#and she gets another chance at life via reincarnation

[eradicatetehnormal]

YOOO THIS SUCKS I'M SO HAPPY I MADE IT

[starcurtain]

Another Haikaveh Fanfic I Want to Read

The Deshret reincarnation one, but the twist is that Alhaitham has known he's Deshret from the time he was tiny. The story isn't about how he regains his tragic lost memories of being the desert king--it's about how he does everything he possibly can to avoid having to do that job again. Forming some grand ambition to achieve power? Nope, not doing that. Seeking the means to overthrow Celestia via forbidden knowledge? I'll pass. Becoming a main character? Absolutely not. Al-Ahmar Al-haitham is going to live a peaceful life this time, thank you. He's going to study a basic subject (his own language), get a basic desk job, find himself a basic little house, and somehow convince the perfect perfectly-mortal guy he went to school with to marry him--

Destiny, of course, finds him anyway. (Really, Rukkha, really?) The Akasha is turned on the people, the sages seize control, and does this upstart baby deity ("Shouki no kami," pffft, like who even are you, kid?) think he actually has a snowball's chance in the Mare Javari with the minds of two of Sumeru's real god-kings set against him?

At least at the end of all this, with the nation of wisdom saved and Kusanali in charge as she is very welcome to be, Alhaitham can still go home and be normal with his Very Normal™ roommate!

("Alhaitham, listen... I know this isn't the best of times, but there's something I've been meaning to tell you. I'm not exactly... who you think I am...")

[theonekrafter]

hello! i love all your writing so much - your characters are super unique and refreshing, i was so excited when i saw your new naruto si/oc. do you have any fic recs (any fandom)?

TY!! i dont really make rec lists often but here's some now!

(sidenote, i keep almost ALL of my bookmarks public on ao3, so if you ever want to see what i'm reading you can probably find it there)

I'll just stick to naruto recs for now!

Naruto

Stretch, Fold, Expand by SenjuMizusaya

Kazue has not always been Kazue, but this does not make her less of a Nara, or less of a kunoichi, or less of a sister. Only less gullible. (Semi-SI into the Narutoverse.)

self insert into shikamaru's sister. there's only three chapters right now, but the clan political intrigue is super promising, as well as addressing a lot of canonical sexism.

Fallow Fields by zarinthel

For every rising star that the shinobi world produces, a hundred other geniuses are chewed up and spit out. Seiko crawls out of that grinder, only to find that she still has the rest of her life to face head on.

another si that is named seiko. completely embarrassed that i used the name as well without realizing, especially since this fic is so excellent and i would hate to cramp on the author's style.

a fic that is more focused on a slice of life story than an endless power grind, though the si does get a chance to be badass and awesome.

Glass Marionette by Haunted_Frost

It takes time to process the memories, but by the time Kankuro becomes a student at the Sunagakure Academy, he's certain he knows: he's in the Naruto universe, a village away, and he's standing next to a ticking time bomb at all times. One that he has an unfortunate urge to hug and tuck in for bed. Well, at least he gets to indulge in his inner theater kid with the whole puppet thing. That's a bonus. If he can just manage to wait out the worst of it, he might even become strong enough to make a difference in the upcoming war.

si into kankuro methodically destroys canon and makes a happy ending for people in under 100k words. marvelous, gay, and it's suna centric.

If 3 Reincarnated Ninja Were Fighting a Moon Goddess and One of Them Got Killed With a Rock, Would That Be Fucked Up Or What by mordox

Three random idiots were transmigrated into bodies of Konoha toddlers during the kyuubi attack. Each thinking they’re the only one who remembers a past life, they each try to hide it. Coincidentally, they are all assigned to Hatake Kakashi’s genin team since they were only average academy students and don’t have parents to complain about their children being failed via bell test, which happened with the last three teams he was assigned. What follows is three fools trying to hide their knowledge from each other and their jounin-sensei while desperately trying to reach chunin fast enough that Kakashi can teach the actual team seven, and a jounin-sensei who is very confused by his three genin but has so few (read: zero) points of reference for normal twelve year olds raised during peacetime that he can’t tell if they’re weird or not.

fucking hilarious. i'm not usually into multi-inserts but oh my GOD these three are disasters, and kakashi is just so confused. a series of assumptions from all three PLUS kakashi convincing them all that they're Normal.

"i sure hope no one realizes i just used the acronym PTSD, as in the english letters in the middle of my japanese sentence." "oh, i didn't know PTSD was a term in naruto. wow."

it's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. you can't look away.

The Scorpion and the Frog by zarinthel

Maybe the fate of Uchiha Itachi and the Uchiha Clan could have been changed if Itachi had just had one more family member he could trust -- someone as powerful, invested in Konoha, and devoted to the clan as him. Someone with a little extra knowledge up her sleeve. Unfortunately for Itachi, the Uchiha's abysmal luck with siblings has given him… Kaeru.

another zarinthel fic bc they are a super skilled and i appreciate them. completed fic. a genuinely good subversion of usual si tropes while still making the si op and kick ass. she's just uh. a little mentally ill about it. the entire time. and we love that for her.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW! i hope you enjoy these!

[sunnyrealist]

Chapter 44: Our Love is a Miracle

The Sun, the Moon, and All Our Stars

Summary and Details…

Previous Chapter Recap/Context: Sebastian and Kate are on the last day of their camping trip in the Scottish Highlands. Their goal was to explore the mysterious Blackfold Castle, which led to surprising revelations. Protective wards were set to only allow the reincarnated souls of Queen Eilionoir and Neacal, doomed lovers who lived centuries prior, to enter the castle. Communicating with the queen via enchanted parchment and viewing her memories helps Kate and Sebastian finally understand their instant and strong connection - they are Eilionoir and Neacal, born to have another chance at a full life of love. They leave the castle with a great deal of treasure (historical and magical artifacts, jewelry, etc.), along with the rings once used in a reincarnation ritual.

Pairing: 25-year-old, post-Azkaban Sebastian Sallow x 24-year-old Kate Mayflower (my OC), the Hogwarts assistant librarian

Content warnings: In general, this is rated 18+ - minors should not read or interact with this story. No serious content warnings with this chapter, though!

The full chapter is available below the cut; it can also be found on AO3 (link is posted below). Please leave some feedback if possible, especially if you like what you read! 🥰

Chapter 44: Our Love is a Miracle

“Sebastian! Look!” Kate shouts as loudly as she can, gesturing towards Blackfold Castle. 

It’s as if the palace is shaking. There is a low rumble, and little by little, stones begin to fall out of the foundation.

The wind stings her cheeks as she flies. Her hands, gloved, tighten on the handle of her broomstick as she turns around the structure. The yellow ribbons attached to the end glide in her wake. Her eyes are wide and watery, unwilling to look away.

And, just like that, Blackfold Castle demolishes itself. The last of the stained glass windows shatter, and bricks and stones tumble down the mountainside until there is nothing left at all. Dust and dirt rises like a massive tidal wave. Kate brakes and swerves, determined to see the ruins settle. Sebastian does the same, removing his goggles for a moment with his mouth agape.

 She is aware that she is going to need a great deal of time to process all that has taken place. Her past life as Queen Eilionoir has stunned her. Eilionoir set it all up so that, truly, no one else could ever experience what Kate and Sebastian had. No one had set foot in that castle since the fifteenth century, and now, no one ever would again. It was meant only for them. 

Eilionoir’s resolve and determination to give Sebastian and Kate the best chance possible at an easier, happier life at the expense of her own lies heavy in Kate’s chest, despite the simultaneous relief of laying Eilionoir and Neacal’s past to rest after all these years.

This trip has been far more than Kate bargained for. A week ago, she figured it would be a romantic and somewhat adventurous camping trip. Never did she imagine anything like this was going to take place. Encountering real danger, needing to save her boyfriend’s life, getting him to open up about serious past trauma, finding out that they actually were born for each other through love and magic... She and Sebastian have learned so much about each other, and truthfully, that information truly made her feel as though they had skipped many important steps in a traditional courtship. 

Riding brooms high in the windy mountains is not conducive to conversation, and Kate is thankful to have some moments to herself to contemplate their new reality as well as the past.

Sebastian, on the other hand, cannot stop smiling. All of his fears of abandonment, of rejection, have disappeared. Kate couldn’t possibly leave him now - no matter what happened or what she might find out about him. 

Not only that, the treasures Queen Eilionoir provided will be worth an absolute fortune. Worrying over his meager income and how he might provide for Kate and their family someday is completely unnecessary now. They’re rich. He knows, based on his past forays into selling magical and historical artifacts, that they will fill up a vault in Gringotts Bank in the very near future.

Sebastian finally permits himself to fantasize about buying Kate jewelry, perfumes, extravagant bouquets, and other expensive gifts. He will help Kate finish, make improvements on, and build additions to her cottage, which, most likely, is now their cottage. But perhaps they’d settle in a completely different house now - they wouldn’t have to live in such a cozy space anymore. While he’s certain Kate’s family is easily able to pay, he and Kate could easily afford an extravagant wedding all on their own. They could travel abroad. He could take her to all of the places she has dreamed of, order all of the exotic ingredients she could ever want… Sebastian’s mind continues to race with all of the possibilities, even as they finally reach camp and touch down.

His grin is wide as they duck their way past the tent flap. Kate, shivering, immediately rushes to the cast iron stove, shoving her palms as close as could be comfortable in an effort to warm herself. Sebastian steps behind her, his arms encircling her and his head resting on top of hers. His brow furrows when it feels like she actually tenses up. Kate is oddly silent, Sebastian realizes after a moment. She hasn’t said a word. Perhaps she is so cold she can’t bring herself to speak.

Trying to seize this moment of triumph, he kisses her head lovingly, thinking of the best way to sum up the entire experience. “We are blessed.”

“Blessed,” Kate echoes after a moment in a whisper as she stares into the flames. 

“Yes,” Sebastian affirms, leaving her to grab a large blanket, wrapping it around them both. “You know, we are more than just blessed. We have been given a gift. We found each other in two lifetimes, Kate. We get to be together now, without further pain and tragedy.” He sighs contentedly, closing his eyes. “I am incredibly grateful.”

“As am I,” Kate murmurs. “You and I - Neacal and Eilionoir - went to such lengths to ensure our future happiness. I cannot imagine a greater gift.” She turns to face Sebastian. “We must never take that for granted. I shall never take you for granted. Love of my life.” She cups his cheek, looking deeply into his eyes. “We cannot be parted.”

Sebastian smiles, reaching to caress her cheek as well. “Never. Never ever. I am yours, and you are mine. We will never part. I would do anything in my power to ensure that.” He leans in and kisses her gently on her forehead. “Our souls are meant to be joined. We will be together for the rest of our lives as well as many more lifetimes to come. I have complete faith in our future.”

Kate smiles as he kisses her cheek. “Our love is a miracle, Sebastian. Really and truly.”

“We’ve been through so much together,” he says quietly, tilting her chin up. “We are unstoppable now - stronger than ever before.” He gazes into her eyes with deep admiration. “What Eilionoir did… What you did… Nothing compares. Any problems we might face now will be nothing compared to what we once endured. Kate, we have come back together, just as we hoped we would one day, no matter how long it took.” He pauses. “You’re right. Our love is a miracle.”

She takes his hands in hers. “I cannot believe I had the strength to do what I did as Eilionoir. But your love kept me going, kept me on the path to right all of the wrongs. I cannot… I just cannot believe…” she trails off, overcome with emotion as she considers her past life.

