#[ I NEED TO EXPAND ON THIS VERSE OMG ]

[bisexualmcqueen]

Twerkstallion's Alternate Universes + Headcanons Masterpost (June 2025 Editon)

Much of this is developed and written alongside @youhavehitawall , my brilliant co-author and dear friend.

If an AU has a tag, the title of the section will be linked! If a series has its own Ao3, that will be linked at the bottom of each section.

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Worldbuilding

headcanons/custom lore first, because they appear in multiple 'verses! you will notice some of the details mixed in are genuinely just straight up canon; hence the inspiration to expand those ideas further with head-canon and worldbuilding.

Feral Racers HC

Racecars differ genetically from civilian cars within the same species (think dog breeds... malanois vs golden). Racecars have sharp fangs, the natural ability to hunt, and have enhanced senses. It's inspired by the rivalry/drama/brawl culture of NASCAR as well as building up the 'anxious 700-hosepower machine of destruction' we see in canon. Lightning was an instant fish out of water on the roads. Why? Well, he's not a road car. But how does that work? was he born without a horn? how did that affect his ability to communicate as a bitlet? Mainly though, this is classic furry behavior of 'lets give that guy fangs to make them cooler.' The racers growl, howl, brawl, are territorial, and are often faced with the dilemma of instinct versus logic, road law versus interpersonal connections. this headcanon pokes at questions like: "what does 'street legal' mean in the cars universe? how come most cars dont seem to know any racecars, why are they so rare? whats the distinction between being A racecar vs being a Racer? what would cause a car to be born without headlights or need special accommodations?" maybe its an autistic monster-lovers metaphor for autism, maybe its maybelline.

Semiorganic Cars HC

the cars have tongues, gums, and... iris muscle tissue? yeah, theres meat in there. meat is powered by food, not lubricant, so they need small amounts of food to fuel their organic systems. the cars have a rudimentary pulmonary system, a digestive tract, and sexual organs somewhere between the back of their cab and their trunk. they reproduce sexually, most similar to mammals. the rest of their bodies are metal, with an elaborate but tough system of ichor-nerves along their entire frame to give them bodily sensation and control. and blood. i want them to be full of blood.

Bitlets Lore

Baby car = bitlet. Bitlets are born as fragile productions (litters), most dying within the first few hours. They remain small for the first several years of life, communicating with little beeps/honks. Theyre very squishy for cars, and they toughen into metal as they grow. if you threw one at the wall -throwing babies at the wall omg why?- well, theyd be fine. in fact, theyd bounce. cars are tough! bitlets are basketball-sized, near-formless blobs of cuteness. the cabin of an adult car is where the babies ride along until they are big enough to drive on the road themselves!

Living Metal Lore

fantasy/magic/mystery/scifi element. the metal of cars is 'alive'. this is why dusty needs a factory-new gearbox in PFAR, or to rebuild his current gearbox. factory new to have an unbonded mesh, or salvage his current parts that are already bonded to his body. his only other option was graverobbing or active murder (we see this black market of parts sales in Cars 2.) Maru salvages Dusty's gearbox, which is part of Mater's line of work too. new parts can be forged/cast out of Living Metal, which is the rare, raw material new parts are machined from. Raw Living Metal is mined. Most Living Metal is naturally already in the vehicles themselves though- as they were born made of metal and grew larger. This is why new parts is a dangerous economy- to break what you have isnt good. and if your manufacturer sucks at making new parts... well, then you get Cars 2... Ties into the ichor-nerve-veins lore mentioned above. Oh, and the cars can sort of heal their metal like Christine. Not nearly as fast or well, just to a slight extent. Christine is definitely like, the evil-Wolverine of the living machine world tho. More like Sabretooth.

Animals, Machines, and Agriculture

animals exist as machines... and so do some of their organic counterparts. Tractors are cows... and cows are cows. Tractors provide metals and fluids, cows provide beef and milk; all of which are things the vehicles need. the living machines eat metal also. There are no domesticated dogs that evolved alongside the machines, as many types of vehicle fulfill that niche, and dogs are too small to herd tractors anyway. Horses fulfill the role of a cattle dog in many cases; theyre larger and sturdier than dogs, able to keep up with their machine-counterparts slightly better. and sometimes, this is just an excuse to make custom monster designs.

These headcanons dont always appear in my works, but several of them do often!

[i probably missed one but thats a good start for now]

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On to the Alternate Universes, Canon Divergences, and Crossovers!

Main Alternate Universes:

these AUs are in active development, and usually have asks, art, fics, and even multiple authors and full fic series. they are not worked on 24/7, but my brain cycles thru this list every few months/years with natural new ideas. most of these arent humanized, but i sometimes humanize them for fun!

Apocalypse AU

"What if racecars were left totally unsupervised?" Everyone but a very small population of cars drops dead within days after an invisible wave of pain crosses the globe, injuring most living machines beyond repair. Lightning McQueen, Cruz Ramirez, and Chick Hicks are among the few survivors. Together, they set out to the vast and now-wild lands of north america in search of oil... and life. A Mad Max/TWD/TLOU post-apocalptic longform anthology series with no zombies, custom lore, canon and original supporting characters, and a fully queer main cast. [Ao3 series]

Revived!Doc AU

post-canon. "What if Doc met Cruz?" Doc Hudson is dug up from his grave and brought fully back to life by a necromancer. in the 12 years he's been dead, so much has changed... and his revival doesnt come without consequence, as Doc's speed demon "The Judge" starts to haunt him. [Ao3 series]

Salqueen Bitlets AU [Canon Divergence]

Fluff-focused, Alive!Doc, slight multiship. Sally and Lightning decide 'wouldnt it be fun?' if they had a kid together. Through good doctors and sheer luck, they wind up with eleven children all at once- the full production survives. now, the task of Radiator Springs is to help raise 11 high-needs racecar babies. this will totally go well, with 0 exploding ipads in sight /s. The story follows Curly [a stock car, much like his father], Juice [an out-of-control dragster], Tad Strange [a well-adjusted geologist], "Phil" Philodendron [an anxious wreck], Runway [a girl dead-set on working for NASA], Prism Triangular [an artist in the making], Neo [a very serious young lad], and Michael [their crazy half-brother] as they grow and cause adorable mayhem in Radiator Springs. (ignore that there are 3 more names missing. you cant force an OC they sort of come to you.) [Ao3 series]

Old Man McQueen [Canon Divergence]

in the far future, Lightning is the only living resident of Radiator Springs. he's over a hundred, but his vain but painful life as a racecar has kept his parts cycled fresh and new, which has extended his lifespan. he's tired and cranky, but there may be another adventure in him yet... [Ao3 fic, no series yet at time of posting]

University AU

Rick Hicks wants his son to be a champion racer and win his team loooots of money. Turns out, his son Charles is really, really bad at this. Rick pulls Charles off the circuit, and instead sends him to university to groom him to take over the team someday and keep the family business alive. But all Charles wants is to prove himself by being a real racer. Monty McQueen wants to be a racer. Turns out, he's really bad at this, and no one can foot his bill of endless DNFing. hes sent to university to start a backup career ...the same university Charles is enrolled in. Charles and Monty are instantly drawn to each other, leaving destruction and rivalry in their wake, treading water as the ship of their dreams leaves port without them. Or maybe, that's just what being 23 feels like. [brand new AU at the time of writing, might be moved to backburner section]

Baldswap AU [CROSSOVER]

Double Isekai, temporary species swap, crack treated seriously. Custom X-Men timeline/team (to squish as many of my fav characters into one timeframe). Lightning McQueen from 2007 swaps places with Charles Xavier of the X-Men from 2004. Xavier, a human mutant, is taken in by a frightened Radiator Springs, who have to delcare Lightning missing. And Lightning... well, he gets dropped right in the middle of an active mutant warzone, and is forced to ally with Logan, the Wolverine, to survive. After the shock wears off, Logan takes the young car under his wing, suited to the job as one of the X-Men's resident mechanics- the other being his boyfriend, Kurt Wagner, who also takes a shine to the car. The X-Men adapt to their new talking car friend, but it isnt long before Lightning finds trouble, again and again. Run-ins with Magneto (who is searching for Xavier too), Sabretooth, as well as a custom racetrack on the grounds of Graymalkin Lane occupy their time... until Proteus shows up and warps reality, temporarily trapping Lightning in a human body until the X-Men can track Proteus down again to revert it. Uh, cue a trip to the mall with the girls for a wardrobe? All the while, the X-Men themselves are searching for Charles Xavier- and they know it has something to do with Lightning's sudden appearance... But the anti-mutant mob is stacked against them, and the X-Men are plunged further and further into pressure. As time goes on, Lightning is forced to reconcile that he may never go home again, and might be doomed to be the only one of his kind in a world that wants him dead, just like his new mutant friends. He doesnt have any superpowers of his own- he feels trapped in that regard too; like he cant help them either. ...is Lightning McQueen... X-Men material? (a self-indulgent reboot of my oldest crossover i made when i was 11 [too young to post it online at the time], where Logan was the one isekai'ed into Radiator Springs) This story actually is the second-most developed after the ApocAU. I have over 10k words of private notes on just this crossover, hence the long summary.

Backburner AUs:

these alternate universes are either side projects, not in active development, or are not being worked on much at the time of writing.

GTA AU:

gratuitous violence AU. humanized. Doc adopts Mater and McQueen as children after their parents are killed in a blackmail situation, and raises them both as his own. Problem is... Doc is the Crime Boss of Los Angeles... And sometime near their 30th birthday, Mater, Sally, and McQueen inherit it all after Doc is suddenly killed. And it only gets worse from there when people like Jackson Storm seize the power vacuum and nearly kill McQueen, running him out of LA... But not before a civilian named Cruz sees too much and gets trapped in their web of violence.

Demon AU:

humanized. Medieval+fantasy themed. [this summary is slightly inaccurate because this au hasnt been worked on since 2018 and i dont remember it well]. every ten years, the Demon King selects a new Demon to lord over the realm of Earth for him granting them power and control over all other demons. Lightning, a young demon attempting to survive his first challenge, crash-lands in a small village on his way to the demon king and is taken prisoner. Instead of executing him... the villagers are kind to Lightning [especially the innkeeper Sally]. Slowly, the ultimate power he sought becomes his enemy, and he rejects his duties as a demon, sacrificing his magical abilities with it. Ten years later, Lightning is nearly killed by a younger demon named Storm. Permanantley disfigured, Lightning just wants to keep living peacefully in his village... But then a demon hunter named Cruz shows up to kill him. After she fails, they realize they have a common enemy in Storm... [old art]

Bastard AU: [Canon Divergence]

In his mid forties, Lightning discovers that he has an adult daughter, a result from his party days. Shes already a racer; and she wants absolutely nothing to do with him for fear of being overshadowed by his legacy. But the press has already caught wind of their secret, and theyre forced to face the music.

