#mostly just a character study?? forcing these two to talk about some of their differences
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Purpose
Summary: Sonic and Shadow get philosophical for a moment.
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“You should find a purpose, Sonic.” Shadow said.
Sonic uncrossed his arms. “Psh, you kidding?”
“I am not. You should find a purpose.”
“A ‘purpose’? Sounds so. . . restraining. I do what I want.”
“That’s what a purpose is. It’s something you control. Something you strive for.”
“I figure it out as I go! ‘Control’ sounds boring.”
“Yet you always stop the doctor’s plans.”
“Well duh! Who else is going to?”
“Tails. Amy. GUN. Me and my team. Others.”
“I’m not doubting you guys. Sorry if it came off that way, or something.”
“Since when did Sonic the Hedgehog let himself be defined by the actions of others?”
Sonic gave a bit of a glare. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Are you content to only react to the plans of a madman? Do you have no greater ambition?”
“I’m not ‘only reacting’. I’m doing what needs to get done, you know?”
“What else would you like to do with your life, if you had the chance?”
“What, are you asking me to stop stopping Eggman? Do you want me to quit?”
“If that’s what your heart desires, then yes.”
The little bit of a glare became a full on glare. Sonic pushed on Shadow’s shoulder. To his surprise, Shadow took the shove, stumbling a few feet, before returning to his original position.
“So I’m just supposed to stand by while Egghead does horrible things?” Sonic said.
“Perhaps not. I don’t think you’d have it in you. But have you considered what else you want to do with your life while you have it?”
“I already told you- I figure it out as I go. I don’t need a purpose.”
“Then prove it, and do something for yourself for once.”
“What-?”
“All you do is react.” Shadow hissed. “React to the doctor. React to your friends. React to wherever the chaos emeralds appear. You are always responding to something. If all that input were to stop tomorrow, what- or who -would you be left with?”
Sonic paused. “I’d have my friends.”
“Naturally. What else?”
“Don’t be stupid. I’d have the whole world!”
Shadow furrowed his brow. “Be specific.”
“That is specific, dummy. I’d have the whole world before me. All the people, all the places, all the food, all of it! There’s so much to learn and experience. There’s no possible way to get bored.”
Something in Shadow’s eyes flickered. He glanced down to his shoes.
“Look, Shads, I don’t need some sort of ‘grand purpose’. No offense, but look how well that whole thing worked out for you.”
Whatever soft moment he was having was erased as he snapped his glare back to Sonic. “Where I’m now on the other side of the struggle, stronger and more resolute than ever?”
“I meant the whole mess before that, but yeah, okay, sure.”
“I’m not saying,” Shadow took a deep breath, “to do what I did.”
“I’m impressed you’d admit it.”
“But nothing is worse than letting yourself be dictated by outside forces.”
Sonic waited for him to continue.
“When the entirety of your life is merely a response to the world around you, what happens when the world fails you?”
“That’s simple, I’ll just keep moving forward!”
“And what if the world breaks your legs? Or if the world informs you that you’ve been in the wrong this entire time? And what happens if the world decides that Tails, for example, has to die?”
“That’s not going to happen-”
“It happened to me!”
Sonic stopped. Shadow locked eye contact for as long as he could stand, before blinking away.
“. . . I’m sorry.” Sonic offered weakly.
“So stop saying that it can’t happen to you. It can. And when it does, you’ll need something to ground yourself on.” Shadow forced himself into a small grin. “You should listen. I would know.”
“Okay. What should I ground myself with?”
“Not with stopping the doctor. Not with your friends, as people can change or be taken away from you in an instant. Something deeper.”
“Sure, and I’m assuming I can’t even trust myself?”
“Yes, even that.” Shadow didn’t catch the sarcasm. “Memory is imperfect. Good for broad strokes, but basing everything you are on a singular moment of time will destroy you when the details fade.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry.”
“Do you understand now? About allowing your purpose to be dictated by others?”
“I think I’m starting to know what you’re getting at.”
“You’re a hedgehog of strong conviction. All you need to do is set that conviction upon what matters to you.”
“And what if what matters to me is stopping Eggman and helping my friends?”
“Then good. You’ve given it proper thought.”
“What? Weren’t you just saying to not ‘ground’ myself on either of those things?”
“I was saying to stop reacting. If you’ve thought it through and decided that you will pursue these goals, then it is good.”
“Well duh! Of course- they’re important to me! Why else would I do them?”
“You’ve found it, then. Your purpose.”
“Wha- you’re literally just contradicting yourself right now.”
“Then think about it until you understand. Until next time.”
Shadow fired up his jets and skated down the hill. Sonic watched him go and shook his head.
#sonic the hedgehog#shadow the hedgehog#not intended as sonadow but I won't mind if you tag it as such#mostly just a character study?? forcing these two to talk about some of their differences#also thinking about Sonic and the nature of being a 'hero'#idk man enjoy
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ML Fanfic Recs for 2023: 40K - 60K Words
So I’ve been going through and adding particularly good fics I’ve read throughout the year. Only Complete fics, of course. Enjoy!
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The Two Worlds of Marinette by Liquifiedstars:
Marinette discovers a watch in her attic that allows her to travel back in time. Soon she is torn between her life with her rising star fiancé, Luka, and a romance with the enigmatic Adrien Agreste, who knows nothing of the fate that awaits him.
This fic is an AU based on the film The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan, which I’m afraid I’ve never seen. Still, I quite enjoyed this fic, with Marinette spending more and more time in the past, and trying to figure out the truth behind Adrien’s eventual death, and how to prevent it.
Fair warning to Lukanette fans though, Marinette does cheat on Luka during the fic, it comes with the AU. He takes it pretty well though.
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Stone Streak by kingxuppu
Ladybug and Violet Tigress had been fighting the mysterious Duskwing for eight years now. Through the years, the two have grown stronger together and even gotten married, they are waiting until they finally beat Duskwing to start a family. At least, that was the plan. When Juleka gets confronted with the realization that her friends are starting families of their own, she realizes just how badly she wants to be a mother.
Due to unfortunate circumstances, Juleka and Marinette get the chance to adopt Juleka's young modeling friend Adrien.
Maybe they aren't quite a traditional family, but with magic, rockstars, and fame, normal was never an option.
Via Discovery: There are actually two terms of venery for tigers, depending on the makeup of the group. The first is a streak of tigers and this refers to a female tiger and her cubs.
Now this is a rare pairing, there’s not a lot of Julenette fics! Adrien and Rose actually have some ship tease going on, the whole kid group in canon got broken up into two groups here, one that remained around canon age (so like 13) which notably consists of Chloe, Rose, and Adrien, and then I think everyone else are adults in their mid-twenties. It’s weird seeing Adrien as Marinette’s and Juleka’s son, but hey it works! I love how Juleka really showed Adrien the ropes on modeling and became a Mama tiger for him, the fic’s mostly just very sweet, though with a surprisingly dark final act.
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The Parable of the Caller by @nemaliwrites
A week after Hawk Moth’s identity has been revealed, Adrien finds himself with nowhere to go, nothing he can do, and worst of all, strange gaps in his memory he can’t explain. In a stroke of luck, he stumbles upon a burner phone filled with voicemails from one of the Saviors of Paris: Chat Noir himself, who disappeared following Hawk Moth’s arrest.
But with each new voicemail Adrien listens to, he’s forced to confront the fact that there might be some kind of connection between himself and Chat Noir — and discovering it might leave him more broken than before.
I absolutely adore this fic, it’s a fantastic character study for Adrien! Basically in this universe, Ladybug and Chat Noir talked about who should be Guardian, with Chat eventually convincing her that he should be the one to take it on, primarily due to the whole “the Guardian gets amnesia about Miraculous-related matters” situation, and wanting to protect Ladybug from that. Then he finds out Gabriel is Hawk Moth, they take him down, and he relinquishes the Miracle Box and his guardianship to Su Han - all without having a Reveal with Ladybug, since well, he’s not in the greatest shape mentally at the time.
It’s a real treat to see Adrien’s thoughts and feelings about one of the Heroes of Paris leaving him all these voicemails, treating him like this close friend for reasons he doesn’t understand, and just seeing Chat Noir as this outside person. He’s got a very different viewpoint on Chat when looking from the outside than he would from the inside, with being able to see his heroic and good qualities far more easily when he doesn’t know that he is Chat.
Also Marinette’s struggling in the background of the fic with the loss of her partner and guilt over sending Adrien’s father to prison. It gets touched on at various points, and you can tell that she’s having her own story off to the side that we’re just not entirely privy to, what with this tale being told entirely from Adrien’s perspective.
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Miss Dial by @mysticraven20
Adrien Agreste has always considered Marinette Dupain-Cheng entertaining. Whether it was the endless back and forth of their banter, the clumsiness he found so cute or the fact her anger levels could go from 1-100 in a mere millisecond; he always found there was something about her... if only he could get to know her better.
Marinette Dupain-Cheng has always considered Adrien Agreste a pompous, arrogant asshole. From his constant teasing of her, to the obnoxious laugh at her discomfort and the way he could anger her quicker than any other human being; she knew she hated Adrien Agreste with all she was worth.
But what happens when Adrien accidentally sends the wrong text to the wrong person and a new friendship blossoms - a friendship deeper than either have ever known?
Will Marinette choose to stay faithful to the budding relationship with the boy on the other side of the phone?
Or will a new job with an old foe fill the loneliness in her heart?
Great Adrienette enemies au here! I thought Mystic did a great job explaining how Adrien could be under the impression that he and Marinette were at least sort-of friends, while Marinette hates his guts. Adrien’s not great at understanding social nuances.
Most of the relationship-building here is actually between Adrien and Marinette in the real world, with Marinette gradually learning that she had the wrong idea about Adrien. Turns out, all their friends really want them to get alng (and maybe smooch XD).
Oh yeah, while the summary doesn’t mention this, this fic IS still set in the canon universe, so they’re juggling identities as Ladybug and Chat Noir on top of everything else. Monarch’s been pretty quiet though.
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Every Heartbeat by @epcot97
Reeling from a brutally difficult day, Marinette finds her life becomes amazingly complicated after impulsively inviting Chat Noir to spend the evening with her. But when the suave feline begins to weave his way into her heart, she realizes rather quickly just how conflicted her feelings for her partner truly are. (part of MariChat May 2021)
Okay so I’m cheating on this one just a little. This story was originally uploaded in 2021, but was taken down and then reuploaded in 2023. I didn’t read it the first time around, and I really enjoyed it and this is my list, so screw it, I’m including it.
Really lovely Marichat fic here! Gabriel fires Marinette from her designer job for unfair reasons, so Chat goes to comfort her and help her set up her own fashion business, becoming closer and closer as they do so.
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Midwinter Serendipity by Cakedecorator
Marinette is a normal woman living in her parents' bakery with her parents, and they have a monthly tradition: they take their bakery leftovers and any handmade clothes that Marinette has made and bring them to the local homeless shelter.
To paraphrase a common idiom, the best laid plans of people often go awry. In this case, they have to stop in the middle of everything when they find a young man lying out cold while IN the cold.
After they bring him to the hospital and he wakes up, they realize that he has a huge problem: he can't remember anything other than his first name! What will the family do?!
This is just a really comfy fic for most of it, though with some angst thrown in too. Adrien adores getting to spend time with the Dupain-Chengs, and honestly doesn’t WANT to remember his past, since the glimpses and memories and emotions he has recovered have indicated to him that they aren’t great, and he’s happy with his current situation.
Unfortunately, just because he doesn’t want to forget his past, doesn’t mean his past will just forget about him.
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The second Multimouse gets the Chat by charliepoet13
After a harshly fought battle Ladybug and Chat Noir have claimed the Mouse Miraculous. Obviously Marinette needs to test the strange new ring, and obviously the best way to do that is patrols with Chat. No, she will not be taking comments.
This is as adorable a fic as it sounds like! Marinette refuses to look into WHY, exactly, she really likes running around with Chat as Multimouse, even when she really needs a break.
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Ladybugged Series by RillRull
Summary of the first fic in the series, Ladybugged:
In which Ladybug accidentally gets turned into a ladybug, and it’s up to Chat Noir to fix it.
It turns out potion making is really hard when your best friend is a bug and you’re just some guy in a cat suit.
If you like “the heroes turn into animals” stories, this series should be right up your alley! The first one features Ladybug accidentally turning herself into a ladybug and Chat trying to figure out how to turn her back, the second fic follows up on some plot threads from the first fic, and then the final fic in the series, Catified, has Chat intentionally turn himself into a cat for the weekend (after making sure that everyone thinks that he’s at Nino’s place and that Nino will cover for him) because he thinks it’ll be fun, and him staying over with Marinette! I’m a sucker for these kinds of stories so they were a real treat to read XD.
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I (Wish I) Knew You by @buggachat
University has been hard on Marinette. Making new friends and maintaining her grades is a lot easier said than done when she has to disappear at odd times to fight akumas. She's struggling, and with Alya away with family and Adrien painfully out of reach, she's never felt lonelier.
If only she could talk to someone who really understood her struggles... but it's not like Chat Noir would know anything about loneliness. Right?
Nice aged-up Ladynoir fic here! Marinette’s struggling with losing friends and lovers because of her flakiness due to her superhero activities, until at last she breaks down. Thankfully, Chat Noir’s there at least - and it soon turns out he’s got problems of his own that he’s been hiding.
There’s some fluff and angst, it’s mostly just the two of them navigating life, dealing with their feelings and talking things out.
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Found by @trishacollins
Chat Noir and Ladybug need to tie up some loose ends. Unfortunately, one of those ends is Felix.
This is a fantastic fic! It’s part of a wider series wherein Adrien and Felix were friends with Nooroo and Duusu from a younger age, but Adrien’s memory was wiped of it by his parents, but this is the first fic you really need to read. Basically, after the events of Emotion, Chat confronts Felix about what he did, and Felix confesses to being a Sentibeing, and Duusu reveals to Chat that he is one as well, leading to Felix cooperating with the heroes.
Of all the fics I’ve read that tackle the subject, this one does the best job of giving Felix a redemption arc for his actions in the season 4 finale, focusing not only on how he hurt the heroes, but the kwamis. I loved that he truly understood how much he fucked up with the situation he put the kwamis in, how much suffering he put them through, and that the kwamis were allowed to be angry at him for awhile afterwards, to be suspicious and untrusting towards him at first (and that Marinette was allowed to do the same). Felix screwed up and hurt people, and he had to really show that he understood what he did was wrong, why it was wrong, and try to help the people he hurt.
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In Direct Opposition by @generalluxun
Alya Cesaire is a brand new student to Francis Dupont, to Paris even. The first student she meets is one Chloé Bourgeois, and Alya is determined to make a friend. Things advance Chaotically. Her new 'friend' is definitely a handful, and suddenly Paris has a supervillain and two brand new superheroes! Alya finds herself balancing a lot of things, trying to live up to her ideals and those of her icons.
And then reality seems to contradict itself.
As time progresses it seems to happen more often. Becoming a hero, battling villains, staying alive, working through friendships. Something is lurking, tweaking events at times, changing them, and no one seems aware. Alya will need all her wits to get to the bottom of this. Her investigative mind can only get her so far though, and then she needs to rely on her friends. This is not a foe you can beat head on.
I betaed this entire fic, it’s really good! I adore the focus on Alya’s philosophy here, her determination to be a hero, to help people and defeat evil - and that defeating evil means trying to reform the people doing bad things when possible, to try to save EVERYONE, even the “villain”. I thought it was really clever the ways Alya would redirect Chloe and subtly encourage her to be a better person, while also trying to get the people around her to give her a second chance and keep an open mind.
Also Alya and Chloe are an adorable sapphic couple XD.
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Chemistry With Him by @bbutterflies
It kind of sucked Nino was taking chemistry, but classes had filled up fast and he needed to take something and his advisor had said the credits would, somehow, count towards his major. It really sucked he was taking it first thing on a Monday morning (and Wednesdays, and Fridays, unfortunately). But he could get through it. He knew he could.
So no more boys. No distractions. He could do this all on his own.
“Is anyone sitting here?”
Nino looked up to find the source of the voice. A blond, green-eyed, absolutely beautiful someone.
Okay. Maybe one distraction.
