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purpleheartskies · 4 months

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"Finding balance" - Part 1

An important lesson in the kk trilogy and in Cobra Kai is "finding balance in your life", but what does this mean in the context of the story in Cobra Kai?

"You can know all the moves, but none of that matters unless you have balance... I mean balance in your life."

Finding balance is about coping with trauma, especially with your emotions and responses due to trauma. This is a major theme that is explored throughout the series. Through the characters' stories, we're shown that trauma isn't permanently gone by "finding balance" momentarily. "Finding balance in your life" is a constant struggle that you have to consciously work on.

In this post, I'm going to talk about Daniel's struggle with finding balance. In a follow-up post, I'm going to talk about Robby's struggle with finding balance.

Daniel's struggle with "finding balance" in s1-s4

Daniel's trauma is rooted mostly in what Silver did to him back in kk3. In s1e1, when Daniel saw Johnny for the first time after about 35 years, Daniel had no issues with him and said that Cobra Kai was the problem back then. But, since s1e2, reminders about Daniel's past experiences with Cobra Kai crop up every so often, triggering him and causing him to lose "balance"/"focus". These are some examples from throughout the first 4 seasons:

When Daniel first saw that Johnny brought back Cobra Kai, Daniel was hit with flashbacks. Daniel later confronted Johnny after Daniel had heard Kyler's version of Johnny beating him up.

When Johnny drew on Daniel's billboard, Daniel retaliated with getting the rents raised for the CK strip mall so that Johnny would have to shut down his dojo. Amanda called Daniel out for this, and Daniel took up karate again to find balance.

When Daniel found out that Robby is Johnny's son, Daniel asked Robby if it was a con (a reference to Silver's con on Daniel in kk3) and kicked Robby out without giving him a chance to explain, although Daniel had told Robby when he'd fallen for Louie's first prank that Daniel would hear Robby's side of things from now on. In fact, Robby had stepped between Johnny and Daniel and told Johnny that he would have to fight him before he hurts Daniel, but Daniel still didn't listen to Robby and kicked him out.

Following the avt, Daniel was pretty driven to reopen Miyagi-Do to take down Cobra Kai,

"That's why I'm opening up Miyagi-Do. So we can fight back, take down Cobra Kai."

He later found balance again and said that the people in Cobra Kai aren't the enemy, there are no enemies, and the goal of Miyagi-Do is to teach a better way.

When Daniel saw Kreese with Johnny for the first time, Daniel lost balance again and became even more determined than before to use Miyagi-Do to take down Cobra Kai. There are interesting parallels between this situation with Johnny and Kreese in s2e2 and that with Silver and Kreese in kk3. For example, Johnny had told the avt committee in s1 that Kreese was dead, but Kreese was now with Johnny here in s2e2. In kk3, Silver had told Daniel when they first met that Kreese was dead, but Kreese was later with Silver when Silver revealed the truth about the whole scheme to Daniel.

"Dead, my ass."

When Miyagi-Do was vandalized and the medal of honor was stolen, Daniel lost his balance again and confronted Johnny.

One morning Kreese also paid the Miyagi-Do dojo a visit, threatening Daniel and his students and talking about a war coming. Daniel continued to be so focused on the dojo, that he neglected the dealership and his marriage, until once again he remembered that Miyagi would tell him to focus on what's important.

When Robby didn't bring Sam home, Daniel found Sam at Johnny's, and Johnny wouldn't let Daniel in, Daniel completely lost his balance, fought with Johnny, and kicked Robby out again without giving him a chance to explain. Daniel told Robby that Daniel gave Robby a second chance, it was all a mistake, and it was up to Robby if he wanted to end up like Johnny (believing that Robby had also gotten Sam drunk).

After the school fight, Daniel shut down Miyagi-Do completely and didn't do what he could have to defend Robby and Miyagi-Do's reputation. Daniel still believed in what he'd said to Robby in Johnny's apartment. After Johnny almost killed someone in the garage fight, Daniel lost his balance more and claimed that Robby had too much of Johnny in him and then called the cops on Robby without even talking to him first or making sure that he was okay (including mentally and emotionally) and allowing him to turn himself in. Daniel's trip to Okinawa helped Daniel reconnect with Mr. Miyagi and find balance again.

After finding out about the arcade fight and the restraining order that Kreese had put on Amanda, Daniel (and Amanda) tried to use the landlord to shut down Cobra Kai.

After Kreese's students attacked his home and his daughter, Daniel lost his balance again, confronted Kreese and fought him for the first time. Daniel was poised to strike a finishing blow but stopped because Sam showed up.

Daniel was off-balance when he first tried to work with Johnny in running a joint dojo. Daniel even told the students, "We all have anger inside. But I want you to let it go. Don't let your emotions control you. You have to be the one in control. Right?" but then he immediately lost control of his emotions because of Johnny. Later, Daniel seemed to find balance again. Though, he did beat up the hockey players after Johnny provoked the situation.

Of course, when Silver came to Miyagi-Do and Daniel saw him for the first time in about 35 years, Daniel lost his balance again.

Daniel insisted to Johnny that Miyagi-Do would be the best way to try to take down Silver now because Miyagi-Do had helped Daniel take down Silver in the past. Daniel agreed to fight Johnny in a match so that Daniel could train both their dojos in only Miyagi-Do if he won. Daniel even resorted to using the pressure points technique on Johnny to try to win the match. Of course, it ended in a draw, and Johnny and Daniel's alliance fell apart because of their differing opinions on how to handle what was done to Hawk.

We don't know what details Daniel told Johnny about Silver, but eventually Daniel remembered Robby when Amanda commented about teens like Tory being thought of as lost causes and needing wake-up calls. Daniel went to talk to Robby about Silver and shared some details about what Silver had done to him in the past. Daniel was so focused on delivering his speech about Silver that Daniel didn't even consider that Robby had accused him of trying to use him for the tournament. Meaning, Daniel didn't care to actually address their issues and just focused on Silver and Cobra Kai.

Daniel also lost his balance with Anthony when Daniel caught him playing games even though he was grounded. Daniel broke Anthony's tablet and yelled "Quiet!" at him out of frustration. A little earlier in that conversation, Daniel had admit that the tournament was getting to him and was taking away his attention from what was important. That is, Daniel admit that he was off balance. No doubt, Mr. Miyagi would not have approved of Daniel's behavior towards Anthony.

At the s4 avt, when Daniel realized that Robby had taught the Cobras Miyagi-Do because Robby's students were beating all of his students using Miyagi-Do, Daniel lost his balance and self-righteously confronted Robby about it, even taunting Robby about wanting to get back at his dad (like in s1) and to get back at all of them, completely dismissive of the traumas that Johnny and he himself have caused Robby. Daniel also tauntingly said that Robby could slip another Miyagi-Do "secret" to his friends: "Never put passion in front of principle. Because even if you win, you lose." Of course, Daniel himself has been "putting passion in front of principle" this whole time, which he's been oblivious to.

Overall, Daniel keeps losing his balance because of his own trauma, which he doesn't realized, and keeps feeling justified in his own behavior. At the same time, Daniel either tells Robby to "let go" of his anger to find balance (s1), or that Robby can learn from his mistakes (s2/3), or that Robby didn't learn anything Daniel taught him (s4). However, Daniel himself can't "let go" of his own anger to find balance in his life, nor does he learn from his own mistakes. Seems like Daniel himself "didn't learn anything [Miyagi] taught [him]". Daniel does course correct when he is called out, but Daniel has yet to realize that he himself has a lot of work to do to "find balance in his life".

Other indications of Daniel's lingering trauma

Until Silver showed up at Miyagi-Do in s4, Daniel never once spoke Silver's name or spoke of him, not even when Daniel would speak about his own experiences, especially with Cobra Kai. This is one subtle indication of how much Silver's actions in kk3 have affected Daniel. I'll talk about two moments that come to mind, though there are more:

In s1e7, during the avt committee meeting, Daniel avoided looking at the pictures of Silver being passed around, didn't himself mention Silver's name, and kept the conversation focused on Johnny and him being Daniel's bully while Johnny was in Cobra Kai. This was all despite Silver and the events of kk3 being brought up as the reason that Cobra Kai had been banned years ago.

In s3e7, Daniel told Sam about his match with Barnes: "My opponent was ruthless. Before I knew it, I was on that mat and the fear had completely taken over. I was paralyzed. I couldn't move. The thought of getting up and facing that guy just scared the living daylights out of me. I just wanted to run off and hide." Daniel then talked about how Mr. Miyagi had helped him overcome his fear and find his focus ("balance") again. Daniel told Sam: "I still live with the fear." Silver had been the main cause of Daniel's fear in that match, not Barnes as much. Silver's plan had been to make Daniel feel fear in every part of his mind, and Silver had been successful. Daniel admit here that he still lives with the fear that Silver had instilled in him then. In fact, in s1e3, Daniel had told Amanda, "I've known plenty of guys that seemed harmless that were real pieces of crap behind the scenes," a subtle reference to Silver. Daniel said this soon after Johnny had brought back Cobra Kai, an indication that Silver was on Daniel's mind.

Daniel's worst fear came true in s5

"Cobra Kai has taken over the Valley. All that anyone knows now is Cobra Kai karate. Terry Silver's karate."

In s5, Daniel was the most off-balance he's been since Cobra Kai's return. Silver was finally realizing his dream of expanding Cobra Kai. In kk3, when Silver said that Miyagi would just be a memory as Silver expanded Cobra Kai, Daniel had retorted that Miyagi wouldn't be but Silver would be instead. In s5, Daniel having to shut down Miyagi-Do (Miyagi's memory) as Silver started expanding Cobra Kai was a double hit for Daniel. Silver also announced during the charity auction in s5e4 that he'd be offering free karate classes to underprivileged kids, like he'd said in kk3 that he would offer free classes. A main difference is that in s5e7 Daniel said "All that anyone knows now is Cobra Kai karate, Terry Silver's karate", while in the past, Silver had said "John Kreese's karate."

Terry: "You think this is the end of it, old man? I'm gonna open Cobra Kai dojos all over this Valley. Hell, I might even teach for free! From now on, all that anyone will know about is Cobra Kai karate. John Kreese's karate. You won't even be a memory!" Daniel: "Yes, he will. You won't."

Throughout s5, although Silver was focused only on expanding Cobra Kai, Daniel kept acting against Silver, wanting to shut down Cobra Kai and thinking that Silver was up to something. In turn, Silver kept responding to Daniel's attempts to stop him. Daniel lost more balance as the season went on until he realized in s5e5 that it wasn't worth losing his family over. When Daniel went to apologize to Stingray for confronting him earlier, Silver showed up instead and confronted Daniel, beating him in their fight. At first, no one had understood Daniel's suspicions about Silver or Daniel's efforts to thwart Silver's plans. Amanda, for example, didn't understand and eventually put some distance between Daniel and their family. It's only after Jessica explained to Amanda the elaborate scheme Silver had played on Daniel in the past, as well as after Daniel's confrontation with Silver in Stingray's apartment, that Amanda started to understand Daniel's reasons for wanting to take down Silver. After his fight with Silver, everyone rallied around Daniel and helped him ultimately take down Cobra Kai and defeat Silver.

After that, Johnny told Daniel, "All right, LaRusso. You finally took Silver out," and Daniel responded:

"No more looking over our shoulders at every turn, right?"

Many of Daniel's lines throughout the season indicate that Daniel's trauma because of Silver's elaborate scheme in kk3 was Daniel's driving force for trying to take down Silver in s5. And, this line that Daniel says after taking down Silver indicates that Daniel's trauma is still very much present at the end of s5, despite Daniel succeeding against Silver. That is, Daniel still believed that Silver had been actively scheming against him/them in present day, like he had done in the past. Daniel's paranoia about Silver had also rubbed off on the others. Johnny, Louie, and Chozen all assumed that Silver was surveilling Johnny after Silver had run into him at the hospital. At the time, Daniel said that for now he thought that Silver wouldn't do anything like that because he wouldn't want to lose his spot in the world tournament.

The thing is Silver hadn't been doing anything proactive against Daniel or any of them in s5. Even Silver taking part in the charity auction was a means to his end of spreading Cobra Kai. No doubt, Silver was purposely playing with Daniel at the event, but Silver still had his own purpose for taking part in that event in the first place. Silver was being honest when he told Kim in s5e8 that he didn't care about the rivalry. Silver had really only been expanding his new business throughout s5, like he had wanted to do in the past as shown in the flashback with Kreese in s5e7. However, Silver would react extremely to Daniel's actions to stop him because Silver was determined to succeed in his goals. Each time Silver reacted, he would sneak up on Daniel, which makes Daniel's comment at the end somewhat warranted. However, Daniel still views his actions against Silver throughout s5 as having been necessary because Daniel still believes that Silver had been planning something against Daniel all throughout s5, which Silver hadn't been. For example, when Silver had said in s5e3 that he had old friends he could call too, Silver had been talking about Kim (to get her help to train the students for the world tournament) and not about Barnes, whom Daniel had assumed.

Daniel's lingering suspicions about Silver are of course understandable, given the events of the past and how extreme Silver's reactions had been throughout s5, like burning down Barnes's store. Silver and Daniel's confrontation in Stingray's apartment had also been especially brutal. Silver had snuck up on Daniel again. Daniel waved a white flag, but Silver refused to accept it. Silver then provoked Daniel by threatening his family. In s2e5, when Daniel confronted Johnny about the medal of honor and dojo vandalism, Daniel said that Johnny knows that Daniel won't strike first. However, in s5e5, Daniel struck first against Silver in response to his comment about wrapping Cobra Kai gis around Daniel's kids, which shows how off balance Silver made Daniel. At the end, Silver "showed mercy" to Daniel because Silver wanted Daniel to live to see what came next. But, what came next was Silver's continued expansion of Cobra Kai and trying to take Cobra Kai to a world stage, and no plans for personal attacks on Daniel or anyone else.

A lesson Chozen had taught Daniel in s3 was "If an enemy insists on war, you take away their ability to wage it." Silver wasn't waging war on anyone in s5 (not even on Johnny, despite Silver's actions and his promise to Kreese in s4). In kk3, Silver absolutely had been. He'd personally gone after Daniel, and through him, Miyagi as well, and when Silver lost to Miyagi, he'd threatened to open up Cobra Kais all over the Valley. In s5, Silver was realizing his dream, but he wasn't waging a personal war against anyone and was only being reactive. However, Daniel took the fight to him after losing the s4 avt and went on offense with Chozen's help, trying to stop Silver's plans for expanding Cobra Kai.

In s4, Daniel had told Johnny that you can't strike first against this man, and in s5, Daniel kept paying the price each time he tried to. Daniel's line in s5e6 seems like a foreshadowing, "But what if standing up to Silver just makes things worse again? Every time I try to fight for what's right, somebody gets hurt." After this, all of them, struck first against Silver, first by interfering with his attempt to get Cobra Kai accepted into the Sekai Taikai and later by attacking his home and dojo. Before they did the latter, Silver had said, "We'll send them a message way before the tournament. They'll stay out of our way or someone will get hurt. When and how to deliver it. I don't know yet, but it won't be subtle." It wouldn't be surprising if Silver comes back with a vengeance in s6 and this time plays his kk3-level games with Daniel and Johnny.

s5 was an interesting situation, and it leaves me wondering what Miyagi would have said. After all, he had told Daniel that the lesson about balance is not just for karate but for life as well. After losing the fight to Silver in Stingray's apartment, Daniel said that he now understood that Miyagi walked away from fights because it's not their job to fight the monsters of the world. Sam later said that if Miyagi were there now, he'd say that it's a fight they couldn't walk away from. However, given the whole context of the situation, I don't think Sam was right about that. Even after he'd defeated Silver, Daniel believed that he had to be looking over his shoulder for Silver almost all season, even though this time around Silver hadn't been proactively plotting against Daniel or them but was only reactive each time Daniel did something to try to stop Silver from expanding Cobra Kai.

In s5e5, when Daniel was really off-balance and reeking of booze (Johnny still handed him a beer though), Daniel tried to convince Johnny to come with him to fight Silver. He also suggested that they should have fought it out when they were teens. This is definitely not the Miyagi-Do way. In s5e10, Daniel was more balanced, and even though he was drunk, he refused to go and fight Silver and tried to convince Johnny not to. Interestingly, Daniel was wearing a purple shirt that night when he fought Silver again (not Daniel's usual blue, which visually represents Miyagi-Do), and Daniel ended up fighting Silver instead of walking away from the fight as Miyagi would have done. Silver had said that he was the only one left standing from the fight at his house, but Daniel doesn't usually take Silver at his word. He baited Daniel into the fight, thinking that he himself would win, and Daniel took the bait.

I want to be clear, I'm not victim blaming Daniel. Silver isn't innocent by any means, and Daniel's win at the end was very satisfying. I do wonder though if Miyagi would have approved of Daniel's actions against Silver throughout s5, or if Miyagi would have told Daniel to "let it go" and "find balance", which Daniel wanted to do in s5e5 after he'd realized that he'd lost his balance again. This had been similar to how Daniel lost his balance in s2 and s4, allowing it to affect his family life. At the end of s5, Daniel's false belief that Silver had been plotting against him since the start of s5 was still there even after Daniel had defeated him seemingly for good, and Daniel voiced this belief. That is, Daniel's trauma was still with him at the end of s5.

Daniel's ability to mentor is affected by his inability to find balance

Although Daniel is one of the better mentors in the story (and that bar is low), Daniel has at least two flaws as a mentor.

One is that he hasn't formed his own identity as a mentor. He still hasn't been able to make Mr. Miyagi's teachings his own. Robby for example was able to successfully teach Miyagi-Do without using the chores. Although Daniel is trying to uphold Miyagi's legacy, Miyagi told Daniel that one day he'll do karate his own way. Daniel remembered this at the end of s4 and is now okay with the kid's combining styles, but Daniel has yet to apply this teaching to his own mentoring approach.

The second flaw, and the one that applies to the post, is that Daniel's focus as a sensei, especially since the s1 avt, has always been on taking down Cobra Kai. Daniel had restarted karate to find balance, but since the s1 avt, whenever he loses balance, Daniel keeps changing his focus to using Miyagi-Do to take down Cobra Kai.

In s1e10, when he took Robby to the Miyagi-Do dojo after the avt, Daniel told Robby:

"I know I said you have to let go of your anger and show forgiveness, but... when the fight comes to you, you have to be ready to fight back."

In s2e1, when Daniel was off balance, he told Sam that he reopened Miyagi-Do after the avt to take down Cobra Kai. But later, when Daniel found balance, Daniel said that Miyagi-Do is about teaching a better way. After Kreese's return, Daniel went back to using Miyagi-Do to take down Cobra Kai.

In s3, Daniel failed his students, especially Robby, and Miyagi's legacy in how he handled the school fight and Robby's situation. Daniel didn't defend Robby and the dojo the way he should have, allowing his issues with Cobra Kai and Johnny to cloud his judgement of Robby. Daniel also closed Miyagi-Do. He only later reopened the dojo to help the students stand up against Cobra Kai, but he eventually made a deal with Kreese that if Miyagi-Do won the tournament Cobra Kai would close. That is, he was once again using Miyagi-Do to take down Cobra Kai.

In s4, Daniel's pep-talk at the tournament was all about taking down Cobra Kai:

"...and for some of you, it's your first karate tournament. I still remember my first All Valley, where I stood here proudly with my sensei, and where I faced down the bullies of Cobra Kai. Now getting here hasn't been easy. There've been some bumps in the road, to put it mildly. Remember what's at stake. If Cobra Kai wins, our dojo closes for good. Of course not. Because we have something that Cobra Kai doesn't. We have Miyagi-Do. ...and show Cobra Kai what we're made of. Are you ready?"

Daniel included no words of encouragement or inspiration for his students about their potential and abilities or that he believes in them. Since Silver's return, he'd insisted that Miyagi-Do is the only way they can beat Cobra Kai. Here, he repeated that sentiment. In the end, Daniel relied on Cobra Kai to win. Sam had secretly learned from Johnny, and Hawk already knew Cobra Kai well. In many ways, Daniel hadn't prepared his students properly for the tournament. Daniel also got upset with Robby for teaching the Cobras Miyagi-Do, but Daniel wouldn't have had to worry about that had Daniel been a better teacher: "There's so such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher."

In s5, Daniel said when shutting down the dojo:

It's great to see you all back here again. You know we had one goal going into the All Valley. Beat Cobra Kai.

He went on to say that closing Miyagi-Do is best so that they don't have a target on their backs and that this is no longer a tournament but real life. However, he never should have put that burden on the kids. He especially put that burden on Sam, his LaRusso 2.0, which made her loss even more immense for her because she felt like it was her fault that they now had to close. When they later reopened the dojo, it was once again to take down Cobra Kai.

In s2, Amanda and Daniel had this conversation:

Daniel: "I've just been focused on giving these kids a chance to defend themselves." Amanda: "Well, sometimes, when you focus on one thing, you lose focus of everything else that matters."

Daniel has been so focused on taking down Cobra Kai by using his Miyagi-Do students that he has lost sight of the real purposes of being a sensei and a mentor. Because of this, Daniel keeps failing his students, most of all Robby.

Through Daniel's story, we're shown some things. (1) A lot of times, you can act in response to how you feel based on your trauma (trauma response). The response may not always be right or warranted, and others may not understand why. It can also affect your life in ways you don't realize. Sometimes, someone undeserving, like the other store owners in s1, or Robby or Anthony (generational trauma), bear the brunt of that response. (2) Trauma isn't just magically overcome permanently. You can't just "let it go" or "find balance" momentarily for it to be gone completely or for you to trust again so blindly, nor is it gone after you've defeated and gotten rid of the person who traumatized you. Trauma is something that you still carry with you and need to work through long term, which is something Daniel himself has yet to realize.

