#Learning Ally narrator

[zentarablog]

Meet Ty Laskey

At Zentara.blog, we’re all about diving deep into fascinating topics and making complex ideas wonderfully easy to grasp. We couldn���t be more excited to introduce you to Ty Laskey, one of the brilliant human narrators who helps bring our audiobooks to life with clarity and enthusiasm! Ty brings a truly unique perspective to his narration. With a full career as a researcher in robotics and…

[the-secret-keeper]

Where MC Tells the Obey Me Brothers About How Horribly They Were Treated in Twisted Wonderland

This was requested by @sweetlicorice I hope you like it! It was taking longer than expected, so I only did the brothers, but I will do the dateables in a part 2, don't worry.

Part 2 with the Dateables out now! (Characters included: Diavolo, Barbatos, Simeon, Solomon, and Luke)

Part 2 of this but where MC reunites with Grim and the boys are in Twisted Wonderland is out now!

TW: Talk of being Overworked and Burnt Out, Abuse of Power, Very Angry Demons (but not at you), mental breakdowns, missing a pet (he's not dead, don't worry), and nightmares

Reader is referred to as MC by the characters (though I don't think they say it here) and MC is gender neutral, but this is mostly in second person, so for the majority of the story you'll be referred to as 'You' by the narrator.

Characters include: Lucifer, Mammon, Leviathan, Asmodeus, Satan, Beelzebub, and Belphegor

Could be read as romantic or platonic

This will be long, so the stories under the cut

This is organized by character, with a bit of context at the beginning. Enjoy!

First, it was a coffin. You were kidnapped by a horse-drawn hearse, woke up in a coffin, in another world. A world of magic, and wonder, but also one of pain, as you quickly learned. But you met people. You made friends, allies, and you were learning, even if you couldn't use magic.

And then, it was you landing rather harshly in a room that looked like an old-time, very fancy courtroom, surrounding by tall and intimidating looking young men. It was soon explained to you that you were in the Devildom, and were an exchange student, one that would be living with the Seven Deadly Sins for your own protection.

You didn't know what to feel. Gratitude for the much improved living conditions? Fear for living with a bunch of demons and going to school with demons that would likely have no qualms with snapping you in two if you stepped out of line? Sadness for the friends that you don't know how to get back to? Upset for being forced to leave the place you were finally starting to feel like you fit in at and having to leave Grim? It was a whirlwind inside, and for a time, that's where it stayed. Kept inside.

Slowly, the Devildom revealed to have similar problems as Twisted Wonderland, in the fact that it seems everyone in power here, aside from Diavolo and Barbatos, would like you to die.

Most of the brothers tried to kill you. One of them succeeded! Congrats to them you guess, though, no offense to Belphie, you don't think it was particularly hard for a demon to kill a human.

Through all of this, you got closer to those you were staying with, even forgiving Belphegor after everything. It only made sense that eventually, what happened to you, you started to open up to them about your past. About those that you met and bonded with, all that had been put onto you, and all that was different.

Lucifer:

You were in his office, as you did somewhat often. It was quieter in there than it was in most of the house, and no one would bother you if you were with him. Plus, sometimes he would let you take care of some of his paperwork, just the stuff that wasn't too sensitive or important, but it lightened his load a bit.

"Why do you insist upon helping me?" He asked, not looking up from his paper, as you looked at your own.

"I'm used to doing more work, and if it makes your job easier, then I don't mind." You shrugged.

"More work? Do you mean like a job?" He asked, somewhat curious. Your file had listed a lot, but you had, apparently, been missing for a while when you were brought to the Devildom, so he didn't know what you had been doing before coming there.

"Something like that." You vaguely answered, finishing a paper.

"I am always here if you need to talk." He glanced up at you, as you pulled out your homework instead.

"Thank you."

A comfortable silence fell over the you two. The ambiance of the fireplace, paired with the low volume on the record he was playing, along with the light scratching of his pen, was calming. His office was always dimly lit, enough to see easily, but also darker than the average room.

It was a quiet environment that reminded you of the days when you would sit in the office of Crewel, him taking pity on the amount of work shoved on you and attempting to help at least a little. Or the days when you would study with Ace and Deuce in the Heartslabyul Common Room, Riddle sitting nearby doing his own paperwork, and Grim resting lazily along your shoulders. It was comforting, yet sad, at the same time.

"Back, in the place where I was," you started softly after a few moments of silence, "there was more that was required of me."

"In what way?" He asked, and though you couldn't tell, off in your own world, he had stopped doing his paperwork to focus on what you were saying, fully enraptured in wanting to know your backstory.

"The headmaster, at my last school, his name was Dire Crowley. And he was terrible at his job." You laughed bitterly. "I showed up there one day, against my will, and practically started running the place once he thought I could handle it, or when he was certain I wouldn't complain." You glared at your paper, thinking back on all that was unfairly thrown at you.

"Like what?"

"Paperwork, was the majority." You answered without thinking. "But there were.... others."

"Others?" He prompted after a few moments of a now, much tenser, silence.

"Your demon form is scary." You looked at him, making eye contact. "But it is not as scary as facing seven Overblots within the span of a year."

"Overblots?"

"The manifestation of out of control magic and strong negative emotions that result in the transformation of the magic user, and the creation of a sort of monster. The magic user loses control of their entire being, and it's very taxing on the magic user." Your eyes were glazed over as you seemed to recite the information with no emotion in your voice. "I don't blame them, for Overblotting, and losing control, the world is cruel. I do blame Dire Crowley, however, for making me responsible for dealing with them."

"That sounds dangerous, for someone without magic."

"It was." You agreed, still looking towards him.

Not at him, but through him, as if you weren't registering how much you were saying. This made him all the more concerned, as he got up and walked over to you, sitting beside you.

"I was also responsible for whatever Dire Crowley wanted me to do. Feed the fireplaces over winter break, find out why our sports players are getting injured, stop that one student from taking over the student body, house these people for this inter-school competition, and on, and on." You listed, beginning to spiral. "I practically ran that school. Me! A magicless human who had no idea what they were doing or where they were or how to handle what was happening to me. He stuck me in a shack, filled with mildew, and mold, that was covered in dust, infested with ghosts, and falling apart at the seams with a fire-breathing cat. And he didn't even make me a student at first!" You looked at Lucifer, tears pricking your eyes. "I was a janitor! And when another student got myself, Grim, and another student in trouble, he was going to throw me out! Onto the streets with no understanding of the world, how it functions, or anything at all!"

Lucifer nodded, trying to get you to calm down silently, wanting to hear about your past, even though it was painful.

"And he'd threaten me, Lucifer! He'd threaten my housing, my food budget, and I had no means of income! I couldn't pay for myself in any regard, I was completely dependent on him! I was his little puppet. The puppet of the 'oh so gracious Dire Crowley'." You began to sob as emotions started to overcome you, them all spilling out as you finally let yourself feel safe enough to feel these emotions. "I was so scared! About what would happen to me, and my friends. I didn't know what the next day would bring."

He brought you into his chest, hugging you tightly, and allowing your tears to stain his red vest. He let you sob and weep as you finally allowed yourself to process the emotions you'd been keeping inside this whole time. He kept his breathing even, trying to get you to match it subconsciously, and he gently rocked you, trying to calm you down as best he could.

"I miss Grim!" You cried out, into his chest. "I miss him so much that it hurts. I feel so anxious without him around."

He didn't ask who Grim was, but he knew it was someone important. He'd ask you about it when you were calmer, for now, he'd just let you cry to your hearts content. It had been a long time since someone had come to him, and allowed him to see them crying, but he didn't mind it so much when it was you. He took pride in being someone you felt safe enough to cry around.

No more paperwork got done that night, but he didn't care. You were more important at that point in time, and Diavolo would understand, he assured you of this, when you tried to apologize for taking up his time and crying on him. He brought up that Diavolo would be more mad if he hadn't comforted you, which made you laugh. You were so tired from crying that not long after you calmed down, you drifted off in Lucifer's arms, on the couch in his office.

Mammon: 

You were hanging out in Mammon's room one night, trying to help him study. Mammon was a lot smarter than a lot of people gave him credit for, the main issue you were having was the effort in which he was putting in. Which was zero. He was much more interested in his video game than his homework, despite the fact that Lucifer had threatened to string him up from the ceiling should he not get a satisfactory grade.

It was almost nice, how familiar this felt. The arguing with him about studying gave you a nostalgic feeling, for when you would study with your First Year friend group, and you would try to pry Ace away from his video games. It was never effective, much like now, but the nostalgia made you keep trying to convince him.

Mammon himself didn't seem to notice the effect this was having on you, too focused on his video game. Not that you cared, better for him to remain oblivious that try to pry your secrets out of you.

You sighed, closing the textbooks that you had brought in, accepting the fate of his grade, and making a mental note to find a spot to at least try to hide him from Lucifer. You watched as he played the game for just a few more minutes before you crawled over, sitting beside him as he played, watching the screen.

"Why're ya so good at homework in the Devildom anyway?" He asked, in the blunt way he normally does.

"Diavolo adjusted my curriculum because I don't know much about the Devildom, so I get assignments that are easier." You admitted, leaning against him, your head resting on his shoulder. "I appreciate it, my last headmaster wasn't nearly so accommodating." You mumbled bitterly, thinking back on that incompetent headmaster.

"Really? How's that?" He asked, only half-paying attention, as he spam-clicked the button on the controller to his video game.

"Eh, don't think too much about it. Crowley was stupid, and though he claims he was gracious, he was really anything but. At least to me."

"What's 'at supposed to mean?" He asked before exclaiming nonsensical, frustrated sounds at his loss in the video game.

"I was basically his Barbatos, but I wasn't paid. Hell," You laughed mirthfully, "what money I was supposed to get was threatened, actually. More than once."

"Really?"

His attention was still diverted, and you noticed this. He was likely only wanting to hear your voice for background noise while he played, but you didn't mind so much. At least now you can say you told someone. Even if he wasn't listening.

"Yeah, Crowley threatened my food and housing budget more than once. And he'd push all his work onto me, even though I really shouldn't have had that much responsibility put on me. After all, I was someone without magic in a magic-teaching school, from another world. I didn't know anything." You shrugged lightly, trying not to move Mammon's arm too much, because your head was still resting on his shoulder. "I can't say I miss that part of it."

"What do ya miss then?" He asked, eyes still glued to the screen.

"My friends. I had a group of friends that were pretty tight-knit. Trauma bonded, more like it." You laughed. "And Grim. I miss Grim."

"Grim?"

"My cat."

"Ya sound like Satan."

"Grim was a special cat. He could use magic, and talk. You remind me of him sometimes." At that he finally paused the game to look at you.

"I, remind ya of... a cat?" He asked incredulously.

"Yeah." You smiled, laughing lightly. "He was sarcastic, and demanding, and greedy. He called me Henchman, you call me Human." He rolled his eyes. "But underneath your... bravado, is a very nice person, who cares a lot. Grim and I... we only had each other. So it just makes sense that we bonded. I miss him, a lot. He used to sleep in my bed, and he'd always be there with me. I've been having trouble sleeping without him. It just feels like there's something missing." You admitted in a soft and sad tone. He wrapped his arm around your shoulders.

"I'll be yer Grim 'til we can convince Diavolo or Barbatos, or maybe Solomon to get yer cat." He said quietly, rubbing your upper arm. "Ya can sleep in here whenever ya need, ok?" You nodded. "Wanna watch a movie?" You smiled at him, nodding once more, as he turned the TV to one of the bajillion streaming services the family all pay for, because they share, and arguing with you about the best movie to watch.

Leviathan:

Leviathan was out in public with you, having gone to an anime themed event at a cafe in the Devildom. He was so excited, that you just couldn't resist when he asked if you wanted to go with. It was nice to hear him rant and ramble about all the things that he was passionate about.

"There's a cat in the anime that waitress is from! And he's super cool!" Levi started. "He can talk, and use magic. He's also very stubborn, like a donkey. But he's a favorite in the fandom because of how cute he is."

"I know someone like that." You mumbled without thinking, your mind wandering to your feline friend.

"You do?!" He asked excitedly.

"Yeah." You smiled. "His name was Grim, and he used to live with me, back in the time before."

"Really? Tell me more!"

"He wasn't super smart, or very hard working. He used to call me Henchman, and demand cans of tuna. But when it came down to it, Grim was the one I could rely on the most. But, that might also be because we literally couldn't leave each other." You told him.

"You couldn't?"

"No. I don't have magic, and he did. I'm human, he was a cat. The headmaster of my last school decided to be 'oh so gracious'," you quoted, making air quotes around his catchphrase, "and make the two of us one singular student, allowing us to attend his magic school."

"That seems... dumb. To say the least."

"It was." You deadpanned, before the both of you laughed. "He was a bad headmaster. Towards the end of my stay there, I was practically headmaster, just because of how much work he pushed onto me because he could. But while I was at that school I made friends. And I had Grim. Even if the situation I was in was less than ideal." You smiled as the waitress delivered the food you ordered, with a bundle of silverware.

"Ah. I bet you'd prefer them to an otaku like me."

"Not true!" You defended, pointing your fork at Leviathan. "I like you plenty fine, Levi. You actually remind me a lot of my friend Idia. But," you laughed awkwardly, "at least you leave the house sometimes, and aren't afraid of confrontation. Or, at least, you're not afraid to confront some people. Like your brothers." You set your fork down, stopping your silent threat at Levi, that wasn't actually very threatening to him.

"He was an otaku too?"

"Yes indeed, and a master gamer to boot."

"Better than me?"

"It's hard to say." You shrugged. "The games you guys play are similar, but different. It's not a fair comparison." He seemed placated by this answer. "Your brothers remind me of a lot of my friends from there." You said vaguely.

"Do you miss them?"

"Yeah. They're my friends, of course I miss them. And it's not like I know if and when I'll be able to see them again." You explained gently. "I don't miss the work though. Diavolo was nice and assigned me a tutor and easier assignments until I get the hang of the normal work here. And no one makes me do any extra work, or threatens my food or housing. Well, Lucifer threatens punishments sometimes, but he would never threaten my food or housing, and I won't get punished as long as I do my best and behave." You rambled, smiling at how nice it was here, compared to it was in Twisted Wonderland. "Plus, I have all of you, and Diavolo, and Barbatos, and the other exchange students. I miss my friends from there, and I really wish that I had Grim here with me. But I am happy here." You beamed.

"Maybe if we ask Lucifer, he may know how to get your cat." Leviathan suggested, smiling lightly.

"I would love that. He acts like Mammon, but he feels like an emotional support cat. And, I bet Satan would seriously love having him here too."

"You know, we're all here. If you want to talk."

"I know." You glanced around. "What anime is that cosplay from?" You asked, gesturing at another waitress, changing the subject.

He glanced, and started beaming, immediately launching into a rant about the anime it's from, and the character themself. It was nice that he didn't question the change in subject. You'd tell Levi and the others all about what happened to you, and about what Twisted Wonderland was like. Eventually. Maybe.

Asmodeus:

Saying Asmo was flirty, was an understatement. Possibly the understatement of the century. And while he flirted and charmed nearly every being in existence, he did understand consent, and took every no at face value, stopping when asked. Of course, it's a rejection, so at the beginning you had to explain that no, you're not rejecting him as a person, you like him plenty fine as a person, you just don't always want to be flirted with.

He still did it, but when you asked him to stop he'd make a show of whining about it, but stopping nonetheless. It was annoying, but he did take your 'no' seriously, so in the end it was kind of worth it. Asmo was good for conversation, and he knew all the gossip, so he was nice to hang out with.

You had mentioned a handful of times that he reminded you of someone where you were from where you used to live. But all he ever said in response was that there was no one like him. Which is true, as no one else could truly embody Lust like Asmodeus does.

He was doing a skincare night with you, when you brought it up again.

"You know a lot about skincare already, it's quite impressive." He complimented.

"Yeah, had a friend who took it very seriously." You agreed.

"Is this the same friend that I remind you of?"

"Tis." You smiled, gently rubbing the moisturizer onto his face. "He was an interesting man."

"Interesting man? Interesting how?"

"He was insanely hard working, yet it seemed no one saw that." You started, taking a deep breath. "He was an actor, and social media influencer. And he was talented. Extremely talented. He worked hard to get where he was, but he had the means to get there."

"Anything else I should know about this person?"

"Well, he was good at potions. And like, just as good if not better than Satan and Solomon, good. He had the harshest study routine, but it was worth it. Never failed a potions class if he was tutoring me. He didn't have much time to do so, but I was always grateful when he did." You thought back on the memories fondly, smiling, as you stopped rubbing the moisturizer into his skin, and moving onto the next step. "His methods were.... intense, to say the least." Your smile became strained, remembering the VDC. "But, they got the results he wanted, so I guess he didn't see much issue with it."

"Intense in what way?" Asmo asked, noting your tenseness.

"I was appointed manager for a dance team, an interschool competition thing, you know how competitive people can get." You shook your head lightly. "They all came to live in my dorm because it was mostly empty. But, despite me being manager, he decided I needed to follow the same diet as everyone else. My friends said it was a 'we're all in this together' thing, but I thought he was just being unreasonable. I mean, come on, hexing my food? That's just wasteful. And he didn't even pay me back. I didn't get much money for food in general, because I was the magicless student, and there he went, just wasting what I had." You laughed mirthfully, remembering your anger at the situation, and your frustration.

"Well, in his defense, if he was just looking out for you."

"I would have no problems if that were the case, Azzy." You slightly chastised, but it was playful, and held no real bite. "I took your diet in stride, didn't I?" He nodded in acknowledgement. "I would've been fine with it, if that were the case. But he never paid me back for the food that he hexed, or replaced it. I didn't have much, so no one being able to eat those foods, it was wasteful. I mean, it's not like I got much money, if any, from the school for dorm food, like every other dorm."

"Why wouldn't you?"

"I was the magicless student. The errand person. The pushover. The unpaid therapist or headmaster. Depends on the day." You sighed. "The headmaster didn't want to have to rewrite the budget to factor in an extra dorm, when it only had two students in it, that really only amounted to one student."

"Wait, I thought you've mentioned before that you had a roommate."

"I lived with a fire-breathing, talking cat named Grim, who could use magic, and several ghosts. I say technically one student, because the ghosts were faculty members, technically, but Grim had magic, and I didn't, but I was human and Grim was a cat. So, when I popped out of the woodwork, with no magic, no identification, no way to go home, and no clue about how this world worked, the headmaster was 'oh so gracious'," you mocked, "and put us both in a run down dorm, enrolled as a single student."

"Run down?"

"I mean Run Down. It was called Ramshackle, by other students, and it certainly lived up to it's name. The heater didn't work, I had to curl up with Grimm under every blanket I could find in that house. It was caked in mold and mildew, and dust, until Crowley cleaned it for the VDC. I injured myself more than once." You pointed to a scar on your forearm, where you'd hurt yourself in an attempt to fix up your dorm. "I am, honestly, very grateful, for the opportunity to stay here, in much better conditions. I do miss my friends, and I miss Grim." You admitted.

"Is that why you named that stuffed animal Grim? I thought you were just taking after Mammon in your greed."

"I miss Grim." You stated simply. "He was always with me. We were inseparable. We fought, we bickered, but at the end of the day, I knew if there was one thing, one being, I could rely on consistently, it was Grim. He was my ride-or-die. I named my stuffed animal after him, because I have a hard time sleeping without him. Even just, relaxing, can be hard. I miss him, and I don't know if he's ok. I genuinely, worry about him. And I miss him so much, that it's hard to fully put into words."

"I'm sorry." He offered, and you just smiled at him.

