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#it’s not a big deal though like I have other interests and also the ability to log off
moronkombat · 7 months
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HELLO.
I was just wondering if you could do some hcs of what the mk1 men's ideal types would be.
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Reiko is interested in a partner who is strong and capable. Someone who can handle themselves and continue to grow in personal and physical strength
He wants someone who knows their way around the battlefield and loyal to their personal goals
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Kenshi is attracted to his partner's wit and intelligence. He wants someone who he can have long and deep conversations with
Prefers someone who can be playful but not overly so. He needs a calming influence but not one so compliant. He is a man who carries a lot of weight so someone to take that weigh off with small jokes can make a big difference for him
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Syzoth is drawn towards someone who is patient, calm and understanding. Someone who can not just hear him but truly listen to him
He a man full of emotion so someone who tends to have a calmer demeanor helps soothe him when he becomes anxious. Of course, he also loves a partner who enjoys frequent physical contact
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Prefers someone wild and brazen. Someone who cannot be completely contained even though he so desperately wants to
Enjoys a partner that seeks thrills and chills. Don't worry though, he will mold his partner into the perfect chaos if they seem restrained
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Rain needs someone who acknowledges his ambitions and desires. A partner that encourages him and supports his efforts goes a long way for him
Though he does find himself seeking competition so, naturally, he seeks out a partner who can handle and enjoy these rivalries
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Shang Tsung is drawn to people who interest him. Someone that catches his eye because of their abilities, wit and/or appearance
Prefers a partner who can be clever but also softer than the average person. He will enjoy matching their wit while also taking comfort in their kindness
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Quan Chi appreciates loyalty and acknowledgment. He wants a partner to stay by his side while also seeing all the wonders he can do
Prefers someone who can handle themselves and not completely rely on him. Not to say he isn't a comforting partner, he is, but he values mental fortitude as well
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Tomas prefers someone he can have fun with. He wants to go out with his partner, take them places and have adventures with him
His partner needn't be shy nor outgoing, just someone who is open to his ideas and plans. Over everything, he needs someone who is unconditionally supportive but not blindly so
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Raiden enjoys a partner who values kindness and the treatment of others. He himself a very caring individual so he is drawn to those who show similar characteristics
Also enjoys someone with a sense of humor. Raiden wants to laugh with his partner, truly and loudly laugh to the silly things they talk about
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Kung Lao really likes when his partner can match his sass and swagger. He likes the little playful rivalry that he and his partner create
While he has fun with his partner's attitude, he does need a partner that knows when to humble him
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Bi-Han has an intense temper so a partner who is calm, collected and sweet really helps level him out. Someone who is kind yet witty to bring him down from those raging highs
He needs a partner who completes him and compliments him. Too be too brash around him will frustrate him and isolate him. A partner to love him completely and truly, to hold him and tell him it will be alright, means the world to him
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Johnny craves someone who loves to live life and live it fast. He is exceptionally extraverted and wants to go out and see the world with his partner
Someone who believes in his ambitions is a big deal for him. Johnny may appear exceptionally confident but he is deeply insecure. He needs a partner that can recognize that and provide him comfort
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General Shao prefers a partner who is smaller than he is. He wants to impress his partner and show them his prowess
It is not that he wants someone weak, Shao enjoys a partner that welcomes him when he returns from battle with excitement and pride. He wants to scoop his partner up and parade them on his shoulder as he marches through the city
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Geras is a simple man but incredibly busy and needs a partner who understands this. There will be much time spent apart from each other so he requires a partner with great patience
He prefers someone who is level-headed and logical, someone who can analyze a situation with him and offer a new perspective
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Liu Kang fancies someone who can be witty and playful just as he is. A partner who can make him smile and laugh will capture his heart quickly
He does not have preferences in terms of their physical strength but their mental fortitude. Not to say he will not comfort his partner, he will, but Liu Kang needs that comfort too.
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Kaui Liang has no preference for appearances. His desire in a partner is all related to who they are. He prefers a partner who shows kindness and restraint in moments of frustrations
Additionally, he wants a partner who is family oriented. Family is huge for him and so he seeks out a partner who also values the concept of family and loyalty to them
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Baraka needs a partner who is understanding of his worries and someone willing to listen to him. He's lost everything and someone to validate that will help soothe him
He is touch starved, desperately so. Baraka would love a partner who can touch him softly, unafraid of his deformed skin and bones
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too-much-tma-stuff · 2 months
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Finally Getting Help (prt 6)
Masterpost
The Wayne family gathered in the family room once Alfred was done setting up the projector, somehow there was also a plate of cookies and a couple pots of tea on the coffee table. How he’d found the time they didn’t know, he always seemed to be doing just a little more than should be possible but they didn’t question it. 
Jazz seemed nervous as she plugged in her USB and accessed the power point on Ghosts and Liminality. The tidal page had a picture of Danny in his Phantom form standing with a group of others, a boy with gray skin and blond hair, a girl with green hair and skin, and a goth with purple eyes and a dark skinned boy who looked around Danny’s age, and Jazz with the title “Ghosts and Liminals!” 
The next slide had simple text: “What are they and How are they made?”
With each slide she read the text on the screen allowed and then added any context or anecdotes she thought of, or had prepared. 
(Next slide)
Ghosts:
Made of ectoplasmic energy and obsession
Made either:
when someone dies with strong enough desires
An idea gains enough traction to take on a life of its own
Immutable concepts and gods
Must be allowed to indulge in obsessions or they will cease to exist
All have basic abilities such as flight, intangibility, invisibility, and minor shape shifting
On top of basic abilities most will have additional powers based on their obsessions
Immortal unless killed 
Love to fight
Liminals
Made when a human is exposed to high levels of ectoplasm for prolonged periods of time
Have some ghostly traits 
Ghostly traits vary person to person
Less susceptible to human illness and injury
“The ghosts on the picture are Kitty and Johnny, we’ve had problems with them but would consider them friends now. They’re the ghosts of two humans who died, but there are others, Vortext for instance is the ghost of Storms. Those ghosts who come from ideas are called ‘neverborns’. There seem to be almost an infinite number of ghosts, however not all of them are interested in having anything to do with us so we tend to get the same faces showing up a lot in Amity.
“I don’t know how many liminals there are. I thought they might be new with my parents' research but as I look into it more I think there are more natural sources of ectoplasm then my parents thought.” Jazz explained before going to transition to the next slide.
“I have a question-” Bruce started before Jazz hushed him. 
“Wait till the end please! I might answer it without you having to ask,” She scolded, and he felt very much like a schoolboy again as his children snickered.
(Next slide including a image of the glowing green viles in the Fenton’s lab and a glowing green crystal)
Ghost biology 
Ghosts do not have any recognizable organs or bones
The only solid part of their being is their Core which is the source of their ectoplasm 
Any injury to a ghosts form not done directly to their core is considered minor and will heal
A healthy ghost is fully capable of mending any damage including removed limbs in a matter of hours or days depending on extent of the injury
All injuries not including the Core are considered minor 
Ghosts are considered young for at least the first hundred years of their existence and are often not considered adults until nearly 500
A caveat to this is ghosts are heavily driven by emotion and will often be the age they feel they are allowing ghosts to mature much more quickly, or more slowly
When this is the case ghosts are treated as the age they present and behave
Ghosts reproduce by shaping ectoplasm and Wanting a child badly enough
“Believe me it was incredibly scary the first time I saw Danny in his ghost form have something go right through his stomach. It took him a long time to convince me it wasn’t a big deal and it barely hurt. He does have to make sure he repairs the damage Before turning human again though or the damage can transfer over and I don’t need to tell you a hole in the gut is a lot more serious for humans!
“If I’m honest I only know ghosts that have stayed younger then they really are, for instance Youngblood who’s a few hundred years old and could be well on his way to adulthood if he wanted but has remained a child. I assume it can go the other way though, if a ghost is very mature for their age.”
Ectoplasm 
Ectoplasm is the energy that makes up all ghosts and the Ghost Zone itself. All ghosts can feed on the ectoplasm around them as well as produce their own by indulging in obsessions. The ghosts Cores produce the ectoplasm like a brain produces neurochemicals when exposed to the right stimulation.
Ectoplasm is a powerful source of energy but unstable. When it is stabilized into an ecto-crystal it is more stable and can be used as a power source safely by ghosts and liminals.
“Most ectoplasm is green like you see in the pictures. But it isn’t the only colour, some other ghosts produce different colours and it is highly tied to what emotion drives them. When it’s pure it usually smells like petracore but it can get pretty foul.”
(next slide)
What are Obsessions
Every ghost has one or more obsessions
They can be very literal things such as boxes, or ideas and emotions such as Love
In rarer cases they may have dual obsessions
Unlike for humans obsessions are very healthy for ghosts
Ghosts need to indulge their obsessions
Sometimes the way ghosts indulge their obsessions might seem evil, however it is almost always just amoral 
Obsessions shape every part of a ghost from their powers to thier physical appearance, to befriend a ghost you Must understand and aid their obsession
In very extreme circumstances a ghosts obsession may shift, sometimes this is healthy, more often it is a result of extreme trauma
“With my interest in psychology this was sort of hard for me to accept. From the outside the way ghosts obsess seems really unhealthy but it’s what gives them life. When not allowed to indulge in their obsessions ghosts will dysregulate and go to extreme lengths to try and get their obsession, if that doesn’t work they either go dormant if their core is still healthy enough or they will melt. 
“Ghosts change their obsessions very rarely, I’ve heard of it happening as they heal. For instance once a ghost has gotten revenge for themselves, if that was their obsession, their obsession might shift to avenging other people, or even protecting them so they don’t need to be avenged.”
(Next Slide)
Ghost Culture
The Ghosts have a monarchy
The title of the Ghost King is not hereditary but passed through trial by combat
Under the monarch is a council of being known as Observants, and powerful and old ghosts called Ancients 
Ghosts respect strength and value power and cunning in combat a lot
Ghosts bond with each other through combat and play fight with family and friends often
“I have down that the ghosts are a monarchy, and technically that is true but the current Ghost King was a tyrant who was locked away thousands of years ago. I’m sure as soon as someone shows up who’s powerful enough to beat him his court will be happy to pick up where they left off with a better King, or queen, though I don’t think the title has to change based on gender.
“I really can’t stress enough how violent ghosts are! Because nothing short of having their cores shattered can kill them, play fighting for them can look Very Much like a murder attempt to a human. A lot of the issues we’ve had with ghosts have come from them just not understanding quite how fragile humans, and for most of them they feel really bad once they know they actually Hurt someone by shooting them. It’s really best for everyone when they’re kept separate and Ghosts can happily tear each other apart in peace.”
Liminals
The result of long term low level exposure to ectoplasm, sudden high doses are almost always deadly
Liminals Can have almost every trait a ghost can, usually having a combination of a few
Commonalities between liminals include
Minor cosmetic changes such as: glowing eyes, pointed ears, and/or sharp teeth 
Increased stamina, strength, and aggression
Increased obsessive behaviour
Liminals sometimes develop powers shaped by the strength and type of obsession 
“Most of the people Danny and I know are liminals. I don’t want to talk about them in case they don’t want to be outed so I’ll talk about myself and my parents. We all had prolonged exposure after all. My ears are pointed,” She said brushing her hair back so they could see them, “And Danny is a little more then liminal but even in human form he has fangs. 
“My parents didn’t realize it but they could to the point they could subsist on their obsession without needing to eat or sleep as often as a regular human would. About a year ago I started developing the ability to tap into and feel other peoples emotions, I can feed on them a little too but I try not to because the Worst ghost we met did that and I don’t want to be anything like her.”
(Next Slide)
In conclusion
Ghosts are not evil even though sometimes their actions are hard to understand
Never get between ghosts when they’re fighting each other but it’s usually safe to yell at them to remind them not to break anything
Never get between a ghost and their obsession
Don’t drink ectoplasm unless you know you’re already liminal
“I have a feeling the section about liminals will be familiar to a bunch of you. I know Damian is liminal though I don’t know how he was exposed to ectoplasm and some of you,” Her eyes skirted across Tim and Bruce. “Are toeing the line. You’ll probably notice Damian and Danny getting really close, and they might get in some really vicious looking fights. I promise Danny is playing at least.”
The family was left silent for a moment, Bruce knew he was thinking about Jason. Who had died, been exposed to.. What certainly seemed to be something like Lazarus water and come back, obsessive, aggressive, and emotional. He wished he’d had this powerpoint a long time ago. It helped understand Damian too but mostly he was thinking about Jason. He needed to reach out again, maybe meeting Danny would be good for Jason?
“So uhhh, ya, that’s the end of the powerpoint?” Jazz said, shifting from foot to foot in the awkward silence. “Any questions?”
Next
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cy-cyborg · 2 months
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We have communities - Writing disability quick tips
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So often, stories centred on disabled characters, especially in modern settings, emphasise how lonely or isolated the character is because of their disability, especially if it’s a newly acquired disability or one that non-disabled people assume would have a big impact on our ability to do “fun stuff”. This will often be accompanied by statements of “no-one understands what living with [insert disability here]” is like!
And while isolation and loneliness are things a lot of disabled people deal with, a lot of us are not completely alone either, especially in the modern day.
Just like any group of people with shared experiences, we find one another. Sometimes this is through formal systems; some spinal rehabilitation centres for example, will pair newly paralysed people up with a mentor who’s had a similar form of paralysis for much longer to help guide the person while the adjust to their new disability. Other more formal systems can look like disability sporting organisations - the one I used to work for used to specifically encourage very newly disabled people to join so they didn’t feel like the had to learn everything about their disability alone, or support groups.
Other times though, these communities are much less formal. They may look like online forums, such as the ones on Reddit, built by and for disabled people to talk about their experiences and seek recommendations from others in the same boat, or parts of larger social media sites. For example, on Tumblr, there aren’t really any formal groups, but thanks to the hashtags we use in our posts, we often find one another fairly quickly there. We sometimes also carve out our own little subsections of fandom or hobby spaces, brought together by the shared interest itself, how things like disability might impact the way you interpret or interact with it, and how we can modify it (in the case of hobbies) to make it work for us.
A lot of disability communities, formal or otherwise, also form out of necessity, such as advocacy groups run by and for disabled people, and those built around ensuring the rights of disabled people are protected.
Isolation and loneliness are problems within the disabled community that many of us deal with, but this tends to be more in the context of isolation from the wider public, exclusion from public spaces and events (despite there being laws that are supposed to stop this because they’re often not enforced), disconnect from non-disabled friends and family, etc, most of which are the result of systematic issues or the lack of understanding or care and support from non-disabled people in our lives. Not always, but often.
The communities made by and for disabled people though are often (at least in part) made to help make up for this, and they’re more common than you might think, you just have to know where to look. It would be nice to see more creators reflecting this in their work a bit more often, or at least acknowledging that they are there, even if your character chooses not to engage with them.
However, as a reminder to authors and creatives: These communities, especially the online ones, are for disabled people, they are not there for you to use as a reference as a creator. Some communities are ok with you being there to learn, so long as you listen and don’t try to speak over/bombard their members with questions. Others are not. The ones that are, typically will have something written somewhere if it’s online (e.g. subreddits that accept writers wanting to write disabled characters will often have it written in the “about” section or the rules). There are also dedicated groups and platforms for non-disabled people seeking to learn more about us and our communities, which can be excellent resources for creatives like writers. Just remember to be mindful of where you are and respectful of people’s spaces and boundaries when doing your research.
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rubysunnday · 1 year
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wanting was enough
requested by @omgbrcat: If you're willing to write for Nikolai, I'm ready to read.
a/n: they asked for fluffy... this is not fluffy like at all and for that i am sorry (i promise to write nik fluff to make up for it) ty ryn for your help
summary: Y/N has loved Nikolai since the day she met him. But now, as the blood begins to run, she has to come to terms with the fact that he'll never be hers.
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The room was filled with people she knew, yet Y/N had never felt more alone or more broken.
Nikolai and Alina were engaged and Y/N found herself grieving for something she'd never had. It was an odd thing to feel a part of a group whilst also feeling a million miles away from everyone and everything.
She'd loved Nikolai since the day they'd met in the middle of Kerch, surrounded by people who wanted them dead. From there, friendship had been easy and when she'd sheepishly revealed her Grisha abilities to him - he'd enlisted Tamar and Tolya to teach her how to use them and control them.
Yet, despite the practice, her heartrender talents were still weak and, in Y/N's mind, pathetic. She understood that years of neglect and no practice would do that to someone, but it didn't help. Her confidence was non-existent and when she was surrounded by far more talented Grisha and a living Saint such as Alina, Y/N felt tiny.
