#kinda. sorta. its like. implied. by the blood.

[arinmoss]

Miku ^_^

[adam--official]

I know I've been doing more mod posts than roleplay posts but christ aliveeee do you know how many expletives we use.in day to day life. "Oh my god," "Jesus Christ," "fuck," "what the hell," "goodness," "holy shit," or anything similar!!! All expletives are cultural, most of them involving religion or taboos. Fuck is a swear because sex is frowned upon, son of a bitch is a swear because having a child outside of wedlock is frowned upon, shit is a swear because excrement is viewed as gross, and don't even mention all the ones relating to Christianity! Anything "holy" is relating to God, saying Oh My Anything is essentially a prayer, "damn" refers to sending something to hell, even "oh, man" is a weird cultural thing that I don't know the meaning of but definitely stemmed from something specific. The only way I can get away with saying oh man is when I'm actually having Eve refer to Adam as man. Like "speak not to me of blasphemy, man!" sorta thing. They don't have the names Adam and Eve yet so it.works. the closest thing to an expletive I've used is when Adam refers to gods burning hand, "burning" being the expletive here because it hurt. But how do I use a swear when these people have never experienced any pain, and nothing is taboo? I'm kind of just having them groan and yell a lot

With the angels it's easier. They were created specifically to serve God, so anything outside of God is bad. The view everything in the context of The Lord™. They don't say things like "oh.my god" because that stems from praying, it's more like a quick plea, and angels don't pray. They do say things like "forsaken", to imply that God doesn't like that thing and therefore it sucks. It's used in a similar way to "damn," such as "I stubbed my toe on that forsaken coffee table" or "God forsake this mess!" The angel insults are wild too, they're not allowed to say anything that directly insults God, or imply that God is anything but Good, so I have to get creative. So they're saying things like "I fear God was distracted during the moment of your creation." It's very passive-aggressive, southern-baptisty. They say "God forsake" when they mean fuck as a verb. Like "God forsake you" instead of "fuck you." The angels of a higher rank are usually more aggressive with their insults because they know they're useful and they know that as long as they have no genuine bad feelings towards God, He doesn't care. The lower ranking ones (foot soldiers mostly) rarely ever insult anyone or imply anything remotely negative at all about God because they fear His wrath and they know they're expendable.

With the Fallen (angels, aka devils) it's not hard. They say things like "burning" and "bloody" and "blood and ash!" (Stole that from wheel of time) and pretty much anything to do with fire. For example, "Blood and ash! I stub my burning toe on this bloody coffee table, agh ow this flaming pious chunk of char!" Pious to show its stupid, because the fallen believe worship of any kind is stupid, and they don't like god very much. Chunk of char/charcoal to show that it's functionally useless and serves no purpose and is a waste. The angels and the Fallen existed before the humans did so.they had time to create some semblance of culture.

I wonder what the watchers will do. I mean they were stationed on mt ararat for thousands of years they're gonna be speaking practically a different language. With all the inside jokes and the shared duty/purpose.. it's gonna be really specific. I'll probably have the ability to pay attention be a good thing, and distraction be a bad thing. Like "shit semjaza are you distracted?" At first it was an actual insult but then they realized they were literally doing nothing and they didn't need to pay attention anyway so it kinda became a joke. Still, things relating to attention/distraction are used as expletives left over from a time when it actually mattered. Like saying "punished again by inattention! I stubbed my toe on this coffee table!" Other swears will be specific to the one speaking. A blacksmith might say "this warped coffee table," a jeweler might call it impure or inclusive, an astronomer might call it cloudy.

Basically in order to determine what to use for swears I have to determine the values of the group, what they like and their taboos, and incorporate that in a way that doesn't sound silly. I'm writing this in a way where they speak an ancient language and I'm translating, so if they were speaking their hypothetical native language it would be normal, but this is English which is so heavily influenced by Christianity that anything besides that sounds stupid! Aghgh I hate globalization

Anyways thank you for coming to my ted talk. Can u tell I like anthropology

[majorshatterandhare]

[plain text last paragraph:

when they finally leave the planet and burn it all down tim has to be restrained bc screaming and trying to go back to save it and also is in A Lot of pain as theyre removing it all from him bc its so in there that just killing him doesnt work to get rid of it.

End PT]

uhhummmm plant gore persephone tim

[aerscribbles]

(Homestuck AU... Heavenstuck?)

Xie Lian as a punky fish alien/narrative embodiment.

-ramblenotes and text transcripts under the cut-

for the non-homestucks among us, this version of Xie Lian is a troll, a species from the universe preceding the human one, they have a blood-color based caste system with fuchsia at the top and rust at the bottom- it sucks. they are raised by creatures called lusus (plural is lusii) instead of parents, because parents are a human concept and trolls are different in terms of biology anyway.

with that (probably insufficient) explanation out of the way:

Xie Lian as a hemoanonymous fuchsia - kinda obvious? royalty in hiding.

Uses Callie's silvery color :)

the Signless follower/fan thing - He Would. (really it's less a 'follower' thing and more of a kind of philosophy thing? but also not really? ...its complicated.)

Xie Lian definitely has some version of 'can't keep down the clown' immortality. but like, jester style.

Fangxin is a stupidly overpowered demon sword that can cause an apocalypse. what else is new.

continuing from that last point, it was specifically made from the White King Scepter and the Black Queen Ring, in the 'Beforus' session. BWX got it as an 'inheritance' from his prescratch self, then 'passed it on' to XL during this AU's equivalent of book 4.

In this AU I think that the 'surface levels' of Alternia and Beforus are switched, with A!Trollworld being more glorified and appearing as a 'good' society, and B!Trollworld being more blatant about its shittiness.

The symbol is a heavily abstracted representation of the celestial alignment called the Ominous Star.

This AU's reason for the neck bandages is that his gills are permanently damaged (until godtier). Kinda equivalent to the cursed shackle, taking away his status as a seadweller?

Ruoye was unintentionally majyyked into existence sorta like in canon (100 swords, dragonmom's death, hanging), 'xept I havent figured out the exact logistics of that yet.

The Sprite^2 Ring Situation is complicated and involves some ill-advised prototyping from the human (ghost) session Jade-style and the cross-session transportayeeting of HC's dreamself's corpse. I'll get into that when I do his side of things.

I have Muse of Space as XL's classpect because my personal interpretation of the Muse class is 'one who enables/embodies/reveals/inspires and/or is enabled/embodied/revealed/inspired by their aspect' as the variation on 'command' - with the narrative side of Space being stage/setting/creation, as well as the whole isolation and sacrifice thing.

( note: I had a whole rant here about how, in contrast, the Lord class is 'one who forces/drives/declares/instructs and/or is forced/driven/declared/instructed by their aspect' as counterpart forms of the 'command' verb but that got eaten by the drafts T-T )

Xie Lian IS the narrative of TGCF. It wouldn't happen without him - his presence was necessary/implied before his character was even conceptualized - he is what enables, what //allows// the story to occur - his movement through the world is what reveals all of the things lurking beneath the surface - he inspires a significant portion of the stories events, as well as inspiring change within many of the characters -

More than any of that, Xie Lian embodies TGCF- in the same way that Callie represents fandom within the text of Homestuck, which is at its core a story about stories, Xie Lian represents the philosophical and mythological core of TGCF.

All this started because I noticed that Hua Cheng is basically an even gayer, paletteswapped version of Vriska.

TEXT TRANSCRIPTS:

top, to the left of landscape/dragon skeleton, gray: Lusus Dragonmom (He lives in her skeleton)

top left, red/green/teal 3D effect: SWEET CATCH!

middle-ish, to the upper right of talksprite-style portrait, gray: Veiled hat usually hides earfins

middle right, between god-tier and sword, gray: Muse of Space

lower middle, above symbol and ring, gray: Ominous Star (fire star + heart)

lower middle right, to the right of ring, gray: Ashes Ring = Sprite^2 Pendant

bottom left, to the right of talksprite-style portrait, fuchsia: Abdicated Heir

bottom left, to the right of talksprite-style portrait, layered gray over red: Signless follower/fan

bottom right, below sword, gray & underlined: Fangxin

under the last line, gray: Regisword && King Scepter && Queen Ring Via Denizen

[1moreff-creator]

A Summary of the Levi!Accomplice Theory + How We Got Here (DRDT CH2)

Hey there! So a while ago I made a post about the CH 2 murder method, but I missed some pretty crucial information. You might know me and @thebadjoe had a pretty long thread back and forth talking about the murder, which lead to me reworking a lot of the original theory. However, that thread is extremely long and frankly quite confusing to read, so I thought it would be good to summarize what the final theory actually looks like in a separate post. This was sorta inspired by thebadjoe making a similar post about his own theory (which is Eden working alone, but disguising herself as Arei at one point), which I absolutely recommend you read as it’s probably one of the best DRDT-related posts I’ve seen on Tumblr.

If you’re here simply for a summary of the Levi!Accomplice Eden!Culprit theory, then simply skip to the Closing Argument of this post. You should be able to understand it on its own. However, I think it would also be nice to explain how I reached the conclusions I did, which is what the start of the post will be. Othersie I'm gonna look completely unhinged, and that's not good, I'm only kinda unhinged! If you’re interested, then I hope you enjoy!

CW: Murder, betrayal (Eden!Culprit), hanging (including geometric depictions), suicidal thoughts, one mention of self harm.

(Also, the Ace almost-murder won’t really be touched on much here, but there is a thread where me, venus-is-thinking, accirax and thebadjoe all went crazy trying to explain the blood on the wires. It’s about as difficult to follow as the other one, but eh)

The First Step Into Madness

(This part goes over a bit of the same from my OG post, which is why it sorta ignores other theories. There may be some assumptions made which are not necessarily true under other theories. Feel free to skip this if you read the first post and don’t need a refresher)

It all started when I made the original post where I discussed the murder method. I was left very intrigued after watching DRDT for the first time, so I wanted to see if there was some way to figure out how the murder was carried out, and to see if that pointed to any culprit.

-The first thing to note is that EP 11 cuts off when Charles is about to confront David on something related to the time of death, based on when he cuts in. This would imply the murder did not happen the night of the third day as the characters had assumed. Seeing as Arei was last seen at noon of that third day and I wasn’t aware of disguise theory, I figured the murder actually happened at 7:30 AM the morning of the day of the investigation, which I still believe. The fish could have been simply taken before nighttime and kept in the water jugs.

-What this means is that the culprit had time to set up an elaborate murder mechanism overnight, which is what the rest of the evidence around the crime scene would appear to imply.

-One of the reasons to believe a mechanism was involved is the flickering light of the playground. For a while, I genuinely had no idea how the hell that would happen. Even if there was a secret passage from the Movie Screening Room, proving that in trial would be nigh impossible.

-However, sometimes to solve a mystery, all you gotta do is mash random things together until something sorta looks like it fits. And what was a thing I didn’t know how to place? The ball of clothes.

-The idea here is to attach the rope to the ball of clothes and throw it over the railing, that way you can get the rope to go over there without having to get up there yourself. On the way up, the clothes would hit the light and displace the lightbulb, causing it to flicker.

-But why would you need rope over the railing? Well, if you were interested in creating a pulley system to make something go high into the air, you would need the rope there. And a pulley system is the first thing I thought of when I saw the spinny thing had tape on it, and thus was likely involved. This is what I envisioned.

Note how the rope is first looped between the handlebars to make sure it actually does the thing it’s supposed to. There may be other ways to set up the pulley, but the important thing is, a pulley was likely involved.

-So we got a pulley, but what are we pulleying? Presumably Arei, getting her higher up so her neck could snap instantly when she dropped down. As Veronika stated, her neck wouldn’t have snapped unless she weighed more or she dropped from higher up.

-Unless she weighed more, huh? That’s an interesting thing to specify. How would she weigh more? Unless, there was something which weighed her down.

-One thing which always struck me as odd about the water jugs is how oddly the handles are snapped.

-After thinking about how that could have happened, I realized maybe they had been snapped due to the action of rope. If you tie rope around the handles and pull hard, they would snap just like that.

-And what’s the deal with that? As I said, perhaps Arei was weighed down by something. And here is the answer. Since we know there were two pieces of rope (one found around Arei’s neck and a longer piece under the spinny thing), I believed the jugs were attached to her via rope to weigh her down.

-That way, the culprit could further ensure Arei’s neck would snap once she fell and the pulley system was stopped.

-Because yes, the culprit would need to stop the pulley system from spinning back all the way, otherwise Arei would just fall to the floor. And since her broken neck is the only injury apart from red marks on her wrist, that clearly didn’t happen.

-And my answer for that… was frankly just brute forcing it and stopping it by hand. See, I was sorta coming in after watching a cool video by Ocean Unknown, and I was already kinda thinking Levi was probably the culprit, which is why this feat of strength didn’t seem too insane for me. In retrospect, I may have been underestimating the strength required to do that.

-Anyways, the rest isn’t too hard to figure out. Make the note, ambush Arei when she arrived at the playground, with the ensuing struggle resulting in the scuffed floor, put tape on her wrists, put the noose around her neck, pulley, let her fall a bit and stop her so her neck snaps, prop her up so the murder looks vaguely like a suicide, throw some stuff in the trash, profit. You may have noticed I didn’t talk about the fact Arei doesn’t have her glove in the BDA, because… well, frankly I just hadn’t noticed that at the time. The fish are to confuse the time of death, and the tape was likely taken from the gym and used to have a better grip on the spinny thing as the culprit spun it.

…

The tape was taken from the gym?

The Curious Case of the Tape Thief

(Or: BY GOD IT’S THEBADJOE WITH A STEEL CHAIR! /lh)

So, what you may have noticed is that the method I came up with doesn’t really point to anyone in particular, but there’s a detail I hadn’t noticed when I first made that post. The time the tape was taken.

Thebadjoe had already pointed it out on his blog, and was kind enough to reblog my own post with this information. Turns out, he realized that in Ep 6, at around the time Ace wakes up, the roll of the tape previously on the floor disappears from the background. Which means it was taken by someone who was at the gym at that point.

Now, you might be wondering if maybe that’s just an animation error. After all, it’s not like this is evidence that can be brought up in the trial.

Except, it can be deduced. With lockdown logic. Let’s look at the facts:

-The tape was on the floor after Nico leaves the gym.

-The last people in the gym before the lockdown begun were Teruko, Ace and Eden.

-No one but MonoTV could enter the gym during the lockdown.

-Rose and Teruko are the first people to enter the gym after the lockdown, stated explicitly by MonoTV.

-But by the time Rose and Teruko are there, the tape has disappeared. And there is special attention brought to the fact the tape’s disappeared.

So the tape couldn’t have disappeared during the lockdown (unless MonoTV took it out, but why would it do that), and it can’t have been taken after since Rose and Teruko were the first people there after it ended. Since that roll of tape was still on the floor when Nico left, that means the tape disappeared when only Teruko, Ace and Eden were in the gym.

Teruko couldn’t have taken it, protag privilege.

I’ve seen Ace thrown out as a possibility, but it just doesn’t really work. Teruko was inspecting his body right before he wakes up, and she never has a reason to look away after he wakes up. She never saw him pick up the tape, though, so it seems unlikely he did. Not to mention the lack of blood on the tape when Ace had blood on his hands the whole time, or the general weirdness of him taking the tape and, like, pocketing it in the first place. Why would he do that? If he wanted a weapon, he’d have taken the wire which was nearby, right?

So, the most logical answer is that Eden took the tape. In fact, she gets knocked down to the floor right around the time the tape disappears from the background.

So, now we ask, why did Eden take the tape? The issue is that there really is no reason for her to do that, unless she went down to the second floor specifically with the intention of picking up the tape (and maybe some other stuff). However, she never tells Teruko she wanted to pick up the tape, which combined with the fact she takes it sneakily and without anyone noticing, would suggest she wanted it for nefarious purposes. This is where the Eden!Culprit theory comes from.

There simply is no good answer as to why she took the tape otherwise. Even other theories I’ve seen, which suggest perhaps the killer intentionally used the tape to frame Eden, can’t really explain why Eden would take it without warning in the first place.

Thus, the only issue left is… would Eden really do this? How can the nicest person in the killing game betray a friend like that? Well, it’s not as impossible as you may think.

Of Motivations And Narrative Consequence

(Or: venus and accirax come in clutch)

You may have seen this post by DRDT Tumblr’s dynamic duo of @venus-is-thinking and @accirax circulating around, and I recommend you read it if you want a full exploration of why Eden!Culprit works from a character and narrative standpoint. They explained everything way better than I ever could, so I’m not gonna dwell on it too much and just ask you do your assigned reading if you’re interested.