There was not much more Asmodeus could say. He couldn't provide you the comfort that you craved, as he was not your cat, nor could he get you your cat. So, he extended his sympathies, and access to his bed whenever you would like. For cuddles, or for more, he was always down for whatever.

He only hoped that his efforts to be there, and open for you, helped to heal you a little bit in the long run.

Satan:

Satan was nice to be around. He was curious, and he liked to know things and ask questions, so he did tend to pry into your past. But he was always good for book recommendations, and was always happy to discuss any book you wanted.

You found comfort in his fondness for cats, finding a kindred spirit in that regard. You didn't tell him about Grim, not wanting to get his hopes up about maybe meeting your beloved companion. He did notice your love of cats though, and had gotten you a giant cat plushie, as a gift.

You had named it Grim, and it lived on your bed. It was much quieter, and honestly, a bit boring compared to the real thing, but it was good for cuddling in the night when you couldn't sleep because you missed your furry friend. You were grateful that Satan had brought you just a bit of comfort in those moments, even if he didn't know it.

"I had a cat." You started one day when he started reading off cat facts enthusiastically after you had expressed the slightest bit of interest. "He was a rather interesting thing."

"Really? What was he like?" Satan liked to hear you talk about your past in general, but he was especially excited to hear about your cat.

"His name was Grim. And he was big, like 2 feet tall. He had a very distinct look about him. Grey fur, with a white chest," Satan nodded, listening intently, "bright, big, blue eyes. So round they almost looked scary sometimes. His ears, they had blue fire coming out of them, and his tail was shaped like a pitchfork. And he could use magic! He could breathe fire effortlessly, and use magic. He could talk too. Used to talk my ear off." You smiled fondly, happy to be able to talk about your favorite creature. "He'd call me Henchman, or Hench Human. He was a trouble maker. Mammon reminds me of him that way."

"Oh." Satan almost groaned.

"But much like Mammon, at the end of the day, push comes to shove, you can rely on him. That was one of the few things I knew for certain back then. Grim was the only one I could fully rely on. I had other friends, but Grim and I, we were inseparable. He was my best friend. He used to sleep in my bed with me, every night. I'm so used to it, it's honestly.... kind of hard to sleep without him." You admitted, laughing tiredly. "I miss Grim."

"Were you allowed pets, or familiars, at your last school?"

"No. No, I don't think we were." You answered after a moment of thought. "But Grim was a special case. He and I crashed the entrance ceremony. I wasn't supposed to be there, and got yoinked out of another world, but he was just straight up trespassing because he wanted so badly to go to that school, and become a great mage." You laughed at the memory. "He committed arson, I helped calm him down, and the rest is history. We weren't students, originally. We were janitors. The Headmaster only let us stay because I didn't have anywhere else to go, and I proved that Grim could be helpful."

"I thought you said you were a student?"

"I was. Half. I was half of a student." You smiled, taking a tired, yet fond, sigh. "I didn't have magic. But Grim did. So, Crowley determined that we would each be half of a student. He got us both into so much trouble, but he always helped me get out of it. I could always rely on Grim. Except in schoolwork," you admitted, laughing a little, "I was alone in that portion."

A million questions ran through his head, and you could tell the gears were turning. It was almost amusing, seeing him trying to decide on what topic to pick. Should he keep going about your cat? Pry about your headmaster? Ask about your clearly troubled past at this school?

He was quiet, but it wasn't tense, or awkward, just comfortable silence, as you patiently awaited his next question. You knew Satan would choose his words carefully, so as to not make you uncomfortable, so you had no fears. You really didn't want him to ask about Grim's homework habits though. Satan prioritized intelligence, and knowledge. You wanted him to have a good impression of Grim, since you thought the two would get along, despite Grim being similar to his older brother, Mammon.

It took him a few moments, you, peacefully sipping your favorite hot drink, as you waited patiently, reading your book, before he finally picked a topic.

"Was your headmaster, truly that bad?" He asked softly.

"His favorite trick to get me to do what he wanted, when I didn't want to, was to threaten me. My food budget, my housing budget, or even my security at the school. I had others I could rely on, should this happen. The other Housewardens tended to take pity on me when I would show up, practically begging for food, because Crowley wouldn't allow me to have any. They were good people. But I always made sure Grim had stuff to eat. I never let him suffer. He actually learned to share through this. But, a diet of tuna sandwiches, just isn't that good for your health. It was better than nothing though." You shrugged, not looking up from your book. You looked up, to see him looking at you, sadness painting his eyes. "I'm doing better now, Satan." You smiled.

"I don't want to pry, but I do have more questions." You took a deep breath.

"Can I answer them later?" You asked, to which he nodded.

"Take your time."

"Can you do me a favor?"

"Of course."

"Can you look through your books, to see if there's a spell, or an incantation, or a potion, or a ritual, that will help me get Grim? I'm worried about him, and, as you can see," you gestured to your eyebags, which Asmo had tried to hide using makeup, but it was late, so they were started to peek through, "being without him takes a toll. He's like my emotional support cat, you know? My sassy, lazy, loud, annoying, emotional support cat, that I love. And I miss."

"I'll see what I can do." He nodded. "No promises, but I'll look into it."

"That's all I ask." You smiled tiredly.

Beelzebub:

Beelzebub had eaten the majority of the fridge again, and it was your turn to make dinner. You sighed, as he looked at you guiltily. It was getting too close to when you absolutely needed to start cooking so you could serve dinner on time, so you couldn't go shopping for more. You just shook your head, and got to work taking everything out of the fridge and pantry, just to see what was left.

"I'm sorry." Beel offered. "I'll help you cook."

"I've done more with less." You said, not registering his offer, and looking over the ingredients that were left, as you had caught him before he could eat everything. "I just need some time."

"I didn't leave you much. I could go to the store, and get some more." He offered.

"Beel," You looked at him, smiling in amusement. "How much of what you get me would you eat on the way home?" He looked down guiltily once more. "I'm not mad," you assured, "really, I'm not. And I appreciate your offer of help. But I've got this." You smiled once more, before turning back to the ingredients, and picking up a few.

With what little you had, you'd started to make a large delicious meal. Beelzebub watched, in what could only be described as awe, as you stretched what you had into enough to feed the brothers, and something that tasted good. He still felt guilty about eating the majority of what you could've used to make dinner, but he was grateful you weren't mad, and he was curious as to how you knew how to make so little go so far.

After you served the brothers, you kept a little for yourself, and Beelzebub noticed. He noticed that you didn't take much, and when he tried to comment on it, you just winked at him, smiling. After dinner, he was designated for clean up, and you went into the kitchen to keep him company, as he had while you were cooking.

"How did you do that? There wasn't much left, but that was a good meal."

"My last school.... I didn't have much." You started vaguely. "My food budget was small, and often taken away, so I would take what little I was able to beg or barter for from the shop keeper, or the other Housewardens, or my friends, and I'd make it stretch. It helped that they often had some leftovers, especially Scarabia, with their feasts every week. And Jamil was a fabulous cook." You complimented, your mouth watering at the thought of his delicious and carefully prepared food. "But I digress. What I'd do is, I'd prepare meals in advance, as many as I could. I had to. Starvation sounded rather unpleasant, to me."

"It was that bad?"

"Not if I planned correctly." You smiled.

Beelzebub related to the feeling of hunger, and starvation. He was often brushed aside as always hungry because he's the Avatar of Gluttony. But the pain was always there, and it was hard to describe the pain aside from, hungry. You were always patient with him, even if he got grumpy because of his hunger, and now he was starting to see why.

If you understood the feeling of being hungry all the time, and starving to a painful point, it makes sense that you'd not get mad at him. It makes sense to him, that you'd be patient with him. He had always appreciated your patience and kindness, but he had never questioned it. Now he was starting to think he should've.

"Was it just you?"

"No. I had a cat with me. His name was Grim, and he was a lot like Mammon." You described cheerfully. "He mostly ate cans of tuna, which I could get for cheap at the school shop, they weren't super popular, and students tended to leave them at the shop after realizing they were the cheapest option of food I had." You laughed awkwardly. "It was a school of ruffians, and bullies, and people who hated me. But they had the decency to not want me to starve to death."

"You were hated?"

"By some. I wasn't popular, but I had my fair share of friends, don't worry." You assured. "I had the first years friend group, and the Housewardens, and the vice-housewardens and honorary vicehousewardens. Even a lot of the teachers liked me. And even if they didn't, I still had Grim. He was my best friend."

"Was?"

"He's still there, so he still is. We're just not together right now. It's like... it's like a part of me is missing, because he's my best friend." You tried. "And he's still there, but I can't see him, and I can't talk to him. I miss him, a lot. I think you'd like him." You smiled. "He used to sleep on my bed, every night. And he'd complain, and whine, and get both of us into trouble, but he was loyal to a fault, and he was always there when I needed him."

"Was your old headmaster that bad?"

"Oh yeah." You nodded enthusiastically. "He went on vacation so often, and it was more like I was the headmaster towards the end of my time there. What with the amount of paperwork and such I was handling in his stead. On top of schoolwork! And he put me in an old decrepit house, with a fire breathing cat. Granted, I asked for the cat to remain with me, but still. I'm sure he could've found somewhere else to put me."

"That sounds awful."

"It could be. But hey, think of it this way, now I'm prepared if you do this again." You teased. He nodded. "Don't feel too bad, Beel. You didn't even know I existed, you couldn't have done anything."

"I wish you would've told us."

"It's not easy to talk about." You admitted. "It's not like... I had the best experience with a lot of people there. I mean, Overblots, burnout, hunger, on top of basically being an unpaid therapist, an unpaid headmaster, and a full-time student? I was busy, and not every experience is a pleasant one. But it's a part of my life, and I wouldn't change it for anything. Because it was my experience." You explained. He nodded in understanding. "I think you'd like the people I met before. So many good cooks. And Lilia, who is on par with Solomon." You shuddered. "But there was also so many athletics clubs. I bet you'd really like Spelldrive." You smiled.

"Spelldrive?"

"Yeah!"

As you launched into an in-depth explanation of the sport, at least as you understood it, he simply watched. He was glad you'd opened up to him, and to hear that you weren't always alone. He would probably ask Satan if he could find anything about getting your cat for you. But for now, he was just happy to see you being comfortable enough to talk about your past.

Belphegor:

Belphegor liked to visit your dreams whenever you'd let him. They were always so interesting. They almost matched you, in that regard. As you were so strange in his eyes. He was very lucky, able to explore your good dreams. Dreams that told of friends, and adventure. Light hardship, sure, but mostly wonder. And happiness. Along with a cat that seemed to pop up in every dream. He didn't know that he only saw this because he didn't always tune into your dreams. Not every dream is a happy one.

It was one day, when you happened to be taking a nap in his general vicinity, that he drifted off, and entered your dream. He prepared himself for the bright light of the outside of Night Raven College, and for the happy smiling faces, or the sound of laughter, as he usually saw when he joined your in your dreams. What he wasn't expecting, was the fire. The screaming, the fear. He was prepared to watch on happily as you got to see your friends, the people you consider family, in your dreams, but instead, he only saw your terror.

He couldn't look away as you looked on in terror as eight towering figures, covering in black ink, with massive ink monsters behind them cornered you. He recognized some of these faces, they were those of your friends. They were friends, friends who would drive you to work harder, and do better, but would always be there to help in any way they could, if they could, when you asked.

But there was one face he was shocked to see, moreso than the friends. It was your cat. Your cat that had been changed into a hulking, massive beast, and it looked more wild than he had ever seen. It wasn't talking anymore, none of those smart ass comments he'd overhear, it was growling at you, roaring at you. It had never done that before.

Belphegor, unable to stand by as you feared for your life, even in a dream, quickly made his way to in front of you, his back to you.

"You need to wake up."

You heard him, but his voice was muddled in your panic, it sounded like he was under water. You looked at him in confusion.

"What?"

"Wake! UP!" He commanded.

You shot up, gasping for air, as you woke up. Belphegor followed not long after, making his way over, and sitting beside you, as you began to calm down from such a panic-inducing dream. He sat beside you until your breathing was under control, and you weren't shaking as much anymore.

You leaned onto him, your head resting on his shoulder, and feeling embarrassed. It wasn't often that you had these nightmares, but they were always intense and unpleasant when you did. You didn't think he knew, he'd never visited those dreams. It's not as though you were actively hiding it, you'd told him that you'd had nightmares before, but you were ashamed that he had seen them firsthand.

You both just sat in silence for several moments, before he spoke first.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, softly.

"They don't know about the nightmares. I mean, my closer friends do, but those who the nightmares are about, don't. They don't need that."

"Why are they in your nightmares? And why did they look like that?"

"They lost control of their emotions, and their magic overwhelmed them. They weren't in control, when they looked like that. That was their anger, and sadness, their pain, that was in control of them, with their magic creating the ink monsters behind them." You explained, quietly. "I don't blame them, no one can be expected to hold it together for so long, but that doesn't make it any less unpleasant."

"And your cat?"

"I don't know why I have nightmares about him like that." You admitted. "I think it's because I miss him, and I'm scared of what will happen to him without me there."

"How long have you had these nightmares?"

"They started after the first Overblot, that's what they're called," you explained simply, "but they only got worse as more Overblots happened."

"Was there no one you could go to?" You shook your head.

"I couldn't go to Crowley, he was useless," you laughed humorlessly, "the teachers were nice, but they couldn't do anything. I told my friends, and they tried their best, but nothing ever really helped. Grim used to sleep on my bed with me, and that would chase the nightmares away pretty well, but," you trailed off.

"You don't have him with you now, so the nightmares are back with a vengeance?" You nodded, smiling a little at his wording. He wrapped an arm around you. "Do you miss him?"

"I do."

He knew you did, he knew that was a redundant question. But he wanted to hear it from you, as a sort of confirmation. He felt bad that you missed your cat, and he wished he could do something about it, but he knew he couldn't. So you two just sat in silence, comforted by the warmth of the room, and the calm atmosphere around the two of you.

He had always wondered why, or even how, you'd taken his actions in stride. How you'd forgiven him so easily. He knew now, that it was just in your nature after having gone through so much at your last school. He decided in that moment that he'd make an effort to be the person to hold a grudge on your behalf, to let people know that you may have forgiven them, but he certainly hasn't, and he hasn't forgotten what they've done to you. He didn't voice this, but he knew that you knew how he felt.

But for now, you two just sat there, comfortable, and warm. He wanted to apologize, and say he'd do everything in his power to get you your cat, but he didn't want to say that without a guarantee that he could do it. So there you sat, close, and comfortable.

"I'll chase your nightmares away." He offered, just barely a whisper, yet because of your proximity, you heard it.

"Thanks Belphie." You smiled tiredly, happy to hear that he would protect your dreams.

You drifted off not long after, Belphie following close behind. But he kept his word, and your nightmares didn't plague you after that, whenever Belphie could help it.

[shinigamigloss]

lazuli

✎ two years since the night Leon left you, and today is Leon’s 23rd birthday (yes yes yes!! part two of bye bye baby blue <3)

cw: emotional hurt / comfort, angst, grief, second chances, hallucinations, post-traumatic stress, unreliable narrator, and one more chapter to go! (written with leon in mind in the opening scene of re4r) word count: 2.5k and tagging some lovely people here: @preeyas-world + @carmendanny2 + @senawashere

⌕ part 1 ┃looking for a playlist while reading?

You have been, for a while, in the habit of mingling with the gloom and the rain – either your ally or your persistent nemesis.

Ever since the night of September 30th, you’ve been suspended in an ambivalent state. Insomnia and carmine question marks prowled in the depths of your mind.

The trouble is that your memory, like your very dreams, has grown weary of storing the minute remnants of Leon.

So long has it been since you’d last seen or heard from him that sometimes, even when all alone – or in the midst of friends and interim ‘lovers’ – you’d find yourself searching for him in the measly details of your apartment.

And the flat was a big, bare space.

The bedroom had become a strange void. The lonely, withered corner of the mattress felt too wide on its own. You were very small in that perfect bed, and yet so enormous – like some foolish victim of Procrustes, who should have been cut and reshaped to fit, just to feel whole again.

There were also certain days when you’d find yourself evading people's and coworkers’ probing questions as though skirting bullets.

Queries about the boy you were once engaged to, back in your hometown, would venture into your private matters like razor-edged knives through gauze. Mercifully, the silence that followed a lethargic ‘we broke up’ – spoken to eyes dilating with anticipation – came as ephemeral as the flight of a butterfly.

Friends, relatives, and colleagues soon learned how to retreat into the safety of their own routines, folding away their curiosity like a letter that needn’t be read in the first place.

Many more years rolled by, yet not once did he answer the letters of penitence you sent.

---

Time only ever flies, and all you ever do is wander through the decay of memory.

There begins the first stage of separation, ringing your doorbell.

Recognizing his absence, you suffer the lesions and tears of a once-treasured love, now gathering only grayish dust. All you’ve got left is a proper heartache, followed by sundry seasons of naked solitude.

Nightmares precede a mosaic of nights and intricate dreams that can no longer be manually captured. Phase two comes out of the blue.

You sell the apartment on some peripheral morning, donate what little remains of Leon’s belongings to a local orphanage, pawn the ring that once mattered, cut your hair shorter than ever before, and leave the shelter with a cat.

So, it happens. Leon is no more.

Blessed by the passage of seasons, you grow inured to this new state of reality. A Leon-less life, if you will.

April arrives, bearing its recognizable heat.

It’s a crisp morning with the aroma of damp earth and tentative blossoms. The cemetery is deserted, save for the distant whistling of the brisk wind through the rows and lines of stonework. You still stall around.

There are very many names written on the tombstones.

A bouquet of lazuli-pigmented forget-me-nots in your hand, the petals evanish glum beneath your grip. Always the same flowers. He would’ve liked them, you suppose. A pretty blue had always been his hue.

You once read it with a lump lodged in your chest: the contents of a frosty letter sent by the department. At the bottom, a single signature. No words of clarification. No remission.

Nothing but a grave and a date: September 30th, 1998. The date of the ice-cold night he stormed out of the house you two nursed.

Your fingers splay out to touch the name carved in stone.

Leon S. Kennedy.

Crouching next to the epitaph, you sow your flowers beside him, ritualistically so.

“Happy birthday,” you whisper aloud, although you’re not sure if your hushing has even left your throat. It’s all a misguided venture as it is.

Two whole years. So easy to count. So hard to go through.

And yet, for some odd reason, you never believed that he was truly gone. Not ever, not so much for the sensitive elements of a moment in space.

It may be your mechanism that’s playing a backstage trick on you. Perhaps science has another name for it: a molecular aversion to recognition, a chemical romance with escapism.

Does it matter, and to whom?

Such is the viscosity of your staircase of thought that you barely register the voice beside you, even the second time it demands attention.

“Dying. It’s so strange,” the voice intones, neutral and dry.

What an absurd observation. Who even says that?

No, wait.

Who dares to say that?

Why should anyone seek a stranger’s take on the great hard knocks?

Much as this puts you in a tailspin, you decide not to look up and face the man talking to you. There are weeds growing underneath Leon’s tombstone, and you pluck them out in lieu of bothering yourself.

“Strange or not, it’s the most real thing there is,” you mouth all the while.

“No kidding,” the man carries a glimmer of amusement in his phrasing.

Quietness creeps in between you. The April chill mingles with drifting dust motes from spring blossoms. The stranger, patient and hollow-eyed, waits for you to finish tending the grave.

“Who is this Leon guy again?” he asks.

Why prod, and to what end?

It’s his words, his calm, his stillness – all coalesce into one terminal voltage, a shock so searing that it rends your very composure.

You turn, face twisted into the sourish form it identifies itself with.

He looks back at you. An unfazed kind of smile touches his lips.

