#and i remember this specifically because once i realized what was happening i just wrote 'lots of people with eyes closed' in a notebook

[yuri-is-online]

Soap Operatic Symphony (A Fyuuture Kid AU ft. Scarabia, Pomefiore, Ignihyde, and Diasomnia)

While camping in the mountains during Camp Vargas, you encounter a monster exactly like the one you fought off with Ace and Deuce at the beginning of the year. While trying to fight it off again, a strange portal opens up in the mine and a person jumps out of it to your rescue. He says he doesn't remember much, but it's clear when you bring him to Crowley that this boy is also from your world, despite being a mage, and until the headmage can think of a better solution, he assigns "Yutu" to your dorm.

Something a certain someone has an opinion about.

notes: yeah I have nothing to say for myself, I have other stuff I am supposed to be writing but this wrote itself ok? ok. Anyway this is a future kid au where your son has come back in time to try and prevent the end of the world but mostly to make sure you don't die. You can see this ask for a detailed explanation of what's up with Yuu and my masterlist for other fic. Oh and the other dorms can be found here.

Scarabia

In general, Jamil is going to be torn between being deeply suspicious of the entire situation and feeling like it's none of his business while Kalim is excited to meet a potential new friend.  How they act on those feelings changes depending on who Yutu is trying to interact with.

Kalim- anyone trying to get close to Kalim has to be watched obsessively by Jamil, and Yutu is no exception.  If anything the surveillance is worse due to the strange way he showed up, and Kalim doesn't like it but he understands.  For Yutu's part he seems really receptive to Kalim's efforts to befriend him, which is the furthest Kalim is going to think about it for a while, but he also notices the strange nostalgia and grief Yutu seems to feel when interacting with you and he really wants to help.  He's sure if Yutu would just talk about it, he could give him some good advice.  They get along really well!  But Yutu seems really reluctant to give out personal information… which Jamil really doesn't like. Kalim's sure he doesn't mean anything by it because of how apologetic he is! But he does sort of wonder if he's done something to make Yutu not feel safe around him... it makes him sort of sad.

Jamil- Once he got a look at that portal, Jamil realized that he didn't actually know what it looked like when you arrived at NRC.  He certainly remembers the mess Grim made, but not much about you beyond how confused you looked.  He'll have to ask about it sometime but for now, he's got questions.  Number one: who the fuck is this guy really?  His name isn't Yutu, he sure as shit isn't from your world, otherwise he couldn't be a mage, and his attitude towards you is just suspicious.  He has got to want something, and Jamil is torn between protectiveness of you and his adamant refusal to give himself anymore work.  It doesn't help that Yutu seems very apologetic to him specifically, he swears the kid seems to be apologizing for his entire existence.  It's weird, and he tells him to knock it off because it's not like he's his dad.  For some reason that just makes it worse.

Pomefiore

Vil- Epel is the one to tell him about the monster attack, the portal, and the strange protectiveness Yutu has towards Yuu.  That last thing doesn't bother him as much as you might expect, as soon as he learns that you're from the same world he thinks it's perfectly natural.  Admirable even.  The fake name and desire for privacy doesn't bother him either, as an actor both things seem normal to him.  What worries him is the idea that something very wrong is happening in the background that he doesn't know about, which he makes very clear to Yutu after sending Rook to distract you.  Yutu seems hesitant to trust him, and only offers vague warnings about making sure Yuu stays safe and keeping an eye on Grim.  Well now, they can both agree on that, and wouldn't it be easier if Yutu cooperated with him?  He's not going to take no for an answer.

Rook- Oh?  Ramshackle Dorm has a new member?  What a charming surprise!  He's sure this will lead to many new beautiful experiences.  And he's right!  Yutu is very beautiful, but there's something oddly familiar and yet… wrong about him.  Like he doesn't quite belong here, and not in the same way that you don't belong here.  He looks haunted, his interactions with you scream that he possesses (or to be more accurate used to possess) a relationship that can only have been built over several years.  But you clearly don't remember him, and there's a painful aura of grief in his interactions with you.  He also notices, with a great deal of joy, that the same grief is present when the little one speaks to him.  Just what could that mean? The hunter is in no rush, he'll find out what that means in time, for now he'll keep dropping in unannounced to test Yutu's reflexes. 

Side note: I don't speak French so I don't know if this would be the correct way to say it, but I like the idea of Rook's nickname for Yutu being Monsieur Caneton (Monsieur Duckling), because of how he follows Yuu around. Floyd's nickname I reserve the right to change depending on who Yutu's father is.

Epel- He starts off a hater, I am not going to lie.  Protecting you is something Epel takes a great deal of pride in; he wants to be seen as manly, as the protector, as someone who you think of as cool and trusts to provide for you.  So for a giant portal to open in the sky and drop a new guy determined to protect you from the monsters?  He hates it, he really does, and that's BEFORE Yutu starts living in Ramshackle Dorm.  He's determined to ignore him and not let him into the friend group, which proves impossible because of how Yutu follows you around so fine.  He can sit with you but ONLY IF he accepts that Epel was there first.  Something he's really surprised to see him do?  He should be more suspicious of why Yutu is constantly asking him for advice or acting like he's cool for being so possessive over you but well.  It's Epel he really wants to be seen as cool so he's just not going to think about it.

Ignihyde

Ortho- Ortho wasn't there to see the portal so he can't analyze it, but he can analyze Yutu!  And he immediately finds the Shroud family curse.  How curious, is this something he should tell his brother immediately?  Or should he skip the line and talk to their parents… decisions decisions but he doesn't have to wait for too long for an explanation.  Yutu explains himself pretty quickly when called out and Ortho is beyond excited to learn he's an uncle.  Less excited to learn about the impending apocalypse but he's sure they can fix it if they work together.  Now to double his efforts to get you and Idia together…

Idia- a second person has been isekaid to the NRC oh no.  Whatever will he do?  Well he intended to do nothing but Ortho isn't letting him.  For some reason he seems really determined to get him to hang out with you, almost like he knows about his crush he's been so good at hiding.  He can't complain too much, talking with you is weirdly soothing and much easier than he'd anticipated.  And Yutu's there too he guesses.  Sometimes they parallel play while Idia hangs out with you and that's nice.  It's sort of weird how in tune Yutu is with him though, sometimes he swears they could be related. A thought that Ortho is weirdly determined to encourage, and refuses to explain why... maybe he should be more worried about what anime little bro has been watching recently.

Diasomnia

Right so dragon biology is weird and our knowledge of half fae is very limited.  From how Sebek looks and how Malleus’s birth is discussed, I assume the eggs produced by love is exclusive to dragon fae and other species just get babies in the normal way.  All of that to say:

Malleus- Yutu is an oddity from the jump.  He looks very young, but insists he's around the same age as Yuu, and Malleus swears he feels his own magic is a part of him.  It's like a precious stone has grown some legs and started walking around and talking back to him.  He's a little bit in love, not the same way he's in love with Yuu, but much like a parent would think of a child… perhaps if they get closer he can offer him the night's blessing.  He does seem to be lacking it and that just won't do, something inside him says that needs to be fixed immediately.  Lilia questions him on whether or not he's jealous of how close the little one is to Yuu, which surprises him greatly.  Why would he be- well.  He does wish he could spend more time with Yuu but that sort of envy applies to everyone, not just Yutu.  And none of those guys are so unafraid of him to have made him a friendship bracelet so there. 

Lilia- a mage?  From Yuu's world?  How exciting!  He's very pleased to see how well he gets along with his boys and takes Sebek’s shouting in stride.  It's inspirational how quick he picks up on how gullible Sebek is and immediately starts telling-  well Lilia supposes he doesn't know they're outright lies but the scolding he gets from Yuu certainly suggests they are.  It's all very cute, and something he really wishes he could be a part of, but he knows his time is limited.  He'll just have to treasure these experiences while he's allowed them, something Yutu is very willing to help him do!  What a good kid, he'll have to tell him how proud his parents must be of him.

Silver- A portal, a monster, and a new mysterious person… it's concerning.  Something dangerous has got to be happening with how worried over you this new person is, his name is Yutu?  Weird but then his name is Silver so who is he to judge.  Anyway he introduces himself to Yutu and he asks why he came through the portal and… isn't really satisfied with his answers.  He doesn't think Yutu is a threat, not to Malleus anyway, but there's just something off about this whole thing and it's his task as a knight to make sure the people he loves are safe.  What's that?  Well of course you are one of those people.  You're very important and- why is Yutu looking at him like that.  He's telling the truth, what does he mean that makes it worse? Is it his face?

Sebek- Oh look another perfectly average human who is ok.  He guesses.  Not that he's thought extensively about you personally, only as a precaution to make sure you aren't disrespecting Lord Malleus, you get that right?  Him cornering Yutu with a strained look on his face and shouting at him about how to properly respect Lord Malleus is something he would do to anybody.  It has nothing to do with him assuming that if this person respects Lord Malleus they will be safe for "that human" to be around.  Unfortunately, Yutu is not just anybody and immediately starts yelling back accusing him of disrespecting you.  It's like there's two of them now, just with different biases, rip everyone's eardrums.

[mypoisonedvine]

OMG OMG TWO OF MY FAVORITE WRITERS TOGETHER I CANT BREATHE!!! can i please req a dark eddie x shy innocent girlfriend reader who always keeps to herself and doesn’t talk to anyone (except eddie ofc) bc she has a stutter and has been bullied by jason but she doesn’t tell eddie because she’s afraid of what he’ll do but at lunch when she’s with him and his friends talking jason makes fun of her even making her cry and eddie just loses it! I LOVE YOU!!! srry for rambling😭😍🥰

WE'RE ALSO VERY EXCITED THAT WE'RE TOGETHER and we also can't breathe cause we keep laughing at stupid tiktoks lmaooo

just a heads up, I know you said dark eddie in the fic but it wasn't giving dark to me so I wrote it more traditional, I hope you don't mind. I was gonna have bex do this one but we realized it's a lot like their fic mighty protector so I decided to try my hand at it instead!

warnings: bullying, fluff, jason sucks

When you first transferred here, everyone just thought you were silent; that was what you wanted, actually, but it never lasted long enough. It was only a couple of weeks before you had to say something in front of them, and the longer you waited to speak, the more anxious you were to finally break the silence-- and anxiety was what made your stammer show up in the first place.

