#[ but in doing so he ended up neglecting a lot of his interest/abilities @ blade

[soulsolid-a]

god mentioned a few times @ edwards but jus,,,,, thinks ab brook in the context of swordsman

[luckyspacerabbit]

would you ever share the background you created for kai leng? i'd be so interested in hearing it!

Hehe, yes! Thank you for waiting anon. I wanted to really think this through and make sure I was working with all the possible details of his character.

Okay, so my goal with fleshing out Kai was not to excuse him as a villain or to necessarily redeem him, but to humanize him and hopefully incur sympathy because I find his depiction as a mysterious lackey boogeyman to be 🙄 one dimensional and playing on racist tropes like the yellow peril ✨ (also bioware making him predominantly chinese + a lil russian. extrapolate what u will lol)

So here is my background for Kai :) Lots of childhood headcanoning and then some general talk about his character/why I chose certain elements as I did (such as dumping that dumb phantom blade for butterfly swords AEORHIG)

Childhood: According to the wiki, Kai is Earthborn, and from his general heritage we can assume that he grew up in Northern China (omg that's where my ancestors are from). The most populous city there is Beijing, which, if there was a spaceport or alliance recruitment anywhere, it would be there.

I headcanon that he was born to a bit of an unsteady family, where it was likely there was estrangement and unsafe conditions between the mother and father that may have created a sense of helplessness and neglect from a young age.

In my canon, Dan Hyun's mom, Hannah Shepard was the head of an agricultural research facility on Trident, and was an old friend of Kai's mom (From University, possibly).

As conditions worsened throughout Kai's childhood, his mom decided to take a chance and flee with Kai (age 10 at the time) to Hannah Shepard's science facility on Trident (Sentinel Agricultural Research Facility), where she and Kai would stay for about two years as his mom worked to save enough money for their own place .

Since Dan Hyun was already being homeschooled, it was easy enough for Kai to join up alongside her.

Dan Hyun (12 at the time) was extremely happy to have a friend since life on the facility could be really lonely-- but with all these changes Kai was having a difficult time adjusting, especially when Dan Hyun felt put off by his competitive attitude. After so long feeling neglected and growing in a tumultuous home environment, he craved external validation: homeschool provided an avenue for that. They developed their own academic-based competitive rivalry that counted towards friendship, but grew distant when he moved out with his mom about two years later.

When Dan Hyun was 18 (Kai at 16), she managed to apply to an Alliance Research Training program and receive admission-- something that was considered highly prestigious, despite her parents' reluctance. Kai had already begun to build resentment towards her due to the way her parents treated her (very preciously, sheltered, and without exposing her to the difficult parts of life) in contrast with what he lacked in family and world kindness, creating a drive to supersede her and compete with her once again, if only to have tangible proof that just because he began in a lower place didn't mean he couldn't surpass the vision of success.

After this event, they would strike up a still somewhat friendly rivalry again that continued until Kai enlisted in the Alliance at the age of 18 (his attempts to join directly at 16 failed in my canon lol, but he sure tried )

Alliance Service:

Kai took the combat-driven route while Dan Hyun was receiving training for her eventual research establishment in Akuze, meaning that in their line of work, they never crossed paths-- Though they maintained occasional communication and met up here and there whenever Kai was back from his tours.

This is where I believe his decline truly began.

Some habits, like his desire for tangible proof of success and seeking external validation, manifested more heavily in this time. Collecting badges off of dead soldiers (To remember his skill first hand) is a notable one, but I speculate he relied heavily on the word of his commanding officers to counter his self-esteem. Titles were incredibly important because they were proof. When he began to feel a loss of control which led to emotional outbursts and breakdowns, he would fall back on these bits of evidence that he had done something, anything.

The weight and violence of service combined to break away his mental strength and conditioned him to that of a soldier.

Famously, he was discharged in 2186 after his N7 designation. In a bar fight on shore leave, he murdered a Krogan (OKAY. Listen. The wiki says "first-degree murder" but first degree requires premeditation and bar fight implies heat of the moment. So IDK I think the details around this one are a little fishy. He was on leave but he was a soldier, so ? he probably just had a weapon on him? Okay, I'm not excusing him but premeditation is a bit different from manslaughter so just something I've pondered. It separates intentional killers from accidental murders).

At this point, he is formally incarcerated and set to serve a twenty-year sentence.

Cerberus Contact:

The year is 2177, and Kai has lost everything he's ever worked for. His prestige is gone, he is at the worst place he has ever been, his mom won't talk to him, and he has no one. He had even stopped hearing from Dan Hyun, the only person he could have considered a friend once.

Through a small TV in the prison, he is able to hear about the attack on Akuze, and its one survivor: Alliance Scientist Dan Hyun Shepard. In the attack her biotic abilities (Which she had kept secret for many years) were revealed, prompting immediate recruitment into the N7 Program and a contract for ten years of service. This drove Kai into rock bottom-- while he had nothing, Dan Hyun was steadily on track to uprooting the only thing he had ever felt like he had accomplished.

This is when Cerberus intervened, promising him a home, freedom, belonging, and success.

So of course Kai agreed. Why wouldn't he? He had nothing left in his miserable life and there would never again be a place for him.

Cerberus Intervention:

It's my belief that Kai wasn't necessarily "alienphobic" in the beginning. Instead, I think The Illusive Man saw a very clear opportunity to recruit and nurture a broken man into a pawn of service. TIM is incredibly smart-- everyone who works for Cerberus is. He knew what Kai needed was validation, the promise of success held directly on the tip of his tongue to drive him into tenacity and action.

Organizations like Cerberus, even in real life, prey on people at weak points, fulfill their needs and drape their ideology on top like icing on a cake. That's not to say that Kai is completely innocent-- he ate the sweets and readily threw the world to the side in order to attain more-- but it does give some perspective.

Kai in Cerberus:

In ME2 we know there is some apprehension on Kai's part about the role Shepard will play. He is already starting to feel slighted from failures with Rasa and takes even the possibility of rejection from TIM extremely hard and with violent emotional outburst. This evidences how much TIM has whittled him away over the decade of service. Kai feels as though he owes everything to TIM, that TIM saw something in him-- failing him is disproving that and accepting what Kai has feared all along: that he truly is a worthless and incapable person.

Kai and Shepard:

Kai is best known for his direct antagonism towards Shepard in the events of ME3, directly killing their allies and potential love interests in a way that is extremely personal. Yes, it is part of the job, but at the same time, it's clear Shepard gets under his skin. It's because in the end, after all that setup, Shepard is the one person who can take it all away from him.

They can replace him as TIM's prodigy/ They can bring an end to the organization that gave him everything (From his cybernetic enhancements (uh indoctrination cough couch) ) to his purpose in life. Kai threw it all in with them because he didn't see another choice.

My Canon: The End

So how do things end for Kai in my canon?

As you're aware, you can unalive him, violently. But Dan Hyun is very emotional and due to their shared childhood, I like to believe that there was still a grand feeling of kinship between them, a recognition of the other due to shared insecurities. I don't think there was ever a time Dan Hyun looked at Kai and saw anything other than her slighted friend (which is very romanticized, but SHE is very romanticized), it was just about getting Kai to see that too.

She locked him down the best she could, yelled, cried, and beat the shit out of him, but ultimately, preserved his life. After the crucible had been fired and Thane (alive ofc) attended to, she sought to right things between her and Kai: whatever form that takes. Who knows if he'll ever be able to live comfortably in society again-- but at least here, he has the chance.

Random Tidbits:

Some notes! At his best, I like that Kai is portrayed as Loyal, Hard Working, Methodical, Clever, Tenacious, and Factual. I think sometimes he can be written off unfairly as wimpy or scared, but in truth, he's very sure of his abilities and able to calculate his chances extremely well. He's smarter than fandom gives him credit for.

He has an interesting conflict between arrogance based on title and humbleness. He knows he wants to be the best but he never airs it-- like when Rasa suggests that he wants to be the leader for Humanity but he grows quiet and says to just focus on where things are at right now.

His time as a soldier absolutely affected him in ways I think sharpened him to the killer he became. It instilled values that remained with him in Cerberus, such as when he berates Bates for abandoning his squad and calls him a traitor. Kai doesn't betray-- he's quite literally ride or die.

Also? The ninja sword is super dumb because Kai is Chinese and the swords and Phantom's themselves are designed to appear Japanese in aesthetic. Ninjas= Japanese, but China did have their own sect of Assassins which I believe gave birth to Wu Ching as a type of Martial Arts? Or was drawn from it hmm

To keep to accuracy, Kai would have trained more towards their martial art techniques which focuses on close combat and quick movements, as well as the use of dual blades called butterfly swords (You'd likely recognize them as a set of rogue daggers).

That's all for that meta! Phew. If anyone actually read to the end, hey wassup, hope you enjoyed, and take most of this with a grain of salt since it's my headcanons and background work :) Thank you again for reading!

[jayrart]

HPHM Profile

Character Profile template is from @hogwartsmysterystory​

Identity

Name: Jenny Callisto Romero

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Birth Date: December 12

Species: Human

Blood Status: Pureblood

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Ethnicity: Hispanic

Nationality: American, British

Residence: Romero Forest Manor

Myer Briggs Personality Type:INFP-T  The Mediator

The Mage

1st Wand: Eleven-inch Redwood wand Unicorn Hair core

2nd Wand:Ten-inch Alder wood wand Phoenix Feather core

Animagus: Munchkin Cat

Misc Magical Abilities: Zoolingualism- can speak with animals and understand them.

Boggart Form: Her Aunt Bianca

Riddikulus Form: N/A

Amortentia: (What do they smell like?) Honey, Roses, Apples, Mint 

Amortentia: (What do they smell?) Fresh laundry, Forest, Sandalwood,

Patronus: Jaguar (family trait from mother side)

Patronus Memory: finding out she can speak with animals

Mirror of Erised: relaxing with her family back home

Specialized/Favourite Spells:Bambarda, Disillusionment, Silencio, cheering, Ferula, Orchideous, Colovaria

Appearance

Faceclaim: N/A

Voiceclaim: N/A

Game Appearance:

Height: 5'2

Weight: 147 pounds 

Physique: Average

Eye Colour: Lime Green that glows in low light

Hair Colour: Black

Skin Tone: Light tan

Body Modifications: Stephanie's gifted earrings 

Scarring: the Aztec symbol for death (Miquiztli) between shoulder blades 

Other: Birthmark under left eye, Right shoulder, stomach, Inner left thigh, bottom right foot, and light heart shape one on her back. purple hair clip on the right side (Jacob gave it to her before he left.)Pearl bracelet on the left hand (past down from her mother)

Inventory: Potions (Draught of Peace, Wiggenweld Potion, Invisibility Potion, Memory Potion, Wideye Potion), Journal with her forgotten memories (Jacob wrote down memories that their parents obliviated from Jenny), Wand, Hair ties, Journals, Pens, Snacks, Animal food.

Fashion:

Winter/Autumn: sweater, layers, warm tone colors 

Spring/ summer: flowy, simple, pastel colors 

Allegiances 

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Ilvermorny House: Thunderbird

Affiliations/Organizations:

Prefect 

second-order of the Phoenix

Auror department

Professions: Auror, Later becomes a healer at school 

Hogwarts Information

Class Proficiencies:

Astronomy: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

Charms:  ★★★★★★★★☆☆

DADA: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Flying: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Herbology: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

History of Magic: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

Potions: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Transfiguration: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Electives:

C.O.M.C:★★★★★★★★★★

Muggle Studies:★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Ancient Runes:★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

Quidditch: Only friendlies

Extra Curricular:

Potions club 

Frog Choir

Favourite Professors:

McGonagall

Flitwick 

Snape

Least Favourite Professors:

Rakepick

Relationships

Brother:

Name: Jacob Vincent Romero 

Age:20

Eye: Teal

Hair: Dark Brown, Wavy 

Height: 5'11

Schoolhouse: Slytherin 

Info:

He left during winter break to keep his family safe. 

Was going to tell Jenny but decided not to. She saw him leave 

Also Zoolingualism 

Expert at Non-verbal magic 

Learn to Apparition by himself

Extremely smart

 Heir to the Romero family funds but passes it down to Jenny

Shy around strangers 

Hates crowds 

Misc Siblings: 

Name: Dalton Nash Romero (baby brother)

Age: 1

Eye: Skyblue 

Hair: Brown, Curly 

Name: Cordelia Roselind Romero (baby sister)

Age:1

Eye: Skyblue

Hair: Brown, Wavy

Info: 

Born at the start of Jenny's 5th year

Unexpected 

Doesn't have the Zoolingualism gene

Father:

Name: Kristopher Vulcan Romero 

Age: 43

Eye: Blue

Hair: Black, Wavy 

Height: 6'1

Schoolhouse: Slytherin

Job: Auror 

Info:

One of the strongest Aurors 

Has a brother and sister

Traveled to America when Voldemort started to gain followers (orders for parents because he was the youngest)

Met his wife after a bad accident. Eventually got married and had Jacob and Jenny before moving back home.

 Was divested when Jacob left and tried everything he could to find him.

Regrets not being around due to work

Mother:

Name: María Celeste Gallegos

Age 40

Eye: Emerald Green

Hair: Brown, Curly, Knee length 

Height :5'6

Schoolhouse: Thunderbird 

Job: Healer

Info:

Comes from a family of 13 (2 Parents and 11 kids)

One of the 5 kids of her family with Ancient blood 

family of healers

Moved to England after her sister tried to kill Jenny 

Part of a special healer unit (basically the ICU) at St. Mungo's

Takes time off after Jacob left to comfort Jenny

Emotionally unstable for 2 years until she eventually comes to terms 

Love Interest: Jae, Barnaby, Cristiano (Au)

Best Friends: Rowan, Tonks, Barnaby, Charlie, Bill, Jae, Badeea, Talbott, Chiara, Andre, Merula 

Rival: N/A

Enemy: Rakepick, R, Bianca 

Dormmates: Rowan, Liz, Merula, Ismelda

Pets: owl, dog, cat, Abraxan (back home)

Closest Canon Friends: Tonks, Barnaby, Charlie

Closest MC Friends:

Stephanie @hanihonii​

Dia @dia-m-o​​ 

Samuel @moko-sh​

Kyril @kyril-hphm​

Cristiano @chrisception13​

Luna @lunasilvermorny​

Helene @heleneplays​​

Septimus  @brothergrimm71​​  

Ethren @hogwartsmysterystory​

Flavio @sirfluffig​

Background/History

Pre Hogwarts: Jenny was born in the US and lived there for 2 years. She was proclaimed the heir of the Gallegos fortune due to her strong Magical Abilities. This angered her Aunt Bianca so much that she abused Jenny. Often hitting, yelling, and cursing her but she would always obliviate her memory after. She cursed Jenny making it so she was unable to have kids (unless they are born with strong powers). When she was unsuccessful she decided to just kill her off by marking her for death and sacrificing her to Tezcatlipoca. Jenny's mother found out about everything her sister has done and fought with her before leaving the country and moving to England. They once more obliviated Jenny's memories and forbidden her from leaving the Manor. She was fine with that until Jacob went off to school and both her parents started working longer hours. Her aunt who is a Muggle would often come over to babysit Jenny and show her a lot of muggle things. But One day a death eater made their way into the Manor sent to kill Jenny as a warning to her father. Her Aunt got in the way to protect Jenny from dying in front of her. Her father was able to make it before the death eater was able to finish their task. Not wanting his daughter to remember seeing the death of her aunt he once more obliviated her memories. After that Jenny became very lonely and depressed when she was left alone. Often having nightmares of her forgotten memories. When Jacob ran away she broke down mentally and physically refusing to eat and never leaving her room. Once her Hogwarts letter arrived she began to open up again.

1st Year: Jenny is excited to finally go to school and explore other places outside the manor ground. She isn’t really used to talking to others so she comes off as odd. Often mimicking others’ actions and personality. She doesn't focus on any of the vaults and just pays attention to school and friends. You would see her exploring and talking to people and animals often. 

2nd Year: The start year is similar to her first year. Often hanging around Rowan, Merula, Barnaby. Once the Ice vault starts to affect her and her friend Jenny takes an interest. When she found notes left behind from her brother she became invested in finding him. Jenny starts to sneak around closed-off areas of the school and in the forest at the end of the year.

3rd Year: she meets Tonks at the start of the year and joins her for pranks. Eventually meeting Tulip and things got very very chaotic whenever the three are together. She starts to spend a lot of time with Barnaby. Eventually, he finds out about her ability and they become really close. They were often seen with one another, and everyone thinks they are dating but they aren't. As the vaults become more dangerous Jenny starts to get more involved so she can protect her friends.

4th Year: She meets Charlie this year and starts to hang out with him and Bill. They both become a brother figure to Jenny. They even take her back to their place during the holidays. She focuses less on the vaults this yeah and more on her friend. Eventually going on a date with Barnaby without knowing it and being her date to the dance. Jenny still got in trouble for looking for the vault in the woods and ends up in detention.

5th Year: When the year starts Jenny was ready to start looking for any clues but because of detention she wasn't able to. She actually starts developing a crush on Jae. When Rakepick shows up Jenny does not like her at all. She didn't say anything because she didn't want to be rude, but when Snape said not to trust her Jenny told him her thoughts. As year 5 continues Jenny became more stressed but didn't show or told anyone. She helped others with their problems to ignore her own. Once at the vault, she tried to talk to the dragon, but when Rakepick attacked there was nothing she could do but fight it. when Jenny found Jacob she was happy it was finally over. (It was the first time anyone has seen her cry) of course, when he eventually left she was really hurt ,but she put that to the side and tried to help her friends that have been hurt both physically and mentally. Before going home she goes back into Jacob's office and finds the journal that is full of all the obliviate memories. After being taken from mad-eye Jenny returns home and reads the journal. She loses all the trust of her friends and family and locks herself away from everyone the entire summer

6th Year: Jenny tried to hide her emotions and make things back to normal like things where before, but ultimately failed when she noticed everyone acting strange. She literally was doing everything to help her friends, find her brother and the next vault, and keep her grades up that she neglected her health. She rarely slept or eat and the only time she did was because Snape made her. ᴴᵉ ʷᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵃᵈᵐᶦᵗ ᶦᵗ ᵇᵘᵗ ʰᵉ ᵈᵒᵉˢ ʷᵒʳʳʸ ᶠᵒʳ ʰᵉʳ ᵃⁿᵈ ˡᵒᵒᵏˢ ᵃᶠᵗᵉʳ ʰᵉʳ. When Rowan was killed Jenny literally broke. She was a mess cry and screaming as she held on to her lifeless body. After that, she joins Merula and Ben wanting to kill Rakepick. Once she finally meets back up with Jacob she confronts him for running away. Before he leaves again she hands the hair clip to him and makes him promise to bring it back once everything is done. Once Alanza arrives at the school Jenny didn't like her at all. She felt like Alanza was trying to take Roman's place.

7th Year: Jenny gets engaged to Barnaby to help him from being forced into an arranged marriage. They become more of a couple then just friends to make the marriage work eventually Jenny does fall for him.

