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tama1313 · 1 year

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(HNK spoilers!) Trying to explain why nobody likes Aechmea...

Disclaimer: Everytime I criticize something, I already expect someone to comes after me, telling "You shouldn't consume medias you clearly don't like!!" I DO love HNK! I love the characters, the plot, the meaning behind! If I didn't like it, I wouldn't be here, wasting my precious time at writing this.

After this premise, let's start!

(I apologize in advantages for this wall of words, but I need to say something...)

So, it's pretty obvious that at least the 95% of the active fandom doesn't like Aechmea and hoped for a punshment for his actions (that never happened)

Yet at least a big part of that group likes/enjoy the meaning and the plot of HNK, so it's also pretty obvious that the main problem is not in the storywriting, but into Aechmea and the Lunarians'.

One of the main themes of this manga is the criticism about the myth of being immortal, and tbh that's one of the things I like the most about hnk: the fact that we have plenty of representations throught the characters how being immortal is often only tiredsome and doesn't give any actual advantage, is something really interesting and often overlooked in any other medias (as far as I know).

I know a similar topic can be hard to discuss, expecially due to the many different cultures around the world, but there's nothing wrong to test/uses overlooked topics for your story! It can make it original and feeling "fresh" unlike many other more famous medias. Same goes with having morally grey characters (90% of character in hnk)!

However, to make everything works together fine, an hard work is needed otherwise most of the pubblic won't enjoy the final product (or at least, they'll feel dissatisfied).

And this is exactly what happened to the Lunarians character concept:

In just a few words, what we know about them is that they are the remains of human souls, that overtime got tired of this and all they want is simply stopping to exist (here's the whole thing about the praying machine, becoming nothing, etc...).

As said before, hnk criticize very much this topic, hence it's easy to understand Aechmeas's reasons... but only rationally

Rationally, any of us has understood what the author wanted to tell us about the lunarians, yet none of us like them as characters...

This is due the fact that the character of Aechmea lacks of simpathy: during the course of the story, besides a few pages where he tells the lunarians' past, there aren't any other events to make us, the pubblic, feeling simpathetic toward him and rooting for his action.

The lunarian are meant to be "misunderstood villains"?? You as the author must work on this so us the pubblic can feel it emotionally

This may seems meaningless but it's actually very important in the storytelling, even if said character doesn't represent the morals!

The main reason why people consumes medias nowadays is to find something to relate to (which can be characters, situatuions, backstories, etc...) otherwise medias such as cinemas, comics, mangas, etc... wouldn't be so popular

The only exceptions to this are the unmorally villains (the ones that commits so many disgusting actions that no one on earth could like them. Examples: Ozai from ATLA, The Emperor from Star Wars, Niragi from Alice in Borderland, etc...), but to this case, again, there should have happened more events that make us like Aechmea and Co.

Another important theme that follows strictly the main plot is the "unability to leave the past behind to try something new" therefore the Lunarians are also meant to be somehow the final solution to get free the gems from their phisical/"flawed bodies", but there wasn't anything that I could actually like about this:

the gems that should have represented the theme of "breaking free" better (Dia, Cairn, etc...) instead of getting better as characters, their development only got worse at the point to ending up being hated by most of the pubblic (Dia only joined the massacre of the other gems not even to help Phos, but only to have some emotional revenge over Bort. Cairn got only selfish, bragging and uncaring toward everyone, after they got "freed" from "Ghost's control". You can't tell me these are good things)

The only "escaped gem" that shows some likability throught their action is Benitoite (who should be only a boring secondary character) by trying to save the gem that they despise (an that in my opinion has a far stronger/deeper meaning that anything else having to do with the other gems, beside Padpa and Yellow development, ofc!) and this is very ironic, knowing that they had little screentime than the others.

The whole things about all the gems that didn't joined as lunarian at first now wants to become like them, sounds very iffy to me too (much like they were "forced/manipulated" by the others. You know, the "since everybody do this, I'm doing it too" trope, which is really contrasting with the theme that this story wants to show)

Lunarians are meant to be human, but ironically the "actual villains" (Kongo and Euclase) show to be much more humans than them (the unability/pain to not let go the past is a very human feeling and even if they are in the wrong, we are still able to like them at least a bit), which is something that lack in Aechmea's character:

On top of this, he is also full of contraddictions: he grinds all the gems he caught, but later he is seen even being actracted by them, at the point of keeping Ghost's arm and flirting with Phos and Cairn. He is shown to welcome the Admirabilis when they are in desperate need, but later he does agree with Phos to kidnap and uses them to collect all the gems shard (I'm not too sure about this point, because I don't remember very much that part, so feel free to correct me). And I'm pretty sure there are other topics/ about this.

In general, he should have been the "desperate anti-hero", the only certain thing about him is his manipulatoy behaviour and his obsession with the final goal (interrupted sometimes only by he and Cairn's cringey flirting), and this is not enough to deserve to be eradicated from the reality with anyone else.

The ending is acceptable, but Aechmea's fate is not. No matter how strong I try to accept it rationally: it doesn't feels right!

The Phos's character development is a different kind of this: the meaning of "you tried to satisfy everyone, you ended up being alone" and "you are perfect as you are, no need to fit with everyone" is not only true, but allows the pubblic to simphatyze with our protagonist very much. Phos is simpathetic! And it's very easy to see ourself in them: from us, people phisically/mentally disable that have this internal pain of not feeling accepted by the others, to simply people that are "different" and wants to be recognized as valid ("different" meaning anything that doesn't hurt anyone. Don't get me wrong).

Therefore I still love HNK ending despise everything and Phos has officially become one of my favourite protagonists ever!

Perhaps, the only right thing that could have been done with Aechmean, would have been that, while all the others become nothing, he being locked forever in a human body made out of flesh, bone and blood, able to decompose but unable to die (much like Rock's fate from Warriors Cats)

(Maybe this is a bit too sadistic, but for sure I would have liked it more)

Ok, I'm done! Once again, sorry for this wall of words and if you disagree with me or have other thoughts, let me know through reblog or comment

#houseki no kuni #hnk #houseki no kuni spoilers #hnk spoilers #aechmea #land of the lustrous #phosphophillyte #Hnk aechmea #Cairngorm #Dia hnk #phos hnk #spoilers #Tama's thought

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xoteajays · 7 months

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You already know that I like Ice and Jesse. I wish just some, not all, of them had more backstory. At least for the characters I like anyway.

Even though I don't like children, I did like that Pho protected the kids from people who would harm them. Especially since they are not that able to protect themselves, especially towards the creepy adults too. And I'm happy he did kill those men. Even if he got sent to prison just because of that. Which is really a shame for his character though.

I know Diddy is Ice's brother. But you never see or hear much about a character like that, so I don't care about him. Dixie's his girlfriend too.

Same with 9. And obviously Bernie's character was ruined to be since the actor was in way too many sex scandals. I did so like his character before I knew about his drama. He's completely ruined for me now.

Sarah's character could have potential if they written her better in any other way... But they didn't. And I could have respected her becoming a strong woman who protected herself from abusive men. But during the scenes you see her fighting, she only goes after the men won't hit women - like Rascals, Sannoh and most of the other SWORD gangs. And then you'd also see piles of men at her feet in the club owned by the Mighty Warriors. So what? Men come up to possibly flirt with the woman, so she just hits them instead of saying she's not interested.

And for Pearl. I think the reason why I like Sway's character is more in the music videos rather than the show and movies. Because I feel like that his character does have more backstory in the music videos, way in comparison than the show and movies. In my opinion. Which really is why I would want to flesh is character out in the stories if I am even able to. Same with Ice and Jesse. If that makes any sense to anyone.

Exactly! Rocky and Ranmaru were always natural enemies since both men have been around, Ranmaru is part of the reason why Rocky just had to form White Rascals. To protect women from abusive people.

And Hyuga and Ranmaru did know each other in prison based on any comments mentioned between them. But now Hyuga betrayed him... So if Hyuga is romantically involved with a woman, or friends with the women. Whatever the relationship. Ranmaru would harm them in any retaliation at him. Ranmaru's retaliating against Rocky and Hyuga.

But not only does Ranamru harm women in any way he sees fit which includes rape. Based on the context of the show and even movies for some extent, they would just kidnap women to force them into either the blackmarket to be sold as slaves or would be forced as sex slaves. Like Miho for example. They never said how she had to repay debts in that situation. But some women were used as sex slaves for Doubt.

I don't know if I would ever write for the High&Low Worst fandom just because I'm more focused on the original cast, not that I don't love all the new characters. At least most of the newer characters anyway.

Actually.. I've always thought Fujio could have passed on being a very younger sibling to Hiroto. But that could be because of the hairstyles.

But, as a Leo, Tsukasa does give me even more Lion's Pride than ever before. I just love when characters have leonine mannerisms like that.

So I'm sending pictures. I don't know if I would use her as a face claim for High&Low.. Possibly for a different fandom. I'm considering it way too much. So I'll just showing you, just to show you her appearances.

Besides sexually. Because Hyuga would do that either way, even if he wasn't trying to apologize. Since he would always want sex anyway.

But he'll apologize without apologizing. So, like Rocky, he would even try acts of service as his way of showing his appreciation to someone. He's not a verbal person. Unless those verbal comments would be the mean and even insulting way of speaking to someone, but in a playful way. Like how he's playfully mean to the other SWORD gangs.. Like in the scenes where the alliances were formed. He had playful banter to Cobra in the first movie when they fought someone, he had a playful banter with Rocky about Ranmaru in the second movie. So he can be playfully mean too. He might be playfully mean depending on moods.

So.. Some sites list his height as 5'5 (165 cm), but then other sites list his height as 5'7 (170 cm). I don't know which height is accurate then. I'll try paying attention to their heights for you when they're together..

All I know about exercising is that it would make you feel better which would make you more physically, mentally and emotionally healthier..

But I don't understand why you would hit someone in the stomach, in a deliberately intention way, just to strength someone's muscles?

Even if, "That's weakness leaving your body." That's so unusual to me.

But considering the boys, the actors, only diet during them filming in this show was chicken and brown rice. No wonder they wanted steak. Because I wouldn't be so surprised if their reactions were actually real in those scenes. I hope the boys enjoyed food after the productions.

Aw. I haven't seen the show yet. But.. I might be siding with Ji Chang-wook's character. But his character could possibly go either way right now. Sometimes desperate characters like his, will do a lot of the very most desperate actions to achieve what they want. It's not surprising.

Yes. Even if you're suspicious of someone.. Why would you ever really give them a hard time when they just got out of the hospital, the very same person was almost dead. Yet you care about this man's motives though. Seriously? Horrible people. They weren't fair to Vincenzo. But to make matters worse, from my experience, they remind me of quite a few narcissistic people I know who aren't in my life anyway. Like for an example of one experience: Someone in my family died, this was a person I actually cared about in my family. But the narcissistic person didn't care that my family was in mourning over this person, they only cared about themselves. They wanted to the attention on them. Like I can't believe I had people like that in my life. People like that are really dead to me. I'm so much happier with those people out of my life too.

But that's what those scenes reminded me of. I know.. Vincenzo does have ulterior motives so he can get his gold, but he's not killing any of people to get the gold. He just wants them to move to another place.

Alice In Borderland season three was officially announced a few days ago, but I only just now heard about the news. So.. I don't know when the new season will be out since they aren't really in production yet.

As for the cast. The actors of Arisu and Usagi, they really have already been announced for the cast. Which is no surprise. Since they're main characters of the original casting. But no news on anyone else with in the cast yet. So until I hear about any actors from the original casting coming back, then I'm assuming this new plot is based on the manga Alice In Borderland: Retry. So we'll see what happens with the casting will be. Because don't get me wrong.. I do enjoy their actors, but only having them won't be enough for me. I need more original actors too.

Not including the Kpop fans who were spamming the fucking tags.

So.. I don't have the HiTV channel on my television, but I could watch any shows and movies on the HiTV site. I'll have to try the site soon.

Between Netflix, hopefully HiTV, and some other sites... I really would have ways to watch Asian media. So I'm happy about that right now.

More Korean shows and movies that I want to watch right now would be roles - preferably main roles - of Do-hwan, Sang-yi and Joong-ki... At least for right now. Not that I won't watch other shows and movies if I find any that seem interesting to me. So I may have some options.

But there is also Ji Chang-wook, and I know you did also watched me to more roles of Wi Ha-joon so I might give in a try too. I know there is other actors. But those are the actors I can think of at the moment.

was sarah not drugging those guys? i thought she was using redrum to knock em out?

if i end up making a rocky or hyuga oc, i might use it as a plot. but idk for now. since i’m already using ryu as the big bad to mess with hyuga and ryuko (and murayama).

i like tsukasa and fujio, and i’m also a fan of todoroki. i’m focusing more on my main four oc so idk if i’d write for the worst at this point, but if i did it’d probably be centered on any of those three.

exactly, like he can be playfully mean but also sometimes his comments are a lil too cutting. he’s not being intentionally mean, but it’s kind of just his personality. hence why his apologies are more acts as opposed to verbal. even if he did verbally apologise, it’d probably sound sarcastic.

yea the cop’s whole plot has thus far been around trying to get a promotion and it’s kind of the only reason he took the undercover job in the first place. also he’s kinda ……. dumb. he’s supposed to be undercover but then he goes to have lunch in public with his detective wife?? where he gets caught by his gangster boss!?? idiot behaviour. i know he was just trying to explain to her what was going on, but he should’ve just left her a voicemail like he’d already been doing.

vincenzo could have been way worse. he could’ve just ripped the place down and took the gold. instead he actually tried to help them and he’s repaid with all these questions and accusations and pushing. like he gave them an answer, he said they’d talk later! he wasn’t being overly dismissive or even outright saying ‘no’! but they just kept jumping on him! i would’ve said ‘fuck it i quit then’ too!

#tj answers #long post //#long post anon

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meowzfordayz · 8 months

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T !!! 🗣️ HII !!! 🗣️

I’m finally stopping by again after being dead for such a lonnngggg time 😭🥹

I started off by rereading your last response to me, which was super heartwarming (very much older sibling vibes 🥹💜), and I can now say I did end up passing the AP Chem exam!! I got a 3, which I was SO relieved to see that I passed 😅😅

I’m now taking AP Bio tho, along with 3 other APs, so I’m back to square one again… And our first unit is covering chem, which ASDJFJSJS *war flashbacks* 😔

Prom was alrighttt; the boy drama didn’t turn out the best for one of my friends during the middle of the event 😬 (very complicated, as most teen drama often is LMAO), but it’s fine now for the most part. I’m happy we at least had fun dressing up and dancing together ☺️

Aside from that, ty for all the lovely advice/support and positive vibes you gave (it means a lot)!! 💜💜

I also want to say that I’m so sorry I was inactive all summer! 😔 Imma be honest, mine didn’t go the best.. Nothing bad happened thankfully, but my mental state took a pretty steep nosedive, mostly due to the looming knowledge of this being the last year of my childhood (legally), time flying by way too fast, and the upcoming stress of college apps 😓

However, near the end of the summer I watched the movie Soul for the first time (just by chance), which actually resonated so deeply with me?? I’m so grateful I watched it because it genuinely helped pull me out of the state of limbo I was in, and I’ve can honestly say I’ve been doing much better since then (it definitely hammered home a lot of the advice you gave as well 🫶). A bit cheesy, but nonetheless ironically fitting for what it was lmao 😅

Now, how have you been??? I scrolled down a little to see that you injured your knee?! 😰

Super glad it wasn’t a torn ACL, but a sprain it still quite inconvenient and painful (been there 😔). Remember to take it easy and rest, and I hope it heals soon 😤

Other than that, hope you’ve been well overall? 🥹

- 💜

Hii bby !!!!! 🤯😍 I'm so glad you weren't actually dead, and am thrilled to see you in my inbox again !!!!! 😂🫶🏽 You've nothing to apologize for inactivity wise; you had a lot going on, which is 100% understandable! 😵‍💫 I haven't watched Soul, but I liked its trailers, and am happy it accomplished what I (personally) feel art should — made you feel something !! 🥺

Congratulations on passing AP Chem !! 🥳🤓 I only took 2 AP classes in high school (Language & Composition + Government), and didn't take any of the official exams (I did get A's in the classes themselves tho), and I purposely avoided the STEM AP classes lmao — props to you !! 😤😎

Prom and drama seems like an appropriate (albeit unfortunate) combo 🥴, but I'm relieved that everything's generally ~okay! 😮‍💨 I hope you yourself had a drama free and enjoyable night? 😅 What color was your outfit? 👀

My knee's doing well, albeit still a bit stiff, and I can def tell when I've accidentally pushed it too much throughout the day (i.e. walking too fast + standing for too long). 🤪 Besides that, I'm basically just on the semester grind: classes, work, hw, writing, exercising, and hanging out w/ my bf + friends. 🫨

Sending you fabulous Friday vibes, and a bonus bowl of pho! 🍜💝

#answered by T #anon: 💜

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neverendingparable · 3 years

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KuroŌji

This wouldn’t leave my mind until I wrote it. Inspired by the fact that no matter how cool a black butler AU would be, there’s no way Phobos would go around serving a human being (probably?). And so...

@sassycompanions

TW for mentions of torture through sleep deprivation, death, and demon shenanigans.

Sleep deprivation did all kinds of things to you.

He knew it well by now, the familiar agonizing ache of forced wakefulness, how it felt like to be so tired he wanted to sob or whimper or beg for mercy.

But the experiments kept on going, relying on his unwilling participation to find and remove whatever obnoxious part of the human mind robbed society those precious eight hours of their lives.

If they could cure sleep, they would change the world. And get very, very rich. And that sort of purpose is enough to dismiss a few human lives no one would truly mourn for.

Hallucinations were common. They twisted at the edges of his vision at first, then crept closer, getting bolder and more frequent. He'd hear breathing next to his ear and see no one there when he'd turn his head. Or the soft murmur of voices roused him from his miserable thoughts, lingering even when he'd focus.

Sometimes he'd like to imagine they were his shadowy friends, unable to help other than keeping him company for however long he had left. Or he'd imagine this was a horrid nightmare he could wake up from, that the cage and the needles and the never ending torture for the sake of science were nothing but a mean trick his mind was playing on him when in reality he was tucked away safely in some bed, safe and loved, the real world's whispers seeping into his dreams.