“You remember lesson about balance? Lesson not just karate only. Lesson for whole life. Whole life have a balance. Everything be better. Understand?” (Daniel remembering Miyagi's lesson in s1e6. This is an interesting shot. Daniel in present day is looking in the direction that Mr. Miyagi was standing in in the flashback, as if Daniel's staring right at him while remembering his words. Hes also looking in the direction of his grave.)

This brings me to Robby's struggle with "finding balance", which I'm writing separate post for. (I may write one for Sam too, but I prefer to prioritize my Robby posts.)

(Note: Please don't reblog or reply with any dismissive comment or tag expressing negativity towards the show writers, the writing, or the serious aspects of the show. Such comments/tags minimize the contents of the post. This blog (link) explains more about my general thoughts about posting after s5.)

#cobra kai is robby's story #robby keene #daniel larusso

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satellite-blossom · 18 days

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NEW ART !? It's more likely than you think !

I've redesigned Léa's Magical form again, but this time around I've actually colored (& shaded) the whole thing ; I'll share more of my process under the read more.

Feel free to reblog this (but it's ok if you don't) !

(Léa use they/them pronouns and are agender)

So this is Léa's old Magical form, or at least the last art of it I had completed before the 2024 version :

I was going for a fancy, somewhat ouji inspired outfit that'd still be comfortable to wear, as Léa Acorn's style is all about being cute yet comfy. Their body saw no change from their regular form.

I think I was already not fully satisfied with this design by the end of 2021, but as time went on my list of grievances kept growing longer. I started to dislike how much of the design was pure white ; it's not really something I like on Magical Girl designs but for some reason I included it here, probably because I was trying to branch out and take inspiration from series like Lolirock & Pretty Cure for once. I also ended up finding the jacket kinda dumb, or at least the way it fit on top of the shirt seemed off. I had no idea how to color the shoes when I drew this design and it was bugging me more and more over time.

But while I fell out of love with the outfit, my main grievance was the staff-paintbrush-scythe hybrid, which was not only drawn poorly but also pretty boring. I couldn't help but try to redesign it just a month or two after completing the new ref, but I didn't want to redo the whole thing as back then I still made my refs in Microsoft Publisher with the help of Photofiltre, which was a slow and painful process I dreaded.

(Léa's Mobian forms 2021 ref, for... Reference)

So between my laziness, art block and the general state of my life I wasn't able to complete any new design before this year (2024). Let's break down this new design, shall we ?

This was my main inspo board this time around :

As you can see I kept the lolita/ouji influence but added some streetwear elements to it. I felt like the previous design didn't do a great job showcasing the mix of preppy prince & comfy fashion Léa are supposed to encapsulate, so I brought up pictures of a character that had only influenced their story and personality so far : Sora from Kingdom Hearts !

It's not something I bring up a lot anymore, but I used to be well-versed in Kingdom Hearts lore and Léa's story was heavily influenced by it ; they were even supposed to fight with a keyblade at one point ! Design-wise, I borrowed the length of Sora's shorts/jumpsuit for Léa's bloomers, and replaced their cropped suit jacket by a short-sleeved hoodie (which also mirrors some of their Sonic.exe world designs). I mixed these elements with lolita items for a cuter look.

Léa share my love of ties, so I've replaced their bow tie by a regular one ; it's somewhat short to showcase their shirt, which is a revamped version of the old one.

For the legwear I took inspiration from some long flowy legwarmers I saw in a few fairy kei coords, and also the shoes from this CocoPPaDolls screenshot I've taken years ago, back when the game was still up :

(I miss this game every day)

And of course I needed the shoes to be velcro LED shoes, because that's just the Léa Acorn way.

The rounded pink heart-shaped gems throughout the outfit were somewhat inspired by Amulet Heart from Shugo Chara.

Talking about gems, time to talk about the staff ! It was inspired by Amulet Spade's paintbrush, some Lolirock items, and a bunch of bootleg Magical Girl wands. Why reference bootleg wands, you might ask ? Well, since they're already off compared to the real deals, they allow me to not design wands that are too similar to ones from well-known properties.

I've been meaning to make Léa's eyes pink in their magical form for years but didn't actually follow through for a while. I ended up making their eyes brownish pink to not make their eyes too light, as I felt like it'd remove some of their charm (I already felt guilty for not keeping their eyes brown in this form). And of course, I had to bedazzle their eyes to hell and back.

Actually all this shininess and sparkling was inspired by the original drawing of Léa's Magical Form drawn all the way back in 2017 and redrawn in 2018 :

For some reason I took a lot of inspiration from Sailor Moon for these despite Léa's role being inspired by Card Captor Sakura (and Kingdom Hearts). Also Wish Gems used to be called "Magical Chaos Emeralds" and look just like the regular Chaos Emeralds, which was kinda dumb. But I loved the energy of these pieces so I've tried to recapture the "sparkly pink magical transformation void" vibes they had ; I hope I've succeeded on that front.

Anyway, thank you for reading this all the way through ! I hope this was an interesting read, somewhat.

#my berry own art #sth #sonic oc #magical transformation #magical girl #magical boy #magical enby #mobian oc #mobian #Léa Acorn #sonic fan character #kawaii #artists on tumblr #art #digital art #sonic fc #sonic original character #oc redesign #scythe

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dbgdbw · 1 year

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246.Alpha’s Recollection (2)

알파의 기억 (2)

The rooftop area, used as a heliport, was expansive. But finding Yoohyunie wasn’t difficult. It was because as soon as I’d stepped foot on the rooftop, Irinie popped out from behind me, from somewhere around my nape. Lifting a foreleg and waving it at me as though greeting me hi, he jumped down below and began crawling forward to lead the way.

That dongsaeng was standing at the opposite ledge of the rooftop. The morning sunlight, dappled against his dark locks, suffused him with a soft halo. A face that was similar to Yoohyunie’s, but slightly different. He appeared to be a bit older, too. Since he was twenty six.

Of all the versions of my dongsaeng that I’d seen, he was the oldest… It was a relief that Alpha’s appearance had been mixed in with his. It might’ve been too difficult, otherwise.

“Why’re you all the way out here. And without saying anything, too.”

I drew near to Yoohyunie’s side. Beyond the railings, the city sprawled out below. Recollections of what had transpired the night before, amongst those far buildings, flitted through my head. The people who lived here had probably been startled, too. Since the Defense Association had been overhauled from its previous state, overnight. There were likely people who were glad for the change, as well as those who found it disconcerting.

“Hyung.”

“Hm?”

“I think that, lately, I’ve gotten too complacent.”

Irinie, crawling up Yoohyunie’s body, settled in at the column of his neck. That dongsaeng sedately continued.

“I’m thinking about returning to the residence at the Guild. Since there’s Peace and Bak Yerim at hyung’s side, and Hunter Noah’s residing there besides. There probably shouldn’t be any need for worry. And it’s the building right over, anyway, too.”

“Hey, what’re you suddenly saying. Complacent, what complacency. No, and even if you were, so what. Being too aloof is a hard way for someone to live too, y’know. Moderation is what’s key.”

It was true that, lately, Yoohyunie had become a touch lax. But when compared to before–and pre-regression, particularly–his state right now was much more preferred. …a whole lot more.

“It might be different, if it was that you’d grown to dislike living together, but that’s not it, is it.”

“Yeah. It’s not. I like how things are now. I like it so much that, sometimes I wonder if it might not all just be a dream.”

“So then, why’re you trying to leave.”

There was no answer. So there really was something, after all. I felt that kind of conviction. Was it perhaps, because I’d almost died while attempting to save him. No–he’d already spoken honestly with me on the matter. That, if something similar were to ever happen, he would wait for as long as it took, and that I should come accompanied with others to safely rescue him.

My dongsaeng hadn’t told me to give up on him. Rather, he’d asked that I come and save him. He must’ve been incredibly shocked, afraid, and exhausted, but he hadn’t spurned my hand. And so, it shouldn’t be that he’d be trying to leave my side now, as a result of what had happened back then.

In that case.

‘...is it because of Alpha’s memories.’

Even if he’d suddenly been placed in someone else’s body, the environment had changed, and he’d ended up arriving somewhere alone; that it had resulted in escalating to an Overload was strange, all told. Moon Hyuna, for example, had easily taken to the role of Lambda without a hitch. And on top of that, according to what she’d told me, Achates was the only location where abnormal conditions for an SS-rank Guard had been reported. Though exchange between the cities was scarce, seeing that we hadn’t heard news of any incidents akin to Alpha’s Overload, it seemed that Yerimie and Noah had adapted well enough too, after all. Peace, we’d have to figure out later.

Ultimately, the only one who’d had a problem crop up was Yoohyunie.

‘And he’d asked after this world before we fell asleep, too.’

But what kind of memory could it be, to end up like.

“Yoohyun-ah, you–”

Lightly, with silent footsteps, Yoohyunie stood up on the railing.

“Is it because of Alpha? Where’re you going!”

As if he intended to flee, that dongsaeng began walking along the railing. I attempted to follow behind him, but found my path forward blocked before long. Though it would’ve been risky when I’d been an F-rank, well, since I was at C-rank stats now, and I had the boots too. I climbed up onto the railing as well.

The railing, about the thickness of two fingers’ width, ended shortly, and a steel panel–ostensibly installed as a safety feature–that was raised a bit higher, continued onwards. The amount of space where you could step fell short of even a centimeter, rendering it a more precarious feat than even tightrope walking; but his footing was stable, as though he were standing on solid ground instead. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t do at the moment too, though.

“It’s dangerous, hyung!”

The moment I stepped foot onto the steel panel, Yoohyunie shouted. Dangerous, as if. The ground, visible off to the side, might’ve been nauseatingly far, but I would hardly fall.

“Didn’t we promise not to hide anything from each other, huh. Spill.”

“...but hyung doesn’t tell me everything either.”

“Everything I’m capable of talking about, I’ve already confessed them to you. I’d told you about everything here, too, didn’t I. That it’s my real body, and even that I have four lives. I’d wanted to hide it, in case you’d worry, but I told you truthfully.”

I took a step forward. Yoohyunie’s eyes locked onto my foot. As though he was readying himself to rush forward, if it seemed like I might fall, he unconsciously tensed his legs.

“In life, things that you need to hide from others–yeah, of course they exist. I don’t have any intentions of prying into your personal affairs, either. Though if there’s someone your eyes keep straying to, or someone you want to date, or if you’re carrying on a secret relationship, I’d like it if you told me about it.”

“There isn’t–I won’t.”

You should, though.

“But that you’re acting like this, it most definitely has something to do with me again, I’m assuming. Right?”

Yoohyunie pressed his lips together. Yeah, I thought so.

“Then shouldn’t I know about it too, Yoohyun-ah. If I were struggling with something involving you and just let it fester inside without saying anything, you’d dislike it as well. Isn’t that so? If, for example, I’d hidden the fact that this is my real body right now because you’d be worried, how would you have felt. You wouldn’t like it, right?”

“...wouldn't like it. But, hyung.”

Hesitating, my dongsaeng seemed unable to find the words. What could it possibly be. I couldn’t think of anything that might fit the bill.

“Since, I’m with hyung. Because of that……”

Yoohyunie’s gaze, fixed on my foot, refused to travel up. Since it seemed as though he might suddenly bolt at a pace that would make catching up impossible, if I approached any further, I held myself back.

“It feels like I only bring you harm. No, that’s how it really is. So, it’d be better if I disappeared–”

“Hey! Han Yoohyun!”

With a flinch, Yoohyunie’s head snapped up. This brat, there were things you could say, and some lines you didn’t cross.

“And what kind of horseshit is that!”

“But, Alpha’s–!”

What about Alpha! As Yoohyunie’s voice abruptly cut off, viridian willow leaves materialized. This brat really was actually trying to make a break for it, after all! Gritting my teeth, I leaned my body over to the side. To the outside of the building, towards the ground below. Forget about an F-rank, it was a height that even a C-rank absolutely couldn’t survive falling from.

“Hyung!”

Naturally, my dongsaeng rushed over. His hand stretched out towards me. My body tilted, becoming completely parallel with the ground. Though ordinarily, I should’ve plummeted downwards, with the soles of my boots placed at a perpendicular angle, I stood on the steel panel as if I were on flat terrain. While standing secured on the panel, I took out a wire. Being an A-rank Item, it was sturdy, and came with an auto-capture feature available.

As I wound the wire around my wrist, simultaneously, I bound my dongsaeng’s body with it as well.

“If you struggle, it’ll amputate my wrist.”

“What–hyung!”

Even if it was an A-rank Item, how could it possibly hope to stand up against an SS-rank. So I’d deliberately rigged it to extend to my wrist as well. In a way that would draw it tighter around my wrist, if the wire was pulled on. Since this body was only C-rank, once it tightened, it should cut into the skin, until it managed to sever the limb altogether.

Unable to even attempt to free himself from the wire wrapped around his torso, Yoohyunie froze in place. Moving to stand on top of the panel again, I tugged my dongsaeng back towards the building. Helpless to resist in case I got hurt, Yoohyunie’s body toppled over onto the rooftop.

Pressing my dongsaeng down, in order to prevent him from making any rash moves, I climbed on top to straddle him. Irin crawled outside and meandered around the vicinity of the wire, as though he meant to cut it.

“Rinie, you stay put.”

Blinking his eyes, Rinie wavered for a moment before returning to my dongsaeng’s neck. That’s right, good boy.

“...that's cruel. Using hyung as hostage.”

Yoohyunie voiced his dissent, at once forlorn and reproachful.

“Yeah, sorry for that.”

Even if I couldn’t hope to restrain my distinguished dongsaeng in terms of strength, resorting to this sort of method still wasn’t right. But when that dongsaeng was lacerating himself with knives, I couldn’t just send him away like that.

“And why exactly do you ‘bring me harm’.”

“.......”

“Han Yoohyun.”

I waited. As if I’d resolved myself to wait just like this, for however long it took. After a prolonged moment, Yoohyunie opened his mouth.

“...Alpha had a Nurturer, too.”

My dongsaeng told me that there had been someone with the Title. For a moment, I thought that it might’ve been the same Title as mine, but this place wouldn’t have been located in the Fifth Source(1). Since I’d been informed that, the only place where the ‘Nurturer Who Raised A Born S-Rank’ Title had appeared was in the World that belonged to the realm of the Fifth Source. It appeared that Alpha hadn’t been a born S-rank, then.

“And, they were killed.”

“Yoohyun-ah, I really do get what you might be worried about, but it’s fairly common that the person possessing the Nurturer Title ends up killed off. That’s why you’d distanced yourself from me, right. Though it was hard for a while, now, things are alright and–”

“By a Filiality Addict.”

“...what?”

Yoohyunie’s face twisted, his eyes fraught with anguish. Gritting his teeth, as though it pained him to recall the memory, he continued.

“This place, Achates, has some sort of connection with this World’s Filiality Addict. Though I can’t recall the exact details, whether because the memories I received are incomplete, or because it’s been redacted. He said that there’s someone he’d contracted with.”

“So you don’t know who that might be?”

Yoohyunie jerked his head in a short ‘no’. The chances of it being a Defense Association member was likely high. They might’ve gotten caught up in yesterday’s events and died as a result, or fled; but perhaps I should interrogate the ones we’d arrested.

“That guy… The bastard that killed Alpha’s Nurturer–like what hyung just said, they said that it’s commonplace for the person holding the Title of Nurturer to be eliminated. By the Reprobates.”

“...then.”

For a moment, I was at a loss for words. The Reprobates, he’d said–now hold on.

“...they could’ve been lying.”

“Alpha was only listening in on that bastard and the person they’d contracted with from the sidelines, and there was a clause in the contract that false intelligence couldn’t be passed on, too. And it was something that got brought up while discussing Alpha and the other cities’ SS-rank Guards, so. It shouldn’t be a lie…….”

Bringing Alpha along even when they went to meet the Filiality Addict, meant that he would’ve been deemed to be at a ‘trustworthy’ condition. Something like brainwashing… would they have used that sort of method. The Nurturer’s murder might have been a part of that process, too. Then, there was a high likelihood that the bastard that had contracted with the Filiality Addict had been one of his handlers.

“They said that the Reprobates strove to deal with the pesky obstacles that lay in the way of smooth monster hunting for S-rank Awakened, particularly when it came to the born S-rank Awakened individuals. Since, if they remain sequestered away in order to protect their Nurturer, it renders them ineffective. Even if the Nurturer disappears, typically, the S-ranks are capable of recovering fairly easily, and if it can be staged so that it looks like they’d ended up killed by a monster, they end up trying to defend the World even more zealously, so…….”

My heart was pounding. Suppressing the nausea I felt, I attempted to organize the information I’d received as calmly as possible. So, that was to say, in order to protect the world a bit more efficiently, the Nurturer would be eliminated, was it. At the Reprobates’ hands.

…so they hadn’t lied to me, after all. When they’d told me that they typically end up killed. It was just that they’d omitted who the ones doing the killing were, but it was the truth. Those fucking bastards.

“And it seems like I’m that born S-rank, hyung.”

Yoohyunie said, apprehension clouding his face.

“I’ve been able to sense it, that I’m different from the other S-rank Hunters. And that the Seseung guild leader and Hunter Liette, they felt similar. A born S-rank’s Nurturer is exceedingly rare, and the Reprobates, they’d, almost always, get rid of them……. And being registered in the System, it can’t be hidden away, either…….”

“Yoohyun-ah.”

“Thinking about how, as soon as hyung had Awakened, you could’ve been killed because of me…….”

“And how would that be because of you! It would be the Reprobate bastards’ fault!”

“But if, I’d kept maintaining my distance from hyung, then you might’ve… been able to stay safe…….”

The Reprobates’ objective was to block the advancement of the Dungeons, to save the World. And so, if he’d kept his distance from me while concentrating on expanding the guild and his influence, then they might not’ve gone so far as to involve hyung–hearing Yoohyunie say that, my heart seized up.

No.

Could it be, that Yoohyunie had also known about this.

“Yoo, hyun-ah.”

My voice shook faintly.

“That’s to say, you were… going to continue staying away from me? Even after several years had passed?”

“...no. Since when I’d Awakened, I was still young and, hyung had been so anxious. Once the Guild had established a foothold and hyung had, and other people had, gotten used to the Dungeons, I’d planned on reaching out to you. Even if things couldn’t go back to the way they were before… Even then.”

Yoohyunie replied, saying that he was sorry. Though there wasn’t anything that he needed to be sorry about, my head was spinning. I felt queasy. In order to hide my expression, I dropped my head.

“...hyung?”

“It’s nothing, I just have something to think about.”

I hoped he hadn’t known. He shouldn’t, couldn’t have known. Please. If Yoohyunie had, thought of his existence itself as being dangerous to me. Dammit.

A recollection of his smiling face. My insides ached. Why had he smiled then. For what reason. When he lay dying, as though he felt so relieved.

“Yoohyun-ah, it’s not your fault. You haven’t done anything wrong at all.”

It wasn’t just something I was saying to console my dongsaeng. It was in earnest.

“It was simply, it was just that you’d loved me, and that I’d accepted you too. No one did anything wrong. It was just a case of misfortune, like a freak disaster. No one’s in the wrong. No, it’s those Reprobate bastards that are at fault.”

I got that those bastards had an obligation to save the world, but the hell did I care about that.

“And it’s alright now. You saw too, right. The way the Reprobates were falling over themselves in front of me. They can’t touch me. Rather, they’re trying to protect me. That’s…….”

That was, all of it was, thanks to you. You’d made this possible. I had to keep suppressing the burning bundle of emotion that threatened to come back up. It was difficult to swallow it back down, but it wasn’t impossible. Somehow, I was able to muster a smile.

“Don’t worry, Yoohyun-ah. Everything will be fine. You said that you were happy that we got to live together, right? It’ll be like that going forward, too. Continually. For as long as you want.”

My dongsaeng gave a tiny nod.

“Sorry, hyung, for trying to keep it from you.”

“It’s alright. Make sure to tell me from now on, and just remember very clearly that it’s not your fault.”

스르륵, releasing the wire, I pulled myself up. I held out a hand towards my dongsaeng.

“And most importantly–I was the one that approached you first, Yoohyun-ah. What would a newborn infant have known, huh. It was because I was the one to like you first, that you’d followed my lead. And so, you really are even more faultless in this.”

Clasping my hand, my dongsaeng lifted his body.

“But, to hyung, I’m really very sorry.”

“I told you that it’s my choice. If you keep feeling remorseful, then that means I ended up making the wrong choice, doesn’t it. So don’t feel sorry and, hmm, feel thankful instead.”

Instead of ‘sorry’, ‘thanks’ was definitely better. His face visibly lit up, Yoohyunie gave a bright smile. His smiling expression was much better, too, after all.

“Thank you, hyung. Even so, if hyung ends up getting married or the like, I’ll make myself scarce. I shouldn’t be coming looking for you too often, right.”

“...what? What’re you saying all of a sudden? Hold on, I’m not even seeing anyone!”

“Hyung’s always telling me that I should–”

“Hey, that’s just because I’m supposed to be like your guardian or something! And what do you mean, making yourself scarce. Anyone that doesn’t like you, I wouldn’t like either.”

“But most wouldn’t like it, is what I was told. And that it’d be good to keep that in mind, in advance.”

And just what bastard had seen fit to say that kind of useless crap to him?

“I told you, didn’t I, that I’d despise that kind of person? Don’t pay any mind to that! There’s no reason for you to leave home.”

To begin with, something like marriage, well, I’d already dismissed the prospect. Even if it weren’t for Yoohyunie, there were monsters teeming everywhere and, above all, it was dangerous. Since there wasn’t anyone who would accept all of that, and even if there were, I’d feel too apologetic to allow it.

On top of that, right now, the kids came first too… With this kind of mindset, how could I even think of seeing anyone. It would only end up with both parties hurting each other.

