#unbound canonverse

[starrysmiling]

[fic] one step at a time

Fern has fucked it up. Badly. Well, okay. Yeah. He kissed Jax. There's a lot of things to unpack there.

T-rated | 20.1k words | posted 26/01/24

jax / fern (male player), fern & mom | major cameos: fresia (female player), ace (rival), melony

fern character study, pov 2nd person, emotional hurt/comfort, relationship/feelings navigating

read here

#en fic #pokemon unbound #unbound canonverse #fern unbound #jax unbound #fax unbound #viola unbound #i can't believe that's a tag now. viola is fern's mom's name #i don't ever mention her by name though so you can just call her... mom #EITHER WAY. god i've been working on this for 14 months? it's finally done #i'm glad i get to show a little more about fern... THIS IS PRETTY IMPORTANT IN THE WAY OF UNDERSTANDING HIM #also please remember that this is a companion piece to steps; it would be very beneficial to read that first #or else this will be very very confusing

[ar-mage-ddon]

hypothetical album art for a fern battle theme

#pokemon unbound #fern unbound #are those really all the tags . just two. wow #anyway i figured out what the pin light layer mode does lmao #made two versions bc while i love the dark bg its hard to see #also i played One song on loop the entire time i drew this #canonverse (unbound) #myart

[intergalacticstarlight]

                             what about us what about all the times you said you  h a d   t h e    a n s w e r s                         what about us what about all the broken  h a p p y   e v e r   a f t e r s                   what about us what about all the plans that  e n d e d   i n   d i s a s t e r s                                 what about love                  what about trust w h a t   a b o u t   u s

#Lyricals ♥♥ #Thoschei #v: the doctor's keeper #v: elegance unbound #v: the eleventh hour #v: canonverse #[drops the mic]

[porta-decumana]

Unbound - a new Alternate Universe series

Summary: As the XIVth Legion eyes advancing into Eorzea, a disgraced Gaius van Baelsar is troubled by reports that the Frumentarium has been compromised by an unknown party.  When his lover and longtime confidant volunteers to go ahead of the main host and sabotage Eorzea’s city-state relations, Gaius is hesitant to agree.  But desperate times call for desperate measures and Cassius quo Flavus is deployed to Eorzea under the guise of an elezen mercenary.  His mission is to weaken Eorzea politically from the inside and to determine who has infiltrated the XIVth’s intelligence.

No one could have ever predicted he was also Hydaelyn’s chosen in a plan laid out in another time, another place.

---

Presenting... another AU!  This is the WoL!Cassius AU I have been mentioning on and off on social media.  Unlike all of my other AUs, this one will be put into its own series on AO3 as I will not be doing a single longfic for it but many oneshots and smaller fics instead.  Unlike my canonverse with Kaida, it will be single WoL only, though I have been informed by moots that they would like to see some of their WoLs make non-WoL appearances every so often so please look out for that.

I’m very excited to start this AU!

#cassius flavus #new au #endwalker spoilers #verse; and never look back #queue'd

[its-tea-time-darling]

Thomally Secret Santa Fics 🎄🧡

an overview over the four thomally fic this year's maze runner secret santa @mazerunnersecretsanta yielded, for y'all thomally fan's indulgenge. none of the fics contain archive warnings., and i‘ll probably edit the post with the according authors when they‘re revealed.

to hell with you

gift for des, @demented-russian-empress-of-hell

by clod @un-ah / @manako-no-yami

Summary:

Gally likes his life. Sure, he and his friends have to deal with cranks and possessions every now and then. Sure, they have to quietly protect the unknowing populace from ghosts and demons. But it’s a good life. He likes his job, he likes his friends, and he’s engaged. He never thought he’d be able to have this sort of happiness—never thought a wretched orphan like him could get this lucky.

But strange things are happening. And with all the trouble comes a new face—Thomas, who seems to know more than he lets on. Gally doesn’t trust him, and he doesn’t like him. But he might have to learn how to, if they’re to find out who, or what, is behind all the mysterious deaths happening in town.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Word count: 19'349

Verse: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic

Tags: Demons, Possession, Pre-Slashkind of? like its implied they will get together later but also there’s a middle man in there, like there’s some slash but then it ends with pre-slash idk, Fade to Black, don’t make deals with demons kids, coffin maker!gally, mentions of Minewt, references to child experimentation, like that’s a surprise lol, does it count as a mystery if there’s only one suspects

Lead the way

gift for clod, @un-ah / @manako-no-yami

by me 🙊

Summary:

When Gally woke up, things hadn’t changed. The love of his life was going to marry someone else.

