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seijorhi · 1 year

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Undertow

A tokrev purge AU, as a treat :))

Kakucho x female reader, Kurokawa Izana x female reader

w.c 6.4k

tw: murder, blood & slight gore, implied non/dub-con, yandere themes

This is not a test, this is your Emergency Broadcast System announcing the commencement of the annual Purge sanctioned by the Japanese Government. Weapons of class four and lower have been authorised for use during the Purge. All other weapons are restricted. Government officials of ranking ten have been granted immunity and shall not be harmed.

Commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including murder, will be legal for twelve continuous hours. Police, fire, and emergency medical services will be unavailable until tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m, when the Purge concludes.

Blessed be our new founding fathers and Japan; a nation reborn.

As the polite, female voice falls silent, klaxons ring out, blaring through the night.

Seven years now.

Five, since your brother decided to join the would be Purgers and never made it home. It never becomes normal, you never lose that fear. You do, however, learn the rules.

Stay home. Lock yourself away behind the reinforced shutters and doors, pretend that everything’s fine, that you can’t hear the screaming and gunshots, the violent chaos being gleefully wreaked outside. You put on some movies, music maybe, sit on your couch, swaddled in blankets with the volume too loud and pray that tonight won’t be the night that someone decides to test just how impenetrable the defences around your home truly are.

Arms encircle your waist, pulling you back against a firm chest. A kiss is pressed against your hair. “Babe, don’t look so worried. We’ll be fine. We always are.”

–Only this time, you’re not waiting out the Purge by yourself.

You exhale, Natsuya’s hold easing to allow you to turn and face him. He smiles at the pinched expression on your face, “We’re gonna be fine,” he repeats. “Now will you please come have a drink with me? The others are starting to wonder why my beautiful,” his lips meet your forehead, “smart,” the tip of your nose, “incredible girlfriend’s hiding herself away.”

He kisses your lips last of all, a sweet, gentle thing. Brushes your hair back from your face.

“No one’s getting through the security system, and even if they did, no one’s gonna hurt you, I’ll make sure of it.”

Yes, you’d caught an eyeful of the shotgun he’d been cleaning when you’d arrived. His friends undoubtedly have their own weapons stashed away, too. After all – there’s no such thing as a pacifist on Purge night.

It doesn’t ease your worry any, but you smile and nod for him, letting him tug you back to the lounge room where his friends and sister await.

Because what else does Purge night call for, if not a party?

Miyano – charming and roguish, long dark hair swept up into a bun – the first to greet you, passing you a shot of amber liquor with an easy wink. “Purge classic,” he tells you, referring to the drink, “it’s tradition – and a secret.”

You knock the shot back, wincing at the burn in your throat as it goes down. “Why does it taste like toothpaste?!”

“Disgusting, isn’t it,” Tomori, Natsuya’s sister and the only other girl present, says with a grimace.

Miyano looks mightily pleased with himself, Ayumu and Suwabe both snickering good naturedly. The two of them couldn’t be more different from each other. Suwabe’s short and stocky, Ayumu willowy-tall, blond and bespectacled, and yet one’s never far from the other.

Your boyfriend sneaks an arm around your waist, dutifully accepting his own with a rueful sigh.

“So you guys do this every Purge?”

Suwabe nods, “Yeah, for the past four or five years. It’s a shit night, we figured we might as well make the most of it together instead of stressing out about it alone.”

“And you’ve never been tempted to…?”

The three of them share a look, Suwabe shrugging, “What, to Purge? Ayumu and I went one year. Not to kill anyone or nothing,” he hastens to clarify at your wide eyed expression, “we wanted to rob his boss’s place.”

“The guy was an asshole. Rich as hell, too. We knew he wasn’t gonna be there, it seemed as good a time as any to try our luck,” the blond elaborates.

“And how’d that go for you?”

He laughs, rubbing the back of his neck, “Yeah, we didn’t even make it onto the property. And it was fucked out there, not something I want a repeat of anytime soon.”

Your brother’s face flashes to mind, a pang striking deep in your chest. He’d made his choice, though, with intentions far less justifiable, and so you shove those feelings aside, tilting your face to meet Natsuya’s, “And no Purging for you?”

Intended as a joke, his fingers, resting comfortably above your hip, inexplicably twitch. “‘Course not.”

“The whole thing’s messed up. Who wants to go out and hunt people for fun?” Tomori snorts, passing you a glass of wine and pouring one for herself.

“Kind of a necessary evil, though, right?”

She meets her brother’s gaze with one raised, unimpressed eyebrow, “Oh c’mon, Nats, you can’t honestly tell me that you believe the Purge is in any way a good thing. Those who can afford it lock themselves away, and the poor pay the price. It’s chaos for the sake of chaos, the only difference between now and before is that alongside all the criminals who would’ve gone out looting and murdering anyway, the government’s convinced stupid, entitled dumbasses like those two,” she jerks her chin towards Ayumu and Suwabe, both suddenly fascinated with their drinks, “that killing and stealing and hurting other people is morally upstanding, and worse; fun.”

And so the conversation goes, as it always does. You nod and hum idly along with the others every now and then, nestled comfortably into Natsuya’s side while they argue back and forth, until– “Look, all I’m saying is that anyone who’s dumb enough to get themselves killed on Purge night probably isn’t a great loss to society anyway.”

The change in the air is palpable. Natsuya stiffens behind you, Tomori’s breath catching, her eyes immediately finding yours.

Figures that Natsuya told her.

And to Miyano’s credit, he seems to realise he’s misstepped even before your boyfriend’s growled, “Dude, shut the hell up.”

“Shit, that’s not what I– Fuck, I didn’t–” You raise a placating hand, and his mouth closes with an audible click.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it, I’m not gonna bite your head off,” you chuckle awkwardly, pretending that you don’t see Suwabe’s wince.

Still, his expression looks almost stricken, eyes darting between you and a disapproving Nats, and you feel a slight twinge of… something.

Miyano hadn’t said it to be spiteful.

What happened to your brother happens to hundreds every Purge – they leave the safety of their houses with the belief that because they’ve got a weapon and a free pass for twelve hours, they’re invincible.

Usually, they’re wrong.

“It’s fine,” you repeat with a tight smile, pointedly ignoring Natsuya’s scoff.

“No, I shouldn’t’ve–”

Whatever he’s about to say falls by the wayside as a loud, pounding suddenly reverberates through the house.

The front door.

For a long beat, nobody moves. Nobody breathes. Six pairs of eyes shift to the entry-way, towards the unknown figure waiting on the other side of the door.

Silence settles over the six of you, thick and uncomfortable, and undercurrent of tension pressing down on your body. Every door and window’s locked and reinforced behind steel shutters, they’re not impenetrable, though. Nothing is.

Abruptly, the banging resumes, so sudden that you jerk, flinching back against Natsuya’s frame.

“Pull up the security feed,” Suwabe suggests.

There’s a panel with a keypad on the wall by the kitchen, a few clicks of the buttons and the screen comes to life. Split across six sections, the cameras show a near 360 degree view of the exterior of the house. Natsuya taps on the upper left, bringing the view from the front of the house – the man battering down the door – full screen, the audio filtering through.

“–gonna kill me! You have to let me in! I promise I’m not armed, I swear it, just– help me, please!”

Your stomach flips.

“I–” you swallow, drawing in an unsteady breath.

The shock of black hair, the jagged scar cut like a bolt of lightning across his forehead, his eyes, one red, the other a milky white, wide and frantic now as he risks another look behind him – they’re not features you’re likely to forget any time soon. “I know him.”

You feel more than see the way that Natsuya tenses, pulling back to study you, a note of questioning in his eyes.

“He catches the same train home, we talk sometimes.” There’s more to it than that; a creep that tried to feel you up and Kakucho’s intervention, but you don’t feel like getting into that now.

Not when he’s hoarse and begging on Nats’ doorstep.

He hammers his fist against the shutters, strong enough that you swear you can feel the vibrations rattling in your chest. “He’s coming– fucking hell, please!”

Nobody says anything, uncomfortable glances shared between all six of you.

It’s an exercise in futility begging anyone for help on Purge night. He has to know that – everyone knows that.

And yet your heart’s lodged firmly in your throat, because it’s not just anyone at the door. It’s not a stranger begging for mercy, for sanctuary, it’s Kakucho.

Kakucho, who stood up for you.

Kakucho, who took the seat next to yours for weeks before he so much as said a word to you.

Kakucho, who looks half crazed – terrified – pleading for his life.

You barely know him, a kind act and a few conversations on your nighttime commute doesn’t make him a saint, doesn’t mean you have any sort of deeper relationship or trust built between you, but…

“Nats,” you breathe, your hand seeking his. His palm’s warm, engulfing yours, and you squeeze it, “I know him.”

It isn’t a plea, not quite.

“Dude, are you crazy? You can’t let him in!” Suwabe hisses, smacking his shoulder. “It sucks, but that’s what happens–”

Tomori‘s eyes flash. She folds her arms over her chest, shooting daggers his way, “So we throw him to the wolves? Just leave him to die?”

“Yeah; that’s the fucking Purge, Mori! He’s banging on your door ‘cause no one else’s stupid enough to let him in!”

“And if it was your friend and not some random stranger, you’re telling me you‘d leave him to the wolves rather than risk opening your door?”

Miyano, up until now silent, exhales, “She’s kind of got a point.”

“He’s not a friend though, she said it herself!” Suwabe snaps back, jabbing his finger in your direction. He turns to Ayumu, watching the argument unfold with a small frown. “Back me up here, dude, you know I’m right.”

The blond shifts on his feet, fingers tapping an uneasy rhythm against his drink as his gaze flickers between you and Natsuya. And all the while, the pounding outside continues, furious and desperate, layered beneath Kakucho’s shouts. You’re half convinced that any second now, that door’s gonna give way, and your stomach churns. You feel sick.

He’s a mere step above a stranger; an acquaintance at best. Suwabe isn’t wrong, either. This is Purge, this is what happens. Those who don’t have the means to protect themselves either learn to fight back or pay the price. There’s no helping that and it’s naive to think otherwise.

Right now you’re safe. Barring an all out assault, you’ll remain that way for the rest of the night.

The smart thing to do would be to hunker down and pretend the world outside the front door doesn’t exist for the next however many hours. That was the plan. That’s always the plan for the Purge.

Even the harmless looking ones pose a threat tonight. Kakucho, with his stature and scowl, the scar and those frighteningly intense eyes, never struck you as all that harmless.

So you don’t blame Suwabe for his reticence. You can’t. The smart, rational choice here is as cold and brutal as it is simple; you keep the door locked.

Yet your hand tightens around Natsuya’s, anchoring yourself in the touch as Ayumu’s eyes flit across yours, considering.

You won’t beg, you won’t, but–

“It’s your house,” he eventually says, more to Natusya than you. A shrugs then, sliding his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “There’s six of us, we’ve got guns if he tries anything.”

Something looses inside of you, a shuddering breath filling your lungs.

Natsuya doesn’t look particularly thrilled judging from the clenched muscle in his jaw, the crease between his brows. One glance at Tomori, though, her lovely face set is a mask of determination and that resolve of his weakens.

And shatters entirely.

“Fine. Fucking– fine. Let him in; 4869.”

He snatches the shotgun off the table as he says it, drawing you back into his side whilst Miyano – the closest to the door – punches in the code. Suwabe, meanwhile, disappears from the room, reappearing a moment later with a gun in hand.

Sliding himself into position between Tomori and the door, he cocks the slide with a grim expression. He locks eyes with you – only for a heartbeat – and you find yourself wanting to blurt out that the guns aren’t necessary, that Kakucho isn’t a threat.

You don’t, though, tongue leaden in your mouth, and he nudges her back as his attention shifts to the door.

In your ear, low enough that the others won’t hear, Natsuya murmurs, “You don’t leave my side, understand?”

You nod.

With a heavy clank, the shutters begin to lift.

Your fingers dance by your side, your insides in knots. Inch by inch it goes until finally, Miyano unlocks the door, pulls it open and Kakucho barrels in.

No one breathes. No one moves as he rights himself, bleeding, panting.

“Shut the fucking door,” he rasps, and like that, whatever spell everyone’s under is broken and both Suwabe and Miyano snap into action to close off the house once more.

And all the while you simply stare, blinking, unsure of what you’re supposed to say or do right now. Kakucho’s eyes shift around the room, slowly considering each of your friends, tasking them in one after the other, Suwabe’s gun, Natsuya’s, until at last, his eyes fall on you.

Recognition glints. Surprise. His head tilts, almost puppy-ish, brows drawing together. He murmurs your name in that deep, gravelly rumble, and Natsuya goes rigid.

It’s an instinctual response, you think, because a breath later his thumb rubs soothingly at your hip, slow and gentle, a quiet apology for brutish behaviour. Everyone’s on edge tonight.

And once again, it falls to Tomori to break the tension.

“Are you hurt? You look like hell.”

Kakucho doesn’t answer her immediately, his attention lingering on you for a heartbeat longer than necessary. Long enough that you have to fight the urge to fidget. Eventually, though, he grunts and shakes his head, turning his head to face her. “It’s nothing. I‘m fine.”

“You’re bleeding,” she presses, as gently as she can.

Dazedly, he lifts his hand to his face, fingers finding the gash on his cheek. They come away wet and shining, glistening with his own blood – he stares at it, almost confused. “It’s… nothing,” he repeats, slower this time.

Tomori rolls her eyes, huffs in a way that’s so similar to Natsuya that under other circumstances you might have laughed. “What is it with men and their bullshit need to act tough all the time?”

None of them, not even Miyano has anything to say to that, and despite the heavy tension still hanging in the air, a wry grin pulls at your lips.

It only lasts a moment.

“You guys have a first aid kit, yeah?” Ayumu asks, to which both Tomori and your boyfriend nod.

“In the kitchen, the shelf above the fridge.”

And like that, the boys begin to disperse. Ayumu to fetch the kit, Miyano water and alcohol. Suwabe sticks by Tomori’s side, and when she mentions something about towels for the blood, he follows her out into the hallway. You suspect it’s more to give you a moment with Kakucho – or to escape the thick, awkward atmosphere – but you’re grateful all the same.

With the others gone, Kakucho’s attention turns back to you. Says nothing as you approach, Natsuya trailing right behind you, watching the two of you carefully.

Tomori hadn’t been wrong. Tough act or not, he has to be in pain. Split lip, knuckles grazed and reddened. The gash on his cheek, and blood seeping from a cut on his brow. Mottled bruises darkening his skin. Even his gait is off, his left leg supporting the majority of his weight. You’ve never seen the aftermath of a beating like this before. They hadn’t even let you see your own brother after they’d found him.

It twists at something inside of you, sends a pang right through your heart. He has to be hurting, yet Kakucho wears the damage like it’s nothing.

