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#my question is who would actually be like fairy tail… on the verge of being disbanded for their impressively huge fuckups

kindaichiyu · 2 years

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have u guys been seeing the fairy tail au on twt bc i’m losing my mind

#matsukawa tramp stamp guild mark #but tendou’s being on his tongue is so accurate #also v interested in shirabu’s hip mark i didn’t expect that #my question is who would actually be like fairy tail… on the verge of being disbanded for their impressively huge fuckups #bokuto as gray #i have a lot of thoughts about this #im thinking. they’re not all good or comprehensive but they sure are thoughts #i’ve watched like… 150eps of fairy tail #i do like it #i think it could be shorter for sure #as it stands i almost prefer it as a fun au rather than its own series lmao #i love the characters!!! but why is it so long???#haikyuu #mee

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taeyongdoyoung · 4 years

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summary: you are a mermaid and you save a handsome man from drowning but little do you know it’s not his first rodeo when dealing with mermaids. seonghwa, a former prince, is currently hongjoong’s first mate and boyfriend. hongjoong is the captain, the pirate king of the most savage crew across the seas. and you want nothing to do with them. not because they’re pirates, but because they’re humans...

ship: mermaid!reader x prince/pirate!seonghwa x pirate!hongjoong

genre: little mermaid!au, pirate!au, angst, romance, fantasy

author’s note: seonghwa is loosely based on prince eric because let’s be honest, hwa is an actual prince; hongjoong is loosely based on captain hook (the once upon a time one); reader is veeeeery loosely based on ariel, i guess

warnings: suicide mentions, murder, drowning

word count: 2.1k

chapter two ☠️ chapter three ☠️ chapter four ☠️ chapter five ☠️ chapter six ☠️ chapter seven ☠️ chapter eight ☠️ chapter nine ☠️ chapter ten ☠️ chapter eleven ☠️ chapter twelve ☠️ chapter thirteen ☠️ spotify playlist

You were swimming across the sea without a worry in the world when you spotted a man in the near distance. He was obviously in trouble because he was screaming for help and was possibly on the verge of drowning.

You could see that he was a skilled swimmer because he was still fighting against the odds but judging from the swirling water around him, the problem was of a different nature. He’d gotten caught in a very dangerous whirlpool. You could see a giant ship further away but unfortunately, it would be impossible for anyone to come in time to help the drowning man.

You sighed to yourself because you had been warned against getting involved with humans. You didn’t want to end up like your distant cousin who’d been turned into sea foam, because of her feelings for a human. But you couldn’t exactly watch someone die right in front of you. So, you swam towards the drowning man.

Once you reached him, he’d already been submerged under the blue. You dived right into the whirlpool fearlessly and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him towards the surface. He was pretty heavy but you did your best to save him. As soon as you had gotten him out of the whirlpool, you began swimming towards the giant ship, hoping the other humans would take him off your plate. By the time you reached it, the man had regained consciousness.

“Did you just…save me?” he asked quietly.

“Don’t mention it,” you responded.

“Can I know the name of my saviour?” the man inquired.

You didn’t reply and just kept knocking on the wooden lower half of the ship, hoping the other humans would take him in so that you would get rid of any unnecessary human drama.

“That won’t work,” he chuckled and started screaming, “Yah, Joong, come get me, you ass!”

“Wait, you know someone on this ship?” you asked in confusion.

“Duh, I fell from here. Well, I got thrown out, more specifically.”

“Why would you want to come back, then?” you were even more confused.

“It was as a joke. I bet they didn’t expect me to fall into a whirlpool,” the man explained.

“Ah, I see.”

You were suddenly interrupted by a man on the ship who was rushing to help.

“Oh my God, Hwa, I’m so sorry!” he threw a rope into the sea and the man you’d saved grabbed it.

“Are you coming? I need to properly thank you for saving my life.”

“I c-can’t,” you whispered and looked down apologetically. The man still hadn’t realized what exactly had saved him.

When he finally noticed your tail, his eyes widened in shock.

“I have to go,” you murmured quickly and dived back into the sea.

“W-wait,” the drowning man spoke but it was too late. You were already gone.

☠️☠️☠️

Seonghwa’s POV

I climbed up the rope and was greeted by the captain’s tight hug.

“Dude, are you okay?” Hongjoong asked me in a worried voice. “What happened?”

“I’m fine. I swam away for a bit because I was mad at you for throwing me overboard as a joke. I didn’t expect to fall into a bloody whirlpool.”

Hongjoong shook his head.

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, you have to know how sorry I feel. I was so worried…”

I smiled fondly.

“Yeah, you should have thought about that before throwing my ass-“

“Who was she?” Hongjoong interrupted.

“She…saved me. I think she was a mermaid,” I informed him.

Hongjoong stared at me in disbelief.

“Mermaids aren’t real, man.”

“I saw her tail, Joong. She was very much real. And remember that story about the prince from the kingdom nearby?”

“It’s just that,” Hongjoong argued with me. “A story. Not real.”

I disagreed with him.

“I know what I saw, man.”

“You must be exhausted,” Hongjoong thought I was making this up. And it was honestly frustrating that he didn’t believe me.

“Didn’t you see her? She was right there!” I was beginning to get aggravated.

“It was just you, Hwa. You swam back on your own.”

“But…you just asked me who she was?!”

“No, I didn’t,” Hongjoong denied his own words. “You should get some sleep.”

Well, he was right about one thing. I was on my last legs and needed to go to bed immediately.

“Fine. But we’ll talk more about it tomorrow,” I said, determined to get to the bottom of it.

☠️☠️☠️

Hongjoong’s POV

Okay, so maybe I lied. I had indeed seen the mermaid. But in my defense, I was trying to protect Seonghwa. Everyone knew the story about the mermaid who had given up her life to be with a human prince. Everyone knew she was eventually turned into sea foam. But nobody knows what really happened to the prince after that. When he found out what had happened to the mermaid, he was overwhelmed with grief and ended up killing himself. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to my first mate, my best friend, Seonghwa. I didn’t want to risk him falling for a mermaid. I didn’t want to lose him. But I had a feeling he wasn’t going to let this go.

The next day, of course, proved me right.

“Hey, Captain, we heard you almost killed our beloved first mate last night,” Wooyoung said casually during breakfast.

I gave him a deadly glare to shut him up.

“Yeah, Cap, what’s that about?” San, the treacherous son of a bitch quickly defended his boyfriend’s stance. “Hwa told us you threw him overboard and then he was saved by a mermaid!”

I frowned at Seonghwa for being so quick to share everything with the crew.

“Relax, guys,” Hwa laughed easily. “Joong didn’t mean to kill me. But the mermaid part is very much real,” he pointedly stared at me.

“Just drop this already, will you?” I scolded him, exasperated by this whole mermaid story.

“Damn, I wish I was awake to see that!” Yeosang chimed in eagerly.

I rolled my eyes.

“She had really long hair and her tail was glowing. She was really beautiful,” Seonghwa spoke dreamily, which was making me even angrier.

“Yah, you must have not seen a girl in too long,” I couldn’t take it any longer. Mermaid this, mermaid that, it was too annoying! “She wasn’t that beautiful!”

“Ha!” Seonghwa laughed triumphantly. “I knew it! You saw her too, didn’t you? You were lying last night!”

Fuck. I’d exposed myself. The crew looked at us suspiciously, assessing the situation.

“Fine, I saw her,” I confessed reluctantly. “Will you let it go now? Mermaids are nothing but trouble.”

“And us, pirates aren’t?” Seonghwa scoffed sarcastically. “Just admit you’re jealous.”

“Ooh, Mom and Dad are fighting!” Wooyoung snickered, which earned a couple of quiet chuckles from Yeosang and San. These little bastards were living for drama.

Seonghwa and I gave them an angry look simultaneously, which immediately shut them up.

“Not jealous, just worried. You don’t know the full story about that prince…” I started.

Hwa’s brows furrowed.

“You said it was just a story,” Seonghwa called me out on my bullshit once again.

“I’ll tell you everything. But not in front of the kids.”

“Come ooooon,” Wooyoung whined. “We’re old enough to know!”

I shook my head and grabbed Seonghwa’s hand, pulling him away.

☠️☠️☠️

Seonghwa’s POV

“What do you mean the prince killed himself?” I asked in horror. “I thought the asshole lived happily ever after with some princess.”

“That’s what his parents want you to believe. They were too ashamed to let the world know the truth,” Hongjoong explained patiently.

“And how do you know the truth?” I eyed Joong in suspicion.

“Because I am the one who found his body and buried him.”