However, as a short summary of the main points:

-Motive: Eden is a very caring person, who has several people she’d want to return to outside of the killing game. Her family, which she speaks about with Levi in the first scene of the chapter, and possibly even the girl mentioned in her secret. The incident with Arturo could have scared her into taking more drastic action so she could go back to the real world. Note the secret quote on her page is “You can’t go back, no matter how hard you try.” She’s likely not secretly evil or anything. And the fact she kept trying to go against the killing game, but ultimately never achieved anything, could have led to her feeling completely hopeless.

-Why Arei?: Because it was the easiest option, most likely. It was implied in the ep 10 flashback that Eden may not have believed Arei when she claimed she wanted to be friends, and that she may have only realized she genuinely did during the trial. Also worth noting, they’re paired together in the CH 1 recap, which implies they’re at least important to each other’s stories.

-Wouldn’t this just prove Teruko right? And wouldn’t that be narratively redundant?: Oh, yes. It would very explicitly prove Teruko right.

Teruko: Sooner or later that kindness of yours will have you breaking down, until you’re too overwhelmed with grief to be able to act. That’s not how I plan to live.

But the thing is, Teruko has already been proven right this chapter. Even beyond all the scuffles around the secrets, you have Nico, seemingly one of the most harmless people in the killing game, admitting to trying to kill Ace; and you also have David, who almost everyone trusted and viewed as a sort of leader, being revealed as a liar and a manipulative asshole.

(Yes I know both of them are a bit more complex than that but that’s not the point.)

In fact, Teruko was explicitly right about David too. Not to mention, someone killed Arei or J if you’re inclined to believe that, which won’t exactly do wonders for trust in the group.

The point, as venus and accirax pointed out, is to show the audience how Teruko’s life usually is. Full of betrayal and misfortune. This is to set up the theme of fate and change that runs deeply through Teruko’s character, and that I’m not gonna explain here.

And while you could say Teruko doubling down on not trusting anyone would be redundant, you have to consider the rest of the group as well. While they mostly held it together after the first trial with a few exceptions, Eden being the killer, combined with everything else that happened in the chapter, would cause way more damage to the whole group’s sense of trust, leading to a very different atmosphere for chapter 3. So I don’t really think it would be redundant at all.

-What about the handwriting sample?: What about the handwriting sample? The note is in cursive, Eden writes her sample in print.

Obviously it's gonna look different. If anything, the fact she specifically writes in print could be seen as her hiding her cursive handwriting, which looks suspicious to me.

-Why help piece together the note in the first place? And why would she fight back against the idea of Arei committing suicide?: Because she would presumably want to build a narrative that she and Arei were friends, to make people trust her more. I mean, it worked, since people immediately jumped on Arturo when they first heard the full story.

-And more! Again, read the full post for more details.

So… now we circle back. Eden’s probably the killer, but what does that mean for the method?

A Method In Shambles

One of the main issues this brings to the method is Eden’s strength. She’s very weak, as has been established in both the most recent QnA and in the series itself (see: arm-wrestling scene, where Arei specifically excludes Eden for being weak). She wouldn’t be able to pull Arei + water jugs up with the pulley system herself.

…Or maybe she could? But it would be very tight, and I think we’re not supposed to pull out the physics and calculators to figure out it would only be the equivalent of lifting like thirty pounds as accirax implied in one line of this really good post. Point is, it doesn’t look like she could, which is more important imo.

Even then, it would also be really difficult for Eden to prop up the body like we see in the BDA.

Speaking of BDA, that’s another issue. The BDA rule states it takes “three people who did not witness the murder” to see the body before the announcement plays. So how did it play after only Whit, Teruko and Eden had found it? Surely Eden as the killer would count as a witness with the method I established earlier.

But the biggest issue for Eden!Culprit are actually the fish. Because while Eden doesn’t have an alibi for the time of death, she does have an alibi for the time of the fish’s disappearance. Think about it: Nico fed them presumably at around 7:00 PM, since they later see David going down at around 7:30, and 7:00 is likely the time when communal dinner ended as it’s also the time Eden and Hu begun washing the dishes together. We know from Nico the fish were still all there by the time Eden’s alibi with Hu begins.

And that alibi lasts all the way until nighttime, when the relax room locks down for the night. And it doesn’t open again until after the murder was supposedly committed at 7:30 AM. So Eden couldn’t have taken it the morning after.

The fish in particular are an issue for Eden!Culprit, because while everything else is odd, this particular thing makes it impossible for Eden herself to have set up the crime scene as we see it. And unless Ace is lying for no good reason, Arei was still alive the night of the third day, so it likely wasn’t set up by anyone uninvolved in the murder.

In the end, although Eden feels like she should be the culprit, she couldn’t have done everything alone.

…

She couldn’t have done everything… alone.

…

:)

The Rise of the Accomplice

Eden is a very trusting, very sociable person. So if there are things in the crime scene she couldn’t have done alone, is it unbelievable to assume she may have had an accomplice?

Let’s ignore the “who” for now and see if this idea holds up. The accomplice would be in charge of taking the fish out of the relax room during nighttime, a tactic to confuse the time of death and give Eden a fake alibi. They would also be in charge of overpowering Arei when she first arrived at the playground.

After pinning her down, wrapping her wrists with tape and possibly her legs too if needed (there were two pieces of tape in the trash, when strictly speaking you would only need one for the wrists. Arei has long socks, so marks wouldn’t be visible on her legs), the accomplice would also be in charge of lifting up Arei into the sky. The exact logistics of how the accomplice would go about this are a bit awkward (they would probably have to run quite fast to the spinny thing so Arei doesn’t get a chance to stand up and try something), but I don’t think it’s outright impossible.

Now, here’s where the trick comes in. Since Eden was the one who likely planned the murder (she had been preparing since Night 2, after all), the goal would be to make her the blackened. Here’s how I think that would be done.

The accomplice would hand off the spinny thing to Eden once Arei was high up enough, and Eden would be the one to let go off the carousel so Arei’s neck breaks. But how does it stop?

Well, you remember the second, shorter piece of rope, which I had originally said would be for the water jugs? Instead of that, they would use it as a stopper rope. The idea is to attach one end to the swing set near the spinny thing, but leave the other end by itself. Then, once Arei was high in the air, one of the two culprits (let’s say Eden) would tie the unused end to the spinny thing. That way, when they let Arei fall, the shorter rope would tense before she went all the way to the floor (you can make sure this happens by using a lot of the rope on the knot on the swing set), and stop the carousel abruptly mid fall. This is what would cause Arei’s neck to snap.

(Ignore the text)

This means the water jugs would need to be attached to Arei in some other way. Possibly by making the noose in such a way that you have rope to spare and you can put the jugs there?

Looks a bit wonky, but I think it can work! Or, at least, Eden could conceivably think it would help, which is all that’s technically necessary.

If you’re not convinced, there could also be a third, extremely short piece of rope being kept in Eden’s fanny pack which was used to put the jugs at Arei’s feet. I don’t quite like this answer too much, since it relies on evidence we don’t have (Russel’s Teapot and all that), but it’s there.

——————————————————————————————————

Surprise! Alternative Method Bonanza!

So you remember how thebadjoe has a really good theory on the murder which is Eden!Solo? That means he has a different method for the murder mechanism itself, as Eden sort of can’t do my method herself.

And I am gonna steal it! Like a thief!

Essentially, if you’re not convinced by the hanging method, you can instead copy and paste joe’s method to my accomplice theory, with a few modifications.

Joe’s method takes my idea of a stopper rope, but instead of attaching one end to the swing set, it’s attached to Arei’s neck. The pulley system is instead used to pull up only the water jugs, the rope attached to their handles, which Eden should be able to do herself. The idea is that, after pulling the water jugs up and attaching the shorter rope to Arei’s neck, when you let them fall, if Arei’s neck is secured in place, when the stopper tenses, it will snap her neck.

Now, in his method that involves knocking out Arei with turpentine (long story) and securing her with tape, but with the accomplice idea, and since I don’t think Eden has turpentine, it may be better for the accomplice to just hold down Arei’s body themself. Though that runs into the issue of “why put tape on her wrists then”, which isn’t a method with joe’s original method and rather an issue of translation to the accomplice idea.

Because of that, and because there’s a particular thing I’ll talk about in a moment, I think my method is still slightly more plausible for the accomplice idea, which is why I won’t bring this up again, but I did want to point out that it’s technically a possibility.

——————————————————————————————————

Any other changes? Yes, actually.

-You remember the starch on the ball of clothes? Well, joe suggested it may come from the enriched formula used in the relax room, as starch is often used to stimulate plant growth or something along those lines. Meaning the clothes spent a night inside the relax room. I agree with this, as I have no idea why starch would be there otherwise.

The question now is when the clothes spent the night. It can’t be Night 3, as Arei died before the relax room opened again at 8:00 AmM. So it would have to be in the second night. And where was Eden that night?

Eden: I noticed you didn’t take any of your new clothes, so I was going to deliver them to you!

Ah, right. On the second floor. In the dress-up room. Totally not suspicious behavior.

Basically, I think Eden went to the second floor to put the clothes in the relax room and pick up the tape, but once nighttime begun, she realized Ace was still in the gym, and decided to wait it out so as to not be spotted in a suspicious place. Unfortunately for her, Ace was busy getting murdered by Nico, so she ended up getting caught by Teruko, and had to course correct.

But why would she need the ball of clothes? Couldn’t she have just grabbed, like, anything else to throw over the railing?

Well… yeah, but. It may have been hard for her to find anything more convenient than the ball of clothes. I’ve seen the roll of tape suggested, but the rope may not have been able to fit through the hole in the middle. Maybe yes, maybe no, depending on what’s most convenient for your theory. That’s not sarcasm, it’s just that there’s no good way of checking how big the hole is.

Throwing a ball of clothes would be a lot easier than throwing a lot of other things. Maybe it’s a bit weird, but I don’t find it completely unbelievable that Eden considered it the best option.

-To make the whole ordeal easier, it would be best to make sure the “noose” end of the longer rope dangles from the railing over the seesaw, closer to the entrance, so they don’t have to move Arei around too much. They could easily do this by just throwing the ball of clothes around a couple of times.

-The BDA is an issue, since the accomplice would also be a “witness” and thus not count. But this can be solved quite simply. For one, there could be a loophole where if Eden just looks away when Arei’s neck breaks, then she’s not a “witness” and she counts. If that sounds too stupid, there’s another answer. To make absolutely sure Eden would be counted as the blackened, the accomplice would leave the room entirely while Eden holds Arei up in the air. That way, the moment they enter again, they would see the corpse without being a “witness” to the murder, and so they count. Add to the accomplice/Eden the view of Whit and Teruko, and you have the three you need for the BDA.

-That’s also my answer to why Eden shouts “Teruko, wait!” right before Teruko opens the door to the playground. Logically, she knew the BDA would play, which is why she didn’t act nervous when Teruko first offered to search in a group of three, but she second-guessed herself right before they got there. I’m sure we’ve all had an experience like that before, where logically we know one thing will happen, but we still get nervous right before the thing happens because we’re worried it might go wrong.

-The Achilles Heel of this theory is the missing bowling glove from Arei’s left hand. I have exactly one explanation for it, and it’s kinda stupid. Essentially, I believe the accomplice took the glove for themselves, to reveal it during the trial if people start accusing Eden. The idea would be that showing people that glove should hopefully get them to vote for the accomplice without thinking about it too much, but since Eden is the real blackened, they would lose and Eden would escape.

Imagine a big reveal, with a little animation like David’s “guilty as charged”, where the accomplice takes out the glove from their pocket and they say “I killed Arei” or something. That’s kinda what I’m envisioning.

So… that’s basically the method. And now, we have to answer the age old question:

but, like, why though

And this, this is the question that makes me believe the accomplice idea more than any other. Because it gives a proper reason for why the method had to be so complicated.

See, there is one fundamental contradiction in the evidence we see, one which has to be solved in some way. Arei’s wrists were bound, but given the rest of the evidence, there was a mechanism involved in her murder.

Why is that an issue? Because if you bind her wrists, then there is no reason not to just kill her in a much easier, simpler way. And there’s no reason to bind her wrists after killing her, either. So why would the killer go through all this trouble?

demodraws0606 (not sure they’d want to be tagged) suggested in this post, under Levi!Culprit, that maybe Levi was trying to frame Eden, and to do that, he had to make sure the BDA wouldn’t rule her out. And while that’s a really good post and a pretty interesting idea, the main issue with the plan of framing Eden in general are the fish. Levi maybe wouldn’t know for sure whether or not Eden would have an alibi, but just in case, it would be much safer to just fill the water jugs with water from a sink or something. The fish could only ever exclude Eden, never incriminate her.

Joe’s method assumes Eden simply used a complex method to distance herself from the murder in a way. Working on mechanisms would calm her as a clockmaker, so she feels more comfortable with murder if she can do it with a mechanism. This is cool, and while I personally think it’s a bit underwhelming, it could work. But it only works if Eden!Solo works, and then you have to explain the fish again. Joe says David brought them there, but, I don’t agree. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong, obviously, just that I personally don’t see it given what we have. I think David genuinely thinks Arei committed suicide because of him.

David: Of course. Of course this would happen.

So, yeah.

And because the why is so hard to explain, I think it’s important to explain it. And wouldn’t you guess it, my method does explain it.

It goes back to the origin of the accomplice idea. Eden couldn’t have done this on her own.

Let’s be clear; an accomplice is a huge leap in logic. One that I feel comfortable making given everything, but one which would take the characters a while to figure out. One which they may reject in principle. There’s no benefit for an accomplice after all, right?

I’ll address that in a moment, but let’s get back to the main point. Eden couldn’t have done this on her own, and because of that, the method in itself is an alibi for her.

Think about it. Because she is clearly not strong enough to lift Arei up into the air (or at least, that’s what it looks like), what happens if someone starts pointing fingers at Eden? Well, all she has to do to absolve herself is insist they speak about the method, and guide them in the general direction of the right answer. Once they start thinking the murderer would need to be strong enough to pull Arei + water jugs up into the air, they would instantly dismiss Eden as a possibility, until the idea of an accomplice is revisited.

This is, by the way, why I think the Hanging Method works better than the Neck Stopper Method under Accomplice Theory-

(ok the nomenclature is starting to get out of hand)

-, because it requires more strength to use the pulley.

But the point is the same. This method actually provides an explanation to why a mechanism was necessary when Arei’s wrists were bound. It was to give Eden a defense.

And that’s also where the fish come in. Because the most straightforward explanation for why the fish would be there would be that the killer would want to confuse the time of death. But why? The time the fish were taken is the same time frame the characters currently believe the murder happened at, so the alibis don’t change. If the killer wanted to give themselves an alibi for the supposed time of death, they would need to have an alibi for the time the fish were taken. But if they have an alibi for the time the fish were taken, they couldn’t have taken the fish!

Provided Nico is telling the truth about the fish, but I really don’t see why they’d be lying. I really doubt they’re the killer.

Thus, unless the fish somehow got there through a third party entirely (which I find unlikely, as Veronika had an alibi and no one else would really want to hide that they found a dead body for a night), it’s very possible the accomplice brought the fish to give the real killer an alibi.

So, that’s the big reason I have for believing there was an accomplice. It’s the best explanation for the fish and the motivation behind the creation of a mechanism I can find, but of course, that’s my opinion. There’s a bit more to it actually, but before we get there, we have to ask:

OMG, Who Did This?!

What we know about the accomplice for now is that they must not have an alibi for the time the fish were taken. This leaves us with Ace, Nico, Rose, Arei, Levi, and David. We can also add Hu to the list, as her only alibi is Eden, and, well.

Out of hand, I'm gonna eliminate Nico, Ace and David, as I really don't think their characters fit the accomplice idea at all, I hope you can forgive me.

I gave Arei a fair bit of thought, since narratively I could see it working, but I just don’t think it’s physically possible. One of the things which got me to believe there was an accomplice was that it would be really difficult for Eden to string up Arei’s corpse herself, and Arei wouldn’t be able to help with that on account of being dead.

So, then there three.

Was it Rose?

An interesting possibility. She was the first one to suggest looking in the trash, which helps Eden build the narrative she and Arei were friends, and she was one of the people who suggested voting for David on Ep 11, claiming she didn’t want the trial to go on any longer. However, that’s pretty circumstantial, and I don’t think there’s much else connecting her to the crime. I also don’t know how much stronger she is than Eden, but that’s neither here nor there. Overall, a possible candidate, but not extremely plausible.

Was it Hu?

