#Randomly hit me while writing a fanfic which will not include any of this | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

imagining-in-the-margins · 3 years

Note

Hi! You often give alot of insight into anons like this and your my fave CM blog so that's why I'm here! So I'm finishing up the last seasons (and lord it is hard to get through) and they just introduced Max and I cannot stand her. She was just so rude and it felt like she had 2 different personalities the entire time she was on screen. And I worried that this meant I was like hating women because I don't like other female characters like Maeve, JJ, Hailey, and Seaver. But then I started thinking and I honestly think it's cause these Characters are women poorly written by men. But then I wondered how they created likeable Characters like Emily, Kristy, Blake, Tara, and Penelope (leaving out others like Savannah because they're under developed in my opinion) I don't know what's the difference in the writing for these Characters or of there isn't any at all and I'm just being hateful in a way. What are your thoughts?

Ah, I think about this a lot. Thank you for thinking I’m interesting enough to answer this, also!

I think you’ve really hit the nail on the head with the writers doing a poor job at most of their female characters. However, I think it’s possible (and very common in this fandom) for people to dislike any character Spencer showed an interest in, which is also problematic and rooted in internalized misogyny. To me, it all comes down to why you dislike the characters.

(A LOT More Below - Bit of a Rant)

The first step I took when reflecting to see if this was my problem was rewatching and seeing which female characters I loved. Along with the ones you listed, I also found a number of side characters I greatly enjoyed, including Lila, Austin, Dr. Linda Kamura (from Amplification, the anthrax episode), Einstein, Megan Kane, and a few other random case characters. So, right off the bat I found multiple characters who Spencer showed an affinity for. I also greatly enjoyed Cat’s character, although I found her to be underdeveloped in canon (Fanon has done a good job, IMO) and often contradictory in her character design.

If you didn’t like any of these women, and your reason is related purely to Spencer’s reactions to them, chances are you might be suffering from a bit of jealousy rather than improper character design - not that you need to like them all (or the ones that I like), but because they are all very different. You should, theoretically, find something to enjoy about at least one of them.

But the CM Writers have a TERRIBLE habit of writing women that are easy to hate.

There’s a bunch of controversy I see over Haley Hotchner, but the truth is that they wrote her to be hated. That was her sole purpose. Her character’s decisions were poorly thought out and she was shown to be malicious 80% of the time. This was intentional. She was written to personify the trope of the nagging housewife. If you dislike her, you have done nothing but follow the narrative.

That being said, you should also criticize why they wrote her this way. Because it didn’t make any sense. She married a prosecutor - a dangerous, time consuming job. She had Jack when she knew he was with the BAU. Why did she randomly change her tune? Why did she suddenly demand he gives up on his dreams that she was fully aware of for years? I’d argue they wrote it like this to further the narrative of “the wife who traps you with a child to force you to do what she wants” which is garbage writing. I wish people could look at the potential she had if they hadn’t written her like... that.

Maeve, I find, is problematic on multiple aspects and I’ve talked about it before. Her narrative was poorly thought out because as soon as they pitched the idea of a long-term love interest for Spencer, everyone (most notably Gubler) rejected it. They didn’t think it was necessary for his character, who already had a lot going on with the ignored plot lines of his drug addiction and mother.

There were multiple problems associated with her character that were never addressed. The fact she essentially just took advantage of a patient because she was bored, she seemed to “correct” his interests and show annoyance when he disagreed with her, she lied about having a fiance, she was shown to be considering breaking up with him... there’s a lot.

Her character is poorly written. It had a lot of potential, but they just kind of stopped caring once they decided to kill her off. She had more faults shown on screen than redeeming qualities. For many, they liked her because they see there was a potential that we’ll never see (fair). But for people like me, we interpret it as a idealized fantasy of what could have (but probably wouldn’t have) been, which is not healthy for Spencer.

JJ is an interesting character because you can feel the constant struggle between AJ Cook and the writers. They really sabotaged JJ at every step of the way. I’ll be honest and say that I think there are some reasons to hate JJ, but they aren’t the reasons I see most often. Almost all of the JJ hate I see is surrounding the idea that JJ is an evil, manipulative, jealous bitch. But.. she’s not. Even in Truth or Dare, when she pulls that asshole move that was wildly OOC for JJ (in my opinion), she isn’t shown to be jealous or cruel about it.

I think she’s the most likely target for people who’s hatred is driven from jealousy or disliking conventionally attractive women and assuming them to be bitchy by nature of looking “beautiful.” I think Lila Archer* also falls into this category.

But as I said, JJ was also written with a lot of flaws. I think it’s fair if you don’t like her character or the way she treats Spencer, but I also hope that you similarly criticize the whole team in the same way, and don’t just pity Spencer because he is smol uwu babie who needs protection.

(* Yet another reminder that I ask everyone to not message me about J Depp or Amber Heard. Reactive Abuse is an extreme trigger for me and I will block you if you try to get me to talk about it)

Seaver got a lot of hate based off one line of dialogue. I think it was a bad line. If they had left it out, there would be essentially no reason in my mind to dislike Seaver. I used to dislike her a lot, but the more I rewatch the show, the less she bothers me. She was just a young student who wanted to learn about her father/herself. She was MASSIVELY underdeveloped because they kicked her off just as quickly as they invited her in.

NO character was developed that quickly. Her scenes were a bit cringey and the plotlines were bad, and her character was mediocre. I don’t think she deserves the hate she gets. She is a lukewarm character.

I hate everything Max’s character represents. She was introduced to show that Spencer could be trained to be “normal” and it’s anti-autistic bullshit. She had no personality besides “I hate my low-brow job as a teacher and couldn’t be fucked to change it until a man told me I was smart.” She was cracking high-school-clique jokes while her family was about to be murdered. She immediately abandoned said family to make out with her boyfriend who just admitted to enjoying kissing the woman who tried to murder her family.

Her character makes absolutely zero sense. I do not understand how she is so liked. I really don’t (other than the fact that RLC is absolutely wonderful).

If they had left her character out, I think we would have been better off for it. We could have seen Spencer wrestle with defining himself by the women in his life and learning to love himself (without just replacing those women with... another... woman...)

That being said, those who cling to Max for hope of a happy ending for Spencer... I felt that. Fanon and fanfic can solve all character deficiencies. I believe in you.

So, yeah. I’d say if you’re worried about why you dislike women characters, you’re probably on the right path. I’d just reflect on why you dislike the characters you do and whether they are written as misogynistic stereotypes. It makes complete sense to reject characters written for the purpose of making you hate them, but we should all pour one out for the brilliant actresses that had characters with so much potential if not for men ruining it.

#Criminal Minds #anti-maxcer #anti-maeve #answer #answered

92 notes · View notes

thinkingisadangerouspastime · 3 years

Text

‘author’ self interview

thank you for the tag @itsmoonpeaches!! sorry im a few days late getting to it 😩

Name: thinkingisadangerouspastime / faerialchemist / amy

Fandoms: all of them, lmao? well, according to ffn:

Author has written 61 stories for Teen Titans, Fairy Tail, Fullmetal Alchemist, [redacted], Ouran High School Host Club, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, Avengers, Dragon Prince, Good Omens, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Fruits Basket, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Avatar: Last Airbender, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Winx Club.

right now, i am active(ish) in atla and the mcu as well as monk and medium, although those last two don’t really have fandoms (at least not large ones, lol)

Where do you post: faerialchemist on AO3 is where my better works are, lmao, but i also post on FFN, Wattpad, and Quotev under different handles. and when i remember, i try to promo my works on Tumblr, too!

Most popular multi-chapter fic: in terms of true multichapter fics (i.e. not a oneshot collection), No Ordinary Exchange wins for hits, kudos, everything. i think that can be attributed to the fact that a) it’s long, b) it’s complete, c) it’s rayllum (most popular tdp ship), and d) it’s a college!au (a popular trope in fandom overall). although tbh, i only have like one or two other true multichaps posted, one of which is incomplete and the other of which is half-focused on an extreme rarepair, so there’s not much competition 😂

Favorite story you’ve written so far: i am going to cheat and say my favorite fics i’ve written so far are the three in my why’d you have to go and make things so complicated? series. here’s the series “summary”:

A series of (mostly) Flash Thompson-centric fics set in a canon-divergent AU beginning after Spider-Man: Homecoming. Niche headcanons*, one-sided rivals to friends (to lovers), and Flash Thompson appreciation abound!

*Headcanons I have pioneered so far: Flash Thompson has dyslexia, Flash Thompson likes art history, Flash Thompson likes origami. Stay tuned for more. ;)

basically, it’s 50k worth of fics (so far) that serve as a testament to how much i love mcu flash thompson 🥺💛 he deserves the world!!

Fic you were nervous to post: i was pretty nervous to post one of my more recent fics, actually! the fic is called Is This Love?, and i was nervous for a few different reasons:

- it’s half sambucky, which was fine bc sambucky is popular lmao, but it’s also half sarahmay, which is a sapphic rarepair i came up with between sarah wilson and may parker. the mcu fandom has a heavy preference for mlm pairings, so i was nervous by virtue of the fic being partially wlw-centric, but it all ended up being fine! i have converted so many people to sarahmay 😤

- the fic also features my demiromantic!sam headcanon. i myself am aspec but (maybe) not demiromantic, so i wanted my portrayal to be respectful, and as such i was nervous despite everything i’d looked into prior to writing and posting the fic, lol

- it’s a multichap. multichaps make me nervous solely because they are multiple chapters. adds stressTM 😂

How do you choose your titles: song lyrics, randomly coming up with them, a specific line/word used in the fic, and brainstorming with friends are probably the main ways!

Do you outline: sure do 😤 it varies from fic to fic, so some outlines are a detailed list of events in the appropriate order, while others are a more general idea of “here’s stuff i want to include,” lol. generally speaking, though, i always try to go in with some sort of plan!

Complete: all of my recent fics are complete! (although that’s bc i primarily write oneshots 😂) on ao3, i think i only have one fic that’s truly incomplete. (oneshot collections are a weird in-between, because they essentially are always complete unless i feel like adding to them.) on ffn, though, i have four incomplete fics, three of which are from middle school. i don’t think they will ever be finished 😩

Do you accept prompts: technically, yes! but my policy is that i am under no obligation to write any of them. i write fanfic for fun and as a stress reliever, so if im not inspired by a prompt, i am not going to stress myself out trying to write for it, lol

Upcoming story you’re most excited to write about: i actually just finished writing this story today (by hand, it’s not typed yet lmao), but im gonna let it count for this question anyways! it is probably the most self-indulgent fic i’ve ever written: a monk and medium crossover. that’s right, two fandoms absolutely no one in the world cares about but me. i wrote this fic solely bc it was something i wanted to read 😂 it is - if i counted correctly - 78 1/2 pages long, which is probably in the range of 30-35k words? once i type it up (in like,, december lmao) i’ll have more specifics, although the “patching” that occurs when i type handwritten drafts could push the word count closer to 40k. but who knows? time will tell!

anyways, im just so excited about this fic bc it has so many things i like lmaooo (examples: allison whump, joe x allison content, sharona being her wonderful self, and what i hope is an interesting murder mystery!)

Stories you’re most excited to read: literally anything and everything my friends are working on! off the top of my head: @shifuaang’s tysuki fic, @praetorqueenreyna’s dark!zukaang fic, @itsmoonpeaches’s fruits basket fic, and @ambivalentmarvel’s spider kids fic 🙌

i think a lot of my atla mutuals have been tagged to do this already, so tagging some marvel friends! (this is starkravinghazelnoots, btw 💛)

tagging: @ambivalentmarvel, @friendlyneighborhoodsecretary, @lunannex, @kalliopecosmos, @omg-just-peachy, and anyone else who wants to do this! just say i tagged you 💕

#me? confusing all my marvel mutuals by tagging them from my main sideblog? it's more likely than you think #amy gets tagged

6 notes · View notes

higuchimon · 3 years

Text

[fanfic] Answers To Unexpected Questions: chapter 3 [end]

“Juudai!” Yubel knocked him down, wings spread wide, avoiding the battery of crossbow bolts shot through the tent. One of them slammed into the man chained up to a pole, sending him spinning as far as his bonds would allow him.

It wasn’t Johan. Sparkman had been tricked. Either illusion or just making a mistake, which wasn’t that surprising.

It wasn’t a mistake that Juudai or Yubel would’ve made. Both of them knew the difference between Johan and his twin brother Rune on sight alone.

Yubel tried to tell me and I wouldn’t listen.

Juudai had enough time for that alone before he brought himself back to his feet and checked Yubel. The crossbow bolts did nothing at all save force them to step back. Their wings remained spread in front of him.

Ancient Elf stepped into the ruined tent, giving a very disapproving look as he did.

“I truly did not believe you would come for this ruffian,” he said, brushing his coat off as if Juudai’s very presence dirtied him. “Now, his brother, that would’ve been understandable. But why him?”

Juudai wasn’t going to let him know the truth. Instead he just tossed his head.

“You should know that I protect all life. Doesn’t matter who it is.”

“Yes, yes, of course. But this world is going to be destroyed and you will not be able to stop it.”

Juudai drew in a very long and very deep breath. “Could you save your speeches for after I’m dead? I really don’t have the time now.”

Rune was bleeding. Rune was dying, because Juudai’s powers didn’t include healing and Johan’s did, and Johan wasn’t there and they needed to get out as soon as they could.

He made no move at all. He couldn’t find Rune’s shadow, not with all the other light in the room. It had been by great good luck that none of the bolts hit any of the candles or lanterns there and set the tent itself on fire.

Maybe that would’ve been better. There would’ve been shadows there for sure. And the tent would’ve burned down. Maybe all of them would have.

Ancient Elf smiled. It wasn’t the kind of smile that would make other people happy in the slightest.

“If you wish to die, then we can most certainly accommodate you.”

“Not as long as I’m around.” Yubel growled, arms and wings spread to defend Juudai at a moment’s notice. “No harm will come to my Juudai.”

The old sorcerer turned a very disapproving look upon Yubel. “No one asked for your opinion, malformed one. But since you insist upon it as well, we’ve made plans for you.”

Fear coiled itself all around Juudai and he started to back for Rune. Even if he died, Johan wasn’t going to leave him here. Johan would need to know about this. “Yubel, we’re getting out of here.”

“Oh, I think not.” Ancient Elf tsked before raising one finger.

Many things happened at the same time.

A net of glowing green materials dropped down from above, wrapping all around Juudai. No matter how much he strained at it, he could not break it, despite how fragile it looked.

Another bout of crossbow bolts shot, arching over the elf’s head and burying themselves deep into Yubel. Each of them carried a malevolent white sigil written upon them, one Juudai only belatedly recognized as something intended to bind the effects of magic, sealing them off from the user.

Aodh had said that Yubel’s power wasn’t unstoppable. For that matter, neither was Juudai’s. Whatever this web was made out of, Juudai couldn’t so much as get a firm grip on it, let alone get it off of him.

Ancient Elf stepped over and stared down at him, a sadistic tilt to his lips.

“Oh, Herald. You thought it would be so easy, didn’t you? That you would just come in here, rescue this piece of offal, and dance away with your misborn creation before any of us noticed you. We knew you were coming from the beginning. It’s what someone as foolish as you does.”

He nudged Juudai with one foot. Juudai twisted away from it, trying to get hold of Yubel, to do something that wasn’t lay there like a lump.