Racer!Oliver AU:

OC/fanparent Oliver McQueen as a racecar in the 80s/90s, toting his son Monty along for a destablized trackside childhood. Monty still grows up to be Lightning... and he's a better racer in every way. But a better man? Well, that remains to be seen...

The Blender: [CROSSOVER OF 2 AUs]

Crack AU. The fankids from the Salqueen bitlets AU get sucked into the Apocalypse AU, and Apocalypse!Lightning winds up in their timeline in their place. The kids learn about The Horrors in looney tunes fashion, and Lightning is retraumatized to see everything he lost in the 'good timeline'... Despite it all, he's determined to actually return to the Apocalypse- there are still cars depending on him there.

The Pirate AU

Humanized, POTC themed sort of. This one i dont remember much either, as i plotted it out in 2018 or so. Captain McQueen's ship is sunk by Captain Hicks- and his first mate, the loyal Mack, is able to keep his young captain from drowning in the stormy seas- but in the chaos, theyre separated. McQueen is found and taken aboard by the RS Stanley, helmed by Captain Hudson, who'd rather send his new prisoner off the plank. Pirate stuff and friendship occurs idr. Eventually, they take down Hicks, reunite with Mack, and McQueen becomes the new captain after Hudson dies. Later, Admiral Jackson Storm has become obsessed with the infamous RS Stanley crew, and sets out with the Navy to take McQueen prisoner- and have him publicly executed.

Time Travel AU

another really old AU i dont remember much of. Humanized or not, both versions exist. The premise is post-Cars 3 Lightning gets trapped 12 years in the past. This was an early precursor to the Revived!Doc AU above.

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WHEW! I just keep making AUs, huh? Well, it's been 20 years since Cars came out, its bound to happen. Clearly its also very fun!

I also write/draw plenty of canon-compliant+adjacent fic, and i even have my own canon-aligned pre and post-canon storylines.

Canonverse:

Origin Era

my personal "backstory" for Lightning McQueen's childhood/adolescence. focuses on childhood neglect, texas culture, the city of dallas, and my fanparent-OCs Oliver McQueen and Donna Ann Steeldust and their fraught relationship. How did little Monty wind up as 'mr. one-man-show', skirt by undiagnosed, and get so emotionally attached to Doc later in life? it all starts here!

Prequel Era

This is my personal rewrite on the pre-canon material we have regarding how Monty became Lightning. this is a short span of time in his late teens/early 20's as he starts his racing career, meeting characters like Carl, the smell-swell team, and eventually, his first fan: Mack! [Ao3 fic. Quite old and in dire need of a rework, even if i had 4 chapters complete in 2018 and never posted them.]

Sequel Era

Post-canon. "At the end of Cars 3 (and COTR), Lightning said he would 'keep racing'. What does that entail?" This "Cars 4" style story follows Lightning, now under the Dinoco brand umbrella, fighting to prove himself to the racing world and end his career on a higher note than utter defeat. Problem is, 'his' way of doing things is not Mr. Dinoco's way of doing things, and Lightning has to agree to try something new... ...Which means working with a crew chief who isnt Doc. After nearly a decade of running his team/strategy out of his own head WHILE driving, Lightning meets his new crew chief; the level-headed Roger Tappet, a massive pickup truck with his own glory to chase. Theyre forced to become a team, lest both their careers end in utter ruin. Both of them have served themselves a seemingly impossible task. But it doesnt look good for the underdog Team 95 as the 2019 season starts with a bang... and the hits keep coming! [Ao3 series]

Mentioning these because sometimes these events/characters still contribute to some of the AUs above, and alternate universes arent everyone's cup of tea; i cover plenty of ground!

maybe i need a canon-compliant tag too... hmm...

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Alright! that's my June 2025 roundup on all of my Cars Alternate Universes and other headcanons/storylines. Some of these have been in development on and off since 2018, but about 1/3rd of them are from 2024.

Once again, a lot of the lore and series towards the top of this post are ideas conceived by or written alongside @youhavehitawall as a writing partner. Send love their way too!!

If you read this far, thank you for your time! My askbox is always open if you have thoughts/comments/questions about my work, drop by anytime :3

my Art Tag my Fic Tag Ao3

[cannoliparty]

Hello, ma'am, your analysis are quite awesome, can I ask to analyze of mage of breath/maid of breath/rogue of blood (any of those three) thank you in advance, have a nice day

omg... my first ask!!!! tysm anon, ur so sweet ^_^ these were all super cool classpects to possibly analyze!!

i chose to analyze the mage of breath because i havent analyzed its class OR aspect before!! not to mention i was already wanting to do an entry on mages sometime, and breath is such a fun aspect ^_^

mages

"mages are the active knowledge class, and are 'ones who are most aware of their aspect and its influence'. these players fully understand their aspect and how far its reach extends, because they have freely tested the bounds of their aspect through trial and error. adversely they are affected negatively by their aspect every step of the way as a price for their vast knowledge & ability. the mage's challenge is to overcome their aspect and become in control of it, acting on all their knowledge."

mages have grown with their aspect hand-in-hand, as one of the few classes who start out with the most knowledge on it. but because of this great connection, other elements in the mage's life are strained and difficult to reach. they are granted boundless knowledge of their aspect, but this can get the mage stuck on other problems.

but of course they still have their upsides! being well-versed in their aspect means the mage has come to terms with its consequences, and that can come in handy in times of need. as an active class, they have plenty of reach for using/helping with their aspect.

an example is sollux captor, mage of doom. he "knew doom/knew through doom", with doom representing decay, sacrifice, and inevitability. in his situation, doom represented sgrub, the game the trolls would play, but it would ultimately be fruitless with them not being able to go to their created universe. this means sgrub could be considered a great deal of doom! and sollux knew a lot about sgrub, and how to guide his friends to play it.

but in a more vast sense, sollux is aware that everything is doomed. his sgrub game, his friends, himself. but what he did wrong was not act against this knowledge, probably because of doom's seemingly strong sense of fate. sollux thought he couldn't do anything about it, and already having a long relationship with doom didnt really care to.

a more vague example is meulin leijon/the disciple, mage of heart. shes very active with her aspect, using her vast knowledge on the heart and romance especially to portray her friends in several pairings and fanfiction, exploring and projecting all that she knows about feelings in terms of the souls around her. albeit shipping real people isn't the best thing to do, meulin as a mage obviously just embraces her aspect, and sticks to what she knows. its not very known what effect this had on the alpha trolls' session, but it was either stunting or expanding on their session's heart, depending on how you view meulin's way of applying her knowledge.

the disciple was also a mage, and i believe her abilities and vast knowledge on the soul was used by her to actively help the signless, capture his feelings in text as much as she could.

breath

breath is an aspect representing wind, freedom, choice, and openness. breath players tend to be very flexible in almost any way! whether they're carefree, willing to be manipulated/follow, or detached and on their own path, this greatly reflects on breath players' sense of self and their ability to adapt.

john egbert is one of the best examples of a breath player. he was an heir of breath, inheriting breath and able to "provide it/provide through it". john was practically the most breath-embodying character in homestuck, being carefree and usually very easily bending to anyones will! this is shown through how he easily cooperated to vriska and was open with karkat, not paying mind to his insults or crabbiness.

especially with vriska! she was manipulating him at first, but overtime johns adaptability to vriskas intense personality let her open up to john, and because of his openness the two formed a strong mutual friendship. but later on in the session he started embodying more intense aspects of breath, such as a detachedness from the session and everyone else. overall, john is often maneuvering around from person to person throughout the session, while also being a very carefree and willing guy! ^_^ perfectly embodies both the positive & negative aspects of breath players.

tavros, page of breath, is a strong example in his own areas too! pages start out lacking in their aspect, with their challenge being to learn how to gain their full power, and thus full understanding and use over their aspect. tavros deeply wanted to become more self-confident and assertive, much like a breath player's standard qualities! but like more pages, he started out with more of the negative parts of his aspect, like how tavros easily bent to the will of vriska, being too flexible/cooperative.

rufioh, a rogue of breath, also has an interesting take on the aspect. he gathers breath for others, giving them the air to be carefree and open. this is shown by rufioh getting with horuss and letting him freely and often express himself in the relationship. but because rogues lack in supplying their aspect for themselves, rufioh struggled to be open about his negative feelings in their relationship and just let them fester. overall, he gave breath to others but not himself.

the mage of breath

now let's put these terms together! a mage of breath will have lived with all faces of breath for a long while. they're carefree, quickly adapting, and cooperative! but experiencing all aspects of breath includes the more stunting ones too, and with a mages intensity..

the mage of breath can be VERY hard to reach. at any sign, they'll pack up all their things in a matter of moments and leave even quicker, without a trace. they move from place to place, seemingly never being able to stay anywhere. this makes the mage naturally very distant, and even overly independent. they go their own path, but they stick to it at all costs no matter what! paired with their freedom, this can come off as carelessness to their allies...

mages are stubborn and can stick to the path of their aspect, but breath players are even more difficult to get off that path! the mage of breath's challenge is to learn when they need help and accept it, and that they don't have to do everything alone and/or distance themselves!

after beating their challenge, the mage of breath would be a super useful asset to their team, able to get around quickly and how they want. their open-mindedness and cooperativeness can then be used more freely, not to mention in a more positive breath-aspect way! ^_^

conclusion

OMG!!!!! that was actually such a huge word dump... but this classpect was sooso worth it, also im so happy with this entry tbh.... i hope you guys are too ^_^!!! lmk if youd like a classpect of your own analyzed, these are always such a treat to explore!

