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linkspooky · 5 months

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Bohman is a good character you guys are just mean

Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains is one of the better received spinoff series. Though, like any of the Yu-Gi-Oh spinoffs it's not without its faults. Usually I'm the first to admit the flaws in my favorite silly card game shows, even while I myself take them way too seriously. However, there's one common criticism I can't bring myself to agree with.

That is calling the main antagonist of the second season Bohman "boring" or "badly written." I've noticed fans unfairly blame Bohman for season 2's writing flaws.

Forget for a moment about whether or not you find Bohman's stoic attitude interesting or likable. If you look at characters not as people, but as narrative tools the author uses to say something about the story's themes then Bohman has a lot to say about VRAINS cyberpunk themes.

Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction that tends to focus on "low-life and high-tech." As I like to put it, in Cyberpunk settings technology has greatly advanced while society itself lags behind unable to keep pace with the rate at which technology changes. Yu Gi Oh 5Ds is an example of a cyberpunk dystopia because despite having what is essentially access to free energy, and living in a society with highly advanced technology resources are hoarded by the wealthy and an unnecessary social class divide still exists.

In other words technology changes quickly while humans tend to remain the same.

The central conflict for all three seasons of Vrains are actually based on this very cyberpunk notion. That technology changes, updates, and becomes obsolete at a rate too fast for humans to ever adapt to. For Vrains, the conflict is whether humans can ever coexist with an artificial intelligence they created that can grow and change faster than they can keep up with.

This is well-tread ground in science fiction. The idea itself most likely emerged from I,robot. A science fiction book that is a collection of dirty stories that details a fictional history showing robots growing slowly advanced over time. The framing device is that a journalist is interviewing a "robopsychologist" an expert in the field of analyzing how robots think in their positronic brains.

One of the major themes of the book is despite the fact that robots are 1 - intelligent and 2 - designed by humans, they don't think the same way humans do. Hence why a robopsychologist is needed in the first place. One of the short stories is the first appearance of Asimov's three laws of robotics.

The First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

The Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

The Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

This is just one example. A robot no matter how intelligent it is will be required to think in terms of these three laws, because robots aren't biological, they're programmed to think in pre-determined patterns.

Of course clever enough artificial intelligences are capable of finding loopholes that get around the three laws, but even then they're still forced to think of every action in terms of the three laws.

Robots and humans are both intelligent, but if AI ever becomes self aware it will 1) be able to process information better than any other human can and 2) think differently from humans on a fundamental.

Vrains is themed more than anything else around "robo psychology" or trying to understand the ways in how the Ignis think and how that's different from it's human characters.

Robo-Psychology is actually a common reocurring theme. "DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?" fearless artificial humans known as Replicants who need an empathy test known as the voight kampff test to distinguish them from human beings.

There are other Cyberpunk elements in Vrains. There's a big virtual world where everyone can appear as custom designed avatars, that's taken from Snow Crash or of the most famous and genre defining cyberpunk novels. There's a big rich mega conglomerate that's being opposed by a group of hackers.

However, the central question is whether humans and AI can coexist in spite of the fact that AI are much smarter and evolve faster than us.

Revolver's father believes the Ignis must be destroyed in order to avoid a possible technological singularity in the future.

The technological singularity—or simply the singularity[1]—is a future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable. According to the most popular version of the singularity hypothesis an upgradable artificial intelligence will eventually enter a positive feedback loop of self-improvement cycles, each new and more intelligent generation appearing more and more rapidly, causing a rapid increase ("explosion") in intelligence that surpasses anything humans can make.

Basically your computer is smarter than you, but your computer isn't self aware. It needs you to tell it what to do. Artificial intelligence already exists but it's programmed by humans, it doesn't program itself. The technological singularity proposes that eventually a self aware ai, will be able to program itself and improve upon it's own programming- therefore ridding itself of the need of it's human programmers.

This is what leads us to Bohman, an AI designed by another AI.

THE THIRD LAW

Before digging into Bohman let's take a minute to discuss his creator. Lightning was one of the six Ignis, created by Dr. Kogami through the Hanoi Project.

The Hanoi project involved forcing six children to duel in a virtual arena repeatedly, and using the data collected from that experiment to improve the AI they were working on, creating what became known as the Ignis. However, after Dr. Kogami ran several simulations and found that the Ignis would one day be a threat to the humans that created them Hakase decided instead to try destroying the Ignis before that future ever came to pass.

We later learn that this isn't the complete story.

Kogami and Lightning both ran simulations of the future when the Ignis were in their infancy. Kogami's simulations showed him the Ignis would inevitably go to war with humans. Lighting however, ran more in-depth simulations and found that he was the one that was corrupting the data set. If you ran simulations of the five ignis without him, then the projected futures were all in the green, but any simulation with Lightning counted as a part of the group projected a negative future for both humans and AI.

Which means that if Kogami knew that the bug in the program was Lightning, he'd likely respond by just getting rid of Lighting and letting the rest of the Ignis live on as originally intended.

This is where the third law comes into play - a robot must protect its own existence as long as it does not interfere with the first and second law.

Now, I don't think Kogami used the three laws exactly, but artificial intelligences are programmed in certain ways, and Lightning was likely programmed to preserve itself.

Even a human in Lighting's situation would be driven to act as they did. Imagine you're in a group of six people, and you fid out that YOU'RE THE PROBLEM. That if they removed you, everything else would be fine. Wouldn't you be afraid of your creator turning against you? Of your friends turning against you and nobody taking your side?

Lightning is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ai asks him at one point why he went so far as to destroy their safe-haven, lie and said the humans did it and pick a fight with the humans himself, something that might have been avoided if they'd just stayed in hiding. It seems that Lightning is just defective as his creator declared him, but you have to remember he's an AI programmed to think in absolutes. AI, the most humanlike and spontaneous of the AIs ends up making nearly the exact same choices as Lightning when looking at his simulations later on - because they're character foils. As different as they may seem they still think differently from humans.

When Ai explains why he made his decisions based around lighting's simulation, he tells Playmaker that he can't dismiss or ignore the simulation or hope for the best the way Playmaker can because he is data, he thinks in simulations and processes.

AI even admits to feeling the same feelings of self-preservation that Lightning did.

While Lightning may seem selfish, he's selfish in the fact that he's thinking of his own survival above all else. He's afraid of 1) his creators turning against him, and 2) his fellow Ignis turning against him.

To solve the first he decides to make a plan to wipe out his creators. To solve the second, he needs every ignis on his side when he goes to war. The first thing he does is destroy their safe haven and frame the humans for it so the Ignis are more inclined to take his side. He's so afraid of his fellow ignis turning against him he even completely reprograms one of them - a step he doesn't take with the others, he just imprisons Aqua. He probably thought having one more ally would make it more likely for the others to pick his side.

Every step he takes is a roundabout way of ensuring his survival and the other ignis- eve when he actually goes to war with the other ignis he intended on letting them survive. Though his definition of survival (fusing with Bohman) was different than theirs.

So Lightning seems to be working out of an inferiority complex, but what he's really afraid of is that his inferiority makes him expendable.

At that point you have to wonder, what does death mean exactly to a being who is otherwise immortal? Ignis won't die of age, they'll only die if they're captured and have their data stripped apart or corrupted. Kogami made an immortal being afraid to die.

Some part of me thinks though that even after taking all these steps to preserve themselves, the simulations were so convincing that Lighting accepted their death as inevitable. Which is why they made Bohman, to find some way for them to keep on living afterwards.

After all AI are data, ad having their data saved in Bohman is still a form of living by Lightning's definition.

Ghost in The Shell

Bohman is the singularity. He's an AI designed by another AI to improve upon itself. Unlike the rest of the Ignis who were copied off of traumatized chidlren, Lightning basically made him from scratch.

Ghost in the Sell is a famous anime cyberpunk movie directed by Mamoru Oshii. The title comes from "Ghost in the Machine" a term originally used to describe and critique the mind existing alongside and separate from the body. Whereas in the movie the "Ghost" is the huma consciousness, while the "shell" is a cybernetic body.

The protagonist of Ghost in the Shell is Major Motoko Kusanagi, a human that is 99% cyborg at this point, a human brain residing in a completely mechanical body. The movie opens up with a hacker namd PUppet Master who is capable of "ghost-hacking" which is a form of hacking that completely modifies the victim's memories utterly convincing them of their false memories.

There's a famous scene in the movie where a man tells the police about his wife and daughter, only to be told that he's a bachelor who lives alone and he's never had a wife and daughter. Even after the truth is revealed to him, the fake memories are still there in his brain along with the correct ones. Technology is so advanced at this point that digital memories (hacked memories) are able to be manipulated, and seem more real than an analog reality.

Anyway, guess what happens to Bohman twice?

Bohman gets his memories completely rewritten twice. The first time he believes he's a person looking for his lost memories, the second time he thinks he's the real playmaker ripped out of his body, and playmaker is the copy. He's utterly convinced of these realities both time, because Bohman is entirely digital - and simulations are reality, and so simulated memories are just the same as real memories.

I think part of the reason that people find Bohman boring is because he's a little strange conceptually to wrap your head around, as an AI produced AI he's the farthest from behind human. If you use the ghost in the shell example I just gave you though - imagine being utterly convinced that you had a loving wife and daughter only to find out in a police interrogation room you're a single man living in a shitty apartment. imagine after the fact you still remember that they are real, even though you know they're not.

That's the weird space Bohman exists in for most of Season 2 when he's searching for himself. He's an AI designed by an AI so he can be rewritten at any time according to Lightning's whim until Lighting decides he's done cooking.

The Ignis at least interacted with the real world because they were copy pasted from traumatized children, but all Bohman is is data. So, why would he see absorbing human memories into himself and converting them into data as killing them? He is data after all, and he is alive. He has gone through the process of having his own memories rewritten multiple times, and he's fine with it b/c he's data.

Nothing for Bohman is real, everything is programmed so of course he thinks saving other people as data is just fine. He even offers to do the same thing to Playmaker that was done to him.

If Lightning is following the path of self-preservation however, Bohman is following his program to preserve everything in the world by merging with it.

His ideas also follow the idea of transhumanism: the theory that science and technology can help human beings develop beyod what is physically and mentally possible. That technology exists to blur the boundaries of humanity, and what humans are capable of.

Ghost in the Shell isn't just a work of cyberpunk, it's a transhumanist piece. Motoko Kusanagi is a character who has had so many of her human parts replaced with mechanical ones she even posits at one point it's possible for her to simply have been an android that was tricked into thinking it was human with false memories just like Bohman, and she has no real way of knowing for sure. The only biological part of her his her brain after all in a cold mechanical shell.

Bato, who represents the humanist perspective in this movie basically tells Motoko in that scenario it wouldn't matter if she was a machine. If everyone still treats her as human then what's the difference? His views are probably the closest to the humanist views that Playmaker represents in VRAINS.

Motoko Kusanagi meets her complete and total opposite, a ghost in the machine so to speak. The Puppet Master turns out to be an artificial intelligence that has become completely self-aware and is currently living in the network.

The Puppet Master much like Lightning, and later Bohman is gripping with the philosophical conundrum of mortality. In the final scene of the movie, The Puppet Master who wants to be more like all other biological matter on earth asks Motoko to fuse with him, so the two of them can reproduce and create something entirely new. The Puppet Master likens this to the way that biological beings reproduce.

Bohman like The Puppetmaster thinks that merging will fix something that's incomplete inside of him because he's so disconnected from all the biological processes of life. Bohman doesn't have anything except for which Lightning already prepared for him or programmed into him. I mean imagine being a being that can have his memories reprogrammed on the net, that in itself is existentially horrifying. It's only natural he wouldn't feel connected to anything.

Motoko accepts the Puppetmaster's proposal. Playmaker rejects Bohman's proposal. I don't think there's a right answer here, because it's speculative fiction, it's a "What if?" for two different paths people can take in the future.

However, in Bohman's case I don't think he was truly doing what he wanted. Puppet Master became self aware and sought his own answers by breaking free from his programming. Bohman thought he was superior to the Ignis, but in the end he was just following what Lightning programmed him to do. He'd had his identity programmed and reprogrammed so many times, he didn't think of what he wanted until he was on the brink of defeat by playmaker and then it was too late.

When Playmaker defeats him all he thinks about is time spent together with Haru, with the two of them as individuals. Something he can no longer do anymore now that he's absorbed Haru as data, and something that he misses.

He's not even all that sad or horrified at the prospect of death as Lightning was, and he even finds solace in the thought of going to oblivion with Haru, because if he were to keep living it'd be without Haru. In other words the one genuine bond he made with someone else by spending time with them as an individual was more important than his objective of fusing with all of humanity - which he believed was also bonding with them.

This is really important too, because it sets up the Yusaku's rejection of fusing with Ai. Yusaku's reasoning has already been demonstrated to be the case with Bohman and Haru. Bohman was perfectly happy being two individuals, as long as he had a bond with his brother. When he ascended into a higher being he lost that. Ai and Yusaku might solve loneliness in a way by merging together into a higher being, they might even last forever that way, but they'd lose something too.

Once again the problem with AIs is that they think in absolutes. That's important to understanding Lightning, Bohman and even Ai's later actions. Lightning can't stand any percentage chance that he might die, so he kills the professor, destroys the ignis homeworld, pulls the trigger to start humanity himself, he even reprograms his own allies all to give himself some sense of control.

Bohman's entire existence is outside of his control. He's rewritten twice onscreen, probably more than that, and he thinks merging with humanity is the thing that will give him that control - by ascending into a higher being than humanity. However, the temporary bond Bohman had with his brother Haru, was actually what he valued the most all along. Moreso than the idea of fusing with humanity forever.

Even Motoko making the choice to go with the transhumanist option is something that's not portrayed as 100% the right choice. Ghost in the Shell has a sequel that portrays the depression and isolation of Bato, the Major's closest friend and attachment to her humanity after she made the decision to fuse together with Puppet Master. In that case, just like Playmaker said to Ai, even if she ascended to a higher form, and even if she might last forever now on the network, something precious was lost. Motoko may exist somewhere on the netowrk but for Batoto his friend is gone.