And there was nothing he could do about it.

Rating: Explicit

word count: 5'187

Verse: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting

Tags: Friends to Lovers, Dubious Consent, Depression, Angst, Pining, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Self-Destructive Behavior, Alcohol, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Unrequited Love, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Angst with a Happy Ending

these truths unbound and ripe for burning

gift for me 🥺🧡

by crest, @crestfallercanyon

Summary:

A warm fire, a clear sky, close friends, alcohol to loosen their tongues, and a game to get them talking. It shouldn't frighten Thomas, but it does. There's a whole host of truths Thomas has kept secreted away, threatening to spill over and douse the fire that separates him and Gally. Truths not even Thomas has had the strength to acknowledge just yet.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Word count: 10'622

Verse: Canonverse - Safe Haven

Tags: Truth or Dare, Bonfire Nights, Flashbacks, Emotional Hurt/ComfortHealingFriends to Lovers, There Was Only One Bed, Mutual Pining, Alcohol, First Kiss, Memories

we were together, I forget the rest

gift for crest, @crestfallercanyon

by dee, @graeae

Summary:

Thomas finds himself sitting at the end of the world with Gally of all people.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Word count: 13355

Verse: Canonverse - Safe Haven

Tags: Panic Attacks, fluff that thinks it's angst, Obligatory Campfire Drunkenness

#maze runner #the maze runner #tmr #tmr fanfiction #tmr gally #gally maze runner #gally tmr #tmr thomas #thomas maze runner #thomas tmr #thomally #thomally fanfiction #maze runner secret santa #tmrss #tmrss21

[polaris-thehunter]

AOT Fic Recs 7 : EMA

The fics I included here highlight the friendship of EMA / Shiganshina Trio. This is basically me trying to hold on to that tiiiiny bit of hope that they will mend their friendship once all this shitshow is over. They’re babies and they all deserve the happiness in the world, and I swear to God Isayama, you better fix this pure thing in the SnK world!

Fics are from different AUs, and mainly Gen but sometimes with a sprinkle of Eremika :3

Disclaimer: Some fics may be available in both FF/AO3/Tumbr but I just included the site where I read them first. Enjoy!

*To the authors, y’all are the best! I hope I found the correct account and I hope it’s okay to tag you!

Photographs to You - KarainRed (grandAce)

Reincarnation! Eren and Mikasa try to look for Armin, the missing piece in their life.

“"It's for him," Eren explained once as he stood on a rocky cliff, leaning forward. Mikasa gripped tightly at his clothes to keep him from falling as he tried to lean further, his tongue beginning to poke out between his lips. "Since he's not here with us. I want to be able to share everything with him."

Warning: might bring tears to your eyes. 2k words.

This Too Shall Pass - @kate7h *

In the settlement after the fall of Wall Maria, Mikasa gets terribly sick. Eren and Armin do everything they can to help her. 

“What were they supposed to do? They didn't have anything, nothing more than the clothes on their backs.”

Definitely brought tears to my eyes. Canonverse, 3 Chapters, 5k words.

For All Who Remain - @cupofdaydream *

EMA (and soon with the members of the New Levi Squad) light candles once a year to remember those who have passed on.

"Then lie to me," Mikasa whispers. "Tell me the most beautiful lie. What happens next?" x x x "We'll grow old together," is all he says. (UHM HELLO I WANT TO JUST ROLL ON MY BED AND CRY)

With Eremika. Warning: Okay, by this part I was already sobbing. Canonverse, 3 chapters, 4k words.

What Is and Never Will Be - @miikasaa-blog *

Also another fic with EMA reminiscing their childhood. 

“Wordlessly, Eren wrapped his arms around Mikasa and Armin’s shoulders, pulling them close to him. They immediately returned his gesture, and for a few moments they stayed that way, heads pressed together and tears leaking from their eyes.”

With Eremika, if you squint haha. Bring in the tears! Canonverse, 1k words. 

we will die with our arms unbound - attentionmerrymakers 

Motherly Mikasa hits, and just worrying and taking care of both Eren and Armin. 