It could be right then – that moment when your world collapses in on itself. Your knees give a gross shake. The reflection of the man in your eyes dilates your pupils enormously.

“Hi, love,” he greets heartily, and you blink at the dead.

No dream has ever felt as visceral on the skin as it does now. No dream until today: the middle of April, the twentieth of the month. Leon’s 23rd birthday.

Tearful, as if bullying your brain, which signals your twitching lower lip to halt. A blue color rudely paints the flesh as you worry it.

Love? What love? How come love?

Leon holds out his hand, but you don’t so much as flinch.

He stands there, breathless and tall, as if Hades had granted a day-pass for the dead men.

You’re still falling through the dented tunnel of disbelief, allowing reality to make its grand entrance into the spectacle.

“You’re dead,” you lock your jaw.

His helping hand comes to naught. On your own, you get back on your feet.

“I’ve got no time for this anyway.” You wear an overly stern expression and gesticulate awkwardly to be entirely convincing. Cast out the unwanted from your vision.

Leon sighs in the wake of this. His brows crease with something sedated, whilst the downward curve of his mouth speaks of a telltale concern.

He looks devastating.

His clothes (all dark and ink blue, tailored well to his physique) are disheveled and distinctly perfumed with the pleasant tang of his cologne in the breezy, pollen-laden air around him.

“Maybe I was dead,” there’s a bounce in his voice.

Does he ever hear the things he speaks? How completely impertinent can he be?

“Don’t give me that shit,” you blurt out the first thing that lights up in your thoughts.

“What shit, exactly?” Leon exhorts you to give voice.

“This. Shit. This and that.”

Your gaze wanders to him. The patches of the past on his skin remind you of young bruises: yellow, pallid, and rimmed with green.

He’s as in your sleepless visions: cynical and, above all, blinkered. Maybe if you looked at him from a good angle, you could feasibly see the riverscapes of the things he had been up to. Pity you can’t do such a trick in a million dreams.

“Hmm,” is the most Leon says.

Hot reds pump through your veins. You tell yourself that if you only close your eyes, all should be well. 

So, you close your eyes, reopen them, hoping to be taken all the way back to the earthly population of your dull, mean world. 

“That won’t be at all necessary, sweetheart.” Endearment escapes him through a habitual slip of the tongue. 

Fuck. 

“No, it’s absolutely necessary,” you counter sharply. 

“It’s not.” 

“Why won’t you shut the hell up?” 

In that little snippet of the reunion scenario, the cooling affection of his hand falls from your shoulder and lingers in the palm of your hand. 

“Can’t,” Leon says calmly. “I found you once. I’m not just going to leave you. Not like this.” 

Your lover assumes the shape of your sightline the minute you blink into existence. A larger Leon, with a face marred by the lines of tiredness. Longer hair that has faded to a shade of silken gold. Mocha once fondled his crown, but no longer. 

What your eyes behold is not the sum of what your heart already knows. 

“Bullshit,” your teeth kiss the bottom of your lip; Leon curls his fingers about yours, as if you might slip away from his hold. 

“You can’t be real,” you breathe in deeply, “this has happened before. Happens all the time. You just walk in, piss me off, and walk out.” 

“I’m here anyway,” he returns in a controlled intonation, lest he wake the world around you. 

“I had to come back for you.” 

He brings your hand to the right side of his face. No other layer of skin has felt so genuine since flesh forgot tenderness and, instead, digested the mechanics of sex. 

Cautiously, you take a small step. The gravel underfoot crunches listlessly away. 

“This is a hallucination. That’s all it is. Side effect.” You shake off a chill first. 

“The doctor told me.” You go quiet then. 

Rubbing his chin with a gloved hand, Leon adopts the barest of attitudes. 

“If I were your imagination, I would have a better way in. And what doctor are you—” 

“Stop talking! It is not funny.” 

The admonition strikes a jarring chord. A privilege, even after all these years, to have known him well enough to catch that flicker of mortification sparking briefly across his face. 

This sting – not so readily trivialized. It hurts still. 

He needs to see what an impossibly starless path you’ve meandered since his omission. 

“They said you were dead. You were buried.” You broach the matter; he’s already marrow-deep in your gaze. 

The buried aren’t meant to return, and it’s to the banshee’s dismay that the living should witness what has already died. It’s the rule, is it not? 

Leon’s stare glaciates to shades of electric blues. 

“You think I wanted this?” His question fractures like the snap of a twig at his feet. 

Impulsively, he closes in on you, one more step into your orbit. That’s his vivid tint shimmering in your irises. 

“I was protecting you,” he talks trash under his breath. 

(Classic.)

“By dying?” 

“No,” he rasps, “by staying dead.” 

“Oh, my God! Of course you did. Played the hero as always. Well, Clark Kent, where might your glasses be?” Sarcasm gushes from your tongue, and with good reason. 

How utterly vulgar you can be when you want to be. 

Leon pinches the bridge of his nose. 

“Is it really that damn hard to put your trust in me?” he gnashes his teeth. 

“Funny, I remember how you gladly dumped me that night.” 

“That’s the part you know!” 

“And that’s more than enough to hate you!” 

Leon teeters and flutters an eyelid, gobsmacked in the most graphic condition possible. 

The air chokes the soul. Pinpricks of raindrops splatter in the heart of a moment of whirlwind daze. Dappled on his shoulders and dripping on his face, a drizzle catches on his lashes like the dew on cast iron. 

Hell, Leon’s everything aches: his cadence, his posture. His hand twitches in an attempt to gloss something indecipherable and unspeakable. You no longer listen to him. 

Against all sense, you come one step to the fore. You desperately need to be sure he’s the genuine article. 

Halfway through his sentence – “If I had stayed, they would’ve—” your mouth collides with his. Teeth knock. 

There’s no precision to it. No poetry written into the pell-mell kisses. No. It’s rather an open wound under the gelid water. 

His lips are mist-tinged and piteous, but just a touch belated. Yet as your hands reach for his collar and fist the sodden fabric, something inside him gives way. His breath betrays him. Mouth softens, and the kiss burrows deeper with a distant clap of thunder in the sky. 

His fingers clamber up to frame your mizzle-kissed face. Flesh and heat and bone. Salt too. 

He feels it all in the precious jostle of a millisecond into the present. 

At last, the skin honors the color of his touch. 

“I fucked up real bad. Shit, sweetheart. I lost you.” He leans close to you then, severing the kiss. 

His eyes twinkle like they’ve been washed in the storm and then reddened in the incandescent flames. 

You trace a cool hand along the faint arch of his jawline, newly chiseled since the last time your lips connected with his. 

To draw him closer to you is to abrogate every wound that is still healing. 

To pull away would be to abandon the part of you that has never stopped waiting. 

Oh, but this is no fantasy; gone is the brutal game born from the illicit marriage of chimera and sorrow. 

He’s real. 

What a way to get a hit in. What a kiss. 

Like the first breath after drowning, it’s a lovely but cold blue sinkhole. Takes much to last. 

“Oh, God,” you breathe through lips bitten raw. “The letters… they… god. No way.” 

A shallow draft of wind punches through your lungs. You come to a stop. 

“They said… ‘Leon was like this and like that. Very brave, and—” 

Beautiful cursive on blank paper – robotic condolences from men and women in polished shoes – flare up behind your eyes like credits ticking down within the frame of a movie’s swan song. 

Something feels out of sync. 

“Sweetheart, I can’t really understand you when you’re like this.” Leon holds you by the arms with a kind of makeshift smile in some strange sort of shape. 

(Or it’s your fallibility playing mind games again and against you.) 

“Do you also feel the ground moving, or is it just—” 

Your knees give out as if you’re an archaic scaffold. A marionette whose cords have been snapped. 

Leon catches you in the nick of time – but only just. 

Your sepia-tinted filter, already bleeding at the margins, begins to blur his features. 

Leon’s flustered shock hangs above until his visage is brush-stroked in a moonless black. 

[teriri-sayes]

Reactions to The Light's Chapter 436

Brief summary: The kids scold Cale and Sui. Clopeh bribes his way in the castle. Sui tells Cale what he saw.

==========

Continuing last chapter, the kids scolded Cale. 😂

Raon: Human, do you ever think about what other people might feel? Hong: I wonder if you're in a position to say anything. On: Sigh. Cale: ... Sui: Pfft. Cale: ... Raon: Sui Khan-ah. Do you think it's time to laugh? Sui: ... Hong: *pats Sui's leg with his front paw* It's not time to laugh. Sui: ... On: Sigh. Cale: ... Sui: ... On: We're being careful not to get hurt, too. Cale: ... Sui: ... On: You have to know how to take care of yourself. Narrator: At On's continued words, the two were left speechless, and their shoulders slightly hunched.

Sui getting scolded too... 🤣🤣🤣

Cale: *expecting that Clopeh found a way to secretly enter the castle at night (go over the castle walls) and find lodging (steal the house of a resident)* Clopeh: *bribes his way in through the front gate* Clopeh: *also bribes a resident to lend his residence* Cale: … Sui: … On: … Hong: … Raon: Human, what just happened? Cale: *amazed at Clopeh's skills because his allies never worked like that*

AHAHAHAHAHA!!! 🤣🤣🤣 Cale and his group were so used to sneaking around that they didn't expect to simply pass through the main door because of plain bribery. 😂😂😂

The castle guards even gave Clopeh info (Clopeh gave them another bribe, of course) about the night patrols, the castle's servant organization chart, and the location of the heir candidate from Count Lupe's branch family. Once again, Cale was amazed at Clopeh, especially that Clopeh had done all this within two hours.

And when Cale sincerely praised Clopeh's good work, Clopeh was ecstatic. He even volunteered to find information on how to treat Sui's injury, in hopes of getting praised by Cale again. 😂

Sui's injury mysteriously continued to bleed despite the first aid done, so Cale speculated that this must be due to an ability of the enemy. And Cale's reactions to the injury...

And Cale's eyes were also turned upside down. Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo, dead, leaving only Kim Rok Soo behind. When they finally met again, Lee Soo Hyuk had a new body, a young body. But that body was now injured, and wouldn't stop bleeding. Cale's heart was beating harder than he thought it would when he saw his team leader, Sui Khan, smiling with a pale face. -Mmm. Raon whispered to On and Hong. -It looks like my human is going to destroy them all this time! To that, On and Hong nodded their heads in agreement.

Angry Cale... Injured Sui made him recall his trauma of seeing LSH

Sui learned that the GoC cult planned to take over the Demon Realm by spreading the Gray Disease, and then offering a cure for it. But he witnessed the annihilation of a village due to the GoC cult using it as an experimental site on how to spread the Gray Disease. And that was why he got angry and caught the enemy's attention.

The next day, Cale and Clopeh continued their acting as siblings.

Clopeh continued without wiping the smile off his face. “I have plenty of money, and I've brought an endless supply.” And then he added. “I hope I can spend it as I please?” Cale nodded eagerly at Clopeh's words. “Yes! Hyung, just spend it however you want!” “Fufu.” A city of commerce where the lord had disappeared. A place where rules and integrity disappeared and competition and corruption began to overflow. There smiled Clopeh Sekka, who had packed a lot of jewelry and gold, really a lot of jewelry and gold, into his subspace pockets just in case. Cale looked at Clopeh Sekka with sparkling eyes. For the first time in Cale's life, Clopeh felt reassuring. The chaotic Diorel. Suddenly there was a crazy rich man, Clopeh Sekka.

How to get Cale to call you "hyung": Be stinking rich. 🤣🤣🤣

Ending Remarks I'm laughing at happy Clopeh today. 😂 Next chapter would be a continuation of Cale and Clopeh's sibling act. I wonder what Cale is planning.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Animorphs #4: The Message thoughts (pt. 3):

"I ended up being a little late" (p. 56). Okay, this is brilliant. I'm noticing just how often the narrator is slightly late to a team meeting, and damn. This is the best literary device ever. How have I never spotted this before? It's the easiest way ever to skip small talk, lead-ups, recaps, and all the boring parts of the conversation. The narrator's a little late to the meeting, so as soon as they get there everyone just dives right in. Literally, in this case. I have to remember this trick.

Marco almost dies of blood loss because nobody knows how morphing works and Cassie freezes under pressure. This team needs an Ax.

Love that Ax's reaction to seeing humans for the first time is "Gaaaaah! Fuck! What is that!?!?!?" [shoots it with a dracon beam] And then 10 seconds later is like "Oh wait, didn't Elfangor say something about how Earth is full of furless bipeds? And that they're our allies? Oops."

Also, Ax, bby. He immediately goes "take me to your leader!" and then ignores Jake trying to Homer Simpson into the bushes in his haste to pledge to die for Jake's cause. Poor kid. He just found out his big brother died and he will adopt a surrogate, no matter how much the surrogate in question kicks and screams in protest.

I've always found the detail about Earth being terraformed to match the yeerk homeworld to be one of the most chilling in the series. It makes sense, since that's what humans plan to do to Mars and what England tried on every other country on the planet, but learning about that after a book's worth of the richness of cetaceans' and birds' worlds is a damn gut punch. Plus, it's Cassie. She understands better than anyone what would be lost, if our sun were kandonaized and all inedible species annihilated.

Animorphs books can be read here | Book Club schedule is here

[lu-is-not-ok]

On topic of one of your reblongs The Wild Hunt/Necromancy ARE NOT extension of Heathcliffs EGO I believe. Sadly I do not have the most in depth argumentation at this moment because I am pulling all of this from my memory, but regardless.

1. - Through Canto 6 we get a few inklings that the line between life and death at Wurthering heights is blurred, most specifically through Josephine who seemingly is able to hear her already dead mistress. If I recall correctly, there's even a direct mention of an underground river flowing underneath WH, which leads me to

1,5. - We are shown several times that Rivers (Simmilar to stars), are places supernatural powers can originate from. River of Oblivion (Lethe), The river from which we pulled abnormalities. Thus, I believe that the river underneath is either Acheron (The river through which the dead are transported) or Cocytus (The river by which the dead wander, unable to go into proper afterlife.) Point is, I believe that the necromancy, and Wild Hunt are tied NOT to the individual of Heathcliff and his EGO, but to powers of the river which flows close to the surface of his home. That is NOT to say that the coffin or Dullahan themselves aren't EGO, rather, I think those two sources of supernatural reinforce each other. 2. There's also the fact that even at the end of Lobotomy Corporation we learned existance of Wild Hunt, and Faust presented it as a phenomenon rather than something applicable only to this. Before White Nights and Darkest Days, the only person who manifested EGO we know of was Kali, so that also implies to me that this phenomenon exists from different means than EGO.

You seem to be missing important bits of information that point towards necromancy being something Heathcliff himself might just have the potential of developing. Whether it's E.G.O or some other kind of ability we have yet to be introduced to is unclear, but it was made clear this is something tied to him.

Wild Hunt Heathcliff's Uptie Story has his narration state the following: "Though its origin is a mystery still, I came to learn how to command loyalty of the dead. Yet I had no teacher. I suppose my transformation was inevitable, as it was for my countless other selves in the infinite worlds."

This ability is reflected in gameplay through him being able to raise his allies from the dead. Because of this, we know that it's not something tied to the Manor, as he can use this ability on any stage of the game.

We also have a potential moment that might be hinting towards our Heathcliff developing similar abilities in Nocturnal Sweeping. He's able to get up and continue fighting despite being wounded in a way that should be fatal. He then comically falls dead once made aware of it. Knowing PM, the fact that it's framed as a joke means there might be foreshadowing hiding here.

Additionally you bring up Faust presenting The Wild Hunt as a phenomenon, but you miss the way she describes it. "They appear to be imperfect Identities, summoned from worlds chosen at random. It is the fate that awaits all those who become thralls to that Heathcliff. A phenomenon in which a Mirror World entity wreaks havoc across the dimensions in pursuit of every Heathcliff… In other words, the 'Wild Hunt'." She explicitly calls out that it's tied to Heathcliff.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading roundup: march 2025

posting a day early because I don't want to stress about trying to speed read to finish either of the books I'm working on in the final hours of March lmao.

March has felt very long, thanks in part to a spring break extended by a trip to Alaska that culminated in a frantic, 24 hour scramble across three airports to get home in spite of some genuinely horrific weather and countless changed flights. among other problems, I didn't get to read as much as I would have liked to on the way home, because I was too busy stressing about whether or not I was going to make it home at all.

but! despite the horrors we persist, and March has still yielded an interesting book crop - and the first bingo on my 2025 book bingo sheet! also, in writing up this post I realized I read several trans authors (Liontas, Hoffman, Zhao, and several anthology contributors) during the same month when Trans Day of Visibility takes place. it wasn't intentional at all, but I do think it's neat :)

what have I been reading?

Sex With a Brain Injury: On Concussion and Recovery (Annie Liontas, 2025, read by Natalie Naudas) - Sex With a Bran Injury is by far the biggest smash success so far of my tentative foray into audio books. it weaves memoir, history, and politics, examining Liontas' own triad of traumatic head injuries as well as the history of such injuries and the factors that lead to them. Liontas examines figures such as Henry VIII, positing that his erratic behavior may have been the result of a head injury inflicted by jousting, as well as contemporary causes of concussions (hello, the NFL!) and the grim statistics for Black men with undiagnosed head trauma, many of whom end up losing years of their lives behind bars because of behavior directly caused by their trauma. it's all expertly woven into Liontas' own account of their repeated injuries and the strain it put on their relationships, particularly with their wife. Liontas articulates their changing mental capacities in excruciating detail, perfectly communicating the frustration and helplessness they felt as whole portions of their brain seemed lost to them and the myriad of reasons why they struggled to ask for help no matter how bleak things became. I also have to shout out Naudas for being a truly exquisite narrator, thoroughly embodying Liontas' narrative. her voice is so great to listen to that I genuinely want to go listen to more audio books just to hear more of her - especially since she's narrated some books I've already read and loved, like Nghi Vo's The Chosen and the Beautiful and Helen Hoang's The Heart Principle.

The Weavers of Alamaxa (Hadeer Elsbai, 2024) - Elsbai's first book, The Daughters of Izdihar, was sort of an unexpected gem for me last year, offering up a tale of fantasy feminism rooted in a city based on 20th century Egyptian. while it isn't strictly groundbreaking - magic users are lightly oppressed, women are oppressed, the rich girl has to learn class consciousness to ally with the poor girl for feminism - but I had fun! and then I read the second book in the duology, and I had... less fun. while Daughters certainly wasn't afraid to get dire - rampant misogyny, police brutality, the death of a supporting character during a protest gone wrong - Weavers escalated the stakes significantly, straight into a war against a neighboring monarchy that seeks to exterminate weaves (think elemental magic users comparable to Avatar's benders) altogether. what follows is a bloody struggle that kills off several more supporting characters before resolving itself with improbable speed, largely thanks to one of the protagonists gaining access to powerful new magic that feels, frankly, like Elsbai pulled it out of her ass. that sounds mean, but unfortunately this book just doesn't satisfy. the first book's struggle for suffrage, playing on familiar patterns with a fantastical twist, feels utterly lost in favor of heightening drama for drama's sake to the point that the previous book's plot feels almost perfunctory. could have been a standalone, I fear.

The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Typing (Merve Emre, 2018) - an indispensable read if you, like me, are an avowed MBTI hater - or, frankly, if you're an MBTI lover in need of a reality check re: the indicator's extremely eugenicist origins. emphasized with a crash course through the history of American psychological trends (including a truly unbelievable attempt to profile Hitler), this is a thorough and thoroughly WILD tour through the lives of Jungian child abuser Katharine Briggs and her crotchety, franchising daughter Isabel Briggs Myers. the only thing missing, for me, is more insider gossip on Emre's experience doing mandatory MBTI training in exchange for access to Myers Briggs' correspondence (spoilers: she was, ultimately, denied), but no book can give you everything.