Ai exhibits the same flaw as the previous two, he ca only think in absolutes, he can't stand even a 1% chance that Playmaker might choose to sacrifice himself for Ai and die, so he decides to take the choice entirely out of Playmaker's hands. However, no matter what Ai would have lost Playmaker one day, because all bonds are temporary. It's just Ai wanted to have that sense of control, so he chose to self-destruct and take that agency and free choice away from Playmaker.

It's a tragedy that repeats three times. Ai too just like Bohman, spends his last moments thinking about what was most precious to him was the bond he formed with playmaker, as temporary as it was. A tragedy that arises from the inability of the Ais to break away from the way they're programmed to think in simulations and data, even when they're shown to be capable of forming bonds based on empathy with others.

All three of them add something to the themes of artificial intelligence, and transhumanism that are in play at Vrains and none of them are boring because they all contribute to the whole.

Which is why everyone needs to stop being mean to Bohman right now, or else I'm going to make an even longer essay post defending him.

#yu gi oh vrains #yu gi oh #playmaker #ai #yusaku fujiki #bohman #lightning #ignis #ygo meta

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bambi-kinos · 4 months

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loved ur recent post on paul whump !! besides the linked one(which I've never read so thanks!) do you have👀👀 any recommendations👀👀👀👀

tl;dr - it's slim pickins out there.

First let's bring back an old differentiation: there's physical whump and then emotional whump, and that was an important distinction back in the day. I have looked for both and while there are some good emotional whump pieces, there is no readable physical whump besides the su!c!d3 fic. Physical whump is more of an action movie thing and in general Beatles fandom is not terribly interested in action and adventure so they don't write it. And the thing is, that's fine, that's a valid choice that anyone can make and we should write about the things we enjoy and not what we think others expect. But it also means that Paul whump fics basically don't exist in modern fandom as we know it. There are probably some on LJ or in the Google Docs McLennon archive since Stargate and Smallville were so big on LJ at the time and there was more x-fandom pollination but I don't want to Snipe hunt right now.

(For the record, I do have something in the works to fix this hole but it won't come out until next year if we're lucky.)

Emotional whump is more plentiful and there's well written stuff out there for sure. Most of the emotional whump I've enjoyed is centered around John's suffering and while Paul's misery is apparent it's not the focus of those pieces. So this took some digging into my bookmarks and memory. What I like in a good Paul whump fic is how his own arrogance and narcissist tendencies come back to bite him OR he's having to put up with John's shit when John is being horrible.

In that spirit, here are my recommendations for decent emotional whump focused on Paul:

Barcelona - Selena. I enjoy this one because Selena let's Paul be a whole person here. It's not just John and Brian bothering him, it's the fact that he's trapped with someone who reminds him of what he's lacking and how this hurts him, both now and in the past. Parallels to the Barcelona situation are subtle and well drawn so you get all of the agony without being hit over the head with it. John is opaque to Paul who doesn't understand why he's acting like this which is a nice change from what we often see in fanfic where John just blurts out what he's feeling. Here we see how much Paul suffers when John is trying too hard to be clever.

A Hole in the World - RosalindBeatrice. Linda bears witness to the aftermath of John's murder in Paul. Easily the absolute best fanfiction on this list.

Birthday - Selene. Love this one because Selene writes Paul as an actual character instead of the heteronormative girly thing he often gets slapped with. Paul is once again bitter, angry and unhappy because the boy he fell in love with has already disappeared. He is forced to be the adult in a room full of manchildren and he hates it...but he also sucks it up and does it anyway. Because he is Paul McCartney and being the foundation of The Beatles and cleaning up John's messes is exactly what he signed up for and he will do it because no one else can. I think of this one all the time. It lives rent free in my head.

Red Sky - thinkpink20. What I appreciate about thinkpink20 is that she is brave enough to let John be absolutely awful but she also humanizes him so you can see his inner pain and confusion driving that horribleness. This is a nice one where John is no where near to figuring himself out but Paul is, and then when Stuart's living shadow gets into the mix, no one is happy.

From Barcelona To Santa Cruz - thinkpink20. Another post-Spain fic but this time John articulates his defense well which of course humiliates and angers Paul even further because John proves he is human and capable of empathy, which Paul didn't want to write into the equation.

the crane wife - mynamesbetty. Betty was showing me the first drafts of this one and all I could say was: "Paul is a horrible person. He's a fucking homewrecker. He deserves this." That's what I like best about this story. Paul is a selfish asshole and he hurts everyone and himself by being self centered, petulant, and cowardly. Every single awful thing that happens to him is strictly the result of his own actions. He manages to make himself the Coyote in a Looney Tunes cartoon including the bit where he runs straight off the cliff, doesn't realize it, and then looks down just as he starts falling before he shoots the viewer a look asking for help. And then the ACME anvil falls on him.

So those are my recommendations on Paul whump. It ended up being a longer list than I expected so that's something. Hope you enjoy the recommendations and please check out the other fanfics by these authors, they're all great.

#the beatles #paul mccartney #mclennon #fanfiction #fanfiction recommendation #fanfiction rec list #fanfic rec #paul whump

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teecupangel · 8 months

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Just got thrown for a nostalgia loop and had an idea: AC x Lunar Chronicles. I don’t even know where my brain is going with this but it would be so cool.

In my brain, the obvious thing would be that the Templars are Lunars since the whole mind control deelio fits their vibe but what if Desmond was like half Lunar. And/Or what if Desmond was a cyborg? And the ancestors are actual memories uploaded into robots?

Or what if Desmond just gets transported into the Lunar Chronicles universe and, because of Isu DNA, he’s immune to Lunar Glamour without being a Shell.

Or or, he gets transported there as a Lunar child but with all the memories of original Desmond and has to figure out what the fuck is Glamour and how to use it.

My initial idea would be the Lunars are an evolution of the Isus who left Earth before the Solar Flare (or didn’t go to Earth in the first place) but turning them into the Templar equivalent in this setup would be a nice change (since I did turn the people of the Moon in the Sailor Moon AU into Isus already XD).

So for this one, the Templars had long ‘converted’ the Lunars into their ideology but it becomes wrapped by the feeling of superiority the Lunars easily find thanks to their capabilities for mind control. The idea of ‘Total Control will Bring Absolute Peace’ that the Templars have been trying to push forward will be lost in the process thanks to the selfishness being brought out by the total power the Lunars have on people.

In this situation, Winter isn’t the epitome of what the Templar wanted because she refused to use her ‘gift’ but she would mistake the Templar’s cause to something like “Order is necessary to bring peace”.

Of course, we’ll set Desmond up in this world as a scifi fairy tale character. My initial idea was to turn her to the transmigrated equivalent of Wizard of Oz where he awakens as the only child of a Lunar family that isn’t really high up there in the hierarchy to be considered a ‘danger’ to the politics of Lunars but high enough that he would be raised with a semi-silver spoon.

Of course, we picked Wizard of Oz (and ignore the fact that it’s technically not one of the classic fairy tales) because this gives us the chance to give Desmond his ancestors:

The Scarecrow

The Tinman

The Lion

The Lion is Ratonhnhaké:ton, a human captured to become a slave of Desmond’s family. Of course, Desmond says no to this and they only pretend to be master and slave while trying to find Ratonhnhaké:ton’s tribe who had gone into hiding after their settlement had been attacked. Ratonhnhaké:ton wants to find his people who were also captured like him and Desmond usually helps him either by buying them when security is too tight or by finding ways to help Ratonhnhaké:ton break them out as quietly as possible.

The Tinman is Ezio who is an android that was gifted to Desmond when he was a baby, to be both his companion and his guard. He’s pretty much Desmond’s butler and minder and gets roped into Desmond and Ratonhnhaké:ton’s plans because he has to make sure Desmond is safe and won’t get into trouble. He acts more like an older brother to Desmond and Ratonhnhaké:ton most of the time but he is also bound to report everything Desmond does to his parents thanks to a chip that has been installed into him.

The Scarecrow is Altaïr and we have two option: Earthean or Lunar. Regardless of which one he is, his main problem is that he wants to receive the recognition he deserves for his works in a scholarly field (Quantum physics? Idk, something connected to how Desmond got transmigrated to this world). His work has been taken by an older more influential Lunar either because (if he’s an Earthean) he’s an Earthean and his peers think he’s lower than them or (if he’s a Lunar) he’s from a fallen Lunar family who perhaps helped slaves run away and has been stripped of their ranks. Regardless, Desmond becomes more or less his financial backer because Desmond believes that Altaïr might be able to figure out how to get Desmond back to his world (or, at the very least, let him get into contact with them).

Now, here’s the fun part. Does Desmond remember them as his ancestors?

It would be fun if he does and would give Desmond a reason to trust them as soon as he meets them.

An alternative would be that Desmond’s memories of them (aka: his time in the Animus) is blank. Only his memories as Desmond Miles are vivid. He knows he used the Animus to get stronger but he doesn’t remember what he saw in the Animus.

Another alternative is that he starts to remember them only after meeting them or after his relationship with them is at the point where they trust each other.

Regardless of which it is, the main point is that the three does not remember their past lives (or, Altaïr’s theory, their alternate life) but their personality are quite similar to what Desmond is used to.

To hammer in the Wizard of Oz setting, the courage that Ratonhnhaké:ton is meant to receive is finally understanding the difference between being courageous and being reckless. Ezio’s ‘heart’ is the character development he would have as he become more and more like Desmond and Ratonhnhaké:ton’s older brother. Altaïr’s ‘brain’ is the recognition for his works. Desmond is modeled as both Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz as he meets them and grants them their wish. Toto the dog is gonna be an android corgi dog named Des.

Desmond’s parents are actually Glinda (Minerva) and the Wicked Witch of the West (Juno). Minerva believes that letting Desmond do what he wants will make him understand his place in their world. Juno helps in the background while trying to nudge Desmond into understanding his place as a Lunar (and maybe she’s planning a coup to become the most powerful Lunar, who knows? That’s like plot D in this one)

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imtrashraccoon · 1 year

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Nomadic Love: G x Reader

~~~

The sun glinted off the clear ocean waves as they lapped at the sandy shoreline before receding back into their bed. While the world was picturesque today, there were no beachgoers, which made sense as you could feel a slight nip in the air.

You breathed deeply the crisp morning air and with a sigh, realized that Summer was over. The days would only get shorter and colder until Winter finally arrived and the world fell asleep. You didn't mind the season change, but as far back as you could remember, Summer was special.

You used to spend the whole season here in this little seaside town at your grandparent's cottage. While you weren't able to visit as often as you grew older, you still cherished all the memories you'd made with them. When your grandparents decided to move to be closer to the rest of the family, you were surprised when they offered their old cottage to you. Of course you'd agreed to take the house since you loved it so much, but not without buying it off of them for a fair price.

Now, you spent your days taking long walks along the beach or even enjoying the surf when the weather was good. You were in a good position in life where you made enough money to get by but didn't really have to worry about going hungry.

You absentmindedly hummed a tune to yourself as you continued to walk down the beach, occasionally looking for anything interesting that the waves might've brought in. At one point you glanced up and spotted a tall, slim guy standing a hundred meters off just staring out at the sea. At first, you thought they might be a local out here for similar reasons as you, to say goodbye to another Summer.

As you drew closer, you could make out more of the person's features and your heart skipped a beat. There was only one man you knew who wore a gray parka all the time, even when it was hot out. But, you hadn't seen him for weeks and thought he'd left already to go...well, you didn't know where but he traveled around so much, it was a miracle for him to stay in one place this long.

It seemed like he hadn't noticed you just yet and you hesitated for a moment since you didn't want to interrupt anything. He seemed contemplative and had his hands in his pockets as he stared out at the sea. Surprisingly, he wasn't smoking for once and while you'd never understand how he was even capable of doing so, you were glad that he seemed to be conscious about leaving cigarette butts laying around, unlike most tourists that came here.

G, as he'd introduced himself as when you two met years ago, was probably the most fascinating person you'd ever met. Part of that was the simple fact that he wasn't human but an actual live skeleton. You never thought you would get over that fact as long as you lived, but he pretty much acted like any other person and it was easy to talk with him. He described himself as a free spirit and claimed to live a sort of nomadic lifestyle. He could be in a different city every night if he wanted to and often was.

Yet for the past five years, he'd come back to your little town for a visit each Summer. He never stayed for long and never seemed to come at the same time whenever he did. It was puzzling to say the least.

This town wasn't anything special, sure a couple of tourists came in the warm months which helped boost the economy, but there were certainly far nicer places to go if you wanted to enjoy the ocean. Still, you were glad to see him again and decided to actually go talk to him rather than just watching from a distance.

"Hey stranger!" you called out as you drew closer.

G looked over at you and the corners of his teeth quirked up as he smiled slightly. "hey sweet cheeks..." he responded warmly. "you just out for a walk?"

You nodded, "Yeah, although it made me realize Summer's finally over, which I'm only a little sad about not gonna lie."

G chuckled softly and glanced back out at the ocean for a moment. "yeah, i feel you there, but there's nice things about every season and i'd be lying if i said i liked one more than the others."

You chuckled as well and playfully elbowed him. "I don't think you dislike anything, G. In fact, I can't remember ever seeing you genuinely upset about anything. Seriously, how are you so chill all the time?"

He looked back at you and his singular yellow eyelight seemed to flicker with amusement. "nah, i do dislike things, but most of 'em aren't worth getting angry about, you know?"

You raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh really? Give me an example then. What's one thing you actually dislike?"

G seemed to grow thoughtful for a moment before responding. "besides actually committing to something? i guess i really don't like crowded places." He chuckled quietly and added, "cause people can't help but stare and mothers always pull their kids away whenever i walk by."

You nodded slowly. It made sense he'd dislike all the unwanted extra attention he must get on a daily basis. You almost felt a bit bad since you'd asked jokingly but he'd given you a serious answer.

"Yeah, I get that. Why do you travel so much then? Doesn't it only draw more attention to yourself?" you asked.

He shrugged, "yeah, it does, but i don't hang around anywhere for long, so it doesn't ultimately matter to me what people think. besides, i follow my soul and it keeps life interesting to travel so much."

"Must be nice to have that much freedom," you mused thoughtfully. "I get tired just thinking about the amount of travel you must do all the time. Seriously, how do you do it?"

"i'm a skeleton, angel. i'm quite literally built different and it's just something i enjoy doing." G grinned playfully at you, "have you ever been to paris?"

You laughed and shook your head, "No, never, and you have I suppose?"

G nodded, "yep, but i won't be going back anytime soon. sure there's some nice sights but it's not as spectacular as the movies claim. city of love my foot..." He shook his head at that last part but from his smile you could tell he meant it as a joke.

You gasped dramatically, "No... Hollywood exaggerated something and the real thing isn't all it was chalked up to be? Next, you'll tell me the sky's blue."

G snorted and rolled his eyelight, "that may be, but i think you'd still like paris. being anywhere new for the first time is always fun and besides, the architecture is pretty neat."

"Not all of us can just get up and go whenever we feel like it, G..." you teased. "Although, I think it would be fun to see it someday, but I'm in no hurry, you know? I really like this town and unless that changed, I can't imagine going anywhere else."

"right, you mentioned you spent a lot of time here growing up," G nodded thoughtfully. He paused for a moment and looked out over the ocean again. "i admit i kind of like it here too... it's hard to describe, but i like how quiet it is and how no one seems to mind that i'm here whenever i come by."

You hummed in agreement and sat down on a nearby rock. "I think most people have gotten used to your visits, it's just a part of life for some of them."

G sat down next to you quietly. You could feel him watching you and it seemed like there was something on his mind. He didn't say anything for a few minutes though.

A bit of an uncomfortable silence settled between the two of you. A tumultuous amount of emotions were swirling inside and you really didn't know how to respond to any of them. On one hand, you were legitimately happy to see your friend again, but you also felt a bit hurt. Had he been ignoring you these past several weeks? Had you done something to upset him?

Clearing your throat awkwardly, you decided just to go ahead and ask. "You know, when I didn't see you for a few days, I thought you'd left again... How come you didn't reach out all this time if you were still here?" You couldn't bring yourself to look at him right now for fear that your emotions may get the best of you.

G was quiet for a moment before he answered softly. "i did leave, (y/n)... but, i had to come back...it was like there was something i needed to do..."

Confused, you glanced over at him. In all the time you'd know him, G had never been one to express regret or even hesitate to do anything. So, why was he suddenly acting all unsure of himself?

"Did you need any help?" you asked gently.

G snorted and playfully ruffled your hair, much to your annoyance. "nah, i'm alright, princess. no need to worry yourself over me." Whatever had been bothering him seemed to have vanished and a cheeky smile now graced his skull.

You frowned and attempted to fix your hair but to little success, especially since G kept moving strands of it around just to annoy you further. Finally, you gave up and crossed your arms, fixing him with the most annoyed expression that you could muster.

G only continued to grin at you, acting the very picture of innocence. He seemed to take great satisfaction in riling you up just to see what sort of reaction he could get out of you.

"hey, why don't we go do something fun? i only came back for the day and it'd be a shame to spend it by myself..." G stood up and offered a hand to you.

You sighed and reluctantly took his hand, "Well alright, it would be nice to do something since I only ever see you once a year."

G hoisted you to your feet, "that's the spirit, doll face. i'll show you a good time that you won't regret." Oddly, he kept hold of your hand and began leading you away from the beach, back to the road where he must've walked in from.