[m1ckeyb3rry]

hii mira !!

i have a question - how do u come up with or find inspiration for events that happen during a war-themed arc (like athyae)? asking cause im having a lot of trouble trying to formulate events during a war arc and im not rlly sure how to go about it in terms of pacing 🤕

(my mc is a nurse in the military and im trying to brainstorm how i can expand upon this but im not rlly sure where to go as of rn and this arc will last a little while, so im also not sure how to pace it)

hihi ray!! omg i’m so honored that you asked hehe i will do my best to help out!! i’m going to use SitH as an example because you mentioned it but if you want any clarification or anything on a finer point then you can ofc lmk 🫡

okayyy so with athyae i knew some basic things going into it since it canonically happens (kind of?? like it’s briefly mentioned in-verse) which helped me build from there. athyae is the only other place where the wine idea was utilized and i knew that i wanted y/n to be the one who came up with it because it would come back to haunt her. i also wanted y/n to battle with the propaganda/brainwashing that we know from canon is used by marley, which is where the idea for the amatas was conceived, and i always knew xanthe was going to die. at first, xanthe’s death was meant to show y/n that marley isn’t all that, but i changed it to be her fault to kickstart her mental deterioration into being fine with suggesting genocide. that is to say — i had a character, and i knew i needed her to eventually do some crazy shit, so i needed to come up with a plausible sequence of events to get her to that point. from there, it was all about guiding her to what i needed from her!!

it’s jarring for readers as well as characters if you thrust them into things with zero warning. that doesn’t mean that you can’t play with tonal shifts and whatnot, but it should be subtle, especially if you’re going from a more lighthearted setting into war. with athyae, i accomplished that via the declaration of war and general magath’s scare tactics abt what the athyaens would do to them if they were captured, as well as the newspaper that friedrich and colt read about the hanged scout. that part of the arc is still mostly lighter (friedrich’s infamous “call him daddy and mean it”, y/n describing how beautiful athyae is, the introduction of cordelia and the little jealousy subplot), but there are inklings of what’s to come being sprinkled in. that’s why, when you get hit with the baby scene, it still feels like things have taken a dramatic turn, but also not in a random way that’s just for shock value?? idk if that makes sense lol

so to sum up the last two points i would say a) know WHY you’re writing a story set in a war. why does your character specifically have to work in the military?? could they be a nurse anywhere else?? if you can firmly say that your story/plot would be completely different if there wasn’t a war happening you’re on a good track. from there, have an idea of one or two key things that you NEED to happen in the arc and that pretty much define it. then go through and think about how you can get your character into a situation where those key events feel plausible, and structure your story so that the buildup feels natural instead of out of the blue.

in terms of coming up with specific events (in athyae: the baby scene, the burning of the village, marek’s torture, etc etc), there really is no greater inspiration than history. now obviously it won’t be word for word — it’s not like there were titans and spinal fluid in wwii, which is mostly what i researched for athyae given the time period, but looking at past examples of wars gives you a feel for how many atrocities humans are capable of, which is much more relevant. there’s no event in history that i could see directly aligns with the fall of the athyaen capital, but assimilating my knowledge of the show with various tidbits about past conflicts helped me come up with something that felt authentic. the same goes for marek’s torture, which tbf we only find out abt post-war but since your character is a nurse they will probably encounter more marek’s than not — i researched various torture methods until i settled on a few that made sense given the attitudes towards eldians and the technology of the time, as well as what they were trying to gain from him. you’ll probably have to put “historical” in front of “torture methods” otherwise you’ll mostly get government websites talking about how torture is no longer legal. also, scrolling through the geneva convention and seeing some of the things that are outlawed in it should also provide ideas (depending on how dark you’re wanting to go).

in terms of pacing, i would suggest splitting a war arc into smaller arcs!! athyae was two, and the mid-east arc (which i never wrote but did plan) was seven, with each smaller arc only lasting about 5 chapters (i average about 5-7k words per chapter, so that puts each smaller arc at roughly 25-35k words each, give or take, ymmv). for athyae, i split it into ‘war on athyae’ and ‘defeat of athyae’. the separation allowed me to focus on the particular goal of the smaller arc super well and made the overall athyae arc feel more cohesive, as each portion of the war was given due attention. each mini arc gets an ‘inciting event’ that it’s named for (with ‘defeat of athyae’ it was the wine idea) and that the rest of the chapters are built around; this event can be at any moment in during the mini arc, but it should really be the focal point that dramatically changes the way the arc goes. for ‘defeat of athyae’ it was the wine idea; for ‘war on athyae’ it was y/n staying with the amatas. by boiling a larger arc down into these very rough mini arcs with focal points, you can ensure you give yourself enough space to handle the events that NEED to happen while also having the freedom to ad-lib as you go along and change things up if your story insists on going in a different direction

i hope this was a little bit helpful!! hehe i think a lot of the times too i’ve looked an outline and been like “yeah this’ll be 3k words max” and then it ends up being twice or thrice that length because i always underestimate how much ‘chapter space’ things like internal monologues and descriptions take up. so honestly pacing might come more naturally than you expect!! but anyways pls lmk if this was what you needed or if you have any other questions you’d like me to answer, i will do my best 💖

[dispatchwithlove]

I am in love with your portrayal of Nihlus in Avenilin. He's so naughty, but in this kind of scoundrel-esque refined way that makes you want to get him naked and slap him at the same time

Omg 😂 You have no idea how much I loved receiving this comment. I laughed out loud and I’m so proud my idea of Nihlus has been picked up and explained so perfectly. Yes he is a refined a scoundrel! A cultured man of sexy mischief. He would love to stripped and slapped! lol. I’m hoping to expand this story into a Shep/Garrus/Nihlus fic and Garrus has a line where he’s exasperated and tells Nihlus “Get over here and kiss me before I hit you.”

And if you don’t mind I’d love to work in a flustered Garrus calling Nih a scoundrel thinking it’s an insult but it just turns Nih on. Ugh, I need more fic writing time. I’m working on a canon verse fic where Shepard has amnesia and runs into Archangel, alongside my detective au, but once I’m done with the amnesia fic maybe I’ll start working on the Shep/Garrus/Nihlus fic.

Thanks for the comment Anon! Avinelin is my little underdog treasure and I get so giddy when someone reads it and tells me they enjoyed it.

For anyone who enjoys sexy bratty men, or turian language world building, you can read Avinelin here

[cryptophasiac]

Sorry to just randomly jump into your inbox but I just need you to know that your a/b/xo verse is genuinely the most important piece of modern writing on earth to me............. every new chapter you post is a GIFT and I am obsessed with thinking about Pete and Patrick in that world......... idk how much you've thought about how the universe expands and of course feel free to ignore this but I would LOVE to know your thoughts on how the future might unspool for them...... like........ navigating the hiatus??????? current tourdust dads????? The number of kids they will have??????? Just thinking about it I am screaming but obviously no pressure to share and thank you of course for writing this perfect story into existence that I will never stop thinking about 💕💕💕💕💕

omg PLEASE randomly jump into my inbox!! you are so kind ilysm for that 🤍 i’m glad i’m not the only one w omega!babytrick brainrot disease. i’ve planned installments through the end of the hiatus so there’ll be lore. trust me there will be lore. obvi i have to actually write them but once we get there i hope everybody will be happy w it!! (Spoiler: they have two or three kids. i haven’t decided yet. while they’re plagued by a breeding kink that will never go away they’re gonna try and be more responsible w their family planning in the future)

ps: speaking of smfs i j realized that fall out baby would be 19 almost 20 today. that’s one year younger than me wow. (and also the age at which patrick had them. that’s gotta make him emotional lol)

[helldustedstories]

@fizzarollitm asked: ⭐ ( for @hlylight & here )

Send me a ⭐ and I’ll tell you muses I want to throw your way! // Pretty much always accepting, tbh!

Oh, I have so many thoughts and ideas. Both for Fizz and everyone else.

Starting with Fizz!

There's the obvious, of course, with Fizz and Ozzie. Basically give me all of the things. I want to write their first meeting, falling in love, figuring out how they're gonna make things work, how they fit together (emotionally, physically, literally anything), Ozzie realizing oh holy shit this is different from anything I've ever experienced and I don't ever want to be without this person, and beyond. All the missing scenes we haven't gotten, and figuring things out in the future. Basically, just give me all the Fizzarozzie.

I know you've got your Hazbin verse, so it could be fun to throw any of my Hazbin characters at Fizz! He and Angel would probably bond, like we've talked about at least a little bit, I would have to figure Husk out but I could manage that, Lucifer would probably say something about Looloo Land, and then he'd appreciate Fizz for his craft, and probably make him a duck.

For Moxxie, there are actually a few different possibilities, both based in canon and potentially pre-canon (and of course, the cinematic AUniverse). So Moxxie was working for his dad before I.M.P., as we know, in Greed. Which means he could potentially run into Fizz somewhere. Do I have more than that off the top of my head? Not right this second, but there are possibilities! And then, more based in canon, Blitz could send Moxx to help Fizz out with something, or Moxx could volunteer or what have you. Lots of potential! And that is just expanded on in the AU. ^^ They could get along, I think!

For Tex, if Fizz and Verosika know one another, there's an easy connection there. He could even help bodyguard at some point if needed. Or we can come up with other things if you want Tex. ^^ Otherwise, we have plenty of other options.

And down to Stolas (of my canon characters)! We've already talked about a few things with him, and just give me all the things. I want them to talk and bond and become friends (especially in the circus AU, along with everything we've talked about for that. ^^). Stolas post-divorce is already exploring his own style since he can, and Fizz can help with that and a lot of other things, honestly. And they can just chat and bond over both having a lot of trauma. Stolas is very good at holding space for other people.

Omg, please, Fizz and Echo could be such interesting friends, potentially. Their main job is gathering information, so they could easily be working for Fizz or bringing Fizz info on Ozzie's behalf. Echo tends to sort of mirror people's energy, since they're a shapeshifter, so it's always interesting if/when people are able to sort of see past that mask, which it feels like Fizz would be able to do.

And now that I've gone overboard, onto hlylight!

For Lilith: The obvious options are Charlie and Lucifer. Exploring those dynamics is going to be so interesting. Charlie looks up to her mom so much and is so afraid of letting her down, of disappointing her. And exploring where and how things went with Lucifer and Lilith is such a fascinating dynamic, really. And you know I will throw pretty much anyone your way. Though Cain would also be interesting to interact with Lilith, actually. First woman, firstborn son? Having them interact could be fun.

For Sera: Pre-fall Lucifer!! I love exploring what he was like as an angel, especially as he interacts with other angels. And even post-fall, too! There's so much to explore and figure out, and I think that would be excellent. Charlie could interact with her too, to some extent. Oh, oh, and Cain. If she ever went to earth, she could potentially interact with him, which could be really fun to explore. Also pre-fall Ozzie!! There are so many delightful possibilities, and I want to expand and explore all of the things and build lore.

For Angel: *grabby hands* All the things! I wanna throw everyone at him: Charlie, Husk, Lucifer. I could probably also come up with ideas for Stolas, Moxxie, and Ozzie, at the very least. I already have some thoughts, actually, SO YES. Give me all of the things and let me love him.

Bel: I need to get off my butt and reply to the stuff with Stolas, 'cause I'm very much looking forward to those threads. ^^ Obviously, I want things with Lucifer and Ozzie, both pre- and post-fall. Figuring out their dynamic, how it changes, how it's the same, all of it. Echo again is someone that I can kind of throw in anywhere, so if Bel needs information on anything that she can't find on her own, call your local shapeshifter.

Husk: More of all of the things. Have him interact with Angel, with Charlie, Lucifer. I can figure out ways to throw other people at him, too. ^^ Echo is always good for throwing at people as previously mentioned, since they can blend in and all that jazz. One of my other OCs is a club musician, so he could potentially have played in Husk's club/casino back when he was an overlord and such. Lots of possibilities!

So these are just kind of off the top of my head, but if you have an idea, I am always down to throw pretty much anyone your way all the time.

