#edit: SO APPARENTLY HIS NAME IS NOT ACE

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

I think they would be friends :]

Bonus:

Assigned demon at tween magic child 😔

[kalims]

⭒ㅤwhose (not) random kid

premise. crash landing from the future is apparently your kid, not that you know that anyway... in the form of a mixture between you, and your... supposed counterpart, clues are bound to pile up as to whose child this is.

parts. rosehearts, kingscholar, ashengrotto, al asim, schoenheit, shroud, draconia

cont. gender neutral reader, use of 'mada' which is just 'mama' and 'dada' cut in half for our resident shrimp (aka yuu), a yummy 5.8k words that I did not expect to get this long lol

note. I only have a rough outline of what's going to be included with the others parts after the names of the kids lol. I'll probably write leona's as usual after this but I can't promise I'll release one more part after his this month, the rest will probably come next month considering I'm bombarded sadge. paper defense, then final exams next month save me

also hello! my unnofficial: I'll try to post more

late edit: comment if you want to get tagged <3

riddle

when you slid a foot over the portal to heartslabyul there’s some sort of a strange–inexplicable air that surrounds it. usually the dimension is light to be in, unlike the tingling feelings of being in octavinelle or the eeriness of ignihyde. all dormitories had their own particular sensation that weighs on you depending on where you were.

you squinted, deciding to shrug it off. there was no way you had a sixth sense for feeling in the literal air!

barely a foot in though, was something you could only explain as an army of card… soldiers trudging from the other end of the sidewalk to the next. dumbly, you stopped right in front the shimmering portal that settles into a smooth sheen of silver behind you as they just kept coming.

they seemed to be looking for something–or whatever but you don’t really want to know what so you slowly inched to the side, hoping to sneak past them even if you had to go into one of the confusing mazes (which was a struggle considering you’re trying not to laugh as one of them trips).

must be ace’s wretchedness rubbing off of you.

the real question was, where in the seven were your resident idiots? you’d already sent a text over for your impromptu visit to the chat consisting of you three and figured they had seen it like they usually do then waited for you with feigned begrudging-ness that does not fit well with them showing up in the first place. 

you fish for your sad excuse for a phone in your pocket, cater’s words not yours. you’re more busy trying to merge your backside as you shuffle and pull up the chat to notice the ever nearing edge of the hedge wall that makes you stand out in comparison to the lighter shade of green brushing against your uniform.

not deuce: you guys ever notice the card soldiers infestation near ur mirror portal…?

not ace: you nedea to RNR RUN RN!!

not yuu: what???

there’s not much time to ponder about the cryptic, seemingly panicked expression of deuce’s message as you looked up from your phone, feeling a slight chill crawl up to your spine like you attracted some sort of unwarranted trouble that is also unwanted.

disclaimer: you (uu) did

“over here!” an unfamiliar voice yells, freezing you in your tracks just when you were about to make the sneak of the century. without a moment’s hesitation you darted deeper into the maze and shoved your device within the confines of your pockets as you held in a mortified scream at the sudden mob upon your tail as you ran.

WHY WAS THERE SO MANY? you yelled in your mind. number one rule in horror games don’t look back. don’t look back. don’t look back–

oh sevens you’re looking back.

the decision immediately fills you with regret when you spot the diabolical amount of card soldiers trailing after you like you just slaughtered their queen in front of whatever kingdom they came from! was this someone’s unique magic? there was no way riddle would let this sort of thing go rampant on his dorm!

you almost keel over in shock when the pointy end of a heart on the end of a pole sticks right on the patch of grass you just barely managed to trudge across with increasingly heavier steps. maybe you should actually take jack’s offer to join track and field–your stamina is horrible–you’re gonna get stabbed.

goodbye world. you thought warmly with a chorus of pants.

a deeper voice bellowed from the crowd from your behind. “three of hearts! are you thin-headed? do not harm the majesty!” the steps behind you stop almost abruptly, and you don’t stop running even as the voices fade. idiots for choosing to chastise their idiotic comrade but you’re not complaining as long as you get away from this horrid situation.

your majesty what now?

you don’t know how far you ran by sticking to all left turns until you flop down on the entrance of the maze, the archway barely offering you any relief as you took deep breaths and fought the urge to lay down on the grass and hope it camouflages your grey uniform.

that won’t work but you’re coping at this point.

not deuce: HELLO  I ALMOST GOT SKEWERED BY LITERAL CARDS?

not yuu: that’s a humiliating way to go down from

not ace: don’t be insensitive ace! are you ok?!

not deuce: NO? WHAT IS GOING ON

not yuu: riddle got dethroned and i'm not even happy

not yuu: it's the absolute WORST AT THE DORM!

not yuu: you better turn back rn and get away from ‘labyul coz it’s getting run by a kid

not deuce: BACK INTO THAT DEATH MOB? no thanks

not ace: yuu brace up, cater texted that the new boss is on his way to you

not yuu: F for yuu

not ace: F

not deuce: F u

what you expect to be the final boss of your life, you guess from the approaching pairs of footsteps nearing your defeated form sprawled across the flecks of grass and still heaving comes in a surprising form of softness, and youth.

“mada.” 

the blueness of the sky is shadowed by a tiny little head peering over your head. you’re startled by the tuff of red hair, and familiar pair of eyes which was strange, considering you have never seen this kid in your life. this was the new queen of heartlsabyul? you thought incredulously, since when were kids allowed in nrc…?

the thought was a breeding ground to raise the most evil person on the planet, considering the equally as evil people in night raven.

out of habit from the familiar chubby, round face you blurted: “riddle?”

the child blinked before they shook your head. “I am not papa.” their lips twitched into a small smile directed to you. if taken a closure look, this child’s resemblance with riddle really is uncanny. from the hair, even to a small golden crown sitting primly on the middle of their head. “mada, I am glad I found you. I have not seen papa yet.”

was this season 5 of stranger things?

they straightened. attention straying from you as you glanced to the other pairs of legs, whom you put a face to quickly. trey and cater both cast you a look of exasperation and pity.

then done like a true riddle–their face does a complete 360 and curls into anger as they stared off inside the maze. “all of you!” the tiny child rages with a concerning… change of color around their cute face, fingers pointed accusingly. how can a child be so horrifyingly scary?

the two third years do not mirror your confusion as you sat up, following the kid’s gaze to the archway where a myriad of thundering footsteps almost have you scampering away if not for them laying a small hand on your shoulder and somehow managing to ground you to stay still.

whose kid is this? you looked to cater who shakes his head uselessly

then to trey who wore a resigned smile.

the child’s brow twitches when the card soldiers lined up obediently. “I thought I had made it clear you not hurt mada.” they seethed, voice tilting in clear threat and a I demand you! sort of way. the card solider, three of hearts who had scared the living soul out of you trembled less subtle compared to the other guards.

of course this child had to get more terrifying by being observant, they caught the shiver of one soldier and narrowed their eyes. “ah, found the culprit. three of–”

trey shuffles forward with an awkward laugh that belies his usual laid back with–on his face is a twinge of concern as he raises his palms in a placating gesture. he steps forward three more times, sliding between the child and the line of soldiers but keeping the distance warily. “hey, kid. maybe we can discuss this with some tarts, and some tea?” he tries. children love sweets, right?

they keep their head level despite the astounding height difference. “I told you, uncle trey! being called ‘kid’ is disorderly! It's alice!” still, despite the brief protest their eyes sparkled with interest at the notion, even if they seemed a bit embarrassed to admit it. “i’m not supposed to eat sweets on mondays.” 

“huh.” cater mumbled before the thin line of his lips rose into a familiar grin. “as in, rule 102 of the queen?” he queries with a nervous slide of his fingers through his hair. he’s not so obvious to directly state that he’s tiptoeing around… alice but a bit of months knowing him, you can tell.

alice nods along. they no longer look as bothered as before, the card soldiers all slump their tense shoulders a little when alice shifts their piercing gaze from the three of hearts before settling onto cater, who they offer a brief nod of agreement before returning back to trey.

well, a kid is a kid. 

“but i can eat sweets on tuesdays.” they added hastily. like they don’t want the notion of trey’s treats slipping from their fingers but that would be strange, if the look of confusion you three share with each other you would have thought trey had initially baked for alice based off the tone of wistfulness in their tone.

trey smiles at them. “tomorrow it is.” reassured by their sheepish innocence he stops in front of them and grasps their shoulders, turning them away from the stiff soldiers. alice spares a brief glance at them. “what about these rule breakers?”

you stood up fully. “uh, don’t worry, they didn’t do anything wrong. i ran for too long.” you supplied in defense. if anything , a resemblance to riddle of all people meant that they could have the head offing in their blood. you did not want to stick around to find out, neither did cater.

alice considers you for a moment with a small sparkle in their eyes, with a wave of the small wand that maternalized in their hand, the soldiers fade into glittering spots of gold. only then do they let trey lead them back to the main pathway towards the dormitory of heartslabyul.

you fall into step behind cater who probably sees the question in your eyes so he lowers his voice discreetly, glancing at the back of trey who keeps the child’s bay attention so they don’t notice you two slowing down a little. nonetheless, still walking.

“that was little alice’s unique magic.” he says to you with a shrug, sighing after a glance at the former’s small, regal form. “pretty overpowered… kind of like my split card but less cute, and more dangerous.”

he winked, you frowned.

in front of you two, alice seems tame in comparison to the subtle bribing of trey questioning about their favorite sweets as you all finally reached the nearing entrance of the main dormitory

“where’s riddle?” you questioned.

he pursed his lips, navigating though the fountain in front of the dorm. “last i know, he went out early to campus cause of a meeting with his club for the upcoming NRC tour festival…” 

oh, right. I have not found papa. alice’s voice echoes in your mind, so you echo the question that appears in your mind right after the memory. “alice called riddle ‘papa’ which i’m pretty sure is a term for a parent…” you trailed off. riddle seemed to be the least likely person to have a secret love child of some sorts, he seemed like he had most of his life planned out.

if riddle bent over backwards for his rules then he wouldn’t stray from the path he had set.

there’s a flash of interest in cater’s eyes, it was already there before, just dwindled. you watch it spark to life. akin to lighting some sort of fire within the guy, a gossipmonger at heart as he leaned in eagerly just as you both trudged up the stairs to the front doors who opened politely, and closed behind you as you walked in the main hall of heartslabyul.

“they look, and act like riddle!” he chuckles. “imagine our shock when alice popped up straight out of nowhere with an army at their beck and call.” cater clutched onto his arms, and shivered. you leaned away when he reaches his arms out to you in a teasing manner.

he adds. not at all offended by the way you scrunch your face at his ‘affections’. “they seem to listen to you though. like someone.”

you only regard him with an impassive raise of your brows. “i don't think so. riddle doesn’t listen to anyone. much less me.” befuddled by the mere idea, you scoffed. in all your magic-less glory, the best thing you might have achieved here in this other dimension was having the ability to wake leona kingscholar up from one of his power naps.

cater doesn’t seem to agree. only sighing at you from what it seems to be an of course. “only you can be so oblivious to the chaos you leave behind.” he says in response, making an exaggerated show of peering behind your shoulder and widening his eyes in feigned shock.

you humor him as you turned your head. the scene of the main entrance of the dormitory was the only answer to your eyes as you both walked into the living room–where little alice sits alone. you caught a glimpse of trey’s dark hair as he disappeared into the kitchen, most likely going off to make her a treat.

vaguely unsure if the male had heard him, cater calls out a “make us some too!”