“Eren yells at her sometimes, why can't you care about this, and she does care. She does. She thought it was obvious. She cares so much it hurts.” (OK so sometimes maybe Mikasa is overbearing but do we even dare see things from her perspective? No? You have come to the right fic)

Canonverse, 1k words.

We Are The Hunters - Chappy-the-Bunny

I noticed that the fics above are all heartbreaking/sorrowful, so here’s something light with kid!EMA just playing. Canonverse, 1k words.

"Should I avenge you, Eren?" Mikasa asked. She still hadn't quite gotten the hang of their game called "Attack the Titan" yet.

AOT Fic Recs Masterlist

#EMA #eren jaeger #mikasa ackerman #armin arlert #shiganshina trio #eren x mikasa x armin #aot fic rec #eremika #snk fanfiction

[liketolaugh-writes]

Ok so I just found your blog and I'm so upset that I hadn't found you sooner! You're amazing and I absolutely love your writing💕If you're still up for up could you do 23. Exausted Parents Kiss for the prompt list? Thank you so much and I'll be keeping up with you from now on!

Thank you so much!! I’m really glad you’re pleased, and welcome! 🤗 I only recently rejoined Kuroshitsuji, so that may be why. Regardless- this is maybe not precisely what you asked for, but I like to fit things in canonverse when I can, so here!

It was a bad day all around. Ciel had been wracked by nightmares the whole night long, and it made him cranky and jumpy that entire day; that made the servants worried, so they tried harder and more frantically and messed up more, the disasters worsening and increasing in frequency as the day went on and they got more upset. Soma had run around trying to cheer Ciel up, and at one point (when Soma attempted an ill-advised hug) Ciel had nearly reduced the young prince to tears.

Agni had been working hard to maintain the peace all day, making food and sweets and comforting his prince, as well as helping Sebastian to repair the servants’ botched work and keep them on track for a meeting with Randall which they had nearly had to cancel, the household was such a wreck. (Emotionally, obviously. Sebastian could have fixed a physical wreck with ease.)

Even Sebastian was irritable, fire on his tongue and temper worsening over the course of the day, the shadows of the house beginning to ripple and pulse ominously as he tried desperately to keep a lid on his more predatory instincts (for the house so seemed like a den of prey animals, tonight.)

At the end of the day, Agni looked exhausted, movements slow and almost clumsy, after the other servants and the two fussy masters had gone to bed. The two of them were quiet as they did the final washing up of the day, Agni’s shoulders in an uncharacteristic slump.

The silence maintained until the plate in Agni’s plate cracked, a gunshot in the late-night quiet. And Agni dropped the pieces back into the water, blood welling up where the shard had cut into his unbound hand, and dipped his head.

“I apologize, Mister Sebastian,” he said, voice hoarse and barely audible. It shook subtly. “That was unforgivably clumsy of me.”

Sebastian often forgot how difficult it was, for humans with abnormal strength. He himself, after all, was many centuries too old to be making such errors.

“It has been a long day,” he said, shaping his voice into something as close to gentleness as he could manage. “You should sleep, Mister Agni, or you will not be able to function tomorrow.”

Agni laughed, soft and a little bitter. “You seem fine,” he said, voice quietly self-incriminating.

I do not require sleep, Sebastian did not say. “If it would make you feel better about it, you may wake the young master and prepare breakfast. But I ask that you sleep now. I will finish up tonight.”

Agni still hesitated, and Sebastian leaned forward, sliding his lips over Agni’s for a brief but heated kiss before he pulled away, keeping close. For a moment, their eyes were fixed on each other, nearly spellbound, before Sebastian pulled away.

“Please,” he said, the word almost unfamiliar.

Agni sighed, and gave Sebastian a wan but grateful smile.

“Thank you, Mister Sebastian,” he said. “I will take care of your duties in the morning. I promise.”

Sebastian nodded and, as Agni started to pull back, he turned his attention to his work, tracking Agni absently as he wiped his hands off, and then headed straight to bed, almost collapsing into it without even undressing.

#sebagni #sebastian michaelis #agni #kuroshitsuji #ask #kiss prompts #fanfiction #my writing

[starrysmiling]

i think the funniest thing they could've gotten rid of in the jump from v1 to v2 was to quietly take away jax's line to staraptor after he gets alakazam'd into the lake in fallshore. like. v1 jax tells staraptor that if he hadn't fished him out of the lake, he'd be swimming with the fishes. he'd be fucking DEAD

now this could just mean that alakazam just kept him fucking paralysed even when he got dropped into the lake...