Yubel lay against the far wide of the tent, a thick dark liquid coming from the half-dozen crossbow bolts still lodged within. Slowly, as if feeling his attention, Yubel opened their eyes and turned toward him.

“Beloved...” Yubel tried to reach for him. Juudai tried to reach back. But warriors in white armor trooped in and one of them wrenched Yubel away, not caring how much more damage was done in the process.

“First we dispose of the misborn. Then we dispose of him,” Ancient Elf decreed. He glanced toward Rune. “Throw that in the deadpile. It can be burned with the others.”

Juudai had time only to see that Rune still breathed, if shallow and unsteadily, before they dragged all three out. Yubel and Juudai were taken to a clearing he’d ignored on the way in, where a white marble altar had been spread out, and the strongest and most skilled of the Army of Light’s warriors awaited them.

The altar had been marked with those sigils that kept Yubel’s power bound, ensuring that there wasn’t anything Yubel could do to protect Juudai or anyone else as they hauled Yubel onto it, wrapping thick chains all around to keep them in place.

They’d bound Juudai tighter with the power-nullifying web, which also carried those marks, he noticed when he had a moment to stop fighting. A full two dozen of them stood guard on him, while Ancient Elf moved over to the altar and Yubel.

“Once you’ve both perished in honor of the Light, your souls will be cleansed by its power, and will nevermore be able to touch the unholy Darkness. Should you return to a mortal form, you will belong to the Light.”

Juudai struggled harder. He knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere, but he didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, if this went through, then he’d be dead forever. Being part of the Light embodied all that he stood against.

Ancient Elf raised a sharp, long-bladed dagger, marked with emblems of the Light. Clearly he wasn’t taking any chances at all.

“In the name of the Light, by the Power of the Light, by the Cleansing of the Light, let you be freed of your misborn form and your foolish vows to the Darkness! Let there be nothing more that binds you, nothing more that keeps you from serving the Light, as all things must!”

He brought the knife down, sharp and deadly and reeking of magic that made Juudai sick.

“I don’t think so.”

A different kind of light filled the clearing, one that Juudai squinted against, but it caused no fear in him. Instead, it drove all fear out, and he found it in himself to hope that this wasn’t the end.

“You!” Ancient Elf spun backwards even as that familiar voice spoke.

Standing on the back of a beautiful winged unicorn stood Johan, in his full power as the incarnate Light of Hope. His arms folded over his chest and he stared down at them like the very wrath of the gods, clad all in armor of white and trimmed in silver.

The rest of his guardians stood near him, a tiger and a great cat, a mammoth and a turtle and an eagle, and on his shoulder, a tiny little squirrel-ish creature that chirruped at the sight of Juudai.

“Johan!”

Johan gave a quick, quiet nod, before gesturing to Amethyst Cat and Topaz Tiger. “Get Rune out of here. I’ll take care of this.”

They didn’t argue, even as Johan turned back to Ancient Elf. “I could ask a lot of questions but I’ll save them for when people aren’t waving knives at my friends. So, let them go.”

He added nothing else. He needed to add nothing else, not with the way the rest of his companions stared down alongside of him.

Ancient Elf moved towards Yubel, knife still in hand. “Of course, of course.” His lip curled in hatred, no matter if he looked at Juudai or Yubel or Johan. “How could we ever disobey you?”

More crossbow bolts, but Emerald Turtle moved in front of them and they clattered harmlessly off of his shell. In the intervening moments, however, Ancient Elf struck down at Yubel, the tip of the blade piercing Yubel’s very center.

Juudai had heard Yubel scream before, but never since becoming his guardian and taking on the form of a dragon. The scream struck into the deepest part of his heart and he could see Yubel’s form shimmering before it shattered altogether, breaking into untold points of light, and then fading away with one last cry.

“Juudai...”

And then Yubel was gone.

Juudai writhed and screamed in rage of his own, rage enough to end the world, and he could see Johan running towards him and he didn’t care, Yubel was gone, destroyed, and it was all his fault, he could blame no one else and wouldn’t have even if he could, if he’d just listened and not rushed off like this, if he’d just so much as waited for a second check…

Yubel was gone.

Yubel was gone and Juudai’s heart bled and power that he’d known he had surged upward, shattering the bonds that held him.

One could hold the Darkness incarnate but only for so long. Darkness always fell and always rose again.

There was a voice that called a name. Then other voices. None of them meant anything to the Darkness.

It rose. The Light was there. It needed to be extinguished.

Yubel needed to be avenged.

The world needed to be saved.

The Darkness reached and all those warriors of the Light fell, screaming, and it was pleasing to the ears of the Darkness.

To the ears of Haou.

He smiled and terror spread among all those who gazed upon him and so would it be.

He would protect that which was his. If that meant to destroy all things, to crush them underneath his heel so that never again would the Light harm them, then so be it. Without Yubel, what did he have?

Juudai. Juudai.

Little more than a whisper on the wind, but it was enough to catch his attention and he turned to where the broken body lay. Standing next to it, transparent as a soap bubble, was… Yubel?

He spoke their name. The world shook at the sound of one word and he heard other voices again, and they still meant nothing at all to him.

I’m … I’m still here. I don’t know what happened. But I’m here.

He tilted his head. Did Yubel wish him to stop, then? He would stop at their will and theirs alone.

No, Juudai. I don’t. Yubel bared their teeth and it was not a smile and he returned it. Destroy it all. Let their folly be known throughout the land. Let the Light know what it threatens and what will happen when it fails.

Haou liked how that sounded. The screaming voices still meant nothing. He turned toward one and tilted his head a bit. The screamer meant nothing but Haou recognized him anyway. He just wasn’t what Haou wanted right now. Nor did he want anyone else to have it.

Hope gave people a promise. The only hope and promise he wanted the people here, the servants of the Light, to know was the chance for a quick death. It was the only promise he would fulfill.

He turned another way to recognize his bodyguards. The ones who weren’t Yubel. They kept on yelling, but nothing they said made any sense to him. Well, no matter. It was time to finish this once and for all anyway.

All the elements lay under his command. Fire rained from the sky with little more than an exercise of will. Water rose up from the river, ten times that of what Bubbleman caused, and the earth underneath their feet rocked and cracked open, sending legion after legion of the Army of Light screaming into the depths.

Winds roared, a tornado touching down in the center of their camp, shredding survivors and tents and all their equipment into useless junk.

“Juudai! Juudai!”

Hope again. Haou flicked a finger and a wave of energy knocked him to the side into one of the few still standing trees. He didn’t move.

Haou moved onward. He had a great deal of work to do and he would like to finish it before sundown.

Pain beyond pain tore into his back, ripping through his armor and sending him crashing to his knees. Haou pulled himself up and around to stare behind himself.

The same blade used to kill Yubel now sank up to the hilt in his own back. Far too close stood Ancient Elf, with another in hand.

“Even if I can’t kill you for the Light, I can still kill you!”

Haou reached for his own last bit of power: he knew what a dying body felt like, and this one was dying. He lashed outward with it, and Ancient Elf was no more, falling backwards with a twisted smirk in the last moments.

Juudai sank back down to his knees, stumbling even then, falling forward. One hand reached for Yubel. The other, for Johan. He spared one breath for the Elemental Heroes, even as he could feel the last of his life fading away.

“I’m sorry.”

He didn’t know who he spoke to, but he meant it to all of them.

All my fault...

Juudai sat up, panting, before he wrenched around and threw himself into Yubel’s arms, holding onto them as if they would vanish if he let go for a single moment. His heart raced, tears spilled down his cheeks, and he whispered two words over and over again.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Yubel wrapped their arms even more tightly around him. “It wasn’t your fault, Juudai.”

“Yes, it was! Just like last time! This time! I’m always too stupid and I never listen and people get hurt because of it! First you and I … I … did I… Johan? Then? Did I...” Juudai didn’t know how much sense he made, but it must’ve been enough for Yubel.

“No. He survived and helped put Kuragari back together again after that.” Yubel tilted Juudai’s head up. “He made a very good King after Aodh and Kaien passed away.”

Juudai swallowed. Somehow, that didn’t surprise him at all. Then he blinked. “How do you know?” He hadn’t known that. He hadn’t been around to see it.

“Because I wasn’t dead. I didn’t know then what was going on. But because of what Ancient Elf did, I haven’t had a physical body since then. I can mimic one now, especially since you and I fused and I’ve learned more about the power I have. It took me over a century to learn just how to communicate with other people.” Yubel’s lip curled for a moment. “Not that I wanted to communicate with anyone but you.”

Juudai nodded, holding onto Yubel still. No matter what they said, he wasn’t going to absolve himself so easily. Then he lifted his head up and turned to where the Elemental Heroes stood.

“You all knew, didn’t you? About me? And about what I did back then?”

Featherman spoke. “Of course we did. We’ve been by your side almost as long as Yubel has. But why would we blame you for something that you did when you were pushed beyond coherent rage?”

“And why do you think that Elemental Heroes can take on so many different fusion forms in the first place?” Sparkman asked. “We resonate to you as much as the Neo-Spacians do, Juudai. Our fusions reflect what’s in your heart. That means we understand what it can be like when things like that happen. And like what happened in Dark World.”

“You don’t need to be afraid of your power or what you can do with it. Control is all you need, and you’ve been working on that,” Burst Lady told him. “You’re much better about it, too.”

Juudai eased back down into Yubel’s arms. “I don’t deserve all of you.” Nor did he deserve Johan, who’d risked so much to try to help him even when Juudai wouldn’t listen to him.

“So, you were different because...”

“Because after a few thousand years of not having a proper body, of not being with you at all, and what Ancient Elf did severing my connection to you in the first place, I… wasn’t entirely sane at the time, even before the Light itself got hold of me.” Yubel’s fingers tightened for a heartbeat. “I think this time it intended that I make certain you couldn’t fight back against it, instead of trying to take us both out at the same time.”

Juudai shuddered at how close the plan had come to working, both times. If it hadn’t been for Johan’s arrival, then they both would’ve been sacrificed to the Light. And this time, if it hadn’t been for him getting his memories back…

“I really should do something nice for Johan,” he murmured, starting to feel weary all over again. That had not been a restful nap.

Then he recalled Rune, and realized that he’d seen him before: in this lifetime.

“Yubel… that guy in Dark World. The one that I met before I fought Zure.” He winced at the thought of all else that happened then, before forging onward. “That was Rune, wasn’t it? The guy who was Johan’s twin the first time.”

“And still is now. He’s in Dark World somewhere, I presume. That’s where I sent him, anyway.”

Juudai whipped his head around to stare at her again. “You saved him?”

“I saved everyone you cared about. You cared about him, even for those few moments, didn’t you?”

He could not say he didn’t. He hadn’t thought of it at the time, but perhaps some vague memory recalled Johan’s twin brother. Then he sat up even more.

“Come on. I’m going to find him and he and Johan are going to get a family reunion!”

He stood up, all weariness falling away, and reached for Yubel’s hand. Then he leaned up and forwards to kiss her. “I really am sorry.” He would spend all of time making it up to Yubel if he had to. And to Johan as well.

Yubel returned the kiss, with interest. “You’re forgiven.” As simple as two words and his heart sang for joy, and he carried them away into the shadows to find a brother.

The End

Notes: And that's it. Though there will be other tales that involve Juudai and Yubel and Johan and maybe Rune.

#fanfic #higuchimon writes #ygo gx #yubel #yuuki juudai #juudai x yubel #yubel x juudai #soulshipping #chapters: answers to unexpected questions #series: past & future

3 notes · View notes

chigusaeyes · 5 years

Text

Nobuyuki thought(s) that i had

fyi Buyan = No[Bu]yuki + [yan]dere ; as Nobu & Yuki are shorthands already in use

This isn’t so much of an attempt to explain or Rationalize of Buyan’s means of expressing his yandere - it’s really more like a thought or consideration on things tying TO it and potentially something that, were I to write fanfic from his POV or angled around him as a character, I might...include or note upon at an appropriate point.

Note: screenshots that are not mine will be sourced, otherwise all screenshots ARE in fact mine.

SO.

Buyan is the Sanada clan heir. He is utterly devoted to his clan and his duties as heir - that has never been in question; he is responsible, he is trusted implicitly (by the Sanada and from the looks of it, by those in Ueda/at least the city (town?)) around the castle, and honestly, he’s adored - again by his clan and the others mentioned. Saizo is an exception insofar as adoration/etc, but he does seem to trust in the fact (at least) that Nobuyuki IS wholly dedicated to the Sanada and the clan’s well-being/future/etc.

I do not know how much background is given in other Sanada-related LI routes, but for certain in Buyan’s, it goes into his history/growing up, etc.

At least...partially, as Buyan himself only reveals so much - some of those details, imo, are important! But ever the mysterious angel-faced manipulator, he almost always smoothly glides the conversation back to MC herself. Leaving MC up to learning from everyone around her + Buyan to inform her and fill her in - even Masayuki himself!

But the overall gist is that Nobuyuki’s life is not his own. His life is for the Sanada, he must live for them - both figuratively AND literally. It’s part of the final confrontation in his route - he must live, no matter the cost, as he is the one who will ensure the Sanada’s survival (and potential rebuilding and/or expansion, even) regardless of what happens to Yukimura and Masayuki.

As such, his life is planned out more or less from the beginning. Now, due to his temperament (likely how he’s been raised helps too, I’m sure, but his temperament is DEFINITELY suited to his role as clan heir), he has accepted this - his role, his duties, his Purpose...there’s no plot point in his route for him trying to shuck the role nor does MC try to convince him to live for himself, etc.

Again, being clan heir suits him - he is a natural charmer, manipulation requires some practice but he’s clearly already a Master, as well as a tactician and, well, he’s fucking smart. No if and or buts about it.

The closest to anything approaching a negative is the weight of having to stay behind, unknowing of his brother, his father - the people important to him - until he gets news of them/they arrive home. And that IS hard. Yukimura is a brilliant warrior but he’s not invincible and he is the Warrior between the two of them. Buyan can clearly hold his own in a fight, he’s still a samurai after all, but again. Heir, not the Warrior.

Which, again, is said a number of times in his route & I wouldn’t doubt more than once in Yukkins’s own route, take just this scene for example:

SOURCE

All of this rambling leads me to my main thought regarding his behavior towards MC in his route/previous ES/etc featuring him + MC; Nobuyuki’s life, purpose, existence...is the Sanada clan’s. His childhood wasn’t even his because after his & Yuki’s mother died, atop being heir, he more or less took over raising + tending to Yukimura as well (and in his subtle ways, continues to do so SOBS).

And just as his life is his clan’s, the clan has placed the entirety of their trust in his hands (not simply bc he is heir, he is a DAMN sharp man and brilliant politician, truly) and his decisions, thus, are taken more or less at face value. And because of this trust placed in him, his father has thus allowed Buyan to actually choose his own wife, rather than numerous attempts at arranging marriages/etc.

Very impressive indeed.

It is a duty, of course, but one that Masayuki (and the clan) trust him to fill & trusts in his choice of a bride with essentially little to no questioning. Even as Masayuki knows about his son’s...occasional “eccentric behavior” and his strict list of necessary Sanada Bride qualifications. Buyan is, apparently, allowed to be as picky as he chooses.

