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#i could never force that fate upon anyone. so what if I just play arc 1.5 and never start part 2? da vinci-chan stays the way she is.

extraordinarilyextreme · 3 months

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the element of fire plays a big role in YeQing's relationship.

for starters, let's examine the "answer" ZGQ divined for himself on Longhu-shan:

(manhua ch. 108; see also LA s1, ep. 13 & donghua s2, ep. 9)

飞蛾扑火 / the moth throws itself upon a flame. this idiom describes a self-destructive kind of conduct, where a person knowingly brings about their own doom. it represents, in other words, both a fatal and fated attraction.

from ZGQ's pov, it was—of course—laying his life on the line to comprehend one of the Eight Supremes:

(LA s1, ep. 13; see also manhua ch. 109 & donghua s2, ep. 10)

from WY's pov, it was befriending ZGQ despite knowing he harbors other intentions:

(LA s1, ep. 23; see also manhua ch. 191 & donghua s3, ep. 5)

as such, i'm not the biggest fan of how Youku tl'ed the line as "a meaningless struggle." because neither of their choices were meaningless. both of them were acting as Zhuge Liang had: 明知天理在但是逆大势而行 / despite knowing full well that divine order and destiny exist, behaving in a manner that opposes the momentum of the times.

indeed, it could be argued that associating with each other was not in anyone's best interest. WY even remarks in Biyou Village:

"In truth, originally I could've not defeated you... No! Rather, it should be said that originally I could've not become acquainted with a scoundrel like you..." (manhua ch. 222; see also donghua s4, ep. 4)

which is what makes their relationship even more special. they were never supposed to meet—yet their meeting was inevitable. they are equals; they abide by the same principles, even if their methods are not always the same.

in the live-action adaptation in particular, 飞蛾扑火 is a lyric in 《戎断反应》, which is the song most associated with ZLH/XH (and also FSY/JZL in s1, ep. 17).

(LA s1, ep. 6)

so... make of that parallel what you will. (this is far from the only time YeQing are directly juxtaposed with other canon couples, but i'm specifically referring to the nature and context of ZLH/XH's "forbidden" relationship more than anything else.)

the element of fire also marks the progression of YeQing's relationship in other ways.

in the Longhu-shan arena, ZGQ launches a ball of fire at WY with 赤炼......

(LA s1, ep. 13; see also manhua ch. 108 & donghua s2, ep. 9)

...which is, strangely enough, the exact same spell ZGQ uses during Biyou Village arc to force WY out of danger:

(donghua s4, ep. 5; see also manhua ch. 228)

so the imagery of ZGQ and WY always being separated by [a wall of] fire is really striking to me.

significantly, fire is also the dominant element of the Zhuge family's ultimate skill, 三昧真火 / True Fire of Samadhi, which ZGQ was never able to master until he triumphed over his 心魔 (WY & the Feng-hou Qimen he possesses):

(manhua ch. 311)

so, fire has always stood in-between these two in some way. but, like moth to a flame, they will always find their way back to each other.

(i definitely think that's the direction the manhua is currently developing in at least, esp. given that ZGQ has now found peace with himself and how he regards WY.)

furthermore, in 五行 / five elements, fire signifies a pinnacle (i.e., combustion), with a decline sure to follow. pretty neat, then, that in the donghua s2 opening 《无涯》 / Limitless, WY and ZGQ are matched with the lyrics 缘起缘灭 / fate begins, fate extinguishes:

by 五行 standards, fire is also associated with the organ: heart. given that WY is ZGQ's 心魔 / lit. heart's demon, and also that (in WYLR's words) they've 推心置腹 / lit. given their heart into the other's keeping, i think that really is just more than fitting.

and—finally—fire is related to alchemy. to tempering, to refinement, and to permanent transformation. hence:

Zhuge Qing: unrestrained as the winds, ardent as a wildfire. Wang Ye is melting. He’ll never be able to go back. (from 青春归你 | my youth and yours)

YeQing inevitably altered the course of each other's lives. (but that's for a separate post～)

#yeqing #cdrama ramblings #异人之下 #i am nobody #一人之下 #hitori no shita #i have too many tags for this IP i need to condense #if u made it this far thanks for reading u are a champ

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sxvethelastdance · 3 years

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In Poison Places, We are The Anti-Venom (Friends Never Say Goodbye)

@liulaoweek ... With a twist.

Day 1: “Growing Up/Dream”

Day 2: “First Time”

Day 4: “Battle/Healing”

Day 6: “Promise.”

What is a dream, but a hopeful vision of the future?

Kung Lao ponders this question- or something similar one day while bent over a plate of dumplings, chewing as thoughtfully as one can in a bustling room of their fellow students. The Kung legacy has never been one to sit idle fantasizing when the time would better be put to use seizing his aspirations, so this new knack for revelation is off-putting. Soon enough he is pulled gently from his reverie by none other than his time honored companion, who slides into the seat next to him. Liu Kang has long grown from the gaunt serious eyes and stick thin frame, color in his cheeks and light in his eyes at the outset of their youth.

“Spare koin for your thoughts?” Whispered Kang among the prickle and prattle of their classmates. This made Lao snort, stifling the laughter that always comes from his friend’s strange colloquialisms.

“But our vows of poverty, a-Kang.”

“Then perhaps you’ll be so generous as to gift me with these material burdens, free of charge?” They are shoulder-to-shoulder now, voices low and smiles plastered upon their faces, lined by the many smiles and shrieks of days young.

Liu Kang taps him on the leg twice, signaling their move to a space much more inclined to the conversation. Kung Lao finds that he doesn’t have it in him to deny the other, perhaps has never had it in him to begin with. So follow him he did, deeper into the caverns of the temple and into the place where they most often trained. He finds himself oddly weary, but when the other man lays eyes upon him he finds himself re-energized by the gentle concern that flits about his face.

“a-Lao… What is it that troubles you?” This compels him to smooth the tense wrinkles, if only for Kang’s sake. However, he cannot help the deep exhale that gives way to what has plagued him for the better part of a week now. Even longer, if he considered how long he has been aware of the time.

“I have been thinking. Perhaps too much.”

“No such thing, where you are concerned.” Teases Liu Kang, bumping his shoulder against Kung Lao’s, who makes a show of rubbing where he has been struck.

“Har-har, I sometimes miss the days where you admired my quick thinking, shī dì.”

“I still do. What I do not admire are the lashes that come of it.”

“Oh come now, it has been a long time since we were whipped for our misdeeds by the Masters.” Or since they have had the wit to do so. The inevitable manifestation of his arcana brought to life a number of possibilities, starting the imaginary stopwatch for when he advanced past what the Wu-Shi’s instructors could teach him.

“Yet my rear aches as it did when we were children at the mere thought.”

“That is just it… We are not children anymore, Liu Kang. You are to be a healer, and I the champion of Mortal Kombat.” It is not until these words have left his lips that he realizes the depth of his mistake. This frightens Liu Kang, who stares at Kung Lao not unlike the child he once was, afraid he would disappear. Kung Lao feels an arc of panic along his spine, unused to that look upon his friend’s face. It has been so long since anything came into question between them. The transition from sworn brother to partner in all things had been seamless, almost easy to ignore if not for the way that his hand finds it’s way to the man’s cheek and his gaze, which takes great pains to avoid looking at the his lips.

“Are you saying that-“ The younger man does not even have the room to finish this query, for Lao, aware of his lack of forethought (seized by it and the pit in his stomach) is is already reaching with remedy, brushing the bangs from Kang’s face as the gap between them narrows.

“No- never. What I am saying is… I would have you with me, in any capacity. Come with me, Liu Kang.”

“What of Lord Raiden?” Asks the other man, ever concerned with the particulars. It is Liu Kang who dwells vigilantly upon logistics, what fate and its hands threaten. He is a far cry from what he once was, conviction and calm cultivated in the one of the Order of Light’s finest students and an advancing apprentice in the healer’s ward. Yet he cannot help his vigilance here, knowing well that what beauties and joys they possess can be snatched away in an instant. It is the mark of his past made productive, and particularly troubling despite his want.

“What of him?” Kung Lao’s eyes are no less sharp then that hat he has taken to wearing on his head, the master of a weapon without one in it’s time as a family heirloom. However, as Liu Kang is drawn to the determined edge that, he is reminded of the days where they would play pretend and muse about the future, not once entertaining the thought that they would ever be separated. Now they are older and debatably wiser, if one could call being willing to take on any force in the six realms wise. But seldom is anything rational in the case of these two, who are first and foremost concerned with what keeps the other safe.

A life with Kung Lao, it is all he has ever asked for in a life that taught him that the act of expectation was a danger to skirt. They killed and made monsters of many. Yet it was in the quiet nights and his legs tangled in Kung Lao’s as they fought the winter cold at each other’s side within the place that brought them together that he expected a life where the best outcome was to live and die by the same creed so long as they were together. And still, he hesitates.

“I do not have a mark.” It burns him, the thought of Kung Lao having to look after him, the way that he had when he first arrived to the temple, unable to lock eyes with anyone. It would put his most treasured person in the position of protector once more. Without an arcana, he is a liability.

“You do not need a mark to be at my side. After all… Who else would I have to call me needlessly foolish, to put me back together after running headfirst into battle? Certainly I cannot settle for any less than the best. ” His Kang is entirely too gorgeous when the rigid set of his jaw and etched worry in his give way to the soft hands that map him and threaten no harm to the Grand Champion; only to raze any and all things to the ground that threaten to steal Kung Lao from him. It is the shine of his eyes when sparked with passion, the warmth of his palm when he presses it to the side of his face to inspect for injury, how firm his voice is in its convictions and soft with something reserved completely and utterly for him. That is what heals.

"You truly must be more careful with yourself. You are all that Earthrealm has." All that I have, Liu Kang wants to say. Luckily, he does not need to.

“And you are all that I have. When I am with you… I feel closer to than I have ever been to worthy- that I am more than an inheritor to some legacy. You renew my spirit and command pride from me in all that you do. You could never be a liability, Damn anyone, Elder God or otherwise who disagrees. You are my strength, truly.”

“Kung Lao…” Speechless, Liu Kang cannot find the words to convey just how much the other man has given him. How is through his patience, his encouragement and trust that he is now stronger than he ever imagined himself being. No longer are they children indeed. The baby fat has faded from Kung Lao’s cheeks, and no longer does he wear the cap that covered his head upon nights that he found himself missing his home and unable to speak. They are stronger than they ever imagined themselves being, and it is because of the comfort and courage wrought of two beings who have committed to seeing, knowing, and understanding one another.

“Say yes, Liu Kang. Be with me.” It binds them, and draws them chest to chest until he can think of little else but how his lips would feel against Kung Lao’s, how carefully hidden the other man’s tremors are concealed. He is nervous, and it is because of Kang that he is this way.

“Yes,” His hands scramble for Kung Lao’s tunic, breathing him in. “Wherever you go, I am to follow you.”

“Even Netherrealm?” Says his most faithful partner, playfulness returning as he runs his fingers along a spot that is certain to make him jump. Now it is Liu Kang’s turn to laugh, ducking his head and in the process bringing them closer.

“Yes, you foolish man. If only to drag you out by the hat. I will follow you there as well.” This is the promise, a life. Short of his soul, a man has nothing more valuable to give than his life to another. That is what passes in the searing kiss that joins them to one another. Soon enough they part, if only because they know that there is more to come.

“We will go together,” Begins Kang, a fire that so blissfully subsumes Lao in its waiting hearth.

“Or not at all.” Finishes Kung Lao, who swears that there is no force which could possible face the Kung legacy and the man who has clawed his way back to life and made. They have no chance, they just don’t know it yet.

As their bodies meet in feverish kisses and heavy, hot hands grasping, both Liu Kang and Kung Lao suppose that there is room to dream after all.

#liulao #shaolin rowdy boys #liulao week #tilallmyscarsbleedgolden #my fics

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inkperch · 3 years

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Linked Universe Zeldas:

My takes on LU style- Zelda’s. Note: I don’t really follow Linked Universe, and I don’t like a lot of their takes on the Links, so uh, don’t assume these Zelda’s dealt with the LU versions of the Links.

SS: goes by Hylia, she jokingly suggests it when they’re picking nicknames, and everyone else just pauses for a second then realises who exactly she is and freaks the fuck out, so it kinda sticks as a combination of an in-joke and just... well, she’s Hylia reborn, can’t argue with that! The others are all low-key taken aback by how not-leadery she is, she tends to be the most hands-off when it comes to planning because well- she just guards the triforce, Link is the one who earned all 3 pieces and used it’s full power. Meanwhile her descendants picked up Wisdom sometime in the intervening centuries, so she’s pretty happy to leave the plans to them and stick to being a mediator. Third most likely Zelda to pick a fight she can’t win, most likely to win despite that.

Minish Cap: goes by Shortie, bc these beanpoles tried that with Tetra and she threatened to stab them, but Minish just found it hilarious so it stuck. Surprisingly quick to pick up how to fight, occasionally gets the other Zelda’s into trouble by running off, but they usually agree with her that whatever caught her eye was actually pretty worth it, because deep down they’re all massive nerds, no matter how functional they appear. Also tends to randomly grab gifts for the other Zeldas.

Four Swords: just goes by Four, jokes about how much her Hero(es) would be annoyed by that. Usually the first to notice encroaching danger, and always the first to investigate it. At first the more combat-experienced Zelda’s were Concerned(tm) that she is the one sticking herself into unknown dangers, until she pointed out that A) she is considerably less likely to get herself caught unless Sheik wants to go, bc she knows she has less leeway to get caught than they are and B) they won’t be down a fighter for the rescue if she’s the one who gets caught, which they reluctantly concede.

OoT: goes by Regrets, which like, the other Zelda’s just hear her bitterly pick as soon as the topic comes up and immediately decide they aren’t touching that emotional baggage. It’s an mix of Child and Adult timeline Zelda, which kinda fucks her up when she thinks about it- especially seeing as she remebers both Ganondorf breaking free and killing one of the Seven Sages in the child timeline, and what became of the Hero of Time... who she remembers clinging to the thought he got to have the childhood he rightfully should’ve in the Adult Timeline, as the waves climbed up over Hyrule to seal the awakened and unchallenged Ganondorf. So yeah, she tries not to. She also remembers the start of the Defeat Timeline, where she was too late to save the Hero and was forced to lead the exhausted and scattered remains of her people to war to kill the Demon King.

Wind Waker: literally just Tetra, she also is the first to look at the less murder-happy Zeldas and give them a knife. She’s currently working on getting them all up to basic pirate crew levels of fighting without magic, just in case, and she’s constantly pestering the fight-y Zelda’s to a spar. Regrets goes along because she’s had three slightly different Zelda’s merged in her head so her skills are a little rusty, Hylia likes to do it just because people keep forgetting she learned to fight at the same school Link did, and their responses when she reminds them are funny to her. Tetra is picked up from after establishing New Hyrule, and she looks up to Hylia more than she’s willing to admit, often going to her for advice on the whole ‘founding a nation in peaceful cohabitation with the locals’ thing. Second most likely to start a fight she can’t win.

Spirit Tracks: goes by Ghost, refuses to explain the joke to any of the others and thinks she’s hilarious for it. She is, but she doesn’t need the ego stoke. They find out about the ghost thing when she accidently astral projects in her sleep at one point and wakes up to them freaking out over her corpse, which is implied to happen often. Tetra notices that she’s really really weird to train as a fighter, because she already fights pretty well but she also fights like she’s a giant fuck-off suit of armour with a sword as big as she is. She finds it amazing to get to meet Tetra, and is constantly asking her if various stories she heard as a child are actually true or if her mother just made them up or exaggerated. They were not, and Ghost thinks Tetra is the coolest person on the planet for it.

Twilight Princess: goes by Twilight, out of tribute to Midna’s nickname for her. Absolutely misses Midna, respects Regrets more than Regrets thinks she should, but she still angsts a lot about how she just surrendered to the unkillable army its implied she’s the only one who could even see properly who could turn them all into ghos- ahem. I may or may not have opinions about people thinking it’s the wrong decision from out of universe. But yeah, she absolutely angsts about it, and really looks up to Tetra and Regrets bc at least they acted, she just sat in her tower and waited for the hero she knew would be coming. Saying that though, she indulged Tetra’s pestering to fite exactly once (1), and promptly kicked her ass and went back to her book. Because really, what else was she going to do with all that free time while Link was fishing to win a Heart Container and she couldn’t leave her room? Ganondorf had to get the idea to have her use a sword somewhere.

FSA: Even among Zelda's, she stands out for how friendly she is- more than once she brought a ‘new friend’ back to camp who’d been trying to kill them seconds earlier. This got her the nickname Torch, because she shines light into even the darkest of creatures- although, Hylia would like it if she never interacted with any of the mini-Imprisoned from HW ever again please and thank you, that was a step too far for exotic pets.

