#Don't you just love when your God creates a creature that can see right through you :)?

[magnusbae]

“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”

[selencgraphy]

— 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐄𝐕𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐀𝐃𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄

PAIRING: loki laufeyson x f!asgardian!reader

TAGS: bestfriend!loki, idiots in love, loki using magic, canon divergent, fluff, some cursing

A/N: oh man i wrote this sooooo long ago too. it's an old one that i deleted bc i was revamping my acc but i went back to reread it and realized i just had to bring it back! happy reading <3

WORD COUNT: ~1.3k

masterlist || request box <3

"Loki?"

He hummed in response. "If you could go anywhere in the Nine Realms," you started, "where would you go and who would you take with you?"

After a long day, the two of you had settled in the grass behind the palace, taking the time to relax, enjoy each other's company, and stare up into the sky. He turned to face you with a small grin already painted across his face. "What are you smiling about?"

"You already know my answer. Well, half of it anyway."

"Oh come on, don't be like that! Just tell me."

He took a second to think about it. Another grin grew on his face. He leaned in as if he was going to whisper it to you and said, "Why don't I just show you?"

With that, he shot up and put out his hand. As soon as you took it, he pulled you close to him. "The Bifrost is quite far for a walk, why don't I just..."

As he spoke, suddenly the two of you already seemed to have made it to the entrance of the Bifrost. "There."

"I don't think I'll ever get used to you doing that."

As time had passed over the years, Loki had become better at controlling the magic that Frigga had shared with him. One of the things he learned was how to conjure fireworks which he always used to make your day. Teleportation was his latest feat and he took advantage of it. When you both entered, you were greeted by the gatekeeper, Heimdall. "Your royal highness. My liege."

"Let me guess, you saw us coming?"

He hummed in response. "What can I do for the two of you today?"

Loki turned to you and gave you a quick smile before he approached the gatekeeper, whispering something into his ear. Heimdall quickly nodded and inserted Hofund to open the Bifrost. As you moved towards the entrance of the portal, Loki turned to you, grabbing your hand. "Hold onto me, love. I don't want you to fall out by accident now, do I?"

Before you knew it, the two of you were gliding up through the Bifrost, the colors glistening all around you. A look of astonishment growing on your face which made Loki's heart swell in his chest. Suddenly, you were on solid ground again, burn marks from the Bifrost scorched into the ground beneath you. "Loki," you started, taking in the new environment. "Where are we?"

"Midgard," he replied, a small smile on his face. You were speechless. You never imagined Midgard to be this… beautiful. When you learned about the Nine Realms, Midgard had been described as a place unappealing to visit and that the Midgardians were rude creatures that don't know how to do anything but create chaos. You always joked that it was the perfect place for Loki with him being the God of Mischief and all. But this? Wherever Loki had taken you seemed to be the complete opposite.

Unlike Asgard, the seemingly end of their world wasn't just space, it was water and in the distance was a beautiful skyline of orange and blue. As you took in the sight before you, Loki couldn't help but admire how amazed you looked. He had taken a trip here once before with his brother, Thor, so he was less taken aback but seeing the look on your face made this visit feel more meaningful—not that it wasn't already. Breaking the silence, Loki leaned in and whispered, "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Loki, this is-"

As you turned to face him, he offered his hand, asking for you to take it once more. "Come on," he insisted, "There is so much more that I want you to see."

The second your hand met his he quickly turned around and set off in a sprint, dragging you right behind him. Over the sounds of the crashing waves, you yelled, "Loki! Where are you taking me now?"

"Do you trust me?"

"What?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do but what does that have to-"

Before you could finish you found yourself in another environment once again. "Fuck, Loki!"

All he did was laugh back at your shock at the teleportation. He continued to run with your hands still interlocked but as you took in more of the sights of the new area you realized it resembled the area behind the palace just immensely larger. A field of grass with flowers everywhere, only a massive tree in sight. Both yours and Loki's hair flowing in the wind as you sprinted through the field.

Once you came to a stop, the both of you took a second to catch your breaths. Taking a seat next to the tree, you took a similar position like how you were laying back on the field in Asgard, Loki quickly following suit. Suddenly, he turned and took you into his arms and began to violently tickle you. "Loki, stop! No," you squealed.

Coming to a stop with the tickling, he continued to hold you in his arms. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Just for being my friend for so long and allowing me to bring you here. I thought you would have left me when you found out that I was, well, not Asgardian."

"Of course, Loki. You think I'd pass up the opportunity to be friends with a prince of Asgard?"

He sat up, jokingly displaying a shocked expression on his face. "Is that the only reason you're friends with me?"

You quipped, "Why else would I be?"

As he took his place back onto the ground next to you, you went on to say, "I'm glad we're friends too, Loki. I can't imagine being best friends with anyone else."

"Not even my brother?"

"Not even your brother," you ensured.

Staying in silence for a second, he quickly broke it and said, "I know we just got here but there is one more place that I want you to see."

Taking your hand once again, you expected him to teleport immediately but he quickly added, "Close your eyes."

"Hmm and why should I?"

"Just trust me."

Reluctantly, you shut your eyes and you felt the two of you teleport. Immediately new sounds and smells filled your senses. With your eyes still closed, he helped you up and guided you to his desired location. "Just a little bit further and... there. You can open your eyes now."

Once your eyes opened, you were met with buildings and lights underneath you. "Wh- Where are we?"

"This is something the Midgardians call the Eiffel Tower. It's this triangular shaped structure similar to the palace but much less attractive."

"Oh, please," you laughed as you lightly shoved his shoulder. You leaned over the railing, further taking in its beauty, Loki taking his place next to you.

"You asked if I could go anywhere where I'd go and with whom," he started without breaking his gaze downwards to the buildings. When you turned to look at him he continued, "I don't care where I end up as long as it’s with you."

"You sap!"

"Hey," he retorted. "I'm being serious."

"I know," you whispered, blush creeping into your cheeks at the sentiment.

You took a second to take in the sight before the two of you before Loki spoke again. "How about you?"

"Hm?"

"Where would you go and with whom?"

Meeting his gaze, you leaned in, closing the space between you. "Anywhere as long it's with you," a smile growing on your face as you basically repeated his answer back to him.

"Oh, who's the sap now!"

The two of you laughed it off and continued to look onto the city in front of you. "Hey, the sights here on Midgard are fascinating but just you wait until you taste their food."

Your eyebrows raised in intrigue. “Really?”

He nodded and offered his hand once more, already glowing in green with magic. "Can't we just walk down?" you whined.

A mischievous grin grew on the god's face. "Now where's the fun in that?"

[oc-challenges]

WELCOME TO OC HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE 2O24!

SMILE because it's time for the annual oc halloween challenge! We will see the evil, hear the evil, and speak the evil with these spooky challenges brought to you by @aliverse, @astarionbae, @endless-oc-creations, and @come-along-pond!

If this is your first time, here's the lowdown; This is an event that takes place over the 31 days of October and presents oc creators with Halloween-themed challenges to encourage creativity, foster community, and have fun! Some of these have guidelines/suggestions, but this is very much a free-for-all so you can ignore them if they don't fit with your interpretations.

RULES

DO NOT copy others edits.

If you are doing crossovers, PLEASE make sure that the creator of the other oc is okay with crossovers.

If you want your post to be reblogged onto this blog, it must contain the hashtag ohc2024.

Feel free to ask questions, I promise I’m more treat than trick.

Everything is up to the creators interpretation, although I have tried to include some examples for help!

Have fun!

Day One: Godly Parent

Whether Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian, or any other; What "God" could have created your oc?

Day Two: Mystical Communication

There are tons of ways we think we can communicate with those beyond our realm such as Tarot Cards, Oujia Boards, Prayer, EMFs, or even through other people with otherworldly powers. Which method would your oc use? Or maybe they are the communication tool?

Day Three: Merch/Memorabilia

When we really love something, we want a piece of it with us. What merch would people buy of your ocs? Ex. Dolls (like funkos or Barbie crossovers), Clothes (like shirts or sweatshirts), Buttons/Patches, Dishware (like cups or plates), trading cards, posters, or even spin-off books of the show they star in.

Day Four: If They Were Canon AU

You could create an actor oc who plays your character or even make edits about how you think your ocs faceclaim would promote/interpret their character and get along with fellow cast members.

Day Five: Social Media AU

Within their canon, what would your ocs Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat, and/or YouTube look like?

Day Six: Role Swap AU

Give your oc a role in their story that is different than the one they already have. Whether this is making a hero a villain or vice versa, your victim a survivor or vice versa, or anything else you can think of.

Day Seven: Butterfly Effect

One choice could change the trajectory of our lives or any game we play. Show us the effects of your oc making the wrong choice when they originally made the right choice, befriending someone they originally hated, or even just missing their alarm.

Day Eight: Multiverse

Maybe you have multiple ocs with the same faceclaim, maybe you have a friend(s) who have ocs with the same faceclaim that you've wanted to do a crossover with, or maybe you want your oc to meet some of the actual characters their faceclaim has played. No matter what it is, it's time for your ocs to meet their multiverse counterparts!

Day Nine: Literature AU

Put your oc into an alternate universe based off a book you enjoy whether it be a classic or a newer one, no matter the genre.

Day Ten: Dungeons & Dragons AU

Have your ocs play DND, make an au based off a classic DND campaign, or just tell us the stats of your oc in DND terms.

Day Eleven: Ghost AU

Sometimes when we die, we don't leave. Tell us the unfinished business that keeps your ocs ghost on Earth, who your oc would haunt, how they would haunt, or anything else related to your oc being a ghost!

Day Twelve: Supernatural AU

Make your human oc a supernatural creature or your supernatural oc a different supernatural character.

Day Thirteen: Video Game AU

Show us some of what your story would look like as a video game or put your ocs into your favorite game.

Day Fourteen: Musical AU

The doctor said I couldn't talk, he didn't say I couldn't siiinnnggg! Put your oc into your favorite musical such as Hamilton or Mean Girls, or come up with some original lyrics to show what you think your story would look like if it were written as a musical.

Day Fifteen: Nostalgia

Take the books, shows, or movies you enjoyed as a child and put your oc into them! Or, show us what your oc enjoyed as a child.

Day Sixteen: Fairytale AU

One of the most classics of classics. Make your oc a character in your favorite fairytale, whether you prefer the Grimm or Disney version, or make up a fairytale about your oc!

Day Seventeen: Being is Believing

For day seventeen, think about superstitions, urban legends, or folklore and either make your oc a part of them, make your oc experience them, or tell us which ones your oc believes.

Day Eighteen: Beloved Pet or Object Turned Human

It's not unusual for someone to grow an emotional attatchment to an animal or an inanimate object. What would your ocs beloved pet or object say if they turned human and could speak your ocs langauge?

Day Nineteen: Genre Switch

Whatever the genre of your story is, swap it with another one. Maybe your romance story is now a horror story, your comedy is now a tragedy, or your historical realism story is now future sci-fi.

Day Twenty: Darkest After Dawn

Things can go so right for so long and then suddenly so wrong. Show us what happens when something rains on your ocs parade, when a perfect day turns into a horrible night, or a dream vacation turns into a nightmare trap.

Day Twenty-One: Apocalypse AU

Put your oc into an alternate universe that's been thrust into an apocalypse whether that be because of zombies, aliens, radiation, or the Earth trying to reclaim its land.

Day Twenty-Two: Time Problems

Let's play with time for this challenge. Picture your story as if it has always taken place in a different time, throw your oc into a time loop, or have them somehow travel through time.