Hey, have you ever thought about how weird it was that Hu and Eden never spoke during the conversation Teruko, Charles, Whit and David had right before David went to the relax room on night three? They were supposed to be cleaning up after dinner at that point, according to their alibi, so what gives?

Well, frankly, I just think they weren’t in the kitchen, but probably just cleaning in the cafeteria itself. But maybe Hu and Eden are lying!

Hu could work as an accomplice, given her caring nature and the fact she probably has the “hopeless child” secret, meaning she’s attempted suicide. Thus, she may be willing to throw away her life for Eden’s, which is the biggest obstacle for the accomplice idea.

Her secret quote could allude to it. “I want to pay for what I’ve done. But even then, I still want to live.” The issue there is… well, that could be referring to quite literally anything else, so.

I consider Hu the second likeliest candidate for accomplice because of all that, but… frankly, I still don’t see it. The way she acts during the trial doesn’t suggest she’s doing anything of the sort, and there are reasons she wouldn’t want anyone to get away with murder. Mainly everyone else’s lives. Also, she has even less arm strength than Rose, seeing as she lost at arm wrestling with her.

There’s probably more discussion to be had regarding Hu as an accomplice, but frankly, I don’t think it’s necessary for now. Because there is one person who fits the bill much better than Hu, and has much deeper connections to both Eden and the murder.

You read the title of the post. You know who I think the accomplice is. Let’s go.

Yeah, it’s Levi

(How’s that for a callback?)

Levi is probably the most widely believed culprit theory, and for good reason. He acts very suspiciously all throughout the investigation and the trial. He is the first to call up MonoTV to start voting after David’s reveal, he throws accusations quite liberally, his profile states he dislikes unpredictable people like Arei, the ball of clothes and even the missing glove being involved connects him to the method through his talent…

The main thing is the secret motive. Not only did Levi receive Arei’s, without the context Arei gave David and Teruko in the playground, it is widely speculated that Arei received Levi’s secret through sheer process of elimination. Won’t get into it here, many people have already talked about it, so just trust me bro.

Not to mention the whole “good person” fiasco. Essentially, Ch 2 has the title “All That Glitters”, with the secret title “A Good Person”. Clearly, put together you get “Not All That Glitters Is Gold” -> “Not All That Glitters Is A Good Person.”

And as far as I can tell, there are only a few people who have been referred to using the specific words “good person” in this chapter:

-Teruko: She dissuades Whit from calling her a good person because she’ll feel bad when she’s not.

-David: Hu calls him a good person right before his Ep 11 heel turn.

EDIT: I misremebered, the line is actually "good friend." Ah, oops.

-Eden: Levi calls her a good person in the beginning of the chapter.

-Arei: Says she will prove to Eden she can be a good person.

-Levi: Eden calls him a good person at the beginning of the chapter.

Hopefully I didn’t miss any.

You’ll notice the common thread is plot relevance in CH 2. Teruko’s the protag, David pushed the plot forward by getting people to reveal their secrets and also had his heel turn (EDIT: But he wasn't called a good person so), Eden has been a huge part of the chapter and she might be the killer, and Arei is the victim.

The outlier is Levi, which would suggest he’ll come to be plot relevant soon enough. I don’t think just getting his secret revealed would be enough to put him up there in importance with the most influential people in the entire chapter, so he’s probably heavily involved in the murder. And since I don’t think he’s the killer, accomplice it is, baby.

There is even a particular moment we can point to as the moment Levi may have given up on the group as a whole.

Levi: Why do I even bother?

Right after Ace refuses his help after almost getting murdered. And Eden’s right there.

Finally, his secret quote is “I always believed that a person is defined by their actions alone. But maybe that’s just a poor excuse for my heartlessness.” That’s interesting, because in this context, it could be he never believed Arei wanted to change, as her previous actions contradicted the words she said to Eden. But maybe that’s a poor excuse for his heartlessness, as Arei did want to change.

There’s more I could bring up, like the fun fact Levi’s profile states he likes suckers (candy) and Eden’s states she likes sweet things (that’s insanely circumstantial and confirmation bias-y, but sure I’ll bring it up), but I think venus and accirax may be wanting to make a narrative defense of the Levi!Accomplice theory, so I’ll leave it to them, since they’ll probably do better than I could. Lord knows they did better on Eden than me.

Not gonna lie I’m kinda making this so they can just link back here instead of the insanity train the original thread was-

Final Issues

No theory is perfect, and this one isn’t an exception. While I think the theory mostly covers all the evidence in the scene quite satisfactorily, the explanations for the BDA, the glove and the shape of the scuffed floor (but how do you explain that shape) are a bit shaky. There’s also a few awkward moments of timing and character’s actions, like the whole Ace almost-murder situation being sorta awkward with Eden’s presence in the second floor, and in particular that Arei apparently spent almost an entire day inside her room. That’s sorta gonna be an issue for everyone unless you believe Ace is lying about the day her conversation with David happened, which… okay, isn’t as insane as it sounds, read joe’s theory, but I still consider a bigger leap than simply assuming Arei took a real long nap.

And of course, as much as I’ve ignored it, it’s still insanely risky for Eden to work with an accomplice, and we have to assume Levi was willing to die and get everyone else killed just to get Eden out of there. I’ll try my best to explain how I think that could happen in the Closing Argument.

However, it’s all in all, in my opinion, not too bad. Everything is pretty physically plausible, there are narrative justifications for practically everything, and the few inconsistencies aren’t too large or obnoxious for me to consider damning. I’m still open to other theories, of course, but for now, this is the thing I believe.

-

So, now that we’ve established how I arrived at my conclusions, it’s time for what everyone’s been waiting for!

Closing Argument

Keep in mind character motivations and especially unseen dialogue could vary quite a lot. The main thing to take away is the actual method, everything else is sorta flavor text. This… really is a lot longer than it has any right to be. I kinda got carried away trying to show how I think the characters would act. Sorry.

I’ll mark with “>” the parts which are mostly just for spice, “~” the actually important parts, and just for fun I’ll add predictions to how the end of the trial will go with “+”.

I am extremely sorry if I mischaracterize anyone. I’m not good at writing dialogue, but I think it’s worth trying to give a better impression of what’s going on in my head.

(Days start counting after the start of CH 2)

Second Day, Afternoon

~Eden wanted to return home.

>Of course she did! Everyone did, in the killing game. She kept trying to look for ways to end it completely, and while she hadn’t found a good solution yet, she’d surely find it soon enough!

>But for now, they had to keep strong! And fight against the motive! David had suggested talking to the people whose secrets they’d all received so they could share it and ease tensions, and Eden thought it was a great idea! She went up to Arturo, and told him what she’d received about him.

>…

>She almost died.

>That was the only thing running through her mind as Arei got Arturo away. Eden had almost died, and if it weren’t for Arei, she most likely would have. A small desperation began to grow in her heart, longing to get out, get out, get out-

>Arei tried to talk to her, apologize for the things she’d said in the playground… but Eden couldn’t believe her.

>Arei had shouted in her face that Min’s death was her fault. Even if it was, to say it like that… Eden wanted to cry just thinking about the things Arei had said. Eden may have been nice, but she wasn’t naive. Someone like that could never be a good person.

>Still, a part of Eden wanted to give Arei the benefit of the doubt. So, she hugged her, told her how much it meant, and went on her merry way.

>But those doubts had firmly planted themselves in Eden’s mind. What if Arei was just manipulating her? What if Arturo attacked her again? Would someone as weak as her even be able to stand up to the killing game, when she couldn’t stand up against some bullies?

>Slowly, the gears in her mind started to turn. An idea was brewing, an idea which scared Eden to even think about, but one she was desperate enough to entertain.

>There was a way for her to end the killing game. By winning it.

>I mean what? No! Eden would never kill anyone! …

>But if she were to, hypothetically speaking, how would she go about it?

>By the second night, she didn’t know all the details, but she was going on autopilot, her body moving practically without her thinking. Just like she used to get lost in her work while making clocks, she was now beginning to get lost in the preparations for a murder.

>An accomplice, she would need an accomplice, if she wanted to do it. Probably something with the rope in the storage room, she was good with mechanisms. Maybe the railings on the playground, a pulley system… she needed a way to get the rope up there, and a way to secure the grip of her accomplice on the carousel.

>Hypothetically, of course.

Second Day, Almost Nighttime - Nighttime

~She went to the second floor, grabbed some of Hu’s and Teruko’s old clothes, and put them in the relaxation room to cover them in starch. She wanted to make a ball of clothes, it was the best way to get the rope over the railings.

~She also needed tape from the gym, the roll people used to replace the grippy tape on the pull-up bar when it got too sweaty.

~Slight issue: nighttime had begun, and there were still a few noises in the gym. Eden didn’t want to be caught doing anything too suspicious, so she decided to wait out until the noises stopped.

~Slightly bigger issue: Teruko arrived at the second floor, spotted her, and now Eden needed a cover story. She just told her she was looking for Hu’s and Teruko’s new clothes, sure, that works.

>Eden told Teruko her and Arei had made up, and asked if she wanted to pry. In retrospect, she wasn’t sure why she’d done that. If Teruko had heard the story of what Arei had said, she would just tell Eden what the uglier parts of her psyche were already telling her. That Arei was lying, trying to manipulate her. But maybe she wanted the confirmation, to justify to herself why she was thinking the thoughts which were running through her head.

(It’s almost tragic, really. If only Teruko had pried, maybe Eden would have learnt of Arei’s breakdown, and everything would have ended there)

~The two decided to head back to the first floor, and Eden figured she would just take the tape tomorrow-

~Oh shit, Ace got murdered.

>Seeing that convinced Eden. The killing game was too dangerous, when even the seemingly harmless Nico was able to do something so brutal to one of the strongest participants physically speaking. She had to get out, and now. She couldn’t disappoint her family, her friends, and her.

>So, she resolved to do something about it right after-

>Oh, hey, Ace wasn’t dead! That was… good. Even if he knocked Eden down to the floor when he woke.

~… And while she’s on the floor, she may as well pick up the tape she had come to retrieve.

~[Cue Ace running to kill Nico scene]

>Wow. Tensions were… really high. Ace had collapsed, and even then Teruko had just walked away as if nothing had happened.

>But Eden was more curious about something Levi had said. “Why do I even bother?” What had he meant by that? She decided to speak with him.

>…

>Levi had lost all hope.

>There was just no way to reason with the people of the killing game. All of them were erratic, nonsensical, unpredictable people. And he loathed unpredictability in people.

>None of them wanted to accept help when it was offered. None of them knew what the hell to do about anything, but refused to just be nice and patient with each other. Practically speaking, pretty much the only normal person around was-

>Oh, Eden wanted to talk to him. Sure, he could do that.

>Eden was checking in after the whole Ace fiasco. How nice of her.

>But after chatting for a while, Eden directed the conversation towards an encounter she’d had with Arei. She explained what the bowler had told her, looking for advice. She asked if Levi would believe Arei, seeking confirmation on whether or not she really could be trying to get better. And Levi...

>Levi was pissed.

>Because it was such an obvious lie. Such a horrendous attempt of manipulation. To try and take advantage of someone as nice as Eden, truly despicable.

>Eden seemed taken aback at his intensity, asking why he was so certain. Levi debated internally for a moment, before deciding Eden deserved the whole truth.

>"Blackmail, rumors, lying, stealing, slander. You did everything you could to ruin your sisters' lives." That was Arei's secret, the one Levi received.

>Eden looked horrified when Levi told her, and it seemed she agreed with what Levi was already thinking. After all, they both loved their family a lot, even if Levi had been disowned. Someone like Arei, who would do something so horrible to their own family, couldn't possibly be a good person. If Arei did all that to her own sisters, who's to say she wouldn't do the same to Eden?

(In retrospect, Levi would always regret jumping to conclusions. After it was all over, he would try to explain. “I always believed that a person is defined by their actions alone. But maybe that’s just a poor excuse for my heartlessness.”)

>And in all that anger, and hopelesness, and desperation... Eden revealed an idea. A very strange, almost outlandish idea. To help her out of the killing game.

>Levi wasn't a fool. He had seen how the group had handled the first trial. Eventually, someone was going to get away with murder, and that would be how the killing game would end. It was predestined.

>And if someone was going to win, it may as well be the kindest person in the group.

~He agreed.

Third Day, Noon

>Everyone was yelling, and Arei's stomach was twisting.

>Nico had tried to murder Ace. They hadn't outright admitted it, but Levi's and Ace's accounts were enough to get her to believe it.

>But she wasn't thinking so much about the incident itself, as much as she was thinking about what had caused it. The secrets. David's plan was backfiring massively...

>Except, maybe it wasn't. As she saw everyone arguing, the secret she had seen Whit receive flashed in her mind. David's secret. "You exist to manipulate others. Everyone else exists to be taken advantage of."

>Was he really that evil? Was he really trying to instigate a murder? Was anything he had ever said even true?

>Had he lied to her, too?

>...

>She didn't feel like speaking much that day. She'd rather go to her room, and contemplate. Maybe sleep for a while. Maybe lie in her bed, and maybe cry a bit.

>She didn't leave her room until it was time for dinner.

Third Day, Afternoon

>Ace was fucking pissed.

>Of course he was, he'd almost been murdered! By Nico of all fucking people! And now he couldn't even look the fucking gym without getting nervous, like the motherfucker would show up any time and finish the job!

>But it's not like that was gonna stop him from exercising. He wasn't a fucking coward, he wasn't afraid of Nico. (Or at least, he told himself that). So he'd train anyways! He'd raced on horses he was terrified of his whole life, a little exercise was nothing!

>Still, to his chagrin, he couldn't help but feel nervous whenever he heard any noises in the rest of the floor. Even the very light noise of the elevator felt like thunder in his ears. So when someone came down and started speaking, Ace couldn't help but overhear.

>Yet, the conversation was interesting. Arei was saying David had lied about his secret? This was worth hearing.

>Ace snuck in closer and listened in. Apparently David's secret was that he was a manipulative bastard, the dick. He had gone quiet when he heard that, too, so it must have been true.

>"David! Say something!"

>David went quiet for a bit, and then... Ace got bored.

>So what? David was an asshole, big deal. Breaking news, everyone! Every single participant in the killing game sucks dick and balls! Who could have seen that coming?! It wasn't anything Ace didn't already know. So he left. He didn't really feel like listening to David try to lie his way out of that. He just went back to the gym and stopped paying attention.

>Meanwhile, the conversation went on.

[THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN MOSTLY FOR FUN. I HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING HOW THIS CONVERSATION ACTUALLY WENT]

CW FOR AGGRESSIVE CONFRONTATION

>David was fucked.

>"I... I don't know what to say to that" David managed, covering his eyes with his hand. "It's... well... How do I put this?"

>"Just tell me, please. Did you lie to me?"

>"..." David sighed. A small, sad chuckle rose from his chest. "Yes. I'm sorry"

>"..."

>"I apologize for the false hope, Arei, but... people can't change" David continued. His head was firing off alarm bells, years of deception warning him not to continue, but he ignored them. "I have seen so many try. I have seen so many fail. In the end, there's no avoiding it. If you could improve yourself to be a better person, all that means is that you were a better person to begin with..."

>Arei fought back tears. "You're wrong"

>David had to stop himself from laughing in her face, but he couldn't help a sharp exhale. He would probably stop there, but... he had lied for so long, he almost wanted to speak what he actually believed for once. "No, I'm not. I'm the Ultimate Inspirational Speaker, Arei. If people could change, I would be the first to see it"

>"That's not- You can't be serious. Just because you haven't seen it, doesn't mean it can't happen!" Arei snapped.

>"Is that so?" David raised his voice, and glared at Arei. He smiled nervously. "Then tell me, Arei. Do you think I can change? That I can become better? Look at what I've done. I've lied for years, and now Ace has a permanent scar on his neck from the murder I almost caused!" He put a hand to his chest. He shouldn't be doing this, he shouldn't, but, but- "Do you really think people like me, like us, can ever be good?! If you do, then you're a bigger idiot than I thought"

>He didn't mean that. He didn't mean that. He didn't mean that. Why was he saying it?

>Arei snarled at him, her face growing red in anger. "You...." She took a breath, and her gaze grew defiant. "I'll prove you wrong. You're the idiot here. I will become good. I promised Eden I-"

>"Well, Xander promised he'd be my friend, and look where he is now!" he almost shouted. Why was he even thinking of him now? "Don't you see it? You're lying to yourself. That's the only thing to come from my speeches. Lies. And now you're repeating a degraded version, like it's gonna be any more true just because it's coming from your mouth!" He needed to stop. He- "Are you that arrogant, or did your sisters cause you permanent brain damage?!" What the fuck was he doing?!