(I’ll do a followup post for the Defeat Timeline, it has a lot of the older games I haven’t played and need to familiarise myself with the characters in, and it’s already getting late)

Hyrule Warriors: goes by Sheik, was unironically ready to fight her ancestor for the name, but Regrets doesn’t really care. Speaking of regrets, upon learning that Regrets did the exact same disguise in the Adult timeline, Sheik immediately wants to go stab Cia (and maybe Lana too) for letting her think she was getting away with the disguise when Cia had literally seen the exact same trick just one timeline over. (post post-game definitive edition, so Cia has her redemption arc) She also was never meant to be the bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom, and views it as a burden- without Cia’s interference, the Triforce of Wisdom and it’s visions would’ve been passively sitting in the royal vaults instead of etched into her hand, but fate got confused when the Triforce had been split, but the one who should inherit Wisdom was much better suited to Courage. This leads to a bit of a disconnect sometimes, where fate has changed her into a suitable host for the Triforce of Wisdom, but she just kinda isn’t one. She’s also a MASSIVE nerd (I saw those TP references in Linkle’s Twilight stage Nintendo! She literally started dropping random history quotes after almost dying, the nerd) so she’s constantly fangirling over all her famous ancestors, because if anyone had managed to hear legends from all 3 timelines, it would be HW Zelda. The most likely to pick a fight she can’t win, she literally only pretends to be functional and have impulse control when they’re in her Hyrule and her people can see her.

BOTW:

Both BoTW Zeldas avoid each other like the plague because yeah, that’s a physical manifestation of my failures. They’re not consolidated like OoT was for bonus angst- because just merging them would show her there’s a happier timeline where all of her friends survived and Hyrule didn’t fall and crumble to ruins while she and Link took a 100 year nap.

AoC: goes by Terrako, because why the hell not. Has Terrako with her, which gets confusing, but he’s an adorable Eggy Boi, and basically team mascot. Is using her Master Cycle+Sheikah Slate movesets, bc she tried to use her Goddess bow moveset and reality just kinda glitched bc there were two Zelda’s using the exact same power, and they both agreed to never try that again.

BoTW: goes by Architect, because that’s what she spends half her time doing these days. Regularly nerds out with Sheik. Low-key dying inside from self-worth issues rearing up again now that she’s hanging out with all these legendary queens, but tries not to let it show and keep with a positive attitude, too mixed results.

#legend of zelda #linked universe #zelda #spirit tracks

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shadlad24 · 3 years

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An Unsung Hero

So, what if...

Aphrodite was Gabrielle’s secret hero throughout The Rift Arc and beyond? What if she was one of the gods whom the bard prayed to just before releasing the basket carrying her Hope? What if, wanting to offset Dahak’s influence over the child, Gabrielle also asked Aphrodite to teach her baby love, and Aphrodite’s slight misunderstanding about that request is where Hope’s overwhelming desire for her mother originated? Why Hope didn’t stay in Brittania with her father’s cult and the banshees but pursued Gabrielle to Greece?

What too if Dahak learned of Aphrodite’s interference and so banished her to the limbo-land Callisto got stuck in so that his daughter would have a clear path to her mother? And if Aphrodite didn’t escape until Hope let her out as a last resort following Callisto’s failures? What then, if Hope forced Aphrodite to help her be reborn, and Hope’s first cocoon was of Aphrodite’s creation?

Imagine next, if after encasing Hope in that cocoon, Aphrodite immediately went to find Gabrielle only to locate her friend swirling beneath the waterfall in Amazonia with Xena. Aphrodite would likely go to the Fates for help and play a part in creating Illusia, eh?* And she would likely get Athena to give her blessing for Gabrielle to be healed after everything the poor bard suffered in “The Bitter Suite” too.

Then I could see Aphrodite wanting a break. Maybe she’d come around to giving Gabrielle a break too upon finding that she couldn’t stay away from the bard for too long. Perhaps she’d concoct some nonsense scheme involving a diamond and strange obsessions as a way to help Gabrielle love herself again (not to mention, get Xena to stop being so careless with Gabrielle and taking her for granted so much), same as Aphrodite helped Gabrielle regain her lost sense of power and agency (after being tricked into losing her blood innocence by someone she considered a friend and love interest, sexually assaulted, forced to carry and bear an inhuman child, and then having no choice but to give her precious baby up to keep her best friend from killing it) by blessing one of her scrolls to make whatever Gabrielle wrote in it spring into being or to happen. Hm…

Anyway, after that, I think Aphrodite would try again to distance herself from Gabrielle, due to fearing Dahak and what he’d already done to her for helping his chosen one, in addition to the threat he posed to Olympus overall. But Aphrodite would never allow Gabrielle to lose her life to that monster. The goddess would swoop in at the last second and rescue her friend from the lava pit and Dahak, take her to a secret oasis no one else could access.

Ares would know about his sister’s plot but misunderstand her intentions. He’d think Aphrodite wanted Gabrielle to herself for the rest of the bard’s life, leaving him free and clear to marry Xena, to lie to her about having Gabrielle’s soul and more. (I can’t be the only one who finds it extremely suspect that Ares couldn’t produce Gabrielle after he and Xena made their deal, or even months later, despite supposedly having the bard in his possession, can I?)

But Aphrodite would only keep Gabrielle for a few months, until the latter recovered and began to miss her soulmate too much. Thus, Aphrodite would return the bard to her home, right into Xena’s path. Gabrielle would forget about the oasis and everything that happened there due to old charms put up around it long ago to maintain Aphrodite’s security. After all, the goddess of love isn’t the best at reversing her spells. Too, this would explain why Gabrielle appeared out of nowhere looking fabulous and/but with no real memory of what happened to her over the summer.

So, what? So what if all this were so? ...Well, it’s an interesting possibility, isn’t it? And it sure helps make Aphrodite’s decision to choose Gabrielle over her own family (whom she’d known and loved for millennia, mind you) make more sense, eh? I think so, anyway. X’D

...Would anyone like to read all this in greater detail and story-form? If so, then let me know! :D

---

*I know that Gabrielle assumes Solan made Illusia for her and Xena, but I think she’s wrong. Deities who watched over the women would be much better able to create Illusia than an ordinary child who died knowing next to nothing about them could, no? Don’t forget that Solan not only lacked supernatural powers, he also chose to go to Tartarus; he wouldn’t have been able to hear Xena and Gabrielle’s thoughts about him, their story and struggles, after he died. So, he couldn’t have conjured up facsimiles of Ming T’ien, Dahak, or anyone else who populated Illusia. Nor could he have escaped Tartarus without Hades’s helmet or capturing the Fates. Also, yes, facsimiles. Many of Illusia’s inhabitants weren’t actually there— Lila, Ares, Joxer, Callisto, etc.— so, why not Solan as well? Remember how Xena killed Gabrielle in Illusia, only for the bard to dissolve, just like Solan did at the end of the episode? …Yeah.

Another piece of potential evidence for this part of the theory? The mermaid dreamland that Gabrielle fell into only after being knocked into the water (the same way she got to Illusia, by the way) by Aphrodite reminded me a lot of the musical realm, if only for virtue of its sheer wackiness and Gabrielle-restoring focus. heh

#fan theory #xena #xena warrior princess #xena and gabrielle #xena and ares #gabrielle and aphrodite #aphrodite #the rift arc #season three #the fates #dahak #hope #solan #ares #gaphrodite

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desiree-harding-fic · 4 years

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A TAZ Cinderella AU

You guessed it, folks, this is the full arc of what my Cinderella!au would have been for the Adventure Zone, if I had the time/inspiration to write the whole thing. Just imagine that all of this is paced out over a bunch of chapters of very pretty words, ok? ;)

That said, enjoy! I’m actually very proud of the thing I concocted in my my head for this!

To begin, a quick run-down of the situation as it stands at the beginning of the fic: Mostly Taakitz-centric, Blupjeans as a side plot. Kravitz is the Crown Prince of Faerun, his mother the Raven Queen current ruler of the kingdom, and him as her only son. Taako and Lup’s parents are both dead, and they live with their mother’s father: their grandfather Tostaada, along with the many aunts and uncles and cousins from Tostaada’s other children.

Tostaada has a house, several days travel (at least) from Neverwinter, a typical country home for the well-to-do. He’s somewhere between gentry and nobility, but his wealth has been in decline, as is often the case in these stories. His mistreatment of Taako and Lup comes from a disdain for their father. And it provides a convenient excuse not to pay servants.

Summary of the arc proper under the cut:

So we begin with a prologue (posted here) in which we see Kravitz and Taako, around the early teenage years (14-ish) and just get a little taste of how different their lives are.

Chapter one (also here) kicks off with Kravitz sneaking out of the castle in the early morning for a ride, musing at how busy he is and how stressful his life is trying to be in charge of a whole kingdom, etc. Upon his return, Barry, the royal head arcanist, and Kravitz’s friend, is waiting for him, and informs him that he has a meeting scheduled this morning with the Royal Council.

The Royal Council was originally meant to be a B plot in the story, something to help drive the thing forward, in part because I couldn’t think of a reason as to why the Raven Queen, who adores her son, would force him into marriage. There had to be an outside pressure. So the council was born.

The council was created during the reign of Kravitz’s grandfather, as a way of giving the people a say and lessening the power of absolute monarchy in Faerun, which was falling out of fashion. That was the intent, but, as we find out in the first chapter, the council is now filled with noblemen who haven’t really got the people’s best interests in mind, at least in Kravitz’s humble opinion, and get a good deal of say over what he does. There was never anything enacted that would allow Kravitz to either disband the council or enact term limits, and now, if he were to put such a thing to a vote, it would never go through.

The original council consisted of: Lord Sterling (Artemis’s father), Jenkins, Gundren & Jack (both recently deceased at the opening of the story), Governor Kalen, and Davenport. I promise this will be relevant later.

So in our first chapter the Raven Queen pulls Kravitz aside after his meeting and tells him, over a very tense tea, that he is turning 25 in a couple of months, and the council, as well as foreign powers, are getting nervous that he has no martial prospects yet, and as the Raven Queen has no other relations to carry on the monarchy in Kravitz’s stead, they kind of need to get a move on. Having it so that the Royal line could die out any minute isn’t great for cultivating confidence in the people of your kingdom.

Kravitz is understandably upset, being the romantic that he is (I love him), and he wants nothing less than to be married as the result of some political power play. And yet, there is low probability, at least in his mind, that anyone that will be “suitable” according to his mother, the council, and the people both in Faerun and abroad, will be anyone that he will even remotely like. But what can he do? He agrees to begin the process of finding a spouse at this year’s Harvest Ball, which will coincide closely with his 25th birthday.

Barry is actually the one that gives Kravitz the idea of throwing the doors open to the whole of Faerun, and Kravitz, seeing it as an opportunity to meet men who aren’t stuffy nobles he hates, strikes a bargain with his mother: a masked ball, three nights long. Kravitz will not know (in theory) who is wealthy and powerful and who is not, and will be able to choose at his discretion someone that he would like to pursue. Shockingly, the Queen agrees.

*~*~*~*~*

SMASHCUT to Tostaada’s country home. We see Lup and Taako going about their morning routine, making breakfast for the family, lighting the fires in the hearth, generally working their asses off. Mid-breakfast, there’s a knock at the door, one that Taako goes to answer. (This is a no-no. He’s meant to be more of a behind-the-scenes servant, Lup being the one who is seen. She’s slightly more favored by Tostaada. Taako is hated. But Lup is in the middle of something, so...) It’s a letter from the Raven Queen, an invitation actually, to the family Taaco, to come to Neverwinter for the three-night Harvest Ball.

The Queen’s intentions of finding her son a husband are not directly stated, but Tostaada is a shrewd, terrible old man, and it does not take him a moment to catch on. The family packs up, Taako and Lup and all, and heads to Neverwinter, the ball two weeks away.

While they’re packing, Lup pulls Taako aside and tells him her plan. They’ll be in Neverwinter for almost two weeks, ball included. And the whole kingdom will be swarming to the city for this, it will be more crowded than ever, and therefore will give them the perfect opportunity to run away from Tostaada. He’ll be so preoccupied he’ll never be able to track them down in the chaos of this event. Taako hesitates for just a second before he’s on board. They’ll run away mid-ball, when the family is gone, and by the time Tostaada realizes anything, it’ll be too late.

*~*~*~*~*

SMASHCUT back to Krav, chilling in the palace, it’s now two weeks before the ball (around the same time that Taako and co. get the letter, actually,) and preparations are well underway. During another busy day of overseeing some of the prep for the upcoming Massive Festival (TM), Kravitz runs across Captain Davenport, just returned from a long stint at sea.

They have a conversation about the state of affairs in the kingdom, Kravitz expressing his frustration at not only the ineptitude but corruption on the council, and his worries about this marital plan. He knows that Lord Sterling is going to throw his son Artemis at him relentlessly, but he hates the kid, and wants nothing to do with him, etc.

Davenport merely expresses that he has faith in Kravitz’s ability to turn it all around and make for a good king. That the recent loss of Gundren and Jack and the dragging on of the council replacing them doesn’t bode well, but that he needs to see the thing through.

He unfortunately agrees with the rest of the council, however, that Kravitz needs to be married, and soon. There’s only so long they can go dragging this out. Kravitz sees the sense in this and agrees, albeit reluctantly. At least he has the opportunity to find someone he actually likes.

Meanwhile, Taako, Lup, Tostaada and the family have arrived in Neverwinter and will be staying in a fine manor house in the upscale residential part of the city, and the family immediately sets out to find tailors and seamstresses who can get them all dressed up for the inevitable ball. The house is in shambles on the inside, the only way Tostaada could get it cheap, and Lup and Taako spend the afternoon trying to fix it up to live-able standards and clean it enough so that should the family be called upon, they’ll at least look respectable.

In the meantime, no one is home, and they begin to plan their escape.

They plan it for the third night of the ball. Tostaada will be furious if they leave sooner, being left with no servants to assist any upcoming nights. The third night, once the family leaves for the party, they’ll be in the clear. If Tostaada manages an advantageous match for any one of the cousins, he won’t bother with Taako and Lup anymore, and get better servants. It’s highly likely that in the next two weeks he’ll make several matches, so after the party is done they should be as safe as possible given their plan.

*~*~*~*~*

Everyone spends a week getting ready.

Istus, friend of the Raven Queen from a neighboring kingdom, arrives to the palace. She will be staying for the celebration, and for a while on either end. She and the Raven Queen have a conversation, in which the Raven Queen expresses her anxiety about the upcoming matchmaking process for her son. She does not want his marriage to end up like hers (loveless, purely political). She asks Istus if she will use some of her divination skills to look into the future. Istus agrees, and it is clear that she sees something very intriguing in Kravitz’s future. She does not say what it is, but she assures her Majesty not to worry.

The day of the ball arrives.

Now by some trick of fate, one of the cousins has received the wrong suit by accident, and Lup simply must go to the tailor and send it back, and retrieve the one he was supposed to receive at any cost. So Lup goes, and Taako doesn’t think much of it until she bursts back into the attic that evening, two garment bags in her hands. She says that there was a mistake, and that a noble man and woman didn’t pick up their garments for whatever reason; the week has been so chaotic anyway, and there was talk of them falling ill and being unable to attend the ball tonight, and the woman at the tailor shop felt so bad about the mistaken order she offered to alter them to fit Tostaada’s family for free, as a sort of “so sorry about the mistake” thing, and Lup said she would just take them, and isn’t it exciting Taako, we can use these and go to the ball tonight!

Taako is reluctant to accept this plan, but Lup says they’ll only go one night, just to see the spectacle, and then they can be home for the other two and prepare to run away, and besides, they’re starting a new life and this will be a fun way to kick it off, and the outfits even come with masks, Taako, please?

Taako finally relents, and they spend the rest of the afternoon getting the cousins ready to go to the ball themselves, along with the aunts and uncles and Tostaada himself, who is in one of his moods. It’s awful, but they finally get a moment away, and they sneak up to the attic to pull out their garments...

And they get caught. Tostaada never comes upstairs, but he was calling for them, one of the cousins having forgotten a brooch or something, they weren’t answering, and when he comes upstairs and sees them, he takes the garments, drags the twins downstairs, and lets the cousins laugh at them until they’re in tears, and the family rip the dress and the suit to shreds.

The thought that they would even show themselves is so repulsive to Tostaada, and he gets angry at the presumption of it all, and he locks them downstairs in the kitchen for the duration of the evening, the door swinging shut behind him with a heavy clang.

Lup is furious, Taako more resigned, as the house quiets with the eventual departure of the family.

An hour passes with them sitting in the kitchen under the house, Lup cursing her luck. If not for her stupid idea to go, they wouldn’t be in here, locked in, and they could work on their preparations to leave two nights hence. But now they’re completely useless.

The latch on the door to the outside of the house, the small yard in the back with the meager kitchen garden, comes undone, and swings open of its own accord.

A woman is there. Or at least it looks like a woman; she is cloaked, head to toe, even her face obscured, but there’s a shimmer in the air around her that they recognize immediately as magic.

Taako and Lup have been learning magic, little by little. Taako stole a book from the village a little over a year ago, but it’s slow going, especially with Tostaada always trying to catch them doing something “indecent.”

They’ve never seen anything like this.

The mysterious woman tells them she heard Lup’s frustrated shouting while walking by and wanted to see if they needed any help. Once they thank her for letting them out, she asks them why they haven’t decided to go to the ball; two young people like them at home on a night like this seems strange. Lup scoffs, says they thought about going for a moment, but they have nothing to wear.

Istus (for by now the reader surely knows it is Istus) cocks her head and says that that won’t do, will it? And raises her hands.

And in a moment their clothes are transformed, and Lup is dressed in a gorgeous gown in reds and golds, and feathered mask is on her face, and Taako’s in a finely made suit, his mask vaguely rodential. And the woman says that now they are well-suited for a ball. Taako and Lup are just gaping at her, but she shoos them along. Go, she says, and Taako feels a peculiar prickle up his spine when she tells them, when she tells him, it feels like, to amuse himself, to have a good time, to meet new people.