“That’s…impossible, Joong,” I argued passionately, because he only knew part of the story. He didn’t even realize I knew more than he did.

“Why? Because you want to believe in fairy tales?” Hongjoong was growing tired by my stubbornness to drop this subject.

“No, because I am the prince from that story,” I finally told him what nobody else on that ship knew.

“You’re delusional,” Hongjoong laughed. “I buried the prince. And he looked nothing like you.”

“That’s what I wanted people to believe,” I said coldly, paraphrasing his earlier words. “I’ll tell you everything if you promise not to ask any questions until I’m finished. Can you do that for me?”

Hongjoong nodded unwillingly.

“Once upon a time, I was travelling with my parents, the king and queen, across the sea. But after a fight with them, similar to my fight with you yesterday, I foolishly jumped into the sea. But I was younger, then, not at all skilled at swimming. I began to drown. Until a mermaid saved me. We fell in love at first sight and spent a week together in a secret bay. She promised she’d find a way to turn her tail into legs so that she would be with me. I believed her and returned to my parents. When she found me again in the castle, she had lost her voice. It didn’t matter to me and I promised I’d marry her. But my parents were strongly against it. They wanted to get rid of her. So, they bribed the sea witch with treasures and turned my love into sea foam. The stories are all lies. My mermaid didn’t die because I didn’t love her back. She died because I did. When I found out what my parents had done, I was so miserable I considered ending my life. But I knew I had to live for her, I wanted to avenge her death. So, I tricked the sea witch. I told her she could have my kingdom on one condition – she had to transform her body into mine, making herself into an identical twin. She asked what I wanted in return and I came up with a stupid explanation that I just wanted to die but didn’t want my parents to be miserable, which is why she would come as a replacement to me. The witch’s greed was so grand that she believed every word I said. As soon as the transformation had been completed, I killed her. Well, myself. That’s what I wanted it to look like. And I wanted my parents to suffer for me the way I had suffered for my love. But I couldn’t get arrogant and risk being found out. So, I located a good-hearted wizard and asked him to change my face into something different. I told him my story and he didn’t want anything in return. He took pity on me and just wanted to help me. Thus, the explanation as to why the corpse you buried looked nothing like…the way I currently look. When I was stealing fish from that port market where you found me, I decided to start anew. To forget everything and move on. But last night, when that new mermaid saved my life, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my old love, of the past.”

I fell silent, expecting Hongjoong to ask me a million questions to check the validity of my story. Instead, he fully believed me and asked something unexpected.

“Why…why are you telling me all this now?” Joong whispered and in that moment he looked nothing like the terrifying pirate king I’d first met.

I shrugged.

“You’re the one who brought up the real story. I couldn’t let you go on thinking it was the truth.”

“When I asked you to come on board that night…were you planning on ever telling me?”

“No,” I admitted. “I was intending to carry this secret to my grave. But I trust you, Joong. And it was eating me inside.”

Hongjoong sighed deeply.

“Damnit, Hwa. How am I supposed to deal with this, huh? You’re a bloody prince, the very thing us, pirates, are sworn to steal from.”

I smiled.

“That’s what you’re worried about?”

“What do you suggest?” Hongjoong spat angrily. “Worry about the mermaid? Everything I’ve ever known about you was a lie.”

I grabbed his face.

“Not everything, Joong,” I looked into his eyes. “The way I feel about you hasn’t changed. It’s as real as freaking mermaids, man.”

Hongjoong blushed adorably and pressed his forehead against mine.

“What do you want me to do?” he whispered fondly.

“Aren’t you the one giving the orders on this ship?” I teased him.

“Shut up,” Hongjoong laughed. “Tell me.”

“I want to find her,” I said truthfully.

“I’ll help you.”

“You don’t have to,” I reminded him.

“I want to,” Joong insisted.

“Together, then?”

“Always.”

To be continued…

#ateez #seonghwa #hongjoong #seongjoong #seonghwa x reader #hongjoong x reader #ateez fanfic #ateez imagines #ateez x reader #pirate au #mermaid au #writing

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setsuna-maru · 3 years

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Chapters: 6/? Fandom: 半妖の夜叉姫 | Hanyou no Yashahime | Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Anime), InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Rin/Sesshoumaru (InuYasha) Characters: Rin (InuYasha), Sesshoumaru (InuYasha), Setsuna (Hanyou no Yashahime), Naraku (InuYasha), Jaken (InuYasha) Additional Tags: Time Travel, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence Summary:

After his fateful third encounter with his half-brother, Sesshoumaru meets, not a human girl, but an involuntary time-traveler. Determined to right the path he would've strayed from, the course of history is changed. Years later, an intoxicating scent blows in with the cold gust of a new spring and Sesshoumaru will cross paths with the woman who would've shaped his future.

And possibly still could.

Chapter 6

Sesshoumaru hasn’t seen or heard of the spider hanyo since they left him in pieces years before but he knows that tell-tale miasma stench anywhere. The fact that Naraku managed to survive is somehow less surprising than the fact that he’s confronting Sesshoumaru in person, rather than using a puppet. Or sending one of his detachments.

Everyone is coming out of the woodwork, he mentally scoffs. First he catches wind of that human's scent and now back comes Naraku and his whole bothersome existence.

That human woman was turning out to be just like her would-be daughter; a bad omen.

"Naraku," he acknowledges his newly-reappeared enemy. Sesshoumaru tries to keep his voice as neutral as possible while still maintaining an aura of obvious contempt. Jaken immediately springs into action, cursing the spider and making threats on behalf of his master.

"I'm surprised you've decided to show your face again.” A face that had not visibly changed since their last confrontation. Other than being healed and fully-intact, Naraku looked much the same from the days when Sesshoumaru had become entangled in his complicated web. The one that included Inuyasha and his companions, among countless others.

“When I, Sesshoumaru, and Kirinmaru of the Dawn confronted you years ago, you fled with your tail between your legs and did not return."

Sesshoumaru had never believed Naraku defeated for good. They had only succeeded in chasing him back into hiding. Inuyasha and his band of friends had attempted to hunt him down and finish what the two daiyokais had started but with no luck. Whatever crevice the threatened spider wedged himself into had proven too dark and deep to find.

"Only one of us here has a tail, Sesshoumaru," comes Naraku's reply.

Sesshoumaru smirks. "You'd think with all your downtime Naraku, you would have better comebacks prepared."

"You’re one to judge, Sesshoumaru,” he scoffs, then chuckles. “Why—You famously have a way with words."

"How dare you insult Sesshoumaru-sama!" comes Jaken’s squawking defense. "He is a man of brilliant eloquence. That you’re ignorant of that is only based on the fact that such a great yokai would never waste his oratorical gifts on the likes of you!" Jaken shakes his Nintojo at the spider demon during his speech for emphasis.

"Oh?" Naraku responds, skeptically. "And who does he share them with? You, little yokai?"

Jaken sputters as he tries to come up with a response.

"Well, there's uh...uh...there is no one truly worthy of my master's poetry, you see! No one with whom he can converse on his own level—"

"Jaken!" Sesshoumaru interrupts him, having had enough. "Silence."

The imp stiffens and ceases his useless chatter.

"Naraku; should Kirinmaru and I need to deal with you again? Is that the reason you've returned from whatever sinkhole you crawled up from?"

"Threatening I, Naraku with the superior Beast King?"

The spider's tone is ruthlessly mocking and Sesshoumaru narrows his eyes slightly as he imagines his claws bursting out the back of that boned armor.

Where did this vermin get off, having that attitude? Like he hadn't been scared into hiding for all this time. Like they hadn't had him on the verge of death.

"Go, Sesshoumaru," he teases. "Tug on Uncle Kirinmaru's hakama and tell Father's friend he needs to fight a battle for you again. I'm sure he's in a charitable mood."

"This coming from one who so often relies on manipulating others into doing his dirty work for him," Sesshoumaru counters. “Aided or not, you were confronted with raw power and strength. Not detachments and trickery.”

"Trickery'" Naraku repeats. “Manipulation of others.” His tone is placidly condescending. ‟You are no stranger to these, Sesshoumaru.”

"It’s true,” Naraku admits. “I, Naraku, will use anyone and anything as a tool. But you, Sesshoumaru, are a great daiyokai. Shouldn’t you have more faith in your own abilities?"

“You’re correct that I’m a daiyokai,” he responds coldly, masking his rapidly dwindling patience with this interaction.

“Unlike you, I don't derive my power from thousands of demon parasites. But all that means is that you have no right to say anything to me. You’re a disgusting thing, Naraku." He adds, "Like all hanyos.”

Naraku is undeterred by the pushback. Being much too aware of Sesshoumaru's insecurities, he moves to a subject he's certain remains a sore spot.

