#Magical Temptation

[nimue-hidden-lake]

Fresh batch of Natsume arrived

Yeah... Natsume Era is so back... It's so back.

[lake-archive]

Gaming Prodigy

AO3 Link

Fandom: Ensemble Stars

Characters: Ritsu Sakuma, Natsume Sakasaki, Anja-Sophia 'Ann' Wolff (OC) 

Summary: It was meant to be a usual gaming session... However, a visit changes everything for the day!

Words: 1,316

When Ann had entered with an uninvited guest in the club room Natsume had not been all too amused if he was completely honest. And yet, he couldn’t really shoot it down either, especially since he knew what Rei’s younger brother was like – Clingy to a fault. Yet seeing him here of all places… 

Now, seeing Ritsu with Ann was not really a secret. In fact, it was a secret awfully kept. Even if Natsume had not put her on the spot, solely for his own amusement if anything, he would have known without her unnecessary stuttering and red face. Yeah, Ritsu was known to be clingy towards people he really likes, yet recently he had taken it a step further with the current translator. He may as well be a koala or have glued himself onto her whenever he saw fit… Like right now.

Not to mention the things Natsume himself had witnessed from afar. He didn’t pay much attention to it, do not get him wrong there, but he had seen it in passing – The constant teasing, playful bickering and the exchange of more intimate interactions. After all, a kiss? It was hard to mistake it. And if he knew, everyone else would probably as well. It may as well be something that one would call an ‘open secret’. You have to be blind to not realize what had been going on between the two for who knows how long.

But he had hoped that the club room would be spared, that none of that would come through there. And yet, Ann had the audacity to show up with the little brother. He had even pulled her aside for a moment to have a proper conversation. 

“If you think about cuddling with someone in herE, I will have tO–” He was about to say yet she had explained the situation fairly quickly.

“Wait wait wait! Sakasaki–San, don’t! Er.. He happened to… See. Well, meet in the hallway…” She began, embarrassed about this. “So Ritsu… Well… I’m sorry.” And a bow at the end, she seemed to be ashamed at the very least.

It was followed by the more in depth explanation – Ritsu happened to come across Ann as she was on the way to the club room, the weekly gaming session Sora loved to invite her to and Natsume went along with it. Heck, sometimes he even invited her over himself, when Sora was busy with work of his own. All to have a few matches or be busy with some multiplayer modes. And if she was not too busy she usually agreed anyway. Like today.

Either way, before she knew it the conversation turned into him following her and clinging onto her, thus both arriving at the club room. And Ritsu seemed to refuse to leave ever since. Natsume had no idea how to feel about this in the long run yet… He couldn’t refuse either. “Ritsu will rest mostly! That… Can be fine, right?” She argued with the president of the club and he couldn’t find anything against that. As long as he would not cause any trouble it is fine… Probably.

And for a while it had been, nothing really changing. It was as if he had not been there… Outside of the snoring and the sight that he was occupying Ann’s lap, to the point he moved so much that it was impossible to ignore, yet that was not going to be Natsume’s problem… Or so he thought. Nothing would be different, right? Well no…

“Uh… Noisy…” He heard Ritsu mumble yet again, making Natsume shoot a glare to the side… Only to see Ritsu turn and open his eyes slowly, then continuing: “What are you two doing there anyway?”

“Huh? W… Well–” Ann seemed to be about to explain but got interrupted quickly.

“Ah, place it over there. Or you might not be able to create a line with the next few pieces.”

“Eh? Over there?” Then the sound of dropping a piece could be heard in–game.

“Right. Good girl~”

“W… will tha–” “ T*tr*s! ” One could hear echo from the television screen, making even Natsume turn in one go… Only to stare a bit in disbelief. It was hard to focus in the end, always having to hear this guy give her advice on where to move what blog. 

“Ah— Save that one…” or “You can clear the line now or wait, your choice I guess…” or even “You’re too scared to leave gaps, aren’t you? Hah… Don’t worry, you can fix it with the later pieces.” In fact, with his advice she proved to be a challenge… That or it may as well have been a two versus one match. No, Natsume wasn’t even facing Ann anymore. In fact, he may as well have been playing against Ritsu for a good few matches. Ann was just the pawn, following the advice of Ritsu’s down to a t! 

Literally sometimes because the t–shaped blogs were busy falling down. And never in his life had Natsume heard so much “ T*tr*s! ” echoing in his ears when playing against Ann. It left him baffled, to say the least… To the point he had to put a stop at it.

“Can we please keep this a 1V1 matCH!?” He interrupted as the characters had appeared on screen, in front of the two playing fields. While Ann’s may as well have been nearly wiped clean, Natsume had not been so lucky… Oh no, far from that. The blogs had been stacking up in its different colors… Then again, there was more gray than color to be honest. It was impossible to recover. A tragedy, really.