Day Twenty-Three: Horrorify A Song

Take your favorite Halloween song and tell it's story, or even take a perfectly innocent song and give it a horrifying meaning! Both using your ocs, obviously.

Day Twenty-Four: What's Your Favorite Scary Movie?

It wouldn't be Halloween without some good scary movies. Put your ocs into one of your favorite scary movies!

Day Twenty-Five: Horror Location

This is an easier throwback to one of the week long challenges we've done for this event. Make something that tells a horror story of your oc at a certain location such as a Hospital/Asylum, Summer Camp, Place of Worship, Cemetery/Tomb, House/Apartment, Hotel/Cabin, or Farm/Ranch.

Day Twenty-Six: Horror Subgenres

Another throwback to a week long challenge we've done for this event. Make something that tells a horror story of your oc within a horror subgenre such as extraterrestrial, apocalypse, monster, time loop, isolation, time loop, cult, doppleganger, or anything else you can think of.

Day Twenty-Seven: Horror Archetypes

Which horror character tropes do your ocs embody? The Final Girl or The Killer? The Accomplice or The Harmless Antagonist? The Harbinger or The Nonbeliever? The Comedic Relief or The Hysteric Annoyance?

Day Twenty-Eight: Solo Costume

Show us what your oc would dress up as for Halloween! Would they dress sexy? Scary? Lazy? Practical?

Day Twenty-Nine: Couples Costume

Show us what matching costume your oc and their love interest would wear! Peanut Butter & Jelly? Morticia & Gomez? Bert & Ernie?

Day Thirty: Group Costume

Show us what costumes your oc and their friend group would coordinate. Are they the Scooby Gang? The Wiggles? Mario Party Characters?

Day Thirty-One: Here's A Treat!

The Halloween potluck isn't happening this year but we still want to encourage interaction and giving. So, choose someone to give a treat! This could be an ask, an edit, some writing, or even a playlist.

[nalyra-dreaming]

I have a question because I don't remember what actually happened in the books, just what impression it left on me. But I keep seeing people talking about Armand and Lestat like it was this grand passionate MUTUAL love affair and I always saw it as pretty one-sided on Armand's side. Lestat came to love him eventually, but to me it was never passionate or romantic. More like the way you have love for someone who has been around most of your big life moments so that history creates connection and love. More of a platonic, familial type of thing. But then I just saw someone describe them as "feral for each other" and I'm confused. Am I remembering wrong? Or are people creating headcanons?

Wellllllllll.... It depends a bit on how you want to see it I guess.

I do think that Lestat is mightily attracted to Armand. And Armand to him. And in the "Cinderella scene" (I'll post it below), there is a lot of talk about love and desire.

But it also becomes clear through the scene that Armand is spell-binding Lestat, in order to (force-) feed on him. And thereby blows it - ultimately forever.

And against the far wall, a backdrop of satin and filigree, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, like something imagined, Armand. Armand. If there had been a summons, I never heard it. If there was a greeting, I didn't sense it now. He was merely looking at me, a radiant creature in jewels and scalloped lace. And it was Cinderella revealed at the ball, this vision, Sleeping Beauty opening her eyes under a mesh of cobwebs and wiping them all away with one sweep of her warm hand. The sheer pitch of incarnate beauty made me gasp. Yes, perfect mortal raiment, and yet he seemed all the more supernatural, his face too dazzling, his dark eyes fathomless and just for a split second glinting as if they were windows to the fires of hell. And when his voice came it was low and almost teasing, forcing me to concentrate to hear it: All night you've been searching for me, he said, and here I am, waiting for you. I have been waiting for you all along. I think I sensed even then, as I stood unable to look away, that never in my years of wandering this earth would I ever have such a rich revelation of the true horror that we are. Heartbreakingly innocent he seemed in the midst of the crowd.

Yet I saw crypts when I looked at him, and I heard the beat of the kettledrums. I saw torchlit fields where I had never been, heard vague incantations, felt the heat of raging fires on my face. And they didn't come out of him, these visions. Rather I drew them out on my own. Yet never had Nicolas, mortal or immortal, been so alluring. Never had Gabrielle held me so in thrall. Dear God, this is love. This is desire. And all my past amours have been but the shadow of this. And it seemed in a murmuring pulse of thought he gave me to know that I had been very foolish to think it would not be so. Who can love us, you and I, as we can love each other, he whispered and it seemed his lips actually moved. Others looked at him. I saw them drifting with a ludicrous slowness; I saw their eyes pass over him, I saw the light fall on him at a rich new angle as he lowered his head. I was moving towards him. It seemed he raised his right hand and beckoned and then he didn't, and he had turned and I saw the figure of a young boy ahead of me, with narrow waist and straight shoulders and high firm calves under silk stockings, a boy who turned as he opened a door and beckoned again. A mad thought came to me. I was moving after him, and it seemed that none of the other things had happened. There was no crypt under les Innocents, and he had not been that ancient fearful fiend. We were somehow safe. We were the sum of our desires and this was saving us, and the vast untasted horror of my own immortality did not lie before me, and we were navigating calm seas with familiar beacons, and it was time to be in each other's arms. A dark room surrounded us, private, cold. The noise of the ball was far away. He was heated with the blood he'd drunk and I could hear the strong force of his heart.

He drew me closer to him, and beyond the high windows there flashed the passing lights of the carriages, with dim incessant sounds that spoke of safety and comfort, and all the things that Paris was. I had never died. The world was beginning again. I put out my arms and felt his heart against me, and calling out to my Nicolas, I tried to warn him, to tell him we were all of us doomed. Our life was slipping inch by inch from us, and seeing the apple trees in the orchard, drenched in green sunlight, I felt I would go mad. "No, no, my dearest one, " he was whispering, "nothing but peace and sweetness and your arms in mine. "

"You know it was the damnedest luck! " I whispered suddenly. "I am an unwilling devil. I cry like some vagrant child. I want to go home. " Yes, yes, his lips tasted like blood, but it was not human blood. It was that elixir that Magnus had given me, and I felt myself recoil. I could get away this time. I had another chance. The wheel had turned full round. I was crying out that I wouldn't drink; I wouldn't, and then I felt the two hot shafts driven hard through my neck and down to my soul. I couldn't move. It was coming as it had come that night, the rapture, a thousandfold what it was when I held mortals in my arms. And I knew what he was doing! He was feeding upon me! He was draining me. And going down on my knees, I felt myself held by him, the blood pouring out of me with a monstrous volition I couldn't stop.

"Devil! " I tried to scream. I forced the word up and up until it broke from my lips and the paralysis broke from my limbs. "Devil! " I roared again and I caught him in his swoon and hurled him backwards to the floor.

Now, Lestat fights Armand off after this, but I think this is what a lot of the passion stems from - and also the reason why it will never come to pass.

Because Lestat does desire Armand. But Armand forced him, just after Magnus forced him. And that ended it, before it could really start, until time changed it into a more gentle love.

[kaijuparfait]

I saw ur tags about indulging in the body horror aspect of the Symbiote/Host dynamic and im just here to say: do it >:3

YES.

GOD. ok so. I've always enjoyed the concept of body horror, not all the way, but it looked cool in art! But! Recently Symbrock (and Venom as a whole) has turned that up to 100- both in a "Wow! Cool alien creature biting people's heads off! >:D" way, but also in a "The goo is in his organs, his tissue, his cells... how romantic!" way.

And, if you'll excuse me, I'll only be talking about my (limited) knowledge/headcanons with Symbrock because I haven't read all the comics yet so this is all with Eddie and the Venom Symbiote in mind-

Firstly, I don't think I've ever seen anyone mention how the Symbiote can enter/exit it's Host's body through their skin, without damaging the Host. There's no wounds, just the easy slide in between layers of cells, Venom can be as solid as they want but can also come together so seamlessly, its like watching someone fold a deck of cards.

Even on a psychological standpoint, the idea of actually being "Venom". Singular. Not "We" are Venom. But the idea of two beings, from different sides of the universe, coming together perfectly as one being, one mind, one consciousness. A bit of an OC ramble, I have this OC that goes into this idea of acting as one being and I'll talk about them later but WOAH is it fun. The sheer intimacy of it.. not losing your own self, but simply combing it with another to create something- someone new.

Ok onto the actual body horror-

I am not normal about the Symbiote literally being in Eddie's blood. Blood is everywhere in the body, anywhere you poke, blood will come out- and in that, the Symbiote, ready to heal the wound.

Speaking of healing wounds, and also this post because I keep rereading it, it makes me ill, the Venom Symbiote truly sees it's Host as it's home. and that does something to me. The way it keeps the body healthy, like how you would clean your house, no longer having to worry about illnesses or infections; how it heals any injuries, like fixing a broken wall, repainting it, like there was no damage in the first place.

Knowing it's home so well, able to know what's wrong and how to make it right. Complete and utter devotion to it's beloved home, the one that keeps it safe, willingly, lovingly let's it- wants it inside to keep it safe. To know that something that could tear apart planets if it so wanted to, something that bares it's rows of teeth as a natural expression, something that has destroyed countless lives- to know something like that gently rests in the space between your organs because it wants to. And how much you want it to too.

And this goes both ways too! When they're Venom and get hurt, they way the Symbiote peels away from the body is.. its amazing that the Symbiote can be torn away from it's Host. When Eddie gets hurt, the Symbiote comes out, from inside- When Venom gets hurt, instead of blood or organs, it's Eddie at the center, but he acts as the same anyways. Eddie is the Symbiote's life, he is it's heart, carefully tucked away and protected.

Even though Eddie doesn't particularly enjoy eating people's brains, he comes up with a compromise for the 2 of them anyways, he buys tons of chocolate for it to eat too, and that adds up for a guy that is living in a one room flat. and AND AND I will never get over how, in LTBC, Venom leaves all the red m&m's, because the red dye is said to be harmful to humans in large amounts, so even though it's one of the few things it needs to live, it refuses it to keep Eddie- it's Host- it's home safe.

and, I mean, Venom totally could eat Eddie if it so wanted to, in the first movie, Eddie's literally going through.. several organ failures- but Venom puts him back together, back better! and i am suddenly ill-

excuse my weird ideas but hhhhhh Eddie being torn apart and put back together..... yeah. how much trust is needed for that? how much love is shown from letting it consume his flesh and bones, from it eating the thing it loves the most, from it knowing every ridge and curve of every organ and cell to put everything back where it was?

how much love is needed to destroy something, to be destroyed, and come back together?

also Trust Exercise is a dang good fic, i need more of this. please. or i'll start making it myself (i'll do it anyways)

This, too, can go both ways, I am a big fan of swapping how Eddie and Venom and portrayed, both in canon and in fanon, just for the fun of it- and I'm just saying... let Eddie tear apart the Symbiote! maybe Eddie wants to rip it apart with his teeth and bare hands! Let them fight and rip each other apart, but with love <3 (oh fight/sparring scenes between friends/lovers, how i love you so)

you can't really see it well, and i'll make a better show of it later, but my design for (movie) Eddie has sharp teeth and that isn't for no reason. I.... ADORE the idea that, after being Venom for so long, Eddie starts adapting parts of them into his "normal" body- sharper teeth, clouded eyes, maybe even some of his skin is pitch black too, just because it makes him feel like Venom in his everyday life, even a little bit.

ough i need to lay down after that but- THANK YOU so much for asking me this, this was such a treat to let out, it's like a weight has been lifted off me lmao

i'll probably have more on this topic later on, but i'll probably use those ideas for art/writing, i love thinking about them :3

EDIT: ALSO ALSO ALSO the way the Venom Symbiote literally goes against it's very nature to love Eddie, it goes against what every other Symbiote does, it betrays it's entire race and planet- JUST TO BE VENOM WITH EDDIE <3

[thewertsearch]

TG: i will be your server TG: and past me will stay as roses server TG: which is to say present me will TG: the one in the black suit GG: ohh… GG: i guess that makes sense TG: he can keep managing her for a while TG: until she sorta checks out soon and becomes totally useless

Rose is already detached from the party, following unseen orders in service of an unseen plan - but according to Dave, she's going to get worse.

