#and she quickly starts to see them as someone to potentially blame her magic on

[nettleandthorne]

thanks for the last line tag @autumnalwalker! the last line i have written in my notebook is from a scene i've been very excited to write, so i'm happy to share!

Eventually, Maria breaks the silence. "Are you a witch, Gravedigger?" she asks, picking up their thimble in one delicate, lace-gloved hand. The silver of it glints in the light as she toys with it, turning it back and forth between her fingers, but her gaze doesn't stray from the Gravedigger's face. It pins them in place like a butterfly.

i'm tagging @dyrewrites, @starbuds-and-rosedust, and @jessicagailwrites! only if you're inclined, of course <3

[coraniaid]

I don't know if someone asked this already but: AU where the final big bad of Buffy was the Council of Watchers. Or AU where Buffy *does* take Anya's advice on charging money, or a job in some way that's related to her slaying.

Oh, the Council as the Big Bads of Season 7 is kind of fun.

Trying to make this as different from my other S7 AU as possible, let's lean harder into the idea that no Slayer was called after Buffy died in The Gift. The Council know that Buffy died stopping Glory and (especially after what went down in Checkpoint) they're pretty pleased about it. No more Hell God and no more trouble-making, too-old Slayer. Win-win, right? Only ... they wait and wait all summer and no new Slayer is called to replace her, and then they learn Buffy is, somehow, alive again. How does she keep doing it? They decide that they're sick and tired of waiting for a new Slayer they can control and this time they're going to make sure they get one.

We start with the Council trying belatedly to patch things up with Faith. They start talking about getting her convinctions overturned and how she could be doing much more good out in the world, but she figures out pretty quickly that they're trying to get her to replace Buffy and tells them to get lost. So the Council decide it's time for Plan B. We cut to Ethan Rayne, somewhere in a military prison in Nevada. "Good news," his guard tells him. "You're getting extradited back to England. You can thank your new lawyer for that." Ethan is confused. What new lawyer? In walks Quentin Travers... As the season continues, Buffy still has nightmares like the ones we see her have in canon, but this time the girls she's dreaming about being killed aren't just Potentials. They seem to have full Slayer powers, though not much training or experience. Otherwise the first few episode of the season go mostly as in canon (except no First). Meanwhile Buffy herself [and also Faith, we later learn] starts to have moments where her powers start to fail her, just like back in Season 3's Helpless. In one of Buffy's dreams, the girl whose life she's experiencing is in the middle of a fight with some vampires when her own powers also fail her.

As Buffy and her friends soon work out what's going on. Somebody [spoiler: it's Ethan] is using magic to temporarily drain them of their powers and hand it to over to other Potentials. Only those Potentials aren't ready for it, the power transfer isn't stable, and the people don't seem to care that the new temporary Slayers keep dying. They track Ethan down (for handwaving reasons he has to be close to Buffy to do the spell), she recognizes some of the props he's using [the same crystals from Helpless, let's say] and correctly guesses that the Council are involved. While confessing, Ethan lets slip something about the Council being happy to keep doing this until "one of you" gets killed, and realizes that Faith is in danger. We cut to a version of Faith's introductory scene from Salvage: Faith's working out when she's attacked by another inmate. At first she effortlessly disarms her, but then suddenly her powers begin to short out. The other woman suddenly has the upper hand, but Faith is rescued at the last minute by Buffy herself, who has managed to break into the prison [possibly using that super jump from The Harvest the writers later forgot all about] to save her.

Buffy breaks Faith out of prison and they head back to Sunnydale. Lots of similar-to-canon vibes here [Buffy being very weird about Faith being back while blaming Faith for 'weird mixed signals', plus Faith being just as weird about the fact that Buffy once again chose to save her life]. For their part, the Council seem to have moved on to plan C: trying to get Faith and Buffy killed as quickly as possible. They use a mixture of their own agents and freelance assassins for this [maybe we can bring back the Order of Taraka too?]. Meanwhile Giles is in England and we learn that there's a growing split in the Council between Travers' faction and a group of people who aren't quite so willing to go along with all this dark magic stuff [can namecheck Gwendolyn Post here, maybe]. Ethan admits that he was just hired to demonstrate that the concept worked, and that Travers is working on a spell that will let him give and take away Slayer powers from any Potential he wants. He's already had dozens of Watchers send their Potentials to England for evaluation [and this is how we can meet Kennedy and any other Potentials we want to include].