Order of the Phoenix / 2nd Wizarding War: Becomes an Auror after school joining Tonks and becoming an apprentice of mad eye. Joins the Order helps with Intel, investigating, and spying. Fights at the battle and finally is confronted by her aunt. Jenny is able to kill her after everything she has done.

Post-War: Jenny still works as an Auror until her 50 where she becomes a healer at the school. Jenny becomes pregnant a few months after the war but loses her kid before they were born. During one of Jenny's assignments, she finds an infant child whose family was killed. Knowing that the child has no other family Jenny adopts him and raises him as her own. Jenny eventually gets pregnant again and had a girl named Melody who has the same powers as her.

Old Age & Death: Jenny is 97 when she dies of old age.

Personality

Good: Loyal, Loving, Kind, Optimism, Adventurous, Resourceful, Bold, Playful, Affectionate, Funny, Smart, Lively, Strong, Reliable, Determined, Cheerful, Friendly, Honest, Easygoing

Bad: Wild, Talkative, Rowdy, Fidgety, Cunning, Silly, Careless, Foolish, Impulsive, Sarcastic, Secretive, Clumsy, forgetful

Misc

Talents: Singing, Playing the Piano & Guitar, Baking, Ice Skating, 

Knew that something was off with Rakepick

Actually really good at potions but doesn't like to show off (snape knows but doesn't want it to go to her head)

Goes to the forbidden forest when she is upset to speak with the animals

It's strange to see Jenny when she is serious because she acts like a completely different person.

She stopped growing so she wears heels

Joined the order because of Tonks

When she goes home she invites Barnaby to stay, so he doesn't have to go back to his place if he feels uncomfortable.

The Romero family has 3 house elves but they are all "free". They were bought and set free the very same day, but given an option to say and look after the house and kids while they were at work in exchange for housing and food. 

Never had a real friend until she started school.No one other than the family has seen her up until then.

[odissey061]

A/N: I know that I already told you this, but I burst with happiness that you liked my headcanon❤. The purpose was making her a technician, but...

link of the masterlist if you want to request something. (Come on, an ikemen is winking to you as invitation u.u)

ODA FORCES

Nobunaga

Nobunaga's mind it's not narrowed like the other men from that time: he has never see you as stupid just because you were a woman, but when he sees what you are able to do he's speechless.

A day he discoveres your projects about machines used in war and he thought they were amazing.

After speaking with you and asking how did they work, he gives you the task to continue to create more of those

Every time the warlords talk about which strategy it's better to adapt in the next war, you speak about which machine is the best

In the end you become a strategist and the warlords fully trust your decisions

Hideyoshi

He's astonished when you show him your newest creation: a tea set.

He's really amazed by your dexterity in manual things and a day he asks you to show him how you do it.

y/n, since it's safe and it can't harm you, I allow you to use it

He tries to use the lathe to do a pot, but he miserably fails. Refuse to give up and he keeps using it until he can do it.

He really loves the feeling of your hands on his as you guide him in the passages.

This may become his favorite hobby

Imagine the expressions of the warlords when he goes in a war council with thw hands filthy of clay XD

Masamune

"Close your eye, Masamune" you tweet satisfied, "Why? Have you got some surprise for me, kitten?" he asks and you chuckles.

When he opens them, he's surprised what you have done. "What are these? Glasses? I have already seen them on your nerdy friend, Sasuke"

You nod:"Exactly, these are glasses. Since you can see only from one of your eyes, your sight is really bad: usually, people like you have a lot of difficulties even to pour wine in a glass. I know this isn't much, but I'm sure these will help you".

This boy is surprised: he has never thought you were able to reproduce something from your period in Sengoku Era, but he's really grateful for your efforts to help him.

Mitsuhide

He's not pleased when he notices that you are neglecting him, so he bursts in your room to demand an explanation for your behaviour.

He's quite perplexed when he sees the multitude of tools on the ground. He questions what are you doing and you explain that you are trying to create Bluetooth headphones so that he can communicate much faster with his retainer in case of danger.

"Bluewhat?" He doesn't understand what you mean, but then chuckles at your useless efforts. "Little one, you can't create a blue-that-thing here without the necessary technology"

He kisses you. Of course, he's happy and grateful that you want to help him with his job and he's touched. He's so proud to have someone like you in his life.

"I fear the technology from your time it's too advanced for us. If you really want to help me, why don't you spend the next days and night with me?" he proposes and he doesn't let you the time to answer that his lips are already on yours.

Useless to say, the time spent with him is much more satisfying and arousing that fight with the poor technology of the Sengoku period.

Ieyasu

The way this porcupine discover about your ability is somehow epic. He finds his desk full of letters from women who asks to meet you.

He looks after to you and when he sees you he's really surprised: there is an endless queue of women and you hold in your hand a thing he has never seen in his life.

"What is this?" he wonders and you smile sadistically:"It's a hair straightener and it comes from my hometown. Would you like yo try?".

This boy, don't know what could go wrong, nods and you pass the hair straightener on a thick bang. He understands his mistake only after he sees his messy hair tamed in an unnaturally straight shape.

In a mysterious way, you manage to convince him to stay still as you use it on his fuzzy hair.

When he finds out that his precious hair is ruined in this way, he's too shocked to yell at you. Every time I imagine yasu with straight hair, I laugh for minutes without catching breathe. For the ladies gathered in the garden, the sight of seeing their lord running away with the hands in the hair is too shocking, so they feign that that episode never happened.

That night, when you sleep with him, Ieyasu is pouty and refuses to cuddle with you. He's still upset from the afternoon and it takes a while for you explaining that it's not permanent and in a couple of days they will be as messy as usual.

In the next war council Mitsuhide will tease him about this XD

Mitsunari

He discoveries your abilities when you two are walking together in Azuchi's street.

A boy is crying because his favorite toy is broken. Nobody cares about it and they don't give any attention.

You stop by and you ask if he let you see it and he nods, so you examine the broken object and you wonder to Mitsunari if he can buy you specific tools.

He's confused because he doesn't understand what you want to do, but he listens to your request and after minutes he's back with what you asked for.

He gazes amazed as you, in a couple of minutes, repairing that toy that seemed impossible to fix. "You are incredible, y/n, can you teach me how to do?" he asks.

You are going to say yes, but then you remember about how clumsy he's and you quicky turn him down, legitly fearing for his safety.

Ranmaru

When you find out that Ranmaru loves perfumes, you know what present to give him for his birthday.

Talking with Sasuke, you learn that perfumes in Sengoku are really different from what you mean: they use incenses. But you don't give up and you are sure that the acknowledge of the present, you'll manage to create something similar.

You try and try different combinations of flowers and smelling herbs until you create the perfect misture.

You give your present, explaining how did it and he's really amazed by your abilities: he looks like a puppy wagging the tail.

And of course he will ask you to match your perfume as well.

UESUGI-TAKEDA

Kenshin

When Kenshin finds out you are a capable gunsmith specialized in the production of swords, his reactions are two: 1) It looks like Echigo has a goddess of war, 2) I'm ready to destroy anything that harm you.

At first he's shocked because in his life he had never seen someone like you and his mentality "women must be protected" crumbles. It takes time, but in the end he accepts you and let you continue with your job.

Generally, he's really proud of you and very often he lets you handle his sword.

When he sees you at work for the first time, he casually walks in you and stays with you for a while. His excuse is that he misses you, but in truth he wants to be sure that you don't harm yourself.

If you are good enough, his visits decrease both in time and in frequency. But if you are even a little clumsy and you scratch with a blade, he confiscates your tools and good luck to convince him to let you work again. You may ask Sasuke to help, but don't take for granted that he will do it.

Shingen

Very similar to Mitsunari, he discovers your abilities as you fix something. The carillon he gave you is broken and it doesn't play music anymore.

You decide to repair it by yourself since Shingen is really busy with matters regarding the rebuilt of his domain and he walks in as you are working.

You explain to him that his present is broken and you are fixing it by yourself because you didn't want disturb him

At first, Shingen is lowkey worried that his goddess is going to hurt her beautiful hands, so he asks you to advise him the next time.

But when he notices your skills and your confidence, stop to worry and wonders if you are willing to help him.

Yukimura

Yukimura feels low-key inferior since both you and his best friends are genii, but he supports you.

A day when you are seriously hurt due to a tool you were using, this tactless boar says:"Why you can't behave just like the other women?". He's really worried that you might be injured again and he doesn't mean anything offensive, but you are offended.

Talking with Sasuke he understands his horrible mistake and doesn't stop asking for forgiveness until you forgive him.

From now on he will be more careful with his words and if someone accuses you to be a witch, he's ready to unsheathe his spear and defend you.

Very often you are in the same room: you work on your projects and he's focused on his tasks, but he's happy he can be with you.

Sasuke

You found your match in the past with him. When Sasuke discovers you are skilled as much as him he's really surprised because he thought he was only one able to create stuff from his time.

You tell each other how you made some certain objects and you confront your ideas.

You help in his ninja job adding some extras to his weapons for example a shuriken that has recorded a kiss. Obviously, he will never use it, but he's glad to bring it with him

Very often you challenge the other to discover who is the best between you two and every time nobody can't say whi the winner is.

Together you'll probably create wifi and a way to recharge your phone :p

He's low-key worried that Kenshin may develop an interest in you and may challenge you to fight with him.

Historians will be super confused about why objects that are supposed to belong to the modern time, were used in the Sengoku Period.

Yoshimoto

Yoshimoto is surprised when he sees you carving the wood and he asks what are you doing. "A thumbnail of my country" you answer with a bit of sadness.

You previously told him that if you go back, then you can't return there. He can understand what you feel and he's grateful that you chose to stay with him.

He touches the wood and his fingertips can feel the small windows of the skyscrapers and light poles. "I have never seen this kind of sculpture and the architecture in Japan" he says.

You tense a little and he stops for a while, waiting for your explanation, but when it doesn't come, he continues his speech:"It's the first time for me yet I can see how good you are in this".

He leaves a slight kiss on the temple. "I impatiently wait for its end, so that I can fully admire it". He awaits also that you tell him from where you came from

THE LONE FORCES

Motonari

You are fighting with one of the pirates of the crew. After the last battle, the cannons and part of the deck are damaged and everyone is busy in esteeming the extent.

Having always developt an interest in naval artillery, you analyze them and you discover that the their caliber is completely busted.

You sustain that the speedy and the efficiency of the cannonballs is decreased by a lot, but that man saying you are wrong, even when you show him your calculations.

From a simple fight, the discussion degenerates quickly and you both are ready to throw hands when Motonari intervenes.

He listens to both your reasons and, after thinking, he understands you are right. "baka, don't contradict my girlfriend anymore because she's always right"

He's really surprised by your cleverness and he's very proud of you. Since then, you talk a lot about strategies and weapons.

This can create tension between you two if a day you are going to fight against the Oda forces, since you refuse to help him to destroy your friends.

Kennyo

When it's winter, the animals that live close to Kennyo's hideout, really suffer the cold and a lot of them die. He's really sad, but he can't do anything but chant sutras for their souls.

A day he discovers that someone is building something close to his refuge and he really hope that they aren't neighbors.

A day he sees that that someone is a girl and she's building a shelter for the animals during the winter.

He's really touched by your kind gesture and wants to help you. Every time you meet, after work, he invites you in his home and offers you a cup of tea. Really soon you become friends and Kennyo he's really glad that in the world pure soul like yours still exsist.

Until a day he comes to know you are Nobunaga's Chatelain... he's really heartbroken and his first thought is that you fouled him so that he could lower his guard around you.

So a day you come to work to the shelter, he kidnaps you to use you as a tool for his revenge and interrogates you about why you became close to him.

As I wrote this, another idea came in my mind: he falls in love with you for your pure soul and when he discovers your true identity he kidnaps you so that Nobunaga and the others can't dirty you. Yandere Kennyo.

[strawberrysunrisewitches]

Lucia Profile

Identity

Name: Lucia Mirabelle Firahel

Gender:Female

Birth Date: February 23 1973

Species: Human

Blood Status: Half-Blood

Sexuality: Lesbian

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Nationality:English-Italian

Residence: Leeds, England 

Myer Briggs Personality Type: ENFP-A The Campaigner

The Mage

1st Wand:

Pear wood

13 1/4″

Slightly flexible

Horned serpent horn

Animagus: Lucia’s animagus form is a common genet with a black heart pattern on the chest

Misc Magical Abilities: 

Lucia is an occlumens which she learnt from her uncle

She is also an animagus and is registered. She was able to become an animagus due to Cirilo saying she’d become a unicorn

Boggart Form: All of her family and Cassie dead and blaming her for it

Riddikulus Form: Her big brother wearing a tiger onesie chasing her

Amortentia: (What do they smell like?) Someone smelling her in Amortentia would smell sunflowers, honey, chocolates and mint

Amortentia: (What do they smell?) She would smell Strawberries, watermelon, licorice, roasted almonds and chocolates

Patronus: A saber tooth tiger

Patronus Memory: Making chocolate with Cassie on the day they began dating

Mirror of Erised: Herself as an adult married to Cassie with kids

Specialized/Favourite Spells:

Glacius (Cause sometimes you gotta make ice cream faster)

Bombarda (Her go to fuck someone up spell, she’s very destructive)

Expelliarmus(Cause No wand means she can beat the shit out of ya )

Ventus (Kites and watching people slowly get blown into a lake is always fun)

Tempest Jinx(This is the spell that she uses when she is extremely angry and murderous)

Appearance

Faceclaim: 

Height: 6′0

Weight: 156 Lbs

Physique: Toned AF and curvaceous

Eye Colour: Green

Hair Colour: Dirty blonde

Skin Tone: Peach

Body Modifications:She has a tattoo on her chest of a pale orange flower with a bright orange dragonfly resting on it, On her right arm she has a multi flower tattoo which has a sunflower and a moon flower at the top followed by a pink hyacinth then a star flower, a dragon’s head gladiolus and finally a pink carnation

In year 7 she added a streak of red hair to her hair

Scarring: She has a scar going from the middle of her left cheek to just below her mouth,A scar on her right side of her waist, a scar just below her chest on the left side she has two x shape scars on her hands and a larger cross shaped scar on her left shoulder.

Inventory: She usually has on her: her wand, a large amount of licorice wands, a charm bracelet that Cassie gave her, large bladed piece of Bladed Wroewolfeite that glows the colour of sunflowers, her orange and purple scarf and a pair of intricately designed magic gauntlets that she keeps under an invisibility charm.

Allegiances

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Ilvermorny House: Pukwudgie

Affiliations/Organizations:

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Head Girl

Italy

The Dark Suns Assassin Organization

The Tower of The Regal Sunset Sea

Professions:

Wand Maker(Briefly)

Magizoologist(Formerly)

Baker

Hogwarts Information

Class Proficiencies:OWLS

Astronomy: 4/10 (P)

Charms: 3/10 (D)

DADA: 9/10 (O)

Flying: 2/10 (D)

Herbology: 8/10 (O)

History of Magic: 4/10 (P)

Potions: 7/10 (E)

Transfiguration: 8/10 (O)

Electives:

CoMC: 8/10 (O)

Magical Theory: 9/10 (O)

Muggle Art: 8/10 (O)

Alchemy: 6/10 (E)

Quidditch: Never in a million years

Extra Curricular:

Dueling club

Magical creatures club

Favourite Professors:

Silvanus Kettleburn: He helped ignite her initial path to be a magizoologist and she will always thank him for that until the end of her time

Least Favourite Professors:

Binns: Lucia is extremely confused about how Hogwarts lets him teach to this day despite the fact that everyone sleeps in his class and he is literally the most boring teacher you could ever meet and wishes he would be fired so a professor who can actually teach History of Magic and help any would historians start early

Relationships

Brother: Cirilo Sebastian Firahel (6 Years older)

Halfblood

Ravenclaw

short blonde hair, green eyes, Man mountain of muscle and handsome, well groomed beard

St Bernard animagus

Cirilo is very sweet and charismatic if he has no reason to be angry at you otherwise, he will break your neck, the reasons why is usually related to people hurting his family or abusing kids

He becomes an auror that specializes in investigating and dealing with cases of child abuse and neglect once Rakepick and R are dealt with

He and Lucia are very close and share the same drive to protect their loved ones no matter the costs to others, which is part of the reason why he got involved with R to protect his family, once he learned that R is not to be trusted he breaks all ties with them which officially happens once he is freed

Misc Siblings:

Sonia Firahel(4 years younger)

Enzio Firahel (7 years younger)

Nicoletta Firahel(10 years younger)

Father: Simon Graham Firahel

Muggle

short blonde hair, blue eyes, fit as fuck and tallest in his family(6′6)

Simon is very compassionate, loving and very calm in day to day life but when he gets angry, he gets angry

He is the sensei of a karate dojo which he has run for most of his life and ensured that all of his kids know self defence just in case magic fails them 

 Lucia is his little sunflower that he will protect until his last breath, while CIrilo’s disappearance did hurt him, he did not let it impact him raising his kids who still needed their father to be there for them

Mother:Bianca Natalia Firahel

Pureblood

Long voluminous blonde hair, green eyes, curvy and kinda tall but not too noticeable of a height(6′0)

Bianca is extremely sweet to everyone she meets unless they want to talk about Ollivander wands and is very intuitive to her kids secrets but will let them tell her in their own time

Bianca is a international wand maker who refuses to only use the big three wand materials and believes there is no such thing as inferior wand materials only inferior wand makers

Love Interest: Cassandra Cresswood

Best Friends: 

Rowan Khanna

Penny Haywood

Rival: Ben Copper (From 1-5)

Enemy:

R

Rakepick

Death Eaters

Voldemort

Dormmates: (Who’s in your MC’s dorm with them?)

Rowan Khanna

Penny Haywood

Nymphadora Tonks

Chiara Lobosca

Rebecca Lord

Pets:

Her family owns a a ragdoll cat named Sara

She has a long-eared owl named Artemis

Her entire family owns a black owl that has red eyes called Ares

When she moves out into her own house, she gets a samoyed named Mayhem and three ragdoll cats named Cassia, Yuki and Pixel

Closest Canon Friends:

Talbott Winger

Chiara Lobosca

Penny Haywood

Rowan Khanna

Closest MC Friends:

Rebecca Lord @cursed-ice-spirits​

Jason Novak @death-or-sleep​ 

The O’Donnell Quadruplets @unfortunate-arrow​

Sara 

Cara 

Ryan

Conor

She needs more please feel free to ask for your MC to be her friend

Background/History

Lucia was born in Ariccia, Italy to Bianca and Simon, she is the second oldest. She spent much of her life in Italy until three of her grandparents were killed by death eaters and then her family moved to Britain hence her heavy accent

Lucia’s father taught her everything she knows about fighting which led to her physique and fueled her laser focused aim of protecting her family which is why she was so distraught when Cirilo went missing. For months she was basically inconsolable 

This changed when Lucia realized she can try get Cirilo back by learning everything he did in his investigations of the cursed vaults when she starts Hogwarts.

