#So it's not that Dream is really cruel although he does come off as a little pretty bitch when he sniffs and tilts his chin up.

[magnusbae]

I see a lot of modern au with Hob being experienced in dating and self assured but “I’ve got no chance with him but I’ll still take my shot and try” attitude. Now it’s all good and fun but— please do consider the following: Dream being “You’ve got no chance with me” and Hob being “Oh I’m getting you darlin’” attitudes. Is Dream a few leagues above him? Maybe. Does he stand a chance? Who cares. People who think about chances are the people who don’t actually get shit. Hob decided that he will get Dream on at least a date and oh he will do that. And if he gets more? And boy, he is planning on it, what’s the better! 

[gabessquishytum]

Dream has only had shitty boyfriends, so getting together with Hob is a bit of a revelation, although if he’s honest he’s still waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Hob to realize how Dream really “deserves” to be treated. Hob knows Dream is a bit anxious sometimes but otherwise is in the dark as far as his expectations.

Then one night while they’re out and Hob is getting them some drinks, one of Dream’s exes spots him and corners him, getting into Dream’s space and saying cruel things about him. Dream just stands there and takes it, just like he always has, but then suddenly shitty ex is being yanked away as Hob physically throws him out on his ass, only just barely restrained himself from beating him to a pulp.

Dream has never had someone stand up for him like that, and it definitely makes him cry a little. Hob takes him home and cuddles him while Dream explains his past relationships. Hob was already a doting boyfriend before, but now he’s determined to spoil Dream absolutely rotten and show him exactly how he *really* deserves to be treated.

This is so incredibly sweet. I love Hob’s utter determination to show Dream his worth <3

Hob really is the epitome of stubbornness. He's not perfect, that's for sure, but he's so absolutely focused on being good to Dream. There are little acts of service that he insists on performing: getting Dream a fancy coffee every day. Flowers every other week. He always has an idea for their next date. He always wants to hold Dream’s hand in public. Dream doesn't know what to do with all the attention. He's still waiting for Hob to turn around and laugh in his face, to tell him that it was all a joke.

But. Every time Hob does something unnecessarily nice for him. Dream’s fear shrinks a little bit. And he gradually starts to believe that each gesture really does come from Hob’s heart.

And no, Hob doesn't always get it right, but he did listen when Dream told him about his exes. So when they get in fights, as all couples do, Hob is careful not to raise his voice. He always takes his anger away from wherever Dream is. He doesn't ice Dream out or punish him with silence, but he does take time to cool off. The very first time, Dream thinks that Hob is never coming back. But he does. Of course he does. He comes back with Dream’s favourite chocolate and an apology, and although Dream bursts into tears... its because he actually feels safe. Its a good feeling.

And the best thing that Hob does is just... being there. Always. With cuddles and kisses and touches and that thing where he nuzzles his face into Dream’s neck and sniffs him... always showing his love, one way or another. One day soon, Dream really will have no choice but to believe him <3

[drama-trauma]

THE DEVIL'S TEACHINGS

Warnings: Religious themes, sacrilegious themes, Reader is in a cult of sorts,mentions of devil and God, brief mentions of sacrifices and criminals

The reader worships the devil.This work is not a reflection of my views and is meant purely for entertainment.

You tried. You really did. Growing up you gave many chances to God. You tried believing but couldn't bring yourself too. It was not a matter of ' why would evil still prevail if he existed?' or anything of that sort. It was a matter of believing and worshipping someone you aren't even sure exists.

You believed everyone deserved a chance. You gave God one. It didn't work out. So when a blonde guy clad in the outfit of a priest came upto you , you didn't give it much thought. He gave off the aura of a terrible person. You could tell that much from first glance. He was suspicious. Why would he come upto you of all people on a peaceful day while staring out the bridge? You knew he seemed to be bad news. But you didn't care.

He urged you to give the devil a chance, so you did. You went to his preaching sessions consisting of more people than you expected in a small wore down old Church.The place was in absolute shambles but the people attending didn't seem to mind. They listened to him with such attention that it was surprising.You have seen kids and adults alike fall asleep during the Sundays you went to church when you yourself were a kid. But here they didn't.

At a point you realised that although they worshipped the devil , in their minds they truly worshipped Abaddon , the priest like figure more or less.They saw him as salvation. They saw him as freedom. They saw him as their God. You never understood them. He was quite insane in your opinion. But so were you.

After a couple months, slowly but surely you got to know him better. You came to the realisation that the devil was his escape from this cruel world. The devil promised a world of dreams, hopes and desires. He did not discriminate, for all who believed in him would surely be granted the sweet fruit of temptation.

You've reached a conclusion after about a year that the devil does not reside in a place underground called Hell. For he existed right next to you. To you , the devil was Abaddon. To the people he was their God.

You were sure that he was the devil. No man could look so angelic but be this diabolical in nature except him. He offered sacrifices to the devil. But those who were sacrificed were those referred by others as abusers and criminals.He slaughtered them with a face that was filled with pity. He did not put them down or on a pedestal during their deaths. He simply prayed for salvation. For them. For the people. For you.For him.

At a point you even started liking Abaddon.You started attending all the prayer sessions regularly. You started paying attention to his preachings. You started looking forward to them. You started worshipping the devil. You started worshipping him.

You were sure that Abaddon was the devil. For no man could have such striking scarlet eyes filled with temptation yet be devoid of emotions like his. For no man could be the devil except him.

[cookiepie111]

Earth 2099V

Miguel x black fem reader

Miguel is jealous of his othe self but doesn't quite understand the situation of his other self.

Warning: angst, mentions of abuse not proofread

Miguel never really felt to jealous of his alters most them living normal mundane lives, typically a scientist the odd couple being dentists but they had standard lives. One consist theme in their lives was relationships, whether that be romantic or platonic. A girlfriend who got away, a brother he couldn't protect. A daughter he couldn't have.

Earth 2099V. A Miguel that was living the life! A great job, stunning wife and adorable daughter. His dream life! What sort of joke was this, it was so stupid to feel so bitter and jealous over himself . Petty as it was he closed the 2099V tab he'd push that dimension away, he knew himself how obsessing over another life would ruin him. So out of sight ,out of mind.

Although that didn't work too well, one depressed shitty month later he's staring desperately at the screen,'come on come on' seeing the two of you, your life, he could for a moment imagine it was him. He could go to bed with the thought of you in a cute apron cooking dinner, welcoming him home from a tiring day of dealing with anomalies and spider society, that it's him wrapping his arms around you, resting deeply at the base your neck taking in the praise you give. You'd sooth him, gently rubbing his head praising him for all the hard work he does. God he'd feel so good, so loved. And Gabrielle- your daughter, oh he'd give her all of his time, they'd be a the happest family.