Ah, adorable Adrino. This is a universe where Adrien never went to public school, so while Chat Noir, Ladybug, Carapace, and Rena Rouge all know each other (and Marinette, Alya, and Nino all know each other’s identities) they’re unaware that they are all already friends with Adrien. I loved seeing Chat and Carapace excitedly tell each other about their awesome crush/boyfriend, not knowing they were talking about each other XD.
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Hirano to Kagiura Vol.4 Extra Analysis: "Oniichan"
One of the extras in H&K vol.4 is about Hirano and Kagiura calling each other "(o)niichan" ("big brother" in english). Is this extra mostly a silly thing about a conversation they had when studying while being tired? Yes. Did my brain get stuck on it anyway? Also yes. In my defense, their reactions to being called oniichan makes way too much sense for these characters and how they want their relationship to be. So I'm going to talk about that.
Both Hirano and Kagiura get really excited getting called oniichan (can't really blame them for that, they both look adorable saying it) and embarrassed saying it. But there are still quite a few important differences. But first I'm going to talk about why they would react the way they do to being called oniichan.
Hirano gets excited in a purehearted way. I think the reason reacts that way is two-fold. First reason is related to Hirano's reaction to Kagiura telling about his siblings. Hirano thinks that they sound really close. Hirano isn't interested in getting closer to Kagiura in a romantic sense, but getting closer in a more platonic sense? Given how easily Hirano has accepting being close to Kagiura in all kinds of ways as long as it wasn't thought of in a romantic way, I don't think Hirano would mind. He'd might even want that.
Secondly, Hirano is naturally the kind to take care of people and especially loves to take care of Kagiura. Currently he gets to do that as his roommate and senpai. As "oniichan" he falls even more into the caretaker for Kagiura role. The way I see it, going the "big brother" route (instead of the romantic one) would be similar to their current relationship, only more so. Which Hirano is probably very much in favor for. He has, after all, been mainly fighting for keeping their current relationship since Kagiura confessed to him.
Basically, Kagiura calling Hirano for niichan basically implies a relationship like the one they have currently, but even more so. Which Hirano would like, and Kagiura very much wouldn't. It's the opposite when Hirano calls Kagiura oniichan.
Kagiura's reaction to being called oniichan honestly makes me wonder if he has an oniichan kink, but I digress. I talked before about how the one being called oniichan is in the caretaker role. And Kagiura has been working hard on making Hirano rely on him. It's been mostly framed as Kagiura wanting to equals with Hirano, but with how much he liked Hirano being "needy" with him and this extra, Kagiura clearly also just likes being able to take care of Hirano. So Kagiura likes this role reversal a lot. Hirano does not.
In the end, Kagiura decides that he's fine with calling Hirano oniichan as long as Hirano said it back, while Hirano absolutely does not want to say it again. Kagiura was originally against it because then Hirano would never see him in a romantic light, but that is less of a problem when Kagiura isn't stuck in the "little brother" role. Also, looking at it through the lens of who the caretaker is, it's not like Kagiura doesn't like being taken care of by Hirano. He just has a problem with it being this one-sided.
Meanwhile, we've never really seen Hirano be in the role of the one being taken care of. Like, his idea of being needy with Kagiura is waking up even earlier to spend time with him, or being taught basketball by him. Neither of which is really letting Kagiura take care of Hirano as much as Hirano takes care of Kagiura. Being taken care of by Kagiura just isn't really something Hirano is interested in. Any way he does let Kagiura take care of him is because Kagiura wants to take care of him. So when he calls Kagiura oniichan he just gets embarrassed and doesn't really get anything positive out of being in the "little brother" role.
Now I want to see a chapter where Hirano is sick so he is forced to let Kagiura take care of him. Based on this extra, I think Hirano would have some trouble with it.
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Heyyy, I hope you have a wholesome day 💖 I'm sending this ask for the event you're organizing. Congratulations for your milestone!!!
Here is the description of myself:
I am a Romanian girl that grew up in both Canada and Romania. I am fluent in romanian, french and english.
I have hazel eyes (brown (in the middle) and green (at the exterior)), long brown hair that sometimes has natural reddish reflections in the sunlight and I am what I would consider a standard height, between 1.66m and 1.68m ( I don't know the measurements in foots 😅).
I love to read, to listen to music, paint, watch movies in fantasy settings, go to museums or exhibitions (mostly art exhibitions), astronomy, talk deep conversations about the universe(s) or life itself, learn about ancient civilizations (litteraly what I'm studying), know about different types/style of paintings and travel.
I am a daydreamer and creative person.
I never did the Harry Potter house quizz, but my friends and I see myself belonging in Gryffindor.
My style ( if I could buy everything I envision and want, but I can't unfortunately because of taxes, time that I have for myself and little pocket money I presently have ( being a student today in a middle class family)) would be a mixed depending on the occasion or the way I'm feeling I am a coquette, light royal core and old money girlie.
I do have gold jewelry and love it. I also have some kind of sport outdoor outfits because I also like being in the middle of the action, explore and do some little sportive things.
In the future , I would love to relearn the piano, learn to play the harp, write songs and movie scripts (even act in some of the ones I created), write fantasy-romance books, skydive, have a successful business, discover old infrastructures from antiquity and find ways to preserve/protect the fauna of the Amazonian forest, Romanian forests and others.
Wow, I just looked back and saw how long the description was... Hope it's okay :)
I cannot decide between two characters and tropes, you can choose if you want to do one of them or both of them. It's up to you 💖
Mattheo Riddle with the trope of: Rivals to secret friends to "I fancy you but it is forbidden" to lovers
Or
Ominis Gaunt with "I tolerate you because of my best friend but don't really like you"/forced proximity, I guess to gumpy-sunshine (maybe only in the beginning when Ominis still thinks he doesn't really like her) to "I don't know why I feel this way around you and I never realised we had so many things in common" to friends (but both of them have feelings for the other, yet they think it's only one sided(poor Sebastian, he'll be so frustrated 😭)) to lovers
If you decide to do one of these or both or even if you only read it, thank you so much!!! Sending you love and good vibes ❤️✨
The fact that I love both of these characters who have a reputation, a bad life at home and are touch starved, and love so many characters with these in common like Sirius Black or Regulus Black, makes me question myself.
-Selenophile 🌌🌙✨
Ps: Congratulations again!!!
Thank you lovie!! And don't worry, the more you guys put into you descriptions the more I have to work with 💕💕
Hogwarts Legacy Era; Romantic Match-Up: Ominis Gaunt
ominis and you were like oil and water when you first met. with your vibrant personality and love for adventure clashing with his reserved demeanor and aloofness, you found yourselves constantly at odds, exchanging snide remarks and wary glances whenever you were forced into each other's company.
despite your initial animosity towards each other, fate had other plans. your best friend, sebastian, seemed to be determined to bring you two together, constantly orchestrating situations that forced you into each other's orbit. whether it was group outings or study sessions, you couldn't seem to escape ominis's presence.
at first, you both tolerated each other begrudgingly, but you found his standoffish attitude irritating and his constant brooding a drain on your energy. but as time passed and you were forced to spend more time together, you began to see glimpses of a different side to ominis, a side that intrigued you despite your best efforts to resist it.
one night, when you were taking a break from studying in the undergroft, you found yourselves discussing ancient civilizations and lost civilizations, you realized that you shared a common passion for history and exploration. even with your differences, you discovered that you had more in common than you had ever imagined.
as your friendship with ominis deepened, much to sebastians delight and your own confusion, you found yourself drawn to him in ways you couldn't explain. his quiet strength and unwavering loyalty touched something deep within you, igniting a spark of attraction that you had never felt before.
yet, both of you were hesitant to acknowledge your feelings, convinced that they were one-sided and doomed to go unrequited. little did you know, ominis was grappling with his own emotions, struggling to come to terms with the fact that he had fallen for someone he had once dismissed as nothing more than an annoyance.
and as you stood on the precipice of something more, unsure of what the future held, you couldn't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, there was a chance for you and ominis to find happiness together, despite the odds stacked against you.
Song: War Of Hearts by Ruelle
Golden Trio Era; Romantic Match-Up: Mattheo Riddle
mattheo and you were destined to clash from the moment you first crossed paths. with your opposing personalities and conflicting interests, you found yourselves locked in a silent battle for dominance, exchanging sharp remarks and challenging each other at every turn.
despite your rivalry, there was an undeniable curiosity that sparked between you, fueled by the mystery that surrounded mattheo and your own enigmatic charm. beneath the surface, you sensed a connection that defied logic and reason, drawing you together like magnets.
it was during one fateful encounter in the library that your dynamic began to shift. as you found yourselves reluctantly working together on a group project, you discovered unexpected common ground and shared interests, your animosity giving way to a tentative truce.
through late-night study sessions and stolen moments of camaraderie, mattheo and you began to forge a bond that transcended your rivalry. you found yourselves confiding in each other, sharing your hopes, dreams, and fears in whispered conversations that echoed through the empty halls.
yet, your newfound truce was not without its challenges. as you navigated the complexities of your forbidden connection, you were forced to keep your growing affection hidden from prying eyes, lest you face the consequences of defying the expectations placed upon you.
mattheo and you found solace in each other's presence, your clandestine meetings becoming the highlight of your days. you stole moments of stolen kisses and lingering touches, each one a testament to the depth of your love for one another.
and as you stood on the precipice of uncertainty, with the weight of your forbidden love pressing down upon you, mattheo and you knew that you would face whatever challenges lay ahead together, united by a love that defied all odds.
Song: Infinity by Jaymes Young
#nuggets 1500 follower celebration#ominis gaunt#ominis gaunt headcanons#mattheo riddle#mattheo riddle headcanons
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Being in a relationship with Tokuno’o Tokumichi...
You were annoyed to be forced to move to another country, let alone one that doesn’t speak your language, yet here you were, in Russia, a fresh student at one of the most prestigious Universities from Moscow.
Your parents sent you here to take care of your twin brother who wanted to become a pro-Sambo fighter, and what better place to learn it, then its own mother country?
Your parents clearly didn’t trust your dumbass brother to live by himself in a foreign country... So you were left to mostly care for the home, food and expenses. but also your studies, while all he does is eat and exorbitant amount of food and work out... And it’s still him that complains.
You’re always there for him when he’s at the club’s practice gym and you encourage him... But you can clearly see it’s not exactly the type of sport he’d excel in - You still support him though, he’s your brother and that’s his dream!
One day, at your University, you go to eat your lunch outside, under a tree, only to spot a Japanese man! Finally, you’re not alone in this sea of natives!
You timidly go to him and smile, asking if you can sit by him. “Hi, I hope I’m not disturbing you... I just haven’t seen a familiar face in a while.”
The brunet man looked up from his book, eyes wide in surprise at hearing his mother tongue, and he gives a kind smile. “Of course.” he scoots over, allowing you enough space to lean on the great oak.
“Did you already eat your lunch?” you asked, a bit unsure of how to start a conversation with a stranger.
He shook his head. “I forgot to take it in the morning.” he didn’t seem to bothered by it though.
“Here. We can share. I always have a spare pair of chopsticks with me.” you rummage through your bag, handing him the said chopsticks - Though, amusingly for him, they were patterned with pink flowers. So childish.
“You needn’t...” hit stomach growled loudly, making him blush in surprise. “....Thank you.”
“I hope you like it. I haven’t really gotten used to using foreign ingredients yet, but I suppose my brother doesn’t really complain, so it’s fine.” you chuckle leisurely - You seemed so casual and easy going when talking to him, he noted.
As soon as he tried some of the food, his eyes widened, and he nodded. “It’s good.” he said. If he were his mum, he might have said - You’ll be a good wife one day - Or some silly thing that many Japanese women always say as a compliment.
“I’m happy that you like it.” you smiled sweetly at him. “My name’s Y/N, by the way.” what a pretty name, he thought, saying your name in his mind a few times.
“Tokuno’o Tokumichi.” what a mouthful, he thought - What was in his father’s head when he named him that?
“Oh, the virtuous one! Double the virtue - I wonder which two of the seven virtues do you embody.” he chuckled lightly, a bit flustered by her question. “Can I call you Nitoku?”
“Nitoku?” that was quite the clever nickname you came up for him on the spot. He quite liked it.
“Sure. I like it.” he smiled at you.
“So... What do you study?” good question.
“Literature.” he stated. “I studied Literature in Japan, but I moved here to learn broaden my horizons.”
“Ohh, an intellectual~! I’ve always loved reading all kinds of literature from different cultures. Now that you mention... Many of our authors have such a unique but also... What’s the word... Blank? Tragic? Spiraling? Take Dazai for example - There’s beauty in reading about all those characters and watching them destroy their own lives. But then, there’s Russian authors like Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and though their worlds are also bleak and depressing, the exposition is completely different - Don’t you think?” Nitoku was in love.
That day, you exchanged phone numbers, and from then on, no matter what Uni schedule he had, he’d pick you up from your home and walk you back - More, he’d walk you to your own classes, even if that meant being a bit late himself.
Will continue complimenting your food even if it’s a sandwich - The mere fact that you think of him means a lot.
Loves to drink coffee with you while you stroll through the park - You could be watching the leaves fall, or admire the pretty flowers, and it would be perfect for him.
If it gets cold Nitoku will always wear a scarf, just so he would put it around your neck - Suddenly, you lost your own scarf and don’t have the money to spare. You both know it’s a life.
You’re his biggest supporter when it comes to his dream of becoming an author, and you even help him come up with a cool pen name - Onomichi Nitoku.
He has you proof read all his manuscripts, and though you give some advice here and there, you don’t really have the heart to tell him that his writing... Kinda... Sucks.
He’s an incredibly intelligent and shrewd man, and he worked so hard to achieve his dream... How could you ruin his ambitions?
When he was able to create his first book, you were the first person to receive it - And you asked for his autograph, saying he’s the first famous person you’ve ever met and it’s an honour.
He hugged you so tightly, and his otherwise lethargic and blank expression was filled with pure joy and bliss - It hurt your heart to lie to him.
But going through that book was a whole chore in itself... And it wasn’t a short read.
In complete anti-thesis with his sheer glee, when he was told by his publicist that his books barely had any sales, his mood became lower than the Mariana Trench.
With the little money you had, you went to the bookstore and bought all his copies, begging the man at the counter not to tell anyone that it was a single person doing that - And with no idea what to do with just about 20 books, you donated them to literature clubs and libraries around the capital.
He took you out on a date when he got the money.
You felt so guilty, but still didn’t have the heart to tell him the truth... Yet you feared every day that when he does eventually find out, he will be so angry with you that he’ll stop being your friend - That thought alone almost made you burst into tears every time you saw him.
You soon found out Nitoku is a shit-spender and goes through his money like a sugar baby - It was absolutely hilarious, seeing this grown man be so irresponsible with his own hard-worked money.
You volunteered to help him out with the finances, but it barely helped at all, as he ended up getting his hands on the emergency money, under the pretext of an urgent need to buy a fountain pen.
A highly expensive, historical fountain pen that was said to have been used by Tolstoy himself.
He fell for the marketing gimmick.
For how intelligent he was, he sure had his dumb side sometimes.
“I should start training in a fighting sport.” you hear him say all of a sudden, realising his wallet was completely empty and you were forced to pay for the delivery food.
“I though you said you hated them. Well... Your sturdy body, rather.” you were shocked to hear him change his views after almost a year of being headstrong with his writing.
“I don’t earn enough from writing, and I’m fed up with you needing to take care of me. You have your own home to take care of, and another deadbeat man to feed. I’ve forced your hand and finances way too many times. If I want to properly grow and become a responsible adult, I have to find alternatives... And unfortunately, this cursed body of mine earned a ton of invites from various sport clubs.” you felt bad that he’s forced to deter from his own path and dream, but it was a rational choice, and you were very proud of him.
“Do you want me to introduce you to my brother’s Sambo club? I don’t want to sound as if I’m objectifying you or anything, but you don’t workout, yet you’re a literal powerhouse. You won’t even need to workout much to get any stronger - If you just work on your techniques, you’ll be immediately a favourite. It’s all about the legs, grapplers, wrestling and throws. Considering that your biceps looks to be as big as my thigh, I think you’ll be fine.” you pat his head, seeing him sigh in defeat. “But if you do end up with Sambo as your fighting style and you want to branch into MMA... Please take care of that pretty face of yours. It would be a pity if it got all messed up.”
