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itsss4t4n · 3 months

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How long is Forever? - Harry Hook x daughter of alice in wonderland

Headcanons but the longer version of this post:

a/n: this is based more on tim burtons aiw adaptation as it is the only one that i know, and i might have misremembered some of the story/ characters so i apologize if its inaccurate to wonderland or its characters in any way. I got way to invested in creating the character and story and almost forgot that that wasnt the point. At some point i think the character just completely changes and i low key hate it. Im really bad at writing headcannons instead of full fledged fics.

Trigger warnings: fighting, she /her pronouns used, slight angst toward the end but happy ending, not proofread

-being alices daughter you are considered kind of weird by the aks, (think luna lovegood), you are kind of dreamy and constantly in your own thoughts but you still have a very strong own opinion on everything. You say what you think even if others might not like that.

-You also have a very different sense of style than most girls in auradon. You played alot with different colours and textures always looking slightly crazy (you took inspiration from your godfather, the mad hatter). Your blonde hair was cut to a short messy bob with short bangs, and always changing coloured streaks throughout.

-you dont have the same view of good and bad as most others , and you dont think the vks should be judged by what their parents did and immediately try to befriend them and continuesly defend them

-when mal runs away to the isle you insist on joining the other vks and ben, as you do well in new and different invironments and later because you are an incredible sword fighter, your mother having thought you all she knows, just in case you ever needed to fight a jabberwookie type beast yourself.

-Due to your personal style not being very auradon, you didnt really have to disguise as much as ben when going to the isle.

-On the isle you felt surprisingly comfortable, as you liked the weird and almost liminal athmosphere that it had

-the first time you met harry was right after bens kidnapping, when harry came to tell you all about it.

-Harry has this theatrical almost a little eccentric way of talking and moving, which intruiged you pretty quickly. Of course , You didnt like or trust him, he did just kidnap one of your best friends, but you were intruiged non the less.

"And who is this little lassy?"

You told him your name with a glint of interest and mischif in your eyes. "Daughter of Alice in Wonderland."

"How interesting."

"I was just thinking the same thing. Whats your Name?"

"Harry Hook." He introduced himself with adramatic bow, before making fun of jay and barking at carlos.

- The other three had watched the interaction in confusion and wonder. They knew you were a little odd but seeming this confortable with harry after knowing what he did to ben?

"What was that?!"

"What?"

"Dont be nice to hook! He just kidnapped your best friend!"

"yea.. But he is quite interesting." And as an afterthougt: "and kind of pretty dont you think?"

"NO! Concentrate please. He is the enemie alright?!"

"Yea whatever, lets go tell mal about this shit."

-You go with Mal and evie to see dizzy, and instantly get along.

-Later while Mal and Uma are talking (singing), you cant help your eyes from glancing over at harry every few seconds. He did look good, with his red coat, the old silver jook on his left hand, and the messy black eyeshadow around his striking blue eyes.

"He is really beutiful dont you think?" That question was mostly directed towards evie who just shot you a dissapproving look. "I'm just saying. purely aesthetically."

-You simply shrugged and watched the situation continue to unfold, swordhand on the hilt of your sword at your side. When the fight breaks out you stand against harry. For better of for forse.

"Hello Pretty boy." You raise you swordand get into a defensive position.

"Wonderland girl."

-You kept making little comments about his looks and his sword fighting which he of course returned in his own flirty way. You quite enjoyed going back and forth like that. Witty comments, smirks and flirty smiles, and fighting more for show at this point instead of actually trying to beat each other. Trying to make this surprisingly pleasant moment last as long as possible.

-until you heard an urgend shout of your name from Mal.

"Sorry in advance." In a quick movement you snatched harrys hook and threw it down into the water. Before a shoked Harry can jump after it you catch his arm and talk to him in a slightly hushed voice.

"I really hope this wasnt our last meeting pretty boy." Before running off with the others.

-You dont see each other again until Audrey turns evil, but you do still think about harry. Is it stupid considering you met like twice and he was you enemy? Yea. Did you care? not really. He was georgeous, funny, good with a sword. Your dream guy. Except for the fact that he was supposedly your enemy. but then again when had you ever cared about that kinda stuff.

-His black lined blue piercing eyes were burned into your brain.

-In the six months until you saw him again you had become mal and bens unofficial bodyguard, spening most of your time with them or with evie, your sword has taken permanent residence at your side, only taking it of to sleep or shower and even then it was always in grabbing distance. Mals paranoia about uma had actually started to get to you.

-You are at evies house when audrey shows up and spells mal. You join them in going back to the isle to retrieve hades ember.

-When your bikes get stolen you cant help but smile at the sight. Yea its shitty but he is still beautiful.

"Pretty boy!"

He drawls you name in his scottish accent and you mentally swoon.

"Thats my bike!"

"Oh yea? Come and get it back then." Before driving of.

-You run after them (except mal and celia ofc),and at one point you split upbecause the boys on the bikes did so. You follow harry and when the others are out of sight he slows to a stop. You catch up to him with a grin.

"Nice to see you again Hook. I was hoping we would meet again."

"I was too Lassie."

-The next 10-ish minutes are filled with flirty banter and tales of what happened in the last six months. It felt like you've known each other for years (as clichee as that sounds).

-You almost forgot why you were there until you heard jay shouting your name.

"Where are you, Mal got the thing come on."

You quickly turn to Harry again.

"Go! Before they see you and make it a whole thing."

"What bout your bike?"

"Keep it pretty boy, i doubt the others got theirs back so it would be weird if i did."

With a last sly grin harry leans towards you "I will see you again very soon."

Before you could question what 'very soon' meant, he had already driven of.

Just in time because Jay and the others turned the corner behind you.

"There you are! What are you doing? come on!"

"Sorry. Was chasing after the bike." You Give them a small smile before walking past them. "You coming?"

-To say you were surprised when harry and gil jumped through the barries after them would be an understatement.

"Pretty boy?!"

"'ello Darling. we're just coming for a wee visit"

-You tried , just like evie, to get the two groups to work together. Harry mostly walked next to you or Uma. At some point you hung back so he culd walk in between you and doesnt have to kep switching. He caught up with uma but still kept the constant flirts towards you up.

-Everyone was really confused on why you two seemed so good and almost comfortable around each other, not to mention the flirting. Evie was the only one who knew of your little crush so she send you a few knowing smirks.

-During the knight fight you and harry fought as a team. Incedibly well might i say.

-You were somewhat enthusiastic about evies icebreaker idea, enjoying the idea that the two groups could finally work together.

"Harry great accent."

"Shes right. It is a good accent."

-The flirting just wouldnt stop, comments thrown at each other, bumping shoulders while walking, even brushing your hands against each others on occasion. You had joined the boys in looking for ben.

"To make sure jay and harry dont kill each other."

-Gil doing the icebreaker and bonding with jay.

meanwhile you and harry in the background:

"We should do that icebreaker pretty boy."

"oh yea?"

"Yea. You've got really pretty eyes."

"And you are really good with a sword lass." His hook just slightly gracing your cheek before something in gil and jays conversation sparks his interest.

-When finding ben you had immediately pushed harry behind you and unsheathed your sword out of instinct. Jay has to pull both of you out of bens way because both of you got distrcated by how close you were standing to each other. After making sure ben was alright you made sure harry was too.

(instead of flirting with jane he flirts with you)

"Well well well, thank you for trying to protect me there darling." The hook was under you chin this time.

"No problem pretty boy." You smirk back.

Ben had his little freak out. Jay and carlos had one too for slightly different reasons.

"when did this happen? you and hook?"

You just shrugged and started walking off.

The boys just looked at eachother thouroghly confused.

-After everyone reuniting and you secretely updating evie on the harry situation you all made your way to fairy cottage. When you found chad you had to half hide in harrys shoulder to hide your laughter because god was it good to see chad taken down a few pecks like that.

-Then Mal dropped the bomb. Closing the barrier forever. You couldnt believe it. You were always a firm believer in the vk programm. And you had honestly hoped that even if harry etc were send back, they would get out someday, or you might go visit them. You considered them freinds at that point. But now that wasnt possible. You tried to comfort harry and uma in some way but it was to no avail.

"Im so sorry you guys... I didnt know." You had tears in your eyes yourself.

"Dont worry about it Darling. Its nae your fault." Placing his hand, his actual hand, on your cheek for a second, to wipe away the tear that had fallen. Before he walked of with uma.

"Harry....."

Mal was shocked to see your tears at the fact that harry was leaving. she had absolutely no idea this was a thing. It wasnt really. you didnt have enough time for it to actually become a thing. You watched harry and uma leave before evie walked up to you to hug you.

She talked to mal but you didnt want to listen.

suddenly there was a bright light before it went dark for a bit. When you came to again, Mal was gone. It didnt take you guys long to piece together what must have happened. so you went to find mal.

-You and harry were both incredibly relieved to see that the other was okay. *cue big hug and an almost kiss that turned into a kind of awkward cheek kiss before another hug *

-Harry announcing that he is actually going back to the isle felt like another punch in the gut. Again that sounds dumb considereing how little you actually knew each other but you didnt care.

-Harry and you talked before he left. He gave you one of his rings "so you wont forget me darling". So you give him one of yours "then dont you forget me either". *cue more crying and hugs, between all of you *

-Mal announcing that the barrier will be taken down during the engagement party was the best thing that couldve happened to you at that point.

"Looks like you get a chance with your pretty boy after all." Evie.

Uma to harry on the isle: "Now you can get your pretty girl, pretty boy." While bumbing his shoulder.

As soon as you could spot eachother on the bridge you ran into each others arms.

-Kith

-like a lot of em

-Your friends from both sides were incredibly happy for both of you.

#descendants x reader #descendants #disneys descendants #harry hook #harry hook x reader #alice in wonderland #alice in wonderland reader #writing #reader insert #fem reader

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anjanahalo · 9 months

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Wayne vs Fenton

I lost the prompt for this, but it was basically "Danny ends up at Gotham Academy For Reasons, tries to annoy the Lone Sane Man Damian into being friends with him for a week, which ends with Damian dragging this irritation in an alley, giving in to his anger enough to punch him, only to learn that's the best way to start making friends with a ghost." In my version, Vlad has decided to focus more on becoming a Father Figure to Danny and simultaneously working to undermine his position as Phantom, starting with stepping down as mayor, moving to Gotham, and convincing Maddie and Jack to allow him to fund Danny's entry into the prestigious Gotham Academy where Danny could get the academic support he needs to succeed, pointing out Danny's abysmal grades and attendance as proof of this necessity. They agree, sign temporary guardianship over to Vlad, and Danny is forcibly sent to the preppiest school in New Jersey.