The Prospects (KT Hoffman, 2024) - a romance between two minor league baseball players, one of whom is the first trans man in pro baseball! it's perfectly fine, although absolutely loaded with jargon about baseball politics that will mean nothing to you if you're not a baseball enjoyer and there's not strictly enough plot to justify being nearly 400 pages long. at risk of shamelessly self-promoting, a more thorough review will be up on my patreon on Tuesday :3

What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing From Complex Trauma (Stephanie Foo, 2022) - let me be so clear: I don't have CPTSD. I don't even have regular PTSD. I have different baggage and different mental health problems than Stephanie Foo does, and that's fine! not every memoir needs to hit at a personal level! but man... it hit at a personal level anyway, because despite our hugely different experiences and outcomes, Foo and I share a lot of the same struggles. reading about the ways she found to grow and heal beyond her hurt, all written about in a tone that's brusque and even humorous without ever cheapening the seriousness of the subject matter, really resonated with me. I'm unfamiliar with Foo's previous work in radio, but I got really emo reading about her progress, and the whole book made me feel really seen.

Convenience Store Woman (Sayaka Murata, 2016, trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori, 2018) - read this book in a single day at it is a TIME. Keiko you are god's strongest aroace autism warrior and you did not let ANYONE change you. you live and die by that convenience store, girl, fuck yeah.

Heavenly Tyrant (Xiran Jay Zhao, 2024) - I was so, so worried that after years of waiting Heavenly Tyrant wasn't going to live up to the hype of Iron Widow, and god. I should not have stressed even a little bit. while the giant mecha battles that were such a standout part of Iron Widow take a bit of a lesser role in the sequel, that's only because our heroine, Wu Zetian, is busy fighting for her life as she becomes the reluctant empress of Qin Zheng, world's #1 shithead socialist nightmare boyfriend. (your honor. I'm sorry. but he is SO funny.) after Weavers of Alamaxa this book was particularly satisfying in its portrayal of drawn out, bloody, terrifying political upheaval in which there are no clear good guys anywhere to be found. this book is too huge to be perfect - maybe it's overstuffed, maybe it's a little too didactic about socialism, maybe the writing is too uneven as it strains against the bonds of technically being YA - but I don't care, I couldn't put it down and it was wild enough to keep me entertained the whole way through. following in the footsteps of Iron Widow, the final few chapters of Heavenly Tyrant escalate the stakes to absolutely dizzying new levels, and I'm both confused and excited. where the hell will the third book go with this? I have no idea, but I can't wait to find out.

Meet Kaya (Janet Shaw, illustrations by Bill Farnsworth and Susan McAiley, 2002) - one of my lovely students recently gifted me a copy of Meet Kaya because Kaya was my #1 favorite of the historical characters from American Girl. (no, I never had a doll; I was a books only girlie.) these books are itty bitty and can be read in about 15 minutes, and they're jam-packed with little details about the time period and culture that each girl inhabits. in the case of Kaya, a Nimiipuu (or Nez Perce) girl living in 1764, I think that the story does suffer some from the amount of time that Shaw (a white woman) takes to explain aspects of Plateau Indian life that would be much less familiar to contemporary child readers than the lives of more recent, white characters like Victorian Samantha or WW2-era Molly. still, the book gave me a pleasant kick of nostalgia, and since I never finished the series as a kid (my school library was LACKING) I'd love to go back and finish them all now since they make for sweet palate cleansers, but first I want to do some investigating into any critique of the books from Nimiipuu or other Native critics to make sure that the depiction of Kaya and her family is at least moderately accurate and well-researched. while I was in Alaska I looked up another old favorite, Julie of the Wolves, and found that it's been pretty thoroughly panned by many Native reviewers for Jean Craighead George's sloppy depictions of Native language and culture (and of life in Alaska generally), and I'd rather not waste time on something if it's poorly written.

Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change & Consumerism (Aja Barber, 2021, read by Barber) - there are parts of this book that are informative and interesting, namely regarding the wasteful excess of the textile industry and fast fashion in particular, but man. this book just felt very directionless and unfocused in places. I don't know that we needed to take time to explain that white people having negative experiences and difficult lives doesn't negate the concept of white privilege! surely we can expect a little more of the reader than that! as is, the activism 101 approach and Barber's exceedingly casual authorial voice makes this comes across as a book best suited to reality checking Shein-hauling 18 year olds.

Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons With Racism in Medicine (Uché Blackstock, MD, 2024) - I read this book in tandem with Linda Villarosa's Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation, which I'm still working on as I write this. while Villarosa takes a more journalistic, big picture approach to America's racial healthcare disparities, Blackstock gives an overview of many of those issues while providing a much more intimate account of her experiences as a Black legacy physician (after her mother, also Dr. Blackstock). it's both a touching tribute to the example set by Blackstock's mother and an excruciating look at the racism deeply entrenched in American healthcare, from the adulation of medical experiments done on enslaved people to the subpar care available to Black and brown communities in many parts of the country today.

Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror (ed. Sofia Ajram, 2024) - not to be confused with the Chuck Tingle horror novel of the same name! like many short story anthologies, this one has high highs and low lows, and if you're not a fan of stories in which the gays almost invariably die (sometimes from supernatural causes, and sometimes from run of the mill hate crimes), it's probably not worth the slog to find out which is which. my personal favorites were Son M.'s "This Body Is Not Your Home," which had the vibe of enjoyable YA written by a grade-A edgelord reminiscent of Alaya Dawn Johnson's gay zombie love story "Love Will Tear Us Apart"; August Clarke's "Cleodora," because I love evil dykes and creepy ladies from the sea; LC Van Hessen's "American Gothic," which is the second story in the collection to ask the evergreen question "what if you killed a guy while you were fucking him and then he came back, would that be fucked up or what?"; and November Rush's "Black Hole," which is sort of like Stephenie Meyer's The Host if it was fun.

and, as always, my bingo sheets:

the spontaneous sheet, filled in with whatever happens to apply, is going great! by my count I've got three bingos, and it's nearly completely full

the sheet for the boos that I actually planned out to complete all of the bingo prompts is... doing a little less awesome, to put it mildly, but I have plans to remedy the situation!

[anthurak]

Okay, so here’s a Salem theory I’ve recently come up with that ties into an aspect of her character that I feel has been largely under-explored:

The fact that in many respects, Salem is all too similar to RUBY.

As I’ve stated in the past in other posts, there are some very interesting similarities that can be drawn between Ruby and Salem. To the point where I think we can consider Salem to be Ruby’s true ‘evil-counterpart’ in the story. Particularly ever since the ‘Girl in the Tower’ episode of Fairy Tales of Remnant.

The Girl in the Tower showed that Salem ALSO had a great love for stories as a child, just like Ruby. And across the show, we have shown Ruby develop a number of traits and abilities much like what we have seen from Salem.

Both have built a select group of close and loyal allies, and in recent volumes, Ruby has displayed a growing talent in manipulating her enemies to gain advantage over them just like Salem. And as of the Volume 9 epilogue and Beyond, we are seeing Ruby rallying the entire world against Salem, just like Salem once did against the gods.

Heck, Ruby likely has her own equivalent to Ozma in PENNY, as recent volumes have emphasized more and more. A great warrior in green touched by magic who is tragically taken from Ruby, only to be brought back and then taken from her again.

There are even notable similarities in their physical abilities: Ruby’s Silver Eyes seem to be a power drawn from the God of Light, just like Salem’s immortality. And as I’ve theorized in other posts, recent revelations about Ruby’s semblance might mean that Ruby could potentially be just as unkillable as Salem.

It all feels like something that could very naturally build to a classic “We are not so different, you and I…” twist and exchange between Ruby and Salem.

Ultimately, I think a/the big twist and reveal about Salem that we’re eventually going to get is that she is a fallen hero. And more specifically, that she represents a fallen RUBY.

Let’s consider for a moment that we have every reason to view Jinn as an unreliable narrator when it comes to her vision in Volume 6.

And when we start looking at Jinn’s vision with the knowledge that it is almost certainly both HEAVILY skewed in favor of the God of Light and meant to paint Salem in as UNFAVORABLE light as possible, then I think we can get a much better picture of Salem in the old world.

Again, I think that the biggest and yet most natural and logical narrative twist we could see here is a big reveal that Salem was in fact absolutely a HERO, and more specifically was essentially the RUBY of her time: She united the whole world, just like Ruby is doing. All to lead humanity against a terrible threat, just like Ruby is doing.

And Salem ultimately FAILED.

Salem was able to unite humanity and lead them against the gods, only for it to all go terribly wrong. When the gods (likely Light, given both the unreliable nature of Jinn’s narration and what we learned from the Blacksmith) wiped humanity out and left Salem alive as a ‘punishment’ for her ‘insolence’ for rising up against them.

Thus does Salem represent a dark and tragic look at a Ruby who ultimately failed. And was so completely and utterly BROKEN as a result that she has eventually become twisted into a terrible villain.

And the really cool thing is; if we start looking at Salem as essentially representing a broken, fallen Ruby who has become a villain, I think this could give us an avenue to guessing just what Salem’s REAL goals truly are.

Because what might a fallen, twisted, villainous Ruby who failed to save humanity actually WANT?

Well, what if Salem actually wants to bring Old Humanity BACK?

As in, undo the destruction wrought by the gods and REMAKE her old world. And more specifically, undo her great FAILURE.

Unfortunately, Salem also views the PRESENT humanity/faunus as nothing but regrettable collateral damage or possibly even necessary sacrifices to her plan. Or just as ‘pretenders’ who are in her way.

Thus does Salem possess what seems to be a noble goal to her, yet has led her to becoming all too similar to the gods she once stood against.

And I think we can already find a couple potential hints to this. Like how in Jinn’s vision, we see that Salem at first simply wanted to rule over the ‘present’ age of humanity, and how she was overjoyed at learning that her and Oz’s children inherited their magic.

But then Oz told her about the relics, and Salem started getting IDEAS.

What if the REAL reason that Salem is after the relics is because she sees them as a way to bring back the humanity that was lost? Her humanity.

This could even give us an answer as to what Salem intends to do about the gods:

After all, Salem wouldn’t just be resurrecting just any humanity, she’d be bringing back the humanity that she united behind her. All the loyal friends, allies and followers who followed her into battle against the gods.

What if Salem intends to finish what they started?

And as to how Salem intends to prevent a repeat of what happened last time?

Well perhaps that’s what all of Salem’s hybrid experiments are for. I mean, a combination of the powers of Light in the Silver Eyes and Dark in the Grimm? What if Salem trying to figure out how to use the Brothers’ powers AGAINST them?

All in all, I feel like Salem turning out to represent a ‘Fallen Ruby’ presents a very natural way to tie together all the parallels we’ve already seen between Ruby and Salem, while also just being a great twist.

Like it’s one thing for our big villain to have some general similarities to our main heroine. It’s a whole other deal for it to turn out that at one time, this big villain was in fact JUST LIKE our main heroine. Driven by all-too-similar heroic who sought to save the world from some seemingly all-powerful threat. And showing just how our heroine could become the very thing she is fighting so hard against.

Such a twist and reveal would hit seriously hard for Ruby and co, and really solidify Salem as Ruby’s final narrative foil and true evil-counterpart. Summer showed how Ruby’s self-destructive hero-complex could ultimately break her.

Salem shows how Ruby could become all too similar to the very thing she was fighting against.

[bloopitynoot]

17 Novel Canon Cultivation WangXian Fics

This is rec list two for @yiling-laozu-is-loml

Here are some of the parameters of the list:

Cultivators in ancient China based WangXian fics

Long form fics only (I tried to stick to 50K plus - most are longer- and all are completed fics).

Canon based on novel only! No yin iron plot CQL plotlines (though some of these do include some donghua but minimal)

BottomXian if applicable only

can include: canon divergent, fix-its, and time travel (I included all of the above)

I'm not going to lie I had to cut out so many of my favs because of the Yin Iron plot BUT I still think I put together a stellar list.

A lot of them are fix-its some are totally unique in their plots and I have a few Yilling-Wei sect fics that I adore and hope you do too!

Enjoy the list!

1 no one ever said the single-plank bridge had to be walked alone (174009 words) by rosemu

Chapters: 24/24 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiāng Yànlí/Jīn Zixuān (background), Mò Xuányǔ/Xuē Yáng | Xuē Chéngměi (Background), Sòng Lán | Sòng Zǐchēn/Xiǎo Xīngchén (background), One-Sided Xiǎo Xīngchén/Xuē Yáng | Xuē Chéngměi - Relationship Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Yílíng Wèi Sect, Fix-It, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji Stays at the Burial Mounds, Fluff, Angst, Domestic Fluff, Canon-Typical Violence, Found Family, Slow Burn, not the slowest burn but they do take their sweet time, LWJ and WWX get to be Dads together, the healing power of homoerotic flute/guqin duets, EXTREMELY self-indulgent, Happy Ending Summary: “Have you heard? The esteemed Second Jade of Lan, Hanguang-jun, has defected from the Lan sect! He’s living at the Burial Mounds now apparently.” “What?! That scourge, the Yiling Patriarch, has managed to corrupt even the most ideal, upstanding cultivator. How truly terrifying!” Lan Wangji learns to follow his heart over the rules just a little earlier and it changes some things.

NOTES: A fix-itish but also Yilling-Wei sect fic in which Lan Wangji just never leaves the burial mounds after his visit? So many things are fixed with the second jade just kind of always being by Wei Wuxian. This fic has wholesome energy and found family vibes.

2 Cultivating immortality (230949 words) by KizuKatana

Chapters: 44/44 Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Rogue Cultivator Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Pining, Mutual Pining, Wei WuXian low self-esteem, BAMF Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, BAMF Lan Wangji, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, not sure if this qualifies as fix-it but that was my emotional need/intent, Hurt/Comfort, unreliable narrator (wwx's self image is…), sect wars happening, Canon typical darkness, demonic cultivation descriptions in detail, self-indulgent exploration of the creation of demonic cultivation and how it changed wwx, JC and lwj are reluctant (VERY RELUCTANT) allies, Madam Yu and Lan Qiren are made to face up to their faults, Jiang YanLi is badass (fight me) though not in terms of cultivation strenght, JC gets a chance to redeem himself, Found Family, Top Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Bottom Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, First Time, novel canon relationship dynamics, Please do not post to GoodReads or any other site Series: Part 1 of Cultivation partners universe Summary: “A weapon is not the same as a spouse, even if that weapon is powerful.” The words had barely left Wei Wuxian’s lips when he found himself slammed against the trunk of the nearest tree, Lan Wangji’s hands gripping painfully tight around his shoulders, practically lifting him from the ground. “Wei Ying is not a weapon!” Lan Wangji bit out. Wei Wuxian had said many things that had angered the illustrious Second Jade in the past. When he had been in Cloud Recesses as a youth, it had been Wei Wuxian’s favorite hobby. But he realized had never managed to truly enrage Lan Wangji with anything he had said until this moment. - - - - The Lan sect has been putting pressure on Lan Wangji to find a cultivation partner. They don't like the one he chooses.

NOTES: Baby WY has a journey to discover his self worth in this fic. The canon divergence happens after he's kicked out of cloud recesses and the subsequently kicked out of the Jiang sect via Madam Yu. There is a rogue cultivator WY plotline paired with Sect pressure for Lan Zhan to get a cultivation partner and the stubborn man vs oblivious man 230k is fantastic.

3 like speaking to my heart (613672 words) by SnowshadowAO3

Chapters: 42/42 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Daemons, Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Some people live!, And some people still die in this fic it's just a matter of who STAYS dead and who is really dead ;), additional warnings in specific chapters, if you don't know what daemons are that's ok because I explain it in the author's note, also by slow burn I VERY much mean slow burn Summary: Wei Wuxian is staring up at the sky, thinking idly about the taste of Emperor’s Smile on his tongue, when Suibian jumps full force onto his stomach and cries, “A-Xian, don’t be mad!” The sheer force of her pounce knocks the breath out of him. The resulting pause is just long enough for Jiang Cheng, who up to this point has been laying rather peacefully next to him, to shoot up and demand, “Oh great, what did you do now?” To be fair, the question isn’t exactly unwarranted. Suibian looks an absolute mess: twigs stuck in her fur, dirt smeared across the white fluff of her underbelly. She’s panting up a storm, little heh heh heh gasps that haven’t edged into her normal high-pitched laughter. When her ears press back against her head, she could almost pass for pitiful. “Bichen hates me.” Wei Wuxian’s first thought is Why would Lan Zhan’s daemon hate you?, but it’s followed quickly by remembering exactly where he is, how little trouble he’s caused today, and the fact that he hasn’t seen Suibian for a few minutes. A grin spreads across his face. (Or: The most important name a cultivator will ever pick isn’t for their sword. It’s for their daemon.)

NOTES: This is still ancient china cultivators but has a little bit of au due to cultivators having daemons. It loosely follows the book plotline as well but is canon divergent. I honestly did not expect to love this 600k fic so much but it had my HEART. I fell for the plot as well as the sentient daemons and the role they play in helping these two sort out their feelings.

4 From Whence You Came (79393 words) by kanzaki19

Chapters: 12/12 Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiang Yanli/Jin Zixuan, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Wen Qing Additional Tags: Time Travel Fix-It, Night Hunts (Modao Zushi), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Fix-It, Canon-Typical Violence, Time Travel, Happy Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending Series: Part 1 of Second Chances Summary: Do not take those you love for granted, tell them you love them. You may never see them again. After being torn from the life he has lovingly settled in, Wei Wuxian finds himself back in Qiongi Path. Faced with immediate threats he grabs hold of every opportunity to better the lives of his family.

NOTES: A solid fix-it from Qiongi Path. WY dies and wakes up mid battle with enough time to save Zixuan. This changes the timeline for the best but at the expense of their established relationship in the alternate timeline. A little bit of mourning there, but still a happy ending though!

5 my life's journey is far from over (148672 words) by thelastdboy

Chapters: 40/40 Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Madam Lan Lives (Modao Zushi), Jiang Yanli Lives, Wen Qing Lives (Modao Zushi), Post-Sunshot Campaign (Modao Zushi), POV Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Slow Burn, Yiling Laozu Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Recovery, Hurt/Comfort, Healing Is a Slow Process, therapy is good actually, All women deserve better, Modern AU but not too modern™, mlm/wlw solidarity, the mortifying ordeal of discovering you're into bdsm while you're caught up in political intrigue, Kink Negotiation, Kink Exploration, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Lives, Mental Health Issues, References to Depression, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Burial Mounds Ensemble as Family (Modao Zushi), Single Parent Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Selectively Mute Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Eventual Smut, Light Dom/sub, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Get a Happy Ending Series: Part 2 of the journey is far from over Summary: No one knew that Wei Ying survived the Burial Mounds. No one knew that it was his music that flooded the battlefields of the Sunshot Campaign with corpses. No one knew just how much he had given for his family. Now the war was over and Wei Ying found himself in Yiling once again and after spending years surrounded by nothing but death, he had to learn what it feels like to be alive again. He was dead to the world and for the first time wondered what it would be like to live for his own sake. Or: Wei Ying meets Lan Zhan after the war, both broken and searching for purpose. Wen Qing will do everything to save her little brother. Jiang Yanli learns that not every problem can be solved by soup alone.

NOTES: The story of what happens the war if no one knew that Wei Ying survived AND won the war for them. This has such a beautiful relationship between Lan Zhan and Wei Ying and features a jailbreak of (alive!) Madam Lan. It's healing and wonderful, but also expect the angst. Fear not though, it has a happy ending! BONUS: it does have a prequel which is part 1 in the series. Also very good but Lan Wangji POV and Wei Wuxian is presumed dead.