“not my fault the students here are so… unstable.” you remarked with a roll of your eyes. remembering the overblots to be the most plausible reference to the chaos cater was talking about as you begrudgingly sat down on the couch and reeled in any other remarks for the child in the room.

who was now shuffling closer to your seated frame even if they thought they were being subtle in the movement.

what was two seats in the space between you and alice eventually became none at all, as they settled beside you and peered up with innocent eyes.

you tilted your head at them, alice copies the movement.

then to the other side.

they mirror the lull of your head.

“besides those.” cater cleared his throat after a bewildered glance at the child. “what’s more impressive is that you’re still here, yuu-yuu. night raven is like… a pack of wolves trying to run you off crying, and you? you’re a very weird sheep.”

still a bit enraptured on this child, you replied without your stare wavering from the roundness of alice’s cheek as you reached up to pinch it. to yours, and cater’s surprise. their previous cute ferociousness is not present at all as they leaned against the warmth as though instinctive. “i didn’t do anything.”

you don’t entertain the accusing look in cater’s eyes.

“if that was you not trying to beast tame the school then i don’t know what’ll happen if you put in the effort.”

you both lapse into silence as cater–who seemed to sense the finality of the conversation lets it slip fully and instead, busies himself with the entertainments his phone provided. you redirect your full attention onto the elusive red-headed alice.

“so,” you started. “how did you end up here? must be a great feat if you were able to go past the barriers.”

alice curls their fingers within the fabric of your blazer, inspecting it as they reply softly. “i’m not sure, mada. i was just sleeping, and woke up in a garden. the hedgehogs showed me the way after i offered them a caterpillar.” they do not mention a bleary moment in their sleep where they curiously wondered how you and riddle came to be as they drifted off. “as pertaining by rule 210… if you are lost in a maze, give the hedgehogs an offering and they shall show you the way.”

you can’t help but let your mind drift over to riddle, who echoes the rules to be followed when mentioned.

your lips twitch into a smile, much to the delight of alice. “strange indeed. must have been scary.”

their eyes squinted. “i’m not scared.”

you chuckled and pinched their cheek. they pout.

“where are you from?” you ask instead, wanting to know more about the.. figurative alice from nowhere. 

alice looks at you strangely.

“from the queendom of roses…” could they simply be a relative of riddle’s? you thought mindlessly. drawing your fingers through the surprising soft red locks who seemingly part eagerly for your touch. “with my mada, and my papa. sometimes my uncles visit.”

unsure of how to reply, you merely nod along. parting their hair by half and twisting it into a braid. “you called me mada.” you hummed.

“because you are my mada.”

she says like it’s the only thing that makes sense in her small world, not relinquishing her grip on your blazer but instead tugging at the wrists to expose the small slither of skin and hold onto it. clingy. you thought, deciding not to question it.

… was this your freaking kid?

the smell of strawberries wafts over the space of the living room alongside the ticking of the oven–momentarily taking both alice, and cater’s attention. the latter stretches before standing to stride over to the source of the smell, no doubt requesting trey to change the taste once more.

alice’s eyes, like yours slid to your own. a bit shy in their demeanor as they clutched onto the skin of your wrist. “can i eat some of uncle’s tarts?” they queried under your breath, only meant for you alone. you felt a bit confused but nodded nonetheless. 

their lips twitched into an eager smile before it settles into a more controlled look of impassiveness.

that was adorable. you thought, unable to resist leaning down to scoop them into your arms as you stood. alice makes a sound of brief surprise before their arms loop around your neck. they sat pliantly still as you walked over to follow cater inside the kitchen, catching a glimpse of your scent that they sought for, so alice nuzzles their face into the warm pulse on your neck.

trey glances up from the animated retelling of cater about the crazy day. “new responsibility?” he wore a humored smile, apron long discarded and folded over the handle of the oven for the meantime.

if riddle saw this, he would not believe it no matter how intelligent he was. trey deduced.

he gestures to the tray set on the counter. “there’s frosted strawberries, blueberry cornmeal, and the good old mont blanc since i got left over ingredients from the last unbirthday party.” 

alice feels the shift of your head as you glanced down at them, they don’t remove their head from the crevice of your neck for a moment and meets your eyes with a raise of their own. “frosted strawberries, please.”

“good choice, little alice.” cater comments.

“careful, it’s hot.” trey chided gently as he watched you pick up one of them, drawing it near alice’s waiting hunger as they tilted their head up from your shoulder. they took a small bite at the corners of the tart, smiling at the taste and only wider when you wiped remnants of crumbs around the edges of their mouth.

alice chews, and swallows before they spoke again. their eyes gleaming with admiration as they stared at trey. “it’s always the yummiest when it’s fresh out the oven.” they recited.

trey blinks.

“you’re a bright one.” he remarked, ruffling their hair when he drew near. “don’t tell anyone about the wicked secret ‘round the kitchen, all right?”

they nodded vigorously. “thank you, uncle..” they spewed politely, but evidently genuine.

cater munches from the other end of the counter. “we gotta protect alice,” he chuckled, eyes crinkling as he pointed his phone to you, tapping to snap a picture of the scene despite your warning stare. “too nice for the vultures we call students here.” 

“you might be right.” trey shook his head, and you nodded mutely. more absorbed into letting them take bite by bite into the tart until it was about finished halfway. only then do you lay it back on the tray. how much sweets was ideal for a child to take anyway? regardless of you deeming it as enough, alice stays quiet and does not complain.

if they wanted more, you wouldn’t know.

“later.” you promised, leaning back when you were satisfied with their prim appearance. a pat of their hair to smooth down trey’s earlier disruption.

“later..” alice echoed. 

a resident third year enters the kitchen. only to pause in their tracks and back away.

“domesticity is really the enemy of the students here.” cater sniffed, earning a chuckle from trey who found the comment funny. “imagine being happy, being broody and emotional are the real requirements to get admitted.”

cater finishes his snack with a pleased hum, and a grateful nod to trey. “by the way i messaged adeuce, sent them to stall dorm leader from going back as long as the dorm was… kind of in a wre–predicament.” he cleared his throat, casting a brief glance at alice to spot if they had taken offence to his almost uttered word.

“so now they’re en-route?” trey guessed, transferring the leftover tarts to a glass bowl. leaving the tray in the sink to wash for later. cater nods in response, typing on his phone with one hand. likely in cahoots with the two right now. “told them the coast was clear! no more trampling soldiers scampering around.”

trey eyed him. “what about the–”

just then, whatever trey was going to comment in rebuttal of cater’s easy reassurance was promptly interrupted by new individuals peeking inside. ace, and deuce poked their heads from the corner. as if trying to ascertain the danger level of whatever may be inside.

ace rougly nudges deuce when he spots you with a child in arms. for two people insisting on their unique, varying selfs. they mirror each other’s look of bewilderment as though their brain cells crackled and connected into a singular one. “what the seven?” ace mouthed.

you all do not notice the look of familiarity on alice’s face.

nor the brightening when riddle strides in with a petulant huff,

if riddle thought strangely, or disapproved of the two’s behavior then he wouldn’t have had the chance to comment on it before he was leveling trey with a sharp, inquisitive stare. “i would like a very good explanation as to why my hedges have been mangled to the ground.” his eye twitches with the effort of containing irritation. “three hours i’ve been gone. three! and when i enter heartslabyul the first thing i see is devastation upon my gardens!”

perhaps emotionally, riddle cried out in the last sentence.

even though such an expression should have frightened a child to some degree, alice relaxes in your arms but their face clouds in shame at his voice.

riddle whirls back to the other two lingering by the doorway who both flinches imperceptibly–cater tries to intercept with a nervous chuckle but is only met with a steely don’t even start! “ace, and deuce have me running around the school. saying something about yuu getting kidnapped by those.. vermin excuses of… students from octavinelle!" riddle seethed, breathing still a bit labored as favor of his statement about running around.

“dorm leader!” ace stood straight stiffly.

oh, did he just come from a frantic search in octavinelle?

“i even had to threaten collaring azul who i thought was lying about yuu.” with a deep intake of air, riddle breathes out and pinches the bridge of his nose, collecting his temper. much to the chagrin of deuce.

“we apologize.” deuce added sadly.

cater feigns ignorance by looking away but it’s trey’s look that has him adding to the defense of the two, rather than using the opportunity to scamper away with his head in tact. “ahem… we had these two keep you busy. so don’t be too harsh on them, riddle. us upperclassmen will take responsibility.”

a nod of agreement from trey gets riddle quiet.

the former tilts his chin to you. “yuu is fine, they’re right here.”

like he hadn’t even noticed before (he really didn’t), riddle’s head snaps to you immediately. his eyes would have been stuck to you, prodding for a valid explanation to your ignorance to his angry calls but instead, settles on the bundle in your arms.

“who…” a blink. “why in the world do you have a child! they are not welcome on school grounds! especially this time in the school year–.” riddle sputtered, instinctively sauntering over to take a closer look at alice who only stared without an inch of fear.

“papa.” they mumbled, voice measured but still echoing in the now quiet kitchen.

ace leapt up to your side. “that’s not right!” he gasped, squinting dangerously at riddle. any traces of earlier mortification gave way to whatever emotion he’s got on his face. “how could you sully yuu! they’re not a babysitter for your kid!” 

“what?” riddle seethed, head flicking from ace, to you, then to alice.

despite a look of great reluctance, deuce nods from the doorway still. mumbling to himself. “dorm… dorm leader has a child…”

you vaguely remember trey offering the dazed guy a glass of water.

“unconfirmed earlier, confirmed now.” cater adds unhelpfully to the blazing fire of riddle’s rising anger.

riddle’s teeth grind together, jaw clenching as his fingers tightened into a fist. it was more of one his attempts at calming down rather than preparation for a physical alteration. “I did no such–!”

“don’t be mad at mada.” alice reaches for him, tugging at his blazer which surprisingly, quells the reddening of his face. now, he just looks a bit confused.

alice turns their head slightly. “mada, you can calm down papa.”

deuce paused before dropping to the ground.

“AH! he’s dead. this is why you don’t betray us by keeping secrets, yuu!” 

“uh oh… trey help me with deuce… wait, should we just leave him? i mean, he’ll be just fine here, right?”

“... just take the other arm, cater.”

all the way back to the living room, riddle’s face remained tinged with warmth. alice, while reluctant to part with your embrace, seemed wholly pleased to stay by the other red-heads' side. insisting you sit next to him when you moved to sit by your two friends.

you obliged them despite riddle’s interest with the carpet.

the couch dipped at the weight of another. even so, the non-verbal conversation between alice, and riddle continued. the former pressed their lips together thinly, seemingly assessing the… youthfulness of the latter. they aren’t so used to this kind of look from him.

cater flinched, and look away from the flash of his phone. he elbows a dazed deuce.

“so,” ace cleared his throat, blinking his still wide eyes. “who the heck is this kid?!”

“language.” riddle chided sharply. though softened from its usual end even he isn’t so sure why it is from the mere presence of alice alone. 

“rule 13, always present yourself with appropriate language.”

“always present yourself with appropriate language.” alice repeated.

riddle squinted at a relaxed alice, who tilts their head as if to ask ‘what?’.

“genetics is crazy. what’s next, the kid beheads us too?” ace points between the two. 

alice shrugged. “only if you break the rules.”

“i do not have a child!” riddle protested.

“i am your child.” replied alice.

