#I love writing from chatty and snarky characters

[kumeko]

A/N: For the Rowoon Runaway zine! I loved writing this, it was just so fun writing as poor, pathetic Hans (I too would love for the cats to adore me, and I too would also be scorned by them XD Truly the realest one of them all).

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Special Correspondent on the Royal Gala

Any good butler knows his duties, and first and foremost amongst them is attending to all of their master’s needs. That is no different for yours truly. Whether it is ensuring your charge wakes up in the morning, feeding his adorable cats, or even just making sure nothing is broken in a drunk bout, a butler is always within reach. Unfortunately, there are some places even the best of servants cannot breach, such as the royal gala. Even most nobles are unable to enter the event and the invitations are scarce and hard to get a hold of.

And yet, of all people, my master managed to make it on the list. Sometimes I wonder if he has uncanny luck or knowledge or both.

Not that his luck is holding on right now during the carriage jam in front of the royal palace. There is only one place for the carriages to drop off their illustrious passengers and a long line up of carriages waiting to get there. My master is currently sitting in his carriage, slouching against the door as he idly gazes out the window. At least he’s not angry about the delay. Though he might be grumpy about the lack of alcohol. 

If he is, I hope he holds out long enough for us to reach the palace entrance. 

There is not much for even a good butler to do now. The coachman has the reins, the footman is hanging off the door, and I am forced to sit up here and wait because my master is sometimes cruel and likes to deprive me of my alone time with the cutey lil kitti cats and children in our house who require my special attention. 

However, there is a lot for a special correspondent to do. For those who cannot witness this spectacle themselves, I shall do my best to let you feel like you’ve witnessed it yourself. The royal family is already inside, though I did catch a glimpse of Crown Prince Alver earlier at the palace balcony. His Highness was as radiant as the sun, partially due to his golden hair, and partially due to his smile. His white uniform and golden tassels lent him an air of grace and nobility. A proper model of what a young master should be. My young master refused to look out the window when I pointed him out so I suppose that image will only be in my memory. 

Princess Rosalyn was amongst the first to enter the castle, her signature red curls pinned up elegantly. With a red dress, she was the very image of a rose. A tired rose; she did not seem excited to enter. Though I wonder how she got there before us considering she is residing as a guest of my master…perhaps she did not want strange rumours floating about. It is hardly befitting for a young lady to travel alone with a man, let alone the sometimes famous and other times infamous young master of Heintuse. 

Currently, Lord Neo Tolls and Lord Venion Sten are exiting their shared carriage. I am sure I am not imagining the black aura curling around their carriage or the rotten stench from it. I feel sorry for their horses. Even their outfits are lacking. Lord Neo’s green vest looks like it was scratched up by wolv wild animals. Not that I would know that from first-hand experience, since I only care for wuvy kitt cats. They also scratch, but out of love. But if they were more violent and enthusiastically destroyed clothing, that is what it would look like. Lord Venion looks marginally better. Marginally.

Oh, no wonder Lord Venion looks like he has an upset stomach! His elder brother, Lord Taylor Sten is also here! As usual, Lord Taylor looks as calm as can be even while meeting the filth of humanity his estranged brother. Only the finest things for the potential young heirs and while Lord Taylor does not have his customary wheelchair these days, he does take to walking around with an ornate cane. His legs are still weak from disuse. I wonder if he imagines hitting his brother with his cane. I would love to see it. It has a nice, gold head; it could do damage. Lord Taylor is also wearing a white suit with gold trimming. Maybe he’s trying for a ‘who wore it better’ situation between him and Lord Venion. 

It looks like I am not the only one left out of these events! His companion and priestess of death, Kage, is not here as well. Maybe we can throw a cruelly-forgotten-people party. Maybe she’d appreciate talking about the kitti cats.

We are almost there! The carriage in front of us opened its doors, revealing Lord Eric, Lady Amir, and Lord Gilbert. No doubt they wanted to arrive before the lout my master, just in case there were any problems. Lady Amir looks lovely in her simple green dress, almost humble in fact. Meanwhile, Lord Eric’s cleaning his glasses. Maybe Lord Neo dirtied them with his presence. Lord Gilbert cuts a lean figure in his black suit as he waits for us to arrive.

Which is now. Our head butler does know how to pick an outfit. Lord Cale appears sharp as he steps out of the carriage, his red suit several shades darker than his bright red hair. Instead of a bottle in his hand, there is a black coat; is he expecting to get cold? Maybe we should have picked a thicker fabric. 

I might have to stop writing here. Lord Cale just looked up and I am not sure if he saw my notebook, but he did glare. If you are reading this, young master, consider giving a good (great!) butler a raise or at least allow him to bring the kittie lovable cats to wait with him next time.

Signing off,

Hans

[bunji-enthusiast]

Hey ! How are you? I don’t know if you’re still taking requests, but I had a request for Lancelot (4koa). I’m obsessed with this character. Could you do a headcanon (or just a one-shot) about a jealous Lancelot? The reader receives a lot of attention because of their sunny personality or beauty. Thank you <3

of course, who wouldn't love this sassy blonde prince? He might be a little ooc in this writing though.

He finally had the time to actually, and truly spend it with you. Focusing on nothing else but you, nobody else and especially not object of legend despite what he hears throughout the lands of Britannia, which he had only been through before. So in assurance, he had personally made sure you knew that he was keeping his attention on you, for the day. Which you were in high spirits about, as there were many things of topics that you wanted to bring up in passing, but had never gotten time to do so as the both of you were very busy, on both ends really. So here and now in actuality was rather nice, that Lancelot had made sure that you were the sole focus for the day.

Lancelot had taken to a known, but not very busy path as he knew there weren't many whom had taken a liking to traveling such a path. Though what left him in a small moment of confusion is as to why they wouldn't want to take it. No matter.

He was here with you, "Im assuming from the look on your face, yer about to explode." Lancelot sang, breaking the silence as he jabbed you in the shoulder with a snarky grin. To some it may appear to be mean, but you knew it was only one of his many jesters. As someone like him, you'd have to have a good and long-running amounts of patience to truly converse the threads of which strayed along the walls he built. Even in better and earnest chances would you had an easier time if the two of you had met during the years of your childhood.

"Maybe?" Your voice trembled just for a slight moment, then you conceded to defeated as you nodded in agreement. Hearing him laugh, he languidly laced his fingers with yours. Gentle as can be, even despite the smolder of fire lit by a previous warrior in those eyes of his, that he was about kind. His face was washed over by his usual expression, with one that said about everything.

"Come on." He spoke, "I wanna hear it all."

"I am chatty you know?" You shot back, and the expression of disbelief he promptly gave you almost made your knees buckle with laughter. Watching as he shook his head in disagreement.

"If it was anyone else, I would've been long gone by now." Lancelot remarked, tilting his head. Marking a clear sign of honesty in those words of his, if you had heard him say the very same thing when you two had first met, you wouldn't have believed him. So finally, you relaxed yourself, sighing as you pulled yourself together. Instead of your giggly mess of a self previously taking residence.

"Okay! so..." You then began going off on a tangent; correlating the most interesting events, the enemies who held the most interest, a fresh new injury you got, and so on. Despite your sunshine personality and beauty, you could also be perceived as someone of a high danger level. Though it is rare, as you demeanor gives many a false impression of your ability to hold yourself in battle. Lancelot knew this much, far more than others, and so he felt for the poor souls that had to come cross swords with you in battle. Although he couldn't deny his immense pride for you, even if it was startling, he was always proud of you.

In immediate conquest, ripping away his joy of partaking in the good conversation you both had going. There was a crowd of fairies invading your space, singing praises and oohing at the face of your beauty. There were even a few that you both had recognized, so you made small-talk, oblivious to the pot of burdening feelings brewing within the knight of war.

Though you two had continued onward after sending the fairies on their way, you could tell there was something albeit off about Lancelot. Even with his more affectionate demeanor which he usually only displayed around you, he seemed slightly different.

"Lance," You muttered, "Are you okay?" You asked, your hand drifting over to his, seemingly shoved in the confines of his pocket. Lancelot's eyes shot up at the mention of the nickname, specifically reserved for him alone. He tilted his head, the shrug of his shoulders, oh you knew what he was feeling right now. But you weren't sure if you should push it at all, maybe you should let him come to terms with the feelings on his own, he seemed far more amiable to something like that.

"I'm good, don't need to worry about me." He finally said, making you sigh. But you decided to leave it alone like you thought about, wanting him to talk about it on his own, as due to experience, Lancelot is extremely and particularly hardheaded.

On the way back to the end of the road, you had found yourselves at the beginning of one of the many entrances into Liones. Startingly so, not even after a few moments, two minutes even that you had been stopped by two ladies that had wanted to make the time to tell you how wonderful and beautiful you are. Which had surprised Lancelot, as he had never once spoken with the pair before, but it had seemed you did from how closely you spoken with them. Taking their compliments in stride, which once again had dug into his gut. He didn't know why he was feeling this way, but it was at all today that he's come to learn how often you get complimented and the amount of attention you receive from many who's come across you.

Finally, once finally you had been done talking with them. Lancelot decided to speak, "I don't understand how you've gotten so popular." He chides, yet jokingly. You just shrugged with a weak chuckle, almost unsure of it yourself. But he could tell, he knew. Lancelot didn't really like it when someone had such an attention on you, and for him, he was supposed to give you such attention. He had and have wanted to dedicate today specifically for such a thing.

"Beats me." you blinked for a moment, having said such words. Receiving attention is not something you weren't used to, but something you quickly had become used to it anyway. One person, and one person alone you could handle it, and that was Lancelot.

You went back and forth with yourself within the confines of your mind, "Maybe it'll stop now?" You said with a small smile, tugging him along by the forearm, a gentle tug. "Come on, I know a really good restaurant!"

Lancelot's burdens are nothing short of easy, feelings in the matter as well. But mind over matter was the last thing he wanted right now, this was you, a source of light in the midst for all that it was of his struggles. Even as a knight of apocalypse, you still smiled at him all the same.

Despite his negative emotions, which are quite normal to feel as he's come to recognize, always wash away in the fate of your warmth.

[psychicthepsychic-daily]

some notes on how i write the purple guys dlc communicating <3

Psychic-

speaks tersely and seriously, but with a calm self-assurance

intelligent and articulate, speech comes out readily and confidently

his voice is quiet but clear, impossible to shut out. (because of telepathy, it has a kinda echoey effect to it that most people gotta adjust to)

chooses his words deliberately; reserved and will leave unspoken things he deems unnecessary

very straightforward, not very chatty to begin with and doesn't see the point of sugarcoating and small talk

assertive and stubborn, not afraid of confrontation and will flatly respond to it

not charismatic. appeals to people's heads instead of their hearts because he's a psychomancer, a logic-oriented one, and that's kinda his thing

very deadpan and sarcastic, especially with Void

tends to make little witticisms under his breath and subtle references to historical and literary Moments™

drops a lot of iconic one-liners (that he totally wasn't rehearsing in the mirror /s /lh)

more informal and casual when he's alone with his master. but when the rest of the family show up he tends to withdraw and act more formal and professional. typically more emotive around them than others

curses sparingly, avoids doing so during work, might relax when he’s just with his master, probably curses more alone and/or around Void

cold towards people named boyfriend and warm towards people named girlfriend

reserved body language (except with telekinesis lmao), he moves his hands around a little bit but that's about it

confident gait, will walk around the Dearests’ mansion like he owns the place, but can also move silently and scare people <3

when he's really angry (rare) his voice goes extremely quiet, calm, and freezing cold. the very air feels staticky, like it's about to combust

Void-

Confidence Swag 101

speaks in a sort of drawl, a little bit lazy, a little bit flirty

other times he tends to talk fast and sharply, but eloquently; gets impatient if asked to repeat himself

lots of tsk-ing and other dramatic noises ✨

not him using gen z slang lowkey (not to the point where it’s obvious though lmao)

very expressive. his voice flows naturally from being soft to Very Loud as he talks, it (among other things) comes from him playing a character 24/7

ultra rizzler. horrible at expressing genuine feelings and concern towards anyone not named Jet though

opposite to Psychic in that he appeals to people's hearts instead of their heads; aims for people's emotional attachment to him rather than their intelligence

matches the snark level of whoever he's talking to, e.g. he and Psychic are always bouncing light insults back and forth but he's not that sardonic with Space Gang

subconsciously manipulative. it's hard not to be with the sheer power and influence he has, but it's usually unintentional.