In those weeks of silence, Eddie had found a way to fall for you without getting to talk to you at all. Amazingly, even after you humiliated yourself in front of the entire English class and became the laughingstock of Hawkins High, he still asked you out; you rejected him the first time, actually, convinced it was a joke. Then, when you figured out it wasn't a joke, you rejected him again because you were too nervous to say yes.

Technically, you never said yes to that first date... he showed up at your house, with flowers and a blanket and a packed picnic basket, and you joined him on your own front lawn. And yes, he made you stammer-- and blush, and laugh. From that day on, you had a permanent seat at the Hellfire table at lunch, with Eddie's arm draped over your shoulders.

Of course, not every day could be perfection. There was still Jason.

"Hey, freaks," Jason greeted you all as he walked by, looking incredibly proud of that incredibly low-hanging fruit.

"Keep moving, shitstain," Dustin called back with a roll of his eyes.

"That's rich coming from you, freshman-- did you just get out of diapers or what?" Jason retorted.

For some reason, that really pissed you off, probably because you could remember being new here too. You knew you shouldn't say anything-- you hardly ever did, knowing what would happen if you opened your mouth-- but for once you wanted to speak up for something you cared about. Or, someone. You put all your concentration into the words on your tongue, clenching your fists and praying to any god that would listen to just. not. stutter.

"B-b-back off!" you blurted out. The whole table, and Jason's crew of jocks, went silent. Then, they started laughing.

Your face heated up and your eyes watered as you looked down. "Nice one, d-d-d-d-dork!" Jason imitated with a loud cackle. Dustin and Mike looked guilty, like it was somehow their fault; Eddie started to get up out of his seat at the table, but you squeezed his shoulder.

"D-don't," you whispered to Eddie. "He's j-j-just trying t-to get you in t-trouble. L...Lll--"

You were gonna say 'leave him alone', but 'L's were the hardest. You didn't stammer on this, specifically, but you got... stuck. And you hated it most of all, it made you feel like a complete lllllloser.

"Oh, look-- I bet she's whispering sweet nothings in his ear," Jason noticed you talking to your boyfriend, putting on a mocking impression with a high-pitched voice as he continued: "D-d-d-do me, Munson!"

A hand on his shoulder wasn't nearly enough to stop Eddie after that; he all but leapt out of his seat and pounced on Jason, taking him to the ground.

He got a few hits in, but it was only a few seconds before Jason's douche army was all over him; honestly, they would've probably really hurt him if there hadn't been teachers nearby to break it up.

The other thing about teachers being nearby, though, is that they saw Eddie technically 'start it.' Of course, they'd never give detention to a basketball star like Carver, and they were always looking for excuses to bust the stoner-slash-super-senior.

You tried to sweeten the deal, though, as repayment for him getting himself detention to defend your honor: you wrote him a note that you paid another delinquent to smuggle in to him.

Hey Ed,

I know I should say this to you in person, but I wanted it to be perfect, no stutters.

I love you.

~

Your heart was already racing as you waited for him to be released from detention; when you saw him burst through the front doors and come bounding towards you, you stood up from where you'd been sitting on the steps outside.

"My-- my poor b-boyfriend," you cooed as he wrapped you in a bear hug and kissed the top of your head.

"Didn't miss me too much while I was incarcerated, did you?" he smirked.

"D-d-desperately," you replied. "D-did you... get my note?"

He smiled. "Yeah."

You pouted a little, getting nervous. "D-do you have... anything to... say t-to it? I m-mean, what I said..."

"I won't respond to what you said until you say it," he insisted.

"Eddie!" you whined.

"C'mon, princess, loud and proud," he demanded.

"B-but I wanted it to be p-p-perfect!" you complained, your heart racing as you just knew you would mess it up if you tried to say it right to his face like this. Shutting your eyes, you took a deep breath; praying didn't work last time, so you just said it a thousand times in your head like you wanted it to come out: I love you Eddie, I love you Eddie, I love you-- "I llllllove you, Eddie."

You cringed as you heard your impediment come through, but then you softened when you felt Eddie's lips press to yours. Smiling into it, you wrapped your arms around his neck and embraced him. "Sounded perfect to me, princess," he whispered. "I love you, too."

[misscammiedawn]

You may have discussed it before, but would you mind speaking a little bit on how you discovered you have DID?

I feel like I have a pretty stable core identity but there have been times under intense stress where I’ve experienced sudden “switches” in my personality. During a particularly bad period for a little over a year there was a time where I distinctly felt like a different person and did things I wouldn’t normally do, and I remember the specific moment where I came back into my body and became “me” again. This doesn’t happen often, but it has happened more than once throughout my life. When I see people talk about plurality I feel a little confused because their identities often seem to have their own names and genders and ages and backstories, and it seems so cut-and-dry.

I know these are all things to discuss with my therapist but I love how you talk about your own experiences. How can you differentiate between DID and other kinds of dissociation?

Thank you for asking, anon! I'm glad you are going to talk to your therapist about it while also doing the reading and reaching out-- heaven knows our own journey within the US mental healthcare system was rocky at best. The latest chapter of Madison/Belladonna is heavily sourced from IRL circumstances both in receiving the diagnosis and the decades long journey in the mental healthcare system to get there.

But to answer more directly-- (as always we are answering from a psychopathology lens for care and treatment, we recognize the beauty of plurality and do not reduce ALL experiences to mental healthcare concerns, we are approaching our own situation and experiences this way as it is how we lived it)

Our journey was guided from the outside. Both therapists and our partner who was able to see these "mood swings" in us were able to gently guide us to water despite our fierce denial and rejection of our situation. What started as "we're fine" turned to "mood swings" turned to "BPD" turned to "---maybe we should read up on OSDD?" Turned to our current therapist telling us over a year ago that we had DID after months of testing and interviewing to determine.

I should also note I likely realized it MULTIPLE times in my history and buried it again and again. I legitimately think that people in my former life knew and either assumed I knew too or worse I had told them and forgot that I told them. It worries me because I cannot ever be certain. I once asked my ex-wife about it after the divorce/diagnosis and she did say it was weird how she had a "different husband" depending on environment and social group. She said she never noticed it during the interactions, but she would always think back and feel that the "me" in any given moment was different from the ones she observed in social/work situations etc.

So like--- even if people notice, sometimes they don't even realize what they're seeing. Honestly I go full No Mask at work even when a male part fronts and no one really bats an eye. I don't think *most* people are as observant as we worry they are.

ANYWAY! Looking back these are the signs that I ignored:

- I not just wrote a consistent journal through every phase of my life (even going as far as to have a "memory list" that I populated "when I felt like it" (<- IE: when a part that associated with the memory was fronting and wanted to type about it) and more importantly I READ it. Often. I sometimes think that the majority of our memories are just imagined versions of what we wrote. That notion is helped by the fact we [used to] stop journaling during times of crisis or delete journal/chat log to prevent us thinking about distressing things.

- I wrote a lot of plural characters in my stories since my teenage years. Kinda like I kept writing female versions of myself? Funny how the Trans and DID acceptance arcs are so dang similar.

- I would emotionally cave in on myself after gatherings, berating myself for how I had acted all evening. Getting deeply upset at how "out of control" I was. We outright AVOID mood altering substances like alcohol or weed.

- When talking about traumatic memories we typically just tell the story rote. It doesn't bother us. We told therapists without batting an eyelid. This is dissociation. We were disconnecting ourselves from our memories. Emotionally distancing ourselves from the experiences.

- In the same vein, when we remember things we imagine things in locations like a 3rd person camera. Not populated. We don't hear or feel or associate. It's just a place and a knowledge. Our whole "context packet" thing where we just understand something without *feeling* it.

- Deleted emails and chatlogs, references to things we don't remember. Discord messages with people we don't remember talking to. It bothers me how many people in our online communities we were actually close to at some stage of our life and then erased. This is specific to us but Dawn has opened many accounts in the hypnokink community and Camden has shut them down and this has happened so many times that we don't even get upset when we find a buried email from 2013 with sign-up to a Yahoo Email account we don't remember having. That sounds dramatic. It's more just. Go into your emails, pull stuff up from 5-10 years ago and just scroll a while. See how much you remember and associate into. It's NORMAL to forget what websites you were browsing a decade ago. It's not normal to have an entire *LIFE* you hid from yourself.

- Sometimes people just... saw/knew us before we did and there were times when they would describe a version of us they weren't supposed to see and we got complete dysphoria over it. Sometimes it as joyful. Someone we love saw Cammie well enough to say when we transitioned that they wanted to see that "windswept girl with the big smile" all of the time. Sometimes it's mortifying, like when someone approaches Camden as if she is Dawn and Camden REJECTED that side of us so heavily that it caused emotional meltdowns and turmoil because Camden didn't WANT to be a sexy confident domme, she could barely see herself as a woman, when people saw the wrong version of us *without permission* it was just a violation that made things WORSE.

- On that note-- meltdowns-- we mentioned the whole "after a social gathering we'd emotionally cave in on ourselves" thing, there was a lot of that. After work we'd get a complete drop from having to be in Manager Mode all day or we'd have a crisis after erotic intimacy encounters because we're sex repulsed ace. The fact is our nervous system was activated during those times, our survival instincts were kicked in and brought the part associated to the surface to DEAL and when they backed off our body was still reacting to the trauma trigger and it would cause us to implode.

All of these things in therapy brought us to the conclusion of BPD. Because therapists be like that at times. A *TRAUMA* therapist gave us some DES-II, MID and ACE tests and worked out what was going on within 3 months.

It took a further 6-9 months with constant support from loved ones who were able to see us as individuals to *ACCEPT* it. This is a denial disorder, it doesn't want to be found. Asking questions, being honest and being accepting is the best way to come to terms with it. I wish it were easier and I wish you luck and support in your journey. Our inbox is always open!

You're not alone <3

[pocketramblr]

AU! Inko having a sugar baby arrangement with Giran that accidently resulted in Izuku. Izuku has no idea who his father is, and Giran doesn't find out he has a son until later when the League captures Izuku instead of Bakugo.

oh good the antidote to Nao in Situations... Giran Simping!

1- I think Inko kept the sugar baby arrangement up with several others since, runs an OF, wrote some steamy novels under her OF name, that sort of thing. got an little online boutique she's started more recently with her designs for plus size clothes and underthings. Izuku is generally aware of his mother's career and is fine with it, and is also fine with Inko working to keep most of it out of his sight. just another one of those potentially awkward things they're accustomed to but don't talk about. like his mysterious father. or his seeming lack of a quirk.

