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chasingpj · 3 years

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𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐬

pairing: percy jackson x child of zeus!reader and jason x older sibling!reader

requested: yes!

warning: two curse words, mentions of stealing, death of a parent, and i believe that is it!

category: headcanons, fluff

a/n: i may have gotten too carried away but... i had a lot of fun writing this haha. i hope you guys like it!

pre-relationship

you and percy invented the phrase power couple but coming together took a while

your relationship dynamic would be very similar to thalia and percy's at first

you're both natural-born leaders, so you guys butt heads very often

you're more calculated and organized when it comes to things and percy being impulsive really annoyed you

he's lucky that even though he is impulsive, things somehow always work out in the end

if it wasn't for annabeth urging you guys to get along, you probably would still be at each other's neck

how did she get you guys to get along, you may ask?

she locked you guys in a storage closet :)

and said figure it out ♡

this happened after a friendly sparring practice turned into a full-on fight with your powers

annabeth insisted she wouldn't let you guys out until you declared to be friends

at the time, you were like, percy will never be my friend, ew

percy was just as annoyed

after a good hour of bickering and resisting your urge to choke him out

you guys found that you had a lot in common, actually?

huh, who would have known?

apparently annabeth

you guys talked about your life outside of camp and bonded over the worst teachers you've ever had

turns out, percy wasn't that bad

you'd never admit that out loud though

after a while, you started to feel things

were percy's eyes always that pretty?

yes, they've always been

oh look, those freckles over his nose? adorable

did you just call Percy adorable? yeah, you did… gross

you tried to deny your attraction to him

you were pretty sure this was a cruel joke from aphrodite (it was… more for your dad's than for you guys, though)

then you started noticing changes in his behavior too

now you guys were sharing blankets at the campfire when it got chilly

he even shared the blue cookies his mother sent him too

that's when you should have known he was down bad

both of you have awful sleep schedules

you hated sleeping in cabin 1

it was clearly built not to be slept in, and every few days, you found yourself having late-night conversations with percy at the docks

once the harpies snuck up on you and percy told you to get in the water with him

you didn't know how to swim, and you were kinda horrified of open water

you wanted to refuse, but you were cornered on the docks

you either jumped or got eaten

the last thing you said was that you couldn't swim before percy didn't give you a choice

he grabbed your hand and jumped in

his arm wrapped around your waist to keep you in the air bubble he had made around you guys

at first, you didn't focus on it

too busy trying to defend yourself from his teasing

he continued to mimic the way you screamed when he dragged you into the water

"wow, you can fly, but you can't swim?"

you rolled your eyes, trying to defend yourself

you called him annoying, and he playfully threatened to let you drown

you guys joked and laughed, staying a little too long underwater

after your laughter ceased, you found yourself looking into his eyes

the both of you became quiet

suddenly his arm around your waist, the way your chests were pressed against each other made you horribly flustered

and you're not sure what you were thinking

actually, you weren't thinking at all, but you leaned in and kissed him

like really kissed him, it was a proper kiss

ahhhhhh!!!

probably would have kissed him longer if the water nymphs didn't giggle, exposing their little audience

once you pulled away, they scattered, ready to gossip about what they saw

the news made it to atlantis pretty fast

after the kiss, things were so awkward

you avoided him for days, and he avoided you

annabeth felt the tension, and she was upset because just when you guys were getting along, suddenly, you guys were avoiding each other

the battle of manhattan was approaching soon and the last thing anyone wanted was for you guys not to get along

you both avoided annabeth’s questions, not ready to confess what you guys had shared

eventually, annabeth kept pressing you about what happened

you blew up and admitted that you made out with percy in the water

annabeth was speechless before she burst into laughter

you didn't understand why it was so funny at first

but then you did

the both of you laughed until annabeth said that she wasn't surprised at all

the battle of manhattan comes around, and in the urgency of the moment, you guys were able to rise to the occasion

your movements, thoughts, commands were completely coordinated

you guys were an extension of each other, kicking ass

at the end, you were both offered immortality

the offer took you back to a conversation you guys had where you spoke about how you'd never want to be immortal

the both of you exchanged looks before you simultaneously denied the gift

zeus was offended x2

after that, you guys returned to camp half-blood

the both of you were upset at the campers you've lost and trying to recover from the adrenaline of battle

you and annabeth sang percy happy birthday and the three of you sat together and ate blue cake in a comfortable silence

weeks passed, and one day, you're met with annabeth barging into your cabin asking when you and percy are going to talk about your kiss

it was the last day of camp, and she was insistent on you talking to him

you reluctantly agreed, mainly because annabeth threatened to lock you in a storage closet again

you guys sat on the dunes in silence for a while

the both of you wanted to confess, but neither knew how to do it

after some silence, the both of you spoke at the same time

you stuttered over each other and then began bickering back and forth on who should go first until you blurted out that you like him

you cringed and looked away as percy froze in his spot

it was silent for a moment before percy whispered, "I like you too."

cue your second kiss

your teeth slightly bumping with his since the both of you were smiling so much

and you swore you heard thunder in the distance even though there were clear skies

relationship

you lived in a foster home on the other side of manhattan, so you guys saw each other every weekend

you guys went on movie dates, long drives, and you would sleep over pretty often

for the spooky season, you went to haunted houses and carved pumpkins

you watched horror movies together, teasing each other when one of you jumped and tried to cover your face during the scary parts

you went to his place for Thanksgiving and you arrived early so that the both of you could help sally cook all day

you and percy put blue food coloring on the mashed potatoes

for the first time ever, you felt like you were apart of a family since sally had welcomed you with open arms

everything was going great but then december came around

the last time you saw percy, you guys were christmas shopping for his mom

your last day of school ended a few days after his, so you planned to meet at CHB

but when you got there, you found out he never arrived

you called his home from the payphone in the big house

sally was relieved to hear from you, a part of her hoping he was with you

but you both found out that neither of you had heard from him in a few days

meeting jason

you and annabeth tried everything to find him

then you got a dream from hera that the answer to where percy is was with the guy with one shoe

you arrive and you find this blonde kid and not your boyfriend; you were kinda actually very annoyed

but this blonde kid felt familiar

you weren't sure what it was, and then you heard his name — Jason Grace

surely, it was a coincidence that he shared the name of your missing brother

you were too young to remember his disappearance

the only remembrance you had of him was a picture of the both of you as toddlers sitting happily beside thalia

you always wondered who was the little boy in the photo and it wasn't until a few years ago did thalia tell you about him disappearing

you were a bit wary of him at first, especially since he had no memory of where he came from

it wasn't until he conjured lightning with his sword, did you have no doubt in your mind that he was your brother

the first night you guys spent in the cabin together was awkward

you couldn't really catch up since he didn't remember anything, so you told him what thalia told you about him and your mother

you didn't reveal him everything, not wanting to overwhelm him and you had decided to call it a night before you went into detail

you explained the rest of the story after he came back from his quest

you tried to ask him questions hoping he’d remember more, but his memory wasn't coming back fast enough

both you and jason were growing frustrated, so one day you iris messaged thalia

the both of you came up with an idea to jog jason's memory by showing him things that he enjoyed as a toddler

jason was pretty sure it wouldn't work, but he went along with it

thalia recalled that the two of you really liked watching the flintstones as babies

so you and jason sat down and watched every season available on dvd

and well, it didn't work...

thalia also mentioned you both really liked sweets, so you tried to jog his memory with candy bars

you had to convince jason to sneak out of camp with you

he thought it was such a bad idea, but you reassured him he'd be fine

after reluctantly agreeing, jason and you escaped at night to buy actually steal candy bars from the closest gas station

jason panicked as he watches you shove candy bars in your sweatshirt

"we're gonna get caught"

"if you keep looking that scared, we just might," you replied a little too calmly

he tried to relax, but he just looked like he saw a ghost the entire time

on your way back, you may have electrocuted a harpy and fought a couple cyclops and all the fighting and running made you lose one of your snicker bars

you were upset, to say the least

unfortunately, after stuffing him with chocolate, that didn't work either

then you tried to show him the few pictures you were able to salvage before you were taken to the foster home after the death of your mother

jason sat in front of you on the floor as you pulled the box from under your bed

you smiled, finding an old picture of your mother, and you put it up to his face, taking in the similarities between the two

"yep, you look just like her," you confirmed as you smiled sadly

even though jason didn't know her, he felt a sense of pride when you had told him so

every time a memory would come back, you were the first person he told

when his memories with lupa came back, you were shook

and then you teased him, saying that he's basically a dog

once you threw a twig and told him to go fetch

he didn't find it as funny as you and leo did, but oh well

you also asked if he howled at full moons, and you were met with the straightest face you've ever seen on jason

it was the funniest thing ever to you

every week you guys kicked ass in capture the flag

you guys were more alike than you thought

it was guaranteed that whichever team you were on would win

in the months when the argo II was being built, you had a lot of times to bond with jason

your dynamic was really fun as you were a bit more rebellious and silly while he was a lot more responsible and mature

after the argo II departed

you reuniting with percy was something you thought about for months

you were so excited when the argo II was officially ready to fly over to camp jupiter

your pulse was thumping in your ears when you saw percy in the crowd

after months of worrying about where he was and if he was still alive, it was almost surreal to see him right in front of you

you lunged into him so hard, he stumbled back as you kissed him

just like your second kiss, the both of you were smiling so hard your teeth kept bumping against his

"i love your new look," you commented on his toga, and he snorted,

"yeah?"

"oh yeah, it's kinda hot."

the both of you laughed, content to be in each other's arms again

after getting on the argo II, you were the reason jason and percy formed some sort of a friendship

you were the mutual ground for the both of them since they had a soft spot for you

the tension between the two was something you couldn't disregard and you hated how weird it was at the beginning

if they butted heads, you tried to mend the problem

you understood both of them well enough to understand where they came from

at some point, you and annabeth thought it would be funny to lock them in a storage closet

so you did

they kept complaining to be let out but eventually, they gave in

little did they know that you were standing near the door and listening to their conversation

jason told him how you helped him a lot and all the ridiculous things you made him do

and percy shared stories of you from quests and at camp

the both of them laughed and bonded over having someone as amazing as you in their lives

"y/n is pretty great," percy smiles

"yeah, they are," jason agreed

needless to say, your heart warmed at the praise from your two favorite boys

masterlists taglist: @xxyrr @nct127bee @mochabreezeee @minamisulemisa @yanfeisluvr @Slytherclaw-kitten @-thatgirloverthere- @passionswift @nanskidoodle @idk-bye-no @ilikefluffygingercats @all-hailreyna @autmngirlworld @Sunkissedskin1328 @Hermioneswifeee @quteez @hajigayy @aleksanderwh0r3 @drayshadow @tonyedwardstarkk @londoncherry @ashookykooky @lotusnegra666 @loverstyless

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the-sprog · 3 years

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So since I'm very bad at remembering my ideas, I'm gonna throw this out there and hope one day I'm like "WAIT didn't I have an idea for a fic??? What was it???" And I will find it on my tumblr.

It's about Danny Phantom, obviously.

There are actually two of them in here so:

The easiest one: Jack and Maddie are not stupid. I mean they're scientists, the use the scientific method. One of the things about the scientific method is that if you do a bunch of tests, based on an hypothesis and only one of them comes out disproving it, then your hypothesis is incorrect.

Phantom has disproved basically all of their hypothesis.

So, next thing to do? Create a new one. Do new tests. They take Jazz's suggestion and try and see if the ghosts of Amity are actually conscious. Because obviously they're sentient, but are they like animals? Or are they like robots with artificial intelligence?

Or even better yet, are they like humans?

They grab Phantom's attention and ask him if he would cooperate for this test. A simple Turing test. Obviously they're still wary because of everything that happened with him, and do the test with witnesses to keep both Phantom's and their minds at ease.

He passed the test. With flying colors.

They're shocked and ask him if he knew peaceful ghosts that would be willing to take the test (because, y'know. Scientific method. Need to try over and over again). Phantom would have to explain that not all ghosts are as human-like as him (as, first of all, he's a halfa, but he doesn't say that. And second, lots of them are blobs or animal-like ghosts), but cue his parents meeting Jhonny and Kitty (cause I like the idea that they have a truce with Phantom and that going out of the zone helps them with their couple problems), as well as Shadow (example of a less human-like ghost). Then Sidney, Dora, the Fright Knight (cause king ghost Danny ftw) and Frostbite.

They all pass, more or less. Some, like Dora, the light and Sidney, where given away by their choice of word, but other than that all of them passed the test.

OK SO MORE COMPLEX ONE:

I love crossovers. I love finding ways of putting the two universes together, of making them work with each other, adapting the rules so that they apply to both. (With Danny Phantom it's also really cool to just... Make him travel the multiverse. He doesn't adhere to the rules of where he goes to, so it's always hilarious. But we're not here for that now).

One of the best ones to do this with is My Hero Academia. Whenever a show has someone with powers I end up asking myself "how should that work in the world of my hero?" And start trying to incorporate it in the lore.

So, first thing first, we're getting rid of the canon story of my hero. Completely unrelated to the show. This takes place decades in the past, when the first people where developing quirks (so if I wanted to write something with this and actually use my hero characters, I'd make it so that they where hit with a time traveling quirk or that Clockwork was somehow involved).

The Fenton's hatred for ghosts? Make it discrimination against the people who have quirks.

Danny being half-ghost? His quirk's fault. He calls it Ghost, for simplicity, it allows him to come back as a sort of ghost-like creature after he dies. Somehow, one day, he doesn't die completely so his body fixes it the only way it know how. Making him partially ghost.

Obviously that would mean that all the ghosts he fights aren't ghosts anymore. They're villains with quirks, and their powers would be based on what they can do on the show, minus the basic intangibility, invisibility and flight.

Obviously only Sam and Tucker would know he was Phantom and he had a quirk, he's also kinda the only one in town with one. People would be a little racist against quirk havers, but the kids, like in the show, come around to it. And actually start loving Phantom and thinking of him as a hero.

How do I fit Vlad in all of this? Ehm ahhhh this is the one thing I didn't think about. Very basic, but could give him a power similar to Danny, were instead of a ghost, he becomes a vampire. But his quirk is caused by an accident in college, so it's artificial.

Why does Skulker (who doesn't have a quirk. He's just a guy in a suit) hunt Danny? He has a very unique quirk.

Does Dani exist? I mean. Yeah. Cloning is not so farfetched, especially with the existence of quirks.

Clockwork can control time, he involuntary does that being a child, then an adult then an old man thing. The Observants are people without quirks that keep him in check, an organization that made a pact with him to stay young forever or something in change of idk what. No idea what Clockwork would get out of it I won't lie. Money maybe? Or somehow they found a way of keeping him there against his will?

Walker (and I'll make a seperate post about this) is an ex guy in white. Yes they still exist, but they hunt quirk havers instead of paranormal stuff. Walker was kicked out because he actually has a quirk but lied about it. He's after his own kind in the show as well. I mean, he's a stickler to the rules, but he only ever seems to care when it's ghosts that brake them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but never has he punished a human. His quirk is making semi-sentient minions. They're not copies of himself. They're like clay humans with basic forms. They all look alike and have no special characteristics.

Frostbite is just... A yeti. With cryokenisis. It's a mutation type quirk.

Same goes for Wulf, he's just a humanoid wolf that can create teleportation portals. I can't think of a reason why he would only speak Esperanto though. It could be something similar to Five from umbrella academy. He accidentally got stuck in the 1600 as a kid and managed to come back only relatively recently.

I feel like all the other ghosts have obvious powers.

Cujo can become ginormous,

Technus can control technology,

Dora and Aragon can become dragons,

Jhonny gives people bad luck and can control his shadow,

Kitty can make man disappear,

Ember can mind control using music,

Spectra can use people's negative emotions to stay young,

Bernard has shapeshifting,

Youngblood can't be seen by adults (side effect: can't grow old) and his sideckick has a variant of shapeshifting where he can only transform in animals. A definitive father figure),

Box ghost can control boxes,

Pandora can control the plagues of the world,

Desiré can make people's wishes come true,

Sidney can swap bodies with people,

Undergrowth can control plants,

Pariah Dark- I... Actually don't know...

Lunch Lady can control food,

Aaaanndddd no more come to mind.

I want to do something with this AU but I can't really think of an interesting story, other than "kids from 1A get misplaced in time and Danny has to help, discovering the existence of Clockwork and the Observants, whom he hates. So he tries to get Clockwork out of there with the other kid's help" but that's it, really.

I actually have a 3rd idea, but it basically works the same as the MHA one. Crossover with the X-Men.

Substitute quirk havers with mutants and quirks with mutations and you get the idea.

The plot would be more of a "Danny gets recruited by Xavier after the trauma of almost dying activated his mutation and goes to live at the mansion. This happens after the events of season 3, alla salted to make sense in the world of Marvel, but without Phantom planet. He makes friends there, since Sam and Tucker aren't with him and everything is fine and dandy and happy. Until it comes out that the Fentons actually contribute to the creation of the Sentinels, because they hate Phantom that much.

So Danny has to infiltrate his own family to get info on how the Sentinels work so they can destroy them, since his parents are still oblivious and they made it so that the Sentinels wouldn't attack Danny thinking that his accident just somehow make him register as a mutant on machinery" and that's it.

#danny phantom #my hero academia #crossover #danny Phantom and my hero academia crossover #danny phantomxmyhero academia #wanna write #marvel #X-Men #danny Phantom x X-Men

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numbaoneflaya · 3 years

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Can I get a list of all ur ocs?

Well anon youve done it, you made me make a list of all my major OCS in one place. I hope your happy with yourself. Under the cut for obvious reasons, may link in my blog desc later.

Modern/BTD verse!!

Jilly- Ferret beastkin little creature, was recently turned into a werewolf by vincent as well so she's running around on full moons in a wereferret wolf hybrid creature form. Chaotic and friendly and wants to be everyone's bestie. She has the most energy in the world and is very kind hearted. Banned from most Claires for stealing and from one Home Depot for climbing the shelves. Prone to living life with rose colored glasses on and seeing the best in everything/everything even when there's nothing there. Socialization is a must for her and is why being basemented/kidnapped broke her psych so quickly and developed severe stockholm. Sometimes overly talkative/enthusiastic and can scare people off. Even if she sees someone shes decided shes friends with be noticeably 'evil', will convince herself it must be for some reason/her fault and ignore it.

Ciggy- Undead punk still learning to harness his powers to interact with the world as a ghost. Was sacrificed by a cult he joined for free concert tickets and to get laid. Likes to cause problems on purpose both pre and prior death and he's not above possessing someone once he learns how to. Was called Rooster in high school before he dropped out because he's loud, obnoxious and always screaming. And also has bright red dyed hair. Looking 4 ways to become less ghosty bcs he wants to be able to help raise his infant daughter, whom he died before he could meet. Bit annoying and in your face, likes poking at bruises, his or others. Kind of a sad heart seeking attention through volume and persistence.

Mike: Vampire loser! Sells drugs and lives at raves. Was turned when she was attacked by a coked out vampire (whom she supplied the product to) and has major scarring on her face and chest. Needs a somewhat constant influx of blood so shell sometimes take victims back to her place and chain them up, slowly draining them over time. Feels bad (ish) about it tho so it is possible to survive her if you are nice and or interesting enough. Kind of desperate for a friend and for love. Is a stalker. If she likes you enough/finds you interesting, she might just appear in your house one night and start rummaging through your fridge like nothing is wrong and youve been besties for years. Its best to indulge her and be friendly, otherwise she could turn violent quickly if her feelings are hurt.

Kilaine- Regular human woman, but fucked up. Born and raised by an elite waspy society she had an interest in the human body and pain tolerance since she was young. Quickly learned that these traits were socially unacceptable in most professions, so she became a doctor. The only family she cared about was her younger sister who she lost in a car accident, where they were flipped over and trapped inside while it was afire. While her sister burned up in front of her Kilaine only lost her left arm and had major burns on her body. This tipped her descent into sadism and she is now madly obsessed with bringing her sister back no matter the cost. Rude and offstandish, clinical.

