#also there are two major mistakes in the pattern

[aristoteliancomplacency]

If you’re not a knitter then you probably won’t understand exactly how batshit doing this was. That’s fine, but I’ll explain under the cut for anyone who’s interested. The pattern is Guðrún Herdís Arnarsdóttir's modification of Lyle Stafford’s one ring scarf (both are free).

The eye at each end I wrote the pattern for myself based on a design on the cover of the editions of the Lord of the Ring I grew up with (i.e., my dad’s, for whom the scarf was a present).

The scarf is done using a technique called double knitting, which means you’re working both sides of the scarf literally at the same time, carrying two yarns forward and back to alternately knit and purl and alternating which colour you’re using (work the knits with colour A, purl with colour B, swap for the other side). This gives you something which has two sides that are stockinette, but different colours.

The technique allows you to make an identical pattern on both sides by switching which colour you’re using for the knit and purl stitches. The advantage of this is that you end up with the two sides woven together rather than a tube and don’t have to carry the yarn as with stranded colour work.

The problem with this is when you’re working a non-symmetrical pattern where it matters which way around the writing is. The writing will be the correct way around on one side, but backwards on the other side.

Guðrún’s modification fixes this, but the trade-off is that because you’re no longer working the pattern the same on both sides you now have four potential stitch combinations instead of two (AB, BA, AA, and BB).

Just to make it even more complicated for my project the pattern colour-coded the stitch combos and uses black and red for two of the combos, but not for what for my scarf would be black-black and red-red. This caused more than one error. I have undone and redone a lot of rows.

[stllmnstr]

signed, sealed, delivered

Another drabble from an anon prompt! Started with this:

And turned into poor commoner Jaeyun x rich princess oc in a historical kingdom (so different setting but I hope you still enjoyyyyy 🫡) ps I usually write his name as jake but kept it jaeyun here to match the ask!

pps again I wrote this on my phone and it somehow ended up at 3k AND it's 4 in the morning. that's what you call a triple whammy, folks. enjoy and please excuse any mistakes 😭

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Sim Jaeyun is turning twenty-two years old today. It’s an impressive feat, in a kingdom where making it to eighteen without succumbing to disease or illness or something more directly borne of war is becoming more and more rare.

But Jaeyun made it to eighteen. Four long years ago. And the years have only been adding up, surely, if not also incredibly slowly, since then.

The only reason he’s made it this far is because he’s smart. Not in the textbook kind of way. Jaeyun wasn’t born into a family important enough to be literate, so it’s nothing but a blessing that he’s as good with words as he is, considering that he can't read them.

It's mostly because he uses them so sparingly. After all, Jaeyun hasn’t made it twenty-two years by talking. He’s done it by keeping his head down and his mouth shut. Just like any good commoner.

He pays his taxes on time and only participates in illicit activities - namely, harvesting crops from one of the sixteen royal gardens - after the sun goes down. He wears average clothes and eats average meals and spends his days with other average people.

From a lot of angles, it’s uninspired. It’s hardly a life at all. But it’s his reality, and for the vast majority of the kingdom’s population, it’s their reality, too.

So Jaeyun, even on his twenty-second birthday, doesn’t have any grand plans. The only thing he wants to do is barter for enough flour and sugar in the marketplace, and maybe even some butter if the dairy farmer takes pity on him, to make himself something sweet over the fire tonight.

As he walks towards the town square, there’s a lightness in his step. Even with midday sun beating on his back and perspiration beginning to gather on his nape, he’s sure that today will be a perfectly ordinary day. In his mind, that alone is something to be immensely grateful for.

By the time he’s secured minuscule amounts of flour and sugar, his mood is still in high spirits. Even though the dairy farmer does not seem to be in an agreeable mood.

“I’ll bring you an extra bag of corn,” Jaeyun whispers conspiratorially over a stack of delectable looking cheeses. He doesn’t even spare them a glance. There’s no point, really. The grumpy old farmer still seems reluctant to give up a fraction of a stick of butter.

“What am I going to do with corn?” The man waves a dismissive hand at him. Jaeyun suppresses the urge to roll his eyes. At least the woman selling sugar had been susceptible to a little old-fashioned flirting. He has the distinct feeling the same tricks won’t work here.

“Potatoes, then.” Jaeyun has no idea where he’ll get potatoes. The royal groundskeepers have a tight leash on that particular crop, but he’s getting desperate.

That, at least, seems to catch the dairy farmer’s attention. Jaeyun’s gut is starting to twist a bit in dread at the prospect of making good on his promise, but the thought of having butter is already enough to make his mouth water.

Before he has the chance to find out if his offer was accepted, the sound of trumpets cuts through the clamor of the market like a knife.

Immediately, conversations cease. Identical flashes of panic flicker through a hundred sets of eyes.

Three sharp, short notes. A beat of silence, and then they’re repeated. It’s a pattern that every citizen knows well.

The announcement of a royal.

Which also means it’s Jaeyun’s cue to craft a stealthy exit. It’s not that he’s a wanted man, per se, but he’d rather not be on the list of people the royal guard are familiar with.

Turning quietly on his heel, he silently mourns the loss of his precious butter with a small pout. And then he bumps straight into Park Sunghoon.

He’s an acquaintance, more than a friend. But he’s also one of the people Jaeyun is closest to in this world.

“Woah,” Sunghoon raises an eyebrow when he notes the swiftness of Jaeyun’s escape attempt. “Didn’t you hear the trumpets?”

“I think everyone on this side of the border heard them,” Jake grumbles, not pleased to be stalled. “That’s why I’m leaving.”

Sunghoon just shrugs, stepping to the side to let him pass. But Jaeyun barely makes it three steps before he’s asking, “You’re not curious?”

Jaeyun pauses, eyes going towards the sky above him in exasperation. He’s not sure why Sunghoon always insists on speaking in riddles, and especially when he’s trying to be discreet.

Turning back to face him, he bites, “Curious about what?”

Sunghoon smirks. He has a piece of information that Jaeyun doesn’t. It’s a rare situation, and he’s planning to milk the hell out of it. “The princess,” he finally says. “Princess ___” He adds in a sing-song voice.

The space between Jaeyun’s eyebrows begins to crease. “What are you talking about?”

“Rumor has it that’s who’s coming right now. Our lovely, fearless, princess is about to be paraded through the marketplace.”

“You’re lying.” Jaeyun shakes his head. He’s sure of it. He doesn’t know much about the king that he supposedly serves, other than his penchant for stationing rather incompetent guards by the crop fields that grow corn, but he does know how he treats his children. Namely, his daughter.

His oldest son is actively being groomed to become the next king, of course. The second born has a nasty chip on his shoulder about it and tries to make up for it by training until he can defeat every last member of the military in hand-to-hand combat and outsmart them in strategy meetings.

And you. The youngest. The only girl.

Much like your mother, you’ve been relegated to little more than a prop. Rumors of your beauty have spread far and wide, but that’s the only thing you’re allowed to be known for. Your days are spent learning how to sit correctly, how to curtsy nicely, how to embroider with alarming precision. How to please others.

Jaeyun’s never lost too much sleep about it. After all, a life in the palace, even a suffocating one, is still a luxury. He doubts you’ve ever had to wonder where your next meal would come from. You probably have actual cake on your birthdays, not makeshift concoctions that would taste significantly better if only you had a bit of butter.

But Sunghoon is insistent. “It’s true. I heard it from Sunoo. You know, he’s friends with that boy that works at the palace.”

“Well then Sunoo’s lying too.” Jaeyun’s words are clipped. He doesn’t have long to slip away if he wants to be gone by the time the procession arrives. “She’s never been in public before.”

Locked up in a palace for your whole life. For a moment, Jaeyun almost feels sorry for you. There’s nothing he loves more than an open field, wide and endless, under a starlit sky.

Taking a step forward, Sunghoon shakes his head. His voice is low when he adds, “Apparently it’s her birthday today. That’s why she’s here. They want to show her off a bit.”

The shock fades quickly. It’s not that strange of a coincidence, Jaeyun supposes, that the two of you share a birthday.

Jaeyun shakes his head firmly. He hopes it conveys a sense of finality. “I’m not staying.”

Sunghoon shrugs. “Suit yourself. But I know a spot with a great view.” He jerks his chin to the left. “Just over the butcher’s shop. An old abandoned attic that no one uses anymore.”

Jaeyun hates himself for hesitating. Mostly because that small window of uncertainty is all Sunghoon needs.

“Come on,” he urges. “No one will see you. I promise.”

And it’s not like Jaeyun has that much stake in all of this, but Sunghoon was right. He is curious.

What is it like, he wonders, as Sunghoon leads him up a hidden set of stairs to the attic he pointed to earlier, to live your life at the epicenter of a well-oiled machine?

Do you know? That people like him have to fight to survive? That making it to twenty-two is something remarkable? Do you care?

Jaeyun can’t imagine why you would.

Still, as the procession draws near, Jaeyun feels his heartbeat quicken with it. Until it matches the cadence of the horse hooves coming closer and closer.

Until finally, finally, he gets his first glimpse of the first real royal procession he’s stuck around for in years.

Until he gets his first glimpse of you.

You’re pretty, he’ll give you that, but the more he studies you, the stronger the strange flicker of… disappointment begins to swirl in his gut.

From your seat in the pristine carriage you ride in, your posture is impeccable and your wave towards the crowd is fit for royalty.

You look exactly like a princess. He’s not sure why he expected anything different.

Sunghoon, on the other hand, doesn’t seem so satisfied with the glimpses of you he gets from the attic window. Eyes still locked on your carriage, he says, “I’m going to get closer.”

“What?” Jaeyun hisses. It’s a bad idea. A terrible one, actually. And no matter how much Sunghoon annoys him, he doesn’t want to see the boy thrown in prison. Or worse, dead. “What do you mean, closer?”

But Sunghoon is already gone. Disappeared down the stairs that the two boys entered from only a handful of minutes ago. And now Jaeyun is alone.

Sliding an open palm down his face, he watches as your carriage fades from his limited view. Flour and sugar still in his pocket, he’ll have to wait now. At least an hour, probably, before the coast is clear enough to return home. He just prays Sunghoon manages not to do something too stupid before then.

Maybe he does have a bit of birthday luck, after all. A few moments later, he hears footsteps on the stairs again.

“You finally saw sense,” he calls out over his shoulder. “I tried to tell you that a closer look at some girl isn’t worth risking your life for.”

But Sunghoon doesn’t respond. Eyes rolling, Jaeyun assumes that he must not have found a better view and is deciding to sulk about it now. Fully prepared to rub salt in the wound. Jaeyun turns around fully.

But he was wrong. It’s not Sunghoon that he’s looking at. Or at least, he doesn’t think it is.

The figure who stands motionless at the top of the stairs is covered in a dark, shapeless cloak that extends all the way to the floor and has a hood that fully conceals its wearer’s face.

It’s also at least a head shorter than his friend.

Still, Jaeyun can’t help but hope. “Sunghoon?”

As if suddenly remembering themselves, the figure spins on their heel, turning back the way they came.

A thick sense of unease is building in Jaeyun’s gut. He has no idea who this stranger is, but it’s not Sunghoon. Quickly, awful scenarios begin to plague his mind.

What if it’s a spy? He wonders. A member of the royal guard. Someone here to report him for trespassing, if not one of his worse crimes.

Jaeyun can’t let that happen. Not when he’s made it this far. With all of his reflexes locking into gear, he lunges forward. His long fingers encircle the stranger’s wrist in a vice-like grip.

Still, they try to shake him. And for a moment, they’re successful. The wrist in his hand slips from his grip. But Jaeyun doubles down.

This time, he’s less hesitant. When he reaches for the figure, he grabs them by the waist instead. The struggle is noble, but brief.

In the span of a single heartbeat, Jaeyun has the cloaked stranger pinned beneath him on the attic floor, his knees encircling their rib cage as his hands pin both arms above their head.

Chest heaving, Jaeyun assesses the sight beneath him. In the struggle, the stranger’s hood has fallen loose, revealing a striking set of features.

And hair. Lots of it.

“You’re a girl,” Jaeyun’s breathes, just at the same time a devastatingly feminine voice accuses,

“You.”

“Me?” Jaeyun frowns. He’s never seen you before. Of that, at least, he’s positive. He would have remembered a face like yours.

Delicate and feminine and pretty in all the ways that make his mind spin, you’re a vision beneath him. One that almost has him forgetting the severity of the situation.

That is, until you lay another scathing accusation at his feet. “The corn thief.”

“Corn thief?” Warning bells are starting to sound in Jaeyun’s mind again. He’s been seen. He’s been caught. “You do work for the palace.”

Still on your back between his knees, your hands pinned above your head, your gaze is discerning. With rather flat intonation, you state, “We’re all citizens of the crown, are we not? We all serve the king.”

“Sure,” Jaeyun concedes, “but you actually work for them.” The reality of the situation, the severity of jt, is not lost on him. “You’ll report me to your superior and have me thrown in jail.” Or worse.

The only acknowledgement you give is a slightly raised eyebrow. Jaeyun hates himself a little for thinking that it makes you even prettier. “You make a lot of assumptions don’t you?”

“Are you new here?” He retorts. Sarcasm embeds itself into every word. “That’s kind of how things work.”

For a moment, you just look at him. Even though he’s above you, even though your arms are still firmly within his grip, Jaeyun has to fight the urge to squirm under your gaze. And then you sigh. “I’m not going to report you.” Sending a meaningful look towards his hands above your head, you ask, “Could you get off of me now?”

It’s probably stupid, the way he obeys your command so quickly. But there’s something in your voice, something that rings with authority. He’s scrambling off of you with a speed that’s almost comical.

You are slower to rise, rubbing at your freed wrists while you draw yourself to full height. Looking at you like this, Jaeyun almost thinks that he must have hit his head in the scuffle.

You’re not just pretty. You’re gorgeous. Disarmingly so. Jaeyun would be the first to admit that he hasn’t spent much time around girls, that he doesn’t have much to compare you to, but he’s still certain you’re in possession of a rare kind of beauty. Or, at least, one tailored specifically for him.

Despite his sudden fixation, your last words still ring in his mind. I’m not going to report you.

“You’re not?” He’s hesitant to believe it.