In her second year, she met Cassandra Cresswood when she decided to search the library on her own for information on the Vaults

She took Cassie to the Celestial Ball but much to Cassie’s disappointment as friends (Lucia didn’t want to jeopardize their friendship despite her having a crush on Cassie)

But later in the year, Cassie got fed up with Lucia and full out asked her out though they tried to keep it secretive

Year 5 was bittersweet for Lucia, on one hand she got her brother back and he decided to not abandon her but on the other hand Rakepick escaped after torturing Merula.

During her fifth year, Lucia also forged her magic gauntlets at  The Tower of The Regal Sunset Sea which is also her family’s ancestral home. Her gauntlets increase her speed and strength

Time for a lot of canon divergence  Lucia gave up on the cursed vault hunt, leaving it to Cirilo and everyone else but just in case she hired the Dark Sun Assassins, which is led by her extended family, to kill Rakepick just in case to calm her worries

In her sixth year, she very reluctantly came along with Ben and Merula to investigate rumours of an R meeting in the forbidden forest, this is where Rakepick tried to kill Ben and when Rowan tried to get in the way of Rakepick’s killing curse. Lucia pulled Rowan out of the way just in time and anger welled up inside her due to her remembering her helplessness when her grandparents died causing her to use the full power of her gauntlets ending up with Rakepick’s left arm being obliterated.  

After this is when she got her tattoo, it represents Cassie 

It is also in her sixth year that her relationship with Cassie is found out by the school when they are caught kissing before a quidditch match

In the final battle of the cursed Vaults when all of R tried to get the treasure of the final battle, Lucia joined in the battle and was the one who ended up killing Rakepick

After she graduates, she briefly becomes a wand maker and magizoologist before finally becoming a baker with Cassie

Three years after she graduates, she and Cassie get married

Four years after she graduates, she has her first kids, Alissa and Selene though they are carried by Cassie

When Voldemort returned she was openly defiant of him and joined the Order of the Phoenix. She also sheltered Muggleborns where she could and commonly was found dueling Death Eaters sent after her and her family alongside Cassie

She had Aurea a year before the battle of Hogwarts, this time she was the one who was pregnant

She was absent from the Battle of Hogwarts as she stayed behind to protect her family from any would be attackers while Cassie went to fight in the battle which she survived much to Lucia’s relief and the two were able to live their lives in peace

Personality

Lucia most of the time is very happy, always smiling in some way but this hides her extremely protective side for her loved ones and the anger that follows when her loved ones are hurt. She will never give up on anyone and will always do her best to help them.

However if anyone she cares about is hurt and she can’t get revenge either because the perpetrator is gone or whoever or whatever did it did so out of fear, she will be very distraught and blame herself even if she quite literally couldn’t have done anything and will shut herself away for days but if the perpetrator is not gone then she will be merciless and will kill them if they hurt her loved ones badly enough(Before Year 5, she would not readily kill).

She for the most part cannot handle people who are seemingly grumpy all the time and will intentionally avoid people like that.

She is very empathetic and tries to do her best to help her friends out when they are in bad places but she fails to take the same advice and apply it to herself and will fall into dark places easily if the signs aren’t noticed quick enough. 

Misc

She is very resistant to sleeping potions and charms to such an extent that by the time she’s in year 7 she is basically immune and requires extremely potent versions used on her for it to take proper effect

All her scars came from a magical accident when a spell she was trying to create backfired injuring her and Cassie

She is very proud of her heritage and will fight people if they insult it in her presence

She has Norse ancestors on her father’s side of the family though most of the traditions and practices from them have been lost in time

She is fluent in Italian, English and Scottish Gaelic, the latter of which she learned from Cassie

She for most of her life had a huge fear of heights which came from her fall, she overcame it with the help of her friends when she decided to watch Cassie’s quidditch matches

She is very physically affectionate and will hug all her friends without a thought and will always make it known that she cares about them 

When she first started Hogwarts her italian accent was very strong but over time it began to fade and once she graduates and moves in with Cassie, she starts unwittingly adopting a slight scottish accent which is tinged with her remaining italian accent

She is a very good singer, she taught herself and was naturally good from the onset. She knows many italian songs and lullabies

She is a black belt in Karate and despite her much less chaotic life after Hogwarts and the Second Wizarding War she maintains her strong AF physique

The scarf she wears was made by her late grandmother and she is rarely seen without it unless she is dueling seriously

She is named after her strongest ancestor Lucia Altera, a name which she lives up to.

She is capable of casting two of the unforgivable curses except for the killing curse

The names of her five daughters are; Alissa Dawn, Selene Abigail, Aurea Amara, Roxanna Amber, Rebecca Ciana and Hannah Chiara Firahel

Format made by @hogwartsmysterystory

[mystiphying]

Catching Thoughts

PAIRING: Marc Loewe x  MC (Could be OC/reader or Nora) THEMES: Slightly NSFW (kinda), Mind Reading, No racial markers for MC SUMMARY:  Marc isn't acknowledging her more 'suggestive' thoughts and it's frustrating. So she uses his mind reading abilities to her advantage... while other people are around. (AO3 link) WORD COUNT: 2k

⇢  MASTERLIST

  Wind blew gently, his platinum hair blowing across his forehead and around his ears, golden earring glistening momentarily as it caught a ray of sunlight through the rustling leaves of the tree above them. His slender fingers turned the page of the book in his hand as his eyes continued running over the words printed on the beige pages, seemingly engulfed in the story. She had noticed his brows would knit ever so slightly as he concentrated and narrow his eyes as he read. And she loved watching as he did so, a little taken by his beauty. Her pen diverged from writing in her journal to sketching his lovely features, sharp in all the right places, but also soft on her eyes. She always felt this warm sense of contentment when they could sit there in silence, doing things separately but still in the comforting company of the other. And although he rarely gave her the satisfaction of knowing, he liked it too, immensely.

  Her pen shaded parts of his hair, the curve of his neck, the loose collar of his shirt. She looked up to get another look at him. Right when she did his hand ran through his hair, and he stretched his back, neglecting the book for a short minute. Marc looked up at the sky, his eyes matching the vivid blue and taking in the scenery. Her eyes trailed down from his, as his shirt shifted in a way that revealed a glimpse of soft skin, catching her eye. Her focus quickly shifted to his rolled sleeves, his defined arms and pretty hands. Hands that would sneak their way around her waist when she least expected. He was many things. Sometimes cold, sometimes warm, sometimes hot with passion. At all those times she loved him, but these past few days she was hoping to get that last one going. It wasn’t that it’d even been that long, but lust was busy bugging and nagging at her thoughts. So much so she thought it was weird he hadn’t picked up on it yet. Usually when thoughts, like these or not, pestered her mind he would pick up on it. Unless… he was deliberately ignoring them.

She pretended to busy herself with her journal, but tried her best to focus on one thought, trying to ‘shout’ it at him and get him to notice, get him to react.   ‘I want to kiss you right now.’ she tried. But there was nothing. Not shocking, considering how mild that was, and a thought not so rare. ‘I want to straddle you and have your lips on mine.’ She tried again. This time there was a flinch that wouldn’t even be noticeable if she hadn’t been looking for it. He wasn’t exactly caught off guard, or shocked that she would try something like that. Marc had found it amusing and liked teasing her, until her thoughts silenced, a trick she’d picked up. He looked to her after giving it a minute, and watched her sigh and pack her small bag with her journal and pencil case before she picked herself up from the ground.   “I’m going to head home, I’ll see you at the council meeting tonight.” She said, giving him a meek smile. One that he returned as he watched her walk away. He didn’t feel like this often… bad, maybe? From a mild feeling that she was… unhappy? He shook the thought and grumpily picked up himself and his book and then the blanket he’d given her to sit on. He dusted his pants off, and shook the blanket, blades of dried grass and twigs falling to the ground.

   Later that night at the town hall bustling with cryptics, all chatting and catching up before the meeting started, Marc stood with his parents. Equally as tall and intimidating as himself, the Loewe family stood out, bordered by an air of nobility and refinement. Polite nods and modest smiles, they were friendly, but still nonetheless daunting. His mother frowned at her son, a hand placed on his shoulder as she spoke to him.   “Are you alright, love?” she asked. She was a rather intuitive person, and an even more perceptive mother. Marc was an interesting child, but after a mere twenty years she knew him very well. Marc’s expression didn’t change but he let out a subtle sigh.   “I’m fine.” He said, not doing a good job of selling it, but she knew not to badger him. If he wanted to share he would do it in his own time.

  Spencer and Ally at her side, the three weren’t turning heads but when a certain tall sharp vampire was actively looking for her, she was the centre of his attention as she stepped into the room. She had yet to see him, to acknowledge him. Her hair was tied up neatly, the jeans and shirt she’d been wearing that afternoon had been replaced by a simple casual dress she didn’t wear all that often. His focus trained on her, Marc could also faintly smell the light floral perfume he’d given her. She stood at the door speaking to her brother and best friend briefly before they broke off.   “He’s staring…” Ally whispered, as quietly as possible. She quickly dismissed the comment quickly and told them to hurry off. She finally turned to scan the room for Marc, almost immediately finding him. She walked towards him, not as excitedly as she usually did, even though she was always rather tame. His mother gave her a soft smile over his father’s shoulder.   “It’s so nice to see you, dear.” She greeted, holding a gloved hand out and giving her hand a squeeze. It was kind of shocking to some, how accepting the Loewe family had been of their son dating a Fae influenced human. Of course there was a slight concern when they’d first learnt of the situation, but they had quickly come around to the idea, charmed by her and the way she made their son break into a smile, to show a warmer side to himself.

  Marc watched quietly as she chatted comfortably with his parents, a lot more acquainted with each other now they’d been dating a few years. As he listened to the conversation come to an end, he reached to pull his girlfriend to the side, to get her alone for a second. But just before his hand met her arm a council member stood on the stage, announcing they were starting. She smiled up at him, leading him into the rows of chairs, following his parents. Marc wasn’t one for overthinking but he knew there were things left unsaid, or totally undiscussed, and wished to speak with her, alone. The voices, discussing whatever it was this meeting was about, were drowned out and he was concentrated on her. Her eyes trained on the stage, and although he had a suspicion she wasn’t actually listening, he still couldn’t hear her thoughts. Her hand reached out for his.

  ‘I want your hands all over me.’ The contact, her hand in his, he finally caught one of her thoughts. His eyes widened slightly, a little shocked with the first thought he’d heard since that afternoon. She was still doing this? She feigned innocence and gave his hand a squeeze. ‘I’m wearing your favourite set.’ His breath hitched in his throat. Her thumb ran over his hand. ‘I want to scream your name.’ Marc considered pulling his hand away, as her dirty thoughts found their way into his. But before he could, she pulled her hand back into her lap and sat innocently through the rest of the meeting. He tried to listen, but as he already found these meetings tedious and dull, her thoughts were very distracting. As the meeting came to an end, a very discreetly impatient Marc had offered his parents take their time, he was going to drive his ‘tired’ girlfriend home. His father peered over his shoulder at the wide eyed and awake girl chatting to an old friend, that purple haired boy.

  “Okay, we’ll see you later.” His father said, leading his mother away. Marc turned to find her, but she wasn’t there. Elliot was now chatting to Shelly, and the girl he was looking for was gone. Before he could focus on finding her, her hand met his waist, appearing seemingly out of nowhere. She smiled innocently at him but his expression was less than happy. Her smile turned to a flat line when she realised that he seemed angry. She tilted her head. Marc’s hand gripped her wrist, and he dragged her out to the hallway. He wasn’t being aggressive or hurting her but he hadn’t done this for a long, long time. Her feet scurried along the floor, following his long strides. The light of the hallway was like a flash, and suddenly she was pulled into a supply closet.

  “What are you doing?” she hissed. Marc had her pinned against the wall, like a distant memory from when they were first getting to know each other. “This feels like high school.” Silence. She was so caught up in the circumstances that she had only just realised that his face was an inch away from hers. His blue eyes glowed in the dimly lit closet as he watched her innocent demeanour falter beneath him. “Are you mad?” he cocked his brow at her question.

  “You’d probably like that, huh?” he said calmly, slender fingers on her chin, tilting her face up as if to meet his lips. Her lips tried to connect with his but he directed his lips to her jaw, kissing lightly. She wasn’t sure what to do but she already feeling weak in the knees. “Where’d this come from, hmm?” She turned her face away. His fingers turned her face back to his. A small smirk dancing on his lips.   “I don’t know what you mean.”   “Oh?” He said, pulling away, standing up straight and fixing his shirt. “I guess I misread your intentions.” Marc’s hand met the cool metal of the door knob, swiftly opening it an inch or so before she piped up again.   “Okay, okay. I…” she started, a hand on his arm, pulling him back to her. The light from the hall seeped into the closet and shone behind him as he faced her. “I don’t feel bad. It’s your fault for ignoring me.”

  She expected him to continue badgering her about it, to have some witty frustrating retort. But instead his hand pulled the door shut again and before she could really process it, he was on her again, this time spending less time with the slow teasing, decided he’s wound her up enough. His lips peppered feverish kisses along her neck, one arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her plush to him. His cologne smelt fresh and familiar. Having him so close was just what she’d wanted. Her lips were magnetic and the lips that were just on her neck quickly pulled back to her lips, moving together. Her teeth tugged at his lower lip and his tongue slipped into her mouth, dipping in for a taste and meeting her tongue. Their tongues brushing against each other as they twisted their necks, they moved together eagerly. Her hands snaked to rest on his shoulders as his rested on her hips, no apprehension when moving to grip her ass. Her dress was short enough for him to gradually get a hand beneath it, hand gliding along her soft skin. She smiled against his lips, more pleased than just compliant.

  “Is this what you were looking for?” His words were breathed out softly against her ear, in a moment finally letting her catch her breath. She caught his line of sight and shifted her eyes up, as if thinking about her answer.   “Kind of, but I’m thinking we should find somewhere a little more comfortable that I can find exactly what I was looking for.” She murmured. He was a step ahead, already leading her out of the town hall and to his car.

A/N: So I wrote a little thing for Changeling by @steamberrystudio because I just enjoyed it so much. I fear it’s slightly out of character for the snarky blond vampire but I don’t know... Anyway! It’s also on AO3 here.

[chippokenabokura]

World Trigger - Volume 20 Extras Part 1

I’m going to start off with the Q&A again this time, which has some very interesting implications seeded in the answers this time...

Question Corner 14

Q: Can Enedra’s ‘Vorvoros’ make things like just his hand from a distance?

A: It seems possible, but it seems he can’t make fine movements. But it’d likely be interesting if he could move it.

 Q: Can Moira’s ‘Spiralskia’ sever an object if it is inserted into the hole? Or is the window unable to close?

A: I think it won’t be able to sever it, and spit out the object instead. If it had the ability to sever, it seems likely there would be several people who’re cut in half by accident.

 Q: Can Hairoein’s ‘Alektor’ create bullets in the shape of humans?

A: It doesn’t seem like there are bullets of mammals that don’t reproduce through ‘eggs’, but he was using things that looked like jellyfish which goes planula larva -> polyp strobilation, so maybe he can.

 Q: Can ‘Alektor’s’ ability to take in trion from surrounding cubes and heal the body be used on other people’s trion bodies?

A: It doesn’t seem like he healed Moira, so it seems it can’t.

 Q: You had a character whose name means ‘pig’ in your last work (Schwein), and in this one Hus means ‘pig’ too. Is there some kind of meaning behind this?

A: There isn’t really any meaning, but since the author likes pork cutlets he might be subconsciously giving the title of ‘pig’ to capable characters.

 Q: What are the criteria used to choose the commentator and colour commentators for rank wars?

A: It seems colour commentators are mostly those who have A rank experience, but sometimes B rank captains are called up too. Anyone can be a commentator as long as they can talk, and honestly it doesn’t have to be an operator but because you need to operate equipment a lot are operators. There have been times when the commentator was a combatant or an engineer.

 Q: Kako-san doesn’t have a Gunner trigger on her main trigger side, so why is she a Shooter?

A: This comes from BBF. Thank you for reading. The positions are based on the equipped trigger with the most solo points (except All-rounders). Kako-san’s Hound (custom) that she equips in her sub has the highest solo points, and the Scorpion she equips in her main hasn’t reached 6000 points yet, so she’s a Shooter.

It looks like she wants to increase her Scorpion to over 6000 points and become an All-rounder.

In the Galopoula battle, it seems she equipped Hound (custom) in her main too in preparation for a firefight.

-

Question Corner 15

Q: Can the things on a trion body like the clothes you’re wearing or shoes be taken off?

A: You can set it to can be taken off or can’t be. The composition can be simpler if set to can’t be taken off, so that can save trion cost.

Border’s on-duty combat bodies are generally made so you can only take off the outerwear.

 Q: Does Jin-san use his Side Effect in solo matches? If he does, then what is the cause when he loses?

A: It seems he uses it against A rank agents. He used it actively in his past matches with Tachikawa too. A common case of him losing has him getting absorbed in reading the future and neglecting the present as the main factor.

 Q: Up to the Large Scale Invasion, Hound was written with the kanji for ‘guided bullet’, but from rank wars it’s written with the kanji for ‘pursuing bullet’; why is this?

A: ‘Detection guidance’ which chase trion responses is written ‘guided bullet’, and ‘visual guidance’ which locks on to the target with line of sight is written ‘pursuing bullet’, but there are quite a few mistakes here and there so don’t worry about it.

 Q: Is there anyone of 18 and above who has a driver’s licence for a car or a bike?

A: Aside from Reiji who has already driven in the story, it seems Fuyushima-san, Azuma-san, Suwa, Tsutsumi, Kako-san, and Kakizaki have normal driver’s licences.

The top brass and Sawamura-san have licences too. Tachikawa doesn’t as you might expect.

Zoe has a motorbike licence, and Kage and Touma have motorised bicycle licences. It seems Arafune and Hokari want motorbike licences too.

 Q: Konami-sempai is Attacker rank no.3, does this mean she shows up in the solo rank wars? And in that case what triggers does she use?

A: Studying came first for Konami up until the end of her middle school years so she didn’t do any solo rank wars then, and only participated in the period from her middle school graduation and part way through her first year of high school.

Back then, in that period, Jin had become a Black Trigger user and Tachikawa had kind of lost his motivation, so Konami sharpened her blades against those like Kazama-san to reach all the way to Attacker rank no.1. After that, along with Tamakoma’s separation, she took a step back from rank wars, but her solo points have only been surpassed by Tachikawa and Kazama-san so she’s still Attacker no.3.

Her triggers at the time were dual-wielded Kogetsu (fairly short).

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Some thoughts:

First, is this proof that Hus does mean pig?? And does that anecdote about Kako mean that Osamu will soon be in the top 9 Shooters who participate in rank wars? Also, thank god you don't have to worry about the kanji used for the two types of Hound because I have no idea how to maintain that difference in English without making it awkward.

Finally, and most importantly, Konami is only in her 2nd year of high school which means Tamakoma only separated a year ago!! Around the same time that Usami and Karasuma joined Tamakoma...dun dun dun...

[crvores]

SCORPIUS HYPERION MALFOY really is the spitting image of FROY GUTIERREZ, right? For someone only 22 years old, SCOR has been forced to endure so much. Yeah, that PUREBLOOD has been scraping by at the sanctuary since AUGUST, 2028, working as a HEALER-IN-TRAINING AND RESEARCHER in the DIVISION OF HEALING. HE is a CIS MAN and is known to be CAPTIOUS and DISMISSIVE but also FERVENT and RESOURCEFUL. Best of luck surviving through this.  

