! It’s Basilio. Sorry again about missing your gig.”
“Shut up and hang tight. If I didn’t care for you at all...” Sabina snaps. Basilio could barely make out the words Sabina was saying due to the wind and sound of traffic. “I’m on my way.”
“Ngh, can’t you come any sooner? I heard that aswang intestines are nasty.” Basilio pauses, realizing his mistake. “No offense.”
“I said zip it. Isn’t it enough that I went out of hiding and agreed to be Trese’s informant? Now I have to be your backup too?”
“Working with Bossing has its risks. We made that clear, princess.”
“Don’t call me that.”
There’s more turbulence and wind from Sabina’s line. If Basilio guessed, she’s now flying to the scene. The Kambal’s struggle with the aswang continued until they heard their informant’s voice through the speakers again.
“Big bad war demigods can’t handle a single fucking magubat?” Sabina deadpans, the turbulence and noise no longer accompanying her voice. “Open the fucker’s mouth wide. Make sure he’s facing east.”
“Kuya! She’s in the area, help me pry the jaws open!” the younger Kambal shouts to his older brother, who dodges a leaping mailap and quickly flies up to his aid.
“What’s the plan?” Crispin asks, and Basilio shrugs.
“I don’t know, she just asked me to do it!”
Before Crispin could question Basilio, a shot rings throughout the building, and the magubat collapses. The Kambal let go of the heavy jaws and flew away, watching the near-twenty foot aswang crush a few of its regular-sized kind. Upon closer inspection, a bullet has torn its way through the roof of its mouth. It’s a clean shot. The magubat isn’t regenerating, much to the Kambal’s surprise.
It’s a pleasant surprise, nonetheless.
“That’s for trying to eat my brother,” Crispin spits, kicking the dead aswang’s head.
Soon, more of the aswang started dropping like flies, too. Razed by bullets from an unknown assailant, the House of Arko aswangs started to panic.
“Wait a minute, I know manananggals who follow the queen can shoot, but Sabina is a sniper? Do you know about this, Bas?” Crispin exclaims, tearing his eyes away from the dead magubat to face yet another wave of mabangis.
“No! Damn, she’s using special bullets too. Where’d she get those?” Basilio mutters. A mailap attempts an ambush attack, and before he could react, Basilio watches it get shot mid-air as it attempts to jump him.
“You’re mine,” Sabina hisses, her voice crackling through Basilio’s phone speaker, smooth through the static.
Her emphasis on the word “mine” made goosebumps ripple through Basilio’s arm.
“Hot. Could you say that again?”
What he got instead was a groan. “Fuck, don’t distract me Basilio. I’m not here for fun.”
“You seem to be having fun shooting House of Arko’s minions though.”
“Fair. You two better look for the hostages. I have a bone to pick with this lot.”
The Kambal looks at each other, and nods. Glass shatters as they fly out the building’s windows, to the upper floors. After taking care of the guards, they saw them. Men and women in cages, all naked, and herded like livestock. 
“Please, help us,” one of them whimpers, crawling to the front of the cage and grabbing Crispin by the arm. She’s dirty, and her belly is swollen. Basilio turned on the lights and they saw it clear as day: most of these women are pregnant. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on.
House of Arko farms their food, breeding humans like livestock, and harvesting fetuses from them.
Sirens are blaring outside, both from police cars and ambulances, waiting for the hostages to be rescued.
All is well, or so they thought.
“Fuck!”
The cry came from their informant’s line.
“Everything alright?” Basilio asks her after fishing his phone out of his breast pocket.
“There are a few of them who found my vantage point. They’re heading towards my position.”
“Get out of there already, the hostages are secure.”
“They saw me. I can’t let them report back to Mama Grande and her sons that a manananggal is helping you. Suspicion would fall on my clan.”
Crispin nudges his younger brother. “I’ll handle the hostages and wait for Bossing. You make sure our informant’s alright.”
“Way ahead of you kuya,” Basilio replies, taking his guns out and flying out the window.
Under the pale moonlight and the city’s lights, Basilio spots a group of aswang scaling a dilapidated building east of him. On the rooftop, he sees it. Wings black as night, flattened against the concrete. Sabina lies prone and is aiming her scoped hunting rifle downwards, picking off the advancing horde one by one.
“Time to play.” The demigod rushes in and makes bullets rain on the hostiles.
He takes out a mabangis approaching their sniper from her blind spot. Those who didn’t die from being shot fell to their death, regeneration halted either by his or Sabina’s doing.
Basilio descends on the rooftop, and he walks his way towards the manananggal. His mask dematerialized, and the wind tousled his long hair. Just to be safe, he kept a pistol in one hand.
Across him, Sabina takes out her wireless earbuds and puts them away. Then, she slings her rifle on her shoulder, safety on. With her wings, she crawled towards his direction, like how a bat would move. Then, uses her wings’ sharp claws to plant herself on the concrete, a feat regular bats couldn’t do.
“Thanks for the help, Sab. About that gig…”
Before any more words could come out of his mouth, Sabina holds up her forefinger and presses it against his lips. “Shh. No more apologizing about the missed gig. Just make up for it. You owe me.”
Basilio nods, smiling at her. He watches as Sabina fishes out a box of cigarettes and a lighter from her vest. She’s wearing a black, long-sleeved polo shirt underneath it, and its sleeves are rolled up. Her shirt was unbuttoned just enough for him to catch a glimpse of lace peeking through. For all her boyish, edgy posturing, her choice of underclothes is girlier than what Basilio expected.
It almost makes him want to unwrap her like a Christmas present, but he’ll keep that thought to himself.
“Nice outfit. You were rehearsing in that?”
“We had a presentation for a class. No time to get changed. Now there’s a hole in the back, so I might as well wear this more often on future operations,” Sabina replies, placing a stick of Marlborough Reds between her lips.
“I’m in the mood for a smoke and maybe a chat,” she continues. “Join me?”
Basilio nods.
“How did you know about House of Arko’s human trafficking thing, anway?”
“Believe it or not, it was a hunch,” Sabina explains, black fingernails scratching the sparkwheel several times. “Ugh, fucking lighter dying on me again. I just had it refilled… must be the wind,” she growls.
Basilio couldn’t help but chuckle at her frustration. “A hunch?”
“Hmm… maybe hunch isn’t the right word. It’s an educated guess. Mama Grande loved serving boiled fetuses to her house guests, correct?”
Basilio nods, waiting for Sabina to continue her explanation.
“I suppose that it’s my place to judge if their mothers didn’t want to raise them… I’m a manananggal, for fuck’s sake. But there’s one red flag House of Arko failed to hide. From what I can tell, those fetuses are around five to eight months old.”
Sabina’s lighter finally lit up, and with a triumphant laugh, she lit her cigarette. Then, she carries on with her explanation.
“Most abortions happen during the first three months of pregnancy. It’s rare to see expecting parents get rid of them that late.”
“So? What does that have to do with the whole thing?”
“House of Arko serving older fetuses could mean one of two things: either all, and I mean all of the abortions they performed are from those who are truly in need of one that late, or they’re getting them from another source, possibly an illicit one. They don’t have the most benevolent reputation, so my intuition tells me it was the latter. So, I paid the place a visit and recorded what I could. I guess I should be thankful that your bossing found that blurry video trustworthy enough,” Sabina concluded, watching as the victims were clothed and herded into ambulances.
Dumbfounded, Basilio scratches his head. “Wow. Glad you’re on our side. How did you know that three month thing anyway?”
“Research and personal accounts.” Sabina’s response is clipped. Cold. Abrupt. It only raised more questions than answers.
“Personal accounts? You’ve met people who got them?”
There’s a flash of regret in Sabina’s eyes; regret that she opened her mouth and let him know more than needed. She cuts him off. “I can’t put my informants’ identities in jeopardy either now, can I?”
Per his older twin’s advice, Basilio’s finally using the head between his shoulders. “No offense, but you’re a manananggal. Y’know, known for eating babies? Hearing that from you is suspicious.”
“Yes, I am,” Sabina says through gritted teeth, glaring at him. “I can assure you, I’m following the accords and I’m not exploiting loopholes like what House of Arko is doing. I’ll reveal everything in due time.”
“Alright, keep your secrets. For now.”
A tense silence has befallen them.
“So- '' the manananggal blows a cloud of smoke away from Basilio, “-is this going to be a regular thing? Because if it is, I might finally quit smoking. Nicotine makes my hands shaky. Can’t risk accidentally shooting your ass.” She pauses, looking at him in jest. “ I’d rather do that intentionally.”
“You’re breaking my heart, Sabina Marie,” Basilio retorts, clutching his chest in mock pain.
They share a laugh over it, the mood lightening up.
Basilio looks in the distance, taking in the view of the cityscape. “Maybe you should quit. Singers shouldn’t be smoking in the first place.”
“The tar helps me belt out raspy screams, but yeah, you’re right,” Sabina chuckles.
“So, when is this next gig?”
“Next week. In Ilocos Norte. All the way up in House of Arko’s ancestral home.”
“Should I take that info to Bossing?”
“Yep. It’s open to the supernatural public anyway, so it's not like I’m giving you top secret info. Even the wind tribe is invited, despite their bad blood with my clan. Hopefully things won’t get physical. Most of my sisters are still bitter over how they blew us away when my mom- I mean, Inang Reyna decided to side against the Treses.”
So that explains some things.
“I dunno, maybe I should bring Ammie so I can watch the two of you in a catfight.”
Sabina elbows him in the chest, hard.
“Not funny at all, Basilio. I don’t even know her personally! It’s you I was pissed at.”
Now he grabs his chest in genuine pain as he croaks out an apology. “Sorry.”
“Whatever. Bring whoever the hell you want, just keep your distance from me when you decide to go. Even my father’s going to be there. I need to be on my best behavior.”
The demigod turns to their aswang informant, interest piqued. She’s divulging a lot of information. Perhaps he can sway her to spill more secrets.
“Didn’t know that the Reyna Manananggal had a king.”
“Oh, no. She’s not the type to share her power with a man.” Sabina pauses to take another hit of her cigarette. “I meant my biological father. Villaceran.”
Now that was unexpected.
“You drop bombshell after bombshell whenever we meet. Tomas Dominic Villaceran’s your old man?”
“Look at me. I’m almost the splitting image of the guy. If there’s one thing I’m grateful for, it’s inheriting his good looks.”
Basilio grins. “Can’t deny that. Most of the manananggal kuya Crispin and I encountered look...”
“Hideous, I know,” Sabina says outright. “You still haven’t seen that side of me, so don’t be too quick to judge my sisters.”
Basilio treads carefully, knowing that he might be prying on a sensitive subject. “So, about Villaceran…”
“I’d rather not talk about him. Our relationship is… strained.”
Giving her a sympathetic, understanding look, Basilio nods. “Right. Never mind.”
Another interval of silence passes between them. This time, it’s a little somber.
“So, does this party have a dress code?”
“Yeah. Filipiniana. Wear a barong. It’s one of those pretentious events that attempts to make House of Arko more appealing to the masses or whatever. Manipulative assholes.”
“You can just refuse to go, Sab.”
“I could, but being Trese’s mole among the aswang means I have to attend clan activities to supply more information. That also means attending every single party those Arko fucks throw.”
“You really hate House of Arko, huh?”
Looking towards his direction to meet his gaze, Sabina’s eyes are filled with a sea of emotions. Hatred, indignation, and something Basilio couldn’t quite place.
“Why wouldn’t I? Mama Grande raised boys who can’t take no for an answer. The Arko brothers have no respect for us manananggal. As if we weren’t fetishized enough in Manong Karma’s stupid aswang dating book...”
