#I wouldn't be writing if I didn't want to see more from the lore myself

[cmyksky]

I have my fair share of criticisms for Sky lore, but I can't quite empathize with some of the things people say about it. Forgive me if this results in me sounding like a prick; this is my opinion, and nobody is obligated to agree with it. Ramble under the cut.

One such idea I can't get behind is that nothing/very little is confirmed; this is a game that relies on conveying ideas nonverbally, aside from some introductory/game mechanic stuff. I think a line has to be drawn when deciding that something is "unconfirmed" just because the game doesn't hold your hand and tell you "Hey, this is what happened" with a narration/cutscene sequence.

Tangentially related is the idea that Sky cannot be understood without supplementary material from outside the game. I do agree that some things would be harder to grasp or deduce, such as dark stone specifically being a source of conflict in the kingdom. However, I think Sky makes quite a few obvious points. If you breeze through the game without pondering it very much or paying attention, then sure, you miss a lot. Sky is fairly linear and cyclical, but there's plenty you can easily pass on your first few runs. But let's think about a few things that we can make connections between through the game alone, because I find it a bit surprising that some people don't think twice to pick up on the themes.

Your flame is the key to everything in the game: activating mechanisms, helping spirits, burning darkness, and so on. The Elders also take your flame in every cutscene in various ways. Elders have entire temples dedicated to them; the flame must be very important for these authority figures to accept your offering. The entire game beckons you to follow the light, and light creatures guide and assist your journey (pun unintended). I don't have to mention the title of the game, right? And yet, why do we see some spirits guide these creatures while others trap and kill them? Why do we free caged mantas from the forest temple and encounter a "light miner" in one of the most somber realms in the game? Why do we see war waged against these creatures? I personally do not believe it requires much complication to guess that the ancestors wanted their power and exploited them as a resource.

The game starts with our birth/rebirth, with dawn, with simple mechanics and architecture. The game ends with our death, with night, with the grand pinnacle of the kingdom and the worst of the destruction. We see joyful, carefree spirits who connect with light creatures and live in peace. We trudge through polluted waters and sludge-clogged pipes, relive memories and view murals of spirits dying and fleeing from dark creatures and war.

And no, I'm not saying I've never been disappointed or that the game should be immune from criticism simply for its format or intent in terms of player experience. I have been left wanting more, and I have oftentimes wished the devs would give at least some spotlight to the kingdom’s destruction outside of the base game and a handful of seasons/seasonal quests. I can't help but wonder why TGC wants to keep a long-lived, dedicated fanbase without giving us the deeper lore that we want! And yet, I feel like many of the criticisms I observe are skewed by burned-out players or simply exaggerated due to frustration. Hope this coheres; I just like contemplating this game's lore.

[oh-koenig-my-koenig]

Fit for a King - WIP - "You are tiny"

Fit for a King - Masterlist

König fanfiction scenes and chapters that do not yet have a coherent plot

planned content/TW: rivals to lovers, König x fem!character (not too descriptive to make it accessible for more readers), social anxiety killing machine König, badass friendly FMC, dual POV, secret relationship, switch energy, NSFW, adult themes, strong language, violence (more details are still unclear, gonna update as I go), authentic austrian german

a/n: well, my brain isn't letting go of this newest obsession of mine, so I will appease it and write some scenes/chapters that come to mind. i have written more original work and less fanfictions and our boy (and KorTac) is hard to research, but I'll try my best to stay some-what cannon to the lore. it'll also probably get darker down the road.

if your character doesn't have a tragic backstory, why not give him one?

A not so meetcute

(CW: some mature language)

I strut along the hallway, I'm already late to report for duty and turn the corner abruptly. I collide with somebody else at full walking force and almost get pushed to the floor, if the big figure blocking the light shining from above wouldn't have caught me. "Ouch.", I yelp, more surprised than hurt, even though I feel like ran over by a truck.

I steady myself to look at the "truck". I look up and I keep looking up and up. At first there's just this chest, a huge chest, in a simple compression shirt, but oh boy. The weapon holster is what I see next, sitting snug at the side of his torso. Shoulders, big broad shoulders, and normally you would expect to have a head sitting on top of them and a face looking back at you. I guess, he has one as well, even though I don't see one bit of it. I strain my neck to finally meet his eyes.

But all I see is the dark black of a… sniperhood? A T-shirt? I mean, it looks like a t-shirt, that somebody cut holes in to fashion themselves a kind of mask. The front is stained with bleach, two streaks coming down from the eyeholes... My eyes widen as it sinks in who this is. König. KorTac operator, field combatant and one of my superiors. Shit. I've heard some rumors about him. And it seems like at least some of them ring true.

"You are tiny.", he states matter-of-factly, his Austrian accents shining through the uttered words. It's the first thing he says to me. "And you are... not.", I retort. I can't make out his expression as it so obviously is hidden by his mask. He nods, turns around and heads down the hallway where he came from. I shake my head. What the hell was that?

I stretch myself, feeling the impact of the collision already. My god, that was like being hit by a battering ram. I heard that his specialty is breaking down doors with brute force. I thought this to be ridiculous, but now as I watch the gigantic muscled man strut down the hallway, quickly disappearing, I do believe it. 6'10" killing machine. Ridiculous.

I shake my head again and make my way to the meeting room. Ridgeback is already waiting for me.

______________________________________________________________

Fuck. Shit. Fuck. Verdammt. Ah, des hast du ganz super g'macht.* I tell myself sarcastically in my head as I basically run down the hallway. She must be one of the new hires. Must be. And you almost turned her to mush. Mus. Brei. Human remains splattered against the wall. I curse myself again. I didn't even apologize. "You are tiny." No shit, Sherlock, everybody is tiny compared to you. I continue to mock myself. Fuck, Shit, Fuck.

"Ridge, since when do we hire children?", I ask him as soon as I enter the room. He doesn't even look up. "We don't." He keeps reading. "Then why did I just almost run over a recruit that didn't even reach my waist?" – “Because compared to you, everybody seems tiny.” He sighs and looks up at me. “None of our personnel are under 6’, not even the women.”

“Even the new recruits?”, I ask him again. He furrows his brow. “What did you do, König?”, he wants to now. “I may or may not have almost trampled one of them.”, I say, kleinlaut***. He sighs again. “I think that was Müller, she’s actually on her way here.”, Ridgeback says. “Müller? Is she german?”, I ask in surprise. I didn’t hear such an accent on her, but to be fair, she only said like three words… and I wasn’t really paying attention to her words anyway.

On cue, the door opens and I fall silent. “Permission to enter, Sir?”, she says with a clear voice. Not at all seeming like I almost turned her into pulp. I take two steps back to stand in the back, trying to blend into the wall behind me – which I already know from experience is not going to work. “Come in.”, Ridge says. “Müller, right?” She nods and approaches. My focus is fully on her, all the small bits I noticed about her before are still there. She’s not wearing a mask because it’s not necessary off mission. You know, like you normally would. She has laugh lines. Around her eyes and mouth. Fucking laugh lines. She doesn’t look like she belongs here.

The two of them are talking, but I catch every single time when her gaze lands on me, even if it’s just from the corner of her eyes. I fight against the urge to turn away every time she looks at me, when I hear Ridgeback drop the old s-word. Sniper.

My ears perk up and I finally pay attention to what they’re saying again. “Your track record is almost immaculate, Müller. You’re gonna be an asset to the team on the next missions.”, he says to her. I can see that she tries to hold back a proud expression or smile on her face, but she doesn't really succeed at that. God damn it, a sniper. I groan and make my way to the door which doesn’t go unnoticed. “König.”, Ridgeback pipes up. “You wanna show Müller the way to the dorms?” as I already have my hand on the doorknob.

I still for just a moment and the roaring sensation of anxiety seeps at my feet and crawls up my body until it’s nested at the back of my head. I can’t talk to her. Not after embarrassing myself before. “Nein.”, is all I say before I’m out the door.

*God damnit. You did a really bang up job. ** two different words for pulp/mash *** meekly (word for word: 'smallloud')

[shihalyfie]

I've alluded to tri. having some very troubled production behind the scenes, and among everything that apparently went on back there, there seem to have been at least two major bottlenecks: 1) the fact that the director (who, based on his own statements about deliberately not consulting source material, most likely didn't even watch Adventure to begin with) kept asking everyone to make things more "mature" without being clear on what that actually meant, and 2) the fact they ran out of budget and had to rewrite the entire plot halfway into it. Even the most brilliant of creators probably wouldn't be able to work at their best under such conditions.

But conversely, this also means that there were some excellent people involved in production whose efforts probably haven't been as appreciated as they should be! So I want to take a moment to spotlight some people I want to give props to:

Ayana Yuniko and Nakanishi Yasuhiro: These two scriptwriters were childhood Digimon fans who were thrilled to be on the project, and their enthusiasm clearly shows in every interview they were in. Ayana even made keen observations like noticing that the Adventure kids aren't as super-tight as people tend to make them out to be (something I've pointed out myself, and something that generally only tends to crop up among fans who have studied the series closely), and Nakanishi stated that she would slip him detailed notes about the characters and their relationships.

Both of them stated they were trying to portray the Adventure characters in a character-accurate way but kept getting their scripts rejected for not being "mature" enough, leaving them unsure about what they were supposed to do. Their roles on the series were also limited; Ayana was on parts 1, 2, and 4 while Nakanishi was on part 4 only, and they were sharing the scriptwriter role with multiple others (even within a single movie). But if I were asked to pick who on the staff list I would want to see come back for another Digimon work, it would absolutely be these two.

Kakikara Yuuko: The one in charge of overall writing for the series. tri. had a total of five scriptwriters and could have up to four(!) on a given movie, so because of that, her statements on the series and its story direction have been a bit difficult to tell whether it was her idea personally or whether she was delivering the writing room's discussion result. But one of her final statements on the series basically amounted to "I'm grateful if you even came to watch it to the end at all," and she was quite humble about saying she felt things could have been done differently; considering it sounds like she had a hard time keeping everyone and everything in order, I can only imagine she went through a lot trying to make sure everything ended safely. Incidentally, her writing portfolio is also quite respectable (and even includes kids' shows).

Suzuki Takaaki: The person with the job of "setting researcher", i.e. the one with the job of looking into the lore. Sadly, it seems like most of his ideas didn't make it into the final series (possibly because of the budget loss-induced rewrite), but his one solo interview indicates that he put quite a bit of conscientious thought into how Digital World lore works, including the idea of an EMP weapon that would affect Digimon easily but not humans (an idea that doesn't pop up among fans as often as you'd think, and took up until last year to make it into actual Adventure material via Takeru's 02TB in-universe fanfic).

Sakabe Gou: The person in charge of the series BGM. We haven't heard a lot from him, but the little we have indicates that although he also had difficulty understanding what the director was asking for when he wanted "mature" music of some kind, he himself put some very thorough thought put into the composition. In particular, he went into detail regarding the music used at the beginning of part 4, which seems to be a fan-favorite track from what I've seen (it's also my favorite too!). Sakabe also has an extensive and respectable portfolio outside Digimon; in particular, he's very highly regarded in Kamen Rider circles, so if you have a friend who's a fan, it might be a good idea to ask them about it!

[felkithecreator]

Do you have revalink fic recs?

Oh do I ever. (Please don't take the numbers that I use too seriously, they're not to really judge the quality of work or anything it's just level of enjoyment for me and my particular tastes)

My favorite Revalink fic of all time is Pinesong by aperplexingpuzzle!! Honestly it's just an absolutely amazing work, and personally I think it's one of the greatest post-calamity Revalink stories written. Link and Revali bond on Vah Medoh after Revali's been freed and exists as a spirit, and while Link struggles through the rest of his adventure. Absolutely recommend, 10/10.

Finding Link by Umbreonix is another one I'd absolutely recommend. It's so silly and just - the characterization of Link and Revali is so fun. Link goes missing after the defeat of Calamity Ganon, and it's up to Revali to find him and potentially bring him back. Honestly Umbreonix's other Revalink work Beating about the bush is also phenomenal - that one's unfinished, but it's also great if you want to read something silly. It's a modernized/human version of Hyrule, which is super interesting as well. All That Glitters is hilarious as well. Recommend them all around 8.5/10.