[izzyizumi]

{Digimon Adventure} x tri. {“Kyousei”} [Movie #5] ~ “Lost Time Memory” Featuring Ship: (Implied) Koushiro x Taichi {KouTai} (x Meiko in Spinoff AUs?) Don’t mind me, just comparing Digimon Adventure tri’s Meiko and Taichi Yagami in a NOT-SO-SUBTLE way

and say what you will about Tri, Meiko and Tri!Taichi’s storyline but

I still have a lot of thoughts and feelings re: THESE THINGS / THEIR ISSUES

[ mini-interlude (instrumental) from my “Lost Time Memory” Digimon AUs amv ] (except tbh these scenes are canon regardless if my intention was “AUs”...) {Please view the full video at link for better quality/high definition!!} (or click the “HD” button on the bottom right of the tumblr video player above)

[Trigger Warnings: the canon for Meiko (and to an extent TAICHI) may be implying certain things re: SELF-SACRIFICES (for the sake of their friends?) THOUGH I’m still not sure if the canon is actually one hundred percent implying these things or not but, JUST in case they ever do clarify someday...]

( you may want to compare+contrast the new short story film “ To Sora ” ) [ and Sora’s OWN issues in it ... ]

{ Additional note: While the focus of this clip is TAICHI & MEIKO, the AMV/fanwork was mainly intended TAICHI x KOUSHIRO [Taishiro], please remember + respect this when interacting At the same time the canon maybe does heavily imply Meichi and I don’t mind having TaiKouMei OT3/polyship existing in my ‘verses either so while I won’t mind if you read Meichi into this as well, just please note the above + don’t consider this exclusively “Meichi”, thank you! }

{ PLEASE DO NOT INTERACT WITH THIS POST IF YOU ARE LGBTQIAPN+phobic in ANY WAY } [ Please read my “about” and “FAQ” pages for more on this. ] { IF I NOTICE OTHERWISE, YOU WILL BE BLOCKED. DON’T DO IT. }

[ note: commenting/tagging respecfully/positively is ok ! ] ( though this post is more just a side/personal commentary I think ... )

[honeytae]

if you’re open for regular requests i’d love to request lil scenarios of the boys learning english alongside their english-speaking s/o! this is totally self-indulgent i’m doing the TEFL program and i’m going to south korea next year to teach :)

first of all, that’s amazing omg!! congratulations my love, i hope you have the best time over there and please don’t be shy in sharing your stories with us!!! i tried to stick to the boys actually learning english with their s/o but i strayed from that with a few members just bc i ran out of ideas lol but i hope you still enjoy!

fair warning....i’ve never ~seriously~ tried to learn korean, so i’m not entirely certain of the parallels between korean and english. i just hope these are wholesome enough to override that lmao

namjoon:

“You know,” Namjoon looked up from his phone, “I understand expanding your vocabulary, but why are there so many weird slang words?”

“Kids these days?” You shrugged, the man chuckling in response before flipping his phone around to show you what had puzzled him.

“If something slaps, that’s...good?” He wondered, watching as you suppressed a smile at the tweet he was showing you.

You could tell by the profile picture that the user was an ARMY, one of the many fan profiles on the platform, and the tweet was written completely in English.

Although there was a ‘Translate to Korean’ option readily available with just a tap of his thumb, you knew Namjoon never missed an opportunity to challenge himself to be able to fully comprehend what a native English speaker was trying to say.

You nearly snorted at the tweet’s content, smiling as you read it out loud.

“The Dis-ease bridge just saved my life. Seriously, this song slaps.”

Glancing at Namjoon, he raised his eyebrows, eagerly waiting for you to translate and explain what that could equate to in Korean.

“It’s definitely a good thing, Joon. They love it.”

At your interpretation, Namjoon grinned, nodding to himself as he pulled his phone back in front of his face to scroll through more reaction tweets to the new album release.

seokjin:

“What the hell is that?”

You picked your head up from your sketchbook when you heard Seokjin whine from beside you, eyebrows knitting together at his distressed tone. Taking a glance over at his laptop screen, you found his mouse bouncing from letter to letter on one of his weekly english lessons.

“What is that, like 15 letters? How do you even use that in a sentence?” He went on, obviously flustered by the word on the screen.

Pulchritudinous.

You placed your hand over his to stop his panicked counting of the letters, causing him to look over at you with a sigh as he frowned.

You nearly giggled at his reaction, but the genuine fear in his eyes made you stifle it as you soothingly held his hands in yours. 

“It’s just an over complicated way of saying beautiful. I don’t know why they’re teaching you that, nobody ever uses it.” You assured him, his eyes going down in size a bit at your words before he nodded.

Watching as a smirk tilted his lips, you raised your brows at the sudden expression.

“What?”

“Well like, I could say I’m...that?” He said, eyebrows raised cockily as he gestured to the long word stretched across the screen.

“Well it’s actually not used like,” you paused, giving in with a shrug as you grinned back at him.

“Sure, love.”

yoongi:

“Why did I skip English class all the time?” Yoongi sighed, pinching his bottom lip between his fingers as he plucked at the skin in frustration.

“Because you were trying to be a rebel.” You answered without looking up from your phone, the man obviously not liking your answer as he reached over to where you were laying beside him to pinch at your hip.

Yelping, you scooted across the mattress to get away from his hand, whining his name with a scoff before looking over at his notepad.

“What are you doing, anyway?” You asked, leaning on your palm as you scanned the rows of scribbled English letters written on the page.

“I’m trying to get better at writing.” He admitted shyly, a small grin on his face to match the fond one on your own. 

“Aw,” you pouted, Yoongi raising his eyebrows at your tone, “but I like your chicken scratch.”

“You’re such a brat.” He chuckled, adjusting the velcro on his brace with a grunt.

Since Yoongi’s shoulder surgery took away obvious straining activities like dancing and performing, he’d turned to studying English from the comfort of your bed during his recovery as one of the only safe activities he could partake in for a while.

It was now one of his favorite past times, learning new words and phrases he could potentially use in the future. It worked for you both because it took his mind off the pain and kept him motivated, and since you could speak both his and your language, you could help him out whenever he got stuck on something.

Usually he did lessons verbally on his phone, but it seemed today he had taken the old fashioned route.

“Your handwriting really isn’t bad, Yoongs.” You observed, the carefully placed tails at the end of each ‘a’ making you smile out of fondness for the man.

“My man has the prettiest handwriting.” You cooed, pushing a strand of his stark black hair out of his eyes as he blushed down at his notebook.

“Stop that.”

hoseok:

“Hey, babe?” Hoseok called for you, listening to your footsteps growing closer before you popped your head into the kitchen doorway.

“Yeah?”

“I’m having a little trouble.” He gestured to his open laptop on the counter, you recognizing it as an assignment from his English course.

“What happened?”

“Pronouns. Pronouns happened.” He pouted, his disdain for the new chapter quite obvious as he stared down his computer screen.

“What about them?” You asked, stepping closer to the man sitting at the kitchen island and placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“I need to make ten sentences using proper pronouns and I feel like I’m doing it all wrong.” He explained, causing you to hum as you looked over his sentences.

“These look great, Hobi.” You smiled as you glanced over the first three he’d written, flawlessly executed on the document.

“Can you help me with the next one?” He wondered, you nodding your head as you took a seat on the stool next to his.

“What do you want the next one to say?” You asked, watching as he glanced off to the side in thought, slightly squinting his eyes at the tile floor beneath the sink.

“My house is next to,” He spoke in English, pausing as he searched his brain for what pronoun to put next.

“Theys?” He answered as more of a question, then shaking his head as he switched back to Korean, “wait, no.” He sighed, placing his chin in his hand in thought before glancing over to you.

“I know it’s wrong, I just don’t know what the right answer is instead.” He explained, you shooting him a loving smile as you pushed the dark raven hair off his forehead and pressed a kiss to the newly revealed skin.

“I’ll help you, Sunshine. No worries.”

jimin:

Flopping onto the bed, you let your tired body fall on top of Jimin’s hoodie clad chest, his arm encircling your body as he mumbled a soft greeting to you.

“Hm, what are you learning about today?” You nuzzled into his chest, peering at his phone propped up on his thigh.

“Animals. Birds, mostly.” He answered, briefly turning from the screen to press a kiss to your head before focusing back on the row of English words matched with pictures of popular birds glowing from the device.

The first was a robin, the next a blue jay, and then a dove.

You listened as the virtual instructor prompted Jimin to repeat after her, spelling out the letters before stating the whole word. You smiled as your boyfriend followed instruction, pronouncing the words the best he could after the microphone chimed for him to do so.

“D-o-v-e. Dove.”

“Dove.” He repeated, smiling to himself as the app announced he got the point with a little heart.

“That’s cute.” He went back to his native language, you humming in confusion as you lifted your head up off his chest to look at him.

“The heart?” You asked, reaching up to twist a stray strand of hair out of his eye as he shook his head.

“Dove.” He said again, making you tilt your head, not knowing what he meant.

“It sounds like ‘love.’” He connected the two English words, you smiling fondly at him in response before scooting up the bed to kiss the tip of his button nose.

“You’re so cute.”

taehyung:

Three knocks at the door announced someone’s arrival to your bedroom, causing your head to lift from the novel you’d been so immersed in. Taehyung was home, but you’d wanted to give him space because you knew he needed to work on lyrics for his mixtape in order to submit them on time. 

“Hey,” he poked his head in with a small smile, “can you help me with something?” He asked sheepishly, stepping further into the room when you nodded.

“Of course. What is it?” You set your book down, marking your place before closing it to pay full attention to your boyfriend.

“Well, I’m trying to write this verse in English and,” he trailed off with a shrug, “you know.” He finished, you nodding in response with a gesture for him to come sit next to you.

He eagerly walked over to you with his notebook in hand, lowering himself to the mattress before rolling his way over to where you were leaning against the headboard.

Honestly, Taehyung’s English wasn’t bad at all. He was insecure about it, but you’d never really understood what the reason for that feeling was. His vocabulary was more than decent, his comprehension was good, and his pronunciation was great for having such a thick accent.

But there were many times where Taehyung came to you for guidance, as you were a native English speaker yourself.

And so, as he rested his head on your shoulder confiding in you about everything he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it, you patiently took him through what would work and rhyme best, smiling as he hummed the melody to himself to see if the phrases would work in his creation.

jungkook:

“Baby, can you read it to me again before we go on? Just one more time.”

You glanced over at your boyfriend in his makeup chair, several employees bustling around the man as they attempted to get him ready to go on stage while they had him seated.

With his arm extended backward to where you stood behind his leather chair, he offered his phone to you while shooting you a grin through the reflection in the mirror.

Taking the device from his hand, you opened it to the notes app where he’d written what he wanted to say in his statement on stage in just a few minutes.

You were in London tonight, which meant that all of the boys had been rehearsing their English so that they could communicate easier with their audience.

Jungkook, ever the over-achiever, was determined to do the toughest English tongue twister he could possibly find. Not only that, but in a British accent for his British ARMY’s.