>"..." Arei looked horrified, and angry.

>"You don't even believe it yourself, you hypochrite!" Stop! He smirked even wider. "Otherwise, why don't you go talk to your sisters, and get them to change?" She looked so sad, why was David doing this? He had to- He couldn't- It felt good to let it out- He felt horrible- Stop- He laughed. "Oh, right! You can't! Because you're a monster and destroyed their lives! And you, won't, change"

>"You-!" Arei shouted, and rushed forward to push him. Her heart clearly wasn't in it, but David retaliated and pushed her back.

>"Out of my way!" he snarled, and began walking out of the room. He couldn't- he wasn't thinking straight, he needed- he needed air, he needed out. Arei almost slipped into the pond, or maybe she did? David couln't tell anymore. His mind was a fucking mess and his only coherent thoughts were screaming at him to leave.

>Meanwhile, Arei was left alone, and hurt. She shouldn’t listen to an asshole like David, she knew that, but, but still…

>She didn’t have much of an appetite anymore. Maybe she’d just go back to bed.

CW OVER

~Later, Levi would arrive at the relaxation room to fill up two water jugs, making sure to get the fish. At the same time, Eden was discussing ways to end the killing game with Hu, securing an alibi for the time of the fish’s disappearance.

Third Day, Nighttime

~Levi and Eden met back up at the playground, and the preparations began. The materials they were working with included two pieces of rope (one longer, one shorter), the ball of sticky clothes Eden had prepared the night before, the tape Eden had taken from the gym, and the water jugs with the water and fish Levi had gathered.

~First step, with the tape from the gym, they covered the bars of the carousel, to have a better grip when they used the mechanism.

~Then, they grabbed the longer rope and put part of it through a few of the handlebars of the carousel, before tying one end to one of the handlebars.

~After that, they tied the other end to the ball of clothes, and Levi used his strength to throw it up above the railings. In doing so, he accidentally hit one of the lights with the clothes, displacing the lightbulb and causing it to flicker. Once it fell, he also threw it up to the railing in the middle, so the unused end of the longer rope would end up around where the seesaw was.

~Meanwhile, Eden tied one end of the shorter rope to the swing set near the carousel, leaving the other end unused for now.

~After removing the ball of clothes, they fashioned the untied end of the longer rope into an odd-looking “double noose”, with one of the nooses, the one closer to the end of the rope, tied around the handles of the water jugs.

~With all the preparations in place, they took the ball of clothes to the dress-up room, and Levi went to sleep. Eden wrote the note Arei would receive, telling her to meet in the playground at 7:30. Then she went to sleep as well.

Fourth Day, Morning

>Arturo was a fucking asshole, Arei decided from the moment she saw the note.

~Obviously Arei followed it, because she was trying to be friends with Eden.

>And as suspicious as the note was, there was no way Eden would betray her, right? If she did…

>…

>Well, Arei didn’t really want to think about it.

>She arrived at the playground, and… why was there so much rope around? Eden was standing near it, contemplating… a noose?

>Oh god.

>Arei didn’t even think. She rushed in and tried to stop Eden from doing-

~Levi, who had been hidden besides the door, attacked. He ambushed Arei from behind, and used his weight to pin her to the floor. Arei screamed and struggled, scuffing the floor around her, but she obviously wasn’t able to do anything to fight off Levi.

[Oh great more dialogue]

CW for emotional confrontation, feelings of betrayal and suicidal ideation.

>”What the fuck are you doing?! Eden, get him off me!”

>Eden looked downcast, her expression somber. She was evidently lost in thought. “I’m sorry it has to be this way”

>Arei didn’t get it.

~Levi grabbed Arei’s hands, and roughly pulled out her glove to better get the tape around her wrists. This was to make sure she didn’t struggle too much after the process began.

>”Hey! Eden! What’s going on?! I thought we were friends!”

>”As if. We’re not that naive” Levi spat from behind her, and she could practically feel that murderous edge he always used when threatening Ace.

>”Huh?! What are you talking about, you-?!”

>”I’m sorry, Arei. I just can’t believe you” Eden spoke softly, fidgeting with her hands. She grabbed the noose, which weirdly had- wait. “I know you’re lying to me. You don’t have to keep pretending you like me”

>…

>Arei’s entire world crumbled in that moment.

>”H-Huh?! Wait, I- I never lied to you! I want- I wanted to be friends-!”

>”Don’t lie” Levi snarled. “We know what your secret is. What you’ve done to your sisters. I can’t believe you. You know, actions define people, and you have been nothing but terrible your whole life”

>Eden bent down to put the noose around Arei’s neck. Because of course, of course it was a fucking noose. Eden hesitated, however.

>”Don’t fall for her crocodile tears, Eden” Levi warned. Oh, Arei was crying? News to her.

>”R-Right” Eden said, putting the noose around Arei’s neck. Eden then positioned herself to pin Arei down herself as Levi stepped off and went towards the carousel.

>”Eden, please… please don’t listen to him! Don’t be scared of him! I’ll beat him up for you, just-!”

>”I’m not- I’m not scared of Levi” Eden frowned.

>”But- But, he’s a murderer without remorse!” Levi stopped in his tracks. “That’s his secret, Eden! I received it! Do you really want to help someone like that?!”

>Eden seemed to hesitate for a moment, but shook her head, and looked at Arei with glassy eyes, smiling nervously. “I mean… I- I can’t really judge him for that. I… I was the one who came up with this idea, you know”

>…

>Huh.

>So there really was no point, then.

>David didn’t believe in her. Eden didn’t believe in her. Fucking Eden. And now, even the nicest person in the entire killing game had decided Arei deserved to die.

>…

>Arei stopped struggling after that.

CW OVER, mostly. There’s still references to suicide after this point.

(God I really hope I’m not horrendously mischaracterizing these people)

~Levi begun to spin the carousel, which worked as a pulley that started dragging Arei up. As he spun it, he likely had to adjust it slightly so it wouldn’t slide off the wrong way, hence why he needed to be able to better grip all the handlebars instead of putting tape on just one. [I don’t know if that made sense]

~As the rope started pulling up, Eden stepped aside and ran over to the carousel.

~Levi stopped spinning it once Arei was high enough, and Eden attached the unused end of the shorter rope to the carousel.

~Eden grabbed hold of the carousel, and Levi ran out of the room.

~Now, neither of them had thought of asking MonoTV how to determine the blackened in the case of an accomplice being in play, so they took all the steps necessary to make sure Eden would be the blackened.

~She was the one to put the rope around Arei’s neck, she had been the one to come up with the murder plan, and she was the last person holding her up. Levi running out of the room was extra insurance: how could he be the blackened if he wasn’t even a witness to the crime? However, the final trick would ensure Eden would get the title of blackened.

~Eden let go of the carousel, and gravity made it spin as Arei fell. It spun for only a little bit, however, as the shorter rope soon fully tensed, and stopped the carousel in its tracks. Because of the height Arei fell, as well as the extra weight from the water jugs, her neck snapped in the moment the shorter rope tensed. At the same time, the handles from the water jugs snapped, and they fell to the floor.

~With this, it could be argued the act which caused Arei’s death was the letting go of the carousel, for which Levi wasn’t even present, meaning Eden was indubitably the blackened.

~And when it was all said and done, there was one fact which stood. Because of the strength the mechanism had required, Eden could not have possibly done it all alone. Unless the class somehow figured out she had an accomplice, just the strength necessary for the act would rule her out, give her an alibi. That is the reason behind the complexity of the murder.

~After that, Levi came into the room, fulfilling another nice benefit. Because he hadn’t technically witnessed the murder, he counted as a “body discoverer” for BDA purposes.

~The last step was setting up the scene as we saw it. The fish they spread around would confuse the time of death and give Eden an alibi, and hanging Arei from the swing set would make people initially believe she had committed suicide. Levi had to be the one to do that, as Eden was too weak and short, adding an extra layer of misdirection.

~”What if I just take her glove?” Levi asked.

>”Eh?”

>”I could take her glove, and then if someone spots me with it, they’ll vote me out and you’ll win” Levi explained.

>”That’s… kinda silly, isn’t it?”

>”…”

>”…”

>”…”

>”… Okay, sure”

>”Very well” Levi nodded sagely. Eden remained very confused.

~They took the longer tape and hid it under the carousel, then threw the tape which had been on Arei’s wrists and the jugs in the trash, as well as the note after ripping it up a bit.

~With that, they left to go see the supposed announcement of the motives.

Investigation

>Pretending to be surprised at Arei’s absence wasn’t as hard as Eden thought it would be. Just make a horrified face and say nothing, easy!

>Eden knew the BDA would still play if just Whit and Teruko discovered the body, which is why she wasn’t nervous when Teruko first asked her and Whit to go search for Arei together. Still, she second guessed herself just as Teruko swung the door open, because she would be in big trouble if the BDA didn’t play. Thankfully for her, it did, as Levi had already “discovered” it before. Honestly, it was pretty good luck (and bad luck on Teruko’s part) that Eden got to be part of the “discovery group.”

>On the side, David looks at how the body was positioned, and instantly knew what had happened. “Of course. Of course this would happen” he muttered. Arei killed herself because of him. What a monster he was.

~After pretending to be sad about Arei’s death for a moment, Eden offered to investigate with “braincell haver” Teruko, but got shut down. So instead, she joined Rose and Whit as they put together the note in the trash, to make sure they got it right. It was an important part of the plan, after all.

>Levi just went to look at the secrets because he didn’t really have to do anything specific.

Trial

>When people begun discussing the possibility of Arei helping her killer, Levi thought it would be a good way to misdirect the cast, so he started pushing the idea. Though with the slight freudian slip of saying Arei may have been her own “accomplice.”

>On the side, David held his tongue. Once MonoTV revealed the condition to be the blackened was that you were “someone alive who we can blame for her death”, any doubt dissipated in his mind. He had caused her to commit suicide, he could be blamed for her death. And he was the blackened, then.

>However, Eden needed to go against the idea of suicide, because she was supposed to sell the idea they had been friends once the note was revealed.

>When that happened, they had agreed Levi would push on the idea that Eden was the killer a bit, to “force” her to explain the note she wanted to explain anyways.

>Levi also added he’d protect Eden no matter what, but Eden responds “Don’t say stuff like that.” To the others, that was because Eden was worried Levi would end up like Arei. To Eden and Levi, it was a subtle way of saying ‘shut up and don’t link us together!’

~Eden explained the note, making sure to act like she was very distraught by the situation and genuinely believed Arei had wanted to change.

~She also provided a “handwriting sample” to look more innocent, but she intentionally wrote it in print instead of cursive to separate it from the note. Somehow, no one noticed.

>Meanwhile, David was starting to break down. She really had been trying to change, but the naive idiot had believed in David. And nothing good happens to those who believe in him.

>What a reprehensible killer indeed.

>But David’s breakdown was having an impact on Eden, who begun to think that maybe, just maybe, she had been wrong about Arei.

>She was in too deep, though. She needed to continue. She couldn’t turn back the clock now.

>When David is accused of everything, he decides he might as well enjoy the last of his life, of his killing game. He breaks down the same way he did when Arei confronted him, becoming insulting and dismissive to prevent any vulnerability from showing through. The words he said, he believed for the most part, but the smile on his face as he said them was perhaps his biggest lie yet.

>In other news, that’s pretty convenient for the murder duo! If they can just get David voted out, then…

~But that wouldn’t happen. Not if Teruko and Charles had something to say about it.

Chapter 2, Part 2

[This is just for fun]

+Charles realized the trick of the time of death, and the cast decided to start speaking of the murder method.

+After a bit of discussion (where Eden was surprisingly helpful!), they realized the murder would require inordinate strength, and they start pointing the finger at Levi.

+The secrets are revealed then, as some have realized what most of the remaining ones were. David deduced Hu must have the “hopeless child” secret, Teruko deduced Veronika must have the “self-harm” secret, Veronika in turn figured Teruko must have the “dead family” secret (that wasn’t hers, but it still applied to her life, so they didn’t question it too much. David bit his tongue), and… well, they somehow realize the “poison” secret must be Min’s.

+As Levi’s secret is narrowed down, he finally admits.

+He takes the glove from his pocket, and dramatically confesses: “I… I killed Arei”

+All going according to plan!

+The voting time is almost about to happen, but Veronika pipes in. She wants to talk about the Ace case for some reason, and while Teruko tries to deny her, the horror fanatic throws the luckster’s own words against her. “The more cases we solve, the better we’ll be at solving them in the future!”

+Reluctantly, Nico starts speaking about what they did. It was… an odd sequence, but it wasn’t too wild.

+Except, Rose pointed out something odd. What happened to the tape?

+Nico says it was still on the floor when they left. Rose says it’s impossible. Eden’s getting nervous.

+And Teruko goes dead quiet, as she runs the math again in her head.

+The lockdown… the lockdown meant no one should have been able to take the tape during nighttime… MonoTV claimed it wasn’t the one to take it… and she knew neither Ace or herself had taken it… so… It must have been taken by…

+”Teruko?” someone asked, but she wasn’t listening. It was clear now…

+She couldn’t resist the maniacal laughter that escaped her, as the adrenaline of realizing how close they’d gotten to dying (scratch that, she wouldn’t have died, but the others might have), and she realized she was right. She couldn’t trust anyone.

+The others looked at her in concern, but she just explained the simple truth.

+It was chaos. No one wanted to believe it. But the more they thought about it, more questions arose. Why would Levi make such a complex mechanism, when he could have just killed Arei in a much simpler way?

+Whit had an idea. He asked Levi which direction Arturo had ran after leaving the infirmary. And Levi answered wrong. He hadn’t listened on the conversation, then. It would be impossible for him to write the note. Charles further verified by asking Levi and Eden to spell “responsible”. Levi spelt it right, Eden spelt it wrong. “Responsibel”, the same misspelling as the note.

+There was a scrum debate, people went crazy, but in the end. They arrived at the answer, and voted for Eden.

+It was right.

+They asked for further clarification and Eden admitted everything which had led to her decision.

+”I feel terrible. Arei really was… I should have believed her. But- But, at that point, when I finally realized the truth, it was too late” Eden explained. “I wish I hadn’t done it, I want to go back… but time only moves forward. You can’t go back, no matter how hard you try”

+She hugged Teruko one last time, pleading she wouldn’t close herself off even further. But Teruko wasn’t having it. She asked MonoTV she was using a MonoCredit to get Eden away from her.

+And MonoTV obliged, starting the execution right that moment. [Credit for the idea to venus and accirax]

~This was the truth. A tragic misunderstanding, a horrible mistake. Call it whatever you want, one thing remains the same. The blackened of the case, who committed the crime with the help of Levi Fontana, the Ultimate Personal Stylist, was none other than Eden Tobisa, the Ultimate Clockmaker!

…

And right before dying, Eden reveals the name of the girl she had kissed was Mai Akasaki-

Conclusion

Yeah, this was longer than it really had to be, but I had fun writing it. This will probably be the last post I make about this case, at least until CH 2 Part 2 comes out. Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading, hope time only brings you good things! Take care!

[kitzatara]

We know the basics. The limitation of magic is that it will always come with a price. But I have this very interesting idea that with each unique magic user with a unique type of magic, it should have its own unique kind of price to pay. What would be an interesting kind of consequence that would fit well with her backward magic?

In canon it’s sorta hinted at that the price of her magic is the loss of her father/parents and then one other time jokingly implied that her bad luck in love is the price lol. Because in DC it seems to be more abstract prices, like i know with John it’s a big implication that everyone close to him gets hurt in some way.

imo this is fine, it’s not terribly creative but it’s a weird nebulous price that doesn’t really hinder her much. But i think there’s maybe different avenues we could explore?

My thought is that each magic user has a limit, a natural magical supply they can draw from to channel spells. And when you reach a spell that is more than what you possess naturally that’s when you have to start drawing power from different sources and “paying” for that magic. Kinda like a loan. That magic is the one with the weird costs, whereas depleting your normal supply just leaves you drained and needing rest. My HC is that Zatanna has a very unnaturally high limit, it’s one of the reasons she’s so “powerful” because the limit for her is far above everyone else, like John and why he’s labeled more an occultist.

you can draw power from beings like fae, gods and demons because they offer a convenient trade off as the cost. A little favor, worship, a sacrifice of some sort. Pretty straight forward bartering you give me this i lend you power. Magical objects are reserved for one type of spell/magic, the trade off being in needs to charge or it’s limited to the object, or you need to bond with the object, etc.

