#ah yes the context that doesn't really make it make more sense

[captainjacklyn]

Love, Love, Love Part 2-ish

A/N : continuation of this and this, hope you liked the first part because I'm on an absolute roll. To all those waiting for a continuation of many of my series, I am so sorry. I'm serious guys pls forgive me I know it's been a really long time since and I still need to finish other requests I started.

Context : Rollo gets transferred to NRC for a few months, The Headmaster decides that he would be staying at Ramshackle Dorm much to Malleus' dismay (along with grim and the first years who are aware of the truth). Yuu doesn't find it nice either but with time they allow the third year to open up to them, eventually growing mutual respect for one another, perhaps some friendship..and a bit more.

Warning(s) : fluff, mostly crack, hints of rollo liking Yuu, this is a continuation of some sort to my joke so pls understand that it isn't from the beginning, Rollo might be OOC he's just scared of Yuu, they/them pronouns for Prefect, the first years who weren't present in glorious masquerade find out and try to push rollo away. (it doesn't work) is this stolen from peter rabbit ? Yes. Most. but not all of it.

The story starts...now ?

Something suspicious was stirring around the 'relationship' between Yuu and the strange newcomer. At least it looked like it to their close friends who were already bitter about the idea of that religious trauma-induced student coming but even more so when that horrible influence hung around their prefect.

It wasn't as if they didn't trust Yuu, they didn't trust him ! He was being all close with their mom friend pal, knowing what he did, they weren't going to stand around and do nothing. They're gonna do something about it, about him.

It all began the day the Adeuce duo and Epel witnessed Yuu casually speaking with grey haired priest and HE WAS SMILING?! OH HELL NAH GET YOUR EYEBALLS OFF OF THEM- but truly they misunderstood, for now at least, since most of the resident's interactions regarded around Yuu, threatening Flamm..Of ripping his guts out.

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"Ace, Deuce!" Grim shouted through the halls as he ran towards them, the both of them turned around to see the raccoon panting and wheezing from his sprint. "Hey there Grim- Woah what was that?~ You trynna imitate being a cheetah now?" Ace teased, his remark making the fire cat retort with a 'hey!' before Deuce stepped in to ask the obvious question. "What's wrong?" forgetting his comeback, Grim immediately switched back to panic mode.

"My Henchman! A-A-And that weird suspicious dude! They're SPENDING TIME TOGETHER AND BEING ALL WEIRD MUSHY LOOKING!" He exclaimed, his revelation shocking the two freshmen who's eyes widened in horror. "What- How?! Didn't prefect say they hated that guy?" Ace sputtered as he tried making sense of the situation, he was a bit confused as to why he was reacting this way but with the amount of braincells left he couldn't care anymore.

"That's what I thought! But this morning I found them- laughing and talking to each other!" he added more fuel to the fire, ace and deuce exchanged concerned glances and spoke in unison. "We gotta get the others."

"Yes !" Grim smiled as he threw a fist in the air. It took a good second for him to realize they didn't say what he thought they would.

"...Wait what- AH!" But he didn't have time to argue as they grabbed him by the neck and made their way to find the others.

Passing through Savannaclaw, Pomefiore and Diasomnia almost felt like an eternity to fetch Jack, Epel and Sebek. Especially the half-fae as he was persistent on the idea of staying by his future king's side during the entire duration of Rollo's stay. After sharing the news, they all bolted to Ramshackle dorm, and there they saw it.

Yuu was having a conversation with the same young man that dropped them down a trap door when they came around for a celebration. The same young man who tried to erase magic forever. And they were speaking like they've been friends for years.

The group of first years were hiding behind a tree, in between the gates of the not-so-abandoned dorm. All of their heads comically poking out to take a peek at the flabbergasting sight. "That's a lot of smiling." Epel commented as he watched the prefect supposedly laugh at something Rollo said. (They weren't, they quite literally started to laugh because of Rollo's genuinely terrified face) "More than before even." he continued, Ace added on with another remark, "They're showing a lot of teeth."

Then, Jack made a very bold statement which earned collective noises of disgust from the rest of the team. "Do you think they like him?" Sebek's face morphed into horror, Grim started gagging, Deuce looked like he was going through fifty existential crisis all at the same time, meanwhile Ace was debating on what he should express. Either way they were all mortified.

"They don't like him, they're just being nice! Yuu is nice all the time, they always smile at us!" the grey monster retorted, denying any further supposition. "Well..not like that." They flipped their heads towards the pair, and Yuu's hand rested on Rollo's shoulder as he chuckled nervously.

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"Could you imagine? You trying to take over the world again? What a joke ! I would bury you alive honestly!" the non-magic student exclaimed as they broke into another loud laughter. Rollo could only nod along a little offended but mostly nervous, "Right yes no that would- that won't ever happen." "Yes because I will actually force-feed you the flowers you tried killing us with."

"😨"

"😄"

Yay. Part 3 coming up soon.

[randomwriteronline]

@waters-turn also for u

The Porygon made a curious buzzing noise as it looked between the two men, just as interested in them as they were in it.

"That is certainly not a normal sound for a pokémon to make," Ingo noted.

"Oh thank goodness," Laventon sighed in relief, "So you do understand my concern regarding this baffling beast. Rei insists that the inherent existence of something like this is nothing to be worried about, but in the same breath he tells me apparently it is man-made and I just--"

"If it could ease your worries, professor, Bronzors and Bronzongs are derived from human artifacts as well," the warden interrupted his slow descent into slight panic.

His free hand tentatively went to try and pet the top of the polygonal ducky-shaped creature, phasing through it for a moment.

"Oh, yes, I'm aware of that, but this is not possession or incarnation, this is-" and the scientist very carefully set his own cup of tea down on his desk to spread his palms around the beastie like a halo, not touching it at all "-From what I've gathered we are talking about purely artificial life. A living being, made in a laboratory like this! By humans!"

"Terrifying. And yet so intriguing!"

"I'll be stuck at terrifying I'm afraid. Also your hand is going through its skin."

"Ah, yes, I'm aware. It does not sink far though - after only a few centimetres my fingers are already resting on something solid."

The prospect of new information for his studies, even about something so concerningly mysterious, was enough for the professor to put aside his horror for a little while as he grabbed a pencil and a more thorough copy of the pokédex, quickly skimming through it to find the Porygon page so he could scribble down the new data (which thankfully, seeing as it came from a reputable source, he would not have to empirically test by himself).

"So would you say it has a layer of... Fur? Feathers? Something reminiscent of them?" he asked genuinely curious.

Ingo kept absentmindedly scratching the beastie's head: "Not really," he commented, "It doesn't quite feel like something of the sort. It seems more as if the collision had been... Badly placed, I suppose I could put it. As if its body was... Er, as if it were larger that the actual thing, if that makes any sense to you."

Unexpectedly, the professor did nod: "So it does not feel like either, but it enhances its size as if it were... Is it inconsistent, then?"

"Mostly, yes," the warden agreed. Porygon buzzed again, causing a ripple of strange energy to seep painlessly into his skin with a curious familiarity.

"Mostly?"

"It does hold a certain amount of static electricity, but it is not hurtful at all."

"Must be for its Normal typing..."

"Normal?" he noted, surprised. "I believed it to be Electric. It seems to me like something that would have made great sense, somehow."

The other man scribbled more: "Rei noted the same. Or Steel type, he mentioned that as well."

"I quite like Steel types," Ingo mumbled. "They are comfortingly solid. I don't actually believe I've ever had any Electric types before Magnezone unlike my brother - I'm not sure why that was. I'm no stranger to more hazardous pokémon after all."

"You have a brother?"

White eyes blinked. The warden raised his gaze to meet an equally surprised one.

"Hm?" he hummed, not having payed attention.

"A brother!" Laventon repeated with a slight emphasis: "You mentioned one, right now!"

Had he?

The professor nodded, eyes wide, almost excited - it was hard to find someone who did not seem excited at the prospect of Ingo remembering anything, even when it was only something useless and pointless and without context, to the point where sometimes figuring his memories out managed to strike him as more frustrating than the amnesia itself.

He shook his head once or twice, trying to recall what exactly he had said or thought about just a moment earlier that might have unlocked his brain ever so slightly.

"You said something about Electric types," the professor was quick to help: "I believe he has a fondness for them?"

"Ah," the other just replied, "Maybe so, yes."

What a silly endeavour, though - trying to remember someone based on their favorite pokémon type. There were plenty of people had a fondness for a specific one, it really wasn't such an uncommon denominator! Just look at Melli for example, or Gaeric, or Elesa since we were talking about Electric types! What else could that help him remember about a person, anyways? That he liked Bugs too, and would have terrorized Captain Cyllene by accident if he'd ever met her? But again that didn't apply just to him, there was an entire Bug type gym after all, and it was one of the most common types - and he wasn't the kind of person to settle for common, wasn't he now, no, he certainly wasn't, or they wouldn't have spent all that dreadful time in that damp cave desperately digging left and right to find him a Tynamo until their hands were red - and after all that trouble they went through for that flimsy little thing he even got electrocuted because they had no pokéballs and was forced to hold it in his hands! He wouldn't have even felt the static in Porygon's abnormal body if he'd touched it, by now.

Laventon waited a few seconds for the gears to finish turning in the warden's head, patiently, eager to help, to prod at the fog of his memories with more questions or suggestions if needed.

He watched the paler man blink and furrow his brows slightly. Then he stood, without a jolt, without any sudden movement; his hand opened to let the cup it held crack into ceramic shards onto the carpet as he leaned heavily on anything that might have stopped his body from careening after it, and the professor jumped to his feet to rush to get him before his knee slammed down on the floor, and realized in that moment he was shaking worse than a Snorunt in a blizzard.

The epiphany hit with a delay, or maybe it was the man's anatomy that had grasped it in advance.

Something garbled, horrified, mournful, scared beyond belief came out of Ingo's mouth as he clawed at it, and no word he knew could help him explain himself for hours as he cried so hard he could barely breathe.

[masterjedilenawrites]

Darling

But then you felt him move beside you; not away, but closer. Hope overshadowed doubt and you lifted your eyes...

Cobb Vanth x fem!virgin!reader | 3.3k words

Content: spice [18+ only], virginity, kissing, caressing/fondling, soft and slow, PIV, water, verbal consent, friends to lovers

From this request about reader asking their best friend to be their first. Start there for context or check out other character options.