Regardless of his son’s eccentricities, I have little reason to doubt that Masayuki has been one if the biggest (as Nobuyuki was older than Yukimura when their mother died, so she would have had time to influence/leave impressions on him herself) factors in Nobuyuki’s education, in all his duties as heir, not to mention implementing values upon Buyan - especially IN regards to marriage and finding a wife.

This brings up questions that I have little time for, as analyzing Masayuki is not the point of this post.

Instead, I would like to point out this particular piece of advice from Nobuyuki’s route and how it rings true to me in regards to his relationship with MC, regardless of his dangerously subtle yandere mentality:

Nobuyuki wants to know everything there is about MC. As suited to his subtle yandere ways, he will manipulate her and ensure that she comes to him to more or less reaffirm (to him, in his mind) that she does, in fact, want him. And that she loves him.

He doesn’t not force or coerce these affirmations (I call these as such bc yandere-types frequently tend to need Affirmations from their Beloved to appease their obsession/possessiveness/insecurities/etc etc etc and while not blatant in this way, Buyan does seem to have at least a Smidge - even if it’s mostly for his), but instead sets up a strategic stage (arguably something of a game) that instead ensures MC comes to him herself and As demonstrated in his thoughts from his Draughts of Starlight ES:

Source

Of course, there’ve been times where Buyan is caught off guard by things MC does, be it unexpected demonstrations of kindness/affection, making him his favorite dessert without her even knowing it is his favorite, her resilience & matching his own force of will when directly confronting him, etc etc etc.

His reactions tend towards being surprised and then shifting to fascination and either amusement & often at least a level of curiosity OR as we do get to see, strong urges of affection. And when he shows that affection, boy, it is like unleashing a tidal wave. His feelings are next level Intense and his expression of them is no different.

Holy fuck, this is probably just vague tangents vaguely related to the entire reason I started this post in the first place at this point. Let’s get TO what I could have said in fewer words.

THOUGH, a quick addendum - regardless of his choice in wife, since whoever he chooses as his wife will meet those requirements of his (some exceptions, like noble lineage, are excused like in the Draughts ES because MC is Perfect in Every Way otherwise, and I assume the same goes for MC in his own route), she will thus be ideal and him, being the gentle yandere he is, would not want to let her go. Or for her to escape. The classic most example in Yukimura’s...route? (I’m fairly sure this is) in response to Saizo calling [Nobuyuki] his [future] wife’s [prison] Warden:

Source

God, I love your beautiful face and fluffy hair, Buyan.

Ahem, anyways.

ALL of these various...points...I’ve touched upon, IN MY OPINION, all point to a likely...thought process? behind Buyan’s attitude towards his MC. The MC, his bride...

And it is in your best interest to NOT forget that she is his. Even you, Yukkins, cannot afford to pose a threat to your beloved brother in this regard:

Source

His, as Nobuyuki is keen to remind, [future] wife...

A person who was to fulfill yet another duty of his to his clan, a theoretical woman that was - regardless of even being his ideal bride - ultimately, intrinsically, merely part of one of the numerous obligations that were expected of him as heir...Well, back to his ES again (I had more screenshots myself to use as well but I spilled coffee on my laptop and now it’s drying SOB) to let Buyan say it himself:

Source

...turns out to be what/who he regards as The Greatest Blessing of his life.

And not just randomly or by chance either. HE chose her himself, for himself, of his own volition. Somehow, within the contract - as he refers to it - of his life, one of the few things he could, in fact, choose for himself...brings him utter satisfaction. He’s not pleased, he feels blessed by this choice he made - taking a chance with a young woman who captured his fascination and hit essentially all his switches. Risky? Certainly.

But a risk he was willing to take and the payoff was more than even this angel-faced mastermind could have anticipated.

This boils down to, essentially, the fucking thought I had in the first place in regards to some contemplative insight into Buyan’s POV/Buyan focused perspective regarding his route’s MC. Let’s do a quick summary:

Nobuyuki is the clan heir, he was born into it, bound by the obligation, and was settled into his role very neatly.

Nobuyuki is allowed to make decisions for the Sanada as he is trusted by his clan & family.

Nobuyuki is trusted with these decisions and has the clan’s trust because he has obviously proven over the years, after getting involved in the duties as clan heir and future clan head, that his choices are those that will most benefit the clan.

Nobuyuki’s choices will always most benefit the clan, they must, and so while he has access to a wide variety of means to accomplish what must be done and he is allowed to make any choice (often without any explanation of what he did, or why he did, required of him), he ultimately is bound by the duty + obligation that whichever choice he makes, it is always for the clan’s greatest benefit.

Thus he is allowed to choose his own wife, so long as she is a suitable addition to the Sanada clan...and she meets his Must Haves list.

MC doesn’t have wealth, isn’t of a noble lineage, nor does she bring in any sort of plentiful dowry...But that is 1 miss versus hitting every. other. requirement. on Nobyuki’s Wifey Must Haves list.

Even before meeting her, he’s already decided that - once he has all the information on her collected (I’ll give him credit, he DID initially think this “interesting new retainer” of Shingen’s was a Uesugi spy so it’s not like he was just...randomly choosing young women to look into) - her actions demonstrate her courage and she might be just what he needs. For a few things. Jinpachi may have well confirmed or denied this since he’s been keeping an eye on MC for Nobuyuki until he got there.

Once he’s made his decision, he will stick to it because it would be a waste of (multiple) opportunities.

He didn’t think, of course, that he might catch Feelings (his ES also shares this in common), but really, when does anyone?

Insert drama.

In the end, he is able to have/keep the woman he’d chosen and she loves him and accepts him for who he is. According to her. Granted she sees him as more mischevious than dangerous, BUT, when you love a yandere wholeheartedly and they love you, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the overall perception???

They’ll be married, soon, and according to Buyan, he wants to be married a-fucking-sap. Enthusiasm? Honestly, I’m sure he does feel that. Officially binding the two of them together? Most certainly plays a part, too.

And thus: Nobuyuki loves MC and she loves him. He will do anything & everything he can to make her happy regardless that his foremost obligation is to prioritize his clan above all else.

He will ensure that she is so happy, so enraptured, SO in love with him...that her thoughts will be saturated with little else BUT him (he goes so far as to label this desire of his as a need of his). MC will NOT end up dissatisfied with him, she will NOT feel neglected feeling due to his duties...and as for him?

His bride. His wife [to-be]. His MC (he does refer to MC as his [MC’s name] in the Divine end. Divine end epilogue? UGH IF ONLY I HAD MY SCREENSHOTS). The woman he chose to fulfill one of the (few) obligations that he had (arguably) the most control over...is everything he could have expected. Even, dare I say, hoped for.

MC bypassed Nobuyuki’s Very High and Specific Requirements and captured his heart utterly. Just as he’s captured her and her heart.

Regardless of some short-term surprise on his clan/father’s behalf, they all accept his explanation that she is exactly what the Sanada clan needs. And his clan does, in fact, fall in love with her. His father approves of her, regardless of her common birth, and Yukimura is SO enthusiastic about the two of them and is so happy for his brother - for the both of them.

MC, in turn, accepts and loves them as her own family & clan (because they are as such now). She has promised herself to him and has promised to be with him through those heart-gripping times of waiting and the unknown, to support him in any way she can, and to stand at his side always. She is determined to do all she can as a Sanada bride, as the heir’s wife. As Nobuyuki’s wife.

His. His wife. His choice. His his his his HIS.

The bride, the wife, the woman he specifically chose for himself. Likely one of the very few, if next to never, self-serving choices he’s made. All wrapped up in an honest boon to the clan. An excellent decision, one that is trusted and accepted, that isn’t countered.

In my perspective, this utter...obsessive devotion, this possessive love, is likely fueled by the fact that a selfish decision on his part worked for beyond the good he could have expected and now he is never going to let her go. And he’s never going to allow anyone to threaten their happiness, their relationship, ever. Her eyes might remain on him, and he wants them too, and while he rains affection on her, he’ll have those who so much as stare at her too long thoroughly understand the risks (and even consequences) of such poorly thought out actions.

Thx for coming to my Excessively, Unnecessarily Long TedTalk on some minor...analysis of a small portion of Nobuyuki’s yandere thought process in relation to his MC.

#slbp #slbp nobuyuki #kae speaks tag #( is this a character analysis or just an overdrawn ramble )#( we may never know )

31 notes · View notes

origami10 · 4 years

Text

Kazuki

An Ajin fanfic for @pastenaga for Ajin Secret Santa 2019

“Dada?”

Kei’s eyes snapped open as he quickly peeled his cheek off the page of the medical textbook he had been dozing on at the kitchen table. He was about to jump off the chair and go kneel down to talk to the two-year-old standing in the doorway, when Kou rushed in from watching TV in the living room, looking aghast.

“Kazuki! How did you get out of your crib?”

His voice was loud and concerned, but he swept the little boy up and cradled him against one shoulder protectively. “C’mon, let’s go back up to bed, ok bud?” He headed back out towards the stairs near the front door.

Kei trusted that Kou could put Kazuki back to sleep, but he rubbed his eyes and followed them up the stairs anyway.

In the dim light from the nightlight, Kou placed the squirming child back in the crib, where he immediately started crawling over the side again.

“It looks like we’ll need to rethink the crib.” Kei said, shaking his head tiredly. “He can sleep with us tonight. Give me a second and I’ll be ready for bed.” He left to go brush his teeth. Kou stayed back and picked Kazuki up again, tossing him by the armpits and catching him again and again. “Didja hear that, Kazuki? You can sleep with us tonight! What a lucky guy!”

Kei came back in pajamas a few minutes later to find Kou clutching Kazuki around the middle at his hip, whirling around and making airplane noises. “How many times have I told you not to wind him up right before bedtime?” Kei chided, shaking his head but smiling to himself. He grabbed a few board books off a bookshelf, and took Kazuki’s hand once Kou set him down. “Go ahead and get a shower. We’ll settle in and wait for you.”

Kei took Kazuki’s small hand (the little one was getting pretty good at walking, and just starting to talk), and they headed over to the room where Kei and Kou slept. Kei picked him up, climbed in together to sit against the pillows in the middle of the big bed, and tucked them both in to read Airplanes for Everyone.

By the time Kou came to bed and wrapped one arm around Kei, leaning over to rest his head on Kei’s shoulder with Kazuki snuggled between them, Kei was reading from Little Fish’s Adventure in the Big Ocean, even though the little one’s eyes were closed and he was breathing softly. Kou listened while Kei read aloud the last few pages and closed the book. Though Kei’s exhaustion was visible around his eyes, Kou couldn’t help but admire his commitment to balancing medical school with spending as much time as possible with their son.

“I love you.” Kou said, looking up at him.

Kei rolled his eyes, but leaned in for a quick kiss. They settled down to sleep, careful not to disturb the dozing two-year-old, and Kei turned off the light.

“I love you too, idiot.”

They snuggled in together, each with one arm over their child nestled between them, ready for a good night’s sleep.

[end of story; more headcanons below the cut]

@pastenaga requested KeiKou and “Something about a lovechild... no pregnant stuff just the lovechild Haha.” so I had a great time coming up with this fic! But of course, I needed to come up with some background, most of which didn’t make it in this very short story, so have some more headcanons! Anyone is welcome to use these as ideas for more fic or art~!

Possible Backstory (slightly sad but ultimately happy): Kei and Kou defeat Satou, but are still under suspicion. They’re kept/housed together. (age 17) Kai goes back to jail. They gradually let Kei and Kou do more stuff. Kou shows how he can be useful fighting fires, and Kei starts studying medicine. (Age 19) Kai is out by now? Is not allowed to see the ajin. Kou (along with Akiyama) has started an effort for getting ajin involved in local firefighting around Japan. Ajin are mostly accepted in society by now. Kei has started medical school. [He starts needing someone to practice on, and Kou accepts/volunteers [if it will help cure Eriko.] Cue nsfw.] (Age 22) Kei and Kou are still living together because they don’t exactly have family to go back to that want them back. Kai comes to make up with Kei but he’s too awkward. Hits it off with Kou and they become great friends. Kei and Kou have a two-year old. Otherwise, same. (Age 25.) Kei wanted to name their child Kazuki but he mistakenly let Kou pick the kanji. It’s 数希, which means ‘number (of)/much hope,’ but uses kanji you learn in like 4th grade, and is not a normal way to write it at all. Kai babysits when Kei and Kou are both out. He’s a motorcycle mailman/delivery person. Kotobuki is out of jail now. He and Kai live on a farm outside town, where they grow their own food. Kei is busy at the hospital and Kou is on call at the firehouse a lot, so Kai (and sometimes Kotobuki) spend a lot of time babysitting Kazuki in town and on the farm. Sometimes they all go hunting for bugs together in the woods.

More things to include: Everyone is an idiot Kou does most of the cooking Kei didn’t want to be friends but somehow lovers worked out. Kou-Kai friendship helps Kei own up to his relationship with Kai. Always feels guilty/grateful. Kei/Kou are okay if they die, but they would do anything to protect their kid from dying. Kai comes over to human-proof the house b/c everyone else has lost their sense of what’s dangerous to regular humans Kei just randomly killing himself and being really good at it because medical school means he never gets any sleep and does it all the time to reset Oh my god what if Kou’s IBM was a tiny invisible friend for Kazuki... that’s pretty extra far from canon though

#ajinss19 #ajin fanfiction #ideas #Kei #Kou #KeiKou #KouKei #Kai #Kotobuki #I think there is actually a character named Kazuki in canon but I like the name so I borrowed it for a different headcanon character anyway

4 notes · View notes

i-will-physically-fight-you · 6 years

Text

Spaghetti and Insecurity Fanfic

Title: Spaghetti and Insecurity

Summary: Virgil is neither Patton or Logan. He cannot offer emotional support or be a comforting pillar of rationality. He’s just Virgil, and sometimes he wonders if being Virgil is enough.

Something is wrong with Princey--he’s holed himself up in his room and has refused to join the others for dinner the last couple days. Will Virgil be able to find what’s making his life difficult and kill it? Or will he just make things worse by being himself? (Human!AU)

Pairings: platonic prinixety (background platonic LAMP)

Words: 2619

Warnings: self-deprecation, anxiety, insecurity, food mention

This is the result of someone randomly sending me an unsolicited one-word prompt. I’d thought I would write up a short fic for funsies. It was supposed to only be three sentences long dangit. Anyways, I’m sure this wasn’t what you were expecting, @focusteens, but here you go ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“Dinner’s almost ready.” Patton poked his head into Virgil’s room.

“What are we eating?” Virgil asked, taking off his headphones

“Food.” Patton winked, and then vanished. A moment later he heard a distant knock on Logan’s door.

Virgil groaned at Patton’s reply. He knew that Patton meant it in good spirit, but vague answers like that made Virgil…well, anxious. He knew Patton wouldn’t poison him. Not on purpose, anyways. There was that one time where Patton had forgotten about Virgil’s almond allergy. He’d apologized profusely for days afterwards.

He put away his headphones before standing up from his bed and stretching. Satisfied, he crept into the hallway, nearly running into Logan in the process.

“Virgil!” Logan called out, nearly dropping his book as he sidestepped away to avoid a collision.

“Sorry, Logan.” Virgil sheepishly muttered.

“It’s quite alright, it’s my fault for walking and reading at the same time.” The other man collected himself for a moment before heading towards the kitchen.