Seeing Nikolai and Alina holding hands stung more than it should have. She was used to Nikolai being affectionate with people - affection was how he showed his love. But this was different. Y/N had hardly seen him since they'd gotten back to the palace and something had clearly changed between them.
Either that or it was all in Y/N's mind. She was spending a lot of time inside her head at the minute, doubting herself, doubting her abilities and her place in Nikolai's crew.
She could hear Nikolai's heartbeat from across the room - it's sound familiar and comforting to her in a way it shouldn't have been. Not anymore.
He wasn't hers and never could be hers.
She wasn't sure when friendship had turned to wanting and longing but it had. And she was trying her best to deal with it. To accept that he would never be hers.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
Y/N turned and tried not to look startled at Nikolai's sudden appearance by her side. She hadn't even registered him walking over to her. Nikolai grinned crookedly at her and Y/N felt her heart swoop and glide like a bird in the breeze.
"Just wondering what your mother's definition of a big party is when this is a small one," Y/N replied, picking up a glass from a nearby tray and drinking its contents in one swoop.
Nikolai laughed, readjusting his weight from one foot to the other, his right shoulder brushing against Y/N's left. "She likes a party, what can I say. Anything under sixty people and it's intimate."
"I don't even know sixty people," Y/N replied. "I don't think I even know ten."
"It's never about the quantity of friends, it's about the quality," Nikolai replied. "A small, close friend group is better than a distant large one." He nudged her arm with his elbow. "I considered you one of my close friends."
Y/N forced herself to grin at him and tried to ignore how much the words stung at her heart. "Oh," she pointed over at Vasily as he stood up on the dais next to his father, "I think your brother is about to make a speech. You should probably go stand next to your mother and pretend to be interested."
Getting Nikolai to laugh was easy for Y/N, but even though she'd done it many times before, the sound still sent fire coursing through her veins. It wasn't the guarded laugh of a privateer. Or the forced laughter of a prince. It was just Nikolai's laugh.
"I'll be back," he warned, pointing a finger at her. "We need to discuss what you mean by pretending - I always find my brother fascinating."
"Of course you do." Y/N nodded. "I believe that, one hundred percent."
She watched as Nikolai disappeared into the crowd, appearing at his mother's side, ever the doting son. Y/N was impressed with herself that she'd managed to avoid bringing up the engagement. She hadn't had a chance to even mention it to Nikolai - it didn't seem appropriate. But she needed to know if it was genuine or just for show. She need to know for her own mind. How else would she ever be able to move on and accept she was stuck wanting for forever.
Vasily's speech started and Y/N zoned out entirely. He was a weasel of a human and represented everything wrong with Ravka in so many ways. He never had anything interesting or important to say.
It was only because she wasn't listening to Vasily that Y/N noticed the room gradually getting darker. The sun seemingly disappearing and then reappearing only to disappear once again.
She tilted her head back and, as she did so, two shapeless shadows smashed through the glass of the skylight, slamming into the ground and taking two of the first army guards out with them. One of the shadows grabbed Vasily and, in a blink of an eye, ripped him apart.
The screaming started instantly. Y/N's eyes focused on the shadows and she realised with cold horror that they were Kirigan's Nichevo'ya. At once, she began looking for Alina, who was safely on the other side of the room with Tamar and Adrik.
The Nichevo'ya shot towards her and Y/N dodged out the way, turning and running away - because what else could she do? They had no heartbeats and, even if they did, she wouldn't be able to take them down. She wasn't strong enough.
"Y/N!"
Nikolai snatched her hand and pulled her to his side as a table flew across the room, a body following in its path. Y/N gripped Nikolai's jacket for a moment before she let go and forced herself to take a step back, to create space between them.
"Down to the tunnels!" Nikolai yelled, raising his voice to be heard over the screaming. He began to move backwards, his hand still on Y/N's arm. "Regroup there!"
As Adrik and Nadia distracted the Nichevo'ya as best they could, the small party that had gathered behind Nikolai began to follow their now king and had down to the tunnels beneath the palace.
Y/N brought up the rear of the group, keeping one eye over her shoulder incase the Nichevo'ya decided to follow after them. But they seemed content to feast on those left behind in the ballroom.
She was so focused on making sure the Nichevo'ya weren't following, that Y/N didn't even notice cracks in the walls beginning to form and then splinter up and around.
Only when she saw the first piece of wall fall did she even realise what was happening. She turned around and there was no one behind her - they'd all made it through to the tunnels, including Nikolai, leaving her alone out in the corridor.
For a moment, she wondered if anyone would miss her if she disappeared.
Another piece of wall fell and, as it did, a Nichevo'ya began to appear from around a corner, it's shape constantly changing as the shadows withered and curled.
Y/N brought her hands together, searching for a heartbeat to control, but there was none. Of course there wasn't. They were made of nothing.
The cracks had reached the ceiling and more rubble fell down, smashing against the floor all around her. A particularly large piece fell away and Y/N threw herself back, barely avoiding its impact as she scrabbled across the tiled floor, trying to get to the tunnel entrance.
Her body wasn't cooperating, fear of the Nichevo'ya striking through her and rendering her almost useless. She tried not to look up at the skull like face forming in the shadows, but it was impossible to look away as it loomed over her. Almost as if she'd been hypnotised by them.
"Y/N!"
Hands came around her waist and they yanked her up and onto her feet. The roof was falling down around them now, large chunks of stone smashing into pieces on the tiles, the small bits flying back up into the air. Y/N felt something whizz past her cheek, leaving a stinging line behind.
Everything was a blur. As the rest of the ceiling came away, the Nichevo'ya launched forward, its tendrils snaking towards Y/N. They sliced down her arm and, as they made contact, Y/N brought her left hand to her right and felt something within the mass of black.
Focusing on that and that alone, Y/N forced it to slow down, to stop. Sensing danger, the tendrils came away, retreating back into the shadows. As they did, the ceiling gave way. Whoever had grabbed her from behind pushed her into the tunnels and then darkness obscured her vision.
"Y/N, look at me."
Hands rested on both her cheeks. A thumb stroked up and down her cheek bone. As her eyes began to adjust to the dark light of the tunnels, and the panic and fear began to fade, Nikolai came into view, his eyes full of concern.
"You good?" He asked softly, his eyes darting to her arm for a moment before coming back to her face.
"Sorry," Y/N said, blinking furiously. "I froze. I didn't mean to, I should've -"
"Hey, there's plenty of things we all should have done," Nikolai said gently, his thumb pressing lightly against her skin as he moved it up and down. "The Nichevo'ya do weird things to people. But we're safe, we made it into the tunnels."
Nikolai's words did little to reassure her. Instead, they made Y/N panic even more. She moved back from him and got to her feet, leaving Nikolai crouched in front of an empty space.
"You need to go see what's going on," Y/N said, putting more distance between them. "You are the king now."
A hundred different emotions filtered across Nikolai's face. His eyes seemed to grow slightly harder and his back straightened. As he went to speak, a guard appeared at his side and began to lead him away and down into the tunnels, leaving Y/N alone once more.
Y/N took a deep breath in and swore softly as she felt her arm burning and stinging for the first time. She looked down and saw a gash running from her shoulder down to her elbow.
Y/N winced as she tentatively pulled back the fabric from her arm, trying to see it better. The edges were bright red and blood was running down and to her wrist, dripping off her fingers.
She didn't feel fine but, for now, she pushed her pain and exhaustion aside, pushing herself off the wall she'd come to lean on.
The tunnels were organised chaos. Bodies lay against the walls, covered with blankets, flags, sacks - whatever people could find. Y/N walked, rather stumbled, down them, searching for her friends, hoping they were still alive and in one piece.
It wasn't long before she found them. Adrik was groaning in pain, swearing as quietly as he could as David examined his arm, his hands gently pulling away the shredded fabric from the gaping wounds on his arm and hand.
Y/N picked up her pace and rushed over to them, kneeling down beside David. "What happened?"
"Fucking Nichevo'ya," Adrik panted. He groaned, closing his eyes tightly as David pressed on the skin around the wound.
"Y/N," Nadia said, her arms around her brother, "can you do anything?"
"I'm not a healer," Y/N warned, her hand gently replacing David's as she took Adrik's arm.
"I don't care," Adrik said, groaning. "Just do something."
Y/N nodded. She took a deep breath in, trying to ignore the throbbing in her own arm. Her hands shook slightly.
David put a hand on her uninjured shoulder and squeezed it gently. "You can do it," he said quietly.
Y/N focused on Adrik's arm, on the skin and the blood thrumming through his veins and spilling out onto the floor. She could feel her energy seeping out through her body as she worked on Adrik's arm, trying to slow the bleeding and heal what she could.
As she did, she felt the pain in her arm gradually growing. It was hard to tell if the room was tilted or if she herself was tilting.
"Y/N," Tamar said softly. Y/N wasn't sure when she'd appeared. "Your arm."
"It's fine," Y/N said. She took a deep breath in as the pain got worse, her arm throbbing and burning.
Then, suddenly, it wasn't fine. Y/N felt the all to familiar feeling of nausea building up in her throat, her heart beat increased as her body ran out of energy.
Y/N swayed and she fell sideways and into David, the Durast doing his best to catch her.
Tamar was instantly at her side, her hand gripping Y/N's tightly. She pressed her fingers to her pulse point and Y/N felt the all too familiar feeling of someone else controlling her heartbeat.
"Adrik," Y/N muttered, slumping further back into David's chest, his arms wrapping around her.
"Nadia's got him," Tamar said, reaching her spare hand out to stroke Y/N's cheek. "You should've said something. Your arm is not fine."
Y/N closed her eyes, feeling the tears burning. She didn't know if they were from the pain or because of how useless she felt. "I'm fine," Y/N said, trying to sit up.
Both David and Tamar pushed her back down - neither one having to use much force at all.
"Nikolai!"
Y/N felt panic rise within her as Tamar summoned the now king over to them. Tamar glanced down at her, her eyebrows raised slightly, and Y/N realised her heart had also sped up.
Fucking heartrenders.
"What's wrong?" Nikolai asked, walking over to them.
He didn't see Y/N until he moved around David and saw her lying against him, blood pooling on the floor from the wound on her arm, Tamar's hand still on her wrist.
"Y/N, saints," Nikolai said, instantly dropping to his knees beside her.
Y/N vaguely realised that he'd shed his blazer and rolled his shirt sleeves up. His hands hovered over her arm, shaking every so slightly.
"She's losing too much blood," Tamar said quietly, trying her best to not alarm Y/N, who was gradually getting paler.
Nikolai nodded. "There's a healer down the tunnel with the courtiers."
Tamar, sensing Nikolai's hesitation, let go of Y/N's hand and stood up. "I'll go get them. See if you can find a bed or somewhere to lay her down."
Y/N didn't realise Nikolai had moved closer to her and slipped his arms around her back and under her legs until he lifted her up into his arms, adjusting his shoulder so that her head came to rest against it.
"David, stay with Adrik and Nadia," Nikolai said, taking a step back. "Tamar will be back soon."
Y/N was in too much pain to even try to fight Nikolai as he carried her through the tunnels. Through her half closed eyes, she could see the stares coming their way - the judgement and disgust all aimed at her.
But she didn't care. Because Nikolai was holding her close and, for a moment, she felt as if everything was ok. Nikolai was hers and only hers.
Everything faded away, leaving her floating around, relishing each touch, each way Nikolai's bare arms brushed against her.
"Y/N!"
She jumped slightly, her eyes slowly opening, taking their time to focus. Nikolai was knelt beside her, his hands cradling hers. Y/N realised that he was no longer carrying her and that she was lying down in a quieter part of the tunnels.
As her eyes focused, she noticed that Nikolai's eyes were red, his skin starting to go blotchy. Y/N moved her head slightly and saw Tamar kneeling behind her, one hand on her chest, the other on Nikolai's arm.
"Your heart stopped," Nikolai said quietly, when he noticed her confused gaze. "You went still and I..." Nikolai's voice cracked and he trailed off.
Tamar squeezed his arm as she stood up, leaving the two alone. The healer, who Y/N had only just noticed, also gave them some privacy, moving on to his next patient. Y/N glanced down at her arm and saw that it had stopped bleeding, the edges of the wound closer than they had been.
"I'm sorry," Y/N whispered, not sure what to say to Nikolai.
Nikolai raised his head, his eyes shining with tears. "Whatever for?"
Y/N didn't know. "I -"
"This is not your fault," Nikolai said, somehow moving closer. "None of this is."
One hand let go of hers, moving up to the side of her head. He began to brush back her hair with the pad of his thumb, the movement repetitive and calming enough it almost sent Y/N to sleep.
"Is Adrik ok?" Y/N asked, the memory of his ruined arm coming back at her with force.
Nikolai hesitated for a second. "He lost the arm," he said gently. "But he's alive, because of you."
"I could've done more," Y/N protested, tears leaking out the corners of her eyes. "If I'd been stronger or better -"
"The outcome would not have changed," Nikolai insisted, his thumb wiping away her tears. "Even the healer couldn't do anything more. What you did do, saved his life, Y/N."
Y/N nodded once, more tears spilling onto her cheeks. "Is this not improper?" She asked as Nikolai reached over to her other cheek, wiping the tears away again.
"What?" He asked, staring at her in disbelief.
"You're engaged," she said, her voice breaking on the last word as a sob broke through.
It took a second but understanding dawned on Nikolai's face and he let out a heavy breath, tinged with sadness.
"Oh, Y/N," he whispered. "You could've -"
"I couldn't, Nik," she said hoarsely. "I had to presume that it was just me - you had your eyes set on every other woman about and I -"
"No, stop that right now," Nikolai said, leaning close. "I... I have loved you since the moment I met you. I just assumed you loved Sturmhond, not Nikolai."
"I love you," Y/N said, her voice strong. "I love whoever you chose to be. Whether it's prince or pirate -"
"Privateer."
" - king or pauper," Y/N finished, her voice quiet as whatever energy had come disappeared. "I love whoever you chose to be. I just love you, Nikolai."
Nikolai nodded, tears running down his cheeks. He leant forward, resting his head against Y/N's chest and her fingers began to running through his hair and down to the nape of his neck.
She knew he was listening to her heart beating. She was doing exactly the same. The sound familiar and comforting for all the right reasons.
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llamagoddessofficial · 5 months
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So, I wanted to know a little about how you see soulmates? I honestly want to see your take when it deals with HMF Sans in particular while it deals with a particular Soulmates AU. Usually, whenever I write Soulmates AU... to add DRAMA to the setting, I'd like to the soulmates the ability to feel the other's pain.
I want to know how'd HMF would think during the incident that caused his head to cave in while dealing with a universe akin to how I would write a soulmates AU. Would that change anything about what happens?
This is a very good question!
I like to write Soulmates as a resonation between Souls. It may be two Souls who are extremely similar to one another, so similar they hum the same tune. It may be two Souls that are different in the perfect way, singing like a harmony. In physical terms it's a mutual feeling of comfort and ease that you just can't explain. It can be platonic or romantic; Soulmates may be couples, but they may also be best friends.
Monsters place a lot of cultural importance on Soulmates, because their Soul constitutes so much of their being. Monster Soulmates feel the attraction a lot stronger than humans do. For Monsters it's super obvious, and for humans, it's a gut feeling.
Though definitely a good start to a relationship, being Soulmates doesn't guarantee a perfect happy ending! Relationships are still relationships, that require work and love and patience. Soulmates are still individual people. They can fall out with one another, if either party won't put in the leg work.
-
A personal note on this; I know some people make Soulmates a super big deal in their writing, the mega crux of relationships, if you're Soulmates you're guaranteed to be in love forever. And that's totally fine! I just don't really gel with that idea. Like... what about the rest of me? What about my personality, my hobbies interests, my wants? I'm more than an arbitrary magical link with someone. When I read 'we're Soulmates therefore I love you' I start to think stuff like "Would this person not love me otherwise? Would they even LIKE me if we didn't have this magical link? Do they actually care about me, or do they just start caring because they think they need to?" I feel that I wouldn't want to be with someone who only suddenly starts liking me because magic told them to.
In most of my stories, I don't make Soulmates a big thing. In a lot of them my characters aren't even Soulmates at all. It's why I like @recklesslycaffeinated's spin (in Six Ex-cell-ent skeletons) so much; the skeletons are her Soulmates but they love her for reasons outside of the Soul stuff. Sans even makes it clear to the Mc in the sequel that being Soulmates doesn't guarantee a relationship at all, it just guarantees some kind of connection, and being Soulmates with her is just a bonus that makes him feel comfortable. I love that take.