2- seeming, as he lacks the toe-joint that says he's quirkless for sure, but nothing obvious has ever shown up. he's smart, but not unnaturally so. none of the mental quirk tests led anywhere. he isn't officially recorded as quirkless, but he assumes that by now he's got to be. Huh anyway weird that he is able to specifically remember instances of quirk use with perfect clarity because he's interested in it, able to analyze what he saw even if it was only once, and also, the weird ofa memory stuff- but we'll get to that

3- so izuku's got a fairly normal life, gets bullied, sludge villain, etc etc etc. And then he gets OfA. and then UA gets attacked. And then UA throws a sports festival anyway. and then he gets brainwashed. And then he sees weird ghostly figures behind All Might! But All Might says he's seen them before too, and they can't interact. just glimpses of the people who used to wield the quirk. Izuku's seen them earlier than he did, probably either the quirk being stronger or an effect of brainwashing. Ok, cool, normal. Iida tries to kill a serial killer, less normal. The next night, Izuku has a vivid dream of scolding some child named Kotaro for drawing on his teacher's desk in permanent marker. not normal at all. He has no idea where it came from. but it keeps happening. Strange dreams- not every night, maybe a few times a month, but each time vivid and unlike anyone he knows. It isn't until he's patching up a shirt in a dream, when a man opens the door and says "Bruce! We got a lead on All For One- and his brother!" that he realizes what he might be seeing. Nervously, he brings it up to All Might, who agrees it sounds like flashes of the past users he can see, but not interact with. after all, the dreams just play out as memories with him unable to change anything. But its probably just because of how strong OfA is now, with Izuku's practice charging it up more! "It's a wonderful sign, young Midoriya, and I hope you have good memory dreams tonight. You're going to the mall with all your classmates tomorrow, right? and camp is next week! Who knows what you'll pull out of that quirk next, incredible."

4- the mall... happens. And so does camp... and Dabi ends up with Izuku instead. Shigaraki complains loudly about not getting the one on the take list. Dabi complains loudly about how he didn't see Shigaraki doing any work on that mission. Izuku- well he doesn't complain, but he does ask pretty loudly why Kacchan was on the list, and Shigaraki goes "oh, friend of yours? i guess we can keep you alive long enough to lure him here." and Izuku has just enough preservation to point out he's pretty sure that won't happen. He does, however, end up chained to a chair, still in horrible pain due to his broken bones, listening to Shigaraki on the phone asking some guy for intel on him and Kacchan.

5- About an hour later, a guy walks in with a file of papers and shoves the top one at Shigaraki. Shigraki reads the paper. Looks at the new guy. reads the paper again. Looks at Izuku. Decays the paper. Tells the new guy he's got ten minutes, and orders everyone out. Izuku notes that Kurogiri is still there. New guy, who smells like cigarettes when he gets close to Izuku, stares at him. Izuku isn't sure what he's looking for, but he glares back. New guy huffs. "Well, you're certainly Inko's, at least." That gets a reaction from Izuku. Shoulders tense. Eyebrows narrow. "How do you know my mom?" "Well, kid, I'm an intel broker. That give you any ideas?" "My mom wouldn't go to a crook like you for information." He's right. "Right. Now come on, be smart kid. If we weren't meeting on account of my job, then...?" Izuku blinks. His mother's? but- no. Absolutely not. "Mhm. If i can remember my old password to get into this account i can show you the old messages we had... dated about seventeen years ago. You're just sixteen now, aren't ya?" New guy, who Izuku strongly hopes is lying, fiddles with his phone, typing something. "And I trust Inko to be professional, loyal. So there's an eighty percent chance, at least." "Eighty percent chance of what?" "What's your quirk, kid?" It takes Izuku too long to say "Superpower." New guy laughs. "Now if I knew Inko well, and I did, then 'superpower' is not the name she would have given the name of a quirk that powered her toddler's bones... but you didn't have that quirk back then. What's your real quirk, not the one you just got this year?" Izuku is pretty sure that Shigaraki's teacher is AfO. He knows about OFA, obviously, though Shigaraki doesn't. This guy may or may not. So instead of answering, he just shrugs. "Let me guess. You didn't have one, or, something about remembering? Maybe forgetting? Attracting memories, that'd be a fun combo, hah. Or, quirkless, like I was before, you know... we each found an in." Izuku tries to glare again, but... well, the memories in ofa are a new thing... and quirks can have strange activators... "Ah! Here we go!" New guy, who Izuku would rather not think of as 'eighty percent chance of being his father', moves around the chair and angles his phone down in front of Izuku so he can see the screen. Instead of old messages, there's a notepad. He scrolls slowly so Izuku can read. The writing on it says "look. we both know AfO wants your quirk. But he isn't going to try and get it until Shigaraki's done with you, so play along, maybe some info here and there to 'lure' the bakugou kid to you. even odds the heroes get here first and you're fine. if they don't, i can get afo to spare your life. not your quirk, but he'll let me keep my son. you can't fight out of here, i'm the only out. but you can't tell anyone about this deal. Not the heroes, not the other villains. got it?" Izuku stares at the note. "Do you get it, kid?" The broker asks, quietly. Izuku is pretty sure he's going to fight a way out anyway, but for now... "Got it." "Good." The broker stands up and walks back in front of him, "Izuku, right? Open up." Izuku starts to ask why and gets a cotton swab in his mouth for it, then before he can bite on it to break it it's out again, tucked into a bag then a pocket. "What was that for?" He snaps. "Well, gotta make sure, right? eighty percent isn't one hundred." "And if i'm not?" "Then Inko will owe me one hell of a favor." "... And if I am?" "Then you will." The broker shrugs, turns to go. "Wait-" Izuku starts, then isn't sure where to keep going. The broker looks at him. "What's your name?" The broker laughs a little. "Ah, good question. What'd Inko call me?" Izuku tries to remember. She didn't usually, but he thinks there was one time when it was someone else asking... "Hisashi?" "Hisashi." The broker repeats. "Ah, see, that's poetic! Much more the kind of name Inko would come up with. She's a great writer, you know." Izuku glares so hard that the broker who's definitely not actually named Hisashi makes his way out of the room without another word.

+1- when Shigaraki comes back, he orders Kurogiri give him something strong enough to wipe that mental image from his mind, and then starts asking Izuku about his friend. And his friend's weaknesses. Izuku is unimpressed and he almost forgets his maybe-dad's plan- "Kacchan is really strong, he doesn't have many weaknesses, since he's so practiced with his quirk that-", but only almost, "I don't know, i scared him with a spider once. but we were like, seven. and i guess i wanted to send him a whole box of spiders after he stole my all might-"..... Shigaraki latches on to the 'wait, he stole things from you? potential for crime? i knew it' thing, Toga latches onto the spiders box thing, and so does Dabi but he does it in the opposite direction, complaining that spiders is so basic, and by the time he was seven, he had already tried to murder his baby brother. Magne then asks "wait, you tried to kill a baby? not succeeded? you failed to kill a baby?" which Dabi then responds by reminding her of her less than stellar ratio of successful kills. Compress asks for one of whatever Shigaraki is having, and swipes his' drink too. Spinner keeps trying to sneak closer to Izuku to ask him questions about Stain, and Izuku is slowly starting to feel like he might actually survive long enough to escape or be rescued before he is either turned to dust or tortured for his quirk.

[gx-gameon]

About your Yugi adopts Jaden AU, I know you wrote the spiritshipping part and Jaden meeting Jesse but I want to know more.

Specifically after Jesse sacrifice

This is once again a fluid idea. It might change a bit once I actually rewatch this part of the show.

Once the school returns Yugi finds Jaden pretty fast. Between his duel spirits leading the way and Jaden’s screaming. Luckily since Jaden is freaking out it doesn’t look to suspicious that Yugi went to comfort him. (Though that’s the last thing on Yugi’s mind at the moment)

Seto has all the students called to interview, he wants to know what happened. Most of the students don’t know anything and to be honest Seto doesn’t really care. They help get the whole picture but his staff can talk to them. The DM crew pulls Jaden’s friends to talk to. Excuse: they are the students they talked to when communicating with the other dimension and the staff said they were in charge.

Téa takes Alexis and Blair

Tristan takes Hasselberry and Axel

Joey takes Jim and Syrus

Mokuba takes Chazz and Bastian

Seto handles the supposed adults in his staff. He is not happy right now and what’s to know why a group of children took charge durning an emergency.

This is just a cover so Yugi can get Jaden away from everyone and talk to him about what happened. Why were you screaming?

While the rest of the Gx crew is filling the DM crew in on what happened, Yugi and Atem are with Jaden.

The boy is having a full break down. He just lost his best friend. Who, he only realized once they were in that mess, he has a massive crush on. Jesse sacrificed himself to save Jaden and the rest of the school. But it shouldn’t have been Jesse’s job it should have been Jaden.

Yugi has worried about his son’s hero complex for a long time. And the apparent fact that both the school and his friends use it to have Jaden fight their battles. His son has always taken in the weight of the world on to his shoulders, even when he didn’t want to. It reminds Yugi so much of Atem in the early stages of their partnership. There were many times in their adventures when Atem would say a problem was his alone, even if it had nothing to do with him, and Yugi would have to remind him that they were a team. Lucky their friends always stepped up to the plate as well.

Did Jaden have anyone to remind him the world wasn’t his responsibility alone? (Yes it was Jesse and he’s gone now)

Atem understands perfectly where Jaden is coming from. After all he lost Yugi’s spirit to the oricalcos. He knows exactly what it means to be separated from a dear friend. But the difference is that was his fault, he played the seal and Yugi choice to sacrifice himself to save him. Jaden didn’t force the school into that dimension, nor did he put Jesse in the position where sacrifice himself was the only way to safe Jaden. It was whoever brought them there/attacked them’s fault.

But while was that?

When Jaden reveals it was Yubel, the air was sucked from the room. Atem and Yugi are horrified. At this point they know all about Jaden’s birth parents and how they requested to send Yubel to space as well. Seto had been looking for a way to retrieve Yubel for years. But it was hard to talk to Jaden about them since his memories of them were blocked. Atem and Yugi also remember when Yubel would reach out to Jaden’s dreams and how terrified the boy had been. They knew for a long time there was something wrong with that spirit. And now they had attacked Jaden and his friends.

Jaden blames himself. He sent Yubel away and know all of his friends have suffered for his selfishness.