CHARACTER PARALLELS: Amy Santiago (B99), Claire Temple (Daredevil), Chidi Anagonye (The Good Place), Giles (Buffy TVS), Michelle Jones (Spiderman: Homecoming), Elizabeth Swan (PoTC), Spock (Star Trek), Clarke Griffin (The 100), Gregory House (House) suggested honorable mention Gizmo (Gremlins)

[tw for patricide/parental death, desc of blood, substance abuse/addiction, under the cut]

scorpius was living in a tiny flat along diagon alley, flooing in to saint mungos for his healing apprenticeship monday to friday. when the wards came down around wizarding london he was holed up as the chaos ensued below, frantically trying to floo call the manor.

when he arrived at malfoy manor after crawling out of a skylight and apparating to the road alongside the driveway he was greeted by the gates hanging off their hinges. though he can only speculate, due to his father’s continued reclusiveness and refusal to return to assist the death eater ranks a horde were nudged none-too-gently toward the isolated house.

draco opened his eyes after burning through a fever too high to be calmed by any spell from his mother’s wand. just as he had always been. upon returning to consciousness he didn’t immediately reach for his wand, a fact which both astoria and her son found to be terribly odd. no matter the ailment, the circumstance, the time, draco malfoy had always curled his fingers around the hawthorn like a talisman when waking since it had been returned to him after the war.

the ensuing twenty minutes are something which scorpius has begged to have scoured from his mind, yet he knows he can never let himself forget killing his father. it fundamentally changed him in a way that is irrevocable.

as he and astoria fled the manor, no hope of the two of them alone eliminating the inferi on the grounds and securing it, his mother clamped a hand around his wrist and attempted to apparate them to an old greengrass property, a magical panic room of sorts. scor was badly splinched and ended up dumped 80 miles away from where his mother had landed.

he gathered copious notes from observations of the inferi in his time on the outside. temperature recorded, time of day, wind direction, sentience, and activity were all meticulously written down in an attempt to conserve his sanity while on his own. scor feels as though he had no trouble discerning infected from the living when he was out there and when he was filled in upon joining the others he speculated that a part of his brain concerning the glamours had just been burnt out. unfortunately since arriving this has been completely disproven and he’s trying to work out if the fear response or any other factors had anything to do with it.

since arriving at hogwarts, half-starved and wild-eyed he has thrown himself into the effort with a single-mindedness of someone attempting to forget every aspect of their own life. he doggedly continues his healing work, any time not spent at the infirmary is glued to his workbench and harassing the living shit out of the research department. drawing up hypothesis after hypothesis from the bits of infected he’s managed to have the privilege to pick at. if anyone interrupts him or makes what he decides is an unnecessary contribution he has a horrid habit of biting their head off.

while before he would play up and sneer, act posher than posh and generally fucked with anyone who had a problem with his family, specifically his father, now he will go absolutely stone-faced and has several times nearly had to be restrained because he will go off like a tiny, weedy bomb with a dangerously extensive knowledge of human anatomy.

neglects a lot of his own needs; goes days without sunlight, only eats when prompted to, hardly sleeps. a mess but trying his best. has a dangerous habit of consuming dreamless sleep but guilt at using valuable resources is essentially the only thing stopping him from launching headlong into addiction. lily and various others have a tally going on how many times scor says the words ‘i’m fine.’ in a single week and he suspects theres a pretty wide pool on the betting now.

he’s not all bad tho!! he can be a right softy if he knows you well enough and always always always wants to help. just… he’s a lil prickly rn.

skinny and kind of sickly, he never had the best health as a kid. he scars very easily and bruises like a gd peach. pretty alright on a broom but he has no real interest in playing quidditch. he’s always cold, he’ll be sitting in direct sunlight and complaining about needing a scarf. yeah hes that dude.

kind of craves attention? while being an introvert sometimes he just wants someone to pay attention to him until he gets annoyed by it and tells them to piss off. fickle.

his url is the italian word ‘cruores’ which means flowing blood and the latin ‘cruor’ which roughly refers to coagulating blood; gore.

      Full Name: Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy Gender/Pronouns: Cis man | he/him Age: Twenty-two Birthdate: January 20th Parents: Draco Malfoy & Astoria Malfoy (née Greengrass) Siblings: N/A. Birth place: St. Mungo’s Hospital, England Height: 5’11” Weight: 56 kg Sexual/Romantic Orientation: Demiromantic Bisexual Nationality: English Body Alterations/Marks: Terrible splinching scars up his left hand, arm over to his chest and shoulder blade. 

                                  Blood Status: Pureblood Hogwarts House: Slytherin  Wand Arm: Right Wand: 11 2/3 inches, Willow, supple, Dragon Heartstring. Hogwarts House: Slytherin Pet: A crested toad named Jarvis. Special Abilities: None. Patronus: Arctic Fox

                                Personality Traits: brilliance, innovation, individuality, openness, social consciousness, inventiveness, practical skill and self assertion; lack of attachment to people and the “real world,” over-intellectualizing of the emotions, dismissiveness, a crotchety temper, rigidity, intellectual arrogance, and stubbornness. Zodiac Sign: Aquarius/Capricorn Cusp Moral Alignment: Neutral Good Core values: Loyalty, Knowledge, Hope Four temperaments: Melancholic  

HOGWARTS HOUSE BREAKDOWN 

Slytherin Primary and a Burned Ravenclaw Secondary.

Slytherin Primaries prioritize their own selves and loved ones first. Slytherins don’t feel guilty or selfish about this– they feel righteous and moral. The most important thing is to look after your own. Abandoning or hurting one of your own is the worst thing you can do.

A Burned Ravenclaw Secondary might want to be skilled, curious, and prepared, but they feel like they are (or like people think they are) limited, clumsy, or inconstant. Gathering knowledge, hobbies, skills, or tools is the right way to achieve their goals, but Burned Ravenclaws know that’s not going to work within their capabilities. So they take other paths and use other tools– maybe a Gryffindor’s bluntness, a Slytherin’s flexibility, or a Hufflepuff’s slow and steady dedication.

You may have a Hufflepuff Secondary Model.

Hufflepuff is the House of grit, reliability, and determination, and Hufflepuffs use those values to help live, act, and succeed. If you model Hufflepuff Secondary, you also value these things and like to live by them. You like to be hardworking, dedicated, and consistent– but you wouldn’t feel guilty for abandoning those values in the service of other, higher priorities. If there’s another, easier way to get what you want– you’d take it. You think hard work provides valuable rewards– and those rewards are why you work. The work doesn’t have persuasive value in itself.

the stillness of the world the moment you take the first step into fresh snow, cashmere and fine wool, the pearlescence of dreamless sleep draught, the scratch of a quill on parchment, faintly tremoring fingers, a shiver up your spine in a warm room, the exhilaration of a problem solved, a thunderous grey overcast sky, the bite of a stitching charm, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, petrichor, the burn in your eyes before a well of tears.

so excited to be back in this verse >:) 

[calleo-bricriu]

Just a short flight.

((Two different threads that, as usual, I spaced on cleaning up for a post. Some things added for clarity as it was a quick back and forth at a lot of points. Hello there @absintheabsence being so nice with not explaining how this type of flight worked then just shoving Calleo out the window. :D ))

This letter is, of course, in the form of a little bird that flies around the room several times before shifting into a question mark and hanging itself obnoxiously in front of Gellert’s face.

It’s smacked aside, but not unkindly. “Silly bird.”

“Don’t want to go flying in the snow, hm?” Calleo pulled himself up to kneel on the couch, draping his arms over the back of it to wait for an answer.

“Queerly enough, I hadn’t caught that meaning at all. I worried you had been enquiring after such dangerous territory as my mental state.” He’s already flicking the window open. Grindelwald clucked his tongue at the wolpertinger that raises his head, sleepily, from one of his baskets. “No, little one, not for you.”

“Your mental state is as reasonably solid as mine is at any given time anyway,” He was at the window already as well, “One of these times, I ought to try it the way you do it just to see how it differs.”

“Knife or pin?” Right down to business.

​ “I’m in a knife mood." Calleo laughed far to brightly for the situation. "No particular reason beyond I’m less likely to drop it.”

“You assume much in thinking that I hadn’t at least toyed with the prospect of doing the honors myself- but ah well, that’s how we learn after all. Carefully, wait for the wind, three drops.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t say no," Calleo offered, "especially since I have no idea what I’m actually doing or what you specifically did the last time.”

“That pretty hand, then, if you please.” Gellert waited with as much patience as he ever had.

Calleo’s hand (still attached to the wrist and arm at least!) as handed over without hesitation.

Grindelwald’s bony fingers close tight around it for a moment with a strength that may have surprised anyone else before deeply pricking the pad of Calleo’s middle finger. The rich color welling up is almost brighter than the silver blade that now sees use nearly every day.

Better use for that thing than leaving it in a Ministry wall, hm?” Even if Calleo hadn’t known better than to whine about being lightly stabbed, it never really hurt that much anyway, though it always did seem to make the finger instinctively curl inward.

“And this trick is typically reserved for Dark Lords- we all find new purposes." “Tap gently against your thumb for each drop; the wind will carry them once it picks up again.” Snow is swirling into the cell now.

“I always wondered how they did that! It’s so–less horrible than I suppose everyone would imagine,” he gently tapped against his thumb for each drop and just…kind of stood there watching.

Grindelwald watched them fall into the mist and the spray of the sea far, far below them. Then he laid a tender hand on the center of his paramour’s back- and pushed.

Calleo’s first instinct was to shift into a form he knew could fly but, doing that would defeat the purpose of learning how to do it this way. It wouldn’t be right to say he was graceful but, at the very least, he didn’t slam face first into the ground and managed to gain some measure of control–at least enough to turn around grin up at the positively lovely man who had pushed him out the window. “Sweet of you to remember I learn best under immense pressure!” He called over the ever present howling wind and lighting--even if it was snowing, there was still lightning somehow.

Drifting gracefully down over him, the crash of the icy waves close enough to wet their heels, the old man chucks him under the chin. “Would you love me if I forgot such things?”

“This is definitely interesting. A bit easier to control as well but, in fairness, I don’t spend a lot of time as a bird.”

“And I would love you if you forgot such things, but I’d wonder how you forgot!”

“Oh, hey!” Calleo’s generalised curiosity about the flying shifted back to Gellert, and a slow, stupid grin spread across his face, “I know it’s a bit cold and all but exactly how much concentration does it take to not fall?”

“Queerly enough, I’ve never tested it.” Those hands are strong.

“Want to find out? Because I do.” Another borderline stupid grin. “Probably a totally inappropriate use if the ability to do this at all but where’s the fun in proper?”

“You’re incorrigible. Lead on, spirit; do your worst.”

“Well, maybe not my worst until I figure out if we’ll stay up here and not end up on the rocks. Or in the water.” Calleo squinted toward the ground, definitely not wanting to land on rocks just as a general rule.

“I can carry us both if you begin to fail.” Grindelwald’s statement was, for the most part, matter-of-fact. Possibly with a mild hint to hurry it up.

“Oh, well, in that case, I’ll do my worst! This should be fun!” Calleo clapped his hands together before taking a minute to figure out how to actually move around reasonably well.

“Pay at least a touch of attention to the updrafts-“ And the rest is swearing, snatched away by the wind.

I can multitask.” Not strictly a verbal reply, but clear enough.

((And back inside the cell for the new thread--the technicality is that he only has to remain confined to Nurmengard, and they did not leave Nurmengard. Follow the letter of the law, not the spirit!))

"I just went through all of the motions of making coffee and forgot to add the actual coffee," Calleo grinned up at Gellert, "If there was ever a sign I needed coffee, that would be it."

“What would you like in it?”

“You mean apart from coffee I assume. Nothing really. Just black.”

“You’re getting a drop of something stronger to warm you up.” From the sound of it, Calleo didn’t have the option to say no there; he probably could have but, really, it was just alcohol.

“That’ll probably take more than a drop.” He got a sly little grin with that statement.

“Noted.”

“You know, that’ll probably be much nicer come Spring. Oh! Or even Summer or Autumn! Still, no complaints and now I know it’s a thing that’s possible!” Still grinning, "Really, it was great fun!"

“Mad little magpie." Grindelwald shook his head, "You haven’t even dried your hair yet; let me do it for you.”

“I’m not about to stop you; it takes ages to dry on its own. I still can’t believe that worked!”

“I still can’t believe I neglected to realize the real danger until it was- forgive me- a tad late.” A twist of his wand and Calleo is shrouded in hot steam for an instant, before suffering from an unfortunate case of puffiness.

"Well, nobody died or got injured--I look like a Puffskein!–and being a bit wet isn’t injured–so no harm done!”

“And you’re absolutely certain nothing harmful… escaped, shall we say.” Possibly a little tinge of paranoia in that statement.

“Yeah," Calleo shrugged almost dismissively up at Gellert, as though it should have been obvious, "I kept a little set of containment charms around the immediate area. Anything that hit them would have been–removed I guess. Or at least rendered inert and unidentifiable.”

“Mm.” He’s clearly pleased as he uncorks a bottle of something strong-smelling. “Shame on me for underestimating you. I should have known better.”

“I do like to think I’m familiar enough with you at this point to just know the sorts of little things that would bother you.” Calleo craned his neck a little, “What’s in the bottle then?”

“Extremely loosely- schnapps.” There’s a small conflagration in the cup as he pours.

“Stronger than that if it lights up just being poured!” Still, Calleo had to admit the idea of coffee mixed with something that exploded on contact with it was interesting, to say the least.

“It’s the closest in taste, at least." The cup was handed over. "Drink up.”

“This seems like an unnecessary and convenient excuse to get me drunk.” The statement is good natured enough and he does take the offered cup, “If it were schnapps I’d probably just take it as a shot since it’s not mixed with anything.”

“There’s drinking, my dear, and there’s medicine; this is the latter.”

“For what, exactly?” Regardless, he drank it anyway. “I’m pretty sure it’s a myth that you catch cold by being out in the cold–or by getting wet.”

[storiesbeyondthestars]

Love In Voltron

You should always be wary of things said in interviews, but one thing I absolutely believe is when LM and JDS said that one of the biggest themes within Voltron is love. I’m not talking about shipping or anything like that, just love in general and in all its forms.

I’m going to be looking at different kinds of love, and how, as far as we’ve seen on the show, it applies to them. There’s a tiny bit of speculation in spots too, because of course there is. This gets long, so it’s going below the cut.

You may have heard of the Greek terms for different forms of love like eros, philia, storage, agape, and others. I think there are eight total (though a few sources have made a more ‘modern’ version that has seven). I’m not going to be looking at those specifically, but there is some overlap to my version.

Different forms of love include sexual, romantic, familial, platonic, universal, self, and there are many others. Here’s how I’m going to be using them:

Sexual – physical interest/love for others 

Romantic – how we commonly see love with a partner/spouse.

Familial – love for parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, cousins, and does include found family that you genuinely see as family.

Platonic – Friendship

Universal – this is your love for things like nature, strangers, God, etc…

Self – loving yourself.

For Voltron, obviously, there is not going to be a portrayal of sexual love. It’s a show for kids/young teens. You can take inferences based on people having kids (like Keith’s parents for instance), though you can still have a kid and not experience sexual love (an ace person that may be chill with sex and wants kids, for instance).

Outside of that, I’m going to go through Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, Allura, Keith, and Lance in regards to love.

Shiro

Shiro is the oldest of the Paladins, and therefore he’s instantly had more life experience, more time to learn, grow, and experience different types of love.

Romantic – in S7 we learned that Shiro had a boyfriend, potentially a fiancé. He definitely knows what romantic love is. Yes, he struggled with aspects of it, and in the end he couldn’t make it work, but he’s experienced it and knows what it is.

Familial – Keith. Shiro has never been shown to have a family. There’s the possibility that he himself was an orphan or separated from his family, but that’s just speculation. With the age difference, a child compared to an adult, they developed a brotherly relationship. So yes, Shiro experiences familial love through Keith.

Platonic – I’d say he absolutely develops a friendship with all the other Paladins as well. Yes, he is separated by age and experience, but he’d be close to them. They can also fall a bit under familial as well.

Universal – He’s has this one from the moment he landed on Earth. Save the universe.

Self – This one is a bit weird. He wavers with this sometimes, is very dry and sarcastic with his own life, but at the same time, he chose HIMSELF over his relationship. He accepted what was happening and wanted to do what he wanted while he had the chance. That does speak of self love.

Shiro was pretty well rounded from the beginning, despite being the wonderful disaster he is. It makes sense, since he’s older and was the more stable force to balance out the other Paladins. He’s already gone through figuring out who he is and what matters to him. Now he just has to figure out how to make that work without a looming death date over him.

Pidge

Romance – Pidge has shown zero inclination for romantic love. She recognizes crushes and when people are mooning for others, but she doesn’t seem interested herself. I like the headcanon that she’s ace (like me!), but she could also just be a young teenage girl who doesn’t have an interest in that kind of thing yet, but might in the future (but also she could be ace and still fine love, those things aren’t separate). All points of view on that are legit.  

Familial – This is arguable the strongest form of love Pidge understands in the beginning. All of her actions are defined by her family, and sometimes she slips into the mentality of ‘my family first’, which we see in S5 with the Lotor-Sam trade.

Platonic – This one is super interesting. We know that she was separated from her peers as a student. That’s a pretty common thing for children that are as smart as she is. Her best friend was arguable Matt, who I’d estimate was roughly 5 years older than her, give or take. Despite being part of the ‘Garrison Trio’, she actually didn’t have a relationship with Lance and Hunk. They tried, but she was on a mission. Later on though, she grows to love all of them as friends, and we get to see this.

Universal – This is another form of love that she originally struggles with. How do I know this? More than once, she was willing to turn her back on the rest of the universe for her family. She wanted to trade Lotor without hesitation. She was willing to walk away from Voltron. She learned to embrace this too.

Self – Pidge has never struck me as someone with real self-esteem issues. She knows who she is, what she can do, and she embraces it. Once she got a few friends that understood her, she knew exactly where she fit in.

Hunk

Romantic – this one has never been a very big focus for Hunk at all.  However, we do know he made a connection with Shay that can fall under this category. Like any typical teenage boy, he denied this at first, but doesn’t seem to really mind. There’s no huge dynamic arc for this for him.

Familial – this was a strange one for Hunk. Family came up so rarely with him at first, but then it turned into a huge thing for him in S7. He had to learn to cope with his family being in danger, using everything else he learned over the adventure to save them.

Platonic – I’d arguably say that this is the strongest form of love associated with Hunk. He is very much a people person. He can bond with them in ways pretty much every other Paladin struggles with. This actually makes a ton of sense if you watch everything over. He hasn’t gone on a journey with this one or anything, but it’s a strong part of who he is. Sidenote: the concept that he’s got a super strong bromance with Lance actually has never really been shown on the show. They’re close, but they also really don’t hang out with one another much anymore.