There’s a strange urge – one you steadfastly ignore – to reach out and take his ruined cheek in hand. To see someone in pain, hiding it… you might not be friends exactly, but a lump forms in your throat, your chest tightening. You’ve never felt so uselessly inadequate.

You sigh, eyes searching his, “What happened to you?”

“Let him sit down first, babe,” your boyfriend mutters.

Kakucho regards him warily. He’s still holding the shotgun, admittedly by his side, his other hand moving to your shoulder.

A clear message, and you don’t know how you feel about that.

In any case, your cheeks warm, a sheepish laugh – one without much humour – leaving your lips. You’re doing this all wrong. Stupid, stupid. “Of course, it’s probably better if we do this at the table, right?” you ask no one in particular. “Can you walk over or do you need somebody to lean on?”

A faint frown mars his face, “I said I’m fine.” Again, there’s no heat in the statement, the words are dull, robotic almost.

The others are returning now, Ayumu blowing his blond locks away from his face as he sets the first aid kit down on the table and pops it open. Yet surprisingly it’s Suwabe who pipes up, “Stop being an asshole, she’s just trying to help.”

Well, maybe not that surprising.

You repress another sigh, shaking off Natsuya’s grip to go and help him, Ayumu clearly having the same thought, when the doorbell rings.

You freeze.

No one dares to breathe, each of you slowly turning to face the door, still locked behind those steel shutters.

The doorbell rings again, twice in quick succession.

You hear someone quietly whisper, “Fuck.”

Cold dread sluices through your system, every pound of your heart echoing in your ear as Natsuya chokes on his spit, glances to Miyano.

And all eyes shift to the security screen. Tomori’s closest this time, Suwabe’s quick to grab her, pull her back as he instead brings the feed to life. Another tap, and the exterior front door once again fills the screen.

Your heart, pounding so violently in your chest that it feels like you’re going to be sick, constricts.

A blond man with striking – deeply unsettling – violet eyes stands at the doorstep, smiling directly into the camera. He’s not much older than you, less than five or so years you’d guess, dressed in an elegant, brocaded red coat.

“I’m assuming I have your attention,” he begins. His voice is pleasant and smooth, it sends shivers down your spine, the warmth leaching from your blood.

He waits a beat, still smiling that chilling, awful smile. “Good. Excellent. As I have no intention of wasting my time on this precious Purge night, I’ll make this brief. Nice and simple for you; it’s come to my attention that you’re harbouring something that belongs to me.” You hear Tomori’s breath catch, and hers aren’t the only pair of eyes that shift to Kakucho. “The man – the dog – you’ve inexplicably given sanctuary to tonight is nothing but filth. A defiler. A killer. A menace to our just society, and like all dogs, he must be brought to heel.”

His teeth, straight and white, glint as his grin widens. You can’t breathe, Natsuya’s hand finding yours, tightening wordlessly. You can feel the tension shift in the room, the fear that descends like a blanket at his words. But you know Kakucho, he’s wouldn’t– he’s not–

“By offering him sanctuary, by standing between me and what is rightfully mine, you’ve aligned yourself with those to be Purged. So, again, I’ll make this clear. You may think that behind this security system of yours, you’re safe. That the locks on your doors and steel shutters will keep me out – that is a lie you’ve been sold. I am coming in, it might take five minutes, maybe twenty, but these defences will fall. And if the dog inside hasn’t ripped you all to pieces, rest assured that I will. I suggest you good folks run. Hide. You cannot keep me from what I want.”

Abruptly the screen goes black, and no less than a split second later, the power in the house cuts out, plunging you into an eerie green-lit dimness as the sole emergency light flickers on.

The sound of your shaking breath feels too loud in the dead stillness. You swallow, and slowly turn to face Kakucho.

A defiler and a killer, the smiling man had said.

Those things can’t be true, because the Kakucho you know…

He meets your stare. Cold and empty, and that racing, trembling heart of your sinks into the very pit of your stomach. “K-kakucho?”

Two guns lift, Natsuya yanking you back, and in the space of a breath, everything goes to hell. Ayumu’s closest, had gone over to help, and quicker than your eyes can follow, Kakucho lunges forward, a knife appearing in his hand.

One moment, your friend, with that quiet, dry humour and a heart of absolute gold, is standing, the next – Kakucho’s knife is at his throat, and he’s being yanked backwards. “Put the guns down,” he says.

Like his expression, his voice is cold and flat.

Neither Natsuya nor Suwabe make a move to lower their weapons, Suwabe teeth bared in a silent snarl.

“Just do what he says, for fuck’s sake!” Miyano hisses, and you’re not imagining the panic lacing his tone.

The corner of Kakucho’s lips curl, “However fast you think you can shoot, I can guarantee you it won’t be quick enough. Put them down. On the floor.”

“Kakucho, please…”

He doesn’t so much as spare you a glance. Natsuya’s hand tightens, a silent plea for you to keep quiet, and not draw his attention.

“Do what he says.” It’s Ayumu, his voice a hoarse whisper. Wide eyed, shaking, the knife at his throat pressed so tightly that the movement of his vocal chords causes skin to break, a thin line of blood beading across his neck. “Please.”

“I am not–”

“Do what he fucking says, Suwabe!”

A long silence settles, neither making a move, unwilling to give an inch despite their friend’s desperate plea. And perhaps the terror in the blond’s voice finally breaks through to them, or the cool, detached ruthlessness of Kakucho’s demeanour, but with a heavy reluctance, the two lower their weapons.

“On the floor,” Kakucho repeats, pressing the blade tighter against Ayumu’s throat. “I’m not asking.”

Suwabe snarls, dropping the pistol. A moment later Natsuya follows suit, the both of them glaring at the larger man.

Kakucho smirks. Glances at you.

A defiler, the smiling man had called him. A killer.

And too quickly for anyone to stop him, he yanks the knife across Ayumu’s throat and shoves him aside. There’s a ringing in your ears as Tomori screams, Suwabe falling to his knees, scrambling for his discarded gun. Too slow. Kakucho’s sprinting – unhindered by his supposed ‘injured’ foot – disappearing into the darkness of the house, and Ayumu’s bleeding out on the floor.

Gaping and gasping, twitching like a fish out of water.

You can’t move, can’t hear a thing but the pounding of your pulse in your ears as you stare into his eyes. There’s so much blood, more and more spraying with every dying beat of his heart, pooling beneath his body, splattering the walls, the furniture, everything. And you can’t move.

Ayumu, glasses knocked askew, pretty blond locks falling into his eyes, chokes and gurgles, a trembling, bloody hand stretching out for help – and you can’t do a thing.

No one can.

And just as Miyano jolts out of his stupor and lunges for him, Ayumu’s body falls slack.

The light in his eyes fading away into nothingness.

Dead.

Suwabe screams, fires two shots blindly down the hallway, howling in rage and agony. Natsuya grips you so tight that it cuts off your circulation, his own eyes wide and horrified, taking in the carnage before him. Tomori lets out a keening sob, and the shutters on the front door screech ominously, as if to remind you all that there are bigger problems at hand.

There’s no time for grief. There’s a killer in the house, another forcing his way inside. Five of you left, two guns, and another ten or so hours until all of this can be over.

And suddenly Natsuya’s in front of you, grabbing your face in both hands and forcing you to look at him. You blink dazedly, trying in vain to focus as he speaks to you.

“–bathroom, lock the fucking door and do not open it until I come back, you understand?”

You blink again, eyes sliding back at Ayumu. His eyes are open, gazing at nothing, empty, empty, empty–

Your fault.

He’d told them it was okay. They had guns so it’d be okay, but you were the one–

“Listen to me!” Natsuya hisses, yanking your attention back to him. “I need you safe, so take Tomori and lock yourself in the bathroom right now. You don’t open that door no matter what, not ‘til I come back and tell you it’s safe, do you understand me?”

You find yourself nodding, a short jerking movement.

It’s enough for Natsuya, who presses a quick, desperate kiss to the crown of your head and takes you to Tomori. She grips your hand tight and the two of you disappear into the bathroom, one last glance at the three of them, grim faced and vengeful, gathering their weapons under the green glow before the doors shut, and you click the lock into place.

The two of you sit in the darkness, Tomori’s arm around your shoulders, sniffling into your shoulder as you wait.

You hold her, a hand running up and down her spine, tears of your own spilling down your cheeks.

Your fault, your fault, your fault. All of this is your fault.

Tomori flinches with every noise, every muffled thump. There’s a deafening bang somewhere on the floor above you – a gunshot maybe, or something falling, it’s hard to tell.

Your fault. Your fault. Your fault.

“It’s okay,” you whisper, clutching her closer as she whimpers – the only reassurance you can bring yourself to give her. “It’s okay.”

How could this happen, you think numbly. For months now, you’ve sat next to a murderer, talked with him. Laughed with him.

You thought him a protector. A friend, even.

And you all but begged them to let him inside.

Ayumu’s blood’s on your hands. You might all die here tonight and it’s entirely your fault.

‘I know him,’ you’d told them. ‘I know him, and it’s okay.’

The look he’d given you, that smirk. Like he knew every thought that was running through your head. Like none of this was accidental, but the pieces of a puzzle falling slowly into place.

A defiler.

Bile creeps up your throat, and it occurs to you that death might not be the only thing waiting for you and Tomori if Kakucho finds you.

The tears fall quicker, and you close your eyes and bite down on your quivering bottom lip.

Locked away in the darkness, time crawls by. Minutes, maybe, or hours – there’s no way of knowing how much time has passed when you hear the tell tale sound of metal groaning, the splintering of wood. Tomori moans in despair, sobbing uncontrollably now as the front door gives way.

“It’s fine,” you soothe, “It’s okay.”

It’s a lie, because while the others – if they’re still alive (they have to be alive, they have to be) – are distracted with Kakucho, all that’s between you and the smiling intruder is a locked door.

Far less indestructible than the one he just broke through.

And soft as they may be, you hear the footsteps echoing off the wooden floorboards as the intruder leisurely makes his way down the hall. Closer and closer. Desperately, you try to quiet Tomori, but it makes no difference. He comes to a stop on the other side of the door.

Bringing a hand to your mouth, you bite down on the back of your palm in an effort to stifle your breathing. Tomori cringes.

When the door opens, you’ll attack, you decide. Go for the eyes, or knee him in the crotch – anything to give Mori a chance to run.

A heavy, pregnant pause, and then–

“I know you’re in there. Hiding away while your friends are getting hacked to pieces.” You can’t see it, but you know he’s smiling, grinning on the other side of the door. You can hear it in his voice. And you hate him, hate him even as paralysing fear claws its way through you, keeping you rooted in place. “That’s fine, I don’t mind. You can stay there for a little while longer, I still have one last thing to take care of, and then we can have some fun, no?”

He laughs then, light and boyish, as if this is nothing more than a game. To him, perhaps it isn’t.

“I’ll see you soon.”

In any case, his footsteps recede, and you’re left sitting in the darkness alone with your fear once more.

The thumping upstairs grows louder. There’s a crash and more yelling, a series of gunshots.

And then the screaming starts. Awful, bloodcurdling howls that have every hair on your body standing on end. Your stomach roils, what little you’d eaten earlier forcing its way back up your throat as you retch into the toilet, shaking and pale.

“We’re gonna die here, aren’t we?” Tomori whispers, and you can’t find the strength within yourself to try and convince her otherwise. If you survive this, those screams won’t ever leave you. You’ll wake in the middle of the night, gasping for air, unable to shake them.

“I don’t know.”

Silence, when it falls, feels like a death knell.

And then come the footsteps. You wait with bated breath, praying that it’s Natsuya. Miyano. Even Suwabe. Any of your friends.

A knock; the sound ricocheting through you. “Love, are you gonna open the door for me?”

Tomori wails like a banshee, broken and agonised, and you feel that little, tiny spark of hope you’d kept deep within your chest wink out.

“I’m sorry,” you tell her, kissing her hair as you hold her close. “I’m so sorry, Mori.”

And as the door shudders under the force of a kick, you hold her close and pray for a quick end. Another kick, and the wood splinters.

A third, and it breaks open entirely.

That eerie, green light floods the bathroom, the blond man stepping inside. He smiles at you, blood flecked across his face. The blood of your friends. Natsuya’s maybe.

“Ah, I thought there was one missing. She’s in here,” he calls out, glancing over his shoulder.

For a heartbeat, confusion flickers beneath the terror. Did he bring others with him? Maybe that’s how he broke in so quickly, maybe there’s a whole gang of them.

Your unspoken question, however, is answered when another figure steps into the bathroom behind him.

“She won’t be a problem.”

Your blood turns to ice.

Kakucho. Tall, broad and looming, he surveys the two of you with interest, his gaze lingering on you. “Are you gonna come quietly or am I gonna have to drag you out?” he asks, a single eyebrow raised.

To your credit, you try to stand. You might not be brave, but you’re not suicidal either. If there’s any chance that compliance gets you or Tomori out of here, even if these monsters killed Natsuya and the others, you’ll do what they ask.

Yet your legs are shaking so bad that you barely make it to your feet before they give out beneath you. Kakucho tuts, sighing heavily – and sweeps in to lift you up into his arms as if you weigh nothing at all, paying no mind to the way that you flinch and shudder.

The blond pads out behind you as Kakucho carries you back into the living room.

You’re half expecting to be shoved to your knees, the barrel of a gun pressed to the back of your head, but Kakucho sets you down gently on the couch, pats the top of your head twice before retreating back to the bathroom.

The blond stays behind, those violet eyes a sickly colour under the green glow fixated curiously on you. Your hands are shaking in your lap as he draws closer.

“I bought you something,” he says.

You frown, tongue darting out to wet your lips as you mumble, “W-what?”

From the pocket he pulls out a velvet box, pressing into your hands as he settles down beside you. “Open it.”

Swallowing tightly, you fumble with the lid for a moment – until he sighs and takes it back from you, popping it open and handing it right back to you.

And you don’t understand when you take it back, because nestled into the white pillow is a necklace with a pendant, a hanafuda design, matching the earrings dangling from his lobes.

“Well? Are you going to put it on?” he asks, just as Kakucho returns with a squirming Tomori. Yet rather than setting her down the couch as he had with you, he drops her carelessly onto the floor in a tangle of limbs and retreats again – this time back towards the stairs.

You start to rise with the intention of helping her, only to be stopped by an iron grip around your wrist. “If you get up from this couch, I’ll put a bullet through her brain right here and now, do you understand?”

He says it so mildly, the threat takes a second to register.

When it does, though, you nod shakily and fall back to your seat. He smiles again, a mirthful twinkle in his eyes. “Good girl.” He pats your knee, “Now, put it on for me.”

Casting a quick glance to Tomori, prone and near catatonic on the floor, you do as he bids, lifting the thing chain from the box. It’s long enough for you to slip it over your head without having to fiddle with the clasp – a good thing, seeing as your fine motor skills seem to have abandoned you in your terror. The pendant falls between your breasts, which the blond man takes a good, long moment to admire.