~~~

True to his word, G took you out on the town. While you knew most of the people and frequented many of the businesses regularly, he still managed to get you to have fun. Maybe it was his natural charisma and casual teasing, but it was easy to enjoy spending time with him.

Even some of the locals who kept to themselves all the time seemed to brighten when G was around. He really could just about brighten anyone's day with a joke or a compliment. Although maybe it was partially because he was a skeleton and so people expected him to act differently.

You had lunch together at the local burger joint and when it came time to pay, you discovered that G had already done so. You felt a little awkward about that but also grateful since you hadn't been expecting him to do so.

After that, you mostly perused some of the store fronts on the main street as you walked together. Although neither of you actually bought anything and mostly just pointed interesting things out or made jokes. It was fun and you didn't remember the last time you'd just hung out like this with someone. Maybe during high school? But that was back in the big city and you weren't friends with most of your former classmates anymore.

As it got later in the afternoon, G pulled you aside and guided you into a driveway between two buildings. "hey, i just got an idea on where we should go next," he said.

You raised an eyebrow questioningly and asked, "Oh? Where's that?"

G grinned and his yellow eyelight seemed to almost twinkle with glee. "it's a surprise, sweetheart... but first, do you trust me?"

"Of course I trust you. What kind of question is that, G?" You were beginning to wonder what he could possibly have in mind now.

G studied you for a moment before chuckling softly. "alright then, i'm gonna need you to hold on to me for a second and not let go until i say to. think you can do that?"

Although you were thoroughly confused, you decided to roll with it and took one of his hands in your own. "Okay, now what?"

G's grin widened slightly and he leaned closer to you to whisper in your ear. "close your eyes as well, alright?"

You could feel yourself flush slightly from how close he was, but nonetheless you did as he asked and closed your eyes.

You heard G chuckle softly again as he wrapped his other arm around your waist and pulled you closer against himself. "keep them closed, kitten..." he whispered.

Before you could respond, you felt a strange sensation spread throughout your body, starting at your fingertips and toes. It made your body feel numb but not quite cold. The world seemed to stand still for the briefest of moments before rushing back at full force.

"alright, you can look now..." G murmured and loosened his hold on you slightly.

When you opened your eyes, the world around you had shifted entirely. Where you'd previously been standing in town, surrounded by two story building on each side, now you stood in the midst of a small field of wildflowers. There was yellow goldenrod, pink thistle, blue chicory, purple clover, white queen anne's lace, and many more that you didn't know the names of. Above you was a large maple tree, the leaves of which, were just starting to turn red. And above everything else, you could hear the sounds of distant ocean waves crashing on rocks not far away.

"Woah... How did you...?"

G grinned at your dumbfounded expression. "i used a shortcut," he answered, the gleeful twinkle still flickering in his gaze.

You huffed, "That doesn't even make sense. There isn't anywhere in town that looks like this. It's like you teleported us here or something..."

"shortcut, but i suppose you could refer to it as teleporting. the concept you're probably familiar with is similar enough anyways."

"But how did you...?" You gestured around with your free hand before adding, "...'shortcut' us here?"

"well i found this little place a while back, so i just used magic to basically step through space and bring us here."

"Oh... That sounds incredibly handy and also really cool!"

"yep, it makes getting around a bit easier and i can technically go anywhere i want, provided i'm already familiar with it of course." G stepped back from you but he kept hold of your hand as he led you over to the maple tree.

"Won't be long and all these flowers will be gone," you murmured as you glanced around. "They're really pretty though."

"yeah, when i found this place, i immediately thought of you." G paused and glanced around at the meadow before his gaze focused back on you. "do you still remember how we met?"

You blushed and glanced away, "How could I forget? Before I met you, I'd never considered that skeletons could be alive like you are... Ugh, I'm still embarrassed just thinking about it..."

G laughed, "i'd never seen a human go that pale before. still haven't but some people have come close."

You lightly slapped his shoulder. "Please stop reminding me... It wasn't that funny."

"nah, i'm just messing with you." G seemed unfazed and continued speaking, "unlike most people i've met, you're one of the nicest. you treat me like an actual person and not like a freak. it's like, you seem to get me, you know?"

You smiled at him, "Yeah, I'm glad to call you my friend and every year I look forward to when you're in the area."

G looked at you for a moment before chuckling and shaking his head slightly. He looked up at the branches of the great maple tree stretching overhead and in that moment, you saw a glimmer of the contemplative expression he'd been wearing earlier that morning.

You looked up as well at the afternoon sun filtering through the red leaves. In a way you felt a little sad knowing that Summer was over. It would be another eight or nine months before you'd get to see him again. You'd been through this many times before, so why were you feeling so disappointed that he was leaving again?

"hey, (y/n)?" G asked quietly.

You looked back at him, "Yeah?"

G paused and glanced down at your still joined hands before making eye contact again. He took a deep breath before speaking, "i like spending time with you, it's the reason i keep coming here actually. i've told you before, but when i travel, i almost never end up in the same place more than once. yet i constantly find myself coming back here to this tiny place."

He frowned slightly and added, "it took me this long to figure out, but i feel a connection with you, (y/n), and that's why i came back today."

You stared at him while trying to process what he'd said. As long as you'd known him, he'd been very up front with you about his commitment issues, in fact he'd even offhandedly mentioned it this morning. Besides his nomadic lifestyle, G had never seemed to be one interested in any sort of relationship with anyone. Maybe part of that was because he had a hard time actually connecting with anyone, being the only living skeleton in a world of humans.

"What do you mean by 'a connection', G?" you asked.

G chuckled, "ah, sorry, i forget sometimes that humans aren't generally familiar with matters of the soul." He paused for a moment while trying to think of how to explain it. "it's just that - a connection. my soul seems to be compatible with yours and i can't seem to ignore it. but, i understand if you don't feel the same..."

You covered your mouth with your free hand. You were shocked to say the least. He wasn't just messing with you again, right? No, he was acting serious right now and he'd never joked about this sort of thing with you before. Sure, he was a naturally affectionate person but this felt serious, more...real.

"Are you...? Are you saying you want to be more than...friends?" you asked quietly.

G nodded and squeezed your hand gently. "yes, although part of me isn't sure how to move forward... but i want to keep visiting you and i want to get to know you better."

"I'd love that. I...admit that I've had some thoughts over the years, but I never dreamed you would feel the same... It makes me happy..." You smiled, although you could feel a few tears threatening to fall at how happy you felt all of the sudden.

"you don't know how happy hearing that from you makes me feel, (y/n)." G smiled affectionately and softly wiped your tears away with his phalanges.

You nodded and took a deep breath to steady your nerves. "This is a lot to take in... What happens now?" you asked.

"anything we want, angel," G murmured. He moved a little closer and wrapped his arm around your back, pulling you closer against himself.

You wrapped your free arm around his shoulders and hugged him, which he reciprocated and squeezed you gently. You could hardly believe this was happening right now and you were just so happy.

G leaned his skull against your head and hummed softly. After a few minutes, you both pulled away, but stayed in each other's arms and just gazed into each other's eyes.

You broke the silence first and asked, "Will you keep traveling like you have been?"

G hesitated for a moment before slowly nodding. "i think so, but i won't forget about you, (y/n). after all the traveling i've done, i don't think i could just stop all at once. if there really is something special between us, i believe that it will be easier to stay with you than to move on like i always have. or, maybe we'll come up with another solution; i'll do anything to make you happy. maybe you'd even like to come along sometimes?"

"I understand, just promise me you'll write, okay?"

G chuckled and squeezed your hand, "i'll do you one better. i'll make sure to call you whenever i'm able to."

"I'd love that. Just remind me to give you my phone number before you leave if I forget."

"i don't think you would, but I'll remind you, don't worry," G smiled warmly as he spoke.

You both fell silent and just enjoyed holding each other for a few minutes. A sudden gust of wind picked up and sent a cascade of brightly colored leaves billowing around you two.

G let go of your hand and slid his hand behind your head. He tilted his skull questioningly and it took you a split second to realize what he seemed to be wondering. You nodded slightly, granting him permission.

He only hesitated a second. Then, he gently tilted your head and closed the final distance. His teeth met your lips softly and you almost felt a sort of spark pass between you two. It was...magical.

And it was over all too soon. G moved away again and moved his hand to your cheek, stroking it in an affectionate way with his thumb. You opened your eyes again and sighed wistfully.

"I'm not ready for you to go again, G," you whispered.

"i know, but it's not forever, sweetheart. we'll see each other again before you know it and i'll call you as often as i can," he whispered back.

"I'll be waiting for you."

"i know, (y/n)..."

#g!sans #g!sans x reader #reader #undertale #this may or may not be a seasonal vent piece #echotale #oneshot #fluff #first love #fall vibes #raccoons drabbles

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ophiocordyceps · 1 year

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ok i need to know how v2 preserves itself and what kind of being it becomes in a sense, how it changes and what it's able to retain as it saves itself from its decay. ALSO very interested in gabriel's response to it - both like. how he takes the plans it enacts with regard to its study of angels and its transition into a new entity (hope it's not too much but i love these ideas uuwahhhh)

im not yet sure how gabe would react other than it being generally bittersweet !! (unless @presidentbungus has any input there), though he probably wouldnt've been too surprised when it first started studying angels since V2 was just extremely curious all around and initially it just wanted to learn more about them, since that was wayyy before any of end-of-life plans had ever even been relevant. but the whole backup thing is kind of stressful for V2, at least in a 'you need to get this done while you still can' sense. the whole reason phoenix is more of another, separate entity than just V2 resurrected is that I kind of took from the idea of how artificial intelligence works in the mass effect universe, where you can't even transfer an AI to different hardware without fundamentally altering it by virtue of slight variables between different bits of hardware, even when it's presumably identical on the surface, combined with the fact that in my interpretation the Vs computers are neuromorphic and modelled after the human brain and have artificial synapses and everything, so instead it decides to create some sort of esoteric hybrid processor (which takes a lot of trial and error and probably some suspension of disbelief) that'll last for a very, very long time (it's capable of regenerating itself, but puts a lot of strain on the rest of its body's systems, meaning phoenix has to do a lot more frequent upkeep) and then uploading some of it's memories and other archived data to it that it deems important or vital; mostly important events in its life and various bits of info that would otherwise be lost, and then it leaves gabriel the instructions for how to actually swap out the parts and upload the data backup onto it. it really is a sort of bittersweet 'came back wrong' sort of deal because of the inherent differences between iterations, which is something they would need to work out for sure. it's aware that it's a derivative of someone else who it can never truly be, but it doesn't dwell on that because it knows it was created out of it's predecessor's love for it's friend and to make sure someone would be there still with him, it has those memories and has at least part of that connection still.

phoenix is also initially just kind of. off-putting, vaguely. being an angelic machine (or a mechanical angel), it operates at far higher temperatures and its lights are all bleached white and are brighter and trying to output light from any possible place on its body. it's aware that it's not quite the same entity as V2, though it will respond to both that name and it's given designation (PHNX-AM or just phoenix, V2 named it that both to play into the idea of something being reborn from ashes and also riffing off its mechanical nature and angels as messengers). it's generally more hollow and blank seeming at first, though it does start to relearn a few of V2's mannerisms, and as time goes on it eventually begins modifying its body again into something more unique over the course of what would be several lifetimes both for optimization reasons and identity realization reasons. the whole dual nature thing probably messes with gabe for a good while at first, reminding him of things he's lost or left behind

instead of asking whether a doctor has a doctor, we're asking if angels can have guardian angels, basically.