“You had so much strength. You endured much more than anyone so young should have had to handle,” he whispers. “That day, in the castle, to make the decision you did - the sacrifice you chose - everything about that is just… incredible. You were so brave. So courageous.” His lips meet hers for a moment. “But you don’t have to carry that burden anymore. We have found peace. We have a future. No pain, no suffering, no regrets going forward.”

Tears form in Kate’s eyes as they kiss slowly and deeply. They’re not just tears of sorrow for their tragic past - they’re also ones of relief. She is relieved that Eilionoir’s misery was not in vain and that now they knew the truth of their sudden and strange connection from the instant they met. But most of all, they’re tears of joy. Love, hope, and pure happiness are pouring out of her eyes. Sebastian, Eilionoir’s Neacal, was in her embrace once more.

He speaks softly, tenderly, against her lips. “We’re free. Free from our past. We’re free to live the lives that were stolen from us centuries ago. We are free to be… to be us.”

Kate nods, staring into his eyes, dark and lovely and deep, like the earth itself. “I am so happy, my love. I truly am. It’s just…” She trails off hesitantly for a moment, and Sebastian holds her face in his hands, waiting purposefully for her to finish her thought. “It’s just that… I cannot help but feel burdened. I feel as though I must live up to what Eilionoir dreamed our lives might be. I want to do right by her memory, but I just don’t know if I can match her expectations. How could I ever hope to live in a way that justifies… sacrificing her life?”

“I know. I know the memories can be daunting. I feel it, too - the pressure of the past. But that’s what it is - the past. I believe Eilionoir and Neacal knew that we would need to make our own future. Eilionoir knew she could trust us to be in charge of our own destiny going forward.” Sebastian pauses, kissing her once more. “Let’s do things for ourselves - not to live up to their expectations or the past. We need to live our best lives. For us.”

Kate holds him so close to her that she can feel his heartbeat against her own. “You are right,” she whispers in his ear. “Gods, you are just like Neacal, Sebastian. You’re wise and determined and open to all possibilities. And I love you, just as Eilionoir loved Neacal.”

“And you’re just like her - strong, courageous, compassionate, selfless. She lives on in you.” Sebastian leans down to kiss her forehead. “I love you, my sunshine. I love you so deeply… so purely.” He pulls back to gaze into her eyes, the same shade of blue as rare clear skies in winter. “And now, it’s time for us to make our own future. No regrets. No looking back.”

Kate shakes her head. “I’ll never be as courageous or strong as her.” She pauses, considering his hopeful words. “But you’re right, sweetheart. Yes. Let’s make our own future - one that Eilionoir and Neacal would smile upon. Let’s live the life they never could.”

[nijigasakilove]

So we’ve been reincarnated as a sword, vending machine and now a pig 😂 I think the scoring for this is too harsh. I liked this first episode a lot! Way too early to judge the worldbuilding and story yet.

Yea, our MC, obligatory Matsuoka Yoshitsugu voiced protagonist, is a bit weird, but it’s isekai. When are the MCs ever not loser otaku who get reincarnated and a second chance at life. Need to see how he and Jess’ journey progresses before I make any judgment on that front.

From what we saw today though, it seems good. Jess is so damn cute and innocent. Another waifu of the season contender. I like that she can communicate with Buta via telepathy. That was one issue I had with Hanbaiki/vending machine. A lot of things with Lammis and Boxo would’ve gone way smoother if they could have communicated properly.

Dude is a pure degenerate though. Soon as he gets reincarnated his first question isn’t about his parents or family, but about getting stroked by a cute blonde girl 💀 I guess fate put him in the perfect body for his personality as of now lol.

I will give him some props though, wanting to be spanked by Jess makes him just like me 😂

Cute premiere, let’s see where things go

[creativemessbyvd]

FIC IDEA VAULT #13: NANDERMO SOULMATES/REINCARNATED/ROLE SWAP AU (I GUESS?)

GASP, could it be??? Not an SW fanfic idea? xD

Seriously, I am just as shocked. Anyway, I got this little plot bunny while rewatching or rather, listening to WWDITS today as I made food. Enjoy!

TLDR; Vampire Hunters kill Nandor, Lazlo and Nadja, leading Guillermo to abandon his plan to have Derek turn him in favor of going after them. Six months later, Colin finds that it is possible to bring forth memories of a vampire and locate their reincarnated soul if it exists in the present time, teaming up with old allies and friends to locate the trio. Colin discovers that his past live is more intertwined to Lazlo's than he knew (apart from the whole thing with him being a baby and child raised by Lazlo). Guillermo returns to his mom's as Colin is explaining everything and gets knocked out bc Surprised! His family is responsible for his friends' second death. He is also linked to Nandor via a past life, and then our three vampires newly reunited with their memories must decide what to do, keep on living as humans or return to vampirism? What about the Hunters' plan to eradicate vampires once and for all? Will they be able to stop them given newly unearthed history amongst the group? Will Guillermo finally get his wish? And now that he has humanity, will Nandor want to give it up?Will Lazlo and Colin finally air out their history, both recent and past? Will Nadja be persuaded by Gregor into staying with him (as Lazlo deals with his own problems) and her fulfilling life or go back to having nothing to fill her heart after she had to close down the club?

More info, extra detailed idea below:

Season 4 ending deviation, as Guillermo goes to have Derek turn him into a vampire, Vampire hunters get into the house and kill Nandor, Nadja and Lazlo. A freaked out Colin Robinson calls him as he hears the fighting but Guillermo is too late. Despite the Djinn, Colin, The Guide, Derek, and many others trying to help out Guillermo, he leaves to pursue the Vampire Hunters responsible.

A few months after, as Colin is looking around the Council's library, he uncovers a book on ghosts and finds some very interesting information. Apparently, souls will come back and just continually be reborn, as is the case of Nadja's lover Gregor whom she would meet every few centuries. He, Doll Nadja and the Guide go to the Baron and the Sire to ask after what the book has told them and found that:

- The theory of 'killing a vampire will kill off any vampires they turned' is not true (it was created to avoid newly turned vampires to attack and killed their sires)

- it is true that souls will reincarnate even when someone is turned into a vampire (hence why ghosts are capable of being summoned) and there might even be more than one at a time, each with a little bit of a past life (the theory that you had at least 7 doubles in the world comes from this)

- Energy vampires were a product of a failed attempt of Hunters to harm vampires by making their own vampires

- It is possible to locate and bring forth memories if someone has a ghost and a descendant of the vampire

Seeing a chance to find their friends and bring their memories, Colin, the Guide and Doll Nadja locate Jenna and enlist her help alongside the witches to help find Nadja. They find her but another Gregor will not let them take her or have her memories returned.

They decide to wait and look for Lazlo next. According to the Baron, they need two things:

- a direct connection to the specific past life they wish to locate that will resonate the most with the present state (basically, not always will everyone live out the same life or be the same from one to the next, but their essence will always ring true the closer they are in the present to this specific past live) which is why a ghost, being a manifestation of their life before vampirism works best, but really anything that can draw forth a connection to the soul can work, like a relative or lover

- a present connection to them made of flesh, most of the time a vampired they turned will work

For Lazlo, they have the baby he turned into a vampire, but are stumped for the first 'soul connection' until Colin recalls a long kept journal of his he never reads anymore that gives him the answers he seeks, which is that he used to be human Lazlo's younger brother who was turned into an energy vampire by the same organization that killed them

As Colin tries to remain calm with all the revelations, they find Lazlo as a teacher and are interrupted by Guillermo finally answering the million texts Colin send. Guillermo is on the phone with Colin when he is attacked and he blacks out.

Guillermo had been for 6 months running around finding the trail of the Hunters and is just missing the leader and the truth of how the vampire home was located, when he gets home to his mom and is knocked out by his own family, the ones responsible for everything. They had to 'save him from himself' and explain their organization and what their plans are to eradicate Vampirism once and for all. Guillermo is told that he had been too obsessed by vampires for the family to feel like he deserved to be in on the secret. As he tries to persuade them that he has changed, they reveal they know he hasn't bc of his actions of hunting down the hunters (even if he did make it seem like they were killed by vampires) and his past life as Van Helsing himself, who fell in love with a vampire too (three guesses who). They also reveal they have plans to kill all vampires once and for all but Guillermo can't find out the whole plan as he is rescued.

As Colin, Doll Nadja, the Guide and Jenna race to find Guillermo, the Djinn is tasked with locating Nandor. Having Gail for the second requirement is easy but they are stumped for the first. They have no ghost nor any family, that is until the Djinn remembers Marwa and brings her and Freddie back to Manhattan to help out. To make the spell work, the Djinn must reverse the wishes until Marwa is back enough that her connection to Nandor will work. She is happy to be back to being her and they locate Nandor, who is in university and is apparently the younger of the three found.

With Guillermo back, they try and succeed in bringing back the memories, but the ex-vampires now face the question of if they even want to come back to their old lives amongst questions about not only themselves but their own interrelationships, and trying to race to find out how to stop the Hunters.

And that's all I had, thanks for reading my little idea dump :3

[fallenangelofsalt]

New art blog @fallenangelofsaltart and current story/worldbuilding project @magicpiratesinspace

The AUs currently spinning in my head like a microwave

No idea if I'll ever write them.

Every one of them has a happy ending, but the road to it will be hell on earth because i like angst :D

TWST

Inkloop: Horror/mystery focused. 10 NRC students are stuck in a time loop, unable to stop the others from overblotting, and questioning whenever remembering is a blessing or a curse. But they will not stop trying. They will have their happy ending. They don't care how many more times they have to die for it. (TWs: gore, temporary character death, gaslighting, betrayal, body horror, possession, it is overall my angstiest AU because it lets me go ham without fear of permanently killing off a character so be warned)(there is also a lot of crack because the game itself has a lot of crack-ish moments and all the events happen at some point during the loops, so one moment it's pure angst and then sentient plush toy doppelgangers start falling from the sky) (Rollo becomes important at some point)

TITWT(This Is The Worst Timeline): Yuu does not get Isekai'd. This has a lot worse consequences than you would expect. Luckily, every student that would have overblotted in another reality gets the chance to see for themselves what will happen if they continue down their current paths via good old time travel shanneningans. Spoiler alert, they will need So Much Therapy. (Psychological horror, probably)

PokeIsekai: Yuu comes from the Pokemon world. Yeah. Not new. But this time the NRC students get air dropped through an ultra-wormhole in their world instead. In different regions. And I mean air dropped. From pretty high up. Someone got a concussion. And- WHAT DO YOU MEAN KALIM LANDED ON HISUI!? (overall pretty fluffy. Kinda. The pokeworld doesn't eat meat/fish so Savannaclaw+Octavinelle aren't doing so well, but Scarabia is currently separated by a couple hundred years and Kalim is deep in a survival horror setting because I could not resist abusing the hell out of the Zoroarks' angst potential and also gave him amnesia)

TwistedKingdoms: Kingdom Hearts crossover but without KH characters. Mostly just the setup. Each dorm is a different world with a "princess" of the heart, the teachers are the overworked remaining Keyblade wielders, and it's a mad dash to keep the worlds from falling into darkness one after the other. Heartslabyul has already been lost. (No one dies! ...Permanently.)

BlotPoisoned: A new magic-based poison has been created, known for having no known antidote and its slow but lethal effects. Unfortunately, Kalim and Jamil get firsthand experience with it, and now Kalim must find a cure before its too late. (has themes of suicide, murder, mild consensual human experimentation and Jamil is in a coma for half the story) Has a bunch of OCs.