But as vivid as they were, they never interacted much with him, their shapes disappearing when he'd grasp at them.

So when one night, one of the shadows reached through the bars of his cage and gave him a curious prod, he knew something was off.

The sudden touch startled him so badly, he nearly leapt across the cramped space to get away from the shadowy hand whose owner, a dim face half visible in the darkness, was now watching him with amusement.

They stared at each other for a couple of moments.

This is a vivid dream, he thought finally.

Ah, not quite~ a voice responded in his head. It was melodic, with a hint of an accent he couldn't quite place. None of the previous voices were this coherent.

I've gone insane, haven’t I? Took long enough, I suppose.

Darling, you're not even halfway there yet.

The experiment closed his eyes and shook his head fiercely. When he opened it again, the shadow hadn't disappeared.

You're still here?

Did you think it would be that easy?

Who are you?

The shadow's smile stretched wider, inhumanely so and despite all the horrors he had gone through before, the sight struck him with dread. Its voice scratched on the inside of his mind like fingernails on bone, making him shudder.

เ ค๓ ץ๏ยг ฬ๏гรt ภเɠђt๓คгє

He wanted to scoff, laugh and tell the shadow it was a little too late to the party. But then it twisted its form, for just a minute, and the face that leered out from behind the shadows made his heart stop in terror. A beat later it was back to being indistinct, floating between the cage bars, amused at his ever growing fear.

Have you come to kill me? He thought, unsure what answer he was hoping for.

No, it grinned back.

Then...

Don't you remember? You called me. You want to make a deal with the ๔єvเl, you foolish human.

But don’t you see that no matter they do to you, เ ςคภ ๒є ๓ยςђ ฬ๏гรє~?

It prodded his forehead with a shadowy finger and he believed it. The experiments here could break his body before his spirit but this...demon, it could reach into his mind and cut the very cords that tethered him to sanity. It could probably rip his soul out if it wanted to.

But it was looking for something. It wouldn't have come just to kill an abomination that would be dead in less than a few weeks. He felt another thing right then, something more painful than the hellish torment his body had endured and with this tiny flame of hope burning inside of him, he reached out and asked to be saved.

Protect me, he begged. And I'll serve you however you want.

The being reached into the cage and he placed a hand in its cold palm. It seemed pleased.

We have a deal.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

"Just kill me already, please." Mason moaned, staring at the list of tasks he had just been handed with a mix of despair and annoyance.

Rooms to clean.

Supplies to stock up on, which meant a trip into town.

Writing and sending off letters address to various partners of his Lord, shady or dangerous people who dropped off packages and signed contracts even he didn't get to look at.

Tending to rose bushes, watering the garden, just to name a few.

"Tsk, that would go against our contract." Came the reply, filled with feigned indignance.

Mason's head snapped up and glowered at the man lounging on the regal couch, watching him with obvious mirth.

A butler who complained about work was worthless in most households and would be replaced by yes men who followed every command with a docile bow. But that would be too boring, wouldn’t it?

His Lord allowed him the occasional grumble without any severe reprimanding because Phobos took great delight in his suffering and never missed an opportunity to point out how serving a high maintenance prince was a hell of a lot better than rotting away in some moldy cage.

He was right, of course.

"I restocked this yesterday!" Mason continued regardless. "And we don't have any guests over for at least another week, why do I need to clean the rooms out now?"

"You can't possibly know that," the prince replied, calmly picking up a porcelain tea cup with a graceful hand. "I may be expecting guests."

"Shouldn’t you tell me then? Seeing how I am your butler and need to know if we are expecting company?"

"Ah, do you?" Phobos' eyebrows shot up in mock surprise. "It seems like you spend more time arguing and whining than being useful."

Mason opened his mouth, then closed it again.

"Of course, my Lord." He sighed, giving him a disingenuous bow. "I apologize."

Phobos dismissed him with a wave that meant 'now don’t bother me again unless it has something to do with food, wine or actual entertainment' and Mason withdrew back into the kitchen to check with Charlotte if they have enough food for any surprise visits Phos the future threw at them.

(He was convinced that Phobos sometimes threw impromptu balls just to watch him scramble around desperately arranging catering and schedules at last second.)

When the shadowy figure had first pulled him out of that hell hole, Mason had expected a lot of things. A culling, perhaps. Hell. A place of punishment.

Instead, he got a butler costume, his name back and a grand, luxurious dark castle to look after, spoiled prince included.

Learning to serve was hard but Phobos refused to go easy on him, giving him elaborate instructions of how he wanted things and forcing him to spend hours perfecting the chores. When Charlotte eventually came into their midst, he was happy to hand over the cooking to someone else.

Mason never figured out why the prince kept them around - maybe out of loneliness or boredom or a hidden sinister plan yet to be discovered - but he kept up his end of the deal.

A few times, someone came for Mason. Their bodies never left the castle and he burned the remains in the basement's hearth.

Months after his rescue, a rich doctor stopped by for a visit. He had only one servant along, a sickly looking maid with hollow eyes. What had happened behind closed doors was unknown to them both, but when Mason came to serve tea, he found the doctor, lying in a pool of his own blood. He had sent the maid back into the kitchen before she could see the mess and wordlessly cleaned the blood off his Lord's hands.

Thus Charlotte joined their little party.

Mason learnt a few things about Phobos too, in the time they spent together.

He had a different name, once upon a time and a past he spoke of occasionally with a hint of derision and disgust. He had been a powerful tyrant, reflected in the way his guests spoke in his presence. He had a curse that tore him apart and left him exhausted, his room always smelling faintly of blood afterwards. None of Mason's questions were ever answered directly, so he learned to keep spare bed sheets and healing flasks at hand, knew how to recognize the signs of pain when his Lord was too proud to ask for help and ended up on a first name basis with the witches in town in his search for a cure.

You can't cure a demon, Phobos mocked him constantly.

Mason disagreed.

If a soul could be redeemed by a deal with the devil, then he felt quite confident of attempting the impossible.

#drabble #black butler au #sassycompanions #the masochist #torture tw #kinda open ended too?#i guess this just leaves room for more headcanons later

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dc41896 · 4 years

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Say Something

Pairing: Johnny “Human Torch” StormxBlack Reader

⚠️: Maybe a teensie tiny bit of angst, fluff

“Hey Sue, I got the study results for Reed but his office is locked. Could you hand them to him for me? I have to meet someone in a few minutes,” you ask, slightly losing your balance from the stack of papers against your chest paired with your platform wedge sandals.

“Yea sure, I’ll give it to him when he comes back,” she smiles taking the stack from you. “And might I add you look so cute!”

“Whoa whoa whoa, and where are you going?”

Of course the night wouldn’t be complete without you running into Johnny.

Not exactly a couple but also more than friends, you guys had been playing with that line for a while now and you were getting tired. With each goodnight text and playful second glance, you thought maybe you guys would soon make things official.

But in typical Johnny Storm fashion, he’d bring a new fling to the Baxter building trying to impress her with a tour and leave you heartbroken feeling like a clown. Being disappointed one too many times, you finally decided to stop waiting and move on with your life.

Yeah it hurt, but constantly feeling as if you were left on the sideline without even a second thought hurt you more.

Arms crossed as he leans against the doorframe with signature smirk on his face, he eyes you up and down making you roll your eyes.

“Nowhere you need to worry your little mind about,” you sarcastically smile. “Thanks Sue, I’ll see you later.”

Watching you walk past, he finds himself mesmerized by everything from your sweet perfume to the way your skin glowed against your floral off the shoulder dress. Then again when wasn’t he entranced by you? He knew he wasn’t the type to openly express it in some grand, romantic way, but at least once a day he couldn’t stop the smile he’d get seeing you writing some formula on the whiteboard and occasionally pushing your glasses higher on your nose as you discussed science with Reed.

Never had Johnny experienced such strong feelings for someone like this before, which scared him more than any villain could.

“Need me to get a bucket for your drool?,” Sue asks peeking over her glasses as Johnny rolls his eyes.

“Seriously though, where’s she going?”

“And why do you need to know? Is someone jealous?”

“No, I’m just...curious,” he shrugs walking up to stand in front of her desk.

“Yea sure,” she laughs going back to the computer screens in front of her. Hearing footsteps on the white tile floors, he turns to see Reed solely focused on the phone in his hands as he enters the lab and sparking an idea.

“Well I’m about to head out, do you want me to give this to Reed since it’s on my way? He just got back.”

“Sure if you want to, thanks,” she smiles as he picks up the stack walking out the door and leaving her with a smile.

“I hope Reed knows to keep quiet,” Sue whispers to herself shaking her head as she watches the two men interact.

“Hey Y/N left these for you. She would’ve given them to you herself but she was running late.”

“Oh thank you,” he smiles skimming through the first few pages.

“Big night for her huh?”

“Yea she’s been so excited for a while now. I hope everything goes well.”

“Me too. Oh that reminds me, she said she’d bring you back something as an apology for not being able to go through that, uh, stuff with you,” he adds leaning against the metal table behind him.

“That’s nice of her but Pho really isn’t a favorite of mine,” he answers still looking at the paper in his hands.

“So that’s where she went,” Johnny speaks under his breath, devious smile on his lips as Reed finally looks up from his work.

“Did you say something?”

“Oh no, I was just thinking out loud really. Hey I’m heading out for a while, maybe try to give that brain a rest yeah?”

Whistling as he enters the golden elevator, he twirls the keys to his red corvette around his index finger; for the first time in his life excited to get a bowl of Pho.

———

“No way that happened!,” you laughed along with your guest, hand covering your mouth as a drop of water fell from your closed eyes.

“Yep! I still have the scars to prove it.”

Since you both sat down, it seems that all either of you did after every story was laugh and joke around. At first, you kinda felt bad thinking you might be a disturbance because of the noise, but the more you talked the less you cared what others thought and just wanted to enjoy your time out with him.

Using your chopsticks to gather some of the contents in your bowl before placing it in your mouth, a looming figure overhead nearly makes you choke as soon as you hear his voice.

“Y/N?! What are the odds that we both meet here tonight!” Pulling up a chair, he sits at the table before sticking his hand out towards the stranger in front of you. “Johnny Storm.”

“Um Cole Jones, nice to meet you,” he hesitantly shakes his hand confusedly looking at you.

“I’m sorry Cole, Johnny is a friend from work.”

“Yea really close work friends,” he smiles looking at you.

“Mmm that’s a bit of a stretch, especially with how I’m feeling at this moment,” you reply through your forced smile trying not to make a scene. “What are you doing here?”

“Uhh...to get something to eat duh.”

“You don’t even like Pho.”

“Nonsense I eat it all the time!”

“Hi can I get anybody anything?,” the waitress smiles looking between the three of you.

“Yea can I get what she has?”

“But without mushrooms please?,” you add giving her his menu as she nods before leaving towards the back.

“Aww you remembered I’m allergic to mushrooms,” he cockily smiles leaning back in his chair with hand over his heart.

“Yes and you’re making me wish I hadn’t.”

“Do you guys need a minute or something? Because I can step outside,” Cole asks still confused on what exactly was going on to which you and Johnny both quickly replied no.

“Yea everything’s fine! And what about you guys? How long has uh this been going on?,” Johnny asks crossing his arms on the table.

“This isn’t a date,” you frustratedly sigh rubbing your temple and hoping a giant hole would open somewhere that he would have to go investigate.

“Woww that bad huh? Hey don’t feel bad bud it’s not your fault she’s been spoiled with higher quality.”

Kicking him under the table and making him yelp in pain, Cole scoots his chair back before standing and collecting his things.

“Okayyy you know what? Clearly you guys have some issues you need to work through so I’m gonna head to the bar to get the bill then head out. I’ll talk to you later love.”

“I’m so so sorry about this, I promise to make it up to you,” you whisper with an apologetic smile as you give him a hug. Directing a head nod in Johnny’s direction, he flashes a fake smile before rolling his eyes as soon as Cole was no longer in view.

“You know, for people who aren’t dating it’s strange to hear couple nicknames like that.”

“And for someone who shouldn’t be in my business here you are. Who told you where I was?”

“Hey it’s like I said I came here to eat, it’s highly coincidental we met,” he shrugs taking a bite of his food.

Not caring that you were in public, you grab his ear pulling him along as he continuously “ow’s” behind you.

“Um is everything ok?,” the waitress asks looking equal parts concerned and amused at the sight in front of her.

“Yea it’s fine, and thank you for everything the food was really good.”

“Uh..you’re welcome,” she replies as you walk out with your “plus one” and all eyes on the both of you.

“Jeez don’t rip it off!”

“How could you embarrass me like that?! Seriously what is wrong with you?!,” you shout, words echoing off the parking garage walls.

“Nothing! I told you-,”

“Don’t lie to me!”

Looking into your frustrated dark brown eyes, a long sigh escapes his pink lips while he leans against your car with arms crossed over his chest.

“Fine, I got jealous ok? The moment I walked in and saw you both laughing and having fun I wanted to stop it there I admitted it,” he explains making you laugh in disbelief.

“So you can go be with any woman you want without even a second thought, yet the moment I go out that’s when you apparently have some sort of feelings for me?! You really are that full of yourself.”

“Listen I know I-,”

“No don’t try to excuse your way out of this like you do everything else! Do you know how long I waited to finally be chosen by you to only continuously get pushed to the back?!” Eyes burning as angry tears forced their way down your face, you quickly knock away his hand trying to wipe them for you. “I’m not some toy you pick up when you want to play and put back when your done. Your other girls might’ve been okay with that, but I’m not.”

“You’re right.”

“....what?”

“I said you’re right,” he softly chuckles at your shocked reaction. “To string you along while still going out with other girls was wrong and I’m sorry.”

Shifting from one foot to the other, his hand runs over his head as he lets out a breath. “Y/N I’m in love with you, have been since we started hanging out really. But I know how I am and that you deserve someone so much better so that’s where the girls came in. It sounds dumb, but I figured you would see that too and then both of us would move on like it was nothing. Only no matter how much I tried all I wanted was you.”

“And no this isn’t me trying to make more excuses or soften you up with lines. I’m telling you where my head was and is and how instead of just telling you how I felt, I made things 10 times worse which definitely sounds like me.”

Silence falling over the both of you, you wipe your face getting out your last few sniffles before looking down at your feet.

“You’re right, you aren’t the best person for me,” you finally speak. “You’re reckless, have selfish tendencies, and honestly sometimes I wonder if you even have a brain.”

“Ouch, but I deserve that,” he replies looking away until he feels your cool hands on the sides of his face.

“But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want you too.” Johnny’s icy blue eyes light up as he smiles hearing those words from your mouth. Taking your hands in his, he moves them to wrap around his abdomen while he embraces you, kissing your temple.

“That also doesn’t mean that you’re completely forgiven,” you add looking up at him. “Saying it is one thing, but you have to show me that you really want this Johnny because I swear if you play anymore games-,”

Unable to finish your sentence, you feel his soft lips crash onto yours while his thumbs gently graze your cheeks. Your heart races the deeper the kiss gets and your knees feel like they won’t last much longer making you grab onto his white tee shirt.

“That is part of my promise to you, Y/N, that there won’t be anymore games or immature stunts like tonight. This is gonna sound super cliche but you’re the only one for me and I will do whatever I can everyday to prove that to you,” he smiles, thumb now grazing over your lips. “So what are you gonna say to Cole?”

“Oh about that, Cole is my cousin. He’s in town for a few days before his next assignment and he wanted to hang out,” you giggle watching him hang his head as he laughs at himself.

“I really am an idiot huh?”

“No, not a total one. You just might want to get all the facts before trying to ruin someone’s night again,” you laugh pecking his lips.

Taglist: @fumbling-fanfics @honeychicana @lady-olive-oil @my-rosegold-soul @themyscxiras @melinda-january @lovelymari4 @curlyhairclub @renfrewscorner @secretmysteriousperson @fullofmelaninsarcasmandepression @plokyu23 @nunubug99 @felicity-x0 @ellixthea @jojolu @jnk-812 @brwn-sgr @captainsamwlsn @wildfirecracker @nina-sj @iammyownlover @chaneajoyyy

If anybody wants to be tagged, has asked to be tagged but don’t see your name, only want to be tagged for certain people I write for, or no longer wish to be tagged just let me know🤓!

#chris evans #chrisxblackreader #chrisxwoc #chrisxreader #fantastic four #johnny storm #johnnyxblackreader #johnnyxwoc #johnnyxreader

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nomoregoldfish · 4 years

Text

Imagine Pacho Sends You as a Gift to (Spy on) Amado 3/3

More smut (but I’m really bad at writing it, :////). Plot twist guaranteed. And I can’t believe I wrote 6K for this, FML. What has Chema done to me? I also made a few changes in the first two parts, read the whole thing on AO3.

You are woken by a phone call in the middle of the night. But you neither move nor open your eyes. You hear some numbers, Amado sounds irritated. It could be something related to tonight's dinner?

Your patience is wore out minutes after minute and Amado still hasn't returned to bed. You make a bold decision to wake up, and the Mexican is smoking by the window. Something keeps him up at night? That doesn't sound like the Lord of the Skies, the man who has had the world at his feet.

"You wanna talk, more sex or a bath?" You carefully propose.

"I was expecting for late night snacks you pull with some Asian witch shit." Amado lets you sit on his lap. "Hang on, I've got some leftovers from the kitchen."

You two settle for sharing the jacarandas mochi from a small food container in the bathtub.

"You like it?" You don't really need validation from Amado. It's just you spent hours coming up with the idea of improvisation, trying to make a traditional Japanese dessert more appealing to the Mexican guests. "I made the bean paste from scratch, less sugar. I understand most Mexicans are not used to sweet bean paste..."

"They don't deserve it." Amado suddenly claims. You don't get it. Who are they? "They are just a bunch of pigs in expensive suits, corrupted, stinky pieces of shit." Then Amado tells you almost everything. He invited the tequila exporters with the hope that the cartel could use their affiliate companies in the States as front to launder more drug money since tequila is one of the largest yet least regulated businesses between the US and Mexico. And the politicians are officials from Mexican Customs Bureau and SHCP.