Earth 2099V. But he wasn't met with that, it felt like watching a bad movie, plight filling at his chest, flickering to different screens as if his technology had made some mistake. But no this was it, this was the reality in front of him, a broken home. A broken single mother struggling to manage her teen daughter. An emotional repressed teen who'd recently got bitten by a spider, fuck. That ment they'd run into each soon or later, she'd hate him, he didn't know if he could handle that, the broken look of a girl too young to understand why her father acted like that, too young to comfort or properly protect her mother from her fathers cruel advances.

That bastard. He threw it all away. He had everything (Miguel wanted) and he thew it away like some toy he didn't want anymore. He treated you like a burden when you had done nothing but devote yourself to that bastard!

Miguel was know to coop himself up in his office (lair) wasting the day away observing the multi verse. It fell on to his second in command to perform welfare checks on him. "Miguel, you've been in there for 3 hours straight and no one's heard a word from you" honestly jess was hoping he'd exhausted himself out and finally gotten some rest.

Rabid. That was one word to describe Miguel now. The computer screen glitch in and out from the dents on made by his talons on the keyboard. His form was unruly, hunched and heavy breathing, jess could even hear the grating of his clenched teeth, the man was practically foaming at the mouth. Yeah, no whatever had set him off this bad was not something she could deal with alone, slowly backing up eyes still on Miguel in case a stray item was hurled her way.

"THAT UNGRATEFUL BASTARD! HE RUINED EVERYTHING"

Miguel really couldn't tell what he was more annoyed at the the bastard man who mistreated his family, a family Miguel would have done anything to have or the illusion that the man broke.

[stick-ball]

I was asked to write some of my sad headcanons on Jean and Kevin's relationship by @thelittlelostgraycat so here we go:

The first thing that comes to mind when I think about this dynamic is this really silly scenario. Doing grocery shopping, you have this great idea. You're going to make crepes for breakfast the next day. It's the weekend after a really long week, and you're feeling like having something nice, you know. So you stock up on all the ingredients. But then when it comes to it you stayed up late that night, binging your currently favourite series, and you get up later than usual and you're not really in the mood to stand in front of the pan for half an hour before you get to eat something. So, dismayed or not, you kill off the hunger with something quick and easy and get on with the day's plans. Then the next week comes and since you work long hours obviously you don't have the time for it either. By the time you remember, you really wanted to eat pancakes some time has passed. But you're excited again because that's what we are like with the things we love. The joy is always there even when we aren't doing those things. So you go take the pan out, the flour and bowl. You open the fridge and see you only have one egg left. That's a problem. You forgot to stock up, but well. It's still possible to make pancakes with one egg. You'll just have thinner batter. Then you get lit the milk and here's the problem, it expired. The dismay is pretty monumental for such a small tragedy. You taste it, just to make sure, and yeah, it's terrible you feel like retching. And the thing is, you could still make the pancakes. You could run to the store, but it was never really about being hungry. It was about the sentiment, and now you remember how if you made them in the first place, this wouldn't happen, and you wasted a whole carton of milk on a fancy you couldn't even commit to.

And that's how I see Kevin and Jean. It's love and it's sentiment and it's something really deep. But when push comes to shove it's always too little, too late. Too little words said, an apology wasted on a cold argument. Too much hassle, too much risk, too much grief if it goes wrong. Let's leave things as they are. It's not good but it'd stable. Too little time, between Riko and training and the dreams of freedom and illusions of grandour and the pain, all that pain and gore. It all ends up coming first.

But there's love, and I don't necessarily mean it as romantic love, although it could be. There's love, there's a whole language built around it. It's words of affirmation in a language no one else can understand. It's small tokens of care, small enough not to be put to an end by someone else, but meaningful enough to make the heart soar like they can touch the blue sky above the tomb they grew up in. It's stolen moments of peace, because both their hearts are for once free of worry when it's just the two of them together - noone there to harm them, noone to make them watch as the other suffers. It's time spent practising, not because they aren't good enough, but because when it's them they can freely love the sport they play. It's a shoulder to lean on and a body that keeps you warm, and that will never take more what you offer it.

But it's always too little and too late to grow into something defined. It's a safe chrysalis that makes the caterpillar endure, but there's no surety, no promises. As much as the chrysalis helps, the caterpillar transform, thr butterfly has to break out of it to fly. So no, it's not enough to last.

They care deeply for each other, but Kevin leaves Jean in the Nest. And Jean could hate him, could resent him, but he doesn't - because he understands when you have a chance you need to take it because life is cruel and it doesn't smile at you twice. He understands that he would probably do the same. It still hurts.

I think Kevin doesn't have many regrets bigger than leaving Jean behind. He still does it, though. But if he didn't, the story wouldn't happen. If he didn't, the whole chain reaction would not be set in motion, so he can't fix it, but he can be better from there on. He starts by getting Jean to a place as far from the Nest as humanly possible. In the hands of the person he holds in the highest esteem.

And that's fear, but that's also love.

Jean's new Jersey number is a 29 for both Kevin and Renee. So I think he understands, I think he doesn't hold a grudge. He starts to pick up his phone and sometimes even calls him himself, even if to trashtalk the team he knows Kevin is also watching play back in his dorm in Palmetto right now.

So they couldn't commit to it then, when there was nothing to lean on. But would it really be too little too late?

[mykingdomforapen]

Man, the AU you mentioned about LTC possessing LG and causing damage with his voice and hands that he'll wake up to has not left my brain. I do have some questions, if you would maybe expand on it a bit!

Do you think this is a bit of a role swap, in a way? Of LG being the one possessed instead of QL after what happens with Liu Min and Emma? In that case, what could happen? LTC would have access to his memories, to CXS's vulnerabilities and fears that LG is well aware of, and coming back right after Emma's death might have CXS in a position where only words could do immense damage, without even mentioning the knife he might or might not have access to.

I feel CXS might recognize it's not LG even if LTC tried to act like him, right? But it would not make what he says sting any less, or would not make a sudden stab any less surprising as he comes back from a dive with his guard down, I guess. Ah!!

He might be possessing LG in a completely different context, too, I guess! Although he would need LTX to be around for it to be done remotely, right?

Please forgive my rambling, even just as a concept, I'm very very curious to know what you considered for that idea. Thank you for your time!

Thank you for giving me an excuse to expound on an indulgent au that I dream of whenever I have trouble staying awake during my jet lag aksjsksksk.

I admit that when I have my sleep-affected stories in my head, it is effectively Whump Without Plot so I didn't really have a logical reason of why Lu Guang would be possessed. However, if we were to make a rhyme or reason for it, it would likely be to make Qian Jin's capturing of Cheng Xiaoshi quicker. Since CXS was targeted by the antagonists because they wanted to take advantage of his abilities, after all.

(Which of course is what happens vaguely in the canon, but shhh)

But in an AU where CXS doesn't recognize LG is being possessed (or, even if he does find something odd, isn't in a position to question it), he would easily follow Lu Guang anywhere no question. So he would be an easy mark as long as the baddies can use LG to take him somewhere else.