BNHA

Devil's Gaze: OC reincarnated as a newborn Aizawa Shouta. They are not Eraserhead. She is someone else. But he can't afford not to play his role. That doesn't mean they have to do things his way. (angst and fluff focused. OC is going through the wringer before they graduate while still making the best of their new life, then things mellow out once they reach 20 and then canon starts and shit hits the fan)

QuirkSoup: (Nearly)Everyone has a different quirk. This changes a LOT of things.

MagiMadness: Madoka Magica inspired Magical Girls(and boys) AU. With a few changes because I'm weak for angst and gore but also can't handle killing anyone(permanently). (extremely gory, the main characters keep losing limbs on the regular)

MCSM

Mobapocalypse: The command block is damaged, and the Witherstorm is not the only disaster to happen that day. In fact, it is the lesser evil. Now everyone has been turned into a mob hybrid, and Jesse is the only one who has kept their sanity. But with every monster, wolf, fox and cat out for their blood, destroying the command block and ending this madness will be one hell of a challenge. (Survival horror, Jesse is being literally hunted for sport)

No.285: Jesse doesn't want to be a hero. Aiden is a mother hen. Lukas is a delinquent. Petra is a scaredy cat. They are not supposed to be this way, but the story will play out still. He will make sure of it. (mystery, kinda. Might count as psychological horror) (TW: has themes of suicide)

MAD(Mutually Assured Destruction): Aiden and Jesse(pre-Endercon) Time Travel to the (canon divergent) future, where Aiden is the tyrant of the Blaze Empire and Jesse is the leader of the resistance against him. Eventually becomes canon divergence. (does it count as major character death if its a future version of your very much alive friend?)

InkyMystery

Inky Secret: This body is not his(why does it feel like it is), he does not know how the story ends(oh god stars why did he have to be a dish of all the magic races), and the existence of the Labyrinth keeps his mouth shut(he does not remember his own name, his old face, his life), but cuss it if he's not gonna try his best to help. (Classic transmigration story) (I gave the OC such an overpowered talent and then gave them self worth issues to balance it out)

KingdomHearts

BTDO(Below The Darkest Ocean): The realm of darkness has actual worlds instead of just being a Danger Beach. They're just under the ocean(and based in games instead of disney movies with 1 exeption Aka TOH) (actually, animes get included as long as they're game-based. Ex, YuGiOh). Sora learns this the hard way after waking up in TWST with amnesia post-KH3.

PrincessRiku: Sorikai RoleSwap AU where Riku is the Princess, Kairi is the Hero and Sora is the Villain. I don't think I've ever seen someone switch their roles like this, and I find the concept interesting.

YuGiOh

MagiCards: Magical Girl/Boy/Kid AU, crossover with a side of reincarnation, VRAINS is a thing, magic is real, of course, and one of my favorite tropes: your power doesn't define you. Even if said power was given to you by an eldritch evil card god.

Persona

DnS(P5, Demons+Swap): Mix of a Swap AU and Demon AU. Demons take the place of personas and Akechi is the Detective Prince, recently placed in Shibuya to work on the Calling Card Killer case, where evidence heavily suggests Demonic influence at play. P5-typical warnings cranked up to 11. Seriously, everything is worse.

Doorsverse: Mementos is now dead in a ditch, the thieves got more members, and the entire story has been scrambled to hell and back. Has both elements and characters from P3, P4 and P5S(apparently P1&2 too?). Velvet Room? Gone. Yaldabaoth? Never heard of him. Maruki? Got a reality check. Morgana? Has no idea what he's doing but he's sure doing it. (it eventually turned into a whole series rewrite)

ReincarnationProject: A collection of AUs centered around someone with Persona knowledge getting Isekai'd as one of the Persona characters and how that affects the story. Rules: Character must have died before the start of their main story, AKA Chie dies before P4 or Junpei dies before P3, and since their death was too early to count as part of the story itself, the universe makes up for lost potential by reviving the body and then placing another soul inside. Their knowledge affects their abilities, Arcana, Persona and how the Metaverse works around them. Slow, gradual but sure deaths have a chance of merging their souls and memories. Otherwise, the New Soul will not have the Old Soul's Arcana, memories or Persona without external cognitive influences.

Dollhouse: P5 Angstfest, NG+, Joker has a palace and things keep getting worse. Heavy gore, horror, repeated temporary character death and permanent Major Character Death. A bunch of horror tropes smashed together into a story and before I knew it someone died for real. Basically Inkloop but P5.

SilentWish: P5, TimeLoop, Joker has a Palace. (TWs: Gore, Horror, Existential Horror, Gaslighting, repeated temporary character death, his palace is so many levels of messed up)

TADP(The Amazing Digital Palace): The Amazing Digital Circus AU.

Persomon: Pokemon AU where Pokemon are a product of the Metaverse and exist in place of Personas.

Homestuck

HomeStranded: Dave accidentaly Fucks Up So Severely it crashed the game and the timeline and now its lagging and bugged like someone downloaded 200 mods and half contradict each other. Impossible things have become possible, timelines are merging, there's a second Alternia, and everyone's sessions have become borderline unwinable because everyone has the wrong classpect. ...Why is Lil Cal still here?

HomeStolen: 3 years after the disappearance of his and his friends' younger siblings, Kankri is starting to lose hope of ever seeing Karkat again, when a self-proclaimed AI chooses to request his help searching for a different group of missing children that might just be connected. AKA, roadtrip from hell to save the beta kids and trolls from a doomsday cult that drabbles on human experimentation, starring Kankri, Hal, and Damara.

Unheroic: Classic Hero/Vigilante/Villain AU, with Dave as the hero working to keep his siblings safe, Sollux as the vigilante who is tired of sitting still while people die, and Karkat as the villain with the highest hero kill count.

LegoMonkieKid

Ink and Bone: MK villain/feral/possessed arc with a side of psychological torture courtesy of LBD, AKA LBD and Azure team up and ruin everything.

[burningaceofspades]

Stepping from the bus and back onto the dimly lit streets of Seattle, he shuffled quickly down the sidewalk, scanning the people on the street around him. When stepping off the bus, he saw and could still hear them behind him, probably about four people but he could smell how sleep-deprived these workers were just trying to make it home, by the gaits of their walk sounding weary, to the yawning and groans muffled behind their aching hands, eyes droopy but he knows they harbor a similar alertness to him for danger. Seattle past midnight could be quite the jungle, they knew well of people diced into suitcases being found on the rocky coast just below downtown, many may even know Washington has an abnormal amount of serial killings spurred from it. The same feelings of fear they have towards being murdered or grabbed from behind and dragged into a vehicle, just to end up in Tampa Bay being bent in two every day by men with enough money to pay their jailor, he felt the feeling differently. An itch rested under his skin the immortal couldn't satisfy, the same fear the mortals had for dying was the one he was paranoidly starting to have about the love of his life.

The emotions would hit like a stab, one, two, then three, what if she would never come back to me? What if something was able to take her permanently away from me? Then the one that sometimes colors him linen white, what if that's her? One that dunks him in ice water, causes him to spill drinks, turn his head, and trip over his own shoes, and then it's just another person on the streets. She was immortal in her own way as well, he always would end up finding her, but reincarnation was a rather fickle boat with turbulent waters, she never looked the same, roughly seventy percent of the time she forgots all the lives they've lived together, sometimes those memories come back, in other lives he would stare lovingly into her eyes, knowing of so much they've done together, "introducing" her yet again to things that they'd always have, her never knowing of the endless embers and coals she always leaves him to burn. It's just he knew he was growing frantic with his efforts to find her, he was nonstop traveling waiting for the Fates, he very much needed her back in his embrace. Even if after finding her that embrace may take many more years. It kept him on edge, as he always could recognize her once he saw her, it's just over these years with these daunting waits that bore holes into his heart, the constant on the edge of his seat nature caused him to be ever too hopeful with every individual he saw. Once he looked at them they were any other, but before he looks at them and there's the slightest chance they are her, his brain goes crazy with feeble feelings that made him quiver, and he didn't view himself as an anxious or weak man until it's been after about twenty-five years without her, then he'd feel the instability every day. It drove him insane, all he wanted and all he felt he needed was her, his girl, and she was somewhere walking some street, living in some place, and starting off a new life.

He wonders what trouble she could have gotten herself into this time, lovingly he thought of her as his troublemaker, in most lives she's quite the riot, causing and getting in the particular and odd circumstances of it and causing her own flames in the fire. These days, by his assertions, the world seemed to be burning quite hot, so the trouble she'd be in this time may be like back in WW2, that'd be hell, so hopefully not. At least once she let's him clean the gutters and closets, he will. That would take possibly building back trust and time, alongside intimately understanding everything of the mortals had done to her this life, he'd be dealing with the loose ends who dared to harm hairs on her head. Damned be the ones to harm a metaphoric hair on her soul most certainly, he'd make them feel the flames of hell before the inferno begins. A preview many souls have had via his vices, but he couldn't regret a single one of them, with many he wished he could have made them suffer more. Maybe she got an easier life this time, where there are no people who did wrongs never facing accountability, sometimes until they die naturally is too long.

None of the people on the street struck him as her, admittedly this changed from life to the next but she had a way to herself, always a little old-fashioned and brightly colored, had a specific masculine swagger to her, a type of confidence many men lack especially these days. With her clothing preference, she commonly stood out like a sore thumb, looking like a foreigner in the countries she was well born in. She talked a certain way but it was rare he'd hear her before he saw her these days, time had changed certain things but when she was excited or laughed her voice carried like he remembered it always did. Through many lives and rather vile people, she had gotten quieter gradually, a part of her seems to always be aware she didn't belong to these people like they thought she did and how many treat "their" children not conforming to societal rules or not aligning to expectations things can quickly get messy. When parents or a government owns the children and acts like it, a child is quickly a work horse or something that easily has no freedom or expression or rights to individuality, just a future worker. From his own experience as a father, every kid seems to be quite the little individual in their niche way quick into their lives, and to squander that, especially when unknowing a parent is raising something much older than themselves just not conscious of it trying to force ways of life on them, it's cruel and grueling to be dragged through time and time again. He very much sympathized for his love, going through so many hands trying to mold her had broken down parts of her from stark edges to something more smooth, and his baby was always hot and sharp, not a smooth-in-the-lines lady.

A lonely feeling dipped into his chest again, like dipping his toes into an ice lake, he sighed and stared up and down the street, he saw no unusual figures for Seattle. Mainly tweakers, some homeless, some both, many shady types but they'd likely be the ones off to work night shifts, still little droves of people trying back to whichever place from work, some partiers of course, but nothing of which he cared for. He missed his love, it's been so long since he felt her pressed against him, felt her smile against his lips, but with each moment it seemed her eyes could be around each corner. He just wanted her, no he needed her, and unlike everything else that dies, she always comes back, and he desperately needed her there. The need was solely mental, he's gone without his love for so long, it was hard to just tell himself to wait a few years when he's written so many letters that he could fill a room since the last he'd seen her, sometimes it feels like he can't breathe before kissing every one of her knuckles and then her face, but she's not there. It was empty, and he could never let anyone else make him feel the same way he did for her, even if it was the empty touch without feel, it would be too much for him. No one touches him, he has no friends, the most interaction he gets is on the bus, plane, or airport, and the most touch when a clerk brushes his hands at a store. He had nothing without her light, his body a mere corpse without her to give him some life.

