#but because no one is aware of the loops - their knowledge of each other just seems weirdly

[scene-iii]

if some form of yuu doesn't show up in ace's dream i'll speedrun a bake no hana animatic for dinah.

[underdark-dreams]

Tiefling Bachelors - Tail headcanons [pining + in a relationship]

Some tail thoughts for Rolan, Dammon, & Zevlor [reader is gender neutral, non-Tiefling]

For anyone who doesn't follow already-- @forgeofthenine creates amazing Tief content! Their headcanons for these three are VERY delicious, including some genius tail HCs that I have been rereading all day!🖤

Pining:

Rolan:

When he's extra annoyed or excited by something, the tip of his tail will twitch side-to-side behind him slightly like a cat’s

Turns out the same thing happens when he’s got a crush on someone

He can control it with enough concentration, but it could still give him away if you catch him off guard or heaven forbid touch him in an unexpected way

It’s no secret from Cal and Lia—the three of them teased each other ruthlessly about the littlest flirtations back in Elturel, as teenagers do, so they’re used to picking up on all of each others’ signs

The minute they catch Rolan’s telltale (tell-tail?) move while he’s talking with you, you can bet those two will not let it go until you’ve moved in. Probs not even then honestly

If you get friendly enough with Rolan to have long talks about magic or the Weave, his guard will lower and he’ll let his tail do its thing (within reason)

He lies to himself that it’s just because he finds your conversation stimulating. Really, it’s everything about you

Dammon:

If you’re a non-Tiefling, Dammon might comfort himself with the knowledge that you probably don’t recognize the significance of how his tail moves when you’re near

He’s good at keeping his words to you measured and polite. The way his body reacts around you is a bit more instinctive and hard to control

He’s goddamn touch-starved to be honest, this man is practically married to his hammer and anvil & he’s been living alone for years

Whenever he makes you laugh, he finds his tail curls forward toward you a bit—wishing he could touch or hold you with it

Dammon always tells himself he needs to be a bit more careful when you come around the forge. But somehow it goes out the window every time

His tail will sway gently back and forth when you talk to him, not quite wagging, but definitely actively engaged

A fellow Tiefling would immediately recognize the gesture as interest and flirtation

Zevlor:

Zevlor thought he was a pro at this: controlling the tail movements, the ear twitches, generally suppressing his Infernal tendencies at all times

But it's been so long since someone made him feel like this. Handsome, desirable, everything

The first time you overtly flirt with him, and especially the first time you touch his arm or shoulder, his tail wags behind him

He stiffens immediately, alarmed and taken aback by his own reaction to your touch. Prays you haven’t noticed

If he can smoothly get away with it, he might excuse himself from your presence to try and collect his composure

He’s very conscious of his role as leader/authority figure among the other Tiefling refugees. He’d be mortified if any of them caught him eagerly tail-wagging like a youth after just a casual gesture from you

From that point Zevlor refocuses his control whenever you’re near, making sure to keep part of his brain aware of his posture around you. The way you keep seeking him out and standing close to him during conversation doesn’t make it any easier on this poor man

Relationship:

Rolan:

More than hand-holding, Rolan prefers to hold you with his tail

Let him loop it around your calf when you’re standing beside each other, or rest the curve around the small of your back

He finds it profoundly comforting to keep in contact and touch you that way

Rolan would love if you let him gently bind you with his tail, whether it’s your hands behind your back or one of your legs pulled open for him

He often wraps it around your waist while you’re topping or riding him

Rolan also likes to drag his tail between your legs while you’re going down on him and he can’t reach you with his hands

It turns into teasing almost every time—Rolan trying to see if he can finish you with his tail before you can finish him with your mouth

Rolan’s tail gets super sensitive when he’s close to coming. Gently tug on the tip, or God forbid suck on as much of his length as your mouth can take—Rolan will come hard with a loud whimper

Dammon: 

Finally getting with you is a relief for this man; he was struggling to control his body’s reactions around you anyway

Dammon is very cuddly and touchy with you in general, but he especially loves the freedom to finally touch you with his tail

Naughty man loves to slide it up over the curve of your ass when you’re kissing—even when you’re both standing in his open-air forge where a passerby on the street could glance over and see

He’s super into you, why would he hide it? Unless it makes you uncomfortable in the slightest, of course, in which case he'll do his best to restrain himself

It would turn him on so much if you asked for tailplay in the bedroom

Let him hold you with it, spread you, spank you, help you grind and pleasure yourself with it—anything you want, he’s down bad for

Watching his tail get you worked up super super does it for Dammon, and he will be sure to tell you just how much

Zevlor:

Once you’re together, Zevlor won’t hold back from using his tail to caress you

It’s usually when you’re already kissing or embracing each other. His tail will curl behind your knees, or perhaps wrap once around your waist to gently hold you close

He still keeps the gestures mild, out of habit and out of some lingering concern that it might come on too strong for a non-Tiefling. Zevlor also just tends to be reserved when it comes to PDA in general

When he’s bedding you, Zevlor’s tail may wrap around one of your legs in the heat of the moment—it’s a sign of deep affection and trust, and a bit of possessiveness (good luck getting him to admit to that one though)

Beyond that you will have to ask, beg, and plead to get this man to use his tail actively during sex

Despite his chivalry, Zevlor has been around the block and seen pretty much everything during his Hellrider days. But those were different times: here now, with the person he cares for most in the world, everything feels new all over again

Asking him to slip the tip anywhere inside you will render him speechless for a moment

You’ll have the best luck if you’re already naked on top of him when you ask

If you want to give Zevlor his hardest orgasm in a decade, tug and play with the very base of his tail while he’s inside you. He will practically sob against you and finish in record speed

[kyu-piddy]

Ranking (some) twst love triangles on how messy they are

An: This is a very informal ranking and very informal type of writing. They’re just little overviews of how I personally think these love triangles would function. Hope you enjoy it. :)

Ps: This is the first time I publish something that features my favorite character! Hopefully I didn’t favor him too much.

Gn reader x Trey, Cater, Azul, Jade, Jamil, Kalim, Silver, Lilia

Trigger warnings: Swearing

2.1k words

Tiers:

S tier- The love triangle of doom. Messiest love triangles, where it’s all too melodramatic and/or complicated.

A- Not as messy as the above, but still a delicate bomb to diffuse.

B- Standard love triangle. They aren’t at each other's throat constantly, but leave them alone long enough and they will start fighting.

C- Chill love triangle. Either because they’re really good friends, or just because they’re that confident in their victory.

D- Is this even a love triangle? There are indeed two people who like you, but one has dropped out of the race for one reason or the other.

Trey vs Cater

Do you know those times where you and a stranger are both trying to get through a door in opposite directions, and while trying to let the other pass you just keep getting in front of each other, in a sort of embarrassing dance of polite smiles while internally cursing the other person? Well, that is basically the Trey x Reader x Cater love triangle.

Cater and Trey are both really perceptive of their own feelings and of others, so they would be aware of the others' crush.

They’re also some of the fakest motherfuckers in the cast (only behind Azul, Jade and Jamil) so they would not even think of confronting each other.

Initially they’d put this veneer of pseudo politeness, throwing some double entendres to each other and not making any moves on you.

But as time progresses they’re definitely becoming little shits to each other.

Trey is exploiting his baking talent and his unique magic to the max, making your favorite foods and serving them to you and Cater, making sure you see how Cater gags as he tries it, the food's flavor being imposed with a horrid one like old socks.

Trey is also using his dependable and mature reputation to give you advice that subtly favors him and subtly makes Cater look like a dunce.

Man is full on telling you every embarrassing story of Caters disguised as going down on a trip to memory lane, but always while you’re with more people around, so they can tell you how Trey swept in and saved the day.

Cater on the other hand, is making sure to seduce you with his tech savviness and social media knowledge.

He’s taking you to the hottest places in town and taking pictures of you both, posting them on his magicam with suspicious captions that make a ton of your friends start asking about your “boyfriend”.

Cater is also loudly proclaiming to everyone who will listen in the Heartslabyul common room the plans he had that day with you.

He used to also proclaim the ones he would have in the future, but stopped after Trey crashed one of his cafe hopping dates with you, creating the most bizarre outing of your life, balancing the polite shit talking of these two.

If Cater didn’t live with Trey he’d probably dox him on the twisted wonderland equivalent of Twitter. Trey would do the same if he knew how to use Twitter.

The worst part is that neither of them will back off or give the finishing blow of confessing.

They're stuck in this loop of ruining the others momentum that their friendship is close to breaking, so either you notice and step up, or someone else notices and gives them a stern talking to.

Out of their dorm, the only one besides them I see figuring it out, is Ace, but Ace is no match for Trey and Cater.

They’re denying it to his face and making Ace feel like a complete idiot.

When you finally notice the mess that these two have made, if you don’t confront them, they’re still going to be in denial.

You have to be firm! Tell them head on who you want, before they make the whole of Heartslabyul collapse.

In terms of the messiness of this love triangle, I give it a B.

It’s annoying and messy, since they’re both so evasive and a little lacking in the making substantial moves department, but they’re still chill on how they treat you and the uninvolved parties (most of the time at least).

Azul vs Jade

Azul and Jade are both conniving and scheming master mind wannabes, but they also tend to rely on each other for support, so pairing them up against each other will lead to some sort of 4d intergalactic chess competition between them, while you are playing checkers and surprisingly still winning.

They’re the kind of smart that turns back around into being kind of stupid.

Jade is like a weird kid in a horror movie, all weird phrases and sinister smiles, but Azul isn’t much better with his mob boss vibe.

You can try running from them, but these fuckers must have put some sort of tracking gps on you because they always appear at the worst time.

Neither of them really knows how to even be romantic to win you over.

Azul is following some sort of guide like “How to make her fall for you in a fortnight”, taking notes and everything.

But he does tend to exaggerate with his gestures, not as much as Kalim would, but just enough to seem sorta of fake.

He’d even try to offer you suspiciously good deals, like “Go on a date with me and I’ll give you a study guide for alchemy”.

He only added one teensy eensy hidden clause that if he didn’t enjoy the date enough, you’d have to accept to go on another one.

But Jade is there to rain on his parade and tell you exactly what line and page you should search for suspicious activity.

Unlike Azul, Jade doesn’t try to conform to the human way of courting.

He is going to share his mushroom collection with you and also scare the shit out of you with ominous warnings of their specific properties.

He’d probably even make stuff up or embellish it to sound worse just to see your reaction.

Azul is definitely trying to end any time you have with Jade, giving him tasks right as the eel is spending time with you.

But it tends to go bad for Zuzu, as Jade just brings you along or purposefully half asses the task.

They’re also snipping each other with pointed comments that sound more like thinly veiled threats of violence.

Well, Jade’s threats are more violence oriented, while Azul’s are more of the mansplain manipulate malewife variety.

But what neither of them was prepared for was Floyd’s fourth wheeling.

Initially, Floyd thought it was pretty funny to see the other two beefing, but he gets bored fast.

He’s going to start taking you away from the other two so he can watch them fume in anger.

If he’s in the mood, he might even try to play matchmaker with one of them, or start shit talking both of them. The latter is more likely.

This is another pair of fools who won’t confess. They pride themselves so much as always being thirty steps ahead that they will try their hardest to create a situation where you have to choose one of them.

But it might all be for nothing because Floyd might just feel like telling you and then there goes any sense of mysteriousness down the drain.

I’ll give this love triangle an A. It’s definitely messy as hell, but it could always be worse.

Kalim vs Jalim

Oh boy. This is the love triangle from hell. Nuclear fallout levels of toxicity, and you’re the bomb.

This is a type of love triangle that no one even knows is a love triangle.

Kalim is the most obvious person on the planet with his crush.