“No, I…” you trail off for a moment, unsure how to phrase your desire. “I want to help you, actually.”

He really must be concussed. “You want to help me?”

“I mean, not you specifically.” Looking around the attic, you seem to be talking to yourself more than him when you mutter, “Ugh. Jungwon swore this room would be empty.”

Still, Jake hears you. And he’s stuck on one word. Jungwon. It sounds so familiar. But why? Why does he know that name?

It takes him another minute of wracking his brain, but he does eventually locate the source of the familiarity. Sunoo. Jungwon is the name of Sunoo’s friend who works at the…

At the palace.

It’s not like he’s surprised that you’re closely associated with the royals, but based on what Sunoo gossips about with Sunghoon, Jungwon works rather closely with the royal family themselves. With the princess.

For a moment, all Jaeyun can do is stare at you. And then he asks, “Who are you?”

Your smile is wry, and it doesn’t reach your eyes. But your curtsy is perfect, even if you’re mocking him. “Princess ___. It’s a pleasure.”

Jaeyun rolls his eyes. How stupid do you think he is? He may just be a commoner, but he’s not an idiot. “Does that actually work on people? You know, the whole town just saw her ride by in a carriage. Literally less than ten minutes ago. And you,” Jaeyun makes quick work of scanning you head to toe, “are not her.”

“The whole town just saw Karina ride by in a carriage,” you correct.

Jaeyun frowns. “Who’s Karina?”

“My favorite handmaiden.”

Again, all Jaeyun can do is look at you. His jaw opens. Closes again. He has the distinct feeling he looks rather similar to the fish laid out on ice in the market beneath you. “You… you’re actually the princess.”

“Like I said,” you don’t bother to curtsy fully this time, just nod in a small bow, “it’s a pleasure. It’s actually kind of lucky that I ran into you here.” Jaeyun watches as your demeanor shifts, sarcasm turning to something far more serious. “So, corn thief, what can you tell me about the patrols they run near the corn crop fields?”

“Why?” Jaeyun doesn’t bother to mask his suspicion. “So you can reinforce them? Or apprehend me next time?”

“No,” you counter, “so I can pass the information along.”

It’s far too vague for his liking. “To…”

You look at him for a moment, as if deciding how much or your trust you’re willing to place in him, too. Finally, you say, “To people who might need it.”

Before he can press you further or ask what that means, Jaeyun hears the sound of trumpets again. A slightly different three note pattern than before.

“Shit…” You curse under your breath, Jaeyun hates the way it makes him feel hot beneath his clothes. “I have to go,” you tell him. “You know the old oak tree? The one near the mouth of the river?”

Jaeyun nods, suddenly distrustful of his voice.

“I’ll leave you a note there.” You’re already pulling your hood up over your head again, wrapping the cloak back around your body. “Check it tomorrow after midnight. It will tell you when and where to meet me.”

Jaeyun frowns. “But I—”

“What’s your name?” you interrupt. “I can’t call you corn thief forever.”

“Jaeyun,” he tells you after a beat. “Sim Jaeyun. But wait, I—”

“Tomorrow,” you reiterate, looking at him one last time. “After midnight.”

“But—” Jaeyun tries to protest one final time. It’s no use. You're already gone.

Out loud to an empty attic, Sim Jaeyun finally admits, “But I can’t read.”

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STOPPP I'm kind of obsessed with them......

send me an idea for a drabble!

[aritsukemo]

What it's like with an Mitsuri Kanroji!partner | Akatsuki Members

Characters: Itachi Uchiha, Sasori, Hidan, and Konan

Warnings: Hidan. That said, vulgarity and threats ahead. Reader is heavily implied to be female/fem-bodied!

A/N: Been re-watching Naruto lately ( with my bsf who's watching Naruto for the first time ) and soon plan to rewatch Naruto Shippuden. ( Never finished it.. ) That said, I got the inspo to make this after Itachi and Kisame got introduced! This wasn't meant to exactly be romantic, but you can see these as whatever makes you comfortable! 🙈

Itachi Uchiha

↪ He found you odd, but in a good way.

↪ Being apart of the Akatsuki, he's met and collabrated with some of the most sick in the head and heartless people across the nations and he himself is far from a saint. That said, he was surprised, and quite suspicious, when he first met you.

↪ You were everything the Akatsuki wasn't; as bright and as cheery the sun with a transparent air of innocence to around you to boot.

↪ Everything about you from your smooth, clean, and supple skin to your wide, glossy smile told him that you had yet to see even the smallest slither of the terrors of this world..so why were you here before him squealing and blushing like a little kid?

↪ At first, he thought you were a spy like Orochimaru and were trying to steal information on the Akatsuki or get to him and his eyes, but it didn't take long for his suspicions to be dispelled.

↪ Your first mission together was a test. One that was to prove your loyalty and dependablity to the Akatsuki and during your entire walk, you talked. You never stopped and eagerly hopped to different topics and by the time you reached the village that hid away the Four-Tails, he had learned just about your entire life that you had left behind; how many siblings you had, your two bunnys and three cats you had as a child and their names, and your strange reason for becoming a rogue ninja; to find someone suitable to marry you.

↪ Futhermore, he was able to get the front row show of your abilities. Your Kekkei Genkai was nothing too eye-widening as it simply allowed you to manipulate metal, yet the way you went about using it was nothing he expected. Never did he think someone would use a Kekkei Genkai such as yours to manipulate a whip-like sword nor did he anticipate the utter destruction a weapon like that would cause.

↪ With all that said, your inexperience shone through here and there. You made simple, avoidable mistakes but your sheer power, flexibility—your flexibility especially—and your agility helped you escape majority of what would've been life-threatening injuries.

↪ Then again, you did tell him that you left your village on a whim and basically everything other than your Kekkei Genkai was self-crafted and taught..

↪ Anyways, after your mission was over and done with, you took him out to celebrate! ..And what I mean by that is that you took him to a run-down ramen shop in the middle of nowhere.

↪ It was then that he learned something new about you; that you held the appetite larger than the tailed beast you just killed. You were embarrassed about it, but seeing as Itachi didn't mind, you let yourself run wild and bought two or three ( or was it four? ) of every kind of dish the little shack had to offer! ( It was a rather humorous sight when your meals were set down and your food towered over your head and completely covered your face and body while as Itachi was able to hold his meal—a singlaur dango stick—in his hand )

↪ After that day, his suspicions were pretty much nonexistent. He also deduced that you wore every emotion of yours on your cloud patterned sleeves for the world to see and poured your golden soul onto everyone you met whether it be friend or foe. You were naively open about everything and overall just easy to read, not that he necessarily saw that as a bad thing.

↪ He eventually told you about his past. How he slaughtered his own people and even admitted the true reason behind it. That said, you were sullen for a while after that, having realized that your reason for becoming a dangerous criminal was rather silly and kind of disrespectful in certain ways. Itachi told you that your reason for walking down this path was just as serious/valid as his even if it's not filled with guts, blood, and pain. In a way, he felt like that made you even more fit for this path. ( Because who in their right mind decides to go rogue just to find someone that would be so insanely out of their mind and strong that they'd see you—who has the raw strength to potientally manhandle the nine tails itself and features flashier/brighter than it—as a normal woman?? )

↪ He quickly got used to your fangirling and rants about the others. Although some of them, including himself, he found odd to have you raving about like a lovesick, diehard fan, he took it as one of the many odd things that makes you the person you are. It does make him worry whenever you do it on the battlefield though. ( Times like those tend to end with him swooping you out of danger like some prince charming while gently scolding you which makes you even more flustered and squealy. )

↪ Most of the others view your partnership like a parent looking after their little kid because of how much more mature Itachi is compared to you and how much he ultimately looks after you despite the two of you being around the same age.

↪ Whenever you would throw off your cloak, revealing your embarrassingly revealing outfit underneath, he's quick to grab it—ready to drape it back over you whenever the fight is done and over with.

↪ Doesn't mind your touchiness! After a battle, no matter how simple or difficult, you had a tendency of running over and crashing into him, wrapping your arms around him and giving him a tight hug and he lets you without complaint. Sadly he never reciprocates it, simply patting your head or not touching you at all, deciding to ask you about your wellbeing instead.

↪ Overall, he respects you as a comrade and as a person in general. He commends your resilience and your determination, because never once has he ever met someone who treads a path such as this one do it with a genuine, beaming, sinless smile. Never once has he met someone in this profession shed tears for the ones they strike down and apologize to the cities they ruthlessly trample and mean it with their entire being. Never once has he met someone who's guilt for their actions were just as strong as their conviction..but he can understand it. He can sympathize with you. And he will, though, he wishes that you'll achieve your goal and leave this life behind before it breaks you down, taints your soul, and ultimately kills everything he admires about you.

Sasori ( of the Red Sand )

↪ He thought of you as a complete idiot.

↪ He honestly thought Pain was trying to play some elaborate prank on him at first, that's how much he couldn't believe it.

↪ You were..nothing the Akatsuki stood for and after the first conversation with you, ( that lasted ages by the way ) he went straight to Pain and questioned his decisions only for Pain to simply smirk and say with utmost confidence, "Just wait, you'll see her true worth in due time, Sasori. You simply have to be patient."

↪ And like the loyal dog he was, he did. Despite his impatience, he waited until your first mission was given and you two were sent to retrieve the One-Tail Beast.

↪ During your walk, you never stopped talking. You attempted to get to know your new partner, but as he was rather tight-lipped, the conversation became all about you. Your upbringing, your small, unknown clan, and even more unimportant things that he didn't care for like your siblings and their names, your pets, and your favorite sweets. That in itself was irritating, but what really got to him was how much of a klutz you were. You were rather animated and as you two passed various places to get to Sunagakure, you would often trip or slip, slowing your travels..

↪ There were various moments were he wanted to just impale you on Hiruko's tail and be done with you, but as Pain and his own curiosity insisted, he refrained and patiently awaited the time to witness your true power. And, when he was finally able to witness you completely in the zone, he was completely blown!

↪ He watched from afar, but he was able to see everything from the very moment you whipped out your peculiar sword to the moment you had the Kazekage in your grasp and were escaping.

↪ He was dumbfounded. Your power completely defied any kind of logic he once knew. Your Kekkei Genkai was nothing to gawk at, but the idea of using it to make and manipulate a flacid sword that can cut through and completely destroy even something like sand was as astonishing as it was illogical. He couldn't wrap his head around how it worked nor how you manage to wield such a high-maintenance weapon with such ease.

↪ He was also taken aback by your unique body composition. There was a moment where you miscalculated and were hit with a head on attacks from shinobi—many of which could exploded and should've completely obliterated you—but you came out of the attack completely fine and intact save for some burn marks.

↪ It was then that he was finally able to see what Pain saw in you. It was also the moment he saw you in a different light. He saw you as an actual comrade and not just some hinderance like Tobi.

↪ As you walked back together, Kankuro attacked you after having tailed you for some time. You were ready for the battle, as moved as you were by Kankuro's actions to save his little brother, but Sasori had other plans. Whether watching you fight had fired him up or there was some other reason, he told you to stand down but stay put as it was his turn to 'show off his art to you'.

↪ He went on to destroy Kankuro's puppets and immobilize him, feeling a sense of pride in the way you squealed and eagerly complimented him and his puppet.

↪ On the venture back to the hideout, he was much more open to conversation. After listening to your odd speech about how bad you felt about what you were doing, he asked about your view on what you believe is true art.

↪ "True art? Hm...well I suppose it'd be love!" And you went on to explain that whether platonic or romantic, you believed the art of love was the truest form of art there was as it was completely honest, showed a person's true character, and made people see others in a breathtaking light. That led to your confession behind your reason of joining the Akatsuki; to find someone who shared your views, someone who'd believed in love and all of its aspects and would accept someone as abnormal as you and take you as their bride.

↪ It was honestly laughable how stupid you sounded to him. Nevertheless, your acceptance of others views—no matter how illogical or flat out wrong they were—was something you two shared in common, and to that, he decided not to express his thoughts aloud for once.

↪ You didn't know Sasori for long as he died to the hands of that pink-haired kunoichi and his grandmother some time after you parted to fight the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and his sensei, Kakashi Hatake, but even in that short of a time, you had left quite the impression on Sasori.

↪ You were immature, innocent, bubbly, and capable of sympathizing with the ones you brought misfortunate to. You were a complete enigma to him in many ways despite how willing you were to tell him everything he wished to know about you and, in a way, he liked that. It added to your charm, as dumb as that sounded coming from him.

↪ Huh, you truly were a work of art in your own right. It's a shame that he had to bite the bullet before you. He's sure that if it were the other way around and he was able to preserve your beauty in wood and silk and turn you into one of his puppets, you would've became his favorite work of art yet.

Hidan

↪ He found you hot as hell.

↪ He didn't care about anything regarding you, the only thing he could think in that moment was how you would look butt ass naked and bouncing on his—

↪ Anyways, he could care less for you pass that, but he was overjoyed that you two were partnered together because that meant he'd have the best view of your tits at all times. How Jashin has blessed him!

↪ Speaking of tits, that's the nickname he chose to refer to you as. It was fitting in his opinion since you always kept your cloak open and the outfit you had on under..well, let's just say that it left little to the imagination. ( Which he loves more than anything because, again, the view it gives him is fantastic! )

↪ On your first mission together, it was realized very quickly that you two were polar opposites and pretty much a complete mismatch for each other in both personality and fighting wise. For reference, Hidan was like a ruthless machine gun that only cared about the rush of the sight of his opponents blood filling his vision and you were like sunflower who brightened everyone day and shed it's petals for all but people like Hidan.

↪ Safe to say that you weren't a big fan of him. Nevertheless, Pain had paired you two together and you couldn't bring yourself to bother him over something like this. ( Especially not after how you embarrassed yourself the first couple times you talked to him! >.< )

↪ Despite your many differences, you did share your story with him as well as your reasons for joining the Akatsuki. And at the face of your heartfelt story, Hidan laughed in your face and insulted you, calling you every name in the book.