This, I assume, is the point at which she becomes obscured from Kanaya's viewport. Rose is going to keep digging this hole, right up until she reaches some critical point on her timeline - and then, if I'm reading correctly between the lines, she's going to fall apart.

Final alchemy session, let's go!

Hey, calm down! Just because it's snowing outside doesn't mean it's Christmas just yet.

We're certainly getting close...

STEP OFF. … You decide he can keep the SORD….. though.

Abandoning your best weapon? A poor tactical decision by the Knight.

TT: Did you do anything on the moon besides rifle through my belongings? TT: Such as remove your shades and turn your gaze Ringward, by any chance? [...] TG: i did TT: What did you see? TG: horrible things [...] TG: when i saw them TG: their voices became clearer TT: What were they saying? TG: i couldnt really focus on anything specific TG: but TG: in totality TG: im pretty sure it was TG: like TT: ? TG: a plea for help

That's a little vague - but then again, they may be so alien to us that they're not able to communicate more clearly. This might be the closest thing to a human-readable message that the Gods can create.

This is probably a good place to put my transcription of the Squiddle song from Jade's nap. Much of it is unintelligible, but the parts we can hear are rather illuminating.

Squiddles are no ordinary friends, they work, and play, and work again. But they have homes, and mommies too; yes, they have mommies just like you.

Firstly, the Squiddles try to explain that they're not completely different from us. They're extraordinary creatures, practically incomprehensible to the Players - and yet, they have a home. They have loved ones. They play.

They repeat this assertion twice, as though they desperately want the Players to understand this.

So let them go to bed right now, so they can rest, and make cute sounds. If they can't rest they won't be strong …and they are really tiny.

They go on to say that they're exhausted. They need to rest, but something is keeping them busy. As a result, they're becoming 'tiny' and weak.

They can't make the 'cute sounds' that they're known for, which I suspect is a metaphor for the advice they normally dispense to Derse Dreamers, but I'm less sure about that.

[Unintelligible] …so let them sleep... …cause they will die if…

At this point, the music begins to fade out - but not before we hear that the Squiddles' lives are in danger. Something out in the depths of space is killing the Noble Circle of Horrorterrors.

Squiddle dee dee, squiddle dee dum. Everyone sing, a Squiddley song. Let's all be friends, And work as a team. Squiddles for you, Squiddles for me.

The final verse is self-explanatory.

It's unclear what, exactly, is happening out in the Furthest Ring, but it's dire enough that the Horrorterrors are reaching out to their neighbors, the Players of Sburb, and asking them to form an alliance.

We're seeing that alliance through Feferi, who has convinced them to blow the Dream Bubbles and link the two sessions. We're also seeing it through Rose, the only human Player willing to listen to the Squiddles' song - but her situation is more murky. I do think I understand her mental state a little better, though.

Rose is acting on Horrorterror advice - which means she's acting on whispers, corrupted images and half-heard fragments of a song. I don't think the Gods are manipulating her so much as they're playing a game of Telephone with her brain. They can't relay direct instructions, so the best they can do is transmit the vibe of what needs to happen, and the Seer has to figure the rest out for herself.

No wonder she's so evasive about her plan - I don't think she understands more than a quarter of it. She isn't nearly as in-control of the situation as she's pretending to be, and if she admits as much to John, she'd probably lose her nerve.

[ani-iu]

[𝟐] 𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐃𝐒 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐒 | angel 𝐀𝐝𝐚𝐦 × female human 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐬: marriage of convenience; forced proximity; angst; domestic; crackfic; possessive Adam; he falls first and harder; misogyny; Adam being Adam; explicit language; religious imagery & symbolism; sexual tension; eventual smut; happy ending; not canon compliant.

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 5,3k.

// holy necrogamy

𝐌uted purples and satiny gold dominate your current surroundings, giving them the dreamy, ethereal appearance of an evening sky. You blend right in as your face's colouration slowly reaches a similar hue to the wallpapered walls, a few shades darker than the plum carpeting you are clawing at. If you thought that it was difficult to breathe in Hell, then you are literally suffocating up here in Heaven. 

"I’m dying and you are just standing there." You wheeze out, rolling your eyes upward to stare through your eyelashes at your fiancé, who is leaning against a wall a few feet away. You can feel your chest expanding and contracting, creating the illusion of breathing, but no air ever fills your lungs, leaving you gasping like a fish out of water — which, in a way, you are. "Soon.. you will have no bride to marry."

"I told you that you won’t suffocate. It just feels like you are." Repeating himself pulls a disgruntled sigh out of Adam, but the thing is, you heard him the first time. It's just that his words don't bring any comfort.

"I hope.. I die.. go.. to Hell.. for mingling.. with.. the occult.. and.. reunite with.. the man.. that I.. actually.. love.." With your words coming in short gasps, you finally manage to voice out your sentence before lowering your forehead until it brushes against the coarse fibres covering the floor. You hope he will realise that you are not worth the trouble and send you back to Earth. You could start over, summon Lucifer through a chalky pentagram on the floor and talk it out with the devil in the comfort of your own living room this time. Just like normal people do.

However, your persistence only fascinates the man more.

"Don't be dramatic." Adam scoffs, reacting as if you are foolish for feeling and acting this way, but when you don't acknowledge him and refuse to get up from the ground, he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. You feel his arm wrap itself around your middle, tugging you up and holding you close to him so you won't slump like a rag doll next to his feet. "If you had listened to me with those God-given organs on each side of your head and entered that room," he takes a step towards the door of said room and your legs swing like the controlled motions of a pendulum on a grandfather clock. "You could breathe just fine, but I doubt that would improve your cognitive abilities. God clearly prioritised beauty over brains with you."

The door slides open as though your arrival is highly anticipated to which Adam responds by stepping towards the darkness without a second thought. He knew where he was going while you, on the other hand, did not.

You writhe in protest and apprehension at having to face the unknown first, but ultimately your pitiful attempt at stopping him is useless.

Once the two of you are inside, the cloaking darkness swallows up everything around you, preventing you from getting familiar with your new surroundings and alienating you even more. At least he didn't lie about the air being more breathable.

Adam lowers you down onto your feet and with his touch no longer there, you feel like a tiny boat at night — lost in the middle of an unpredictable sea that hides its dangers in the dark while a big and scary monster lurks right behind you.

But perhaps sometimes it is better to not see.

A creature sits in front of you behind a dark wood table, illuminated only by an iridescent halo above his head. He appears to be human, with a handsome and familiar face, but you know he is not — this is Heaven after all. The unnaturally long upper part of the being's body peaks from behind the aforementioned furniture, so straight that it looks eerily unsettling. When he stands up, he appears to be even taller than the hulking presence behind you and when he gracefully glides through the room, his disciplined movements remind you of a statue that is being pushed on a drum dolly. 

Alarmed, you gasp, unintentionally bumping into Adam as you take an involuntary step back, but the creature doesn't seem to notice you.

However, he acknowledges the angel behind you.

"Adam, the first human." The being speaks with a flat yet modulated voice, although you are more taken aback by the information it presents than how it is delivered. "You were the last soul I expected to have in my presence."

"Well, Danny, for a marriage-related matter, it was only wise of me to visit the angel of marriage first! Isn't that right, babe?" Adam pinches your cheek and you silently glare in that direction, praying that you could burn his leathery claw off. When your prayers fall on deaf ears and you shift your focus to who you now know is Archangel Daniel, you find his empty, unblinking eyes already staring down at you, further solidifying his likeness as a statue in your mind. For an angel of love and marriage, he looks very cold and clinical.

Your breathing quickens as you hold eye contact with the archangel while he stares straight into your soul, then switches his focus above your head. His face doesn’t betray any of his emotions or thoughts, but you are certain that he is at least curious about the fact that you happen to look very alive.

"Do others know you want to marry a mortal?"

And that's when your face lights up with hope. An archangel — a messenger of God himself — has to put a stop to this and save you. Adam might be an angel, but ultimately, he is a human soul. Archangel Daniel is a divine entity who should protect not only the sanctity of marriage but also the people involved. You are not a willing participant; he should be able to tell that just by simply looking at your terrified face — so sickly pale that you might be on the verge of passing out or dying altogether.

"They don’t, but will. Promise."

Just like that, the archangel shatters your hopes for rescue by unostentatiously nodding at Adam. He doesn't even spare you another glance, as if the previous ones were already too much, before turning away to prepare for the marriage ceremony. If you could even call it that.

You attempt to swallow down the lump in your throat, but your mouth is dry. Why did this holy being, who was supposedly created with the sole purpose of protecting humans from evil, assisting the perpetrator? Why did you get more compassion from sinners in Hell than from angels in Heaven? Hell wasn't as scary as it looked, but Heaven is terrifying. Here, you have no one in your corner.

"Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get you dressed." Adam's loud voice snaps you out of your thoughts, cutting your pity party short.

You are dressed, even if the dress you put on this morning is now dotted with burn holes. The charred article of clothing is still yours. You made it! You chose the colour of the fabric that matched your eyes and suited your skin tone the best. You cut the skirt to the perfect length and sewed the pieces together until the pads of your fingertips were numb and bloody. It was made specifically for your first official date with Marcel and you wore it today, hoping that he would wake up from his coma and see you in it. You plan to wear this dress when you get Marcel back to the living world — you will mend the holes and wear it many more times.

But before you can speak your mind, in a literal snap of a finger, you are wrapped in what you can only describe as an embodiment of pristine purity — a toga-style dress as awe-inspiring as the first snow. Long pieces of silk wrap around your body like vines, hiding your skin in a false illusion of modesty. The tight fit makes your bust and curves more pronounced, and— did he make your underwear disappear?!

Embarrassment-red paints your cheeks, while the golden curve of his mouth spells out mischief. You cross your legs together, covering yourself protectively with your hands, but it does nothing to sway his unapologetic focus away from your body. Substituting hands for eyes, he traces every curve with keenness, but before you can make a remark, Archangel Daniel returns, signalling the start of the ceremony.

You tune out most of what is being said, trying to distance yourself from the situation as a whole — it wasn’t like you were needed as an active participant either way. No vows are exchanged, and no I do's are said — only a recitation of an ancient speech spoken by the archangel. A ritual that binds your souls into one.

You snap back to reality when you feel a soft touch grab your left hand. 

"What are you doing?" You jump a bit, pulling your hand away in the process. Adam's touch is unwelcome at the moment. You wish to spend these last moments alone with yourself.

"Where else do you want me to put your ring?"

Inside your ass, preferably. "Where I’m from, women wear it on the right."

As if having a mind of its own, your right hand throbs painfully, reminding you of its unfavourable condition, but you quickly silence it by pressing the burning palm into the lower part of the wedding dress.

"What’s so special about that hand?"

"The same question goes both ways."

"Ever heard of the 'vein of love'?"

You audibly scoff at that. What is the point of the gesture when there is no love involved? He doesn't need to make this poor excuse for a matrimonial union more of a spectacle than it already is.

"That a vein from the ring finger runs directly to the heart? Science proved that that’s nonsense—"

"Give me your fucking hand."