Sabina clears her throat and calms herself down. Bad blood between aswang clans could mean war. Basilio knows he should take that to the boss. His gears are turning tonight. He asks Sabina questions that could risk her support.
“Is that why you agreed to be an informant? You wanna bring House of Arko down? Then what, your clan will fill the space they’ll leave?”
“What? No, I have no desire for power, not like how Mama Grande or my own mother does anyway. My personal gripes with them aside, the House of Arko wants to ‘unite the aswang under one banner’ with no respect to the other clans’ autonomy and customs.”
“So you wanna protect your clan?”
“That’s one of the reasons, yes. Mama Grande’s been trying to play kumare with mom- I mean Inang Reyna-” This is the second time Sabina slipped and called her mom. She clears her throat and composes herself. “And I need to stop that. Inang Reyna already made the mistake of going against the Accords once. Allying with the House of Arko will ruin us further.”
Basilio leans in closer. “And what are your other reasons?”
Sabina looks at him for a few, quiet seconds, and looks away. “I’ll reveal them-”
“In due time. Yeah, yeah, I can take that as an answer. So, making you sing in that event is a result of them being magkumare?”
A defeated laugh bubbles from Sabina’s chest. “You got it.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t invite sirena to sing.”
Sabina rolls her eyes and tosses the butt of her expended cigarette on the concrete. Basilio took it upon himself to crush the embers under his heel, seeing how her lower half is hidden someplace else.
“Oh please, this is House of Arko we’re talking about, Bas. They believe aswang are superior. Letting them shine would take away the spotlight from the aswang. Mama Grande asked for me from Inang Reyna so they can gloat that even aswang can make better singers than the famed sirena. Ugh, I doubt my singing style even matches the performance they want from me.”
“Oh yeah? What kind of performance are they going for?” he asks her.
“Now that’s another secret. You have to show up to find out,” she hums in response.
Turning away from him, Sabina checks how many sticks are left in the box. Two. She takes one and lights it up.
“Screw it, I’m going cold turkey. I guess this will be my final box. Maybe for tonight. Maybe forever.”
“Then maybe you should stop with the stick you’re smoking and throw the last one away,” Basilio suggests.
“Are you mad? That’s a waste of money!”
“Still counting your blessings even with your mama’s wealth huh?”
“Old habits die hard.”
Sabina blows smoke away from Basilio’s direction. The wind made it waft to his face anyway, and she mumbles a quick apology. He shrugs it off. Not like the adverse effects of secondhand smoke affected him anyway. Hank smoked and was polite enough to turn away too, but Basilio can still smell it. He didn’t mind it. Still, Hank had told him and Crispin that it was a tough habit to break, so he never touched a cigarette.
Not until now.
Basilio takes the box from Sabina and picks up the last stick with his lips. Then, he inches closer to her.
Ironically, in an attempt to help an old friend quit her smoking habit, Basilio engages in it himself.
Little did he know, a new bad habit was forming between him and the little lady before him.
“I’ll make sure it won’t go to waste then. Light me.”
Sabina raises an eyebrow. “Just don’t start at all. Give it back.”
“One smoke isn’t going to get me hooked, princess.”
Brows knitted together, Sabina chastises him. “Take it from me, bad habits start with just one little taste, Bas.”
“One little taste never hurts anyone...”
“One little taste could leave you wanting for more.”
Basilio can feel himself getting hot under the collar. He’d never thought an aswang of all creatures could make him feel all bothered, yet there he was, getting turned on by her choice of words.
“Princess, are we still talking about cigarettes, or something else?”
Hearing his question, Sabina exhales sharply through her nose, cheeks dusted pink. “Maybe both. Whatever. Come here.”
Black fingernails scratched at the sparkwheel. Sparks were flying, but there was no flame. The cigarette remained unlit.
“Well, it looks like fate isn’t letting you smoke, so better just give me the damn cigarette back, Basilio.”
With a sly look, Basilio closes in on her, and presses the end of his cigarette to the embers at the end of hers, linking them together.
To his surprise, Sabina is neither backing away nor babbling defensively like she usually does whenever he gets close. Instead, she presses her chest to his, a challenging look in her half-lidded eyes. She wasn’t wearing her glasses like usual, giving Basilio an unobstructed view of her heated gaze. Was it bloodlust or desire? Either way, it got his blood pumping.
“You’re chattier than usual tonight,” Basilio comments. “Bolder too. I like that.”
In the form she’s in now, Sabina’s eyes glowed an eerie white, and aside from the wings sprouting from her back, little horns sprouted from her scalp, the root concealed by her crown of short, wavy hair. Basilio didn’t pay mind to her dangling guts, instead, his eyes were transfixed on that cute little lace bra again.
Through the layers of cloth between them, he can feel her heart beating. Basilio faintly remembers the taste of human and sigbin hearts.
Now, what does aswang heart taste like?
A dark part of his psyche- perhaps from being Datu Talagbusao’s son- wanted to tear it out of her chest and eat it to find out.
Basilio felt the urge to taste all the battles she fought through her blood, and possess her heart in a way no other person can.
The memory of seeing his father tasting his mother’s blood inserts itself in the present, and the fear of turning into the monster he was is enough for him to shake that thought away.
Basilio tries to focus on something else.
His eyes wander to Sabina’s mouth. He might’ve imagined something else between her dark lips, in place of the cigarette. Something bigger.
Something of his.
Sabina’s been pliable tonight. Perhaps he’ll push his luck with her one last time.
“So, any plans tonight, dear princess?”
“Unless you intend to treat me like one, don’t call me that.”
“I’m done with work, so if you want me to make good on that and make up for my mistake…”
Giggling, Sabina flies a few feet away from him. The black wings on her back are translucent against the pale moonlight. They almost looked like a dark shade of red.
“Go tell your brother about the information I gave you for now, then meet up with me afterwards. I hid my lower half in an alleyway behind that motel,” she tells him, pointing to the building’s direction.
“If you’re lucky, you’ll get to rearrange my guts. Literally and figuratively.” Sabina continues, a naughty smirk blooming on her lips.
Taken aback by the pun, Basilio laughs. “I didn’t think you were capable of dirty jokes.”
“You should know by now that I’m full of secrets and surprises.”
Grinning darkly, Basilio finishes the rest of his cigarette as he watches her fly away.
“And I’ll uncover them all, dear princess.”
Translations:
ulol - crazy; Filipino profanity
gago/gaga - foolish or stupid; Filipino profanity
tangina - contraction of putang ina, lit. whore mother. Used as an expression to express irritation, anger, or astonishment
Inang Reyna - lit. Queen Mother.
mare/kumare - derived from the Spanish word madre/comadre; kumare a reciprocal appellation for the godmother or for the child's mother. In a more modern and colloquial context, it’s used to refer to a female friend. Magkumare means women who are friends with each other.
Filipiniana - Philippine related book and non-book material
barong - also known as Barong Tagalog. An embroidered long-sleeved formal shirt for men and a national dress of the Philippines.
94 notes · View notes
lulu-zodiac · 2 years
Text
Hidden in Plain Sight
Pairing: Dean Winchester/Jeremy Bradshaw
Tags: Early seasons Dean, pre-podcast Professor Bradshaw, denial, unresolved sexual tension, bickering, smut, gratuitous owl references, case fic
Summary: It's the fall of 2006, and a string of grisly deaths linked to local lore brings Sam and Dean to the village of Bridgewater. There, Dean finds himself working closely with the frustrating and unexpectedly compelling Professor Bradshaw.
---
Dean feels about as comfortable in old colleges as he does in churches. There’s the same sense of exclusivity, that same reverence of things Dean has spent his life stuck on wrong side of. This campus even feels a little like a church, with its old architecture and sprawling ruby ivy and slit windows like narrowed eyes. His footfalls echo heavily along the cold stone corridor, making him feel uncomfortably aware of his own existence.
The door he’s looking for is old and made of oak, nestled in an alcove near the staircase, with a small plaque on it that reads Professor J Bradshaw.
Dean pauses for a moment, then knocks abruptly, suddenly noticing his knuckles are still smudged with earth. From within, a muffled voice instructs him to enter, and he does so, wiping his hand surreptitiously against the side of his leather jacket.
The first thing that hits him is the sheer volume of books in the room; they clutter every available surface, piled high in front of the big bay window like a strange line of defense. There are stacks of loose papers everywhere too, haphazard but clearly organized, some held in place by empty coffee mugs or odd-looking artefacts. The air is bright and warm, like this room catches the sun when it’s slow and mellow in the afternoons.
The second thing that hits him is the man sitting at the desk.
He doesn’t look up at Dean’s entrance, continuing to scribble away in a leather-bound notebook with intent dexterity, seemingly utterly lost in his own thoughts. He’s not what Dean expected; surprisingly young, maybe approaching forty, with a sharp jaw and tousled hair that just brushes his broad shoulders. When Dean clears his throat awkwardly, the man finally looks up with striking blue eyes that immediately pin Dean in place.
“Yes?” his voice is inquiring and several octaves deeper than Dean would have imagined, low and gravelly. He sets down his pen, looking at Dean with piercing focus.
“Uh – hey. Professor Bradshaw?” Dean feels distinctly self-conscious.
“Who wants to know?” the man closes his notebook with a snap and stands with surprisingly fluid ease, eyes still intent on Dean as though he’s cataloguing him.
He’s wearing a faded navy-blue sweater with the sleeves rolled up, slightly crumpled shirt tails poking out at the hem, just visible.
Drawing on years of sizing people up, Dean guesses that the guy probably has no one to go home to at night. If he goes home much at all, that is; the office has a distinctly lived-in look. It’s strangely reminiscent of the makeshift home feel of the impala’s interior.
“Um – Dean. Dean Collins,” Dean answers hastily, suddenly realizing he’s spent a little too long looking. “I’m uh – a student in one of your classes,” he lies the best way he knows how: with a charming smile. “I was wondering if you’ve got a moment? I was hoping to ask you a couple of questions about your work.”
“Come in, please,” Professor Bradshaw sits back down behind his desk, and gestures for Dean to close the door. “Take a seat.”
“Thanks,” Dean shuts the door and awkwardly removes three hardback books and a small, slightly drooping fern from the only available seat in front of Professor Bradshaw’s desk.
“Sorry – let me –” Professor Bradshaw leans over the desk to relieve Dean of the books and the plant. Close up, Dean can see faint lines softening the corners of his vivid eyes, and when he breathes in, he catches a hint of peppermint and the musk of warm skin, strangely compelling. Their hands brush for a moment as Professor Bradshaw takes the items, and Dean flinches, jerking away and planting himself firmly on the chair.
“So – Dean, yes?” Professor Bradshaw settles back into his seat. He’s still looking intently at Dean, gaze startlingly blue.
Wordlessly, Dean nods. He doesn’t know why he can feel the heat creeping up his cheeks.
“You’re not in any of my classes, Dean,” Professor Bradshaw says, with a slight edge to his voice. He reaches for a half-drunk mug of tea on his desk, expression skeptical.
Dean feels his stomach drop. “Uh, yeah – I’m new, just transferred a couple weeks back,” he bluffs quickly, but it sounds weak even to his own ears. He feels strangely flustered, visible.
“No, I don’t think so,” Professor Bradshaw says, flatly. “I believe I would have noticed,” he adds, wryly, with a kind of impatient warmth in his expression that makes Dean’s cheeks flare with heat all over again. Professor Bradshaw merely swallows a mouthful of tea and sets the mug back down, still looking at Dean. “So. Who are you?”