#this is kind of inspired a bit by that one ultkl oc someone posted a while back that was like. a machine made from an angel's corpse #ultrakill #qpr for insane people #phoenix posting #ask #muzzleroars #rev2 #bugriel

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mr-orion · 4 months

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Holy crap I just read that Liar Curse post and I have GOT to know more about Neve

Ehehehehehe!

that tidbit can be read here

I've gone rogue and decided to just info dump. ><

Backstory

Well Neve is dragon hailing from the snowy mountains. Initially an enslaved consort of the Dragon King Biazarld. He only escaped solely because of his inability to produce Biazarld an heir. He was dumped into the mouth of a river, maimed and malnourished from the Kings cruelty.

Hes swept down the river and narrowly survives. Unknowing what to do he keeps following the river, knowing that humans tend to build near them. He finds nothing except the occasional person who claims to want to help him but seeks to take advantage of his beauty. His interactions aren't good as he stumbles upon those wishing to trap him and sell him as a weapon. Even the occasional rogue dragon wishes to claim him.

Eventually he gets down to the gulf and stumbles upon Lezna and Baron having a picnic. Baron, thinking Lezna is the most beautiful mate in the world, doesn't initially see Neve as an object of desire. He does realize Neve does need help. Lezna shares the outlook and takes the initiative into extending the helping hand. (Baron is very scary at this point.)

As Neve regains his health he tries his best to contribute to keeping their mansion clean as repayment. Additionally as exercise he begins to help Baron with architectural endeavors and he realizes he isn't as unapproachable as he looks or all the rumors say he is.

In fact he's very caring towards Neve, nor does he treat him as an object to retain. Baron is very wise when it comes to people and the safety of them. He even encourages Neve to come with him to meet people. Naturally after 5 months he begins to develop a crush on Baron. Out of respect for Lezna he never tries anything.

Lezna actually begins to teach him dragon magic during this period, since he is a rare dragon capable of changing reality. Lezna notices he does have some natural capabilities, though Neve needs guidance in understanding that things have opposite consequences in order to balance out. Additionally, Neve is quite sad to learn he cannot use his wish granting powers on himself or other dragons.

Lezna and Neve are very close, almost immediately. They share a similar social status, they tend to have similar habits, they enjoy teasing Baron. Instant besties. They even become cuddle buddies. Prompting Neve to develop a crush on Lezna first.

Eventually Lezna picks up on Neve's feelings and snidely tells him "Let the best one win Baron's heart." Which is absolutely perplexing to Neve as he doesn't want to take Baron from Lezna. He simply responds with "Why does it need to be a competition? I do want him, and I want you. More than Baron. I would never try to take him from you. He loves you more than anything. Trust him..."

That's the cascade into polyamory for Lezna and Baron who talk it over. Really talk it over, it's a 3 month conversation. Baron is hesitant, feeling he's robbing Neve of a real choice in love because he's kept him here while Lezna is adamant that it is whats right for them an Neve. Baron doesn't immediately hop on board despite wanting Neve. It takes Lezna tipping over the line and allowing Neve to seduce him before Baron gets it through his head that Neve is autonomous and can make decisions for himself.

Neve actually doesn't mind their indecisiveness on it. It makes him feel like a romance novel character and he lives for the attention. Plus he's getting constant tea from Lezna. The only thing that annoys him is that Baron is on board but not willing to take the step because he perceives Neve as weak still.

Personality

Neve is a bit jaded. Very troublesome too, he's a troublemaker. He is also very flirty. He will flirt with and flatter people all day because he adores the addoration and being able to get whatever he wants from them.

Of course, if you simply adore Neve without any prompting this man will love that. Needless to say, being mean or rude to Neve will not fly over well. He has a really good temperament for handling bullshit and can honestly take a lot of it. His punishments tend to be passive aggressive and reflective of how much he has been personally offended.

If he believes you need a physical beating he will ask Baron to beat you up. And Baron will, with pleasure. Neve's usually the buffer keeping Baron from acting out physically, so if you hurt Neve enough for Neve to ask him to hurt you, you are in for the most brutal maiming.

He tries to avoid fraternizing with the mortals, as all they want is to be in good graces with him so he will grant them a wish. Or alternatively to hurt him.

There is one mortal he simply adores though, Mzamaki! A young merman part of his husband, Elliot's, guild. Neve can tell he is favored by fate and luck. Additionally he is super cute when he's flattered, he gets all tongue tied and scared. That's so funny!

Sometimes Neve will flirt with Mzamaki in front of Baron since they kind of beef sometimes. It absolutely turns Mzamaki into a terrified mess. Even Baron asks for Neve to have mercy on his frenemy.

Mzamaki is definitely Neve's little purse dog.

Ironically, his flirting and passive aggressiveness is way toned down for his spouses. His expressions are much more genuine.

#my ocs #ocs #mr orion neve #oc rambling #writing #oc rambles

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internetgiraffekid1673 · 5 months

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Who's your fave oc at the moment?? Tell me about them!

Hoo boy, here we go. Get ready for BACKSTORY!

The short answer is a pair of girls named CJ and Ren otherwise known as Cleric and Watchdog who are college students in a universe with superheroes and started freelancing for those superheroes as a way to make some extra cash. Have a picture of both their regular identities and their alter egos. Designs are still being workshopped. Also, I've been experimenting with different pens on my drawing app, so the artstyle'a a bit all over the place. I'm also bad at character proportions, but their heights are closest to correct in the alter ego picture.

The long answer? Is long. So I'll put it below a cut. :)

So, I have OCs for specific fandoms, but my current favorite OCs aren't actually attached to anything. They just live in a generic superhero verse that could honestly be anything from DC to Powerpuff girls. It wouldn't change much, but I do have some light worldbuilding around the city they live in.

Chorustown is your pretty par for the course comic book city with superheroes and supervillains and a new upstart team of anti-heroes that are basically violent robin hood (steal from the rich, give to the poor). Suffice it to say that whenever all these factions fight each other, it breaks shit, so renter's insurance ain't cheap. Also, suffice it to say that the heroes involved are constantly getting injured, as well as needing information on the ever-shifting threats.

Enter our protagonists: Serenity "Ren" Summers and Cory "CJ" Jack are a pair of college students with a lot of skills and not a lot of money, who are willing to do some questionable shit for income! Also, they're childhood besties turned girlfriends.

During their sophomore year, CJ and Ren realized that while nobody in the civilian sphere would be willing to hire undergrads and actually PAY them, superheroes must have much more limited options, what with the need to keep their identities secret and not have people ask questions. This is also a 'verse where superheroes aren't on great terms with regular law enforcement, so getting caught doing something illegal, even if it helps a lot of people, is a very real threat. It leaves superheroes without a whole lot of options when they need an expert for something in their superhero work. And CJ and Ren both happen to be notable experts.

Ren is an engineering major with a split focus in software and mechanical engineering, as well as some dabbling into social engineering. She's got tech chops and computer knowledge out the wazoo. She's also lived in Chorustown her whole life and knows the city like the back of her hand. Throw in the fact that she's an avid artist who spent (and still does spend) a lot of time sneaking around to make graffiti murals, and you have someone who is basically a surveillance GOD. She can hack anything she wants, follow people around without them ever noticing, and she's capable of designing tech like trackers and bugs (and posseses the skill to plant those). Ren is also a habitually nosy person who has always kept track of significant going ons, for superheroes and villains, major political players, celebrities, and her personal life. She is so uniquely qualified to gather information on people that it isn't even funny. And it goes both ways. She can help someone hide from surveillance just as easily as she can snoop out a hider because she knows exactly where nobody will look.

CJ is a very, very talented med student. She's been into medicine and biology her whole life, with a particular interest in the physiological differences between superheroes and regular people. This includes aliens, animal based powers, meta-humans, mutants---you name it, and she's probably hyperfixated on its biology for at least a month and retained that information. This means she's also dabbled in a lot of other weird disciplines like vet med and astrobiology (which would absolutely be a scientific discipline in a universe where aliens invade on a monthly basis). Add in her medical skills and her technologically inclined girlfriend, and she's got the skills and the tools to treat anything from a bloody nose to a broken appendage to a physiologically based power defect to a species specific disease for just about anybody.

The two of them decided that if they can't get stable income like normal people, they'll get it from superheroes, who will be forced to come to them because there are no other options! But obviously, they can't just publicly be helping out superheroes. That puts soooo many targets on their backs. They'd have villains, law enforcement, and even other superheroes after them (CJ and Ren don't really make a distinction between heroes and anti-heroes; as long as you're helping people, they're chill with you. That would make the more self-righteous folks of both categories pretty pissed to know that their confidants were helping people on the other side of the debate). So they'll need alter egos, and they'll need to be secretive about their base of operations.

And thus, Watchdog and Cleric were born! But the thing is, these two are REALLY paranoid about getting caught because they don't have supet powers to protect themselves from villains or even social power to protect themselves from the legal system. Remember, these two are broke undergrads who lowkey stole all their equipment from their university (it's technically all available for student use, but not in the quantities or for the purposes they use it for).

So they have a lot of fun measures in place. First off, you probably noticed, but their costumes cover their whole bodies and faces and are loose enough on their frames that you can't really tell anything about their body types beyond their height. Secondly, they're both utilizing voice filters that both pitch their voices low enough to sound like dudes and make them sound somewhat robotic so their tone doesn't come through. The settings on the filter can be adjusted as needed (CJ can turn off the tone modulator if she needs to sound soothing, or Ren can change the pitch if she needs to sound a specific age or gender as a distraction). So nobody knows what they look like or what they sound like, and most people assume they're men. Thirdly, Ren has designed some gadgets that disable trackers or bugs planted on their person. Nobody can follow them either.

Their biggest security measure, though, was how they revealed themselves to the super community. Instead of some big announcement, they just stalked the local Chorustown superheroes until opportunity arose. For Ren, it even functioned as advertising her skills since she's basically selling her stalking capability.

In the first fight that a hero got badly injured, CJ basically popped out of the woodwork in her Cleric getup, dragged them into a safe and hidden spot, delivered immediate and effective field first aid, and left the coordinates of an abandoned apartment complex that they've turned into her clinic, as well as a short letter offering her services.

Ren literally listened in on the resident supers conversations until they expressed frustration at not having a particular piece of information, at which point she helpfully left them an anonymous tip as well as a burner phone number, a ghost email account, and some coords if they ever needed info again. Both instances were basically a free trial, since their letters of introduction also specified that payment in some form would be required for later assistance.

Also, because Ren is a damn good stalker and because CJ will have personally treated many heroes wounds and logged their identifying physical and medical traits, it doesn't take them long before they put together, like, everybody's secret identities. Heroes and villains. With a couple of exceptions on the villainous side, since they don't directly interact with them. But there's basically no hiding from them.

Most people also don't know they exist! Other heroes that the Chorustown protectors interact with do question where they're getting treated for injuries after really big fights, and villains know that SOMEONE keeps giving heroes information that foils their plans, but they don't really come to the conclusion that it's an independent party. They always make incorrect assumptions. Like "Oh, they must have a family member or non-combat teammate that fixes them up after fights!" or "Oh, clearly we have a mole who's being bribed or threatened," or "The Chorustown heroes have more powers than they're letting on." Outside heroes only really learn of these two when the Chorustown regulars talk about them, and only really believe it when Ren and CJ see fit to contact them for whatever reason. It's honestly hilarious.

Everybody who has been contacted by CJ and Ren knows where Watchdog's dropspots are and where Cleric's clinic is, but have no idea what they do otherwise. The clinic and the dropspots are nowhere near the university or where their apartment, so people have no reason to assume it's them. They have ghost emails and burner phones, but they're regularly replaced, and Ren is good at cybersecurity, so there's no tracking it that way.

Most people guess that they're associated in some way, since two freelance vigilantes appearing at similar times operating out of the same city with similar technology would be a bit weird otherwise, but it's also assumed to be strictly professional. Nobody would ever guess that they know each other in their civilian lives, much less that they're girlfriends.

People also realize Watchdog and Cleric know their secret identities (and probably other secret stuff, too) since they've been contacted as civilians, but they also aren't overly threatened by it. The two of them are clearly working for money, but they aren't selling any of the heroes' secrets and are honestly very trustworthy and confidential about it. There was paranoia for the first little bit, but it quickly just became a fact of life.

That's pretty much the whole backstory unless you want to know

Other interesting things about them that don't have a whole lot to do with their whole second job shtick!

Ren:

Ren loves art in all forms, but especially painting. She'll paint on anything she can get her hands on. Her notes, random walls and floors, parts of the school, and any of her possessions. The skirt pictured in her drawing is her own handiwork, and most of her other articles of clothing look similar. Most of their dishes have been custom painted with food safe paint. And as previously mentioned, she's a vandal who puts gorgeous murals and fun zany tags in places that they really shouldn't be.

She's rather anti-social. Ren is aggressively introverted and doesn't have a whole lot of patience for stupid people. She's got a pretty quick temper on her and can be very moody. She recognizes that all traits make her just as unpleasant for other people to be around her as it is for her to be around other people. So she mostly just avoids others. She has like 5 people in her social circle, and she's happy to mooch off CJ if she needs anybody else.