Dragon age verse!

Thurwen- My main Hero of Ferelden with a bad temper and a heart of gold. City elf from the Denerim Alienage, 18 at the start of origins. She's a reaver warrior with a lot of pent up rage which sometimes scares others when she lets it out in battle. Over the years she's grown less moody as she's had to take the role of Commander. Crude sense of humor and violent impulses, very sensitive to the plights of others and tries often to help. Never seen crying in public but only cries to herself at night- major martyr and hanged man complex.

Caz- My circle mage elf inquisitor who was an apostate before the conclave. Blood magic, but make it sneaky. Wary of strangers and new faces, always dealing with the impulse to flee/find a high vantage point. Endless curiosity about the unknown/ the forbidden/ naughty, was supposed to be made tranquil for it but she escaped. Kind of a little creature as well, lived on her own for a while as an apostate in the woods, filed her teeth down to sharp ends to make herself look more intimidating (shes 5 ft tall) and less cute (her elf ears are huge and expressive, which shes embarrassed about)

Dag and Thagna- Carta twins! Professional lyrium smugglers since birth pretty much. Raised casteless in dust town and had to work their way up the chain of command by themselves. Dag is the brother, Thagna the sister. Their father traded them to the carta for drinking money and their mom died in childbirth so they have somewhat of a codependent relationship. Both charismatic and calculating, friendly and agreeable but won't hesitate to put a dagger in your back. Hard to pin down morally or physically, squirrelly bastards.

Reila: Dalish elf who works for the inquisition/ is the inquisitor in some aus. She has an extreme fixation on elvhen history and rebuilding what they have lost. Not a people person, prefers solitude. Takes some time to warm up to shemhlen as she has a hard history with them. Good friends with Caz, who recruited her in the first place. Doesn't understand very many social cues and finds societal expectations limiting and frustrating. Fondness for halla and hooved animals, which she finds graceful.

Elder scrolls verse!

Valkya: Near seven foot nord woman whos over a thousand years old by the events of skyrim. Tall and buff, two handed warrior and compulsive hero there to bask in the spotlight save the day. She was killed at the start of the events of Elder scrolls online and had her soul ripped out and sent to coldharbor and she's just been a pain in the ass about it since then. Her body can physically die and will not regrow pieces. Her soul however will escape and teleport to the nearest source of power where her body will regrow from an aetherial plasm until its whole again. Loud and brash, friendly and jovial. Actually pretty keen especially after centuries of life but prefers to play dumb as it makes people underestimate her. Plus, she really does enjoy mud wrestling and drinking contests and acting generally like a rambunctious frat boy. Ha developed a bit of a substance problem and a problem with acting out, as after being alive so long she would turn to anything to dull the ache inside of her that never goes away.

Espira- My Dragonborn! Redguard from Hammerfell who was briefly in the Ash’abah due to killing undead while protecting her parents water farm as a child. Ran away from them after years and went to Cyrodille, then to Skyrim and was caught crossing the border. Reserved, kind and soft spoken, she's a sword and shield warrior who's committed herself to doing good in the world by helping others. Dislikes killing and anything messy but believes it is often necessary in order to protect the weak. She blacksmiths often to save money on the upkeep of her own equipment, and takes up metal jewelry working as a hobby with the excess material. Prone to trusting others too much and giving too many second chances, as shes always looking for ways to make even the most hardened criminal a second look at life.

Riley- Espiras little brother who she locked in the wardrobe during the event of the water farm attack. In preventing him from doing violence against the undead she kept him from being conscripted into the Ash’abah. He's way more chaotic than his sister, and suffers from a case of little sibling syndrome in which he will often pester/poke at people just to get a rise out of them. Still kind hearted as his sister, he tries to hide it because he believes that the world is a cruel place and the cruel survive. Despite that belief he is often still unable to force himself to be cruel/careless, only making a show of it so that others leave him alone and don't see that he's very sensitive and emotional. Deaf in one ear due to a magic mishap in his youth, he trained and enchanted his most beloved rats to live for years and sit on his shoulder, alerting him to noises he would not otherwise notice.

Felria: Evil vamp :/ chaotic evil dunmer necromancer. Small and devilish and likes dead bodies too much. Manipulative and cunning, she loves acting. She's a trained assassin for the dark brotherhood and is the speaker. Likes dressing up for missions and wearing disguises like its all a play. Loves toying with people more than she loves killing them, will act in ways that cause as much trauma as possible for other people just for fun and she finds the reactions interesting. Considers herself too far removed from most people's perception of morality and of her so it's hard for her to trust someone or see them as worthy of knowing her. Finds the psychology of grief and fear to be interesting and wants to study them first hand. The hero of kvatch.

Herren: Fifty something year old rat woman looking for something to keep her going. Ran away from her wealthy family in her youth when they wanted her to take charge of the household, instead became an infamous jewel thief and swashbuckler. Spent most of her life traveling and stealing and double dealing. She's smarmy and sarcastic, a serial romancer of the highest caliber. Bit of a show off and a hedonist, always looking for the next good party or new product to snort. Her family died off due to the hard times she wasn't there for and she keeps looking for bigger and bigger heists to fill her appetite as she's chronically bored and lonely, though wont accept intimacy and will scoff at it out of the belief she doesn't deserve it. Irresponsible and selfish, lonely and terrified of any sort of commitment. Fun to party with though!

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thisbrokenmask · 4 years

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A Little Medical Magic

Title: A Little Medical Magic

Pairing: Seokjin x reader

Genre: Meet-cute?, fluff, hospital au

Warnings: N/A

Word Count: 5.1k

Song inspiration: Dope (music video)

A/N: So I’m very aware that I’m nowhere close to finishing my bingo card before the end of the challenge (the end of this month), but I’m going to try and write them all anyway, no matter how long it takes. My next submission for ficswithluv’s Bulletproof Bingo Event is my Dope inspired drabble, and this one takes inspo from the video rather than the song itself. Gotta love some Dr Seokjin <3

“Just a little longer, darling, I promise,” you speak softly into the hair of the boy in your arms, holding him close to your chest and rocking him gently. He whimpers, exhausted from the hours of sobbing and screaming he’d already endured throughout the night. You kiss his temple, pleased to feel his skin has cooled slightly despite the warmth that still radiates from him and sheen of sweat that still lingers.

You’ve been sitting in the A&E waiting room for just under half an hour, but it feels like much longer when your son has cried through most of his waking hours over the last two days. You’ve done everything you can, tried every medicine and home remedy you’ve had access to, but Iseul’s condition hasn’t improved. It started with a high temperature and gradually grew into a fever that you have been unable to break and you know better than to leave him suffering any longer. You’re trying to keep calm for his sake, knowing that he’s intuitive and perceptive enough to pick up on your fear even if he is only three years old.

“Mrs Y/l/n?” A nurse holding a clipboard calls your name across the room, although the prefix catches you off guard at first. You blink a few times before realising she means you, gathering Iseul in your arms before grabbing your purse to follow her. Iseul wraps his arms around your neck, snuggling into your chest and whining at the movement.

“It’s Miss Y/l/n,” you say as politely as you can, offering a smile before she can even begin to form an apology. “Don’t worry, most people assume. It’s okay. I’m used to it.”

You briefly remember now how you used to meekly allow people to assume you were married just because you had a son despite the absence of a ring of your finger. It didn’t take long for you to start correcting people, however, taking pride in everything you were achieving as a single mother rather than submitting to society’s attempts to shame you for not being with the father, let alone not being married. But when you’d found out you were pregnant just a few months into your last relationship, your still-new boyfriend had panicked and scarpered, so you felt no remorse at not being with him considering how easily he’d left you on your own.

The very second Iseul was put into your arms at his birth, you were besotted, and you’d known then, as long as you had your son by your side, you could face anything the world had to throw at you. The last three years haven't been easy by any means, juggling motherhood and your career, but you couldn’t even imagine now what your life would be like now without your son.

The nurse shows you into a consultation room, telling you the doctor will be with you in a moment before she leaves. You lay Iseul down on the examination bed and unwrap his hands from your neck despite his complaints, taking them in one of yours instead as you sit beside him. You stroke his hair softly, pushing it away from his forehead as you do so, and hum the sweetest melody you know. Your mother used to sing it to you when you were a child and the tune immediately came back to your memory when Iseul was born, as if it were a secret song only mothers knew. It has always settled him and you take comfort in the fact that you can at least give him that when your medicines haven’t worked.

As he gazes up at you, his face red and watery eyes shining under the fluorescent lights, you feel a sharp tug at the ever-present pull on your heart. It’s like a thread immediately unravelled in your heart when you gave birth to him, the other end attached to your son, pulling you towards him no matter where either of you were. You wish you could help him, that you didn’t have to bring him into the hospital environment that you hate so much at three in the morning, but you know this is what’s best for him.

The door suddenly opens behind you, making you jump slightly, and you turn to see the doctor walk in. You’re not sure if he looks so tall because you’re sitting down or if he really is that tall, but you immediately notice how you’re surprised that the small smile on his face actually reaches his eyes as he walks over to the desk on the other side of the room, white coat billowing out behind him.

Your last experience with a hospital doctor was when Iseul was born and, despite it being one of the greatest moments of your life, you can’t help the ghost of shame that creeps up your spine when you remember the way your doctor spoke to and about you. Yes, you’d been young, single and with your mother instead of the baby’s father, but you’d never expected such an emotionally detached reaction from the doctor. The nurses had looked after you incredibly, always making sure you were comfortable before and after Iseul’s arrival, but you’d never forget overhearing the doctor as he left, his assertion that he had another baby to deliver - this time to a “proper family”. Ever since, you’d had a wary disposition against doctors, constantly on alert that they would tell you that you were doing things wrong by being a single mother and not granting Iseul a male presence in his life, as if that were the most valuable thing in the world.

But this doctor seems a lot younger and, while you try not to let any prejudice shape your opinion, you can’t help but think he looks much more welcoming than any doctor you’ve met before. Maybe it’s because he’s a paediatrician, or maybe it’s the way his dark eyes seem to be permanently shining with a smile, but you instantly feel your own wariness beginning to ease.

It’s possibly also because he’s really quite attractive. He really does seem to be that tall and you note that the broadness of his shoulders is also not a trick of perspective. His dark hair sits just over his eyebrows, bringing your attention down to his large, dark brown eyes as they read the file that was left on the desk for him. Under his white coat is a simple white shirt, but it’s the tie that catches your attention: it’s bright red, not dissimilar to the red fire truck toy Iseul has at home, but it’s covered in little white hearts. You catch yourself smiling before he looks up at you, turning away and hoping he doesn’t notice any dusting on your cheeks.

“Who do we have here then?” he asks as he comes over to the bed holding the file, eyes already searching for every visual clue he can find to help him diagnose your son.

“Iseul,” you say with a brief flash of a small smile to the doctor before turning to your son, repeating his name and trying to coax Iseul out from hiding his eyes under his arms. He’d immediately crossed them over his face when you’d let go at the entrance of the doctor, shielding his eyes from the bright lights above him.

The doctor, however, seems unperturbed by your son’s reluctance to look at him.

“Ah, hello Iseul,” he says, carrying on as normal as he pulls over the chair by the desk and takes a seat, tucking his coat underneath him out of habit. “My name is Dr Kim, but you can call me Seokjin, if you like.” When Iseul still doesn’t look at him, Seokjin smiles sympathetically and turns to you. “So, Mum, what seems to be the problem?”

You’re ashamed that being on the end of his direct gaze makes you a different kind of nervous than you expected when you came to the hospital, especially when your son is lying on the bed beside you. Shaking your head slightly, you miss the smirk on the doctor’s face as you turn to your child.

“Uh, he’s had a high temperature for the last few days,” you say, placing a protective hand on his tummy, “ He keeps saying his head hurts, but paracetamol doesn’t seem to help much and I worry about giving him too much. He’s been off his food, too, even when I make his favourites, and he’s been sick a few times.”

Seokjin nods as he takes a few notes, adding to what’s already written in the file in his hand. You can’t figure out if his blank expression is solemn or just concentration and it makes your heart beat a little faster for the little boy under your hand.

“Iseul, buddy, is it alright if I take your temperature?”

Your son shakes his head under his arms before whimpering at the movement.

“Shh, baby, it’s okay,” you coo. “Doctor Kim’s gonna make you feel better, okay?”

“I sure am,” Seokjin’s voice is confident but warm and almost playful and you feel a flutter of relief when you see Iseul’s eyes peek out from under his arms and flicker towards him. “Do you think you can sit up for me?” Iseul’s not had much experience with doctors, not any that he would remember, anyway, and you don’t want to pass on your hesitancy, so you smile and nod encouragingly when he finally looks to you for reassurance.

Iseul thinks for a few seconds before he reaches out for you and you help him to sit up, wrapping your arm around him so that he can shuffle up to your side. You see his eyes widen as he takes in Seokjin’s full appearance for the first time, his attention immediately drawn to the shiny stethoscope around the doctor’s neck.

“You gonna let Doctor check your temperature?” you squeeze his shoulder lightly and stroke his hair again as he watches Seokjin curiously, his eyes constantly drifting down to the instrument around the doctor’s neck.

“All you gotta do is hold this under your tongue for me for a few seconds, okay?” Seokjin tells him, showing him a small thermometer, and your son nods shyly, still sniffling slightly. “Fabulous,” Seokjin praises his cooperation and you grin at the little smile that creeps onto your son’s face. “Now, let’s see how wide you can open your mouth, shall we?” Iseul makes a large ‘O’ with his lips, making both you and the doctor chuckle. “Oh, I know a grown boy like you can do better than that!” Seokjin teases and Iseul proves him right, allowing the doctor to slip the thermometer under his tongue. “Now, see if you can hold that perfectly still for me - without biting it,” he quickly adds, knowing most children are immediately tempted to do just that. “Pretend it’s a straw, okay?” Iseul does as he’s told, looking up at you before crossing his eyes to look down his nose at the thermometer.

“Good job, baby,” you encourage him as he keeps flicking his eyes between you and the instrument. You press a kiss to the top of his dark brown hair and are relieved to feel that his temperature has lessened slightly, even if only temporarily.

“Let me see?” Doctor Kim leans over and you watch him take note of the temperature before taking the thermometer from Iseul’s mouth and laying it gently on a tray beside the bed. “Excellent, I knew you could do it!” He offers Iseul a high five, which your son eagerly grants him with more enthusiasm than you’ve seen in him lately and it makes your heart swell just that little bit more. Seokjin carefully takes his stethoscope from around his neck and holds it in his lap before leaning forward conspiratorially. “Now, as you were such a good boy, I’m allowed to show you a little bit of magic… would you like to see it?”

Iseul nods but then frowns, glancing at you before looking back to Dr Kim.

“Mummy can’t watch, though.” A cry of indignation escapes you at your son’s words, but Seokjin simply laughs.

“No?” Iseul shakes his head with a solemn expression, as if it pains him to speak the truth, and Seokjin continues to humour him, despite the splutters of objection you’re trying to swallow. “And why’s that?”

“Mummy hasn’t been a good girl,” your son states this like it’s obvious, much to Seokjin’s amusement.

“Excuse me?” you can feel the heat rise in your cheeks, a million thoughts flying through your head and a slight stab of betrayal in your heart, although you weren’t even sure what he’d be talking about. Sure, you enjoyed a glass of wine or two on a Friday night, but you always made sure to tidy everything away before your son awoke for breakfast the next morning. You didn’t swear in front of him. You hadn’t had anyone other than your closest friends over to your house since Iseul was born, and the three dates you’d tried had ended at the front step.

“Oh dear,” Seokjin sighs, although a playful smirk tugs at his lips as he looks at you, dark eyes shining like jet as he quickly looks you from head to toe. “Mummy’s been a bad girl, huh?”

An aggressive blush fills your cheeks and you suddenly feel like the little room is overheating, too stuffy to breathe properly as the devilishly handsome doctor in front of you simply quirks an eyebrow. ‘Stop flirting with the doctor!’ you berate yourself. ‘You’re here for your son!’ Your eyes involuntarily drop down to Seokjin’s hands, but his left hand is tucked neatly under his right over the top of his stethoscope, so you can’t see if a ring sits on his finger or not. You presume he is married, though, or at least dating someone, given how absolutely perfect he seems to be.

“...no,” Iseul says, looking up to the ceiling as if deep in thought and you recognise it as the way he tries to avoid looking at you when you’ve caught him trying to lie, and Seokjin looks back to him as soon as he speaks. “But she hasn’t done nothing good, neither! I had the ‘mometer in my mouth, she didn’t.”

“Ahh, I see,” Seokjin nods sagely, his hand pressed to his chin and the other folded across his chest, pouting slightly as he considers Iseul’s argument. “You make a good point,” he says, “how about this, then - I show you the magic, and then you can show Mummy?”

“You’ll teach me?” Iseul’s eyes light up, not even illness getting in the way of his love for magic tricks - especially magic tricks he can perform for you.

“Of course!” Seokjin grins, “although I’m sure you’ll do it first try no problem.” He looks to you and winks quickly, lifting the stethoscope slightly to signal to you what he was planning, and you return the slightest nod you can manage without drawing your son’s attention. “You ready?” he asks your son, who immediately turns to you and pushes at your arm.

“Don’t look, Mummy! Not allowed!”

Happy to see your son with more energy, you play along for his benefit, dramatically sighing and turning your body slightly so that he thinks you aren’t watching. You can, however, see his reflection in the glass-lined cabinet on the other side of the room, and watch as Seokjin presents the stethoscope to your son.

“Now this,” he says, and you smile at the way he softens his voice to make it sound much more fantastical for Iseul, “is a very special thing. It lets you hear a person’s heart.”

“Wow! Really?” Reflection-Iseul leans forward slightly and puts his hand out, reaching out to touch the stethoscope before retracting his hand, as if he might break the magic if he does. His eyes are wide and awestruck despite the traces of illness still lingering in his reddened cheeks and dampened hairline.

“Really. How about I show you how it’s done, and then you can try it on Mummy?” Your son’s reflection nods as avidly as he can without hurting himself, although you still see the traces of a frown pull at his brow when he does so. Seokjin puts the earpieces in before taking hold of the other end, showing it to Iseul and explaining that this is the magic piece that lets him hear people’s hearts. He explains that the heart can only be heard by good, kind people who care about others, which is why they all become doctors and nurses, before pointing to the part of Iseul’s chest he’s going to listen to and telling him he has to sit still for it to work.

And it works without a hitch, Iseul watching, amazed, as Seokjin listens to his heartbeat. After a few seconds, Seokjin starts nodding to himself and then pulls away.

“Yep, seems like we’ve got a good heart in there,” he says, putting the stethoscope back in his lap as he takes some notes. “You should be able to do this magic no problem.”

A tugging at your sleeve encourages you to turn around, fistfuls of your jacket sleeve in your son’s hands, and you smile down at your son.

“Did you see the magic?” you ask him, and he is all but bouncing on the bed.

“I did! Dr Seokjin says I’ve got a good heart and I can do the magic, too!”

You look at the doctor in question, catching him watching your interaction with your son with a warmth in his eyes before he notices you looking at him and looks back down at his papers, clearing his throat. You refrain from smirking at the blush on his cheeks and turn back to your son.

“Wow, really? You can do magic? Can you show me?”

Without any further prompting needed, Seokjin lends forward as he removes the stethoscope once again, this time scooting his chair closer to the bed. He offers the chest piece to Iseul, telling him to hold onto it while he moves to put the earpieces in place. He plans to hold them rather than letting them press on Iseul’s young ears, but as soon as even the slightest pressure touches his ears, Iseul shrieks and drops his end of the stethoscope. He pushes Seokjin’s hands away and covers his ears with his own, burying his face into your side.