She warns them that while her magic is powerful, which is evident, it is sensitive to time. Wherever they are, at the stroke of midnight, the magic will fade, and their appearances will revert to what they were before.

Lup and Taako, wanting to go only for a few laughs and to spite Tostaada, say that this is more than enough time.

And they go.

When they arrive at the palace, it’s positively swarmed with people. They agree to meet by the front doors at a half hour before midnight, giving them plenty of time to get out without being seen.

And they go in.

They’re being jostled on all sides, and well, as much as they’d like to stick together it doesn’t really work out that way, and before he knows it, Taako is in the midst of a ballroom looking for Lup, and following the flow of the crowd -

And suddenly he’s face-to-face (or, well, mask-to-mask) with a very handsomely dressed man with a skull for a face.

A skull mask, to be exact, all silver and gold filigree and done up with rubies and diamonds, and his suit is fine, dark velvet in rich blacks and deep, deep reds, and he bows and Taako does, too, because he feels as though it’s the thing to do, and when the man straightens up he and Taako trade the typical small-talk befitting a prince and his guest (because, Taako realizes, with as many people seem to be looking at them, that is surely who this must be), and Taako says something witty that makes Kravitz laugh which I will not write here, because this is a summary, which means all I have to do is say when the jokes happen; I don’t actually have to write them.

Long story short, Kravitz pulls off his mask, and he asks Taako to dance.

The anonymity Kravitz was hoping to be afforded by throwing a masked ball has not really panned out. Everyone can tell exactly which mask the prince is behind, and once the receiving line began to form, there was really nothing for it. He likes the Mongoose-masked stranger, though, and would very much like to know him better. And so what if he’s abandoning the rest of the line? He’s the prince, thank you very much, and he can do what he likes.

Taako is sold the moment the prince pulls his mask off, because the prince is hot, and Taako feels rather gorgeous himself, and maybe this is the first night in a while that he’s had any kind of serious fun and he’s feeling a bit reckless, so he pulls his mask off too and they have a dance.

Or two.

Or three, talking all the while.

After the third, the prince bows respectfully and says he must see to his other guests, but that he hopes to see Taako again, and Taako, maybe just a little flustered, wanders over to the food.

Meanwhile, Lup entered the ballroom, having gotten a bit lost on the way in, shortly after the fateful meeting itself and what does she see but her brother, unmasked, dancing with a man who is most unmistakably the prince.

Which is really just perfect, isn’t it?

She pouts for a minute because one beautiful elf will hardly draw any attention in this crowd, except Taako’s dancing with the crown prince, so every eye in the assembly is fixed upon him, and seeing an identical twin will definitely lead to some word getting around. So Lup is confined to remaining masked for the duration of the ball.

Which isn’t so bad, since she was expecting that, after all, but neither is she looking forward to it.

She skirts the edge of the ballroom, finds her way to some refreshment tables, and she’s lucky her mask leaves most of the bottom half of her face free as she nibbles on the hors d’oeuvres set out and generally enjoys the spectacle. She is propositioned to dance a few times but after the prince removes his mask a large portion of the assembly does as well, and Lup rather sticks out for keeping hers on.

She isn’t given much more attention, then, as all of the other people around seem to write off the mask as a wish to stay hidden and therefore ignored, and while they aren’t wrong, Lup isn’t enjoying the ball half as much as she thought.

And then things go from bad to worse.

Some moron completely knocks into her and sends her drink, a strong red wine, all down the front of her, granted, magical and temporary, but very nice dress.

Lup’s going to be mad, but the man is so sweet about it, stammering his apologies, and completely red in the face and, frankly, such a dork that she really can’t be mad, and he does about some ridiculous business about trying mop up the wine and it’s completely hopeless, and Lup is bored -

So she tries casting prestidigitation on the stain.

And, somewhat to her surprise, it works.

This catches the man’s attention, who immediately straightens up and starts asking her questions about where she’s learned magic, and what other spells she knows, and what her name is. Lup, in a moment of impulse, introduces herself as Lady Lulu, which she cringes at immediately but sticks with. And the man is nice to talk to, and interesting, and apparently an expert in the arcane, which Lup is thrilled about. Out of all these people she ran into someone actually interesting.

At one point, she invites the man to dance, but he refuses, a bit awkwardly. He says he’s not very coordinated, but he wouldn’t mind taking a walk, if she wouldn’t mind either? Lup is going to say yes, but upon glancing at the clock, sees that it’s almost eleven-thirty, and tells him she has to go.

Taako, meanwhile, has danced with Kravitz twice more, and chatted a bit, and when he tries to extricate himself from his Highness’s presence Kravitz seems genuinely disappointed to see him go, and asks him if he’ll be back tomorrow night.

Taako, suddenly overcome with something that makes him want to make this man smile, says yes.

And then he goes to meet Lup at the front.

They head home, making their way through the streets which are not quite as crowded as the palace was, but are still significantly busy, as those who felt they would not be at home in the palace have taken to celebrating the harvest ball in the streets. Lup and Taako make it home unnoticed, and they chat a little bit about what they saw and what they did, and when Lup teases Taako about the prince, he’s unusually quiet. This worries Lup a bit, but she doesn’t press further.

Their clothes transform when they’re about 3/4 of the way home. When they arrive, they figure they have a few hours until the family gets home to begin making preparations for their escape. Around three, they shut themselves back up in the kitchen. Lup manages to find, from the outside, a way around the locked door that i haven’t decided on yet, because this is just a summary.

Wash, rinse, repeat. The twins are on their best behavior the next day as Tostaada and co. sleep through the morning, having been up late the night before, and while no one comes to call that afternoon, Tostaada still has high hopes for a match. Lup and Taako are locked in the kitchen, manage to get out -

And now, Taako has been nervous all day having promised the prince he would be back, and surprisingly, quite wanting to see him again. He’s pacing the floor when Istus arrives, transforms their clothes, and sends them off.

Lup is more than a little skeptical about this magic woman, but Taako wants to go, so she goes, and tries to put the bizarre-ness of it out of her mind.

Taako goes to the ball, meets up with Kravitz, and this time Kravitz doesn’t leave his side all night. Lup wanders around, still masked, until she runs into Barry again (not literally this time) and makes good on that walk in the gardens he asked her for last night. They both make it to the gates again by eleven-thirty, and make it home.

This night, however, something tips Tostaada off. Maybe it’s the way Taako moves, or maybe it’s his own paranoia, but something happens at the ball that makes him suspicious. I will not hash out what it is at this time because, again: Summary.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Istus, on the third night, gives Taako his most fabulous ensemble yet, a beautiful thing in deep blue and silver and gives him jewelry set in sapphires and, you guessed it, pink tourmaline (because I’m predictable). Including, most importantly, a pair of bracelets. As Lup is locking up the kitchen to go, Istus pulls Taako aside and hands him the bracelets, and tells him that they will not dissipate at midnight. She hints vaguely at Taako and Lup’s plans to go away after the ball is over, tells him to consider the bracelets a gift. They are two of a kind, she tells him, and perhaps they will fetch a price.

Taako does not know why this woman knows so much about their life, but he’s eager to get to the party, accepts the bracelets, and before he can ask her more, she’s gone.

They head out to the ball for the third time.

It is this night that we get the majority of the material between Taako and Kravitz. Kravitz, this time, is waiting right inside the door to the ballroom, and when Taako arrives he is immediately swept up by the prince into a dance. Although, after a few hours of dancing and eating and generally enjoying themselves in the ballroom, they take a walk in the gardens.

Meanwhile, it is at this time that we get the scene where Barry has been chatting Lup up, quite obliviously, and finally he asks her if she’d like to see his lab, unable to take it anymore, he’s so excited that someone’s interested in his work. Lup, of course, thinks it’s a come-on, as discussed here, but upon going up to Barry’s tower lab she realizes that he actually, genuinely was inviting her up to look at his research which is just... too cute.

Meanwhile, Taako and Kravitz are taking a stroll through the extensive terraced palace gardens, talking all the while and the both of them are just... enamored. Taako feels beautiful and important for the first time in a long time and it’s wonderful. Kravitz has found someone interesting and gorgeous and wonderful, and it’s just... too much. It’s hard to write in short form here that they’re in love, but they like... are. Just trust me. Not fully, because it’s only been a few meetings, a few nights, but there’s something there. There’s a pull that they haven’t felt before, and feels somehow beyond them.

They wander, and the gardens are beautiful, and the moonlight is beautiful, and they end up on a sort of terrace, secluded by trees, and the sea is down below them and they dance again, just the two of them, and then there’s kissing and it’s all very romantic, I promise. There’s a scene from it here.

Then the clock strikes midnight.

And Taako panics.

The time got away from him, he got distracted, and he tries to run, but Kravitz catches his hand and he’s begging Taako to stay but Taako can’t, because Kravitz doesn’t know what’s going on here.

He thinks fast. He unclasps one of the bracelets and places it in Kravitz’s hand and says so fast that if Kravitz wants to see him again he can look for him and Taako will have the other bracelet ok bye and then he runs.

He barely makes it out of the palace in time.

But of course, by this time, Lup is not at the front gates. They planned out a fallback location, less conspicuous, if one of them got held up, and Taako is already late, and he gets there as fast as he can, and Lup is pissed.

(she’s mostly just worried).

She kind of goes at him for being late but Taako just says he lost track of time, and whatever that feeling is in his voice makes Lup back off. She’s never heard Taako sound like that before. She lets it go, but she’s more worried than before.

They make their way home, ready to pick up their packs and run like they were planning. But they open the door to the kitchen, and there’s a thud, and a candle lights, and Tostaada is there, the contents of their packs spread out before him, and absolute fury in his eyes.

It’s awful. After his suspicion, he saw Taako enter the ball tonight. And knew it was him. And he was furious. He came home, headed them off, and yells at them something fierce, locking them in separate closets to deal with them, because they can’t be trusted to be together, they’ll scheme. (Some of the cousins, by the way, are here for this, because fuck the cousins).

They try desperately to break out. Banging on the door, trying to bust out the doorknob, to cast something on the door to unlock it, but they’ve been going three days only getting a couple hours of sleep a night. It finally hits them how exhausted they are. After a while, there’s nothing they can do.

Now you may say to yourself “this is awfully convenient.” And you would be right. But it’s also a fairytale, and this is a summary of a fairytale, so there.

Tostaada, because he fucking sucks, finds some way to separate the twins. Probably something along the lines of dragging Taako out of his “cell” and being like guess what I’ve always hated you and I’m a real bastard so you’re working for this shady caravan now, have a good time. Taako is Not Down to be separated from his sister but he’s also like hey fuck you to Tostaada and is going to dip from that caravan in about 30 seconds so he’s like yeah have a nice life, too, dickweed.

He slips away from the caravan in like... a day. Fuck those guys. He’s gonna go back and get Lup.

And just a bit later, Lup gets let out of the closet, and finds out that Taako’s gone. And she goes fucking berserk. She casts her first fireball (yes I know that’s now how it works in DnD but shhhhhhh it’s fine).

She burns Tostaada’s fucking dumbass city house to the ground. And Tostaada and the cousins are panicking but Lup is honestly like fuck the cousins, and she slips away in the chaos. Fuck Tostaada. Fuck the family. Lup’s going to go find her fucking brother.

*~*~*~*~*

We haven’t checked in on Kravitz in a hot minute, but he’s been completely smitten with Taako from the moment he met him, and has been saying as much to Mama Bird herself, the Raven Queen, who has been... a little less than stoked. She is skeptical because this isn’t going exactly as planned, and on top of that, Kravitz hasn’t even learned this man’s name. He’s an absolute enigma, and Raven worries not only that this man will potentially not be a good asset to the kingdom, but he also might not turn up and completely break Kravitz’s heart.

But Kravitz stands firm. The Queen said he could make his choice, well, he’s going to. He’s going to go after this guy.

...Or so he thinks. See, the Royal Council, as in all things, gets their say. And they’re not happy with this. Generally disapproving when Kravitz tries to make his own decisions, they say absolutely not to his wish to search for Taako. Raven tries to help by talking them down from letting them handle the search and keeping Kravitz in the capital to letting Kravitz go himself but only giving him a few months time. If he hasn’t found Taako by then, he’s going to have to call off the search altogether and look for another match.

It’s not good, but it’s something. Kravitz takes his bracelet and begins seeking out every elf in the land who even vaguely matches Taako’s description.

*~*~*~*~*

The elf in question is, at this point, on his own. Meeting up with your sister when you have no idea where she is and she has no idea where you are, and you’re running back and forth and missing each other, well. It’s difficult.

It takes them a little while to get back together, and I’m sure there are plenty of minor trials and tribulations along the way. I won’t go into them all here, because this is a summary.

*~*~*~*~*

Kravitz is on the move, looking for Taako. He searches and searches and comes up with nothing. It’s been two months. It’s almost the height of winter. He’s running out of his allotted time for his search. And that’s when it happens.

He’s riding through this one town, a ways from the capital, when he sees, there, out of the corner of his eye, a flash of silver and blue and maybe some pink, and he turns his head, and there’s the bracelet. The one Taako gave him.

But it’s not on Taako’s wrist.

Kravitz calls for the guards travelling with him and they stop the woman and they question her as to where she got that bracelet. She says that she bought it off a travelling salesman, and seems rather embarrassed about it. She’s reluctant to give it up, having bought it fair and square, but Kravitz pays her, and gets it back.

Kravitz is, of course, heartbroken. Taako said he would have the other bracelet. He told Kravitz to look for him. He said to look for him. If he gave it up, if he sold it, does it mean he doesn’t want to see Kravitz again after all?

Kravitz wants answers for a minute. But then he listens to reason. Or so he thinks. Discouraged, he returns to the capital, as per Lord Sterling’s suggestion.

Many people and things are trying to keep these two apart. It is at this point that these forces begin to win.

So he goes home, in time for the first snow to cover Neverwinter.

*~*~*~*~*

What Taako and Lup are up to in the meantime:

It’s pretty close to canon in that they mostly hop from job to job, and caravan to caravan, taking odd jobs and cooking and making their way. And it’s hard. It’s really hard. But something about it is good. This is the first time they’ve had, maybe in their whole lives, to just be in charge of themselves. They’re deciding their own destiny now.

Lup can see that Taako is different. Something has changed. The news that the prince is looking for him isn’t a secret at all, so she keeps a careful eye on him for how he feels about that. She brings it up a few times that maybe they could come forward in their own way, maybe let people know that he’s out there, but Taako keeps shutting her down before she can really talk about it.

As for Taako, he’s more than thrilled to finally be free of Tostaada, and to have his sister back after a few months of absence. But the whole thing at the ball and with Kravitz is... weighing on his mind.

I should explain the bracelet fiasco.

See, Taako and Lup returned from the ball, and the whole thing with Tostaada went down. Of course, while he was deciding what to do with Taako he confiscated the bracelet, and sold it off a bit later for whatever he could get. This is how it was able to travel so far from where Taako actually is; the jewelry seller went one way, Taako another, and Tostaada and the family, when they finally left Neverwinter, a third.

This is all running through Taako’s mind of course. It would be nice for Kravitz to find him, sure, but Taako was the one who set up the system of verification through the bracelet. Without it, what credibility does he have? And sure, maybe Kravitz will recognize him, but what if he doesn’t? It was dark, and it was only a few nights, and -

Anyway, Taako’s not going to worry about it. He’s fine, really, and it was only a few nights anyway, and what does he care about the dumb old prince. It’s not like Kravitz said he wanted to marry him. He just said he wanted to see him again. What the hell does that mean? And it’s not like Taako was the only one he spent time with at the ball.

Basically our sweet boy is snackin’ on a big slice of denial pie and it’s very sad.

Taako is saying that he doesn’t care whether he sees Kravitz again or not, but Lup can tell something is wrong. She suggests that they stick around in Faerun, work for the winter, and come spring, they’ll head out. They’ll hitch their way with the caravans, and work their way over the border. New country, new life. Leave all that Tostaada shit and everything behind.

Taako’s on board. They find themselves a job cooking and occasionally tending the bar at an inn, not a gross one but not the fanciest either. They’re going to work up some money, and they’re going to hit the road.

But back to Kravitz.

*~*~*~*~*

Kravitz is back home at the palace in Neverwinter. The first snow on the not-very-aptly named city makes traveling difficult. If Kravitz hadn’t already given up the dream of Taako, it would well and truly be impossible to find him now. No one in their right mind would send a search party out in the winter months.

So he’s essentially on house arrest.

And so begins the parade of potential partners. Everyone knows about the ball. Everyone knows now that the plan of having the prince find a partner there was a colossal failure. Every young and eligible nobleman in the capital who is even remotely interested in men gets thrown at this boy. Artemis Sterling most of all, a spoiled brat of a boy, who, when he’s not being absolutely appalling to people is boring them to death.

Kravitz is fucking miserable.

Does this make him think of Taako? Yes. Does he miss him? Absolutely. Does it only twist the knife of heartbreak in this boy who thought he had found someone good and then that person gave him up? 100 percent.

Kravitz is ready to jump off the cliffs out back the palace into the Stillwater Sea and swim to a new country when the word from Raven’s Roost comes.

Rebellion! Against Kalen, of all people! How could it be?

(Kravitz has hated Kalen for a while, but this certainly is a pickle).

Kalen is ousted, arrives in Neverwinter half-frozen and fuming, a few cronies on his tail, and chaos in the palace ensues. Who to believe? Kalen, who claims he has been unfairly attacked, or the people, claiming Kalen’s long-term abuse.