He doesn't fit in with the rich crowd because he gives off strong middle class vibes. He doesn't fit in with the scholarship crowd because, though he's smart, his study skills have gone to crap and his entry grades are only accepted because Vlad had the money to pay for his tuition, and most everyone in between is put off because, if he was considered weird in Amity, he's seen as a freak here. In Gotham, that translates to potential rogue, so even the teachers treat him with suspicion (ignore that this is the best way to push Danny into roguedom. We're going for realism, not how troubled kids should be treated to ensure they grow up feeling loved and not in need of villainous coping mechanisms).

The only one that treats him neutrally and has, when the bullying escalated (to a level of annoyance for him) defended Danny is a kid with Middle Eastern features he learns, with some work, is named Damian. Damian lets him eat with him. Damian is effortlessly cool without being a bully. Damian is even liminal! That's all Danny needs to start thinking maybe, just maybe, he could become friends with the one guy that tolerates him sitting at the same lunch table. He's made friends with more prickly people, after all! EDIT: Started posting this on ao3 for anyone who's interested

#dpxdc #danny phantom #damian wayne #batfam #I wrote stuff for it #but it has to be a separate post apparently because it made this one too large. This is a good start though.

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skyeslittlecorner · 4 months

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Promised Land - Andrealphus

You know what, I'm sorry. It was supposed to be three times shorter. I swear. My hand slipped. I have no idea how it got so big. No proofreading, plus I'm sure there will be some awkwardness because English is not my native language. SFW.

I wish everyone who is brave enough to read it to have a nice time!

Words: ~5365

Part one summary: You, the reader, managed to talk to Andrea through the game. He realized that apart from the MC, there was someone behind the screen.

Other parts: On the other side | Promised Land | Point to point | Love is blind (18+)

꧁:･ ✡ ･:꧂

First, you were fired from a job. Then you tripped on a walker, cracked the head, and ended up in the hospital. But the worst of it all was that you destroyed your phone. Everything was gone. With barely enough savings to pay your rent, you couldn't afford a new one. Drunk with desperation, you even asked a friend to install the game on her phone just to see if the account was saved. Account - yes. But what you valued most is gone.

Andrealphus didn't hear you.

You couldn't even tell anyone about it. Crazy, that's what they'd say. They thought work was your biggest worry, but it was only almost biggest. For two weeks, the longing had been so overwhelming that you could do nothing but cry into your pillow. Stupid? Maybe. Stupid was that you lost him through your own fault and in such a simple way. You would love to get rid of these feelings. The problem was that you couldn't.

The Promised Land was a three-hour drive from the city and at first glance looked like a combination of Disneyland and a shamanic capital. All you could see were the outlines of high roller coasters, a barrel, and other strange death apparatuses that you had only agreed to visit to ease your’s friend remorse. She suddenly realized that she had been ignoring you because of her new boyfriend and wanted to make it up to you. At first, you were excited. Then it turned out that all three of you were going. Apparently, her car broke down. What a sad coincidence, her boyfriend’s car remains.

Watching the amusement park from the backseat of the SUV, Liminal Land came to your mind. You have always been interested in AR. Parallel worlds, virtual reality, interconnections, such nonsense. Nonsense… That's probably why you had the impression for a few weeks that the guy from the game talked with you. Maybe it was all a dream? You must have imagined it out while you were having a bad time, drinking coffee with energy drinks, trying to keep up with work that you got fired anyway. A defensive reaction of the brain or something.

And yet you still felt like you had lost somebody close.

꧁:･ ✡ ･:꧂

It was exactly as you thought. The couple in love disappeared from sight about half an hour after buying tickets and walking through the gate. They probably followed the cashier's advice and visited Stargrazer, a large building that reminded you of the Avisos casino. Apparently you got tokens there. They could be exchanged for prizes, rides, and more. You preferred to go to the other attractions first so as not to run into the lovebirds. Tall garden clocks that resembled lamps showed ten o'clock. Armed with a VIP pass, you promised yourself to have fun, at least for today. Despite this, you involuntarily returned your hand to your purse to touch the damaged phone. Somehow it felt warm. That hit on the head must have been really hard to still have effects.

After all, throwing yourself into the attractions and completing half of them, ending with three rounds of a sick water rollercoaster in a row… was not the best idea. It was almost lunchtime. Or at least it should be, because you were getting hungry even though the time on the watches had barely moved. That was weird. You could clearly see the hands moving, but when you looked away and returned, it showed ten o'clock again.

To calm your stomach, you sat on a bench and looked at the people around you. They also were weird, but positively weird. Freaks of all designs and colors, cosplayers, but also amateurs. Somewhere you saw One Piece and Dragon Ball, and now crossdressed Elsa in a fur cape was talking to a biblically accurate angel. They moved away towards the administration, probably belonged to the staff. Extraordinary craftsmanship.

The park was mostly for adults, but a lot of them were with children. Too bad, they could have left them in the mini-park that was apparently set aside somewhere at the other end of the place. Their running only made you more dizzy. The smell of pizza from the stand next door didn't help either.

Evacuating yourself from all the stimuli, you stood in front of a large block, which was apparently the biggest attraction. Stargrazer was a gigantic, purple and blue structure that looked like a club from the outside. Through the arch with neon lights in the shapes of comets and planets, dozens of people entered the huge hall. The whole place was enormous. There seemed to be no walls or even a ceiling. People on other levels walked on balconies, and at the top - on a dark glass surface that lit up with every step, making the "ceiling" look like a sky with shining stars. Dozens of stands were scattered on the left and right. People occupied lanes that looked like some kind of bowling pins, glass mini-mazes, and slot machines. Walking through the middle, you moved further and further away from the sunlight, guided by the dim light of LED lights and games that you had never really seen in your life. Everyone seemed to know the rules.

Something crashed into you with full force.

"I'm sorry, ma'am!"

"It’s okay…"

A short teenager gave you an apologetic smile and ran away, holding a white thistle in his hands. It looked like a many-pointed star or a sharp spike. Many people won the same objects. When unfolded, they resembled stars and gave off light, but they could be twisted, folded into a cube the size of a thumb, and placed in a pocket. They appeared to be tokens that could be redeemed for prizes. When you looked behind the boy, you saw him lining up at the checkout at the entrance.

"Are you sure everything is fine?"

This time, the little girl stood in front of you, watching intently. She had fair skin and golden hair, and with blue eyes she looked like an angel. There was a badge on her chest. It resembled employee ID badges, but was clearly written in a child's handwriting: "Hi! My name is Mia and I work here with dad!"

It seemed that her parent took her to work here often enough that she felt the need to help customers herself, because she started explaining the rules of the games. She was nicer company than you thought, as you slowly walked deeper and deeper into the building. You weren't having much luck with games and didn't care about tokens, just wanted to try out the games. When the star finally rolled out of the slot, you turned to Mia.

"It's for you." You gave her a star.

"For me…"

She looked shocked, turned the item over in her hands like a treasure. You didn't know she would be so happy; with VIP pass you didn't need tokens anyway, just came to calm down a bit. Despite the multitude of people, the place seemed calmer and the voices were muffled. Maybe it was some space special effects.

As you were walking to the next stand, the explosion blew you off your feet.

Everything happened at once. Thrown against the wall like a rag doll, you felt every part of the body being torn apart by pain. You've gone deaf. Breathless. Shards of glass fell from the sky like rain, beautifully shining, deadly raindrops. Conscious enough to cover your eyes, you raised hands. The skin was cut by sharp edges.

The ringing in the ears turned into a wailing alarm. You felt torn apart, but all your limbs were in place. Not everyone was so lucky. Dozens of people, scattered on the floor and against the walls, lay motionless. Some bloody. Not everything was visible through the thick layer of dust. Also, images reached your eyes, but not mind. What happened?

You don't know if it was a second or an hour before you regained some sort of consciousness. To your left, a pair of men weren't getting up, but to your right, a girl who stood next to you earlier was clinging and shaking. Her eyes were as big as cup saucers, and blood and tears were mixing on a dainty face.

"Hey, your head. This looks bad." You heard your own voice, although you still felt unreal, as if everything around you didn't exist. Ultra-real VR. Especially the pain.

She flinched as you took the torn piece of her shirt and tied it around her temple.

"Th-these…are they terrorists?" She uttered, sobbing.

You looked around. The explosion threw you behind the games, away from the center of the hall. She had a better view, as two gaming machines fell in front of you, effectively blocking the view. When you looked out from behind them, sure enough, there were some people walking around… with guns. White uniforms and fur coats. They seemed to be combing the gigantic place starting from the other end. Not many of them, but would there be many terrorists? They chased away the rest of the people, took the conscious ones inside the destroyed building, and the unconscious ones…

You didn't want to see this. You didn't want to end up like that, either. Until they haven't found you, you had a chance. Whoever it was had bad intentions.

"Let's go." As you sat up, dizziness hit you, but luckily the legs worked. It's worse with the hands. The left one you covered yourself with was bleeding so profusely that all your clothes on your chest and stomach were red. Luckily, the blood was only leaking lazily now, not as heavily, but you still felt sick watching it.

The girl wasn't lucky either. Her leg was bent at an odd angle, at best it was broken. She whimpered as you helped her up. Someone turned off the alarm. Now the only sounds were the shifting of rubble. The soldiers were unnaturally quiet, as if they did not need words to communicate. It scared you. Despite everything, Mia had more courage, she bit her lip to keep quiet.

There were many alcoves with doors along the wall, and every other one had an "exit" sign above it. Fire exits. In some, you could hear the sound of sprinklers firing through the thick smoke following the explosion. The air was hard to breathe. You glided slowly, leaning against the wall, helping the girl bounce forward. Every step took forever. Only the adrenaline in the veins kept you running.

Strange soldiers were getting closer. As you trudged through the alley, you could hear machines moving nearby. Cleaned rubble. Whistle of the blade that will stay with you forever. You had two final turns to get out of the trap when someone ran right into you.

"R-run!" A distressed woman in bloody clothes squealed. She grabbed your hand. You screamed in pain and jumped back. "There's their boss over there! He kills! He’ll kill you!"

She ran further down the corridor. Your hand, torn by the glass and moved by her, burst out with a fresh dose of blood. Pain was awful. Black spots danced before the eyes, if only you could take a breath… The little girl leaning on your shoulder began to sob. It brought you back to life. The strange woman run again, and must have bumped into the soldiers because you heard her scream.

Boss. Angelic boss. The best options you could think of were immediate death from Gabriel's scythe. As for the others, maybe Michael would take pity and cut your head off quickly. Raphael… Well… Fortunately, there was no time to think about it.

In front of you was a bend in the hall and on your left was the door to the bathroom. You pressed the doorknob, they gave way. The intact, white room smelling of lavender, that would have been completely normal half an hour ago, looked like science fiction when you were surrounded by chaos and destruction. Behind a series of sinks and mirrors, the only ones that were cracked, there was a second door leading to an outside corridor. You hid in one of the cabins.

"Listen." You crawled together and helped her lean against the wall. "I'll check if it's still safe and come get you, okay? This "boss" doesn’t sound good."