"I see you still don't carry Tessaiga at your hip. Am I to assume your half-brother, Inuyasha, retains possession of your father's fang?"

Sesshoumaru’s mouth tightens. He hears Jaken gasp; appalled by the audacity of invoking Inuyasha’s ownership of the Tessaiga.

"So it's me you've come to first to announce yourself, and not my hanyo brother," he points out. "Should I be flattered? Am I, Sesshoumaru, your new obsession?"

“It was curiosity that brought me to seek you out first," Naraku says. "Was it not a human woman I discovered you conversing with the other day? It seemed like she had an awful lot to say to you.”

Sesshoumaru fights to keep his face impassive. Unless Naraku had used a puppet, he should have been able to smell him or any of his detachments if they had been that close. Just what form of Naraku had been watching—And from where?

“Humans are numerous and unavoidable, even to this one,” he responds, careful not to protest too forcefully.

Naraku persists. “She approached you without fear or hesitation.”

“Are you really expecting I, Sesshoumaru, to explain the behavior of a human?” Again, he treads lightly, measuring his response. He will use no more words of explanation than necessary. For a moment, he wonders why. It's not as if he's trying to protect her.

He’s not.

Sesshoumaru thinks back to the encounter by the river. The damn woman had been so eager to talk . Would she talk to Naraku?

On the chance that she did, whether willingly or by force, what of it? Even if she told him all about Setsuna, she was entirely unaware of the girl’s true nature.

And if Naraku managed to surmise that information regardless...well, it might actually work to Sesshoumaru’s advantage.

Let the spider think he’d found a weakness of his to exploit. Let him try to use it against him. Sesshoumaru would stand proud, smugly belittle him for having such a ridiculous idea and show the fool just how little he cared.

Sesshoumaru's hand goes to the battle sword at his left side. In one swift, fluid motion, he unsheathes Sōryūjin and makes a swipe at Naraku. His target dodges the blade and floats into the air.

"Run to Uncle Kirinmaru," Naraku taunts him, his dark curling hair rising in a curtain above his pale head. "You'll find I, Naraku, will be ready for him."

With that, the spider hanyo flew away, drifting off into the horizon.

"Why, the nerve of him!" Jaken huffs.

His vassal looks up at him, radiating with outrage. "Sesshoumaru-sama, will you go after Naraku? He's getting away!"

"No, Jaken," he says to the imp's consternation. Sesshoumaru needed the opportunity to consider what action to take. Naraku was nothing but a pest, and if he was going to insist on infesting their lives once more, Sesshoumaru would destroy him for good. With or without the Eastern Lord's help.

Sesshoumaru asked Setsuna no further questions and ceased any appearance of cordiality. As far as he was concerned, this is where his business with her ended. He told her so, and in language he imagined to be as devastating and offensive as the situation deserved.

(Years later, he’ll try to recall what exactly he said to her. He’d wanted to make it brutally clear just how he felt about the existence of half-demons but, for some reason, he hadn’t really wanted to insult her personally. In the end, he can’t remember if the generic condemnations he’s thinking of are things he’d actually said to her or lines he’d taunted Inuyasha with around the same time.)

Tainted blood courses through your body...A hanyo whose mother is a human is a disgrace to all our kind...Don’t come near me again, stick to humans—It suits you...Infinitely vulgar beings...I won’t fall to a weakness of the heart...What can half-demons do? You’re useless to me...

His contempt for humans and half-demon’s had stock phrases.

Sesshoumaru had needed something to keep his mind occupied during long days of fruitless hunting for the Tessaiga. It was easy to become fixated on what had left him in that situation in the first place.

For her part, Setsuna seemed deeply unimpressed.

His cruel rejection of her is met by vacant boredom. If anything he had said had gotten under her skin, her face denied it. Inuyasha would have called him a bastard and made several clumsy attempts on his head by that point. Again, he was forced to recognize part of himself in her stoic refusal to be baited into a reaction.

“Are you finished?” she asked, after one last condemnation of her as existential terror.

“Do you understand that we are not to come into contact again? That you are to act as if we have no relationship to one another?”

“It’s not as though that’ll take any getting used to," she replied sardonically.

“Kirinmaru,” he reminded her. “Leave him to me. You’re not to seek him out for any reason.”

Setsuna shrugged. “He’s no business of mine. I already told you; I declined that offer.”

“Then there’s nothing else to discuss. We should not cross paths again.”

With that, he turned his back on her. As far as he knew at the time, that might be the last he'd ever see of the girl; her back against the tree, arms folded, her face defiantly expressionless.

Would she ever make it back to her own time, to her sister? Sesshoumaru certainly wouldn't be worrying himself with such concerns. The only thing he cared about was that she stayed out of his way and didn't draw any attention to herself.

Farewell, Setsuna; you're on your own.

He wondered once more if he should go the extra step of ending her life. It would be the most convenient thing to do. He decided against it, telling himself it was because she still possessed pertinent knowledge of future events. Things it would help to know but hadn’t yet occurred to him to ask about. Never mind the fact that he’d just deliberately set that bridge on fire.

His rationalization complete, Sesshoumaru’s thoughts turned to what to do about Kirinmaru. He wasn’t sure if it would be wise to confront him. Damn Inuyasha—The Tessaiga was wasted on him. What use did the hanyo have for such a powerful sword? What had their father expected his eldest to do if it ever came time for him to confront the Lord of the East?

His desire for his own powerful fang was stronger than ever now. Totosai, the old geezer, would still refuse to forge him one. There were other swordsmith’s—None as good as Totosai, but Sesshoumaru wielding would more than make up for any deficiencies in craft.

He wondered if his Other had ever succeeded in taking Tessaiga from Inuyasha. Or had that demoralizing failure only pushed him even further from his intended path?

Setsuna might've known the answer to that; if he had thought to ask about it. But it doesn’t matter and it’s not worth dwelling over; he's already returned to the correct path; the roads have already diverged. He was the real Sesshoumaru and it was what he did from here on out that truly counted.

All the same, the image of Setsuna's face lingered in his mind; it’s fine details memorized against his will. Pieces of their conversation play back to him and the voice that says "we’re complete strangers" with nothing indicative of caring is her own low one.

He thought back to Tessaiga; that sword meant to be inherited by a half-demon; the sword that had protected Inuyasha's human mother. It's the only semi-rational explanation for what his Other had done but...perhaps, Setsuna’s birth had been an experiment. A last ditch effort at taking Tessaiga for himself.

Lack of compassion for humans was supposedly what had repelled Sesshoumaru from wielding it with his own hands. Would he really have gone that far in pursuit of his father’s fang? If the experiment had proven to be a failure then, that would explain why his other self and his progeny were strangers.

There was a part of him that would like to believe in that scenario but, ultimately, he can’t. (Hanyo or not, he would never abandon his children.) But again, it doesn’t matter. Whatever the reasons for what the Other had done, that future wasn’t his anymore.

Regardless, as things stood then and there, Tessaiga remained stubbornly outside his grasp. He still would need a blade sufficient enough to battle any opponent; from his lowly half-brother, to Naraku to, potentially, Kirinmaru.

Sesshoumaru had a notorious swordsmith to seek out. Kaijinbo would craft him an impressive blade, he was sure of it. He just needed to locate a suitable fang.

#SessRin #SessRin Fanfiction #SessRin Fanfic #bye bye butterfly #bye bye butterfly chapter 6

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evergreen-dryad · 4 years

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like clouds passing by

7 - childhood friends AU - MDZS, Wangxian, early 2000s

—the one where WWX and LWJ are neighbours on the same street, and before WWX moves away he gives LWJ the rabbits they bonded over.

from this list of prompts here for August.

.

If he were to tell his story, he might have told it thus:

Once, there was a little boy who often played by himself. He lived on a street with two other houses: one red, one purple, his own blue.

When he was younger, Wang Ji had not thought much of people, or of animals. What mattered most were rules, and the fulfilling of them. When things turned out exactly like clockwork, and all words were accounted for.

Days were spent doing schoolwork, practicing calligraphy, and running through scales on the piano after his elder brother had had his turn, with their uncle providing guidance.

It was a peaceful, sleepy existence, and the trees whispered unceasingly at the doors and windows. But things never do stay the same, do they? The blue boy and the boy from the brick-red house met.

This was how it happened.

He had been absorbed in reading, as he had been prone to do as a child. Lan Wang Ji would faithfully parse through each schoolbook, carefully memorising every piece of information, so that it may be laid out for recitation. Teachers had loved him, for he had not been given to noise.