“Y/N!” he scolded you for teasing him. “Fine. Sign me up.”
The next day, you took Nitoku to your brother’s club and introduced him to the coach, who immediately saw the potential in him and started training him properly.
It got your brother jealous enough to provoke him into a duel just a week after he signed up.
Your brother got absolutely obliterated, to the point of crying.
You couldn’t stop laughing.
Despite all his workout and training, your brother still was half of every one of Toku’s proportions, and somehow, his technique was still shit, even a year later.
He should have listened to your advice and gone for a combat sport that had soft techniques as a base.
Of course, you praised your boyfriend for being so cool, and he only looked away, closing his gaping robe properly - He didn’t know why, but he still felt shy around you.
And he didn’t even kiss you properly yet. He was a mess.
That night, you ended up in a one-sided fight with your brother, and not wanting to bother with him, you went to sleep over at Toku’s until he calmed down.
He was dying inside - And you could see it. He was adorable.
As expected, over the months since he started his pro-fighter career, he started earning a lot of money from every fight - And as you suggested, he branched into MMA and he was doing fantastically well, winning each and every one of his fights - He was the new big sensation.
You ended up asking him to teach you Systema, under the guise of self-defense lessons - But really, considering Systema was the ultimate self-defense style used against even weapons, and it had no fixed style, but it relied on fluidity and intuition - Which meant you didn’t need the body of a mountain to be good at it.
But Nitoku was afraid to actually train with you.
He saw perfectly well what a misaimed punch from him could do to trained fighters - He could break you so easily.
Instead, he let you practice on him - You knew the theory, but putting it in practice was completely different.
And sweeping at his feet was a complete failure - That man was the most gravitationally stable person in the world, he wouldn’t even budge an inch - It was almost frustrating.
You ended up nicknaming him ‘Rhodes’, as the Colossus from Rhodes.
But there came a day when Nitoku was acting completely out of character, and he seemed visibly frustrated for some reason.
Despite all your comforting and asking what happened - He had the weirdest suggestion - He wanted to help you practice. He never suggests it himself. It was peculiar behaviour out of him.
Instead of allowing you to make the first move, he was the one to go towards you, and in spite of the good technique that you attempted, he simply picked you up with ease and wrestled you to the ground.
Not that he hurt you - He made sure his arm was underneath your body so that all the impact would go to him instead.
You looked up at him with questioning eyes - All while his own bore into yours. This staredown made you feel incredibly uncomfortable and vulnerable, especially as you were caged between his body and arms with no way of running away.
“Why did you lie to me?” your eyes went wide from the implication, though you had no idea what he meant. “Why did you encourage me if you knew my writing sucked?”
So this was what it was all about. “Far worse people, with barely any education became best-selling authors. Look at the Twilight franchise, or that 50 Shades of whatever. If they could do it - Why not you? It’s your dream, and you worked so hard for it. Why wouldn’t I encourage you?” you asked. “Besides - I don’t think your writing sucks.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me that you were the one who bought 20 books in a day? I should have known that was impossible.” you couldn’t help but chuckle in guilt.
“Ah... Y-You found out...” he grunted in affirmation. “...I did it to see you smile.”
“...Huh?” his eyes snapped wide open, and he drew slightly backwards.
“Remember how happy you were when the editors sent you the first book? When you were finally able to publicize it? We’ve known each other for over a year now, and not once have I seen you that happy.” his heart sank. “When the editors told you that your work wasn’t selling well, you fell into a deep depression, remember? For weeks, you haven’t smiled even once. I couldn’t bare to see you that upset, it was the most painful thing to see.”
“So you threw your money to buy a bunch of books you don’t even like.” he sighed, gingerly letting go of you.
“I wouldn’t call it throwing money away - That’s irresponsible spending. I did it for a good cause. I wanted to protect that precious smile and heart of yours.” you confessed. “I really... Really... Can’t stand seeing you sad.”
“...You are an idiot.” at first, that insult surprised you - But then, you realised having mentioned how much you enjoyed reading The Idiot by Dostoevsky, and you smiled.
“Prince Myschkin style?” he nodded, looking away.
“Incisive, an intellectual, emotionally intelligent, wise... And of an absolutely beautiful nature.” he muttered, running a hand through his hair. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean to get so upset over nothing. Did I hurt you?”
“Nope.” you popped. “But you are hurt.” he looked at you with an inquiring eyebrow. “This little one is, at least.” you crawled over onto his lap and touched his chest through the gape in his lose yukata. “Can you promise me something?”
“What is it?” Toku was so confused, while at the same time, the anticipation was killing him.
“Promise me that no matter what, you will follow the path that makes you happy - Okay? I want you to have a happy life, and I want to see you smile.”
That was the moment when Tokuno’o Tokumichi first kissed you.
And he will kiss you many, many more from then on.
You would also play-wrestle whenever either of you wanted to steal a kiss - But Toku would always make sure he is the one to fall on the ground, and you, on him, so you wouldn’t get hurt.
When you express your concern for all the times he slams his back onto the ground, he gives you a cheeky smirk, saying he enjoys the view and the closeness.
And would always put a hand behind your head and pull you into a heated kissing session.
Would also ask you to move in with him when you return to Japan, after you’re done with your studies - And of course, you agree.
Thank goodness, you finally ditch your brother.
Nitoku tries, and fails, again to deliver multiple best-selling books, which ends up with him joining the underground fighting and winning a shit ton of money.
Only to end up spending it like it was nothing.
It actually shocked you as you genuinely had no idea where all that money went.
He ended up begging you to take a large percentage of his earned money and put it in a bank, on your shared account... That he has no access to. Keep that money for bills and emergencies and what not.
And definitely never tell him the details of the account, or he’s screwed.
You get to cheer him on for all of his underground fights and he won all of his match - Except for one that left him in recovery for half a year.
You didn’t imagine someone would be able to give Toku a hard time - And though it was a close call, Kano Agito did win, in the end.
Thank goodness you had kept all that money, so now you needn’t worry about anything except helping him recover.
He had six months of getting better and indulging constantly in his passion of writing.
Soon, he retired from fighting.
Until... To return 2 months later, because he had wasted all the money. Again.
At this point, it was getting hilariously tragic.
And from the man who took up fighting at 20 years old because of lack of money to support his living expenses and those of of his publishing editor...
He was now a 35 year old man, who has an on and off relationship with underground fighting... To sustain his living expenses and passion.
This man loves calligraphy, and would practice his ink-writing on expensive scrolls that mimic the feudal era ones. If he’s satisfied with the end result of whatever either stand alone symbol or poem verse that he wrote, he will end up hanging it on the wall.
On New Year, especially, he writes a new word that works as a resolution for the whole year round.
Beauty.
Strength.
Happiness.
Balance.
Love.
Freedom.
Fortune.
Luck.
Perseverance.
Discipline.
Kindness.
He also loves to read with his head resting on your lap, and if you don’t have your hand in his hair, playing with it, he will grasp your hand and bury it in his soft, dark locks.
He takes you with him for every eye-check, and has you choose his glasses frame.
Nitoku also loves to cuddle with you when you go to sleep, and will read you to sleep if you like it. His voice is so soothing, with his baritone, velvety tone of his, you can’t resist.
He loves it when you nuzzle into the crook of his neck - But he’s also a bit ticklish, so he might end up chuckling randomly, or even a little twitch here and there.
He claims that playing with your hair and petting it as if you’re a cat relaxes him and helps him focus on his work.
You have mixed feelings about getting gifts from him - Although you always feel flattered that he thinks of you with every step he takes... He also is one foot away from ending up in debt if he continues to spoil you.
Nitoku basically ends up as a househusband and you don’t have to do anything, because unlike him, you’re actually working a job and you’re exhausted enough as it is.
At the same time, he actively goes grocery shopping and lives for the days when you feel like cooking something - Even if your cooking isn’t actually all that good, he’d be so happy that you made him something. He’ll eat everything and ask for seconds.
Though he’s not a fan of PDA, preferring to keep things private, he doesn’t mind holding your hand or keeping his arm around your body.
When he is recruited for the Kengan vs Purgatory Tournament, he has you leaning against his side on the plane while he’s reading.
And at the arena, he plays with your fingers to keep himself calm and grounded.
Ends up breaking down all fights to explain them to you - You really loved hearing him speak.
It was awful seeing him lose because of a ring-out, as it was a coward’s win. If the enemy was a true fighter, he’d have won with a knockout.
You spent the rest of the day comforting him and telling him that he’s the strongest man you’ve ever met, and that he deserved to be declared the real winner.
He felt much better.
This man loves putting his haori over your shoulders when you go out and it gets slightly chilly - You’re absolutely adorable, covered with his large clothes.
Goes crazy when you wear a yukata. Absolutely feral.
Will end up spending all the money he gets from a fight to get you a shit ton of kimono, yukata, sandals, haori and accessories of every kind.
You might end up buying a new house to store everything he gifts you because you don’t have enough space in your own home anymore.
If you’re okay with going out with him wearing traditional clothes, he will take an infinite amount of pictures of either you alone, or the two of you.
They end up as his phone lock screen and wallpaper.
Would love to help you put on the kimono or even do your hairstyle for you.
Also loves to watch you do your make up - It’s an art for him, and he might even end up asking if he can put lipstick or eyeshadow on for you.
He especially loves applying lip gloss because he ends up tracing his thumb over your bottom lip.
But as soon as he applies the lip gloss, it’s transferred to his own lips, because he immediately ends up pulling you into deep, passionate kisses.
Also, when you get back home, you end up getting intimate, yukata barely on, and very much disheveled.
Nitoku uses different kinds of nicknames for you when in private, many of them including cute words of endearment like Zayka Moya, Milaya, Lyubimaya and many others.
At the end of the day though, he loved your name the most.
And to call you “My Love”
---------------
Being in a relationship with Wakatsuki Takeshi...
Being in a relationship with Yoroizuka Saw Paing...
Being in a relationship with Kure Raian...
Being in a relationship with Tokuno’o Tokumichi...
Being in a relationship with Kano Agito...
Being in a relationship with Gaolang Wongsawat...
Being in a relationship with Gaoh Ryuki...
Being in a relationship with Narushima Koga...
#kengan ashura x reader#kengan ashura imagine#kengan ashura#kengan omega x reader#kengan omega imagine#kengan omega#tokunoo tokumichi#tokunoo tokumichi x reader#tokunoo tokumichi imagine#nitoku#nitoku x reader#nitoku imagine
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So, a whole two people had an interest in my thoughts on cathar in Star Wars and purring, which I guess is enough to prompt me to try and put some of them into proper words. I do want to preface this by saying my own personal thoughts and feelings on these matters are very much my own personal thoughts and feelings, coming from my particular areas of interest and professional knowledge, and have absolutely no bearing on how much I enjoy other people's takes/characters, or how willing I am to interact or depict other people's takes/characters! Everyone approaches these things differently and frankly I have no interest in nor take any pleasure from raining on other folks' parade or telling them how to write/design/depict their own characters. Mostly, I want to reassure people that it is in fact completely okay to have completely different ideas to the more popular fandom headcanons, it is absolutely fine to disagree, and it is very not cool to try and force a single way as the 'best' or 'most correct'. I also, personally, have way more respect for people who will readily admit that they imagine a character/species a certain way purely because it viscerally appeals to them- they dig the aesthetic, they just think it's cool/cute/neat, etc- rather than those who dream up a feature and use ham fisted imperfect science to try and justify it.
If you like your cathar to purr simply because you think it's lovely, you go and do you, I love and respect you for it, and my words going forward here and now are simply not for you. I'm not here to fight or argue or try to convince you otherwise, I have no interest in discourse! There are just facets of world building and character design that I know I feel differently about than most people and I'm making myself vulnerable here by sharing some of them.
(I am also going to talk about a little more than purring.)
So! A little bit of background on me and where I'm coming from.
Animals are my life, I have studied them academically and work with them professionally and have lived and breathed animals since my very earliest memories. I am fascinated by form and function, by taxonomy and natural selection and adaptation to environments, by behaviour and cognition, and I am deeply committed to conservation efforts. All of these interests are what inform and guide the way I think about fiction, they are what I enjoy about made-up species, sometimes I think long and deep, and sometimes I just have gut responses. (Also, most of you here wouldn't know me from a bar of soap and I don't expect you to believe anything I say simply because 'I said so'. I could be lying about my life experience! If any of my talking points are of genuine interest to you I encourage you, I implore you to research further on your own!)
Now!
Cathar!
Cathar are just one of many many many 'space cat people' that hang out in Star Wars land. I was first introduced to the greater Star Wars universe through a tabletop RPG and I found myself RAVENOUS for lore, to know what was out there, to help expand and flesh out our character's adventures with as much delicious and beautiful variety as possible. I love this stuff. I dig the obscure aliens, I love the nonhumans, and because of my interest in real world animals, yes, the animal-analogue aliens have always been particular favourites.
Star Wars has lots, and lots, and lots of cat people, and visually they vary from very-animal (fluffy, four-limbed Cor) to basically-human (hi, Cathar, hi, new-canon Zygerrians), with a bunch of in-betweens at varying levels of cattyness and a few novel features here and there. To me, applying every variation of 'earth felid' to every species of 'sapient feline' in the Star Wars universe is just kind of boring and scientifically improbable in a way that (personally) irks me. If Cathar are the only space-cats you think of and utilise in your corner of fandom, I can see why you might enjoy making them as wonderfully varied as all the wild and domestic cats we have around us, but I just don't feel the need. I am far more interested in seeing some-features-here, some-features-there. These guys more like tigers. These more like domestic turkish vans. These ones more like lynx but WHAT IF theyr'e from an ocean world?? I have fun with that. I don't need a tiger-cathar and a siamese-cathar and a lynx-cathar and a margay-cathar. I have way more space cats to play with, and where canon/legends falls short, I'll make my own thank you very much.
So, coming from this angle alone, I actively don't want to stuff my cathar full of every variant of earth-cat behaviours and abilities. I have literally no need to make cathar, arguably one of the most humanoid cat-people Star Wars has to offer, capable of purring. To me, they're physiologically pretty much human with some mild, superficial feline facial features and fuzzy bodies. Human mouths, lips, tongues, throat, speech capability. I don't think they meow or prrp or hiss or purr (at least, no better or with any different reason than a human might mimic these sounds), I even struggle to visualise them 'perking' their ears, and if I want a character that I can write with those more catlike tendencies, I'll pick something that isn't a cathar! (And if I want a tail, I'll write them as a farghul or something. I don't need my cathar to have tails, and the function and variety of tails is another thing vastly misunderstood and misrepresented in popular fiction, but that's a whole other essay.)
We've also got the whole thing where roaring and purring are mutually exclusive sounds. No cat species can both roar and purr, and it is a distinction in the hyoid bone (that supports the tongue/larynx) that makes a cat capable of one or the other. Some big cats might have little rumbles/growls that can sound a bit like a purr, but it's really not the same thing. Hollywood messes this up all the time, look at every cartoon lion and tiger out there, and while it's totally within your right to headcanon some cathar-specific vocal apparatus that allows for both, I simply prefer neither, because the unique position of this bone in humans is apparently the foundation of our ability to speak. I look at a human-proportioned head, and I imagine human equivalent vocal abilities (so yes, I'd imagine the same for zabraks, @gran-maul-seizure ). I might write a togorian capable of roaring, or a trianii capable of purring, as both are significantly more alien than a cathar in my eyes.
Splitting cathar up into different subspecies with different abilities doesn't really work for me either (a lot of fandom intra-species variation doesn't really work for me) because there are a lot of very widespread, fundamental misunderstandings of how natural selection operates, and what leads to different species in the first place, and even what makes a species at all.
If these points don't matter to you, again, I re-iterate, that's fine. Go ham. If all you want to do is make a thousand creative variations, if you want to make a cathar for every cat-look under the sun and that's what's fun for you, please go right ahead! But these points matter to me a great deal, and so I take great enjoyment out of including them in my world building and character thoughts.