You had no other choice, and you both knew it.

"But promise you'll come back." The little one tried to hold on, but it didn't work out well. "Promise…"

"I swear."

You felt sorry for her. Alone. Little. She didn't even have a way to escape with her crushed leg. But if there really was another danger ahead of you, you wouldn't stand a chance anyway. You didn't even have a place to hide and wait, because the storage compartment in the cabin where you left Mia was too small for the two of you.

But why were the Seraphim here? Didn't they have better things to do? You already guessed why the clocks weren't working. It is a space like the "New Heaven" in Gehenna created by the Cherubim. Here, a lot of innocent people were caught in angelic inner games.

Carefully, you poked your head out. The last corridor left to exit was long and wide. Debris was falling from the stairwells at regular intervals, but it was possible to walk through them. Two people ran down and towards the exit, or at least they tried to, before someone got in their way.

Now you knew the woman wasn't lying, and realized what the strange fur coats were. It's not fur. They're feathers. A chill ran down your spine because what you saw before the eyes was unreal. A tall man stood with his back to you, with the wing and a halo. With a shining scythe, he blocked the path of two terrified people.

You knew this man. Angel’s boss, she said? You felt a stupid urge to laugh out loud, along with a stone that suddenly weighed heavily on your heart.

"Wait!"

The scream left your mouth before any thought even reached the brain. The hand that was preparing to strike froze in the air, and you had the impression that you felt a gust of air that was supposed to accompany the slash. Regret hit you faster than a train. Legs felt like running away. It was a mistake. Now this scythe will be aimed at you. But he just turned around and stared blankly at you.

Now that he turned around, you had a clear view of all the details. A black suit, perfectly fitted to a muscular body. A long braid decorated with bloody feathers and powerful horns, curled like a ram's and made of black segments like dragon scales. A handsome, long face and muddy eyes, decorated with scars. Black leather gloves on his hands that held the huge weapon as easily as a child's toy. And a luminous scythe. Which was now aiming for your throat.

"Who are you?"

"I…" Is it possible? Does he remember? Were your conversations even yours, or was it really AI? You almost stopped breathing, squinting.

"Uh… I'm… I'm human. You wouldn't hurt a human. Right?"

If your conversations weren't real, your name would do him no good. But if it was the real Andrealphus, the one you knew, the one you love, he wouldn't have hurt an innocent man. But… why was he targeting those people, then?

He flinched when he heard your voice.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came with friends…"

"No. What are you doing here? My…" He trailed off. "It's not safe. You have to get out of here."

Oh, that was all you wanted right now. But the chaos in your head didn't allow you to think clearly. After all, about three minutes ago you were the victim of a terrorist attack, and now you were standing in front of a fictional guy you were in love with. Even separately this is too much!

"A strange woman ran… into me and said, well… That you are the boss of the angels. And you murder people."

"Humans? You're the first human I've ever met. As for the other part…" The grip on the scythe style tightened.

"Those two you were aiming at also were."

He frowned and tilted his head as if to look over his shoulder. Of course, they were no longer there, but you were sure you didn't see any wings on them, unlike the soldiers in the main hall.

"They had an angelic aura about them."

Any further discussion had to wait because you heard footsteps in the hall. He was redy to fight, but you were not. You dragged him into the bathroom.

"They were humans. There's something wrong with this place. Maybe he's irradiating us or something."

"If so, I should also see you."

Your voices turned to whispers as footsteps passed down the hall. You knew he could ‘see’ the glow of the outlines of angels, but not ordinary humans or devils. He was relying on other senses and sensations you didn't understand. It didn't fully replace sight, but it helped, especially in hunting.

"I'll show you another human. We'll see then, okay?"

You got back to Mia faster than you thought. She was happy to see you, but when she saw Andrealphus she screamed and pushed herself deeper into the corner. He didn't look happy either.

"Hello, little one."

Andrea knelt down next to the girl. Even if he looked confused, his voice was firm and gentle. He was really talking to the child. The girl moved away and covered her eyes with her hand as if to defend herself.

"Your friend says you have no wings. Is it true?"

"Ye…yes."

"I’m blind. Let me feel it."

He warned before extending his hand. His hand wandered over her shoulder, but all he found was air and a cold wall. He frowned.

"I told you, she’s not an… what are you doing!" You shouted, seeing how he takes out small pistol from under his jacked. You froze, but he just placed the gun on the girl's lap. His past came to your mind; you wondered if he thought about what would happen if he had a gun when he met Rafael as a little boy. In his own way, it seemd that he was trying to protect another child from this fate. Save from helplessness.

You felt a twist of pain in your stomach. He trusted you. He must have remembered you. Why else would he believe you enough to give the creature he thought was an angel a weapon?

"You have to have something to defend yourself with." He stood up and turned towards you. "Let's go."

"We?" You glanced towards the door. "I will be a burden. Let me sneak out the back door."

"The building is fully guarded, you are safest with me. Besides, you got your eyes intact. Since the aura is crazy here, I don't want to hurt anyone innocent."

Andrea placed the scythe on his shoulder. A hand extended towards you, a serious look on a scarred face.

"Please, be my sight. Guide me."

Your heart skipped a beat. Even your vision went dark, although maybe it was the result of blood loss. Never mind. You accepted his hand. It was rough and strong, you could feel the tiny scars under your fingers; exactly how you imagined a soldier's hand. He smiled so softly that your legs went weak beneath you. He caught you in half before you fell.

Okay, maybe it was the blood loss after all.

You slowly straightened up and leaned against your broad chest, taking a few deep breaths. Wounds didn't hurt as much anymore, but slowly you slowly lose feeling in your hand. It just went limp. You didn't even have time to admire his warmth, his scent, because your stupid body refused to obey.

"You're bleeding."

"Don't worry… I'll be fine. It's already better." You tried to sound like everything was alright. Maybe not well enough for him to move away, but enough for him not to worry. Judging by his face, it didn't work. His grip on your waist tightened.

"I would take you to Nilfheim, but those damn portals stopped working…" He muttered to himself.

You didn't expect to hear such a note in his voice. Care? Anxiety? This was unlike the stoic devil you knew. And if the portals weren't working…

"How did you get here then?"

"We have other ways. Your phone."

"But it's ruined."

"It didn't matter. It previously acted as an interdimensional mirror, so I could have used it as a reference."

That was enough revelation for you. Whatever happened, you just wanted to rest. With Andrea, of course.

"Please. Let's just get out of here."

You decided it would be better to go through the main hall. If you don't manage to sneak by sideways, it will be easier for Andrealphus, with his huge scythe, to fight in a larger area. That's why you left Mia too. He felt her just like the angels. Only recognizing their aura, he couldn't distinguish most of them; he would have killed her by pure accident, aiming at someone else. You preferred to avoid it.

Leaning on the devil, letting him hold you by your waist, you limped into the main hall. Most of the angels had already dispersed, the dust had settled, only human bodies and dirty blood stains were lying here and there. Seeing this, your nausea only increased. A few surviving soldiers were wandering among the machines, picking something up from among the rubble. You saw sparkles in their hands. Were they star tokens?

Before you could think twice, you felt a tug on your waist. Andrea stopped. The scythe was aimed at the man in front of you.

"I can?"

He asked politely, as if he wanted to pull out a chair in front of you rather than waiting for permission to murder. A lump stuck in your throat. The man did indeed have white wings and a halo, but instead of a soldier’s uniform he wore a blue one. You recognized that long blond hair; you've seen him before.

"It's… someone from the staff, I guess."

"Do not kill me!" He begged. "I can't do anything to you, I was just… looking…"

He tried to move away, but Andrea wrapped his scythe around the man like an arm. The weapon touched the wings. Demon felt it and growled throatily.

There was a screech behind you.

"Leave him!"

Another problem. You glanced behind; Mia, propped up on a broom, had to limp quietly tracing you. She aimed the small gun at Andrea's back. Would the bullet hurt him? You did not know. But his face hardened. The angels that had been roaming around the building heard you and began to gather around. In a wide semicircle, with their weapons drawn, they observed the horned intruder.

Andrealphus was silent. Waited. He could have killed them. He would do it easily, without breaking a sweat; but still, something held him back. You guessed what it was about. When he gave the girl the gun earlier, he didn't expect it to be pointed at him.

In a scene he couldn't get out of his mind, he became the one he hated the most.

"You're not like him." You whispered and placed your hand on his hand where he held the scythe.

He slowly moved her away from the man. Mia walked past you and threw herself into her father's arms. This didn't solve the problem; if he didn't want to kill them, he couldn't fight. Having to take care of you on top of that, his hands were tied.

The number of angels only increased. More and more of them came, crawling through the rubble, appearing on balconies as if waiting for the first move. They surrounded you, but it could just as easily have been the flies surrounding the dragon. Lowest angels and a devilish noble. He would have chopped them to pieces if it weren't for his only weakness - and that weakness was you.

You felt worse and worse, but a crazy idea came to your head.

"Trust me." You asked so quietly that even you didn't hear your words, but you hoped he did, and pushed him away. "Finally! I brought him as Raphael ordered. Do with him whatever you want now! Dad, let’s come out."

Everyone was moved by this name. Just as you thought. You couldn't read anything on Andrea's face, and you didn't want to because you felt like a traitor. The angels took your shout as an order. They attacked straight ahead. If this was a trap for the noble set by the Seraphin, they must have managed to kill him, right?

Mia's father, whom you bumped into, helped you walk. He supported both you and his daughter as you walked to the exit. Did you feel safe? No. But the angels evaded you. They must have assumed that, like Mia, you were half-angel. They parted as you walked on soft legs… and a moment later wet sounds of blood splashing and flesh being torn apart filled the entire hall. Andrea was chopping up angels. Yes, that's him. It must be him. Not the other way around.

You have no idea how you got out of the building, but when you felt the fresh air, you fell to your knees. You were overwhelmed by helplessness and pain. The earth was swirling, full of black spots. It's happened before, you could walk. You just needed a moment to gather your strength. And probably you would have made it if you hadn't seen movement out of the corner of your eye. Hand and stone. Your head erupted in pain before you passed out.

꧁:･ ✡ ･:꧂

When you opened your eyes again, the light blinded you. White ceiling, walls a sickly blue shade that looked as if someone had smeared soap on them instead of paint. The smell of cleaning products and medicines. Your stomach lurched. You knew this place so well, but it was two weeks ago. After all, so much has happened since the accident. After all… Andrea.

You felt nauseous, looking around the room with your heart in your throat; drip, bedside table with glass full of water, large window letting in the evening light. Behind the mirror in the corridor stood a couple of people, whose voices could be heard through the door ajar. They had an argument. You groaned, rubbing your aching head. Collecting thoughts was so hard.