6 Vow (216627 words) by draechaeli

Chapters: 47/47 Rating: Explicit Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Mainly Novel with a few CQL and Donghua bits, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Temporary Character Death, WWXs dead for a lot of this, but he’s having fun, BeliefGod!WWX, Original Children Characters – Freeform, Adoption, Adoption but WWX birthed them all, Pregnancy Kink, Mpreg, minor male lactation, Consensual Non-Consent, Light Bondage, easy to skip nsfw chapters, brief crossdressing, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, because JGS, Mentions Canon Typical Incest, Canon Typical Violence Summary: “If you’re not good the Yiling Patriarch will steal you in the night!” It was never true, in fact the first child stole herself, the second was gifted, the third begged. By the time people realised that all the homeless children of Yiling, and all the daughters about to be sold had disappeared, it became, “If you’re unloved the Yiling Patriarch will save you.” Sometimes when you make a vow not even death can release you; as Xian-Gege the Eliminator of Evil, the Protector of the Weak, and the Saviour of Children finds out.

NOTES: A fun God!WWX fic in which the vow that WY made and the belief in the Yilling Patriarch brings him back. Such a solid fic, I love the way that WY goes from hated demon to loving deity of children, women, and those in need. He does die in this and is mostly dead for a good portion of it but it is worth it for the reunion and wholesome hoard of children he collects.

7Propagate Understanding (175626 words) by draechaeli

Chapters: 34/34 Rating: Explicit Additional Tags: Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Pregnancy Kink, Consensual Non-Consent, Light Bondage, Adoption, Adoption but WWX birthed them all, Mo Xuanyu Lives, Mò Xuányǔ has an arc, Original Children Characters - Freeform, Babies for Everyone, Crossdressing, Temporary Character Death, easy to skip nsfw chapters, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence Summary: A-Yuan was birthed by Wei WuXian, A-Yuan called Lan WangJi ‘Father’, A-Yuan had Lan WangJi’s nose! Was it the time that Wei WuXian took his forehead ribbon at the Wen Discussion Conference Archery Competition?—he’d have to ask Brother. As a physician, Wen Qing has to suffer fools constantly; if Lan WangJi is determined to be Wei WuXian’s baby daddy, she wasn’t going to stop him, especially if it could save them all. And if it leads to some misunderstandings on the topic of marriage and propagation—well, it is not Wen Qing’s fault if Lan WangJi became the world’s best and worst matchmaker, making sure that children everywhere had parents.

NOTES: This fic premise is absolute crack! and is one of my favourite niche crack! fic themes. In which the joke "I birthed him myself" is taken literally and the cultivation world truly believes the Yilling Patriarch and Hanguang-jun had a child together. So good, bless Wen Qing in this fic honestly.

8 Bring Your Wonder (Lose Your Faith) (75406 words) by kianspo

Chapters: 12/12 Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Different Sunshot Campaign, straight boy wei ying, Feelings Realization, everyone is slightly darkner here, hints of xiyao if you squint, but not yet, meng yao has a plan, Protective Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Protective Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, by which i mean they set the world on fire, BAMF Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, it's not all tragedy i promise, Angst with a Happy Ending, Twin Jades of Lan Feels, duh - Freeform, POV Multiple, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji Whump Summary: Canon divergence starting from after the Xuanwu Cave. What if it wasn't Wang Lingjiao who came to Lotus Pier? What if Wen Ruohan had sent Wen Zhuliu instead? The respectful, sensible Wen Zhuliu, who knows how to work the room… In which Wei Wuxian loses his hand (he gets one better), Lotus Pier is saved, the Lan Clan is said to be dead to the last man, there's a horrible banquet in Nightless City, someone accidentally plays Sleeping Beauty, and there's that awkward moment when you realize Meng Yao is the sane one (except not really). It's a dark, dark night, but the sun will rise eventually.

NOTES: This is one of my favourite BAMF WWX fics. It is VERY dark, and Lan Zhan is not okay in the majority of this fic but my goodness is it fantastic. WWX does get his hand cut off and then proceeds to be tossed into the burial mounds but his new hand and demonic cultivation are so rad. Worth it for the pain!

9 if you can't beat them, recruit them (228416 words) by moeblobmegane

Chapters: 48/48 Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Conspiracy, Spies & Secret Agents, Team as Family, Found Family, Burial Mounds, Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Pining, Morally Ambiguous Character, Rumors, Politics, Background JZX/JYL, Developing Friendships, Good Uncle Lan Qiren, Demonic Cultivation (Modao Zushi), YilingWei Sect Series: Part 1 of wwx time travels and accidentally creates a platonic harem Summary: Rather than mourning a future that had not happened yet, he would rather work with all his might to prevent it from happening. […] His aim was to fortify his home and his family so that they would never again be left vulnerable to greedy cultivators aiming for his genius. For that, he needed help. He may be a genius, but he was not the cunning manipulative man they thought him to be. No, that was not him. He knew who was, though.   (Or: Wei Wuxian uses a powerful array to go back in time and builds a secret squad to prevent the misfortunes of the future.)

NOTES: Another fantastic time-travel fix it in which WWX post the tragic loss of his husband and son builds an array to go back. In it he befriends and recruits the antagonists of the main timeline and fixes things. This was so good- especially if you like morally grey characters and want a bit of Meng Yao and Xue Yang redemption.

10 Song Unwritten (94846 words) by ShotsOfSunshine, Kytrin

Chapters: 20/20 Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Cangse Sanren, Wei Changze Additional Tags: Temporary Character Death, Angst with a Happy Ending, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Get a Happy Ending, Fix-It of Sorts, Alternate Universe, cql meets mdzs, Transmigration, Parallel Universes, Yiling Laozu Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Alternate Universe - Yílíng Wèi Sect, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, References to Depression Summary: Lan Wangji knew what miracles were. He'd been given one second chance for happiness already, only to have it snatched away by an enemy he could not fight -- time. Now among his husband's research, he had a chance at another one, but to seize it he would have to take matters into his own hands and fight for it. Even if that meant the fight would take him to another world. After all, Hanguang-Jun followed chaos. And when was Wei Wuxian not at the center of chaos?

NOTES: This is a transmigration fic with a morally grey Lan Zhan. After losing WY he decides not to ascend and instead uses an array for another timeline. I will say head the warnings, Lan Zhan's father is vile and there is child abuse here so pleas ehead the tags it is very awful, it does have a happy ending though. Bonus for Wei Wuxians parents being alive!

11 Time Kept Flowing (201383 words) by notoneforreality

Chapters: 35/35 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Additional Tags: Timeline? What Timeline?, Grief/Mourning, major character death is wwx, who comes back, Family, Canon Era, Autistic Character, Autistic Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Kid Fic, Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji raise the kids, Co-parenting is hard, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, POV Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, POV Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, POV Alternating, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, just realised 'major character death' is like most of the cast, but it all happened before the story opens, Canon-Typical Violence, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, at the top of each chapter, Golden Core Reveal (Modao Zushi) Summary: Jiang Cheng goes back to the Burial Mounds after the siege. He finds a ruined settlement and a feverish child. Then Lan Wangji turns up, half dead himself, and Jiang Cheng is not prepared for any of this. He takes them both back to Lotus Pier, because he's not leaving anyone to die on his watch, and they both need medical care. Then they just end up…staying. At least Lan Wangji is as unimpressed with the situation as Jiang Cheng is. (Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan accidentally become co-parents and have to deal with the repercussions)

NOTES: This is the Jiang Cheng & Lan Zhan platonic coparenting fic I didn't know I needed. It was so healing and while WWX is dead for a good chunk of this he does come back. This is a fantastic fic if you want some hurt/comfort, mourning, and healing energy. I will warn it does have a lot of hurt and the Lans come under scrutiny (justifiably). But happy ending!

12 the past drifts away with the waves (58025 words) by thelastdboy

Chapters: 15/15 Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fall of Lotus Pier (Modao Zushi), Major Character Undeath, Yu Ziyuan Being an Asshole, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Minor Character Death, Major Character Injury, Amputation, Loss of Limbs, Transformation, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Fierce Corpse Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Kinda, Merperson Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Heavy Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, No Sunshot Campaign (Modao Zushi), Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Cultivation Sect Politics (Modao Zushi), Not Cultivation World Friendly, Resentful Creature Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Undead Merperson Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Fanart, Slow Burn, Getting Together, Revenge, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Resentment, Demonic Cultivation (Modao Zushi), POV Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, River Spirit Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Non-Human Genitalia, Dark Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Depending on who you ask, Monsterfucker Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Wen Remnants Deserve Better (Modao Zushi), Wen Remnants Live (Modao Zushi), Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Get a Happy Ending, Sect Leader Wen Qing (Modao Zushi) Summary: The next time Wei Wuxian became aware of his surroundings and was able to form semi-coherent thoughts, Wen Zhuliu had just finished tying weights to his feet. Both his arm and his back were still bleeding and he felt as if he had been flayed. “Should I make it quick?” Wen Zhuliu asked him, offering a small mercy. But Wei Wuxian shook his head. “Give me your worst,” he snarled, his teeth coated in blood from where he had bitten his tongue at some point. “I will come back to end you all,” he promised darkly. “Very well,” Wen Zhuliu merely said and drowned him. Or: Yu Ziyuan cuts off Wei Wuxian's hand to appease the Wens. He gets drowned in the lake behind Lotus Pier and resentful energy transforms him into a river spirit. After avenging his own death, he finds his way to Yiling.

NOTES: Very cool fic in which WY dies by Wen Zhuliu's hand and becomes a creature of resentment. He turns into a very cool undead water spirit with incredible power. He saves the wens, has a child, and gets the boy in the end. This story is for the monsterfuckers but don't let it fool you, it is kind of tragic. I swear there is a happy ending but the pain is rough.

13 Bitter Plants Bearing Sweet Fruit (83099 words) by Kryal

Chapters: 8/8 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Additional Tags: canon-typical horror elements, Worldbuilding, Desert, Misuse of Historic Setting, Original Character Death(s), Case Fic, aftermath of canon, ridiculously long author notes, Because I Have Nowhere Else to Talk Headcanons, Established Relationship, Nothing Explicit But Shameless Innuendo Summary: Patience is a bitter plant that bears sweet fruit. Lan Wangji doesn't know why Wei Wuxian is so interested in traveling to a city at the very edge of the civilized world. After Yunping, what secrets could possibly be left? But the desert remembers many things.

NOTES: Not going to lie this was a really cool casefic. The husbands go on a journey to the desert and solve a mystery. The coolest part was the difference in cultivation and belief systems outside of the sects territories. This is a healing fic- fantastic vibes.

14 We Meet at the Thousandth Step (315914 words) by Rynne, Admiranda

Chapters: 44/44 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Cangse Sanren/Wei Changze Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, No Sunshot Campaign (Modao Zushi), Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze Live, Rogue Cultivator Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Night Hunts (Modao Zushi), Genius Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Inventor Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Plot, Romance, Drama, Fluff, Strangers to married, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Developing Relationship, Minor Violence, Case Fic, Mystery, Flirting, Wei Wuxian's Canon-Typical Flower Flirting, Arson, There Was Only One Bed, Getting Together, First Kiss, Meeting the Parents, Resolved Sexual Tension, Resolved Romantic Tension, Wei Wuxian Is a Good Big Brother, New Relationship Bliss, Chinese Mythology & Folklore, Blood and Injury, Yiling siblings, Married Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Honeymoon, Wangxian's Baby Fever Series: Part 1 of The Different Paths We Tread Summary: As they both go wherever the chaos might be, Lan Wangji and rogue cultivator Wei Wuxian, eldest child of the famous Cangse-sanren, find their paths converging. Soon they'll discover in each other the perfect partner for night hunting…and beyond.

NOTES: A canon divergence in which Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze both live and raise WWX as a rogue cultivator (also he has a sister and it is wonderful). Lan Zhan and Wei Ying meet during a night hunt and then keep making excused to hunt together. Such a beautiful and wholesome slowburn with lots of the Wei family teasing. A healing fic for sure.

15 Dispersing Clouds (283284 words) by dreamingofcake

Chapters: 54/54 Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Genius Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Inventor Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Not Jiang Family Friendly, Abusive Yu Ziyuan, Canonical Child Abuse, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, Eventual Sex, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm (Background Character), Background Character Deaths, child deaths, Good Uncle Lan Qiren, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Cultivation Sect Politics (Modao Zushi), Homophobia, Heteronormativity, Feelings Realization, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian is Not Oblivious, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin Bashing, Jiang Yanli is Not Angelic, Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan Bashing Summary: While the Wen Clan is embroiled in subduing internal conflicts within Qishan, the Jiang Clan hosts the annual discussion conference. It has been one year since the disastrous archery competition where Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji last met but Wei Wuxian remains as optimistic as ever. An unlikely friendship begins to blossom and without the looming spectres of conquest and war to strengthen his ties to the Jiang family, the trajectory of Wei Wuxian’s life changes.

NOTES: Definitely a fic if you're feeling completely angry at the Jiangs- it is definitely not in their favour. Terrible Madam yu and equally appalling Jiang family (In that they do nothing and normalize abuse). This fic does feature an absolute brilliant Wei Ying and a smitten WangXian with a bonus of the Lans actually not being terrible.

16 A Heart Undying (114855 words) by NonsensicalRambling

Chapters: 26/26 Rating: Mature Additional Tags: Undead Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Canon-Typical Violence, canon-typical dead things, the burial mounds, Fix-It of Sorts, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Wei Wuxian probably needs a hug, the horrors of the sunshot campaign, Eventual WangXian, these boys will use their words!, No Yīn Tiger Seal, no beta - deal with it, Morally Gray Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Animals Eating People, Wei Wuxian's questionable choices, Morally conflicted Lan Wangji, Oblivious Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Creates a Sect | Yiling Wei Sect, Yiling Laozu Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Sect Leader Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji & Wen Qing have an Understanding, if Wen Qing were being paid she'd deserve a raise Summary: No one escapes from the Burial Mounds alive. No one. Just because Wei Wuxian made it out doesn't make him an exception. He knows he's surviving on borrowed time until someone finds out, but until then he's going to make that a problem for the Wen. And if no one does find out, well, he'll figure that out later. If only he could stop being so hungry.

NOTES: Okay this fic is actually rad as hell. The premise is so cool- WWX landing in the burial mounds and DYING but transformed. If you like vampiric energy but also God!WWX vibes this is the fic for you. It moves fast but the plot is so cool.

17 Practical Considerations (96963 words) by teawater, the_anthropologist

Chapters: 20/20 Rating: Explicit Additional Tags: Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Found Family, Spouses to Lovers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Politics, Scheming, Lán Elders are assholes, BAMF Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, BAMF Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, eventually BAMF Lan Xichen, learning to make decisions, Learning Self-worth, Self-Esteem Issues, Sweet Wangxian, Domestic Fluff, Fix-It, JC is a big asshole, he improves somewhat but it's open-ended, WWX learns to stand up for himself, Quote: Come Back to Gusu With Me (Modao Zushi), POV wwx, POV LWJ, POV JC, Golden Core Reveal (Modao Zushi), Teacher wwx, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It (Modao Zushi), Alcohol as a Coping Mechanism, Past Suicidal Thoughts Summary: After the Sunshot Campaign Wei Wuxian is fooling around in Lotus Pier, and Jiang Cheng decides that he'd be more useful to the sect if he was to enter a diplomatic marriage. Especially since Lan Wangji seems so keen on dragging him away to Gusu. Only Wei Wuxian doesn't expect any good to come from it…

NOTES: An arranged marriage canon divergence fic in which "Come Back to gusu" is a term of endearment (but WWX does not know this). This fic goes form WWX being married and thinking he's being punished to married and absolutely THRIVING. This is one heck of a healing fic- great ending!

[messiahzzz]

You’re one of the most annoying people on this site. And that really says A LOT because WOW! Shut the Fuck up about Gale wanting to be a father or not. He never says that he doesn’t want to be one. You projecting things onto him doesn’t make it Canon.

on a serious note: i’m certainly not the one that continuously brings up this topic unprompted. i personally really don’t understand the entire controversy around the topic or why fandom feels the need to rehash this conversation almost weekly. i truly believe that there’s nothing more of value to learn from it, to address, or add to it… yet fandom won’t let it rest.

to once again clarify: what i mean by “gale wanting to be a father isn’t canon” is that there is no evidence/neither hints anywhere in any of the dialogue that support the contrary. characters like h*lsin, w*ll and la*’zel have entire adoption subplots. all of them mention their children explicitly during the epilogue:

narrator: *your soul warms thinking of lily aurora ravengard, your adopted daughter. a treasure of a girl, found at the entrance of the open hand temple - one grey eye, one brown.* w*ll: ah, the girl could melt the staunchest heart. she might even have brought a smile to old withers' face! w*ll: but tonight is for us - and lily's only four months of age, besides. i promise, the temple will keep her in good care.

player: and our little hatchling? is he safe? la*'zel: of course. i have complete trust in our newest allies. xan is in fine hands tonight. la*'zel: what a wonder he is. he will be a fine warrior, if he chooses. or a poet, or an explorer, or a scholar.

h*lsin: being away from it... i cannot help but worry how they will fare in our absence. player: we'll be back before they know it. h*lsin: i hope so. the children shall miss their bedtime tale tonight - though perhaps i can glean a few new stories from our friends here, to make up for it.

even shad*wh*art has a line where she briefly mentions that children might be a possibility for her in the future.

shad*wh*art: and i get to see my parents almost every day - i need to make every moment with them count, after so much was stolen from us. but they're doing well, [...] shad*wh*art: who knows? perhaps they'll have grandchildren before long.

gale in comparison? he has none of that. he remains childfree during the entirety of the game + epilogue. in fact, his line in the epilogue that addresses the topic of grandkids is this one:

tara: this is why mrs. dekarios and i will be waiting an eternity more for grandchildren. nodecontext: self-pitying gale: psst! shoo, tara. nodecontext: shooing away tara like one would a naughty cat.

i already wrote a post about this entire discourse here [x] but to repeat myself once more: all of the dialogue that vaguely addresses the topic of children in any way in regards to gale are these snippets

player: gale… how would you feel about having another person in our relationship? gale: what, like a child? i’m not quite sure i’d consider myself father material, plus our current lifestyle isn’t exactly what i’d call settled…

gale, upon spotting oliver during their game of hide and seek: ah, i have you! just a shame i don’t want you.

gale treating the children the group comes across with respect isn’t an indicator either. this is a courtesy gale extends to everyone he meets. he’s a character that approves of a protagonist who systematically commits good deeds. whether it’s sparing animals, helping without compensation in mind, or aiding children. wanting children to be cared for… and you know… for them not to die is common etiquette that every adult should extend to a child in need. those are not “dad goals!!!” it’s quite literally just basic human decency. gale is genuinely kind and caring to everyone he meets, there is no reason why this also wouldn’t apply to children.

i often see fandom mention his encounter with mol at last light and how excited he is to talk to her. which i think greatly misinterprets the context of the scenario since he didn’t have much of a reaction to mol before either — gale is ecstatic about lanceboard. again evident by his reaction to the party finding the life-sized board during the wyrmway trials, and how he immediately offers to give tav pointers. explaining different approaches to them in enthusiastic detail if they allow him to. the man just really likes lanceboard… as well as being the smartest person in the room.

gale: ah, lanceboard! why, this might just be the highlight of our misadventures to date.

gale: lanceboard happens to be a game with which i have more than a passing familiarity. might i offer a suggestion? nodecontext: gale's a badass lanceboard player, anticipating showing off

if you want to headcanon your tav and gale raising a big family together that is more than fine and no one is stopping you. whatever you want to happen to these two after the storyline of the game is up to your respective fantasies. no one is policing you on what you should do with your own character. go wild and create whatever fan content you wish, no justification required.

yet once again, as there is no mention in canon anywhere — neither in the main game nor the epilogue — that this is something gale would ever want (whether that may mean immediately or somewhere down the line) gale wanting to be a father remains a headcanon. while gale being childfree is explicitly shown in the game, in strict comparison to other companions that either have children by the end of the game or voice the desire to (eventually) have them.

my personal preferences are of no relevance here whatsoever. i care about accurate and correct characterization and will point out inconsistencies/false information no matter the topic. i, for one, want to appreciate these characters in the way they're written, not how i ideally want them to be.