"Fucking idiots. They thought I was gonna ask them to smuggle coke under the tequila crates. With all the fucking Pier 1 sofa and Ford pasenger seat manufacturers in Juárez, I've had more than enough trucks to move products across the border." When Amado brought up money laundering, the tequila exporters expressed concern regarding possible investigation of tax evasion from ATF, putting more pressure on Amado to increase their cut.

They eventually made a deal less favorable to the cartel and that's why Amado's a bit pissed when he's on the phone.

"Why are you telling me this?" For the first time that night, you ask softly.

"Those cabrón. They don't deserve what you bring to the table. You pour your heart and soul, making the best feast I've ever had. You deserve to know what happened."

You've never thought you'd hear that from Amado. He didn't have to tell you anything. It makes you lower your guard. You want to get closer to him, without any agenda.

"Does this mean my body won't be put in the trunk of one of your auto collections tomorrow?" You try to lighten it up.

Amado kisses you from behind. The position is awkward but neither of you care.

Making out with Amado in the bathtub makes the night better than your wettest dream.

The Mexican's gonna make you cum again with those magician hands of his.

"You...haven't told me if you like the jacarandas mochi." You're so screwed. Maybe you'll never get the answer because Amado's too busy sucking you tits.

Amado clears his schedule the next day. He brings you to the Asian boutique where he bought the Japanese painting.

"One of my guys found this place. I thought you might be interested..." That's cute from a drug lord. But you're not that kind of person.

"A) I don't need a Buddha artifact home to find my inner peace, and B) only Pacho wears shirts with Chinese characters taken from a poem back in the Tang Dynasty. Seriously, he's ridiculous. Come on, let's go."

Instead, you two spend the day trying different Asian food you can find in DF. From hotpot to Peking roasted duck, from pho to char kway teow. Amado seems to enjoy the Chinese food more than others.

"Most Asian restaurants in North America are run by the Chinese, from San Francisco to DF. Since you guys can't tell if an Asian cook is from China, Japan, Vietnam or Thailand, he or she would quickly learn dishes from other Asian countries. We are always the most hardworking people." You explain to him.

"Oh, I love hardworking people." He's so full of shit but you can't help smiling.

Amado finds a fortune cookie note saying "Happy New Year of Monkey." Then you explain Monkey is one of the Chinese zodiac signs which repeat every 12 years.

"So 1956...I am a monkey? Cool." He's surprisingly quick with math.

You write the Chinese character of monkey on a napkin and Amado seems fascinated by it. So you suggest that he could get the Chinese character tattooed, "Next time you can show that to Pacho. He probably would get one, too."

Holy shit, he's really doing it.

The way the tattoo parole Amado brings you to is cleared makes you believe it's part of the cartel business, which makes perfect sense.

"You don't have any tattoos? Not at all?" You're surprised when the tattoo artist prepares Amado's skin on his forearm, first cleaning then shaving.

"We've fucked three times, once in a bathtub," Amado grins, obviously in a good mood, "Don't you think it's a bit late to ask? Or I fucked you too hard you didn't notice?"

Thank God the tattoo artist doesn't even flinch.

OK, you have to get back at the fucker. So when the tattoo artist asks you for the character to make a design, you write pig in Chinese instead of monkey.

"Hold on, that doesn't look like what you wrote on the napkin. Let me see it." Right after the tattoo artist places an outline of the design on his skin, the Mexican stops him.

You're 100% sure Amado doesn't speak or write Chinese. How the fuck does he figure it out?

"What is it exactly? Tell me the truth or you will have an honest conversation with my brother." Amado makes the threat more scary by pointing at Vicente, who stands next to the door with two guns and a pink lollipop.

"Wait. He doesn't know shit. It was me...I wrote a different character." Your confession is quick, you don't want to see anyone get hurt over this beef.

You thought it's just a silly prank. Now you realize you're dealing with the most notorious narcos of the country. Amado may look like a businessman, reasonable, even decent. He's still capable of getting violent whenever he thinks it is necessary, to an extent you really don't want to know.

You take a deep breath, then apologize to Amado. You are ready for the consequence.

"Apology accepted. On one condition, you'll have the exact same tattoo as I do when the new design is done." Fair enough.

But you're a chef who often needs to cook right in front of customers. You can't let them see a tattoo on your forearm.

"How about here?" The Mexican is touching your breast as if no one's around.

It's a small tattoo, just one character. But it's near your heart and you're sensitive as fuck.

You can't move but your nipples are hard almost through the entire process. Amado's right beside you and he sees everything. Someone please help you ease the pain FFS.

The fucker doesn't act on it until you get into the car. Amado shuts the soundproof panel between the front and rear seats and the next thing you know, you're riding the man who just makes you get a stupid matching tattoo. It fucking stings, and itchy. Yet the pleasure is undeniable when your tits being teased, bit, sucked. Amado carefully avoids the tattoo, which makes you want him to scratch the itch even more. You scream his name when you cum with both extreme pleasure and pain.

Amado puts an arm around you when it's over. Two matching tattoos are right next to one another. Your heart is still beating fast from the afterglow, echoing his pulse.

You feel the caress on your beast, it hurts a bit yet the body warmth is nice. Is it how it feels to be marked by someone else? Not many people will ever see it, plus it's not a specific name or symbol that would embarrass you later. It'd be a secret.

"You know what? You won't be able to find a dead body to stand in for you when you eventually betray me, sweetheart. No one else would get a tattoo like this."

What Amado just says feels like a kick in the stomach. It's cold and absolutely right. Have you been sloppy? Has Amado figured out something already? "Why would I betray you?" You ask, but he doesn't give an answer.

It's the last day of your stay. You have a very special package delivered from Japan.

You gonna make blowfish sashimi tonight for Amado.

Everyone knows it's toxic so it has to be handled with meticulous care. You make Amado watch every step — a set of fuguhiki, knives with thin blade is unwrapped, you pick them one by one to gut the fish, remove the deadly liver and ovaries, skin it and cut off its head. Then instead of cutting outward like most people do, you turn a knife to cut inward.

"Careful! You shouldn't hold knife like that." Amado almost jumps in to help. But you assure him it's OK. Then you show off the technique to cut extremely thin and translucent slices of blowfish.

To make the white meat more attractive, you set the slices in a large plate with red poppy flower pattern. They are so thin, the poppy flower is still visible when all's done.

"An ancient Chinese writer used to say, 'The taste of blowfish is worthy of death.'" You joke when you mix the sauce. "Don't worry. I'm a licensed blowfish-preparation chef."

Amado squints, "So you're testing me."

You want to tell him to just trust you, but you don't know how.

"There's no antidote for the tetrodotoxin. But I'll eat it, too. If it's poisonous, our muscle will be paralyzed bit by bit when we're fully conscious, eventually we won't be able to breathe. We're going to die slowly, painfully and desperately."

You take the first bite, Amado follows.

"Why are you so loyal to him?" Amado breaks the silence, "For one, you don't sleep with him. You obviously are not related. And as far as I know, money can't buy loyalty."

"I'll answer it if you answer my question first." The Mexican agrees. "You didn't want me for me, you barely knew me. You made the decision when Pacho said I was the best, he wouldn't last a week without me. You want him, or something that makes you his equivalent. Except being gay, I don't know. You won't fuck his boys, so I'm the next proxy. Am I correct?"

After a pause, Amado nods. Then it's your turn.

"How many female chefs do you know?" Amado is confused for a few seconds, then he gets it.

"There was no place for you in your line of work, just like there was no place for him in this game controlled by men, men who have multiple wives and fuck whores. He sees himself in you. So he takes you under his wings."

"Yes. Pacho is the only one who's believed me. He's also the biggest shareholder of my first restaurant."

Amado then asks what you gonna tell Pacho when you return. "I'll tell him you give really good heads. Maybe he should try it himself." You wink, "No, I'll let him know you're not a cold-blooded bastard. Even though you sometimes make awful choice by dipping sashimi in guacamole, you're appreciative of other people's work." You really mean it, you like Amado. But you'll probably never know if he buys it or if it matters.

After a while, you finish the whole plate of blowfish sashimi. "Seems we're not dead." Amado's poking your cheek with chopsticks.

"No, we are not."

"Last question, why did Pacho send you?"

"Amado, you would've done the same. You know that."

#narcos #narcos mexico #narcos imagine #amado carrillo fuentes #pacho herrera

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gamzee-the-capricious-fanfic · 3 years

Text

It is a struggle for you to sleep throughout the night, you are envious of Karkat who is softly snoring beside you. Your whole body hurts and every time you move it just makes it worse. You think you have managed to sleep at least a couple hours but now it seems impossible for you to continue, every time you close your eyes to try to sleep you just get flashes of what happened yesterday. You heave a tired sigh and the air stings your tongue. You could really go for some water except you know that moving would hurt, drinking would probably hurt, and to top it off the water would probably just taste like char considering your potentially stupid idea of cauterizing your tongue wound. You don’t know which was worse, the taste of charred flesh or the taste of blood. Either way shit sucks.

After a few more minutes of watching Karkat sleep you decide you really want to get up. As cute as Karkat is while he sleeps you really can’t stand the idea of watching him drool onto his pillow for however many hours it is until morning. You take a deep breath, bracing for the pain that will undoubtedly come, then you slowly try to sit up. The pain in your ribs is immediate and sharp and leaves you gasping. You bite your lip hard to keep from making any noise as you glance down at Karkat making sure you didn’t wake him up. He’s still softly snoring, good. You really don’t want to bother him right now, he worries about you enough as it is and he deserves to rest.

You take a few ragged breaths trying to prepare yourself for the hard part. You’ve gotta get around Karkat to get out of the bed. From where you are sitting it almost feels like an impossible task and yet you still want to just get up. And so you oh so carefully, only allowing yourself to hiss softly in pain, manage to maneuver around Karkat and get out of the bed. The pain is agonizing and it takes all your strength to keep silent as you struggle to breathe. You lean slightly against the frame of the bunkbed for support for what feels like an eternity until you get your breathing under control. Finally you slowly make your way to the bedroom door and exit the room into the lounge area. Every step is still painful but thankfully no where near as bad as it was getting out of the bed.

You manage to make your way over to the little kitchen and very carefully manage to pour yourself a glass of water. You hesitate a bit looking down at the water. You are super thirsty but your previous worries rise up again. You sigh a bit defeated, you wish you at least had a straw or something, anything really that could help bypass the fucked up tip of your tongue but as it happens you’ve got nothing. Knowing you’ll have to drink eventually you take a small sip of the water and immediately regret it. The taste is about as bad as you anticipated but the pain shocks you and you choke a bit. Coughing is agony and the pain knocks you to your fucking knees. You struggle to put an end to your coughing, anything to stop the pain. You are trembling uncontrollably and the next thing you know you are crying and you can’t fucking stop. Everything is so painful and a wave of despair washes over you.

You vaguely hear the door behind you open and close, then soft footsteps padding up to you. Someone kneels next to you and somewhat hesitantly places their hand on your back. You curl further into yourself unable to stop your sobbing. You try to get it together but you just can’t. Whoever is next to you just reassuringly rubs your back as you cry. You don’t know how long you kneel there sobbing but eventually your sobs turn to soft occasional whimpers and sniffles. Finally you look up to whoever is next to you expecting it to be Karkat but no, it’s Tavros. You manage a weak and slurred: “‘m s-sorry..”

Tavros is looking at you with eyes overflowing with pity and worry. You quickly look away from him, instead choosing to look at the tiled floor. You don’t feel like you deserve his pity. It seems to take Tavros a moment to decipher what you said but he eventually gets it. “O-oh uh, you’re okay Gamzee, uh, you don’t have to uh, apologize.”

You shake your head slightly then search your pockets for your phone. You know you cannot vocalize what you mean so you need to type it out but your phone is not in your pockets. You must have put it on Karkat’s nightstand or something. You sigh. “Your pho…”

You growl in frustration, you can’t make n sounds. You mime the actions of using a phone and thankfully Tavros seems to get what you want quickly. “Oh, you need a phone? Uh, here’s mine I guess.”

He unlocks his phone and hands it to you. You quickly navigate to notes to type what you need to say. “I’m sorry if I woke you up, you can go back to sleep, I’ll be ok.”

You hand the phone back to him so he can read your message. “Uh, well frankly I uh never went to sleep.” You glance over at him and he is blushing slightly looking a bit embarrassed. “I was uh, worried about you so I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t want to uh, make you feel weird though. But uh, I-I don’t really believe you are uh ok, and I don’t appreciate uh, you lying about that. You sound like you are uh, in a lot of pain and while I am um, not your moirail, nor do I want to be um obviously, I still want you to know I am here for you.”

You look back down to the tiled floor to avoid looking at him, your eyes burning with unshed tears again. After a moment he passes his phone back to you no doubt wanting to know what you are thinking. Reluctantly you type another message. “I’m sorry you pity a fucked up freak like me who can’t even speak properly, I don’t deserve your pity. I’m a motherfucking fuckup and I deserved everything that happened to me.”

Ah dammit, you are crying again as you pass the phone back to Tavros. You stare down at the blurry tiled floor, refusing to look at Tavros even when he gasps slightly at what he reads. “No!”

You shrink away from him at his angry tone, you’ve never really heard him sound angry like that before. Noticing your reaction Tavros softens his tone. “I’m sorry Gamzee, but uh, you don’t uh, get to decide if you deserve my pity or not. I decide that, not uh, you. A-And uh, I don’t really know what happened to um, to you, but uh, I can’t imagine uh, any reason anyone should have hurt you.” He sniffles a bit then continues.

“But uh, I don’t care if you can’t really speak, you can uh, obviously still communicate with me. So um, we can work on it okay?”

Silently you continue to stare down at the tiled floor, you notice the floor is wet, you must have dropped the cup of water earlier. “Gamzee…. Please look at me.”

You hesitate then follow Tavros’s soft command and look at him. He has a few tear-streaks going down his face and you are hit with a pang of guilt. You didn’t mean to hurt him. Slowly, as if he might startle you, he raises his hand to your face and wipes away your tears. “Ok, uh, if it is ok with you, can we move over to the couch maybe?”

You watch his eyes search your face, his gaze stopping at every visible bruise on your face till it reaches the bruising around your neck. Your heart aches at the pain written all over his face. “Maybe you can let me uh, look at your wounds. Um, maybe there’s something I can do to help?”

You doubt that, but you are too tired to really argue with him, nor does he offer you his phone to allow you to do so. You look over to the couch, realistically you know it's not far but it feels as though it’s miles away. You sigh a little. “Uh, don’t worry I’ll uh, try to help. I don’t uh, mean to cause you more pain but I think the couch would be more comfortable for you.”

You nod weakly and watch as he stands up so easily, it makes you a bit envious. He somewhat awkwardly offers you his hands to help you stand up. You take his hands and slowly and painfully stand up. You breathing is ragged by the time you make it over to the couch and sitting back down was almost as painful as standing. Tavros of course was by your side guiding you the whole way but even he can’t erase your pain. Tavros sits beside you allowing you to catch your breath before bothering you. Tavros, a bit more assertively than you anticipated, starts lifting the hem of your shirt only stopping when he hears your breath hitch. “Oh uh, sorry, I should’ve asked. Um, is this ok?”

You hesitate a bit, but nod and allow him to take your shirt the rest of the way off. Your face heats a bit as his eyes rove across your naked torso. You look away from him somewhat self-conscious, this isn’t really a situation where you ought to be self-conscious but you can’t help it. You flinch as his hand touches your side. His hand is warm against your cooler skin, it’s soft and feels pleasant. If this were any other time you’d probably be ecstatic honestly, but at this moment it makes you feel a bit queasy. His hand drifts up a bit further and lightly brushes against one of your grub scars making you shiver. He murmurs a soft apology and his hand drifts down instead, away from the sensitive area. However your discomfort grows again as you feel his hand stop at your hip and you hear his breath hitch. You look over to see what caught his attention there. This whole time you’ve tried to avoid looking at yourself so you are shocked by how battered and bruised you are.

Your sides are splotched black and purple looking as painful as it feels. You also never noticed that you have various cuts on your body, you don’t recall them happening but to be fair, a lot was going on. But most prominently, right where Tavros’s hand had stopped, were handprint shaped bruises on your hips. A whimper escapes you at the sight and you have to look away, your eyes burn with tears once again and you struggle to breathe evenly. “Oh Gamzee…”

His voice is full of understanding and it makes you feel sick. Of all the people to know the specifics about what happened, you wanted him to know the least. He must understand now that you are used, broken, dirty. Once again tears slip down your face and you struggle to keep from hyperventilating, the pain in your ribs sharp and stabbing. A choked whimper is all you can manage as Tavros gently slips his arms around you holding you against him in a comforting embrace. You cling to him as you desperately try to calm yourself down. The feeling of him, so warm and inviting, is so at odds of those who had hurt you. He comforts you until you calm down once again. You wish you weren’t such a mess, you really didn’t want Tavros to think you are such a cry grub. “Hey um, Gamzee? Is it uh, okay if I get up and grab some stuff?”

You sniffle a bit and nod before shifting away a bit to allow him space to get up. He gets up and heads back in to the bedroom for a few moments before returning with a first aid kit and a blanket. You cock your head and look at the blanket a bit confused. “Oh uh, I figured uh, we could watch tv or something but uh, it gets a bit chilly so I brought the blanket. Um, anyway before I dress your injuries or anything I was thinking that um, Rose mentioned getting some high strength pain killers from uhh, her mom for emergencies and uh, this could qualify as one so, I was gonna go ask her for some okay?”

You shrug and gesture towards his phone as he walks over. He places the blanket down beside you and the first aid kit on the coffee table before handing you the phone. “While that sounds good Tav, I really don’t think I could manage to down any motherfuckin pills right now.”

“Yeah, I uh, guess you had trouble drinking before.” He glances at the water on the floor.

Your face heats a bit and you nod before typing out another response. “Yeah, drinking was more painful than I expected. Maybe if I had a motherfuckin straw or somethin I could make it work but we don’t have any.”

“I could uh, see if they have one while I’m uh, there?”

You shrug again but he seems to have made up his mind. “Just uh, wait here, I’ll be right back.”