“Then, we can really keep living together?”

“Of course. Even if you might change your mind, I won’t change. If you ever decide to pursue your independence(2), I’ll even deign to feel regretful.”

“As long as it’s okay with hyung, I most definitely won’t do anything like look for independence. I like how things are now.”

“Yes, yes.”

In the first place, at twenty, unless you’d moved out for school, it was typical to be living with your family at that age, anyway. Even if he was a guild leader and an S-rank Hunter, he was still young.

“There wasn’t anything else that looked like it might be useful among Alpha’s memories, then?”

“Since I didn’t receive all his memories, and he was just in the position of taking orders, there wasn’t much. Hunter Moon Hyuna might actually be the one who knows more.”

Even then, that the Achates Defense Association had ties with the Filiality Addicts, was useful intel. Perhaps after the interview session with Sigma, I should go looking for that Filiality Addict contract holder.

[ Morning Exercise, Conducted On The Rooftop! ]

As I tried to leave the rooftop, the quest window twinkled at me. Ah, come on.

“Hyung, what’re you suddenly doing?”

“Aerobics(3), for the voyeur. They say that light exercise in the morning is good for your health.”

Not just because of the reward. But since I could use the points, ahem.

- - - - -

(1) 다섯 번째 근원

(2) 독립, 獨立

1. 남의 도움이나 속박을 받지 않고 혼자의 힘으로 일을 해 나가는 상태가 되는 것. 자립(自立). "∼심(心)" 3. 개인이 한 집안을 이루고 완전히 사권(私權)을 행사하는 상태가 되는 것.

so what they’re asserting here is their intention to stay a part of the same ‘household’ indefinitely

(3) 맨손체조

+(Q&A)

Q) re: sclass’s worldbuilding, the Sources number five total,

First Source: the tallest mountain (가장 높은 산) Second Source: endlessly soaring wings (끝없이 흐르는 날개) Third Source: the deepest spring (가장 깊은 샘) Fourth Source: jewel of every color (모든 색의 보석) Fifth Source: the tree where it snows (눈이 내리는 나무)

divided like so; is there a reason for or a meaning behind the Sources being named the way they are? also, i was curious why the Sources might have been divided into five in number!

A) 수(水)금(金)지(土)화(火)목(木)–from the five elements(오행), after omitting fire(화), which cannot become a living entity, and including wind(풍), it ended up being five. beginning from the first, the order goes earth>wind>water>metal>wood. ‘metal(금(gold))’ is ‘light’, as well; and the darkness that is immune [to its effect] is imbued with the Origin’s cosmos(태초의 우주). those basic properties was what it was devised from^^

#246화 #the s classes that i raised #tsctir #sctir

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corvinearcher · 2 years

Text

So, I feel like since my art is already inconsistent, the way i draw and type about my headcannons is madddd confusing. Like, I know I don't draw ANY of them correctly. Or draw good in general lmao. But I just wanna share some of my headcannons or whatever idk I can't draw I'm on a road trip this is as good of a post you're gonna get.

So the Makaras, they're tall. Like okay I think all of the fuscias are tall as shit. I mean look at mommy- I mean Condescension, she's tall as FUCK. So I think that's just a grand blood thing. Like grandhighblood. He's obviously fucking HUGE. Tall, buff, all that horrifying shit that can murdle someone EASILY. So I mean, Kurloz imo is tall and lanky. But obviously we all see wtf he becomes so I mean, yeah. But gamzee, tall and scrawny as shit. He's got mental issues man, he probably forgets to eat for days on end. Dude eats slime for breakfast lunch and dinner, that ain't gonna do much. But yeah all the makaras and fuscias are tall as shit imo.

Colors. The whole nails and eyes being some derivative of yellow seems weird to me. Like I know they're aliens and shit but it just seems out of place. I think they all have tint of their blood color for their skin. Their nails are like either lighter or darker version of their blood color too, and their eyes are tinted the same way because ours do the same thing. I'm thinking about logical anatomy here you guys. And also the base of their horns, I put their blood color caus it's legit coming outta their head. THEY CAN FEEL THEIR HORNS THERE'S BLOOD IN THERE RIGHT? OR SOMETHING? IDK. But also, for those thinking "Karkat wouldn't survive if his skin was tinted" I don't understand that first part, but since his color is so close to rush bloods, one glance and you can't tell the difference. I headcannons it as Slsome trolls are darker shades, some lighter, some less tinted some more. That's why gamzees so dark compared to like, idk sollux. Lighter colors darker colors, y'all get it.

Also I'm gonna use this post to say, I don't portray the characters very well, and I'm sorry about that. I have specific and strong headcannons, and I don't know them all very well. I don't know how everyone sees and accepts people's versions of each character. I read this shit once. I'm going to read homestuck again (duh) but this is all off of information from one read. I also have ADHD I did NOT pay attention. Apologies for that, thanks for understanding.

Okay next one, I draw all of them veryyyy differently than the original. Like, I draw equius older than the original. Actually that's everybody. Nobody is 13 when i draw them unless it's specific. Take like, my sketches of Aradia and Sollux. They're look an assignment older because they are. So like with equius, i draw him with long hair, a lot taller, buffer, and overall change the personality if he got more comfortable with th people around him and how the world changes. That's why he talks so slack usually. I like to think he grows from his whole hemospectrum "I gotta live up to this" shit and learns to just live. Oh also I chang th outfits because I like to add more personality. The originals don't have much detail and it's fun to add them. Like nepetas outfit, crop tops an sweatpants cause that kitty be WORKIN. But yeah none of my interpretations of them are good nor correct. It's just how I see them, sorry if ya don't like em.

I forget the horns 99% of the time. I have no excuse I genuinely have no object permanence. I forget gloves, horns, nails, teeth, colors, clothing LITERALLY EVERYTHING. I'M JUST STUPID OKAY I FORGET A LOTTA SHIT. I usually run all my shit by my friend first before posting because I keep forgetting shit. It's a genuine problem. Hopefully it'll be fixed after drawing all of them for a while but, I just don't know.

(Before this paragraph, when I say "kin" I mean like I relate to and feel a lot alike a character. Okay kool)

The funniest thing is, I kin dave more than I do equius, but I drew him ONCE and never posted it. I was reading as dave the entire few weeks of the first read and I was like "damn these cats are kookin that's literally me I'm fucking dave." and like, love him, simp for him, he's fucking amazing. But I just find it so funny that I only post troll shit and never any human shit. I love Janey and Dave and John and shit but I never say anything about them lmao. I mean my blog name is CorvineArcher. Color of crows (Dave) Archer, we already know XD.

Gamzee is a hardcore stoner and nepeta joins him.

D -- > Nepeta, please, this is getting out of hand.

:33 < Stop being a fucking LOSER EQUIHISS JOIN US.

D -- > You're turning into foul creatures.

dAmN rIgHt MoThErFuCkEr :o)

Anyway another headcannon is like, all this shit took place in early 2000s,so that's how I make the style. Vriska has emo fringe hair I don't make the rules. There's an asston of jeans and converse and overall AMAZING fashion. Anyone who disagrees is a fucking loser who probably thinks shein is the only place to shop.

Alright I think that's it. If not I'll just make another post lol. In conclusion, my art is shit and I love fictional men. Thanks for hearing me out. Haha.

Thnks, mngmnt.

#homestuck #homestuck headcanons

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jthmreferences · 3 years

Photo

So, what can we learn?:

Johnny wears a lot of stripes. Some are thick stripes and sometimes it’s a bunch of thin stripes.

His shirts tend to have horizontal stripes, but sometimes they’ll be vertical. The vertical ones are never thick stripes. One shirt has thin vertical stripes AND thick horizontal stripes on top of it. He has a couple of shirts that have a pattern where some or most of it has thin stripes.

He has one shirt that has thick stripes on the back and is solid with a picture on the front (the wacky one). And one shirt that has thick horizontal stripes with solid colored sides (when he kills the girl with the scythe, it might just be shading). There’s also one that has thin horizontal stripes and a few thin vertical stripes (Things That Make Noise). The shirts with thin vertical stripes are the rarest and never have a picture on them.

His sleeves tend to have a different pattern from the rest of the shirt (most likely so we can see his arm when it’s against his body).

Johnny’s clothes aren’t as tattered as I expected. The ends of his sleeves are more likely to be shredded at the ends, but the bottoms of his shirts are only ripped up in the earlier stuff. Sometimes his pants are ripped up, but it’s hard to tell a lot of the time.

His pants are almost always a solid color or a bunch of vertical stripes, with two exceptions where his pants had thick, horizontal stripes.

Most of his shirts have tails. Usually two in the back, but sometimes it’s one rectangular one. Those ones usually also have one in the front too. Sometimes it’s more of a triangular bit. The tails on his shirt in Descent (issue 4) are thicker and don’t come to a point like they usually do.

Most of his shirts have sleeves that end just above the elbow. Some end halfway down his upper arm and some end a little after his elbow. His pants usually end just above the knee or they’re longer and go down into his boots.

While early on those are all he wears, later he starts wearing shirts and pants under those. Those shirts are always full length and are either a solid color or have horizontal stripes of some sort. The pants are similar except they always have thin stripes when not a solid color and they had vertical stripes once.

Boots!! In the oldest pictures of Johnny they’re a lot shorter, with only two buckles or whatever on them. In earlier stuff the boots are a lot flatter and softer looking. It doesn’t even look like they have steel toes. Around issue 3 they start to look firmer and have two tips at the end. Jhonen goes back and forth a bit on whether the boots have one or two tips on the front, but by issue 7 they definitely have a heel now. He also has the other, shorter boots he’s wearing when Jimmy comes over. They have a bunch of little bits on the front and the steel toe is smaller with a bigger heel. And the other shoes he’s wearing in the more recent pic Jhonen drew of him.

Gloves! He has one pair that’s short and covers the whole hand. He has a pair of long gloves (we don’t see the end of them) that are fingerless. He has long gloves that appear to be made of a thicker material and go to his elbows. Then he has thin, long gloves that aren’t fingerless. He only wears the fingerless ones once. There are also the fishnet gloves he has on the back of issue 5. There’s also the new one which has black gloves with Sickness’s screws on them. I don’t know if ether of these are really canon though.

He has at least one hoodie. (2:15 am) It has a rectangular bit on the front that could be a black zipper or just a block of color.

He has at least 2 crop tops. (Die-ary of issue 3 and when he gives the homeless guy legs) One has the bottom all ripped up.

The coat in Issue 4 and the coat in issue 7 have different lengths, so they might be different coats. He also has the coat in the J’s Not J print.

He wears a belt with a circular buckle at least once.

Color! Obviously, there isn’t much to go on, but Johnny clearly doesn’t just wear black and white. He wears dark purple and blue and has pants that are gray or like a greenish gray. He also has whatever he’s wearing in the headshot, which is a bright blue. So he doesn’t just stick to dark, neutral colors.

He also has a scarf.

I have no idea what the fuck he’s wearing on the cover of issue 3. Someone please explain that!!

Other neat things:

When he gets the coat in hell he also gets a new shirt and pants.

Jhonen’s actually pretty consistent with what Johnny’s wearing before and after his death. The picture disappears sometimes (although that happens all the time) and sometimes it seems like there’s a triangular bit on the front, but that might just be shading.

The outfit he’s wearing when Jimmy comes over is pretty much the brightest. It’s all white with just a few, thin vertical lines. He also has a white shirt when talking to MEAT, but it’s also with a black coat. I’m assuming this is to help make him more different from Jimmy.

If anyone wants to link to real life versions of what Johnny wears I’m sure people would appreciate it. Especially whatever he’s wearing on issue 3.

If you just want all the different pictures on his shirts, someone put this together a long long time ago: https://www.deviantart.com/loomboy/art/Johnny-s-Magic-shirt-56849536

#jthm #johnny's shirts #johnny's clothes #boots

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tttinytrash · 3 years

Text

A prompt from the legendary Shy! I decided to go with this one first because the most ideas to fill in the framework they so kindly provided sprung to mind immediately, but expect the other two they sent along at some point soon. I took the liberty of picking Classic and Underfell Sans for the cast, but the nicknames will probably have made that clear anyhow. I tried to change it up and made the prey brave rather than the nervous wreck I often default to, so hopefully that pans out. Enjoy!

Nerds really do have more fun.

You’re not entirely sure how your socially inept self had made friends as good as these two, but your life had definitely improved exponentially after their addition to it. Red and Classic were both skeletons, but that was immaterial to your friendship with the two.

For the moment you three were tinkering away in the lab the university provided for your research. You were attempting to make a version of the monsters’ inventories that was more accessible for humans, or a TARDIS pocket as Classic had taken to calling the project. You couldn’t argue the accuracy of the comparison, though the name would sadly have to change for copyright purposes at some point. The idea was to make a pocket that was larger on the inside, thereby vastly increasing storage capabilities for the denizens of the world without magical capabilities.

Classic was at the far workbench, going over the calculations yet again while you and Red were closer to the machine actually intended to form the dimensional pockets. The burned scraps of a grocery tote bag, the cremated remains of your latest failed attempt, hung in place in the machine for now despite the machine not being active. Red was shoulders deep in the thing, checking that the soldering on the wires were holding after another failed test. You were busy removing the latest scorches from the machine’s plating when you heard the dull hum start.

You glanced over at saw the machine had started trying to form another rift, without any kind of vessel and without any of you having activated it. Worse, two thirds of the team was not even remotely beyond the safety perimeter! You didn’t even think, you just grabbed Red by the pelvis and dragged him out of the machine. You didn’t even process what he was saying, nor his angry tone as you bundled him up bridal style and bolted from the danger zone.

You were almost in the clear when you heard the explosion behind you and felt the searing heat on your back. Well, as least you’d gotten your more sturdy human body between your 1HP monster companion and the blast, you had time to think.

The pain ebbed as quickly as it came and you felt like you were in freefall...

-----

Red really didn’t know what the hell had just happened.

He’d felt the human yank him out of the maintenance hatch, and the glow and crackling of building energy he could get from over their shoulder as they ran clued him in roughly and mollified his annoyance in favor of concern. Then there was heat and he felt his body fall to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Classic had been far enough away from the blast to be unharmed, and therefore was free to rush over to where Red lay.

He groaned as the unharmed skeleton arrived, not missing the other’s visual sweep of his body for injury or dust.

“are you ok? where’s y/n?” Classic asked.

Red’s skull whipped back, not finding the human on the floor with him as he’d expected. “i-i dunno! y/n?!”

“Here...” came the weak reply.

Both skeletons homed in on the source quickly, which was oddly Red’s chest.

A tiny human lay on Red’s sternum sprawled as if having fallen. Y/n was severely reduced in size and dazed, but awake an aware much to both skeletons’ visible relief. Red scooped the sluggish human into his hands and did a Check on them. Their HP had definitely taken a hit, but they weren’t in the red. (Heh, nickname pun.)

The trio was collectively baffled, but the relief that everyone was ok for the most part was palpable. They now had the fun task of figuring out how to reverse this change. Oh. And the machine was smoldering, so that probably should be addressed too. This to do list was quickly looking very not fun.

-----

It was agreed upon (more like accepted, really) that a shrunken human really couldn’t live on their own in a house without any adaptations for such a small person. In the long term (Delta forbid this persisted long enough to need a long term solution) adjustments to your house could be arranged. In the short term, the skeleton pair would take turns hosting their human friend at their houses.

Classic took the first night, as he and Vanilla (his brother) had a place closer than Red and his bro, Edge. At the moment, Vanilla was out of the house at a sleepover (arranged before the incident) with Undyne. This left Classic and the human alone, and eventually watching TV together.

You had been set up with a fluffy hand towel for a blanket and set atop a pillow. Your pillow was on the couch cushion besides Classic, who sprawled with the grace of a sack of potatoes on his corner of the couch as he watched the cheesy sci-fi flick on screen. You were both making jokes throughout the movie, but as the night drew on and the ambient temperature dropped, you found your towel wasn’t quite warm enough.

You were waiting for a break in dialogue to ask for another towel, but Classic beat you to it. He looked over as if he were about to crack a joke at the expense of the movie again, noticed your huddled posture, and paused the movie. “you cold, kiddo?”

“Yeah, a bit. Are there any more towels I could pile on, maybe?”

“i’ll do ya one better, c’mere.” He offered a flat palm, waiting patiently for you to board.

You didn’t really have to hesitate, trusting the guy already and curiosity spurred you on as well. He gently lifted you and your towel, dumped the pillow on the floor absently, and moved to sprawl flat over the whole couch instead. This left his chest as a flat plane, on which you were gently deposited.

You sat there, surprised at the new level of contact. Sure, you three nerds had crammed yourselves onto the loveseat at your place to watch TV or game together and ended up with hips mildly wedged against each other and shoulders bumping, but that was the closest you’d ever been. To now be seated on Classic’s sternum was new territory.

“go ahead, get comfy and lay down. i don’t mind.” he encouraged.

You took his advice, curling on your side facing the TV, towel still tented around you. Classic increased the warmth his body offered even more by taking the liberty to partially zip his ever-present blue jacket up to the point that your body was zipped in, but your head was outside the confines of the giant garment.

“better?” he asked.

“Yeah, much warmer.” You could easily affirm.

While this was new territory, his casual attitude towards the whole thing dissipated the awkwardness you were feeling. Without that feeling, you really found you couldn’t complain. You liked cuddling anyhow, so finding a friend was also up for that was a boon in your book.

The movie resumed without further incident, though you may or may not have totally fallen asleep on your friend. Eh, he didn’t seem to mind.

-----

It’d been a couple of weeks since the incident at the lab, and today was Red’s day for hosting y/n. Red was playing a campaign in a very story based game, with the human watching from their perch on his shoulder while Classic lounged on the other side of the couch. Playthroughs of games like this were common with their group, and the three would usually switch off who had the controller each session with the other two chipping in and offering advice.

The biggest difference now was that y/n couldn’t take their turn with the controller, but they seemed content to snuggle into the fluff of Red’s hood, relishing in the warmth of their position by his cervical vertebrae. Ever since becoming small, they hadn’t been able to maintain their heat as well once the sun went down.

“I think I saw something on your left.” they offered.

Red panned the camera that way to find an enemy, which was swiftly dealt with.

“thanks, pipsqueak.” Red said as he collected the dropped loot.

“No problem. Hey, do you think you could get the bathroom door for me?”

“oh, sure.” he paused the game and crossed over to the bathroom. He gently cupped the human into his hands and gingerly set them on the floor just before the threshold. Inside there was a bathroom setup of bitty furniture, an investment that had been made early on for each of the skeletons’ houses. Once they went inside, he closed the door without catching the latch so they could push it open once they were done.

In the meantime, he approached the couch again where he saw Classic grinning at him.

“the hell you looking at?” Red groused.

Classic chuckled “a softy.”

Red felt the light blush on his face, much to his chagrin “shut the hell up. s’not like you aint doing the same damn thing.”

“well yeah, but i don’t try to claim i’m not a softy.”

Red groaned as he flopped petulantly onto the couch. “can’t help it, they’re just so small. plus, this is all my fault anyhow.”

“woah, what?” Classic sat up straighter, humor gone from his voice. “what do you mean, your fault?”

“i was fucking with the wiring when the machine started up. it had to be something i did that caused it to go haywire and blast them. least i can do is help em out when they need it.”

Classic was about to address the mountain of guilt Red had built upon himself, but was cut off by a growl from Red’s stomach.

“you hungry?” Classic asked, though Red knew he already had the answer to that question based on the tone.

Red buried his face in his hands, responding “no, and the human aint gonna believe the ‘i just need a snack’ lie forever. i just wanna protect them so damn bad.”

“yeah, they’re too smart for us. plus, i’ve been using the same lie.”

Red unburied his face, asking “instinct is cropping up for you too, eh?”

“yeah. especially since they get so cold at night. it went downhill fast as soon as i realized we had an easy fix.”

“tell me about it. they were so uncomfortable when they first changed, i didn’t wanna add to the discomfort by asking them about it.”

“well, the machine is back in one piece now so we can start working to reverse this mess come monday when the university lets us back in.”

“yeah, thank delta for that.”

Neither one realized that the human had heard some of their conversation from the bathroom, nor that they refused to accept their friends were apparently hiding something from them.

The human became determined to confront this issue that very night.

-----

Classic had gone home by now and you were settled in your bed, more of a nest of towels and an electric heated blanket than a real bed. Nest was probably a better term.

Red hadn’t come into the room yet (you slept in the same room as him so he could help you off the desk and to the bathroom if you needed to make a trip in the middle of the night) so you instead thought about what you’d overheard and what you were going to say. You’d caught only snippets due to distance, knowing something about an instinct they were both trying to hide from you, and you’d also heard “all my fault” and desperately wanted to address that if it was regarding you, which the conversation had seemed to.

Your planning was cut short when he entered, in a loose black muscle tank and flannel PJ bottoms pattered with jolly roger flags flying over a grey background. He flopped onto the bed without ceremony amongst his tangled blankets and immediately started scrolling on his phone.

You steeled yourself a moment before calling for his attention, leaving your nest behind on the beside table to approach the skeleton closer. “Hey, Red?”

He put down his phone, looking at you with a questioning grunt.

“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but I heard you and Classic earlier...”

Red looked mildly alarmed “what exactly did you hear?”

“Enough to know you guys are hiding things from me, and it sounded like it was about me. And something about this being ‘all your fault’?”

Red sat up leaving his face a little higher than you, and only a foot of distance from your perch to his shoulder. “yeah, well it is my fault. since i was the one tinkering, the machine had to have been fucked up by me. and now...” he gestured limply at you. “i’m gonna do my damndest to fix it, but i hate that i did this at all.”

“Cut the crap.”