He's showering you with expensive gifts, buttering you up like you’re a particularly tasty muffin and following you around like a lost puppy.

Even though he’s doing all that, homeboy will not use his brain cell to deduce he has a crush on you immediately.

As soon as he does figure it out (which bless his heart, might take a bit) he will be dead set on confessing to you, only being stopped by Jamil.

Jamil is putting the brakes on Kalims stunts, but not out of the kindness of his heart.

He knows he can’t directly stop Kalim, so instead he’s going to try to slow him down, and win you over behind everyone’s back.

Jamil is actually good at the art of romancing.

He’ll offer you tasty meals (disguised as leftovers of the things he made for Kalim), to braid your hair.

He’ll even offer really solid advice.

The two problems with all of this are that 1) Kalim will most definitely barge in at every given opportunity and cockblock the hell out of Jamil, and 2) You can very easily misinterpret this as friendly or even as part of his duties.

You and everyone else, that is.

I can’t see anyone figuring out Jamil’s crush on you. He’s one of the most discreet people on campus with his feelings.

And with the added grief of sharing them with Kalim, he’s keeping it under lock and key.

Kalim is going to confess. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.

He’s strangely serious about the whole thing, bringing a 24 karat ring, with a red diamond bigger than your finger to prove his love to you.

Jamil is fuming. It’s like a kick to the nuts, and what I see it making him step up his game and basically confess to you as well.

He’d confess in a very roundabout way, the kind of confessing that leaves you wondering if you’re reading too much in between the lines. But remember, this is Jamil! Reading inbetween the lines is a required skill to actually understand this man.

This is such a messy love triangle honestly. If you choose Kalim, it’s going straight to Jamil’s mind chamber of repressed trauma. If you don’t choose Kalim, you’re going to have to deal with Al-Asim tears (he ain’t used to being told no in any capacity), which makes Jamil’s duties more stressful.

For all these reasons, I put this love triangle at S tier. Good luck to you, and my condolences. You aren’t leaving this mess unscathed.

Silver vs Lilia

This one is mostly just sad.

Silver is slow in matters of love. He’d be his normal gentlemanly self, barely changing how he behaves towards you, but to others he becomes lowkey really annoying.

Doing his homework? He's mentioning how he saw you through the window during that class. Sword training? He’s reminiscing on how you complimented his technique. Drinking water? You did say you needed to drink more water, maybe he should remind you.

This would most likely lead to Sebek flipping the fuck out and screaming at Silver to either do something about his crush or shut up.

Silver.exe is loading.

And then he just… nods his head and agrees that he should do something about it.

He’s going to get advice from Lilia, who isn’t exactly a master of seduction but at least has more experience under his belt.

Lilia already knew of Silver's crush, and sadly he also already knew of his own crush on you, but bat dad is dropping all of his potential feelings in favor of his son’s.

He’s telling Silver to bring you flowers, to take you out to dinner, to treat you with kindness and respect, the whole shabang.

And Lilia is always staying in the back, watching his little boy grow up. It does hurt him, but not exactly because of his feelings, more because he feels bad about sharing the object of his affections with his son. He’d never want to hurt his boy nor you.

Only Malleus would know of Lilia’s feelings, although Silver has an inkling that something isn’t right.

Lilia would never tell him, and Silver doesn’t know exactly what’s going on in his dad’s mind, but he definitely suspects that something is going on.

If Silver knew of his fathers feelings for you, he’d immediately stop pursuing you, so bat dad is making sure his son never knows what’s actually bothering him.

Malleus on the other hand knows that Lilia has some sort of feelings for you, but is also keeping it under lock and key at the request of Lilia.

Sebek is the only one fully out of the loop, which leads him to comment things that are really hurtful to Lilia.

Seeing as Lilia is emotionally constipated, he’d bottle it all up and proceed like normal.

When Silver confesses, Lilia feels bittersweet. He’s genuinely happy for his son, but pangs of sadness reverberate through his heart.

He’s downplaying his feelings even to himself.

In terms of rating, this is a D. Lilia just carries Silver on his shoulders and then dumps him in the finish line. It’s not even a proper race.

It’s very depressing, seeing as you will never even know about Lilia’s feelings, while Silver will always have an inkling that there’s something going on with his dad.

[daily-memory-of-touch]

Sorry i never played this game and don't intend on to but. Could you explain what's the meaning of this scene in fortnite terms (no more seriously actually wondering about the context or whatever. If you don't mind spoiling this random anon. Ty)

Okay so leading up to this scene is Siffrin (hat + cloak fella, uses he/they) reliving the same Fortnite game over and over because he's in a time loop. He and his squad mates (Mirabelle, she/her; Isabeau, he/him; Odile, she/her; Bonnie, they/them) are the last ones alive aside from a few other players. There's a griefer on the server named the King (he/him) that they gotta defeat and the party has rallied the entire server against him. Not everyone has the best gear for the job so that's why it's up to the party to defeat him. The King is making the storm disconnect you from the server if you in it for too long

So Siffrin has been in this loop of playing Fortnite for a while now. The King has placed himself in a big structure and set up traps to try and catch the party off-guard, and every time the party (or just Siffrin) dies and can't be revived time loops back. With the help of Loop (they/them), a knowledgeable gamer who's aware of the loops, the two of them have been in a separate VC figuring out how to handle all of this (Loop gives advice and Siffrin does their best)

At this point Siffrin is pretty sick of the time loop. They actually have beaten the King a few times, but even if the party gets their 1# Victory Royale time still loops back. Every morning the party actually meets in-person to grab lunch before heading back to game. Siffrin and Isabeau have been pining over each other for a while now and the time loop makes Siffrin's yearning worse and worse, especially since Isabeau (and the rest of the party as well) think that Siffrin is touch-adverse when in reality he just gets surprised by sudden touch and is just touch-starved

So before everyone else gets to the shop they all eat together at it's just Isabeau and Siffrin. The two of them are having a convo they have every loop, which in the middle of it includes Isabeau going to put a hand on Siffrin's shoulder but then pulling back when he remembers that he should respect their space. This has been bothering Siffrin the entire time loop, and on this loop he has certified had it and doesn't want to feel stuck anymore. So, without wanting he grabs Isabeau by the collar and kisses him. Isabeau immediately pushes Siffrin away, but his actual reaction is unclear because Siffrin then loops back to right before he made that impulsive choice and the convo goes on like normal. It's unknown if Isabeau reacted like that out of surprise or disgust or any other emotion. Siffrin and Loop later talk about this during this loop and Loop isn't happy with them

Not relevant to the rest of the post but Siffrin and Loop tend to meet up for breakfast separately from the rest of the party, but if they don't meet up Siffrin just makes something at home to eat. Sometimes they'll grab a quick coffee together if they talk mid-day before the Fortnite gaming session. It's not important but the detail matters to me as to how those two have irl talks

[sitten1115]

My brain decided to focus on this prompt I put in the isat genfic meme while I was at work today

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/isatgenmeme/requests

The original prompt I wrote:

Siffrin is an escaped experiment from a secret shady lab studying “impossible” Craft. They don’t remember much details from their time in the lab (traumatic memory loss), including what kind of “impossible” Craft they’re supposed to be capable of.

Details:

-Siffrin was kidnapped not too long after the Island disappeared. A lot of people from the Island were because it was very easy to make them disappear without consequences.

-The experiments involved parasitic organisms known for having weird Craft interactions that don’t normally infect humans.

-Siffrin doesn’t currently remember that part but once he finds out, he isn’t sure if he’s actually Siffrin, or just a parasite puppeting their body.

-Siffrin can do Time Craft naturally as a result of the experiments, but they weren’t ever told what the experiment was about because he was just a test subject.

-They’re immune to the normal spread of the Kings curse but not to tears.

-Make up the Time is actual Time Craft here, though a similar effect could be done without Time Craft.

-Siffrin develops their own version of Slow (inspired by Odiles) that is also Time Craft.

-The loops are a result of Siffrins ignorance of their own abilities, with the power to go back being triggered by that first death.

-Siffrin escaped the lab because of the Kings curse, but he doesn’t remember that day well.

Variables

-The King may or may not be another experiment, depends on what feels most narratively compelling.

-The specific kind of parasite can vary as long as it’s a kind that normally controls the host (for the identity angst)

This idea is inspired by a character in Bug Fables but no knowledge of that is necessary. Also any variations on this idea are absolutely welcome even separate from the prompt. Siffrin as something not completely human is very fun.

The new stuff I thought of today:

escape, facility frozen after obstacle course testing

end of Kingquest

Siffrin manages to unfreeze everyone and free Bonnie before collapsing from the exertion. The King freezes the others again and decides to torture Siffrin to teach the lesson instead. starts with breaking arms and legs, then tears out their guts, pulled out with the guts is the Craftworm which is attached to the outside of the intestines.

switch to a split pov with italics for the worm, which suddenly can’t see and yet feels like everything is too bright, feels cold and exposed. Feels like something was ripped from its head.

Siffrin notices the lack of pain in his lower half (spinal cord damage from where the worm was attached there) and an emptiness in their head. They also see the worm and vaguely hear the King remark about it. Burnt sugar smell gets very strong

Euphrasie has a lot of missing person reports in her office, she was looking into how a lot of people went missing from infirmaries with similar symptoms ~15 years ago. None of the missing people had anyone ever step forward looking for them, the only real records of them were the medical records. All of them were suffering from amnesia and had been found lost at sea or washed up ashore. Euphrasie is half islander and felt some connection to the missing persons despite not knowing them.

-Wishcraft gave them the energy to be able to properly rewind, without the wishcraft they’d only be able to go back maybe an hour

-technically the worm is the one using the Time craft, but both of their minds are so reliant on each other at this point that their desires are the same

-The worm technically never dies, using the craft when the host is dead is instinctive for them

-The worm basically lives in the body cavity, but has a strong attachment to the intestines for nutrient exchange and also is attached to the spinal cord to form a mental connection to the host

-The end of Kingquest is what makes them aware of the whole 2 of them thing as they remember both watching the King hold his guts and being manhandled with no proper senses.

-Craftworms usually rely on their hosts senses but the worm itself does have simple eyes that can tell light/dark and can feel touch and temperature

-They were able to undo the party being frozen because they were freaking out and managed to heal it out of the desperation to save Bonnie but this also burned them out

-Siffrin has scars from the lab including vivisection scars (from the researchers giving the worm itself a checkup)

-hospital trauma because of how similar things would be to stuff that happened in the lab

-if the scars and trauma weren’t discovered by the party because of the eye incident, they’ll be discovered when Siffrin passes out from the craft exhaustion

-Mal du Pays has an exposed body cavity because the craftworm is part of the mental issues for both of them

-the worms aren’t usually mentally codependent on their host but they also aren’t supposed to be able to use humans as a host

-obstacle courses were one of the more enjoyable tests for Siffrin, the faster they were the more likely to get a treat

-malnourished in the lab because the researchers didn’t take into account quite how much energy their craftworms needed, this wasn’t fixed until after Siffrin was ~20 years old

-He was allowed to keep his cloak and dagger because it’s important for someone to have a way to channel their craft and they were having a meltdown when the cloak and hat were first taken away

-Siffrin has issues with thermoregulation which is also part of why the cloak was allowed

-Some of the researchers pushed the importance of enrichment so Siffrin was given access to reading material which helped him pick his name

[casual-praxis]

This should not have taken me nearly this long, but it's finally finished! Behold, the redundant relationship chart for my high school au fanfic!

I wasn't sure how to go about this at first, since it's pretty much just a big friend group, but I tried to touch on the specifics. They all interact with one another slightly differently depending on who it is, so I'll try to elaborate a little.