Despite the thoughts like a monologue, he knew he was thinking himself into a bad headspace, but the world seemed so dark again, he needed her light and he needed to be the sword and shield in her hands. The franticness of his need wouldn't stop until he finally found her, and if by the sheer impossibility of the world, by they also exist, she ceases to be, he'll find a way to cope with the forever that'd be left in his miserable existence. Whether being a hermit in Scandinavia, maybe finding a way by any measure to leave this rock he shared with his love, or, if all else fails, destroy the world as it's known until it's unrecognizable to his grief, until he couldn't get reminded of her by anything left.

[merryfortune]

we were lovers in a past life (maybe you were one of my wives)

Clover and Violets 2022

Day 23. Warmth

Title: we were lovers in a past life (maybe you were one of my wives)

Ship: Amazonshipping | Mai/Taniya

Word Count: 1,557

Rating: T

Universe: Crossover - Duel Monsters/GX

Tags: Canon Divergent, Reincarnation, Missed Connections, Bittersweet

   Oh to have friends in high places, Mai mused as she relished the fancy new technology that she had been gifted personally to from the Kaiba Corporation.

   She had idly expressed that she had been feeling a little bored lately to Anzu and Anzu passed that onto Yugi and Yugi passed that onto Kaiba who, in a huff, announced all of a sudden that he needed some good duellists to test some new hotshot technology that his company had been creating. It felt good, Mai had to admit. So she was put on the fast list and so far she really liked what she had seen.

   Even a few duels deep, Mai could tell that there was an evolution of the game on the horizon. Again. And that reinvigorated her taste for adrenaline and victory. There was just something dazzling about the new animations. They were wild, they were all but real. The new level of immersion went deeper and deeper, now without the need of VR goggles which was great because they gave Mai a headache and a bad hairdo after wearing.

   This was something else. She could feel the jungle when she used her field cards, the thick and sticky humidity, she could hear the swaying of foliage. It was like she was really out there, in the real world, and not locked up inside some sterile, white space which astronauts could use to prep for space travel. Because, to be honest, that’s exactly the kind of place Mai was cooped up in per Kaiba’s request if she was going to be one of his new playtesters. At least it was private. She just had to make note of her observations in writing or via an e-mail, and she was going to get paid for it later. Easy money.

   But it did pique Mai’s curiosity.

   If Kaiba wanted this to be a true showstopper, then Mai clearly needed to get up close and personal with her duel. Besides, there was no rule in the contract stating that all hands had to stay inside the ride like this was an amusement park fair. She saw it all as fair game and if it was a risk, well, it made her heart skip a beat.

   Her cards shuffled inside of the mount of her duel disc and then spat out her top hand. She looked through it and realised something: Amazoness Tiger… She hadn’t happened upon it at all in the previous simulated duels. Her other cards were repeats so Tiger’s presence stood out to her and it felt only right to make sure all her monsters got a chance to rampage so she summoned it after making sure her Cage was set up first.

   Mai watched, enthralled, as she was encased in the battle dome. The greater jungle just outside its bending bars, locked into place which were tough and gritty. She looked around and could already feel herself sweat in the simulated sun, the heat was padding out the duel and she chose her next card with care, with a smile and an accelerated heartbeat. Even she couldn’t escape the lust of the battle that the Cage inspired.

   Mai was delicate as she placed it in the correlating monster zone. There was a bluish flash which sparkled underneath her card and Amazoness Tiger growled. She felt a shiver go down her spine as the beast stalked forward onto the field, claws dragging through the dirt and tail whipping, irritated. Mai gasped, she couldn’t help herself, there was a new depth to how all her monsters appeared and Tiger was no exception. The detailing to Tiger’s fur was luxurious, brackish, with a defined muscle underneath.

   “Why have I been called here against my will?” Tiger asked.

   And Amazoness Tiger drew up onto her hindlegs and there was another flash. The silhouette of the tiger lost in it and became humanoid, a woman, became very much not a monster Mai recognised: a dark-skinned warrioress with mauve hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail. She looked around, annoyed and surveying, her sharpness of her eyes heightened by the facial scar she bore, only to soften - with fear - when she realised where she was and who she was with.

   “Sofia?” she asked in a tiny voice.

   Mai took a step back. This… This was not at all how the previous simulations had been going. This was beyond a mere misfire, a card being placed down and being read erroneously, Mai had been warned of that. This was something else entirely, she held her fist to her chest defensively.

   “That’s not my name.” Mai retorted. “I’m Kujaku Mai and who the hell are you?”

   “Apologies, I’m out of line.” she said and she came closer.

   Again, with a softness seemingly not suited to the strength she embodied. Her eyes were confused - wanting - but also despairing. She did not want to intrude further on Mai who was just as lost as she was.

   “I am Taniya, of the Amazoness Tribe, I am the one and the same monster that you summoned but this… This is not an ordinary location for duelling.” she said and she looked around. “I recognise this gladiatorial arena well, it is all but the same one as we have back home. Whatever this realm is, I fear it.”

   Mai blinked and she disarmed herself, her scrunched up shoulders going down, “You do?” She was rather sceptical that anything could scare a woman who had the eyes and prowess of a tiger, after all.

   “Yes, I do.” Taniya gravely replied. “I fear that this place brings Duel Monster spirits too close to the surface. That is a talent only the select can wield, if an undeserving duelist were to summon monsters like that, the consequences could be dire. Not all of us were meant to fight with consciousness.” 

   “I don’t believe you.” Mai replied and then backtracked, flustered, with an erratic hand gesture. “Well, okay, I can believe the part about Duel Monsters being used for bad stuff and it having horrible consequences. Trust me. That is something that is all too easy to believe. I just. Don’t believe you are a Duel Monster Spirit, if that makes sense. I don’t know what you are but it feels more than that to me.”

   Taniya smiled a sad smile, it made Mai’s heart ache for what felt like centuries in just mere seconds.

   “Correct,” Taniya replied, “I am slightly more than a Duel Monster Spirit but it is the most apt descriptor for what I am.”

   “I see…” Mai chewed on her reply sceptically. The intersection of magic and science, it gave her the heebie jeebies.

   “You still don’t trust my word?” Taniya asked. “Feel me for yourself, I am flesh and blood, even as a Duel Monster, I have a heartbeat.”

   Mai was nervous but she allowed Taniya to take her hand. Taniya’s hands were warm, the crook of her bare neck and shoulders even warmer, like a hearth, like a home. Mai was still taken aback by it but even more so by the mournful way in which Taniya was in demeanour, like this was only a fragment of the entire woman she was. A very sad, very fragile fragment of her.

   Mai swallowed. She could feel the pulse of Taniya’s heartbeat beneath the skin. She was so very warm and Mai was so very attracted to it, truth be told. She looked up at Taniya and she could easily imagine what she looked like before that scar.

   “How did you…?” Mai tried to ask but Taniya shook her head, mildly embarrassed yet there was a flicker of nostalgia in her eyes. She had such beautiful, blue eyes, when they were full of light, at least.

   “It was just a silly mistake. An argument between myself and…” Taniya reminisced.

   “Let me guess, between you and Sofia chick, huh?” Mai asked.

   Taniya laughed, she had a bawdy laugh and she nodded, “Yes, you are correct, Mai.”

   “She must’ve been one hell of a woman.” Mai replied.

   “Correct again.” Taniya said with more of a concealed chuckle this time, an exhalation of her breath which was slowly letting go of the grief that seemed to have gotten lodged inside of her out of nowhere.

   Mai flicked her eyes up, shining and curious yet oddly guilty, she felt as though she ought to be for some reason, and she dared to ask, “Just who was she?”

   “May I?” Taniya asked in lieu of a reply, she pointed down to Mai’s wrist, to where her duel disc was attached.

   Mai blinked and lifted her wrist to Taniya. Taniya removed her deck and in doing so, it began to break the system since the system hadn’t been prepped or ready for a removal. The jungle and the cage around them began to glitch but Taniya ignored it, even as she began to become apart of it in the haphazard flashes. She looked through Mai’s deck and then found what she was looking for in the nick of time.

   She handed Mai back her deck and disappeared with the illusion of the duel. Mai turned over the face down card on top and it wasn’t lost on her, the resemblance between herself and the wavy, blonde locks and violet eyes of Amazoness Paladin.

[theravennest]

Hot Loki Take: Sylvie was Right

*Spoilers for all of Loki the series up to and including ep 6.

Sylvie was right to kill He Who Remains and free the timeline.

I’m deadass.

He Who Remains forced reality into an endless cycle between a time of Order (he rules as dictator) & a time of simulated and controlled "Chaos" (his Conqueror variants wage war). I say this “chaos” is simulated because when you think about it, it’s chaos that He Who Remains arranges himself by manipulating Lokis.

He Who Remains is so fucking sus but for some reason people are just tripping over their own feet to believe everything he says and vilify Sylvie for killing him. 

He literally tells them (and us) that his methods are deceptive and we know for a fact that he’s willing to murder trillions upon trillions of people, planets, and realities to get the outcome he wants. Yet some are still believing everything he says cuz he said maybe 4 things that were truthful, I guess, and cuz he’s cute. Some of us are so blinded by the fear/anticipation of Kang the Conqueror’s arrival, we are letting him bamboozle us.

He Who Remains perfectly and personally tailored the Ordered period of the timeline to produce this exact Sylvie and this exact Loki, had them meet/influence each other, and then had them travel to the end of time...to him.

Now Lokis by nature are agents of chaos and could suddenly swerve left, so to speak, for no reason. So let’s assume I believe that He Who Remains didn’t 100% know what they would choose once they crossed the Threshold (if the Threshold he described is even real, tbh). He also so carefully molded both of their entire lives for that moment in the Citadel. He may not have known 100% but he knew at least 90% of how they would react to everything he said and did when they were both pushed to this place/mindset.

Notice how he teed them up for the fight that ended in his death:

Manufacturing a scenario where they would meet via the TVA’s variant pursuit.

Manufacturing a scenario where they would travel to the Void and meet Alioth.

Kid Loki being in just the right place to give his sword to Loki.

Miss Minutes appearing to menacingly offer an obvious devil’s bargain.

Him slyly telling Sylvie that she can’t trust Loki, putting it into her head just before he gives them his ultimatum.

All of these thing practically gift wrapped that ending to the Loki on Sylvie fight.

Let’s elaborate.

What was even the point of Miss Minutes offering to re-insert them into the same Sacred Timeline with both getting their hearts’ desires there? 

Not more than ten minutes later He Who Remains told Loki and Sylvie to their faces that he manipulated all this for the sole purpose of making them choose between taking over as rulers of the TVA or killing him and ushering in a Multiversal War. Neither of those choices would result in re-inserting Loki and Sylvie back into the timeline.

So what is the truth? Why waste precious moments with a creepy Miss Minutes menacing them in that vestibule scene?

Notice how Miss Minutes’ words pushed Loki further onto his path of no longer wanting power or a throne but desiring to change his attitude about himself and the universe. Notice how her words conversely pushed Sylvie into balking at the idea of accepting another “fictional” life after a lifetime of being manipulated and made her double down on her mission to free the timeline and get revenge.

Sylvie has the ability to see memories but interesting how he kept her distracted by condescending to her and provoking her, just stoking the fire to make her react negatively. (Interesting how he was far more focused on Sylvie’s reactions than Loki’s, most likely because he needed her to kill him for his plans to work.)

Now I don’t want to completely shift responsibility for her choices away from Sylvie. In truth, if she had held in her vengeance for let’s say an hour and trusted Loki a bit more, they could’ve sat down to talk about things and maybe found a third solution other than starting a Multiversal War or ruling the TVA that still could’ve even allowed her to get revenge. (More on the ultimatum later.)