Red looked as if he’d been slapped. He instantly went from hunched and quiet, reluctant to open up to you at all (probably only caving so early knowing you would keep badgering), to sitting straight up, eyes locked on you in obvious shock.

“This was an accident. No one is at fault.” you stated emphatically.

He looked ready to protest, eyebrows tilting down almost as if angry.

You cut him off again. “You never intended for this to happen. I don’t hold you responsible, or anyone else for that matter. But that doesn’t even matter. You just said you were going to fix it. That matters way more than fretting over the past we can’t change. No more self pity. Not allowed. Got it, mister?” You wagged a finger at him, refusing to be the one to break eye contact.

Red’s expression had mollified during your response, and he was the one who lost the game of eye contact chicken when he changed focus onto his folded hands in his lap. “forgot how much spunk you have, looks like the size change didn’t touch that.” he laughed a little.

“You mean you forgot what made us become friends in the first place? I’m hurt, Red.” You feigned pain, placing your hands over your heart.

His laugh was stronger this time “sorry, pipsqueak. won’t make that mistake again.” He ruffled your hair with a two fingers, which got you laughing too as you batted his invading phalanges away.

“you win. i’ll try to focus on fixing, not shitting on myself. fair deal?”

“Sounds good to me, bud.”

You two lapsed into silence.

You felt accomplished, but only half of your mystery had been solved. you decided to risk it and push farther. You’d back off if he resisted though, as you knew opening up at all was asking a lot of your somewhat emotionally constipated friend. “So... what was the instinct you two kept referring to?”

“damn, you’re relentless tonight!” he laughed again, flopping back onto his pillow.

“Well it’s got my two best friends in a twist over it, I wanna know what the hell is going on!” you defend, happy to keep up the more teasing tone.

“fine, fine. but you asked for it.”

“Yeah, yeah, lay it on me!”

He barked a laugh, “alright, pipsqueak. there’s a protective instinct that can rear up among monsters who’re less flesh based. it’s been triggered by your small size and our desire to help, but basically we wanna take you in.”

“Ya lost me right at the end, there.”

“figured i would. skeletons, and some other races of monsters, have the ability to take other creatures inside their own body harmlessly. more specifically, it’d be me and classic fighting the urge to eat you, but safely.”

“Safely.... eat?” The humor left your tone completely.

The humor was gone in his too, saying “yeah, that’s why we didn’t say anything. that reaction right there. but yes, basically eat minus the chewing bit. it’s safe and you’d be let out later, but the idea is to put us between you and danger. pretty damn literally. but a fleshbag like you wouldn’t be a fan and we both knew that going in. now ya know.” he looked away again, not so much looking at anything but apparently not wanting to look at you.

You thought back to all the times you’d caught either of them trying to sneak stomach growls past you or how oddly often they’d been claiming they’d needed a snack, or even that one time Red had tried (and failed) to play off getting caught wiping drool away. It all clicked into place and made so much more sense. But far more importantly, you didn’t like the resigned tone in his voice.

You took a moment to process the new information in stifling silence, then asked “So... you thought I wouldn’t trust you?”

“what?” Red’s skull whipped around to fix you with a baffled look. “that’s not even close to what i said. i just meant it’d be pretty fuckin’ weird to you.”

“Yeah, well I went and made friends with two monsters after having shit luck with humans. I’d say I’m pretty open to new and weird.”

Red just blinked at you.

“If you want to, I’m unopposed. Go for it. You said it was triggered by a desire to help, and that it was safe. I trust you.”

Red’s brows were knit, sockets squinted a bit at you as he sat up. He stared you down like that, feeling like he was looking for the “gotcha” or any fear. You stared right back with nothing to hide, you weren’t afraid and didn’t want to take back what you’d said.

“yer sure?” he asked, sounding suspicious.

“Yep.” You popped the P for emphasis.

“alright. i’ll let you out when you change your mind.” he shrugged, holding a hand out for you to board.

You took that comment as a challenge and sat on his metacarpals confidently.

He brought you up toward his face while his free hand reached up from behind you, wrapping around your ribs under the arms. Using the new grip, he lifted you over his upturned face with your bare feet dangling in thin air over his opening mouth.

Ok, maybe your confidence had left a little. Your legs tucked up a bit in instinct, but you didn’t struggle when he guided your lower limbs into his mouth. You fought the urge to cringe away at the odd slick feeling of your feet sliding along his thick red tongue, or even more so at the feeling of his throat around your lower legs.

You still trusted Red, that wasn’t the issue, so you decided to fight your instincts just as your friends had been fighting theirs and refused to show any fear.

You pulled your arms in close to your chest when his grasping fingers left, and looked upwards as the world was sealed off by a wall of sharp teeth. Thankfully Red didn’t leave you waiting long, as a wet gulping sound drew your upper legs down with a surprisingly strong force. You clenched your teeth at that, barely keeping in the yelp of surprise. Another two gulps followed in quick succession, drawing your whole body into his waiting throat. The tissue around you pressed in, pushing you ever downward.

For a brief moment during your decent, you felt a warm tingling sensation akin to the light buzz you felt the few times you’d come into contact with a magical construct (Red had lobbed a bone attack at you when you’d be particularly snarky a time or two, usually blue so you didn’t get hurt.) This tingle was much stronger, and you couldn’t describe it any better than saying it felt like Red. ...was that his soul?

Your musing was cut off shortly after the buzz of magic left and you found yourself kicking a little in surprise when your legs had room to move. The rest of you spilled into the open space a moment later.

You felt a bit dazed as you just sat there a moment. You were somewhat pulled back down to earth as you felt a pressure coming from outside. It was immediately obvious the pressure was his hand pressing in at you, and the hand started moving, rubbing you from outside in soothing circles, slowly moving up and down your back. Even if you were out of it, you had the wherewithal to realize that was incredibly cute.

“alright, buyer’s remorse set in?” he asked.

“No...” you breathed, not quite done processing your current situation.

“you ok in there?” his tone was more concerned, the rubbing stopped but the pressure of his hand remained.

“Y-yeah!” You shook your head as if that would help clear the fog, clicking back into reality. “I’m ok. Wow, this is just... a lot.”

“sure you don’t want out?”

“Do you want me out?”

“...didn’t say that...” he mumbled.

You laughed, which earned you a half hearted growl.

“Hey, is it ok if I move around a little? I really want to, uh, check the place out now that I’m here if that’s cool.”

“oh, sure. i don’t care.”

He removed his hand, which left you free to experiment. Call it childish if you wanted, but you really wanted to feel out your new surroundings in an exceedingly literal sense.

-----

Holy shit this went so much better than he’d ever thought it’d go. The human was inside, no panic, and their soul had settled from the anxiety he’d been feeling during their decent. Guess they’d gone and proven him and Classic wrong. Again. Maybe he should expect that by now.

For now he laid back, feeling them slide back to the new lowest point as he got comfortable. He also very much heard their tiny squeak when they startled at the movement, which brought out a smile on him. He felt them quickly readjust, then felt a small point of pressure pushing outwards. A tiny moving bump raised in his shirt, showing where their small hands were pushing out. He didn’t protest, finding this all quite amusing.

On a whim, he used two fingers to push at that little raised bump. He heard them laugh, and then the bump showed up on a new spot, disappeared, and showed up again in yet another. This was a bizarre version of whack a mole, but he did play along until they ended the game with a breathy giggle.

They were moving again, probably trying to stand given the two distinct points of pressure. They slowly wobbled a few steps before he distinctly felt the impact of them falling over.

He laughed aloud at the “I’m good!” they called out.

Their movements inside were calm, but distinctly curious. It was all highly endearing on top of feeling good. The quieting of the protective instinct at last was also a welcome absence, leaving him feeling comfortable and secure. He didn’t really try all that hard to stifle his subsequent yawn.

The responding, smaller yawn from inside was a bit of a surprise.

“tired?”

“We were getting ready for bed, dingus.”

“fair point. we turning this into a sleepover or you going back to your own bed?”

There was a pause, then “Fuck it, sleepover.”

“fine by me, pipsqueak. g’night.”

“Goodnight, bonehead.”

He felt their weight settle, then relax as they slipped into sleep. He decided to follow them, hands folded over his stomach to protect the precious cargo inside.

#undertail vore #undertail underfell vore #extreme cuddling #safe vore #soft vore

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shinjaeha · 3 years

Text

itsay ep 4 (thoughts + spoilers)

idk even know how to even start this bc i feel like i’m just a big ball of emotions, and this ep was wild. so much happened. last ep was so wonderful and almost languid with how everything played out (esp since it focussed much more specifically on the shift in teh/oh-aew’s relationship). this ep had a bit more of everything, not just the two of them in their bubble anymore. societal forces at play, and hence much more angst. again, this isn’t a proper analysis, it’s just me ranting and raving as usual as i semi-rewatch this again. this is very long, and there are a lot more things i want to think about in more detail at some point bc i’m mostly just skating over a lot of what happened but i gotta get these thoughts in my head out of me somehow. and i’m not sure if what i’m typing will even make sense bc i MYSELF can barely make sense of what i’m feeling but here i go anyway.

so we start off with the both of them kind of awkward after the night before which is fair enough considering what happened. actually when oh-aew’s habit started playing up again, i thought teh wasn’t going to scratch his back bc he was trying not to ~go there again after the night before, but he did and i was pleasantly surprised like oh...maybe things aren’t that bad?? (YET). also, i can imagine that it would have been reassuring for oh-aew too. like things have changed, but it’s not like teh has completely abandoned him. the touch itself is comforting, like when they were kids.

teh’s mum talking about how she wants both of her sons to bring their girlfriends around (and hounding him about bringing tarn around again) is giving me war flashbacks to my own asian relatives and i can feel the way that must crawl under his skin. I HATE when family members do that (and they always do). but for teh it must be esp hard bc he’s already constantly feeling like he’s vying for his mum’s attention over his brother, and now hoon’s bought back a girlfriend so it’s yet ANOTHER thing he feels like he has to compete with his brother over. in the back of his mind, he knows that he can’t give his mum what she wants if he’s with oh-aew (he can’t ‘win’ over hoon bc heteronormativity). teh is def prone to jealousy fairly easily, but i always feel like his emotions on that base level are also very easy to understand. i’ve been in positions like that before where i’ve felt like i’ve constantly been compared to someone else, and it makes you feel like shit. but also oh-aew having to sit through teh’s mum telling him to let her know if teh and tarn are dating?? ouch.

cue teh trying to avoid what’s going on with them and oh-aew being sad :((( they’re both in so much pain and i feel it and thank god i am no longer a teenager that’s all i can say about this.

the guitar in skyline instrumental is just...making me feel some kind of way. they have so many versions of this song and they always use the right version at the right time how is that.

so the tarn scene!!!!!!!!!!!!!! first thought: holy shit she looks so cute i love her crop top where did she get it i want one. second thought: but why did they make her wear a dark bra under such a light top?? i love that i was thinking this and then it all unravelled in front of me and like...the brilliance. the contrast between the scene in ep 2 (i think?) where teh accidentally peeks at her bra through the buttons of her shirt and gets noticeably flustered, and then this one where she literally wears the same bra under a light shirt ON PURPOSE to get his attention, but he doesn’t even notice?? the way she expects him to colour the hibiscus purple, but he colours it red for oh-aew instead?? it’s so incredibly telling of where his heart is at, and how his feelings have changed. anyway, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he’s just not all there with her anymore, and tarn isn’t stupid...she’s been picking up on the signals since the beginning (why was he so weirdly obsessed with beating oh-aew at the start? why was he willing to wake up at 4am for oh-aew but not for her? willing to tutor the rest of his friends but not spend time with her?). the way she sees him colouring the hibiscus red and it’s her wake up call, like wtf am i DOING bc of this guy????? i love how she acknowledges that her feelings for teh have made it so she’s solely focussed on him and that she hates the things it makes her do (like wearing the bra to gain his attention). ngl i was slightly worried with how they were going to use her character during these later eps with teh being so conflicted (since girlfriends in BLs are usually handled pretty poorly), but i appreciate that she’s still as fleshed out and full of feeling as she ever was. she’s so sweet, and i just wish she had better than this, but i’m glad she called teh out on it. i know he’s confused af rn, and tbh i don’t think he’s handled this as badly (atm at least) as i thought it could have gone, but at the same time, if he doesn’t decide and set his heart on what he really wants, he’s just going to end up hurting them all. LOVE that she basically tells him to get his shit together first before coming back to her. i like her so much. and that scene of teh just walking around and around at the back feeling conflicted while she drew? really reminds me of the squiggly line timeline(?) of how ep 4 was going to go that nadao released before this ep went live. also cmbyn vibes were real in that one.

the devastation in oh-aew’s voice when he asks teh to at least reply his messages ;;; it’s like teh wants to go back to just being friends and oh-aew has kind of accepted that at this point, but at the same time, teh’s not backing that up. he says he wants to be friends, but he doesn’t know how to act ‘normal’ about it anymore, so he pushes oh-aew away instead. good on oh-aew for not taking that shit and standing up for himself too. i absolutely cannot stand seeing oh-aew sad bc pp’s sad face/voice is so good it actually pains me.

notice how teh ALWAYS uses studies/tutoring as an excuse to get closer to oh-aew again...hmmm...does oh-aew see it for what that is now too? that “you’ve never understood me” hit me like a fucking train. to think that they were so attuned to one another last ep, but now teh’s too caught up in he’s own world to realise just how much he’s hurting oh-aew. thanks, i hate it.

i know that he’s needs to figure himself out more and i absolutely stand by the fact that he needs to do that without messing around with either oh-aew or tarn (and also that he’s using studies again to get into oh-aew’s good books instead of talking through feelings and all that), but the chinese idiom book that he made for oh-aew was actually SO CUTE and romantic. all this stuff he does for oh-aew to show that he clearly cares so much, yet he can never accept it enough to get the words out...

I SWEAR THEY PLAY THE INSTRUMENTAL SKYLINE JUST TO CHOKE ME UP. the darting around each other after the neck kiss COUPLED with the skyline instrumental?? it’s like a sad beach scene 2.0. teh making the first (intimate) move this time. every time he’s trying so hard to convince himself he’s not in love with this boy, and every time he keeps coming back. i always feel such a weird mix of happy and sad when i see them together bc i love them but i know teh in particular, is just not ready yet. like the hug scene made my heart leap, BUT they did it in hiding (under the staircase). all their big intimate scenes are in hiding and that just :(((

teh saying that he loves the seawater on his back bc it holds him up, and oh-aew saying but you have to hold your breath in that posture and it gets uncomfortable so he likes letting it go and just sinking sometimes instead (obv paraphrasing but you get the drift)?? THE WRITING IN THIS. it says so much without telling the audience directly...so poetic. everything about this show is so poetic. the way they sink into the ocean and into that space of oh-aew’s where you can just let yourself go without holding back, and then and only THEN does teh finally kiss oh-aew. and it’s beautiful, after holding back for so long, but it’s also painful bc he’s let go but only within this tiny pocket of space and time. in hiding again. that bird’s eye view shot where you can’t see them at all sealed it for me. like you want to be happy, but you can’t really bc you know that they’ve still got so much more to go...like when teh’s hand grazes oh-aew’s chest and you see oh-aew realise again...like that’s partly what stopped teh the first time in ep 3. when his hands stopped at oh-aew’s chest like it hit in for him that he was a boy. anyway, love that they gave us a skam kiss but i’m also very sad. on another note, how the hell did they hold their breath for that long?????

love that they gave us a further 2 more seconds of teh/oh-aew being cute (CONSTANTLY thinking about teh’s fingers dancing across oh-aew’s face and smushing his face in his hands...oh-aew holding the back of teh’s head...just a brief moment of carefreeness) before they went for the jugular. watching teh fight against himself in this way is what hurts. oh-aew begging him to just let go and accept what they are (the way he keeps going “what did i do wrong?? you feel it too!!”) but he’s so tortured he can’t do it. it’s downright fucking heartbreaking. the “one day i’ll stop feeling this way”...could have just stabbed oh-aew and it would have hurt less. all i know is i’m hurting for the both of them. the repression is real, and it just sucks. this whole thing fucking sucks for both of them (and tarn and bas too at that). idk it just gets me that oh-aew is coming out of this having been rejected once again bc teh isn’t ready yet. and i know this but it doesn’t make me any less upset. not at any of them bc it’s hard i know it’s hard...just at the situation. sometimes it feels like teh’s taking a step forward but then he takes two more back instead. the look on teh’s face when oh-aew was like let’s stop being friends...total devastation. i’m done. don’t want to think about it anymore.

i’m glad that oh-aew’s parents are so supportive of him though. i wasn’t sure how close they were based on their previous interaction but they really love him and i’m glad he has that stability to help him through this.

THE SCENE WITH OH-AEW AND THE BRA FUCKING BLEW ME AWAY. this show is always keeping me guessing, and again yet another thing that i wasn’t expecting but it was so visceral. the red of the bra in comparison to tarn’s bra with the purple hibiscus flowers on it...everything connects. oh-aew looking into the mirror with that bra on and thinking about how things would have been different if only :((( and then his breakdown when he realises that it’s not and that’s the reality of the situation. the feeling that gave me sits so deep within my chest i can’t even begin to carve it out.

teh masturbating when he sees that picture of oh-aew and to that picture of yongjian on his wall (idk why it only now just occurred to me that yongjian is always in red too)?? the self-hatred in this scene. the internalised homophobia. my heart feels so heavy.

he KEEPS reaching and it’s going nowhere bc it won’t ever be enough, and that’s not fair on himself and it’s not fair on tarn. like i understand what he’s going through, and i get that he’s extremely confused and needs the clarification, but when he asks tarn to tell her she loves him and he can’t do the same back for her...i just feel so, so, so fucking bad for tarn.

oh-aew hoping that the worksheets left for him were from teh (which would be very on brand of him), but then seeing bas :( maybe in another world, in another life (like teh and tarn)...but he’s such a sweetheart. bas, best boy ;;;

legit as soon as the gang came to see teh off to bangkok and talk to him about how oh-aew was doing terribly (and wasn’t planning on going to the admission exams) i knew where this was going to go. there’s been so much foreshadowing leading up to this, and this was also one of (if not my main theory) with how things were going to eventually play out. but tbh for some reason i thought it was going to play out later in ep 5...but like damn. damn. the way i understand but at the same time i kept going OH TEH :( throughout this. the utter STRESS this bit put me through. THE MISCOMMUNICATION.

anyway, teh’s love language is clearly acts of service. but it can really be to his detriment when he does things impulsively (albeit with care and good intentions), but he doesn’t use his words so things get lost in translation. sometimes actions just aren’t enough and you really do need words to communicate.

the confirmation scene was so tense...even now i’m just sitting here thinking about it and there’s a hole in my stomach at the thought of what teh must be going through and what he ends up doing. like when that last person on the list shows up and you KNOW it’s going to happen but at the same time it’s like a punch to the chest bc there’s just no doubt that teh’s going to turn it down for oh-aew...OF COURSE he would. oh-aew’s split moment of happiness before realising what teh’s done...the absolute dread i still have in me at the realisation of this.

the tension really kept increasing from here on in...teh coming home and his mum just being so fucking proud of him and telling everyone in the restaurant about how happy she is for him (all while teh is absolutely depleted), then tarn coming in and everything bubbling over when she realises what teh’s done too. realises that teh’s in love with oh-aew (smile is so great in this btw like WOW). the “you hurt me and i’m alright with that, teh, but right now you’re hurting yourself” broke my heart. absolutely love tarn as a character and only ever want the best for her.

when he tells his mum :((((((((((( and his mum just goes on about how hard he’s worked and how much he’s already sacrificed only for him to throw that away. he wanted her to be proud of him SO BAD, wanted to not be compared to his brother for once, only for him to give away his place bc he loves oh-aew more than he wants his mother’s praise. more than he wants to compete and ‘win’ against his brother. when she points to hoon and goes “why can’t you be more like him?” and he just loses it. like rubbing salt in the wound. i’m so glad hoon finally hugged him the way i’ve been wanting to this whole time. the banner congratulating him that teh’s mum made with all his materials from before :((( hoon giving him money for uni :((( you ever watch some things and feel like you’ll never be happy again...

okay the way that everything spiralled during the ig story fight?????? what gets me is that teh sacrificed his place thinking that oh-aew wasn’t going to sit the exam at all (he could have just talked to him and convinced him instead but ughhh i understand i get it). oh-aew thinks he did it bc teh didn’t believe he could get in himself (which of course then spurs him to give it up so he can get in through the exam instead). and when teh sees that, it’s like a smack in the face, like he went through all that only for oh-aew to reject it (him). it’s just layers upon layers of miscommunication and the anxiety of it all absolutely guts me. and then the anger mixing into devastation when he opens his book and sees how it’s all cut up. the remnants a reminder of everything he’s done for oh-aew. this boy that he adores but can’t accept he has feelings for. it’s just this mix of anger and sorrow and what have i fucking done?????? and how could he????? the cast were all fantastic but billkin really had to go above and beyond in this one and i could absolutely feel his pain throughout this.