[ssaalexblake]

I feel like one of the big differences between Katniss and Haymitch's narration is that Haymitch is aware from the get go that the careers are not his enemy. It takes Katniss a while, and while she's tertiarily aware that the capitol is the one at fault here, she still lets her hatred for the careers she's in the arena with make her forget her anger at the capitol.

The whole thing about the newcomers in sotr is an attempt to upset the status quo, and from Hatmitch at least it is not a projection of hatred towards the careers. I think the alliance was erased from the 50th games not Just because it fully reshaped Haymitch's narrative, but also because it was inherently rebellious even aside from the actual rebellion taking part in that arena.

Because yeah, the careers are allowed to be allies and it's apparently expected of them to do so, but they're also well trained enough to know that after the pack hunting and campfires, they have to kill each other, and they do kill each other. The status quo is not damaged by this shallow alliance that has no real feeling. In fact, portraying the districts as people who are friendly with each other but repeatedly murder each other for their own gain must be great for the propaganda machine.

The other districts, however, when they ally, tend to get attached and not want to kill each other, which is literally in the face of what the games are meant to portray. The kids in the 50th knew full well what'd happen if they killed all the careers before they were all dead, even poor tortured Lou Lou said it to their faces that they'd just murder them all.

(side note: I cannot imagine what kind of training and psychological conditioning they do to the career kids to prep them and make them ready and willing to play friends with other kids for a couple of weeks or so and then have to kill them. Yikes.)

But back to the point, Haymitch may think Panache is unhinged and personally dislike him, but he's inherently aware from the get go that Both of them are nothing but animals to the capitol citizens. During the interviews when Caesar makes a cruel comment towards Panache, Haymitch laughs for a second before he stops himself. He doesn't stop himself because he thinks that Panache is the smartest most honourable guy in the world, he does it because the capitol are laughing at him because they think he's a stupid animal, and the capitol sees no difference between the two of them.

He chose to have empathy with him, despite what he thought of him.

He's psychologically allying himself with the careers here, not out of affection, but out of an ability to differentiate with who is bigger enemy is. He's more than aware that they're just teenagers like him. It's wholly unsurprising that he shared their chocolate with Silka when he saw her crying. He recognised that she's just been through the exact thing he did and would have just watched Maritte die without being able to help.

And yes, Katniss gets here herself, but it is not an inherent awareness in her. She is learning as she goes, which is why her mentor gently reminds her who the real problem is.

[bestworstcase]

in light of the v9 lore confirming the unreliable nature of jinn’s narration (light was not the “elder” brother), together with the glaring falsehood in the narration implying that salem lied when she truthfully “blamed the end of the world on the gods”

i’m not hedging anymore. we cannot trust jinn’s account of what salem told people during her rebellion, full stop.

“If she were to turn humanity against Light and Darkness, she could rid herself of their curse—or at the very least, she could make them suffer. Salem traveled from one kingdom to another, telling tales of how she stole immortality from the gods, inviting any swordsman to cut her down, and demonstrated her powers. With the kings and queens in awe, she pulled them deeper into her scheme; she painted them pictures of a time when they would no longer have to watch their loved ones wither and die, when they could claim the powers of their creators for themselves, and in turn, perfect their own design. All they needed to do was destroy their old masters.”

jinn describes this campaign as if salem deceived everyone, maliciously tricked them into serving as pawns in her hatred of the gods—but

when she’s beaten, salem stands up and vows to “tell the world of this massacre”—she’s enraged and horrified on behalf of the slain. she’s horrified when the god of darkness tells her he killed everyone. her reactions do not support the implication that these people meant nothing to her.

there is a strong ideological continuity between “overthrow our old masters, claim the powers of our creators for ourselves, and perfect our own design” and “we could be the gods of this world […] create the paradise the old gods could not.” this continuity suggests that salem actually believes in this cause, enough to hold onto it for millions of years.

so, did salem really claim to have ‘stolen’ immortality from the gods… or did she tell her allies that she became immortal through submersion in the fountain of life? that the gods can bring people back from the dead, and simply choose not to because they care only about enforcing their will? did she “pull them deeper into her scheme” or did she talk openly of what she had learned about the cruelty and fallibility of the gods? did she deceptively trick people into following her with fantasies of immortality or did she just pull back the curtain to reveal that the permanent ending of death only existed by arbitrary divine fiat that self-evidently can be changed?

just as jinn’s narration framed salem implicitly vowing to revere darkness above light if he helped her as salem deceiving and manipulating him by “making no mention of his elder” (<- why would she? this bargain was between her and darkness), this account of what salem did to foment rebellion against the gods aligns closely enough with the truth (salem did gain divine power, eternal death is an arbitrary rule, and the gods are fallible) that what it really comes down to is whether we trust jinn’s description of salem’s intentions.

did salem lie, or did she tell the truth in defiance of how the god of light thinks the world should be? did she deceive people, or did she reveal the brothers’ deceptions?

the god of light—and therefore ozpin and therefore jinn—see salem as a puppet-master making the whole world dance to her tune. “who has led you down this path?” he asks. she’s his scapegoat. but salem knelt before thrones and invited people to slit her throat to prove that she was telling the truth, and she isn’t the one who leads the army into light’s domain; she walks among them, not in front. in a story told with such robust symbolic language, that kind of storytelling choice matters.

she may have started the rebellion, but it became bigger than her; i don’t think salem even saw herself as their leader, necessarily. otherwise why not lead the way?

jinn’s narration—ozpin’s side of the story—devotes so much effort toward creating the impression that salem is a duplicitous, manipulative liar (like ozma), and then… salem hates being lied to. salem yells and throws tables when people lie to her. the cruelest thing salem can think of to say to oscar when she decides to hurt him is “the lies come out of you so easily; likeminded souls, indeed.” the opening lines of the show amount to salem saying that ozpin’s legends and fairytales aren’t true, that he’s obscured the “forgotten past.” both of her songs rage against ozma’s deceit—maidens and kingdoms wrapped up in a lie, and these children you mislead, and the more you try the more you’ll just breed hate and lies/truth will rise revealed by mirrored eyes. salem as a character is consistently associated with the truth and her hatred of deception is one of her most pronounced traits.

the lost fable is unreliably narrated—we now know this for a fact, because jinn describes the god of light as the elder brother and that is not true. there are many noticeable discrepancies between the narration and what’s actually shown. “stories aren’t reality” and “truth is hard to come by” are overtly-stated themes. and the lost fable answers the question “what is ozpin hiding from us?” and is thus presented strictly through his eyes.

in the fairytale anthology, ozpin helpfully informs the reader that stories like ‘the girl in the tower’ and ‘the infinite man’ are propaganda, not the truth.

so…

do we really believe this repeated claim that every word out of salem’s mouth is a manipulative lie? words we’re not even allowed to hear for ourselves? when the characters telling us that salem lied are ozpin and a bound spirit recounting ozpin’s side of the story? in the unreliable narrators show?

is the word gullible written on the ceiling?

[the-secret-keeper]

Where MC Tells the Dateables + Luke About How Horribly They Were Treated In Twisted Wonderland Part 2

Part 2 to my previous post that was requested by @sweetlicorice but with the Dateables + Luke. I hope you enjoy it!

First Part (Lucifer, Mammon, Leviathan, Asmodeus, Satan, Beelzebub, and Belphegor)

TW: Talk of being overworked, burnt out, starvation, hunger, Abuse of Power, Very Angry Demons/Angels/Sorcerer (not at you), mental breakdowns, nightmares, a lot of talk of food in Lukes, and missing a pet (he's not dead, don't worry)

Reader is referred to as MC by characters, and MC is gender neutral. Having said that, this is in second person POV, so for the most part you are referred to as "you" by the narrator.

Characters include: Diavolo, Barbatos, Simeon, Solomon, and Luke

Can be read as Romantic or Platonic (EXCEPT FOR LUKE, HE IS STRICTLY PLATONIC)

This will be long, so stories under the cut

This is organized by character with some context at the beginning (it's the same as the original post, so if you've read that, then you can skip it if you like)

~

First, it was a coffin. You were kidnapped by a horse-drawn hearse, woke up in a coffin, in another world. A world of magic, and wonder, but also one of pain, as you quickly learned. But you met people. You made friends, allies, and you were learning, even if you couldn't use magic.

And then, it was you landing rather harshly in a room that looked like an old-time, very fancy courtroom, surrounding by tall and intimidating looking young men. It was soon explained to you that you were in the Devildom, and were an exchange student, one that would be living with the Seven Deadly Sins for your own protection.

You didn't know what to feel. Gratitude for the much improved living conditions? Fear for living with a bunch of demons and going to school with demons that would likely have no qualms with snapping you in two if you stepped out of line? Sadness for the friends that you don't know how to get back to? Upset for being forced to leave the place you were finally starting to feel like you fit in at and having to leave Grim? It was a whirlwind inside, and for a time, that's where it stayed. Kept inside.

Slowly, the Devildom revealed to have similar problems as Twisted Wonderland, in the fact that it seems everyone in power here, aside from Diavolo and Barbatos, would like you to die.

Most of the brothers tried to kill you. One of them succeeded! Congrats to them you guess, though, no offense to Belphie, you don't think it was particularly hard for a demon to kill a human.

Through all of this, you got closer to those you were staying with, even forgiving Belphegor after everything. It only made sense that eventually, what happened to you, you started to open up to them about your past. About those that you met and bonded with, all that had been put onto you, and all that was different.

And after you opened up to them, it only made sense that you started to speak more candidly to the others as well, right? They deserve to know, just as much as the brothers.

Diavolo:

Diavolo confused you, more than anything. At least at first. He held the same position as Crowley, yet he acted more like a mixture of Kalim and Hornton. You were wary, obviously, as you should be. But you never excluded him. You always listened when he spoke, and asked his opinions on things that most would consider trivial. You went to him to ask questions about events, because, while Lucifer or Barbatos could answer your questions, you wanted to see if he was doing his job, or if this was another Crowley situation.

But he exceeded your expectations every time. He'd recognized that you would struggle with the curriculum, so he assigned that teachers would give you easier assignments and asked Satan to tutor you. He'd answer any questions about events and such, in detail, and always with an excited tone, and always willing to take suggestions, or ask your opinions. He never dismissed your asking his opinion, and he always seemed to appreciate that you were actively listening to him.

He even went out of his way to ask you questions, and ask your opinions. He'd invite you to spend time with him both in and out of the castle. And while he'd let you sit in his office as he worked, he never made you do anything more than your schoolwork. He took the time to learn about you. Your interests, your hobbies, your preferences. How you dress, what you like to eat, what you don't like to eat, and everything in between. Discussion never seemed to cease with Diavolo.

He took note of your lack of willingness to talk about the time you were gone, and he'd seen that time in your file. Barbatos seemed to know, but also told him that if he wanted to know he should ask you. He did ask gently a few times, but if he sensed he was overstepping even by a toe, he would withdraw. He didn't want to risk the progress he'd made in becoming closer to you.

One day, he had invited you out to the garden as a catch-up, because he hadn't been able to see you as much as he would like recently. There was cookies, some cake, and your favorite hot drink, made to your preference by Barbatos, who left the two of you alone. You and Diavolo did, indeed, catch up about the time you'd not been able to speak. But he noticed that a gargoyle he had recently had brought in had caught your eye.

"Do you like it?"

"It's not one I've seen before, is it new?" You asked, sipping your drink.

"It is! I just had that gargoyle installed." He smiled. "I'm surprised you noticed."

"I take note of the decorative statues, force of habit. I didn't know that the gardens were having plumbing problems?" You commented innocently.

"They are not. Why do you think that?" He asked, just as innocently.

"So, the statue doesn't have the rain spout function?" He shook his head at your question. "Then it is not a gargoyle, it is a grotesque. They look similar, but gargoyles have a rain spout function, and they're usually installed to prevent damage to buildings through erosion." You smiled knowingly.

"Fascinating. I did not know you knew so much about the subject."

"I don't." You set down your cup. "I had a friend, his name was Malleus. Malleus Draconia. But he let me call him Hornton. He had a club at our last school, called the Gargoyle Appreciation Club. He was the real expert, I just know the base level stuff."

"Did you join this club?"

"I wasn't officially a part of the club, but I attended all the meetings I could. We were both rather busy people, so we weren't able to meet up as much as we would've liked." You admitted.

"In what way?"

"Well we were both full-time students. And we were both housewardens. His dorm, granted, was much bigger than mine. But I'd stand to argue that my only roommate was more of a handful than half of his students." You laughed. "He was crown prince of Briar Valley, so he had a lot of responsibility to his kingdom, on top of schoolwork. I had a lot of schoolwork too, but it was harder because I didn't understand most of it." You sighed. "And that's not including the errands Crowley would have me run, and the paperwork he'd push on me. On top of picking up extra shifts at the Mostro Lounge for extra funds, in order to supplement what little I was given by the school. Not to mention, making sure no one Overblotted, and taking care of Grim." You listed.

"He made you do his paperwork?" You nodded. He gently tilted his head to the side, before righting it. "Did he pay you to do his work for him?"

"No." You shook your head lightly. "He often took away my housing and food budget, if I didn't do what he wanted, or, if I didn't do what he wanted in a timely manner." You admitted. "It was stressful to live there."

"I'm sorry to hear that you were stuck with such an incompetent person in charge of your care, he sounds truly awful. I am grateful to hear that you did so well despite it."

"It's not your fault." You smiled at him. "I miss my friends, truly. But I am happy here. I feel welcomed here, and safe. It's odd to say that. Yeah, any citizen of the Devildom could snap me in two if they really wanted to, but they don't. And they won't. But there were no such limitations back at Night Raven College. If anyone wanted me hurt, I'd have to fight them tooth and nail. Luckily, I did have people that had my back." You hummed at the memory. "My friend group is great. I do hope I get to see them again some day. But I miss Grim most of all."

"Who is Grim?"

"My cat." You beamed. "Grim is my cat. He's a special kind of cat. At least, I think he is. I don't really know what he is, in all honesty." You laughed. "But he could use magic, and breathe fire. And he could talk! He used to talk my ear off." Diavolo smiled at your elated state. "He really wanted to attend Night Raven College, so he broke in, in order to get accepted. He and I were accepted after a short stint as janitors, each as one half of a whole student. He had magic, and I had opposable thumbs." You joked, making Diavolo laugh, a loud, hearty laugh. "He would call me Henchman, and he was greedy, and sarcastic, but boy, I love that cat. When it came down to it, he was the one I could rely on the most. He was always there when I needed him. And if he couldn't help, he'd find someone who could."

"He sounds like Mammon." He commented.

"Mammon does remind me of Grim. Perhaps that's why I'm so fond of him." You hummed, smiling at the thought. "Grim and I were practically inseparable. He'd sleep on my shoulders, or in my arms, or in my bag during the day. He'd sleep on my bed at night. If you saw me, you knew he wasn't far behind." You smiled at the thought.

"You miss him that much?" Diavolo asked lightly. You nodded, without much thought.

"Don't get me wrong, I love it here. You guys are so nice to me, and I'm not overworked, or burnt out. You're nothing like Crowley, and that is a wonderful thing. But I do miss Grim." You sighed, after assuring him.

"I am sorry to hear that you have gone through such hardships. I did not know."

"How could you have? I never told you." You shrugged. "Thanks for that, by the way."

"Hmm?" He tilted his head to the side once more, eyebrow raised in confusion. You laughed at the sight of the crown prince of the Devildom looking like a confused puppy.

"I knew you were curious, about why I didn't trust you, about my past. But you didn't pry. Thank you, for letting me come to you on my own terms." He smiled, righting his head again, and nodding.

"Of course. You're someone I hold dear, I'd never want to make you uncomfortable."

"That's very sweet of you." You took another sip of your drink, before looking at him again. "Would you like to hear more about my friends from Night Raven? I think you would like them."

"Yes, I would like that very much. And you simply must tell me more about this talking cat of yours. I am curious." You smiled, before nodding.

You started to regale him with tales of your adventures at Night Raven, and all about your friends. He smiled, nodding along, and letting you talk, even though you both continued to chat long after your drinks had gone cold, and the treats stale. He didn't even want you to stop when Lucifer had come to fetch you from the palace, but he knew he should let you go.

Now knowing more, he was certainly going to look into finding this talking cat of yours. He would love to meet him, and he's sure you'd love to have him back as well. And if the internal anger he'd started to feel towards your previous headmaster was released in the process, well then, he supposes that kills two birds with one stone. Maybe literally for one of those birds, but who is he to say?

Barbatos:

Barbatos knew a lot. He knew you were wary, and he knew you ought to be. He knew where you were when you were missing, he knew a lot of what you went through. He knew that you were scared Diavolo would be like your last horrid excuse of a headmaster, and he knew that the brothers, and others, reminded you of your friends from the time you went missing.

But even Barbatos can miss things. It's rare, but it does happen, and he doesn't always realize it right away. However, he always does his damnedest to fix, or take a second look at what he missed the first time.

Barbatos had welcomed you into his kitchen numerous times. If he didn't want your help, you wouldn't, but you were good at taking care of little tasks when asked, to make things easier for him. And while the silence that filled the room was always warm, and comforting, light conversation wouldn't hurt. At least, that was what he assumed.

He had decided to make a chestnut tart, and you couldn't help but think back to your first official day as a student at Night Raven, or rather, the night before. It was a fond memory. One that you laughed at when you looked back on it.

"What has you chuckling over there?" Barbatos asked, a teasing tone slipping into his normally formal speech pattern.

"Just, thinking about my old school."

"You do not often talk about Night Raven, so do tell me if I am out of line by asking, but what are you thinking?"

"My first official day as a student there, or, the night before, a friend of mine came to my door with a collar around his neck. Apparently, his housewarden had put it on him, for eating a tart. A chestnut tart," you smiled, lifting up the handful of chestnuts you had been holding, so that he could see, "and we had to do this whole big thing to get enough chestnuts to remake the tart, and it ended up being all in vain, but I think it was fun."

"A collar? Like a dogs collar?"

"Sort of. It's kind of hard to explain, but it took away his magic, as punishment."

"For eating a tart?"

"Yeah, Riddle... he was going overboard on the rules. But he was doing better when I left." You admitted. "This was the first time my friends had relied on their upperclassmen for help, and I got to meet some of my friends that way. Trey was an exceptional baker. And Cater... Cater didn't like sweets." He laughed at the way I phrased it. "Cater was nice! I didn't mean it in a bad way!" You tried to defend, but he just laughed harder. "No! Stop laughing!" You laughed.

After the two of you calmed down, a silence fell over you once more. It was comfortable, but something was telling you to reach out. If anyone would understand, even a little bit, it might be Barbatos. And even if he didn't, Barbatos has always been someone you can rely on. It wasn't like he'd judge you, Barbatos was nice like that.