“Suits you,” is all he says as Kakucho returns once more.

And drops another body on the floor.

Your heart seizes in your chest as it moves. Groans and lifts his head, blinking to adjust to the dim light.

“Nats–” you cry, and forgetting the blond at your side you go to rise once more. This time he snarls, quiet and vicious, seizing your shoulder and forcing you back down.

“Don’t. Be. Rude.”

You draw in a shallow breath, hope and despair warring inside of you as you glance from Natsuya to Kakucho, who manhandles him onto his knees. His face is bruised and bloody, a dark, wet-looking patch you can only assume to be blood seeping from one of his thighs.

He’s alive, though. Put through the wringer but alive.

You almost sob.

Beside him, Tomori’s also being raised to her knees, the dead look in her eyes fading somewhat as she takes in the sight of her brother.

Your gut clenches.

Both of them are facing you, Kakucho looming threateningly behind them. Despite the momentary joy, this isn’t a happy reunion.

The blond at your side hums, leaning in close. With a delicate touch, he sweeps back a lock of hair, tucking it behind your ear. The hand on your knee drifts higher, grazing along the inside of your thigh.

“You get a choice, think of it as… a going away present,” he says. The warmth of his breath fans across your skin, his hand now slipping beneath your skirt. You shudder, trying to blink back the hot tears that well up in your eyes. You refuse to cry in front of him, you refuse to give him the satisfaction. Amusement and something like glee dances across his face, “One of them dies now; quick and relatively painless. The other…” his fingers brush the seat of your underwear, his tongue darting out to lick at the stray tear that slips from your lashes. His voice dips, “The other gets to watch while the three of us have our fun tonight.”

Natsuya snarls, only for Kakucho to kick him back to the ground and keep him there with a foot on his back.

“And a-afterwards?” you force the words out.

“Afterwards, Kakucho’s going to beat the other one to death with his bare fucking fists. I wasn’t lying when I told you he was violent,” his lips brush your cheek, featherlight and gentle, “I wasn’t lying about any of it.”

You look to Kakucho then, his eyes bearing down on you with a hunger he doesn’t bother to hide. An obsession.

All those nights, sitting on the train next to him. All the stupid, meaningless conversations you’d had, the night he’d damn near knocked the lights out of that creep. The way he’d begged on the doorstep, and the smirk when his ruse was discovered.

Lies, all of it lies.

You draw in a shaky breath and close your eyes, hands tightening into fists by your lap.

“So tell me, love,” he continues, fingers once again teasing at your panties. “Which one goes first?”

#yandere tokyo revengers #yandere izana #yandere izana x reader #yandere kakucho #yandere kakucho x reader #yandere kurokawa izana x reader #yandere kurokawa izana #tw: dubcon #tw: noncon #more implied than anything else but #to be on the safe side

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kitnjon · 7 months

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Jonsa Halloween 2023 - Day 05 - Free Choice

Edit for The Purge by @kit-kat21

“This is not a test. This is your Emergency Broadcast System. Announcing the commencement of the annual purge sanctioned by the U.S. Government. Weapons of class four and lower have been authorized for use during the purge. All other weapons are restricted. Government officials of ranking 10 have been granted immunity and shall not be harmed. Commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including murder, will be legal for 12 continuous hours. Police, fire and emergency medical services will be unavailable until tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. when the purge concludes. Blessed be our new founding fathers and America… A nation reborn. May God be with you all.”

...

“Please don’t leave me.”

The words fell from Sansa’s mouth because this man had come out here like so many others to exercise their right to purge but he had grabbed her and hid her from that truck of men instead of just letting God knows what happen to her and now, Sansa didn’t want to let this man out of her sight.

On this night, no one saved anyone but this man with the skeleton mask, guns and bulletproof vest had taken the time to save her.

#jonsa #jon x sansa #jon snow #sansa stark #jonsa halloween #jonsa halloween 2023 #edits:original #my post #kit_kat21 #another one of my fav jonsa horror fics #absolutely amazing #i have reread this one so many times #fic rec

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miistymemorii · 7 months

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I could not stop thinking about Lawrence going back for Adam so...

hey guys, I was really depressed last night and got really drunk and this is the result. I haven't sat down and written anything in A WHILE (and I wrote this at like 4 am) so please be gentle with any grammar mistakes lol. Thank you and enjoy xoxo

Lawrence Gordon’s body was on fire.

It had started in his leg, of course, the burning that comes when you tear away at your own flesh and bone with a rusty saw. That pain had been reduced to a nagging ebbing, however, the rest of his remaining limbs working in overdrive as he desperately dragged his body through the corridors of the hellscape he had been dragged into. Lawrence swore he could hear the blood rushing through his own veins, his head throbbing, adrenaline surging through his entire body. He could still hear the sound of Adam screaming, which only fueled his desire for escape. THe sounds, the rancid smells, the decrepit surroundings, everything equated to an environment that he wanted to get the Hell out of. His arms and remaining leg helped him scuttle along, and he tried to push any feelings of exhaustion to the back of his head. He had only one priority, based on a promise he was determined to keep.

“I will come back for you.”

Lawrence was far from an honest man, something he had been forced to come to terms with while he was in his game. He had lied to Allison, lied to Diana, lied to almost everyone in his life, but he wanted to be cleansed of his lies. He was determined to be a new man, a “reborn” man, one that kept his promises, especially to those he loved. He had wasted his life in a sea of insincerity and guilt, but he was damned if he was going to let a serial killer decide his fate. He knew he wasn’t a good man.

“I can do this one thing right”, he kept telling himself, clenching his jaw as he continued his aimless crawling. If he could do this one thing, keep his promise and save Adam, he could prove to himself that he had, as twisted as John Kramer’s methods were, learned something. It didn’t matter that he had met the man today, he had made a promise, and good men kept their promises.

The corridor was coming to an end, and Lawrence lifted his head up, squinting through the low lighting to see that there was a door at the end. His lungs felt like they would explode, his remaining limbs threatening to give out, but he let out a low groan before continuing on. The door was a gamble, because Lawrence knew exactly how much more travel his body could handle before it ultimately gave out, trapping him in this sick prison forever. His promise gave him strength, however, as he swung his arm up at the door, latching onto the handle with a tight fist and pulling himself up as much as he could, leaning his weight on the door and flinging it open. His body instantly fell back down, much to Lawrence’s dismay, but a familiar sound gave him instant relief.

When he stumbled through that door, his eyes had instinctively closed as he braced himself to lose his balance, so rather than seeing the outside, he heard it. He didn’t know where he was, but wherever it was, a large truck drove by, honking his horn. It didn’t matter if that truck driver didn’t see Lawrence, because when he opened his eyes and saw the night sky above him, he almost began to cry.

He was out.

Lawrence was desperately trying to catch his breath, but he knew time was of the essence. His eyes scanned the street, desperate for a passerby to make contact with. He could hear a sound in the distance, a rythmic thumping sound that he concluded was a jogger. He took a moment to really listen, coming to the conclusion that the sound was getting closer. As he laid there at the exit of the building, the pain in his leg began to come back, a nagging reminder that he was losing blood, but that wasn’t his priority. Lawrence cleared his throat, which was a painful act in itself, but when that jogger rounded the corner of the building across the street, officially in Lawrence’s view, he used the last of his strength to call out to them. Of course,a stranger writhing and calling out in the middle of the night was a terrifying concept, but he prayed that the bystander would take pity on him, or see his condition, and help him.

Lawrence Gordon was a lucky bastard.

The jogger was a kind woman named Sara, who assessed Lawrence’s decrepit state and saw that he meant no harm but was harmed, and quickly made her way over to him. He croaked out praises and thanks to her as she quickly dialed 911, hooking her arm under his shoulder to drag him away. Lawrence could feel reality slipping away at this point, his eyes growing tired as he staved off unconsciousness. The last thing he saw was police lights before he succumbed to the loss of blood, passing out in his stranger-savior’s arms.

Lawrence had been outside, but it had been dark, so when he woke up to bright lights, he was something beyond disoriented. His eyes opened, then immediately shut, a headache already beginning to settle in. He tried to focus on the sounds, and let out a small sigh when he heard the familiar sounds of the hospital. It took him a few moments, but he eventually managed to open his eyes and keep them open. Allison and Diana were at his side, and he burst into tears at the reminder that he was safe. Diana provided a warmer presence than Allison, but Lawrence understood, and was ready to beg for his wife’s forgiveness.

Diana called him a hero, which Lawrence questioned, causing Diana to point over to the bed next to Lawrence’s. In the bed lay Adam, his face pale and his body rigid, but Lawrence could tell from Adam’s vitals monitor that he was, in fact, alive. He had fulfilled his promise.

Eventually, Allison pulled Diana away, allowing for a quick goodbye before stating that she needed to be put to bed. Lawrence reached out for his wife, but she turned away from him, prompting him to think, “Fair”, as he had had plenty of time to reconsider his marriage and all the pain he had caused his wife while in the trap. He was alone in the room, well, with Adam, who had still been asleep after several hours. Doctors checked on Lawrence, and Adam, but it seemed that the younger man was knocked out. Lawrence couldn’t help but continuously glance over at him, afraid that if he stopped monitoring him, Adam wouldn’t even be in that bed next to him, the idea that his own rescue might be some sick nightmare plaguing Lawrence’s mind. Lawrence fell asleep, but only for a few hours before he was violently snapped back to reality after a nightmare in which he hadn’t escaped. In his nightmare, he was still wandering through endless halls, blood slowly leaving his body as Adam’s screams played over and over in his head.

Lawrence’s eyes snapped open, his chest heaving and his throat raw again from crying out in his sleep. His heart racing, he turned his head to Adam, who, to Lawrence’s surprise, was now awake. Adam’s face was visibly tired, but when he made eye contact with Lawrence, his face twitched into something close to a smile, the best he could give under the circumstances.

“You look like shit.”

Lawrence let out a small laugh, something that he thought he could never do again. “I was about to say the same thing about you,” Lawrence shot back hoarsely.

Adam looked away, scanning as much as the hallway as he could see through the room’s windows. “How much do you wanna bet I could get a nurse to bum me a smoke?” It was a joke, but Lawrence could tell by how quiet Adam’s usually boisterous voice was that it was a half-assed attempt at denying the severity of the situation they were in.

“Well, as someone who works in a hospital, I can safely say that most nurses don’t encourage smoking.” Lawrence pointed out. There was an odd sense of pain settling in his chest, a bit hurt that Adam wouldn’t look him in the eyes.

Adam sighed, turning his head only slightly in Lawrence’s direction. His eyes were darting around the room, fixating on random items. Lawrence remembered this behavior from when they were stuck in the bathroom, coming to the conclusion that Adam was still in a state of nervousness. Lawrence felt another pang of pain in his chest; did Adam still not trust him?

“How did you get out?”

Lawrence sighed. “I crawled like Hell until I found a door. There was a jogger and she called the cops, that’s all I remember.”

Adam was quiet for a moment, before he finally turned his head to look at Lawrence. The two held a gaze for a moment, before Adam let out an almost silent, “thank you”. When Lawrence smiled at him and opened his mouth to speak, Adam looked away once again, causing Lawrence’s thoughts, and heartbeat, to falter. The two men let a silence hang over them, the events of the past few hours really starting to settle in.

“I don’t want us to forget each other.” Adam said quietly, his eyes still refusing to meet Lawrence’s.

Of course, Lawrence didn’t want that either. He understood that people who share traumatic events often find solace in each other, and thought he had Allison and Diana, who had both gone through a traumatic experience that night, he knew that the bond he and Adam now shared was special. Lawrence knew there was something about Adam that had struck Lawrence so deeply that it had fueled him to survive, for once, for someone besides himself.

Lawrence cleared his throat before replying, “I don’t think I will ever forget you, Adam.”

Adam turned his gaze back to Lawrence, cracking a small smile. “Do ya promise?”

Again, Lawrence let out a small laugh, a feeling close to joy filling him that only Adam could provide in this situation, because for the rest of his life, he knew that Adam would be the only person to understand the pain he was feeling.

“I promise.”

#saw franchise #saw 2004 #saw movies #saw #lawrence gordon #dr lawrence gordon #adam faulkner stanheight #adam stanheight #fanfiction #one-shot #ficlet #angst #chainshipping

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justacynicalromantic · 9 months

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So, I am new to The Sandman fandom but I already see I am not the only one to think about the idea of Hob being the personification of Hope.

This was literally the first theory that popped inside my mind after I had finished watching the season, before I even opened any fandom platform lol. Either it's a very obvious logic leap to make, or we all share one single brain cell, despite living half a world apart and not knowing each other😂

But I haven't seen anyone actually connecting it to the Pandora's Box myth.

For those who do not know, the myth tells about the creation of humankind - that men were modelled from clay by Prometheus (which angered Zeus), then Prometheus gave them fire (which was the final nail in the coffin and Zeus decided to exact punishment), Zeus created the first woman Pandora, gave her a jar/box containing all bad things - suffering, illness, pain, sorrow, etc. - thus when she opened it, she ended the Paradise on Earth. But Zeus didn't know that Prometheus also snuck Hope (who Greeks called Elpis - she was depicted as a young woman usually carrying cornucopia flowers) into the box. When Pandora opened the box and released trouble and woe into the world, hope was there to help people survive.

Hesiod (the storyteller of the myth) does not say why Hope (Elpis) remained in the jar. The implications of Elpis remaining in the jar were the subject of intense debate even in antiquity.

Now, consider this: Dream and Hope actually knowing each other from before humankind on Earth, being dual aspects of each other - in Hades/Persephone fashion - they fell in love and Dream courted Hope; when Pandora's story happens and Prometheus comes for Hope's help (or Hope overhears Zeus' plans and comes to Prometheus proposing the plan herself), Dream is away for work/some other businesses somewhere. The events happen without Dream's knowing.

In the end we know Zeus exacts his revenge on Prometheus by binding him to a rock and having an eagle feed on him, but what if Zeus also decided to punish Hope? I know he would be a tier below Hope, because he was just a god, while Hope - a personified concept like Dream, but he could have done it sneakily, capturing her with magic, like it happened to Dream much later. What if Zeus, seeing the effect Hope had on humans thought it was useful and decided to kill two birds with one stone?

So he bound Hope to a human form - so Hope is always there for humans in their world, but also as her punishment, she is diminished to a mortal body, her human mind no longer able to contain her memories of her existence as a spirit/concept, bound to live a human lifespan, die, then be reborn again into a new human.

Dream returns and Hope is nowhere to be found, no one knows anything (no one was there when Zeus captured Hope), centuries pass of fruitless searching but humans are able to hope - and that must mean she is there somewhere and she is fine, so in the end Dream has no choice but to conclude that she decided to leave him and now hides from him out of her own volition.

And so, humans get hope, but Dream loses Hope.