He can't remember what exactly he had been reading anymore, but he remembers he had reached the part about Yu The Great, of how he had redirected the river—

When a terrific shriek had rent the air.

Lan Wang Ji stilled. He remained seated where he was. Slowly, he craned his head outwards, leaning out of the inner shade of the porch.

The wails soon got louder as the source shot into the garden. Wang Ji promptly retracted his head, alarmed at the sight of — another child, howling his head off, hurling curses at whatever was behind him, and then honing in on him.

Wang Ji flinched. Fists tightening, he quickly scooped his book into his lap before the loud footsteps could stomp over it. The strange child, cowering behind him, was now whimpering and murmuring words— Wang Ji realised then he was screaming the same words (don't come here, get away!) – so rapidly, they almost sounded like a mantra.

“Coward!” Another voice echoed over the wall. It whistled, and the puppies that were about to trespass into his garden as well retreated, tails wagging as they bounded back to their owner.

The noisy one behind him moaned some more. He was starting to sound grumpy. “Who wants to play with you anyway!”

A disdainful “Hmph!” sounded before cooing to the puppies: “Love, Jasmine, Princess, let’s go!”

Gagging sounds. “Why did he have to name them like that… they don’t fit their names at all!” Exhaling, the intruder peeked out from behind him. Grey eyes, he realised with surprise. Their lashes were still wet from tears. This person had been genuinely frightened after all. Those eyes locked onto him then.

Silver and gold interlocked at that point.

Wang Ji did not look away. Surprisingly, he found himself holding his breath. Even more surprisingly, the boy in front of him broke into a huge grin.

“Thanks, friend! Those dogs sure were scary, weren’t they!” Once he began, it was as if a dam broke and the chattering flooded out.

Wang Ji, bewildered, and rather annoyed he had been kept from reading, decided this visitor needed showing out. Unbothered, the strange boy got up to follow him.

"Those dogs, ugh! Bark whenever they see anyone! Who says they're just being friendly, they sound so angry, clearly they're about to bite." He shuddered theatrically.

Wang Ji chose to walk faster.

"They chase every living thing under the earth, for no reason why! Just too cruel, nearly scared me and my rabbits to death-! Oh."

The boy actually pouted at him.

"You want me to go already?" Wang Ji was about to tell him to have a good day when the boy leaned in conspiratorially, as if to confide a secret.

"Want to see my rabbits?"

Wang Ji opened his mouth to refuse. He closed it again.

"Rabbits?" He finally spoke to the strange, smiling boy. At his question the boy actually lit up.

"Mn, rabbits! I've two, one white one black. They're really cute~" He said in a singsong manner, arms propped behind his mop of hair.

At this point in time, Wang Ji had still not seen a rabbit in real life, let alone met one. He had only read of them in the fairy-tale books in the library, and occasionally on the television. So he was understandably piqued.

Yet he still hesitated. He wasn't sure if it was okay to just step into another person's residence without prior permission. The boy seemed to pick up on his uneasiness, so he said:

"Wait a mo!"

And off he ran. He shrieked a little as the puppies from next door barked and lunged at him, but fortunately they were leashed this time. Wang Ji watched his back disappear into the house next to the Jiangs’.

He stood there momentarily, before returning to his book left on the porch. This time, he sat on the outer edge.

The sun has gone behind the clouds, he told himself. Late afternoon sunlight spilled over him and the pages, pleasantly warm. Shadows of leaves swayed together with the yellowing light on the grass.

A larger shadow loomed and blotted over the white paper. Wang Ji looked up to see the boy carting two little rabbits by their ears.

He came, laughing and forever unable to stay still, into the quiet garden, bearing two rabbits.

He was shocked speechless.

"What's wrong? Your face got even stiffer than before.” The boy laughed, and presented them to him as if they were hunting trophies. They dangled quietly, without protest. “That surprised to see me?”

He tensed. "Put them down."

The boy looked at him bemusedly. "Ah, so that's what you're worried about." He tucked them into the crook of his arms, hand gently petting them. They really were very docile, Wang Ji noted.

"Doesn't it hurt them?"

“Hmm, my dad likes to lift them up like that, I think they must have gotten used to it." The boy circled a finger around the delicate ear of the white rabbit. It flicked upwards, tickled.

"You shouldn't do that." He said, young face serious.

The boy peered at him, a smile playing about his thin lips. "Relax, I never do it for long. Just did it to surprise you, haha!" He sat down beside him; the rabbits let down into his lap. They scrambled for footing and blinked curious eyes at him, whiskers quivering. One pair red, the other black.

"Want to hold one?" He offered in a softer voice.

Lan Wang Ji stared as the black one sniffed one corner of his book, considering. "Mn." He gingerly brought a finger closer to the twitching nose. A thought suddenly occurred to him. Do rabbits eat paper? Fascinated despite himself, he let the wandering nose creep closer.

(They do.

If Lan Wang Ji ended up with a slightly nibbled page, he did not say a word.)

His finger made contact. The rabbit looked up at him, ears perking.

It gently nosed back, butting his finger.

Wang Ji soon found himself booping a rabbit repeatedly as it raised its head higher and higher, chasing his finger on the way up.

A light laugh drifted next to his ear. Wang Ji glanced at him briefly, and looked away when they made eye contact.

“He just wants you to rub his head properly.” He was informed with a fond smile. The white rabbit remained curled up contentedly in its owner’s lap, watching its companion’s antics with lazy disdain.

So it continued until Lan Wang Ji ended up learning how to hold two rabbits that day, instead of Chapter 7 of the history textbook. The boy wouldn’t go until he had held both in his arms and petted them to his heart’s content, which was …not easy to determine, to say the least.

The boy kept scrutinising his face for any change in detail. What was he looking for?

"You should go soon-”

“Hold them longer. Hug them to your heart! Stare into their eyes!”

“…” He complied. The boy's eyes were too insistent, so he followed each step as bidden. Wang Ji gazed down into the blinking eyes of the rabbits held securely to his chest, and felt ...comforted. It was strangely soothing to feel two little heartbeats next to his own.

“Alright,” he sighed, voice squeaking on the verge of laughter. “I’ll take that as a smile.”

Wang Ji immediately frowned, puzzled. He almost felt for his face. Is that what it was? Why was he so eager to coax a smile out of him?

“You like them, so I’ll bring them over again~” With that, the boy bounded out of the garden into the fading evening light, as silent as he had come. Wang Ji got up—

—and finally noticed his clothes were mussed with small hairs.

.

// I wrote this in 2019 originally for LWJ’s birthday event, but I never managed to finish it. It’s been lurking since at ~10k words, haven’t written any more of it. Not sure if I will, it’s very long. If anyone’s interested in reading more, I can post the rest of what I’ve written!

So! Much of my childhood ended up bleeding in! I’ve a lot of fond memories like that, aha. Tried to set it in China at first, remembered the 1-kid-rule was in place at that time, gave up.

-have decided to style their courtesy names in canon as their only names in this modern au, hence the space apart.

#au_gust_2020 #mo dao zu shi #wangxian #mdzs #mdzs fanfic #wei wuxian #wei ying #lan wangji #lan zhan #the untamed #cql #childhood friends au #my writing

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zzloch · 5 years

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Besties - Gajuvia Brotp

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its charters. I hope you enjoy the Gajeel x Juvia Brotp (With Hints of Gruvia, Gajevy, and Miraxus).

"Hey, Gajeel" Levy walking over to the dragon slayer and his cat. Gajeel looked up, "Hey Shrimp, Wha' do ya want?" "I can't say hi to my boyfriend?" Levy asked hugging him. "There's nothin' wrong with it, I was just wonderin" Levy was about to say something when Juvia walked up behind Gajeel and slung her arm around him "Hey Gajeel-kun, you ready?" Gajeel rolled his eyes "Do I have to?" He whined. Juvia looked up at him with her puppy dog eyes and said "No... But you promised Juvia you would" "Ughh, Goddamnit women you're gonna be the death of me." "Please, Please, Please" Juvia repeated about 100 times. Gajeel then screamed "FINE!!!!!!!!!!" "Yay" Juvia jumped up and down. Both of these actions gained the attention of the guild. "Where are we going?" Everyone in the guild was staring at the two ex-phantoms conversing. Juvia pulled on his shoulder and stood on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear. Laxus, who was the closest to the pair, spat out his drink and started to laugh. Naturally, the guild turned towards the Lightning mage who was chuckling, suddenly he was swarmed with questions from various guild members (MLGLF). During the chaos that was Laxus actually laughing, Juvia and Gajeel had sneaked out the guild.

"Wait, Where did they go?"

“Aww, I wanted to ask Ju something."