...but i think it's infinitely funnier if he just couldn't fucking swim y'know

#pokemon unbound #jax unbound #unbound canonverse #congrats v2 jax on learning how to swim

[starrysmiling]

my theory on jax's parents

i've been sitting on this one for a long while and finally got the push to write this up. i want to write about this in the future, but there's bits here that have got to wait until cube corp releases, so... i'm just going to talk about it while i'm here.

anyway. as we all know, jax seems to be raised by arthur, and neither of them ever mention his parents.

so where. the fuck. are they.

spoiler alert: just between you and me, i think they're dead. not that it's confirmed or anything...

so... let's begin with a preword. the jax in my canon is 22, since unlike ace and the player, he doesn't have a canon-implied age. (this did not stop me from making fern 21.)

this makes him just slightly older than the meteorite strike on crater town, which happened 20 years ago. it's important to note this, because he needs to be alive for his parents to die in the aftermath of the meteorite strike.

whoops. did i just say that?

let's just change tracks for a bit.

arthur is training jax to be the next champion. that's quite obvious from the story, he says it outright, there isn't any question about that. but i think that originally, arthur wanted his own child to succeed him. it's also something to think about if you consider that he stepped down from the champion's seat before the events of the game, which prompts me to think that he wanted a successor before he stepped down, but he couldn't train jax in time bc jax was still too young.

so let's go with that: arthur intended for his child to succeed him as the next champion after he steps down. thus: arthur's child, and one of jax's parents, would likely be a ferociously strong trainer.

i'd like to think that they met someone while they were training or journeying, fell in love, eventually decided to marry them, and have a child. why didn't they decide to become champion? this is just a hc, but considering elias is Still there and the league hasn't found a replacement and arabella is working there because her dad doesn't make money... yeah, i think the league is kinda understaffed. hell, i make fern struggle with his champion duties, but even if arthur is a better fit for the role, being the champion's child means they would be able to see how harsh the role is on arthur. and maybe they don't really want to be the champion just yet, when arthur still can do his job well.

and they're still young, after all. they want to have a bit of fun in their life, journey around as a trainer, raise their kid with lots of care, then maybe go get that champion role once arthur's done his term.

so now, little jax is two years old. the meteorite has just been shattered over valley city, and the residents have been transported back to help clean up the town. volunteers and volunteer pokemon from nearby cities, like dresco town, are called to help with the restoration efforts.

and jax's parents are part of those volunteers, naturally. they're both pokemon trainers, after all.

and here's where it starts going to shit.

remember that two pokemon came down to earth with the meteor? jirachi was sealed away after the residents realised its power, but another pokemon landed a little to the northeast.

and deoxys is powerful. pksp red, one of the strongest trainers, if not the strongest in the series, is almost powerless against deoxys when he first battles it. it takes him a bit of a bond with a rogue mewtwo and several tough battles, some difficult enough to shatter his mentality, to defeat it, and even then, it's an uphill struggle for him.

that's the pokemon that jax's parents find: a ridiculously strong pokemon from outer space that nobody's seen or recorded before. remember, it immediately fights you if you talk to it, so i suppose... they fight. and if they can see the utter destruction that could come out of deoxys's power, there's no way they're letting that pokemon get to the town, where unarmed people are working on clearing the rubble. so they fight, and they fight, but deoxys is strong, and clearly not even two people are a good enough fight against it, and soon their pokemon are worn out and deoxys's attacks are injuring the pair themselves.

they put together a plan. one holds off the strange pokemon from outer space — for the sake of my canon, this is the stronger one, arthur's daughter — and the other runs back to the town to alert the guardian of borrius, who is overseeing the restoration efforts. if anyone can beat this pokemon, it's the legendary aros.

and so jax's father flies back to crater town. he'd been persuaded to go, being more heavily injured by the fight, and desperately searches for aros, explains the situation, and immediately brings him to the crater where they found deoxys.

but it's too late by then.

they find jax's mother, barely conscious and mortally wounded, being fiercely protected by her pokemon who are only barely standing. aros thanks her, and with their combined efforts, barely manage to defeat deoxys and seal it in sleep. jax's father returns to his wife's side, only for her to sigh her last breaths before they can treat her wounds.