All until many millenia later by pure coincidence he strikes a deal with a human called Hob Gadling - who has no idea he is the current reincarnation of Hope.

(I can't get rid of the mental image: after the struggles are over and Hob/Hope remembers everything, he pops up, feeling nervous and guilty and sorry, into the Dreaming, and Dream greets him with "You are late" said with a trembling smile).

#the sandman #dreamling #Dream being the cranky depressed sad bastard because of the work burnout is so relatable #basically having to juggle both Dreaming and Hoping lol #cause dreams and hopes are so entwined and he was supposed to have a partner doing all the work #because dreams enable hopes and how can dreams exist without hopes?

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feudalismoffire · 7 months

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Hello folks, after way too long, I finally done it, I concluded the main cast of characters of Continent of Wrath, so at least the thought as "povs of a first arc" kind of stuff, and now, a little introduction about them in order:

Augor and Shtraza:

"You know, I wasn't going to write this thing, but Elya kept insisting, as if someone would read this... But... ... Look, me and Shtraza, its a harsh story, life in the rainforest is tough, especially when you don't know your mother and your father sold you for a few cocoa beans to buy some poisoned alcohol he loved so much, more than his youngling. He can die, as far as we care, from his own poison.

--------- What Augor is trying to say is, yes, we are prickies, yes, we will spit acid on your face at night. But if you are nice enough with us... We... ... We will consider not, you know, we have no love for anyone but ourselves, but we aren't turning our backs to you either. Yes, I agree with her."

Elya:

"Hello, you from maybe beyond this time, I am Elya, and honestly, I have the least purpose of all of us here. My parents were all killed in the battle in my hometown, even my sister, and my brother, I don't know, but I don't expect anything else. I have nothing, I wondered through the desert to this foreigner land, only the shining stars and Rarnara, my goddess, to guide me. I have no idea what is my purpose, but I think I found... Those who I may call family again...

What do we have to lose? We all had nothing good going on before, and if we succeed? What else is there for us? Will we split? Going back to our miserable lives? I mean, Larkhau may return, her tradition has an end goal after all, she I will understand. But for the rest of us? The dangerous rainforest? A monstrous parent? A life without goals under the sea? We are in this together, and if we die, I hope so its also together, we stand for each other, despite our races and different beliefs, this is what I hope."

Lorsan:

"Hello, I am Lorsan and... From all of us, I believe I had the most shame to bare. We red dragons believe we own the world, everyone is to serve us, those who don't want are to be smashed and killed without mercy. So this was the way of Tsshar, the god of red dragons, of the fire that nurtures as our very souls, so this was the way of Isshtar, the all-mother. I renouce it, I renouce everything I ever believed in. All our beliefs are... To destroy, to kill, to purge the land from life, to watch it reborn, to do it again, destroyed with our cleanensing fire...

My mother is a monster, I was afraid of her, but I couldn't ever be ready to face such tremendous evil. The burning of innocents is such a thing I will forever give away my right to do so. She made me what I was, but I am not ashamed of what I can be, there still is hope. I learned that all races are alive, they have their own lives, hopes, dreams. My caretaker was a kobold, and she was more motherly to me than my own mom, they are brutalized under the shadow of our wings, and yet now we are fighting shadows themselves. Are we any different? I wonder...

Regardless, I now pray to Tiamat. The mother of all gods, symbol of draconic unity that has now been so long lost. I am not afraid, Tiamat died by the greed of her children, ever so ambitious, as the tales say. A family destroyed by it and now I feel like this is my own tale too, my father is gone and my mother is a monster, but while Tiamat was betrayed by her own offspring, they thousands of years later are my allies, my friends, the only dragons I can call even remotely my family, I won't betray them and I am sure they won't betray me, we can be different, we can do better, this tale does not have to end as it once did."

Ebu:

"Ebu knows you read, future you. He does believe in his friends. Ebu once was saved by Elya and Lorsan, when no one would do it. Evil red dragoness killed his family, not the same one as Lorsan's mother, though. Ebu is forever grateful to them, he swears to defend them against no matter who.

Ebu admits, he is afraid, very afraid. But at side of his friends, Ebu has the courage of a thousand dragons, he will not faulter when his friends ask for help.

Ebu even calls them family, he does believe in them."

Larkhau:

"I am Larkhau, faithful of Aurorvotha, goddess of all white dragons, the all-mother. I am the oldest of this group of misfits, yet I was bestowed the privilege of assisting them in their journey. No, my markings aren't natural, I painted myself with lapis lazuli, a tradition to grant knowledge and blessings upon us, tradition told to have been granted by priestess Aurorva herself, thousands of years ago.

Naturally, the goal was to wash them away in the freezing waters of the North, but I felt a presence, a high calling from my goddess. She is a stern mother, never gives answers to her children, but grant them the might to find it on their own. She knows a greater threat is upon all of us, all of us... No one is safe should the shadows win against the red dragons, old enemies of my kind, now, I find myself living amidst one of them and a yellow dragon, but this is the wishes of all-mother, and I faithfully comply."

Khashila:

"Hello there, whoever is reading this. I am Khashila, a green dragon. Despite animosities between my race and the black dragons, me and them aren't so different right now. I grew without my parents, left to strive on my own in the toughest and most unforgiving places of the world. You would think you need a cold and brute to survive this, but not really, you need a thinking mind and the blessing of the mother of the forest, of course, Rylatyma, she is ruthless, but never unfair, so I admit I don't like to brag, but I think there's something stored for me and all-mother never disappoints!

Many wonder how I keep myself in such harsh environment, well, the forest is... Kinda my family, you know, its animals, its threats, its like a red dragon family reunion when you think about it, it hardly goes well, but we all know it always happens and everyone never misses it.

But those guys... They are different... I had no sibling who survived to call mine, but even behind all my toughness, I don't miss the opportunity to be friendly to them, such company does not come to be so often in the rainforest, so, this was my chance, I know we don't know each other very well, but I do say so, I am ready to defend them with my own life. What is the worst it could happen? I die and my body returns to the all-mother, just how every green dragon's does."

Lankun:

"Hello there, mysterious creature from the beyond Elya thinks its going to read this! I am Lankun, a blue dragon, I was not into this above water stuff, I preferred to hunt in peace with my folks underwater, salmon is my favorite, by the way. But well, the shadows, they are out there and they are spooky, we got to defeat them and I am all for that, who doesn't love a good fight? My lightning powers will toast those monsters to smoke, as if they weren't enough already!

But yeah, about me, I was alone in the sea, well, not REALLY alone, don't know my parents, they just lay our eggs in the beach and depart, from there its mostly with ourselves, I had my folks in our little flight, good dragons, an elder usually was with us, teaching about the knowledge and all this stuff Larkhau is more interested than me to be honest. I was just a common dragon, living my life in the sea, in pursuit of some salmon... Well, may Ersaythya bless us all!"

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wheredidhiseyebrowsgo · 2 years

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hi! do you know of any sterek fics that are set in the purge? like they meet during a purge night and have to survive together or anything like it. thank you! ❤️

I do!

Let It Hurt (Till Morning Comes) by FakeLiar

(2/? I 2,696 I Teen)

It is the day of the Purge and Derek is out to get the woman who murdered his family with Peter at his side. Along the way he stumbles upon an armed group kidnapping a boy for a rich family purge. He saves him and Stiles decides to help Derek get his killer although he doesn’t think Derek should kill her.

They adopt a few other teenagers along the way and only time tells who survives.

Just remember all the good the Purge does by Sterek_halinski

(5/? I 4,843 I Teen)

"This is not a test, this is your Emergency Broadcast System. Announcing the commencement of the annual purge sanctioned by the U.S. Government.

Weapons of class four and lower have been authorized for use during the purge. All other weapons are restricted.

Government officials of ranking 10 have been granted immunity and shall not be harmed.

Commencing at the siren, any and all crime (including murder) will be legal for 12 continuous hours.

Police, fire, and Emergency Medical services will be unavailable until tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. When the purge concludes.

Blessed be our new founding fathers and America... A nation reborn.

May God be with you all."

"Oh jeez here we go." Peter spoke.

Release the Hounds by A_Graph_You_Look_At

(3/? I 6,025 I Teen)

Derek doesn’t care why Peter killed Laura. All that matters is that his uncle does not survive this year’s Purge. - Because Stiles hates the Purge. He hates what it does to people. He hates what it could do to his dad or Scott or Melissa for that matter. But there is one thing about the Purge that Stiles is thankful for. He’s thankful that his mom never lived to see it. - One wants revenge, the other to simply survive. Either way, the only certainty on Purge Night? Not everyone survives.

Hunters in the Purge by Akinasky

(1/1 I 9,870 I Mature)

Stiles is just trying to make it through another Purge Night when his boyfriend Derek calls and says that the woman who killed his family has found him. Stiles is going to do anything to keep Derek alive on the most dangerous night of the year.

Cicatrix by Formaldehyde_Eyes

(3/3 I 11,590 I Mature)

Stiles turned the radio up as the song began, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel of his beloved Jeep. Driving along the familiar expanse of road towards his hometown of Beacon Hills - still about 6 miles away - he felt himself relax into his seat and enjoy the last stretch of his drive. He rarely came home during the college semesters but with the Purge landing on a weekend this year, Stiles decided he would give into the part of him which always worried about his father during this time of year in particular and head home for a couple days. With John Stilinski being Sheriff, he was a main target for some people on this night, which only caused Stiles more anxiety than usual.

This is a story based on the same principles as The Purge movies, where for 12 hours it is legal to commit any crime (including murder) without being persecuted.

#teen wolf #sterek #stiles stilinski #derek hale #bamf!stiles #anon

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butterflydm · 2 years

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wot reread: winter’s heart (chap 28 - end)

Spoilers for Winter’s Heart, with a section at the end with spoilers through A Memory of Light, separated out with spoilers space

Current book ranking (strongest to weakest): The Fires of Heaven; Lord of Chaos; The Shadow Rising; The Dragon Reborn; The Path of Daggers; Winter’s Heart (standalone); A Crown of Swords; The Great Hunt; the Eye of the World; Winter’s Heart (series).

Why is Winter’s Heart in two places? ‘standalone’ WH means if I’m taking the book as it is, without using my memory of the future books to ‘cheat’ on my feelings about it, if I’m assuming that the stories set up in it lead to payoff, essentially. And ‘series’ WH is how I feel about it in light of my reread, taking into account what I know about how the storylines set up here will play out in the future. It’s really the only book so far where knowing the endgame retroactively makes the book worse which is... a thing that happened.

My memory of WH was much better than my actual experience of rereading it. The main things I remembered from WH were the four-way bonding & Elayne and Rand finally reuniting, and then Rand and Nynaeve cleansing saidin. And, well, those are still things about it that I enjoyed? Much like ACoS, Winter’s Heart is an erratic book for me -- what I enjoyed, I did like a lot, but what I hated, I... well, despised.

And there was more of the dislike than the like, in this one for me. Hated Mat’s plotline (with a couple of standout moments that were good); hated Perrin’s plotline; found most of Rand’s plotline unlikeable until the very end when we actually do the cleansing (with a brief-stopover for him finally!! seeing Elayne and Aviendha again). Elayne was basically holding this entire book up for me by herself, lol, and even her plotline had some iffy parts. Kinda ominous, because I remember CoT and KoD being worse/slower than WH. But we shall see! idk if we’re ever gonna get anywhere near the peak of TFoH-LoC-TSR again tho. But a key element of why Winter’s Heart is tainted for me in my reread is pretty spoilery, so I’m going to plop it at the bottom, marked off with spoiler space.

1. In what appears to be a helpful ta’veren coincidence, the day after Mat makes all those promises to the Aes Sedai to help them escape. Tylin announces that she’s going on a week-long tour of “what I now control of Altara” with Suroth via to’raken. It is not a helpful ta’veren coincidence.

2. Instead, we are going to spend three chapters on a plan that fails so that Mat will still be in the city to say goodbye to Tylin when he finally leaves. What’s the point of having Tylin leave if Mat’s plans get delayed long enough for her to be back anyway? We might as well have started with the fourth of these chapters, when he actually starts his ‘for real’ escape plan. Things that matter in these three mostly wasted chapters (which should have been condensed into one much shorter chapter):

Mat carefully watches Ryma Galfrey, one of the women who was captured in Falme, and reluctantly concludes that she’s been so deeply broken that she would call for help if he tried to add her to the rescue plan. She laughs and claps her hands when praised by her sul’dam.

Mat tries not to be tormented by the thought of all the enslaved Atha’an Miere that he doesn’t have the power to save.

We get more Hints that Noal is important.

The gholam is still around in the city.

Tuon’s stalking of Mat creeps him out and he wishes she’d gone with Suroth and Tylin.

I think this is the first time the narrative actually mentions that a ‘week’ is ten days.

This is the first time we learn the goddawful nickname that he’s being called by the Seanchan in the palace: Tylin’s Toy. They consider him ‘half-way’ to being da’covale. And Mat is terrified that by the time Tylin gets back from her tour, she might be Seanchan enough to shave the sides of her head and genuinely make him da’covale or sell him to Tuon.

Mat is very aware of the ugly realities of life under Seanchan rule here -- how harsh they are on people who step out of line, how badly they break their slaves, how dangerous it is to speak out against them, how easy it is to be condemned to lifelong slavery.

Setelle Anan confirms her strong anti-slavery stance and says she can see the Seanchan for what they really are (and disapproves).

After his one plans fails, Domon catches up with him and they have the New Plan ready to be planned.

Mat finds out about the existence of the black a’dam that can be used on men and that it was last in Egeanin and Domon’s possession. “Light, if the Black Ajah had gotten that on Rand’s neck, or the Seanchan had...” Honestly it would have been neat to tie Mat into Rand’s plot here by having THIS be the reason Mat was trapped in Ebou Dar and not the pointless wife prophecy. But Rand is only allowed to hang out with Min (even after Nynaeve joins Rand’s plotline, it seems like they barely spend any time together?) so we all know why THAT doesn’t happen.

3. Okay, we are finally pulling the trigger on the escape. Once they are up in the ‘kennels’ to free Teslyn and Edesina, Mat goes and has one of his best scenes in the entire damn series: freeing one of the captive Windfinders before he makes his own escape. This short scene is genuinely so good and so emotional and such a showcase of what makes books 1-9 Mat such a good person & a good character. Nestelle calls Mat a “great and good” man here and it is such a true statement about books 1-9 Mat. He is both good and great here. Like, Mat’s storylines have unfortunately been such a depressing drag through this book and the last one that he was in, where he has been the person who has been faced not just with trauma but trauma that both other characters and the narrative itself has LAUGHED at. Like, Rand faces trauma too but the narrative always takes his trauma seriously. Mat’s trauma has straight-up been mocked in the books and undermined in ways that have been frustrating as hell to read. But Mat himself -- at this point, as of book 9 -- he’s a good person. He’s a genuinely good person. He certainly has his flaws, but he’s a good person here. As of book 9, Winter’s Heart. And he deflects the praise, of course, because that’s what he does, telling her that he’s ‘just a gambler’. THIS MAT. I love this Mat so much. When I think of Mat and I talk about how much I love him, I’m thinking of books 1-9 Mat. That’s my Mat Cauthon. “If he was going to do this, then he might as well make sure it was done right.”