"Laxus are you okay? Guys pay attention to Laxus"

"Maybe they went out shopping?"

“I bet they're on a date"

That last comment got the attention of the entire guild. Murmuring began across the guilds, ideas being thrown everywhere. Juvia and Gajeel had been hanging out a lot; lately, they went out shopping, well it was more of Gajeel being dragged around the mall by Juvia and her conceiving him to get her at least one thing. In all the commotion Laxus was still laughing, it seemed to be or directed at his guildmates theories.

"Laxus did you hear what they said?" Mira asked

"Yah"

"Well....?"

"Well... What"

"What did they say," Mira said clearly annoyed at the man.

Laxus smirked at the frustrated barmaid "Why should I tell you?" Mira whispered in his ear, Laxus rolled his eyes at the matchmaker's antics as he whispered back in her ear. Mira's face went in total shock.

*TIME SKIP: 4 HOURS*

Juvia and Gajeel walked into the guild, Laughing their asses off. "What's up Juvia?, You wanna go on a job with me?" Gray asked "Umm... Sorry, Gray-Sama-" Gajeel cut in "She's hangin' out with me tomorrow, Fuck off Stripper" Gray Gapped (and so did everyone else in the guild). Juvia Lockser, his girlfriend, who had been in love with him since she met him, blew him off for Gajeel Redfox, her friend, not her boyfriend. Gray was jealous, to say the least.

"So, what did you get Juvia?" Laxus asked.

"Huh?" Juvia tilted her head in confusion.

"Don't act innocent, I know where you two went"

"We didn't' do nothing" Gajeel spat back

"Yeah right Metal Head."

"We were just out," Juvia said confirming Gajeel's previous statement.

"Doing what? Fucking" Gray spat at his girlfriend.

"Juvia would never" Juvia said very offended.

Gajeel made a disgusted face. "I would never see Juvia in any way other than a best friend. Gray, I would never expect you to accuse her of that"

The two looked over at Juvia who was on the verge of tears, and Gajeel was ready to kill Gray.

"You two have been hanging out a lot lately" The ever so helpful Natsu Dragneel commented

"Yeah," Levy said with a hint of venom in her voice while glaring at Juvia

"What's that weird mark on your neck Gajeel?" Lucy inquired.

Gajeel quickly grabbed the back of his neck a glared at his best friend. "Sprinkler, You said the potion would last a week"

"Oops" Juvia Shrugged.

"Gajeel what is it"

"IT looked like a hickey"

"No, Gajeel wouldn't do that would he?"

The guild was filled with whispers about what could be on Gajeel's neck. Juvia and Laxus both were laughing their asses off, and Gajeel's face was red. "Wow, I thought at least some of the people here were smart" Laxus commented, while Juvia was still laughing.

"It's a-" Juvia tried to talk, but she could only laugh at her best friend. Once she finally got all the laughs out of her, she let out a slow breath "It's a tattoo, you dumbasses." Everyone looked at Juvia like she had just murdered someone. It wasn't because Gajeel has a tattoo, that was expected, but because Juvia cursed. "Gajeel..." Levy looked at him, hurt and on the verge of tears

"What's wrong Shrimp?" Gajeel started freaking out. He didn't like it when his girlfriend cried

"You told Juvia about your tattoo before me, your girlfriend. She's not your girlfriend I am, you're supposed to tell me everything, not her." Levy was crying. This may seem petty, but Levy already was jealous of the other blue-haired girl in Gajeel's life. They spent so much time together, especially this past week. Lucy ran over and glared at Gajeel while she hugged her best friend.

Juvia calmly got up from the bar and walked over to the two girls. Levy about to run out when Juvia blocked her way. Levy tried to push her out of the way but failed 'Juvia is really strong, or I'm just really weak' Levy thought to herself still trying to push past the water mage. "Levy, please listen to Juvia" Juvia begged of the smaller mage "Fine."

"Gajeel and Juvia have been best friends since we were children, You know that" The script mage nodded at the water mage.

"In Phantom, almost every adult had a tattoo, it was almost like a right of passage for Phantoms to get tattoos."

Levy looked at the mage, almost as if to say 'what does that matter' Juvia sighed.

"We were young and dumb. Juvia wanted a tattoo, and he wouldn't let Juvia go alone. So we got tattoos together. He got a Gear made of water, and Juvia got a water droplet covered in rusted metal. As for why we've been hanging out for the past week. He was on a mission during Juvia’s birthday and said he would do anything to make it up. So Juvia thought you would understand Juvia borrowing him for a week. Juvia hasn’t had a lot of time with him, he is Juvia’s best friend, and I miss hanging out with his, he's always really busy with you." Levy felt really guilty at that moment. It was true Gajeel spent all of his time around his girlfriend.

"As a present, he took us to our old favorite tattoo parlor, in oak town, so we both got new tattoos. Juvia is sure he'll show it to you. Right Screw-Brains?" Juvia giggled at her old nickname for him.

"Right, Rain Woman!" The entire guild was in shock, mainly because Juvia, Little innocent Juvia, had tattoos.

People looked back and forth between Juvia and Gajeel,

Levy gently tapped Juvia's shoulder. "Uhh, Juvia..." A worried Levy pointed towards Gajeel who was about to punch Gray in the face

"GAJEEL-KUN" Juvia screamed and ran over to grab his arm and next thing you know he was on the ground. "Don't punch my Gray-sama" She yelled at him.

Gajeel just snickered "You have tossed me around like that since Phantom."

Gajeel stood up and whispered in her ear. An ear-splitting screech came out of Juvia, followed by Gajeel's chuckling.

Juvia grabbed him by the ear and pulled him out of the guild, as she was walking by Levy she said "I'm borrowing him for tonight and tomorrow,"

"Gray-sama, please don't kill Natsu"

"I'll try" Gray screamed after his girlfriend.

"Laxus, what did they say this time," Mira asked as he was chuckling

"Juvia," Laxus said in a voice clearly trying to inmate Gajeel "What will happen when Gray finds out where your other tattoos are." Laxus managed to get out while laughing.

Gray eyes grew huge. "WHAT!!!!!!!!"

#gajuvia #brotp gajuvia #gajuvia brotp #gruvia #gruvia fanfiction #gajevy #gajevy fanfic #just a bit of miraxus #my trash writing #fairy tail fanfic #fairy tail #gale #gale fanfic #i love gajuvia brotp

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natsubeatsrock · 4 years

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My 10 Favorite Posts, So Far

Well, tomorrow makes 5 years of blogging as natsubeatsrock. It’s been quite a crazy 5 years and I’ve made a number of crazy posts in the time between starting this blog and today. To celebrate I wanted to talk about 10 of my favorite posts over the past five years. This list isn’t necessarily ranked from least to most favorite, but there is one post I can call my absolute favorite.

Let’s go!

Honorable Mention: The Rewrite of Fairy Tail: Part 16 (Lisanna) [originally posted March 27, 2019]

As an honorable mention, I want to shed some light on my favorite post from last year. I started making this post months before the series was on the verge of ending. As I was working on this post and decided to work on rewriting Fairy Tail, I started to rework this series as a defense for keeping Lisanna in the series, as opposed to cutting her. This has been a theme in a lot of the posts I’ve made about Lisanna since a post I made before that one and I do plan to talk about that in the future.

#10. My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Ships/Zervis [originally posted October 25, 2015]

This is the earliest post in my top 10 and it shows. Around this time two big things happened: I made a post on August 31st called My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Juvia and the fandom exploded over Zervis, due to the revelations in canon. I intended to make that first post a part of a series and this was too big of an opportunity to pass. I remember that writing this was ridiculously easy for me. In fact, it’s one of the shortest posts for me to draft and upload with its relative size.

While I’m not as proud of how my writing prowess shines in this post, almost everything I’ve said in this post has become my philosophy on ships since posting it. My thoughts on shipping fandoms? Check. My thoughts on canon weight of ships? Check. My wishy-washy feelings over Zervis? Check. For a long time, this was my favorite entry in this series, but we’ll ge tto that soon enough.

#9. Bye, Bye Lucy: Part 4 [originally posted May 20, 2017]

A lot of you may be shocked to see this post on the list. “Bye, Bye Lucy“ was a series of posts I did explaining all of the issues I have with the infamous subset of fanfics that has Lucy get kicked off the Strongest Team in favor of Lisanna, resulting in her leaving Fairy Tail. I had a ton of fun working on this series. So much so, I actually ended up writing a story based on the idea I posit in Part 3 of this series, which I released earlier this month. But, individually, Part 4 is my favorite individual post in the series which focused on the idea of Lucy leaving the guild over the whole situation.