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caligvlasaqvarivm · 16 days
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ik you mentioned interest in writing out how you'd prefer homestuck ended (though obviously time and money makes that impossible lol), and you touched on it in your big eridan essay at the end, but would you ever consider maybe a more detailed outline? i really enjoy your thoughts on the characters and the abandoned plotlines, i'd love to get a little more of an in depth look at how you wish it went down.
Yeah sure!
For those who aren't sure what the hell I'm talking 'bout, please check out my blog and the various essays I've been writing.
Some of it is contingent on stuff I kind of still need to reread so I'm really sorry to the alpha kid likers but I'm still not totally 100% sure where I want to take them. I'm also going to include quite a few personal preference ships; I'm not interested in arguing what other people should ship or about arguing about the course of action for my dumb fanfic in general. I also tend to discover the plot I want while I'm writing it, which I don't have the luxury of here, so... some of it is going to be kind of sloppy. I'm also a big troll stan so unfortunately the kids are a little bit neglected (sorry!!!!). That said.
So the changes would take place directly after GAME OVER, which is personally the point at which I think the truncation/turning on the fanbase really starts - ships start to get turbo-sped at that point. I'm not even saying I dislike JohnRoxy or JohnRezi, but they just feel oddly rushed the way they're handled in the comic itself. IMO, anyway.
There's not too much I would rearrange during this interstitial segment; I think it's important for Jade to have the experience of loneliness, for Terezi to kick off the retcons by only feeling comfortable fixing her own mistakes. Moreover, there's no reason why other characters can't use her mind beacon abilities to ask John to rearrange the timeline, though their attempts, because they aren't backed by Seer of Mind abilities, are a lot sloppier and come with a lot more unforseen consequences.
But something I would change is that Roxy's deal with Nyx is not to just kind of... sit back and chill in non-space while John does all the work; instead, like Rose in Davesprite's timeline, Nyx puts her to sleep, and when the timeline ceases to be, GameOver!Roxy's memories get transferred to Past!Roxy via her dreamself (which wakes up early), fulfilling a "stealing from void for others" aspect of her abilities, and leads to some important interactions later on down the line.
Also, this timeline's ARquiussprite and Gamzee's corpse (heretofore referred to as (ARquiussprite) and (Gamzee)) need to come along for the ride somehow. Maybe they fall through the sky after LOLAR crashes into LOFAF.
This kicks off a series of retcons, as each troll that gets brought back successively asks for another troll/set of trolls to be brought back. This absolutely RIDDLES Act 5 with password pages, can't go two steps without running into a password page, there are password pages within password pages (which IMO is very funny and very Homestuck).
Meanwhile, a couple other plots are running concurrently - the GameOver!crew (heretofore referred to as (Name)) are now in the dream bubbles, completing their character arcs and preparing to defeat LE. Because time and space are weird in the Furthest Ring, every successive meteor trip that occurs as a result of John's retcons is the first time from the point of view of the meteor, but is a repeating event from the point of view of the people in the bubbles - eg those dead god tier Eridan and Feferi wind up healing the Mayor like seven times from their perspective.
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(Aradia) is fluttering her ASS off to make sure everyone is in the right "place" at the right "time" for this, lmfao.
Roxy gaining future memories also means that the Alpha kids get to complete their arcs in a way they weren't able to prior to Game Over. Because what John's retcons are doing are functionally whiting out and redrawing the past, the Alpha kids are also only seeing a single linear timeline.
One last arc, which is running concurrent to the retconned!trolls and their new meteor trips, is that bringing back each successive character allows them ALL to grow a little more. So it is NOT like they bring back Vriska, and now everyone's problem are fixed and everything is fine; Vriska's still kind of awful, but she gets better after Tavros gets brought back and they have to character develop alongside each other, and same when Aradia and Sollux get brought back, so on and so on. Because it's about BEING FRIENDS and BEING A TEAM. They're all still having interpersonal problems right up until ALL of them get brought back.
But as a side effect of this and the questing done by the GameOver!crew, the Dancestors get more fully utilized as foils, and get their problems addressed. As the retcon!team goes through their character development, they start to tear the Dancestors apart, because the Dancestors represent shitty parents who force their kids to clean up after their messes, and refuting them works both literally and symbolically as rejecting their irresponsible way of being in lieu of responsibility, accountability, empathy, and compassion.
So here's the series of retcons, and the absolute bullshit that accompanies each decision:
Terezi asks John to save Vriska, and prevent herself from getting too spades with Gamzee, as these are her two greatest regrets.
Pretty much just what her canon iteration asked for; I don't see any problems with the actions she asks John to do for her.
HOWEVER, we'd get more than just a montage of Vriska's time on the meteor, because in this version of events, we're taking our time and letting plot points breathe. Neither does she magically fix everything just by being around when she's very much herself still going thru it by the time the Meteor trip pops off. In any case, she brings with her some new complications:
Karkat still winds up having to play moirail and keep Gamzee calm. This still ends up breaking down by the halfway point of the comic, because they're kind of just not good for each other, but Karkat's personal shitty relationships are going to become A Theme, so it's important to make note of it here.
Vriska and Terezi don't fully make up on this iteration of the trip, since from Terezi's point of view, she was still actively about to kill Vriska before John intervened; however, we get more hints, now that they have to spend three years together, that not only does Vriska really miss Terezi (which is pretty well-established, given how she can't seem to leave Terezi alone), but Terezi actually misses Vriska, too - she's just really bad at separating her own feelings and desires from her instinctive grasp of karma and justice, a very Mind player-type problem to have.
At least with Vriska around, Terezi's able to nip her Gamzee habit in the bud, but this kind of leads to Gamzee feeling worse and more alone.
Something Really Messy happens between Vriska, Rose, and Kanaya when Rose starts her drinking habit, and it's pretty toxic for all involved, and Karkat is kind of stuck playing auspice. Vriska already expresses not liking Rose much and develops some flushed feelings for Kanaya after being watching her murder Eridan, so "It's Really Messy" is kind of all I can say on the matter. The girls are fightiiinnnnggggg
Dave and Terezi get close again, but given the weirdo vibes he notices between her and Vriska, and the fact that he's really not down with quadrants (YET.), means they still end up not getting together.
Sorry DaveKat likers but I am not one. They do not ever get together, so if you are hoping for that, I am sorry and you don't have to keep reading if you don't want to, it's OK.
On a note about Vriska and Terezi - personally, I do think their moirallegiance is endgame; Vriska clearly misses her terribly, constantly trying to bug her into making the Scourge Sisters a Thing again, and she even expresses feeling really bad about the Team Charge Debacle to Terezi explicitly, before directly foreshadowing how awful Terezi will feel after killing Vriska:
AG: Cause even though you got all these highfalutin morals and fancy reserv8tions, you know as well as me that a killer is a killer is a killer! AG: There 8n't no ch8nging your ways for good, and one d8y you're going to flail that silly l8ttle cane of yours and not find n8thin to 8ump into, and fall f8ce first into the shit ag8in. AG: And you're going to do something t8rri8le to some8ody and wish you could t8ke it 8ack 8ut you c8n't!!!!!!!! AG: And then you'll work hard to win 8ack their trust, and you'll try and try and tr8, and you'll see how hard it is! AG: You'll seeeeeeee!
We know that she starts using 8's where they don't make sense phonetically when she gets really agitated, so it's pretty safe to say that she's displaying genuine emotional distress here. When combined with the way she tells John about feeling absolutely horri8le about killing Tavros, it's pretty clear she's genuine about feeling really bad about the Team Charge debacle, and sincere about wanting to somehow make amends and get back into Terezi's good graces, at times trying rivalry, at times trying to prove that she's trying to fix her mistakes.
Terezi also vehemently denies them having a kismesistude and directly mirrors Vriska's hesitance about all the murder:
GC: W3 4R3 SUPPOS3D TO R3V3L 1N BLOODSH3D 4S W3 GROW UP GC: 4ND SH3 S33MS TO B3 3MBR4C1NG H3R R1T3 OF P4SS4G3 W1TH R3CKL3SS 4B4NDON, 4S 1 WOULD 3XP3CT GC: GR4BB1NG TH3 BULL BY TH3 HORNS, SO TO SP34K GC: 1TS 4 L1TTL3 1NT1M1D4T1NG GC: B3C4US3 1M NOT SUR3 1F 1M R34DY FOR TH4T
AG: On my world, I would 8e completely vindic8ed for killing him! He is far lower on the hemospectrum than me. He managed to disrespect me time and time again, 8ut I kept letting him live! In fact, the amount of slack I cut him would 8e considered scandalous 8y those in my class. AG: I had every reason to kill him. And yet... AG: I feel 8ad a8out it like a lame weak fudge8lood, just like he was. AG: And the fact that I feel 8ad is why I'm sort of freaking out right now!
They're basically two toxic girls who CANNOT be honest with their real feelings, and wind up hurting each other. They need therapy badly, but given the fact that they also mirror each other positively - Terezi feels grateful to Vriska for blinding her, and Vriska mentions she ought to thank Terezi for killing her, which set her up on a date with the dead John Terezi also killed - I think they have a lot of potential to be genuinely kind to each other once they work through their individual issues.
Anyway. We're keeping the Roxy stuff under wraps for now - last we saw of her, she went to go see her denizen, and her planet exploded, and John was really bummed about it. HOWEVER, we are going to check in with our GameOver!crew, although only lightly for now:
Meenah and (Vriska) have fully disappeared, and (Tavros), (Nepeta), and (Feferi) are looking for them because they've got the FUCKING TREASURE???
Everyone else from the Game Over timeline has landed in the afterlife, to varying degrees.
Shortly after entering the afterlife, (Eridan) fucked off somewhere to be alone. Last anyone heard from him was (ghost!Sollux) and him being Erisolsprite, but neither (ghost!Sollux) nor (alive!Sollux) have seen him since Erisolsprite died in Game Over.
(Karkat) is also brooding off on his own, feeling really shitty and sorry for himself. He's always felt personally responsible for everything going wrong for his team, and now that his team is basically entirely dead, he feels extra shitty.
Mostly just setting up that these guys are still relevant to the story, despite now being (irrelevant).
That brings us to the second retcon. Vriska obviously had great regrets about killing Tavros, both pre- and post-retcon, so she asks for his death to be prevented.
Tavros is back.
Vriska's requested fix is a very simple one - after all, Karkat makes mention about how Vriska's always had a competitive streak with Terezi, admiring/being jealous of her ability to manipul8 people; I think an ultimate culmination of that is her insisting that insisting to John that he do a retcon to stop her from killing Tavros - which, as covered above, she regrets greatly - but to do a much sloppier job of it, simply having John pop into [S] Wake and knock Tavros the fuck out.
Vriska herself doesn't believe this will have any unintended side effects, because her opinion of Tavros is still really low despite her genuine desire to make amends, and she's wrong.
Tavros's stay on the meteor has a major effect on Gamzee. I'm not entirely sure how it would pan out exactly, but I think Gamzee would step in between Dave and Tavros, into a situation none of them are happy with. This starts Tavros on a path of realizing that his inability to stand up for himself not only hurts him, but people he cares about (Gamzee, whom he ghosted).
Vriska is mostly uninterested in Tavros now, as the moment has kind of passed, and Terezi keeps getting on her ass about going after him (which brings the two of them closer).
Previous Messy romantic situations are still active. Karkat is going thru it.
Dave feels bad about tormenting Tavros but he kind of can't help himself, especially because Tavros keeps going up to him for some reason. The fact that he gets trapped in an auspice with Tavros and Gamzee kind of reinforces that he does NOT vibe with troll quadrants. Dave becomes MORE xenophobic.
On a note regarding Gamzee and Tavros: while I generally try to avoid relying on Hussie's commentary too much, as he likes to play his cards close to his chest, his note about Gamzee in the Act 5 book is actually significant enough to me to include:
The best explanation for why Gamzee says he's scared of Vriska, in my opinion, is this: he's flat-out lying. It's a good way for him to maintain his cover as 'Soft Gamzee.' It also provides some ammunition for those who, against all sense of good taste and judgment, want to continue to believe and assert that Gamzee is a decent guy with sensitive emotions and vulnerabilities before he undergoes his Muderstuck awakening. He was none of those things, ever.
Hussie likes to play coy, and you can't really trust anything he says after Act 6 because he's fed up with the fandom, but I think this comment comes early enough, and is made assertively enough, that it can be taken at face value. I know that "Soft Gamzee" is actually extremely popular in the fandom, so this may be controversial, but I do think there's more evidence for him being kind of nasty and manipulative than not, and having that always be a part of him brings more cohesiveness to his character. For example, he seems to have a pale crush on Karkat, trying to assert that Karkat is his best friend and changing the topic when Sollux gets brought up and he recognizes Karkat is closer to Sollux than him, and if you read his first log with Terezi as if he's hiding being nasty under a soft veneer, then his comments do read as pretty passive-aggressive.
TC: yOu KnOw HoW iT iS wItH fAmIlY. GC: NO, NOT R34LLY! GC: 4DURRRR DURR DURP TC: Oh YeAh... ... TC: I sPaCeD oUt, DiD yOu KnOw HoW bEaTuFuL tHe SoUnD oF tHe OcEaN iS? TC: hAvE yOu EvEr EvEn SeEn ThE oCeAn? TC: oR i MeAn SmElLeD iT... TC: SoRrY. GC: >:[
Maybe most damningly, his narration calls dealing with Eridan's genuine emotional distress "indulge emotional theatrics," an implication of his true feelings. Karkat and Eridan are heavily foreshadowed to be moirails, and Gamzee seems to have a pale crush on Karkat. What does Gamzee do in this conversation? He chases Eridan away from comforting Karkat - using the same excuse as he uses to avoid dealing with Vriska.
CA: put kar on TC: UuUuH, i cAn't rEaLlY ThInK AbOuT InTeRvEnInG, tHe bLaCk fRoWnInG MoThErFuCkEr kInDa sCaReS Me
Moreover, he does NOT seem to like Jack comforting Karkat instead, either.
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THIS IS NOT TO SAY I DON'T THINK GAMZEE ALSO DESERVES A SHOT AT KINDNESS AND REDEMPTION. Gamzee is clearly a very troubled youth, between his absentee lusus, his indoctrination into a fundie doomsday cult, and his sopor usage. The fact that having his faith shattered by Dave makes him snap implies that, one, he was already unstable and teetering on the edge, and having his faith fucked with was the last straw, and two, that until he lost that last shred of hope, he was still pretending to be nicer than he was for a reason, and given that his LE worship doesn't start up until after the snappage, I think it can be extrapolated that that reason is that he genuinely wants to get along with his friends.
Given that Gamzee's issues largely stem from his neglectful lusus, it's not a stretch to say that Gamzee does not take well to abandonment and isolation. So here's kind of where Tavros comes in:
Gamzee mentions that he feels "So aT ChIlL WiTh yOu" while talking to Tavros, and Tavros reciprocates the friendship and also - interestingly - acknowledges Gamzee's religion, calling it beautiful even if he doesn't necessarily believe in it. I call it interesting because Karkat's inability to do so is explicitly one of the reasons their moirallegiance broke down. Moreover, in their first conversation together, Gamzee explicitly praises Tavros for his "gumption" for stealing his clown nose, when Tavros's avoidance of his problems is one of his biggest personal issues. So yeah, personally, I'm all for moirallegiance.
But Tavros started ghosting him after Gamzee offered to make out a little, another symptom of his avoidance issues. I'm sure that, even in this meteor trip, the fact that Gamzee killed Equius and Nepeta really scares him. In his conversation with Terezi, Terezi outright says "NO WOND3R V4NT4S C4NT ST4ND YOU"; Equius is constantly yelling at him; lots of people on their team seem to genuinely just sort of dislike him.
CG: MIRACLES ARE LIKE POOP STAINS ON GOD'S UNDERWEAR. TA: eheheh makiing fun of people2 reliigiion2 i2 the be2t thiing two do.
So having one of the few people he does really like also ghost him probably did... bad things to his mental health. Especially so when said person wound up dead. But now that he isn't dead, I think they have a shot - they just need to address their personal problems. Tavros with his avoidance, and Gamzee with his resentment toward the world, and reliance on substances and religion to take the edge off. In this meteor iteration, that doesn't quite happen - their toxic auspicetism succeeds in letting them air out their dirty laundry to the audience, but doesn't bring full reconciliation.
In any case, this meteor trip is fairly short, and uneventful from the dream bubbles side, although I do think Tavros should get a talking-to from (Tavros) about real self-esteem and self-worth.
Still, being back in contact with Tavros again, even if in kind of a messed-up way, does make Gamzee start to reconsider some of his past actions. This brings us to:
Gamzee Asks for Equius and Nepeta back.