4. For some godforsaken reason, Jordan forces us through another goodbye between Tylin and Mat. He pulls the exact same trick that he did in ACoS -- throughout the entire book, it has been obvious how generally miserable Mat has been in Tylin’s company but now, when it is time for them to part, all of a sudden Mat ~likes her and is genuinely going to ~miss her. Like I think I mentioned last time, this especially sucks because people tend to remember the ‘final note’ that a storyline ends on the best, so when casual readers (like Sanderson was for Mat’s plotline imo) think back on Mat & Tylin’s ‘relationship’, the ‘final note’ is Mat genuinely thinking he’ll miss her and Tylin suddenly being willing to let him go, and not all the horror that came before it and all the times she forced him to stay in Ebou Dar.

5. Tuon sees Mat leaving and immediately tries to establish ownership over him -- she uses “Toy” instead of his real name (a slavers’ trick to break people that the Seanchan commonly use on damane) and tells him that she cannot ‘allow’ him to leave. They fight as she tries to stop him from leaving, and Noal eventually shows up, and they can overpower her two-on-one. Tuon likes learning that he’s capable of holding his own against her (physically). Mat’s plan is to leave Tuon in the stables on their way out. He knows she’ll be found in the morning, so there’s no actual danger to her life in doing this.

6. Then Egeanin shows up and we have the big prophecy reveal scene (for Mat, anyway. It was revealed for readers in Tuon’s intro chapter) as she blurts out that it’s a “death by slow torture” to lay hands on the Daughter of the Nine Moons. So, yeah, this scene really points out what an incredibly silly theater of virtue that Tuon was putting on when she donned the veil -- EVERY SEANCHAN KNOWS WHO SHE REALLY IS (Egeanin is a literal brand-new Low Blood nobody and she recognizes Tuon on sight). They’ve all just been playacting that they don’t in order to assuage Tuon’s wounded ego/pride. But the second there’s actual danger to Tuon, Egeanin abandons the show without a second thought and calls Tuon by her proper non-veiled title. Mat says that Tuon is his wife three times and impulsively decides to take her and her slave Selucia along on their escape, without there being any actual reason given in the text for his change of heart about not wanting to be anywhere near the DotNM and despite him being creeped out by her reaction to saying they would take her (and her slave) along. Honestly, if I said “I’m taking this woman with me” and then she smiled in a way that creeped me out, she would be going straight into the hayloft. No one has time for that kind of drama in their lives.

7. Well. That’s Mat’s plot done for this book. My reread really pointed out to me how ridiculous the plot contrivances are to keep Mat stuck in this plotline. The amount of character and plot-warping that needs to be done in order to keep Mat trapped in Ebou Dar and hook up with Tuon is honestly so rickety and unbelievable once a closer look is taken at it:

First of all, we set the scene with Tylin’s obsession with Mat. The only reason that Mat is trapped in Ebou Dar after the invasion is because of Tylin’s obsession and her unwillingness to let him go.

Olver abandons the ~bosomy lady that he’s been obsessed with in order to wander the city so that Mat needs to be stuck there long enough for the Seanchan to invade.

a building falls on Mat, so that he’s injured badly enough that he’s trapped in the city for almost a month before he can be healed enough to begin planning his escape from Tylin’s clutches, thus making Tuon show up before he’s well enough to get away from his abuser

despite how he has always wanted to run away from tDotNM; he impulsively takes her along when he finds out who she is. It’s literally just reversing his characterization without giving an in-text reason.

It’s also an illustration of the same terrible Fate Says So relationship decision-making that drove Min to turn herself into a new person in order to make a guy she barely knew fall in love with her. Why does Min want Rand to love her? Because her viewing said that she would love him. Why does Min love Rand? Because her viewing said that she would love him. Why does Mat take Tuon with him? Because a prophecy said he would marry her. If Mat had never heard the prophecy, he never would have kept Tuon with him (making a marriage difficult) which makes it less a prophecy and more of the Aelfinn deliberarately creating their own version of the future. A self-fulfilling prophecy, yes, but also something that literally could not have happened without the existence of the prophecy. Seriously, if Mat hadn’t heard the prophecy, then he would just have left Tuon (& her slave) tied up in a hayloft and never seen her again.

when Rand assumes Mat is with the Band of the Red Hand & Egwene, Nynaeve doesn’t correct him and Rand drops the subject (BOTH things that go against their previous characterization)

When Rand brings it up a second time, in front of Elayne, Nynaeve, Lan, and Aviendha, all of whom know that Mat is NOT with Egwene, none of them correct Rand’s assumption.

Nynaeve not only says nothing in this scene (and it is even implied that she’s withholding the information on purpose???), but will continue to say nothing about it in all the scenes she shares with Rand in the future. She doesn’t tell him in Far Madding. She doesn’t tell him before, during, or after the cleansing. She persistently doesn’t tell him that his best friend is potentially in extreme danger. We don’t get a reason for this when we are in her PoV chapters. We never find out why she wanted to withhold this information from Rand (because the only reason is Mat Needs To Be In Ebou Dar For The Plot).

Elayne, who feels responsible for Mat as one of her ‘subjects’, doesn’t mention him to Rand at all during their time together either, despite a devotion to duty and responsibility being two of her primary traits. She has explicitly said to Mat that she wanted the opportunity to ‘save him’ in exchange for him saving her and said at the start of this book that she prays daily for Mat’s safety, but when there’s an opportunity to make that happen, she fails to do it. Her ‘reason’ for not doing it is because she wants Egwene to do it instead, despite there being absolutely no reason for her to believe that Rand and Egwene are talking any time soon and despite ‘shirking responsibility’ definitely NOT being a character trait of hers. She even notes ‘if’ they can talk, Egwene will tell him but, like, you could tell him! Right now!

Aviendha says nothing, despite being the first person in Ebou Dar to respect Mat as a person (saying they should ask him to help them find the Bowl).

Lan says nothing, despite the fact that he’s been willing to speak out before when Nynaeve didn’t want him to, when he told Mat that Moghedien killed two of his men.

Egwene has been having prophetic dreams of Mat in pain, such that she feels “agonies of grief” over sending him to Ebou Dar and is fully aware that he was “left behind” during the Seanchan invasion... and yet does absolutely nothing about this information, despite being able to contact the Wise Ones and also literally having Mat’s army following hers. She could have used either of those avenues to potentially get a rescue launched for Mat with absolutely zero risk to herself. Talmanes has to hunt her down to get her to (reluctantly) confirm that Mat is in Ebou Dar, though they’ve been feeling a tug in that direction for weeks. And even at that point, she tries to argue him out of going south!

If the Band had left when they first felt the tug, they would have possibly arrived in time to help him, at least maybe before the Return arrived. This is the most excusable though, because they’ve never felt a ta’veren tug before.

Overall, if you have to break the story and characters this badly in order to make a plot point work, maybe it’s a bad plot point. There��s ta’veren and then there’s... whatever all this was. Rand, Nynaeve, Elayne, Aviendha, Lan, Egwene, and Mat himself all get warped as characters to create this narrative. I mean, Mat’s character is going to continue to warp in unrecognizable ways as we move forward, so I guess we gotta get used to it here.

8. Ugh, no, we’re back in Far Madding. Rand’s side-quest might be the shortest out of the three ta’veren boys but wow do I find it irritating. I just want to get to the cleansing already. We spend three more chapters in Far Madding here and none of them serve any purpose going forward, because Rand has ALREADY suffered this same kind of trauma and Cadsuane ALREADY saved him and this is all just very repetitive. Should be snipped out entirely. Points of importance or frustration in chapter 32:

It’s been a week. Nynaeve still hasn’t told Rand about Mat being left behind in Ebou Dar.

Lews Therin implies that Rand is actually delaying doing the cleansing on purpose, because he’s worried about going mad while using the Choedan Kal. First time this has been mentioned or hinted at.

Verin tells Rand that the Seanchan forces have crossed the border into Illian again (I suspect this is her way of trying to goose him into action and get him to leave Far Madding; Verin MVP).

Rand grits his teeth and prepares to grovel to Cadsuane because of Min’s viewing that he needs her.

See, I would like to tell Rand that he’s wrong to feel suspicious of Nynaeve but! she is deliberately keeping a huge secret from him about his best friend being in genuine danger of his life! really hate this choice on Jordan’s part to ruin all these characters in his need to Keep Mat In Ebou Dar

Lan also hasn’t told Rand anything about Mat being left behind in Ebou Dar. So it’s not just Nynaeve letting Rand down here. Lan’s characterization also got butchered on the altar of Mat’s Plot Is In Ebou Dar. We also find out that Nynaeve does forbid Lan to tell Rand things. *sigh*

Min continues to blame Rand for her own choices and continues to attempt to control his choices and actions (she attempts to burn a letter that was sent to him).

9. Points of importance or frustration in chapter 33:

Min continues to play with knives around Rand to show her displeasure and I continue to have Tylin flashbacks. She literally throws a knife into the door in front of his face. He doesn’t flinch but he also has a death wish so I’m not even sure if that’s about him trusting her. Then she threatens to beat him with a three-tailed strap/whip, which is apparently something that comes standard in every guest room in the inns in Far Madding, because Jordan has decided that all the new cities are Abusive Wife Cities. Women are encourage to beat men here if they like, just as they’re encouraged to hit or stab men in Ebou Dar if they like. Rand probably would have let her beat him, just like he let the Maidens beat him, and then gone and done what he wanted to do anyway.

Rand’s hair is nearly shoulder-length, Min confirms.

Lews Therin liked buying meat pies in the country when he was young.

Fain is still trying to kill Rand. But neither of them kill the other and we’ve had several of Fain’s attempts on Rand’s life at this point and I’m Tired.

Lan’s BOOTS slip on the ROOF. and that’s how they get caught. WHAT. He is a WARDER. I feel insulted on his behalf.

10. Points of importance or frustration in chapter 34:

We finally get another Nynaeve PoV! ...she does not think of Mat a single time, so we still have zero insight as to why she is withholding the information about his location from Rand.

Rand ‘re-hardens’ himself in the small cell that Far Madding has put him in; completely unnecessary. He was already hardened.

Min’s loose lips apparently struck again off-page -- she’s told Cadsuane about her bond with Rand and is currently babbling about the state of his mind to Cadsuane, a woman that Rand still doesn’t trust. “Along only because she was a link to the boy”; Min’s new purpose in life is to be Cadsuane’s compass and connection to Rand I guess, now that Alanna is Off On A Mission.

11. Chapter 35, we are finally leaving Far Madding behind, hopefully forever! We were there for much less time than we’ve been in Ebou Dar, but wow I’ve hated our time there! Anyway, Rand says he’s grateful to Far Madding for reminding him that he needs to be super-duper hard at all times. A rock-solid boy. A boulder. And yet still ‘too weak’ to send Min to safety, despite there legit being no reason for her to be at the cleansing (except for Cadsuane to take advantage of her inability to keep her mouth shut, I guess) and everyone else in his life being someone he “loves too much” to put them in danger if he can avoid it. The Min Double-Standard makes no sense! She really does get treated like a plot device and not a character. If Rand’s characterization were being consistent, he would have left her in Caemlyn back in chapter 12, like he left Elayne and Aviendha. Like, I don’t think he should be avoiding ANY of them, I want to make that clear, but avoiding only TWO of them is Just Weird. This is part of why it feels like the whole Far Madding detour was pointless -- nothing in Rand’s character or choices seems to actually change as a result of his ‘re-hardening’.

12. Rand tells the rest of his companions here that he plans to cleanse saidin using the Choedan Kal, linking with Nynaeve (the only Aes Sedai he trusts to link with, he thinks, because Elayne doesn’t exist anymore, I guess. Like, I love that Rand trusts Nynaeve? But he’s BONDED to Elayne yet not willing to trust her? wtf). They go to Shadar Logoth for the actual work itself. The Aes Sedai with Cadsuane are nervous about the potential consequences but Cadsuane herself doesn’t argue against the idea.

13. Yeah, when I thought about Winter’s Heart in the past, the bits that I really remembered were the bonding near the beginning, along with Elayne and Rand (finally!) getting to sleep together, and then the cleansing itself at the end. I didn’t even remember Rand’s sideplot about the traitor Asha’man until he was attacked at the end of TPoD. The other thing I remembered about Winter’s Heart was Tuon’s arrival, which I felt a lot more mixed about. She’s a potentially interesting character on her own, but desperately needs character development in the upcoming books to be a worthwhile time investment.

14. So now when Rand experiences the dizziness that happens when he releases or takes hold of saidin, he sees the blurry vision of a man’s face.

15. Rand and Nynaeve link, so she experiences saidin (and the taint?) and he experiences clean saidar. Rand weaves a conduit made of untainted saidar to connect saidin and the city of Shadar Logoth, so he’s essentially using the evil of Shadar Logoth as a filter to catch the evil of the taint and remove it from saidin.

16. All the people who came with Rand (other than Nynaeve) now get prepared to defend him. Except Min, of course, who can’t channel and also has never shown any genuine fighting skill with her knives. Amazing that she survives this battle tbh. Does anyone even target her? I don’t remember.

17. We get some random PoVs that let us know that the giant crystal orbs being held by the actual Choedan Kal are being lit up, one near Cairhien and one in Tremalking.

18. All the Forsaken feel the vibe of all that power being used and realize that Rand has pulled the trigger on cleansing saidin and it’s time for him to be captured or die. I enjoy their misery in this chapter a lot. It’s very amusing to me. They are big ol’ failures.

It’s confirmed that Cyndane is Lanfear, still ABSOLUTELY obsessed with LTT, if anyone was wondering. She feels like him using the Choedan Kal with *gasp* another woman is a huge betrayal. Oh, Lanfear.

Demandred is busy reassuring himself that, ACTUALLY, he is much more brilliant than Lews Therin, even if this is quite a clever plan about how to remove the taint from saidin lol, god you are so obsessed with LTT too. It is confirmed here that Demmy definitely isn’t Taim, because he doesn’t recognize Damar Flinn. He’s so surprised when the ~old man is actually an Asha’man. My official guess on when Jordan decided they were separate characters is TPoD, I think. That was when Taim’s vibe changed for me.

Dashiva/Osan’gar/Aginor is not having a good time. He’s a SCIENTIST! Not a SOLDIER. lol he must have been so miserable when he was campaigning with Rand against the Seanchan. He also confirms that Moridin is Ishamael for us all.

