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vigilskeep · 14 days

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i have never thought of the bg3 paths as railroaded before but oh my god... i see your vision. i think that, for all that can be picked apart in the writing of dragon age, the worldbuilding in that series is so so interested in complicating all factions that you can envision a character who /makes sense/ while bouncing through various ideologies. and the sort of fantasy writing in (most of) the forgotten realms doesn't really allow for that.

dao is particularly the light of my life because the origins mechanic is specifically intended to let you create a character who has a distinctive perspective on the world that’s grounded in the worldbuilding. one of my favourite aspects of this is several origins having completely different codex entries on their own culture as opposed to those an outsider would get. it’s really good! it’s also a reasonably grounded world (while obviously silly) because, like, the basic fundamental premise of thedas, from which they ikea flatpack built almost every feature, is “how would people react to magical and fantastical diversity? the same way they react to human diversity.” you’re meant to feel like, aside from i guess the darkspawn, people are normal and have real motivations. sure it has to fulfil certain roles in a story, and dragon age was manufactured too quickly and purposefully for everything to land feeling authentic, but evil in dragon age should feel recognisable. and in most of the origins they give you a chance to do something that is bad, but also totally makes sense, because of the context of your character belonging to this world where these things happen

in dnd/the forgotten realms it’s a bit different because capital e Evil exists, so there are people and deities and devils (and, to open another can of worms, races) whose entire goal is to Do Evil. it’s also harder to produce grounded evil because in a world where i’m being given basically no context and just told to make whatever i want, i don’t have an inch of the kind of social information i get from for example a dao origin: what my character has been taught to believe they should do to survive, who they are willing to sacrifice, whatever. bg3 also happens to have a main plot goal that is, at least for the first part of the game, broadly selfish (“i am sick, and i need a cure”) which works really well for getting a bunch of people with vastly differing moral standards to band together for the same goal, and not so good for any kind of “greater good” type blurred morality, so that’s out too

however much the worldbuilding factors into this, bg3 specifically went for quite a clear distinction between the good path and the capital e Evil Path, and i find it pretty hard to vary up the good path. when i say railroaded i mean you either do the specific thing that gets you a quest down the line or not. i was really disappointed actually in my playthrough where i totally fucked up in the druids’ grove and caused a fight to break out, because it immediately instakilled tons of characters i knew i would need down the line. the few it spared needed some of the dead ones to stay alive in later quests, so it’s like... oh. that’s just... over. for both factions. bg3 arguably lets you do basically anything you want but they are able to do that because if you fuck around it just breaks the entire quest line from coming up again, which means playing a character who fucks up is not even really going to get me consequences it’s just going to cut content from the game. does that make sense? and then the Evil Path is just straight up evil, like... there’s no way for me to complicate and empathise, here, especially playing a blank canvas character whose motivations i would have to make up from nothing, and who faces basically no consequences for not doing this. the only neutral/cowardly/self-interested option in act 1 is to do neither path, which gets me the least content because i literally don’t get to play the fucking game

i don’t know, i’m not saying it’s necessarily bad just that it’s hard for me, personally, and how i like to create characters. especially when you have my constant restart disease and you have to do this all over again a dozen times just for a handful of different dialogue. does any of that make sense

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maplewozapi · 8 months

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Hello, I have a question, and probably a strange one. The short version: any tips on how do I and other writers should approach naming Lakota-based characters? Are there any good sources, that can be trusted?

The long version: so I'm making a story where one of characters comes from a nation based of Lakota. Since all main characters are dragon riders, I figured it wouldn't be odd for them to be one too. But I'm not sure how do I go about native people and dragons combination in terms of names. If I'm know what do I do with the rest of the crew but here I feel lost. There are not much sources online about Lakota naming convention avilable in my native language but I'm trying to do my best in what it comes about research. So recently I started digging in English. But not all online sourses seems to be relatable. So I decided I should better find a Lakota person and ask directly, regardless of how stupid I may look. Because one of the last things I want to do, is calling a character or their dragon "ten fighting bear asses" or something just as ridiculous (or, worse - offensive) by an accident.

Ok I’m gonna use this to talk about several things because time and time again I get asked this question over and over, and the out come is always the same, that there’s a deep rooted problem with how people write native people in fantasy. For one thing I’m not sure how you are even representing Lakota people in your story, and you are just going to call these characters Lakota names in English? Do they talk English? Then what does this nation of "Lakota inspired fantasy people" even look like? Are they backed dropped with elves and dwarfs? Why is it that not just Lakota but any native nation is a back drop for a fantasy world? Then there’s the fact that the Lakota tribes are made up of seven sub tribes and then itself is apart of a seven group tribe. You can’t just up root a REAL LIFE people and remove them from what makes them them. You aren’t the only one I have to talk about this with and I end up getting ghosted by the people asking for help because they end up realizing they can’t actually write this weird Frankenstein story of native people. It’s a lot more nuanced to writing about native people and it takes collaboration with people to make a genuine story. Idk if people disconnect us from our land and people just haven’t realized WE ARE NORTH AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA, you just can’t take us away from our history, what we are apart of and then if you are including one tribe where’s the rest of them? I wanna bring up Xiran Jay Zhao videos because I really think it brings up this whole issue with nitpicking cultures and misrepresenting them. No hard feelings or anything but so many authors come to me for advice and their whole stories and works just crumble and fall apart because they just don’t understand and can’t, you’ll never have a native person perspective. I honestly think instead of forcing it and writing from bull shit you don’t know is a reliable source then maybe you should step back and learn about native people, support their writings, and enjoy their work and authenticity./gen

Here’s a great book focusing on dragon riders, completely from a Wampanoag perspective written by Wampanoag author.

I am so glad you have an interest in our culture and I have no hard feelings about misunderstandings./pos

#native artist #native american #indigenous #writing #writing advice #ask

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prismatic-bell · 8 months

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So I’m helping to do research for a Fallout 4 mod, and I’ve found yet another fun new way Africa has been fucked over by colonialism.

Said mod is a book-finding mod, and I’m researching literary fiction (so: no biographies, no histories, no memoirs, no textbooks, religious texts must be in the form of a story or allegory rather than praise hymns). I started with Western literature as requested and then went “hm, you know what could be interesting from an immersion/lore perspective? Including some Chinese texts” and from there to “you know, the divergence didn’t occur until the mid-to-late sixties and the whole learning-Buddhism-and-Hinduism-to-‘find-yourself’ thing was already underway by then, I should really put the Bhagavad-Gita on this list” and from there to “why should I leave anyone out? Let the main author pick from a bunch of texts, I’m just giving him resources.”

So to abide by US copyright laws because they’re stupid, I have to find texts where the author died before 1953. And in America, Western Europe, China, and Japan, this has proved to be no problem. You can’t throw a rock at a shelf of literature from these countries without hitting a long-dead author. The literary traditions are long and robust.

I’m currently working my way through African literature before swinging back around to Latin America. I’m using Goodreads as my starting point.

I have gone through over two hundred titles.

I. Have. Found. THREE.

Three African authors of fiction who died before 1953. Two of them are white South Africans. One of those two was a missionary during the Boer War.

If I expanded my criteria to include memoirs, I could add two more. Also both white.

There are almost no Black African authors at all before the 1980s. Not “Black African fiction authors,” mind you. Just Black African authors. Nonfiction too. Almost none. I think I’ve counted five.

And I can’t find a single collection of African folktales that was put together before the 1970s. Like I understand much of the story tradition across the African continent was oral until the 20th century, but you’d think surely someone at some point wrote down SOMETHING just to have it documented. That does not appear to be the case. It’s all either stuff like “History of Ethiopia” (ask me if I’m willing to bet a plug nickel anything in a book written by a white dude in the 1890s and titled “History of Ethiopia” is correct) or “hey, we’re missionaries, listen to our harrowing tale of trying to bring Jesus to the savages!” (WHY. I mean we know why. But WHY.)

I was hoping to find 100 books, fifty from the northern part of Africa not including the MENA region (which is its own section in this research) and fifty from the southern. If this sounds extremely sparse, yes, I know it is, but I came into this already expecting to have trouble finding African works due to colonialism and the prioritization of white texts. I figured 100 would be doable and if I found more I could be pleasantly surprised and divide the continent into further subsections. (I also chose not to do it by country because the borders within Africa have changed so much. It seemed more relevant to sort them by mother language and rough geographic location because so many places and kingdoms no longer exist under the names and borders they once held.)

I didn’t expect to find NOTHING.