aros notices that jax's father's wounds can still be treated, but though aros hurries him back to town... perhaps the loss of his wife weighs too deeply on him, and he doesn't make it.

and jax, still only two years old, is left in the care of his grandfather.

his parents are called heroes — they fought so that crater town would not suffer a second disaster in quick succession, and that's why jax in my canon is so set on being a hero. his admiration for aros is also partly from seeing how he handled the incident, making sure that he didn't take the credit for holding off deoxys and ensuring that people wouldn't forget that jax's parents died in order to keep the town safe.

and, also, aros is basically the local superhero. he's cool as hell. no wonder he's kinda jax's idol.

anyway. i really want to write more about this concept, and there's a scene where i want jax to meet aros and for aros to tell him, properly, about his parents. that'll be the first time that i've ever written jax crying in canonverse, because hearing aros, his idol, apologise to him for not being able to save his parents and recount that they genuinely were heroes in his eyes is a lot to process. (it's also really funny considering that jax hasn't cried in front of fern, but he has cried in front of fern's dad.)

as a way of finishing this arc of jax's life, i really also want to suggest that after fern captures jirachi, jax tags along with him to fight deoxys.

and this fight — this is jax's fight. fern can tell that this jax is different from seeing him stare down deoxys across the crater. there's something twisted about the fact that jax is now facing it with his own partner, twenty years later.

jax, heightened by raw emotion, seems to fall back into his more reckless, daring tactics. he plays fern's hyper-offensive role, actually, and fern plays jax's support, making sure that jax doesn't run himself ragged, following up after his strikes, covering when they're in trouble. it's not like they made a name for themselves as an unstoppable duo for nothing.

the conclusion of this arc is jax's capture of deoxys, after a grueling battle that whittles at his strength and mental state. in a way, earning deoxys's respect, being able to capture it in a ball, and being able to say that he finally, finally defeated the pokemon that killed his parents, is a sort of closure that he probably didn't know he needed.

did you see that, mom, dad?

i beat it. you can rest easy now.

#pokemon unbound #jax unbound #aros unbound #fern unbound #unbound canonverse #thanks mage for making me write this up i really really needed to get it out and i didn't even know #god i want to write that fic about it so badly #cube corp when. please. when . #i need to make jax cry so badly it's insane #“okay so what is jax gonna do w a fucking deoxys” you might ask #well you see the answer is #he doesn't really want deoxys on his team so he gets aros to ride rayquaza and send deoxys and jirachi back to space #i mean i also wouldn't want the pokemon that killed my parents on my team either #like. jax would probably not want anyone to have to fight deoxys bc he knows what could happen if they do #i think that's the only way jax can deal with it. i guess it belonged back in outer space anyway

[starrysmiling]

on fern and romance...

in one of the new scenes in steps v2, i have fresia tease fern about how they would be a great couple because of how comfortable he looks when he's with jax, and how he even willingly laughs and smiles, but fern argues that he doesn't like jax the same way:

...and it was really interesting to make this stand out while writing this scene, because there are several instances where i've made fern say that he's close with jax, he cares about him, or that he likes being around him:

at this point it was kinda a recurring joke between mage and i to say "and fern still says he doesn't like jax! even though he's like this with him!" but we dug a little into it, and it feels like we accidentally made all the clues point to one thing:

despite his observant nature and how much the reader can tell he obviously cares about jax, fern being unable to recognise his own feelings is because he only knows how to recognise signs of romance when they're physically expressed.

because, if you think about it, you don't really get to see the internal aspects of showing interest in someone when you observe other people. even in media, there's a lot of cases where you're shown physical external signs of attraction/romance, and that's why fern can recognise flirting, or how someone talks to someone they like, or the way jax looks at him like he deserves the world... that's exactly why he can tell that jax is in love with him, because jax wears his heart on his sleeve and is far too easy to read.

but he doesn't know any of the internal tells, which he's starting to show. and of course, fern doesn't express any of these physical signs, because he's a fucker who won't express vulnerability. this isn't really helped at all by the fact that fern doesn't have that many close friends to compare his relationships with, and that the line between the close friendship he has with jax and possible romance is very blurred, especially when he knows that jax is romantically interested in him.

it's only later (which i'll address in a different fic) that fern sorts out his feelings and what they mean, because at that point he's having a crisis over having kissed jax at the end of steps, knowing that it's a romantic gesture, knowing that jax took it as a reciprocation of his feelings, because he still doesn't think he likes jax but every fucking fibre of his body is screaming that he hates the idea of rejecting jax, for a multitude of reasons including that he doesn't want to see jax all broken up, he doesn't want to be the one who hurt him, and also his fear of abandonment is making him think that jax will just straight up cut him out of his life. and the conclusion he gets from that is that he wishes he was in love with jax, while being completely unaware that he's been walking down that path for a while now.