“Alright,” Dean puts his hands up in mock-surrender, smiling wide even though he feels stupidly on edge, knocked off course. “You got me. I’m – uh – a journalist. My boss has me writing a piece on local legends, and I was hoping to pick your brains. Heard you’re the expert on all that stuff around here, and thought I might be in with a better chance of talking to you as a student instead of some annoying reporter.”
“I see,” Professor Bradshaw leans back in his chair, contemplative. A shaft of sunlight filters through the bay window behind him, illuminating a hint of tawny in his dark, untidy hair. Dust motes hang everywhere like suspended snow. “Well, luckily for you, Dean, I find that my students can be just as annoying as reporters. And I still talk to them on a daily basis.”
Dean grins a little awkwardly, “Yeah?”
“Of course, I do get paid to do that,” Professor Bradshaw adds, dryly. “But perhaps I do them a disservice. Some of them are really quite inspiring.” He pauses, raising his mug to his lips. It has an owl on it, Dean notices absently. An overly fluffy one, with a slightly threatening glare. “I daresay I can spare five minutes. What is it that I can do for you, Dean?”
“Uh, so you study the supernatural, right?” Dean asks, clumsily. His hands are sweating where they’re shoved in the pockets of his jacket. “Ghosts and demons and all that shit?”
“I study the lore and mythology of supernatural beings, and why it’s important to humans to create such stories,” Professor Bradshaw clarifies, shortly.
“Right, got it,” Dean agrees, hastily. “But you’d know a bit about the Bridgewater coven?”
“I am familiar with the legends, yes,” Professor Bradshaw replies, reaching for his mug again. There’s an ink stain on the side of his index finger, smudged deep blue. Dean fleetingly wonders if it would rub off easily if he touched it, if it would leave a ghostly imprint on his own skin.
“Yeah – uh – so there’s been quite a lot of interest in the coven recently,” Dean blusters, annoyed with himself for how stupidly flustered he feels, “You know, since those bodies were found last week? At the burial site in Bridgewater Forest that’s associated with the legend? Yeah. Well, anyway, I was – hoping you might be able to tell me a little more about the legend of the coven.”
“I don’t see what the recent tragedies could possibly have to do with the legend,” Professor Bradshaw narrows his eyes skeptically.
“Right – yeah – nothing, I’m sure,” Dean lies hastily, “But the location of the crimes has definitely raised awareness about the existence of the legend, and that’s what we really want to provide for our readers.”
“Well, certainly, I can tell you the history,” Professor Bradshaw replies, briskly, “In fact, I teach an undergrad course on witchcraft in history and my lecture this Wednesday actually covers the legend of the coven. If you want a more detailed, nuanced version, you’re more than welcome to come along then – it’s at 11am in the Milton building. But I’m happy to give you the short version now, if that would be helpful?”
“Thanks – yeah, that’d be great,” Dean says, gratefully. “On a bit of a tight schedule today.”
“Well, the local legend about the Bridgewater coven has existed for almost two hundred years,” Professor Bradshaw starts, and immediately Dean can picture him talking in front of a lecture theatre full of kids. He’s a natural, something inherently captivating about the way he speaks. “In the 1800s, this village was an important site of religious pilgrimage. However, according to the legend, the village was also home to a small coven lead by a witch named Iris. Iris’s coven was said to have lived in secrecy in the forest on the outskirts of Bridgewater for years, and not to have troubled the village people. However, by 1816, the legend claims the coven had become very hostile, specifically towards the church. There were fears the coven had begun indoctrinating – or bewitching – members of the congregation.”
Professor Bradshaw pauses, swallowing another mouthful of tea. The muscles in his throat work, drawing Dean’s attention to the way his pale blue shirt isn’t buttoned up properly. He’s filled with the sudden, inexplicable urge to button it up correctly.
“More and more people started disappearing in connection with the coven,” Professor Bradshaw continues, setting his mug back down on the desk, and Dean jerks his gaze guiltily away from the line of his throat, clenching his hands into fists inside the pockets of his leather jacket. “The rapidly diminishing congregation lived in terror. The remaining members of the church all turned against each other. Then, at the height of local hysteria, Iris is said to have murdered Blanche, the minister’s daughter, in what is portrayed in the lore as some kind of statement of the coven’s power over the church.”
“Bet that didn’t go down too well,” Dean remarks, sardonically.
“Quite,” Professor Bradshaw catches Dean’s eye, an amused smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Anyway, according to the legend, the tragedy of Blanche’s death united the warring members of the congregation. They captured Iris and entombed her alive, using her own magic against her to keep her trapped. Iris’s death broke the spell on the members of the congregation who’d been indoctrinated against their will, and peace was restored to the village. The few remaining members of the original coven fled and were never seen again.”
“Wow,” Dean raises his eyebrows, “Very love-thy-neighbor.”
Professor Bradshaw snorts, “Yes. Religious leaders in the 1800s were renowned for sitting down and resolving their problems through compassionate discussion,” he remarks, dryly.
“Okay, but what about the other versions of the legend?” Dean asks, trying to remember the things Sam had told him to ask about, but drawing a total blank. His brain feels weirdly scrambled. It’s hard to remember what happened before walking into Professor Bradshaw’s office. “The other stories about the coven I’ve come across so far all seem pretty different.”
Professor Bradshaw frowns slightly. “It’s true, there are many conflicting accounts. Which is often the case with legends, being human constructions of the past,” he regards Dean slightly disapprovingly over the rim of his owl mug, a kind of skeptical stubbornness in the set of his mouth. “It’s not about knowing which ‘to believe’ – it’s about looking at why historically people have favored one version over the other and what that tells us about them.”
“Right, yeah, but aren’t legends often based on fact?” Dean pushes.
Professor Bradshaw pauses, contemplatively, “Yes. That’s certainly true in some cases.”
“Do you think it’s the case in this one?”
“Possibly,” Professor Bradshaw replies, haltingly. His expression is serious and he hesitates for a moment before elaborating; “In fact, I’m currently writing a paper about the historical figures who feature in the legend of the Bridgewater coven.”
“Yeah? Which ones?” Dean presses. He’s used to having to fake interest to get information out of people like Professor Bradshaw, but for once, he finds he’s genuinely interested. There’s something compelling about Professor Bradshaw’s evidently obsessive quest for obscure answers, something that resonates with all too much familiarity.
“Iris, predominantly,” Professor Bradshaw replies. “I’m very interested in the historical reasons women were condemned as witches. Often, it’s as simple as jilted male lovers using accusations of witchcraft as a means of revenge, or the women using herbal remedies that threatened contemporary male ideas of medicine and the body. Sometimes it’s to do with female homosexuality and society’s unacceptance of same sex relationships or women as sexual beings. Of course, it wasn’t uncommon for gay men to be condemned for witchcraft either. But statistically, more homosexual women died as a result of such accusations.”
“Uh – right –” Dean swallows, looking away. His hands are sweating again, and he wipes them surreptitiously on the insides of his pockets. Clearing his throat, he changes the subject, suddenly remembering the other thing Sam had told him to ask Professor Bradshaw about, “What about the runes?”
“Ah yes, the runes on Iris’s supposed tomb,” Professor Bradshaw’s gaze is suddenly inscrutable in a way that makes Dean’s heart thud uncomfortably in his chest. It sweeps over Dean, lingering and unnervingly blue for a moment, before he continues, “Very interesting. I’ve been studying them a great deal as part of my research. The true nature of them has always remained a mystery, and any attempts to discern their meaning haven’t fitted with the legend at all. I believe they may be key to understanding the history behind the creation of the legend. But,” he smiles, wryly, “It’s not an easy task. They’re unlike any runes I’ve come across anywhere else before.”
“Can I see?” Dean asks, partly out of interest, and partly for some way of distracting himself from the way his heart is still thumping uncomfortably fast.
“You’d have to visit the forest burial site to see them in person, but I do have a couple of sketches of the lines I’m working on at the moment,” Professor Bradshaw gets to his feet and crosses to the cabinet by the window, pulling the top drawer open.
The fall chestnut trees outside smolder amber behind his silhouette, midday sunshine pale gold and still where it filters through the window. Time seems strangely irrelevant. Dean watches as Professor Bradshaw flicks through a green binder, fingers quick and dexterous, skilled and uncalloused in a way Dean’s have never had the chance to be.
Dean swallows and looks away, ignoring the thud of his heart as he stares around at the rest of the room. He clocks a bunch of compendiums of mythology on the bookcase nearest him, and two other eccentric and slightly neglected looking plants. There’s a thick plaid rug on the couch in the corner, not quite concealing a plate of half-eaten toast. On the windowsill, there’s a little tin mug with a toothbrush in it that makes Dean wonder again just how often Professor Bradshaw goes home at all. He finds himself wondering whether Professor Bradshaw has always had nothing but an empty house to return to, or whether that’s a more recent development. He’s definitely old enough to be going through a divorce. The thought sits uncomfortably in Dean’s chest for reasons he doesn’t particularly want to identify.
“Here we are.” Professor Bradshaw’s gravelly voice, suddenly much closer, makes Dean jump. He glances around to find Professor Bradshaw standing beside him, holding out a sheet of paper. The smell of warm skin and peppermint catches Dean off guard, stronger this time, and still strangely compelling.
“Uh – thanks,” Dean says awkwardly, taking the proffered page. He feels Professor Bradshaw’s fingers brush against his fleetingly, warm and ink-stained.
Dean swallows, forcing himself to focus on the page in front of him even though his cheeks are hot with something he doesn’t want to think about. The sketches are good, a few strange vaguely Norse reminiscent symbols drawn hastily with accompanying, scrawled notes in the margins. There’s something about the runes that niggles at Dean’s brain, familiar and unfamiliar all at once, like something he’s known his whole life but can’t put his finger on.
“These are interesting,” Dean he frowns, tracing his finger along the two last symbols.
When he glances up, he finds Professor Bradshaw looking at him intently, blue eyes inscrutable. “Yes,” he says, leaning back against the desk and folding his arms across his chest. “Those are the ones which struck me too,” he’s speaking a little quieter, low voice distracting Dean from why the runes are so familiar. He hopes he can remember them, that Sam will be able to place what he can’t about them.
“So, uh, this tomb. The one with the runes on it – that’s definitely where that guy’s body was found last week? It wasn’t just nearby or something?” Dean forces himself to ask, ignoring the way his heart is suddenly thumping again. “And the girl found the week before – she was directly linked to the burial site too?”
Professor Bradshaw clears his throat, unfolding his arms. “I believe so, yes.”
“And that doesn’t seem – I don’t know – a little strange, to you?”
“Human beings committing violent acts against each other is generally something I find a little strange,” Professor Bradshaw replies, in clipped tones. “But beyond that – no. Now –” he breaks off, glancing at his watch. “I’m afraid I have a seminar to deliver in ten minutes,” he confesses, and there’s something unfinished about the way he says it, something almost reluctant. Like he half wants to stay here talking with Dean.
“No problem,” Dean stands, and takes a last glance at the sketches before handing them back, trying to commit them to memory. “Thanks, Professor.”
Their eyes meet as Professor Bradshaw accepts the page, and the room suddenly feels very airless, a pause suspended between them. Neither of them moves away.
This close, Dean can see miniscule flecks of grey like tiny stars lost in blue of Professor Bradshaw’s eyes, the way that his full lips are slightly chapped, like maybe he worries them between his teeth when he’s thinking. They’re soft pink and warm-looking, and Dean wonders fleetingly if they taste like peppermint tea.