very exaggerated body language, loves doing flourishes and dreamy winks lmao. mostly trained himself into it to help catch people's attention.

very practiced, even, and loud gait. carries himself in a way that draws attention, even when he's not immediately recognized.

never swears in his songs or when he's live, not around fellow stars, and probably not directly at the Accretions. might curse when alone. doesn't curse around most friends/acquaintances (i.e. Space Gang, Hood) but does a lot more around Psychic.

when frustrated he drops the theatrics and his voice rises (more fiery than Psychic's, ironically)

when he's angry there's also a vitriol and weight to his tone, and the air grows cold and heavy

Hood-

speaks warmly and with a cheerful lilt, no underlying sharpness or edge

words come out in a steady flow, not a lot of filler words or stuttering

expresses his thoughts honestly and succinctly, leaves a lot unsaid; he's guarded but many people don't realize it

very mild-tempered, the most easygoing of the three. not as intense as Void, not as aloof as Psychic.

matter-of-fact in tone, can get snarky or teasing but always comes back to sincerity

careful and reassuring if he notices someone is upset, tries to give encouragement and compassion

can be awkward or uncertain, but everything he says comes from the heart <3

tone becomes tense and stilted and talks faster when people named epsilon/his fans come up in conversation :(

will surprise Psychic and Void by cursing if he’s annoyed or frustrated. it is a thing he’s capable of, they just baby him too much to recognize it /lh /hj

makes lighthearted jokes to distract attention from himself; a little nervous with all eyes on him

usually the first one who tries to de-escalate tensions and play mediator, but it visibly stresses him out

quick to forgive. also quick to apologize and/or express sorrow, for trauma reasons /hj

energetic, emotive body language. lots of finger tapping, nervous fidgeting, mirroring others

walks with a real spring in his step <3 quick and light on his feet, he barely makes a sound

when he’s angry his voice rises in both pitch and volume and he balls up his fists. it’s surprisingly just as scary as with Void and Psychic because Hood is so difficult to anger.

[r0-boat]

Got inspired by reading some fanfics about a reader giving the silent treatment to their f/o and it got me wondering…

How would your ocs Silas, Cole, and Holt react if their s/o got upset with them and gave them the silent treatment?

👀

Hell yeah

OC's: Holt, Cole, and Silas reaction to S/o being upset and giving silent treatment

(hey I have OC's and I write OCX reader if you're interested ;) )

Holt

As soon as you see your tears well up from the argument he just rolls his eyes and goes out for a smoke. The next morning he wakes up usually you're so chatty but this time, you're silent. As quiet as a mouse, even as he grunts a 'morn'n', you don't say anything. Silent treatment? Really??? Whatever, He doesn't care.

Spoiler: he does. He cares a lot, He's grown so used to your constant chatting He gets antsy when he can't hear you. Even if he doesn't respond back he's always listening. He's more irritable. He just wants you to stop that stupid silent treatment, That shit's for babies anyway not like it's working.

When he finally hits the boiling point he just yells He breaks "fine, I'm sorry there?! Can you stop being so quiet now? Freaking me the fuck out. I'll do anything."

You're angry at him and it's not right He doesn't feel right when you're not talking to him like normal. And he's weirdly upset when you're mad at him. What the fuck is happening to him??

Cole

He goes away to cool off storming out the house. When he comes back dinner is being cut but you don't say a word to him. You must be so mad at him, All right he'll give you some space then. However the next day you're still mad at him. It's starting to worry him. His heart is starting to hurt. He misses you so much. You're physically there but you're not there... He must have hurt you pretty bad.

Cole can be soft, under that hard snarky exterior that's a man who loves you. He wraps his arms around you. He sets a freshly picked (very messy) bouquet of wildflowers on the counter "I'm sorry darling. I did not mean to say those words. I did not know how much they hurt."

He knows that sometimes he can be a bit of a blockhead His anger gets in the way, and he says things he does not mean. He needs to work on that, which He is trying to figure out.

When he wants to make it up to you he means that. He's grateful to have you and he doesn't want to lose any more people he loves.

Cw: Yandere character below, unhealthy relationship dynamic ahead, manipulative behavior, obsessive behavior, love bombing

Silas

Oh...oh dear. It must be something about rules that he set that he will not budge. Silas thrives on his lover's attention and he does not do well with silent treatment. He is royalty and he is used to getting whatever he wants.

He will find a way to get your attention back. Without changing his rules. His rules are there to 'protect' you and his rules are firm. Whether it be physical gifts or affection He will crank up his normal love bombing behavior.

The longer you go with that silent treatment the crazier he becomes. Please darling talk to him He can't stand at this quiet!! He needs you in his arms, don't you see?! He needs that attention. He'll try to get your eyes to look at him one way or another. Perhaps he should fake a sparring accident. He might be wounded... But it's worth it if you could hear your pretty voice repeat his name.

[aibiito]

being best friends with the genshin impact boys. (2)

➳ genres: non-romantic, gender-neutral, fluff

➳ characters: venti, albedo, xiao

➳ notes: finally, it’s out.. i had a lot of fun writing for these three, i’m excited to try putting out more stuff for them. each of the boys in this entry have rapidly climbed up my favourites list as of late and xiao is really testing my loyalty to ayaka.

『venti』

associating with him is just asking for chaos. he lives for the drama in your life, and loves drinking off your salary while hearing about which of his followers managed to enrage you today. if there's no gossip, there's no free alcohol. venti will give you a problem if you have none. a little offhand remark about how you apparently broke a petal off flora's displays, or took a break while looking for anna is enough to set off another citizen of mondstat. even if he's speaking straight-up lies, they'll believe him. how have you become so disliked in a city you cherish?! despite all the issues he brings to the table, venti can efficiently solve them for you. his advice is unrivaled, and your damaged reputation is always patched up quickly. he'll even assist you with more personal matters, teasing-free. just make sure he doesn't get too drunk, or he might lose his ability to counsel you.

『albedo』

surprisingly, he isn’t distant with you in the slightest. at this point, it just seems like his best friend is klee. with the miniscule free time this man has, the two of you always have to spend it babysitting the spark knight, otherwise he goes back to his laboratory and locks the door for another few hours. most of his attention might be focused on keeping klee safe, but that doesn’t stop him from throwing a couple snarky comments in your direction. he even uses the child as a way to amplify his clownery. “don’t learn from y/n, okay?” you’re one of the lucky people to see his less stoic personality, so glare back and albedo will be on the verge of losing it. despite the time spent playing games, the fun stops at his horrific work habits. if he’s stressed out of his mind, you’ll be the only person to hear it directly. your advice is highly valued by the chalk prince, even if he rarely follows it.

『xiao』

congratulations! you’re officially xiao’s mortal friend, but how did you do it? answer: commitment to the task. honestly, he found you annoying at first. you did not know how to leave him alone, or perhaps you refused to. xiao’s accustomed to your presence by now. he’s still not much for talking and would rather not share any of his thoughts, meaning it’s all up to you to engage with him. if you’re the chatty type, he listens to everything you say before unintentionally making you feel stupid with his straightforward word choices. however, his favourite moments are those where you stand quietly by his side while watching the stars. in a comfortable silence, he starts to feel safe, knowing there’s someone next to him that he can rely on in desperate times. turn your head a bit and capture his little smile before he notices you staring! it’s a rare opportunity.

[insomniac-astronomer]

Romanogers: Trade Her Back | Ch. 2 - Steve’s Apartment

Hi there! Welcome or welcome back to this story! Since this is a part of a series, I would strongly advise you read chapter 1 here: trade-her-back-ch-1. Thank you so much for coming back to check out part 2!

Song for the chapter: “That Man” by Caro Emerald in true Peggy Carter fashion.

Enjoy!

~~~

The forties smell different. It's strange, but that's the first thing I notice. Like gasoline and smoke. Not at all what I had been expecting.

I couldn’t tell you where we are if I wanted to.

“Welcome to my old apartment.” Steve sends me one of his dorky smiles.

The building is made of brick. Six evenly-spaced weathered doors line the front of it. Steve leads me up a few concrete stairs to the end of the row of lower doors. He kicks a brick to the side revealing a key. Making quite the spectacle out of it, he unlocks the apartment and beckons me inside.

“Oh-” Steve’s voice trails off as we both stare at the wreck that is his old home. “I wouldn’t have been in here since I left for the war but that would have only been a few months ago.”

“Someone made themselves a doorway through the window,” I gesture to the smashed glass.

“Hold on.” Steve’s voice darkens as he pushes me behind him. Seriously? I shove past him and start examining the place, ready in case someone decides to attack us from around the corner.

After a few minutes of me going left and him going right, we determine that the trashed apartment is empty. Completely empty; not just of people, but of furniture and valuables as well. Whoever broke in might be on their way back here right now.

“Board up that window with something. Make sure that everywhere else is still secure. And why the hell did you think it was a good idea to leave your key under a brick?” I speed back to the front door, locking it tightly and testing it’s integrity a few times, just to make sure.

“Only Bucky knew I kept the key under there.” Steve says back as he picks up a piece of the broken couch to place on the window.

“It’s not that hard to find.” I mutter as I begin testing light switches. All of them seem to be working, as the lights are slowly warming up and I haven’t started an electrical fire yet.

A few moments of strange silence pass over us as we work on straightening up the place and testing some of the appliances. Unsurprisingly, everything seems to be in working order, there’s even a small carton of milk in the fridge.

Steve and I have always been a chatty pair. I don’t think I’ve ever realized that till now, when we haven’t spoken in at least twenty minutes. Superhero work is tough, but when you’re with your team, there’s a certain unspoken agreement not to mention any hardships unless we have to. Keep the mood light, you know? That’s maybe why this quiet feels unfamiliar to me.

“What do we do now?” I ask to break the silence.

Steve gives me a confused look, almost gesturing to the pile of rubble he was sorting through.

“I mean after we finish cleaning. You jumped us to the forties, did you have a plan in mind?” I try to make my tone sarcastic and teasing but given the solemn mood we’re both in, I don’t think it transfers.

“It’s Saturday.” Steve says quietly. I’ve never seen this man so deep in thought, even back when Wanda had put that nightmare in his mind.

Suddenly, I remember. “Your dance with Peggy.”

He nods.

I want to say something to comfort him. Yes, we went back in time for this but he deserves to be happy for once. Even if it’s just an artificial sort of forties-haze joy. Although, he’s already seen her at ninety years old. Hell, he went to her funeral, saw her body.

Oh, that’s messed up. He said at eight right?

“You’d better get ready Prince Charming, the sun’s starting to set.” I smirk. “Don’t want to show up looking like you just made out with her niece or anything.”

Steve sends me a glare, though I finally see a small smile fight it’s way onto his face. “You know what Romanoff --”

“What? I didn’t say a bad language word.” My snarky facial expression turns into a grin.

“Just for that, you’d better have this whole place cleaned by the time I get back.” He says, standing and brushing some brick dust off his pants.

I roll my eyes. “Please, I’ll leave you some of the fun.”

~~~

Steve left a few minutes ago. He told me not to leave the apartment because, well, can you imagine what would happen if I walked down a street in the 1940s wearing a skin-tight suit? But besides that, he’s right. Life was different back . . . now, and I would probably behave like an alien to them.

The kitchen and living room have now been swept out and all the bits of rubble removed. Steve was able to salvage the couch cushions and set them up like a children’s fort-style floor couch. Since everything in the kitchen was mostly in working order, that looks almost normal. If you don’t count the fact that there is no table or chairs.

There is no TV, just a small radio to entertain me. Fantastic.

Although, I did just come back from the dead so maybe it would be alright for me to rest my neck for a minute or two. I lay down on the floor couch. Just a couple minutes and then I’ll keep cleaning. Steve should be --

I don’t know where I am. A strange orange material seems to be covering my eyes. I reach my hands up to remove it, only to find that the material is surrounding me. It’s like I’m walking through an orange snow globe if all of the snow had transformed into a million complicated crystalized patterns.