[18+ only below the cut, please and thank you]

As Cobb's warm gaze met yours, looking down at you with so much care, and perhaps just a little bit of amusement, you swallowed down the last of your misgivings. You'd said it yourself; you trusted Cobb. Of course he wouldn't reject you or think less of you or in any other way make this awkward.

"Are you sure?" he asked, his voice low but earnest. "Is that really something you want?"

You nodded your head, at a sudden loss for words.

"With me?" he pressed, scooting even closer, as if he needed to see the truth in the whites of your eyes.

"O-only if you want to," you stammered out. "I don't want you to feel pressured, or, or, uncomfortable..."

He cut you off by taking hold of your hands. His were wrapped in fingerless gloves. The coarse texture of the gloves pressed into your hands, giving an odd sense of comfort, while the coolness of the skin from the tips of his fingers sent a jolt of nerves through you as they lightly rested by your wrists.

"I feel honored," he said with a small smile. "I had no idea you were still a virgin. And knowing that now, I want make sure your first time is spent with someone who truly cares about you. You deserve that."

He let go of one of your hands to bring his up to your face, cupping the side of it and rubbing a gentle line across your cheek with his thumb. Your heart seemed to grow more forceful against your chest with each thump. Was this really happening?

"Are you ready now, or did you want some time to..." he started to say, but you quickly shook your head.

"No, I don't want to wait any more."

Cobb's face broke into a grin as he chuckled. "Ah, that's right, you're tired of waiting. Of course."

You couldn't help but join in the laughter and it helped settle some of your nerves.

"Okay, we'll take it slow," he said, already starting to lean in closer. "Anything you don't want to do, anything that doesn't feel good, you let me know, okay?"

You nodded.

"Out loud," he said softly with a smile. He'd stopped moving and was still looking at you for an answer.

You swallowed the last of your nerves and gave him verbal assurance. "Okay."

He smirked, satisfied, and then closed the gap between your faces. His lips were so incredibly gentle on yours, pressing just enough to be felt but not demanding more. The whiskers of his beard tickled your chin. He lingered for a moment and then pulled away.

"Was that your first kiss, too?" he asked, his warm breath fanning against your lips as he spoke.

Your eyes fluttered open; you didn't even remember closing them, too focused on what it felt like to have him kiss you.

"Yes," you breathed, closing your eyes in anticipation of the next kiss. If you'd kept them open, you would've seen the small, proud smirk Cobb wore right before he kissed you again.

The second press of his lips was a little firmer, and his hand came up to cup around your jaw and hold you in place. After a few suckling movements between you, he took advantage of your opening mouth to slip in his tongue. The sensation took you by surprise at first, and then quickly became so exciting and pleasurable that you let out a little moan.

Cobb chuckled and withdrew, still holding your jaw. You were flushed, both from the heat of the moment and your embarrassing noise. Though Cobb was certainly more amused by it than you.

"Having fun?" he breathed out a laugh.

You could only look up at him sheepishly. All the confidence you'd had earlier as you asked him for this had vanished somewhere in between his kisses.

"Here, why don't you lay down. Get more comfortable." He quickly tried to move you past your shyness and patted the dock behind you. It didn't look comfortable, but you trusted his guidance and shifted to lie down. It actually felt nice to stretch out your back; you hadn't realized how strained your muscles had become from the day's more harrowing moments.

"Comfortable?" Cobb asked as he stretched out next to you, leaning over your frame just enough to be able to reach for the next round of kisses.

You nodded. But he didn't immediately kiss you. He ran a hand up and down your side, over your clothing. Never groping or playing, just exploring. He looked at you again.

"Is this okay?"

You nodded again, and just in the knick of time remembered your were supposed to voice your consent aloud. "Yes."

Then he leaned in, and for a while that's all you did. Make out and caress. It didn't take long for your own hands to start roaming across his body as well. It was a nice moment, but after a while it felt too safe. Too slow.

"Cobb..." you managed to get out. He only hummed and moved his lips toward your jaw. "You do remember I was hoping to get to more than second base, right?"

He laughed, louder than his previous breathy chuckles. You could never be upset with him like this. He always had such a good humor about things. If you weren't careful, you'd start yearning for something more within this experience.

"Don't worry, sweetheart," he said as he pulled away to get a proper look at you. He tenderly brushed some hair off of your neck. "I'm trying to work you up to that. Part of the fun is getting there."

You weren't sure what look you were holding on your face that caused him to laugh again. He dipped down to give you a few quick pecks and then starting sitting up.

"Come on."

He held out his hands. You took them hesitantly and he helped hoist you to your feet alongside him. Then he brought his fingertips to brush along your collarbone, just above the shirt you wore.

"May I?" he asked, his voice returning into something low and sultry. You weren't sure what, exactly, he was asking. He hummed. "Me first, then."

He took your hands and moved them toward the hem of his shirt. Now you were catching on. Your breath hitched as you took hold of the fabric and started to lift it over his head. This was not the first time you'd seen your friend topless. He often took quick dips in the public pool or hosed himself off in the showers after a long day's work. Sometimes you'd join him, keeping your own top on. But those moments had been purely practical, a way to cleanse off sweat and grime and nothing more. Now you were seeing him bared before you in a different way. It sent chills down your spine.

You hesitantly reached out to touch him, to smooth your palms along the expanse of his chest. He leaned down and gave you another kiss in response.

You quickly took the lead in getting the rest of his clothes off. One by one, you discarded each item onto the deck below. His gloves, his boots, his pants... You hesitated with the last item, having noticed a very prominent bulge against the fabric and suddenly feeling all excited and nervous again.

"Allow me," he said, taking over and sliding the briefs down past his thighs and kicking them off his ankles. There he was... fully, completely, and unabashedly exposed in front of you. The moonlight was bouncing off the water behind him and creating a sort of glow around his slender frame. His hips were so narrow. That was a detail you'd picked out a long time ago. And now without any belts or clothing to obscure it, he looked leaner than ever. A trail of silver fuzz led down his navel to the sight demanding your attention. He wasn't fully hard yet, but there was enough to give you an idea what you'd be dealing with. The only thing you could think at first was that he was a man.

And then you found yourself fighting against the urge to look away. The reminder that this was your friend was a powerful one, one you didn't quite know how to handle just yet. You'd asked him for this. He'd consented. It was okay. And yet, you still feared you had no right to see him like this. 

Cobb stepped forward, bringing your confusing feelings back into focus.

"Are you ready for your turn?" he asked, gently laying his now bare hands on your upper arms.

"Yes," you decided.

While you hadn't exactly rushed to undress him, you also hadn't taken as much time as he was now in undressing you. He slowly slid your shirt up your torso, and as soon as it cleared your head, he was caressing and kissing some of the newly exposed skin along your stomach and arms. Then he crouched to do the same with your shoes and pants, taking his time in getting each article off, and then taking some more time to run his hands along your thighs and to kiss along the insides of your knees. The whole thing was very exhilarating, and you were starting to see what he meant by working you up to greater things. There was a warmth in your gut, a wetness starting pool in your panties. Even in your limited knowledge of such things, you knew they were signs of your body preparing for more.

He took off your panties next, while he was still kneeling, but did not spend time kissing that area. He'd come back to that later. He stood and worked on the last piece left on you, your bra. This is where he ended up spending the most time. Each strap slid off one at a time and his mouth descended on the sensitive skin along your collarbone after each one. Then he unhooked the back and let the thing fall unceremoniously. For the first time, you could see his eyes filled with something other than care for your wellbeing. He was lusting after you.

"You really are beautiful, you know," he whispered.

You could tell he was holding himself back. He may have been doing this for you, but who were you to deny him some pleasure for himself?

"Please," you whispered back. "Keep touching me."

With permission he dove in, cupping your breasts and kissing and licking all around them. He was much more hurried now, and after lavishing your chest for a minute he found his way back up to your lips and kissed you harder than he had before.

You moaned into the kiss and he took the opportunity to tilt his head and deepen it. You brought your arms up around his neck and carded your fingers through his hair. He pressed his body to yours, his hands grabbing the supple flesh of your ass. There was a moan, but you couldn't tell if it was yours or his. And there was the unmistakable shape of his ever-growing cock twitching along your lower stomach.

Cobb's kisses moved from your mouth to behind your ear and down your neck. His grip on your body loosened slightly to give him room to bend down. You found you couldn't moan anymore, only gasp at each electric sensation that scattered across your skin.

Suddenly, Cobb's hands grasped at the backs of your thighs and you found yourself being hoisted upward. Your legs instinctively wrapped around his hips - those deliciously narrow hips that felt perfect within your hold. The folds of your cunt were now resting along his length and you gasped again.

Cobb started walking down the dock, kissing your shoulder a few times while trying to watch where he was going. You bounced a little as his hips shifted back and forth from the walk and you couldn't help but lean into the movements. He was rubbing against you in just the right way to start making you feel the very thing you'd been after.

"That's it, sweetheart," he husked in your ear, reaching the end of the dock and turning to walk down the bank, back toward the water. "Make yourself feel good."

As you continued to buck against him, he carefully waded into the water. You could feel yourself becoming more weightless as he carried you further in. Eventually you were both up to your shoulders, but still clinging to each other. Once you'd adjusted to the change, your lips found each others' again.

You much preferred these passionate kisses to his slower ones. Maybe one day you could savor them more once you settled into the feeling of being so vulnerable with him.

One day?

You stopped yourself. What were you thinking, one day and once? As if there would be more of this between you? As if you were working toward something rather than the once-in-a-lifetime moment you'd proposed it to be?

Cobb could sense you suddenly tensing up and immediately pulled himself off you.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," you quickly gasped out.

"Are you sure?" His eyes were still blown wide, and his erection still pressed insistently between you, but you knew all you had to do was say the word and he'd walk away without complaint.

Gods, he was so infuriating good to you. You loved him. There was no other way to make sense of these confusing feelings.

"Cobb..." you started without any clue where your words were headed next. All you knew was you couldn't use this man. Not like this. "I... I love you."

Well, turned out you weren't headed far, as your brain spit out the one thing it was fixated on the most. There were so many other things to say first, to explain how you got to this point and why you didn't want this with him if it couldn't mean more than simply crossing an item off the bucket list.