Virgil followed after him. Patton was already there, moving to place a steaming pot of something directly onto the table. Virgil rushed to clasp Patton’s wrist, stopping the pot from reaching the table.

“Pat, wait.” Virgil hesitated, his next words lost in a flurry of panic.

“What’s wrong?” Patton furrowed his brows.

“You forgot a potholder,” Logan explained, brandishing said item in his hands. In the time that Virgil stopped Patton, the other had recognized the problem and found a solution. Logan was good at that. Virgil was just a problem-identifier, not a problem-solver.

Logan placed the potholder onto the table and together both Virgil and Patton slowly lowered the pot onto the potholder.

“Thanks, Virge. I could’ve burned a hole in the table!” Patton grinned.

“It’s no problem.” Virgil murmured, as he slid into his seat.

He was embarrassed about how he overreacted to the situation. Patton placing a hot pot on the wooden table wasn’t the end of the world. But Patton had saw Virgil’s actions for what they were; a concern for Patton’s safety, and appreciated them for that exact reason.

That was one of the many reasons why he loved Patton Hart. The reasons were so numerous that it was incomprehensible as to why anyone wouldn’t love Patton Hart. Virgil has and would fight anyone who would say a bad word against him.

“Bon appetit!” Patton exclaimed, opening the lid of the pot to reveal spaghetti noodles.

Virgil glanced around the table to see tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese sitting by the pot. Spaghetti. Good, Virgil liked spaghetti. It was a favorite among all the occupants of the apartment including Logan, despite protests otherwise. He always groaned and cited other healthy alternatives they could be eating compared to the Italian dish. But Virgil knew who ate the most of the leftovers from Spaghetti nights.

As Patton started piling noodles onto Virgil’s bowl, he realized something.

“Hey, where’s Princey?” He asked, referring to Roman.

The two had met during a production of Into the Woods at the local community theatre. Virgil gotten himself roped into the tech crew and that’s where he met Roman, who played the part of Cinderella’s Prince. Virgil sarcastically referred to him as Princey once, and the nickname stuck.

But that was beside the point. There was only three bowls on the table, and Virgil was sure Roman was home. He’d saw the other in the kitchen a few hours ago. Roman practically bolted back into his bedroom, coffee mug in hand, moments after a quick exchange of Hellos.

Patton paused.

“He wouldn’t come out–said he had some writing to finish up.” Patton noted with a sad smile.

“Again?” Virgil scowled.

“This has been the third night in a row, if I’m not mistaken.” Logan said, adjusting his glasses.

“Now, now kiddos! You know how Roman gets when inspiration hits.” Patton said, thinly concealing his own concern, “I’ll bring him a plate of food after we’re done.”

“No, I’ll do it.” Virgil said, surprising even himself with the demand. But he needed to know if the idiot was still alive in there.

He cleared his throat, “I mean if it’s alright with you, Patton…”

“Of course,” Patton waved it off, “I can do the dishes tonight for you while you do that.”

“Patton you already cooked dinner,” Virgil protested, “I can still clean the dishes after I deliver the food to him.”

“I insist!”

Virgil opened his mouth, but Logan beat him to the punch.

“How about Patton and I do the dishes together?” He suggested.

“Alright.” Virgil sullenly agreed.

Once more Logan had solved the problem, this time through a compromise. Virgil didn’t hold a grudge against Logan. It was very much the opposite. Virgil admired Logan’s ability to view a situation objectively and apply rational solutions to it. He wished he could be as steadfast in logic as Logan was.

Dinner carried on without a hitch. Patton launched into a tale about the humorous pet parrot he saw today at the vet clinic. He worked as a vet assistant. Which was really the perfect job for him, despite how emotional he got when they were forced to put down pets. He knew the animals were in a better place now that they weren’t feeling any pain, but it was still really sad okay!?

After they finished their meal, Virgil stood up and made a bowl for Roman. He made sure to put an absurd amount of Parmesan cheese on it, as per Roman’s tastes.

As he left, Logan was attempting to hide a chuckle from Patton’s punning antics. As with spaghetti, Logan held a secret appreciation of puns. Patton knew this, which was why he tried fitting as many puns in one breath in his presence to get a reaction out of Logan.

Virgil walked down the hallway, taking a left at his door to where Roman’s bedroom was located. It was the largest of the four bedrooms in the apartment, as it was technically the master bedroom. It was perfect for Roman’s needs, however, as he housed a lot of his props and costumes from the various plays he participated in.

He drew a breath, balancing the bowl in one hand before knocking on the door with the other.

“Coming, Padre!” A muffled voice shouted. He could hear Roman stumbling his way over before the doorknob jiggled. Roman opened the door only about half a foot wide, causing Virgil to be unable to see the current state of his room. Looking at the state Roman was in, he had a feeling that the bedroom was likely messy.

“You’re not Patton.” Roman frowned.

“Very observant, Roman.” Virgil wryly remarked, “I got pasta for you--extra Romano cheese, your favorite.”

The other cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Thank you, Virgil,” He said, taking the bowl from Virgil. The door started to swing shut.

“Wait just a minute!” Virgil stuck out his foot, preventing the door from shutting all the way. He grimaced in pain but continued, “We need to talk!”

“About what?” Roman suddenly snapped, his grip growing tighter around the bowl.

“Why you look like shit for starters.” Virgil bit back, folding up his arms.

Roman spluttered but he didn’t deny it. Because it was the truth. He really did look like shit. Roman was usually a fanatic about his appearance. He spent a full hour fixing his hair and applying makeup. He was obsessed with contour; making his cheekbones appear sharper and his nose slimmer. He antagonized over his outfit, even during casual outings.

No he couldn’t just throw on a hoodie and a pair of skinny jeans and call it a day. Nor could he certainly wear those red sneakers with that shade of pomegranate, please take this seriously okay Virgil?!

However, staring at the man in front of him, it’d be impossible to know he was the same man that once ordered a pair of converse in three different colors to color-coordinate with his outfits. Virgil was almost certain there was a whole rat family living in Roman’s hair. Dark circles clung to his eyes, weighing him down like bowling balls. Usually Roman made an attempt to hide them with makeup. But his acne face was void of any make-up. He wore a baggy wrinkled polka dotted t-shirt that clashed horribly with his striped PJ pants. Saying Roman looked like shit was a nice way of putting it.

“Alright,” Roman relented, sighing heavily as he let Virgil in.

As suspected, the state of his room was just as bad as Roman’s appearance. Piles of dirty clothing, papers, and other various stuff cluttered the floor. He spotted a cluster of coffee mugs on Roman’s desk, solving the mystery of where all their mugs were disappearing off to. Sitting beside the mugs was a collection of partially eaten dinners.

This was definitely worse than what Virgil had expected. His spidey senses had been acting up ever since Roman holed himself up in his room. Yes, there were times when Roman was struck with inspiration and became obsessed with writing until it became scarce once more. But he usually was excited to share with the others in his triumphs, he loved to bounce ideas off of them.

Roman swallowed nervously, and opened up his mouth to speak but Virgil cut him off.

“I don’t want to hear what’s eating at you until you’ve actually eaten something, alright?” He said, gesturing towards the bowl of spaghetti.

Virgil glared at him until Roman started reluctantly shoving noodles into his mouth. He got halfway through before he almost choked, sobbing wrenching his throat.

“Whoa, whoa, hey.” Virgil set the bowl aside before turning to face Roman before hesitating. He wasn’t Patton or Logan. He wasn’t good at providing emotional support or being a pillar of comforting rationality. He was just Virgil, who was a walking anxiety attack waiting to happen.

But he was all Roman had at the moment, so he reached out his arms, silently offering Roman a hug. An offer the latter took full heartedly, launching at Virgil with such a force that almost caused him to fall over.

Virgil patted his back, doing his best to assuage Roman. When his tears faded away, Virgil pulled away enough to look at Roman in the eyes.

“What’s bothering you, Princey?” He murmured, “Do I need to find whatever’s making your life difficult and kill it?”

The corners of Roman’s lips turned up at the inside joke reference. It quickly fell as he mulled over his answer.

“It’s--it’s stupid.” He croaked, his voice lackluster and missing its normal regaliness.

“I’ll be the judge of that.” Virgil raised his eyebrows.

“Oh you know me, I overreacted as usual,” Roman laughed apprehensively, “seriously, Virgil, I’ll be back to my usual fabulous self in no time--”

“Tell me, dammit!”

“Roman’s voice faltered as he blinked up at Virgil, spooked by his exclamation.

“Man, I’m shit at this,” Virgil mumbled underneath his breath before speaking up, “Look I don’t want to make you uncomfortable by pressuring you. I just wanna let you know that I’m...worried about you. I know saying this makes me a big hypocrite but you don’t have to face things alone. I’m here if you want to talk and I’m sure whatever it is, it’s not stupid.”

Roman studied his face, oddly quiet compared to his loud boisterous self. It could’ve only been a minute, but Virgil was already panicking. Did he mess up? Was Roman mad at him?

“I can also get either Patton or Logan if you want--”

“No, I want you.” Roman said, collapsing onto the floor in a heap. His head rested against his dresser as he let out a heavy sigh. Cautiously, Virgil moved to join him, sitting down cross-legged.

“I submitted one of my novels to a couple publishers.”

“Wait, really?” Virgil asked, eyes widening in surprise.

Roman had been working on becoming a published author for as long as Virgil had known him. The only problem with this was that Roman suffering from the usual writing woes. Too many ideas and not enough time nor motivation to quench them all.

Like in other areas of his life, Roman was passionate and spontaneous. He put his heart and soul in a project, claimed it was the One, only to abandon it for a more exciting project days later.

“I cannot write if there is no passion!” Roman once cried out when Logan suggested he should dig his heels in and finish a project.

As much as Roman went on about his projects, he was...hesitant about showing his writing with the others. The one time he allowed Logan to look at his writing it nearly ended their friendship. Logan had been rather zealous with his constructive criticism. Roman proclaimed that one day the others would be able to read his novel once it was published.

“I’ll give you all signed copies of course.” He winked.

Virgil didn’t need verbal confirmation to know that hadn’t happened.

“I--I wanted to surprise you guys,” Roman chuckled darkly, “I had it planned out and everything. I was going to drag you all to a bookstore and shock you all.”

He sighed.

“I took all the necessary preparations--but,” Roman turned to face away from Virgil, “they hated it, Virge. Th-they all hated it. I had my one shot and I blew it.”

“Whoa, whoa hey,” Virgil placed a hand on his shoulder, “there’s not a limit to how many times you can submit a novel for publishing, is there?”

.“No.” Roman admitted, sniffling.

“You’re not Alexander Hamilton, Roman. You didn’t have one shot that you threw away--you’ve still got multiple shots left.” Virgil winced. Did that sound good, did he do good?!

Roman looked back at him, studying his face.

“But what if everyone hates it?” Roman’s voice cracked.

“Okay, I know for a fact not everyone will hate it. You’ve got Logan, Patton and me--we don’t care about what stuffy old editors think, we’ll love regardless. Besides, J.K Rowling? She got rejected billions of times before the Harry Potter series was picked up.”

“Wh--how could they not recognize a masterpiece when they saw it?” Roman demanded, some of his usual vigor returning.

“I don’t know, but imagine being one of the editors who rejected it.” Virgil said. Roman let out a bark of laughter, and Virgil smiled in relief.

“Look, all I’m saying Roman is that imagine if Rowling gave up after the first few rejections. Imagine a world without Harry Potter and how radically different our generation would be because of that.”

Roman gave a horrified shudder.

“If Rowling didn’t give up, I don’t think you should either.” Virgil shrugged his shoulders, “after all, heroes don’t give up when the going gets tough, right?”

Something flickered across Roman’s face and for a moment, Virgil was worried he’d messed up. But then Roman leaned forward, burying his head into the nook of Virgil’s neck as he wrapped his arms around his middle. Virgil rolled his eyes, but placed an arm around Roman as he used the other to cradle his head.

“Thank you.” Roman whispered.

Virgil stiffened, startled by Roman’s stark gratitude.

“N-no problem, Princey.” He recovered, pulling out of the hug, “why don’t we go see if Pat and Lo are up for a movie night?”

“That sounds good--it’s been a while since we’ve done one,” The other smiled, “We should watch Aladdin--no Beauty and the Beast!”

“How about both?” Virgil suggested.

Roman’s smile grew, “I like the way you think.”

He excitedly bounded down the hallway like an excited labrador, singing a mismatched medley of songs from both the movies. Virgil shook his head at his antics, but secretly he was glad to see he’d helped Roman return to his usual self.

Virgil was not Logan or Patton. He couldn’t be there for Roman in the ways they were there for him. He was just Virgil, and Virgil was enough.

General Tag List: (if you’d like to be added or taken off, please message me or send me an ask!) @karebearmay @punsterterry @yourhappypappypatton@alextheodd@cryingtitan @ultimate-queen-of-fandoms2@usothemarshmallow@madly-handsome @i-just-wanna-be-alone-blog @remy-alagaesias-dragon-queen@ashrain5 @otaku-marijane @pathos-logical@moonstone-fox@violetvirgil @fandergecko @echomist13

#thomas sanders #sander sides #virgil sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #prinixety #kat writes #i hate the title but it is what it is

482 notes · View notes

randomly-random-jen · 5 years

Text

Uncalled for Actions (16/?)

A Girl Genius fanfic

When Gilgamesh Holzfäller is fourteen, he’s taken on as an apprentice to Baron Wulfenbach as part of a program to produce the next generation of leaders in the Empire–a group that will hopefully get along (although most see this as wishful thinking on the Baron’s part). He’s learned a lot over the months of shadowing the Baron, but nothing has prepared him for his most challenging assignment: confronting the skeletons in his closet.

[Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Part 17 ]

Part 16

Gil stared up at Anevka from where Tarvek had tossed him, his lips still tingling from the surprise kiss. "What was that for?"

Anevka laughed at her brother's retreating form. "Serves him right for spying."

"Spying?" Gil frowned then touched his lips. "Wait, you kissed me because you knew Tarvek was watching?" Anger bubbled up as she continued to laugh.

"Oh, Gil, you're so innocent; it's just adorable."

Gil got up, stepping out of her reach. "You used me to humiliate your own brother." He couldn't hide the hurt in his voice. I knew I shouldn't have trusted her.

Anevka's smile fell away. "Come on, Gil, it was just a joke--don't be like that."

Gil just shook his head as he continued to back away from her towards the gate then he turned and ran. He was only a few seconds behind Tarvek, but the tunnel and staircase were both empty already.

Gil took the stairs three at a time, throwing open the gate at the top with a clank. Which way? He was about to head back the way he'd come with Theo earlier--towards the burning atrium--when he heard a door slam in the opposite direction.

Following the noise, he found himself in an older, less used part of the castle. The hall sported heavy iron doors every ten meters or so. Gil stopped in the center of the corridor, straining to hear any sound, any clue which door he heard slam. His only other option was to just try to randomly open them.

The closest two he tried were, of course, locked and the third had been welded shut. Gil backed quickly away from that one when something began scratching and the knob shook--his father did say Sturmhalten was notorious for its monsters.

He considered just giving up when the door behind him suddenly opened.

"You," Tarvek shouted, face red and eyes even redder.