It couldn't all have been a dream. His voice. His touch. You remembered it too clearly. Panic was rising in your chest, especially when you heard a sleepy voice from the hall. Words like 'coma', 'memory impairment' and 'you have to be understanding' brought tears to your eyes. Whole body hurt. The greatest pain spread slowly through the chest, stabbing and burning, as if someone had inserted a hot blade and was circling in a open wound.

People are dying. Their brain, in an act of self-defense, can invent their entire life in a split second. Some woke up in the hospital thinking they had a wife and children, only to find out they hadn't finished school yet. Was this the case? Did you make this all up? You were on the verge of life anyway, so your stupid brain decided to trick you and give you hope? Hot tears filled your eyes. How could you be so stupid? Why did you believe?

Before you burst into tears, a few more words came through.

"She keeps waking up and falling asleep… Is there any point in going in there?"

"Leave it. I doubt she heard anything."

Your friend and her boyfriend. Someone responded with a snort, the voices fading. Or maybe it was the throbbing pain that swirled your head like a blender. You cried silently. One of the silhouettes outside the window straightened up as if paralyzed and shot towards the door.

You didn't know if your brain was playing tricks on you or if you were completely crazy, when he appeared in the doorway.

This scarred, yet handsome face and long red braid, you’d recognize them even at the end of the world. He looked uncertain. As if he himself was suffering. In casual clothes, simple jeans and blue checkered shirt, he looked so normal you nearly believed that it’s just a human resembling him. But despite the lack of a halo and wings, his head was decorated with majestic, dark horns.

"You liar…"

Even his voice matched perfectly. Shock drew back the tears. Is it…?

You didn't have time to think. In the current state, thinking wasn't your strongest trait anyway. He sat down next to you, slender fingers first landing on your shoulder and then moved to your face.

"You awful, dishonest, intelligent woman. If I knew…"

You could barely feel the gentle touches of fingertips. Despite terrible words, he was so careful, as if he were examining a work of art and not your broken skin. Although, his smile made you feel like a masterpiece. Before you could utter a greeting, he found your mouth, and not with fingers. The touch of hot lips was even more tender and ticklish than his palms. Shaky breath leave his lips, before you could hear a faint whisper.

"I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I didn’t want, if… If I had known…"

No. This was not something you expected to hear. Sealing those sweet lips with yours, you purred.

"Are you sorry for kissing me or for saving my life?"

"For risking it in the first place!"

"You’re a devil. I’d be disappointed if you wouldn’t."

You chuckled, seeing him frowning, as if he wanted to scold you but couldn’t. It was a mistake. A new dull pain erupted in your wounded head. Did it matter? The pain in a chest suddenly subsided. Life started to make more sense. Even the color on the walls stopped being soapy and became a beautiful blue.

"How did I get here?"

"This… angel." He spat the word like it was the worst insult. "He hit you, patched you up, and left you in a back alley. He said he couldn't take you with him, and you'd be safer unconscious. I found you not much later. Human services arrived, and I convinced them to deal with you first. And they better do it right."

"What happened to him? With Mia?"

"She’s safe. And him… He didn’t have to hit you, but he did. I didn’t have to let him live…" He felt your tense expression and tilted his head. "But I did."

You sighed with relief. It was a step in a good direction.

"Although without a hand that hit you."

…well, quite a small step. You didn't want to dwell on it, you can do the next steps together. In less intense circumstances. Since the portals weren't working…

"I now know why I felt angels everywhere."

"Why?"

"They really weren't disguised. Unable to get rid of their aura around people, they used tokens, those stars, to make all the humans resemble their aura. Without the tokens, I couldn’t see you. It's even better. I don't want to see you if it means you'll look like an enemy. You are wonderful in the way you laugh, move, think. I'm glad I know you deeper than just your outer shell." He kept playing and stroking gently your face. "Although I'm sure you would shine not deadly, but beautifully."

You held his hand, you heard his voice. Time passed, and you didn't have the strength to speak, but he still kept you company. You could listen and listen. With your eyes closed, you hugged the hand cupping your face and felt like you could stay like that forever. It was worth being neatly torn apart to finally be able to meet him. For the first time, you didn't feel longing. Only warmth.

#whb #what in hell is bad #whb andrealphus #I don't know if I should have posted it #sends kisses to the one person who will like it

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teethflavoured · 1 year

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You know when you’re hit with a wave of extreme love for a character, so your heart goes ARGHEHDHFFJEJE and then you immediately need to find the UnArghifier so your heart rate can slow down and you can process all the good feelings? Kinda like the happy version of a panic attack?

That’s what your art does for me, it disarms the passion grenade. Calms me down and makes me giddy at the same time. It helps me digest my Spyke-nation-appreciation in a tangible way. Actually whenever I see it, your art immediately lights UP the passion grenade, but since it’s also the outlet, I get all the happy without the “argh I have no outlet arghargh.” Instead I’m like ah it’s ok… I can calmly obsess now… teeth understands… teeth lives in happyhappy sea urchin land like I do

this is the highest compliment I can give, thank you

(if you draw Spyke with Annie on his shoulders/picking her up/doing Tol vs Smol stuff I will cry)

this ask sent me into the family guy death pose and i mean it in the best way possible. hearing someone i don't know say they feel this way about my work is,,, very surreal! it makes me so happy it ways i cannot fully articulate! im going to be honest, i haven't got such positive reception and praise for my work in so many years, im so honored to have my work make you feel that way, its like...its very nice to know that people like what i do because I've always assumed my interests are just so weird and niche that when i do art involving my interests like with fashion, biology, liminal spaces, horror, etc, people scoff in my direction, but so far people love it. which is so fucking awesome man. it makes me want to cry

but yeah, thank you! heres the sillies as you requested! i wanted to do a little comic that involved him picking her up :)

#teethdraws #teeth answers #spyke #annie #annie x spyke #spyke x annie #splatoon

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the-pony-confessional · 8 months

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I saw someone say "literally name anything about G2" and okay here I go.

it's like G3 with yassification. Everything is magic- the beds fly, their gardens have multiple stories even though it's outdoors, everypony is a princess. They have crystals in their eyes, they swap tails- when you make them kiss each other, they whisper "I love you". Gay as hell (<-positive)

There was like one maybe two Unicorns (major L), and no Pegasus- because some ponies came with fucking fairy butterfly wings. And you could just put those bitches on anything. Any pony could have wings as long as you had the accessory.

The art direction is so specifically 90s in my head, it took the liminality and drama from G1 and began to glamorize the ponies even more (sculpts, crystal eyes, a lot ponies have outfits). The sculpting design and direction for the playsets and accessories looks otherworldly despite being so very recognizable to me- they're inherently uncanny, but tinker with hyper feminization. It's all slightly off, but that's what draws me in (someone who didn't grow up with MLP toys, but found an interest later on)

It's a shame there was practically nothing media wise because this was so iconic. Their biggest flops are the lack of interesting molds and the weird romantic couple packs. I don't think G2 is perfect, there's some major Ls in there.

the reason I don't enjoy G2 as much is because of a lack of content, and accessibility. I still love G1 and G3 quite a bit more right now because, I have more interest in collecting them (but that could change)

#mlp #mlp g2 #mlp gen 2 #gen 2 #my little pony #neutral #mlp toys #pony #90s mlp #pony toys #mlp figures

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microwavable-fork · 7 days

Text

Part of the possible AU story thing, this is a random part of the story, tell me what y'all think!!

People said this part was good lmao.

Also! This au is gonna include a LOT of fandoms most likely, this is just one of the characters pov.

Tw: cursing & mention of injuries !

Brooklyn.

Brooklyn!

I woke up with a shock, and bolted straight up.

Oh God, that wasn’t a good idea.. the pain shot through my body like the drugs the other Operatives sometimes gave me, for uh.. when I was being “disobedient”, or whatever.

Oh God..

Oh shit.

As quickly as I realized that all of that shit I did wasn't a dream, it was actually something I did, I realized I was probably still at The Orientation base. My hand shot to my face, I rubbed my eyes as quickly as I could, ignoring the pain. As soon as my eyes adjusted to the light, the very very, very bright, hospital-ly looking lights, I saw…

Not a room in The Orientation?

What, Huh..?! Where the fuck am I?

My head spun around as I tried to get out of the oddly.. uh… comfortable bed I was on, but the side of my torso shot pain through my body once more. Oh, so that's where the pain is coming from. Feels like a fucking scorpion sting, at least from what I’ve heard scorpion stings are like that. Although this is probably worse then a scorpion sting.

Somehow I was able to get in a sitting position straight up on the bed I was placed on, despite the overwhelming pain of my probably-mostly-destroyed torso. After a few tries of course. As I looked around, I realized the room was oddly.. welcoming. I mean, it looked a lot more like a bedroom then a hospital room, which is what I expected to see, being hurt and bandaged and all that.

Wait.. I just realized..! I have bandages! Who… someone… helped me? Well, that's.. uh.. interesting! One life-save doesn’t mean they are completely trustworthy though.

I was finally able to take a closer look at the room I was placed in. It had a liminal-like feel to it, almost felt like I was somewhere other then a place I should be able to access. The walls were a odd brownish-yellowish color, like one you would find in a old apartment. The room had a window, as well.

I.. should try to move. I tried to scoot my legs over and off the side of the bed, succeeded, then proceeded to somehow successfully stand up as well. I tried walking for a moment, and I could! Very slowly, but I could. I slowly but surely made my way to the window, painfully, but nothing I haven't dealt with before.

The view was.. huh… a white void? I soon realized there was a odd looking button, or some sorta screen placed on the wall next to the window, I got closer and pressed a singular finger on it.

“Oh-!” I shot my hand back quickly. I honestly don’t know what I expected, because I somehow got jump-scared when the screen popped to life.

I took a closer look at the screen, I didn't have my glasses, nor contacts.. uh… welp, there goes my sight.

“[GREAT].. I can’t see it..” My voiced glitched out, as it normally does with certain words.

I carefully backed up, reached my hand out, and took a oddly weird jump of faith, pushing randomly on the screen. I acted as if the screen could hurt me. To be honest, knowing the world now, it probably could!

As soon as I pushed a odd, fuzzy looking rectangle, I expected to get shocked or something of the sort, but to my surprise, the outside view of the window changed to a.. Wait..

“Woah..” I muttered, in awe.

The view was astounding. Although it took me a moment to realize what I was looking at, I always had a thing for liminal spaces.

It was one of the… classics, is that the right word for it? One of the classic photos someone took of a place and edited it to look like the backrooms, or some sort of liminal place like that.. it looked completely.. real? 3d? Was it real?! Well, I don’t have enough time to.. question this. I need to figure out where I am! Or uh.. who took me here.

Hopefully they are good people. Unlike those.. “heroes”.. as they liked to call themselves.

God I hate the other Operatives.

[End of random part. There is more information to this one part, tell me if y'all want to hear the rest of it.]