“It was nice meeting you, Dean,” Professor Bradshaw says, gently, and his eyes are so blue.
“Uh – yeah – you too. Thanks. I’d – uh – I’d better get going,” Dean stammers, shoving his hands deep in his pockets and cursing the way his cheeks are suddenly flaming with heat. His thoughts churn unsteadily; he ignores them the way he’s learnt to.
Still feeling strangely wound-up, he nods awkwardly at Professor Bradshaw and turns reluctantly towards the door.
“Wait a moment, Dean –” Professor Bradshaw’s voice halts Dean in his tracks as he reaches the door, and Dean turns expectantly, heat thumping a little painfully.
“Yeah?”
“Here – you’re welcome to borrow a couple of books on local history,” Professor Bradshaw is pulling a couple of books down from the overflowing cabinet by the window. “They should have a bit more about the legend of the coven that you might find interesting. Divergences of the legend and so forth. I’ll need them back by Thursday morning as I’m teaching a class on them in the afternoon, but you’re welcome to borrow them until then if they’d be helpful.”
“You sure?” Dean takes the proffered books awkwardly, and swallows the strange disappointment sinks in him like a stone as Professor Bradshaw steps back again. “Thanks.”
“As I said, I’m also giving a lecture on Wednesday where I’ll be examining the history behind the legend of the coven. I meant what I said - you’d be more than welcome to attend,” Professor Bradshaw says, sincerely. His eyes are intent, and there’s a hint of something almost like hopefulness hidden in the depths of his gravelly voice. Working on long ingrained instinct, Dean chooses to ignore it.
“Thanks, I’ll – I’ll see what my schedule’s like,” Dean replies, haltingly.
“Of course,” Professor Bradshaw agrees. He turns back to his desk.
“Can I ask –” Dean pauses, watching Professor Bradshaw stuff another notebook and a stack of handouts into his briefcase. “You said you’re writing a paper about the runes at the forest burial site– do you go to there much?”
Professor Bradshaw glances up, distractedly. “Yes, I spend time there every week.”
“So you haven’t noticed anything – I don’t know – anything unusual when you’ve been there recently?” Dean ventures.
“Unusual how?” Professor Bradshaw closes his briefcase with a snap and looks up at Dean properly, eyes narrowed with sudden skepticism. It’s stronger than the hints Dean has caught at other points during their conversation, sharp and blue, a world away from the observant warmth of a few moments ago.
“I dunno – odd noises, sudden drops in temperature, shadows –”
“Just what are you asking me?” Professor Bradshaw demands, voice clipped and defensive.
“Have you seen anything like that?” Dean presses, stubbornly. Irritation prickles his skin.
“No, I haven’t,” Professor Bradshaw says, bluntly. “And you know why? Because yes, I study the supernatural – but it’s not real, Dean. I don’t know what kind of sensational article you’re writing about local lore, but I can assure you, lore is all it is.” He winds a striped scarf haphazardly around his neck, and grabs his briefcase off the desk. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a class to teach.”
-
Sam is eating some gross looking granola yoghurt pot with a plastic spoon when Dean eventually clambers back into the car, feeling distinctly frustrated.
“You took your time,” he remarks idly, raising an eyebrow as Dean adjusts the mirror with an unnecessary amount of force and turns on the ignition.
“Goddamn waste of time was what it was,” Dean mutters mutinously, pulling out of the space and then immediately being forced to hit the brakes when a cluster of students cross the parking lot in front of him. He grinds his teeth and resists the urge to honk the horn. “Thought I was getting somewhere but he completely shut down the minute I asked him if he’d noticed anything weird at the burial site.”
“Suspicious?” Sam frowns, through a mouthful of granola.
“No, don’t think so. Just really damn touchy,” Dean drums his fingers impatiently against the wheel as he waits for the students to move, “And a bit of an asshole. I dunno, suppose working in his field he’s probably used to people thinking he’s just some lunatic who believes in the supernatural.”
“And does he?”
Dean snorts. “No way. He’s got a real bee in his bonnet about it. You’d think someone who’s spent the last twenty years with their head buried in books about ghosts and covens and demonic possession might be a little more open to the idea,” he shrugs, and gives in to the temptation to lean on the horn, reveling in the brief satisfaction of making the students jump and scurry out of the way, “But no. The guy’s absolutely blind to it all, and could rival you on stubbornness.”
Sam purses his mouth in annoyance, but doesn’t rise to the bait. “Get anything useful at all?”
“He did lend me a couple books,” Dean admits, nodding in the direction of the backseat. “Have to take them back on Thursday morning, though. He needs them for some class.”
“He leant you his books?” Sam raises his eyebrows.
“Yeah,” Dean shrugs, skin prickling in annoyance, “What of it?”
“Dunno, that’s just,” Sam swallows a mouthful of yoghurt, “Pretty trusting. Academics usually treat their books as if they’re their first borns.”
“Don’t mess them up when you read them, then,” Dean says, dismissively, as they pull out onto the main street. “You find out anything useful about the victims?”
“Not really,” Sam leans back in his seat with a sigh, “Both from middle class, religious families. Seem to have been pretty well liked by people. Hard to establish any link more than that. The wife of the guy that was killed last week seemed a bit cagey, though,” he shrugs, “Might be worth a second visit to see if she’s holding out on us about something.”
“Right,” Dean drums his fingers impatiently against the wheel as they wait for a light to change. It’s starting to drizzle, tiny flecks of grey hitting the windshield. “Are we still definitely thinking ghost?”
“Seems like it,” Sam affirms, “The way the victims died definitely points to a vengeful spirit. But the place they were killed – connected to the burial site associated with the coven? I don’t know, I was thinking maybe it’s no ordinary ghost. Maybe it’s the vengeful spirit of a witch, and that’s why it’s so powerful?”
“Hm,” Dean mulls it over, flicking the windscreen wipers on as they continue to wait. They squeak slightly, repetitive and familiar. “You could be onto something there.”
“Yeah?”
“Professor Bradshaw was telling me about the local legend of the coven. Apparently, its leader was entombed alive by a bunch of angry churchgoers,” Dean steps on the accelerator as the light finally changes, and the rain-slicked village slides past in a blur. “That’s got to be some pretty good vengeful spirit material right there. And you said the victims were both religious, right? Can’t be a coincidence.”
“Why now, though?” Sam frowns. “It’s been what – two hundred years? There must have been plenty of churchgoers who walked by the burial site before now.”
“Dunno,” Dean shrugs, staring out at the rainy smudge of fall colors. The chestnuts trees lining the street are the same smoldering hue of amber as the one outside Professor Bradshaw’s window.
They drive in silence for a few moments, wipers squeaking.
“Okay,” Sam says, at length, “So I’m thinking – we go check into a motel, get through as much of these books from your professor as we can while we wait for the rain to stop, and then check out the burial site later this afternoon before it gets dark?” Sam asks, chucking his plastic spoon in the empty yoghurt container.
“He’s not ‘my professor’,” Dean says defensively, and suddenly has to step a little too hard on the breaks to avoid running a red light.
“Alright,” Sam says, slowly. “Okay.”
“Anyway, yeah,” Dean blusters, hastily, ignoring the weight of Sam’s gaze on the side of his face, “Works for me. But first,” he flicks on the indicator and pulls into a space near a little line of local shops. “Food. Not that yoghurty shit you’ve been eating. Real food.”
-
The forest is steeped in quiet in the way all ancient places are, fall singing the leaves on the gnarled branches that claw their way towards the fading gold of the late afternoon sun. Dean breathes in the wet, cloying smell of moss and follows Sam’s careful path through the trees. There’s a chill in the air, but the handle of Dean’s blade is hot in the palm of his hand.
“How much further to this place?” he hisses at Sam’s back, swatting a frond of bracken out of his face and casting his gaze edgily through the twisting branches and burnt amber.
“Nearly there, according to –” Sam stops so abruptly that Dean nearly collides with him, throwing out a cautionary arm.
“What?” Dean whispers urgently, instantly drawing his blade. His heart is racing now, whole body tense, coiled, ready to attack. His gaze flickers rapidly through the mess of branches and he stands on his tiptoes, trying to see past Sam’s stupidly large frame. “Sammy,” he hisses, impatiently, when Sam doesn’t immediately answer, “What is it?”
“There’s something there,” Sam breathes, almost inaudible. His posture is still, alert. Dean can see Sam’s hold on the gun in his back pocket tighten.
“What kind of something?” Dean whispers, craning his neck to try and see. The light seems somehow dimmer already, the fading sun sliding further towards the ground. When he breathes in, the smell of wet leaves is stronger, now that they’re in the heart of the forest. His heart is thrumming so fast but everything else feels suspended in time, unnaturally still.
“I think it’s a person,” Sam murmurs, and somewhere close, Dean hears the brittle rustle of dead leaves, loud and unnerving in the wooded quiet. He watches the quickened rise and fall of Sam’s shoulders as his breathing suddenly sharpens. “They’re holding something. They – shit, Dean, they’re coming this way.”
Dean reacts immediately and on nearly twenty years of protective instinct; he shoves Sam out of the way and stumbles out into the clearing, blade brandished in front of him.
---
57 notes · View notes
lightns881 · 3 years
Text
DTeam Tumblr Demographics Survey Results (Part 1):
The Gifted Child Syndrome is Real with this One...
*Rubs hands together in preparation for some juicy data and in-depth analysis of the typical member of the DTeam Tumblr community*
Ooooooooh boy! Here we go!
I want to start of by thanking you guys for over 400 responses to the demographics survey! Y’all have no idea how much I appreciate it! We have so much to cover, so I’m going to divide up different sections of the survey into several posts to make it more digestable and do justice to each topic explored in the form! We’re going to start of with, you guessed it, personality types!
Strap yourself in because we’re about to thoroughly dissect your sub-conscious innerworkings and find out how the typical DTeam Tumblr Fan thinks! (And judging by the majority personality types, you guys will probably enjoy it)
The Delicious Data
From the 449 responses we received, this is a pie chart displaying the personality types of all respondents.
Tumblr media
Image Description: INFP (40.5%), INTP (15.1%), INFJ (8.9%), INTJ (8.9%), ISFP (6.9%), ENFP (4.2%), ISTP (4.0%), ENTP (3.8%), ESFP (1.6%), ISFJ (1.6%), ENTJ (1.3%), ENFJ (1.3%), ISTJ (1.1%), ESTP (0.4%), ESFJ (0.2%), ESTJ (0%)
In comparison, this is a pie chart displaying the personality type percentages of the population as a whole according to the MBTI website.
Tumblr media
Image Description: ISTP (14%), ESFJ (12%), ISTJ (12%), ISFP (9%), ESTJ (9%), ESFP (8%) ENFP (8%), ISTP (5%), INFP (4%), ESTP (4%), INTP (3%), ENTP (3%), ENFJ (2%), INTJ (2%), ENTJ (2%), INFJ (1%)
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sensing a tiny difference here... Oh, right!
INxx’s on the Loose!
It’s funny. When I first found one of the 18+ DTeam fan servers through Tumblr, I asked everyone what their personality type was. I was pleasantly surprised when a lot of them told me they were INFPs like me!
It actually reminded me of MatPat’s (Game Theory) survey for one of his Life Is Strange theories that found the majority personality there was also INFP...
Funny enough, can you guess what the second leading personality on that survey was? The third? The fourth?
You probably guessed it right. MatPat found that out of the fans who responded, the leading majority was INFP while INTPs came in second, INFJs came in third, and INTJs came in fourth. The exact order for the personality types in DTeam Tumblr.