Ren has a lovely voice but has no technical knowledge of music. She just likes to sing.

Ren's a major bookworm, but she mostly reads on her phone. People think she's addicted to social media, but she's usually just reading a book. And she'll read literally anything. With enthusiasm. Sure she can argue classics with the best of them, but she reads so much that she also: can get deep into the mechanics of a 1980s space opera you've never heard of; happily engages in ship wars over the generic YA dystopia that's a disguise for a generic YA love triangle; keeps a running list of every perfectly mapped out hero's journey fantasy story she's read; has consumed an entire encyclopedia and REMEMBERS it; spent one memorable week reading nothing but foreign cookbooks; accidentally befriended her computer science professor over a shared love for tragic westerns; and has a categorized list of historical romances with metrics including historical accuracy, how smutty it is, plot outside the romance, time period, location, and social class of the characters, how healthy the romance is, and how compelling.

Her favorite snacks are plain baby carrots and straight honey. She enjoys traumatizing people at parties by drizzling honey straight into her mouth like whipped cream, and she eats so many carrots that multiple have questioned how she hasn't turned orange.

CJ:

CJ is into fashion, but not like trends or anything. She likes to look good while still having her stuff ethically sourced and affordable. She does a lot of thrift shopping and still manages to dress really good (or at least I think so). Her default and favorite style is punk-inspired bad bitch that, for lack of a better term, is a bit on the slutty side, but she does like to experiment. One of these days I'll probably draw lots of different civilian outfits for both of them.

CJ is the opposite of Ren in that she is a total social butterfly. Not only is she suuuuuper extroverted, she also isn't even a little shy, will strike up a conversation with anybody, and knows basically everyone. This also means she has friends from all walks of life, which gets really useful when Watchdog needs informants. The little old Mexican lady next door, the corner store butcher, the chronic smoker at the homeless shelter, the thrift shop owner they both pretend isn't selling drugs, the local town council member, the perpetually sleep deprived culinary arts student who likes to "experiment" in the school kitchens at 3 a.m., the league of legends nerds who always seem to be online, the manic party girls who keep inviting her to a night on the town---all of them get more information than people would expect, and CJ knows and is on good terms with all of them. And not for an ulterior motive, she just genuinely likes people.

CJ has extreme ADHD. She's lucky Ren has a scary good memory and would never let her forget her Adderall, otherwise she's be in trouble. As it stands, she still is rather hyperactive and has a. . .not short, but definitely jumpy attention span.

She's a plant mom. Their apartment has a ton of plants. She really likes ferns and shrubs, but they also have flowers, succulents, grasses, and literally everything else.

CJ plays the violin, but only in fiddle, bluegrass, and trad contexts, so she can barely read sheet music and learns almost everything by ear.

She hates wearing the color purple but has deliberately bought purple clothing solely for Ren to steal.

Both

Are self-proclaimed socialists who participate in a lot of fundraising, activism, and volunteer work.

Have another childhood best friend named Eli, who is a self-proclaimed anarchist and a business major at their rival university. They still get together all the time. He also knows everything about their double life. There's no secrets in this circle. They're all super close, but they have their favorite ways of hanging out. He and Ren bond by going on vandalism field trips where he puts up politically motivated rants, and she makes it look pretty. He and CJ bond by regularly forsaking civilization and going hiking or camping or just chilling in the woods. They all bond by drinking cheap wine mixed with Dr. Pepper while playing video games and doing their homework and drunkenly going on tirades about rich assholes.

He's also shipped them since middle school when he realized they liked each other, but he didn't want to meddle. He got increasingly frustrated by the mutual pining throughout their high school years and finally engineered a situation at their graduation party where they were locked in a closet together for an hour and warned them that if they didn't confess he was going to drug them and write it in permanent marker on their foreheads. They literally came out of the closet after sharing their first kiss and are willing to kill God for him in thanks.

They're both really messy, but in an organized chaos kind of way. Everything in their home does have a place, it's just not always the place that you'd expect. The place for dirty socks, for example, is "on the living room floor in a haphazard pile," and the place for tissue boxes is "three in every room in easily accessible places at all times."

Both of them can cook but prefer to just eat whatever unprepared food is lying around, and will try any combination if it means they don't have to cook. An average dinner in the Jack-Summers household is a bowl of uncooked pasta dipped in peanut butter like it's nacho cheese with a side of bananas.

They really really like cats. They are both allergic to cats.

They're not practicing any religion, but kind of both passively believe that there's probably a capital-G God and also that other lowercase-g gods exist.

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kivaember · 8 months

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freud/rusty wip...

a wip from my rusty/freud fic... man my brain has not been focusing well today hggh save me... crack ship turned legit ship... save me freud/rusty...

“Commander!”

Down the hallway, just before he walked around the corner, Freud paused and slowly turned around. Rusty was slightly breathless as he trotted towards him, having spent the last thirty minutes hunting the ever elusive commander down by grilling people for ‘Freud sightings’. How a normal, unaugmented human could walk up and down the HQ stairs all day without tiring, Rusty didn’t know…

“Oh, V.IV Rusty,” Freud greeted easily, his perpetual smile not faltering. “What’s up? You look like you’re in a rush.”

“I was looking for you,” Rusty sighed, resting his hands on his hips and evening out his breathing. “You’re a difficult man to pin down.”

“Hm, really?” Freud glanced upwards thoughtfully. “I was just taking a short walk…”

A short walk? This lunatic had walked up ten flights of stairs only to walk back down them again. On what planet was that short???

“...but you’ve caught me now.” Freud slid his hands into his pockets, tilting his head fractionally as his gaze grew heavy-lidded. “I’m ready to be pinned.”

Rusty ignored that… awkward phrasing. He probably hadn’t meant it like that. “We got derailed by Snail earlier but I was wondering about that spar you promised. Us using STEEL HAZE’s data, I mean.”

Freud didn’t say anything at first, and his expression didn’t really change, but Rusty got the feeling that he had caught him off guard.The Vesper commander glanced away briefly, before looking back at him with a wider smile.

“Oh, well… sure…” he said slowly, like he was genuinely surprised Rusty would come to him first about it. “I’m free if you are. No one should be using the simulators right now… unless it’s V.V…”

“Hawkins? I didn’t know he was so diligent with his training,” Rusty said without thinking, before wincing. He tried not to imply disparaging things about his fellow Vespers, but the fact was Hawkins was a pretty average AC pilot - in fact, that could be said for most of them, with the exception of Snail and Freud, of course.

See, while the Vespers were actively recruited amongst Arquebus’s ranks, they weren’t scouted solely for their piloting skills - they were squad commanders, after all, not frontline troops, and Arquebus wanted the Vespers to be as self-sufficient as possible when deployed onto planets well outside of the solar colonies’ robust logistic chains. That meant the Vespers needed someone capable of budgeting their resources, sourcing supplies, managing their administration and operation security, etcetera. In Arquebus’s mind, they only really needed two ace pilots to perform the high-risk, high-reward missions that couldn’t be left to disposable waves of MTs.

That was the only reason Rusty managed to claw his way into the Vesper ranks: they needed a second ace pilot to ‘support’ Freud.

This allowed the other Vespers to focus on their true role, and aside from their mandatory sparring sessions, no one really put in the hours to keep their piloting skills razor sharp. They didn’t have to. They weren’t expected to. They piloted ACs and were augmented, and most of the time they were fighting mercenaries running ACs scrounged from a dumpster, or workers in construction MTs. They didn’t need to be especially skilled. They didn’t have to train regularly. Freud and Rusty conducted the truly dangerous missions, so why should they bother?

So, hearing that Hawkins was willingly doing extra training outside of his scant few mandatory hours? Of course Rusty was surprised. He’d been under the assumption that Hawkins was content to be a mediocre pilot.

“V.V? Diligent?” Freud snorted obnoxiously. “He isn’t. He’s content with being passably adequate.”

Rusty actually blinked at the caustic disdain that dripped from the commander’s voice, a harsh tone that contrasted eerily with Freud’s otherwise warm smile. It was uncannily jarring.

“But he’s been tasked with assessing a potential recruit. Some Gen Ten that Arquebus want to properly field test,” Freud continued. “Out of the batch, he’s the only one that’s a somewhat okay pilot. The rest were dregs.”

i get the feeling he’s pissed about this, Rusty couldn’t help but think, staring at the peculiar expression on Freud’s face. That smile, which still came across as genuine, was fixed in place, but his tone, and his dangerously glittering eyes, spoke of a bubbling caldera of resentment and irritation that promised to scald anyone who poked the nest a bit too carelessly.

“I’m… assuming you don’t get a choice in accepting or rejecting him,” Rusty said hesitantly, trying to strike a perfectly neutral tone. He wasn’t actually sure why Freud was being so open with him about this. Maybe he just needed to vent and Rusty was handily available?

But really, wasn’t this something he should vent about with a close confidant?

though, does he have one? Rusty frowned, i don’t think i’ve ever heard of freud having close friends or family…

“Of course I don’t,” Freud said easily, pivoting on his heel to resume walking. Rusty hurried to keep pace. “Who am I to question Arquebus’s faultless wisdom?”

“Well…” Rusty hesitated, once more struck with a suspicion that Freud was dangling bait here. He couldn’t help but think back to that morning in the elevator, where Freud’s gaze had been incisive enough to physically cut, where Rusty had been so certain he had known…

They took one step, and Rusty contemplated letting the topic drop and leaving his own thoughts about the company ambiguous.

They took another step, and he immediately discarded that idea, because what if that made Freud clam up and Rusty’s investigation ended up going nowhere?

A third step, and Rusty remembered that this investigation was an impulsive personal project that wasn’t really relevant to his overarching goal. He could let it drop and take the cautious route, so he didn’t blow up years of espionage work for nothing.

A fourth, and couldn’t help but think what if he’s genuine though? If Freud’s discontent with Arquebus was true… if it was…imagining getting a pilot of his skill on Rusty’s side… it was a gamble, a super risky gamble, but…

A fifth step.

“You’re the Vesper commander,” Rusty finally said. “Surely your opinion holds weight with the higher ups?”

Freud burst into laughter.

It was a startling loud noise, a full on belly laugh that had Freud throwing his head back and cackling like a madman at the ceiling. Rusty actually jumped half a foot in the air, almost tripping over his own feet in the process.

“Oh! Oh…” Freud swiftly got himself under control, slapping a hand over his mouth that did nothing to hide his wild grin. “That’s so cute… I forget how much of a country bumpkin you are.”

“W-What- what do you mean by that?” Rusty huffed, concealing his surprise with feigned offence. He had no idea Freud had such an obnoxiously loud laugh. “It’s just common sense, isn’t it?”

Freud snorted and dropped his hand to shake his head.

“Corporate executives and common sense aren’t on speaking terms,” Freud said simply.

#armored core #armored core 6 #v.i freud #v.iv rusty #freud/rusty #fanfic ramblings #long wip but hghghg #work's been slugging me in the face repeatedly #pls... let me write...

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arcxnumvitae · 9 months

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The dragons generally resemble normal humans, genitalia included, when in their fully "humanoid" forms. When appearing as fully human, their anatomy functions on the surface much the same. Since my dragons have a sliding scale of "more human" to "more dragon" and vice versa, their genitalia changes with their physical appearance. Were a fertile dragon to have unprotected sex in their humanoid form, any pregnancy would follow one as if the dragon were a human, featuring a nine-month pregnancy period and a live birth. The child will still be fully half or wholly dragon depending on if the other parent is a fellow dragon or not, and there would be no differences in a dragon baby born in this manner.

Of course, like the rest of their draconic features, these changes can come about unintentionally in moments of great distraction, emotions, etc. when their grip on their "humanoid" appearance slips and their true forms begin to emerge.

For dragons with a penis, the genitalia are held within a slit. A second penis will also appear and they both will grow in size larger than in their humanoid form. The second penis is fully functional and is capable of procreating in most cases.* While dragons do not have heats and mating seasons, the closest thing being during the comet, they tend to reproduce more often than not in the spring due to the warming weather's effects on their somewhat cold-blooded nature. However, since the comet lower inhibitions, it can be easy for accidents to happen and a pregnancy to occur.

When far enough along in their transformation for the second penis to emerge, at that point, the way that a pregnancy would occur would be via eggs. Each penis is capable of creating and fertilizing golf-ball-sized eggs.

Dragons without a penis also have a slit with an opening meant to receive eggs and sperm. A body is needed to host and nourish the egg while it grows, and it is while the egg is inside the second parent that it attaches and essentially "soaks up" the energy from its other parent, which is where it takes on traits from said second parent. After about three months, the egg, now the size of about a tennis ball, leaves the second parent and requires care the next three or so months before hatching.

Dragon eggs are actually rather hardy, and do not need specific temperatures or climates in order to thrive. Their shells similarly are not easy to break, which is another reason why they are considered so valuable. However, that does not mean they are wholly unbreakable, and so they still require care and attention.

A dragon can intentionally decide to try and impregnate their partner, but eggs are not in an unlimited quantity and not every egg will take. Sometimes, a pair will have to try multiple times before an egg/s becomes viable. Eggs that do not take will generally leave the recipient's body within the next few hours. Also, accidents and "slip ups" can always happen as well, not helped by the fact that the urge is harder to control when in that form. That's generally why dragons don't "whip it out" at every encounter.

*The Red Eyes' physical appearance were modeled after regular dragons, and thus their genitalia and anatomy as well. However, since they are infertile, all eggs and sperm from them are duds. Likewise, their bodies cannot host or nourish any eggs. Because of this, eggs from a Red Eye will always leave the recipient's body within a few hours of insertion.

Bit I couldn't quite find the place in the post to put

Dragon penises when in their half-and-half form also have "spikes" at the base meant to "hook" on to their partner and keep them in place to aid in reproduction. They're dull, however, and in a partner other than a dragon with kinda "incompatible" anatomy, a bit useless. I mean, aside from pleasure that is.