“Betty bought a bit of better butter to make her bitter butter better.” You read from the phone, barely able to read the sentence yourself before you glanced up at Jungkook through the mirror again.

You watched your boyfriend nod as his brain took in the words you’d just said, taking a deep inhale before he began speaking the phrase back to you.

You gawked as the man effortlessly repeated after you, a few of the makeup artists stopping as well as Jungkook raised his eyebrows back at you.

“Was that okay?”

[romancemoon]

🙌🙌

✨ @debtwon. meme. still accepting!

🌙 @meyvn my luv aka mack is the other light of my life and nooj is f*ckinggg incredible.... i hate that im the only old jrpg playing weeb within my radius with most people i kno because i feel like insane when i talk about vi’s og verse aka the best one aka final fantasy x... and thankfully i can keep it alive with my verses w. mack and their nooj... nooj is a really cool character... a headstrong warrior whose body was blown apart in combat, reassembled with metal parts, and climbed his way to being the new leader of the world basically but like also he was possessed..... anyway he’s rly sexy and fun and cool and kinda mean lol. 

mack portrays nooj so well... square didnt do much to flesh him out which sucks because they had a lot of potential to expand him as a person. but mack has made him feel alive... and like a fully realized character given the respect he deserves. side note we’ve been writing our muses together since 2017 :))) we plotted them out to be childhood friends separated and reunited under grief... and then they fell in love heehee but that took a really long time to get to lol. like. years of writing them. its my oldest ship... anyway back to nooj.

nooj is a quiet guy........ he tells awful jokes when u least expect it and he’s kind of an asshole but he’s quiet and it’d be pretty easy to fuck that up but mack omg -___- a master. a genius. mack has handled nooj with a sense of style and grace i cannot imagine anyone else having. she gave nooj something he sorely needed in canon. a life. an actual life with people in it and a family and feelings about them and the events happening in the world.

✨ @tckkis omg bun and hana.... bun i kno u’ve been kinda absent around these parts but hana is so......... *clenches fist* that’s vi’s sister...... not by birth but by soul. all they do is bully each other and do stupid shit and i love it.

hana’s a really fun muse.... her energy is contagious and sweet and fun. but it’s also really nice to see those sides of her that are soft and serious. she deserves and world and bun is a gem for writing her. i dont know shit about overwatch...... so i cant really make commentary on like the whole backstory and how the canon divergence compares to og canon but i do know that whenever hana is in the building im just like......... that’s bun’s oc. and you know hana is such a down-to-earth kinda gal.... like threads w. her is like ur hanging out with ur best friend.

and ur best friend is trying to convince u to do something stupid heehee. its really cool having threads with vi and hana. because vi’s unusually perky in them but that’s just hana’s energy and the way she’s written. which is brilliant. bun writes hana with such a delightful sense of humor. its big and warm and fun.... anyway.... smoochezzz 2 both.

[m1ckeyb3rry]

This wasn’t supposed to take me that long to reply to but I got mobbed by irl shit but um anyways

No because that’s what I’m saying idk why there’s a need to give everyone a backstory and make everyone relevant instead of focusing on better developing a certain set of people like realistically unless they’re really going to expand on the whole bllkverse post-Isagi protag storyline which is highly unlikely….

LMAOOOOO speaking of my comment from earlier too lowk I bet Kunigami could pop out something sassy every now and then!! Gives you an excuse to keep the non-ginger male lead streak going LOL

But FRRRRR the fact that they all acknowledge he’d treat a girl right so real and literally I’m ngl I laughed off the ln as a goofy moment like lmaooo ok no social skills bros stalking but WHAT WAS THAT PROFILE??? Literally jaw on the floor speechless I’m going to pretend I didn’t read that

Otoya would be so happy that eightbit is hyping him up sm I need more scenes of that for Karasu too I’m lowk a little sad the pose of him standing on (?) the ball just didn’t have the same vibe as the manga (don’t get me wrong still not bad but ykwim)

LMAOOO shippers will fr take whatever crumb of interaction (or even lack thereof) they can get im crying though I still can’t get over how a sukuna ship found its way to bllk

Wait I’m also still not over that how did not a single soul request nagi???? Ngl maybe I should’ve sent one in I was under the assumption that he would’ve been a no brained though so uh. But LMAOO it’s funny reading this in hindsight so I guess you’ve settled on an otoya req it seems it’s back to otoyalations everyone

BAROU???????? HIDDEN BAROU CAMEO lmao I’m crying you really said “yeah no romance for Kunigami”

OH HEAH I SAW THAT you’d be glad to know that when I saw that my first thought was hollyhock before anything else LMAOOOOO Omg but Rin being hollyhock y/n’s number one fan I can see it thatd be so funny

LMAO the next sae one you have to make should be that really…um..interestingly proportioned one…from like the first few chapters of the manga (I’m pretty certain I passed by a goofy post of yours with it somewhat recently)

Karasu flying across the field to jump on his teammates back and hype up the goals LMAOOO truly THE biggest bird on the field (I’m thinking of a very specific tiktok audio that I haven’t heard in awhile so if you know which one I’d be pretty impressed)

So real I’m also planning to watch it all in one go maybe even along with s1?? Actually maybe this calls for episode nagi then s1 then s2 bllk marathon LOL but wait you’re right I didn’t pay attention before but Rin and otoya lowk giving emo twins?? If we didn’t know otoyas personality he’d look so emo LMFAO

- Karasu anon

AHAHAA IT’S OKAY i randomly fell asleep instead of responding to this it happens i’m kinda bad abt punctual replies too sometimes so trust i will never judge 🔥

OKAY BUT LISTEN if kaneshiro wants to give us episode karasu i won’t mind /j on the fr side yeah i think ensemble casts are difficult to work with as is and the more you expand the worse that gets!! i mean people are still hoping for KIRA to come back and bro was in ONE EP 😭 so there’s rlly no need for so many characters to be given “depth” (depth which ironically makes them feel shallower at times) it’s okay for some to just be filler with surface level lore

HELP OKAY SOMEBODY COMMENTED SENDOU ON THAT POST AND IT OPENED MY THIRD EYE??? idgaf abt sendou so i didn’t even think about him but he’s literally PERFECT for the role omg like he’s so boyfailure boyfriend-in-law with silly slightly sassy advice (secondhand aikulations perhaps??) PLUS because he’s friends w aiku he def would have relevant opinions on otoya DHFSJAJ not that that’s a prerequisite because his role is rlly small like i said but it gives in verse depth to it

NO LITERALLY at first i was like oh haha cute he just wants to be friends with karasu but he doesn’t know how…now i’m like NAH GET KARASU IN WITNESS PROTECTION ASAP 😭🙏🏻 /j anyways yeah everyone acknowledging that karasu would treat a lady right YUP love to see it he absolutely would and we love him for that (i miss my handsome glorious king why’d i have to get inspired for otoya before him 😒)

YEAHH i feel like they took a bit of karasu’s smugness away almost?? he’s still cocky and analytical and talented and stuff but i feel like he’s not giving that same smug villainy vibe that he had in the manga LMAOAOA it made isagi’s infamous line not hit as much because now it just looks like he’s crashing out due to karasu being better than him and calling him out on being weak meanwhile in the manga you can def tell that karasu actively looks DOWN on isagi yk so the “he’s…a villain 😨” line makes a bit more sense there

NO LITERALLY I THOUGHT NAGI WAS A SURE SHOT I CANNOT BELIEVE NO ONE REQUESTED FOR HIM 😭 forever in shock that the wider public associates me with SAE over NAGI 😱 and yeah i used that ugly ass panel for my hbd sae post (felt obligated since i’m an honorary sae blog) DJSIHDJS HE LOOKS SO WEIRD IN IT i never ever want to see a sae fan complaining abt the anime they yassified him SO MUCH in season 1 all of them have to be on their knees thanking 8bit 🙂‍↕️ and actually nope HAHA i don’t even have any otoya reqs in my inbox surprisingly i was just inspired on my own…let’s just saw we can call this one based on true events 🙏🏻 once i post and we debrief i’ll lyk what parts have and have not actually happened to me FKFHSJAN anyways yeah this is more of a karasu bfb “i have an idea and a character and i’m just going to see where it goes” vibe than it is a specific prompt or anything!! just writing smth silly for me…it’s what i deserve after that kaiser req 😰 HOPEFULLY IT DOESN’T TAKE AS LONG/END UP AS LONG AS KARASU BFB THOUGH i feel like i’m jinxing myself now so just keep your fingers crossed for me and my sanity 🤞🏻

HIDDEN BAROU CAMEO and the boy that died at reader’s uncle’s hand was also loosely based off of niko!! we fr got the entire oaeu up in this bitch ig this is what they do when aiku’s not home 😭 NO ROMANCE FOR THE LEPRECHAUN ONG 🔥

HOLLYHOCK MENTION LFG yeah omg rin would actually def stan her and she would probably love him for that…omg isekai rin x hollyhock reader when?? imagine he’s hit by a soccer ball to the head (probs by shidou) instead of a bus and he ends up in yukimiya’s body on the day yuki sends otoya after the hiiragi’s so he ends up changing the timeline around so he can fall in love w reader instead of the “lukewarm ninja bastard” bonus points if she ends up with karasu due to his meddling instead because gardener swordsman karasu 😫 /hj

THAT ONE AUDIO THAT’S LIKE “i’m the biggest bird i’m the biggest bird” RIGHT?? LMAOAO I HAVE BEENNN CHRONICALLY ON TIK TOK FOR YEARS NOW OFC IKWYM!! speaking of which i have more to show you 😜 but anyways yeah it’s hilarious how he just ends up there and nobody even questions it…ig he’s rlly competitive and stuff so it makes sense that he’d consistently be getting the most hype plus he’s one of the characters that seems to get along w everyone at the same level??? like barou didn’t seem to be mad abt him doing the arm-around-the-neck thing (tbf he only rlly cared abt getting nagi off atp), isagi seems to find him chill, he was getting along with reo/aryu/tokimitsu (as well as yuki and otoya ofc) during their “economics of bllk” meeting, and he somehow even managed to be friends with NAGI when they were all in the arcade which given how standoffish nagi can be is saying smth ☝🏻 truly he is so beloved by the fandom and the characters alike

YUP MY PLAN EXACTLY i’ll probably do epinagi -> s1 (since epinagi glosses over a lot of second selection which is the best part of s1) -> s2 rewatch…yeah otoya gives emo just as much as rin they lowkey have the same hair just diff colors HAHAHA omg wait i saw a tik tok MONTHS ago talking about how niko watches anime and wondering if he freaked out when he saw nagi because he knows that white haired characters are always insanely talented and to extrapolate on that i wonder if he felt the same at seeing otoya 😭 even though otoya doesn’t rlly give white hair energy tbh i forget most of his hair is pale because i so heavily associate him with the Green ™️

OKOK MORE TIK TOKS again you’ve probably seen a lot of them but OH WELL you will see them again 🔥:

KARASU MEME had me crying it’s too real…fr giving “shidou…isagi…stop 🥺🥺🥺 this isn’t you 🥺🥺🥺“

kaiser slander so truly refreshing to see on the fyp even if it is isagi committing it…enemy of my enemy is my friend ig

okay this edit is making me consider aikuism fr JSBXSJBS why’s he kinda…like that one panel of him catching the ball w his chest…NOPE anyways we MUST STAY STRONG 😭🙏🏻 dw he’s still in the problematic bestie zone for me but now he’s like a problematic bestie that i have weird tension with and everyone’s lowkey like yo is smth going on and we’re both like nahhh that’s my homeboy!! but like. ARE we just homeboys???