He leaves the suite and you are left with your thoughts. Everything still feels really bleak to you but you are glad of course that both Karkat and Tavros are still with you, supporting you. Karkat was a given but you were worried about whether Tavros was going to feel differently about you knowing what happened. You gather that Tavros, after seeing those bruises, has a good idea about what happened at least in part. Honestly you can’t help but wonder what he thinks about it all, but asking him would require admitting that you were in fact assaulted. You sigh, this is all exhausting and confusing.

You hear the door open and look over to see that Tavros has returned. He smiles broadly and presents both a bottle of pills and a straw. You can’t help but to chuckle and he seems so excited it makes your heart melt. He sets the pill bottle and straw down before getting you another glass of water. Cup in hand he returns to the couch and sits next to you. He hands you the cup and grabs the pill bottle. He opens it and retrieves two pills. You grab the straw and hesitantly take an experimental sip of water. The straw itself hurts when it touches your tongue but the act of drinking definitely is easier. “Do you think you’ll uh, be able to take the pills then?”

You nod, it may be a bit difficult but at least with the ability to drink something you think you can manage. He hands you the pills and you manage to take them with only a minor amount of pain and discomfort. Tavros looks relieved. “Good, hopefully they will uh, kick in fast so you aren’t um, in too much pain.”

He grabs the first aid kit and opens it grabbing disinfectant wipes, antibiotics, and bandages. “I uh, was thinking I can um, take care of all the cuts and stuff. Then um, I think either heat or uh, cold can help with uh, your ribs.”

He pulls out both a heat pack and a cold compress. You don’t particularly want to be cold so you point to the heat pack and he nods putting the cold compress away. He, as gently as he possibly can, cleans and bandages up all the cuts he can see on your arms or torso. You don’t know if you have any cuts or injuries on your legs or elsewhere but he seems to understand that you’d probably be unwilling to remove your pants so he doesn’t ask you too. Once your visible wounds are dressed he takes the heat pack and heats it up using the microwave, then he returns to you and gently presses it against your side earning a soft hiss from you. Though the pain is definitely reduced because of the pain killers it is still quite sore. He murmurs a soft apology and you nod.

The heat does eventually help though and finally for the first time on this night you feel almost pain free. Tavros turns the TV on and drapes the blanket over the two of you before snuggling up against you. You slide your arm around him holding him gently against you, it’s not exactly ideal as he is pressing against your side and it's a bit painful but the painkillers have made it bearable so you accept the pain. The two of you sit in silence for a while, you think that neither of you are really paying attention to whatever is playing on the TV, some murder documentary you think, you are too focused on the feeling of him against you. You feel all tingly, but also a bit tense and anxious. You aren’t sure what you should do.

You are so caught up in thinking what you should or shouldn’t be doing that it catches you by surprise when you feel his hand trail across your chest. Your breath hitches for a second and you look over at him but he’s still watching the TV. At first his touch seems innocent, just staying on your chest. But then his hand drifts near your side and his thumb brushes up against your grub scars. You shiver at the touch, it’s a pleasurable feeling but also it makes you a bit nervous and nauseous. As if judging your reaction and deeming it positive enough he more intently rubs his thumb against your grub scars. You look back towards him to protest but then the next thing you know is that his mouth is against yours as he kisses you.

You of course melt into the kiss, how could you not if it’s Tavros kissing you. You are so full of conflicting emotions, on one hand this is what you want, Tavros is sitting here kissing you so he must still feel red for you! Right? But on the other hand while the feeling of his hands against you is fantastic, miraculous even, but it also feels wrong. You want it to feel right but everything feels wrong, how can you sit here with Tav’s hands touching you when only mere hours ago someone else… You don’t want to continue that thought.

Tavros trails kisses from your mouth down to your neck and you can feel heat rising to your face especially when he lightly nips your neck drawing a soft sound from you. He runs his hands back over your grub scars making you squirm, the dulled pain from the movement intermingled with the pleasure making it almost… better? It definitely makes you feel a whole lotta somethin’. You hear him chuckle softly before he peppers more little kisses along your neck. His hand finally leaves your sensitive grub scars and it drifts downwards, down from your side to your stomach then down furth- you grab his wrist stopping his southward progression, his fingers stopping just above the waistband of your pants.

He looks up at you, his beautiful brown eyes are full not of uncertainty but of determination. Saying nothing he kisses you again, muffling your whimper of protest. The kiss is gentle, not forceful, yet it contains a silent order, no, request maybe, which after a bit of hesitation you obey and let go of his wrist. You don’t really know why you obey, maybe it’s because he’s never been so assertive before, maybe it’s because you are all broken up inside, or maybe because you know he wouldn’t hurt you. His hand, now free to do as he pleases, slides under the waistband of your pants. His hand while warm on your chest feels a bit cold contrasted by the emanating heat along your hips.

Finally, finally, his fingertips brush against your semi emerging bulge and a nervous whine exits your throat. If your face could burst into flame now would be the time that’s how hard you feel like you must be blushing. Tav just smiles that adorable smile of his except his usual innocence seems replaced with mischief then rests his head against your shoulder, a bit awkwardly with his horns, and returns to feigning watching the TV. All the while his hands wreak havoc on any composure you have left as he teases your bulge into emerging fully. It wraps around his hand as he toys with the base making you shiver with pleasure. Ok maybe this is fine, he’s not touching you where everything hurts.

He plays with you leisurely, slow and teasing, definitely not in a hurry to get anywhere. You are definitely struggling to not make any noise but it's nearly impossible to control your ragged breathing and you think he’s enjoying making you squirm. Your breathing hitches every time his fingers brush over the particularly sensitive underside of your bulge. He looks up at you with a cheeky little grin and you can’t help but to gently grab his face and kiss him. This kiss unlike the last one is full of desperation on your part, this need to touch him, to kiss him, is consuming. He returns this kiss readily enough, it feels like he’s smiling against your mouth even. This feeling is intoxicating, that is until two of his fingers slip down and slide into your slick nook.

You gasp and let out a choked whimper, you were not expecting him to just go for it. He surprises you yet again by biting your neck, both actions are painful, albeit dully. The bite surprises you in more ways than one, of course you didn’t expect it, and it's also a very territorial action and not something you expected of Tav. You let out a pitiful, even for you, whine. While you don’t particularly mind the bite, the feel of his fingers inside of you is uncomfortable. He shushes you and kisses the bite mark he left on your neck. You huff a bit as his fingers shift inside of you, seemingly searching for something.

“Hold on” He murmurs softly as if knowing you were about to push him away. You grumble half heartedly, you’ll allow him just a moment more before you well and truly can handle no more of this. But he barely needs a moment before he finds what he was seeking, his fingers brush along the upper walls of your nook until he finds the most sensitive spot inside of you. You gasp and your bulge squeezes his wrist most definitely confirming that he’s found the right spot. He chuckles, sounding pleased by your reaction.

“Better?”

He rubs the spot intently, earning a soft moan from you in response. You hear his breath hitch at the sound and it's as if a switch had been flipped. Now he seems determined to draw as many noises from you as possible and despite your best efforts to be quiet he is definitely succeeding. You are glad now of the TV being on as it is mostly masking any noises you make from potential unwanted listeners. At least you hope so. You lift his chin in order to kiss him again, his face is tinged with an orange-brown flush of color and you can feel the heat emanating from his face as you kiss him. You slide your hand up to the side of his head and gently rub the base of one of his horns and you feel him shiver. Your breathing becomes more ragged the closer and closer you come to—- Suddenly he stops with a gasp.

With record speed his fingers exit your nook and he distangles his hand from your bulge. You whine with confusion wondering why he stopped. But then you hear it, footsteps from the bedroom and the unmistakable voice of Karkat. Tavros damn near scoots a whole foot away from you just as the door slams open and a disheveled panicked Karkat enters the lounge. He looks visibly relieved as soon as he sees you and you quickly school your face into tired innocence. “Gamzee don’t scare me like that!”

He goes off on a rant about safety or whatever, you aren’t paying attention. You’re still processing what was just happening not a minute earlier. You glance over at Tavros and watch as he, with Karkat paying no attention, licks his fingers and smiles mischievously. Motherfuck.

(End note: My friend made this meme for the end of the chapter and I think its funny so here ya go)

#chapter 8

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juwelenstaat · 5 years

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a take on euclase -- post ch. 81

a long meta that kind of debates a lot of what the fandom seems to have reached an agreement on (also titled : Why Euclase Has Always Been ‘Good’)

I guess I’ll preface this by saying I’ve always been very subjective in my view of Euclase ; in the beginning, I wasn’t crazy about their character design or role, by chapter 60 I had come to really dislike and distrust them, and as soon as the night raid chapter hit, I’ve been absolutely in love with them. Now, having reread the full manga several times, I’m to the point where I have a hard time disliking Euclase at any point (even during the chapter 60 “it’s late ; go to bed” sequence).

A lot of meta posts that I’ve read that focus on Euclase really like to highlight their “shady” characteristics : they don’t patrol and are rather removed from harm by the Lunarians, they are analytical (and we’ve already seen the shadiness of Lapis’s analytical nature), they are so group-oriented that they are willing to overlook pressing issues for the sake of harmony, and they’ve confessed a striking fear of change. The fear of change is something that I often see coupled with their job’s lack of imminent danger : Euclase is situated in a position in society where they’ve been rewarded for an inherent ability, and it’s comfortable for them to allow society to maintain a constant for personal reasons. However, I can’t help but think there’s a little more to Euclase’s personality than a selfish drive for selflessness.

For someone who is often characterized by the fandom as taking a safe job that allows them to manipulate things without having to take credit, Euclase is characterized early on (chapter four early on) to be selfless. At the moment Phos is put into danger, Euc is fully prepared to run blindly into a fight that, as far as we know, has never had a similar encounter in all of gem history. They even do so before Diamond or Bort do so. If we take the stance that Euclase is at least partially aware of the mortality of gems (through their analytical stance on dates, they would at least understand that there is no coming back from the moon), then it’s hard to deny that Euclase is willing to take major risks on behalf of others.

Even so, a few chapters later, we’re told very explicitly by Euclase themself that they envy living creature’s ability to sense danger. They are afraid of unknown variables, they are afraid that their predictions could prove inaccurate and hurt themself or other gems, and they seem to hold a sadness in them that is very characteristic of the older gems. They hold an insecurity about their brittleness : knowing fully well that the limits of their immortality does not grant them the instincts that come with mortality.

When you put these two very raw instances of character side by side, I think it’s very easy to understand why the majority of gem society loved Euclase as a “kind, kind” elder. They might not be as beloved as Yellow, Padpa, or Alex, but even characters like Rutile and Jade seem to acknowledge Euclase as “kind.” They confront a very real fear with both wisdom and genuine kindness.

(Most of this, if we’re honest with ourselves, is absolutely on par with Lapis Lazuli’s own history. The main difference between these two foils, however, is that Lapis always wanted to act while Euclase always wanted to wait. Lapis sees their weakness as an opportunity for improvement, and Euclase wants to hide it. Lapis sees gem society as a test ; Euclase sees gem society as something to preserve. Lapis valued progress ; Euclase valued integrity. I could go on.)

The majority of what I’ve seen on “Euclase is shady” posts refer to chapters 58 - 60 and Euclase’s constant worrying over Phosphophyllite and the admittedly creepy imagery of Euclase constantly hovering over Phos (that, on the first reading, made me dislike them, too).

I think it’s very important to note, however, that these panels are drawn from Phosphophyllite’s perspective. Phos is an unreliable narrator, Phos has been worrying over their plot and its exposure, Phos has already been unsettled by Diamond and Yellow, and now Euclase is challenging their honesty. They have every reason to be anxious over suspicion.

But consider the exchange from Euclase’s perspective. No gem has ever returned from the moon for as long as the gemstones remember : even Yellow treats it as a completely foreign concept. Phosphophyllite’s body has changed, their pearl eye is foreboding, their clothes are foreign, and the actions that Phos is partaking in all lean towards Phos being allied with the Lunarians. Even more notably : there is no aspect of kindness in what Phos is doing. Nothing about Phos would give the assumption that they haven’t been completely transformed by the Lunarians into a new type of weapon. And analyzing threats is exactly what Euclase’s role in gem society is.

We see Euc’s shadiness vanish as soon as Phos does give evidence that they have not been stripped of their original personality. During the night raid, Phosphophyllite loses every ounce of cold composure and throws away their half-truths ; they yell the plain truth at Bort, argue in the fashion they did as a young gem, and they act rashly. Yellow still obviously cares for the earth gems and Sensei, and Padparadscha is on Phos’s side. When Euclase approaches Phos in the aftermath, you can see a notable change in how Euclase is talking to Phos. There are no threats in the conversation, and Euclase - rather than looking creepy - looks gentle and upset.

The elaborate battle that was designed to keep Phos away from Sensei must seem farfetched to Euclase at this point. After trying so hard to make earth gem society look as if they haven’t been horribly hurt by their worst fear coming true - losing beloved gems to Phos’s manipulations, Euclase now has to come to terms with the fact that they were wrong. They apologize ; they try to offer a solution that involves working together. Phos rejects this, of course, because they’ve been hurt too many times that they know it’s never so easy to move forwards. But Euclase internalizes a lot of what transpires. Speaking with the other gems, they again apologize for being horribly wrong and reinforce the same “togetherness” they had promised Phos when reassuring Cinnabar. A notable panel is Euclase smiling and telling the gems to /rest/ rather than worry, which Sensei calls wise.

That being said, their guard isn’t completely down. While the night raid revealed things about the moon and Phosphophyllite that Euclase empathizes with, three gems were still lost. Rutile, Zircon, Neptunite, and Amethyst were cut into bits. The Lunarians/Cairngorm attacked and interrupted the Euclase-Phos conversation. The earth gems still patrol. And, most importantly, the earth gems have unanimously determined Phos to be a hated enemy in the same moment that Euclase determined Phos to be horribly misunderstood and misguided.

By the time Phos returns to the earth, Euclase is shown not only to be empathetic with Phos but emotionally distressed by the earth gems’ abuse. Euclase has made their decision. They want to hear Phos out. When Phosphophyllite explains the consequences of Sensei praying and begs, Euclase is ready to listen. And it’s cut off before they can properly understand any of it.

I find it incredibly interesting how Bort’s and Cinnabar’s train of thought that is so anti-Phos is almost verbatim what Euclase had argued back in chapter 60. Euclase, despite being one of the main proponents against change, has changed the most of the earth gems. Their motives have become obsolete and recent experiences have toppled the way they used to perceive the dichotomy of the moon and earth. They are completely against the idea of hiding Phosphophyllite away, and they have come to reject their own policy of “dealing with things later.” And despite this, they’re still who they once were. They will still yield to society’s majority ruling because, much like Padparadscha in fact, they are willing to let things go for the sake of others.

This is, however, not to say that Euclase leaves things in the past. While Phosphophyllite may be buried under the wishes of the other gems, Euclase takes up the crusade of asking Sensei to pray on a daily occurrence for 220 years. They have stayed up every winter. Until, at least, Euclase backs down in chapter 79 and claims that they can no longer resist hibernation. This sort of exhaustion echoes the same tiredness with which Yellow and Padparadscha existed in the earlier stages of the manga. Euclase is becoming very much the old and tired elder of the group.

And yet Phosphophyllite haunts Euclase. Even in the chapter when every other earth gem practically hunts Phos down to presumably permanently murder them, Euclase takes no part in any violence. They don’t even move to defend Sensei in their dismay. (And, to be honest, before the leaks came out I had given up on my ‘Euclase interrupts them’ theory because the fandom made the Cinnabar theory sound so much more likely. Yes, I’m very happy that it was Euclase that interrupted them bc I love their character arc so so much.)

I think Euclase still has a very large role left to play in the series. But at some point, Ichikawa is simply going to have to end Euclase’s arc. Despite being on the Confucian side (as I like to simplify the earth gems), they’ve come to understand different definitions of harmony and empathize with different methods of achieving it. I think their reaction in the next few chapters to Rutile having Padparadscha back will be particularly noteworthy now that Euclase and Padparadscha have practically taken the same side (even though they’re not aware of it yet). I really hope that the end to Euclase’s character arc isn’t them wasting away as Yellow has ; they’ve worked very hard for others at the cost of their own happiness. They’ve earned the rest.

#i'm so impressed by how many foils ichikawa uses in her writing #everywhere you look there's a foil #euclase and phosphophyllite?#bam they're foils they want the same thing in extremely different ways #euclase and padparadscha?#bam they're foils they do the same thing from very different perspectives #euclase and yellow?#bam they use the same coping mechanisms and yet end up in entirely different places #this entire series is written to make you ache and it shows #goddamn it shows #all of euclase's sequences are just #exquisite?#it's hard for me to look at them without feeling some profound sadness #even in chapter 60 when they talk about lapis #you definitely get the feeling that euclase understood how similar they were to lapis #and you DEFINITELY get the feeling that euclase reminisces on ghosts so so much #houseki no kuni #text #euclase #mm i didn't mention euclase and lapis as foils but they have The Foiliest Energy

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king-paimon · 5 years

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HNK Chapter 82 unfiltered thoughts: The fall of ‘Phos’

Wow... so little happened in this chapter in terms of story but a lot in terms of character development, or maybe character degeneration to some of us? I wish the chapter was a bit longer but I’ll take what I can get. I apologize that this post won’t be as nicely organized as I would've wanted but ... oh well. I’ll most likely come back to edit certain parts but I just wanted to give me thoughts on this new short chapter. If anyone has any thoughts or comments of their own, I’d love to hear them!

Phos’s degeneration

Honestly, I’m not surprised that Phos’s mindset has been warped to this degree. After everything that he had done and gone through for the sake of his fellow gems, whether they be good, bad, or seriously questionable actions, it was only a matter of time for him to see them as his enemies. After the previous chapter, I don’t think anyone is surprised that he is now showing a degree of hostility towards the earth gems. But what was interesting is that this mentality isn’t just towards the earth gems, but it’s towards the Moon gems as well.