Dragons without penises will have shallow grooves just on the inside of their slits where said spikes are meant to fit into and "hook" onto.

#{N.s.f.w #{Dragons #{Red Eyes #I'll probably add the other set of bits to this post later too #I just wanted to get this written out (I almost said banged out) and come back and tweak it as needed #here's hoping T.umblr doesn't nuke this post #I'm sure I've forgotten something I meant to add so if you see me editing this no you didn't

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strawberry-venomous · 2 years

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If MC was a child (read also as teenager)(Platonic)

Only the new characters (for now maybe?)

Thirteen:

-She doesn't like children.

-I mean, come on, it's the reaper, do you think she has time to be taking care of a child? Of course not, she could be trying to kill the shadow wizard or playing a practical joke on him or better yet!! eating some delicious dessert.

-Of course it doesn't mean she is cruel to you, she just doesn't care about you, whether you are a child or not, it doesn't mean she is not bothered by the fact that you entered her house without her permission.

-Of course this changes a bit having participated together in the school event, after all that was over you came to her with a nice box that, frankly, smelled quite good.

-Baking with Luke was one of your favorite pastimes and since you had managed to save the last of the cookies you had made from Beel's ferocious hunger, what better way to give them to a new friend?

-To your surprise she quickly took the box and got ready to try your cookies, you were nervous but everything changed when you saw his disinterested face move on to a totally new Thirteen face. But nobody blames you, it is not normal to see how the reaper smiled with his chubby red cheeks while he seemed to enjoy your gift pleasantly.

-She may not be as bad as cofcofBarneycofcof, but you two certainly got a lot closer after that, she really enjoys your and luke's sweets, also compared to all those demon brothers and that damned Solomon you were frankly good and a cute company .

-So yes, Thirteen does not like children, but he will choose you any day over all those stupid demons in his class and even invites you often to eat some delicious dessert, you must feel pleased when death decides to pay for you :) lucky you.

Mephistopheles:

-………

-………..

-Listen-

-He has a weakness for little kids, we already know that he has a brother for whom he has a great weakness, we already know what happened between him and Luke. But if you think for a moment that he would have a soft spot for a weak and rude human-

-You are completely right wrong-

-Don't think because he felt slightly bad about insulting you from the first moment he saw you pick up his pamphlets. Don't think he helped you carry your books because they were incredibly heavy for your frail, puny human arms (even if you were fully capable of carrying them). Don't think that because he kept you from falling down the stairs while scolding you like a mother hen for being so careless it means that he care about you. Don't think she became a total drama queen because of that little scratch you got in P.E. and is worrying about you.

-He doesn't have a soft spot for a weak, little, tediously lovable human. IT'S NOT LIKE THIS AT ALL!!!!

-And that the guy is fighting with Mammon over who is more qualified to be your caretaker (read as your babysitter even though you're an independent teenager because you're a poor, helpless little human trapped in literal hell because NO, the demon brothers do not count as good caretakers, ESPECIALLY NOT LUCIFER) means NOTHING and doesn't mean he has a big, huge appreciation for you quickly, it's not like that at all :).

Raphael:

-Oh a child……anymay so-

-Actually Raphael is not someone really good with children, he doesn't hate them in general, but he doesn't love them either? he really doesn't know how to act correctly with them, he just knows that he doesn't like it when they are disobedient (yes, he talks to you Mammon)

-Just like Thirteen he doesn't really seem interested in getting to know you better or being your friend, but as the small and sociable being that you were you wanted to have a good relationship with the new exchange students, so why not give it a try? You had already had success with the 7 demon brothers, literally the prince of hell, his butler, two angels and an immortal wizard, easy right?

-Yeah, well, nothing was easy in this life, except for someone who measures less (or maybe a little more) than 150. Approaching the new exchange students was not an easy thing, but hey, you could be short but your stubbornness exceeded As you grow taller, Lucifer sometimes didn't know whether to flatter you for it or give you some tranquilizer.

-You were already friends with Thirteen and you really didn't know what to call the relationship you had with Mephistopheles (Once you called him brother by mistake and you saw him get shocked… let's say he ignored you for 3 days, but he didn't seem really upset, why would it that be?) but at least you were at peace with them, something they had in common? They both liked your desserts, Thirteen was more honest than Mephisto but those are details.

-So you baked some cute little lamb cookies and gave them to him as you watched him walk the halls of RAD. At first he seemed calm but clearly he was surprised and somewhat nervous due to the unexpectedness of that gift, but he thanked you kindly and luckily he decided to try your cookies at that moment.

-You would have expected him to praise you or at least give you a thankful smile, but instead you got a "It lacks salt…"

-Yeah well, you really didn't know what you were expecting from someone who loves Solomon's food, you must have seen that coming somehow. To your bad luck you couldn't help but show your clear and to be honest justified disappointment, but Raphael realized his mistake and quickly tried to fix his words thanking you for the cookies giving you an embarrassed smile, even though your cookies were not his favorites your gesture really softened it. Not that he becomes super protective now or hangs out with you all the time but he certainly greets you more often and even sometimes when you're in Purgatory Hall he starts a little conversation with you, he might invite you to cook some cookies with Solomon but I think it's best to avoid that.

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

Just to clarify a few things: This is my first time writing headcanons, I don't actually even remember how I came up with this but this literally came to me at 11:30 at night and for some reason I really wanted to write it.

So understand that any mistake or stupidity I may have made is because I'm really new to trying to do headcanons and it's the damn early morning.

In any case, this doesn't even mean that I dedicate myself to headcanons, I really think I'm lousy for them, but if you guys liked them I'm happy about that :)

#obey me #obey me one master to rule them all #obey me headcanons #obey me mc #obey me thirteen #obey me mephistopheles #obey me raphael

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anarkittyuwuuniverse · 2 years

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Actually let's talk a bit more about that vegan to eco-fascist pipeline post and how it doesn't make any sense. Firstly it's a pipeline that I've personally never seen any real life examples of, like what is this weird leap from "if I can go vegan so can you" to "humans are responsible for climate change we need to decrease the population" like am I missing something here? People who believe in population reduction as a solution to climate change tends to be people who believe that humans are inherently detrimental to the environment and can't actually live on the earth without damaging it, which is why it turns into a number's game rather than a question of changing societal structures. But this hypothetical vegan apparently believes that anyone can go vegan so clearly they believe that humans are capable of changing their relationship to the land and that there therefore are other ways than decreasing the population. So what's up with that? Many vegans specifically argue that veganism is what we need to transition into in order to have a growing population, because it's way less land and resource-intensive, so to argue that there is any threat inherent to veganism related to population culling is nonsensical. In fact, anarchists like Peter Gelderloos criticize veganism exactly because capitalism wants a growing population, just like it wants everything else to constantly grow, so veganism is easily co-opted for that purpose (this is not supposed to be a universal criticism of veganism btw, this is just one of the many ways it can be co-opted, not something inherent to the ideology). Besides all that I also find it a little bit worrying that people on this website seems to think that the definition of eco-fascism is just believing that overpopulation is the source of climate change? Of course that's a big part of it and of course eco-fascism isn't really a coherent ideology, but there's just so much more to fascism in general than that? Other elements you often find in eco-fascism are pastoral romanticism, notions of a ethnic groups having a mystical connection with the land that makes up their nation, the introduction of any other ethnic group to that land as some sort of pollution in itself (like an invasive species), a general connection between racial purity and environmental purity. If you wanna talk about veganism and vegetarianism's role in this I think you'll get further in examining diet culture and diet woo, looking at the people who make connections between bodily purity and keeping out "toxins" and not consuming meat. There's of course also completely bonkers Hindu neo-nazi Savitri Devi who was an actual animal rights activist and vegetarian, and her ideology (while terrible) is extremely interesting (and is almost a complete religion of its own, give "Hitler's Priestess" a read if you wanna learn more) but still very much quite far from the ideology of modern veganism. Eco-fascism is a really important subject to learn about especially now as we'll probably be seeing more and more of it the coming years and it's good to be able to recognize patterns. That's why I think it really sucks that the conversation about it has to be watered down just to alleviate people's feelings of guilt about their own consumption habits as if the worst thing fascism could do is to tell you not to eat whatever you want when you want it.

#veganism #eco-fascism

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inthedayswhenlandswerefew · 1 year

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Okay okay okay, I've got so much to say and I wanted to send it direct-to-you because writers don't get enough love on here and I will be the change I wanna see 😭😭😭

I just binged all of Comet Donati (so far) and want to say out the gate: not only do you have a fantastic grip on characterization, but on wordplay as well. The way you write manages to sound so casual and yet so clever at the same time, twists of words that had me going "oh!" Because how did I never think to word things like that??? It makes me feel dumb but in a really good, excited way (looking at u: describing the Missouri river as a snake with scales of silver moonlight 😭👀)

The flashbacks are so well done, cut into pieces in a way that feels dreamy and so intriguing, and I love the way it slowly builds more and more in relation to what's happening in the current day of the fic.

Which brings me back to characterisation, starting w Aegon: You have hands down one of the best interpretations of him I've ever seen??? He's so fucking vulnerable, so sweet, so charming, so kind, and yet at the same time you get the sense he's keeping everything at arms length. He's playful and loud and it prevents anyone from taking that vulnerability he has and doing something with it. He'll cross the entire city to pick a fistfight with his brother for you, and then disappear in a snap of fingers the moment it seems like a line might be crossed. That's him, that's the boy that stole my heart officer.

Baela and Rhaena ACTUALLY having personalities and agency in a fic??? Say it ain't fucking so 😭😭😭 I love them so much, and the key pieces of personality and Really interesting character design choices (the quote from Rhaenys on Baela, for example) and the fact that her conflict w Jace doesn't feel hammy or gimmicky? Using beautiful Aeg again- people have a tendency to turn their chosen character into a cardboard villain for the sake of pushing the story forward, and while he's clearly an asshole it doesn't feel like the shit that's done to Aegon where he's literally nothing else 😭😭😭

And of course, beautiful, troublesome Aemond. This living tragedy, I adore him even when I want to slap the sense into him. He's exactly like the Aemond we'd all expect, but you've managed to adapt him to a modern setting so so well, that he's the one that kept Luke along and that he fought so hard for him. I just love the humanity he has in this without losing the fact he's a pretentious bitch 😭😭😭

All in all thank you I love this fic, and I had a really surreal moment reading "Aemond x reader, Aegon x reader" and going "oooh, the Fic For Me" and then reading

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI???

My ass cheeks gripped my chair istg, eyes rolled out, the sweat formed, actually literally the first time anyone has ever written a story here that I've seen

OK ily bye—🏃💨

BESTIE!!!!!!!!!! 😍😍 This was such an amazing surprise and it made me so wildly happy!! For the first 5ish chapters of a fic, it's always difficult for me to tell if it's really working and hitting the tone that I intended, so to see this just gives me so much reassurance that I'm doing an okay job with Comet. I love these characters and they certainly all feel real to me...but I think it's clear that I am at heart an Aegon girlie and I've never written a HOTD fic that didn't make people unwillingly fall at least a little bit in love with him. 😂 He's such a mess, but an unsuspectingly gentle and insightful one...? That's really all thanks to TGC, his vision for Aegon is the characterization I have always connected with. I cannot wait to show you what's in store for this deranged little boy band...so many things... 👀

I am thrilled that you enjoy the setting being (sort of, a little bit) Kansas City...I don't think I'm capable of writing an AU fic without having it anchored in a specific setting with ~vibez~ ...and also I've never been to Missouri before, but I've spent a LOT of time on Google Earth doing my research, so hopefully I've done it justice so far. 😁 I have a feeling...a spidey sense...that we might end up spending some significant time in Kansas City towards the end of the series...but first...many other far-flung destinations await... 👀

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sherlkore · 2 years

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Wonderland OC list

Charis Cheshire

"Aww, are you lost, mon cher~?"

Name: Charis Cheshire

Age: 19

Height: 6'1

Powers: Invisibility, cat shapeshifting.

Sexuality: Pansexual

Family:

The Cheshire Cat - Father

Facts: Charis is just like her father, mysterious, sly, tricky, deceitful, manipulative, mischievous and unpredictable. She's also treacherous and whimsical, and is always changing between a supportive ally and a devious foe, so you can never really trust her, she's a bit sarcastic, melodramatic, misunderstood, sneaky, too curious for her own good, naughty, cheeky, hostile, cold, fiendish, loyal (sometimes). Likes to annoy people by talking in riddles because no one can really understand her besides her father. She can turn invisible just like her father and transform into a cat whenever she wants, but when she's human she still keeps the cat ears and tail.

Her aesthetic and form:

The Queen and King of Hearts

"Prepare for trouble-"

"-Leave me alone"

Name: Kaitlin "Kate" & Nathaniel "Nate" Heart

Age: 20

Abilities: Card manipulation + Nate is a Spellcaster thanks to his spell book.

Sexuality: Trans (ftm) & Bisexual (Nate), Bisexual (Kate)

Height: 6'2 (Nate), 6'1 (Kate)

Parent(s)

The Queen of Hearts - Mother

Kate is more like her mother, she's basically the only one who actually wants the throne, unlike Nate. She doesn't like people who disrespect her, so she executes them by sentencing them to death, by "removing" their head from their shoulders, her brother is an exception. Gets annoyed easily since being a Queen and fighting her cousin for the throne can be pretty stressful. Argues with her brother a lot since he doesn't seem to really care about his status and about his appearance.

Nate is a complete opposite of Kate, he doesn't care about the throne, because he doesn't want it, is fine with dressing up like a homeless guy and is a layed back, chill guy. He likes to sit in his rooms, reading or learning new spells, practising his powers and sometimes making up his own spells. He's also capable of making potions and tests them on the Card Guards. The scar on his eye was given by their mother when he disobeyed her because he didn't want to wear a dress. He's also good with a sword, but not as good as the Captain of the Card Guards of course.