You’re immediately panicking, but Seokjin quickly retracts the stethoscope and drops it to the bed, nothing more than a brief frown furrowing his brow before he reaches into his pocket to pull out a small instrument.

“Do your ears hurt, Iseul?” Your son nods against you, your arms already wrapped around him. “Can I have a look?” You expect your son to scream in refusal given the fact that Seokjin’s last instrument caused the pain in the first place, but you’re surprised when your son simply nods again, rubbing his eyes as he sits up again. Seokjin seems to have gained his trust incredibly quickly, and you’d be lying if you said you weren’t thrilled that he wasn’t holding his experience against the doctor.

With the utmost care, Seokjin uses the tool in his hand to check Iseul’s ears before pulling away with a soft, yet somewhat relieved, sigh.

“It appears that Iseul has an infection in his left ear, which explains everything you’ve said he’s been going through,” he says, turning to you briefly before rolling back over to the desk. “I’ll get some antibiotics sorted for him, and he’ll be as right as rain in no time.”

The smile he gives you is reassuring, but you can’t bring yourself to smile back. You hold your son close as you curse yourself for not even thinking about the possibility of an ear infection, especially as it was now so obvious as you recalled Iseul’s increased habit of touching his ears over the last few days. He’d told you his head had been hurting, but you hadn’t realised he’d actually meant his ears. You feel a sinking in your chest at the idea that you’ve failed your own son, whose cries have now settled back down to hiccups, but Seokjin quickly catches on.

“Hey,” his voice is soft, calling you out of your reverie. He doesn’t want to assume what you’re thinking, but he’s seen the same look on plenty of parents’ faces over the last few years and he can take a good guess. “He’ll be okay.”

You nod quietly, still frowning but somehow reassured by the simple statement.

“Thank you, Doctor,” you say, rising to put your purse over your shoulder properly this time before lifting your son onto your hip. You take the signed prescription slip he offers you, ready to go off in search of someone to fill it for you, but he places a gentle hand on your arm to stop you.

“You’re doing a good job, Miss Y/l/n,” he says softly, and it takes you a few seconds to realise he hasn’t immediately assumed you’re married. “Don’t pressure yourself, okay?”

It’s been a long time since someone has outwardly praised you like this, especially a stranger, and it catches you off guard, your breath catching in your throat. Seokjin’s gaze flickers between your eyes for a few seconds, waiting until he’s sure you’ve taken him seriously, before he offers a gentle smile and removes his hand from your arm.

As you leave the examination room, Seokjin directs you to the hospital’s pharmacy and assures you that you should be able to pick up the antibiotics from them without an issue. He seems to hesitate, opening his mouth and closing it again before wishing you a good night and walking away, and you try not to think too much about the lingering flutter in your chest as you set off in your own direction.

You sink back into your chair as you place your mug back on the table, directing your gaze out of the large floor-to-ceiling window to the high street just beyond it. You idly watch as the Saturday morning shoppers hurry back and forth, some families and couples lingering at shop windows as others push on to their next destination. The summer sun casts everything in a brightness that you can’t help but feel joy in, even as the sun’s rays are amplified through the glass and make your legs feel like they’re burning up.

You turn back to look around the coffee shop you’re sat in, reminding yourself that you don’t have any reason to rush right now. The rare, stolen moment of unhurried peace that you haven’t felt in a long time is something you know you need to cherish, because in just over twenty-four hours your son will be coming home from his grandparents’ house, but it does feel strange to not have your son joyfully chattering across the table from you.

Your mother had offered to let Iseul stay over at their for the weekend, half out of her love of spending time with her grandson and half out of concern for the way you were constantly rushed off of your feet, either from being a mother or from your job as a curator for the National History Museum. It was a small treat for you to be able to get a weekend to yourself and go shopping on your own, not having to worry about your son running in and out of changing rooms while you tried on new clothes, and you’ve decided to also indulge in a slightly overpriced coffee without having to rush while you have the chance.

As your eyes skim down the line of patrons waiting to order, you think you recognise one of them but can’t quite place where you know him from. He’s tall, clearly several inches above the other people in the line, with dark hair sitting on top of a pair of dark-rimmed glasses. The light of his phone reflects in his lenses as he gazes down at it, avidly watching or reading whatever it is that’s caught his attention, and his lips are pushed out in a small pout in the midst of his concentration.

Despite the weather, he’s in black skinny jeans that look sinfully tight above the knees and bring further attention to his height, but you suppose the loose white t-shirt hanging off his broad shoulders must be helping him to stay rather cool-

Wait... incredibly tall, broad shoulders… it couldn’t be?

So lost is he in his phone, the man at the end of your gaze doesn’t notice the gap forming in front of him until the slightly elderly patron behind him clears his throat gently. You hear him apologise several times to the man behind him (who just smiles softly and tells him not to worry) and lets the man go up the counter first by way of an apology, and it’s only when you hear his voice that you realise who he is.

You’re pretty certain the jump in your heartbeat is cause for concern when you finally recognise him without the white coat. You start slightly, almost choking on nothing and quickly hide your reddening face by looking down at your drink, then out of the window again, then down to your phone. You bring up the home screen even though you know no one has texted you, desperate for something to do to put off looking up again, instead trying to figure out what had caused your reaction in the first place.

Of course, he was attractive - in fact he was ridiculously so - and he had been kind to you and your son, but that was his job as a paediatrician. Maybe it was the way he’d reassured you, been one of the first strangers in a while to assuage your underlying fears that you weren’t adequate as a single mother, or perhaps it was that last lingering look that had stayed with you as he’d said goodbye in A&E-

“Miss Y/l/n?” Your thoughts are cut short by a voice beside you. Looking up, you see the broad-shouldered doctor standing beside your table, holding his own drink in a takeaway cup. He smiles when you look up at him, apparently happy to have recognised you.

“Dr Kim?” You immediately blush at the squeaky voice that tumbles out of your mouth, a hand flying to cover your mouth.

“Call me Seokjin, please,” he smiles, a gentle blush on his cheeks when he can’t quite meet your eyes, seemingly less confident outside of his hospital halls. “Sorry for interrupting, I just thought I’d come over and say hello.”

In actual fact, he has no idea what made him come over to you. He sees his patients and their parents outside of the hospital all the time and never bats an eyelid, knowing it comes with the territory of working at the main hospital in the city, but when he’d seen you staring out of the window, a serene look on your face as you watched the people passing you by, he’d felt compelled to go over to you. So when the barista had handed him his drink, he’d followed his feet to stand beside your table.

“How’s your son doing?”

“Iseul? He’s fine, thank you.” You think back to what he’d said to you before you’d made to leave. “He was right as rain in no time, just like you said.” God, why did that sound better in your head than it did out loud?

“I’m glad,” Seokjin’s eyes briefly disappear behind his glasses when he nods happily, the reflection of the light above him making the lens white until he looks down to you again. “I told you he would be.” He tries not to wince as he groans internally, cursing himself for being so awkward when it comes to small talk. It’s never been his strong point, which is why he likes working with children as they don’t do small talk either. He’d rather field all of their weird and wonderful thoughts and questions than talk to their parents about the weather or sports he doesn’t watch.

You both fall into silence, still awkwardly smiling at each other without quite making eye contact. Your pulse is racing in your ears and you know it’s not the coffee.

“Would you like to join me?” You’re not quite sure where the offer comes from but you gesture to the chair on the other side of your table before you can help yourself. Seokjin’s eyes widen behind his lenses at your question and he looks at the chair with an expression that could be either pained or offended - you’re not quite sure.

It takes a few seconds for you to remember that he’d ordered his drink to go, the takeaway cup taunting you from his hand as he shifts his weight from foot to foot and now you’re not sure whether to hastily backtrack or just wait for him to reject you.

“Never mind-”

“I’d love to-”

You blink at each other when you speak at the same time, but luckily Seokjin blesses you with a chuckle rather and breaks the tension holding your heart hostage.

“I wouldn’t be disturbing you?” he asks, and when you shake your head with a smile he takes the seat.

“You don’t have to, if you’re busy?” You point to his cup, wondering where he’d been planning on going with it, wondering if there was maybe a partner waiting for him somewhere on the street outside.

“Oh, no, I’m not busy,” he fiddles with the lid on his cup, suddenly shy as he admits, “I don’t really like sitting in cafes alone, so I tend to just get it to go instead.” He hesitates and then looks up at you, his gaze steady despite the blush of pink creeping down the side of his neck. “But I guess I’m not alone this time, though, am I?”

“You’re not,” you agree, delighting in the way his lips transform into the most adorable smile you’ve ever seen on a grown man. You decide then and there that, even if it’s only for today, you’re going to try and keep that smile on his face for as long as possible. Clearing your throat, you lean your arms against the table and meet his gaze when he looks over at you. “So, Seokjin-”

“Jin.”

“I’m sorry?”

“My friends call me Jin,” he clarifies and you feel another little skip in your chest, then he motions for you to continue speaking as he lifts his drink to take a sip and hide his own blushing cheeks.

If you’d like to read any of my other drabbles, please visit my masterlist here.

#kim seokjin fic #kim seokjin #seokjin #jin #bts fic #bts fluff #bts fanfic #bts #seokjin fluff #doctor seokjin #doctor kim seokjin #doctor au #bts doctor au #fwlbingo #bulletproof bingo #ficswithluv #dope #bts dope #dts drabbles

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ghoste-catte · 3 years

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okay so I've been a big fan of your work for like almsot three years now and you kinda inspired me to want to start my own gaara fanfic. I am absolutley in love with your characterisation of him (especially in sleep talk with me) and wondered if you maybe could give me some tips? because my story would also take place in the sweet inbetween after the chunin exams and before he becomes kazekage. (and to write him in this time frame is so so hard. damn you barely excitent canon content.)

OMG anon?? That’s such a nice thing to say!! I’m so thrilled that you’re inspired to write your own stuff! I hope you’ll drop me a link to it when it’s finished!! I’m sure it’ll be amazing!! I love that time period for Gaara.

To be honest, I don’t feel like I’m super qualified to give writing “advice” (I say, preparing to give advice), because I’m really just an amateur doing this for fun. But that being said, there’s a couple things that I think are fun or interesting or compelling to explore with Gaara during that timeskip period between OG Naruto and Shippuden ... (Caveat here that these are just my opinions and there’s no one right way to explore this character, and that there’s plenty of interpretations that are worthwhile and fantastic and honestly better than mine!)

So, the first and biggest thing I had to keep drilling into my own head as I was writing Sleeptalk was how staggeringly YOUNG all the characters are pre-Shippuden. Gaara is, like, twelve or thirteen at the chuunin exams and he becomes Kazekage around age fifteen. I don’t know if you remember being fifteen, but I was barely qualified to work my little part-time job at that age! Hell, I’m shocked they let me drive a car (with a learner’s permit, but still). So picturing someone making the decisions he did at that age, even in the context of the militaristic, child-soldier-normalizing context of Naruto is ... a lot.

The biggest thing I think with Gaara--as an adult or as a teenager--is keeping in mind how strongly his trauma shaped him. What Gaara goes through between the end of the chuunin exams and his first appearance in Shippuden is basically an (unrealistically) accelerated trauma recovery. From age 6 to age 12, he basically has no personal connections, no affection, no mentorship or anything other than what appears to be basic “wrangling”. The Naruto wiki says that his dad is the one who trained him in ninjutsu, but it’s hard to picture him being particularly tractable after Yashamaru’s death, so I imagine those trainings were short-lived and probably fairly brutal. After all, it’s said Rasa’s magnet release was the only thing that could control Gaara if he let Shukaku take over. If anything, Rasa’s training methods are probably a lot closer to the Hyuugas’ than to, say, the Akimichi. So I think in addition to the onscreen traumas (the early loss of his mother, his overall rejection by Suna, the forcible termination of his relationship with his siblings, the assassination attempts, and of course Yashamaru’s betrayal), we probably also are looking at someone who was abused in addition to being neglected. Healing from trauma is a lot of work, and it has missteps and backslides in addition to forward progress, so there’s a lot of potential for development of his character there. Thinking about what his healing journey was like, what his setbacks might have been, and how he handled those. And what his major milestones were, too. What were his big signs of progress? His red letter days?

There’s actually a lot we don’t know about Gaara’s childhood between when Yashamaru died and the Konoha Crush, and there’s a lot of room to play in that space and explore possibilities. For example, who took care of his basic caregiving needs? Who made sure he had clothes and food? What did he eat? What were the major events of those six years? Did he ever try to reach out to Temari or Kankuro? To his dad? To Baki? What was the context of the additional assassination attempts? Did he play, and if so, what sort of games might he have played? We know, for example, that he has some artistic talent with the sand--was that something he ever explored? What did he do at night, since he couldn’t sleep? How was he kept awake, and by what or whom? There’s a lot of potential to explore additional, non-canon events that might have been formative. And how did any of that change after the chuunin exams, when he decided he wanted to be seen as more than a weapon? What sorts of things did he have to learn?

We know a very bare minimum about the Suna Council and the politics and culture of Suna, too, and I think there’s a lot of potential interest there. How would the Council have approached Gaara’s announcement of his intention to become Kage, when there were two older (and more emotionally stable) candidates from the same lineage? We know from the light novels that there is still backstabbing and subterfuge and that Gaara’s appointment is controversial even when he’s an adult, so I think there’s a lot of opportunity for political intrigue in the years between part 1 and Shippuden, if that’s your thing.

One of the biggest and most important things that I think was sorely neglected by canon was Gaara’s relationship with his siblings. There’s so much growth that needed to happen there, and Temari and Kankuro were probably still pretty scared of him at first! There’s so much potential for them to grow together as people and to form a new family unit, and exploring how they went from being wary of him (and potentially needing to be prepared to kill him if he got out of control) to a loving sibling relationship! There are a lot of firsts that could be explored there--when did he first acknowledge Kankuro as his older brother, for example? Who was the first to try to give him a hug, and did he (or the sand) allow it?

Finally, I do really want to emphasize the mental health component of Gaara’s journey. Canon leans really heavily on the fact that he has a literal demon sealed inside him and that he’s protected by his mother’s spirit through magic sand, but a lot of his reactions and ways of handling things are really just that of a traumatized child, with or without the additional magic component. If you took a kid Gaara’s age and put them through traumatic events on the scale of what he went through--with or without magical ninja skills--you would likely see similar reactions. The only difference is that Gaara has access to fundamentally unlimited power. (And I think learning that, too--that he can’t just kill or hurt people to get what he wants--would be a huge part of his development and learning process.) So I personally don’t really care for interpretations of his development that lean too heavily on the ‘literal demon voices in his head’ and ‘actual conversing with ghosts/spirits’ interpretations, though they’re perfectly valid ones given what canon portrays. I much prefer an interpretation where a lot of Gaara’s symptoms--and they are symptoms!--are actually things that are going on with him emotionally and internally rather than being literal magic events that are happening. For example, I like to think his discomfort with the full moon has a lot more to do with negative emotions associated with the memory of Yashamaru’s betrayal than a literal issue with Shukaku thirsting for blood.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on forever, but if you have other questions please feel free to pop back up! And I hope you’ll link me to your story when it’s done--I’d love to read it!!

#answered #anonymous

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dreamerwithapen1 · 3 years

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may we know some more about tisiphone? 🤲

why of course you can ☺️

ok so fair warning, i got quite carried away with talking about her, and this is much much longer than i anticipated... sorry 😅

background: let’s start with her family! tisiphone was born on december 13, 1926, to hector and cassandra carrow. her mother died during child birth, and her father passed from cancer when tiss was four. so from then on, she lived with her aunt, asteria carrow, and her twin cousins, helios and selene, who were the same age as her. since a young age, tiss was always a bit timid and shy, something that selene mocked her about relentlessly. selene was definitely the most cruel and cold hearted of the family and viewed tiss as a waste of space and a useless member of the family. tiss hates the way that selene treats her but never has the courage to stand up to her, and their ‘relationship’ remains that way forever. helios is a different story. while he does share his sister’s views on muggles and muggleborns, he’s not as much as a fanatic about it as selene; nor is he as vocal about it. where selene is loud and brash and always speaks her mind, helios is quiet, observant, and always thinks carefully before speaking; however, he’s no pushover. he’ll put his sister and anyone else in their place without hesitation. which is a good thing, because the biggest cause of tension between the siblings is helios and tiss’ relationship, which can seem a bit odd to outsiders. to others, it appears as if the two are rather indifferent to each other, when really, they’re each other’s best friends. when tiss arrived at her aunt’s home, helios was the one that took her under his wing and showed her kindness. they share the same calm attitude toward things, the same dry understated sense of humor, and a natural affinity for magic, something that selene struggles with. that friendship carries on throughout all their years at hogwarts. and speaking of hogwarts...

school years: tiss, along with helios and selene, received their hogwarts’ letters and were all sorted into slytherin, the same year that tom riddle was as well. over the years, the twins and tiss became part of riddle’s “friend group”, though tiss was never impressed with riddle. because of her shyness and general lack of social interactions, tiss became very good at observing people, and from the beginning, she felt that there was something very wrong with riddle. she could see the emptiness in him, the lack of any genuine emotions other than a hunger for power, and she saw how easily he manipulated everyone around him- and it terrified her. especially when she started to get on his radar, and not in a good way. throughout the years, she rarely made her opinions known in the group, but the few times she did, it was with a timid show of sympathy for those with muggle blood and the thought that all humans- magical or not- were equal. most people just brushed her off, but not riddle. he noted all of those moments and started to become wary of her, because that unassuming and cowardly exterior of hers hid an incredibly smart mind and an exceptional talent for magic, particularly for creating her own spells. at the start of their seventh year, riddle branded his “friends” with the dark mark. and though tiss had never fully committed to his cause, she knew that she had no choice in the matter and received the mark as well. however, riddle still was not satisfied with her. she was far too friendly to the students with muggle blood, but more than that, he knew that she didn’t trust him as well. he saw the way her quiet, intelligent eyes would watch him, and while he would never admit it, he felt a very slight sliver of fear whenever her eyes were on him. and so, he decided that he needed to get rid of her- permanently. but he couldn’t do it himself, for dumbledore was keeping a very close watch on him during this time. instead, he turned to her own cousins for the job. at this point, selene was like the original bellatrix. utterly in love and obsessed with riddle and willing to do anything for him. helios was also lured in by riddle’s charms and agreed with him on his view of muggles and the sort. when riddle told the twins that they needed to be rid of tiss, that she was a threat to their cause, selene jumped right on board, while helios... did not. you see, the thing with helios is that he is definitely not a good person. like he has no qualms about the murder of muggles and mudbloods, thinks that those with pure blood are superior, and has already committed many little crimes for riddle. but, he is good to tiss. she’s his best friend. he truly does love and care about her more than he does his own sister. and in another life, maybe he wouldn’t have been a death eater, maybe tiss could have talked him out of it, could have made him see that his thinking was wrong... but she didn’t because she wasn’t strong enough in her own beliefs to convince him otherwise. and so helios tried to warn her. tried to give her hints of what riddle was planning, tried to push her away, tried to make riddle forget about her, but he didn’t. and tiss, for all of her intelligence, missed the signs. because she thought that she was safe. she thought that with dumbledore around, riddle wouldn’t dare do anything... and that was her mistake. on the night of may 2, 1945, only a few weeks away from graduating, riddle opened the chamber of secrets, and helios and selene convinced tiss to meet them there. and only shortly after arriving, selene went on a rampage about tiss’ muggle sympathies and how she was a disgrace to the family, and raised her wand to her. now at this point, tiss finally understood what was happening and should have defended herself; however, helios was there. and tiss was so sure that he would stop selene. that he would keep her safe, just as he always had. but she underestimated his devotion to riddle. and he did absolutely nothing, except look away, as selene cast the killing curse. and for tiss, the fact that he did nothing hurt far worse than if he had cast the curse himself. that was a betrayal that will stick with her forever.