Red and Green are twins, so the usual sibling banter is common. They relentlessly tease each other about their respective crushes, but only because they trust the other not to go too far with it. As the "older twin" (by about seven minutes), Green feels the need to protect Red, who just rolls with it since he likes the attention.

Green and Blue have known each other since middle school, and while they didn't always get along, their rivalry eventually gave way to mutual respect. They're still very competitive, but they've got each other's backs when the going gets tough. Playful teasing is pretty much how they communicate (it only occasionally results in Blue angrily chasing Green around the school, big step up from the occasional fistfight).

Red and Vio, similar to Green and Blue, have known each other since middle school, and Red was the one to give Vio his nickname. The two are close, to the point where casual contact is more expected than not (it's a fairly common occurrence for Red to run up and jump onto Vio's back, with Vio simply adjusting his stance to support Red as the only acknowledgment it happened). Platonic soulmates.

Red and Blue have had crushes on each other for a while. Everyone can see it, except them apparently. They dance around the subject (i.e. flail) out of fear it'll change the dynamic of their group too much, but they're already so soft with each other that it wouldn't make a difference. Many nights are spent with only the two of them in vc, talking aimlessly just to hear the other's voice.

Green and Vio met through Red back in middle school, and while they aren't the closest, they do spend a lot of time together while waiting on Red and Blue to stop lowkey flirting (their version of it, anyway). Green has made it his mission to find Vio his own fashion style, but it's been an uphill battle so far on account of Vio not having much preference for anything. Vio, meanwhile, thinks it's funny to rile Green up, so he goes along with it despite not caring either way.

Blue and Vio, while not seeming very close, do talk way more than the average outsider might think. Blue is the only one in the group so far who knows almost the full extent of Vio's homelife, and while he can't do much to change it, he does his best to offer support (though he will absolutely not admit to it). These two can and will deck someone in the face if they mess with Red (or Green, but Green will defend himself at least).

Zelda and Green are the potential power couple just waiting to happen. They were always loosely aware of each other throughout the school years, but it wasn't until Vio (reluctantly) introduced them that they started to hang out. Green greatly admires her leadership skills and fashion knowledge (they'll talk for hours about it), meanwhile, Zelda finds his charisma and dorky humor charming.

Zelda and Red aren't incredibly close, but still friendly with each other. They're in drama club together and mostly talk about related club work, or Green, usually both. There isn't much to say about their relationship other than they get along and Red is excited at the idea of Zelda dating Green.

Interestingly enough, Zelda and Blue have a dynamic similar to the one Blue has with Green. They're gaming buddies, and very competitive with each other. This bleeds into their casual interactions at school, which always throws some people for a loop since Zelda's gaming hobby is very much a secret. The no-context smack talk is kinda funny to be fair.

Zelda and Vio do not get along. They grew up together because their families were friends, but both view their childhoods with one another very differently. While not outright hostile to each other, Vio tends to avoid Zelda and go silent if she's brought into a conversation. Zelda, on the other hand, would like to talk to "Violet", but his frequent avoidance of her does tend to make her a little bitter.

Zelda and Shadow have an odd friendship. What had started as an attempt to make peace, quickly turned into an unbreakable bond of solidarity. The two are gossip buddies, as well as theater kids, so you can imagine how that goes. They balance each other out in surprising ways (Zelda reins in Shadow's more over-the-top theatrics, while Shadow pushes Zelda to be more daring). They also game with Blue on the weekends, it's chaotic.

Shadow and Vio are a mess. Neither of them understands normal relationships and that's probably the only reason it's working out so well for them. Due to Shadow's history of bullying the group, Vio initially does not want anything to do with him, but once they get over that hurdle, depending on how you look at it, it's all downhill from here. Stalker x Stalker. They're obsessed.

Shadow and Blue, as mentioned before, are also gaming buddies. They usually don't interact much unless Zelda is with them, but they get along fine once they bury the hatchet. Blue is still a little wary of Shadow's intentions in the group, but he can always just punch Shadow again if he steps out of line.

Shadow and Red (who I forgot to draw a line between) get along great despite their history. They're both in theater (not the club) and match each other's energies fairly well. They both "fight" over Vio if he's around, but this usually just results in them hanging off of Vio while trying to have a normal conversation. A surprisingly chaotic duo.

Shadow and Green, much like Red and Zelda, aren't super close but can tolerate each other. None of their hobbies or interests really align, though they might team up to find Vio a fashion style someday. When left alone together they talk about cats. Specifically, Nail Polish, the weird orange cat Red found in a dumpster eating nail polish.

And that about wraps it up. I didn't mean for this post to be this long, but hopefully, if anyone reads it, it'll be at least a little entertaining. I'm excited to work more on this au, even if it takes me forever. ^^

Figuring out everyone's dynamics beyond just "character A knows character B" has been really fun! I look forward to exploring this more hehehe.

[comradeboyhalo]

What makes Bad and Foolish's relationship so fun to analyze is the fact that its built on familiarity. They know how to read each other, and that in turn allows them to choose when and how to trust each other.

Bad's trust in Foolish is not entirely rational, and he's aware of this. Bad is deeply distrustful of anything connected to the Federation, and Foolish has openly sided with them multiple times. And yet Bad constantly shares information with Foolish, entrusts him with Dapper, and makes no effort to intervene with Foolish's arrests. He's like this because he understands how Foolish's loyalties truly lie--how he enjoys playing both sides, how he likes to have fun. This even puts Bad above the Federation, who appears to take Foolish at face value. Bad can't predict if Foolish will betray him, but he has a good guess on how deeply Foolish will betray him, and shares information accordingly.

The reason Bad was upset at Foolish's first arrest of Mike and Pac was not because it was wrong (in his own words: "That's all you did? Why is everyone mad at you?"), but because Foolish had kept a secret from him. His read on Foolish was incorrect, since he had hoped Foolish would've kept him in the loop despite it all. Bad had never wanted to kick Foolish out of Ordo Theoritas, and anytime Foolish was threatened by another islander, Bad would play along but as a complete joke. This was one of their rare misunderstandings: Foolish didn't understand that Bad never truly wanted Foolish to suffer real consequences for his actions, and Bad failed to realize that Foolish wasn't as open to sharing personal information as he'd thought. This was why Foolish turned to Jaiden (someone who was clearly on his side) and why Bad turned to violence to get info (and did he ever do anything with that info? no, which is exactly my point. he just wants it).

On Foolish's end, he's very guarded around Bad. But while Bad is more open to showing his cards, Foolish is more outwardly caring. He folds to Bad whenever Bad's at his lowest, allowing him to live temporarily in his home and investigating his color changes stricter than anyone else. Foolish is also much more cognizant of his moral code than Bad is. He has a self-awareness that his morals are much more lax than others, and tries to compensate in return, like asking beforehand to arrest people. Bad, on the other hand, generally lacks a self-awareness. To be fair, he's better at masking than Foolish, but he usually needs to be talked down from his more violent urges, and he is routinely disappointed by those around him that they don't share his amoral compass. Foolish clashes with the other islanders because he finds it was just for fun a valid justification. Bad clashes with the other islanders because his scale goes so far darker.

What makes Foolish understand Bad, then, is the knowledge that he can do anything to Bad, and know that their relationship will bounce back. Bad says he doesn't want to get arrested? Well, tough luck, Foolish thinks it's fun and Bad will have to deal. He can bypass this moral clash he has with other islanders because he knows Bad understands what its like to just have fun with chaos. Foolish is a much more passive player compared to Bad; he loves chaos but it's rare for him to be destructive or violent. Foolish's desire to see Bad burn the world down (and cheer him on) is not because Foolish thinks Bad's reasons are good, or that Bad is the safest to side with. Foolish just wants a front row seat to insanity, and no one else seems to be serving! Foolish knows Bad has it in him to push the line, and he doesn't want anyone to get in the way of peak entertainment.

"Does your family trump all other families?" / "You're my family. And to answer your question, yes it does." / "Then I say go for it."

The one thing holding Foolish back from desiring chaos is his and Leo's safety. But this statement from Bad has assured him that not only is he and Leo safe, but he and Leo are safe above the world. That was the final piece in the puzzle to get Foolish's backing. Now Foolish can understand Bad's motives, and support him without fear of shooting himself in the foot. And he does this all while denying Bad the same assurance. But in Bad's case, he doesn't need or want Foolish's assurance. If Foolish betrays him, well, that'd suck, but Bad is hyper-paranoid and is aware that anyone can betray him. He doesn't care about mutual trust, he just needs someone who can look at his torture room, and get why he built it.

And finally: They've both been on this island for Too Damn Long. Metawise, Foolish and Bad have the most QSMP streamed days out of everyone, as og islanders who daily stream. They've tried to reel it in. They've tried to have cute, covert investigations. They're bored. They're impatient. They're upset. They miss their kids. Someone has to cross the line, and it might as well be them.

[jennicatzies]

holy shit i absolutely adore your au!!! can other characters ever break from their scripts or will ham and burr suffer alone together?

HELLO I APOLOGIZE FOR THE ROYALLY LATE RESPONSE,,,

Thank you SO much, this au makes me insane 🙏🙏 glad to know other people are interested haha!!!

Alright discussing the question . Unfortunately, Burr and Hamilton r the only AWARE aware ones. Sad times. howEVER there are SOME characters who are a tiiiiny bit aware or at least has cracked a little bit Once. But that's about it. Next run their memories r wiped and they start from 00:00:00 again.

I thiiiink I remember talking ab Jefferson and his faulty script wiring? I'll dive more into it again here tho haha. Yapping about other characters with a drop of awareness under the cut

The main guys we already know are Hamilton, Burr, Seabury and Bullet [ even though SeaBullet are on the side of the stage ]

But what about. Other characters.

Okay I wanna talk ab my favorite scenario/minor ish plot point ever

Southern mf democratic republicans. STAY WITH ME I'LL ELABORATE

OKAY they're. INFURIATINGly funny. Conceptually. Though not as severely as Burr, they have caught glimpses of stage elements or even the audience at some points, though that's about it and their memories get wiped at the end of each show.

Jefferson's handling/POV: okay uh. You know those lil bits in the musical where he "interacts" with the audience/people off stage. Aka blowing a kiss to the audience in What'd I Miss and handing someone off stage a copy of the Reynolds Pamphlet. Canonized. Ish. These could easily be translated into in universe terms by his script wiring, but sometimes he just. Sees the audience. Ultimately he doesn't give a damn. He's having too much fun to worry about it.

Burr has tried to like, get information out of him about this, but hey since he doesn't know what in the world Burr is tweakinh out about he just goes like, "mann I think you just need sleep. Or water. Or water and sleep. Or you're insane. Good luck" and skips on his way ODHRJJEOR

Madison's handling/POV: Madison time yayy. Sickly. Sickly guy. He's also caught lil glimpses of the audience or stage elements seeping into his scripted vision, but also ultimately doesn't think much further about them. Since he's. Quite aware that hes Sickly he kinda just goes "damn guess we got Mental illnesses now. Fml" and moves along

Burr's also tried to talk to Madison about it, but he insists that he himself is just really tired or Sick.

Unless it's the very off chance of jeff and mads' "error" syncing up, they never really like, acknowledged this that much. Maybe the occasional "hey what's that" "what's what" "nvm I'm just sleepy" but that's pretty much it. The part already broken doesn't develop with each run rkjeorkerk they just kinda get The Visions occasionally and shrug

No illustrations for this but! Washington! My friend and I kinda cooked something with this, but the drabble's theirs n' I don't wanna share w/o their knowledge hfhdjfjd

Not really a loop aware or stage aware thing but. His mind. The way he thinks. Happened in like ONE run and that's. That's all the crumbs we get for Washington. Sorry :(

For Washington, it was during the Meet Me Inside number. He just notices that Hamilton's line delivery isn't as... angry as expected. And so he's like... oh. Oh shit. Wait what.