“apparently this one’s our kid.” you agreed begrudgingly.

riddle stares at you with a mixture of disbelief, and confusion.

darting between you and the kid like they're gonna start collating him in all his glory! sure, alice had red hair like him but quite a lot of people in the island have it too besides his relatives. the idea of… of him and you is just so out of this world that he can't wrap his head around it.

you? you who he hadn't paid attention to when you arrived at the ceremony? the very first person in that event that broke the rules? you, the very fading into the background student whom he believed to be a bad influence to his students ace, and deuce? 

you he had almost hurt beyond repair at the bursting of his control so tightly held in his hands?

the brief skip of his heart when your eyes meet over the head of alice is enough to send blood rushing to his head, coloring it with his signature red whose warmth doesn't feel like the usual simmering anger he struggles to keep submerged. if anything, this feeling is practically leaping out the water and baring his face to everyone. 

riddle does not look away. managing a look of what he tries to name as conviction but easily crumbles to fluster.

then the idea wasn't so bad considering this young child has proved to be raised dutifully, correctly without any worries of what he used to be burdened with as a child.

it gives way to curiosity. 

despite his incredulously, riddle queries. “the gardens.” he starts with a measured narrow to his eyes, not too intense to possibly upset this.. future child of his whose eyes are strikingly familiar enough to halt the normal circulation of his heart once more for half a second. “were you responsible for the destruction of some hedges I've come across?”

alice shrinks into themselves. “i'm sorry papa.” they pursed their lips, voice genuine by the lower tilt. “i thought i could use my card soldiers to look for you, and mada. you told me about this place called heartslabyul before?”

“i have?” riddle blinks. the idea isn't too bizarre, it's only natural to think back on such things.

they nodded. “yes, papa. you talk about it a lot on our friday’s. about how it looked, how you were as it's dorm leader…” alice peeks a glance at you. “and your parties with mada.”

“unbirthday parties.” trey corrects. “sometimes birthday parties if it really is someone's birthday.”

ace perks up. “let me tell you then! from first hand experience!” he blanched. like opening light about his own struggles in heartlsabyul magically meant the truth to riddle’s own kid. “labyul is really strict on rules. you know on my first day, I ate a tart and—”

deuce stirred slightly.

at riddle’s glare, ace visibly wilts to which cater snaps a picture with snickers. “I mean… the tart was really good, made by riddle and all…” he sweatdropped.

“you shouldn't eat a tart that is not made by you.” alice replied thoughtfully. riddle can't resist a light smile at her words, feeling a sense of accomplishment as he nodded along. his hand hovers for a moment before it pats down on their hair. “that's right. I must have taught you well.”

you absentmindedly patted their head, taking turns with riddle to do so while  expertly avoiding his gaze. “you said friday though, why?”

“on friday’s we don’t go out.” alice says.

“that isn’t a rule by the queen of hearts.” riddle points out.

“you made that rule papa.” they replied innocently. “in our home, so we get to spend time together as a family.”

silence reigns.

“wow.” you cough. sparing riddle an approving glance. that… sounded nice… domestic, and nice. you supposed even as an adult riddle would still have some sort of grip on rules, considering he grew up with them, it helped him live.

and now rules he shaped helped him live with alice, and you apparently. 

tick.

tock.

tick.

tock.

alice peers down at the watch they pull out from under their little adorable coat, oblivious to the stunned silence they left behind. hesitantly, they place a hand on your knee, legs swinging as they rest the other on riddle’s. “mada.” they smiled, this time widely. “papa. I gotta go.”

“what?” riddle's eyes widened. “you haven't finished your tart yet.”

“it's okay. I already ate a tart earlier, papa.”

“you can eat another, just this time. if you want.” he insisted, strangely worried.

cater raises his hand. “can I?”

riddle disagrees immediately. “no.”

muttering something about favoritism, cater looked away with a long sigh.

riddle's eyes lingered on the roundness of alice's face. from the shape, to the more detailed parts of their features. eyes, your eyes. the lushness of their hair, the soft curve of their lips tilted with innocence sends an unexpected grip in his heart, like it's heart stopping.

gosh. his heart just stopped. would he really have his own alice? his eyes darted to you. with you?

alice huffed lightly, skin glimmering lightly as their shade slowly grew transculent and faded with each blink of your eyes. “I can always eat papa's tarts. they're so delicious.” 

“don't use too much magic.” riddle scolded with a crease in his brows.

you add. “don't anger riddle too much.”

“please eat his tarts.” ace encouraged.

trey shot him a look. “don't teach alice bad things.” he sighed, glancing at said child with a smile. “I'll teach you how to make your own tarts, ask uh… future me?”

cater, not wanting to be outdone quickly perked up. “as a future magicam star, I'll make you one too. little alice!” he added, self assured of his future fame.

when it all settles, all that remains is a space between you and riddle that feels too little than vast. and a remainder of your future.

“atleast we know what name we'll choose.” you can't resist but tease. riddle does not blow up like you would have thought from your remark, only sparing you a look of feigned annoyance with warming ears that doesn't support the idea of his irritation.

he resigns to a small nod. “I am assured they are taught well.”

ace glances between you, and riddle. “I miss alice already. riddle seemed a lot more lenient with them around. you think they got embarrassing stories from the future?” he comments off-handedly, leaning back against the couch and blowing on the fringe over his forehead. “when are you guys gonna make an alice? please make one now.”

cater whistles out of there.

trey shakes his head.

deuce–still passed out is thankfully considered by trey, who dragged his limp body with a nod of goodluck to ace.

you waved at ace. F indeed.

wait! don't leave me, upperclassman! ace cried in his mind, feeling the panic splinter his state of mind.

“ACE!” riddle gritted his teeth. “i'll hand down my sentence, the verdict comes afterwards–”

ace paled.

“off with your head–!”

trivia

alice’s name is very much inspired by alice from the one and only: “alice in wonderland”.

their unique magic is called: under my decree which is simply being able to summon card soldiers, and command them at their will! (in this case, after being sent to a maze and finding their way out thanks to the hedgehog. alice was able to discern that this was heartlsabyul, and figured they might be able to find their parents here, hence, why they used their magic.)

alice is written to be a well-behaved 8 year old.

the watch is a nod to my previous commissioned work who also dealt with the concept of time travelling and related to going back (ha, ha).

alice woke up by the sound of a clock ticking, and knew that hearing it again meant that their time was up.

the entire thing happened due to alice helping untangle a fae who happened to get stuck in their gardens at the backyard while they were looking for a hedgehog that had not yet eaten (spoiler: hedgehog was hiding in a small crack under the tree) the same fae visited them at night whilst sleeping and granted them a dream of whatever they wanted to wish. alice, feeling swayed by the magic despite being not aware made a wish to fulfill it.

boom! baby rosehearts in your faces!

alice woke up and immediately said young riddle was funnily shy to yuu. much to the confusion of actual current riddle!

their favorite tart is: anything with strawberries, like riddle.

rule 13, and rule 102 are entirely fictional and made up by me… for plot purposes…

not deuce = is actually yuu

not yuu = is actually ace

not ace = is actually deuce

deuce been sleeping for the entire time lol.

ace got roped into fixing the gardens with the collar on  #thatswhatyouget

riddle invites you to study for the nearing quiz season the following day.

[haruhar-u]

“A rose upon you”

Rook x g/n reader, fluff

A/N: damn this is finished earlier than I thought it’s be finished. I did struggle to write his dialogue so I apologize if it’s ooc

edited but not beta read

The first day, it was a red rose that smells vaguely of apples. Then it was a box of your favourite chocolates. The rose had a velvety garnet bow with gold trim around the edges. In gold embroidery was the initial "R.H." Seriously, who is this admirer of yours? You sat on the couch in Ramshackle’s lounge, holding the two items in your hands. Oh, Ace was there too. Your flaming tuna cat and Deuce were out buying snacks at Sam’s. 

"Oooh,” Ace cooed at you in a teasing manner, almost like when in elementary school a boy and a girl get called to the board together, or even in the same group, for that matter.

“Shut up.” You elbowed Ace in the ribcage, not hard enough to hurt him, but hard enough for him to get the message at least. You looked closely at the ribbon around the rose, softly tracing your finger over the embroidered initials. Ugh. Everything this person did made your heart race. You weren’t even sure you could think straight.

“Yo, look.” Ace pointed out the embroidered initials. "Obviously, that could be Rook Hunt…..he’s the only one crazy enough to do this anyway.” 

Rook Hunt….? The vice of Pomefiore. You will admit the two of you have gotten oddly close as of recently. He’d always try to help you with your work and would suggest you two go to the oddest places together. Such as the woods. At 3am. Why????

“I’m gonna go on a….walk?” You tell Ace and get off the couch and put on your fuzzy jacket and boots. You all but gently open the door. The icy winter air blasts on your face as you step out, snow crunching under your boot.

You don’t have to trek out much further until you hear someone call out “mon trickster” from the bushes. At this point, you’re not going to question why he was in your bushes in the first place.

“Were you the one behind... well, all this?" You ask bluntly, approaching him with the rose in hand. He steps out to hold the rose in his hand, gazing at the ribbon.

“Of course it was me. I thought you needn’t have to put much thought into it!!” He says all dramatically. “-Name- do you accept my confession of love??”

Your name instead of a nickname in French?! Does that mean he’s more serious than you originally thought? You take a moment to think about it. After all that happened in Styx, the Pomefiore vice was with you every step of the way. He always made sure to check on you to make sure you’re okay, both physically and mentally. Sometimes it’d be by tapping on your window at 3 a.m., but that was his way of showing affection. “I do.” You say when you finally come to an agreement with yourself.

“Magnifique!” He grabs your hand abruptly, causing your heart to skip a beat. “I have so much for you to witness.” He pulls you off into the nearby forest, presumably to read you some poetry. The snow-capped trees looked a lot more inviting with him by your side. Forever and always.

Taglist : @xen-blank @krenenbaker @edith-is-apparently-a-cat @whspermy-name @the-banana-0verlord

[morporkian-cryptid]

Lupin III trivianalysis masterpost!

A list of all the trivia text posts I remember writing (here and on my sideblog, @ctrl-lupin) about Lupin III: Japanese history, meta analysis, themes and stuff~

07-25 - The Lupin name, legacy or curse

07-25 - #Ami Deserves Better

07-25 - Would Lupin fuck his clone?

06-25 - Thoughts on Lupin Russian Edition 

06-25 – On Lupin and Zenigata’s moral compass in the Koike movie

06-25 - What the FUCK is happening in Part 6??? (summary of the Tomoe arc and why it is GOOD)

06-25 - Lupin's house that just KEEPS showing up

08-24 – The Lupin III kabuki play is SO GOOD you guys!!