What is happening? And why does it feel like I’m walking through quicksand?

Before any of my questions are answered, the orange world flashes brightly, and there is only darkness.

~~~

I can’t believe Tumblr formatted this all for me. I wrote it on a Doc with indents and everything, this is fantastic. Anywho, sorry this took so long to write out, it’s about three letter-sized pages in length so. Let me know if I got the characters right or otherwise, I’m very open to constructive criticism.

Quick question: I’m plopping my masterlist into my bio for now, but does anyone know how to get it on the dashboard of options? Like where the asks and archive buttons are. Thanks :)

I have also now actually opened my asks so if you have something specific you would like me write, jump in and send me something. Check my bio for fandoms and masterlist for the post with guidelines if you would like to submit something!

One last thing, I’m going to attempt to make this story somewhat interactive with the lovely romanogers community reading it. Go follow my instagram _lenamarieanne to answer polls and other things that will affect not only chapter lengths but possible characters and story events!

Thank you so much for reading! Much happiness and sunshine to you! ~Lena Marie Anne

P.S. Feel free to drop a like, leave a comment, or do a re-blog. I will respond to any comments!

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

Ranking Brotherhood of Evil Mutant members (including all interations) from your, most to least favorite and please expound why. I do like asking for opinions.

Hmmm....there have been several iterations of the Brotherhood, and I’m not very familiar with some of the later versions, so I’m just gonna go with the earlier versions that I know.  Bear in mind, this is entirely subjective, and I like most of these characters, so a character being lower down doesn’t mean I hate them.  Going from favorite to least favorite:  

Pyro:

Anyone following this blog has probably noticed I love this dude.  I’m not exactly subtle about it.  I think he’s interesting and fun, as villains go.  He’s snarky and cocky, and actually rather friendly when he’s not trying to kill you - very Affable Evil.  He’s not necessarily a very good person - he’s self-interested, and can be rather vicious, but he’s a character that I thought could potentially come over to the good side.  He seemed, at times, to get into the whole “Freedom Force” thing, and clearly enjoyed saving people alongside Longshot.  He seems to bond a great deal with his team-mates - Mystique, Avalanche, even Stonewall (although he was a dick to him and Commando when they first joined).  He even pals around with Blob, even though he also snarks at him sometimes.  In AOA, Pyro was the only one helping and being protective of Phantazia.  And now in Marauders he refers to them as his “friends,” and is perfectly happy traveling around with people that used to kick his ass, even appearing impressed with them (especially Storm), and being a surprisingly good team player.  I don’t think Pyro would necessarily become a good guy for altruistic purposes, but I think he enjoys having “adventures” and getting attention and hanging out with his team-mates.  I think if Pyro was on an X-Team, and was made to feel welcome, he’d probably be content to fight alongside them and follow the rules (which is basically what he’s doing right now with the Marauders), and maybe some of his team-mates’ virtues would rub off on him a bit.  (There was apparently a version of X-Factor pitched to Marvel years ago that included Pyro on the team, and I’m disappointed that never happened, although I loved the X-Factor that we got.)  And of course, there was also Pyro’s somewhat redemptive death, where he came to regret his past actions with the Brotherhood and wound up sacrificing his life to save Senator Kelly (fat lot of good it did, since Kelly got assassinated shortly after, but hey, he tried!) 

Along with all of that, I am also really intrigued by Pyro’s back story of being a romance author and journalist.  There’s the whole dichotomy of a guy who callously burns people to death and also writes gothic romance novels in his spare time.  And honestly, it sounds like he’s lived a really interesting life before the Brotherhood - traveling all around South East Asia, working as a journalist covering Indonesia and Vietnam (I’d assume he speaks at least a little bit of Indonesian and Vietnamese to be able to live there and cover news).  His motives for joining the Brotherhood have never been established, and I’m dying to know more about how he met Mystique, and why he decided to leave what was apparently a successful career and probably fairly comfortable life to go be an international terrorist.  Was it money?  A promise of adventure?  Did he really believe in Magneto’s cause?  Was he already getting into criminal activity before he joined the Brotherhood?  There’s a lot of potential for development there, but unfortunately most writers (except Claremont) tend to completely ignore all of Pyro’s backstory.  I’m still hoping that Duggan at least makes some reference to it, even just a throwaway comment about how Pyro used to write novels.

TL,DR: I like Pyro because he’s fun and clever, he makes friends with his team-mates, and he’s a writer. 

Toad:

Toad is a really intriguing character, but mostly I like him because he’s actually got a lot of potential, but he’s had a shit life and can never seem to catch a break.  In the earliest issues, he was just Magneto’s abused lackey, and appeared quite sniveling and pathetic, but later on it was revealed that he’s actually quite intelligent (and good with machines), he just appeared “stupid” due to all the abuse he suffered during childhood.  Toad also has a lot of interesting powers - writers seem to give him a new one every other appearance.  His stamina, agility, and super-strong legs could actually make him a pretty good fighter if he got proper training.  Plus he’s got the prehensile tongue, pheromone secretion, acidic saliva, secretion of a paralytic resin, mind control over frogs - his Marvel bio is a long, long list of secondary powers.  Toad could be quite formidable if he actually got his shit together, and there are AU’s (like House of M and Age of Apocalypse) where we see a much more stable, competent, intelligent Toad who is living up to his potential.  But 616 Toad remains a joke,  He’s either a low-level bad guy (they tried to level him up in the 90′s by making him the leader of the Brotherhood, but it didn’t last) or a pathetic sad-sack used for humor, or both.  His attempt to “join” the X-Men led to him being the janitor and basically getting treated like shit (he literally had no bed?) then getting kicked out when he follow Husk to the Hellfire Academy, even though he did that largely out of concern for Husk, and actually helped her and Quentin escape.

Basically, Toad has been subjected to horrible abuse pretty much his entire life, he has a mutation that makes him appear “ugly”, and everyone treats him with, at best, pity, and at worst, hatred and disgust.  I’ll admit, he’s had a few chances to better his life that have fallen through because of his own bad choices (and he’s done some horrible things, especially when he was leading the Brotherhood in the 90′s), but most of the time he’s just getting continuously kicked while he’s down.  To a certain extent, it’s really a matter of comic writers not being willing to take Toad seriously - he’s considered a joke villain, and therefore gets written that way, because he’s there as an accessory in someone else’s story.  At least the Toad/Husk storyline seemed to focus some on Toad himself as a character, even if it ended badly for him.  Sometimes, I kinda think Toad is written as evil or pathetic so that writers can justify other characters being shitty towards him.  Like, Magneto’s early treatment of Toad was absolutely, inexcusably horrible.  Magneto treated everyone in the Brotherhood badly, including his own children, but it seemed like Toad caught the worst of it.  Pietro and Wanda were also disgusted by Toad, although they had good reason, since his affection towards Wanda was pretty creepy.  Later on, Magneto was revamped into more of a noble, morally grey character, and his past abuse of Toad was mostly forgotten.  I don’t think the writers are necessarily doing this on purpose, but it kind feels like Toad remaining a pathetic bad guy was partially a way to excuse Magneto’s poor treatment of him, since Magneto was being reinvented as a more likable character.  And not just Magneto, but just about everyone who finds Toad disgusting or cracks jokes about how gross he is – it’s okay, Toad is awful so it’s totally fine to have the physically attractive good guys mock him and treat him like garbage.  (Hell, the artists can’t even decide what Toad’s physical appearance should be.  Is he skinny?  Fat?  Does he have green skin?  Is his nose ridiculously long or closer to normal?  Who knows what we’ll get in each issue.  And God forbid he be drawn without his tongue lolling out of his mouth.)

Also, I think that a lot of Toad’s worst personality flaws are at least partially due to the abuse he suffered.  To be clear, I’m not justifying the things that Toad has done. He set up death traps for people who wronged him, murdered Sauron’s girlfriend, and stalked and attacked Wanda multiple times.  That’s pretty shitty of him!  But I also think the abuse had a huge effect on Toad and how he interacts with people. Like, his tendency to obsessively latch onto people, and act like a sniveling lackey – the dude has had pretty much no love his entire life, and he’s always been treated like garbage.  Of course he has no self-esteem, of course he’ll fawn over anyone that shows him affection.  He’s been raised to believe that he is garbage.  Even his tendency to gloat over others being punished, and his whole “I’ll tell Magneto, and you’ll get in trouble!” thing is an understandable survival mechanism – other people getting in trouble means that he’s not the target, for once.  Obviously I can’t condone Toad trying to murder people that wronged him, but his anger and resentment is also understandable after the poor treatment he’s suffered.  In fact, I think it’s actually healthier for him to be angry than to think that he deserves it.  And a lot of the shitty things he did as Brotherhood leader also felt like him desperately wanting to be taken seriously, to be respected – also not a bad thing to want, even if his actions were terrible.  Basically, Toad has a lot of personality flaws, and he’s also had a lot of experiences that created or exacerbated those personality flaws.  The guy needs serious, long-term therapy, and I think he could become a better (or at least more competent) person if he got the help that he so obviously needs.

TL, DR: Basically, Toad deserves better.

Avalanche:

I have to admit, a lot of my love for Avalanche is all about his relationship with Pyro, be it friendship or something more.  (It’s something more in my headcanons, I will forever ship them.)  But he’s also a character that we don’t know much about, in part because he tends to talk a lot less than a certain chatty Australian.  He seems, more than anything, to be a practical-minded punch-clock villain, who is mostly in it for the money.  He doesn’t seem to enjoy putting on a show and reveling in his powers like Pyro, and he doesn’t seem to have the same mean streak that can be seen in Blob (and Pyro, to be fair).  I’m sure there are probably instances of Avalanche being dickish and cruel, but in a lot of his appearances that I’ve read, he seems very practical.  Do the job, get paid.  He also seems fairly content to be a follower or a lackey – happy to take orders from Mystique, or even follow Pyro’s lead when Mystique isn’t around.  That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his own ideas or opinions, but he doesn’t particularly feel the need to be a leader.  Like Pyro, we also don’t know much about his past before the Brotherhood, except that he was married at some point.  Where’s his wife now?  Why didn’t it work out?  Was it because of him being a mutant, or was it his activities with the Brotherhood that drove them apart?  Does he still love her?  Why did he join the Brotherhood in the first place?  

Avalanche also seems to care somewhat about his team-mates, although he’s not as openly friendly as Pyro.  During Freedom Force’s disastrous last mission, he made the difficult call to abandon Pyro and Blob to save Commando, something that he was clearly broken up about.  And of course, he was willing to go on a mission in the Savage Land with Pyro to get a Legacy Virus cure (that unfortunately didn’t actual exist).  Avalanche is selective about who he cares about, but he still shows that he cares through his actions.  I don’t want to make this all about Pyro, but I really love their relationship.  The stoic, quiet guy/chatty energetic guy dynamic is great.  They just love being bros and committing crimes together, and they are quick to work together and back each other up, even in their earliest appearances.  I would totally read a min-series focusing on the early days of Mystique’s brotherhood, especially if it gave us some good Avalanche, Pyro and Blob development, and didn’t just center around Rogue and Mystique (both fantastic characters, but they’ve both got a lot of attention directed at them already.)

Also, Avalanche likes to garden, which is nice. And at one point he just got fed-up with everything and tried to retire and become a bartender, which is very relatable.  Unfortunately Red Skull murdered him after that.  Sorry, Avalanche.  I hope you are resurrected on Krakoa, living your best life.

Blob:

Another character who is often not taken seriously. Blob is mean-spirited, crass, and often self-interested, much like the rest of the Brotherhood members.  He also was extremely close to Unus, and clearly devastated when Unus’s powers went out of control and killed him.  Blob is one of those characters where I think his physical appearance has led to him being designated as a bad guy by the writers – he’s big and gross, so, just like Toad, he’ll be portrayed as a bad person in order to justify the good guys being terrible to him.  (Yes, I know there are “ugly” good guys, but let’s face it, they are rare.  Most of the good guys look like models.)  Blob also, like Toad, gets a lot of crap for his physical appearance, something that is literally part of his mutation.  I think some of Blob’s nastiness is definitely a defense mechanism, lashing out at others because he is used to being attacked.  It also seems like Blob is really lacking in close friendships, like what Mystique and Destiny or Pyro and Avalanche have (“friendship”).  He was really the odd man out in Mystique’s brotherhood.  He’s willing to pal around with various Brotherhood members, including Avalanche and Pyro when they’re not picking fights with each other, but he doesn’t seem to have a best buddy after Unus’s death.  I kind of admire Blob’s toughness.  It would be easy for him to completely lose his self-esteem, like Toad, but he stands up for himself and never grovels to others.  He is frequently insulted for his mutation, but he also seems comfortable in his own skin, which is good.  He shouldn’t have to feel bad about his own body.    

There was an AU story that showed a softer, more thoughtful Blob who wound up in a relationship with Psylocke, so we know he’s capable of showing a better side of himself.  To some extent, I like Blob’s crass, take-no-shit personatliy, but I’d also like to see writers give him more depth.  I’d especially like to see him reunite with Unus on Krakoa, and the two of them hanging out enjoying each other’s company.  I’m also enjoying the cameos we get of bartender Blob on Krakoa, I hope he is also living his best life.  

Phantazia:

Honestly, I mostly just want to know more about her. All we really know is that she has a PhD (in some kind of scientific field, I think….she is reading a book on astrophysics in one comic), and she was willing to join Toad’s Brotherhood (and she was also the only Brotherhood member that received an invitation from Exodus to Asteroid M). Why?  What was her life before that?  Who knows? Most of the time, she seems rather cold, and a bit distant from her team-mates (but I can’t entirely blame her, the Brotherhood is a rough crowd.  It’s hard to be the new team-mate, and probably especially hard to be the only woman.)  She did seem concerned about Pyro when he was suffering from the Legacy Virus, but she kind of dropped out of sight when the Brotherhood disbanded.   She seems like she was mostly in it for personal gain, especially since Toad’s Brotherhood was more about petty crime than mutant rights.  Apparently she was deeply affected by Wanda’s reality alterations, which took a toll on her mental health, and was last seen in a SHIELD holding cell.  I hope she pops up again on Krakoa.  

Rogue:

The only reason Rogue is so low on the list is that I sometimes forget she was ever a Brotherhood member, and because I like to focus more on lesser known characters.  But I really like Rogue!  She’s tough but sweet, and an incredible badass.  Leaving the Brotherhood for the X-Men meant walking away from her team and foster-mother(s), but she still did it, and became one of the X-Men’s most dependable and valued members.  I love Rogue’s past, her relationship with Mystique, her relationship with Gambit.  I love how she doesn’t take shit, but she also doesn’t go around acting like a jerk, like some of the “tough” characters.  (Wolverine, basically.)  I like the complexity of her struggles with her powers, and her knowing that her strongest abilities, like strength and flight, were basically “stolen” from someone else. I feel like I should say more, but Rogue is very popular and has had loads written about her already.  Rogue is cool, and she deserves the best!  

Mystique:

A truly fascinating character.  She’s also lower on the list because she is fairly well-known and popular, and also because she can absolutely be a manipulative piece of shit, willing to throw everyone except Destiny under the bus.  Yet, at the same time, we see her appear to genuinely care about people, like Rogue, Nightcrawler (after the unfortunate “toss baby off a cliff” incident), Destiny, even Pyro occasionally (she has a nice moment with him on Muir Island, and also calls him “friend” in X-Factor).  She’s a character who can never be entirely trusted, which is a large part of what makes her interesting.  I think she truly does care about a few, select people.  Hell, there’s an early issue in which Mystique fights a bunch of robots programmed to look and act like the X-Men (courtesy of Arcade), and she completely breaks down after having to “kill” the Rogue robot, then hesitates to attack the Nightcrawler bot.  I think Mystique can also be extremely callous, cold and manipulative, but I don’t think she is completely evil, just very self-interested, like a lot of villains. Also, she’s probably seen and experienced a lot of shit over her long life that contributed to that callousness (I figure if I’m gonna cut Toad and Blob some slack, I should do the same for Mystique.)  I do wish she would stop committing rape by deception in stories (meaning sleeping with someone while disguised as someone else).  It’s something that gets glossed over, even though fandom generally despises rapist male villains (and rightfully so), but Mystique pretending to be Blink and sleeping with Mimic is barely a story blip.  

Mystique is also interesting just because she’s such a badass.  She’s cunning, a good leader, a good strategist, excellent spy, good at hand-to-hand combat (she only loses to Arcade’s X-Men robots because she hesitates). She is damn formidable!  She’s also lived a varied and interesting life. There’s a reason she’s gotten so much exposure in comics.  I can also understand her being short-tempered while leading the Brotherhood, as she has to deal with the three stooges of Pyro, Avalanche and Blob.  Then things get even more complicated during the Freedom Force days.  Mystique has a lot of shit to deal with keeping those idiots in line.  Her relationship with Destiny is probably my favorite thing about Mystique, they are beautiful wives, and I hope she gets Destiny resurrected so the two of them can live happily together on Krakoa.  (Unlikely.)  

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch:

I don’t have much to say about these two, even though I like them. I’m starting to run out of steam in terms of character analysis, and I tend to think of them more as Avengers than Brotherhood members.  They both deserve better.  Also, they are mutants and Magneto is their dad. Retcon?  What retcon?

Destiny:

I don’t have much to say about Destiny because she is very mysterious – always working according to some plan that only she knows. So it’s hard to really know her as a character.  She seems like a very intelligent and calm woman.  She’s always chilling while the Brotherhood guys are freaking out or picking fights with each other.  She also faced her own death bravely and willingly.  She seems to have a good sense of humor.  One of my favorite stories is Mystique disposing of Destiny’s ashes after her death.  She is throwing them off a boat at a specific time and place, according to Destiny’s instructions – and the wind blows them back into her face.  Obviously Destiny planned it as a last prank, and I have to like a character who sets that up.  Also, one time she let a rock wall collapse on Avalanche and Spiral because she knew they wouldn’t be seriously hurt, and she hated Spiral and wanted to enjoy her humiliation.  That’s some impressive pettiness.  Destiny is cool, and I hope she comes back.

Sauron:

I don’t really care about him at all.  

Mastermind:

Seems like a real creep, especially with his manipulation of Jean Grey/Phoenix in the Dark Phoenix saga.  At least he apologized to her at his death.  Also, he’s got three daughters, the dude gets around. Regan, Martinique, and Pixie (WTF?! I just read that in his bio.)  I am really confused by there being two Mastermind daughters with the same powers, but apparently it was actually a mix-up between two writers.  Oops!  

That’s all.  I know there have been later Brotherhood iterations with other members, including one or both Lady Masterminds, but that was during a time when I wasn’t reading much X-Men, so I’m not familiar with most of those characters. I might have more to say if I eventually read some of the later Brotherhood stories.  

[dragons-bones]

5 Questions for Writers

Tagged by: @frostmantle (thank you!)

Tagging: @ishgard, @starsandauras, @twelveswood, @autumnslance, aaaaaaand YOU (because I cannot keep track of who’s done this or not XD)

1. Do you have a favorite character to write? Who and why?

2. Do you have a favorite trope to write? Or one you want to write?

3. Share your favorite description you’ve written?

4. Share your favorite dialogue you’ve written?

5. Scene you haven’t written, but want to?

----

Cut for length!

1. Do you have a favorite character to write? Who and why?

I am, of course, obviously quite fond of snarky, quick-witted characters, and my OCs banter a lot. Dialogue is one of my favorite things to write, so chatty characters in general I find easier to approach. It’s fun slinging sass back and forth! (This tends to be why I focus a lot of Synnove and Rereha most often--they’re the snark queens of the Squad and the most likely to turn the sarcasm filter off and just go off on someone. Which further reminds me I need to have Thancred and Rereha trading jabs, too, at some point...)

I’ve also really been enjoying writing Aymeric specifically, even if it is intimidating to do so at times. I obviously headcanon him as ridiculously smitten with Synnove (the feeling, of course, is mutual), and finding the right balance of “deeply in love with a Warrior of Light” without it coming off as overly saccharine or out of character is a great mental exercise. Also of course I enjoy indulging my personal fantasy of having a handsome man be a badass, deeply in love with his lady, and perfectly delighted to kick ass beside his lady!

2. Do you have a favorite trope to write? Or one you want to write?

Food porn. My mother’s Italian, I grew up being taught to enjoy food, I love sharing my enjoyment of food. Plus it’s usually accompanying some happier moments, or domestic ones, and is basically a cue to the readers that the story is meant to be light and fun.

I have no idea what the proper trope name would be (and going to TV Tropes to asking to start a rabbit hole dive I shouldn’t begin), but as we all know, I love Shenanigans. I typically write them in reaction to how serious the setting is; I deeply enjoy stretching how far I insert some humor and levity without it becoming crack. I think it provides some fresh air; I enjoy angst and hurt/comfort and dark themes, but frequently it’s not something I prefer to write for myself.

I also enjoy found family, battle couples, magic-as-science... Anything that gives me an excuse to write character interactions and/or worldbuild. The great fun of fanfiction, particularly in a setting like FFXIV, is that we’ve got a bare bones foundation, with some areas more developed than others, but otherwise there is a ton of room to grow my own ideas. I personally like to work within lore, but it is hugely enjoyable for me to figure out how to get certain concepts to work with the lore rather than against it. (See: my approach to arcanima.)

3. Share your favorite description you’ve written?

This obviously changes all the time, but there’s a couple I really love:

From Pearls of Wisdom:

It was one of the most basic principles of magic, not just arcanima: astral elements and umbral elements. It was such an accepted, unquestioned foundation that she had never even considered that the three elements most commonly used by arcanists for their carbuncles were not all the same primary polarity. Every element could manifest as either polarity, but Roksana Blackspark was correct, now that Synnove properly thought about it: wind, earth, and fire were much, much more likely to be found in a stable state. Even the Guild’s enormous aether batteries, all the way down in subbasement twelve, had been initially tricky to install until they found the right combination of overgrown elemental clusters, with most of the problems coming from the water, ice, and levin clusters.

Of course trying to infuse any sort of gem with those three elements specifically was going to fail, they were fucking overaspected to astral or umbral. The equations didn’t fucking work as they should because they were built to account for elements that naturally occurred in stable states, and so the infusions fizzled and the gemstones cracked and no carbuncles could manifest.

But.

But if she did account for instability, or, in fact, deliberately found crystals with which to infuse gems that were of opposite polarities so that the final infusion was stable…

A new thought made itself known, and Synnove stuffed the rest of her cake in her mouth, set the plate and fork aside, bookmarked her spot in the journal, and opened up the note taking program, yanking the stylus from the side of the case. As she chewed, she began scribbling in frantic shorthand. Perhaps in addition to ensuring stable aetheric polarity, she could also try infusion over time as well? Even when artificially infusing emeralds, topazes, and rubies, the stones still cracked every one time out of eight. Certainly, working with water, levin, and ice aether would benefit from a slower infusion speed, as it would allow her to keep a better eye on maintaining polar equilibrium, and if that issue was what was affecting the failures for wind, earth, and fire, then that would be two problems solved.

…Perhaps three, Synnove sucking in a deep breath and her heart pounding as she wrote. A proper balance of aetheric polarization combined with a slow enough infusion potentially meant that she could, theoretically, infuse any precious stone she desired, not just ones with a specific hardness and durability. Of course, the equations would need to be further adjusted to take into account the specific chemical properties of the specific gems and how they would need to interact with different elemental aether, but that, while difficult and tedious, was still doable.

Writing characters smarter than oneself is really difficult and intimidating, but I think I did a really good job showing Synnove’s thought process, and based on some of the feedback I’ve gotten, I succeeded! So I’m really, really proud of this passage.

From Suffer, Promise, Witness (FFXIV Write 2019 #19):