As for my indulgent AU in which it's a completely different context, maybe baddies want to separate CXS from LG for whatever reason, make him run away from LG and make him more vulnerable to the baddies' attacks, whether to capture him or something else. In which case, they can use LG and force him to push CXS away even if it's just for one vulnerable night. And since LTX's abilities are such that she can see all the memories of a person, it would be at least enough to glean what LG's usual personality and talking style is like to make his possession seem at least believable. And as you say, if it's on such a night that CXS is perhaps already vulnerable--maybe a bad dive, or a hard reminder about his parents--really, it's about saying something hurtful to CXS that he already kind of believes about himself that would make him less likely to question whether or not LG actually means it.

Like, if a possessed LG were to say that CXS is cruel and dishonest, I think CXS would be a bit ? about that. But if LG were to call CXS, idk, clingy and burdensome, which arguably (at least in my headcanon) CXS has wrestled with in his own self-image already, that would make him a bit more likely to believe those are LG's words. Because CXS is already struggling with those worries that he is so, and hearing it from his best friend who knows him most deeply would feel like confirmation ...

(and if he doesn't believe it's LG, then possessed!LG would just knife him and drag him to the baddies we get the best of both worlds lol)

Of course, in the way that Chen Bin was able to sort of gain some sense of self when he was possessed because he was being forced to walk off the edge of a building but the love for his unborn daughter gave him some consciousness to, while unable to resist, have sentience, I can imagine that Lu Guang's love and care for his best friend and seeing the way that he was being used to hurt him would give him some ability to try to resist, or at least be conscious about what he was being forced to do...which is perhaps even worse....

Witnessing his own body and mouth hurting his best friend but unable to stop it...

[maria-tries-to-write]

Hello. I'm not really sure if you're okay with this, if not, please, forgive me. Or if you don't like it and it won't be interesting, then, too, please, forgive me. I would really like to ask for the second part of this.

It's been a while, since Aemond forged a marriage-like bond between himself and Y/n. Of course, he would have married you the first second, you were in his hands, but there was still a drop of something similar to nobility and understanding in the prince. His embrace are still suffocating, his kisses are still demanding, sometimes, he still allows himself to touch you where he shouldn't, but he doesn't go further. He even lets you get ready for bed behind a curtain, although he does not hesitate to show off his naked nature in front of you and calls you to do the same. You think a lot about how it happened and why. It looks like his mother is really to blame. The part of it. Part of it is your fault, too. But the more time passes, the more you come to terms with your situation. Either it's your heart and mind, that hide you from reality, creating a pleasant picture in front of you, or your prince is really not so terrible.

Sometimes his iron grip feels incredibly safe, even warming. Sometimes, he kisses your shin with such tenderness and love, when he ties your shoe. Sometimes, your ego almost rejoices, when you realize, that you are, literally, the only person, who can contain the outburst of his anger. And else, Aemond understands you, literally by a sigh. Once, it so happened, that you were present about a scene, where Aemond threatened one of the servants. The prince was out of sorts from the very morning, and the poor young man stumbled and Aemond snapped. You took one deep breath, to calm down, and your prince noticed it, and your prince did the same. He exhaled, opened his eyes and told the young man to get lost. Later, you could, almost, without fear enter into a conflict between Aemond and his victim. And one day, you saw some attractive overseas fruit. Your eyebrows only lifted for a moment in interest, and that evening, standing in your bedroom, Aemond was trying to figure out whether this fruit should be cleaned and how to eat this thing at all? What is this at all? Is it really delicious? And what if you don't like it and you get upset, and then, he gets upset too... The cruel prince understood you, literally from half a word. Sometimes it seemed, as if he could sense your mood and condition.

You woke up in a really bad mood. Either the dream was bad, or it was stuffy, or something else, in general, you just opened your eyes, and already hated the whole world. You sat down on the mattress, turned your head to the table, and there were your favorite flowers and a tempting snack. And where did it come from there? While you were shuffling to the flowers, Aemond came into the room and for no reason, from the threshold, began to overwhelm you with compliments and kisses. And else, there was a case, when you were sitting on the terrace, watching the sunset. You just thought, that you were very thirsty, and swallowed a lump of thick saliva, as the prince got up from his seat and, without words, left. And then, he came back and handed you a cup of pleasantly cool water, saying, that he wanted to drink, and thought, maybe, you wanted it too. But you can see in his eyes, that he's lying! Or not lying...

Honestly, you don't understand well, what is happening and how, and it seems, that you don't really want to understand... It's weird, it's creepy, it's not clear. And yet, you have to admit, that it's nice...

Of course, he still scared you, of course, you still cried because for him at night, but Aemond was always there, to comfort you. Sometimes, it seemed to you, that he deliberately pretends, that he does not understand the reason for your tears. Or, maybe, he really doesn't understand... Sometimes it was difficult to understand, what was going on in his head.

It's always been important to Aemond, what you think. Aemond has always consulted with you. Yes, you don't know everything in the world, but you weren't a fool either. But for Aemond, you have always been and will always be the goddess of wisdom and justice. And also beauty, love and fertility. But you prefer not to think about it yet...

Okay, but dear, wtf am I supposed to do now? Give up on writing? Give you my blog?? Cause, honestly, I could never write something as good as your ask 😭😭

Jokes aside, so happy to see someone with such a talent following me, it makes me so giggly like “they like my works even though they’re so talented”

[k-s-morgan]

I have another question. Why does Will Graham prefer to kill other killers like himself? I keep thinking about Chilton's assent of him in season 2 where he states that "Will Graham likes to play God. He catches these killers simply to prove he is smarter then them." I think he has a good point, given that Graham is deeply insecure and is a bit of a narcissist. If that's the case then do you think maybe that's the reason why he kept lying to Hannibal in season 2? Albeit I'm sure he was pissed about Abigails death but as you've pointed out he only liked the idea of her. So if that's the case then maybe it was him trying to prove he was better then Hannibal. If so is that why he also prefers killing killers? To prove he's better then them or is it some deeper reason? That he hates them because he hates himself? What are your thoughts?

I think you made an excellent point about Chilton's words. I always found it amusing and fascinating how despite the fact that Chilton is completely wrong in his accusations against Will during the trial, he actually presents a surprisingly accurate profile of him. He's extremely wrong and extremely right at the same time, particularly with this: "Will Graham has never been diagnosed. He won't allow anyone to test him. He has carefully constructed a persona to hide his real nature from the world. He wears it so well, even Jack Crawford couldn't see past it."

With Will being motivated to outsmart killers: I think it makes a lot of sense and it could be another amazing detail in his portrayal, although I don't think it was really shown. It could be something existing deep inside him that might come to the surface after he settles into his new life with Hannibal. The only time Will seemed competitive to me was when he was being possessive over Hannibal's attention - he wanted to hold his admiration and focus instead of seeing him single out other killers.