07-24 – Welcome to the wonderful world of Arsène Lupin Copyright Shenanigans 

03-24 - Why Lupin left Clarisse behind in Castle of Cagliostro

02-24 – Jigen Daisuke’s Very Inadvisable Gun Practices (time travel edition) 

12-23 – Kabuki booklet: summary, highlights and costume analysis

12-23 - Lupin and Goemon's intricate rituals in The Imperial City Dreams Of Thieves

10-23 - Goemon and Lupin's fight in Part 5 (response to a post)

10-23 - Albert d'Andrésy's relation to the Lupin family (OG Arsène Lupin lore)

06-23 - Lighter symbolism and gun symbolism in Lupin ZERO and Goodbye Partner 

06-23 – The Last Bullet gun metaphors: there is a crack in Jigen 

05-23 - Goemon is in the backseat drowning in dollar bills in the Cagliostro opening scene

03-23 - On incoherent continuity, parallel timelines, and soulmates

01-23 - Jigen changed Nisei’s mind about Lupin being a thief 

11-22 – Goemon Ishikawa is an alias (a deep dive into samurai naming conventions)

08-22 - Jidai and the growth of Lupin III in light of Kiyoshi Kobayashi's passing

08-22 - We heard that you liked Lupin III, so we put Lupin III in your Lupin III so you can Lupin III while you Lupin III

07-22 - True love (collaborative post)

03-22 - On love, roots, and the Part 6 finale

03-22 - The joys of matricide (Part 6 finale)

03-22 - Lupin is the one who stole from his grandfather's vault!! (Part 6 finale)

03-22 - They defeated Tomoe with the power of love (and also a gun)

12-21 – The Last Bullet gun trivia (aka Jigen apparently doesn't know what a Magnum is???) 

10-21 - Jidai: Can we talk about the green jacket???

10-21 - You can pry aro-ace Fujiko from my cold dead hands

10-21 - On Lupin's morals and his partners' influence (part 6 teasers)

04-21 – Intercultural LoopGang headcanons 

04-21 – Blood Seal Eternal Mermaid, Green VS Red and the Lupin legacy 

03-21 – Losing it about Fire Treasure (not really trivia or analysis, just me yelling) 

Most are tagged as #the hobbit rambles or #elliott's nerd corner, or both.

Bonus : Elliott’s Japan Trivia Corner, including such fun topics as the origin of hanafuda cards, the history of prostitution in kabuki theater, or how to properly perform seppuku !

[mia-martian]

I wanna bring to the Death Note and Lawlight community a take that I have and rarely ever hear about.

A lot of people seem to look at or even just remember L as an unfeeling apathetic weirdo- and this is coming from people who haven't seen the anime in years or just see a couple scenes of him. And that's a fair enough assessment to make- dude is detached in his own way.

But it's really ironic when he's put next to Light Yagami, a character who I believe literally doesn't know how to love.

Not in the aro/ace way- dude doesn't even know how to love anyone platonically. He doesn't love his family, he doesn't love his friends or his romantic partners, he doesn't love anyone. If he shows any small signs of it, I am not inclined to believe it.

When his father died and he cried, it looked like the most half-assed performance to me. As if he used it to framework and test how he would act for L's death. (Edit: Apparently Soichiro's death was after L's i think? I remembered that incorrectly. But at the same time, I think he copy-pasted his fake reaction to L's death and reused it for his dad. Point is, I don't believe he even grieves sincerely.)

And I don't think the Death Note itself exclusively did this to him. Sure, it influenced him a LOT. When you find yourself in a place of power, your brain chemistry LITERALLY changes. Of course the ability to kill with almost no consequence would influence him.

But even in the Yostuba amnesia arc, even when he's doe-eyed and defending the innocent and fighting with L about the people who died for the Kira case, I am not convinced that it's the truth. I am not convinced that he isn't just saying what he was taught to say and believe by his father. I am not convinced he fully believes his own words, even subconsciously. At least in the context of the anime and manga, he is the most insincere character I have ever seen. It's nothing but bullshit coming out of his mouth.

I'd argue the Death Note only gave him a feeling of authority that caused the mask to slip off. I'd argue that he was always this lost and was just waiting for an excuse to cut to the chase on 'justice'. To build his guillotine and finally start collecting the heads he wants to put on his mantle. He is the unfeeling, apathetic and cold freak that I've seen people assume L is. All the Death Note did was foster it.

Because while L tries to be a character for the necessary evil and gray area (i.e. Lind L. Tailor), Light is just evil. He is blindly writing names and filling pages the moment he realizes that the notebook works. He is placing a bomb in his house without thinking of the risks he'd place on his kid sister or his well-meaning parents. He is manipulating women and using them like tools. I simply cannot imagine a reality in canon where Light Yagami can love.

And obviously my point isn't to say "Lawlight wouldn't work in canon !! You can't ship them !!" The canon of a story isn't some kind of divine set of rules, literally have all the fun you want. Canon isn't real. This story isn't real. Literally make it all up and turn Light Yagami into a pining, simping mess. If anything, that's justice.

But it's interesting to think about. I used to ship Lawlight so intensely. But then years later, when I rewatched the anime, my feelings changed drastically.

Now I can't fucking stand Light Yagami, and I wish the same fate he places on all his victims. As ironic as that is.

If he was a real human being, and I had the notebook in my hands, his name would be one of the first that I would write. Call that a sign of my bias.

Now I can't imagine a single scenario where Light loves L.

I mean, I think L definitely would have feelings for Light. L has shown that he has the capability to care, despite how the writers tact on things like in the How to Read manga where his line about Light being his first ever friend could've been a 'coldly thought-out strategy.' (Eye roll)

Even in the scenario that L doesn't truly consider Light a friend, he shows that he cares for people even a little bit. When a member of the task force decides to quit and leave, L says he appreciates him and makes sure he and his family are well paid and protected. When he witnesses a member die, he's shaking in fear. He is capable of being vulnerable and caring for others. He just doesn't do it often. It's half a choice to protect himself, and half his unmasked autism. (And bro IS autistic i don't gotta defend that point)

L is capable of loving Light if L allowed himself to. If that "you're my first friend" line is sincere, he's opened his heart up to a monster. And the unfortunate thing is that there is no possible way Light is reciprocating. Light is the unfeeling, lying monster, uncapable of even concieving what love feels like. Light doesn't care for other people. His motives might be driven by a sense of justice, but that is just the flavor. That's just the color that his true intentions are thinly painted over. The true intention of power. The only thing that brings him joy is the authority he believes he has over humanity.

[akuma74]

Since I saw many people complaining about Ace Attorney name change or something and that I have way too much time on my hand I present you:

Me showing you the name change in the french version and then re-translating them back to english so you can see the difference in word-play, edition 1 on the first game.

(All characters that are not mentionned are the one who don't have a name change or those that I don't care enough to remember their existence and even less their names, so don't ask me about them)

Now let's get started:

Main:

Miles Edgeworth: Benjamin Hunter, no wordplay here they just changed his name so he wouldn't be too hard to pronounce and remember for french kids. I hate it and love it at the same time.

Dick Gumshoe: Dick Tektiv, wordplay on "détective" which is kind of work but also not since in french this word is almost exclusively use for private detective, not cops.

First Turnabout:

Larry Butz: Paul Defès, wordplay with "poil de fesse" litterally "butt's hair", appropriate and that guy doesn't deserve a better name.

Winston Payne: Victor Boulay, play on "boulet" which is use to describe someone that is so bad and who screw up so much that they're a burden. Kind of like it better than the english one tbh

Frank Sahwit: Frank Khavu, play on "qu'à vu" litterally "saw it".

Second Turnabout:

Marvin Grossberg: Samuel Rosenberg, apparently no word play or joke here. But some people think that giving a name of jewish origin specifically to the corrupt lawyer may be based on anti-semitic stereotype.

April May: Marsha Vrill, play on "Mars-Avril" litterally "March-April".

Third Turnabout:

Wendy Oldbag: Flavie Eïchouette, play on "vieille chouette" a pejorative way to call an older woman which litterally mean "old owl".

Will Powers: Gustavo Lonté, play on "volonté" which is just "will", boring.

Cody Hackins: Kevin Miron, the joke is the name Kevin that's it. But to be more precise at the time the first game was released in France "Kevin" was internet slang who was kind of an insult toward kids spending way too much time online or others immature people lurking in the internet.

Fourth Turnabout:

Lotta Hart: Eva Cozésouci, play on "elle va causer des soucis" meaning "she is going to be trouble", which I find kind of more appropriate. Also not name related but they changed her "southern country accents" by a "Marseille accent" a southern french city whose accent is often mocked. Find it funny that If they're is one thing 'Murican and French share is their love of making fun of southern accents.

Fifth Turnabout:

Mike Meekins: Bill Ballaud, play on "ballot" which mean someone dumb and quite clumsy

Damon Gaunt, Jake Marshall and Angel Starr: useless name change that annoy me, in order: Damien, Alex and Angélique.

Also bonus the blue badger become "le lutin bleu" which in english is something along the line of "blue elf".

I let you decide if this is better or worse...

and if I do that for the rest of the games.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Hi, hope you are doing well. I've read some of your posts recently and you seem very knowledgeble on ASOIAF details, so I wanted to ask you this: I've read that the Stark Family Tree in TWOIAF have many wrong details. Do you have links for its corrections or perhapes a corrected version of the Tree? And do you know if the Lannister one has any errors? Thanks!

Yes, there's a few wrong details in the first edition of TWOIAF, which apparently should have been corrected in more recent editions. (Supposedly if you bought the Kindle version you can push an update? I can't seem to get it with my, um, unbought copy though.) The wiki's errata page is here, but let me copy the details for the Stark and Lannister trees:

Stark Lineage:[135]

Jocelyn Stark is mentioned to have married "Benedict Rodgers". However, this is supposed to be Benedict Royce. According to Elio Garcia, co-author of The World of Ice & Fire, Martin mistakenly called Royce "Benedict Vance" in earlier notes.[136] However, Harrold Rogers, the husband of Branda Stark, is correct.[137]

Munkun's True Telling says Cregan Stark had a younger brother who died in 119 AC.[138] However, in the family tree Cregan has no siblings.

For Rickon Stark (son of Cregan)'s daughters Serena Stark and Sansa Stark, Serena is marked as the elder one in the book. However, Sansa is the elder one in George R. R. Martin's notes.[139][140]

Bolded names in the family tree indicate that said person has ruled as Lord of Winterfell. However, the names of Rodwell Stark and Donnor Stark are not bolded, even though they had been Lords of Winterfell. This should have been corrected by the third print.[141]

Spelling of Mariah Stark's name is changed to Myriah in later prints.[134]

Lannister Lineage:[142]

Jaime Lannister's name is misspelled as "Jamie".

Joffrey Baratheon's name is misspelled as "Joffery".

Myrielle Lannister's name is misspelled as "Myielle".

Willem and Martyn Lannister are not listed to be twins, even though they have been stated to be twins on multiple occasions elsewhere.

Bolded names in the family tree indicate that said person has ruled as Lord of Casterly Rock. Neither Cersei nor Cerelle Lannister are marked as "ruling lord or kings". As both have been specifically stated to have been "Lady of Casterly Rock",[132][143] this is an ommission. Kevan Lannister's name is bolded, while he was never a ruling Lord. As Cersei has remained "Lady of Casterly Rock" despite the charges of high treason,[143] and has two heirs who would inherit from her before Kevan would, even if she was stripped from her rights to Casterly Rock, Kevan's name being bolded likely is a mistake.

Melesa Crakehall, the wife of Lyonel Frey, is missing from the family tree.

Hope that helps!

[runtheyell0w]

A non-exhaustive list of why you should listen to hit dirtbag boyband Bears in Trees:

their music is really amazing. you'll love it.

especially if your Spotify wrapped was on the pov: indie side of things

and even if it wasn't.

songs for every emotion

absolutely beautiful lyrics

sometimes these lyrics make sense. sometimes they don't. that's part of the fun.

songs about platonic love !!!!!

songs for the queers! the aros! the aces! the enbies! the trans community!

my dad likes them. doesn't sound like a lot, but it's an achievement.