THE WAY KARASU SAYS ISAGI’S NAME DJFHSHSJS ISAGI MOVEEEE IT’S MY TURN

LORENZO MEME idk why this is just making me laugh this is def smth he would do in the oaeu though specially at aiku (and niko who literally did nothing but got involved by accident)

[caffernnn]

Yeah hi again! More tsoa au snippets anyone?

Now that i think about it, albert could be apollo in tsoa, so imagine him taking a look at makoto climbing the walls of troy, disdainfully raises his nose, spits "puny little mortal" and flicks him off the wall with godly telekinetic powers to be killed by our hector, which is hiyori; i mean albert is already symbolized as a god in canon.

Kinjou could be the dickwad pyrrhus since people refer to pyrrhus as achilles without his patroclus, and kinjou is hinted to have given up personal relationships in order to be a stronger swimmer, and fans theorize him to be creating a rift between haru and mako, so yea...there's that. He could be our proud, arrogant, homophobic lil shit pyrrhus who thinks everybody should be like him- friendless and glory-hungry.

AJHSAKDJSK I WANT TO SEE THE CONFRONTATION BETWEEN BRISEIS AND PATROCLUS AS KISUMI AND HARU!!! Imagine haru being mad at kisumi for daring to touch makoto even after his death, when all kisumi wanted to do was clean him since he doesn't deserve to lie in filth, and haru goes apeshit that nobody should touch his makoto and kisumi goes "you're not the only one who ever loved him!!". Kisumi goes on to rant that haru only cares about chasing his honor and that makoto only died to save his reputation, which i got from a prompt under the #kisumako tag where kisumi confronts haru about how makoto chose him instead of kisumi even though he only takes makoto for granted, then jabs haru with "i wish hiyori kills you tomorrow" and haru goes "do you not think i wish the same?" Omg I'm just quoting from the book at this point I'm so sorry 🤭🤭😅😅✌✌✌

I have an idea on how to include the fireworks scen to the scene where patroclus convinces achilles to fight and save the greeks where haru goes "not you too! Do you not see how they don't care for me?!?!" Or like how they are only nice when they need him smth like that and makoto drops the bomb "then let me fight in your stead" and haru goes on an an Achilles-like tantrum "ask me of anything, but not this!!!" Anw that's not the whole dialogue but haru relents in the end.

Imahine hharu arriving in the underworld expecting to find makoto waiting for him only to be unable to find him even after an eternity of searching, so finally breaks, like the fireworks aftermath where he looked like he just got dumped by his bf, and ge curls into himself, realizing he may have lost makoto forever (again)

I just can't stop thinking how the gay panic nao gave makoto is very similar to odysseus' "sharing beds is gay" comment, so imagine makoto, who followed haru everywhere and shared everything with him, suddenly distancing himself and sleeping outside their tent because he feels that he cannot let the entire army they are gay, especially haru, the best of the greeks, so haru confronts him "what's wrong?" And then they resolve by saying "let them think what they want" or "i will not let them hinder us" or "we don't have to change" smth like that and proceeds to do their nightly cuddle, kinda like the dolphin courtship ritual they performed at the pool.

Aaahhh i just want to expand on phoinix's (that would be mikhail???) story about the king who supposedly was forced to choose between his pride or people he rules, and he chose his pride, even with the king's wife (best friend, in this context??? The king in the story would be ryuuji) and did not help his people win the war so his people turned against him. The wife's name sounds like patroclus, and so phoinix was hinting that only makoto could talk haru into fighting. Makoto had to fight, which results to angst, since haru chose his pride, much like the king (pls let this not be what happens in the movie kyoani we beg you)

So that's it. I'll send more when the ideas come. I swear i will try to turn this into a fic if i ever get out of my slump. IF ���😫😫

Patrochilles AU fans, come get y’all’s juice 💕

It’s always so interesting to see people explore Haru’s relationship with his own pride because it’s definitely multidimensional. There are so many characters who fall victim to their own hubris or struggle with it more externally (the people who appear as antagonists or rivals to Haru both in canon and in different AUs), but it feels more complicated with Haru, at least to me. His pride doesn’t manifest through Haru boasting about his talents or trying to control/lead people, especially early on in his story - the moment(s) his self-esteem shifts into a double-edged pride is when his belief in his current successes and happiness stops him and the people around him from growing and changing. That’s his downfall. My thoughts from my own Free! x Hadestown AU are sporadic at best, but this verse always makes me think about Haru, especially his descent into hopelessness during ES:

Haru falls apart when he clings to his vision of comfort and happiness and forgets the ever-changing life involved in that scene. He holds onto the life he has with Makoto, the life he has with his friends, the life he has swimming however or whenever he wants to… and he blinds himself from the reality that everything evolves and continues to change. His pride comes out in his desperate delusion that he can stop the hands of time through willpower and refusing to watch time go by. He’s definitely not the only one going through this sort of internal battle (I’d argue many of the “antagonist” characters go through similar struggles) but it’s the one we arguably get the most insight on.

ALSO: I love Haru dearly but I also love seeing characters pull himself out of his own head for a bit. That Kisumi interaction to remind Haru that Makoto was loved by a lot of people? Knowing Makoto often holds himself back when it comes to Haru because he’s almost too aware of Haru being watched by the world around them?? There’s so much there to explore I just !!!!

I’m rambling, but thanks for sharing as always!

[trashcankitty12]

omg thank you so much for answering! 😅 i have another ask about the origins of the ancestral witches, how did they come about? was darkar involved in their birth or even growing up? how did they end up working with/for darkar? and how did their childhood affect their mothering for valtor?

Okay, so in my head, and in my verses, the whole Darkar being the BIG, BIG BAD isn’t the case. It’s the Ancestral Witches themselves. Darkar is just someone who used to be a good person, but turned into... a servant of sorts. Which I’ll get to that soon enough. After my big spiel on the Ancestral Witches. XD (This is gonna get long, so there’s a read-more.)

Belladonna, Lysslis, and Tharma were three sisters born to a noble family on the realm (which is now dead) known as Ulmoira. Their family had been servants of the King and Queen there for eons, and their realm was in service to the Great Dark Dragon which birthed all dark realms (and dark magic), just as the Great Light Dragon birthed all light realms (and light magic).

Belladonna had ice magic, though not to the intensity we now know her to have. In fact, her magic was considered nothing more than a party trick at the time, meant for cooling drinks or crafting neat ice sculptures.

Tharma’s magic was always considered dangerous due to her outbursts. (Such an angry child...) But she could only conjure small scale storms. Nothing that spread over entire realms, not like she’s known for.

Lysslis’ magic was mostly just extreme empathy and telepathy and being able to create and manipulate emotions in others and forcing them to tell the truth. Nothing like the illusions and hallucinations she’s known for creating today.

Belladonna was the eldest sister, and the craftiest. She made her way quickly up the ranks in the Palace and became advisor to the King. The main advisor. His right hand. His partner. (And, yes, on occasion in exchange for getting her own items on the agenda, his lover.)

See, Belladonna could see just how powerful Ulmoira could be and wanted to expand it’s power and have one of the Great Dragons claim Ulmoira as a holy land, giving more reach for their kingdom than even the newly formed Council could handle.

And of course, endearing herself to the King and making herself so integral in his life and in his court gave her all the power that not even being a Queen could give her.

(She’s ambitious, so sue her.)

(And she’s great at playing the long game.)

Lysslis, the middle sister, was also quite a crafty woman, partially in thanks to her “unique gifts”. She understood people; their fears, hopes, what made them tick inside. An empath with a near excessive reach. 

Using her talents, and her way with words, Lysslis enjoyed playing spy for her sister. Always getting her intel on what others in the court were up to and what potential threats lied with other kingdoms.

(Lysslis is also the more curious sister. She’s the reason they end up going in the direction they go.)

Tharma is the youngest sister, and far more malicious and sadistic than her older sisters. She was labeled the “problem child” and the “family disgrace”. Always fighting, always starting trouble. Always where she shouldn’t be: in the way.

Belladonna and Lysslis couldn’t outcast their sister though, and found her a place to thrive: prison guard. 

Tharma loved her job and loved giving prisoners exactly what they deserved. 

It was an idyllic life. 

Until Lysslis, during one of her missions in which she got interesting information from one of the Great Dragon Priests... Information about the Dragon Fire, Primordial Magic created from the Dragon Fire (such as the Phoenix Flames and the Water Stars), and the predictions about people one day being able to harness such magic. He even had a Grimoire detailing the prophesy of the Dragons’ deaths and Them imparting Their magic to those deemed worthy, and how the other Primordial Magics would follow Their example. 

Lysslis, of course, confiscated the Grimoire and brought it to her sisters’ attention. 

This could be the big break they were all waiting for. Forget the original plan of their homeland becoming a holy ground, THEY COULD BECOME GODDESSES.

But how to prove themselves worthy to the Great Dragons and other Primordials? Simple: they make themselves stronger by any means necessary.

Their family had a Family Book of Shadows tucked away and hidden from the kingdom’s authorities, a tome mostly forgotten about due to the nature of the spells within. (Black Magic. A cursed and volatile version of Dark Magic, and, of course, forbidden to use.)

But Belladonna knew about it, had listened as a wide-eyed girl while her grandmother told stories of what their family used to be able to do. And now she had a reason to unlock her full potential. (And her sisters’ of course...)

In secret the three would practice and strengthen their magic using the spells from their forbidden tome, not realizing just how the magic was changing them. Oh yes, their magic was stronger and capable of things others could only dream of doing, but their physical and mental states? Their sanity? Their grip on reality?

Fleeting. And fleeting fast. To the point where they considered themselves gods without any Primordial magic, to the point where they didn’t need to be worthy of the Primordials, it was just a matter of taking what was already “theirs” to start with.

The King, disturbed by the increasingly erratic and terrifying behavior of his advisor and her sisters, confronted them.

Belladonna told him what they were planning, hoping he could see ‘reason’ and that they were the ones who ‘deserved to be in charge’. He called them out for their crazy behavior and with his army, he did his best to stop them.

Unfortunately, with their rage and combined magic, it wasn’t enough to stop them. 

Belladonna was now able to call forth blizzards with never before recorded temperatures. She could sense the blood within others and freeze them from the inside out. And she could create snow creatures to do her bidding.