Originally, this whole series was going to be one really long post at just over 10,000 words. However, around the time I was working on the part that would become this post, I realized that these stories fail with each successive plot point important to this trope of story. At this particular point, any stories lose me as both stories inspired by Fairy Tail and as their own type of stories. No good story that I know even tries to play with these tropes has Lucy actually leave the guild, even temporarily.

#8. Why I Still Ship Nali (Even if Most of the Rest of Fandom Doesn’t) [originally posted March 1, 2020]

I didn’t want to add too many posts from too recent on this list. As much as I think my current writing is my most consistent writing, it would be hard to say that too many of my posts now are at the same level as many of the posts coming up on this list. But, I’m honestly glad that I made this post, especially considering some of the things surrounding its creation.

About three months into my blog, I made a post called “What I Need to Stop Shipping Nali (and why I still do)”. Around the time I was going to post it, I guess someone made a post questioning why people would still ship Nali. It’s become one of my least favorite posts and I’ve felt it desperately needed to be updated for a while. I decided to tackle an issue I’ve had seen in much of fan interpretations with Nali: doing nothing past Edolas with Nali. I wrote the first draft out months ago and waited for a good opportunity to type it out. When I got the hate messages, that felt like as good a time as any. Speaking of which...

#7. My Response to Anon-san [originally posted March 31, 2016]

A bit of backstory may help with this one. I posted “My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Lisanna” on Easter that year. I check my phone coming out of my church’s night concert and I got the two messages I respond to in this post. When I first saw I got messages, I was worried because that was the first time I ever got negative anon messages. But when I read them, I knew I needed to talk about this as my 3,000th post on this blog - a milestone I was on the cusp of approaching when I got the messages.

While I like the precedent my response seemed to set for my dealing with this type of stuff, the reason this post is here that I legitimately love the messages I was responding to. Every now and then, I read them to myself just to remind myself they exist. I’m not even sure why I got them in the first place. They don’t even seem terribly connected to that Lisanna post. While complaining about fandom has been something I’m apt to do for a number of reasons, I can’t imagine which post got on their “nevers”. But believe me when I say that I am feeling very cooling about the fact that I did.

#6. My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Nalu [originally posted July 9, 2016]

I’m sure this one isn’t much of a shock too many of you. Around the time I made this post, the “anti-Nalu“ community was very different from how it is now. I had made a couple of posts about some of the issues I had with the ship and its fandom, but nothing on this scale. As a part of Fairy Tail month, I figured should try to explain everything I saw wrong with both.

Even as I wanted to do this and made plenty of similar posts before this, the thought of backlash terrified me. I made sure to set it up to post when I knew I’d be away and wouldn’t be able to see how it was received. When I finally did see the responses to this post, all of them were positive and from people who agreed with me. It’s become my favorite post in the series and still seems to serve as a great primer for people who don’t ship Nalu.

Though I’m kind of sad that a lot of the stuff I talked about in that post regarding the development of Nalu and fandom habits haven’t changed almost four years since I first posted it. When I went to make the sequel for this post, I was shocked how little fandom changed and how stuff inside and outside of canon seemed to embolden fandom to be worse about other actions over abour 18 months. Though, I didn’t hate Nalu when I made this post, even as I stopped wanting to ship it around that time.

#5. Opinion I’ll Probably get Stoned For #100 [originally posted April 29, 2016]

I really have to get back to making these. “Opinions I’ll Probably get Stoned For” was the series I was known for starting less than two months into making this blog. It’s a series where I drop spicy takes ranging from Sweet Bell Pepper to California Reaper. I’ve gotten into it with fans over more than a few of the posts in this series. However, my favorite of the series is one of the longest editions in the series.

Months before posting this, I remember seeing one of my favorite Graytear bloggers get into trouble with Gruvia shippers. One point brought up that particularly pissed me off was the moment that Gray was about to used Iced Shell against Silver. According to the Gruva shipper, the fact that the panel remembering Juvia is bigger than the panel remembering Ultear showed enough of Mashima’s priorities. This argument literally made me sick to my stomach. For months, I’d privately joke that this proved the exact opposite: Gray went through with Iced Shell because he remembered Juvia.

To celebrate hitting the milestone of 100 posts in that series, I decided to make a longer version of the series and explain my thoughts in depth. As soon as I had the idea, I knew that had to be the one. My favorite thing about this post is that, despite clarifying that I’m not terribly serious about this argument twice in the post, I actually got blocked by a Gruvia fan over this post. I guess they didn’t see it as that funny of a joke. Weird how that works.

#4. Nali Week: Scars and Unkept Promises [originally posted July 24, 2016]

Every once in a while, someone will make the remark to the effect of “People should stop complaining about the ships they don’t like and make stuff for the ships they do like”. Thank goodness no one has actually said that in regard to my posts. As much fun as I’ve had over the years complaining about the stuff I don’t like in Fairy Tail and its fandom, I do make a point to talk about the stuff I do like and why every now and then. While the series was running, ship weeks usually meant meta posts from me and this is my favorite of them.

This post was born from my own musings about how the anime dealt with Natsu and Lisanna’s relationship. I wanted to talk about its handing through the perspective of Lisanna being an important person Natsu lost and how that works with his desire to see Igneel again. The big moments I draw on is his promise in episode 75 where Lisanna asks Natsu to save her if she ever gets lost and their reunion in episode 79.

The perspective I took in that post is one I don’t really take a lot. I’m not arguing against an idea a lot of people in fandom agree with. I’m not even really arguing that my perspective is the correct perspective. I’m explaining the thought process that Natsu, as I interpret him, has regarding someone he cares about. The stuff I talked about in this post has become part of my interpretation of Natsu and traces of it can be seen in a lot of the posts I’ve made since. We have to bring Nali Week back.

#3. An Open Letter to the Nalu Fandom [originally posted October 1, 2017]

I love satire as a rhetorical tool. I love taking an idea I disagree with to so large an extreme that the problems with it are obvious to even the people who agree with it. While many of my posts have drips of sarcasm and irony, I love making an entire post based on the idea of pointing out the problems with an argument. Consider that I’ve done similar things with Opinion #100 and, to an extent, my most recent story.

The trick is finding something with problems that are so glaringly obvious, you can’t imagine people actually taking its side. In the case of this post, it was a hilarious letter addressed to the “anti-Nalu’s”. Apparently, the idea that people openly didn’t like Nalu got on “the nerve of every last one of their pussy hair“. So they wrote a short letter they meant for fans who don’t like Nalu to read. I would give them a pass becasue they were apparently on their period, but they were defending those Twitter pics of Natsu and Lucy on chain leashes.

It’s worth mentioning that this was a few months after the original series ended. I had been trying hard not to make a post about Nalu and the stupid things I saw their fandom do. I didn’t even talk about the pictures they were defending. When I made this post, I figured that I was probably not going to be making many more posts about Nalu for a while. So I decided to throw in every issue I had with the Nalu fandom between talking about it a year earlier and then.

As you can probably tell, I haven’t stopped complaining about Nalu and its fandom. This post seems to have set the tone for how I would deal with the ship and its fandom this side of the ending. Instead of pointing to why a ship fails for me, I’ve been talking about why others should have expected the ship to fail. And, if recent events are a sign of the future, it seems like I’m going to have stuff to say about it for a while. Yay?

#2. Why was Ichiruki Popular? [originally posted July 6, 2018]

What does it say that this post is among my top 10, both on this list and in terms of most notes on a post on this blog? This is a Fairy Tail blog for crying out loud. I shouldn’t be able to get so much attention for talking about a series that isn’t Fairy Tail. It almost certainly shouldn’t get more attention than most of my posts about Fairy Tail. A few people even liked and reblogged it this week.

Then again, this wasn’t my first time talking about other series. I’d already spent time talking about Rave Master, Naruto, and Monster Soul on this blog. I asked my followers if it would be cool if I spent time talking about other series, now that Fairy Tail had ended. Since I got a fairly decent response I decided to talk about a few series, including Bleach.

I got into reading Bleach about a year before it ended. At the time, I was following people who were already into it and was well aware of the popularity of Ichiruki and infamy of its fandom. I was fairly behind but I didn’t see much reason to ship Ichiruki when it ended and I saw the fan meltdowns. Imagine my shock when I got to the end and felt exactly the same about its chances when Rukia said Ichigo’s just her friend. I made this post to vent.

If I started reading Bleach about a year before getting into Fairy Tail, I likely would have been a Bleach blogger. This post served as an interesting glimpse into what that timeline might look like. It’s also one of the few posts that sparked actually interesting responses. While many have pointed to the anime as a reason for its fan popularity, I can’t tell how the staff came to the conclusion that Ichiruki needed to be portrayed as more romantic than in the manga.