Back in Sunnydale, the gang are brainstorming their next move when they get word from Giles that the anti-Travers faction have managed to kick him out and are inviting Buffy to England for (essentially) peace talks. Faith loudly insists that this a trap but when Buffy insists on going anyway because it will give them a chance to find Travers spell preparations and destroy them (and gives a big speech about how they have to do this, not just for their own sake, but for every Slayer who will be called after them). They go, and while it's not a deliberate trap -- and Buffy finally gets to meet the Potentials in person -- Travers does launch a final attempted coup; having his allies attack the Council headquarters to get rid of both Slayers and the rebel faction that tried to oust him.

The situation looks pretty bleak at first, as the anti-Travers faction of Council don't have much in the way of loyal fighters (all the hardline types like Weatherby have defected) and Travers has pulled together a small army of various minor villains from the history of the show. But Buffy and the others find Travers' ritual prepartions in a hidden part of his offices [maybe throw in something from Faith explicitly comparing Travers and the Mayor here?] and Willow is able to modify the ritual to cast a version of the spell she casts in canon in Chosen, activating all the Potentials who are then able to use their new strength to defeat Travers' allies. Standing in the badly damaged ruined headquarters of the Council building, Buffy tells the Council (including Giles) that they're not going back to the old way of doing things -- that the problem wasn't just Travers, but the whole institution he represented -- and this is the end of the Council giving orders. It wasn't just the Potentials in this battle that Willow's spell activated, but all of them. Then we segue into [a version of] the final moments of Chosen; Buffy and Faith standing where the Council used to meet and looking out over all the new Slayers. Dawn asks Buffy what she's going to do next, now she's not "the one and only Chosen anymore" and Buffy slowly smiles.

[inari-zaheer]

Could I request some general HCs (sfw or nsfw) for an established relationship with Jacob from Tomb raider? Love you and hope you're doing well 💕

Thank you, hope you’re doing well too bestie ♥️♥️♥️

Dating Jacob Headcanons

Pairing:Jacob x Reader

TW:NSFW

—————————————

I can see the both of you meeting when you were in an expedition by yourself to try and find the Divine Source

And Jacob seeing that you didn’t have any bad intentions with it beyond pure curiosity he stopped the reminiscents from killing you and let you go on your mission (but didn’t let you go and get the Atlas in the Flooded Archives, claiming it was way too dangerous)

When Jacob was sure that you weren’t going to do any harm nor spread the news about them to the world he started giving you hints about the truth

To which were shared in nights of you studying beside him, with lingering touches and sweet praise when you got something right

You could not help but catch feelings for the handsome valley leader, and him, feeling the same about you, quickly offered you to stay as long as you wanted with him

Being in a secluded valley he didn’t exactly had much options on gifts for you, but if you were a fighter he’d always give you weapon enhancement and new gear to protect yourself

If you loved reading just then he’d even go to the Flooded Archives himself and get you some old documents for you to not only entertain yourself but to also understand more of the reminiscents history

If you liked jewelry he’d collect all the prettiest minerals he could find and gift them to you, like a necklace, or a bracelet, and at some point even a commitment ring

But a thing that never changed was the flowers that he’d always colect around the valley and give to you

After some time in your relationship you started noticing things, like how he never got hurt, how everyone that went to him severely injured seemed to be magically cured and so on, and that was when he finally told you the truth

He admited that even trusting you he was still afraid that somehow his secret would be revealed to the world, to which to his relief you were happy with just asking him a buch of questions, also understanding that the Divine Source was and had to stay protected by the Immortal Warriors or else something bad would happen to him