For the most part, I think Will prefers to kill killers because it makes him feel better about himself. He knows he has darkness inside, but he also longs to be a normal, moral person. Being able to excuse some of his impulses helps lessen his self-hatred. I don't think he cares about innocent people per se - he's shown as careless and cold with them on more than one occasion. In S3, he downright stages the murders of quite a few of them (Chiyoh and her tortured prisoner who might or might not be guilty, Chilton and FBI officers; possibly Bedelia, whose actual crimes are far lesser than Will's). Will seems genuinely caring only with those he can relate to, like Peter, Georgia, Reba, and murder-children. But he still has enough morality to understand that he doesn't like liking what he does, so killing bad people is a compensation and a more acceptable solution to his inner conflict.

Regarding S2, Hannibal, and Abigail: I think Will's biggest problem was the feeling of personal betrayal, rage over this, and a lack of comprehension of how Hannibal could have killed Abigail when he claimed to care about her + the fear of what it means for Will personally. Why was Hannibal so cruel about it - Abigail was killed sadistically, he cut off her ear and implanted it in Will? How can Will trust that such a person loves him when this is what he did to a girl he supposedly treasured? If Hannibal is a monster whose love is fleeting and superficial, Will doesn't want it - he wants revenge. But if there is something more to it, then Will might change his mind. We see his inner struggle in this dream conversation:

Will: I want an admission. Admit what you are.

Dream Hannibal: Why not appeal to my better nature?

Will: I wasn’t aware you had one.

Will is in denial. He wants Hannibal to confirm to him that he’s a monster and thus not worthy of Will’s attention - Will is trying to literally torture the answer he wants out of him, yet despite his best effort, Hannibal responds with love. This frustrates and confuses him even more. Like Will said to Peter, killing is much easier when you know how to feel. And Will doesn’t know how to feel about Hannibal, not until he finds a way to label him as a hollow monster. So he's torn about it and about his feelings up until Mizumono, where he finally makes his choice.

[fareehaandspaniards]

Wait tell me about Helbrecht and Elżbieta 👀

Yay!! I would gladly ramble :^)

In truth, Helbrecht and Elżbieta are minor characters in a big original story I've been working on for a long time (God grant me the strength to take my mind off Fromsoftware games for a while and get back to development xd).

They're one of many couples I have, and I've tried creating them in Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring, however, in terms of setting they'd be more suited to DS3…

Helbrecht - is a once resident of a town that has tamed the magical arts. His main dream was to create a universal cure and defeat death. He wandered, searched, and gathered legends and stories to change the human cycle. Eventually, he came to success and gained immortality. His body stopped changing in any way - his hair stopped growing or falling out, his wounds healed immediately for the body to become as it was, and he also could no longer have children. In fact, he stopped even needing food. Helbrecht was happy for the first century. But then he buried his first spouse. It was getting harder. He left his hometown again to start life anew elsewhere. Helbrecht married several times. And each time his heart was broken, for his lovers died sooner or later. Many centuries have passed - Helbrecht's city has long since been leveled, burned down in one of the wars, his native language has changed beyond recognition, and he still drags himself across the land and does not know where to go. Even his magical knowledge is outdated (although, admittedly, it is very valuable, because he is the last one who can recreate ancient spells)! He can't devote himself to his art, he can't live as a human being, Helbrecht is waiting for his death, which doesn't want to come. He's a totally depressive piece of sad rock who seems to have become completely indifferent to what's going on in the world. He's just really tired :(

Elżbieta (Lilibeth at birth) is an aristocrat, a fiery redhead with a heart as bright as her hair. Actually, among her many siblings, she is the only redhead, and her parents are black-haired. Therefore, she was labeled the “child of sin” (her father suspected her mother of cheating. However, her grandfather's genes just played out on Elzbieta!). Elżbieta was not loved at home, and in addition she also had a rather defiant character, which she brought up in herself. Her family tried to marry several times, but something was happenning to her suitors all the time - and many of them died of various circumstances. Elżbieta believed that she was guarded by heaven, and her family was convinced that she was cursed, for which she was nicknamed “Lorelei” - her beauty was called destructive. To get rid of her and thus “tame”, her parents married her to an old hunter, famous for his cruel temper and considerable money. But the old hunter showed her true mercy and didn't use strength against her, leaving her a virgin and allowing her to escape and creating a legend of her death. In return, she healed his maimed leg. Elzbieta left him and took a job with a madam in a market town as a nurse and healer. She has a passion for plants and works with them, practicing “folk medicine”. So, in my world's logic, she is a witch! Naturally gifted to healing magic, independent and lonely.

That was actually the backstory! I won't write here the main plot - I have to think about it long and hard xd Helbrecht and Elzbieta ran into each other and disliked each other almost instantly, because their approaches to healing magic are opposite, and Helbrecht couldn't stand her deep cleavage and was extremely annoyed because he was embarrassed xd

Half of the story this couple will squabble (briefly) xD But their story ends with them finding each other, healing their wounds, and many, many years later, when Elzbieta is old and it's time for her to die, Helbrecht's curse will be over. Legend has it that he turned into moss that hugged her grave, around which a thicket of Elzbieta's favorite ivy sprang up.

I apologize if you were expecting them to be linked to BB (I only have two OCs in BB, and I think one of them will go into my story) xD But I'm really glad there was an excuse to talk a little about my OCs

References to both of them:

my veeeeeeeeeeery old Elzbieta sketch (I don't have any worthy sketch for Helbrecht! :( He is pictured like more than 30 times in my sketchbook and none of those oc-shitposts I can show lol):

[khoipyan]

just relax, but not with me.

gn!reader x jade, floyd who promises they have the perfect face mask for them. unfortunately…

(this is sfw btw as sus as the desc. sounds💀)

warnings; just the tweels being misleading and chaotic as ever.

notes; 2nd post on my new acc after accidentally deleting it, yay… after arguing with helix (@sk2lton) about toothpaste, we finally had a conversation about face masks and how the tweels would… 😇 you can either read the fic first, or read our conversations on vaer blog!

notes2; implied romantic relationship (if you wanna see it as platonic though, i’m not stopping you)

jade leech

you’re sitting down in a chair, wondering why jade texted you and what he needed so urgently. the texts looked a bit like this:

you: jade? what did u need? and why are you texting me on at 2:34 am on a saturday… 💀

jade: Ah, well. I was trying out a new face mask recipe and I’d love for you to come over and try it.

you: it was this urgent that u couldn’t wait until i woke up….????????../><??

jade: Please? :(((((

you: fine, just this once BUT DO NOT WAKE ME UP AT 2 IN THE MORNING AGAIN FOR SHIT LIKE THIS 😭 I WAS HAVING AN AMAZING DREAM.

jade: Thank you, dear :) I will be awaiting your arrival.

-

so here you are, sitting in a chair in the dark. that is, until jade turns on a lamp in his room.

he has a brush in his right hand, and a container of… face mask in his right. you’re VERY unsure whether or not to trust him..

“jade… what is that?” you’re extremely concerned. the ‘face mask’ looks… questionable.

he smiles at you, “it’s the new face mask i’ve fabricated. there’s no turning back now, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

you want to turn back. something in his tone of voice was telling you to run away, but you couldn’t figure out what it was. well, you only live once!