The ground shook, suddenly, and Synnove whipped her head around to the direction from which it originated, staring in shock. In the distance, an enormous red…key, for lack of a better term, pulsing with blue aetherlight, had struck the ground. The dust cloud kicked up rose immediately into the air and began obscuring it, and even from here she could see that the force of the strike had knocked down allies and foes alike around it.

Then a roar of sound—a deep, resonant thunder of triumphant, all-consuming rage—engulfed Carteneau, drawing every eye skyward, to see Dalamud’s outer shell, glowing with more of that sickly blue aetherlight, cracking open.

And Dalamud exploded.

The shockwave hit her first, throwing her and every other living being on the Plains still alive and standing to the ground with a force that punched the air from her lungs. The sound came next, shaking her bones and cracking the stone around her in an awful crescendo of combusting, howling aether. Her ears rang—or maybe it was just the screams of terror from every damned soul on the Carteneau killing fields all blending together.

The sky was aflame, and then the first of the pieces of Dalamud impacted the ground. Molten earth flew into the air, and then again from another impact, and another, and another, until the heavens and the earth were indistinguishable from how they both burned. Synnove desperately tried to sit up, feet scrambling to find purchase on the broken ground, as Galette and Tyr converged on her, eyes wide with fear as they tugged and pushed on her to get her upright.

Honestly I love this whole piece, but trying to describe what’s basically a trailer from another perspective (while also trying to portray the passage of time in an accurate manner) was difficult. I’d been dying to write the Synnove at Carteneau piece for a long time, and I just let myself write without worry. I think it came out pretty well! (Everyone screaming at me after the fact certainly boosted my confidence. :D)

From Assessments (FFXIV Write 2017 #25)

He did not attempt to step softly, as it was always a poor idea to sneak up on any warrior, never mind a Warrior of Light, but apparently Synnove was deeply enough engrossed in her text to not register his approach. Tyr, however, looked over as soon as he noticed the loud clacking of boot heels on stone floor coming closer to his mistress. He perked his ears up and came to meet Aymeric, shoving his face into the elezen’s hands.

“Maow!” the topaz carbuncle said, deep and echoing like a brass bell, only a little bone-rattling.

Aymeric laughed softly and obliging scratched behind his ears. Tyr thrummed happily, enjoying the attention for a few moments, before he disengaged and went back to Synnove. He braced himself on the rungs of the ladder and reached up with his paw to tap her foot, chirruping quietly.

“Hmm? Whazzit, honey?” Synnove said, voice distant and distracted. She did not look up as she turned the page.

Tyr sat back on his haunches and said, “Maow!”

Aymeric hadn’t the faintest idea of what Tyr had said, but Synnove most certainly did, as her head jerked up in surprise. (He winced sympathetically; when she had straightened, her spine had made an awful crack.) She frantically looked around until her gaze settled on Aymeric. She blinked rapidly, quite obviously not yet comprehending what she was seeing, until a smile finally bloomed across her features, her green eyes crinkling at the corners. “Well, fancy meeting you here,” she said, her cheerfulness tempered by the slight slur of exhaustion in her voice.

There were dark circles under her eyes, her hair was obviously unkempt up close, and her fingers were ever-so-slightly shaking from the particular combination of too much caffeine and not enough sleep, but Synnove Greywolfe was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Aymeric grinned up at her, not bothering to disguise how besotted he was with no witnesses about to see, and said, “What brings one of the celebrated Warriors of Light to Ishgard a bell before midnight?” He took a few steps closer to the ladder and held out his arms.

Synnove winced as she closed and shelved the book she had been reading. “Thal’s balls, that late?” She slid to the edge of the ladder’s seat, pushed off with her right hand and foot, and unceremoniously dropped into his grasp.

He tightened his hold on her as he caught her, drawing her close, and he dropped a kiss on each of her eyelids, relishing the giggles the action elicited from her. Another kiss on her nose, one to the beauty mark at the side of her chin, and then he finally kissed her properly. Synnove, in turn, languidly draped her arms around his shoulders and ran her fingers through the hairs on the nape of his neck, practically purring as she did. He hummed appreciatively against her lips, and they both ended up laughing into the kiss.

(Next to them, Tyr sighed, and rolled his eyes.)

Aymeric reluctantly drew away and set her on her feet, keeping Synnove steady as she wobbled and her spine cracked yet again. His beloved immediately leaned back into him, wrapping her arms around his waist and slouching so her cheek could rest over his heart. He smiled and returned the hug, resting his chin on her head. He closed his eyes and swayed with her gently, enjoying the familiar and much-missed comfort of her presence.

An older bit, but I love these two goobers, and I love writing them being physically affectionate and just basking in each other. Fucking cuties.

4. Share your favorite dialogue you’ve written?

FUCK I HAVE TO CHOOSE. Okay, let’s start with Pearls of Wisdom again:

Rereha threw open the doors to Aymeric’s office, shite-eating grin firmly plastered on her face as she skipped inside, and sang out, “Congratulations! It’s twins!”

Two things happened.

First, as soon as the doors opened, but before Rereha even opened her mouth, Lucia, she of finely honed Frumentarium instincts and years of friendship with a lalafell infamous across the realm for her Theatrics and Shenanigans, reached out and yanked the multitude of reports on the desk in front of Aymeric out of the way.

Second, Aymeric, who had been taking a sip of tea at the exact moment Rereha entered the office, choked and spat out said tea across his desk—and where all of the paperwork had once been not even a second before—in the most glorious spit take Rereha had ever engendered. A tiny part of her was saddened at the waste of perfectly good tea, but, wow, that had been spectacular. She gave herself a mental pat on the back and came to a stop in the middle of the office, grin widening to manic levels.

Lucia pounded Aymeric on the back between his shoulder blades as he coughed and sputtered, stopping only when the Lord Commander wheezed out, wide-eyed, voice high-pitched and halfway to a full-blown panic, “WHAT?!”

THREE YEARS THIS LIVED IN MY HEAD. THREE FUCKING YEARS I HAVE WANTED TO WRITE THIS STORY AND BEGIN IT WITH THAT LINE. THREE YEARS AND IT’S FINALLY OUT IN THE WORLD AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

From Needling (FFXIV Write 2019 #17):

Merlwyb drained her cup dry and poured herself a fresh serving (no whiskey this time, however). Grudgingly, she filled a second, and slid it over to Synnove, along with the bowl of maple sugar cubes and jar of cream. The arcanist doctored her tea as she preferred it—three lumps, generous dash of cream—and took a luxurious sip, humming in satisfaction.

“Why are you here?” the Admiral finally said, tea cup in hand and elbows braced on her desk. She wedged her feet a little firmer beneath Tyr.

“Mmmm, we had to bodily force Thubyrgeim to take a vacation,” said Synnove. She took another slow sip of tea. “Accounting realized she hadn’t taken a proper one in nigh on three years. So, we kicked her out of the Gate, with the caveat that she wasn’t to come back until next moon, and then we divvied up her usual responsibilities among the lot of us. I volunteered for the pleasure and delight of taking over our dear Guildmistress’s sennightly meetings with you.” Here the woman batted her eyelashes.

Merlwyb eyed her. “You have an ulterior motive,” she said, enunciating clearly for emphasis. “You always have an ulterior motive.”

“I enjoy the faces you make when you are confronted with the stark reality that every single one of your arcanists is capable of rewriting the laws of creation but are, simultaneously, godsdamned lunatics who should be taken out back and shot.”

“I should start with you.”

“Start with aetherochemistry; they just invented a new plague.” Synnove took the top folder from the pile and slid it across the desk to the Admiral.

“Of course they bloody did,” Merlwyb growled, opening the folder and skimming the abstract on the first page. Dear gods, did they really decide to mix malaria and consumption? Always so busy wondering if they could they never bothered to consider if they should. She plucked her reading glasses from their usual spot, sliding them on as she turned the page to the formal report, written in the aetherochemistry department chair’s tiny, cramped hand. Absently, she said, “And no, we are not testing it on the faculty of the University of Radz-at-Han.”

Synnove pouted. For the first time that afternoon, Merlwyb cracked a grin.

Merlwyb doesn’t get enough love, in my opinion, and of course I imagine she’s a salty bitch underneath the cool, commanding exterior. Couple that with Synnove probably letting loose the Full Sass (she would never behave such with Raubahn, Nanamo, or Kan-E, but she’s been an assessor for fifteen years, she knows exactly how far she can poke the Admiral and is well aware it’s tolerated only because she’s been an arcanist for so long) and the “out back and shot” line is my single favorite sentence from the whole of FFXIV Write 2019, and this is my favorite character exchange that’s I’ve done in a long time.

From Of Taunting and Tales (FFXIV Write 2019 #25)

Knock knock a-knock—knockknock! “Guess who~.”

A loud groan answered her. “Go away, you debauched scandalmonger!”

Rereha poked her head into one of the private rooms of the Rhalgr’s Reach infirmary, wicked grin firmly in place. “Now, now, Mr. Scaeva, is that any way to speak to the lady come to relieve your unending boredom?” she drawled.

The former tribunus laticlavius of the XIVth Imperial Legion raised his arm, hand up and middle finger extended, without lifting his head from his pillow.

Rereha cackled and stepped into the room, shutting the door behind her. A disgusted sigh came from Nero’s direction, and he flopped his arm back down on the mattress with a characteristically overdramatic wave of his hand. She grabbed a chair sitting by the wall and dragged it behind her as she waltzed towards Nero’s bed, the wood shrieking angrily against the stone of the floor, and whistled a cheery little ditty deliberately out of tune. She could see his jaw clenched in annoyance as she set the chair up near the head of the bed and cackled again as she hopped up into it. She placed the book she had been carrying on her lap and folded her hands primly on top of it, beaming.

“How are we feeling today?” she chirped.

“Like I’ve been run over by a flock of rabid chocobos.” Nero stubbornly refused to open his eyes, instead folding his hands on his stomach in unknowing mirror of her. “And then sat upon by a buffalo.”

“That’s an improvement! Last time you said you felt like you’d been chewed and spat out by an enraged king behemoth!”

“Rereha,” he sighed, still not opening his eyes. “Why are you here? Garlond and Greywolfe are infinitely more stimulating conversationalists, for all their damned sanctimonious self-important morals and ethics.” He spat out the last word like it was a particularly loathsome curse.

“I’m hurt, Nero,” said Rereha, placing her hand on her heart. She pitched her voice to express layers of emotion: disappointment, regret, sadness. “Genuinely hurt. A friend of mine has been grievously wounded in the course of his attempts to safeguard not just Eorzea, but Hydaelyn as a whole from an interdimensional entity of vast and unfathomable power. I come in my spare time to bring some light and laughter to his dreary hospital room as he heals, and he insults me and wishes for the company of others.”

A long silence descended over them both. Finally, Nero arched one golden eyebrow and cracked an eye open to stare at her incredulously.

Rereha pursed her lips together and said pensively, “Laid it on a bit too thick, didn’t I?”

He raised his hand and held his forefinger and thumb a quarter of an ilm apart.

“Damn,” Rereha said, crossing her arms. “Ah, well.”

Rereha basically exists to let me write Sass and Irreverent Humor. Nero is full of Salt and Sass. Together they could flay someone with words alone. I also really enjoyed writing Nero being a sassmaster without using words. Wordless dialogue is fun!! :D

5. Scene you haven’t written, but want to?

One day I’m gonna get over my hesitation about writing (and sharing) smut and fucking write the first time Synnove and Aymeric had sex. I know exactly when and where and how.

...Also Synnove getting ravished in one of the Neo-Ishgardian dresses. That’s, like, second on the list. Ooohh, and the Vacation Fic; maybe I should write that one as scenes and worry about connecting them after the fact. I think because that one will require chapters and I’m more of a one-shot person is a reason I have yet to start it.

[dovakhiindrabbles]

Howdy! While I’ve been gone I’ve been hinting at a Dragonborn character that I’ve been excited to introduce! While I showed her character earlier, she’s changed quite a bit from her initial creation! I’m super excited to write about her on this blog and elaborate on her character with you all! Rosie is one of my favorite characters I’ve made and I hope you like her just as much as I do! So, here’s her introduction and general info! Feel free to ask questions about her if you’re interested! (I’d be super excited to answer them!) 


Rosalie Sevilen Julienus-Allam 

Age: 24 years

Race: Redguard (Father’s side), Nord/Imperial (Mother’s side) 

Preferred Fighting Style: Melee, especially two-handed weaponry (Her favorite is the war-hammer!) 

Notable Family: Emeline (Mother), Adnan (Father), Tulius (Grandfather -mother’s side), Rosalie Sr. (Grandmother – mother’s side), Haanee (Grandfather – father’s side), and Ehsan (Grandmother – father’s side) Other Important Figures: Eldrims (Mentor/Grouchy old Neighbor), Paarathurnax (Mentor/Honorary Dragon Grandfather)

Personality: 