(Baby you were a child under the age of seven (the age of reason) there’s no way that was your fault. Like in this au he was threeish when it happened I don’t know who old in cannon. But there is no way Kaiba Corp built a second satellite just because a child was like “my card spirit is sick do you think the space radiation will help them?” No. However if his parents were like “this card is evil and we will pay you to shoot it to the stars, maybe even blow it up.” That I can believe. I know Kaiba Corp does some crazy things but I never believed they launch Yubel just because Jaden asked. Also even if it was because he asked he was a literal baby)

Needless to say Yugi and Atem try and tell Jaden that Yubel’s actions are not his fault. They also start to come up with a plan. Seto had the ability to send individuals to other dimensions. Now that they have a lock on the other dimension maybe they can go after Jesse.

Jaden instantly wants to join this rescue mission. But Yugi hesitates, he doesn’t want his son in any more danger. Especially since Yubel will be targeting him. It’s best to keep him away from all of this.

Atem however understand exactly where Jaden is coming from. He would have done anything to save Yugi from the Oricalcos. Which is why he’s not sure if Jaden should come. The actions Atem took in the direct aftermath of losing Yugi still haunt him. And he hadn’t snapped out of it until Yugi’s spirit came to pull him back into the light.

He knows how Jaden will be in this mission. He’s going to make rash decisions. He’s going to be focused on saving Jesse and his own safety and those around him will be secondary. It’s the same way Atem was after he lost Yugi.

But neither of them know who to tell Jaden this. Telling him now when he’s already this upset and agitated will only make the situation worse. So they put it off. “Let’s talk to your Oto-san and see if we can figure out where Jesse is. He has Rainbow dragon and we got a pretty good read on that cards energy signature.” They want to see if it’s even possible before have the discussion with Jaden that he can’t go.

Seto has already started looking into it and scanning through dimensions for Jesse’s deck. Since it’s only one person dragging him into one of the pods will be easy. Doing a whole school evacuation would have taken too much time and energy and would have fried the pods. But a quick mission to grab one person they could do that easily.

But Jesse isn’t showing up in the dimension they just left, meaning he’s moved or been moved. He informs Jaden and Yugi of this when they come over to ask. (Thankfully everyone is in shock and also so used to Jaden inserting himself into problems that no one really questions why he’s talking to the King of Games and the head of Kaiba Corp.) he tells them that it will take time to find Jesse.

Jaden wants to go now but understand that they can’t. His friends come over and they all decide to head to the Slifer dorms to get some real sleep. After all competent adults are here now. They have a plan, there is nothing else they can do.

But Jaden hates waiting and after two years of being everyone’s hero and forced to solve all the problems on his own, being stagnant his driving him mad. Boys having massive anxiety over this. He goes to ‘check on the machine’ (be with his family.)

While he’s away Sheppard decides to be MESSY and tell the other students Jaden’s history with Yubel. (He was not messy enough to tell them about Jaden’s family.)

Progress is slow and it’s been a few days and Jaden’s city is reaching new heights. His dad and family help but the only thing that going to truly calm them is Jesse being alright.

Yugi and the crew finally break the news to him that he won’t be joining them on the rescue mission. Yugi, Seto, Atem, and Joey are going. The promise to be carful and to get Jesse. And no Jaden this isn’t because your weak or we think you’d slow us down. We are very proud of you. But you’re literally the target of a crazed Duel Spirit and we want you safe.

Jaden hears “this is your fault, we don’t need you. You’d put us in more danger.” This is not what was said at all but Jaden is in deep spiral mode. He’s also freaking out because Yubel wants him and now his family is going and they’re going to get hurt because of him. If anything happens to them it will be his fault! This is his mess and he’s the only one who should be going. Yubel’s after him anyone who puts themselves in between is just going to get hurt. And ya, Jaden’s terrified to face Yubel but he’ll do it for Jesse and to keep his family safe.

Needless to say Jaden gets really upset and runs off. Yugi goes to chase after him but is stoped by Atem advising he let the boy calm down. They don’t realize just how badly Jaden is spiraling. Yugi does wait but only for a bout an hour then the DM crew are all about to lose their minds and head after Jaden.

This is also a big mistake. Because Wnged Kuriboh finds a portal.

[alexanderlightweight]

Happy Wednesday! I was re-reading “all my fears forgotten” and the part where Alec apparently set his back up plans specifically for Magnus yet left out what the warlock means to him personally got me curious.

Not sure if this falls under a world building question or prompt but why? Why not mention Magnus?

happy wednesday!

so i'm treating this as a question and a little bit as a prompt!

i'm a little confused about where the confusion is but could just be because i'm tired. if this doesn't answer the question or make sense than just ask more questions because i'm happy to answer them even if i need to answer them more than once

in this universe everyone in the institute, alec's family and parts of the clave all know that magnus and alec are together. but while they are bonded, they aren't married by official nephilim standards because neither of them give a fuck about the claves version of married

now the reason magnus is able to do these things are because he's alec's SO. but at the same time the fact that magnus is alec's so isn't really the point? the point is that alec set it up that no one can contest that magnus (regardless of his status but because of his place as alec's significant other) is given the most rights and power over him rather than his family or the clave.

the reason magnus doesn't know about these protocols is because alec's still working on them and he didn't want to give them to magnus until they were solidly set in stone.

luckily, they were when this happened

also if you're wondering about alec, he wrote a note about his feelings for magnus as proof while he was of sound mind and uh... yeah alec doesn't need memories to know that whoever he wrote the note about is the love of his life.

i hope this makes sense and you enjoy the next bit of it

<3 lumine

all my fears forgotten

--

Alec wakes quietly, holding his breath and keeping still for reasons he doesn’t understand until the moments passed.

It’s strange to realize that whatever instinct his body is reacting to is one that he trained into it for a reason he doesn’t know.

“Awake?” 

Memories of Magnus — though not old memories of Magnus — unfurl in his mind and he knows now why he would pretend to stay asleep.  Why wouldn’t he keep still and quiet if it meant keeping his place with Magnus’ heartbeat as a pillow.

“Darling, I can see the cute little wrinkle of your nose as you pretend you’re just dreaming.”  

Alec gave a huff and finally cracked open his eyes, squinting carefully and then opening them wider when the only light was a soft gold through the gauzy curtains. 

“Hi—” he managed to say and then he has to shift up and press a content kiss to the underside of Magnus’ jaw.  It’s with easy joy that he lets himself relax back down and he stares at the surprised curve of Magnus’ mouth and the limpid gold of his eyes.

“Aren’t you a charmer.” 

Alec knows it’s a tease but he can’t help but preen just a little. 

It doesn’t matter to Alec that he doesn’t know how he and Magnus met or how they fell into a relationship together.  All he cares about is that Magnus looks at him with love and Alec’s own heart pounds as though it beats in hope of earning a mere hint of his smiles.

The past will be remembered or stay forgotten but there is a future yet to unfold by Magnus’ side. Alec doesn’t see any other path than leaning to love Magnus as ardently as he did before the accident.  There will be no way to tell if he’ll succeed unless his memories return but well, Alec doesn’t mind loving Magnus being a life goal if he never gets them back.

“Will you be okay, if I don’t remember or if it takes me a while?” He asks cautiously at one point and he can’t help how much he wants to kiss Magnus. It’s the one true downside of amnesia, not knowing when his kisses and touches will be welcomed and if he needs to be careful.

“You can take as little or as much time as you need, even if they never come back.” Magnus promises him and Alec hesitates just a moment before carefully leaning forward. 

Magnus accepts the kiss with an eager gasp and the press of his mouth turns Alec’s blood molten. His body surrenders to the feeling but Alec is still overwhelmed with Magnus’ fervor and the magic sparking down his spine from the kiss.  

As much as a part of Alec misses his memories, he delights in the knowledge that he gets to experience all of Magnus’ touches again, as if for the very first time.

[bookishtheaterlover7]

Her Reign

a/n: Hello, my Fabulous Readers! Would you like to take a trip down Memory Lane with me? Boy, do I have a treat for y'all...

When I was just starting to write my fanfics 8 - 9 years ago, before I fell into major Writer's Block, and went on my forced Hiatus, I wrote this fic for a good friend. Because back then, she drew Steve fanart for me, and I wrote Loki fics for her.

Fast forward to this year, I'm looking through my old notes in my notes apps, low and behold I find a handful of fic ideas and half-written, unfinished fics. And honestly, young me literally had the best fic ideas 😆 I realize that they're basically my very own Vaults! They couldn't have came on a better time, when I want to connect to my younger self, and remember what it was like, when life wasn't as complicated.

Ofcourse, it's not completely the original story, present me needed to polish the rough patches in the story, because specific timeline when this was written, was roughly somewhere before Endgame after Infinity War...😅 And I also need to make sure, it's semi-accurate to the current MCU, for my own sake.

But still, I hope y'all will enjoy reading this one, all the same.

Loki Odinson x Y/n Y/L/N's Daughter, Lucy Laufeyson

Requested: No

WARNINGS: Loki's Death(seriously doesn't need to be a question😆), Abusive, cliché Evil Step-parent, Allusion to the abuse Y/n goes through, Lucy imagining and enacting revenge(and justice) on Evil Step-Parent, Lucy goes ape-shit, Loki would be proud. Story goes way dark(not GOT Dark, but still, pretty dark). Written by me, when I was still fairly new to writing, so sorry for the errors present Me isn't able to fix.

DNI Divider by @firefly-graphics

Enjoy!

Loki looking at Lucy from Valhalla...

It was a typical day for the Avengers in the Avenger Compound. Agents of every kind, rushed here and there, to finish their duties. In one of the lower floors underground, lived the Avengers. Each had their own apartment. But they liked to spend time together, in the common room. And today was no exception.

The room was full of chaos. From the sounds of a certain Captain's daughter crying, because she fell down while attempting to walk, with her doting mother and older brother trying to calm her down, to Peter Parker, Bruce Banner and Dr. Stephen Strange devising a way to make their tactical suits more durable, and more accommodating to the various shapes and sizes each individual, human, alien or super, has.

Lucy Laufeyson is among the chaotic bunch. Born and raised together with James Anthony Rogers, making her pretty much used to everything that happens around here, around her considered-extended family. She'd been living with the Avengers and her Uncle Thor Odinson, in an effort to avoid her Step-Father, Grey Wallace. Well, specifically to avoid hurting, said man.

From the moment her grandmother, from her mother, Y/n Y/L/N's side, had told her that she was to have a Step-Father, she knew that it would take a lot of strength and maturity. For she knew Gray wasn't a good man. He abused her mother and basically, forced her to have his child. Luckily, Lucy could never hate her younger Brother, Greyson. She hated his sperm donor.