Gamzee's not as nice as he lets on, but he does genuinely care about his teammates, and for the people he really cares about, like Karkat or Tavros, I think he's willing to stick his neck out. Bringing back Nepeta and Equius is more for Tavros than himself, really, because Tavros is scared of him for doing that, and he motherfuckin' misses Tavros, okay? John mostly agrees because he's kind of scared of Gamzee.
Some really fun stuff starts happening this go around.
The Gamzee-Tavros situation becomes resolved because this time, Equius steps in as an auspice between Tavros and Dave, and this auspicetism is COMPLETELY HEALTHY (with the bonus of being extremely funny, and what is the point of a Homestuck ship if it is not deeply funny).
Gamzee and Tavros are able to enter into a totally healthy moirallegiance once the auspicetism builds up Tavros's self-confidence, much to Karkat's relief.
Being stuck in the auspicetism makes Dave go crawling back to Terezi on his hands and knees. I'm sorry, Terezi. I'll do anything if you take me back. Just don't let me die as the guy stuck in a threesome with the two worst trolls. Dave has overcome his xenophobia.
Dave and Terezi becoming official does make Karkat sad, however, so when Nepeta finally works up the courage to confess to him, he accepts the offer to date her, thus fulfilling Jaspersprite's musing that she might only be able to date him after she dies.
They also break up. We're keeping up this trend of Karkat and his disastrous relationships. He's still involved in the Rose/Kanaya/Vriska drama, too.
With GamTav and Dave/Tavros/Equius cinched, Tavros and Vriska reach a sort of truce with each other. Not really friends, since they kind of still dislike each other, but Vriska would genuinely be glad to see Tavros getting more actually confident, and muster up the energy to genuinely apologize for almost killing him, so there's a sort of mutual respect there now. Vriska and Terezi are even closer because of this, but still not fully over their problems.
On the topic of the Dave/Tavros/Equius auspicetism: Dave still can't stop bothering Tavros, but the lewdness of it sets Equius off, so he feels like he has to intervene. Dave also can't stop himself from bothering Equius, which ALWAYS BACKFIRES, and since Tavros has a weird fondness/rivalry with Dave, he'd find it within himself to ask Equius to back off (which would work, because of Equius's... Equius). And every time Equius gets too overbearing toward Tavros, Dave feels COMPELLED to intervene, because he's like, my fucking god, you are the two worst trolls, why must weirdos fight. Dave desperately wants out, but he can't stop staring at these two.
And weirdly enough, it's beneficial for all of them. With two people to yell at him for being weird, Equius becomes less weird. With a rival in Dave and more contact with Equius, Tavros becomes more confident. And Dave has two people to rap against and feel good about his art with, something he more or less had to deal with alone during previous trips.
On the topic of Karkat and Nepeta, there are quite a few implications that they wouldn't necessarily work out. For citations, let me just link my Nepeta essay, where I go over what the comic says about their relationship from a storytelling perspective; here, I'll talk about their relationship from a more interpersonal perspective.
Karkat's signals are mixed as fuuuuuuck. While I don't necessarily think this will be an issue for Nepeta, as - as a Heart player - she's preternatually gifted at understanding motivations, the thing is... I think Nepeta can do better, and deserves better, a sentiment echoed by Jasprosesprite^2. She certainly deserves better than being second to Terezi, at the very least, even if she states she likes his outbursts.
And the thing is, Karkat is pretty explicit about saying that he doesn't return her feelings; in a world where they date, there's always going to be a sense that she's his second choice. And, just... my girl deserves better, okay? Moreover, while he respects her personhood, he's also pretty nasty to her when he DOES talk to her, implying he doesn't necessarily respect her choices. And also, she's actually really bad at shipping, so there will be this extremely weird tension of like... a hobbyist vs. a professional. I don't think Karkat would be able to stop himself from mocking some of her shipping choices if she ever opened up to him about that.
But I think them getting together is important for Nepeta, developmentally - I talk about this in my essay for her, but shipping is something I think she does need to outgrow, since it's kind of a replacement she's using for her loneliness. Moreover, I say in that essay that the issues she has in her moirallegiance with Equius warrant relationship counselling - and that's what Karkat is uniquely qualified to dispense, as the team's Blood player. Although they end up not working out, Nepeta would take several valuable lessons from this relationship - that she's kind of bad at shipping, that Equius is being kind of a shithead to her, and that she needs to start making friends with other people.
Now then. We're finally getting into some drama in the bubbles.
Please imagine for me Equius and Horuss talking, and Equius being aghast at the way Horuss is so derisive towards his matesprit and moirail. Now imagine him pulling a mic out of nowhere and rapping at him about how his problem is that he does not respect his partners. Now imagine Tavros and Dave joining in, also out of nowhere, with Tavros adding bars about how the hemospectrum is, not a good thing, he thinks. And Dave adding bars about how he does not have a fucking dog in this race. He's not even a troll. He doesn't understand their hemospectrum. Let him out of here. The fine fucking art of Alternian slam poetry. I think Horuss would start crying. So would I if three people including my grandkid started rapping at me.
Nepeta's uncanny emotional acumen leads to her wanting to befriend Damara, but being unable to speak her language.
GameOver!crew is up to something, IDK, probably showing (Tavros) inspiring people and rebuilding the ghost army, to tell a parallel story to Tavros becoming more genuinely self-confident.
We check in with the Alpha kids, too, who have some group therapy sessions led by Roxy.
Vriska and Tavros confront Rufioh together, a final culmination of their no-longer-enemiesship, and together, they steal Rufioh's ones. Like, Tavros starts speak1ng w1th ones, something he always had in him, and they also roast Rufioh so badly that he stops speaking in ones. But the way it's presented to the audience, Vriska outright just says that Tavros should steal his ones. And Tavros does. This carries over to successive retcons, as it's implied that Tavros just kind of starts naturally being more confident as healthy relationships are established sooner and sooner.
Anyway, a final note about Equius - his problems are mostly due to being sheltered. Although he is probably the most casteist highblood, he's not really that casteist, as what's really going on is just that he's got a BDSM kink. But because he's sheltered, he does not realize that it's a kink. And a fetishist who does not realize that they're a fetishist has more power than God.
His protectiveness of Nepeta does come from a good place; preventing her from playing FLARP was actually in her best interest, given what happens to people who play FLARP. But he's very much going overboard with it, likely an extension of his own lack of understanding of how much sheltering is good and how much becomes detrimental. What he really needs is for someone to point it out to him, which I think he gets via Nepeta or via Karkat, and then have a reaaaaally long think about it. He's genuinely a polite and helpful soul, who doesn't WANT to make people uncomfortable. The auspicetism is very good for him in this regard, as is his moirallegiance once Karkat talks him and Nepeta through their issues.
The point is, once he's forced to reckon with the fact that the degeneracy is coming from inside the house, I think he'd have a LOT of regrets about the way he treated Aradia. Which leads us to:
Whoops That Robot Thing Was Really Inappropriate Huh
Equius approaches John to ask him to make Past!Equius reconsider the Aradiabot Thing. John's getting kind of impatient with all these trolls who keep asking him to go back through time, but given that everyone seems a little happier each time, he can't help but agree.
So he goes back to the past, before Equius can give Aradia her robot body with the love chip in it, and something really fun gets to happen here: first of all, Equius's Void status makes him really hard to place, so John winds up missing by a bit, time-wise, so Aradia's already in the body. This is the first time that retconning!John and Aradia have been in the same place together, and when she meets him and finds out that he can time travel without causing paradoxes, she demands (with her Aradiabot deathmurderkill intensity) to be taken back in time to before she died.
John's retcon powers explicitly ignore the usual rules of paradox space - he describes it as a "fresh start". Given that Breath is associated with choices and freedom, his retcon powers are kind of the ultimate culmination of his abilities as a breath player. Although doomed timelines can and will still result from paradoxes caused by players when John isn't there, anything he directly interferes with is totally a-okay.
So all Aradiabot asks him for is passage back in time, in order to sanction her interference in the past. After she dismisses him, she still more or less has to adhere to events in the original timeline, for two reasons - the first being that she doesn't want to risk a new doomed timeline, and the second so she can keep the timeline predictable.
So even though she's basically asked for passage to the time period before SGRUB, it's basically outright stated that the progression of events has to be more or less the same, up until the point where John's other retcons take place. So here are the cascading effects of Aradiabot preventing her own death:
Aradiabot takes Aradia's place in the Team Charge debacle, being blown up/"killed" (as a sprite) by Sollux's eye beams, so that she can take Aradia's place as Doc Scratch/the Handmaiden's servant and "carry out" their orders.
Meanwhile, Aradia seeks refuge with Equius, whose void powers keep her hidden from Doc Scratch's omnipotence.
Because Sollux never actually killed Aradia, and Aradia communicates with him via Equius's account, Sollux is less depressed and self-loathing. He no longer predicts a future where all of them die and he has to be blinded. It's left deliberately vague whether this future comes to pass because he's less pessimistic, so his Mage powers are calling a happier future into being, or if his future changed, so his Mage powers are prophesying something new.
Nepeta starts regaining memories of alternate timelines and past retcons, as an extension of her Rogue of Heart powers. This includes the relationship counselling she received from Karkat.
Between Nepeta and Aradia yelling at him, Equius's character development starts sooner, so he's squared away for future events, and ends up not making the creepy Aradiabot, making a non-creepy one instead.
Aradia and Equius do not strike up a relationship, and become uneasy enemies/friends.
Aradia secretly god tiers well in advance of Jack's arrival, and meets him at Derse rather than awakening on her crypt there.
Aradia and Sollux continue a loving matespritship, leading to Sollux settling into a moirallegiance with Feferi. He's devastated when she dies, which still happens along with the rest of Eridan's freakout; Aradiabot doesn't intervene because she's needed for:
Aradiabot winds up being the one to sacrifice herself piloting the meteor, allowing Sollux to stay with the rest of the team when he meets up with Aradia, (Aradia), and (Sollux) at the Green Sun. Aradiabot winds up with the GameOver!crew.
With the 1337 hackers back in commission, Sollux and Roxy are able to establish a server connection with each other, allowing them to communicate during the 3-year meteor trip.
Aradia involves herself in the Rose/Kanaya/Vriska Mess, and I kind of can't decide what I like better - a vascillatory pitch/flush threeway between Rose, Kanaya, and Vriska, now that Vriska's near the end of her character development, with Aradia serving as a stabilizing force as Kanaya's on-again off-again moirail, or Aradia stepping in as an auspice. Either way, it's out of Karkat's hands.
This has a knock-on effect of finally giving Vriska the chance to fully make amends with Aradia, which winds up cinching the Vriska/Terezi moirallegiance. The scourge sisters are back baybee. And between a healthy moirallegiance for Terezi and a healthy moirallegiance for Gamzee, I think pitch Terezi/Gamzee could work as a healthy ship this time around. I'm not married to it, but they did always seem to hate each other well before SGRUB.
Nepeta has LEARNED HER LESSON regarding dating Karkat, so that does not happen.
Karkat now has no quadrants. He winds up desperately throwing himself at Sadstuck Sollux to try and help him get over his breakup. It's not a good look. Sadkat. He also takes up talking to the alpha kids for emotional support, which puts them off, too. Still gives really good relationship advice. He's clearly one of the more unstable members of the retcon!crew at this point.
We're light on the dream bubble drama this time around because of how MUCH is happening for the retcon!crew, but there's going to be a reference in there of Nepeta learning East Beforan.
SO. NOTES TIME.
Aradia expresses outright that she hated the feeling that she was set up and that she wishes someone would have stopped her from being so reckless. And although she seems to find some satisfaction in being the stewardess of the afterlife, there's clearly some resentment there that she's been forced into that role, as she expresses that what she's really looking forward to is watching it all break apart. There's also kind of an orphaned plot thread where Aradia is spending a lot of time in the afterlife putting knowledge together, which never really directly pays off except to the audience, and I think a really good way to bring that back in would be for her to be communing with (Aradia) in the dream bubbles in order to make sure the timeline flows as smoothly as possible.
As for Aradia/Kanaya - they're actually really good friends, and Aradia expresses that she's flattered that Kanaya wants to talk to her so much. There is a tone here that matches the way Vriska thinks about Kanaya when Kanaya is still ostensibly Vriska's moirail, and Kanaya herself admits to being attracted to people who are reckless. In fact...
AA: i just wish AA: back when i was behaving recklessly AA: i had s0me0ne t0 tell me t0 st0p listening AA: even if i ended up ign0ring their advice AA: it w0uld have been nice
GA: It Must Be A Certain Madness Im Afflicted By GA: To Orbit Those More Reckless And Dangerous Than I And More Daring For It GA: I Guess I Want To Help Them But They Never Can Be Helped It Seems
So I'm just kind of saying... Aradia and Kanaya moirallegiance... is not entirely unfounded. And a moirail stabilizes a troll's other relationships; if we have a moirail for Kanaya and a moirail for Vriska, then the Mess that is whatever's going on with Kanaya, Vriska, and Rose would probably resolve itself, I think. Either way, Rose is surrounded by SUCH a girl's night of emotional support to help her with sobriety now.
As for whatever's going on between her and Equius, I tend to believe the comic when it tells me relationships don't work out, and Aradia expresses regret for kissing him during the Ministrife. I think they could be good vitriolic frenemies, though.
Okay, onto Sollux.
In the same panel where Eridan and Karkat are implied to be "hatched for each other" pale-wise, Feferi and Sollux are foreshadowed in the same way:
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They also spend a LOT OF TIME curled up in a pile together talking about their feelings, which we don't see with matesprits, but we DO see with moirails. Nepeta and Equius do the same thing, and they are kind of THE moirails. So I think Sollux and Feferi were always meant to be pale, but because Aradia died, Sollux wound up taking Feferi on as a matesprit instead. Between EriFef, SolFef, and GamTav, people getting flushed and pale feelings entangled is like, a Running Thing, so it's not really surprising to me.
Now, here's the thing. We already know that Sollux likes to cope with a rebound, since he went flushed with Feferi after Aradiabot exploded and was presumed dead. And Karkat cares very fucking much about Sollux, to the point where Gamzee speculates that he's actually Karkat's best friend, and Karkat even calls him that (although Karkat also kind of just calls anyone his best friend, lol).
CG: GAMZEE WAS MY VERY GOOD FRIEND, WHO WAS THIS GOOFY LOVEABLE BULLSHIT CLOWN UNTIL HE WENT PSYCHO AND KILLED SOME PEOPLE. I LIKED HIM A LOT. CG: I DON'T KNOW, I GUESS MY BEST FRIEND IS REALLY JUST THE GUY WHO I HAPPEN TO BE FEELING MOST SENTIMENTAL TO AT THE MOMENT, IS THAT A FUCKING CRIME.
This crab's got so much love in him. In any case, I mostly just want to keep sticking Karkat in these extremely unhealthy relationships for a while. It makes it sweeter when he finally winds up with Eridan LIKE HE WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO... but yeah.
Cross-session communication is also entirely possible, as Sollux set up chat clients between the trolls and the kids in the first place, and even without that, Kanaya found Rose's old GameFAQs on a server in the Furthest Ring. With both Sollux and Roxy on the case, there's no way they can't somehow establish communications way sooner.
Regarding Nepeta regaining her memories, let me once more point you towards the Nepeta essay. She's on track to become the one who attains Ultimate Selfhood, and comforts people like Jade and John about not really knowing their friends or being lonely.
But yeah, obviously Sollux asks for Feferi to be brought back.
F-EF-ERI!!!! 38D
Mostly Sollux just asks to be prevented from provoking Eridan so harshly. Eridan still winds up blowing up the matriorb, and thus, still getting killed by Kanaya in retribution, but this means that Eridan is now the only member of the team left dead.
PITCH FEFNEP. PITCH FEFNEP. PITCH FEFNEP
Pitch FefNep leads to Feferi letting slip something casteist where Sollux can hear; he doesn't personally care because he's heard much worse, but puts them on a break while she sorts herself out. They get back together after that.
Karkat alone :'( he's mostly just talking to the alpha kids at this point, trying to hide from all the happy fucking relationships happening all around him.
If the last retcon was really heavy on the retcon!crew, then this one is much more about what's happening in the bubbles. We get most of our dancestor development this go around. Do not read if you like the dancestors! I go very in-depth about how most of them are horrible people on purpose here, so their arcs are mostly about them being pulled up on their abject awfulness.
Nepeta, who has learned East Beforan, is able to talk to Damara and have an earnest heart-to-heart with her about how awfully she was treated. They hug and cry. Damara, finally validated, gives everyone a big middle finger.