#au fanfiction #the days union #first pov #1st pov #writing #writerscommunity #writeblr #fanfiction #fanfic #roblox myths #roblox #roblox fanfic #sorry if its confusing!! its a random part lol #au worldbuilding #roblox au #connected au #connected through the media au #wip #my wips

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the-bensolos · 11 months

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JUSTICE FOR ACE !!!!! people are so mad on Twitter, I still remember how pissed off I was at the liminal space episode, it cemented completely that no one cares about ace and they literally did a redux only so much worse bc a day ago they were calling each other love of their lives and now she's making heart eyes all episode at this rando while not giving a rats ass about ace? It's just so weird. And lmfao I love that this fandom is very positive and close with the writers/cast but wow some people are really up their asses like this is not good writing, it wasn't good writing in s3 and it certainly isn't now, you can say that you don't have to act like these writers are perfect bc they're messing up big time, like you said they knew this was the final season even before the notice bc the cw was imploding? They could've focused on the curse or at this point just given us non romance things. I just really want to know why they are so obsessed with having her with every single man that breathes her way, especially with the timeline it gets even more absurd all this in a year??? That's psychotic, I honestly don't know how they could make it up unless there's some plot twist or something.

Yeah that has been one of my main issues with the show, I get the idea of wanting a sexually liberated free young woman and I’m not opposed to that at all but it’s the execution of it, which makes it less than desirable. Personally for me it cheapens what she says and does in relation to her romantic feeling because she can and will just get another love interest. And yeah no I love this show I do but the writing is not that great half the episodes are exposition dumps and nonsensical magical fixits and that can be fun but when you couple that with unnecessary romantic drama especially it can just feel like a lot and not in a good way. I would’ve loved for the season to have been a celebration of the series and characters giving Nancy a win in the sense that she finally gets to be in love something that she’s wanted for so long and for Ace to feel like he’s somebody’s first choice instead of the endless back and forth. And sure a nace endgame is almost all but guaranteed but if the journey to get there is sour will the destination feel sweet?

#nancy drew #nancy drew spoilers #nace #Nancy Drew negativity #anti Nancy Drew #anon ask #anonymous #answered

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prettyboykatsuki · 2 years

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I saw your answer about how creative pieces in fandom are interacted with in a similar way that people interact with big for-profit media, and how the term content creator has become kind of a demarcation of that changed relationship, and I really had to rock back on my heels and think on that for a while. I'd sort of internalized that term without even thinking about it, but you're right. The way we consume media is so deeply tied to consumerism and brand marketing its kinda scary ngl.

hello!!!! and yeah this is a big, long-standing issue i've been silently observing for a long time and recently connected all together. for anyone confused - this is in reference to this post. i think the real start of this was the 50 shades of gray books but that's another can of worms to open so ill refrain unles askedd.

@/hawnks had some good tags on the phrase "content" and "content creator" in particular that i really agree with that i'll link here that echoes and reflects my feelings on the idea.

the idea that fandom spaces and people who participate and make fanart / fiction / media are creators create a sense of divide in a space meant to founded on community and shared interest. mint said something about how people in fandom are neighbors more than anything else and that resonated with me.

often i warn people about the writing space on tumblr for the same reason (though it's just. fandom overall). while i loathe the term content creator, there is a cognitive dissonance that also exists. in a sort of unavoidable way, when you start to write - people immediately view you as a figurehead because of the same issues i was talking about in the original post.

a writer like me or you or anyone might not view themselves like that, but because of the consumerism, because of severed ties between maker and enjoyer - there's a huge divide in community. a difference between a writer or reader that should've never existed and is truly perpetuated through the word content creator.

a lot readers / people who don't publish fan content as it stands view themselves as passive, unimportant participants. because fan works are not consumed as personal pieces but as big pieces of media - people also engage with you like they would a big, corporate production.

fandom reader and fandom writer / artist / editor are a symbiotic relationship. they're supposed to benefit and depend on each other and have completely equal value. i am no different than the people who send me anons, or asks, or comment on my fics and im not meant to be. im just a guy who writes and i am desperately looking for a guy who reads to bring me joy with a like, rb or comment. that engagement is fuel for me and so are those brief connections.

but because that has detiorated over time and how people engage with fandom has changed so much - it creates this weird liminal space for people who decide to put their writing or art or edits or memes out. the dynamic has changed in an intense and uncomfortable way and it's not anyone fault

when people treat you as a figurehead when you haven't asked to be, haven't marketed yourself that way - how do you deal? when your position is no longer passive and people are suddenly seeking you out for input?

i think the way consumerism in fandom has fucked over the people who still love and enjoy it is what has bothered me most. it's frustrating and complicated and no one group is particularly to blame so i avoid talking about it but it really does suck

#return to sender #x reader meta #ask to tag #its so so weird bruh so odd #but what can u do lol it eez what it eez

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derangedthots · 1 year

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I'm really curious about your writing process and everything ctf, got a million questions but most of them you probably can't answer because spoilers 😅.

If that's OK, I wanted to ask some more general, behind-the-scenes things? (if not just ignore them)

Like, who out of the truly secondary (as in, they don't appear that much/aren't that central to the plot) characters you like/enjoy writing the most/least and why?, what scenes came easily vs which ones were a pain to get just right? , is there anything/anyone that's been flying under readers' radars but will be "a surprise tool for later"? , when it comes to reader reaction, is there anything in particular you didn't expect or that you thought may happen but didn't?

And finally, when writing about the Tullys (Kermit, Elmo, Oscar, Grover...), have you ever been overcome by the mental image and ensuing hilarity of everyone else as human and them as Muppets? (I had the realization midscene and got the giggles BAD 🤔😲😳🤭😂)

hi darling🥰💕

i'm always getting such fantastic questions from you guys and don't worry, i can actually answer all of these ones haha

out of the truly secondary characters, it's hard to choose a fav when it comes to writing them. it's good that you narrowed down which ones you meant by secondary bc i love almost all of my ocs but it just so happens a lot of them also reoccur and play important parts LOL. if i had to choose someone tho...maybe matilda? she just gives such matronly but no-nonsense vibes and i have nothing but respect for that personality type. not to mention, i feel like with any building/home/estate, the kitchens are always one of the places where everybody knows something. it's where the food gets made which already gives very "this is the heart of the place" vibes but also lots of ppl pass through there, which means there is always tea (both literally and metaphorically). matilda's fun to write bc she's aptly positioned to receive a lot of information, while also being highly responsible and respected for her job (srsly never EVER mess with the cooking staff anywhere), and idk i just like that abt her lol. i realize i haven't written much of her yet but hopefully that'll change soon. also who knows, my answer for fav secondary character to write might very well change as we go along (i did say this was a difficult choice haha)😅🤷🏻‍♀️

as for least favorite? bors. it's bors. no real spoilers but yeah, you'll find out why

what scenes came easily? is it bad if i say none😭 i think almost every scene i've written has been jam-packed with detail/characterization which means very little relaxation while writing for me lol. oh actually, on second thought, i think any scene with vermax? just bc he never actually says anything and his interactions with jace are all pretty straightforward. LMAO that's not a v interesting answer but it's the best one i have for you rn😂😂

as for what scenes were the hardest/took the most pains to get just right, i'd have to say the really emotional ones just bc whew - jace's emotions are really quite heavy and i want to convey how he processes (or doesn't process) them as authentically as possible. his scene with daemon in the dragonpit took me forever and i was constantly switching back and forth btwn writing that scene and other ones bc i needed the brain break

weirdly enough, i'd say any scenes between jacemond themselves are both easier and more difficult? they're in a weird liminal space. on one hand, they flow quickly bc i love writing them, they ARE our romantic leads after all lol, the origin and main impetus for why i'm writing the story (besides fixing what hotd broke), but also their scenes together are always charged so i have to do a lot of thinking while i'm working on them

my only advice for now regarding something that's been flying under the readers' radars but will become a special little mousekatool (god how american of me) for later in the story is:

just like jace, you should keep your eyes open and pay attention to the shadows👥

if we're going off what i've read in the comments/seen in my asks, i will admit i was surprised no one mentioned jace's relationship to rhaenys in terms of how he learned to braid from her. then again, i'm just very soft abt the idea of baby jace getting his little fingies caught in her hair and then jace practicing on his siblings+parents after they moved to dragonstone. but honestly i'm just endlessly thankful for all the responses and continued interest regardless🥹💕💕

the tullys tho. omg the tullys. i'm so glad you brought this up bc i absolutely had to hold back my laughter while writing their scenes i'm sorry but george is a comedian for naming them after muppets😭😭 i know he ran out of ideas for names but sir? the muppets? really? i'm over here trying to picture two charming young men with red hair for kermit and oscar and instead have to physically fight back images of a stuffed green frog puppet and a green whatever-oscar-is in a trashcan💀 little benjicott blackwood sparring with two muppets i'm wheezing babes😂😭

#ask #ctf

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mister13eyond · 2 years

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I just want to say that I think your latest COTL fic might be one of the best fic i've read this year! the confession booth is such a good prompt that i haven't seen anyone wrote about (yet) and i'm glad that you're the first one who tried it!

i really loved the personality you gave to both narinder and lamb. your interpretation of them felt very accurate and fleshed out, including the bishops who weren't even present! the fact that narinder still have his pride despite losing his status and lamb genuinely enjoying getting to know people + managing community is such a good dynamic between them. i like how they're casual too, but with a hint of appreciation for each other. genuinely, your fan depiction of them might be my most favourite.

i hope you'll keep on writing cool things! i'd love to write more compliments but i don't want to spam you lol. i hope you'll have a nice day

WHOAH CAN I JUST SAY FIRST: THANK YOU SO MUCH these are such kind and insightful words... it makes me really happy to hear? I'm so so grateful it resonated with you and that it's a depiction that you love, ahhh!!! That's so wonderful??? And THANK YOU A TON... Honestly I love confessionals (well, and really, all kinds of sexy blasphemous religious iconography, hence why COTL landed so hard with me- hell YEAH i eat up the aesthetic) and I feel like there's something... I dunno, I love the dichotomy of intimacy & separation it gives. It's the perfect setting for where I set the Lamb and Narinder in their relationship at that time: a weird liminal space where they DO have a lot of fondness and closeness and building trust/understanding but ALSO there's still obstacles, hurdles and tender spots they haven't learned to tread into yet? That's something I really love about the two of them: they automatically have a connection to each other that's going to be DIFFERENT than how they're able to relate to anyone else; the Lamb has spent life being a mortal and a devotee, and Narinder has spent life being a patient god pulling the strings, but now- with the tables turned- they maybe understand each other's position more than anyone else COULD; no one else has really lived in BOTH of these worlds the same way?