(more underneath the break)

iain (bass/vox/lyrics) has "ginger" tattooed on the back of their head. if that isn't iconic I don't know what is.

on the note of iain, they were the first person i was aware of that used they as a pronoun, and that changed my life

they have a discord server! it's a really lovely community. i am not biased in the slightest. (discord.gg/sandbox) (https://discord.com/invite/thesandbox) (i will personally send you an invite i don't actually know what the link is)

they should DEFINITELY be on the heartstopper soundtrack

if I'm remembering correctly in the tiktok where they said they should be on the heartstopper soundtrack, they also said 3 out of 4 of them were in some way queer. seems like a good thing to me.

they opened for you me at six earlier this year. it was my first time seeing them live. and WOW.

I met some of my best friends through this band. I'm not joking; big shout out to the mojo dojo castle house, I'll never forget that weekend.

they're hilarious on the internet

you might cry at several of their songs for a million different reasons

BearBerry records

they have a tumblr blog @/bearsintreesofficial (iirc). I'm not gonna tag them but

BiT gigs are a safe space. I may have almost fainted at my last one (new cross inn, August 2023) but I've never met so many kind strangers and genuinely lovely people

merch is super comfy and really cute.

it gives stardew valley and animal crossing (trust me I'm right)

after the new cross gig (sweatiest gig in the world), despite surely being exhausted, callum (uke/keys/vox) took my bereal and i got my mini lesbian flag signed by them all

I turned out not to be a lesbian, which possibly makes it funnier, but the flag is stuck on my wall still

cryptids would LOVE their band

dash.

there's also a community minecraft server for discord members

BiT postcards !!!!

gosh and the bit stickers

they covered stick season on an Instagram live

they also do the funniest twitch streams

iain and the mountain

the raccoon email address

george (drums/production) is elite. the drum fills in doing this again? iconic. also has a specific really cool shirt I want to steal

wedding. dress. tiktok.

callum doesn't wear shoes on stage. apparently this was common knowledge but it sure surprised me at new cross.

the austrian soft drinks advert

iain make up looks

callum plays the flute. I want to say classically trained flautist but i may be wrong.

none of them have EVER bribed any members of law enforcement

their songs are very tattooable

talking of tattoos, nick (lyrics/guitar/saw him play the uke on stage once) has L + R tattooed on his forearms (iirc). absolute genius and I am stealing it when I get more of my patchwork sleeve done

iain releases solo music to under the name pet yeti. it's ethereal. callum also plays flute on one of them.

trumpet joe

the four of them never look like they are dressed for the same event

someone once edited the bears in trees wiki page to say that Ryan Ross was in their band

silly geese

that time we got singing? poetry? performance art? of THAT harry potter fanfiction

according to tiktok, iain and nick once had to sneak into their own show because they were underage

nurby

I have a video in the depths of my camera roll of them covering Mama by My Chemical Romance on a twitch stream

sonick

all of them give me gender envy at different times

their newest single (bart's bike) features banjo

patreon content

yelling it gets better with a room full of people was a healing experience.

tilly

modern baseball and fall out boy adjacent in my brain

if you like bears in trees you're automatically hot and really cool

they did a song with noahfinnce and its really super good

callum also featured on a myriad song which is also really super good

bit songs feel like coming home. they feel like hot chocolate and a blanket on a cold night. they feel like a warm hug. they feel like surviving and falling in love with life again and overcoming the worst things. they feel like victory, because you didn't think you'd make it to adulthood. but I'm 20 now. and I'm still here. I've almost graduated uni. and that's what bears in trees feels like.

all of their songs!!!! amazing!!!!

please feel free to add to this list. I'm taking suggestions.

[blackjackkent]

OK, time for another boss battle report, Cazador Szarr edition. This one got pretty elaborate. XD

Opening state of play:

Enemy list is Cazador plus two ghasts (labeled "Fallen Gur Hunter," upsettingly), four werewolves, a skeleton named "Chatterteeth," and six bats. The bats have one hit point each but I'm making no assumptions at this point.

Cazador starts out with seven stacks of a buff called "Ritual Sources" - corresponding to the seven spawn currently being held in magical fields around the arena - which gives him 70 temp HP, 7m extra movement speed, and extra necrotic damage. He also gets an individual unique buff for three of the spawn (For "Yousen", he gets an extra 2-16 hitpoint regain every turn, for "Violet" he gets a +5 to AC, and for Astarion himself, he gets an extra bonus action.)

All of this also means we are shorthanded by one person because Astarion is currently being used as a power socket. (On the bright side, despite the cutscene, he still has all his armor and stuff on, so maybe we can get him back into the fight and let him get the killing blow.)

Cazador can apparently use Call Lightning for ten turns without using a spell slot, with which he immediately beats the shit out of Jaheira on his first turn.

He can turn into vampire mist and run around the arena which makes him immune to non-magical damage. "This status is removed by sunlight," says the description of the form. Well, this at least is good news, because guess what Jaheira has:

The spawns themselves all have a "sacrificial lamb" condition which states: "If Cazador draws power from all the spawns bound this way three times, he will ascend." So we're on something of a time limit.

By the way Cazador has 270 hit points, including the 70 temp HP he's getting from the spawns. O.O;

We do get a bit of a hint to kick things off.

"Those runes," Karlach says. "Cazzy's using them to suck the power right out of those poor fuckers."

"If we can reach the glowing sigils, maybe we can redirect that power from him to us," says Hector.

First of all, I love that Karlach calls him "Cazzy". Second, I can't imagine Hector is much more thrilled about taking that power for himself, even temporarily, than he is about Cazador getting it, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I think our top priority here is as follows:

a) Get everyone onto one of those sigils (ideally Astarion's? maybe we can get him back into the fight?) to start disrupting Cazador's power sources. b) Get Daylight cast on as much of the arena as possible. c) ????? we'll figure it out from there.

Let's go.

-----

Combat report:

Getting Karlach onto one of the sigils on her first turn passed one of the "Ritual Sources" buffs from Cazador onto her, so that seems like a good start. The problem here, though, is that stepping back OFF the sigil immediately gives the buff back to Cazador. So the utility here seems a bit limited since most of our squad is kinda up close and personal.

Not entirely clear on whether I am supposed to be trying to kill the non-Astarion spawn, although that does seem like it would certainly remove the buff more permanently. They're basically resistant to everything so it doesn't seem like a GREAT use of our time, but options feel really limited.

The ghasts are surprisingly annoying as they all run straight at Hector and cast Stench to make him nauseous, meaning he can't take actions. He's so powerful tho that he kills one of the werewolves with bonus actions alone.

Karlach meanwhile gets surrounded by all five bats and bit a whole bunch and Jaheira gets downed by the second round of Call Lightning. This is off to a great start.

The one spore zombie that was still following Jaheira around from the fight earlier misses every single one of its attacks in this fight, bless its heart.

Hector manages to take out all the ghasts by turn three but is now the only good guy conscious on the field as Karlach has gotten bitten into unconsciousness. More bats have spawned at the start of the round. Cazador has managed to avoid starting his turn in the Daylight spell repeatedly so he has not yet taken any damage from it yet. All the bats have now come over to surround Hector instead. This is going terribly.

DISCOVERY: When Jaheira's spore zombie kills something (in this case, a bat) it turns into a new friendly spore zombie! That's nice! Everything else, however, is terrible.

At this point, Cazador ascends. All of the spawns, including Astarion, explode into a giant pile of wet meat. Astarion's personal quest is marked complete. I sigh, very heavily, and reload. Yeesh.

Attempt 2!

I feel like there's a trick here that I'm missing, but the second pass does start off much more optimistically; Hector and Karlach are able to take out all three ghouls immediately and Jaheira gets Daylight up again.

Once again Jaheira gets wrecked at the top of the second round when Cazador gets his next turn. She really is squishy as fuck and I am not sure why I suck so badly at playing her. :( I love you, Jaheira, I'm sorry I keep getting you killed.

Eventually I got frustrated and sent Hector over to just whale on Cazador, and he's such a battering ram that he did manage to get him all the way down to 100HP. However, it was on turn 3 and so Cazador promptly got up afterwards and turned everyone into marinara sauce.

Realistically, Hector and Karlach are powerful enough between them that I'm pretty sure we can cheese this fight but just going straight to Cazador on turn 1 and beating the shit out of him; however, I would kind of like to figure out how to do this fight the "correct" way. Reload.

Attempt 3!

New strategy - what if we ignore all the enemies and just run all three of us onto three of the sigils immediately? (Specifically, the three sigils for the spawn that are giving him extra buffs. Unfortunately, they're of course the ones furthest away from us but we have dash actions for a reason.)

With this in mind, backing up an extra save and doing some pre-work. Jaheira gets the Misty Step amulet back, ritually casts Longstrider on everyone which will give them extra movement speed until long rest, and precasts Conjure Elemental, Conjure Woodland Being to get more bodies on the field, and Heroes Feast too, why not (immunity to the Stench poison for one thing), then casts Protection from Energy on herself to help offset the fucking Call Lightning that's wrecking us right out of the gate.

While I'm doing this, @ryssabrin comes in clutch with some advice in the replies in my previous post, pointing out that we can use the Help action on Astarion to pull him out of the ritual and back into the fight. "cazador will focus fire on him but he won't do the ritual." This is HUGE because that three-turn limit was what was really fucking things up.

So that's our new priority. Jaheira and Karlach go to stand on two of the sigils, and Hector books it towards Astarion to free him. Ryssabrin also pointed out the utility of Sanctuary in this case - presumably to put on Astarion if Cazzy is gonna focus fire him - so I have Hector load that up too, and cast Protection from Evil and Good on himself.

Heroes Feast is fun. It also gives us a big hamper of camp supplies in addition to all the buffs. Please fill in your own joke:

Mad prep, let's go:

OK let's give this another try. I'm not scared, what are you talking about.

In addition to all the buffs, we also luck out here somewhat in that on this run, all three of the team get top initiative (second only to Cazador himself). Jaheira's concentration on Protection from Energy gets broken INSTANTLY but she does take less damage than she did previously.

Jaheira misty steps onto Yousen's sigil, stealing Cazador's per-turn heal and one of his ritual stacks (and casts Daylight). Karlach goes to Violet's sigil and steals Cazador's extra AC and another ritual stack (and rages for extra DR). Hector as planned beelines straight for Astarion, Help-actions him into the fight, casts Sanctuary on him, and barrels towards one of the other sigils. Cazador is now down to four buff stacks and no special buffs, and cannot ascend. QUICKSAVE.

"YOU ARE GOING TO SUFFER FOR EVERYTHING YOU DID TO ME!" Astarion bellows, and then I have him stand absolutely still and not do anything, because he can't be targeted by attacks in Sanctuary but only while he doesn't attack anything. I like to think he is debuffing Cazador with the pure power of his ANGRY GLARE, though.

Jaheira once again gets fucking trounced immediately but at least her unconscious body is on top of the sigil so it's still debuffing Cazador.

Round 2 - Cazador's out of mist form and I could keep Hector on the sigil removing the extra stack from him - but realistically the dangerous ones were the two that Jaheira and Karlach are on. Hector is best served barreling straight at Cazador and battering ram smacking the shit out of him. So that is what he does. For a total of [does quick math] 183 DAMAGE! :D Cazador lost Call Lightning concentration too. Big moves from Team Juggernaut and this is all looking much more manageable. (For insult to injury he still had enough movement left to go and stand on the nearby sigil again too. XD )

Karlach hurled two separate health potions at Jaheira, using up both of her actions, and neither of them did anything useful for some reason. Very annoying. So now I just sit here while the 513451345 enemies on the field take their turns and hope for the best.