[Why do these things matter to me? Because I want to see life on our actual, real world home planet earth preserved. I believe understanding the vast variety of life is essential to fostering greater appreciation and ultimately care of our natural world. Biodiversity is essential and so poorly understood/acknowledged by the general public and it is one of my genuine missions in life to increase and improve understanding in whatever avenues I have available! Not every rabbit is created equal. You can't replace one lemur species with another and expect it to fulfil the same role in the environment, they are fundamentally different creatures. One lizard is not the same as the next, one skink is not equal to the next! People stroll down the beach and cast their eyes over a dozen different shorebirds at once and yet all they see is 'seagull' despite so so many different processes and niches and roles operating right before their eyes! If people can't recognise a sandpiper from a curlew from a crake, let alone a wood sandpiper from a marsh sandpiper from a terek sandpiper, how can they learn, how can they understand that each individual species is doing something different in the environment? That when one species goes extinct, something is irrevocably lost? Helping people understand that one species can not simply be replaced with another, no matter how superficially similar, is truly important to me. Important enough to me that it matters in my fiction as well! That I get more joy out of seeing exploration of earth felids represented across multiple unique space cat species, rather than a one-size-fits-all-cat-man!]
So, back to the space cats. To me, personally, it is most believable to imagine that cathar evolved to a certain level of intelligence, sapience, technological advancement, within a single environment, and then these abilities allowed them to expand further into more extreme environments, cross oceans, survive in hostile climates, etc. A single, distinct species, with certainly some physical variation (just like humans) but within very specific parameters (just like humans - our skin colours and body shapes vary, yes, but across predictable spectrums; we don't have spider-monkey humans and chimp humans and mandrill humans and capuchin humans and snub nosed monkey humans and pygmy marmoset humans). I imagine that when the early cathar population spread, say, from a lightly forested landscape into the snow, they did not need to evolve a fluffy coat with snow leopard patterns because it was their ability to make heavy coats out of wildlife pelts and construct shelters and build fires that allowed them to move into the snow in the first place. They didn't need to develop camouflage appropriate to the environment because they could find colours to wear, they could dye or bleach their fur, their intelligence took over and allowed them to adapt much faster than natural selection ever would. Once they hit a certain point in their species' evolution, they did not need to continue to change physiologically to adapt to environmental pressures.
Could you look at it the other way? That the cathar-predecessor spread across their home planet and adapted into various environmental niches, developed new coat colours and vocal systems before actually becoming the intelligent and self-aware spacefaring cat people we know and love? Sure! But I would argue that it is deeply, profoundly improbable that what you would wind up with is a single species! I would argue that it's profoundly improbable that each one of these environmental variants would develop to the same level of sapience at all, let alone wind up able to produce offspring together, but y'know, the idea of multiple dominant species from a common ancestor is cool and fun too. The key, here, for my own personal believability, is multiple species. If you don't care about any of this in your fiction, fine! Do what's ultimately more creatively fun for you, but own that creativity rather than misrepresent science! And if you actually do like to consider species variation and evolution from a more real-world biology perspective, I encourage you to read and think a little more deeply, go beyond the rule of cool and get to understand the sheer, magnificent, overwhelming variety and beauty of our own home a little better.
My cathar don't purr, because biodiversity matters to me.
Footnote: Slightly more sideways thoughts, I guess, but I also kind of find the trend of giving animal-esque species cutesy animal-esque tendencies to be a little rude, and it's something I prefer to write into Imperial xenophobia rather than make fact for alien species. I don't find it especially fun to consider Aric Jorgan getting distracted with a ball of yarn or being placated with a saucer of milk or grooming himself with his tongue, and especially not any implications that the behaviours might be involuntary. I imagine it's a very tiresome, disrespectful gag for human Imperial agents to give a bowl of milk to their cathar colleague, and I imagine a Republic trooper wouldn't dream of insulting their cathar counterpart in the same way.
#no idea if I actually made any of my points cohesively#Also can't believe this is what I dedicated my whole night to#But hey#there it is#just a big old wall of text about imaginary cat people
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MY MOON ➤ CHAPTER ONE (Remus Lupin x OC)
NOW PLAYING: For the First Time
prologue here
Mila; (Meel-ah), originating from the name Milagros, meaning 'miracle'
THE VERY FEW BANGS THAT SHE HAD bounced on her face as she trudged along to class, sticking to the sides of the halls to avoid bumping into people. Her hands were stuck onto the straps of her satchel, you could hear the faint noise of ink bottles clinking against each other, crumpled up pieces of parchment moving around. Her feet shuffled against the ground, trying to shove past the many students trying to get to their classes.
Luna; Spanish for 'moon'
She got held up by what she could assume was either stupid boys laughing, a student getting picked on, or some poor person pulled into a humiliating situation.
Mila Luna was not one for socializing, apart from her friend group. She liked to keep to herself, spend her days in the far corner of the library studying or immersing herself with a new book she dug out from the depths of the shelves. She liked to think of herself as an extra in a film, a background, an unnamed character, just for show, to fill up space. That's what she liked, she was very happy with not getting attention. It kept things quiet.
She let out a puff of air, sticking her head a bit to see what was holding everything up, she couldn't see much though. The crowd picked up traction again. It was the first day of the second semester, winter break had just ended and most students seemed lazy and drowsy jumping back into the routine. Mila was more than elated to get back to Hogwarts, she wasn't that close with anyone that she could talk to over break. She much preferred to have too many things to worry about instead of feeling nothing and numb.
She entered her astronomy class, her favorite class might she add. She quickly walked to her usual seat, the second table to the back. The loud screeching of other stools perfectly drowned out the sound of her extremely loud one as she pulled it out. She sat down, setting her bag on the floor beside her. Although it was her favorite class, Mila couldn't help but doze off most of the time, she was tired from the absence of sleep from the night before. Multiple times she could feel her eyes shut, then she'd force them to snap open again, trying to focus.
"Because it is the start of the new term," Professor Sinistra started, "I've decided there will be no tests for the beginning of this new semester," the class erupted into quiet cheers, "Instead, I'm assigning a month-long project," she waved her wand towards the chalkboard, letters very slowly appearing on it, "It will be a group project between pairs of three. Two groups might have four as we don't have enough students," she walked towards her chart of different phases of the moon. "I want you all to find a way to execute the showings of the moon phases, whether this be a report, skit, presentation, or what not, I just want it done in a group of teamwork and collaboration!" Sinistra motioned back towards the chalkboard, "Here are the lists of groups and members, please gather yourselves."
Mila's head was nestled in her arms on the table, her leg underneath the table was shaking up and down. She hated group projects, well who didn't?
She would mostly have to do all the work, every time. Luckily, her astronomy class only consisted of them and the Hufflepuff's. Mostly all Hufflepuff's were not insufferable, she couldn't say so for her own house though. Mila's head sparked up as she read her name on the board:
Group four;
Sirius Black
Mila Luna
Remus Lupin
Great just what she needed, paired up with relatively popular, annoying, pricks. She stood up from her seat with her satchel, making her way to Professor Sinistra's desk.
"Excuse me, Professor?" Mila said, while clearing her throat.
"Ah Mila, what can I do for you?"
Mila's hands tightened around the strap of her bag. "Could I switch groups? I'm not sure how well I'd do with my group!" she asked.
The Professor set down her quill and gave Mila a sympathetic smile, "I'm sorry, but the groups chosen, are the groups that are set in stone, Ms.Luna, this is a project to bring students together, as well as to see if you know your subject! I think this will be a nice challenge for you," Her teacher smiled sweetly. Mila pursed her lips, then turned on her heels towards the old rickety table with extra project information and instructions.
She waited by the table for a moment, trying to waste as much time as she could. She quickly skimmed over the piece of paper before reluctantly walking towards the loudest desk in the room. She pulled up a stool, from another desk, up to their table on the opposite side of them. The two of the boys were joking about something, not noticing her for a few seconds, at least that's what Mila thought. Remus had noticed the strange girl that sat down on the other side of them, her face was slightly hidden from her bangs, her robes and tie matched his, the red and gold hanging off of her neck.
He looked at her from the side, pretending to pay attention to Sirius. She pulled bottles of ink out of her satchel which was lying on her lap, she inspected them, then chose the one with the least amount of ink, to make sure not to put new ones to waste. She pulled out pieces of parchment, digging around her bag for a lost quill which she found alas. Remus had never seen this girl before, sure there were many people in the Gryffindor house, but he'd surely at least seen every face. Yet for some reason, she was a completely new person.
Sirius seemed to finally notice that someone had found their way to their desk. Sirius leaned over the table, slyly grinning at Mila as she kept her head down reading the instructions list. "And who might you be fair lady?" He questioned, Mila only gave him a quick glance in response. "Not a talker I see," he continued, "I am the one and only Sirius Black-"
"I know who you are," Mila cut him off to refrain from continuing his egotistical introduction.
"So you've heard of me?" Sirius smirked.
"Yes. Unfortunately"
Remus stifled back a laugh at the short answers from the girl. "What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius sat back in his seat.
"It means, we have a project we have to do, so if we could please get started on ideas!"
The long-haired boy crossed his arms against his chest, "You never answered my question, now what's your name Ms. Mysterious?"
She sighed, setting her paper on the table, staring at Sirius, already tired of the long days ahead, "My name is Mila. Luna. Now if we could please-"
"Luna, that doesn't sound like a regular English name, what's it mean?"
"It's not. It means moon, now like I said-" Mila's jaw clenched in frustration, annoyed from getting cut off over and over again.
Sirius had elbowed Remus in the arm, Remus winced into the abrupt slight of pain, "Oi' Moony, Mysterious here stole your name!" Although Mila was annoyed from being cut off by stupid comments from the boy she quirked her eyebrow at the odd, out-of-place nickname.
"Pads, how 'bout we just start with the project," Remus finally spoke up, scrunching his nose.
"Project?" Sirius looked dumbfounded. Mila was definitely annoyed now, he couldn't even pay attention enough to know they had a project.
Remus had to explain to Sirius, "We have to find a way to creatively track the phases of the moon."
"Wait so how long do we have?" Remus bended over, getting his own supplies from his bag, leaving Mila to answer the question.
"We have this week to plan, the month of February, then the first week of March to correct and add whatever, now any ideas?"
"We could draw out the phases, Remus here is great at drawing thingies and stuff!" Sirius grinned. Once Sirius had registered what he'd just remarked too Mila saw as the two boys caught each others glaces.
Remus had just placed his quill on the wood surface before Sirius grasped his shoulder, hearing what he had just said, widening his eyes, "Sirius, first of all that sounded completely wrong, second I don't really draw, I'm not even that good-"
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Nonsense you draw like all the time- well except for when your face is shoved in some book."
"Actually, Black," Mila said, "That isn't such a bad idea, it could rack us up a few points, and if Lupin is as good as you say he is, I think we can pull it off quickly!" Sirius grinned, at least someone was fond of his ideas, then he smirked to Remus, letting him know he got his way. She dipped her quill into the ink, then pressed it on the parchment, writing the title of the project with the word 'draft' next to it, then listing the idea Sirius just gave.
After she finished she packaged everything back into her satchel, pulling out her book. "Why are you packing up so early?" Remus asked.
"Well the class is almost over, so..." Remus slightly nodded. Truth was Mila wanted to leave right when class was to be dismissed, and she wanted to finish her new book she found in the muggle section of the library, she only had a few chapters left, just yearning to be read.
Professor Sinistra finally let the class go as the hour rang for the periods of classes to end. Mila slung her satchel around her body, rushing out of the room, nose still nestled in the pages of her book as she headed off to Ancient Runes.
Mila felt like she could collapse at once, she dragged her feet across the floor to the great hall for lunch. She walked to the end of the Gryffindor table, only to find one of her friends, Ida. Ida Reese, or what Mila like to tease her with, 'Iddy', was the only friend she was close with. The only friend she really told about her past. The only one she could confide in, her best friend.
"Hey M'!" Ida greeted. Mila took her seat beside her, putting some salad on her plate, and covering it with ranch.
"Hey Iddy!" Mila hummed.
"Today's a bust, anything fun happen to you?" Ida questioned.
Mila put a piece of spinach in her mouth, everyday seemed to be a boring day for Ida, "Not really, sorry to disappoint!"
Ida tilted her head, putting on a pleading look, "Really? There has to be at least, something!"
Mila smiled contemptively "I've finished my book if that's something that can fascinate you."
Iddy put her finger out tapping it on the open page laid in front of Mila, "What's this then?"
"J'some notes im writing in the margins," she shrugged.
Ida furrowed her eyebrows, her view resting on the Hogwarts Library stamp across the tops of the pages. "Isn't that like, not allowed? You know- to write in the books?"
M' had a muggle pen out and wrote a little sentence on the thin page. "Well loads do it, I already recognize two peoples handwriting, they write notes all the time as well!"
"Litte weird if you ask me M', but c'mon, finishing some muggle book cannot be the highlight of your day so far!" Mila felt pressed from the disbelief on her friends face.
She pondered, trying to come up with something relatively interesting. "I have a month and a half long group project in astronomy?"
Ida sighed, "That's better than the book,"
"Wait I didn't finish! Guess who I'm stuck with for the next six weeks?"
"Who?"
She motioned her head towards the near center of the table, where four boys were joking around, flooding the area with noise. "Sirius Black and Remus Lupin," Mila stated.
Iddy held back a giggle, "Well, that could be fun! You'll get mounds of attention from that."
"Stop!" Mila scowled. "It was quite annoying, Black kept asking the most stupid of questions!"
"Well I think instead of his body giving him a brain, I think it put more time into that hair of his."
The two girls snickered as they looked over the group of boys, Sirius' hair just barely resting upon his shoulders. Mila had to admit, "Although I kind of hate them, Black has some seriously great hair, Iddy you should go ask him what conditioner he uses," she teased.
"I don't think his conditioner will help my hair, or yours!"
Remus; Latin orgins revealing determination of great admiriabilty
Remus continued to read his book as Peter and Sirius were throwing their food at each other, and James were staring over at Lily Evans, again. "I don't think you staring at her like some git is going to get her to go on a date with you, Prongs," Remus said, not looking away from his book. James's head turned to Remus, taken out of his day dreaming.
"She'll say yes, I know it, one day! You wait, and if she does, you owe me a galleon!" James practically pleaded.
Remus quirked his eyebrow, "A whole galleon? Just if she says yes to go on a date with you? You even have doubts in it yourself, mate," James scowled, going back to eating his food, Remus to his book, he read the little scribbled, but neat, notes left on the sides, he recognized this writing in every few books he was able to get around too.
Lupin; Meaning - 'Pertaining to Wolf'
His fate was sealed, engraved even into his last name. The scars that aligned his face, the bite carved into the back of his neck, that carried the burden since he was four. The way people pitied him so much, they were willing to become illegal animagi to assist him on the treacherous nights of the full moon.
Even if it seemed like such a small problem, the weight was on his shoulders forever, to numb it, he would read, pull pranks, take midnight strolls, draw, but, it wasn't like he could do it all, all day, he wish he could, but the problem still lingered above him, swaying back and forth. He would do as many things as he could to take his mind off of the 'monster' he was. Take up extra credit school work, harder classes, prefect duties. Anything to rid the creature from his mind.
He kept wondering how he would complete the last day of tracking the moon for the new project he assigned, Sirius had committed him to it against his will, knowing that Sirius didn't think about the once a month night. Remus had been staring at the same word in his book for a few seconds before snapping out of his thoughts, beginning to talk to Padfoot who was next to him, "Sirius, you're going to have to actually do work for this project!"
Sirius turned to him, face full of bread, "I will- fon't worry!" he finished chewing and then swallowed.
"I'm serious!"
"No I am!" Remus rolled his eyes, he walked himself into the joke again.
"Fine, I will try, but sometimes I just have way more important things to do, Moony, besides you have that girl to help you anyways!"
Remus sighed, "Her names Mila, treat her with respect, set an example for James please, then maybe he'll learn how to actually treat a girl!" James turned his head asking "What?" after hearing his name, but they ignored him and Remus continued talking,
"I say we meet up in the library tomorrow, say about five p.m. to give us enough time to do other work, and plan out things, understand?"
"got ya- now can I finish eating my rolls?"
"Fine."
Lunch had ended, students made their ways to their last 3 classes to end the day. Remus had waited for the Great Hall to clear out, in hopes of finding his another project partner to notify her of the Wednesday study plans. He looked down the tables until his eyes fell upon a girl getting up from the benches carefully as she was still holding onto a book jotting something down.