TO PIGGY BACK ON THIS, like i said before, teh has always used studying/tutoring as a tool to get closer to oh-aew, but seeing that book with all the words gone was in part also him realising he doesn’t have that anymore. he can’t use that tool to get close to oh-aew anymore. the only way forward would be to actually get close to oh-aew without the pretences. and the saddest part of this all is that oh-aew doesn’t even NEED all of that (the tutoring, the book of idioms, the relinquishing of his uni spot)...the only thing he wants is for teh to ADMIT his feelings out loud. to admit that he feels the same way about oh-aew that oh-aew feels about him.

it’s funny bc in the last ep, the conversation that had me feeling the most nervous was when they’re talking at the cape, and oh-aew’s telling teh that he’s a rival and inspiration to him. i always KNEW this was going to come back to haunt them. like a constant circle. friends to rivals to friends to more than friends(?) to rivals. it’s a fine line. narratively, it always had to happen, and now they’re back to competing against one another yet again, and it’s going to be so tough bc they’ll have so much more competition on top of that as well.

next ep is going to be very, very hard on teh, but somehow after this ep, i just feel a lot more hopeful about it? i’m pretty convinced at this point that it won’t end in tragedy (which was the thing that i wanted least of all). of course i want both teh and oh-aew to end up together, but i can understand if they don’t. if this ends with them rekindling their friendship again, that’ll be enough for me. their relationship has been so turbulent and passionate that it needs some stability, and hopefully when teh’s in a better state of mind, when he’s at a place when he’s finally accepted all parts of himself, they’ll get there. so if that means it ends on them running to the cape together (even if they’re not technically together) fulfilling their promise to one another in the sunset, then that’s fine with me. i don’t mind an open ending if it makes sense in the context of the story, and i think something like that would. it’s like after such an angsty episode, you need a slight reprieve from it. i have no doubt in my mind that ep 5 will contain darkness, but i do think that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. so for once i feel truly hopeful about it.

i can’t believe we only have one more ep left to go...

#i told sunset about you #itsay #like there's more angst to come but the real climax of it was in this ep that's how i feel anyway #idk if both of them will get in. i HOPE both of them do.#but i just think that when things get angsty at this point of the story there's always a chance for it to turn around #you just need to worry when things are too happy UNTIL you get to the last ep #tbh though i would like a kiss between them out in the open when teh's finally stopped repressing himself #just so he can show the character growth of his whole arc. so he can be free.#i would obv very much like for them to end up together but there's only one ep left so idk if they can get to that point when there's still #so much that teh has to learn to come to terms with #and he's going to be so so stressed with the exam too (i saw the previews and am bracing myself for more heartbreak as he cries)#i did not mean for this to be as long as it was but i was sporadically writing it as i worked and kept thinking of things to add #and it somehow became an essay #i wrote more in this than i've ever written in any of my uni essays GOD #if you read this whole thing you need some kind of medal or something idk man #also random note but teh's mum's kebaya looks like one that my mum owns #text

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soulmate-game · 4 years

Note

Awesome, cool (on RE: Marivel). Caaaan we get... uh, Soulmate Game version of marvel/ml crossover? Marinette x Peter? Or just Marinette meeting Peter via Dr. Strange in your Lady Strange AU (post-endgame maybe??). Take your pick (or do both?) and thank you if you do write them!!

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Yes.

This is a crossover between my Lady Strange AU and my Soulmate-Game AU, but since this is a different pairing it receives a different bond. I hope you like it!

—*—*—*—*—*

“I think somebody drew on me in my sleep,” was the first thing he told his Aunt and Uncle, who just blinked at him for a long moment with their toothbrushes half in their mouths. Peter was supposed to be getting ready for school in his own room, but instead, well.

His guardians’ eyes landed on the two childish, but extremely clean doodles on the top of Peter’s shoulders. They were ladybugs, one in red ink and the other blue. Only the outline was colored at all.

The little boy was tearing up.

“I don’t know how they e-ended up here. Why would s-somebody draw on me? It’s mean. Is this the boogeyman? Does…”

He was interrupted by May and Ben’s laughter, shrinking into himself as the adults tried to get ahold of themselves. Ben was the first to sober up, sinking to his knees and carefully laying a gentle hand on Peter’s naked arm, making sure not to come close to the new mark on his shoulder. The poor boy had stopped putting on a shirt altogether in favor of worrying over the doodles.

“No, no,” Ben soothed, running his other hand through Peter’s cinnamon hair. “No boogeyman. This is a good thing, Petey.”

He sniffled, looking up at his father figure warily, a hopeful spark in his eye. “It is?”

“Yeah. Do you remember what we told you about soul marks?” He asked his nephew, who was starting to calm down. The boy nodded, pushing his thick glasses back up his nose from where they had started to slip.

“Almost everyone has one,” he started to recite, furrowing his brows to try and remember what he had been told.

“And they can come in hundreds of different ways,” May filled in, kneeling beside her husband. “Some people have a picture or a name on them to represent their Destined. Some people are colorblind, or missing just one color until they meet their other half.”

“Some people can switch bodies or hear a song in their head that tells them how their soulmate is feeling,” Ben agreed. “There are tons of Bonds. Not everyone has a physical mark. But you,” he nodded to the ladybugs on his nephew’s shoulders. “You do.”

Peter started panicking again. “Oh no, I have two soulmates? What am I gonna do? What if they don’t like me, how can I love two people, I—“

“Relax, honey,” May rustled Peter’s hair with a soft smile. “I don’t think you have two, I think your mark is more complicated than that. Look, the ladybugs are exactly the same except for the color. The mark will probably do something exciting later, when you meet them.”

“Something exciting?” Peter parroted, making Ben chuckle.

“Yeah, but for now they are just cute pictures. Pictures which better be covered up by a shirt soon, or you’ll be late to school bud.”

“Ack!” He had forgotten he was still shirtless. “Sorry Uncle Ben!” Peter Benjamin Parker dashed back to his room as fast as his seven-year-old legs would carry him.

—*—*—*—*—*

Seven years later.

Marinette hummed, analyzing her reflection. Her halter top looked nice, a new design of hers. Tikki hovered near her, similarly happy with the clothing. And then the Kwami squeaked in dismay when her holder reached for foundation.

“Woah woah woah, what are you doing Marinette?!” The little god asked, tempted to take the makeup away. “The shirt makes your soul marks stand out so beautifully! I’m not a huge fan of spiders, but yours are so cute!”

The pigtailed girl blushed bright red, looking into the mirror to see both of the little doodles on her shoulders at the same time. They really were adorable, one cartoony spider on the top of each shoulder, one red and one blue. She didn’t wear the crop top to show them off though. She wore it because she needed to feel confident, and her usual blouses weren’t cutting it. She wanted to feel powerful, free, anything to escape the feeling of water droplets on her skin and the sight of people pinned by buildings, drowning. Blue skin, glassy eyes—

Marinette’s shook her head, taking a deep breath. The halter top she was wearing was a carefully, artistically dyed swirl of baby blue and baby pink. Strategic gathers in the cloth swirled the two colors around one another, bringing them to a small pinpoint of pale purple at the very point where the cloth had first been pinched and curled.

It was whimsical, it was childish and mature all at once. It was what Hope felt like to Marinette. The very thing she needed to try and heal from the whole Syren disaster a few weeks earlier.

“I like them too,” Marinette finally responded to her Kwami, running her fingers over the blue spider, the one on her right shoulder. It had completely vanished when she got home after the Syren attack, proving her father right from when he had told her all those years ago that her Bond was likely more than just a few doodles. “But only my parents know about them. I know the Miraculous suits are pretty much indestructible, but I don’t want to take any chances with this crazy world. If my shoulders ever get exposed while I’m Ladybug, I don’t want anyone to be able to connect that to Marinette,” she explained, slowly and regretfully spreading foundation over both marks and spritzing setting spray over it so that the makeup wouldn’t move anytime soon.

She knew why her blue spider had temporarily vanished. She had thought maybe she had just been imagining it before, when she would occasionally be in the middle of an anxiety attack and think that her blue spider was a little paler than usual. Or on the few occasions when she was going days without sleep, or overextending herself for her friends and her red spider would look a little dull.

She wondered what that meant for the person on the other end of their connection.

—*—*—*—*—*

And then she found out. She was fifteen, and it was about five in the morning. Marinette jolted out of bed, feeling a searing heat on her right shoulder. Throwing her shirt off, she saw it— her red spider was glowing. She felt herself trembling, but she didn’t know why. Tears were raining down her face, but she wasn’t sad. Her hands felt oddly wet and sticky, but they were completely clean.

The teenager shared a long, bewildered look with Tikki before carefully letting her fingers brush over the red spider. And she understood.

Anger. Guilt. He’s blaming himself. He’s dead. My fault. My fault. Blood. Is she feeling this? I’m making her feel this. Stupid. Worthless. Mistake. Mistake.

Marinette pried her hand away from the mark, gasping from the influx of emotions. She didn’t know details, probably to protect the identity of the person on the other end of the Bond, but she got the gist of it. The longer she had stayed on the connection, the more lucid thoughts she got straight from the boy himself. None of it had been promising.

She was able to surmise this; someone close to him died, or was dying. Her hands probably felt sticky because of the literal blood on his. Oh Kwami, he probably saw them die right in front of him. Probably held them.

And there was no Cure to reverse it for him.

But the most important part was that he was blaming himself for it, and Marinette couldn’t stand it. She ground her teeth, and touched the mark again with full intention of making sure he knew it wasn’t his fault. That he wasn’t worthless, and that she wasn’t mad at him for this.

But nothing happened. She tried touching the blue spider, but nothing happened. She tried meditating, hoping they had a mental connection—nothing. Absolutely. Nothing.

The heat was gone from her shoulder, the connection over.

Marinette raged at her inability to help a boy she never met.

—*—*—*—*—*

Four months later, she knew the situation was about to be reversed. She stared down at the old man in front of her, frail and weak but forcing himself to stand and hold the heavy box in the air in front of him. The weight made his twig-thin arms shake, and the pigtailed girl quickly snatched the item before it or the man holding it dropped.

“Master,” she whispered, her eyes frantically searching his. “Don’t. The magic, Tikki’s magic, can help. I’ve been practicing. Don’t—“

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, daughter of Sabine Cheng and biological daughter of Steven Strange,” the old man started, making Marinette snap her mouth shut with the force of his words. She didn’t know how he found out about her biological father, but didn’t bother asking. It wasn’t important, and he had too many possible ways of finding out through magic. No, his words right now were the only things she found worth focusing on in that moment. “I, Wang Fu, find myself too old to carry on my duties as Grand Guardian. But you are the best student I could have ever asked for. A True Ladybug with a soul of creation, a disciplined mind, and an open heart. I name you as my heir, and as the new Grand Guardian. Do you accept the transference of my title?”

Marinette didn’t want to. The wise eyes boring back into hers said that he knew, that he would understand if she refused. But Marinette also knew that refusing would not grant her the happy ending she wanted from this situation, only regret. His eyes said that he knew that, too.

“I accept,” she didn’t know how she was able to croak that out, but she managed somehow. “Wang Fu, I will gladly take on the title of Lady Strange, the new Grand Guardian. I vow to protect as you have protected, to guard the innocent and punish those who try to upset balance with the Miraculous. To keep the Universe as peaceful as possible with my power.”

“Then let my wisdom become yours,” Fu finished the sacred speech, closing his eyes as a bright green mist was born from his feet. It grew, sliding up his body until it exited his head in a giant luminous cloud like a swarm of fireflies on a misty night. Marinette refused to close her eyes, stubbornly keeping her gaze on Master Fu as the magical green fog covered her own body and sank into her skin. The knowledge of the Guardian’s language and traditions appeared in her mind, along with the rest of Fu’s wisdom and experience with the Miraculous.

“Young lady? Are you alright, you’re crying.”

Marinette took a deep breath, her eyes still locked onto the brown orbs that no longer recognized her. Slowly, she put the miracle box down on his bedside table.

“Yes, I’m fine. How do you feel?”

The old man wobbled, and the young girl had to catch him before he fell. “Let’s get you into bed,” she decided for him, getting a nod and a grateful smile in return. It was after he was in his bed and his eyes were starting to droop that he spoke again, this time in Mandarin.

Which Marinette now spoke, like a final gift from him to her.

“Are you my granddaughter?”

Marinette bit her lip, placing a gentle hand on Fu’s shoulder before responding in the same language;

“That’s right.”

She didn’t need a heart monitor to know when his pulse stopped. She could feel the magic of life drain from him, the Creation that made him who he was disappearing from his form. She dropped, her legs no longer able to support her weight, and sobbed into his comforter.

It happened then, she could feel a phantom hand on her right shoulder. Trying to provide comfort but not able to speak.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I want you here. But thank you. For everything. Thank you.

She didn’t know if she was trying to send those thoughts to Fu or to the boy trying to help her despite never having met her.

—*—*—*—*—*

This is part 1, because Tumblr doesn’t allow me to post the whole thing. Stupid word limits >:[ part 2 right here

#marinette x peter parker #mlb x marvel #soulmate au #spiderbug #bio dad stephen strange

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liebegott · 4 years

Note

Ya know a lil post war Lieb where you’re married but he’s flirting with you would really water my crops... bonus if he says the word titties hehe ~ twin

Bell Peppers & Balconies. | Joseph Liebgott

(click here to read on wattpad)

REQUESTS ARE ALWAYS OPEN!

pairing: liebgott x fem!reader

wc: 1.7k

tw: none except he mentions titties so idk oops!

a/n: ahh i’m so sorry, for some reason, when i wrote this, my eyes completely focused on the titties line instead of the married line! so i accidentally wrote them not married. i’m so sorry 🥺 huge thanks to @vintagelavenderskies who reminded me that stargazing existed!

this is probably my favourite oneshot i’ve ever written, so i hope you enjoy it! thank you all for reading. 💓

tagging: @floydtab @alienoresimagines @order-of-river-phoenix @julianneday1701 @hellitwasyoufirstsergeant @wexhappyxfew @rarmiitage @mavysnavy @punkgeekchic @vintagelavenderskies @georgeluzwarmhugs @ray--person @wecomrades @jussipogideonlaufeyson @happyveday @snafus-peckuh @little-babydolly @kathikon

feel free to message me if you’d like to be added to my taglist!

***

Water splashed against your foot, the contents of your watering can spilling onto the balcony under yours. You quietly cursed, stepping aside and rushing to turn off the faucet. It was like any other day, summer just around the corner, and as usual, you tended to your small garden, a couple of planter boxes fastened to the railing of your balcony.

It was 1945. The war had just ended, and though everything was normal for a while now, the difference soldiers coming home made was striking. You had moved to San Francisco right after most of the men shipped out, so their return made a difference to everyone but you.

With summer rolling in, you worried about your bell peppers that had started sprouting. It was rarely bright and sunny where you lived, but your small apartment faced south, allowing your tiny, makeshift backyard to receive as much sunlight as possible for your vegetables.

You lived in a corner apartment, and the apartment beside yours was empty, so your floor was quiet, noise coming only from the bustle of the streets below. Today was no different.

Or so you thought.

“You water them any more and they’ll drown,” a voice said to you, and for a moment, you thought you had hallucinated. On the balcony beside yours stood a skinny man, still in his military uniform, leaning on the railing. “I’m serious, that’s way too much water.”

Tilting your watering can, you placed it on a wooden stool, surveying the damage. It was one of your bad habits- getting so lost in thought, staring off into the distance. It was a surprise any of your vegetables had grown at all.

“Oops,” you said sheepishly, rubbing the back of your neck, “They’ll be fine.. I hope.” The man chuckled, the sound of his laugh so clear despite the honking of the traffic on the streets under you.

He leaned down on the railing on his elbows, taking out a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it in such swift movements. You never liked smoking, hated the smell of cigarettes, but briefly, as you watched him exhale, you loved it. The man saw you eye him from his peripherals and turned to you, throwing you a wink.

“I hope so too,” he mumbled, flicking spent ashes to the ground below, “Can’t have spaghetti without tomatoes can we? Those are tomatoes aren’t they?”

You shook your head gently. “No, bell peppers. My tomatoes didn’t grow,” a frown appeared on your face and the man clucked his tongue. He moved in his place, resting on his back on the warm metal to face you. “Did you just get back?” You cursed yourself in your head for such a stupid question, as he was in fact, still in his hat.

The man nodded absentmindedly, taking another drag from his cigarette and exhaling before speaking. “Yep, just moved in as well,” he smiled kindly, the smile-lines around his mouth deepening, “Glad my ‘ma chose this apartment.”

Turning back towards the horizon, you sighed happily. “It has the best view,” you replied, “You’re really lucky.”

“I sure am,” the man grinned, but his eyes remained trained on her, “I’ve got a pretty neighbour with bell peppers as well.” You couldn’t fight the blush appearing on your cheeks.

“Would you like to come over for dinner?” you suddenly blurted out, surprising the both of you, you a little more. He seemed pleased, flicking away his cigarette and watching it drop to the ground.

Rubbing his hands together, he walked closer to his balcony ledge, a smirk on his face. “That’s a surprise,” he said, your cheeks heating up once more, “I was just about to ask you the same thing. Except, I don’t have any furniture.”

“Ask me then,” you said, unsure where this boldness was coming from. He was a complete stranger, and you had only been speaking for a few minutes.

The man chuckled again, and you wish he wouldn’t stop this time, the sound sweet in your ears. “What’s your name?” he asked, a twinkle in his eye.

“Y/N.”

He smiled, and you curled a strand of hair behind your ear. “Well, Y/N,” he began, leaning in as close as the gap between your balconies would allow, “Would you like to have dinner with me?”

———

Fidgeting, you gently brought your knuckles to the door and knocked. You heard shuffling inside before he swung the door wide open, a large grin on his face. “You really came,” Joe breathed a sigh of relief, puzzling you.

“Of course I did,” you said matter-of-factly, “I’m literally four steps away.” He ushered you into his bare apartment and looked around, slightly embarrassed. Joe looked different out of his uniform, without a cigarette, and without any furniture.

He looked like a young man, not the confident one he had introduced himself as on his balcony. You weren’t sure which version of him you liked more.

“I made food,” you smiled at him, lifting a warm bowl of pasta, “No tomatoes. It's bell pepper and cream though, if that’s okay with you.”

He whistled. “You made something too? I swear I was joking about the spaghetti,” Joe laughed, a smile growing on your face as well, “But thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Leading you through the sparse living areas, which only had his suitcase and a mattress on the floor, Joe’s face reddened. “Haven’t gotten the chance to buy furniture,” he gave you a lopsided grin, “But I promise, the next time you come over, I’ll at least have a couch you can sit on.”

Everything he said came out so easily, and yet every word made you blush. Stepping onto the small balcony, your heart skipped yet another beat.

Joe had placed down blankets and pillows on the metal floor. You looked up at him, your eyes wide. “This is amazing, Joe,” you breathed. And it truly was, despite how simple the whole thing was.

He settled himself down on a pillow, patting the one beside him for you to sit as well. You placed the bowl down between you, taking out plates and forks. From where you were seated, you could see the whole San Francisco skyline, the sky pink as the sun slowly hid for the evening.

“Well,” he began, a wide grin on his face, “I had a beautiful girl comin’ over. I figured I’d have to impress her even without furniture.”

There he went again, with each word, crawling his way into your heart. “Good job, Sergeant Liebgott,” you winked at him, “You can consider me impressed.”

“Oh boy,” he piped, facing heavenward, “Being called Sergeant has never sounded so good.” You no longer fought back a smile, your heart feeling warm as you scooped up some pasta for him.

The two of you sat there, and once the food was finished, your stomachs both full, you and Joe peeked through the railings to see who could spot the number of cabs that passed by first. Joe eventually got tired of losing, despite you knowing his eyes were far more observant than yours-- you realised later on he was letting you win.

Leaning back down against the glass sliding door, a pillow between the two of you, you both watched the night sky, illuminated by the bright lights of Mainstreet. Joe was easy to talk to, your conversations ranging from his family to before the war. You were apprehensive, skirting around the edges of his actual time in Europe, but learned a thing or two about the men he served with.

“It's always bright here, is it?” he mumbled after a moment of comfortable silence between the two of you. You looked at him to see him gazing towards the darkened sky, his face blank. You nodded, not saying anything. “It was never really ever completely dark in Belgium either.”

You knew of the ‘Battered Bastards of Bastogne,’ almost everyone did. But you never realised the man beside you, so young and so alive, had been one of them. “What was it like?” you asked him, your voice quiet and unsure.

He turned to look at you and gave you a reassuring smile-- ask me, his eyes seemed to say. “Sometimes it’d be so dark, you wouldn’t be able to see your hands in front of you,” Joe said, extending his arms in front of him to glance at his hands, “And then a light will pierce through the sky. You’d see it through the trees, and hear a high-pitched whistle.”

You tried to imagine everything he was saying, looking up at the sky and pretending you were surrounded by a canopy of trees. Joe put a hand on your shoulder and shook his head. “Then when it’d come down, you’ll force yourself to think of a reason to stay alive,” he finished, his eyes trained on you, yet looking somewhere else, somewhere far. Belgium.

Cupping his cheek gently, you whispered, “What reasons did you give yourself?”

“My family,” he sighed, shutting his eyes, leaning into your touch, “But also the idea of driving my cab around again. Meeting a girl with soft titties and a smile to die for. All the little Liebgotts we’d make.” Joe said the last sentence with a cheeky smile, no malice, and you pat his cheek gently, pulling away. You eventually learned Joe had the capability to make everything sad happy again.

Both falling once more in a comfortable silence, the night drew nearer, and you realised you had to go. Standing at the door, your own just a few steps away, a strange feeling of sadness surrounded you. “Thank you for tonight,” you forced a smile.

Joe tapped your nose once. “Don’t frown,” he grinned, and you couldn’t help but grin as well, “We can have dinner again, this time. I’ll cook.”

“I sure hope it isn’t one of the stews you guys had in the forest you were telling me about.”

Joe feigned offence, a hand on his chest. “You’re missing out, I swear,” he scrunched his eyebrows together, “The bones give a real nice crunch.” You let out a laugh, your voice echoing through the quiet hall. You waved him goodnight, taking a few steps to your own apartment, and turning the key.

“And Y/N,” he called, and you turned to see him, his eyes soft as he leaned on the doorway, “Finally met the girl.”

You were wrong, sneaking a glance down at your chest. Today was definitely different.