Time for some roleplay choices. Cazador is down to 65 HP and still prone, which means Astarion can get a sneak atack on him. So I make the executive decision to SCREW SANCTUARY because Astarion needs this killing blow.

Jaheira dies. Again. And, again, from a story perspective, we are pretending this didn't happen. XD

Round 3 - Cazador once again mists up, so I spend Hector and Karlach's turns taking out some of the adds. Astarion tries to take a stab at the mist form just to see if it works. It doesn't.

Round 4 - Hector flattens Cazador down to 13HP and positions himself to give Astarion sneak attack. Karlach stares menacingly at everyone...

And Astarion gets the killing blow.

And then we killed the 113451324 bats that had spawned during this whole process. Victory!

[empressofmankind]

Things I enjoyed about writing my Crocodile/female!OC smut, in no particular order:

If you had to imagine the walking, talking embodiment of all Buggy's insecurities (imo), I feel like you'd get Sir Crocodile, and that's pretty much how I went into writing him. I set out to absolutely maximize Buggy's: "Oh no, her ex is (insert self-deprecating qualifier) than me". You know, tall(er), confident, masculine, accomplished, infamous, intimidating, actually scary, redundantly rich, pretty conventionally attractive and the scar just adds to the sex appeal. He has a voice like that, and no doubt a way with women? He's even near perfected his control over his devil fruit powers! Absolutely aces the whole Bounty Hunting business thing. Rolls in and out the Grand Line like it's his backyard. He's even better at being Disney-levels of evil! Complete with a better villain laugh. How dare. How dare he absolutely nail most of everything Bugs covets? Poor Buggy. The fact that his girlfriend is technically still married to the jackass is just an extra kick in the gut while he's down, tbh. Basically, if Bugs were a piniata, this is currently my stick of choice to go at him with. I just keep finding new aspects for Bugs to be insecure about and it doesn't matter how often Shivs tells him not to worry about it.

As you know, I wrote the whole thing first in three sits, ignoring most of the limb logistics. And then I went in and revoked hand privileges. That sucked? But it was also kind of fun to then try and either make it work with one hand and/or integrate his hook. Some of the instances actually got far better with it: neck pulling, ahoy! is a big one, hitching up clothing for a close second, but also being casually threatening for no apparent reason (and then for a really apparent reason, omg). Croc seems to lean towards preferring to use his hand, and sometimes he misses having two of them for this and I tried to show that. I mean, I get it - hands have tactile sensation. Plus, we wouldn't want to kill her. Not at this point in the timeline.

God tier banter, if I may say so myself. I specifically enjoy writing (sexual) banter, but I feel like I've outdone myself here. Their beats are also pretty even-handed and so well attuned to eachother, like this isn't their first verbal rodeo, this is the end stage mega evolution of years of practise.

The way Shivs walked into her ex's office with the intention of manipulating him with sex, but did so while explicitly and recognisably wearing her current boyfriend's clothes. Balls of steel, this girl. But, she knew who she was confronting. If he turned out at all amenable to her scheme, he'd want her out of these rags stat. And that was five free steps in the direction she was meaning to go. In addition, I am a firm believer of him being a high-key closeted bisexual and we all know what they say when boys excessively pick on you. All it takes is squinting just right and imagining her with a different hair colour, and that just made me chortle. I am probably the whole target audience for this, but yolo.

The way his pet name use corresponds to his emotional headspace, apparently. I wasn't doing this intentionally, but I noticed during editing. He says 'doll' a lot (a grand total of 14 times, jfc), uses it the way guys tend to use 'babe'. I felt doll suited him, perhaps because I strongly associate it with Noir films, older Bond & Mafia movies, and crime bosses in general. Showing my age there, maybe. Then he also uses 'sweetheart' quite a few times (9 iirc), and I am pretty sure he does so in an endearing manner. Lowering those emotional walls a teeny tiny bit as fondness seeps through. And then, like, once or twice, he uses 'honey'. And, again, I feel like he uses it in an older manner, the way stereotypically a husband fondly refers to his wife. It feels intimate. Like he briefly forgets all of this is dust? I think about that a lot.

Did you notice how she doesn't use any terms of endearment? I did wonder if she had any, but I felt like she wouldn't use them. Not at this point. Not any more. She loves Bugs. She did slip up once though, did you notice? She is the queen of mildly awkward nicknames.

It may not seem so at first pass, and it's certainly not super obvious, but it seems to me like he's trying pretty hard to put Shivs' relationship goals bar somewhere on the roof. He wants nothing and no one to be able to even remotely compare to him, especially not the clown. So he throws everything at this that he can? Which, arguably, is mostly material because that's in his nature and fundamentally how he interacts with and relates to the world and people around him. But you saw how fast he was to gtfo that couch the minute she alluded to any part of this being cheap (Mediocre? Sub-standard? Blasé?). Does he genuinely not want to cheapen the whole thing? Or can he just not stand the idea of her thinking this whole thing is cheap? Or both? I suppose these aren't mutually exclusive.

I like that she can make him laugh, and vice versa. They've got really solid chemistry, dammit.

Two people that just really enjoy smoking. Like, they are Smokers with a capital S. That's a whole relationship dynamic unto itself. I am really pleased with how I managed to actively integrate it into their shenanigans. It was a lot of fun and something unique to them.

The way he just repeatedly fails at trying to engage her in a little girl dynamic. Was that a thing in the past? They had (and have) a fairly notable age difference (7-8 years, give or take). And he takes it so well when she just, doesn't play along or only does so for like five entire seconds, or blatantly wields it against him. Poor guy. Just spank her already, I know you want to.

The way Shivs goes from being mildly nervous and quite determined to: 'Oh fuck, I'd forgotten how good this actually used to be'. Like, been there, done that, didn't end well. But man, it's a mood.

Press F in the chat for the fact that she only had one orgasm in this whole thing, and it barely took the edge off. Jerk knew what he was doing. It's a power play, of course.

Sneaking in background information and then doing absolutely nothing with it. Like the comment he makes regarding both their facial scars. But also every time either of them alludes to their past relationship but doesn't actually tell us anything.

Mihawk is a wine aunt. Even Crocodile seems to think so. I am sorry, I don't make the rules.

The part where he just happens to have things on hand that she either likes (i.e. that specific brand of cigarillo's his company makes) or that fit her way too precisely (i.e. that outrageously swaggy negligee). This dude is not OK. My man, if you still know your ex' dress sizes this well after several years, you need to do some introspection. And maybe see a therapist.

The infamous fancy panties were originally a gift from him, and she evidently kept them these past years? I am not sure what makes me frown deeper: the fact that she still has them, or the fact that he immediately recognised them. I don't think she was necessarily wearing them on purpose? She does really like them and wears them often. RIP those undies. I think she's way more upset about losing them than she lets on. I wonder if she'll accept new one(s)? I suspect she may, something about gift horses. Maybe he figures? Maybe that's the point. A renewal of something. A visual reminder of the casual control he can exert over her when he wants to. It may seem insignificant (she will definitely not overthink it), but underwear is very private and intimate. He's staking a claim even without particularly saying so. But I am sure every other man in the room will figure that one out. (Counting on Mihawk to say it out loud in that bored drawl of his. The Bisexuals Straights Are At It Again.) Doubly so if they're particularly prone to feeling insecure. Poor Bugs. Just take this one lying down, you silly clown. She wants them because she thinks you'll like them and she knows neither of you can gdamn afford anything remotely like it.

Did you notice she isn't truly naked at any point? Partially undressed, yes. A little exposed, also. But not naked. Meanwhile, he's stomping around in his bare ass half the fic. I like how he gave her something nice to wear and then didn't take it off.

At this point, I feel like he gets pants problems the minute she calls him 'sir', no matter the context. Some things just get sexy tainted forever, and there's no going back, lmao.

The unnecessarily expensive details. I had so much fun with those? The layout and details of his office and bedroom, for one. Both their smokes are implied to be well out of Shivs paygrade. Any brands come to mind? Or take the wine, for example. Can you guess which one I am referencing? And the lace - I am from a traditional lace-making area. Handmade lace was and is hella expensive. Don't even start about lace featuring custom tailored designs. There was absolutely no need to throw this much Beli at the nearest wall. But he did it anyway, because he does it all the time.

The way he keeps verbally reminding her of how different things used to be. For the better, in his opinion, of course. Like, are we casually trading favours here, or are you trying something?

On that count, did you notice how often Shivs is actually thinking about Buggy in this? At no point is he far from her thoughts, it seems.

I didn't set out with this mindset, but based on how the whole thing came out - I think Crocodile might miss her (or the idea of her) ? At any rate, I don't think he's OK. You stupid dick. You self-marooned on this island of misery and now it's too late. No changies, no takebacksies.

I came up with the title post-fact. Maybe it's his thoughts, not hers?

[that-student-that-has-homework]

Hellooo, I'm so sorry for the late reply!

I'm glad that you enjoyed my previous ramble on the ASL trio having HSR combat mechanics. (I was tempted to delete the whole thing bcos it felt too niche on HSR gameplay ><), but still, I'm glad you see my vision 🙏

Now that I think about it, Ace's Ult should be named 'Flame Commandment: Fire Pillar' rather than the initial one I suggested. It feels more consistent with his canon techniques :D For sure if Ace had a designated team (the same way Firefly is meant for a Break team comp), Marco can be his Gallagher (an Fire-type Abundance unit who can deal damage + provide team-wide healing). In many ways, Marco would be a great support for Ace 🤧

Regarding who can inflict status effects more often, I do feel like Sabo can do that more than Ace simply because of his control and mastery of Haki (if we're going with canon material, that is). Sabo growing up in the RA taught him how to be more strategic and resourceful in combat. Whereas Ace, as powerful as he was, wasn't able to utilize much of his Haki and therefore hone it alongside his DF abilities. But, this is debatable, since again, I'm way behind in the plot. And apparently, Ace did have all three Haki and used them unconsciously.

As for Luffy's element type, I feel like Luffy could also work as a Physical-type unit if he were to be a separate 5-star character lol. Main character moment, I would say. He has a Fire-type version and then a Physical-type version where his Ult will be a Gear lower. I'm thinking Physical-type Luffy would be a Destruction unit who can deal damage in the form of Counterattacks (like Yunli and Clara). He can parry an enemy's attack and then counter it depending on the amount he received.

----------------------------------------------------

Bonus edition with some of the Strawhats (feel free to add on / come up with your own if these feel inaccurate!):

Zoro - Nihility; Wind (functions similarly to Acheron—big on Acheron here, if you check her gameplay). Zoro would be a multi-target AoE DPS whose main damage comes from stacking up on debuffs that are inflicted onto enemies. Also, when he activates his Ult, he ignores enemy weakness type and has complete Toughness Reduction in that state (again, just like Acheron's Ult). Zoro can synergize well with Sanji and function in a dual-DPS team with him. -> also, funnily enough, both have the tendency to get lost easily lol

Nami - Harmony; Lightning (inspired by Tingyun's abilities). She can boost a party members's ATK and regenerate Energy. Also, if Nami is in the party, she automatically gives All-RES PEN buffs to her team. (Nami's a generalist, but she can definitely be a good support for any damage-dealing character as long as they scale off of ATK :3)

Usopp - Harmony; Imaginary (methinks he'd have abilities similar to Bronya's or Sparkle's—most defn Sparkle tho...). Usopp can provide 100% action advance to a single party member, a 20% DMG boost, and also restore 2 skill points (with his Ult). Definitely a helpful unit for charas who eat up tons of skill points.