I expected something to at least EXIST.

The continent that brought us the entire human race has had its stories basically stripped away by white people.

I am grieving for a history that isn’t even mine, destroyed by people who assumed the second-largest land mass on earth had nothing to offer except what they could rip out of the ground.

The stories are gone. That’s fucking horrifying.

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allonsybadwolf · 1 year

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!!SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON ONE FINALE OF SEVERANCE IN THIS VIDEO!! No spoilers below:

VIDEO: Severance Outie Cut, Season 1 Episode 9

Okay ya’ll, I believe I have done everything I need to do to make the Innie and Outie Supercuts that I made of Severance available. I looked into a lot of different free storage options out there and unfortunately none of them had enough space (the cuts together are ~35GB), so I landed on creating a torrent file to share it, which just means I’m sending it directly from my computer to your computer without the middleman of cloud storage

This is the first time I’ve ever created a torrent to share, so I had to follow a tutorial. I believe everything worked correctly. Please let me know if there’s any problems (or if you know more about torrents than I do and see any immediate glaring issues.)

Here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Download a bittorrent client (I recommend qbittorrent.) 2. Grab the .torrent file from the google drive I created: here 3. Side note, I created the file in qbittorrent but I believe you can use it in any client. Someone correct me if that’s wrong. 4. In your bittorrent client, look for an option that says something like “add torrent file” and use that to select the file 5. Choose where to download the file and click “okay” 6. You’re done! Wait for it to download and you’re good to go!

You don’t need to go to any sketchy torrent sites, you can check the file contents in the bittorrent client when you add it to make sure it is what I say it is (it will contain two video files, and two image files for those of you who use something like plex and want title cards), and yeah I think that’s it

Please let me know what you think of it if/when you watch it! I put a lot of hours into it and I really enjoyed watching it, so I hope you guys do as well.

OH ALSO. If you know anyone who is willing to sacrifice their first Severance watch through and watch these cuts first as an experiment, I am extremely curious to hear about how the experience differs when you watch it as intended vs. watching it from each perspective individually.

I have it ordered as Outie Cut first, then Innie Cut second. You’re welcome to watch in whatever order you like, though, obviously.

My thought process here is that the Outie perspective is more interesting as a mystery where you don’t know what is happening at Lumon. You’re discovering things along with oMark, you don’t have any more information than he does.

And I think the Innie perspective could be interesting either way, but I think most of the interest just comes from discovering the world of Lumon here. It definitely could be interesting to see the Innie perspective with no knowledge of the outside world, though. Let me know what you think about the watch order!

#severance #severance 2022 #severance apple tv plus #severance supercut #severance fan edit #fan edit #innie cut #outie cut #supercut #severance season 1 #fandom #I'm really excited for you guys to watch this though #Like I don't know anyone else IRL that is obsessed with this show like I am so I have nobody to talk to about these cuts lol

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dailyadventureprompts · 2 years

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So, I mostly just need some advice. I want to introduce stuff like the combat wheelchair into campaigns I run and play in, but some players say it’s “unrealistic” for stuff like that to be in a campaign because “why wouldn’t you just get greater restoration or regenerate casted on you or something”. I know that’s a bunch of bull crap, but I’m not sure what to say to convince them.

Heavy Topics: Disability in Fantasy

I'm going to start this off with saying that people with a lot more education and experience than me have written quite a lot about the inclusion of disabilities in d&d, and I encourage you to seek out their testimonials.

Next, you don't need to convince anybody about introducing things in your campaigns, especially when that introduction is specifically to highlight inclusion and diversity . They're YOUR campaigns, and people that cry "realism" when it comes to matters of inclusion are almost always covering up for their own prejudice.

Now what I can do with expert efficiency is address the bullshit claims that people try to use to support their prejudice, how it doesn't line up with the mechanics of the game, and how it doesn't line up with good storytelling.

TLDR: Disability is a fact of life, and so it is a fact of stories. In trying to brush it aside by saying " oh magic could fix everything" we also brush aside the lived experiences of millions of people, equally deserving as seeing themselves as characters in the fantasy epics we tell. Purely form a storytelling and world building perspective, it's also far more interesting to see how people adapt to challenges then it is to make those challenges simply not exist or be easily fixed by author fiat.

First lets talk over the mechanical issue: In vanilla d&d there's no way to restore lost limbs short of the regeneration spell, which is 7th level and thus requires a 14th level character to cast. 14th level characters are thin on the ground, meaning that your average person would have to undertake an arduous journey to find such a caster willing to perform this working , to say nothing of finding one willing to perform the service for any payment a commoner could provide.

Likewise, regeneration specifies that it's SEVERED limbs that are restored: rules as written it doesn't fix neurological damage, birth defects, or congenial traits. As someone who's needed glasses from youth onwards, I find it hilarious that a flimsy pair of lenses can fix what high level divine magic ( possibly even the wish spell) cannot, but that's more a matter of the designers thinking more about the lives of adventurers than the worldbuilding implicit in their rules.

Turning to 3rd party material and homebrew, we enter into some very interesting territory. There's much back and forth about magic that "fixes" disability outright and where I fall on the discussion tends to land on the idea that said magic lets the character overcome many of the hurdles of their impediment but doesn't negate it completely. Here's some pop culture examples:

Toph from ATLA is always go be the go to for disability representation in media: She's blind, but uses her earthbending powers to be able to sense vibrations in contact with the ground allowing her to "see". In a badly written show, this would totally negate Toph's disability, but thankfully ATLA is written by people who know what they're doing so instead Toph's blindness provides just as many novel drawbacks as it does advantages. Toph can detect things happening on the other side of walls and doors, but is vulnerable to projectiles that don't touch the ground. She can sense if people are lying, but can't read printed text. Force her onto a small, isolated platform or into water and you cut off her ability to see just as much as a fully sighted character in pitch black darkness.

Edward Elric from fullmetal Alchemist is missing an arm and a leg, and uses a pair of integrated robotic "automail" prosthesis which seem to give him all the functionality of a regular set of limbs. That said, any utility the automail provides is matched with whole host of downsides, ranging from their lack of touch, their weight causing discomfort, and the expense of having them in the first place. What's most pressing is that these limbs are mechanical and prone to malfunciton from overuse, requiring Edward to see a specific technician to get them fixed. When they break ( which is often) or simply require refitting, Edward needs to travel days or weeks out of his way and then suffer through a painful process of reattachment in order to get the use of his limbs back.

Professor Xavier from the Xmen is paraplegic, but in many depictions has some kind of hoverchair that lets him go out into the field and navigate difficult terrain without the aid of others or other mobility devices. While certainly an upgrade over a totally mundane wheelchair it again doesn't completely compensate for his inability to walk or his vulnerability should the chair be damaged or taken away from him.

With these examples in mind, we can look at how different 3rd party resources can model various forms of accommodation, giving characters with disabilities the utility they need to go out adventuring, without removing their disability in the first place.

The "combat wheelchair" is a great example of this, giving characters unique options while at the same time making them atleast partially reliant on a somewhat cumbersome object. In terms of logistics, it's not much different than having a centaur in the party and the fact that most dungeons aren't wheelchair accessible just means the party has to do maybe one or two more platforming problem solving challenges.

In my own time running steampunk games I’ve usually instituted a “misfire” rule onto most technology, including the ubiquitous mechanical limbs. A natural 1 using that limb means that the limb is suffering a malfunction, and until the malfunction is fixed, another natural 1 will break it. It’s an easy way to get across that these marvellous contraptions aren't perfect yet.

Now lets talk storytelling:

Upfront I'm going to say that I don't consider myself disabled,I have some mental health hurdles that I have to navigate on the regular, but my body works at a solid 6/10 most days.

I think there’s a lot potential in examining disability in stories, and not just in the “overcoming adversity” inspiration porn sort of way. The loss of a limb can represent a sacrifice and the toll of war, prejudice against disfigurement can drive a character down a dark path, sometimes there’s no greater thematic reasoning behind it and a character is living with disability because that’s a thing regular people live with. What I will say is that disability introduces vulnerability, a theme that power fantasy games like d&d don’t often deal with as their centeral arc is about characters getting stronger and stronger and stronger until they can challenge the gods.

Vulnerability runs counter to that desire for strength, but it makes a better story because what a character does with vulnerability makes them a more interesting character: Do they rely on others? Close themselves off? Come to terms with their weakness or strive to overcome it? These are all fascinating questions that you wouldn’t get to ask with a character that was 100% able bodied, well adjusted, and socially accepted.