#1. I’m late to the “Nalu wasn’t the original plan” party, aren’t I? [originaly posted December 10, 2016]

I’ve made a lot of posts on this blog. I’ve said a lot of things, done a lot of analysis and meta, and shared a lot of opinions here. And yet, I can’t say that too much of the stuff I’ve said is important. Not to say that my insight into certain topics isn’t appreciated. It’s just that much of what I’ve said over the years, even in some of the posts on this list, likely has been and would have been said by anyone else if I didn’t say it. The biggest exception to that has been this post.

A few months before this post, there was a leaked image of Mashima’s afterword in Fairy Tail S regarding the extra chapter Special Request, which happens to be one of my favorite chapters in the series. In it, he admitted that he didn’t originally plan on writing Natsu and Lucy’s relationship as romantic and was currently writing them as somewhere between friends and lovers.

When I first saw it as an image on a Tumblr post, I was extremely hesitant to say anything about it. I didn’t know about Fairy Tail S and assumed it was a troll. When it was confirmed by another blog, and it source was ultimately verified, it was a dream come true. Mashima had vindicated my thoughts on the ship literal months after my big post on Nalu. And yet, not many people were talking about what this actually meant for Fairy Tail and the fandom moving forward. So came this post.

In many ways, I’m still shocked that I still have to point people to this afterword and what it means for Fairy Tail. I’m sure many people know Mashima didn’t plan on making Nalu happen, but I doubt many people understand that fandom is outright incorrect to say that Nalu hsa been obvious from the jump. In a weird connection to the previous post, Mashima’s comments on Nalu are similar to comments Tite Kubo made regarding his writing Ichiruki. Even now, it’s hard to say that Nalu will become canon knowing Mashima’s original intents.

Of the most important thing to come from this post, this marked the start of me starting to hate Nalu. Up to this point, I went from being indifferent to it to not liking it. However, once this came to light, I came to actually hate the idea of Nalu as romantic. I’ve had even less patience for the fandom that made itself near synonymous with the Fairy Tail fandom at large on every site ever. I doubt that will change anytime soon and I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing anymore.

Well, that’s my list of my favorite posts. I’m sure you guys have favorites among my posts and maybe some of them are on this list. If you want to see more of my other personal favorite posts and reblogs, I’ve tagged all of them as fav on my blog, including this one. Here’s to 5 more years of whatever the heck I’m doing on this blog!

See you!

#this was fun #i spent too much time through the anti nalu tag for this #i've made a lot of fun posts #fav

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charlierejouis · 5 years

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Edens Zero Week: Favorite Moment/Scene in the Series

Today’s the day, right @edenszeroweek ?

I don't like where a lot of criticism of Fairy Tail comes from. It's usually from people who either didn't come into it expecting what it would give us and never learned to change their views on what the series is trying to do or people who dropped the series and then came back to it specifically to take shots at it. Of course, Fairy Tail is not without its problems, but I'm tired of seeing people lift up something like Craftsdwarf's "Overly Long Analytical Tirade on Fairy Tail" being lifted up as doing to Fairy Tail what Digibro's "The Asterisk War Sucks" does to its respective series. Especially when, as someone who has written about the series, I can honestly say that he doesn't go nearly as hard as possible where the series fails and makes incorrect assessments as to why it does fail in some instances.

Why bring this up in a post about Edens Zero?

If you couldn't tell, this series was doomed to be unpopular from the near start. Coming after what many, myself included, considered to be the worst arc in the series, people weren't excited about a series that was made by the same creator even when it was still an idea he was on the verge of sharing during his NYCC visit two years ago. It's because of these same types of people that Edens Zero, for better or worse, is considered how it is.

People with all sorts of allegiances and loves for Fairy Tail made jokes about how similar the original concept photos were to Fairy Tail characters. Even as the series started, it was interesting to see how people were considering this to be a type of Fairy Tail AU. What I saw, and still see, as a series that showed a combination of Mashima's best of the past works, people wrote off as another way to write his most recent famous work. Mangastream even stopped translating it exactly because they saw it as a Fairy Tail clone.

But what shocked me more is that, whether on purpose or by accident, Mashima responded back to the criticism. And his response culminates in my favorite moment in the series, thus far: the resolution to search for Mother.

It's important to remember the background behind this moment. When Shiki gets to the guild for the first time, this is one of his first big interactions with groups of people. The chapter before was his first time meeting different types of people, to begin with. However, they were mostly random citizens. This time, he's in a setting that is familiar to fans of Mashima's works: a guild hall. This time, the people he meets in the guild are going to be more important to Shiki...

Right?

After all, the members in guilds were important in Fairy Tail. The whole series revolved around the idea of being in a guild. That's why the series is called Fairy Tail. And given that Shiki has the desire to "make 100 friends" that would be fairly easy if he were to join the guild. And, Shadow Gear as a fun easter egg, reminds us about how the Fairy Tail was like. Why wouldn't things be different? Well, they were. The guild members who would have been Shiki's friends make fun of him for saying that he recognizes Mother. And Labilla belittles Rebecca and her B-Cube content.

For those who don't see why this may be a big deal as "jerks exist in the real world", it's worth comparing how this stacks up to Fairy Tail. When Wendy first joins the guild and says she's a Dragon Slayer, she's readily accepted as telling the truth. This is in spite of Wendy's fears literally being the opposite. While Natsu has his rivalries, I'm pretty sure he doesn't hold as much resent for Gray or Gajeel as Labilla does for Rebecca. And at least, they're considered potential equals, and not stronger, more popular members picking on weaker members.

Heck, the idea of a guild that humiliates its members is an actual setup for a guild that Fairy Tail is juxtaposed against in Sabertooth during the Grand Magic Games. And even then, one of the main plotlines of that arc is the reforming of the guild. More recent events in Edens Zero suggest that Guildmaster Noah has bad vibes around him reminiscent of Master Jiemma.

Something is definitely off about the way this guild operates, considering what Fairy Tail fans should know to be the way a guild operates. And Mashima knows this. If it weren't the case, he wouldn't have two panels that spell out this idea for those who don't get it. Two panels that also include the main characters of Fairy Tail.

The question, though, is why? Why do all of this in the first place?

To the average person, Edens Zero was setting itself to go down a similar setup for Fairy Tail. To be fair, it's hard to see "guy, girl, and not-cat go to a guild to make one of them a member" and not think of how this is just like that other series Mashima just finished. It would make sense to start that way as this is what his fans - no doubt the ones who are most excited to see more of his work - would expect to see in a story written by Mashima. They'd expect to see a story at least close to similar to Fairy Tail.

But... that's a bad thing.

Why should you expect a series to be similar just because the authors are the same? Shakespeare wrote Hamlet and A Midsummer Night Dream and the two are hilariously different in as many ways could be considered to matter. Akira Toriyama wrote Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball and they're not close to being similar. Even Fairy Tail isn't as similar to Rave Master as people would have you believe. (Myself included.)

To me, this is Mashima making a statement: this is not Fairy Tail. When Rebecca comments about how Shiki's idyllic view of how a guild should operate is "there was a manga like that some time ago", that's also a message to the fans. Of course, by virtue of being a Mashima work, we can expect subtle nods to (and overt rip-offs from) his past works. However, Mashima's trying to do something different from Fairy Tail in Edens Zero.

What exactly that something different is becomes manifested in the decision to find Mother. I love this resolution because it's an amazing sign of how Shiki and Rebecca's characters play off each other. It's been implied that Shiki and Rebecca understand where the other is coming from in their views on both friendship and robots. We see this played out particularly well later on when Rebecca encourages Hermit to work with them.

However, what makes this special to me is that the idea to search for Mother works well for both of these characters in ways that directly benefit them. For Rebecca, she'll be able to find new, better material for her B-Cube channel both by searching for Mother and once they find her. For Shiki, he'll be able to come to understand why he recognizes her and he can make new friends along the way. That this search also comes with benefits such as Shiki learning more about Demon King Ziggy and Rebecca potentially gaining Ether Gear is also good. But that there is a clear and tangible motive to achieving a goal that can benefit both main characters of the series is important.

Fairy Tail didn't have this. I don't say this as a knock against Fairy Tail. However, Fairy Tail was not about Natsu and Lucy the same way Edens Zero is about Shiki and Rebecca. Natsu and Lucy were the lenses through which we saw the events within Fairy Tail, the guild, take place. While they had motivations and goals, the story wasn't exactly focused on their active efforts towards those goals. When they got closer to what they needed it was more through indirect means than actively finding what they were looking for. More often than not, the answers they wanted to their questions found them.