Feferi heals Mituna's brain injury, because literally why the FUCK has nobody else done that. Now once more in control of his faculties, he breaks up with Latula, pissed off that she took advantage of him all those eons to boost her own ego. He also gives everyone a big middle finger. Damara steals her skateboard and high fives Mituna.
Porrim's basically the only dancestor who grew as a person so I think she mostly escapes unscathed.
Latula gets chased around by Sollux and Aradia, who basically just bully her for being bad at games. This is a date to them.
Gamzee completely refutes Kurloz, with his newfound clarity about the real miracle being friendship and the real dark carnival being the world he and his friends will build, not that LE noise.
In a double team between Terezi and Rose, Meulin gets eviscerated for the way her own Issues have made her ships deliberately awful, that she could have simply Not, and she has a bit of a breakdown.
As Feferi is grappling with her privilege and internalized casteism, Cronus wanders up to try and hit on her, and she goes "oh my god... when people look at me, are you what they see? A friendless loser that nobody likes? A total waste of seawater who's only pretending to be cool with the lower castes? A totally fake poser? 38(" Cronus just goes "..." and starts crying and Feferi ends the convo oblivious to that, just going "wow... thanks for talking with me! really gave me a lot to think about" imagine how funny it would be -
Karkat finds and talks to (Eridan), where he fully admits to missing the guy. His mopiness is so extreme that (Eridan) takes issue with it and punches him, before basically yelling at him to get his shit together. Karkat then yells at HIM for him to get HIS shit together, and they both leave, intent on getting their shit together.
We also get an update on Vriska and Meenah at this point, where Meenah is starting to seem more into how they totally ditched their responsibilities than Vriska is.
So the thing with this update is that most of the trolls have sorted their shit out; even Karkat has had a lot of introspection about how he really just fucking loves his friends and should have been more honest about it, not worried so much about appearing weak or lame. With the double Aradias in play to kind of handwave that the timeline will be stable because they're ensuring all loops get completed and all necessary conversations happen, and with everyone's successful relationships on display, we can kind of truncate the next leg of the journey:
Karkat Fixes Everything
Karkat is the Friendship Troll. Karkat is the Romance Troll. Karkat is the Bonds troll. He is their team's Blood player, and as the Blood player, he's been shown to deeply love all of his fucking friends - yes, even the assholes. Maybe even especially them.
As such, it's vitally important for the last push - last leg of the journey - to belong to Karkat. Where would our Blood player be without his bonds? Well, we actually have the answer to that. It's knocked out and prevented from joining in any of the important boss battles. LAME!
So in the last retcon, Karkat hears from Nepeta about the retcons that have been happening, and he really starts digging through his own past. If every retcon so far has been each troll only feeling comfortable undoing their own personal mistakes, then what of the guy who feels personally responsible for everything, all the time, forever?
Look, I'm not saying that a shipping chart saves Homestuck, but... by the time this last retcon is through, every Alternian troll is alive and god tiered. And he is dating Eridan.
If you have any questions about him dating Eridan, please refer to the link above. That essay is nearly as long as this one. There's SO MUCH FUCKING FORESHADOWING.
I don't think the god tiering needs to be explained, because if we hear that Karkat basically made his past self a shipping chart, and we've seen everybody's character development as they've gone through this journey, and we have Aradias on timeline duty and Nepeta with memories of past retcons and her alternate selves, I think we can more or less gloss over exactly how they go about earning their wings while maintaining timeline integrity. The important thing is that Karkat is dating Eridan now.
Because that leads to the last few bits of dream bubble stuff, but before we get into that...
Miscellaneous Plot Things That Need To Happen But I Don't Know Where To Put Them
Yeah there's just some ideas that I have floating around that need to be placed somewhere but IDK exactly where, or exactly how they shake out.
Hal becomes a real boy. And by that I mean as part of their character development, Jake makes Hal "real" a la brain ghost Dirk, and then the rest of them have to scramble against the clock (Jake's ability to maintain Hal's realness) to god tier him and make his existence permanent. He's a Sylph of Mind, which allows him to negate Condy's mind control. And maybe a GCATboy?
(Tavros) becomes the new leader of the ghost army.
Davesprite winds up dead at some point in the bubbles and doesn't explain how he died, but he and (Dave) get to fight each other and hash out their Realness and Relevance issues, before facing their final boss fight as bros once more.
Jade and Nepeta get to talk, and Nepeta gives Jade the reassuring speech about Ultimate Selfhood and how she won't be lonely forever. Maybe it's flushed. Might leave it ambiguous.
Somebody needs to auspicetize Dirk and Jake holy shit. Dunno who. Maybe Karkat, but I kind of like him pitch with Dirk, so IDK really.
Dad needs to die. Sorry Dad. If I can find a way to kill off all of the sprites besides ARquiusprite, I will. It's explicitly stated that sprites are drawn to the battlefield during the Reckoning, presumably to die, as part of the coming-of-age themes - losing one's guardians. It's sad but it's gotta happen.
All the Godtier!Calliope stuff basically happens as-is.
Can you tell I need to do more research on the alpha kids...
Ok Back To Karkat And Eridan
I think I'm going to leave their moirallegiance fairly ambiguous, but when Eridan is brought back, he and Karkat are basically together all the time. Karkat's signals are mixed even on the best of days, so I don't know how easy it'll be to tell that these two assholes slinging death threats at each other are pale, but *I* will know, and that's what matters.
This leads to the last two dancestor takedowns:
Karkat and Eridan (mostly Eridan) round on Kankri. Eridan calls him SO MANY SLURS. The fact that Karkat not only condones this, but is DATING ERIDAN, kind of makes Kankri lose it a bit.
(Karkat) and (Eridan), who have reconciled in the bubbles, finally find (Vriska) and Meenah. (Karkat) gives the two of them the speech that retcon!Vriska gave (Vriska) in the comic's original ending, but this time around, (Vriska) actually agrees with him. This serves as a conclusion to (Karkat) and Meenah's arc, and causes Meenah to feel so bad that she walks back to the other dancestors in shame, as (Vriska) leaves with him with the treasure to finally fight LE.
When Meenah returns to the dancestors, the first one she finds is Aranea, who's really sad about her own little escapade, blaming herself for the way Game Over went. This prompts Meenah to go, no, it was probably my fault, shouldn't have let you run off like that. And this would, from all the sobbing dancestors, prompt a string of "no, I'm the reason we failed"s, eventually culminating in Meenah rallying them together to do one last good thing before everyone gets sucked into the black hole and go join the fight against LE. Everyone agrees.
(Gamzee) is revived by the life players and cursed with immortality, so he can go on to become LE and complete that time loop. He is immediately locked in the fridge. This is also why he can't fucking die no matter what you do to him.
This also leads us into the final boss fights.
VS. CONDY
The twelve trolls. The Condesce represents tyranny, the worst aspects of the trolls' old society, and as such, is most thematically taken down by them. While she did fuck up the alpha kids' lives, too, I just personally think it's so much more thematic and satisfying to watch her be beaten down by the trolls.
VS. THE THREE JACKS
The eight kids plus Hal plus Davesprite. With Bec Noir specifically, it's fucking PERSONAL, as this guy killed their parents. This is where Dave fulfils his destiny of killing an iteration of English with his sword, when he decapitates Jack English; the person in the middle of that sandwich is Davesprite, which is how he dies and winds up in the bubbles. The iteration of Jack that survives to date Ms. Paint is Spades Slick, as he's the most sympathetic out of all of them and didn't kill anybody's parents.
At some point during this fight, I like the idea that they get zapped away by Jack English, John zaps them to the Godtier!Caliborn fight where he gets sealed in the juju, and then we cut back to the fight with Jack English, where, inexplicably, they all zap right back in.
VS. THE FELT
The spares - ARquiussprite, (Gamzee) in the fridge (who has since been revived by the life players and blessed/cursed with eternal life so he can go on to fulfill his role in the timelines and become part of LE), Dad, and the other sprites (if any of them are left alive).
VS. LORD ENGLISH
The GameOver!crew, the ghost army, the dancestors (they have a Big Damn Heroes moment right near the end, buying Jake time to deploy the Weapon), Aradiabot, and Davesprite.
Jake fulfills his destiny to defeat the Lord of all Angels by being the one to deploy the weapon, which deposits the beta kids, who knock LE in to the black hole. They then zap out of there, collecting the alpha kids from after the Caliborn fight, and zap back to the fight with the Jacks.
This specific configuration of boss battles winds up leaving Lord English entirely up to dead characters, who are then implied to all eventually get sucked into the black hole - their memories to live on through the living characters via Ultimate Selfhood, which only Nepeta achieves on screen, but implies that they will all achieve eventually.
It's important to me that the GameOver!crew is the one leading the fight against Lord English, as they're the ones who were the most screwed over by LE and his machinations - manipulated into killing each other, used as servants of his will, dying ignobly in a doomed timeline filled with special stardust. Meanwhile, the retcon!kids and trolls prove what they've learned - about compassion, kindness, equality, and forgiveness - by beating the shit out of the Condesce, who represents the horrors of Alternia, and the Jacks, especially Bec Noir and Jack English - the latter of which is a shadow of what Lord English represents - immaturity, cruelty, hatred - and the former of which is a culmination of all the failures they committed to get to this point, a symptom of their universal cancer.
I wrote a little snippet of Aradia once, and I think I'll use that to end this essay:
(ARADIA): ok now that we are all done being stupid (ARADIA): im sure enough people here remember the plan that i dont need to explain it again (ARADIA): so instead i just wanted to say (ARADIA): leave your backs to us and face forward without fear (ARADIA): the dead and irrelevant will slay the demon of double death while you unmake the threats of the living (ARADIA): and personally i think it's very fitting that he will perish here as nothing more than a bad dream (ARADIA): this will be the last time we see each other (ARADIA): so on behalf of everyone that you are going to be leaving behind (ARADIA): live (ARADIA): and be happy!
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viviennevermillion · 1 year
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ᴀᴅᴏᴘᴛɪɴɢ ᴀ ᴘᴇᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ♡
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contains: character x gn! reader, pets are allowed in the dorms in this one
characters included: kalim, epel, idia, malleus
warnings: none
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Kalim is ecstatic about this idea. The first time you suggest this to him, he's so happy; smiling brightly at you and spinning you around in a hug.
He instantly wants to tell Jamil all about it. The latter is a little concerned about Kalim's ability to take care of a small animal; remembering all the times Kalim struggled to take care of himself without Jamil needing to step in.
"Oh we could adopt a camel! Or an elephant!", Kalim is already looking up suitable pet names on the internet. You take his hand in yours and squeeze it. "Kalim, my dear, I was thinking more of....you know...something the average person can actually take care of", you explain carefully and sigh.
The two of you eventually decide on getting a puppy. Very fitting for Kalim, whom you have once referred to as "the human version of a golden retriever".
You know that scene in the beginning of "Bolt" where Penny picks up puppy Bolt for the first time? That's Kalim, walking into the pet shop and staring at the puppies with such a bright, happy gleam in his eyes. You can't help but want to capture this moment, so you take a photo of him; Kalim gladly indulging you. He smiles into the camera whilst holding one of the small dogs up, petting it gently.
"So...got your eyes on one yet?", you ask, pressing a kiss to Kalim's cheek.
Kalim is gonna take home the puppy that's most active out of the ones in the bunch, much to Jamil's disapproval. But Kalim can hardly say no to his newfound little friend, the way the puppy immediately brings him one of the toys running around and expects Kalim to play with it.
Kalim loves that dog so much the second he takes it home. He loves cuddling it and playing with it. Sadly, though to no one's surprise, Kalim has absolutely 0 grasp on the dog and it will not perceive him as an authority figure whatsoever. If you want it to be potty trained, to stop jumping up and down at people due to excitement and not steal the other dorm member's shoes and chew on them? Congrats, that's your job now!
Kalim and you often take walks with your puppy.
It sleeps in Kalim's room so when you're staying over, holding Kalim in your arms and trying to sleep in on the weekends; expect a small dog to join you in your attempts to cuddle or try to catch your attention.
Kalim picked the most stubborn, active dog they had and now you're going to have to try and get it to listen to you. Crowley already complained 5 times.
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Epel would love the idea of adopting a pet with you. He has a soft spot for animals. He's just worried about his dorm leader and knows that Vil would hardly be keen on the idea of having a pet at Pomefiore dorm. So if possible, the pet will stay with you most of the time.
Epel holds your hand all the way to the pet shop. "Okay, so, I'll need something that won't make a lot of noise, won't carry Vil's belongings anywhere, won't 'mess up my makeup' apparently and something that preferably doesn't walk around the dorm", Epel sighs and looks around the store.
His choice is made when he looks at the bunnies they have for sale. Epel used to have bunnies as a kid and he still likes them and finds them cute.
You chuckle after looking around the store alone for a while, finding your boyfriend near the bunny cage, holding a small, white rabbit that seems to have fallen asleep on his arm. "This one", he says excitedly.
Epel would refuse to name his bunny something "cutesy". You'll have to deal with name suggestions such as "Skullcrusher" and "Thundering Fury".
He's so happy to share this experience with you.
When he brings the bunny back to the dorm for the first time, Rook makes an off-handed comment about 'hunting', causing Epel to clutch the small creature and shield it from Rook. "Leave skullcrusher alone, I'm warning you", Epel tells him and Vil raises an eyebrow. "You named it skullcrusher?", his disappointment is obvious with his tone and he turns to you, "and you didn't stop him?" You shrug and smile. "He seemed very happy."
Epel takes good care of the rabbit and he loves sitting on the couch, snuggled up to you, holding the little bunny in his arms.
He wants to make its enclosure as nice as possible for it, buying little toys and tunnels to keep it entertained.
Panics if it ever escapes and runs around the dorm. Partly because he's scared he won't find it again or that it might get hurt, partly because Vil is NOT going to like that.
"Calm down", you put a hand on his shoulder, "we try all possible options first before we panic." You grab your things and start looking with him.
He's very relieved when your shared pet is back in your care. Vil actually found it and handed it to Epel. "Next time, keep a better eye on it", the Pomefiore dorm leader sighs; not seeming nearly as mad as Epel had insisted he'd be.
Epel takes you home over the holidays and brings your bunny with him, showing it to his parents and his grandmother. They reminisce about the time Epel used to have bunnies as a kid and show you the pictures of Epel as a young boy. "Y/n, we're so happy Epel brought you over for the holidays- oh, look, and here's him trying to eat the sand cake he made in the sandbox!", his mother exclaimed, resulting in Epel gesturing frantically. "Don't show them that!"
Your bunny just observes you quietly.
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For Idia it's instantly clear that you're getting a cat. He's so excited about the idea, given how much he loves cats.
Also one who starts thinking of names before you even go to the store to get a cat, but simultaneously he's worried that he's going to settle on a name but then it won't fit. "It needs to be clever and accurate", he insists, explaining to you the list of names of his favorite game characters, "for example, this character, in the game, has a forehead mark on his face. So if the cat has a spot with white fur on its forehead, this name would make sense." "You're putting way too much thought into this...", you mumble and run a hand through his hair.
One of the few instances where you don't have to convince him to show up only with his tablet instead of in person. "We're making a major decision here. I cannot make judgement half-heartedly", Idia holds your hand and stays close to you as you walk through the village on the island towards the pet store. "But for the dorm leader meetings where major decisions about the school are being made the tablet suffices?", you chuckle and raise an eyebrow. "The normies are capable of handling these. The task of naming our cat is one that demands precision, wits and top tier gamer spirit."
Idia is ecstatic about the cats. Not so much about the store clerk who keeps trying to give him advice. "I- I'm sure we can pick on our own", he tries to shake him off as he shows Idia and you the cats with a friendly smile, "y/n say something please." The last part he whispers and you let out a sigh. "We'll call out to you once we've picked one. My boyfriend is a bit shy", you explain and Idia looks at you with wide eyes. "Don't say that", he whispers as the store clerk tends to other customers.
Idia picks a calm and quiet cat, perhaps a little on the chubbier side; one that seems sleepy and starts to purr and close it's eyes when Idia holds it in his arms. He also instantly finds a name from one of his games that fit the kitten. "See, that wasn't too hard, was it?", you press a kiss to his cheek. "You're right", he hands you the kitten so that you can hold it too for a while, "as soon as I saw it, I knew instantly."
Idia lets the cat sleep in his bed and you two often end up cuddling with it at night. He picked a very affectionate one.
When Trein reprimands him for not coming to class in person and catches him playing games instead of paying attention in the lesson, Idia insists he'll show up in person only if he can bring the cat for comfort. Because Trein has a cat himself, he lets him.