Linger On by ICanFlyHigher is one I genuinely loved as well. It's been a while since I've read it, but I do know that the vivid descriptions of combat and fighting, and just - the immersion of it is so impressive. So I'd really really recommend this one. It's basically just Botw, but you're really put in Link shoes + that extra touch of Revalink. Again, haven't read it in a while, but 9/10 recommendation from what I remember.

I Lost Myself by self_indulgent_authorship is amazing as well. I love reading from Revali's perspective, and just - the take on Link and Revali getting to know each other after Link's lost his memory is so interesting and refreshing. I wouldn't recommend it if you don't like a bit of Zelda-bashing, but I think this fic handles it well and it didn't feel as if it were over the top or anything. 9/10 recommendation.

Snow filled days by SharkPinata is a great one if you're just down for a fun time!! The author kind of took a concept/idea and ran with it, and the plot grew later - and it shows, a bit, but honestly that's part of the fun with this fic. A great thing about it is you can also see the author's writing style improve over time as they write (I desperately hope that the same can be said about my fics too), so it's fun in that aspect of well. The concept is that Link isn't a knight, and just lives in Selkie's Spot in Hebra - where Revali regularly comes to visit him because they're each other's only friends. 7.5/10 recommendation.

Shades of Blue also by self_indulgent_authorship is just fucking amazing. It's the normal botw journey, but you get so much more intricate lore and flashbacks than the OG game - one where Link and Revali knew each other before they became champions - and it's so so so so good. I genuinely think it's one of the greatest Breath of the Wild fics out there, regardless of Revalink. 10/10 recommendation.

Come Morning Light by misscoconi is great as well!! I haven't read it in a long while but I do know it's one of my favorites. It's very sweet - and it's where Link and Revali begin a shared sleeping arrangement. (Meet Me Halfway is the sequel, also very good.) 10/10 recommendation.

The Longest Night by tirsynni is amazing. It's a relatively short fic, and it's unfinished, but it's still just - great. Trigger warning for some things, I'd definitely recommend reading the tags first, but like, I love. It's an interesting exploration of Link's psyche, and Revali's response to it. Honestly, anything by tirsynni tends to be amazing. 8/10 recommendation.

The Effect of the Illusion of Truth by GeryutheTzakandi!!! This is genuinely one of my favorite fics ever - it's so silly and funny and just an all-around good time. Small warning in that it's unfinished and hasn't updated since 2022, but like - I'd still give it a read because what is there is a fun time. It's a fic where Revali and Link decided to get married so that Link and Zelda don't have to. (And no, the two of them were not previously dating.) 10/10 recommendation.

(Another good one by GeryutheTzakandi is Deftly avoiding saying exactly what you mean - this one's hilarious, and Revali is surprisingly self-aware.)

Inertia by sincosma is a great exploration of how Link's amnesia affects the relationship between him and Revali - and what promises they made pre-Calamity. The memories are so interesting yet heart-breaking to read - but the happy ending makes it very much worth it. 9/10 recommendation.

A Seed of Song by Ginneke is adorable. I'm always a sucker for child fics/baby acquisition fics, especially if they're done well, and, well - this one is definitely done well. It's very cute - it's unfinished, but I still think it's worthwhile to read what's been written so far. The drama of Link not wanting to marry Princess Zelda is also very interesting. 7.5/10 recommendation.

Under the Stars by peterpiez is one of my favorites!! Honestly because it's one of the very few Revalink Linked Universe fics to exist. There's very little active Revalink, given most of it is just Link mourning and being retrospective in response to the lives and loves of the other Links, but I still really enjoyed. This is also unfinished, and I don't see the author ever updating it, but I still would recommend giving it a go.

The Last Song on the Wind by Inked_Jael is another incredible fic. There's so much worldbuilding, and insight to Link's thoughts, I just love this one so much. It's super interesting because it explores the politics and the different cultures of Hyrule. I know second-person style can sometimes throw people off, but I think it works really really well given the story - and also if you keep in mind that it's about Link, just... please read this. Their work needs more love. 10/10 recommendation.

a moment's respite by cottonmouthcandy is another one of my favorites. It's a bit of a sad read, because it's pre-calamity and you know what's coming for the champions in the future, but it's a story where you get to just enjoy with them their little vacation at the beach. It's just sweet, and nice. It's been a while since I've read it, though, so those are more just the vibes that I remember rather than the content of the story itself. 9/10 recommendation.

the wind through the flowers by HopeStoryteller is also just a silly, fun time. The boys go Modulga hunting. 7.5/10 recommendation.

I have more, and I would continue, but I kind of have a class in six hours and I need to sleep before then, so uh... yeah. I hope this satisfies you question!! But honestly please spread the love to these authors their works are just absolutely amazing.

[taff-ebrum]

Taff Ebrum - The (almost) 20 year old Kirby OC

You did, in fact, read the title correctly! While Taff's real age may not be twenty, it's been almost twenty years since she was created. She was the first OC I ever created for ANYTHING. Her existence sparked my journey as a storyteller.

Let me start from the beginning.

Taff's creation:

It's December 2006 (I think). A younger me is sitting on the carpeted floor of my living room, it's in the middle of the afternoon, and Mom and I just got back from shopping at Walmart. I had turned on one of the episodes of Kirby: Right Back at Ya! that the DVR had recorded.

The episode playing was Masher 2.0. (which was my introduction to Knuckle Joe) I didn't fully understand what was going on in the episode, so I paid attention to the characters I had attachment to. Tiff and Kirby.

I must have tilted my head a bit, because I heard a light jingle on top of my head. I had deer antlers on, which my Mom had picked up for me at the store. I looked back at the screen.

It was this exact frame that the idea popped into my head. The jingle of the bells stuck with me. Younger me thought back to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which had stuck with me. I pictured a small little deer at Tiff's side, maybe helping her bring the tray in.

That's when the idea of Taff was born. A small little pet deer. This was, of course, absolutely not a projection of what pet I may have wanted at the time...

...Okay, well, maybe I did want a pet deer, but that's beside the point.

Younger me lost track of the rest of the episode after that, as I got lost into my own world. I pictured different scenarios where the deer could be interacting with Tiff and the other characters. I played some more of the episodes with this thought in mind.

Then, shortly after, I changed the idea around in my head. What if, instead of a deer character, Tiff had an older sister figure? I adored Meta Knight as a child, so I pictured this older sister fighting the monsters that appeared in Cappytown. That's the idea that stuck.

Early life & concepts

To those who may be on the older side, like me, you may remember an OC named "Petunia Ebrum". That was Taff's original name. At first, she didn't have much of a personality outside of "fight bad guy, love little siblings". But that didn't stop me from asking any fanfic author in the early 2000s to include her in their fics. :'D

No one ever did, if you're wondering!

So I decided to do it myself! I made my own fanfiction.net account and began publishing stories. Most of them stayed in my drafts, but some were lucky enough to make it out into the world. Unfortunately, I don't believe any of these stories still exist, as I deleted my fanfiction.net account after my mother discovered I had one. (I was not supposed to be online, you see.)

Unfortunately, I don't recall much of Petunia's early personality. I think I copied what other people were doing for their OCs personalities and placed that into her. Her personality kind of varied, heavily depended on what kind of story I was writing her for. She wouldn't truly become her own individual until 2011-2012, where I realized vaguely copying other fanfic creators wouldn't cut it.

Oh, and the forms floating beside them... well, I may have taken a bit of inspiration from Sonic the Hedgehog's super forms. I'm willing to elaborate on that further in the future! There are some fun plot elements to it ;D

Enough of the past! Let's talk about the current version of Taff!

Backstory & Lore

Taff was a welcome surprise to Sir Ebrum and Lady Like. Neither of them had moved into Cappytown yet around this time. Thus, the beginning years of Taff's life were relatively normal. She was incredibly outgoing from birth, waving hello to every person she made eye contact with. Since the small ocean village they lived in didn't have a school, Lady Like homeschooled her.

Every day after school was over, Taff would run outside to play games with her friends. They would draw shapes in the sand, play tic-tac-toe, build things out of sand, and splash each other with salt water. Sir Ebrum and Lady Like would watch over the children as they played from their porch.

Taff was the kind of child to make sure everyone could be included in their games. She didn't stand for any kind of bullying and spoke up whenever someone said something out of line. The other children followed her without question and she never took advantage of that.

When Sir Ebrum got his job with King Dedede, Taff was devastated to leave her home and friends behind. No amount of begging on Taff's end could convince her parents to stay in their village. They left. Taff's never heard from any of her childhood friends ever again.

Taff hated King Dedede from her very first interaction with him. While Lady Like and Sir Ebrum dressed to impress and acted the part, Taff refused to respect him. She would not bow to him, she would not call him King Dedede, and, she called him the worst insult she could think of at the time... "smelly".

Being the immature baby King Dedede is, he decided to "show that tiny spoiled brat who's boss". That's when Taff saw her very first monster.

She wanted to leave. She wanted to go home. She wailed and begged Sir Ebrum and Lady Like to move back. But they wouldn't. So long as they were in the castle, they were usually safe. They were safe, but the townspeople of Cappytown were not. Taff would watch in horror as monsters rampaged freely around Cappytown.

Sometimes, they would destroy property. Eat animals. Hurt the villagers. And no one did anything about it. Taff tried yelling at the King, she tried to encourage the townspeople of Cappytown to rebel against King Dedede, she begged her Dad to put a stop to it.

Nothing worked. The King acted on his own and no amount of pleading and sobbing would solve the problem.

They needed a hero.

Taff began to search around the castle for something she could use to fight back. To protect the people she cared about. No one else would do it, so it had to be her. Seeing the helpless state of everybody around her only inspired her to rise to an impossible task. To become Cappytown's savior.

After locating a sword in the Castle's basement, she began to practice with it in secret. Since both of her parents were occupied with meeting the King's every demand, they couldn't keep as close an eye on Taff as they'd like to, which left her with an abundance of free-time on her hands.

She got good. She was far from perfect, but she was good. She'd study at every opportunity, practice into the night, and never let her sword out of her sight. Taff thought out her plan as much as possible. She would practice on some smaller monsters, to learn what techniques worked and what didn't.

Taff was far from a master swordsman. But after a month of doing nothing but training, she decided to take on her first monster.

(...my drawing tablet stopped working after this doodle...)

She didn't come out of the fight unscathed. She got really hurt. Nevertheless, she had completed the task she set out to do. Taff had come out victorious. She had defeated the monster and protected Cappytown.

When Sir Ebrum and Lady Like discovered what Taff was doing, they were fully against it. But Taff wouldn't take their no for an answer. Regardless if they supported her decision or not, she would continue to go out every night to fight the monsters off.

She wasn't perfect. She didn't win every single one of her battles, but with each battle, with each injury, she improved. The King was infuriated. Taff's actions could inspire a rebellion in the cappies and that was not acceptable. But it wasn't like he could get a monster to "clobber" her, she'd become a martyr if he succeeded.

King Dedede presented Taff with a choice. Either she become captain of his royal guard or he'd fire her dad and make sure that her and her families lives are hell, for as long as they live. Mortified, Taff accepted the deal. From then on, Taff's free-time was spent serving and protecting King Dedede.

She was also tasked with protecting Cappytown from any outside threats. Taff would be expected to not only patrol the castle, but patrol the outskirts of Cappytown in search of anything suspicious. Years of this torture went by. Taff bided her time; spending her hours of mind-numbing patrol coming up with the perfect plan - one that could take the King down for good.

When Taff was a teenager, she stumbled upon a light purple star-shaped ship; this was how she met Meta Knight, Sword Knight, and Blade Knight. She did not trust them, particularly after Meta Knight voiced his intentions on serving King Dedede. Meta Knight, Sword, and Blade were new factors she had to account for moving forward. It made doing anything against King Dedede more difficult.