But why is it that some of the rarer personalities of the world are dominating DTeam Tumblr or Game Theory’s fanbase? What is it about these communities that attract the rare introverted Intuitive Perceivers (INxP) and Intuitive Judgers (INxJ) of the world like magnets?
The Gifted Kid Syndrome
To answer this question, first we have to examine our leading personalities. As we can see from the data, INFPs and INTPs make up 55.6% and INFJs and INTJs make up 17.8% of the total respondents. That’s nearly 3/4′s of the DTeam Tumblr population made up of INxx types!
Now, here’s me calling y’all out.
A lot of you probably relate to the quiet kid sitting at the back of the classroom who’s put into some type of TAG, gifted program, or some authority figure has probably called you smart and/or “gifted” at some point in your life. Academics probably came easy to you at one point, maybe they still do.
You’ve probably felt your chest swell up at the shower of compliments about your intelligence and at another... you’ve probably felt like people put you in a pedestal and overrate you so you’re stuck with this inherent fear of failure, and it causes you to completely shut down when the things that came easy to you at one point no longer do so. 
It’s gifted kid syndrome hitting you like a brick to the face. And if it hasn’t yet, oh you’re in for a surprise, honey.
And I’m sure many of you have come across funny, relatable posts like this:
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And you want to know why most of you relate?
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Image Description: INTP, INTJ, INFP, anf INFJ’s rate the highest in a giftedness per MBTI Type chart
No. You’re not hallucinating. It’s not even a joke at this point. It feels true because it probably is true.
(Granted, the study that captured similar results to this graph is long lost to the internet, but the best source I found with it was a reddit post I will be citing in the reblog.)
Now, my next point is where we find a split.
INFPs and INTPs and their Need to Question Everything (even if it’s about one sentence [insert creator here] said that one time during a 4-hour long stream)
The strongest connection I found between the two leading personalities of DTeam Tumblr is they share Extraverted Intuiting (Ne) as their auxiliary cognitive function.
I’ll use a quote that explains Ne better than I could ever explain it in my own words:
“Extraverted intuition or Ne is very much focused on patterns and making connections from information they gather... Ne dominant users enjoy being able to explore things in a much more open manner, not wanting to feel closed off to the possibilities around them... They are also highly imaginative people, who enjoy being able to come up with unique hobbies and experiences... They are not afraid of imagining things which seem almost impossible to others... [For INFPs,] Ne is what creates this detailed and incredible thoughts process which keeps them busy for long periods of time.”
And another:
“Auxiliary Ne manifests in people constantly questioning the world around them, but unlike ENxPs, they can be more pick and choose about this. But generally, they don’t take people, things and events at face value.“
Now, think about the community you’re in right now. Think about the post you’re reading at the moment.
DTeam Tumblr is full of over-analysis posts, whether about Dream and George’s secret love for each other or about the inherent problems with Dream’s shipbait and gay jokes or theories about what’s going to happen next in the dream SMP lore and the dramatic betrayals and creator’s descend into madness and more theories about sexuality and charts depicting creator’s personalities and what they’d be likely to do in different scenarios and... ooof, I’m out of breath here. You get my point.
DTeam Tumblr is literally a group of ex-gifted or gifted introverted people who love to read or write analysis, theory, and discussion posts about sweaty Minecraft Youtubers because they’re probably too overwhelmed by real life and find joy in obsessing over “dumb” things.
That’s it. That’s literally the post. I might as well end there.
But I won’t. 
Because obsessions is exactly what I want to focus on next.
The Inherent Nature of the INFP and their “Micro-Obsessions”
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This is me having a one-to-one conversation with all my INFPs reading this.
Do you sometimes just set your mind on a goal--like, let’s say, writing a book--and you spend so much time obsessing over it to the point where you burn out and suddenly it never sees the light of day because you move onto your next goal or obsession because now you’re getting ready to launch your freelance website so you can start a business on [insert new hobby here]?
Or do you just suddenly find a fandom or a show or a channel you really enjoy and you spend the next few months doing nothing but engaging with it and reading fanfiction and drawing fan art or making dumb analysis posts on your main Tumblr account where suddenly you get an influx of followers from that community and now people are expecting you to just post about MCYT!?
Oh, sorry, I got a little carried away at the end there...
Anyhow, my point is, do you ever develop an obsession over something all the sudden only for it to just disappear when you find something new or just fall into the deep crevices of your mind only for it to maybe reemerge a few years later after you get a deep sense of nostalgia remembering it?
I call them micro-obsessions. And I recently found out, I’m not the only one who does this!
Here’s another quote for you: 
“According to Carl Jung’s theory of cognitive functions, when an INFP makes a decision, Ne comes in second to another process known as Introverted Feeling (Fi). Fi does not use logic to make a decision. It uses how we feel about the decision according to our values. In other words, it asks, “Which choice feels right for me?”
Ne, on the other hand, craves new ideas and experiences to explore, which causes INFPs to always be on the lookout for something novel.
Unfortunately, INFPs can get stuck in a loop, going back and forth between their Ne and Fi. They search to understand their values by constantly trying new things. They ask themselves, “Does this feel right?” then throw it over their shoulder as they move on to something else.”
So, you’re probably asking right about now, Light, how the heck does any of this have anything to do with the Dream Team and MCYT!?
Well, my friend, it has EVERYTHING to do with the Dream Team and MCYT and DTeam Tumblr as a whole.
Because INxx’s are predisposed to end up in places like this--fandoms on Tumblr, channels that speculate whether Mario is evil, watching dramatic Minecraft smp wars and elections as opposed to looking at the news that depicts Murphy’s Law as 2020′s new favorite epigram. 
The introvert in them causes them to prefer socializing in small communities online where they’re not forced to engage in conversations if they don’t want to or put into uncomfortable situations where they have to talk to that one friend of their friend who wants to make meaningless small chat.
Their Intuition causes them to wonder into places like Tumblr where they can engage in deep discussions about their newest obsessions, and they won’t be judged for writing a 500+ word post about why Dream’s shipbait tactics are a genius algorithm strat or simping over sweaty Minecraft boys.
DTeam Tumblr is a safe haven for INFPs and INTPs who might be placed in the “other” category or marked as weird for being interested in “childish” entertainment or being different from the general population overall, whether that’d be sexuality, point of view, age, gender, etc. A place where you can fully be yourself and not have to worry about disappointing people.
INFPs are predisposed for drowning themselves in their micro-obsessions to avoid all of the madness in the world--even if that means giggling like a little girl while reading memes about your favorite Minecraft YouTube creators.
That is a deep-dive into the mind of a typical DTeam Tumblr user. What do you think? Is it accurate at all? Is it completely off? Let me know in the comments!
And with that, I digress. I’m not sure whether I’ll be covering general demographics next week or diving into the topic of ships (could be a mix of both), but I will be posting about it eventually, so make sure to hit the follow if you got to the end of this post and enjoyed it or learned something new from it!
Friendly reminder that this survey and post is in no way supposed to be taken 100% seriously. These are just the ramblings of a math major INFP with too much time on her hands and way too big of an obsession for MCYT. My asks are always open for literally anything, whether if you want to ask me about this or any DNF related subject, my own opinions, or just criticize the whole of this post and tell me it’s complete trash! I’ll answer as long as it’s appropriate!
And, again, thank you everyone who filled out the survey. Without y’all, this post wouldn’t be possible. I really enjoyed writing it! Adios!
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romanogers-lyrics · 3 years
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TFAWS Ep 5: finally some good fucking ✨vindication✨
Scratch that rewind what I said- this is the best episode (maybe in comic book tv history). Closure, growth, and redemption 🙌 just when I was worried they wouldn’t be able to tie things up they fucking give me this 😩🤩👏✊🏽
Holy hell my poor heart died and ascended to the moon to hang out with Steve and Natasha. ✨Goddamn the mastery of storytelling in this episode is why I love the MCU so much ✨
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The opening fight between Walker, Bucky, and Sam had me on the edge of my seat. Like in most fights you know the stakes are low because the main heroes always win but this fight... whew it was consequential and more personal than the civil war fight imo. I genuinely was worried about the outcome for Sam and Bucky physically and emotionally. Every beat was character driven! This was cathartic. 🙌 the stunt coordinators knocked it out of the park lovelovelove 💕.
“I am captain America” homie you giving me Gollum vibes. “It’s (the shield) MINE!” Like-
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So many creative stunts with the wings!!!
Bucky and Sam working TOGETHER
BUCKY DROPPING THE SHIELD AT SAM’S FEET 😭
The golden light seeping into the frame at the end of the fight 🤌🏼
Sam wiping the blood off the shield. 🥲 I can’t even articulate but it makes me feel-
Sammy’s wings got snapped off and he eventually left them with Torres (passing the mantle?) which symbolizes Sam growing out of his old super hero role. It was cleansing. He’s ready to be more. He’s ready to take action rather than let things happen to him 👏
Baby boy Torres trying to talk to Mr Bucky 🥺. You have both sleeves today Mr Bucky sir 💕
I want no I NEED 😫Torres to fly in with the wings next episode.
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How we feeling about Walker?? On the one hand I feel him. Us gov did him dirty but at the same time he made the choices he made. Maybe there is room for redemption? Idk... 🙃 or will he continue to get worse?
I am SO glad that Sam went back to talk to isaiah. He needed to know the full story. He needed closure. I could ramble on and on but the writers made the points so much better than I could but just-
Steve did the exact same thing as Isaiah in the first avenger. He went behind enemy lines to rescue Bucky- without permission! He was a hero for it. And Isaiah was thrown in jail? The double standard is so frustrating
I think Isiah’s point that “no self respecting black man” would use the shield makes sense with his background and story. It makes me sick what was done to him. Things really haven’t changed 😞. At this point I honestly wasn’t sure what Sam was going to do. More later on about this-
Zemo’s theme is so beautiful every time I hear it. 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼
What a beautiful scene. Cinematography 💯 Such a great moment between Bucky and Zemo. Zemo fully expects to die and then Bucky does the one thing zemo didn’t expect- the one thing he wasn’t “programmed” to do. Fuuuuuckcjfkekxn
“I crossed my name off in your book” 😭. He obviously grew to respect Bucky and wants him to have peace at last with all the civil war stuff.
Ayo back to calling Bucky white wolf 🐺 love to see it.
The kids playing with the shield and tracing the star has me CRYING. Kids are our hope and they still see something special in the shield. They still believe in it. 😭 such a small moment completely floored me.
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Wholesome boat fix up 🥺. I feel like this is the montage where SamBucky fall in love 😂
When Sarah and Sam are talking about the boat- how it is their history- I think again of Isaiah. His history was erased. Sam has to preserve his history ✊🏽
Sarah is a goddamn queen and I Stan 🤌🏼✨
The montage was just a sip of cool water in the desert of trauma that is the MCU.
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OKEEEE the conversation between Sam and Bucky where they’re tossing the shield is great on so many levels 😍:
Physically the shield matches the dynamic of the convo. Someone makes a point and throws it. Someone accepts what that person said and catches the shield. Bucky physically offers the shield when he says “I’m sorry” and Sam accepts the shield AND the apology.
The difference between avenging and amending. I was surprised they even used that word bc it calls out the avengers for maybe not doing the emotional work involved in being a hero. Healing is part of the hero job now. #phase4
A small detail but as a person of color I valued it; when Bucky said I’m sorry Sam did not say “it’s okay” or “no worries” because he didn’t have to, I feel like as a POC I’m always making white people feel better and for once I’d like to be confident enough to just accept someone’s apology outright and know I deserve it.