And you do, simply because your right hand is in no condition to wear anything.

You feel the cold metal slide down your skin, and even though the band fits perfectly and quickly warms up with the help of your body heat, the delicate piece of jewellery feels heavy on your ring finger. You can't make yourself look down.

"In the eyes of God, you are now husband and wife."

Everything is going too fast, you scream inside your head while sinking your teeth into your bottom lip to prevent yourself from saying that out loud. But when you think the worst part is over, you feel Adam's cold fingers lift your quivering chin up, and his thumb pulls the delicate flesh away from the sharp incisors.

It’s fine, just close your eyes and imagine Marcel.

Adam takes a step closer and your eyes intently follow his every move, looking away only when you feel something tug on your wedding dress. Your now husband's long fingers are playing with a longer piece of fabric, caressing the silk with care while looking like a predator toying with his meal.

He raises his hand with the piece still in his grasp and your intense gaze moves with it. You stay silent until he brings it in front of your face and is about to tie it around your eyes.

"Hey, whoa, what do you think you are doing?" You put your hand in between your face and the would-be blindfold, your wedding ring catching the light from Adam's halo and glimmering like a star in his face.

"Do you need step-by-step narration of my every move? I’m tying your eyes."

"No, you are not."

"Don’t be difficult."

Your eyebrows arch in bewildered astonishment. "I think I’ve been pretty compliant so far. And who even kisses with their eyes open?"

"I don’t trust you to keep them shut."

"And you married me? Make up your mind." You scoff while Adam sways your hand away and goes in to tie the piece. Somehow, the deep blackness disrupting your vision only makes you lippier. "Thanks, now I can imagine that I’m kissing Marcel— OW!" Adam tightens the blindfold with a bit more force before you can even finish your sentence, painfully tugging on your hair after a few errant strands got caught in the knot.

"Did you say something?"

You scrunch your nose and frown, but remain quiet.

The toga dress and blindfold combination probably make you look like the statue of Lady Justice — the only thing missing are the freaking scales. Pitty, those would be immensely useful for thwacking the angel in the head.

Silence befalls you when Adam steps back, and you are left to anxiously await his next move.

But nothing happens.

Your ears become hungry to hear something, anything. There is a soft, muffled sound akin to the rustling of clothing, as though Adam is walking away from you and your fingers twitch to extend your hand to grab him before he is gone. At the last minute, you stop yourself. Did you read the room wrong? Was Adam about to sacrifice you to some hungry, biblical entity instead of solidifying your union with a kiss?

Somewhere in front of you, you hear it — a faint click, followed by a heavy clank near your feet. You twist and lower your head in the direction of the sound as if you could see anything, until you feel what has now become a familiar touch — frigid and leathery. Gently, Adam takes hold of your chin and tilts your head upwards. A gust of breath fans your lips as they part with a faint gasp. Is he—

Warm, plump lips cautiously brush against your own, causing your heart to plummet into your stomach and your voice box to produce a low moan, which gets eagerly swallowed up by the other soul. Both of your lips move in tandem; the action itself is sensual, not sexual, but it goes on for way too long to be considered a conventional wedding kiss.

Your partner's hand sits nicely on your waist, fingers holding onto you as if you would disappear otherwise. This couldn't be Adam kissing you. It's unfathomable that the smug bastard you had the misfortune of getting to know in such a short time could show such care for another soul. And if you remember correctly, his demonic face didn’t have any lips to begin with.

Being deprived of one of your senses with the help of a blindfold, you resort to using what you do have. Your hand lifts to caress his cheek and brush against the soft skin, familiarising itself with something foreign to you. You try to sculpt the man’s face in your mind, wondering what colour his eyes are, the hue of his skin, and the placement of his beauty marks — that is, if he has any. Your thumb glides across the supple flesh as if through wet clay — as if he is malleable.

Your inquisitive touch elicits a grunt from the man and by the sound alone, you can instantly tell that it's indeed Adam who is kissing you. A very human Adam.

But as Adam's fingers travel downwards towards your supple hips, he quickly pulls away as if you bit him. Your lips detach with a wet pop and while you gasp for air, Adam opens his eyes to look at his hand, which is now saturated with blood.

Satin threads of your wedding dress voraciously drink the blood out of your palm, mimicking veins by quickly spreading the crimson fluid throughout the right side of the garment. This wasn’t angelic ichor. This was metallic, vital, impure blood. The kind that a sinner bleeds after being touched by the exorcist's blade — a reminder of your mortality and of the original sin of which you were not cured because you were still alive.

Adam was already causing trouble for the elders of Heaven. That was nothing new. But now, as he looks at his blood-covered hands, Adam realises how dangerously he is toeing the line by inviting something so impure into such a holy space. And worst of all, you didn't even want to be here. 

He looks at you — a white sacrificial lamb, tied with satin and ready for sacrifice. But instead of being gifted to God as a sign of love and devotion, you sacrificed yourself for a sinner in Hell, and Adam, even as he grappled with himself in his moment of clarity, still craved such love for himself. He is fucking Adam! He was entitled to love and when he wasn’t given that, he had the right to take it. He is the first fucking man!

But this meant that Adam was no better than Lucifer — no, he was even worse — he blackmailed you to be with him.

"Um.. Adam?"

Your voice is small, but it brings Adam's attention back to you all the same. Lips, red and glossy, are parted just a tiny bit as you take hungry breaths to sate your human lungs. What was he doing?

Adam quickly scrambles to put his mask back on before clearing his throat. "Why didn’t you say anything about your hand?"

You perk up at the sound of his voice and finally tug the blindfold away from your eyes, only to see yourself reflected in the dark, glossy finish of what you now know is a mask. For a moment, you allowed yourself to forget how you got into this situation and for what or whom. All you could think about was how maybe, just maybe, being Adam’s wife wouldn’t be so bad until you figured everything out. 

"There wasn’t a good time to bring it up."

He chuckles sardonically, "You had time to argue about which hand the ring should go on. The wound is literally dripping. The side of the dress is covered in blood."

A wedding is supposed to be a joyous event in a woman’s life, but the blood only serves to remind everyone that this union was anything but. It was kind of poetic, in a way.

"Sorry."

"No, it’s— I will take care of it when we get home."

His words don't bring you comfort. This wasn’t your home. Your home was on Earth, but for now, you could be content with at least staying in your current location. You wanted to stay here in the dimness, where it was bearable to endure your new life and where your new husband didn’t seem so bad. You liked to think this was a dream, you didn’t want the reality to set in fully. And maybe that's why you wanted to kiss Adam again — to lose yourself in the feeling for a few more seconds so that you wouldn't think of everything else. 

"How will I be able to live here?"

"Don’t worry your little head about that, hot stuff. You've been doing that more than enough. Let me deal with the boring bureaucracy while you play a good little wife for me at home. How does that sound, hm?”

Like a life sentence.

Adam doesn't wait for an answer. He snaps his fingers, producing golden sparks that turn into a big whirl of light in the same colour.

"After you."

Begrudgingly, you walk towards it. It takes you a few steps to reach the portal, but when you step through it, you get instantly teleported to Adam's intended destination — a spacious and tidy apartment. Too tidy. No one lives here type of tidy.

Yet, somehow, it still feels queerly homely. Maybe it's thanks to the pastel evening skies — spiling through the floor-to-ceiling windows into the open-floor apartment like watercolour on paper. Or perhaps it has something to do with Adam's scent permeating the whole space.

The portal closes behind you and only after taking a deep breath do you build enough courage to finally turn around and face Adam. The setting you are now in is more intimate and it's just the two of you here. 

When you turn around, his glowing eyes are already on you. Adam's gaze momentarily flickers towards your lips and you can feel your face grow hot.

But before either of you can move, a knock echoes throughout the room.

"Fuck, what is it now?" Adam whines but goes to see who it is anyway. "What, Lute?"

By moving your head a bit to the side, you can see more clearly who's at the door. Feet spread apart and arms behind her back, Lute, as Adam addressed the female angel, stands proud even if her uniform is marred with red blood, matching you in a way. You recognise her as one of the many similar-looking angels that were in Hell at the time of your descent. The last time you saw her, she had a mask on.

"Sir, the Seraphim wishes to see you. Immediately." Her voice is unwavering and without her mask on, the white-skinned angel's face seems to be stuck in a perpetual frown. You catch her eye from way across and it's obvious she's not a fan of you. You don't blame her.

"Fuck. Yeah, okay." Adam turns to you. "So, I gotta go for a bit. You know, duty calls. Your husband is a busy guy, but, um, don’t be afraid to explore. See you in a bit, hourglass."

The door shuts behind him, leaving you all alone with someone you didn't want to be isolated with — yourself.

Now, in the dead silence, your inner thoughts are the loudest — eating you alive alongside the corrosive feeling of guilt. Every single one of your choices, made throughout this one miserable day, is being scrutinised and the verdict is unanimous. It was all your fault and you had no one to blame but yourself.

You were so selfish with your actions that you didn’t stop to think of your loved ones, managing even to put an already dead Marcel in danger. You don’t even have any way to know if your sacrifice paid off. What if Adam is finishing the job right now? You would be none the wiser. And Seth, he was probably blaming himself for not trying harder to persuade you to let him take you home.

You slide down to the ground — virgin white pooling around you like bloody sea foam — and give yourself a hug. God knows how much you need one right now. You never felt as alone as you did at the moment.

Calling your mom would be nice. She always knew how to help. But you will probably soon meet her here because she wouldn’t survive your disappearance, your cruel mind supplies.

Taking a deep breath, you close your eyes and run your fingers through your hair, imagining that it's your mother's soft touch instead. You can almost imagine yourself back at your childhood home, playing in the big garden barefoot and without a care. When you were little, you were always very inquisitive, wanting to know how everything came to be. And while your grandmother would shut you up by simply saying that God created everything, your mother spun all sorts of otherworldly tales that made your big eyes sparkle with wonder.

"Why is it called that, mommy? The trembling aspen? " You asked one day.

In hindsight, the answer is simple: because of its leaves, which tremble in the lightest breeze. However, you remember your mother smiling at you and whispering the tale as if it were the biggest secret.

"There once lived an old farmer whose three daughters went to bathe in the sea one day. When the youngest returned to the shore to get dressed, she found a serpent in her clothes. Speaking in a man's voice, the serpent demanded that she promise to become his wife in exchange for her clothes being returned. Faced with an immediate need to get dressed and not thinking about possible future consequences, the girl agreed ."

Now that you recall the whole story from the very beginning, it sounds a bit too familiar. Funny how Adam, a man who was once tricked by a serpent himself, acted the same as the reptile in the story your mother has told you. If only he knew that he wasn't superior to the creature he harbours the deepest hatred for.

"A few days later, a brood of serpents showed up at the girl's house to claim the promised bride. The girl's family tried to trick them, but they were unsuccessful. The serpents took her to the seashore, where the serpent king she promised to marry was now a handsome young man who took her to his palace under the sea."

You pause the memory to reminisce about your own wedding and how, like the serpent king, Adam wasn’t some sort of creature but a human soul underneath a mask. How warm his skin was compared to Heaven’s thinner atmosphere and his abrasive tongue, or how his stubble tickled your chin.

"Years passed and the couple had three sons and a daughter. One day, the girl became homesick and asked her husband to let her and the kids visit her childhood home. At first, the serpent was against it, but in the end, let them go. The girl's family was overjoyed to see her and didn't want her to leave, so her brothers decided to kill the serpent. They demanded that the children reveal how to lure their father out of the sea and while the sons refused to betray their father, the youngest daughter became frightened and revealed the secret. The brothers rushed to the seashore, called for the serpent and once he revealed himself, slaughtered him. In her grief, the girl transformed her brave sons into strong trees — oak, ash and birch — while she turned her cowardly daughter into a trembling aspen, cursed to shiver day and night from the slightest breeze. And then she turned herself into a spruce."