Sanji - Nihility; Physical (I'm thinking a combo of Luka's, Boothill's, and Cipher's abilities). Main damage comes from his Ult by accumulating stacks of DoT (whether it's Bleed, Burn, Shock, or Wind Shear). When stacks reach a certain level, he can deal massive Ult DMG against a max. of 3 enemies. (To maximize his damage, you gotta pair him up with a DoT enabler). After he activates his Ult, he inflicts additional Bleed DoT onto enemies.

Chopper - Abundance; Imaginary ? (could function similarly to Huohuo and Luocha). In addition to providing healing, Chopper can regenerate his teammates' Energy and dispel debuffs inflicted onto characters. Also, when using his technique pre-battle, Chopper creates a zone in which teammates restore some HP for 2 turns each time they deal an attack. (He's a must-have sustainer especially for characters who tend to lose HP easily).

Robin - Erudition; Quantum (inspired by Jade's abilities). Robin would be a multi-target sub-DPS who can deal damage through Follow-up Attacks or Counterattacks (in other words, when she's paired up with either version of Luffy, she becomes very OP). Her Ult can be recharged by how many times a character takes action (the more often the main DPS attacks, the better).

Franky - Preservation; Imaginary (functions similarly to Aventurine). Franky would be a great tanker tbh. He can provide shields to the entire team based on the amount of DEF he has. Each time a team member gets attacked while the shield effect is on, Franky gains stacks which he can accumulate to deal a Follow-up Attack on all enemies and apply another layer of shielding (the more you get hit, the better). His Ult can build on stacks and increase an enemy's Crit DMG received at the same time.

Brook - Preservation; Quantum (somewhat inspired by Fu Xuan's gameplay). Brook can absorb some of the damage his teammates receive and also reduce the damage they receive whenever he's on the field. If his HP drops below 50% from absorbing damage, he can restore up to 80% of his HP. Or, if his HP remains above 50%, he can convert some of that absorbed damage as his own and deal damage equivalent to that (in a way, the more his teammates get hit, the better).

Jinbe - Preservation; Physical (he'd be a Gepard, but better lmao). Jinbe is both a tanker and a DPS with a high base DEF and increased Effect Res. Whenever he's on the field, he automatically applies Taunt on enemies (thereby directing all the damage to himself). In addition, each time his teammates receive fatal damage, he can parry their attacks and deal massive damage of his own based on his DEF. (He can be OP if built right). If Jinbe receives a killing blow, his HP will only drop to 1 once (in this state he needs to be shielded or healed).

----------------------------------------------------

Ngl these are so fun to do hahaha, but as far as my OP knowledge goes, this is all I can think of atm

Now I'm imagining interactions between OP and HSR characters bcos of this (delulu)

Let me know your thoughts tho! teehee

~ ⚜️ anon

welcome back ⚜️ anon! For a moment I thought that because I took such a long time to get back to you, I wouldn't hear from you again!

You know a lot more about the meta of HSR than I do. I find it rather overwhelming and just do my best with the suggestions the game gives and that I find online 😂 so unfortunately I am unable to do much more than listen and give responses regarding the cosmetic details (names and stuff)

for Chopper, given he's from Drum Island, why not make him an Ice Abundance?

I also think that Brook could be ice too! I'm not going to say much here though. I feel like Quantum was chosen because of him being a musician right?

I also thought Franky would be a preservation unit! Given he's a cyborg like Bootie though, wouldn't he be physical? I'm curious, what inspired you to pick imaginary?

with Robin I wasn't sure whether or not she's be Harmony, and you solved that dilemma! I like her functioning similar to Jade! (Jade didn't come home when I pulled for her, I got the cutie lil Bailu instead) her being Erudition is so true to character!

Jinbe being preservation is just 🥹💚 I didn't think of that, but yes. Yes. Absolutely yes.

I really, really like the Nami - Usopp Harmony choice: because YES. Also picking lightening for Nami is PERFECT because she uses thunderbolt tempo quite a bit.

Lol Zoro being Acheron works so well: Swordsmen with katanas. I really enjoy how he and Sanji seem to carry similar functions given they are the other powerhouses in the crew alongside Luffy. Though Sanji could also be fire too, Diable Jambe and all.

lol hsr and OP characters interacting? sounds fun! Tashigi, Yunli and Yanqing can fangirl/boy over swords together 😂 Nami and Tingyun and their business scheming sounds hilarious. Yeah Nami would have a lot of fun with topaz too, anyone who has money. I don't think she'd agree with Aventurine's gambling, but if he's giving her money, she probably likes him.

I feel like Robin would enjoy a conversation with Jing Yuan, as would Jinbe, probably. Hold up, actually, I think Robin might enjoy being in Dan Heng's presence more, because he can give her access to the data bank. While I think Robin can play mind games with Jing Yuan, and would likely want to extract what historical info she wants straight out of him, she'd appreciate how straightforward Dan Heng can be. Wait wait wait, now that I'm remembering all these characters: Robin and Black Swan would be a duo. They both have that playful side.

Franky I can see taking an interest in both Svarog and Boothill.

Zoro and Acheron getting lost together.

I think if Usopp, Luffy, and Chopper got the chance to see Boothill shoot with his finger, they'd get stars in their eyes.

Yunli and Luffy could be glutinous together. No wait: I want Stelle and Luffy being menaces together.

Serval and Brook are vibing with Pela.

Sanji and Argenti having a conversation sounds like a riot because Argenti is like beauty in all things, Sanji is like: women. Sanji and Jiaoqiu can talk food and cooking.

who would Sabo and Ace interact / vibe with I wonder. Sabo and Phainon would be silly geese together maybe.

[quibbs126]

Oh yeah, so does anyone remember that one Professor Layton OC I made back during my Layton phase?

Not Eileen, I’m talking about this guy here. The character who was unnamed but was part of an idea I had for a Layton story (and also an ex of Descole’s)

Well, I actually named him ages ago, as well as gave him a bit more stuff (not a lot, just a bit), and about 2 hours ago I just randomly decided to draw/redesign him again. For no particular reason, I just did it

If I’m being honest, I don’t think the redesign turned out half bad. I didn’t do much, just changed up his hair and outfit a little, but I think it works. Ironically I was using Ace Attorney characters as more of my reference here than Layton. Maybe not the best but it works

Also I know his cane arm looks weird, but shh

I wrote most of the stuff about him up there, but his name is now Claude di Adone, for reasons I don’t remember. I do remember where Claude came from though, it was @notllorstel’s Twisted Fates AU Descole that was Layton. And also that his name was supposed to sound both vaguely French and Italian

As I recall, the hypothetical plot centers a good deal on parts of Descole’s past (though not a lot on Descole’s character development), where Layton and co come to this town where at least in public, everyone dresses similar to Descole. Not necessarily because of him, but rather because it was based on the bauta masks and the fact that apparently people in Venice once commonly wore these outfits and that sounded cool

Actually I think I remember the name of the story now, I believe it was City of Masks or something like that

Edit: I found the original post, it was Town of Masks

Anyways, Claude was the one who called Layton here, as he wanted him to solve some mystery going around the town that I never really figured out, and had done so after learning of his reputation

However, there’s more to Claude as he actually once knew Desmond Sycamore when they were younger. The image says “friend” because they weren’t just friends, they were actually dating, but Claude might not make that fully known. There are hints prior to this revelation that Claude knows a bit more than he should about Layton from the papers, or at least on a level that he shouldn’t for a complete stranger, like trying to call Layton by his first name. This is because Claude has been fully aware of the Hershel twist for years as this was before Desmond got super secretive about his former life and considered Claude someone he could trust. So from Claude’s perspective he’s meeting the famed younger brother of an old friend/ex of his that he’s never fully gotten over his feelings for, and he occasionally forgets that Layton probably doesn’t know that

But not only does Claude have a past with Desmond/Descole, but Descole himself happens to be in the town as well, albeit with a bout of amnesia. Note that this is supposed to take place sometime after the prequels. Claude is well aware of this, and this is the second secret reason he called Layton, as he knows Layton has a past with both Desmond and Descole, and hopes that Layton will be able to jog his memory, especially as Claude himself has been struggling with that due to the large gap in time from when they last met

Also, there’s the matter of his cane. Originally I said that he used one due to an injury in the past, but now I’ve decided he’s just always had weak legs, and has been using a cane pretty much his whole life. His cane does still secretly have a sword though

Claude is a nice guy, and can be rather generous, such as letting Layton and his friends stay in his house for their time here, since he’s rich with a big house and lives alone aside from some servants, so there’s plenty of room, and he does ultimately have good intentions, but he can also be shady as fuck sometimes and you probably don’t know him as well as you think

And yeah, I just felt like sharing that. Don’t know if anyone cares but I did

[dmercer91]

HOOKED AU —

when did her & jack start dating ?

does she have a name?

what does queen ellen think of her?

does she have siblings?

do her (maybe) siblings play hockey?

are they older or younger?

did she play college hockey? (maybe @ wisco which is how she knows caufield?)

is she american or canadian?

does she also play on like the US women’s national team or the Canadian national team

how did she get into hockey?

if she did play NCAA hockey what was her major? (i feel like she’s a STEM girlie)

is she more of a girly girl or more of a tom girl?

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS ABOUT HER

(also plz make it an AU i love the idea)

thank u anon i love these

- since we established she was drafted in 2020 i think jack starts to pine after her in early 2021 and she finally gives him an ounce of attention in the summer of 2022 when dawson is like he’s not that BAD and i’m sick of hearing him WHINE

they start hooking up during the 22-23 season and that season/summer he starts actually falling, the next season he starts trying to convince her to give him a chance at a serious relationship (the media edit)

she’s completely against it due to professionalism and she was already feeling guilty when she would pull her hits on him

but she falls real hard during that season and it’s what finally pushes her to request her trade and it’s by complete dumb luck that everything before happened to make it so the devs wanted her

they officially start dating after a HEFTY conversation following their first game playing together in which they quite literally slayed so hard the romantic chemistry revived

- she’s technically an y/n however i need a nickname for her and i think she would probably be the type to go by her last name since hockey

- ellen LOVES her

they met after a 22-23 devs/rangers playoff game cause luke wanted her to come over and she’s not gonna say no to luke

ellen sees jack look at her ONE TIMe and is like ok so you’re in love with her that’s cool and he’s like ????? pardon me

and quinn, delirious from his tonsillectomy is like ‘i think they’re fucking’

- she has a little brother who plays minor atom aaa as a goalie!! he always says over facetime that he’ll get good enough so she can never score on him when he’s in the nhl

- i think she deeply hates school, so decided to stay with her womens league / in the press box until her time came

i think they debuted her fairly soon after drafting her either way

- she’s canadian!!! i wanna say she already knew dawson because they played together growing up or they played together during wjc

i feel like she’d be an exception and be allowed in mens wjc since she was projected to be drafted and the tournament is used for scouts

which is why she’s so attached

she also plays on the women’s national team once the rangers are eliminated from contention most years

- she went through a lot of sports as a kid and her parents always tried to push her to do the more fem or generically girl things but when she scored her first ever goal in girls house she decided she wanted this to be her life

- even tho she didn’t i think that she aced chem in high school

her favourite part was making elephant toothpaste and spraying dawson in the face (i’ve apparently decided they grew up together because now thinking of it it’s adorable that they went 18 and 19 in their draft)

- it depends on the day

sometimes she goes to lengths to appear more fem and some days her attitude is very bubbly

other days she’s adam sandler

ASK ALL YOUR QUESTIONS ANON I LOVE THEM

(also i probably am)

[miyos-multiverse-express]

[OOC Note: Pelipper Mail, Musharna Mail and variants are on. Magic anons are off.]