Verin spots a woman in a streith gown... probably Graendal? Ah, yes, golden hair is mentioned. Graendal. And she’s inverting her weaves, it sounds like, and hiding her ability.

Aran’gar is figured out by Eben, who tosses himself towards her (she has been using ‘she/her’ pronouns in her internal narration) and warns the two Aes Sedai that he’s linked to.

Moghedien is figuring out a place she can hide during the battle so that she can technically be there but also survive. haha good for you

Semirhage is Lady Not Appearing In This Battle

Mesaana is also Lady Not Appearing In This Battle.

19. I like the actual battle to defend Rand too. Feels very cinematic & I approve. Cadsuane’s ass-pull ter’angreal come in handy lol. But I agree with @essie007 that we deserved more of a reunion than Rand & Nynaeve here. Should have been an ‘all hands on deck’ situation. LOVED her idea of having Egwene & some rebels (maybe her oathsworn sisters?) helping instead of Cadsuane. And this could still lead to there being tension between Rand & Egwene, because she would disapprove of HIM having oathsworn sisters (I imagine it would be Merana or one of his other oathsworn sisters who would reach out to Egwene... or the sister reaches out on her own, arguing to herself that it’s for Rand’s own good and doesn’t break her oath). And Mat would be great here too - it could help bring his story with Shadar Logoth to a close by him getting to witness the destruction of the city & he can hold his own against channelers because of his medallion. And Elayne and/or Aviendha could be there just by having Rand actually idk BE HONEST with his other love interests and tell them things rather than dipping after sex.

20. Okay, I do Not Understand the renaming thing in these books. So many characters get forcibly renamed and then just... think of themselves that way in the future. Obviously, the damane are tortured and trained into it, but why does Lanfear THINK of herself as Cyndane and not as Lanfear? I guess this is yet another point of commonality between the Seanchan and the Shadow. Forcible renaming. Okay, let me go over that list again. Seanchan & Shadow connections:

forcible renaming

ravens and moons as big important symbols

mindtraps vs a’dam (ways of controlling channelers)

attractive slaves in translucent robes

big on slavery and mind-breaking in general

treating people like objects in general

you gotta Grovel to higher ranking Darkfriends/the Blood

Spies everywhere (ravens & rats vs the Listeners & Seekers)

encourage paranoia and reporting on each other

The Return (Seanchan) vs The Day of the Return (the Chosen)

Oooh, just thought of this one: the Crystal Throne vs Shayol Ghul -- both make you feel a thirst to worship and bask in the overwhelming presence of your ultimate dictator

HAVING an ultimate dictator who must be worshipped on pain of death

Kadere the Darkfriend vs Karede the Seanchan: fight! lol this one isn’t serious btw, I just think it’s funny

21. I can’t believe that Min’s only purpose in this scene is to be Rand’s mood ring for Cadsuane. I mean, I CAN because she has absolutely no skills that can be put to use here, but it’s hilarious. Cadsuane doesn’t even need to know how Rand’s doing -- now that this has started, he’ll succeed or he’ll die trying. Literally Min only came along to Far Madding in order to give away yet more of Rand’s secrets to Cadsuane, I swear. lol she was literally put into a hole in the ground to keep her safe. and the Atha’an Miere ambassador who insists she must go along with Rand everywhere is in the hole too. haha

22. Forsaken updates:

Elza murders the fuck out of Dashiva. And we find out in her internal narration that she’s Black Ajah, so that’s hilarious, because she doesn’t know he’s one of the ‘Chosen’ and she’s just all... well, the Dark One will forgive me for just killing one of the minor Darkfriend Asha’man flunkies. I kinda enjoy Elza tbh. She just fireballs him to death. Amazing. Love it. Gold star to Elza. Some misunderstandings really are hilarious. She’s a Darkfriend so I’m sure she does terrible things in the future, but this moment is amazing.

Moghedien figures that everyone else has been killed or run away by now, but she stays there quietly to watch what happens. She gets dragged along in the wake of the collapsing bubble that was engulfing Shadar Logoth and thinks about how she’s not sure if she’ll ever be afraid of anything ever again after this.

23. The female access key is destroyed but the male one is intact, so Cadsuane appears to have stolen it (after making a big deal about disapproving of thieves earlier in the book too). Let’s see if she ever returns it. Callandor is ‘secured’, whatever that means.

24. The butcher’s bill on Rand’s side:

Kumira

Eben

Not bad! Cadsuane is like, ugh, could be better. Y’all were facing the FORSAKEN. You did good.

25. But no, that remained a very intense scene that I enjoyed a lot. Good finale. Does not make up for how boring and/or frustrating so much of the book was, but that was a Good Chapter.

26. Oh no, here comes a big point of frustration: Jahar joyfully says that saidin is clean (Damar confirms it) and Cadsuane is (x) doubt. Rand goes to SO MUCH TROUBLE and EFFORT and now she doesn’t even believe that he really did it. I’m gonna kick a wall. It honestly bothers me so much that Rand undoing the Dark’s One’s counterstroke in the previous battle -- you know, getting rid of the taint that literally led to the Breaking of the World - doesn’t get the attention it deserves (CoT was absolutely NOT the sort of attention it deserved lol). Anyway, we end with her being kinda weird and possessive about Rand.

Mat mentions:

Rand x4

Nynaeve x1

Elayne x1

Talmanes x1

Tuon refuses to call Mat by his name:

Toy x1

Unnecessary scenes (this section):

Mat-Tuon ‘courtship scenes’: 1 (7 pages)

Mat-Tylin horror show: 1 (2 pages), 1 (4 pages)

Repetitive attempts to leave Ebou Dar: 3 (51 pages)

Far Madding trauma conga line: 1 (17 pages), 1 (15 pages), 1 (12 pages), 1 (4 pages)

Mat mentioned by (whole book):

Elayne x3

Rand x8

Min x1

Mistress Harfor, First Maid x1

Nynaeve x1

Mat mentions (whole book):

Nynaeve x6

Egwene x1

Talmanes x2

Elayne x6

Rand x16

Perrin x2

Asha’man in general x1

Plot-threads started here or carried over from the last book:

Rand & Nynaeve: cleanse saidin (1 book wonder). COMPLETED.

Elayne: Become queen of Caemlyn (first book of task) - NOT completed.

Mat: Escape Ebou Dar and return to the Band of the Red Hand and Rand (first book of task) - NOT completed.

Egwene: Go to the White Tower with her army, confront Elaida, and heal the Tower (fourth book of task). - NOT completed.

Perrin: Gather up Masema and his Dragonsworn and bring them to Rand (third book of task). - NOT completed.

Plot-threads carried into Crossroads of Twilight:

Elayne: Become queen of Caemlyn (2/?)

Mat: Escape Ebou Dar and return to the Band of the Red Hand and Rand (2/?)

Perrin: Gather up Masema and his Dragonsworn and bring them to Rand (4/?)

Egwene: Go to the White Tower with her army, confront Elaida, and heal the Tower (5/?)

Rand: ???

Nynaeve: ???

Unnecessary scenes (whole book):

annoying Atha’an Miere nonsense: 2 (16 pages)

relationship drama nonsense: 1 (4 pages)

Shaido nonsense: 5 (87 pages)

Mat-Tylin horror show: 11 (48 pages)

Repetitive attempts to leave Ebou Dar: 3 (51 pages)

Far Madding repetitive trauma drama: 8 (113 pages)

Elayne treated as fetus vessel: 3 (6 pages)

Mat-Tuon subplot begins: 1 (7 pages)

Total pages: 332

Winter’s Heart has 766 pages in my version. That is 43.3%.

SPOILERS for a memory of light; insert disclaimer that this is all based on my memory, etc. and so forth

First, the easy thing:

This is really the book where the ‘pointless side quest’ vibes started jumping out at me during my reread, and I am NOT for dealing with side quests at book nine of a series. Faile being kidnapped by the Shaido is something that pads the pages, but ultimately does not have any huge impact on the endgame that couldn’t have been equally well-served by a shorter and less fetish-based subplot. Also, the Shaido should not even be here. They were a good antagonist in TFoH; they were... okay in LoC (but the Aes Sedai were the main course at Dumai’s Wells). They are completely unnecessary at this point. They only exist to serve up torture and humiliation porn at this point and to remind us that only evil women like to show off their breasts.

Same thing with Rand’s side-quest about the traitor Asha’man - no, absolutely not, this could and should have been a single chapter and not involved Far Madding at all. Everything about Far Madding’s plotline was a retread of earlier plotlines (Rand is powerless and put in a box to potentially be sent to Elaida; Rand needs Cadsuane to save him from his own recklessness; Rand playacts at being married to Min in order to trick a group of people -- all things that already happened in the story and didn’t need to be redone).

After Rand goes and picks up Nynaeve specifically to do the cleansing of saidin, his next plot point should have been... the cleansing of saidin. Not a side-quest about taking out the traitor Asha’man and Jordan showing off another city in his worldbuilding. One of the big issues in The Slog (imo) is way too much focus on side quests. It’s like we’re playing The Witcher 3 and going around to play Gwent with everyone before we head to the next plot marker: this is okay to do in a game but it’s terrible to do in a narrative. We need to find Ciri, Geralt! Stop playing Gwent! (I absolutely played All The Gwent lol).

The ‘point’ of Rand’s stint in Far Madding seems to be to harden him further but it just seems unnecessary - it’s just excessive trauma at this point imo, since he never gets to process the trauma that he’s already received anyway, just gets more heaped on his head to also not process. It doesn’t actually seem to impact his character choices at all. Again, I feel like it’s mostly just here to pad out the timeline so that Mat and Perrin have time to do their (also pointless) side-quests. Rand could have taken care of the traitor Asha’man in a single chapter and that would have been fine. It didn’t need *waves hand* all this. Winter’s Heart-Crossroads of Twilight-Knife of Dreams could and should have been a single book. Cut out the Shaido. Cut out this side-quest here. Cut out Tylin (just have her die in the invasion; idc). Condense the other plotlines. example: we don’t need to see Mat’s failed attempts at escaping; just his successful one.

Now, to move on to the big thing that really tanked my feelings on this book. I’ve mentioned to @essie007 that this is the first time I’ve reread Winter’s Heart since A Memory of Light was published. And, wow, knowing how this story ends really had an impact on how I felt about this book in a way that it didn’t for any of the earlier ones.

This book has aged much more poorly for me in my reread than the previous books and I think it goes back to broken narrative promises. Winter’s Heart is a horror show of a book in Mat’s storyline but I didn’t mind that as much the first time around because it seemed like the horror show was setting up a compelling narrative:

the secret of the sul’dam is heavily focused on in this book (in both Mat & Elayne’s plotlines)

the horrors of Seanchan slavery & their system of government is heavily focused on in this book

we get several Seanchan characters questioning their way of living and their system of goverment and oppression, from Alivia breaking free of her damane programming after 400 years in a collar all the way down to Bethamin and Egeanin, who are desperate to preserve their own freedom and know that their beloved Empire would enslave them if they knew the truth about them and their actions

the heir to the throne is a woman who is capable of learning how to channel(!)

her fated mate is someone who, in this book, is viscerally disgusted by slavery and who confronts it over and over in a very personal way -- he is treated as property himself by Tylin, threatened to be turned into da’covale, threatened to be bought by Tuon, given what is essentially a slave name (Tylin’s Toy) and even when he is at his most desperate to escape, he makes certain to do his best to bring down as much of the Seanchan power base as possible by freeing one of the Windfinders and teaching her how to free others

this woman who has a future where she is either the most powerful person in the empire (the empress) or one of the least (just another enslaved damane) ends up captive by this man who loves freedom and who has only just now escaped from his own cage

Of course, I assumed that the sul’dam secret would actually matter! Of course, I assumed that Tuon being capable of channeling would matter! Of course, I assumed that Mat would actually STAND UP against Tuon re: slavery and have an impact on her! All of those are things that flow naturally out of the narrative presented in Winter’s Heart.

And then Crossroads of Twilight immediately starts undercutting that potential narrative (with Mat inexplicably softening his stance on slavery and also, in general, because it focused way too much on navel-gazing about 'romance’ and not on the actual relevant plot questions), only for the narrative to get a stake through the heart in Knife of Dreams (when Tuon dismisses the idea that the sul’dam secret matters and ‘marries’ Mat without having ever questioned any of her assumptions about how the empire works). And the Seanchan get to stand victorious and vindicated at the end of the Last Battle, when they use their slaves to help win the war (Tuon even directly uses the ‘argument’ that freeing her slaves would make them useless as fighters iirc).

All of the horror that we were shown in Winter’s Heart (and previous books) just gets dismissed like it didn’t matter. Tuon never comes to a place where she needs to question herself because Jordan never lets Mat genuinely challenge her during their journey together -- she always has a buffer or protectors to shield her from Mat’s perspective on the world, she always has a devoted slave by her side to reassure her that slavery is actually awesome, she always slips out of any potential consequences of her actions, or Mat will inexplicably soften his previously-stated views so that she skates out of any negative reactions to her horrific choices and behaviors -- she is NEVER forced to confront the reality of her existence and is allowed to glide to the end of the series untouched by the reality of the world around her, safe in her slaver-bubble. What is the point of having her removed from her position and going on a journey if her bubble stays intact the entire time?

So while it was kinda obvious in a first read that Perrin’s side-quest was going to be pointless, it’s something of a surprise for me on my reread to realize that Mat’s entire prophetical marriage with the Daughter of the Nine Moons ALSO ends up being a side quest that has no major impact on the endgame of the series. It has some implications for post-canon, don’t get me wrong. Depressing implications about a fourth age that will inevitably need to deal with this can that has been kicked down the road. But the actual endgame events of the book series are not appreciably impacted by Mat and Tuon’s ‘romance’ (and, again like the kidnapped wife subplot, it did not require three books... I did just realize that, technically, BOTH Mat and Perrin are doing ‘kidnapped wife’ subplots) because Tuon as a person is not appreciably impacted by Mat as a person.

While Mat is used as a plot device to have Rand and Tuon talk again, there were any number of other ways to have that happen, and there is absolutely nothing that Mat and Tuon actually bring to each other’s endgame narratives -- Mat’s plots in the final books are about saving Moiraine (which is the key to bridging the gap between Egwene and Rand) and being the General of the Forces of Light (which he already had sewn up as of TFoH/LoC due to his memories and friendship with Rand), so neither of those plots required him to marry a slaver. Tuon’s actual plot in the last three books is based around Egwene and Rand, and on making deals with THEM about the Last Battle; Mat is literally just there to get a baby in her, which, again, is all about post-canon baby-trapping Mat into the Seanchan Empire and has nothing to do with the actual endgame storyline. Rand and Egwene are still the ones who have to do all the legwork when it comes to making deals with the Seanchan.