With this moment, Edens Zero is set up as a story where the characters will have to actively search for the things they're looking for. And, so far, that's been proven to be the case. They find the Edens Zero after looking for a ship. They find Sister once they start the search for members of the Edens Zero. They found Hermit after it was decided that she would be the easiest to find. You could argue that these searches happen in ways that are a bit too convenient, but the fact remains that they find what they need after they go looking for it.

Of course, that makes sense. The whole point of the series is a search. With their stop on Mildian, it's good to know that this isn't a never-ending search. They're not looking for something they can never find. We know Mother exists and is somewhere in the Cosmos. With all luck, we'll see all of the crew of Edens Zero find the Mother.

In Conclusion (this feels so good to bring back):

Mashima isn’t trying to make Fairy Tail 2.0 with Edens Zero. I love that Mashima has made it clear that he’s making a new series in Edens Zero.

#edens zero #edenszeroweek #edens zero week #edens zero 3 #fairy tail #no but seriously #is today the day?#or was it yesterday #oh well #anyways #series weeks are fun #edens zero spoilers

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natsubeatsrock · 5 years

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The Rewrite of Fairy Tail: Part 17 (Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna)

What am I going to do with the Strauss siblings?

Funny thing is that I've been calling Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna “the Strauss kids” for a while. (Not sure if I've done that here.) However, given the seven-year time skip, that's going to feel more awkward than it probably already seems to see it read.

It might be seen as a bad thing to lump all three of these siblings together. I should know, being a middle sibling myself. However, it's hard for me to talk about any one of these siblings without mentioning the others. It's near impossible to ignore how Lisanna going to Edolas affects them. And, to be blunt, I don't have much to say about them individually, except for addressing the issue of keeping Lisanna. I don't have too many things I want to do with or to them, except for Lisanna. And, even then, it's more a matter of her doing stuff with other characters than making hilariously drastic changes anyone would be outrageous to consider possible.

What drives the actions of the Strauss siblings?

I'd say that they each touch different aspects of family. That sounds hilariously simple to say. I don't know if that says more about my understanding of the series or Mashima's actual writing of these guys that this is the conclusion I came to about this. However, I want to divide the way their individual emphasis on family goes in three sections: before Lisanna ends up in Edolas, after Lisanna ends up in Edolas, and after she comes back.

How does family matter to them before Lisanna goes to Edolas?

We don't have a lot of time spent on the guild before the series proper starts. However, we get a good look at what they may have been like in Natsu and the Dragon Egg.

We don't see a whole lot of Mirajane in this chapter. In fact, she is the sibling we get the least amount of perspective on from this time. Which is weird because she's the one telling the story to Lucy.

However, I'd say a few lines in this special helps with discerning what guides Mira. When she finds out Lisanna is hanging out with Natsu, she's not happy because she's with someone in Erza's group. That kind of feels like a weird qualifier. Of course, they're rivals at this point in the series. But, why does she have to do with it? Why not just have a problem with her hanging out with Natsu?

Later on, when Natsu and Lisanna are trying to find Happy's egg, she takes a shot at Natsu. She implies that he may be responsible for the missing egg. And here's where things make sense. Mirajane isn't concerned about Natsu per se. Her issue is that in hanging out with him, she’ll lose her sister to Erza. The focus for her is protecting the relationship she has with her siblings.

Elfman is much easier to talk about in this regard. He has a conversation with Cana about how he doesn't feel great about his Take-Over ability. Unlike his siblings, he can only Take-Over one of his arms. He feels insecure about his comparatively weak state. His focus is on getting stronger.

Lisanna’s place in the chapter is interesting. Obviously, the concept behind this entire chapter is that Lisanna is spending time with Natsu to hatch Happy’s egg. This means she isn't spending time much with her family in this chapter. However, even as she's with Natsu she speaks amazingly lovingly about both of her siblings. Her sister is the only person she goes to question about where Happy's egg is when it ends up missing. I'd say that her emphasis on what it means to have a connection to family in the first place.

If you think I'm reading a bit too much into this situation, consider these moments in the anime from their last times together. Mirajane gloats to Natsu about how the only people going on the S-Class mission are her and her siblings. When he wants to join them, Elfman is the one who insists that they can handle it. And before the accident, Lisanna decided that the best way to help Elfman was for her to calm him down.

Nevertheless, the accident occurred and each of the siblings is set on a different arc than they otherwise would be headed. What is interesting is seeing how each character’s specific emphasis on family manifests itself in change between then and the end of Edolas.

In Mirajane’s case, she becomes a much less abrasive person than before. She notably stops seeing Erza as a rival and starts seeing her more as a friend. Of course, she still has Elfman, but she sees the rest of the guild through the lens of the family she cares deeply about.

This comes into play a few times during this time period. During Phantom Lord, she asks Lexus to help them and is disgusted by his selfish reluctance to help them, to the point of questioning how someone like him can be in Fairy Tail. Keep in mind, this is when his grandfather is on the verge of dying and the guild is about to be humiliated in ways he later gets upset about. You don't think Lisanna has something to do with this reaction?

During the Fantasia arc, she ends up fighting Freed because he's on the verge of dying and is reminded of Lisanna. She unlocks her old magic abilities and easily overpowers him. However, at the end of the fight, she doesn't land the final blow. Instead, prompted again by Lisanna, she reminds Freed of the friendships he's made outside of the Thunder God Tribe.

Elfman decides to make becoming stronger his MO. While the anime gives Natsu credit for the “real man” shtick, the idea that he'd have to mature after this moment is obvious.

Obviously, the big moment this shows is during the Phantom Lord moment when he finally mastered the Beast Soul Full Take-Over. It's only after he remembers how his weakness lead to Lisanna dying (as far as he knew), he's able to reach a new level of strength. He finally is able to do what he couldn't before - use the full Beast Soul Take-Over and save his sister.

Once again, Lisanna is placed in an interesting position, compared to her parents. While I've only heard a few interpretations of what was the reason for Edolas Lisanna dying, one interesting connection is that she was separated from her siblings. Knowing this, Lisanna is driven to act as a replacement for her so they're all able to live together and have the family none of them have actually been able to have since the missions more than I think she would otherwise.

The heartbreaking truth is that this wasn't even possible. Of course, she was only acting as Edolas Lisanna. However, her Edolas siblings had known for some time how that she wasn't the Lisanna they knew. Once the facade crumbles though, both sets of Strauss siblings are able to honestly live with their families, even as only one has their Lisanna.

So, Lisanna returns from Edolas to her siblings at the end of the arc. What is interesting to me is how Mirajane and Elfman live out their different emphasis in light of Lisanna’s return. Mirajane sacrifices herself during her fight with Azuma to save Lisanna. Elfman goes against the guild because he wants to save Lisanna.

Considering how I’ve been describing Lisanna, there isn’t much for her to have needed to do. However, she does worry about her siblings well being during her imprisonment in the Grand Magic Games. It may not seem like much, but considering the circumstances, this is well warranted.

If you haven’t noticed, I haven’t mentioned what I want to change through this. As it stands, I don’t have much I want to change regarding this. Again, I don’t have much I need to change regarding this. On one hand, I don’t have issues with how this was handled. On the other, I would have a hilariously difficult time trying to change these characters if I somehow did have issues with them. (An issue I’ve encountered with a few characters I’ll get to.)

Where this gets interesting is how the Strauss’ individual emphases on family play out when they interact with others. While I think fans overplay this, Mirajane’s interest in the romantic relationships of others is an interesting way for hers to work. She also ends up showing the gentle side she shows her siblings to the rest of the world. I don’t know that I need to say anything about Elfman in this regard. His desire to grow strong to protect his siblings affects how his entire personality.

Lisanna, on the other hand, doesn’t do a whole lot in this respect. Which is interesting, because her emphasis feels the easiest to do this with. She should have made the connection that Lucy does make in joining the guild and Natsu learns to make with the guild being a type of family. For all the Nali talk I could make about it, I find it important to note how this is different from Lucy. Where Lucy seeks the guild as a replacement for her family, Lisanna should see the guild as an extension of her family, considering the difference in their circumstances.

Frankly, that’s all I want to do involving the Strauss siblings. Of course, how this plays out will be interestingly different from canon in a few ways. However, I don’t feel the need to do much else.

Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16

#fairy tail #the rewrite of fairy tail #mirajane strauss #elfman strauss #lisanna strauss #part 17 #this was fun to write #i lost the first draft #rewrote it #then found it after i was haflway done #but i was already past where I ended there #tfw you have this ready for may #and you forget to post it #i have one more

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