after death: now, this is when things get a bit tricky (and i still need to flesh out all the details, so i only know the bare minimum at this point, but i’ll explain what i can). as i said earlier, tiss was a very strong witch and was gifted in the art of creating spells. it’s also important to note that her wand has the tendency to act on its own accord at times, is protective and loyal to its owner, and excels at defensive spells. the basic gist is that when selene cast the killing curse, tiss’ wand, which was on her person at the time, took it upon itself to protect its master; however, there is no spell that can stop the killing curse. so while it could not keep her alive, it chose to protect her soul/spirit, and created a spell so unique and complicated that tiss would not understand the full extent of it until decades later, and even then, she doesn’t understand how her wand possibly created something so complex. anyway, after her death, her body is hid in the chamber and never found. riddle and the twins get away with it scot-free and it’s assumed that she simply ran away. and from that day, tisiphone carrow is never seen again. meanwhile, tiss is living as a ghost, stuck on hogwarts’ grounds. and no one can see her. not people, not animals, not other ghosts. and she exists like this for thirty-one years, all alone, her murder going unknown and unsolved, and all the while, her fear of riddle is replaced by hatred. after all, when one has been killed, what is there to fear? so when we see her again during the marauders’ era, her personality is a bit different. she’s still very much introverted and sucks at social interactions even more so since she hasn’t talked to anyone for decades, but she’s no longer the scared, timid girl she once was. she’s more bold, fearless, and, most of all, vengeful. and that is how our dear fifth year sirius black finds her. a bitter looking girl in her slytherin robes sitting in the room where he’s supposed to serve detention. of course, he can’t help himself and makes some snide remark to her and becomes quite irritated when she ignores him. meanwhile, she doesn’t even look his way, knowing that he’s not talking to her. so imagine her terrible surprise when he steps in front of her, locks eyes with her, and demands her attention. she, rightfully, freaks the eff out and runs out of the room while having a panic attack because holy shit someone just SAW her. sirius, of course, is left incredibly confused, slightly put off (because since when does a girl, even if she’s a slytherin, run from him?) and a bit curious. he spends the next few days keeping an eye out for her, but she keeps her distance and watches him instead, trying to figure what makes this kid different. eventually, they start having actual conversations with him having no clue that she’s, you know, dead. they start to enjoy each other’s company, tiss loving his devil may care attitude, the surprisingly sweet side that he hides, and the fact that he stood up to his family and chose the right side (something that she wishes she had had the courage to do). and sirius loves her surprisingly quick witted humor, her deep kindness (something he never expected from a pureblooded slytherin), and how wickedly smart she is. this goes on for a few weeks before the truth starts to come out. james happens upon, what looks like to him, sirius talking to himself in an empty room. and sirius doesn’t understand how james can’t see tiss sitting right across from him, and it isn’t until tiss vanishes through a wall that sirius puts the pieces together and realizes she’s a ghost. long story short, sirius does some digging and comes to find out the whole truth about tiss’ past. they spend the next couple years at hogwarts becoming even closer, and all the while, tiss begins to learn some new ‘abilities’ and restrictions in this form. eventually, there will come a time when tiss is no longer tethered to hogwarts but to sirius, so when he graduates, she’ll be able to leave the school and go with him, and she’ll help him with ootp business as best as she’s able. (i’m still debating if i want her to able to perform magic in this form or not)

anywho... i think that’s a good overview of her and her story lol i honestly could go on forever, but i think i should stop it here. however if you have any more questions about her, i’d be more than happy to answer them!

~dreamer

#ch: tisiphone carrow #fic: kairos #harry potter oc #oof this was soooo much longer than expected #but it really helped me to flesh out her character more #so thank you so so much for the ask!!

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femalechibiblogger · 4 years

Text

Fran Bow Character Bio (Fran Bow)

Age: 10-11

Occupation: None

Family: Martin Bow (father; deceased), Lucia Bow-Dagenhart (mother; deceased), Grace Dagenhart (aunt)

Likes: Mr. Midnight, her family, playing, drawing, dolls, exploring, animals, helping others, Itward.

Dislikes: Her parents’ death, Mr. Midnight missing, Oswald Asylum, Remor, Dr. Marcel Deern (formerly), murder, betrayal, witchcraft.

Voice Actor: None

Description

Fran Bow is the titular and main protagonist of the horror game: Fran Bow. During the first part of the game, Fran tries to find her cat, Mr. Midnight, and return home to her Aunt Grace after her parents had been murdered. But as she tries to find her way back home...she is haunted by an evil entity for unknown reasons.

Personality

Fran Bow is a nice and polite girl who had a strong bond with her family, as well as her pet cat: Mr. Midnight. Fran enjoys typical childlike activities such as drawing, playing with dolls, tea parties, and reading fairy tales. Fran is quite trusting towards some, but can be wary and suspicious towards some people, such as Dr. Marcel Deern and Remor.

Fran is quite adventurous and brave, due to her determination to find Mr. Midnight and reunite with Aunt Grace. At first, Fran is afraid of the ghosts and other spirits that she sees while on Duotine...but she was able to become brave and no longer feel afraid of them. She is shown to be more scared of losing her loved ones than the paranormal.

Fran is very smart and creative, as she is able to make contraptions out of other items. Fran is quite clever in order to escape, such as spilling coffee on the security guard to escape the asylum, as well as tricking Clara and Mia by making a new potion and spell in order to defeat them.

Fran is able to see and access other worlds. When she takes the drug Duotine, she is able to see spirits and other supernatural beings, which helps her find clues and answers.

While at the asylum, Fran denies that she is insane and that she does not need to be in the asylum. Fran is not very trusting towards the hospital staff, due to them being rude and uncaring towards her and the other child patients. When interacting with the other children at the hospital, Fran plays along with their behavior and delusions, as a lot of them have suffered much mental, physical and emotional harm.

Relationships

Martin and Lucia Bow: Martin and Lucia were Fran’s parents. Fran had a good relationship with her parents, as they were very kind and caring towards her and Mr. Midnight. Fran is the one who found her parents bodies dismembered in their bedroom, which then leads to her being committed to Oswald Asylum. Throughout the game, Fran misses her parents deeply and is greatly traumatized by their murder. Fran becomes greatly upset when she is led to believe that she had killed and dismembered her parents. While Fran is relieved to learn that she did not kill her parents...she was still devastated by their deaths. The reason they were killed, was because they were preventing Dr. Oswald from experimenting on Fran. When Fran was born, Lucia’s twin sister, Grace, was working for Dr. Oswald, and wanted to help him with his experiment. This caused them to cut off communication with Grace in order to protect Fran. But years later, Lucia and Martin had believed that Grace had changed and allowed her to be a part of Fran’s life. Unfortunately, this would lead to their murder. At one point, while on Duotine, the words,"Daddy was not there, Mommy would not care.", was written on the walls of a room in the asylum. It may be that Fran’s parents had a rocky marriage that Fran was unaware of...though this remains unproven, and was never mentioned by Aunt Grace or anyone else.

Grace Dagenhart: Grace Dagenhart is Fran’s aunt and the twin sister of Fran’s mother: Lucia. At first, Grace appeared to be a kind and caring woman who loved Fran and wanted to bring her home from the asylum. Reuniting with her aunt is what gave Fran determination to find her way back home. However, it is later revealed that Grace was actually the one who killed her sister and brother-in-law. The reason she had killed them, was because she was working with Dr. Oswald, who had wanted to experiment on Fran ever since she was an infant. But Martin and Lucia were greatly against it, as Dr. Oswald had conducted twin research on Grace and Lucia when they were children. After becoming a part of Fran’s life and reconciling with her sister...Grace killed Lucia and Martin so Dr. Oswald would be able to experiment on Fran, as her parents were no longer around to prevent this from happening like before. Grace is a manipulative sociopath, who is willing to killer sister and sacrifice her niece for Dr. Oswald.

Mr. Midnight: Mr. Midnight is Fran’s pet cat and best friend. Mr. Midnight was given to Fran by her parents, and the two of them had a strong bond ever since. Mr. Midnight is a sweet and polite cat who cares very much about Fran, and is very protective of her. Mr. Midnight disappeared after Fran’s parents had been murdered, and was eventually kidnapped by the conjoined twins: Clara and Mia. In the first part of the game, Fran is driven by her determination to find Mr. Midnight to escape the asylum. Fran loves Mr. Midnight dearly, and is an important member of her family. Mr. Midnight seems to be able to speak as well as a human, and is able to tell if someone is good or bad. Like Fran, Mr. Midnight misses her parents and Aunt Grace, and wishes to return home as well. However, Aunt Grace attempted to kill Mr. Midnight due to him protecting Fran. In the end, Fran and Mr. Midnight travel to various worlds together.

Itward: Itward is a mysterious entity who has known Fran since she was very young. However, her memories of him faded over time, but Itward continued to watch over her. At first, Fran was skeptical and not very trusting of Itward, especially after learning that Clara and Mia blamed him for them being stitched together. However, Itward revealed that he was not the reason for Clara and Mia’s condition, and that he had tried to help them but it was too late. Itward is a very caring, whimsical, serious and polite person who acts as a guardian towards Fran. Itward is the one who helps Fran and Mr. Midnight return to their world, and even saves Fran from Remor and Dr. Oswald.

Dr. Marcel Deern: Dr. Marcel Deern is Fran’s psychiatrist while she was at Oswald Asylum. At first, Fran does not like Dr. Deern due to him not allowing her to go back home to Aunt Grace, and thinks that he is keeping her prisoner at the asylum. However, when Fran returns to her home, she encounters a worried and relieved Dr. Deern. It was revealed that Dr. Deern had been fired from the asylum, and had been looking for Fran ever since she went missing. Dr. Deern is actually the only doctor at the asylum who actually cares about the patients, and does not approve of Dr. Oswald’s inhumane experiments. Even after being fired from the asylum, Dr. Deern still investigated Dr. Oswald and the asylum to find clues to what was actually going on at the asylum. While working at the hospital, Dr. Deern had just been doing his job and was really trying to help Fran. Dr. Deern does not believe in the supernatural, and believes that Fran was just hallucinating. It is not until he sees Remor and Itward that he begins to believe what Fran had told him. His ultra-reality self reveals that Dr. Deern’s father was a dangerous and abusive man who hurt him and his mother with a kitchen knife. Dr. Deern’s memories of these events are erased and is returned to his world. His whereabouts afterwards are unknown.

Dr. Oswald Harrison: Dr. Oswald Harrison is the founder and head psychiatrist at Oswald Asylum. Dr. Oswald is a highly recognized psychiatrist who specializes in twin studies, as well as experimenting on those who can perceive other realities. While Dr. Oswald is not seen until the final chapter of the game...Dr. Oswald’s picture is often seen and is mentioned by some characters. As shown by the condition of the patients at the asylum, Dr. Oswald believes that lobotomizing or delivering shock therapy to the patients is the best solution to cure them...though it seems to make their conditions worse. He is very cruel and uncaring towards the children at his asylum, as the children are mistreated by some of the nurses, meaning that he may not actually care about their health and wellbeing if it does not benefit him. When Lucia and Grace were children, Dr. Oswald wanted to experiment on them as part of his study on twins (it is unknown of their parents allowed this, or if they were sent to Dr. Oswald for regular check-ups as children). Lucia hated and feared Dr. Oswald, while Grace idolized and was dedicated to him. Dr. Oswald experimented on the twins Clara and Mia by stitching them together to see if their DNA would be different...which ended up killing them and he threw their body down a well near the asylum. Despite being a man of science, Dr. Oswald believed in supernatural phenomenon, as well as the belief in other alternate worlds. Dr. Oswald employed the evil entity, Remor, to psychologically torture Fran and bring him to her so he could experiment on her. This was because Fran’s mind was connected to the ultra reality, which Dr. Oswald wanted to know more about and study as well. Dr. Oswald would even go as far as to commit murder in order for his research to succeed. It is possible that Grace and Dr. Oswald also had a romantic relationship with each other, though it may be that Dr. Oswald was only using Grace for his own benefit, and may have even brainwashed her for years as well.

Remor: Remor is an evil entity who is one of the main antagonists of the game. Remor is a wendigo-like creature who is able to see other realities like Fran, but he cannot be seen in Fran’s world for very long. Throughout the game, Remor tortures Fran psychologically and feeds on her suffering. Remor uses the death of Fran’s parents to taunt her, even going as far as to make her think that she killed her parents. It is shown that some people can see and even communicate with Remor, such as: Fran, Dr. Oswald, Grace, and Philmore. At some point, Remor began to help Dr. Oswald to capture Fran...likely so Remor could feed off of Fran’s suffering. Fran is afraid of Remor, and can become angry with him whenever he taunts her. Remor was born in the Fifth Reality, and is the son of Mother Mabuka, the ruler of the Fifth Reality.

Palontras: Palontas is a doctor who resides in the Second Reality. Palontras is a giant, flying axolotl who heals Fran after she is turned into a tree in the Second Reality. He is a kind and caring doctor, though he thinks of himself as a monster...but Fran sees him as a beautiful creature. Palontras is protective of his home and Fran, and even fought off various monsters to protect them. Palontras can transform into a dark feathered creature when fighting enemies, showing his brave and protective side. Fran loves to fly on Palontras’ back, and even travels with him, Mr. Midnight and Itward through the other realities. Palontras and Itward appear to know each other, meaning that they have probably been friends for quite a long time.

Clara and Mia Buhalmet: Clara and Mia are conjoined twins who reside in a small house at the bottom of a well. Fran first them after she traveled into the well to search for Mr. Midnight. At first, Clara and Mia are polite towards Fran and even offer her food. However, they are shown to see Fran as their new pet, and will not let her have Mr. Midnight back unless she helps them. Clara and Mia were not actually born as conjoined twins, but rather...they were stitched together by Dr. Oswald. The reason for this was because Dr. Oswald wanted to see if their DNA would change if they were conjoined. It was revealed that their parents did not love them and purposely gave them up to Dr. Oswald...but Clara and Mia remained in denial about it for quite some time. It is revealed that Clara and Mia knew Itward, as he was their friend and was the only one who showed love and compassion towards them. However, the twins hated Itward and blamed him for all of their troubles...though why they blame Itward is uncertain. While Fran is in their home, she learns that Clara and Mia actually hate each other, as they were both jealous of each other’s looks. Before they were sewn together, they had actually tried to kill Itward when he tried to help them get along...but ended up stabbing each other instead. The two girls seem to have skills in witchcraft, as they have various recipes for spells and potions, and even a cauldron. They created a spell that could separate them...but the people whom they had perform the spell did not do it right and died. Fran took the advice of a talking frog and changed the spell, which freed Clara and Mia’s souls. According to Dr. Deern, the twins died after being sewn together and their bodies were thrown down a well. Their skeletal remains are shown within their house, which further proves this. It is unknown if Fran had actually interacted with them or not, or if they were a hallucination due to the Duotine or Fran’s mental state. Their ghosts are seen in Itward’s ship, which may be where they reside now.

Philmore Bronstone: Philmore is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Philmore is a young boy who shared the same room with Fran, and was shown to be quite ominous. Philmore appears to know about Remor, as he is able to see him, just like Fran. On Duotine, Philmore’s Shadow talks of Philmore having a mad uncle that he used to play with, and being responsible for the death of a bird. The Shadow could represent Philmore’s uncle, and that he may have been the reason for Philmore being a patient in the asylum. It is implied that Philmore’s mother may have been the one who sent him to the asylum, as she believed that he was sick but Philmore denied that there was something wrong with him.

Adelaida Fugents: Adelaida is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Adelaida is a young girl who is obsessed with drawing, and is often mistreated by the nurses. Adelaida can sometimes harm herself, and that she refers to her blood as ‘red milk’. Fran gives Adelaida bandaids to stop her wrists from bleeding, and is horrified by the abuse that she suffers. Adelaida’s Shadow implies that she was sexually assaulted and nearly killed, but that she was blamed for it. Her parents likely blamed Adelaida herself for being assaulted, and had her committed instead of actually trying to help her.

Victoria: Victoria is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Victoria is a paranoid girl who does not trust people easily, and can also see the Shadows while under the effects of Duotine. Victoria believes that Dr. Deern ate her brain, and that the children will also have their brains eaten if they get too close to her. She believes that Fran is dead, but Fran still shows concern for her due to her behavior. It is hinted by Victoria may have been lobotomized, as she seems to know what goes on downstairs...unlike the other children, who are unaware of the lobotomies. It is unknown as to why she is in the asylum... Her Shadow talks about her being ‘deceived’ and ‘laughed at’, implying that Victoria may have been mistreated by someone she trusted, such as a friend or family member. She may be a patient due to her paranoia, which may imply that she is a paranoid schizophrenic.

Damian Golsman: Damian is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Damian isa young boy who believes himself to be a king, his cane is a sword, and that the other children at the asylum are his ‘royal subjects’. But as Fran talks to him, and calls him a ‘king’, he becomes well-mannered and reasonable. Damian seems to suffer from schizophrenia, which could explain his delusions. His Shadow implies that Damian was molested by a priest, and that his mother didn’t believe him when he told her.

Annie Szhultz: Annie is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Annie is a young girl who is friendly towards Fran, and is always pacing back and forth and full of energy. Annie appears to have ADHD, as she has a problem concentrating and is often walking around. Annie does not have a Shadow when Fran is under effects of Duotine, meaning that she did not suffer from anything traumatic before her arrival at the asylum. Fran mentions that Annie will be released from the asylum soon, which may indicate that her treatment was successful and that she is loved by her parents.

Jason Cogh: Jason is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Jason is quiet and appears to be very distressed. He asks Fran to kill him, either because he does not want to talk to her, or he may be suicidal. For some reason, Jason wears a mask for unknown reasons. He may have a facial deformity of some sort, or he may feel more comfortable wearing the mask. Because Jason is in the room with the more functional children, his treatment may be doing well. Jason’s Shadow does not talk, but it is shown to be hugging him. This could imply that Jason may have been molested by someone close to him...likely by a relative who claimed that their actions were “love” instead of abuse.

Robert Clark: Robert is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Robert is a chubby boy who is quite playful. He appears to be attached to the television for some reason, and seems to perceive himself as an “inventor” of some sorts. It is unknown why he is in the asylum, although Dr. Roman Bates believed that the best solution for his treatment was a lobotomy. Unfortunately...Robert woke-up from failed anesthesia, and it caused a trauma that may explain his odd behavior. Robert’s Shadow says both nice and mean things to Robert, such as he is ‘loved’ while telling him to ‘hate himself’. This may indicate that he is self-loathing and has trust issues. Robert may have been bullied before being sent to the asylum, which may have caused him to become deeply depressed. That could have been the reason for him being in the asylum.

Isabelle: Isabelle is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Isabelle is a young girl who is often shown sleeping...though Fran states that she is actually unconscious. Not much is known about her, except that her treatment requires her to be under heavy sedation. When on Duotine, Isabelle’s Shadow appears to be a man gently stroking her. This may hint that Isabelle was sexually abused by a relative or an adult that she knew. This could have traumatized her greatly, and it may have made her lash out towards others...which would explain why she has to be sedated.

Gladys Hanna: Gladys is one of the nurses at Oswald Asylum. She appears to be the oldest nurser there, and is very cranky and mean towards Fran. She does not seem to actually like the children at the asylum, and can be easily irritated by them. She cares very little for Fran, though it is unknown why. In an older picture, she is shown to have been working at the asylum since she was young, and that she may have known Fran’s aunt and mother when they were being studied by Dr. Oswald. She may have also taken part in the experiment involving the twins: Clara and Mia.

King Ziar: King Ziar is the ruler of the Ishersta, which is in the Second Reality. He is a kind and wise ruler who helps Fran when she ends up in Ishersta, and explains to her why she has taken the form of a tree. Fran takes a liking to him, and even wished to return to his world someday.