He still!!! Feels angry!!! Because he's scripted to!!! But he doesn't want to be angry anymore!! But he is!!!! Internal conflict!!!! It confused him because his brain is telling him to be mad because Hamilton upset him. But he. He doesn't want to be upset in that moment. Oh well. Fuck

There MIGHTTT be more crumbs for other characters but. It's the middle of the night and this is all I can rack from my brain. Ask about the state of some character and if you're lucky you Might get crumbs

[buckybarnesss]

“Scott’s awareness of the Stiles and Derek thing is interesting to dissect” hi yes please do!

I find him a bit hard to read when it comes to this tbh. Scott seems aware that Something is going on throughout season 3. He always seems shocked to realize that they get along better, even though Scott is usually faster at trusting people than Stiles. (I wouldn’t be surprised if Derek/Scott’s issues early on are the source of this bewilderment.)

I genuinely can’t tell if/when Scott might have realized that their bond was more than platonic. Like he has so much “right in front of my salad?” energy that he must have noticed Stiles’s attraction at the very least, right? Was it Derek’s leaving in the s4 finale that made Scott realize that Stiles’s feelings were actually romantic? He seems very aware in s5 that Derek is a Sore Spot for Stiles.

Jeffrey-boy seems to have taken the whole “show, don’t tell” thing a little too literally here.

the thing about scott is he's really, really good at denial. especially self-denial. combining his world class levels of denial he also has multiple hang up about derek that he has a hard time letting go of and he has a specific way he perceives stiles (which is part of the mess in s5).

like he sees but he's also stuffing his fingers in his ears about it because derek and stiles being derek-n-stiles doesn't line up with what he expects from either of them.

scott also has the dubious privilege of being there from the beginning. it was just the three of them at the start of this whole fiasco.

there's hints but scott doesn't really get to see the big stiles and derek development in season 1so while he seems to kind of pick up on stiles possibly being attracted to derek because i mean look at this.

he's mostly seeing stiles being annoyed and angry but he isn't necessarily reading the deeper reasons for it because he's not privy to it.

than season 3 happens.

things shift in s3 when he realizes that he and stiles are not at all on the same page about derek. stiles has been spending time with derek outside of his knowledge for months and they're friendly.

Top 10 Anime Betrayals in Tattoo.

and than his reaction to derek and stiles messing around in the next episode. peter's entirely unsurprised and amused by this which just hints at stiles getting derek to be playful isn't new to him but for scott this is Huge. This is world altering for scott.

stiles becoming friendly with derek is one of the reasons scott's perception and trust of derek begins to shift into moving past his anger and resentment that was present in s1 and 2.

i know people say scott doesn't trust stiles and that's a whole thing to unpack and i'd have to rewatch 5a to parse it entirely but scott does trust stiles. while stiles is often right he also as often doesn't have the proof to back up his intuition in the moment.

scott is also way more scared that stiles isn't himself after the nogitune. he can see stiles spiraling and after derek leaves stiles becomes even more paranoid and irritable. almost as if stiles lost an anchor. which scott just went through himself with allison's death.

at the end of s4 this look is layered

he's terrified of losing stiles the same way stiles is afraid of losing him. it creates a weird feedback loop where that very thing happens because of their fears are exploited by theo. stiles and scott are so scared to lose each other and depend on seeing each other a particular way because of the roles they've assigned themselves they don't communicate properly.

stiles and scott are incredibly dysfunctional kids from different kinds of broken homes. it's important to remember that when dissecting their friendship.

the benefit of a doubt scene in season 5 says scott fucking noticed because his starting overture at trying to convince stiles about giving theo the benefit of a doubt is derek.

(theo is a hybrid peter-derek which is funny but he's also a dark mirror of stiles in a lot of ways. it's partly why scott is drawn to him.)

it's a calculated move on scott's part to bring up derek to appeal to stiles's emotions over his logic but he also is aware that he needs to tread fucking lightly here. the subject of derek is a double edged sword.

also scott witnessed derek's whole ass everything in 3B even if he was distracted. he knew derek would help look for stiles and protect him without a question.

i think scott figured out there was something going on in 3A and by 5A he knew it was something stiles was incredibly fucked up over but he wasn't the one that could fix it.

[duskfel]

More Entropy lore, perchance?

Entropy lore, you say? Sure, why not.

Have I mentioned yet what happened to his timeline’s Frisk? The butterfly effect hits them some of the hardest out of anyone.

I’ve talked a bit about how Entropy originally comes from an alternate Undertale timeline with only a few notable differences, but it’s those differences that “butterfly” into huge changes. (For simplicities sake, I refer to Entropy as Sans in this post because he’s still Sans then)

One of these changes is Gaster never falls into the core.

I’ve always headcanoned that Gaster falling into the core is what causes Sans and Papyrus to move to Snowdin in canon. Therefore, in this timeline, they never move to Snowdin, and Sans never gets a job as a sentry as he stays working in the lab.

When Frisk falls into the underground, this subtle difference wildly changes how the story goes. Papyrus does end up a sentry, but not in Snowdin, so there’s no puzzles, no one to “watch over them”, nothing. Just the struggle of the loyal dog guards who don’t show any of the mercy Papyrus does. Think about how different it would be without those two: no hotdog healing items, no interactions at Grillby’s, no Papyrus influence in Frisk’s interactions with Undyne, so on.

(Continues under cut)

This leads to many resets. Sans and Gaster are very aware of the (essentially) time travel Frisk is doing, and they’re studying it behind the scenes. Sans has more of an awareness of the resets than most monsters (the leading theory they had on why is because Sans’s “teleporting” ability is nearly time travel itself—I will spare you my science rant on why that is for now—but it allows him to keep time-altered memories better than others.)

As it turns out, time loops are miserable; who knew? There’s a particular existential dread built upon the idea of a cycle, especially one that is so out of your control, and always inevitable. To have predestination is to have a lack of influence or meaning in both what you do, and what happens to you. It’s no surprise the knowledge of eternal repetition leads to nihilism and the feeling nothing will ever matter. After all, for Sans, it’s true: nothing he does matters. The resets keep happening. They keep researching, and they learn new things, but never how to stop it.

Sans goes to work every day because it’s inertia at this point: to get up and go to the lab, tracking where in the timeline they are in that moment. It would take more energy to stop than to just do it. He’d have to figure out what to tell his boss, Gaster, who refuses to give up and desperately confides in Sans, the only one who understands. He doesn’t even begin to know what he’d say to Papyrus.

So he doesn’t. Sans flows through life and gets thrown around and bashed against the walls of the river of relentless time. He fights Frisk once (or is it twice? Three times? How long has it been now? Sans doesn’t know) during genocide runs, because Sans is still the judge.

Sometimes they even get to the surface.

It doesn’t matter, because they always end up back underground.

Until one day, Frisk dies somewhere early on in a run, and never resets.

Sans waits for them to return. He’s gotten good at waiting. That’s all he’s good at these days. But Frisk doesn’t come back. They died somewhere silently where no one could get their soul.

They are underground, and they continue to be underground.

Sans has been bit by daring to hope far too many times to count. So he lives out his days expecting each morning to be a reset. He lives assuming nothing still matters.

One month, no reset. Okay, been there done that.

Two months.

Six.

A year.

They’re not coming back this time. It takes longer than it should to realize (he doesn’t know what day it is half the time anyway).

Time is going to continue. For real this time.

What are they supposed to do now?

And I’ll leave it at that for now. (Boy I really can’t write anything short, can I? I even skipped a lot of stuff here. This is theoretically only a portion of the “prologue” to his story. The main story and what I’d consider writing/drawing/doing-whatever-with happens a while later.)

[halfagonyandhope]

when the skies catch fire │ch. 45

first chapter (x); previous chapter (x)

Pulse still skyrocketing, his gaze first meets Quinlan’s and then Ventress’. “I don’t understand,” he murmurs.

Quinlan gives a short, wry laugh. “That makes three of us.” His brow furrows. “Do you think you can do it again?”

“Vos,” hisses Ventress in protest. At Obi-Wan’s confused look, she elaborates. “Kenobi, you’ve never been much to look at, but that’s especially true right now.” She gestures to his face. “You’re practically hanging onto consciousness.”

Obi-Wan grimaces, suddenly intensely aware of his clammy skin, the way the bones in his joints feel like they’re rubbing directly against each other.

“Fair enough,” says Quinlan. He’s still holding onto Obi-Wan’s upper arm, but he sits down now, making sure Obi-Wan is steady before dropping his hand to his side. “Best not to overdo it.”

Obi-Wan glances at Ventress. “What were you chanting? Was it some kind of incantation to heighten sensitivity to the Force?”

Ventress rolls back first one shoulder and then the other. Then she tilts her head to one side, cracking her neck. “It was just a hymn, Kenobi. To help me focus. A traditional song of the Nightsisters, yes, but just a song.”

Obi-Wan decides he will ask Qui-Gon about this later.

He hasn’t yet explained to most of the inhabitants of the base - save for Satine, of course - that he’s been in contact with his dead master. Qui-Gon had provided much of the knowledge they’d needed to rescue Quinlan, but Obi-Wan had disguised the source of the knowledge, and no one had questioned him. He does eventually plan on looping the others in, starting with Ahsoka, but events had moved so quickly in the past few standard weeks that he is usually only free from obligations when he is sleeping.

Obi-Wan rubs his brow, wiping away a few beads of sweat and taking a deep breath, trying to calm his heart. “What did you feel?” he asks Ventress.

Ventress hands the diadem back to him, the metal still cold when it drops into his palm despite her having held it for several minutes. “Your shopkeeper wasn’t lying,” she says. “A Jedi was the first owner of this diadem, and while on a mission she traded it for food.”

Stunned, Obi-Wan can only blink. Quinlan beams at Ventress, and his pride is obvious.

Obi-Wan glances down at the diadem, thumb brushing over the blue-green stone. “How strange,” he murmurs. “I’ve never known a Jedi to wear such ornamentation.”

Ventress purses her lips. “I didn’t say she was a contemporary of yours,” she points out. “There’s a couple hundred years’ worth of memories associated with that diadem. Your Jedi was just the first to wear it.”

His eyes snap up again. “You can feel that far back?”

Ventress shrugs. “Not usually,” she admits. “And some of the memories were stronger than others. I suspect I could still feel the Jedi’s because she was a Force user.”

“You didn’t happen to catch a name, did you?”

Quinlan and Ventress sigh in unison. 

“That’s not how psychometry works,” Quinlan says.

Obi-Wan chuckles weakly. “Had to ask.”

Ventress just rolls her eyes.

---

Obi-Wan pulls Satine toward the Archives after supper that night. Checking to make sure the area is deserted, he leads her behind one of the shelves and kisses her, grateful for the feel of her smile against his lips. The kiss becomes heated quickly, but neither move to break it for some time.

Eventually, though, Satine pulls back slightly so she can meet his eyes. “What was that for?” she whispers.

“Do I need a reason?” he answers immediately, reaching up to weave his fingers through her hair, to guide her back to him.

“I suppose not,” she laughs against his skin, her breath catching when his lips move to her jaw, and he’s so enamored that he barely registers the sound of his cane dropping to the floor.

“Keep your eyes closed,” he murmurs, and he grins when she obeys but simultaneously lifts a brow, and he feathers barely-there kisses across the ridge of her nose, her eyelids, her temple, delighting in the way she shivers. Then he reaches into his pocket and pulls out the diadem. “Open your eyes, my dear.”

And she does, staring at him with such adoration that his knees become even weaker than usual.

Then her eyes flicker down to his extended hand and she gasps.

“Stars above,” she says, reaching for the diadem. “You found this today at the market?”