“alright, just get it over with.”

you’ve never seen jade so pleased in his life.

-

“so? was it to your liking?”

everything had finally been over, and that whole experience was pretty relaxing. your skin even feels nicer and moisturized, too!

you closed your eyes in relaxation, “that was pretty nice. jade, can i know what you put in the face mask now?”

“ah, right. i shall tell you now, seeing you went along with this.” jade bent down next to your ear and whispered the ingredients in his lovely face mask.

and he had a few seconds of pleasure watching as your face went from happy-go-lucky to absolutely HORRIFIED.

jade grinned, showing off all of his sharp teeth. “oh? what’s wrong? you’re looking paler than usual, prefect.”

“i… you—! you put—… ahh.. GAH! i knew i should’ve have trusted you, you—!”

you can be as upset with him as you want (although you weren’t really, just grossed out)! but you already put the face mask on your face.

and what exactly did he put in the face mask? well, that’s for your imagination to figure out.

floyd leech

“i’m so glad you’re here, shrimpy!”

“why does your face mask look so… red?” you stare at the bowl on the counter. it’s not a gentle, rose red. no no no! it’s more of a… ‘riddle’s hair’ coloured red.

“ehh? are you doubting me?” floyd pouts, “i convinced you to come all the way here and you came here to doubt me?”

you really didn’t know if you should’ve told him the truth, “of course not! i’m not here to doubt you at all! i just hope you didn’t put anything weird in it. i know jade would have put weird things in it if i was sitting here with him…”

“well you aren’t sitting here with jade. so just trust me!” he has the brush close to your face, already having lots of the red mysterious face mask on it.

here it goes...

-

itburnsitburnsitburnsitburns—

“WAAAAAAHAAAHAHAHA—! FLOYD! YOU SAID YOU DIDN’T PUT ANYTHING WEIRD IN IT! IT BURNS…!“

“i didn’t! all i did was put a few spicy things in it and grind, like… hmmm, chili peppers. and other spicy stuff! you look so funny when you’re running around screaming, ahaha!” at this point, floyd’s laughing at your suffering for his own amusement. how cruel.

it’s not like this would do anything major to your skin, but you just hoped your face didn’t stain red at the very least. this was totally unfair though!

you had gotten most of it off your face by the time you were done scrubbing it off with water, but your face still tingled. floyd still hadn’t finished laughing at you, but you were about to make him stop.

you took the bowl and threw it at his face.

-

“little shrimp… that wasn’t very nice of you! that hurt. and my skin feels weird now.”

crossing your arms, you sighed. “should have thought of that before you decided to put the face mask on me! i was just giving you a taste of your own medicine. hmph!”

floyd beamed, satisfied with todays result. “hehe. i would do it all over again if i could.”

you couldn’t help but also smile. as painful as it was, you had to admit it was pretty fun.

— due to be edited at anytime —

[so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site]

Dream doesn't seem to have any good qualities at all unlike his siblings. He doesn't care about people, he's cruel, ruthless and selfish. He blames others for his problems and he doesn't care about those that live in the Dreaming.

Did... Did Desire send this in? 😂 Okay, I'll try and tackle this in three parts: 1) How does he compare in "good qualities" to the other Endless, 2) when does he actually show any good qualities, and 3) addressing the blaming others/lack of care for his subjects.

Note that there are some later-comics spoilers ahead, since I had to pull some examples from there. I have no idea how far you are in the story, so I couldn't limit examples to a specific non-spoiler time frame.

So, to address point #1, it kind of seems like the Endless in general lack a lot of redeeming qualities.

Destiny and Death are truly neutral in everything. Death gets good PR, basically, because she's friendly, but she's still ultimately neutral. Honestly even her friendliness gives me "really good at customer service" vibes rather than feeling like a sign that she'd actually be friendly or nice to anyone in particular.

Desire doesn't do anything especially heroic that we see; the best they do is giving Tiffany their coat when she escapes the burning strip club in Brief Lives. They do save Dream via Alianora in Overture, but even then it's with a nasty caveat. In addition, Desire's the one behind all the Walker family's supernatural problems. Heck, Desire only had the newer generations of Walkers so they could selfishly use them in their plans against Dream. In comics canon they're also a rapist.

Destruction's whole deal is running away from every problem--which indeed comes across as sensible compared to his siblings. He mostly just likes being left alone with his cooking and bad art. But, he has no qualms whatsoever about killing innocents in order to keep running away.

Despair... we don't really get to see her do much so I think she falls under the "neutral" category too.

Delirium is too out of it to really do much intentionally, and what we *do* see her do intentionally is reckless driving and giving an eternal spiders hallucination-curse to the traffic cop who tries to stop her. Her irrational determination to see her brother continues even after it's clear it's actively causing people to get hurt. She doesn't seem to care about people for sure.

So, like. This entire family sucks. I'm not sure I'd say Dream is particularly worse, we just happen to see more of his issues because he's the main character.

Okay, now on to point #2. He does indeed care about others, on occasion, and also has unambiguously heroic moments.

In terms of "caring about others", he's the one who tries to call off the road trip in Brief Lives when he realizes that Destruction's alarms are killing people (although he doesn't find out Destruction is behind the deaths until Death forces him to continue the road trip for Delirium's sake). He seems highly disturbed by Ruby's death in particular, which is part of why I was so peeved at The Sandman Companion giving HIM the blame for it.

He's also canonically good with children; it's just adults he's terrible with. He's nice to the girl on the plane in Brief Lives, he entertains a group of children on a dream-adventure when we see him going about his duties in The Kindly Ones, and Calliope notes in The Wake that his issues with Orpheus apparently didn't start until Orpheus grew up. In Overture he's also kind and protective toward the alien girl Hope.

As for "heroic" moments... okay, I really had to think for some of these, but they ARE there.

Rescuing Calliope is probably the most unquestionably "heroic" situation he's in, since he was not the cause of the situation in the first place, and also has nothing to gain by helping. But he does help her, nonetheless.

Also, he takes hundreds of serial killers off the streets by stripping them of their beliefs at the Cereal Convention. It's hard to say that wasn't a positive move. Plus, one of the reasons he dislikes The Corinthian could be that Cori was causing so much harm to people in the first place.

Even before his big fishbowl time-out, Dream tells off Hob for participating in the slave trade and disapproves of slavery. (I'm going to ignore what The Sandman Companion says about that here...)

He helps Marco Polo out of the Soft Places desert, even though he himself had just barely escaped the fishbowl and wasn't sure if he had enough power to save both himself and Marco.

In my favorite issue ever, Fear of Falling, he gives Todd the advice he needs to get over his crippling fears in both the real world and the dream world.

Also, his treatment Nuala is a good indication that he's not the worst. Nuala gets gifted to him as a slave, to do "whatever he pleases" with... and his first instinct would be to reject such a gift entirely, but since he is bound by the fae's customs to accept any gift, he just basically lets her live in his castle rent-free. She takes up cleaning so she has something to do; he didn't even ask her to do that! His only demand is that she not use her glamour. If he were truly as cruel and uncaring about consent as some analyses (including parts of The Sandman Companion) would have you believe, it's doubtful that he'd treat an intended sex slave that way.