Before Loki died, he had written a note to every member of his family. For Thor, Y/n, and especially Lucy. The one for her, specified that he wanted Thor to take his family to New Asgard, where he hoped to be laid to rest.

Once his request was fulfilled, she decided to take her father's name and use it to make a legacy of her own in her new home. Despite this, it didn't stop her from imagining enacting her revenge on Grey. She hated everything he did to her mother, and today is living proof of that.

"Hey James. Nice shield." Lucy smirked, it looks uncannily like her Father's.

"Oh, Lucy... Hi... I-I-I was just borrowing this from Dad." James answered, turning pinker by the minute.

"Calm down, Rogers. I was just teasing." Lucy said, playfully boxing his arm.

"Besides, I'm not here as often as I used to. Just for old times sake."

"Sometimes I wonder how we've been friends, since birth." James sighed.

"Come on... you know you love me, Cap Jr." Lucy smirked again, living for the reaction she gets, from her dear sweet James.

"Excuse me, Ms. Laufeyson, but Ms. Alexa is here." Tony's AI, JAKASTA, said.

"Thanks, JAKASTA." Lucy replied.

"See you later, Rogers." She added, patting the side of his pink face on her way out.

Lucy walked from the training room, through endless hallways, with Agents working and training, as well as the scientist conducting tests and experiments, of all kinds, to the elevator, that will take her down to the Lobby. Her heart leapt with excitement. She always loved seeing her Mother, and her younger Brother, whenever they came for a visit. Preferably without her infamous Step-Father, who in her opinion, descended straight from Hell.

A few minutes later, she arrived at the Lobby, where she knew the people her Family, would be waiting. She pushed open the only door, separating her from the Lobby, and saw her mother for the first time in months. Beautiful but bruised and slightly battered. Loki would hate Grey.

"Mom!" Lucy called.

"Hello Lucy." Y/n replied, looking up from talking to Y/O/N Rogers, her best friend since before meeting the loves of their lives.

Lucy walked a little faster and went to give her mother a gentle but firm hug.

"What am I? A chameleon? Where's my hug?!" Lucy's younger brother, Greyson, asked/exclaimed.

"Hello to you, too, Baby Brother." Lucy smirked, going in to hug her sibling.

"It's always a gem, to see you both together like this!" Alexa cried, tears forming in her eyes.

"We really need to catch up." Greyson said with a smile, taking Lucy's hand.

Sometime later, the family sat in a restaurant downtown, enjoying the food and coffee, while catching up and sharing stories with one another.

"And he just ran and ran and BOOM! Homerun!" Alexa finished, with pride in her eyes as she looked at her son.

"It was nothing, really. Honest." Greyson said, blushing at the attention.

"Changing the subject, how are you and your so-called 'childhood bestfriend, not potential lover', Dear Sister." Greyson teased.

"I told you the last time, Greyson. We're just friends. Nothing more. Nothing less." Lucy replied, as a matter of factly.

"Now, why don't I believe that?" Greyson muttered, under his breath.

"Shut up." Lucy replied, with a playful shove towards him.

"It's so nice to see you both getting along." Alexa said, wistful.

"I would be happier if that lousy excuse of a Step-Father is six feet under and never ever coming back." Lucy commented, scooping up some of her food into her mouth.

"Lucy-" Alexa started, wiping her eyes, before opening her arms towards her daughter.

"I mean it, Mom. He's hurt you enough." Lucy replied.

"Dad wouldn't want this for you..." She added, taking her Mother's hand, and rolling up the sleeve a little to reveal the marks hidden underneath.

"Sorry, Mom. But I agree with Lucy. If he hadn't hurt you, and continued to hurt you, things might've been different." Greyson replied, as Y/n pulled her hand away, and pulled her sleeves down, even further than before.

"I know three days ago wasn't the best wedding anniversary..." She started to explain.

"WHAT THE HELL DID HE DO THIS TIME?!" Lucy exclaimed, her anger boiling up to the surface.

"It's nothing, Lucy." Alexa sighed.

"It isn't just nothing, Mom! It's always something." Lucy raised her voice. Her eyes being drawn to the sleeve that her Mother, so desperately, was using to try to hide the marks from her, earlier.

"This is the last straw! He's been doing this ever since you married him. It needs to stop." Lucy announced, with finality and determination.

"Lucy, no. It's fine. I'm used to it." Alexa replied, unshed tears glistening in her eyes.

"I told you, Mom. He's hurt you enough." Lucy repeated, before standing up.

"I've had enough." She growled, before walking away with purpose and determination, with Y/n's and Greyson's voices calling behind her. Falling on deaf ears.

Grey Wallace was walking from his office building to his car. It had been a long day, and he was looking forward to having a beer when he got home. He was practically skipping down the road, until he felt like someone was watching him, from the shadows. Shrugging it off as paranoia, he continued walking.

He finally arrived at his car, ready to unlock it when he was forcefully, pushed against his car. His arms painfully pinned against his back.

"Who are you? What do you want? If you want my money, take it. I-It's yours." Grey said in a panic, words coming out in quick succession.

"I don't want, nor do I need your money." The figure, behind him, replied.

"Then, w-what do you want?" Grey asked again, shaking to the bone.

"I want justice for my Mother." The figure replied, a sinister smile slowly beginning to form on her face.

"I-I don't even know y-your Mother." Grey cried, before being turned around, and pinned to the side of his car.

"Oh, don't act coy, now... You know my Mother... In fact you know her very well, that you've taken to hurting her for about 5 years, now. Isn't that right, Step-Father?" The figure said, her face coming into the light.

"Lu-Lucy..." Grey gasped, not believing his eyes.

"That's right. And I have come to make sure you'll never lay another hand on my Mother, ever again." Lucy said, before turning into her Jotun form and punching her Step-Father.

Grey's world turned black.

His eyes burst open, and he quickly looked around in a panic. Remembering the terrifying sight of his Step-Daughter, before she knocked him unconscious. He sighed in relief, when he found that he's all alone in his Hospital Room.

"Think you're safe, Step-Father?" Lucy said, appearing out of nowhere.

"Lucy... Lucy... Whatever I've done to you and Y/n, I'm sorry." Grey pleaded.

"You think that's enough?! You think that sorry will take away all you've done to her?! To the both of us?!" Lucy exclaimed, her bright green eyes turning red.

"You're lucky, I only left you with a concussion, and a punctured lung. I would have killed you on the spot, had I not made myself promise Mom not to hurt you too badly." She added.

"Lucy, please I beg you..." Grey begged.

"Oh, now you're begging me." Lucy cackled.

"Like how Mom begged you to let her go, every single hellish night..." She continued, her features slowly changing.

"Lucy, you need help. Y-you don't look well. Y-you're blue!" Grey exclaimed.

"Oh, don't pretend like you care. You never did." Lucy snapped.

"Why are you turning blue?!" Grey shrieked, panicked, his monitor blaring at his increasing heartrate.

"Let me answer your question with this question: Have you ever wondered why we never told you about my birth Father? Why no one ever spoke of him?" Lucy said, lightly caressing the tube that re-inflated his lung.

"Well, the answer is quite simple actually. I'm the daughter of Loki of Asgard." Lucy said, turning full Jotun, and staring right into Grey's eyes.

"Y-You-You're the daughter of Loki Laufeyson, the one who invaded the planet?" Grey asked, trying to scurry away but couldn't. bound to the bed by the very tubes and wires that are helping him.

"Yes. So, if I were you... I'd be glad, that I spared your life. I may seem all sweet and innocent, but trust me when I say this..." Lucy added, slightly squeezing the tube. Blocking it from keeping his lung inflated.

Grey started to feel a tightness in his chest. Unable to catch his breath, from fear, and distress.

"I'm so much worse than my Father. So much worse." Lucy growled. Releasing her grip on the tube.

Allowing Grey to finally able to relax and breathe better and regularly, now.

"You're just lucky I made a promise to my Mother. Had I not, I would have done so much worse." Lucy added, getting up and leaving.

"Leave my Mother alone, or a collapsed lung and concussion won't be the most excruciating thing you'll ever experience." Lucy said, turning back to look at him.

"I give you my word, Step-Father." She added, turning into back her human form, her eyes glowing red for a second before going back to green.

Grey shook with fear, causing Lucy to smirk. And with that, she turned and left.

Lucy walked through the hospital doors and out, before opening a portal in the middle of the driveway and walking through it. Taking her home to New Asgard.

When she stepped out of the portal, her red leather jacket, stripped sleeveless blouse, leggings and boots, instantly turned into a long, green, mermaid style dress with a shimmering light green cape, connected in the back.

Her raven black hair curled, pulled back, half up, half down, and a complicated gold head piece with it. She walked to the kingdom, where everyone who saw her, bowed respectfully.

She made her way into the Palace, where her Keeper eagerly greeted her at the entrance. For a man, who was about 1,000 years old, give or take, he definitely could keep up with Lucy's long strides.

"Your Ladyship! The King has gone to Wakanda on business, but there are some matters of great importance to attend to." The man explained, pointing to the long list of matters, needing her immediate attention.

"I shall deal with all the problems one by one. I want to make sure everything is dealt with, accordingly." Lucy announced, taking a seat on the throne.

"Lady Loki, the people are waiting for you." The court announcer told her.

"Send them in." She answered, as the guards allowed the people to come inside. Which little by little, she solved all of them. Loki's Daughter, Y/n and Greyson's fiercest protector, Asgard's warrior, and Valkyrie's Right Hand, Lady Lucy.

a/n: I hope you all enjoyed it! Despite the errors, and the dark stuff... Maybe this'll lead me to upload other, more worthy fics in the Future.

We'll see.

Until next time!

❤ Booky

Taglist: @nescavaneck @jiyascepter @royalwriteroftheuniverse @femefetalelevelingup

[taylortruther]

At this point the conversations about Swiftwyn are very recycled because everyone's basically making the same points, which I understand because this is a big deal but it gets boring sometimes and it gets annoying too because people get so upset if you tell them Taylor's probably still not over the breakup or when you try to explain the complexity, not-black-and-whiteness of it all.

the way people simplify the breakup is funny. Do they realize who Taylor is? The woman who wrote an RED and 1989? Do they realize how breakups and feelings and healing work? People say she's already moved on and I wonder what they expect her to do, post a video of her crying and saying she misses him? She's probably writing songs about her feelings and 2 years from now we'll know how she felt at this time.