You lay your head on the floor, chilling your burning cheek against the cold ground as you gaze ahead, mulling over the story. It would be nice if you could turn yourself into a spruce, then maybe Adam could make new floorboards out of you if he liked to walk out on you that much.

Why you even cared, you couldn’t say. You guess it was loneliness speaking, and although this whole arrangement wasn’t born out of love, you deep down hoped that you could somehow make the best of your predicament.

But then he left you all alone, which quickly shattered your naive hopefulness. 

You have no idea how long you stayed in that position before finally finding the energy to peel yourself away from the floor and sit up straight. The next step is to stand up, but before tackling that daunting task, you really need to do something about your god-forsaken hand.

Doubtful that an immortal being would have a first-aid kit lying around in his home, you rip a lengthy piece of cloth from your dress and wrap it tightly around your palm. When that's taken care of, you rise to your feet and venture further into the house.

If Adam really is the first man, you understand the choice to have an open floor plan for the apartment. Seamlessly merging the living room and kitchen areas makes it more spacious and easier to breathe in. Spending the majority of one's life in the vastness that is the Garden of Eden and then having to make do with living surrounded by walls must be a difficult thing to adapt to.

The kitchen looks more like a showroom — all that’s missing are price tags and descriptions. The cabinets are empty, as is the fridge, and the small dining table has a thin coat of dust on it.

On the other hand, the living room area at least stays true to its name. It looks lived-in — the coach has a few throw pillows and a blanket on it, and there is clutter on the coffee table, as well as a few pieces of trash. Then something draws your attention.

You pass by a bunch of potted plants that you can't imagine him taking care of, and you stop in front of a television stand, its bottom shelf filled with vertically stored jewel cases. Where the spines are usually in a variety of different colours, these ones are all clear, and after further snooping, as you drag one out of its place, you understand why — they are all made by Adam and not purchased. Amidst the real, living-world bands that you recognise, there are also CDs with his own music.

Popping a random CD into a player that sits only a shelf above the cases, you press play and listen. Even though this one in particular had no vocals, you couldn't deny that Adam knew his way around the guitar. He does have long fingers that are able to reach certain cords.

You shake your head, trying to snap out of it, and when you quickly stand up after turning off the player, you spot something that would be a huge help in forgetting — a fully stocked wine display lodged into the wall near the TV.

Your bare feet scurry across the floor faster than your brain can think. However, you hesitate before actually reaching for a bottle. Adam did say it was your home, too, but somehow it feels like stealing. Then again, you are celebrating your wedding, so why not?

Without a struggle, the smooth redwood rack departs with the bottle of your choosing. It feels heavy in your hands as you turn it to look at the label. Brushing away any dust, you break off the seal and twist the cork to work it from the neck of the wine bottle until it comes out with a deafening pop.

"That’s not enough to scare me. If you only knew what kind of day I had today.” Your lament is directed at the bottle as you take a swig of what’s inside. The wine burns your throat, leaving an acidic aftertaste behind. You lick the tartness from your lips and go for another gulp. And then another one.

And one more.

Clutching the half-drunk bottle to your chest, you grab another one from the rack and resume your trip around the place. The wine kicks in relatively soon on an empty stomach, making you bump into the furniture in a matter of minutes.

Even if there is more than plenty of room for your own stuff in the apartment, all of your personal items, trinkets with tied-in memories, and hobby supplies are not here with you but somewhere far away. You have nothing to put there to make you feel like you are at home. You are an outsider, and as you recall the way Lute was glaring, you are not the only one who feels that way.

After you open the second bottle, you are no longer interested in getting familiar with the place. You exit the open area and move towards the dark corridor, where you stumble through the first door on the right into a bedroom.

You take the last sip and place the empty bottle near the door before walking towards the bed. The clock on the bedside table reads half past eleven, and the sky outside has only now started to darken. Everything is now spinning, but at least your head feels as light as a feather. You can’t be bothered to think about anything. 

Good.

You lie on the soft comforter and roll further onto the bed, burying your face in the pillows. The clean and fresh smell envelops you, and you let out a yawn. 

You will do your best to make the most of this situation, starting tomorrow.

[justajsworkshop]

How do I know if I've accepted or I'm 'knowing' correctly? I don't doubt the fact that I am one with everything but I can't trust myself to do it correctly and this stops me from persisting more than a few hours. I'm never sure that I've assumed correctly because it always feels like I'm just stating something mindlessly.

ok, everyone. LISTEN UP. you’ve got to stop over intellectualizing this and fixating on the method or the feeling state or “doing it right.”

all of this implies your fulfillment is conditional upon following the law correctly. you’re being a pharisee instead of christ. it’s not about executing everything everyone says on the internet; recognize that you ARE the law. physical reality is literally dependent on your narrative of self, so read your ask again and tell me: who does this person believe that they are?

i do this often when i feel stuck. i imagine myself telling someone (usually tom) what i perceive my problem to be, and it reflects back to me who I believe i am; it’s usually a narrative of “i am not that which i desire to be,” and seeing how im writing that story myself empowers me to choose a different one.

you all keep coming to me saying “i know i am god/one with everything,” but you don’t. because if you did, you wouldn’t follow up with all this justification for self denial and self limitation. i think you’re just saying this to avoid hearing me repeat it, even if it’s unintentional because you’re looking for a secret loophole: but YOU are the loophole.

you are the door; you are the way. god already said yes by giving you kingdom through your ability to imagine yourself differently. don’t confuse imagining with visualizing. imagining is just remembering. to desire IS to become aware of fulfillment. fulfillment is the cause, not the effect. it’s the beginning AND the end.

but if you decide to continue saying yes to your current reality over and over again by accepting it as the one and only reality, what else do you expect to experience when YOU are reality? we’re not changing anything: we’re choosing who we want to be.

i’ve talked about the simultaneous nature of time and reality many times. time is irrelevant. it’s not about when. it’s not about how long. it’s not about the method or getting it right. it’s not about feeling a certain way. remember, feelings are feelings, but i am. my faith may not be perfect, but i am.

i will say it time and time again: this is the greatest love story every told because it’s about you awakening to who you really are: so who do you say you are? what is your narrative of self? because we don’t manifest by doing; we manifest who and what we are conscious of being.

and all im seeing here is a person who knows themselves as someone who is looking for the magic fix outside themselves when they’re sitting in the miracle of existing as pure consciousness, and they are completely unaware to the fact that they are the most beautiful, powerful, and capable creature in all creation because they ARE all creation.

please, take a moment today to SLOW DOWN. stop asking questions from reality and start recognizing that you ARE reality. humbly and sincerely ask god to show you what you’re not seeing. get inquisitive and self reflective about your own beingness and your inner narrative. no can tell you “how” to be. so, ask yourself: who do i say i am? get curious and observational. creating that distance will show you how you aren’t the narrative; you’re the writer.

no one can choose for you. i know you might wish it now, but trust me, you’ll be grateful for this priceless gift of autonomy and free will when you know your true self. you have to choose to be different for yourself. it’s all about you. drop the notion of doing it right and get self-reflective.

[puffpastrycrimewatch]

Mirame

Omg this took so long, I hope you guys like my world and want to see more it, I did doodles of all the gods so you have a visual of them, lol let me know who's your favorite and why

So, in my story Mirame the world is high fantasy

let's start with the a little bit about the world then gods we'll go over the races in a different post

The world

For now we're calling this world Mirame (Spanish for look at me)

Mirame has floating islands kept up by waves of magic left behind from dead gods, hollow mountains, magic that flows through almost anything, different planes of existence such as Gahenna (hell) that can be passed through with the right amount of magic, demons, fairies, bug people and much more!

The world is entering a Renaissance when the story starts, technology has just begun, there are magic trains and cars.

I'll go more into the depths in a separate posts in the future

GODS

The gods have different jobs to keep mortals alive and the plane of existence from falling, even if they don't want to, they don't all get along with each other, they're at each other's throats in the present

Brugmansia

(concept art, still feeling out her design)

The weaver of life, she's quite narcissistic and looks down on mortals, she has a son called tentsosra, she cares deeply for him, she also has a right hand man, he's more rude than brugmansia.

Brugmansia created a race called Erklings, she created them in her own image, she has very high standards for them and if they don't meet them there are consequences.

Mortals always hunt down her creations as trophies or for rituals, in order to stop humanity from touching her beautiful creations (creatures and plants) she created monsters that solely attack mortals, such as sirens, forest guardians, trolls, etc.

Brugmansia often kills mortals in the most brutal ways possible, to teach them a lesson.

brugmansia is very injured at the start of the story due to Satra attacking her with a new disease, at the start of the story brugmansia is at her weakest and most vulnerable.

Tentsosra

(concept art)

God of the elements, born from a seed brugmansia found and watered with her tears tentsosra was born, treated like a son making him loyal to Brugmansia willing to risk his life to protect her

He is kinder than his mother and more curious by nature

Tentsosra created a race of people called Obi that can change from human to animal, however they have been hunted to extinction at least that's what most think, barely anybody knows of their existence

Known for hunting mortals on Brugmansia's behalf

Tentsosra is worshiped by huntsman seeking a bountiful hunt as well as protection from brugmansia's creations.

Katabasis

(Since I already did a post about katabasis I'll just dig a little deeper into them and where and what their domain is)

God of the afterlife, they control what happens to your soul, Katabasis has direct connections to Gahenna (hell) and is in charge of keeping the peace with them, as an all out war for the mortal plane can spell out disaster.

Katabasis fascination with mortals is quite disturbing, Katabasis used to torture souls or treat them kindly to see their reactions, like tearing a bugs legs off

Some see katabasis as a bad omen, others celebrate Katabasis hailing them as the greatest god of all

Katabasis domain is on the edge of life and death, they have subjects called psychopomps, they help Katabasis with sorting and escorting souls, unfortunately some souls are rebellious and still have fight in them transforming them into undead creatures, often distorted beyond recognition, they're often dealt with by Amelia Vilheart.

Satra Nosferatu

(concept art, I'm still redesigning her lol)

God of gluttony, disease, and cannibalism. Satra loves the taste of Ko'nari flesh specifically, but she's not picky she'll eat any mortal she can get her hands on. Satra hates brugmansia with a passion, they have fought countless times, however recently Satra had lost but left brugmansia deeply injured, she had slinked into the earth, recovering and waiting to attack any moment.

Satra is very childish, but also surprisingly smart in tactics, she used to be Brugmansia's ORIGINAL creation, staying by Brugmansia's side like her daughter until Brugmansia saw Satra devouring one of her creations that's when brugmansia banished and disowned her.

Satra has minions called nymes, they usually dig through the head of someone and drag their body for Satra to consume, they also grave rob, but there are ways to ward them off, by calling on your God to protect your loved ones graves of begging on your hands and knees fod satra to desecrate your loved ones corpse.

Moshi Yama

(concept art, I also need to redesign her, also yeah your eyes bleeding is supposed to happen-☠️)

Goddess of parties and lust but she used to be the god of prosperity, she was worshiped by the fairies, they loved her but ever since the incident they despise her and call her a disgrace to the gods.