It all shakes out somehow. This is a summary, though, so I don’t have to say. Julia does something badass. Also she’s not dead. She and Magnus show up in the capital and there’s the whole them vs Kalen before the Raven Queen fiasco and finally she chooses the good people as the correct ones and Kalen is thrown in prison or banished or something lol idk.

And now there are... 3 positions on the royal council empty and it is essentially non-functioning. The kingdom is in governmental crisis. Magnus and Julia are at the palace. This whole rebellion/trial thing has taken most of the winter months.

Barry and Magnus become fast friends, which of course puts Magnus into Kravitz’s orbit more than the Kalen ordeal already has. And they begin talking. And at the prompting of Magnus and Julia being so in love, Taako of course comes up.

Magnus is all omg wow buddy that’s true love u gotta pursue that, and Kravitz is like ok but also consider he probably doesn’t even like me, and also it’s impossible, and also I can’t. To which Magnus says umm how do you know, and also bullshit, and also why not?

And why not indeed?

Well, Barry says, perhaps because the government is in shambles and to abandon everything now would almost certainly trigger all kinds of issues amongst the aristocracy, upon whom your hold is currently tenuous at best.

Kravitz says >:((

And then along comes Merle.

Merle comes moseying up the palace one day like hey guys how’s it goin’ I’m Merle, and the [PLACE WHERE GUNDREN WAS FROM] sent me here to be Gundren’s replacement on the Royal Council, after all I am his cousin, don’t’cha know, and sorry it took us so long, we had some issues to work through. He does not explain what these were, nor does he have to, for this is a summary.

Merle’s addition is a real gamechanger, because not only is he miraculously able to neutralize the more antagonistic personalities on the council (usually through saying something Kravitz can’t decide is crazy or profound), but also he’s a big advocate for let’s get things up and running again, starting with just replacing Kalen with one of these two nice people who Raven’s Roost seems to have elected to represent them.

Magnus goes “oh well I don’t know this is a lot of responsibility-” and before he’s even done talking Julia’s like “I’ll fuckin’ do it.”

This, of course, gets the council running, and, importantly to our plot, creates a majority of people who Want kravitz to Go After A Boy. They work on cleaning up the mess in Raven’s Roost, finally find a replacement for Jack (it’s Cassidy, also by election, which is a shiny new toy for these people) and they iron all of it out by the time Spring has sprung.

Kravitz says now can I go Find A Boy PLEEEAAAAASE I did the governing thing and everything. And most people’s reactions are omg I can’t believe you’re still talking about that but Fine. Take some friends. Kravitz takes Barry and Magnus and (mumble mumble some others idk like avi or someone don’t @ me) and is like BYE MY CONFIDENCE IS RESTORED AND I’M GONNA FIND A BOY.

*~*~*~*~*

So Spring Has Sprung.

Which means Lup and Taako are back on the move. Continuing their slow journey out of Faerun, working on their way (it’s nice to have money saved up, they find, but it’s not A Lot, and they don’t want to totally deplete it.) They usually stop for a week in a town, do some odd jobs, travel, stop for a week. It’s nice.

But they’re on the way OUT OF THE COUNTRY *cue dramatic music*

Will Kravitz Reach Them In Time? If he does, will Taako even Want To Go Back? All these questions and more exist at this point in the narrative.

*~*~*~*~*

Kravitz follows the lead of the bracelet. He does not stop for a week in towns. In fact, he’s pushing pretty hard. He tracks down the woman who points him to the seller who points him to Another travelling seller who points him to a jeweler in town who looks at the bracelet and says oh yeah, I got that from Old Man Tostaada, outside of town, he’s a proud type, but you should ask him.

Well. Kravitz certainly does.

In the nearly six months since Taako and Lup slunk and exploded out of his life, respectively, Tostaada has become an even crochetier, nastier, meaner old man than ever. He has no servants now. The cousins have to do chores, oh the horror. He’s propping his appearance of nobility up on pride alone. The house is in Shambles. It’s a whole Thing™️.

But one fateful springy day, one of the cousins looks out the window…

And Sees An Entire Royal-insignia’d Party Riding Up The Lane.

And promptly Panics.

Well Kravitz and co are ushered into the house with all kinds of Ceremony, and Tostaada is acting very proud, and Kravitz says excuse me sir, I was wondering if you might remember being in possession of this bracelet.

This is Bad News to Tostaada.

I may recall, sir, he says.

There’s a terribly polite and tense conversation after that. Tostaada refuses to say where he got the bracelet, even to royalty, being as old and spiteful as he is, and Kravitz is just about to threaten him with something terrible when one of the cousins breaks, and spills the whole story tearfully, about Taako and Lup and how they were treated and where Tostaada got the bracelet and “we didn’t know you wanted it, we didn’t know it was important, we swear,” and the only thing that keeps Kravitz from Severely Punishing them is that he refuses to waste any time getting to Taako, who he’s very keen to find now. Tostaada has no idea where Taako and Lup are now, though, so he wasn’t helpful in that sense. Only now Kravitz knows that they’ve Been The Fuck Through It, and that Taako didn’t give up the bracelet of his own accord, and so it’s possible that The Boy Still Likes Him.

And with renewed energy, off they go.

Tostaada gets stripped of whatever title he has left, or something, because FUCK him.

Kravitz and the gang are putting out the word that hey, we’re still looking for this elf, if anyone’s seen him, that would be great.

The thing is, this time, they’re getting leads, on account of Lup and Taako sticking around in places long enough to make a friend or two.

*~*~*~*~*

It’s later, and almost Summertime, baby, when Lup and Taako finally hear the news.

The prince is still looking for Taako? Damn. Boy’s serious.

Lup watches Taako’s face carefully when they hear this news. They’re leaving town. They only have one more before they reach the border and slip away. Lup says hey. Are you sure you don’t wanna come forward and say something?

Taako’s like no of course we shouldn’t do that don’t be silly it’s FINE. (It’s not fine, Lup can tell, but she’s not gonna push. This is Taako’s decision to make. They’re gonna make a fresh start in a new place. It’ll be great.

They start hiking to the next town, hobbit style. They make it out into ye woods and find a nice spot to settle down and camp. Make up a fire, get cozy, cook a little dinner, the whole shindig. They settle down to sleep.

Taako wakes up. In the middle of the night. The full moon is shining brightly down into the clearing they’re sleeping in and the fire is no longer the softly smoldering embers it was when he fell asleep. It’s nice crackling along. And sitting there, tending it, is a lady.

Lady is the only way to describe her. She’s in a gown of silvery thread with silvery hair tumbling down her back. She asks Taako if he’d like some tea. He can’t tell if the light in the clearing is from the moon, or the fire, or just from her. She speaks with a voice that just sounds so familiar, but that he doesn’t quite place.

She hands Taako a cup of tea. It’s floral and fragrant and lovely. She asks him what he’s running from. He says she sounds awfully condescending talking like that, and if she knew what he’d been through she wouldn’t act like leaving it all behind was such a bad decision. She says she never said it was a bad decision, she just wonders how much he’s thought about it, is all. There’s a quiet moment, as she sips her tea. She says, quietly, that perhaps Taako ought to be careful, not to run too far too fast.

And taako wakes up again. There’s a teacup sitting beside him. Empty. Clean. There’s no sign that there was any visitor in the night.

To Lup, Taako is acting weird the next day. He seems jumpy. He seems distant. She keeps worrying they’re gonna get jumped on the road, from the way he’s not paying attention to his surroundings. He’s in his head, even more than usual. But they manage to arrive to the next town without incident.

And Taako’s weird over the next few days. And Lup suggests on the fourth that they get a move on. There’s a caravan headed across the border tomorrow, we can go with them.

Taako looks at the drink in his hand for a long moment, not there with her, and she’s about to ask again when he says “maybe just a few more days.”

Taako doesn’t ask her for much. Taako seems very serious, and it’s kind of scaring Lup. But she agrees. A few more days is fine. Then they’ll go.

And a few days pass. And Taako’s weird. He keeps looking around corners like he’s expecting something to jump out from around them. He keeps looking down the street like he expects something to come barreling into town. But nothing ever seems to.

Come on, Taako, Lup says, three days later, while Taako’s dropped over a cup of wine in the local inn. Tomorrow some more people are leaving, mid-afternoon, they said, let’s go. Just over those hills and we can start everything over, make a name for ourselves. What do you say?

And Taako agrees.

They go to bed.

And, in the bright-mid morning the next day, Kravitz and the gang come riding into town, Raven Queen standard flying high over their heads, dressed in shining silver on black. Lup’s out on the street, collecting some last-minute supplies when she sees them.

Holy shit, Lup says.

She recognizes the Prince. She recognizes BARRY. And after her moment of gawking in surprise, the prince glances her way, and does a frankly comedic wide-eyed double take.

She does, after all, have Taako’s face.

He hops off his horse and very politely comes over and introduces himself, and identifies her by name (he met her grandfather) and asks, very kindly, if she might know where he can find her brother.

Lup does some quick mental calculus and says “yeah, I can show you where he is.”

That scene can be found HERE. (I truly can’t shortly summarize this one better than I wrote it so yikes secret few thousand words nested in this already monstrous summary, I’m sorry but not really I am sorry that it switches tense like three times, I do not have the energy to correct it).

Needless to say, they are reunited.

But it’s a lot to put on someone, the entire “come home with me I think you’re the love of my life even though we kind of only know each other a little, also if you say yes you might be responsible for governing a whole people” so Taako needs some time to think.

Kravitz leaves him some.

And then Taako and Lup have a long conversation, where Taako makes lots of excuses as to why he shouldn’t go with Kravitz, and Lup listens very patiently and nods and hums along, and then finally asks him if he thinks Kravitz will make him happy.

This stumps Taako for a good long time, standing stock still, looking terrified, before he nods.

Well, Lup says, I think you know what you need to do.

And Taako goes, the evening, as it’s getting late (which is about when he and Lup finished hashing it all out and he got his courage up) to Kravitz’s room in the inn, and Kravitz’s guards let him in, and oh. Oh Kravitz looks lovely, standing there, dressed down, comfortable in his own space. And Kravitz gets up and looks at Taako with wide eyes and Taako says, “I thought about what you said.”

“Yes?” Kravitz says. He might be crying. Taako can’t tell. He looks terrified.

“I think…” Taako says. “I think I want to go with you.”

Kravitz becomes a human embodiment of heart eyes and says “really?”

And Taako says oh my god yes but you have to not be weird.

“I’m not being weird,” says Kravitz, still heart eyes-ing, “I’m so not weird. I’m so normal, see?”

And they KISS.

*~*~*~*~*

Everybody packs up the next morning to head on their merry way home. Kravitz is over the moon. Taako is, kind of, too, but is trying to be chill about it. Lup tells Barry as they leave that she was the one he was hanging with at the ball that one time, good to see him again, and Barry becomes human heart eyes for approximately four seconds before he reigns it in and he’s like oh cool nice to officially meet you, and the two of them spend the rest of the trip circling each other trying not to act in love because like there’s a lot going on and Taako needs lup and all, and Taako and Kravitz are very amused by this.

Taako and Magnus become fast friends. And, he and Kravitz get time to properly get to know each other during all that travel together, and the scary thing is they fit better than they ever thought they would, they really do. Taako likes the boy more by the day. Kravitz is so smitten it’s revolting.

When they get back to Neverwinter, there’s a fair bit of fanfare and the Raven Queen makes a big stink about Kravitz shirking his duties and being irresponsible and whatnot, but he can tell she’s secretly pleased. She comes to like Taako very much.

And well… you know what’s next. After a bit, Taako and Kravitz get married.

*~*~*~*~*

EPILOGUE:

The marriage of King Kravitz to Prince Taako is known as one of the more fortuitous in the history of the nation.

Prince Taako, after his history as one of the working common folk of Faerun, went on to use his new seat on the royal council to champion reforms that changed the lives of working people everywhere. The laws he helped draft that established basic working condition requirements for those in domestic services helped launch a new era of equal pay and treatment for the working classes of Faerun, and a culling of the power of the wealthy.

He helped establish a new nation-wide system of government, based on regional elections, and with King Kravitz, gradually placed more political power in the hands of the people. The minimum requirements for the royal council to balance the number of aristocratic members with those without titles stands to this day.

Prince Taako was known, also, for his aptitude for the arcane. Though never did he manage to surpass his sister and brother-in-law in his lifetime, he is revered as one of the more powerful and skilled mages in Faerun’s history. Though perhaps more famous is his legacy as a great instructor in the arcane sciences, known especially for training Grand Archmage Angus McDonald in his early years.

Though perhaps chief among his achievements was his role in the war against the Hunger in the twenty-third year of King Kravitz’s reign. He was among those who formulated the plan to infiltrate the Hunger’s forces and carry out the assassination of John the Devourer. And when King Kravitz was injured in the final battle against the Hunger’s armies, it was Prince Taako who held the line, and was unmoved in the face of their power. For this, he became known during his reign as Prince Taako the Steadfast, though over the years his long-time connection with Lady Istus was cited as evidence to his improbable marriage and ascension to the throne being an act of Providence, and in many secret circles he was referred to as Prince Taako the Blessed.

Upon his abdication from the throne in the thirtieth year of his reign, Prince Taako and King Kravitz were succeeded by the former’s sister, Queen Lup and Prince Barold, whose daughter, Queen Lilliana, finally dissolved the monarchy in the twelfth year of her reign, thus ending the Faerun’s royal line forever, and ushering the world into a new era of peace and equality.

From: Faerun: A History by Lucretia Moreau, published 538 T.E.

*~*~*~*~*

BIG Thank you to @fandomsnstuff and @her-biness who helped me with this for a Long Time. The little cameo of the blupjeans baby belongs to @lillianabluejeans, and the last name from Lucretia is taken from one of my favorite fics, Bureau of Badass on ao3, by Chemicallywrit and miceenscene.

Bonus points will be given to those who notice the 500 references in here to various adaptations of the cinderella story :)

#taz balance #taakitz #blupjeans #taako taaco #lup taaco #kravitz #barry bluejeans #my writiting #my fic stuff #cinderella au #Thank you for making it all the way to the end #likes charge reblogs cast #(aka if u liked it pls pass it on for me :)))

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honeyby · 4 years

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Blake’s Words and Character Arcs

Blake describing her friends as the embodiment of certain words is one of my favorite moments in the series. We get to see how she views them, even after everything that happened. Ruby is purity, Weiss is defiance, and Yang is strength. They are the perfect words for these three characters, and part of that is because those traits are such a big part of their personal arcs. And all three of them are challenged on those traits throughout the show (particularly in volume 4).

Ruby’s word is purity and it fits her right away. She’s the youngest and least experienced in how the world works. Her mother is dead, but she was still very young when that happened. There’s an innocence about her in the first three volumes that everything will be okay as long as she has her friends. She knows there’s darkness in the world but she believes light will prevail!

Then comes the end of volume 3, where she sees first hand the brutality of Salem’s forces. She watches two of her closest friends die, sees Beacon falling from the attack and wakes up to find her sister depressed and angry and her other teammates scattered to the wind. The good guys...lost. How can anyone come out of that and still embody purity? She’s seen the worst the world has to offer. But she keeps going. She decides to do what she can to stop the people responsible for Beacon. Ruby watches her friends grieve and pushes down her own grief so she can fulfill her mission.

She doesn’t let what happen make her jaded. Ruby continues to place her faith in her friends and believe that there is good in the world and that that good is worth protecting! She’s willing to give people the chance to help them even when they no one else will (we see this with Raven and Cordovin). Ruby isn’t purity because she’s never been exposed to the darkness of the world. She’s purity because she has but still chooses to believe in the good in people.

As she learns more about her silver eyes it only becomes more apparent. Maria tells her that her eyes exist to protect life, which mirrors Ruby’s general attitude. There’s a beautiful moment in volume 4 where she decides not to focus on the people they’ve lost but instead on the people that they haven’t lost yet as her motivation. She may have lost some friends but she’s going to do everything in her power to make sure they don’t lose anyone else. It all culminates in the moment where she uses her eyes on the Leviathan, failing when she focused what they’d lost and only succeeding when she focused on the good memories that she wanted to protect. She’s able to think about the good times with Pyrrha and Penny and Yang instead of what they lost, to think about her mother and the joy that brings her even though she’s gone. Ruby can find that silver lining no matter how bleak things seem and that ability is her greatest strength.

For Weiss and Yang (and Blake when we get to her) we can actually start at their trailers. Weiss’s fight is a direct result of her defying her father’s wishes. She’s at Beacon because she chose to be, not because she was told to. And yet, defiance is also something Weiss struggles with early on. She’s the most by the book member of team RWBY and by far the least likely to break the rules. Her early non-trailer defiance comes more in her rejection of being who her father wanted her to be.

Weiss makes more progress in volume 3 when she decides to forge her own path and ignore her father. She sacrifices herself to take out Flynt, refusing to let him attack Yang. When Velvet is in danger from the Paladin it’s her sheer determination to stop it that allows her do what she hadn’t been able to do before. She knows it would be safer to stay at the docks but finding Pyrrha is more important. There’s not just one singular thing she’s defying in volume 3; she just continually refuses to back down.

Like the others however, volume 4 challenges her growing defiance. She finds herself going right back to Atlas and the place she fought so hard to escape. Suddenly she’s faced with all these expectations and not-quite demands again and doesn’t feel like she can say no. Much of the defiance she’d gained disappears, and we don’t see it again until she snaps at the party. When Jacques puts her under house arrest she has two options: slip back into the obedient little girl in an attempt to regain her status or reject him and his orders so that she can escape. she chooses the latter, and in her defiance she finally manages to summon on purpose. She could’ve just as easily given up and been obedient but she chooses defiance.