(which is funny, because afterwards, when he's finally sure that what he feels for jax is romantic love, he's down so bad that he's even worse than jax. fern loves and loves and loves and he cares so much but he just needs to recognise what it is.)

(one other thing i love about fern and his journey with romance is that he realises he loves jax when they're sitting together watching tv and he thinks that he likes it. that he could have more of this. that he is genuinely happy to sit next to jax and make snide comments about the shitty plotlines of tv dramas and maybe rest his cheek on jax's shoulder while he does so. jax gives him comfort and a space where he can shed himself of everything weighing on his shoulders while still being his rival and best friend and someone that fern respects with all his heart. it's no wonder that fern loves him so much.)

#pokemon unbound #fern unbound #jax unbound #fax unbound #unbound canonverse #avi told me to post more headcanons and stuff in the unbound tag so here it is lmao #this is just a writeup of the convo i had w mage but it made me cry like twice #fern is such a guy #he loves. he loves so much. he's just completely and utterly stupid about it #i fucking love him

[starrysmiling]

[fic] two at a table for one

Summer wouldn't be summer without beach shenanigans!

G-rated | 2.1k words | posted 01/02/24

jax / fern (male player) | major cameos: none

fluff, pov 2nd person, beach-episode-esque, er... spiders!?

read here

#pokemon unbound #fern unbound #jax unbound #fax unbound #unbound canonverse #en fic #LOL I FORGOT TO POST THIS STRAIGHT UP #I AM SORRY. please accept the fax #i am also sorry for living in the southern hemisphere it is still summer here lmao

[starrysmiling]

[fic] trick or trick?

It's Halloween, and there's a party in Frozen Heights. Unfortunately for Jax, he really should worry about more than the fact that he's awful with jumpscares.

T-rated | 6.0k words | posted 31/10/2023 (definitely not late)

jax / fern (male player) | major cameos: fresia (female player), ace (rival), melony

fluff, 2nd person pov, pre-relationship, pining, halloween costumes, rated T for sliiiightly dirty thoughts

read here

#pokemon unbound #fern unbound #jax unbound #fax unbound #en fic #unbound canonverse #happy halloween i'm sorry it's late #lol i posted this like. a whole 3 weeks late for halloween #forgive me. i have been busy. my thesis has been out for blood. but i have handed in my lit review so i am free for now #but for the faxers out there. here is your food

[starrysmiling]

okay so now that i've talked about jp names, here's something within my canon-turned-jp that i've been thinking about.

throughout the plot of the game, fern and jax use a typical way of referring to each other with their lastnames without a honorific, just shimoyuki and natsubane. but the scene where jax would ask fern to stop calling him by his lastname would be around the office part of the induction scene, somewhere around here:

and it'd go something like: せっかくだし、友達は俺を「コウ」って呼ぶんだから、「コウ」って呼んで？ ("since we're friends now, and my friends call me kou, you should call me kou too!")

i've long thought that only arthur (and maybe his elderly friends too) calls jax by his full firstname, and i don't think jax minds that, he doesn't hate being called koujaku at all. but there is one thing that this scene specifically points out: jax doesn't have a lot of friends. in fact, fern is the first person who he really opens up to, which is important later, but for the time being, let's look at this:

...but why does jax say "my friends call me kou" when he doesn't really have that many friends?

i am going to fucking bet that jax really wants a close friend. he's never really connected deeply with anyone before, he's the sort who has tons of acquaintances but isn't close with any of them, so he doesn't really know anyone who calls him kou. but he wants to be called a nickname by someone, because it's a sign of closeness, of friendship. conversely: he wants to be close enough to someone to the point of them having a nickname for him.

so it's less that he has friends who call him kou, but rather that "people who are my friends get to call me kou". there's just nobody in that circle yet.