↪ He also didn't believe half of what you said. I mean..you? So strong that even the kage of your village couldn't take you? Oh, please! He's sure he can beat your ass in five seconds flat! ( And he stands by that even after watching you manhandle a tailed beast )

↪ He found your worrying annoying. Whenever he would perform rituals, you would whine about him stabbing himself, worried about both him and the soil beneath him that was being mercilessly soiled by his blood. In times like those, he'll yell at you to be quiet 'lest you want to face the wrath of Jashin and yada yada.

↪ Over time, Hidan became more manageable as a partner ( or maybe you simply got so used to him that meany became an incorrect word to describe him as when brought up in conversations ) and from the jump, he wasn't all bad. For example, he didn't care for your big appetite or bright appearance! ( Though, of course, his reasons behind not caring was as vulgar as ever )

↪ He also had moments that showed that he wasn't completely heartless. There was once a time where your opponents caught you off guard and you took a big attack head on. One would think Hidan would laugh at the sight or insult you for getting taken by surprise, but instead, panic coursed through his veins and he frantically called your name and even went as far as yanking you out of danger when the smoke cleared and he realized that the attack knocked you out.

↪ He has also attempted to recruit you to Jashin on occasion. When he first saw you in action, for example. You declined every time, telling him that you had no interest in becoming apart of a religion that would allow someone as cruel and as heartless as him to join. ( He berated you for that one by the way, even went as far as to attempt to slice your head off )

↪ Speaking of which, just because he finds you attractive does not save you from his short temper! He has attacked you on various occasions and once or twice during a battle and no amount of time together will make him like you nearly enough not to attempt to kill you when you even slightly tick him off.

↪ Overall, Hidan was a tough partner to deal with. Nevertheless, you found yourself shedding tears during your escape after finding out he, despite his immortality, died. You didn't hope that his soul would be carried onto the heavens. You didn't say, "Good riddance," and say rot in hell. You didn't even pray that he'd get reborn into this world as a better person. You simply cried. After all, as horrible of a person he was, you'd be lying if you were to say that your dear partner didn't leave little marks of fondness on your heart after a while.. ( And he was just starting to warm up to you too.. :( )

Konan

↪ She found you cute, but peculiar.

↪ You were the first person she ever recruited. When Tobi described you to her, she had some thoughts in mind in terms of the type of person you'd be. You were the princess of a clan unknown to the majority of the world. With that in mind, she thought you'd be rather down to earth, possibly a bit arrogant.

↪ It turns out she was way off. Firstly, you were much more..ebullient, than she expected. Not only that, but your appearance was much bolder than she anticipated..

↪ She wasn't expecting your eager acceptance either. While you did exchange blows initially, you immediately ceased your attacking once you heard more about the Akatsuki—specifically the part about having strong comrades.

↪ On the way back, she quickly realized how talkative you were. In the span of the day it took to get back to the hideout, she had learned virtually everything about you. Not only that, but you were unashamed in complimenting her appearance and jutsu. ( She did find it odd, though, that you grew all flustered when she politely returned the favor. )

↪ She didn't become your partner per say, but you did travel with her many times. Your unique fighting style and overall power and disposition earned you special tasks from Pain, and since the Akatsuki wasn't one to travel by themselves ( and with you two being the only females ), he sent Konan with you on those special missions.

↪ She wasn't one to become comfortable around those she wasn't especially close with, but you made it really hard not to. You were such a warm person that she naturally gravitated towards you which ultimately resulted in the two of you spending a lot time together.

↪ It was sometime during your first or second mission together that you confessed your reason behind joining. You had been feeling guilty after learning the overall goal of the Akatsuki and felt the need to apologize to Konan for joining with the sole intent on using the Akatsuki to lure in capable shinobi and rogues alike who would be crazy enough to take a woman like yourself as a bride.

↪ To your surprise, she didn't scold you nor did she laugh. She simply told you that she didn't mind your reason for joining as long as you would remain loyal to Pain and his ambitions.

↪ She found you rather silly for someone your age. Every once in a while, your mind would fill with these puerile thoughts and you'd go to the extremes acting on them.

↪ For example, there was a time where you grew weak for a while due to your attempts at hiding your appetite. You really liked Konan and thought she was cool ( Same with a lot of the others in the Akatsuki! ) and you feared that you'd put her off or that she'd consider you a risk factor or something and kick you out of the organization.

↪ Konan found out that your sudden lack of strength was due to starvation and when she confronted you about it, you tearfully confessed your fears to which she sighed. ( Because did you honestly think her or Pain would discard you over something like that? ) Not only did she not kick you, but she also took you out to eat, pushing you to order whatever and however much you'd like.

↪ Safe to say that she severely underestimated just how much you could eat. ( You had a mountain of giant bowls and plates that took up the whole entire table the two of you sat at )

↪ There was another time where you two were walking to your next mission and you were noticeably glum and silent the entire way there. She noticed that you refrained from your usual cheery rambling and during the entirety of your mission, you held this weird, scrunched expression.

↪ When questioned why after everything was over and done with, you told her the most surprising reason ever; that you were trying to seem mature and overall more like her.

↪ That was the first time you ever heard her laugh.

↪ She couldn't help it. The whole situation was incredulous to her. I mean, you want to be like her? She can maybe see your reason, but at the same time..why in the world would you do that?

↪ That said, she told you that she prefers you acting like your normal bilthesome self and was more fond of the sight of your face covered in a wide smile. She's flattered that you look up to her so much, but going so far wasn't necessary as it wasn't considered a bother or hindrance to her, Pain, or anyone else.

↪ She honestly did love how passionate you were about everything you did/believed in. Your emotional sensitivity to the people and things around you was something she admired and respected as she had overall grown to have a heart of stone over the years.

↪ She also found your unique fighting style beautiful and fitting for you. To her, it completely encapsulates your style and being, and she has mentally commended you on being able to take such a simple Kekkei Genkai such as Metal Manipulation and mold it into something like this; a weapon that no other could wield even if they had a similar power which is not an easy feat!

↪ When you're not on a mission, you two have spent time once or twice at a hot springs. Konan herself isn't one for such leisure activities, but she couldn't resist you whenever you asked. ( Plus, you managed to find one secluded that had zero knowledge on the Akatsuki and ultimately let you two in without batting an eye to your appearance ) She'll admit that it grew to be a seldom, but enjoyable pass time to partake in with you.

↪ Speaking of which, during one of those rare pass times, she saw the tattoo on your collarbone for the first time. She found it beautiful and when asked, you were more than happy to tell her all she wanted to know. ( Apparently the tattoo grants you unimaginable power and even amongst the people of your clan, it is rare to obtain. It comes with it's costs, but whether it was because of your sheer determination or some other reason, you were able to live long past the twenty-five age limit unlike the others who were granted it. )

↪ Slowly, she watched as her sunflower companion started to shrivel up. With each Akatsuki member that was killed off, you bawled your pretty little eyes out. The more it happened, the more it seem a piece of your heart cracked away. Thankfully, your rapturous personality didn't cease to exist, but Konan could see how each death that occured got to you little by little. She did her best to comfort you each time, but she could only grant you little relief.

↪ You did do something surprising, however, promising to her that you'd be her and Pain's knight and shining armor and keep them protected and alive. It was a tall order, but she humored you for the chance to see you revert back to normal.

↪ Alas, it seems that tall order was even taller in reality. Pain—or, I guess it would be better to call him by his actual name, Nagato—died, albeit of his own volition.

↪ Konan told you not to blame yourself, but you found yourself doing it anyway. Lately it seemed that all you've managed to do is get in the way and get others hurt trying to save you..and Konan could tell from a mile a day that you were thinking that.

↪ And so, after calling a truce with Naruto, she invited you to come with her back to Amegakure and work as her second in command which you ended up accepting, wanting to at least do the bare minimum of protecting her.

↪ During that small time of peace, it was nice. Amegakure saw you as the Angel's spear and praised your beauty and strength. Even then, your guilt didn't settle, if anything it ate away at you for relaxing/doing menial task while the others who passed fought long, hard battles and died fighting for what they stood for.

↪ In the end, you were finally given relief as you were soon killed by Tobi. You fought as best you could and lost half of your limbs doing your best to protect Konan and the secret of where Nagato's corpse's laid. You didn't want to go so soon, especially so quickly after the battle had begun, but your senses were dulling at a rapid rate and your blood was pooling out of you from various angles.

↪ Not everything was bad though. You died in the arms of the one who's comforted you the most throughout the years; Konan. And, even at that point, despite your uselessness, she smiled and thanked you for everything you had done and told you to rest.

↪ You didn't feel as though you deserved such kindness from her, but you didn't have the strength to fight her at that point and ended up passing away with tears rolling down your bloody, wet face..

↪ Konan loved everything about you. To her, you were the true angel, shielding everyone with your golden wings even when they began to wear down and tear. You were the light that illuminated the darkness that was the Akatsuki—her world—and she's forever grateful to fate that led you two together.

↪ You were pure—purer than the life you led. She hopes that in the next you'll have better, even if that meant she wouldn't be reborn alongside you to see it.

Dividers were made by me, pictures used are from Pinterest, post formatting is inspired by @xxsabitoxx

[redactahoe]

Hiiiii….! Heeeey..! How y’all doin’ ..!

I know it’s been almost two months a minute and I apologize for that there’s been a lot going wrong in my personal life and I’ve been pretty burned out with arguing with cvs about Giving me my adhd meds but I got em so have some funfacts about my sweetheart oc and Milo

Here’s a wip for reference:

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For reference my sweetheart oc is named Ilya ands a lovable asshole

He’s Sam’s little brother and totally thought that Sam was missing but still alive despite what everyone around him was telling him and part of the reason he became an investigator was so that he could at the very least find out what happened to his brother

Following the whole Sam and iyla being brothers that means that iyla is also freakishly tall and built like a Mac truck. Sam stands at around 6’7 and iyla is 6’9 and it pisses Sam off so bad when ppl mistake iyla for the older one of the twos even though iyla only has a little scruff on his face meanwhile Sam has a whole ass beard)

Despite the fact that iyla is a flaming homosexual for Milo and is deeply and almost obsessively in love with his mate, he still looks like an attractive straight guy or what Lucas (baabe) likes to say a ‘book tok girlies wet dream’ and this causes a lot of… workplace crushes. And while yes at the department that iyla works at majority of his coworkers know and have accepted his relationship with Milo (because 99% of the things iyla talks about is Milo and much he loves his mate) the still get the occasional rookie or incredibly persistent people who either don’t know or haven’t accepted. It’s ok though like I mentioned before(see first point) iyla is a bit of an asshole and has an arsenal of smarmy and sassy shutdowns and comebacks for the overly insistent ones.

Because of his job iyla has to dress pretty professionally so whenever he’s not working he takes every chance he gets to where his stupid little pj pants. You know those pjs that have like superhero’s or cartoon patterns on? Yeah, iyla loves them! He has a vast collection of them and they drive Milo crazy

Speaking of clothing as much as I want to lead you to believe that iyla and Milo are fashion icons, it’s not true. It’s all Milo and iyla truly and whole heartedly has no fashion sense at all. But what he does have is the amazing ability to pick up and match whatever frequency Milo is putting out so it gives the allusion that iyla also has a sense of fashion. But no he’s just really good at matching energy

Milo quite literally changed this man’s life. Ilya can’t take care of himself for shit and survived off of the bare minimum and coffee. And because of this he was pretty malnourished but would never tell anyone and would play off the light headedness, migraines and other symptoms of not taking care of one’s self off and most people wouldn’t push but Milo nore his mama aren’t most people. When Milo found out about iyla basically starving himself and then got the same ‘it’s fine, it’s not that bad, and you don’t got to worry’, Milo wasn’t having any of that. And took it Apon himself to make iyla lunch every single day and take said lunch to iyla every single day. Milo still does this to this day. And while at first iyla tried to convince Milo not to waste his time or resources on him, it was more like trying to convince a brick wall to move. And then Marie found out through Milo and took a step further by essentially forcing ilya to let her mothering him.

Bc of the whole Milo and Marie forcing iyla to take care of himself, he ends of becoming very soft and squishy, at first iyla tried to hide this new development from Milo in fear of Milo not liking his new body, but Milo had long noticed and is incredibly obsessed with the weight and how it looked on iyla and was actively holding back from jumping iylas bones. The only reason Milo didn’t drag that dumb mf into pound town was because he was still trying to considerate and respectful of iylas feeling. Let’s just say Milo ended up demolishing any insecurity in iyla that night >:]

Iyla and aggro are best buddies. Like aggro is the kind of cat that typically doesn’t like being carried but whenever iyla is around, little man is begging to be in his arms. If iyla ain’t holding him them aggro is either on his shoulders/head or following him around like a little shadow. Iyla is not allowed to close his office door or aggro will scream. Milo sometimes likes to joke that he’s the third wheel here which is then responded with lots of love and affection from iyla because Milo will always be his number one priority(aggro comes in at a close second though)

Much like his brother iyla has an accent but it’s ever so slightly lighter and sounds closer to a Cajun accent rather than a country accent but that still doesn’t stop his friends from also calling him a cowboy. But unlike Sam, iyla fully accepts this title and even plays into it\

A lot of people expect him to a cold jaded investigator who expresses a lot of emotion, he is anything but that. He’s a comedic jackass (think Pete Davidson, Deadpool, ) who has no filter. And while most of the time he’s able to keep it tame, he’s still very reactive and does not think before he speaks most of the time.

The first time he met colm(at work because colm knows no boundaries) he was holding back so much snark and was trying so hard to be respectful bc colm is still Milo’s dad and whole he may not have sway on Milo’s opinion he definitely could still affect Marie’s opinions of him. But that all when out the fucking window when colm made an off handed comment about Milo’s sexuality and iyla on reflex called him a cunt and drunkard, proceeded to flip colm off and walk away. Milo found this hilarious though, and could not stop talking about it for weeks. And while colm tried to cry about the ‘no good stealth punk’ to Marie, she told his ass that he should have listened at left iyla alone

Iyla has a bit of a temper and a smoking habit. But don’t worry iyla has gotten amazing control of his temper and he’s been trying to quit smoking since he met Milo. And even when iyla is angry it’s just a lot of comedic yelling and cussing. Not aimed at anyone in particular (usually) it’s just a lot of iyla yelling increasingly creative curses

Iyla working and iyla not working are two very different people. Iyla despite his jokey laid backness. Takes his job very seriously and Coworkers that aren’t close to him kinda don’t believe iyla can genuinely laugh and he has something that Asher likes to call his ‘lieutenant voice’ where it’s essentially iyla speaking in a kinda scary and demanding tone which is usually used when a fellow officer/investigator fucks up, is being dumb, or god forbid being discriminating against anyone, especially iylas family.