Tharma’s storms could cover vast quantities of land and rage with the full force of the anger she’d kept inside all those years. Lightning strong enough to electrocute even the hardiest of people, tornadoes able to suck the air right out of another’s lungs. Hail storms that could destroy everything in their path. And the storm harpies she could summon to fight for her where just as terrifying as anything else she could do.

And Lysslis... She had soldiers killing themselves and their comrades, their minds completely overtaken by her own will. The hallucinations she made them see, the agony and fear she had overtake them... Nothing could save those in her grasp.

Ulmoira was ultimately destroyed.

But that was fine. They had no use for their homeland anymore. Not when they had an entire magical dimension to claim. Starting with the Dragon Fire.

Before they could take the Dragon Fire, they knew they’d need assistance. So they went to a realm known as Whisperia and stole three crystals from it. (These crystals were said to contain traces of the Water Stars within them, meaning they could damage or control the Great Dragons.)

Then they headed to Domino, wanting to face the Great Light Dragon. Unfortunately for them, she had already left her physical body, her magic and soul bonding with the future king of Domino that had just been born. (And they knew even with all their power, they couldn’t fight the realm of Domino. Not while still recovering from the destruction of Ulmoira.)

So they traveled to Obsidian, finding the aging and dying Great Dark Dragon. They thought him an easy target, using their magic and crystals to weaken him further, but he wasn’t worried. Angry, sure, but not worried.

Because the moment he died, the future queen of Obsidian took her first breath, and became his bond.

Deterred, but not defeated, the Ancestral Witches decided to seek out the other Primordials first. 

For ages they searched and scoured for Primordials, even stealing sacred items from realms in the hopes it would give them the power they sought. (And in their quest, they gained followers. Devout followers who worshipped the grounds they walked upon.)

And, curiously (and in great timing, considering their ages), they found a way to remain... Immortal. More or less. 

One part blood bond between their new “Coven” and “covenmates”, a bond where they would syphon their members’ life forces, a slow process they’d never notice happening. And one part a potion they discovered which needed unicorn blood, dragon scales, and the hearts of lumen. (Poor little things...)

Over the years, the Ancestral Witches tried to “steal back” the Dragon Fire from both Domino and Obsidian, only to have their forces blown back each time. (Though each time, without fail, new followers would fall to their knees for the Witches.)

And then, an idea struck.  Why take the Dragon Fire when they could raise it? King Gasper and Queen Gnala of Obsidian were due to have their child in a few months time. (Queen Natalia of Domino was still having issues becoming pregnant, poor dear.)

Carefully they monitored the situation in Obsidian, taking notice of the exhaustion among one of the most loyal servants to the Obsidian Throne since the Dragon bonded to the Ruler. Sir Argulus and his wife.

Interesting.

Lysslis saw the opening and she took it. It was slow, convincing Argulus and his wife to betray their King and Queen, but they did in exchange for the power they wished they had.

And two weeks after the young prince was born, a week before his christening, the Ancestral Witches struck with their forces, and the newly awoken Lord Darkar and Lady Mandragora. (And, a former prisoner of Obsidian’s dungeon who now had the power to absorb and redirect magic, Ogron.)

Obsidian fell. The kingdom tattered, but remade in the Ancestrals image. All correspondence and travel to the outside realms were destroyed. And the Ancestral Witches had their newest prized possession, and their future weapon, the former prince now known as Valtor.

(After Obsidian’s fall, the Council became concerned about dark magic and dark magic users. They felt that dark magic was so close to black magic, that it was only a matter of time before others turned treasonous too. Which started the crackdown on dark magic and the ostracization of dark realmers.)

(The Ancestral Witches viewed this as an opportunity and used it to manipulate dark magic users, and even some light magic ones, into joining their forces so as to “fight these injustices” and “retake their place” in the Magical Dimension.)

And that’s the story. Or well, a sort of glossed over, short version of the story.

Hope you enjoyed it. 

[musicallisto]

11. favourite native writer/poet?

#11. Favorite native writer/poet?

I feel like I’ve already answered this question? maybe in another life? idk.

(THIS GOT LONG adjjdjd i’m such a nerd omg. anyway i’m putting this under a read more)

France: I have a handful and I’m sorry but I am going to get sappy over them. Man, let me rave about literature like God intended. Okay, my favorite author is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, so I suppose that makes him my favorite French writer de facto. You may be familiar with him because he wrote The Little Prince, but I can’t encourage you enough to check out his other work. His writing style has immensely inspired my own, and he wrote my favorite book of all time as well as some of my favorite quotes. The irreplaceable “you’re beautiful but empty - one could not die for you” that I talk about all the damn time, his condemnation of marriage and how it kills young women - “And then an imbecile had come along. For the first time those sharp eyes were mistaken and they dressed him in gay colors. If the imbecile recited verse he was thought a poet. [...] And that heart which was a wild garden was given to him who loved only trim lawns. And the imbecile carried away the princess into slavery.”, his love for humanity in all its grandeur and patheticness and particularly his love for planet Earth. He was a well-traveled man who worked as a pilot for the French airmail service and knew South America and Northern Africa like the back of his hand. His descriptions of the sky, of the stars, of the land and solitary lights of shepherds beneath, when he flew, are my absolute favorite thing in this world. Everything he wrote is just so... ethereally beautiful?

“This day, as I fly, the lava world is calm. There is something surprising in the tranquillity of this deserted landscape where once a thousand volcanoes boomed to each other in their great subterranean organs and spat forth their fire. I fly over a world mute and abandoned, strewn with black glaciers.”

He was also a loyal man, who dedicated some of his works to his friends and their impossible survival stories, like Guillaumet who crashed in the Andes, or simply to the daily life as a pilot with his comrades, and how much joy he found in their friendship. He also worked as a journalist and covered the Spanish Civil War on the Republicans’ side with a faithfulness that I find extremely important as a Spaniard - he understood the tragedy of the conflict far better than many other French writers or politicians did at the time. During the Second World War, he joined the Resistance as a pilot, and was shot down in action - his remains were never found, and some debris of his plane only very recently. I truly appreciate how fiercely independent he was, though? He was dedicated to a cause, an ideal, and not to a person. He did not join the Resistance out of devotion for de Gaulle, for example, but for liberty and humanity. He kind of... did his thing and let no one tell him how he ought to do it. Despite being extremely famous for The Little Prince, he’s rarely talked about or discussed in French literature spheres? or I mean less than he could be. (some people have speculated that it is because he wasn’t one to cling onto de Gaulle and the Resistance kind of brushed him off for that but I don’t think that’s it.) of course, he has said some ice cold takes because ... early 20th century y’all know what it is but I find such modernity and comfort in his writing, his anti-war sentiments and his love for the planet, nature, and humanity as a whole. and of course he had a great sense of humor and a child’s spirit - as evidenced by the Little Prince. also I think it was kind of iconic of him to be a really good pilot despite being easily distracted and crash-landing all the time idk idk

BUT! he’s not my only favorite! (I promise this is going to be short.) I’m but an average person and Victor Hugo has a dear, dear place in my heart. I don’t think I need to expand more on it because everyone knows this man and everyone has read some quotes from Les Mis or something.

And lastly, another of my favorite French writers is Albert Camus. Because I don’t know shit about philosophy, I can’t really analyze it from a critical point of view but his conception of the human condition/the absurd, that he explains in The Myth of Sisyphus, truly resonates with me, because he doesn’t allow himself to be pessimistic about the mortality of man - “one must imagine Sisyphus happy”. What I can say, though, is that I absolutely adore his writing style as well, that The Plague and The Stranger are some of my favorite books, that I truly admire him for being a prominent figure of the political left in his time but still going like, “yeah, soviet concentration camps? hard pass” when everyone was jerking off to the USSR at the time - and I love him for his beef with Sartre because in this house we do not stan Sartre. Also, he was an adamant advocate for the abolition of death penalty, which is also a cause I feel strongly about. (Just like Victor Hugo was, one hundred years before him.) And he was also a Resistant so we love to see it <3 He also said some... stuff about Algeria that not everyone would agree with maybe? but like, he was Algerian so idk I can’t really speak for him.

anyway. if you have read this far you deserve a veteran’s discount

Spain: YALL I gave everything I had for the French writers and I’ve got NOTHING. No genuinely I’m so uncultured about Spanish writers, because all the Spanish-language authors i like are latin american? like Neruda and Garcia Marquez and stuff. I will say though that I really like contemporary poets and songwriters such as Joaquin Sabina. Also I’ve read a few quotes from Garcia Lorca and I’m kind of vibing with it. I need to read Bodas de Sangre asap. (and to know this play inspired my favorite Rosalia song! art imitates art.)

SOOO yeah that was a lot lmfao but I guess I was full of feelings. thank you bye x

[gerec]

AU-gust 2020 Prompts

Masterlist

24. Private Detective(s) - Erik/Shaw, Cherik

OMG you guys I started writing this attempt at 60s detective noir and I’ve fallen completely in love with this verse! This ficlet is DEFINITELY getting expanded (and possibly added to my dirtybad collection - we’ll see)!

(Did I write Erik fucking Lehnsherr as the mysterious femme fatale? And Emma too?? And Charles as the hard boiled detective wrongly accused of murder??? YES I DID).

-----

Scott comes back into the interrogation room fifteen minutes later, setting a cup of coffee in front of Charles with a tired sigh. They’ve been at this for over four hours now, and getting no closer to a resolution, even if they both want to prove Charles’ innocence over the murder of one Sebastian Shaw.

In Scott’s case, it’s because Charles is his friend and his mentor, the senior officer who took him under his wing before quitting the force and going into private practice. He’s trusted Charles with his life many times – and would do it again in a heartbeat – and can’t fathom how he’d gotten so deeply entangled with the Senator’s affairs.

In Charles’ case, it’s because he has no good answers; at least none that make him look less like the prime suspect of a vicious, calculated murder.  

“You say his wife came to see you. A Mrs. Emma Frost-Shaw.”

“Yes.”

“You must get these requests quite a lot, Mr. Xavier,” the woman says, flipping her long blonde hair off her pristine fur collar. Seated in his office, slowly sipping on Charles’ cheap bourbon, Mrs. Shaw is the very vision of unmatched sophistication and wealth. “I’m sure you know the drill. I require evidence. Photographic evidence of my husband’s infidelity. I can give you some details about his daily schedule to help you get started.”

“That would be most helpful,” Charles answers, taking a long drink from his glass. He doesn’t know much about Sebastian Shaw beyond the occasional news item on TV or in the paper, but Charles would hazard a guess at the type of man he is just from this brief encounter with his wife. “I hope you don’t mind my saying so Mrs. Shaw—”

“Emma.” She licks her lips, her eyes intent as she meets Charles’ gaze, and very slowly, deliberately, crosses her long, long legs.