But I can’t blame her for losing her cool, either. He Who Remains made damn sure she would burn as hot as possible because he tailor made her life to give her the personality he wanted. And any other version of her out there who might have made a different choice would’ve already been pruned.

He Who Remains tells Loki and Sylvie straight up that he set them on their particular life paths because he needed them to be “changed by the journey” to ensure everyone in that room was in exactly the right mindset to do what was needed to “finish the quest” and presumably “slay the dragon,” aka Him. (Notice the parallels to the speaker narration just before episode 2′s fight at the Ren Fair.)

We don’t know! Sylvie never enchanted him to read his memories because she was so filled with rage and Loki was too busy trying to stop her, he didn’t think to do it either. And we’ve already established that He Who Remains trained them that way. Nothing that happened in that office was without He Who Remains’ influence and meddling.

Another nail in the coffin that convinces me that He Who Remains is a no good dirty liar is Renslayer.

If He Who Remains’ end goal was to either have the Lokis choose to rule the TVA or destroy it and thus end up with no memory of her previous TVA judge role/life, why did he send Miss Minutes to Ravonna with files that caused her to pack her bags and search for what she calls “free will,” AKA the one in charge?

I’d bet dollars to donuts that when the next season rolls around the only people who will know what’s going on and still have their memories will be Loki, Miss Minutes, Sylvie, and Ravonna. (Maybe Kang the Conqueror will know as well but I could see it going the other way too. I’m 50-50.)

He Who Remains was planning something by pushing Ravonna the way he did. Does he want her out of the TVA so she doesn’t lose her memories when everything resets? Does he want her to go find the Conqueror version of himself? I mean, at this point, practically everyone knows who she is to Kang in the comics, so let’s not pretend that’s not an option.

Another thing to think about...it’s super suspicious that he was so eager to make them believe he’s one of the “good versions” of Kang and all these others are much worse while giving absolutely no evidence of that outside of an interactive blob powerpoint, a quirky attitude, and a couple of sad, weary faces????

Who’s to say He Who Remains isn’t playing the long game and always manipulates his variants to eventually give him the chance to seize control of the multiverse?

Who’s to say he’s not one of the Kangs that wanted to conquer too? Funny how the “pure of heart” Kang is the one who still wrested control of all reality, killed off every other timeline with a weapon of mass destruction, installed a fascist time bureaucracy, and set himself up as the dictator. Sounds an awful lot like some conqueror shit to me, just saying.

Even wilder theory: what if this really is the same Kang the Conqueror but at the end of his life? We only have hhis word that he’s a variant. He Who Remains tells Loki that this fight is for the “young and hungry.” Maybe the “young and hungry” he’s referring to is not Loki and Sylvie at all but his literal younger self. Perhaps he set up this entire cycle of chaos and order so that he can perpetually live, conqueror, rule, die, and start all over again? Reincarnation, as he says...

But let’s set that wild theory aside for a moment. Let’s circle back to the Multiversal War debate and say it really is is caused by an infinite amount of his variants.

I think it’s hella sus that He Who Remains was so insistent that Loki and Sylvie only had two choices to resolve this riddle: Multiversal War or running the TVA almost exactly the way he did while maintaining only a single timeline. Those are definitely not the only two options they had. In fact, I could probably name 1-3 other options off the top of my head right now:

Keep He Who Remains alive while learning how he manipulated time and using those skills to slowly unleash the multiverse while killing every version of Kang to prevent him from existing as either conqueror or dictator.

Kill He Who Remains, take over the TVA, and slowly change it to something not horrific or even build a brand new system for governing time.

Kill or keep He Who Remains, still take over the TVA, slow rollout the Multiverse and kill or prevent every Kang along the way.

(I’m not saying these aren’t also morally questionable options, I’m just saying they are different from the two choices He Who Remains presented.)

But let’s say these options I suggested are not feasible. I just randomly came up with them ten minutes ago so it would be fair if they were picked apart logically. 

So let’s contemplate this, instead:

Why should we assume/believe that a Multiversal War is actually a bad thing again??? Why are we assuming that He Who Remains’ Sacred Timeline really saved reality from total collapse? 

Assuming he told the truth about his motives, maybe he was just...wrong about the end of reality. Maybe he saw what he thought was the conclusion to the Multiversal War coming and erroneously believed it to be the end of everything but actually it was the multiverse sorting itself out and everything would’ve been fine after.

We (and He Who Remains too) will never know because not only did he not show any evidence to back up his claim that reality was on the brink of collapse, but he himself never allowed things to play out naturally. Whenever the end of the war comes to the brink of something, he always panics, weaponizes Alioth, and traps the universe in his cage of Order with the TVA.

Even more controversial take...maybe the collapse of timelines and the end of everything should be allowed to happen. Maybe the natural cycle of reality is to build and build, splinter and splinter timelines, until it collapses and starts all over again from the void.

Nothing is created and nothing is destroyed, all things exist in a cycle so why should the multiverse be any different?

After all in all, in all three possibilities an infinite number of timelines is destined to suffer and die. Whether it be during the Kang-controlled Order period, Kang-controlled fake Chaos period, or the unrestrained natural Chaos that collapses in on itself...an untold amount of people are dying anyway. There’s only one of those scenarios that has actual unrestrained free will where those people get to exist how they want, make choices they want (even bad ones) for as long as they can.

(Personally, I’ll take that over what the Kangs have wrestled the multiverse into.)

I’ll just take this moment to re-iterate: trust nothing He Who Remains says. He’s a known liar and manipulator, and unlike Loki he has done absolutely nothing to actionably show he’s not still lying or to show that he’s trying to change outside of some sad looks. It’s all pantomime, bruh. Like, the pageantry of it all astounds me. 

Is he maybe telling some truths? Sure. But that doesn’t mean he’s not using the truth to manipulate everything. It’s an illusion, I’m telling y’all! He was up to no fucking good.

Sylvie was far more right to kill him than to not. Loki, Sylvie, & team (prolly also the latest Avengers lineup too) now just need to find a way to break this Kang cycle.

[frustrated-writer-skyeknight]

HiJack AU - Rise of the Guardians Plotbunnies

Even before Jack was called on to become an aide, he shared a home with Hiccup and the others.

Their hut was the size of a mushroom outside, but inside it was quite big. (Kinda like the Tardis hahaha)

The hut was created by the combination of Jim and Jamie’s abilities. Jamie created an illusion of the hut, interior and exterior. 

Jim used that as a form of schematics to make it come to a reality. Again, it’s in the Supernatural realm, so even if mortals passed it by or, say, stomped on it, it would just go through. So it’s invisible and intangible for mortals.

When Hiccup first invited Jack to stay there with them, he was like…

Jack: Well, that’s cool of you guys and all. But I don’t want to intrude, it looks kinda small. How do you guys manage fitting all in there? Hiccup: *smirking* give it a chance. Come, let me give you a tour of the inside.

Needless to say, Jack was mind blown. When he accepted, Jamie and Jim had a renovation for Jack to get his own room. Which later on was a winter wonderland, and had its own ice skating rink.

During free time, and when he’s not with Jack, Hiccup dwells at a particular mortal’s home where the mortal watches a show called F.r.i.e.n.d.s. all the time.

Hiccup does this to study how to flirt, so he can get somewhere with Jack, with the character of “Joey” as reference.

Jim ends up joining him sometimes and teases him about it.

Jim: If you wanted to win him over, I don’t think you should watch Joey. Chandler married the girl. And you combat awkward situations with sarcasm as well

Hiccup: I seriously don’t know if you’re trying to support me or bring me down, bud.

Note: For those who don’t watch F.r.i.e.n.d.s. , you should, lol. Also, Joey has the stereotype flirt trope and usually gets with a lot of girls. Chandler is awkward and cannot flirt properly to save his life (as well as Ross, but he’s another story lol)

Apart from writing fanfics, this show got me through the pandemic.

Hiccup has the biggest crush on Jack. Everyone knows. Literally. Except Jack.

He just thought Hiccup was naturally awkward. But Jack does like that about him too.

So it’s a slowburn on Jack’s part.

[Thanks to @hamish-fanfic-fangirl​ ask, these ideas came up:] 

Dimitri can teleport on will, he can shadow travel.

The others can't, but Jack and Hiccup can fly fast to compensate for it.

Jim travels with a Hoverboard he invented even before North took him as his aide.

Jamie materializes illusions, similar to Sanderson except not in sand form. So if he wanted to travel via plane he just needs to conjure it.

Astrid can also fly; she sprouts wings, similar to Toothiana, when she wants to fly. Unlike Jack though, she can tire. 

Jack controls the winds to make him go faster so it's not like he has to use much energy to fly.

Hiccup, as per canon, has Toothless, his dragon, as his means of getting to places quickly.

Prologue

Unlike in the movie, the focus of the plot won’t really be about Jack finding his center and a conflict for him won’t be to regain his memories of who he was. It’s about Jack really feeling that he belongs, and the conflict about the plot is to redeem Pitch and have him return to being Kozmotis.

Temporarily, Pitch is sealed away in the Spiritual realm. There aren’t really any dwellers here, and it is difficult to enter and leave it and only Manny has control over it. The Spiritual realm is where the souls that had been and souls to be reside. Reincarnation may be possible if certain conditions are met here.

Since Pitch isn’t a soul, they knew it was only a matter of time until he makes his escape.

The reason Jack is reluctant about being an aide because, while he claims he didn’t want to deal with responsibilities and deadlines, it’s mostly because he didn’t think he was worthy to become on. So he’s dealing with insecurities and self-actualization issues.

Instead, he’s a Sprite that came to be, just like Hiccup and the others. Unlike the others, he not an aide yet at the beginning. 

Jack’s birth. 

Introduction scene

North is working and enjoying his project. Jim is seen in the same room, working on enhancements on his hoverboard. 

Then Phil comes in to report about some anomaly with the globe, which helps them keep track of all children who believe in the Guardians. 

Dimitri has a globe in his own base, instead it’s to help him find if a darkness minion is out to take out a light.

So North orders Jim to raise the Guardian assemble signal, in the form of aurora lights (as per canon).

(Note: I used human Jack to represent aged up Jamie since haha that doesn’t exist.)

The rest of the guardians and their aides were in the middle of work when they saw the signal.

Toothiana was supervising the distribution of gifts and collection of teeth, Astrid was training.

Aster took a couple of eggs with him. And he heads out the moment Hiccup and Toothless returned from a patrol.

Sandy was doing his usual dream sand service, and Jamie made sure to block out minions of darkness attempting to turn them into nightmares.

Dimitri was watching the globe, and was the first to depart even before North called the signal, because he realized what was happening already from his own globe. He’s the one who later explained what it meant

Pitch has awoken.