Anyone notice how during the whole chapter, Phos only spoke to Aechmea? He didn’t acknowledge or speak to Goshe, who had just rescued him, at all. In fact, he didn’t directly acknowledge the other gems, as well as Barbata and Cicada. And how during his proclamation about turning the gems into dust, his alloy arms were not only trapping the other gems but were also pointing sharp points at them? Maybe it was just me but it looked like Phos was ready destroy them right then and there.

I think it’s clear, though: Phos is so DONE WITH EVERYTHING.

In his broken, warped mind... all of the gems are now nothing more than an obstacle that needs to be eradicated. He’s no longer thinking about their safety or happiness, which was one of his main reasons for going down this risky path in the first place.

Part of me desperately does hope that Phos was saying all of these things was the result of a “spur of the moment” thought process or moment of hysteria like when he was forcing Adamant to pray and really REALLY hopes he doesn’t truly mean it but... after everything that has happened, who knows?

Man... look at our poor "hero.” What has become of him?

Phos became this...because he wanted to find the truth of this world, to find a purpose for his existence and the others.. and this was what he gets. Now he’s just a shell of his former self, driven by pure, irrational emotions (kinda like Rutile in my opinion but that’s different) and needs to be brought to his senses before he really does anything he’d regret.

Now, I’m not going to condemn anyone (except maybe Aechmea) for all of this because I believe all the characters are morally grey and no one is truly right or wrong, especially Phos. But still, what a sad fate to witness.

Our dear Phos is gone, in so many ways. But will it stay this way?

What happens next?

Too many possibilities for where this story will go... Ms. Haruka Ichikawa continues to prove how hard it is to predict her stories and it’s both nerve-wrecking and entertaining.

I’m sure that most readers are sad to see our poor broken hero get crushed once again, but maybe it’s for the best? As ‘fun’ as it is to see Phos go feral, I don’t know how the story would progress if Phos stayed in that state for too long.

Though it makes me wonder about Aechmea’s plans for Phos, since he is going to alter Phos’ memories of the past 200 years. Wouldn’t it be somewhat beneficial to have Phos retain his broken mental state since it did almost get Adamant to pray? Maybe to him, Phos was a lose cannon and would have caused more harm to his plans if he stayed feral? Or maybe he is going use this trauma to his advantage and have Phos stay feral but more controllable? I don’t know but why do I have the feeling that altering the memories won’t yield the result Aechmea wants... At least I hope so.

But if it is somehow successful, what will become of Phos afterwards? Will Phos regain some sanity after he mind is altered? Will he still have the desire to have his fellow gems destroyed? Will Phos still be ‘Phos’ after losing even more of their original body? So many ‘will’ questions that may or may not be answered for probably a good while.

Edit: In addition to this, this chapter continues to show how f*cked up Aechmea is, for it is likely that not only will he have Barbarta alter Phos’s memories, he’ll also likely alter Phos’s personality even more to be more obedient and docile and less of a problem... Kinda like Cairngorm ... OOoh I hate Aechmea so much. He’s nothing but bad news and I hope this doesn’t happen.

What about the other gems?

For the moon gems, in my eyes, they’re in an interesting position. After what they’ve just witnessed, how will they treat Phos from here on out? Will my previous predictions regarding Cairn or the other gems telling Phos about the nature of the prayer somehow happen? Will the moon gems do ANYTHING to progress the story?? I honestly have no clue at this point. Maybe I’m putting too much faith in the moon gems but part of me still has hope for them, especially Cairn.

(Edit: Honestly though, they might actually do nothing after Phos is brought back... Maybe poor Yellow will actually talk to Phos but the others....I don’t know. As much as I want them to be proactive, they probably won’t be. Sigh...)

Speaking of Yellow, I noticed that he wasn’t among the other moon gems in this chapter and I’m really glad he wasn’t there. I don’t think he could handle seeing Phos in his broken state nor do I think Yellow would handle the whole “turn all of the gems into dust” proclamation very well.

Someone believes that the next chapter may focus on the earth gems and I hope this is true. No doubt that after what they witnessed, their view of Phos is still not good but now that Padparadscha is there, will they try to wake him up and get info from him? Will they talk to Adamant about what happened? How will they move forward from this point on? (And where the heck is Cinnabar??)

And will the Admirabilis play a part of this story again? It’s been a while since we’ve seen them and since it’s been over 200 years, there should be new generations of them now. Maybe they will be the ones who’ll help Phos somehow?

I don’t know how to end this post other than saying... Hopefully we’ll get more in the next chapter. Happy suffering, everyone. Until next time.

#houseki no kuni #land of the lustrous #hnk spoilers #hnk aechmea #hnk phos #hnk chapter 82 #phos #phosphophillyte #haruko ichikawa #so much suffering #yay #HNK theory #hnk spoiler #hnk discussion #discussion

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rutilation · 5 years

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Does mulching a prisoner of war into shiny little woodchips before burying them alive indefinitely count as a violation of the Geneva Conventions? Asking for a friend.

(Hi guys, I’m back, and I brought 4,400 words with me.)

First of all, my apologies for the nearly five month wait. Ever since last spring, I haven’t had much time at all to devote to writing and I’ve only been able to work on this essay in small increments. And yet, despite the fact that I don’t have the time to do so, this essay somehow turned into a bloated treatise on the failings of gem society. Truly, I am a slave to my obsessions.

I’ve refrained from reading chapter 80 because I just know that if I do, it will insinuate itself into my brain like a tumor and I won’t be able to concentrate on finishing this essay. (That said, I did happen to see someone on twitter make a joking reference to third impact in regards to said chapter, so I am certainly Afraid.) Though my takes may be ice cold by this point, I hope that there are some nuggets of insight to be found in this. With that said, here are my thoughts on chapters 78 and 79.

While the past two chapters have certainly been…hard to read, I think that their contents have been a long time coming, primarily regarding the parallels between Phos and Kongou, and the uglier undercurrents of gem society reaching their logical conclusion. (And I gotta say, this display of—for lack of a better term—inhumanity on the part of the gems jives quite well with all the Shirley Jackson I’ve been reading lately. When I get tired of one display of flagrant mob violence, I can quickly flip to another.)

And then there’s the matter of the gems on the moon… I remember that when I first got into hnk, which was right around the time when Phos and the others left for the moon, everyone was afraid that Phos would go off the deep end and the gems stuck on the moon would end up as collateral damage in Phos’s quest for vengeance. But since Ichikawa is too powerful us, she said “what if it was the other way around, and Phos is the one getting thrown under the bus while the moon gems start a death cult?”

So there’s a lot to talk about, but let’s address the earth gems first, because these characters sure do live in a society. (In order to make my prose more tolerable, I encourage my readership to take a shot every time I write the words “gem society.”)

First of all, I’ve seen a number of people interpret Kongou’s line about the gems forgetting Phos very literally, and assume that the earth gems all have Phos-specific amnesia. I highly doubt this is the case, and he probably just means that Phos is now out of sight and out of mind.

As bleak as the situation is, I think it’s been a long time coming. From the beginning, one of the major philosophical elements of the story has been how the gems’ desire to give meaning to their long lives has compelled them to create a society in which only those with a concrete purpose have value. The characters see themselves and each other as instrumentally but not inherently valuable. With so much of the story focused on how this ethos hurts those individuals who aren’t seen as useful, how much it fosters shame and self-hatred, and how much it makes the gems unable and unwilling to help each other through hardship and depression, it makes sense to me that this inhumane mindset would eventually boil over into something truly cruel, and thus the other shoe has finally dropped. In a strange way, I have more respect for Rutile’s attitude towards the situation than I do the rest of the earth gems (sans Euclase, who I’ll get to in a moment.) Rutile is treating Phos like an enemy that must be vanquished, whereas the others are treating Phos as a kid treats their dirty clothes when they don’t want to do laundry—by shoving it in the back of a closet and trying to forget about it. The former strikes me as less dishonest and dehumanizing than the latter.

Even before chapter 79 made it official, I had a gut feeling that the timetable for figuring out what to do with Phos was nonexistent. I’ll be generous and assume Cinnabar was being sincere in the moment when they implied that they’d put Phos back together eventually. But just like how everyone ignored Cinnabar’s suffering because there was no compelling incentive to do anything about it, or how they all turned a blind eye to the Kongou/Lunarian situation for millennia, I figured that Phos would end up as another problem they wouldn’t bother solving. (Regarding Cinnabar, while I hope they’re still on good terms with everyone after the time skip, I would not be the least bit surprised if the earth gems started ostracizing them again once it became apparent that there would be no new attacks from the moon and thus no further reason to tolerate their mercury.)

(Bort, please stick up for them.)

And to be clear, this is a problem that the earth gems are refusing to solve in exchange for a short-term sense of security. If Phos and Kongou had been allowed to hash things out, and this stalemate hadn’t festered for 220 years, then maybe the moon gems wouldn’t be entertaining the idea of starting that aforementioned death cult. (Tbh, this mostly applies to 84, Yellow, and Dia, since Cairn has been their own personal death cult since chapter 33.) Even leaving aside how bad things have gotten already, if this state of affairs had continued to drag on, I think the situation would have gotten very ugly the second Aechmea got tired of waiting. While playing fruit ninja or whatever with Cairngorm, he says something to the effect of losing a battle here or there isn’t important as long as you win the war in the end, which I’m pretty sure is meant to communicate to the audience that Aechmea is playing the long game. And since he hasn’t done anything in the interim other than reluctantly and incrementally humor Cairngorm’s pet project, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he’s biding his time specifically for Phos, and that he’s counting on them eventually being reawakened. In that case, what would have happened if Kongou had been too meek to interfere, and the gems succeeded in getting rid of Phos for good? If Aechmea eventually gave up on his current scheme, scrapped working with Phos, and came up with a new plan, I’m betting things would quickly devolve into heinous war crimes since he’s only played nice so far in order to keep Phos on his side.

In chapter 78, we get to see two instances of the most common nugget of gem wisdom: only act when you’re guaranteed to succeed, and never take risks. It been a common refrain, with Antarc, and more subtly, Dia being the only gems aside from Phos to push back against that sentiment. And to be clear, I’m not saying any one of these iterations necessarily are bad advice, but it’s become increasingly obvious that it’s the only acceptable mode of dealing with problems in gem society. More on that in a minute.

So, uh, regarding Euclase, here’s an exclusive picture of me, after I’d spent months writing: “Gee, this Euclase character seems pretty shady, but I have faith in Cinnabar, Bort, and Jade to act humanely!’

That said, I think I got at least one aspect of their characterization right in my Euclase-focused essay—that they have a greater comprehension of their mortality than most. Unlike the other gems, they’re not childishly naïve enough to believe that ignoring their problems will save them; they understand that death is always around the corner, and that the (mostly) tranquil life the gems lead requires constant maintenance. Simply sliding down the path of least resistance will come back to bite them all in the ass later down the line, and Euclase knows it. That’s probably why they at least went through the motions of asking Kongou to pray every day for two hundred twenty years.

This is a bit of a tangent, but regarding my earlier point about the gems not commiserating at all, Peridot and Sphene come across as anomalies in that they helped each other through their grief over their lost partners, but that doesn’t seem to happen all that often. As we see in the aftermath of the winter arc, it seemingly did not occur to any of the gems who had lost friends of their own to try and help Phos through their grief. And I think it’s likely that they weren’t given much comfort in their hours of need either. Yellow bottled up their grief, Alex and (presumably) Red Beryl threw themselves into their work to the point of obsession, and Ghost seemed to have largely withdrawn from everyone else. But none of them really healed or helped anyone else heal. Despite their society placing a high value on interdependence, the gems are truly alone when they have to reckon with complicated or inconvenient emotions.

It may be hard to remember, but Phos was once influenced by all these toxic mindsets as well. Recall Phos’s conversation with Benito in chapter two: it implies that Cinnabar did live with the other gems during Phos’s lifetime, recently enough that Phos expects to find them in their room. From this we can infer that our kindhearted Phos never reached out to the clearly lonely Cinnabar while they were actually around, and didn’t even notice when they left the school for good. They may have had the potential for kindness from a very young age, but it was only when they were hit with with the stark truth of Cinnabar’s suffering that they snapped out of the fog of apathy that seems to surround the gems.

In fact, it almost seems like the struggle to drag the gems kicking and screaming out of their comfort zone is a macrocosm for what Phos had to grow out of at the beginning of the series. You’ll recall that once upon a time they were lazy, wanted easy solutions to their problems, and had no faith in their ability to effect change. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that in the eyes of gem society, the problem wasn’t really that Phos was lazy, it’s that their laziness manifested in the wrong ways. They were supposed to be fastidious and reliable about things like crafting, or fighting, or writing reports, but apathetic towards anything that requires more nuance or imagination than that, kindness or cruelty be damned.

All this is cast into even sharper relief if you think back on the arc with Ventricosus. She was in far more dire straits than the earth gems are now, and had a compelling incentive to throw Phos under the bus. But in the end, that wasn’t a line she was willing to cross. Her final line: “If we’re not willing to change our ways, we’ll end up just like the Lunarians,” seems quite portentous in retrospect. I don’t think Ichikawa is positing that being immortal makes you a sociopath, otherwise characters like Kongou, Yellow, and Padpa wouldn’t be such cinnamon buns. But I think she is insinuating that someone who refuses to change is dooming themselves to a state of perpetual immaturity, and that being truly kind requires growing up a bit. It’s a harder for someone who knows they’ll die one day to remain in a state of arrested development than it is for someone who could indefinitely procrastinate on growing up, and just focus all their mental energy into making paper or whatever for all of eternity.

And this seems as good a point as any to stop harping on gem society and start talking about the gems on the moon, starting with my muse, my most problematic of faves.

I brought up in my chapter 77 essay that Aechmea may not be willing to divulge what he was about to tell Cairn, and that was exactly what happened. Since he’s only willing to share this mysterious information if he literally would not be around for the fall out, I’m guessing that whatever this secret is, it’s not benign. And while Cairn has probably put it out of their mind by chapter 79, it’s clear that it’s bugging them before the time skip. I smell a shocking revelation brewing and I dread to imagine what could possibly top mind-control eyeballs. Make no mistake, I’ve devoted an embarrassing amount of brainspace the past nine months or so to contemplating what it will look like when the other shoe finally drops for Cairn’s character arc. (Is there a German word for the ambivalence that arises from wanting to call future plot twists for bragging rights, but not wanting to look like a dipshit if your predictions are wrong?)

Their line from chapter 78 that I alluded to earlier in this essay is rather interesting to me, because although they’re referring to Phos, they might as well be talking about Aechmea. They exhausted themselves to their breaking point trying to look after someone who didn’t take care of themselves, but they’ve nonetheless latched onto someone who is also seeking self-destruction. And as I pointed out earlier in this essay, this line also serves as yet another iteration of the defeatist sentiment that the gems often espouse. But, for a while, it had seemed like Cairn was moving away from that. The decision Cairn made in chapter 67 was certainly…fraught. But, one can’t deny that it wasn’t a brave one on their part, to leave behind everything they knew and cared about for a shot at living authentically; the only problem was that they undercut that step forward by returning to their chronic doormat tendencies. And again in chapter 70, they took a risk by sneaking off to earth knowing that Aechmea would pitch a fit later. But ever since chapter 75, they’ve been backsliding. As said chapter pointed out, their wish has shifted from wanting freedom to wanting what amounts to eternal codependency. I also find it interesting that Cairngorm apparently hasn’t bothered with getting a new name, and is just copying Aechmea’s shtick of going by his title. They’ve gone from sharing a name with Ghost, to having their own name, to not having a name at all. In conclusion, my child is a god damned mess.

I know I said I was done talking about gem society, but I guess I’m not. Going back to what I said in the last paragraph, about Phos not taking care of themselves, that’s been a reoccurring element throughout the series, and in my opinion, it was a significant contributor to the breakdown of Phos’s relationships. The reason Phos never just tried to make friends with Cinnabar—which is what the latter really wanted, and only focused their efforts on following through on their promise, was because Phos’s self-loathing runs so deep that it doesn’t occur to them that anyone would actually want their company for its own sake. Chapter 14 is the most direct allusion to this in my mind. Phos clearly wants to talk to Cinnabar, but instead they hide away and mutter that they’d have nothing to say to them. And as I touched on a moment ago, Phos’s self-destructive tendencies wore down Cairngorm over the course of their partnership.

But, here’s the thing: Phos’s self-loathing isn’t some immutable part of their nature, it was instilled in them by their society from the moment it became apparent that Phos couldn’t slot neatly into a role. This is very apparent in the early chapters, in which no one ever misses an opportunity to remind Phos of their uselessness (except Dia, bless their heart.) Back then, they pretended to not care about it by way of snark and bravado, but in truth, I think it warped their self-perception in an incredibly negative way.

There’s also something that illustrates this which has been on my mind for a while, but I haven’t had the opportunity to talk about it. When Phos was trapped by their arms during Antarc’s fateful capture, the insult they yelled at their arms to get them moving is the same one that Bort lobbed at them a few times in volume one. I usually see different translations of the word between the two scenes, but to my non-Japanese-fluent ears, it sounded like the same word to me when I watched the anime. It was a striking way of implying that this moment of personal growth had been seeded with something more insidious, that their self-loathing is a taint that has followed them across their many incarnations. I’m not the first one to point this out, but there’s always been a certain tension within the text regarding Phos’s changes. On one hand, their courage to change is framed as admirable and heroic, but on the other hand, they’re also hurting themselves because of social pressure to avoid being useless, which is kind of awful. I think the narrative resolves this tension by making Phos’s quest for validation something which would eventually lead them to try and tear down the status quo that they hurt themselves for in the first place.

Okay, back to the moon gems. I’ve reread the part of chapter 79 focused on the moon several times, and it just feels more ominous with each iteration. What exactly was their idea of administering therapy for Yellow? Why is Amethyst on board with Cairn’s death bullshit? Why is Dia okay with it? Why did they stop fixing the dusted gems? And most concerning, where are the other three gems—especially Alex who would probably be extremely opposed to halting the gem restoration? It feels as if there’s something terrible just out of our field of view and chapter 79 is dancing around it. (But hey, my intuition was wrong about Euclase so maybe when I read chapter 80 Ichikawa will tell me that Alex, Goshe, and Benito were at moon-disneyland the whole time, and that Aechmea is a real swell guy, actually.)

(No, I’m not bitter in the least.)