I do think this may be a place where Sanderson’s assumptions about Mat (imo he viewed Mat as a GENUINELY selfish and cowardly wastrel and interpreted Mat not being bookish as Mat not being intelligent) killed a potential story that we probably would have gotten if Jordan had written the the final books -- Mat probably would still be inexplicably ‘in love’ with Tuon by the final book and inexplicably conditionally okay with slavery, because that’s pretty in line with how Jordan wrote the majority of his romances (love is a leash around your neck to yank you to places you wouldn’t choose to go otherwise and you don’t get to choose who leashes you) and with where he decided to take Mat in CoT & KoD re: slavery, but he would likely still been smart & loyal to Rand as well, just with an inexplicable soft spot for the slaver empress. I’ll know better for sure on that one when I get to the end of KoD in my re-read but I do suspect that if Jordan had written the final books, Mat would have at least been somewhat involved in the actual negotiations, but I do think it’s probable that the actual ending still would have been fairly depressing for Mat, because Jordan was the one who inexplicably started softening Mat’s stance on slavery in CoT & KoD.

In any case, in the actual books we got, Tuon behaves the same way in AMoL that she does in WH: she still immediately wants to own any person she finds interesting (she tries to buy Mat in WH and attempts to straight-up abduct Min as a slave in AMoL, I believe); she has the exact same opinion on marath’damane as she did in WH; and iirc Mat does absolutely nothing to try to weigh in on the Westlands side of things during Rand’s negotiations with Tuon (which makes their fate-arranged marriage useless as a ‘marriage alliance’). Their marriage served zero narrative purpose. The fact that the outriggers were potentially supposed to exist at some point doesn’t matter to me -- they do NOT exist and they never will.

So, in the narrative in its completed version, Mat and Tuon’s ‘romance’ comes across as a waste of time, just like Faile’s kidnapping. Mat could have taken Tuon as a hostage for insurance purposes, they could have vaguely impressed each other as allies by the time he released her back to the Seanchan once he felt safe (and that she was safe, etc), and the narrative would have been served equally well.

Or, in an easy fix that keeps the marriage and makes the Mat x Tuon scenes from WH-KoD have a point: instead of Mat accidentally giving himself away for nothing at the end of Winter's Heart and their marriage being entirely on Tuon's terms, with Mat making a fool of himself trying to get Tuon to fall in love with him because he's already given away his choice… actually have CoT & KoD be a genuine marriage alliance negotiation where MAT (rather than Rand and Egwene in AMoL) is the one to hammer out a deal with Tuon and thus is able to reunite with Rand being able to hand him a treaty with the Seanchan.

This would require Tuon being treated as a real character in the world rather than an untouchable slaver-goddess who gets given whatever she wants and is treated with kid-gloves, but it would have made the Mat parts of The Slog feel much less pointless and sloggy and would have saved tons of narrative time in the endgame, because Rand wouldn't need to do all the work of allying with the Seanchan himself while Mat stands there uselessly.

There are just so many references in Winter’s Heart about the importance of sul’dam realizing that they CAN channel, yet we get cheated out of that story for Tuon -- that’s another thing that might have made the entire circus storyline for her worth spending the page time on it; if it had ended in her having the genuine honesty and strength of character to see the truth about herself rather than staying crystalized in Empire propaganda. Just another place where Tuon feels like wasted potential. And I feel like we don’t even get a solid story out of that for anyone? Though maybe we do and I’m just forgetting it; maybe Bethamin, Renna, or Seta has that story. I guess I’ll find out. But this was really THE story with the Seanchan that we have been promised since book 2 and Tuon seems like the obvious vehicle for that story, so this is just another place where Tuon is a narrative disappointment, lol. Like, even if a secondary or tertiary character ends up getting this storyline... it SHOULD have been Tuon.

Tuon is kinda a constant disappointment after this book, from what I remember. This book specifically really does imply that we SHOULD have gotten a specific narrative from her about realizing she could channel and what that would mean for the future for both her and the Seanchan empire... and then that entire plotline just gets tossed in the trash so that we can have Mat & Co softening their stance on slavery instead (what happened to Jordan in between writing Winter’s Heart and writing Crossroads of Twilight? My theory is that this is when he decided to write the outriggers, so he threw Mat’s character under the bus as an excuse for not writing the sul’dam story yet; if Mat stops caring as much about slavery then Tuon doesn’t need to confront what it means to be a slaver while being marath’damane and that story can be held off for the sequel trilogy instead (the sequel that never happened). If Mat cared as much about slavery in CoT & KoD as he did in Winter’s Heart, we would have profoundly different books).

Mat’s strong anti-slavery stance in this book just makes me WEEP with how Jordan & Sanderson butcher his character in the future to prepare him to be a loyal husband/yes-man/bullyboy/bedslave for the Empress of the Slavers (which starts in the very next book, iirc, with Mat starting to think that Slavery Isn’t So Bad when it happens to annoying people, whereas HERE his stance is “even genuinely awful people don’t deserve to be turned into slaves and it honestly seems like a fate worse than death”). Winter’s Heart Mat is both a good and a great man. Crossroads of Twilight-A Memory of Light Mat may still qualify as a ‘great’ man due to the ancient memories that allow him to be the General of the Light in the Last Battle but he stops being a good man, for the most part (I don’t recall the exact moment when it happens; it might be one of those changes that takes place between books. We’ll see).

And I deeply mourn the loss of that good man, and how he was killed off because he never would have been willing to play the role that ‘Knotai’ is required to play due to the Aelfinn prophecy and Jordan’s choices about what that prophecy had to mean for his character.

Mat is also definitely more sexist in this book than in previous books but, tbh, all three of our ta’veren boys seem more sexist these days. Rand is off making lol Women, AmIRight? jokes with Dobraine and has heavily backslid on respecting women’s right to agency and choice, Perrin determinedly ignores the intelligent women trying to give him advice (only his wife is allowed to give him advice), and Mat’s internal narration just gets more and more negative towards women as a whole and objectifies them more and more as well.

I hate to end this section of the reread on such a downer note! I am... holding out hope that the show will do better on all of this. We will know more when we see how they treat the Seanchan in the narrative next season.

#wot #wheel of time #wot reread #winter's heart #wot book spoilers #wot spoilers #this one is kinda a downer sorry guys #i ended up liking winter's heart so much less than i remembered liking it in the past #mat cauthon #slaver empress tuon #seanchan culture content warning #tylin content warning #ironically the less i like the book the faster i read it #when i'm really enjoying a book i linger over it more #the wheel of time

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miirshroom · 5 months

Text

Thinking about how Elden Ring serves as a Spiritual Successor to a Certain Fantasy Series

I find fascinating the lore ouroboros from reading Elden Ring in context of the Wheel of Time and vice versa. Significant spoilers ahead for Elden Ring and minor spoilers for Wheel of Time.

There's the surface level stuff like:

The Erdtree Guardians wield sword-spears and are guarding offshoots of the Tree of Life like the Aiel with Avendesora? Neat!

The previous Elden Lord fought with an axe and was succeeded by an Elden Lord who fights with a hammer and runs with wolves? Sounds a lot like the character arc of Perrin Aybarra. The Beastman of Farum Azula in Limgrave could even be a wolf brother who was "lost to the wolf"

Interesting choice to have a Commander Niall at Castle Sol, considering that Wheel of Time has Pedron Niall, the Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light. A villain who thinks that his cause is righteous. This has...implications...considering Miquella's connection to Castle Sol...

It gets more pointedly specific:

Raya Lucaria academy being located in a anatomically shaped body of water and governed by a woman sounds pretty similar to Tar Valon. But maybe it's just a trick of my eyes that the lake looks like an anatomical heart with the roadways and landmasses located at the major veins and arteries (I've sketched this out and it seems legit - it's an uncommonly seen angle of the heart though)

Radagon's name can be rearranged to "a dragon", is red-haired like Rand al'Thor, and his personal rune is a loose rendering of a woven Pattern - one of the central motifs of Wheel of Time. That seems a little beyond simple homage by GRRM to the works of a fellow author who he was well acquainted with (a nod from one book in A Song of Ice and Fire: "Archmaester Rigney wrote that history is a wheel, that the nature of man is fundamentally immutable. According to him, what has already happened will happen again, without remedy.").

So, what can Elden Ring be saying about Wheel of Time, a series that infamously has lingering questions that will never be answered due to literal death of the author.

There's a statue of a bearded man in the underground areas with a tablet at his feet that depicts the Imago Mundi - a real world artefact that is a map of Mesopotamia. This is implied to be the earliest age of civilization in Elden Ring just as real world civilization emerged from the river basin between the Tigres and Euphrates Rivers. This is where the ouroboros wraps back around to realizing that there may be some symbolism in Wheel of Time beginning at protagonist Rand al'Thor's home in a region called the Two Rivers.

The "Loux" in Hoarah Loux is a Germanic surname meaning "Lynx Eyed", or having sharp eyesight. The kind of eyesight that would be useful for a man out at sea navigating by the stars. The Prologue of Wheel of Time begins with the previous incarnation of the Dragon before Rand, a man named "Lews" Therin Telamon. "Theron" is a Greek word meaning "hunter". "Telamon" is the name of one of the Argonauts who sailed with Jason to find the Golden fleece. So the full name could mean "sharp eyed hunter, a seeker of the Golden fleece". It seems appropriate that Rand the 'Dragon Reborn' starts off his journey as a shepherd who tends sheep.

The Western Zodiac consists of 12 astrological signs (and sometime Ophiuchus), of which Aries is the first sign. The story associated with the constellation Aries is the story of the Golden Fleece. Wheel of Time was also supposed to be 12 books long. It was very important to author James Rigney (pen name Robert Jordan) that the series end with the 12th book - but circumstances being what they were the series eventually concluded with Brandon Sanderson writing the 12th, 13th and 14th volumes.

That's about as much as can be covered without getting really into the deep lore of Wheel of Time. I have a lot more thoughts about how both Wheel of Time and Elden Ring are thematically bound to the wheel of Vedic Astrology and invoking themes of a dreamlike collective unconsciousness (the Jungian thing). Also the alchemy stuff.

#Elden Ring #elden ring lore #Wheel of Time #media analysis #Fun note: there are Wheel of Time references in Kingsfield (1994)#There's something poetic thinking about Miyazaki and GRRM bringing full circle a story that was started by Naotoshi Zin and WoT #The FromSoft meta-narrative is terrific - in the sense of causing terror #Most impressive artistic achievement

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rozetheeuwu · 6 months

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I have no idea who they are, so feel free to tell me everything about them. I feel like I'm super behind some of you guys' OCs lol

*Slams Dearil on the table and gently puts Chad next to him*

Okay so these are my rejuv and reborn ocs. They are related/part of the same universe. I made them both a while ago but properly using them again. (Well, Chad I did use a lot, but Dearil not at all.)

A bit of their info has changed since I made them.

Dearil has two versions, Renegade and Paragon. Chad does the Lin route in reborn.

I'm copying and pasting this from discord and have not spellchecked and stuff.

more under read more (No spoilers on new karma files content:

Okay so pre-reborn and rejuv events both of the them lived in Oblivia (region where the game Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs takes place)

TW: mentions of child abuse, death, witchcraft and gaslighting

When Chad was young (let's say around 7 years old) his house was set on fire and his parents and sibling died while he survived, he was taken in by a woman named Aasha (not real name, nor did she 'legally' adopt him) Aasha is a Giratina worshipper and is part of a cult, she practices witchcraft and stuff like that as well.

When he was 10 years old Aasha brought home a year old named Dearil (unknown if it's his real name or not), Chad had taken it upon himself to look after him and give him a relatively okay child hood.

Aasha was abusive, both physically more so than mentally. (The latter more so than the first, both of the kids received abuse but Dearil more so than Chad.)

Chad was Aasha's golden child and wanted him to be her successor, because of this Dearil was often left on his own a lot but Chad looked after him. Dearil is often VERY starved for affection which Chad provides, Chad has become very distant and stone cold towards everyone around him except Dearil who he'll put up a front for.

Chad like I said grows up to be emotionally distant, but also obdient. Dearil despite hating her has become a lot like Aasha. Rebellious and cruel. Dearil is only nice and caring towards Chad.

Despite attempting to protect Dearil from their adoptive mother's abuse Chad was still at the end of a day also a victim and would fall in line if Aasha's punishemts were too scary or too much for him to handle.

Although Dearil does think Chad is a coward for that, he does understand the fear and doesn't hold it against his older brother. Not always at least.

(This concludes their upbringing, it's brief and not detailed but enough)

Chad, at one point has become more powerful than Aasha, however the fear instilled in him was still great until one day he snapped and overpowered her.

At that point he tries to tell Dearil to run away with him, but Dearil refuses.

Despite hating Aasha she's still Dearil's authority figure and parental figure. She always promised the boy power and the chance to be better and stronger than everyone.

Dearil tried to convince they should stay home together and take on the world together. (Note, he's not looking to take over the world or anything, he's just wanting to survive and he constantly feels like he has to be on guard and attack mode. As does Chad ofc, but he wants to learn to not want to live like that anymore.)

Chad refuses and ultilmatly makes the hard decision to leave Dearil behind, he can no longer live there in the region with his abused and scarred past there. He takes the first boat and leaves to wherever with no destination in mind. He eventually arrives in one of the main game regions and sees a advertisement to the reborn league.

Not having much of a destination in mind he goes for it and the events of reborn main game start there.

At one point during reborn main game Aasha uses her power to connect herself with Chad and tries to convince him to go back.

A little before the glass factory events she uses her power to teleport Chad to a place similar to the distortion world alongside and they fight, she loses and Chad goes back despite her begging and manipulating.

Aasha has been weakened but when she returns she snaps and attempts to destroy everything around her in a frenzy. Dearil tries to take her down but he is simply on strong enough and perishes. This is when he ||meets Variya (Prob spelled her name wrong lol) and is given the role as interceptor||, he gets revived and his host is ||Aero||. (Timeline wise ||5|| years have passed for Chad but Dearil is still the same age from en he died) However Dearil's soul is now filled with hatred, hatred towards Aasha, Chad and the world. However he doesn't remember them and now they don't know WHY they feel so much anger and the constant need to take revenge on ||someone||. He doesn't trust anyone and has no interest in helping anyone out. He simply goes along with the others because he feels he has no destiny or path forward in life anymore.

Seeing ||Giratina in Wispy Tower|| awakens some memories, but not enough. He doesn't do any help center quests, he feels no need to be playful or nice to his friends. He does not seem to care about people who pass away.

When ||Clear and Kieran give him the option to help them destroy the world or whatever ||he takes it. At this point in time he has gotten *some* memories of their past back, but he isn't sure if it's their own memories. He just knows he wants revenge on *something* and|| Clear and Kieran ||are handing that to him on a silver platter.

The thing is Dearil wasn't supposed to have memories of his past, but whatever magic Aasha used against him as become part of him, which also fueled his need for revenge and his hatred. (Aasha felt like the world was against her). Aasha always had a connection to her sons and is always able to know where they are because of it, but they're always able to sense her because of it as well.