Sofia didn’t liked you that much at first, but you could not blame her upon not trusting a foreigner that might be a potential threat against the village and her father, but after you almost sacrificed yourself for her she changed her mind completely around you

Jacob would often take you to the highest mountains in the valley to go stargazing and look at the polar lights

You knew you didn’t had to tend to his injuries, but always asked to see them just to be sure, and he always obliged knowing it would make you feel in peace

Having lost a lot of people in his long life he needed to make sure you were okay everytime, so he was always touching you

Hugs from behind where he’d breathe in your scent, hands on your things while sat for dinner, him laying on your chest to hear your heartbeat

And if you weren’t a fighter he always had someone to protect you, and what made his heart warm that almost everytime Sofia volunteered herself to take care of you

NSFW Under The Cut

Okay so, this man has been living for more than a thousand years

And I definitely think that even with his prophetic mission, he always had time to fool around a bit

(And Sofia is the literal proff lol)

So this man has a lot of experience under his wing

He's definetly the type of guy who eats pussy for his own pleasure, wanting to give everytinhg he has for you

Not having conditions to do research on the subject I don’t see him beeing kinky at first, but after you introduced this world to him hed be into some stuff

He’s into choking, on both you and him, always telling you that you can squeeze his throat tigher cause nothing is going to happen

Definitely has a breeding kink, and like cumming inside you looking deeply into your eyes

Speaking of looking he always loves watching you bathe, sometimes it doesn’t even have to be sexual, he just likes to sit and enjoy the show

He loves giving you hickeys but in places that he’s the only one able to see them

He also likes when you give him hickeys, but sadly they always heal so fast, so if he managed to find a safe pigment he’d love if you painted your lips with it and kissed all over his body for him to keep admiring after

Sex often start between you after he comes back to his chambers still a little sore from the day and you offer to give him a massage, than your hands start to go south with other intentions

He’s a man that believes a true warrior should not be afraid of staining his sword with blood, so he would never deny period sex

Has a thing for fucking you with his clothes on

Doesn’t mind being rough with you, but prefer slow sensual sex, where you’d be so close to each other caressing every part you could reach

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E129 (March 16, 2021)

Tonight’s guests are Matt Mercer and Taliesin Jaffe!

Matt, on DMing Luc’s Revivify: “That was weird. It’s one thing when it happens because of player action and circumstances and the choices they make. When it’s entirely on me, unintentional, and just realizing different chess pieces you’ve set up, that’s rough.” It was especially rough since this was a child NPC related to a PC. “I was hoping somebody had a spell slot left.” He kept in mind that there are two clerics in the room and that they could resurrect the next day even if the Revivify went poorly. “A good chance, since it’s his first time. Okay, okay, okay, okay, I think we’ll be okay, we’ll see how this goes. It was really stressful in the moment! I did not set out to have that happen, but when I realized what was going to happen, I tried to see it through.” He wouldn’t have prevented a chance to bring him back. “There may have been an offshoot short-run series of games to find a way to bring him back. I would have found some way to correct the circumstance so the players could feel good about moving forward with the story and there was no undue punishment beyond their control.”

Taliesin on Cad’s response: “This is a big thing if you’re a cleric. It was very much coming in like an EMT. Everything should be fine... hopefully. Just focused in and got it done. The minute things started to go south it was like, okay, that’s the next problem.”

On Yeza’s feelings: “It is a very complicated situation. I think he, much like how Veth is trying to figure out what it is that she wants, I think he’s trying to help her find that while also figuring it out for himself. I think Yeza’s also noticing that because Veth’s the more active of the two of them she also takes the weight of the responsibility and the blame for things when they go wrong, unnecessarily. Especially when he himself acknowledges that he’s partially at fault for even dragging everyone in with the Conclave. As much as he’s appreciative for them coming back for him, there’s a lot of back and forth. He’s filled with a lot of regret, too, but he’s very much trying to convince Veth that it’s a burden that she doesn’t have to keep to herself, that they can share it and work through it together.” Matt mentions that, as an actor, he really loves exploring interactions between characters first and foremost. “Especially when you don’t know where it’s going to go.” He also praises Sam as a scene partner - “I really cherish that.”