“I’m just trying to do what I can to help everyone. I never said I had a plan as to how I’d do that!” 

Having the soul of a fire-breathing beast beyond belief is an oddly accurate description of Rosalie, and it’s not for the literal fact that as the Dragonborn, she does have the soul of a dragon. Rosalie is a firecracker with a passion and zest for life unlike any other and despite her small size – is hardly intimidated by anything or anyone. However, unlike her dragon counterparts, Rosalie is a complete softie with a heart of gold. She’s extremely eager to help others and very warm, inviting, and bubbly to all that cross her path – and strives to make the world a better place for everyone (Making her an extreme opponent to Ulfric’s beliefs – they dummy hate each other) 

Nevertheless, despite her fervent attempts to make others happy and do right by those around her, Rosalie struggles a bit with her own foolhardiness.(Which is hardly helped by the revelation that she has insane powers/abilities) She’s incredibly reckless as a result of her excitement to explore the grand, wide world of Skyrim and admittedly, due to her secluded life as a child, is terribly naive. However, no matter her obstacles, Rosie is sure to leave a story wherever she goes. (Chaotic good for sure!)

Generally, Rosalie is: Earnest, Bubbly, Open-minded, Selfless, Easily-Excited, Well-Meaning, Determined, Principled, Loyal, Compassionate, Considerate, Adventurous, and Enthusiastic. However, Rosalie also is: Stubborn, Sheltered, Impulsive, and Naive

History/Family Background: 

Rosalie was raised by her two parents away in the mountains amidst the fear and uncertainty after the Great War. Closest to Solitude, her only two places she visited among her snowy cottage was Skyrim’s Capital and Cyrodil as a result of her two families! 

Speaking of families, Rosalie’s is perhaps the most diverse and unique among Skyrim. Her quiet, gentle father, Adnan’s great grandparents migrated directly from Hammerfell by special request of the then Jarl due to their famed talents in welding/metal-crafting! The offer was simply too much to refuse and admittedly, the family saw it as an attempt to mend uneasy relations between the Nords and Redguards! Thankfully, it was mostly a success and led to the sizable, if scattered population of Redgaurds in Skyrim!

On her mother’s side, snarky and spunky former soldier, Emeline, is the daughter of famed, respected General Tulius and former legate Rosalie Sr. who Rosie was named after. Years ago, Tulius and Rosalie Sr. met when Tulius was given the difficult task of keeping her out of nonsense for more than a day. She was under his command as a new, admittedly nervous captain and she was absolutely out of control. It’s a total enemies-to-friends-to lovers thing as Tulius tries to keep her from fighting anything that moves and she tries to loosen up the uptight dreamer. Ulfric and Rosalie Sr. had a... strained relationship -- initially with Ulfric placed under her command and looking up to her, and Rosalie Sr. now trying but ultimately failing to keep him from ruin.  When it came to the end of the war – Rosalie Sr. Only wanted an end to the bloodshed, a peaceful life crafted by love and family. Ulfric, in his time as a prisoner, had seen too much to want such a thing, and when they reunite it’s far from happy and ends with the death of Rosie’s grandmother. (Only further securing her hatred of Ulfric, but leads to much deeper, personal complexities rooted in their relationship)

** Rosie and her grandfather are extremely close, especially after the loss of Rosalie Sr. as Tulius finds comfort in seeing just how much of his spouse lives on in Rosie. She’s one of the few people who can still make the bitter old man laugh and he fondly has nicknamed her ‘Rosebud’. 
While not of biological relation, Eldrims Bedaleth found a great spot in Rosalie’s heart as her neighbor and first friend as a child. Fleeing from Windhelm as the stigma against Elves, Khajiit, and Argonians, grew, Eldrims was sculpted into a bitter, cold-hearted man due to the hatred he was suddenly met with in his old home of Skyrim. Thankfully, his heart of stone was soon melted after being bombarded with unwelcome visits from a curious, exhilarated child Rosie, and while he still tries to play the part of a snappy old man, he’s a complete sap for the Dragonborn.

Relationships: 

- Out of everyone else in Skyrim, Farkas is absolutely the person she trusts most and almost always has by her side – they’re practically tethered at the hip! The first person she met in Whiterun after helping against a troll, Farkas was all too excited to introduce her to the Companions and afterward, Farkas found himself not too keen to leave her side. He balances out her fierce excitement with his gentle, demeanor and she gifts him with the confidence and encouragement needed to overcome his insecurities regarding his intelligence and pain from his past. Somehow, she’s able to make the quiet giant practically chatty and throughout the years comes to understand him like no one else. Through all their adventures, however, feelings beyond friendship begin and a notoriously ridiculous case of mutual pining begins…

- Totally not bitter runner-up to the title of Rosalie’s best friend, Hadvar was in fact, the first person Rosalie met in Skyrim – even if under less than ideal circumstances. After saving her in the fiery destruction in Helgen, the months spent together in Riverwood are memories the two will truly never forget. Rosalie may or may not have had a tiny bit of a crush on the soldier, and while the window closed when Rosalie left Riverwood, it didn’t stop Hadvar from catching feelings heavy and hard – not that he’d ever admit it aloud, of course. The two write to each other very often and when together, the two are complete doofuses. 

- Someone has to keep Rosalie in check and Lydia was the perfect pick for the job. Technically housecarl, actually dear friend, Lydia is extremely watchful over little excitable Rosalie whose soft heart has gotten her into more trouble than she probably realizes. (Farkas and Lydia are proud founders of the ‘Rosalie Protection Squad’) Rosalie helps Lydia to find love with Ysolda and helps her to find comfort in domesticity and a general understanding of social behavior – gifting Lydia with kindness rarely found in the tundras of Skyrim – it’s something she never forgets. 

- While Farkas and Rosalie are just about soulmates, Rosie and Vilkas are very close to arch-enemies as one can get without outright declaring war. From the moment Rosalie defeated her first dragon in Whiterun, Vilkas has seemingly been rude and spiteful to the ‘mountain woman’ without reason. They bicker constantly, and while many saw it as a rivalry without end, Kodlak’s solution to send them to Markarth may cause the rift between them to finally be sealed…

- If Rosalie truly hates anyone, it’s Ulfric, without a single doubt, she despises him beyond belief for his treatment of non-humans and murder of her grandmother. Their interactions are almost always disastrous and full of shouting matches, and this poison between them makes the Civil War a time in the history of Skyrim nothing short of legendary. 

- Paarathurnax and Rosalie have a sweet familial history rooted in her childhood that made their reunion all the sweeter. Paarathurnax, while not quite an advisor, gives words of wisdom that stick to Rosalie for the rest of her life and her in return, has provided him a friendship he would’ve once thought impossible. (Their past is something I’m very much looking forward to elaborating on!) 

** There are more relationships with Rosalie beyond this, but these are who I’d consider of most importance to her immediate story against Alduin and overall introduction to the world of Skyrim. 

Special/Fun Facts:

- Throughout her life, Rosalie develops more draconic features, especially as her dragon soul attempts to have more and more control of her. As a result, she develops fangs and smaller, thinner pupils – amid other things as the years go by. Alongside these traits, Rosalie as well is unable to take on other forms, as a result of her soul. Meaning, she’s physically incapable of becoming a werewolf or vampire, and she tried when being inducted in the circle. It was a horrifyingly agonizing experience as her body rejected the turning. (Farkas fretted over her for days afterward – he was a mess)

*** Speaking of her Dragon soul, it’s resulted in a very painful, sorrowful revelation for Rosalie that while I won’t reveal just yet, does threaten to shatter her entire world and send her spiraling as the years pass on. 

- During her first fight against a dragon in Whiterun, in an effort to protect the soldiers within the tower as Mirmulnir attempts to send fire barreling inside Rosalie uses herself as a human shield, and while it works it causes Rosalie to have long, searing burn scars all over her back. It leaves her with extreme insecurity and a shot to her confidence but later on the revelation of her burns to Farkas leads to him opening up about his past and his own scars, giving her the strength to see the scars as not something to be ashamed of but as a reminder of her strength and what she overcame. 

- Growing up in the mountains, Rosalie knew very little of flowers. (Farthest she traveled was Cyrodil and Solitude, mainly traveling through the mountains during these treks) Subsequently, when arriving in Skyrim, she becomes obsessed with them! She adores all the different colors, shapes, and sizes they can take and has made it a life mission of hers to collect and care for them! (Her favorite are Baby’s Breath, Dogwood, and Gladiolus though she keeps quite a bit of Forget-Me-Nots – they’re Farkas’s favorite)

- Rosalie is the proud owner of a complete asshole of a horse, Enoch. He doesn’t like a single other soul but Rosalie and this poor-temper is what got Rosalie to buy him at a cheaper price. Somehow, she warmed his frigid soul, but it still terrifies Rosalie nonetheless to see her loyal steed rush in to help in a fight. 

- Rosalie’s skin is very used to cloudy weather, often hidden away from sunlight so when she reaches sunny central Skyrim she soon becomes speckled with freckles! They’re all over her cheeks, hands, and arms especially. She fondly calls them ‘sunspots’. 

- Rosalie has a very strange and extreme fear of mudcrabs. They’re just… so strange in comparison to everything else in Skyrim – she hates their legs and their claws and she’ll scream at the top of her lungs when she initially first comes around them.

- She cannot cook to save her life, though Farkas is oddly talented and has tried to teach her many, many times to no avail. (The two often end up in food-fights or in laughing messes anyways) She loves the art of cooking despite this, and is often seen watching with wide eyes whenever Farkas is preparing something. 

- Rosalie also copes extremely well in the cold, she spent most of her childhood there after all! But as a result, her body kind of freaks out in hotter climates (Which is a little ironic considering her Hammerfell origins) 

- Rosie isn’t very adept at magic but bless her heart she tries. Eldrims attempted to teach her when she was little, but she only seemed to excel with destructive magic (and Emeline wasn’t the biggest fan of her daughter accidentally blowing fireballs through the kitchen – secretly though Adnan thought it was hilarious and may or may not have secretly encouraged her to keep learning)

[dxsole]

🖊 !! 🖊!!

Send in just a “🖊“ and I will talk about any one of my OCs at random! | Accepting

Harrison, much to my own surprise, is one of my favorite muses. Not that I don’t love all my muses, but he hits in a way that I wasn’t expecting at all. He was actually a quick, snap decision muse to be added to a greater list that I wanted people to vote on. He was a half baked idea that I made up on the fly– and as I talked to people about what kind of person he was, I just fell deeper into his character. 

I think it’s because he’s so simple, so human, so very familiar; he’s like the grandfather figure I’ve never had? Or the older neighbor next door that plants tomatoes and cooks extra meals to send over to your house whenever he hears someone’s sick? He’s the kindly man in town with no children but who also manages to father the entire town? 

I never knew that I needed to write someone like that, but every time I do (which isn’t nearly as much as I would like to!), it’s always fun. He’s overly dramatic and playful, sweet and caring, so knowledgable about so much just because he’s seen so much. His heart, as well as his appetite for good food, is too large for his own good and it’s just…when I write him? I feel full of love, which may sound a little silly, but he seriously just is so, so, so good? 

All that being said, I also want to give a little headcanon which is: I always like picking an interesting hobby for all my muses, just something that they feel makes them unique and something they can cherish. For Harrison, I picked acting, specifically Shakespearean acting because I felt like that was the perfect role for someone who dreams as big as he does; during the day he’s a mild-mannered guidance counselor, who fumbles over his words and drops papers a lot. Someone unsuspecting. And yet, when he gets on stage, he’s so fluid. So eloquent. It’s this side of himself that he gets to bare freely, and, I don’t know, it’s just one more reason I love playing him! 

Another muse that literally takes my heart is Calisto “Pantera” Espinosa, the Literal Love of My Life. Calisto was actually inspired by Steve Irwin and other Animal Planet folk that I think are so brilliant for bringing awareness to the public about the great, wild world we live in as well as being the bravest people ever! I liked the idea of having a muse who was passionate about conservation, about helping the animals, and who could also wrassle a gator because, in truth, that’s the coolest, most badass thing anyone could ever do, ever. 

Also, I’ve always had a soft spot for characters that were really stoic, quiet, intimidating looking but have hearts of gold– I’m a literal sucker for those types of characters. And, funnily enough, I’ve never even seen The Losers (which is where my Calisto icons come from), but from all the gifsets I’ve found, he’s very much like that in the movie, which was kind of funny! So I kept that persona with Calisto and…man, just, he’s so good.