Pivotal when Sam said “it doesn’t matter what Steve thought” at first I was like biiiihhh??! 😠 but he had a point. Both Sam and Bucky have been trying to do hold onto another person who is gone. They gotta heal but more importantly they have to find their own reasons to keep fighting.
The training montage 🤌🏼🙌🤩🥲🥺😭✊🏽. Like FEED ME YEs WE ARE EATiNG. Sammy deserves it all
Sam’s cap theme music is similar to Steve’s but still different. Goddamn so beautiful 💕💕😩
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Sam has been pretty passive in this show- almost wanting confirmation he did the right thing. Isaiah didn’t give Sam that comfort but neither did Bucky at first. Sam had to make his own choice 😤✊🏽
It’s a heavy burden to be cap knowing all the shit that has come before but Sam is the only one who can make that decision to be or not to be. And he’s seen the alternative now. In life taking action and taking control of our situation is empowering but always harder than doing nothing. He says it best- what’s the point of all that struggle if you’re not going keep on fighting ✊🏽🥺 I love and respect Sam so much 😭 spoken like captain America! 👏
Show me the suit you COWARDS I WANNA SEe
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Goddamnit damnit to hell... I need to SEE IT
Is Sharon setting a trap for Karli???
🚨 end credit: I’m not sure if they are making an iron man comparison. What do you guys think?
Ready for the showdown throwdown next week 👀
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All in all it was fucking wild ya’ll and I felt catharsis watching this and so fucking hopeful. I cry 😭
Please feel free to share any thoughts you have about this episode💕
there’s so much in this show that is world building within mcu but also in greater conversations about heroism and power. It is a moral re evaluation of the superhero. Malcom Spellman being head writer you know this shit is not happenstance it is intentional. The took the long road and it totally paid off in this episode 😭
🙇🏻‍♀️ I am emotionally manipulated by this show 🙇🏻‍♀️
Huge shout out to all the cast and crew for making something both respectful to the lore but also challenging it to be better 🙌
My ep 4 review:
Tag list: @soliloquy-of-nemo
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townofcrosshollow · 3 years
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A Reference Guide For Making Your MC
I assume (hope!) that now that the first few chapters have been released, people are going to be thinking about who their MCs are, and it might be helpful to put out a bit of info about divine culture so you have some things to think about when coming up with your characters! I intend to do full posts going into different aspects of the lore in detail the future, but this post will just go over the basic points to give you some ideas and inspiration.
Names
In their culture, names are a series of common words including professions, locations, imagery, and accomplishments that grow and change over time. People of higher status tend to have longer names. Of course, people don’t use the whole thing in everyday situations- depending on context they’ll use different shortened “nicknames” to refer to each other.
During your MC’s time on Earth, they may have taken to using shortened versions of their original name (such as “Watcher” or “Lightbringer”) or adopted new additions to match their new circumstances (such as “Wanderer”). They may have also adopted human names or the names of mythological figures or characters that resonated with them.
Bodies
The MC’s people are taller than humans with an elongated form, especially in the limbs and neck. Regardless of gender their bodies tend to be androgynous, and their body types can vary just like humans. Their skin tends to be gray and desaturated with an undertone randing from red to blue. Their eyes are humanlike and have similar tones in the red to blue range, thought more saturated. Their hair naturally ranges from black to white, though dyes are also available. Most wear their hair long and unstyled, but it may also be tied back or decorated with braids and ribbons.
Of course, your MC is no longer in their original body. They may choose to take on a different appearance- something more humanlike, or perhaps more mythical. Even in their original form, they may have used illusions to change up their appearance in various ways, so don't feel like you need to stick very closely to any of this!
Gender
In their culture, gender is assigned to young children based on their percieved traits. Originally this would have been marked by a large ritual ceremony, but over time that basically transitioned into a fancy birthday party.
There are three genders, none of which neatly translate to human genders. They are primarily associated with social roles, physical roles, and scholarly roles. I may post more about this in the future, but that's the gist of it!
By default, the MC is assumed to be part of the scholarly gender. However this is barely referenced outside of flavour text- your MC could be one of the other two and simply held a position that was uncommon for their gender.
Fashion
In the upper-class circles that The Watcher was in during their time as a court seer, fashion was often very out there and individualistic, with uniqueness being highly valued. It was common for people to have a signature kind of iconography, sort of like heraldry. In general, though, their fashion tends to be more flowy and less structured looking, featuring lots of insertion lace, transluscent fabrics, loose construction, and metallic materials.
For visual inspiration, check out my Pinterest board (which also has some notes about sillhoette and colour in the notes section!)
Of course, your MC might have taken inspiration from contemporary fashion, or from the fashion of a time period on Earth that they particularly liked living in. I'd definitely encourage you to do some research on fashion history and see what inspires you!
And.... I think that's it! Sorry it was a bit long, I can't condense my ideas for shit lol
If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an ask! And if you make any drawings, Picrews, edits, etc. of your MC, please tag me in them! I'd love to see what you come up with!
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asteristories · 3 years
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1 Year Anniversary!
Checks calendar. What do you mean it’s been a year already since I posted the first update for Nevermoore?!
Ok but seriously guys, it has been such an incredible journey for me to have reached this far. Even with all the writer’s blocks, my initial doubts and insecurities on the project (oof those were some bad thoughts I don’t want to remember 😅), and uh...2020 in general, I honestly don’t regret a thing with what I started.
I genuinely do enjoy working on this little project of mine, and I loved meeting all of you guys through this! Your constant support and interest in this is what has been keeping me going! There’s honestly so much more I want to say but I’ll just be repeating myself on how awesome you guys are haha.
Heads up this post is going to be long because I have a bunch of announcements and other messages I need to share with you, so I’ll be putting them under a ‘read more’!
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1) So first thing, the special anniversary art. I had already contacted and commissioned Red last week, but he’s still working on it. I don’t want to rush him so I don’t mind waiting a few extra days because I know it’s going to be great in the end.
I had a quick sneak peek of what it looked like so far, and I think you guys are going to enjoy it a lot! It has a very slice of life feel so look please forward to it soon! And of course, the RO versions that’ll be starring in the piece are the ones who won the poll.
2) The rewritten update is not going to be up today, I’m really sorry guys! There’s just a lot I need to fix up and need to go through several rounds of editing until I think it’s good enough to share. I am so so close however, and I decided to make the end of January my new goal!
3) Because the rewritten update is going to give Nevermoore a fresh new coat of paint, I’m going to update my policy in answering/receiving asks for 2021. Like whether or not I’ll be willing to answer NSFW questions, for example. I will post a more in-depth ‘ask rules’ when I actually update the game!
4) And speaking of asks, because of how much the story/setting/characters have been changed over the course of the year, a lot of the previous asks I’ve answered are now outdated (Ex: ROs reacting to-, Lore asks, etc). 
I’ll still keep those asks up for old times sake but yeah haha. After I post the rewrite, all future asks will be tagged with something new that’s not #nevermoore asks so you guys can differentiate asks between pre and post rewrite. You’re still more than welcome to send in a question that was asked before to see how much or how little the answers have changed! 
5) Keeping in line with ‘Nevermoore’s new start’, I am also aiming to edit and clean up the blog’s theme so it’s more presentable, adding character pages, and even create a proper intro masterpost that I’ve seen other IF authors do! 
And also, I really need to fix and update my tagging system whoops.
6) Lastly, remember that ‘good news’ I sort of teased a while back but didn’t say much because I needed a confirmation first? Well, that good news came through!
I won’t go into too much detail but basically now I’ll working on Nevermoore as a full-time project instead of just a side hobby that happens after classes! As of now, I only have this time until the end of April but hey, more writing for me! 😎
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...Aaannnd I think that’s all what I need to say so far! I swear there’s something else I’m forgetting but that’s a problem for future me lol. 
Again, thank you all so much for you amazing support and interest in this little story of mine. Let’s see what new milestones we’ll reach for next year!
I hope to see you guys soon when the rewrite update rolls in! It’s going to be pretty awesome if I do say so myself 🥰.
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Note
Can you do a little text with your opinion about the Volturi members? What you like and dislike, they personality, they story... Would be interesting! Kissessss and have a great day! 💜
Imma have a little fun and throw the very young me into the mix to. Let's see child me vs adult me's opinions on the Volturiiii.
Fun fact: I wasn't team Volturi until I was like fifteen. Before that I was team edward... I don't want to talk about that 🤔😒
Also I'm a sucker for villains. If it isn't obvious already, I like the villains more than the heroes. (We all love a bad boy though, don't we?--- TIK TOK NOW IS NOT THE TIMEE.)
So everything i say is just my opinion and should be taken just as that.
Aro: Younger me was like "this...is a terrible person. There really is no need to expand on this." However adult me has been like "GUYS this guy is possibly the SCARIEST character. This man rips off heads AND SMILES ABOUT IT." He gives me child snatcher vibes (from the movies in particular). I thoroughly enjoy the power hungry persona. He's really fitting to be the puppeteer behind the Volturi. Even if he makes it seem it's a group effort with himself, Marcus and Caius. Realistically, Aro gets what he wants and isn't afraid to do what it takes to get it...sorry Didyme. What's even darker about it, WHICH I LOVE, is that he isn't heartless. Smeyer wrote that Aro genuinely loved his sister. It's all good to have a character that's a evil heartless monster but what's more terrifying to me is the ability for someone to do evil despite their love and emotions. It doesn't hold them back and that's what I find particularly frightening now that child me didn't comprehend. Micheal Sheen, from what I remember of his interview years ago, played on the idea that vampires of Aro's age kinda begin to lose their mind. Which, hell freaking yes. However there is one thing I hate for Aro's character that happened in the movies. Breaking dawn part 2. That fucking laugh. Don't get me wrong, hilarious. I can't not laugh but for his character I felt it was too 'hey hey I'm a crazy man hehe'. It was a but too much, even for an eccentric Aro. However, I'm not to mad at it because again, it was funny to watch. I thoroughly enjoy the ‘friendship’ Aro and Carlisle share and i love that it is ‘maintained’ throughout the books. I think it’s just a really nice detail. (I love lore. I am a sucker for it.) The one thing that didnt sit right with me is Aro marrying someone so that he wasnt the alone one whilst his co-leaders were very much in love? Was a little off for me but i suppose that just adds to the character.
Caius: child me would shrink into the seat because what did I do to this man? High key still think I wouldn't want to be Caius' child because imagine doing something wrong and you get that glare? No thank you! Scary angry man. As an adult... "He's an angry boi but...DAYUM WHY IS HE SUDDENLY SO HOT?" Just...don't get angry with me. You'll get annoying real quick and you're too pretty for that. I enjoy the taking-no-shit attitude he has but felt it could have been a little more prominent in BDP2 where Aro asks if Caius' is challenging him. I full believe Caius to an extend would be like "yes, yes I am. Don't be an idiot Aro. Use that braincell!" Which is why I adore the meme vibes I see every now and then of Caius hating Carlisle because why does Aro love that blonde so much? CAIUS HAS BEEN NOTHING BUT LOYAL-- Anyways, I can totally get why Aro wants him on his team. Caius is so angry and has so much hatred that he’s a good asset to the coven, even if not having a special ability.I do find it hard to imagine that Caius is a century older than Aro though. Although I cant picture him over forty years old lol. Although i do personally enjoy the whole Caius x Athenodora route. IT’S TRUE LOVE! Okay so maybe thats a little dramatic but its better than Aro’s lmao.
