#the objects floating around him are things I own and or that i associate with him

[artichow]

I designed a new fursona a few days ago! His name is Melon, also goes by Mellow. He's very new to my roster of sonas but I like him :) I put him on arfight too because why not

His design is a combination of a sea bunny and sea leaf slug, a bunny and dragonite.

[lsproutq]

okay headcanon time:

Wind Archer is generally not a super touchy cookie, but when he gets tired he always finds a very safe place for him and FS to rest because if he were to end up crumbled it would mean the darkness might consume everything (and everyone) he cares about...

Wind Archer becomes more bird-like when there's strong emotions. Whether it's fear or love, it doesn't matter. This is inspired by replesdant wind guardian or however it's spelled skin and the various ovenbreak skins that have feathers in them.

Wind Archer has lots of emotions but rarely shows this. Part of this is just how he is, and part of it is repressing emotions as he can't bare to imagine messing up and dooming the forest just because he had a breakdown wrong place wrong time.

Fire Spirit likes to bring shiny objects to Wind Archer as a gift. Wind Archer is more the kind to give weird contraptions, food, and shelter materials to Fire Spirit.

Wind Archer and Fire Spirit now work together and go around the world defeating darkness after they meet in the mines

Wind Archer is already shorter than Fire Spirit, but Fire Spirit still floats higher above him to seem even taller.

Windy uses his scarf as an emergency bandage for Fire Spirit

it took a while for WA to trust FSC in a forest, but eventually he was able to

Fire Spirit likes calling Wind Archer nicknames. Petal, Windy, Grassman, Fluffy, you name it he's probably called Wind Archer it. However, Archie is off limits due to association with Shadow Milk and the horrible experiments that Wind Archer discovered

Wind Archer on the other hand rarely uses nicknames, but occasionally he'll call FSC pumpkin

While Wind Archer Cookie is emotionally constipated, Fire Spirit Cookie has emotional diarrhea

Fire Spirit has been trying to help Wind Archer feel less on edge all the time

Fire Spirit literally starts glowing red and orange when he blushes because he is molded from flames.

Wind Archer blushes blue because I said so

more to come when I think of more

Yay headcanon time! 🥳 I had to much fun with this and I wrote a lot so be prepared for a ride. (Also tell me if I wrote something wrong, it’s 4 A.M. and I am tired as fuck 😭)

• I really like the idea of Wind Archer being more of an Acts of Service kinda of guy, I mean he kinda WAS created to serve but still. He would just go around doing a bunch of stuff for those who he cares about. Fire Spirit wants to train a little? Okay, let’s go. Millenial Tree needs him to send a message to someone? Done. Fire Spirit needs help in battle? On it. Sugar Swan would like some help for the festival? He already started helping way before asking. Still, Wind Archer has a special way to show love, only used with Fire Spirit, and that is cussing him, “insufferable” and “pumpkin” are his favorite, and even tho Fire Spirit should probably be mad, he have just received a special nickname so what was he supposed to be mad again?

• Wind Archer half bird? Yes. Definitely. It’s canon for me and I don’t care about what Devsis has to say. He has SO many costumes with bird features. I hc that he just feels uncomfortable with his wings normally so that’s why he normally hides them, but his little bird brain can’t be hidden and sometimes has a mind of its own, making him do and say things he probably wouldn’t.

• He definitely is more reserved because he is scared that if he shows vulnerability the darkness would take that as an advantage, and Wind Archer can’t make mistakes. He was created to protect and defend, he can’t let his emotions take the best of him. That’s one of the reasons why he was skeptical of trusting Fire Spirit at first (others reasons include him being a fallen spirit, being lazy, not taking his duties seriously… the list was long), but now Fire Spirit has proven that he can be trusted (he is still a lazy fallen spirit that doesn’t take his duties seriously but he is a nice guy). Still, even when Wind Archer barely trusted him, our boy Fire Spirit cared to much about the wind guardian who barely take care of himself, so he just HAS to take the duty of taking care of Windy.

• Fire Spirit’s love language, for me, is touch. That guy is touched starved and he is all over Wind Archer every opportunity that he has. (He will gladly take an arrow in the face if he can hug Windy for a little longer) Even tho his main love language is touch, he just can’t contain himself in giving Wind Archer some shiny gifts, part because his dragon brain just can’t stop thinking how incredible Wind Archer would be wearing those gifts (Fire Spirit half dragon supremacy I don’t care) but also because Wind Archer absolutely ADORES shiny stuff even if he tries to hide it.(Birds likes shiny stuff, so he can barely control himself). Once, Fire Spirit gave Wind Archer a little piece of jewelry and almost combusted when he saw Wind Archer wearing it.

Fire Spirit also uses Words of Affirmation a LOT. Wind Archer is not used with affection so even the littlest flirt from Fire Spirit leaves him all flustered. Fire Spirit probably likes to try out little pet names as well, he just likes the way it rolls out the tongue and Windy’s reaction is priceless, his favorite may be Windy but he will try any nickname he can possibly think of just to get Wind Archer to blush, still, he can’t forget when he almost got shot right in the middle of his face after calling Wind Archer “Green Bean”, like seriously who tf does that blue copy of a jester think he is calling HIS Wind Archer something like “Archie”, it is SO BASIC and BORING, Windy is WAAAY better and he would have gotten madder at this Shadow Milk guy if his crush wasn’t having a mental breakdown at the moment.

• I honestly loved the little Firewind in the boss rush banner because for me it just proves that those two go on adventures regularly. Fire Spirit loves the rush of a battle and Wind Archer likes to get rid of the darkness, and if they can do that together, well, why not? And if in the end they sit really close to each other, with Wind Archer attending to Fire Spirit’s wounds, quiet talks and small giggles, both of them blushing with the proximity and the intimacy of this moment? None of them mention it. (And I just envisioned Wind Archer with blue blush, I see your vision and I love your vision.)

• About heights, Fire Spirit is definitely higher than Wind Archer, but Wind Archer is physically stronger than Fire Spirit. Using an arrow is not as easy as it looks and honestly? Windy probably runs that forest up and down, left and right while Fire Spirit is kinda lazy to work out with the gym equipment he bought himself, he has some muscles sure but not as much as Wind Archer.

[werezmastarbucks]

the boy and the man

april june masterlist 9/18

word count: 2536

warnings: yoongi is damon coded i give up

i hit you and you hit me back we fall to the floor; the rest of the day stands still

Jungkook sometimes just didn't fucking understand. Sometimes he was just that way, he didn't get it. Working things out with him was impossible nine times out of ten, that's why, even before, you actually went to Yoongi oppa to resolve your problems. Jungkook couldn't decide, he refused to do it. The wedding venue was your choice, and the honeymoon destination was your choice; he made you choose your own engagement ring because he wasn't sure he'd buy the right one. Jungkook didn't have that confidence in himself to actually hear you when you said: I don't care. When you do it, it's always good enough for me.

You always ran to Yoongi to complain and ask for advice, in fact, from day one. When you just started dating, you were tuning to each other, and his older brother was a fine mediator between you. You saw him personally coach your boyfriend on how to court you.

"Yoongi hyung showed me this", Jungkook said two years ago. He grabbed you by the waist, flipped you around himself, and, a twist later, you were in his arms princess style.

"Said he's not athletic enough, but I could do it", he added with a wide grin. From day one, Yoongi was delegating to him.

You decided to dig into yourself and made a list with things you associated with them. With a pencil, on paper. After you were done, you tore it into pieces and threw away, but before, it said:

Jungkook:

summer, home, pizza, warm, took me to Brooklyn, fear, happy, TV, boyish, bed, two of us, three pillows, vows, safe, I am never worried when I am with him, heels, forever

Yoongi:

spring, botanic garden, floating on water, wounds, i need him because i am choking, studio, that time when i saw the ships, throat, koi fish, love, ice cream cone, husband, music, farming, smiling, my friend

It wasn't a pros and cons list, just words that scattered out of you. Some of them terrified you, but mainly, you realized, that they were your two eyes: one, perfect, beautiful and compliant. And the other: hooded, keeping you cursing, working, for hours.

Yoongi knew his place. He knew the moments he had with you were on lease. Flowers, dates, waking up together, seeing the world together, marrying, chatting in the kitchen at night, falling asleep to a movie; having you on his lap while he was writing music, with other people in the room - it was all Jungkook's. He was reduced to sex and he gave it to you as best as he could. There was nothing else he could do, for every time you came to him for conversation, no matter what you said, he was reminded that he was an appendix. Whatever you, or he, wanted. Those were the circumstances. If he allowed himself to want more, he would snap and ruin it.

Extrapolating his presence, he was also the protector. Protecting you from the sadness Jungkook sometimes gave you, with his breezy overzealous persona, and from writing blocks. Protecting the boy, because Yoongi still had maknae's sixteenth birthday picture, somewhere. It's like someone assigned him to defend, and he had no idea whose decision it was, and sometimes wanted to object it. But there was nobody else, it seemed. Namjoon was the diplomatic leader, keeping up the image. Hoseok was the strict dance coach, depressed the whole time when he wasn't at the studio. Tae was the wild card, too soft inside. The others... Yoongi was the guard dog with rabid saliva dripping from his fangs. Once he started getting into it, ruining his own reputation turned out to be easy, and also... quite fun at times?

He tilted his head to his shoulder to see the screen better. He was sitting, his feet crossed, on the floor, waiting for the manager. News were turned down to a barely audible minimum as he was thinking. A beat almost formed in his head, he could feel his working worms in the brain labouring, labouring and giving birth to a sound. He stood and stretched his back to step away into the sound room, but was cut short by Jungkook and Taehuyng the twins, who barged inside. End of silence with these two. He braced himself with his old man shaky sigh, but thankfully, Jungkook collected himself and didn't jump on him like a five year old.

"Yoongi, you shouldn't have done it!" he cried. Tae looked like he just witnessed a public execution.

"They want your head", he added cautiously. Yoongi said,

"I know, Bang called me. He'll be here in an hour, so you better fuck off before that".

Jungkook's hand flew up and rubbed his neck violently.

"Yoongi hyung".

"You asked me not to call you a baby?" Yoongi reminded him softly, "Don't act like one".

Jungkook bowed his head slightly.

"Thank you".

"It's nothing".

Tae's eyes grew bigger.

"Porn on Insta is nothing? They will gut you".

"They can't gut me", he replied, "they have tried before. Don't worry about it. What's The Boss gonna do? Kick me out of the band?" his smirk went straight into his eyes.

Bang had tried that several years ago. He said, you're out of BTS. An hour later, CEO had six resignation letters in his mail. They were all ready to kiss their apartments goodbye.

There was nothing to be angry about. Dispatch was out for blood this year. Scandals, one on top of another. They hovered above them like bats, sniffing for the faintest scent of shit. When Taehyung and Hyori and Jungkook with Y/N went on a regular Friday double date, they took a picture of Jungkook kissing you on the mouth outside of the restaurant. A contract has been broken, for one. Yoongi posted a selfie of himself on his long-abandoned profile, with porn on the screen of his laptop on the background. The kissing picture drowned into obscurity. Usually one didn't cancel out the other, but he was good at timing. By the time the wave turned, their PR was already banging on the doors of Dispatch, axes in hands. Yoongi was the sacrifice.

"Don't you get tired of it?" Tae asked him, his arm around Yoongi's shoulder. "Always being the scapegoat?"

"I get tired of my maknae line", he responded, lopsided grin pulling his lips, "all the time".

He hadn't seen you in weeks which happened from time to time, when you were considering things.

Yoongi didn't force himself upon you, just existed on the curb, waiting for your call. Sometimes he'd reach out to ask how you've been and listen to you whining about Jungkook's behavior. He craved to hold you, his desires going from the usual, to, gradually, the minimum: he just wished to hold you to himself for six seconds, isn't that little? You gave him a bad habit of wanting to touch you again and again, now, that he knew how good it was.

However, he knew his place. Jungkook, surprisingly, showed him. You were scared he was 'dying' which prompted late night calls from the bathroom when you cried into the phone. Yoongi knew Jungkook wasn't dying. He wasn't shot or stabbed. He was growing.

Yoongi hadn't noticed when the line got completely crossed. But maknae walked up to him in April and said,

"Don't call her at night. She can't fall asleep after".

Yoongi then watched his broad back with a sense of admiration before anything else, unable to hold back a chortle. The boy turned into a man. And he drew the limits in red. It was finally turning into something Yoongi could tolerate with a smile.

Why did he keep sharing you, though, - that's what hyung couldn't understand. It couldn't just be that guilty feeling.

You moved your hand across your belly to feel the fabric of the dress. Makeup felt heavy on your eyelids, you tried to blink it away. During occasions like this, you held onto one or several of the boys usually, if you could not directly approach Jungkook and be with him, due to paparazzi presence, for example. But now you had Hyori to keep you company. You held your heads together and discussed your husbands from a distance, complaining about the absurdity. At events where you couldn't hold his hand, you'd prefer to not be present at all. Staying at home and doing stuff seemed much more productive. But sometimes Jungkook wanted you for the short, seven minute break when he could hold you. And then off for the rest of the evening. He and Tae had Mr Lee watching over you two to avoid advances and unwanted attention, but there was yet another trick: Mr Lee couldn't be seen together with you, either.