The short girl with the long, violet hair and the black–white lolita dress had been sitting in front of it, a yellow blanket right over her head. In the meantime the light–blue haired guy right next to her had been holding up his sword with a wide grin, being ever so proud. 

“ The day is mine! ”  and “ I should have predicted this… ” echoed one after the other in the respective voices… Again! It may as well be burned into Natsume’s mind by now!

Back to the topic at hand – The pair turned to Natsume who had been eyeing the two with some type of glare by now. He was not amused, not at all. “Eh? But… It is—”

“It is noT!” He protested. “Also if you want to plaY, we still havE—”

“No thanks… I’m good.” Ritsu interrupted, letting out a short yawn. “Maybe some other time. I don’t usually play this game.”

Wha– Hold on, wait a minute! “What do you mean by ‘not usualLY’?” Natsume dared to ask, very slowly. There was no way, given how precise the advice was. The sleepy guy had even used terms one would only know if they had played the game! So—

“I watched Ann–Chan play before.” He responded however, smirking a little. “It’s always a disaster~”

“Ah— I… I’m trying!” She threw in, sounding already embarrassed beyond belief. 

“Yes yes. That doesn’t really change anything you know.” He was right, even Natsume could agree. Ann was… Not great… At all. “Anyway, I picked up some things, not much. I never played this game in my life.”

Hearing that made Natsume drop the controller on sight, only staring in disbelief, almost blankly, ready to space out. What was this? What was he just witnessing? No, does that mean that he technically lost to someone who never attempted it himself? Was that… No words, literally. None. How was that even possible? No idea… Maybe it was just some weird dream he was having.

… No, it wasn’t. It was reality, a weird one… But a reality nonetheless. Defeated by someone who has never touched this game before in their life technically… 

No comment.

[mimi-0007]

[pratchettquotes]

She caught sight of the mirror over the mantelpiece and looked down at the crown. It was tempting. It was practically begging her to try it for size. Well, and why not? She made sure that the others weren't around and then, in one movement, whipped off her hat and placed the crown on her head.

It seemed to fit. Granny drew herself up proudly, and waved a hand imperiously in the general direction of the hearth.

"Jolly well do this," she said. She beckoned angrily at the grandfather clock. "Chop his head off, what ho," she commanded. She smiled grimly.

And froze as she heard the screams, the thunder of horses, and the deadly whisper of arrows and the damp, solid sounds of spears in flesh. [...] Years streamed across her mind in the space of a second. There were times when she lay among the dead, or hanging from the branch of a tree; but always there were hands that would pick her up again, and place her on a velvet cushion...

Granny very carefully lifted the crown off her head--it was an effort, it didn't like it much--and laid it on the table.

"So that's being king for you, is it?" she said softly. " I wonder why they all want the job?"

Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

what kind of favour do you require in exchange for an equineswap jiang yanli

I will fight god if that's what it takes.

No favour required! These guys were in the original doodle dump!

[v1x-holo]

Hooman Spatulady teehee

[laurastatice]

the show is over

[downfalldestiny]

I Desire You ❤️🤗😘 !.

[bestfurrywife]

(Arlinn Kord alternate forms under cut)

Propaganda:

Ilia Shrikewood:

"She will kill someone if needed."

Arlinn Kord:

"Arlinn is an older werewolf woman who has worked to help fight to protect werewolves from being needlessly hunted, attacked, or forcibly "cured" of their lycanthropy"

[nimue-hidden-lake]

I'M OFFICALLY A FS2 RITSU HAVER!

Got him on my tablet account in only one ten pull. I'm very happy.

I still gotta grind on my phone one but I will just pray that Ritsu will be kind to me there as well.

Bonus - Natsume is being kind too for some reason. First his FES2 on CN, now the card I wanted in forever on TW... And it only took me 20 pulls.

What if Natsume era returns soon? WHAT IF!? In b4 it already did.

[crimeronan]

Hmm. Belos being Weird and Bad towards Hunter so in his need to control the children he continues to be possessive over Hunter and uses this against Luz like 'he is only yours because I gave him to you, I can take him away'... and Luz knows this is a real threat because Belos continually Takes Hunter Away to do Bad Things so her fear that he won't come back is SO real but she also hates objectifying him like that and wants to respect hunters autonomy...

you know, if you WANT to interpret it this way.... you COULD probably make an argument that it's AU canon-compliant if something like this did happen. bc i reread the luz POV fic recently and i was like "good GOD. how many Deeply Upsetting Implications could i cram into one novella. girl what were you processing here" (i know what i was processing here)

like. it's true that luz doesn't realize hunter is being physically abused and that she thinks she's had a pretty well-adjusted upbringing, BUT.