[felikatze]

YEAH I LOVE THE FACT THAT A'S DEATH IS SYMBOLIC THOUGH JUST THE, the fact that his "dying" is referring to him erasing his memories hence "killing himself" as an identity which I thought is very interesting tbh? ALSO YEAH YEAH YOU KNOW LIKE THE CYCLE OF REINCARNATION THEME with A and everything that is inside LC? And remember one of the memory synchronization flashback where Carmen started talking about reincarnation about how she wondered what she was in the past and what she would be in the next life and just [points at the A killing himself to become X to ponder over the question of "who was I in the past and what will I become in the future]. Like like the way, A in a way trying to assimilate Carmen's ideal into his own journey in order to understand

And yeah by the aspect of the Sephirah and the employees they are lowkey in the same situation as A whereby they dont really have anything left for them but then Angela came and proposed them another window to a third chance to live in life via giving them a "home" (the Library) and a human body and I think deep down the Sephirah if offers another chance to actually live in life they would take it? Since why not honestly and they also express their desire to chase after their own dream and learn about themself as well. But at the same time they doesn't mind dying seeing their sacrifice have amounted to something either is what I meant to say when I said that A's end isn't technically a "wrong conclusion" for himself technically

(0) (1) (2) (3)

yes yes and MORE yes.

now that i rewatched the memory sync sequenze i 100% see the reincarnation thing esp with how you mentioned carmen talking abt past lives. one thing i noticed she said was that she sees a "life" as her soul occupying one body, thus being reborn would be seen as "the same soul moving to another body"

which is EXACTLY what happens with the sephirah in both lc AND lor! It's like Malkuth says in lor, that it's her third life, and yet she is still the same being, just different. Maybe in a way they did die at the end of lobcorp along with A, because that chapter of their lives is over.

The idea that lc's cycles may be A trying to understand Carmen and/or may have been inspired by what she told him... poetic cinema. Anon dear god. you're good.

Abt the Sephirah/Patron Librarians taking the next chance even though they were prepared to die, 100% big agree, like, just look at Netzach, for example. He wants to live so much after being the one who wanted to die most ardently and it warms my heart.

But even then wanting to live was something that came laterr so it's not like he rejected A's plan completely. It's all so layered...

In the end it really IS impossible to get just One Cohesive Thing out of it because nuance is so sexy

[icyowl]

A/B/O Worldbuilding

Every omegaverse author has their own spin on the idea, so here is mine! Feel free to use the ideas in your own writing. I really love world building as a whole as well as the omegaverse concept, so it kind of spiraled out of control ;).

These are just my own ideas so please don’t come after me if you don’t agree with something. I’m not asking anyone to use these ideas over their own.

It’s 9 pages so I’m putting the rest under a read more.

BIOLOGY:

What makes dynamic individuals different from others is the enlarged and highly developed limbic system. This part of the brain controls emotions, memory, and the endocrine and some of the olfactory reception. This is why they are so hormonal, experience deep emotional connections, and depend on smell for lots of information gathering and processing. It also explains why changes in hormones go along with changes in a person’s smell. The link to memory could mean that reincarnation may play a part, though researchers are still investigating.

Males are alphas or betas, females are betas or omegas. A person’s dynamic can be mutually exclusive to their personality, so you can have a really brutish and headstrong woman (such a personality does not always mean “alpha”), she’s just more likely to be a beta rather than an omega.

Both sexes have scent glands. Depending on the sex, the glands will be slightly different shapes, sizes, and in different locations (infographs at the end).

Males have canines and claws that extend during excitement or high emotion. If the canines extend far enough, they cause the gums around the teeth to split and bleed. The size, shape, and curvature of the fangs varies from person to person.

Omegas have canines and claws, but they are much smaller.

Rarely a person will have two sets of fangs, their canines and their lateral incisors. These people are always alphas.

Omegas have a “terror-mone” that is automatically emitted when she experiences extreme fear. It is very potent and far-traveling, and the idea is to alert others to come to her aid and overwhelm the opposing alpha’s senses until he backs off. People liken it to pouring bleach down their throat and in their eyes or getting pepper-sprayed.

Scent changes upon a person’s emotions.

Pheromones are emitted from scent glands. Pheromones are processed as a smell and therefore are a kind of scent, but are not directly linked with a person’s emotions. For example, even if an alpha is scared, he can produce comfort pheromones for those nearby.

Scent glands are very complex, high-value organs. They produce a person’s pheromones, scent, hold a mark, and are linked directly with a person’s mental and physical state because of the high density of nerve endings. Rather than check under the tongue or forehead for temperature, the most accurate way is to press the scent glands. Because of the nerve endings found there, they are sensitive to touch and overstimulation.

Scent glands sometimes need to be expressed in order to expel the build-up of pheromones in the blood. This is done via deep pressure or puncturing the skin with fangs or claws. The most effective place is the large scent gland on the neck but any scent gland will work. It is usually done by the significant other since the originator craves that physical intimacy and emotional closeness, but in their absence the person will do it themselves with their claws or by simply massaging the area.

If not expressed, the expired pheromones will build up in the blood and eventually cause anxiety, blurred vision, very high or low temperature, exposing canines and claws, intense trembling, and lethargy to the point of passing out. Essentially the person becomes very sick. The scent glands become puffy, sensitive, and the skin turns rosy as if sunburned.

Males produce venom from their canines and claws. Others of the same rank will be adversely affected by it, but those of the opposite rank are positively affected. The venom alphas produce can cause omegas to become catatonic if present in large enough quantities.

In extreme cases, alphas can go into R.I.L.A (Rut Induced Loss of Awareness), whereby they lose awareness of who they are, where they are, and what they should and shouldn't do. It’s a crazed trance-like state where reasoning is impossible and they act without inhibition.

Scenting is when one person wants to outwardly show everyone that someone is taken by them. It involves rubbing a person’s scent onto the skin of the other’s scent glands and body in general. This rubbing looks like nuzzling when done with the face, but can be done with any part of the body really. For two people to rub scent glands together is a very powerful experience. It strengthens bonds and dissuades outsiders from attempting to court one of them. An alpha’s desire to scent is stronger than an omegas, but they both do it. The desire to scent someone is an infallible sign that they have feelings for the person.

Marking is when an alpha intends to devote himself to that person for the rest of his life. The urge only develops when there is an extremely intimate bond between two people, and also involves emotional ties. Marks do fade and need to be replaced. There are creams that help the mark last longer, and people can buy an expensive contraption that has the dental impression of the alpha and can create a mark-like impression, but there is no scent of the alpha and it doesn’t last as long as the real thing. Nevertheless, people use it--on the daily, sometimes--when the alpha is gone for a long period of time. Omegas can mark too, but don’t really have an urge to do so. Marking can be done by the parents when the child is young and looking for comfort, but is done on the arm or wrist typically instead of the neck, as is typically used by romantic partners.

Marking isn’t for life, since marks need to be updated, but they do insinuate a very strong bond with the intentions of being long-term, since marks last about a year. You also feel that person’s emotional state while the mark is active, so you’re committing to that when you mark. 

A mark may not last as long as normal if the omega is stressed. The increased adrenaline pulls the remnants of the alphas venom out of her system more quickly and some may not last six months given the right stressors.

Marking works because he gives her his venom, and she gives him her blood, so the omega doesn’t need to also mark the alpha, but sometimes will in the heat of the moment. Through scent glands the emotions of that person can be felt by the other, because scent glands contain high concentrations of nerve cells.

Even if an omega is already marked, the feeling of being marked is the same as the first time if it's by the same alpha.

If an omega is marked by another alpha while the previous mark is still strong, the omega will experience extreme pain as the two opposing venoms fight for dominance. It can take days, but one will always win. The venom of the alpha the omega is more attached to has a better chance of winning the battle, but it isn’t always certain.

Once a person has been marked (especially for the first time) the bond between the two is exceptionally fragile and should be carefully fostered by time spent together and physical contact.

Eyes dilate in response to many things. Typically it is a sign of physical relaxation in response to affection. It is also a major sign of trust, since severe dilation can cause the vision to blur. Dilation can be forced though, for instance when copious amounts of pheromones are in the air.

Preening refers to when a person is showing off to their significant other, and the physical change a person goes through when another person notices and/or appreciates their efforts. The face becomes flushed, they’re eyes may dilate, and muscles tighten in an effort to flex. Claws and fangs will lengthen in an effort to show physical fitness. Males preen to show their prowess and fitness to the female. Females focus on the dedication of a male to care for her needs, but canines are a symbol of the male’s ability to protect her, so when males preen, their canines drop and aren’t usually easy to retract.

Purring occurs when a person is either very content or wishes to make another person content. A person can talk while this is happening, but it can be difficult to understand. Omegas have a special frequency of purr that promotes healing and stress-relief.

There is a kind of deeper purring that only occurs between a pair of deeply bonded, typically romantically involved, individuals. It is a subconscious choice, so the first time a person does it, it usually comes as a surprise. Because it takes more muscles (the diaphragm, chest muscles, lungs, and larynx all work together) a person is more incapasitated than with normal purring, so it carries a connotation of deep trust in the receiver. Usually only alphas do this, but omegas can do it too. Because the muscles associated with talking are all occupied, it can make talking nearly impossible.

Glating (from the latin “gadio” for sword) is an intimidation tactic used between alphas so they may not have to resort to physical violence. It can also be used to prove an alpha’s rank to another so they are seen as a serious competitor/threat. This also affects a person’s ability to talk. It is an involuntary reaction like blinking, so trying to stop one’s self from doing it is a challenge. The term comes from the intense volume, causing it to reverberate around the surrounding area.

When omegas feel an overpowering urge to protect something they can become “theta”, where their reflexes and willpower skyrocket and they become little crazed animals

Children first present around 18/19 years of age, and experience their first heats/ruts about a year later. Over the span of a week or so they get extremely uncomfortable in their own skin. Their temperature rises and their gums become inflamed, tender, and swollen. Senses randomly sharpen before going back to normal. When they finally “tune”, it happens in a single instance. The body temperature peaks until they literally steam. The influx of emotions, senses, and hormones means they flee until they feel safe. It normally doesn’t last more than a couple hours. Typically, alphas will have an intense need to protect that which they consider part of their territory. It may be a person like a sibling, a girlfriend, or a parent, or it may be a location like their house or the nest of someone they love. Omegas feel insecure and unsafe and look to be with someone they feel safe with. Omegas won’t even want to leave that person’s arms.

Traumatic or transformative moments can force a person to change presentations. Sometimes the change is permanent, sometimes it lasts only a little while (weeks or months). They are referred to as “alternate alpha/omega/beta”.

Bunting is the term for a kind of head-butting, similar to what cats do, that works as a subtle yet deep sign of affection.

Moroi is a term for the sickness that overcomes a person’s body when intense negative emotions stem from one’s mate (i.e. rejection, cheating, fear of that person, falling out of love). It comes from the mythological term for a phantom ghost that leaves its grave to drain energy from the living. Side effects include extreme lethargy and phantom chest pains. The severity varies and the treatment is supportive care (rest, fluids). Some may even fall into a resting trance of sorts. It is very rare that a person dies, but sometimes the extreme phantom pains never go away.

A person’s smell changes depending on how they feel. It may be neutral (clean linens), happy, sad, angry, fearful, physical pain (copper or metallic), love, etc.

Every male possesses a knot. 

Tonic immobility (aka ‘megaspace or the Rapture) is the term for how an omega becomes placid, calm, and compliant. It happens when lots of alpha pheromones act as a depressant to the brain by ‘bleeding out’ from the limbic system to the rest of the brain. It happens more easily when the alpha is someone she has great trust in. The depressant side-effect means the omega experiences an addicting calm-high. Alphas can experience this to an extent, but not with the same intensity. There is a problem with omegas experiencing tonic immobility and then, unable to have it again for whatever reason, turns to drugs and/or become prostitutes in an attempt to reach that high again.

Going feral is the layman's term for the very beginning stages of R.I.L.A.. It isn’t nearly as dangerous as the real thing but should certainly be recognized so that the alpha doesn’t drop further into his instincts. It’s how alphas prep their bodies for battle by flooding the system with testosterone and other chemicals. When glating doesn’t work, alphas may become feral in an effort to scare off another alpha before things become physical, but it generally happens any time an alpha senses an omega becoming upset with no sign of the situation getting any better. It also happens when he feels the need to go to an omega but is prevented from doing so. Lessening nearby stimuli is the solution to feralization, as well as scenting with the omega that he is worried about if she isn’t already with someone.