I feel like the Lamb, depending how you play them, just feels perfectly like this well-intentioned meddler. Like they genuinely care for their followers! They enjoy having a flock of their own! They're also.... quite willing to be unethical about the MEANS they use to protect, charm, convince, gaslight gatekeep girlboss their flock, but you know... They do it out of love <3 And I think that gives a fun dynamic with Narinder, who sees through that pretty easily BECAUSE he was the god promising fortune and protection and whatever it took to convince the Lamb to do his work. So they get to be a LOT more honest now on this footing? OK LAST THING THEN I'LL STOP RAMBLING ABOUT MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THE FIC/THE CHARACTERS BUT ALSO the bishops are so good and fascinating and interesting to me, ESPECIALLY Shamura, because I really feel like there was a mutual respect between Shamura and Narinder and it feels like they didn't WANT to condemn him, they simply felt they had no other choice. It feels like they're the one he actually grieves, from his post-game mission dialogue, and also that they're the one he's the MOST angry with- because their betrayal would, of course, hurt the most. ANYHOW THAT'S ENOUGH RAMBLING.... thank you so so much for sharing your thoughts and giving me such kind words!!! I'm so so happy you enjoyed the fic!

#I can't promise more COTL fic bc rn i'm like multi track drifting between COTL and jojo fandom and i have some jojo fic i want to write #very badly #but we'll see! i'm really enjoying the no pressure just vibes pure fun of slamming out little character studies for something fresh and new #cotl doesnt have a lot of established fic fandom yet as such a new game so #everything feels like a fun exploration #meanwhile vento aureo came out in... fuckin 1995 #so it's been explored a thousand ways #which is ALSO fun in a DIFFERENT way but you know #enough rambling thank you for the kind words ahhh!#asks #anonymous #my fic #my writing #COTL spoilers #cult of the lamb spoilers #cult of the lamb narinder #cult of the lamb meta #spoilers

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crabussy · 2 years

Text

heyyyy welcome, welcome!! I've been expecting you. You don't need to wipe your feet on the mat, mud tracks on the carpet adds some personality to the space!! Hang your coat on the weird fake taxidermy pronghorn. To your left, the dining room, currently occupied by 23 people (and not people) having a heated debate about whether chartreuse is green or yellow (its neither). Oh, and here on our right is a comprehensive list of my Things! Take a peek, I'll be waiting in the corridor with the mosaic floor.

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✦ Name: Robin to most, Rob to some, Thing to all (call me whatever!)

✦ Age: 18 but with absurd levels of whimsy

✦ Nationality: I am a Pākehā Kiwi (European New Zealander) !!

✦ Plurality: I am part of an OSDD-1B system alongside two dozen other headmates, some of the others have their own blogs set up which you can access via @menagerie-crew. they may post on my blog too, tagged with "_____ takeover" depending on who is in front. it is totally okay to request to chat with any of the others!! (I have discussed this with a therapist and a psychiatrist who both believe I am a system. I cannot get diagnosed for safety reasons. lalala)

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✦ Art:

@beastwhimsy - my art account! Please give it a look, thank you! My commissions are open.

@silly-pony-scribbles - an mlp art request blog I run with my boyfriend, sal!

✦ Tags:

silly tag: blorbos

sea tag: FISH. one of my special interests. coelacanth... kissing you

beast tag: ANIMALS. yet another thing I am full of love for

fren tag: any friend/moot related posts (:< sometimes I forget!

art tag: art I am putting in my mouth right fucking now

music tag: music I am grating onto my pasta like parmesan cheese

insp: art inspiration

fave: what it says on the label [:

save: a tag full of posts I haven't looked at in about a year, oops

ultra fave: posts that make me roll around on the ground screaming

people tag: human people!!! I love us!!

mindfuckery tag: posts that violently rearrange my neurons

there tag: liminal spaces yayyy yayy

listen to my gibberish boy: my terrible words

important: usually PSAs and such!

mecore: posts that make me go YEAHHHHH. UH HUH.

robincore: posts that are like if I was images.....

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✦ Hobbies:

⋇ Camping, hiking, etc etc: I'm part of a scout group and have been camping ten gazillion times,, if I am not in a tent again soon I will surely perish. Put me in there NOW

⋇ Conservation/ecology: this is something I am most passionate about!!! I'm fascinated by ecosystems and do everything I can to contribute to positive change in conservation. I am especially passionate about Aotearoa's ecosystems!

⋇ Art: I draw ^_^ self explanatory !!! I specialize in character design!! redesigning characters is my love language.

⋇ Scaring myself shitless: I love horror... I will consume any horror related media although my favourite type of horror is unnerving stuff, not shock value stuff (although shock can be fun) if you have any good horror recs PLEASE I AM SO HUNGRY.

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✦ Interests:

⋇ animals!!! arthropods!!!! zoology/ecology! this is my special interest, has been for years, I could talk about it for hours....

⋇ wander over yonder. I love that orange cat thing hes so friends

⋇ ADVENTURE TIME. HEEELP HELP ME HEELP HELP HELP

⋇ mlp (currently VERY gripped by The Horses. I love you ponies)

⋇ The magnus archives (Jon liker, Michael liker, Lonely/Vast aligned)

⋇ The Muppets (ANIMAL MY BELOVED. absolute freak. Also Gonzo is just like me...)

⋇ Moominvalley (The 90s one!!! comfort show.. snufkin & moomin <3)

⋇ Liminal spaces (Don't mind me I just need to be in those places forever ?? and ever?)

⋇ Horror in general (I eat horror for every meal. I listen to it to sleep because I'm cool and very very brave. what was that sound)

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✦ DNI:

transmeds, terfs, pro-contact harmful paraphiliacs, syscourse blogs, autism speaks supporters, Rowling supporters, neonazis, zionists, anyone who supports anything listed here.

message me if you need any clarification on why I'm against any of these things, or if you're not sure what something on here means!! /g

✦ Opinion on system origin discourse:

I feel like I have to make a statement about this because I am often pulled into discourse around it and I hate that a lot:

I am endo neutral solely because I did not ask to be a system and should not have to pick sides in an infighting battle just because I was traumatised as a kid. I do believe that infighting is nothing but harmful and that completely disregarding the possibility of non-traumagenic plurality makes it much harder for systems who do not remember their trauma to be supported and understood. I also think that centering system identity around trauma can be unhelpful and makes recovery more difficult. Before I considered the possibility of non-traumagenic systems I was constantly a nervous wreck, terrified that my experiences were made up and that my trauma wasn’t bad enough. now that I’m neutral about them, I no longer have debilitating anxiety about whether or not I am real. I am considered a system by multiple professionals. I will not be responding to any asks about my stance on system origins, unless they are worded politely and are genuine questions. thanks for understanding!!

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✦ Other:

I am autistic, have debilitating chronic pain, and several mental disorders, symptoms of which including memory issues and severe anxiety. yikes!! Please keep this in mind when interacting with me! Tone indicators can be helpful, and I might sound a little off/dry due to pain sometimes. I promise I am still happy to talk!

anonymous asks and comments (unless you've been following me for over a week) are off because people kept using them to be needlessly unkind or to assume the worst of me. I've turned them on in the past only to have more people send me awful messages jam packed with pretty much every slur in the book. for that reason, they're off! sorry about that.

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I see you finished reading my extensive list of Things!!! Lets continue with our tour- you haven't even seen the indoor crocodile pool yet. Did you bring any swimwear?

#about me #personal #pinned post

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theveryworstthing · 3 years

Photo

it’s time for part 2 of the zodiac based Carot cards. Horn cards are horizontal instead of vertical because they’re meant to be placed above the three other suites which lay side by side. the last two suites are tentatively named the Travelers and the Island and now that i know what direction i want to take with them i’ll hopefully get through those in between work. anyway, here’s some lore.

Horn Signs

Horn signs are the second half of the rabbit/hare zodiac system. When a rabbit or hare is born they have sharp little starter horns encased in rubbery membranes that fall off soon after birth. These horns will eventually shed in a process similar to teething when they get older, but before that they’re basically baby’s first shank. A nasty natural surprise for any predator looking for an easy meal or any parent who gets too tired to keep track of the pointy bits on their child.

Your horn sign correlates to how many points your birth horns had. Again, no one takes this seriously lest people start catching their death of prophesy. But since horn points are the way that many parents initially tell kits apart in litters where they look very similar, it’s fun to joke about.

The Horn Suite

1 The Cut Worm: luck, brushes with disaster, and hope. This sign is very rare because to qualify for it you would either have a second horn so small that it’s just a bump on the skull under the skin, or you wouldn’t be born with a second horn at all. While the odd super stubby horn shows up once in a blue moon, missing either horn completely is a sign that the kit is missing pieces of skull, which makes this birth defect life threatening at best.

Some see the Worm as the simple ‘dodged a bullet’ sign and think of it as a totally positive symbol of natural good luck/perseverance. And it can be! But dodging a bullet still means you had to get shot at in the first place, and it doesn’t mean other less fatal bullets don’t hit. Bullets have a tendency to travel in packs. This makes the Worm a complicated sign. It is scars and struggle and survivor’s guilt, but also joy and absolute cussedness when it comes to comes to life. If the universe wants them dead then it can come over and do it itself. Oooh~ you gonna let biology try to do your dirty work? Fuckin’ coward.

2 The Message: curiosity, knowledge, and questions about yourself. Message signs are very introspective. And outrospective. Just spective all over really. What are you willing to do to obtain knowledge? How free you are with information in general? Do you keep all thoughts to yourself? Do you gossip constantly? How good are you at reining in your curiosity? Would it literally kill you to mind your own business?

3 The Sea Hare: seeking and accepting the truth no matter how weird. These signs are believers, dreamers, and realists all at once. The vaguest sign. Weird things always seem to happen to them. Or maybe it’s not that weird things are always happening to them but that they notice and accept the weird things that happen to everyone else as real instead of brushing it off as dreams or tricks of the light. They hate liars or people who embellish facts for whatever reason because they believe that truth is always stranger and more interesting than fiction.

4 The Cocoon: change and liminality. The world is an ever shifting mess and Cocoon signs are more apt to revel in and pay attention to the strange in between spaces. These rabbits are always on journeys. Physical, intellectual, spiritual, whatever, what many would consider destinations end up be rest stops for them before they wander back into the liminal spaces that call to them.

5 The Pepper: navigating risk for personal pleasure. Will this plant get you super high or kill you? Is this person dangerous or just exciting? Are the odds in your favor? Let’s find out. Pepper signs are willing to at least entertain the ideas for a lot of risky business if they think something wonderful can come from it. The ‘take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!’ sign. Their level of common sense usually determines life expectancy (which is true for all creatures but ESPECIALLY these rabbits good lord).

6 The Fungi: personal relationships and connection. Fungi signs are always seeking real connection. If they like you and you show them love and or respect they’re ride or die for you. Good at reading people and figuring out what makes them tick, they can either be the important connective tissue in any community or manipulators who can woo anyone to their side. Depends on how much of an asshole they are.