She despised them. Later on, she would come to realize that their goals were aligned. But I'll save the details on how that came to be for now. ;D

King Dedede didn't fully trust Meta Knight at first, hence why he kept Taff as the head of the guard. Taff was grateful for this as well at first; she believed Meta Knight to be unpredictable and wasn't sure what he'd do with King Dedede.

Not too long after Meta Knight appeared, so did Escargoon, the Waddle Dees, and Waddle Doo. While that meant these new people would take on the responsibilities she previously carried, which allowed her more free-time, this also meant more people would be keeping a close watch on the King.

Doing anything she had planned was now impossible with all the Waddle Dees. Taff had run out of time.

Then Lady Like announced to Taff that she was pregnant again.

Taff was horrified. After all, Cappytown was not a safe environment to raise children in. She was terrified her younger sibling would grow up and force themselves into similar roles that she had. She desperately wanted them to grow up with a normal childhood, to feel safe, to be able to play outside without looking over their shoulder.

She attempted once more to sway her parents into moving elsewhere. Both of them had grown comfortable with their luxurious lifestyles, and believed the King would not bring harm to their children. Taff came to the realization that there was nothing she could do to stop this and broke.

She could do nothing... except take out the poison at its source. Taff would be sacrificing her own life to protect her sibling. She would take out the King and go on the run. But before she could put her plan into action, King Dedede brought Taff into his throne room and told her that Meta Knight would be replacing her as the captain - but she could still act as a guard.

Taff's plan relied on her authority as a captain, so this ultimately foiled it, and ripped away her last shred of hope. This would be around the time Taff realizes her goals align with Meta Knight's.

Years go by: Tiff is born, Fololo and Falala are adopted into the family, then Tuff is born. Monster attacks become warnings instead of disciplinary measures against Cappytown. They rarely damage property or cause injury. They merely serve to scare the villagers of Cappytown into compliance.

Taff, while working with Meta Knight, does her best to make sure Tiff and Tuff are kept out of harms way. While she's expected to keep a low-profile and obey the King's commands as to not upset him, she WILL attack a monster if that monster is directly placing her siblings in danger.

Younger Tiff and Tuff got along fine with Taff. As the two grew older, Tiff realized how messed up their situation was, and came to resent Taff for obediently going along with the King.

Which would roughly bring us to the beginning of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!

Personality:

Around strangers, Taff can come across as distant and stand-offish. She's purposefully a bit rude to people she meets, although her behavior is subject to change depending on how the stranger treats her. If she deems them to be a threat, she will close herself off entirely. But if the stranger is in need of her help, she'll be willing to show a more gentle side to them.

She does not trust easily and has high walls that surround her heart. Because of this, she is almost impossible to befriend. Even when someone has proven themselves trustworthy, Taff values consistency and will judge the individual for repeated actions.

Taff is a very good judge of character and can often tell when someone carries bad intentions.

Around people she deeply cares about, Taff is a lot more laid-back. Her old outgoing nature truly shines through when she's speaking to them. She enjoys joking around with Sword, Blade, and other friends she has in the castle. She's often the one to carry conversations. Taff goes out of her way to stay on top of her family and friends lives.

She is intensely protective of Tiff and Tuff, so much so to the point where she gets angry at Lady Like and Sir Ebrum for not keeping a better eye on them. She adamantly refuses to let either of them help out in bigger fights and becomes infuriated if others attempt to involve them.

If either of her siblings need her for anything, Taff will be there for them in an instant. Taff is decent at giving advice, but difficult at explaining it in a way that consistently makes sense to Tiff and Tuff. She also enjoys assisting them with their homework; this often just leads to her doing it for them, which she's aware of but doesn't mind.

Taff has lost a lot of her sense of self due to her childhood. She is incapable of picturing a world of peace anymore. Without her title as a protector of Cappytown, she is unsure of who she is. Taff's made peace with the idea of dying for Cappytown and fully believes that she will likely die in battle someday.

Conclusion

There is so, so much I excluded from this post. Almost two decades of brainstorming will do that to a character. I'm willing to reveal more lore for Taff (example: how she changes some of the episodes of Kirby: Right Back at Ya) the further she gets in the tournament.

I'm really excited to have this opportunity to share Taff with the world!!! I don't talk much about my OCs with anyone, so I'm super happy I discovered this tournament. Thank you to the hosts for the opportunity and good luck to all!

If you, the reader, have any questions about Taff, please feel free to send asks to this blog. Who knows, Taff might even answer some questions... ;D If I can get my drawing tablet working...

Thanks again to @kirbyoctournament !

[ominous-auburn-orbs]

Here's a writing idea for you, but you don't have to do it

Kinger of Hearts hosts a big ass party celebrating his birthday, gets drunk from the wine and tried to get ✨frisky✨ with Mad Caine(whether he succeeds or not it's up to you)

HEY WHAT'S UP GUYS I'M BACK

Y'know I kinda feel like my works have been getting less and less family friendly over time-

ANYWAY this is set after Queenie's takeover attempt, so Caine and Kinger are together. (I can't be bothered to explain any unknown lore so. Just go with it for my sake)

Oh and wonderland au by @obamerzslop

It had been nearly a month since Queenie's defeat. Everyone was still admittedly shaken, although also more at ease, knowing that they were now truly safe. It was Kinger of Hearts' birthday, meaning there was a large celebration held. Most of the people there were acquaintances and colleagues more than anything, considering the party wasn't even the king's idea, but rather something viewed as a necessity. The only person there that he actually liked was Mad Caine, due to his connection as the jester, along with his advisor, Rabbit Ragatha. Kinger had insisted none of his other friends go, as they wouldn't enjoy it. It didn't feel like it was actually for him, anyway. Pomni, however, had suggested they should still do something separate to celebrate later, which the king was very much looking forward to.

Caine stood near the wall, somewhat unsure around all of the people he failed to recognise. The odd dodo or flower person he'd seen once or twice before at other royal events, but nothing more than that. He had already done his performance at this point, which had been relatively well received, if only because everyone there knew how much Kinger of Hearts valued the jester. They were all far too uptight to truly enjoy Mad Caine's routines, as amusing as they were. He was believed to have a lower class role, making him unworthy of being as close to the king as he was. There was power in the role of jester. Power that they could never achieve.

While better acquainted with the guests, Ragatha was just as uncomfortable. Seeing Caine in the distance, she approached, a genuine smile on her face, which was a rare sight at such events.

"Mad Caine!" She called out as she went to stand beside him. "Your performance was rather good. How are you doing?"

His features relaxed. "Thank you, my friend! I'm not doing too bad myself! How about you?"

Rabbit Ragatha let out a loud sigh. "These events are so very tedious. I know it's already been a month since... everything, but I still feel like I'm in desperate need of a nap." She chuckled quietly. "I wish Kinger of Hearts would realise that he doesn't need to put up this facade anymore, if he ever even needed to in the first place. I think it's still instinct for him to put up this mask for his own safety."

Caine crossed his arms and looked down, concerned. He couldn't bear the thought of Kinger thinking he needs to pretend to be someone he's not. He loved the real Kinger with all his heart, and he wanted to see him happy as well. Assessing his worried posture, Ragatha's eyes softened.

"Maybe you could convince him not to lie so much anymore. While I am his advisor, with something like this, he's a bit more likely to listen to his boyfriend." She gave Caine a friendly nudge as he blushed lightly.

"Haha! Maybe..." He thought about it further. Even if Kinger didn't listen, it was worth a try. He could find a way to convince him regardless. "I'll see what I can do, Raggy!"

Ragatha looked embarrassed by the nickname, as while it was sweet, it wasn't something she necessarily wanted to be called in such a professional environment. Caine looked away and saw Kinger talking with someone he hadn't seen before, and it didn't look like a conversation the royal was particularly enjoying. After quickly informing Ragatha that he would be 'back in a jiffy', he set off towards Kinger, determined to save him from the annoying situation. It was his birthday, after all!

When he reached the king, Mad Caine lightly touched his hand. His liking for physical touch was well known, so it wasn't nearly enough physical affection to raise questions, although it was still the king he was touching.

"Happy birthday, Your Majesty! Are you enjoying yourself?" With a clear look of disdain, the other person left. Kinger of Hearts relaxed significantly and his voice lowered in volume.

"Far more now that you're here." Seeing Ragatha, he glanced around before fully grasping Caine's hand and walking over. "You know, I believe that's the seventh time today you've said 'happy birthday' to me."

"And I'll say it again, my love!" Kinger's eyes widened, worrying greatly about anyone else hearing. For his sake, Caine became quieter, but that didn't mean he liked it. "My dear, Queenie is dead. You don't need to fear her overthrowing you again. You can be yourself now. And if anyone goes against you, then I say that gives you plenty of reason to execute them!"

Kinger smiled, although there was still doubt in his eyes. "You're probably right, but it still feels... wrong. I've been like this for so long, I don't know how to rule as anyone else." Some heads turned to watch the pair with curious looks, but Mad Caine gently rubbed his thumb across Kinger's hand to keep him from seeing.

"I understand, but that doesn't mean I'll start agreeing with you on that any time soon." The two finally reached Ragatha as Kinger gave a chuckle that shook his shoulders. His advisor was somewhat absorbed in her own thoughts, surprised by how relaxed she was. By how relaxed they all were compared to past times like this. As horrible as the whole situation with Queenie had been, it had finally gotten rid of the ever-looming threat that she had once been.

"Your Highness," Ragatha greeted him with a noticeable hint of sarcasm, "is everything to your liking?"

Kinger sighed heavily. "All I'll say is that I'm going to need plenty of wine to get through this." Ragatha nodded and bowed, a glimmer in her eyes like she was about to tell a joke at any moment.

"I'll fetch you a glass."

Hours later, Kinger of Hearts had stayed true to his word, having downed several glasses at that point. Most of the more distinguished guests had filed out, with mainly guards and captains left, as well as other drunkards that they had to remove. Despite how most people and tables had been cleared away, the room felt far less empty with mainly just the trio standing in it. Kinger swayed a little on his feet, with Ragatha and Caine attempting to keep him upright. The two shared knowing glances, silently deciding that it would be best to completely finish the festivities. Before Mad Caine could suggest this to Kinger, however, the king spoke to him with a highly flirtatious tone.

"Heyyy, gorgeous~ you- you come 'round here often?" Ragatha put a hand to her mouth to try and muffle her snickers, while Caine gave Kinger a soft smile.

"Kinger, it's me, Mad Caine!" For the king's sake, he gave a quick glance to the guards, but they were busy removing a passed out accountant from the premises. "Your boyfriend?"

Kinger's eyes widened exponentially. "Woah... that's good. Vvvvery good." He cupped Caine's teeth with his hand. "Y-you're reeeeally pretty..."

The chess piece was mesmorised and Caine could feel his face heat up. Ragatha composed herself enough to put a gentle hand on Kinger's back.

"Your Majesty, you're drunk. You should go to bed." She looked to Mad Caine. "I can help you escort him there."

Caine, however, could clearly see the exhaustion on Ragatha's face, and refused to let her work any longer. "No, my dear! You need to rest for once. I have everything perfectly under control!" With that, Kinger rested his head on the top of Caine's teeth, abruptly shutting them.

Ragatha tried and failed to contain her laughter at Caine's muffled speaking while he tried to open his mouth again. She helped lift Kinger off of the hatter, smiling down at him. "Let me at least help get his Majesty out of here. Then I'll take a break."

Mad Caine agreed to these terms, and the two led Kinger of Hearts out and towards his room. They got halfway down the hall before Caine remembered that Ragatha had promised to rest, so he sent her to her chambers nearby. When the rabbit refused, insisting on helping further, Kinger of Hearts slurred out a threat to execute Ragatha if she didn't rest. She finally agreed, bidding Kinger good night and Caine good luck.

The hatter continued to walk with Kinger, holding one of his hands and with his other hand on the king's back. Kinger turned to face Caine, staring at him for a moment before speaking. "I love yoouuu."

Caine couldn't help but blush as a smile appeared on his face. "I love you too, my dear."