Obi-Wan nods. “Don’t break my fragile ego by saying that you’ll refuse to wear it.”

Satine flicks his nose. “Your ego is not fragile,” she says, and he grins when he registers the suggestiveness in her tone.

“True,” he admits. “We’ve been working on building it back up recently, haven’t we?”

Satine snickers. “Yes, and quite successfully, I might add,” she says. Then her gaze becomes serious as she considers the diadem. “You bought this - for me?”

Obi-Wan feigns a look around the Archives. “You don’t see any other Mrs. Obi-Wan Kenobi around, do you?” But then he smiles gently at her. “Perhaps it’s not my ego that needs building.”

She ponders over this, still looking at the diadem. “I will admit that it was rather difficult for me…having you here but not here. Not all here, anyway. But the past few weeks, you’ve been returning to me, piece by piece. And I can’t hardly complain when I’m getting what I wished for, hmmm?”

He kisses her again. “You’re allowed to feel whatever you feel, my dear,” he says quietly. “We went from a very physical relationship to…well, life support, really. It’s okay to want more as we work our way back to what we had.” He clears his throat. “And as we do, I wanted to show you - to give you a physical reminder - of what you are to me.”

He holds the diadem up questioningly.

“May I?” Obi-Wan asks. “Since I never got to properly propose, I thought about kneeling, but I have a feeling my knees wouldn’t allow me to get back up.”

Satine nods, laughing, and he places the diadem upon her head, shifting it until the gemstone lies properly on the middle of her forehead.

Obi-Wan grins at her. “Lovely,” he whispers, hands reaching down to frame her face. When she lifts one corner of her mouth, his thumb slides over to feel her smile.

“It reminds me of the one I wore to Concordia,” Satine says. “Remember?”

Obi-Wan pulls her closer. “I could hardly forget given that you have reminded me so many times.”

“It was a rather daring rescue. I saved your life, you know.”

He rolls his eyes and sighs but smiles. “It was, and you did,” he admits. His fingers begin to play with her hair before he realizes what he’s doing. “Ventress learned a bit of psychometry from Quinlan,” he tells her. “She says the diadem belonged to a Jedi. Not recently, though - at least a hundred years back.”

Satine’s brow furrows. “A Jedi from the golden age of the Republic?” she asks.

Obi-Wan tilts his head. “What are you thinking?”

“It could be nothing,” she warns. “But long ago, a few years after you and I parted, someone told me I resembled Jedi Master Avar Kriss. I looked her up, of course, to better understand the comparison.” Satine pauses. “In all the artwork I found of her, she wore a diadem. There were a couple different versions of it, one with just the one gemstone and another with three, but…”

“The Hero of Hetzal,” Obi-Wan says quietly, placing the name. “I remember learning about her in my galactic history classes. I’m sure she was probably depicted with a diadem in the Temple texts, but that’s not something I would have thought was important to commit to memory.”

Satine’s expression brightens. “We should look her up,” she suggests. “We are in the Archives, after all…”

Obi-Wan can’t stop himself from chuckling.

“We restored many of the texts during your absence,” says Satine. “We might be able to find something useful.”

“How long do we have until we need to pick up Léa?” Obi-Wan asks.

“Another standard hour,” says Satine, picking up his cane and then pulling him toward another section of the Archives. He takes the proffered cane, amused, and watches as her free hand skims over the holobooks. Her other hand holds tight to his.

“Here,” she says, grabbing a holobook and then leading him over to the couch they’d occupied when Qui-Gon had first revealed himself to them. Satine opens the crystalline backing of the holobook, and she sits next to Obi-Wan, leaning into him so they can read at the same time.

Most of the information Obi-Wan vaguely remembers from his coursework at the Temple: a human Jedi Master, Kriss had been imperative in protecting multiple systems from the Great Hyperspace Disaster, ending the Drengir crisis, and eliminating the Nameless and the Nihil. But as he continues reading, Obi-Wan feels his pulse pick up pace.

He feels rather than sees Satine look up at him as she comes to the same realization that he has reached. “She left the Order?” she whispers.

Obi-Wan’s fingers brush over the lines of text. “Curious how my teachers didn’t emphasize that part of her life.”

“You didn’t learn about her leaving?”

Obi-Wan shakes his head, and continues on. He has to read the paragraph again before he looks up at Satine. “She left to marry another Jedi,” he murmurs. And he glances down at the holobook again, eyes immediately drawn to the line just above Satine’s graceful fingers. “Two hundred years ago, she left the Order to marry a Jedi - another human named Elzar Mann.”

“Elzar?” she asks, as though she doesn’t believe the name is a coincidence. Their eyes meet again, and a second later Satine is already pouring back over the holobook. “Obi-Wan,” she says, eyes wide. “The planet they settled on…the planet where they raised their family…”

She meets his gaze, practically glowing with the new knowledge.

“It was Stewjon.”

[the-insomniac-emporium]

thinking about what Mia's route would be like

(yes, I am aware that there will be a Mia route eventually. this is just my brain contemplating Scenarios because it's fun. also this will have spoilers for existing routes, so be aware of that)

What if her route took place over multiple loops?

Maybe the MC has repeatedly gone back to other LIs, and Miranda is getting frustrated, and gives Mia the approval to intervene as much as possible, to hopefully push MC towards Miranda, but at the very least get them to stop falling for other people.

This repeatedly backfires as the MC starts falling in love with Mia, although Mira repeatedly resets the loop before it can become official.

So, like, the MC goes through mini/alternate versions of the other 7 routes, with Miranda's at the end. Each one gets altered to have Mia be more prominent, as well as having the end of that loop come faster than it does in the original route (for the most part).

Examples: Angie's Route: Once the MC joins the Umbrella sorority, they start spending a lot of time with Mia. When Angie is accused of murder, Mia pulls some strings, and ends up being the one to "investigate" alongside the MC. Although Angie still gets cleared, Mia ensures that the MC gets a little suspicious of Donna (and becomes wary of Donna's warnings to stay away from Angie). Dani's Route: Instead of getting moved to the Stans' dorm, the MC ends up rooming with Mia. After accidentally stumbling upon Mia's occult collection, they end up working together to break Dani's curse (much to Miranda's irritation). Bela's Route: Having vague impressions of past loops, the MC isn't as wary of Mia as they normally are, and start to befriend her. Bela remembers enough to try and intervene, and as a result this section is the closest of the bunch to the original, but the big difference is that Mia doesn't attempt to kill the MC at the end. Instead, the MC asks her to dance, then Mia attempts to convince them that Bela is on the verge of a mental breakdown. Bela obviously objects, and when Mia pulls out her knife, she assumes that Mia is switching tactics to try and kill the MC again. This time when Mia gets thrown off the balcony, the MC refuses to go with Bela, and rushes down to "help" Mia (it's much too late for that). Miranda ends up resetting the loop hastily, causing the MC to have some residual feelings (but no concrete memories). Donna's Route: On "probation" after the Bela fiasco, Mia is once again told not to intervene without Miranda's direct approval. Despite that... she keeps accidentally bumping into the MC (cue a sequence of meet-cutes), the MC's residual feelings making them drawn to her. When Mia offers them the poisoned berries, the MC is insistent on the danger, and refuses to let Mia keep them, fussing over her apparent lack of knowledge regarding poisonous fruit (Mia's situation gets worse when she attempts to claim that she just. found the berries. in the woods. and thought she could eat them.) Miranda's Route: MC meets Mia early, and once again befriends her quickly. When the MC gets drugged at the bar, they go to call Miranda, but end up dialing Mia instead.

Ideas for the endings:

In general: The endings could revolve around Mia attempting to dethrone Miranda/remove her from the picture, the game keeping an invisible tally of moments where important cult members start to doubt Miranda's capabilities/strategy.

Cult ending: Realizing that it's too soon to try and displace Miranda, Mia ends the loop violently, promising the MC she'll find a way to fix things eventually, and cradles them as they bleed out. It's the only time we ever see Mia seem remorseful about killing MC.

Neutral ending: Mia successfully convinces the strongest members of the cult that Miranda has lost touch with reality, and that they need to accept her strategy isn't working. Mia suggests combining their powers to void Miranda's immortality, claiming that they can ensure things work out once both Mira and MC reincarnate again (after all... Mira did say she'd wait centuries for us!). Maybe Miranda even realizes she's been outplayed and betrayed, begrudgingly accepting her fate but vowing to make sure Mia suffers for this. Mia becomes the new cult leader, running things from the shadows, and resets the loop one last time (just without Miranda). Despite loving the MC, Mia doesn't let them keep their memories, and avoids them. The route ends with a choice similar to the one we make at the start, with the implication that the MC is choosing one of the other love interests to finally get a happy ending with.

Romantic ending: Very similar to the neutral ending, except this time the MC is still drawn to Mia, and seeks her out despite not remembering their connection. Mia realizes how strong their soul-bond is, as well as the fact that after twenty incarnations, she can finally be with the one she loves (even if she intends to keep her word, letting the MC stay mortal so that they can eventually reincarnate).

Alt/SUPER SECRET ENDING: we're talking, like, needing to make ALL the right dialogue options to get this ending (except they're not all the same "correct" choices that would net you the romantic ending). The player has to support Mia, but when given the opportunity, they must try to urge peace between her and Miranda, as well as consistently express the belief that while Miranda is doing bad things, she must have a very, very strong reason to do so. This would play out similar to Miranda's good ending, except... (drumroll please...)... it's the poly ending. Mia + MC + Miranda. Because at that point, Mia's soul is just as bound to Mira as it is to the MC (and vice versa), and it's become increasingly clear that the MC needs Mia around, while being incapable of loving her in a purely platonic fashion.

I also have ideas for the possible integration of both Ethan and Rose, but this post is already longer than I expected, so I'll save that for another day. probably. maybe remind me?

[popatochisssp]

happy late thanksgiving, poppy!!!! i hope you spent your day relaxing! also, has nobody asked for the full transcendtale story yet? if not then consider this my formal request lol! xx

I had almost forgotten about it, but you're right! So here it is!

Transcendtale

Monsters are at war with humanity.

Or at least, with one human.

A sadistic, single-minded human has set their sights on the Underground, locking the monsters within into an endless cycle of RESETs.

In the beginning, most monsters were only peripherally aware that something was wrong—recurring déjà vu, nightmares that felt like memories, knowledge of things they didn’t remember learning.

But as the RESETs persisted, this awareness grew stronger and stronger, compiling across many, many repeated timelines until people really were remembering things.

The natural change in their behavior only seemed to encourage the human to keep repeating the cycle, almost as if to see what would be different this time—strengthening the awareness further.

Monsters began to talk to each other about it, realizing they’re all experiencing the same; realizing that the looping of time is actually something that’s happening.

A lot of secrets end up out in the open, once people start talking.

The machine back behind Sans’ house is one such secret, actively recording data on the anomaly that seems to be tampering with the timeline and providing solid proof that what they’re all going through isn’t a shared hallucination.

No one blames Sans for not coming forward with that information earlier, of course, being that his memory transfer across RESETs is so poor.

The guy can pick up context clues and read a room fast as anything, and being able to check on that data when he felt something odd was going on helped catch him up to speed, but in terms of actually remembering…

Well, it seems that the strongest recall of memory across RESET timelines is linked to levels of Determination, and there are many things to be said about Sans but ‘determined’ is not one of them.

Still, his data is helpful.

Monsters begin to try to organize, trying different strategies to combat the human’s relentless assault against them.

Gradually, the Underground becomes a siege, or something like it, a handful of the same days repeated over and over again to the point that the monsters living them—now remembering them all—feel like years are passing.

In spite of trying everything they can think of, the human manages to thwart them at every turn—or if they do manage to turn the tide for a short while, the human comes back again and again until they force their way through.