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#fran bow #main character #character description #horror #horror game #video games

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seancerpg-archived · 3 years

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THE MEDIUM

Name: Wu Xinyue

Age: 33

Pronouns: she/her

FC: Liu Qian Han

BIOGRAPHY

There was a time once, long ago perhaps, when it was quiet inside her head. A time when dead were dead and the living were living, and the lines between them did not blur. Her childhood was happy, but she was a quiet child, seeking company of those older than her, flocking to her parents and her grandparents, not quite enjoying befriending the children. In fact, while she was open hearted and lively, there was an aggressive side to her that often made others misunderstand her; especially those close in her age. But, she was all right with being alone, or being in company of her family - never once regretting her isolation from everyone else. The bonds she’s shared with her family could have been broken by one thing, and one thing alone, and it was at the beginning of her teenage years that she’d known loss, known death - and it brutalised her, hardened her. Gone was the silence in her head, gone was the lively and vivacious girl, and what became of her was a withdrawn, isolated shell of a person. It was not an easy transition, but death was never meant to be easy, not for the living. The more she struggled with reining in the voices, the more she lost control over it, over herself, and finding a way to vent it had not been easy. At first, she tried shutting them out, building a wall around her mind that no spirit could seep through; but, such defensive mechanisms scarred her more, paranoia and anguish being the price to pay for the moment of sanity - yet, it was in those moments, without the voices, that she had been the most insane - and after a while, she stopped resisting, and in return they stopped keeping her awake at night.

Leaving her hometown was a lot easier than she’d thought it would be - if only it was that easy to leave emotions and memories behind. But, the distance from her birthplace had seemed to have calmed the spirits in her head and once she’s finally put the beloved ones to rest, she’s decided to travel the world, maybe put her skills to good use. She was educated and intelligent, but she couldn’t really settle on a job - and then she heard about spiritism and the occult, and so she blindly stuck a finger on the map and decided to try her luck wherever it landed - in London. She thought that London would be different, but while it certainly wasn’t Beijing, or Istanbul, or Paris, it wasn’t what she’d expected of it to be. Everything she had known about the spirits had come from them, a knowledge coming from the primary source soon made her into something of a celebrity amongst the others who shared her… talents. She was not one of the Masters, wanting to stay away from the limelight, desiring to work alone rather than with others - for a while, they pestered her relentlessly to join them, but after they'd seen how she would not budge, they gave up. But, she was also not one of the Charlatans; she did not do what she did for fame or cheap scares - she did it because she could and because she was damn good at it.

Her prices were never steep, but her services were not cheap either - they were at the middle, ever changing, ever befitting her clientele. She didn’t care if the noblemen came to her house, or if the beggars asked for a fortune; she greeted them and sent them away in an equal manner. Her talents laid more with the dead, with mediumship and banishing of the spirits, but she keeps the true extent of her madness hidden - and so, she focuses more on tarot cards and runes, choosing to read fortunes rather than conjure the departed beloved. It has been five years since she’s come to London, but in all that time she’s always been polite and courteous, but never friendly - mysterious and withdrawn; not to nurture her image, but to shield her heart. Still, she is somewhat friendly with her regular customers, occasionally going as far as to invite them to stay for tea after a reading; but those offers are rare and far in between. She has always felt there was something strange going on with the town she’s settled in, something dark and sinister lurking beneath the surface - one look at the Tower told her everything she needed to know, and the anguish in her head had not left her for a week. Yes, the town was riddled with pain and death, but so was every other place on Earth. After all, it is wise to remember that not all of the departed ones move on - and not all of the spirits are benevolent.

THE GHOST

They always change. Traipsing around until she sends them away, sends them to cross over to another life, or sends them to Diyu where they belong, unworthy of living again until the filth in their soul is washed away. The current one, he helps - the face white as death, with a pale hair cut to his chin and a dark, black velvet attire that resembles a lot like those portraits of old kings, of a time long, long gone. He seems to be sailing from the 14th century, but he doesn’t seem to want to cross over - he doesn’t want to abandon her. We know each other, he whispers, and I am here to guide you, stay with you. And warn of the horrors that come knocking. He never calls her by her name, but nicknames her as the Necromancer - or simply calls her my Lady.

CONNECTIONS

THE FRAUD: It started as an annoyance, and truth be told she would’ve been more than happy if it stayed as an annoyance. She knows they are as false as it gets, the real Charlatan, but since they are younger than her, she’s… started to feel a little protective of them, sometimes taking on a role of an involuntary mentor, veiling it as a dare. They are young and wild, vivacious and proud, and often they remind her of her; of who she’d once been, before death claimed her. She has to admit that once annoyance turned to exasperation, she’s found that she rather enjoys their company. They are the one of the rare ones she ever truly bothers to invite for tea, or ever really bothers to ask if they’re doing okay.

THE WAIF: They’ve known each other for a short while, but she’s pretty fond of them. Perhaps, if she would let herself feel vulnerable, she’ll admit that she regards the other as something of a friend. With the darkness that settled over London, she is terribly worried about them, given how the victims were of the same profession. She often offers them to work with her, whether it is a measly task such as brewing a pot of tea, or helping her scrub wax off her table for an additional few coins - anything to make sure her friend remains safe, especially if she knows they would have to return to the brothel at night, when the hour is dark and the streets are overflowing with monsters - and monsters made of flesh and bone are worse than any ethereal spirit.

THE PEELER: He’s the newest acquaintance and his eagerness to advance is quite amusing to her. But, she sees the wariness in his eyes, sees the horror that marred his innocent soul and sees how the fear begins to eat at him. He was the one who found the most recent victim and she knows it was a sight that would never stop haunting him. She knows he’s visiting her for a routine check, the questions about whether or not she’s ever been in contact with a dubious person, but as of late his offer turned more tempting - and strange. She’s still uncertain whether to accept it or decline it, but she does like him well enough to attempt to help him - if only to soothe his fears.

THE WIDOW: They’ve known each other since her husband has died. The grieving widow held up a lot better than the society of London had liked, and so tales of her questionable morale and the alleged “poisoning” of her husband started to circulate. She rolls her eyes to the rumours, and she’s very impressed to see the widow feels exactly the same. They’ve struck a lazy, easy friendship that started with a séance and ended with a glass of gin and shared tales of life, happiness, woe and death; and in her, she’s found something of a kindred spirit.

THE MEDIUM IS PLAYED BY ADMIN EVA

#the medium #taken #all

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marzaid · 4 years

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Could you imagine if after Lan Wangji visits the Burial Mounds he hoes straight to Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren and is like “look I know you don’t trust Wei Ying but you are coming with me back to the Burial Mounds.” So they take a family trip to the Burial Mounds, unexpectedly, and are greeted by Wen Ning, the Ghost General, who seems harmless. They ask to speak with We Wuxian, who is very anxious because he might trust Lan Wangji but he isn’t sure about the rest of his family. The Lans find how they’re just trying to farm and make do with what they have.

Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren are very confused because they were told by a Jin Guangshan that Wei Wuxian was forming an evil army but apparently he picked up fatherhood and farming instead? A-Yuan calls Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren uncle and great uncle respectively because he just assumes that they’re family. Lan Xichen takes it in stride because honestly A-Yuan is the most adorable child and I headcanon that Lan Xichen adores children. Lan Qiren is conflicted because on one hand this child is adorable and he probably secretly likes kids but on the other this child is apparently Wei Wuxian’s??

Anyway so the Lans all collectively lose their shit and go to Jiang Cheng because they want to know if he was aware of this, which he was but he had no power to take care of his brother. Lan Xichen is like “hmmm I will call my sworn brothers here” and Jiang Cheng is having a hard time because Jiang Yanli’s wedding is probably in a day or so so he’s STRESSED. They agree to let Jiang Yanli get married first even because trying to clear Wei Wuxian’s name will be a long arduous process that might delay their wedding. Plus the marriage will give them another Jin to persuade. So they get married and the Jiang siblings tell Wei Wuxian the plan.

About a week or so after the wedding everyone is called to Lotus Pier and the situation is explained. Nie Mingjue refuses to believe without seeing it first, so suddenly there are group tours of the Burial Mounds. Wei Wuxian and the Wens are tired and confused and they just want to live in peace maybe find a better place to reside that doesn’t have resentful energy and dead bodies but they’ll take what they’re given. Nie Mingjue might have hated the Wens but he’s a fair man (y’all can fight me on this one he is fair and kind fuck you), so he also backs the campaign to bring justice because he doesn’t believe in involving civilians in the fight. He also has a long conversation with Wen Qing because he wanted to understand why she never came forward if she didn’t agree with her uncle and cousins and learns that her younger brother’s life was what she was trying to protect. He thinks of Nie Huaisang and understands immediately as he would do anything to protect his brother as well.

Jin Zixuan and Jin Guangyao also go on one of the tours of the Burial Mounds and their reactions are very different. Jin Zixuan is horrified are the implications of what his family has done and vows as heir apparent to the Jin sect to do something about it. His father refuses to go, no surprise there, but Madam Jin and some of the elders go on one and they are equally as horrified, vowing to help in whatever way they can. Jin Guangyao, on the other hand, sees his plan falling apart and is freaking out. If everyone sides with Wei Wuxian and the Wens then he, Jin Guangyao, won’t be able to use him as a scapegoat and a means to help himself rise to power. He tries to frame Wei Wuxian by setting out traps around the Burial Mounds for people coming in on tours. The problem is that they catch some innocent civilians instead and Wei Wuxian is furious threatening to put up a barrier to stop anyone from coming in at all.

The other issue for Jin Guangyao was that he had promised Jin Guangshan that he would get the Yin Tiger Seal but was unable to convince anyone that the chief cultivator should have it. One of the agreements between Wei Wuxian and everyone else was that he would give half the seal to the Lan and the other half to the Nie. This way they could have it destroyed publicly. He originally wanted to hand it over to Jiang Cheng but other cultivators especially from smaller sects were wary of this and thought that the Jiang would use it to take over. So the Lan and Nie split it since they are considered the most fair of the major sects.

The Yin Tiger Seal is destroyed and the crimes of Jin Guangshan and crew are revealed. The rest of the sects, especially the smaller ones, want Jin Guangshan to step down both as chief cultivator and sect leader but he refuses. Even within the Jin sect there’s a rift. Half the sect wants him to step down and the other half support him for various reasons. The half that want him to step down rally behind Jin Zixuan and nominate him as their sect leader refusing to acknowledge Jin Guangshan. They work together with the other sects to rectify the wrongs their sect committed. However, there’s the part of the sect that still supports Jin Guangshan and they won’t go down without a fight.

Surprisingly, there are people from other sects that also rally behind Jin Guangshan and the remnants of his sect that stayed with him. They form an army hellbent on taking down Wei Wuxian and the rest of the Wen and anyone that gets in their way. Jin Guangyao, who has been vying for his fathers approval his entire life, stays by his fathers side despite the evidence and knowing that it’s wrong. He tries to convince Lan Xichen of this but is unsuccessful. The trust and affection he built up from Lan Xichen is gone and maybe he’s devastated but he convinces himself that once he has his fathers approval and then once he is chief cultivator and the most powerful that Lan Xichen will come crawling back. He won’t but Jin Guangyao keeps trying to convince himself otherwise.

A battle at the Burial Mounds ensues and Wei Wuxian is only just able to ensure that the Wens are taken to safety. The other sects back Wei Wuxian and there is another long, exhausting series of bloody battles just like those of the Sunshot campaign. Wei Wuxian uses resentful energy as best as he can but at some point realizes that he’s been regrowing a golden core (this is a thing in my mind let me dream). He uses a combination of spiritual and resentful energy and teaches Jiang Cheng, Jiang Yanli, and the rest of the Jiangi how to do it. They don’t have to use it to the extent that he used to but they still understand how to control it when needed (new Jiang technique besides what Jiang Cheng eventually develops too).

Jin Guangshan falls and his supporters lose. Some of them abandon him as they start seeing his side losing the war, others abandon him right after his death. There are still those who are extremely loyal to Jin Guangshan even after the man’s death but they become a small minority. Maybe they for, their own sect under Jin Guangyao. He can’t take the Jin name anymore because Jin Zixuan is still alive and rightfully claims that name. Maybe he goes back to Meng Yao, who knows, but he is still the face of that small group that want justice for their cause even if their cause means death to innocent people.

After the war is finally through, the position of chief cultivator is abolished, as none of the sects like the idea of one man having that much power. They saw it with Wen Ruohan, with Jin a Guangshan, and arguably with Wei Wuxian. They opt for a democratic panel where representatives from each sect regardless of their size have regular discussions to sort out problems arise. These discussions are not set in one spot and regularly move so that each sect regardless of size takes a turn at hosting everyone.

Wei Wuxian is reinstated as head disciple and right hand man of Jiang though if anyone asks Jiang Cheng he stubbornly says that it was a temporary hiatus. The rest of the Wen settle in Yunmeng because they liked being close to We Wuxian as they see him and now by extension the Jiang as their family. Uncle Four opens the best liquor shop in all of Yunmeng that has people from all over coming to it for a try of all his different brews. Wen Qing and Wen Ning because the official doctors of the Jiang but also regularly take people from anywhere and occasionally travel if needed. Granny and A-Yuan live in Lotus Pier with Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng and Granny becomes everyone’s Granny. She cares for the young disciples and also always makes sure that Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng are taking care of themselves. How can they deny her anything anyway? Are you going to disappoint Granny? Plus she has Jiang Yanli on speed dial and they would die rather than make their big sister sad. A-Yuan becomes a new disciple of the Jiang.

It’s decided at one of the discussion conferences that it would be good for young disciples as they near adulthood to learn from other sects. Not necessarily all their techniques but to meet new people gain more knowledge. Some sects have occasional workshops while some of the bigger sects invite disciples to have an extended stay. A-Yuan, who’s already best friends with His cousin Jin Ling at this point, becomes good friends with the other juniors his age as well, Lan Jingyi and Ouyang Zizhen. The four of them form an unbreakable group.

The Jiang under Jiang Cheng grow exponentially because he takes in people that remind him of Wei Wuxian. People in bad situations and in bad spots and gives them a safe haven. There’s a running joke among the disciples to see which brother, Jiang Cheng or Wei Wuxian, adopts more kids to take care of.

Somewhere along the way Wangxian probably elopes. Maybe right in the middle of the war. Jiang Cheng loses his shit because he’s been planning Wei Wuxian’s wedding since he moved to Lotus Pier when they were kids. So they have a ceremony when things settled down that neither Wei Wuxian nor Lan Wangji could say no to because their respective brothers had been so excited at the prospect of a wedding.

In the end, things are finally peaceful. Occasionally, some tries to rise up and gain power and hurt others but they’ve got a pretty good handle on things.

Everyone lives and is happy. The end.

#The Untamed #Mo Dao Zu Shi #wei wuxian #lan wangji #jiang cheng #lan xichen #lan qiren #jiang yanli #nie mingjue #wangxian #wei ying #lan zhan #lan huan #sometimes i have a lot of feelings that center around the fact that i want my faves to luve and be happy

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fuzziemutt · 4 years

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can u tell us some stuff abt Michael, Elizabeth, and Chris?? 👀

Boy howdy i sure can !

Michael: (nickname Mike/Mikey)

He's the 2nd oldest of the bunch ! He was adopted around i think the age of 2 I'm placing it ? Either way, growing up he was quite the bully ! He especially was often quite mean to Chris and it was mostly because he didn't know when to stop and would often take things too far even if by accident which is how he got Chris killed in 83. After the event he became much less rowdy especially as his friends were kinda scared of him so he spent more time with will (since will was mostly tinkering with things in the basement or being a ghost in the home). Will didn't start blaming Mike for what happened until after he left. However, after Henry skadoodled with him he started to go back into his habits of pushing people too far. While at first he was confused why Henry took them away from his dad with only drunken murmers of how will did awful things as an answer, he soon started to resent Henry because he clearly remembered all the times Henry would yell at Will for nothing and believes Henry is lying. This started to foster a bit of a major problem with authority, trust and anger issues as he started to act out to get Henry's attention in any sense. By high school he even joined a school gang and gained a reputation for being quite cruel to people (some would even rumor that he killed a guy once but he never did). He was pretty smart and kept the grades he just was never at school and got into a lot of disciplinary issues. He finally left Henry soon after graduation to go search for his dad after they had one final explosive argument over everything that happened and how Hen only cared about Charlie so he grabbed his stuff and left. He found his own apartment and got some part times to help pay and even would go to college classes at night.

While he still was quite a dicc, he actually started taking steps to try and better himself as he saw this move away as a way to restart and he didn't want to end up like his papa. He even starts going to therapy; while he still has his slip ups and explosive episodes still, he at least tries to be a decent guy if he can.

He looks weirdly quite similar to willy besides certain key features that clearly set them apart, and him and will later joke that he's will's son if will was ever straight

Elizabeth: (nickname eli or lizzie)

She was the 2nd death to occur and is Chris' twin sister. They were adopted at a young age as well and they're the youngest of the bunch. Eli is the younger of the two twins but she likes to act like the older. She's very outgoing and rambunctious ! She's not quite mischief as say charlie or michael but she does sometimes like to pull a joke on someone. She's very blunt and pretty stubborn too especially when it comes to something she wants. She always seems to know what's on Chris' mind and would fight anyone for her brother. After Chris' death, she became quite upset with Michael and wouldn't be in the same room as him instead opting to play in her room. Will tried to play with her the most during the time before she died and she was the only one he could get a bit of his old enthusiasm for.

She died around the age of 10 and while she successfully bonded with baby she also melded with her ai so they essentially became one. As baby, she has a hard time remembering those prior which is how she mistaken michael for willy but still wasn't quite sure who he was just that he was important and familiar.

Had she grown up properly she'd have most likely became a butch lesbian and quite the activist

Chris: (nickname goldey (because he carried his golden fredbear plush everywhere with him))

Chris obviously is the older half of Eli ! He's also Will's favorite child and would often sit in his lap during family time. He was selectively mute so he had a hard time connecting with other kids. Will and Henry started trying to learn finger spelling and teach it to Chris to try and help him for in public talk. Most of the time he would speak with his sister and his dads in private but he wouldn't speak to Michael which would annoy him. He'd also get scared and overwhelmed easily so it became difficult to watch him when the restaurant started getting popular but Eli had a knack for calming him down. He always clung to his dads in public if he could and many would get onto will and hen for still carrying around their 8 year old so much but they would always shut those people down.

He died in the hospital rather than right as the bite occured.

As golden freddy, his soul isn't as persistent as eli's to really push the suit to move much and he mostly just hides out of fear. He doesn't remember much of the prior just to be wary of foxy/red and that purple and orange are good, safe colors.

Had he been able to grow up properly he would have learned asl and learned to cope a bit better with his anxiety. He would still be selectively mute which is okay but he wouldn't be as terrified all the time (He'd grow to hate foxy tho).

He'd also probs be cis but most likely a demiromantic ace

Lots of ramblings infos in this one ! Let me know if you need anything cleared up !

#i speak #fnaf #five nights at freddy's #fnaf michael afton #michael afton #fnaf elizabeth afton #elizabeth afton #fnaf chris afton #chris afton #crying child #reunion au #child death mention #child death tw #ask to tag #long post

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martisxladyshura · 4 years

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Midnight Nuptials: A Martis x Lady Shura Halloween Couple Fan Concept (Art + Alternate Universe Lore)

Happy Halloween everyone!

I wanted to do something special for the occasion so, with the help of some amazing artists, we made a Devil Groom and Spider Ghost Bride fan skin for Martis and Lady Shura complete with an alternate universe lore 👻

Please enjoy and stay spoopy!

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MIDNIGHT NUPTIALS : An alternate universe skin lore

Cast: Martis, Lady Shura (Eleusia, her real name), Vexana, Leomord (minor but important role), Faramis (minor role)

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I. The Mansion on Devil's Creek

Under the ashened sky of Hallow’s Town, on top of a small hill at the edge of the settlement, beyond the high wrought iron gates stands an old antebellum mansion. This formidable edifice was once owned by Lord Martis, a wealthy nobleman known for his ruthless conquests and draconian governance. Most of the town is made up of lands he acquired either through coin or blood, making him the town’s true founder. However, his name remains unsung for he was more feared than respected. While he was fair in his judgments and never harmed the innocent, he emanated an air of coldness and he was horrifically cruel to those who dared stand in his way. This reputation left him in solitude. Outside of his conquests, he spent most of his time in the cold, darkened halls of his home, tended only by servants.