What Idia hasn't calculated in was the fact that small, cute kittens tend to attract a crowd of students asking to pet it. So he ends up surrounded by his classmates, stuttering about how his cat needs its peace and quiet. You have mercy on him and take the cat from his arms, dealing with the students in his stead.
The cat also starts a fight with Lucius, which Trein insists "could never be Lucius' fault". Idia doesn't know how to handle the conflict.
Needless to say, Idia was even more set on not coming to class in person after that. While you are sitting in class, you often receive text messages from your boyfriend, consisting of dozens of cat pictures and videos.
"Look at it, y/n! Isn't it cute?", he texts and you glance to the board to make sure Trein doesn't catch you texting in class. "Yes it is. I see it every day, Idia." "The magic of cats never fades."
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For Malleus and you, the decision to adopt a pet was a spontaneous one. You two snuck out without the knowledge of his guards, something you insisted in front of Lilia was an activity you "definitely did not do frequently", and now you wandered the small settlement on the Isle of Sages.
Malleus was going on and on about an abandoned building you saw on the way here and you mused how cute he looked eating his ice cream with a small plastic spoon, his fangs flashing everytime he opened his mouth.
You looked around and passed by the pet store. From the window, you could see inside; observing a small iguana staring at you from the window display.
"Malleus....", you start, the fae prince turning around to check what you were looking at, seeing you point at the creature, "impulsive question, but what do you think about getting one of those?"
Malleus puts his finger at his chin and thinks about it for a while. At first he doesn't get what the point is, as a pet like this lives maybe 25 years if you're lucky and this seems very short for him. You remind him that he has had GaoGao Dragon-kun for even less and it still brought him a lot of joy he's glad to have and Malleus has to agree that you have a point.
"We could take care of it together", you say.
Oh boi
You don't know what you kicked loose.
Malleus perceives this as like, a very big bonding experience with his beloved that will bring you so much closer and prepare you for one day taking care of an entire kingdom together; something he definitely thinks about frequently and is more than ready for.
"Very well then! I would love this very much", he smiles and presses a kiss to your temple. So it's decided.
You come back to the dorm with a terrarium and a small iguana in your arms and the brightest smile on your face as you see Lilia. "We impulsively decided to raise a pet together", Malleus exclaims proudly. Lilia is just looking back and forth between you and Malleus and sighs. He doesn't even know how to break it to the queen yet that her grandson has fallen in love and here he is adopting a pet and probably planning his wedding in his head.
Malleus is super careful with your pet because he knows he's sometimes having trouble estimating his own strength. He holds it super careful and he's very pleased that it's not afraid of him.
He names it GaoGao Dragon-kun. You mostly call it Drakon but Malleus always addresses it by the full name. You go to the vet for the first time and she's like,,, trying to set up a file for your pet and she's like "what's its name?" and there's Prince Malleus Draconia who has to duck under the doorframe to enter the vet's office and made the entire waiting room silent with just his presence and he very seriously answers "GaoGao Dragon-kun" and the assistant of the vet just sighs and makes herself another large cup of coffee.
notes: trying to get used to writing shorter headcanons again because i want to post more often and like, my old shorter headcanons were fine. also just got my wisdom teeth removed (ouch) so expect headcanons about twst characters comforting you after wisdom teeth surgery.
taglist — @mochinee @moldy-cheeto @xxheartspadexx @rose-the-witch1 @endlessorrow @curekibouka-writing @kaeyafrost
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aroaceleovaldez · 17 days
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Any headcannons about Will Solace? he's an underrated bby (I think?) and I personally hc that he used to be a very moody kid but then decided to turn off all of his negaive emotions (most of the time)
oh i have SO many Will Solace headcanons built up from writing him on Deadangelos so much. Below the cut cause this is very long (and tumblr started glitching about the list format so manual it is):
- His roles at CHB are basically "Every possible medical personnel Ever™." He's camp medic, physician, surgeon, pediatrician, pharmacist, psychiatrist, therapist, dentist, optometrist, veterinarian, etc etc etc. Technically Chiron is also All Of That, but ever since Will joined camp most of the responsibility falls to him (at least in part because campers generally feel a bit more comfortable dealing with somebody their own age versus an immortal centaur), and Chiron just mentors him on it (unless they're running low on hands, in which case Chiron does pitch in, and sometimes the other Apollo kids help staff the infirmary if Will needs. In the past though it was usually just Chiron and whichever camper he pulled in that week to do first aid training with. Mr. D only really handles therapy stuff if Will isn't able to for one reason or another. Will gets very individualized training and has has own schedule separate from the rest of his cabin to account for all of that. Chiron basically personally took Will in under his wing as his apprentice and a not insignificant portion of Will's personal training is gross anatomy lessons with Chiron in the camp morgue. Will does not question where Chiron procures the cadavers for that. He probably should. They aren't campers. They are sometimes demigods, but not always. Most of the rest of camp doesn't even know there's a morgue, let alone that Will does gross anatomy dissection. It's not technically a camp "secret," Will isn't secret about it at all, but most campers treat it like it is and like to use it to try and spook new campers. The ones who find out about the gross anatomy portion and that there is exactly zero information about how Chiron is procuring cadavers are Mildly Concerned.
- Photokinesis and plague powers Will are both extremely fun. I love making him a son of Apollo Smintheus specifically and giving him pet rats and/or the ability to talk to rats and mice. He thinks they're soooo cute and is definitely the type to brag about how intelligent rats are. I also like to think he maybe had a pet snake at one point, like a big ol' boa. Will with a sunglow boa or something? yes? (I also just in general love the idea of Will's house back in Texas being a cute little ranch cause Naomi is rich and also a cowgirl and Will having a ton of different animals over the years. He probably originally wanted to be a veterinarian before he settled more on medic.)
- I just generally love playing with Will (not-so) subtly being the exact opposite of what people would expect from an Apollo kid. Initially he looks like the gold standard for an Apollo kid - sunny, friendly, chill, medic/healer, interest in science/arts/fandom, etc etc. Then you speak to him for more than 20 minutes and find out he loves snakes and rats and guts and gore and is fascinated by disease and mold. He takes gross anatomy classes taught by Chiron. One of his favorite hobbies is just dissecting stuff. He's into vulture culture. His idea of a perfect date is holding hands over a cadaver he is actively cutting into and passing the other person cool stuff he's fishing out. Also he's very vocal about thinking monsters are hot and the combo of all of that is exactly why he's into Nico. Everybody else thinks Nico's inherently cursed or something? Will doesn't mind being cursed - in fact he wants to be cursed, for science. He's swooning over the idea of Nico sacrificing him for some dark ritual in the middle of the night. He daydreams about Nico being a vampire that's gonna romantically kill him. The rest of camp is waiting for the day Will does something stupid and gets himself killed like, flirting with a monster (or the Hades kid) or something. Nico just generally doesn't know how to feel about the whole situation but is? (hesitantly) flattered?? that somebody is enthusiastic about him while recognizing and appreciating his Underworld aspects. Will is out-weirding him, somehow, and Nico never knew this was a thing that could happen.
- Related to that - I have a whole headcanon about "Bad Omen" demigods, which are basically the other main CHB cabin's versions of Hephaestus kids with fire powers being bad luck. For Apollo kids their "bad luck omen" super rare power is a plague-powers kid, and Will showed up during the Titan War, just a couple months before the Battle for Manhattan when nearly all his cabin died. He is very acutely aware of this superstition and fully believes he is a bad luck charm for the cabin and feels SUUUUPER guilty about it and so hides his plague powers. It's not that he feels bad about his plague powers specifically - he thinks plague stuff is really fascinating and his powers are cool and can be used for healing too! - he's just really concerned about how others will view him. (Very strong parallel dynamics between how Will views his plague powers vs the stigma around them & how Nico views his Underworld powers vs the stigma around them. They are handshake emoji).
- TTC implies that Apollo kids are more often than not summer-only campers, and I think it's fun to have Will's backstory being: He may or may not have "accidentally" caused a plague/pest outbreak at his old school early into the year and between that school having to shut down for a couple of months because of that and his mom maybe going on tour, they decided it was time for him to move to CHB and go there year-round. Except he goes from Texas to New York in the middle of winter and he's a son of Apollo, so he gets there and it's like sleet and slush and all cold and he's the only Apollo kid at camp and he hates it so bad. He eventually gets used to it but it is awkward when all his siblings come back in the spring/summer to find they have a new youngest sibling who's just been chilling all by himself for a couple of months. But then Austin and Kayla join so at least he's not the newest/youngest Apollo kid. (But then nearly all of Cabin 7 immediately dies in TLO and Will's right back to being in a mostly empty cabin and being in charge.)
- He definitely puts on an approachable/friendly, or at the very least calm, face 99% of the time, partially because it's expected of him and it's also maybe a little bit masking (it's a lot masking) cause he knows he can be a bit much. He is 100% the type of guy who feels like he has to solve all his problems himself and can't let anybody else know he has problems, and also that he has to help everybody else with their problems because that's his job, right? So he's constantly stressing himself out to the point of breakdown. He also half lives in the infirmary (which he totally has his own little office in) and he'll just shut himself in and spend like, a couple of days straight in there and probably not sleep. He's a workaholic just as bad as Nico and a total hypocrite about it/about overexerting one's self but he's working on it. Nico's too much of a take-no-shit kind of guy (and also him and Will are way too similar) so usually when Will nags Nico about that kind of thing it turns into Will looking in a mirror or Nico turning it back around on him and Will going "ah shit i need to take my own advice >:T"
- He's best friends with Drew Tanaka and he lets out his bitchy side when he's hanging out with her. they are bitching friends. they love to bitch. It's a great venting environment for him cause he knows Drew loves to hear him complain and talk shit so he can just let out all his pent-up frustrations and she'll just enthusiastically eat it all up. The two of them will gossip endlessly. Drew is mildly concerned about Will's romantic tastes though (again: monsters. cryptids. the Addams family. evils from the shadows. the guy from The Shape Of Water. Nico) and keeps trying to talk him out of flirting with things that might kill him. He does not listen to her.
- His only normal crush is Paolo but everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop about how Will could possibly be weird about this one (there's an ongoing camp bet with different theories). He also dated Drew for like, all of a week but they both decided they totally hated it and preferred to stay just besties (bonus points: That was what Drew considered as her passing the whole Aphrodite-kids-breaking-hearts thing. literally neither of them cared).
- I know his full name is William but it's really funny if he lies about that and his full name is actually Wilhelm, named after the scream.
- ...He is a Swiftie. He's been a Swiftie since he was younger back with like, OG-era country music Taylor Swift and he's just stuck with it.
- Trans!Will is fun and I love it lots. Drew helping him with transition stuff is also very near and dear to me.
- His crush on Nico originates from them meeting for the first time during the Battle for Manhattan. Nico's attempt at flirting with Percy misfired and hit Will instead lmao. Nico parts the Titan Army in cool thematic armor and with three gods in tow, says a dramatic one-liner, and then is super badass in battle and Will is head-over-heels for him immediately. He then proceeds to spend the next year obsessing over Nico and being tormented by Nico never being at camp and never being able to talk with him. Ergo why when Nico shows up in BoO, Will is immediately like "HOLD MY HANDS. THREE DAYS IN THE INFIRMARY. HANG OUT WITH ME PLEASEEEE-" (and that's why Will was under the assumption that Nico was actively avoiding people rather than being ostracized, cause he had heart-eyes tunnel vision). Him in BoO though really is just seeing his crush and losing all his cool.
- For some reason he is just an absolute magnet for chthonic demigods. Nico, Lou Ellen, Cecil (who i hc is a chthonic Hermes kid), etc etc. He thinks Underworld stuff is super cool though (again, see: Will being super into spooky/gory stuff/etc). Also all the ex-Titan army kids decided they were his personal body guards immediately after the war cause he was nice to them.
- He is a HUUUUGE nerd. Specifically a sci-fi and disney nerd. They're his hyperfixations (/special interests if you lean more autistic!Will) <3 His favorite franchises are Star Wars and Avatar (the blue one). He loves conceptual alien biology/ecology and could go on about it endlessly. He will also very enthusiastically infodump about Disney history (both the art/animation side and theme parks side) and other sci-fi series. Ask him about Doctor Who (you will be there for several hours).
- Will being a micro-celebrity cause of his mom is very fun to me. He's been on talk shows and stuff before cause people love how snarky this country star's kid is. He has an extremely popular Instagram and Austin uses him as clickbait in his Youtube videos extremely often (including forcing him to guest-star or do like react content and stuff) (Will is more than happy to indulge him though cause he finds it funny).
- I also love the idea that Will and Piper have actually known each other since they were little, from Tristan and Naomi meeting at some point and realizing they had kids the same age and encouraging them to be pen-pals. Once social media becomes more of a like, Proper Thing™ they become mutuals on Instagram but just use it to periodically send each other silly memes (Piper's instagram is private and basically all she uses it for is dm'ing people). It takes them a solid week of being at CHB together to realize "WAIT, YOU'RE THAT [PIPER/WILL]?!" One of their hobbies is going into the city and seeing if people will recognize them/if paparazzi will see them and making games out of it (who can ruin the most photos, what types of fake gossip can we get them trying to circulate, etc etc).
- I am a firm believer that Will is an extremely loud out-and-proud type of guy and has been for awhile (again see: him being a micro-celebrity) and he spearheads or runs a lot of pride stuff at CHB ever since he joined. If there is a pride parade/event at CHB he helps organize it. If there's a GSA club at CHB he is the head of it. He keeps pamphlets in the infirmary of queer educational material and guides to different identities and stuff and is very passionate about making people feel welcomed and comfortable. Because of this, when he found out Nico was from the 1930s and severely not up-to-date on terminology and stuff, he considered getting Nico up-to-date his greatest challenge yet. It was a personal quest for him. There was also definitely at least a week before that where Will thought Nico might be homophobic or something and was going "I CAN FIX HIM" before Nico managed to explain that no, he's... very supportive (muffled coughing coming from closet), he's just also extremely behind and doesn't know what any of those words mean, thanks. Will set up the most extensive queer crash course possible for him and poor Nico was just going "slow down please,,,," the entire time. Will gets him up mostly up to speed eventually. I just love Will being that type of guy who will start explaining misc queer history with citations at the drop of a hat. It is probably another hyperfixation of his.
- Will and Annabeth both consider Chiron an adoptive father-figure and joke about being siblings and which of them is the favorite child, cause they both know they're definitely Chiron's favorite campers. They both get him father's day cards/gifts.
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sapphicrow · 17 days
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The choices for the side enemies in each section of resident evil was very deliberate, and shows off both what Mother Miranda thought the lords deserved and what suits their characters. This may have been for difficulty purposes for each area, but still. I think it is a nice tidbit of flavor to our characters even if it’s indirect. Also I have brain rot.
Moreau doesn’t have any mobs. His reservoir is uniquely isolated. It’s evident from the way the other lords treat him that this is how they feel towards him as well. He isn’t a popular fella. As such, Mother Miranda granted him no special protection or privileges. Besides, I’m sure his bile would repel any creature, even a zombie or moroaica.
Lady Dimitrescu has many creatures within her castle because she interacts with more people on the regular. It’s canon that she had a whole service of female servants who were regularly harvested and experimented on. These subjects are later turned into one of two things: moroaica (the on ground creepy crawlies), or samca (the harpy looking things on the roof). Though we know Alcina isn’t Miranda’s favorite, she’s still pretty high up there. She had to make these critters herself still. Plus, her castle is huge and it only makes sense to have scattered security. I’d say Alcina’s daughters count as a high honor and another reflection of the characterization of Castle Dimitrescu.
As for Lady Beneviento, her situation is an interesting one. Angie doesn’t quite count as a mob, since she is technically an extension of Donna’s consciousness. This is obviously part of her as a person. Disregarding Angie, Donna has no major creatures. I say this because I don’t believe her dolls count as beasts bestowed upon her by Miranda. They’re handmade. She had to harness the skills of cadou experimentation, combined with the craftsmanship of doll making. This reflects Donna because she is isolated, but skillful enough to combat it unlike Moreau. She’s delusional, but evidently not to the same degree as Sal. She copes in her own fucked up, crafty way.
Last but not least, Heisenberg. Now, Heisenberg is Mother Miranda’s established favorite. The golden child. The sun of her sons. It’s also established that Mother’s fondness is by no means requited. Heisenberg loathes her. But nonetheless, even with his absolutely meh loyalty, he has a fair deal of power bestowed upon him. Disregarding his cadou abilities, he has the entirety of the lycan pack. That is no small force. Miranda practically trusts the most dangerous lord with an army. I’d like to believe she isn’t stupid enough not to realize his faulty loyalty, but I feel as if she treats him like a second true child. He’s the son that could’ve been Eva’s big brother should everything have worked out. Love is blind, and Miranda’s too busy to question cutie Karl. Karl also has the Soldats that he’s made himself. This is an intriguing view of him in my opinion. Karl lets Ethan slaughter Miranda’s creation because the entire time he’s been using the powers she gave him to oppose her. Silly guy moment.