Predictably, Cobb's eyes grew wide at the admission.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have just blurted that out--"

"Do you mean it?" he asked. Breathed, was more like it. Like he couldn't believe it. You supposed you could've played it off, saved yourself the trouble of ruining the one chance you'd likely get at losing your virginity. But no. You really did love him. Of course you couldn't say anything other than the truth.

"I do. I really do."

"Oh darling," Cobb choked out what could've been construed as a sob, though you'd never know for sure as he captured your lips in a kiss once more. Desperate was the word to describe this one. You were surprised but let him indulge for a few moments before pushing him off to set your questioning eyes onto him.

"I have loved you for as long as I can remember," he breathed out, resting his forehead against yours. He let go of his support under one of your thighs and brought the wet hand to cup the back of your neck.

"Have you really?" You were in shock. Blissful, ecstatic shock.

"Yes, I really have," he smiled.

"But... why... how... didn't you ever want to make a move?"

His humor was returning, though he didn't seem in the mood to fully let go of the desires he'd spent the last hour working up. You'd thought it had been the waves of the water that had kept gently knocking your bodies together, but then you realized he was the one maintaining the subtle rhythm, keeping the fire stoked just enough should you wish to set it ablaze again. "Oh it definitely crossed my mind a few times. But I wasn't going to come on to you unless you wanted it. A girl like you deserves to be treated right."

You smiled, unable to believe this was where your evening had ended up. "You deserve to be treated right, too, Cobb. That's why I don't want this unless you do, too. For real."

He smiled back, rocking into you just a little firmer to accentuate his intentions. "I want you. I want all of you. I want to be your first. I want to be the only one for you."

"Then take me," you whispered.

The next half hour was a display of a different kind of energy than before. What was previously gentle and exploratory was now urgent and needy. All groping hands and panting breaths and entangled limbs. Cobb still held you with tenderness, never using so much force that he hurt you. You didn't have quite as much restraint, your nails digging into his shoulders in a constant effort bring him closer, closer, closer.

"I'm close," you whimpered out eventually. You knew from reading some more salacious books that was something people tended to say. You'd never been sure how they knew when that moment came, but you certainly did now. You had something building rapidly, divinely inside of you. You seemed moments away from not being able to handle it at all.

He was buried inside of you, unable to thrust too deeply in the water, but the weight of him could still be felt within your walls. He had rocked himself in slowly so the stretch hadn't been unbearable. It was an odd feeling, one you were already eager to replicate as many times as you needed to get more used to it, but for now you could simply describe it as feeling full.

His thumb now pressed in relentless circles on your clit, helping you the rest of the way there. You sucked in a breath as you fell over the edge, an entirely new sensation overcoming you to the point where you couldn't even breathe. You clung to Cobb, unable to do much else as you rode it out. A part of you knew he'd appreciate more verbal displays of your ecstasy. Maybe the next time you'd be more prepared and could do that for him.

You eventually regained a shuddering breath, gasping and panting into Cobb's neck as you rode through the last few waves of pleasure. You didn't realize until a few moments later that he had since removed himself from you and was using his other hand to pump himself through his own orgasm. You weren't sure what to do to help him along. That'd be something else you'd need to learn for next time, too.

"Oh darling," he groaned as his finished his release, nuzzling into your neck and holding you tightly as you bobbed gently in the moonlit water.

"Thank you, Cobb," you decided to say.

Cobb chuckled and looked down at you, running a wet hand through your hair. "Well, was that everything you thought it would be?"

You released a laugh of your own, feeling spent but satisfied. "That was nothing like I thought. And I don't just mean the sex. I mean..."

"Us," he nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I didn't expect that either. But damn if I'm not happy about it."

He kissed you, so much more chaste than any of the others, mainly because the two of you couldn't stop smiling through it.

"You know what the best part is?" he asked, and you could feel him start to pull you along in the water, back toward the shore.

"Hmm?"

"After we get all dry, put on some fresh clothes, get a fire going in the cabin... I get to hold you tonight."

"Big dream of yours?" you teased.

"Mmhmm," he mumbled into your shoulder, just as it breached the surface of the water.

"Well, keep acting like such a gentleman, and you'll get to hold me every night. For as long as you like."

His lips simply smiled against your skin as he carried you out of the water and toward an eagerly awaited new future together.

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[pinkprimrose05]

SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED YUGIOH ARC-V

So yesterday I decided to start rewatching ARC-V (for the second time, at the behest of a friend who just got into the show), and, well... shit.

There is a hint of foreshadowing I missed, and it's in Episode fucking One to boot.

Unfortunately, this hint is entirely lost in the English dub (edit: I stand corrected, it's still there, just not as explicitly obvious), and I can't seem to find any source for the Japanese dialogue of the episode (not that it'd help much, in the end; I can't read Japanese for shit and am mostly going off the romanization of structures I only barely understand). But why is this relevant here, you ask?

Well, allow me to explain.

There are several ways of referring to oneself (or one's possessions) in Japanese. You're probably already familiar with first person pronouns 私 (Watashi), 僕 (Boku), and 俺 (Ore), all of which mean "I" in English, and each of which is used by different sorts of people in different sorts of situations.

In the context of ARC-V, Yuuya normally uses Ore when referring to himself, and Ore no for possessions. But being the expert performer he is, he puts on a faux-formal persona for Entertainment Duels, so in addition to giving extra flair to...literally everything he says, he switches to the more polite Watashi and Watashi no for a more, ah, charming impression.

(In comparison, Yuzu already uses Watashi, as it is also the most common pronoun for girls. Gongenzaka defaults to the "manly" Ore, and Sora uses the softer male pronoun Boku and its derivative).

Now the kicker here is that, from the moment Yuuya acquires Pendulum until the end of his Duel with Ishijima, he uses none of the aforementioned pronoun sets. Instead, he switches to the first person pronoun 我 (Ware) and possessive pronoun 我が (Waga), which are now considered a stiff, archaic, and outdated way to refer to oneself, mainly used in fiction by characters with a strong sense of dramatic flair.

But Pink, isn't that basically Yuuya getting really into the entertainer persona?

... well yes, but actually no. I would have written this off as another flashy quirk of his, had it not occured to me that:

1) This is not a one-off occasion, and it only repeats in specific situations. I mean, we don't see this particular pronoun switch making another appearance until the tail end of Episode 39... when Yuuya goes into the Awakened state for the "first" time.

He doesn't talk much when he's like that (which, yeah, fair enough; I can't focus on talking and doing full combo at the same time either), but you may notice that his Pendulum summoning chant changes from "Appear now, my monsters!" (Arawareyo, ore no monsuta-tachi!) to "Come out, my monster servants!" (Ideyo, waga shimobe no monsuta-tachi yo!)

And guess what? The same happens in Episode 1, when he does the very first Pendulum summon.

2) The personal pronoun Ware is not only used by melodramatic characters, but also by those that view themselves as distant from, and/or superior to everyone else. Ancient spirits, magical entities, you get what I mean here...

And it sounds kinda familiar, doesn't it?

An egotistic crackhead with a strong superiority complex, who still strives for drama and entertainment despite his twisted ways. You know him. I know him. Everyone knows him.

He's been trying to hijack Christmas for six years now, after all.

...God fucking dammit.

Yes, Zarc is the only character with enough theatre kid energy to use Ware as his default personal pronoun. And yes, Yuuya copies that aspect every time magical Pendulum fuckery is involved... which, admittedly, would not register as foreshadowing until you have context for what it's supposed to be foreshadowing in the first place.

.. And it still flew over my head entirely in the first rewatch. So much for a resident theorist, lmao.

Seriously though, I think this is pretty brilliant. Sure, it's a niche linguistic detail that requires prior knowledge of the ending to understand, but it hints towards a great mystery behind the origins of Pendulum summoning, which is very damn cool, if I do say so myself.

It's worth mentioning that I also watched Episode 2, which doubles down with the more obvious, but no less neat hint of placing Yuuya on the "antagonist" side of the Duel screen against Yuzu in their exhibition match thingy.

See, this is why I love ARC-V so much. One of the greatest joys of watching this show is finding all the hidden puzzle pieces and going "Oh, so THAT'S what they meant when they did this!", and it never fails to amaze me every time.

This has been Volume 1 of Pink's ARC-V Highlights™, and I'll definitely be back with more... whenever I find another dumb tidbit to hyperfixate on.

'Till then, my Duelist friends!

[misc-obeyme]

It's funny, your post on Salomon reminded me of one of my MCs when she interargues with the brothers. It's an MC who's 50 years old and I assumed that the brothers didn't have a good idea of what was old for a human. So they act with this MC as if she were 80 (which amuses Salomon a lot because he knows very well that 50 is not old for a human, and it's made even more amusing by the fact that she's my most powerful MC). 1/2 -^^

Ah yes, I think this is exactly why I tend to consider how Solomon would react to an aging MC. Because even if he hasn't experienced aging that way himself, he's seen it all of his long life. Whereas demons and angels probably only understand it in the context of oh this human used to be around, but now they're not.

I don't think that prior to MC, the demons or angels interacted enough with humans to know what their aging is like. So it makes sense that they would be like 50 must be old for a human lol.

I've also thought about the aging of demons and angels. It seems to me like this is a piece of lore that the game just conveniently doesn't address because of course they want us to have hot demon and angel love interests. But if we put that aside and consider what we have and what we know - it seems to me that demons at the very least are semi immortal. They can die, either from illness or a curse or some terrible accident, but they don't age. We've never seen an elderly demon, as you said. I like to think they could make themselves look older or younger if they really wanted to. But I think they come into existence fully formed - as with Satan - and just... stay like that.

At least, that makes the most sense to me with what we know.

And I suspect it's a similar situation for angels. Though we have no confirmation that angels have candles in the reaper's caves (as we saw with the brothers and Beel in the OG), so it's possible that angels also can't die from illness/injury/etc.

Solomon just lucked out by becoming immortal at a young (ish) age, I think. He was born and aged like a normal human until he became immortal and then he stopped aging. I would say he could probably die from injury or a curse (Thirteen seems to think it's possible), but he won't ever age like other humans do. However, considering he's spent most of that long life time living among other humans, he's experienced aging in a way that the demons and angels never have.

I think the demons would care for and protect an aging MC. But I don't know if they would fully understand what that aging means until MC is gone. It'd be their first time being close to a human through the entire later part of their life. I'm sure they've encountered old humans, but watching them as they go from year to year, changing and aging while the demons themselves stay the same? That's definitely a first for them.