Then there’s magical dimensions you can draw energy from, and that cost can vary depending on the dimension, like maybe your sanity for a day, a week of nightmares, bit of bad luck, etc. Using John as an example again being who often does rituals or uses objects to sort’ve bypass the nastier costs/sources of magic so that he doesn’t deplete his natural reserve given by his demon blood, and so he doesn’t have to make any more deals than he already has.

Personally i don’t much care for the idea that the price of magic always had to be some depressing awful thing, i think that it should just be explicitly more transactional. And Zatanna is privileged because she inherited a lot of natural magic from her parents and being part homo magi and having a powerful medulla jewel in her brain. This also just plays into the notion that she’s a bit of a nepo baby and can inform how she interacts with the magical community since she has a “magic privilege”. I think that would be very fun to explore since she’s really well liked and trusted and seen as a great hero, but maybe there’s some resentment to how good she’s got it. Which has sorta been echoed in the past by John and Nimue Ravensong who had to work a lot harder to get good at magic and learn its secrets. Could definitely inform her more villainous rivals and how they might envy her like Allura or Tannarak. Even brother night who had to sacrifice all those kids for his power only for Zee to force him to recant it.

But if you have ideas for more specific costs id love to hear em. And thanks for the ask!

[ominous-faechild]

✦ OC In Three 8 ✦

GUESS WHAT WE'RE BACK TO JUST BECAUSE I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF MAKING AESTHETIC BOARDS FOR MY CHARACTERS???

(And maybe I kinda sorta already made these for an unrelated thing and thought I could/should just go ahead and make another one of these with it, haha.)

Today we've got more of the Arcane Rifts's characters! They're all major characters within the story, but not main ones, haha. Except maybe/probably Nikolai? I'm not sure about him tbh. He's either major or main.

NIKOLAI BORISYUK

OSKA ISAKOVICH

RIEKA

LIESEL

Uh oh! Good Cop Nikolai's gotten caught in the middle of a bunch of members of the khonitva! What is he going to do???

More seriously, haha, I absolutely love these guys' vibes! I'm not sure when I'll release the post with these things but I wanted to share their little moodboards, so here we are!

Since I've gotten into the habit of talking about the characters for these things, how about I give you guys some quick summaries on these guys' characters?

Nikolai is Kavo's chief of police, and is widely liked by the general population despite their overwhelming distrust of Kavo's government! He's a vykolt (ice mage), an extremely competent fighter, and generally a charming guy! I love him.

Oska is the leader of the khonitva (the main gang plaguing the town of Kavo at the time of the story)! He's been in it since its earliest days, before the dismantling of the pugabiytsy, and only became the leader after the death of his brother 5 years before the story takes place. As the images (hopefully) imply, he's an ominous figure who plays chess! Wait, no. (*checks notes*) Looks like he's just a chessmaster-planner type!

Rieka is the khonitva's healer! She has blood magic which she's able to use both to heal (duh) and offensively! Like the MC Tazin, she appears to be Jhandan and faces discrimination for it--especially within the khonitva itself. Luckily for her, Oska doesn't seem to care about that! (Anymore.) While a sympathetic character, Rieka is also a beast--she'd be able to easily beat every single one of the other thus-far named characters in a fight (except for Nikolai) and yet... doesn't? Instead sits around letting the khonitva mistreat her??? Wonder what her deal is. 👀 (I also love her. Almost as much as I wouldn't approach her with a 10-foot-pole!)

Liesel is unofficially (but widely-accepted as) the second-in-command of the khonitva. She's been been working for them almost since the beginning and is even preferred to Oska by most of the gang. Except... problem. Nobody knows who she is. Again--she's been in the khonitva since its early days, and yet the entire time she's been there she's always been masked. Wears a fabric mask over the bottom half of her face and a domino mask over her eyes, together hiding all recognizable features of her face and separately protecting from a situation where one is removed. Why in the world would she be in the khonitva for so long, and yet still be so paranoid about her true identity being found out?

OC In Threes: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 Part 6 | Part 6.5 | Part 7 | Part 8

Tagging list (no pressure!): @honeybewrites @the-golden-comet @illarian-rambling @ashirisu @urnumber1star

@the-letterbox-archives @paeliae-occasionally @aalinaaaaaa @48lexr @huewrite + open tags!

Divider by @saradika

[strawberrycherriesncream]

Ringo character study, kinda sorta. The basics are about his illness and his strange relationship with over coming it. Also poly ship bby featuring Blackmore and Mountain Tim bc they deserve nice things

2,055 words; blood & illness & mentions of Ringo’s backstory (if you know you know)

Living out in the middle of nowhere came with its own special list of perks that made it more desirable than moving into town. The most notable was the quiet. He could sit out on the front porch steps without worry of polite conversation. It was truly peaceful without the hustle and bustle of city living Blackmore subjected himself to as Mr. Valentine’s personal hunting dog. There were no neighbors to cater to or bother whenever the echo of gunshots rang throughout the trees. Scattering the panicking birds and making his ears ring.

But the best was the fact he was able to enjoy his duels without meddling strangers dragging the sheriff’s and deputy’s into the middle of his business. No one but him and the body of the person that failed to kill him should intervene in a one on one duel.

Ringo grimaced, hidden behind his crop top’s raised collar as the deep scratch in his lungs itched like a wild animal flared up something fierce. The empty cylinder of his Colt sat in his palm, half disassembled to be cleaned. Bullets sat on the wooden porch between him and Tim, whom remained blissfully unaware of his silent struggle to smother the episode that’s been threatening him all day to make its grand appearance. Since the moment he woke up this morning, he’s been struggling not to cough or imply he’s feeling under the weather.

It’s been hell trying to keep it together for when they leave in the morning. Blackmore had been particularly antsy about going back to work, having expressed his worry for their employer in his absence despite Mr. Valentine having at least one of his personal bodyguards with him at all times.

The next exhale was wet and far too warm. It wasn’t often Ringo doubted anything, but he doubted he’d be able to hide his illness for much longer. Which would prompt Tim to stay with him until he felt better and Blackmore would throw a fuss and be upset the next time he saw him because he’d be unable to stay. And while he would appreciate the gesture, he didn’t want to worry either of them when he had a cure. He just had to wait for someone to come around. Travelers got lost all the time and wander towards the smoke of the fireplace to seek help. Which they would be then prompted into a death match.

The dirt around the house was filled with the bones and blood of people never able to kill him. People with murder that burned in their eyes but unable to shoot him dead. People that were likely reported missing and never able to be found by the families that missed them. But those that had that certain fire in their eyes marked a good day for many of the families he’d taken them away from.

Ringo doubted anyone would wander into the orchard in the coming days, knew that even if someone did happen to stumble upon him, that Tim would offer his assistance to guide them safely back out and give directions towards to wherever they were headed. That was just the kind of man Tim was. A kind one, always willing to help a stranger to the best of his ability. Something he deeply respected about the cowboy.

Tim was a different kind of man than him. Offering his time and help to the sheriffs to work as a bounty hunter and always returning with the bounty alive. Ringo wouldn’t have been nearly as kind. For him, if he chose to walk down that path, every instigation would become a duel for his life. Offering the chance to kill him in exchange for their freedom. It would greatly benefit both parties as the bounty would be a free man if they succeeded, and help guide him towards becoming a better man himself.

But he wasn’t going to seek someone out. That would defeat the purpose of bettering himself through duels meant to be nothing more than pure intended murder. Giving an option other than killing him would soil his betterment and make it obsolete. There would be no point in hunting anyone down. Trapping them and giving only one option, to kill him, was the only way.

Clearing his throat relieved some of that maddening itch but only made it worse as the desire to cough burned. The rocking chair Tim had dragged outside creaked from Blackmore idly pushing himself back and forth with his foot. A sack of pears sat between Tim’s feet, the same pears he was peeling with a knife and cutting into chunks to periodically hand back to Blackmore. Tim offered him some as well, but each time, Ringo would decline. The taste of blood on the back of his tongue had already ruined both breakfast and lunch.

It started off easy. A singular cough that started a chain reaction. Like dislodging a tiny pebble out of the wedge underneath a boulder that came tumbling down the hill.

Doubling over, he covered his mouth with his fist as hacking coughs raked his body. Violently sputtering up blood where it splattered against his fist, seeping into the wrinkles and pores of his skin and into the fabric of his gloves. Blood dribbled down the crease of his lips, uncomfortably warm drooling down his chin.

These flare ups always reminded him of being a child. He wondered if Tim felt the same way out on the range with the long hours of the sun beating down on him. If he thought back on his time as a soldier marching through the desert with his company slowly dying from dehydration. Ringo admired him for braving the sun’s rays after knocking on death’s door by its own hand. He knew a thing or two about that door. The familiar cracks and peeling paint, chipped along the frame where people have fought kicking, clawing and screaming to be spared.

There was no reason to be scared of death. It felt like how mom used to hold him when she would quietly sit by his side dabbing away the blood dribbling out his lips and down his neck. He always felt content when she did that. Loved. Death felt exactly like that.

Tim was at his side the second he noticed something was truly wrong. His hand felt heavy but warm and comforting on his shoulder. Reassurance he wasn’t alone.

Thankfully, the fit didn’t last long. His chest and lungs ached, feeling like someone lit his muscles on fire and stomped all over his chest like dirt. His face felt flushed and sweaty.

The sheer look of alarm on Tim’s face would forever be seared into his mind. Along with the fear hidden underneath a faux front of being brave. Tim wiped away the blood off his lips and chin the best he could. Smearing red into his skin.

Ringo’s eyes trailed after him cautiously. Uncertain. This was a part of himself he’s always seen as weak and vulnerable. A part of himself he’s never been able to accept and buried underneath a convincing lie of a suicidal ideation.

“Is it a Stand attack?” Blackmore asked, glancing around from underneath his umbrella. If it was, he’d be unable to defend himself utilizing his own Stand. He’s always said his ability was useless without the rain, and yet he still put his body in between them and the orchard.

Forever trained to give his life for what he believed was greater.

Ringo sighed. It came out wheezing and rough as speckles of blood came out his nose. “It’s no Stand attack. Just my body acting up again. Nothing more than that I’m sick.”

“How long has this been going on?” Tim demanded, getting up to his feet with a sense of urgency in it with his hand raised ready to call for his horse. “We need to get you to a doctor.”

Ringo snorted in dry amusement and went back to cleaning his gun. Tiny bits of blood were freckled all over the cold metal and wooden grip. “A doctor ain’t going to help me.”

The sentiment was touching, and made his chest all fuzzy. In a good way for once today.

“It’s their code of conduct,” Blackmore defended. That placidness no longer present in his voice. He strode forward and slipped to his side in an instant. Without Tim he wouldn’t be able to move him but Ringo had a feeling that wasn’t about to stop him. “They cannot refuse to treat someone.”

“I apologize, Blackmore. I didn’t mean it like that.” Ringo took a deep breath, that quickly proved to be a mistake as a coughing fit started up something fierce. Tim looked worried, scared almost, bless his heart, but couldn’t do much more besides rub his back soothingly until the fit stopped. It didn’t let up and blood pooled up his throat. Coating his tongue in a layer that felt disgustingly thick. Spitting it out in the dirt, he glared at it. Despising it for everything that it was. “Going to a doctor won’t change this. They hadn’t been able to help when I was a child and they won’t be able to figure it out now. Besides, I have a cure for it. Though it’s temporary.”

Tim groaned. “You think those death squabbles of yours does something to help that?”

He sounded angry. At what? Ringo pretended to be unsure.

“Yes, I’m positive they help. I have undeniable proof it helps.” The reassurance fell on deaf ears. All he could see on Tim’s face was panic, his hands were trembling like he was battling something difficult and not being able to do anything but watch. “There’s no reason to worry, Tim. This was inevitable and not something that can be fixed or changed with medicine.”

“Have you tried.” Tim gritted out.

Ringo shrugged, acting nonchalant and dropping the bullets back into their home within the cylinder. “My mother did, but me specifically? No. I found the cure without the need of a doctor.”

Found the cure at the cost of his sisters and mother being murdered.

Blackmore shifted anxiously on his feet. Like he wanted to say something but was too nervous to get it out. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s done that. Tim didn’t look happy at all. Neither of them did.

“The only way to make it stop is by dueling someone with dark intentions,” Ringo told them. A part of him knew deep down he was bullshitting himself because of everything that happened that day. How he’s never been able to get over it. “I figured it out by killing the man that murdered my mother and sisters then tried raping me. This gun was his. I took it from him and shot him. He didn’t believe I’d actually do it.”

He’s told them before. Bits and pieces of his childhood. Never about being sick and frail. The shame ate him up inside. The regret and pain of losing his family after having been branded traitors and having to pick up and leave.

“He wore a military uniform.” Ringo pointed out towards the orchard, between the spread of trees. Blackmore turned to look but faced back around with a frown when he saw nothing remarkable. “He’s buried somewhere out there. I could probably find it if I needed to.”

Living out in the middle of nowhere meant not many people came around, making it difficult to read people whom didn’t wear their heart on their sleeve. But being so close, he saw how Tim’s shoulders tensed and in that moment, remembered he had been a soldier himself.

Quietly, Blackmore slipped into the house, only to come back shortly with a cup of piping hot coffee as he didn’t usually keep tea in the house. Softly saying it was for his throat in the hopes to ease the pain, Blackmore handed it to him and sat down beside him. Thighs touching as the assassin invaded his space to lay his head on his shoulder.

Pity was useless but he’d let his partners do whatever they wanted if it was to comfort themselves. The past is the past. What’s done is done. No one in the world can go back and change that.

[madockisser]

okay I’m so sorry for how long this took to get to (i underestimated how much work i had to do today 😭) BUT here goes

first of all, yes. Yes yes yes.

I WANT vivi to hate madoc. and she does. She vowed it and so it will forever be so. But we know that feeling has of hatred can coexist with other feelings.

there are no moments that really scream “Vivi loves madoc!” like ever. I’m not sure she even holds fondness for him.

that being said, she does help him, but why? it seems like she’s doing it for a few reasons:

she owes him, as she is fae and he helped HER adjust in elfhame, so now it’s her turn to return the favor and help HIM adjust in the mortal world.

also, it’s a bit like torture isn’t it. I’m sure she greatly relishes in torturing madoc by forcing him to adjust in the mortal world. and again, like i said about returning the favor, she’s doing to him what he did to her.

forcing him into a world that he has little to no experience. their parallels go crazy.

also, obligation. he is her father after all, and while she did say “I’ve been waiting to put you in the ground” revealing shes not above killing or wanting to kill madoc, but she is also so much more of a redcap than readers have previously noticed.

Madoc ties himself to obligation and honor, which seems to be a redcap trait. seems like vivi is tied to that sort of moral too. just far looser, and she does it in her benefit. (Very Eva Duarte vibes there)

anyway, what you said about madoc being awful for killing their parents in front of them, i completely agree.

That being said, he’s fae, and a redcap at that. it’s not quite fair to hold him to human morals. i don’t justify what he did at all, but personally, it made sense to me that he killed Eva and Justin.

Eva stole his child and burned his home down, and left a corpse in its wake. she and justin presumably had an affair, and ran off and had more children together. then madoc heard that Justin was bragging abt stealing his wife.

now, by fae standards, stealing a child from a faerie is crazy work, it’s rare and to steal from someone so high of rank- hurts madocs image.

Add on: stealing from the fae is bad. it’s always met with a curse or whatever. Eva stole a whole child. And whatever her reason for it may be, madoc is not about to think hard about why. He’s too hellbent on revenge, and also family. he loves vivi, and he loved Eva, but Eva lied and stole from him, so i understand why he put vivi above Eva there.

as a “man of honor” he had to protect his honor by avenging himself and vivi

i say avenging vivi bc in madocs eyes, his daughter was stolen away and raised by another man. he probably thought that vivi would want to be with her own kind. that Justin had manipulated her. seeing the way that faeries raise their kids, i kinda assume so.

anyway, i don’t entirely fault madoc for killing Eva and Justin bc it does make sense, but yes, killing them in front of their kids was awful.

he said once abt how war is always with him, and he’s always ready to murder and whatnot, i honestly think in that moment he couldn’t help himself. trolls in holly blacks universe physically cannot stop themselves from fighting until the fight is won.

and while madoc is a redcap and a goblin, i sorta see him as similar to that. he just kills. It’s what he knows and it’s in his nature.

also in holly blacks annotations, it’s implied that him killing Eva was an accident.

ANYWAY sorry for that rant, i don’t justify Madocs actions, but i understand them at the least. he’s so complex.

also about oak.