I also find it interesting that in chapter 79, Cairn is espousing a lot of the same sentiments as poor Yellow, but since they can mask the dysfunction better, they’re treated as an expert rather than a victim. In reality, both of them are in serious need of a therapist, which is apparently non-existent in the post-post-apocalypse.

And finally, Barbata continues to be the truest audience surrogate. I find it interesting that he clearly doesn’t approve of all the bullshit going on, while at the same time being too reticent to do anything about it, aside from some side-eyes and passive-aggressive comments. Perhaps there will be some payoff to this down the line?

At this point, let’s talk about Kongou, because both his actions and his role as a sort of parallel to Phos in the narrative are fascinating. I think this is the first time in the story that he’s really done something proactive. I touched on this in a cursory character analysis I did for him, but to reiterate, the impression I got from his at times obtuse and contradictory behavior was that he had completely given up on trying to solve the Lunarian problem long before the series had begun, and that the only thing cutting through his despair and compelling him to get up in the morning and not just “meditate” forever was the prospect of spending a little more time with the people he loves, even knowing that he couldn’t protect them in any way that mattered. But watching Phos’s struggle reignited a tiny bit of hope in him, enough that he wanted them to succeed in their efforts, but not enough for him to believe that he himself could make a difference. To me, that seems like the only explanation that accounts for both his obstinacy when Phos directly confronted him along with his casual acceptance of the path Phos has been walking.

So for him to go behind everyone’s back to fix Phos is quite the departure from his usual passivity, and it tells us that he’d rather subject himself and everyone else to Phos’s brand of chaos than endure stasis that comes with their absence. And it really does seem like the world enters a stasis along with Phos whenever they end up comatose. Nothing moves forward, and the only thing to mark the passage of time are small deteriorations: Morga and Goshe are captured, and Cairn quietly becomes suicidal, and this time around, Yellow gradually loses their mind, the Admirabilis that Phos tried to spare overcrowd the tiny waterways they were released into, and the gems on the moon stop caring about whether they live or die.

For a while now, various characters both gem and Lunarian have called Phos their hope, or their savior, or some variation thereupon, and with each new iteration, the sentiment feels more and more ironic. Time and time again, Phos rises to the occasion only to buckle under pressure, their noble intentions haven’t gotten them good results since, like, chapter 10, and everyone who at one point had faith in them is completely done with them. And at the end of it all, they don’t have it in them to ask Kongou to pray on anyone’s behalf but their own, as if they’ve become so exhausted that they don’t have the energy to be kind anymore. And just to rub salt in the wound, their ambiguous phrasing makes it unclear whether Phos is asking to Kongou get rid of the Lunarians or themselves.

All of this seems to mirror what Kongou is implied to have gone through. He was created to save the souls of humanity, but was ill-equipped for the task, and he’s spent god knows how many millennia dogged by his failure to deliver. Aechmea’s line in chapter 55 about how his human creators didn’t bother to think about what would happen to him after everyone was gone, in my mind, parallels how Phos has been abandoned by the people who once supported them once they became too much of an inconvenience.

So now that these two failed saviors are finally confronting each other with no lies to hide behind, and nothing to get between them, what’s going to happen? I get the feeling that chapter 80 is going to give us some long awaited catharsis, for better or worse. (Please Ichikawa, make things a little better for once.)

On a related note, I’m hoping this possible catharsis might clarify something else for me. For all that the series is steeped in Buddhist symbolism and philosophy, I’ve never been able to tell what Ichikawa actually thinks of Buddhism. On one hand, the assumptions that life boils down to suffering and that the self is ephemeral and illusory are certainly present, but on the other hand, the characters who lean most heavily on the Buddhist aesthetic are villains, the characters most invested in reaching nirvana are portrayed as…let’s say misguided at best, and as I’ve already noted above, our two would-be Buddhas are chronically ineffectual. If I had to take a stab at it, I’d guess that the aspect of the philosophy that she takes issue with is the idea of relying on a savior figure and the idea that there exists a nirvana that could save anyone from samsara. But if the Lunarians’ wish were a complete pipe dream, then Shiro et al wouldn’t have already disappeared? Unless that was a misdirection and their souls were actually reincarnated? Idk, I don’t have enough brain cells to parse The Most Viable Interpretation at this juncture in the story.

Lastly, assuming Phos doesn’t ascend to nirvana via pure rage next chapter, I think their next replacement is going to be imminent. All of Phos’s other changes have been accompanied by death and birth imagery: they lost their legs out at sea, which is where inclusions are said to emerge, they lost their arms and their head at the site of their birth, the time they spent comatose evoked the image of a shrouded corpse in a morgue, their first trip to the moon in which they got their new eye apparently lasted the length of a Buddhist funeral, and now, they’ve literally been buried. (On a side note, it’s interesting that there’s a lot more death imagery for their later transformations, while their earlier changes alluded to birth.) I’m not the first person to point this out, but it seems likely to me that Rutile made good on their threat to throw Phos into the ocean, and discarded whatever pieces they were assigned to bury. And indeed, there seems to be a gaping hole in Phos’s torso. I still think Padparadscha is the most likely candidate for a replacement—the red stone from the lotus sutra has been alternately described as ruby, carnelian, amber, or coral, and Padparadscha is the closest we have to any of those—but who knows. Ichikawa might even decide to stop short of all seven treasures in service of some greater thematic purpose.

And with that, this belated essay is finally done. Except it isn’t. This is a complete tangent, but I recently looked up the one and only region where gem-quality phosphophyllite was briefly mined, a mountain in the Bolivian Andes called Cerro Rico. Hundreds of thousands have died there since the 16th century while mining silver, and that figure may be lowballing it, as some scholars think the death toll is actually in the millions. It is colloquially known as “the Mountain that Eats Men,” and the miners pay tribute to this fellow in hopes of avoiding cave-ins and pockets of toxic gas, but are otherwise doomed to die young from silicosis. According to a forum post I found belonging to a mineral collector, the mineshaft where all the phosphophyllite came from had to be walled off with a concrete bulkhead because the poisonous gases that accumulated in the tunnel had killed a number of miners. The idea of gem mining already conjures up images of exploited workers in abject conditions, but I must say that Maneater Mountain exceeded my expectations.

Okay, now I’m actually done. I’m going to get some sleep on account of the fact that it’s 2 AM, but afterwards I shall read the new chapter and repeat this whole grueling cycle over again, but like, in a timely manner.

#houseki no kuni #land of the lustrous #I know I’ve spent the whole essay trashing ¾ of the cast but I really do hope they eventually get over themselves #i've spent hours rereading this but i just KNOW in my heart that there are a billion typos and those typos will haunt my soul #goodnight

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oc-rehab-centre · 5 years

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[HNK OC Review] Sapphire

Hey there guys, gals and other gendered pals! This account has been rather quiet as of late, wouldn’t you say? A shame indeed, although we received our first public OC review request today. While the user would prefer to be left anonymous on this post, this review is available for you and them to read through. So sit down, relax and let’s do a quick review of this Houseki No Kuni OC!

Part 1 - Biography Analysis

+ some quick words in advance!

What there was to read of Sapphire’s bio was admittedly scarce. The amount of information chalked up to about 1 page and just over 500 words. While shorter character biographies are quicker to read and easier to get through - I’m a firm believer that when it comes to telling your OC’s story and telling us about them, more is always great! I would definitely suggest adding more to this bio and there are several templates for OC bios available on platforms like DeviantART and Amino.

Also, apologies if I’m mistaken, but it looks as if this and the other piece of Sapphire sent to me were created in an avatar/anime dress-up game. I’d advise instead of doing this, perhaps drawing your OC yourself or requesting/commissioning artwork from an artist instead. It just adds something more original and personal to your art and OC, plus there’s more creativity that way!

Name: Sapphire Nicknames: Saphy, the Blue Angel, Jewel

There is already a canon “Sapphire” in the Houseki No Kuni universe. However, this isn’t a huge problem. Perhaps add a colour, shade or type into her name to distinguish her from the canon character. For example, there are various diamonds in Houseki No Kuni: Diamond, Yellow Diamond and Red Diamond. Perhaps you can distinguish your Sapphire from the canon “Sapphire”. Below is a picture of some shades of sapphire and I think “Cornflower” or “Kashmir” might fit your character the best.

Credit: SpiralMuse.org

As for your character’s nicknames, perhaps add some more context, like:

Who refers to Sapphire by these names?

How did she earn these nicknames?

Does she like these nicknames?

I believe doing so would add some more dimension to your character. It would show the reader how she fits into the universe and can even allow them to determine things about their character before even reading through the entire bio. Also, I don’t think that the Gems would know what an “angel” is, given they don’t seem to have much of a grasp on human religion albeit mythological creatures stemming from these religions.

Age: Between 200-250 years old

Species: Sapphire

While I can’t say a straight-up “no” to this being an answer to this question, sapphire wouldn’t qualify as your character’s species. For this category, I’d suggest writing “Gem” or “The Bone”, as those are the most common names for the species’ of the crystalline characters in Houseki No Kuni. My apologies, just a nitpick!

Strength: 9

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Appearance: Sapphire is a blue gem with long flowing hair tied up in a ponytail. Everyone likes Sapphire’s hair because it is very sparkly and shimmers a lot in battle, making them hard to miss when they fight the Lunarians. Sapphire’s eyes are also blue. Sapphire has markings on her face which appear when she’s very angry at the Lunarians, and they don’t go away until Rutile comes to calm her down. Sapphire doesn’t like these markings but Sensei says that they make her special, but it doesn’t make her like them any more though. Sapphire has large wings made out of wax and pieces of silver that were made by Rutile, which she uses to fly and cut through her enemies with.

To begin this, in the two images that I was sent with this biography, there is very little consistency in the design, which I reckon is because the customization options varied between the two used games/apps(?). Nothing hints to this character having a wardrobe of outfits and I believe that more care should’ve gone into at least ensuring the design didn’t change so drastically and like this. Like I said, drawing it yourself or asking for art from another person can make a larger difference than you may think!

Now as for what is stated here in this portion of the bio, it is admittedly very cluttered and rather disorganized. The sentence structures are rather awkward in nature and seem to jump from one topic to the other. (eg. Rutile calming her down and Sensei’s opinion on her markings.) A few pieces of this information could definitely be removed from the “appearance” section and placed into another, like “personality” or “relationships”. Please stay true to the fact that this is an “appearance” description and not a description of everything under the sun.

There is a strong emphasis on Sapphire’s beauty and strength in this portion, which is alright, although it comes off as just slightly conceited. (Though I think I’m alone on that stance, nor was mentioning that opinion truly important lmao.) I have a slight problem with her two most apparent traits, I will confess. Sapphire’s facial markings and wings.

What struck me as odd about the facial markings is that such things have never been seen in the canonverse, it just seems so alien and frankly unnecessary. The markings are cited as only showing up when she is angry and sound as though they serve no sense or purpose other than displaying this single fact. While there is a potential for some interesting OC lore, I would personally suggest removing this feature unless you have a logical way of explaining their presence on her face/body.

The gems also wear thick coats of powder across their bodies, remember? If these markings were anywhere, I imagine they’d exist within/on Sapphire’s crystalline body and would struggle to show up through this powder... This concept is just very confusing and I can’t think of any logical reasons/examples to give you that would make them work.

Now for the wings, it’s obvious that this was inspired by the Greek tale of Icarus. I personally think that your concept is interesting but it brings up many questions, both for the sake of character-building and well, science.

Why would Rutile create Sapphire a set of wings? How come none of the other Gems get their own wings? Did it take Sapphire time to learn how to use their new wings? In Houseki No Kuni, the laws of physics are constantly defied, but seeing a character flying with wings made from a metal that is 655 lb per cubic foot seems like science the creators wouldn’t push against... Ahem, anyways, I believe these are questions you should explore if you plan on keeping the implemented features there.

Personality: Sapphire is an emotionless character who is very strong and works alone whenever she can. She thinks that she is too dangerous to work alongside other Gems because she could hurt them when she gets angry or made in battle. This is why Sapphire asks to work alone. Sapphire also wants to protect her friends very much and that’s why she’s always so angry at the Lunarians for taking away the other Gems. Sapphire also competes a lot with Phos because they’re both strong Gems only Sapphire is more loyal and useful to Sensei more than Phos was. Sapphire also doesn’t like Padparashadda very much because Padparashada isn’t helpful to Sensei either when he’s asleep all the time, and because he makes Rutile really upset which Sapphire doesn’t like.

Emotionless, hm? Given the fact that she supposedly have markings that trigger as a result of an emotion (anger), I would hardly go to say she’s emotionless. In this paragraph, she’s listed as: angry, protective, competitive, loyal and passionate - all of which are emotions.

Just like in the “appearances section”, there is information in this paragraph that would fit better elsewhere, like her relationships with the listed characters, whose affinity and history with are never explained in this bio.

I think that there are definitely more traits you could add to Sapphire’s personality. She is rather simplistic and I believe there is a lot of potential for her to be much more. Perhaps read about sapphires and find out what they symbolize for some inspiration or even randomly generate personality traits/attributes in online generators! Spice things up a little, make this OC more personal, make them feel more real.

Likes: Sensei, killing Lunarians, blue roses, King, her wings, being strong, the night time Dislikes: Phos, Padparashadda, when the lunarians get away, seeing broken gems, getting very angry

Powers: She has wings that let her fly and attack the Lunarians in order to make sure they cannot return back to the moon. Sapphire is stronger than Phos

Another useless piece of info, but you’ve spelt Padparadscha wrong a number of times. It’s not so hard to do a quick spellcheck! I probably sound like a broken record, but the wings continue not to make much sense to me, and I think you need to revisit the concept a little more. Given how you explained them, they sound very very powerful, seemingly strong without consequence. Also, the fact that Sapphire is stronger than Phos would be more believable and intriguing if Sapphire had clearer motifs and a more developed personality.

Her likes and dislikes are rather generic, which admittedly broke my interest a little. I’d suggest adding some likes and dislikes that reflect Sapphire’s character a little better than her love for murdering the Moon People.

The characters she likes and dislikes also may leave the reader curious. Though you went into slight detail about why Sapphire and Phosphophyllite aren’t besties, seeing more info on relationship with Sensei, Padpa and the aforementioned Rutile would be great.

Backstory: Sapphire was born on the Cord Shore and taken to the school by Sensei. Sapphire liked to cling to Sensei because she saw him as a father and always wanted to please him. When Sapphire was growing up, Sensei could tell that she was powerful when he saw Sapphire’s markings, which showed up when she got mad after seeing some gems return to the building broken by the Lunarians. Sensei let Sapphire fight earlier because he knew she could protect the gems with her hardness and her ability. One day, Sapphire was in battle but the Lunarians escaped too quickly, making her very angry. Rutile gave Sapphire a gift which was a set of wings made out of wax and silver so that the Lunarians could never escape her again. Sapphire’s wings were so powerful she didn’t have to use a sword anymore and could take down even more Lunarians every day with only her wings.

*inhales*

Oh boy.

Ok, uh, I feel as though Sapphire’s backstory makes her seem like a very very special snowflake - something you should never strive for with a character. Sensei and Rutile both seem to be out of character, as both seem to feed Sapphire what she wants with a silver spoon... She seems like a bratty chosen one and I can’t say this backstory will sit well with everyone.

There’s so little here that it makes me question a lot, and it frustrates me that’s there isn’t more to justify the choices and thoughts of Sensei and Rutile. Why did Sensei see such potential in Sapphire? Why would Rutile craft wings for Sapphire? Why did Sapphire get away with working alone?

There’s just so much left unanswered and unexplained... Please, if you ever decide to work on this, please add more and fill in these enormous holes. Adding a timeline would help with the pacing because when all of this is happening and at what ages Sapphire was when these events happened isn’t specified, adding to the confusion.

Fun Fact

Sapphire has never gotten broken before but she is curious about what it feels like.

Sapphire wraps herself in her wings when she sleeps.

Haha that first piece of trivia is rather cute. It reminds me of being young, seeing a friend with a cast and wondering what it feels like to break an arm or a leg. I think that’s really cute! The second - well, you already know my stance on the wings ^^’

Notes + Summary

If there is one thing that always sucks about fandom OCs, it’s that the fandoms always impose restrictions on creativity. In the case of Sapphire, I feel that a lot of the creative choices would definitely work to her benefit, but in the world of Houseki No Kuni, several aspects of her character feel unnatural and vague.

Anyways, here’s a reiteration of my main points from this review.

Please add more to this bio! There wasn’t a whole lot of information in this bio, certainly not enough for Sapphire to be considered a fleshed out OC. As a result of how short this bio is, there are a lot of holes and a lot left unexplained. There is a lot of potential for this OC to be bettered by filling in those holes wisely! You can look online for a template to find section headings you’re missing, like: relationships, statistics, etc.

Getting your own images would be pretty great! Artists are always better than doll maker games!

Altering her name just a little by a colour prefix (eg. “Cornflower Sapphire”, “Kashmir Sapphire”, etc.) would differentiate her from the canon blue Sapphire.

The removal or better explaining of the facial markings and wings would definitely be beneficial if you want to make her fit better into the series.

Sapphire is written like a special snowflake, she’s practically written like a protagonist and seems to directly challenge Phos. Perhaps tone down the amount of special features she has, there’s nothing wrong with being just average. Sometimes, looking and behaving like a wallflower can make an OC better?

Explaining Sapphire’s connections with her peers in greater detail would be beneficial, considering they seem to baby her a fair bit.

Overall, I’d give Sapphire an overall rating of 3.5/10. There just wasn’t a whole lot to work off of from this bio and what’s there is admittedly not superb. I hope this doesn’t discourage you from creating OCs and encourages you to make some changes to Sapphire. As I said, I see a lot of potential in her, as long as you fill in those holes in her bio and correct what is flawed in a way that makes sense and seems natural.

That’s all for this review, Ciao!

#OC Review #Houseki No Kuni OC #Land of the Lustrous OC

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queerhargreeves · 5 years

Text

hiya i wrote a fic at 4:30 am bc i have emotions and i need more hargreeves bonding but specifically vanya/diegos relationship!!! this fic is sorta all over the place so i apologize for the errors !!