And after she leaves it’s there in full force. She refuses to cower before Vernal and Raven and doesn’t hesitate to talk back to them. When facing Vernal she rejects being labeled by just her name. Come Atlas she’s openly defying her father at every opportunity and questioning Winter’s acceptance of the fate Ironwood has thrust upon her. When she’s face to face with Winter after Ironwood has deemed her and her team traitors she doesn’t hesitate to side with her team. Weiss knows who she is and that person is someone who won’t stand by when Ironwood wants to leave Mantle to die, even if it puts her at odds with Winter who she still deeply cares about. She’s done filling the role others expect her to play.

Yang’s word, strength, is evident from the moment we meet her. She walks right into a club full of armed goons and goes straight up to the guy in charge, knowing she can take them all if she needs to. And she can! Physically she’s the strongest on the team, but when Blake calls her strength she’s not talking about just physical strength. She was old enough to really remember Summer, found out shortly after that her birth mother had given her up, and dealt with a lot of feelings of loneliness as a child. Someone else who went through what she did might’ve turned out cold and distant but Yang is full of warmth and love, and able to use her own experiences to relate to others.

Her emotional strength is also very clear when Blake hesitates to believe her after the Mercury incident. She’s hurt of course, but she’s able to see that Blake has a very good reason for her reluctance and is able to give her that reassurance. It’s one of the biggest ways she and Adam are different. Adam seeks power, but Yang has a strength of character he never demonstrates. Adam relies on control and manipulation for his power where Yang is open and honest and gets her strength from her desire to protect those close to her.

Like the others, Yang’s strength faces a massive challenge in volume 4. Physically she’s dealing with the loss of her arm, but it’s her mental struggle dealing with her PTSD/general fear of getting back out there and dealing with Blake leaving that’s her biggest obstacle. She’s made good progress on the former by the time we see her in volume 4. Like with Weiss, she finds herself at a crossroads early on: does she stay home and keep recovering or does she try to find Ruby? She knows Ruby isn’t alone and she knows that Qrow is with her or at least near her. She doesn’t have to go find her. Ruby understands that Yang needs time to take care of herself. But having that goal, having someone out there she could find gives her a reason to try.

So she takes that first step and decides to work on getting back out there. It’s a step even a famed huntress like Maria wasn’t able to do. Yang’s not completely better at the end of volume 4 or even several volumes later, but by finding the strength to start fighting again she starts really healing. She’s able to find and face Raven and is able to get the relic from her by being not physically but mentally stronger. When Blake comes back she has the strength to forgive her even if things are awkward for a while (especially noteworthy after Ghira’s comment that there is strength in forgiveness). She’s able to open up about her fears about Adam and eventually face him even though it terrifies her. Her strength, particularly mentally, is even more apparent now than it was when we first met her.

Blake may not have given herself a word but I believe there’s only one word that suits her: bravery. It’s a huge contrast to how she sees herself for a lot of the show which in turn makes it a powerful choice for her. In volume 2 she expresses that she feels she runs away too much between leaving Adam in the black trailer, running away after she outed herself as a faunus, and just the very nature of her semblance. It’s only compounded when she runs after the fall of Beacon. Her tendency to run away and struggle with bravery is something she spends the next two volumes working on, much like how Ruby, Weiss, and Yang also deal with having to navigate their purity, defiance, and strength in the context of a post fall of Beacon world.

The biggest thing is that Blake’s view of herself isn’t accurate. A lot of it is a result of the way Adam treats her. He frames her parents as cowards for leaving the White Fang, makes her believe she’ll always run when she finds him at Beacon, and refers to her as a coward multiple times just in what we see. But the people that love her know that none of it’s true. Ghira sees how brave it was for her to face the White Fang time and time again. Yang sees her as someone who won’t back down from a fight. Ruby and Weiss know she had a good reason to leave, and Yang does as well when she’s able to distance herself from how hurt she was. And they’re the ones that are right, not Adam.

Blake cites running from Adam as one of the things that makes her a coward, but leaving is one of the bravest things she’s ever done. She pulled herself out an organization that turned into a cult-like terrorist group and managed to escape someone that abused her for years. She doesn’t hesitate to confront the White Fang any time she can and infiltrates a meeting like it’s nothing. When she first runs into Adam at Beacon she, despite the absolute fear she must be feeling at seeing him so unexpectedly, stands her ground. Even right before she runs she stares him down all in the name of protecting Yang and drags her through the Grimm infested Beacon to get her to safety.

And even when she runs and heads home, she’s still far braver than she gives herself credit for. It’s been years since she’s seen her parents and she’s so scared they’ll reject her but she still decides to face them. And they accept her back because they love her and know that she’s so much better than she thinks she is. While she’s not initially ready to fight the White Fang in Menagerie because she still needs to deal with her trauma, she makes it very clear that she’s not done fighting. Even after everything she’s been through she never lacks the courage to do what she thinks is right. And when the time comes she’s able to convince the faunus of Menagerie to come to Haven with her courage. She understands their fear, how it’s easier to stay home and say nothing than it is to stick yourself out there and put yourself at risk for complete strangers. It’s not the exact fear she struggles with, but she still gets it. Blake doesn’t know if her speech will work, but she’s willing to face Adam and the White Fang alone if she must.

And in Haven she does face him. She sees him for the first time since Beacon and she’s able to triumph. Blake is done with running away, done with letting Adam manipulate her and make her feel small. She’s able to face her team, knowing they had every reason to reject her but that wasn’t going to stop her from trying. And they welcome her back with open arms. When she faces Adam for the final time she’s able to stand side by side Yang and triumph, even if she’s so afraid that Yang will believe what Adam says about her. She’s worked so hard to undo what he did to her and makes it clear that she’s done with running and Yang understands that.

Blake’s struggle with bravery and viewing herself as a coward is just such a big part of her character arc, the same way maintaining purity despite the darkness in the world is for Ruby, the way fighting to stay defiant and to be herself despite familial expectations is for Weiss, and the way regaining the strength she never really lost is for Yang. She faces more challenges with it thanks to her history with Adam, but she also expresses her bravery constantly even in the smallest of ways. Blake lets people in despite her fears of hurting them, is able to express how Adam made her feel and face him multiple times, and never backs down from a challenge. If there were a living embodiment of the word bravery in RWBY it would be Blake.

#rwby #blake belladonna #ruby rose #weiss schnee #yang xiao long #i don't know where this came from #i just got an itch to talk about it and all these words appeared #i have a lot of feelings okay #i just love blake okay #she deserves the world #all of the girls' character growth makes me emotional #conciseness? i don't know her

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opbackgrounds · 4 years

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I don’t have the time or energy right now to do another ask-a-thon or to do a bunch of long meta posts, but in celebration of reaching 5000 followers I did want to do a write up of a character that I see overlooked a lot by the fandom who is very near and dear to my heart. What makes them especially interesting is that I think their existence is a prime example of Oda’s skills at a writer, foreshadowing plot elements that wouldn’t be expounded upon for hundreds and hundreds of chapters.

It’s pretty common for Oda to play the long game in his writing. Going back through the series as I have I’ve gained a new appreciation for Oda’s world building and his ability to set up certain element of the story that won’t be pertinent until far in the future. It helps the world feel organic and lived in, but on the downside, it’s sometimes easy to forget that certain characters or organizations even exist, which can make their sudden reappearance in the series feel jarring or forced.

There are also characters and plot elements that are in and of themselves not very prominent but are there to help establish themes and motivations for other characters. For example, Gaimon was only in the manga for one chapter (and a couple of cover stories) but helped answer one of the driving questions of the East Blue: “What is treasure?”.

The character I want to talk about today is a good example of this second group. Like Gaimon, they were only around for a single chapter, and yet their importance cannot be overstated when it comes to understanding Sanji’s character both in the Baratie and in arcs to come. They’re a type, a way of foreshadowing, and absolutely instrumental to the overall plot of the Baratie arc all at the same time. It’s pretty rare to see a character able to fulfill so many roles with such a short amount of screen time, and as much as people gush over Oda’s character writing, this is one instance where he doesn’t get the credit that is due him.

Who is this mysterious character you may ask? Well, Batchee of course

It’s not a coincidence that Batchee is introduced in the same chapter Sanji is, because in a way, their stories mirror one another. It’s ironic that Fullbody would dare to accuse Sanji of hurting a fly when the Whole Cake Island establishes without a doubt that Sanji is not only has the gentlest spirit of the Straw Hat Pirates, but cares so much for the world around him that he is literally willing to feed hungry rats. To be clear: Sanji would not hurt a fly, especially if that fly was a woman. In the same way, Batchee shows a remarkable resilience, never once retaliating against the injustice they faced for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And unlike Sanji, who is outwardly very coarse and uncouth, he does so quietly, uttering not a single line of dialogue throughout his brief appearance. It’s this instance with the soup that triggers the entire plot of the Baratie arc (and is paralleled towards the end when the chefs try to force Sanji away by insulting his cooking), making Batchee an absolute essential component of the arc, one of those tiny gears that hardly anyone notices but would cause the whole machine to fall apart if removed.

We see Batchee suffer in silence as he’s horribly abused by the people around him. Not only was he attacked unprovoked by a jealous Fullbody, notice how we see no other insects during the Baratie arc. Batchee is alone, just like Sanji was alone before Zeff rescued him. It’s no coincidence that Oda used a bug in this scene, as bugs have exoskeletons just like the Vinsmoke siblings, and although it’s arguing from silence, I would not be surprised if Batchee was likewise driven away from his family for being too weak. As to why he was on the Baratie at all, I can only assume that he dreamed of being a chef, only to have that dream torn away from him by a cruel and unjust governmental system, setting a precedent for further atrocities later on in the series.

There’s just not enough information given to speculate further, but I have the fullest confidence that Oda won’t let this plot thread dangle. I’m not someone who likes guessing about future chapters very often, but I would not be at all surprised if he returns during the Wano arc as one of Kaido’s gifters as another Duval-type situation where an old, forgotten foe swears revenge on the Straw Hat’s cook. Hopefully he’ll be given a similarly happy ending. After all he’s been through, he deserves it.

(Edit to add: while looking up stuff for this post I found an old interview that’s pretty interesting

“...Unfortunately Gin’s will wasn’t strong enough to defeat the deadly poison...But even with that, I think fans can be excited for what’s planned next...2016 was the Year of Sanji, it’s time to get ready for the Year of Batchee...”

—Eiichiro Oda

Oda’s predictions on his timeline are famously bad, but with everything going on in the story I could definitely see an imminent return)

An interesting thing to note is that Batchee has a drastically different character design in the manga than the anime. Historically the anime has worked closely with Oda in order to ensure maximum accuracy, however the insect shown during these episodes can’t possibly be a fly. It’s got 10 legs, antenna coming out of its butt, and no wings to be seen

Obviously this is another reference to Sanji’s future transformation abilities. Unlike the the Vinsmoke siblings, Batchee’s power isn’t named, but his color scheme makes me believe he fulfills the role of the brown Power Ranger. With such a drastic transformation (albeit offscreen, likely to preserve the surprise during WCI and beyond) from common horsefly to...whatever that is...I wouldn’t be surprised if Vegapunk himself had a hand in his creation. Only time will tell.

To wrap things up here, the story of Batchee and Sanji are closely intertwined. One cannot exist without the other, and just like how Batchee foreshadows much of Sanji’s Whole Cake Island storyline, I believe that Sanji can help us see Batchee’s ultimate fate. One Piece is ultimately a very optimistic series, and since there’s no confirmation that he actually died during his introductory chapter I have to assume that the little guy is still out there chasing his dream. I would have liked to have seen him during the post-time skip cover stories, but his absence can only mean that Oda has big plans for the future, and I for one look forward to seeing what he has in store.

#opbackgrounds #one piece #long post #batchee #sanji #parallelism #character analysis #thank you for supporting me being ridiculous #to the anon who let me know it was his birthday #I think you from the very bottom of my heart #deliberately misconstruing facts for my own amusement #just for fun

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sally-mun · 3 years

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Unsurprisingly on my mind due to TKP's blog going through it, I've been meaning to ask (if just to clarify) about if any details from the "Enerjak Reborn" saga ever slip into your universe, even if clearly can't happen due to the characters' relationships. A part of me assumes that the idea you mentioned of Locke becoming the threat he prophesized sounded like the most likely direct replacement for that, but I wonder if any other ideas end up still mimicking it?

First of all, I fucking love your username and as far as I’m concerned you DID decide on a good one.

Anyway, this is an interesting bit of the storyline because it’s in that nebulous place where my partner and I agree that it happened, but we’ve never actually hammered out exactly what happened. For the most part, the bullet points of Finitevus tricking Knuckles into getting hexed and Locke sacrificing himself to release him are agreed to have been in the RP’s backstory, but given the version of Locke that I wrote for the Brotherhood, I’m sure the tone of the situation was very different. I can only imagine what the situation looked like through Locke’s eyes, honestly. In some ways you could argue that Knuckles becoming Enerjak IS the realization of everything Locke worked for, so that begs the question of whether or not he would see that as his premonition coming true. It’s hard to say given that there’s so many other events that have happened leading up to this point that would’ve also gone differently based on the new circumstances, and some that probably didn’t happen all together.

However, here’s my immediate hunch:

1) The events of S3&K definitely happened in the RP’s backstory, although again I’m sure several events played out in different ways. The great point to this is that, as WE all know, this was the fulfillment of the mural that Locke saw on the wall in Hidden Palace, which unknowingly inspired his recurring dream. Locke, however, would’ve taken the arrival of Eggman and the Death Egg with a lot more confusion. Obviously this is the level of threat his premonition insisted upon, but Knuckles wasn’t the one to ultimately defeat it! Some ground-dwelling heathen actually took care of it!!! So no matter how much the situation would seem to fulfill the slot of the Great Evil, it obviously can’t be because Knuckles did not ascend to become the Savior in order to stop it.

2) It’s probably safe to say this cycle happened a few others times, because let’s face it, Angel Island has seen some shit. I don’t think the others probably ever compared to S3&K arc, though, both in terms of the impact it made on the situation (and Locke’s psyche) and the fact that the enemy just plain looks like the figure in Locke’s dreams.

3) This would probably mean that an already paranoid Locke is getting jumpier and jumpier every time a new threat arises, because by now there’ve been so many BIG bad events that he’s probably constantly worrying, “Is this the Great Evil?? IS THIS THE GREAT EVIL??” and his already frayed nerves are probably completely shot.

4) So imagine, then, when Knuckles -- Locke’s only pride and joy, for whom he sacrificed absolutely everything in his life and has been banking on saving everyone’s lives -- seems to have become the Great Evil himself. It’s not enough that he’s powerful on an otherworldly scale and seems to have gone mad with said power; the bigger shock is that Knuckles does, indeed, seem to be fulfilling the criteria of his premonitions. He’s not just terrorizing the rest of the world (which, let’s be honest, Locke probably doesn’t even care about), he’s also terrorizing echidnas. He left Echidnaopolis in ruins by forcibly removing the entire population, and he’s destroying a lot of lives by changing their bodies against their will. The entire echidna species is terrified of what he has become, and what else he might do. Maybe the fact that the Great Evil was enormous in Locke’s dream wasn’t about literal physical scale, but rather, a representation of the enormity of the threat that’s posed.

5) In a perfect world, I’d really like to imagine that this finally, FINALLY, brings Locke a desperately needed moment of clarity. Locke got to the state he ends up in because he’s so afraid of some ambiguous and unidentifiable threat, so maybe the fact that he now CAN identify the threat could be enough to raise that fog. Maybe seeing Knuckles as the evil they need to be protected from will finally be enough to jolt Locke back to reality, and allow him to see just how bad his decisions have been and how Knuckles’ state is, honestly, a very logical conclusion to the chain of events that came before it. Knuckles becoming the Great Evil was always a possibility all along, but Locke was so convinced of the contrary that he just literally couldn’t see it. Now he can see it. Now he can grasp how, no matter how well-intentioned he was, he absolutely, 100%, undeniably caused his son to become the one thing he’s feared all along.

6) If Locke is able to have that moment, and think completely clearly again for even a brief time, then I have no doubt whatsoever that Locke would make that sacrifice to save him. No attempts to find an alternative, no hemming and hawing, no attempts to get everyone to kill Knuckles like in the comic, NONE of that shit. If Locke, the REAL Locke that’s been lost inside the madness all this time is able to wake up for just a few moments, emerges again and learns that the only way to save his boy from the fate he himself unwittingly doomed him to is for someone to give up their own life, Locke would make that sacrifice in a heartbeat. He said back on the day he activated the chaos bath that he wished he could take Knuckles’ burdens away and put himself in his place. This would be one way to do exactly that, to give Knuckles a shot at a real, normal life again, and to atone for the enormous mistakes he made that caused this tragedy.

I think if the situation arose under those sorts of circumstances, it would just make Locke’s sacrifice all the more meaningful. Allowing him to not only realize that he’s the one that ultimately caused all this, but to fully admit to it AND take responsibility without being harangued into doing so completely changes the tone of what he does. It’s not a situation where Locke sees sacrificing himself as something that has to be done, but something that should be done, to atone for his wrongdoings and save the one person he loves more than anyone or anything else in this world.