Marcus: movie Marcus is absolutely not nineteen years old and that's just a fact. If anything, he's the forty year old one lmao. Child me couldn't care about this man. He was the man who said nothing and slumped on a throne. That was Marcus. That was his character summed up. Then adult me rolled in and OMG NO DON'T DO THIS TO THIS SWEET MAN. LET HIM BE IN LOVE. As an adult i definitely became more attached. I feel like i was too young back then to get why Marcus was in the Volturi. He seemed very out of place and like a filler co-leader more than anything. However as i’ve gotten older (and written for him), I recognised that's the point. That’s Marcus’ evident grief. He isn’t there by choice and losing Didyme caused him to fall out of line with the coven. He’s lost point or purpose. Almost like its become meaningless because the love of his life was gone and he couldn't save her.So what was the aims of the Volturi to protect vampire kind when they couldn’t protect their own? He couldnt protect her. I had never heard of anything like bond identification and once i had- i was shook, like it became clear why he had been so necessary in the first place. That really is handy to understand everyones bonds in a coven, he could direct Chelsea and the two alone could destroy covens by bonds alone. Marcus makes the Volturi more realistic in a lot of ways. Like in a family, there is the happy times, goofy people like Felix, the twins representing a close bond. Afton and Chelsea, love that cant be divided. The list really goes on. Marcus represents love and heartbreak, pain, loss grief, the sad moments every family goes through. In that way he makes the coven seem less invincible, a group of people who at the end of the day, have their own weaknesses and immortality doesn’t mean a perfect existence. Especially when, in my opinion, Bella fantasized about immortality and how perfect it would be. Even after her change, she waited for her happy ending because that was somehow guaranteed in some level. Which in the end, she got but not everyone gets that happy ending we all want. I also personally think Marcus is the most feeling of the Volturi, despite being apathetic. A result of heartbreak. It’s shown he can still feel more in his own ways when he voted against Renesmee being destroyed. Furthermore, he advocated that vampire hybrids were a lot like vampires. He made that relation openly before anyone. Its almost as though losing Didyme helped him value a life?
Jane and Alec: Child me thought these two were  badass...and that still remains in my adult life. It’s always been uncomfortable to me that someone so young is so sadistic and powerful. Jane is the older twin with the ability of pain illusion...yikes. Her ability was evident in her human life along with Alec’s. His gift is sensory deprivation and these two were my favourites in the whole Saga. Still kind of are if im honest. I thoroughly enjoy the twins backstory. It has the most detail. I have a tag for the twins. Canon!twins is the tag for the twins in their book age. Unless this tag is present, the twins have been aged up :). They are very much canon but I put a bit more emphasis on tantrums. If they get angry, they both have tantrums. So whilst (unless tagged) they aren't children they can be very childish and these tantrums are pretty deadly. They’re also very possessive? I dont even know if thats the right word i’m looking for in all honesty. Lets say they get very attached if they like you. These two are probably the most secluded out of the whole Volturi.
Felix: Felix! High ranking guard due to strength and speed. I am a major supporter of Felix being a gladiator when he was human. He as a lighter grey cloak meaning he isn’t as high ranked but is so good at what he does that he’s been kept for centuries...and a lot of them. Personality? FINALLY, WE’VE GOT ONE WITH PERSONALITY!! (Im writing these out of order and i’ve just finished a chunk of Volturi members who have personalities as invisible as Afton.) Flirtatious and Light hearted, we love flirtatious and light hearted! Basically a comedian! Helllll yes, keep it going! Extremely vicious and highly aggressive? You know what? I still like it. He wouldn’t be a Volturi without a dark side. Cold blooded murderer. Yes. 10/10. Finally, someone Smeyer seems to actually care about. He flirted with Bella a couple of times in the books and i was FOR IT ALL THE WAY. I was very sad i saw none of it in the movies but im used to heartbreak by now. Im in this fandom after all. We were robbed of a lot. Strongest vampire in the world? I believe you, he’s also a hecking treeeeee. HE DO BE A TALL BOI. He actually makes Demetri look small and that’s still hilarious to me. Demetri is actually tall. However, if it isnt obvious we clearly traded backstory for personality. I cant get both smh. So...as i said before I fully believe Felix was a gladiator back in the day, hence his physique and height and excellent fighting abilities he has even as a vampire but then it kind of ends. I will say from the dawn of time, i don’t think Felix is the most academic man, just because of his era. I also think majority of the Volturi couldn’t read of write in their human lives and had to learn much older, most learning as vampires. Felix was one of these vampires, Although even now he isnt the most great at it. Then a wonderful writer known as @wallwriterstuff included it and now it’s canon in my eyes. I fully believe Felix is a slow reader and writing isn’t his strong suit either. Wallwriter also includes the possibility that Felix could be dyslexic which im all for too. For a very long time i’ve considered writing a dyslexic reader with the Volturi but have always hesitated because i don’t have it and wouldn’t want to upset someone for any misunderstandings or inaccuracies. However what i will say is that i think vampires would be the most understanding to humans with dyslexia. Learning things like that in later development or as an adult is difficult and they wouldnt think any less of you for struggling with reading, writing, numeracy- you name it. You’ll probably find they’re with you in the struggle at least half of the time. He’s also the goofball of the Volturi, even though he’s not really a goofball in our eyes, he’s the closest to a goofball out of the whole Volturi ...Emmett beats him in the Goofball wars.
Demetri: Oh yeah, it's Demetri's turn! So Demetri was previously in Amun's coven. When Chelsea gave him the old razzle dazzle...I've said Chelsea's gift so many times at this point it's getting old. I have two characters left after Demetri 😂😂 Anyway, with that Demetri was like "welp, I'm in the Volturi now." And now that they had a better tracker the previous one was kicked out. He isn’t much of a talker, polite and formal. He’s elegant (more graceful than i could ever be) and charming...yeah he is, you can say that AGAIN. He is also very calm, when next to Felix, i think everyone is calm but you know, we’ll say he’s a very calm person. I like how he was originally in the Egyptian coven with Amun. Given Amun’s goals this a pretty nice detail. NOW LETS GO TO MY VERSION. He’s very charming, calm, polite, formal and even a lil’ but quiet, i kept him pretty canon because he actually had a description to go on :))))))))))  Moving on. Demetri can be a very successful flirt when he wants to be and does have a Casanova reputation. However beyond the charming Volturi guard who has a brutal side like the rest of them, he has a chewy centre, deep down. I added that he had a child in his human life, one he doesn’t remember and very few people know about. He remembers that they died of an illness very young (around six?) but can’t remember what they look like. For that reason he doesn’t like talking about his child, he feels awful he doesn’t remember them and the loss still hits a pang in his chest. 
Heidi: Alright im ready for this one! Child me didn’t necessarily enjoy Heidi? I was rather passive about her. It was all ‘pretty vampire used for her looks’ in my eyes back then and i was never comfortable with that. I’ll get into my take on Heidi in a moment, roll on the backstory!  So Heidi knew Victoria as they used to be coven mates and we’re going to continue on as though Heidi didn’t care when she was killed? Like...its genuinely a burning question in my mind! If she didn't care, could that show the extent of Chelsea’s power in action!? (can we tell im enthusiastic about this coven yet?) It’s quite smart to have someone lure in prey. I wont lie, Heidi has quite the badass role in the coven. I wouldn't have thought about that I reckon. I’ve always thought that showed a kind of superiority. Oh you guys need to hunt your prey? pfft, ours literally comes to us. Her backstory really starts with Heidi being mistreated in her human life...a common theme Smeyer has. It can get old- i wont lie but when i give it some thought it kind of makes sense. Rosalie said it herself in eclipse, if any one of them had their happy ending, they’d be six feet under but i’d love a little bit more creativity. I could go on about how male vampires ended up being changed in comparison to female vampires but i’ll swiftly move on because that’s a whole other thing alone. Heidi was changed out of pity. (Which kinda infuriates me just to type, a pity change? Really? Really Hilda? we’ll see why it annoys me when i explain my take on Heidi.) Heidi was happy in her coven with Hilda, Victoria etc, which is hell yes. We love that. This is around the time she discovered her gift. Vampires were attracted to her and humans fell prey to her easily. Yup okay. I’ll take that. After a newborn vampire caused ‘too much attention’ Aro spared Heidi and Chelsea used her gift on Heidi. Nice, very nice aaaaand that’s where it stops and im left hanging.  Personality time with Smeyer! Lets goooo.  From what i remember and can find- she didn’t fucking have one. Apparently being pretty is enough for everyone.  Which in hindsight, fair enough on a human Bella’s perspective, its literally Heidi’s gift to lure you in no matter what. She could tell you she’s a serial killer (and technically is lmao) and is about to sell your kidneys on the black market as to which you’ll be like ‘sign me the fuck up, want my liver too? Here, let me lie on the table for you. I’m down.’ without even realising what just happened. But even beyond that...Heidi has no personality traits mentioned. In New Moon she appears to be a little flirty which im all for, why the hell not? But...thats it? Thats all I get? Then we get into fanfictions, because i read them growing up. Heidi was depicted as flirtatious, promiscuous and then it varied between manipulative or she wasnt very smart. Which i’m knocking absolutely no one for. I think you can get a badass character who is incredibly dumb. I think all characters are actually valid whether they’re a genius or flat out dumb. I love them all. However it never really sat with me. I was never quite satisfied which i was fine with until i started writing for myself. That’s when i knew i’d have to really think about what my version of Heidi would be or i’d never be happy with my work. That and you also begin to fill in the blanks? The more you write the more you flesh out a character for yourself and so that rolls into my version of Heidi! So for my Heidi, she often gets the same trope of ‘she’s pretty and rich, those types of girls have easy lives who always had everything given to them.’ Then when it’s discovered she didn’t have a good human life. It turns to the next assumption of ‘oh she’s pretty and stupid enough to be used and manipulated’. In a lot of ways, that’s what Heidi wants everyone to think. Underestimate her, please, its all the easier to manipulate you if you do.  She’s actually very smart and her rough human life made her more tough and intelligent. She’s very manipulative and yes she’s very flirty. You can look but you cant touch! She enjoys the attention her beauty gets her but if only these people would care more about what she’s like as a person. She’s not a barbie doll she will play you if she needs to. The only one who’s actually gotten far enough to sleep with Heidi is Demetri and even then the two don’t see each other romantically. They’re good friends who thinks the other is very attractive but that's where it ends. They’re basically friends with benefits some times lmao. However, Demetri got that far because he see’s the intellect Heidi actually has and acknowledges it. He thinks shes a queen who should be treated as such. She could take anything she wanted, a storm that people can only hope to survive in one piece.  Secretly she enjoys a family setting. Whilst she never really wanted children (especially when she was expected to when human), she couldn't help but melt inside seeing little human children with their loving parents. She wants that for all children. Whether that's because she lacked such affection growing up, no one knows. She’s also a really good friend, you bet she’ll have your back. Crappy ex? Well we’ll show them, wont we (Y/N)? She’ll be a bitch and enjoy every second of it. She also loves the single life, believe it or not, you’ll have more difficulty getting Heidi to settle down than you would Demetri which speaks volumes.  So yeah, move past her gift and really get to know her and you might have a very good friend.  I also don’t see Heidi having a preference between male or females and that’s in all honesty. Times have changed and if she is attracted to another female then she wont be ashamed of it. She never has been (Demetri was the first to figure that out, Felix may be the last.) Even when the times weren’t approving of different sexualities, she didn't care. She will flirt with you and find it ridiculously cute if you get flustered.