I think about this a lot because it really is such a huge piece of the story that the game never addresses. They talk about Solomon being immortal and the ages of the demons, but they never talk about how the demons would deal with MC aging or dying. I think they once had Mammon say something about wanting to spend as much time as possible with someone he loved, even if they were gone soon. But other than that, I can't remember another instance.

And I also think it's really interesting to consider an older MC. I actually started writing a set of headcanons about an MC in their 80s because I thought it'd be really funny. And it started out funny, but then I made myself sad so I never finished it lol.

Anyway, I agree that the demons and angels likely don't really understand the concept of aging and especially not as well as Solomon likely does.

[discar]

HZD Terraforming Base-001 Text Communications Network

Chapter 15 | Prev chapter | Next chapter Chapter Index

ForgeLordAleMaster: SO ALOY, HOW'S SAN FRANCISCO?

FlameHairSavior: Uh, fine, so far. Haven't found the Quen yet.

FlameHairSavior: Where did this come from?

Marshall Kotallo: Zo and Varl are having an argument. I, too, would welcome a distraction.

FlameHairSavior: It's a beautiful area, but there's not really much to talk about. The local Tallneck got stranded in the water.

Marshall Kotallo: Surprising. Those machines are very difficult to so much as inconvenience.

β: probably have major error correction and pathing protocols since theyre central to every other machine in the region

β: and wouldnt one made near the water know to avoid falling in the water

FlameHairSavior: There were some strange currents around it. I think it might have fallen from somewhere else and drifted to where I found it. It's hard to tell what happened?

ForgeLordAleMaster: KOTALLO, ARE THERE ANY TENAKTH IN THE AREA? MAYBE THEY HUNTED IT FOR SOME REASON.

Marshall Kotallo: Not that I know of. As I'm sure you know, no one hunts Tallnecks. And if they did manage to bring such a beast down, they would have spread the story far and wide.

ForgeLordAleMaster: YEAH, THAT MAKES SENSE.

FlameHairSavior: One second, found the Quen.

ForgeLordAleMaster: PUNCH OUT THE BIGGEST ONE, THAT WILL MAKE THE REST RESPECT YOU.

FlameHairSavior: Hush.

----

FlameHairSavior: Well, the Quen found Thebes, and they're willing to help me get inside.

ForgeLordAleMaster: YOU THEIR HERO YET?

FlameHairSavior: No.

FlameHairSavior: Yes. A little.

β: of course

FlameHairSavior: They've elevated a bunch of the Old Ones as gods. I'm not sure to what extent, but EVERYONE in this camp recognizes me as Elisabet Sobeck. It's weird.

Marshall Kotallo: I wonder how they would react to you and Beta at the same time.

ADMIN [GAIA]: I believe you should know that Beta just locked the doors to her quarters.

Marshall Kotallo: Ah. I apologize. I did not mean to offend.

β: its fine im just going to stay here in the dark forever

FlameHairSavior: Can you please not break her further while I'm busy?

FlameHairSavior: I'll be right back, I have to kill a daemonic thunderjaw.

ForgeLordAleMaster: WAIT, WHAT?

----

FlameHairSavior: Thunderjaw dealt with, got more detail.

FlameHairSavior: Good news: Bypassed the door into Thebes. It won't open for anyone but Ted Faro, but I found a tunnel and opened it from the other side.

FlameHairSavior: Bad news: The leader of the expedition thinks he's Ted Faro reborn.

FlameHairSavior: And yes, he thinks that's a good thing.

Zo: Wait, what? How does any of that make sense?

β: oh good shes back

FlameHairSavior: I'm pretty sure it doesn't, in the context of their religion. Every time he opens his mouth, Alva winces.

FlameHairSavior: He made me wear clothes modeled after Elisabet's, so I kind of want to kill him for that alone.

ForgeLordAleMaster: SHOULDN'T YOU OUTRANK HIM OR SOMETHING?

FlameHairSavior: Out of date Focuses mean

FlameHairSavior: Dammit dammit corruptors

Zo: Did you say corruptors? As in the Faro machines?

ADMIN [GAIA]: Visual telemetry indicates that Ted Faro left behind two active FAS-ACA3 Scarab units to guard Thebes. These units were shut down and not connected to any network, and therefore did not receive the shutdown signal.

HIMBO: Everybody just stop texting and let her FIGHT

----

FlameHairSavior: Ted Faro was working on immortality.

HIMBO: Oh, All-Mother's eyes.

Zo: I would prefer literally anyone be immortal besides that man.

ForgeLordAleMaster: IF YOU DO HAVE TO KILL HIM, BE SURE TO RECORD IT.

β: but how even far zenith had a lot of trouble and they had a lot more people working on it

FlameHairSavior: He had some genius scientist in his base. Along with his... harem.

β: science requires peer review one man will inevitably find himself making mistakes and assumptions that lead him down incorrect or at least unproductive paths

β: also what is a harem

FlameHairSavior: Zo, why don't you handle that one?

Zo: I'm busy making dinner.

HIMBO: What? No you're not.

Zo: Yes. I am.

FlameHairSavior: Also Faro put off switches in people's head and was killing them one by one.

Marshall Kotallo: ...I have a feeling I don't want more detail.

----

FlameHairSavior: Faro's alive, kind of, one second things are weird.

ForgeLordAleMaster: KICK HIM IN THE BALLS.

FlameHairSavior: The Ceo's here. Need to make sure he doesn't make everything worse.

Marshall Kotallo: Dare I ask how he would do that?

FlameHairSavior: Dammit he made everything worse.

Zo: What happened?

FlameHairSavior: Deadman switch.

FlameHairSavior: Everything is on fire.

HIMBO: Just get out of there!

FlameHairSavior: WHY ARE THEY STILL SHOOTING AT ME.

----

FlameHairSavior: Okay, Alva and I are out.

HIMBO: Thank the All-Mother.

FlameHairSavior: Uh-oh, Bohai.

Marshall Kotallo: You have not mentioned anyone of that name before.

FlameHairSavior: Priest guy, one minute, might have to kill people.

Zo: I am disturbed that I find that statement perfectly reasonable.

----

FlameHairSavior: Huh, managed to get out of there without killing anyone else.

HIMBO: Did you get the Omega Override?

ForgeLordAleMaster: DID YOU KICK FARO IN THE BALLS?

FlameHairSavior: Yes to the first one, no to the second. Faro was... not really human by this point.

Zo: But he was still alive?

FlameHairSavior: Horribly alive. The Ceo killed him, and that triggered a reactor meltdown because Faro had it built that way on purpose.

FlameHairSavior: Anyway, Alva will be staying at the base with us. Varl, help her get settled in.

HIMBO: Will do.

ForgeLordAleMaster: SO FARO'S DEAD NOW, RIGHT?

FlameHairSavior: Absolutely dead. Buried in his own survival bunker.

ForgeLordAleMaster: WHICH IS HIS GRAVE, BASICALLY.

FlameHairSavior: Yeah, I guess.

ForgeLordAleMaster: ARE YOU GONNA PISS ON IT?

FlameHairSavior: …

ForgeLordAleMaster: PLEASE?

FlameHairSavior: I'm thinking about it.

Zo: Please don't urinate anywhere.

Marshall Kotallo: If nothing else, I would assume he is buried too deeply for the symbolic gesture to be truly meaningful.

β: also if i have the reactor identified correctly there shouldnt be much left but a smear of carbon ash of ted faro

β: or his harem

β: which still no one has explained

FlameHairSavior: Sorry, busy with this boat!

Zo: Still busy with dinner!

HIMBO: Busy helping Zo with dinner!

ForgeLordAleMaster: MAKING NEW STRIKE PIECES.

Marshall Kotallo: I will not lie; I simply don't want to have this talk.

β: i have unresrected

β: i have unristricted access to a dictionary now i can just look it up

β: unrestricted

FlameHairSavior: [WhenItsTheEndOfALongDayAndTheCustomer.png]

FlameHairSavior: We'll talk when I get back.

Chapter 15 | Prev chapter | Next chapter Chapter Index

[symphonic-scream]

Okay wholesome post time

So. This all started with like a little joking idea

"haha since Makoto is the group mom of the Phantom Thieves the others would joke about her kid being their sibling"

And we all know I'm Weak and Gay.

Oh hell yes I wasn't sure that was gonna work I've never done that before fuck yeah

Ahem. Anyways-

That got me thinking. Hey. That's funny. Hehe. And then I thought some more. Gay thoughts. Wholesome, gay thoughts.

And yeah. I think Makoto and Haru would be the most caring, loving parents ever. This is after days of spamming my dear friend with messages about how Haru would totally use the most sugary sweet pet names to fluster poor Makoto, who would totally read books over Haru's shoulder as they cuddled

(this of course all steming from a small idea of "hey what if Haru moved in with Makoto and Sae after losing her dad")

Anyways. I made them mom's.

At first it was this general "ah yes their kid" and then my good friend (@justanotherpersonsuniverse ) was like "if they have a daughter they'd call her their princess cause Queen" and I joked back "haha a son would be a little prince"

And then.

"...okay but what about both-"

And now I'm digging through hours of the fuckin sweetest hcs I've ever come up with trying to put together a post that makes any sense

Okay I forgot a piece of context Sae is boning down with Takemi. Maybe they're dating. Who knows. Not me that's for sure

Fuck uh lemme try to actually make this post ugh

So. I hate the idea of Cop Makoto bleh. So she's a defense lawyer of some kind. Known for taking underdog cases and such or whatever. Haru totally opens up her cafe though, and they live above it in a home that's theirs and warm and GAY ITS SO GAY and when they move in they set up their room, a guest room, and there's a spare room even after Makoto's little study-

And when asked about it, Haru just

"well, we should leave it for now. In case we want to have a little family of our own!"

And boy do they

(they get married first. Haru totally proposes and it spurs Makoto to immediately enter this frenzy that doesn't end until she's used every connection she has to get them legally married)

And later, when everything's settled down, they talk. About their families, parents, fears, hopes- and it all comes to a boil. They believe they can do it together. Be better. Break the cycle. Give their kid a good life.

Eventually, when Haru finds out she's carrying, she tells her big dumbass wife in the softest way possible

("Haru, Dearest, dinner's ready!"