Potential solutions escalate, from attempted diplomacy to guerrilla tactics to the height of desperation.

It would be one thing if it was only the (repeated) extinction of their species they were fighting against, but another entirely to know that when the human finishes with everyone else and kills Asgore, the entire universe ends—not a single timeline in thousands extending past that point.

No one’s been left alive to see what happens, but inevitably everything ceases and goes right back to the start, for the killing to begin anew.

It has to stop before then, whatever the cost.

The human is far too strong for any one monster to handle, even groups of monsters, and they know that because they’ve tried, and the human will always come back, learn their patterns and break through.

It’s no job for any monster.

They consider that they may need a god instead.

Asgore, the strongest boss monster of their number, absorbs the six human souls, becoming something terrible and powerful and deeply unnatural.

………

It takes the human under a hundred tries to get through him.

The monsters are at a loss, for awhile.

Their biggest and strongest boss still isn’t enough…

…can they make a stronger one?

Normally, this would be a ludicrous thought—just making a stronger monster—but Sans isn’t the only one whose strange secrets are out, now that everyone remembers RESET timelines.

Flowey’s busted too—at least, to the extent that he’s an artificial monster brought to life by dust and DT.

Initially, he was on the human’s side for………reasons………but being killed a few hundred, thousand, whatever times has a way of changing one’s loyalties, and he’s been (begrudgingly) siding with monsters for awhile.

So when the suggestion is laid on the table—make a new bigger and better monster—Flowey has a couple cents to throw in on the matter.

That still wouldn’t be enough.

He fought the human once before, and even something like him plus all the human souls they have couldn’t keep them down for good. If they want that to work, they’re going to have to find a way to make it really tough, and good luck with that because it’d probably take the equivalent of all monsterkind to have a shot at taking that killer down.

…The equivalent of all monsterkind.

That…is an idea.

A terrible idea, horrible, unthinkable, no one wants to discuss that further.

Until.

The RESETs continue.

Death, again and again and again.

Suffering, with no hope of an end anywhere in sight.

Desperate times…do call for desperate measures, and eventually even the most ghoulish way out of it is given its due consideration.

So…what if they do use all of monsterkind?

What if everyone pooled all of themselves—their magic, their souls, their hopes and dreams—everything, together with the human souls.

Could that be enough?

With the few faint memories Flowey has of a pacifist timeline, he posits a less than confident, “Maybe?”

It’s not a no, and it’s the best they have to go on.

They have to try something.

A vessel of some kind will be needed, something capable of containing all of monsterkind. They have an excellent roboticist in Alphys, who has already made one robotic body for a monster to occupy and is relatively confident she can do it again.

The logistics will be different from that, of course. It was simple enough to make a shell for a willing ghost monster to occupy, but they’re all out of ghost monsters capable of taking on a body, so…

It’ll have to be piloted…the way Flowey occupied his vessel.

Monster dust laid onto the vessel and brought to life by DT.

Someone needs to volunteer to do it, to be resurrected into a soulless body after their death, to give intent and sentient function to the vessel of everyone’s hopes and dreams and use their power to bring an end to the perpetual terror hanging over monsterkind.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Undyne is the first to volunteer.

…Then Asgore.

And Toriel.

Papyrus.

Mettaton.

Many others.

It won’t take.

The human runs through several presumably confusing yet intriguing timelines where the Underground has gone empty, save for Flowey trying to distract them and Alphys in her lab trying desperately, fruitlessly to get her mysterious project to work.

At least, before they kill her and begin it all again.

Eventually, Alphys manages to at least figure out what the problem is, why the vessel keeps malfunctioning and the volunteer monster’s dust never seems to properly take.

She determines that when DT extract is introduced to the volunteer’s remains, it awakens and joins with whatever existing DT that monster had in life. This amount is typically small, as most monsters can’t handle high concentrations of DT, not the way humans can.

But this time, it happens to be doing the same to the vessel—a construct made of nearly every monster in the Underground.

Flowey was a different equation, monster dust added onto an inanimate vessel with zero DT of its own, and now with a vessel overbalancing the amount of the unstable element, it’s not working.

But it could.

If…

If the volunteer monster were someone with extremely low DT, so that there would be less to activate when the extract was introduced…

Suddenly, everyone in the room is looking at Sans and he is less than enthused.

Dying over and over again was one thing—he was just about used to that, at this point—but dying and living again? As something neither monster nor human? With the grand responsibility of avenging the entirety of monsterkind, nearly literally carrying everyone’s hopes and dreams on his shoulders?

That sucks.

There was a reason he didn’t volunteer, but now it seems like he’s being voluntold—nobody’s saying it, but…he has to, there’s no one else with DT as low as his and everyone knows it, the numbers from the machine being what they are, the human already bearing down on them for yet another assault, they’re all counting on him to agree.

So, he says—

“NO.”

Papyrus refuses this option point-blank.

There is no way in hell that he is letting his brother do that alone—he will have to be there too!

He is spoken to and encouraged and pleaded to be reasonable. All of monsterkind’s peace is at stake, of course he cares about his brother, but he must see that everyone is making sacrifices to end this horrible cycle once and for all.

And yes, certainly, Papyrus can see that. Obviously, he can—he’s made a lot of moral concessions himself over the past few time-looped years, he and Sans both have fought and been killed and willingly sacrificed themselves, and all manner of other terrible things, over and over and over again.

And they’ve been happy (for a given definition of ‘happy’) to do so!

But this is the line.

His, anyway.

He will not let Sans do this thing unless they can find some way for him to be there too, and he’s not budging—so figure something out.

(Sans could’ve protested and just willingly damned himself, but grateful for Papyrus’ interference, he…didn’t.)

So fine, apparently this is the hill that everyone will die on—again and again and again and again—if they don’t ‘figure something out.’

The problem is now how to make it so that Papyrus can ‘be there’ after he chronologically needs to have been incorporated into the vessel with all the other monsters.

Well… his soul needs to be there.

Does he need that to exist? To be present?

Sans won’t have that and he’ll be around, if this works the way it’s supposed to.

Flowey doesn’t have that and he’s around.

Maybe…

Maybe there’s a way to take a snapshot of a living monster—a scan of their knowledge, their memories, their experiences and thoughts and personality—and save it, like a program, or…an AI?

It wouldn’t have a soul but clearly that isn’t a requirement for sentient life, functionally it should be all but identical to a person’s continued existence.

…It raises a whole lot of ethical and philosophical questions, certainly, but if it can be done, it could be a very, very good thing.

After all, monsterkind was more or less going to be gone after this, a Pyrrhic victory to finally end their never-ending nightmare at the cost of all their lives.

This way, they could be preserved, in a digital space or a virtual reality, after their physical bodies and selves were gone, and that’s worth something, isn’t it?

At least a notch above total, permanent extinction.

Many monsters agree, previously resigned to total cessation and hopeful to carry on in some form, to have scans of themselves done when the tech is sorted.

Papyrus is of course among their number, and entirely too smug about it since all this was his idea…or at least, Alphys wouldn’t have developed it without his ultimatum, so it’s basically the same as being his idea!

And ultimately, with the assurance that he won’t be alone on the other side…

Sans agrees to volunteer.

The human’s final timeline is a very different experience than what they’ve become used to.

Sans, resurrected into a body filled with truly godly power, is their only opponent, one they never would have had a chance to beat.

With ease, he removes all of their options—refusing to allow them to FIGHT or to use MERCY. He blocks their path, corrupts their SAVES, and severs their connection to whatever entity has granted them to power to do what they’ve done…permanently.

The human falls, like a puppet with its strings cut, and simple as that…

It’s all over.

The barrier is broken, almost as an afterthought, and the few remaining monsters that can go up to the Surface.

Monsterkind itself exists almost entirely virtually now. As a species, they’re on the down-low with regards to humanity, off the grid, as there’s only (currently) three among their number who exist physically and trying to establish anything official with so few feels…trivial.

Some monsters are looking forward to obtaining robotic bodies of their own to begin interacting with the surface world, but others are content to remain digital.

It’s not exactly a happy ending…but it’s not an ending, and monsterkind has transcended from one phase of existence to the next, and will adapt accordingly.

Spectr (Transcendtale Sans)

A soulless consciousness inhabiting an exoskeletal body that at least mostly resembles his old one—a favor from Alphys—shining chrome and white plating with prismatic flecks of rainbow that catch in the light. Heavily dysphoric about his body and averse to seeing ‘himself,’ he's always covered up and tends to avoid reflections.

No longer reality-bendingly strong, without the power of the human souls, but still in possession of the condensed power of all monsterkind and fully capable of unleashing terrifying strength and magic if needed. …He would rather not.

Because he lacks a soul, his emotions are distant and muted, and because he was resurrected and not scanned in great detail, his memory is mostly intact but can be spotty—especially with regards to things that happened between RESETs.

Spends a lot of time thinking about personhood and existence—is he who he was before, now that he doesn’t have a soul? Can he claim those memories, that self, or is he too different? Does he even count as ‘alive’?

Trying to find meaning in his current state of being, roaming the Surface and seeking small pleasures and maybe the hope of some kind of inner peace out in the world.

PapAIrus (Transcendtale Papyrus)

Technically not The Original, a scanned digital copy of everything that made Papyrus…Papyrus—and completely fine with it, entirely bypassing the philosophical questions his brother dwells on. As far as he’s concerned, he’s himself: he has all of his thoughts and memories and feels like himself, so he is! Easy, why make it so complicated?

Exists mostly in a virtual state and can traverse through and access most any electronic device, but he can also manifest physically as a hard-light projection via any device that emits light. He has access to most of his brother’s systems and can communicate or project himself through him as a conduit…unless said brother has intentionally blocked him out

A bit different than he was before all the RESETs, a little looser with his moral code and more of a wisecracker—he lived a lot of years under siege and had to adapt to an enemy that really couldn’t be better and didn’t want to try, and filling in for the jokes his brother had become too downtrodden to tell

Spends his time everywhere and nowhere, surfing the ‘net and making a splash as a holographic DJ and periodically checking in on his brother to make sure he’s as okay as he can be—basically doing everything he wants to do, whenever he wants to do it

…Possibly nurturing a slight god-complex, but mostly just enjoying a new phase of his life with near-limitless access to anyone, anything and anywhere, totally untethered by all of his previous mortal limitations (…okay yeah, it’s a god-complex, but it’s fine, don’t worry about it)

[stepswowdsen]

【KagePro】 Alien Stage AU: KuroEne, AyaEne, MaryEne AU 🖤💙❤️🩷👾🎤

KagePro x Alien Stage AU: Part 1 👾🎤

Summary:

KagePro (KGPR) x Alien Stage (ALNST) AU: KuroEne, AyaEne, and MaryEne AU 🖤💙❤️🩷👾🎤

Round 5: Ruler of My Heart - Saeru Hebi vs. Tateyama Ayano

Round 7 (Final Round): Blink Gone - Saeru Hebi vs. Kozakura Mary

KuroEne, AyaEne, and MaryEne centric AU.

Mainly focuses on my fave KagePro charas in an ALNST AU, and combines the lore and setting of both KagePro and ALNST.

This AU is centered around Takane/Ene multiships because Ene is my wife, so I'm the most invested in her ships.

Kuroha/Saeru: 🖤🐍

Takane/Ene: 💙🐇

Ayano: ❤️🧣

Mary: 🩷🎀

KagePro (KGPR) x Alien Stage (ALNST) AU 👾 🎤

Scan: @/ayara-resara

Artist: Sidu

Colour Edit: Me (@/stepswordsen)

Source: .dsd Sidu Illustrations Works 2011-2015 Art Book

Takane, Haruka, Konoha, Kuroha/Saeru, Ene

Some thoughts I came up with for this AU. I'll be combining lore details from both KagePro and ALNST canon to make the AU more interesting.