It’s not a stretch to say that people who have regressive political views are terrified of vulnerability. that’s why the right-wing chuds are so vehemently opposed to the idea that someone with a disability could be a hero. To them, adversity is all about the superior overcoming the inferior, and the thought of someone with weakness or disadvantages, someone they consider “inferior” triumphing against someone stronger is a direct challenge to their place inside their own worldview.

Finally I’m going to leave you with something relating to vulnerability to consider from my own campaigns:

In my home games when someone fails their death saving throws, I generally don’t kill them, killing them cuts the narrative short and I want to see how things play out. Instead I give them an offer: do they pass on into death, or do they let me take something from them? 90% of the time they chose the latter option and I make things interesting. What happens to the master archer who can’t string a bow anymore, or the fame hungry bard who’s scars distract from their performance? What price will the wizard pay to regain the use of her eyes? Forcing players to confront these questions takes a lot of tact, and a lot of trust, but always yields better stories but given enough time to develop.

Art

#heavy topics #disability #dnd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #5e #dm advice #dm tip #dm tips #dm tools #writing advice

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bestworstcase · 2 months

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Okay- Salem throwing in during the Great War especially with Grimm would belatedly justify that card game from Volume 2 because of how it was over control of Remnant besides as an in show ad. Especially with the whole bit of the Nevermore card.

Salem as supporter of revolutionaries fighting for their freedom... One that fits extremely well. Two it puts additional layers to Cinder approaching the White Fang and also just ... Cinder being taken in.

I also would find such a reveal in show to likely be extremely hilarious as the implications hit the audience and cast.

my god i wrote that entire fucking post without remembering the great war Board Game existed

you’re right though, it would be a sly piece of foreshadowing if that’s the intention, esp bc the nevermore bit is between ruby (playing atlas) and yang (playing mistral) and a dice roll which of their forces it attacks.

in terms of the worldbuilding that game has always kind of interested me for what it says about how grimm are viewed in military contexts by the general public; qrow in WOR suggests that grimm on the battlefield was an automatic ceasefire until they were driven off again, but also that “grimm came in droves” while ozma laid waste to his enemies with the sword. and then there’s this grimm card in a war game where the mechanic is “flip a coin to see whose soldiers get mauled”—implying that opportunistic “let the grimm attack your enemies” tactics are not unheard of.

and… then. there’s arrowfell. the grimm lures the antagonists use were developed by the atlesian military, and… the only practical use case for a device that summons swarms of grimm is to weaponize grimm against human targets, ideally a safe distance away from your own forces. like, they’re grimm bombs. and these were developed post-war! in a time of peace! the great powers during the tense period before the great war must have been thinking about how to point the grimm at their enemies, too.

but unless you’re salem, or have salem on your side, weaponizing the grimm will always be a double-edged sword—as yang says, that’s just a risk you have to be willing to take.

anyway yeah if i’m right, the reveal would be so punchy. and i do for sure think were due for some sort of revelation about the great war—it’s been set up and referenced over and over, and they made a deliberate choice to convey this information through a heavily biased perspective, and the great war ended in vacuo, and everything the narrative is building up to the last stand in vacuo. something about history coming due, and the truth coming out.

it’s also be a neat counterpoint to the Team Oz narrative, which is very black-and-white (mantle and mistral were the bad guys, vale and vacuo were the good guys, don’t ask too many questions about valean expansion into the likeliest origin point for those desperate crazy founders of mantle or vale’s involvement in the complete destruction of its next-door neighbor centuries ago or the part where ozma magic nuked everyone so hard that allies and enemies alike bent the knee.) whereas the truth seems to be more complicated with vale also having imperial ambitions prior to ozma assuming the throne, and then at best prioritizing the status quo.

an interesting possibility that i think about sometimes is that ozma may have been the one to withdraw vale from vacuo; less out of anti-imperialist principle than because the vacuan people were increasingly unhappy with valean rule and he recognized that the only way to avoid a war for independence in the long term would be to give vacuo independence first. and then mistral swooped in like a vulture because ozma neglected to do anything but formally recognize vacuan sovereignty, rather than make reparations and provide support needed to allow vacuo to emerge from centuries of valean occupation as a functional country—the same conflict-avoidant, shortsighted approach on display in his choice to “share the land” with mistrali colonists in eastern vale.

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celestialkiri · 11 months

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Just out of curiosity, did Sophie have any knowledge on the story of JTTW before being transferred there?

Also, when she landed, did she have anything on her besides the clothes on her back? Did the group ever question the stuff she would have that they’ve never seen before? (For example, I’m sure none of them have ever seen converse shoes before lol😆)

I have decided that Sophie doesn't know anything about JTTW! I think it would be funnier and it would stop from her being 'too good', 'mary sue' ish if that makes sense??? It's more interesting that she will find stuff on her own and see things from an outside perspective! Sophie only had her clothing, backpack (with some stuff inside that I am not gonna tell bc I want to draw them 👀), and her phone! She was going to spend a night with her friend and on her way she got yeeted! Oh yeah, the group DEFINITELY asked a lot of questions about the stuff that they saw that she was carrying. Not only she is a blondie with European features but also her clothing was screaming outsider/foreigner (if that's possible in JTTW world? I think yeah). Tripitaka at first thought that she was sent by Buddha for good luck or something like that. In the end, the group (mostly Wukong, Pigsy, and Sandy) decided that she is from a super weird world that sounds weird (and stupid in Wukongs opinion. No demons? No Gods that you can physically see? THIS HUMAN DOESN'T KNOW THE GOD-LIKE HIM?). It took them some time to warm up to her, well Pigsy ofc likes her immediately bc she is a lady, but in the end, she is now part of the weird group...because where the hell she would go if she doesn't know where she is and how to go back? It is what it is. They would leave her if Tripitaka didn't insist that she would go with them. Bless the monk really-

#personal questions #god this is so long :'D #jttw sun wukong #ittw sun wukong #sun wukong x reader #jttw sha wujing #jttw zhu bajie #jttw tripitaka #jttw tag #jttw reader #ittw reader

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cyborg-franky · 9 months

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Okay, is it weird to want to be held by Marco’s claws in his hybrid form? Just imagine him pinning you to the wall or deck of the Moby Dick with his foot/claw…

I went a little insane about this because I also love love loooove his talons and claws. Top Ten things that make me go feral about Marco...

Marco x GN Reader SFW WC 700

Of all the people you could have been paired with on the ship for a sparring match, it just had to be Marco, didn’t it? The tall handsome doctor with the wicked wit and welcoming personality. The very man you had an all-consuming crush on. You tried to tell yourself this was just a coincidence, the only person suited to sparring with you, one of the few members of the crew who weren’t three times your size or likely to burst into hot flames.

But the twinkle in his deep blue eyes and the coyness of his smile makes you think there might have been something, someone, to blame for these unfortunate events. You stood up when he sauntered over to where you were sitting.

“Alright, ready for our sparring date?” He asked and you wished he hadn’t used the word date, Your palms already felt sweaty from nerves and the clear flirting from the good doctor was going to do little to stop your heart racing.

You nodded, trying to concentrate, bring yourself back into the correct mindset, trying to ignore how good he looked in his workout clothes, how the shorts rode dangerously low, showing off those defined hipbones of his. If eye contact had been difficult before, well.

He cleared his throat as he got into a fighting stance, you blinked slowly and pulled your attention to his face, seeing the lazy smirk turn into a full grin of triumph, he’d seen just how preoccupied with his waist you’d been mere seconds ago. “Yeah,” you swallowed and nodded, “I’m ready,”

–

Marco dodged another one of your attacks, ducking down as another swung at him. He wasn’t breaking a sweat, he was simply a bird of prey toying with its meal before he’d swoop in with a finishing blow. He could sense that you knew he was going easy on you, and that’s fine. You both knew you were outmatched, Marco just using you as some light entertainment while you tried to get the most out of a sparring session.

He decided to let you get a hit in, sweeping his leg out from under him. The way you had grinned, cocky as he started to fall backward. How you rested your hands on your hips about to spout out something, he was sure, he knew you couldn’t resist some wisecrack at having landed a hit on him.

Blue erupted all around him, lighting up the area with its gorgeous glow and mesmerizing hues as the colours danced and spilled across the deck. Your eyes widened when huge wings fanned out from the tantalizing display. You didn’t even notice the flexing talons.