"oh, Love, thank you so much!! Ah, do you mind serving me a little extra?"

"feeling hungry today?"

"hm, not really, but I have to eat for two now, silly"

"haha yeah-"

"..."

"what")

They launch into a frenzy. Haru starts up plans for a nursery in their spare room, and Makoto takes time to have a little chat with their kid each night, incorporating vitamins into her wife's meals, getting special lotions and creams

It's at one of their appointments with Takemi that the other shoe drops

"oh hey, congrats you two. Check it out, second heartbeat."

"t-two?"

That's right fuckers I gave them fucking TWINS

One little prince, one little princess

Yusuke is asked to come paint a mural in the nursery, and the other thieves get so excited for "their new siblings"

And, because I couldn't resist,

They go to have a little chat with an old friend.

("hey Boss. So, neither of us have any parents left, so our kids- they don't have grandparents. And, well, we thought we'd offer the position to you."

*gross Sojiro crying noises*)

Makoto starts doing bottle warming and diaper changing drills. She challenges the other thieves to races. She must be the best mother. Haru thinks it's cute, but draws the line when she notices her wife working herself to the bone. For fucks sake their babies aren't even born yet and Makoto's pushing her limits,

Ah, that's her dumbass though

The day comes eventually. It's a long labour, but eventually a nurse is holding out their first born to a jittery Makoto; "would you like to hold your son?"

So she softly takes the little bundle, stares down at her son- HER SON -with wide, awed eyes, and gently sits at an exhausted Haru's side to show her his little face

"Baby,, look- it's him,,, our son,"

"he's perfect, Mako-chan,,,"

And they're so caught up in their son, that they're jolted when another nurse glides over with another bundle; "are you ready to meet your daughter?"

And man if Makoto wasn't crying before, she sure is now. Everything feels so perfect, she's there with her wife, their son, their daughter; their own little family,,,, but something's missing, still...

Once she's made sure both twins are secure with their Mama, Makoto goes out to greet the crowd waiting in the waiting room

(Makoto: okay ground rules before you guys get to see Haru and the new babies. One, Morgana is not allowed to touch the babies

Morgana: WHAT

Makoto: you're a cat. Germs. Second, hand sanitizer. Everytime you go to touch any of them, apply three squirts. Soak your hands.

Futaba: yes mom

Makoto: 3. No flash photography. You can take three photos each, but no flash. Keep cameras and phones at least four feet from the babies

Ann: you gotcha momkoto!

Makoto: now, ready to meet them?)

It's very soft in that hospital room. The twins are gently passed around, meeting each "sibling". Ryuji breaks into silent tears, holding them like he's never held something more precious. Yusuke just has a look of awe, and mutters about understanding how his mother found such inspiration from him. Joker jokingly calls them the "littlest thieves of hearts" for already stealing all of theirs

Ann can't stop going on about how precious they are and how she's gonna spoil them absolutely rotten and "I need a photo for Shiho SOMEONE GET A PHOTO OF ME WITH THIS BABY MY WIFE NEEDS TO SEE THIS". Futaba, with Morgana on her shoulder, is hesitant to even hold them, instead hovering her fingers over them while Joker holds them. Sumire has this look of complete wonder on her face, even if at times her smile is a little bittersweet. She makes sure to tell both parents how special a pair of twins are

All the thieves agree to help out the new mother's as they adjust to parenthood, especially with twins right off the bat. A rotation comes through every few nights to give them (ahem. Makoto.) A chance to rest. Momkoto herself has three months away from her law office, spending time with her family and running Haru's cafe while she recovers from birth

Their little princess looks almost exactly like Haru, all curly hair and soft eyes. Their prince looks much the same, though his eyes end up a very clear red. Haru was so delighted when she saw them. "MAKO-CHAN HE HAS YOUR EYES"

Futaba buys them little gamer onesies while Sumire brings the twins little toys from the places she travels to for gymnastics

(origin of this screenshot)

Ann swoops in with Shiho to spoil her siblings rotten, with plenty of stylish clothes and fancy European treats. Even once she's got a kid of her own she still spoils the twins. "Uh, duh, I do it because im a great big sister!"

I have so many more thoughts but I'm gonna cut myself off here this is too long already jeez

Anyways. I can't stop talking about this. Talk to me about this.

[no-side-us]

Letters From Watson Liveblog - Dec. 22

The Creeping Man, Part 3 of 3

I don't think it's intentional but I'm going to count Holmes and Watson being in the bushes here as a reference to the earlier stories, like say The Speckled Band, just to create for myself a sense of finality. After all, this is the last case we have before Holmes' retirement! And with everything they've been through, they're still just two guys solving a mystery by hiding in some bushes.

For a story ostensibly set right before Holmes' retirement, I think this is the first reference we've gotten from Holmes himself that he's going to retire. It's an offhand comment too, though him saying "of my dreams" would suggest he's been thinking about this for a while now.

Woah, why would he do that? Not only is it just plain mean, but provoking an angry dog that's been chained up is just asking for it to get loose and attack you. I think that's a pretty common trope actually.

Well, I won't say the Professor deserves it, but it is comeuppance. This also isn't the first angry dog we've seen, so in my head I'm going to see this as another reference to all those previous dogs that have attacked people in these stories.

Remember that other time that guy got his throat ripped out? Doyle's really bringing it home.

Ah yes, the monkey drug case. I had forgotten what this was until now. One of Sherlock Holmes' last cases! One of his last great adventures! The last mystery of the great detective Sherlock Holmes! And it's about a monkey drug.

Jokes aside, I do think it's funny to think that this case is the reason Holmes retired. Like it was either too weird for Holmes or too nonsensical, and he just couldn't deal with it anymore. Bees make more sense than this.

And the Professor did it so he could be younger and marry his coworker's daughter. I thought they were already engaged but whatever, I guess not.

That last line from Holmes though sounds like one of those quotes which are profound on its own but in context is being applied to a very strange situation.

I'm going to assume Holmes doesn't really understand how the drug worked and is thus explaining this through his understanding of the case, not the weird science behind it. Still, a very funny line.

As for my final thoughts, I think ultimately there was a lot of missed potential in this story to establish more parallels between Holmes and Professor Presbury. You have this older, intelligent, learned man, respected by his peers and colleagues with a well-established reputation trying to turn back time and make himself younger. And you have a story set right before Holmes is about to retire! That feels like a great set up for him to see himself in the Professor, reflect about his age, or his legacy, or at least talk more about his retirement plans. Instead it's kind of a standard, interesting mystery.

But also, all that's just my imagination pulling ahead of the way Doyle wrote these stories. Honestly, I don't mind that it's a standard, if not a little stranger, mystery. I don't think Holmes would be the type to think about his age like it was a burden or something holding him back. I think he'd simply wake up one day and go, "I ought to retire," and he would simply leave to play with his bees.

So while I wish this story was a bit more, I'm glad to enjoy it the way it is.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

can you tell me more about draco and the northern oracle 🙏 i wanted to dive more into this when i saw your post about heavenly oracles but all that came up when i searched for the dragon was ladon

Ah yes, I know why that is.

Multiple myths can correlate to the same constellation. Capricorn, for instance, could be this one legendary seagoat who was memorialized for his bravery as a constellation OR it could be a representation of Pan's escape from Typhon as a seagoat.

The Draco constellation is like this - most will say it's to symbolize Ladon, the dragon who guards Hera's golden apples, while others will say the constellation itself is the earth-dragon of Koios's oracle.

Obviously, I think we all know which one I prefer lol

and!!! um!!! maybe I can tell you more, we'll see XD

So. I am of the mind that Draco and Python both coexisted with their respective Titan counterparts - Koios and Phoebe. They both witnessed the Titan War, and while Draco retreated inside Koios's oracle and kinda shut it down to a degree to keep it from falling into the gods' hands (because remember - Draco is on Koios's side here. He would do everything he could to keep it from Olympus.), Python remained neutral with Phoebe.

That is. Until he grew greedy. And wanted Delphi's power for himself. And then got slammed by her grandson lmao

BUT THIS ISN'T ABOUT HIM :D IT'S DRACO TIME :D

I imagine Draco to be kinda an icy-blue and white dragon, resembling the north but also the sky, because that's where he and Koios get their prophecies from (and I see Python as purple & green hence the Earth and all that hehe. Colors!!!).

AH I CAN SHARE MY HEADCANON ON WHERE I THINK THE ORACLE IS AT NOW :D

so context: Koios's oracle is to the North, but not like. the North Pole. The Ancient Greeks weren't aware of such a thing - sure, they believe Koios was the Northern pillar, but not like the North Pole.

This is important to know because Hyperborea, Apollo's eternal spring vacation suit, is located just below where Koios's oracle is!

SO IF WE TAKE OUT MY MAP HERE (yes I have a map for this. i have ADHD what do you expect?)

The Underworld River Eridanos runs through Hyperborea, as seen by the 34 Gray marker on the map^

Gray marker 32 is the location of the Rhipaion Mountains, where Boreas lives. This is the southernmost border of Hyperborea!

Originally I thought Eridanos was like. the Northern border - but no! Sources say that it's the River Oceanus instead.

But the thing is. For this river to be the northern border, then that means Hyperborea takes up like. Bulgaria to Poland. Lithuania. Till it hits the Baltic Sea, at least.

(Wait. oh my gosh...that's how Freypollo happens...ohmygosh EVERYONE I'VE FIGURED IT OUT!

ahem. saves for later <-ask me about it. please.)

anyway. SO THEREFORE HYPERBOREA IS LIKE. WHERE GRAY 33 IS. BUT ALSO FROM GRAY 32 AND UP.

Apollo really just went "See this? It's all mine now." lmaooo XD

that or Boreas was a really good boyfriend <-headcanon i could share too if anybody's curious hehe

BACK TO THE ORACLE NOW.

Delphi is the center of the world to the Ancient Greeks, so if we go North, Koios's would be right about...

Koios has friends in the Norse pantheon confirmed?

guys I'm just spitballing right now. but it makes sense too.

Ancient Greece was aware of the Norse, btw! and, funnily enough, they could have mythologicalized them as...the Hyperboreans.

Freypollo happened y'all it's all right here

And I'm not making that up! It's historically agreed upon that the Hyperboreans in mythology were probably mythological avatars of the Norse! Greece rarely interacted with them, but they still knew of the other's existence. In fact, they were in a bit of awe of the Norse if memory serves correctly lol

Fascinating. Amazing how it all fits together.