Moshi Yama has the ability to bend and warp reality, some think it's just illusions though, it's like being on acid

she was born from the legendary gods Malachite and Parhassus, they died from their love for each other and decided to give birth to Moshi Yama and Amato Yama causing them to perish in a beautiful and tragic display of their love, Moshi Yama and Amato Yama were mischievous when they were younger causing the other gods problems

fast forward Amato Yama had betrayed Moshi Yama attacking her worshipers city at that moment Moshi Yama had given up and decided to lay low and have sex with many mortals searching for something, until one day she noticed great potential in one of Amato Yamas generals, a possible new god

Amato Yama

(still designing ༎ຶ⁠‿⁠༎ຶ)

God of war but he used to be the god of trickery

as you know he is the twin of Moshi Yama, he hated this fact, he felt like he was her shadow, constantly overlooked, until one day he decided he would rise up, so he ordered his worshipers to attack Moshi Yamas "pawns" and so began his empire

he grew a nation and ruled it himself, which is blasphemous for gods, they're not supposed to interfere to that extent, so when Neiths husband went to stop him Amato Yama was furious and so they fought and unfortunately Amato Yama won, feeling the rush of victory and the hatred of the gods he decided he would kill all the gods until he was left

Neith

Goddess of the sun and knowledge, she has a daughter named Mao, her husband unfortunately died by Amato Yamas hands.

She's about 10 feet tal and has been alive throughout creations of mortals, her godly form is said to be as big a 4 mountains by her followers.

Neith covers herself head to toe to conceal herself as she grieves her husband's death, nobody remembers how she looks, it's been lost to time, she has a horn that can be pulled out to reveal a spear, she never uses it unless the situation is dire, she often avoids confrontation.

Her followers are very secretive, and share knowledge with Neith

Mao (also known as the Phoenix)

The god of freedom and flames, she's only been around for 8 hundred years but it seems she already has a whole city devoted to her.

She has a horn like her mother that can be pulled out to reveal to be a javelin

Mao has left her mother's side and is now trying to inspire the mortals of the world and to help them just like her father, however she doesn't know what it's like to be mortal so sometimes she makes bad decisions and causes troubles for her worshipers.

Mao was born with the ability to control flames to the extent that she can cause it to not hurt but heal somebody, the same as her father.

Mao feels like she must prove herself worthy to be known as the daughter of one of the greatest gods to exist

Castile

(concept art)

God of the moon and entropy

She's a child, and possibly from the plane of Gahenna

She is afraid of becoming a monster and destroying everyone as prophecied

As she grows older the more stronger and uncontrollable she becomes, her body grows more and more with devilish features, she does not know her parents all's shes known is a giant empty castle and her ghostly caretaker Cerberus.

When the story begins Castile has herself in a deep slumber so she would not harm, using her astral protection to help her followers

Castile loves her followers as they love her, she does not care for what they do or harm she is just so greatful to be herself again.

The consequences of her power include uncontrollable hunger, heightened ability to hear, increased strength, sharp nails, increased magical abilities and new spells, and if consumed enough a full vampirism transformation in which you can either lose yourself to the monster inside and only watch through empty lenses or gain full control with ultimate power and intellect, which is very rare the average is lost self.

The one major problem with castile is she doesn't know how to help mortals as a God and ends up making lives more worse and those around them but she sees her meedling as helpful, castile didn't even know she was God until she slumbered

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

Holy shit, you get all of that? (⁠•⁠ ⁠▽⁠ ⁠•⁠;⁠)

[ask-a-wooper-n-mew]

...Father's Day?...

Athena gazes down upon Matie... About ready to pounce... She glances real quick to Anew. Her expression lightens, but swiftly returns to normal...

Athena was about to make a dash for Matie when all of a sudden, her mind went blank... She couldn't move her limbs, and her eyes weight heavy...

She shuts them for a brief moment, only to be in the prescene before a large, blazing light... The light dims as the true creature forms...

The creature's silhouette becomes clear to Athena... Arceus.... Her creator, her Lord... Her father...

"Athena," Arceus below to her. "I was worried something happened to you there... I never heard a happy father's day or anything from you... I expect nothing less of the sort from your siblings, but I expected you to always wish me good graces on that day of Fathers..."

Lord Arceus chuckled as he opens his arms to Athena, hoping she would embrace him... His smile grew yet Athena remained silent... Gazing upon the Lord himself with an abnormal frown.

Arceus sighed. The familiar light shone once again- Only this time Arceus had transformed instead of disappearing or reappearing somewhere else... Now Lord Arceus stands face to face with Athena, but instead is now a mew. He reached out his paw to Athena, and his expression worrisome.

Athena glared at Arceus before tuning her back on him. Arceus let's down his lath to his side. His expression remains, as Athena crosses her arms...

"I do not understand you AT ALL father..."

Athena spits out. Tears trying to make their way out with every breath she takes.

"When Keade was born- When she was taken... You weren't there. When Bubblegum was born- When SHE left me... You weren't there. However wjen Cookie had Zevinn, who is banished now might I add... You WERE there- For HER. When she was never there for YOU. And Sa- ... Brother. You watch over him, even though he is a TRAITOR. Yet I, your eldest, who has been there a many for you... You, NEVER were there ONCE for me, other than my first few moments of being created... And now- All you come here to tell me after ALL this TIME- After ALL these YEARS... Is that you want me to tell you how "good" of a father you are. Shameful..."

Arceus expression shifted- He wpuld try to comfort Athena, but she pushed him away...

"Athena- Please hun... I was just kidding around, alright? That's why I'm really here- and you know that!"

Arceus tone had shifted... Athena tried to remain calm, and keep her emotions in check...

"No... No- No- NO! You only care about YOURSELF, Mayota- Pieces- Taurus- HECK EVERYONE ELSE- But, me... Your first born who has been there for you... You have left me hanging even to this day- THIS particular moment where you could do me of great help- But no..."

Arceus tone shifted again- But this time to a more guilty standpoint.

"Athena, I- I... I went through your thoughts- Alright! A- and that's why I'm here... I'm here to tell you- That that feeling, that protection, that love that you desire to share your... Your perhaps last chance with... They lie right under your nose. I see it- I can see the future of it... And even if you don't wish to.beliwb me as it may be... They will understand- and they will listen, and will give you that feeling you desire... All you have to do, is open up to them, Athena."

Athena shakes her head- Tears race down her face. She couldn't believe her father would have stopped so low as to go through her memories after the oath of the gods, and after everything else...

"All you have to do- Is tell Anew the truth and open up to them, Athena..."

Athena remains silent...

"Do me just this favor- Will you, father? Leave me BE... For eternity till death may succumb."

Arceus goes silent. He turns his back from Athena, and floats into the distance some. He snaps his fingers, causing the bright light to shine for a final time. Athena's back still turned as she closes her eyes shut- And reopens them to see Matie still below on the ground, and Anew beside her...

"I- I am sorry. I do not know what- Came over me bra-" Athena pauses. "I mean, Anew... Let us continue now with our quest, shall we?"

....

(@sendinganew) 👀

[fr-wiwiw]

15 questions, 15 people

I was tagged by @lienwyn! it's been ages but i have time to do this one now! Thank you for the tag dear ✨

1. Are you named after anyone?

I'm not. My mom's eldest brother gave me my name collaboratively with my parents. It was supposed to be something different like great figure from my country but it felt like a huge responsibility, so they changed it thank God for that lol

2. When was the last time you cried?

Just today. I wouldn't say full on crying, just a minute or less type of crying when you feel overwhelmed by something or when your brain decides to rewind a certain event in your head.

3. Do you have kids?

No but I have a baby turtle that I love <3

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Sometimes yea when I'm having certain conversations with my group of friends or when we're playing online games and if there's a current event (ex: politic figure doing something foolish), it will jump out if i'm flabbergasted once or twice.

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

Hmm.. depends. But my eyes would scan them up and down- and I realized that can come off as eyeing them like i'm some kind of arrogant person. I'm sorry to these people, I never meant to come off like that. But i like observing creatures and I draw too, so I tend to see them as a whole or if they behave and talk in certain ways and tone. I just notice things

6. What's your eye colour?

Dark brown almost black if there's no lighting. Typical asian eye color

7. Scary movie or happy ending?

Happy ending. I cannot watch scary movies bcs of my strong visualization and imagination. I can visualize almost anything from my memory and imagine them do anything next to me right here right now. It's... uncomfortable especially when my brain decides to scare me when I see dark places. it's the downside of being an artist

8. Any special talents?

So far.. I'm good at art related things. I want to try my hands on sculpting, painting in canvas, diorama, play more music instruments as a hobby and many more. But I don't have the time and money, hopefully in the future. I just love being involved in my curiosity and see what I can make out of it xD

I'm also good at reading people and situations. I'm a big empath too which comes in handy when I imagine or write. Or connect to people. I'm people's go to listener usually hahah but I create some more boundaries for this. It drains me because I feel deeply.

9. Where were you born?

Indonesia.

10. What are your hobbies?

Uh.. drawing, reading, playing video games, writing, listening to music, sing, eat out and take walks in mall or just strolling through shop marts.

11. Do you have pets?

Yes. I once had 2 red eared slider turtles for 11 years. Then 2 mini pomeranian, and another baby read eared slider turtle which sadly didn't make it for only a month. But my friend gave me another baby turtle, she's always ravenous and lively ^^ so cute.

12. What sports do you/have you played?

Oh man.. I played a lotta sports I even got a tan back then lol. Futsal (indoor soccer), soccer, kasti (kinda like softball / baseball), swimming, running, basketball, badminton. Would love to try snowboarding tho ngl it looks fun but I heard it's damn expensive. And horse riding. The only sport I play now is playing console games😂 would love to be active at sports again in the future

13. How tall are you?

156cm (5'11)

14. Favourite subject in high school?

English and art (but depends on the teacher)

15. Dream job?

Right now? A freelance or full time artist with stable income or good amount of followers to pay off my day to day living without a worry. I am a freelance artist, just not financially stable yet. Hope I can get there

I'm so late to this particular tag game so I apologize if any of you have been tagged before. @gaylilsherlock @uhhhhmanda @gayautisticraccoon @briwates @technitango @kdramastrix

[bestbonnist]

YAS! My not-so-subtle hint was a SUCCESS!

For Character Ask Game: -

Fushi (duh): Q2, 3, 5, 6 (I know you answered this in Discord before, but! Maybe others will like to hear about it?), 7, 8, 11 (HAHAHA I KID, I KID), 19, 23 (I ask because I lowkey think yall have a whole treasure trove of manga panels in your local storage, and you're our manga provider and a temporary translator. You've gotta had a fav!), 24

Lefthand Nokker: Q1, 9, 12, 14, 18, 19, 24

The Beholder: Q1, 2, 3, 10, 18, 19

I hope it ain't too much. Nah who am I kidding, this is a lot. But hey, it's

the Non-Human-in Origin Trio!

Fushi

Favorite canon thing about this character?

That they lie all the goddamn time. The expectation for a protagonist like Fushi, who has this sympathetic, innocent quality, is that they're an honest person. But Fushi loves lying to themselves and everyone around them. Fushi doesn't necessarily need to be truthful to be a good person, although they do need to be truthful to have good relationships. I think that's very interesting.

Least favorite canon thing about this character?

Maybe the fact that their usual body is considered good looking. How is that relevant + who cares.

What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Slipping Through My Fingers by ABBA. I don't know why! It just reminds me so much of Fushi in the present era and their relationship with March.

What's something you have in common with this character?

I can relate to their feeling of isolation from everyone else, particularly how they don't think of things in the same way as other people. Seeing Fushi have the same experience as me is reassuring.

What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

When people give them bubble tea. It's nice! They deserve a little treat.