(Of course, if I were being uncharitable, I could point out that non-glamour Nuala is not conventionally attractive, and it could be something about him only being able to respect a woman if she's not sexually attractive to him... but I'm *trying* to be charitable to Morpheus here, for once)

And now for #3: Not caring about the Dreaming residents and blaming others for everything.

Admittedly, in the comics it is harder to tell specific instances about caring for the Dreaming residents, but there are a few. A big one is that he granted Lucien's wish to become a librarian rather than staying as a raven. Another is Abel's story about how he came to live in the Dreaming; Dream offered it to him as a gift, and when he was lonely he also brought Cain and gave Cain a house as a gift toward Abel.

I've been trying to keep this to the comics-universe for consistency's sake, but the show-universe definitely gives way more examples about him caring about his subjects. He gives Goldie to Cain and Abel to replace their gargoyle he had to absorb, he clearly cares about Jessamy and cries over her death, and he seems more upset about his subjects abandoning the realm as a personal abandonment instead of just a "they're my citizens so they should stay here" type deal. Of course, he also granted Lucienne her wish to become a librarian here as well.

And as for blaming others for everything... whew. That's a big one. Because even though he may have done that on some significant occasions (Nada being the biggest one that we see), ultimately, he ends up blaming HIMSELF for everything to an unreasonable degree. I actually won't discuss further examples on this one because it would be massive ending spoilers, but yeah, suffice it to say he overcorrects on that front.

So yes, for Morpheus, I think I'd paraphrase a line from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) that I think describes him well: He's an asshole, but not 100% a dick.

[gabessquishytum]

okay i am very much still thinking about queen calliope and her warprizes dream and hob. and especially like... dream Does Not take this whole thing well!! hob is honestly very happy with his new lot in life, he's very okay with being a pampered pet, he just wishes dream could be happy too.

dream could be happy, honestly, but he's far too proud to accept a place as calliope's prize, he won't stop acting out, and calliope realizes very quickly that punishing him only makes him worse. so she tries out a new tactic -- when dream misbehaves, she punishes hob.

it's not that she's cruel about it! hob still gets pampered, he still gets to sit at her feet and get his hair petted and be fed treats, he still gets to cuddle in bed, he still gets to serve his queen with his mouth. but he gets locked in a sturdy chastity belt, and calliope makes it very clear that every time dream acts out? she won't be punishing dream for it. she'll be adding days to hob's time in chastity.

hob is... kind of deeply embarrassed by how much the whole thing turns him on -- the denial itself, the objectification of being used against dream like this, the helplessness of it all. the belt leaves his ass free, and calliope has a strap that makes him come sooo quickly when it gets it in his pussy... but he can't come from anal alone, so it just leaves him more desperate than before. calliope even lets dream fuck him, which ends with hob's poor cunt so wet that he's leaking around the belt while hob cries and sobs and begs for dream to let him come.

thankfully, dream has a much easier time setting aside his own pride when it's for hob's sake. he's maybe never going to be as enthusiastic a pet as hob is, but he settles in quite happily. and as a reward, calliope even lets dream have the first go at hob once he's out of his belt! that time hob winds up sobbing because he's come too many times to count <3

-🐈‍⬛

I'm also thinking big thoughts about this one. And I absolutely love the idea of Hob being essentially used as a whipping boy and taking Dream’s punishments for him. Calliope knows that Hob is a good little subby slut who will enjoy everything that he's given, and also that Dream's big soft heart won't be able to stand the sight of Hob’s "suffering" for too long. Theyre a perfect pair, like two puzzle pieces. Calliope is going to take such good care of them both.

Poor Hob truly can't remember the last time he was deprived of sex or something to fill him. Every night for the last however many years he's had Dream’s cock inside him, or at the very least a toy, and sometimes even one of the other knights if Dream was too busy. Now he's empty and no matter how much he begs, Calliope will only pat his head and tell him run off and be a good boy. And if he tries to so much as wiggle his finger beneath the harsh metal chastity belt, he knows that he'll spend the rest of the day with his hands bound behind his back.

Dream is in turmoil because a) Hob is suffering from lack of orgasms and b) Dream is also suffering because he can't fuck Hob’s pussy when it's locked up. It's the first time he's actually felt any insensitive to behave well, and Calliope is so pleased to notice the improvement in Dream’s behaviour. He'll always be a subborn brat but it's gratifying to see him submit, relax... and even take her strap like a good boy.

Hob is overjoyed when the chastity belt comes off, although he sort of misses it after a while... Dream knows that he'll always have a pass to misbehave every once in a while because Hob occasionally gets a craving for a punishment. The arrangement works very well - Hob gets to enjoy a spanking, and Dream gets a reminder to keep his pride in check.

But most of all Calliope just really wants to make her prizes happy. And make them cum a lot. Even Dream will gladly agree that she's very good at both of those things (Hob would also agree, but he's too busy being a good pet and licking up the mess he made earlier <3)

[humanitys-strongest-bamf]

Hi!

We have a lot of shared mutuals, and I also see you’re a fellow angst lover. ☺️

For the Drabble challenge, how about 19: I haven’t moved on

Thanks!

so i know i said that i'm done with the drabbles but there are two sitting in my inbox that got me all giddy to write so fk it

19: I haven't moved on | Drabble Event

✧ word count ➼ 591 ✧ notes ➼ post-war!levi, all hurt no comfort, i am in pain someone write me fluff :(

This world was cruel.

Although Levi couldn't deny that the world and society around him was currently moving in a direction of peace and prosperity, he couldn't get himself to accept this new, uneventful life. It wasn't that he missed the fighting or the deaths around him. He missed the people that used to be around him—those that had been forced to move on to the afterlife. On top of that, he especially missed your presence that brought him what little joy he allowed himself to experience.

It had been a year since the end of the Rumbling at this point. Levi had made it a habit to come to the docks of Marley that faced the direction of where Paradis Island was—his home, and where your body was laid to rest.

His mind wandered as he recalled the few good memories he let himself experience and they nearly all involved your presence. He remembered you dragging him out to the beach once it was finally safe enough to venture outside the walls, even though he provided more than enough resistance. He remembered you sneaking into his quarters or his tent during or after a failed expedition, needing that comfort over seeing so many of your comrades fall. He remembered you getting frustrated over trying to learn how to make his tea the way he does, but subtly chuckling to himself at how frazzled you found yourself to be over such a trivial thing.

He remembered holding your body as life faded from your eyes. He had knelt there for hours, desperately hoping that it was a dream that he would eventually wake up from—but it wasn't.

Are you watching? he thought to himself. Was it worth it? Was my survival worth it?