"What is happening with my earring?" Hyori asked, and you put your champagne glass on the table to look. Your fingers grabbed the golden lock creafully.

"Your hair got in between", you clicked it open and untangled it, then pushed it into Hyori's ear. Somebody lightly tapped you on your shoulder, and your eyes darted to the side, searching for Mr Lee. He was leaving the room, closing the chain after Namjoon. It was the time for the photo op, and he had to make sure the cameramen wouldn't bite the boys on the faces.

The man standing next to you made Hyori acquire her hostile face; maybe she knew him. You had no idea who he was. Hyori's hand wanted to reach for you protectively. You caught the air of worry around her. She was looking out for you. But the man had no problem inserting himself between you two, and her concerned face was soon obscured by his shoulder. She wasn't the type of person to rudely shake someone off. You were. But you weren't alarmed just yet.

"Excuse me, my name is Park Taesik. I have a question for you".

You searched him with your eyes and noted the phone in his hand, upside down.

"Dispatch?" you guessed. He looked incredibly smug. He looked like someone who's never been told to shove his phone into his ass, someone who wasn't afraid of hurting young girls. His little eyes with blue-colored lenses bored into you with the expression of superiority. To him, you were meat.

"Who has a bigger dick, Jungkook or Suga?"

You chuckled, more out of unexpected nature of this question. Hyori was trying to cirlce him with panic on her face.

"How am I to know?" you responded, feeling the anger rise in you.

"Well, you are the prostitute they are both using, right? They like exotic girls?"

"Excuse me!" Hyori tapped his shoulder in shrill voice. Park Taesik pushed you against the table, cutting your way out with his body. You didn't want to risk drawing attention to yourself, otherwise your fist would be flying into his face right away.

"Who told you they like girls? As far as I am concerned, Suga posted gay porn on Instagram a week ago", you purred. Park Taesik couldn't grab onto that straw. People have been shipping Jungkook with every member of Bangtan and their mother for the last fourteen years.

"Will you fuck off? Or will you go on staring at me, old pig?" you demanded. Park Taesik continued to smile.

"You will be old in no time with the amount of cum you take on a daily basis", he nodded courtly, and with that, bowed politely and stepped away.

What you didn't notice from the very beginning was Bang's cowardly nature. He cut off Yoongi for his Instagram shenanigans. He banned him from today's photo op to calm down the masses who didn't want to see his face. So, the cerberus stayed in the room, having his quiet fun, happy that he was spared. You caught his eye from across space, in between people's bodies. He was looking with his eyelids half-drawn. Then followed the Dispatch correspondent with his gaze and started to move.

Yoongi saw this whole evening as a blessing. No pictures, no forced smiling, no questions. He got to drink alone and look at you from afar. It was especially amusing because you didn't see him, blending in with the crowd of waiters in their black uniforms. His natural caveman pull instructed him to follow the round head. He had seen him before and even remembered the last name: Park. Made a piece on him just last week. Immoral, out of control, renegade Suga jerking off to gay porn in his studio. Basically he was Yoongi's employee. Now he didn't know what exactly the man had told you, and he didn't care. It couldn't be anything good. He looked at you as you recovered your champagne glass from the table, your frame elegant, fragile in the tight satin dress, but movements, bandit-like as ever. Like an Ulsan doll. Like a driad he would come across if he ventured into the garden of heaven, that would swing a bat at him. You threw back your head, opening up your neck, cloud-pink diamond flickering around your throat. Gookie's present for Christmas. Then you caught his eye, and he felt soft. Then, hard again, his body feeling happy. His feet carried him after Park.

As he was closing in, he couldn't still believe today's luck: the heavens must finally have sorted out their papers and found his name under 'martyrs'. Park took on the left to the bathrooms, and Yoongi followed. He already knew there wouldn't be anybody there, because it was his night, and because everybody was busy on the red carpet. And all the abandoned girlfriends and wives, killing time in the ball room, didn't go to the mens restroom.

He entered the toilet after Park and watched him turn his head towards the sound of his step. Watched his eyes light up in greedy, bloodthirsty expression. But Yoongi's thirst was stronger tonight. As he crashed his fist on his nose. The blood splattered up and onto his black shirt. Invisible. Park collapsed with one blow, but Agust D wasn't finished yet. His hand grabbed the reporter's collar and lifted his body up.

"Do you want an interview?" he murmured, feeling his face pull to the sides with a smile.

"How are you going to take it without teeth?"

He threw his fist forwards, three more times, crushing Park's jaws. They would do nothing to him. Nothing, for a Dispatch reporter. Nobody could hurt Yoongi more than Yoongi.

You pushed the door and ran inside the toilet, knowing that the picture you're seeing came straight from a music video. Yoongi was finished. He let go of Park, determined and relaxed like a reaper, and equally black. His right fist was bloody. With his clean hand, he pushed his hair off his face and looked at you shortly, then stepped to the sink and turned the water on.

You exhaled through your mouth and managed to glance at the bloody mess in the floor. Yoongi was looking at himself in the mirror, checking for more blood.

"How are we going to explain this?" you asked.

He pursed his lips together and shrugged. Then took off his jacket and stepped to you. He put his jacket around you and with calm hands, the right fist still red from hitting, buttoned it up.

Yoongi wrapped his arms around you and held you to himself, for seven seconds. If someone asked him about a perfect evening, he'd tell about this one.

[reallyquitestrange]

Jack for the character ask

Tell us about your girl 😉

Okay lets do it! love her so much

favorite thing about them Her romance is amazing. Total absolute badass who is deeply flawed and damaged, slowly opening up to you, and being scared of that. Her and Miranda are kinda Foils for each other. They are both women (biotic humans specifically) and they are both connected to Cerberus through fucked up childhoods but on the outside, Miranda is the perfect princess who grew up in 'better' circumstances and made a choice (not really but this isn't about her) to go to Cerberus to escape her abuser. Meanwhile, Cerberus was Jacks abuser and even when she was free of them she still had to claw and fight and work for every step she took after. And that shows in her character in a very literal and physical way.

least favorite thing about them How fucking tough all her intricate tattoos are to draw.

favorite line I can't remember it exactly, but if you bring Jack on Miranda's Loyalty mission in 2, the eclipse leader asks if Cerberus lets her whore around in that outfit, and Jack says "I think I'm starting to like her." or something along those lines its very funny.

brOTP Oh this is hard cause in general she gets along with everyone and yet no one. But I think Post 3 her and Kaidan could be like teaching buddies? and her and Miranda might even settle their differences and be friends cause again, foils; neither of them know what its like to be a 'Girl' cause they both had the key part of growing up female taken from them. I imagine they'd have fun sleep overs with Tali and Kasumi

OTP

I think this is a self explanatory one. Vack or Jega, whatever boats your float, I will die on this ship. The fact that they are perfect for each other and there is no doubt in my mind the DLC writers meant for us to get that vibe. Jack calling him Muscles, when his whole thing is nick names. The morning after, when he is WIDE THE FUCK AWAKE ready to make eggs, and she's WORKING OUT in the down stairs bedroom, doing pull ups. Both him and her having high scores at the Arena (and i think at one point the scores update and they switch spots?) They fuck and its hot, in my mind that has always been the canon plan

nOTP I don't really object to her and anyone but I guess its cause she only really gets shipped with Shep and Miranda that i've seen. If there was a squadmate I would absolutely like to NEVER SEE with her, I think it'd be Jacob. He's a Cerberus bitch who also cheats. just all around a bad LI for everyone.

random headcanon She still gets the N7 tat on her ass, only it's for James.

unpopular opinion I don't really actively ship her with Miranda...I've seen some good art, some cute fics, but I just genuinely cant see them ever being together in a sexual relationship. I'm not against it! Just have a hard time believing it.

song I associate with them I have a playlist for her so let me pick 4

I have a whole art about this one

Basically any Kesha song but specifically this recent era

In this moment gives Jack vibes but the black widow album is so fucking her I can't even explain

favorite picture of them

Again, but if I had to pick art that wasn't my own (cause I swear I'm not That conceited) This one by messydiabolical

[god-slayer-apprentice]

OCs! I have a lot of them.

I have a tendency of listening to songs and making up cool imagery from them, and then that imagery turns into OCs. Sometimes it happens the other way around. There’s an odd variety of music involved here, but the whole thing is generally action-oriented. In terms of genre it’s like, modern fantasy punk action?

Anyway, my OCs are divided into factions because I like symmetry. I have a long playlist that covers the entire story which I might post later.

In terms of worldbuilding, it’s very similar to the modern world, including specific locations but not sharing any people or organizations. The supernatural element is entirely focused on spirits, embodiments of things, in a generally animist fashion. Spirits have various powers, appearances, and levels of intelligence. Many spirits form into colonies and/or bond with people. Spirits can telepathically communicate with their bonders, and many spirits are incapable of other forms of communication, leading them to seek out bonders to further their goals.

Anyway, the factions are:

-Merit Inc., a giant conglomerate founded by Mike Garden, current CEO. It started out with translation services, but now it’s reaching into agriculture. It has nefarious and supernatural things going on behind the scenes.

-The Rebellion, a group fighting against Merit and their schemes.

-The Pantheon, a group of powerful spirits in general alliance. Largely a neutral faction that serves its own various interests. It does occasionally do mercenary work in exchange for esoteric favors, though.

Now for the characters. This is going to be long.

The Rebellion:

-The protagonist, who is the only character I have not come up with a name for. He’s a young human and the newest recruit into the Rebellion. He comes from a rural farm. When it was threatened by Merit’s overreach, he discovered Grass-Cutter in an old shed and formed a bond with it. The Rebellion noticed this and came to recruit him shortly afterwards. Associated songs include: GoGo Penguin - Initiate; Eminem - Lose Yourself

-Grass-Cutter, a sentient weapon and host of spirits living within it. Grass-Cutter was first formed in ancient Japan, and its spirits are the spirits of river pebbles and dead bonders. (Dead people, being inanimate objects, may also form spirits.) Grass-Cutter has had many bonders over the years, and its use has always been associated with revolt, good or bad. Grass-Cutter changes form to reflect its current bonder, but it is always a handheld cutting implement. Its main ability is to cut through plant matter as though it were water. Grass-Cutter first appears as a weedwacker, and later as a sickle, then a scythe. Associated song: Yot Club - Japan.

-Kate, the spirit of an image from a corporate slideshow. Merit Inc. has successfully created many such spirits, which it is using as a secret work and military force. Kate, after seeing the secrets of Merit, escaped and founded the Rebellion, which she leads. She is mostly humanoid, though with disproportionately large arms and legs, as well as blue skin. Like other tsukumogami (spirits born from images), she is able to produce little floating marks upon making any strong impact, which she can then take and attach to flat surfaces; when she does, she can enter that surface, going into her 2-dimensional form until she leaves. Kate is also exceptionally strong, durable, and light (though not agile). Associated songs include: Bjork - Army of Me, David Guetta - Titanium

-Gill, an odd sort of spirit: the embodiment of a living human, in colony form. Gill, who appears as a tall East Asian man, is a hive mind; instances of him exist all around the world. Their experiences, knowledge, and personality are shared whenever one of him sleeps. Gill has no other abilities, but he has lots of experience in basically every subject; nevertheless, he remains physically weak. Before the events of the story, Gill was discovered by Merit CEO Mike Garden, who offered not to reveal Gill’s existence to the public in exchange for Gill splitting off part of the hive mind to work for Merit. Gill joined the Rebellion when one of his split selves discovered Merit’s secrets, similarly to Kate, and escaped, spreading the news to the rest of Gill. Associated songs include: David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World

-The Frog, also known as The Messiah. Capable of reincarnation, it was, in previous lives, a spirit of revolution, change, and rebirth, leading many great historical revolutions (both good and bad), and wielded Grass-Cutter many times. In its current form, it is not sentient. It is a large frog. However, it remains extremely powerful; it is able to cause actions to repeat or reverse, as well as levitate things. The Frog was first discovered by scientists in a forest in Belize, heralded by a host of spirits; it quickly escaped, and was discovered by the Rebellion. It seems to have taken a liking to Kate, but it is rarely any help. Associated song: Shpongle - Dorcet Perception

The Pantheon:

-Writer and Quill. Writer is an elder spirit of a sun that died before the Earth was born. However, due to being formed from a dead object or something, it requires a bonder for most actions. Quill is that bonder. Quill is an instance of Gill, who was abducted by The Beast and formed a bond with Writer. Quill has a distinct personality, much more jovial than Gill’s general tiredness, and maintains this by being unable to sleep (something which Writer ensures). Writer manifests as amorphous masses of cuttlefish-like eyes and black tentacles without suction cups; it is able to reshape itself and Quill, dissolving into a slate-like material and reforming as desired. Associated songs: Tally Hall - Ruler of Everything