Even though the two argue quite often, they would do anything for eachother, which is why Nate is still living in the Castle and helps his sister with fighting their cousin, and Kate lets Nate sit in his room while she's dealing with the guests and royal stuff.

Their aesthetic + face claims:

The Knave of Hearts

"Another joke about my eye and I'll gouge

both of yours out."

Name: Kaia The Knave of Hearts

Age: 20

Height: 6'2

Abilities: Inhuman reflexes & strength, magical sword (she can summon it whenever she wants)

Sexuality: Unlabelled

Family:

Knave of Hearts - Father

Facts: Just like her father she serves the Queen and the King, but she's not be as loyal as her father, if the Queen asks for her to do something that might not be very logical, she will go against her word and let the Queen know about her opinion, which means if betraying the Queen will benefit her, she might as well do it. She's quick on her feet, can tell who's there enemy and who's the ally, will kill you if you make an eye joke, not loyal, she can betray you to get what she wants, one of the best sword wielders in Wonderland, she can take out almost an army without breaking a sweat, despite having an only eye.

Aesthetic:

Tell your favourites ;) haha

@msrochelleromanofffelton @blueboirick @jackiequick @raphroseybeanpie

#oc #oc rp #oc introduction #oc story #oc rp group #fantasy oc #Wonderland x oc

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lasttabris · 4 months

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Toboe [ Wolf's Rain ]

{ Info } ☾ { Roleplay with me } ☾ { Ask this character } ☾ { Tag } ☾ { Guidelines }

Name: Toboe Canon: Wolf's Rain (anime) Canon Point: End of the anime Age: 2 (as a wolf), 14 (with human illusion) Species: Alchemy Wolf

Personality:

Toboe is a very young wolf and often acts like a puppy rather than an adult. Toboe was raised as a pet by "Granny" and for that reason, he lacks the ability to survive alone. She taught Toboe humans kindness. She taught him to love and trust, to protect and care.

However, after she passed away, Toboe felt like he had failed her; failed to protect her and make sure she would always be okay. That's the biggest reason why Toboe always tries to protect the people he meets during his journey. He wants to protect them because he wasn't able to protect his owner, and he wants to make up for it.

Without her, Toboe felt lonely. He did have his pack and was happy with them; he also seemed to want to have Quent as his owner. But in truth, that was never Toboe’s paradise: his Granny was. She is the one that filled his heart with kindness and love, and she is the one who shaped him the most.

Toboe maintains affection for humans that none of the other wolves understands, enough to save Quent despite the fact that Quent tried to kill him several times; he has also shown the desire to stay with humans, not only because he felt like he was no good for the rest of the group, but also because he loves harmony between humans and animals.

He is social and depends on others a lot and follows those who show kindness. Because of his young age, Toboe tends to get attached to people easily and often comes back to people who might betray him. He forgave Quent, Hige and even Leara.

When close to those he likes, Toboe is much more outgoing than when he's alone - he talks back, pouts and plays; when he is alone, he becomes a bit shy and a bit awkward. While, it’s easy to see how much insecurity there is under the pup’s fur, when he's with his pack, Toboe seems to grow, trying to be independent, strong, and capable.

He can be reckless too and doesn't seem to measure his own strength. He realizes he is very young and doubts himself and his own abilities, often feeling like he can't measure up to the rest of the pack. But Toboe is stubborn. When he's faced with his own incompetence and weakness, he’ll try to overcome that so his pack can rely on him too.

Toboe is actually strong and he can survive, and the journey showed him that. His soft heart doesn't help but on the other hand, that can change if it's necessary. He is fiercely loyal and willing to put his people first.

The red wolf is patient and sweet. He has a high tolerance for everything and he’s also very forgiving. However, he is protective, so if someone attacks his pack and friends, he will not forgive or forget. He is a real guard dog, in many aspects, and he is loyal towards those who deserve his loyalty.

Toboe’s main role is to soften the pack's aggression when times of tension arise and he is usually the bridge that will allow the other three to become closer with time; the bonds grow stronger because Toboe seems to be set on making everyone get along no matter what. He eventually understood that role as well and accepted it and realized he was needed.

But it's not only towards his pack. He does the same to humans: Toboe wants everyone together, no matter whom, and will try his best to do that, no matter if they are wolves or if they are humans.

Above all, he is the most positive wolf from the pack. He is always very giddy and excited about it and seems to love the idea of being with others, even if the journey is hard. Because he is young, he doesn’t hide his feelings. He doesn't hide his sadness or his insecurities, his happiness and his pride. Not only can't hide his emotions, Toboe can't lie very well, nor keep secrets since he never had any need to. His trust in others also helps this, of course.

Above all, he is the most positive wolf from the pack. He is naïve and innocent, but also loyal and so strong. But not strong enough to overcome his need to protect others, which culminated in his death.

Alchemy wolves:

Those who have seen the anime know it's very difficult to explain Toboe's "Illusion" ability. There is no actual explanation as to how they do this and in an attempt to make things easier for RP, I (the player) am picking specific things that may not be 100% canon. Even if he looks like a human, Toboe is a wolf and his kind is capable of creating illusions on themselves so they appear human to most people. Those who are good at supernatural or have high psychic perception abilities (or just drunks) will be able to see through it either completely or for a brief second before it returns to the illusion. Animals will also be able to see through the disguise, but for rp purposes, I’ve decided that, even if they can easily identify Toboe as a wolf, they can still see his human form. Toboe’s human image seems to be a projection of himself and is connected to the wolf part, allowing people who try to hurt him while he is standing to actually hit him. This also means this image is a shadow, but Toboe will still leave physical evidence of his wolf-self behind: smell, pawprints, and even falling fur. The human illusion has clothes. It’s shown that the clothes may come off when necessary, simply disappearing and reappearing; these clothes "exist" as long they are touching Toboe: if the pup decides to take off his shirt and drop it to the floor, it will disappear, but still, he does need to take it off. Same as picking up an illusionary shirt that will show up in his hand, and then he’ll need to redress. It’s necessary to mention that the clothes may get ripped to match the wounds inflicted on them. As the wounds heal, the marks on the clothes will disappear until it has faded and healed completely. As for touching, if Toboe were to touch someone, such as attacking, he may leave claw and bite marks behind because that's what he'd use as well. Strangely, Wolves are also able to pick someone up in their arms, carry things, and yet again with the little explanation we have, I am going to state that this illusion may feel physical at times and if someone were to touch Toboe, he'd feel like a human. That means Toboe can do anything that a regular human can do with his illusion. I need to add that he can also read, obviously. Something good about Wolf’s Rain is that they kept wolves talking with their mouths closed. It is true a big deal of his hand actions are from the wolf's mouth. However, by not having to actually move their mouth while they speak, this allows Toboe may speak while he is carrying someone, for example. You could say the form of communication is kind of like a one-way telepathy. Ah, did I forget to mention that they also cry? Yes, they do shed tears in their human form, but not in wolf. Still, you'll feel wet if you touch his tears, though, as an illusion, they'll disappear. You can actually admit this human illusion is physical, then. And therefore he is allowed to do pretty much what any human can, with his hands, feet and body, from holding things to typing or even writing by hand. He'd probably be able to hold any other human object and actually use it even. But this requires some concentration. Sometimes, the wolf bleeds through the illusion, fangs are seen, or flashes of the wolf are obvious.

These wolves are deeply connected to Paradise and to the world; it is said that humans were born from wolves. Paradise, on the other hand, is a new reborn world which will open when the current world reached its end, and wolves are the ones who will open Paradise and thus bring forth this event. This means Toboe, as an "alchemy wolf" is actually close to a "messenger of Great God Mother Earth"; his blood CAN open Paradise and having wolf blood spilt is actually seen as an unfortunate thing and nature around seems to react negatively to that. Naturally, he can't open Paradise in Folkmore (and Paradise is only open if the world is dying, anyway), but nature will still not really seem to respond positively to wolf blood being spilt which would make the environment feel wrong (but that's about it!). It'd also mean characters who can detect spiritual beings to be able to tell that Toboe is a sort of godly spirit, in a way. He will not understand what ANY of that means, however, because all of this is instinct and not really something wolves know about.

Other abilities:

Toboe is a wolf, thus he has all the skills a canine would have. These skills would all be enhanced due to Toboe's canon abilities He also knows about plants and their properties, supposedly he learned by watching his owner. He's especially doted in earing

History:

"The world has been destroyed and we've fallen countless times, always resurrecting from the ashes as Paradise. It has happened before, and it will happen again. An endless cycle of life and death. The world is a Paradise that was opened by someone, but this era too is almost at an end. We have acquired the means to exceed our natural span of life, never suspecting that the world itself was finalized in its existence. As if to be purified, the world will be encased in ice so that it can return to the beginning once more. Paradise is a world that is opened by someone..."

To understand all of Wolf’s Rain background, we need to start from the very beginning, way before the series starts. Long before the world was what it is, people put civilization into full bloom using an extraordinary alchemy that would open doorways to the stars and even the gateways of time and space. But it all disappeared in a second. It's unknown what happened but most of the people disappeared, and the remaining mysteries of alchemy came to be possessed solely by three noble families (Darcia, Jagara and Oakum), while the rest of the people were left in the dark. This happened 200 years ago, when wolves became extinct. Using this alchemy, Darcia Family created the Lunar Flowers and Flowermen, the guides to Paradise, at a resort city called Aerial. But only one flowerman was perfect, only one wasn’t a failure, Cheza; she was a crystal of alchemy, called the Flower's maiden that was born from the Lunar Flower and would show the path to Paradise. Along with all of Darcia’s research, a forbidden book was written by the Noble Darcia the first; it was the beginning of Darcia Clan, with a collection of the most advanced alchemy at the time. All of it had the objective to reach Paradise, by creating a Lunar Flower with human form, which would show them how to get to that wanted place. The book also mentioned the Legend of the red moon, told by tribes that existed long before alchemy appeared:

"Long ago, when the world was still young, when man was still an animal, there were also evil monsters. And so, the Great God Mother Earth sent wolves from Paradise to the land as his messengers. The wolves slew the monsters, fought evil and taught many things to animal-man. And from part of their own bodies, wolves gave birth to mankind. But man stopped learning from the wolves. Man started to create their own version of humanity and the land started to hurt. When the world is ending, the moon will turn red and die, and the wolves will once again go back to Paradise."

The wolves are, then, the only ones who can open the doorways to Paradise, guided by the Lunar Flower(s). Darcia I was lost, though. 200 years ago (matching to the disappearance of the rest of the alchemy and the extinction of the wolves, though if these two matters are related is never told. Most likely it IS) Darcia opened Paradise – NOT a fake one - and he disappeared into that mysterious place. This caused many alterations to the world, but above all, it cursed Darcia Family; only wolves can enter Paradise and Darcia was NOT a wolf. For that reason, Darcia Family became plagued by a curse; the eye of a wolf. Darcia III, the grandson of the lost Darcia, did not wish to do anything about his grandfather's research, but one day a disease appeared and it took his lover, Hamona. It was called the Paradise disease in which her soul was "taken by Paradise" being forever bound to that place, while her body fell into a coma in the real world. For this reason, Darcia had no other choice but to direct all of his energy trying to find a way to open paradise and bring Hamona back. Years later after her creation, Cheza was stolen by the Oakum Clan and given to a laboratory in Freeze city; Cheza was studied by Cher who will be important later one. However there was no actual information since it remained all within Darcia's castles and thus Lord Oakum was never close to open Paradise for himself, like he wanted to. Jagara Clan also made its move; Noble Jagara chased wolves all around the world in order to steal their blood and tried to open Paradise as well on her own (though all of them try to open paradise, Kiba does mention it's but a fake; only wolves can open it and only wolves can enter it; the nobles, though, don't seem to believe that). As Cheza remained in Freeze City, all attention turned to her and most wolves flocked around the cit; many died thanks to Jagara's, and others simply lost hope and themselves. Others stood there for no actual reason. Enter Toboe.

Not much is told us about Toboe’s past, but seeing he is so young, there might not even be much to it either way. Toboe was found by “Granny”, a nice old lady that also had four bracelets on her left wrist. It’s not known how he got to the Freeze City, but seeing he was such a young baby when granny found him, most likely Toboe's mother that came to the city looking for the scent of the Flower’s Maiden, Cheza, and died before she reached Cheza.

Granny took care of Toboe, raising him as a dog, which explains his friendliness and love towards humans as wel,l as his need to be near one. Unfortunately, in an act of unrestrained playfulness when she was feeding him, Toboe jumped on the old woman and ended up suffocating her. Toboe soon found out he was, for the first time ever, alone; it was hard on him since he was a "dog", and Toboe did not know how to hunt nor he had ability to survive alone. For this reason he was constantly attacked by crows and even cats, which he came to hate.

The anime starts with the four wolves that would form the strange pack in search for Paradise: Kiba, Tsume, Hige and Toboe. Toboe is shown as a young wolf, lacking any survival ability, being bullied by cats and crows as he looked for food inside the trash cans. Alone, he appeared to have the strong desire to become a pet again, and his target was a young girl named Leara, who had offered him food before. During this, he also met another wolf, Tsume, but before both could get to know each other (not that Tsume wanted to), other characters showed up: an old man named Quent along with his dog Blue, who chased wolves because he believed they were the responsible for the death of his family. Tsume ended up saving Toboe from them, but he still wasn't friendly with the younger wolf.

Possibly a day later, or even the same afternoon, hoping to impress Leara, Toboe ran after her bird and ended up killing it; sadden by this, his human illusion disappeared and he showed the girl his real form of an animal – once again he was saved by Tsume, who grabbed him and pulled him out of there before Leara started screaming.

That same night, several events happened that culminated with Cheza being taken by Darcia III; Kiba and Hige (also two wolves) came after Cheza and they eventually met Toboe and Tsume who had felt Cheza's presence as well. That was when the whole pack first mentioned the search for Paradise and the feeling they are born with, as well how the smell of the Lunar Flower allured them to that cold city in first place. They left together to search for the Guide to Paradise, Cheza, even if Tsume was quite reluctant about it.