He walked over to her, "Hey!" he said, Mila froze, almost jumping back as she looked up to meet Remus's gaze.
"Oh hello- You startled me," She tensed.
He ran his fingers through his hair, pushing it back, hopefully making it look more presentable, "I'm sorry, didn't mean to," Mila quirked her eyebrow wondering what the brunette was doing, "I just wanted to let you know me and Padfo- Sirius, decided to meet up tomorrow in the library tomorrow, five p.m. to study for the project," He smiled at her, but she just nodded her head in response.
"Ok, I'll be there, I just need to get to potions, bye Lupin," He watched her walk off to Professor Slughorn's classroom as he went off to his.
Mila woke up tiredly, not ready for the usual Monday and Wednesdays of an extra class, hers being Ancient Runes, which she hated, but was needed for her future aspirations.
She was able to escape an encounter with the Marauders in astronomy, as there was no time to be left to get groups together. Ancient Runes, was depised by Mila, it went painfully slow that day. Professor Babbling did what her name ensued, babbled on about useless things, her squeaky voice playing rough on Mila's ears. The class was finally dismissed, much to her delight.
Mila was starving and dying of hunger, she almost ran to the Great Hall for lunch. She adjusted her Gryffindor tie that sat on her neck, her satchel swinging beside her body. As she entered the Great Hall she scanned the tables, she found that her other 3 friends that made up her friend group, finally decided to sit with her and Ida. She smiled and started walking towards them. Much to her demise on her way she could hear someone calling out to her from down along the table. "Oi! Ms. Mysterious, get over here!" it was none other than Sirius Black. She sped up her pace, completely ignoring him, hoping she could rush past him so she could eat.
Unfortunately her gripped the sleeve of her robe, pulling her back, she could already feel a few of girls eyes staring at her. She hung her head down, keeping her face hidden with some of her hair. She turned to him, "What?"
"I just needed to tell you something about todays study thing for astronomy!"
She let out a puff up air, "Go on, make it quick, I don't want to be seen around you all!" Instead of getting to the point he went off topic.
"Why don't you want to be seen with us?" He questioned.
"Cause I can feel everyone looking at me already," She muttered back.
"I thought you were a Gryffindor? Things aren't supposed to bother us," he tsked smirking.
Mila scoffed, "Way to be stereotypical Black, not everyone wants people drooling all over them all day! Or shooting daggers at you with their eyes for just speaking to you!"
Sirius was taken aback, "I have you know, I do not have every girl drooling all over me, there's you for starts-"
"That's because you're not all that!" She sang. Peter across from the table, who was listening in on the conversation, stifled a small giggle.
"Are you calling me a terrible person?"
"Yes!" she leaned over, in-between Sirius and Remus, grabbing a warm biscuit from the center of the table that they had hoarded. Remus was surprised at the sudden body right next to him reaching for a snack.
"I'll have you know I'm not stupid! I'm way smarter than Prongs! If anything I'm right next to Remus when it comes to my intelligence!" He declared, Mila ignored him again, biting into the baked dough, coming to delight with the warmth in her mouth, letting out a 'Mm!' and reached for another one, storing it in her pocket.
"You've talked longer than you've should, I'll be going now." she strode off to her friends, taking another bite out of the biscuit, not caring about the eyes on her, the dough was too good to be eaten behind her hair.
She went towards the end of the benches, closest to the Professors tables. She sat next to Ida, on the other side of them were 3 girls, The one in the middle was very pretty, her cookie blonde hair was silky, her face was slim, she was the definition of what pretty was. Her name was Serenity Coleman. Mila had been friends with her from a young age, their families were close, not so much them anymore. They were just to different, yet they were still friends. She had just drifted off to find new people, who were much cooler then Mila, Mila was decidely her uncool friend.
Serenity was too cool for a nickname as well. From when Mila met her to the end of 3rd year, Serenity had always went as Seri, but by fourth year, that was too much of a kid-ish name. Serenity was better at everything, exceeded in areas that M' lacked. Serenity had latched on to new friends, who were obligated to be Mila's friend, and the two sat on either side of Serenity right now.
On Serenity's right was a girl with dark brown hair, her face always had a mean look on it, this was Ruby Ross. Often had the girl catergorized herself as too cool for school, she often convinced the other two of their trio to skip classes, go off flirting with guys, or playing around in their dorms. She took things with a more careless attitude, she didn't pry for anything, which Mila appreciated. Mila, Ruby, Serenity, and Iddy all shared a dorm together, which is how they found out about Ida in the first place.
The girl on the other side of Serenity was Maisie Baker, everyone called her Mai, she had the same dark brown eyes and hair as Ruby, but had more rounded features. You instantly felt a safe aura from her, she was always kind and cheery. She was very kind to Mila, always checking up on everyone.
"Since when did you, talk to them?" Serenity perked up.
"I was just talking to him about an astronomy project I have to do with two of them. No need to get jealous they're quite insufferable," Mila defended, scared of playing another game of charades.
Serenity scoffed, drooping her head down to Mila with a look of disbelief, "Are you kidding? You know how lucky you are? How many people would kill to be grouped with them! Sirius is such a catch!" Mila only looked back to her with a very much concerned face as she continued, "M', could you maybe, introduce me to Black? Since you know him now, could get me a chance this time."
"Serenity, you know how many girls he's tried to be with? If he did say yes for a date, pretty sure he would forget you by next week!"
"I'd say you have a crush on black, M', and that's why you won't introduce Serenity to him!" Ruby said, obviously joking.
Mila looked slightly shocked, "Excuse me?" she said.
"Fine then you have a thing for... Potter!" Ruby grinned.
"Well even if she did, she had a 0% chance, he's all over Lily Evans!" Mai pointed her finger to James, "I mean just look at him pining all over her!" All of the girls heads turned to James, then following his gaze to a redheaded girl giggling with her friends, not noticed the brown eyes looking at her with much, much, desire.
"Poor James" Serenity did a small frown, "She doesn't see anything in him, I hear she has to reject him at least like once a week!" The girls went on to talk about another topic, but Mila kept looking at Lily, wishing she was her.
Lily was popular, pretty, had a guy chasing after her for years, she was smart, all her teachers loved her, she was outgoing, many friends, kind, and sweet. Mila had only talked to her a few times, and every encounter, Lily was so nice to her, effortlessly doing everything right. Mila aspired to be like her. To have her beautiful pale skin, instead of her darker one, to have to straight hair, instead of her frizzy hair. Mila always put her standards too high.
She went back to her friend's conversation, trying to pick up on what they were talking about. She sat there, pretending to laugh with them, she was lost in her own thoughts, as she slowly ate, and nodded at the every few asked questions.
"So M', are you going to tell us about your new crushes on Potter and Black!" Ruby teased, Mila rolled her eyes in response, finishing to swallow down the bite of her sandwich.
"You guys are unbelievable!"
#remus lupin#remus lupin imagine#marauders#marauders era#remus lupin fluff#marauders fandom#marauders fic#remus lupin angst#remus lupin x oc#remus lupin x original character#marauders fanfiction#remus lupin fanfic#remus lupin fanfiction#marauders fluff#marauders era fanfiction
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(same anon as before) No prob, I'll just post what I wanted to talk about here.
I'm trying to write a fic with KvZ as the focus and you depict him so well with your art, I kinda want to ask for your opinion on him and Genshin and their relationship (huge GnKnt shipper here) just to get a different perspective and more depth into what you think of them. I love how you portray them both and I'd appreciate hearing what you think.
Also as an amateur artist, if you could give me any art tips about drawing like you do, especially with all the symbolism and metaphors, I'd really appreciate it.
That's all, thanks, and sorry if I bothered you!
vvv
Thank you! But you give me too much credit. I’ve mostly just drawn variations of the two standing in the dark [gestures to img below]. Admittedly, I haven’t thought too deeply about their relationship beyond Klimt’s mental decline (and how that affected the people around him) and their final duel. But if it’s anything, I view them both as impulsive and emotional. I don’t really have a solid opinion on the matter of their marital status. Sorry, I just enjoy seeing guys who are doomed by the narrative be self destructive and tear their lives apart 🤷♂️
As for art tips— I don’t know how experienced you are, but regardless of skill level, you should have a good grasp on the fundamentals (eg: values, proportion, perspective, line quality, etc.). Once you have a handle on the basics, drawing from life, doing master copies, photo studies, etc. helps further develop and hone your skills.
I don’t have any good resources explaining things, but search around; there's plenty of free art learning resources online. I’ve heard good things about Proko on youtube. It's also good to look at artists of different styles, mediums, and eras. That way, you can learn from analysing their techniques and you can develop a style of your own.
A small word of advice— if you're still a beginner, don't get too caught up on the details and on complex techniques. Those things will come in due time (or if you want to push yourself, but I don't really recommend force. you should enjoy creating art). Beautifully rendered art with unintentional poor proportions and composition sticks out like a sore thumb (unless you don't mind, then you do you).
Explaining my creative process is tough since most of it just kind of happens, so I’m sorry if this comes out incomprehensible. For me, when it comes to symbolism, it’s basically analysing the character and what situation you want them in and honing in on specific ideas. Let’s use these pieces for example:
Kazuma has an association with snakes because his family crest represents snake eyes. Here, I’m using the snake to symbolise his hatred, which stems from his father's death. On the left, he wields it. He's seemingly calm and under control. The snake is ready to strike. To the right, his hatred spirals and nearly consumes him. It's the demon inside him 🤓
Besides the obvious of what happens in their story, some things you can draw from is how a character presents themselves, perspectives, occupation, hobbies, personal effects, cultural/religious/societal/etc. background, conflicts, era/location, etc. But other than that, symbolism can be incorporated in smaller, subtler ways, like the way someone holds a bottle, how an article of clothing is worn, and the like. Watching movies/tv, reading comics, and other media helps. Pay attention to how the director/author frames and lights things 👍
(side note: karuma is a recurring symbol in tgaac)
Not sure if anything I wrote here is of help, but yeah
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Thinking a lot about the female characters is Star Wars, and I realized something:
Without fail, the only female characters without very vocal detractors within fandom are the ones who lose their clothes
Leia and Padme are the only female characters who do not have people devoted to just hating them and I think it is because they are the only ones who lose their clothes at some point.
In a fight where the two male characters come out with their outfits intact, Padme artistically loses just enough of her outfit to not change the movie’s rating.
Leia gets degraded by a slaver and forced to wear what would barely count as undergarments.
As a child, I just loved the movies.
As a teen I saw the difference and just though “well they are hot”. (I hate that I had internalized gorgeous women in movies are not allowed clothes so much at this time.)
As an adult, I can’t stop thinking about the men behind the scenes who made that decision. Who just decided a bikini that didn’t adapt to the shape of the body (Carrie Fischer addressed how it gapped and exposed her when she had to sit because of its inflexible material) was the correct move. Or stared at a shirt deciding what the appropriate amount to have torn off but not make it seem gratuitous was.
The other female characters in the movies where these things occur stay mostly clothed, but they also barely speak.
Then Star Wars started fixing its female characters problem. And we got Rose and we got Rey and we got Admiral Holdo and we got Reva and we got Ahsoka and the fanboys lost their damn minds.
Actors were attacked on social media. Actors had to take a break from public life because of the vitriol thrown at them.
Hell, even the actor who played a younger Leia was torn down by the fanboys. A literal child. And grown ass men felt the need to comment.
According to the fanboys, a woman does not belong in Star Wars unless she is giving them something to imagine later as they ruin a sock, and I hate it. I hate it so much.
I love these stories. I love talking about them. I want to introduce my daughters to them, but that introduction is going to involve giving my own Women in Film media and gender studies class, and I hate that.
This is not just a Star Wars problem. Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad vs Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey illustrates the problem pretty explicitly. It is a fanboy problem. It is all the grown ass men spending their time spewing sexist vitriol from behind their keyboards but couching it as a critique, when really they just want to see a character they can easily insert themselves into in these situations.
#this kind of also explain why Obi-wan is so beloved because he is constantly losing that cloak#this post is specifically about the sexist issue in fandom#but I absolutely recognize that John Boyega was also treated like shit and we all know exactly why that is#ahsoka tano#aayla secura#padme amidala#leia organa#reva sevander#rey skywalker#rose tico#I will not be interacting with responses to this post#do not try to argue your shitty opinions with me#you won’t convince me and I won’t convince you#Star Wars
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I Start Over With You
[SOLANGELO FANFIC]
summary: After the great battle against the forces of Gaea, Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter had formed a long-lasting alliance. Everything had gone well, and everyone was ready to start anew. This included Nico, who, after confessing his feelings to Percy, was prepared to open a new chapter in his life—perhaps the happiest one the Fates had ever written.
note: the chapters will be updated every Wednesday. If you want to read upcoming chapters of the fanfiction in advance, I invite you to follow me on Patreon.
Subscribing is not necessary, these chapters will be added for free on the platform on Mondays and Fridays. Following me there is just a kind and free gesture to support my work c:
nda.
I remember when this chapter was published, years ago, the opening lines sparked a lot of discussion. I studied piano for five years, but it's been a long time since I played. I can only read music now. The opening lines were particularly debated because, in string instruments, B-flat and G-sharp are, in fact, the same note. However, in singing, for example, there are different variations of notes, and not all are perceptible (in this case, we are talking about a 1/9 variation), and only an absolute ear can recognize the difference. I liked the idea of Will being able to grasp the different nuances of pitch in notes, especially because this character tends to underestimate his abilities.
Reblogs are highly appreciated c:
[CHAPTER 5]
THE LAST THING WILL EXPECTED, WAS TO HEAR NICO SING. He never thought he would accept his challenge and start singing, and he wasn't even off-key. Of course, there were always those little imperfections like hitting a B-flat instead of a G-sharp, but they were nuances that only someone with perfect pitch would be able to catch. Will was enchanted.
After the song, which Nico deemed embarrassing, the boys in the circle were dismissed to return to their respective cabins. Finally, the son of Hades was free to rest and mentally prepare for the next day. It would be his first ro wing lesson at camp, and he wasn't exactly sure what he would have to do. He would rely entirely on Will's teachings, hoping he could explain how to row as well as he could heal. "See you tomorrow" Nico said, ready to head toward his cabin. "See you tomorrow!" Will replied enthusiastically. "Sweet dreams" he added, unable to contain his radiant smile. "Yes. You too" he replied, leaving behind the now extinguished campfire and with Will watching him disappear into the darkness.
He made his way up the camp in silence, heading straight to cabin number 13, where a warm and soft bed awaited him. Opening the door, he immediately made his way to the mattress and collapsed soothed by the sweet sounds of the night, he fell asleep. It was a dreamless sleep, which was a rare occurrence for a demigod. He woke up a few hours after the first light of dawn, disturbed by a pesky sunbeam kissing his face. The boy grumbled in his sleep a couple of times, muttering for someone to draw the curtains and let him sleep for five more minutes, but since his request went unanswered and the one sunbeam became two, Nico decided it was time to get up. He stretched and yawned a couple of times, first rubbing his face to wipe off the last traces of sleep and then running his hand through his hair to tidy it up a bit. He spent about twenty minutes in the bathroom, mostly trying to fix himself up and get rid of that undead look— unfortunately it seemed to be hereditary to always look like a zombie. He sighed, changed his clothes, and slipped on his shoes before heading out to have a substantial breakfast, convinced that Will would tire him out.