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After avoiding the end of the world the Hargreeves decided that there was no better time than now to attempt to fix their estranged relationship. After 17 years of no communication then being forced into such a high intensity situation, to say they deserved some time together was an understatement.

It had been a few months since the alleged end of the world and they all made it a habit to go out to dinner at least once a week together. Especially now that they’re all living under one roof it made things easier. They needed some time to recover to which Pogo and Grace happily obliged in their request to stay for a bit. They were all learning how to get along better - all improving in their communication skills after 30 years of being emotionally stunted. However their biggest arguments were always over where to eat. Klaus always wanted tacos, Allison usually wanted Thai food, Five just wanted a solid cup of coffee he didn’t really care where, Vanya always just said “I don’t care wherever you want”, and the rest of them agreed with whatever happened.

Tonight they settled on a Vietnamese restaurant so Diego could “get his pho on” after a few weeks of complaining.

“KLAUS GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE.” Diego exclaimed, waiting approximately seven seconds before screaming again.

“IF YOU DON’T GET DOWN HERE WE’RE GONNA LEAVE WITHOUT YOU!” Diego grabbed his coat, tossing the keys to Five. Which was quickly followed by the click clack of Klaus’ black booties.

“Yes brother dearest I heard you the first time!” Klaus made it to the bottom of the stairs and did a twirl, showing off his (Allison’s) black skirt and gave an expectant look to his brother.

“Nice outfit.” Diego said with a nod, “Now get in the car, princess. I need pho in me. Stat.”

“Yessir~”

All seven of the siblings piled into their new van which could actually fit all of them. Allison said it was a present for everyone but really it was for Five. Driving always seemed to calm him down and helped clear his head when he got too caught up in himself.

The ten minute drive went by pretty quickly as the hot topic conversation was about whether or not sriracha belonged in pho. Luther was the only one opposed to the idea to which Ben added was due to his “unfortunate Caucasian genes”. Klaus happily translated that.

They made their way out of the van and walked through the parking structure. As they turned a corner and got closer to their destination they heard a chorus of shouts and a sea of red hats right outside of the restaurant.

“Is that what I think it is?” Luther asked out loud, his voice at least an octave higher than normal in disbelief at the scene in front of him.

“BUILD THAT WALL. BUILD THAT WALL. KEEP THEM OUT” was being chanted, the sea of people held out signs that had things written along the lines of “secure USA boarders” and “keep illegals out”

“LOOK, THERE’S AN ILLEGAL OVER THERE!” A large, middle aged white man yelled into his megaphone and pointed right at Diego. The entire crowd shifted their attention to the seven siblings, Diego in the front.

“SHOW US YOUR DOCUMENTS FILTHY FUCK!” Another man shouted with nothing but pure venom in his voice.

Diego clenched his jaw, his entire body tense. Vanya, surprising to everyone, was the first one to defend their brother.

“Don’t you guys have better things to do then spew hate? You’re not proving anything other than your ignorance.” Vanya was absolutely fuming but she managed to keep her voice calm and level, leaving the group behind and walking right up to the man. She placed herself less than two inches away from his face, looking up with a hand on her hip.

“That little be*ner over there is stealing our jobs, little miss,” he poked Vanya’s shoulder, “I’d advise you get the fuck out of my face before I call ICE on his ass.”

“My brother has every right to here here just as you or I do. Legal or not, he’s a human being. Imagine not having the basic human decency to realize everyone is a person. You should be ashamed.” Vanya could feel her heart pounding with each word that was said.

“We need to build the wall to keep all illegals out. No more brown fuckers stealing our jobs. This is MY AMERICA!” The man hissed, spit hitting her cheek.

A car horn went off and trees started rustling, her anger becoming more evident. Allison quickly ran to the scene, grabbing Vanya’s hand and tearing her away from the situation before she had a chance to respond.

“C’mon, these assholes don’t deserve our energy.” She signed, knowing Vanya always calmed down when she signed. It helped her feel more connected to her sister and it made her situation easier to accept.

Vanya was shaking at this point as she walked back, still hand in hand with her sister.

“We should leave.” Klaus said shakily, both Ben and his hand on Diego’s shoulder.

“V-Vanya. I-I can’t” Diego started but stopped himself, his words not cooperating with him right now. He immediately wrapped his arms around his sister, holding her tight. “Tha-thank you.” His voice was muffled in her shoulder and it was evident he was holding back tears.

“You don’t need to thank me, silly.” Vanya replied, slowly breaking out of the hug. She looked up at her brother and wiped away a tear that was threatening to fall

“Let’s go get your pho someplace else, yeah?”

Vanya offered her brother a soft smile to which he returned with a nod.

The siblings made their way back to the van, all making sure to be extra kind to Diego. They knew when their brother was and wasn’t okay.

They went to a “better” restaurant according to Klaus’ intensive yelp research. Once in the restaurant Klaus was the first to speak up.

“I’m,” he paused, not even sure where to begin, “I can’t believe people like that still exist.”

“I can, unfortunately.” Allison signed, giving her brother an understanding look. She has faced her fair share of racism not just in the public eye, but also in her personal life as well. Being a black woman isn’t the easiest experience either.

“I can’t believe we saved the world so rodents like that can spew their nonsense.” Five added, taking a sip of his coffee. “But you know they’re wrong right..? I mean, of course you do. But I understand how sometimes we all need to be affirmed.”

They all turned expectantly at their brother who hadn’t said more than a few words since the incident. Often times when Diego got emotional his words would fail him, they knew that. They learned over the years to be patient when that happened. It made Diego feel weak. Vulnerable. Not like a knife wielding badass he is but so much smaller than that. He felt like it reduced him to nothing more than broken syllables and incoherent sentences.

“I-I kn-kn-know,” Diego started, signing as he spoke in case some things got lost in translation. “I’ve seen th-those types o-on the news b-b-but,” he sighed, closing his eyes and focusing on the next part of the sentence “ex-exp-experiencing it is d-different.”

Vanya nodded and put her hand on top of his, giving it a light squeeze. She couldn’t imagine what experiencing something like that would be like. Seeing a group of people who think you shouldn’t exist. A group of people who vocalize that you are unimportant, less than. Well maybe she did know a thing to two about that, but not to that overwhelming degree.

“It’s a good thing Vanya went up first because I was about 2 seconds way from beating their ass. Not that you couldn’t have done it yourself.” Luther was still visibly upset as he spoke, his grip on his water tightening.

As if in cue their food came. The waiter brought over 6 bowls of piping hot pho, placing it in front of the siblings.

It didn’t take long before Diego’s mouth was full of noodles and the only thing heard were the sounds of slurps from each of their mouths. They ate in relative silence until they finished.

“I-I want to uh,” Diego began as he wiped his mouth with a napkin, all heads turning to him, “thank you guys. Really.”

They all smiled at their brother, receiving a chorus of “of course” and “shut up dummy” phrases. He laughed and shook his head, relishing in this moment together.

After all that they’ve been through there was no way they were going to let a group of ungrateful, hateful, ignorant people ruin their pho time. And his siblings made sure of that.

#i hope this isnt too awful #i just love supoortive hargreeves a lot #the umbrella academy #diego hargreeves #i want that all of klaus outfits pls #allison hargreeves #five hargreeves #luther hargreeves #ben hargreeves #tua #tua fic #the umbrella academy fanfiction

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skywardsoul · 5 years

Text

The Cost of Strength

A Houseki No Kuni fanfic! My first HNK one to be exact! And I owe it largely in part to @artofkace This fic is based on a Bort/Phos piece they uploaded to their side blog, which can be seen here: https://kacescraps.tumblr.com/post/175691065398/very-old-bortphos-thing-i-decided-to-never-post It’s a bit of an expanded look into when Bort and Phos were briefly teamed up.

Read it on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17751059

Read it FF.Net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13204945/1/The-Cost-of-Strength

“Ridiculous.” As the day dragged on that was what continued to echo in Bort’s head. This whole thing was ridiculous. The reason they had decided to partner with Phos in the first place was seeming stupider and stupider by the minute. Sure, they’d be lying if they said they were not intrigued by Phos’ new arms. But any new abilities these arms brought, and impressive combat they allowed for couldn’t change the fact that to Bort, Phos was still Phos.

And that currently entailed lagging behind as the two gems were out on their patrol route. Bort stood at the crest of a hill, the setting sun sinking behind them as they grit their teeth in annoyance. Phos was still a ways from the top, lethargically making their way forward. If the younger gem took any longer, Bort swore they would start to crack in anger.

“Phosphophyllite!” Bort shouted, finally having had enough. “Pick up the pace! If you don’t stop dawdling like this I will personally break you!”

The angry diamond’s only received response was an annoyed groan, and a non committal wave of a golden arm. Bort let out a low growl and turned to face the ever sinking sun. It was getting late.The cloak of night was around the corner, and the two gems likely wouldn’t make it back before dark. Another spike of anger rose in the black diamond only for them to try and dial it back. If they weren’t careful, they might actually start cracking. Having to deal with Rutile after all this would only serve to make an annoying day into a terrible one.

So Bort took a deep breath, slowly releasing it as they closed their eyes and waited patiently for their dunce of a partner. Honestly, they only had themself to blame for this. What had they been expecting? They knew how Phos was. Noncommittal, reckless, and above all, lazy. That’s what Phos was, how they had always been. And yet, Bort knew deep down that was no longer true. They’d seen for themselves how Phos had taken down those Lunarians when they were with the Amethyst twins. The almost nonchalant manner in which Phos had slain them left even Bort stunned.

And perhaps that spoke to an even bigger change in the green haired gem that Bort had to yet fully understand. It was hard to pin down their current demeanor, but it wasn’t that of the excitable and irritable child they had known before. Now Phos almost seemed...disconnected. Like something in them had shut off. It wasn’t uncommon these days to find the youngest gem staring off into the distance, a blank slate of a face hiding whatever emotions warred beneath. Something had happened to Phos during winter. Whether or not that had to do with whatever went down with Antarcticite Bort had no idea. All they knew for certain was that the Phos they once knew was a thing of the past.

Bort found themself surprised at how much that...bothered them. Certainly they didn’t care about what happened to Phos, right? No more so than any other of their gem siblings. In fact Bort could easily recall many times where the younger gem was nothing but a thorn in their side. So why? Why were they so interested in the emotional state of Phos?

“Is that why I did this? Was that why I wanted to partner up?” Bort asked themself.

The question seemed to shake something in Bort’s very core. This whole time, was a supposed interest in Phos’ new combat potential nothing more than a smokescreen? A lie they told themself to stop from realizing the truth. Deep down, they cared about Phos. What had been bothering Bort this whole time wasn’t Phos’ lack of mission expertise...it was seeing them in whatever emotional state the brutal Winter had left them.

Bort didn’t get much time to ponder on this when they felt a hand grab their shoulder. Their sword was half drawn when they realized the hand belonged to Phos and not some secret Lunarian aggressor.

“Woah, Bort!” Phos said, jumping back and raising their hands in surrender. “It’s just me. I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past 5 minutes…”

Phos gave a short, nervous laugh as Bort glared at them, slowly resheathing their sword.

“I-idiot. Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

Bort cringed a bit internally at their stutter.

“In my defense, I didn’t really think you could be snuck up on…” Phos said dryly, lowering their hands.

Normally they’d be right. Bort always made sure to be on high alert, ensuring no danger ever caught them off guard, Lunarian or otherwise. The black diamond had been so absorbed in their earlier thoughts they left themself vulnerable. Bort couldn’t help but feel embarrassed by this and had to fight back the flush of color that threatened to tint their face. Deciding it was best to get away from said thoughts, Bort ‘masterfully’ changed topics.

“It took you long enough to get here.”

Phos narrowed their eyes in annoyance.

“Yeah, yeah I know,” the younger gem said off handily. “I’m too slow for you. You were making that pretty obvious all day.”

The nonchalant way Phos said this served to raise Bort’s earlier ire.

“I seem to recall you being quite fast last time you were stationed for patrol. What happened?” Bort asked bluntly.

“Do you have any idea how heavy these arms are? I can’t do the whole ‘fast’ thing anymore.” Phos said, taking a step toward Bort. “Besides, with the pace you’ve been pushing, no one could keep up all day!”

“I was able to handle it. Just. Fine,” Bort retorted through gritted teeth.

Normally, this would be when Phos sheepishly backed down. Instead, they stood their ground.

“Yeah well not everyone is a battle freak like you!” Phos said, throwing their arms up in anger.

In a flash, Bort reached out and grabbed the right one, closing their hand in a vice around Phos’ wrist.

“There isn’t anything ‘freakish’ about it, Phosphophyllite. This is how you become strong,” Bort could feel a hairline crack starting to run down their face, but they didn’t care. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to be now!? That’s what everyone seems to think!”

Phos said nothing, so Bort continued, yanking on the wrist they held captive.

“That’s what you wanted all this time wasn’t it!? To be strong? To fight alongside us? Why you got these ridiculous arms?”

In an instant, Phos’ demeanor completely changed. The frown faded from their face, They stopped struggling against Bort’s hold, and the anger that had been brewing in their eyes vanished.

“Shut up…” Phos said quietly, and unnerving, desolate calm having fallen over them.

“What did you say!?” Bort said, realizing too late the change in the other gem.

This marked the second time Bort was caught off guard in one day as they suddenly found themself hitting the ground, Phos’ pinning them their. Parts of the younger gem had fractured at the impact, but they paid them no mind.

“I SAID SHUT UP!” Phos screamed in the face of a surprised Bort.

The absolute rage they saw in Phos now rivaled that of their Sensei’s. It sent a chill to Bort’s core. It looked wrong on their face. Anger that raw, that intense shouldn’t belong to the once carefree gem Bort knew.

“You don’t know anything about me!” Phos continued to rage. “You think I wanted this!? You think I asked for these damn things!?”

As Phos’ mentioned their alloy limbs, Bort realized they had started to morph, liquefying and pooling around their arms, further anchoring them in place on the ground.

“I didn’t! I didn’t ask for this to happen! I DIDN’T ASK TO LOSE MY PARTNER!!”

Phos’ scream echoed around the hills, leaving behind them a deafening silence. Bort was stunned. They tried to think of something to say, some kind of response but found their mind an absolute blank. All the older gem could do was stare in awe as Phos took ragged breath after breath, their rage slowly leaving them.

“I, I didn’t...ask for this,” Phos said quietly, breaking the deafening silence. The younger gem dipped their head a bit, Obscuring Bort’s view of their face.

Slowly, Bort’s thought’s were returning to them, but what could the even say to an outburst like that? Surprisingly, Bort found that an attempt at apology was the first place their mind took them. They had obviously struck something that had been lying dormant in Phos. Before any words could come to Bort’s mouth, they felt something curious land on their cheek.

It felt like a large raindrop, one that was strangely warm. Yet with not a single cloud in site, there was no feasible way it could be rain, of that much Bort was certain. It didn’t remain a mystery for much longer as Phos raised their head. A golden liquid, the same one that seemed to make up their arms, pooled in the corners of the gem’s broken eyes gently streaming down their face. As the liquid peaked at the gem’s chin, drops fell from their face, splashing against Bort.

“Does it get easier?” Phos suddenly asked at an aching whisper.

Bort mentally shook themself from their thoughts, now listening intently to the younger gem’s words.

“Wha-what?” Bort asked carefully.

“Does it get easier?” The younger gem repeated. “Being strong?”

The older gem once again found themself thrown into a brief silence. What could they even say to that? Bort found an overwhelmingly large part of them wanting to reassure the other gem. The way Phos was now, the pain that gripped the younger gem, it hurt Bort to see. Hurt them in a way they hadn’t felt before. Worse than any battle damage they had ever taken. It was as if a Lunarian arrow had stuck their very core. They wanted to absolve Phos of this, take some of their hurt away somehow. It wouldn’t be hard to at least start.

Bort hadn’t realized that their arms had been freed until they found themself gently cupping Phos’ right cheek. With a soft move of their thumb, Bort wiped away a bit of the running gold. To the black diamond’s surprise, Phos leaned into their touch.

“Does being strong get easier? Sure it does.”

It should have been easy to say that, to tell Phos what they so desperately needed to hear. Yet as Bort thought of their past, of their isolation beget from standing at the top, they found it impossible to say.

“No,” Bort finally responded. “No, it doesn’t.”

Darkness fell over them as the sun sank behind the hill. The two gems simply lay there. One, silently crying, the other, continually wiping their tears.

#houseki no kuni #land of the lustrous #bort #phosphophyllite #hnk phos #hnk bortz #bortphos

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houseki-no-suffering · 5 years

Link

Summary: Cinnaphos, 1960s AU, lots of angst, slowburn so slow I hurt myself

A/N: Awkward gems. Lots of Awkward gems. Also Euc has another plan. Thanks @lapishead for beta-ing yet another chapter. Enjoy!

The following day, Cinnabar did not wake up to images of a brightly clothed Phos or to the foggy memory that they had of Antarcticite. Their morning was plainly uneventful. Even the coffee machine refused to spill the coffee on the stove, depriving Cinnabar of the most exciting part of their daily routine.

It should be comforting. The universe was still going on, the town’s old men were still playing cards in the bar on the other side of the street, and people still bet on which soccer team would win the championship to avoid thinking about politics. The world went on unperturbed, happy to be monotonous.

Cinnabar wondered if Phos meant to be part of that monotony. Everything they did had always been on a whim, they fit into the grand scheme of things like a mismatched sock on a wedding suit and they had never seemed to care. Even when they met Antarc, the rest of the world had counted nothing, and it had been unsettling.

Diamond had told Cinnabar it would not last, Bort had called it pathetic, but Yellow began to look at Phos the way they would look at Rutile each time they came up with a new cure for Padparadscha. They would look at them the way you would look a lost cause, something you have come to accept because you know it will not change. Cinnabar should have known by then.

It all happened so fast. That month, their bike ride, the way Phos’ eyes sparkled as they said they would follow Antarc, the way Cinnabar’s world crumbled.

“I’m going with them. What do you think?”

“I think you’re crazy.”

It left Cinnabar to wonder about the whim that had brought Phos back, but knowing about it would only bring them closer to Phos.

They decided to avoid them again- except that Phosphophyllite, never conforming to other people’s expectations, had something different in mind.