CUSTOMS AND SOCIETAL PRACTICES

If there are normal people, then many are struggling with where to place dynamic people. Are they a subspecies? A baser kind of human, or the next step in evolution?

Bites occur to the neck because the blood flow is large, fast, and goes directly into feeding the brain. This makes it the perfect spot to deposit the pheromones in venom. This can make the recipient a little loopy and very compliant, making consent problems an issue. Alphas have an especially hard time because consent is such a popular thing these days, but waiting and worrying about the omega and giving her the power makes him anxious and emotionally unhappy because it goes against his nature to hold back. Alphas gain purpose and satisfaction from knowing what their omega wants innately, and omegas crave an alpha that will take the lead and make them feel safe and cared for.

Touching another’s scent glands expresses a deep bond between two people. To touch one when the owner doesn’t want you to is a big taboo.

An alpha’s instinct is to look after, an omegas is to be looked after. For this reason it is especially heinous for an alpha to harass an omega, because it goes against their instinct. To deliberately do something that frightens an omega takes a great deal of willpower because the smell of fear an omega produces is strong enough to stop the assailant from continuing.

Bouts of extreme rage can happen if someone harms another’s mate.

A person’s mate is considered off-limits and to break that law is extremely terrible.

An adverse reaction to intense negative emotions can cause an omega to cope with the overwhelming empathy she feels by mentally shutting down. It is an emotional block from all the emotions she feels of others and the desire to have everyone go back to being happy.

Scenting is considered extremely intimate. To interrupt a couple when they are scenting is considered very embarrassing. Usually, it is incorporated into a couple’s daily routine. 

If an alpha wants to show another alpha that an omega is taken, he will mark her in front of the other alpha.

In modern culture, the size and thinness/thickness of canines don’t usually matter, but heavily curved and long ones are considered conventionally attractive.

In a relationship, the first time a person purrs for the other is considered a big step in the relationship.

Dynamics (a.k.a. “Dynams” for the hip youngsters) is the name for the class that every student must complete. Like any history or science class, it is part of the class schedule and is taken throughout high school. It teaches students about dynamics, how to be an alpha/beta/omega, and what each class means for a person. History of scientific discoveries and important figures are also discussed as they relate to it.

When an omega feels safe enough to nest, that is cause for celebration. It is only celebrated between the couple, however. When a young person finishes tuning, their parents typically have some kind of celebration. Marking involves a celebration where anyone can be invited or involved (with all the relatives, or just the couple). 

TECHNOLOGY

Suppressants nullify most all the side effects of heats and ruts. It takes an hour or two to take effect and should be taken once per day (uncommonly, people up the dose if they feel they need to for whatever reason). Suppressants are different for alphas and omegas, since one needs to calm down and one needs to be more awake and not so placid. 

Rut gear involves a type of bite guard and metal nail caps that go over the fingers. This makes them safe for others and prevents damage to others and property.

“Scent stones” are special kinds of rock that absorb scent really well. They are worn for extended periods of time by a person before being given to the other, where they are worn against a scent gland in the wrist to provide comfort and protection. After a week or so of being worn by another person, the scent fades, at which point the stones are switched between the two people.

“Phero-bombs” are grenades of concentrated scent to subdue raging alpha(s)

Bouts of extreme protective instinct--brought on by an overwhelming urge to protect an injured or scared loved one may get bad enough to only be stopped by vials of an omega’s concentrated pheromones. If this is a known/recurring problem, vials are drawn in advance to be injected into the alpha to bring him out of it and calm him down if need be. There are special divisions of S.W.A.T teams to deal with this.

Omegas can wear a type of scarf that is rigid on the inside and won’t release unless the scent stones in it detect enough feel-good pheromones from the omega.

RUTS AND HEATS

Males experience ruts, females experience heats (no matter the presentation)

Heats/ruts happen 4 times per year

Heats are characterized by muscle weakness, muscle cramps, and/or skittish behavior. Ruts are characterized by irritability, increased reflexes/senses, heightened physical strength, and/or short temper. Both sides experience varying degrees of restlessness. Alphas will often spend the nights unable to sleep, watching over the omega as the protective instincts take over, they’re canines also grow and can’t retract. Omegas’ scent glands will swell and become tender, and will sleep a lot. When omegas are awake, they fidget and crave company. The sense of touch becomes hyperactive, making every surface prickly and uncomfortable. Below is a chart to help better visualize the contrasts and similarities.

NESTING

Nesting occurs when an omega feels 100% at ease in the presence of an alpha. It requires the subconscious to be perfectly content as well, so it takes a long time for an omega to get to the point. When it does happen, it counts as a major step and is normally followed by celebration.

It’s a big deal if the omega verbally shares her nest with her alpha. Either by offering for him to enter or saying “our nest” can basically cause an alpha to fall to his knees.

When an alpha wants his omega to nest, or thinks she might do soon, or while she is nesting, he will go about trying to prove he can protect and care for her. This involves doting on her, showing her affection, bringing things for the nest, or otherwise showing his fitness. The omega will carefully consider his offerings for her nest. If she doesn’t take any of his offerings, it means he didn’t do a good enough job proving himself to her. For this reason, having an omega view and scrutinize his offerings is very stressful for the alpha.

Below is a chart for the different ways alphas and omegas behave.

Scent gland locations (in blue):

Female (17 total):

Male (12 total):

[wastefulreverie]

give me therapy, i’m a walking travesty

—    therapy, all time low

For Phic Phight 2020!

Word Count: 1006

Jazz was lucky she always carried Danny's spare Fenton Thermos. It'd come in handy more times than she liked to admit, today especially. She didn't know what tempted him to come up through her floor—maybe he'd mistaken her room for Danny's?—but when the Box Ghost raised his arms in a sad attempt to frighten her, Jazz jammed the capture button. He'd entered the device wailing his revenge and claimed that she'd "rue the day she doubted his cardboard cubicles of doom!"

So, she set her ACT prep booklet aside and scouted out the lab for a non-invasive containment field. Her parents were in the midst of developing a new containment device that would neutralize ghosts with a constant current of electricity. Danny had been pale for hours after they demonstrated their prototype with a non-sentient blob ghost. Once they finished developing the new devices and moved on to their next project, Jazz planned to wipe them all out under the radar. Electrocution was cruel for any ghost to endure but she'd never forgive herself if Mom and Dad eventually caught Danny in an electric field. When she'd told him her plan and he was more than eager to give her his blessing.

After a few minutes of rummaging through one of Mom's several weapon cabinets, Jazz found one of their original containment fields that simply created an enclosed area via ghost-shields. She pocketed the device, brought it up to her room, and set it up around her desk. Translucent green barriers rose from the floor and Jazz had half a mind to press against them to check if they were stable before remembering that she couldn't touch them.

She stepped through the ghost shield to the other side of her bedroom, where she found an old tape recording device. Danny made fun of her for keeping so many technological relics but she was fond of antiquated devices; something was charming about them in a nostalgic way. Mom liked to joke that she was an old soul and Jazz was inclined to believe her if the idea of reincarnation didn't send goosebumps up her arms. If ghosts were real, what did it mean for souls who got another chance at life? She could run the ramifications over in her head all day if she tried but Jazz didn't particularly want an existential crisis. No, it was better to keep a clear mind than dwell on muddling thoughts. That was her personal philosophy, after all.

She readied the tape recorder and stepped back inside the containment field with the Thermos at hand. After leaning back into her chair and positioning the tape behind her, she unclasped the cap on the device and let the wispy form of the Box Ghost unfurl before her.

"Ha! No human can contain I—the lord of all things cardboard! Quiver before me, fragile living girl!"

Jazz eyed the specter up and down, finding little threat to behold. His worn, navy overalls juxtaposed against his azure skin like a dulled pencil on colored paper. His gray beanie made the top of his head appear to be cone-shaped and covered most of his ash-colored hair. Not to mention, his beady red eyes contributed little to his imposing visage and Jazz wondered how he'd made it this far in his afterlife believing that he was cut out to hurt others, to terrorize. She could tell that those eyes held no malice and little to no greed; she'd seen her fair share of malevolent ghosts and could recognize one in an instant.

The question was why the Box Ghost was pretending to be someone he wasn't. She understood that the many intricacies of ghost society were far beyond what she could comprehend, but Jazz was dead set on getting to the bottom of her newest charge. She wanted to learn more about ghosts and how they thought, not just as specimens or paranatural creatures—she wanted to understand individuals! More than that, she wanted to help.

"I have another proposal. How about we talk instead?"

His face slackened. "What?"

Jazz wore her best knowing smile. "I want to get to know you better and I want you to understand yourself better. You don't need to fall back into all your bravado, just sit—float—back and have a chat with me. I promise once we're finished I'll let you back into the Ghost Zone or have a go at my brother if that's what you really want, but I can't promise he'll be in a good mood today."

"You're weirding me out, human… but I agree to the conditions of your chat!"

"I'm glad to hear that." She really was. She wasn't entirely sure that he would cooperate, so his easy compliance was a relief. "Would you mind telling me why you like boxes?"

Without much prompting, the small blue man launched into a tirade of his past ambitions and hardships. From what he was saying, it was easy to see the pressure he felt to perform; to act like he was strong. He wasn't a strong ghost at all, he was just the spirit of a jaded courier that had the ability to control shipping materials due to the nature of his death. With little other option, he embraced his identity to survive in a dog-eat-dog society. Jazz could see that somewhere along the way he'd lost himself, resorting to terrorizing the human realm to feel like he was doing everything 'right'. It's what the other ghosts did, after all.

"I think weekly sessions to discuss your self-perception and identity would be very beneficial to your own wellbeing, Box Ghost. I know time is hard in the Ghost Zone, but do you think you could visit me every Wednesday afternoon or so?"

"I guess?"

It would take some work to break through his mental barrier and rebuild the well-meaning man lost beneath his near-permanent veneer. Jazz was confident she could do it. She had helped humans overcome their identity struggles, why not ghosts?

For natyouraveragenerd's prompt: The Box Ghost tries to spook Jazz, but they wind up having a therapy session together instead. She wants to understand why he tries to be scary all the time.

[torturedpoetemotions]

What do you think God!Jack does with Hell? I mean he likes Rowena so he'd prob leave her in charge. But he would want demons to stop being created. I just picture him learning about prison abolish and rehabilition and maybe reincarnation. Plus he could loosen the borders between Heaven/Hell a little and let her visit Oscar. (I'm not saying SPN ended too soon but I am saying I still have questions.)

Ooooo this is an intriguing question. Well, for one thing, there are all the reforms Rowena had started to make to Hell even before Jack became god. A welcome reception for new arrivals, no more demon deals so no one gets to Hell by being duped or having their desperation preyed on, and no more torture. So it sounds like Hell post-Rowena is less of an endless-punishment like deal and more just...not Heaven and very goth?

So I’m guessing Jack would let her keep handling it though maybe negotiate some things. And she has a soft spot for him (like everyone who spends more than 2 minutes around him) so she’d probably be open to suggestions. I love the idea of Hell turning into a place of rehabilitation and a jumping-off point for being reincarnated and getting a second chance.