Kinger put a hand on Caine's waist and pulled him closer. "H-hey Caine, are you a flower? Be- because I wanna pollinate you~"

Mad Caine looked at the king in confusion for a moment before he remembered the biology of plant life. His teeth and gums became covered in a bright red as he began to stammer, his grip on Kinger's hand tightening.

"O-oh! Uh, I- l-let's just get you to your room!" He quickened his walking pace. The king's room was near the end of the hall, but he thankfully didn't have much further to go. Then the king would be able to sleep until he sobered up. While Kinger absent-mindedly matched his pace, he didn't stop flirting.

"Y-you're sooo cute... Hey, do- are you made of bees? Because yyyou're as honey as sweet..."

Mad Caine burst out laughing, although he did appreciate that Kinger tried. "Why, thank you, my dear." The hatter walked the king into his bedroom and sat him down on the bed. Before he could bid Kinger of Hearts goodnight, however, the king grabbed him and held him close, pulling Caine onto the bed with him.

Kinger kissed him repeatedly, and after a few moments, Caine returned the hug. He could tell that Kinger of Hearts was fighting sleep, so he decided to lay there with him, patiently waiting for Kinger to succumb to his exhaustion. Mad Caine adored these moments he had with Kinger, even if he would've preferred for the king to be sober, as it was something he had silently wished for for a long time. Eventually, he felt the kisses slow down and stop as Kinger finally fell asleep.

Caine let out a quiet sigh of both relief and content. He made a mental note to bring up their relationship and making it public once Kinger woke up, then drifted off himself, already excited to wake up next to Kinger in the morning.

[gabriel-xander]

I Wish You Died Instead Ch. 2

[Scaramouche x Fem!Reader]

A/N: I started writing this before all of his lore came out/Before the last Sumeru Archon quest, so there will be a handful of inconsistency later on. My advice to you? Just go with it!

{Also on Quotev, Ao3, and Wattpad under Gabriel Xander}

Chapter 2: You Get Slapped Twice

You sigh quietly when you knock against Scaramouche's office door.

The other Fatui agents had looked at you with some sort of judgement when you entered the building with Kazuki. You always made the effort to separate yourself from everyone else, so your reputation with the others was pretty shit. It's not like you were hated (hopefully), but they probably wouldn't go out of their way to save your ass if they saw you getting attacked.

That being said, they were all openly praying for you when you made your way to Scaramouche's office. Kazuki even hugged you before you left??

"I didn't tell you right away because I wanted to spend one last moment with you," Kazuki had told you, "Out of everyone I have ever met, I've always hated you the least."

You're gonna die for sure. <3

Scaramouche's voice snaps from the other side: "What."

That was the cue and permission to enter. Just his special way of showing he cares or whatever. You open the door and step inside, immediately feeling the overwhelming presence of the Balladeer. You close the door behind yourself, getting on your right knee to show false respect towards the Harbinger.

"My Lord, you wanted to see me?"

You kept your voice flat and bored, your expression was half hidden by your mask, though it was for naught as your face is devoid of emotion.

"Where were you during the meeting?" Scaramouche asks, not looking up from whatever paperwork he was completing.

"Reviewing the reports from my last deployment," You keep your response short, as you learned that Scaramouche hated the chatty ones, "I apologize for my absence."

"Did something go wrong?"

Why does he care?

"..."

You open your mouth but quickly close it again.

He doesn't care, he probably asked just to tell you to shut up. You see him do that with other agents, and you're not feeling like you're up for his sass.

"Whatever, I don't really care," Scaramouche sighs, "Start packing your bags, we're going to Liyue tomorrow morning with Tartaglia."

"Fuck."

"What was that?"

Ah shit. You didn't mean to say that out loud. The air is tense, there's no going back now. You're going to regret this opening your stupid mouth.

"With all due respect, My Lord-"

You wince when you hear Scaramouche push the chair back to stand up. He's walking towards you.

"-This is a sudden decision and a departure to a nation across Teyvat requires more planning. Not only that, my recent report-"

SMACK!

Your cheek burns from the aftermath, and you thank your luck for not falling over from that painful, backhanded slap. You bite your tongue to stop yourself from yelling in anger, and you dig your fingers into your palm so you don't slap him back.

This is exactly why you never fucking talk to Scaramouche.

"Get ready for tomorrow, [L/n]," Scaramouche smirks sadistically, "I'd hate to kill you so soon. You're the most tolerable second in command I've had so far."

You don't respond, not because you know to stay quiet, but because you don't want to waste your breath for someone like him. You stand up and keep your head low, stuffing your hands into your pockets to hide that your fists are shaking with aggression.

"Yes, My Lord. Is there anything else?" You ask quietly.

"Hm... yeah. Now that you mention it, I was going to do it myself, but since you're here..." Scaramouche walks to his desk to grab a few papers, "Do you know where Tartaglia is?"

You furrow your brows, "Yes, My Lord. He's-"

"-Just take these to him and tell him the plans for the departure," Scaramouche basically thrusts the papers at you, so you had no choice but to get them, "Can you handle that?"

Motherfucker is mocking you.

"Yes, sir," You bite back, "Would you like a coffee with that order?"

"Watch your tongue."

You look down at the papers and frown. You've only spoken to Tartaglia that one time, and you're honestly praying he won't recognize you. He might want to fight you or something.

You bow slightly before leaving the office, jogging down the halls to find the ginger bread man. Scaramouche rolls his eyes at your departure, heading back to his desk to complete the paperwork.

He doesn't like how simultaneously expressive and monotonous you are. You have so much fighting spirit, but your delivery is so dry. It's most definitely a front you display in front of him since you know how to behave. But Scaramouche wishes you can hide that true part of yourself better.

...

He doesn't know why.

——

You lean your back against the wall, watching Tartaglia beat the living shit out of his subordinates in the largest training room. That included Kazuki, so it was amusing to see his cocky ass get ate.

The Zapolyarny Palace was home to many Harbingers and Fatui agents. While there were a few from each group that had their own homes out of the palace they lived in, you unfortunately lived with the majority in the damn palace.

Sure, staying in the same building with the Tsaritsa was epic and all, but... you're not a die-hard worshiper like most people. In fact, you don't really have a favorite Archon. You thought Barbatos was pretty nifty, but that's about it.

Joining the Fatui wasn't to devote yourself to the Tsaritsa and her mysterious plans. You joined because you're curious about the truth behind Khae-

"[L/n]?"

You're brought back when Kazuki calls out to you. Poor Kazuki was laying on the floor and panting with exhaustion. Tartaglia was standing above him victoriously, a sadistic smile plastered his face.

"Kazuki," You nod in acknowledgement, both of you keeping it strictly professional when you're around others.

Tartaglia looks at you and widens his eyes a bit: "[L/n]? Oh, I remember you!"

Ah shit.

"Lord Tartaglia," You bow deeply, "it's a pleasure."

"Hey, didn't I tell you to call me Childe?" The Harbinger chuckles as he steps over Kazuki towards you.

"Oh, yes. Apologies, Lord Childe."

"No, just... ah, we'll work on it," The ginger sighs, "Did you come for your friend here? Or did you finally miss me enough to come find me?"

You see Kazuki in your peripheral vision pinch the bridge of his nose in exasperation. You almost do the same.

"Oh, how did you know?" You reply humorlessly, showing Childe the papers, "Actually, Lord Scaramouche made me his messenger girl. He wanted me to inform you that his branch will be departing to Liyue with you tomorrow morning. And he wanted me to give you these."

Childe raises a brow as he takes them. You see his eyes move side to side as he quickly reads through the first paper.

"Hm... Well, me and my subordinates were actually supposed to take this ship to Liyue for some business as well. It seems Scaramouche wants to preserve resources and have us both leave tomorrow." Childe summarizes for you.

Which he really didn't need to. Maybe he's just being friendly so you can drop your guard just so he can find a weakness and exploit it.

He then frowns, "That's way too soon for a spontaneous trip. The ship won't have room for all of us if Scaramouche plans on bringing all his subordinates."

You simply stand there with your hands behind your back, listening to Childe's woes quietly. Not that the gossip will help you, but you can never be too careful about observing people for later references.

"What do you think, Wakus Bonkus [L/n]?"

You frown, not understanding why your opinion matters for this.

"I-"

"Ooh! You naughty, Wankus Bonkus!"

"-Actually! Come with me, won't you, [L/n]?" Childe starts walking out of room, "You too, Kuzashi!"

"It's Kazuki," The male in question sighs quietly as he pushes himself to stand.

You wait for your comrade before you two leave the room, quickly trailing after the Harbinger who took long strides.

"You're alive," Kazuki says with wonder.

"No shit, Sherlock," You scoff out a laugh, "Wait, no!"

You skip ahead to walk in front of Kazuki, walking backwards so you can face him.

"Kazuki~! Kazuki~~!" You sing in a low and "spooky" tone, "This is the ghost of [L/n]~! I've come back with a warning~!"

The brunette rolls his eyes, though you couldn't see thanks to his mask. You snicker quietly and spin around to walk normally.

"Lord Scaramouche just wanted to yell at someone, honestly," You said, "He wanted to tell me about the departure to Liyue for tomorrow morning. Apparently, he also wanted us to tag along with Lord Tartaglia and his subordinates. Something about saving the resources?"

"What? But... You guys can't leave Snezhnaya yet. Your recent report about-"

"-Yeah, I tried telling him that but he fucking pimp slapped me into the next nation."

You're pretty sure you heard Childe snort.

"...Are you okay?"

"What, are you worried about me? Don't be getting soft on me, Kazuki."

"Well, fuck you too, then."

"Charming." You tense up suddenly when Childe stops in front of Scaramouche's office, "Lord Childe, why are we here?"

Childe knocks on the door twice before opening it, "I'm coming in, Scaramouche."

God dammit, Childe.

You wait until Childe enters the office before you silently throw a tantrum and stomp towards the office. Kazuki was watching that happen with deep understanding in his eyes.

"What do you want?" You hear Scaramouche spit out before you enter the office with Kazuki.

You almost wave awkwardly when Scaramouche looks at you with, what you believe is to be, disgust. The Balladeer pushes his chair back and marches around the table and towards you. You honestly expect him to beat you up right then and there.

"Did you bring him?"

"What is this about your trip to Liyue tomorrow?" Childe interrupts with a frown, "This is too soon for your departure, especially with the amount of people that will be coming."

Scaramouche frowns, "Deal with it. I have no other business to attend to here, so I might as well head to what concerns me next. The next ship heading to Liyue doesn't arrive until next month, I'm not waiting that long."

You feel Kazuki's eyes on you, you had to bite your tongue to not speak up. Unfortunately, the Archons have chosen you to be their silliest clown for today.

"And you, [L/n]?" Childe crosses his arms as he turns to look at you with expectancy, "What is your opinion on this?"

...

Wat?

You widen your eyes from behind your mask and shake your head, instinctively taking a step back when you see Scaramouche get closer in your peripheral vision.

"Oh, I—don't-my opinion isn't-"

"-No, tell me, [L/n]." Scaramouche was suddenly standing in front of you, causing you to flinch, "You clearly have something to say. Then say it."

Childe is literally dead to you now. If you weren't a subordinate, you would've given Childe a look that read exactly as "I fucking hate you".

"Well... Two months ago I received an "anonymous tip" from a Fatui agent who received that tip from a civilian somewhere in Snezhnaya," You made air quotes when needed, then placed your hands on you hips, "Apparently, a Treasure Hoarder group had ambushed some Fatui and stole not only their equipment, but also the Visions from those who had it."

Scaramouche frowns, "Yeah, I remember that. I sent you out to deal with it."

You nod, "Right. The Treasure Hoarders were dealt with, but we lost a handful of men and their entire beings disappeared. However, those Treasure Hoarders were no doubt killed."

You had made the order for their execution, but you didn't stick around to see the monstrosity you made your soldiers become. You couldn't handle it.

"So, what's the issue?"

"Two days ago, when it was my day off, I got um..." You furrow your eyebrows to think, "I guess ambushed is the correct term, but I wasn't in danger. Anyway, I got a surprise visit from a random civilian. She told me that she was the one who sent that anonymous tip from before. But she had actually deceived us at that time."