Not until you were knocked flat on your back, the world-changing perspective in the time it took you to make a surprised gasp as you landed on the deck. Staring up into the darkening sky, trying to sit up until you felt a large talon press down on your chest. Your hands instinctively reached up to grab Marco’s foot.

The way the claws tickled when he flexed sent tingles down your spine, the rough texture and the feel of just how much power coursed under the scaly skin was also making you have thoughts. Your heart was racing double time as you gawked up at him, following the line of his strong leg.

Marco was smirking at you, a glimmer of something feral behind those perfect, beautiful eyes of his. You tried to sit up, the talon gripped tighter and you let out a moan. Oh, you wished it had been one of pain...

He tilted his head, the smirk never slipping, not once, just a simple curious raise of his eyebrows before his tongue darted out to lick across his lips. A low rumbling chuckle escapes as he leans down to admire his trapped prey.

“Well, well, well… that was interesting yoi. Something the matter baby bird?” Marco asked in a sultry tone as fixed you with a look.

Oh, you were in for it now…

And you couldnma’t wait…

#marco the phoenix #one piece x reader #one piece reader insert #one piece x you #sfw #one piece #gender neutral reader #marco the phoenix x reader #marco one piece #one piece marco #marco op #op marco #marco x yourname #marco x yn #marco x y/n #marco x gn reader #marco x reader #fushichou marco

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shapeshiftinterest · 1 year

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This Is Not The Princess You’re Looking For: bowser x luigi

one of bowser’s lines based on THIS

wanted a story where luigi’s in a dress but not as princess peach, kind of like in THIS doodle i drew

bowser comes to kidnap peach

she’s not here at the moment but why not talk to her cute brunet friend with the super short hair and pretty green dress?

story under the read more

This Is Not The Princess You’re Looking For (also on ao3)

‘There’s-a no way this is-a actually happening,’ Luigi thought to himself, dumbfounded. He watched Bowser flex an arm while continuing his exaggerated story about fighting Mario.

Mamma Mia this was happening.

A few minutes ago Luigi had been waiting for Peach in the Tea Room; she’d mentioned needing more time to prepare their snacks and Mario took the car because he forgot something at their house. Bowser had broken into the castle and landed right in front of Luigi.

It was a good thing the plumber was wearing one of his dresses today; it didn’t take long for the king to notice someone else was in the room after seeing a distinct lack of Peach. No, the real surprise came when said Koopa King, destroyer of castles, kidnapper of princesses, fighter of plumbers, looked the dress clad brother up and down...

...and started flirting with him.

Luigi was thankful he was wearing a mask because of a cold or Bowser would have noticed his jaw dropping. And the mustache, he guessed. Regardless, he could only mumble out that he was a foreign guest from far away when Bowser asked who he was.

‘Of course everyone knows who I am,’ he’d bragged, proudly puffing out his chest and thumping it with an equally large hand. Opening an eye to look down at the other, Bowser tilted his head to the side. He leaned down to take a white gloved hand in his and smirked, sharp teeth on display. ‘I’m a little upset Peachy girl never mentioned having such a cute friend though.’

A;LSKDFJ;ASD

Luigi coughed, choking on his own spit. Wow. Woooooow. He wasn’t sure if he was cringing or impressed; maybe both if he was being honest.

The green plumber waved the king’s concerned looks, stating that he just had a cold.

‘I could kiss you to make you feel better?’

That just started another, shorter coughing fit with Luigi rejecting the offer on the grounds that he didn’t want the king to catch his cold. Surprisingly, Bowser didn’t look like he was coming onto him with the suggestion. ‘Maybe it’s-a his solution whenever his kids were sick,‘ Luigi thought in between coughs.

‘Ahem, how do you know the princess again?’ Hopefully asking about Peach would be enough to buy some time before Mario came back.

Bowser lit up and immediately started talking about his (glorified) perspective of their adventures. He had to admit, it was interesting seeing them from a different point of view. Even if that point of view was peppered with a few cheesy pick up lines and saucy winks.

Speaking of...

Comfortable now that he knew Bowser wouldn’t try and incinerate him, Luigi yawned, stretching in his seat. He could hear the king’s speech falter before picking back up. Hmmm.

Focusing his attention back on the koopa, the green plumber adjusted his skirts and placed his elbow on the tea table, hand in cheek. He leaned forward towards the king and watched the taller man fumble his words when they made eye contact. Heh, he should probably stop before Bowser caught on.

“I hate to cut this short, Your Majesty, but I guess I’ll be going home now. Peach must’ve forgotten to tell me she was busy today.”

Luigi stood up and patted the imaginary dust off his skirts. “It was nice ‘meeting’ you though,” he said, smiling behind his mask.

“You can just call me ‘Bowser’ y’know. I could give you a ride home, easy peasy,” the king offered.

“Ha ha, no thank you. It wouldn’t do to go with a stranger now would it?” He winked. “I can just wait for my ride.”

Bowser blushed. “Right, right,” he coughed, awkwardly. Welp, if Peach wasn’t even here, he didn’t need to be either. Even if he wanted to keep talking to her friend in the pretty green dress. “Here’s my number, if you ever wanna be more than strangers.” Clawed hands pressed a business card with Bowser’s insignia on the front into his own and in a moment the king was gone, the sound of his clown car puttering off into the distance.

Luigi let out a breath. Oof, trying not to let his accent out was hard when you had a cold.

“Treats are ready~!” Peach sang out, gliding into the tea room; cart full of different pastries and teas pushed by Mario followed.

“Hey-a, bro! Did we-a miss anything?”

Luigi laughed and started telling them what happened.

BONUS:

bowser tells kamek what happened and kamek responds the way commander peepers did at the end of The Date from wander over yonder

hater: /talks about disguised sylvia and wander/

peepers, deadpan: you mean sylvia and wander in dresses

hater: ... WHAT?!?

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bonesandthebees · 2 months

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Hey, just wanted to check in on you. I know a lot of your fics center around cwilbur/ctommy. I hope you’re doing ok with the news. I’m so proud of the community not tolerating this.

I feel kind of guilty though. I listened heavily to love joy as I related to it and it’s been helping me get through rough times. But now I’m sitting here wondering “does that make me a bad person?”. I stopped listening to Lovejoy YCMGA and MSR but am I a bad person for relating to those songs?

I can’t listen to them anymore without feeling sick, knowing something that once brought me so much comfort was created by a man doing the same thing I’m trying to escape from.

I still want to listen to them sometimes though, but I refuse to support a man like that. I’m also a little nervous about fics. Me and my brother would read your fics together as a way to bond even through long distance living. cwilbur was one of my brother’s favorite characters and he loves your fics.

I haven’t talked with him about it yet, though I probably should. I feel like all in all I just need time to plant my feet and get it back together.

But in the meantime I am so endlessly proud for seeing how everyone has been encouraging and supporting Shelby. I know how scary it is to speak up about what has been done to you and I’m so proud of her. I’m also proud of how the community has refused to support him at all.

Shutting down accounts, turning the Wilbur subreddit into a Wilbur Wright subreddit, I’m proud that so many people have taken action while the rest of us are still reeling

Thank you for letting me vent, I hope you are taking time and space to care for yourself during this as well

thank you anon, I spent the last week talking extensively with people in my inbox about the whole wilbur situation and it really helped me process a lot of my emotions at the time so I'm doing alright now. while I'm not taking any of my old fics down, I'm still figuring out what I'm going to do with my ongoing fics that center around c!wilbur, so we'll see where I end up landing with that

I'm also so incredibly proud of the community for not tolerating this. like, you gotta admit, this was one of the most cohesive ways I've ever seen a fanbase dissolve. sure there are still some freaks sticking around, but the vast majority of us got up and left.

now, don't ever feel like you're a bad person for relating to the lyrics wilbur wrote. although many of the songs feel different now with this new information about him as a person, he wrote about mental struggles in a way that MANY people connected with. there's nothing wrong with having those kinds of struggles. what's wrong is when someone dealing with those kinds of things is hurting other people, is made aware they're hurting other people, and then refuses to do anything to try and change for the better. wilbur refused to try and be a better person. he chose to keep abusing his partner and hurting the people around him. that's what makes a bad person.