He clutched at a pendant in his hand that he had given you when you first began your relationship. He had to go off on an expedition without you and he gave it to you as a source of comfort while he was gone. Ironically, he was now the one that was desperate to draw comfort from it in your absence after having to take it off your body after you passed.

Are you—and the rest of the scouts that were sacrificed—watching?

Through his grief, guilt appeared. It wasn't just guilt over surviving while no one else did. He felt guilty because he knew that he was disappointing you by bathing in his own misery. He was alone and he couldn't find a way to let go. He didn't want to let go and he knew that would be breaking your heart if you really were watching.

Everything hurt. His physical wounds had long healed, but with every passing day, he felt like any emotional wounds that began healing simply began to open again. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to move. It hurt to think. It hurt to feel.

He looked up at the sky with an empty look in his eyes as he twirled the pendent around in his left hand. He let out a shaky exhale as he felt that heavy feeling in his heart expand into his stomach before radiating into the rest of his body.

He whispered underneath his breath, hoping that in you'd hear it from wherever you were.

"I haven't moved on."

He looked down towards the ground, feeling an unbearable pressure within him that made him want to explode.

I can't move on—not from these fading memories of you by my side.

A/N: my heart hurts. tagging @chaotic-on-main for cheering me on as i was sad from writing this

[rockingrobin69]

Arshole to arsehole violence

Malfoy is long silences and twitchy fingers. He never smiles, but doesn’t always scowl anymore, and he doesn’t speak, although Harry hears him practice sometimes. At night when everyone else is asleep. Slow, scratchy notes from behind the bathroom door. He probably does it in front of the mirror, watches the thick lump of his tongue barely move behind his chapped lips. Harry sure does stare at it a lot. Finds himself picturing Malfoy’s mouth even when he isn’t looking.

Malfoy is turtlenecks and socks. It’s roasting hot inside the house and he’s always covered, as if on principle. Sometimes Harry wants to shout: we know, all right, we all know about the mark, and we know about the scars, and we fucking know, so cut it out already. His socks are unerringly straight and perpetually black. Sometimes Harry wonders how he knows to match them if they’re all the bloody same. Finds himself thinking, what if they are both left-feet right now, and how would he even know?

Malfoy is infuriating eyerolls and sort-of funny sighs. For someone who reportedly hasn’t said a word in however-many years he’s one expressive wanker. Harry, dunno, kind of likes it when Malfoy’s eyebrow arches and he instantly knows what that means. Likes that they get to look at each other when the adults are being arseholes and know, immediately, that Malfoy sees it too.

Malfoy is petty and cranky, is sarcasm and impatience, is angry, all the time, anger-anger non-stop every minute of every hour of every day. He sleeps as badly as Harry and he eats even worse and he’s constantly walking around like it’s everyone else’s fault, and he’s determined to make them pay. Harry… yeah. Harry can’t say he’s so different after all.

It’s weird that they’re not kids anymore. Harry’s so used to having to prove himself, to fight for a seat at the table, that he still does it subconsciously, and sometimes even for Malfoy’s sake. Not because—it’s not that he trusts him. It’s not that Malfoy did one useful thing for them ever since the big one. But it’s them against Molly and Albus, against mum and Moody. It’s them versus them, and Harry, uncomfortably, got used to the new world order. There’s always a lot of getting used to and discomfort. There’s always a lot of shit, and now Malfoy lives here.

Sometimes Harry says mean things to him just for the practice. Like ‘What happened, wolf got your tongue?’ or ‘better for everyone if you were just dead’ or ‘off my fucking bed, Malfoy, it’s mine, get off’. Sometimes even that isn’t enough and he says really, really nasty stuff, like, ‘is that why they didn’t want you at Grimmauld anymore?’ and watch with satisfaction as all the colour drains out of Malfoy’s face and the way he sort of, crumples into himself, goes small-small-small until the sour patch in the base of Harry’s throat throbs. It’s usually enough to drag something terrible out of him, a truly wild revenge the sort Harry can only dream of: Malfoy is creative and fucking diabolical. Harry thinks that’s when they get along best—when they’re being as cruel as bloody possible, when they break everything around to the tiniest bits and devour it ravenously, choke on it.

The part about Grimmauld stings him too. That they didn’t want him there either. That the fucking Marauders who thought they were so cool and good and dangerous chose Malfoy of all people to crash with them for all that time and didn’t even let Harry come visit.

What’s so special about Malfoy, anyway? Apart from the not-talking and the pacing around like a cat in a cage, apart from how he’s always so fucking serious and nippy and oh-so alert. Apart from the arch of his calves and the way his neck goes just about forever, and the shell of his ear and the tilt of his lips. How he leans on walls and every single doorway, how he breathes real deep and the look in his eyes. How he climbs in Harry’s bed and refuses to leave, just, refuses, stretching and moaning until Harry has no choice but to give up. Malfoy’s a slut and Harry’s so into it that he can hardly speak sometimes. Maybe that’s why Malfoy’s really quiet, and not the whole tongue thing. It’s been years and he should have got a lot better by now.

Maybe that’s the thing that drives Harry mad (he means, the most, more than the rest of it). Malfoy should have been fucking over it, the way all the others seem to be, Ron and Gin and Hermione and Dean and Neville. But he’s like Harry, like that. Bitter. Not better.

Malfoy is mostly a riddle and a curse. And a distraction, sometimes, in the brand-spanking-new world everyone seems so excited about, and a co-conspirator and a nemesis number two. He’s pathetic, and gorgeous, the sexiest thing Harry’s ever seen with both eyes, and just enough of a wet-cat to high-kick all the right places in Harry’s belly. Harry can’t stand him and wants him, badly, worse than he’s ever wanted anything: and has him, has him, clasped so tight he’s gagging, and begging for Harry’s hands to go tighter still. He’s a slut for pain and Harry is too, he’s a maniac and Harry is worse, he’s beyond repair and Harry is—ha—he’s the rat and Harry’s the trap, he's the parasite to Harry’s host, he’s the sickness to his blood and the only thing that matters.

Malfoy is here, which is all of it in a nut shell. And Harry won’t let go.

[dolphin1812]

I wish Jondrette would stop making good points when he's this awful. Take his critique of charity in his speech on how the rich are "thieves," for instance:

"These men who pretend to be charitable, who put on airs, who go to mass, who make presents to the priesthood, preachy, preachy, in their skullcaps, and who think themselves above us, and who come for the purpose of humiliating us, and to bring us ‘clothes,’ as they say! old duds that are not worth four sous! And bread! That’s not what I want, pack of rascals that they are, it’s money! Ah! money! Never! Because they say that we would go off and drink it up, and that we are drunkards and idlers!"

He's not wrong, really. We've even seen characters who do exactly this, or assume that others are - it's been a while, but someone who felt that he was competing for status with Madeleine/Valjean in Montreuil-sur-Mer was convinced that he only went to church and gave to the poor to make himself look better, and even began to attend church more regularly to do the same. And the part about giving food instead of money is something that's still said today! And while of course the Jondrettes need food, money gives them the chance to choose what they do with charity (and is also more flexible, since they could buy food, pay rent, buy clothes, etc). They certainly could spend it on things other than necessities, but he's right that it feels condescending for the "charitable" to assume that they don't know how to spend their money and can't be trusted.