At the dining hall, there were still a few demigods, some had finished their meal while others were still waking up. Nico grabbed something to eat and went to sit at his usual table, intending to take his time to fully wake up. Occasionally, he glanced over at the table occupied by the children of Apollo, but Will wasn't there. He thought that Will must have already gone down to the lake and was waiting for him, as he thought it impossible that he was still sleeping in bed. Slowly, more and more people began to fill up the dining hall, taking seats at their own tables or joining others, and just as more people started to arrive, Nico finished his food. He wiped his mouth with a napkin and headed down to the lake where an impatient Will was waiting for him. "Good morning sunshine!" Will exclaimed as he saw a gloomy-looking Nico approaching. "Good morning, Solace" Nico replied simply, noticing that Will had already pushed a two-person boat into the water. "I thought someone else was coming" he confessed, knowing that usually a substantial group was needed for rowing. "Ah, no" said Will, running a hand through his hair. "I thought it would be more productive with just the two of us" he explained. "Okay" sighed Nico, feeling nervous enough being on a boat in the middle of the water. Will quickly explained the procedure for rowing, which involved leveraging certain parts of the body in a harmonized way with each other. Will was confident they wouldn't capsize. "All clear?" he asked, sure that he had explained everything. "Yes" confirmed Nico, already impatient to get back on solid ground. "Great! Let's go" exclaimed Will, walking down the wooden pier with Nico following him at a slow pace, thinking back to years ago when after the war against the Titans, the campers, caught up in a burst of euphoria, pushed Percy and Annabeth into the lake. He shook his head, dispelling the unpleasant memory. Nico took a couple of deep breaths, thinking to himself "what was I thinking?" then climbed down the ladder and got into the boat, taking the second seat so that he could follow Will's arm movements. "Ready?" the enthusiastic boy asked, already untying the knot that held the boat to the dock. "Ready" Nico tried to sound enthusiastic, but his voice betrayed him.
Will did most of the work, and Nico tried to keep up, pushing the oar with all the strength he had in his body. "Use your legs" Will repeated from the front, occasionally suppressing a laugh. As they reached the center of the lake, Nico slowly became more familiar with rowing. Will was right in saying that it was all about synchronization. "You know, I didn't expect this" Will suddenly said, catching Nico's attention, who was already focused on not tipping over. "What?" he asked with a scoff. "That you can sing" Will smiled. "Really, you have a nice voice" he concluded, turning halfway to look at him. "Ah—" Nico simply said, not expecting such a statement. "You sing well too" he tried to compliment him in return, feeling his cheeks flush. He wasn't used to giving compliments, he was a disaster with words and he didn't even know if that could define him as such since it was a fact that Will could sing. "Yeah, I can handle singing" he replied with feigned modesty. "But there are better ones" he lowered his shoulders with a sigh, thinking of his other siblings who were much better at hitting the highs and lows of a song. Nico pursed his lips, he hated when Will downplayed himself. He had many other abilities and was as good as the other members of his house, he just convinced himself otherwise. "Maybe" Nico muttered. "But I didn't mind hearing you sing" he said, not finding anything else to say to make him understand that he really liked the way he sang. "Was that a compliment, di Angelo?" Will asked ironically, truly surprised by what he had just heard. "No" Nico's ears turned red. "To me it sounds like it was" Will teased. "Think what you want" he huffed, and in the next second, he pulled his lips into a gentle smile. Will couldn't help but laugh at that answer, he appreciated Nico's effort, aware that it wasn't easy for him to open up to people and he found it difficult to express in words what was on his mind. "Thanks" he said after finishing laughing, turning his face to look at him, and Nico simply nodded. "Would you like to come to the infirmary later?" Will asked him after a few minutes of silence. "I'm meeting Jason after this" he told him. "Ah, okay" he tried not to show any disappointment in his voice, but he wasn't sure if he succeeded. Nico, although he would have enjoyed spending a whole day with him, knew well that he couldn't stand up Jason again, but he still hoped to finish the training at the arena soon. "But I could still come after training" suggested the son of Hades, who wanted to spend some more time with Will.
The boy in front of the canoe nodded, thrilled that he would be joining him later in the afternoon.
[CONTENTS]
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20
#🖇️ : fanfiction#i start over with you ☀️☠️#solangelo#will solace#nico di angelo#camp halfblood#camp jupiter#fluff fic#percy jackson#pjo#pjo fanfic#riordanverse#writer on patreon
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last time in Valla, we just wrapped the first level.
Ryoma, now that he doesn't have to be worried about shanked by invisible allies just by visible traitors, mate, remembers about Scarlet.
god i love the cinematography in Fates. check out how that boulder perfectly frames Ryoma by resembling the oncoming wall of grief/sorrow, and how the edge highlights Corrin. and then you get the immediate birds eye view that shows all the characters almost lost adrift the stone texture that swallows them up too.
it's one of the better moments of grief in the series.
i would bet you literal cash money somebody in the fates camera-work team studied film theory, more so than the other FE's. the emotional resonance is too good, versus just what's "efficient" or clear.
camera swings around and look who's pretty prominently back on the screen ~
in hindsight, him abruptly reappearing should have been a huge yellow flag to the player.
(...I pinky promise posting every screenshot of Gunter in this last third of rev is less about being that brain rotted and more an extremely useful fic resource to see when he shows up, heh. plus going forward the cinematography theory 101's going to be useful, since I was frankly stunned the first go-around at how well that this story landed some deceptively tricky story beats.
i know a lot of people don't like rev's story! and there's definitely structural complaints to make about it, and it probably doesn't hit as hard if you're interested in a different/more linear type of story, but god if it did not poleax me in the best of ways. i can forgive almost any flaw for that.)
anyway, ryoma makes corrin promise him that scarlet's death will not be in vain. cut to, the next chapter.
next chapter doesn't have any gunter, surprisingly ~! but it is a lot of juicy info on azura finally infodumping to the others on what Anankos is. two things of note:
one, i actually totally skipped over the knowledge that garon + sumeragi were aware of valla. :o
that makes for a pretty tight timeline if garon's aware of it but gunter isn't re: the sheer age similarities? maybe it was a strict 'need to know' thing for the royals? in an emergency, and the past generation of royals all died so swiftly/suddenly that the knowledge transfer didn't go down?
interesting!
then two, this bit when azura was talking about anankos possessing people:
.... how the hell does gunter survive so long under anankos' thrall (literally 2 decades by the pelucid crystal artbook) while his mind's mostly intact? does anankos just simply ease off the gas pedal so to speak? does force of will matter/gunter fighting back all the time versus garon willingly surrendering?
there's no easy answer b/c then there's also what happened to takumi/mikoto/scarlet/sumeragi......
anyway anthony (random ass kid you see in the middle of valla who becomes slightly important in a few chapters) show up, so off to rescue him ~~
but before that, time for some gunter level grinding. :P (he's at lvl 19 rn and aiming to go for the full 30 levels b/c i'm a masochist yes)
enjoy this obligatory aesthetic(tm) screenshot i took grinding this motherfucker :P ~*PURPLE*~
(i actually made myself extremely sad when i was counting how many levels + maps i had left to grind him and then forgot you didn't have him at all during ch26 for uh. reasons. WHELP.)
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There’s no way I’m finishing another book tomorrow, so here’s a tiny wrapup:
Mini reviews below the cut (non-spoilery as much as possible!)
The Calculating Stars: I read this because of booktube and enjoyed it— sometimes the internet can be trusted! This is an alternate history 1950’s space program book about a pilot/calculator becoming one of the first female astronauts. Overall it’s short, sweet, and smart. It does feature female and minority characters navigating typical 1950’s identity politics, but it’s not so frustrating as to be unreadable (of course it should be frustrating, but sometimes you’re just not in a patient enough mood that you’re willing to watch white men complain about the existence of women and black people when there is an actual global crisis looming over their shoulders!) If you can overlook some very cheesy flirting of the “rocket in your pocket” variety (yes, we get that you’re in the space program, you don’t have to use that fact in all your pickup lines) and you liked Hidden Figures, read this.
The Jasmine Throne: I’d never heard of this before but I got it for Christmas via a bookseller’s recommendation. I could see some people finding the writing style to be a little... affected(?), but I didn’t mind it. This is an Indian-inspired fantasy world with political rivalries, an old magic returning, and characters confronting fate. The cast isn’t huge, but there are enough characters that you get to explore things through comparisons. Trying to avoid spoilers here, but you get two characters in the exact same boat re: what happened when one of their family members got caught up in some royal family succession drama, and how each of them reacts completely differently with respect to how they view the royal character involved. And you also have 3 people who came from the same place who are dealing with colonization in 3 different ways. I really love the magic system(s) in this and I can’t wait to see what happens in the rest of the series. There is a plant/human magic system that is related to a kind of curse (that I suspect is really a power a la Elantris), a prophecy-based magic system/religion, and probably more aspects of magic that will come into play. The magic seems very localized, with religions that are tied to their locations. Halfway through the book I finally googled the series and only the first 2 books are out... I’m hoping it’s a trilogy but whatever it is, I’m in for the ride now. I would recommend this to fans of Baru Cormorant, The Poppy War, and maybe ASOIAF (but I haven’t finished any of those series so take that with a grain of salt).
The Origin of Satan: I picked this up one night because I was at the house of a religious studies major with nothing to read, and it was interesting enough that I took it home and finished it. This book goes through internal drama between Jewish groups, then once Christians became a group made up of mostly gentile converts the dramas between them and pagans (mostly Romans), and then back to internal drama between different Christian groups. It traces the way people in these conflicts would use the idea of Satan-- first meaning an angel sent to challenge a human or stop humans from doing something bad, later meaning a sort of evil angel or evil god-- to talk about their conflicts with their various opponents both internal and external. (Side note: this book is why I noticed the localized religions/magic systems in Jasmine Throne, because it talks about how before Christianity, everyone took it for granted that your religion was determined by where you live). Overall this book is interesting but it just pointed me towards related topics that I now want to read about. For instance, it’s hard for me to imagine a time when people didn’t regularly frame their conflicts as part of a battle between the forces of good and evil, because that concept is so ingrained in popular culture even though we don’t usually think of it as coming from the idea of angels and demons/God and Satan, so I’d really be more interested to get immersed in examples of how people talked about their conflicts and their opponents before all this happened. The book also just made me want to read up on gnostic Christians (luckily she also wrote a book on the Gnostic Gospels, so that’d going in my list.)
#books#booklr#book wrap up#book wrapup#tasha suri#mary robinette kowal#elaine pagels#the calculating stars#the jasmine throne#the burning kingdoms#the origin of satan#sci fi#alternate history#fantasy#history#religious studies
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Since childhood I knew I was different. I didn't know why, only that I seemed to think differently, to be interested in other things, to dream too much. However, I always thought that only I was like that. My own character flaws. My quirks and idiosyncrasies . Other kids thought I was weird. Parents or adults thought I was exhausting or selfish. Spoiled and only out to manipulate my parents.
Many said over the years that I was not normal or mentally disabled. Lazy or stupid. I was bullied, insulted, my name was written on walls to mock me, I was attacked and mentally intimidated. The school didn't do anything. I was the one who caused the problems. I was told I had to change. Some teachers have even engaged in bullying. I withdrew further and further. Became more and more passive. I was afraid to go to school in the morning or say anything in class. I had regular headaches, was confused, anxious and constantly wondering what I was doing wrong. Towards the end of school it got better. My classmates lost interest and we even got along relatively well. The fear remained.
Then came my time at university . A new city, a new environment. And again, it was time to get along with new people. I had two fellow students with whom I got along relatively well. It went OK. I still wasn't a social being. I interacted with the people at university if necessary but remained mostly alone. I didn’t know how to make friends. All the friendships I’ve had so far have been superficial or toxic. Friendships in which one did not talk about personal things, certainly not one’s own problems, especially if they were possibly of a psychological nature. At some point I met my future husband. It was love at first sight. And he became so much more: my only true friend, my second half, everything. We lived in our own little world. At some point I had to stop my studies for personal reasons. We moved and slowly built a new life for ourselves. With a not so great degree and dropped out, I didn't have much of a chance. I have had several jobs. Unfortunately, the employment relationships did not last long. The colleagues were neutral in most cases. However, there were some who also talked about me and made fun of me. I noticed how I became more and more reserved in dealing with others.
During this time, I also noticed other changes. While as a child I already had problems playing in the dirt, I now began to develop a panic that I could poison myself. My logic told me that toxins such as rat poison or fertilizer could be brought into the apartment by our shoes and could thus be transferred by fallen objects. At the same time, I was afraid to poison myself with detergents, as they contained a variety of warning signs . In addition, I had a panicked fear of suffocating. This fear had developed after I almost choked on a candy as a child and had accompanied me for many years. However, it got even worse over the years, as over time I also developed the fear that insects might bite my throat. So I developed the behavior of washing my hands more often, even after using detergents, and disinfecting objects. I tried to regulate my breath as I had the idea of breathing incorrectly, and avoided eating and drinking outside or even just talking. I was also convinced that I had a peanut allergy. In addition, I became even more anxious in dealing with other people. I always wondered what others might think about me. In situations where I was forced to interact with them, I was unsure what was expected of me. I felt more and more strange and began to question everything. I thought about myself and my mistakes and quirks, convinced that everything would be up to me and that I would be the only one who would be like that. That’s how I lived for many years.
Until I suddenly developed a preference for the series Star Trek Discovery. And discovered „Trek Twitter“ . In the discussions, many reported on their problems in real life, often concerning mental health. I tentatively began to interact with some people. At some point I found someone who talked openly about his own health and had published articles about it . I admired his courage to speak publicly about such personal things as mental illness. I started chatting with him. I was convinced that I was annoying him, although he always made it clear to me that he did not see it that way. At some point we came to talk about my „quirks“. He saw some similarities. The first time I felt understood and not like a „freak“. I realized that there were people with similar problems. At some point I asked him directly if, based on my problems, it could be that I was suffering from the same condition as him. He explained to me that it was possible. On the one hand, I was extremely anxious that I might have a mental illness, but on the other hand, there was also a slight feeling of relief. Relief that there were other people with similar problems, that I was not alone and, especially since it was a disease that was also due to changes in biochemistry, that I was not to blame for my problems, that I had not actively caused them myself and also had no direct influence on them. In short: That I wasn’t bad. We talked about this topic even more often. And my friend kept assuring me that it was perfectly fine and that I didn’t need to be ashamed.
At some point I gathered my courage and made an appointment with a therapist. I was so nervous before the appointment that I thought I would faint or have a heart attack. The therapist was very nice. We talked about my problems and she asked me some questions. She came to a diagnosis quite quickly. OCD. Just as my friend and I had assumed. The suspicion of a social phobia was also expressed. I was put on a waiting list because the waiting time for a therapy place is over a year. Currently 2 months have passed. My everyday life is an emotional roller coaster. Especially in the first days after the diagnosis, I became aware of a variety of symptoms that I had never perceived so clearly before. In addition, I had the feeling that they were much stronger than before. Others were added, such as the indefinable feeling of fear. Since I am not sure how to survive the waiting time for the therapy place, I decided to talk to a psychiatrist about the possibility of at least temporary drug therapy.
My friend is still by my side. When I am overwhelmed by my feelings or fears and thoughts, he calms me down. He answers my questions and helps me to process the new situation. He has really become a very good friend. I have gained another friend, whom I also trust and with whom I talk openly about this topic. Slowly I am also starting to make contact with other people on Twitter. I have to say that I am very grateful that there is such a strong community as „TrekTwitter“. Had I not started to move in these circles, I would never have met my maybe best friends. All our conversations would never have taken place and I would still think that I am doing everything wrong and not try hard enough to be like everyone else. Thank you for everything my two best friends. I appreciate you so much. ❤️
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Samuel Oak
--aka the lore is confusing as fuck and i’m sorry about that so i’m writing up this post to try to organize things better for everyone else’s sake.
Prelude
Oak is primarily meant to be a secondary character to Giovanni; with most if not all threads I write him in connecting somehow to Giovanni. That being said, the duo shares lore, and everything in Giovanni’s bio applies here as well.
Mainly, the most critical point is that there was a war between Kanto and Johto; and tension that preceded it for several decades. The war lasted about three years and ended approximately ten years prior to the events of Red/Blue.
Oak was the champion during the war and many years prior; Giovanni and Agatha were two of his elites, and the other two are mostly throwaway OCs that died during the war.
As you may already be aware, much of this lore is based on the ROMHack Firered Rocket Edition, and if you’re familiar with that game, or just me talking, Oak was not a good person.
I’m aware that not everyone is interested in the implications of that. I’m also aware that some people would like to explore that. Therefore, I offer verses that feature Oak in both directions. By default I go with his standard verse that’s more canon compliant. Please let me know if you’re interested in the other verse. I am too, I just don’t want to force it on anyone.
Because the two versions of the characters differ so drastically, its really important to pay attention to the verse tag to see which one any particular thread / headcanon / etc. refers to.
Summary
Oak had a rather unnoteworthy childhood. His mother worked hard to provide for them, his father killed in a tragic accident. Barely getting by, it wasn’t as if they had many toys, so Oak entertained himself by studying the world around him, picking things apart, learning about the mysterious creatures called Pokémon.