#band of brothers #band of brothers oneshot #band of brothers imagine #hbo war #hbowar #joseph liebgott #joe liebgott #liebgott #liebgott x reader #joseph liebgott x reader #joe liebgott x reader #giana:parsuna #Anonymous

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avauntus · 3 years

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2020 favs: (short) fic recs

I am stealing this idea from @macgyver-sheriff, who has no clue who I am, but whose post I saw go across my dash. Thank you! 👋

Would you like some recs for the holiday season? - I too would like to share love for my favorite things I read that were written this year! <3

I’m going to do this in two parts - the short fics (10k or less, generally one-shot), and another post for the long or series fics I loved this year (it’s 2020, I figure we can use too much of a good thing?)

( @staidwaters - I’m ‘disqualifying’ your works because I’m biased, sorry! Look away! Unless you want recs!)

"Congratulations, Get Rich" (9,238 words) by Attila (The Untamed - modern AU)

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, which means Wei Wuxian has to get all of his bad decisions out of the way tonight.

Lan Wangji, Lan Xichen, Jiang Cheng, Mianmian are all so screamingly perfect as modern versions of themselves in this, and it is KNOCK DOWN HILLARIOUS. Wei Wuxian is just a screaming queer disaster (affectionate) - as he should be.

Excerpt:

After a long beat, Lan Xichen sinks gracelessly into the chair Lan Wangji had been sitting in earlier. “I just want to be absolutely clear,” he says delicately, “that you are currently under the impression that my brother has no romantic feelings for you. That is what you’re saying to me right now, yes?”

“Yes?” Wei Wuxian says, feeling desperately confused. “Obviously? Why?”

“Because at least one of you is very stupid, and I’m trying to figure out who,” Lan Xichen tells him, sounding distracted. It’s the rudest thing Wei Wuxian has ever heard him say, and his mouth drops open slightly.

“caved to the careless” (6,708 words) by ilgaksu (The Untamed/MDZS - Song Lan/Xiao Xingchen)

Love is a choice you make - like this, and this, and this.

Have you ever read a writer whose work is so distinctly itself that you can feel yourself slipping in time even as you keep going? That’s not very articulate, but it’s the best way I can describe everything of ilgaksu’s I’ve read. Their fics are the same emotional register as having the breath knocked out of you after a fall. This was the first one I read, and I think it ends well-- with what Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen find along the path-- but it’s still heavy. Discussions of canon-compliant character death and grief/mourning here.

Excerpt:

He pauses. Until this very moment, he was unsure who to ask for. He has heard the rumours of the Yiling Patriarch’s ongoing residence here, about Zewu-jun’s seclusion: he’s dead, but even the dead are not free from gossip. But he remembers a courtyard, nearly two decades ago, and the weight of eyes some might have called angry in their intensity. He remembers those same eyes, and how for the wear of the intervening years, they had kept the same essence: longing, yearning, a kind of small unspoken grief.

Song Lan had a dream once. A dream of a sect, bound not by blood, but by a shared belief in the right path. So many things are only an inheritance: shame is one of them.

Love is a choice. Love is a choice, and you choose until you can’t.

“I am here,” he decides, carving the words into the dirt, every stroke of every character resolute, “To meet with Hanguang-jun. Please show this one the way to go.”

“Green River Running” (8,169 words) by @rain-hat (Love in the Moonlight - post-canon AU)

5+1: Kim Byeong-yeon returns to the land of the living.

I skimmed through Love in the Moonlight during my quarantine summer (distinguishable from my “quarantine spring” or “quarantine fall” only by fireworks), and immediately upon finishing, thought: “Psht, they killed off their best character.” And then, something happened that never happens -- I went on ao3 and found the exact thing I was looking for, written far better than I could have imagined. Kim Byeong-yeon is such a quiet yet powerfully subversive presence and the progression here is so masterfully done. This is true of all of rainhat’s work’s I’ve read, but this is a fine example-- I really treasure the warm humanism of them.

Excerpt:

People needed helping hands even more than they needed sympathetic ears, though. Over the last year, Hong Gyeong-rae and Byeong-yeon had built houses and planted crops side by side; negotiating with moneylenders here, helping small-folk secure their stores against bandits there. There was nothing courtly about Byeong-yeon’s capacity for labour, or his expectation of reward. Wherever he went, he worked from dawn to dusk, ate the food he was given, and slept under a roof if he was offered one.

It suited him, Hong Gyeong-rae thought, even though there was something outlandish about his gentle speech and palace manners in the midst of it all. But to behave in any other way would be untrue to his upbringing; nor was he the sort of man to whom it would occur to try. And after all, most people liked to be treated with courtesy; it did not come across as mockery from this solemn, severely dressed young man, who seemed to find no task too big or too small. Hong Gyeong-rae had seen him argue tax law with local councillors and stand up to highwaymen armed with nothing but a knife and staff. But he watched cooking pots for women who had to run to the fields to tide over the day’s labour, too; he wrote letters for them, and tolerated their fractious children and spoon-fed their bedridden elders, if that was what was called for.

“The Veritable Records of King Taejo: Year 2, Entry 208“ (9,857 words) by @sadviper (My Country: the New Age - Nam Seon-ho & Hwang Sung-rok slice-of-life)

Hwang Sung-rok eats his way to the bottom of a real estate scam, and Seon-ho and Yeon help (a little).

No one is out here doing it like SadViper. This is technically part of a series, but they can all be read separately. I did not realize I needed to see more of Nam Seon-ho in all his “type-A government official glory” until Viper started sketching him out for us, and as a bonus, we get to see Yeon, and Sung-rok as the world’s surliest caretaker (but don’t call him that). I have an authorial fallacy where I always think stories have to have some grand “plot” -- a “Maltese Falcon” to pull the reader along-- the genius of Viper’s work is she shows us exactly how interesting and important the day-by-day tiny choices and connections we make are, with an impeccable background of historical research to ground you in the setting.

Excerpt:

Nam Seon-ho was his master now. He was a strange one. He was a traitor, for helping the escaped Liaodong soldiers, but not, because he managed to wiggle his way back into Yi Seong-gye’s favor and was now a sixth-ranked inspector with the privilege of having personal audiences with the King. He was temperamental and belligerent from being the son of a slave mother and a lifetime subject of Lord Nam’s fantastic parenting philosophy. He was afflicted with perpetual guilt. And he was also one of the hardest working and most desperate people Sung-rok had ever known.

It was a terrible combination. He was not merely a disaster waiting to happen, but a disaster perambulating on two legs at the edge of a chasm. If Sung-rok intended to stay in service for long, he needed to find a way to cool down some of Seon-ho’s intensity, even though admittedly, it was what drew him to Seon-ho in the first place.

Thoughts like these plagued Sung-rok for a while. It was one thing to know a person; it was quite another thing to try to change them.

“Orison” (4,975 words) by @gravelghosts (aeli_kindara) (Supernatural 15x18 coda)

Cas says, I love you.

So! This rips my heart out, every time. All the times Dean imagines himself together with Cas...and then he imagines himself, if not happy, then thriving.

Jack: “What is the point...if everyone I care about is going to leave?”

Castiel: “The point is that they were here at all and you got to know them, you... When they're gone, it will hurt, but that hurt will remind you of how much you loved them.”

Excerpt:

The thing Dean tries to do is: listen.

Happiness isn’t in the having. It’s in just — being. It’s in just saying it, Cas tells him, and Dean’s whole heart is screaming, No, but he shuts his mouth. He listens. He listens like his life fucking depends on it, which it does, in more ways than one.

“Sky Full of Song” (6,632 words) by @drivingsideways (Supernatural, finale 15x20 fix-it, Dean/Cas)

Or: The One in which Cas ghosted Dean.

Look. Look. If Cas(tiel) can yank Dean Winchester out of Hell, celestial-scream at him not once but twice, burn out a woman’s eyes like an utter clown before thinking “Huh, an Earthly vessel, guess that’s not just bullshit, then,” and when they finally work it out, Dean greets them with a knife to the chest and THEN they’ll spend twelve years misunderstanding each other and bickering, you had better believe these two are going to be disasters even in Heaven. Drivingsideways gives us all of that dynamic, with the found family of Jack and Mary as facilitators, and the happy resolution, which of course includes a true form “roughly the size of your Chrysler Building.” <3

Excerpt:

The thing is, Castiel doesn’t want Dean to feel obligated.

Dean has a streak of self-sacrifice that's as wide as the Caspian Sea, and Castiel doesn't want to be any more of a chore or obligation than they have been to Dean for all the long years of their—brotherhood.

Castiel had shocked Dean, to the core of him, with their confession, and Castiel had seen the swirling confusion, the fear, the panic, the shit what do I say, what do I do—how do I stop him—

So, no, Castiel would not be paying a visit anytime soon.

Of course, if Dean evinced an interest in meeting them, then Castiel would not stay away.

Castiel isn't that cruel.

(They have, on occasion, been exactly that cruel, but they are trying to outgrow it.)

Dean is still their friend.

Dean knows how to reach them, if he wants to.

(see? disasters. haha)

“The Rough” (3,267 words) by anactoria (Supernatural, finale -15x20- ‘fix-it’)

Heaven can absolutely fucking wait.

Rec’ed for the concept more than the style (this is dialogue-heavy, as a lot of 15x20 fix-its tend towards), but I *love* this course-correction: After kicking around Heaven, Dean and Cas return to Earth to take their place as urban legends among the hunter community. Just for a while.

Excerpt:

But it isn’t life. That’s the thing. It’s awesome, but it isn’t life; life’s a hard, painful, infuriating mess, and Dean only got halfway through his own, and he feels cheated. For all he held it together for Sammy at the end, for all he tried to take Cas’s big moment-of-happiness speech on board, he feels cheated.

There’s supposed to be peace at the end. When you’re done.

Dean wasn’t done.

#other's fic #fic recs #2020: a year!#spn #my country: new age #the untamed #love in the moonlight

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since0202 · 3 years

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Chapter 28: Getaway

“Stay safe, okay? No cliff diving or swimming with sharks or trudging through alligator infested swamps,” Edward warned as he leaned down to press another kiss to Bella’s forehead. The terminal at Sea-Tac was bustling around them, not paying much attention to the odd trio.

“I will,” Bella said, “Stay safe I mean.” Edward gave her a gentle smile and looked to Grace.

“Got everything you need?” he asked.

“I think so,” Grace held up an ancient tome of Shakespeare’s collected works.

“Good, I’ll see you two in four days,” he let a dramatic sigh and Bella gave a laugh wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him again. Grace rolled her eyes and turned toward the gate waving a fruitless goodbye to the engrossed couple.

As they boarded the plane, Grace checked her phone before turning it off. Jake, as usual, had been MIA for the few days after her birthday when she turned him down not so subtly. She could tell from her rounds with Embry that he wasn’t taking it well but trying his best not to let it show. To her surprise, she had a new text. She tried to contain her excitement as she opened it.

SMS Text—8:32 a.m.: Paul

Have a safe flight.

“Whaaaat the fuck,” Grace groaned looking at her phone.

“What is it?” Bella said behind her. Grace snapped her phone shut and powered it down.

“Nothing.” Why was Paul texting her of all people! Of all people!?

Florida gave Grace an excuse to bust out her real summer wardrobe, one that she usually flaunted during the humid Oklahoma summers—crop tops and stringy tank tops and bralettes that she tried to tell her mom were bikini tops. Bella was a little overwhelmed by this suddenly exuberant, bare skinned version of Grace.

“Prude,” Grace teased her as she removed her spirit stone and laced a thin gold chain around her neck like a choker. It glittered against Grace’s perfectly sunkissed skin. The Florida sun was kind to Grace. Bella...not so much. Renee had slapped a giant wide brimmed sun hat on her on their first day there on the beach slathering her in sunscreen while Grace and her mother laid out in the sun.

“So, tell me about Edward,” Renee probed as they settled on the back porch of her bungalow that faced the silver sanded beach. The girls were each given a glass of white wine as a celebration for their graduation. Grace was already sneaking them extra glasses when she went back to the kitchen for a napkin, an ice cube, some lotion.

Bella’s explanation came in around the end of her second glass. “He’s…..” she looked at each woman for a moment and then with an exasperated huff she said, “He’s perfect. Really. I have no idea how this happened...to me.” Both Renee and Cherie let out little sighs of appreciation.

“Tell us more!” Cherie prompted. “What’s he like? What drew you to him? How did you two first meet?”

Grace smiled behind her third glass of wine and could only imagine the scene playing Bella’s head. What had drawn her to him? Mmm, the fact that he was a dangerously handsome and alluring vampire that had a thing for her blood? How did they meet? Oh, he saved her from getting smashed by a van and she just knew he was the one.

Bella looked to Grace for help, her mouth hanging open, not sure how to explain.

“They met in biology,” Grace replied easily, completely toasted, “Super romantic.”

“Biology is a very romantic subject. Huddled around a lab table. Dissecting frogs,” Renee teased.

“Mom,” Bella groaned.

“What?! He seems very nice from the very little that you tell me,” Renee said, giving her a smack on the arm.

“Tell me about it.” Cherie said, taking a sip of her wine.

“What does that mean?” Grace tested.

“Nothing, only that apparently you had a boyfriend out in La Push for like two months and I had no idea until you two had broken up. What was his name,” Cherie snapped her fingers together multiple times trying to recall his name, “Uh...uh.”

“Paul, mom,” Grace said, annoyed and downing the rest of her glass. She got up to get another, not even offering an excuse this time.

“Paul! Paul Lahote!” Cherie said triumphantly, “I knew the Lahote family when I was there. Nice people. Well, except for the dad. Jeremy? Jerry? He had a bit of an anger problem.”

Grace rolled her eyes in the kitchen and filled her glass close to the rim.

“My relationship with Paul is not...was not like Bella and Edward’s. They are madly in love with one another. We were just hanging out,” Grace said, shooting Bella an uncomfortable look. Bella watched her face and knew that that wasn’t true.

“Well you still could have told me,” Cherie said a little disheartened.

“Sorry, will do next time.” Grace said dismissively.

“What about Billy’s son? Jacob?” Cherie offered.

“Mom, no.” Grace groaned.

“What!? Charlie said you two were hanging out and I didn’t know if it was the same kind of hanging out that you do with Paul or?” She waggled her eyebrows at her daughter. Grace couldn’t help but laugh.

“Mom stop!” Grace said a smile cracking across her face, “It’s not like that. And anyway, we’re talking about Edward and Bella.” She motioned to Bella.

“There’s not really much else to tell, we’re together, we’re happy, I hope that continues….forever,” Bella breathed.

Renee looked at her daughter carefully and patted her thigh. The rest of the evening was spent talking about colleges, plans for the future, Cherie’s upcoming interview, and Renee’s adjustment to Florida life.

At a little past 1 a.m., Bella and Grace turned into bed and told their mom’s to leave the dishes for the morning. The two women had their arms around each other and were singing an old Fleetwood Mac song at one another and Grace gave a delighted snort.

“Cute.” She poured the half glass of wine left in the bottle into her glass and followed Bella to bed. Grace was definitely drunk. She had probably coasted through an entire bottle of wine by herself tonight without her mother knowing. Something about that gave her a freeing sensation. Bella went to the bathroom to shower and left Grace alone with her thoughts.

The words that her mother had mentioned at dinner swirled around in her head.

What was his name? Paul! That’s right! Paul Lahote.

Grace tried to shake her head of her last memory of her and Paul alone. He had undressed her and though he tried his best not to look, she could feel his burning gaze all over her. Now, in her drunken state it annoyed her.

What about Billy’s son? Jacob?

Grace let out an audible groan. Of course her mother would know about Jake. And what was worse, she knew her mother could see that she had blushed profusely at his name. A dead giveaway.

Why was this all so complicated? Did her ancestors have a death wish for her? Was this supposed to bring her some sort of triumph over adversity thing? Or was she truly just meant to be miserable forever? And why did she feel like she was doing this alone?

Her eyes lazily landed on her phone plugged in on the nightstand.

“Fuck this,” Grace said, grabbing her phone and dropping it on the floor accidentally before scooping it up, downing the rest of her glass and finding the right contact in her phone.

“Hello?” It was late here but it was only after 10 p.m. back in Forks. Of course he’d be awake.

“You really piss me off, you know that?” Grace said pointing to the air in front of her.

“Excuse me?”

“You have the absolute audacity to look at me the way that you do on a daily basis and think I won’t notice? You stare. STARE at me and I can see it you know? Some people would say that’s pretty creepy, that’s pretty stalker-ery of you, yah know?”

“Grace, are you drunk?”

“Listen to me! I know how this is supposed to go. Guy meets girl, girl falls for guy and then a bunch of stupid shit happens and now guy’s like ‘Hey, I’m gonna stare at you from afar and not fucking talk to you won’t that drive you crazy?’ And it does! It does! You did it. Congrats. You did it. It’s driving me crazy.”

“Grace, calm down for a sec—”

“Don’t tell me to calm down! Do I need to hold a sign? Helloooo, Do you need me to spell it out for you?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking—”

“Yeah right, you know. You know. You’ve known this whole time. You’ve talked to Ti’Hal, you know.”

“Grace, let’s just talk about this when you get home.”

“No! I want to talk about it right now. I want to tell you what I’ve been thinking these past three weeks. The thing I couldn’t say and up until now, I didn’t know if I should, but I’m gonna and you’re gonna hear it buddy. You hear me?!”

“Grace what are you doing?” Bella came out of the bathroom and was wrapped in a robe, her hair up in a towel, “Who’s on the phone?”

“Hold on, Bella’s here.” Grace turned drunkenly to Bella stumbling a little. “I’m just gonna tell him.” She said confidently, shaking the phone and slurring her speech now.

“Grace, let’s go to bed. Give me the phone,” Bella approached her like she was a rabid animal, knowing she needed to get that phone away from her before she made a mistake.

“I’m just gonna tell him!” Grace turned to yell into the phone, but Bella was quick, “I’m in love with you! You complete fucking—” the phone was already knocked out of her hands and Bella had slammed it shut.

“Are you nuts?!” Bella said, laughing a little.

“Probably,” Grace sighed sitting on her bed and flopping back onto the pillows.

“I’m holding onto this until morning,” Bella said, putting it in her robe pocket. But Grace was already asleep. Bella popped open her phone to look at the last outgoing call. Unsurprised, Bella gave a short laugh at the name glowing from the small screen: Jacob.

The next morning, Grace woke up to a splitting headache and an overwhelming thirst. She dragged herself up out of bed and splashed cold water her face before brushing her teeth and changing into a fresh set of clothes for the day.

As she wandered down into the kitchen, she found Bella washing up last night’s dishes at the sink.

“Goooood morning, drunk dialer,” Bella said, “Drink that, and take those.” She nodded to a talk glass of water on the counter and a couple of pills.

“Nice,” Grace said. “What do you mean drunk dialer? Have you seen my phone?” Grace chugging the water and swallowing the pills. Bella produced Grace’s phone from her back pocket and set it on the counter.

“I’d wait until you rehydrate before checking those texts.” Bella warned.

“What?” Grace grabbed her phone, weak memories coming back to her from last night. She pulled her phone toward her desperately and pulled it open quickly navigating to her inbox.

SMS Text—1:23 a.m.: Jacob

Grace, call me back. I need to talk to you.

I know you’re drunk but I thought you said...

Just call me back,

SMS Text—1:43 a.m.: Jacob

I’m sorry I’ve been staring at you, I like you.

Sue me.

Or don’t. Just call me back so we can talk.

SMS Text—1:47 a.m.: Jacob

You’re unbelievable you know?

You get drunk 2,000 miles away where I can’t get to you to drop this?

Not. Cool.

SMS Text—2:03 a.m.: Jacob

Text me or call me when you wake up.

We need to talk about this.

Grace threw her head back and groaned: “Fuuuuu—morning mom!” Her mother came around from behind her.

“Good morning my only daughter.” She planted a kiss on her cheek.

“You say only daughter like you have another daughter hidden away in a basement somewhere.” Grace grumbled.

“Are you two ready to go kayaking in the Everglades? Renee’s quite the thrill seeker.” Cherie ignored her and looked to Bella.

“Yeah, should be fun!” Grace said, perking up. She pocketed her phone and resolved to bury her head so deep in the swamp that an alligator would surely come and tear her to pieces so she’d never have to face Jacob again.

Floating in the kayak was peaceful. Grace let herself drift down the thread of water choked by duckweed and low hanging spanish moss, the morning sun glittering on the water. Ahead, Renee and Cherie were chuckling about something and Bella was gliding quietly next to her.

Lost in her reverie, she didn’t realize Bella was next to her until their kayaks bonked together.

“Ooh, sorry,” Bella apologized, trying to steer herself straight. “Kayaks aren’t meant for the uncoordinated.” Grace laughed and gave the back of her kayak a nudge forward. “Thanks.”

“Yeah,” Grace said simply letting the sound of the water against her paddle lull her into another reverie. But it was short lived.

“So, do you want to talk about what happened last night?” Bella said, giving her a knowing look. Grace internally groaned.

“Not much to say that you didn’t already hear,” Grace said while she weaved her kayak around a particularly dense patch.

“Mmm I think there’s more to say. You’re in love with Jacob...but you don’t want to be with him because?” Bella prompted. Grace was silent, her eyes on the water, “He’s crazy about you you know. Even when you thought there was something going on between us..which to be fair he did have a crush on me for awhile...but even back then, you’d always come up in our conversations. In everything. He’d always ask about you.”

Grace had tried to block those early days out. The ones where she was so furiously drawn to Jacob and her stomach would flare angrily when she overhead him and Bella talking.

“It’s not as easy as just saying I’m in love with you.” Grace finally said.

“You had no trouble saying it last night when you were wasted,” Bella joked, ducking her head just in time to not get slapped in the face by moss. Grace shook her head.