No one really knows what became of him. Legend has it that in his loneliness, he went mad and tried to harness energy from the depths of the underworld to acquire more power. After a particularly harsh, stormy night, he and everyone in his household simply disappeared and the misty brook that ran across the hill turned red. To this day, the waters remain a deep crimson for reasons unknown. No one is brave enough to venture further up the hills and poke around to investigate this mystery. The towns folks, being incredibly superstitious, took it as a mark of the devil. Whether it was a confirmation of the ritual’s success or a warning to anyone who dared try the same foolish endeavor is uncertain. Nevertheless, this is how the whole area came to be known as the Devil’s Creek.

Years passed yet the mansion and its owner’s reputation live on as accounts of mysterious occurrences persist. The Mad Lord had eccentric taste; he decorated his home with horrific sculptures and paintings of monstrous beasts that are sure to unnerve the faint of heart. But those are nothing compared to the strange tales and tragedies that befell anyone who dared set foot in his home. The towns folks would warn newcomers not to stray near the place, speaking ominously that the Mad Lord still held dominion over the area.

Thus, you can imagine everyone’s disbelief when a stream of magnificent black carriages entered the town and went straight up the mansion. Word quickly spread that the place was purchased by a widow from one of the more prominent cities. The towns folks stirred, curious to know who are the naive, poor souls who bought the cursed land.

II. The New Mistress of the Mansion

The first to step out of the carriage was a dashing but sombre looking young bachelor named Leomord. Upon setting foot on the property, he held out a hand while bowing his head to assist his mistress, the Countess Vexana, in getting off the carriage. She was followed by the last member of this household, her step-daughter Eleusia.

The countess could not hide her disgust and disappointment upon seeing the cold, damp, depressing sight around her. The manor felt more like a prison than a home, paling in comparison to the aristocratic villa she bequeathed from her late husband, Eleusia’s father. Unfortunately, due to her lavish spending and underhanded dealings, her palatial home was seized by authorities and she had to escape to this dreadful town. With her dwindling fortune, the old mansion was the best they could afford to keep up appearances.

The carriages were not even hers! They belong to Lord Faramis, a marquess who pitied and secretly had affections for the countess. He would have courted her but the strange details regarding her late husband’s untimely death made him suspicious of the widow’s propriety. Still, he could not resist her when she came to his doorstep, pleading for help.

The marquess’ men, however, were less empathetic of the family and the sense of dread they felt upon entering the hill was growing. The air was heavy. Everything was eerily quiet and still despite the woodlands surrounding the manor. They hastily and recklessly dropped the family’s baggage then set off, not even looking back. The countess screeched at this blatant display of disrespect, vowing vengeance once she had regained her status.

Vexana had many plans to regain her fortune, one of which included her step-daughter. The countess despised Eleusia with unbridled passion for the young maiden grew more beautiful each day while she was slowly becoming nothing more than a husk of her former glory. But the girl was necessary in securing the inheritance and gaining sympathy when her father died. She would prove useful again. If Vexana could find a wealthy nobleman to marry her step-daughter, the countess would be rid of the girl and the large dowry she planned to demand would take her back to the lavish world of the elite.

For now, they must settle in the old mansion. Since they could not afford servants and not wanting to be seen with her step-daughter as she secretly feared being compared to the young girl, Vexana left Eleusia to do all the chores while she and Leomord went about their schemes.

III. Madness and Longing

Eleusia obediently took to the task of cleaning up the mansion, a nearly impossible feat as time has not been kind to the old facade. She soon found solace among the beasts despite her initial trepidation. Forbidden to befriend anyone lest passions give way to foolishness, the young girl began speaking to the inanimate creatures around her. She would coo and sing as she wiped the dust off them that one would think she has lost her mind if one saw her. There was no way to return the mansion to its former glory, but little by little, Eleusia breathe a bit of life into its gloomy halls.

Her biggest challenge came in the form of the fallen and ripped painting of the mansion’s previous owner, which she found lying face down on the dusty floor a few feet from the fire place of the mansion’s great hall. It was the only portrait she found with a human figure, though the Lord’s expression gave off an equally, if not more menacing air compared to the other works of art in the house.

Parts of the painting were stained and faded, but enough detail was left for her to admire the lord’s features in spite his uninviting gaze. Countess Vexana told her to get rid of it but instead, Eleusia took it to her room and spent her nights trying to sew it back together while talking to it like a friend. She smiled sweetly after finally finishing it one night, though she apologized to the lord for her amateur patch work. It was the best she could do with the common wares she had, after all! She set the painting on the wall across her bed, making it the last thing she saw before falling asleep and the first thing she’d lay her eyes upon most mornings. It quietly observed her as she stitched and weaved other items throughout the night while humming songs her father used to sing to her.

The towns folks admired her beauty from afar but were wary of her presence as they believed she carried the curse of the mansion with her like a plague. No matter how hard she tried to be friendly when she went about the market, none would open their hearts to her. The most she got were concerned, vague warnings about the hauntings in the mansion, which she took graciously but dismissed immediately from her mind.

Indeed, the paintings and sculptures’ eyes feel like they were following her as she went about her chores. The painting of Lord Martis had an especially piercing gaze that she often found herself blushing while undressing in her quarters. Still, they were just works of art, nothing more.

She would also have vivid dreams that slipped from her upon awakening, leaving her with a strange longing. But all this she attributed to loneliness and exhaustion. There was nothing to fear about the house. In fact, she found herself to be growing very fond of it and its silent residents.

What she did fear was her step-mother’s wrath. Her efforts were never enough for Countess Vexana. Everyday, the countess would complain of uncomfortable sleep and nightmares, which she blamed on her step-daughter’s lousy housekeeping: the sheets were heavy and rough, their clothes smelled, the food was under-cooked and tasted raw, and there were insects everywhere! Eleusia tried her best to remedy the problems, but could never find the faults her step-mother complained about.

It did not help that Countess Vexana’s health was declining: her skin grew pale, her hair thinned and she lost a lot of weight, making the shadows on her face more prominent. The worse she looked, the more bitter and fearful she grew of her step-daughter, believing the girl was poisoning and playing tricks on her. Alas! She could not send the wretched child away lest she gave up the possibility of great fortune. Worse still, whenever Vexana lashed out at the young girl, the accusing eyes of the beasts around them felt like they could see through the countess’ soul, see her secrets, her sins.

The countess needed to get rid of the girl soon. She needed to get out of this dreadful place before she completely loses her mind.

IV. Till Death Do Us Part

One day, Countess Vexana returned to the mansion much earlier than usual and in an incredibly cheery mood. She announced that a very important guest would be joining them for dinner! She commanded Leomord to set the table, take out their finest wares, cook the best meal and make the place as welcoming as possible. Meanwhile, she told Eleusia to dress up and look her best, even offering to lend her step-daughter some of her jewelry.

By dusk, a wealthy Earl from a neighboring town arrived. From the moment they met and until he left, Eleusia felt uncomfortable around their guest who was twice her senior. She could not meet his gaze, but she felt his eyes wandering through every inch of her body. She breathed a deep sigh of relief when he left, hoping that was the last she would see her step-mother’s new acquaintance.

Much to Eleusia’s dismay, the Earl began to visit frequently, showering her with gifts she did not want but could not turn down lest she displeased her step-mother. Luckily, their meetings were shorter than the usual courtship. The Earl felt unnerved being in the mansion and the town was bleak with little to offer in terms of amusement. He tried to invite the young girl to his homeland but the countess refused to let her step-daughter go without her.

Eleusia would cry in the evening, relaying unpleasant days she was forced to spend with the old man to the painting of the lord in her room. She would fall asleep on her tear-soaked pillow, soothed only by a cold breeze that gently brushed her cheek and the nape of her neck.

The young girl surrendered all the jewelry and precious stones she received to her step-mother as they lightened the countess’ mood. Vexana meant to prolong the courtship, plotting to squeeze as much as she could from the Earl while looking for wealthier prospects for her step-daughter. But her nightmares worsened since the day the Earl step foot in the mansion, so much so that the delights from receiving new trinkets paled to the dread that constantly filled her heart and mind.

In just a few weeks, Eleusia’s worst fears came to pass: the countess finally agreed to give her step-daughter’s hand in marriage to the Earl, who was eager to have such a young, beautiful wife. Eleusia begged her step-mother to take back her word, but the countess would hear none of it and even accused her step-daughter of ungratefulness.

The Earl agreed to take in all three members of the household to his expansive manor where they can live in complete extravagance. Ecstatic to be rid of the hideous mansion, Countess Vexana thrashed the place a day before their departure to the new town. Eleusia cried helplessly as her step-mother desecrated the house and the silent friends she has grown to love.

The following day, the countess practically dragged her step-daughter to their new hometown, scolding her the whole way through. Arriving at the temporary lodging the Earl had set up for them, the countess locked her step-daughter in a room then instructed her faithful servant to keep an eye on the girl until her wedding day. For seven days and six nights, Leomord heard nothing but crying and lamentations from behind the door he guarded. Despite his loyalty to his countess, the young lady had always been kind to him and his steed. Her suffering pierced a hole in his heart that grew until the dreaded day arrived.

Several maids were sent to prepare Eleusia for the lavish nuptials. The girls giggled as they told the despondent bride of the impressive guest list and the magnificent decors that awaited her.

The company brought with them an elegant wedding dress that fit her form like a glove. After all their preparations, everyone was in awe of the young bride and wished her well as they exited the room. Eleusia could barely wait for the door to close before she fell to the floor in tears, lamenting her last few moments as an unmarried woman.

A few moments later, Leomord entered the room. She thought he had come to accompany her to the church, to her chains. But he told her to hastily grab a cloak and quietly follow him. He could no longer stand her torment and was determined to free her from a lifetime of regrets, regardless of the cost.

He led her to the stables and they rode his steed until they reached the bridge leading out of the town. Leomord got off his horse and told Eleusia to ride as far away as she could. Eleusia begged for him to come with her, but he was resigned to his fate for betraying his mistress. He was doomed the day he swore his loyalty to the countess for he has done dishonorable deeds in her name. He hoped with this act, he would be redeemed in the next life.

Despite the dangers, Eleusia could only think of one safe haven. She knew they would look for her in the mansion but it did not matter. If all was to end, she wanted to be with the only thing she loved and cared for.

A thick fog had set in when she arrived in Hallow’s Town. Her cloak fell off mid way the journey, making her look ghostly through the mist that some folks nearly had a heart attack as she passed. Curious gazes followed her as she went straight up Devil’s Creek and into the mansion.

By nightfall, the streets shook from the thunderous galloping of horses as the countess, the Earl and his men hastily rode up the mansion, their fury palpable. Vexana’s quiet servant was missing from the troupe.

None of the towns folks saw anyone who went up the mansion that day come back down.

The people wanted to believe that the whole company quietly left after taking back the girl. They simply did not see them exit the town for the fog had become unbelievably thick that night. They stuck to that story whenever outsiders inquired of the countess, the Earl and his mens’ whereabouts

But no one could explain the blood curling screeches that pierced through that quiet, fateful night. Nor could they explain how the color of the creek from the hill became a deeper shade of red since the day after the strange events.

Not wanting to linger at the thoughts any longer lest they incur any more misfortune, they let the whole matter rest. Soon, the investigations stopped and no incident occurred for months.

One night, a man entered the tavern looking very troubled. After a few hard drinks, he shared his strange tale. All merriment, singing and squabbles stopped when the words “Devil’s Creek” spilled from the man’s lips. You could hear a pin drop at the silence that overtook the room. Everyone gathered around him to listen.

His eldest son came running home that afternoon looking extremely distressed. The young man and his friends dared his younger brother to go up Devil’s Creek. They planned to catch and scare him in the area near the foot of the hill, but he disappeared. Several hours had passed and they still couldn’t find him.

The man quickly ran up the hill searching for his son. Reaching the wrought iron gates, his legs grew weak and he fell to his knees when he saw his son’s hat on the pavement in front of the mansion.

Mustering all his courage, he went inside, calling out to his son louder and more urgently, his heart racing with every moment spent in these cursed walls.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the young child answer back. He followed the voice, which led him to the mansion’s great hall.

The father’s smile disappeared when his son told him that he had gotten lost, but a beautiful lady in white lead him to the mansion. When the man asked who it was, the child pointed up the wall.

There, on top of the fireplace, surrounded by spiders weaving webs around it was a great portrait, clumsily stitched back together. The Lord of the Mansion gazed down upon the man and his son with coldness.

And peering through the hall with melancholy eyes while clinging on to the arm of Lord Martis was the countess’ step-daughter, looking resplendent in her wedding dress.

#martis #lady shura #mlbbmartis #martismlbb #mobile legends fanart #mlbb fanart #fanart #mlbb #mobile legends #halloween #mlbbconceptskin #couple #otp #ghost bride #devil groom #anime #manga

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erekiosuncreativeideas · 4 years

Text

Reliving An Old Nightmare - Chapter 7

<= Chapter 6

Summary : Snatcher makes poor life choices. And also meets other familiar faces! Also available on AO3 : https://archiveofourown.org/works/22337299/chapters/54378076

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Chapter 7:

Snatcher’s plan to leave without meeting his parents was really simple. He had hidden the kid’s drawing under the mattress before going to bed, not wanting anyone to find it. And then, as soon as he would wake up, he would get up, ignore the pain in his legs and go to the village square. Of course, he would need to be discreet, to avoid being seen by any servant… It was a flawless plan! Or he thought so, though he had forgotten a very important detail: it entirely depended on the obedience of his body in order to wake up on time.

Snatcher didn’t even regard it as a threat to his strategy. Why would he? It was just an organic thing! A meaty body that -mostly- followed his commands! He had no doubt this cursed fleshy vessel would wake him up when it was the time to get his plan into motion.

The ghost had completely underestimated Life’s enormous hatred for his existence.

What woke him up was not his own mind acting like an alarm clock as it should have, but a touch on his shoulder. The shade’s eyes opened instantly as a feeling of terror took hold of him. He suddenly felt very vulnerable: he was in a fragile body, absolutely defenceless against any type of danger, in a groggy state that made him even more exposed. He had every reason in the world to feel threatened! However, when he jumped in his bed, getting away from the contact as fast as he could, his eyes suddenly met Simeon’s surprised ones.

Snatcher stayed motionless for a few seconds, trying to understand what was happening, still dazed by his sudden awakening.

-“Oh my, are you alright? I didn’t mean to frighten you this much, my Prince.” The butler’s voice cut his thoughts short.

“Wh-what?” was the first coherent thought forming in his mind, as he started to realize what had occurred: he was late. His eyes drifted to the window: it was sunny outside and a bright light passed through the glass. His eyes opened wide: he had been supposed to wake up way earlier!

-“Wai- What time is it?” He asked, too troubled to think straight. Oblivious to what was going on in his mind, the butler simply smiled at him even more:

-“Well, it is quarter to ten.” The man answered calmly before continuing: “As you were badly injured, I thought you might want to rest a little more than usual, so I let you sleep.”

This wasn’t good. This clearly wasn’t good. He was late! The hat-wearing brat hadn’t specified a particular hour of the day for them to meet, yet he had the feeling that waiting wasn’t such a good idea. But making the child wait wasn’t what bothered him the most… No, it was something far more disturbing.

As if Fate had decided to team up with Life in order to make him suffer, Simeon started to talk again, addressing the topic the shade wanted to avoid at all cost:

-“I know this might be a little sudden, my Prince, but your parents are waiting in the living room.” Snatcher felt like his heart had completely stopped beating at those awful words, his face turning pale as the butler continued: “Of course, take all the time you need to prepare yourself. Let me pick up some clothes for you.”

Snatcher was only able to nod silently, too shocked to answer. His plan had been absolutely destroyed. Of course, his body would mess things up! Again! This was changing everything. Not only was he forced to meet his parents again, of all people… But it also delayed all of his intentions. At first, he had planned to leave before anyone got up, but now… It was too late for that. People would see him outside, even if he disguised himself. There were too many risks at this hour of the day… The manor teemed with servants, all of them knowing his physical condition by now. No one would ever let him go outside if he was ever spotted out of his bed. And if he bumped into Vanessa instead of them… He simply couldn’t imagine how she would react.

Thinking about her, Snatcher couldn’t help but be extremely worried. She had had a very peculiar reaction the day before, one the ghost had never seen while he was alive. Or dead, for that matter. However, the strangest thing was that she hadn’t come back to see him again after that. The shade had expected to see her enter his bedroom, at least to wish him a good night, but she hadn’t. Of course, Snatcher had been quite relieved not to see her that night, though now it was starting to trouble him the more he thought about it.

Vanessa had always been very… Clingy, to say the least. Yet, not only did she stayed away from him the previous evening, but she hadn’t been the one to wake him up either. That sudden change in her behaviour… Was very unusual and it certainly wasn’t reassuring the shade at all.

The latter was brought back to reality as the butler put several pieces of clothes on his bed:

-“There, my Prince. I took out a few from your usual ones, but please tell me if you want me to pick something else.

-No, it’s… It’s alright, thank you.” He managed to say, almost mindlessly, as he couldn’t help but focus on an issue much more urgent than his wardrobe.

He had quickly thought about leaving without concerning himself with precautions. After all, if everything would go back to how it was before, why being careful? It would all be erased in the end! Or he thought so since he didn’t know much about time travel in itself. But if the kid was waiting for him in the village square, it could only mean she had the means to take him back to the present… Right?

Uncertainty was one of the reasons which stopped him from going out inconsiderately. What if the hat-wearing brat had nothing to help him? He knew the kid was persistent, yes, but there was no guarantee she would be able to reverse everything. She had only drawn him a picture! It was hard to draw conclusions from a poorly made message! He couldn’t be sure until he really met her in person.

The other reasons… Well, they mostly revolved around Vanessa and especially her reactions. She did freeze an entire town just for a ludicrous misunderstanding… But if everything was to be reversed, why did he care?

The realization took him by surprise and he found himself unable to answer it.

“I… Why?” He wondered as a feeling of dismay grew inside of him. All these people had perished once! He had died too! Why did he care if they died again?

-“My Prince?” Simeon’s voice prevented him from thinking more about it and he couldn’t help but feel grateful for his interruption. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to think about it… He just had more important things on his mind and he couldn’t take more time to think about them when he had a whole strategy to reorganize.

-“Yea- Yes?” He corrected himself. Hundreds of years really did change him. He wasn’t a Prince anymore and hadn’t been for a very long time. Snatcher was convinced he was right to correct himself when a look of confusion crossed the butler’s face.

Simeon was much more observant than he first thought… If he had to be very cautious around Vanessa, it now also applied to the man, apparently. If the shade was found out… It would make his position more complicated than it already was. Considering how loyal Simeon was to the royal family… Taking risks with him was out of the question.

-“I’m sorry, I’m just…” He shut his eyes and held up his hand in an apology gesture, as he started to lie: “I think I’m still tired.”

His excuse seemed to work, as the butler’s face became amicable once again.

“That was close…” Thought Snatcher.

-“Don’t worry, it is perfectly understandable after what you have been through.”

Snatcher let out a smile in answer, as his eyes drifted to the blankets, as he considered his options.

He could always try to convince Simeon he was feeling too sick to see anyone, though he wasn’t sure it would work, as the older man was starting to become wary of him. The ghost could also take the risk of leaving without caring about the consequences, yet he couldn’t help but feel unsure about the idea.

And there was still the “Vanessa issue”…

-“Simeon?” He asked before the butler left the room.

-“Yes, my Prince ?”