Was he crying? Something inside of Gil twisted hard; it felt like his heart. Gil was the one that cried--when the other kids picked on him and pushed him down and stole his dinner and told him he was worthless. Tarvek was the strong one that always stood up to the bullies and got Gil through one of the hardest times in his life.

Seeing him weak was more unsettling than he cared to admit.

Gil opened his mouth to say something, but then just closed it again when words failed him. Tarvek continued to seethe in the doorway--his entire body vibrating. Taking a deep breath, Gil tried again to say something, anything, but this time Tarvek turned suddenly and stormed into the room.

Gil followed slowly in what ended up being a rather large and bright laboratory. At the center was a long workbench covered in a microscope, beakers and about a dozen little bottles.

And one familiar dart.

He picked it up, anger flaring along with a phantom pain in his neck. He spun, looking for Tarvek just in time to get a ball of fabric to the face that nearly knocked him off his feet with the force it hit him.

"Deidrick Lafayette," Tarvek said. "That's the name of the designer on Avenue Montaigne, Paris."

Gil unwadded the bundle to find light blue trousers now adorned with a delicate floral design. "Maybe you'll start a new fashion trend," he said, tossing them back with a laugh.

Tarvek's eyes darkened. "If by trend you mean everyone laughing at me all day then, yeah, I'm a trendsetter."

Gil ducked his head--he never guessed Tarvek would wear the trousers the entire day. It didn't seem so funny anymore. An apology was on the top of his tongue when the dart caught his attention again, bringing another surge of anger that was preferable to the guilt overwhelming him,

"So you going to tell me again how you didn't drug me?" he asked, holding it up.

Tarvek scoffed. "I already told you, Holzfäller, I don't care enough to drug you--it was all in your addled brain."

"You think I imagined being attacked in your castle by one of your personal guards?"

"What are you talking about?" Tarvek said, snatching the dart from him. "Why would anyone attack you?"

He seemed to realize what he said a moment too late--his skin blazing as red as his hair, but Gil didn't let the opportunity pass. "You mean besides you attack me? Twice," he added, holding up two fingers for emphasis. "I guess we could also count that one cousin of yours--Tweedle--who threatened to punch my face in. That's three attacks right there; two in the first few hours I was here.

“Then last night I was minding my own business when this crazy miniature mercenary took me down with two of those."

Tarvek just shook his head. "I didn't have anything to do with that."

"Well, she's your Smoke Knight, isn't she?"

Tarvek frowned, his fingers fiddling with the dart. "There are hundreds of Smoke Knights-"

"Red hair, blue eyes-"

"You just described three-quarters of the people in the castle right now."

Gil rolled his eyes. "Yes, the genetics run strong in your family--you must be proud."

Tarvek crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you have a point?"

"Yeah, at the tip of that dart."

"You know, having a conversation with you is an exercise in futility, if you can even qualify what we're doing as conversing."

Gil matched his defensive pose. "It'd be a lot easier if you just admitted you attacked me."

Tarvek brushed past Gil, tossing the dart on the table then started to clean up. "Yes, you already established that I attacked you--get over it already."

"I meant the drugs," Gil said, picking up a bottle with no label and sniffing it until Tarvek took it away.

"I told you it wasn't me."

Gil sighed--futile was definitely the word he'd use, too. Tarvek would never confess. Of course, whatever he was dosed with the night before had lowered his resistance to suggestion. He'd said too much answering Seffie's questions--had nearly given away closely guarded secrets if it hadn't been for the training he'd received on resisting mind control.

So he figured one of these vials contained some of that truth serum, and he bet Tarvek's self-control would be less defined. The problem was none of the bottles he could see were labeled.

"Fine, you had nothing to do with it," Gil said, obviously surprising Tarvek. "Just like I didn't have anything to do with your sister--Anevka kissed me."

As expected Tarvek screwed up his face in disgust and looked anywhere other than Gil, giving him time to snatch up the dart and a bottle that was suspiciously less full than the others.

"Thanks for reminding me--I'll be scarred for life."

Gil shrugged. "I can't help it if I'm irresistible to the girls in your family--Anevka, Seffie." That freaky Smoke Knight kid.

"Are you trying to get hit again?" Tarvek said, voice heavy with the threat.

With a laugh, Gil patted Tarvek's cheek as he headed towards the door. "I beat you once already."

Tarvek shoved him ard in the back, but Gil was expecting it, easily hopping with the momentum and staying on his feet. "See you in the morning, Sturmvoraus--I have a party that I was very much invited to to get back to." He waggled his fingers over his shoulder and slammed the door seconds before something hit it with a dull thwump then fell to the floor.

"You owe me new trousers," Tarvek shouted from the closed lab.

In your dreams, Gil thought as he headed back towards the stairs to the steam party, but he passed right by without slowing. The earlier thrill he'd felt at being included had evaporated. Anevka had used him just like his father had warned him.

And worse--it hurt.

He wanted desperately to trust her, to have her as a friend and ally. At least now his eyes were open--he had no allies here; he had no allies ever. It was a lesson his father had tried to teach him for years and he was finally starting to understand.

Now it was time for a little revenge, he thought, pulling the dart from his pocket.

Gil managed to find his way back to the guest wing without being seen, slipping silently through the door while Barkley dozed by the fire. He tip-toed down the hall and listened outside his father's room.

Hearing no snoring, he took the risk of trying the knob, finding it unlocked and the room empty. The Baron was probably chatting with the Prince or working somewhere else in the castle.

He found what he'd been looking for quickly--the case on the chest of drawers--and hurried to his own room, locking the door behind him. In the bathroom, Gil pulled out test tubes and chemicals from the case, setting up several tests on the vial and dart he'd snagged.

It was nearly three in the morning before he snuck the case back into his father's still-empty room and curled into bed for a few hours of sleep while his last experiment finished. He smiled as he drifted off thinking of payback and Tarvek's smug smile being wiped off his stupid, perfect face.

* * *

"We tend to think in terms of what we can see and hear--our two biggest input senses," Miss Ziegler, the science teacher said, "but when it comes to memories, there's another sense that is much more powerful. Does anyone know what that is?"

Several hands shot up in the air. Gil leaned his chin in his hand and stared at the clock--just fifteen more minutes and they were free for the day. Next to him, Tarvek carefully transcribed the answer Willow gave as Miss Ziegler elaborated.

Gil rolled his eyes at the precise way his friend wrote each letter, pressing so firmly with his pencil that Gil knew he could get his own set of notes just by rubbing a lead over the paper beneath to reveal the writing.

"That's correct," Miss Ziegler said. "Smell is one of, if not, the most powerful senses in our arsenal, especially when it comes to memories. Just think about your favorite memories--what's the first thing that comes to mind?"

She pointed at Mathias. "What's your favorite memory?"

"Solstice," he said timidly.

"And what's the first thing you think of when you think of the Solstice?"

"Presents?" he asked, getting a laugh from the other kids.

Miss Ziegler only smiled. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "When I think of Solstice, I think of evergreen wreaths and waxy candles and smoky wood stoves cooking a feast of pheasant and goose."

Gil's stomach grumbled at the thought. Not that he had any experience with Solstice--they didn't exactly celebrate holidays on Castle Wulfenbach although some kids did hang wreaths and exchange presents in the winter. Gil never got anything, though.

"What's your favorite smell?" Miss Ziegler asked Juniper Rosewell.

"Cookies."

"And why's that?"

"They remind me of my mother--she loves to bake and sometimes I would come home from school to find her in the kitchen even though we had servants to do that sort of thing. I would sit at the table and help her roll the dough and cut the shapes, and we'd talk about our days."

"Those are lovely memories, Juniper--you'll always cherish them."

Gil's stomach growled even louder at the thought of cookies. The clocked ticked by--ten minutes to go. He sighed, letting his elbow slip out from under his chin a little, his head sinking lower to the desk. Tarvek hummed his disapproval like he often did, making Gil roll his eyes.

The class seemed to drag on forever as the teacher went around the room asking each student for their favorite memory or scent. Each story made Gil more hungry or depressed until panic started to set in when he realized he'd probably have to add his own story.

What would he even say? Did he even have a favorite memory in his short, miserable life?

He glared at the clock, willing it to move faster and resolving himself to figure out the secrets of time and space when he got older if only to go back and escape this moment.

"And what about you, Tarvek?" Miss Ziegler asked.

Gil's stomach plummeted as his heart shot into his throat--he was next.

Tarvek put down his pencil and bit his lip as he thought. Gil glanced from his friend to the clock and back repeatedly. How could time move so slowly one moment and quickly the next?

Tarvek straightened his papers, still thinking. He had just as much time to formulate a response; why was he stalling? Was he doing that because he knew how scared Gil was? The thought set off a burst of warmth in his chest for his best friend.

"Well," Tarvek finally said after a little prodding, "if I'd have to choose a favorite scent it would probably be the smell of grass after a rainy day."

Miss Ziegler and several of the kids nodded in agreement, but Tarvek only stared at his paper, brow furrowed.

"And why's that?"

His frowned intensified, but then he took a deep, steady breath. “When I was little--before I came to Castle Wulfenbach--my father would get really busy so my mother would take my sister and me on picnics. It didn't matter the weather. Even in the dead of winter, we would sit on wool blankets and eat steamy bowls of chowder in the snow."

The corners of his mouth twitched into a smile, but it quickly faded along with the light in his eyes. "This one time, though, my sister didn't want to come with so my mother and I went alone. It had rained that morning and the ground was soggy so we took off our shoes and socks and walked in our bare feet despite the mud.

“We laid there all afternoon, digging our toes in the cool earth, searching for bugs and listening to the birds sing." Tarvek suddenly sucked in a gurgling breath, his lower lip quivering.

Before anyone could say anything, the clock struck the hour, ending the class. Tarvek shot out of his seat, leaving his bag behind, but Gil was right behind him, shoving everything from the desk into Tarvek's bag before following him out the door.

"Wait up," he called.

When Gil finally caught up, Tarvek grabbed his bag and shoved Gil away. "Leave me alone," he said through clenched teeth, wiping at his eyes.

"Why? What did I do?"

Tarvek pushed him again then ran off, leaving Gil stunned and confused.

He waited for his friend at supper, but Tarvek didn't show which meant Gil only managed to snag a single piece of buttered bread before the bullies confiscated the rest of his food--he'd forgotten how bad things had been before Tarvek, and he went to bed hungry and angry at being abandoned.

But when Tarvek wasn't in class the next day and no one had seen him at breakfast, Gil began to worry. He barely paid attention and missed the entire discussion on how the sense of taste related to the sense of smell, only thankful he never had to come up with his own memory. After class, he waited to speak to Miss Ziegler.

"Do you know where Tarvek is?" he asked, his mouth a little dry with nerves.

Miss Ziegler set her glasses on the table--she looked a lot older and more tired than usual.

"I'm afraid, Prince Sturmvoraus isn't feeling well right now."

"Oh." Gil stared at his feet. "That's too bad." Here Gil was angry Tarvek wasn't at supper when he was sick? Some friend.

"Remember how we talked about memories linked to smells?"

Gil nodded.

"Well, I think those memories were a little too much for Tarvek to manage yesterday--it happens when we're away from our loved ones. They call it home-sickness."

"Oh," Gil said again even though he had no understanding of homesickness. Castle Wulfenbach was the only home he knew, and there was no one here that he would miss if he left. Except Tarvek.

The thought of being away from him even for a night left his stomach roiling and his heart aching. Maybe he could understand after all.

"You're a good friend to him, Gilgamesh, maybe you can think of a way to cheer him up," Miss Ziegler said as she saw him out the door.

Gil sat alone at lunch and supper again, trying to think of ways to make Tarvek feel better which was easier said than done when he wouldn't even talk to Gil for some reason. And it all started because of that story about the wet grass picnic.

That's what gave him the idea, and when Tarvek finally showed his face again a few days later, Gil set his plan in motion.

"I'm not really in the mood for an adventure right now," Tarvek said at breakfast that morning. He chewed a bite of toast half-heartedly then washed it down with a sip of juice. "Besides we have classes."

Gil rolled his eyes--had Tarvek learned nothing from him. "Come on, it'll be fun. No one even knows you're back from being sick."

Tarvek glanced around the dining room at the other kids eating and laughing. "But I'm right here--they can see me."

Gil groaned--why was he being so difficult? "We'll just say you thought you were better, but you were wrong and felt icky after eating so went back to bed, okay?"

"Gil-"

"Come on, Tarvek, what's one more day?"

Tarvek frowned at his bowl of fruit that he'd barely touched then sighed, letting Gil known he'd finally won. Gil pumped his fist in the air in celebration of his win.

"You're not exactly playing into the whole, 'I'm still sick’ thing, you know?" Tarvek said with half a smile.

"Oh, right," Gil said then pushed Tarvek off his seat while dumping his food on the floor. "Oh, no," he said loudly, getting the attention of some of the kids nearby, "aren't you feeling well? You must have passed out and fell and made a big mess. Maybe you should go back to bed, Tarvek."

Tarvek narrowed his eyes at Gil then slowly stood, wiping fruit from his shirt. "Maybe you're right, Gil," he said just as dramatically. "I don't feel well at all."

Just then one of the older girls came over, brow knit in concern. "Should I call the nurse?" she asked, wringing her hands together. "Or maybe von Pinn?"

"No," both boys shouted, startling her.

"It's okay," Gil told her, swinging Tarvek's arm over his shoulder, "I've got him--he's not as fat as he looks."

"Hey," Tarvek said then leaned all of his weight on Gil, nearly knocking him over.

Gil struggled to keep them both upright as he picked through the slippery mess of their breakfast on the floor. "I think he just needs one more day of rest and then he'll be fine."

"Are you sure you don't want me to get the nurse?" the girl asked Tarvek.

Tarvek shook his head. "I'll be okay. Gil can take care of me--he's not as dumb as he looks."

Gil growled under his breath at the insult, but didn't say anything as he moved them along, still trying to carry almost all of Tarvek's weight--maybe he was fatter than he looked.

The moment they left the dining room, though, Tarvek shoved off of Gil, pushing him into a plant that Gil barely managed to keep from knocking over.

"Jerk," Tarvek muttered.

Gil fixed the plant upright then joined Tarvek, grinning like an idiot.

"Well?" Tarvek said after a moment. "You got us out of class, now what?"

"Oh, right, the adventure. Come on, this way."

He snatched Tarvek's hand and started running, Tarvek struggling to keep up as usual. They wound their way out of the school and through the forbidden halls of Castle Wulfenbach, garnering some attention from the crew, but no one stopped them.

"Where are we going?" Tarvek finally asked when they started heading into a restricted area.

Gil tugged on his hand, but Tarvek dug his heels in, refusing to budge.

"Don't you trust me?" Gil asked, batting his extra-long lashes. Tarvek chewed his lip for a moment like he was weighing his options or trying to decide if he did trust Gil--his hesitation hurt more than Gil wanted to admit. "Why are you still mad at me?" he asked, surprising both of them.

Tarvek blinked. "I'm not mad at you."

"You yelled at me," he said softly, kicking at a scuff on the floor, "and pushed me."

"Oh." Tarvek went back to biting his lip, looking everywhere but at Gil.

Now Gil felt sick--like his stomach was being tied in a knot and his heart squeezed still. He rubbed at the imaginary pain in his chest. If homesickness felt anything like having your best friend mad at you, he wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy--he could barely breath when Tarvek stopped talking to him, and all he wanted now was to fix things.