Milo thinks the lieutenant voice is very sexy, David of all people is a little scared of it(but he would never admit it out loud), sam is also a little intimidated by it but he will openly admit that he didn’t think his little bro could be that scary, Asher, Angelo, Casey and the rest thinks it’s kind of funny how easy it is for iyla to switch into lieutenant mode

Despite the vast height difference between Milo and iyla, iyla very rarely makes jokes about Milo’s size. He is very aware on how these jokes make Milo feel and he almost knocked Chrissy’s lights out for making a pipsqueak joke about Milo behind his back. But on the other hand he will call Sam every short related nickname under the fucking sun.

On a more serious note iyla is incredibly paranoid about his friends and family’s safety and took it very hard when Casey fell of the the face of the earth to hunt down Quinn. And while at first iyla was mad ad Casey that anger very quickly shifted on to Quinn after iyla decided to look into Quinn’s history and found out that he has had a pattern of targeting to black sheep’s and using that persons loved ones against him.

You don’t wrong iyla or anyone iyla cares about and get away with it. Iyla is a very vengeful person and believes that if you hurt someone for no good reason then you need to receive that hurt back tenfold. He has a long history of getting his lick back on people, and some range from incredibly funny and ironic to down right murderous

On a more lighter note, he’s super competitive and Milo and him playfully argue and banter all fucking day but it usually ends in some form of a steamy make out because their gross and in love

[brujamala-aka-gigi]

emotional attachment and distorted perceptions...

although embracing emotions and giving ourselves time to experience them fully is highly necessary, we owe it to ourselves to be responsible, and make sure those same emotions are not blocking our ability to have a clear vision of our lives. this tarot reading is aimed to give you some guidance if you feel like something about the past is still impacting your thoughts negatively.

pile one pile two pile three

images from pinterest and dividers by @pommecita

꒰ঌ ✦ scroll down for the results ໒꒱ ༘*.ﾟ

-ˋˏ ༻ ❁ Masterpost and Tarot Menu ❁༺ ˎˊ-

PILE NUMBER ONE

Soon, you will face situations where you are not expected to put your emotions first, as you are now too compromised by ruminating thoughts regarding your past. You need to understand that part of your healing journey involves moving forward when it comes to more material and seemingly superficial notions of success. You must begin allowing yourself to experience the joy simpler things can bring into your life, as they will signify deeper manifestations of emotional and spiritual growth. It is understandable to feel disappointed and disenchanted by apparently mundane things, but you have the mental strength to think more positively about the little things you miss out on enjoying from your daily routine.

It’ll become more noticeable to you that many things have already fallen into place once you get yourself out of toxic thought patterns influenced by emotional scars that you are not allowing to heal properly. Be kinder to yourself and be patient, stop expecting certain things to move faster and enjoy the actual process of healing. Anxiety won’t produce any helpful thoughts, so it’s better to be aware on how those ideas are affecting your wellbeing and sabotaging your growth before allowing them to take so much space.  

PILE NUMBER TWO

Major turning points in your life might be accompanied by long periods of introspection, but it’s also key that you develop better abilities to understand the emotional depth of others around you, especially when dealing with the consequences of other’s impulsive emotional decisions. You might not be taking into consideration that even if you are great at solving problems and creating new ways of dealing with them, other’s are too reliant on your strength, which is making you tired due to rightfully not being willing or able to provide support or company for everyone.

Being someone who is naturally generous and nurturing is amazing, and valuable. But this shouldn’t be taken as a defining characteristic of yours, you don’t owe the same level of care to everyone, even if it’s natural to you, it doesn’t mean that is not affecting you negatively. It is completely normal to want to walk away or to not know how to process absolutely all of your emotions as long as you don’t hurt anyone on the process. Stop allowing yourself to be carried away by the emotional immaturity of others.

PILE NUMBER THREE

During this moment of your life, the independence you might have fought for in the past is not giving you the freedom of choice you expected. This disappointment might get you in an overly defensive state where you are in denial of actually wanting and needing some help, especially when it comes to situations that involve conflictive ways of dealing with them. The need to advance in your life path is heavily influenced by fear of being stuck, instead of ambition to grow further.

Expect your problems to be solved in rather explosive ways soon. Many things in your life will begin to happen in order for you to move past the anxiety of loosing what you already have. You do have control over what happens and how it happens, yet this power won’t manifest unless you become more confident when dealing with mistakes, the ones you made and the ones from others, as it’s not healthy to remain resentful if you are not willing to learn from the experience.  You might not realize it, but any kind of abundance you have in your life, won’t be taken away by others, but will rotten if you are not transcending the fear of loss and abandonment.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

What do you think, Azula and Zuko are more alike than their fans want to admit or are they completely opposite and going in different directions?

ANON, YOU FOOL, YOU OPENED THE FLOODGATES!

Azula and Zuko are a classic case of "same writing, different font." Just two sides of the same coin. Zuko is who Azula would be if she had been the scapegoat of the family, wore her heart on her sleeve, was just a good bender instead of a prodigy, and was willing to question Ozai. Azula is who Zuko would be if he managed to suppress emotions, didn't get in his own way due to impatience/desperate need to prove himself, was the golden child and never questioned Ozai in any way.

They have MANY things in common. Both are stubborn, proud, deeply patriotic, ambitious, social disasters yet super badass when in their element, passionate about their beliefs and, more importantly, take their roles VERY seriously - what creates contrast between them is what said roles are. Azula is the "perfect", ruthless, cunning princess that was taught to be proud about not caring for others. Zuko is disgraced son that has to prove himself (to himself, to Ozai, and, later on, to the world) that he is worthy of being the future Fire Lord.

This point is even highlighted by the role reversal that happened in the Last Agni Kai, in which Zuko is winning by using Azula's tactics, letting her attack and waste all her energy, while he saves up his own so he can strike full force once she's too tired - he even tries to goad her into using lightining so he can redirect it and win, and it would have probably worked if Azula hadn't found an easy target in Katara. Their strategies, levels of confidence and even personalities change to be more like their sibling's based on their situation.

They're also driven by the same fears: of not being good enough, of not being worthy enough, of not being loved. Fiting considering they were indoctrinated/traumatized by the same system/person, under the same roof, even if they were abused in different ways.

We see them making a ton of the same mistakes as well.

Zuko wants to make the ship go through a dangerous storm to chase the Avatar because "the safety of the grew doesn't matter", Azula has her infamous "Do the tides command this ship?" moment.

Azula banishes everyone because she's struggling to cope with her friends' "betrayal", Zuko becomes a much more cruel and self person after being disfigured by Ozai and even tries to get away from Iroh several times.

Azula is verbally abusive to her brother and sometimes her friends, Zuko is verbally abusive to their uncle.

Azula throws Zuko under the bus to be in Ozai's good graces, Zuko throws Iroh under the bus to win his dad's affection.

That last one is also part of a very noticeable pattern: Whenever Zuko is being unapologetic about being a villain, he tends to be VERY cunning and one hell of backstaber.

The Avatar returned but he couldn't capture him? He tried to keep it a secret. If no one else knows about it, they can't steal his chance to go home by capturing him first.

Some pirates want to attack the Gaang because they stole a scroll? Free henchmen. He just has to pretend this kid he wants to capture is not the Avatar, and thus not worth A LOT more than what these guys are getting as a reward. Zuko even has the nerve to go "Don't listen to him, he's just trying to divide us" when Sokka points out that he's REALLY screwing them over with this deal (they should make a support group with Long Feng).

Zhao captured the Avatar before he could? Go kidnap that monk back. It doesn't matter that Aang's capture means the nation Zuko genuinely loves will have no true obstacle in it's path for victory: If he's not the one scoring that major win, NO ONE is. His nation and his family can have their moment of glory AFTER he got his, not a second earlier.

Zhao tried to kill him and is going after the Avatar again? Time to dress up as one of his men to be taken by the idiot himself to the North Pole so he can interfere with his plans - literally the same as Azula pretending to be Suki, taking over Ba Sing Se and as a bonus discovering about their plans for the eclipse.

Azula is tracking Aang to capture him? Just follow right behind her and wait until she doesn't have her friends along so he has a better chance of winning the fight against her and being the one to take the Avatar to Ozai.

Oh, he was brought home because the Avatar is "dead"... except that might not be true, so maybe he'll be banished again? Mouth shut, Azula is the one who "killed" him anyways. Worse comes to worse, send an assassin to finish the job.

Hell, even when he's already determined to be a good person, he calls himself stupid for not blaming the whole assassin thing on his sister. Literally blaming her for his fuck up, the same way she did with that "Zuko was the one who killed the Avatar" thing.

His POV in Earth Kingdom Chronicles also give us some insight into what exactly he was thinking during the events of Crossroads of Destiny:

Zuko, I’m begging you,” Uncle said. “Look into your heart and see what it is that you truly want.” “You are free to choose,” Azula said. Then she and the Dai Li left. She is right. I am free to choose. And Uncle is right too. I must look into my heart and find what it is I truly want. That is easy. It’s what I’ve always wanted. I cannot deny my heart, my heritage, and who I truly am. I raced from the cell out into an open courtyard, where Azula was battling Katara and the Avatar. They had reached a stalemate, and then they were each waiting to see who would strike next. I did. I sent a fire blast that landed right between them. They were all looking at me, wondering what my next move would be. Good. I will show them my choice, the choice I always knew I would make.

Uncle looked at me without saying a word. Then he looked away. I can tell he’s very disappointed in me. But I had to do what I did.

Zuko is, to the Gaang, what Azula is to him: the wildcard, a huge pain in the ass, the unreliable son of a bitch that every so often gets them to chill just enough that they forget they REALLY shouldn't trust him, as he has a tendency of putting himself first, screw everyobody else. And much like he struggled to win their forgiveness and friendship after all that nonsense, Azula has to deal with Zuko's understandable suspicion of her intentions whenever she actually feels like genuinely being a good sister to him.

And what makes that parallel even more obvious (deliberately or not on the show's part) is that, when fighting Azula, Zuko is represented by the color red, but when compared to the Gaang, Zuko is constantly represented by the color blue. That's Azula's signature color, her name was literally chosen by the showrunners because of her blue flames - yet Zuko is the Blue Spirit, and is represented by the blue dragon when he and Aang meet Ran and Shaw.

And speaking of blue dragons, the "shoulder devil" in his fever dream has Azula's voice, while the "shoulder angel" has Iroh's voice... yet when he's trying to be one of the good guys, not only does Zuko explicitly ask himself "What would AZULA do?, he actually manages to be accurate when putting himself in her shoes, unlike when he tries to think/talk like Iroh, which always comes out as pure giberish.

So while the part of him that is more Azula-esque is very much treated as his "bad" side, it is still clearly a side that isn't going away, and sometimes it represents him better (and is far easier for him to understand/connect with) than the part of him that is more like Iroh - again, especially when Zuko's being compared to more "moral" people - and the writers are VERY aware of that pattern of Azula being THE person who knows how to get into Zuko's head like no one else can, mainly because of their familial relationship.

This quote about it by Bryan Konietzko in an interview was very interesting (and yes, I needed the wiki to let me know which half of "Bryke" he was 'cause I still can't tell them apart)

"When you study Eastern philosophies, the ego is a really tough enemy or antagonist. Again, we like to treat our characters very realistically. In real life, people have moments of great weakness, usually tied in with the ego. Your siblings can push your buttons. I have four siblings, a brother and three sisters, and no one can get you like your siblings. Azula knew ALL the right buttons to push to play at his weaknesses, parts of his ego which were susceptible to her. She did it well, and it was a moment where he just tasted this thing which he's wanted and focused on, obsessed over, for so long. I think it was very realistic."

Azula being Zuko's "ego" (or at least the person that can use it to their advantage the most due to her understanding of it) ties into her being his "bad" side, and makes for a nice parallel with her POV in the book Earth Kingdom Chronicles

I sent a message to Iroh’s tea shop — making it look as if the note had come from the Earth King — requesting that he and Zuko come to the palace as guests of the king, to personally serve him tea. There was no way Iroh could resist such an offer. The next day, I watched from the shadows as Iroh and Zuko set up tea in the palace tea room. I marveled at how soft and so pitifully domesticated they had both become. The once great general, who was called the Dragon of the West, and the Fire Lord’s firstborn, preparing tea like servants. If my father could see his son … Well, no matter. Soon they will be back in the Fire Nation, or else they will be destroyed.

I know he doesn’t believe Iroh and all his talk of turning to goodness. I know what Zuko wants deep in his heart. I have always known him better than anyone else. He can’t hide his true feelings and desires from me, no matter what he says, no matter how noble a face he puts on for others. I know what choice he will make, even if he doesn’t know.

It's interesting how Azula knew how to appeal to Iroh's ego as well - and that she's almost offended on their behalf, seeing them acting as servants, because, whatever her issues with them, they're still from the same bloodline as herself, and she very much would NOT accept being in such position, therefore they shouldn't be playing that role either (and it's clear she'll deal with them harshly if they fail to prove they were not, indeed, "domesticated").

But it's also obvious that she has a much better understanding of how to bring Zuko to her side - and that she doesn't care that much if Iroh follows along or just gets destroyed. Zuko was very much the true goal, and she actually lets us know why.

Poor, poor Zuko. I actually feel sorry for him. He still doesn’t understand, even at his moment of ultimate achievement. “Father doesn’t need to restore your honor, Zuko,” I explained. “Today you restored your own honor.” My brother looked away from me with a pained expression across his face. I hope he can eventually believe what I have told him: that by choosing his family, by choosing me over the Avatar, he has come back to his rightful place in the Fire Nation. And I welcome him by my side.

If Azula is Zuko's ego, the part of him that encourages his manipulative, selfish, cruel tendencies, Zuko is Azula's heart. That part of her that is still, in some way, innocent. Just a young girl that wants her brother to come home, so they can be a family again. The part of her that wants to be beside him, not three steps ahead of him in everything, taunting him about how he'll never catch up - because if he doesn't, she's alone.