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Sulpicia: Sulpicia was an orphan which i used to develop my own version of her. Sulpicia grew to love Aro which im on the fence about but yup, i’ll take it. You’ll see what happens with my version in a bit lmao. and that’s where it stops. I get no personality again but do you know what we do in this fandom? We create one and fill in the blanks baby! So i write Sulpicia very materialistic and vain, she’s most snobbish of the wives and due to the other two, also considered the meaner one. She didnt have such things as a child being an orphan so when she got the opportunity to have it-she jumped. She isnt easily impressed and married Aro not for love but for immortality, money and status. (He’s only married you for your money, princess Jasmine! HE ONLY MARRIED YOU FOR YOUR MONEY! Damn it tik tok, but make it princess Aro) Which works well, because Aro doesnt necessarily love her either, he just wanted a mate so he wasnt the odd one out.He literally created her because he was like “Yup, you’ll do.” The two recognised they made a great team and image so they kinda grew to love each other? A little bit? Sure we’ll say its love...sorta. ANYWAY, It’s a highlight to Sulpicia being locked in that tower where she doesnt need to see Aro every little moment, it’s better than having a husband who she’d need to see everyday. ...Yeah my Sulpicia is something else lmao.
Athenodora:  Athenodora is one of the oldest vampires in existence which kinda has me shook but I'll take it. She met Caius when he was fleeing from the Romanians, the two travelled together until they met Aro. Whilst on their nomadic travels they seemingly became mates. That's all we know about that. As to which the Volturi coven was made. Athenodora is completely loyal to Caius as well as highly dependent on him and I think that's very realistic given her circumstances. That's where their story ends...maybe for Smeyer but not for me! 😁 So I picture Caius and Athenodora being different sides of the same coin. Athenodora really mellows Caius, she is no where near is violent and sadistic as he is but due to her unwavering loyalty and dependency, she doesn't feel inclination to go against him...also because of Chelsea and Corin but I've said that so many times in this post I think we get the point. I think she's actually more gentle and soft spoken but that being said. She is very reserved and if she were to be angered she'd very much change. She could cut you down with words alone. Caius loves it. However beyond this is someone who is very maternal. Caius would appreciate it more if the two had children but instead it has created empathy. Caius doesn't want that when he can rip their head off. She struggles a little more with the 'no second chances' and that's another reason why Caius keeps her locked away and away from it. These two love each other more than words can describe. After being through so much with someone, the love can only grow. The two would happily risk their life for the other. Caius is saddened that he could never give her the family she wanted. He knows that to this day, Athenodora tries to reign in that side of her. He's a very supportive husband who's very different around his wife. He's much more tolerant, and angry. Simply more at ease. If anything happened to Athenodora, to put it simply...there would be hell to pay.
Didyme: Married to Marcus and Aro’s biological sister. Cute, me likely, keepy going. Her gift was happiness induction. VERY ADORABLE- Dont be as menacing as your brother...please. She was born several years after Aro and was changed by Aro ten and a half years after he was turned. (Dont tease me with all this lore Smeyer, I know what you’re gonna do) Aro was deeply disappointed her gift was just to make people happy- its okay Didyme, we love you. Aro is just...Aro. Her gift made many fall in love with her and its so freaking cute i CANT- but she only felt the same feelings for Marcus. MY HEART IS SO WARMMMM. Unfortunately they were so happy together that they lost interest in anything Volturi and were ready to leave. (Uh oh.) Aro, being the sneaky fellow he is, was like “I’m really happy for y’all of course you can leave. I love you my babies. My best friend and my sisterrrrrrr, I am the captain of this SHIP.” but was actually like “wait, no, no, no, not my Marcus. D-D-Did-Didyme I NEED him.” Think Sid the Sloth from ice age in the first movie when Sid really wants the baby. So this man is like...gonna have to do it to em and murder. He killed Didyme secretly (dunno how he pulled the secret part off- like i know how he did it but how did no one hear or see anything or even suspect anything IT WAS LITERAL FRIENDLY FIRE but we love the drama so continue.) Ironically enough she was very close with Aro and the two actually did love each other, Aro is just...murderous apparently, to the extent that even his sister isnt safe. And that’s it. That’s Didyme. Which im like...alright Smeyer i see you. I like this and expanded on this with my Didyme.  i get the vibes that Didyme is the most innocent and kind of all the Volturi. Losing her meant losing the consciousness within the Volturi making them all the more ruthless because there was no one to say. “Guys, maybe lets rethink this? and quickly because i cant get Caius to put down the torch thats currently on fire.” Losing Didyme made Marcus mostly become passive and would rarely stop anything that happened. I often wonder if that provoked a lot of guilt for Marcus later on. (However thats a spoiler for something im currently writing...;) ) I also think of her as a major daydreamer and the most soft, gentle person anyone will ever meet. Like its difficult not to like her despite being in the Volturi, even the Romanians would have struggled if they met her. So in the long run...i hate nothing about Didyme, only find more and more love lmao.
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Corin: So im going to be honest and tell you i have no idea what Corin would look like. I’ve got nothing and when i was younger i wasnt even sure if Corin was male or female. Like a lot of these names, i had never heard of the name ‘Corin’. I dont write for her as of yet because im still trying to figure her out. I think she’s quite quiet, she lets her gift do most of the work for her in keeping the wives, Chelsea and Caius when he doesnt get to go on a rampage, content. She was brought in also after Didyme died but Marcus refused her gift.That’s all i’ve got for her. Her gift is amazing, pretty underrated in my personal opinion since like Chelsea, she really helps keep the Volturi unified but other than that, I dont have much to say about her. :(
Afton:  Another character i basically filled the blanks in for myself. So what we’re told is that he’s Chelsea’s mate and has the ability to disappear . Whilst thats a pretty cool trick...the volturi dont necessarily need it but they have to keep Chelsea happy and she demands that Afton stays so welcome to the family Afton! I also recently learned that if you hide behind Afton and he goes invisible infront of an opponent, you too will also be invisible. I figure that is until the opponent moves and basically changes their perspective but i could be wrong with that last part. That’s all we get so time for my unnecessary input!  SO AFTON IS A TOTAL SWEETHEART. He’s very shy but polite. This is a complete opposite to his mate Chelsea. It’s actually what she liked about him. At first is was just be flirtatious to the shy vampire but when she actually got to know him... she fell hard. It was also Chelsea who had made the first move since Afton was so shy. Of course she’d never say so and Afton would never want to embarrass her so that was never really disclosed to anyone who wasn’t around at that time. She brings Afton out of his shell a lot and it wasn’t long before the two were mates. Chelsea is the light of his life. Hands down. He puts up with a lot for her and is happy to do so. She could ask anything of him and he’d do it and she doesn’t even need to use her gift. He buys are anything she wants almost instantly. He cant help but adore her passionate personality, like how hooked she can get on era’s such as the 1920′s, her love for jazz music and her ability to gush on and on about anything. The two had what the other lacked and that made them an excellent team. I love their relationship. I cant help it. However, as i said before Afton is very shy and tends to keep to himself. Sadly that, paired with Chelsea’s demand to keep him in the Volturi has left Afton a little bit outcasted. All the other permanent guards were wanted and considered important whilst Afton...not so much. Although that isn’t to say the other guards are mean to him or anything. They aren’t! (Except the twins who are...the twins.) Felix and Demetri tried to include him a lot but it was very difficult to break him out of his shell. That doesn’t mean to say they wont invite Afton when he’s around. Chelsea always appreciates their efforts. Afton is notably good friends with Santiago, who often preferred solitude as well. 
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(Guard to the left is who I imagine Afton is)
Chelsea: So supposedly Chelsea’s original name is Charmion? When i was younger i didnt really care much about her. I only really knew her gift and that she was the reason Afton was kept in the Volturi, since they were mates. From what im aware Chelsea basically wasnt in the movies/not identified. There wasnt much said about her in the books either. So since then i’ve kind of developed my own persona of Chelsea that could be completely inaccurate to canon but canon was my foundations with characters like these. She was always a red head in my eyes with ringlets, a copper kind of red head. I also pictured her to be small. However the newest addition to her character would have to be the mid-Atlantic accent. I blame Poppy Hill for this one. That character screamed Chelsea to me. She was very close to how i imagine Chelsea to be. So now Chelsea has an accent that i have no clue how she managed to maintain being in Italy so long and being born in Greece. LMAO. We’ll say she was very attached to that time. However, I think the time she joined the Volturi was actually very good for the story. She first came around just after Marcus had lost Didyme and Aro had her use her ability to keep Marcus in the coven. it’s really cool how she could really make or break the coven. Although, Aro was smart enough to not fully rely on her, using Corin’s ability on Chelsea to make sure she’d be happy and stay within the Volturi. Thats where the information on Chelsea really ends Over the years Chelsea has appeared in my writing and so beyond this point, Chelsea’s character is only my depiction.  I figure Chelsea is a talker, like she can talk her way in and out of situations with ease. She enjoys being manipulated and even more so, being needed.Much like her gift, she gets under people’s skin- not in terms that she’s annoying but more so she can figure out people very well. Her mate is the complete opposite and so she often speaks on the behalf of them. Chelsea is very social and charismatic. She along with Heidi are the only two Volturi members who will be out and interacting with humans if necessary. Heidi for her ability but Chelsea purely for her social skills. She’s also the most interested in human culture. She loves the parties- the 1920′s being her favourite era in terms of fashion. She has no issue changing her name and has done so multiple times when the names run out of fashion.It’s like playing dress up! I’d actually love to write more about her. I’ve really grown to love her character, even if i filled in some blanks for myself. I think she and Afton’s relationship is one of the best, up there with Carlisle and Esme- despite the two being very different. It’s a part of their dynamic!
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(I always imagined Chelsea to be a red head but Poppy Hill from THOHH is a very close depiction to Chelsea in my eyes)
Renata: A stressed little bean that lives on stress. I remember thinking when i was younger she was the big threat since she was Aro’s shield but now that im older i see...a stressed little five foot bean. I have no idea what she looks like but always imagine her dark hair tied in a tight bun, looking almost painful. Another who wears heels, like Heidi but she is very rigid just as she has been described. Her uncle is a bit of an ass considering he begged her to go with the Volturi so there wouldn’t be a threat. Dude, can you not just...hand over your niece? At least hesitate! Just like that, thanks to Chelsea, she’d give her life to protect Aro and...I have nothing else. Yes it does drive me mad that there are two named guards i know next to nothing about.
Santiago:So what’s known about Santiago is that he doesn’t actually have an ability. He’s just very good at battle techniques and fighting which is why he’s kept around. If they need fighters, they’re top three are Felix, Demetri and Santiago...in that order. Santiago is also much faster than a regular vampire (as shown in breaking dawn part 2- he caught up to Jacob and Renesmee quite fast despite the two having a running start and wolves supposedly being very fast- much like a vampire) That’s all we know of him so then i got in there and this is how I write Santiago. I gave him the background of coming from a superstitious family. Like he would be told tales of demons and witches growing up as well as things like voodoo. He knew an awful lot of urban legends and whilst he stopped believing in the bad luck his family taught him, he still held interest and couldn’t help the instinct of unease when witnessing such things as rituals. It’s ironic really. However Santiago always deems that humans have it all wrong. These forces are beyond human understanding and shouldn’t be played with. In that way, perhaps Santiago still has some belief in things such as superstition. He’s very secretive about it and would never clarify it for you. Santiago keeps to himself and can be quite standoffish. He can also be blunt even if it’s insulting- he doesn’t tend to care. Although he and Afton became quite good friends since the Afton was an outcast and Santiago didn’t enjoy large groups, or most people in general.
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