"Come on," he said, softly, taking Tarvek's hand again, "I just want to show you something. Please."

Agonizing moments passed before Tarvek sighed and let Gil pull him forward with a relieved sigh. "If we get in trouble I'm telling them I'm delusional with illness and have no idea where we are--you're taking advantage of my debilitation."

Gil rolled his eyes. "Agreed; now come on."

A couple minutes later, they were crawling through some ductwork into the bowels of the ship. Tarvek said nothing--didn't even comment about them maybe being lost like he normally did. Maybe he did trust Gil after all.

The thought bolstered Gil's resolve--Tarvek was his very best friend, almost like a brother, and he was going to do this one thing to make him feel better.

He hoped.

Soon enough, they came to a grate blocking the way. Both boys peered out into a drab gray hall like all the others on the ship.

"Where are we?" Tarvek whispered, tickling the hairs on the back of Gil's neck.

"You'll see," he said just as quietly before spending several minutes working the screws from the grate with his fingers until they were raw and numb.

Together, they lowered grate and scrabbled out of the vent. Gil didn't even bother to put the grate back--barely anyone came this way--and led Tarvek down the hall.

It had taken him a while to find this place on their pilfered maps based on hearsay and conjecture. Castle Wulfenbach was the size of a small city. Thousands of people lived here year-round, and the city never landed or stayed in one place for very long.

Supply zeppelins came and went throughout the week, but it couldn't possibly be enough to keep the ship fully stocked, at least in Gil's young mind. They always had fresh fruit in the school no matter what--von Pinn said it helped growing minds and bodies develop correctly, and one time he saw the crew carrying fruit still covered in dew from somewhere in the ship when no supply craft had been scheduled to arrive.

Several days of poking around brought him to the large cavernous room tucked into the corner of the ship.

"What is this?" Tarvek asked, taking a tentative step inside.

Gil waited at the entrance for Tarvek's reaction, lower lip caught between his teeth with anxiety.

Tarvek stood motionless a few feet inside just staring up at the trees soaring above them and the glass wall built into the top of the ship beyond that. The early morning sun glinted off the dewy grass and gently swaying leaves.

When Tarvek didn't' move or say anything else, Gil finally joined him on the squishy ground. The first thing he noticed was the smell--damp and loamy. Dirt and trees and fruit and compost and a million other scents he couldn't identify having grown up inside his entire life. It smelled amazing. Much better than cookies or candles or even roasting pheasant.

Tarvek took a few more steps then a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"Do you like it?" Gil asked, turning his face up to the warm sun. "I don't think most people even know we have a forest on the ship. It's crazy, isn't it? But they grow all sorts of fruits and vegetables here. And flowers. And there are birds and bees and stuff. What do you think?"

He spun to face his friend, expecting the same excitement he felt deep in his bones but found tears streaming down Tarvek's face as he choked on a sob, fist jammed in his mouth.

Gil ran to him, alarm chasing away his earlier elation. "Tarvek, what's wrong? Why are you crying? Talk to me, please." Gil felt tears welling in his own eyes and blinked them away--Tarvek needed him to be the strong one now. "Did I do something wrong again? I don't understand--you know I'm stupid when it comes to, well, being around people."

Tarvek shook his head, apparently unable to answer then just walked right past Gil into the small forest. Gil followed a few feet behind, his bloody fingers worrying the edge of his waistcoat.

Did he screw up again? He was always making such a mess of things. If only he understood people and what he was supposed to do.

He smacked himself on the head a few times, tears pooling in his eyes. "I'm sorry," he croaked.

Tarvek stopped ahead of him but didn't turn.

"I didn't mean to hurt you more," Gil continued, the words coming out in a rush. “I just wanted to make you feel better, and you said you liked the smell of wet grass and then I found this place that has grass, and they make it rain in the mornings from the sprinklers up above so I thought you would like it, but I'm so stupid and don't ever understand what people want, and I'm sorry so please stop crying. Please."

The word caught in his throat as the tears overflowed down his cheek. "I don't want you to be sad anymore," he whispered. Gil squeezed his eyes shut, forcing the tears out. His chest was being crushed by an unseen vice making it hard to breathe, and the pain in his center had to be his heart shattering into a million pieces.

"You found this place for me?" Tarvek asked after a moment.

Gil nodded and wiped his face with the back of his hand that only smeared the tears and snot across his cheeks. "You said your favorite memory was a picnic with your mom in the wet grass--I thought this would remind you of it." He gestured weakly at the grassy area in the center of the trees right below the center of the glass dome.

"My mother is dead, Gil."

"Oh." His lip started to quiver again as the tears blurred his vision. "I don't have a mother either," he said softly.

"You don't even remember your parents; that’s different."

Gil looked away, his face burning with humiliation and guilt and other emotions he didn't understand. "I'm sorry," he mumbled to his now-muddy boots. "We can go."

He spun on his heel, not waiting for Tarvek's answer, but a hand grabbed his elbow, stopping his desperate retreat. Slowly, Gil turned to face his friend, not sure what to expect. He'd made a mess of things like he always did--you'd think he'd be used to that by now, but it still hurt to know he'd screwed everything up.

He was surprised to find Tarvek's expression neutral, eyes dry now. "You did this for me?" Tarvek asked again.

Gil nodded then followed Tarvek's gaze over to the trees and damp grass before returning to his friend's face as the corners of his mouth twitched into a small smile. "It smells just like home," he whispered then threw his arms around Gil, hugging him tightly.

A gasp of absolute relief exploded from Gil as he relaxed into Tarvek's embrace. "Do you really like it?"

Tarvek stepped back and wiped his eyes with a nod. "It's amazing, Gil. How do they have trees on a ship? We're in the air! It's crazy; I love it. But-"

His smile fell and with it, Gil's heart. "But what?" He fiddled with the buttons on his coat, avoiding Tarvek's eyes again. He hated being so insecure.

"But," Tarvek said, grabbing Gil's hand to get his attention, "too bad we already ate breakfast. It's not really a picnic without food."

Gil looked at their joined hands then slowly up to Tarvek's smiling if blotchy face, relief filling him--maybe he hadn't completely messed everything else. "But you didn't eat," he said softly, "you spilled your food on the floor."

Tarvek laughed. "You mean, you threw my food on the floor."

Gil laughed too because it was all so ridiculous. "It worked didn't it?"

"I could have just told them I was still sick--they would have believed me."

Gil shrugged. "What's the fun in that?"

Tarvek shook his head and squeezed Gil's hand before letting it go. "My life would be so boring without you, Gil."

Gil's heart shot into his throat as his emotions soared. "So you still like me?"

Tarvek gave him a weird look. "You're my best friend, Gil--I love you, you know."

Gil nearly knocked Tarvek over in a crushing hug before darting off into the trees.

"What are you doing?" Tarvek asked, laughing as Gil scrambled up a tree like a monkey.

A moment later, Gil hopped down from a branch right in front of Tarvek and dumped an armload of fruit into Tarvek's fumbling hands. Then he stripped off his coat with a flourish, laying it out on the ground. "Ta-da--a picnic!"

Tarvek laughed harder. "It's brilliant, and I'm starving since someone used my breakfast as an escape mechanism."

Gil plopped down on a corner of the coat. "Do you, like, read the dictionary for fun or something?"

Tarvek threw a cherry, bouncing it off of Gil's head who snatched it out of the air in an impressive show of speed and agility then popped it into his mouth.

Shaking his head, Tarvek sat next to Gil and bit into an apple with a sigh. "This is almost like home in the spring when the snow has melted and it's starting to get warm."

"Do you miss it?" Gil asked, laying back with his hands behind his head to stare through the glass dome at the clouds drifting by.

"Sometimes," he said then chewed his lip for a moment. "But there are lots of things I like about being here, too."

"Like what?" Gil said, waggling his eyebrows until Tarvek tossed a handful of wet grass at him.

"Fishing for compliments is beneath you."

"The ground is the only thing beneath me."

Tarvek rolled his eyes. "Idiot."

The two boys laughed until their stomachs hurt then kicked off their shoes and dug their toes into the soft grass.

"So you never got to answer Miss Ziegler's question," Tarvek said suddenly. "What is your favorite smell?"

Gil took a deep breath, senses overwhelmed by the scent of the grass still stuck to his cheek then glanced over at Tarvek. "I don't know--I'm kind of leaning towards wet grass, too."

[ Part 17 ]

#girl genius #girl genius fanfic #gilgamesh wulfenbach #tarvek sturmvoraus #anevka sturmvoraus #sentences #days 113-119 #story: uncalled for actions #flashbacks

5 notes · View notes

purple-spring · 6 years

Note

How long did it take you to become this well of a writer? Do you have any tips or suggestions? I want to make my writing more exciting and vibrant like yours is. I feel like it's not as good as yours and I want it to be the best it can be.

Hey there, @fangirlthatreads! I’ve been sitting on this ask for a while and I do apologise for that, but I was so incredibly touched that you came to me with this kind of question that I wanted to answer it as best as I could, and create a sort of masterpost for writing in the process. I’m devoting my whole day to answering this, so hopefully it’s worth the wait :)

So, to answer your first question, I guess I’ve always enjoyed and have been fairly competent in writing. I wrote all throughout school, but never really got the opportunity to continue that in college, so I got a bit rusty. I only really started again recently (Sprousehart and Bughead were too tempting to resist), which has just been the most joyful, creativity-unleashing thing. I started simply by writing the beginning for “Tomorrow” because I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, and I had a very vocal cheerleader (hi, @jandjsalmon) encouraging me to write the whole thing. I haven’t looked back since then.

As for tips and suggestions, I thought about this for a long time and came up with the following, which I’ve tried to divide into three sections after the cut - READ, LISTEN, WRITE.

Anyway, without any further ado, I give you –

paperlesscrown’s personal guide to writing

—-READ—-

I mean, your account name kind of gives it away, but I’m sure you read a lot! But my #1 tip for writers is to read voraciously. I often think of it as fuel for the tank: you can’t put out what you don’t put in. When I run into writers’ block, it’s the first thing I do - I purchase a book for my Kindle and bunker down and read.

Three kinds of reading that I do:

Fanfic - This is a no-brainer. It’s important to expose yourself to the different interpretations of the canon and the characters you are writing about. I must admit that I’m not always the most up-to-date fanfic reader, but I am always hitting up @blueandgoldoffice and my dear friend @theatreofexpression for suggestions and recommendations.

Literature - This is important, too. As amazing as fanfic writers are, there is a whole other universe out there of incredibly written original fiction (and poetry!). Anything I can get my hands on, I get onto it. It’s why I bought myself a Kindle - I carry it around with me everywhere to make sure that I am constantly feeding my brain with exciting plots and engaging characters and beautifully turned phrases.

I often try to read specifically, too. What do I mean by this? So, for example, when I was writing “Apparitions”, which included huge chunks of dialogue between Cole and Lili, I chose to read One Day by David Nicholls, which I knew had a lot of earthy, realistic dialogue between a couple in love. When I was writing my first smutty fic (“In here, too”), I made sure to read The Boss by Abigail Barnette, which is an INCREDIBLE Dom/Sub series (which honestly every Dom!Jug writer should read) with amazingly written sex scenes.

I also make sure I read different formats - not just chapter books, but also longform articles, poetry, etc. I read a lot of short stories because I write exclusively in one-shots, so reading them allows me to see how writers develop plot within a limited word count.

Writers’ resources - This is something I’ve started doing recently, and it’s made such a huge difference. There is a whole world of writers’ resources out there. I recently bought the Emotion Thesaurus, which is described as “a writers’ guide to character expression.” It. Is. Amazing. It catalogues an emotion and the different ways a character could express them (that way I’m able to avoid cliches or vary the way that the emotion is expressed). It’s formatted like this:

It’s quite cheap on Amazon and such a worthwhile purchase. You should also check out websites such as Reference for Writers, which has SO MANY amazing resources for writers, plus links to similar websites.

Meta - Read analysis on your characters, whether it’s a recap from website like Vulture and AV Club or (with Riverdale specifically) meta posts from places like @riverdalemeta, which compiles all the incredible theorising from around the fandom. It helps you think about your characters more clearly. A good story always comes from a good grasp of character, and sometimes meta posts make a world of difference in understanding a character.

—-LISTEN—-

Listen to…

1. A beta. I cannot emphasise this enough. Betas make all the difference between a good piece of writing and a great one. My forever beta, @jandjsalmon, has saved from terrible writing decisions and has also steered me towards incredible ones. @theatreofexpression is a constant source of ideas, headcanons and discussions about the show. The thing about betas is that they are essentially your first audience and an important first filter for your work. They are able to pick up on inconsistencies, disruptions to flow, awkward phrasing, spelling and grammar errors, etc. I often think about them as the midwives for our stories. I may be the one giving birth to it, but it’s the beta who guides me with how to breathe, stand, position myself, etc. and essentially get the baby out into the world (sorry for the weird metaphor, lol). Always, always try and work with one.

2. The characters you are writing about. A handy tip - whenever I am writing, I put the show on in the background (as long as it’s not distracting), or interviews with the actors (if I’m writing RPF). It helps me to get a good grasp on their voice. With Bughead, I’m not much of an AU author - I prefer writing and expanding on canon scenes, so it’s important for me to try and get the voice, tone and phrasing of each character right (as well as the overall tone and atmosphere of the scene).

3. Music. Music can activate some really strong emotions and neurological reactions in us that help us to write well. Some people like writing to playlists (I made one for “What she wanted”), while others like listening to instrumental music. Both are fine, although sometimes I can find lyrics quite distracting. In terms of instrumental music, I listen to a lot of Philip Glass (classical and heavy) and Explosions in the Sky (indie and atmospheric) when I write.

—-WRITE—-

I guess there’s nothing left to do but to write!

Start small. I write a lot of drabbles, as you may have noticed, and those are just small writing exercises for me to keep the words flowing. Not everything you write will contribute to an amazing story, but it’s important to keep putting ideas to paper.

Engage in writing prompts. These don’t have to be Bughead-specific. There are plenty of writing prompts on the net - Pinterest is a great place to find some good ones!

Do writing sprints. I actually learned about this idea from the incredible @tory-b, who does this with other writers on the wonderful Bughead Family Discord. It’s basically stretches of 30 minutes to an hour where you do nothing but write. It doesn’t have to be perfect - it just needs to be written down. It’s a way for you to knuckle down and focus and not have any sort of pressure in terms of getting everything perfect. While my job and life often prevent me from engaging in these, they’re an awesome idea for any budding writer.

Practical tip: Google Docs is your friend. This is a tip just for logistics, but I write on Google Docs rather than Microsoft Word because it’s a lot more portable and I work on multiple devices throughout the day. I have Google Docs installed on my phone and I access it via my web browser off my laptop. This just means I can work on a story when I’m travelling, when I’m at home, even when I’m standing in line at a grocery store. I’m often hit by inspiration quite randomly, so this works really well for me. It’s also the best tool for betas - they are able to edit and make comments in a way that’s easy for them and doesn’t involve multiple file-sending.

…

Anyway. I truly apologise for that insane essay, but I hope this can help you (and anyone else). If you have any other questions, please feel free to send them to me! I hope we can read more of your work soon! xx

#paperlesscrown writes #guide to writing #writing tips and suggestions

22 notes · View notes

ferretandtheweasel · 6 years

Text

Why I ship Draco and Ginny?