Kazuki crosses his arms, "And how did she recognize you?"

"Her son was one of my subordinates, and he was the one who gave me that tip in the first place. He gave a detailed description of my appearance to her just so she could come find me."

"What happened next?" Childe asks with a serious expression.

"Well, two months ago, she and her son, Isaac, were beaten near death by several groups of Treasure Hoarders. They took Isaac hostage and stole his Vision, then they threatened to kill his mother if Issac didn't agree to cooperate and become a supplier. So, Isaac led a group of agents to a false camp site to get ambushed. And that was the version of events we were exposed to."

You had kept your voice monotonous the entirety of your explanation, not wanting Scaramouche to have a reason for calling you emotional or whatever. Either way, it just comes naturally to you when talking to the Harbingers.

"But I guess those agents we thought were dead, are actually still alive and are part of the Treasure Hoarders. They've been using their Visions and equipment to replicate the technology, armor, and weapons. Isaac is probably dead, but it's for sure known that he at least stopped cooperating with them. I haven't heard from his mother since two days ago."

You hold your hands behind your back, waiting in the tense silence for what the Harbingers might say.

"[L/n]..."

SMACK!!

You could barely see the hand coming towards you, the next thing you knew, you were on the floor with no doubt a bright handprint burning your right cheek. Your mask had flown off from the force, causing it to slide against the floor and out of your reach.

This motherfucker slapped you.

Again.

You...

Really hate Scaramouche so fucking much.

Kazuki takes a step towards you in concern, but he remembers where he is and stops. Folding his arms behind himself to preserve his image, Kazuki looks away, opting to just look at your mask.

"Scaramouche-"

"-I deal with my subordinates however I see fit, Tartaglia," The Balladeer says coldly, cutting off the ginger, "I'm staying in Snezhnaya after all. It seems I haven business to take care of."

You can taste your blood pooling in your mouth from how hard and suddenly you bit your tongue. You keep your head down and stay where you are, knowing that behaving like this will make him happy about "making you submit".

"Our business seems to be done now, correct?" Scaramouche starts walking to his desk, "Leave. All of you. I'm getting tired of looking at you."

Well, Childe didn't want to keep looking at Scaramouche either! He grabs your mask and leaves the room without another word. Kazuki was quick to follow while you were just getting up from the floor.

"Come back tomorrow morning after Tartaglia is to depart," Scaramouche says, "You don't want me to be the one to seek you out first."

"Yes, My Lord," You mutter quietly to keep your lips as closed as you could to stop the blood from seeping out.

And with that, you leave his office for the 2nd time that day with a bruise already coloring your face. You close the door behind yourself and immediately turn your head to the side to spit out a surprising amount of blood.

Gross.

You hear Childe telling Kazuki some orders, but you were more focused on spitting out the metallic liquid to actually pay attention to what was said. When you hear a pair of footsteps grow distant, you assume Childe has left you alone. You pull down your sleeve and wipe at your mouth to rid of any red that may have stained your lips.

"Here," Childe's gloved hand (even though the glove looked like it was halfway on) holds out your mask to you, "Is... Scaramouche always like that?"

Childe's eyebrows were furrowed together, a small frown etching his lips. You can't help but notice that his two red earrings compliment his blue eyes. You've always acknowledged that Childe looks pretty, but it was more of a physical thing. His personality is starting to shine through in making him more attractive.

You smile softly, "Thank you... And yes. But you learn to tune it out... Or so I've been told by an apparent liar."

Childe chuckles, "I didn't mean to get you in trouble like that. But also, you did save me from an unpleasant trip with him, so I guess I owe you one."

"No, there's no need," You don't bother putting your mask back, "You're the reason why I was able to get a word in at all. So, I should be thanking you, Lord Childe."

He shakes his head: "Just Childe."

"Lord Childe."

"Childe."

"Master Childe?"

"Childe."

"Sir Childe?"

"..."

"Childe, sir?" You couldn't help the grin, "Mr. Man Childe Sir?"

The blue eyed male rolls his eyes with a grin matching yours, "Alright, alright, wise guy. You should get some rest now, no doubt your boss will run you ragged tomorrow."

"Yeah, I know," You sigh and begin to bow, "Have a g-"

"-You don't need to do that," Childe pats your arm to get you to stand up right, "We're more like casual friends, don't you think? Relax a little."

Uh-

"O-Okay," You smile nervously, your habits yelling at you to stop being so expressive with a Harbinger, "Have a good night, Lor-erm, Childe."

"Good night, girlie."

[bi-bard]

Coming Back for You - Toby Nealey Imagine [I Came By]

Title: Coming Back for You

Pairing: Toby Nealey X Reader

Word Count: 2,004 words

Warning(s): **HEY, LOOK HERE!!!** kidnapping, hostage situation, mention of abuse (physical/emotional, but ultimately vague), mute reader

Summary: Toby finds himself in a far more dangerous situation than he ever meant to be involved in. However, he is saved by an unexpected source. Now, he is determined to return the favor.

Author's Note: I meant to write a story about this character a long time ago, and someone just recently reminded me of it, so I figured it was better late than never.

Also, I'm adding lore to Hector's story so that this story makes sense. I'm just gonna ask that you don't question me about it and just let it exist.

Toby Tag List: @dream-this-nightmare-over

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

The first thing I heard was a thud on the floor.

At first, I assumed that it was just Hector moving around. But that wouldn't make sense. There was no sound after the thud. Hector always made a point to tell me when he was home. The door would shut and then he would call up to me. Or he would have warned me beforehand that he was bringing home a guest, so I could make myself scarce while he enjoyed his evening.

Once I knew that it wasn't Hector, I walked to the door. I don't know what my plan was. To confirm my suspicions, find a phone so I could call the police, try to plead for help, or simply warn the poor soul that had been unfortunate enough to come in. Maybe it was all of the above. Or maybe I had just gotten so lonely that facing down some burglar felt comforting in a way.

My hand paused on the doorknob. I stared at it.

Hector's words rang in my head: "You are not to leave this room until I come and get you. No matter what."

I had learned better than to not heed his warning. Not that he would ever call it a warning. If I had to guess, then I would say that he probably saw it as an act of protection or love. However, I liked to avoid guessing about him. He never liked when he believed that I was assuming things about him.

I had been a permanent guest in Hector's home for a few years by then. A silent presence. I never knew what I was meant to be in his mind. But I guess at some it didn't truly matter anymore.

I was to the point that I could barely remember a life before him. I just knew that I had one... and that I was never getting it back.

I could still remember the times when I would cry every night, sobbing as I shook. I would beg him to just let me go... or to simply kill me and let me have some peace. He didn't like when I did that. He said it made him feel bad for merely offering me a better life. I don't know if he had truly forgotten that he less offered me this life than he forced me into it or if he was just trying to ignore that he had taken me from my family.

It didn't take long for me to learn that he wanted silence from me. I had trained myself to be silent. Quiet at all times. I communicated in nods and head shakes and pointing and kind, gentle smiles that seemed to quell Hector's anger for the time being. It was just less of a reminder that I wasn't truly who he wanted me to take the place of.

It only took a few more sounds of the creaking floor for me to say hell with the consequences. I opened the door slowly and leaned my head out through the doorway. I couldn't see anything from there.

I slowly walked down the stairs, taking note to avoid the creaking steps. I paused, waiting for some sign of a person. There was nothing.

And then, there was a crash. A distinct sound of someone stumbling over something and then falling.

It was coming from the basement. My heart dropped. I had been avoiding the basement for a long time. It made me think of my crying and my begging. I didn't like being around it.

I quickly opened the door, seeing a man hurrying to stand a few steps away from the bottom.

He looked up at me. I squinted at the feeling of his headlamp shining in my eyes. He had all dark clothes on. He was a stranger. Definitely a stranger.

And he looked scared.

I knew what he had seen. I had seen it too.

My head perked up when I heard the gate opening.

It was as if every reaction after that was instinctual. I never considered myself a hero or anything great, but I found myself focusing on nothing more than getting that man out of the house.

I ran down the few steps between us before grabbing his hand and dragging him upstairs with me.

I was quick, as quiet as ever as I dragged him up the main stairs and up to my room. I pushed him inside and quietly closed the door. I continued shoving him to the window. I pointed at it, trying to get him to go to it.

There was a time when the window was sealed. I had managed to get it undone a long time ago but learned better than to try to get out through it. Pavlov's dog and all that.

"Is he... Is he keeping you here," the man asked.

I didn't have time to answer his questions, I just pushed him again.

"How long have you been here?"

I waved him away.

"(Y/n)! I'm home," Hector called from downstairs.

I panicked, pushing the stranger again. I was silently begging him to go. Save himself.

He finally listened to himself, opening the window and beginning to climb out. He turned around in the windowsill.

"I'm coming back for you," he promised.

"(Y/n)?" Hector called again.

"My name's Toby," the stranger explained. I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to figure out why he needed to tell me that. "I'll... I'll be back."

He quickly climbed out of the window. I shoved it closed as soon as I knew that he was out of it completely. I took a deep breath before going to step out into the hall. I walked down the steps, stopping a few steps from the bottom.

"There you are," Hector said. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, furrowing my eyebrows in the hopes of acting like I didn't know why he would be asking.

"Good, good," he muttered. He looked flustered. Worried. He knew that someone had been there. "You can go back to your room."

I nodded again, turning and going back up the stairs.

I let out a shaky breath as soon as my door closed behind me.

Toby was the first person I had seen other than Hector in a very long time. I found myself scared. Terrified. But I couldn't quite figure out what I was scared about. Was it the idea of Hector finding out that I had let some stranger escape after seeing his secret? Or the idea that I may never see Toby again and all that he said about coming back had been a lie? Or was it fear over what life would be like after I finally got out of that house and back to the real world?

I thought that I was going to have time to forget about Toby. I thought it was best to lose the hope early. Some part of me believed that it was going to save me from some pain in the long run.

How foolish of me.

The next night, I heard a noise downstairs again.

And again, I knew it wasn't Hector. He had left for the night. He didn't give me many details, just that he was going out.

I heard the stairs creaking as someone walked up them. Closer and closer to my door. I backed up toward the wall behind me, pressing my hand over my mouth.

It opened slowly.

On the other side of the door was Toby.

My hand fell away as my mouth fell open in shock. He was there. He came back. He was telling me the truth.

"It's okay, it's just me," he held up his hands. "I'm here to get you out."

I furrowed my eyebrows.

He held out his hand. "Come on."

I stared at his hand. There were a million and one ideas going through my mind. I gave up on the idea of being saved a long time ago. I knew the pull that Hector had. I knew the position of power he was in and after so long being in that room... in that house... I just gave up on hoping.

What was I meant to do when someone was finally giving me a chance?

I couldn't get myself to move.

"We don't have much time," Toby said, walking over to me. "We need to hurry. I... I have a place for you. A safe one. We can get you some food and clothes and stuff. And then, we can go to the police and you can explain what happened. Then, the basement gets found and no one else gets hurt."

Wow. He had thought the whole thing through.

"Please... come with me," he pushed one last time, hand outstretched.

I took a deep breath before slowly placing my hand in his. He grinned and started pulling me to the door. I only stopped him long enough for me to pull on some shoes.

After that, Toby dragged me back down the stairs and outside of the house the same way that he had supposedly come in.

After making it through the house and the garden, Toby started running down the road.

I tried to keep up with him, but it had been a long time since I had needed to run any kind of distance. It was also the first time I had truly been outside in years. The cold air made my lungs burn and my legs felt as if they were going numb underneath me.

But then, I felt a smile forming. The first genuine smile I had experienced in so long that I had forgotten it had existed. Along with that smile came tears. Tears of relief as I felt myself finally becoming free again. It was like chains were falling off of my body with every step I took.

I don't know how long we had gone before Toby finally slowed down. I just knew that I didn't recognize anything in the world around me. I continued walking with him, looking around at all of the buildings surrounding me. I never thought about how much the world around me had changed while I wasn't looking. It was overwhelming.