Unfortunately, this is all coming from M Jondrette, who isn't trustworthy at all. Hugo's self-aware enough to include this speech, but his writing reinforces some of these attitudes as well. After all, if your image of the most miserable of les misérables is the Jondrette family, you're going to think that they're deceitful. And although Jondrette's words have some truth in them, they're also a product of his rage: both his broader anger at society and his in-the-moment anger at the gentleman for taking so long. The societal rage might be justified, but the interpersonal aspect (when the gentleman really does show up) feels more like it's part of his general characterization as a cruel, bitter person.

This is reinforced by how quickly his demeanor changes upon M Leblanc's arrival. He suddenly becomes polite and charming, leaving no signs of his actual anger. We know, then, that he's lying. That being said, as I discussed in the last chapter, some level of performance is vital to the Jondrette family because of the shifting expectations for charity ("respectable" in church, absolutely destitute at home). Again, M Jondrette is not a sympathetic character, but this drastic change is still understandable.

On another note: Mlle Lanoire is back!

The focus on the word "she" is hilarious. I'm sure it's meant seriously, but I really just find it funny.

The brief contrast between her and Mlle Jondrette is so sad, though. Mlle Lanoire's clothes are something she can only dream of, and even though they're close in age, Mlle Lanoire's happiness is foreign to her.

[ecargmura]

Hirogaru Sky Precure Episode 50 Review + Final Thoughts

Wow, I can’t believe I finished a Precure show from start to end! It was a good experience for a first-time Precure watcher, aka me. The final battle was pretty cool and then everything that happens afterwards was pure emotional as I realize it’s truly the end.

To be honest, the last battle between the Precures and Daijarg went by pretty fast. It’s fast-paced but the way they defeated him was pretty quick too. It’s not a bad thing, though. It’s best to get everything over and done with so that the farewells can happen. I did like that all the Precures were working together to take him down and not just having Sora and Mashiro in the spotlight. Given that the final boss is a snake, the sneaky, meandering nature fits well with its form as it tries to escape into Empress Underg, but she decides to finally let go of him. Because he cannot possess her, he resorts to trying to possess someone in Sorashido City, causing havoc in the ordinary world.

The second half of the final battle was pretty epic as most of the minor characters in past episodes are seen as well as the Precures using a new move, Hirogaru Sky Punch, where they all punch the snake into the sky and then defeat him once and for all with the Majestic Halation. I really like the teamwork! Now that Daijarg has been purified, does that mean there is no more Underg Energy?

Oh boy, the departure scene was legit shaking my emotions. The fact that they’re separating makes me sad. While it is in their best interest for the Skylandians to return to their home country as they have dreams and aspirations over there, it’s not the end as they can always come visit. I think the part where Tsubasa was saying his last words to Ageha got me the most. These two had the rockiest start but, by the end, it was a friendship that has improved positively. Seeing Sora and Mashiro saying good-bye was also sad as these two clearly cherish each other a lot. Sora is her first friend and Mashiro had someone who eased her loneliness. I know for a fact that these two have feelings for each other, but the subtlety of it all really moves me. Though, I did dislike that they decide to visit the next day after saying all those emotional good-byes. It killed the emotional factor.

I also like that the Underg Empire truly decided to have peace with each other and with Skyland as the generals decide to stay with the Empress. Although the empire was once a cruel place, they were all shown that they can reform and that’s why they gathered together. I hope the Empress makes dolls of her minions; it was so cute seeing Kabaton gushing over the Elleelain doll and wanted her to make a doll of him too.

However, I’m glad that the Precures all have a future in their stories now. Sora officially joined the Azure Guards and becomes someone else’s idol, taking the path of her hero Shalala, and still uses her Cure Sky form for knight duties. Mashiro decides to write a picture book about her adventures with the Precures. Tsubasa has a future as a sage, but told Ageha that he wants to explore Sky Land to gain knowledge and experience; Sky Land might even be larger than one would expect. Ageha’s dream has always been to be a nursery school teacher. Ellee has returned to Sky Land to become the future ruler. I know that they had made a Precure series where they feature Precures as adults, so it’ll be cool to see if Hirogaru Sky gets the adult treatment. I’d love to see what these characters would be older. What are your thoughts on the final battle and the departure?

Final Thoughts 

Overall, like Mashiro, I also have a hard time saying good-bye. This was my first Precure show and I loved it. I can see why the franchise is so popular. There were flaws, especially towards the last quarter of the show with snail paced story progression, but it did not detract my enjoyment of the show.

I really loved the energy the show gives off. Following Sora on her journey of being flung into another world after rescuing Princess Ellee and trying to find ways to adjust while protecting her from the Underg Empire was an investing journey. I loved that it explores Sora’s desire to being a hero and learning what it means to become a true hero. The quirky misadventures and emotional aspects were really good. Normally, it’s happy, but the story wasn’t afraid to get dark, as shown with Episodes 14 and 15, Episode 23 and the last five episodes revolving around Elleelain. When the episodes get dark, they are DARK. I’m glad that the writers don’t hold back in a children’s show.

As a magical girl show, Precure does a lot of things that other magical girl shows do, but I think that Precure does things a bit better. For example, I do like that Hirogaru Sky develops all the main cast. Like, throughout the fifty episodes, I learned so much about Sora, her goals, her personality and her family; the same goes with the other four Cures too. Some magical girl shows mainly focus on the main character and the other main character that they forget to develop the other main cast members at times. Hirogaru Sky does a good job giving insight to the main cast, but I do wish Ellee was a bit developed more rather than being stuck as a baby for three fourths of the show.

The villains were a bit hit or miss. Kabaton and Battamonda were great foils to the cast, but then Minoton, while charismatic, was underutilized and the story sort of dragged after Skearhead’s introduction. It was a waste that Empress Underg was only fully shown towards the last part of the show and then gets shoved to the side when Skearhead decides to become the final boss. She was wasted potential. Also, the generals don’t really interact with each other, so it’s hard to tell if they were a good villain team because they didn’t work together until the end.

The side characters were great, though. They were entertaining to watch. I liked Yoyo, Beryberie and Shalala a lot. However, I did wish there was more insight on Yoyo like how she landed in Sorashido City and why she chose to stay and not return to Sky Land. Beryberie made a good rival to Sora and I liked how it stays even in the finale. Shalala was the perfect mentor figure to Sora and it was because of her that Sora walks the same path as she does. I’m going to miss these side characters.

Although I am not a Precure expert, I do think that this is a good introduction to Precure. Heck, I’m into Precure thanks to Hirogaru Sky. I can’t wait to see what Wonderful Precure has to offer. If you want more Precure content from me, I am also reviewing Delicious Party Precure episodically on my blog.

I’ll see you guys next week for my review of Wonderful Precure!