"It wasn't long after that, that Riddle Overblotted." You admitted quietly. You knew he heard you, you could've barely breathed it, and he still would've heard you, he was perceptive like that. "That was the first, of seven Overblots that I had to deal with. And, admittedly, he was one of those I had the best relationship with afterward, aside from maybe Hornton. But, that's because I was friends with two of Riddles first year students." You shrugged.

"You sound quite fond of this Riddle."

"He was a friend." You hummed. "Riddle was great, and he was doing a lot better when I left. I like to think I had something to do with that. But I was closer to other people. Like Ace and Deuce. And Grim."

"Who?"

"Which one?"

"Grim. You have spoken a bit about Ace and Deuce before, comparing the arguments Mammon has with his brothers to arguments they would have. But I know nothing of this Grim."

"Grim was my cat. Well, to be honest, I don't know if he was a cat. I call him a cat, because he looked like a cat, and he kind of acted like one, but I don't know what he was." You admitted, finishing your task. You stopped, and turned fully to face Barbatos' back. "He could speak, and breathe fire. He could use magic. That's how come we got stuck together. But I wouldn't change that for the world, I could really rely on Grim."

"To chase away rats?"

"He would do that, yes," you laughed at his question, "but mostly if I was in danger, I could rely on him to help. I mean, I'm magicless, and I was in a magic school. I needed him, and he needed me." You smiled, looking at all the peeled chestnuts, and thinking of all the fond memories of your cat.

"Do you miss him?"

"Yes. I miss him more than anything." Your head snapped up to look at Barbatos who had turned to face you. "Please don't misunderstand, I love it here. Everyone is so great! I just miss my cat. He's been such a big part of my life for such a long time, it just feels weird without him, you know?" He nodded.

There was a moment of silence between the two of you, and for once, it was stifling. You could tell he was angry, but you didn't know at what. For him, he was upset, because he knew a little bit about what had happened, but he didn't know that you'd had to deal with a life-threatening situations like Overblots before. He felt terrible that he couldn't protect you.

"So, grind the chestnuts, yes?" You asked, wanting to break the palpable tension in the air.

"Oh, yes." He nodded. "And MC?" You looked up at him, waiting for him to finish speaking. "You can always talk to me. About anything."

"Thanks Barbatos. I appreciate that." You smiled, before turning back to your task.

He didn't say anything more than that, but you felt the tension slowly disappear. You didn't know that the chestnuts he was grinding up, he was imagining were tiny skulls of your previous headmaster, as he plotted his demise. But he didn't let you know that, wanting you to feel comfortable talking about your past in his presence, or to him in general.

Simeon:

Simeon was someone you felt drawn to. You didn't know why at first, but you chalked it up to either him being an angel, or him simply being a person you felt was good, and you hadn't been around anyone that purely good in a long time. He didn't mind very much, he thought you were lovely. Despite your flaws, and imperfections, he loved to spend time with you.

It helped that you loved Luke, and were very willing to help him whenever you could. You were always so nice to Luke, and to Simeon, which is what made him like you quite a bit. He knew something had happened, but you had made it pretty clear that you didn't want to talk about it, in a rather polite way. And he respected that. He didn't want to push you before you were ready.

While a lot of the time that you were over at Purgatory Hall, you were baking with Luke, or studying with Solomon, you did take the time to just exist with Simeon. You could be doing separate activities in the same area, and occasionally asking a question, or having a full-blown conversation very animatedly with him. He didn't care which. He just liked your presence. It's nice to be around someone who has common sense.

Simeon, for all his angelic qualities and traits, has an aura that makes you want to open up. He's very warm, and inviting. You find yourself having to restrain yourself from talking about the past with him, because you don't really want to put that on him. You knew that it was inevitable, but you kept putting it off, not wanting to have him ask questions about your past.

Occasionally, you would take naps in Purgatory Hall. With Simeon and Luke's angelic presence, it wasn't often you had nightmares while there. It seemed that they warded off nightmares simply by existing. But that means nothing when they were both out of the house, and Solomon was in his bedroom, looking for a book, leaving you to fend for yourself in your horrible dreamscape.

Simeon returned from dropping Luke off with Barbatos, to see you asleep on the couch of their living room. He smiled at the sight, one that he was accustomed to seeing every now and then. But his brows furrowed when he noticed your tense expression, and how you seemed to be breathing a bit heavier than would be normal. He glided over, graceful as ever, and gently kneeled next to you, placing a comforting hand on your face.

It was warm, like a comforting hug from your grandma, or when it's just starting to get warm during spring. Your expression eased, feeling comforted by his presence and touch, and you woke up soon after, your nightmare no longer existing, and your brain waking up.

You groaned lightly, opening your eyes slowly, still adjusting to the light. You saw Simeon sitting there, smiling at you, his thumb rubbing your cheek comfortingly. You smiled back at him, soothed by knowing he was there. He backed away, allowing you to sit up, and he took a seat beside you on the couch.

"Did you have a nice nap?"

"It was ok." You smiled, strained a little from realizing that you'd been having a nightmare, and Simeon's presence was what warded it off, not from it ending naturally.

"You looked like you were having a nightmare." He gently prodded.

"I was." You admitted, nodding to your own words.

"Would you like to talk about it?" He asked, gently placing a hand on your shoulder.

"It... it's hard for me to discuss sometimes." You admitted, looking away from him. "It's not like my memories of my time at my previous school are all good. Most of them are. The memories of studying, and my friends, along with the things that I learned, the things I experienced, and the people I met, they're all amazing. I wouldn't trade those for the world. However," you hesitated, pausing for a moment to try to choose the right words, as Simeon remained silent, simply listening to you, "there were many instances in which I suffered. It wasn't always easy, living there, and dealing with Crowley. My life was in danger quite often. And there was usually little that could be done to prevent such things, other than training. And their training consisted mostly of magical training which as we know, I don't have, so it was useless to me. Grim was always so happy to learn more about it, even if he hated studying, he always did want to learn more about magic, and become a great mage."

"That sounds like something Satan would admire."

"Well," you laughed at Simeon's gentle comment, "Grim is more like Mammon than he is Satan, so while Satan loves cats, and Grim is one, I doubt they'd get along very well, as much as I loathe to admit it." He laughed as well. "I would get nightmares there too."

"What would you do when you got them?"

"Usually, I'd just sit with Grim sleeping on my lap, or lay with him sleeping on my chest, and pet him. I'd pet him and stare at the ceiling, or out the window, until I was too tired and went back to sleep, or until it was time to get up for the day. Grim was the only comfort I had at the time. He and I, we were like an unstoppable duo, you know? Inseparable."

"It sounds like you love your cat very much."

"I do. Grim was one of the few things in that world that brought me comfort. He brought me a lot of stress too," You laughed, "one time he got stuck in a contract and ended up having to serve another Housewarden while underpaying them. I had to find a way to break that contract. Oh, and, and that time he got kidnapped. I had to travel, with help from two students, well, a student and a Vice-Housewarden from another dorm, to help get him back. I love Grim, he's my best friend. Don't tell anyone else I said that though," you joked, raising your pointer finger to your mouth in a shushing gesture, "the demon brothers and others are quite jealous people." He laughed.

"Your secret is safe with me." He assured. You leaned onto him, resting your head on his shoulder.

"You're so good, Simeon. Someone as good as you is rare in the Human Realm, but it felt nonexistent in Night Raven. Everyone had an ulterior motive. It's nice." You hummed.

"You'll always have a place with me. No ulterior motives." He promised, smiling at you.

You separated not long after, as Solomon called out for you, wanting to have you help him with something. But he didn't forget your words. He'd heard Barbatos and Diavolo talk about it, as well as the brothers, so he knew how bad your Headmaster had been, and he had an inkling about the other Housewardens. But he had never heard about your cat being stuck in a contract, or him being kidnapped. It made him worry about what you went through that you weren't telling them.

But he knew he'd always be there for you, no matter what you told him about your past.

Solomon:

You talked to Solomon about your cat, Grim, quite often. It took you a while to open up to him, but when you did, you told him about Grim, and your friend group. All the happy memories that you made together. You always alluded to the not so happy memories, skirting around them, and dodging his questions when he asked. Doing so told him more than you realized.

It told him that you weren't comfortable talking about it. It told him that the bad times were really bad, and you likely didn't want him to direct any rage against one specific person. For a while it made him think you didn't trust him, but once he realized you weren't telling anyone about these parts of your past, he realized it wasn't just a thing you did with him.

Solomon loves to learn about Grim. The fact that he looks like a cat only adds to his curiosity. He wants to meet him, wants to know what he looks like, and why he's able to do all that he is. You made him swear not to summon him just to dissect him, or pester him with questions he doesn't have an answer to. Of course, this was after you made him swear not to summon him without telling you.

He realized after a while, that you weren't homesick for Night Raven. You never considered that place a home, and told him as such. But you missed the people. Especially Grim. You miss your friends, the people you considered family. He did look into interdimensional travel, but it wasn't so easily done, and it wasn't something he could do on a whim. Even just summoning one person or creature from another world wasn't very easy. Even for Solomon the Wise, who was an extremely powerful sorcerer, it wasn't going to be simple.

"Can you pass me that?" He asked, pointing at an ingredient on the table as he read his spell book.

"What're you doing?" You asked. "I mean, what's this potion meant to do?"

"It's a simple healing potion, but this recipe is new, I've not seen it before, so a colleague of mine asked me to peer review it." Holding the jar he had pointed at, you peeked over his shoulder.

"Oh I know this one!" You beamed. "Crewel taught it to us."

"Crewel is?"

"The potions teacher! He also taught poison refining. This was the first potion he taught us."

"Really?" He asked, looking at it. "That's strange. How on earth did the same recipe occur in both?"

"I mean, it's not really that strange." You shrugged. "Minor healing potions are pretty common in both worlds." You said, looking at the measurements. "It's not that weird that someone managed to figure out how to make the same potion in both worlds. The measurements are off in this one though."

"How do you know?"

"Crewel is very specific, and also Grim kept messing it up. By the end of that class, I had the recipe memorized because of how many times I did it." You told him. "Here, let me just,"

You picked up a pencil, and penciled on a separate, blank piece of paper, the recipe you had memorized, and showed it to him. He compared the two, noting the small difference in measurements that didn't line up with doubling or halfing the recipe. The ingredients were the same, or mostly the same. It was likely they had the same effects, and were similar, despite being from two different worlds.

"Why don't we make both recipes? One according to your measurements, and one according to theirs. That way we can give them your recipe if yours ends up being better." He suggested.

"Sounds like fun." You smiled.

A moment of silence passed over the two of you, light requests for ingredients came from him, and you obliged. It wasn't tense, not by any means, but he could tell there was something you wanted to tell him. He didn't pry though, knowing you'd tell him when you sorted it out yourself.

"I think you'd like him."

"Crewel?"

"Yeah. He was very smart, and an awesome teacher. He'd let me hang out in his office sometimes while I was doing schoolwork. I bet you'd like a lot of my friends. A lot of them were really chaotic, but that's part of their charm." He laughed. "Grim added to that chaos, definitely. But they were just as chaotic without him." You smiled at the memories. "Crewel, or perhaps Trein, would be a much better fit for headmaster than Crowley. I'm sure you'd approve of both."

"I've heard you speak of Crowley, vaguely, but I don't know if I've ever heard you say very much about him, in general. Is he really that bad of a headmaster?"

"He is a bad headmaster. Full stop." You told him. "You'd be a better headmaster than he was. Hell, at the rate he was going, Belphegor, would be a better headmaster than him."

"Belphegor sleeps more than he's awake."

"I'm aware of the comparison I've made." You nodded to your own words. "I was more of a headmaster than he was, towards the end of my stay there. Always doing his paperwork, and handling his duties." You muttered bitterly. "Crewel and Trein did try to make it easier on me, whenever they could, but they were full-time teachers, so they couldn't very often." You shrugged. "It was what it was. Can't change it now."

"Was Grim never any help?"

"No, not usually. But he was pretty good at taking our friend group away from me when I was about to explode from stress so I didn't blow up at them." You acknowledged. "And he did like to sit with me as I did the work, usually on my shoulders, or my lap."

"Sounds like he liked to keep you company."

"Grim and I were practically inseparable." You smiled. "We did have other friends. Ace, Deuce, Jack, Epel, even Sebek, but Grim and I were still really close. I think you'd like them all."

"I think you forget that I'd likely be the oldest one there."

"In my friend group, yeah, probably. But certainly not the oldest in the school. I mean, Malleus is a fae, and he's pretty old despite looking and acting rather young. And Lilia is even older. Granted, I don't know either of their exact ages, they're funny like that, never very forthcoming with information about themselves." You explained. "And I'm sure they'd still be fun to be around, my friend group. I mean, you've got Ace and Deuce, who never stop fighting, Grim, who is a talking, fire-breathing cat-like creature, Jack, who's a very loyal wolf beastman who can turn into a wolf, Epel, who looks somewhat feminine, but is the epitome of a raised on a farm in the middle of nowhere southern boy, and Sebek, the half-fae who has trouble with volume control and social cues of humans." You laughed as you explained them as if they were strange foreign beings, rather than some of your very best friends. "I miss them." You smiled, fondly, as you thought of them.

"I'm still looking." Solomon said simply, as he continued with what he was doing. He looked up. "You'll be the first to know if I find anything."

"I appreciate that." You nodded.

Nothing more was said until Solomon finished both potions, a silent acknowledgement of the fact that you felt comfortable enough with him to want to introduce him to those you hold dear was enough to keep him from wanting to break the silence. Just the thought of you trusting him that much was enough to make him giddy. It made him realize that to you, he wasn't Shady Solomon, or Solomon the Wise. He was Solomon. Your friend. Someone you care very deeply for.

He continued to do his research after that. Looking for a way back to Twisted Wonderland. He wanted to meet your friends, and your cat. He wanted you to be able to see and talk to them again. He wanted to be able to see the place you lived, and watch as you interacted with your friends, be a part of this important piece of you. And, if he happened to find a way to transform your former Headmaster into a crow, and give him to Diavolo or Lucifer as a gift, under the guise that he accidentally summoned a new type of crow that was even more intelligent than the average one, then you'd never hear about it from him. You might hear about it from them. But that's a bridge he'll cross later.

Luke: (STRICTLY PLATONIC)

"What! You mean to tell me you've met someone who's a better baker than Barbatos and me?"

"I didn't say better, Luke." You laughed. "I said on par with. You guys are on the same level. And since you're from different worlds, imagine the recipes you guys could swap."

Luke was always eager to learn about your past. He got disappointed when you didn't tell him much, but he was the first you really started talking about your fond memories with. Your fond memories of the food there, that is.

He learned first about the horrors of Lilia's cooking, when he saw you being able to choke down Solomon's cooking. He didn't question it until Solomon was gone, but then you regaled him with tales of how awful such an ancient being could be at cooking. He made a vow to himself that day, and to you, for self-preservation, that he and you should never let those two meet.

But soon after he learned of the wonderful cooks and bakers. He learned first of Jade, Floyd, and Azul, who's cooking you had most often, as they gave you an employee discount. He learned of Jade's love of mushrooms, Floyd's love of Takoyaki, and Azul's love of fried chicken. He heard of their wonderful menu, and how Jade liked to experiment with mushrooms, and how Floyd's level of cooking depended on his moods.

He learned of Jamil, and his wonderful cooking, combining a variety of spices, along with the sheer amount he cooked on an average basis. He learned of Kalim's lavish parties, the load of cooking that each party demanded, and how often you were invited.

You talked of the wonderful takeout that Idia would order, along with the lectures you'd both get on nutrition from Ortho afterwards. You held Ruggie in high reverence, citing how he taught you the best ways to stretch a budget and cook on that budget. You compared Vil's diets to Asmodeus's, explaining their strictness and the reasons behind it.

Out of everyone, it seemed he knew the most about your last school, even if only through how often you talked about the food. He tried his best to recreate the dishes you really liked when you talked about them, and others he simple listened in wonder, wondering how these dishes worked, how they tasted.

He learned last of Trey. You specifically kept that away from him, as a sort of homage, so he could learn about who you knew would be his favorite one last. Trey who was raised in a bakery, and made some of the best sweets you've ever had. You knew he and Luke would get along, and you also thought it was a shame that they'd likely never meet.

"Trey was raised in a bakery, so he grew up baking. He's made sweets that I've never had before, and he's an expert at so many of them." You smiled at the memory. "Trey and you would get along great, I'm sure of it."

"You said that about Kalim and Epel too."

"Well, you're just so likeable. And so are they." You shrugged, laughing as he crossed his arms, not satisfied with that answer. "I'm sure that you'd all get along, Luke. Because you are all wonderful people." You smiled.

"Tell me about Grim again."

"Again?" You asked in a playfully incredulous tone, smiling at him as he enthusiastically nodded. You decided to play along, since the treats you both were baking were in the oven.

"Grim was my cat. My best friend. We lived together, we slept together, we ate together. He and I did everything together. He was very mischievous, and never wanted to study. He called me Henchman, and he loved his cans of tuna." You told him, having recited this information to him a number of times. "Grim loved food. And he'd eat anything. He and I were in it together, we were never apart. I could trust him more than anything. And he could always depend on me, should he need to. We were two halves of a whole, literally." You hummed.

"Was Grim that much of a glutton?"

"Oh yes. He ate anything. The only person who could get him to stop eating would be Kalim. Because he'd stuff him so full, and then continue to try to make him eat. I had to lecture him a number of times because he just wouldn't stop. I was, usually, unsuccessful." You sighed. "But Kalim always meant well. And he got it eventually! Now that I think of it, the only other person who could get Grim to stop eating would probably be Lilia, because he just couldn't stand his cooking." You both shuddered, at the thought of someone as bad at cooking as Solomon.

"He sounds a lot like Beelzebub."

"That's the first time I've heard that comparison." You acknowledged. "But no, Grim was more like Mammon. Loyal to a fault, greedy as hell. He called me Henchman, like how Mammon calls me Human. And they were both always there when you needed them, no matter how much trouble they got into along the way."

"I wish I could meet him."

"I wish that too. I wish you could meet all my friends. I think they'd really like you. But, I think we'd be staying away from Lilia if he's been in the kitchen." You laughed, and Luke quickly nodded in agreement.

[ryin-silverfish]

Ping Jinchuan: A 19th century Sci-fi Shenmo Novel

Like all popular novels, when something sets a trend, many imitators follow suit, until the formula becomes its own genre of sorts.

FSYY is one such genre setter. Specifically, the "Battle of Arts" (斗法) formula, where immortals and deities are added into a historical event——usually a war, but it can also be something like Admiral Zheng He's voyage——and proceed to use said setting as an excuse to battle it out using spells, magical treasures, and formations.

It's such an enduring formula, late Qing novels were still following it. And because it's the 19th century, western technology and ideas were entering China and making their way into popular culture.

My first exposure to the results comes from Legends of the Eight Immortal Attaining the Dao (八仙得道传), where the narrator occasionally interrupts the story and goes: "Electricity-based technology is totally the work of Mother Lightning, guys!"

Why am I telling you all these random facts? Because Ping Jinchuan ("Quelling the Golden Stream") is that, but turned up to eleven.

Technically, FSYY is set in Shang dynasty China. Technically, Ping Jinchuan is an obscure 1899 novel about the quelling of rebellions in Qinghai and Tibet during the 18th century by the historical general Nian Gengyao.

However, considering that FSYY has 11th century BCE gunpowder weapons, and...the entirety of Ping Jinchuan, I really doubt the claim of the latter novel's author that the story is based on the eye witness accounts of his ancestor, who worked as an advisor under Nian Gengyao.

But if you insist, here's a rough summary of the historical background: the first war Nian fought in Tibet happened during the reign of Kangxi, because the Dzungar Khanate invaded Tibet.