He’s aware that he’s quiet and people, unfortunately, like to assume things about him so he’s always really calculated when he does speak. Like, okay, Hugo talks when he feels he has something very important to say, 85 speaks when she feels she’s gathered enough information to actually say something of worth, but Calisto is always listening, waiting for the moment someone dismisses him or assumes he doesn’t know what they’re talking about to purposefully open his mouth and recite an encyclopedia to them.

Because, sure, he’s not an astrophysicist but he knows animals. He knows what he’s doing. He knows the terrain better than you and your fiance in the loafers talking about how many episodes of Man vs. Wild he’s seen because guess what!? Calisto’s literally lived it. He can be so snarky when he wants to be. He can be so chatty when he knows you need the lecturing or if the other person seems really interested in learning more. 

Also, I should take this time to say that yes, it says Calisto dislikes vegans in his bio but specifically like, can he understand and appreciate someone wanting to be vegetarian or vegan because they feel it’s wrong to harm animals? Sure, he gets it. People who take it seriously and consume ethically, he can respect that. People who get mad at him for doing his job of relocating animals, suggest in any way he’s hurting these animals, try and force the vegan lifestyle of others, or just act generally stupid and confrontational because of their beliefs for no reason will be hunted for sport in the Everglades. 

Also, also, the phrase the only ethical consumption under capitalism is eating ass gets a very dry chuckle from him every time. Fun fact!

[unladylikc]

🎰{ feel free to include my muses from other blogs as well~ }

【 👓 ;; Livi plays ship roulette 】

Send 🎰 for me to put our muses into a random list generator then post the first five as potential ships! / Always Accepting !!

VIVIAN / LIESE

ohhh boy. here we have one possessed girl and one carefree healer (which i instantly default vivi to being in her heroes verse). either way, i don’t know how this might even work, considering how i doubt liese would even be capable of falling in love during her current state.

VIVIAN / NYLE

lmfao… quite the interesting pair. ngl, this may be a little one sided, considering how i can see vivi enjoying being on the receiving end of nyle’s snarkiness, but also being the type of person he wouldn’t be able to stand, considering how she does appear clueless and clumsy. plus, there’s also the fact that despite being physically fragile, she often overestimates her own strength, to the point where she fits the saying of being ‘all bark and no bite’. at the end of the day, i can’t really see nyle falling in love with her at all. if nothing else, he’d probably find her annoying, laughable, or weird while they’re stuck in askr.

vivi, on the other hand, would find his smugness to be attractive. i mean, c’mon, confident men are so her type! unfortunately, i don’t know whether the same could be same for romantic attraction, considering how i just picture the majority of their interactions consisting of nyle either teasing her or being irritated by her.

VIVIAN / CORRINE

well, i guess they have the potential of being a possible couple, but more than anything else, i can just see them being good friends who get along reasonably well with each other. of course, with how vivi loves vengeance, she isn’t quite a pacifist, so they might be in disagreement over what should be done to nohr during the birthright path... though at the same time, she’s also rather gullible too, meaning corrine could easily convince her nohrians aren’t necessarily bad people and she would trust her.

since both of them are pretty stubborn, on the other hand, there might be some tension between them, with vivi being frustrated af corrine would refuse to accept her healing. also, when it comes to romance. i have a feeling it will take them a long time to even realize they love each other, so if anything, this might be be more a major slow burn. then again, provided corrine isn’t the type to make the first move, i don’t think anything would result from it.

VIVIAN / LI’ARI

uhhh... awakening verse, maybe not, because like you, i don’t really consider second gen x first gen ships to be my particular cup of tea as well. there’s just... lots of complications with it, since when you think about the dynamics behind it, one character is from a time years after the other person, which i always found weird. due to awakening!vivi also being from chon’sin and having a weird fixation with protecting sword wielders, the most i can really see is vivi being the type of older sister figure that spoils li’ari with gifts.

now, fates!vivi, on the other hand is a different matter entirely, because fates!vivi has no relation to awakening!vivi whatsoever, so they’re two different people, despite bearing similarities to each other. simply put, it’s kinda like how caeldori is a reincarnation of cordelia, but in vivi’s case, she isn’t a second gen unit. either way, i admittedly have no idea what lia’ri would think of her fates version... lol. compared to him, fates!vivi is a very chatty person with a unique sense of humor, so in the event they ever got together, they would definitely stand out as a couple, due to them being polar opposites. at the same time, though,  can’t see them outright disliking each other, so who knows? it might be cute.

VIVIAN / LUMINA

okay, so considering how i don’t have a verse for fe4, i’m assuming this ship occurs in a heroes au. either way, it’s something i’m not entirely against, because in theory, they both share a love for writing and lumina isn’t exactly mean-spirited enough for her to warrant much dislike from vivian... meaning it’s a ship that might work.

         ↬ @askrcalled┆varied┆

[fishy12233]

Chronicles of Sturgia

Prologue Part 1: “The Garbled Gossip”

In order for a story to make sense, the reader must know who the main characters are. After all, the main characters are the ones who drive the story. Imagine a middle school cafeteria, bustling with chatter, like a theater before the show. The cafeteria is bright and cheery with its checkered floor and artistic walls. Hundreds of children are chattering at once, some talking about the newest member in a famous band; others are talking about mysterious rumors of aliens, but everyone knows rumors like that are only real in comic books and movies. The chatter continues, an endless garble of noise. Anyone in the cafeteria can see a variety of different students. Six girls walking by while wearing coordinated outfits, a typical guy surrounded by his strange friends, a girl who chooses to doodle on her tablet by herself. However, none of them are our main characters.

As lunch begins, a girl sits down at an empty table with her lunch. Her name is Maddie, and she is the first of our six main characters. She wears a school uniform in a school that doesn’t require school uniforms and has a poppy in her hair. Her eyes are dark, mysterious, and a little sleepy, though her left eye is partially covered by her one-sided bangs. Maddie prefers to spend her time reading spooky novels or playing spooky video games. Her lunch is chopped beef with a slice of devil’s food cake on the side. Maddie isn’t the one who talks very much at her table, but when discussing her interests, she takes full control of the conversation. During an everyday conversation, Maddie is the type of person who tends to listen and observe. This is great for Maddie since she always knows exactly what type of gifts to give her friends on their birthdays.

The chatter continues. Sometimes, when you listen closely, you can listen in on gossip. This can tell someone a lot about what others think of them. Gossip isn’t always the best form of entertainment. But passing students continue to eavesdrop nonetheless.

“Did you see Maddie? She’s so elegant and graceful!”

“She’s like everyone’s big sister. They shouldn’t need to be so dependant on her! She acts like some concerned mom sometimes.”

“But she’s a total goth too! Have you seen her clothes? She looks like she came right out of boarding school! I bet that she’s secretly a witch or something.”

The children continue with their daily routine. The coordinated girls eat healthy salads. A nerdy girl talks to her friends, making sassy remarks with a deadpan voice. Meanwhile, a bratty kid is playing pranks on other people. But none of them are our main characters.

A second girl sits down to eat with Maddie. Her name is Susan. She’s Maddie’s little sister and her total opposite. Susan wears a purple A-line dress with pink flowers on it and keeps a white lily in her hair. She also wears black stockings and flowery shoes. Her eyes are bright, happy, and excited. Susan loves cute things, especially cute things from Japan. She likes doing things like watching cute anime or buying cute plushies. Susan makes her own Japanese bento lunch, complete with octopus sausages and onigiri. But sometimes, Susan decides to go all out and create a cute and elaborate bento lunch with cute characters and a large variety of food. When Susan first saw how cute bento boxes could be, her eyes sparkled with awe. She saved up her allowance so that she could buy her own genuine bento box. Her friends always love her bento box designs and ask her if she could make lunch for them. Susan is extroverted, which in this case means she loves to talk, but is overly dependant on others and sometimes comes off as rude and annoying. Anyone who calls Susan annoying isn’t her friend. During an everyday conversation, Susan is the type of person who gets distracted by her surroundings and always carries the conversation. Susan truly cares about her friends, but always forgets things like their birthdays. Fortunately, she has her sister Maddie to help her remember.

The garbled gossip goes on and on. Everyone wonders what people think of them. They get self-conscious and anxious just thinking about it. Gossip is always behind one's back, but it’s not always well hidden.

“Have you seen Susan? OMG! She’s soooo cute!”

“She may be cute, but she’s annoying. Why can’t she just leave us alone? She should just go back to relying on her sister for everything.”

“She’s also a total weeb! Susan is so into anime and cutesy stuff, it’s sickening! Also also, she totally copied my style!”

While the peanut gallery rambled on, the kids kept eating their lunch. One of the coordinated girls finishes eating and walks over to another table to talk to her other friends. A snarky girl who looks rather similar to Susan gossips and acts as if the leader of her group, even though she’s not. Meanwhile, two sisters and their friend talk about the latest horror movies. But none of them are our main characters.

A third kid sits at the table with the sisters. This time, the kid is a boy named Peter. He wears a propeller hat and a shirt with a smiley face and blue-and-yellow-striped sleeves. Peter also wears a heavy backpack, filled with a ton of schoolwork, his lunch, a bunch of colorful yo-yos, some robot parts from the robotics club, and a huge album of trading cards. His eyes are simple, yet optimistic and determined. Peter likes geeky things like robots and trading cards. He always has the coolest toys. His favorite food is ground beef and rice with ketchup that his mom makes for him. During lunch, he also likes to have a grilled cheese and pizza bagels alongside the beef to share with friends. Peter and his friends love to trade and share their lunches. Peter is outgoing and friendly but sometimes is too distracted with building robots to talk. During an everyday conversation, Peter is cool with listening to others talk, but he can easily carry a conversation if needed. People like talking to him because conversations with him are never boring.

The students continue to talk incessantly. Not everyone who talks with friends is a gossip. Sadly, many girls tend to be labeled as gossips just for being outgoing. The saying, “It takes one to know one,” definitely rings true here.

“Peter’s kind of cute. He looks really cool with his gadgets and toys!”

“Are you kidding me? Peter’s a DWEEB!”

“Geez, shut up! Takes one to know one, dweeb.”

Lunch continues on. The coordinated girl and one of her friends decide to do their friend’s hair in wacky hairstyles. A cooler girl sits with the snarky girl that looks like Susan and chat about other people. The bratty kid gets into an argument with some other students. But none of them are our main characters.

A girl named Lisa, the fourth friend, sits at the lunch table. She wears a large tie-dye shirt and worn bell-bottoms. Lisa wears way too many bracelets and keeps her curly dyed hair up in two large pigtails with scrunchies. Her eyes have more makeup than her friends’, which makes them look more flashy. Lisa likes doing fun things like having parties and playing dolls. She likes playing dress-up and usually likes having sleepovers with Peter. Sometimes, Peter and Lisa would play shovelware games and laugh at them during their sleepovers.

Lisa always likes to sneak candy into her lunch, which usually has fun, bizarre food. She always trades food with Peter. Lisa is chatty but very kind, even to people who don’t like her. During an everyday conversation, Lisa is usually the one to start it. She always talks about the latest trends, but Lisa always gets bored from running out of things that she wants to talk about. Lisa knows that people think she’s a girly gossip, but she really wants to get rid of that view people have on her so that she can live a more free life.

The chatter continues. Some people don’t really care about gossip. They’re the smart ones, ignoring others’ opinions and focusing on being themselves. Like a stone wall, harsh words don’t get through to them. But even a stone wall wears down over time.

“You know Lisa right? That weird girl with the flashy accessories?”

“Yeah, what’s her deal anyway? Who’s she tryin’ to impress?”

“I heard that it’s Peter, they always hang out together. What losers!”

Lunch continues, but there are still some students waiting in line for their food. The sister of the girl with the wacky hairstyle writes in her journal while listening to emotional music. While the girl who looks like Susan continues to gossip, the true leader of her friend group sits quietly. She writes poetry and hums a familiar song. The girl with the tablet continues to sit alone and draw in peace. But none of these students are our main characters.