I do think separation of art vs artist is possible, but it gets trickier when financial support comes in. that's why I suggest if you want to keep listening to lovejoy, piracy is always an option. the mp3 youtube downloader is your best friend there. MSR is a bit trickier though given that we know MSR was entirely written about wilbur's perspective of his and shelby's relationship, and now we know the truth of what that relationship was actually like. his own narrative that disregards the abuse is what makes up the album itself. personally, I don't think I could ever listen to MSR again without feeling gross.

that makes me really happy to hear you and your brother bonded while reading my fics. like man that's so sweet, I really hope you two will be able to keep enjoying the same things. whether you're both able to separate character from cc and continue reading c!wilbur content, or finding another interest to share in the future. take your time though. there's no rush to talk to him. let your feelings settle.

and yes I'm also incredibly proud of shubble as I'm sure we all are. coming forward like this is a terrifying thing to do but I'm so grateful she did, because now we all are aware and aren't unintentionally platforming a dangerous person like that. I'm so proud of this community. we really all came together in the end.

take care of yourself <3

#ask #anon #wilbur situation

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heliza24 · 1 year

Note

Love your blog and all your analysis!!

Many people didn't like S2 because Simon, according to them was just a tool to drive Wilhelm's story, a love interest only and didn't really have his own story. In particular, many are frustrated at the lack of narrative on the video's effect and Simon's subsequent trauma. Of course, everyone's allowed their opinions but seeing as you have experience in the world of writing and making tv magic, wanted to get your insight on this. Thanks, a S2 fan! 💜

Hi anon! Thanks for the question.

I’ve already written pretty extensively about Simon’s arc in season 2 and why I like it in this post. In short, I think he grows a lot in season 2, but his growth takes him towards emotional vulnerability and openness, which is not something we’re used to seeing in characters (especially not male ones).

I also don’t mind how they address Simon’s trauma in season 2. I’m going to approach this momentarily not as a writer, but as someone who has been in therapy for years. There are some traumas that have happened to me (like a serious car accident when I was a kid) that are very concrete, with a set beginning and end, and that began to affect me right away. (I had ptsd symptoms pretty immediately after that accident). But there are other traumas that feel like a series of small cuts instead of one big punch. It’s harder to decide where they begin and end, and their effects are more subtle. Sometimes it takes me years to even realize that they were traumatic and that they are still affecting me. (The medical trauma I’ve experienced as an adult over several years is like this). To me this is more what Simon is dealing with with the video. Once the video goes online, it’s not coming down. There’s no set end date, and Simon spends most of season 2 not even knowing who the perpetrator was. He’s in the kind of no-man’s land between the initial blow and coming to understand how the whole process has affected him. That being said, I do think we see some changes in him that reflect what he’s gone through. He seems to care a lot less about his academic classes than he did in season 1. He’s writing music in an attempt to process what he’s been through. And you could even see his attempt to have sex with Marcus as a trauma response. The last time he hooked up with someone his agency was taken from him. So it makes sense to me that he’s eager to have sex again but fully on his own terms, to partially erase that feeling of not being in control. I don’t know for sure if this will happen, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more traditional ptsd symptoms from Simon in season 3. If there’s some sort of legal action against August that would signify a sort of “end” of the video trauma, and would also probably be re-traumatizing in a lot of ways. I also think interacting directly with the royal family might stir up some things as well.

Ok, now I’m going to totally switch gears and approach your question from a writing perspective. Let’s talk about story structure for a minute, specifically TV story structure. Most TV has an A plot and a B plot (and sometimes a C plot too). In old school cable procedurals, the A plot would be the mystery of the week, while the B plot would be about whatever was happening in the characters’ personal lives. If there was an overarching mystery or storyline that tied the whole season together, that would be the C plot. As you can guess by how they’re named, the A Plot would take up the most time and do the most to drive the episode forward. The B plot is next most important, etc. Once shows started to become more serialized in the age of streaming, the concept of A and B plots changed a little bit. Now the plots are divided by character and theme. The A plot will be headlined by the protagonist and will explore the main themes of the show. The B plot will be headlined by a secondary protagonist, who doesn’t have as much to do as the A plot lead, but is still answering a dramatic question that relates to the central themes of the show. A lot of times the primary and secondary protagonists’ actions influence each other, but they don’t share a ton of screen time. (If they did, their stories wouldn’t be separate.) You can think of the A and B plot protagonists as two sides of the same coin. They’re intricately connected, they’re exploring the same ideas, but they rarely come face to face, and they often represent different perspectives on the same themes. Black Sails is probably my favorite example of this. (I’m not as active in the Black Sails fandom as I am in the Young Royals fandom, but Black Sails is probably my all time favorite show and I absolutely love all the ungovernable pirates over in the Black Sails tag. Shout out to them). James Flint is the main protagonist and headliner of the A story, but Max is the secondary protagonist that headlines the B story. Both are struggling with the question of how to achieve and wield power in an unjust world, and their political maneuvers consistently influence each other’s plots. They share a lot of secondary characters across both of their plots, but they themselves never interact. So that’s one example, and if you look around at your favorite shows you’ll be able to find lots that adhere to this formula, including, I would say, Young Royals.

I think a lot of people are kind of subconsciously looking for this kind of structure, and have decided that Simon is the protagonist of the B plot. I understand this, because we all love Simon. He’s really well written and acted, his personality is so compelling, and his chemistry with Wilhelm is great. I spend a lot of time writing him in fic (I’m the writer of all the Simon content in Heart and Homeland) so I understand this impulse. But if you were looking for Simon to be anchoring the B plot in season 2, you might have been disappointed. Because in reality I don’t think he’s the secondary protagonist. I think Sara is.

Sara is set up as a foil to Wilhelm, the main protagonist, in so many ways. I always say that the driving dramatic question of Young Royals lives with Wilhelm, and it’s something along the lines of “should I conform and live the oppressive life that was designed for me, or rebel and find my own path to happiness?” Sara is wrestling with a similar question that’s kind of the inverse of this; for her settling into a prescribed role in the Hillerska class system initially seems like a relief. So maybe for her the dramatic question is something along the lines of “is the price of fitting in worth it? Will it lead to true happiness?” They feel so much like opposite sides of the same coin to me.

So Sara and Wilhelm are both trying to define themselves in relation to their families and also the class system. This comes up in the similarities of their family structure (they both feel very connected to their class position through their families; they both have complicated relationships with their mothers and bad to negligible relationships with their fathers; they both have a deep connection to their siblings) and in the relationships they choose to embark upon. They’re both navigating a very serious and complicated first love. They’re both dating across class (in the opposite direction, a perfect example of the “different views on the same theme” aspect of primary and secondary protagonists). They both have concerns about how and when their relationships become public, and by extension are both playing in the sandbox of themes around privacy and authenticity that define so much of the show.

Both have difficulty regulating and recognizing their emotions. Sara seems to exhibit alexithymia, a common aspect of autism that makes it hard to recognize one's own emotions. Wilhelm has been taught to repress his emotions, which he does well until he explodes (like when he got into the fight at the top of the series or when he yells at his mom on the phone). He’s also managing a lot of physical symptoms of anxiety.

Both also struggle with questions of justice and how to make things right. In the beginning of season 2, Wilhelm is initially determined to destroy August because he thinks August will never repent, but by the end of the season he’s starting to realize that this was the wrong technique. He realizes this largely because of Simon; he only puts down the gun and walks away from August because Simon does first. Sara makes the opposite journey: she starts by trusting that August will change and repent on his own, but then she is forced to confront the fact that this is not true, and that she needs to use the legal system to bring August to justice. She makes this realization largely because of Simon, and seeing the ways that she has hurt Simon, in the same scene with the gun.

The other big argument in support of Sara as the secondary protagonist of the show is that she and Wilhelm never directly interact. Their actions affect each other all the time, but they don’t share a scene together. They’re living on parallel but separate story tracks.

Simon is a crucial character in both Wilhelm and Sara’s stories, but the fact that he is close with both excludes him from being a protagonist of his own plot line. (I would say the same about August, who is a catalyst for both Wilhelm and Sara.) That doesn’t mean that Simon isn’t well written. He has a very compelling character arc, motivates much of the plot, and his relationship with Wilhelm forms the heart of the show. But I think the reason people were disappointed in his story in season 2 is that they were expecting something from him that the structure of the show doesn’t support.

If you’re interested in reading more about A/B/C plot structures I found this website really easy to understand. Also shout out to @bluedalahorse for talking to me about Wilhelm and Sara and helping me articulate what I was trying to say here.

Thanks again for the ask, anon and for the vote of confidence in my analysis! I really appreciate it. If anyone else has a Young Royals scene or question they want me to break down from a writing or cinematography perspective, my ask box is always open.