The spirit didn’t want to broach the subject, however, he had to take everything into account… And that certainly included his crazy ex and what she was doing.

-“Vanessa was… Upset yesterday. How is she today?” He asked, faking a worried tone. In the end, the only worry he felt was not about the Queen’s state but more about what she might do. The man winced, which was enough to tell Snatcher that he knew about what occurred the day before. The young maid had probably talked about it to the rest of the servants.

-“Well…” Simeon looked away, before answering hesitantly: “She ate her breakfast in her room this morning and still hasn’t come out.”

This was alarming. Vanessa used to sulk when they were alive, yes, but from something she had done herself? The spirit couldn’t remember anything of that sort. All the times she passed in her room, not wanting to talk to him, were because of things he apparently did. Yet, the situation was very much different in the present. It was like she had felt… Guilty about what she had done. That was enough for the ghost to know that something was going on.

Seeing his lack of answer, Simeon continued with a suggestion:

-“Should I fetch her?”

The question took Snatcher aback, forcing him to put his thoughts aside once again. Fetching her? He didn’t have a death wish! Those were for the brat he was supposed to join today, not for him!

-“No, than-” However, just as he was about to refuse, he stopped himself.

If he never solved whatever was happening in his back… He had a bad feeling it would come back right at him one way or another. With Fate and Life on his heels… It was just as dangerous, only delaying the inevitable. If escaping was that easy… He would have done so, way before. He had to stay for a night, it could very well happen once more.

There it was again: uncertainty.

As a ghost, he used to have his powers to defend himself and only a few things could actually hurt him… But as a human, any risk could lead him to either die or being shackled in the cellar once again. He had to be careful and if it meant staying with Vanessa for a while in order to make her feel better… The shade had to do it, despite how much he loathed the very idea of being in the same place as her.

-“Wait, yes, please ask her to come.” The words almost burnt his tongue as they left his lips. Being a human was the worst, oh what he would give to get himself out of this situation…

He gave Simeon a weak smile as the latter nodded in agreement:

-“Right away. I will keep your parents waiting for when you’re ready.

-O-Of course…” He replied, still smiling until the man finally left the room. As soon as the shade was alone again, he put his head in his hands and groaned lengthily. This was going to be awful, wasn’t it? First Vanessa, then his parents, without any guarantee to be able to leave afterwards… Oh, that day was perfect, truly excellent!

He took a deep breath and lowered his hands. Why did everything had to be so complicated?

His eyes fell on the pile of clothes on his bed. The shade almost straightened to put them on before stopping himself. If Vanessa was going to come in… He certainly didn’t want her to enter the room while he was still dressing up. So he lied back again onto his pillows and waited, looking at the ceiling silently.

Meeting his parents again… He couldn’t believe it. If someone had told him that a few days ago, he would have laughed at the person’s face instantly. Now… Well, things had changed for the worse. At least, if he had to find anything positive in reopening old wounds… His parents had always been very nice to him and had supported him in most of his life choices. His father had always been more severe than his mother, but always for his sake. They hadn’t been very happy about him wanting to study law abroad but they had loved him enough to accept his decision.

Vanessa’s parents, on the other hand… While the ghost had never met her father since the latter died before he met Vanessa, he did have known her mother. If he had to be completely honest on the subject… Maybe she had been scarier than Vanessa herself. The spirit had always been nervous around the old woman and had often tried to avoid her when it was possible. Fortunately, the old Queen had an accident and was no longer living at present. Regarding the causes of the incident… The shade had his suspicions for what truly happened. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, in the end.

The spirit started in his bed when a knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. Ignoring his fast-beating heart, he let out a hesitant “come in”, as a feeling of dread settled over him. “What could possibly go wrong?” He thought, full of sarcasm.

The Queen opened the door slowly and Snatcher’s body froze immediately. His eyes met her blue ones, though she quickly looked away before closing the door right behind her. Did she just avoid his stare? The Vanessa he knew never looked away after a fight. Then why?

The room was completely silent as none of them dared to speak. A heavy tension settled around them, almost palpable. Snatcher didn’t know what was more terrifying between being in the same room as his own murderer or the fact that she stayed silent and motionless.

This was getting ridiculously frightening.

-“So…” He had no idea how he managed to be the one to speak first. He could feel the fear inside of him growing and growing each second. His heart was beating fast and keeping his breath under control was extremely difficult. Anyone could have seen how scared he was, despite him hating the idea of people noticing it.

The Queen remained silent for a few more seconds. Her face had a dark expression and her eyes were locked to the floor. It was easy to understand that she had something on her mind. Snatcher couldn’t help but be both surprised and wary about that: she had never been the type to feel guilty, let alone the type to admit her mistakes. Thus, seeing her like this… Was not reassuring at all.

The ghost could feel his hands shaking slowly. He held his grip on the covers tight, hoping that it would stop the reaction. The fake smile he was keeping on his face started to crumple and it wouldn’t be long before he lost his “happy facade”. That was it. This was when she was going to kill him or just throw him into the cellar again.

He always knew that she would unmask him.

Eventually, she sighed and came closer, troubling the spirit even more. He couldn’t tell if he was relieved or scared to finally see her do something else than just standing in front of his bedroom door. She gently kneeled beside the bed, her face still full of something akin to sadness and guilt. It only made Snatcher more sick to his stomach than he already was. Silence greeted him again and he wondered if he should say something, anything to break the ice. At this point, he had absolutely no idea about what to expect from his ex. He opened his mouth to talk once again but was cut short when she spoke instead:

-“I… I had a dream last night.” Her tone was low and uncertain, two words which heavily contrasted with her personality. The ghost held his breath, too scared to move or to interrupt her.

-“It was more a nightmare than a dream, actually…” She paused before taking a deep breath: “I was home, reading something in the living room. You were next to me, looking through the window. I lifted my head and I asked you what you were thinking about.”

She let out a sob as she stopped to breathe again, falling apart right in from of the spirit, who could do nothing but remain very still at the sight:

-“You got up and ignored me. You left the room, so I followed you. You came out of the manor and walked into town, but you wouldn’t listen to me… You kept moving forward, pushing me behind when I tried to stop you.”

Snatcher felt the world collapsing around him, horror engulfing him the more she talked:

-“And then…! And then…” She hid her eyes with her left hand, as her other one came on top of Snatcher’s right one. The shade froze even more at the contact and his heartbeat increased as he witnessed her break down, unable to do anything.

Suddenly, he felt a cold, freezing sensation on his right hand.

-“Then you came to that flower shop… You came for that girl, that woman… And you left me.” Vanessa looked up, her blue eyes filled with an indescribable emotion. Anger? Sadness? Despair? The shade didn’t know. Though, he was very much aware of the feeling on his hand, as he stared at it in complete fear.

-“You remember too. You know I’m not talking about a dream, don’t you?” She asked, in a murmur, yet it seems so, so very loud for Snatcher.

She knew. She knew, she knew, she knew, she had always known it was him.

He looked back at her, throwing away any try to keep his calm. His face contorted in absolute terror as he saw Vanessa’s expression again. Her teeth were clenched and anger wasn’t enough to describe her current emotion. She was livid. Her eyes were fixed on him, though not directly. It was as if her stare went right through the shade… As if she wasn’t herself.

Yet, to Snatcher, she was exactly herself at that moment.

His silence was worth every possible answer she could get:

-“You left me! You abandoned me!” Vanessa’s grip on his hand tightened and the freezing sensation intensified until he couldn’t feel his fingers anymore. However, he didn’t even notice it. After all, all his attention was focused on one single thought: “I’m going to die. I’m going to die again.”

The sensation of cold seemed to grow and spread out on the rest of his arm, slowly extending to his forearm.

The ghost couldn’t scream. As much as he wanted to, his voice was stuck in his throat and his body remained still, despite his survival instinct screaming at him, ordering him to flee, to move away, to escape, anything! Yet, his body stayed motionless, frozen. “Not literally but soon to be” more precisely.

That thought seemed to bring him back to reality. He had to do something! Acting without thinking, he took back his hand out of his ex’s grasp and jumped out of the bed, as far away from her as he could in such a short time. His back hit the wall behind him. A sharp pain woke up in his legs from the sudden move, but that wasn’t all. His right hand hurt as well and when he looked at it… His skin had a worrying blue tone with red little lines on it. Frostbite.

Panic made him look up once again, terrified of seeing Vanessa chasing after him. Yet, when his eyes fell on her, she hadn’t moved from her spot. She was looking at her own hand with icy tears rolling on her cheeks, shaking like a leaf.

-“… Sorry… I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I…” With a wavering voice, she kept murmuring apologies, without even looking at him. Little by little, the sobs coming out of her transformed as she burst into tears. The silence was quickly broken as cries escaped from her opened mouth and resonated in the bedroom.

Snatcher watched, bewildered by what he was seeing. What was happening? Why was he not dead yet? Why was Vanessa… Crying instead of freezing him to death just like she had planned to? Why was she apologizing? She was trying to kill him again, why didn’t she keep going, why did nothing make sense anymore?

Pounding sounds started to get closer to them and Snatcher realized too late that what he was hearing weren’t the sounds of his own heartbeats, but rapid footsteps-

Though, before he could finish that thought, the door opened swiftly and several figures entered the room in a panicked manner. The ghost jumped at the sudden apparition, his eyes fixed on every person who came in. Simeon was one of them, standing in front of the others, looking around in hope of understanding what happened here.

The others in the back… Were none other than his own parents.

His heart skipped a beat when he recognized them instantly, despite not having seen them for hundreds of years. The red curly hair of his mother, the brown hair of his father… Her round and gentle face and his stern but worried one… They looked just like he remembered. His mother was wearing a long and beautiful brown dress. The front was black, while the rest of the dress had vine patterns. She was wearing long black gloves and a black necklace. The sleeves of the dress were flared, so much that her hands were barely visible. His father had a formal costume. The jacket was dark blue and it was buttoned up. His pants had the same colour than the jacket, perhaps in a slightly darker tone. The man was also wearing a black tie, which was matching the black top hat he was holding in one of his hands.

Nichole and Lucian, Snatcher’s parents, were standing in the room. In the same room as him.

And they were staring at him.

His father was the first one to speak :

-“What in heaven’s name is happening here?” His severe voice made the shade’s breathing stop, as a very strong surge of feelings overwhelmed him. It was his voice, his father’s voice. He remembered what it sounded like and it was just like that. The older man’s eyes were fixed on the ghost, waiting for an explanation, but all the shade could do was stare back in disbelief. They were here. With him. Not frozen under several feet of snow.

Alive. Just like he was.

-“Alistel!” His father called out to him one more time, yet Snatcher was unable to answer. Instead, he felt his eyes stinging and his vision slowly becoming blurry the more he looked at them. He blinked several times but the sting continued and even intensified. He brought his left hand to his eyes, rubbing them mindlessly, only to feel something wet on them. That’s when the realization hit him, just as if he had been hit by a train violently.

Was he… Crying? Him? The ghost that had taken so many souls, that had murdered so many innocent people… He was crying?

-“Sugar?” A sweet and worried voice then resonated as well and Snatcher’s eyes drifted to the woman. His mother.

-“What happened?” She asked too, though Snatcher couldn’t help but ignore her words as he focused on her voice instead. It was her.

The spirit felt a lump in his throat and a sob escaped him while tears rolled along his cheeks :

-“It’s you… You’re here… You’re actually here…” His voice broke after he pronounced the last words, his eyesight now nothing more than a blurry mess. His parents looked at each other, confused by what he said. He hated this. He hated this body. He hated to be in this situation. He wanted nothing more than to leave this place and never return. This was the worst thing that could happen to him, the absolute worst-

A quick movement caught his attention, with green moving in the corner of his vision. Vanessa had stood up and he barely had the time to see her fleeing the room, soon followed by the panicked butler. A feeling of fear engulfed him, as he thought about what she could do in her state. They were all going to die. The last time she fled to cry about him, she had frozen the entire village, and now that she had discovered he remembered just like she did… Snatcher himself had no idea about what she might do. How long would it take for him to hear her scream just like the last time? To see guards coming in the room to take him and lock him up in the cellar? Everything was repeating itself.

An unbearable silence fell once again in the room. The only sounds which could be heard were Snatcher’s heavy breathing and his father tapping his foot on the floor impatiently.

-“Well?” He demanded again and, this time, the ghost found the courage to answer:

-“She…” What could he say? If he said anything about what she had tried to do… He supposed that would only bring more awful things. Well, in a way… He couldn’t see how things could turn even worse. Before he could stop himself, words left his mouth as he tried to come up with the best possible excuse in such a short time: “I… I told her I planned to leave soon.”

It wasn’t a lie, in the end. Only an omission regarding where and when he planned to leave. Only if he had time before she killed them all. Again. What could he do? Fleeing would only make things worse, as she would try to stop him even harder. On the contrary, if he tried to calm her down, she might freeze him to death just to make him shut up.

The only thing reassuring him was that… She had apologized. And Vanessa rarely apologized, especially in situations like these.

What if she just locked herself in her room just like she had done the day before? Hoping was all he had left in his position.

Snatcher’s parents stared at him for a few seconds, and he carefully hid his injured hand on his side. They couldn’t see it.

-“And she pushed you out of the bed because of that?” replied her mother, both perplexed and confused. He couldn’t blame her, it was a bad excuse after all.

-“… Yes?” His hesitant tone didn’t fall on deaf ears: his father’s expression became more severe as he retorted:

-“You just came back only to leave again? What are you, a spoiled child? Is this a way to treat those who welcomed you back? Those who called a doctor for you? That’s not how we raised you!” His father’s face reddened as his anger grew more and more: “And all for what? Because your teacher is sick? You decided to come back only for a few days, without informing Vanessa’s kingdom first? Then you crossed the forest, alone, only to sprain your ankle and to break your leg? And now you made Vanessa cry? I simply cannot believe this is what happened. We raised you much better than that!”

His mother tried to calm her husband, though it did little to help :

-“My dear, please stop…”

Snatcher remained motionless for a few instants, as his mind slowly processed everything that had been said to him. Was his father… Lecturing him? After everything the ghost had been through, being shackled on a wall, locked in a cellar, being murdered, dealing with afterlife for hundreds of years, he was the one being lectured?

How ironic!

A sour laugh escaped his lips, as he straightened, ignoring the pain both in his legs and his hand. This was hilarious! He, a ghost that had lived so many years and killed hundreds of people, was being lectured by his formerly dead father? What a joke!

-“Are you laughing?” asked his father with clenched teeth: “Do you mind sharing what’s funny with us?”

He stopped laughing, not amused anymore. Anger was growing in him, little by little. No one could tell him what to do or scold him. They didn’t know anything! They had no idea about what happened! But he did!

-“You think you can lecture me?” He asked, though it wasn’t really a question in itself.

-“I beg your pardon?” His father replied with an outraged tone, glaring at the shade furiously: “I would like to remind you that the only reason you can study law abroad is that we agreed to.

-Get out.” The word escaped from his lips, as he returned Lucian’s glare with as much rage as he could convey: “Get out!” He repeated, now screaming just as loudly as Vanessa, as he stood up, not paying any attention to the pain in his legs.

His parents looked at him, astonished by his sudden reaction. After all, it immensely contrasted with how he used to be before dying, when he was the kind and dumb Prince he used to be. But things had changed, lives had been lost and hearts had been broken.

He would never go back to how he used to be… And those people in front of him were not his parents, only the Prince’s ones. But he was not him anymore. He had become a soul-stealing ghost and nothing could change that and especially not time travel.

-“I have no idea what has gotten into you, but we won’t accept that behaviour from you!” His father retorted in a tone that was nothing but livid. Next to the man, Nichole was crying in his embrace, not looking at the spirit since his outburst. Seeing her cry caused a sudden pain in his chest but he decided to ignore it. It was just his body acting against him once again. He was not their son anymore. He had been done with this life for hundreds of years!

-“Get out, get out, get out!” Snatcher repeated, louder and louder, wanting nothing more than not to see them anymore. The pain in his chest intensified, however, his fury was strong enough to conceal it. This was just a trick from this fleshy body. Nothing else!

Lucian glared at him for a few seconds. The only sounds in the room at that moment were Snatcher’s breathing and Nichole’s sobs in the man’s chest. It lasted less than a minute but it felt much, much longer to the spirit. Eventually, the man shook his head and turned to his wife :

-“Let’s go, Nichole.” He put his arm on her shoulders and took her to the door, which he opened for her. She exited the room, sobbing in a white handkerchief, disappearing from the ghost’s vision. The man then turned to him once again and spoke in a very low voice :

-“That’s it, we’re leaving. You can forget about those law studies. Maybe you’ll realize how nice we were, by letting you do what you wanted.”

“Law studies?” He scoffed at the idea: “Yeah, right, as if I still needed them.”

-“Whatever.” He simply replied, leaning against the wall behind him to ease the pain in his legs.

Lucian glared at him once more before exiting the room as well, following his crying wife. As for the shade, he remained a few moments unmoving, trying to process everything that just occurred. Very mixed feelings grew inside of him, mostly anger but also… Sadness? How ridiculous!

Yet he could feel his vision blurry again, just like the stinging sensation coming back in his eyes. He quickly brought his left hand to his face, rubbing his wet eyes. This was nothing more than his body doing things on its own! He wasn’t sad! Those people weren’t his parents anymore!

Then why was he feeling so bad about what just happened?

He let himself slide against the wall and sat on the floor once more. He hid his face in his hands as sobs left his mouth, unable to stop himself. His fingers intertwined in his hair, pulling it more and more, as if he wanted to erase his feelings by causing pain instead. But it just made him feel worse.

He had no idea how long he stayed on the ground, crying alone. It might have been minutes, hours… He didn’t know exactly. After a while, his sobs stopped, having no more tears to cry.

Enough. He couldn’t take it anymore.

He stood up again, still ignoring the pain in his legs, even if it was less intense than the day before. He eyed the pile of clothes on his bed with an expression of rage painted on his face. He was going to make everything go back to how it was before. And if Vanessa decided to freeze everything in the meantime… Well, he didn’t care. That was it, he was sick of everything. The shade didn’t want to stay there any more second in this room, in this manor, in this whole period.

He was going to find the kid and she was going to fix everything.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

=> Chapter 8

#Reliving An Old Nightmare #RAON #snatcher #vanessa #hat kid #A Hat In Time #fanfiction #my art

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goforwardgreenwriter-blog · 6 years

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The Worm Reads: Empire of Storms, Ch 47 - 48

My therapy bills have been steadily rising ever since I took on the challenge of reading this book.

If you recall correctly, last time we left off where some Ilkens attacked their ship and revealed the big baddie Erawan knows of her Wyrdkey. Chapter 47 picks up immediately after that reveal.

What, were you expecting an angry rant from me? Sadly, this book has crushed my very soul, and the quicker I stop criticizing SJM’s glaring flaws, the quicker I am freed from this demon.

Rowan hauled ass back to their ship, his magic near-flinging him through the air.

Man, I see why everyone says SJM’s writing is amazing. Love it when epic fantasy medieval Fae characters describe themselves as hauling their asses around, and getting all pissy at one another. Love it!

But Aelin wasn’t moving. Gavriel and Aedion, bloodied and limping, were barely moving. Fenrys, his chest a bloody mess with greenish slime —poison …

I’m sure these very painful injuries will never be brought up after this chapter. Rowboat decides to be the hero of the day and picks up a bow to shoot down the Ilken.

“A gold coin says he misses,” Fenrys rasped. “Save your breath for healing,” Aelin snapped. “Make it two,” Aedion said behind him. “I say he hits.” “You can all go to hell,” Aelin snarled. But then added, “Make it five. Ten says he downs it with the first shot.”

If these characters weren’t assholes, maybe I’d enjoy this banter. Also Fenrys, your chest is ripped open and soaked with poison, you should be knocking on death’s door by now, not making witty remarks.