A fifth student sits with Maddie, Susan, Peter, and Lisa. She is carrying a tray piled with food along with her lunch box. Her name is Annie, and she’s wearing a faux raccoon tail hat and a worn plaid shirt with worn jeans. Annie’s eyes are stern but friendly. She’s a tough girl who loves camping and tasty food. Her dad has taken her out hiking and fishing countless times. She’ll eat anything for lunch. She loves meat, and is always down for eating out. Annie’s eyes are much larger than her stomach. This always results in Annie leaving lunch too full and having lots of leftovers to give to her friends. But she doesn’t really mind. Annie volunteers at the local food bank every day, which gives her the opportunity to donate any extra food that she’s gathered during lunch. From time to time, Annie’s friends also volunteer at the food bank. Annie is strong and motivating, but can be insensitive at times. During an everyday conversation, Annie always finds a way to brighten someone’s day. She tends to rush through life, but her friends help her to slow down and appreciate the world around her more.

Almost everyone has settled down to eat. Many students have already finished their lunch. But the chatter is louder than ever. In the end, others’ opinions don’t matter. But even still, when a person spends too much time taunting people and belittling friendship, they get annoying. People start ignoring them and getting bored of them. Sometimes, one has to wonder if that person turned out well.

“Do you know Annie?”

“Yeah, she’s that tomboy. What’s her deal?”

“She can be so insensitive, giving false motivation. What a hypocrite.”

Lunch begins to close. Students are finishing their food and packing up. The coordinated girls reunite and begin heading back to class. The strange friends of the regular guy begin finishing up, but still chatter. Everyone else, including the bratty kid and the artistic girl, throw out their trash and begin to leave. But none of them are our main characters.

Before lunch begins to end, one last person sits with his friends. He arrives at the table with Annie. His name was Chris. Chris is considered a nerd. He wears large glasses, a bowtie with a school uniform, and has his hair slicked back. Chris is shorter than his friends. He’s a studious kid who loves reading and math. Chris was the last to join his friend group. When he first joined, he was apprehensive. He was too scared to ask them to let him join their group. But what he wanted more than anything else was to have a group of friends he could be a part of. He simply needed to build up his courage. His lunch normally consists of hard boiled eggs, tuna, and salty crackers. Chris is kind, but is also shy and awkward. During an everyday conversation, Chris is the type of person who listens, but really wants to speak. He may be shy, but he has his friends to take care of him and help him become more social.

The cafeteria is almost empty, but the chatter still lingers. The students walk back to class, yet our six main characters still remain, being the last ones to pack up and leave. In the end, gossip doesn't matter. Only your own actions matter. In the future, things may get better. Sometimes, it doesn't get better. The best we can do is make the best of it. But we must also strive to improve our lives for the better.

“You know Chris, right?”

“Who?”

“The kid who always follows Annie around. He's like her minion or something.”

“Oh yeah, the egghead! He just, like, doesn't stand out to me a lot.”

Finally, everyone leaves, heading back to class and taking their noisy chatter with them. The garbled gossip fades away, leaving the cafeteria empty. But just because lunch is over doesn’t mean that the story is. A show always begins on an empty stage. Just like a play, the story is only just beginning...

[madameazzure]

@o-c-o-c-o since you wanted to hear about that fic…

             I was thinking about this AU where the Union instead of working with the werewolves, tried to control them. And their way of doing so is with a control/shock collar (I know, much original, very smart  -_- ) and by stripping them of every bit of individuality and treating them like animals until they begin to doubt they aren’t one. In this AU werewolves are considered lowly creatures, like a smarter type of dog, used and ordered around by their owners, and not cared for too much (if one died, they’d just get a new one).

            I was thinking about this AU setting where Tao and Takeo are still working for the Union. Since their werewolf had died in their last mission, Tao and Takeo are given an new one: M-21. He’s as much of a troublemaker and snarky individual as ever, but thankfully the shock collar keeps him in his place.

            As I’ve said before, werewolves are like dogs here. Everyone treats them like animals, addressing them with ‘it’, making them sleep on the floor and such (yes, I am a horrible human being for hurting characters, then showering them in love and affection. Yes, I will let go of this trope only when you pry it from my cold dead hands), but Tao being Tao, treats M-21 like a human (or werewolf).

            In one mission, M-21 gets injured and probably trapped inside a crumbling building. Tao receives orders from his superior to leave M-21 to die (because he’s a collateral damage they can afford) and return to the base, but Tao goes like ‘but consider this, what if I go back for him’ and does so anyway.

            Tao treating him like a human and going as far as to go against orders to help him make M-21 get that ? mark inside his head and wonder what’s that Tao’s deal and why is he acting like that. Being shown kindness is not something M-21 is used to, so he’d rather find out Tao’s (geez, can I make Takeo more passive than this? -_- ) true intentions rather than sitting duck (his first guesses are that Tao does it either to amuse himself or he’s an idiot). Either way, cautiously, he tries to be less, uh, himself (less cactus-y XD), and stops snarking as much at Tao or trying to get Takeo to snap.

            He’s not too happy to find that him being just a little bit civil makes Tao twice as chatty (that idiot probably thinks they’re now friends or something), he is definitely not happy when Tao tries to make him eat at the same table as them (werewolves were not supposed to be seated at the same table as their owners), he is absolutely not happy when Tao finds out that he is warmer than average humans and demands that he sleeps with him in the same bed because their room is cold (and because Tao doesn’t like him sleeping on the floor).

            One day, Shark picks on Tao (because I imagine that’s something he’d do for a laugh), and M-21 casually flings him through a wall because ‘take your hands off him’.

            “Let go, Shark,” Tao warned, trying not to wince at the other’s painful grip on his arm.

            “Are ya in hurry or something? C’mon, my friends and I wanna have a little fun, just like old times. ” Shark laughed, his eyes holding that dangerous intent that sent shivers down Tao’s spine. He couldn’t win a fight against the other – that he knew all too well from previous experiences – and Takeo was nowhere near in sight. He didn’t want, couldn’t go through such a thing again.

            “I said let go!” The hacker raised his voice, barely holding it from cracking in fear, his mind flooded with dark thoughts.

            Suddenly, Shark disappeared in a flash of silver, flitted into the nearest wall.

            “He said,” M-21 spoke dangerously low, his words holding a hint of a growl, eyes slitted and barring his fangs, “to let go.”

            So basically, I have a few scenes but nothing clear so I’ll probably abandon this AU in the corners of my laptop to catch digital dust (alongside with my other ideas).

            PS: apologies are in order as I’m TRYING to force myself to write the next snippet/chap for Would You Kindly? and I hate and holy hell is getting longer than expected and frankly I’m so close to posting it as the unholy mess it is that you would not believe.

[partyopossum]

Moose’s Adventures in D&D 5e - Session 1

So I started playing 5e (I usually play 3.5 and Pathfinder, but 5e has been fantastic) with my amazing friend Jacky and her boyfriend. We’ve played three sessions so far, and let me tell you it has been a doozy. So I’m going to go over the highlights/summary of the first few sessions, which is easy ‘cause we’ve had three. For now, session 1. First bit is we used a character background randomizer book/PDF. From that, thanks to a series of dice rolls we got: A dragonborn bard who worships the Goddess of the underworld and writes ballads in her name. His girlfriend was kidnapped and his ultimate quest was to get her back. A demigod tiefling rogue, daughter of aforementioned Goddess of the underworld, who - thanks to a long series of unfortunate rolls - experienced...

her birth being in the medical tent just outside a raging battlefield

being born with glowing violet eyes that have heat vision

moving to another country during infancy

having to witness the first of her two younger half-sisters be killed by a werewolf

having her own throat gouged out by said werewolf (this makes it painful to talk and she sounds like a fallout ghoul if she talks without something to sooth it)

developing lycanthropy

her skin turned to a pitch black color

her other younger half-sister being taken away and dying of an unknown disease

the first half-sister now haunts her and attacks her every 50-something days (I don’t have my character sheet for the exact numbers)

being forced into a child marriage

a war starting within her country

being blamed for starting that war, thus being thrown into prison and branded on the back of the next as a traitor

less than three years later being let free when they realize she didn’t do it

the government making amends by helping her home village become more prosperous

but that doesn’t mean jack-shit since she can’t stay in one town for more than a year and a day

a distant family member died and gave her their private island in their will

every lover she has meets their untimely demise after 3 months (I think)

also she’s a pyromaniac

And this is all before she turned 18! I’d give more details on the dragonborn, but I arrived near the butt-end of his background rolls lol Now, the world is a magical, mostly rebuilt post-apocalyptic Earth, specifically America, and more specifically Philidelphia. Or was they call it, Phil-e-del-fiya. Technology that exists include phones that were modeled after Nokia phones (you know the one) and the means to make ice cream.

So our first session begins! Ayl (my teifling) and the dragonborn (I can’t remember his name at the moment)(played by Jacky’s boyfriend) don’t know each other. They’re both just people for hire. Ayl came into town about a month ago, just doing her nomad thing, while the dragonborn had been there for a while, looking for clues about his missing girlfriend. There’s a guy named Jeremiah (I think) who owns a bar that also sells ice cream. Ayl loved the ice cream as it soothes her throat long enough to allow her to talk for about 20 minutes, and the dragonborn played for the bar when he didn’t have other work. Well a job was posted and Ayl and the dragonborn agreed to team up after a series of increasingly frustrated gesturing from Ayl. They split off to get supplies and to meet at the bar around noon. Ayl takes like 5 minutes to get her stuff, writing it down and handing it to each shop owner. When passing the dragonborn, who had perusing the shop for like half an hour at that point, Ayl even deals with the pain of talking just to say “Git gud, scrub” when passing him with her collection. Fast forward a while to the magic shop, where Ayl didn’t bother to go to (she’s a rogue with heat vision, she sees no reason for magic doodads), and the dragonborn is still taking his time. Ayl goes to look for him, ice cream cone in tow. She’s more chatty now, of course, and doesn’t sound like she’s been a smoker for the last 500 years. The shop owner, with a deck of many things, is enticing the dragonborn to use it. He does. And so does Ayl. As a result (and these aren’t in order soooo)...

the dragonborn got three wishes from a card he had to use within half an hour. One wish was for his girlfriend to be returned to him safely, the other was to learn what a pizza was after reading about it in ancient tomes, and the third was for an item that would grant him more wishes. So he got a magical wish granting Magic 8 Ball

Ayl’s card forced her to fight what was equivalent to a lowgrade grim reaper

the next card for the dragonborn made him shrink down to like a foot tall

then the dragonborn drew a card that got him a weapon called “The Dragonslayer” which was super awkward

the dragonborn also got long, luscious black hair that he can’t get rid of from a card

We then turned to the Magic 8 Ball cause things were getting too random for the cards. Wishes included for the dragonborn to be normal sized, and for Ayl to meet her mother...Which lead her to be transported to the underworld where we learned reapers kinda have an office vibe going on, complete with talking while sipping coffee from novelty mugs. Ayl made her way to her mother’s chambers, where the WORLDS MOST AWKWARD FAMILY REUNION took place. Like holy shit it was uncomfortable. Meanwhile the dragonborn asks to know where she went, which causes him to be transported there too, where he eagerly plays a ballad for his deity, and learns the snarky pain in his ass he just met today was her daughter. Ayl gets a bell that can allow her to contact her mother if she needs help, which she stashes in her boobage, and they’re sent back to the sorcerer’s shop. By now Ayl’s noticed she’s been eating the same ice cream cone for like two hours now and it’s not gone anywhere. It’s not melting and not matter how much she eats, it’s still the same amount. She quickly figures out the sorceress she’d been flirting with while they’ve been dilly-dallying in her shop was the cause, and also learns if she lets go of the ice cream, it’ll just float and follow her around. They decide to take a break and reconvene the next day, since the dragonborn had to get reacquainted with his girlfriend, and both of them had to meditate with their new weapons to better use them. And that ends SESSION 1!