-Sera is a spirit generally identified as simply “fey”, Sera’s origins are an enigma. She has a curious obsession with humans, whom she finds fascinating and charming. She is able to turn invisible and incorporeal, though only both at once; she can do this extremely rapidly. She is humanoid. She is bald and wears a simple dress (which is part of her body). Her entire body is the exact same shade of pink. Her eyes are almost always closed, and her mouth is almost always open. Associated songs: Bjork - Human Behavior

-Theo Solberg (no relation to my name) is a tochigami, or genius loci: the spirit of a location. In Theo’s case, that location is Hollywood. Theo appears as a very fashionable blonde human, and is a celebrity actor. He delights in drama and controversy. He has a capricious romantic relationship with Gill. As a tochigami, he is completely invulnerable within his location. He also has the ability to create small, camera flash-like bursts of force in his vicinity. Associated songs: Duran Duran - Rio, Taio Cruz - Break Your Heart

-The Beast, though often referred to as a demon, is technically the only member of the Pantheon who is not a spirit. It is a peacock. It is a bonder, and has formed a bond with a colony of ink spirits. Its sentience is dubious, but its intelligence is not. It “collects” sentient beings, especially spirits, by trapping them in contracts made inescapable by its spirits, and this collection has formed into a cult. The Beast is a silver color, and has plumes covering its eyes. The spirits are floating, amorphous globs of ink with the general shape of a plume. Associated songs: Eagles - Hotel California, ERA - Ameno

Merit Inc.:

-Mike Garden: The main villain. He is a human, a ruthless, joyful entrepreneur who has worked his way from middle class to billionaire status with nothing but skill and a lot of subtle help from his bonded spirits: a swarm of insects that, with sufficient food, is capable of growing infinitely. Associated songs: Peter Gabriel - Big Time, Poor Man’s Poison - Feed the Machine. Associated song for spirits: Gorillaz - Empire Ants

-Alice: The leader of Merit’s secret team of corporate slideshow tsukumogami, as well as head of PR. Alice is crazed and unreasonably devoted. Despite being a spirit, she has formed a bond with a colony of pill spirits, which are capable of inducing dizziness, disorientation, and vertigo with a touch, but can also function as simple projectiles. Associated songs: Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit, Lemon Demon - Redesign Your Logo

-Tympan: A spirit of unidentified origin, Tympan looks like a tiny man with the lower body of a blue jay, as well as wings instead of arms. He is capable of causing internal fractures, both mental and physical, with his voice. He manages the captured units of Gill, and also as Mike Garden’s advisor. Associated songs: They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse in Your Soul

-Cassius “Cass” Holden is a grizzled human veteran who leads Merit’s military operations. He has a bond with a spirit of right triangles, which takes the form of a yellow right triangle that can divide itself in half repeatedly into more triangles; all of these triangles are freely controlled by Cass. Cass can fire beams from “empty space” created by assemblages of these triangles, and usually arranges the triangles into crosshairs for sniping, or around his wrists and legs as propulsion and rapid fire. Cassius is doubtful of Mike Garden’s cause, but does it anyway because of the favors he owes Merit. Associated songs: Linkin Park - Battle Symphony, Kula Shaker - Mystical Machine Gun

And, finally, that’s all. I might post more about these, especially the story. I know these notes aren’t very organized, so thanks for reading this far!

[fruity-boy-bruno]

do you have any non-hylic ocs?

Ooooohhhh so fucking many! That I've been neglecting to draw or think about because my brain has been eaten by hylics brain worms, so some of these drawings are a litttleee old pardon that.

Starting with humans then delving into my bigger freaks (affectionate)

Okay favorite children first! This is Scrape, they/it. I originally made them as a Jojo oc but now they're really outside of it, but they do have a stand named Everything is a Lot. They have pointy ears because that was part of my art style at the time and i just dont think i could separate it from that. Their whole thing is that it was raised in a highly religious and abusive household that it ran away from at the age of 16, leaving their little brother Ami behind (more on him later). They then fell into a life of drugs and shit. Eventually they're reunited with Ami but at some point I'll make a post about their whole sibling lore..

And here's Ami their brother (he/they) He was also initially a jojo oc so has a stand but like I said I mostly moved away from that I just like the designs. He grew up to be a music director at church <3 (couldn't find recent colored art so enjoy this minecraft skin of them)

Speaking of Jojo ocs, this is my jojo oc who actually has to stay in the media, Joshua Jostar, he/him. He wasn't originally going to be a Joestar, just some random stand user so I could use a funny stand I came up with in a crack rp, but my friend made another character imply he was one so I ran with it. His stand is Under Pressure and it doesn't have a humanoid form, it's just a balloon that can inflate inside of any open space that upon inflating is full of cement.

Then there's my guy EGG he/they. He is nonverbal autistic but does know sign language. It's kinda funny to me that they're the one who kinda stuck around when I originally made them as just another character to have to be one I liked more at the time's ex. I think he mostly grew on me because my friend liked him a lot more than the other guy. The other guy is named Apollyon but I have NO GOOD ART OF HIM and his lore is kinda cringe bc I haven't worked on it in like 4 years so he doesn't get his own segment.

So not human but closer than some of the other ocs I have are a couple of angels! I don't really have that in depth of a story to them yet, but they came to me in a dream.. there's other characters associated with them too but I've only really drawn this one. He can't remember his actual name but the kid he interacts with calls him Peppermint. The angels will be enimes to lovers and they will make out sloppy style in the end.

Okay nonhuman time. First I have a couple of Khajit (I think I spelled that right) ocs that are distantly related, who don't really have lore they were just my characters in skyrim and oblivion

And then there's my object head ocs! Eyelyn doesn't have any lore she's just a cool eye lady she/it/xe. And then there's Persistence based on Persistence of Memory he/it/xe. I ran out of picture room but will give pictures of them in the rbs if asked!

I will go much further in depth about any these guys if asked ofc hehe, just didn't wanna go on for toooo long. I also just have a lot of general guys freaks I float around in my head that haven't all been given a form or name yet, just goofy concepts. Like Ami has a bf! But I have to think more about what the guy is like and what he looks like..

(I also have a plethora of danganronpa ocs that I'm not going to dive into but might talk about if I'm asked very nicely.)

[thenexusofsouls]

Strange's gaze fell a little bit at the mention of the huge fracture in the Avengers. That was a sad day for everybody involved, that battle in Germany, whether they were part of the Avengers or not. Stephen may not be an Avenger himself, but he associated with them and considered many of them friends. Or at the very least, he'd respected them. Having to fight some of them, having to watch as they fought among themselves... that was rough.

Tyson was right, though. While some responsibility lay with each individual to do the right thing, when someone was faltering, it then fell to their friends to help get them back on the right path again. He'd be a hypocrite if he said that people didn't deserve help when they'd made some very bad decisions. "You're right," he said with a nod to Tyson before turning to Wanda. "I'm glad you came here, and I'm glad you have both of us to help you. We'll figure it out. But you've got to promise me one thing."

"What is that?" Wanda asked.

"You've gotta stop listening to that thing," Stephen said, pointing to the Darkhold, which had now taken to slowly floating around his office. He could only wonder at what it was doing, thinking, could-... could it think? Reason? Plot? Stephen was fairly sure it could. "The energy coming off of it suggests it's not only sentient, but evil. That means there's a good chance it's lying to you or otherwise trying to manipulate you to do something it wants."

"So you're saying nothing it's said has been true," Wanda said, trying not to look as disheartened as she felt.

"No. Worse. I'm saying it knows the truth well enough to twist it and make you believe the version it wants you to. You know what they say, the devil is able to make truth appear as lies and lies appear very alluring. My guess is that you have something it wants to exploit, most likely your powers, and it's trying to bait you by telling you your children are in danger. We can't let that happen, Wanda. We'll find another way to help them that doesn't involve the book."

When Tyson asked if it liked to troll people, Strange chuckled. "Probably. I'd imagine it gets its kicks in any number of ways. Right now..." he eyed the book with lowkey annoyance, "my guess is it's sizing us up to see if we have anything it wants. That's what cursed objects do, they latch onto someone who can either provide it with something it needs or further its own agenda. It's attached to Wanda right now, definitely, but I'm guessing it's not above jumping to someone else if it finds a better host. Back off, Encyclopedia Satanica," he snapped as the book wandered close to him again. His cloak lifted itself partially from his shoulders and bunched up, looking much like a pair of fists ready to throw a punch.

At Stephen's words, the background, soft whispering of the dark tome picked up in volume, sounding like many insidious voices all speaking at once. Wanda covered her ears. "Is there any way to get it out of my head?"

"Oh, it's not just in your head. We're all hearing this right now. I mean, I am. Are you?" Stephen asked Tyson. "Wanda, would you let me try and contain it for a while? Banish it to a holding cell? That might help block some of its influence outside the confines of the wards." The reason he was asking Wanda instead of just doing it was because Wanda was powerful in her own right, and he did not need to be pissing her off and provoking her right now.

Wanda was ashamed that she actually hesitated, but that's how deep into this she really was. Ultimately, though, with both Tyson and Strange sitting there looking at her like that, she nodded. "Go ahead."

What Have I Become? || closed with glitchexmachina

{ @glitchexmachina, continued from here. }

In her frantic state, Wanda thought of the first person she thought would understand, the first one she thought might be able to comfort her and make her feel safe. That person was Tyson. Responding to her thoughts of him, her magic sent her straight to his front door, and after banging on it for a short while, Wanda was so glad to see him finally open it.

"Tyson!" she yelled, practically flinging herself at him and wrapping her arms tightly around him as if clinging to a rock in a storm-tossed sea. "Help me! It's gotten out of... of control and I... can't stop it!" she sobbed. "It whispers to me! It... tells me to harm people... and... I'm starting to... to want to... and I..." She shook her head, closing her eyes tightly. "I don't want that... but... I'm afraid... I won't resist it much longer..."

She really felt badly for just showing up like this, especially since things had been weird after she'd been killed in the Blip and then gone off the deep end in Westview. Would Tyson even want to help her? Would he tell her to leave? If he did, Wanda didn't know who else she would go to, since everyone she might have felt comfortable with was either dead or dealing with their own issues. She just prayed that Tyson wouldn't turn her away...

[stealingyourbones]

You have so many braincells bestie it makes me stim so hard in excitement. Your brain is wrinklier than a 16 year old Sphinx cat that has been sitting in a tub of water for Far To Long.

Tim is blissfully unaware of the biggest Arkham breakout in years as he lays curled up against Bruce's side while holding Dick's hand and watching Jason, Bart and Kon play cards. He thinks it's go fish, or maybe Uno. Judging by their faces though, he's quite sure that Jason is winning. This is by far the calmest and happiest he's been since before the Joker took him. Not so much as a pained giggle in almost three hours. They stay that way for another four without a single giggle.

Things are a bit ruined when Dani walks in, not realizing there is still blood on her hands as she says, "well, the Arkham stuff is delt with. How's Tim doing?" As he starts to give panicked giggles, she notices her hands and says, "oh don't worry kid! It's not mine I swear- the clown pushed his luck and-" she is cut off as Tim starts to full on cackle and shake as he cries, sounding almost exactly like the end of a certain flashback. Dani is now also panicking as she tries to make it better by saying, "it's OK! He can't hurt anyone anymore, he'll never get near you again and-"

Kon pulls her out of the room as Tim simply laughs harder, nearly breaking Dick's hand from how hard he is squeezing.

At least Joker has been delt with. For good.

Homie no yOU! You got so many folds in your brain it’s incredible.

Dani realized her mistake and rushed to wash her hands

It was too late. Tim was howling with laughter. His entire frame wracked with shivers as he clutched Jason’s jacket and Dick’s hand like a lifeline. He smile growing so wide that the cuts along his mouth started to reopen and split.

The cheerful sounds that everyone in the room now associated with pain grew louder and louder as some weird shit started happening.

Tim's eyes were momentarily squeezed shut as the clear tear tracks that seemed seemed have a permanent residence on his face started to flow with a strange green liquid. Dick gasped as Tim's eyes flew open and his eyes weren’t his normal blue but instead a bright toxic bright green.

The laughter grew to ear piercing shrieks of pure mirth. The Bats watched in a state of hopelessness and concern as the lights around the room started flickering wildly. Random objects around the room became encased in a bright green glow and started floating on their own volition as Tim howled.

Slowly more and more objects around the room started levitating as any lose item in the room started to swirl around the current residents like they were in the eye of a very spooky land hurricane.

Eventually the laughter slowly died down and in a very sudden motion, the green light left Tim's eyes and everything that was floating fell to the ground with a deafening crash.

For a long moment there was silence. Then Danny spoke up, his eyes were wide with shock and concern for the cackling boy cradled in Bruce's arms. “How did he die?”