Madoc probably thought this was a great boon, a gift. We know that Madoc is all about power.

He loves power more than family.

In his eyes, making oak the king, the ruler over all of the fae, is a GREAT gift. Of course, he wouldn’t mind that oak is to be “drenched in blood” as he’s still the son of a redcap, he probably would’ve wanted any son of his to be a soldier anyway.

anyway, moral of that much too long of a story is, i understand madoc bc i see why he did all that he did. And while it was all awful, to him, making oak king wasn’t a bad thing. to him, ripping vivi out of the mortal world and to elfhame wasn’t a bad thing.

It makes me a little sad for him, bc he clearly does a lot for his family, but he does it in ALL THE WRONG AND WORST WAYS lol. while i dive into his mindset, he fails to do so with his children. with Eva, with oriana.

Vivi does the same, it must be a redcap thing. being a tad selfish.

Also about vivi, I’m sure a big part of her acting the way she does, is self blame.

Obviously madoc came to the mortal world to get his daughter back. And he did, and also killed their parents and stole away Eva’s other children.

I think vivi blames herself for it. In her eyes as a child, i can imagine that seeing the girls love madoc makes her feel like THEY blame HER, rather than madoc.

it’s so sad. Vivi is sorta hard to interpret for me(her unfinished analysis is rotting in my drafts for this reason) BUT at the same time, she’s pretty similar to madoc. which is sadder bc she doesn’t want to be.

anyway idk my brain just stopped working but lmk your thoughts!

Let Vivienne hate Madoc. Just let her.

Sooooooooooo I just saw some posts saying that Vivienne could love Madoc because she only believed that she would hate him when she vowed to hate him-

and even if that is true............

Let her hate him. Just let her.

First of all, can we have a Duarte sister who doesn't forgive Madoc for killing their parents? Jude loves him (albeit in an uncomfortable manner) and Taryn seems to have some love and loyalty to him too.

And honestly, I cannot emphasise how awful their parents' murder was for the Duarte girls. They saw it right in front of their eyes, and then Madoc kidnapped them and took them away from the only home they knew back then.

(And if Justin and Madoc can both be fathers to Jude, then the same goes for Vivienne. Madoc's her bio father, Justin's her adopted. He took care of her for 9 years-don't tell me she didn't love him.)

We as the readers are not really affected by it, because Jude barely talks about her parents and their murder, and doesn't express much grief after ten years because she's bottled it up and pushed it down.

But the Duarte sisters are. They knew their parents and they miss them, especially Vivienne who knew them longer and had better and clearer memories of them.

And honestly, Madoc was an awful person for that. He's an awful person for killing two people in front of children. Justin I get, because the guy tried to axe him, but he could have knocked Justin out-don't tell me he wasn't that strong or reflexive.

And Eva? He had no need to kill her at all. He could have grabbed her-AND THERE WERE THREE SMALL CHILDREN RIGHT FUCKING THERE!

It doesn't matter if he had an instant killing instinct. He's still a terrible person for killing Eva and Justin.

And do you know how much it must have affected Vivienne that Jude and Taryn treated their parents' murderer like their own father? Put yourself in her shoes. Imagine the betrayal, the hurt, the fury and pain.

We've been thinking and looking at TFOTA from Jude's perspective for far too long. It's time to dive into other characters' minds and see it from theirs.

Eva and Justin aside-let's go to Oak.

We know that Madoc was going to put Oak on the throne for his own gain, and we know that this would have traumatised Oak. Imagine being a king, having to make so many decisions-and Oak would still have some degree of responsibility, even with Madoc as the regent. Imagine having so many people looking at you for so many things that an adult should handle when you're so young.

Oak would've been traumatized, and you know it. And Madoc knew it too, and he still decided to go forth with the plan.

But where does Vivienne come into this, you ask? Why don't I just post this under a Madoc hate rant?

(I don't hate Madoc).

Because Vivienne knew what I just told you too. She saw Oak who was young, and he was almost 9 then (I think) and she was nine when her parents were murdered and she was stolen away.

And honestly, I'm pretty sure she hated Madoc in that moment. Pure hatred.

But! you say. But she was going to help Madoc adjust to the mortal world! She wasn't going to leave him alone.

Well, you know what, you're right. But I think that Vivienne loves Madoc in the faerie way-angry one moment, loving the next. She says she hates him and she's always wanted to kill him, and then she goes and...........helps him in the mortal realm?

I think maybe he wouldn't leave her alone, because she's his child, and he'd forever be coming to her door to bother her or something like that.

I don't think Vivienne loves Heather in the faerie way-she loves Heather in a more human way. (I love Vivienne and Heather so much, you have no idea, as much as some of you love Jurdan). And honestly, good for her. Good for both of them.

And honestly, I don't hate Madoc. It's just that when I think of him with relation to Vivienne, then I really start to hate him. That's all.

So, this is the end of the rant. Feel free to disagree and argue with me. Hate comments are always welcome.

@madockisser what do you think about this?

[fixfoxnox]

Luke's Spicy Snippets (11)

Pairing: Makarov/Trans Male! Reader

Warnings: Implied kidnapping, because of that its sorta dub-con, but its ambiguous on whether the kidnapping part is true or if Makarov is just having a moment. Rough fingering, choking, biting, blood kink kinda, rough oral sex

"You," Makarov pressed him tight against the wall, his face fixed into a facade of calmness, "Are supposed to be good." The hand fixed loosely around his throat tightened, cutting off his air supply with only a squeeze.

He reacted quickly, reaching up to grab at Makarov's wrist desperately, a pleading look sent toward the man as his need for air grew more and more desperate. Makarov paid that no mind and, instead, shoved his thigh between his leg, grinding the hard muscle against his cunt. He wanted to whine at the feeling but the hand around his throat prevented that.

It wasn't until the beginnings of black dots swam around his vision that Makarov relaxed his hand, allowing him to choke on the flood of air into his lungs. "Tell me," Makarov started as he continued to cough, "What was your plan? Hmm? To leave?"

"No," he managed to choke out between his desperate breaths. Makarov's hand on his throat trailed down. He stroked along his chest until he could slip his hand under the waistband of his pants and underwear to cup his wet cunt, his palm just pressed against his clit. He gasped at the feeling, still trying to catch his breath.

"Really?" Makarov asked, bringing their faces close together. He kissed his cheek sweetly, tracing his mouth down his neck in a gesture that felt blessedly sweet. For a brief moment, he forgot who he was dealing with. For a brief moment, he believed that it was a different version of the man with his hand slowly grinding against his cunt. "You didn't plan to leave? Didn't plan to leave me?" His voice turned cold and be bit at his neck, latching onto the skin and breaking through with his teeth.

He yelped at the feeling, his hands grabbing tight to Makarov's shoulders as the man lapped at his flowing blood with his tongue, humming at the taste. "No," he stuttered, "I swear! I wasn't trying to leave."

Makarov hummed for a moment before, "I don't believe you." The hand against him moved and soon there were two fingers curling inside his wet cunt and a thumb pressing harsh circles against his clit. His knees nearly buckled with the sudden pleasure panging at his gut. "Perhaps," Makarov bit his shoulder, drawing blood in the same way he'd done his neck, "Perhaps I need to remind you exactly who you belong to." He pulled back and used his free hand to grab tight to his throat again, pressing him back to the wall and cutting off his airflow again, "You need a reminder about who owns you."

Makarov released the pressure from around his throat and, immediately, little gasps and moans began to fall from his mouth. Makarov's fingers were working in and out of him roughly, stabbing inside of him before curling against his walls in a harsh but pleasurable move. He was using his thumb to rub tight harsh little circles on his clit, a wicked grin on his face as his boyfriend jerked down into the feeling.

There was a moment that passed like that , with Makarov just roughly fingering him. He was drinking in all of his little moans and desperate pants of his name with growls of his own, his face slowly twisting into something more and more devious. If he didn't know him, he would have likely called Makarov bloodthirsty in that moment.

Makarov was working him closer and closer to the edge and, with every move, he began to thrust down on Makarov's fingers more and more, his mind blank from the pleasure that was slowly spreading to every part of his body. "Please," he tugged at Makarov with his hands, clawing at his shoulders for some sort of purchase as those merciless fingers continued pounding into him and working at him. "Please, Volodya, I- oh god."

Makarov groaned at his words and connected their lips to ravage his mouth. His teeth nipped harshly at his lips and his tongue forced its way past his lips so that he could lick at his teeth. "Fuck," Makarov muttered against his lips, his entire body noticeably tense. He could feel the man's hard cock pressing against his thigh and it only took one little move for him to grind his leg against the man and pull a desperate groan from his lips.

Makarov didn't say anything about the move, but he did give him a withering glare and his fingers inside of him began to move quicker, pulling a squeak from his lips as he found himself almost immediately brought to the edge of pleasure. He tilted his head back, breaking away from Makarov's lips to gasp out his name, desperate whines leaving his throat.

He only needed a few more thrusts and-

In an instant, Makarov's hands were gone. He gave a sob at the sudden loss of stimulation and he was too far gone to even fight against the hand shoving him roughly to his knees. "Volodya," he begged lowly, looking up at the other man with desperate and pleading eyes. Makarov paid no mind to him and instead started to undo his belt and jeans.

He watched with hungry eyes as the other man pulled his hard cock from his jeans and started to slowly stroke over his heated skin, a relieved sigh pulling from his lips. Makarov's eyes drooped down to him and he practically glared down at him as he stroked his cock. "You don't get to come," he spoke after a moment, "not until you've properly apologized to me." Makarov reached out with his free hand and harshly grabbed at his face, forcing his mouth open with a harsh squeeze. Slowly, he started to slip is cock into the others mouth.

He could do nothing but whimper as Makarov began to shallowly fuck his mouth, going deeper and deeper down his throat with every thrust. It wasn't long until he was releasing his chin in favor of grabbing his hair, using it as leverage to begin roughly fucking his throat.

Whines and moans escaped his throat between chokes from Makarov's rough thrusting. The only sign of Makarov's pleasure were his desperate panting breaths and occasional growls when he would slam particularly deep inside the others throat.

"That's it," he moaned after several moments, his eyes tracing the red tear stained lines of his face with nothing short of glee. "You're going to take it. Take everything that I give you." He starting fucking into his mouth quicker, giving a breathy laugh as he did, "Let's see if you forget who you belong to again after this. See if you won't remember," Makarov yanked at his hair harshly and moaned when he hollowed his cheeks around him, "see if you won't remember who you belong to when you can't speak anymore, lubov moya."

[kaiisers]

BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA ꒰ dabi ꒱

none of the following works belong to me. credits to rightful authors. contains mature content, aimed for +18 audiences. reader discretion is advised. most of these works are f! or afab! reader. ALSO! minors + blank + ageless blogs will be blocked.

⿻ last updated: jan. 09, ‘23

⌕ LEGEND

personal favorites : ♡

reader discretion advised, read content warnings : ✧ 

a burnt rose. ──── complete

⌜ ୨୧ ⌟ You and Touya parted on bad terms. Six years later, he spots you visiting his father, a red-headed kid in tow. He’s determined to find out what you’ve been up to while he’s been gone.

cw. angst. single parent au. single parent, angst, violence, child loss, implied drug use

an ode to winter. ──── 14.1k

⌜ ୨୧ ⌟ touya todoroki had broken a lot of things, your heart, promises, your window a few times, but you swore he’d never leave your child feeling that way. but when he wants back into your life, will he take no for an answer? And do you even want to say it?

cw. angst, fluff, smut. MANGA SPOILERS IN THE EXTENDED ENDING. manga war arc!au, single-parent!au, unplanned pregnancy!au. heavy smut, ( literally 5k of it ),  mentions of pregnancy, mentions of semi-toxic!relationships, struggling with parenting, blackmail ??,  unprotected sex ( wrap it before you tap it, losers ), handjobs, oral sex ( female receiving ), fingering ( female receiving ),  choking, branding, squirting, spit!kink, needy touya

♡ antecedent. ──── 16k+

⌜ ୨୧ ⌟ following Touya’s arrest you try to navigate the world as it is flipped on its head. torn between your loyalty to him and what’s best for your son, new family is formed and hope is found.

cw. angst, hurt/comfort, sorta fluff. single (?) parent au. canon divergence:spoilers for touya backstory and chapters 349 onwards. AFAB reader (referred to as ‘mama’), established (kinda toxic) relationship,secret family au (post arrest), original child character (‘Kaiyo’; he is your shared biological child), parent todoroki touya, mentions of canon attempted suicide and canon child abuse, themes of generational trauma, family feels, todoroki family centric, villain rehabilitation, dealing with trauma and recovery, second chances

autumn chill. ──── complete

⌜ ୨୧ ⌟ You find yourself needing a place to stay after setting an apartment on fire.

cw. angst, smut. villain au, blood, panic attack, death (not main characters), 18+

biting down. ──── 5.3k

⌜ ୨୧ ⌟ He’s fast as he weaves through the trees, breath hot against your neck as he runs as if he has any need for breathing at all. You feel your shoulders drop in relief, tucking your head into the crook of his neck, the texture of his skin a comfort to you as you think about what could have happened if he hadn’t found you. Dabi is a vampire, a real, live (debatable), blood-sucking, sunlight-repulsed, creature of the night. You think you might be in love with him.

cw. f!reader, explicit content, some angst, violence, vampires, Dabi picks reader up, detailed descriptions of blood and gore (lots and lots of blood), blood kink, self inflicted harm (reader cuts her palm open), Dabi is a little mean sometimes, biting (he bites ur neck, thighs, chest he drinks ur blood he’s a vampire), pain play (biting to puncture skin, biting and drinking from already open wounds), drinking each other’s blood, fingering, (bloody) oral f!receiving, bloody sex, unprotected sex, marking, bruising, corny vamp dialogue

touya dabi isn't as smooth as he thinks he is.

can you feel my heart beating like a hammer? ──── 5k

⌜ ୨୧ ⌟ You watch from your spot, shoulders tense as you anticipate the arrival of yet another creepy clown or zombie when you see him.

He’s not like the other actors. He’s not quick with his movements and doesn’t yell or jump at anyone. His terror lies in the fact that he does none of those things, that he stands across from you and stares.

And then he grins.

Your stomach turns but not in fear.

cw. f!reader, explicit content, scare actor!dabi, Dabi is touya (quite literally he is not called Dabi in this at all ajhssjsjjss), sex in public, fearplay (kind of), multiple orgasms, overstimulation (very brief), oral f!receiving, fingering, multiple instances where Dabi rests his hand on ur neck but never chokes u, biting (shoulder, neck), ‘baby’ and ‘angel’ as pet names, use of ‘good girl’, frightening (debatable im not that good) depictions of scare actors and haunts, one description of gory makeup, fake weapons

✧ count for me. ──── 3.8k

cw. punishments, shibari, blowjob, face fucking, rough sex, squirting, degrading, some praise, dabi is mean to reader, spanking, minor burning/branding, it's all consensual.

hardly human. ──── 3.2k

cw. Touya x Cisfem Selkie!Reader. degradation (slut etc), praise, fingering, unprotected sex, maybe slight coercion but not really, maybe a little angst but mostly smut, bit of plot.

♡ heaven for nonbelievers. ──── 11k

⌜ ୨୧ ⌟ Fire is many things – forgiving is not one of them. Dabi finds absolution elsewhere. Allusions to domestic abuse(not to y/n), mentions of sexual abuse (not to y/n), mentions periods, mentions of food, explicit content, y/n can’t catch a break; sharing space, strange domesticity, gray morality to less gray morality, sometimes grief has teeth

cw. angst, smut, hurt/comfort. villain au + strangers to lovers

♡ I’m melting in your eyes, like my first time that I caught fire. ──── 13k+ (½)

cw. pro hero!au. explicit language, fluff, angst, shouto is a menace, touya has tattoos instead of scars

kingdom of ashes. ──── 12k

⌜ ୨୧ ⌟When you are suddenly uprooted from your life to enter an arranged marriage with Prince Touya you are unprepared for how greatly he defies your expectations, nor for how quickly you fall for him.

cw. AFAB FEM reader (referred to as ‘wife’ ‘daughter’ and 'my lady’), royalty au, prince todoroki touya, arranged marriage, no quirks, historical setting, perceived unrequited love, fictional contraceptives, horseback riding, fluff, angst, protected vaginal sex, vaginal oral sex (reader receiving), dubcon, strangers to lovers, loss of virginity, hurt/comfort, canonical child abuse, bathing together, outdoor sex, talk of not having children/preventing pregnancy

leather cushions. ──── 6.7k

⌜ ୨୧ ⌟ touya hates the couch in the living room, but for you, he’d sit on it every second of the day.

cw. smut. quirkless au, college au, roommates au, best friends to lovers. shitty frat/rich boy!keigo, reader tells keigo no & he ignores it, soft, sweet, consensual sex w touya.