Universal – Hunk learned this one very early on. He was all set to go home even knowing how bad the Galra were. It was only after his experience with Shay that he opened up to this kind of love. He really does embrace this.

Self – I don’t recall Hunk ever having an issue with self-esteem or self love. He’s good here!

Allura

Romantic – Allura does know what this kind of love is. I think she genuinely fell in love with Lotor, and that he truly did love her in return. I don’t think he was expecting it, but it happened. Now, I’d say that she definitely has a crush on Lance. How that’s going to turn out though, who knows?

Familial – Allura loved her father. This love actually is a huge thing that defines her. Not only that, but she definitely loves Coran as family too.

Platonic – This is one that she’s had to work on with the Paladins. She was super awkward at first, and if you think about it, she’s been trained to be a diplomat and a princess. She’s always been a bit separate from the others. This evened out more when she became a paladin, when she became one of them. They are friends, and she’s much more at ease with them. This is something she still works on at times, but she’s learning.

Universal – hands down she has this one in the bag. This is largely what defines her character for so long. The universe. Alteans she doesn’t know. This has always been a part of her.

Self – She actually really does need to work on her self-esteem. The moment things start going badly, she questions herself. She’s very quick to bring herself down, and resorts to thinking ‘what would father do’, as if he’s so much better than she is.  This is largely how Lotor was able to worm his way into her heart, and why she’s now paying attention to Lance too.

Keith

Romantic – he is a mess in this category, rife with misunderstandings. I think he has been/is in love (yes yes, my bias, whatever), but he doesn’t at all know what it’s like for this to be returned.

Familial – he had his father, who died when he was young, then he had Shiro, who vanished on him. So he’s gotten tastes of this in the past, but he’s only recently learned really how to love family. We see this when he tells Shiro ‘you’re my brother, I love you’ and tells Krolia that he loves her.

Platonic – Keith has struggled a lot with this too. He’s actually not a hostile introvert, but he is still quiet and was a lone wolf for so long that it made it so he doesn’t REALLY know how to have friends, but he’s working on it. You can see this in his closeness with the other Paladins (understanding Pidge’s wild hand gestures, helping Hunk). I don’t think this part is done for him, since I think we’re going to see a small moment or two like I mentioned with Pidge and Hunk with Allura and Lance.

Universal – I think this is one he’s always understood. A love for all life – the will to protect strangers, and he definitely loves nature too. This is one I don’t think he’s ever had to work on.

Self – this one isn’t so easy with Keith. On one hand he’s very sure of his own abilities and capabilities, and he tried to do something for himself (in part) by going to the blade, and let himself open up to others, but he still neglects himself too. He thought he was the weakest link in Voltron.

Lance

Romantic – Lance absolutely has no idea what romantic love feels like at first. He knows crushes, but love? No. This is actually a huge part of his story. He has been learning about what romantic love really is this entire time (I’m still banking on a sexuality arc for him too). Lance was the only character that was confirmed to have a love interest by the end of the show. The only one. I think we’ll see him experience some of this with Allura, but I don’t think it’s going to last, because he’s learning about what romantic love is and isn’t. He’ll learn enough to know that yeah, his feelings for Allura were legit, but they might not be the strongest form of romantic love he feels.

The fact that there were “leaks” that hinted that he wouldn’t end up with someone in the end kind of threw me, especially since they said he was going to, and that whatever was planned in a romantic sense was planned from the beginning.  I guess we’ll see where this one goes.

Familial – Lance knows this one so well. He loves his family to pieces and there’s never any doubt of that.

Platonic – this is actually something Lance struggles with at times. Not all the time, but you know, he really only seemed close to Hunk at the Garrison, and he was isolated from almost everyone else in S4-S6. He does know how to be a friend, we see this with Allura when he starts to see her in a platonic light. He also gets Keith to open up to him. Those are big things. So this is one he started out understanding, but also had to…refine as he went.

Universal – Lance does understand universal love. He talks about missing the rain, and the beach at home. He loves being in the water and the ocean. Not only that, but he does care about the fates of strangers too. It does matter to him.  

Self – Oh boy. You know, I think part of Lance’s boasting is genuine. It’s not all just a mask for his insecurities, and that’s okay. At the same time though, this was a huge thing for him. He questioned being on the team, questioned his worth, isolated himself. He was at his worst when the clone was there. However, this is one of those ones that has been silently (show, not tell) in the works. Lance doesn’t once question his worth, his place on the team, or himself after Keith comes back.  He knows who he is and where he fits in. He’s still working on this though, and I think it connects back to romantic love and his sexuality.

Conclusion

As you can see, when you break down love into these categories, everyone has different experiences, everyone is learning different lessons, and they are all about love. Some know a lot, like Shiro, and some know only a little but are learning, like Keith. Voltron may not be a show about romance, but from beginning to end, it’s a show about many different forms of love.

And also giant robots fighting aliens. That too.

(Also, sorry for the image quality - don’t have access to all the more hd ones I normally use right now.)

[firebirdsdaughter]

Eeeeeeeeeee!…

… Ahem.

Fire is back at it again w/ Ryusoulger raws bc she really liked this episode, and is really excited for the next one.

In no order:

Aw. I think Touwa is a little lonely. ^^ Life when your older brother is literally terrified of other people, but just pretends he’s angry all the time.

Kou is so happy. XD Banba doesn’t care, but Touwa clearly likes being obnoxious. ^^

It was clever of him to bring something to keep them from walking away. XD

Touwa’s like, ‘you give us the map,’ but Kou is like ‘no, wait, I stole this!’

This was actually really refreshing. ^^ When was the last time Touwa had someone to act like a kid w/? These two are absolutely going to be the little sibling problem children. XD

Banba is so very done already. Welcome to your new life, honey. <3

I love Kou being fascinated by Touwa’s leaf-cutting abilities right up until Touwa claims he won. XD

MY BOYS GET TO TRANSFORM AND ROLLCALL!!! TT_TT

Still gonna cry my little eyes out when all five of them finally do the ‘blades of justice’ speech. ^^

The problem children are at it again. XD

Oh, Melto’s breaking out the ‘sensible one’ voice, too.

I need new emoticons.

Tankjoh knocks Kou and Touwa into a fountain and Banba is just… There suddenly. ^^ Like, ‘hello, did you just hit my brother?’ Also, cool reveal shot w/ that water splash.

I… I think there’s a pun going on here.

Banba totally just held his own there, against Tankjoh. XD Like, he might not have made any headway, but he did manage to essentially tie w/ the guy who’s been taking everyone out in one hit. Though I’m not sure how much longer he would have lasted had Tankjoh hung around.

That was a more muted version on the big brother voice than we heard in the preview.

Aw, Touwa feels bad. It’s okay, sweetie. Literally, though, his brother is the only person he’s ever apologised to. Admittedly, it’s only been, like, two eps.

If what created this Minusaur is meant to be foreshadowing/hinting at the general thing I’d like to think it’s hinting at, good on you, Ryusoulger (I mean, I love you anyway, you’re really helping me get through the week, but, also, hell YES).

Touwa’s also watching Banba when Kou asks about killing the kid. DX I definitely think Touwa is not quite as desensitised as Banba has gotten to be.

Notably, Banba says nothing, nor does anything. I don’t know if he’d already figured out who the Minusaur’s real host was, but I highly doubt they’d have him be willing to kill a kid… Esp if I’m reading what I think the implications are right about his and Touwa’s family. I’m thinking even more that he almost exclusively raised his brother, I don’t see him being willing to actually harm a child w/out remembering that.

Kou produces the map, and immediately gets chastised by his mom and dad friends for stealing. XD

Melto is absolutely the mom friend and Asuna dad friend.

Baba retreats against the wall rather than join the huddle. XD One day, sweetie. Being part of the team means being part of the team hugs meetings.

Oh my god… It goes by so fast, and when I first watched I was watching the four in the foreground… When Melto say something––I think it’s about splitting into teams?––Banba’s head snaps around and he looks shocked/freaked out for a moment… Like, you can hardly see it over the map, Kou’s shoulder, and Touwa’s arm… Might try to get a screen shot and put it at the bottom of this post.

He promptly retaliates by ignoring Asuna. XD

It’s okay, Asuna, it’s not you, he hates almost everyone. Also he’s probably trying to get this over w/ bc he’s worried about his brother.

He totally only agreed to these teams to foist the problem children on Melto for awhile, though. XD

Melto spends this entire scene finding out why, too. ^^

But he intercedes as mom friend just in time when things start getting growly again. :D

New face!

Banba being the one to connect the Minusaur’s behaviour to an adult/older person playing w/ a child… Is he thinking of him raising his brother, or back when their parents had time for them? (I’ll explain that a little later)

‘Children, I won’t kill. Neglectful parents are fair game, I have issues. >:K’ Oh, Banba. DX Obviously this outlook wouldn’t go away after one episode, but I do think what spawned the Minusaur here is meant to reflect something about his and Touwa’s past…

Okay. Touwa’s reaction when Banba explains (quite nice of him to include the trio in that call, too ^^) that the Minusaur could have been born from the father’s guilt at being too busy to play w/ his son. That really looks like it’s hitting a chord. I mean, he’s transformed, but there’s a dramatic silence, the camera spins around him, and there’s a ‘shing’ sound like something important is occurring. So I’m thinking that maybe that Banba ended up essentially raising his brother bc of that same reason––their parents were too busy, or something like it, to be w/ their children at all. Maybe they didn’t used to be like that, and where around for Banba’s childhood, but something changed by the time Touwa was born and they weren’t there for him, leading to his brother stepping in. And then, presumably, they died at some point. Bc something screwed these boys up, and I really wanna know what, Toei!

Kou just runs away w/ Melto and Asuna. XD

THEY WERE STUCK! BUT NOW THEY ARE FREE! HOORAY! TT_TT

And what does an angry cat do the moment you let it out of its cage? XD SCRATCH.

Mister ‘give advice like I wasn’t ready to kill you two minutes ago, no hard feelings’ Banba. ^^

Also, speaking of that line… Not only is it clearly set up for Banba’s motivations next ep, it convinces me even more that something happened to their parent(s)… ‘Nothing is more important than family’ is a stock Sentai theme, but here we’ve got it coming from mister well-intentioned extremist anti-hero man. Really wanna know what happened to these boys… Hopefully we’ll get more info next ep?

Vaguely disappointed that Banba named MirNeedle. XD He almost smiled, though. ^^ Also made a really cute face when he heard Touwa and TigerLance approaching, too. <3

Actually, that look make sit seem like he’s really (secretly?) glad that Touwa stopped him…

I sit corrected. This is where the ‘didn’t think you’d stop me’ line is from… Eh, maybe it’s his catchphrase. XD

But now I’m also like, is there going to be a sort of ‘YJ¡Batman and Robin’ angle to them? I still currently hc that Banba secretly carries a lot of guilt for the things he’s willing to do for the mission, so it would be interesting to see a plotline about him being invested in Touwa not turning out like him.

And maybe if one or both of their parents were awful… Could be he considers it too late for him to not end up as some level of as bad, but he wants to try and protect Touwa from that? Maybe he didn’t think he could before, but he’s wondering if he can use these three to do that? I dunno, I’m just stream of consciousness-ing.

His eyebrow game was on point this episode, too…

Alternatively, maybe their parent(s) merely died before/not long after Touwa was born, so he never got to meet them, and that was why he took it so hard? Hmm…

I dunno, Touwa, I’m not sure you want them rubbing off on you. These four are absolute dumbs. I love them, but they have no sensible judgement abilities.

Preview?: I am SO EXCITED. Was not expecting the ‘Touwa gets hurt and Banba breaks down’ ep so soon. ^^ Makes sense, though. It’s definitely going to show the trio he’s not as stoic as he’s been acting––not to mention how much he loves his brother. Hoping we also get some more solid info on their past, too. Apparently he and Kou kind of start to bond, so it looks like we’ll be beginning the beginning of the adoption process. XD Gods, I hate having to wait another week… Well, at least there’s stuff going on next weekend, so I can get through the day faster. ^^

Virtual truffles for anyone who read all that. No, not the mushroom, though you’re welcome to those if you prefer them. XD

All in all, I liked this episode, I’m curious as to whether it really does reflect/foreshadow/hint at something about the brothers’ past (I hope it does), and I am very excited for the next ep. Also, there’s the possibility of getting more scans and stuff, not to mention the announcement for the newest Ultraman! Hopefully, I can keep myself busy. ^^

Also, those moments I mentioned:

See? He goes from largely disinterested and looking away…

… To being almost alarmed.

Well, it’s hard to express w/ caps, but… I dunno. Looks alarmed for Banba, I guess. His eyebrows go up for a moment, trust me. DX Also, smiling about his brother:

I really think he’s happy Touwa stopped him. ^^ (I made a valiant effort to try and include the eyebrow thing he did, but failed).

Also, even if it was about something serious, and I think there was some serious meaning behind it, there was also a cute, teasing ‘big brother’ sort of edge that was really adorable. XD

Hardy handshake for anyone who counts how many emoticons I used in the course of this post.

[calebswitching]

Scene auction - Caleb/Mateo

Saturday morning, June 8

Summary: Mateo paints a picture on Caleb’s back, and there is an unintended complication towards the end, in which Caleb doesn’t handle something well

Warnings: brief panic, unhealthy self-talk

@dommateolopez

Mateo hummed tunelessly to himself as he made sure everything was ready. His paints were lined up in order, brushes nearby. A sheet was spread out on the floor of the spare bedroom, all he needed was the switch in question. "Caleb, you can come in now," he called, knowing the switch was waiting on the other side of the door. Once he entered, Mateo smiled lightly at him. "Strip and lay on your stomach, hermanito. Make sure you're comfortable before we begin."

Caleb was actually a lot more relaxed than he usually was before a scene.  Even with a Dominant he knew, he was usually nervous.  Maybe it was because he knew he wasn't going to be expected to do much but lay still.  A lot harder to mess up when all he had to do was nothing.  He came in when Mateo called and quickly stripped, then lay down in the middle of the sheet, adjusting a bit.  "Is this okay, Sir?  Where do you want my arms?"

“Just like that. You can put your arms under your head, so you have a little headrest,” he instructed. “Also gives me some fun angles to play with here,” he pointed out, tracing Caleb’s shoulder blade. “Now if you need something - water, bathroom, etc - you may ask. Otherwise no movement other than breathing. Understood, hermanito?”

Caleb folded his arms as instructed and nodded slightly.  "Yes, Sir, I understand."  It wasn't like this was a hard position to hold or anything.  He was sure Mateo would make it a little harder on him, but Caleb was still confident in his ability to stay still.  "Am I allowed to speak, or is that frowned upon unless I need something, Sir?"

“You May speak if I ask a question or if you need something. Otherwise no,” he clarified. Mateo tapped into his phone, putting on one of his favorite classical playlists he loved to use while painting. “What’s your favorite color, hermanito?” He asked, trying to decide where to begin.

"Yes, Sir," Caleb murmured, closing his eyes  and deliberately relaxing his muscles.  The music Mateo put on was soft and soothing, and Caleb wondered if he might accidentally fall asleep like this.  That would be a first, falling asleep during a scene.  "Blue, Sir," he answered softly.  "Dark blue.  Navy blue."

He slid one hand up Caleb's back and smiled lightly. "Navy blue it is," he agreed. Mateo dipped his brush into his paints, beginning to spread the color onto the switch's skin starting at the top of his back.

Caleb sighed softly and let himself drift a little, focusing on breathing slowly and steadily.  The first touch of the paint brush was cold, and if he hadn't expected it he would have twitched, but he knew it was coming, so he kept still.  It felt strange, wet and cold and a little ticklish, as it moved across his skin, but it wasn't a bad sensation.  It was interesting, actually, trying to imagine what shapes Mateo was making just from how he felt the brush move.

As he worked, the image became clearer in his mind. He swirled navy blues and deep greens over Caleb's skin, trying to create the base for a night sky on smooth skin. He spent his time covering Caleb's back, and once he reached the swell of his ass, he paused, resting a palm on one plump cheek. "Are you still open to sexual acts as we discussed, sweetheart?" he asked, gently kneading the muscle, almost absentmindedly.

Caleb was a little chilly, with the wet paint drying on his skin, and a little itchy in places, but far from uncomfortable.  It was rather nice, actually, just laying still and doing nothing and still knowing that he was being good and submitting.  It was a similar feeling to where his head went when he was kneeling for a Dominant.  He almost nodded at the question, but stopped himself after only a twitch. "Yes, Sir," he murmured.  "Anything you want."

He smiled when he saw the aborted nod. “Good boy. Can you spread your legs a bit for me?” Mateo wiped his hands, then shifted to grab the vibrating plug he’d brought with him as well as some lube. Carefully, he slid a finger into Caleb. “You are allowed to move right now if you need to,” he murmured.

Caleb tried to move as little as possible, not wanting to accidentally do something to the still-drying paint as he spread his legs apart.  He'd been told to hold still before, but he'd never had quite so much incentive to keep from accidentally twitching than right now, because of how much he didn't want to mess up Mateo's painting.  He didn't know what would happen to the paint if he made a sudden move, and he didn't want to find out.  Mateo's finger entered him easily, and a tiny smile graced his lips at the sensation.  He sighed softly and resisted the urge to wiggle in order to get Mateo to give him more.

A little chuckle escaped from his lips as he worked Caleb open, enjoying the switch's little aborted movements. "I did say you could move right now," he teased, sliding a second finger into him to stretch him open, his free hand still resting on the curve of Caleb's ass.

Caleb bit his lip when Mateo pushed a second finger in.  It felt so nice, being carefully stretched like that.  "I- I don't want to mess up the paint, Sir," he said softly, though he did move just a little, shifting his hips to tip his ass up and give Mateo a better angle.  It caused Mateo's fingers to move inside him just right, and he sighed happily.

"I can always fix it," he assured Caleb. Mateo huffed a soft laugh when he heard that happy sigh, wiggling his finger in the same place. "Like that?" he teased gently, even as he slid a third finger in to get him all stretched out. The plug replaced his fingers a few moments later, sitting snug in the switch's hole. "All right. No more moving now," he instructed, wiping his fingers clean of lube so he could continue painting.

The wiggle made Caleb jerk, so it was a good thing he was allowed to move right now.  "Yes, Sir, ungh, that, yes.  Please."  He pushed his ass up a little more, no longer able to resist silently begging for more.  He was rewarded with a third finger, which stretched him so deliciously, but then it was removed and replaced with a plug.  Caleb bit back a whine, since he wasn't going to be played with anymore, but his ass clenched down around the plug, and it made him feel so nice and full.  "Thank you,  Sir," he murmured, settling again, clenching rhythmically around the plug.  He forced himself to stop and relax his muscles so he could stay still, and went back to trying to focus on his breathing.

He waited until Caleb settled before dipping his brush into a softer purple, beginning to fill in the skin he'd neglected. The music filled the silence for a few moments, until the Dom smirked and reached into his pocket, flicking a remote there to turn the plug inside Caleb on to vibrate gently.