I remember when folklomore came out I saw someone ranting about how Taylor is still writing about snakegate and she should move on. Life-changing events are, well, fucking life-changing and they affect you for years to come it's crazy that people expect her to just move on as if there is a specific time-frame for healing, as if once something terrible happens to you you can just go back to who you were before. One point of Midnights is that everything that happens to you is still on your mind and you can find yourself thinking about an ex whose name you can't rememeber now.

the way people expect her to move on from 2016 is one of my joker moments in the fandom. same with how people said joe should worry because she wasn't "over" jake, harry, matty, etc.

even my mean anon yesterday sent me a few more asks about how it's stupid i still talk about my ex. i know some of this fandom is very young, and not everyone has the privilege of having their heart broken, but god. if your world was ever changed by someone, and you DON'T think about it for years after, i really think you're probably just repressing.

[devi-nyx-elsword-theorist]

Alright time to say it, and I'm pretty sure everyone's figured it out.

But let me explain a few things here and a Theory + possible spoilers if its true.

Kieran definitely wasn't as much of a skilled trainer then as to now, he's mostly shy and behind his older sister, he looks up to her and he's surprised to see the protagonist beat his sister in battle which has him admire us.

During the story Kieran eavesdropped the True story about what really happened about Ogerpon and the Loyal Three, he's distant and cold towards the player and Carmine. I understand his resentment and frustration. But Kieran's actions are fueled by his obsession, and desire to be stronger just like Ogerpon. His obsession about Ogerpon was ruined because Ogerpon chose us, his dream with Ogerpon was destroyed, everything he had was ruined. Thus he wanted one thing, the desire to become stronger so we could battle him listen to his themes, ones more gentle soft, and less complicated, we see him as he's definitely skilled but not in the way we'd see him. The final battle with him is a more complicated hard, it's us being confused and not seeing how he's turning, we're a way out for him, he's stuck he wants out. (More to this in my theory section.)

I enjoy his entire character, and here's the thing people don't realize that Kieran hates us and Carmine, but realize he doesn't specifically hate any one, he'd definitely resent his own family about the whole truth being kept from him, and we feel it, not shown but the music shows his complicated life.

And here's where people are mixed

Most hate Carmine because she's "controlling, mean, etc." well, some older siblings can act like her irl, I mean that literally. What Carmine shows is that she'd be verbal, but not physically abusive to her brother. How he made friends is most likely her being a threat to any new friend he'd make I mean this as a "possibility" and when she comes to tell us about how Kieran has no skill in Ogre Oustin, we could also assume that he wasn't as a skilled trainer so Blueberry Academy would definitely see her as a " Champion" for her serious capabilities of a trainer. I personally enjoy her as throughout the Kitakami story SHE'S the one helping us fight the Loyal Three, SHE took responsibility of Kieran's actions (though indirectly caused as we don't really know what made the Loyal Three come back but I will get to that as a theory section hold your horses.)

The Indigo Disk Story THEORY!!!

Carmine is definitely treated as a "Champion" we know who we'd fight as a final battle which is Kieran, but the characters wont know except for Carmine.

the Master of the Loyal Three was obscured it was "shown" as a thing in Peachy's shop. I have a crazy idea, which I wrote out on a piece of paper at work and lost it but I do remember most of what I wrote.

Kieran's emotions are unstable, his mentality is unstable and being fueled by getting stronger. The Master, is granting his "Wish" to his pure desire of being a Strong trainer, this is the Purple Aura around his right hand in a scene, and possibly seen faintly on a poster. Whether this Master is controlling Kieran or it's fueling his desire to defeat the player.

When we're going to face the champion of Blueberry Academy, we won't see Carmine, we'll see Kieran he's determined, he's ready, he throws his pokemon to battle, but the Master comes out last it's the one who made Kieran lose control of himself, he's been reckless then, and it knew what he was capable of, so it chose him as it's trainer temporarily.

Whether this is during or after Terapagos is depending on how it goes.

If we have Ogerpon in our team Kieran might snap more " Ogerpon..... Why? Why didn't you choose me!? ....Whatever, I will battle you." The theme might be a remix of Kieran's theme but a more dramatic overtone, then it will hit with a sad emotional portions we'd battle Kieran as serious as he is, and controlled by the Master. Once the Master is defeated, it will let go of Kieran and release him to us Kieran might still feel some desired wish to battle us, but this time he's in a more controlled environment as opposed to then

while the Loyal Three Master will most definitely flee somewhere for us to capture it since it's already weakened but because it wasn't necessarily in a Pokeball, this mean's it will definitely challenge us again in a weakened state like how we dealt with Necrozma in Ultra Sun Ultra Moon.

What I'm essentially saying is The Master Granted the Desired wishes to Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti. This means it fuels on the negativity of those who want their wishes, meaning it saw potential in Kieran and fueled his negativity to make him lose control to use it. I know this sounds very much boosh, but I just wanted to make this theory and it would definitely be buried along the way and want people to see this theory.

[mooifyourecows]

Can I ask your top favorite fics that you've written (feel free how much that you want to list)? Why they're special to you? Is there a specific inspiration when you wrote them? Thanks....

Hmmmm let's see... I'll do top five. Generally I like ALL the fics that I've written (I wouldn't post something I didn't like, tbh)(even though some have been started and then completely abandoned RIP sorry to them) so it's kinda difficult to rank them, but here's my best whack at it:

Summer Rain- I really enjoy writing this fic. I love the massive cast and all the little storylines happening all at once. I know it's kinda on hiatus at the moment but I really do look forward to when I get back to writing it because I love thinking about how everything will eventually coalesce into the climax. Dropping off on cliffhangers is also a special indulgence of mine, even if it makes people angry 😈I started this one based off of an OLD original story idea i had once upon a time. I realized that it had a better chance of getting written if it was a daisuga fic, so here it is! Though it definitely went completely off the rails from the original plan.... (in a good way)

and the Emi goes to...- The DaiSuga dynamic in this one is probably one of my favorites. At this point everyone should know I LOVE slow burns and this one takes its sweet ass time. And as someone who hates the idea of being a parent myself, it's nice being able to live vicariously through the characters to get my fill of parenthood without ever having to have a kid lmao. My inspiration was "I want to write a single parent AU" and poof, there it was.

Let it Ride- Man I don't even know what it is about this fic but I adore it. I think Daisuga's relationship in it is just so... 😘👌 The childhood best friends who know everything about each other and are willing do to ANYTHING for one another, even give up the opportunity of a lifetime... just the sentiment of loving someone so much that you'd be happy struggling with them really takes me out, you know? It's about love but it's about like, too. They LIKE each other so much, what a pair! I got the idea to write it because I LOVE fake relationship AUs and I LOVE LOVE when the stakes are set at the highest setting, AKA Marriage.

Hard Times- Another fake dating AU because as previously mentioned I LOVE them. This one just checks so many boxes for me. Revenge? Crime? Sex? Comedy? Drama? More revenge? Closure? Catholicism? Sign me up! (as the writer I think I'm automatically signed up, but ya know.) I had a lot of fun writing it. And Radish made beautiful art for it so really, what's not to like? I don't remember what inspired it... I think I just wanted to write another fake dating scenario with a funny meet cute.

Open Tab- I feel like I'm obligated to put Open Tab on any list when it comes to my writing because it's the OG, ya know? It's the first fic that got me deep into the Haikyuu fandom and I gotta appreciate it for that reason alone. We've been through a lot together, me and good ol OT. The only hate mail I ever got was on Open Tab. The thrill of it all... I had so much fun writing it. And while right now it's definitely a bit of a pain in my ass, trying to get the motivation to continue it, I can't erase all the good times we had together. I owe it a lot! Someday it will finally be over and I'm both dreading and looking forward to that day. My inspiration was alcoholism. Drink responsibly, kids.

[thegeminisage]

wow it is star trek update time. last night we watched ds9's "blood oath" and tng's "journey's end," which is one of the strongest quality ricochets we've had yet.

blood oath (ds9):

okay, so the summary said "three klingon legends" but what i didn't realize is that they were all REAL KLINGONS FROM THE ORIGINAL SERIES

i have to pain this picture for you, whoever is reading this. the three klingons in this episode appeared in "errand or mercy" "the trouble with tribbles" and "day of the dove." like, they really came back to reprise their roles almost 30 years later. i'm going to paste a picture but uhtw 60s blackface

now, if you're a tos viewer, you may recognize that fella in the middle as also having played the titular squire of gothos in. "squire of gothos." now, as an episode, i find "squire of gothos" to be pretty mid, but there is one specific scene that really did something for me. to me? it did something TO me. what it did to me was send me off the fucking deep end, i wish i could convey the depths of my madness with human words

(still screenshot grabbed from this infinitely more amazing gifset, give it up for @maulthots for enabling me, no literally please go through her gif tag and reblog her gifs)

anyway, before my good and wonderful friend so kindly made this gifset for me, i did maybe sit in front of my pc and replay the clip upwards of [mumble] times a day because i was very, very unwell. when i watched this scene for the very first time what happened to me in that single instant was the bone-deep realization that james t kirk (tos and aos) ate fascists on tarsus iv, probably, and he'd fucking do it again because nobody tastes better than a fascist! i wrote an entire fanfic about it, sorry for the spoilers.

what does squire of gothos and tarsus iv have to do with ds9? well first of all every star trek episode is secretly about tarsus iv so jot that down

but secondly, i've watched this clip so many times i have to hide my face when this man shows up in trouble with tribbles. now, i'm not so good with faces, but i KNOW THAT VOICE. but i know him AS the squire of gothos. i frequently forget entirely that he also plays a klingon, so i didn't recognize his name. so when i heard the squire of gothos's voice come out of a random klingon's mouth in ds9 my immediate kneejerk reaction was "no i am hearing things that can't be--" BUT IT WAS. i PAUSED the episode so i could look iy up, realized that the guy in the drunk tank was kor or "do you have a tongue you will be taught to use it" fame, and then to my eternal glee, kang shows up next

i remembered reading once that kang came back later and i was like ??? no one comes back later on tos BUT HE DID! I JUST HAD TO WAIT FOR IT!!!!! mystery finally solved...........

once i recognized them this episode was a blast. absolutely loving these 100 year old klingons getting ready for a rip roaring rampage of supercentenarian revenge. i was VERY sad that they died at the end but at least presumably they all died together (didnt see the last one go down but im just assuming he lived long enough to eat the albino's heart and then die)