“You don’t get it,” Grace said, “I’ve already done the heartbreak thing once. You were there, remember?” Bella gave her a pained look as she continued, “For whatever fucked up reason, my ancestors think it’s pretty funny to have no one imprint on me or me imprint on anyone, but I still get to fall in love with them. Do you know how excruciatingly awful it is knowing you love someone who can and would leave you if someone they were meant to be with came along? That you could never measure up to? Because of some impossibly, supernatural standard?” Grace was desperate now.

“Yes,” Bella said softly, casting her eyes down. Grace stopped at this. That made sense.

“Of course,” she said, “Bella, I didn’t mean it like that but, you can see why I’m hesitating to jump into anything with Jake. Not to mention, Paul and I just broke up like 3 seconds ago and I’m still trying to figure all of this,” she gestured to her whole body, “out.” Grace let out an exasperated breath. “It’s exhausting. And the worst part is….” she paused here not sure if she wanted to go there. But why shouldn’t she? Bella drifted in front of her, looking at her calmly, openly. Bella wouldn’t begrudge her her feelings, nor was she in danger of unwillingly sharing them with Jake since her mind was protected from Edwards.

She could tell her this here, in this calm swamp away from everyone, “The worst part is, I so so so want to be with him. Everything in my body, absolutely every part of me wants him. It’s terrifying thinking you’re staring at your stupid soul mate but knowing that they’ll be snatched away from you any second. I can’t live through that. Not with Jake. If we were happy and he--,” she choked here and took a minute to stop and compose herself, moving forward, her voice hard, “and he left, willingly or unwillingly, I don’t think I could come back from that. So I can’t risk it Bella, I can’t. And it hurts so much every single day to hold that resolve. It feels like it’s going against everything to hold myself back. But I just...can’t.”

After a few minutes paddling forward together, Bella looked at her sadly and nodded, “Okay.” Grace gave her nod, “I understand.”

“Good, now let’s talk about something else.” Grace bumped her boat into Bella’s.

“Well, since we’re sharing secrets…” Bella looked down shyly and Grace’s eyes shot toward her, “Edward asked me to marry him.”

“WHAT?!” Grace shouted as she rocked her kayak dangerously. Their mother’s who were further down the way looked over their shoulders and called out: “Are you okay?”

“Yeah! I think she saw a snake!” Bella called back. “Chill!” she said to Grace laughing. In a hushed voice Grace said:

“Marry?! As in til death do us part, rings and bells?” Bella nodded enthusiastically. “Woah.”

“Tell me about it.” Bella replied.

“So what did you say!? Did you say yes?! You’re 18!”

“I know I’m 18.” Bella replied, a tinge of annoyance not targeted at Grace layered in her voice. “And it’s not the first time he’s asked me. This is like a regular thing with him.”

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?” Grace said splashing her paddles around her dramatically.

“Grace!” Bella said, darting her eyes toward their mothers again who were laughing and paddling a ways up.

“This isn’t the first time?! What is he a glutton for matrimony?” Grace pulled a face and Bella laughed.

“I don’t know, maybe.”

“SO?! What did you say this time?” Grace begged now.

“I said….I said yes.” Bella said barely over the sound of splashing water with a shy smile on her face.

“Oh my GOD! BELLA!” Grace smacked her boat with her paddle.

“Girls!” Cherie called back to them.

“Yeah! Coming!” Bella called back as she tried her best to paddle away. Grace was after her in a second yelling “We’re not done talking about this!”

It was their last night and Grace was cuddled up on an outdoor sofa under a soft blanket with her mom. Grace was thumbing through her Shakespeare collection and her mom was finishing a crossword.

After a serene silence that Grace recognized as a common occurrence between the two of them, she heard her mom set down her pencil and look over at her.

“How have you been? Really, I mean.” Grace looked over at her slowly. This was a weird turn. Could her mom sense something was up? Grace squirmed a little and her heartbeat picked up.

“Fine, really. Forks is great and like I said, the council gifted me that run down house that I’m fixing up so it’s going well.” Grace repeated the same status update she had given her mother on their first day.

“But...I know it was hard for you to return to all of that...without your dad, I mean,” Cherie spoke quietly now.

“Mom.” Grace said softly coming closer to give her a hug, “It really has been okay. I’ve found a great family out there and it’s been good being back on the rez.”

Cherie clasped her hands around Grace’s shoulder and pulled her tight to her.

“I just worry about you Little Bird,” she whispered and kissed the top of her head. That had to be a coincidence. Grace sucked in a deep breath and looked up at her mother.

“I’m okay….really,” she said this gently but meant it. Tears were in her mom’s eyes and she nodded. “Get a grip mom,” Grace laughed and Cherie echoed her.

“I just miss you.” Cherie said.

“You’re always welcome to come and stay. And I’ll visit more,” Grace promised. Cherie was satisfied with this and pulled her back into a hug, rocking her gently as the waves crashed off the shore. Grace was almost whole.

#twilight fanfiction #twilightfanfiction #Twilight FanFic #new moon #eclipse #jacobblackxoc #jacob black #jacobxoc #edward cullen #paul lahote #bella swan #smeyer #The Pack #the cullens #chapter 28 #a monster lives here

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adhd-wifi · 4 years

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MDZS and the Legends of Hou Yi

So just for fun, I wanted to talk about how much the tales of Hou Yi, a famous figure in Chinese legends, is referrenced in the story of MDZS. I’m pretty confident that MXTX is quite the fan of this particular story. (Note: There are multiple versions of this tale, and I went with the one that had most ties with MDZS, which, coincidentally, happened to be the version I personally grew up with, with one or two minor differences.)

This post took me 6 hours.

The Legend:

Back when the world was still new, there were ten brilliant suns in the sky, children of the Heavenly Sun Emperor Di Jun. They took turns illuminating the sky, bringing light and warmth to the mortal world below. However, the ten suns were still children, and despite their father’s strict instructions of only allowing one of them into the skies at a time, they all went out together one day to play together.

The mortal world suffered from their game, the blinding light and unbearable heat killing crops and livestock and causing the people immense suffering. Seeing this suffering, the great immortal archer Hou Yi climbed to the top of a great mountain, armed with exactly ten arrows in his quiver, and spoke one final warning to the suns, asking that they return home peacefully. But when they did not heed his warning, Hou Yi drew his divine bow, letting loose nine arrows made of dragon bone towards the heavens. One by one, nine suns were struck, each of them falling dead to the Earth as blood red crows bearing three legs. With one arrow left in his quiver, however, Hou Yi chose to spare the last sun so the world would not fall into icy darkness. The last sun promised to behave, fearful of the archer who shot down his brothers. The mortal world declared Hou Yi a hero and their saviour.

Di Jun, however, was furious at the deaths of nine of his children, and so he cast Hou Yi and his wife, Chang'E, from the heavens, stripping them of their immortality.

Seeking a way to return them to the heavens and relieve the feelings of grief felt by his dear wife, Hou Yi sought out the help of Xi Wang Mu, Mother Queen of the West, who was known for having created the Elixir of Immortality. Xi Wang Mu took pity on Hou Yi, and also recognized his heroic deeds in shooting down the suns despite knowing there were consequences, and thus, she gave him her last bottle of Elixir. She warned him, however, that the elixir was too strong for any single mortal, and it must be shared between him and his wife.

Overjoyed, Hou Yi returned home, hiding the elixir in hopes of surprising his wife with it. He told her that the 15th day of the Eight Lunar Month would be a special day, for he planned to share the elixir with her on that day, and ascend back to the heavens together under the light of the beautiful full moon.

However, others had heard of the elixir the famous fallen hero had managed to obtain. Greedy with the thought of ascending to immortality themselves, they stalked Hou Yi home and overheard what he told his wife. So they planned an ambush on the promised night, when Hou Yi left to go hunting for a special feast. They attacked Hou Yi under the moonlight, killing him and then raiding their home. They tried to force Chang’E to give them what they wanted, but Chang’E refused to give it up to her husband’s killers. To ensure they never got their hands on it, Chang’E drank the entire elixir. True to Xi Wang Mu’s words, it was too strong for one person, and she was immediately cast into the skies, forced to leave her husband behind without even saying goodbye. She then decided to live on the moon, the closest she could to the Earth, where her husband was, her only companion the Jade Rabbit of the Moon.

References to the Legend in Mo Dao Zu Shi:

The Wen Sect & the Ten Suns

The Wen Sect represent the Ten Suns, who enjoyed their lives and did what they wanted at the expense of others

Though we don’t meet all of them, there are exactly ten named (sort of) characters bearing the name Wen

Wen Mao

Wen RuoHan

Wen Chao

Wen Xu

Wen ZhuLiu

Wen Qing

Wen Ning

Granny Wen

Uncle Four

Wen Yuan

Note: While not explicitly stated, Granny Wen & Uncle Four were only ever considered part of the sect, so it’s fair to assume that they were in fact surnamed Wen

Out of those ten Wen Sect members, only one was alive by the end of the story, Wen Yuan (Wen Ning was technically dead)

The Wen Sect as a whole is said to be bad at archery, and they were furious upon losing an archery competition where missing a shot disqualifies them (Hou Yi only had ten arrows, at first planning to shoot them all down, and couldn't afford to miss a shot or the world could've been left with more than one sun)

The indoctrination can be seen as a metaphor for the suns playing and exerting their power harmfully over the mortal world

The Wen Sect primarily resorted to burning and fire, the element most associated with the sun

The name of QiShan Wen’s residence is 不夜天城 (bù yè tiān chéng), (overly) literally translated, “No Night Sky Palace”, AKA Nightless City. With the Ten Suns in the sky, night could not fall

Wang LingJiao took the shooting of a sun-like kite as justification for her accusations of the Jiang Sect going against the Wen Sect

It was specifically the child of the Wen Sect Leader, Wen Chao, that led the attack on Lotus Pier, like how the Ten Suns were the children of the actual Sun Emperor

Also on a narrative note, both the Ten Suns and Wen Chao had larger roles in the overall story compared to their fathers, despite their fathers playing key roles as well

The first Wen Sect member to take Wei WuXian’s side, which ultimately led to Wei WuXian & Jiang Cheng surviving the massacre of Jiang Sect, was Wen Ning, the only notably skilled archer of the Wen Sect

On a similar note, Wei WuXian, who was the considered a hero and major player in the fall of the Wen Sect, was also the winner of the archery competition

This means two skilled archers were heavily responsible for the Wens losing the war in the long run, albeit somewhat indirectly

The Sunshot Campaign is literally named the Sunshot Campaign and was in fact directly and explicitly referencing the legend of a great hero shooting down the sun in canon (meaning the story of Hou Yi exists as a legend or fairytale in MDZS canon, nice!)

Wei WuXian, who is the Hou Yi of MDZS and a hero in the war against the Wens, is represented by a crow in official promos for the animation, and when the suns were shot down, they turned into red crows with three legs (this one could be pure coincidence since crows are also just seen as symbols of death in general and he controls the dead)

The Golden Core, The Yin Tiger Seal, and the Elixir of Immortality

Since golden cores are seen as necessary to cultivate, and cultivation leads to immortality, they are what represent the elixir in MDZS

Wen ZhuLiu, a Wen Sect member, having the ability to destroy golden cores could be seen as referencing how Di Jun took away Hou Yi and Chang’E’s immortality in retaliation for shooting down the suns

Jiang Cheng into going up a mountain to meet BaoShan Sanren to restore his golden core is similar to how Hou Yi sought out Xi Wang Mu to restore their immortality

On a related note, MDZS’s version of Xi Wang Mu is both BaoShan Sanren and Wen Qing combined, BaoShan Sanren playing the role of the immortal figure to give the golden core, and Wen Qing taking on her identity while being the one to actually give it through the experimental surgery

After getting the elixir however, it became more similar to the Yin Tiger Seal instead, being sought after by hostile people who were willing to kill Wei WuXian for it, all for personal reasons (Fuck you Jin Sect)

Wei WuXian hiding the golden core transfer from Jiang Cheng can be seen as similar to how Hou Yi initially hid the elixir from Chang’E, though Hou Yi always planned to tell her about it unlike Wei WuXian

In an alternate version of the tale, Chang’E was suspicious of Hou Yi’s secrecy with the elixir after subconsciously blaming him for their immortality taken away (Hou Yi may or may not have told her about his task, depending on what version of this alternate version you read), thus peeking inside the hidden box while he was away on a hunt. When he returned, she panicked over betraying his trust and drank the whole thing. This alternate version can be seen as similar to how Jiang Cheng wasn’t sure whether to trust Wei WuXian or not after the events of the Sunshot Campaign, and his inability to trust his “former” brother heavily contributed to their separation. I mean if Wei WuXian & Hou Yi had just talked to their loved ones in these versions of their stories they would’ve had a little less problems but what’s an ancient Chinese dramatic tale without miscommunication am I right?

WangXian and Hou Yi & Chang’E

Both Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi share aspects of Hou Yi and Chang’E’s individual sides of their stories in MDZS

Lan WangJi, like Chang’E, wasn’t present during his loved one’s confrontation with the Wen Sect (”the Suns”)

Lan WangJi is also associated with the moon in some official art and his robes are always white and resemble “mourning robes”. This ties into Chang’E being the goddess of the moon and being known to wear white, some believing she does so in mourning the loss of her husband who remained on Earth

In contrast, Wei WuXian is more associated with the sun narratively, having fought the Wen Sect during a major turning point in his life, then lived as family with the Wen Remnants and always having something red in his otherwise dark outfits (his ribbon). This ties in with Hou Yi’s involvement with the Ten Suns in general

Side note: Lan WangJi wore clothing that was more typical of a non-combatant (long, flowy hanfu-looking robes), like Chang’E, who was a dancer never saw the battlefield. Wei WuXian tended to wear clothes more typical of an active combatant (pre-Yiling Patriarch at least) with narrow sleeves and trousers, similar to the portrayals of traditional archers such as Hou Yi. He no longer wears such attire in Mo XuanYu’s body. (CQL not counted for this point)

WangXian’s representative animal is the rabbit, specifically the two rabbits Wei WuXian gifted Lan WangJi. Chang’E’s main (sometimes only) companion on the moon is the Jade Rabbit

On a related note, the Lan Sect is the one that keeps the rabbits, and the Lan Sect happens to be the Sect most associated with jade ornaments, even though the other sects have them as well

Like Chang’E, Wei WuXian was unwilling to give his assailants the Yin Tiger Seal, choosing instead to ensure they could never have it, but by destroying the seal (”drinking the elixir”) he ended up being separated from his loved ones in the mortal world, in his case by dying

Also, part of his decision to do this was driven by the grief of losing someone he loved, though in his case it was Jiang YanLi instead of his future husband

In an alternate version of the tale where Hou Yi survived the ambush, or the version where Chang’E betrays his trust, Hou Yi becomes violent and cruel, going from a worshipped hero to a hated tyrant. This alternate version can relate to both Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi. Wei WuXian was a hero of the Sunshot Campaign, but became hated after the war was over (though he did so by sticking to his personal morals). Lan WangJi turned against his sect and the cultivation world despite his reputation as a righteous man because he feared losing the man he loved, then upon losing Wei WuXian he lost himself in his grief, especially notable in his drunken rampage where he branded himself with the Wen branding iron

Also related to the alternate versions in which Hou Yi lived, like Hou Yi, Lan WangJi was left on the mortal surface without his love, who had gone to a non-mortal plane of existence and was unable to even communicate with him

Hou Yi and Chang’E, post-separation, are sometimes associated with the concept of Yin-Yang, representing the “opposites” of Earth and Heaven respectively, connected by love. WangXian is similar, having started as opposing personality types with shared ideals, then their relationship became that of love by the end of the story. (WangXian is also more visually representative of Yin-Yang, with their black and white clothing respectively)

Welp this got so long LMAO. Anyways this was still really fun to do, especially since I personally really like this story, since it was one of the stories I was told growing up (it’s not my favourite exactly, tiny-baby-me got mad at the Jade Emperor a lot, but one of them). Hope this was just as fun to read lol.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #mdzs meta #hou yi #chang'e #chinese legends #chinese things #my metas #my posts #my ramblings #btw i said jade emperor in the last point because growing up i heard the version where the sun emperor was the jade emperor instead #i found out about di jun several years later

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kunoichi-ume · 4 years

Note

For the WIP sampler: while I'm curious about Noara's death, I'd much rather hear about her adventures!

Send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and interests you and I’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it!

Sure you don’t wanna hear about Noara dying? About Torian getting there just in time to be too late to save her, but early enough to get to say goodbye? To say an edited version of the Mandalorian wedding vows because even if she doesnt know it he won’t make her lie to him (about raising children together I mean)? About Noara asking if now she can sleep, just for a moment, and Torian knows it will be longer?

No? Okay.

Actually writing her dying at all was a writing exersize that @cinlat sort of dared me to do, sort of a “you never know your character until you put them through ALLLLLL the hell” thing cause I don’t really plan to kill Noara. (Sith Noara however... her days are numbered.)

Noara’s adventure log started when I felt I didn’t really know Noara well enough to keep writing I’ve Got You and was kicking myself for starting the fic so far into the canon story so she wouldn’t be able to grow through her experiences as I worked on her (instead she had to be a finished product and that was bugging me so much!) so I started on Tython and getting into her head from the start.

Have a couple snippets, cause the start of this post was rude I know. They are a bit on the long side, but other than @cinlat who I am pretty sure I shared this doc with, odds are no one else will see this fic if and when I pick it up again because it was more character study than anything but damn if I didnt have fun with it.

Noara’s thoughts as she arrives on Tython to start her trials:

This was the farthest from home she had ever been, not counting wherever she had been before the Jedi brought her to the enclave she’d been raised in. Now she’d left the only home she’d ever known to prove her worth and, hopefully, pass her trials. If she didn’t her dreams of traveling the galaxy and helping people would be gone. She’d be stuck in a research position or raising crops or something else equally unfulfilling even if she understood the necessity of it.

Failure wasn’t an option, not for Noara.

If all the times she had snuck out of her academic classes were any indication, she wouldn’t enjoy life as a scholar.

And the first time she takes a life, even if it’s a Flesh Raider determined to kill her is a big moment for her too:

Noara followed the rock formations, giving her on side where an ambush was less likely, and rounded a corner to see exactly what she had worried she might when she heard their name. Three of the reddish-pink rough skinned creatures crouched on the ground feasting on dead bodies. To make it worse two of the bodies were Jedi and one was their own kind. Flesh eaters and cannibals. That image was going to stick with.her.

Adjusting her grip on her sabers, wishing she had weapons as real as this fight was going to be, she stepped around the rocks and crouched slightly. Pulling the Force around her, she leapt, propelling herself the considerable distance between her and the Flesh Raiders. They reared up as she landed, one coming at her with a training saber it probably stole off one of the dead Padawans, while the other two drew blasters.

Reacting quickly, she blocked the first Flesh Raiders first strike before Force pushing it away to buy her time to deal with the other two. As it stumbled away, she slashed her blades at the two firing at her. They knew how to use the blasters, but their aim was horrendous. They hadn’t had these weapons long and she was easily able to sidestep their shots and cut each across the chest with the electrified edges of her blades.

The creatures cried out, horribly gargled sounds by their misshapen mouths, as they fell. An angry cry behind her reminded Noara of the third Flesh Raider and she turned just in time to block a strike aimed at her skull. Before the beast could react to her quick movement, she stabbed it through the gut with her other weapon.

It fell, dead, at her feet and Noara had to yank her training saber out of it’s ribcage where it had gotten lodged. She turned her sabers off and frowned at the blood, a sickly brown color, that clung to them. She wanted to clean them but had a feeling this wouldn't be her last fight and that it would be a wasted effort.

It wasn’t until the smell hit her that what she had just done really sank in. She’d killed them, hadn’t even hesitated. Noara waited for the regret, the sickening guilt her masters had told her would accompany every life she took, but it didn’t come. Just relief that it was them lying on the ground and not her and the familiar thrill she always felt when sparring. She’d assumed that it would be different in a real fight, that it would be less exciting to win when it meant something else died but it wasn’t.

That thought scared her, because she knew how it sounded. It went against everything Jedi stood for and were taught. Taking a deep breath, she pushed all of that away to meditate on later. She was in a dangerous situation and there were other Padawans depending on her.

And younger Noara might just have an attitude problem, but ya gotta admit the Flesh Raider problem on Tython was seriously mismanaged...

When Noara answered her com a small image of Knight Weller, bending down to brace a wound on his leg, appeared. He looked her image over in relief. “You’re unharmed, good. A Flesh Raider shot me in the leg while I was rescuing some Padawans. No idea where they got blasters, but they know how to use them. I’ve been evacuated to a medcenter but the fighting isn’t over.”

Noara sighed but bit back the comment she wanted to make. For a planet that should be full of some of the galaxy's best warriors they were pretty bad at crisis management. “Will there be reinforcements coming? I’m up to my neck in monsters here.”

Weller nodded. “Some are already there, but they keep pouring in. We need to stop them at the source. Padawan Unaw Aharo found a cave the Flesh Raiders tunneled through to get into the valley. I need you to go and make sure they don’t get more reinforcements through it.”

Noara closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her patience was wearing thin, the handling of this situation left much to be desired and her understanding was that all Jedi on Tython were meant to be taking their trials. How any could be at that point and defenseless was beyond her. As far as she had seen, she was the only competent warrior on the whole planet but she wasn’t near arrogant enough to think she could take on every Flesh Raider out there on her own. “I don’t know how much I can do on my own, but I’ll do whatever I can to push them back and see if there is a way to seal the tunnel.”

“You won’t be alone for long,” Weller reassured her. “Master Orgus Din is on his way as well. We need to end this conflict before anyone else gets hurt. Find the cave along the east mountain ridge. May the Force be with you.”

His image winked out of sight and she huffed in annoyance. It had been a few hours since she had been sent into the field to fight the invaders and they were finally sending a member of the council to come help? What were the Jedi Masters doing while Padawans were being captured and killed? So far all she had learned on Tython was that she was lucky to have finished her combat training on Naboo before making the journey, being sent here without it could have been akin to a death sentence.