The touch of the brush was cold and often tickled a bit, but he was expecting, it, so it wasn't difficult to stay still.  He closed his eyes again and let himself drift, trying to imagine what Mateo was painting on him.  It had been pleasant before, but now with the plug in him, it was easier to slip into a more submissive mindset, where the quiet attention from a Dominant filled him with a gentle warmth.  And then the plug started to vibrate, which he hadn't expected,  causing him to clench down it, all the muscles in his lower half flexing for a couple of seconds before he remembered and made himself relax again.

The tensing made him smirk. “Good boy. Stay still,” he said firmly, continuing to paint. Occasionally he would fiddle with the remote, changing the speed of the vibrations, keeping the pattern random. The celestial painting on Caleb’s back was nearly finished but he slowed his pace, not quite ready to be done yet.

Praise always made Caleb relax, and this was no different.  He smiled to himself, eyes still closed, and relaxed his muscles, just enjoying the feeling of the vibrator in him.  He was starting to get a little hard, he could tell from his cock beginning to push against the sheet beneath him, but it was still easy to ignore.  When the vibrator increased, Caleb twitched, just the tiniest movement, and he bit his lip, wondering if Mateo had noticed.

He noticed the little twitches but they were involuntary- so he thought anyway. But as he began adding the stars, precision work more than anything, he huffed slightly when one came out a bit less perfect than he intended. “Keep still,” he murmured, lightly pinching Caleb’s thigh as a reminder.

"Sorry," Caleb whispered, furrowing his brow and trying to focus on his breathing again.  But the vibrator was oh so distracting now.  He was way more on edge than he had been.  All of this meant that when the brush  managed to tickle his skin, Caleb twitched again, almost a flinch.

“Caleb,” he said in a soft warning, flicking the remote to ease the toy down slower. “We’re nearly finished, keep still,” he told the switch, trying to get the last few stars just right.

"I'm sorry, Sir, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I'm sorry," Caleb said softly, holding very carefully still now.  He needed to do this right, he was already starting to worry Mateo was disappointed in his performance.  He started to count his breaths as a way to focus on them and keep himself still, and managed not to twitch again.

It had been a while, and the vibrator was quite a bit. Mateo was actually pretty impressed but given the parameters of the scene, he had to hold true. He stroked Caleb’s thigh lightly before finishing off the painting, adding a few strokes of color here and there before sitting back on his heels. “You look beautiful.”

Caleb smiled softly, but still didn't dare move.  He couldn't wait to see what it looked like, though.  "Is it done, Sir?"  He knew Mateo would probably want to take pictures before he allowed Caleb to move, so he stayed perfectly still, despite how much he wanted to try to twist his head and try to peer over his shoulder.

He wiped off his fingers with a smile. “Yes. Stay right there,” he instructed, reaching for his phone to snap a few shots of the painting over Caleb’s back, reaching into his pocket to up the vibration again.

"Yes, Sir," Caleb murmured, though the order was unnecessary, because he wasn't going to move until he was told.  When the vibrations increased again, he let out a soft "Oh," and the muscles in his ass clenched down on the plug, but he didn't move other than to tense.

Gorgeous. He snapped another photo of the switch clenching around the plug, wondering if his Dom might enjoy the sight. Then he set his phone aside, stroking one hand over Caleb's ass. "You did very well for me, hermanito... but you did have to be reminded once, so as punishment, you will have to endure one ruined orgasm before you get a real one. Understood?" he murmured,  swatting Caleb's ass just because it looked so tempting.

Caleb grimaced and hid his face in his arms.  "Yes, Sir."  He was relieved he was going to get a real orgasm at all, actually, he had thought he wouldn't be allowed, since he'd moved.  But he also knew first hand how frustrating a ruined orgasm felt, especially depending on how exactly Mateo intended to ruin it.  "Am I allowed to move, Sir?"

Mateo stroked the back of his thigh. "Yes. I'd actually like you to roll onto your back so I can see you - don't worry about the sheet," he said, shifting so Caleb could move as he had instructed.

Caleb did as ordered and rolled over onto his back, hoping the paint was mostly dry so he didn't make a mess, even if Mateo said not to worry about it.  He put his hands down by his sides and looked up at Mateo, confident that the Dom would tell him how he needed to position himself.  He smiled softly at Mateo.  It was nice to finally be able to see him again.

He smiled at the switch, leaning over to press an affectionate kiss to the tip of his nose. "Hi, sweetheart," he said fondly. "Stretch your arms up above your head and spread your legs," Mateo told Caleb, stroking one hand down his stomach before wrapping warm fingers around the firm length he found between Caleb's thighs.

It was no wonder that Nick was always so horrified when Caleb talked about Mark, if this was the kind of Dominant he was used to.  Mateo just had this way of making Caleb feel safe and warm and kind of gooey inside.  He did as he was told, moving his arms out of the way and parting his legs to give Mateo access to anything he might want.  The vibrator already had him more than half hard, and his dick responded quickly to Mateo's touch, thickening until it was fully stiff.  He watched with interest, enjoying it, even though he knew he wouldn't get to orgasm properly.  Not yet, at least.

He paused for a moment to add some lube to his hand before continuing to stroke Caleb, watching the switch carefully. Mateo didn't move his eyes from his face, even as he reached down to play with the plug in his ass, twisting and shifting it inside the other man to hopefully drive him closer to that edge.

Caleb tried not to squirm, even though he'd been told he could move now.  He wanted to be good and stay where he was put and let Mateo do anything he'd like to him.  It was starting to get very hard to do, though.  It felt so good,  and then Mateo started moving the vibrator in him, making the toy hit new places, and he couldn't stay still anymore, he arched his back and tried to push down onto the plug, wanting more.

His smile only widened when Caleb gave into the sensations, beginning to move and squirm under his touch. Mateo tightened his grip, letting his cock slip through the slick circle of his fingers as he shifted the plug inside him. But when he felt Caleb tense further, he shifted his hand to squeeze the base of Caleb's length firmly, his other hand moving to hold the switch's hips down.

Caleb pushed up into Mateo's hand, trying to find his release.  He was so worked up, he wasn't even thinking about his coming punishment.  "Please," he whispered as he got close, his muscles tensing up, he was so close, and then just as he was about to tip over that edge, Mateo was holding him down and squeezing his dick, and it hurt, and a tiny bit of come dribbled out but there was no pleasure at all.  Caleb let out a strangled groan and twisted away,  covering his face with his arms and trying to roll on his side to curl up in a ball.

"Shh," he soothed, letting go of Caleb's length once he was sure the switch wouldn't lose control. He reached to ease the other man onto his back again, one hand stroking over his belly slowly. "None of that, sweetheart. Look at me," he ordered softly. "Deep breath and look at me."

Caleb was breathing hard and had his eyes closed tight, grimacing.  It wasn't just the ruined orgasm, it was that he'd forgotten he was being punished, not rewarded.  His stomach twisted, but Mateo was pulling him onto his back again, and Caleb let himself be moved.  "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he whined, still covering his face.  "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I'm sorry.  I can be good, please, I'm sorry."  He told himself to focus.  This was nothing, he lectured himself sternly, it was hardly a punishment, and it was certainly nothing to act like a baby about.  But it wasn't the ruined orgasm that was making his brain started to spin wildly, it was the fact that Mateo had needed to punish him, that he had been bad.  Mateo should punish him worse than that, right?  He'd been disobedient, hadn't he?  He deserved worse than this.  Maybe there was more coming?

Shit. Mateo gently but firmly tugged Caleb's hands from his face, manuevering the boy into a sitting position and pulling him onto his lap. "Caleb," he said, his voice serious but not cold, trying to get the switch's attention. "Caleb, you have been a very good boy for me. You made a small mistake, and you took your punishment very well, and now the mistake is forgiven. Do you understand? I want to reward you for being so good for me, but I need you to understand that mistakes happen, and it doesn't mean that you're not a good boy."

Caleb moved limply, unresisting as Mateo arranged him.  He still hadn't opened his eyes, but the moment he felt himself between Mateo's legs and held against his body, Caleb turned in to face him and curled down, trying to hide his face in Mateo's shoulder.  He was trembling, but he wasn't actually crying, and he was fighting furiously to get control of himself.  He was so angry at himself for reacting this way, it was stupid, it was no way for a submissive to act, he was making a big deal out of nothing, like he always did, and he definitely didn't deserve whatever reward Mateo wanted to give him.  "I'm sorry," he whispered again, pressing his face into Mateo's shirt.  He was breathing better now, finally getting a semblance of control over his body again.  He understood what Mateo was saying, but it didn't really go in.  He just wasn't really capable of accepting that he was a good boy when he'd messed up and had to be corrected.

He cupped the back of Caleb's head, shushing him gently. He had not anticipated this reaction to a simple, minor punishment. "Shh. It's okay, sweetheart. Everything is forgiven. You've been a good boy. A good submissive and I am so proud of you," he murmured to the switch. In the back of his mind, he figured this probably had something to do with his jerk of an ex, and Mateo hoped someday, he could meet this fool and give him a good one in the mouth. But until then - he would do his best to help Caleb realize that he was a fantastic sub.

Being held close in Mateo's warm, protective arms, Caleb started to feel safe again.  He trusted Mateo.  If he said that Caleb had been good, then... shouldn't Caleb believe it?  Even if he felt like it didn't make sense.  Still, he started to calm down, though he didn't move from where he was curled into Mateo's chest with his face buried in the Dominant's shoulder.  But his breathing slowed down and the trembling stopped, and most importantly his brain stopped whirling in a panic over the thought that he was bad and wrong and useless.  The thoughts were still there, but they weren't so overwhelming anymore.  "I'm sorry I freaked out, Sir," he said murmured after a long minute.  "It wasn't a bad punishment, I shouldn't have reacted like that, I'm really sorry."

He shushed him softly, relieved that Caleb seemed to be coming back into his own mind. "Shh. It's all right, hermanito. Sometimes those things just sneak up on us," he assured Caleb before kissing his hair again. "Are you all right? Anything we need to talk about?" Mateo asked, fingers lightly rubbing the back of Caleb's neck.

Caleb couldn't believe how sweet and gentle Mateo was being, even after Caleb had ruined the end of their scene.  He didn't deserve to be treated so kindly.  But he couldn't bring himself to pull away, either.  He shook his head when Mateo asked if they needed to talk.  "No, Sir.  I'm alright."

He was fairly sure, that as with Nick, those words were not completely honest. But Caleb wasn't his submissive, and he couldn't enforce total honesty with him. "All right. Do you still want your reward, sweetheart? Or would you rather hop in the bath to wash off?"

Caleb didn't know what he wanted.  He didn't want to think.  He didn't want to choose.  Choosing meant the possibility that he could choose wrong, and he couldn't handle that right now.  "Could... could you decide, please?  I don't know..."

Mateo nodded, shifting a little and managing to get to his feet with Caleb in his arms. "Let's get you into the bath, then. Wash the paint off your back," he suggested, carrying Caleb into the en suite and setting him on the bathmat by the tub while he got the water going.

Caleb was surprised when Mateo just lifted him up, but he held on tight and curled in close, trying to make it easier to carry him.  He was just a little unsteady when Mateo set him on his feet, but only for a second.  He just stood there quietly, looking down at the edge of the big tub, fighting the urge to apologize again.  He knew Mateo had said that it was alright, and that he was forgiven, so he shouldn't apologize anymore, but he still felt horrible.  He shouldn't have bid on any of the scenes, he thought miserably.  He should have known better than to inflict this on Mateo, who didn't do anything wrong and didn't deserve to have to deal with a fragile, useless submissive who couldn't even take a tiny punishment.  No wonder he wasn't a real submissive.

Something was still going on in that head of his. God, he and Nick were so alike it wasn't even funny. As the tub filled, Mateo stood, resting his hands on Caleb's waist. "Thank you for doing this scene with me, hermanito. I enjoyed it very much, especially since I got to share it with you," he said seriously.

Caleb looked up when Mateo when the Dominant spoke, confused and worried.  He didn't understand why Mateo was thanking him.  Or how he could have enjoyed it.  ..Maybe he just meant he enjoyed everything up until Caleb had panicked.  Well, also excluding the part where Caleb had been disobedient, as well, of course.  He knew Mateo liked to paint, maybe that was it.  Caleb looked down again.  "I'm just grateful that I could try to be useful, Sir," he said softly.

So alike. So very alike. He tipped Caleb's chin up again, lips pressing to his nose. "You were much more than useful. Are much more. You are a very good boy," he said firmly. He only let go of Caleb to turn off the water, the tub steaming gently. "In you get, hermanito."

Caleb only looked up again because Mateo nudged him, and he was surprised to be met with a sweet, affectionate kiss on the nose.  He blinked at Mateo.  Why was he being so insistent about this?  Caleb knew he hadn't been good, or at least not as good as he should have been.  He should have behaved better than that.  He furrowed his brow as he looked away, but obediently stepped into the bath tub and lowered himself down into the water.  The warmth of it felt amazing, and he couldn't help but relax.  "Thank you, Sir," he murmured once he was settled.

He knelt by the tub, folding his arms along the edge of it and just watching Caleb for a moment. "I'll show you the photos, but I painted the galaxy on your back. Tell me something I should know about space," he instructed gently, dipping a washcloth into the warm water and adding a bit of soap before beginning to scrub the paint from Caleb's back. Hopefully the science jabber would get him out of his head.

Caleb looked up at Mateo again, interested to hear about the painting, even if it didn't much change how he was feeling.  The instruction caught him off guard, though, and he looked back down at the water, away from Mateo, thinking.  "Um..."  That was a difficult question, space was big.  There was a lot to know.  "Uh, I guess... we're pretty sure dark matter makes up something like ninety percent of the universe, by mass, but we still have no idea what it is or even if it for sure exists.  It's just, the math says it should."

He kept washing over Caleb's back, the water slowly turning a deep purple thanks to the mix of colors he'd used. "That's a little terrifying, that something we have no idea about is actually the majority of what our universe is made up of."

Caleb was looking down at the water, watching it slowly turn dark.  He was grateful for Mateo's help getting the paint off, he wouldn't have been able to reach by himself.  And it felt good, the way he was just gently rubbing his back with the wash cloth.  "I guess, if you think about it like that.  But whatever it is, it's not hurting us, Sir.  Helping, actually, if it's doing what we think it's doing.  Galaxies wouldn't hold together without it.  It's the gravity, see, we can figure out how much gravity a celestial body should have, and there isn't enough.  I mean, from the visible parts of galaxies.  Add up all the stars and things we can see, and it's not nearly enough gravity to keep a galaxy in rotation.  There has to be more mass.  ...There are other indications, too... somethin about background microwave radiation...  I'd have to look up the details."

His brows furrowed as he tried to follow the logic - science had never been much of his thing. "Lean up a little bit more, sweetheart. So the dark matter is... pure gravity keeping us all together? Or is it weighing everything down just enough to make sure everything can stay in place? Are you telling me we're just living in a gigantic paperweight?"

Caleb leaned forward, and found himself smiling at Mateo's attempts to make dark matter into something easier to understand.  "No, no, there isn't such a thing as pure gravity, Sir, it's not a type of energy, it's a force.  It is exerted by one thing onto another thing.  And actually, to make things more complicated, we still don't actually know why.  We know a lot about how gravity works, but the answer to why objects exert attractive force on nearby objects is still just, well, they all seem to do it.  But anyway, we have no idea what dark matter is, or how it works.  We just know that what we observe doesn't match with what the math says should happen, and we're pretty darn sure about the math, so it must mean that there's something we're not seeing."

"Well... I'm glad someone can grasp that concept because it seems important but I don't think I can wrap my brain around it," Mateo admitted after a moment, chuckling at himself. "I'm more inclined to look at the stars and wonder at the mythology behind star signs, not what might be in the space between them."

"Nah, no one actually understands it, Sir.  That's sort of the point, right now, no one knows what's actually going on.  Dark matter could be anything."  He smiled at Mateo's comment about the constellations.  "Did you know," he said, not stopping to think before launching into another info-dump.  "That there are species of beetles who use the stars to navigate?  If you put them under an artificial and incorrect star map, they get confused."

"But there's a better theory out there than I could ever think up - which I suppose is why I'm planning on going into law, not science," he mused. Gently he rinsed off the remainder of the paint, coming back up to make sure he'd gotten everything off of Caleb's neck. "Really? Poor beetles. Wouldn't they be lost during the day then?"

Caleb glanced up at Mateo.  "You're going to be a lawyer, Sir?"  Somehow, he'd thought Mateo's plan was just to be a painter.  Maybe painting was more of a hobby, then.  "Oh, um, I think they're nocturnal, Sir.  I'd have to look up the details.  I just remember them being in a nature documentary... I think it was Planet Earth."

"Hoping to be. For the promotion of slave rights, or that's the plan, at least," he said with a small shrug. "That would make sense. Let's hope nothing screws them up or else we'll have lost beetles wandering everywhere."

Caleb noticed that Mateo had stopped washing him, and started to think he should leave.  He'd caused enough trouble for Mateo, he shouldn't take up more of his time.  "Am I done, Sir?" His voice was soft, hesitant, and he looked up at Mateo carefully.

He squeezed the back of his neck gently. "You're done in the tub, but no, you're not getting rid of me yet," he teased. "Get out and dry off, and we're going to watch some Planet Earth so you can tell me more about this world we live in," Mateo told Caleb, not ready to let the switch go yet when he didn't seem quite... himself.

Caleb frowned softly and avoided Mateo's gaze as he stood and got out of the tub, dripping water slightly tinged purple, and dried himself off.  "I don't want to take up your time, Sir," he hedged.  He didn't want to argue, not outright at least, he didn't have it in him to be defiant right now, but he didn't think one small protest would get him into trouble, if Mateo's mind was already made up.  It wasn't that he didn't want to spend time with Mateo.  Caleb just felt like Mateo should want to be rid of him, right?  No need to keep a difficult sub around longer than necessary.

"You're not. I'm taking up yours," he pointed out as he released the tub to drain. The porcelain was slightly tinged - he'd fix that later. Right now he had a sub to take care of. "Call me a greedy brother or something, but I want to hang out with you. So... deal with it," Mateo teased.

Caleb couldn't help but smile slightly at the way Mateo teased him.  He ducked his head, shy as usual about things like this, and murmured, "Yes, Sir.  ...Am I permitted to go put my clothes on, Sir?"  He wanted to get dressed, because the guilt over his bad behavior made his nakedness feel more acutely vulnerable than he would otherwise.  But he still had the plug in, though it hadn't vibrated since he'd had his little freak out, and he didn't know if Mateo wanted to use it again, play with him some more maybe.

Mateo pressed a kiss to Caleb's hair. "You may, but lets take the plug out first - probably should have done that before the bath, that's my fault," he said, stroking one hand down the switch's clean back. He eased the toy out of the switch, leaving it on the counter to clean later. "You may get dressed and then come join me on the bed in the guest room."

Caleb nodded and shifted his legs apart to let Mateo remove the plug.  It always felt weird coming out, but he stayed quiet and tried not to clench obviously after it was gone.  "Thank you, Sir," he said softly, nodding, and went to get his clothes.  He felt like he should clean the vibrator, since he'd been the one to dirty, and it wasn't polite to leave work for a Dominant, but Mateo had given clear instructions, so he let it go.  Once he was dressed, he went to the guest bedroom, pausing in the door way.  He actually had to make himself go in without waiting to be invited, reminding himself that Mateo had specified to join him on the bed.