Of course, remember this is just me making a crack theory about this Really Obscure Thing so there may be something out there that doesn't add up with this and if there is I Will make it Work with this but all in all, I think it does make sense?

Like seriously I just pulled this out of my head. Only the part above the cut was prewritten but the rest was pure crack theory slammed down.

As for where I think Hyperborea and Koios's Oracle are in the RRverse...

Greenland be covered in snow, yes. But remember Hyperborea is a land of Eternal Spring and would not be deterred by that lol

Plus it'll be typical RRverse shenanigans for Eternal Spring to be in a Very Snowy place lmao

I was tempted to put Koios's Oracle at The North Pole but then I was like ehhh not very accessible, is it?

I can officially say this is my second theory lol hope you enjoyed the rabbit hole :3

[thelemonsnek]

There are a lot of fun questions that come about from a tma-verse. How faithful are we talking. Are they full blown Avatars? Do they have to feed their patron? If so how would they go about it? I do believe a subway system would be pretty rich in targets as they have commuters that come day in and day out.

[vibrating at a speed that shatters glass] I am SO glad you asked

It is very faithful to tma canon, because instead of being eebied to Hisui, Ingo instead ends up in tma London! So the first part of the au is quite literally in tma. There's a whole running gag that Jon used to be into pokemon, and he gives Ingo and Emmet a copy of Pokemon White to play and they mark it with the Spiral and Buried respectively, and eventually it just gets marked by so many different avatars that that's what starts the apocalypse instead of the statement Elias gives Jon. Ingo and Emmet do get back to the pokemon universe before that happens though so it's fineeeeee

(They also bring the entities to the pokemon universe in coming home)

Are they full blown avatars?

Yes they are!! Ingo became an avatar when he became the Distortion, and Emmet became an avatar to escape Ingo's subway :)

For context on that, when Ingo and Emmet first reunited, it. Didn't go well! Because Michael had latched onto Ingo as a perfect victim (he was literally questioning the entire foundation of his reality, how could Michael resist?) and used Ingo's vague memories to torment him with the idea of the man in white

So Ingo doesn't think Emmet is real, and they end up fighting, and in that fight it comes up that Ingo has been eating people bc. He's the Distortion, that's what the Distortion does. And Emmet is like WHAT THE FUCK. THATS NOT OKAY. And anyways things continue and Ingo is convinced of Emmet's realness and is like oohhhh. He was important to the person Ingo. He could make me be that person again (bc the Distortion is a what, not a who, but just like Helen, he wants that anyways)

So he says to Emmet, "I have missed you so much. We can catch up, on the subway" and there, impossibly on the wall, is a sliding door leading to a subway car

Ingo is Emmet's brother. He will always trust him. He walks through the door, and finds himself in an impossible, endless subway

By now their argument has caught up with Ingo, and he's like. Ah. Emmet, the thing that anchored me to myself for the first time, said I shouldn't eat people. So I won't. And he goes on a hunger strike

Problem is, because of him doing that, Emmet can't get out. There is no out

But, a pressure at the back of his head whispers, there is a way down. And he Becomes, and begins to understand why Ingo took those people. He understands, because he has his own subway now

Do they have to feed their patron?

Also yes :) and yes, the subway is a verrrry convenient way to feed, especially since their domains are both subways as well! Very verrrry easy to be in a rush to get to your destination and take the wrong door :)

It's a bit of a perfectly awful situation really! They're both each other's anchors, which is great because they're good anchors to their sense of selves. The problem is, they kind of have this massive echo chamber going on, where as long as the other agrees and says that the act was justified, anything goes. And of course, with feeding, it keeps the other person healthy and alive. Why wouldn't they want their brother, their anchor, to stay safe? So their morals degrade rather rapidly!!

As far are their domains go, they're both differently flavored subways that have some degree of overlap (meaning it's possible to start in one, and end up in the other). Ingo's an endless maze that should not be possible. Trains that just never stop, stairwells that go on forever only to lead to nowhere, windows that show cities that don't exist

Emmet's is much more centered around the claustrophobia of the subways. Passageways that are a little too small, ceilings that are surely too cracked to hold, the weight of the world bearing down above you, held off only by the flimsy, crumbling cement. The trains are tight, dirty. There's never enough light to properly see anything

This video reminds me a lot of Ingo's subway :)

And this post is both of them tbh, in my tags I explain how it's Emmet, Ingo I think is self explanatory

[helenvader]

"Now... you know sacrifice."

"Beyond everything you've ever known."

This scene takes place where LUDA died.

Why did he never try to tell her about it? I know, because the writers didn't write it. But it makes no sense. Everybody WOULD try to explain.

...

Tamar is so annoying. And she doesn't even look like she belongs to the show, she looks weirdly modern?

...

Plot armor in the interior fight with the shadow monster was incredibly strong...

...

"Let me carry the hatred of this world." - ok, at least SOMETHING. But Alina doesn't get it. Of course.

Why couldn't they make him sympathetic BEFORE his dying scene?

...

Not the meadow again...

...

Sasha is dead for a minute and Alina already used merzost. Notice that he didn't use it to resurrect the woman he loved when he created the Fold. He used it so as to SAVE GRISHA. He used it for others. She used it for herself.

...

"I don't want any heretics to find his body and make a martyr's relic of it"

WHAT? She's such a self-important bitch. He ASKED you to do it. You have to twist everything, don't you?

...

How can Kaz know poetry that Tolya quotes? Do they teach it on the streets of the Barrel?

...

Genya really was reduced to a victim. But is David dead? People killed by the shadow monsters do not disappear. He might be alive. And I hope he is!

...

"You both have every right." What bloody right do Zoya and Genya have to burn Sasha? Burning him is not revenge, it's what he bloody wanted to avoid his body to be misused.

I feel so sad for him. Finally. Finally something made me feel something.

...

Oh no, a speech? Please no.

...

Fjerdans looking at the Fold that is no more. Yay! Now they can enter Ravka from anywhere.

...

Ha! A bee! Ha!

...

Isn't a privateer basically a pirate licensed by the government to capture enemy ships, allowed to keep the spoils in return? Why do they need one?

...

No. Don't spoil Kanej. Taken out of the book context, what Inej says sounds like she only cares about the physical part of love. :-(

...

Mal being Sturmhond is like Dread Pirate Rogers from Princess Bride. 🤣

...

Oh I see, privateer as in "spy". Maybe slaver ship hunter, too? I can accept that!

...

Mal in teal frock! 🙃

...

Ah, yes. Slaver ship hunter. I do like that!

...

How can King of Ravka give pardon to a Kerch prisoner?

Except it didn't work anyway.

...

The Apparat!

...

Sobachka is a monster, as expected. :-(

...

Alina *so* doesn't deserve Nikolai.

...

Enter Zoya and Genya, the new nobility as it seems. Including shallow conversations. Oh wow, a refuge. That has been done before, hasn't it? Oh, but that doesn't count. It was evil when Sasha did it. At a much higher risk.

Doing away with coloured keftas is important, yes.

So Shu Han is suddenly just "estranged"?

WHAT DRUGS DID THE WRITERS TAKE?

...

Triumvirate indeed.

...

Isn't the Lantsov banner light blue? But maybe it's just a coronation thing.

...

Jurda parem.

Impressively gory.

Alina, that was some smirk. Not walking the same path as Sasha? Just look at your face.

A great ending. Too bad so much of the show was meh.

[noblest-roman-of-them-all]

Never a Bad Time for a Hug

Here's another little ficlet inspired by the brilliant @haysgrove and this post.

"This is ridiculous," Logan scoffed and folded his arms over his chest as he sat at his desk chair with Roman and Virgil hovering over him.

"C'mon, Specs. You love taking people literally!" Roman goaded.

"Just because I frequently misunderstand idioms and turns of phrase, doesn't mean I actually enjoy doing so."

"It'd give you a chance at petty revenge for every time he's caught you making a dad joke or punning?" Virgil offered.

"That hardly seems worth the effort. Besides he'd never let me live down initiating a hug."

"Then think of it this way," Janus cut in from where he was leaned against the doorway. "Physical affection has been known to improve both physical and mental health, so showing physical affection to Patton, Thomas's Heart, can only have good benefits for Thomas as a Whole. Help him live a long healthy life and all those other things you're always going on about."

Logan sighed. "That does make some sense," he conceded.

"So you'll play?" Roman asked excitedly.

Logan looked to Virgil and held up a notecard. "Can I use 'bet' in this context?"

"Technically," he nodded. "It's more of a challenge thing though. Like, when Patton actually told us there was never a bad time for hug..." he gestured to Logan, who nodded in understanding.

"Lol. Bet," Logan replied flatly.

"Exactly. Or, another example, I've got this in the bag and you guys are goin' down!"

"Bet," Logan replied.

"Yeah, you got it," Virgil encouraged.

Janus nodded. "Think of it as a newer rendition of 'you wanna bet?' that Thomas used when he was younger, or also 'betcha can't'."

"Ah! Yes, I see. Does this also apply to the phrase 'you bet' when agreeing to do something for or with someone?"

"I mean, yeah," Virgil nodded. "That one isn't really the most common use, but it works. It's basically a term of agreement."

"Un-der-stood," Logan said each syllable as he wrote on another notecard. "Thank you, Virgil."

Virgil gave a two finger salute.

"Alright, are we done with the whole vocab lesson thing?" Roman asked impatiently. "Can I go win now?"

"No. Cause I'm gonna win," Virgil grinned mischievously and dropped through the floor to find Patton before Roman got to him first.

"Ha! We'll see about that!" Roman retorted and followed suite.

Logan remained where he was reviewing a small stack of notecards.

"Not going to join in the chase?" Janus asked.

"Hm?" Logan glanced up. He shook his head. "No, I'll be bidding my time. If I'm going to participate in these shenanigans, then I intend to get the most out of it I can. Which would include catching Patton off guard."

"That's devious of you, Logan," Janus commented, arching his scaled brow in surprise.

The Embodiment of Logic smiled. "Thank you."

Janus blinked. "I never thought I'd be alarmed by you, but here we are..." he shook his head. "Best of luck to you."

"To you as well. You'll need it."