Mainly focused on my fave charas and ships. I'm the most invested in Ene multiships because Takane/Ene is my wife.

Also, I wanted to limit the scope and make it easier to write, since ALNST has 6 main charas.

Saeru Hebi (Clearing Snake) manipulated circumstances to get the cast to compete in Alien Stage, a life or death competition.

The tournament has been manipulated by Saeru to reset the time and keep up his pseudo immortality.

Haruka died from his his illness, leading to the creation of a clone, Konoha

Saeru steals Konoha's body before/leading up to a round that Konoha was supposed to perform (or he eliminates Konoha and takes his appearance)

KuroEne become involved with each other, and Ene has a Hate/Love relationship with Saeru and has conflicted feelings for him.

Ene is aware of his true nature and that he's a monster, but still feels drawn to him because he knows her better than anyone else.

He could always read her too well and would always know how to get at the heart of her feelings, so they build a connection. Ene gets attached to him.

Unknownst to her, Saeru retains knowledge of previous timelines and thus remembers all of their memories together throughout the time loops.

During his matches, Saeru weaponizes his knowledge and uses his opponents' grief to his advantage.

Saeru and Ayano compete in Round 5: Ruler of My Heart, and each sing the song out of their love for Takane/Ene.

Saeru preys on Ayano's grief (from losing her siblings and Takane earlier in previous rounds)

Ayano is struggling during her performance from the loss of her family/friends and love interest weighing on her.

Ene sees Round 5 being broadcast. Maybe she tries to return to Alien Stage to bust the others out

Saeru and Mary face off in Round 7 (Final Round): Blink Gone.

During their match, similar to Outer Science, Saeru taunts Mary about her friends' deaths to further drive Mary's despair and desperation, telling her that she is the "Queen of this Tragedy."

Mary uses her Queen/Medusa powers to rewind time, out of a wish to see her friends again, one more time.

Source: Outer Science MV (Blu-Ray Edition)

I linked the Blu-Ray (BD) edition release since it corrects the colours. The original MV upload is much darker, so certain details are harder to see.

Brainstorming Ideas

Alien Stage competition takes place in the August month, and the Final Round is on August 15th (reset day)

Maybe Saeru arranged for Konoha's elimination in a previous round just so he could steal his body

Ene has a Hate/Love relationship with Kuroha/Saeru and conflicted feelings for him due to him stealing her loved one's body and taking his place

Maybe Ene infiltrates a control room and watches the events of Round 5 being broadcast. She hacks into the system and causes a smokescreen to help save Ayano and escapes with her, which Saeru was counting on

Maybe Saeru lets himself lose in the final round because Konoha's body is "indestructible." So if he gets shot, he doesn't get killed, unlike the others.

So Mary is the "winner" of the competition, but Saeru is the winner of the game overall because he ends up getting what he wanted in the end.

Mary resets out of desperation and a strong desire to see her friends again.

I feel like at some point, Saeru would tell Ene that she has a habit of "running away from confronting her more honest feelings and inevitable fate"

In MR2, Ene says she always ran away from her problems and avoided confronting her feelings, in an attempt to bury them and not have to acknowledge them.

Other Notes

Gonna write down some more thoughts so I don't forget

I feel like Ene is the type to sacrifice herself against her opponents... I think Saeru should rig the game so that she's only shot with a non-lethal toxin that makes her unconscious/comatose.

In another loop, if there's ever an Ayano vs. Mary round, I feel like Ayano would sacrifice herself for Mary

ALNST

Ruler of My Heart (ROMH) is implied to have been written by Luka (according to Vivinos' Patreon posts)

Just gonna link for this fan-written description since it links the official Patreon posts: (X)

I think some of the lyrics can be interpreted as references to Hyuna (by fan-speculation)

"Ruler of My Heart" could also be an implicit reference to how Luka constantly has to monitor/keep his heart rate in check due to his strict abusive upbringing and "teachings" by his owner.

ROMH lyric can be speculated as a reference to the artbook line.

My savior, pitiful lady Make me your god, I can give you everything - Ruler of My Heart Lyrics

"Pitiful thing. You're just running away from the current situation. If you just came into my embrace, your safety would be guaranteed." - Luka about Hyuna in the ALNST artbook

Rambles with Feila

Alien Stage: Round 5 - Ruler of My Heart

Gonna write down some more thoughts so I don't forget.

Just brainstorming some possible ideas.

Me: Just came up with an idea for a KagePro x ALNST AU where Saeru is in the position of Luka (except minus Luka's backstory details obviously) and uses his knowledge to his advantage by weaponizing his opponents' grief and distress during his matches.

I speedran watching some MVs recently cuz I was interested in MiziSua.

I think my fave ALNST charas are Mizi, Luka, and Hyuna.

Also, I love charas who are deranged and a freak 🫡

Saeru and Ene match-up... 🖤 💙

Saeru and Mary match-up should be the final round 👍

Ohhh, buddy!!! ‼️

I'm also really interested by the concept of adding KagePro's time loop into it with making it a loop where each tournament takes place on August 15th and then the timeline resets.

F: Saeru and Mary as Blink Gone 😭😭😭

ALSO THE TIME RESET PART, GENIUS

Also him fiddling around, switching the contestants' opponent each loop

Me: OH I was imagining Saeru and Mary singing “Ruler of My Heart” so they take Luka and Mizi's place

I was just gonna swap the rounds so it makes more sense. Though admittedly, I'm still deciding.

Especially with the part where Mizi lashes out and attacks Luka as a trauma response (out of anger and grief)

Mary (in Mizi's position) attacks Saeru (in Luka's position) with her Queen/Medusa form 🐍

So that I could have my KuroEne and MaryEne vision with Mary having a match-up with Ene in a previous round, and Ene lets herself lose to Mary.

And then Saeru sings "Ruler of My Heart" out of “love” (twisted obsession) for whoever his S/O is. Ene, in our AU’s case.

ALNST

Iirc it was stated that "Ruler of My Heart" is a song that Luka composed.

Reading the lyrics, if you interpret it as Luka's POV towards Hyuna, it does seem like some lines are dedicated to Hyuna, because Luka’s love is toxic, obsessive, and controlling.

My saviour, pitiful lady

Make me your god, I can give you everything

The lyric, "Make me your god, I can give you everything" really reads as MiziSua and HyuLuka core.

Especially since Round 5 was officially a duet between Mizi and Luka, and then Studio Lico released official solo versions of ROMH for Hyuna and Sua

"Ruler of My Heart" indeed...

Hyuna’s life motto is that she wants to live her life for herself in All-In, she sings out of enjoyment, for herself, as her way of reclaiming singing from the Segyein/Aliens.

Though in contrast, Luka's toxic, obsessive, controlling love for Hyuna is still very child-like and "innocent"

Round 5: Ruler of My Heart

Saeru's "love" (twisted obsession) is very NOT innocent.

I also really like the idea of Saeru singing the line of "Make me your god, I can give you everything"

Especially considering his whole shtick in my KuroEne AU.

He plays up to his S/O's desires and gives them everything they ever wanted. Except for the thing they want most - to move onto the future with everyone.

Saeru tells Ene (during the final confrontation on August 15th in my canon-verse KuroEne AU with the MaryEne team-up Route), how he gave her everything she ever wanted and made all her wishes come true.

Though I'd want Ene to still be alive to see Saeru and Ayano's performance... I'd have to think about the order of the rounds so it can make sense 🤔

Or maybe Mary about Ayano (platonic), like maybe Ayano sacrificed herself for Mary earlier.

Anyways, I’d have Saeru and Ayano compete and sing ROMH about their feelings for Takane/Ene, and Saeru weaponizing Ayano’s grief.

Or it can be Mary about Ene (romantic) 🩷 💙

Or maybe Saeru and Ene should be “Ruler of My Heart” (with Ene mourning Haruka/Konoha) and then “Saeru and Mary” is Blink Gone

So Ig the options are to make "Ruler of My Heart" between either Saeru and Ayano, or Saeru and Mary

Like maybe Ayano thinks Ene is dead when she's actually not (just missing, and Saeru ensured she'd be able to sneak out)

And Ayano is clearly struggling in her match against Saeru and then attacks him out of anger and grief.

Like what point is there in Saeru singing “Ruler of My Heart” if Ene is not alive/there to see it 😭

Maybe Saeru should rig Ene to win one of her matches against an NPC so that she can still see it being broadcast 👍 Though she has no idea that the song is about her

Me: I think Saeru and Ayano singing “Ruler of My Heart” (Round 5) and Saeru and Mary singing “Blink Gone” (Round 7 - Final Round) would have a really nice set-up...

F: 💗

Me: EXACTLY 🤭 👍

F: Love love LOVE WHERE THIS IDEA IS GOING >:D

Me: 🤭💗

Misc Rambles

Me: I think similar to how Hyuna busts Mizi out after setting off a smokescreen so that she isn't killed after her loss in the round and violence against her opponent, someone probably comes to Ayano's rescue

Ayano is shaken up during her match with Saeru because she thinks that Takane/Ene is dead (though Ene managed to survive... somehow.)

Maybe Saeru manipulated events so that after Takane’s loss, Takane’s body would be escorted out after her match.

Maybe he secretly gave the order beforehand so that she could be revived in his lab.

Or Saeru purposely left opportunities to let Ene run away and escape Alien Stage. Though, she most likely wants to come back for the others to bust them out.

During their match, Saeru imitates Takane/Ene's touches around Ayano, because he knows exactly how she acts around him and what those touches feel like, based on his memories and intimate moments with her from previous timelines.

I'd love to see Ayano attack Saeru OMGGG

Imagining Ayano with Mizi's angry feral expressions... ‼️❣️

Idol/Stage Outfits

Me: I imagine their idol outfits are their Design Poll Outfits and Seek At Mekakucity Outfits 🖤 💙 ❤️ 🩷

I could also come up with some alt outfits for them to wear in this AU

Kuroha/Saeru, Takane/Ene, Mary, Ayano

F: I was thinking that Ene might look more like Hatsune Miku 😭

Me: Ene's Seek at Mekakucity outfit is my fave alt outfit for her...

Ayano and Mary also have Seek at Mekakucity outfits too but their clear sprites weren't posted

I'd add the Seek at Mekakucity outfits, but Tumblr has a 30 image limit

Me: Oh interesting idea...

Glowy like this YYB Miku MMD model

Takane's death/loss

Me:

One idea that could be interesting:

Takane is on the verge of death in the previous round (maybe even giving the round up to Ayano) but then Saeru takes her body so her consciousness can be transferred to an android body he made that has Ene's appearance.

Of course, Ene is completely unaware of this.

So Ene has no idea what happened to her between the time she lost the last round. Her memories during that time are completely blacked out.

Or when Takane/Ene gets shot after her loss, he makes sure it's done with a non-fatal poison/toxin, so it just knocks her out

Me: The final round with Saeru and Mary (Blink Gone) could be with MR2 Saeru and Queen/Medusa form Mary...

Me: I also love the idea of a Saeru vs. Mary round cuz of Blink Gone's lyrics:

The clock goes Tick Tock, Tick Tock

Does Saeru Hebi secure the win then? And then Mary uses her Queen/Medusa powers to reset?

ALNST

Me: Gonna show the caption for this HyuLuka art

OP's tags are so goated

I really like the ALNST main ship arts where one is completely love struck and the other is in complete distress.

The MiziSua one is so deeply intimate...

I love the ominous vibes of these arts.

F: MY LORD I haven't seen this yet

Me: Also the placement of his hand on her waist... Jesus christ

That's sexy though 🤭

F: And the pointing finger ☹️ Mf is selfish

Me: I also noticed how Hyuna has this distressed blank eyed stare/look...