1) even before the grimwalker horror, she acknowledges that she and hunter are both considered "eccentric" because they have no other peers;

2) she keeps insisting that belos is doing all of his worst, creepiest, most manipulative bullshit "because he's a good father and he loves her" (LEAVE HER ALONE);

3) she somehow intuitively KNOWS that acting possessive and imperious about hunter will get her what she wants. "he's mine" indeed!

and there's some separation already baked into their day-to-day lives -- luz has private lessons with belos that hunter isn't present for, hunter CLEARLY has had time alone with belos that luz isn't present for. luz doesn't know hunter is being physically hurt but she Does textually know that being around belos makes him stressed/upset. and that belos hates him. for no fucking reason. she and hunter both acknowledge that she's the favorite without any bitterness or jealousy between them, because it's just.... how things are. a fact of life.

like. belos probably never told her explicitly "i gave him to you and i can take him away," that Would be a slight AU of the AU -- it would make her a lot quieter and more fearful of punishment than she is in the text. but being told that hunter Belongs to her and she can do whatever she wants to him and if he fusses about it, she can come to belos to set him straight....?

that is like. Very Much a conversation they could have had.

[dollywons]

[salty-an-disco]

magical girl AU civ designs and two concepts for Cold’s transformed form (the final design will prolly be more similar to the second one)

thinkin’ of just calling his magical girl form Grimm (feels like smth Cold would settle on), and I’ll keep Cole as their civ name (no one, not even Echo, knows if they have a last name). Has been a magical girl the longest alongside Smitten and Hunted, and no one really knows much about her. The Mysterious One, as to say

[extraaa-30]

i see you "Aziracrow are the cryptid guardians of the gays/ soho angels/ patron saints of queers throughout history" fic writers

Allow me to propose an addition:

what happens when modern gays discover, through some offhand remark, that they were literally the original inspiration for elements of queer culture

[greenerteacups]

What do you think as Hermione's career would be post battle of Hogwarts? To me her being minister for magic really doesn't make sense. She does not have patience or tact to wade through murky waters of politics 😭😭

So hard to say! The Trio are so, so young when we leave them, I find it almost impossible to project their futures farther than a few years out. The job that suited me at 17 would be radically unsuited to me now. That's why of all the Trio, Ron's ending strikes me as the most realistic — he jumps straight into the save-the-world business again, burns out, realizes he's actually Done The Fuck Enough, Thanks, and pivots into a low-stress career where he gets to see his family a lot. Feels accurate! The others are weirder to me because they do seem to just... pick a lane and stay there.

With Hermione, you could spin her a couple ways. You could say that she leans into her bookish side and does research or teaching, which is not my preference for a couple reasons (namely, I don't think Hermione would like academia as a profession; she finds her classwork interesting and enjoys intellectual validation, but she'd be stifled and wasted in a DPhil program, and she'd be infuriated by the administrative politicking of your average higher-ed faculty). You could say that she gets disaffected with politics and ends up as a barrister or a lobbyist of some kind, but if anything that requires more political finesse, because you don't actually have institutional power, you're just handling the people who make decisions and trying to persuade them of your goals. This is not Hermione's preferred method of influence. She's not even particularly good at persuasion, she just happens to be smart enough (and right often enough) that people take her ideas seriously.

Or you could say her brashness fades with the years into a softened flavor of tell-you-like-it-is honesty, which some politicians actually do successfully trade on; as we see in British politics today, you don't have to be all that charming or clever to get ahead, you just need to be really driven and well-connected (which Hermione completely is; she fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the first postwar Minister and her bestie, the Literal Messiah, runs the Auror Office.) But I don't know if Hermione especially wants to be Minister, after the war. She's just watched years of horrendous bureaucratic incompetence plunge the country into a violent civil conflict. She's had not one, but two Ministers of Magic try to bully or shame her friends into complicity with fascism. Her view of government is... likely extremely dark.

But Hermione also isn't the kind of person who sees her life as a quest for happiness. Babygirl has a savior complex that makes Harry look selfish. (She basically kills her parents — yeah, obliviating is a form of murder, #changemymind — "for their own good," and justifies every batshit, vindictive, mean-spirited move she ever pulls on the grounds that it "helps" one of her friends.) She is a mean, lean, dragon-slaying machine, and she needs a dragon. After Voldemort, the Ministry is the no. 1 threat to muggle-borns and non-wizarding Beings. As a war heroine with basically infinite political capital, I'd be surprised if she didn't try to do something there. That said, Hermione is so vivacious and dynamic that she could potentially grow in a hundred different directions; it's possible that all of this, while true of her at 18, becomes completely inaccurate by 22. That's why I'm not too fussed about any particular fanon interpretation.

[a-mongooose]

I’m a day late for my favorite holiday. I am so distraught. alas, better late than never  I absolutely love this goofy series The stream yesterday was fire , her new voices / the concept art is so cool wahhh nonsense post  HAPPY ENA DAY!!! !  !! !   (wordless ver. under cut)