♡ legacy of hurt. ──── 4.5k

⌜ ୨୧ ⌟ touya has enclosed his heart behind a thick wall with refusal to let anyone see it. but you are an unrelenting storm, and damned by your persistence, even the strongest cliff can break if weathered enough.

cw. NSFT, GN reader, friends to lovers, Dabi POV, pre-LOV, implied PTSD, mention of child abuse, angst, hurt/comfort, blood (he cries during sex), spit, unprotected sex, emotional sex, no power dynamic

secrets. ──── complete

⌜ ୨୧ ⌟ Life isn’t a fairy-tale and you find your soulmate through unconventional means.

cw. angst, smut. soulmate au. death mention, violence, spoilers (?) – set in PLF arc, abuse mention (not directed at reader)

she washes all of my wounds for me. ──── 15.2k

⌜ ୨୧ ⌟ “I called you by your name. Is that okay?”

“I don’t know.”

And it isn’t because he doesn’t want you to know his name. He’s already announced it to the world. Of course, you’re going to know it. It certainly isn’t because he hates the way your lips so easily form the two syllables. It isn’t because he no longer wants to associate himself with the name.

He’s simply afraid of his greedy soul becoming attached to the way you somehow manage to make something that used to cause his skin to crawl to now bring his heart a peace he’s never known before he saw your face.

cw. fem!reader. Smut (18+ only, minors DNI), fem reader (AFAB anatomy, femme pet names/pronouns), major spoilers for manga chapter 290, heavy religious imagery of angels/gods/heaven, one (1) instance of sir kink, so so much hurt/comfort, several mentions of past family abuse and trauma, mild blood and gore (Dabi tending to new burns/scars), verbal argument that has Dabi breaking furniture (reader does not get hurt) and being an overall asshole, alcohol use (Dabi is drunk and emotional), soft desperate-to-be-loved-but-too-scared-to-ask Dabi, oral and fingering (f!receiving), unprotected sex, creampie, very soft and emotional smut

soft interlude. ──── 1.4k

cw. AFAB GN reader (called ‘angel’ once), NSFT, established relationship, fluff and smut, bath sex, vaginal fingering (mostly clit stimulation; reader receiving), heavy petting, quirk use

unprofessional. ──── 5.1k

cw. smut. modern / business au. fem! reader, blow jobs, cum swallowing, humping, natsuo walking in on yall lmao, unprofessional work relationships, ceo’s son! dabi aka touya

[get-your-fics]

Fuck it, I Love You

Summary: Maybe it was the two drinks sitting in your otherwise empty stomach, or maybe it was the way his smile shone brightly in the dim lights of the club, but regardless, the next thing you knew, you were dragging him into the bathroom and kicking the door shut behind you.

Pairing: Steve Kemp x fem!reader

Word count: 1.9k

Warnings: Oral (female receiving), biting, blood kink, kinda sorta dub-con, implied bad things will happen to reader

Note: guess who watched fresh? i did, but you probably knew that already from all the steve fics i've been rbing. i dedicate this to my bestie sami (@nephilxterra) for being the reason i watched the movie. i blame you for all this filthy smuttiness. title is from the lana song of the same name :)

Steve pushed you up against the graffitied wall of the bathroom so hard the whole stall rattled on its hinges. His lips crashed into yours, stealing your breath away as he thrust his tongue into your mouth. He pawed and tugged at your clothes like he was a wild animal, desperately trying to rip them to shreds.

This wasn’t normally like you, making out with a stranger in a dirty club bathroom.

Your friends had managed to lure you out of the comfort of your studio apartment with the promise of a ‘girl’s night,’ which really meant that you lingered near the bar nursing your drink while watching them grind under the flashing, multi-colored lights on the dance floor. You weren’t bitter, not really. It wasn’t their fault they were so much more accustomed to the night life than you were.

You rested your chin in your hand, absentmindedly stirring your drink with the other. Your gaze was out of focus as you watched the bartender flit back and forth struggling to keep up with the never-ending barrage of patrons. You were halfway through your drink when you sensed a body slide onto the barstool next to you.

You turned to face him with a huff, your upper lip already curling to sneer some remark that would make him back off. But you froze when you were met with a shockingly handsome man with rugged features softly smiling at you.

You blinked at him, and it took you a second to realize he had spoken to you. You stuttered a greeting back, a little too late for the awkward pause to not be obvious. He didn’t call you out, though.

He bought you a refill on your drink and introduced himself as ‘Steve.’ You gave him your name in return and engaged in conversation with him. You kept waiting for him to slip up, to be slimy or creepy or sleazy and prove you right. After all, who would approach the lonely girl at the bar without having ulterior motives?

But he was nothing but charming and courteous and polite. He even managed to make you laugh a couple times (and genuinely laugh, too – not the stupid fake laugh you force out when a guy hitting on you makes a bad joke and bombs). If anything, you were the one being weird.

Maybe it was the two drinks sitting in your otherwise empty stomach, or maybe it was the way his smile shone brightly in the dim lights of the club, but regardless, the next thing you knew, you were dragging him into the bathroom and kicking the door shut behind you.

You didn’t care if there was anyone else in there with you as he devoured the wet, hot cavern of your mouth. You gasped for breath when he pulled away, your lips red and swollen from all the kissing. He nipped his way down your neck, sinking to his knees in front of you.

Your breath caught in your throat as you stared down at him. You were expecting a long make out session, maybe some over the clothes action. But going down on you in a public restroom was a bit out of left field.

His eyes glazed over as he hoisted the hem of your mini-skirt (you’d borrowed it from a friend – you didn’t really own any clothes suited for going out to a club) above your hips. He sucked in a sharp breath as your bare pussy was exposed to him. You hadn’t worn any underwear underneath. The tight fabric of the short skirt made for some unforgiving panty lines.

He lifted your leg and bent it over his shoulder. You wobbled in your absurdly high heels, and your hand shot out to grip his shoulder for stability. You thought about asking him to slow down. After all, you hadn’t prepared to hook up with anyone tonight.

But right when you were about to voice your thoughts, he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to your inner thigh. Hot pleasure pooled low in your stomach, and you couldn’t help bucking your hips eagerly towards him.

He chuckled against your skin. “Don’t worry, sweetheart.” His voice was low and rough. “I’ll give you what you need. I just want to enjoy tasting you for as long as possible.”

He sucked the skin of your thigh into his mouth, leaving a blossoming purple bruise behind. He trailed light, teasing kisses closer to where you ached for him most. He gently bit your thigh and glanced up at you, as if awaiting your reaction.

You didn’t think now was the time to test out kinks. All the hook ups you’d had before (which there weren’t that many) had been fairly vanilla. But you must’ve not said anything soon enough, because he bit your thigh again, and this time you felt his teeth break the skin.

You cried out, jerking against him. His hands shot up and gripped your hips, keeping you in place. He let go of his hold on your thigh, and you looked down to see blood welling from a set of teeth marks indented in your skin.

He ran his tongue over the mark as if to soothe the pain. He pulled away, and you saw your blood staining his lips.

You felt something unfamiliar stir inside of you. This man you barely knew was making you discover kinks you didn’t even know you had before.

He dipped his head and delved between your legs. A shocked moan escaped you as he pressed his tongue flat against your slit, licking a slow, wet stripe up the length. The hand on his shoulder moved to the top of his head, fingers threading through his dark locks.

He smacked his lips obscenely loud. “You must’ve liked that.” He smirked up at you from between your legs. “‘Cause you’re fucking dripping for me.”

He blew softly on your folds so you knew exactly what he meant. You shivered as his breath ghosted over your wet cunt. He was right. You liked it more than you wanted to admit.

He pressed his lips to your clit, staring up at you as he scraped his teeth over the sensitive bundle of nerves. Your entire body tensed, readying yourself for him to bite down. But the sensation never came. Instead, he closed his lips over your clit and sucked.

Your eyes rolled back into your head as your muscles went lax. Your grip on his hair tightened probably to the point of pain, but you were too enraptured in bliss to ease up. Your teeth sank into your lower lip, keeping in your desperate whines. You felt that coil tighten in your gut as you drew closer and closer to the edge.

Before you could fall over the precipice, he rescinded from your core. You made a noise of frustration, your chest heaving. “Fuck, why’d you stop?”

He snickered in amusement. “You’re bossy, aren’t you?” He raised a brow. “I want to hear all those pretty noises you’re making for me. Don’t keep them in, got it?”

You nodded, eagerly tugging him closer by his hair. He breathed a laugh before resuming his position between your thighs. Except this time, his tongue prodded at your entrance while his nose nudged your clit.

The stimulation drove you wild. You did as he told you, letting all your moans and mewls and whimpers ring out against the tiled walls. The rapid beating of your heart filled your ears. You held him firmly in place, not wanting to risk him denying you your release again.

“Steve, oh, Steve.” His name fell from your lips over and over again like a mantra. “Fuck, Steve, you’re gonna make me come.”

He moaned against you in reply, the vibrations sending a shudder of pleasure down your spine. The stale air of the rancid bathroom felt stuffy, and your skin was slick with sweat. You grinded against his face, chasing your high. He gripped your hips tighter to keep you still, his blunt nails digging into your skin.

The coil in your gut snapped, and stars burst behind your eyes. Your spine curved as you threw your head back against the stall wall. Your thighs shook around his head, and if it weren’t for his hold on your hips, you were sure you would’ve crumbled to the floor.

He set your leg down and stood up. You blinked, bringing your vision back into focus. He loomed over you, his hair mussed from your manhandling and his chin drenched in your arousal. He ran his tongue over his lips, savoring the taste. “You taste exquisite.”

Your face flushed with heat, and you turned your head away from him shyly. You’d never lost control like that with someone you’d just met, abandoning all restraint and throwing caution to the wind. But to be fair, you couldn’t remember the last time someone made you come that hard, either.

“Hey, look at me,” he cooed. He pinched your chin between his index and his thumb, forcing you to face him. “Don’t be scared.” His gaze lowered to your lips. “Let me show you how good you taste.”

His lips slotted against yours like the missing piece to a puzzle. They moved against you, slow and deliberate. He parted your lips with his, and his tongue slithered into your mouth. You could taste yourself on him: tangy, sweet, overwhelming, with a hint of musk.

He pulled back, and your eyes fluttered open to find him staring at you. The hungry look in his eyes was intense, like a shark that scented blood in the water. Clearly just tasting you wasn’t enough to satiate him.

And judging by the lingering tingle in your core, it wasn’t enough to satisfy you, either.

You wove your fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck and pulled him into a rough kiss. He went along with it, matching your fire with just as much passion. You blindly groped for his belt buckle. It jingled as you pulled it free from his belt loops.

The fantasy was abruptly disturbed when you heard the door to the bathroom open. You both went stock-still, not daring to move a muscle in case you drew attention to yourselves. You stared into each other’s eyes as you listened to footfalls land on the tile. The faucet squeaked on as you stood chest to chest, your quiet, shallow breaths mingling in the small space between your lips.

What felt like hours but was probably just a few drawn out beats later, the sink switched off, and the footsteps receded. The door to the bathroom opened again, and for a second the thundering bass of the music blasting on the dance floor became clearer before it clicked shut again.

You let out a sigh of relief, and Steve breathed out a laugh. He took a step back, and whatever longing desire that had taken over you before seemed to dissipate with the increased distance.

“You must be hungry.” He tried to smooth down his hair to look more presentable. It didn’t work. “You wanna get outta here, come back to my place?” His lips slanted into a lopsided smirk, a dimple forming in his cheek. “I’m a great cook.”

You chewed on your bottom lip. You knew you shouldn’t ditch your friends and leave with a random guy. Hell, you’d been missing long enough as it was, and they could’ve sent out a search party already for all you knew.

But he was smiling again, his lips still slick and shiny with a mixture of saliva and your juices. And something about that made you want to act reckless and take him up on his offer.

Fuck it.

[tyrantzeye]

ykw fuck it its not like i have a ton of other things i should be doing rn(sarcasm).... NOW LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND OTHER ASSORTED FOLK, I NOW PRESENT: ASTOR LOSES HIS SHIT OVER PENELOPE SCOTT'S NEW EP, GIRLS' NIGHT!

verse 1: I've been over the moon for you ever since I met you / You drew the poison from my bloodstream and the salt from both my eyes / You were on loop inside my soul and in my bedroom / And the blood from your mouth drew my eyes up to the sky

verse 1 might be my favorite verse ever written on the face of planet earth....we have the iconic song title mention that almost doesnt match up w the metaphor???? idk ive never seen over the moon used as like aterm for love but rather for happiness in general and based on the other lyrics its not like yk. THAAAT happy. anyways line 2 implies healing and could be interpreted one of two ways - "you make me stop crying" or "you make me cry more" , i personally prefer the latter for reaons to be seen☆ but eifhsr way its such a beautiful line that just fucking CLICKS yk? next one music reference!!!!!!!!!!! i like to think this is where the Depressioncore comes out in tbe song,☆ bc if u play a song on loop for too long u get sick of it no matter how much u love it n every1 has different limits but it all runs oit eventually and the final line of the verse kinda sorta makes a reference to the bloodstream line, maybe implying the poison removal required a vampiric extraction of the blood itself as opposed to just removing the poison, ultimately hurting more than helping, leading to falling over backwards WHICH BRINGS US TOOOO

chorus¹: And on God, I love you / I'll keep you here with me / If I have to fight every devil in Hell / Then I'll run out of blood to bleed / Before I lose you

DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES DIES so we have a lot of blood motifs in this song and i personally like to thnk its sort of a monster reference thing and this tie to the moon and night and these traditional horror.monsyers everyone knows about and how you could use vampire shit as a general metaphor for like affection(of all forms cough cough) and werewolves for a loss of control yk.?? but also blood is what keeps us alive and shows the more ACCURATE observation of "you are worth so much to me that i would give up my Life Juice in your name"bc tbis wbole song is ab longing and wishing that a dead relationship woukd rise again(HAHAHAAHAH VAMPIRE) and that yr js not ready to let n matter how much pain it causes and ws see that escalate with each verse☆ and its fuckinf BEAUTIFUL my dude

verse 2: Every war has its casualties and mine are no exception / I've lost young and handsome soldiers, and it haunts me behind the eyes / In my most recent endeavors I burned six or seven lovers / They were beautiful and innocent, and I had to trade them for my life

we move on from these vague maybe monster references to war similies and metaphors , which is probably a reference to current world events but also showcases how this sort of thng makes you feel inside bc theres this thing ab loss and war thats so emphasized overall even if in the wrong way and penelope compares it to how she feels ab her previous relationships n how she had to sacrifice them so she could find what makes her happy but at what cost? at what point is ANY of it worth it if she has to live with this guilt of feeling like shes betrayed these people forever and ever who were innocent and full of joy and hopes just like she once was before it all came to this? it haunts her like trauma would and it probably is trauma bu UGHDDHDDHSHDH THE WAR METAPHOR MAKES IT HIT SM MORE DIFFERENT sorry next one next one

chorus²: And on God, I love you / I'll save you from that fate / If I have to kill every angel in Heaven / I will snatch you back from the grave / And you will live to see my bed another day

GRAAAGDHHEJSJENSJNHESJ THIS IS MY FAV CHORUS EVR ALSL i feek like this is where everythung kinda ckicks in yr head n u get what shes talking ab SO we start off with a reference to the previous verse, stating that she wont let that happen to her current partner at evwey cost, rven turning to the evil of the world("killing every angel in heaven") just to mane sure this relationship that was doomed from the start stays afloat N BREAK 4 A MOMENT MID SENTENCE i woild like 2 point out the contradiction of "on god i love you" and "if i have to kill every angel in heaven" n ik ong is a figure of speech or whtvr tf internet vernacular but i feel it hits so hard in this chorus??? the very nature of this dilemna is contradictory itself and theres nothing she can do about it and it all ties back to this idea of inevitable love and ievitable failure of tjat love but having this deep need for human connection that youll dtick with it even if it hurts you to the core even if she has to bleed out and kill and fight and struggle she will keep this alive and going because what else is there to fight for? and what else is there to do but wake up in ned the next day with someone she can at least pretend she loves?