also important to note here is that he wants to keep his connection with fern, who was there for him at his lowest. in a way, doing this is a bit manipulative of him, but after everything that's happened and fern becoming champion (which means a whole set of burdens that jax is painfully aware of, considering his grandfather was the champion before fern), i think he's valid to be a bit insecure about whether fern will disappear from his life bc or not especially with how much he trusted fern to tell him his worries.

so jax's solution is to nudge fern in the direction of being friends. and i think that's why fern accepting jax's offer to be friends is especially huge for jax with the context of this nickname. yes, jax is overjoyed anyway, because fern is someone he trusts, but then hearing fern go "okay, i'll call you kou. you can call me hanata then." has him literally beaming so hard he's glowing, because not only does he get a friend who agrees to call him by a nickname, he also gets to be on a firstname basis with them too! (and then poor jax goes, in the same scene, and realises his crush on fern is a lot more than a crush, and he has to deal with having his serious crush be the first person who calls him kou. and he gets to continue hearing fern call him kou. waha)

sometimes i'll think about that fact and proceed to feel weak in the knees. that's all.

#pokemon unbound #fern unbound #jax unbound #unbound canonverse #look at me doing interpretative analysis of the fic i wrote #as if i'm not the fucking author!!!!! lmao!!!!!!!!! #but wait!! actually the jp version doesn't exist so this is all just the author's delusions #rereading this without context is like “goddamn this makes no sense” #if you understand my vision however. you get it

[starrysmiling]

hc names!

about time i talked about them, so... we stumbled upon this tweet a long time ago and, knowing that francis and fresia have jp names, decided to commit to the bit. while deciding on them all, we ended up accidentally setting down a seasonal theme, so we committed to that bit too!

fern, shimoyuki hanata (霜雪ハナタ)

the word 霜雪 is read as ソウセツ sousetsu, comprised of the kanji 霜 shimo, meaning frost, and 雪 yuki, meaning snow, but we've appropriated it as a surname. very fitting, hm? we've kept hanata as it is in the tweet. we think it's cute to keep the pun. also, yukihana means snowflake and i think that is very fucking neat.

jax, natsubane koujaku (夏羽黄雀)

夏羽 natsubane is a word that is read as is, and means summer plumage. it's literally the kanji 夏 natsu, meaning summer, with 羽 hane, meaning feather. in hs au, jax uses the name hane in games he plays as a character name, which leads to fern's first nickname for him, 羽さん hane-san. 黄雀 koujaku is a type of sparrow, which is a bird we associate with him. he prefers people calling him コウ kou if they're close enough to be on a first-name basis, which is what he gets fern to call him after knowing each other for a while. the cherry on top is that jaku sounds a bit like jax. haha you literally can't fit more bird references into this guy.

fresia, yukimine tokiha (雪嶺トキハ)

雪嶺 as a word is read セツレイ setsurei, and is actually one of the surnames i came up with when brainstorming a name for fern. i think it's really fucking banger, like. it literally means snow-capped peak. she lives in a place called frozen heights. it's fucking perfect. we've also kept tokiha from the tweet as well!

ace, umezaka ace (梅坂エース) and melony, umezaka melony (梅坂メロニー)

the symbolism i wanted for ace and melony wasn't as clear, because i did want their names to be a bit representative of spring. we went for 梅坂 umezaka from 梅 ume, meaning plum, and 坂 saka, for hill. plum blossoms are in bloom during spring, after all. the other thing with this name is that 梅 is in the word for rainy season, 梅雨 tsuyu, which happens in tropical areas (such as their home region hoenn!) that said, because ace isn't from borrius, we've kept ace as his name in katakana. similarly, melony's name is just her name in katakana, メロニー! fresia calls him エー助 e-suke as a joke sometimes. 助 is a common male name ending and um. yes! it's how we've localised her acey-boy nickname.

and as an extra... jax's fake identity from bodyguard au, which isn't even in canonverse but i think is important to go over anyway to complete the seasons:

wren, shuusou yuu (秋霜ユウ)

wren's name was chosen before jax even meets fern. log doesn't tell jax the name of aros' son before he sends him on the mission, so the surprise he gets when he realises the 霜 sou in his name, is the same kanji as shimo in fern's name shimoyuki. we wanted to complete the seasonal theme, and wren's clothes are pretty damn orange, so we went with 秋 shuu for autumn. the origins of ユウ yuu are 友 like in 友情 (yuujou, meaning friendship), 勇 and 雄 like in 勇者 (yuusha) or 英雄 (eiyuu), both meaning hero. also, ユウ looks kinda like コウ, right?

this (super old) name chart too for reference!