The bats were confused. They didn’t understand.

“What?” Dick’s whispered as he gently squeezed his brothers hand, he will definitely have bruises from today but if it helped his brother it made it totally worth it.

Danny’s eyes flashed the same color as Tim’s were moments ago, “How. Did. He. Die.”

Tim's hands went towards his throat. Kon scrambled over to Tim and used his TTK to envelop his friend in a full body hug. Stopping his friend from clawing at his throat to make the laughter stop. The smallest whimper of relief between the laughter was the only sign of acknowledgement Tim gave as his shaking slowly ceased. His eyes still locked in place from where he saw Dani's bloodied hands, tears still glowing a bright toxic green.

Danny gestures all around the room to the hurricane of broken items. "This all says otherwise. He didn't have the meta gene and he feels like a ghost."

Bruce remembered what Joker said to him as he went on and on about his son, “The shocks and the chemicals took their toll.”

Looks like this is an even more complicated situation than they initially thought.

Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3, Pt 4, Pt 5, Pt 6…

[honeyxmonkey]

I've always had the hc that Douxie can do something akin to siren magic where he can entrance someone/s with his voice by channeling magic into his singing

Honestly anytime you have a magic character associated with music I'll throw this siren thing at them XD

When Douxie uses the siren voice, his voice gets very melodic and echoey, just very enchanting to listen to that even people who the spell isn't directed at will start drifting towards him, wanting to be closer to hear it better

And sometimes even he can get lost in the music and not realize the spell is affecting his friends

So he doesn't do it often

The song often affects the listener in a way where they'll be, for lack of a better word, completely head over heels and wanting to do anything for the singer

Lil moppet douxie is just singing one day, absent-mindedly so as he does his chores, not realizing how his singing is affecting the people around him. He looks up to see that he's gathered a small crowd of people, Merlin, Morgana, Gwen, a few maids and they're all listlessly standing around, eyes glazed over as if they're in a trance.

Douxie, horrified, clamps his mouth shut and the spell breaks. He's so terrified of himself, that he did that without even thinking, that he'd too scared to say anything when Merlin asks him what happened. He's too scared to use his voice in fear of what it'll do to them again

One day, Douxie has no other choice than to use his voice in that way he really hates doing it because he hates taking away someone else's control over themselves but he needs to so his friends can live so he steps out in front, standing in front of the group protectively, taking a deep breath.

Archie knows what he's about to do and says, "I'd cover your ears."

And then Douxie begins to sing. His voice floats through the air, gently taking hold of their enemy, luring them into a false sense of security and the enemy they're fighting becomes listless and relaxed.

Before his voice can really do any damage to the team, they wisely cover their ears, all except Steve who wasn't quick enough and is now listening with the same glazed over expression

Douxie feeds more magic into his voice, singing of peaceful sleep and starry night skies and one by one, the army of enemies begin to drop, lulled to sleep by the siren song. Steve also passes out and him falling startles Douxie who falters for a moment, horror passing over his face at seeing his friend so affected by him. Archie gives him a nod of encouragement and Douxie picks the song back up before their enemies can shake off the siren spell

Sometimes Douxie will accidentally use his siren voice but like, it's so brief that it barely has time to work on anyone. He's just vibing, belting out a Disney song or something and then he notices his magic is working and almost immediately he closes his mouth and takes a moment to compose himself. It's so hard to remember to keep a lid on his siren magic sometimes. It's not like his other magic, this sort of siren magic just starts working on its own sometimes.

Claire pops her head into his room to make sure he's okay because he stopped singing so abruptly and the team had kinda been enjoying the show tunes.

Douxie shakily reassures her that he's fine. She isn't convinced he is

One time, the team is having a karaoke night and they have to beg douxie to join them, reassuring that they trust him and that he's gotten so good at controlling his magic.

Douxie reluctantly agrees and when it's his turn to sing, the anxiety pooling in his stomach only grows worse when he starts to sing. He can feel his magic wanting to spill into his voice, but he forces it down. This is supposed to be a night of fun with his friends, not a place for magic. He gets more confident as time passes and soon he's smiling as he sings and when he's done, the whole team is staring at him with these enraptured smiles.

"Yall good?" He asks slowly.

"Oh we're fine!" Toby reassures. "You just have a really good voice, even without all the spooky siren stuff"

The laugh they share lifts a lot of weight off his shoulders

I had this other idea where he could literally channel so much magic into his voice that he can do something like the canary cry if yall don't know what that is just Google black canary 👍 and basically he could demolish a targeted object/person with just his voice

He... doesn't know about this ability until he accidentally destroys a small row of trees after a particularly loud scream cause he got le ✨stabbed✨

Steve was watching and he just watched the guy who stabbed his friend get blasted back by this invisible force and he's like, "haha neat"

Literally just a straight row of forest going back about 3 yards has been completely demolished

Even douxie seems to have no idea what just happened but he's bleeding out and disoriented so there's no time for questions, just run back to town for a ✨hospital✨

Steve didn't know if it was Douxie's usual magic tricks or... something else

Douxie: I am ✨dying✨

Steve: PLS SOMEONE HELP HES GONE LOOPY

Douxie: if anyone needs to know my blood type is... red. [straight up passes out]

While Douxie's in recovery, Steve tells everyone what happened in the forest and they're all kinda in this shocked silence cause usually if it was normal douxie magic there would've been some sort of blue light involved but Steve confirmed that there was no light it just... happened. There was no visible magic, Douxie just screamed and suddenly half the forest was demolished and the guy who stabbed him was crashing through a dozen a trees

So yeah

I want to clarify also that it's his voice that literally has magical properties and its very difficult to turn off or control so it's a gamble whenever he sings or sometimes even talks but he eventually learns to control it to a degree, and then his friends help him get full control over it!

This is sort of what I imagine Douxie's siren voice to vibe like with the echo and everything and it just be in general very enchanting

Douxie casually breaking out some Disney showtunes but his voice fucking sounds like this. Literally everyone stops to listen cause holy shit

But his singing voice specifically always has magic in it, the echo is just more noticeable depending on how much he's suppressing or feeding the magic

The first time Merlin heard him singing was when Moppet was just vibing, doing chores, and humming a lil tune under his breath but it just started to get this hauntingly enchanting echo the longer he sang and that's when Merlin knew... this boy was different, special, dangerous without the proper guidance

One time moppet was just vibing, singing his lil tune while he cleaned up and without noticing, he accidentally started enchanting items to help him clean up. His voice is literally strong enough to enchant inanimate objects without him even trying

Merlin walks in and goes to start his lecture but Douxie immediately slams a hand over his mouth, the items dropping to the ground, tears pricking at the boy's eyes. Merlin sighs, gently placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Hisirdoux, it's okay."

Douxie looks at him, lips pursed into a thin line. For goodness sake the boy didn't even want to speak.

"Hisirdoux, its nothing to be afraid of."

"I wasn't... I wasn't even trying to do that, Master." The boy whispered, clearly trying to shove down his tears.

"I know, you'll get control of it, Hisirdoux. I know you will." Merlin awkwardly pats his shoulder. "You're stronger than you know."

AND THEN

Douxie just had like, this outburst of magic one day and accidentally enchanted people just by speaking to them and he goes running to Merlin to try and tell him what's happening but he doesn't want to speak so it turns into a really long game of charades

Eventually Morgana figures out what he's trying to tell them XD

One time Ms. Janeth heard him singing and she begged him to join the school's musical theater group she didn't care that he wasn't even a student. Douxie politely declined, not wanting to be the reason hundreds of teenagers and parents and teachers were suddenly under a siren spell

So.... yeah!

Siren Douxie my beloved

This will absolutely now be a canon thing for literally all and anything I write that's Douxie related, peace and crackers

[jasontoddiefor]

AN: Season 2 The Mandalorian finale but Din/Luke.

Yavin was peaceful.

It was peaceful when the thunder roared above like the drums of war, blaster shots against beskar. It was peaceful when the children screamed in delight and not despair. It was peaceful when Din wore his armor despite not needing to fight anywhere but in the sparring ring.

Din had known peace. His childhood, before he had become a foundling, had been flecked with peaceful moments even in the middle of the slaughter that had been the Clone Wars. And later, among his siblings, he had also found moments of joy and rest.

Still, he wasn't quite sure if any of that compared to the calm he found in Yavin's temple. The tranquility was built into the very foundations of this construction. He knew the stories by now, those narrated in old books, datapads, and strange objects called holocrons that he couldn't use himself but had to ask one of the students to open for him. The Jedi and the Mandalorians had been at each other's throat often enough throughout time, Ahsoka's words came to mind, and yet Din found himself wandering their halls, being greeted by the few members of Luke's budding Order as if he were one of them. Maybe it was because the past was so distant, now that both their people knew the pain of having to rebuild from the ground up, from less than nothing.

It was not a pain he wished upon anyone.

The sun had not quite risen yet, tinting the temple's outside in a light golden hue. The building was beautiful, half overgrown as it still was. They had made some efforts to clean it out where the Alliance hadn't done managed to all those years ago. The temple was more of a refugee center, a place to restock, and a New Republic base than it really was a Jedi temple, the number of Force-sensitives low and the number of people Luke was actually teaching even lower.

They would get there someday.

He continued his path, walking further into the jungle, past the greenery, and along a river he had crossed more times than he could count already.

(That was a lie. He knew exactly how often it had been. Twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, stepping into his old footprints.)

The river led him to a wide and open clearing, framed by small flowers in all colors of the rainbow.

They had cleaned it up a little after they had found it, made it more comfortable while ensuring it remained a part of nature. 

Luke had insisted that it was important.

The more you changed the environment, the more you disrupted the flow of the Force, that had been his argument. Din didn't quite know whether to believe him. Luke certainly looked as if he was a Master of that unexplainable power regardless of the environment.

The clearing was empty, which was a surprise for one.

Often, Din would find two or three other students practicing with their Master. All of them had their eyes closed, meditating in whichever way was the most comfortable to them. Luke tended to do handstands of all things and Din knew another girl danced an Alderani ballet she was desperate to pass on to another person.

Right now, Luke was sitting in the middle of the clearing, legs crossed and moving a few stones in a slow circle around him. A few more stones gently floated in the wind in a smaller orbit, carried not by Luke, but by the child on his lap. It fascinated Din that Grogu, despite being the mentally youngest trainee, was the one who was actually working with Luke. When he wasn't with Din, he attached himself to his teacher. A couple of the other kids did, at times, fall asleep next to their Master. Passed out with their heads on his lap, or leaning against him in some other way, drooling.

Gently, Luke and Grogu set the stones to the floor, then opened their eyes.

When they had first met, Din had been too preoccupied with everything surrounding him, the darksaber, which was still clipped to his belt, Moff Gideon, saving his son— he hadn't been able to pay too much attention to Luke Skywalker.

He had taken notice of his strength, of his kindness.

Not of his deep blue eyes, or his smile.

"Come to get us for breakfast?" Luke asked and picked up Grogu as he slowly rose to his feet.

He walked over to Din, ease in his steps that would fade as the day continued on, and only returned when he repeated his ritual.

"As always."

Luke smiled at him and, once he was at Din's side, gently put his forehead to Din's. They remained just so for a moment, then they fell into a comfortable silence, returning home.

Home, what a strange expression. Home had been his ship until he lost it. Before that, it had been the dorms he had shared with the other children, and before even that, it had been his parents' arms. Now it was a temple full of people trying to figure out who they were and who they wanted to be.

He wondered, briefly, what he would have done if he hadn't gone with Luke. If he had hesitated to ask, decided he could leave his son with another. Despite his worries, his love for his child, he had never, not even for one second, expected Luke to take Grogu away. Not without Din's permission, not without the child's own, and even after, when Luke had flown them here, he hadn't thought that he might overstay his welcome someday.

Perhaps that was the reason why he didn't want to leave, why he struggled so with the decision he had to make.

Life here wasn't comfortable, soft, but it was happy and bright, and despite their struggles, Din could feel himself relaxing more and more. He didn't miss the tension in his muscles, the constant anticipation that followed his previous lifestyle.

He was a Mandalorian.

Education and armor, self-defense, our tribe, our language, our leader.

His creed was calling him and Din had to obey it to the best of his abilities. He was following its tenets, took care and protected his own and yet—

The blade at his side burned with the heat of a thousand suns and Din knew his responsibility, but he did not want to follow it. Could not follow it without getting permission first, so that he knew in his heart that he need not fear.

"What is troubling you?"

Luke and Grogu were both looking at him, heads tilted ever so slightly in the manner that Din had come to associate with Force-sensitive people. There was just an edge of sharpness to all their movements, all their words. Like they were seeing and feeling more than everyone else and were so connected to the galaxy that they were not stumbling blindly, wondering what everyone else was thinking and doing.

"I still carry the darksaber," Din said, slowly, deliberately.

Luke hummed in reply. "I know. Leia has sent me a few very urgent messages regarding the state of Mandalore."