Mother Miranda herself has no side mob which is very purposeful as well. She works alone. Her sidekick is the cadou, which we see in the form of all those root looking appendages bursting forth from the ground later in the game. Unlike Moreau who’s isolated due to his insufferable and odorous nature, Miranda is alone by choice. By grief, more accurately. Why bother with companions when Eva isn’t back yet? For her shattered mindset, I’m sure the thought of her daughter is companionship enough. Even with the mold making an appearance, Ethan only has to engage in combat with her herself. This is because even with the mold present, she’s still the vessel. It’s illogical and unnecessary for the megamycete to risk itself when Miranda is right there and so willing to take the blunt of the force.
The megamycete’s side mob is every single thing infected with the mold.
Thank you for reading :) hope it was coherent
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markantonys · 4 days
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wotseries posted an alleged elaida audition script about 1) her telling presumably leane that she's at the tower to look for elayne and also that siuan's in a big mess and she could use elaida's help in cleaning it up, and 2) her discussing prophetic powers with min.
the first scene is pretty standard with what we've been predicting for elaida and the white tower plotline in s3, so i don't have any commentary on that one for now (though it does imply that, indeed, we'll be setting up the coup to be a slowburn season-long event with elaida weaseling around for a while before making her big move, rather than a shock event that happens early in the season, but i think most of us were thinking this already anyway).
the second scene is interesting because a different leak had placed min in tanchico. wotup's leaks have been flagrantly incorrect before (said faile would be in s2) and wotseries' audition scripts have also been flagrantly incorrect before (said gawyn would be in s2), so at this point it's just a question of which source i distrust more, and i can't answer that haha so for the time being i'll treat both Min Locations as equally plausible. (i'm assuming it'll only be one or the other because i find it hard to imagine that she could make an appearance in both locations during the course of the season, but i suppose you never know.)
looking at where s2 left off, both are equally plausible. min is in cairhien, and both siuan & co and liandrin are also in cairhien. i could see siuan snatching min back to the white tower because she knows about her powers and wants to use them, and i could also see liandrin snatching min over to tanchico because she considers her a liability after min betrayed her/didn't follow through on the deal/figured out she's a darkfriend.
looking at min's established story in the show and where her story goes in future in the books (lmao at the statement that min has a story in the books), both are equally plausible. tanchico would put her back into contact with liandrin and mat to follow up on her story with them in s2 and set up for her future seanchan story with mat (and doubly so if there's a seanchan presence or even tuon herself in tanchico in s3). the white tower would return her to her book storyline and, based on this scene with elaida, potentially give her the opportunity to have a storyline exploring the nature of her powers and her relationship with them. either storyline would allow her to go on to cross paths with rand in the next season or two.
(edited to add that tanchico would also have min interacting with elayne to help set up the polycule. i've so thoroughly made the polycule rand/elayne/avi/mat in my mind that i kinda forgot min is the canonical fourth member when i was making this post djkfg)
i will say that in the books, the tower coup has absolutely 0 bearing on min's overall character/story because she has 0 stakes in any of that stuff and 0 connection to aes sedai. it makes for an interesting 1-book storyline for her, but it's never relevant to her again (vs. someone like gawyn who is dealing with the repercussions of the coup in his storyline for pretty much the rest of the series), and so for that reason i wouldn't be sorry to replace her book storyline with an invented tanchico storyline that might have more long-term relevance to her (re: seanchan stuff). however, if the show expands her white tower storyline to include an exploration of her powers, i'd love that because min actively struggling with and trying to navigate and learn more about and figure out how best to use her powers is something that should have been part of her current story rather than her pre-series backstory. and compare/contrasting with elaida and how SHE uses her prophetic abilities would be super interesting!
that being said, i will never again trust any wotseries audition scripts after the utter betrayal that was the gawyn one, so i'm taking this all with a grain of salt! every time they post a new one they're like "disclaimer that scenes could be invented just for auditions and won't appear in the actual show, but most of our past audition scripts have appeared in the show pretty close to the audition version" and i'm like "what about that time you misled me to believe a whole-ass boy would be present in s2 and then he wasn't???? is gawyngate a joke to you???" lmao i wish they'd be a bit more cautious with their audition script disclaimers bc *i* think they've been pretty hit or miss, not Usually Accurate (even the aviendha one, only 1 of 2 scenes made it into the show iirc).
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isa-ghost · 21 days
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Hey, do you have any Phil & Charlie hcs or perhaps Phil & Foolish?
I'm having such a struggle picking which fucking one to do bc on one hand Foolish probably has more material to work with but on the other I've seen Phil and Charlie interact so much (but like outside of qsmp) that I'd have a way better idea of their dynamic. Charlie Slimecicle log on qsmp more often you talented fuck.
Anyway we're gonna attempt some Phil/Foolish ones. I think they're called Immortals or some shit?? Idr.
qPhil headcanons masterlist
Phil had no fucking clue what Foolish's deal was prior to being paired with him on Bolas. He knew he was a goofy happy-go-lucky and talented guy that?? Maybe had allegiances with the Feds?? Hard to tell?? He thought it was a bit tbh. But Purgatory opened Phil's eyes up and he learned that yeah, he's kinda right to a degree. But there are still layers to Foolish despite how Just Vibing he is.
And holy shit can he TELL Foolish has the capacity to be terrifying. You're telling me an immortal shark-totem hybrid doesn't have the ability to kill a motherfucker violently??? NAH. Phil can tell if enough of the right buttons are pushed, Foolish would snap and tear a bitch to shreds. Likely for Leo.
Phil's not entirely sure he can trust Foolish bc he's so unclear about where his loyalties lie, but Phil CAN tell that Foolish keeps it that way for a reason, and Phil thinks it's smart. Despite not entirely trusting him, he believes Foolish wouldn't like. Sell out his friends for a corn chip, yknow?
Now when you take all the serious out of these two though, THEN it gets interesting. Foolish is one of the islanders that has the easiest time getting Phil to let loose. It's just contagious, Foolish is too silly.
At the same time Phil looks at him and is just like ???? How the fuck does he smile through the horrors like that ???? Like clearly he's aware Situations suck and he's anxious like anyone else so how does he have the willpower to be silly and chill???? Phil envies it. He's too full of anxiety. Survivalist's curse.
Foolish's laugh is pure serotonin to Phil. And kryptonite, Foolish's laugh makes Phil laugh. He can't help it. Motherfucker sounds like a window washer squeegee thing when he's dying.
They have 2 very different flavors of immortality to me and while I don't know how a conversation about it would go bc Foolish is so casual and Phil is so? Not secretive but like. Not nonchalant about it? There's still something there that the ccs should cook on. I'm begging them to, in fact.
Also something about how one of them has deep ties to the air and the other technically has deep ties to the sea. Something about that. Especially when used in like, a serious situation. Like spying on the Federation or some shit. Do you see my vision. Using their inborn abilities to their advantage while in collaboration with each other for the sake of them and their friends. Do you see it.
Phil: Gifting shed feathers to trusted loved ones 🤝🏻 Foolish: Gifting lost shark teeth to trusted loved ones
I don't headcanon Phil as a short king like the entire rest of the fandom apparently does but obviously Foolish is fucking enormous compared to 99% of people, Phil included. If Phil could fly he'd spitefully hover just a little higher than Foolish's full height just to mess with him.
FUCKING. TALENTED BIG BUILDS DUO. SHAKING THEM BY THE SHOULDERS WHEN WILL THEY COLLAB. (The kids beg for this often)
Foolish has no idea if he's some kinda deity or if he's just immortal with some kinda weird totem roots and it drives Phil insane bc the hardcore deities have such a different energy than him yet you're telling him (maybe) both are divinity??
Speaking of the hardcore deities, Phil desperately wants to introduce Foolish to the Ocean Overlord bc they're (maybe) both himbo gods with some sort of tie to the ocean that are just vibing their asses off. (Oh my god wait I'm cooking on that idea. Doozers let's cook together on this).
Phil is jealous that Foolish can still swim, the thing he's deeply connected to (esp with those cosmetic fins he has) but he can't fly, the thing he's deeply connected to. But really it's just that Foolish is lucky bc the Federation would have to horrifically butcher him more or less in order to take away his ability to swim properly. Phil's easier to forcibly contain.
Believe it or not, if a situation arose where it was necessary, Phil would pick Foolish for his team (again) in a heartbeat. He may not be as passionate about fighting as Etoiles, or as ruthless as Fit, but hes powerful nonetheless, a trusted friend, has been in that situation with Phil before, and is a beacon of positivity; excellent for morale. Silly disposition and weird alliances aside, Foolish is an invaluable addition to a team from an objective perspective.
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WIBTA for getting jealous of a dog?
Apologies if this is hard to follow. My boyfriend and I have been dating for about a year. He’s very sweet and I love him a lot, though he’s occasionally a little forgetful/inattentive due to his ADHD (which I also have). We’re poly and I have a nesting partner that I live with, and I generally go to my boyfriends house rather than him coming to mine (my nesting partner has higher sensory needs so I try to leave the space available for her to have more quiet time).
A few months back, he started working with a new coworker, a girl, who he got along with very well. I was glad he was making a friend, and even asked him a few times if he was interested in dating her as well, to which he said he wasn’t for several reasons, the most central of which being that she was, at the time, living with an abusive ex and generally dealing with a lot. I said okay, to let me know if that changed (as far as I know it has not and that’s not where this is going). He mentioned at one point that she might have a crush on him but that he wasn’t concerned about it, so I wasn’t either.
As I mentioned she was living with an abuser, and one day my bf told me that he had invited her to come stay with him so she could get out. He had seen his father abuse his mother as a kid and it triggered him a lot to see someone else going through that, so he offered it kind of abruptly. I was overall in support of this of course, but I was still upset for a few reasons, such as that he’d said she was interested in him (he told me he realized he’d probably misread it) and his apartment is not that big, meaning she’s not only there but usually in very close proximity, as there’s not a ton of space to sit and they’re both tall. She also does have family and other friends in the area, so he’s not the only option by a longshot, but he lives closest to where they work. He noted my concerns and apologized for the abruptness, and promised to do his best to make sure I didn’t feel sidelined by her being there, which he has done.
Now, due to both her suddenly living with my boyfriend and just general personality things, I don’t really care for her. She’s a little abrasive and sometimes insulting, not to me but about ppl in general, she plays TikToks out loud at full volume when we’re watching tv (previously my bf had banned TikTok from his house entirely but I think he didn’t want to impose harsh rules on her at that point), and is sometimes overly familiar with me and I think with him (she sometimes addresses him with an “ie” at the end of his name and addressed me as “beautiful” like the second time I met her). Obviously I recognize that her personality is affected by her circumstances; the year after I left my abuser I was a lot bitchier, so I haven’t said anything to her or him. But bc of these differences, I’ve not made a strong effort to be her Friend. I’ve been…I’d say nice but I often get read as meaner than I mean to so let’s say civil, for example if I make food for the house I always make enough for her even though she often chooses not to eat with us. But I don’t like, go out of my way to converse or give her any encouraging response when she shows me videos I don’t care about.
Recently, she has started bringing her dog over to the house. The dog had previously been staying with her mother, who has a large piece of land on the water about 40 minutes out from the city (again my bf has a two bedroom apartment with a roommate and no green spaces, although there are parks nearby). I generally like dogs, though I wouldn’t say I’m a Dog Person, but I think they’re sweet overall. The only place I have an issue is with large dogs, bc I’m a very small person (im almost 30 and I’ve never broken 100lbs despite trying for years to gain weight) and if a large dog wants to jump on me to say hello I Will fall over, and if they push me or corner me I don’t have a lot of ability to push back. This dog, I’m not sure about breeds per se but I’m 90% sure she’s part lab, part pitbull, not huge but a solid dog around my size, and thus not the type I usually try to befriend, though I’ll give her a head pat if she requests one. This means we’re up to five people and one person sized dog (he had another friend lose a job and have to move abruptly so he’s also staying there) in a two bedroom apartment. I, as well as his roommate, think this is too much, and prefer when the dog is not there. But she misses her dog and my boyfriend is a full blown Dog Person, so he loooves when the dog is around, and will spent hours playing with her if she’s over. I’m not a fan of this for both the obvious reasons and bc she often knocks into things while playing and it makes me very nervous; there’s a lot of glass in his apartment and some of it is mine.
So okay the girl’s there and I don’t like her much, and sometimes the dog is there and i don’t love that either, but I’ve never said anything and done my best to control my feelings and reactions to not show annoyance (my guess is that I have about a 35% success rate at this as again, I’m often read as more hostile than I intend to come off). Id say there’s a solid chance that this girl can tell I don’t like her being there, but I’ve never intentionally made the space hostile.
Recently, she’s started this joke of referring to my boyfriend as…her dogs boyfriend? She calls him her “mans” whenever he’s playing with her and has trained her to know who she’s talking about when she refers to “her mans”. She even recently referred to her as his “main gf” which he quickly shut down, but other variations of the joke continue to come up. I do not like this joke, bc I think the girl knows I don’t like her and is trying to make me uncomfortable, but of course that sounds very paranoid. I’m trying very hard not to say anything bc like, obviously my bf isn’t cheating on me with a dog, but like, it still makes me mad that this girl who is so ingrained in his life right now is talking about her dog as if she’s his main interest.
So like, based on all the info here, WIBTA if I asked her to stop making that joke or expressed discomfort at her behavior? I know this maybe seems like an obvious one but again I’ve probably been more outward about my dislike of her than I think and I don’t want to make it seem like I don’t trust my boyfriend, bc I do, so maybe I wouldn’t be an “asshole” but I’d still be in the wrong? Idk what do yall think
What are these acronyms?
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ctitan98official · 2 months
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Yandere!Donna x Healer!Y/N part 3
Phew. Back at it again with some crazy Donna (I love her so much). Read the last part here! Let’s get into it!
“Y/N?” Donna suddenly asks softly as you work on setting up.
You tilt your head at her. “Yeah, Donna?”
“Um… This… Is going to sound… Ridiculous, but… The cadou that Mother Miranda gave me?” She tries to say, biting her lower lip anxiously.
You quirk your eyebrows at her in concern. She seems deeply worried about something. “You can tell me, Donna.”
Donna sighs but eventually nods her head slowly. She does feel like she can tell you. She knows how kind you are, even though you two just met a little bit ago. You’re special. “It’s just… The cadou has given me… These abilities. It’s what allows my dolls, and Angie, to become… Animated,” She reveals, her gaze immediately dropping to the floor, unable to meet yours. “As much as I want the cadou taken out… I’m just terrified I’m going to lose… My friends,” She whispers.
Well, there it is.
Her last big secret is out in the open, but now she’s having second thoughts. What are you going to say? Are you going to think she’s crazy for saying that she can control the dolls? … Or even worse, that she’s pathetic for being so attached to them?
You surprise Donna, though. You smile gently and walk over to her. “Well then, allow me to put your mind at ease,” You grin.
“W-what?” She asks, completely caught off guard by your reaction.
“Some of the other villagers I’ve been treating who were infected with the mold have had… Interesting side effects, shall we say? Nothing quite as sophisticated as what you just described, but it seems certain abilities can develop. Feelings of premonition that always turn out to be true or increased physical strength… These powers don’t go away once I clear the actual infection,” You tell her. “It sounds like the cadou is a much stronger parasite than the mold I’ve been seeing. I think that might be why your abilities are so advanced,” You say. “But, the main takeaway from all of this is that your connection to Angie and the dolls will not be affected. They’ll be ready for some snuggles as soon as you’re done. Deal?” You ask.
Donna feels like she has been on an emotional rollercoaster today. She is greatly relieved at your reassurance and is just so thankful that you’re here with her. She feels safe and cared for with you around. She’s also… Coming to depend on that support. She can’t bear the thought of life going back to the way it was before you showed up.
In fact… She refuses for it to.
She feels incredibly guilty, but… She has just hatched a diabolical plan to keep you here with her forever. If her powers won’t be affected by removing the cadou, then she will still be able to cause visions. If she can figure out what your biggest fears are… She can use that to her advantage. She just has to keep you talking while you work.
You finish getting your instruments clean and ask her to sit down. You have set up a clean and comfortable area on the couch to perform the procedure on. You take a cotton ball and dab on some antiseptic. You wash off the area of her face you’ll be working on before grabbing a small needle. “Alright, Donna. You’re going to feel a small pinch right beside your eye and a little bit of burning. That’s just the anesthetic going in, okay?” You tell her.