What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Ship them with Kahaku. I'm well aware that I'm throwing stones from a glass house considering I also ship them with Kahaku (kind of), but. It's like people are incapable of liking the ship without turning Fushi into an entirely different person. That is not the same guy.

How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

That's really tough. Maybe their relationship with Bon? Because of the role Bon played in the Renryrr arc, his relationship with Fushi is a lot colder/more professional than their relationships with their other friends. Even in the present era, they're still more comfortable going to Bon for advice than going to anyone else. I actually really like that, I just wish the change was acknowledged by either of them. Because it connects so well to the theme of the present era about letting go of the past, and making a move towards peace: Fushi and Bon's relationship is a remnant of high stakes of the Renryrr arc. Should they change it, or does it work fine the way it is?

Favorite picture of this character?

I do have a treasure trove of Fushi panels. My computer is lousy with screenshots I've taken and forgot about. I think my favorite is from volume 14's inside cover.

Look at their expression! Look at the color contrast between Fushi and the Beholder enveloping them! I love it when we get Fushi's whole body, because then we can see their posture. They slouch a lot :)

What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Yato from Noragami. You've read Noragami, right? He was created to fulfill the wishes of his father figure, he's an immortal god, and he's tasked with destroying creatures that prey on humanity's weaknesses. In Noragami, there's also the possibility that Yato's living friends could have their memories of him severed, or they could lose those memories of him after they die. It's the reverse of Fushi's situation, but there's still stuff going on with memories so I say it counts.

Left Hand

Why do you like or dislike this character?

I like it, because it serves as such an excellent foil for Fushi. When Fushi's trying to reach a peaceful solution with the knockers in the present era, the left hand is there to try and drag it back down. It hates Fushi so much, it cares more about Fushi suffering than the knockers' entire reason for existence. To most of the knockers, these two things are indistinguishable, but the left hand wants Fushi to destroy the knockers instead of cooperate with them because that means Fushi will lose.

Could you be roommates with this character?

No... well, I could. The left hand would probably be a great roommate until it killed me in my sleep and replaced me with a knocker.

What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Not really sure if this counts as a headcanon, it's more like a theory. I think the left hand will get an actual name by the end of the manga.

Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

Not sure what it's called but I like the idea of the left hand wearing a lot of jewelry and mismatched layers of clothing. Because the two characters it's closest to, Fushi and Mizuha, are both collectors of very different types of things. Mizuha collects medals and trophies and trinkets that are bright and shiny. Fushi collects things that most people wouldn't find any value in, like mud balls. So I think the left hand would be a type of collector too. And I would like seeing that reflected in their outfits somehow. I mean, Mizuha has a home to display her stuff in, but the only place the left hand has is whatever body its in. So wearing a bunch of its stuff might be a way of making that body feel like home. But that's all just speculation.

How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

With Yuuki. That's the only relationship the left hand has with anyone in canon that's even remotely good.

How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

With Mizuha. It's not dislike, per say, it's more like they were together for so long but we have no idea how they interacted with each other. What they thought of each other. To Mizuha, maybe the left hand was only a tool, but what about what she was to the left hand? I find it hard to believe that the left hand didn't care about her at all when it's got the same Kahaku issues as Fushi. And we saw how that turned out.

What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

The only one I can think of is Orokappi from After God. They both take on a human form in order to infiltrate human society, and then start to resemble a human on the inside as well. He even makes the same pose as the left hand when it traps Fushi underneath it (which it does twice during their fight) when he's trying to kill his friend. Orokappi is a little less... sophisticated than the left hand, but he's no less of a complex and interesting character.

The Beholder

Why do you like or dislike this character?

I'm kinda neutral towards him honestly. I've defended him to people who don't like him very much, but he didn't get enough development for a character of his importance.

Favorite canon thing about this character?

I like how he just disappears when he loses an argument. It's really petty. In the time when he just seemed like an omniscient, uncaring god, it made him feel more human.

Least favorite canon thing about this character?

I guess I expected him to play a bigger role in the present era, so it was disappointing when he didn't. He was still there quite a bit though, despite his insistence that he didn't want to be involved. I think I would have liked to see how and why he decided to save Tonari and everyone else at school, instead of just "well, I've been human for a while now, so I guess it's having an affect on me," which is what we got. That's a big turning point for Satoru. It's the first time he's actually intervened in anything instead of acting as an observer. But it feels like he went from point A to point B with nothing in between.

Could you be best friends with this character?

I tend to stick to people I find entertaining for whatever reason, and he's definitely entertaining. Maybe that would eventually become a close friendship. But probably not.

How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

... Sumika? It's sweet how Satoru can just be a normal kid with her, even before he loses his memories.

How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

I think the closest to "don't like" would be his relationship with Fushi. I have sympathy for him but he's a terrible father figure.

[mariana-oconnor]

Tagging on AO3

Because I've come across this a number of times in the past few weeks and I know other places work differently:

On AO3, you don't need to add variations of your tags.

What I mean by that is if you are tagging a certain ship, you don't need to tag "Name A/Name B" and "Name B/Name A" and "ABShipname". AO3 has a system that's pretty well established now that, with the help of many tag wranglers* (All Hail the Tag Wranglers) behind the scenes, does that for you. All of those tags are linked together so if a person filters by one of them, they see all fics tagged with any of them. In fact, it's probably better for you to stick to a single tag, because that means potential readers can scan through your tags more quickly to check what's in the fic, making them more likely to read it if it's got tags they like.

Not only does it link tags with the same meaning together, the wonderful tag wranglers (their praises be sung) also create a sort of hierarchy of tags, so multiple more specific tags are all included under a more general umbrella tag.

For example, if you are tagging your fic where beloved side-character Tom Fakename is a werewolf, you can tag it "Werewolf Tom Fakename" or "Tom Fakename is a Werewolf" or "I made Tom Fakename a Werewolf Because I Love Werewolves LOL" and all of those mean the same thing. BUT your fic will also appear if someone filters by the more general tag "Werewolves"**. And all those fics, as well as fics where Tom Fakename (or his fan favourite ship partner Matt Blorbo) are tagged as being werecats, wererabbits, werebats or were-stick-insects can ALL be found if you filter by the tag "Were-creatures". Weirdly, were-creatures doesn't seem to come under the Shapeshifters tag, but I assume that was the result of careful consideration on the tag wranglers' (may their days be filled with joy) part.

In summary:

"Matt Blorbo/Tom Fakename" = "Tom Fakename/Matt Blorbo" = "Fakebo" = "Tom x Matt" (only one of these tags is needed***)

"Were-creatures" > "Werewolves" > "Werewolf Tom Fakename"

"Were-creatures" > "Matt Blorbo as a Werekitten is Something That Can Actually Be So Personal"

(You can tag with multiple of these if you want, but you only really need to be as specific as you'd like)

Of course, the tag wranglers (may the fandom gods bless their names) are only human and literally do not have time to read every 100k fic out there to check every single tag is absolutely correct, so sometimes things do get mixed up. However! You can aid them in their mighty task by using the tags that already exist where available and appropriate for you!

When you start typing tags into the little input bar on the AO3 New Work screen, you'll see a dropdown list of tags that are similar to what you're typing. If one of those has the right meaning for what you want to tag and it works for you, you can click on it, and your fic is already connected to the great tag web in the right place. Of course, if it ruins your comedic tagging rant, feel free to ignore this.

All good things come with a downside, though, beware the autofill!

Sometimes, when you're typing Werewolf Tom and you press enter, there may be another fandom with a character called Tom Otherguy who people love to make a werewolf (Tom Otherguy is just crying out for werewolf AUs, you know how it is. He's just a werewolfy li'l guy). And if you press enter, you'll find that rather than you tagging your work simply "Werewolf Tom", AO3 has autofilled the most popular tag that starts like that: "Werewolf Tom Otherguy".

Naturally, this can confuse both readers and the tagging system, so in general I'd recommend always including a second name where available****. I.e. it's better for everyone involved if you tag your fic "Werewolf Tom Fakename" rather than simply "Werewolf Tom" so it's clear at a glance who you're talking about and AO3 doesn't accidentally jump to conclusions. Just to be sure, make sure you check your tags after you've entered them, in case one of them autofilled without you noticing.

*To learn more about the tagging system and tag wranglers (bright stars of the fandom sky), check out the AO3 wrangling guidelines. Or, if you're interested in becoming a tag wrangler yourself, they will post information here when they're looking for applications.

**The "Alternate Universe - Werewolf" tag is a little different because it depends on whether your fandom has canonical werewolves. It comes under the umbrella tag of "Alternate Universe". Likewise with the "Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known" tag.

***Canonical pairing tags (the ones that appear in the filter list) are written in alphabetical order by surname (If they have a surname). Therefore "Matt Blorbo/Tom Fakename" is the standard tag for that pairing. Or "Matt Blorbo/Zara Diedforplot/Tom Fakename".

****If the character only has one name then usually that name will be followed by the name of the fandom in brackets to distinguish them from other characters with that name, i.e. Name (Fandom). Some characters have nicknames they are more commonly known by and those are usually inserted between their first and last names in inverted commas, e.g. "James "Bucky" Barnes". Other characters have nicknames and half a dozen other names, e.g. "Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski De Rolo III". If you have irritating motherfuckers (affectionate) like these in your fandom, I'm going to assume you already know about them.

Disclaimer: I am not a tag wrangler, nor have I ever been one. All information above is presented as I have come to understand it from having used AO3 for over a decade. If any of the information above is incorrect, please let me know so I can correct it.

TL;DR - You only need to use one version of a tag, AO3 will make sure anyone searching for variations can find your fic, and be careful to check your tags before you post to make sure they're right.

[axl-ul]

Author Ask Tag Game (???)

Thanks a lot to @angie-j-kay for tagging me^^ This was very lovely of you. I'm choosing Empire of Dust for this tag game.

What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it? - I'm not exactly sure about the lesson, however the theme itself might be described as a tale of a lost soul that must learn to fight through life and whether the said soul is capable of maintaining its own innocence. It's all about questioning one's morale high ground and also whether we are born innocent or we gather the innocence by comminting ourselves to good deeds. Yet what is right and what is wrong is another question to be examined in my wip. To sum up, it's mostly a story about the true nature of child-like kindness and the corruption of it. I chose it simply because I have a certain experience with people losing their hope, their mind and ultimately their ability to care about each other.

What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)? - As my other wips, I look for inspiration everywhere. Or rather the inspiration looks for me because the chaarcters are based of mythical creatures and gods while having personalities and traits of a few people I know personally. I'm also quite passionate about Biology, so it's safe to say that when creating vrious characters and monsters, I simply take out Uncle Google and my old textbooks about human anatomy/abnormalities of a developing body/animals. I'm also inspired by several world mythologies and legends (Slavic, Nordic, Chinese, Japanese etc.) and older literature (Journey to the West, several Slavic authors) and also 'modern' stuff (Berserk manga, Fromsoftware games etc.). A big influence is also a book Fantasy World-building by A. Nelson which hepled me with coming up with my own ideas and unique looks for monsters (like seeing a creature in a uniquely shaped piece of wood).

What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person? - Ulfrika is trying to find peace for herself but especially for her last relative, her youngest sister Márgerdra, by bringing her 'home'. I'm not sure what I'm trying to achieve myself. There are several things on my mind at the same time. I simply want to tell a story as I enjoy creating. Might be that the storytelling and writing is a sort of an escape for me, the world where I can reconsider my decision while using similar themes as pillars for my writings. Maybe I just really love to explore my own mind and ideas. If it helps other people to grow or if it even inspires them, then itps certainly nice and lovely thing. Yet, I can't say it's my primary goal.