---

"Uh. Virge, whatcha doin', kiddo?" Patton asked in confusion as the Embodiment of Anxiety seated himself on Patton's foot.

"Taking you up on your offer," Virgil explained, hugged Patton's leg. "Never a bad time a hug, right?"

"Uh. Well, I'm mean, yeah, but I'm not sure this actually qualifies as a hug though, hon."

"Sure it does. My arms are wrapped around you, right?"

"Well, that's true," Patton conceded. "You okay though? This isn't really how you usually ask for a hug."

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just takin' you up on your offer."

"Uh, o-okay," Patton nodded and picked up his glass of lemonade. "Well, I was gonna head into the living room-"

"Oh yeah, go ahead, don't mind me."

Patton waited a beat for Virgil to move. "Alright," he shrugged and stepped in that direction, moving the leg with Virgil attached to it with surprising ease.

---

"Good evening, Padre," Roman greeted as Patton stood over the stove diligently stirring in a pot of boiling spaghetti and snuggled his way under Patton's arm.

"Hey, munchkin," Patton smiled, if a bit puzzled. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing," Roman replied leaning his head into Patton's shoulder. "Just taking you up on your kind and generous off- Ow!" He jumped back when Virgil, still sitting on Patton's foot, pinched his leg.

"Boys, behave," Patton said warningly.

"He started it!" Roman objected, pointing to the gremlin on the floor.

"Well, I'm ending it. Virgil?" He cast a stern look to the Embodiment of Anxiety.

Virgil rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry for pinching your leg even though you totally deserved it."

"Virgil..."

"I'm sorry for pinching your leg," he grumbled.

Patton turned an expectant look on Roman, who folded his arms petulantly.

"I accept your substandard apology."

"Close enough," Patton sighed. "Okay, Virgil, kiddo, I'm sure you're having fun hanging on my foot like that for whatever reason, but I need to strain the pasta and it's very heavy and I don't want to spill any hot water on you. Can I please have my foot back?"

---

Patton snuggled happily back against the couch, pulling the hood of his cat onesie over his head and settled in as the opening credits to The Rescuers started. He jumped in surprise as arms wrapped over his shoulders and a head rested against his, pushing his hood over his eyes.

"Who in the world?..." he reached over his head, trying to find whoever was hanging from his shoudlers. Whoever it was snickered and ducked out of the way of Patton’s swinging arms.

"Roman is that you again?"

"Not me, honey-bee," Roman answered. "I have your cocoa though."

Patton managed to push his hood up enough to see Virgil perched on the arm of the couch and gave him a puzzled look. Virgil helpfully held up both hands and shrugged.

Patton tried to spin around to catch his captor off guard. He managed to throw them both off balance and whoever had a hold of him tumbled to the floor with a surprised curse and a laugh. Patton sat up and glanced around, but whoever had a hold for him seemed to have sunk from the room.

---

"Good morning!" Patton greeted cheerily as Janus slunk into the kitchen.

"Morning," Janus replied with a slight shiver. He stood behind Patton and wrapped his all six arms around the other's chest, effectively pinning Patton's arms to his sides. He hummed contentedly. "You're warm."

"Um. I also can't really move. And I'm trying to get coffee started before everyone else is up. So?..."

Janus harrumphed and shifted so Patton could have use of his arms again and nestled his forehead against the back of Patton's neck.

The Embodiment of Emotions started. "You're freezing! Janus-"

"My heated blanket short circuited and I can't find Remus," he complained.

"You poor thing," Patton tutted and managed to turn in Janus's arms, and ran a hand up and down his spine. "What happened to your blanket?"

"It's old. Happens. Remus can fix it." He shivered again and tried to nuzzle closer still.

"Why don't you go sit on the couch with a blanket and I'll be there in just a second with some coffee to warm you up."

Janus peeled himself away from Patton and trudged to the couch. He curled up in a ball, pulling the blanket over his head. He was almost asleep again from the cold when a gentle hand rested on his back.

"Sit up for me, sweetheart," Patton encouraged. He held out a thermos when Janus managed to get himself upright. Janus took the warm metal and hugged it to his chest.

"Thank you," he murmured as Patton slipped on the couch behind him and wrapped them both in the blanket, trying to keep in some of the warmth. It wasn't the inconveniencing hug he'd planned for the morning, but it would have to do.

---

Patton wrapped his arms over his stomach and groaned. So maybe that bowl of ice cream was a bad idea after all... It wasn't fair. Logan could eat ice cream with no ill effects. In fact, so far as he knew only he and Roman had bad reactions to ice cream. His pout turned to a grimace as his stomach gurgled again, and let out an icky sounding flatulence.

Without warning the door swung inward with a sudden Bang! as it hit the wall. Patton cried out in surprise, nearly falling from the toilet as he did so.

Remus wordlessly pranced over to him and gently wrapped his arms over his shoulders, resting his cheek on Patton's head, and hummed happily, apparently unbothered by the awful stench in the room.

Patton sat there frozen and awkward till Remus finally stood again and left a kiss on the top of his head and patted his back, then pranced out of the room again, slamming the door behind him, causing Patton to jump again.

---

"Okay," Patton started as he stood before his fellow Sides who were seated on the couch in front of him. "I will admit that the increase in hugs has been nice. That said, I will also admit that I...misspoke before when I said there was never an inappropriate time for a hug. When someone is sitting on the toilet is definitely a bad time for a hug."

Remus snorted and stiffled a giggle behind his hand, drawing a scowled from Roman who swatted the backside of his head.

Patton gave both twins a warn look. "While I appreciate the sentiment because I was not feeling very good, and I still stand by not needing to ask for a hug every time, I would like to establish asking for hugs in the bathroom and knocking. Knocking is a good thing to do, looking for a hug or not. Okay?"

Virgil raised a hand. "So all other hugs are still free game?"

Patton brow pinched in suspicion. "And when I'm cooking. Ask when I'm cooking. Just in case you don't know I have a knife or something and I don't want anyone getting hurt. So ask before when I or someone else is cooking and in the bathroom, a quick hug while brushing teething is okay, hug on the toilet...less okay. And knock. Knocking is always good to do. Okay? But yes, for the most part, I'm okay with not asking before needing a hug. Deal?"

Logan held up an index card between his first and middle finger. "Alright, bet," he replied with a small smirk. Without further warning, he tackled Patton to the floor, taking care that his head didn't hit the floor.

Patton yelped in surprise as he and Logan went tumbling to the floor, before either had time to recover the others jumped forward piling on one another, in a heap of laughter and limbs.

[ofdarklands]

Since you're leveling weaver: what does he think of Redolent Rose? 👀

at first, back at level like 7 when i wandered my way to ul'dah based on ninjaing it through the areas, he didn't truly understand that he styled any different from everyone else due to lack of context actually. "yes the leader of the weavers is wearing their finest fabrics, makes sense. efficient show of workmanship". only later did he realize how nonstandard tophats, fitted silk jackets, pocket handkerchiefs and decorative roses actually are in ul'dah

he actually really likes him. one of the most comfortable guild leaders to work with. he's exacting but clear on what he wants and always polite. and if ul'dahns find him over the top or something, it's more of a merit badge than anything else, to be honest

he's still not actually quite clear on what exactly he's going for though, but he doesn't mind. if he finds the clothes comfortable who's he to argue? though the perfume is a bit much to his nose. ah well

[snow-system-wol]

Menphina is the one to greet the Scions upon waking, not S'ria -- and thus is also the one to inform them that Zenos and Fandaniel's little trick has had...problematic consequences.

Namely that they'd somewhat lost the Warrior of Light.

Ao3

It was Menphina's hope that the next several minutes of her life would be as painless as possible, but in all honesty, she expected the discussion to get a bit messy.

“This is inherently going to be a difficult conversation and I thank you all for your cooperation – particularly as two of you needs must be caught up on your knowledge as is. I simply ask that you take this information at face value.”

They'd filed into a building together, Menphina trying to keep to some manner of discretion on S'ria's personal matters. As is, Lucia was the only non-Scion in the room, but it felt strategically necessary for at least one outside the group to be aware – and if anyone, she seemed the best choice.

Oh, but, to pull someone into the loop with very little context was threatening. At least others here could attest that it wasn't outright a lie or poor joke.

From the moment she'd started to speak, Menphina knew she was getting a variety of looks.

Varying amounts of concern and realization from those who had directly spoken to her before, politely disguised alarm from Lucia, and an intense stare from Estinien where she could hear the gears clicking. Between the pitch and accent difference, it was clear something was happening.

G'raha and the twins looked worried but resigned, likely already understanding the current situation without anything being said.

“There is no easy way to say this, and I do wish we had a name for it, but the Warrior of Light does suffer from a…disorder, of sorts.” She chose her words so carefully, at least trying to avoid referring to S'ria separately or saying we before the explanation was fully out. “I believe both of you have seen some very atypical things happen in battle, in terms of personality?” The question was directed entirely at Lucia and Estinien, who simply nodded.

Menphina made a helpless gesture, of one who knew there was no making this casual, and continued. “There are multiple identities in this body, essentially their own people, that swap in and out of control – whose actions S'ria may or may not recall later. I promise that this is not possession or outside influence. The cause of such uncharacteristic intensity while fighting sometimes is that that is simply not S'ria – nor am I, if you haven't gathered as such by now.”

Estinien looked remarkably unbothered by this revelation. “Aye, fond of old sailor’s and soldier’s mourning songs are you? I recall your voice from the Churning Mists, even if I was too distracted to dwell on the strangeness at the time.”

Menphina had forgotten that Estinien was more perceptive than he seemed to be at times – and, for that matter, had nearly forgotten that she'd spoken directly to him in the past.

(Not just spoken, really, but that he'd heard her singing at the campfire as well. It had seemed to put his heart at ease.)

Lucia looked vaguely uncomfortable picking up such a concept out of nowhere, but recovered gracefully with a thoughtful look. “Hm…’twould explain some things, yes. If I may ask – have you always been like this?”

Menphina tightened her posture. She had neither the time nor inclination to deal with that one. “Ah, you may not actually, at least not right now. There are far more important matters.”

Thancred broke into the conversation. “Which brings us to the behemoth in the room, doesn't it? I mean no offense, but why are you present? I don't get the sense that you're much for military strategy meetings.”