While Caleb got dressed, Mateo cleaned up the paints in the spare room, folding the sheet carefully to be washed. By the time he was finished getting it in the hamper, Caleb was on the bed as he'd ordered. "Good boy. So which episode should we watch?"

Caleb smiled softly at the praise, but shrugged in answer to the question, looking down at his hands in his lap.  "Whichever you want, Sir.  They're all good."

Mateo slid onto the bed beside Caleb, putting his arm around the switch as he navigated into the show. He picked one at random and settled down beside Caleb, hoping this would work to calm him down as it did for Nick sometimes.

Caleb was tense as Mateo got onto the bed too and put an arm around him, but he told himself he needed to relax.  Mateo didn't seem upset or tense, so he needed to just breathe and relax his shoulders and unclench his muscles.  After a few moments, he was able to lean into Mateo's side.  "This one is good," he murmured when Mateo chose an episode.  "It's got really incredible footage of a peregrine falcon catching a pigeon out of mid-air."

When he felt Caleb relax against him, he smiled, rubbing his hand over the switch's shoulder slowly. "Dang. That sounds... horrifying and awesome all that the same time," he said with a chuckle, resting his head against Caleb's.

"It's so cool, Sir," Caleb said softly.  "I promise, you'll like it.  The footage is amazing.  It's not gory, either, you don't see the falcon eat the pigeon, just fly off with it.  Some of the episodes have some gory parts, with predators, but... I don't think this one has any blood."

"Good. I mean, I know it's part of nature but it's not something I enjoy watching, the whole... blood and circle of life stuff," he admitted with a theatrical shudder, wondering if he could make the other man laugh.

He couldn't help but smile at the way Mateo shuddered, clearly exaggerating.  It still surprised him, how gentle and caring and even humorous Mateo was.  Caleb had had an image of him in his head of a serious, stern Dominant, and it just wasn't true.  Mateo was so sweet.  Caleb relaxed a little more, thinking back to the conversation they'd had after the punishment, when Mateo had praised him for being a good submissive.  He wondered if that opinion had changed, after today's scene.  "Sir?" he said softly after a minute.  "Do you think I could see the picture you took of the painting?  Please?"

He was happy to see the smile on the switch's face. At least he got that. He squeezed Caleb lightly, a gentle hug. When he spoke, Mateo shifted to grab his phone, thumbing into the photos he'd taken before Caleb moved. "What do you think?" he asked as he turned his phone towards the switch.

The painting was beautiful, and Caleb leaned in to look closer.  "It's amazing, Sir," he said genuinely.  "Would you mind texting it to me?"  He wanted to be able to look closer, later.  He stared at it a bit longer before leaning back again.  "Thank you for doing that scene with me, Sir.  I'm sorry I ruined the end you had planned."

Mateo tapped into a text with Caleb and attached the photo, sending it off to the switch. "Done." He reached up and touched the other man's mouth lightly. "Shh. No more apologies, hermanito. You were amazing for me, and I am happy with how the scene turned out."

Caleb's eyes were clearly full of worry and guilt when he looked at Mateo, but he nodded and averted his gaze, staring down at his lap instead.  He didn't understand how Mateo could be happy with how it had turned out.  The painting was beautiful, of course, but he'd had to cut the scene short when Caleb couldn't handle the tiniest punishment.  In what world does that count as him being amazing?  But he didn't say anymore.  Clearly Mateo's mind was made up, and Caleb wasn't going to argue with the Dominant.

He tilted his head to look at Caleb. Something was still going on in that pretty head of his. Gently, he reached over, urging  Caleb's chin up to look into his eyes. "Caleb. Talk to me, please, about what is going through your mind right now."

Caleb looked up at Mateo when the Dominant nudged him, but grimaced at the order.  He didn't want to talk.  He hated talking about these things.  And Mateo had just told him not to apologize, so he couldn't even say he was sorry for how he'd behaved or the many things he knew he was probably wrong about in his head, too.  He was always wrong, without realizing it.  He swallowed thickly.  "It's nothing, Sir," he said, pulling away to look down again.  "I just feel bad for how I reacted."

He tucked his fingers under Caleb's chin again when he pulled away, bringing his gaze back up. "Everyone takes punishments differently, sweetheart. And things can feel so different in the moment, even if you know they're coming. I'm not upset with you for how you reacted. Every submissive has their triggers, and it seems we found one of yours - which is okay."

Caleb reluctantly looked back up at Mateo, and his expression remained doubtful as the Dominant spoke.  Caleb chewed on his lip nervously, but didn't lower his eyes until Mateo finished speaking, and even then he didn't pull his chin away this time.  "I didn't mean to do that," he said quietly.  "I just.. forgot for a second that it was a punishment, and then I remembered and I.."  He actually turned his head away now, wishing he could hide his face.  "I know I needed to be punished, for moving when you told me not to, Sir."  He spoke in a whisper now, though there was an edge to it.  "I just wasn't thinking.  There was no reason for me to act like such a child."

He slid his hand to Caleb's cheek, resting against his skin lightly. "You reacted within a scene - it's okay to do that, Caleb. It's okay to react to punishments, no matter how small or large they are. Punishments aren't fun in any capacity. But you took it without complaint, and the aftermath... well, I wish I could have gotten to reward you, but I think this is what you needed more. Some assurance that you are a good boy. Even the best subs earn punishments. Even your brother."

Caleb kept his eyes down as he listened, and nodded, leaning into Mateo's hand as an attempt to siphon all the comfort that he could.  He didn't feel like a good boy.  A good boy didn't cause trouble.  But he felt a little better, at least, that Mateo still thought he was a good boy.  He had worried that had changed.  "Yes, Sir," he murmured, then looked up at Mateo again, both wary and curious.  "Nick never gets in trouble.  I mean... when we were at home, at least."  He couldn't imagine Nick ever being disobedient or disrespectful in the slightest, to anyone, let alone Mateo, whom he clearly adored.

Mateo offered Caleb a crooked smile. "He does. I've had to punish him before, for various reasons." Not that he enjoyed doing it, but it had happened before - and Mateo didn't doubt that it would happen in the future. People weren't perfect after all.

Caleb looked openly doubtful.  He just couldn't come up with anything Nick would ever actually do to earn a punishment.  He sort of wanted to ask, but that seemed way to much like prying.  If Nick had really ever been punished, he was probably really upset about it and cried, and Caleb didn't want to know something Nick wouldn't want him to know about.  "Oh," he said softly, and looked back down.

He stroked Caleb's cheek lightly. "So don't worry about something like this. I know you got upset, and you weren't defiantly disobeying me. You made a small mistake, and you made up for it," Mateo assured him warmly, hoping that this would at least ease some of his worries.

Caleb nodded slightly, and then shifted so he could lean his head sideways on Mateo's shoulder.  "Thank you, Sir," he said softly.  "For being so nice to me."

"You're family," he said simply, sliding his arm around Caleb to hold him against his side, content to stay there with him until he felt more at ease.

[charmspoint]

I know you said they don't have a concrete story yet, but would you be ok with telling us more about Zan and Ghost? They seem really interesting

Anon you don't know what you unleashed its like past 1am here but I could talk about them forever.

This is gonna be under the cut because nobody has to be subjected to this.

General quick point: Both of these started off as bnha oc's but then reached that point where I was like 'yeah, I want them in their own story' so rn their powers are just powers with no wider context since I aint got that story

I'm gonna start with Zan cuz he's older by creation and my fav oc atm. For him we have TW's of child abuse and neglect, familial death, trauma, drug abuse, depression and anxiety, though I'll be running through this points as quickly and non graphically as I can cuz...I'm not gonna make you read my thesis so it should be fine.

His full legal name is Kazuya Moriyama but he goes by Zan Mori, he's 24. Zan was created to be two things 1. Character design with a fully body tattoo 2. Someone to use a power I came up with but didn't match with a character yet.

Here's that power, yes I have a copy paste off it:

Nightmare fuel is a power that terrorizes everyone, including its user. Zan’s sweat contains a special kind of chemical that when smelled causes mild to severe hallucinations, paranoia and other fear responses by interacting with victims brain chemistry. However, this chemical is only contained in sweat that he produces as a result of fear so, for example if he goes running in the gym, nothing bad will happen. The strength of the power depends on how much Zan himself is afraid and how much sweat he is producing. A weak dose will only result in sense of unease, a feeling of being watched, escalating through general paranoia, with its worst manifestation being complete loss of touch with reality and intense hallucinations. It's odorless and since it’s a chemical can be stored for later use. The last stages of it are very hard to reach because they require for Zan to be at similar levels of severe distress. It affects him as well, often resulting in endless loop of him being afraid, activating his power because of his fear, the power causing more intense fear and so on.

So here is where we start to build.

Zan's backstory hinges on him developing this power very early on in his life, as a result of mutation that his parents were not ready for. Kids get scared of things, a lot, especially when their own power feeds back into that fear. His family quickly spiraled from it, going from trying to figure out how to help him to neglecting him to dying very bloodily in front of him as a result of the constant psychological distress. After that he was cycled through different foster and youth homes with pretty similar result before striking it on his own basically as soon as he could.

Zan's main motivation is to find a way to get rid of his power. He hates it, hates what it represents and how it essentially stripped away his ability to connect with anyone. He doesn't control it, he doesn't activate it, it simply happens to him whenever he gets distressed and as someone with deep seated anxiety caused by that very same power, he gets distressed a lot.

He self-medicates. He self medicates a lot. I don't really have the world planned out but it's very much a world where powers are a new thing and the society just doesn't have systems in place to catch people like Zan. So he basically keeps himself high as much as he can, to numb himself out so he doesn't feel anything so he doesn't get scared so his power doesn't get activated.

When I created Zan, I expected him to be a very jaded, angry, abrasive character and in some ways he is. He's very slow to trust and tends to keep away from people. His first instinct is to mock and insult, he dresses like an emo reject, he's absolutely covered in tattoos, he's a dark humored pessimist and just not the kind of person you want to be around for long. He's also probably one of the most empathic characters I have on the roster atm. He's like, a natural big brother. Any kids younger then him, fuck older than him but awkward and unsure, he's instantly adopting. Fuck everything else, his kids now, he'll make them lunch and make sure they get to school. Zan is more so abrasive out of need than out of actual malice or bad attitude. He does want to be close to people he just knows how that always ends so keeping away is a lot safer. He is genuinely very loving and soft when he lets himself be. He's not great about advice but he's a good listener and the type to throw everything on the backburner to come and help a friend out. He is inherently kind, he just doesn't allow himself to be so very often, unless someone damn well takes a chisel and digs it out of him.

Fun fact time:

He's got a knack for painting and idolizes Van Gogh

He's got a cat named Shikei who he picked up after it got run over by a car, it likes only him and wants to see the rest of humanity burn

Here are his established tattoos, yes I have a copy paste for that too:

Full body tattoo in shape of a jungle of thorns crawling over his entire body, save most of his face. The whole piece is done in eerie, cold colors, with a sudden splash of warmer color here and there, the thorns themselves being colored in misty and muted blues and greens. Over his heart, there is a tattoo of a birds nest, but the nest is breaking apart, suffocated by the thorns clustering around it and breaking into it, its branches drenched in blood, the baby birds in it barely even noticeable. Along the length of his spine and over the width of his hips an ornate cross of st. peter is painted, also crumbling, red spider lilies breaking through the frail rock. His shoulder blades are covered in sunflowers, strikingly bright on the cold surface of the thorns and painted in Van Gogh style. There is a chain of daisies lines across his neck and down to his chest, covering an old scar and a tiny ring of roses over his ring finger. On the nape of his neck, two butterflies are pinned by the thorns, appearing to still be alive and in agony as their bodies are pierced. A silver snake slithers through the thorns on his right arm, though its shade helps it blend in with the color of thorns, it’s body a tiny bit coiled, considering should it strike or not. On the back of his left hand there is a tiny leaf bug, trying to hide amidst the bare thorns and on the outer shell of his ear, mostly hidden from view by his head, is a ladybug, wings spread like it is about to fly away. A swarm of blue butterflies paint the silhouette of his lungs across his skin and two koi fishes circle each other endlessly on his hip. In thorns climbing up and down his neck, there are tiny fireflies, just barely bright enough to be seen. Two thin thorn branches separate themselves from the cluster on his neck and climb across his temples, their thorns appearing to be piercing through his skin and letting blood flow.

The tattoo is still in progress.

This was the brief summary.

Ghost! Ghost is a lot newer than Zan, I only made them at the start of this year so they are a lot less detailed but they hit the ground running. Their tw are mostly prostitution and existentialist feelings but I'm not getting into anything in detail.

Their full name is Ghostown Verb and yes they did name themselves that. They are 27 and their power is Forget me not, as I said previously, as soon as they are out of someone's line of sight, to that person it's like they never existed. The memories of meeting them return as soon as they are back in the field of vision but uhh you can see how it would be super easy to lose a child like that.

Ghost grew up on the street in a kind of do whatever you can when you can how you can attitude. Turns out it's really hard to get help from anyone when they can't remember you as soon as they stop looking at you, which includes but is not limited to social workers, well meaning passerby, police, foster homes and landlords. The name and face for the paperwork doesn't exist and people just find themselves grasping at nothing, feeling like they are forgetting something but not knowing what it is. It works in some ways, shoplifting is a lot easier when you're sure that you can just turn a corner and be safe, but it's mostly just a hassle. Ghost is homeless most of the time and when they were old enough for it their career of choice became prostitution simply because it's pretty much the only job where the customer doesn't need to remember you after they're no longer looking at you and it's not like Ghost has to answer to any boss who would have to either.

They had not had a kind life but they are the let and let live type. They don't stress a lot about things and generally take everything in a fly. They are very extroverted, very loud, very friendly. They form friendships fast because they know they'll lose them fast and same goes with love affairs. They live in the moment because for everyone else the moment is the only place where they exist. Loud fashion, loud words, loud actions, provocative and noticeable, they just want to be seen by people, remembered by people, they want the attention on them even though they know it's useless. Much like Zan they also have no control of their power so all they can do is live with it. At least it doesn't bring anyone any direct harm, they are grateful for that much.

But it does leave them displaced, unanchored. They don't have any support system, no family, no long term friends. The system can't even remember them for long enough to decide it isn't equipped to deal with them. They flitter through peoples lives, there one moment and gone the next. The biggest impact they can hope to have is the nagging feeling of having forgotten something.

It's not like they are exactly sad about it, their main mentality is just not to worry about things they can't change. These are the cards they've been dealt with and play those cards they shall. At the very least they are having fun with their life, doing whatever they want with no one remembering them long enough to stop them.

But it's a lonely existence with no viable human connection. That much does get to them.

Fun facts!

They have a tattoo of a forget-me-not on their shoulder, I haven't decided do they have it before the plot whatever it is starts, or do they get it cuz Zan's influence.

They like to make their own clothes when they can, though having a stable enough place to be for a long enough time is rare.

Their biggest fear is that when they die nobody will remember to look for their body :)

That was a brief rundown of these two! If you made it to the end damn congrats I love you

[avandra]

Strangeness and Charm, chapter 1: Mysteries left unsolved

Welcome to the first installment of Strangeness and Charm! This is thought out to be a collection of one-shots that slowly show the growing relationship between my bhaalspawn, Cat, and my dearest half-orc blackguard, Dorn Il-Khan. The chapters will follow specific events -which may or may not include in-game interactions between these two- that I personally considered relevant to the development of their eventual romance. This first chapter is set after killing Simmeon and visiting Baldur’s Gate for the first time. I always figured that someone had to notice the bhaalspawn’s weird divine spells that seemingly come out of nowhere, and since Dorn later mentions his patron had seen the potential in the protagonist, it would make sense to me that he’d be interested in their powers, too. Anyway, I sincerely hope you enjoy this and leave some feedback so I know what I’m doing right and what I should change!

Imoen coughed, clutching her abdomen and bending in pain. From her squinting eyes, she saw her own blood staining the floor. Those blasted spiders had really wrecked her with their razor sharp limbs and their poison. How had that deceased dwarf manage to fit such a cave under his tower was a mystery to the young woman. After going down seemingly infinite levels of the tower’s basement, the group had somehow ended up in a cavernous, gigantic stone structure full of cobwebs and acid puddles that burned through their boots when they stepped on them. Of course, not everything was bad; there were plenty of treasures, if one was daring enough to reach out for them. Unfortunately, that meant being faced with groups of giant poisonous spiders, and somehow she had found herself in the way of those especially nasty ones which could phase and teleport, and now she was shaking and coughing up her insides. As if the cursed tower wasn’t terrifying enough as it was.

However, her childhood friend approached her quickly and imposed her hands on her forehead. The mage was quite shorter than Imoen, which had earned some jestful mockery from the redhead back when life was simpler; but she was also a lot curvier, something the rogue secretly found aesthetically pleasing. Her raven black hair cascaded down her back in a mess of curls, and her piercing green glare focused on Imoen’s wounds, narrowed in concentration and well hidden concern -except for someone who had known her for so long, like the thief. Soon enough, healing light glowed in the woman’s hands, and its warmth spread into her friend’s body, who hummed gratefully at the sensation.

“Thanks, Cattleya.”

The mage furrowed her brow.

“How many times have I told you not to call me that?” She grouched.

“Sorry, Cat,” Imoen snickered, an impish smile spreading into her childlike features.

It was a rather irritating custom that Imoen had. She’d call Cat by her despised complete name just to bug her, despite her constant refusal to be acknowledged by it. The wizardess wondered what her adoptive father had been thinking when he decided to name her after a damned flower.

While she was working on her still injured friend, the witch scanned her surroundings in search of more possible threats, only to be met with that gaze.

He was watching her, again.

He had picked up the habit of observing while she used her healing powers ever since he saw them in action for the first time. He had never confronted her about it, nor did he offer an explanation for his insistent staring. He just stood there, quiet as usual, watching her. For most people, having a hulking, armed to the teeth half-orc blackguard staring at them was a more than logical reason to run to the hills, but to Cat, he was just another of her travel companions. In fact, he had turned to be quite reliable, despite his extreme -if understandable- trust issues and his murderous tendencies. Besides, she was no ordinary woman either; her magic grew more powerful by the day, and everyone who crossed her the wrong way ended up burning to death.

However, the witch had recently acquired knowledge of the source of her companion’s powers as she assisted him with his bloody revenge against his former group. She didn’t mind it -she was not the judgemental type-, but it did stir curiosity in her. Could it be that he knew something about her own mysterious abilities that she ignored?

Once she was done with healing Imoen, the mage dropped her backpack on the spot, attracting the attention of all her partners. She had had enough dungeon touring for the day. The cursed tower was full of interesting riddles, dangerous enemies and mortal traps, and though they had mostly overcome it all with grace and got plenty of profit in the shape of treasured jewels and legendary weapons, they all were pretty beaten up and in need of some rest. No word needed to be said; everyone caught the clue. It was good, as she had grown too tired for chit-chatting, preferring to save her little energy for a more important conversation.