How many chapters is your story going to have? - 27 chapters and I'm considering to add prologue and epilogue.

Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it? - Empire of Dust is an original fiction (a dark fantasy mystery with strong horror elements and historical setting). Considering that AO3 has been taken down, I suppose I'll post it either here on Tumblr or I'll find another site (maybe Tappas?? But most likely I'll stick with Tumblr). In case that AO3 is back again, it'll be posted on both AO3 and Tumblr.

When and why did you start writing? - I came up with the idea about a year (and half??) ago because I've been pretty invested in Byzantine Empire and Slavic people who interacted with it. And I also wanted to write down a story about Ulfrika and Márgerdra while they were still children/early teens, about their struggles and especially about Ulfrika spiraling down to the rabbit hole which caused a sort of a domino effect on her character.

Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow? - I'm not sure what this question entirely means so maybe that you don't have to be afraid of being annoying, cringe or anything else. Just write and be your own no. 1 fan. If you find a way to love your own work then you'll also love the work of the rest of your fellow writers. About the writeblr accounts, there's just so many and I'm not sure whether my keyboard and my goldfish memory would be able to mention everyone, so I'll mention those who come to my mind as first and that is @arijensineink @faelanvance @rbbess110 @jgmartin @anthros-vanitas-archive already mentioned account @angie-j-kay @rubywrite @toribookworm22 @missaddledmiss @aohendo @outpost51 @dyrewrites and also many more. Love you all, darlings

I'm leaving an open tag for everyone as I feel that everybody deserves this sort of ask which has really nice questions

[myddrinmob]

Coeden Onnen

“Why do you want to be a knight so much?” Merlin asks him. The source of a dream can be illuminating, in its own way. Lancelot, behind him, answers in a low tone. Something of melancholy sits upon his tongue. “When I was a boy, my village was attacked by Frankish raiders - God alone knows how they had gotten so far west. I imagine the village must be gone now.” He pauses, and Merlin turns to see him fidgeting with the leather cuffs around his wrists. “They were slaughtered where they stood. My father, my mother. Everyone. I alone escaped, further west, to my mother’s people in Armorica, and then, when I was ready, to here. I have devoted my life to the art of combat, and now -” he shrugs, “- everything I fought for. Wasted.” Not wasted, Merlin thought. Such skills were never wasted. But he saw  that there was no way to convince Lancelot of that now. “I give you my word,” he said, prompting Lancelot to raise his head. “Whatever it takes, I will make this right.”

Chapter 5! Our boy Lance has arrived! *Insert celebatory horm noise here*

The Lancelot episode is one of my favourites, and is the beggining of Arthur amassing his knights who are noble in spirit rather than blood - something that we'll come back to in later episodes, and which I intend to give a different take on than the show's.

Gaius: The First Code of Camelot states that only those of noble blood can serve as a knight. Uther created the knights to protect this kingdom from those who wished to destroy it. He knew he would have to trust each of his knights with his life. So he chose them from the families that had sworn allegiance to him.

(I have Opinions on how medieval-fantasy stories deal with noble class - I started writing it out here, but it got so long that I thought it would be better off as it's own post. So keep an eye out for that! For now, suffice it to say that it's going to change.)

The other thing I'm doing a bit differently compared to the show, highlighted in this episode, is the anti-magic competancies of a kingdom apparently famous for them.

Uther: You must prepare your knights, Arthur. Arthur: Have faith, Father. We'll be ready.

Are you, though?

Look, I love swords as much as the next bi, but a suitable weapon for every senario they are not. You want to fight a huge, aerial creature? With a short-range weapon?

Like, they didn't even go for greatswords. I'm just saying.

You want something with reach, and you want something that can control its movement. Given that griffins aren't real, and that we don't really have winged animals of that size anyway, I chose to think of it as if they were fighting a boar that was particularly aeorodynamic. And for boars, you use spears, and you use crowd control - usually dogs.

Now, whether or not Uther and the rest of his retinue have ever fought a griffin specifically, we do know that they've fought dragons. They were so good at it that most think dragons extinct! A griffin is just a small dragon that doesn't breath fire - an easier dragon, really, a cakewalk. Even allowing for most of the actual fighting force being made up of men too young to have seen the Purge, the tactics would still be known by those in charge - it would surely be part and parcel of any training Uther put Arthur through, as much as would be relevant at least.

So, if we assume that these people can at least make an educated guess as to the best way to combat the griffin, and we assume ideal tactics match what would work with irl large mammals -

“And a spear for each man,” Arthur says, mind already whirring, thinking how to best defeat this novel enemy. “For the beast will likely not close with us.” Uther nods. “You see the shape of our attack already. As you prepare the knights, so I shall prepare the armsmen, the hunters, and the falconers.” “The falconers? Whatever for?” “You said it yourself, Arthur. This beast has wings. Your knights will have the best chance of killing it if we can remove that advantage. Those that work in the royal mews were invaluable once in our eradication of dragons. Weighted nets, game hounds, mimic whistles. And for the guardsmen, bows and buckets of thick tar.” “You hope that we can lure it, and then ground it.”

Spears for everyone in that courtyard, and nets for controlling its movement. I kept the, frankly stupid, decision by Uther later to send the knights out unsupported and in the dark to finish the job - he is still a man of high hubris, convinced that there is nothing magic can make that he can not defeat. But that first fight needed changing up.

Two other minor descisions, about the two I think are really the stars of this episode:

Gwen's changed role in this ep is really a continuation of her new role in the season - Merlin's best buddy, and co-conspiritor in shennanigans. She isn't going to sit around while her friends run headlong into danger. No sir. She's going to go with them of course, nervous but brave. Is there going to be fighting? Well, later canon episodes show that someone (Morgana?) has taught her at least the basics with a sword. I went with a bow this time, mainly as a salute to the very medieval British tradition of peasants being damn excellent with bows - sometimes it was a legal imperitive to practice so many hours a year, specifically to make sure that the levy in wartime was as good as can be.

The other thing Gwen gets in this ep is -

Merlin speaks, in a manner Gwen has never heard, does not know, but which tugs against her like a half forgotten childhood memory.

A clue for you all, which I'll not be explaining for a while yet.

Onward"

You may have noticed in the flavour text at the top of this post a brief line about the Franks, and about Armorica. This links in with Lancelot's backstory, as I've decided to construct it.

The character of Lancelot is from the French & German versions of the Arthurian mythos, with a recurring spot among the Dutch, and doesn't really enter the English canon until later. It seemed right to keep him French, or as French as you can get before France is even around. The Vulgate has him as from "in the borderland between Gaul and Brittany", which I like, and helps lay down some new and interesting threads.

The Franks did indeed move from east to west during their various conquests of what was once Gaul, and I imagine that Lancelot's village fell around or just after the fall of the Kingdom of Soissons in 486 - the rest of former Gaul, save Brittany and Septimania, would fall during his lifetime.

Having this early nod to the Franks - Germanic peoples who migrated into and conquered much of the former Roman Empire, doesn't that sound familiar - will help me put more substantial bits in later. It seems right - in a show that talked a big game about a Golden Age TM, and what aspects of pervious ages (Uther/Romans, druids/Celts) to bring forward - that we should consider the real world changes that were happening during the theoretical years of Arthur's life.

As for Brittany - for those who don't know, Brittany=Armorica, the most celtic part of France (they still have morris dancing I think), and a destination for migrants from Britain during this period. I imagine the reverse was also true. Either way, places like Cornwall kept trading with Armorica, bits of the Iberirian penninsula, and further still.

(Cornwall is one of those weird places that got more Roman after the Romans left, in part due to the continued stability of their trade. Grass is always greener, I guess.)

I have no idea if this was deliberate on the part of the writers, but when they made Igraine of Cornwall into Igraine du Bois, they opened a rather neat posibility: the du Bois family, established in Armorica, from a long line of Romanised Gauls, powerful enough to put themselves forward as nobles if they weren't such already, emmigrating to Cornwall in part or full sometime after 410.

I wonder if Lancelot ever met any?

[blackblux]

Au ideas or prompts for fellow fanfic writers writers for miraculous ladybug

Killer au: so basically marinette reaches her breaking point in post season 5 and actually kills Gabriel agreste (aka hawkmoth) she takes the miraculous of the butterfly.

Adrien witnessed the murder by getting out of the room he was locked in. Adrien thinks that ladybug can make a wish to bring his father back.

Adrien: ladybug please bring him it's just a small wish right?

Ladybug: someone has to die if want him back plus it's better anyway no one can take you away from me *she says detransforming into marinette one eye of her was red and tikki and plagg looked horrified*.

Adrien: mari...marinette how are you ladybug and why father!!?

Marinette: it's me now that you know who I am we can be together!!

Tikki: adrien run away from her!! .

Adrien: marinette relax it's it was just a self defence kill hehe *he sees marinette use tikki's power without the miraculous or saying lucky charm to create a short scythe*, marinette please put your weapon down you might be akumatized.

Marinette: AKUMATIZED we are supposed to be talking about love, I see maybe you are a sentimonster made by him to trick me * she brutally sliced his hands but he fought back but in the end he lost his limbs were on the floor blood uzing out and his was smashed into a pool of bones, blood and flesh.

Bunnix: what the hell happened to this place it thought it was a default timeline *she knocked this version of marinette and set her to a white place* done.

Meanwhile the unconscious killed was dragged by what looked like an akumatized marinette through a portal after bunnix left her.

Alastor marinette au

So this starts in season 1 instead of marinette being late. She gets to school early and doesn't meet master fu on the way adrien received the black cat miraculous and another random 15 year old civilian receiving the ladybug miraculous instead. Marinette and alya become friends and marinette sees Ivan being bullied instead of helping she sees adrien the perfect boy and her future husband. They go to class and Ivan gets akumatized adrien transformed and together with random ladybug fight stone heart and win while marinette ran to the library and hid behind a book shelf a book fell on her she opens it and reads that she can sign contracts with friendly creatures or request something from them.

Marinette opened the book and saw many options:

Scarlet king

Bill cipher

Alastor

And collector (the best option).

Marinette decided to go with alastor because she could not read clearly.

Alastor: hello my dear would you like request something from me.

Marinette: well sorry for disturbing you mister well I have a crush on adrien agreste you see.

Alastor: Ok but there is a price to be paid relax it's not expensive.

Marinette: thank god it's not expensive hehe I don't have a lot of money.

Alastor uses his magic on adrian it failed due the miraculous protection but it did not matter as long he had finished his part of the deal marinette's soul belongs to him.

Alastor: I'm than I'm dear now it's time to pay * alastor uses voodoo to possess marinette body*

Alanette: this body is nice I love it.

Master fu: I sensed a demon.

Final au is DnD au

Marinette travels on crazy adventures with some of her fellow guild members of the mist hunter guild.

Marinette lawden

Class: artifacar/ chaos alchemist.

Race: arch-human (night type)

Nature: chaotic neutral

Fun fact: made a crown for evil king which when worn would shrink and crush the head with ease.

Title: the problem (by miss bustier) and lazy genius inventor.

Felix fathom

Class: sword assassin

Race: high-elf

Nature: chaotic good

Fun fact: he has started many rebellions.

Title: the rebel

Alya caisere

Class: illusionist

Race: human

Nature: neutral good

Fun fact: she is marinette's best friend

Linx (oc)

Class: blood hunter/tracker

Race: arch-dragonoid (blood type)

Nature: neutral evil

Fun fact: the he has been kicked out of many guilds but his tracking skills are great.

I hope you people have or try to make aus with this