"So, umm... we're gonna stay with my mom. Just until we track down your family," Toby explained. I found my steps slowing down as I watched him. "She... She'll be alright with it once I tell her what's going on."

I stopped completely. Toby was forced to stop when I did because he still had his hand in mine. He furrowed his eyebrows at me.

"What is it?"

I stopped, still unable to form the words that I needed.

"You're safe now. I promise. He's never gonna-"

Toby stopped talking when I stepped forward and hugged him. I wrapped my arms around him tightly, shutting my eyes as firmly as I could. I felt his arms wrapping around me. He kept mumbling that I was safe. That he was going to keep me safe.

"Hey," he muttered. He pulled back, hands touching my upper arms. "We should keep going."

I nodded, letting him reach down and grab my hand again.

We didn't have to sprint away again. Instead, we walked. We walked in a comforting silence.

I took a deep breath. The air was crisp. It was cold against my skin. I never knew how much I would miss a feeling like that until now.

The only part of me that didn't feel the cold of the world around me was my hand. It was warm, Toby's hold on it serving as a protective shield of sorts. There was something about his touch that brought me a sense of peace that I had never known. One that I may not know for a long time after that night when I went to the police.

But I could cherish it for the time being.

And I could love it for the time being.

And that felt like it was good enough for now.

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

Navigation Guide

What I Write For

Some Original Characters

[roosterbruiser]

Babe if we can still request blurbs for the sleepover next week I'd love to request an idea before I forget!!! (I hope you'll forgive me for how early this is)

But maybe you could write one adding to Jake interrupted lore? I know you've already written one where Bradley walked in on Jake in ftu which I LOVED!!!! So maybe this time you could write Bob interrupting? Only if you want to tho ofc ❤❤

I would love to add more to the Jake, Interrupted lore!

it's honestly one of the laziest, most random fucks you've ever had with your boyfriend.

Jake, of course, woke up after you and trudged into the kitchen to find you prancing around in an oversized t-shirt and those little panties with the pink bow that drives him wild.

before you even really know what's happening, your scrambled eggs are entirely abandoned on the stove. you're bent over the kitchen table, panties at your ankles, with your cheek pressed against one of the placemats. Jake is behind you, holding the back of your neck to keep you in place, thrusting into you with a rapidity that would lead others to believe he's a starved man.

"fuck, baby," he mutters, watching your back arch in the white morning light filtering in through the back windows. "so fucking tight for me, huh? taking me so fucking good."

you're a mess, clutching the edge of the table, trying to keep your moans at a minimum as an orgasm licks at your heals with a hot, hot tongue.

"Jake," you moan out, eyes fluttered shut in a moment of rapture.

you take a moment to just feel everything: your shirt pooled under your armpits, your pert nipples against the wooden table, your boyfriend's thick cock gliding in and out of your slick cunt, your walls squeezing every vein that makes him up, his warm skin pressing against yours each time he comes flush with your ass during another cant of his hips.

you haven't even brushed your hair yet, but here you are: getting railed in your kitchen at 8am.

"so fucking pretty, baby," Jake insists, leaning down to feverishly kiss the delicate curve of your spine. pleasure is permeating his body like little darts, making his chest tight and red. "can't fucking help myself when I see you. gotta keep you full."

and without another word, he slips his hand between your legs and begins to toy with your clit. it's almost mean the way he's rapidly rubbing you, keening when you moan out and fist the edge of the table impossibly harder.

"ah, Jake--oh, fuck, I'm gonna--!"

that's precisely when one mister Bob Floyd uses the handy spare key under the mat to let himself into your home. usually, he wouldn't do this. but you and him settled on 8:30am for a breakfast reservation at that restaurant you two have been dying to get into--he doesn't want to lose your table.

he should've stopped as soon as he heard the incriminating sounds: skin on skin, table legs scraping the tile, telltale moaning, panting. but he continues, hoping you and Jake are maybe just watching Game of Thrones or something.

but then he finds himself standing in the threshold of the kitchen, wearing his spiffy little button-down he pressed last night specifically for your breakfast reservations. his eyes are wide, his jaw dropped.

"oh-oh God!" Bob screeches, covering his eyes with his hands, dropping the keys he was holding. "Jesus, I--I didn't...oh, Christ!"

Bob, who is trying to run away with his hands over his eyes, bumps into the doorway of the kitchen.

at the sound of Bob, you and Jake halt immediately. your orgasm dissipates with a haste as mortification floods your entire being.

"Bob!" you screech, hastily pushing yourself off the table and scrambling to pull your shirt down.

Jake, who is equally as mortified, quickly pulls your pants up for you and tucks himself into his briefs as Bob scrambles to find his footing in the threshold of the kitchen.

even from where you're standing, you can see how pink poor Bob's cheeks are.

"breakfast!" you gasp, wringing your hands together. "oh, god! Bob, I'm so sorry! hold on, give me like five minutes and I'll be ready to go!"

and with that, you're scurrying out of the kitchen and up the stairs, trying to hold off on outwardly cringing until in the privacy of your own bedroom.

that leaves Jake and Bob alone, Bob still covering his eyes with his palms.

"Bob, I, uh...I'm decent." Jake says awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

Bob peeks an eye open as if to confirm this and then swallows hard, clasping his hands before him.

"she told me to use the spare key anytime," Bob says quietly.

Jake nods.

"yeah. yeah, she, uh...she does that."

[astralartefact]

NieR Re[in]carnation The People and the World Transmigration and the End of Reincarnation

If Red is the color of ______ then why did I ____ the ending of NieR Re[d ]carnation?

Between YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse, some of the RoD stories and now this, a pattern has been established:

If I didn't really like the ending of a NieR story, chances are 100% that given a couple hours to days I will figure myself into "This is the best thing ever written, I committed blasphemy against the god king by ever doubting his vision."

Because to be open and honest about it, right after playing it the ending was kinda boring to me - because if you paid attention to the periphery and knew the deep lore you already expected 90% of the reveals, the only really new thing is the rundown on what happened to His, Her and N2.

Let me phrase it like this: the Time Loop Theory didn't really need confirmation up until now. It was a thing because it fits the themes, but acknowledging it wouldn't really add anything because the vague sense of inevitability already exists simply by alluding to it and the previous narratives all already had it built into them without it anyways - so I think the only reason they hard confirmed it now was because it literally added to the story. Him and Her being stuck in the time loop of humanity's failure is why they despaired.

So long story short, the stuff they 'confirmed' I didn't really need to be confirmed (cries in no y:da) and as fine as it was, not having an immediate "Oh Shit!" Moment made the chapter kind of boring. So while kind of neat it didn't really do anything for me.

But I also finished Reincarnation at 5AM. So I went to sleep and Io and behold, I awoke to a revelation by the god king:

This was amazing. This story logistically paid off on the entirety of the game's narratives in a single chapter all while talking about something new. What the fuck. Once again, this shouldn't work. How did they do that??? How is the writing in this game so tightly unified despite being literally fragmented into 20-ish individual stories??? This game has the most writers of all NieR games and yet every single story is pulling at the same rope??? Like, how???

To me NieR Reincarnation is about two things: Number 1 - Reincarnation is a Cage, all humans are born into some level of agency-less-ness and wouldn't you know it, they have no agency about that Number 2 - 'Humanity' is a more complex thing than just 'Being of the Human Species' (which is basically the NieR theme)

I think the Robots in the cast illustrate this the best: Dimos and Marie and Yurie and 10H (and Noelle and 063y and F66x) were made for a purpose, but they didn't choose their purpose, their creators did for very specific reasons. But against all odds they find themselves human and humans have wishes and dreams, even if it's just to fulfill their purpose, they seek out the agency to make those dreams come true and if they pray for their dreams to come true they will find a way.

By experiencing the pain and despair of solitude He became human, because He wanted, He wished to not experience it anymore. By experiencing the pain and despair of the machine lifeforms N2 became human in the same way and She became human by incorporating N2's experience of pain into Herself.

And as Humans they pray for a better future. And maybe they can't do it on their own, because they're human and humans fail and cry and shit and die. Maybe they desperately need the help of someone who can help, even if it's just a little girl who is selfless enough to offer them an encouraging hand despite all of the mistakes they made. But by praying for their dreams to come true, by not outright denying the possibility of a better future, simply by hoping this better future exists we can reach it, because we're human. We will find a way.

So even I, from one Prayer to another, want to Thank You for Praying. Please believe in the future you want to see, because otherwise it will not happen. And remember, all Prayers lead to the Cage.

Also Drakengard symbolism because GODDAMN IT, JUST MAKE ANOTHER DRAKENGARD GAME YOU-----

They called her the second girl, but she's at least the third!!! (i think four if you count crym?) (but i'm pretty sure only i do that so let's do three)

I'm fucking pissed. You dare to leave the Drakengard Shit, MY beloved Drakengard Shit, as subtext symbolism??? How dare you. How absolutely dare you. I hope you know I am praying for Drakengard 5 (not a mistake) Yoko Taro and as I have established in this post you yourself have said that prayers come true if you believe in them so go ahead. I'm waiting.

No Seed of Resurrection talk, No word on Mother, No Accord, just the girl with One's horns doing the Manah stuff I deserve, because I called it back when Replicant Remake came out.

No but really though, I wonder if there might be a reason that we got basically 0 answers to Drakengard stuff and only answers to the NieR side of things. Apparently - and I have no quote for this, I just read some chatter about it - Yoko Taro has said that the next NieR game is planned, but will only come after another game he's making... and well... if this final chapter has made anything clear by omission it's that Drakengard isn't NieR... Just saying...

Also, this still it wasn't a Y:DA reference after all... They didn't even slightly allude to it q_q #AnoggForReincarnation is truly over...

But let's talk about the color Red for a second, because I have a thought.

I'm not going into it too much, we all know Red is a pretty symbolically heavy color in general, but in NieR and honestly even more so in Drakengard especially - they literally just did stain a girl in white in blood again, that's the Drakengard thing - but...

Mama's Pod is also Red. She receives a Red Carnation, a common Japanese Mother's Day gift, from 10H which is the key to 10H unlocking the truth. Clearly Red isn't just Hatred... but I haven't thought enough about it to really tell you what that's about. I will have to think about that - and if I ever come to a conclusion on that front I will tell you all about it.

Anyways, that's it for now... I can confidently state that NieR Reincarnation is my favorite NieR game and honestly by a long shot. I don't give a shit that it's a Gacha, I can't do anything about that and Yoko Taro, Yuki Wada and the Rest of the Team did the absolute most with the hand they were dealt, because clearly someone up in Square Enix does not like what the silly mask man is doing and doesn't give him the budget and creative liberties he truly deserves.

Once again a sincere Thank you for Praying - please believe in the future you want to see, no matter how distant and unattainable it may seem. You will still have to look out for and grab the hand reaching out to actually reach it - but you will only see that hand if you're hoping for one to come your way in the first place.

Speaking of which, here is my Prayer for the day: #AnoggForWhateverComesAfterReincarnationBecauseIfThisWasReplicantEndingEPayoffThenY:DAPayoffHasToBeNext

[gddmgttsu]

Hello!

(I have a nasty habit of wanting to write only about bad things so let's talk about something else)

I've somehow read all of Dungeon Meshi within the last two days or so. Time well spent I'd say...

The first time I've even heard of Dungeon Meshi was seeing all the Twitter clips from the first episode of the anime. I thought the premise was cute so I decided to take a peek at the anime with a friend.

The first two episodes were alright but at the time it didn't quite grip me as much as I thought it would. While I loved all the characters doing their thing, it was missing something that would really hook me in you know what I mean?

=======SPOILERS I SUPPOSE======

If you haven't seen any of it yet, please go and check it out it's pretty good. I wouldn't want to ruin anything about it for the blind.

After the second episode I just put it off for a bit but a month to so later, I saw a twitter clip or maybe it was a teaser that was about Falin's resurrection. I was astonished to see not a digested corpse coming out of the dragon but a goddamn skeleton of what's left. That was what I was missing in order to get hooked so my interest was fully piqued.