Din snorted. Of course, she had. Leia Organa was a force onto herself. While most people were quite happy to leave Din alone here and not bother him about outside responsibilities, she was decidedly not. He feared the day she would meet the Armorer.

Leia called him a coward to his face, but what else to expect of the woman who carried the title of princess as if it were a weapon of destruction.

"I am thinking of leaving. Just for a short while to try to settle the manner."

Din already knew there would be nothing short about it. Mandalore had lain in ruins when he had been only a child. There was no quick or easy solution to its state.

"If you do, we will be here, waiting for you to return," Luke replied. Grogu cooed, reached out for Din, and was quickly transferred into his arms where he could place one of his hands on Din's helmet.

"And if I don't?"

Luke shot him a look, bemusement and fondness all in one. "I suppose then we will have to come to follow you. I crossed half the galaxy for you once, I can do it again."

Alright.

Okay.

Din let out a breath he hadn't noticed holding. All would be well then.

[charley-and-the-swap-machine]

CATSM: RE-INK'D (Chapter 3: Part 3)

yea

The Voice Of Susie Campbell

Everything feels like it's coming apart.

When I walked into the recording booth today, Sammy was there with that... Allison.

Apparently, I didn't get the memo.

Edgar will now be voiced by Miss Allison Pendle.

A part of me died when he said that.

There's got to be a way to fix this!

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

Stumbling up from the floor, Henry avoided the shards of glass on the ground as he left the room.

Well, now I know that Edgar's still out there, and he seems to be somewhat sane. Barley's gonna like that, at least.

After walking down a few hallways, he soon came to a fork in the road.

Before him was....an oddly placed signpost. What the hell is this doing here?

"'DEMON' and 'ANGEL'......" He read the scrawled letters aloud. Charley sure is associated with a bunch of demon shit. Reminds me of that old concept...

He stood there for a good few minutes, pondering which side to take, wondering if it would have any effect on anything, before finally settling on the Demon side.

As he walked towards it, he heard a loud bang as a steel door shut on the other side. ...Guess I can't change my mind. he thought to himself, turning back around to the area that lay ahead.

The entire room was flooded with ink, dripping from the ceiling and walls, and pooling into a black sea on the floor. A few objects floated in the dark sludge. The only thing in the room not drowning in the stuff was a single tape player, lying upon a box.

Henry looked down at his own clothes. It was impossible to see any other color besides a shade of sepia and black, but he knew well that his once blue button-down was blotched dark, ink was running up his pant legs, and his once-brown shoes were coated black. "It's not like I don't need new clothes anyways." He said to himself, as he waded into the dark liquid and pressed play on the tape recorder.

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The Voice Of Joey Drew

There's nothing wrong with dreaming. Wishing for the impossible is just human nature!

That's how I got started. Just a pencil and a dream!

We all want everything without even having to lift a finger.

They say you just have to believe.

Belief can make you succeed.

Belief can make you rich.

Belief can make you powerful.

Why with enough belief, you can even cheat death itself!

Now that... is a beautiful, and positively silly thought.

Henry balled his hand into a fist. "You know, Joey. I had belief, too. I believed you, and that stupid fucking letter. I believed you way back in 192-something when you said 'let's make a cartoon' and I didn't see my family for weeks. I believed you, when you stole away all my characters after I left and you ended up doing some sort of BULLSHIT, probably made this place run into the ground with all the money you probably spent on that machine, made characters come to life by FUCKING KILLING PEOPLE, they went batshit insane, and now look where I am! Stuck in some ink hell!"

He huffed, and trudged onwards.

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-

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

He soon came to a hallway. As he walked down it, a Charley cutout fell down from behind the corner, making him jump in surprise.

A face he recognized soon peeked out from the corner. "U-Uh- Hi, Henry!" Barley said, waving.

"Barley! Oh, you scared me....what's that you've got there?" Henry asked, pointing at the metal pipe in Barley's hands.

"What? Oh, this! I forgot I was holding it...uhhh....I thought that..you could use it! For, um....self defense! Y'know?" Barley handed Henry the metal pipe, and he swung it around a bit.

"Hm, not too shabby of a weapon, bud. Thanks." Henry replied, examining the metal and patting him on the head shortly.

He opened the door next to them. "Jesus Christ, it looks like a crime scene in here." He whispered, looking up and down the ink-covered toy storage as Barley peeked from behind him. "C'mon, let's go."

Henry and Barley walked through the mess of a room, opening the door across from them to reveal another large steel door.

Henry looked at the wires on the floor, one leading away to a steaming corner, the other leading to a lever next to them. "Looks like we're gonna have to pull these things at the same time." He looked at Barley and motioned to the lever by the door. "You pull this one. I'll get the other."

He walked down the steam-filled hallway, seeing a poster and a lever at the end.

As he moved closer, he examined the poster. "'Charley in: The Devil Gang', huh?" The poster featured a drawing of Charley smiling nervously, as a shadow of three characters loomed over him. What he could recognize was a woman, someone with horns, and a soldier of some sorts. Guess Joey needed more money, so he made these guys. Huh.

He reached for the lever, but was soon stopped by something ripping out of the poster with a screech, and he froze in place to turn and see it.

What he could assume was the horned figure from the poster was sticking out of the wall. As it fell out, he noticed more grotesque features. Its eyes were both gouged into X shapes, still bleeding ink like tears. It was clad in a white, tattered tie, wrinkled with wear and tear. One of its hands was notably missing, a not-very-cartoonish splintered bone where it used to be, and one of the feet was warped into an inky mass.

It hissed at him from the floor, its mouth permanently unhinged like a snake as if it was screaming, as it pulled itself up. Henry prepared the pipe as it waved a wrench around.

It only took about 4 hits before it finally died off, flopping onto the floor and dissolving into a dark puddle.

"What the hell was that thing?"

He turned to the entrance of the hallway. "Hey, Barley! I'm ready!"

He pulled the lever, going back to Barley.

Going back to the now-open steel door, the duo stepped into the new area, finding an elevator there.

Once the duo went inside of it, the doors shut automatically behind them, and the ancient intercom inside of it fizzled with static to life.

"Welcome back, you two. You know, I'm quite interested in you, creator. Susie is, too. I'm an....instant 'fan'." The spider said from the speaker, Barley gasping in recognition and surprise. "Ed-??"

The angel gave a small chuckle. "Looks like you've got a date with an angel, sailor boy!" He chimed, Barley's face immediately flushing a dark grey in response to the word "date".

The candy sweetness of the angel's tone immediately faded away as he talked to Henry with less enthusiasm. "And....looks like you and I can have a proper meeting, creator. Go to level nine. It's on the buttons, which I'm sure you can read. It's not hard to find me...." His voice soon faded into a more malicious tone as he finished off. "...Just follow the screams."

The transmission ended off with a pop, and the two stood in silence.

Barley chuckled nervously, still grey-faced. "Ha...h-haha, wonder wh-what he meant by a d-'date', huh...." He stammered out, fidgeting with his hands.

Henry only blinked in response. His little 'friend' really doesn't like me much. Least he's nice to him.

He pushed the '9' button, and the two soon descended into the angel's domain...

[quazartranslates]

Welcome to the Nightmare Game II - CH53

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

-----

Chapter 53: Purgatory Reunion (V) {cw: attempted suicide, religious guilt}

There were too many demons. There were too many demons.

The space by his feet had already been filled with corpses, and the whole lake of fire was floating with the stench of sulfur and demon blood, but it seemed that no matter how he killed them, he couldn’t kill them all.

Ning Zhou watched the steady stream of demons, from the initial tension to the final numbness. He tried every demon with Maria's sword of judgment, and finally… tried himself.

After entering Purgatory, the burning wounds on his abdomen had become more and more painful, lost consciousness, and there was no divine power in the body that had once been filled with holy power to protect him. Then, the evil power had gradually returned to him.

Ning Zhou already knew what it was. For many years, his mother Maria's worried eyes and her awkward words have planted too many questions in his heart. Now, he finally understood.

When he was young, he had once asked her who his father was.

Maria had sat by the bed and watched the sunset, remaining silent for a long time.

He persisted in asking his mother again.

Maria took his little hand and gently answered him, "He was someone who was lost."

"It's a long, long road, and no one knows where the end is. Your father and I met unexpectedly. We walked along the same road, passed many beautiful sights along the way, and left many beautiful memories. We said goodbye briefly at a fork in the road and agreed that we would continue walking. But he got lost... He walked a long way and gradually forgot everything from the past. He gained power that ordinary people could not imagine, but he even forgot his name."

"Did he forget you, too?" the small Ning Zhou asked anxiously.

A faint smile appeared on Maria's pale face: "No, he hasn't forgotten me. He didn't forget me all his life. On the day we met again, he looked at me for a long time and asked me... ‘who are you?’"

Ning Zhou looked at her in confusion and asked, "’Who are you?’ Doesn’t that mean he forgot?"

But he didn't know that a man who had forgotten himself and everything else had found his true love in the vast sea of people. At that moment, no matter what question he asked, it didn't matter.

The fact that he could find this person had already shown that he had never forgotten his love.

　　&&&

In a dark room, a long table with more than a dozen seats was surrounded by people, each of whom silently looked at the magic mirror suspended on the table which displayed this scene of carnage from the bottom of his heart.

"Is it okay to let him kill like this again?" the Witch of Nothingness asked gently, with her eyes closed and her hands folded on her lower abdomen.

The Witch of Desperation, covered in a black robe, looked at the bright red lake of fire in the magic mirror, but there was no magic in her empty eyes: "It doesn't matter. As long as he can fully awaken his original force, it doesn't matter how much of that trash he kills."

"I'm afraid he won't want to. Don't forget, he was originally from the Holy See," the Witch of Nothingness warned.

"Haha, have you forgotten? His Majesty was also very close with the Holy See. To be precise, he and the Holy See’s Holy Nun was the object of his affections. Even when his original force had awakened fully and he forgot his whole family, he was still holding a Canon all day long. But wasn't it him who finally took us into the human world?" the Devil of Evil smiled, not sharing his colleagues’ worry.

The Witch of Resentment held her forehead in one hand: "Please, don't remind me of the days when I studied hard to please His Majesty with the scriptures. I have no interest in the things of the Holy See. I would rather boil my potions."

The Witch of Nothingness smiled faintly. "Have you ever noticed that all the Devil Kings have some abnormal hobbies? When you count them carefully, none of them looks like a normal demon. However, compared with the subordinates of the Devil of Slaughter, we should feel content."

The group of higher demons laughed meaningfully.

To the demons, following a Devil King did not mean that they agreed with that person’s personality, but that they followed the force that that person represented. Just like this group, who had tied their own destiny with the force of destruction, who had known both glory and utter ruin. In the twenty years after the fall of the old Devil, their power had also declined to even less than half of its heyday.

They were too eager to have a new Lord of Destruction and renew destruction’s original force. As for who that person was, they didn't care.

"I heard one thing. Our new Majesty had a lover whom he loves deeply, but he died. It's a pity that the Devil of Fraud killed him. If he was still alive..." The Devil of Evil smiled with interest. "How interesting it would be."

"Why did the Lord of Fraud kill her?" the Witch of Nothingness asked doubtfully.

"God knows. Oh, by the way, he’s a man."

"Isn't His Majesty a follower of the Holy See?" Even the Witch of Resentment was shocked. Those who had been around since the old Lord of Destruction were familiar with the Holy See’s teachings, and they were very clear about the Holy See’s attitude towards same-sex love.

"He was drained of the power of faith and expelled from the Holy See. Otherwise, do you think that with such little stimulation alone he could awaken the Devil’s force sealed in his body? That's the seal left by Maria." The Devil of Evil laughed very exaggeratedly. "Ah, for love, I am willing to abandon the glory of God! ...It is really a romance branded in blood."

"Unfortunately, it seems that this time I can't see the touching love story," the Witch of Resentment sighed faintly.

"Attention, His Majesty is beginning to show the form of a magic dragon. Record the time. It is... 8:47 in the evening. If you’re optimistic, he could be completely demonized within 24 hours. I can't wait." The Devil of Evil looked at the Devil's black body in the lake of fire and the human who had begun to show the Devil's characteristics, and couldn't help but smile with expectation.

"I hope nothing will happen in these twenty-four hours. Contact the Dragon Ant Queen and order that Purgatory be sealed off now, especially in the area around the lake of fire," the Witch of Desperation said. "Don't say it’s in our name... The seal on the Devil of Slaughter is suspected to be loose, other people will naturally associate this with the Devil of Power."

"I’m afraid that the Dragon Ant Queen can't be contacted. Considering the time, she is now busy with 'life events'," said the Devil of Evil.

"Then contact her maid, she still has the authority to deal with this matter," the Witch of Desperation said.

　　&&&

He was already in hell.

Ning Zhou looked at everything around him and suddenly had this thought.