I don’t see the Locke of the comics as someone who would die for his child without the slightest hesitation, even after more skillful writers get a hold of him; I don’t see the fact that he does so unrealistic, but I honestly think the only reason he does it is because he can’t think of a way out of it. I mean, for fuck’s sake, shortly before doing so he was campaigning TO HAVE KNUCKLES KILLED. I think canon!Locke loves Knuckles in his own weird way, but I think his love for Knuckles comes second to his love for himself, and it always has. Canon!Locke is just simply too arrogant to think of someone else first, even his own child.

Locke the way I write him, however, was always ready to die so that Knuckles could live. It used to be because he felt Knuckles was too important to their people and needed to live to save them, but when all that baggage is lifted, Locke would still die for him simply because he loves him. He would die for him to make his life better, to free him from the prisons he’s been confined to both physically and mentally, to allow him to fully live. He’d die to save his son because he wants him to finally have the life he deserves -- that he always deserved. If the price of Knuckles being happy, healthy, and free is Locke giving up his life, there’d be no force on Mobius that could’ve kept him away from the Master Emerald to do it.

I don’t know if this is quite the sort of answer you were looking for, but again, this was the first impulse that came into my brain. It feels right to me, and probably would be worth exploring in a story sometime. Maybe someone could commission me for it or something, who knows. In the meantime, I hope this paints the picture as well as I’m seeing in my head.

#Sallymun RPs #Locke #cantdecideonagoodusername

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puttingfingerstokeys · 4 years

Text

your confession is mine

tangentially related to Lightning Rod, but a wAAAaaays down the road. I am lazy. No italics. Blah blah tumblr. I really am interested in exploring the dynamics of a mature relationship. I am so tired of love triangles and petty drama when the narrative of Mortal Kombat feels like it demands so much more--the drama is cosmic, era-affecting, HUGE.

Warring Exes (shang tsung/raiden)

Restored Timeline

The breeze coming in over the ocean was salty and gentle; it played with Raiden’s hair as he drifted in that half-asleep state of existence unique to mortals. There were many reasons to appreciate the limited time of a finite existence and this was one of them. In fact, it encompassed more than one. He shifted a little, carefully as he could so as not to disturb his companion, who had similarly fallen asleep, one bronzed arm tucked under the crook of Raiden’s neck as they dozed.

In millions of eras, multiple eons, thousands of lifetimes lived, Raiden had never once envisioned himself this way, naked, draped in only soft sheets, much and more flesh exposed to eyes and to elements—though only two eyes would see it this way—and feeling not a single iota of shame, regret, or horror. Only one thing did hover over his existence this way, a single piece of truth, which would, necessarily lead to all others and perhaps bring this carefully-cultivated new era unraveling around them. It ate at him as he considered it, fingers playing aimlessly about on the shapely chest of the man lying next to him, similarly naked and similarly not offering the world a single care for his exposure.

“Something troubles you,” came the voice from above Raiden’s head. He did not shift, but could feel the vibration of that sonorous baritone in the man’s chest under his fingers. He laid his palm down and ceased its movements.

“I have been… dishonest with you, Shang Tsung, and I… must set it right.”

“Your nature demands it of you, Lord Raiden,” came the languid response, a hand finding its way into the silvery-white mane of Raiden’s hair which was spread over the pillow and some expanse of the sheets around him. Raiden shifted to meet those dark, serpentine eyes.

“You…”

“I have known since Lord Liu Kang brought you to me for my… training. No god defers so obviously to someone who is not also a god.” He spoke as if it was a trifle, nothing of consequence. His smile was languid, but not entirely warm. It was the knowing smile of a predator with cornered prey who has yet time to toy with it and may not even be hungry. “You trained him, as surely as you trained me, and now, for some reason, he is the deity, and you are a mortal—though you are not human.”

Raiden regarded him carefully, not in the reserved way he used to, but with a mixture of awe and uncertainty. Shang Tsung was unpredictable in many ways, but in his interest and obsession with influence and power from the shadows, he never really wavered. His intent and intensity sometimes fluctuated, but the desire was ever present, ad infinitum.

The biggest difference was that this time there would be an end. There was no void from a soul, stolen by the gods, to utterly empty him beyond any mortal’s capacity to fill. There was, ostensibly, a finite amount he could want or desire. Raiden hoped this was the case, at least. He felt the beat of Shang Tsung’s heart under his hand, beneath that warm flesh, and prayed to no one that it was so; he had come to cherish that heart, openly adoring its owner, however flawed. He lay back down, sighing, unsure whence he should next go with this conversation—or at all, for that matter.

“You have a story to tell, Raiden,” said Shang Tsung, reaching down and tilting Raiden’s chin upward to once more gaze into his eyes, still bearing the soft glow of divinity, but also filled with guilt and something else. Fear? Shang Tsung both loved and hated that he could still elicit such a response from a man he was certain had once been a deity—of thunder no less! The power was intoxicating, but it wasn’t all he wanted. “So tell it. I am at your disposal. And yours alone.”

There was a bit of force—not much—in the motion that guided Raiden’s mouth to Shang Tsung’s and still a little more when the sorcerer’s other hand, which had until that point been occupied in Raiden’s hair, found its way to the back of his head and trapped him there. But what a dulcet trap. The grip on Shang Tsung’s chest tightened a little at first, but then loosened languidly as the kiss deepened and sweetened.

Did he ever give anything which did not feel wrested from him? And when, precisely, had Raiden stopped caring, delighting in the titillating dance which led to this give and take? The question of when he had fallen in love was an easy one to answer, so that, at least, was settled in his restless mind. But the remainder? That was the mystery to be unwrapped and if anyone could succeed at this monumental task—as insurmountable as unwrapping the vestments of the man himself—it would be Shang Tsung, without care or reservation and yet with the utmost delicacy, mindful always of the thunder god’s sensibilities. It was absolutely delicious and Raiden felt himself drowning in it.

“I crave your tale as much as I crave you,” whispered the sorcerer, lips parting—though only just—from those of his old, mysterious mentor. “I am breathless,” he purred, “with anticipation.”

“Let nothing be denied you, then—at least where this is concerned; I have… hidden it from you long enough, though not well, evidently.” There was some sheepishness in this remark, as a child admitting to a parent that they had, indeed, removed a sweet from its place, cooling on the countertop. Shang Tsung laid his head back on the luxurious pillow, a Cheshire smile upon his face. The hand which had been used to grasp and control was now weaving through the air, playing magic like strings, causing a low, melodic hum to enter and hover about the room; the colors reflected the strange sunsets in this place, unpredictable and ethereal. In the nexus between worlds, on this island, at its very fulcrum, time did as it desired. It was not bound by the laws of any world and sat apart from all, yet interconnected to all.

“Let nothing be denied me, ever,” warned Shang Tsung, a hint of that old predatory menace in his voice, though his hand did not stop moving. Raiden watched it, weaving this way and that, and felt himself mildly entranced by the sight, though that had not—he assumed—been the intention.

“I was,” said Raiden quietly, “as you have guessed, the god of thunder—I had, for many lifetimes, devoted myself in duty to my… chosen vocation, protector of Earthrealm.”

“A deity of destruction as protector,” Shang Tsung mused, “how like you, dear Raiden. How very like you.”

Raiden’s jaw tightened, but he kept silent, holding his tongue, knowing that the reaction was just what the sorcerer wanted. This was part of their game, this tug of war between them. When had he begun to relish in it? When I made peace with the side of me of which he so fondly speaks. And there was fondness in the man’s voice when the word “destruction” rolled off his forked tongue.

“Electricity facilitates life, as well, Shang Tsung—balance, in all things,” Raiden reminded the sorcerer, who waved this off as if to say ‘when was the last time a lightning bolt healed someone?’. Raiden knew very well that Shang Tsung could see right through him, that he clearly fought his nature, tooth and nail, every day of his long life. The struggle defined him and fascinated his sorcerous companion. “But my… father was the god of death and chaos…”

Pleased with the admission, Shang Tsung began running his fingers over Raiden’s scalp once more, almost as a reward, delighting in the way the miniscule arcs of electricity jumped to and fro as he did this. He came alive when they touched, when their flesh met, in passion or in training; there was such a field of power around Raiden that Shang Tsung could not very well help himself wanting to be near it. When did he take me? The sorcerer found himself wondering.

“So there are more… beyond you and the fire god, hm?”

“There were, yes.” Had it been anyone else to whom Raiden was speaking, he might have been alarmed at the acuity. Given that Shang Tsung had detected him the moment they met at least left Raiden with some relief, that he may have been thinking about this a while—they had, after all, known each other for over two decades… this time—and that he was not simply generating these theories spontaneously.

“Were…?” There was interest in the sorcerer’s voice, now, more than before. He knew a tangled tapestry of fate when he heard it and he was about to be handed the most beautiful of these. As with everything else he had taken from Raiden, it was being freely given. Taking by force had its merits, but not with this one, so cloaked in virtue and chastity. See, now, how far behind you have left that part of yourself, Raiden. See yourself the way I see you and that… will fulfill me.

“Eons before anything… at all,” Raiden began, pushing himself to tell the story of all creation, the true story, titans included. He wove that tapestry Shang Tsung so coveted with beautiful master strokes, no embellishments, and as much detail as he felt he could or should, at the moment. That he had a brother was now known to the sorcerer, that Kronika was, in human terms, his grandmother, that she was a titan, a being of pure passion and desire, having no vision but her own and that the offspring of titans were Elder Gods, the very opposite of that embodiment of uncontrollable, uncontainable power.

“All but Shinnok,” said Raiden, “who sought to overthrow the rule of the others while the realms were still young. Had I stepped aside and allowed him to do as he pleased, we would not be here.”

“But you,” filled in Shang Tsung, having followed the narrative closely, “dutiful son of the Elder Gods, stood between mortals and utter annihilation… and triumphed. My oh my, what a tale.”

“If it ended there,” interjected Raiden with some mischief in his tone, “I would not have enticed you to the story at all.”

“Then by all means…” Shang Tsung made a broad gesture, encompassing the whole of his chambers and they shifted utterly. Night fell outside, a thousand thousand stars from all the realms clashing above the palatial fortress of the sorcerer. Within, torches lit themselves, glowing softly, warmly, casting dancing, tantalizing shadows upon the walls. Raiden watched these things dancing and wondered if they danced at Shang Tsung’s bidding, or if he let them be, appreciating the unpredictability.

“Shao Kahn,” he said, “a name you recognize… has always been a threat… to all realms, but my primary concern has ever been Earthrealm. He, in his ambition and greed, had long ago set his sights on it. I interceded with the Elder Gods on behalf of the people of Earthrealm. I had no choice; they would have been defenseless in all-out war.”

“The tournament,” Shang Tsung guessed. “You tell me our tale, Raiden, but I know of no Elder Gods.”

“These things… they are past, forgotten, and erased, living only in the memories of the immortals who once served them—those who are left,” Raiden admitted quietly. “In that past, you came upon this island on your own and forged a partnership of servitude with Shao Kahn and a deadly alliance with the Netherrealm sorcerer-acolyte, Quan-Chi.”

“Abhorrent,” spat Shang Tsung, having long since decided anyone affiliated with the filth of Outworld was far beneath him. His feelings for Quan-Chi were similar—without the power of a whole Elder God on his side, Quan-Chi had been reduced to little more than a pretender to the Netherrealm throne. Raiden would never regret the stroke which had beheaded his hateful father, though he had not been the one to strike it, precisely. Imbalance, it may have wrought, but had there been another choice? “To serve Shao Kahn,” Shang Tsung hissed. “Nonsense—filthy nonsense.”

“I have opined, in one past or another, that, no matter your perceived station, you have always had a finger upon the pulse of fate, moving whichever way you thought best to put yourself in a place of distinct advantage,” amended Raiden, unsure why he had the urge to soothe Shang Tsung’s ego.

“So why, then, did you feel the need to show me this place of your own accord and to help me… acquire it from the hands of the Shaolin, if destiny was always to give it to me…?”

“Because the acquisition needed to be peaceful. The fact remains that this island is safest in your hands,” said Raiden quietly, not without some hesitance. He had come this far, however. To stop now would be suspicious and the height of cruelty, besides. “In all shifts of the sands of time, this space between realms is wrested from the hands of the ones who have sworn to protect it, by force and bloodshed and unnecessary loss of life. With you, it is never in danger of falling into the hands of Outworld, or the Netherrrealm… and when it is given, it is always with your express consent and for your own aims—never taken.”

“I do not share wealth.”

“Until you do.”

Their eyes met and passion once again ignited between them. The spark became a roaring flame generating its own heat and aching pleasure. Fingers found hair, pulling almost viciously. Hands roamed about grasping, groping and clawing. Tongues tasted, lips teased, teeth grazed. Even outside the arena of kombat, the two warriors, a god and a sorcerer, strove together to achieve the greatest heights of victory and of pleasure.

In the night sky over the fortress, a thunderhead formed and began raining its contents, both those of life and of death, down upon the island between realms.

#cc #cw #mk #mortal kombat #raiden #shang tsung #warring exes

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jinruihokankeikaku · 4 years

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Classpect analysis for a Prince of Life? Love your blog btw!

omg thanks!! Glad you’ve been diggin it hehe, I didn’t expect to get this much attention as a blog that’s been nigh-dead for 3ish years but i love it :3 This is our second Prince, and our second Life player. Here we go…

Title: Prince of Life

Title Breakdown: One who actively destroys [kills, breaks, threatens, annihilates] Life [rebellion, growth, biological life, consumption]

Role in Session: “Destroyer of Life” …what could go wrong, eh? Well, as with any Prince, the answer is “a whole lot”. A whole lot could go wrong, but with enough teamwork, this doesn’t have to be the case. The key for a session’s survival here lies in the Prince’s mindset, and what makes it so easy for them to derail.

In the case of an (undeveloped) Prince of Life, the first word that comes to mind is “repressed”. Something about their lifestyle, way of thinking, or treatment by others has quelled the spark of Life within them, and left them clinging to a “false Doom” – that is to say, a set of rules or restrictions, or sense of fate, that they no longer truly believe in. Their task, in developing themselves and their aspect, to realize that they have room yet to grow, and to know when to destroy a thing and when to have the forbearance to give it time. A healthy Prince of Life makes their own way, makes their own rules, lets Life flourish to a degree but prunes it down to make it beautiful.

In terms of party composition, a Prince of Life is gonna find it hard to work with just about anyone at first. However, a Maid of Rage could be the key to breaking through their repression, showing them the power they have to say No, to admit that they’ve been holding themselves back. The resulting realization could be explosive, but will ultimately be in the best interest of the Prince and their team. Another role that might play an interesting role in the Prince’s development is the Seer of Space, who could figuratively “give the Prince some space” by showing them the path to develop their own beliefs and forge a new beginning. At any rate, the Prince of Life won’t have an easy path ahead of them, as by definition they’ll start out with a lot of growth left to do.

Opposite Role: The Sylph of Doom. There’s so much potential for miscommunication here. All the pot8ntial, one might say, if one hypothetically said things like that. The Sylph will want to repair what they see as faltering belief or concerning lack of acceptance in the Prince, not realizing that the structure of beliefs that the Prince espouses is inauthentic and/or forced upon them. This would only escalate when the Prince finally realizes the inauthenticity of their beliefs, which the Sylph might well see as unduly chaotic / derailment on the Prince’s part. While the Sylph is unlikely to immediately escalate this disagreement, it’ll be a real cause for resentment between the two until the miscommunication is resolved, as the Sylph will be all too likely to fixate on healing a disease that was never actually there.

God Tier Powers

The dialectical contradiction inherent to all Princes is that they both destroy their Aspect and destroy with their Aspect. While this is usually reflected in internal turmoil and struggle personally, their powers post-Ascension, generally speaking, fall into the latter category. Here are a few ideas as to how the Prince might destroy things using Life…

Decadent Irruption: The Prince causes growth to occur at an extremely accelerated rate within a person or thing. Cell division immediately comes to mind, which would cause a slow death through lingering malignancies, but really it would amplify any “status effect” currently attached to the Prince’s unfortunate victim – flames would burn faster and brighter, drugs or poisons would reach lethal concentration within moments, violent urges would be amplified and aggressively expressed… This is a, needless to say, an extraordinarily dangerous power. Wield it with care.

Poison Ivy: The Prince causes nearby flora to grow uncontrollably, mutating in novel and deadly ways, and lashing out at whomever the Prince sees fit. A theme is emerging here – it’s quite possible that the Prince of Life would have a real knack for working with poisons, as somebody who’s been figuratively (or perhaps literally?) poisoned in the past. Maybe they use compounds they grew themselves on their weapon – a poisoned rapier sounds like a rather Princely weapon indeed.

Live Fast: The Prince of Life channels their Aspect inward, accumulating a massive supply of life-force and consuming it all. Physically, this might be subtle or invisible to onlookers; however, it might also manifest as temporary mutations, with the Prince’s body transforming to acquire the more lethal attributes of a life-form with which they have a particular affinity. Either way, the end result is that the Prince temporarily becomes a virtual killing machine, plowing through obstacles before crashing and taking a long while to recharge. Like any Prince, not destroying themselves is going to be a top priority.

Personality: As mentioned above, the Prince is going to start out rather repressed, lacking in self-awareness and tied to a set of beliefs that are no longer theirs. Religion immediately comes to mind, but it’s not necessarily the only possibility. Maybe it’s a more general sense of Fate – I could see an unhealthy/pre-realization Prince of Life believing something along the lines of “Why bother, I’m going to die anyways.” Alternatively, they could be adhering to a code of ethics or set of laws that’s holding them back in their personal pursuits – in any case, a key moment in their character arc is going to be that moment when they do finally stop limiting themselves.