Similar to how whenever she gets PTSD thinking back on her memories of Luka (due to the trauma he caused her from killing her brother), like in All-In. She has a protruding vein on her left cheek in this art.

F: The intense gaze on one another is just 😭😭😭

With the MiziSua one, Mizi is looking away with teary eyes while Sua's eyes are closed (cheerfully too, damn)

Me: Vivinos and Qmeng have such nice art styles... The HyuLuka one looks like Qmeng's art?

OH yeah good point!

I like all semi-canon ALNST ships, but I think my fave ALNST pairs are MiziSua, HyuMizi, and HyuLuka (tentative list/placement)

Konoha's defeat/loss

F: Irt this

Saeru steals Konoha's body before/leading up to a round that Konoha was supposed to perform (or he eliminates Konoha and takes his appearance)

F: Tbh... I think Konoha would immediately lose 😭

So both ways (stealing the body and letting Konoha die first) are actually possible

Me: Yeah... As a stage competitor, I don't think Konoha has Kuroha/Saeru's charisma at all.

Also added with how selfless Konoha is. He wouldn’t want to hurt anyone and would sacrifice himself for his friends.

Saeru would know exactly how to manipulate the situation/circumstances to get the reactions he wants from his opponents, to sway the audience’s opinions in his favour.

He knows exactly how to use his knowledge/intelligence to his advantage.

So Ene is probably shaken up by Konoha's loss and Saeru subsequently stealing his body.

[sommerregenjuniluft]

@hpsaffics feb 3 - time loop - 1117words

aka fem bartylus in their bonnie and damon from season 5 of vampire diaries arc (i made myself cry with this but also i'm on my period so who knows ksfjf)

“Hey, look,” Barty says, her head popping up over one of the grocery store shelves, “The small, pickled corn cobs you like so much are on Sale.”

Regulus doesn’t have to look up to see the shit eating grin stretching her lips as she holds up the jars of pickled corn with the impossible to miss, red SALE stickers that have been there for every single day of the past 3 months. She simply rolls her eyes and turns to grab an OJ out of the cooler, like she does every Saturday morning. Regulus believes in keeping a weekly and daily schedule in favor of not going insane, thanks a lot.

There’s a noise across the empty store that sounds like Barty put two of the jars into the shopping cart.

Regulus sniffs, ignoring the flutter in her stomach as well as the sting deep inside her ribcage.

She goes about filling her own cart methodically, absentmindedly listening to Barty mucking about wherever she is. Humming under her breath, bags crinkling, the sounds of the cart clinking against stuff. Barty has great spatial awareness in any situation except for the grocery store. 

Regulus still feels last weekend in the tender bruises along her Achillies heel. If bruises stayed that long she’d have enough evidence from a year ago to build a real case. They do not, however, so Regulus is just left with the knowledge of it and that hollow feeling in her chest like someone had a big scoop and Regulus’ heart was a tub of Ben & Jerries.

She continues down the aisle in a bit of a daze. Eggs, oatmilk, protein bars, Earl Grey, Spaghetti and Fusilli because Barty is a fussy shithead that won’t eat other forms of pasta.

They meet again in the snack aisle, Regulus rounding the corner and finding Barty curled over her cart, studying the back of a honey puffs packet.

She’s gnawing on her bottom lips, rosy mouth pursed to the side and the line between her eyebrows deep and pulled low beneath her fringe and Regulus watches some of the longer brown hair slip over her shoulder and to the front. The round muscle is bare, freckled, and so are her arms because last week Barty made it her mission to go through Evan’s closet and cut off the sleeves of his every one of his t-shirts. 

Regulus had been furious. 

She misses him desperately. Pandora and Sirius, too. The very first night she’d slept in her best friend’s bed, clad in one of Sirius’ softest shirts. Regulus doesn’t remember a time she’d wept herself to sleep so harshly. 

Barty had come and gotten her after 32 hours of refusing to leave the room and dragged her into a shower before plopping her down on one of the kitchen bar stools and making pancakes for her. Whipped cream and blueberries on the side. And then she’d left to go wherever it is she goes every single morning after breakfast until she’s returning for lunch.

She slips the strand of silky straight hair behind her ear now and then glances up when Regulus advances farther into the aisle.

Their eyes meet for a moment, mint and blue gray, clashing, getting caught in each other. Hooks sinking in, ripping at the entangled spots, and when Regulus finds it in herself to break away she feels raw. Chafed. A hotly throbbing ache. Burning.

Regulus looks around in the shelves but she isn’t really seeing any of the things. It takes a moment and then she’s taken aback when she genuinely can’t find the Ritter Sports party mix. It should be right in front of her, nestled between the Kinder stuff and the no name rows of chocolate bars. There’s an empty space on the shelf where they should sit and Regulus blinks at that spot in confusion.

Before she can do more about it the cold metal of a shopping cart grazes Regulus’ naked calf, jolting her and making her look up at Barty where she’s come closer, still lazily draped over the handle of her cart, now sporting an amused expression.

Her smirk is horribly smug and sitting a little lopsided on her unfairly beautiful face, “Lookin’ for something, Black?”

Regulus opens her mouth to respond but then Barty props her chin in one of her palms and cocks her head at an exaggerated angle, pointedly letting her gaze wander over the shelf Regulus is standing in front of numbly. And then up.

Regulus blinks again and then follows her line of sight automatically. She sweeps her gaze back around and up and then spots the chocolates where they’re perched on the very top of the shelf. Neatly set up over the row of Reezes there. 

All the way up there and impossible for Regulus to reach.

Her favorite chocolates.

Barty had taken the time to put every last of Regulus’ favorite chocolates on the top of that shelf with such care for order she’s never once applied to their pantry in the months they’d lived together back when they were a couple.

Regulus feels her browns knit, eyes burning with anger and when she looks over she watches the smile on Barty’s face turn wider. That’s about all Regulus is able to take.

Her chin starts crinkling and she feels her lips start to wobble despite the way she’s biting down on the inside of her lower one hard enough to draw blood. There’s nothing Regulus can do against the tears shooting into her eyes and the way her throat starts to clog up before, pathetically, a single sob escapes her. 

And then she’s crying. Full on, shoulders shaking with it and Barty’s smile falls.

She looks properly panicked and the cart gets shoved to the side, colliding loudly with the opposite shelf, and then she’s there to pull Regulus into a hug.

Her head hangs uselessly as she weeps into the crook of Barty’s arm and chest, deep heaving sobs as Barty cradles her head and holds her tight by the shoulders.

“Hey, hey,” Barty mumbles, voice strained, “I’m sorry, Reg, I’m sorry. I’ll get them back down.”

Regulus uselessly ruts her face into the naked skin, tasting salty shame in the corners of her lips.

“Every single one of them, I’ll get them all down, baby. I’m sorry,” she whispers, breath hot on the crown of Regulus curls.

Regulus finds her hands fisted into the material of Barty’s shirt, clutching at it numbly while she tries to swallow the sobs, “I hate you.”

Barty nods above her, “I know, baby,” and if Regulus didn’t know any better she'd think she hears shame and regret mixed into the words. “I know.”

[theelderhazelnut]

Titan Ombra

Template by lovely @malicedragoness <3

Note: This is so close to “Rise of the Villains: Darker than Black” ending but it’s not the same. So yeah, minor spoilers ahead! Also, this is not proofread.

Title: Ombra the Ironhead, Goddess of knowledge and revenge

Motto: “I infect their minds like a deadly desease.”

Powers:

Ferrokinesis - Ombra has full control over iron, but she can also manipulate other kinds of metals without being able to create them out of thin air.

Gift of Knowledge - Ombra is able to manipulate the minds of those she has chosen to make them “aware”, or in other words, grant them the awakening. Once the awakening has happened, that person unearths the arcane knowledge of the universe whether in just a second (by Ombra) or a lifetime.

Call of rebellion - Ombra gathered an army of angry people all around the tealms to rebel against the cult. She can do that now with less effort.

Realm they favor: Not a realm, but Quan Chi’s timeline. Also, she tends to spend more time in Metalrealm since she used to live there most of her life.

Places of Worship: There are temples all over the realms in which people can go to and pray. At the beginning of her timeline, Ombra was unsure about whether make herself known to her creatures, or keep her identity classified. But then she realized that it’s for the best to do what the Elder Gods did in the previous timeline. So Ombra created her own cult and religion in order to control the creatures. That was exactly what she fought against in the previous timeline, but she came to realize that she was stuck in a loop. There was no escaping this eroded system. Gradually, she watched herself turn into something she used to hate with every bits of her being.

Consort: Titan!Quan Chi is now her unofficial official husband. They found each other again after eons of loneliness and anticipation. However, Ombra made sure that the Quan Chi in her timeline has the good life he deserves.

Physical Appearance: Ombra now has short hair - it’s pretty short on the left side close to her forehead, and it gradually grows longer as it circles around her head to her right side -. Her left eye is golden, and the skin around it is gray with golden edges and veins as though it was exploded. The scars on her cheeks which grow from her iron jaw are golden as well.

Armor/Style of clothing: Ombra remains loyal to the style she used to have in the previous timeline. She’s almost always is seen to be wearing a black overcoat which makes her look a bit huge. Underneath that she wears customized vest with gothic elements, a shirt or a turtleneck. As for shoes, Ombra wears knee-high punk/gothic boots.

Weapons: Ombra doesn’t really need any weapons as she is able to create a lot of them with her powers. However, when it comes to her weapon of choice, Ombra prefers a gunblade. She can manipulate the blade while also shooting those who have dared to wrong her.

How does Geras help them/regard them: They have a love-hate kind of relationship. Geras a admires her calculated and intelligent character, but he also knows what she did in the previous timeline - causing an apocalypse -. At first he tried his best to stop her from executing her new plan: killing the remaining cultists and aiding the deadly alliance. But now he feels like his mindset is gradually becoming like Ombra’s. She’s the one in control after all.

Any characters or events that have drastically changed that you would like to mention?:

1. Quan Chi is the protector of the Netherrealm because he deserves the best.

2. Her parents are alive and have a good life without her. She just watches them from afar.

3. Shao Kahn is the protector of Outworld.

4. Jerrod and Sindel rule Edenia, and Kitana is their only daughter. Then Kitana falls in love with Jade, her bodyguard.

5. Hotaru is the protector of Orderrealm.

6. Havik is the protector of Chaosrealm.

7. Shirai Ryu doesn’t exist.

8. Raiden and Fujin are Ombra’s butlers.

9. Tarkatans are a race of people who live somewhere far from the cities of Outworld. Mileena is their princess.

Backstory/Notes/Tidbits:

The whole world was pouring down my fingers, splitting in between them. The Elder Gods were clawing at the last rope of chance to save their throne, never accepting that it was already too late. Cetrion had sheltered behind her mother, begging her to end me. Little did she know that I would never be dead really. Thousands of me was born all across their realms with sharpened teeth, ready to follow my footsteps. However, I was left with no choice but to fight Kronika in combat.

After the keeper of time turned into solid stone before my eyes, and was shattered to dust, I kneeled down. The blood staining my overcoat was almost invisible. It was only Kronika’s dust which shone like stars over this black sky.

Now I was the keeper of time. This uninvited responsibility of restarting the whole timeline and creating the new one fell heavy on my already exhausted shoulders. It was true what they said about people like me. We fought with monsters only to turn into one. Now I was one of them, exactly. It was all a cycle perhaps.

But I was granted with the greatest power. The reality would bend to my will. I would keep chasing any remaining cultists, and remind them who was their worst nightmare. And I would only hope that one day, I’d shroud myself in Quan Chi’s arms with a peaceful mind.