Menphina smiled wryly. “Yes, that is the issue. S'ria is…presently unable to emotionally function following recent events, and we find ourselves in a somewhat awkward position. Without S'ria, it is mostly just myself and Fray that will be of use. Fray can handle a bit of extra fighting, as they used to handle so much themself earlier in our Scion days regardless, and I can manage rational decision making – but we cannot wholly compensate for his absence.” She made a nervous shrug-like gesture. “Hence why I felt it necessary to be more open about this than we are typically wont to do.”

G'raha spoke up in a quiet voice. “Is he – is S'ria gone? Will he be all right?”

Menphina rushed to respond. “No, no, this is not forever – that is not the sense I got. He'll come back to us. I know not if what he needs is just a bit of time or something else, but we must be patient.” She sighed. “Something we hardly have the luxury of, when time is not on our side. I am afraid we needs must proceed with just Fray and I acting as the Warrior of Light.”

Several people spoke up at once, the result disorientingly chaotic, but the general sentiment seemed to be ‘is that wise?’.

Menphina shook her head and waited for it to die down. “Please, storming the tower is perhaps the type of task Fray is best suited to handle without having S'ria – do not worry. That shall be fine. ‘Tis what comes after that concerns me more, but we need not address that yet.”

Alphinaud looked decidedly unreassured. “We can ill afford to lose either the upcoming battle nor the Warrior of Light, are you certain of this? Mayhap another day or two –”

“ – another day or two that we do not have, Alphinaud.” Estinien cut in, bluntly but not unkindly. “If they say they can do it – then they can do it.”

Menphina nodded gratefully and added a reminder. “And there is no guarantee another day or two would have improved matters.”

And that was that, really – Fray fought their way up to Fandaniel and Zenos with no unusual degree of difficulty and, once those two made their escape and the path forward became somewhat shaky, placed control back in Menphina's lap.

That was that indeed.

She had to think fast, with so limited of time, but she'd never really had to make important decisions before. It was always so easy for her – come in, be kind and heal injuries, and leave. As difficult and terrifying as this was, with explosions shaking the ground outside and time clicking by rapidly, it all suddenly became extremely simple. Just a simple series of facts.

One, Zenos specifically wanted the Warrior of Light to follow him. Two, no other Scion was likely able to fight him one on one. Three, people were dying out there, needlessly, while several highly skilled healers stood in this room waiting.

Four, irrationally – Menphina (though she would not be the one fighting him) wanted Zenos to die to this body and not to someone else, after what he'd done to S'ria. Wanting vengeance on his behalf was…a bit uncomfortable for her, actually, not how she was supposed to feel – but S'ria had never completely hidden himself from existence like this before and it scared and angered her.

With all of that in mind, it wasn't complicated at all.

“Please, stay here and take care of everyone as best you can. I'll go after them.”

It was hushed for a moment. Alphinaud was the first to speak up, sounding aghast.

“You're – you're going alone?!”

Menphina just smiled sadly at him – there wasn't anything to say. Everyone had already come to the exact conclusions she had about their options, whether they liked it or not. Then she looked across the room at G'raha and flinched.

He looked carefully neutral, in a way that was just barely hiding anger, and it had never quite been leveled in their direction before. Belatedly, Menphina realized that S'ria had promised G'raha that he would not do this exact thing. ‘Not on purpose’, he'd said, on going into danger alone. She was not S'ria, but she was not certain how much that actually made G'raha feel better.

She approached him after the others had begun planning amongst themselves, when the conversation would attract less attention.

“I–”.

“Please do not say that you are sorry.”

He sounded more defeated then he did upset and that was somehow worse. There was an unspoken tension in the air, the sense of ‘I want to argue with you, but if one of us dies then that would've been the last time we spoke’.

“Just – please do not be upset with S'ria. He truly is not present enough to have any input.”

G'raha started to open his mouth and nodded instead.

“If you were not needed here, to save as many lives as possible, I would ask you to join me.” She struggled for a moment, between what seemed right to do in the moment and what seemed appropriate for her specifically, settling on simply kissing his forehead. “We'll come home.” We. She swore she'd help S'ria recover, for all of their sakes.

“...I shall hold you to that.”

[scruffyssketchbook]

i think part of the reason people are upset about Nego being discarded/removed from the series is likely for the same reason people may be upset about other changes to the series---people are afraid that the things they love will be changed, and they don't understand why.

as the author of this story, you know every inch and centimeter of the story. you have knowledge that the readers do not---you know how plots connect and the backstory of characters and everything else, but us as the readers don't. so while you can see where all of the issues from previous bad childhood writing are, we don't. we just see something we enjoy, something we like, and we are far less likely to see the flaws, especially if it is something in the future that we don't even have knowledge of yet. so, to the readers, Nego being an "issue" to the story/to characters and needing to be removed just doesn't make as much sense to us as it does to you, because we don't have the knowledge of why he's causing so many issues (even if you try to explain it, its kind of hard to do without potentially spoiling a whole bunch of plots, right?)

Nego was for sure one of my favorite characters. i just liked how silly it was that Vay could have a secret child that literally no one knew about, and I also liked the mystery and angst potential of "how? how did he get this kid?" and then as more was revealed, the "why? why doesn't the mother remember? is this really Vay's child? who is the one that truly doesn't remember?" it was so interesting to me. i was really excited to see how Blizz would react to learning Nego was a real eevee, and actually Vay's child. I would have loved to see Blizz and Nego have a relationship---be it positive or negative.

but i also completely understand that i dont have the context you do, and that i cant see the flaws you can, and i completely understand if things need to be scrapped/changed so you can be happy with your story. its your story, after all, and you should get to choose how you write it, not anyone else

Ah yes, and I agree with/ know all of that, which is why I'm kind of being very vague about what I'm doing. Cause once I say what is ACTUALLY happening, MORE people will flip out. I do see the flaws of the story and I'm aware that people are attached to the characters, but in the long run honestly, its better for everyone, including the characters if I do make these changes, rather than leaving things how they are now so everyone will be disappointed when things are just found out to be- SUPER WEIRD AND NOT MAKING ANY TYPE OF SENSE. Plus ofc, this way it's better for me personally. Like yeah I'd rather write a story that I enjoy, rather than having to keep forcing myself to make sense of writings I made when I just got out of middle school for another decade and a half when I know I can do better. But the thing is! I know people are very attached to the characters in the series, Even Nego! that is why I'm only doing the things that I'm doing with all of these changes now, and not in the past, cause I didn't want to disappoint anyone or make people sad. But doing that kind of just hurt the comic and me. So. I'm just going to do what I want to do, and NeeNee the plushie sounds cute! (Also, this way I can keep Nego in the series without him being a weird after thought. Because with the direction I'm trying to take the series, there is no way he could even be Vay's son.)

[celestemagnoliathewriter]

Wolfstar for the ship ask

Ah, yes, I did expect wolfstar to be in the ask box. Well.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that I do NOT ship wolfstar, esp. if you follow my blog posts. Long post ahead, but there are a couple things I want to make clear before I explain my thoughts:

I'm not against wolfstar shippers; I don't make value judgments against them because they ship something that I don't. If anything I write below indicates something against the shippers as human beings, it is not meant to be read that way. I mean to write about the ship itself.

Why don't I ship it? There are a lot of reasons for this. First, I'm more of a canon shipper. If it's not explicitly canon, I'm very unlikely to ship it. Second, I never saw Remus and Sirius as more than friends (with a somewhat complicated friendship, even in their youth). It came as SUCH as shock when I started reading fanfic (in 2021) and found that there were so many Sirius/Remus fics. It just didn't cross my mind, at all. I did actually try some of those fics, esp. the more popular ones, and just didn't "buy" it, if that makes sense. Third, I can't imagine how they would get together at any point of their (canon) lives. Sirius can be quite mean and insensitive. In canon he really only has tenderness/kindness for one person, and that's Harry. Remus is a bit of a doormat at times and not especially exciting or appealing to someone brash like Sirius, even with the werewolf business, a source of shame for him. Remus needed someone softer, kinder, and more patient. Sirius needs someone with a solid backbone. Yes, it could be dysfunctional and there are dysfunctional relationships, but I can't even see them getting off the ground as a couple. It's got nothing to do with orientation, either: I would ship James x Sirius and Peter x Remus way faster than Sirius x Remus. Sirius needs someone strong, confident, and will deal with his bullshit, Remus is NOT the person who will actually stand up to him and challenge him in the way he needs to be challenged. Remus needs someone who will put up with his nonsense and challenge it gently, consistently, and positively. Sirius just doesn't have what Remus needs and vice-versa. If canon were written differently or it was an AU, we're talking about something else. But if we're talking canon Sirius and canon Remus, I can't see any relationship for them other than a fraught friendship.

What would have made me like wolfstar? One of two things, I think. First, if I'd gotten into fanfic when the books were still being written, there might've been a chance early fanfic would've swayed me, e.g. in the way I read the characters or the story. Second, JKR would have to tell us that they were together and provide some context for it. I really don't see Sirius x Remus working together, even as a dysfunctional ship, because they wouldn't have a ship to start with. I do see the appeal of putting two characters together who could have chemistry, but I don't see the chemistry or the potential for it, which is, again, why I don't ship wolfstar.

Despite not shipping it, do I have anything positive to say about it? The ship itself - no. I do, however, have positive things to say about those who write and ship wolfstar, which is what I'll discuss instead (and the only time I'll discuss wolfstar shippers in this post). Though I can't see any potential for their relationship, I have read some nice fics with them as a background couple that capture other parts of their personalities well. I do appreciate that there are lots of people who love Sirius and Remus and choose to write about them, shedding light on different parts of their personalities and quirks, even if I don't think they make a couple (bad or good). I am also grateful for the diversity that these writers bring to HP fan fiction in general, though we disagree on how we see these characters or ship them.

Wolfstar has gotten more complicated for me to discuss and think about because of my engagement in fandom. I know some very lovely fellow fan fic friends who read, write, and ship wolfstar. I am appreciative of what they bring to fandom, even if I disagree with the ship itself, and it doesn't change my opinion of others if they do or don't ship wolfstar.

The only time my opinion is swayed on someone in fandom is the way they discuss characters or ships that leads to misogyny, sexism, racism, homophobia, etc. We'll have a problem if things are shipped/not shipped because of these reasons, but not if the reason you're shipping or not shipping people together is because someone likes them and thinks they work together.

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