This “limit-break” or “apostasy”, whatever form it takes, is not necessarily going to be a happy moment, or healthy in the short-term, as the Prince might double down on whatever coping mechanisms they’d been using in the past. Food, alcohol, drugs, obsessive exercise, fixation on a particular person or goal… these are all possibilities, which would manifest under the surface while the Prince was repressed and bubble over when they break through the repression, causing a lot of chaos or an “excess of Life” before (hopefully) simmering down to a well-adjusted level. Once this has settled, the Prince will be happier than they’ve ever been, finally becoming as excitable and bubbly as most Life players are to begin with. While the Prince of Life might seem like a bit of a trainwreck personality-wise, their story is one of growth, and growth invariably takes time.

Songs

Heel Turn 2 by the Mountain Goats (listen to this song, srsly; not only does it fit the Prince of Life exceedingly well, it’s just damn good)

Kill the DJ by Green Day (believe me, I already I have shitty music taste, this one just kinda stood out to me vibewise ok)

Numb by Linkin Park (this is maybe more of a Prince of Heart thing but I’m putting it here anyhow)

That was an interesting one!! It’s easy to read the Prince of Life as just “someone what kills things”, but they have a lot of potential for complexity, and a great many potential directions to take. Thanks for the request, and please do send an ask if u have any further requests/comments/critiques, or want clarification on anything posted thus far!! :3

~PLUR~

#anon #ask #Homestuck #classpect #prince of life #life #prince

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the-fae-folk · 4 years

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The Conversation

They danced. She in her gown of starlight and moonbeams and he in a suit of fire and gold like the sun. Sometimes their steps trod upon a marble floor in a hall of jewels and whispering courtiers, yet sometimes they seemed to be alone in the woods with only the whispering of the wind and the green of the leaves as witness to their moment of closeness.

And they spoke as they circled one another. “Have you met the humans?” Asked he. “Scrambling around on the ground, acting like nothing more than animals who have discovered fire and swords. Do you find them amusing?” And she would smile, knowing what he meant. “Yes they are fascinating. Full of ideas about fate and chance. Of gods and cosmic orders, of reasons and wonders they cannot see. In some ways they are right, there is much to the world they cannot see.” “But they are also wrong,” he would retort as his hand pressed against the small of her back, leading her along the line of dance. “They decide on truths that are not true, believe in things they don’t know for certain, and don’t even follow the commands their invisible gods will give.” She spun beneath his arm, her smile never diminishing as he gracefully led her round in an arc and back towards him. The light of the candles was like a thousand fireflies after the rain. “But each day there are those who try to live better lives. Desperately trying to be better people, even when they don’t really know how. Even if they always fail, do their efforts mean nothing at all?” And he took small steps as he lifted her in his arms and spun her round, her dress fluttering in their own personal wind. He frowned, but it was still charming on his handsome face. “They’ve fought the same battles from the moment they first arrived. They fight over religion and beliefs, for greed and pride, through wrath and gluttony. Still they struggle with their identities. They lust for whatever they want and cannot have, determined to force the world to fit their narrow little understandings, and somehow hurting everyone around them as they go. Suffering, hate, pain, cruelty, and selfishness.” But she pushed them apart, flinging them both out to reach to the room around them, kept together in place only by the other’s hand which held tightly. Then they threw themselves back towards the other, coming together in a slight spin. “Don’t forget about kindness and courage, generosity and love! Oh how they love! Seeking out at every moment for someone to hold them close and never let go! A lover, a friend, a parent. Anyone to sate their loneliness.” “They are only lonely because they forget that others are people just as they,” Said he. “If they were truly kind and good, they wouldn’t need to seek for love. They hardly even understand love anyway. Their lives are too short, they die alone and are soon forgotten. Cut away before they’ve had the chance to become someone...” Her smile was crooked as she leaned close to caress his face. “What if they’re right? What if there is something after their deaths that we cannot see with our immortal lives?”

“What if there is?” He kissed her hand and used it to push them both around, circling one another, then a switch to circle in the other direction. “They hardly get the chance to grow before they die, and if they don’t end there, well that’s nice. But they don’t know that there is, they’re going through all the motions hoping they’ll be rewarded for it all. A sisyphean task that lasts their entire lives. Good or bad, bad or good? What is life? They ask why a thousand times and never get their answers. And despite individual struggles they never seem to change much as a people. If they do it is very slow. Too slow.” She laughed as they spun across the floor, arm in arm, whirling faster as the music flows. “You really care about them that much?” “Don’t you?” “Of course not,” said she. “They are a pretty bauble. Entertaining with all their funny little ideas, so sure they can be more than they are if they try hard enough. But they cannot change. They’re only human after all. I find them fascinating. Little toys to play with.” And they stilled as the music slowed. He stepped back and bowed low, while she swept into a deep curtsy. As he faced her once more amidst the trees and pillars, on the white marble floor and shadowed grassy meadow, he spoke again in a quiet voice only she could hear. “There’s still hope for them. But to paint a pretty picture is to put down the struggles they go through every day. One day they might find their answers and become what they always dreamed of. But it will be a long and difficult road to travel. ” At last they parted, each believing the other to be the fool. Neither aware that their brief dance had taken part in a longer conversation. A conversation held each and every moment of every mortal life. The question was always being discussed, being asked. What does it mean to be Human?

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you-are-my-neverland · 3 years

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nano 2020 final update

now playing: a playlist for yourself sad (slowed down songs)

final wc. 57, 114 words

general thoughts:

let me try to keep this short: i won!!! honestly, it was very exciting, considering this is like my sixth nano and the only one i’ve cracked an actual 50k on - ahead of schedule, too! (and on that - congrats to everyone who wrote this month! you all did awesome, even if you didn’t make your goal <3).

my writing pace slowed a little, which was fine - we did have thanksgiving break, but honestly that was just for me to further relax (& upon return the stress of school slammed full force hhhh). it’s been a bit tricky because i do have a large ensemble cast of varying importance whose relevance will likely cycle around, but incorporating them into the story is difficult. i’m trying to build relationships for further chapters, but without forgetting or sidelining anyone too much. it’s been a bit crazy, especially since my outline is not super detailed and i didn’t ever get around to writing my character arcs for book 1 like i was planning on. oh well.

we did hit the first little conflict hill though!!

the future:

honestly, i don’t know where i’m going with this - not my wip, but like with writing it and posting updates. this is technically my final nano update, but like i don’t plan on stopping writing this regularly because might as well ride with it, you know? anyways. i think when i have a title, i’ll make a wip intro about it. hopefully my writing doesn’t peter off - i’ll have to try to police myself, like that ever works out (well it did this year but. you know).

if you want to be on a taglist for future possible updates, let me know! right now it’s just @semblanche <3

also here’s the pinterest which i am still building and organizing (i’ll create a spotify playlist in due time)

some scenes:

(beneath the cut because i went a little overboard)

“You jest,” Eden said, looking amused. Ophelia noticed he wasn’t wrinkling his brow as much anymore, as if the headache had finally gone away, or at least she had distracted him from it, which she took as a win.

“I am only ever perfectly serious,” she said.

“I don’t doubt it,” Eden replied.

They looked out at the ocean a while longer.

notes: ophelia and eden (& sebastian) as friends with a certain vibe that i really like ... they’re kind of cute okay <3 but insofar platonic

“That’s fine, I always keep elastic ones on me,” Luce replied, continuing to chat as she began to braid after dividing Ophelia’s hair into a neat part. “Your hair is so nice and straight. It does whatever I want it too. I usually practice hairdos on Laurie, but both of her hair never wants to obey the laws of gravity or force, you know? I’m not pulling too tight, am I?”

Ophelia, who had actually sunk into a relaxed state and felt rather as if she had transcended—it had been so long since someone had touched her hair, her mother stopping brushing it long ago—almost missed the question, before quickly saying, “No, it feels really nice.”

notes: trying to build and integrate ophelia, luce & briar friendship so ophelia can have actual good friendships, also because healthy girl friendships are necessary for any good work xD

Asriel glanced at her over his shoulder, the flames casting a sharp outline across his narrow profile. “It’s not my fault if you take offense to every small thing. Maybe you should think about why you consider that to be a personal attack on you. Perhaps you’re doing something wrong?”

Ophelia exhaled sharply and looked away from him, her fist dropping to her side. She could feel tears pricking at her eyes, and it was so infuriating that she almost wanted to cry—cry over the fact that a single sentence made her want to cry to even begin with.

“Forget this,” she said, forcing herself to speak slowly as to not betray the tightness of her throat she felt all of the sudden. “I don’t need to go with you. I’ll make it out on my own. Have fun in the dark.” She stormed past him, shoulder checking him into the wall, and focused on her feet and surroundings carefully, not willing to embarrass herself any further.

“Ophelia,” Asriel said. Just her name. Nothing else. It was enough to make her stop, even as she insistently told her feet to keep going. She looked just barely over her shoulder at him and saw his body sigh with the sound of it leaving his lips. “Let’s go together,” he said, coming up to stand next to her.

“No way,” she said. “You might ‘need’ me, but I definitely don’t need you.”

notes: anyways ophelia & asriel are supposed to be like rivals and the reader isn’t supposed to like asriel that much, but also my personal bias shines through in my writing and i once again make my intentions obvious (enemies to lovers hghjskjs)

She opened her eyes and looked up to see Asriel staring back at her, sitting on the ledge and dangling his feet, a hand still over hers, despite the flames that had started to dance across his skin as well. He didn’t so much as flinch, though Ophelia could make out the slight reddening of his skin beneath the fire. She frowned at that and considered reeling it back in, but who was she if he wanted to risk his life? People got burned. It wasn’t anything that a healer couldn’t solve.

She was struck by his gaze. Not that it carried much intensity, but by the fact that it didn’t—he looked at her as he looked at everything else, with a gaze that simply swept by one momentarily and deemed it not worth his interest. Nothing was worth his interest. Nothing made him smile or laugh; he only frowned, slightly, at some things, sometimes at Ophelia, but he never looked at her with the burning hatred she felt he must see on her face every time they made eye contact.

notes: uh oh this rivalry might have been one sided the entire time? hm.

“You could have killed me.” When she looked up, her eyes were rimmed with red and her voice was raw with some unspoken emotion.

Asriel didn’t flinch. “It was a risk I was willing to take.”

“You don’t get to gamble with my life,” Ophelia said, spitting out each word as if they hurt her to say.

“It wasn’t even real,” Asriel replied, unbothered and unfazed.

“Merlin,” Ophelia whispered, looking away and then staggered to her feet, hands clenched into fists at her side. “I hate you so much. I wish I had made all of you burn alive.” She turned and slammed through the door, letting it bang shut with an echo that resonated throughout the room.

notes: oh yeah. this is why she doesn’t like him lol.

“How classy,” Bell drawled. “Ruel, do you think he should be allowed to rebel with us?”

Ruel shrugged her knobby shoulders, popping her bubble and swallowing the gum back between her teeth. “We shouldn’t invite people.” They exchanged a look with weighted emotions in their eyes that felt much too serious for the current situation. Asriel felt his fingers tighten around his arms, cutting off the circulation, as he waited.

“True enough.” Their heads turned in unison to blink at a still standing Asriel: Ruel’s heavy lidded pale gray blue ones and Bell’s dark brown eyes with the thin double eyelid crease.

“See you around, then,” Bell said. “If it’s fate, we’ll meet again.”

Asriel bit back a scoff, a short huff escaping his lips instead. “If that’s that you believe.”

“Ah, so he’s a skeptic,” Bell remarked, voice cold and eyes narrowing.

Asriel gave them both a long look, feeling slightly amused at the conversation and somewhat curious about what a further one would entail.

“I don’t believe in fate,” he said. “And even if fate does exist, it’s far from impartial.”

“Is that your way of saying you doubt we’ve made fate’s favorites list?” Bell asked, looking like they were half joking and half actually interested in what Asriel had to say.

“I don’t know,” Asriel said. “Do you honestly believe fate has taken any notice of you at all?”

“I’m not one of the Divine,” Bell said. “So I couldn’t say, honestly. Could you?”

Asriel let his hands drop to his sides, where he tucked them into his pockets and ignored the burn and pain that came with the movements.

“I would hope,” he started softly. “That fate has no plans for me at all. Good day.

notes: asriel pov asriel pov asriel pov! the way he’s one of what i like to call the core four (not me writing cour fore rip omg, but also that’s sebastian, ophelia, vincent, and him - our mcs if i ever had such a thing) but this is his first pov in 50k. bell & ruel are two minor characters that kind of wormed their way into my heart and now i think i’m attached - maybe they’ll all be friends.

#writers on tumblr #writing #my writing #creative writing #nanowrimo 2020 #nano 2020 #wip: nano 2020 #fantasy #friendship #eh whatever #12.3.2020 #chapter eight was a good chapter.#the way i have a projected ~31-2 chapters and like 1/4 of the way through the chapter count we're at 50k #omg #guess i'll go wild then #this is a long update rip #i just see asriel and i fall in love with him #he's like draco malfoy. but also he is NOT draco malfoy at all in the slightest it makes no sense

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official-cisphobe · 4 years

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i highly admire your worldbuilding skills. can you tell us more about your OCs and their universe?

this is probably gonna be a bit lengthy so strap in! (edit: it is very lengthy)

the basics of Voidverse, like I explained earlier, is that there is a group of people tethered to each other by fate and higher forces, the purpose of the Alts is that they are a sort of keeper of balance between worlds and each of them is a sort of savour or hero in their respective timeline/universe. They weren't always aware of each other but when a great danger threatens all multiverses and all life they have to come together to defeat it—they do this with the help of someone called Katalin Huerta who has an ability called The Bridge ie she can create 'bridges' to other timelines/universes from wherever she is.

Technically the main character of Voidverse is Classic the Demon aka Classic, who is sort of a butterfly effect to get both the Alts and the end of the world running. but more about that later, I'll explain the other characters first.

anyway this ended up being super long so added a Read More to not take oevr anyone’s dash akdhsfsfg

Jojo - already explained

Leoh Yu - Leoh aka Badger is probably the most normal Alt out of all of them concidering he's not a demon or any sort of supernatural or sci-fi creature. Leoh grew up in Dazhai, China in the late 1970's to late 1980's with his mother and grandmother where they owned a farm and a bakery. His life took a turn when his mother got very sick and his family couldn't afford good doctors or treatments. at some point in the way of making money Leoh at 18-years-old was approached by a group of hitmen to recruit him, which after some time and thinking he accepted. Leoh worked as a hitman for about 30 years before retiring at age 40 to get married to his now husband Nico Mahariel as well as adopting a babygirl named Qing-Qiu. Leoh's past, however, will not let him go that easy but that's a story for another time.

Tuyja - Tuyja was a prophet of the Goddess Ghalme in an ancient civilisation called the Weykha. the Weykha lived in a sandstone kingdom and it is rumoured that they are where the legends of mermaids and Atlantis came from. Tyuja however was not of the Weykha people, instead she was born from the stars with ocean blue skin and horns made from spacedust. She was regarded as a sort of next in command from the Royal family and was basically treated as an extention of the Royal family (if not even higher than them), which infuriated the jealous Weykha prince. Tuyja had also fallen in love with a servant girl called Muza, which the Prince had used as leverage against her and turned the Weykha people against her, telling them that Tuyja would steal all their gold and jewellery and give it to a servant girl, that he had heard her say she would strip the skies of moon and star so that Muza would shine the brightest, that he had seen her tame ocean waves so that the servant girl could pick sea shells from the sand below. Tuyja had become a threat to the people who had praised her and come to her for guidance, they had banished her into the sea for 5000 years.

Quiet - named after one of my friends because I really like teir name and I've had difficulties naming this character for years, Quiet was born and raised in a lab where they were subjected to varieties of cruel and inhumane experiments going as far as getting permanent damage to their ribs and lungs. in canon Quiet only got their name after joining the Alts, Jojo who became their closest friend nicknamed them Quiet because they're,,, well,,, really quiet. ngl their story and character arc is on the undeveloped side

Lotus Draqon - Lotus is a half-human half-dragon who grew up outside his pack of origin because his mother Jupiter wasn't sure how the Matriarchs would react to Lotus' half-human trait. The dragons are an ancient people of long ago with vast magical abilities and lived in harmony with mortals, sharing their magic with them—until an evil was awakening and the Gods began to tear down entire cities. Mortals expected and begged the dragons to help them survive but the Matriarchs decided to abandon them, priotising the dragon's survival. They lived in isolation and hiding, shielded in a deep forest by magic for thousands of years. until Lotus as a young adult decided it was time for him to leave the nest and see the world. Jupiter was reluctant but Lotus was determined to never again live in fear. In time Lotus would become a very important figure to both the dragon and the mortals inhabiting the lands as dark forces began to matirialise and the Matriarchs became restless, declaring war against mortals.