SUMMARY: over the moon is a song about yearning for love in a loveless relationship and refusing to give up at all costs, and this is showcased in every verse and line and woven deep into the core of the song and emphasized by the way everything conflicts and every sentiment eventually just leaves one person alone in the aftermath despite all the efforts taken to avoid it.and yeahsjes!!!!!

might cave in and post lyrical analysis of my favorite songs

[griseldagimpel]

An Observation About the Locked Tomb

Alright, so The Locked Tomb generally functions as an interpersonal drama against a Space Empire backdrop, and as such gets away with some of the world building details being kinda scant. The first two books are largely set in secluded locations, and the third book is being told through Nona's eyes, and Nona does not really understand a lot of the socio-political stuff that's happening around her. This isn't bad or anything, it's just worth noting.

Still, there are snatches of lines that establish - although it can be easy to miss! - that the Empire has "Shepherd Worlds" under its control, inhabited by the descendants of those who left on the trillionaires' ships. (Which includes more than just the trillionaires themselves, mind you, as the trillionaires took those useful to them. I mean, what were the trillionaires gonna do when they left Earth: wash their own laundry? Not likely!) This is what New Rho, Ur, and Antioch are.

So this implies a sorta paternalistic imperialism. Here's the thing, though: thus far in the series, we've never actually gotten to see what day to day life in one of the Shepherd Worlds under Imperial rule is actually like.

We see what life is like in the Ninth House (the gloomiest monastery) and the Sixth House (endless academia). We see what it like to be in the Cohort on the emperor's flagship (some serious fanaticism), to be part of the emperor's inner circle (the awkwardest family dinners), and to live under the authority of the Blood of Eden (no knock raids and anyone suspicious publicly executed).

But we don't actually ever see life under Imperial rule. By the time Nona the Ninth begins, the Empire no longer has control of New Rho. (At least not outside of the barracks and I think a few hold out areas? Control seems to be split between the different factions of the BoE and the militias - whoever the militias are! Again, worldbuilding details are a bit scant, and Nona not not know these things. At the very least, Nona and her found family live in a BoE safehouse, and Nona's school seems to be affiliated with the BoE.)

We get hints. "As Yet Unsent" gives us the two grievances against the Empire: lifetime contracts that don't expire [because the emperor is immortal] and forced relocations [allegedly with full economic support, whatever that actually entails]. We have Ianthe's broadcast in Nona the Ninth. We also get lines here and there from characters that offer some clues. We know that every Shepherd World that's been mentioned by name in the series has or had an insurrection going on.

But it's never actually been a setting. It's a concept that has so far always existed just off page.

[bigender-titan]

Mundane Slice Of Life

Luz panics over her first date with Amity. Eda tries to reassure her.

Content warning for some self esteem issues and a minor line implying sex (said mostly as a joke).

AO3

After repeatedly almost dying, things were settling down a bit at the Owl House. As much as things were ever settled at the Owl House, anyway. Between King leaving empty tubs of ice cream all over the house and Lilith putting Deadwardian architecture sticky notes on every inch of the walls and Hooty being... being himself, things were still sufficiently chaotic. Eda was trying very hard to ignore King and Hooty's argument over... she didn't want to know... by sitting in her kitchen and drinking apple blood. 

"Eda! I need advice!" 

Eda set her cup down and snorted. "Me? A questionable decision. About what?"

"So..." Luz's cheeks were pink. Definitely asking for advice about her sweet potato. Eda smirked. "I kinda, sorta, promised Amity that after the day of unity we would go on a date together and I should probably get around to doing that soon but I don't really know how to... plan a date, so I wanted to ask. Like, how did your first date with Raine go?"

It'd been a while since she thought about that. (A lie. She daydreamed about Raine frequently.) Still, this might not be a story worth telling to Luz. It was rather... disastrous. "Um- well- that's not important, this is about you and Amity, not me and Rainstorm-"

"Our first date?" Raine called from the other side of the kitchen, where they were rummaging through cupboards. "Oh, she set me on fire."

Luz's eyes widened.

Eda huffed. "Okay, well, I was trying to set the slitherbeast on fire instead, but someone got in my way at the last second."

"And who led us into its den in the first place?" Raine crossed their arms, giving Eda a stern look. She tried her best to look angry and defensive in return, but had a difficult time suppressing her stupid smile. The overwhelming surge of affection she felt for this witch was incredibly annoying.

"Only because we had to run away from the flesh-eating beetles!" 

"Eda, why were there flesh-eating beetles on our date?"

"I thought it was the wrong season for them to be active!" Raine raised an eyebrow at her. "Lilith told me she read that in one of her nerd books, blame her!"

Luz cleared her throat before Raine could retaliate, or before Lilith could jump in to defend herself. "Someday, you two are going to have to tell me this story. Your first date sounds like a total disaster." Her face fell at the last few words.

"It was," Raine agreed.

Almost inaudibly, Luz said "Mine probably will be too."

"Hey, ours was a disaster, but they still fell in love with me!"

Raine heaved a deep sigh. "But I still fell in love with her."

After pecking them on the cheek, Eda walked over to put a hand on Luz's shoulder. "Amity will still like you even if this date doesn't go well, Luz."

Grabbing fistfuls of her hair and pulling, Luz began to pace. "It has to go well! You don't get it! Amity is the best girlfriend ever and I need to give her a date as awesome as she deserves. I asked her out in front of a sobbing Hooty after destroying a Tunnel of Love. I ran away after she first kissed me on the cheek, I dragged her into the whole thing with Belos, I almost got her killed how many times? I have not been doing a good job as her girlfriend and I need to change that now, okay!?"

"Kid." Eda took Luz's hands out of her hair and held them. "Luz. You're a great girlfriend to Amity. I can't believe you don't know that already, you goob. You helped her defeat Grom so she didn't have to be on her own, you nearly got eaten by a bookworm just to let her keep her job, you send her all those weird messages that she loves for whatever reason, you actually communicate with her about your problems, you joined a fight club to help her prove herself to her father, and let's not forget- you saved her from being grounded by climbing through her window like a damn princess. You are a sickeningly sweet and caring girlfriend and this date will be great as long as you keep being the dork she fell for, okay?"

Luz sniffed. "You really think that?"

Gently, she shoved Luz's arm. "Duh."

"O-okay. Where do you think I should take her?"

"You know her better than I do, kid. You'd know better what she wants."

"Don't take her for a picnic on the Knee. You might encounter flesh-eating beetles." Raine shuddered.

Eda shook her head. "Will you let that go already?"

Luz's face lit up. "Oh! A picnic would actually be neat. Not on the Knee. I was thinking near the Bonesborough Brawl, that tree over there? It's really pretty, and it's where we danced together for Grom, remember?"

She did remember. She distinctly remembered watching them twirl around and muttering to King, those witches gay, good for them. "That's a great idea, kid."

Luz smiled. "I'll... uh... ask her out, then." She typed something out on her weird human device. "Now, if you two are being entirely unhelpful on how to plan a first date, I'll go ask Lilith how hers went." She turned towards the door.

"Nah, don't ask her. Lilith hasn't been on one. She doesn't really like people like that, you know?"

"Oh, alright."

Hooty crashed through the door. "Luz! Do you want to hear about my first date?"

"No!" Luz jumped back and shuddered.

Eda shuddered too as the memories struck her. "Yeah, you're better off not knowing. Well, let's forget Hooty ever mentioned that! Want help packing some food for your picnic?"

"Give her apple blood," Raine offered. "Foolproof flirting method."

Yeah. Yeah, that did work. Luz grabbed two boxes and put them in a basket. Then, she set to work making sandwiches. Eda grinned at her and went to put an arm around Raine. "Look at our kid, all set to go on her first date with her sweet potato."

They smiled back. "Are you going do the mom thing where you threaten to hex Amity into next week if she hurts Luz?"

"Nah. I've considered it, but Luz is perfectly capable of hexing Amity into next week herself if that happens."

"I don't think it will. Those two like each other a lot."

Before Eda could reply, Hooty called out. "Luz, your girlfriend's here, hoot hoot!"

Luz turned bright red as soon as Amity walked into the room. "Sweet potato! Uh. Hi. Hey. Hello."

"Hey, Luz."

"Sooo... I wanted to ask..." Luz scratched the back of her neck. "You know how I promised to take you on a super mundane, slice of life date? I, uh, wanted to ask if you wanted to go for a picnic together, by that tree we danced to at Grom, I packed food-" She lifted up the basket. "-and the place is really pretty, uh, like you-"

Amity leaned over to kiss Luz on the forehead. "That sounds great, sweet potato! Let's go!"

Luz, still blushing like a tomato, took Amity's hand and began to walk.

"Have fun, you two!" Eda called. "And remember to use protectio-"

"Eda!"

[itssleepyrabbit]

hi! wow i super love your art and i don’t have enough dabihawks in my life 🥺 was wondering if you had any fic recs for them?? 💕💕

aah thank you so much!! 💕💕 💕💕

BOY IF I DO HAVE!! alright buckle up this might get long (most are fluff and SFW~ i’ll put a NSFW warning but be sure to look at tags in all of them!!)

Bed I made (lie in it with me) by  silverwordswrites

“Touya is in desperate need of a plus-one for his brother's wedding and Keigo is infinitely curious about the man who he was sure used to hate him in college.” 

-- the summary says everything and honestly it’s one of the most romatics dabihawks fics i’ve read.

On-going

He Doesn't Love Me by  Fatally

“Dabi doesn't love him. He's accepted that thorny truth, swallowed it down and let briars grow in his chest, drinking down his blood like water.Or: The one in which Hawks settles for pining for his entire life and doesn't realize Dabi's been staring at him the entire time, too.” 

-- I love pinning Hawks with a burning passion.

Completed

sweetheart, is that you? by  fuckendeavor666

“dabi and hawks say i love you (without actually saying i love you) in five different ways.“ 

-- This is my absolute fave dabihawks fic

Completed

Deck the Halls With Boughs of Folly by  DrAphra

“In which the League has acquired a new fancy mansion -with all the heating and food and plush beds they could possibly need - but they still prefer to spend the day out in the wilderness with just each other. Plus Hawks.“ 

-- Honestly all Aphra’s dabihawks fics are more than worth it but this one has a special place on my heart.

Completed

fuck, im so young - orphaned

“Todoroki Touya writes poems.

Words upon words of heartfelt confessions, letters of sing song fantasies, syllables of feelings he never got to say out loud.

When Todoroki Touya hits sixteen, he burns himself to death.

When Dabi hits twenty four-

He meets Hawks.” 

-- i don’t know how to explain but this fic it’s pretty

Completed

Feathers and Feelings by  Toboe1087

“Hawks keeps leaving feathers on his pillow, and Dabi's about had it.

(like hell he'd let anyone else have them, though)”

-- Dabi preening Hawks feathers is a blessing

Complete

(this is not a) swan song by  bittermoons

“"Who's your favorite, then?"

"Hawks." Touya doesn't miss a beat. "Definitely Hawks."

"What? Seriously? How come?"

"He has his flaws, but at the end of the day, he's trying to do good. It's something he always strives for. Dabi, on the other hand...if it weren't for Hawks, he wouldn't be a hero, that's for sure."

[Or: How a secret is revealed, and what comes afterwards.]”

-- Adorable no quirks AU with manga artist Touya and oblivious Keigo! Another author i adore pretty much all dabihawks works.

Completed

You can't trap the sky in a bottle by thyandra

“Letting Toga organize the accommodations for their trip might have been a mistake. This particular truth becomes obvious to Keigo as he opens the door of his hotel room for the first time. There, staring back at him mockingly, is a single, king-sized bed. It’s only by virtue of all the years spent perfecting his poker face around his adoptive parents, that he manages to keep his face straight. At his side, Touya clicks his tongue. “They must’ve given us the wrong key.””

--(no quirks AU) I really love they way Dabi and Hawks are written here i can’t express it in words and so so much pinning

Completed

A Tale as Old as Time by  EloFromMars, Gotcocomilk

“Dabi and Hawks are hit by the most improbable Quirk: both are yeeted in Fairytales land and have to rely on each other to get out of this.“

-- this was such a fun read omg

Completed

A Romance Written All Over Your Body by  minatsukinoamayo

//NSFW mind the tags!//

“Hawks is assigned to infiltrate the League of Villains in order to expose them. Hawks usually never fails a mission, but Keigo usually never falls in love, either.A story of how Hawks falls from grace to become a villain, because hero society has failed them all.

OR

5 times they're not in a relationship and 1 time they are.“

-- you know those fics you say “one more chapter” and it’s 3AM

Completed

it caught spark in your eyes by  youareoldfatherwilliam

//Mature - Implied Sexual Content//

“Keigo’s quirk is powerful, but sometimes it comes with unintended side effects.

Or: A 5 + 1 fic of five times the more…instinctively bird-like parts of Keigo’s quirk took over accidentally during his relationship with Dabi, and one time it happened entirely on purpose.“

-- I was screaming about this particular fic on twt the other day pls give it a read if you can it’s so so so good! Any fic that has Hawks with bird traits has a special place on my heart

Completed

The Others by  threesipsmore

//Mature - 2 sexual scenes, nothing too explicit but they’re there//

“"Skeptic's starting to think he’s more important than me,” Toga sneers, an acidic edge to her voice. “Making decisions on his own, sending out birdie without even talking to me first.”

She’d simply acquiesced to cooperating with Skeptic, but from day one the complaints had never stopped. In this tiny room layered with sushi and cakes, Dabi was forced to listen to her whining.”

-- You go birb, you get that man

Completed

Equivalent Exchange by  inexchangeforyoursoul

“Keigo blinks the blurry oblivion away from his eyes, although some part of it is oddly stubborn and to stay indefinitely. There's three things he's certain of: first, he’s alive. Second, just by looking at the bed and windows he can tell this is no villain hospital or torture room. Third: something feels wrong. Very wrong.

The silence… is deafening.

xxx

To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.

If so, what of a bird that has lost its wings?”

-- i had so many feelings reading i can’t physically explain them to you also PINK HAIR DABI PINK HAIR DABI

Completed

dabi's 5-step guide to being a better parent than endeavor by  twinkfrankenstein (orphan_account)

“A little voice inside his head whispered spitefully about how this was no place for a child, and how he was making a mistake and would only traumatize the kid, yada yada. He responded with an equally spiteful-

“Fuck off, its not like I planned to do arson today.”

(or: how Dabi becomes a good dad just to spite his own, realizes he kinda sorta maybe likes Hawks for realsies, begrudgingly admits the League cares and finally comes to terms with his protective side. Not in that order.)“

-- this legit made me laught out loud idk what else tell you

Completed

The Todoroki In-Laws by  aphrodaisyacs

“Over 10 years after the fight against the Paranormal Liberation Front, Rumi, aka the part-time hero Miruko and the proud wife of one Todoroki Fuyumi, decides it would be an awesome idea to create a groupchat with the significant others of the other Todoroki siblings.

Maybe things would be easier if its members weren’t two Pro Heroes, a former one and a rehabilitated villain, but…Honestly, where’s the fun in that?”

-- this is not dabihawks focused but it’s so funny pls

Completed

With Being Petty Comes Consequences by  CursedUndead

“"When we were saying fuck pro heroes, I didn't think you literally meant FUCK them," Tomura grumbles, kicking over an empty beer can.

"Pretty judgmental for someone fucking a pro twice their age," Touya says.

Tomura squints, and says, "Ten years is not twice my age."

Or, after spending Enji's money, Touya is forced to babysit for the number 2 hero to pay him back. Touya makes it his life's mission to fuck his new boss.”

-- this only has 4 chapters but i know it’s going to be one of my faves

On-going

The Truth series by  AmethystUnarmed

-- Hawks gets hit with a truth quirk and starts to be actually free by the power of love, friendship and a bit of crime <3

The last entry is on-going

and if we sit and count it up it's really not a lot by  sincerelysamedt

“Hawks finds a bento box in his messenger bag and almost cries.

"Is that a loving wife bento?"“

-- please PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD READ THIS ONE /sobbing noises/

Completed

steal your heart by  darlingest

//Mature//

“When infamous thief Hawks announces that he is going to steal the heart of Endeavor's son, everyone expects him to prey on Shoto Todoroki - nobody suspects Touya to be the actual target.“

-- Villain Hawks and civilian Dabi are my guilty pleasure and this one it’s so soft too i’m- djsahfdjkfhadf

Completed

darling, thank god it’s this universe we’re in (and you can annoy me as much as you please) by  juurensha

“ Todoroki Rei divorces Endeavor and moves all four of her children into a small apartment next to a boy with wings as red as the hair of her eldest son. “

-- This was one of the first dabihawks fics i ever read and, to this day, i come back to it when i feel i need the extra burst in happy feelings and check their other works too! Honestly all are such a good fucking read

Completed