Zuko's mistake was indulging his ego way too much, Azula's mistake was neglecting her heart - and both mistakes are a result of the same thing, namely Ozai and what he thought made someone strong or weak. Admiting fault and caring for others is weakness, and needs to be punished harshly. Burning everything down to be king of the ashes is strength.

And loyalty is something he demands from, and imposes on, others, not something HE is to ever give to anyone, hence him leaving Azula behind in the finale, to which she argues "You can't treat me like that, you can't treat me like Zuko."

She played by his rules, she neglected her heart so she would be worthy of Ozai's love - and then he took his love back anyway, just because he could. And then Zuko shows up and gets his happy ending after having asked Katara "How would you like to help me put Azula in her place?" He tamed his ego, and was rewarded for it.

Now, there is one big problem with that dynamic of "Zuko has to be loved, Azula has to be controled" which is when an incompetent writer crosses the line from making that literal instead of symbolic - which is how we end up with the Yang comics, in which Zuko cannot be described as anything but Azula's abuser, whom she's both loyal to and incredibly hateful towards.

He's the new Ozai, which is very ironic considering that was what Azula wanted him to be, and what the comics are telling us Zuko is fighting back against, even though he's constantly framed as the good guy for showing his sister the back of his hand (or an asylum to be neglected in, or the edge of a cliff to be thrown off of) when she's in the middle of a psychotic breakdown.

The show avoided that gross narrative with one simple solution: Ego's (Azula's) "Death" is not the triumph one would expect. She's humanized more than ever in the finale (and before in The Beach), the music is somber, and Zuko looks at her with pity by the end of the battle because this is a tragedy.

Because Azula is not just part of him, a symbolic element of his arc, she's her own person - and Ehasz making it clear that he planted the seeds for Zuko to help Azula redeem herself by showing her unconditional love frames his return as being not just her foe coming back to defeat her, but as her Heart sweeping in to rescue her.

Because, despite all the false dichotomy about how it's either him or her ("born lucky, lucky to be born", "I'm about to celebrate becoming an only child", "the showdown that was always meant to be") it simply is not a true victory for Zuko if the consequence is Azula's demise - and clearly the same applied to her, since she went out of her way to bring him back home.

...And to give credit where credit is due, even Gene Yang didn't fuck that up completely as, in Smoke and Shadow, when Azula is talking to Zuko (in a crypt belonging to a former Fire Lord's most trusted advisor no less) the man has Azula herself tell Zuko that sooner or later he'll realize they're one in the same.

(Even if I suspect that is just a result of him continuing trying to make Azula "Avatar's Joker" and since Zuko would be Batman, she would be obsessed with being his opposite and "completing" him, but hey, accidentally getting something right is still getting something right)

Oh, and they're both really pretty. That has nothing to do with anything, but I felt the need to mention it anyway.

[aspoonofsugar]

do you think the song out for love says something about Camilla and veggie and to veggies character arc

Hi!

Yes, it does. I want to talk about Vaggie in other metas too, so in this analysis I will focus on her relationship with Carmilla, since this is what you are mainly asking about.

Before I start, though, I am gonna link to you this meta by @hamliet, where she talks about the main message of the song:

You're gonna fight without gloves And when that push comes to shove Yeah, you just might rise above Long as you're out for love

If you love, you might rise above. So Vaggie, a fallen angel, regrows her wings by choosing love and protection over hate and revenge. The meaning is crystal clear. Love makes you worthy of Heaven. Just like in the finale Pentious ascends thanks to his selfless sacrifice.

This is the meaning of the song when it comes to theme and to the series as a whole.

At the same time it is not by chance this theme comes out so strongly in relation to Carmilla and Vaggie, as they are both tied to "love".

FAMILIAL LOVE AND ROMANTIC LOVE

Carmilla Carmine: So I, I'll be your keeper Do whatever it takes, I'll make the mistakes I'll keep you safe and keep this secret

Vaggie: So I, I'll be your armor Do whatever it takes, I'll make the mistakes I'll spend my life being your partner

Carmilla and Vaggie are set up as foils in episode 3, when they share the song Whatever It Takes. This ballad is a love song, but Carmilla and Vaggie express two different kinds of love:

Carmilla is singing to her daughters (familial)

Vaggie is singing to Charlie (romantic)

This is a pattern throughout the show:

There are two versions of More Than Anything - the first one is about a familial bond, whereas the second explores a romantic relationship

Sir Pentious gets redeemed after expressing his feelings for Cherri (romantic) and sacrificing himself for the Hotel Crew (familial)

So, Hazbin Hotel goes out of its way to celebrate all kinds of positive bonds: platonic, romantic, familial. All of these relationships are enriching and help people grow. Vaggie and Carmilla are two characters linked to this very concept, as they are ready to fight and suffer for their loved ones:

Both: Whatever we go through I know I~ (Carmilla: I'll be your keeper) (Vaggie: I'll be your armor) Whatever it takes (Carmilla: I'll make the mistakes) (Vaggie: I'll make the mistakes) Whatever it takes

They are both warriors, but fight for love. They are out for love. However, Whatever It Takes also highlights a major difference between them.

TRUST AND SELF-EXPRESSION

Scrambled Eggs is an episode about trust. This is true especially for Carmilla and Vaggie, who have opposite secrets:

Carmilla killed an angel

Vaggie is an angel

Throughout the song the conflict between Heaven and Hell is mentioned by Carmilla and is present in subtext in Vaggie's stanza, as she looks at her old home.

Both are struggling under the pressure of these truths and are confronted by a loved one:

Zestial: Carmilla, what troubles thou? Losing thy composure is unlike thee. Carmilla Carmine: It's nothing, Zestial, really.

Charlie: Vaggie, don't say that! You do so much! It's- Vaggie: I'm sorry. I'd… I'd like to be alone for a minute.

Carmilla chooses to open up to Zestial and tells her daughters how much she loves them. Vaggie instead closes herself off and refuses Charlie's attempt to talk. She is singing to Charlie, but Charlie herself isn't present to hear her out. Even when it comes to their respective secrets...

Carmilla says hers in the song:

Carmilla Carmine: I always thought that I would keep blood off my face But when that thing attacked, I had to act To cross that line and keep them safe But if anyone knew, then all of Hell would rise to war And who's to say who'd survive the fray? I might lose the ones that I was killing for

Vaggie only alludes to hers in the lyrics:

Vaggie: When I saw your face You made me feel like a stranger in a brand new place And it felt so good to be understood But there's so much I wished that I could say

Vaggie meets Charlie and feels like a stranger in a brand new place because at the time she is in fact a stranger in a brand new place:

So, Carmilla is able to express herself, while Vaggie can't. This isn't surprising, as Vaggie is basically a child-soldier:

Adam: Do you really think I wouldn't recognize one of my top girls just cuz you're out of uniform? You were on the front lines, I wouldn't forget a bad bitch like you. It's why I named you after the best thing ever. Vaggie.

She is brought up in Adam's army and is taught that love is conditional. She is one of Adam's best fighters, but the moment she makes a "mistake", she is discarded:

Lute: Sinful filth like you has no place in heaven.

This is why she feels Charlie will love her only if she is useful and never messes up:

Vaggie: I'm supposed to make your dreams a reality. I'm supposed to protect you. I'm supposed to never fail you. (...) If I can't help you, what's the point of me?

This fear of abandonement and rejection is also at the root of Vaggie's inability to tell Charlie about her past:

Adam: I guess I'll just tell little miss butterflies and rainbows that she's been fucking someone who's killed-- thousands of her people. I'm sure your relationship will be fine.

Still, despite her communication issues, Vaggie's heart is in the right place:

Rosie: If there's anything I've learned, it's that words are cheap, but actions, they speak the truth. So, what have her actions said?

Vaggie is a person of few words. This may be why she has less songs than other characters. Still, she lets her actions speak, so she is given a ballet lesson by a very talented ballerina:

DANCING THROUGH LIFE

Carmilla has a ballet motif, as her outfit resembles that of a ballerina and her two daughters are called after protagonists of famous ballets. So, it is only natural that she teaches Vaggie a new way to fight through dancing.

Vaggie was taught to fight with hate and anger. So, her fighting style is aggressive and focused on attack:

Carmilla: You leave yourself open with every swing. You fight like someone unafraid of harm, and this is what you'll take advantage of. Angels wield no shields, little armor and fight with reckless abandon.

Carmilla tells her she should instead dedicate herself to love, protection and defense:

Fuel yourself with the fear of losin' That somebody who's your reason to live Harnеss your heart and you can't help choosin' To fight with all you can give

Vaggie shouldn't just fight. She should dance:

She shouldn't hate:

I see you're driven by your detestation Your every step is stoked with animus You need a different type of motivation Or there's no way that you can handle this

She should love:

Out for love~ Love~ Think of who you care about Protect them and be out For love~ Love~

Vaggie listens to these teachings and applies them in the finale, in two ways.

She sings her love for Charlie in More Than Anything Reprise:

Vaggie: You've already done so much So many lives you've changed So many souls you've touched And in the end, if it's only me you've saved Charlie and Vaggie: There's something that I've been dying to say More than anything, more than anything Need you to know I love you more than anything More than anything

As stated above, Vaggie doesn't sing much in season 1, but in the final episode she gets a short moment to express how she feels to Charlie. This is in contrast to Whatever It Takes, where she sends her girlfriend away before she starts singing. More Than Anything Reprise shows Vaggie's progress when it comes to self-expression.

She follows Carmilla's advices while fighting

On a practical level she covers herself up in a battle suit inspired by Carmilla's outfit, she wears a harness on her heart and ties her hair:

Vaggie: I'm not used to fighting with long hair.

On a thematic level she reveals her wings and defeats Lute, when the exorcist threathens Charlie:

Lute: So, I'll spare you the pain of seeing your demon bitch die.

And Vaggie eventually chooses not to kill the other angel:

Lute: Do it, then. Correct your mistake. Vaggie: Seriously, you're pathetic, you know that? Ready to die rather than accepting mercy? No, live. Live knowing that you only do because I let you, the failure.

Vaggie is asked to choose between her hate for Lute and her love for Charlie and she chooses the latter. This is why the scene ends with Vaggie leaving Lute and flying to help Charlie. She is given the chance to get revenge, but doesn't take it. She is given the chance to hate, but she loves:

I know you're thirstin' for vengeance, Vaggie You're out for blood But you'll only stand a chance if you're out for love

This is important in two ways:

1- The macrochosm - Vaggie refuses Lute's ideals and defies her expectations. For Lute it is normal that Vaggie is going to kill her. After all, Vaggie is discarded because she shows pity to a sinner, which makes her weak. Still, Vaggie bests Lute in a fight, so she is now strong. It is only obvious then that Vaggie has snapped out of her foolery and is ready to kill. She can correct her mistake. She did not kill the cannibal child, but she can kill Lute. This is how Lute understands the world. And yet, Vaggie doesn't finish her off. By doing so, she moves away from the mentality Lute embodies. She is strong precisely because she can show mercy. Adam is wrong. Lute is wrong. Vaggie isn't out for blood. She is out for love.

2- The microchosm - Vaggie sparing Lute isn't just the morally correct choice, but it is Vaggie's first step into healing:

Husk: (To Vaggie) This one. Judges everyone and everything because she hates herself.

Vaggie hates everyone because she deep down hates herself. She despises Heaven and Angels because she can't forgive her involvement in the exterminations. So, Vaggie hurting Lute would be Vaggie hurting her past self. As a matter of fact Lute is Vaggie's dark mirror. She is who Vaggie might become if she gives in to hate.

A person who hurts others:

And herself:

Vaggie instead has to value her life, so that she can protect others. She must save others and heal herself. Only in this way she can be by Charlie's side. She needs to let go of self-hate to embrace a healthy love. Vaggie's arc is her learning self-love through her bond with the Princess of Hell.

Obviously this journey is just at the beginning and our Angel of Love has a long way to go. How will her story contiue? We can make some hypothesis, which once again stem from Vaggie and Carmilla's foiling. This is just a theory, so take it with a grain of salt, but Vaggie may have a secondary personal antagonist in Hell:

Why is that so? It's because Scrambled Eggs sets Vaggie and Velvette up as foils.

RESPECT(LESS)

Velvette and Vaggie are opposites in their interactions with Carmilla. Both girls are younger than the Dancer Overlord and could learn a lot from her. However, Velvette refuses any kind of mentorship and shows no respect:

Velvette: Mad that I acted respectless? Well, it's cause no one could respect this! You're long past trending! Sorry, bae, but I ain't swiping right! You've lost your relevance-

Vaggie instead comes to respect Carmilla and learns from her:

At the same time, both Velvette and Vaggie confront Carmilla about her secret:

Velvette: 'Oops!' Did I strike a nerve? 'Cause when I brought out the angel's head, couldn't help but observe, that your wrinkled face was turning red! And why are you avoiding war? That's what the guns you sell are for! Thanks to my being respectless, one thing I'm starting to suspect is You know why this angel's headless! Do you have a disclosure?

Vaggie: I know what you did on extermination day. We can talk about it inside, or I can yell about it out here.

They call Carmilla out on killing an angel and keeping this knowledge to herself. Not only that, but both argue that it is necessary to fight back to stop the exterminations:

Velvette: We found it during Extermination day. If these Holy Rollers can be killed, the game has changed. We can take the fight to them. The boys and I have come up with a full assault plan!

Vaggie: Miss Carmine, I'm here on appointment from the princess to enlist your aid in the defense of hell from the angelic extermination. We know an angel fell at your hands and we need to know how.

Still, Velvette fails to get through to Carmilla because she uses war rhetoric:

Velvette: Oh, I get it. So Grandpa is too pussy to fight, so I guess there's no point, right? Oh, what's the matter, Fossil? Too senile to make a real power grab...

She speaks of violence, strength and power.

Vaggie instead convinces Carmilla to help because she mentions the necessity to fight for loved ones:

Vaggie: We didn't pick this fight, but it's here now. And they aren't going to stop with us. You didn't see the look on their leader's face. With us out of the way, it's only a matter of time before they come for the rest of you. They won't stop until all of hell is wiped out, so you can help us make a stand here together, or you can stand alone tomorrow.