But it was a different time then, and once he turned 10 he was free to get his license as a Pokemon trainer and roam the region.
Training and battling was secondary to his goal of understanding and documenting these creatures, but one that he proved himself to be good at. Maybe it’s because his methods were revolutionary in a traditionalistic region; maybe he simply had natural talent.
He took his time, yes--his methods were thorough and perfect--but it really was no surprise when he took the mantle of champion.
He knew about the rising tensions between Kanto and Johto. Everyone did. It was background noise that had shaped the region for generations. Maybe he should have did something more about it. Maybe there was nothing else to do.
The simple truth was that the minute he got the first report of Johto attacking, he knew the war was lost.
But still, he tried. Where they lacked pure power, he tried to use wits to win. He headed the Mewtwo project (Giovanni funded it; though the public still believes it was a Team Rocket affair) he lead the men, he did everything he could, and when there was nothing else to be done, he surrendered.
The act earned him immediate backlash from the nationalistic region and even his own wife and the other surviving Elite. Most people blame the loss of the war solely on him and brand him a coward for not fighting until the end.
Oak was stripped of his license to battle and kicked out from the Pokémon League, but he still had a very respected reputation within the scientific community (of itself more likely to be filled with cowards who sympathized with his decision, or intelligent folk who understood it) and managed to settle down into the role of a professor.
Standard / Good Verse
In this verse, Oak’s fascination with Pokémon stems solely from awe and respect; a desire to understand and coexist with these amazing creatures that walk the world.
The role of champion was accepted less because he wanted to do it and more because it was traditional. He had defeated the previous champion, and declining the position would have not only been unconventional, but also extremely disrespectful.
So he lead a relatively peaceful era in the region; in fact working hard to dispel many of the superstitions the people held and encouraging them to become more open to the world. Despite his best efforts, the majority of his innovations that stuck were really only related to Pokemon battling; battling was traditional, honored, and something the people of Kanto could agree with.
Still, he spent a great majority of time encouraging people to learn more about the world, think critically for themselves instead of relying on rumors, visit other regions, and even tried on multiple occasions to loosen Kanto’s restrictions on foreign species.
Like many geniuses, Oak was ahead of his time, and with a people so deeply wounded and opinionated, there was only so much he could do.
Though he tried to bargain peace with Lance, his offerings were rejected, and inevitably, war broke out. He and Lance both knew that Kanto would buckle under a full assault. In all honesty, Oak wanted to surrender immediately, but knew the people would never accept it, so with reluctance, he fought.
Not directly, given that his place was in the back, as a commander, but he lead, he fought, and he felt the death of each individual as blood on his own hands.
He tries not to think about it anymore. Maybe he was a coward; maybe he was too afraid to put his own life on the line; especially after the war took his son and daughter-in-law from him.
He had to give it to the people of Kanto. They may have lacked brute strength, but they had passion. Unfortunately, passion doesn’t win wars, and it soon progressed to the point that he couldn’t let it go on any longer. Lance demanded his surrender, and he did.
He’s aware that Giovanni (and many, many others) hold a grudge against him for it, but, there’s not much to be done about it. In the case of Giovanni particularly, a part of Oak blames him for the death of the other two elites; given they followed Giovanni’s lead in disobeying Oak’s instructions to wait before entering the battle. Besides, what happened hardly justifies what Giovanni’s done.
It’s not a sentiment he talks about much, but he’s honestly glad that it’s all over. Maybe Johto winning wasn’t the best way it could have ended, but he’s happy just being a professor now, and truthfully, the change of power had very little effect on the people. He really should have just surrendered from the beginning, huh?
Evil Verse
This version of Oak is different on a fundamental level. His goals were never noble or fueled by curiosity, rather with one single intent: power. He understood from a young age that Pokémon were the key to strength and that commanding powerful Pokémon made you powerful, and such lead his research.
Cold and ruthless, Oak doesn’t care about anyone or anything be it Pokémon or human, and will equally take advantage of everything he can. Now, that doesn’t make him sadistic; he protests that label--it implies that he bothers to think about the people around him.
His rise to Champion was a foregone conclusion but no less meticulous; his image perfectly curated to show nothing but unfathomable power, and the people bowed their respect to him.
It was also utterly unfulfilling.
Sure, he was the strongest in Kanto; a pathetic little backwards region that couldn’t tell a Starly from a Pancham.
He had bigger dreams, bigger ambitions; but he wasn’t about to sacrifice what he already had; so for many grueling, unbearable years, he played the part of the perfect champion, a pleasant smiling face, the hero and savior of the region. He found the perfect Elites to support his cause; each easily manipulated and deployed for a specific cause; he encouraged the people to look beyond the horizon of skepticism, even encouraged his Elites to travel the world, learn more beyond the borders that confined them. The backdrop of the war provided convenient propaganda to make sure they never got too out of control, though.
But, the people were stubborn.
Oak wanted more and he grew tired of the grueling monotony.
Well, the history books say that Johto launched the attack that officially started the war, but that doesn't mean there weren’t things going on in the background that fueled the flames.
But it worked; the people, now terrified, all flocked to him to save them. They needed something drastic, something powerful to turn the tides of war...and, say, people that were once against the idea of genetic engineering were suddenly willing to accept it if it would save their region.
And maybe his son did die in the war; it wasn’t like he could save everyone, after all.
One thing led to another. Or, in other words, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Every Pokémon he created with genetic engineering was either unstable or uncooperative; Giovanni failed to listen to orders and ran off with two of the other Elites, jumping into the battle too early; Lance had control of Suicune, Entei, and Raikou.
As the years went by and Johto crept further and further into Kanto, the war effort was obviously a losing battle. Though Oak let the war rage on, weakening both sides as much as possible, he was desperately scrambling for another plan. There was no time. He would even go as far to say that he underestimated the war and was paying the price.
It was Lance himself that lead the charge into Indigo Plateau to strike the final blow. Oak, Agatha, and Giovanni were the final stand; had Giovanni listened, the Elite would have been at full strength, his own Pokémon wouldn’t have been bruised and battered. But Oak had failed to control Giovanni, failed to properly use his assets, and now they were at the zenith.
He surrendered. It was the only logical choice. Agatha followed his lead; Giovanni did not. Too bad Lance didn’t finish him off, but oh well.
Retiring to a position of a Pokemon professor wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but he scrapped together whatever was left of his pride and departed.
It would give him more freedom to pursue his experiments, though ...
#|| OOC | out of character.#|| OAK | the scheming scientist.#|| OAK | HEADCANON | silver fox silver knife.#|| OAK | VERSE | evil.#|| OAK | VERSE | main.
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Miraculous fic recomendations!!
This is just an excuse to show all my bookmarks? Yes. Yes, it is. I'm pretty sure most of this fics are really popular, but try see if you find something you didn't knew about!
All of the fics will be rated Teen and up audiences or lower. Also if I don't put the author's tumblr is because they didn't put it in the fic or/and I couldn't find it.
Pairing: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
knowing you by emsylcatac (they are not really the author of the fic but that's the account that says in the fic, the actual author doesn't have an account).
After dropping their transformations months ago, Marinette and Adrien see each other for the first time after being apart. They've both left too much unsaid and have to work to pick up the pieces of their confused hearts.
Chapters: 1/1
Post-reveal but mostly ladynoir, light angst with happy ending.
the last day on earth by Reiaji
The first time Marinette sees Chat Blanc, she's fourteen years old. The second time, fifteen—the third time, seventeen.
The closer she grows to Adrien, the harder it is to save him.
Chapters: 1/1
Post-reveal lovesquare, kinda heavy angst, hopeful ending.
tell me something i don't know by carpisuns (@carpisuns here on tumblr)
Do you think it still means something? To love someone, even if the universe said you had to?
The odds of having a soulmate are about negative one billion (or something like that). But somehow, like they always have, Marinette and Chat Noir find themselves together. They’re ready to finally tell each other everything, but it turns out that even soulmates have to keep secrets, and while their bond draws them together, duty forces them apart.
Chapters: currently 17/28 (WIPs can be exhausting but this one is 100% worth the wait!)
Mostly marichat but almost all of the lovesquare sides make an appearance, soulmates au, mostly fluff but it can get angsty if it wants to.
One Thing After Another by SKayLanphear
Marinette notices that, sometimes, Adrien acts a little out of the ordinary--like the time he stood in a cardboard box for no reason, or when he actually hissed at Nino. It's only when she starts to notice the similarities between Adrien and a certain feline that she begins to get suspicious.
Basically, Adrien acts like a cat when he probably shouldn't.
Chapters: 15/15
Mostly adrienette with one sided reveal by Marinette's side, miraculous side effects (by both sides wich is really cool!), it's fluff with a lil tiny angst for drama.
This would take some getting used to by Codango (@codango here on tumblr!)
Adrien peeked out from behind the chimney even as the magic of his own Chat Noir mask fell away.
She was still visible, her dark hair bobbing under the street lamps a couple blocks away.
“Marinette.”
Adrien blew out a confused breath. His fiery Ladybug… was the quiet little mouse who sat behind him in class?
“What. The.”
This… would take some getting used to.
Chapters: 8/8
Adrienette with one sided reveal by Adrien's part, awkward flirting, just fluff, nothing to worry about.
comfort food also by Reiaji!
In Marinette's house, cooking is a language of love, and Marinette loves Adrien more than most.
Chapters: 1/1
Adrienette with a little of ladynoir, super super fluff, a lot of insight into Marinette's chinese heritage.
The right side of his face by walkingonthestars (@hamsternamedmarinette here on tumblr!)
Marinette and Adrien are able to remain in their new seats in the back of the room at the end of Chameleon.
Chapters: 1/1
Adrienette, fluff with light angst.
it's a long way forward so trust in me by aloneintherain (@captainkirkk here on tumblr!)
“You’re not the only strong one around here, Chat,” Marinette said. She looked a little winded, but she wasn’t struggling to hold him up.
This close up, he could see the freckles on the bridge of her nose. He could see how that smug smile lit up her eyes. He could feel the strain of her arms—and wow, okay, he really wasn’t the only person around here with muscles.
Six times Marinette carried Adrien (plus one time he carried her).
Chapters: 1/1
All the sides of the lovesquare! Fluff with LOTS of mutual pining.
a fight that you were born to lose also by aloneintherain
When the prosecution starts throwing around the word victim in reference to Adrien, he has to stuff his hands under his thighs to keep himself from bolting out of the courtroom.
Adrien had felt unsafe during those last few weeks, but, until he had woken up and seen Father silhouetted in his bedroom doorway, that had only been paranoia. Father was controlling and cold, but he wasn’t hateful. Adrien was isolated. He was often hungry. And some weeks ago, when he had snuck out to visit Nino, sitting thigh-to-thigh on his bed while Adrien cried in that silent, crumbling way of his, he hadn’t argued when Nino put a hand on his shoulder and said, tentatively, That’s abuse.
But Adrien remembers being small and Father touching his hair after he’d aced another test; Father holding his scribbled drawings like they were something precious, and framing them around his office; Father, dressed as Hawkmoth, his eyes wild behind the mask, lashing his sword against Adrien’s baton; Father, collapsed against Mum, crying into her ashy hair.
Adrien finds out Gabriel is Hawkmoth, and Gabriel gets to bring his long-waited plan into action.
Chapters: 1/1
This one doesn't really focus in the ship that much as is an Adrien character study and an exploration of his relationship with his father, but they're still there so I put them here. Really heavy angst (this is one of this fics that haunt me in the middle of the night) with a happy ending. ❗TW: parental abuse, eating disorders❗
Supercut by LNC
Marinette loves her friends and Adrien can't deal.
Chapters: 1/1
Post-reveal lovesquare, again light angst, an exploration of Adrien's insecurities, Marinette Dupain-Cheng deserves the world, happy ending.
Madame Snare by jettiebettie
“Sounds like a lot of work for nothing. She should take this as a sign to have a relaxing weekend with no responsibilities.”
“It's a lot of work she put her whole heart into. It wouldn't be right for it to go to waste,” Adrien whispers to him. The look on Marinette's face is enough to cause Adrien's own heart to ache. If anyone deserves the satisfaction and pride from a job well done, it's her.
“Too bad there isn't anyone else who can walk in those death traps,” Plagg says. Adrien hums in thought, tapping his chin.
“I could.”
Chapters: 1/1
Marichat, episode-based, Chat Noir in a dress!!!, light angst but it's mostly just idiots being idiots and a lot of fun.
in the same sun by peachcitt (@peachcitt here on tumblr!)
"It’s hard to believe that I saw you last at the peak of summer, when the sun was close and warm - and so were you. It should go without saying that I miss you. I miss you something terrible."
//
"It’s been seven months to the day since I’ve seen you. I wish you were here more than anything else."
Two letters, signed with initials instead of names, found in Paris, France.
Chapters: 1/1
Ladynoir, just angst, that's it, written like letters. No ending, just pain.
an uncurtain discovery by Missnoodles (@ladyofthenoodle here on tumblr!)
When he returns from school on Wednesday afternoon, Adrien discovers the darkness in his own home. He struggles to come to terms with it. To his utter mortification and delight, Ladybug is nearby to rescue him.
(He does not discover that his father is supervillain. That will happen on a different Wednesday.)
Chapters: 1/1
Ladrien, it says it's crack, and don't get me wrong, is super funny, but I also found it sad as fuck?
An Open Secret by Kasienda
Adrien whirled around toward Marinette. She smiled at him.
He couldn’t smile back. He stared at her like the dumb blond model that he was often accused of being.
Something shifted in her expression. And her warm open Marinette smile transformed into Ladybug’s grin. He was looking at Ladybug right now.
He knew Ladybug’s name!
Her name was Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
And he couldn’t say anything! Not to Marinette! Not even to Plagg, who had confided two weeks prior that Master Fu was growing increasingly paranoid since the location of his home and hideout had been compromised. Their master had apparently decided that Chat Noir and Ladybug would have to give up their miraculouses if they ever discovered each other’s identities.
It wasn’t fair!
...
A fic where they both know, but can't openly talk about it.
Chapters: 4/4
Post-reveal... but is it? Mostly adrienette and ladynoir, fluff with light angst and them being absolute idiots at hiding their secret identity.
golden (like daylight) by okayanna (@anna-scribbles here on tumblr!)
Friendship, Adrien decided, shaking off the mental image of Marinette’s hurricane eyes and hesitant mouth, parted in a small, careful “o.” He had a very strong friendship with Marinette. That was all.
or
Adrien thinks a lot about words, love, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
Chapters: 1 + epilogue
Adrienette but has lots of ladynoir, another Adrien character study because I hate myself, it tries to not be angst but the writing will punch you in the guts and make you cry, it's so good.
Strangers in the Bright Lights by poodles (@ladybeug here on tumblr!)
Adrien is about two drinks in when he sees a girl at the end of the bar wearing black cat ears. It's kind of weird, so he watches her, and although it's crowded he can see her face when she turns around. She’s wearing a Chat Noir mask. He takes a quick look around- nobody else is wearing a mask. Just her.
Adrien finishes his gin martini and heads over to her. He could use some company tonight anyways, he hasn’t told anyone he’s back in Paris and Nathalie won’t arrive in town for another month. And it’s been a rough day, okay? A rough move! He’s not sure he wants to be back yet, and he spent most of the day in the Agreste mansion sorting through some photographs of his father he found in the study. Maybe he wants a drink and some stranger to tell him he’s pretty! That’s not a crime, is it?
Chapters: 1/1
Adrienette but it's also ladrien??? I think??? It's super super angsty but they're both drunk the entirety of the fic so it's also really funny.
Pick-Up and Chase by also SKayLanphear
After she accidentally trips into Adrien and apologizes about "falling for him," Marinette learns that he's no match for cheesy pick-up lines--whether they were unintended or not. And while she finds it flattering that he turns into a flustered mess with only a few words, Marinette comes to regret making him uncomfortable. That is, until she learns he's Chat Noir. At which point the phrase "just deserts" becomes a permanent fixture in her everyday plans.
A story in which Adrien is flustered, Marinette is smooth as glass at dropping lines, and Chat Noir gets the romance he was always asking for--even if he doesn't quite know how to handle it.