7 The Hawk Pyre: healing and cycles. When a hawk dies, it burns and burns until there’s nothing but ash and a tiny egg. Rabbits believe this cycle happens endlessly, that the same hawks have had endless lives in endless cycles since hawks turned up in the world. Rabbits under the Hawk sign are very in tune with the cycles of the world. The cycle of seasons, aging, crops, mistakes, fashion, abuse, ect, it’s all patterns. Patterns that they’re good at spotting, flowing with, and breaking. Need someone to help you get your life back together after a tragedy or give pretty good weather forecasts? Ask a Hawk sign! Or don’t, because none of this is real.

8 The Lantern: knowing what is actually worth spending time being worried about. Not everything in the dark is a monster, but that doesn’t mean warning signs are to be ignored. Lantern signs are good at reading situations, especially when it comes to danger and opportunity. They’re good advisers and listeners, able to make connections easily and take many things into consideration at once. Rabbits joke that good warren leaders are usually Lanterns and shitty ones have had their candles blown out long ago.

The Void (2 of these): either something is horribly wrong or everything is fine. I don’t have to explain which card means what, that’s obvious right? Right?

#rabbits of downtrodden #carot cards #the horn suite #long post

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comicaurora · 3 years

Note

How much have your characters evolved since their original versions? What were their original versions like? Are there any characteristics or arcs that you had to toss for narrative purposes but still miss?

Oh my god. Dare I plumb the embarrassing depths of everyone's earliest drafts?

Reminder that I started playing with this concept when I was eleven. Everyone started off very generic, because at the time I was just having fun playing out the tropes I liked. I had a lot of edgier concepts, too, more vent stuff - and a lot of unexamined tropes from the broader space of fantasy I later decided were boring, gross or broadly unnecessary. I think exploring that would boil down to "character was edgy and flat, now they are not" which doesn't sound very interesting.

However, it is interesting to me how the characters have changed since I started releasing the comic. I expected things to change during the drafting and development process - I was more blindsided by the organic development as I wrote the actual thing.

Kendal's character has remained fairly consistent, though he's gotten more serious in the eleven days he's been alive - a reasonable reaction to all the everything, I think. The part I wasn't originally planning was the exploration of his complete lack of self-awareness in the most literal sense. "Self-sacrificing hero type" is one thing, but he really doesn't think of himself as having value beyond what he can do for other people. I don't wanna spoil, but I'm positively giddy at how that arc is shaping up in the stuff I'm currently boarding. After that, we're in uncharted waters.

Alinua started off totally chill, took a major dive into Dark And Sad territory when I first came up with the concept of the chimeric plague, and is now in a strangely liminal space where her general personality is relentlessly positive but she's floating on this bottomless abyss of eldritch horror. I had plans for how I was going to explore that, but what surprised me was her caution about it. It makes sense - she's had a life of her own for a week and a half, she's not going to want to jeopardize it by diving headfirst into the full implications of her power and existence. She feels like this situation is far too fragile, which means while a lot of the reveals are happening faster than I expected (my original plan had the "Life's Vessel" reveal way down the line) she's playing it pretty close to the chest.

Erin hasn't actually changed that much, but his narrative pacing has shifted somewhat. The void dragon is a textbook Superpowered Evil Side, but since I can't risk overusing it, it's more of a back-pocket thing that only rears its head rarely. His arc is less about it than I originally expected. As we build up to it I think I'll be able to play with it more, but pacing it out has been tricky.

Falst has changed simultaneously a lot and very little. His basic concept has remained consistent from the first draft onward. He's cranky, confrontational, angsty, fiercely loyal but too emotionally constipated to express it, all my favorites. Writing him is like putting together an ice cream sundae. No matter what I add, I'm gonna get something I like out of it. If anything, the only surprise is I haven't leveraged the angst much yet. After his intro mini-arc we've been pretty solidly in the fluff zone as far as I'm concerned. Sometimes I worry I'm being too nice to these guys…

Tess hasn't changed, but her role in the story has. I'm still mulling over some directions for that. I originally hadn't worked out 100% of how this arc was going to wrap up, and looping Tess into it (with the storm connection) was a comparatively late addition.

The Dragon is a really basic character, so he hasn't really changed, but The Collector has shifted from one villain archetype to another. In my original version, she was a very stock coldly-calculating-type evil sorcerer. She was also a guy, although that's much less relevant. Broadly, the big change was giving her an actual personality. Unfortunately, since she's waaaaaay outside of our heroes' current challenge rating, it might be a while before I can loop her back in, but when I do, I think she'll have some interesting dynamics I didn't anticipate.

Dainix is still changing for me. I've had his core character for ages, but his personality has been slipping around like whoa. Earliest draft had him much angrier overall, middle draft made him a generic-enough paragon even I was finding him boring, and before I'd boarded his intro I'd slipped into a weird little middle ground where he was lacking any overarching themes. Eventually what I hit on was weirdly simple, but has been working so far: Dainix is emotional in a way the other characters aren't. He doesn't suppress or sanitize his feelings, he's the character who visibly and audibly reacts whenever he's feeling a certain way. And I definitely didn't realize that "completely honest" was such a rare character trait in my cast! I need to get him and Falst in a room together asap, the conflict is going to be incredible.

#aurora #asks

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illwynd · 3 years

Note

I would like the reviewer who called the loki and sylvie fight a jumping off point for "perverse" fanfic to see you alligator orgyfic. he'd faint lol

lol inorite? XD

It's particularly funny to me because I am fairly sure one of the first fics I started writing in this fandom (and, gah, I don’t think I even finished it lol), way back in summer of 2011, was a lokicest + thorki fic involving Loki's use of magical doubles, because fandom saw his ability to create illusory duplicates and immediately went "huh, but he could probably also make solid ones, right? he is a powerful sorcerer and all that. OK, time for selfcest!" This fandom has always embraced the weird shit.

But it was more than that: fandom embraced the weird shit and using it for deeper exploration of the characters. Whether that was kinky selfcest pr0n that almost always came along with some really deep, dark, fascinating stuff with Loki’s self-loathing, his position as a liminal outsider in Asgardian society, his socially unacceptable interests and desires, or anything else. This fandom has done so much interesting, character-driven stuff with the weird premises, the far-out-there kinks, the most taboo material. I know that is true in other fandoms as well, but this fandom really shone at it for several years (probably somewhat due to the fantasy-mythology setting that gave such leeway for those possibilities, and somewhat due to the fact that the fandom flagship was sibling incest so, I mean, you’re starting from a basis of accepting that fiction is allowed to explore taboo areas).

And that’s why I can’t help but feel that there’s something missing from the way we’re all responding to Disney apparently going the selfcest route in the show: because it’s not Disney introducing something that fandom was doing a decade ago and having the purity brigade suddenly flip their shit over it. Disney, with their massive and ever-expanding cultural influence and their family-friendly oeuvre, is NOT doing what fandom was doing. Disney has somehow managed to create sanitized, politically regressive fuckin’ Lokicest. Lokicest that (they believe) portrays a ~*healthy, healing relationship!*~ (because everything needs to be a safe and wholesome depiction of What Is Good In Real Life, never an exploration of the darker parts of our psyches, the perils of enforced social norms and the repression that results from it, etc.). Sanitized selfcest. I mean, yikes. That’s amazing and horrifying.

And I’m sure someone will object here that I can’t possibly think Disney would ever create anything as dark or controversial as fanfic circa 2012, because that would just be too far! Disney has to make sure their content is safe for children to consume! And... yeah. That’s my point. They absolutely wouldn’t, and given the wide swathe of media landscape Disney now controls, and how much viewers seem to be accepting and internalizing those limitations as not just the limits of appropriate content for 9-year-olds but as defining of appropriate content in general, for everyone, in fandom and otherwise, that’s, uh. That’s a problem.

#replies #anon #this is probably a tangent #oh well

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prettywarriors · 3 years

Note

Ok ill bite whats the worst mg series

alright, whats the worst magical girl series in your opinion?

Thanks you two for letting me do some yelling. The obvious guess would likely be one of the recent edgelord shows right? Magical Girl Site or something similar? But nay I say, for while MGS and Day Break Illusion and such and what not generally tell you what to expect right away. Don't like super violence and suffering? Watch something else is the clear message from the get go. One of the bait and switch series then like Madoka or maybe Yuki Yuna? For what faults they may or may not have, at least these series do something and are interesting, even if you're not huge on what goes down in the series. A parody then? They range from affectionate to banned in New Zealand but regardless of quality and their feelings for MGs, it's a parody. It's a joke and shouldn't be taken seriously (plus they're usually short so you can just forget about them forever).

So what makes a series terrible then, I am sure you are asking. IMO? Setting expectations for an interesting and enjoyable series, and then dashing them to hell.

Come with me below the cut, as I talk about Key Princess Story: Kagihime Eternal Alice Rondo!

Spoilers abound so if you care about those for a 15 year old series, click away.

Background: Kagihime was a 4 volume manga that ran from 2004-2006 that was picked up for a 13 episode anime adaptation near the end of its run. The manga is created by a pair (Kaishaku) who you may know for making Magical Nyan Nyan Taruto. Kannazuki no Miko, and Steel Angel Kurumi, and the anime had a script written by the same writer (Mamiko Ikeda) for Tenshi Ni Narumon who also did some script writing for Princess Tutu and Seven of Seven. The anime also had 6 character music videos which are fairly simple but a nice addition to the series for the main girls. Discotek has been publishing the anime in the states in recent years, and the manga was brought over by *squints at book spine* Dr Master Publications.

The Premise: Girls transform and enter weird outside of reality spaces to fight each other with giant keys to take each other’s stories to create a third Alice In Wonderland story.

Well, an off-brand Alice story written by Alternate L. Takion, rather than Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson, that while the series uses all the aesthetic hallmarks of the tradition Alice, the little we see of the in universe Alice story is clearly different. Which is fine, at the end of the day, it’s still about someone who loves the Alice stories and wishes there was more, and even makes his own fanfiction version. His? Oh yeah, while the girls do all the fighting, the main character is Aruto, a teen boy who loves Alice, and for reasons we don’t know till late game, can enter the liminal spaces that the ‘Alice Users’ fight in. He chases a girl who looks like the Alice he sees in his story, who is named Arisu, and gets roped into this fanfic battle royale. He is also the older brother of the very needy Kirihara, who also ends up being and Alice User. As does Kirihara’s bff Kisa. To round out the group of enemies-turned-friends-who-will-work-together-to-collect-the-Eternal-Alice-without-having-to-fight-eachother group is a young genius researcher Kirika who wants to know more about Aruto’s connection that allows him to enter the spaces where the girls fight.

Then there’s all the other girls, some of whom still have real importance to the story and some who have a few panels or 2 scenes total. But with a whole bunch of girls to design, the creators reached out to a whole lot of other people to have them create designs! Eventually the battle gets down to the last few girls, there’s a confrontation with the guy running the whole thing, and while the anime and manga vary quite a bit the whole time, in both version Aruto ends up with Kirihara. Oh and Arisu was created by Aruto’s super imagination powers.