She speaks of protection, love and comraderie.

In short, Vaggie succeeds where Velvette fails. Of course, this is true for Charlie's group in general when it comes to the Vees:

Vox: My dear people! We at VoxTek Enterprises have always been at the forefront of innovation. And now, with this new oncoming threat, we are shifting our focus, to your protection. We are pleased to announce VoxTek Angelic Security is coming soon! Trust us, with YOUR safety.

Katie Killjoy: Breaking news - Extermination day is cancelled! Charlie Morningstar managed to fend off the angelic attack with more than just nice words.

The Vees make big declarations of how they are gonna protect the people of Hell, but in the end it is Charlie and her friends who fight for the sinners.

When it comes to Vaggie and Velvette specifically, it is going to be interesting if their foiling is expanded. If so, then I guess Velvette is gonna help Vaggie mature a little bit more, so that when our ex exorcist faces Lute (her nemesis) again, she is gonna be ready for it.

[hisosisu]

okay here it is

Unofficial Rouxls Kaard Dialogue Guide

disclaimer: i am very much not a scholar of old/medieval/shakesperian english and can't say that i know much of the actual grammatical rules (haha) of it, beyond the difference between thy/thine or you/thou etc. luckily, neither does rouxls. i do not believe you need any prior knowledge of proper old english to effectively imitate toby's style in writing his dialogue, but i invite anyone with relevant knowledge to let me know if there's any hidden patterns/jokes that you can only understand if you do study that field :) i'm simply an autistic with a fascination for analyzing and replicating speech patterns, and a major rouxls fan.

#1: Balance is Key

if you take nothing else from this guide, let it be this! the number one most common mistake i see in fanworks involving rouxls is to go much heavier on the "medieval" dialect than is necessary, which often creates something unwieldy, difficult to understand, and frankly unfunny. when creating dialogue for rouxls, it is tantamount to keep moderation and variety in mind, to create a balanced and somewhat correct-sounding sentence, that flows well and doesn't fall into repetitive consonance (aka using -eth or -est sounds too many times in a row). a handy way to check yourself for this is to say it aloud and check the rhythm. it may be easier in some cases to reword the "base" idea of what you're trying to say, but there is a way to rouxls-ify any sentence, i think.

Example (Base sentence): You worms haven't seen the last of me! Prepare for battle!

Example (Too heavy): Thou wormeths haven'st seeneth yon lastest of me! Prepareth fore battlest!

Example (Just right): Thoust worms haven't seen the laste of me! Prepareth thou for battle!

if all else fails, err on the side of less "medieval" speech rather than more, especially for shorter lines, and feel free to throw in an extra word or two (such as the "thou" added above) to improve the flow if necessary.

#2: Rouxls-Specific Quirks

here is a list of common words or word-modifiers that rouxls commonly uses in canon, feel free to mix and match these and remember that rouxls is very inconsistent with his speech quirks. he does not, for example, use the word "thine" every time he says "your", nor is he consistent about which words he decides to append an "eth" to. it's all done based on vibes and flow, and he would likely say the exact same sentence in a different way on different occasions. these are just suggestions, not any sort of grammatical rule (ha) or language!

"thou"- very common, used in place of "you". similarly, "thy" and "thine", meaning "your" or "yours", though "thine" is used much more often than "thy", disregarding the actual grammatical cases of the words. goes along with using "mine" instead of "my".

"hath"- very common, used in place of "have", though not completely exclusively. in some cases, he will use "have" or "haveth" instead, usually for rhythm reasons. not often used in contractions ("hathn't" is usually just "hath not")

"-eth" as a suffix- very common. this has no meaning on its own, it's just a somewhat common sound in medieval english that he enjoys appending to random words to make himself seem more competent. most often used on command- or future-tense verbs ("prepareth", "solveth", "planeth", "bringeth", etc), or past-tense verbs with no "ed" ("sprungeth", "casteth", etc) but can also be seen much less commonly on past-tense verbs either before or after the "ed" ("appointethed", "checkethed", "kickedth", "wanderedeth", etc). using it with nouns or adjectives most often sounds janky and weird, and isn't recommended.

"art"- very common, used in place of "are" or "is", again not exclusively, but slightly more common than "hath". not often used in contractions ("artn't" is usually just "art not")

"doth"- somewhat common, used in place of "did", "does", "do", or sometimes "is"/"are". sometimes inserted into a sentence when you wouldn't normally use one of the other words (ie "you doth expecte me to complye?"). typically not used in negative form at all, but if it is, never in contractions.

"-est" or "-st" as a suffix- very common. this, along with "-eth", makes up the main meat of his dialect. like "-eth", it has no real meaning, but it is much more flexible in its usage. "-est" or "-st" can be appended to verbs as well ("likest", "completest", "readst", etc), but can also in some cases be used for nouns ("roomst", "fieldst", etc). it's important to use it sparingly with nouns at risk of confusing the plurals, and use it carefully with only certain adjectives so you don't just accidentally use the "most" form of the adjective (for example, if you're just trying to say "small", you don't want to say "smallest", meaning The Most Small). however, one of rouxls's favorite, and possibly most common, usages of "-st" is to append it to "thou" to make "thoust", or to add it to conjunctions/prepositions and contractions ("hadn'st", "won'st", "couldst", "didst", "uponst" "behindst", etc).

"-e" as a suffix, very common. can also be used along with doubling an ending vowel such as n or t if applicable. extremely versatile and perfect for adding a bit of frivolity in more dead parts of a sentence. often used for nouns, both singular ("moone", "kinge", "opinionne", "lettere", "internette", "thise", etc) and plural ("loverse", "puzzlese", "handse", "guyse", etc), but also handy for adjectives ("difficulte", "magnificente", "yellowe", "freakinge" etc), verbs ("defeatte", "carrye", "witnesse" etc) and sometimes even conjunctions/prepositions ("howe", "perhapse", "atoppe", etc). since the game has no voiced dialogue, it's up to you if this change is only for visual spelling or if it carries its own auditory accent.

capital letters in the middle of a sentence- somewhat common, often used for emphasis. most tumblr users probably understand how to employ that effectively and comedically, it's very similar in his speech.

"yon"- not as common, used in place of "the" or sometimes "a". this word is best used in moderation for best comedic effect, as my favorite canonical usages of it are randomly thrown in where you wouldn't even use an article anyway, ie "yon crud" or "yon losers". "ye" is sometimes also used in place of an article, but not as often as "yon".

"lo"- not as common, honestly often used correctly, as an exclamation similar in meaning to "behold", or "alas" (both of which rouxls also employs semi-frequently). almost always placed in front of a sentence (ie "lo, medieval L upon mine forehead") either followed by an exclamation point or a comma.

"medieval"- uncommon, randomly inserted as an adjective when the sentence doesn't feel olden enough, see above for canonical use case ^.

using a colon for a single list item- uncommon. this is a trait most often exhibited by queen, but rouxls uses it infrequently, like in the case of "no, i think: Freakinge Not". most often should be reserved for extreme emphasis, unlike queen, who uses it liberally.

i'm sure this is not an exhaustive list of all phrases and quirks he uses, but it covers the majority of his chosen speech, and mixing and matching these can create very effective canon-like dialogue on its own.

#3: Dropping the Act

while it's very important to not overuse the sudden drops in dialect, aka when rouxls speaks normally for a line or two (ie "GOD. DAMMIT." or "don't worry guys i'll get a refund for that one"), they do happen, mostly when he is overwhelmed, emotional, or embarrassed. all in all, his speech patterns are merely a facade to try and make himself... cooler? more appealing to evil monarchs...? if he's not paying total attention to it, he loses it for a moment and goes back to normal, which shows it is not how he naturally speaks, but while he doesn't often correct himself afterwards, he is quick to get back on the ball again. it might be interesting to explore how he speaks to himself while alone.

similar to the total drops, rouxls does often work modern slang and speech patterns into his fancier sentences too. he uses non-swears like "freaking" and "crud", adds in filler words such as "like" and "um", and exhibits a knowledge of internet slang and meme culture as well. he's just an insufferable weirdo that lives in the modern age, certainly not a genuine olden english citizen, if his complete butchering of the language itself isn't enough to prove that.

Conclusion?

perhapseth this isn't the most in-depth or completely accurate guide i could write, but most of this comes completely intuitively to me, so unraveling it into explainable guidelines was a challenge in of itself! i hope at least this helps some fanartists/writers in the fandom who struggle with his dialogue, as it can be somewhat hard to get a total grasp on. the problem with a character like rouxls is that it's nearly impossible to put solid rules (...ha) on his dialect, since the vast majority of it is based on vibes and sentence flow, instead of anything consistent or correct, and is executed most effectively when it comes naturally. toby is clearly a master of comedic dialogue writing, as evidenced not just by rouxls but many other characters in both games, and it can be borderline impossible to tap into his exact style of humor and flow for fanworks, but there's a rhythm and a pattern you can imitate nonetheless.

the bottom line for writing rouxls is to lean into silliness and comedy wherever possible, which is elevated by moderation and balance, and hindered by overuse and strict consistency. rouxls himself prioritizes melodic flow and sounding correct-ish over anything else, and is just as unlikely to say a butchered, ungraceful jumble of "eth"s and "st"s as he is to speak in fluent shakesperian english, and any actual rules (....) he may assign to himself are just as easily forgotten or overwritten when they're not convenient.

play around with his dialogue, practice by "translating" a line in multiple different ways, and most of all, have fun! even if you make mistakes, im sure toby would be proud of you for trying at all :)

[bobomcfoe]

My first quilt is done :) I've never sewn anything before (besides some VERY basic hand-stitching when i was a little kid) so this was a major learning experience lol

I used 5x9" rectangles and made a little checkered pattern. I wasn't following any specific pattern or tutorial, and was more just winging every part of it (and it shows). BUT!! I still think it's cute and cozy and I'm excited about it :)

Progress pics and mistakes under the cut !

This quilt was certainly a process, and being, as i am, extremely lazy, every step I took lacked the precision required to make the quilt all nice. And in all honesty i am 100% okay with that, I don't need it to be anywhere near perfect!

Here are all of my pieces laid out on the floor after i cut them out! I didnt take any pics between that and the top-stitching (no clue if that's what it's called, but where it's all basted and then you sew the patterns that go along the quilt) so we'll skip to then

I managed to sew over my excess fabric AND create insane bunching, both because i wasn't paying any attention to the back of my quilt and was really really lazy with my basting (and this is where i made the seam ripper gif lmao)

I also learned why people buy long-arm machines and shit because oh my godddd this was a pain

Anyway next i cut out my binding strips and checked to see that i had enough, which thankfully i did lmao

My binding is pretty awful, i did it the wrong way and elected not to redo it, and my corners are quite messy, but i really truly just don't care. It's still a very cozy quilt

And then it was done! That's all!!

The process from start to finish took me about two days (started cutting pieces Wednesday night, began sewing Thursday morning, continued sewing until it was all done on Friday evening!)

I got the fabric largely from my friend, who has oh so much of it. I think my choices are pretty dang cute :)

Okay. I think that's all I have to say! Bye now!

[in-halingstardust]

Hiiii! I wanted to ask a fic of fem!reader using a remote vibrator on Alhaitham during a meeting. Like, she somehow slid it into his pants under the table and had fun teasing him :> and Alhaitham had to try hard maintaining composure

oh you can add kaveh too (separately please) thaaaaank you

[A/N: We love roomates. We love roommates even more when they have matching couple vibrators. Also, sorry this took so long I have been super busy the last couple months. I wrote this tired so sorry for the mistakes, I will go through it the next day or two!]

Alhaitham x fem!reader

˚₊· ➳❥ When Alhaitham stands up to present the quarterly sales of the marketing team he starts to second guess himself on why he continued to wear the vibrating ring from last nights session with you. You smile and give a thumbs up of encouragement from across the table as the lights go dim.

˚₊· ➳❥ Its a struggle as his voice shakes when you switch on the vibrator to a low hum. Not enough to be noticible, but something will be afoot if Alhaitham stops speaking for a second. During a particular long segment you turned up the vibrator another notch as your boyfriend gives a sharp inhale, mashing his lips together as a soft whine leaves his lips.

"What about the third month of sales?" both of your boss ask tapping a pen against paper, "explain that for me." Alhaitham straightens his back, "Of course, if you look here..." he continues as you bump the vibration pattern to a quick pulse. You can barely see the red flush against his ears in the darkness of the room, but you can hear the wobble of his voice as he drags through the words. Not that anyone took it for anything other than nerves.

˚₊· ➳❥ As the lights return to normal as the members clap moving on to the next topic. As Alhaithem sits down next to you short breaths leave his chest. You give a bright smile as you pat him on the shoulder. Undernath the desk , though, is a buldge straining against his pants. That is definently something you could take care of after the meeting.

Kaveh x fem!reader

˚₊· ➳❥ When Kaveh is asked to demonstrate his architecture in front of his academic classmates he begs for you not to do this. Too bad he lost the bet and has to wear a prostrate massage infront of you and twenty other people.

˚₊· ➳❥ You are kind to him the first ten minutes into his lecture that he almost forgets the about the uncomfortable feeling, until he feels a small vibration turn on then off. It shocks him enough that he breaks off his sentence during the question period.

"Ah ah- sorry, can you repeat the question?" Kaveh says gripping tightly on the podium. The student repeats a question, something about support beams, and you flick on the vibrator directly to the third level. "Nghhh- support is important, *hah*, especially the parallel s-structure distributes weight m-more evenly." Kaveh rasps as he flushes. As he answered questions you would fiddle with the intensity level seeing Kaveh turn into a red tomato. He must be glad the podium is covering a majority of his lower half.

˚₊· ➳❥ Kaveh doesn't even finish the questiosn as his time runs out. He quickly excuses himself to the bathroom as he stumbles out. You see him return in five minutes with a glare being shot directly at you.