Rowboat gets a clean headshot because of course he does, then tells Assdion and Fenrys to pay up, pricks. His words, not mine. The scene ends. Oh, I can totally see why a cliffhanger was necessary, so much happened after the last chapter ended.

Assdion is thinking about the battle and how he and his father fought side by side. Oh, fuck you SJM, give me that father son content!!!! I want Gav being a good dad damnit show me, don’t tell me!

[Aelin] still knelt over Fenrys, offering Rowan nothing more than a pat on his thigh as he stormed past to help with the other wounded. A pat on the thigh— for making a shot that Aedion was fairly certain most of his Bane would have judged to be impossible.

Another reason I hate Assdion’s POVs: they’re 95% him splooging over Rowboat and Alien. Like ungh we get it, Rowboat is the best warrior ever you don’t need to beat us over the head with it.

Aedion set down the pail of water [Aelin]’d asked him to get for Fenrys, trying not to wince as she wiped away the green poison that oozed out. A few feet away, his father was tending to a blubbering pirate—who had barely more than a tear to the thigh.

Hey man, not everyone can deal with pain the same way, especially not someone’s who mortal. Have you ever considered the pirate might be horrified and shaken up after witnessing his friends being eaten alive, that he might be in shock right now? Also, Gav is such a sweetheart for helping to comfort him. Lowkey shipping nameless pirate and Gav right now.

Fenrys tries to get Alien to tend to the others, which admittedly is rather noble and selfless of him, but dude, you got poison leaking out of your chest. Alien asks Fenrys how his magic works under the excuse of keeping him awake, but it’s actually so SJM can info dump at us.

“No one knows where it comes from—what it is,” Fenrys said between shallow breaths, fingers curling and uncurling at his sides. “But it lets me slip between folds in the world. Only short distances, and only a few times before I’m drained, but … it’s useful on a killing field.”

Oh, of fucking course nobody knows where it comes from. This is SJM on her knees begging you and I not to think about how her world works or why her magic is so inconsistent. She just slaps abilities onto her ocs and gives no thought as to how it all works in the big picture.

“What’s your shield made of, then?” Fenrys tried and failed to shrug. But Gavriel muttered from where he worked on the still-whimpering pirate, “Arrogance.” Aelin snorted, but didn’t dare take her eyes off Fenrys’s injury as she said, “So you do have a sense of humor, Gavriel.” The Lion of Doranelle gave a wary smile over his shoulder.

I love Gavriel..... I’m stanning him..... Wait every time I want to stan someone in this novel, SJM ruins them. Shit. Never mind.

“Lorcan was a bastard in Maeve’s palace, don’t worry,” Fenrys smirked, his bronze face wan.

Unghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh bronze

“Your parents?” Aedion pressed when Aelin herself seemed to be straining for words. He’d seen her heal little cuts, and slowly repair Manon’s wound over days, but …

Fenrys is almost dying because of the massive wound on his chest but we really out here focusing on Alien getting exhausted, huh.... that’s the level you’ve stooped to, SJM............

Rasping, laboring breaths from both of [Fenrys and Aelin]. Aedion shifted so that Aelin could lean wholly against him, biting down on the weight it put on his already-swollen knee.

OH MY GOD WE REALLY ARE. I don’t give a fuck if Alien is a “”little tired :((”” from using her magic, FENRYS IS GODDAMN DYING. SJM STOP METAPHORICALLY SUCKING ALIEN’S DICK FOR ONE GODDAMN SECOND PLEASE.

Fenrys says that serving Maeve fufills the male Fae need to serve and blehhh its gross. But I don’t care, Gav decides to finally spill the beans on his backstory and HOLY SHIT I AM READY. GIVE ME THE CONTEXT.

Gav was a soldier who came from a noble family. Being the youngest of three brothers, he wouldn’t inherit or rule ever, so he became a soldier. That’s why Maeve took interest in him, and why he joined her.

[Gavriel] rolled his shoulders. Fidgeting. “I only hated [serving Maeve] once. Only wanted to leave once.” He didn’t continue. And Aedion knew what the unspoken words were. Aelin brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “You loved [Aedion’s mom] that much?”

I-I CAN’T BELIEVE... IN A SJM NOVEL... I’M FEELING EMPATHY AND SORROW FOR A MAIN CHARACTER....

So Gav fell in love with Assdion’s mom and was willing to attempt to break the oath to Maeve to run off with her. That’s just... so sad but so good for his character hhhhh Gav deserves the world........

Honor is my code,” Gavriel said. “But if Maeve had tried to harm either you or her, Aedion, I would have done everything in my power to get you out.

Shit, I’m such a sucker for this kind of parent/child relationship. Assdion also feels bad for being a dick to his father, so that felt amazing to read. Overall, this was a good scene. A lot is left unsaid and not jammed down our throats, but it clearly shows Gav was a selfless and as good a father as he could’ve been. Did someone break into the editing room just to patch up the scenes with Gav? Nameless editor, you are my hero.

Aelin pushed off Aedion at last, trying and failing to get to her feet. Aedion reached for her as the focus went out of her now-dull eyes, but Rowan was already there, smoothly sweeping her up before she kissed the planks. Too fast—she must have drained her reserves too fast, and without any food in her system.

Normally I’d bitch about poor wittle Alien’s feefees getting all the attention while there are men dying on the ship but whatever, that last scene put me in a good mood so we’re not complaining today, folks.

The chapter ends with Assdion keeping watch during the night with Lysandra. I can’t believe that chapter was actually decent and made me choked up... how will SJM ruin it? Let’s find out in chapter 48.

A low, rumbling growl sounded, and Dorian looked across the deck, to the prow. The witch was still there. Still tending to Abraxos’s wounds, as she had been all night.

P-PURE....WHOLESOME......Manon and Abraxos are truly a treasure in this dumpster fire of a novel....

Manon had not let anyone near him. Aelin had tried once, and when Manon snarled at her, Aelin had cursed enough to make everyone else halt, saying she’d rutting deserve it if the beast died. Manon had threatened to rip out her spine, Aelin had given her a vulgar gesture, and Lysandra had been forced to monitor the space between them for an hour, perched in the rigging of the mainmast in ghost leopard form, tail swaying in the breeze.

Manon: Hey so I have no reason to really trust any of you and you’ve made threats to me before, so don’t get near my only friend on this ship.

Alien: what a slutty bitch!! you deserve to have your only friend die!!! fuck you you bitch!!!!

Words cannot describe how much I hate Alien is there a scene where someone finally kicks her ass? Please I need it.

Dorito and Manon ““banter”“ for a while and I’m already falling asleep zzzz

[Manon] met [Dorian’s] gaze, as if willing him to see a century of all that she’d done. “I am not mortal. I do not play by your rules. I have killed and hunted men for sport. Do not mistake me for a human woman, princeling.” “I have no interest in human women,” he purred. “Too breakable.”

W.....what.....

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK AM I READING

Is this a reference to Sorscha???? The healer who died rebelling against the evil king??

YOU CONSIDER THAT BREAKABLE. YOU CONSIDER HUMAN WOMEN WEAK AND BENEATH YOUR FEET NOW. SJM. YOU FUCKING, TYOU DHAHKFGDJFGS DHFAGJFD HDSFGJD

I AM SO FUCKING FURIOUS LIKE HOW, HOW IS THIS IN A YA SERIES. THIS IS GOING TO TELL YOUNG GIRLS THEY’RE WEAK FOR FALLING IN LOVE AND NOT HAVING SPECIAL POWERS LIKE MANON. WHAT THE EVER LIVING HOLY FUCK SHIT IS THIS.

FUCK YOU, SJM. FUCK. YOU.

“So you miscalculated,” Manon said. “So [the ilken] tracked you. Don’t get distracted with the minor defeats. This is war. Cities will be lost, people slaughtered. And if I were you, I would be more concerned about why they sent so few of the ilken.”

Manon is absolutely right, of course, but Alien shuts her down and everyone pats her on the ass for it. God I am fucking sick of the narrative bending over backwards to praise Alien for breathing.

Manon said a bit numbly, as if it was the first time she’d even spoken it to herself, “I am the last Crochan Queen—the last direct descendant of Rhiannon Crochan herself.”

Because literally nobody can not be royalty in this series. Average people from normal backgrounds rising up to do extraordinary deeds? Pfffft, nobody will read or like that. I am going to proceed to cling to my copies of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and cry now.

Two queens—there were two queens among them, Dorian realized.

And two princes - Rowboat and Assdion were described as princes for whatever the fuck reason - and a king, which is Dorito’s crusty ass. No wonder my favorite character, Gav, isn’t royalty, everyone who is is an asshole.

“Maybe [Maeve] told Erawan [that Aelin is alive],” Aedion said. Fenrys whipped his head to the general. “She’s never had any contact with Erawan, or Adarlan.” “As far as you know,” Aedion mused. “Unless she’s a talker in the bedroom.”

Great, so now we can add Assdion slut shaming Fenrys to the list of his sins. Oh, but since Fenrys is a guy, it’s played off as a joke because of course men can’t be slut shamed, tee hee! I fucking hate you, SJM.

Fenrys says something that makes Alien think of Baba Yellowlegs, a character in the carnival in Cr0wn of Midnight. Turns out she was a fortune teller who is now connected to this plot because SJM totally didn’t pull the Fae shit out her ass for H0F, nope!

Rowan knocked on the door of their private bathing room. [Aelin]’d locked it. Walked into their room, then into the bathing room, and locked him out. And now she was puking her guts up.

Indoor plumbing.....private bathrooms...... on a medieval ship..... they have functioning toilets......in the medieval century......

THIS GODDAMN WORLDBUILDING. So what goddamn time period is this in? Clearly its like medieval Britain, they have monarchies and castles, and use swords/arrows but then they have shit like toilets?? You have to pick a time period and stick to it, gdi, you can’t pick and choose!

Rowboat flips because she locked him out. Maybe she’s sick and wants to be left alone, fuck face??? Seriously he’s being so possessive and controlling this is not healthy!!!

Ten seconds. Ten more seconds seemed like a fair enough amount of time before [Rowan] crunched down on the handle and splintered the lock.

Holy fucking possessiveness. Batman! I fucking hate this asshole.

Rowan looked at the bucket [Aelin]’d half filled, then at her bloodless lips. At the sweat beaded on her brow.

Oh, so this means no toilets? Well, I suppose I’ll have to apologize a bit for my rant, but having private bathrooms is still dumb. later Rowboat sees that everyone has gone to shit on the nearby islands.

Eyllwe. Eyllwe was burning.

Greaaaaaaaat can’t wait to see how these people’s suffering is reduced to nothing but angst for Alien’s feefees......

#the worm talks #the worm reads: eos #anti sjm #anti tog #anti eos

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gamearamamegathons · 6 years

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Dragon Quest V: Baby Dungeons

Circe here! I've only just started Dragon Quest V, but I've been thinking, given the sheer size of my last post on Dragon Warrior IV, maybe I should be writing shorter, more frequent posts rather than letting a huge amount of plot build up before posting, especially now that the games...actually...have plot. Besides, there's a lot to talk about right off the bat. First thing I should cover is that the SNES version of Dragon Quest V has never been localized to English. Dragon Quests IV through VI eventually got DS remakes that were released in the US, but I'm sticking with the original version of every game, so that means either rolling with a Japanese version or finding a fan translation. I know I talked a big game about playing untranslated games earlier, but these games have gotten a lot more text-heavy in the interrim, so that would probably slow things down a lot. I'm still not ruling out the possibility for future games, but for now, I think this works fine. This does mean that there may be localization choices that aren't consistent with any official localization, so this may be quite interesting, we'll see.

As for the game itself, as you might expect from an early SNES RPG, it's a weird mix of graphical and mechanical improvements paired with weird holdovers from the NES era. I was really hoping that the DOOR/TALK/SEARCH menu items would finally go away, but no, it's still here, and it looks even weirder next to the considerably better SNES graphics. However, with the extra buttons, they've added another button that appears to be a context-sensitive shortcut, so I may be leaning on that a lot instead. Menu navigation on the whole is pretty similar, although our characters have a bigger inventory, and equipment purchasing is even further improved by showing how each item in the shop will change each character's stats. I can't say it's not improved, but we're not really at the point of 'hey, this is a modern RPG now' quite yet. And that's...very weird, actually, because Final Fantasy IV was released the year before this game, and despite also having some weird NES holdovers, the UI is better in almost every way (except purchasing equipment, actually, I have to give DQ5 credit there). In fact, I don't know if Final Fantasy has *ever* had anything like Dragon Quest's clunky menu-driven interaction system, so it's very weird that it's lasted, in some form, for five games. But it's not like I haven't acclimated to it by now, so it's not a big deal.

So what is Dragon Quest V about? Well, it opens with our hero's birth. We see our papa...named Papas...and our mother, whose name I forget, celebrating the baby's birth and fretting over a name. As you might guess, they just happen to settle on a name I picked (Papas initially complains that it sounds 'too feminine', which is weirdly on the nose) and then the mother dies. So, uh...well that's kind of a downer to open on. In any case, our gender is fixed in this game (male, as you might guess) but I can't complain too much, since this one is probably going to be even plot-heavier than in the past. I think our character even talks. But it's a good thing, then, that SEN is a gender-ambiguous name. And no, I'm never going to stop using allcaps.

So, skip ahead to when SEN is a young adult...haha, just kidding, you're six. Apparently, Papas is a bit of a wanderer, but we're on a boat just about to make port in his hometown of Santa Rosa. Here on the ship we're going to get acquainted with one of the big changes in Dragon Quest V. At least here in the early game, you're pretty hemmed in, and the game expects you to talk to NPCs in the area in order to advance the plot. A far cry from the wide-open world of Dragon Warrior, but it's little surprise, since each game up to this point has taken little steps in this direction. And our character is, after all, six. Once we reach the dock, Papas immediately busies himself talking to some guy, so of course we wander off and immediately get into an encounter with some slimes. After a couple turns of feeble swings at the monsters, Papas steps in to protect us, taking out the slimes easily with blows upwards of 70 damage. So okay, he's pretty tough. He heals us, and we walk the short distance from the dock to Santa Rosa. This is a scripted sequence where Papas leads the way, but there are still random encounters like normal (okay, they're probably scripted, but it gives the appearance of random encounters). Papas handles the monsters with ease, and we head into town.

Here Papas bumps into the wife of his friend who runs an inn in the nearby town of Alcapa. Apparently, he has fallen ill, and his wife came here to get medicine. And we meet her daughter Bianca, who quickly gets bored of listening to the adults talk, and goes upstairs with us to pass the time. Being two years older, she's able to read, a little, so she takes out a book to read to us. It doesn't take her long to give up, though, complaining that the words are too difficult. It's not long before Bianca's mother comes to pick her up, and then it's just us and Papas again.

Papas seems to be a bit of an inattentive father, to be honest. He's busy with grown-up stuff, and we're left to our own devices. You can wander around town and talk to people, and find out that a man who went to find the medicine has gone into the nearby cave and hasn't come out, or you can, like me, just find the cave and decide this is an excellent idea without finding out why you should go there. There's a guard keeping six year old children from wandering out of town, but the cave is unguarded -- well, no, that's not true, there is a guard by the cave entrance, but he merely warns you that going into the cave is a bad idea and it's not his fault if you get lost. I know we're an RPG hero, but I want you to consider for a moment that by all reasonable standards, this adult human just stands there and watches as a literal six year old wanders to his likely death. Oh well. It would've been inconvenient if he'd stopped us. Don't let the fact that we're six years old give you the idea that we won't be fighting slimes, bats, and moles, or buying weapons and armor at the local shops. It's much funnier to instead picture our hero beating monsters to death with a stick using his tiny baby arms.

At the bottom of the dungeon we find the man trapped under the rock, and give him a hand. So, uh, probably good that someone came down here eventually. That done, Bianca and her mother are ready to return to Alcapa. Papas doesn't like the idea of them traveling on their own, though, so the four of us set out together. Once the medicine is delivered, Papas seems anxious to leave, but it seems that Papas's friends wants him to stay awhile and he, relucantly, agreed. I get the impression that Papas is concerned with...something. Something that's keeping him from his family and friends. But it's too early to say what it is, really. I'll admit, it reminds me of my time playing Taloon in Dragon Warrior IV, getting up in the morning and leaving his family every day to go stab monsters, except this time I'm the child instead. Did Taloon's kid understand why he left for so long, or why they eventually uprooted their lives to move to the much bigger and busier city of Endor? There's no telling, I suppose.

Alcapa is pretty similar to Santa Rosa, although it has a nicer shop and no dangerous open cave for children to wander into. Here, we spend more time with Bianca, and if we chat around a bit, we find a couple more kids tormenting a cat, presumably for no other reason than that they're assholes with nothing better to do. We try to intervene, and they tell us they'll let the cat go if we go fight ghosts in the haunted castle to the north. Okay. This seems a little artificial, especially since, if we're strong enough to do that, we're strong enough to deal with these little shits, but the quest is clear, so that's what we gotta do. We can only leave town at night when the guard is asleep, but that's no big deal, since the shops and everything are still open.

Bianca starts out at level 1 with pretty pitiful equipment, so the first thing I do is grind -- mostly for gold, but I get some decent levels in the process. This game introduces an interesting new feature -- weapons that can hit multiple enemies. I get a boomerang for myself, which can hit every enemy, and a thorn whip for Bianca, which can hit a single enemy group. The downside is that they do less damage to each consecutive enemy, but it's still a huge benefit, reducing large enemy groups to nothing in one or two strikes.

With that done, we head north to Lenoire Castle. I think one purpose of this dungeon is to show off a lot of the new event scripting stuff, kinda like Taloon's chapter in Dragon Warrior IV. This place is pretty damn haunted, with object moving around, doors opening on their own, and, uh, also there's ghosts everywhere trying to kill us. That's, I guess, the biggest hint probably. But it's also clear that they wanted to show off what this new engine can do. Along the way, we meet the ghosts of the former king and queen of the castle, who are apparently being hassled by bad ghosts. Eventually we meet the boss of the bad ghosts, called...Boss Ghost...and he's pretty tough. Bianca drops in this fight, which kinda sucks, but I get through it. Oh, and offensive spells and attacks are finally animated, which is a touch that has been sorely missing until now (our characters don't appear on-screen, so naturally, anything that targets them is not animated). With that done, the good ghosts are at peace, and we get...oh no. A Gold Orb. I mean, okay, we don't know what it's for yet, but I'm wary of generic macguffins at this point.

We hang onto the orb and head back to Alcapa. The shitty kids let us have the cat, and it joins our party...uh, apparently it's a baby panther, which raises a lot of questions about why it's tame and in town. But whatever. Bianca names it Borongo. I think we can rename it if we want, but I decide not to. Papas leads us back home, and we leave Bianca behind, but Borongo sticks with us. Back in Santa Rosa, there doesn't seem to be much going on at first. A lot of townsfolk are complaining about random little objects going missing, which sounds significant. Eventually, if we poke around, we see what appears to be a ghost. The ghost is surprised we can see her, and she says she's been messing with people in order to try and get their attention. Apparently she's really an elf, visiting the human world through some kind of, spirit projection I guess? She leads us to the basement of our home where nobody else is around, and says that the world of elves needs help, and we need to go there right away. Um...so everything I know about fantasy tells me that when an elf tells a very small child to go to their world with them, it's a pretty bad idea. But this isn't really that sort of story, and we don't really have a choice, so off we go.

In the world of elves, we're told that a magical flute has been stolen, and we need to get it back, because they need it to change the seasons, so the human world will fall into eternal winter without it. That sounds pretty bad. The elves have a lot of confidence that a six year old child and his cat can fix this problem, but to be fair, we've got a surprisingly good track record up to this point.

Well, that's all for now. I guess I was right to start writing a new post now, because this turned out to be pretty long anyway. I guess these posts might end up getting a lot more frequent to keep up with the plot, so stay tuned!

#circe #marathon #dragon quest #dragon quest v

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