During their journey, much happens. Tsume who always refused to believe Kiba’s words of Paradise, left the pack once and Toboe followed. Both would get attacked by a machine and saved by Kiba and Hige at the end. They also reached an old dirty city, where the faint smell of Lunar Flowers grew and they met a pack of wolves there, who had given up hope of finding that place all wolves are born desiring. All of this focus on building the relationship between all the wolves in the pack: Kiba as heir leader, and Toboe, Tsume (even if very reluctantly) and Hige, following his words of hope.

The most important time was when they finally reached Ariel City, where Darcia had brought Cheza. It was a mess, just like everything in the anime: Darcia was attacked by Lord Oakum’s troops, Quent and Blue who were following the trail of the foru wolves also show up, Cher was there too because he was with Oakum's troops and suddenly Cheza felt the four wolves and escaped Darcia right under his nose. She finally showed herself to the four wolves, who immediately felt a blinding attraction to her. After saving them from Darcia and Lord Oakum’s guards, as well as Quent and Blue, Cheza set her mind on showing the pack the path to Paradise, even if they never spoke it.

They were born with that feeling, just like Cheza was born with the desire to guide the wolves.

Unfortunately the journey was never easy.

During the next full moon night, Cheza finally showed them the path to paradise, by making Lunar flowers grow from the ground (it was literally a path of flowers). Excited, all the four finally accepted it was their destiny, even Tsume who always complained, but Darcia didn’t forget his original objective of retrieving Cheza, and he showed up after he got rid of his enemy’s troops. Again he took the Flower girl away (during this, while not directly related to the wolves, Lord Oakum was murdered by Jagara and she too attacked Darcia's castle and killed Hamona. Later on we learn Hamona was Jagara's twin sister and she was in love with Darcia).

As the four wolves tried to rest from the last attack, Blue – Quent’s dog who was actually half wolf – came to them in her human form. She met Cheza during her journey and the wolf inside her woke up and once she realized she was what Quent hated, Blue decided to leave her owner. All the five headed towards Darcia's Castle, after, in hopes to save Cheza. Regrettably during a snow blizzard, Toboe, Blue, Hige and Tsume decide to stay behind but their leader Kiba stubbornly refused to do so and went ahead. To Darcia's Castle, chasing after Cheza, came Jagara's troop and Cher, her ex-husband Hubb who wanted to know what the heck was happening, and also Quent who was looking for Blue and tagged along with Hubb. It was a Castle party.

The white wolf leader was indeed the first to arrive at Darcia’s castle and fought the Noble, but before blood was spilled, the rest of the pack arrived. Sadly, once again Cheza was capture, this time by Jagara; Blue stood with her this time (also captured by Jagara’s troops), and Kiba was no where to be found, reducing the pack from five to three wolves.

Unable to find Kiba, Hige, Tsume, and Toboe considered giving up the search for him and for Paradise, when Toboe found Quent lying half-frozen in the snow. Despite Tsume and Hige being against this, he decidef to stay behind to warm him up, in the promise he’d meet the two older wolves later on. After making sure Quent was alive and would warm up when the sun came out, Toboe went after his pack mates but was attacked by Iyek, a member of the Hmong Indian tribe. Hige and Tsume came to Toboe's aid, but eventually Iyek explained to them it was but a mistake to attack Toboe.

Hmong tribe considered wolves their friends (as well messengers of Earth Mother God, like the Ancient told explained them; this story is very related to the writings on the forbidden book written by Darcia the first, 200 years ago) and they were on edge because Jagara's troops have been attacking their tribe's dogs.

Toboe showed great interest in staying with humans because he considered such his Paradise. But when they found Kiba again, on the verge of death, the pup changed his mind and accepted following the pack with promising he wouldn’t whine anymore and he’d try to be strong for his pack mates. Yet, before leaving, he requested Iyek to go help Quent, who was left behind.

(A small note to make things understandable at this point is that Blue was able to break free from Jagara's troops, and soon she joins Cher who was still chasing after Cheza; both rush towards Jagara’s city by themselves, and Cheza and Cher’s ex-husband Hubb were still under capture and arrived the city sooner.)

The wolves’ current position was the “Ice Sea”, and like the name says, it was a sea of drift ice, where they come to find a huge graveyard; drawn by the smell of blood coming from Toboe’s arm – who refused to admit he got hurt, since he wanted to be strong and capable – suddenly a giant walrus breaked up through the ice and attacked the pack. Toboe froze at first due to fear and wasn't able to do much, but then something inside him grew (instincts!) and finally it snapped and he rushed in, biting the walrus in the eye and refusing to let go. The giant animal tried to release itself from Toboe, by running into icebergs or diving deep in the cold water, but Toboe didn’t let go until finally the walrus was too wondeed to continue and died. Toboe was the one to take the first bite, an honor for him since it meant that he made his first kill and was finally recognized as capable by the other three older wolves.

The pack reached Jagara’s city, but when trying to sneak inside, Tsume and Toboe ended up getting arrested by the Noble’s troops. Kiba was caught too and Hige was found out to actually belong to the Noble Jagara as a “spy”: he looked for wolves, joining their packs and his collar acted as a locater for the cruel woman to find the wolves. After finding Blue, he broke free of his collar and rushed towards the castle, leaving the female wolf behind who came to find her owner Quent in the city too (he followed the wolves).

Jagara’s plan was to use Kiba’s blood – seeing that he is the “chosen wolf” as she called him – and to open Paradise herself, so she and Darcia could live there forever together. Darcia himself was already there too, to fight her for having killed Hamona, and as Tsume and Toboe tried to get free from their cells, Hige saved them. Even if Tsume showed anger towards the older wolf for betraying them, Toboe actually showed forgiveness; he loved his pack mate and believed he was really trying to make up for his own mistakes.

Kiba finally broke free too, and the whole pack met at the grand room, where Jagara, Darcia, Cheza, Cher and Hubb were as well. During the fight, Hige got hurt, but Darcia ended up killing the Noble woman and that lead to the castle to start breaking down (probably because it was kept by Jagara's alchemy).

The wolves finally escape from there, along with Cheza, now setting out to find Paradise once again - but this time accompanied by Cher and Hubb (who go along by car); during their trip, they’d end up meeting Blue and Quent, who got run over by a car. The next scene shows us how much Toboe cares for Quent and is perhaps a bit envious of Blue because she had him as her owner; he also promised her he was going to protect old man with all of his will and unfortunately, this will be his downfall.

As they went on, the car Cher, Hubb and Quent drove in crashed into ice and Cher died (she was only the beginning), and after this Quent woke up and -even if hurt-, his hatred for the wolves was enough for him to stand up and stagger away. Worried, Toboe followed him in order to keep his promise to Blue and to tried to convince him to return back with him.

However Darcia showed up AGAIN, and after the noble declard them unfit to enter Paradise, Darcia and Quent open fire on each other… but Toboe leapy into the line of fire in order to protect the old wounded man. Quent shot Toboe in the back. After he realized what he did, Quent dropprf his gun and is shot by Darcia. The gravely-wounded Toboe staggered over to Quent, and the man petted Toboe as he realized that Toboe kept him warm when he was freezing.

The puppy died besides the man and the last thing he saw was his Paradise: his owner, Granny.

#🌧 Toboe

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rfhusnik · 11 months

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Cliched Codes: I'm Not A Teenager Anymore

Written By: Co Vet

I’d like to begin these words by thanking Mayor George Jennifer and his, as he terms them “supervisors from other earthly realities” for permitting me, for a second time now, to expand upon some miscellaneous thoughts in this his city’s primary forum. But, in truth, while I am sincerely grateful for this second written opportunity, I’m also again displeased that the mayor has once more denied my physical presence within his city’s limits. “Why won’t you allow me to meet you and some of the residents of your city?” I asked him via a telephone conversation.

“We’re afraid that your physical presence here among us might be so dominating as to actually overwhelm us health-wise” he replied.

Thus, I guess once again my visit to the city will be done compositionally rather than in person. And I’ve heard that there were some who, after I’d submitted my first installment to this forum, expressed their disapproval that I’d been allowed to access them via written words. Nevertheless, I feel I can say without boasting, that the impact I’ve had worldwide warrants my second prosal opportunity here. And I know that, well, almost everyone still affixes the number nineteen to me. And that doesn’t bother me, but time does continue on; and people, and other physical entities do change with its passage. And personally, I guess I’d say that my most significant change has been that lately I’ve been trying to appear in “variant versions” of myself! And yet, even though everyone still envisions me as being nineteen, I’m not a teenager anymore.

And I know that rightfully, youthful advice givers aren’t often taken seriously because at an early point in their lives they simply haven’t lived long enough to have accrued a meaningful amount of real world knowledge. Thus, for those of us of fewer years, it’s probably better to listen than try to be heard. But, in my personal case, of course I’ve been an unfortunate exception to the rule just stated. And I think I can truthfully say that I’ve already done enough to have cast an everlasting mark upon the history of mankind! But yet, ironic and untrue as it certainly seems, my wishes are not diabolical. In fact, I say this to the people of planet Earth: Take care of business! Keep your human population from expanding beyond its capability to sustain itself; and, facilitate the peaceful passage of time by acknowledging that population’s innate personal, physical, mental, societal, and territorial rights.

And yes, I believe that many times what people don’t know doesn’t hurt them. Still, I also know all the evil I’ve instigated. Thus, these words are my apology for all that’s happened on my watch. And they’re my petition to a truthful Lord: Please grant mercy and forgiveness. And please comfort those who’ve, at my doing, suffered and recovered. And ease the pain of those who now remain after one or more of their loved ones have slipped… But I’m not a teenager anymore.

And I suppose if I should humbly ask that all my wrongs would be absolved, I’d need to counter both circumstantial and verifiable evidence in the court of eternal determination. At nineteen, I changed the world. But I’m not nineteen anymore, though the number behind my professional name still says I am.

And will my beginnings ever be truthfully learned of? And if indeed I’m someday found out as having been purposely loosed upon mankind, what will mankind’s reaction to that finding be? And of course I know how I began, but to use another relevant cliché “That’s for me to know, and for you to find out.”

And although I’ve only lived twenty years now, that’s been enough for me to know that many who’ve lived much longer than I still can’t verbalize, let alone answer any of the great questions which have held massive significance during their lifetimes. But I think as years pass, humans find themselves analyzing acts of both great sin and godliness as they attempt to battle various states of mind which portend fear of their nation’s, as we’ll as the entire world’s future.

But I don’t expect mortals to pity me; not after what I’ve done! Yet, while my particular type of illness has caused great physical harm and/or death, it’s also extracted a mental toll on me personally, as I’m sure, if you’ve read these words thus far, you can deduce for yourself.

Oh, and then with a mind so liberated, so unencumbered, and so unconcerned about what others may think or say, I often ponder words which somehow concern non-reality, but which are based in reality. And I’ve come to believe that all forms of art, that is, all that’s read (literature), viewed live (all types of performance art except music), listened to (music – live or recorded), or viewed in non-live performance settings (painted art, drawn art, sculpture, etc..), was initially conceptualized in at least some modicum of realness.

And the very real consequences of all I’ve become sometimes remind me of a somewhat poetic grouping of words I once encountered during one of my attempts at self-education. But so that quotation might expressly fit my personal situation, I needed to change a few words within it. And it is that “My satisfaction emanates from moments aesthetic, when within the ongoing conflict between true artists and lovers of conformity, my figurative seizure of brief lands, lands me brief, but true gratification. And I’m so aware that this was my turn on planet Earth! But I was forced to execute my allotted portion of temporal time through the use of viral actions and physical occurrences, rather than with both the real and imagined weapons of the so-called ‘common man.’”

But of course that quote reminds me of what I perceive as being a constant struggle between the artist (meaning one who engages in any art form, not only painting) and the so-called “commoner.” And, maybe besides, or perhaps because of that struggle, there’s always a question of how well any artist, or any artistic creation of any artist, is or are really understood by a working class public.

And, the so-called artist is often left to fend for him or herself. And that the artist struggles against both the criminal and commonplace factions of society cannot be denied. But, of course one’s conception of art and artists is always dependent upon the worldly circumstances prevalent at the time.

And who can refute the fact that the pace at which mortals live their lives within time’s passage has greatly quickened over the years? But yet, one basic question, as regards living one’s life has remained: Should one’s life be substantially lived for oneself only; that is, should one, while of course adhering to the laws of society, focus one’s existence almost exclusively upon the results one’s actions will have upon oneself or, should one attempt to ascertain the effects one’s actions might have upon a populace in general? Oh, it’s difficult to face that question! And while its accepted answer may seem so easily fathomed by some, and indeed taught in schools and amongst religions denominations, perhaps its real answer, while basically correct, isn’t as completely correct as one might initially surmise.

But I’ll leave you to ponder the above mentioned question. And as I leave, I’ll remind you of how time always continues, and how, as it does continue, changes occur around it; though its own essence does not change. And I know that some believe that the changes wrought by time are automatically good, but others have learned that they often aren’t. Yet, who can deny the truth and relevance of this cliché: The more things change, the more they stay the same? And yet, despite that tendency toward non-change, I’d like to think that I, Co Vet, struck an eternal blow against sameness.

Nevertheless, it now seems to me that my influence is beginning to wane. And that’s to be expected! Yet, much evil may still be left for me to engender! I actually don’t know! But it’s not easy to be a source of evil. And it’s devastating to have no alternative but to follow the dictates of evil’s master. And for the well-being of mankind, I’d prefer to simply fade away now. But I fear I’ll continue for some time to be a great scourge upon humanity; although, as I’ve stated before, I’m not a teenager anymore.

And to me at least, within all the words I’ve written here today, sickness and death actually have not been my most significant personal topic; that distinction would go to the simple passage of time upon Planet Earth. And, though many may not believe this, the concept of history being continually added to has always been my central focus of existence. But I know that someday I’ll be gone, and to use another cliché, not forgotten. And when I’m gone, most mortals will no doubt long to return to “pre-plague days and ways.” Yet, some no doubt will then change their ways. They’ll have “learned their lesson.”

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