So now I've gotten around to reading the whole thing and MAN was I surprised. The world is so interesting, the characters are all loveable and it gets surprisingly dark every now and then. It touches on alot of themes that I like involving death and the stains of time.

My favorite manga of all time is Berserk so the moment the manga started getting into that stuff I was fully invested.

One of scenes that really stood out to me were Marcille's nightmare and how it sets up that bit near the end. I don't really know much about elf lore and I just beat Baldur's Gate 3 so it was interesting to learn more about how an increased lifespan is just sadness for the elf in question.

Seeing Laois get touched by her nightmare and immediately starts aging and freaking Marcille out just made me go "OH NO IS THAT WHY SHE'S AFRAID" and it makes me sad to think about life without your loved ones.

Another one is Senshi's backstory with the Griffin and how he had to live a long time with that gnawing thought at the back of his head. It thoroughly explains why he's so adamant about eating a balanced meal and how living as healthy as can be is so important to him. I honestly teared up pretty bad seeing those final panels of him eating the hippogriff stew.

I suppose my only nitpicks is that we never really got to hang out with Falin enough. I would have loved to see more of the gang interact with her since from the flashbacks and what little time we do get with her, she's a sweetheart too.

There's also Itsuzumi and how I personally don't think her arc was fully done but at least she had her moment with the succubis.

These are very minor and there are even more minor ones and honestly I don't mind them very much because the story is already like a 10/10.

=========SPOILERS END=========

The volumes kept ending at cliffhangers so I couldn't stop wanting to read more and more so I ended up binging the whole thing.

I'm glad I did though because the manga went into detail a couple of things I've been thinking about recently too. It just nice to see and read thoughts about the little things that bother me right now. Even if it is through a silly manga about eating monsters.

Honestly, the manga influenced me maybe like 10-30% as to doing a bit better with how I treat myself and my health.

To close it off, I gotta say I really loved it and I'm excited to go through it again with the anime. Hopefully my friend won't mind if I drag them with me since I left them at ep2 hehehe.

TLDR: FARCILLE IS REAL DON'T LET THEM TELL YOU OTHERISE

[prince-liest]

Re: that one anon,

You and Tzafael live rent free in my head fr, I am going insane over your fics 24/7 and have to stop myself from talking about your fic with uninterested parties who wouldn't understand why I'm so obsessed ALL THE TIME. I am cursed.

Do you have anymore interesting Tzafael lore?

-☠️

Ps. Why does art take so long I wanna post my painting already

I just hope you're half as feral about my writing as I am about the fact that you're out here being interested in my Hazbin Hotel OC, because the sound this ask prompted in me is best described as the verbal equivalent of a keyboard smash. U bring me so much joy, spirits.

Ahem!!!!! AN EXCUSE TO TALK ABOUT TZAFAEL!

@spoondrifts, who knows and has studied significantly more about the subject than me, helped me figure the name "Tzafael"! To paraphrase them: The suffix -el means "of god". The hebrew word for eyes is einayim, which in its construct state would be something like eineiel/ayneyel, roughly transliterated "tzafah." It also means to watch/observe but also to predict or foresee, so "Tzafael" could mean a witness or beholder of god.

Tzafael is younger than Lucifer and knew him only a little prior to his fall. Their relationship with him is akin to how you would see the queer uncle who got kicked out of the family because he came out when you were like ten years old and didn't really understand much, except now you're also queer, twenty-nine, have established your own life, and suddenly realized you're living in the same city. Do you reach out? Do you duck behind a corner when you see him?

They... have not technically fallen. Nobody kicked them out. There's nothing physically stopping them from returning to heaven. That said: they do not often return to heaven, and heaven puts a lot of effort into not talking about why or what, exactly, they might be doing, but surely it's better that they stay gone. Nobody wants another Lucifer situation. And it's not like that! Really. Really. They haven't officially done anything wrong. Don't say the word "rogue," not even quietly.

This does mean that their halo still works and they still receive exorcist broadcast communications, though! You'd be surprised at how far the signal goes. It makes for a very interesting tea time, and they fucking love to gossip. It comes with being the Witness.

Their cardinal sin is pride. They enjoy the fact that they're almost the heaviest hitter possible in hell purely by courtesy of being a seraph so much. They like to think they stay classy about it, but those who know them also know that the best way to get a favor from the fallen seraph is to be polite and stroke their ego.

[haphazardcorvid]

I don't usually post anything about qsmp (or post at all because I have difficulties with communicating myself online, so if the tone or wording is weird or off-putting, I apologise) but I kinda wanted to share some thoughts on how the Meta unintentionally affects the rp, especially in the case of members going missing.

(Also this will be Long. I'm sorry. Concise writing is a gift I do not possess.)

This isn't like, the fault of the members or storyline, but I think it what inevitably happens on a server where RP and planned character lore blur with complete casual play where it's just... Real people interacting. This isn't even really criticism, just observation, because there's really no blame or fixable issue. Nobody is at fault, it's simply A Thing That Can Happen, especially when the server prides itself on spontaneity and leaving the characters AND creators in the dark (which is a thing that overall makes the qsmp really exciting) about the larger lore and other characters lore.

The Meta of real life can really influence the rp reactions, however unintentionally, and I'm mostly noting it in the case of characters going missing. For what I think is the best example, when q!Baghera was missing for AGES, I genuinely think there should have been a much bigger in-character server reaction than the one we saw? Especially considering how active she is and her wide array of friends and family. (Correct me if you saw otherwise, it just seemed more minimal from my non-french speaking pov, maybe I'm wrong).

The issue seems to stem from the creators themselves knowing that the other creator is simply on hiatus because of real life things, and that bleeds into the rp unintentionally, especially when their character didn't see the missing one actually go missing. It felt similar with Jaiden, but also less so, because she wasn't as active as Baghera and wouldn't be interactive for long periods after Bobby's death. She's still a good example though.

So the characters don't know where their friend is or even if they're not around for a bad reason, but the players know the fellow player is doing Stuff and can't come online, and it seems to muddle the rp reaction. Probably because it's not heavy scripted RP - they react blindly to events and often their characters are just extensions of themselves. (Tbh it didn't help with q!Baghera that they just got new people, and then the eggs disappeared, so all other thoughts just flew out the window). I just wish she'd gotten a stronger reaction, and genuinely think real life meta affected that. Like with some perspectives (q!Phil, for example) it was hard to know she was actually Missing missing (nobody mentioned it).

I think this is inevitable when the approach to rp is more heavily Reacting rather than Acting (there's acting too, but qsmp scripting seems to act more like guidelines than dictated interactions). It pops up a lot - when Etoiles was in America (tbf his character is more Lone Wolf, Mr 200k), Jaiden, etc. Then, because that person physically can't come online in real life, and there's often zero clues or puzzles about their whereabouts, it flatlines or peters out until their return because nobody can do anything and their characters don't know anything (often the creators too, it seems, because everyone is very averse to metagaming for good reasons). The casual side of gameplay means it becomes just people waiting for their friend to be available again.

On a funny note, you can get around some of this the Pac Mike way, by simply being kidnapped/vamoosed directly in front of your loved ones/friends. Instant Oh Shit reactions, the possibility for extending angst (q!Pac you sad angsty legend) the whole shebang - although you can still get the side effect of characters seeming to care less too fast, because it blurs with the players just comfortably waiting for their friend to come back from hiatus. In fact, it seems the best way to get a reaction from a Missing storyline is to vanish in front of someone, or leave breadcrumbs before or after the event. The Brazilians do that super well.

This meta bleed could also go the opposite way, which is why I'm so curious about q!Fit and q!Tubbo noticing q!Phil's disappearance. In that case it might mean they notice he's gone (in rp) unnaturally quickly, because they know his schedule of streaming and the fact that he's not going away in real life this week, and that he was most likely going to stream on monday, which could tip them off, but isn't necessarily an in character reason. There are other in rp explanations - he tells them whenever he's going away, they've antagonised the feds, he said he'd be around, etc - but I'm curious about the Meta, because realising today would be very fast. It's why I think it would be good if there were more breadcrumbs left so it isn't so affected by real life (because they could also lean the other way and ignore it too much because of metagaming). Hints or something of that ilk.

There's also the matter of scripting. Like I know Phil and Forever have been messaging about lore to ensure rp etiquette isn't broken and they get to do all the ideas they have planned. It does turn reacting into acting, but eh, I think a good balance of both is necessary, as much as we the audience love genuine shock and discovery. The creators absolutely plan things behind the scenes, and maybe Baghera didn't put so much weight on the rp reactions to her being gone? I don't know their minds, so I can't speculate. Doesn't change what I think about the Meta affecting it though.

I dunno. This is just one long ramble, because I was disappointed in the more lacking reactions to long absences, especially in the case of Baghera, and wanted to dissect one of the things I think is influencing it. I could just be chatting rubbish. It's not a blame game of 'oh they're doing this wrong' but genuinely something I find interesting. I love the server and the way we react to discoveries WITH the creators themselves, not just the characters, it's just an interesting thought. I just wish there had been more storyline connected to other ccs about Baghera being missing, because her lore is SO good. I wanted the Angst, goddamit.

[mania-sama]

Random ask, who are your favorite romantic relationship's couples in any media, like anime/manga, tv series, books, etc (can be canon or non-canon)? Feel free if you want to write the reasons or not of why you love them....

Thank you so much for sending in an ask! I would love to answer this question! I didn't go through every fandom I've been in, though I went through quite a few!!! Usually, there is only one ship I really love in a fandom that ends up being my favorite, but I like/love plenty of ships and don't limit myself to just one ship. I will say that when it comes to engaging with fandom and fanfiction, I tend to actually prefer platonic relationships, centered on found family and blood-related family than anything else.

Bungou Stray Dogs -> Shin Soukoku (Akutagawa Ryuunosuke/Nakajima Atsushi). I think most of this comes from the way they are quite literally yin and yang (my favorite symbol of all time) in almost every aspect. I firmly believe Asagiri is beating us over the head with a mallet saying "Look! Look what I did! Please look!" I'm under no impression that they will be canon, but BEAST gives me the hope that they can at least become friends, and that's testament enough to the development they go through. There is just so much there. I'm not an enemies to lovers person, but for them, I make the exception. There are so many parallels to draw between them, so much to look at and really dig into. I'm not delusional enough to say they wouldn't be toxic (all of the BSD ships except for, like, RanPoe, are toxic let's be real), but I am lenient enough to say that they can be good to each other in fanfics and decent friends in canon. Also, this applies to their BEAST counterparts, too. BEAST makes them better.

Jujutsu Kaisen -> ItaFushi (Fushiguro Megumi/Itadori Yuuji). There is a sort of trend I have with shipping, I think. I tend to like the second most popular ship, usually the younger generation of the most popular ship, which is arguably a form of torture in and of itself. JJK is not as bad as the BSD fandom is about the popularity difference, but it's still painful. Anyway, I think my love for this ship stems from the fact that Megumi has a big fat crush on Itadori and I will accept, under no circumstances, any other interpretations of his relationship with Itadori. Everything from the SatoSugu parallels (who are one handhold away from being canon let's be real), to their whole shtick being to save each other (physically and mentally), to Megumi literally describing Itadori as his type of person. Gender neutral. Even though it is so incredibly easy to use gendered terms in Japanese as it is in English. I feel like Gege is doing this on purpose because there is just no way he sees this as normal friend stuff. Recent chapters got me in a chokehold. I am SCARED. Besides all this, I think they just work very well together. They are also horribly tragic. Perfect combination.

Genshin Impact -> Xiaother (Aether/Xiao). I debated pretty heavily with myself here on what my true favorite is. I came to this conclusion mainly for one reason: Xiao. I love Aether, but I love Xiao. He is my favorite character, right next to Razor, so obviously he carries this ship. I also think that, of all of the implied relationships Genshin has supplied in plenty, Xiaother has had the most development. Every scene with them is better than the last, and the way that they make each other better is something I adore. And as for the ship being specifically Aether and not Lumine or nonspecific, it's because I chose Aether, so I'm more accustomed to using him as the traveler vessel rather than Lumine, but I'm honestly fine with either.