Voidkeeper - demons are very hard to kill creatures, no regular blade or bullet with damage them much beyond cuts and bruises. the most efficient way to kill a demon is for one to end their own life which by Satan's rule is forbidden. It has happened technically two times but the first one was by a demon now known only as the Voidkeeper. After ending their own life as punishment their horns and tail were cut off, their magic taken away, and they were banished to the Void forever. Slyly they managed to grab some of their depleted magic and put it into a magical stone for safekeeping, it is only a very limited amount but can do very wondrous and powerful things things. The Void grants the Voidkeeper clairvoyance as to what is going on in whichever timeline and universe, they are a sort of silent watcher and will never interfere with the goingonabouts of the mortals. the Voidkeeper has a very minor but very important part to play in regards to the Alts and the saving of all life in the multiverse but for now they are patiently waiting and watching.

and finally there's our boy Class whose story is undoubtedly the most developed out of all of these so let's go through it:

Classic is a minor demon and was born at a time when the Underworld and the Human world were not so separate. He was born in a tiny demon village of about 15-20 inhabitants. His father had left him and his mother when Classic was about three years old and has not been seen since, Classic doesn't know if his father is dead or alive and doesn't really care about it either. Classic was an only child and pretty much a mama's boy, although he had a few friends in his village. Unfortunately his life changed forever at 12 years old when human soldiers pillaged his home, killing everyone—Classic would have been dead as well but his mother used her dying breath to save him with magic.

Classic had been knocked out during the raid but when he awoke he witnessed the aftermath of a bloodbath. Scared and alone and unsure of what to do he ran away from the scene and travelled days across the country until he stumbled upon a town of humans. Wrath overcoming his senses he murdered the entire town, leaving no human alive, going as far as tearing down entire houses and setting the entire place on fire.

Classic was later found in the ruins of that town crying by a group of angels. He was taken by them to a city in the sky and adopted by a family of angels. He wasn't generally liked by his neighbours but the angel child he lived with became his best friend for years to come. They grew up together, learned to use their different magicks together, Classic learned he could even materialise wings and fly albeit badly at first.

But as history has shown, wherever Classic goes, terror follows.

Classic had been having nightmares for months, very terrible ones, of dark forces beyond his understanding. They felt familiar and cruel, almost mocking.

Before he realised what he had done, the angel he spent his childhood with was dead and there was blood on his hands. Just like before, as if on instinct he ran away from the city of angels and went into hiding. Multiple years had passed by now and the human world was very different from what he remembered. It was no longer that easy to stay out of the radar of humans, since they were pretty much everywhere with cameras and police.

To say he was causing issues in the human world would be an understatement. He would steal, break into houses, even kill to survive. Random fires would start and radiation with no apparent source would appear all over.

This is where Katalin Huerta comes in—see, she is a commander of a very special branch of task force, it was her own creation. Her people dealt with supernatural oddities and threats, it was govrrment funded but entirely indepentant from their meddling albeit they can be difficult to please. Katalin was born with special abilities, a sort of family tradition—at birth her soul was bonded with that of a powerful spirit that had once been one with the soul of Katalin's mother. The spirit gave her the ability to control and create fire but her own speciality was her Bridge ability.

anyway, Katalin had taken notice of the strange indicents around town and taken some of her people to go check it out, only to find a teenaged demon crawling in an abondoned factory. She could tell the demon was just afraid and lost and decided to help him. Which is how Classic joined her task force.

Which honestly was probably the best thing that had happened to Classic, Katalin taught him to fight and better utilise his demon magic as well as taught him to use a sword (Classic has never understood guns and will never attempt to). Learning spells with a human was a difficult task but eventually they figured it out. Classic's natural abilities worked very strongly as illusion based magic as well as materialisation, although the latter has been more tricky to master even after all these years so as we speak Classic's only materialisation spells are his wings as well as his sword and teleportation.

Eventually the darkness haunting Classic began to rear its head again, Katalin catches wind of this and fortunately can help him keep it out from his head yet it still lingers in the air and grows stronger.

until now Classic had never before talked about the darkness. but at this point he was cornered and Katalin wouldn't take no for an answer.

At that point in time all Classic knew about the darkness was that it was some sort of ancient entity, it wasn't a demon because its presence felt entirely different from at least the demons Classic was used to. He nicknamed it Ash, as all he could remember from the times it has appeared are the ashes left by roaring embers.

In reality the darkness is one of the five forgotten gods of an ancient people. It was cast aside by the Creator and exiled from the land of gods. The darkness hates mortal life because of the gods' love for them, so it seeks to destroy all that is living. in its weakened state it needs a vessel to succeed and has been corrupting Classic and molding him into that vessel since that day he turned 12-years-old.

Only the Alts can defeat the darkness, whether Ash stays defeated is only a matter of time.

#äsks #konsta-nt ramble #long post

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thisbluespirit · 4 years

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Ten Favourite Characters

Memed from @mariocki And despite the numbering, not really in strict order, although I tried and no. 1 is definitely no. 1.

10. Kathryn Janeway

"There are three things to remember about being a starship captain. Keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship... and never abandon a member of your crew."

Okay, basically, me and Star Trek is: I like it if it has Captain Janeway in it. If it does not have Captain Janeway in it, I might go so far as to mildly enjoy it from time to time, but Janeway is the essential thing. I walked in one day and saw Kate Mulgrew on the screen and sat down immediately, eventually asking my friend, in hushed tones of awe, “Who is that?” (I’m not even joking.) (I don’t hate the rest of ST or anything, but, you know. It’s not Doctor Who and it doesn’t have Captain Janeway in it, what can I say? I like the one with the whales, too?)

9. Jenkins

“Magic is not an exact science. If it were, it would be science.”

With Jenkins (John Larroquette), The Librarians takes a mythical character I never gave a thought to, or imagined I would want to, and gave me All the Feels about him. By the end of S1, I was drawing hearts around Jenkins every time he appeared and that happens all too rarely at the moment, so I think he has to go on this list. (I’m a Doctor Who fan, how could I not love a grumpy immortal caretaker with a magic door and a heart of gold?) *draws hearts around him regardless of his disapproval and annoyance at said hearts*

8. G’kar

“No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power tyrants and dictators cannot stand. The Centauri learned that lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.”

G’kar’s arc is just beautiful (from semi-villainous schemer to unwilling religious icon), as is every part of his epic relationship with Londo, and he is my favourite. There was a period in S1 where there were about 7 episodes without him and I nearly died. And, I mean, I really like Babylon 5 and everybody else in it, but that was just cruel and unusual. Thank goodness it never happened again. Andreas Katsulas was just brilliant.

7. Seventh Doctor

"That's what guns are for. Pull the trigger, end a life. Simple, isn't it? Why don't you do it, then? Look me in the eye, pull the trigger, end my life. Why not?"

What do you do with a thing like Doctor Who in a meme like this? I could do my top ten fave characters just in Doctors, let alone companions, before we even get started on minor characters, so let’s have my favourite Doctor do the honours for everyone here. He hates unrequited love, loathes bus stations (terrible places, full of lost souls and lost luggage), and knows we all have a universe of our own terrors to face, and he’ll be back in time for tea.

With Ace, of course, who is also the best. As are so many of the rest.

6. Servalan

"There’s no one as free as a dead man.”

It’s so hard to choose Blake’s 7 characters! They’re all so fascinating, that’s why it still gets watched and loved. If I’m honest it’s Vila or Servalan, and today I went for Servalan, which probably will save anyone from getting stabbed in the back. I love me an evil lady and Jacqueline Pearce’s Servalan is probably my favourite villain in anything, especially in terms of characters who remain irredeemable, but are also plausible and interesting. She’s certainly the most fabulously dressed, anyway.

5. Lynda Day

”I don’t do conversation. Everything I say comes out like an order. I say hello and people salute!”

Like every other girl of my very specific age demographic in the UK (Press Gang was watched by something ridiculous like 80% of its target teenage audience, which I don’t think has ever happened before or since), I wanted to grow up to be Lynda Day, dictator editor of the Junior Gazette. It’s probably as well that none of us did, but she was the very best, and I remain grateful to have had her around, and Julia Sawalha was always fantastic right from trespassers will be exterminated to there are crocodiles.

4. Silver

Sapphire: “You’re supposed to lose sometimes.”

Silver: “Oh! I wondered why I wasn’t having any fun.”

So, Sapphire and Steel are pretty amazing, right, but let’s be honest, I was always watching this for the red-headed guy in Assignments 3 & 6, and he did not disappoint. I mean, Sapphire & Steel is the weirdest, creepiest low-budget thing with our srs bsns inhuman heroes and then suddenly David Collings turns up and makes light-bulbs glow and turn into glitter. He is the sparkliest, no one can deny it and he can slide right into the perfect OTP and turn it into the even shinier OT3. Not that that stops him flirting with everyone else as well, of course.

3. Regina Mills

“There's no redemption for me. There's only suffering. Because now I have a curse. The curse of knowing the difference between good and evil. And I'm caught between them. If I revert, I lose everyone I love. Henry, my friends, everyone. And if I go forward trying to be good, I have to live with my past darkness and all its well-deserved consequences... But for me, it's a simple choice really. I'd rather suffer than see that pain on the people I care about. This is my fate.“

Regina gets to go from being Once Upon A Time’s original OTT fairytale villain to hero (and plays out every possible shade in between, plus various cursed and alternate versions of herself, not to mention her evil doppelganger), and Lana Parrilla’s just amazing at All The Things. I went from not even liking her to somehow letting her rip my heart right out of my chest when I wasn’t looking. (Bonus shout out to her mother Cora Mills/Queen of Hearts (Barbara Hershey) too.)

2. Frank Marker

"Have you heard about old heads on young shoulders? Well, you employ me, you get an old head. You get old shoulders, too, but then no-one's perfect."

I’m with @mariocki here: Alfred Burke’s run down, small-time enquiry agent in Public Eye (TV 1965-75) is one of the most utterly 3D, real and compelling TV characters I’ve ever come across. (With a bonus mention for the very lovely Helen Mortimer (Pauline Delany), because I might even love her a tiny bit more than Frank some days. <3)

1. Ruth Evershed

“I like to think no institution in the country is safe from me.”

I had to think about this long and hard a while ago, and Nicola Walker’s Ruth from Spooks | MI5 is still probably my favourite character in anything. It’s tough. But RUTH. I love her so much. There’s a S2 DVD commentary with Howard Brenton and Nicola Walker on her first episode and basically Nicola just sits there going, “I love Ruth.” And I’m: “ME TOO.” From her first appearance, dropping the files, buggering the Home Office, and breaking the desk lamp to more serious, angsty, later stuff, she’s just so damn good at her job (and in Spooks that’s a tragedy waiting to happen).

It’s really hard to list only 10 though. I’m an all-eras Doctor Who fan. I’d need three posts at least just to start on that, I keep falling in love with characters from ancient telly and every now and then I even watch new things...

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myssamyss · 5 years

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Everything Stays, Part 1 of 6

Summary: Wild struggles to find a balance between duty and freedom after Calamity Ganon’s defeat. His unexpected departure into the Linked Universe forces him to examine his relationship with Zelda. Millennia prior, Malon and a stubborn Time stumble toward a budding love in the years since his return from Termina. A string of fate connects the pairs across time and destiny... Based on the Linked Universe

Part 1: The Moon Controls the Tide...

Link and Zelda stood at a fork in the road. The sound of croaking frogs rose from the nearby wetlands and the setting sun cast long shadows across the grass. Link took a surefooted step toward the left-hand path.

“North?” Zelda questioned. “Why north? The quickest route to Zora’s Domain is through Lanayru Wetlands, not around them. We’ll cut through Goponga.”

Link opened his mouth, then shut it again. He nodded and changed direction, heading right.

“What is it?” she asked, noticing his hesitation.

He glanced down the winding path that disappeared into swamp weeds. “We’ll get wet,” he said simply.

“Oh,” she murmured with soft realization. There may have once been a bridge or proper road cutting through the smattering of islands, and someone had at least tried to keep the swampy route passable by lashing together logs to make a rudimentary walkway, but many sections were now sunken beneath water and muck. It was crossable, and Link wouldn’t have thought twice about taking the path through the ruins a few months ago. But he’d been on his own then. Now he was once again the princess’s escort. And, if he were honest, he didn’t know her well enough to assume she’d be comfortable splashing through a bog.

Zelda shrugged. “We have one hundred years of absence to make up for. If through the swamp is the quickest route, then through the swamp we’ll go. I’ve had enough of convention, and of wasted time.” She punctuated the end of her sentence with a formal nod, but then she froze theatrically before breaking into a wry grin.

She suddenly leapt off the path and into the reeds with a great splash, spraying mud in a wide circle. Her hair streamed behind her in a golden arc as she swung her head back around to share a gleeful smile. Link couldn’t help but laugh. He was learning that her actions could speak just as loudly as her words. Acquiescing, he bowed his head, strode into the lead, and the two began trekking into the swamp.

They pitched camp in the wetland ruins later that evening and set their boots to dry near the crackling fire. Then, a barefooted Link left to fish and catch frogs in the waning light. Darkness had fallen and the moon shone as he made his way back to their camp. He noticed a light coming toward him along the muddy path, reflecting off the surrounding water. Likely a traveler, yet Link raised his guard.

Someone carried a lantern, though it hung far too close to the ground. As Link drew near, he realized why: the light was clutched in the hand of a small boy. His clothes were filthy and he carried a large pack stuffed to the seams. Link splashed loudly as he approached to alert the boy to his presence in the darkness. The boy froze in fear.

“Hey, it’s alright!” Link called out to him. He stepped into the warm lantern light. “It’s ok, I’m a friend.”

The boy’s eyes were huge and sad, his face heavy with exhaustion and caked in grime. He looked up at Link with hesitant hope.

“Where are you headed?” Link asked him.

“Wetland Stable. Then Trilby Plain,” the boy told him.

“Family there?” Link asked.

The boy frowned and his eyes shone in the flickering light. “A cousin at the stable. And my brother Russ wrote about business in Trilby,” he said sadly. Link could guess why a grubby boy might be traveling across the wild country alone—he didn’t need to ask more. Though the boy’s words sparked a memory in Link’s mind.

“Russ?” he asked the boy. “He doesn’t sell shields, does he?” Link gave a half-smile as he recalled a sandy-haired salesman and the joy of shieldsurfing down a hillside.

The boy nodded. “He does! Ma and dad said it was a waste of time. Before...” the boy’s voice broke and he trailed off.

Link stared down at the lonely boy. If he were honest, he wanted nothing more than to accompany this boy on his journey. Not only for the boy’s protection (though that was certainly a reason, Link worried about anyone walking past nightfall), but because he wouldn’t mind a shieldsurfing detour, nor the warm beds and cheerful music of Wetland Stable. Had he met this boy months ago, he would have eagerly gone along for a short side trip. But now he was in the midst of a pressing mission that couldn’t be bookmarked. Zelda was determined to reach Zora’s Domain as soon as possible.

She’d already held back the darkness for one hundred years while desperately waiting for her chosen knight, and now she held grand dreams for their ruined kingdom, grander than any he could imagine. Who was he, to act like an errant adventurer instead of the steadfast friend she needed? He wasn’t alone anymore, he reminded himself, so he couldn’t just run off and help each needy person they stumbled upon. Zelda’s noble hopes for all of Hyrule were worth that small sacrifice.

Still, he could offer the boy a warm place to sleep. “We have a camp, me and my traveling companion,” Wild told the boy while pointing over his small shoulder. “Off that way. You’re welcome to rest for the night.”

The boy shook his head. “Our home is lying empty, there’s too many things to carry. I need to tell my family before we lose everything to monsters. But thanks,” he told Link. The boy started walking down the path again.

Link put a hand to the boy’s arm. “What about rupees? A weapon?” he offered, but the boy simply shrugged him off, shook his small head once more, and continued walking.

“The night is dangerous,” Link called after him.

“I know,” the boy called back, with a tone far too dark for his years.

Link stood for a conflicted minute and watched the bobbing lantern disappear down the path in the direction of Hyrule Field. Then, he returned to his princess.

***

Countless years before, another conflicted young hero rode his horse across an unseasonably warm Hyrule Field. This Link was clad in a green tunic, with a large, two-handed sword and a colorful steel shield at his back, secured by a leather strap that crossed his broad chest. The sun beat down on him and scorched the shield, which radiated scalding heat. He considered reaching into his saddle bag for his ocarina to call a storm. Rain would be a better fit for his mood anyway, he thought to himself. He only deliberated for a moment, before changing his mind. He hadn’t played the ocarina in a long time.

He finally caught sight of the ranch glimmering in the distance, nestled softly between grassy hills. His visits there had grown in frequency through recent years. When odd jobs ended and he hit the road once more, he’d find himself absentmindedly turning the familiar bend in the dirt road that led back to the ranch. And as much as he wanted to blame Epona, he had enough self-awareness to know why he kept coming back: the ranch was the closest thing he had to a home. But that was precisely the problem, as homes were made for leaving. At least, his homes were. How many times had he felt the sharp wound of a lost place, or worse, a lost friend? Most days he could travel on and on with an easy joy, but every now and again he felt a dull ache from his pockmarked heart, reminding him of the bitter losses he’d suffered at such a young age.

Bitter losses that she should never have to taste, he thought to himself as a beautiful vision of a redheaded farm girl rose in his mind. He was determined to return to the ranch once more and say goodbye—a word that had too often gone unsaid with his own losses. Then, to spare them both, he would move on. You’ve already grown too close to her, he chastised, remembering the soft wisp of an unexpected kiss she’d pressed to his cheek the last time he’d visited. Too close indeed.

He rode on, sweat slipping down his back in the heat as he braced himself for the difficult conversation that lay ahead.

__________ Author’s Note: special thanks to @clumsydarknut for being the best beta reader a writer could ask for. Go check out his stuff, you won’t regret it.

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #LU #Time #Wild #Zelda #Malon #MaLink #breath of the wild #ocarina of time #majora's mask #legend of zelda #loz #hero of time #hero of the wild #Everything Stays

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