#young royals #my meta #ask box #writing break down #simon eriksson #wilhelm young royals #sara eriksson #prince wilhelm

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barrenclan · 9 months

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i was gonna be sad that my boy didn’t eep but only for it to turn out to be a PINECORM ISSUE?? fuck yeah release me from the horrors 🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃

i assume view of the moon is the name of the leaders rock and honestly? that’s so cool. might seem generic but it’s more interesting than “leader’s rock”, and it’s even more interesting to me considering barrenclan doesn’t believe in starclan or have a moonstone. was it just a name from the time that the clan did believe? was it named that simply for how close you are to the sky? it’s really interesting idk maybe i’m overanalyizing

cormorantpaw saying specifically it’s worse when it happens for sisters than siblings or family makes me think- i would have understood if he just had sisters just like pinepaw but with crow being a brother and not being “worse when it happens” as described, makes me think that crow.. wasn’t the best brother and cormorantpaw struggles to feel sympathy. or even thrasher was a sexist with the concept of women being weaker and that idea was passed down like thrasher’s concept of getting a partner but i don’t wanna assume thrasher’s a sexist? don’t wanna throw that label onto him unless it’s 100% canon or so, it doesn’t feel appropriate.

cormorantpaw’s pauses and stuff makes me love your writing because it’s just.. this is so hard for him, he’s processing how bad thrasher was, something that’s been happening throughout his povs (his confusion on redpelt’s kindness, him telling egretrail thrasher’s weird opinions on the transgender and romance) and now he’s at a point where he can express it but also just.. it shows how much he trusts and love pine. I LOVE IT I LOVE THEM SO MUCH GRRR BITE

i love them fr omg they’re so silly cormorantpaw just casuallt explained his emo backstory and they immediately became so silly and goofy and awkward over the prospect of loving eachother and shit this is so great. TJEY WANNA HAVE SILLY NAMES AND STUFF!!!!! AGAHAHHRHRHGG!! THEY WANNA ESCAPE THE HELL LAND THEY LIVE IN!!

cormorantpaw’s finally found peace and he wants to keep it. go away defiance :((. i hope at least pinepaw can sleep better with cormorantpaw next to him

there’s two reactions i wanna see to their togetherness if it ever were to be found out: cootstorm, as brought up by pinepaw, is one that i can’t wait to see. but also.. daffodilpaw. i might have daffy bias but she was so, so sure that it was her *destiny* to date cormorantpaw and have kits to *make up* for her injury and even though i do believe that’s unhealthy for her i just.. what’s her thoughts gonna be on her supposed destiny being stripped in front of her by her brother? aggh i lovr angst :3 i will punch cootstorm if she reacts badly tho

this issue makes me want to get a gf to go cuddle with. 10/10 issue would patfw again

No more nightmares only KISSING!!

Yeah, View of the Moon is the leader's rock, I like giving typical things in Warriors more fantastical names (like The Sanctuary AKA Moonpool from my other comic). It's named that way for two reasons, one is just that it's the tallest rock in camp so it's the easiest to see the sky from. And secondly because it's a paler color than the rest of the dens, so it looks a bit more like the moon.

Crow is actually one of Cormorantpaw's sisters, Partridge is his brother! Thrasher did treat women (namely, Egrettail and uh, his wife) very badly, though, so it's pretty safe to assume he's sexist.

Cormorantpaw's emotional development makes me :,) my boy has come so far... him and Pinepaw are so silly together!! Just two little guys!!!

I won't say much but you will definitely get a Daffodilpaw perspective on this soon :3

#ask #cormorantpaw #pinepaw #crow #thrasher #daffodilpaw

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jinnxd · 3 months

Text

🍜 CHAPTER 50 OMAKE 🍜

Kakashi pushed Mizuki along, hands far rougher than necessary with the battered man.

With one particularly harsh shove, it seemed Mizuki snapped out of the daze he’d been trapped in. Blinking rapidly and turning around to look at who was pushing him, the teacher actually looked relieved to see him.

“Kakashi-san! You witnessed that, didn’t you? Is there an ANBU squad on the way to arrest them? Those kids are delinquent brats, and their guardian is no better–she’s an insane little bitch. Like, I could have fought them off for sure, but it’s just a couple of kids and a girl, you know, so I held back. You’re gonna tell the Hokage, right? They need to be locked up, the whole lot of them.” He rambled, and Kakashi began to suspect a major concussion. Still, though, there was a clarity in his eyes when he spoke about Kiya that didn’t settle well with him.

The hospital was north of here. In a split-second decision, Kakashi guided Mizuki west. “Oh, I saw what happened, all right. They did quite a number on you.”

A little detour seemed to be in order.

“Yeah, well they fought dirty–dirty…” Mizuki paused, his face contorting in anger at whatever deranged thought his addled mind had landed on. “She’s a dirty fucking whore, you know? I kept her around because she was good for one fucking thing, and she could barely do that right. I don’t know what her problem was, man, acting like she was too good for me.”

He just let Mizuki talk, casually herding him into a back alley and allowing Mizuki to dig his own grave with every hateful word he uttered.

“Really?” He asked disinterestedly, hand tightening intentionally around his broken wrist.

Mizuki let out a pained grunt, but didn’t say anything about it. How cute–he wanted to look tough. “Yeah, funny, right? Hey… where are we going? I thought the hospital was–”

Finally reaching a deserted corner of the alley, Kakashi stopped and turned to face Mizuki, his eye flashing dangerously. “Funny indeed,” Kakashi replied, his voice cold. “It's always interesting to hear the perspective of a delusional liar.”

Mizuki flinched at the harshness in Kakashi's tone, realizing perhaps too late that he had said too much. “W-what do you mean?” he stammered, attempting to backtrack.

But Kakashi wasn't having it. With a swift motion, he slammed Mizuki against the wall behind him, eliciting a cry of pain from the man. “What I mean is that you're a disgrace,” Kakashi began in a low, dangerous tone. “You don’t deserve that headband, and you didn’t deserve her.”

“Who, Kiya?” Mizuki asked, swallowing thickly yet still putting up that transparent bravado. “You’re joking, right? What, did she spread her legs for you, too? Word of advice, man, it’s not worth it. She’s not worth it.”

Slowly, Kakashi increased the pressure of his hold around Mizuki’s wrist, giving him a fake eye-smile all the while. “Listen carefully, Mizuki-kun. You’re not going to speak about Kiya or what happened today ever again. If anyone asks, you fell down a flight of stairs. Understood?” He threatened coldly, enjoying the way the man’s features contorted in pain.

Mizuki's bravado crumbled as Kakashi's grip tightened, crying out. “Y-yes, I understand,” he stammered, beads of sweat dripping down his pallid forehead.

Kakashi leaned in closer, his eye narrowing with intensity. “Good. Then consider this a lesson.” he said, his voice dripping with menace. “Watch your mouth, or I won't be so gentle next time.”

“Yes, Kakashi-san. I-I’m sorry, sir, it won’t happen again.”

In a swift motion, Kakashi released Mizuki and patted him roughly on the shoulder. He flinched with each movement, letting out a shaky breath of relief as Kakashi yanked him out of the alleyway and back in the direction of the hospital.

#omake

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gumnut-logic · 6 months

Text

Five times alan discovered a secret and one time he kept one (Part Four)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

This one fought me like crazy. gordon is a slippery fish and doesn't like telling.

Many thanks to @onereyofstarlight for the read through and support. You are amazing as always ::lots of hugs::.

And thank you to thunderfam who continue to feed my pen with all your wonderful support ::hugs the lot of you::

Lots of terrible two in this one. I hope you enjoy it :D

-o-o-o-

“Can you turn it off?!”

Alan glared at his brother. The fish was sitting where he had parked himself for the entire trip - his lumpy feet up on the dash, guzzling his disgusting cheese and watching that stupid Buddie and Ellie show.

Gordon didn’t even bother to turn around. “Why?”

“You’ve been watching it since we left Earth and I’m sick of it! And your cheese is getting into everything! Brains will kill you when we get back and I’ll help him!”

His fish brother finally responded this time, the holoprojector flickering off. He shrugged. “Okay.”

“And clean up your mess.”

“Sure.” Gordon flicked him a WASP salute and began picking cheese out of the air.

Alan grunted and went back to his checklist. He was in command of this mission. He had the right to ask his brother to behave.

Scott was counting on him.

Okay, so he was a little nervous. This rescue was one for the record books, after all. Not many people managed to make it to Europa. You needed special permission to land there as it was restricted for scientific exploration only with no commercial leases available - unlike Jupiter’s other moons.