The second rebellion Nian quelled in Qinghai, during the reign of Yongzheng, was started by  Lobzang Tendzin. He fought against the Dzungar Khanate with the help of Qing army, but rebelled together with local chiefdoms and Mongol leaders when he was not granted the rulership of Tibet afterwards.

(Confusingly enough, during the reign of Qianlong, there were also 2 other rebellions by the chieftains of "Greater and Lesser Jinchuan" in northwestern Sichuan, which might be where the novel's name came from.)

Naturally, the novel proceeds to tell a "Battle of Arts" story, about Tibetan Buddhist monks, Muslims, Daoist sages, and the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church duking it out with typical Shenmo novel treasures...and 19th century magitek.

There is potential for some serious analysis about Qing military expansion, violence on the frontiers, how foreign religions and people are perceived through the framework of popular fiction, etc. But honestly, after seeing the above summary, are you really here for *that*? 

I'm not, because I don't know nearly enough about the historical context, and the entire premise is ridiculous enough to defy any attempt at taking it seriously——unless the attempts are ironic.

Case In Point

The novel starts off pretty tame: Lobzang Tendzin, "King of Jinchuan", wanted to send his own Dalai Lama candidate to Tibet after the previous Dalai's death, as part of a power ploy to make himself the de facto ruler of Tibet.

He allied himself with Galdan, the Dzungar ruler, to force the Tibetans to accept his candidate at gunpoint——literally.

Their firearms and cannons got stopped by a Lama named Ding Chan, who used his meditation power to summon divine warriors and fend off the first wave of attack.

However, his meditation was broken by the plight of Jinchuan soldiers disguised as female refugees, and later, Galdan assassinated him in his sleep with a firing squad during a treaty talk organized by the Qing.

Emperor Yongzheng was not happy and sent Nian Gengyao and Yue Zhongqi to quell the rebellion. Also, Nian is actually the Heavenly Dog Star incarnate, who learned martial arts, classics, war strategy, and all sorts of neat stuff in his youth from a poor Buddhist monk.

Later, said monk and Yue's master sent a bunch of their disciples to Nian and Yue as reinforcement, before the battle began. 

Then, in Chapter 4, Nan Guotai was introduced as the fictional son of the historical Belgian missionary, Ferdinand Verbiest. Nicknamed "Little Lu Ban", he was well-versed in the arts of western machinery and firearms, and the first sign of the story going completely off the rails.

The first "Battle of the Arts" round was pretty standard——Five Phase Formation, magical breaths, treasures. But Nan was ordered to make 15 "mechanical carts" that could produce flames, in conjunction with a field of landmines, to assist in the breaking of the Five Phase Formation. 

Despite the similarity, they aren't tanks, but more like...trapped cargo trailers/RVs. Basically, they had "doors and windows" with built-in mechanisms that only allowed entry into the carts and could not be opened from the inside, and once the enemies were trapped, the carts became giant incinerators.

After losing the first round, the King of Jinchuan put up a recruitment poster for "talented followers of the Three Religions"...except the Three Religions weren't Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, but Islam, Buddhism, and Daoism, since the story is set in Qinghai, where there was a notable population of Hui people (Chinese Muslims).

After seeing the poster, Galdan's wife decided to seek help from her own master, the Patriarch of the Snowy Mountains. He is a Muslim sage with 12 powerful disciples...who all wielded typical Daoist treasures.

They all got overshadowed by the next round of Steampunk Shenmo Battle, though, when an unrelated Daoist showed up with his trump card: "Strong Water", a.k.a. magical hydrochloric acid.

The magical HCI was then put into giant glass syringes and fired at Nian's troops, resulting in significant casualties. To bypass the HCI syringe cannons, Nan unrevealed his latest invention: the Skysoar Orb, a.k.a. hot air balloon.

The Qing troops then mounted firearms and cannons onto the air balloon, flew it above Galdan's camp to a height where the HCI syringes couldn't reach, and started shooting. However, they were all mortals, and got decimated when the enemy immortals flew up to take control of the balloons, forcing an emergency landing via needles.

After that, the hot air balloon was manned entirely by immortals, until Galdan covered his camp in a mesh of barbed wires, blocking the aerial fire but also making it impossible for him to use his own HCI syringes.

Then a little 13 years old immortal, Gengsheng the Acolyte, joined the Qing army, who's the reincarnation of the Lama executed by Galdan's firing squad. Abandoned at birth and adopted by a Daoist master, he was able to fly on clouds since he was 8-9 years old, which he used to travel to Europe. 

While he was there, a Swedish sage gifted him a powerful treasure——the Electricity Whip, which can be used to electrocute people to death...but also magically heal injuries with its currents.

I have trouble visualizing the thing. Is it a literal whip of lightning arcs (since it's described as being able to turn into a white beam), a taser, an electric cattle prod, a plasma whip, or the unholy lovechild of all the above plus a tesla coil?

Hilariously, the Electricity Whip treasure of the Nikola Tesla Sect (/sarcasm) stopped working when exposed to "dirty stuff" such as a woman's magical handkerchief. Classic folk magic style. 

After a bunch of boring fighting sequences, 6 of the 12 disciples of the Patriarch decided to get the big formations out, which were broken by buckets of pig blood. 

…Yeah, that's pretty much the extent of the author's understanding of Hui customs and Islam. (sigh) The surviving disciples went to get the Patriarch for help, who casted an AOE spell of poisonous smoke, water and fire to block the Qing troops' path...

Annnnnd Nan to the rescue again! With the help of Nian Gengyao's monk master, he built the Earth Travel Cart: a magitek subway train shaped like a pangolin, able to carry a hundred people and move a hundred Li per hour. It didn't need rails, you just dug a hole in the ground, put the train in, and it started tunneling through the earth on its own.

The entire army used 500 of these magical subway trains to bypass the Patriarch's AOE spell coverage, forcing them to retreat to their home base, Tianshan (Heavenly Mountain). Which is a real mountain range in central Asia and Xinjiang province, and going there from Qinghai is plausible. Kinda.

I'm still skeptical about the novel's claim that the path through Tianshan is the only path leading into Jinchuan proper, but whatever.

The Patriarch put his most powerful formation on said mountain pass——the Ice Freeze Formation, which will insta-freeze immortals, mortals, and flying birds alike when they step in range.

Then comes the craziest part of the entire novel. Honestly, everything after this chapter is pretty boring and formulaic, which makes it the perfect note for this article to end on.

Nan suddenly revealed that the current Roman Pope is the grandson of Matteo Ricci, who's the mentor of Nan's dad, and took his hot air balloon to Rome to get reinforcement. To no one's surprise, the Pope's treasure is a cross.

The Pope agreed and took his 12 disciples——supposedly because it's the same as the number of apostles——to the snowy mountain.

He gave a cross and a white candle to each of his disciples; they walked straight into the Ice Formation and broke it by holding the two holy objects up in the air, while loudly chanting (a highly localized translation of) "Hail Mary!"

After making his grand entrance, the Pope neutralized the Patriarch's spell attacks and turned his last disciples' army of soldiers back into their true forms——a bunch of farm animals.

He then told the disciples that as the Roman Pope, he had authority over "Russia, England, France, Netherlands" and all the European nations, and he'd leave the Patriarch to mind his own business if he surrendered and stopped interfering in the war.

Three of the four examples he gave aren't even Catholic, but maybe the Protestant Reformation just never happened in this novel's 18th century world because Pope Magic.

The Patriarch accepted the cease-fire treaty, went back to teach his religion to the population of northwestern China, and that's pretty much it. His last female disciple (Galdan's wife) got her troops' firearms neutralized by the Pope's cross, taken prisoner, and executed by Nian. 

After revealing that the Qing immortals' power also came from the Grace of Our Lord and Savior, and that was why westerners couldn't use spells (but could make electricity-based treasures?), the Pope flew back to Rome on Nan's air balloon, exiting the novel once and for all.

Which is a pity, because in the second half of the novel, one of the defeated foes escaped to (Ottoman?) Turkey to beg their king for reinforcement, and the Russian Tsar agreed to help the Jinchuan troops to make his French wife happy. I want my Papal 13 vs. Russian Orthodox Bishops Shenmo battle, dammit!

Food for thought: if the Pope was Matteo Ricci's grandson, and Matteo Ricci was also a mentor of Ferdinand Verbiest, Nan's dad (historically, Ricci died 13 years before Verbiest was even born)...

...Is this a timeline where the Jesuits won the Rites Controversy, Ricci cultivated himself into the first Catholic immortal, and ushered in the age of Syncretic Daoist-Catholic Steampunk? 

[ikamigami]

I have some more evidence that Doctor might actually not be dead and that he more than likely will come back

I completely forgot about these really important aspects to Doctor's character and his story. This is something that can be used as evidence cause this is official stuff and it's something that gives more weight to my speculations in "Is Doctor alive?" theory.

1) Doctor knows about the letter that player received at the beginning of chapter 1 - he's the only character that mentions and aknowledges the letter which shows us that he knows things that other characters don't know about. This hints to him having more going on with him and his importance in the story.

2) Doctor was a narrator in "Story so far" - this and chapter 4 ARG is what hyped Doctor's character for fans cause this makes him feel like more important character. And this combined with 1) point shows us that Doctor sees everything. He even knew that Prototype is Ollie (we can conclude that from his tone when he said "the infuriating ally" part).

3) Doctor's character description on poppyplaytime website (so it's official) - "Doctor Harley Sawyer, commonly referred to as “The Doctor”, was the originator of the Bigger Bodies Initiative, and a former pupil of Elliot Ludwig. Ruthless, egotistical, and completely amoral, he orchestrated the systemic experimentation of hundreds to pave his elusive “golden path”, only to be subjected to the same experimentation. His mind made into a prison of wires and terminals, his project stolen from him, he’d become just as much a prisoner as the experiments he created. In the years since the Hour of Joy, the Doctor has become a monster unburdened by any pretense of humanity, the final steps on his “golden path” seemingly within his reach." - the last sentence is what's important. Doctor isn't confined anymore by whatever human limitations he had and that he's really close to achieveing golden path which is immortality.

4) Doctor's speech in ad for Project Playtime (I completely forgot about a very important detail of his speech) - "Mortality is the curse of the weak, the fire that incinerates the flesh. I strive to snuff that flame. Call me a monster, but I am simply a man who escaped incineration, and embraced the infinite!" - this is really huge and important cause only now after chapter 4 it makes total sense. Now we know what exactly Doctor meant by a man who escaped the incineration (he escaped death as he was transformed into experiment) and embraced infinite (he embraced the infinite nature of having digital mind). I didn't realize at first that Doctor said this as something that already happened (he used past tense) because we all assumed back then that he died during the Hour of Joy. This speech being this old because it exists even before chapter 3 makes it even more important as a clue and evidence of Doctor survivng his death in chapter 4 as digital entity.

5) The untitled poem being about The Doctor - people wrongly assumed it's about Huggy Wuggy because of felted feet. When we shouldn't take it literally because it's poem. Poems most of the time use figurative language not literal. And it's important to remember that first this poem showed in ARG for chapter 4 which was heavily focused on Doctor not Huggy Wuggy or any other character. And then we saw this same poem after we killed Doctor when we went back to Safe Haven. The poem:

"On felted feet and with bated breath

Sleep draws ever near

Over paths turning clear

But I am not afraid of death

For we have already met"

This means non other than a person in poem quietly awaits the inevitable death but they're not afraid cause they survived death once already.

Considering that Doctor wanted to achieve immortality and was really close and he embraced infinite - probably learned how to live and function as digital form - the poem being about him makes the most sense also because his body died during experimentation. He could no longer live as human. Only some of his organs remained. And the poem is written in his style of speaking.

Now I'll give you my speculation based on my theory and what I presented here.

Remember the tape "Time" from chapter 4? The one with Doctor and Prototype talking? From this tape we know that Prototype needed Doctor to learn about secret hidden within him. The secret to immortality.

This combined with what happened later - Prototype being happy as Ollie that we killed Doctor - points to the fact that Prototype threatened Doctor that he'll get rid of him if he'll be stalling. The funny thing that I realized is that Doctor had here huge advantage over Prototype which Prototype didn't seem to notice.

Doctor has knowledge that even Prototype doesn't have. This heavily implies that Prototype wouldn't know if Doctor lies to him or tells him the truth. Doctor could sold him a lie and Prototype wouldn't even know that and after Doctor stopped being useful Prototype got rid of him with our help.

Doctor didn't seem afraid of Prototype even if Prototype's voice was threatening and leaving no room for objection. And yet Doctor ignores it and even demands Prototype to find more time. Prototype agreed because he doesn't have a choice here. Which definitely shows that Doctor had advantage in this situation.

And let me tell you more. I think that Doctor found what's that secret but he didn't share it with Prototype. He didn't have to share it with Prototype. He could use it to help himself "escape the incineration" and achieveing "golden path". "Sleep draws ever near Over paths turning clear" the death is coming for him but his goal is clear. He knows what to do. He isn't afraid of death anymore. He knows the secret to "infinite" eternal life as digital entity. And Prototype being impatient with Doctor stalling could decide to get rid of him without finding out what the secret is.

And also maybe Doctor really wanted someone to come to factory to power up the place cause more power would definitely help him achieve whatever he wanted as digital entity. He could avoid death as he could scatter/disperse into still working parts of facility's network/system.

He was observing us from the beginning so he could easily guide as where he wanted and use us to help him with his plans.

If this doesn't convince you I don't know what will. But I'm sure (almost 100%) that Doctor isn't dead and he'll come back.

And what's important is that I think that he has his own storyline apart from what's going on with Prototype and Poppy. Poppy Playtime can be more complex story with more than one plotline. Having more plotlines makes a story more complex and layered.

We can clearly see that Doctor's goals aren't focusing on whatever is going with Prototype and Poppy and it goes beyond the factory. He wants to achieve immortality and ascend beyond humanity's limitations. And from what I gathered here we can conclude that he was able to do that.

[l0stn3v3rf0und]

YAKAR: Yet another Kirby Anime Rewrite

Alrighty it's Kirby Anime rewrite time, let's get talking

How the rewrite would work

Each chapter will focus on an episode from the anime that I want to rewrite or newly written episodes. This is so I can add development for some characters of the cast, introduce new concepts, new characters, and new plot points.

Additionally, if I plan to just rewrite a scene during an episode instead of an entire episode, I would have a chapter focus on that scene, or maybe have some narration that briefly recaps the episode until that scene. These chapters would have multiple scenes from the episodes choosen.

The Nightmare Enterprises arc will be shortened for the sake of including some arcs from the games. EX: Dark Matter trilogy, Star Allies, Forgotten Land etc

If an episode doesn’t have any effect on the plot, character arcs, etc, those episodes would either be completely rewritten if I want to use the premise of that episode’s plot or removed entirely.

For characterization: I want to develop and stretch out these following characters (note that the issues I've noticed in each character are my opinions and I could be wrong on how I saw them, I haven't finished the series yet)

Kirby

Reason: His entire character is just, baby. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I wish Kirby’s screen time was more than just: HEY HEY! LOOK! KIRBY BEING CUTE! LOOK HOW STRONG HE IS WOOOOAAHH!! HE SO HUNGRY LOOM AT HIM EAT!! Like, yeah, Kirby is cute but in an anime with his name on the title he has little to no character other than that. Also, side note, Kirby witnessed multiple of his newly found friends fucking DIE right in front of him, for a baby that should be traumatizing. But since those episodes are just, filler, Kirby just forgets about it in the next episode like it didn’t happen. Which yeah that’s what filler does. But come on.

How I would fix this

Tweak Kirby’s backstory a bit to give him some more value and maybe pull the reader’s heartstrings

Have those episodes ™ have an effect on Kirby to some degree. Maybe abandonment issues? Attachment issues maybe?? Not to a degree where it’s too intense but maybe have an episode focused on Kirby’s internal struggle with making and keeping friends

Kirby needs to talk more. This is just a personal idea, but maybe overtime we see Kirby start to communicate more clearly? I am thinking we have an episode where Kirby is trying to say something but he isn’t being understood, so he learns to talk since that episode.

I want Kirby’s arc to focus on one topic: Dependence and Independence. Kirby is often playing the hero to Cappy Town and saving their asses to the point that they expect Kirby to save them almost every single time. But, what if Kirby isn’t the one to save them? What if Kirby is the one in trouble? Who can Kirby rely on then? Dependance may sound like a bad thing, like you should be independent right? Well Kirby is a kid, a child, a fucking BABY. He should have the right to depend on someone, anyone, and Kirby struggles to find that someone to depend on. Or maybe struggle to notice that they were there all along.

Tuff

Reason: Honestly, he is such a bitch in almost every episode he is in. I know that he is a kid and kids do kid things, yeah. But similar to a CERTAIN SOMEONE ™ he barely gets any development and stays immature despite everything.

How I would fix this

MORE DEVELOPMENT. Obviously. I am thinking of rewriting the episode where Tuff goes out on his own to help Kirby and have him learn his lesson and ACTUALLY have an effect

Enhance the character a bit. This is just a silly idea, but I can imagine that Tuff more often or not mimics Dedede a little. Selfish, lazy, mean, rude asshole, you know? He may dislike the king, but he is just the kings shadow. And when that is shown to light, it scares him to think that he’ll end up just like the king.

I want his arc to focus on responsibility. He goes from a kid similar to the tyrant king to taking a stand for what’s right, defending his friends and family when they need him.

Meta Knight

Reason: Ooooh boy. Meta Knight, despite having so many focus episodes, almost has NO CHARACTER. Yes there are a few times where Meta shows some character, but most of the time he just shows up to shout out: HOLY SHIT ITS FIRE KIRBY or something. For a character that is supposed to be “mysterious” he shows up a LOT. Which shouldn’t be a problem for a popular character but I wished they kept him more on the sidelines and dug more into the mysterious aspect of him. Also, I kinda wished he didn’t work for the king.

How I would fix this

Meta is often shrouded in mystery to almost everyone, let’s take that up a notch. Have Meta Knight’s first appearances be him stalking and watching the gang from a far. Until he makes his big appearance by challenging Kirby to a battle!

ENHANCE THAT CHARACTER. MAKE HIM HAVE A WILD SIDE. I WANT TO SEE THIS WARRIOR GO CRAZY. He hides behind a physical and metaphorical mask that makes him mysterious and stoic at first glance, but under all that is a wild fighter who loves a good thrill!

Wing. Give him those wings ISTG

His arc would focus on Self-care and freedom. For most of his life he had to fight and fight and fight, never once stopping to rest for even a second. But he learns that he doesn’t have to fight

Dedede

Reason: Should I need to explain him. His entire character is just a rude asshole. And I am not having it

How I would fix this

REDEMPTION ARC BABY!! Have Kirby be the only one who treats him with kindness which confuses him overtime until eventually he gives up on fighting against Kirby

Give him a backstory to why he is the way he is. Maybe Cappy Town treated him badly in the past and Nightmare promised him eternal revenge against them?

His arc should focus on Kindness, how to receive it and how to give it.

Tiff

Reason: She isn’t necessarily a badly written character, heck I love how she was written, but I want to give her more development as like the other characters, development doesn’t exist here baby!

How I would fix this

One thing, internal conflict. Tiff is a very blunt character overall. But what if she was told to keep her words to herself if she doesn’t want to hurt anyone? That would cause her to distance herself from everyone in fear of hurting them.

Have her struggle to be heard once she gets that confidence back

Of course, this isn't all of the characters I am changing, there are a LOT of characters to go through and even some new characters I want to add

If you are reading this and have any ideas to apply for this rewrite, please feel free to slap them down in the replies or reblogs! I would love to read them :]