Charles grins, drinking in every magnificent inch of her perfect, gorgeous frame. “Emma. I find it hard to believe that your husband would feel the need the seek companionship elsewhere, with such a beautiful wife at home.”

Eyes glittering, she leans forward just a little, and brushes his knee with her fingertips. “A man wants what he doesn’t have, Mr. Xavier. And what Sebastian wants, I certainly can’t give.”

Scott throws an open folder on the desk and nudges it over to Charles. “Sebastian Shaw. Age 50. Parents deceased. No siblings. Divorced in 1964. Currently unmarried with no children.” He pauses for a moment, before he adds, “He doesn’t have a wife. You’re a private investigator, Charles! How could you not have known that this woman was an imposter?”

“I get a dozen of these type of cases a month. Rich housewife wants to know if her husband is cheating on her! Why would I assume she was lying to me, Scott? Especially with all the intel she had on him? She knew his daily schedule! She knew his favorite restaurants and how he likes his eggs!  She knew he clears an afternoon once a week and heads out of the city!”

“Where?” Scott asks. “What did you find?”

Shaw switches cars before he heads out of the city, swapping his expensive Mercedes for a more inconspicuous Ford sedan at a local garage. Driving for a half hour out of Manhattan, he finally stops at a non-descript motel off the Interstate, and checks into a room on the ground floor.

Room six, as Charles watches from his parked car, snapping a picture of the Senator as he heads inside.

Taking a swig out of his flask, Charles settles into this seat for a long wait.

Two hours later, Shaw re-emerges from the room and drives off in his Ford.

Ten minutes after that, a man exits room six – tall, handsome, with brown hair and broad shoulders – and gets on his motorcycle, heading off in the opposite direction.

That night he takes the pictures of Shaw, and the mystery man, and develops them in his dark room.

He doesn’t turn them over to Emma, or tell her what he saw.

“Nothing. There was nothing to find.”

The same thing happens the following week, with the Senator making the same trip to the same motel, to meet the same man in room six.

The motel clerk tells him a ‘Max Eisenhardt’ has been coming for the past three months, always renting the same room and paying cash each time. A generous tip gets some gossip garnered from the cleaning staff; someone is definitely having sex – and very messy sex at that – for hours every week in room six.

Charles pays for the room next door, and presses his ear to the wall, listening to the moans and occasional slapping sounds, and Shaw’s loud, pleasurable cry when he comes.

Later, when Charles gets home and develops the new photos, he jerks off to the new pictures he’s taken of Max, and fantasizes about fucking him in Shaw’s place.

Scott shakes his head. “You found nothing? You expect me to believe that you would stay on a case for weeks if you found nothing?”

The next week, Charles gets to the motel an hour early, and plants a listening device in the room before the two men arrive for their clandestine meeting.  

[alientitty]

Can you expand on ego thinking? It sounds interesting but I've never heard of it. Only if you want to, of course

Omg no problem! So tbh I'm not super well versed in psychoanalysis aside from reading a little Liz Greene and Jung (and knowing enough Freud to understand 1920s surreal art for class...), but if you poke your head into any kind of "spiritual awakening" oriented circles these days you'll see the idea come up a lot. So here's what I understand so far:

Basically, as children we are totally dependent on our caretakers to survive. We learn to suppress certain parts of ourselves in order to have our needs met (emotionally and otherwise, I believe). The ego is the psychological structure that develops in order to do this mediating. It also develops defense mechanisms to protect us from potential threats to our nascent sense of self. Everything comes back to us with the ego.

This is more observation (both my own and that of various spiritualists & psychologists whose work I've read), but it seems like in adulthood we're used to defaulting to the ego for most of our interactions. However, not every situation is about you, and there are many things beyond your control. When we let our ego respond to these things it often goes into high alert, distressing us and often losing control.

For example, if other people offer you unsolicited advice and it pisses you off, that's your ego stepping in with a defense mechanism. To get out of this thinking you can ask yourself, "what does this advice say about where they're at? Are they living a life I want? What is this anger telling me? That I feel a need to agree with others so they will validate my reality?" Or something like that. If you are scared, angry, or upset it's likely the ego has stepped in to protect you from a perceived threat.

There's more to it that I'm still learning, but one place the ego pops up and causes trouble is when we disagree with other people or feel like we aren't heard. If someone is having a total kneejerk emotional reaction to a situation, that's probably their ego taking control. Although my first instinct is to get the hell way from anyone who's upset (likely one of my ego's defense mechanisms lol), you can also begin to understand that their ego is in charge right now because something has touched an emotional wound of theirs and they feel threatened. So a big part of getting out of your ego is taking deep breaths, calming down and observing your own reaction to things, meditation, etc. Basically reminding yourself you are safe, your reality cannot be denied by others, and unlearning harmful thinking etc. I think this is where "reparenting" comes in: telling yourself positive messages you never heard as a child.

The ego is often put in contrast to a greater Self which, depending who you ask, extends outside the individual and connects directly to the collective unconscious, the Universe, Goddess, etc. Listening to your intuition is one way we contact that "higher Self" but I'm still forming my personal opinion atm. However I will say another force to listen to is your body. Your body is wise and will tell you something is wrong even if your mind doesn't know. For example many people tell stories of being in stressful jobs that are a bad fit and having awful panic attacks--their body is telling them this stuff has to stop.

So yeah even in new age spaces some people give the ego a bad rap but I think its more like we depend on it too much because we're not self aware. Like if your liver is working too hard and the rest of your body is out of balance as a result, except in your Mind 👁

I just looked at the time and I've gotta get ready for work ! But thank you for asking, I love talking about this stuff & explaining it helps me learn 😘

[adashofniallandasprinkleoflunacy]

Mayst I have the sneak peeketh my good ma'am?👀

Anonymous said: I DO I DO I DO

Anonymous said: omg yes please we need another sneak peek

oKAY YAY here ya go!

-

Harry reaches for another staff, picking the one at the bottom rung. It’s completely black, the surface twinkling alluringly under the light that streams in through the sheer silver curtains, giving away that the weapon is made out of some type of stone or gem. 

He catches Y/N studying the stick intriguingly, voicing the answer to her curiosity. “It’s made of obsidian and onyx. Forged by a good friend downstairs. It’s weighted specifically to my hand, balanced to my liking.” 

With his single free hand, Harry gives the staff a few quick, skillful twirls that show off his close fellowship with the tool, the pieces of onyx strewn within the tempered obsidian bouncing the faint rays of sunlight all across the maroon walls of the room. He slams one end down onto the floor, the circular flat edge digging into the royal blue safety mat covering the entirety of the ground. “Never lost a fight with it.” 

Y/N tilts her head to the side a tad, licking over her lips as excited anticipation starts sparking across the tips of her fingers. “There’s a first for everything.” 

Without warning, Harry hurls the other bo staff toward Y/N with his full strength, wanting to test her impulses in order to survey his competition. 

Y/N doesn’t miss a beat, her body acting on centuries of muscle memory and celestially-spiked adrenaline. Her arm shoots outwards, the staff ramming longways right into the palm of her awaiting hand, digits wrapping around it tightly as she absorbs the strength behind the blow, her own canceling it out. 

Harry simply gives a satisfied nod, his bare feet padding against the vinyl plastic of the mat as he draws closer to her until they’re about a yard apart. He leans against his custom prop as Y/N lowers her’s beside her right thigh, his eyes tinted their usual jade once again, full of impressed amusement. 

“Final rule: best-two-out-of-three wins and if you’re down for at least three seconds, you lose the round. The first two are hand-to-hand, the last one is with the staffs. I’m guessing you’re versed in Krav Maga, right?” 

“Was there when it was invented, so obviously.” 

“Jujutsu?” 

“Mmhm.” 

“Taekwondo?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Boxing?” 

“Yes. I can also make a mean bologna sandwich and can touch the tip of my nose with my tongue. Are you done stalling?” 

“Just wanna make sure that when I win, you don’t pull ‘I wasn’t taught that style’ as an excuse.” 

Y/N lightly chucks her pole just outside the bounds of the practice mat, where it won’t be an obstacle. “I’m a little insulted you’d think so little about Heaven’s first line of defense.”  

“And I just don’t want you to be a sore loser. Pettiness isn’t a cute look on you.” Harry quips as his staff is strewn across Y/N’s, the crack of the impact echoing across the entire apartment. 

He starts rolling his shoulders to loosen up, craning his neck from side to side, feet shifting into a diagonal, parallel fighting position. “Did you stretch? Wouldn’t want you to pull a muscle mid-kick, would we?” 

Y/N mirrors his posture, pushing a few rogue strands of hair from her eyes with the back of her hand, bare feet planting themselves steadily apart as she ducks slightly, knees bending a smidge to calibrate her center of gravity. The grip of the rubbery plastic beneath her toes fills her with a type of soothing hum, her muscles purring as her senses hone into crisp awareness. She can hear the blood pumping in her ears, feel the coolness of the air expanding her lungs, and she can even make out the faint, dull ringing that is suspended in the electrified air, which fills the gap of Harry’s lacking heartbeat. 

“Don’t worry about me, I’m all good.” 

Harry holds up his palms in a peaceful gesture, the bright boxing tape seeming to glow in the dusky light swimming across the air. “Just trying t’be a caring boyfriend.” 

His hands fall into fists, thumbs instinctively resting beneath his lower round of knuckles instead of tucking under his fingers— a method he’d learned early on in his training, conceived with the notion of preventing one from breaking their thumbs with the force of their own punches. The flat side of his forearms face outwards as a first line of defense, veins carving their way under his skin as his fists clench readily, itching for the feel of collision. 

His heels carve deeper into the mat, balancing his mass and revving his nerves. “Ready?” 

“Ready.” 

“Alright. Ladies first.” 

As much as Y/N hates to admit it, it makes sense that Harry won the first round. 

He’d recently been assigned to coaching the newest flight of demons-in-training, meaning that for the last two weeks, he’d been practicing on his combat skills for six hours a day, five days a week. Y/N hadn’t sparred in a while— months, maybe. She was unfortunately rusty and it shows pretty evidently in how it takes Harry less than a minute to give her left cheek a mat-patterned makeover. 

She had started off fairly solid with a distraction technique that she was always confident in. A punch aimed right at the center of Harry’s sternum with the intent of cutting off his airflow, which he blocks swiftly, just as she predicted he would. 

What she wasn’t expecting was the form he used to block her. 

Y/N expected him to throw up his forearms parallel to one another to defend himself, meanwhile she would use that split second to sweep him off his feet with a hooked kick to his right ankle. That was the original plan. 

Harry threw a wrench in it. 

Instead, he crosses his forearms in front of his chest, Y/N’s fist ending up wedged between them. Her eyes do a terrible job of hiding her alarmed panic as she glances up momentarily, met with an expression of conceited triumph painted over her boyfriend’s annoyingly handsome features. 

The sly snark in his voice makes her teeth grate. “Oops.”