After the crazy battle, there were countless bodies of demons floating in the lake of fire, some of which had been swallowed up by lava, and some of which were rushing towards the lower reaches of the valley with the burning current.

The air seemed to be filled with scorching flames, burning from his mouth to his heart, and even his soul was ignited.

He stood in Purgatory’s lake of fire, inexorably transforming from a man into a devil.

How fragile human will was, that it couldn't prevent a man from dying, or a saint from degenerating into a demon.

Sharp talons grew on his hands, and his skin became cold and rough like a cold-blooded animal. Black scales spread all over his body like a plague, and a pair of bat-like wings grew behind him. He couldn't control the power of destruction. He had lost his human form and turned into a huge magic dragon.

A devil among demons, a Devil King among devils, an evil magic dragon symbolizing destruction. According to legend, the ancient world was destroyed by such a magic dragon, which had woken from chaos, flew while spraying angry flames that spread in all directions, and destroyed the whole world.

This kind of magic dragon had really appeared once in history. Twenty-two years ago, when the Devil of Destruction had led the demons to break through the seal and come to the world of humans. His demon form was just such a magic dragon. He held the law of destruction, but also the madness of destruction, wishing to destroy the world at all costs.

What had been a vague feeling had finally come true. When the force of destruction awakened, he understood everything.

It was ridiculous. Those who fought against the demons eventually became demons. Those who stared long into the abyss finally fell into the abyss. The evil force sleeping deep in his body laughed at him: Your whole life is a joke.

Fate had taken away everything from him: his only relative, his beloved, and now it wanted to destroy his last treasure.

Everything about him as a "human" had ceased to exist. What else could he do? What else could he do for this miserable world? What was the value of his existence?

Immense grief struck his soul, and the desperate black dragon roared and wailed at the sky blocked by rocks in the lake of fire. The force of destruction even tore the rock wall and let the distant light fall into Purgatory.

He looked at the light dazedly, as piously as when he had prayed so many times.

"He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

But why had fate given him such a cruel temptation? And he had been banished from his homeland; would God still help him and protect him?

Not anymore.

He was doomed to fall to such temptation.

Because God had given up on him.

Like the man who gave him half his blood, he would gradually lose himself to the original force of destruction, forget everything about himself, forget how he had once guarded the world, and finally bring endless pain and despair to this world.

Let it all end here.

Suicide was a sin, but if he lived, he would eventually bring more disasters and misfortunes to this scarred world.

He couldn't end the cruel fate imposed by this world, so at least he could not bring more suffering to this world.

Let him end it with his own hands!

In this lake of fire in Purgatory, holding warm memories, he would put a full stop to his life with this heart that still belonged to mankind.

But at that moment, he heard a voice that was too familiar to be a memory: "Ning Zhou—!!!”

He stopped at the edge of destruction and looked up.

Looked up to see the love of his life, returned to him.

-----

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

[werezmastarbucks]

waking up, going back

word count: 1255

warnings: none

music: I'm with you by Avril Lavigne, Honeymoon, Salvatore by Lana Del Rey, Forget by Marina

kai parker x reader, Stelena (4eva), Damone alone lmao

author's notes: I mean if I can make at least one person associate blink-182 with Kai through all of my works, my job on this planet is completed

dreams masterlist

Looking at them, normal, dancing, was bizarre. They lived like usual, and nothing, utterly nothing changed. Life actually got good. So good, in fact, that people started getting married. First, Elena and Stefan, now, Caroline. She looked like a proper Italian bride from heaven in her long-tailed white floating dress with puff shoulders and embroidery. The embroidery on her chest, the symbol of her supreme beauty and fairness. You saw her and her husband like through a matted glass, whether you cried or was already drunk, or the colored smoke from the smoke machine got into your eyes. It was a picture from a movie dedicated to somebody else, never in you life have you felt so helplessly distant, so detached from them. The beautiful guests, dressed so impressively outlandish, like the marriage party was located on a sea shore, no less. To actually remember that you were still in Mystic Falls, you had to actually leave the tent, but who would dare? Even with the smoke getting into your eyes, and the dense air, the irritating yellow of the flowers, while Caroline was given into marriage by her mum. The ceremony felt like an ancient ritual that you sneaked to. You looked at yourself in the reflection of a knife. your face and hair were still done, and your elegant purple dress still drew glances. However, when the eyes drawn made out who was hiding under all the makeup and the garments, people looked away. You had been invited and actively worked on by Elena to enjoy yourself, but nobody wanted you here. People felt uneasy around you now. They said, why won't she leave the town if she hates it so much here?

The worst part, objectively, was watching Elena and Stefan dance. And Damon, devouring them with his hungry, resltless eyes. What an irony, that someone who has fresh scars from their love taken away from them, would do the same to another. Damon had been robbed of love not once, but twice, by his own brother. First, Katherine, now, Elena, who turned towards the light after all. And now, look at them go! Her in her dark pink dress, with flowers slithering along her waist, and her long golden hair, she was almost as stunning as the bride. No matter how much Elena tries to plain herself down, it never works, she is always the moment of the room. You unglued your stare from the couple and looked at Damon again. Out of coincidence, you both downed your glasses at the same time. There was bitterness in the way you resembled each other, actually. Damon knew very well what it's like, to see someone else have your happiness. Only, to you, Stefan and Elena weren't the burning sore in the eye, but more like sculptures. They meant nothing to you but missed opportunity. They were too beautiful to approach. Killing Kai, Damon told you: he's not for you, like he always did. Now he was watching his brother telling him the same in every little move he made. The little ring on Elena's finger told him he would never get what he craves the most, and maybe, Damon Salvatore was cursed to fall in love again and again with the same person, and being robbed of them. With curiosity you thought, what if he waits until the next Elena is born, and tries it once again. He'll have to wait until she is of age, until she is herself. And then someone else will come and tear her away from his hands. Maybe it even will be you.

Gloating about someone else's misery was not good at all, but you weren't left with much. Gloating was all you had left to do. You had nobody to dance with, nobody to carry away from this wedding when you get ugly drunk. Damon did a horrendous thing when he killed Kai but kept you like a pet, like a fake friend, so that you could still breathe, because you were local, and because all of this was a horrible mistake. He knew better, he always did, like a tyranic older brother. He was crooked on the inside, Damon, and cruel, and very, very alone. You wondered if he had dreams of Elena.

Oh you felt mutilated. You didn't miss him per se, you were too numb to feel that. Exhausted by the non-stop nightmares, and sore about everything, tired of constant explosive fights. But you felt like someone crawled inside of you and stole a couple of ribs. You were one step away from being labeled as the villain in this story, hense the purple dress. Nobody gets to stay good if they're in love with a homocidal witcher. Who respects and regards nobody. You were now in the middle, on a thin thread, between friends and animosity, and nobody really knew what to do with you. In the depths of their souls they started to feel guilty, but everybody found a way to justify it. In truth, the ways to justify killing Kai were mostly neatly lined up in cemetery. You could go there any day and bitch about your lost love. But it was more than love, more than addiction. If there exists something that describes the overall predisposition, that would be it. You could do nothing about your dark side, and they could do nothing about you.

So, why not leave?

Every day you found a new reason. What if you bleed once you leave Mystic Falls, where you at least know what to do. You can go around and quarrel with the Salvatore about everything. If you leave, you'll have to face the shattering realization that life without magic, without the hunt, does not interest you anymore. Living in a bubble is so fascinating and so comforting.

You wanted to be home, where, in the drawer of your little desk, you had a notebook where you wrote down your weird dreams. Last three or four ones you couldn't remember, and it puzzled you. On the better days you were glad, because almost every time, you woke up screaming.

The last one had been especially horrible. As you sat up on your bed, you hallucinated shadows in the bedroom. There was burning sensation all over your body. You couldn't catch it. You didn't know. You just knew that those dreams should have been placed neatly in a big picture, but the memory, and the fragments, didn't make any sense.

Maybe it was time to come to terms with it. It was almost a year already, and nothing changed. Life went on, on the most part. Maybe it was time to be normal again, and be like them. Pretty dresses, busy noses, easy boyfriends, and the drama. Collective decisions, vampire shenanigans. Maybe you could have a beautiful Mediterranean wedding, too, in a tall, soft beige tent. Maybe you should let Mystic Falls consume you and be a part of the crew.

Caroline, or whoever it was, that compiled the wedding playlist, decided that Lost Without You by blink-182 was a good choice for a melancholic mood. Slow dance, sure.

Since he died, the little signs you invented for yourself, like little blinking stars, followed you everywhere. And now, listening to the song that definitely didn't belong to Caroline, to this place or their universe, made you feel like there was something to wait for. You didn't take the hints seriously, you just felt traumatized.

But champaign suddenly tasted a little better.

[smash-chu]

Updated the iceberg with some suggestions + more stuff i came across during research~ Might be doing a video to go along with it, cause it'd be fun (i have been capturing footage, so it'll likely end up happening :3 )

Explanations for each thing can be found below:

-Level 1-

The TV show - Some people’s first exposure to the franchise was the TV show, made to go alongside the games as a sort of advertisement. It was made by 4Kids and had a total of 2 seasons, starring the 4 main characters: Hudson Horstachio, Franklin Fizzlybear, Paulie Pretztail and Fergy Fudgehog.

Rare games easter eggs - There are plenty of easter eggs to other Rare games throughout Viva Piñata, the easiest ones to note are the broken arcade cabinets found in the first game as well as the various nods to Banjo Kazooie - such as the Bird and Bear statue, Mumbo statue, Breegull backpack and Bottle’s Glasses.

Stardos is Dastardos - The game never tells you this directly, but it’s an easy and obvious conclusion to make.

Twingersnaps and Fourheads - Without using a guide or looking it up you may actually be baffled on how to acquire these piñatas in game. There is no obvious hint in game to tell you to hit the Syrupent egg before it hatches on the third bounce, which means you either have to figure it out through experimentation or by looking it up.

Leafos False Rumors - Leafos is meant to give you good advice to help you out while you play the game if you talk to her, however not all information she gives is true. Some rumors include putting a Badgesicle in water will turn it into a Sweetooth, feeding a Doenut to a Pretztail turns it into a Mallowolf and so on. None of these actually work.

Piñatas aren’t permanently broken - When a piñata is broken it is magically repaired, at least when on Piñata island, reforming at the edge of a garden when broken at one. It is stated that piñatas are repaired after having been sent to parties, which would potentially mean that piñatas only magically repair themselves when on the island.

-Level 2-

The PC Port - Not very well advertised, there was a PC port released for the first Viva Piñata game. There are a couple of differences between the port and the original Xbox 360 release, which are touched upon later.

Piñatas are genderless - Technically no piñata is given a gender in game, all piñatas function the same. While in the show gendered piñatas are present it could potentially be that piñatas are naturally genderless and then if they are sapient can choose genders which fit their identity.

Burger king toys - A bundle of burger king exclusive plastic toys of piñatas were made and sold alongside the children's meals, some of the piñatas were Elephanilla, Sparrowmint, Goobaa and so forth. These toys are nowadays rare and sought after by people who collect the very small amount of official Viva Piñata merch that exists.

Wildcards - Wildcard piñatas are unique piñatas that have a feature which makes it stand out next to others of its species. There are a total of 3 variants of wildcards per piñata, some being exclusively gained through trading piñatas online. In the original game wildcards were extremely rare and there was only one variant, while they were made easier to acquire in TiP.

Both the games and show are canon - Just what it says, according to the creators both the games and show are canon to Viva Piñata lore. This makes for some strange implications, but that's for later.

TiP Fence Glitch / Exploit - A sort of well known glitch often used while playing Viva Piñata Trouble in Paradise. Fences normally do not stop Ruffians and Professor Pester from entering your garden, as they simply destroy them when they’re in the way. However, if arranged in a specific pattern in the area next to the volcano they enter from, the fence will make them permanently stuck. They will be stopped at the very edge of the garden at the fence, unable to properly enter or do anything. This can occur unintentionally as well in both the original game and TiP, as sometimes Ruffians and Professor Pester get stuck on seemingly random things and become unable to do anything.

Domesticated piñatas becoming un-domesticated - A strange difference between the original game and TiP is the fact that you can no longer buy domesticated piñatas from the Paper Pet’s store. Instead of being purchased they simply appear in the wild like any other wild piñata, whether this implies that these piñatas are no longer considered domesticated or is just a game design choice is unclear.

Jardinero and his family - In game a big part of the npc cast are Jardinero and his children, Leafos, Seedos, Storkos and Dastardos. They all play important roles in terms of the game mechanics, but also have their own stories which can be read about in the journal. The journal also mentions the character Mother, which is Jardineros wife and mother of their children. She is a seafaring adventurer that occasionally came to visit Piñata Island to see her husband and kids.

-Level 3-

Dastardos ghost theory - Because of Dastardos more ghostly abilities, such as floating around, being able to go through objects and not being recognized by his family, it is theorized he may either be undead or a ghost. The entry for the Dastardos shovelhead also implies this, calling him “untouchable” and only thanks to lining up to his frequency can the shovel hit him. This theory kind of makes the fact that Professor Pester being responsible for this even more messed up.