Chapters: 10/10
Adrienette with one sided reveal by Marinette's side, it doesn't say it in the tags but I'm pretty sure the characters are much older than they actually are in the show, so much fluff and so much flirting.
Pairing: Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Nino Has Done Nothing To Deserve This by GuardianKarenTerrier (@guardiankarenterrier here in tumblr)
It's nothing, really- just an innocent comment, a joke. But when they hear it, Nino and Alya come to a realisation.
There were, in retrospect, dozens upon dozens of hints. Now that they're suddenly aware of all their friend's flimsy excuses and rushed explanations, they're not only sure how they've missed it, they're not sure how anyone else has either. They realise that it had to be magic protecting their friends- and that same magic has ceased to work on the two of them.
Well, this means they'll just have to start watching over their friends themselves.
Chapters: 7/7
This is more a found family fic than anything else, Alya and Nino are the mom friend, has light angst but it's mostly identity shenanigans in the most bizarre way. ❗TW: eating disorders❗
christmas lights by demistories
Nino checks up and down the street, checking to make sure there’s no raging akuma headed his way before he crosses quickly and ducks inside the small café. He closes the door quickly before the icy air can blow inside and tugs his beanie down over his ears. He spots Alya sitting alone in the corner.
Chapters: 1/1
Just fluff!! Really short but really sweet.
hold on, i still want you also by Missnoodles!
Written for the @thedjwifizine ! Wich I also recommend if you wanna binge a lot of djwifi fics while also looking at amazing art!!!
Five times Alya ran into her ex, and the one time he stopped being her ex.
Chapters: 1/1
Light angst with a happy ending! I don't really like the ex-lovers to lovers trope but this one is the only exception.
I will continue to expand the list in the future! But by now I hope I was helpful in the search of new fics!
#miraculous ladybug#mlb#marinette dupain cheng#adrien agreste#chat noir#ladybug#lovesquare#lovesquare fic rec#miraculous ladybug fanfiction#miraculous ladybug fanfiction recomendation#miraculous fic rec#fic rec#djwifi#ninalya#djwifi fic rec#adrienette fic rec#marichat fic rec#ladynoir fic rec#ladrien fic rec#ml#fanfiction
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Text
A Secret Romantic-Benedict Bridgerton x Reader x Eloise Bridgerton (Platonic)
(GIF credit to @aryaofoldstones)
Requested by anonymous: ‘Hello! I saw your looking for Bridgerton requests, I would love some Benedict x Eloise sibling fluff! They have such a good dynamic in the show and I need more’
(I wouldn’t mind making another part of this if people want it tbh)
Characters: Benedict Bridgerton x Reader, Eloise Bridgerton x Reader (platonic)
Meanings: (Y/N)=Your name
(Y/L/N)=Your last name
Warnings: Fluff, fluff, fluff
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Eloise’s gloved hands clung onto her book as she and her family arrived at yet another social event, a ball once again. Her mama had ensured she was dressed to catch the eyes of men, and Eloise knew that meant there would be no room for intelligent conversation. With Daphne now married to the Duke, Eloise had more pressure on her shoulders than she imagined, having to find a suitor of similar standards. However, it wasn’t just her on the market, her brothers were too, especially Benedict (Violet knew it would be extremely difficult to marry off Anthony first, opting for the second eldest son).
Eloise smiled whenever her mama looked her way, though it quickly disappeared once she turned around. Benedict had been instructed to escort her sister around the ball to help seek out suitors, the men knew each other or something about someone; he could help her meet the right one.
“I cannot believe I am here.” Eloise moaned as she looped her arm through her brothers.
“Believe me sister, I do not wish to be here either.”
“Why must you parade me around like a horse at a dressage in order to find a new owner?” Eloise kept catching the men’s gazes, turning up her nose in disgust.
“So dramatic.” he chuckled.
She scoffed.“Well, if you’re going to advise me on who I should be marrying, I shall do the same for you. Now let’s see...”
Eloise looked around the room at all the women, wondering who would be the best match for her brother. Most of these women had no personalities, relying on their outfits to express themselves. Eloise knew of some ladies that were nice, though had nothing in common with her brother.
Eloise shrugged, tugging on her brother’s arm towards the door.“Ah, there’s no one here for us. Let us make haste and leave-”
“Oh no you don’t,” Benedict pulled her back,“we have been strictly told to stay for the night, even if it is just to socialise and...get our names out there.”
Eloise groaned a little too loudly, Ben ducking his head in embarrassment.“How long do these balls go on for?”
“I have never stayed for the full duration.”
“That’s not the answer I want to hear.”
Benedict glanced down at her, somehow only just realising that Eloise had brought a book with her.“Is that book sewed to your hand sister?”
“I brought it just in case I became bored. Which I am already.”
“I shall go and grab us some refreshments. Might as well enjoy them whilst we’re here.”
Eloise let her brother slip away, quickly finding a hiding spot by leaning up against a wall, away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds. She opened her book, continuing where she left off, happy she brought a pencil to scribble down notes for later. The studying never stopped for Eloise.
“Excuse me?” a woman’s voice interrupted her too soon.
Eloise tried her best to be polite, though her smile came off as sarcastic.“Yes?”
“Sorry,” the woman looked taken back,“I thought you were reading a book that I am reading at the moment, but I was wrong. I’ve disturbed you, I shall leave you alone-”
“Wait,” Eloise had now sparked an interest. No other lady had ever approached her like this,“I don’t mean to be rude. What book had you expected?”
“It’s oh so obvious, but I’ve been reading ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen. It’s the newest book out at the moment, and my mama lets me read it seeing as it involves a woman finding someone to marry. Although, it’s definitely about something deeper, that’s just what I told her.”
“I don’t indulge in romantic novels myself, but I am glad to hear of a female author selling her work.”
“It’s fantastic. And it’s nice to be able to read something without it being snatched out of my hands. Oh, where are my manners? I’m (Y/N) (Y/L/N). Sorry, I’ve been dancing with men all night and none of the conversations have been as riveting as this so far.”
“Why am I not surprised?” they both laughed.“I’m Eloise Bridgerton.”
(Y/N) tried to not show her shock when she heard the surname. They were only the most talked about family, her mama had gone on and on about them, especially when Lady Whistledown mentioned them in her writings.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. Might I ask what it is that you are reading?”
“It is to do with my studies. I truly hate these events, so I thought I would ensure my mind was being worked properly.” Eloise realised that could come off as rude, squeezing her eyes shut in embarrassment.“I did not mean to offend you by that.”
“It really isn’t any bother.” (Y/N) giggled.“I rather enjoy these just for the dancing and drinks, I find promenading to be more successful in finding a suitor. Though I would much rather sneak off and see if I can get a few more pages in of a book I shouldn’t be reading.”
“Eloise, why must you go wondering off like that...” Benedict’s words trailed off as he approached his sister, spotting a beautiful woman stood by her.
Eloise’s eyes flickered between the two, and she smiled when she saw the adoration in her brother’s eyes. Cheekily taking the two glasses from his hands, she passed one to (Y/N), who awkwardly took it. (Y/N) had gazed upon the Bridgerton men in passing, they were very nice to look at. Of course, she never divulged in any fantasies about them, that would be silly. But seeing one in front of her had taken her breath away.
“Thank you brother.” Eloise said, taking a sip.“This is Lady (Y/N) (Y/L/N), a new friend of mine.”
He gently took her free hand in his, bending forwards slightly to kiss it. (Y/N) had this done to her many times, but this was different. Benedict made her feel butterflies in her stomach. Eloise could tell her mama was going to love this.
She cleared her throat.“We were just speaking of art, actually.”
(Y/N) furrowed her eyebrows.“We were talking about books.”
“I was about to move the topic along.”
“What kind of art would that be then?” Benedict asked, knowing what game his sister was playing.
“The...drawing, kind.”
“Isn’t all art drawn?”
“No, it is also painted.”
“I think artists may sketch out a rough idea before painting.”
“Well you would know brother, seeing as you yourself are an artist.”
“I wouldn’t say that-”
“You paint, Lord Bridgerton?” (Y/N) asked.
“Ah, yes, and I sketch.” he hoped his cheeks weren’t turning red.
“Anything in particular?”
“Mostly people.”
“Are you both attending the art exhibition my family are holding next week?”
“That’s your families’ exhibit?” Benedict became excited.
“Yes, my father collects a lot of art work. Then mother realised she could make a social event out of it, but at least everyone will be able to admire the work.”
“Would you believe it, we already have it noted down in our social calendar!” Eloise informed (Y/N). Benedict could sense her over-reacting, trying to keep a smile as (Y/N)’s face lit up in excitement.
“Perfect!” (Y/N) looked back up at Ben, making him stand a little taller.“It will be nice to have someone there who knows about the artwork. It will make for an interesting conversation. Just don’t let my father lecture you, he will talk for far too long! And I know you will be too polite to try and get away.”
“My brother is very polite.” Eloise said.“In fact, I’m surprised he hasn’t-”
“Excuse me for the intrusion,” a young man said from beside (Y/N),“but I was wondering if we could resume our dance lady (Y/N)?”
(Y/N) was smiling, but Eloise knew that look; it was the face women made when a man who made them uncomfortable approached, but they had to remain ladylike and polite.
“Actually my brother just asked her and she said yes. You two best make your way to the floor before the music starts again.” Eloise nudged her brother.
Benedict was confused at his sisters offer, until he locked eyes with (Y/N) again. They were pleading him to sweep her away, she was even leaning away from this man. He had been disrespectful in some way, and he wasn’t letting (Y/N) go through that again (despite only knowing the girl for a few minutes). He smugly smiled at the man, holding out his arm which (Y/N) took a little too quickly. Eloise was happy with herself as the pair walked off, sending the man a death glare when he asked her to dance instead. Once he left, her eyes went back to find her brother, who was already dancing with (Y/N), both smiling and laughing. Her mama was going to be ecstatic about this.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Eloise sat in the drawing room, obviously lounging with a book. Her younger siblings were being irritating as usual, running around her in circles. Before they arrived, she had peace. Eloise wanted a few moments alone, because she knew her mama would be bursting with questions about the night before.
“Ah, there you are.” Violet said as she walked in.
The book flopped into Eloise’s lap, a frown on her face. There goes her reading time.
“So, how was last night? Did you meet anyone?” her mama sat beside her.“You two, go play outside if you’re going to run around please.”
The children stopped as their mama spoke, sending each other devilish grins before they ran out of the room again, their giggling echoing down the halls. Violet went to shout after them, but decided to leave it be, there were more pressing matters.
“Well mama, do you see any suitors?” Eloise gestured around her.
Violet sighed.“Did you even try last night?”
“My life will not be reduced to a single night where I was forced to peacock around in order to please a man.”
“Oh, Eloise, must you make everything so dramatic?”
“Funny, Benedict said the same thing.”
“Actually, where is your brother? I have not seen him all morning.”
“He went out.” Eloise was relieved that the focus would now be off of her.“He’s calling upon a lady.”
Violet’s eyes widened.“What? When? Who?”
“Lady (Y/N) (Y/L/N).”
“(Y/L/N)? They are quite reputable.”
Eloise rolled her eyes.“Mama, she is a lovely girl. I don’t think you should just judge her on what family she comes from.”
“Oh, so you approve of this girl?”
“I...I mean...Well, I only spoke with her for a mere few minutes.”
“But?”
Eloise let out a huff.“I enjoyed her company. I think Benedict likes her. I didn’t see him for the rest of the night until it was time to leave. He spent all his time with her.”
Violet became overjoyed.“Oh, what marvelous news! I wish he had told me. Do you know what he took to her? Flowers? Food?”
“I have no idea mama. Just wait for his return and he will tell you all the details. I am not a psychic.”
Violet was impatient as she awaited the return of her son. Poor Collin had also been questioned when he showed up in the drawing room, but he had overslept in bed, waking with a terrible headache. It seemed that it was about to come back to him when his mama bombarded him with questions as to why he hadn’t called upon anyone that morning. Eloise kept her giggles quiet, ducking behind her book when Collin sent her daggers.
Poor Benedict had no idea what was in store for him. His cheeks were aching from how much he was smiling. He wasn’t surprised when he arrived at the (Y/L/N)’s house and saw multiple callers for (Y/N). However, jealousy rose inside him when he thought about these men dancing with her, trying to convince her that they were the man to marry. He held a beautiful bouquet of flowers, remembering that (Y/N) had mentioned her favourite the night before. Looking around at any other flowers she received, he was glad to see no other gentleman had chose it. Surely that would show he was listening? He endured sonnets, stories, songs and boasting from the other men, trying not to show his dissatisfaction as each one stepped forward. There was pressure that her parents were there, especially when he realised he was the last gentleman, everyone else had left.
(Y/N) had been incredibly anxious when she saw Benedict that morning. He had been the only man she genuinely smiled at, hoping he came at his own will, not forced by his mama. The night before had been the best ball (Y/N) had ever been to. Benedict was sweet, charming, handsome and interesting. They were able to talk about anything and everything, no small talk involved like all the other men she danced with. He had swooned her, and here he was, calling upon her.
Back at the Bridgerton house, Violet had not sat down since talking Collin’s ear off. Eloise was still in the drawing room with her, as were her two youngest siblings, munching on biscuits as they threw questions at their mama. She did not have all the answers, sometimes not even hearing them speak for she was too deep in her thoughts. At one point, she did sit, but beside the window, o the lookout for any signs of her son. When a carriage pulled up in front of the house, Violet leapt out of her seat, startling her children. She made a beeline to the door, standing there with her hands clasped together. When Benedict walked in, he too flinched, not expecting his mama to be there.
“Mama, how long have you been stood there?” Benedict asked as he walked past her, pinching a biscuit from his brother’s plate.
“She’s been waiting for you.” Eloise explained, also excited to hear about his calling.
“I hope you sat down at some point.” he joked, sitting beside Eloise and slouching.
Violet hurried to sit on the sofa across him.“You didn’t tell me you were calling on a lady this morning.”
“Well, we got back late from the ball yesterday evening, and I had to leave early to ensure I got there in good time. Though it seemed every other man thought that too.”
“There were many men there?”
“Yes, quite a few.”
Eloise straightened up at her brother’s grumpy expression.“You really like her!”
“How wonderful!” Violet gushed.
“Do not get ahead of yourselves.”
“But you do, don’t you? Otherwise you wouldn’t have called on her.”
Ben was lost for words. He couldn’t argue with that, and he did like seeing his mama happy.“Yes, yes I do. And it would seem she reciprocates the feelings.”
“This is such good news! I must see what our social calendar looks like, we must ensure you two spend time together.”
“Actually mama-” Eloise went to tell her about the art exhibit until Ben interrupted.
“Good idea mama.” he nodded, smiling at her as she walked away, a spring in her step. Once she was gone, he let out a big breath.“I just needed a moment without questions from her.”
“Well, you’re going to have questions from me.” Eloise angled her body to face him, her elbow perched on the sofa with her face resting in her hand.“I didn’t think you were going to call upon her. Are my match making skills really that good?”
“I hate to admit it, but yes, you have done an excellent job.” Benedict felt relaxed thinking about (Y/N).
“So, what happened this morning?”
“I took her flowers, she told me her favourites last night, and then I had to sit there whilst her other gentleman callers desperately tried to impress her. It was agony! Finally I was able to have time with her, and it was just...I don’t know how to put it into words.”
“Did you bring her anything else?”
Benedict became bashful.“I brought her a sketchbook, like the one I have. She mentioned how she used to often sketch when she was younger. I thought it would be a unique gift.”
“Benedict, you truly are a romantic at heart.”
“For her I am, yes.”
Eloise smiled for her brother, until a smirk fell on his face.“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Aw, is someone also a secret romantic?”
“No!” Eloise protested, quickly grabbing her book again.“I am just happy you found someone.”
“And you helped, because you secretly want everyone to find someone.”
“No I don’t! You’re ruining this moment now Benedict.”
“Don’t worry Eloise, you’ll find someone.” Ben joked.
She groaned.“You are insufferable...but I still want to go to that art exhibit.”
“To see love bloom?”
“N-no, to see the art work.”
“Of course, of course. But, thank you Eloise.”
She tried not to smile, but couldn’t help it.“You’re welcome.”
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