“Okay,” Donna says and braces herself.
You skillfully inject the medicine, taking care to go slow.
Donna winces, but otherwise doesn’t react.
You smile at how good she’s doing. “Excellent. You’re doing great.”
Donna feels her cheeks flush at your praise. She… Really enjoys it. She just hopes you can’t see how rosy her face is becoming.
You two are silent as you wait for the anesthetic to kick in, but it’s a relaxed and warm silence. Not forced or awkward. You two are content in each other’s company.
Finally, enough time has passed and you can begin the surgery. “So, you should be completely numbed up, Donna. I’m going to go ahead and start. Are you ready?” You ask her.
Donna takes a deep breath and lets it out. She’s more ready than you could ever know. “Yes. I’m ready,” She nods.
You grin and place a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be over before you know it,” You say with a wink.
… Oh, why do you have to be so charming? Donna is once again a blushing mess.
You begin working and Donna is quiet for a moment as she thinks. Okay, she has to focus. She needs to learn more about you, so she forces herself to speak once more. “Do you mind me asking how you got started helping people like this?”
Damn. Even she has to admit that was good. People generally love talking about themselves.
You’re surprised that Donna is making conversation. You assumed she would prefer silence, but you happily answer… And walk right into her trap. “Well, when I was little, I would always try to rescue animals who were hurt or sick. I just couldn’t stand seeing them in pain,” You say. “I realized I had a natural talent for it and it just… Made me want to help people too. I love being able to take care of others. I think it’s my calling in life.”
As much as Donna wants you to stay… Manipulating such a sweet person is tearing her up inside. Your answer is genuine and pure. She was able to gain a lot of knowledge about you with that simple answer.
… This is going to be a lot easier than she thought.
Note: Poor Y/N. They have no idea what they’re walking into T^T
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mikasa-imadebiscults · 11 months
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Then, here i go! hope it's doable
Opposites attract trope, where Muzan falls for deer centaur! reader (or satyr, whichever you feel more comfortable) with nature powers
he flees from the final battle to a forest as the morning light approaches. He becomes aware of a presence there, but it isn't human nor demon, so it throws him off.
when this presence approaches him, he sees what he hadn't known existed even though he's lived for a very long time or thought of it as make believe: A being from The Land Of The Fae.
reader is shy but kind, offering to heal him since those big scars looked like they were hurting him, and he's coughing up blood. He lets them heal him, but both began seeing the other is very attractive, and a form of sexual tension rises within both. in other words, both conclude they need each other. (I hope im not asking too muchfkgndkfndfnf)
(I really hope you like this, I did some research and it was hard to find info, some stuff about satyr’s might be not true idk how trustworthy those websites were. How satyr’s use the healing ability I have no clue so I just made it up)
An Unfamiliar Creature
Muzan Kibutsuji x GN! Satyr! Reader
(Warning: Manga spoilers, swearing, blood, sexual tension, mentions of alcohol and alcohol consumption)
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About the reader: They’re a Satyr, they can run at superhuman speeds, sense nature magic and the emotions of demigods and mortals. The reader looks human but has horns (let’s say that another creature casted a spell on them causing them to look more like a human)
..
Those flies just kept on coming they’re frustrating and annoying to deal with but unfortunately for Muzan they have gotten strong, a little bit too strong. Death, the thing that scared Muzan the most is so so close. Muzan was running and running as fast as he can, cursing at those damn demon slayers in his head.
He ran into a unfamiliar forest, it was far away from where he had just battled. Muzan was deep in the forest, looking around and was thinking about what to do next, until he sensed a unfamiliar being.
“What the hell.” That was the only words Muzan could process, what he sensed wasn’t a human but also wasn’t a demon either.
As the figure approached him he began to be even more puzzled. The figure was standing in front of him now, he was speechless. Out of all the years he lived, not once did he ever encounter a creature like this.
The figure didn’t look threatening, it was avoiding eye-contact and seemed to be nervous, Muzan assumed that the creature was a shy being.
“I see, I can’t sense your emotions so it seems you’re not a demigod or a mortal, but I’ve seen a few of your kind around here before.” The creature spoke, fiddling with the edge of their shirt.
Muzan opened his mouth to speak but only to be interrupted by his own coughing, blood dripping from his mouth spilling onto the ground. He fell down on his knees with his hands on the ground. The creature walked up to him and kneeled down.
“My name is Y/N, let me heal you. Those scars look terribly painful.”
Muzan only nodded his head, he puts all his tentacles back inside himself, giving you the permission you needed. You put your hands on his shoulders and began healing him. All the pain and suffering Muzan was going through due to the poison that was running through his body was now gone, including the scars from Yoriichi.
“Alright you’re all healed, would you like to go to my place? But o-only if you want to.” You asked nervously while getting up from the ground.
“Sure.” Muzan said, following you when you began walking to your house. As he kept looking at you, the more interested he became. He wanted to know more about you, what you do, and who you are.
After walking for a little bit you arrive at your destination, welcoming Muzan into your home.
“Would you like some alcohol?” You said as you went into the kitchen.
“That would be nice.” Muzan said looking into the pantry full of alcohol.
“I can tell you like alcohol a lot.” He said attempting to spark a deeper conversation with you.
“Well I’m a Satyr and Satyr will lose a lot of energy and will die if they don’t drink at least 8 ounces of alcohol. So I keep a lot in stock.”
“Ah..” Muzan said. He almost got lost in your voice, you sounded nervous but it still sounded very peaceful to him.
“So do you fight? If so how?” He said trying to get you to talk more.
“Satyr’s often like to outnumber their opponents, one of them plays the panpipe to activate their magic. While half shoots at the enemy then the other half moves to a new position out of their targets field of view and hide.”
“Very interesting.” Muzan says.
You gave him a small glass of alcohol and he grabs the cup to drink it. You kept looking at him and started to find him very attractive. You started to get in the mood for him and little did you know that he felt the same.
At this point both of you began to feel the sexual tension in the air. Muzan started to smirk and said-
“I think I’ve found myself a new partner, don’t you think?”
..
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(Sorry it took so long to complete, I was procrastinating, I hope I did a decent job writing this)
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drawnfamiliarfaces · 4 months
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Do you think Chase would go after any future ninjas?
Like, obviously, he wouldn't go after someone like Mac Antfee, but would he go after the ones with more potential? Like Randy, for example, especially since he summoned that giant earth worm that one time while he wasn't wearing the mask makes me think he has some form of magical potential.
Or maybe First managed to struck a deal with him to prevent him from pursuing any future ninjas? That's also an option that came to mind.
But what do you think?
Oh dude I have so many thoughts about it! I think I mentioned something about it in the first post, but I believe that after First, Chase would probably keep an eye on the Norisu Ninja succession line. But, the details would depend on the AUs.
For example, a basically canon AU where First wins a VS event and does not join Chase's Fallen Warriors harem. There could be two variations: in their fight conditions First could state that Chase never bothered anyone from Norrisville/Norisu line if First won (but that's too boring xD) or the 'unbother' conditions could have been only extended to First and not his successors.
So in this case, Chase would retreat back to his Fortress, and after First ascends into Ninjanomicon, over the years he would make surprise visits to Norrisville whenever someone worthy of his attention appears.
Would he actively try to recruit the future ninjas? I mean it would depend, but I think if one particulary powerful caught his eye, he might make an attempt to get them as a Fallen Warrior, (also as a way to grate on First's nerves). However IMO, those attempts wouldn't happen too often, only because the more powerful the Ninja is the more chances are:
they are either of particular strong will (like First) and can resist the Corruption during their tenure as Ninja and successfully give up their mask/memories/power when needed - and in turn resist Chase's offers/manipulations.
OR they are not that strong of will and will fall into Dark side and thus loose the Mask and most of their power. In that case, Chase still can try to get them into Jungle Cats army OR he can take them on as a minion! I mean, imagine a disgraced Ninja with memories but no Mask/Suit power, being suddenly offered another power by an evil warlord with a beef with your ex-boss??
So I actually think Mac Antfee would be an interesting specimen for Chase! I mean, it seems to not happen often, a disgraced Ninja while not overly powerful, but decent enough, that escaped The Ultimate Lesson, since Antfee was like the only one in recent decades. And while of no particular overwhelming skill or honor, Antfee certainly had ambitions and Chase could use that. And more importantly Antfee would decide himself to join evil, which is an big thing for Chase.
Besides, imagine Chase taunting First about how he picked up the dishonored Ninja he discarded and turned him to Dark Side? Like Oof, talk about divorced exs arguing about whose side the kids take, lol.
Randy, on the other hand is certainly no minion material, but firmly potential Fallen Warrior/Jungle Cat candidate. We all know that he is freaking powerful and took to Ninja powers/suit like duck to a water which says a lot about his pre-existing natural abilities. But Randy also falls into category of 'Strong Willed' powerful Ninjas that are not easily swayed by corruption/evil.
But I guess one can argue that he is constantly swayed by selfish needs, thanks to Howard's influence HAH, but he is also always quick to fix those mistakes, so it kind of cancels each other out? Though, one could also say Randy is vulnerable to manipulation, of which Chase is a master of, so like?? If Chase does decide he wants to get Randy as his Fallen Warrior, which is highly likely especially after RC9GN finale, ooooooo it could be an incredible temptation to get the one who could be equal to/if not greater as First.
So yeah, in basically canon AU I think it's highly likely Chase will make visits to Norrisville, to scoop out potential so to speak, with various results.
Now, there is another variation, I call Favorite Warrior AU, which is basically different outcome for VS event, where First lost, but in case of his loss he made a deal that since Chase is getting him - he would leave anyone associated with Norisu Ninja in the future alone. And Chase, as honorable as he is, would certainly accept those conditions, because well, he is getting what he wants after all. BUT he also predicts/creates a loophole to that deal (because he can be sneaky like that! >;3).
And the loophole is - while Chase himself promised not to actively pursue any future Ninjas, he promised nothing about actively avoiding them if they pursue him. And why would they pursue him, you would ask? Well, because of the First himself!
I mean imagine, in the Ninjanomicon there is a record about what happened to First (like, he still shared/recorded his memories in the book and joined Chase after, because he is honor bound to do so, and its all written down) and a warning for future Ninjas to never get into anything associated with Chase Young, the immortal warlock warlord, prince of Darkness and etc. because they would end up in his servitude, like First. It's a cautionary tale, a warning, a record of what happened to their Norrisville founder.
What do you think dumb Ninja teenagers would do??? They would try to figure out more of course! Granted not all of them, but perhaps a great number would try to seek out Chase for very different reasons.
Like, I would imagine the more honorable, goody-two-shoes would attempt to rescue First from this servitude. The success of their attempts would vary, but most of them Chase will send off back with their tails tucked, failed in their noble if dumb pursuit. Some, who are stronger, would be perhaps played with, in an attempt to make them join Chase too. (First would be very frustrated, if a little proud, to see those idiots try to save him, because he made a deal for them to be safe and here they are throwing themselves into the lion's den.)
Then there are those who would seek out Chase with less honorable intentions. Those who fell to corruption and are tempted by Dark Side, but lost the Mask, title and most importantly all that power. They would seek Chase in hopes of pledging their loyalty in return for power they so crave. And well. While Chase is certainly not going to say no to more people/ex-ninjas turning to evil, he would be more picky about accepting those kind of ex-ninjas into his Fallen Warriors army. (First would be most saddened to see those who fell into corruption though. I think he would feel guilty and like if he hadn't lost, they wouldn't have known to try and seek Chase and thus fall further into evil.)
Mac Antfee would belong to a second category (after escaping Ultimate Lesson, he would try to get more power from the one who captured the most powerful Ninja ever, because logic) and Randy will belong to the first category (that baby idiot will read that Ninja Prime was turned into a cat warrior by an evil warlord, and will be like 'Oh shoot I know what we gonna do today Nomicon, Howard! We are gonna save First Ninja!' and probably fucking succeed, lol.)
So yeah, in this AU Chase basically agrees to leave Norrisville alone, because it would become an effort-free warrior making machine for him, lol.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, hope my answer was entertaining at least! ;D
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utilitycaster · 5 months
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In the most recent CR episode I found it really interesting (and really concerning) that it Laudna's truth about wanting Bells Hells to ripcord out of saving the world came hot on the heels of Imogen's truth about not wanting to save the gods
Idk it could just be me, but it seemed like her truth was just another attempt to placate Imogen's moral confusion, while simultaneously pushing those things back onto the whole group
All it makes me think of is the fanon and 4SD discussions about Imogen and Laudna retiring to a farm and living happily ever after. What are either of their reasons for remaining with Bells Hells at this point, if their truths are that they don't want to save the world?
See, that actually seemed fine to me! Fearne had earlier admitted she felt they were ill-equipped for the job and likely to fail, so it's not just them who feel it, and honestly I think that Laudna's confession was one of the more valid ones that I hope get unpacked. Fjord and Jester made a very similar admission to each in both episode 72 and episode 118 of Campaign 2, of "hey, wouldn't it be nice if we just ran away somewhere quiet and never had to deal with this again" and I think that having that admission and then finding a way forward anyway is a really great moment. I didn't write at length about how Orym's "but we have to work together and do this" has also been a really big factor in the party's dysfunction because I covered a lot of that in my discussion of how he handles his own grief well and the grief and pain of others very badly, but honestly it's good that Fearne and Laudna are getting to "we don't have to do this, this was always thrust upon us because an old guy brought us to a cool orc who hired us to look into some stuff and in the process found out that the comparatively small-time political crook was tangentially involved in a a vast cosmic death cult conspiracy that several of our parents are also involved with."
My issue with Imogen is that she literally said two episodes ago she's never prayed and now she's claiming the gods never listened to her, as well as that her reasoning is the horrifyingly self-absorbed "they don't love her", but I actually think it's fine if this party does not wish to save the gods on the grounds of "we feel underqualified and overwhelmed and like we've been at the mercy of many (mortal) masters with no time to pursue our own interests." And I think that Laudna didn't force this specific thing on the rest of the party; she said they could all ripcord, but didn't say who should do it or who felt that way or force them into agreement.
I've talked about the campaign's earlier pacing at length and I don't want to revisit it at length because it evened out, but more so than any other party, Bells Hells has rarely had self-directed adventures. That's a big reason why they're such a mess; they didn't need to develop the tools to come to consensus because Eshteross or Ryn or Keyleth would give them tasks, so we never actually have delved particularly deeply into what most of the party members want to be doing, which is why we're here with this group that's mostly stuck together because they've had jobs to do. I think acknowledging that is an important step, because the task at hand (scouting on Ruidus) is in my opinion within their abilities, but they've been pushed and pushed and have finally reached a point where they can't just keep going. (This by the way is the underlying premise of this post; this is the fundamental reality of Bells Hells as a party. If you like that the most then hell yeah, but a lot of people who claim to love C3 are blaming the entire plot of the campaign for why the party is a mess which is like, so you like the premises of these characters and dislike the vast majority of the actual story in which they exist, and you really just want the story of Campaign 1 or Campaign 2 but Ashton is there.)
With that said though, I do agree that's kind of at the core of Imogen and Laudna. They're so insular, and that's been claimed as a feature, not a bug, for much of the fanon of that relationship. Like, I think Laudna is valid for this specific statement, but unlike Fjord and Jester, who had established in through the course of the campaign both deep ties to each of the rest of the Mighty Nein and a profound sense of responsibility in general, I find myself wondering why Imogen and Laudna don't go off and live in a cottage together and leave the rest of the party to handle this. I mean, Imogen is also impossibly tied up in the fate of Ruidus, but she dithers about the approach so much I wonder why she doesn't decide that perhaps she should stay out of it altogether and retire to that cottage with Laudna until it's all over.
Personally, my thought is that Imogen does in fact secretly like being the special Ruidusborn Exaltant On The Other Side, especially since she's realized her mother wasn't that (as she had hoped). I agree with the fairly common opinion that Imogen and Ashton are in many ways extremely similar people, but whereas Ashton just got a very brutal wake up call of "your parents did fuck up and you're not built different and your desperate attempt to be something special could have hurt everyone" Imogen is still out here going full Javert on everyone's personal thoughts. So I suspect she won't ripcord out in the end, and therefore Laudna won't. But I do think it's valid for Laudna to bring up, and indeed, one of the many things that would make great progress in fixing this party dynamic would be Laudna independently expressing her own needs some more instead of being Imogen's Yes-Woman or projecting her own desires onto other people as I suspect she's doing with Fearne and the shard.
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