(Ooooo what if like...Hell is where you go if you have unfinished business/didn’t find peace in your life. and so where Dean is in 15x20 is actually “Hell” but it’s not about torture just about realizing this isn’t what he wanted and that he wanted to live and then getting a second chance to once he comes to that realization and works his shit out via supernatural immersion therapy basically).

Ahem. Uh...yeah I know what you mean. Supernatural definitely didn’t end too soon, I just...there are lingering questions. Hey Andrew Dabb what’s your email I just wanna talk.

Another question I have would be what qualifies a person to go to Hell instead of Heaven? Or Heaven instead of Hell? Would it just be a matter of souls who lived a good life they were satisfied with and had nothing to learn or do or whatever go to Heaven? Like they don’t so much find peace there as get to bask in the peace they already found in their life, spend time with loved ones, pursue hobbies, relax, etc., while everyone else goes to Auntie Rowena’s for some therapy before taking another whirl? Because honestly that’s a nice setup, A+ afterlife.

And what about Purgatory? Because like...as it stands right now/at series end, fricking Garth would go to Purgatory as would his kids and wife when they all die someday, just for being werewolves. That’s fucking horrible. I know it’s like a couples’ retreat for Dean and Cas but most people do Not have that reaction to it. So I wonder if Purgatory gets a revamp as well? I don’t want to lean back into the punitive but maybe that’s where people go when they’re unwilling to commit to therapy and are a danger to those around them so it would be unethical to unleash them on the world again? Like the Leviathans and Donald Trump?

Many questions. Many thoughts.

[secret-engima]

Look look, I know you've implied that Sasuke!Nyx is the only FFXV reincarnation in the Naruto 'verse, but - just. I had a sudden mental image. Of /Libertus/ as a Maito - as in, a close relative of Maito 'Konoha's Glorious Green Beast' Gai. ("YOUTH!") Perhaps a younger sibling or cousin or something? Because. Because the /mental images/ of the /rest/ of the non-uchiha-Compound family /reacting/ to an Uchiha being Best Friends with a Maito - Kakashi would despair. Gai would weep - in JOY.

I was not on board with this plan until you said Uchiha being Best Friends with the relative of Might Guy and now I’m dying.

... FINE.

One exception. JUST THIS ONE.

And also Crowe. Because I’m a sucker but SHHHHHH.

Because of course Libertus and Crowe would bully their way through the afterlife and timeline to follow their Ulric. Of course they would.

Hmmmmmmmmm *cracks knuckles* ficlet ramble time!

-Jun will forever be grateful that his mother was the one to name him and not- well- his father.

-Of course he only knew to be grateful AFTER meeting the man his mother had had a teenage fling with, but his point stands. Which was after that wildfire swept through and burned down most of his little village and the trauma of nearly burning made him Remember. Remember another life, another time, another way of life.

-Made him remember Nyx and how Libertus, after finally passing away of old age, had found no Nyx waiting for him, had gone and picked a fight with ... he thinks it might have been Ramuh? Or possibly Bahamut himself, and demanded to be taken to his best friend RIGHT NOW. No he didn’t care if Nyx had wandered off to become a Walked Twice. You think Libertus isn’t stubborn enough to qualify? TRY HIM YOU OVERGROWN LIZARD.

-Not his most sparkling moment of intelligence to be sure.

-But that means ... Nyx has to be here. Somewhere. Surely.

-But there is no Nyx in the village, and the village is struggling to cope, especially his mother, considering both their home and her workplace had been reduced to rubble.

-They end up leaving the village. They had never treated Libertus’s mother too well after he had been born, so it was no real emotional loss. Libertus is physically five when this happens, and he tries his hardest to help his mother and make her smile. She’s the only Clan he’s got after all.

-They wander from village to village before settling down in one where his mother finds work as a seamstress. Libertus, now eight, makes a few yen running packages and messages around town, his brown braids with the little blue beads he’d managed to get bouncing against his temple.

-It’s on one of his runs when he’s around nine that he rounds a corner too fast and smacks right into someone’s leg. He lets himself fall, tucks and rolls back to his feet with the flexibility of a child and the skill of a glaive, an apology already on his lips.

-The leg turns out to be owned by a NINJA. Wonderful.

-The ninja is staring at him, a little metal toothpick hanging from his mouth so loosely that if he gapes a little harder it’s gonna fall out. Libertus has a bad feeling about this. He yells an apology that is possibly too loud and energetic (an odd side effect of this new body, he tends to get ... loud and enthusiastic when nervous) and books it. He wants nothing to do with ninja, he just wants to grow up enough to travel so he can go find his idiot.

-The ninja doesn’t follow him.

-Nope. The ninja turns up again two weeks after Libertus had successfully forgotten about the incident with ANOTHER NINJA. This one is wearing some kind of awful, AWFUL jump suit of eye-searing green (watch out indeed), a red belt (oh dear), and the world’s shiniest bowl cut.

-Weren’t ninja supposed to be STEALTHY?

-The living neon warning sign is looking around with fervor as the two enter Libertus’s mother’s workplace (how did the ninja know she worked here), and his mother gasps. But not out of horror at the truly awful outfit, but out of ... recognition?

-“H-hello again,” she murmurs with a mix of fear and memory that makes Libertus’s hackles rise and him discreetly snatch one of her spare scissors off the shelf in the back room.

-The green ninja gives a booming, smiling greeting, then ... sobers. Quietly asks if she’s ... doing well.

-If she has a son.

-That’s about the minute Libertus notices that the man has caterpillar eyebrows. Caterpillar eyebrows just like Libertus’s, who did NOT inherit those from his mother thank you. He got her soft chestnut hair and hazel eyes.

-Libertus dives out of the back of the store and tries to stab the ninja in the femoral artery with the scissors because PYRE NO is he gonna be taken away from his mom by ninja for being some kind of wayward blood child.

-He doesn’t manage to get the artery, the ninja is too fast, but via the advantage of surprise and glaive memory, he DOES manage to bury the scissors into the man’s leg.

-It’s really not fair that all the man does is hold him up by his scruff and laugh about it. He has a bleeding leg. SHOW SOME PAIN.

-There’s talking after that while his mother fusses in terror and the toothpick chewing ninja pulls out a roll of bandages with a sigh (if it hadn’t been for the current situation, Libertus would have sympathized, he knew what that Sigh meant, he too had an idiot to look after).

-Surprisingly, the green ninja (Might Guy! He announces with a smile that literally sparkles what the pyre) does not insist on taking “Jun” away from his mother.

-Nope. He takes his mother WITH them back to the village. For a wedding. Libertus is honestly stunned. Weren’t ninja supposed to be sneaky and without honor? He has literally no obligation to marry the woman he had a fling with as llike- a FOURTEEN year old just because a kid came out of it. But apparently nope. Libertus’s father is the one ninja with a sense of chivalry because he signs a marriage certificate within hours of getting back to the ninja village of Konoha with mother and Libertus in tow.

-And just like that, Libertus’s name is Might Jun.

-What.

-What is going on.

-No he doesn’t want to be a ninja buzz off.

-Libertus takes to exploring their new home, partly to avoid his new ... father and partly to look for Nyx because who knows, maybe he’ll get lucky for once.

-He’s passing the ninja academy when he hears laughter and footsteps. He sidesteps, but isn’t fast enough to keep from getting run over by a screaming blur of orange. While trying to catch his breath from being trampled by the screaming orange blur (who has yet to notice the impact), a hand appears in his vision. He follows the hand up a pale arm and to a concerned face with black hair and black eyes, “Hey, you okay? Sorry about Naruto, someone let him have ... caffeine...” the boy’s breath stops. He’s staring at the side of Libertus’s head.

-No. His head. His temple.

-His braids.

-And Libertus, on an old instinct from another life, tilts his head as he sits up, looking for braids.

-He sees the purple bead and cord, the simple twist braid partly tucked behind the boy’s ear and hope burns through him like liquid fire. No way. No way. What were the chances of finding Nyx HERE.

-Check that, it’s a child soldier death academy. Why wouldn’t he find Nyx here.

-If it’s really Nyx.

-He swallows his fear and whispers, “For Hearth and Home.”

-Hope flares in the other boy’s eyes, his lips twisting before he rasps, “Libertus.”

-And the next moment Libertus is on the ground again, pinned down in the middle of the street by a sobbing Nyx, but that’s okay, because Libertus is sobbing too. A second after that and he’s hauled to his feet and dragged off by Nyx to a too-empty compound that still stinks of old blood and bleach and bundled into one of the houses so they can sob in privacy.

-Libertus spends a good ten minutes screaming himself hoarse at Nyx for dying. For being a self-sacrificing heroic idiot. Nyx screams back that what was Libertus doing here then huh?

-“I died of old age you idiot! Like you should have!”

-Nyx pauses “...Oh.” A blink, a flicker of red in black eyes and Nyx whispers, “What happened ... after?”

-And Libertus tells him. He tells him everything as they lie on Nyx’s futon, tangled around each other in a puppyish pile like they did when they were children. He tells him about Insomnia’s fall, and Princess insisting on separating, on going to Galahd and waiting until the Long Night fell and he returned to the glaive. How he was the Captain and hated every second of it, hating having to choose which brothers and sisters would take the suicide missions, hated losing more and more people as the night kept going.

-He spoke of the young king who returned ten years later with age and wisdom in his every line. How they followed him to Insomnia to take back the dawn. How the king died purifying the scourge and giving them a chance. How he had gone back to Galahd with the survivors and rebuilt their homes until Libertus was old and grey and couldn’t really walk because of the ache in the hip a daemon shattered during the Long Night that no one had had an elixir for.

-Then he speaks of waking up here as Jun, of his mother and his ... new father. Of being taken here and exploring and finding Nyx.

-Then Nyx huddles closer, and tell him his story in return. In waking up his memories in a massacre. All of his Clan. Gone. Again. Murdered by a kinslayer, a former BROTHER and Libertus keens for his friend. Nyx whispers of putting himself back together and training, and it is only now Libertus registers the pink and purple ribbon woven into a tiny braid in his hair, a declaration of revenge.

-Nyx also tells him of Naruto, the boy he’s adopted, of little Hinata and her flinches and how she blossoms like a flower in the sun with just a little bit of kindness and praise. He talks about his Anbu, the masked ninja that leaves potted plants on his window sill and is secretly addicted to Nyx’s cooking, terrible as it is, and how even though the man will not speak and won’t give his name, Nyx has adopted him too.

-Libertus hugs Nyx as tight as he can and swears that it will be alright.

-He comes home late that evening, dragging Nyx behind him by the wrist, looks his new father in the eyes and says he wants to become a ninja.

-The promise of training, of becoming strong enough in this world to protect Nyx, is worth the manly tears and illusionary sunsets his declaration gets.

-Of course, dragging Nyx home only causes more manly tears when he announces that this is his new best friend (what kind of name is Sasuke anyway, Nyx is much better, but they keep their old life names to themselves). And they get ... a lot of odd looks after that as they run around, attached at the hip just like when they were kids the first time around. Might Guy, his father, has a lot of Feelings about this friendship. Mostly Manly Tears and booming declarations of Youth. Libertus smacks Nyx over the head the one time Nyx grins and says Lib’s new dad is fun.

-Meanwhile the rest of the village watches in horror at the budding friendship of the Last Uchiha and Might Guy’s newfound son. Because MIGHT GUY’S SON. AND THE LAST UCHIHA.

-Kakashi feels a creeping sense of Doom™ in his future.

I’ll cover the reunion with Crowe in another ramble sometime, and more reactions on the Might/Uchiha friendship but for now this has already gotten long enough so I’ll leave it there. XD