Intro Post, the Third

yes, our life is zubatshit enough for three.

Hi! We're Miyo Hamasaki, at least that's what we're using. Since there's. Two Miyos and also I'm the Host.

might get like. a middle name or something, if we ever decide on one.

That's Fragment by way. I contain multitudes, multiple dudes and also a dragon. I'm 21 years old and a Giratina Hybrid. Kind of. Tis Complicated™. We sort of. Fused together following an Incident with an Alpha Rapidash.

Uh, hello? I'm gonna put mine here. I'm Minato Yuuki. I'm 16 years old, like Ace, and I share his Wild Card cuz I gave up my own. That means I'm kinda linked to somewhere else important, so I won't be around sometimes? Knowing my life, probably on Full Moons.

... Hi, I'm Ace (or Kagami), I. Also share the body. I'm a Wild Card (that's a Persona user), which has done some funky things to our Distortion powers.

Still recovering from that amnesia, by the way. I still can't remember anything from before I was 17 with a whole lot of clarity. doesn't help that our mindscape keeps getting wrecked via Pelipper Mail. ... Anyway.

We are currently separated.

I'm in Fucked Up Hoenn. Tohru is stuck in an all-Pokémon world. The team here is:

Koko the Bayleef

Bōrō the Furret

Hoshi the Kirlia

Aruto the Tranquill

Fuwa the Cottonee

Uroko the Gyarados

(Our normal Team is under the cut, but we're not subjecting them to this bullshit.)

Hi. My name is Tohru Adachi, I'm 32 apparently, and I used to be one of the Wild Cards from my universe. Unlike Minato, I won't vanish, because we didn't use my body for. Where he's going to vanish to. Anyway. If you think you recognise my name - you probably do, and it's definitely not me. (I also currently have amnesia. Again. So. Not sure what that means?)

I'm also an "eebydeeby". 'Belonging to a Trainer' is something of an awkward concept, though Miyo does have a Pokeball that's keyed to me. Because Bulbasaur are rare and I'd rather be registered to someone I know than be caught by some random kid. Usually, I can transform between Bulbasaur and Venusaur at will, thanks to Xerneas. (And thanks to Miyo, I can choose to be shaped like a six year old child.)

[Last edited - July 31st, according to our phone.]

Alter Appearances and Team are under the cut!

Our team is frankly enormous, but here it is anyway, in no particular order:

Nami our (Hisuian) Samurott, Akira the Umbreon, Milady the (Alpha) Sneasler, Conductor the Chandelure, Thera the therapy Sylveon, Hanabi the Cinderace, Aoki the Greninja, Hime the Gardevoir, Passenger the Galvantula, Yuri the Staraptor, Kuroko the Corviknight, Hiko the Infernape, Avalanche the Absol, Linux the Arcanine, Nino the Flygon, Annie the Mismagius, Isle the West Sea Gastrodon, Elias the Raichu, Jet the Altaria, Cymbal the Togepi, Tsubasa the Talonflame, Cylla the Aegislash and of course my starter Prima, a Shiny Roserade. (That is twenty-three Mons. Dear Legends.)

[Alter Introductions]

HOST: Miyo Hamasaki (age: 21, 🏳️‍⚧️male, he/him)

I type in plain text!

CO-FRONTS (Protector): Fragment (age: ???, non-binary they/it)

i type like this.

MEMORY HOLDER: Ace/Kagami (age: 17, 🏳️‍⚧️male, he/him)

I'm usually not around unless there's Persona Bullshit, but that happens more often than you'd think. I type in orange. (At this point I can call myself 17, I think. Do I still age?)

GATEKEEPER: Minato Yuuki (age: 16, male, he/him)

I won't be around much either, probably, but I use blue text.

//OOC:

Miyo's home universe canon is this particular fic series! Granted, it has been several years since the events in the fics actually happened. A blog I barely use, @summers-treasures , also takes place in said universe.

ARC TAGS (unfinished):

- #prologue station also known as the like. Three days I managed to have Miyo pretend to be normal before my excitement took over

- #Character Event: Land of Confusion also known as the Mini Pasio Arc!

- the #Distortion Interludes are basically. Well. Between arcs, usually.

- #the chosen kiddo is the overarching tag for the Sinnoh Anime Nonsense, but there's several smaller tags in there, too. of note is #The Michina Incident (you can guess what that's about)

- untagged is the Great Galar Collab with chaos-cousins. That's probably gonna be the tag name, though.

- #crossover cinema is Miyo's time in Persona Q2! Here's where things really start going off the rails, whoops

- #wrong hisui arc aka Hello Plurality, Amnesia and all sorts of fun stuff (read, trauma)

- #new tactics arc is my liveblog play through of Persona 5 Tactica, essentially

- #ace's third act is the P5 Royal third semester! So watch out for Spoilers.

- #tree of life arc - The Pokémon X playthrough where Bulbadachi arrived on the blog

- #ace strikes back is Persona 5 Strikers, feat Miyo and Bulbadachi

- #the unova paradox introduces the Other Adachi (I call him Warden Adachi) via #the adachi swap. Also Miyo mentors Hilda through most of a Pokémon Black run and sues a gym or two. Fun times

- #iwatodai reload is where the newest alter joins Miyo! After. you know. Hell aka Persona 3 Reload.

- #ultra vacation! Miyo is back in the anime and I was. Low on spoons for him so he stayed there for a while.

- #Sumaru-Cho Time is the prelude to the next arc. Persona 2 Innocent Sin (and a few Eternal Punishment) Spoilers.

- #separated arc is Miyo struggling through Too Many Types Hoenn while Tohru is going through Rescue Team DX.

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for keeping to have a brawl with this guy?

I (104 year and 9 month NB) met this guy (104 years and 8 months M) at a pub in Wales back in the late 80's and we immediately hated each other. I just saw his twink ass and shitty blond hair in the corner of a pub, glaring knives at everyone and think 'wow this bitch suck ass. Imma fight him'. We started a brawl right there and then and got banned from the bar. Continued the brawl on the street and got kicked out of the town. We have this back and forth fighting problems everytime we see each other. This guy keeps getting on my nerves with his smartass retort so I had to have a comeback, and sometimes that comebacks came in a form of fists.

In recent years my hatred for him lessened and we just started fighting over stupidest things just to get the energy out so we didn't explode (apparently we both got experimented with a same kinda drug which sucks btw). Don't worry our brawls never involved someone else, both of us have kids and they're best friends. And if someone tried to flame us we trashed that guy immediately and went back to our fights. These day we just fistfight each other for fun and get some treats at my husband's (2800M) clinic after. So clearly our brawls are benefial, consesual and fun to both sides and yet some people keep insisting that we shouldn't fight. Aita tho??

Edit: we are NOT in love with eachother, he's ace and sex repulsed and I'm demi. Also we are not best friends we barely tolerate each other. Just because I would die for him doesn't mean he's my best friends. Also stop shipping our kids together they're more of a siblings relationship situation aldo these kids are dumb as hell yesterday they got yelles by local merman for feeding the fishes their boogers. Which is. I didn't know where they even learned that from.

Edit: to my beloved husband who I shall not name cause I love you so much, stop printing this post and nailing it to our community board you're ruining my immaculate and mysterious reputation. You're insufferable. You're laughing at my misery. Take care of Pyrrha and Marshmallow I'm going on the Hunt again. See you at winter love you byeeee~

[vinylspinning]

Marillion: Assassing EP (1984)

"My friend, your friend, the assassin ..."

As I mark the fourth decade of this 1984 12-inch, I am reminded of a friend I've known for 40 years with whom I've been exchanging random bits of Marillion lyrics for almost as long -- "Assassing" being a perennial favorite.

"I am the assassin ... With tongue forged from eloquence; I am the assassin ... Providing your nemesis."

For those unfamiliar, Marillion's original vocalist, Fish (I could tell you his real name, but it undermines the puzzling simplicity of his nickname), was a furiously florid wordsmith of the highest order, and I'll do my best to illustrate that throughout this blog.

"A friend in need is a friend that bleeds; Let bitter silence infect the wound."

This was the first track on, and second single plucked from, Marillion's sophomore album, Fugazi, and I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the song owed its odd spelling to "assassing" being the Turkish word for "friend."

"On the sacrificial altar to success (my friend); Unleash a stranger from a kiss (my friend); No incantations of remorse (my friend); Unsheathe the blade within the voice ... my friend."

But this was apparently pure nonsense, as Fish later admitted "the 'g' was put on the end just to make it a little bit different," and explained that the lyrics referred to the firing of original Marillion bassist Dizz Minitt.

"Listen as the syllables of slaughter cut with calm precision; Patterned frosty phrases rape your ears and sow the ice incision; Apocalyptic alphabet casting spell the creed of tempered diction; Adjectives of annihilation bury the point beyond redemption; Venomous verbs of ruthless candor plagiarize assassins fervor."

In other words, it dealt neither in murder, nor even character assassination at the hands of the tabloid press (a very British tradition), as I once assumed, but rather Fish's guilt about his then-roommate's imminent but thankfully not literal demise.

"So you resigned yourself to failure (my friend); And I emerged the chilling stranger (my friend); To eradicate the problem (my friend)."

Regardless, this Marillion classic sees its musicians expertly framing Fish's words with group guitarist Mark Rothery's foreboding arpeggios and bombastic power chords, and alternately suspenseful and swirling, head-spinning synthesizers from Mark Kelly.

But enough about the A-side; this release arguably boasts Marillion's finest non-album B-side in "Cinderella Search," which states its case with unusually direct (by Fish standards) impressions of his drunken dating exploits, which I'll cherry pick here:

"On the rebound, fumbling all the lines; The light at the end of the bottle -- alcoholic alphabet; Through the looking glass the proof in my own reflection; Five senses down and reeling on the Cinderella search.

The footman memorized the number; But the prince still holds both the slippers; And would you leave a palace for a bed sit; And Canterbury Tales ...

Swam through the nicotine seas; And we exchanged the kiss of life; Resurrection in a trance.

The model, the grail, in a marquee of promises; I touched the dream, I hold the dream, I have the dream ... To end the Cinderella search ... Cinderella search; Oh, no more, no more!"

Incidentally, besides the regular, seven-minute album version of "Assassing," there was also a three-and-a-half minute single edit, but I still love the live recording found on 1985's Real to Reel best of all, because Marillion always rocked harder in concert than on record.

Finally, the dark, sinister artwork devised by the dependable Mark Wilkinson is also a personal favorite, as our friend Jester barters an Ace of Spades for the Joker seen in the headband of a war-ravaged, but still far more fit and handsome Fish facsimile.

"And what do you call assassins who accuse assassins anyway ... My friend?"

More Marillion: Market Square Heroes EP, He Knows You Know EP, Script for a Jester’s Tear, Garden Party EP, Fugazi, Real to Reel, Kayleigh EP, Misplaced Childhood, Lavender EP, Brief Encounter, Clutching at Straws, The Thieving Magpie (La Gazza Ladra), B’Sides Themselves.