The young woman prepared her bedroll and sat quietly to read through the pages of her spell book, memorizing the ones she deemed more useful. In the meantime, Branwen healed the injuries of the remainder of the group, doing a especially thorough job with Coran as the flirty elf complimented her skills in battle, making the cleric’s cheeks flush red. Imoen chatted with Rasaad while she munched on her portions of dried meat and he performed stretching exercises. Dorn sat alone in a corner, far from the rest of the group, thoroughly cleaning the black blood of the spiders from his brand new greatsword. As much as he was into carnage and murder, he definitely was not one to neglect proper care of his weapons. Once Cat finished sorting through her book, she left the bedroll and took a seat beside him, knowing that nobody would bother them or eavesdrop on their conversation.

“So,” she began, exhibiting her most charming smile, “It seems that I am quite a sight, huh?”

The half-orc paused his task and turned to face her, eyes narrowed in suspicion and annoyance.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Well, since my powers seem so interesting to you, and I know about yours, I was wondering if maybe those two issues were related,” Cat replied calmly, leaning comfortably against the rocky wall as he continued to clean the sword.

A short silence followed.

“You want to know if your abilities originate from a patron,” it was not so much a question as a statement.

Cat’s smile fell.

“I sometimes get these… dreams,” Cat confessed in a whisper. “They are like visions… mostly of death,” she paused and bit her lip. She had not revealed that information to anyone before. “Did you go through something like that as well, before you became a blackguard?”

The man shook his head, hands and eyes still focused on the blade.

“Not at all. A patron gives no figment of their power until the contract is made, and as for the dreams…” he paused to look at her, frowning. “No, my bond with Ur-Gothoz is mental, he does not come in my sleep.”

The mage sighed. At least she had tried…

“Well, then it seems that my skills will remain a mystery for now,” she replied, straightening her back.

As she was about to get up, Dorn put a hand on her shoulder to still her. She sat back and waited.

“Ur-Gothoz himself has shown interest in those powers of yours,” he said. “He has not specified their nature, but he has told me that you hold a high potential, and that you might achieve great feats, which is why I should remain by your side for as long as it benefits his goals.”

Cat blinked, shocked by the revelation and wondering whether it would be wise to feel flattered by a compliment that came from a devil.

“Perhaps you could ask him?” She suggested, tilting her head to the side.

The half-orc huffed and sheathed his now clean sword back into its scabbard.

“I do not ask questions; he is the one who gives me orders and guides me,” he explained, with a hint of impatience in his tone. The conditions of the contract with his demonic patron did not seem comfortable ground for conversation.

“Oh, well,” the witch fidgeted with the brooch of her tunic, trying to conceal her slight disappointment, “then I guess I’ll stop pestering you now. Thank you for the insight, nonetheless.”

As she laid in her bedroll, Cat replayed the conversation with the blackguard in her mind. He had not been ashamed to admit that he would only serve her for as long as it suited his patron’s interests, and yet he always seemed rather concerned about topics such as the trustworthiness of Cat’s other companions. Granted, he had been betrayed by those he came to call his friends, but the worries he voiced were directed towards Cat and her well-being. Despite his brutal honesty, he was frustratingly hard to read, and even though she would never admit that anyone was able to get to her in such a way, it infuriated her to no end. What did he really think, or want, from her?

Huffing, she pulled up the corners of her bedroll for warmth, hoping to get some sleep before venturing further into the sinister dungeon she had led her group into.

[ansatsu-database]

E-25 Yada Touka - Character Profile

If this were any other author out there, chances are Yada would've been left as a plain old fan service character. I'm glad that Matsui-sensei isn't one of those. While I'm at it, I like that Matsui has always gone for a modest and conservative approach with his female characters (cases like Genuine and Irina don't count), and able to shine on stage with the male characters too. The only other work I've seen in a long time that's cleaner in this regard is Sket Dance.

Main credits go to a certain Baidu forumer for translating the profiles from the Roll Book Time Databook to a language I understand. In accordance with her wish, her screenshots from the book will not be copied elsewhere, so refer to the following link to see extracts of Yada's profile:

Extracts of Yada's profile

And because this is a Japanese -> Chinese -> English translation for the most part, while I have endeavoured to keep things as accurate as possible, not everything may be successfully conveyed across

E-25 Yada Touka (矢田 桃花) – adores B*tch-sensei, #1 nice body in Class E

“Reception and negotiation techniques… once we go out to society, wouldn’t these become our sharpest blades?"

Description

Having been taught about the “second blade” by Korosensei, she’s been diligently learning techniques in reception and negotiation. She’s been learning all sorts of things girls ought to be well-versed in from Irina, and now she’s just polishing her own girl power. Because she’s still in the stage of adolescence, her chest is still maturing, something the boys get restless about every day. (TN: “girl power” here is also Joushiryoku, which I’d explained in Okano’s Profile)

As the ones who handle negotiations, if Yada and Kurahashi are deployed, a mere one or two targets will be finished off quickly.

When it comes to the super slow tempo love development between her master B*tch-sensei and the unseducible Karasuma-sensei, she just supports it without making fun of it.

Code Name: Ponytail and Chest (ポニーテールと乳 / ponytail to chichi), Okajima’s idea

“Oho, the point of code names is to relay that person’s charm and characteristics as-is for the sake of assassinations, and this is important even for boys around the world.” (Said with a serious face)

Birthday: August 1st

Height: 161cm

Weight: 51kg

Bust Size: E

Blood Type: A

Favourite Subject: Japanese

Worst Subject: Maths

Interests and special skills: Things girls ought to be well-versed in, Irina-style

Past Club: Tennis Club (TN: boys and girls seem to have separate clubs, so not the same as Isogai)

Treasured Item(s): a Shu Uemura lipstick from Irina (TN: this is a real brand)

Favourite Food: Pancakes

Bento or Snacks: Bento

Election Headline (from the 1st Popularity Poll): The girl power of the chest!!

From Korosensei, Announcement of Results from the Periodic Exams (Main 5 subjects) (credits to young-il-long-kiyoshi)

Her grades in the 5 main subjects have all elevated uniformly. From the 2nd trimester onwards, when Yada started to become close with Irina-sensei, her English skills have steadily gone up. Natural conversations do indeed make for good education material.

(TN: this may be a callback to Chapter 10, when Korosensei expressed his gratitude that the students got to converse with a natural foreigner)

1st Trimester Mid-Terms: 335 points (92nd place)

1st Trimester End-of-Terms: 392 points (50th place)

2nd Trimester Mid-Terms: 373 points (75th place)

Score breakdown

Show

1st Trimester Mid-Terms English: 70 points (80th place) Japanese: 74 points (111st place) Maths: 55 points (136th place) Science: 69 points (51st place) Social Studies: 67 points (81st place) Composite Score: 335 points (92nd place)

1st Trimester End-of-Terms English: 83 points (45th place) Japanese: 87 points (20nd place) Maths: 68 points (78th place) Science: 79 points (26th place) Social Studies: 75 points (52nd place) Composite Score: 392 points (50th place)

2nd Trimester Mid-Terms English: 90 points (25th place) Japanese: 75 points (105th place) Maths: 66 points (90th place) Science: 72 points (47th place) Social Studies: 70 points (70th place) Composite Score: 373 points (75th place)

Karasuma’s Assassination Aptitude (graded on a scale of 6)

Initially her marksmanship had already been good (tied for 3rd in the June test), but recently when it comes to infiltration assassination-related content, she’s been showing world-class potential, probably because she’s been learning various skills from Irina.

Strategy/Planning: 4

Commanding/Leadership: 2

Execution (Ability to carry out plans): 3

Technique (Traps, weapons, preparations, etc): 1

Scouting/Intelligence Gathering: 4

Politics/Negotiations: 6

B*tch-sensei’s Fashion Check (credits to young-il-long-kiyoshi)

Touka's current fashion is in the midst of ascending the stairway from a girl to a woman. Reminds me of my own past~ But if she wants to better mesmerise men with her charms, she needs to at least show off more of her skin.

School Uniform

She wraps her cardigan around her waist when wearing her uniform. She adopts grown-up women's fashion faster than anyone.

Street Clothes

Her no-slip shirt has a soft texture that feels girly. It's a style that shows her appeal without being too sly.

Character Relationships

- Kayano Kaede (addressed as Kaede-chan) -

She more or less figured that Kayano condemns big chests, but she’s been avoiding that landmine.

- Irina Jelavic (addressed as B*tch-sensei) -

At first their conversations were mainly about reception, negotiation and various other “second blade” topics, but recently their conversations are mostly to do with her relationship with Karasuma. She’s a companion who knows Irina’s phone number. Rather than teacher and student, they feel more like friends, and they’re planning to hold a hotpot party in the coming winter.

- Shiota Nagisa (addressed as Nagisa-kun) -

When Takaoka was one-sidedly pummelling on Nagisa (at Okinawa), she couldn’t help but turn away from the scene. She hates blood and gore, which is why she’s committed herself to perfecting her negotiation skills in order to avoid fighting.

- Muramatsu Takuya (addressed as Muramatsu-kun) -

In elementary school, he once popped into the classroom in which she was learning piano, but very soon he gave up on learning, which she still remembers.

- Kataoka Megu (addressed as Megu) -

In the past, there was a (short period of) time when she lost her heart to Ikemegu. Although, there are lots of girls who want to be close with Kataoka.

(TN: to make sure there's no misunderstanding, this was something in the past. Roll Book Time was based on material up to Volume 13, so by then Yada's girl crush is over)

- Okano Hinata (addressed as Hinata-chan) -

She had already noticed how Okano feels about Maehara very early on, and has been rooting on her from the side. But Maehara hasn’t noticed this at all, so she’s feeling pretty dissatisfied.

- Kurahashi Hinano (addressed as Hina-chan) -

They both have gentle and quiet personalities yet still have pretty high girl power, should any average boy look down and flirt with them, they'll be peacefully, verbally cornered into silence before they even notice.

- Okajima Taiga (addressed as Okajima-kun) -

Okajima has his eyes on her, but because he has no immunity against a real girl’s body, they have not reached a stage of being in (any physical) contact with each other.

Matsui-sensei’s Exclusive Behind the Scenes Data

Irina’s best disciple. Due to learning so many new things, her communication abilities are outstanding. She had been troubled about her huge chest, but through her days of assassination and under Irina’s guidance, she learnt that (psychological) complexes are also weapons that one can make use of in communication.

She once neglected a test because she had to nurse her sickly little brother, and fell into Class E as a result.

When she was caught during the Cops and Robbers game on the mountain, she made known that she had a sickly little brother. There was acting and it did look suspicious, but it really was the reason that she fell into Class E.

[oathkeptroxas]

I loved your story on dean & laurel but I'm curious what's your take on those who say that Laurel is a gender-swapped version of Dean? If you agree I would love to get your take on the similarities between Laurel and Dean it's the only similarity I can think of is they are the oldest sibling.

Thanks so much for reading it!! :)

I don’t necessarily agree with referring to Laurel as ‘gender-swapped’ Dean because a) I don’t like that term and it’s implications that there are only 2, binary genders, and b) I feel it discredits Laurel’s individual development and dismisses her as ‘oh a female equivalent of something that’s already been done’.

However, there are a TON of parallels between these two that I believe would make them able to understand each other so well! There’s a difference between a similarity/parallel/comparison and ‘they are the same’.

Though Laurel and Dean are of course both older siblings, that’s not a similarity, that’s a narrative fact, a way in which they are the same. It’s the dynamics with their siblings and their individual personalities in how they deal with them that matter.

Dean would do anything for Sam. He’s sacrificed his life for Sam multiple times, Dean is willing to die for Sam at any given moment, no questions asked. When Sam died Dean did what he had to in order to get him back, consequences be damned. He gave up his childhood so that he could dedicate himself to preserving what was left of Sam’s. Keeping Sam safe is his priority.

Keeping Sara safe growing up was Laurel’s priority. Sara was free-spirited, a rule breaker. Laurel did things by the book, was studying to be a lawyer. Sara was prone to getting herself into trouble, Laurel got her out of it. When Sara died Laurel did whatever she could to bring her back, consequences be damned, no questions asked. 

Both Sam and Sara took their older siblings for granted.

Now, in Sam’s case it’s more than forgivable. Dean felt betrayed/deserted by Sam when he left for college, Dean just wanted his family to stay together and hated being alone. However, it’s necessary and healthy to put yourself first sometimes. Sam removed himself from a toxic environment and took the chance to better his life. Yes, it hurt Dean. But it was necessary for Sam’s well-being, even if Dean didn’t understand. Sam may have been far too young when all this started to realize how much Dean gave up for him, and even as the series goes on Sam learns new things about their childhood that allow him to appreciate Dean a little better. Sam’s ‘betrayal’ of Dean is justified and forgivable and not really a betrayal at all (though it felt like one to Dean).

Sara resented Laurel. When Sara told Oliver about how Laurel shut down that party Sara went to and then Sara got grounded and then Oliver and Laurel were dating and Sara said that Laurel only did that to be spiteful and steal Sara’s chance with him. That’s so fucking immature and short sighted?? And totally out of character for Laurel. Now, if you remove Oliver from the equation, Laurel’s actions would have been the same? Her underage sister was lying to her parents, going to a party with older boys where unknown substances were being passed around. Of course Laurel got it shut down? She was being responsible. The fact that Sara made that about a boy because she was jealous is absurd. Laurel had Sara’s best interests at heart and Sara dismissed her as being spiteful. She thought ‘Laurel doesn’t want me to have fun or be happy’, Laurel thought ‘My little sister is putting herself in dangerous situations with people taking advantage of her’.

Laurel and Oliver and Tommy were friends their whole lives. They grew up together. Laurel and Oliver were essentially childhood sweethearts. I’m an older sibling. I know younger siblings follow you around like imprinted ducklings and think that hanging out with the ‘big kids’ makes them cool. Younger siblings having puppy love crushes on their older siblings’ friends is common af. Thea had one on Tommy. So, any ‘feelings’ that Laurel may or may not have known Sara had for Oliver, she could have easily written off as just that? There was no malicious intent on Laurel’s end. Yet, Sara betrayed her by sleeping with her boyfriend to prove a point? And then when Sara returned she started sleeping with Oliver again before she had worked to build the bridges between her family, and then invited Oliver to a family dinner at Laurel’s home when she knew Laurel was going through a hard time? 

Now, Dean and Laurel also had similar dynamics with their fathers. John neglected/abused Dean, he took him for granted and made Dean shoulder the weight of his responsibilities. John even acknowledged ‘you shouldn’t have had to do that, it should have been me saying that to you’. Due to the circumstances, Dean was conditioned to believe that Sam’s well-being was his responsibility, and anything that happened to Sam was immediately his fault.

Laurel’s father emotionally abused her and her mother neglected her because they couldn’t handle the fact that Sara was gone. So, Laurel, not being given the chance to grieve her sister and boyfriend (who died whilst fucking behind her back) then got deserted by one parent and mistreated by another. Laurel became Quentin’s carer through his alcoholism and shouldered his responsibilities, despite her own trauma. Quentin even said ‘she was my rock’ because he used Laurel as a emotional crutch and leaned on her constantly whilst offering her constant criticism for her choices. He blamed Oliver for what happened to his family, and in a way blamed Laurel by association, because if it wasn’t for her relationship with him, Oliver wouldn’t have been in the Lance’s lives.

Alcoholism is another comparison. Alcohol is a huge coping mechanism for Dean. We see him wake from nightmares and immediately reach for a bottle, regardless of what time of day it is. Dean is drinking beer or whiskey in almost every episode. It helps him deal with his trauma. It’s not healthy but he’s dependent on it. Despite this dependency though, Dean is a high-functioning alcoholic, in the sense that his addiction does not hinder his ability to live his life and do what he needs to.

Laurel’s alcoholism hit her harder. She was never a big drinker, she didn’t even drink socially very often and not excessively. She went from 0-100. And with an alcoholic father (addictive personalities and substance dependencies can be hereditary) it was almost inevitable that she would become dependent, and that it would become a vice. She couldn’t control it, whereas Dean was able to control his to the point where, though he drank a lot, he did so to cope. Laurel started drowning her sorrows only for it to overrun her entire life, she lost control. Dean’s experiences with the mark of Cain and the first blade are a prime example of an addiction gone wild. Both Dean and Laurel have addictive personalities. This is also shown in their steadfast determination in doing whatever they can to reach an end they’ve set themselves.

Dean saw Charlie as an adoptive sister, they had a lot in common, he loved spending time with her and Dean is a big believer in finding and building a family. Laurel was exactly the same with Thea. Laurel was there for Thea more than Oliver was.

Dean uses meaningless sex as a coping mechanism for his trauma, his lifestyle doesn’t afford him the opportunity to commit. Yet, despite this, Dean has never forgotten the name of any of his one night stands. Dean wanted to build a relationship with Cassie Robinson, she was the first person he came clean about his life to. It was Cassie who turned him down, she knew they would grow to resent each other if they pursued something long distance and didn’t want that for them or herself. Dean was so enamored by Lisa Braeden after their weekend long fling literally years prior, that when he was given a year to live and found himself in her hometown one day, he tracked her down. He thought he was on borrowed time and didn’t want the opportunity to see her again to pass him by. When he found out she had a kid, he was shocked but not in any way upset that child could be his, was even disappointed when Ben wasn’t. He left them without attempting to pursue anything because at the time he believed he was going to die and didn’t want to allow Lisa and her son to become attached to him because he wouldn’t be around much longer. Dean had recurring dreams about a life with Lisa where he adopted Ben.

Laurel (as far as we know in canon) has only ever dated two men: Oliver and Tommy. Two boys that she grew up with and knew her whole life and trusted implicitly. We don’t know how exactly Tommy and Laurel first hooked up, but we know that during the time Oliver was gone it was strictly casual. It was more than likely a coping mechanism, they trusted each other, they comforted each other over the fact that they’d both lost Oliver and one thing led to another. She took comfort from someone who knew what she was going through instead of finding meaningless sex elsewhere. We see in flashbacks how Laurel had planned her and Oliver’s lives together and imagined getting married, how she told Oliver she wanted to move in together. Both Laurel and Dean are ‘all or nothing’ types. They are able, and often want to, commit. They love with every part of themselves, but sometimes other things just get in the way.

Which leads me to my next comparison, perhaps the most important one: Dean and Laurel are both loyal to a fault. They have forgiven people who never deserved it countless times. They’ve always put the well-being of others before themselves. They’ve been walked over and disregarded by people they loved yet they can’t help but still love them. Their sense of loyalty and family is unfaltering, even at the detriment of themselves. And despite this, they fight to keep the people they have and they don’t think they are deserving of the love they receive. Dean once said “sooner or later everybody’s gonna leave me.” Laurel once said “What is so wrong with me that everybody leaves?” They both fear abandonment because the people they devoted themselves to never showed that loyalty in return. 

These two would honestly be perfect for each other because their beliefs are cemented in the same ideals. I think they’d have an incredible dynamic and they’d understand each other so well. I’m sure there are things that I’m forgetting but this got long as hell and this is just the big ones that jump out at me. I’m sure @laurelwinchester would know more about this :)