Seriously nobody asked for this 😂 tbh this is just my Harry Potter and Drinny journey. Also this is just me posting something to start this blog with. So, here's how everything went down:

So before anything I want y'all to know that I started reading Harry Potter at like 14? 13? (don't remember exactly). I was given the first 3 books as a gift. I was instantly hooked and finished them all pretty quickly. And because I am a slut for grey characters, Draco managed a place in my heart even when I low-key hated him (In the first two books lol). He was interesting to me because I wanted to see where his story would go? On the other hand I already had a soft spot for Ginny since Sorcerer's Stone. I had older cousins who wouldn't include me in their stuff so I found her adorbs and relatable in the first book and my sympathy for her only grew in CoS. Book 5 Ginny though, was my fav Ginny because she really put Harry in his place and hexed Malfoy. She became one of my favourite side-characters along with Luna and Neville.

Despite my love for her, like most people, Ginny ending up as Harry's main love interest definitely surprised me. JKR did a good job of convincing me though. I accepted quite easily that Harry and Ginny were endgame but before embracing Hinny, I was a believer that Rowling would make Ginny Weasley end up with Draco Malloy.

Why?

Some might ask and God, I wish there was some proper logic behind this but for some reason, my 15 year old romantic self was sold on the idea that Ginny and Draco are going to be Romeo and Juliet of the Wizarding world?

No, I don't know why I thought like this 😂😂😂 It just made perfect sense in my head at that time for Drinny to happen, I do laugh now at how cheesy I was as a teenager. I just loved thinking about the wizarding world, imaging about other characters that weren't the trio.

Anyway, so this revelation of Drinny possibly being Romeo-Juliet happened during Order of The Pheonix, Ginny hexes Draco with bat-bogey hex and for some reason I was fixated on that particular interaction in the book. I used to imagine Draco being flustered that little Weasley had hexed him, it just gave me so much thrill thinking how annoyed he would be that a girl got the best of him, I imagined him being turned on while he was mad at her, or that he would eventually get attracted to her while trying to get back at her. I just imagined them having the enemies-to-lovers sort of relationship and it just made sense.

Now let me tell you when I read Harry Potter, I lived in a small town in Pakistan, not only was internet not easily available there, it never occured to me back then to actually search for the Harry potter fandom online the few times i did get a connection, so I had no idea of "shipping" or "OTPs" and I didn't know any spoilers. So yeah I used to create scenarios in my head where Draco and Ginny would meet in the Hogwarts corridors and they would argue and have intense sexual tension, or how Draco would want to take revenge on Ginny for hexing him and it would lead to them to having an angry shouting matches which would lead to make out session etc (Yes, I am aware we call these 'headcanons' but back then I was not familiar with fandom terminology).

Anyhow, I finally get my hands on Half Blood Prince Book and lmao remember the scene where Harry is spying on Draco, and then Blaise (or someone else? Idr correctly) brings up how hot Ginny is, I was losing my shit because I was like, why else would JKR bring this up in front of Draco? I was sure that she was building up a secret romance between Drinny behind the scenes because we see stuff happeing through Harry's eyes. Yes i was connecting dots of my conspiracy theory, or at least wishing that that is what was happening.

So y'all can now probably imagine how freakin' surprised and confused I felt when Harry got jealous over Ginny and Dean in the Astronomy tower? 😂😂😂 Like i did not see Hinny coming, it hit me like a wrecking ball... But ofcourse I accepted Hinny at the time because I also loved how tables had turned and now it was Harry who became obsessed with her, I also loved the whole "But she is Ron's sister, I thought I liked her as a sister, Ron will be so mad".

So anyway I go move on with my life and finish Deathly Hallows but ofc Harry Potter series felt like my childhood ending and I couldn't accept it. In my head, even when I had embraced Hinny, I still felt the love for Drinny and saw their potential, by this time I was finally allowed a phone. (Yeah I got a mobile phone when I was almost 16 😂) and while searching for random hp related stuff online I came across Fanfiction...

I started reading fics because I wanted to know what happened between the time when the war ended and when epilogue happened. I also wanted more answers about all the characters. However, I used to find most stories/character ooc, so I used to leave most fics in the middle and move on, very few fics could satisfy me because few writers nailed JKR's Harry.

Anyhow exploring the world of fanfics to read something that I actually like, that's when I was introduced to the giant that is dramione. Dramione introduced the idea of fanfiction deviating from actual books, so I gave them a try but then there were so many Dramione fics on Fanfiction.net but their fics pretty much very early on put me off of that ship, and then I altogether gave up on it because the disrespect to the Weasleys especially Ron was astounding to me. Also people turned Hermione into a mary-sue character in fics which also put me off. I feel like people dont know how to seperate Emma Watson from Hermione. Anyway that is a rant for another day.... So yeah, It was then when I randomly decided that maybe I should check out if anybody wrote Draco and Ginny fics and it was like magic 😍

ff.net had some great Drinny fics Some of them were post series, some of them during their Hogwarts years. Some were pure fluff others K I L L E D me with angst! I still have issues with fics where in order for Drinny to happen they show how bad/abusive Harry-Ron-Hermione are. I leave them instantly, or fics where Ginny is ashamed of being poor (i feel like she loves her parents and everything they've done for her) or fics where I find them ooc... but over all Drinny is a ship which has given me some great fics and those fics have helped me deal with personal stuff and cheered me up when I was down.

Also reading about them gave me an insight on how healthy a relationship between them can be where they can both provide each other with validation, comfort, love and passion.

Reasons why i think they work:

1) Ginny and Draco are opposites but they compliment each other rather than repel. Eg: Ginny and Draco both belong to ancient pureblood families yet the environment and ideology they grow up with completely opposite, their values are opposite even when their world is the same. That gives a lot of foundation for both of them to learn from each other.

2) Ginny is fierce, talkative /bubbly (Ron mentions how it's strange that she's quiet around harry because usually she won't shut up), stands up for those she feels are being unfairly treated (Luna, Neville), she's quite popular as harry realises in year 6 that she has her own friends, she even gets invited to the "slug club"... I think this works so well with Draco who hides his emotions, is under control of his feelings... He's also somewhat of a bully in early years which just goes so well because can you imagine how explosive their encounters would be in the great hall? Draco saying mean things to Ginny just to wind her up and her reacting and never backing down. I think Ginny is really one of the only ladies who can match him inch by inch and call him out on his bullshit. Maybe wind him enough to lose control even.

3) They both play quidditch, can you imagine the friendly rivalry? That is one thing they can bond over, they can also bond over their ancient families and their respective experience of growing up in wizarding world post voldemort... It can be similar and different. They really have the potential to be attracted like magnets. Sorry dramiones, but the angst and enemies to lovers that Drinny delivers... No other hp ship does it for me.

So yeah guys Drinny is my guilty pleasure and I think Draco and Ginny could have worked out really well as a couple but off course I understand that JRK wasn't writing a romance 😂. There is just so much to explore in their dynamic though and I am glad for all the fanfics and fanarts are out there because they really satisfy my curiosity and love for them.

35 notes · View notes

kinetic-elaboration · 7 years

Note

I'd love to read your answer to number 17!

17. Describe a fic that is still in the ‘ideas’ stage.

Aw man…what fic isn’t in the ‘ideas’ stage at the moment isprobably an easier question lol!

Okay, one fic that’s been in the idea-stage forever, andwill probably always stay there, is an Ark AU, in which the Ark never has anyoxygen problems and no one goes to Earth, but the delinquents rejoin general societyupon hitting eighteen. Mostly, I’d just like to make up a lot of stuff aboutArk society and its legal system, since that’s my area of interest.

Clarke and Wells would never have been arrested, sinceClarke was imprisoned to keep her quiet about something that doesn’t exist inthis universe, and Wells was only arrested to go to Earth. Clarke is a doctorand Wells is the Ark equivalent of a lawyer.

Bellamy is still a janitor and Octavia came to live with himagain after being released. She has no idea how to integrate into Ark societybecause she was never socialized at all outside of her family and lock-up. Ithink she’s probably a seamstress, like Aurora.

Monty works with computers because he couldn’t get back intoEngineering after 3 years away from his apprenticeship and he’s kind of bitterabout it. He lives with Jasper, who is a teacher, because I like Jasper andthat’s what I want him to do and it’s my story. Also because I think it mightbe useful to the “plot” to have a well of teenage OCs to draw from so someoneshould be a teacher.

The other delinquents I’m less certain of… I think most ofthem would work low-status positions. Maybe in the cafeteria—apparently ahotbed of illegal trading—or the market. I’d like Murphy to somehow end upworking in medical, to parallel canon, but I don’t know how to swing that.

I also was planning, when I was working this out in my headinitially, to have Miller and Bryan be married and living on Farm, and to haveMiller contemplate a run for office, but now I feel less certain of it and amthinking of giving the office-running part to Bellamy except I would kind of like it to be a delinquent, so I could askmyself: would these people care that their candidate was a law-breaker?

The plot would involve Charlotte aging out of lock-up andher hearing; Wells somehow, like through some involvement in this case, gettingweirded out by the nonsense justice system they’ve put in place; and thensomehow other people getting dragged in—Clarke through Wells, Bellamy throughOctavia, other delinquents through each other—and then there’s some sort ofintertwining plot involving this hearing/its aftermath, an election, and allOur Heroes.

Also Raven should be in here because she’s awesome but she’dprobably have to come in either (1) through Finn (the eternal problem: what todo with Finn? I have no interest in writing him tbh) or (2) randomly, Ihonestly don’t know. It’s a small world though, so.

It would probably include some Bellarke, but I don’t knowhow much or how prominently.

I write bits of this in my head sometimes, though not in along while, and have always been on the fence as to actually writing it, so I’mnot always sure what’s feasible and what’s just irredeemably self-indulgent inmy ideas for it.

Thank you for asking!

Send me a Fanfic Ask.

#acourtofhopesanddreams #answers #improbable ark au

4 notes · View notes

tokupedia · 7 years

Text

Kamen Rider 45th Anniversary File: Decade

2009

Sing it with me now..♬ Chan-Chan-Bara Chanbara! Chan-Bara-Bara Chanbara! Samurai Sentai Shinkenjā! Appare!♬ The 33rd Super Sentai authorized by the network! Shinkenger, Goes Forth!

RPM! GET IN GEAR! Power Rangers RPM hits the airwaves on the new Disney XD channel (formerly Jetix in the US). Decreed by Disney to be the final original Power Rangers series, the company wanted to be super cheap by pulling the plug on production and re-airing old episodes next year. The franchise would then get tossed out by the Mouse House after this harebrained scheme backfires.

Fresh Pretty Cure debuts, airing alongside Decade (and Double) and Shinkenger. This season attempts to expand the Pretty Cure brand beyond its young female demographic, which would prove successful next series...

So~(I Can Fly!) Hurry!~ (You Can Fly!) Miracles!~ (We Can Fly) DRAGON CHAAAAAAARGE!~ Tomica Hero: Rescue Fire, the sequel season to Rescue Force, debuts and... sadly is the final installment of the Tomica Hero series. Among the supporting cast for the show was the man, the myth, the legend, Hiroshi Fujioka! Tomica Hero Explosively Completed its run in 2010.

Engine Sentai Go-onger vs. Gekiranger, the 15th Sentai Vs. series entry, is upgraded from a direct to video release to a feature film. It is the first Sentai crossover put on the silver screen since JAKQ vs. Gorenger in the 1970s. This marks the first time in history that Super Sentai has more than one film in a single year and would continue from here on out.

Victory Pose! Yatter! Yatter! Yatterman, the Tasunoko late 70s anime classic, gets a live action film adaptation courtesy of film director Takashii Miike.

Ishimori Pro declares 2009 to be the “Year of Cyborg 009″ because of the franchise’s 45th anniversary. The company does special events for the occasion, such as showcase Cyborg 009 concept art, animation cels and sketches from the private archives of Shotaro Ishinomori at areas such as Akihabara and the Ishinomori Manga Museum.

Lastly, Koichi Sakamoto of Power Rangers fame sits in the directors chair on several tokusatsu projects, including the Ultra Galaxy Movie and a few Kamen Rider movies.

(2009 was a busy year!)

Kamen Rider’s home network TV Asahi was celebrating 50 years of broadcasting and the number of main Kamen Riders in the Heisei Era had reached the milestone of 10 in total. To celebrate the two momentous occasions, TV-Asahi treated fans to not one, not two, but three Kamen Riders in a single year. The first was the non-canon Kamen Rider G, the later half of the year saw Kamen Rider W, and Kamen Rider Decade was right in the middle.

Decade brought forth tropes in super hero fiction with near limitless writing possibilities: The Multiverse and the reunified continuity trope. Not only was it now possible for a Kamen Rider to have a crossover with other Riders, but the series can go to other universes such as....

crossing over with its sister series Super Sentai!

For the first time ever on TV, Kamen Rider and Super Sentai had a team-up crossover special. While JAKQ vs. Gorenger in the 1970s mentioned Kamen Rider Amazon being part of a greater universe of heroes, this was never expanded upon any further other than a quick mention/cameo image.

Often comic book fans draw parallels of this show’s story to another...

Both serve a purpose, to unify all continuity back into one single linear pathway that audiences can follow. Thus the multiple variants of stories become one sole tale in one setting. That being said, unlike many who recommend Decade as a starting series, I would advise newcomers to hold off a little until they familiarize themselves with the Heisei era a little better, as otherwise the story elements may confuse them as they will have no frame of reference going in.

Heisei Kamen Rider up to this point allowed itself to avoid continuity ties by letting each series stand on its own aside from maybe Kuuga and Agito, but even that could be a stretch. Decade is where things began to merge back together, as after this series, Riders began interacting with one another on a regular basis in movies and direct to video films. Aside from a few teases of non-canon events like the Ryuki V-Cinema and the Den-O and Kiva Movie, Toei didn’t seem too interested in doing TV or film crossovers on a grander scale until this exact year.

So... what happened that may have changed their minds?

Oh yeah, THAT happened...Marvel made it known at the end of a little movie called Iron Man they were going to do BIG crossovers. So naturally, Toei possibly followed suit (with mixed results depending on who you ask). It is just speculation, but you have to admit it is odd timing given the franchise almost avoided crossovers entirely up to this point.

This show is also the last hurrah of Rainbow Zoukei as the costume designers, as their workload had grown to insane levels. RZ was doing Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Ultraman, prop replacement parts for Power Rangers on top of various movies and TV commercials. In order to ease the burden, the company created a secondary studio based in Tama called Blend Master to divide the workload. Rainbow Zoukei does Super Sentai and new Metal Heroes costumes/replacements while Blend Master works on Kamen Rider from Double to the present day.

Another new addition to the franchise would be the introduction of Bandai’s Legend Rider gimmick for their Ganbaride arcade video game cabinets. Rider Cards were the primordial phase of this gimmick, utilizing the powers of past heroes in the show while being something Bandai could double up in profits on. Later iterations and Ganbarizng would incorporate the electronic collectible toy trinkets in combination with the trading cards. Another staple of this series was the introduction of the Rider lexicon term “Driver” for the belts (Get it? A belt is the driving force of the super powers of a Kamen Rider.)