(the albino is a really funny concept by the way like he's not even albino he's just a white klingon)

other notable things about this episode: firstly, quark hiding behind odo at the beginning. classic. secondly, dax actually being a good fighter ?!?!?! and finally, a true passing of the bechdel test where dax asked kira some alarming and upsetting questions about killing people and kira immediately took her aside and MADE her talk. i love. Women. and also women who murder people. i support womens wrongs.

i even love that the ONE time sisko doesn't back up one of his people it's for a good reason (doesn't want the 27yo reincarnation of his father figure to die on a klingon suicide mission)

10000/10, absolutely stellar ep, zero complaints

journey's end (tng):

oh boy.

just about the coldest bucket of fucking water...

you know, we tried to give this episode the benefit of the doubt actually. we were like "maybe this was progressive in 1994. i mean they ARE saying that moving these guys forcibly would be bad" and i mean like what would we know about what was progressive in 94? we were 5. so we checked and um i don't think anybody liked it in 1994 either

devastating that THIS has to be a wesley episode bc i wanted a better sendoff for my boy. "i had a vision and now i'm leaving starfleet" and yes they said the word vision in the most derogatory way possible. jesus christ

TRAVELER ALIEN RACEFAKING? HE PRETENDED TO BE NATIVE AMERICAN TO GIVE WESLEY THE VISION? and then he was like haha don't you know all that stuff is fake. (picard earlier in this episode "i am sooo respectful of your beliefs")

furthermore when picard was like "oh yeah this guy blames me for the crimes of my colonizer ancestor" girl at no point did he say that. idk if white people should go around accusing other white people of white guilt so i don't say this lightly but jesus christ captain picard can you tone it the fuck down buddy

i came across a gifset today of picard from season 5 (idr the episode) going "starfleet doesn't want officers who blindly follow orders sayign you're just following orders has been used to justify too many tragedies in our history" and then smash cut to this episode where he's like "well i tried but yeah i'm gonna have to move you sowwy :/" like good lord.

anyway it's a bummer these last few eps of tng have been less than great bc ik tng is capable of good episodes and i was hoping this series would go out on a high note. but it's going to end the same way it began with us waiting for something good to happen and throwing popcorn at picard

TONIGHT: ds9's "the maquis part i" and tng's "firstborn." i am Braced. for trouble.

[aphee-sheiz]

This is Masha Moskalyova. She is 11 years old.

On this photo, she shows a drawing she presented to her teacher. During that lesson, the teacher asked the class to draw something in support of Russia, specifically in support of the war it wages against Ukraine.

You can tell from the photo that Masha decided to draw something completely different. The opposite even. The caption on the photo says "I am against the war".

When her teacher saw it, she couldn't accept it. She informed the headmistress of the school, who decided that a child's drawing was a good reason to get the police involved.

Masha has been raised by her father. And for the state doesn't (so far) persecute children, it decided that the father would take the responsibility for what his daughter drew, and that Masha was to be punished differently.

When the police did get involved, they charged Alexey - Masha's father - with discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation, which is a criminal offence nowadays. They placed Alexey under house arrest.

Alexey Moskalyov in court

What about Masha? Masha was placed in an orphanage. Rather, confined in an orphanage. Not only placing her there was against any possible laws, but for many days, they wouldn't let her speak to her father on the phone, and activists couldn't reach her to hand her parcels or letters.

The head of the orphanage closes the door, forbidding an independent deputy and a lawyer to visit Masha

Earlier this week, Alexey was sentenced to 2 years in prison. For his daughter's drawing. Alexey tried to escape house arrest and almost succeeded, but unfortunately, he was detained in Minsk 💔 this will probably mean longer years in prison for him.

Masha is still in the orphanage.

Recently, Masha was fortunately allowed to send Alexey a letter. It was published by his lawyer with a permission, so I am translating it here for you.

Hello dad, I am asking you to not get sick and not to worry. Everything's fine with me, I love you very much and remember, nothing of this is your fault, I am always on your side and everything you do is right.

I love you very much, thank you for everything you do for me. When you feel bad or you worry, I don't feel right and I am unwell. I believe that everything is going to be alright and we will be together with you. I hope for the best and love you very much.

Daddy, you know, one woman wrote me*: one must have faith, hope and love, because one who has faith, hopes and loves, he wins.

Know that we will win, that victory will be ours. Whatever happens, we are together, we are a team. You are the best. You are my dad, the smartest, the most handsome, the best dad in the world. Know that there's no one better than you.

Just please, don't give up. Have faith, hope and love.

One day we will sit at the table and remember this all. I love you, I hope - no, I know - that you will not give up, you are strong, we are strong, we'll push through. I'll pray for you and us, dad.

I am proud. Yes, dad, I can say I am proud of my father. My proud, smart, handsome, stubborn father who loves her daughter so much.

When we meet at last, I want to give you some big awesome present. Dad, I don't want to write how my health is or how my mood is, I don't want to upset you, but I realized that better deny at once than promise long. But not to worry, we will meet and I will tell you everything.

This sign ☮️ is an anti-war sign, this pendant I will gift you for you are the bravest person in the world!

I love you, you are a hero.

My hero

The last page of Masha's letter

*Masha mentions a woman who "wrote her". That means, letters do reach her!

You can write Masha a letter in Russian or English

(in the latter case, I'll translate it) and I will make sure it will be sent (cannot guarantee the letter will reach her, but I will definitely send it). Reach me in personal messages here on Tumblr if you would want to do that.

[furiousgoldfish]

I've had to explain this to someone today, and I don't remember if I wrote a post specifically about the way trauma makes us store our memories differently and why we have flashbacks, so I'll explain it here as well.

The memories of traumatic event, and even memories surrounding it, will often feel unreal, like it didn't actually happen, like none of it is fact or solid events, like it's only floating somewhere, unspecific in time and space, unconfirmed and impossible to grasp and see correctly. This is not by a mistake, trauma memories are like that because your brain did not, and could not store them into your long term memory.

Normally, we store our memories in long term memory and they become a part of lived experience, we collect information, knowledge, and progression of events like this. But trauma memories are too dangerous, too overwhelming, too powerful with emotions and potentially a dangerous knowledge to have, they do not get stored the same way. Instead, your brain blocks them, and holds them apart from long-term memory. They’re stored in a different part of the brain, often unavailable, or at least partly-unavailable to you. That's why they feel so unreal. And that's also why the emotions from them are often unavailable, it's why you just feel numb or empty thinking about it, and you can't connect to it properly, you might even feel guilty or ashamed for feeling nothing, when you know you should be feeling something. You might assume you had no reaction to that trauma and that you simply handled it okay, because you're not feeling the pain or the dread of it.

This also means, that you can't learn from traumatic memories the way you do from normal memories. You can't remember the proper progression of events, or the information you were supposed to get, or experience and knowledge you're supposed to now have, you can't use any of it. Instead, the blocked memories will either make you feel distressed and like you shouldn't think about it, or they will overwhelm you with the feelings of dread, threat, panic, grief, shame, guilt, terror. Because this memory is now marked in your brain as 'Event so dangerous and painful, it's unsurvivable'.

This is also why any sudden reminder of it will give you a flashback – your brain has marked this event as something so threatening, it's unsurvivable, and it learned absolutely nothing else about it, not to identify the circumstances, not to be able to defend, not to be able to predict the realistic outcomes, just that if anything similar, anything close to it happened again, you will not be able to survive it. And, to make sure you stay away from any such event, or anything even close to it, it will flood your senses with panic, activate fight-flight-freeze-fawn-fix reaction, and force you to remove yourself from any situation that would trigger the 'unsurvivable danger'. That is normal, until you can process your traumatic memory in order to learn from it, gather information, and identify what about it was dangerous, and what was not, it's best to keep away from all possibilities, not to end up in another danger.

Once you get access to your traumatic memory, the emotional experience will likely be overwhelming, and it will take a lot of time for you to be able to discern what actually happened, and what information you can gain from these events. Once you are able to go thru all of the emotions, and sort the actual events and information from it clearly, your worldview will adapt and your memory will find its way to be stored into the long-term memory, making it a real and solid event that happened. After that, any flashback you might have will just feel like a painful reminder, instead of an overwhelming and panic-inducing experience. Your new information and realizations will help you put everything into perspective, and your feelings about it might change.

This mechanism is created to help you survive events that are often too damaging to live thru. If you were forced to be aware of the traumatic memory, and forced to feel all of the emotions inflicted on you at once, it's possible you wouldn't have survived it. The threat of trauma to your survival is real. Severe trauma can only be experienced in waves, bits and pieces, and with a lot of support and comfort, so it could be felt without destroying you as a human being. Your brain sends you the message of terror because it doesn't want you to be in such danger again. It’s not a shameful thing to be feeling like this. It’s necessary for survival.

[nyaagolor]

Henlo, back at it again! While thinking about some stuff, here's what i imagined for this AU for the Area Zero Squad:

- Nemona: Were-Lycanroc, a rather big monster with Nemona's battle love cranked up to 11. Once aggressive to everyone and everything with an impressive will to fight, gets "tamed" after the protag defeats her and gets recognized. Now less bloodthirsty and a big puppy (at least to her friends), although still wants to challenge everyone... Nemona doesn't know she exists.

Arven: Were-Skwovet, calmer than Nemona's Alter Ego, and usually won't attack... unless you have bad intentions or you look at Mabosstif funny. He's *really* protective of him. Can be found around Paldea stealing Berries and other food, although no-one knows what for...Arven knows of his existence, due to somehow remembering his transformations.

Penny: Were-Glaceon, an incredibly reclusive and shy monster, she only attacks if her personal spaces are invaded. Becomes a bit more outgoing after Penny's storyline, although only with her friends. Her Vees see her as a sort-of kin, for obvious reasons (and they aren't in danger). Penny knows of her existence, not because she remembers her transformations, but for other clues around her room (I mean, if i woke up with ruined clothes, a slight coat of ice on the walls and pawprints around the floor, I would have a few doubts)

The protagonist can be what you want, there's no specific mon for him/her!

Oh, and they're a pack, because it fits.

(Note: i still think that Arven's Mon is not the right one... any ideas?)

Drew the designs for Nemona and Penny!! Decided Nemona would be a dusk form Lycanroc bc Orange. Love all the stuff u wrote, I especially dig how some are aware they’re werewolves (awarewolves?) and others just have no idea. Makes for some really fun stories :3c. Didn’t draw Arven bc I can’t decide what he would be either. I’ll keep brainstorming!!!