Identity V -> Elisop (Aesop Carl | Embalmer/Eli Clark | Seer). I haven't played this game in a hot minute for storage and laptop reasons, and I'm also not updated with the lore (nor was I entirely familiar with it from the beginning, outside of the MAIN main lore). But this ship and game were a huge part of my personal development, I think, and I do want to return to playing it in an honest effort eventually (I WANT MY ROBBIE RANK BACK). I think I perceive it differently than other people do, mainly because people oscillate between two sides of the Aesop Carl characterization spectrum. But there is something really fun in the idea that Eli, with his ability to see the future, thinks that he can somehow "fix" Aesop, under the impression that his and Getrude's relationship will never mend. And Aesop, who sees Eli and feels real love for the first time, finds that he doesn't know if he wants to kill and embalm Eli, or if he wants to indulge in this feeling called love. Toxic, probably. Their color schemes also match very well together (which is actually what led me to ship them in the first place, before fandom influence), and they are extremely compatible gameplay-wise.

Haikyuu -> IwaOi (Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru). If you told me two or so years ago that this was my favorite Haikyuu ship, I would have LAUGHED IN YOUR FACE. I hated Oikawa and didn't care much about Seijou. But then. But then. I went through a like. Month-long Haikyuu revival not too long ago and only read IwaOi fics because I came to this revelation. Oikawa is really goddamn relatable. I think we are all, in a sense, Oikawa, at one point or another. He is THE teenager. He is someone you can project every single one of your problems onto because his struggles with being untalented and unworthy are interchangeable with pretty much any self-worth conflict: internalized homophobia, eating disorders, socializing, etc. Iwaizumi can also provide these internal debates, but in a context with Oikawa makes it even better. Does Oikawa carry this ship for me? Yes. I don't care what you think I'm not here to defend myself.

Voltron: Legendary Defenders -> Klance (Keith Kogane/Lance McClain). Do NOT talk to me. They have ruined my life in pretty much every aspect. Also an exception to the not shipping thing because they are kinda the whole reason I even watched this show past season... three probably. I don't even wanna talk about them anymore because it'll just upset me. Just know that as far as the Sheith vs Klance debate goes, Sheithers are wrong for that after Keith called Shiro his brother. There. I added my fuel to the ever-burning garbage fire that is Voltron shipping. I may talk about Klance again in the future but for now I wanna leave my thoughts off here.

Merlin BBC -> Merthur (Arthur Pendragon/Merlin). Thank you Merthur fandom for teaching me what a good fic is supposed to taste like. They are kind of the epitome of the ships I tend to gravitate to: TRAGIC. The ending of Merlin is traumatizing and the fact that all of the cast pretty shipped it (as well as you can see the faint mouthing of the words "I love you" in the final death scene) is like. The first true healthy immersion into a ship I've ever had. I never obsessed over them too hard, I think, but Merlin is still my favorite live-action show, and Merthur is always well and true to my heart. They also got me introduced to the master/servant trope in terms of medieval times, and I had a very long affinity for it in fanfiction. I don't like it as much anymore, but I look upon that time with happiness rather than the usual slight embarrassment.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power -> Catradora (Adora/Catra). I also make an exception for enemies to lovers for them because they even added that extra-friendly step of friends to enemies to lovers. Genuinely, no show surprised me as much as She-Ra did. Shout out She-Ra for giving me the worst envy I've ever felt in my life. I want to rock a suit as well as Catra did in that one scene. Anyway, I loved their development. I know some people criticize it for being rushed towards the end, but I like the way they were able to forgive Catra so easily. They understood what it meant to be used and manipulated, what it meant to be unable to fight against oppressive forces. People are mad at compassion, even though that's the literal whole point of She-Ra. Whatever. They could never make me hate you Catradora.

Percy Jackson (all book series) -> Percabeth (Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson). The blueprint. That's it. That's all you gotta know. I don't read fics about them because there is nothing to improve upon. One of the best written series and best written romances of all time. It was basically everything Avatar: The Last Airbender failed to do with Kataang (sorry for ragging on them for a second but that's the only thing I didn't like about ATLA; the romances) failed to accomplish, with all the same in-depth and wonderful characters. Like, they are everything I aspire to have in a relationship. The way they are simply meant for each other and aren't rushed, but are always implied to have that cutesy young crushes until they finally got together. I love them. Ugh. Uncle Rick you win again.

Anyway, these were some of my favorite ships of all time!! Sorry, I blabbered a lot. Probably listed more ships than you meant to but I take whatever opportunity I can to talk about things I enjoy IN DEPTH. There were also a lot of M/M romances, which, I swear to God, just happened out that way. I love plenty of F/F and F/M relationships, they just rarely end up as my top favorite. DO NOT accuse me of anything because I WILL NOT hear it.

[caitlynnrosespn]

This was a trend, so here we go! Things I would have missed if my last attempt worked-

Well first off, my graduation! I would have missed two years of school and wouldn't have graduated, but I'm graduated now!!!

My senior play. It was AMAZING! I wouldn't have traded that experience for the world.

I turned 18!!! I was surrounded by family and friends and had a wonderful birthday, and am excited for my next birthdays to come.

I got a dog!!! Her name is Lilo and she is everything to me. She is so sweet and so playful and I love her so so so much 💗

I came out!!! It was amazing to come out to my friends and to the relatives that do support me. And know I feel confident in myself and my sexuality!

JUST DANCE LORE!!! I would have completely missed out on all the lore that's been developed, meaning I wouldn't have been as involved in this community as I am now. Plus, I wouldn't have seen these AMAZING characters!!

Avery as a coach!!! Avery is one of my childhood idols, and it would have been DEVASTATING if I didn't get to see her achieve her dreams and represent our community!!!

And of course, I wouldn't have my online family!!! I couldn't imagine a world without them now. I have met so many amazing people, and I want to tag them but I just know it woukd be so many. If you see this post then chances are you're part of it!!! I love the friends I made so si so so much and I would do anything for them. I am so happy and grateful I found such an amazing family, and if there is one reason to stay, they would be more then enough.

This really put into perspective for ne at least how much could happen and change from a lowest moments. Life's still not a picnic, but I'm excited for what is coming next for the first time in my life! Bad times come, times where we feel like nothing will change, but if we wait a little longer then we can always fine another reason to keep going. Our story is much too beautiful to end early, and even if we don't believe it there will be someone who can't imagine life without us, even if we just need to wait a little longer to meet them 💜💜💜

Thank you to anyone who reads this, for being a reason I'm still writing my story today.

[araneitela]

🌿 Author portrait. Get to know the author behind the blog! repost, do not reblog.

Basics.

Name/nickname: Manon/Sae (see Lauri, I told you I share it by default) Age: I'll turn 35 only days after summer begins (... in the northern hemisphere that is) Pronouns: She/her Years of writing: I've always written little tidbits throughout life, and most of it in school notebooks. It's not something that I did consistently, but it started roughly around early high school, which is when I was twelve years old. Granted, I also did always, always keep a diary when I was young (one of those with a lock and key and all, I loved I dearly— it was also an extra way of how I was taught about privacy, and how all of us were entitled to it), which held not just writings about my day, but drawings, and thoughts of when I was as young as 5/6. I mourn having lost all of these really, but you can't take many things with you when you move abroad. As for when I started writing on Tumblr? Since 2012, and I started in the Vampire Diaries fandom.

Reflection.

Why did you pick up writing? It was a natural thing to do, because I'd always had this craving to write about things that I didn't know about and wanted to hypothesize on, so I'd write little stories of what life 'might be like one day', for example. But more specifically, I often finished watching films or shows, or concluded a book series, and simply wanted more of it and its characters. I wanted more chapters. And so I dabbled in writing little extensions of scenes that always get cut off too soon, or I'd write things that I knew would surely have occurred in between things, or simply hypothetical situations that made sense within canon. But it always drove me insane how this wouldn't be 'canon', which I think is why I always kept at it, as if I thought that maybe if I did good enough of a job, I could read it as if it was part of the canon itself (though of course I'm not the author so it was unattainable, but I could dream when young!) But maybe that's why I always seem to come back to wanting to be 'canon strict' within my writing. It's to try and do the most justice to peoples' creations in some way? I don't know. I just know authors make me feral, and it's like I want to pay my respect to them for having done that for me.

Do you have any writing routines? I've been thinking about this for a while, because my routines have always kind of changed over the years. But one thing I realized I always do, is that I like to find the instrumental (more often than not) that I'll be writing to, and reread the thread in question until I don't just see the the muse in my head, but hear them, hear their breath, how they sigh, or the way that they're smiling or laughing. If I can't hear any of those fundamental things, then it's difficult to get into writing them. And when that's happened, I kind of... I don't know, automatically envision my muse's current reaction, and condemn them when they show me a glimpse of a reply that's two, or three replies down the line that usually emotionally destroys me.

What's your favorite part about writing? I saw Lottie mention this in her reply, and I kind of want to jump on the bandwagon: being able to get into the headspace of someone who's so vastly different from myself. I've always been intrigued by what I don't know and don't understand, so it's only logical that I ultimately gravitate to those who're so different from myself. I like figuring things out, I like problem-solving, I love research. So while sometimes there may be overlapping commonalities between my muses and myself, it's always relegated to being no more than specific elements.

Three things you like about your writing.

One. This isn't about my writing directly, but it is what ultimately fuels a lot behind it as it's an intricate part of my muse portrayals, so I think that it stills counts: how much my brain will cook and cook on lore and references, without going 'outside' of the realms of what canon gives me. It's the intense need to dissect and understand. And I like to think that it ultimately adds a semblance of realism to my portrayals and thus, hopefully, my writing when I do my best to integrate all of it into, well, the thing that, well, 'presents them to the masses'.

Two. This is a tough and mostly weird one, but I want to mention this because I think being able to do so is a big one in terms of 'self-positivity', I suppose. The fact that I'm able to actually... like my own writing, is something that I like about it. It takes a long time, and I've been out of commission so much in the last 3 years that I don't like a lot of what I write. But when I get back into it, a few replies down the time, I can write something that I'll actually be happy with, or I'll look back at random replies I wrote a month ago, a year ago, and sometimes I go 'you know what, I like this', and I wasn't able to do that when I'd started. But I can do it now, my writing has gotten to a point where sometimes I actually can say that I like it. It's not consistent by any means, and not lately, but I know that I can and will get there.

Three. I like to think that my writing changes a bit voice-wise to fit specific characters, not overly much so, but enough so that I don't tend to struggle or get intimidated by voices. I either take to a certain voice immediately (Tony Stark, Guizhong, Jace Herondale, etc.) or it can take me numerous weeks (Yelan/Kafka, Dorian Pavus, Ezio Auditore), but they all inevitably seem to settle according to my writing partners. So while outward dialogue is always the thing that I struggle with the very most and longest, I think that when it settles, it might be one of my stronger suits.

A question for the next person.

Write a question for the next person to answer. Once you've answered it, leave a new question for someone else to answer.

What do you find the most difficult to write (eg dialogue)? I've always answered one of two things for this in the past, one being dialogue but I'm kind of getting over that nowadays. The other mostly stems from the fact that I have difficulty getting sentences to flow properly, it's the transition of one sentence to another. It's that no matter how much I may speak English out loud conversationally nowadays, it's this mental discrepancy I have between it and my native tongue when it comes to creative writing because I write so differently from how I speak. It's really the thing that'll motivate me to rewrite an entire paragraph sometimes, and also why one reply can take so excessively long. I'll reread and it sounds like one sentence is so far removed from the one that came before it, that I shake my head and redo it. It's quite honestly the bane of my existence. Flow, flow, flow.

New question: When life throws you lemons, and gets you down, does writing become something that you're drawn to as to get you through it, or do you feel like it does the opposite?

Tagged by: @daybreakrising (muah, Lauri! And thank you Aven for making this lil thing) Tagging: @spiderwarden @delusionaid @aventvrina @astrxlfinale and whoever else who wants to do it; feel free to steal it from me and tag me.