The Promise: Here on is subjective, particularly with what I personally saw as potential from this series. because I need you to understand how much I want to like this series.

~Alice in Wonderland themed: I know some people aren’t alice fans and that’s fine you do you but as a big alice fan this is great. We have a few alice episodes and themed characters amongst series like CCS and MGRP, and even Alice themes in other series like Tweeny Witches and Alice 19th. But damn it I am down for Alice series.

~Giant Keyyyyyyyys: Yeah yeah Kingdom Hearts but these keys are much more staff like for a lot of the characters which ads and air of elegance rather than the KH ones that for me at least feel well designed for big ol props rather than actual weapons. We also get...

~Weapon variety: It counts as a key if it’s a thorn whip that can be shaped like a key right? How about a giant pocket knife? Crossbows can also be keys. Hush. And we have this variety because

~Guest Artists: For magical girl series where we have a variety of outfits designed by different people, we have Kagihime, Uta~Kata, and uhh I guess Magia Record? But that’s a mobile game with a hella number of characters and with how mobile game works I wouldn’t count it just because it’s less the intent of the series to have variety and more the nature of having lots of girls. (Precure doesn’t count because unless I missed a memo each season’s set is still by one designer). If a series isn’t about a team and therefore doesn’t need cohesion, bringing in other artists is a great way for variety and new looks.

~The long term goal: Fighting with other people who love the same piece of media you do in hopes of creating new material that will be viewed as official? That’s just fandom nowadays. But it’s a legitimate interesting concept, and opens up so many doors for a message for the series, be it ‘what you create is no less valuable than the canon work’ or ‘it’s hard to let go when something you love doesn’t have more to it but you can still love it for what it is’ or ‘bond with the people who like the thing you like ya idiot instead of fighting about it’. The concept is interesting and there are so many narrative ways you can take this.

~Gays: Between the anime and manga, we have at least 5 wlw. Is it a magical girl series without some gays? (side note- the manga had a short thing where the MC wears a girl’s uniform and is pretty comfortable in it and while there is no way this was the intent, between that and the emphasis on the stories that live in girls and how the fight zones have no men, I’m just saying, Trans girl Aruto.)

~Greater Fairy Tale Premise: We meet a Little Match Girl based MG who is obsessed with Andersen rather than the Alice books, and touch on a Sleeping Beauty character in the manga. The manga at least implies that classic stories and fairy tale authors uh. Live on in a liminal space as immortals with world warping powers within that world and there could be opportunities for other girls in the real world to fight for Little Mermaid 2: Electric Boogaloo.

The Good: Everything has positive points, no matter how bad it is.

~Character Designs: Some of those looks slap. As do most of their weapons.

~Backgrounds: I have a strong opinion on backgrounds in anime that can be easily boiled down to old watercolor backgrounds good, modern filtered photos as background bad, and as a 2006 series, this might not be Memole nice but they’re quite attractive.

~Splash Pages: Easily my favorite thing after the designs, each chapter’s title page for the manga just has a character standing in a setting. Which is not everyone’s thing I’m sure but it’s a nice simplistic way to let the characters breathe imo. Even if at least some of the settings were deffo traced. But that’s how backgrounds work to some extent? If I ever get to the Met again, I am tracking down this exact photo, but here is a likely candidate for an example.

~Different Versions: I do not understand the need to make an adaptation that tries to be a 1:1. Kagihime had the same ideas and characters and did some of the same beats but very much had a different finale story and a lot of changes in the middle (like the Alice cops in the manga). Again, not something everyone probably wants I’m sure, but I very appreciate this, especially since the Anime kept good pace with the number of Manga chapters (reading the manga again while watching the anime at 3.8x speed just now was very interesting to see the different interpretations of events in a different medium.)

The ‘Fine’: Yeah.

~Anime Visuals: Look 2006 was still early enough into digipaint that I will give it a total pass on these. The colors are too bright but in a very bland way, the lineart is nothing interesting, and the faces are. Iffy. But it’s not total garbage to look at (probably helped by backgrounds and character designs...) it just came out in an era where not enough people knew how to stylize things to account for the weakness of the tools of the time. (It was 4 years earlier but I feel Kagihime is the polar opposite of Chobits with its painfully bland color palette while still being just. Flat. Sorry for the drive by Chii.)

~Music?: There sure were songs. Obviously, they are nothing to me.

The Bad: CW for.... somehow all the big things to an extent.

~Fanservice: Look, I am fine with fanservice, especially for a series that’s, ya know, not targeted at kids, big Mai Hime fan here even if I would recommend skipping the panty thief episode. And honestly the series generally isn’t fanservicey, at least by the modern standards of having the camera choosing under the skirt rather than an over the shoulder shot like I’ve seen plenty in other shows. Even the sexier outfits like the rose whip dominatrix aren’t bad BUT. When the girls fight. One takes her phallic key and drives it into another girls chest between the boobs while the loser cries in pain and then her book comes out and when the victor rips out pages, the loser’s clothes also rip. It is very SuperS Amazon Trio assault metaphor-y. There’s also a bit of fanservice with the sister becauseeeee....

~Incest: If you read the premise up there, first wow good job because I’m sure not re-reading that, you might have noticed I said MC ends up with his sister. As someone who is a big mythology fan and watches plenty of anime, I have a decent tolerance for your obligatory ‘oh we’re siblings but actually cousins so our feelings are okay’ or whatever the fuck Citrus has going on I don’t know that series and I don’t vibe BUT. I have limits and boy did this series go beyond that because multiple episodes are dedicated to the sister being in love with the brother? And the brother returns her feelings but knows that they are wrong so he put everything he likes in his sister into his version of Alice who, of course, physically manifests as Arisu who he creates accidentally with his uh. Magic imagination powers. But again in both versions MC still ends up with his sister. Hey, at least the manga eventually said the boy was adopted when the sister was like, 3, so if nothing else no blood relations? The anime did not ad this. -_-

~Under Utilized Characters: Arisu’s gradual revelation that she has no childhood memories because she isn’t a real person is so interesting and they don’t do nothing with it but also? That’s the kind of thing I personally would love to dig into and Kagihime, while touching on this world shattering revelation, easily loops back to So Anyway She Should Fight For The Man and to hell with developing a life or personality outside of what has been written for her. The rest of the main 5 were 2 note characters which. Could be worse? The most interesting character ends up being the child genius who accidentally murdered her childhood bestie (and/or lover? depending on version) and her coming to terms with that (the friend is alive but the version changes how and why she thinks she’s dead). Then the villain has the motivation of ‘i lost my creativity and now have become an immortal living outside of normal space and am getting girls to fight each other because that’s like a story so I’m still relevant right?’. But shoutout to the anime for then taking death of the author literally. The numerous other girls are canon fodder outside of like. The manga version of the dead gf and the little match girl.

~Battle Royale: This is not a thing I have an issue with generally. Again, but Mai Hime fan, I need to read MGRP 11, BUT by not developing the non-main girls there is no emotional connection which makes them just canon fodder and that’s boring as sin for a royale system. The initial main character fights revolve so much around the MC guy being there that they fall flat, and the 2 or 3 final battles in both versions still feel without any stakes. Also for a royale thing most of the characters don’t actually die, which cool! Neat! Except when they do? Some nobodies and a somebody are murdered (at least in the manga) and the tone never feels like it’s supposed to be upping the stakes, it’s just. Some people are dead now. And do you want to guess which of the main characters died?

~Gays: Oh boy the best friend of the brother-complex sister is in love with her and (in the manga) dies. She does apparently get better for the last chapter but the death itself is only felt by the rest of the cast for a page or two before we go back to feeling sad big brother wants to kiss his mentally generated sister clone rather than his actual sister u_u. Bury your gays is nothing new, but I wonder if it was also intended to be justified because Guess Who Is Creepy and a bit Perverted? Oh look the lesbian keeps the used swimsuit of her beloved and manipulates events to get an indirect kiss and when she sees the sister trying to strange Arisu for a moment she decides to do it for the sister? It’s not good. You want bad gay rep in a magical girl series, well here ya go. We also had a nobody in the first(second?) episode whose story pages reveal her having a kiss with a girl, and then we also have the prodigy again and- in the manga- her. Uh. childhood lover who she thought she killed but the girl has been wiping her mind over and over so prodigy remembers ‘killing’ the friend and not the she’s alive so she can keep? fucking with her? Toxic!

~Sexual Content: But wait you say, you already covered fanservice! Ah but that is sexual content for titilation. This is sexual content for dramatic backstory! The red riding hood character was sexually assaulted, another character was manipulated into sex first as a teen and then more often to ‘get into the publishing industry’, and the same writer forces some aggressive kisses on the MC. None of it is gratuitous which is nice, but also, was it necessary? Not making a new point for this but read riding hood’s dog was also murdered so unnecessary animal death gets tossed on in there.

~Male Lead: You can have a male, non magical character as the main character surrounded by magical girls. This is not how to do it. If I can make a vicious and hopefully not understood reference, Aruto is basically Tate from the Mai Hime Manga. If you understood that, I am so sorry. If you didn’t, congrats! Don’t read the manga. Or do and send me asks about the iconic final page of the first volume (18+). Anyway, this dude is boring, everything revolves around him, BUT I’ll be generous and say at least this isn’t a harem series? It looks like it out of context but it’s just a triangle with a fun attached scientist and token lesbian.

~Premise: They didn’t make good use of it. The initial goals of ‘take other girls pages from their soul books because if we get enough we unlock a third alice book’ is good! And then we add the twist that that was never going to happen and either if we get all the pages we can grant a wish, or these fights are just happening for the amusement of and asshole. Either way, yeah okay I guess. But at no point do we ever achieve this forbidden wish granting book and the asshole just. Lives. Nothing happens to him. His peers don’t even dunk on him. The only real changes from the beginning and the end of the series are: the siblings are now chill with dating, and the scientist lady won’t turn into a child in magical spaces. Oh. Yeah.

~Why did we make this adult a child sometimes?: I think we know why. Stop trying to get those types of folks to watch your already meh series. I also could have sworn at points in the past looking up images for this series I’ve seen extra art for Yuuri the Thumbelina-y Alice User that seemed like it would fit alongside anything by POP. You know, the Moetan guy. If you don’t know, god I wish that were me.

Wrap Up: I have definitely forgotten some points and am well within my rights to ad to this whenever I remember more points but uh. Yeah.

Listen you want an alice themed battle royale with nice outfits? Rozen maiden is right there. Battle Royale magical girl series that’s good with fanservice? Mai Hime. Series with different outfits while being based on a classic story? Pretear.

Hope anyone who read all of this at least got what I was saying, even if they don’t agree with it. And thanks for reading because whoops.

#why do ya'll let me write so damn many words #thanks ya'll for letting me write so many words #kagihime eternal alice rondo #long post #text #not fashion #whoops 3k words

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