Anyway some assorted headcanons:

- How animalistic u look is determined by how much tera energy ur normally in contact with. For people like Nemona who are constantly using a tera orb, their transformation is more dramatic. For someone like Penny, who rarely uses a tera orb and isn’t a paldean native (less access to environmental tera energy) the transformation is relatively mild. The professor? When they transform, it’s impossible to tell they were human at all

- Nemona hears about the terrifyingly strong beast in the forest and keeps going out to fight it, only to wake up on the ground all scratched up in the forest at sunrise. She starts to think the beast knows Hypnosis for its uncanny ability to put her to sleep. Somehow, despite the obvious connections, she never realizes she’s the beast in question

- Being a werewolf doesn’t change your personality or what you want, just your inhibitions and manners. Nemona always wanted to battle her heart out, but never could bc of various social conventions, so during her transformation all that pent up energy is released and she just goes bonkers. Penny transforms and no one knows bc she still never leaves her room

- Penny sets up a camera after the first transformation because she’s shocked a Glaceon so large could wreck her room without waking her up. When it happens a second time after the next full moon, she now has video evidence— only to realize it’s HER. She initially panics, then realizes all she does is eat leftover pizza right out of the box and hide under the bed the whole time which is what she would do anyway if sleep deprived enough. She elects to just lock all her doors and windows and never tell anyone, since she’s unaware that werewolves are a Thing in paldea

- Whatever Arven is, Mabosstiff keeps him in check. Also now that I think about it, maybe Arven is an artificial werewolf? His parent tried to get him to be a werewolf on purpose so he could better adapt to “paradise”, so maybe he’s a Cyclizar? With the professors being the ‘raidons? in that case maybe Arven has different transformation rules and stuff. I’ll think abt it more

- No one except the protagonist and possibly a few trainers (Geeta, some of the professors?) know the beast attacking people in the forest is a werewolf. Nemona is fast and her transformation is pretty beastly looking anyway, so in the thick of battle everyone thinks she’s just a really big pokemon. It’s only people who manage to defeat her / tire her out that can slow her down enough to see that she has a humanoid shape and might be more than just a Very Large Dog

- I’m lame and love emotion based transformations, so I think the adults can control their shifting to various extents but the kids can’t. The more emotionally well adjusted you are, the easier time you have controlling yourself, to the point where some adults even have control over their shifting during full moon nights

[seeminglyseph]

I just realized I first read the HP series as a child specifically because I was really really into the Worst Witch TV show and the idea of a school of magic seemed cool to read more about, and then the escapist fantasy of Hogwarts was basically just... ‘what if I didn’t go to *this* school or live in *this* house and the things that I was and did were something to be proud of instead of embarrassed or ashamed’

it really is wild how much a person can be and become exactly the kind of awful and twisted reality they once offered an escape from. JKR is the person I daydreamed about going to Hogwarts to avoid, to be free from or learn the inner strength to overcome. And yeah, a lot of that was there the first time I read it, but some of the blessing of having a child’s comprehension skills or self centred perception of the world is that sometimes the shallow selfish part of the lesson isn’t terrible.

And I remember..... a series is always different before it finishes. Because being a teenager just after goblet of fire came out, it meant you could have a million fantasies and daydreams about what *could* happen, what might exist, and the maybes and questions were fun and the experience of a community interest was delightful.

I genuinely never finished the seventh book. by the time the series ended I was in a place where I was disillusioned by the source material. Often it felt like a malicious jab every time a new book came out, because it was a new surprise about how someone you’d grown to love was actually secretly a manipulative or selfish or abusive dickswab the whole time, there wasn’t a payoff to the house elves it just sat there, there wasn’t gonna be more depth to Draco Malfoy, there wasn’t going to be depth to slytherin, the Marauders weren’t the close found family we all wrote about, there was never going to be the deep bond between any secondary characters explored, and the character arcs you thought were being setup just... weren’t there to begin with. The way an end can re-contextualize a whole series is if it turns out that there is no payoff. There’s no reason, there’s no justice, no catharsis. Everything stays the way it is, and the things you care about are killed, and destroyed and cast aside and your hopes just kind of fall into a dull memory of a better story you made up in your head.

Loving Harry Potter when you were too young to know the deeper implications, or because it was before the internet was popular and you didn’t know what other places were like, or because the story wasn’t finished and maybe if the weird bigotry pays off as a storyline then there’s a reason for it... It’s okay if you made a different, better story in your head. That’s honestly great. I wish you would follow through and make more different, better stories for people to read.

The author’s movement to advocacy against what should be basic human rights and dignities afforded to all people makes it a linchpin of a political statement, and her power makes it that what should be harmless nostalgia causes real harm. It is because of the power and the hatred that JKR holds and enforces that the lessons of inner worth are tainted by worth at the expense of others. And honestly I think that, like Lovecraft, a lot of the stories people have made inspired by her work greatly surpass the work itself. So honestly, don’t give her credit for a strength you built. You built social connection, you built skills, you learned how to create characters and you fleshed out the puppets she put out before you. The characters and stories you made that made Harry Potter what it was are more important than the actual mockery of a story we received. You breathed life into it with what you made. Take that, and know that you’re the hero not her, and you don’t owe her any loyalty or reverence for giving you a bit of inspiration to do all of the things you did yourself. The end of Harry Potter just proved that we all had better ideas than the creator, and I hope a lot of you realize you don’t owe her anything for that. You’re the better creator.

[earlgreytea68]

the way you write dialogue is so good, it seems so natural and accurate. especially with Pete and Patrick. could I maybe get some dialogue tips from you, just in general? it's something I struggle with. I always either make it too silly or quippy and I end up deleting it because it sounds stupid, or it's like every line is trying to be the most serious deep important thing on earth. idk where the balance is, it's hard for me but you do it so well.

Some of it is honestly just practice. Years and years and years of reading and then writing dialogue.

But some of it is finding your style of dialogue that works for you. I consider myself, chiefly, a writer of dialogue. I'm never going to be huge into descriptions. I can do them every once in a while, but they're not really my thing. And that's okay! I'm not upset about that! I lean into what feels natural to me. So, with dialogue, I think some of it is finding the dialogue style that feels like it works for you, that you're comfortable with, that doesn't feel like it's artificial. I look back now at stuff I wrote years ago and it feels like I was trying to copy other people, which is fine! But it took me a while to find my groove, to be okay with things like saying flat-out "he says" a bunch of times. A lot of writing advice will tell you not to use "said" more than twice a page or something like that and I decided I didn't like that advice, it didn't work for me. The characters are talking too rapid-fire for me to want you to worry overly much about what verb they're using to communication. I don't always use "says" but I don't freak out if I use it more often than someone else would have said to, because honestly it's only there to make sure you don't lose track of who's speaking where.

Also, I will sometimes try my dialogue out loud. Like, I'll write the scene by acting out the parts in the shower. This requires me to remember what I said, but as long as I've got the rough shape of it, I'm okay, and I think that exercise helps my dialogue feel more natural and back-and-forth. If you're worried about remembering it, you could maybe record yourself doing this.

You talk about striking the balance, and I was trying to think of advice for this, and I realized something: Sometimes my characters have extremely deep conversations. Those are usually the scenes I've planned for and I know are coming from a long way off. "There needs to be a huge declaration of love," or "they need to talk about this problem they're having." Those scenes are kind of like their own things, because they have a very specific goal of some deep communication that needs to happen. Those are very different from the connective tissue scenes that I write to get to those scenes. And, because I don't outline or heavily plan my fics, often I have no idea what's going to happen in any given scene. Like, I'll start writing a scene, like the scene I posted in the Christmas fic tonight, and all I need to happen in that scene is: Pete and Patrick pick out a Christmas tree. Now I could have just skipped that scene, like, what's really happening in that scene? Really not much of anything. But to me I don't skip those scenes because I think those scenes are the important scenes where you really get a feeling for the relationship between the characters, you get to see them interact. So, in THAT kind of scene, it's basically all quips and jokes. And when I run out of quips and jokes lol, then maybe there will be a serious moment of self-reflection in there.

Again, because I don't plan my fics out very much, oftentimes I just let the characters talk to each other until some kind of point emerges. This means I have to actively come up with things for them to talk about. Random things, not story point things. And, because of that, I think the dialogue naturally feels more spontaneous and unplanned and meandering, because that's how the scene is unfolding. So I guess I would say that the balance is struck by knowing what the scene needs to accomplish. If it's a light, frivolous scene, then I just let them go where they want to go. If it's an intense scene, I have more of an idea in mind, and so there's less brainstorming through the dialogue.

I have no idea if this is helpful!!!! Another thing I would recommend is to find a writer whose dialogue you really like and spend some time with it, thinking about what you like about it, why you like it, and how you could keep that in mind as you write. I tell this story a lot but the first piece of writing I ever saw by Aaron Sorkin was "The State Dinner," which is an episode of "The West Wing," and it, like, took the top of my head off, the way he was writing dialogue. I watched a lot of Aaron Sorkin throughout my twenties, anything and everything he did. (I still watch Sorkin's stuff, because I can't help it, he taught me a lot of what I know, and even though his style has become highly mockable, it was really formative for me.) Anyway, I used to spend a lot of time trying to think about what about his dialogue made me so impressed by it, and some of it was the speed, and some of it was how he wasn't afraid to make it repetitive and confusing and silly and pointless. I mean, it's not like real talking because nobody REALLY talks like an Aaron Sorkin character but it FELT like this approximation of reality that really appealed to me. I remember the first time I wrote a character say something like, "I don't want to turn into one of those couples who's all like, 'We can't do anything solo.'" My beta at the time circled it and was like, "This speech is too informal." Because way back when in the twentieth century, that was how we thought about dialogue, that it had to be this more formalized thing, cleaned up from how real-life speech is. Sorkin kind of taught me that it didn't have to be. (I'm sure other people could have. He happened to be who I found.) So I used to watch a lot of West Wing to get its rhythm in my head, and then I would write my own stories, and as I did that, I found I sounded more like Sorkin. That wasn't actually my goal, and I think I sound less like him now, twenty years down the line, but it WAS my goal to really hone in on my dialogue the way he had. It made me not afraid to tell a story mainly through its dialogue, where I had been before him. Idk. This turned into a whole Aaron Sorkin thing and I didn't mean it to be but it was a huge turning point in how I wrote and I think about it a lot hahahaha. ANYWAY. Yeah.