Europa could have life on it - or in it - depending on your perspective and to get the chance to visit it?

This left Halley’s Comet in the dust.

How Buddie and Ellie had managed to get permission was beyond Alan’s comprehension.

Or maybe he was just resenting them due to having to listen to their voices for so long.

So, so long.

“What would you like me to do next, Commander.”

Alan blinked and looked back at his brother. There was no smart-ass expression on his face, just a genuine interest directed towards the back of the cockpit where Alan floated.

“Something productive maybe?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Think of something.”

“Okay.” Gordon turned back to the controls and sat staring out at the blackness of space.

Alan glared at his brother, unsure of how to respond. Gordon could be…well, Gordon…and so frustrating.

Alan swore under his breath. Gotta love him. Can’t kill him.

He worked quietly for a while, relieved and finally relaxing just a little in the silence with a calming sense of work well done.

Oh great, now he was beginning to sound like Virgil.

And yes, he knew that wasn’t a bad thing. Thank you, biggest brother for chiming in with your two cents, too.

Space bonkers, here I come.

“Allie, do you need a hand?”

Alan startled and turned to find Gordon floating just behind him.

“Couldn’t find anything to do?”

“Well, you’re the astronaut, you tell me. I’m just a lowly aquanaut on the voyage to an extraterrestrial ocean.” His brother grinned.

Alan thwacked him with his clipboard.

“Hey, that’s violence in the ranks.”

“You deserved it.”

“Hmph. Well, if you don’t want me to watch Buddy and Ellie, what do you want me to do?”

“Be quiet.”

That earned him an arched eyebrow. “Okay.” Gordon shrugged and turned towards the hatch that led to the cargo bay. “If you need me, I’ll be in Thunderbird Four.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.” Gordon shut the hatch behind him, leaving the cockpit to Alan and his checklist.

-o-o-o-

Alan ran out of checklist eventually. He sat back in his pilot’s seat and relaxed, enjoying the quiet solitude.

It was him, his rocket and all the great unknown emptiness beyond. This was the life he wanted, the life he had been aiming for the entirety of his fifteen years of existence.

This was it. The dream…

And…

…damn, it was lonely without his brother’s company.

And so quiet. So, so quiet.

How the hell could he be missing Buddy and Ellie? It was noise. Silly, ridiculous, over-hyped noise.

But it was also Gordon.

Who had done exactly as Alan had told him.

Damnit.

He lasted another whole half an hour before throwing himself out of his seat in frustration. He pushed himself out of the chair and nearly whacked himself on the bulkhead.

See? Gordon made him do stupid things.

He launched from the pilot’s seat to the back door of the cockpit, throwing it open with no consideration for the lack of gravity.

It banged and bounced back at him, catching him on his funny bone.

Grandma wasn’t here to veto his cursing.

He fumbled his way through the hatch, floating down to the cargo bay.

It was quite a sight to see Thunderbird Four where the pods usually sat. She wasn’t small and her presence loomed, both secure yet out of place.

She had been loaded with her nose pointing up towards Three’s cockpit and her undersides facing Three’s cargo doors, ready to be deployed.

Consequently, entering the bay, Alan had no trouble spotting his brother asleep in Four’s cockpit.

He sighed. Typical.

But Alan’s shoulders sagged. Now who wasn’t being fair?

He floated himself down to Four’s hatchway and wriggled himself in. It took a bit to slide into his brother’s cockpit. Despite her size being much bigger than the average pod, Four was the smallest Thunderbird and there was a vast difference between her and Three.

In any case, he managed to slip in beside his sleeping brother and surprisingly didn’t wake him up. Lack of gravity did have some uses, apparently.

He stared at Gordon. Four’s interior lighting was off and only Three’s cargo bay lamps were providing any illumination. This left his brother’s face cast in reds and greys, slack in sleep.

Three was travelling at high speed and her autopilot was very capable of taking them all the way to Europa without any attention on Alan’s part, but he preferred at least one pilot to be in her cockpit at all times, usually himself. So there was no way he felt comfortable sitting down here for any long period of time.

“Enjoying the scenery?”

Alan startled. Gordon was smirking at him, obviously not asleep.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I was having a lovely snooze before you banged your way in here.”

Alan glared at him. “I was just checking on you.”

“Sure you were.”

“Why do you have to be such an ass?”

Gordon stretched, interlocking his fingers behind his head. “It’s the reputation, gotta keep it maintained.”

“Gordon…”

His brother reached over and soft punched Alan in the arm. “No worries, bro. I’ve got your back.”

Maybe he was just making things hard to give Alan command experience. He stared at his brother. “Why are you down here?”

Gordon rolled his eyes. “So I’m not bugging you with Buddy and Ellie, derr.”

“You were sleeping.”

“So?” Brown eyes cast red by the lighting were peering at him. “Not much else to do, is there?”

“So this is what you do at the bottom of the ocean?”

“No. There is always something to do down there.”

“Like what?”

His brother sat up in his seat. “Life for one thing. Can’t say you’ll find a squid or deep sea fish out the window right now.”

“Hey! We’re at the cutting edge of science here. I’m streaming data back to Five that at least three different universities asked for. Do you know how many people would love this opportunity?”

Gordon shrugged. “Same for my girl.” He patted his seat eyeing the inside of his cockpit. “I have friends who would kill to play with her.” He turned back to Alan. “Space is your thing, Al. And Johnny’s. I’m just a fish out of water up here.”

“You don’t like space?” Alan stared at his brother. “But it’s so cool!”

Another shrug. “Whatever floats your boat, baby bro.”

“But you’re a qualified astronaut.”

“Of course I am. We all are. Dad made sure of it.”

And in Alan’s case, Scott and John. “You didn’t want to be?”

Eyes, almost a deep red, looked up at him. “I wanted to join International Rescue, it is part of the deal. Same for you. Can you say you enjoy the ocean?”

“It’s okay.” He had to say it, for exactly the same reason. Alan was not a fish of any kind. He could do what was necessary, but water was definitely not his favourite medium.

The soft smile on Gordon’s face was understanding itself.

Hmph.

“So what don’t you like about space?”

Another full body stretch and Gordon looked away. “The nothing. There is so much nothing with no life.”

“Yet. Who knows what we will discover. You do realise that we are going to be one of very few people who have landed on Europa? Do you realise that almost all of it is unexplored? Almost everything we will be seeing hasn’t been seen close up by a single human being!” It was so incredible, Alan found it hard to believe that Gordon and he were flying out there to do so many firsts. They would end up in the record books. In history itself!

“Except for Buddy and Ellie.”

Alan rolled his eyes. He was so sick of hearing about Buddy and Ellie.

But then if they hadn’t had their accident then Three wouldn’t be needed and Alan wouldn’t have this chance.

Gordon poked him with a finger. “If we find life, it will be in that ocean under all that ice. Not in space.”

“But you need to space to get there.”

“That’s the boring bit.”

“Aargh, you are so annoying.”

“Just polishing the reputation.” His brother grinned.

“How will that reputation stand up if I just happen to mention to Scotty that you squawked when I engaged the ion engines?”

Those deep red eyes widened. “You wouldn’t dare!”

“Oh, really?” Ahhh, blackmail material bullseye.

“Alan…” Gordon was frowning at him. “Don’t.”

Alan grinned. “Oh, I think it is a juicy bit of information that Scotty will definitely enjoy.” He pushed off the bulkhead and slid back out of the cockpit, aiming for the exit.

“Alan! Don’t you dare!”

And the chase was on. Alan was definitely the more experienced in space as he bounced himself expertly out of the cargo bay, leaving his brother tumbling behind him.

Gordon called his name several times, but Alan made it back to his cockpit way ahead of him. He was poking at the transmitter controls as Gordon finally caught up, pinwheeling through the hatch.

“Thunderbird Three to Tracy Island.”

“Alan, no, please don’t.” A hand landed on Alan’s shoulder.

Alan frowned up at his fish brother.

“Tracy Island to Thunderbird Three, how are the two of you doing?” Scott’s hologram hovered above the dash and a wave of reassurance washed over Alan.

Scott was safety. Even several million kilometres away.

The hand on Alan’s shoulder gripped tighter.

“Just checking in. Three is cruising. Ion engines working like a dream.” He looked up at Gordon and frowned. There was so much pleading in his brother’s eyes, Alan’s throat knotted up for a moment. What the hell? “Uh, is Virg back from Venezuela yet?”