Master Doran had warned her the trials would be difficult when he tried to talk her into putting them off until she was a little older, but somehow Noara didn’t think this was what he meant.

And then her day just gets worse and worse when she gets to the cave and has to face the rogue Jedi commanding the Flesh Raiders:

The rogue Jedi lunged at her, swinging his lightsaber toward her neck.

Noara just managed to dodge the blow, stepping quickly back. The second swing she caught with one of her training sabers, the blue energy blade crackling against the metal.

“You think to defeat me with those toys?” He laughed, pushing her back with his superior strength and leaving marks in the ground where Noara tried to keep her footing. When most of his weight was committed to pushing her, she dropped to the ground, ducking under his arm and slipping behind him as he stumbled past her.

Using a move Master Doran always called reckless, she leapt into the air. Using the Force she propelled herself across the cavern to where his Flesh Raider backup was. Noara knew that if she wanted a glimmer of a chance to get out of here alive, she couldn’t face all three of them at once. Landing between them, Noara pushed the Force in a ring out from her body and knocked both away from her and to the ground. Stunned, neither stirred. She turned just in time to block the rogue Jedi’s attack with her training sabers crossed in front of her. He pressed forward, forcing Noara to step back again.

Obviously he had an advantage in both size and strength over her. She was going to need to be faster and cleverer. Before he could make her step back again, Noara kicked him in the gut. Not letting up when he stepped back, she followed him, pushing his lightsaber away from her with one of her blades and hitting his sword arm as hard as she could with the other. He dropped the saber with a sharp cry.

Noara turned, releasing one of her training sabers to call his weapon to her. Before she caught it he tackled her, his shoulder digging into her gut. As they tumbled to the ground she lost her grip on her other weapon. She was never much of a grappler, her creche mates had often wiped the floor with her in unarmed spars but she had learned enough to know she couldn’t let him pin her. They landed hard on the ground, rolling a few times before he had straddled her waist and punched her in the face.

Lifting her hips off the ground, Noara tried to throw him off but he was too high on her torso for that to work. Leaning forward he pinned her with his weight and wrapped his hands around her throat. Clawing at his fingers, she turned her head back and forth, trying to find a way out of this before remembering she was still armed. Pulling her leg up as close as she could, Noara blindly reached for her boot. Each of her boots had a dagger hidden in a discrete sheath inside the boot.

Noara’s chest was on fire as she gasped for air and her vision was starting to dim. Reaching out to the Force for strength, she managed to grab the dagger’s hilt and pull it out of her boot. Without hesitation she stabbed him, driving the dagger into his side. He cried out in pain, releasing her neck and she was able to breath again. She ripped the dagger out of his flesh as he fell off of her. Running on pure adrenaline she followed him, burying the bloodied dagger hilt deep into his chest.

Blood gushed around her hand and when he coughed it left bloody spots all over his face. “Killing me changes nothing,” he gasped wetly, “long live the new order.” The rogue Jedi took another gurgling breath before going limp under her and she felt his life force fading.

Pushing herself away from his corpse, Noara tried to breathe through the pain in her chest and throat.

“Look out!” Aharo cried, making Noara turn her head just in time to see the two forgotten Flesh Raiders approaching her.

The dagger was still in the dead man’s chest but she spotted the lightsaber lying on the ground. She pulled it to her hand, activated it and threw it at them. With the Force she controlled it’s trajectory to strike them both. The Flesh Raiders fell to the floor, making similar death rattles to the ones she had heard all day.

For a moment Noara didn’t move, leaning on her hand to keep herself upright while she waited for the next attack. When it didn’t come she slumped on the ground let out a shaky breath. Aharo, holding his gut, limped over to her.

“That was amazing, I thought we were dead for sure,” he said, dropping to his knees next to her. “Are you alright?”

Noara nodded where she lay. “Yeah, I think so.”

#wip snippet game #oc: Noara Starspark #storyknitter

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aqvarius · 4 years

Text

[WALKTHROUGH + REVIEW] Masquerade Kiss: Yuzuru Shiba Season 2

Expectations:

I just want to start off by saying that the prologue is absolutely outrageous. There are probably so many targets that hang around the EAC headquarters, especially since HQ is presumably 3 miles within the UN Headquarters and let’s not pretend that there isn’t at least one target going to work there everyday. I actually spent 30 mins on google maps street view trying to find exactly where this location is supposed to be modelled after so I could find all the companies and buildings that have potential targets and then just gave up lol. BUT either way, I refuse to believe that a top international intelligence agency would just go WARNING WARNING and go into emergency lockdown because a target entered a 3 mile radius of HQ. Ridiculous. Also, the letter from the EAC even in the Yuzuru prologue also calls her Arisa Mifune which is her Kazuomi alias lol.

EDIT: I found the location of that background which implies that EAC HQ is modelled after 2 Hammarskjold Plaza or somewhere near (which is right next to the British Consulate btw, how did MC not see that on her way to the building. Also conveniently near something called Japan Society.). Note the octagonal-roofed thing on the bottom left, the general shape of the building, the covered part of the building lobby, the blue sign (afaik street signs in NYC are green) and the position and shape of the building down the road. And I know I’m taking this whole thing way too seriously, but Jeffrey Epstein had a mansion about 2 miles away from here so this whole 3 mile emergency alert thing is just ridiculous. Sure, Epstein probably never existed in the world of Masquerade Kiss but come on, it is highly unlikely that not a single target lives, works or passes by for a kebab within a 3 mile radius of the EAC HQ.

With that out of the way, let’s talk Yuzuru. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was going to even play Masquerade Kiss ever again. I like most things about the game but Love Choice is honestly just a turn off and the only LC game that I am genuinely drawn to is actually Destind. But then I had 287 unused hearts because I bought a bunch of hearts with the intent of playing Kyogoku’s route in Romance MD (and then I didn’t because I actually just don’t like that game) so I decided to give it a shot. I actually (surprisingly?) prefer Kazuomi to Yuzuru as a character, but I like Yuzuru’s MC more than Kazuomi’s MC and I was intrigued that Voltage would push this whole love quadrangle thing. We’ve seen hyper-jealous Yuzuru before in a substory so I think I went into this route more interested in the plot aspect and to see how they would develop the kind of strange relationship between Yuzuru and his MC. I genuinely enjoyed Yuzuru’s S1 MS a lot and wanted to see how he and his MC would grow as a couple. Also I wanted to play it in order to write a review to bring some traffic back to my semi-hiatus stagnant blog lol. Please give this a like/reblog please I’m begging you please :’(

Keep reading to the walkthrough and review. I’ve calculated a way for you to get to EE with all CGs (50 hearts saved), SHE with CGs (83 hearts saved), or a cheapest overall option to SHE (107 hearts saved).

Stop scrolling after the walkthrough and guide if you haven’t yet played and don’t want the route to be spoiled.

Walkthrough:

Story 1:

Yes, we should keep an eye on him.

No, it’s not necessary

Story 2:

“You came to be with me.” (Love Meter +1) (6 hearts)

I can’t say.

Story 3:

I sign without hesitating.

I hesitate for a moment.

Story 4:

Text Yuzuru.

Don’t text him.

Story 5:

I’ll sign it. (Love Meter +1, CG) (13 hearts)

I’m not going to sign a New York contract.

Story 6:

Casually intervene. (Love Meter +2) (11 hearts)

Pretend not to notice.

Story 7:

See him out without asking what’s wrong.

Ask what’s going on.

Story 8:

It’s payback time. (Love Meter +1, CG) (16 hearts)

Don’t do anything.

Story 9:

Start touching him. (Love Meter +2) (12 hearts)

I can’t interrupt.

Story 10:

Seduce the info out of him. (Love Meter +1) (8 hearts)

Try to force it out of him.

Story 11: (second chance)

Gently ask about it. (Love Meter +3) (18 hearts)

Now is not the time.

Story 12:

“I’m thinking about you.” (Love Meter +3) (13 hearts)

“Nothin’.”

Story 13:

“It was fun.”

“It was relaxing.”

Story 14:

Apologize and keep talking. (Love Meter +1) (7 hearts)

Ouch. I have nothing to say for myself…

Story 15:

Play dumb: “What are you talking about?”

Ask: “What if I am?”

Story 16:

Find out if he’s jealous. (Love Meter +2) (18 hearts)

Don’t ask any questions.

Story 17:

“I’ll stay ten more minutes.” (Love Meter +2) (14 hearts)

I have nothing to say.

Story 18:

Ask about his Texas accent.

Don’t ask about it now.

Story 19:

Call out to Yuzuru.

Let him go.

Story 20:

Put up a strong front: “I’m okay.”

Tell the truth: “I’m not okay.”

Story 21: (second chance)

Ask Yuzuru why he did it. (Love Meter +3, CG) (25 hearts)

Don’t ask any questions.

Story 22:

“Not as stubborn as you.”

“You already knew that.”

Story 23 (useless):

Trust Yuzuru and don’t go. (Love Meter +1) (13 hearts)

Right now, I have to go to Jeremy.

Story 24: (second chance but she saves him either way)

Rush over to protect Yuzuru. (Love Meter +3) (19 hearts)

I can’t get there quickly enough.

Guides:

I calculated the cheapest ways to get to Eden End and Super Happy End with CGs and without CGs. Just opt for the heart scenes that I’ve highlighted in each guide below.

Click the read more below for my review. Stop here if you haven’t yet read the route because there are spoilers galore.

Review:

Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this route. As I read through, I thought the pacing was excellent and I was really drawn in by everything about it, especially the relationship between Yuzuru and his MC. It has definitely been a while since a LC route really captured my full attention. However, upon rereading my notes and writing this review, I do have quite a few issues with it, particularly the plot. I’ll go through the things I enjoyed about the route first and then discuss what I find to be its limitations.

So Yuzuru is great in this route. We get a far more expressive and soft Yuzuru. We get to see the most charming side of Yuzuru again, his childlike passion for engineering and innovation. This, in my opinion, is Yuzuru at his softest and most appealing, when he is genuinely passionate and not just doing the hyper-organised scheduling thing (although naturally most of this is hidden behind a heart scene). Sometimes it’s nice to remember that Yuzuru is human.

He’s definitely more playful with his MC in this route, even going as far as to blur the lines between work and personal life a little bit in a way that I found quite unexpected. There’s a lot of flirty banter between them, as well as just little suggestions of flirtations here and there in their body language – in front of people too! Scandalous. It almost reminds me a bit of Kazuomi and his MC, which is definitely a pleasant surprise. A lot of these scenes are hidden behind heart scenes, which I’ll get into later, but I will say that these cute and suggestive moments between the two are probably some of the best moments of the route, and part of the reason why it was so easy to keep reading.

I’ve mentioned this before but Yuzuru’s MC is my favourite version of the Masquerade Kiss MC. She’s great in this route too – cool, calm, great at her job. I also love that she likes Night at the Museum? Lmao me too girl. She has such trashy taste in movies and it’s a cute quirk that definitely makes her more relatable within the sensational premise of the game. Personality-wise, I think they did a good job at bridging the professional and personal aspects of her personality too, making her read like someone who has different personas that are different aspects of the same person. You definitely get a sense of the conflict within the MC when she has to extract information by using her sExUaLiTy when her boyfriend is watching on lol, even when they kind of make it out like a game. It is interesting and quite novel to see a Voltage MC successfully pull off a honey trap on a guy who kind of repulses her. We get snippets of it in other games such as Her Love in the Force but HLITF MC is always careful to keep boundaries so we never get to explore the full potential of the jealousy that can crop up in such situations. MK MC goes above and beyond to give us (and Yuzuru) a show. With that being said, I do feel like they kind of drew back from it a little by having Jeremy be super forward with his affection so the MC just has to respond, keep him on the hook and pull back every now and again, rather than actively needing to pursue someone to obtain information.

I also really enjoyed that moment when Yuzuru tells her to shower before going to his bed to wash off “Mia.” It solidifies that he’s really in love with her and not her charismatic, flirtatious hostess alias. Throughout the route, the blurring of the personal and the professional is definitely a theme that we see cropping up in the lives of both the MC and Yuzuru. It’s something that I find particularly interesting and I’m glad they picked this developmental direction since both Yuzuru and his MC are notoriously bad at mixing those two worlds, with both of them consistently and repeatedly picking work over love. We also get to see Yuruzu and his MC almost working together at times, which I adored. At times, they feel like a team. As always, they have tons of sexual and physical chemistry but they are slowly building up on the emotional chemistry and communication issues which is so crucial for character and relationship development.

The SHE and EE in particular has some incredibly cute moments. Yuzu’s MC describing them as part of a machine is *chefs kiss* incredible. Their sex scenes are intimate, loving and incredibly romantic. Yuzu preparing his NYC home for MC? Adorable. And, most importantly, him not only tolerating but welcoming his MC’s “bugs” in their relationship? That’s character growth babey.

With super long LC routes, I always get tired about 7 chapters in and give up and then have to come back and finish it later. However, this route sped along. The pacing of this route is pretty quick and snappy – in fact, I wouldn’t have minded if it was actually longer? Developments tend to happen pretty quickly, there are plenty of moments between Yuzuru and the MC that keep the story moving, and there’s basically very little, if any, ‘downtime’ in this route. Because they are constantly in the club or at Yuzuru’s place lol.

The writing/language quality is great. I felt genuinely tense every time Yuzuru and the MC almost got caught in the club and even more so when the MC went to Jeremy’s home. I couldn’t spot any significant typos or coding errors. The readability of this route is definitely top quality.

Moving onto my gripes with this route, I would say that they have to do mostly with flimsy plot, characters being reduced to plot devices, and lack of relationship conflict.

Firstly, something that I always find a bit off about the premise of EAC is how public their relationships sometimes are and how the MC’s private life even works. Yuzuru literally gets swarmed with people in the prologue asking for autographs and photos and yet later in the route can somehow go on a public date to busy tourist spots in central NYC with a spy? (That being said, I refuse to take that prologue as canon because of how sensationally ridiculous it is.) Let’s not pretend the EAC isn’t watching them lol (they even imply multiple times that this is the case). Is she not worried that Jeremy or Grace or any SHIBA or Space Crystal employees or any of the numerous powerful and dangerous people who frequent Freja will spot them together? There is no way she looks significantly different as Mia than as herself unless she’s wearing prosthetics or can turn off her star aura like Britney Spears can. Also, is the MC supposed to be mixed? No one has any questions about how a native Japanese woman can get away with being called Mia Knightley?

They also set up this tension of something happening to the MC without Yuzuru ever knowing which never really plays out. There’s a brief callback to it but it’s more about the MC finding an excuse to see Yuzu. I thought the drama would have more to do with the MC having to keep secrets from Yuzu and disappearing but that never happens and so the repeated mentions of this particular source of anxiety don’t really amount to anything. I also wish they made better use of the stun bracelet! I think it would have been cool if that was what took Jeremy out. Symbolically, it could have worked as a physical manifestation of Yuzu’s trust and support of his MC and her job helping to protect her against the Big Bad.

Okay so my main issue is about the villains and the flimsy plot. Jeremy and Grace were such wasted villains!! If this guy went crazy and murdered 3 people… how did he manage to not only reinvent himself but in fact become a very high profile tech executive with more or less the same name? Imagine if Elon Musk was actually a crazy murderer who used to be called Elon Avrevic… there’s no way that he would be able to bury this, especially if he came from nothing and had no connections during the time in his life when he committed these murders. If there are actual criminal reports about his crimes that can be accessed by the EAC and SHIBA, how did he not get taken in for life after murdering 3 people? Why is he even free in the world? It’s such a big plot hole to me… doesn’t have the same fingerprints? Did he get such extensive plastic surgery that he’s not recognisable and also burn off his fingerprints? Evidently not, since the MC can recognise both him and Grace from childhood photos!

I also didn’t think his motivations were really that convincing. We get a throwaway line about his alcoholic father killing his mother because she tried to leave him, but in general they set Jeremy up with so much potential as this psychopath who hunts a very specific type of woman but then they just kind of throw it away with him just going crazy and shooting people because he just wants “girls and money”. Nooo Jeremy they did you so dirty!!!

I just think they built him up as this incredibly dangerous and manipulative predator but then just made him a standard alcoholic incel. He could have been such a good villain. He could have maybe drawn the MC in with sob stories about his mother and actually made her doubt her instincts with his charisma and vulnerability, with it turning out that the whole time he was just luring her in, instead of just relentlessly hitting on her and then getting carelessly drunk and going crazy. He spends so much of the route attempting to play and get with the MC and then just throws it all away by getting pissed and letting her basically have free reign of his apartment? I just don’t buy that a co-founder of Space Crystal would get to the top without being more clever, suspicious and manipulative – especially since he murdered 3 women and still is somehow a free man, ‘disguised’ as a very successful CEO? Also, if he really just wanted girls and money, there were a thousand other ways of doing it. He could have been so clever and instead they just made him have occasional psychotic breaks with no discernible trigger. Disappointing.

(On a side note, they made his house look weirdly similar to Epstein’s manor. Or maybe all Upper East Side homes look like this, I have no idea. I did look around on Google Maps and I guess a lot of the homes in this area are kind of similar.)

Grace is also a wasted character. She kind of feels like a MacGuffin just to have this love quadrangle in order to play out the jealousy plot but ultimately plays no significant role. Actually, both Grace and Jeremy basically just act as jealousy plot devices, only the jealousy plot isn’t strong enough to actually threaten Yuzu and his MC’s relationship (except for one moment which to be honest doesn’t even play out like that because of jealousy and rather because Yuzu is trying to protect his girl).

Speaking of that moment, I thought that Yuzuru’s “push the MC away plan” could have been stronger. I feel like it’s not like him to do make such a basic attempt at fooling his MC. It might have worked in a different game but all of the MK guys usually know that they can’t trick their MC with cheap Harry and the Hendersons plots and they tend to not disrespect her enough to try. I know that as readers, we enjoy not knowing what the love interest is up to because it ups the tension and drama but I feel like there was a way of having that insecurity and conflict play out while keeping everything a mystery and making better use of the characters. Like maybe it could seem like Yuzuru is running into Grace’s arms after finding his MC in a compromising position with Jeremy when he’s actually doing his own covert investigations and making plans to foil their ultimate plans. Or maybe even working with Grace to take Jeremy’s wild country-bombing plans out. That way, we would prolong the jealousy/love quadrangle plot with the MC stressing about Yuzuru and Grace’s relationship, especially when she already doesn’t trust Grace. It would also make better use of Grace as a character and her position as both someone with a ginormous crush on Yuzuru and as Jeremy’s ‘partner’. If Grace also ended up betraying Jeremy to help Yuzuru and the MC, we could also have had some extra heartbreak about Grace having to betray the one person she has always had in her life (and maybe some extra backstory about Jeremy going nuts as part of having to protect himself and Grace from their parents and the world). #voltagehireme lol. I also find it highly unlikely that Jeremy managed to set up this whole missile-launching phone app business under Grace’s nose, especially when Yuzuru knew about it. Also, the idea of an American attempting to launch a missile to destroy the whole of Japan is a bit… on the nose lol.

The season isn’t really driven by relationship conflict even though they were pushing the whole jealousy line in the marketing. In the end, I don’t think the route is as much about jealousy as it is about trust – but then again, Yuzuru has always placed ultimate trust in his MC even in S1. I can see this being an issue for people who went into this route wanting genuine conflict in their relationship so that they can overcome and work through it to develop. There’s only a little bit of conflict towards the end when the MC goes to Jeremy’s home, and then that kind of gets discarded pretty quickly anyway. They just happen to be better at communication this season, and a lot of that is because of Yuzuru going out of his way to keep tabs on his MC. This is probably what makes the route so easy to read, because Yuzu is more open. However, because of this, while it is great that their communication as a couple improves, it may not necessarily feel that earned? With that said, credit to the writers for making Yuzu more open without making it feel jarring or like he’s had a sudden personality change.

And on another note entirely, I wish there was a bit more detail about the three “S”es and more involvement from Kazu and Kei, who basically just make gratuitous appearances in this route. Learning about them making Takoyaki together at Oxford is such a cute detail and also such an international student in the UK thing to do. Find me one Asian student studying abroad in the UK who hasn’t collectively cooked home food in halls with friends from their country (it’s always hotpot for me lol). I wish there were more moment with them actively involved in helping the MC.

Finally, I have my usual issues about the Love Choice system. If you play the route for free, you get very few cute scenes between Yuzu and his MC, miss out on some major character development moments (esp that planetarium scene) and you get a fade to black ending in the Normal End. Personally, I started playing Voltage in the early 2010s so I don’t mind fade to black endings, but I think the mature/sex scenes are what a lot of MK readers are here for, so it’s a shame that there isn’t even a kiss scene in the NE.

Overall, I would say that the chemistry between Yuzuru and his MC is what keeps this route going and flowing. I would recommend it if you just adore Yuzuru, want to maximise time with him and don’t really care much about plot. Otherwise, while their relationship is brought to new levels, it does not happen because of the plot as much as Yuzu’s response to events we don’t necessarily see, and it does not necessarily feel that earned because the plot doesn’t really put their relationship in that much jeopardy.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually really enjoyed reading this route – I found it super easy to keep reading, and Yuzu kept me hooked. I also love Yuzu more than ever. I think it’s a similar situation to Takane’s route, where the route made me love the love interest more, but has an average/flimsy plot. I imagine that his PoV will reveal more about those events that make him go out of his way to keep an eye on his MC, but as a standalone route, I wish there was more actual relationship conflict leading to more development.

#yuzuru shiba #masquerade kiss #mk #walkthrough #review #voltage #voltage inc #voltage otome #otome game #otome blog #otome romance #love 365 #love 365 find your story

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