The biggest thing this series did though was revive the Showa Riders presence in the franchise after a long absence from TV with a story arc about visiting the non-Heisei Rider worlds, with at least one of the originals physically appearing and returning to his role:

Tetsuo Kurata as Kohtaro Minami/Kamen Rider Black and Black RX! (Parallel universes thing, complicated to explain.)

Decade is a very divisive series, some love it for upping the stakes of conflict with the fate of reality itself hanging in the balance and a war between Riders of past and present series with a super powerful rider that had a cool belt voiced by radio personality Mark Okita.

On the opposite end of fandom, some hated it for undermining their favorite Riders with what some assessed to be a Marty Stu fanfic-y character who was almost super-invincible and ultimately served as a plot device.

On the upside to fans who dislike the show, at least we got a female Rider and a meme out of it...

ONORE DECADE!

Speaking of which...KAMEN RIDE: DECADE!

“The Destroyer of Worlds, Decade. What do those eyes see as he travels through many worlds?"

(Mr. Kadoya, circa 2014 in a crossover with Kamen Rider Wizard, lookin’ like a boss.)

Real Name: Tsukasa Kadoya

As a child, Tsukasa was often alone with his sister, but soon discovered she had the ability to create trans-dimensional gateways called Dimension Walls.

Tsukasa ran off into one of them one day and in his later years, came into contact with Dai-Shocker, a revived amalgamation of all the past villains the Kamen Riders had ever faced. They tricked him into playing the role of their Great Leader (which a teen Tsukasa thought was a “fun idea” at the time) and later offered him a new weapon to test out: The Decadriver. The belt device was the intense labor of Dai-Shocker scientists who HATED the Kamen Riders. The Decadriver could duplicate and surpass the powers of all Kamen Riders to obliterate them once and for all or use them as lifeless tools to enhance the Decade system. Tsukasa tested them out, but this ended badly for him as the overwhelming shock of crossing multiple universes all at once caused mental trauma that wiped his memories away. The Decadriver was somehow left hidden and abandoned in an unspecified alternate Earth.

Cut to 2009 and an amnesiac Tsukasa is on an Earth working as a photographer for the Hikari family. Natsumi Hikari is having strange nightmares about a figure who kills all the Kamen Riders in a great war, enveloped in a magenta light. Strange things then start happening as random unexplained catastrophes occur such as monsters appearing from silvery walls and people being randomly teleported to unfamiliar locations and slaughtered by more monsters.

As this happens, a familiar face appears to Tsukasa: Wataru Kurenai aka Kamen Rider Kiva who asks him where his “buckle and cards” are and that this “world will end if he doesn’t do something“. Tsukasa at first does not understand and is confused by all this, but Natsumi later finds the belt and gives it to him when she is being attacked by some Worms. Tsukasa transforms into a new Kamen Rider and then remembers how to fight, using the powers of past Kamen Riders to defeat waves of monsters effortlessly.

Once Wataru and the other Kamen Riders freeze the world in place with their combined powers to prevent further destruction, the veteran Rider explains to Tsukasa that the parallel worlds of Kamen Riders are merging due to an outside force and will destroy all of existence if it isn’t stopped.

To that end, Tsukasa as Kamen Rider Decade must go to the 9 Worlds and destroy the nine Kamen Riders of those worlds to preserve the Prime universe. Wataru laments that creation cannot come without destroying something and promises to hold the world in place for as long as he can with his comrades until Decade “fixes” the multiverse.

Decade ends up doing the exact opposite after befriending the Riders and connecting their stories. This at first did not sit well with the Prime Universe Kamen Riders and they attacked Decade to preserve their existence and those of their loved ones, thus the Rider War began.

But by being a destroyer and connecting with heroes, Decade did find a way eventually to save everyone. Tsukasa now spends his days traveling across space and time, exploring new parallel worlds and helping those in need in his own unique way.

(As many Rider Scouts will tell you: This one idea has massive fanfiction potential as Decade could have visited any number of universes of beloved franchises along his journey: Marvel, DC, Image, Transformers, Doctor Who, Star Trek etc.)

In one non-canon moment of a video game, an enemy called him the Destroyer of Worlds. Decade then casually responded that he is “retired” from that role. Even in Kamen Rider Taisen (*ugh*) any mention of this title seems to annoy/upset Tsukasa, as he feels he is beyond that part of his life.

Powers:

Decade can become invisible, make copies of himself, has expert markmanship and sword skill, enhanced strength and has the ability to travel across dimensions to parallel Earths.

Decade’s signature ability is for his Rider System to analyze an opponent and if it is a Kamen Rider, copy its data for Decade to assume the powers, weapons and forms himself in the form of Rider Cards. The Rider Cards can also upgrade/seize a Kamen Rider into a new form dubbed as a “Final Form Ride”, transforming them to act as a support such as a new power, a vehicle, a weapon or a device such as enhanced armor.

Decade himself can Final Form Ride into a giant sized version of the Decadriver for Kamen Rider J to wear and he assumes control of Kouji’s body as a giant sized Decade. Decade can obtain the power of Kamen Riders through cards in one of two ways, the first is the Magic of Friendship and the other is straight up beating them to near death and sealing the weakened Rider in a card in a manner somewhat similar to the Blade System with the Undead. Decade prefers option one, but in a rare instance used the second one as circumstances forced him to.

The Decadriver is also compatible with other card systems such as the Gosei Cards from the Goseigers and the Decadriver is shown it can utilize Super Sentai weapon Rider Cards.

Using some kind of construct projector somewhat akin to ZX’s Virtual Image Projection Unit, Decade can assume the form of ANY Kamen Rider. (As confirmed by recent toys, Decade can go up to Kamen Rider Drive currently. But Ghost and Ex-Aid are likely part of his card deck by now). Upon tinkering with it apparently, the Decadriver can holographically disguise itself as another Rider Belt (such as 1′s Typhoon) and through a voice modulator, Decade can fully impersonate a Kamen Rider for stealth/infiltration missions. This image projection is enhanced even further in Complete Form, as Kamen Riders in their ultimate forms appear on command and seemingly mimic Decade’s movements like a shadow for a double final form Rider Finisher.

In his more deadly Violent Emotion mode, Decade can obtain and use any power of a Kamen Rider automatically, even sometimes without the use of the cards and no form change needed. He is seemingly so powerful in this mode that almost no Kamen Rider can stop him and his Rider Kick pretty much becomes a human seeker missile (As shown when he chased down Skyrider in the air and kicked him, turning the airborne 8th Rider into a falling fireball.) Complete Form can summon the powers of the Heisei Rider’s ultimate forms and utilize their Rider cards in those forms to enhance Complete form further.

Tsukasa as a human is bestowed with new skills in every world he visits to serve whatever purpose the multiverse needs him for. (Ex. knowing the Gurongi language)

Weaknesses:

Decade, much like the the future Gokaigers who would adopt his same power copy gimmick, is not all powerful on his own in base form and can be beaten in some instances. (Blade in King Form gave Decade quite the beatdown once with just one slash of his sword) This is more to showcase that Decade on his own is neither stronger or weaker than any previous or succeeding Rider in base form and through the comradery of his fellow Riders sharing their strength with him, he can become the strongest of all of them.

His Rider Cards at first had a one use limit, it is uncertain if this still applies in some capacity. When the cards were used they would seal away the powers selected until they were activated again after gaining a Rider’s trust. Some universes disrupted or negated his power such as the World of Negatives, which rendered all his cards useless until he upgraded to Complete Form.

His Rider Belt is basically a big bullseye, as stabbing or damaging the Decadriver at close range will shut down the device and de-power Decade. Though if the first episode is any indication, dimension wall energy can automatically repair the belt. Still, like most modern belts which are not surgically attached to the Rider, Tsukasa could have the Decadriver knocked away from him or he could lose it.

The Decade system was designed to defeat Kamen Riders, thus other superheroes are immune to the copying of powers on some level. (though this does not guarantee opposing sides victory).

Kamen Riders sometimes had a bit of animosity towards Decade given his reputation and even after the Rider War, some view him akin to a Nuclear Option, as in someone who should only be called upon in a crisis or as an absolute last resort. Like Kuuga, Agito and Kiva, Decade has a dangerous side to the power he wields that could end all life..well..everywhere, especially if he succumbs to his darker impulses such as with using Violent Emotion mode.

Gear:

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Decadriver

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Rider_Cards

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Ride_Booker

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Machine_Decader

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Kamen_Terminal_K-Touch

Signature Finishers:

Dimension Blast: Using the Final Attack Ride: Decade Card, Decade uses the Ride Booker in Gun mode to fire a charged shot

Dimension Slash: Using the Final Attack Ride: Decade Card, Decade uses the Rider Booker in Sword Mode and executes an energy charged Rider slash.

Dimension Kick: Decade’s Rider Kick which is executed using the Final Attack Ride:Decade Card. Variants include the Enhanced Dimension Kick in Complete Form which utilizes the power of the 9 Heisei Riders in conjunction with his own power and the Final Dimension Kick which after using the FinalKamenAttackForm Ride Card, turns all the Kamen Riders into Kamen Ride cards that Decade flies through to enhance his kick to maximum power.

Enemies:

Dai-Shocker

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Dai-Shocker

Dai-Shocker is a supergroup of past Kamen Rider Villains from various parallel Earths who scour the multiverse to find like-minded individuals to convert/recruit into their army for one ultimate goal: Total conquest, subjugation and absolute rule of the entire multiverse and creation itself!

Out of all incarnations of Shocker, that is a pretty ambitious goal for evil and difficult considering that Kamen Riders exist on other worlds as well as other superheroes who stand in their way. Tsukasa was once their Great Leader, but turned against them and the organization had been crippled and splintered into various forms such as Super Shocker and Space Shocker, but manages to revive at least once.

Narutaki

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Narutaki

Nobody knows what his deal is, but he has a wide array of powers including the ability to create Dimension Walls, summon evil Kamen Riders or monsters and assumes the form of past Generals such as Colonel Zol of Shocker. He hates Decade for some reason and sees himself as a prophet of the Rider’s nature as a destroyer, warning other heroic Riders to try and stop him. He does flip-flop his allegiance at times.

Some fans have theorized he is an incarnation of the real Great Leader, while a still of the pre-production film shots of what would become Decade: Final Chapter gave a bombshell to his possible identity:

That pink camera is Tsukasa’s..so some speculate from this image that he is an older Tsukasa from an alternate reality.....

Sadly due to unknown legal issues and production delays, this plot was tossed out along with several other story ideas. So Narutaki’s identity and purpose for antagonizing Decade is never explained and his character was taken to a...very weird direction...

All we can say to those good stories and his identity not being told to us is...

ONORE DECADE!

Now we must go on the road to another Rider’s world.... til next time...

#kamen rider #45th anniversary #kamen rider decade #onore decade #kamen ride #attack ride #final attack ride #d-d-d-decade #henshin #multiverse #gackt #we are all travelers #journey through the decade #2009

39 notes · View notes

korolevskiy-sekret · 6 years

Text

Self Pitying Ramble

Read at your own risk???

I failed NaNo for the first time in 23 rounds this past April, after very nearly failing in November. The loss itself doesn’t bother me (I had to fail at some point), but I am upset about it because I haven’t felt good about writing in over a year. Some of it is because I might have hit the limit of what I can do with my completed novel on my own and with beta readers. Some of it though... My best guess is just plain emotional exhaustion from 3 years of still undiagnosed illness and 3.5 of ongoing depression. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And confronting the illness part of it is still terrifying, because I dislike my family’s gp so even the thought of making the appointment to ask for a referral to a rheumatologist (suggested by the one healthcare practitioner that I trust and who is able to make that call.) I’m trying some alternate routes but.... I do not have my mother’s faith in them. And my job(s) make it all the more difficult. They aren’t bad jobs and I think I’ve been doing well at them, but I can’t plan for them. One job I get called in a couple days a month when there’s work, and the other... well, I work a few days a week, but I also get called in randomly. That’s the nature of the job, but it makes it stressful to do anything else.

I’ve also had some terrific ideas for my plots recently. I had a breakthrough on a plot I’ve been working on for YEARS that fixes all of my main problems and kick-starts the spinoff/sequel/same-verse novel. I figured out a way to get rid of all of the least interesting aspects of my oldest plot while doing HEAPS of neat things with the most interesting. I have plans for an entire series of romance novels that involves, like, six of my all time favourite things - including wolves and the Varangian goddamn Guard. Heck, I even found a cool folklore thing to work into this dumb short story idea I plotted out to get revenge on a book I hated, which also combines (a different) six of my all time favourite things. And then there’s the 20k+ fanfic for that movie nobody likes but I really want to write because I have all these headcanons that must be addressed.........

Still, the thought of even opening up Camp NaNo to set up any of these is paralyzing. The obvious answer would be to just write that short story - it can’t be much more than 6k, and it’s very much in my wheelhouse (at least, the characters are. But apparently I will write about vampires for revenge, which is fine with me.) The next obvious answer is to just. Look at. some of these outlines. Pick one and actually get it to the point where I can work with it.

But ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#also listen y'all I am all for alternative healthcare and indiginizing medicine and all of that #ESPECIALLY when it comes to mental health and issues that can be solved by working as a community #yknow what I don't particularly trust? ~Eastern Medicinal Practices~ and shit whose actual medicinal value is questionable even to me #ME the medievalist who throws tea at every single problem and who quite honestly believes in the fair folk #grumble grumble #kaze says things

0 notes

tellmevarric · 7 years

Text

I was tagged by @captain-amoruca for this a while back! Yikes!

Total number of completed stories

45 that I can specifically put my finger on but it’s probably a fair bit more once I take into account some of the one shots in Inquisition All-sorts and some tumblr only fics. And that’s not taking into account my WIPs.

Total word count

Oh man. Too hard to count but given that Building Windmills came in at a bit over 72000 words, I’m going to say probably between 100000 and 150000. (Again, that’s not taking into account my WIPs because if I do, then Only The Moon Howls has 108k words, Counterpoint has 80k and Broken Chains has 46k. Not to mention a couple at around 20k each.)

Fandoms written in

Dragon Age, Borderlands, Far Cry and Star Wars.

Looking back, did you expect to write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected?

It’s a bit more than I expected but I do tend to write in ebbs and flows so I’m never really sure of how much I’m writing at any given time.

What’s your own favorite story of the year?

Probably Building Windmills because it was a challenge, though Broken Chains and Only The Moon Howls come a close second because I do love writing Fenris and Solas.

Did you take any writing risks this year?

I started writing a few rarepairs, which is a risk for me because I do feed a bit on the kudos, comments and like I get. I know I shouldn’t but it’s nice to get and you don’t get much with rarepairs. So I suppose I’ve learned to keep writing even when I’m not getting comments or kudos.

Do you have any fanfic or profit goals for the new year?

I’d like to finish some of my WIPs! (And I’m sure my readers would like me to finish them too! :D) I’d also like to go back to one of my Nano original fics and shove into some sort of shape with a view to potentially seeing if I can get it published. It’s just a bit of daunting task given I think I need to almost rewrite it from the very beginning.

Best story of the year?

For me, Broken Chains and Only The Moon Howls because I like playing with the ‘verse and changing just a few things and seeing what I can do with that. For sheer enjoyment, the OT3 we all didn’t know we needed aka Accidentally In Love aka that Cullen/Dorian/Blackwall(/soon to be Varric!) fic I got challenged to write and now can’t stop writing.