Extended / full version of Horstachio commercial - One of the more famous pieces of commercials to advertise the first game was the one featuring Hudson Horstachio, about to be broken by a couple of kids, that he offers a bunch of outlandish things to to convince them to let him down. There are apparently some different versions of the commercial which feature different things being offered, with a full uncut version that has all the offers in it.

Piñata cards - In Viva Piñata Trouble in Paradise there is a function which is called Piñata Vision, which utilizes the Xbox Live Vision camera. By scanning the card you can get the piñata or item displayed on the card, some of these cards feature the developers in the form of a piñata and characters from other games.

Language Dubs - The PC port of the original game has a lot of language dubs, translated into languages such as Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, Chinese and more. Some of these do not extend to the UI oddly enough, while for the majority of translations all of the game’s features are translated accordingly, with the exception of piñata names. The language chosen is determined by the language set for the computer, so if you want the game in a specific language you’d need to change the language of the computer before installing it.

PC port graphical downgrades - Oddly enough the PC port has some graphical differences compared to the original Xbox 360 release. Mostly the graphics being downgraded, even on the highest settings, such as the lighting and texture resolution on objects and the environment.

Miss Petula’s neglectful parents - The npc that runs the Paper Pet’s store is Miss Petula, who often lets the player know she’s not very enthusiastic about her job. Mostly because her parents have left the store in her care, and don’t seem to communicate with their daughter much aside from grounding her, as she mentions it in her dialogue. In one of her dialogue lines when the player leaves the shop she ponders running away from home.

Accessories graphical glitches - Some accessories have graphical glitches associated with them, such as missing pieces or being misaligned on the model during certain animations. Examples of this is the ribbon being missing when a Ponocky wears a tail ribbon (in the PC version), or goggles on Chippopotamus not moving properly when their mouth is opened.

Some piñatas are sapient, others not - Because of the fact that both the show and games are canon makes some things kind of weird. Though even if the show wasn’t canon this would still be a thing - as thanks to the existence of Langston and some of the show characters appearing in the DS game. Most piñatas in the games act like animals and cannot speak, however in the show and with Langston they are very much as sapient as a human. What causes a piñata of the same species to be sapient or not? Why does no character in the game acknowledge this strange difference? We don’t know.

Magic is real - In the Viva Piñata universe, at least on Piñata Island, magic exists. Seen in the form of Leafos and Jardinero summoning items, Bart transforming items into other things, Seedos and other characters teleporting and both Dastardos and Storkos being able to fly. There are other examples of magic, nobody really explains why magic exists or to what extent it is used or capable of being, but simply something that is commonplace on Piñata Island. If magic exists in other places is unknown.

The DS game - Known as Viva Piñata Pocket Paradise, the DS game came out after both the original game and TiP. It features a mix of piñatas from both the other games, however not all of them, because of the limitations of being on the DS. It is pretty much just another Viva Piñata game where you tend to a garden, now using the touchscreen to use your tools and so on.

How the fuck does the family not recognize Dastardos as Stardos - A strange phenomenon considering at least Jardinero considers Dastardos familiar and so does Leafos to an extent (he is in the "family members" part of the journal after all), but apparently none of the other family members have been able to figure out that Dastardos is in fact Stardos. Whether this is them just being very oblivious or not it’s still sad that they can’t even recognize their own family member after being corrupted. This is also even more strange considering Dastardos lives literally across the garden from his family, how have they not been able to tell by now? Though, if the ghost theory is considered, maybe it’s understandable why they have such a hard time recognizing him.

-Level 4-

Langston taking over the position of authority in piñata central from Jeffe - Apparently Jeffe used to be in charge of the piñata central and was later kicked off his position and replaced by Langston, this is to reflect how Jeffe was originally planned as the head of the piñata central before being replaced by Langston as influenced by the show. Why he was kicked off his position is uncertain, but theorized to be because of the fact that he turned into a piñata or half piñata from ingesting too much candy - though why this would influence him being kicked off i’m not sure. Maybe he abused the central for his own gain?

“They all wear masks, some are just more elaborate than others” - A statement from a developer when asked about the masks worn by the humanoid characters in the games, whether they’re their actual heads or some kinda mask. This was meant to clarify that all the human characters are fully human, however it still leaves some things unanswered - such as if they are masks then why can we not see Fannie Franker’s face inside the mailbox on her head? Or what does that entail for the Ruffians whose bodies are pretty much completely covered in their masks.

Squazzils name debate - A reference to how in game Leafos mentions that the name for the Squazzil was debated before you, the player, arrived at the island. Being apparently called Nonsquirrel as they were trying to figure out a name for the species. Whether this is true or not is uncertain, as Leafos does state untrue rumors sometimes.

The side characters in P-Factor - P-Factor is a minigame in TiP that is you showing off your piñata in a contest against other players or npcs. This minigame features both already existing npcs, such Leafos for example, as well as some made exclusively for the minigames. Some of these npcs include Maxime, Babochka, Nana Urf and more. They also make an appearance in the Great Piñata Paperchase minigame, however they are much more prominently presented in the P-Factor minigame.

Unknown blue flower - There is a blue flower which appears outside of the garden space as a decoration in the original game. This blue flower is not a flower which appears anywhere else, and cannot be planted in the garden either. Most of the flowers and trees found outside the garden space are plants that are available for the player, but this one flower is unique in that it isn’t part of those plants.

Leafos might be a lesbian - As it is very much implied that Leafos is the one who writes the entries for the items, objects, characters and piñatas in the journal one can glean interesting information and thoughts about Leafos. In the entry for the Pink Flutterscotch there is the sentence “A girl (that I may or may not have liked) once told me that the Pink Flutterscotch reminded her of a kiss.” Some people take this as an implication that Leafos may be a lesbian and or bi, which i personally think would be neat.

Viva Piñata Party Animals - A party game that stars the main cast of the tv show, it features a lot of different minigames and a mario kart-like racing minigame, kinda being a mix between mario party and mario kart except piñata themed. It’s very different from the other games in the series and has a lot of locations and items not featured in the other games as well.

Unused piñata concepts - There are plenty of piñatas that never made it into any of the games, as one would expect. Examples of piñatas that never appear in the game but had concepts made for them are a Giraffe, a Platypus that would’ve been acquired by breeding a Quackberry and Sweetooth together, a Hammerhead shark with a sour form and a Kangaroo. A goldfish piñata was also part of concepts, however this piñata does appear in the game - as the fish in the bowl on Miss Petulas head.

Ivor in the wishing well - In TiP Ivor Bargain is strangely missing, with the items he used to sell now being purchasable at Cost’o’lots. Ivor can however be found residing at the bottom of the wishing well object, which you can purchase after playing through the credits sequence. By donating chocolate coins you can get him to speak and throw items from the well depending on what amount you throw in. It is hinted that Lottie was the one who pushed Ivor into the well, likely because she doesn’t want competition selling items to the local gardeners.

-Level 5-

Banjo Kazooie Mountains - One of the rarer (hah) easter eggs to spot in the original game, in the distance across the swamp where Seedos lives one can see a mountain which has Banjo and Kazooie carved into the mountain. This is much easier to see in the Xbox 360 version compared to the PC port, because of the higher resolution textures.

Silent piñatas - Every piñata is voice acted, or are they? One might notice that there are two, well technically eleven, piñatas that are completely silent. The Flutterscotches and Mothdrops are fully silent, not making any noise. Why this is is uncertain, as other bug piñatas do have noises, such as the Taffly and Sweetle. It may be because normally no noise is associated with butterflies or moths in real life, or it may be because these piñatas are meant to be more akin to decorational than a “proper” piñata.

Dragonache flying away glitch - A glitch which is easily done in game, by making the dragonache engage in a fight with another piñata and using the menu to send it off from the garden. By opening the fighting view, which can be accessed to monitor the fight separate from the normal camera view, it will focus in on the two piñatas. The camera will become strange as the Dragonache flies away from the garden, letting you see out of bounds and see details otherwise obscured by things in the background around the garden. I recommend doing this after having done at least one mandatory fight beforehand, as you are forced to watch the first fight that occurs and will unable to do anything till it is finished. Thus if you do this glitch while forced to watch it you will be unable to access the rest of your garden for quite some time.

Giant Zumbug glitch - Not certain if a glitch or hack, there have been reports of a giant Zumbug in TiP which is acquired through unknown means. This giant Zumbug can be sent through the Xbox Live service, but more than that is not known.

Professor Pester is legit evil and fucked up - Even though he’s presented in the show as a bumbling idiot of a villain, he has done a lot of fucked up shit. Not only does he employ Ruffians to mess up other people’s gardens, including Jardinero’s garden, he is also the reason why sour piñatas exist. Making a sour goop which is used for creating sour candy, it is a candy which makes anyone who eats it sick and possibly corrupts them - this is evident in how he corrupted Stardos by giving him sour candy. He may have rather bland goals as a villain, simply wanting complete control of the piñata island and its piñatas, but he’s done some pretty messed up stuff to try and accomplish this goal.

Extra color variants - All piñatas, except for the Flutterscotches, have three color variants that can be acquired by feeding the piñata specific things. However, there are piñatas that have more variants than others, through being caught in the Pinartic or Dessert Desert, and then feeding those the same things. This will cause them to gain a different tint of color compared to their normal counterparts, as thanks to having a different default color because of being from a different region.

Money and Piñata duplication glitch - It is possible to duplicate money and piñatas by abusing the post office, by editing the contents of the boxes being mailed while they are shipped off. This can be used to quickly acquire master romance rewards and cut down on time spent making chocolate coins the normal way. This glitch appears to be the easiest to do in TiP, compared to the first game.

Giant and tiny seeds - You can gain a plethora of things from the mine, which includes seeds. Sometimes when the mine uncovers seeds there is a chance for the seed to either be bigger or smaller than normal, these seeds work exactly like their normal sized versions, but sell for different prices. The size difference can vary wildly, with really big seeds and incredibly tiny seeds that are hard to see.

Ivor has two mouths - Something that may be easily missed, but Ivor Bargain does as a matter of fact have two mouths. One for each “face” he has, for when he’s a beggar and a merchant, he can flip between the two by spinning his head, flipping his head up or down. This is a little freaky, and completely glanced over in game, left unexplained why he has two mouths or can flip his head upside down with no consequences.

Leafos is vegan - A very recent thing which has been observed through the rare cookbook that has been released, which features an array of rare game inspired recipes. Recipes which are vegan or vegan friendly are marked with “Leafos vegan approved”, which implies that Leafos is vegan.

Fudgehog cutscene - On certain days of the month a different cutscene will play during the opening of the first game on Xbox 360 and PC, replacing the normal Horstachio cutscene. Instead it is a Fudgehog being broken to reveal the rare logo, though there is a bug in the PC port that makes the Fudgehog cutscene not play.

Pudgeon romance dance - An oddity among the rest of the romance dances is the Pudgeon romance dance, which is the only piñata to actually wear the required accessories needed for romancing in the romance dance cutscene.

-Level 6-

Mousemallow sounds - The Mousemallow makes interesting noises, which may seem strange for a mouse, as they aren’t squeaks. They go “chu” because the developer voicing them is from Japan, where mice are vocalized as going “chu” instead of squeak.

Cut baby piñatas - Originally piñata babies were meant to look different from their adult counterparts, instead of just being smaller. However because of time constraints this was cut.

Humans can become piñatas rumor - In game this is presented in TiP with Jeffe, which is a human piñata or a half human half piñata, he states “If you eat enough candy and pull a face in the wind you'll become a piñata, I never want to see another piece of candy let alone a piñata full of it.” as part of dialogue during P-Factor. We cannot confirm whether this is actually true or not, but if Jeffe’s statement is true then it would imply that humans can turn into piñatas. This in turn creates a lot of questions, such as why does this happen? Has this happened to people outside of Piñata Island? Is this something exclusive to just the island or candy from the living piñatas? Can this happen with animals as well?

Tamed sour piñatas reverting via mail - A gameplay mechanic which is not commonly seen is the fact that tamed sour piñatas can revert back to a sour state. This occurs when you send a tamed sour piñata to a player which hasn’t unlocked the tamed version of that piñata, when the piñata is taken out of its mailed box it will be the sour version. This happens in all the main games, including Pocket Paradise as well.

Pitch black piñata variants - A once exclusive variant available through Piñata Vision cards, it turns a piñata completely black, even sour piñatas. This can be acquired without the use of cards through things like hacking or modifying the game’s files.

Piñata meat - Something mentioned in the journal and seen in the form of some piñatas attacking projectiles, eating piñatas in the form of eating their “meat” is apparently a normal thing on Piñata Island. Examples of this are the journal entries for Cluckles and Arocknids, which mention eating Cluckle legs, as well as the projectiles of Cluckles and Goobaa being chicken legs and mutton chops. It is also mentioned in in-game dialogue that Storkos eats piñata eggs if unable to deliver them, and other piñatas do consume piñata eggs. Are thus piñatas edible beyond just their candy? Or are the residents on Piñata Island cooking and eating paper mache animal parts and acting like that’s not weird?