#pokemon unbound #fern unbound #jax unbound #fresia unbound #ace unbound #wren unbound #unbound canonverse #unbound bodyguard au #shimoyuki hanata is so fucking cute as a name for a guy like fern #i can't believe we chose the cutest name for him #and jax's name is also really fucking good. why do you think i'm obsessed with his name #wren's yuu is so genius and it still fucking gets me every time #he might not have thought it through as much as we would when we gave it to him but #his love for heroes is something i enjoy as a constant throughout every iteration of jax #also the fact that it looks similar is a coincidence but it's a BANGER coincidence. god fucking bless

[starrysmiling]

[fic] your steps, my steps (v2)

when we reach our destination, when we reach our dreams i definitely want to be (next to you), in the scenery reflected in your eyes

G-rated | 38.5k words | posted 19/08/2023

jax / fern (male player) | major cameos: fresia (female player), ace (rival)

fluff, 2nd person pov, character study, canonverse, friends to lovers, slow burn if you squint

read here + twt

#pokemon unbound #fern unbound #jax unbound #fax unbound #unbound canonverse #en fic #AAAAAHHHH IT'S DONE #happy fax mannaka birthday!!!!!!!!!! #i finished steps v2 for them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #i love fax. #it's now updated with better characterisation and more scenes #the old steps is still buried in there!! i didn't remove any scenes!!! #but it's been improved so much that it's practically a rewrite #please read it!!!! i put lots of love into it!!!!!!! #fax the fucking world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[starrysmiling]

y'know sometimes i think about how jax's vanilla champion battle team represent him at different stages of his journey. like. what the hell did his team have to go so hard for.

salamence is symbolic of jax's entire journey. we all know salamence's evolution story is that it wishes to fly and as a bagon it throws itself off cliffs trying to fly. and when it finally evolves into a salamence, it is able to fly. just like how jax throws himself into situations trying to prove himself and finally when you battle him, he's finally found his own answer for himself. (also, very neat that he has the fourth pseudo-legendary that can mega evolve. very fucking neat move there.)

on the other hand, we know that staraptor live alone. staraptor are brave and will fearlessly (recklessly!) challenge enemies stronger than itself. staraptor are persistent even when injured. does that ring a bell? yeah. remember pre-development jax. remember his recklessness. remember how he sent staraptor up to the peak of the ruins of void even when staraptor was his only pokemon. interestingly enough, the ruins of void is where jax starts to turn his development around... the defeat of staraptor here is also the defeat of his recklessness and rashness. augh. (it's also worth noting that we know that jax's first pokemon was a bagon, but he raised a starly on the side because he wanted to fly. oh jax. oh jax...)

the other four of his pokemon are (very broadly) representative of the story beats where he shows up. even though we already see some of them at the start, it's very much worth noting that:

litleo (pyroar) can be found on challenge road. you can imagine that's probably where he trained when he was young, since he says he's been training a long time to become champion. on a separate note, pyroar are protective pokemon, which also highlights jax's defensive coverage and protect cover!

magneton evolves to magnezone at thundercap mt, which is right by epidimy town. this is the place where you succeed (preventing marlon from getting zapdos) compared to how he failed (ivory and getting moltres + prison stone). epidimy town is the place where he quietly gets envious of the protag, which is one of the key dialogues for the player to understand jax's feelings. this line literally flips your perspective of him!!!

golett and golurk can be found in turnback cave. this is where you come out from the distortion world back into the real world!! and we all know how crucial the distortion world is for jax's character development!!!! of course he has a fucking golurk!!!!!!!

gastrodon is found at crystal peak. i don't even have to say anything about this one. i'm sure gastrodon is a pokemon jax caught specifically for the plan at crystal peak. it's literally symbolic of his growth from the distortion world to crystal peak.

notable mention for hitmontop, the pokemon he gets in his battle frontier team. a perfect balance of offense and defense. skeli or whoever out there designed jax's team i'm going to fucking kiss you on the mouth

#pokemon unbound #jax unbound #unbound canonverse #ohhhhh jax you're everything. every time i think about your symbolism i want to eat my own fist #what the hell. i love him. i love him so much #this little guy can fit so much symbolism inside him