“No.” Scott’s posture shifted. “He’s had to take the long way round. There are now three cyclones across the Pacific.”

“Three? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. A little grumpy perhaps. Tell Gordon he forgot to restock Two’s coffee supplies.”

“Oh, crap.”

“I heard that, Fish. You’re lucky you’re on the other side of the solar system.”

“Tell him I’ll buy him extra when I get back.”

“You can buy me some of that apple pie from Darcy’s. I’m the one who has to face him.”

“Ugh, sorry.”

“Apple pie, Fish. Lots of it. With fresh cream.”

Alan was grinning.

“Fine. FAB. Can do. Thunderbird Three out.” He reached over and killed the connection.

“You’re toast, Fishboy.”

“Shut up.” He pushed off, heading towards his co-pilot chair.

“So what’s with the big secret?”

Gordon didn’t look at him. “What secret?”

“You were terrified I was going to tell on you.”

His brother didn’t answer as he slid into his seat.

“Gordon, what’s wrong.”

He sighed and looked away a moment. “You can’t tell Scott. You can’t tell anyone.”

“Tell them what? That you squawked?”

“I’m serious, Alan.” His brother turned to face him, eyes earnest and determined.

What the hell?

“Okay.” A blink. “Why not?”

“You promise?”

Alan stared at Gordon…and held up a hand. “I promise. Tracy’s honour.” He frowned. “Now tell me what’s wrong?”

Gordon sagged in his seat…or as much as he could in zero gravity...and stared at the dash. “I told Scott I could handle it and I can. It’s just…took me by surprise, okay?”

“What?”

Gordon sighed. “I have a thing.”

“I repeat, what?”

“I’m fine. I can fly, I can sail, I can drive, it’s not a problem really.”

“Gordon, you’re not making sense.”

“It’s stupid.”

“It doesn’t sound it. I haven’t seen you babble like this since Miss Kent thanked you for saving her life.”

“Huh? Oh.” He waved a hand as if to dismiss the blushing and stammering because their school teacher kissed him on the cheek. “Nothing to do with that.”

“Gordon…”

His brother held up both his hands. “It’s speed, okay? I’m a bit funky with acceleration.”

“Funky.”

“Funky. I told Scott I was over it.”

“Over it.”

“What? You turning into a parrot? I have a thing with speed. I was going kinda fast when the hydrofoil…you know. That.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh. Took me a bit to get my legs back under me.”

Apparently in more ways than one.

“So you don’t like going fast?”

“Sometimes.”

“But you’re okay?” That dread at the bottom of his stomach that had blossomed into life that horrible day just over two years ago when Gordon nearly died in the hydrofoil crash. It had swelled and retreated so many times as his brother slowly recovered. He hadn’t felt it flutter in a while.

It was not a welcome return.

“I’m okay, Allie. I just don’t want to worry Scott. Or Virgil. Or Grandma. Or John. Or anyone really. So don’t tell anybody.” He looked down at his hands. “They’ve worried enough.”

“But-“

“I’m okay, Allie, I promise.” His brother’s eyes bored a hole into Alan’s forehead. “It’s under control.”

“Is that why you don’t fly very often?”

Gordon rolled his eyes. “God, no, the Tank is just a control freak.”

Alan looked down at his controls. They were travelling ever so fast. “That’s why you don’t like space.”

A shrug. “Maybe. Mostly because it’s boring and there’s no fish.”

Alan narrowed his eyes. “So you’d be happy if we discovered a space whale?”

“Sounds good to me.” Gordon nodded with a satisfied smile. “And a nice little astro-octopus for extra entertainment. We could call him ‘Bob’.”

Alan stared at his brother. “I won’t tell anyone, Gordy. I promise.”

“Thanks.”

There was silence after that.

At least a good five minutes before Gordon flicked up the next episode of Buddy and Ellie.

A sigh and Alan settled back into his seat. It was going to be a long trip.

But at least Gordon had a distraction.

-o-o-o-

Part 5

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #alan tracy #gordon tracy #nuttyfic

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razorblade180 · 10 months

Text

Unreal

Wanting to take a look at her land, Nahida climbs up The Great Tree for a marvelous view. It’s only when she reaches the top down she realize Aether is up there too.

Nahida:Oh? Have the two of us shared the same idea tonight? *sits*

Aether:If that’s true then I should count myself lucky I think like The God of Wisdom. Hehe, I’m just up here to take everything in since I’ll be leaving soon.

Nahida:You’re always welcome. This land and its people owe more than a thanks to you. As do I.

Aether:You all have given more than enough. From important information to a strangely addictive card game. This place has been something else.

Nahida:Is that so? Paimon mentioned how each nation gives a different sense of familiarity or emotion.

Aether:Yeah. Mondstadt is home no matter what. I feel at ease and maybe a little too relaxed there.

Nahida:Everyone needs a home, and that’s where your journey began. It’s only natural. How about Liyue?

Aether:That’s…a weird one. I have plenty of friends there and it is a place where things are said to settle. For some reason though, it feels the most foreign to me. I can always take a trip to Liyue but it really is a feeling of passing through.

Nahida:That’s interesting. Maybe I should visit sometime? I’ve been told there’s plenty of ruins and historical sights, as if the entire nation itself is a well preserved historical artifact!

Aether:I think that’s a way more interesting perspective than what I said, but you’re right. Maybe that has something to do with it? More often than not it does feel like I’m on a knowledgeable expedition. Not that I’m not looking for answers all the time, but man, Liyue is kinda dense and rigid.

Nahida:Sounds like geo.

Aether:Can’t argue with that. Anyways, it’s a completely different feeling from Inazuma. Although Mondstadt is home, there’s a sense of belonging I get in Inazuma; as if it makes sense to be there.

Nahida:I’m not quite sure I follow.

Aether:Well…I think it’s the people, as well as the intense conditions the nation has. It always feels like someone is doing their best to prove why they’re right where they need to be; foreigner or otherwise.

Nahida:Ah, so it’s sorta like a feeling of mutual respect? You never question exactly why someone is there because you already know it’s to prove something. That feeling is probably enhanced by the fact you’re technically enlisted in an army.

Aether:If you can survive Inazuma, then you’re welcome in Inazuma. From Ei all the way to Itto, I feel like I fit in. I like it. Not to mention even the more abandoned spots seem to have found their own way of belonging.

Nahida:I guess I should be thankful you made it through a place that steeled you the way it did. So then Aether, now that you’ve so much of Sumeru, what is it to you?

He had to think on it for a moment as the breeze flowed the branches. Aether thought of the first time he stood of shifting sand dunes to gaze at ancient civilizations, experienced the lush greenery through pouring rain, and found places he could never describe without having been there first hand.

Aether:Sumeru is unreal, in almost every since of the word. Nothing feels fundamentally impossible, yet at the same time I was always surprised at something that made me ask “how is that even possible?” I ended up in places I didn’t expect and helped start things that felt way out of my depth! I mean just look at the pyramid, and the hydro tree across the desert! Even the people here weren’t what I expected. They feel grand despite many occupations being common here. Sumeru may be The Nation of Wisdom, but to me its more like-

Nahida:A massive dream? *smiles*

Aether:Yep, like a massive fantasy book with stories stitched together. It’s been fun. Even during the stressful parts I never felt like I couldn’t pull through.

Nahida:They say everyone is the main character of their own story, but I have to admit I felt captivated by yours as if you actually took the role. Imagine if you suddenly woke up right now?

Aether:Please don’t say things like that. Not after what we’ve dealt with.

Nahida:Heh, yeah I would probably panic. Thankfully, we are as real as ever. I’m flattered this place can be your living dream. Come back anytime. I love a good story.

Aether:As long as none of them are titled “The Revenge of Apep”

Nahida:How about… “A Birthday Fit for a God”

Aether:*smiles* I’ll be there. After all, The First Sage of Buer would love to celebrate such an occasion.

Nahida:You really love that title, don’t you?

Aether:I’ll be honest, losing to Wanderer after hearing that was not an option. I would’ve thought of a plan myself if I had to!

Nahida:Hehe, well I hope your next title is just as grand. Safe journeys to Fontaine.

xxxxx

Paimon:*gripping jail bars* Please help us get out!

Yanfei:Well it’s nice to see one of you taking this seriously.

Aether: *playing harmonica* I’m coping. Also I know someone who’s gonna get a kick out of this story.

#genshin impact #gi aether #gi nahida #gi paimon #gi yanfei

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