[killianjonesapologist]

‼️‼️MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SEASON 8 EPISODE 13 OF CRIMINAL MINDS‼️‼️

spencer x gn!reader, where reader goes and comforts Spencer after Maeve’s death

(very short, post-zugzwang, no use of y/n, no specific romance between Reid and reader but reader definitely has a crush on him, angst, hurt/comfort, mentions of Tobias Hankel, found family trope near the end, a little cringe but cringe=happy in my book)

VERY self indulgent bc I need comfort after watching it 🥲

You knock gently on Spencer’s door, hoping he might recognize the silly knocking pattern you two had made up when you both first joined the team, a way of communicating that it was truly you who was at the door. 

He knocked back to finish the pattern, but to no avail, the door never opened. 

“Look Spence, I want you to have time to heal and be alone, but this isn’t controlled isolation by any means.” You took a deep breath to collect your thoughts on the subject at hand, “I’m here to help however you’ll let me, and I know it’s incredibly difficult to ask for help, but I know you need this.” Your voice slowly breaking down to a whisper.

“I need this..”

Your ears perk up once you hear footsteps coming towards the door, followed by the echo of a chain latch being undone. 

He squints his eyes hard as he slowly lets the bright lights of the common area seep into his dark cave of a home. He looks… tired. You could tell he hasn’t shaven in a while, and you can’t blame him. At a time like this, basic hygiene isn’t always a person first priority.

“So uh, did Penelope leave all these—“ you’re cut off by a suffocating hug from him. If there was anyone he would be willing to see right now, it’s you.

You tangled your hands into his hair and whispered comforting mantras as you held him impossibly close. He begins to softly sob into your shoulder, soaking the shirt you had borrowed from him after forgetting to bring your pajamas to a case somewhere across the state.

It may not have been a mistake that you never gave it back.

“I’m not here to tell you to be ok, or to get better, I’m here to tell you that I’m glad you’re still alive and still kicking even after something so horrible as that.” You spoke softly, providing an explanation of why you felt so compelled to visit.

“Why am I cursed?” He asked, voice barely above a whisper. You shifted to look into his cold, bloodshot eyes, giving him a small hum, signaling him to continue his train of thought.

“Sure I remember all kinds of horrors just from our job in general, but I also remember every horrible detail of my own trauma. I used to close my eyes and see-“ he chokes out a sob between sentences and you hold him closer, moving your hand to rub his back, “I used to see Tobias, and now I close my eyes and just see her.” They had made eye contact for the first time mere minutes before she got shot. 

“Even when I’m awake, that’s all I can think of.” Your heart broke with every word he uttered. 

“When was the last time you slept, Spence?”

There was a moment of silence that fell over the room, before hearing him letting out more quiet sobs.

“The day before she died.” 

It had been around half a week since it had all gone down. Spencer Reid hadn’t slept in 4 days. 

“Oh, Spencer…” you coo, placing your hands to cradle his head into your neck as he continues to cry. “We’ll get through this. Me and the whole team are here. I don’t know if you saw, but Garcia left you plenty of gift baskets outside.” You try to lighten the mood, your heart glowing as you hear a little sniff of a laugh come out of Spencer. 

“Yeah, I saw. Please tell her I said thank you.” He picks his head up and tries his best to give you a soft smile.

“Of course. We all care so much about you. We’re your family.”

The BAU felt closer to a true family than either of you had experienced. Of course, Spencer had his mother and his aunt, but it was less than a broken home. Here, you had a weird Italian grandpa, a stern widowed father, a badass uncle, and three wine aunts who you all loved so much. 

The BAU was home to both of you, you were just hoping he could find it in him to come back.

[londonspirit]

Our Flag Means Death’s season-two finale has it all. There’s a declaration of true love between our favorite criminals, Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) and Ed, a.k.a. Blackbeard (Taika Waititi). There’s also a heartbreaking death (RIP, Con O’Neill’s Izzy Hands), a pirate wedding that ends with the words “You are now officially mateys,” and some big-time fight scenes. “Mermen” packs a tight punch in only 30 minutes. The episode is both thrilling and satisfying, so even if Max makes the grave mistake of not renewing the series, fans will feel closure in a way that they didn’t with season one’s sendoff. And Our Flag Means Death creator David Jenkins already has some fun ideas brewing for a third season (and beyond!). The A.V. Club spoke to Jenkins about his plans to evolve Ed and Stede’s relationship, potential spin-offs, and how everyone on the show is handling its passionate fanbase.

The A.V. Club: First of all, how dare you kill Izzy Hands? Was that always the plan when you mapped out season two? 

David Jenkins: [Laughs] Yes. I felt that Izzy had reached a point where he broke through a lot of his major patterns. It was fun to give him a season where he got to do everything and where Con O’Neill got to do everything. Well, I won’t say everything, because Con can do light years beyond what I think he can do, and I do think he can do anything. We wanted to show the depth of that character. Izzy is one of my favorites. He’s like middle management who is in a sort of love triangle [in season one]. He got his wish at the end of the first season by breaking up his boss and his boss’ lover. He got punished as a result, and he had to come out on the other side, which felt like a good journey.

AVC: Despite everything that happens in season two, including Izzy’s death, the finale ends on a happy note with Ed and Stede living together. Why was it important for you to show that?

DJ: Season one ends on such a tough note for them. As you said, after what they’ve been through, they should get a moment of happiness. I won’t say however fleeting. They are going to have challenges ahead. They’re both not the most mature yet. I think that���s the fun of it, to leave them in a place where it’s a good kind of stasis. They’ve sent the kids off in the car, so to speak, and now they’re going to have to really grow if they’re going to start an inn. It won’t be easy, but I like that they’re going to try.

AVC: “Mermen” has all the elements necessary for a season finale. Did you partly add all that as a way to provide closure in case this is the end for OFMD?

JD: What’s important to understand is that you never even know if you’re going to get a second season. Maybe if you get picked up for two right away, and even then, but especially right now, who knows? I think with season one’s end, it was a gamble to leave it the way it was. Everybody stomached through it. Now if it turned out they didn’t want us to make more, I just didn’t want to have another story where the same-sex love story ends in tragedy, unrequited love, or if one or both of them are being punished.

AVC: I actually love that about Our Flag Means Death. It reminds me of Schitt’s Creek in a way because the love story just exists and is perfect; there’s no questioning it as right or wrong.

JD: That’s such a nice compliment because I also think Schitt’s Creekdoes that really well.

AVC: You’ve previously said you want Our Flag to have only three seasons. Is that still true or do you feel like the show has scope to continue beyond that?

JD: I feel like Stede and Blackbeard’s story is a three-season story, but the world of the show could go beyond that. It’s a really rich world with so many stories to tell and really good performers to tell it. I do want to see how Ed and Stede become a mature couple in the next season. They’re a couple who is like in their late twenties right now as opposed to being teens at the end of season one.

AVC: So if OFMD continues in some other form, are there characters you’d like to focus more on or other historical references you’d like to include?

JD: Yeah, a lot, because it’s such a rich ensemble. How do you not want to see more of Joel Fry, Samson Kayo, Ewen Bremner, Nathan Foad, or Vico Ortiz? Any one of them could carry their own show. It’s fun to think about that and the storylines we can do with them, mixing and matching all our characters. Vico is incredible, for example, and I especially love watching them in an action sequence. This is a weird comparison, but there’s a Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver vibe they put out. I’m such a fan of what they do.

AVC: You also really like parallels and coming full circle as a storyteller.

JD: Yeah, I do.I knew I wanted to start season two in the Republic of Pirates and end by coming back there. Stede goes on an amazing journey between the episodes. He’s thrown out of there initially, but then he comes back as a hero. I like the symmetry of that. And then the Republic of Pirates gets destroyed; it dies. It’s not just Izzy; it’s the place too. It was important to have a home, this stronghold for everyone, be destroyed. But the characters are not crushed. They’re going to try to move on.

AVC: One of season two’s new characters is Zheng Yi Sao, played by Ruibo Qian, who quickly becomes an integral part of the crew. What was the casting process like for her?

JD: Ruibo is an amazing find. One of our incredible casting directors, Cindy Tolan, she had Ruibo in mind immediately for that part by the time it got to her. And we had looked and looked before talking to Cindy. Ruibo has her own fascinating story because apparently, she had a couple of strong premonitions that she’s going to play Zheng Yi Sao. She had a modern take on the part without it being strained. She’s incredible. She’s a trained theater actor with a lot of chops. She has to go toe-to-toe with Taika and Rhys. She did it with such grace.

AVC: Season two takes Blackbeard on an interesting turn of denouncing being a pirate. But in the finale, it’s almost like he’s reborn as one, especially with that gorgeous shot of him coming out of the water. What was the thought process behind this arc?

JD: Thank you. Blackbeard is a guy in recovery when he comes back to the ship when he’s wearing the jumpsuit. He’s trying to hang on and find some kind of footing. Who is he if he’s not a pirate? Meanwhile, Stede is on his way up and wants to experience the rockstar life of a pirate, while Ed as Blackbeard is over it. It was an interesting tension of, which one gives up their dream? A lot of times in relationships questions can come up, like who is going to give up on their dream to take care of the kids? Obviously, no one wants to, but someone ends up giving up more than they want to at some point. What’s wonderful about a mature romance, and what I’d want to see more of in season three, is Ed and Stede making these tough decisions.

AVC: Stede and Ed’s relationship has led to a passionate, vocal fandom, which you didn’t have as you were writing season one. While working on season two, how did you avoid doing fan service and focus on meaningful storytelling?

JD: I never anticipated the strong reaction to season one. It’s incredible it happened. Everybody is buoyed by it in the cast, crew, and the writers’ room. To be perceived on that level with such enthusiasm makes us want to make more of it. A lot of the things the fans love are not different from things the writers love. We are fans of the show. We’re writing fanfic, but it’s called fic when we write it. The big thing for us is to make sure we’re writing beats for the characters that feel true and have moments where all of us go, “Ooooh, we have to do this.” If the beats stay true, it won’t feel like we’re simply pandering.

AVC: How do you break down those beats for Ed and Stede’s relationship as they go from wanting to take it slow to sleeping with each other this season? And where do they go next?

JD: It’s challenging with them because most rom-coms end with couples getting together. They don’t then stay with them and say, “We’re together now, but it’s turbulent; how is that going to work out?” We thought, “Okay, let’s look at our relationships in the room. What have we encountered? Who’s been dumped? Who has had to forgive somebody?” These questions were fun for the second season. I think for the third, it would [be], “Okay, who’s had a relationship for over 10 years? What things do you have to work on?” It’s fun to watch two people like Ed and Stede go through this experience.

[officialdaydreamer00]

I FINT HAVE ANY FICS BUT IMAGINE WEARING MATCHING SOCKS WITH THE TWEELS BUT THEY BOTH WANT TO MATCH YOU BUT FLOYD ISNT WEARING MUSHROOM SOCKS SO NOW YOU HAVE TO WEAR TWO DIFFRENT SOCKS

DW I GOT CHU BESTIE >:D

kinda crack and self indulgent, reader is not yuu, gender neutral reader, reader wears an ankle length skirt bc i love long flowy skirts C:

"hey, prefect, what's with the socks?"

to ace and deuce, you, the prefect, are a modest and kind of secretive person. your modesty even extends to your clothes, as you opted to wear pants and long skirts that cover the majority of your skin. you also wear the gloves provided for students.

today, you wore a an ankle length skirt with a pair of mary janes. it was just another normal outfit you would wear, until they saw your socks. one was plain and in a teal colour, the other one was white with mushroom patterns. it wasn't like you to make mistakes so trivial like that.

"oh, this? i was-" you were rather rudely cut off by grim, who was being carried in your arms.

"myahh, those lookalike guys from the shady dorm somehow got henchhuman to wear 'em."

ace and deuce looked at you in concern. "the twins? why would they do that?" "they didn't threaten you or anything, right prefect?"

you only shook your head. "no, they just—"

"shrimpyyyyy~"

you sighed, a bit miffed. once again, you were cut off before you could explain. a lanky figure draped himself over your smaller form and wrapped his arms around your waist. the distinct laughter you could practically recognise from anywhere rang in your ears.

"floyd." you greeted curtly, letting out an exasperated sigh. grim let out an annoyed 'myahhh', having been passed to deuce the moment you heard the twins approaching.

floyd only laughed, his arms tightened around you ever so slightly. a chuckle echoed from behind you as jade made his appearance, looking as poised and calm as ever.

"i see you have decided to appease us both."

you sent jade an annoyed side eye. "only because floyd didn't want to wear the mushroom ones."

"awe, lil' shrimpy thinking for good ol' me~" floyd giggled shrilly and squeezed you again, the air out of you lungs. he then picked you up and started to walk away with you hanging over his shoulder like a sack of potato. jade followed right behind as they left with you.

you sent ace and deuce a death stare. "traitors. the lot of you." you mumbled under your breath. another sigh left your mouth, you propped your chin up with your hand against floyd's back.

seven, what have you gotten yourself into?

taglist🏷️ @azulashengrottospiano @aqua-beam @hisui-dreamer @moonlit-midnight @dove-da-birb @cecilebutcher @krenenbaker @ang33333333l @minimallyminnie @siren-serenity @leonistic @red-viewe @thehollowwriter

reblogs are appreciated!

[cookiesandcrumbs]

So, I've been thinking of how it could be interesting to see the inspo i used for my Spring collection. A lot of it comes from Talbots catalogues. Spring came from their 2019 June and May editions.

First one is the cover, the poses for the cover as well as several of the other poses inside the catalogue, were made by the ever so talented @someone-elsa! Thank you so much again!

Next is the pedal pusher pants. Not very similar, in fact, not similar at all. But it was merely the idea of pedal pusher pants. I pieced together at least two different diffuse maps as well as a nice texture i got from fuzzimo that i edited a bit.

After that we have the espadrilles. I even tried to recreate the overhead shot of deco versions of the shoes haha. Don't ask me if i still have the deco, i don't. I may have accidentally deleted it. It wasn't made for public consumption anyway, only for preview. I do still have the XCF for it however, if anyone is interested in that. Canvas and wicker textures came from brusheezy and sims 3 respectively.

Next up is the bermuda shorts. Technically the inspo isn't bermuda shorts but, the mesh i used is called bermuda so, that's how that came to be. I looked all over for a pattern that might look somewhat like the inspo but, ultimately failed. Which is fine! I opted for a texture called Elegant grid from transparenttextures. I made some various embossing and overlay editing to it and got this elevated layering look. I think it came out neat.