Family mode - A mode found in the original game and TiP, which allows two people to play at the same time using two controllers. Simply done by connecting a second controller while playing the game, it’s originally meant for parents to be able to help their kids while they play without having to disturb the gameplay. This mode can be used to give yourself an edge in the early stages of the game in TiP, as the second controller will have the best tools available right away and is capable of things the first controller cannot, like filling a piñatas candiosity by performing tasks.

Dastardos and Seedos special interaction - When you’ve beaten up Seedos and gotten him on his bad side he’ll start to chuck weed seeds into your garden, and has a special interaction with Dastardos if both of them are in the garden while he is in his upset state. When Seedos has thrown a weed seed, the two of them will turn to face each other and do their laughing animation, presumably because both of them enjoy the chaos. Or maybe they have that slight family connection still? It’s rather sad though that Seedos only acknowledges his brother at all when he’s angry and upset.

-Level 7-

Viva Piñata Candy Stash - There are a few piñata games which aren’t widely known, for example this Adobe Flash tower defense game developed and published by 4Kids TV, known as Viva Piñata Candy Stash. This game features Professor Pester trying to steal the player’s candy using Ruffian robots, and to stop him the player builds towers invented by piñata characters from the tv show.

Petting piñatas - Exclusive to Pocket Paradise, you can pet your piñatas which makes them happy. Different piñatas like to be pet differently, and if petted the wrong way it won’t increase their happiness.

No 100% reward in first game - Both Viva Piñata Trouble in Paradise and Viva Piñata Pocket Paradise have a reward / reward screen for completing the game fully, by getting all the available rewards for the piñatas and plants. However, there is no proper completion reward in the original first game, there are rewards for various milestones but none for completing everything.

Piñata mascot suits - As part of promotions and promotional material there exists mascot suits of some piñatas, such as the Horstachio, Pretztail and Fudgehog. Whether these suits are kept in storage somewhere or have been thrown away we do not know.

Ruffians helping Helpers - Unless you mess with your helpers just for fun, you’re unlikely to ever see this happen. When a helper of any kind is stuck because of a fence or being surrounded by objects, they will constantly keep telling you they’re stuck. If you let them stay stuck for long enough a Ruffian will spawn in, no matter if you have a Captain’s Cutlass or not in your garden, that you cannot interact with. They will wander over to the helper and free them by destroying the object that’s in the way. Leafos will then berate you with a notification, saying “Shame on you!” for being such a jerk to your helper, and that the Ruffian and helper are running off; the helper leaving permanently.

Ruffians speaking - Ruffians normally do not speak, only making various grunts, but do have dialogue seen in Pocket Paradise.

-Honorable Mentions-

Miss Petula’s cat eyes - Miss Petula has a strange animation in game where her eyes go from having rounded pupils to having slitted, cat-like pupils. This is likely because of her cat theme, but is still strange considering she’s supposed to be a human.

Rare variant of logo cutscene - There is a version of the rare logo reveal cutscene played when opening the game, that features the rare logo itself exploding with candy. This is played in certain versions of the game, likely because of the fact that both the Fudgehog and Horstachio cutscenes feature a sort of dismemberment via them being smashed into bits which can be seen as inappropriate in certain regions.

All the shops have slot machines - A strange detail is that all the shopping menus are made out of slot machines, which might seem odd since slot machines usually have nothing to do with shops or making purchases, more so being related to gambling.

Unidentified voice actors - A lot of the voices provided for the games go unnamed in the credits, however we do know most of the piñata voices are members of the staff and developers. The missing voice actors for the npcs are listed as “Voices provided by 4Kids” with no names attached.

[itwoodbeprefect]

Prompt you say? SGA: "Kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight", perhaps?

Ohhh, Lovers in a Dangerous Time lyrics!! :D I've used that exact quote before as a fic title, so my immediate association is now sappy h50 ace fic, haha.

But it is a VERY GOOD line that definitely works for sga, thank you, anon! Hope it's okay that I didn't include it literally but kind of... took it and ran. Very far. In a direction that maybe wasn’t on the map.

---

It’s a black box. Not a black box like a black box is a black box, like the flight recorders on planes that are actually bright orange and that John would know what to do with (i.e. hand it over to Rodney and wait), but a black box in the sense that it is a box, that is black, and that some genius took from one of the most remote wings of Atlantis and that has now attached itself to the floor in a corner of the science lab and is... pulsating. And perhaps also-

“Is it growing?” Teyla asks.

Rodney whips his head up so fast that John, who’s been watching the readings he’s taking over his shoulder (in the vain hope of it suddenly becoming A) something he can shoot at or B) a math problem), almost gets his nose bashed in. “I think it is.” Rodney does not sound as calm about this as Teyla did. “And I’m seeing a weird energy build-up.”

John weaves past him, unobtrusively putting himself between Rodney and the maybe-growing alien object. It’s currently about the size of a medium dog. He eyes the floor around it. “If we really need to get it out of here, can we-”

“Yeah,” Rodney says, hesitantly reading John’s mind about taking a piece of the building with them if all else fails. “But I wouldn’t recommend blowing it up, so that’s going to take a lot of work.” He stomps his foot to needlessly illustrate the solidity of the building. “The ancients designed their stuff to last.”

“It looks like an Earth television box,” Ronon offers, apropos of nothing. He’s frowning. It occurs to John that this might be the first time Ronon has been in the labs, ever, but they needed him to make absolutely sure that no human being could move the box even an inch, and to in so doing confirm that this was a thing to potentially be very worried about.

“A tv isn’t smooth and black all over,” Rodney says. “Or this perfectly square.”

John shrugs. “It could be.” He says it not really because he thinks it's an useful point to make (this is not an Earth tv any more than it is an Earth flight recorder, because then Ronon would never have been called in), but for the disgruntled look Rodney throws his way because of it.

“Should we get a hammer and chisel?” Teyla asks, neatly pulling them back on topic by their conversational ears.

John’s arms feel sore at just the thought of chiselling through Atlantis. “A drill might be-”

Ronon steps forward and gives the box a good kick.

A hush falls over the four of them as they wait. There is an ominously loud creak, then a hiss that has Rodney blanching even as he keeps typing like mad, and suddenly there’s a thin, jagged crack visible. It’s a white line splitting the previously solid black, running right around a corner, and the vague pulsing has stopped but the box still seems more alive somehow than most regular objects. Whatever is inside is bright, bright like blinding, bright like forgetting your sunglasses on a cloudless day in snowy pure white Antarctica bright. Flashbang, John thinks with a spike of nerves, but as he’s still thinking it there’s movement. He doesn’t even have time to draw his gun - it’s just pop, and a bright little circle pops out of the crack in the black box.

It’s a little more yellowish than the light inside seemed, and far easier on the eyes. It floats, hovering in the air right above the box for a second or two before gently, lazily drifting higher, higher until it bumps into the ceiling of the science lab and bounces back a little and then just hangs there, impossible, suspended in the air, and-

“It’s a sun,” John says, finishing his own thought for once. And it is - a yellowish ball of light about the size of a tennis ball, but with blunt spikes of darker yellow light attached, exactly the way a kid would draw a sun with crayons, just minus the little happy face in the middle.

And then it’s pop and when John looks down he sees another, identical little sun has just escaped the box, and while he’s still looking it’s pop, pop, poppoppoppop-

It gets pretty noisy for a moment, but as all of the little suns drift up to join the first one near the ceiling, they make a very pretty sight. “The Festival of Lights,” Teyla says. She sounds awed, but also like she understands now, so John fully relaxes. “We celebrated it on Athos on the darkest day of every year. This is the most beautiful decoration I’ve ever seen.”

For every pop Rodney counters with at least five taps to his tablet, but now his fingers are slowing down. “It seems harmless,” he says, and he sounds almost dismayed. “Like very scientifically advanced fireworks, with less danger of losing a finger. How did you know?”

All eyes turn to Ronon. Ronon shrugs. “Sometimes you have to bang on the tv to make it work. Sheppard taught me that.”

“Well,” John says, as an excuse to release the breath that’s been caught in his throat. It’s gone silent. The previously lit crack in the box is dark now, and the box is just a weird broken black box, clearly having done what it was supposed to do. When he cautiously nudges it with his foot it moves with the ease of empty carton. “Yeah. Well done, buddy. You solved a science problem before McKay.”

“No!” Rodney protests, easily offended. “He very much did not.” He waves his tablet at the ceiling in a borderline threatening gesture, and a few of the suns bob in response, apparently sensitive to disturbances of the air. Light as a feather, as well as the sun. “What he solved is the Ancient equivalent of a piñata.”

John pats Rodney’s back. “Just be glad Ronon used the right definition of bang. This could have ended very differently.”

“What exactly did you teach him when we were on Earth?”

John rolls his eyes, elects not to answer that, and instead goes looking for a broom to see if he can make the horde of little suns bounce along the ceiling a little more to make Teyla smile.

[savagenutella46]

Jasonette~ Hogwarts AU

To Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Amortentia smells like baking on a snowy day, or the warm feeling in between your fingers and palms when they latch onto a hot mug of chamomile tea. It’s the smell of the underlying scent of mint immediately hitting her senses when she walks into her home for Christmas break.

The aroma of this ethereal substance is calming, soft, like the fuzziness of a brand new blanket you get from a flea market, or the soft, wispy fur of her purring Maine Coon. Amortentia is everywhere she wants to be and anything she has ever wanted to experience.

Except, she’s never fully subjected her mind to the possibility that, oh, love can be stored in a person, rather than a sentimental object or activity.

Marinette wafts another cloud of the potion from the tiny vial towards her nose, trying to identify the new, but not unwelcomed smell.

“Still can’t believe you stole that.” Jason, her dearest friend, who loves to craft things with his own hands and plays as a wonderful Beater in Quidditch, leans forward from across the table. They’re in the Great Hall, supposed to be studying. Instead, they joke around and idly flip random pages of their textbook, something Madam Kyle, the librarian, would definitely throw them out for.

That’s why they aren’t in the library.

She flicks her eyes upwards to stare at him. “I still can’t figure it out.” Jason rolls his eyes and reaches for the vial to snatch it out of her hands, the slim cork slipping into the opening with a small hiss.

“Tell me what it smells like out of memory.” She ponders for a moment, fiddling with her fingers as she recalls the new aroma stuck to the walls of her nose.

“It’s... sort of like, gunpowder. Broomstick oil? It’s definitely not a new smell, but something I wouldn’t associate with myself.” Her eyes trace the dark wooden lining of the table unconsciously as she wracks her brain for a possible origin. Jason coughs, and she snaps her eyes back to him.

He looks a little flustered. A light pink tints the tops of his cheekbones, his pupils are abnormally dilated, and she almost can’t see the beautiful blue in them.

“Marinette, don’t you think it might be someone else, rather than an object?” Someone? She had briefly thought of the possibility, but no one could come to mind fast enough for her to keep pondering on the topic.

“No?” Jason sighs, and the pop of the cork sounds again, meaning he’s opened the vial. She watches as he smells it himself, and looks at him questioningly.

“The immediate smell that hits your nose after you open an old book, the tingly feeling your hand gets when that someone else slips theirs into yours, the floaty feeling you get when Madam Kyle kicks you out of the library for causing a ruckus.” Marinette giggles a little bit, and Jason continues to list off his favorite feelings.

“Oh, and that time you knitted me a sweater. I still wear it, you know. It used to smell like you after you wandered down to the common room with damp hair.” She blinks in surprise, but he keeps taking.

“You, in general, Marinette.” Jason slides the small bottle back across the table to her, to which she reaches for it with numb fingers. “Because, I-I, um, you’re my comfort, what I smell.” Jason’s eyes are burning into hers with a fiery determination she’s never seen on him before.

“You’re what I’m reminded of on a boring day, what reminds me to do my homework, because we have a Charms exam the next day. I think of you every time I lay in bed, because you’re memory helps me sleep.” Marinette gapes at him, and he reaches over to squeeze her limp hand.

“You—you’re my smell.” She says, realizing, under the soft glow of the Great Hall’s floating candle, she knows. Jason Todd is her hearts desire, amongst the baked goods and spicy, warm smells of plants. She loves to see Jason oiling his broom, watching him play against other houses, cherishes the moment the game is over and he rushes over to hug and twirl her around, loves to hear him gush about his latest book read, how he analyzes every characters dynamic and the story’s plot.

And she is Jason’s.

Jason stares at her, smiling so widely she thought his mouth might break. The blush on his cheeks are intensified and run down his neck, past his deep red Gryffindor tie. She realizes that in that moment, Jason Todd might be more than her best friend.

She smiled back with matching intensity and squeezes his hand, hard.