Although we're not that far in the game yet in what I assume will be the final battle time stops completely around Dearil.

At first he thinks is ||Tiempa || but then someone speaks to him, someone he thinks he's never heard before, yet the voice sounds so familiar. A golden gate to what seems to be a different world opens and they are told to come through it. They do.

Inside the world time seems to continued and ||the storm seems|| to have infiltrated as well there. Continuing further he sees the men from his memories, Chad. Alongside him is a Giratina (not the one in Aevium) and Arceus (this one looks weird, is it shiny?)

Chad starts with "It seems the ||storm ||has even affected in the new world, I had hoped to evacuate reborn to here if things went south but..."

They talk for a bit and then they fight. Dearil finally fully remembers where the pain, betrayel and anger comes from and attempts to kill Chad, but fails. Chad overpowers him in a pokemon battle and easily in hand to hand combat.

With help of Giratina the magic from Aasha is released from him and Dearil, although still feeling angry and betrayed by Chad slowly starts to feel regret about all his choices.

Chad finally apologizes, although Dearil doesn't forgive him he says he understands.

Dearil says he doesn't want to continue to hurt people anymore and asks if Chad will help out, his older brother explains that things have gone to far south to be fixed right now.

Chad explains that he can send Dearil back in time with help of Dialga and practically reset the events. Dearil won't remember the events in Aevium but will remember their past together and Chad's final words for him now. Words of affirmation, care, expression of guilt and love.

He explains that Dearil's memories might come back at some points, but he is afraid of the consequences what will happen if he allows Dearil to remember everything from the start.

Dearil agrees to it and is send back, at the paragon route starts there.

However although the magic was released from Dearil some of it is still part of him, so his old renegade self comes out from time to time.

That's the quick none detailed version of their story!

Chad specializes in Dragon and Ghost types

Renegade Dearil specializes is Ghost and Dark and Paragon Dearil specializes in Ghost and Dragon.

Chad's starter is Charizard and Dearil's Hisuan Typhlosian in both routes.

Chad (He/Him) is early to mid 20's during Reborn's story and Dearil (He/They) is 18 at the start of the SS Oceana stuff

During the events in Aevium Chad gets married (to you know who if you know me) and has had/is having twins.

Okay so this is their backstory and such, I can also give random facts but maybe for another ask because this is a lot.

Sorry for the long ass post 😭 I've always loved Chad but Dearil makes me INSANE rn with the rejuv brainrot.

Thanks for the ask!!

#pink answers #chad collins #dearil (oc)#I'm insane about them #yes dearil does not have a last name #'collins' was always Chad's surname even before he was adopted

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enneadau · 2 years

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Well dear wonderful author, I am currently stumped and I’m not sure I know how to get out. This might not make much sense, I’m sorry in advance.

I was sort of daydreaming and trying to picture what the 5Ds version of Ennead would look like. It helps me to avoid falling down the rabbit hole of other storyline based questions that aren’t questions as much as random thoughts that I should be patient for their reveal.

I ended up wondering just how much of the story would change because I always sort of assumed that the original characters from DM were dead and Judai/Jaden was in another dimension while the whole 5Ds thing went down. Because they probably would have made a big difference if they had been active.

After much thought I haven’t been able to picture a 60-80 year old Seto Kaiba just laying down and letting any part of Domino turn into a lawless junk heap that the 5Ds Satellite is shown to be in the show. That goes doubly so for your wonderful characterization of Seto when he is “teetering an a mental breakdown when what is his is threatened.” But that’s just my love for “Help Me” showing.

Maybe this is because in my experience, 80 year olds tend to have very few 🦆s to give and even at that age, are prone will do whatever they want. I just can’t picture your Sato Kaiba at 60 years old, his city literally torn apart, deciding that he is going to let the government or whatever the 🦆 “sector security” is supposed to be, turn the Domino bay into a Japanese Berlin Wall.

Tracking citizens through gold marks I could see him doing, but that’s for a different reason and he would probably be a lot more competent with the execution of said tracking than how it’s used in the show.

Actually he’d be a lot more competent in many different components of the series.

Especially with all the work he has put into getting a theme park up and running in like 6 months for Battle of the Gods and what I can only guess he did when his school and niece were sucked into another dimension. Compared to that, building a bridge to reconnect a portion of the city to the mainland is practically child’s play to the old man. He’d probably be upset that he had to actually leave his house to tall people what they are doing to resolve the new catastrophe.

To be honest it might be because I can pretty easily picture him with silver hair berating everyone at fault for the incident while waving a cane around and saying that they are some of the most stupid people he’s come across in a long while before firing them all.

And that’s not even getting into my thoughts about what Judai must be doing during this time in her 40s-60s. For some reason I can imagine her finding Akiza or Rua or both before the story even starts and helping them get a hold of their powers.

I also seem to be stuck with the idea that Yugi’s first life after her separation with Meisa happened during the whole signer/dark signer incident and she was supposed to take up one of the marks again. But that might just be because I remember you saying that she would have been reborn around the same time as Yusei and the others and recalling that the English dub used “nearly five-thousand years ago” to describe their timeline)

So, to conclude dear author, Goddess of this universe. How crazy do I sound for contemplating these thoughts when I know you had just started watching the subbed GX series a few weeks ago? I should be very aware that you have not done a deep dive into 5Ds but I still can’t stop thinking about it.

Thank you again for all of your hard work. Everything in Ennead, Miraculous, Help Me, and well everything is just amazing!!! I don’t know why I’m focusing on the 5Ds aspect of this. Especially when you have such well fleshed out stories already written.

I don't remember saying Yugi died by then, but there's been new plans:

Yugi is still alive by 5ds. She's the Guardian of Old Domino.

When Zero Reverse happens she and Meisa rejoined to unleash their divine magic and manage to save a portion of Domino and the people living on that area but get overwhelmed because even Gods could be killed in Egypt and end up asleep for a while.

Old Domino, the section of Domino they managed to protect, is untainted by the darkness from the blast because of her magic, but Yugi has to maintain it or it would get corrupted from either side by the darkness in the areas to either side. That takes a LOT of energy. Like it started corrupting while they were unconscious straight after the blast, but she managed to fix it and now has to maintain it to keep it safe. If she uses too much magic for something else, she loses ground on the safe zone So she has to focus on protecting Old Domino.

She's like 70 years old but she is still kickass enough to keep a section of Old Domino alive. The Dark Signers can't pass into her territory, but she can't leave either. She's tied to the land now. She does take in waifs and strays that need looking after and help them learn how to handle any magic they gain.

Her daughter, on the other hand, is a part-time Turbo-Duelist, part time psychic-trainer, psychic being the 'up to date' term for Shadow Touched Duelists.

This is all pre-5ds stuff though because I haven't seen the series. Beyond that, I'm not sure how else I'm going to progress. I'll work it out when I see more of 5ds.

I am trying to ignore the desire to put Mana Mutou, Suguru's daughter, in with Yusei and the others right now. XD

#ennead #5ds #fanfiction #series #ygo #yugioh #future #long way off

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beneaththetangles · 1 year

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This week’s reviews ask the question: Who’s the king of the roost? Is it the talented but unmotivated boxer, Yu? Kaboku’s high school dance club? Or is it an actual rooster? Plus, we’ve got a fujoshi princess who’s clueless, high school boys palling around, and Hachiken tutoring his crush while avoiding his parents. Read on for our recommendations on this wide variety of manga volumes!

The Boxer (Vol. 1) • The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices (Vol. 1) • Rainbow Days (Vol. 2) • Rooster Fighter (Vol. 3) • Silver Spoon (Vol. 9) • Wandance (Vol. 3)

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The Boxer, Manga Vol. 1

I have to laugh because I made a new year’s resolution to read more shojo manga, but shortly after I made that goal, I picked up The Boxer instead! Ha! I absolutely loved this first volume, though! The beginning follows a young man who bullies the main character, Yu, but the story ultimately centers around Yu being approached by a coach of multiple boxing champions and asking him if he wants to become a boxer. However, Yu doesn’t appear to have any joy or purpose in his life, as he never fights back when bullied or shows interest in boxing when asked. Coach K thinks Yu has overwhelming potential to become a boxing legend, but what will push Yu to even think about boxing, let alone start boxing? While I originally was interested in this story after meeting the antagonist in the webcomic on WebToons, I quickly found myself sucked in and wanting to see Yu’s “awakening” and the antagonist get completely thrashed by him. While I won’t comment on whether my expectations were met (because of spoilers), there were many pages with Yu that were extremely impactful. I felt JH did an incredible job of conveying Yu’s emotions in multiple places where you can feel the energy and tension: something is changing inside Yu and that the antagonist better watch out. I am definitely hooked and invested in this series and glad I already preordered volume two before even starting this volume. I must know and see what happens next! I highly recommend The Boxer if you like boxing/fighting, underdogs, and great action! ~ @lauraagrace

The Boxer is published by IZE Press, an imprint of Yen Press.

The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices, Light Novel Vol. 1

The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices is divided into two tonally disparate pieces which work together to create an unexpectedly engaging read. It begins with a “fujoshi reborn into a BL game” setup, with a “convenient plot device”: as a side character in this story, said fujoshi will eventually be forced into a marriage of convenience; her future children will adopted by her brother and his male wife. I was not loving the series at first. It seemed bland and featured an obnoxious lead character in Octavia (formerly Maki). I eventually warmed up to her, though. When adopting her perspective, the action moves quickly, and Octavia’s thoughts are often funny, particularly when she’s dealing with the problem of being in a kingdom where any possible love interest is only interested in other men. If that were the entirety of the novel, it would be a breezy, if forgettable, read. But Octavia doesn’t realize that her actions and position, along with other machinations, are having serious and dire effects on the kingdom and possibly putting her in danger. Chapters not from the heroine’s point of view read more like A Song of Ice and Fire, full of danger and conspiracy, helping to shape Octavia’s main love interest as a fascinating character whose background is tied to said conspiracies. The more serious material emphasizes how oblivious Octavia is, creating a sense of concern for her; her obnoxiousness begins to rather seem more like innocence, and soon enough, I found myself pulling for rather than being annoyed by her. Ending at a crisp 166 pages, the volume concluded with me wanting more, and that is possibly what I expected least from yet another girl’s novel. What a captivating start! ~ @animepopheart

The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices is published by Yen Press.

Silver Spoon, Manga Vol. 9

Silver Spoon is a joy. Even when it deals with awful fathers, portrays families making hard sacrifices, and shows the entire process of slaughtering a pig you’ve raised, as this volume does, Silver Spoon does so with humor and optimistic energy. Reading Arakawa’s work is almost like taking a class with a master teacher: you absorb something wondrous (in this case, the wonderful lessons about life learned through Hachiken’s challenges at an agricultural high school) while still having fun. Volume nine is the equal of previous volumes in that regard, while also mining new territory as it nudges Hachiken and Aki closer and closer together. But I love that even though romance is in the air, Silver Spoon isn’t about romance. It’s about growing up. It’s a coming-of-age tale—one of the best that manga has to offer. If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to. And if you’ve only watched the anime, this is the volume to jump into, as volume nine covers the end of the animated series and takes the story a bit further along, too. ~ @animepopheart

Silver Spoon is published by Yen Press.

Rooster Fighter, Manga Vol. 3

Cock-A-Doodle-Do! Volume 3 of this strange but amusing ride with my favorite rooster Keiji and his friends continues, as they hunt giant demons that are devastating the nation of Japan whilst searching for his missing sister. As I mentioned in my review of volume two, the antics started to lose their initial impact because of the lack of progression in the plot, and that holds true for this entry as well. Watching a rooster take down a giant demon is fun, but after a few times the trick starts to get old. This volume gave the heroic poultry more interaction with humans and shared some of their struggles, which was a change in the right direction. Keiji’s personality starts to show some cracks in his tough facade as he loosens up with a new friend, and as he also starts to recognize his need for companions and to not do everything on his own. Character development is something I like to see in media, and Rooster Fighter has potential, but it needs to get the story train moving a little faster and I hope volume four does that! ~ @samuru

Rooster Fighter is published by VIZ Media

Rainbow Days, Manga Vol. 2

Rainbow Days features an unusual tone. On the one hand, it’s super sweet and cute—and on the other, it’s a little spicy. For instance, volume two goes from Natchan talking about his massive crush on Anna in one panel to Kei pulling out sadistic toys in the next. I’m not always interested in those latter qualities, but I like the series overall because of how well the friendships between the four main boys come together. Volume two finds Kei feeling lonesome and Natchan continuing to get closer to Anna, for instance, but the main focus isn’t on romance or any individual character; it’s on a loving, sweet, boys’ friendship. That said, I do like the pairing of Natchan and Anna, and there’s serious progress in this volume. Anna is becoming a fuller character as well, though my biggest knock on the series is that the girls generally aren’t very captivating. There’s a focus in one particular chapter on the three main girls introduced so far, but spending time with the three can’t make up for Mari’s obnoxiousness or Yukiko’s blandness. I’m hoping for improvement in their characterization in future volumes (and maybe the addition of another female character as a main—Chiba, introduced in volume two in a bit part, is already more interesting than Mari or Yukiko!). But even without that, the peaceful and humorous atmosphere centering on Natchan, Kei, Mattsun, and Tsuyopon makes Rainbow Days worth the read. ~ @animepopheart

Rainbow Days is published by VIZ Media through its Shojo Beat imprint.

Wandance, Manga Vol. 3

If the inter-high dance competition that kicks off volume three of Wandance creeps up quickly and ends in a surprising way, it’s because managaka Coffee intended it to be. As he subtly expresses (through one of the competition judges bemoaning how some clubs treat dance as sport), Wandance is not a sports anime. The competition isn’t the point. Then what is? That I’m not 100% clear on quite yet. It seems to be about Kabo learning to grow through his passion, but I’m still waiting to see him grow beyond the insecurities he has and to see Hikari develop more as a character as well. In the meantime, I continue to find this manga captivating, in large part because of the amazing artwork. Coffee has honed his style through these first few volumes, to the point where he’s able to convey the movement and power of dance extremely well through a variety of means: different styles of lines and shading, smudging, trailing, and more. There are many incredible panels in this volume, including a wondrous two-page spread later in the work. Taking a hint from our own Marg, who created a playlist for the volume, I listened to the music that the clubs danced to while reading this volume, and it turned Wandance into an even richer work. I highly recommend doing the same and continue to recommend this series, which is more dynamic and creative than simply calling it a “dance manga” might suggest. ~ @animepopheart

Wandance is published by Kodansha.

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“Reader’s Corner” is our way of embracing the wonderful world of manga, light novels, and visual novels, creative works intimately related to anime but with a magic all their own. Each week, our writers provide their thoughts on the works they’re reading—both those recently released as we keep you informed of newly published works, and those older titles that you might find as magical (or in some cases, reprehensible) as we do.

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