Now comes the mock-neck. I made the mock neck neck myself. I just, selected the neck edges and scaled a little and nudged and unwrapped and uv mapped it somewhere else lol. The button area was a major struggle. I had to find a button texture that looked similar enough, i tried many versions. It's mapped separately from the actual shoulder, too, so the edges are 'crisp'. Inside the XCF i shared, you can find a version to recolor it the opposite way, dark base with light stripes. THAT took ages, finding the best overlay modes and combinations of layers. But i did it! You're welcome!

Here we have the skirt. This was a fairly simple item yet, it took some time to blend textures and copy and paste and gradient mask and noise and such, to get this look. I'm not even exaggerating when i say i had to re-make it AT LEast 5 times, on both masculine and feminine models. The diffuse maps are different since the masculine skirt sits lower than the feminine diffuse map. Both textures also needed to look like it came from the same roll of fabric, so i had to re-do it several times if i made a mistake. But the result i think is great!

Last but not least is the dress. I'm excluding the jumpsuit since it's identical but, Pants. I made the marble texture myself. Came out quite nice, right? The XCF for these also include an option to hide the bow, should you want to recolor without the bow. But, if you do that, you need a normal map without a bow. Fear not, i got you. In the download for the XCFs, I've included a folder called Extras, with just that, extra normal maps for both the dress and jumpsuit, without the bow! You can also recolor it without the marble if you want. The normal map i made for the collection is a solid one so you don't need a different normal map for those.

And yeah, that's it!

[demodraws0606]

WxS THEORY : Rui is driving himself into a corner

Ok I needed to make a big rambly analysis post again because I just read this post that absolutely rotted my brain (pls check it out) -> https://www.tumblr.com/sankatsuka/741871319388389377?source=share

I kinda want to share my overall thoughts on how Rui is being written overall and what I think it could possibly lead to.

Introduction.

So okay... we can agree how colorpalet writes Rui is weird as shit right ?

Like, this is very obvious when you look at Rui's two most recent events Backlight and Curtain. Both of them actually end on cliffhangers, leaving things open ended with hints at future problems. In fact Curtain Call's consequences haven't been fully addressed yet as Rui still hasn't talk about Asahi to WxS and we know he's coming back.

However, it's not just that that could be pointed out as strange, in fact, in both of these events Rui fails.

In Curtain Call, he fails to understand his own feelings as he accepts to join Arcland.

In Backlight, he fails to understand how to fix the issue in the movie

Not only that but those events both show Rui isolating himself from WxS (with varying levels of severity) trying to figure out the problem and fix it. Often to the point where WxS get mildly concerned for him and want to help him (again with varying levels of severity).

Both of these events seem to show that Rui is stuck on something, there is a reason why he can't seem to solve the problems that he's facing weither major or minor.

So, clearly there is a reocurring problem right ? If Rui seemingly keeps on failing then colorpalet has to be setting up something.

With Curtain Call it seemed like what they were setting up was some kind of confrontation about the disbandement but Rui is weirdly set aside in the Emu's event. Which it doesn't feel like a mistake considering they chose to make it an Emu event instead of Rui on purpose when they couldn't have it be a Tsukasa focus.

In Happy End, Rui's communication with WxS is very limited. His feelings never get personally confronted as he mostly just attempts to try and fix the situation until he's met with rejection to which he just very much gives up. It's only when Emu's brothers offer an olive branch that Rui finally jumps at the opportunity to speak.

However, despite it being a hopeful step forward...it doesn't fix Rui's issues here. In fact he withdraws from even speaking about his situation with Asahi which for me is the baseline of Rui being honest with his feelings.

Sure, he does end up helping in Happy End and his feelings are reafirmed but...he also fails here. His first plan to keep them together fails because he didn't communicate with them, it's Emu's brother that truly end up coming up with a solution at the end.

So what is Rui's problem ? What is the red flag that colorpalet keeps waving ?

2. A concerning pattern

Post-Curtain Call helped highlight a very clear pattern with Rui.

It's a toxic mix between his abandonnement issues and self sacrificing nature.

Rui gets insecure a lot about how his potentialy missgivings could affect WxS, to the point where it's become a concerning pattern.

-Dazzling Light Event (and Nene Canary Event) : Rui gets insecure over not being able to be a suitable director for Tsukasa and hurting his acting in the process. This insecurity comes back again in Nene's fourth event in Rui's side card story.

-Shibuya fes with Mafurui : He almost hurts his fucking leg because he couldn't bear the idea that he could inconvenience WxS

-Disbandement Arc : He refused to talk to WxS about his feelings and still hasn't talked fully about them with Asahi. He literally isolated himself to make a plan to keep WxS together behind their back.

All of these show that Rui still has this fear that he could do something that would set him apart from WxS and that often influences his actions.

Rui's issue here is a lack of priority and a self sacrificial nature that borderlines on self destructive at some poiints. Everything he does is motivated in some sense by WxS.

Recently when he mentions his dreams and ambition like in Tsukasa's most recent event, he wants to make WxS shine. It's the subject of one of his early second art stickers.

"I'll bring out your strength"

Which... let's talk about Rui's dreams and amibitons.

3. Rui and his dream

A lot of people characterise Rui as extremely passionate which is true....or is it really ?

Okay here me out, I don't think we can deny he definitely has a lot of passion for what he does but we can't deny there is definitely something going on.

First of all, Rui is the only character where we don't really have an event of him trying to progress towards his dream, backlight is the first one and it shows him failing.

Second of all, Rui is the only one to have been ready to compromise his dream for WxS which has not been the case for anyone else in WxS. Sure Emu left Pheonix Wonderland, but she knows she'll come back eventually.

Which like leads me to this realisation with his second event specifically it's name, Revival My Dream.

The event where we see Rui at his happiest, fully comfortable in where he was compared to now.

His dreams has never just been to bring people smiles, what he always wanted was a way to connect with people with shows to have a group of friends that actually liked him and didn't reject him for being weird.

But he was bullied into accepting that he didn't actually care about other people, he rationalised that maybe accomplishing his dream alone would make him happy but his friends are part of his dream.

It's this conflict between his dream and his relationship with WxS that is fucking him up especially post-curtain call.

He has to support WxS, he has to be the reliable one, he has to figure out how they can still stay together...

But why ? Why does he put that responsibility in himself

Even then in the Backlight event he's so obsessed with finding the answer himself

Because he's still on that mindset, similar to wonder-halloween just a lot less severe. WxS saved him and they mean the world to him that he'll just allow to be trampled just to make them happy. In fact you see that with even more simpple fun moments with how he ate Touya's rancid cupcake just to make him happy, it's shown time and time again he will sacrifice his own needs for the needs of others to a dangerous point.

4. What it means for Rui's future

I think all these things will end up catching up to Rui

We saw this with Tsukasa, we saw his ups and downs of trying to improve and fight his insecurities led to him having a breakdown.

All these things just keep on building up and colorpalet is very unsubtle with how strange they are with his sad expressions in the tetrad 2dmv and his trained cards (which i can go deeper into).

This could go again in different ways but eventually WxS will have to confront him about it, finally make him communicate his feelings for once.

Again we still have Cyberpunk Deadboy and what it could signify for the future of Rui's arc which I already talked about

It's all just really strange and weird there are even stranger things that i could talk about but i'm eepy so i'll leave it at that lol

[razielim]

I miss Alex. I know, I know! She died so fast! But her character and approach to life left an impression, and there was an interesting tension between them, and also obviously I've never quite gotten over the sense I got that she was a bisexual woman who very strongly suspected Kyle was gay and that unbeknownst to him, her angst about their sexualities was very much part of their on-again off-again dynamic. Occasionally I wistfully imagine an 'Alex lives' what-if longfic. Here it is as a shortfic. :)

They move to New York together because she gets the idea to get closer to the Titans who seem to be more their peers so Kyle could learn from them (with a lot of spying research, breaking down, and coaching done by Alex, at least until Kyle actually integrates into them and starts learning more directly). Alex is quickly adopted by Lee and Li when they realize she lives across the hall after they see her hanging out at Radu's coffee shop too often because she's lonely and has lots of odd hours she has to spend alone in a new city while Kyle's out and she doesn't want to drown all of those hours in work. With their companionship, she ends up pretty well enmeshed into the local scene very quickly. Since Kyle's getting his life together in terms of responsibilities, she actually starts encouraging him to spend a bit more time at the clubs, hoping he'll finally "figure it out," but the dumb boy keeps wandering out of Greenwich and going to the regular clubs.

Otherwise, Alex keeps three different bats by her bedside - an alloy one and two wooden ones (you never know with super-powered freaks when you need a backup bat, or one made of a different material) and has been, after a lot of initial philosophical resistance, going to firearm target practice with the local butch self-defense enthusiasts that Li introduced her to. Her close call with Major Force that she narrowly escaped thanks to Kyle's (for once) impeccable timing still has her pretty fucked up. If training with a bazooka was an option, she'd probably consider it, but she's talking over that with a therapist.

As for Kyle... well. She got tired of the on-again off-again, so... y'know. They're off-again. Kyle's such a puppy dog that it would be so easy to fall back into old patterns, but she keeps him plied with "Just think, you can sleep with whoever you want, but still come home to hang out and I'll be here and I won't be angry," which is exactly the type of thinking that gets through to him. She notes he doesn't sleep with whoever, though. He enjoys the freedom, but the same old something seems to be stopping him from following through on all the one-night stands he claims he's excited for. Instead, he'll ask permission to crawl into her bed sometimes after a hard day and then not even try to start anything.

Coming out is a whole thing. Mostly involving Kyle knocking on her slightly open door, home early, asking to crawl into bed only to discover that Alex already has a bed partner. Alex, bless her, despite her conviction that Kyle is gay, and knowing that he's secretly a really good boy, had honestly expected lechery. Instead, he's just sad and dejected and takes it very personally. It's a whole lot of ugly crying and tissues and ice cream, and the girl Alex had been fucking sneaking out past the drama in the living room (but not before mistaking Kyle for a butch dyke in the dim lighting).

But hey, he gets through it and starts really looking for his own relationship, getting cozy with Donna, who admittedly has a little tension with Alex (who the fuck keeps living with their hot ex this long, even moving clear across the country together?) but when she catches on to how stupid of a horndog Kyle can be, she almost starts to consider Alex's presence and influence in his life as something of a buffer between Kyle and infidelity. Either case, tension or not, they get along great. Even better when Alex turns out to be a very enthusiastic babysitter, taking Robert along for all sorts of museum and library trips with Lee and Li.

Alex keeps quiet about her suspicions and eventually, seeing his relationship with Donna develop... wonders if she'd got it all wrong. Kyle seems to be zeroed in on women now and she's somewhat wistful that she might have missed out on something wonderful by overthinking before Kyle had grown into himself and acquired the maturity needed to make it work with a female partner. But it's too late, she already has her own history of girlfriends (and even some boyfriends) since their breakup, and she's in a different place emotionally. Many of her partners had thought it was weird that she was living with a straight man, and although she finally starts to agree he was straight all along and admit that their situation has been unusual and perhaps stressful for their significant others, she's quite happy to still be living with her best friend. Sometimes, though with Donna's permission, not at night, not under the sheets, and not when she's dating anyone, they still even chill in her bed, just to watch TV or go over the classifieds together.

It's years before Kyle is even aware of the possibility of hooking up with a man. Donna's broken it off, Kyle's bummed out, but it doesn't even happen on Earth. The first time anything clicks for him is at a bar where every male alien is gorgeous and absolutely humanly indistinguishable from the voluptuous females of the species. And it's on his mind, casually, like a little private joke, that he wouldn't mind sleeping with a man like that, but it's only when another human man steps in the bar and Kyle thinks to himself, "Now there's a specimen," appreciating the physique and handsome face, that Kyle's brain screeches to a halt and realizes he's truly up for some really manly sex right now.

He might have even gone through with it if the guy didn't turn out to be an assassin and yadda-yadda Kyle almost got stabbed while pressing the guy up against the wall, laughing together against each other's lips, blah-blah, as you do. But when all was said and done, he flew back to Earth in record time and sat on the fire escape long into the evening, listening to Cleveland play his sax downstairs. Which is how Alex found him, though, despite having had every intention of telling her when he'd been traveling the many light-years to reach her, he gets shy and keeps mum.

It's only after having a few more encounters — and they keep happening now that he's aware of the possibility — on the more more familiar stomping grounds of Earth's dance clubs, that he finally sits Alex down like he's about to tell her someone's died, and confesses his baffling new attraction to men.

The way Alex punches air as soon as he says it, you just know it would have caused a sonic boom if homegirl had even a hint of superpowers.

"VINDICATION!" she hollers every day, multiple times a day, for weeks, much to Kyle's distress because how could she have possibly suspected this ever since, according to her, they'd first gotten together? He does correct her every time, though - he's not gay. Bisexual or something. But not gay. He's not like that. And he still enjoys women, thank you very much.

Except... and he keeps telling himself that it's just the novelty of the new attraction... but months go by and he can't remember the last time he looked at a woman that way. But he can practically catalogue every time he thought about what having sex with this or that man would be like. Hell, he's even been thinking about Radu. Radu. The guy's like a father figure to him, and here's Kyle thinking stupid thoughts about him. He's just so damn curious, even if horribly gun shy. He keeps thinking that just because he's attracted to men doesn't mean he has to act on it, and it's very reassuring. The assassin encounter remains the closest he's gotten to following through, usually finding an excuse to break off from grinding up against some hot hunk at the club to go get some air and then head home for another late night jerk-off session. He has work to do, anyway, right? Rent doesn't pay itself, even if Alex always has his back when he's too swamped with superhero work to take on clients, and Radu is the most understanding landlord in the world.

Life isn't easy to figure out, but someday, he hopes, as he takes a shower and sneaks into Alex's bed again, trying not to wake her (he's gotten into the habit again since Donna ended things), someday, maybe he'll try going home with someone... if the guy's a really good dancer.

Then Sonar breaks through the wall and starts blasting soundwaves at them. Suddenly it's off to the races again as Kyle throws up a shield and Alex has her favorite bat in her hands before she's even fully awake.