Two days after their talk, Cinnabar stumbled upon Phos a second time. It was near the institute and Phos was looking around like a tourist taking the town in for the first time. They greeted Cinnabar with a small “Hey,” and Cinnabar turned around and left.

It happened again the following day. This time it was almost out of town, near the beach. Phos had their shoes in their hands, their feet and pants dirty with sand. It was as if they had run just not to miss Cinnabar because, when Phos talked, their voice was strained.

“Back from work?” they breathed out, hands on their knees and the same polite smile plastered on their face. Once again, Cinnabar just kept walking, but they could feel Phos’ stare on the back of their head.

After the third and fourth time, it became a timid persecution.

Phos’ act of persuasion never went more far than mumbling a few words, always in the open, where Cinnabar could easily avoid them or turn a different road. But Cinnabar knew Phos wouldn’t stop until they accepted to talk. It was just like them.

Things changed a week or so later, at school, when Cinnabar heard Phos’ voice coming from one of the offices. Cinnabar was surprised, they had never seen Phos venture inside the institute since they had come back, and no one of their friends told Cinnabar that Phos did.

Phos’ voice was barely a whisper, hushed by layers of bricks and plaster. As much as Cinnabar tried, they couldn’t make out any of the words they were saying. A few minutes later, Phos walked out of whatever room they had been in and Cinnabar spotted their dark hair in the corridor. They stayed still, unsure what to do, until Phos noticed them as well and stopped in their tracks, surprised.

Their eyes roamed around the corridor as if looking for an escape and Cinnabar made an unconscious step back to give Phos some privacy. When Phos finally met Cinnabar’s gaze, their eyes were glassy. This time, they remained silent, only offering Cinnabar a strained smile as they walked past them and disappeared behind the entrance door.

Cinnabar remained there, lost in thought, until a familiar voice woke them from their haze.

“Hi, Shinsha.”

Euclase walked over to them and Cinnabar nodded in response. The eldest was coming from the direction of the dorms, on the opposite side of the school’s entrance. They had missed Phos. Somehow, the knowledge didn’t make Cinnabar less nervous.

“How have you been doing, dear? Do you still have work to do?”

“No, I, uhm,” Cinnabar stuttered, all too conscious of the last conversation they had with Euclase, “I was going home.”

“Oh, I see. I was just stopping by to ask Jade to bring a few things for me. The dorms are in need of some more chairs,” they smiled, as if the mention of the dorms had not been on purpose. The silence that followed was heavy, with both of them expecting the other to carry on the conversation and Cinnabar’s mind praying that Euclase would not offer to accompany Cinnabar home or ask them to help. Even if they felt like they owed Euclase a favor as apology for their last brusque conversation.

But Euclase had another plan in mind for Cinnabar.

“Did you talk with Phos, perhaps?”

“Why?”

Euclase chuckled, holding one hand to their chest.

“I’m just worried, I guess. They seem to appear now and then but I can’t get close to them. Once, I thought I saw them in front of my shop but when I went outside to check they were gone. They were always so talkative, they’ve changed a lot. It’s been a month and no one even knows where they’re sleeping and Sensei just won’t tell me or Jade anything.”

For a second, Cinnabar felt a sense of pride for the special attention that Phos was giving them. It was frustrating for Euclase not to know what was going on in their city, but it left Cinnabar with some kind of emotional leverage against their own insecurities. They knew something Euclase did not, Phos had decided to speak with Cinnabar and Cinnabar only, it made them different. At least until Cinnabar remembered about stumbling upon Phos just a few minutes earlier and the fact they had been talking with someone else.

“You’re worried too, aren’t you?” Euclase must have noticed the shift in Cinnabar’s attitude.

Cinnabar flushed imperceptibly, averting their eyes.

“No,” they lied.

“It’s okay. We’re going to be fine. It will just be sometime before we can get back to how we were before, but we can still try, can we not?”

When Cinnabar didn’t answer, Euclase took it as their chance to let Cinnabar in their new master plan to keep the family together.

“I’m sure Phos is just scared. They must feel bad for leaving and now they don’t know what to do, so I was thinking why don’t we organize a nice party? Bort is coming back for their birthday and it’s been so long since we had a chance to celebrate all together.”

It took some effort not to show how nervous Euc’s idea made Cinnabar feel. Bort would not appreciate Phos’ presence at their birthday party, just like Cinnabar did not appreciate the way Euclase was looking at them, as if they knew that, if they told Cinnabar, somehow the news would reach Phos too.

“Whatever,” Cinnabar mumbled.

Euclase chuckled.

“I’ll keep you updated on the organization. Your help is always precious. I truly hope we can make Phos feel accepted again.”

“I’m not coming,” once again, Euclase had swept Cinnabar into their games without asking them, “do what you want, but I’m not helping.”

Euc looked pained for a second, but they recovered fast, plastering a diplomatic smile on their face once more.

“Of course, dear, I’m sorry. But we’ll be waiting for you if you change your mind.”

Somehow, it sounded more like a threat than an apology.

----

When Cinnabar finally walked out of the school, some part of them was itching to see Phos and guard them against Euclase’s plan. It was out of some ironic trick that the universe had Cinnabar spot Phos in the distance again.

Once more, they looked as if they had been waiting for Cinnabar in the silly game of hide and seek that they had started sharing. There they were, leaning against a wall just a few buildings away from Euclase’s shop. Cinnabar walked towards them self-consciously. It was only out of habit that they managed not to greet them.

“Hi,” Phos said.

They shoved their hands in their pockets immediately after, their eyes started darting around the street.

“I wanted to apologize for before. I wasn’t expecting to find you there. I should’ve said something, but, well…” they let out a strained half-laugh, “gosh, that was kind of awkward, I mean, more than usual, and I thought it wasn’t the right place to tell you? I don’t know, didn’t seem fair.”

Cinnabar’s words were a whisper that even they could hardly hear.

“It’s okay.”

Phos’ face lit up. It made Cinnabar wish they had continued not talking with them.

“I- well- Thanks. I’m… glad, I mean, alright.”

Phos cleared their voice and took a deep breath.

“I know you don’t want to hear from me or let alone talk with me. I understand. And you’re right. I’ll keep my distance if that’s what you want. But there’s something I need to tell you. I know it’s selfish,” they chuckled, “but I have to ask you again. Will you talk with me?”

They were struggling to keep a serene expression and it worried Cinnabar, just like Euclase had said. Still, they did not know how to reply. So Phos kept talking, pushing Cinnabar’s buttons just a little further.

“I wanna try to make things right,” they mumbled, almost a whisper. It hurt but it made saying something much easier.

“How?”

“I- I don’t know yet. But I’ll figure it out. I promise. But how about we just, I don’t know, have coffee or something? There’s still that thing I need to tell you. Just hear me out and then you can leave, I won’t bug you again if that’s what you want, I promise.”

Cinnabar held their breath.

“Tomorrow at ten. Café behind the library,” they muttered.

Phos was taken aback again.

“Great! Great, good, I’ll be there.”

“I’m not waiting for you. Be on time.”

“Sure, of course.”

Cinnabar stalled for a few seconds, wondering if Phos would say anything else. Then they took one big gulp of air, clenching their fists, and resumed walking.

“Wait!” Phos called when Cinnabar was already a couple of steps ahead of them. Cinnabar turned their head, arching an eyebrow.

“Can I walk you home? You got your own place now, right?”

Cinnabar hoped it would be hard to tell if they were blushing under their fringe. Thankfully, Phos spared them the effort to come up with a reply.

“No, bad choice, forget it. Too forward,” they reprimanded themselves, “Sorry, didn’t think. Force of habit.”

They waved Cinnabar goodbye, looking as cheerful as they could.

“Be safe, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Cinnabar nodded slowly, then resumed walking.

“And goodnight!” Phos added.

“Night,” Cinnabar mumbled.

#houseki no kuni #land of the lustrous #hnk #cinnaphos #cinnabar #phosphophyllite #fic tag #1960s au

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ouroboros-panacea · 5 years

Text

Stone [石头]-Decompose-[1/?]

Summary: [JJBA x HNK] "Phosphophyllite, my name is Phosphophyllite." Such is your useless life, no matter how many changes you make, how strong you become. Your life will still simply be a tragedy, and you, forever useless. The tale of a gem who suffered because of change, and an ancient being who wanted to change. An odd friendship it'd be. Rebirth seems more like a curse than anything. It would be nice if this didn't end with tragedy. {Disclaimer- I don't own hnk or jjba}

-----

Ah.

It's so bright, and so...cold.

Is it winter now?

Winter? What's that?

I can't....remember. But, why does it hurt so much when I think of "Winter"?

Wh-who am I?

Phos...Phosphophyllite?

Is that my name?

(I'm breaking, cracking, leaking)

It hurts.

It hurts so much.

It...it....I....

Can't....go back.

To how everything was, right?

That isn't how life works.

Ah.

If only I could have....just....one...more....chance.

If only.....

Is this "Death"?

Is this what it feels like?

It's....horrible. I feel so.....

Cold.

It's going dark again.

I wonder what will happen to me?

I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise.

Promise?

What promise? To whom?

No matter.

It doesn't matter anymore.....right?

Nothing will matter anymore if I just.

Close.

My.

Eyes....

On that day, the living example of Theseus's ship broke, and a small, mint-haired child fell.

She fell.

And tumbled.

And fell.

Snapping twigs, scratching arms alike. Leaving dribbling, glistening ruby red lines. Still though, she stayed unconscious, sleeping with the stillness of the dead.

Crashing from the treetops, she was thrown down from the heavens, into a bed of wilted, grotesque flowers.

What a beautiful combination of reds, pinks and... oh.

Was that an arm I spy?

With my empty little eyes?

My apologies, you twisted pile of cold human limbs. I nearly forgot to mention you. Yes, you who play a part in the beautiful shades of reds and pinks. Sadly though, I cannot account for your smell.

Decaying bodies are strewn about the bed of flowers, in which the sleeping princess lies. Almost like a scene from "Sleeping Beauty", don't you think?

Now all we need is a prince.

Right?

Trudging through the dark forest was a young, purple haired child.

The night was quiet; only slivers of moonlight shone through treetops. But it was no big deal to him. It wasn't like he was a weak, frail human anyways.

A sudden thud, accompanied by the crunch of dry leaves, alerted him to the fact that he was not alone.

Perhaps it could've just been another animal, as he saw no light in the direction of the sound. But he could not smell the scent of an animal. He only smelled.... minerals, ore and a pungent smell of rotting carcasses.

That...was strange.

Normally, the smell of bodies would completely overpower anything else. Yet, it seemed that this time, the minerals and ore were the "victors".

How intriguing.

Perhaps he could observe this, it at least find out the cause. Better to know more than regret not having done so in his later years.

He had to find out what or who it was, no matter what.

Gold alloy trickled down the masses of half melted limbs and torsos, as if it was searching for something.

It slithered between the nooks and crannies, rubbing over the dried fluids and such, until it came across a few shards of mint-green phosphophyllite.

Immediately, it stopped, and thin tendrils of alloy snaked across the bumpy surface and wrapped around those very shards. They held the minerals in an almost indecisive manner, as if it couldn't chose between shattering them into a million pieces, or returning the gems to the body lying right behind it.

In the end, it decided to go back to it's body, putting the shards back in it's rightful place, with soft clinks coming from the shards. The alloy acting as a temporary glue, helping it's "body" come together as one whole.

The strangest part though, was when the shards were placed one by one, the skin would smoothen out, leaving no signs of the body ever having any missing pieces.

No sign of them of ever having minerals for flesh.

When it's job was done, it would disappear, leaving the child behind.

But the night was still young, and in no way was it's project completed.

Silently stalking through the forest, he took care not to alert anything or anyone in the forest.

Not that the humans would be awake at this ungodly hour.

Strangely, he lost track the uniquely powerful scent a while ago. It frustrated him, but still he was determined to find the source of this possible anomaly.

Hearing a quiet rustling from , accompanied by staccato clicks and pings, he stopped in his tracks.

Clearly, there were now other trails that led to the same smell.

He raised an eyebrow in question, whilst a faint smirk curled upon him lips.

It was the exact same smell, no mistaking it.

Taking a step forward, he opened his mouth to greet the "newcomer".

Until an ear-piercing scream stopped in in his tracks.

Phosphophyllite opened her eyes, and found herself in an unfamiliar area. Where did all the trees come from? Last time she checked, she was still on the......

On....

Where?

She couldn't remember.

But she could remember one name.

Antarcticite.

The name alone sent shivers down her spine, and an overwhelming urge to break something, anything.

Herself would also suffice.

It made her feel like she was on the verge of breaking apart to the sheer loss she felt from the name.

That name felt like the most important thing in a sea of jumbled memories and promises. Of ice floes, silvery mercury, a large figure dressed in Buddhist robes and two white haired individuals, each unique in their own way, who were together yet apart.

Yet it was not as painful as the thought of "Antarcticite".

The soft light of the moon seemed to only drown her further into the tempting thought of crushing herself in to itty-bitty bits, it's glorious shine reminding her of a phrase spoken a long time ago. She didn't know who said it, or where it was said.

But she hated it. Hated the moon and everything it stood for in her hazy mind.

Hated it with with a fiery passion.

Those blazing feelings clogged her throat with a rising taste of metallic bile clawing it's way through. Choking her with a vice-like grip.

Her left eye hurt, feeling as if something was penetrating the fragile gem. She tried to ease the throbbing pain as she brought a hand to her face, attempting to gently massage it through the eyelid. Curiously, nothing was there, nothing in her eye at all. It still hurt though. Shifting her legs slightly, soft squelches were suddenly heard, while her other hand felt something soft, squishy.

Then the smell hit her.

The godawful smell...that came from below.

With wide eyes, she looked down at the carnage beneath her.

She was met with a twisted wreath of limbs and torsos, all having open wounds that leaked maggots from crusted edges of dried blood and pus.

With Phosphophyllite herself sitting in the very center, a mockery of a monarch sitting upon their throne.

It was...filthy.

What was this....whatever it was. Certainly nothing pleasant.

She didn't like it. But it intrigued her.

Who on Earth would be doing such a time consuming task like this?

But.

She found herself with only one clear question in mind.

Where was she?

Clearly nowhere she knew of.

Attempting to get herself off this abomination, she tried to push herself off the dirty, wet surface. Gripping half revealed bones and ripped up muscle, she turned herself over and nearly fell flat on her face in the process. Thank goodness she was fast enough to plant both arms on a "sturdy surface" before she did so.

It was as if her legs forgot how to walk or stand.

Then she heard her wrists fracture.

Curiosity overtook her, forcing her to look at the no longer flawless skin. There were thin cracks to see, and when phosphophyllite pushed herself up to stand on her two shaking legs, they dropped both small and large crystals of her namesake. The shiny mint green almost impossible to miss.

When she tried to move them.

They fell off.

Leading to another observer to gasp at this anomaly.

Causing a chain reaction.

She saw white. Blinding beautiful clear white. Like ice floes. It reminded her of them.

What were ice floes?

Oh, right. Nothing good. They weren't good at all.

Gold and platinum mixed together, meshing into a combination of the two, the colour a golden white. It splashed down from her arms, seeping through from the cracks. Reaching out for the fallen pieces of her body.

Her eyes widened with surprise, yet a sense of familiarity washed over. Telling her it was nothing new.

The alloy slotted itself into the tiny openings inside her broken hands and pulled them back onto her wrist like puppeteer strings with a woosh,clink and clack. Like a trained embroiderer, it weaved in and out of her "skin", fixing any blemishes and irregularities.

Now.

Where was she?

Oh.

An observer. Looking so much like.

Like...

B...o..r..t?

Who was that?

Were they important?

The name vanished as quickly as it came.

Oh well. Maybe next time. Right?

The sound of another drew her attention.

Tumbling out of the bushes, a young boy stared at her with horror in his eyes. Mouth set into a scream, yet no sound could be heard. He landed on his knees and stared at her as if she was death itself.

Cold sweat ran down his forehead like tears, made his palms clammy and sticky. His entire body shook with absolute terror.

That green haired girl was a monster.

Was she the one who slaughtered them all? All those who had gone missing in the forest, never to come back was because of her? Was she responsible for this macabre sculpture?

Looking at her odd appendages, even more fear clouded his mind. Cowardice tempting him to run, run far away from this-this thing.

Then she turned to look at him with dull, dull eyes.

A piercing scream ripped from his throat.

How annoying.

Now that was definitely another one of them humans.

He'd have to get rid of that boy.

Screaming?

Why was he screaming?

"H-hey, why are you...?" She tried to ask, staggering towards the... squishier version of her. She supposed.

She only got a choked cough in return, a face as white as a sheet.

Dark brown eyes stared up at her.

She tried again

"Ar-aren't we the...s-same?" Words came out with slight difficulty. An expression of confusion on her face.

Finally, he spoke.

"I'm not the same as you. You, you murderer!"

Murderer? What did that mean? Was he talking about the pile of squishy things? Did he think...that she did it?

No, no. She couldn't take credit for someone else's work.

She opened her mouth again to tell him the truth. But before she could.

He flopped down as he suddenly became rubber. As it fell, she could see purple.

Purple.

She saw purple.

Purple hair, that is.

Then a finger, which led to the smirking face of a victor.

"My my, what do we have here?"

Covered in nothing but a loincloth, a boy with messy, curly purple hair appeared. He seemed to be the same age as her.

Or perhaps not. He emitted an aura that told her he was much likely older than he seemed.

Could he tell her where she was?

He stepped over the deflated corpse. With a few strides he stood in front of Phosphophyllite, staring down at her.

Name, he needed a name first before she could ask.

"What's your name?" An abrupt question. It didn't catch him of guard. Though it was certainly interesting how she didn't seem to recognize him for what kind of race he was from. It looked like she wasn't from this place. Perhaps he'd give her his name.

Let's see what happens.

"Kars. My name is Kars."

The beginning came from the end. She'd remember one day.

An unlikely friendship.

-Chapter one end-

#houseki no kuni #fanfic #crossover #idk #phosphophyllite #phos #kars #jjba #jojo no kimyō na bōken #battle tendancy #wammu #santana #esidisi

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