How does Caduceus feel about Revivify and Speak with Dead? “Speak with Dead is an interesting middle ground, because he knows that it’s not actually speaking with the dead. It’s really just-- it’s almost medical, really. This is just reactivating a brain at a certain point. It’s practically just a muscle twitch at this point. That doesn’t really prod him in that direction. Revivify is interesting, because it had never really come up. At first I thought of it as bending the rules, but it’s not bending the rules. You knock over a plant, you replant it, you don’t stare at it and go ‘Well, that’s over.’ This is just doing the work. No, we can bring this thing back to health. This is all part of the circle of life, that sometimes we can save something. Especially given the stress that he’s put himself through over the past year of being with these people. He’s started to think of himself a bit as a battlefield medic, and triage is just part of the deal, and it’s completely acceptable.”

Did Trent really just want to talk? “Yeah, that circumstance, as it came together, Trent would never have arrived if there wasn’t an indication that there was some kind of infiltration or attack. Even beyond that, it was Jester breaking the concentration on her charm on that one guard when she created her duplicate.” The guards’ job is to inform a member of the Cerberus Assembly, and Trent lived the closest. “He didn’t know who it was, didn’t have any expectation necessarily. The minute he saw the illusion, he knew a powerful magic user was involved.” Seeing Caleb was an unexpected surprise. “I don’t think he wanted to throw down necessarily. He was more interested in figuring out exactly what the nature of this was.” Matt had multiple battlemaps that didn’t get used. “They managed to cleverly out-maneuver him in his surprise of seeing them.” The Nein rocketed up his priority list after that very quickly. Taliesin: “We’re so fucked.”

On Cad being “Uncle Caduceus” to Luc: “It’s the thing he misses most about home, is being a juvenile shit. It’s nice to be able to express that part of him again, as opposed to the serious, life-threatening, constant intensity. I’m very at home just being a little difficult.”

Cosplay of the Week: an amazing Beau! (_rumor_king, photography by kourtyardproductions on Instagram)

On Marion: “Like a lot of people in this whole narrative from the beginning, getting swept up in things larger than her and trying to adapt. This is a circumstance she’s avoided for a long time. She’s having a rough time in some ways, but simultaneously, she’s enduring. Like a mother would. She’s adapting, she’s making it work. Without much of a choice, you just kind of do the best you can and lean on the people around you to help you where they can. Luckily she has a daughter there. She’s probably surprising herself at how well she’s doing given the circumstances.” Matt talks about how weird it is to feel proud of character he’s created. “Of the many things Marion is incredible at, she’s a studier of the human condition. She’s seen and heard the stories of so many. That gives her a very special perspective. She can see elements of that fractured individual within Caleb, and knowing the good that he’s brought to his friends, and knowing he’s possibly saved her life from bad circumstances, she couldn’t not speak up. She very easily falls into that role of maternal comforter, because it’s one of the many things she’s really good at, she enjoys it, and she can see well when people need it.” He’s been enjoying having Marion along for this (despite the difficult circumstances) because he was always a little sad that they only got to see her for short periods of time.

On the Blooming Grove’s safety: “He’s afraid that it’s a premonition. He’s not pinned it down, but he’s happy to let his imagination wander. He at the very least feels like there’s a reason he’s having these thoughts, and that there’s a reason to go there. He’s a big believer that these things don’t just happen. He’s more likely to think that there’s a good reason to go versus a danger to go. He’s had a couple of ominous warnings lately, and he’s not used to them and not a fan. He’s more likely to read something like that as, there is something there waiting for you that you have to discover. There is something that is going to be helpful to you, even if it hurts.”

On Astrid: “While maybe not as readable in overall personality as Trent is, I still want to be careful to not discuss things that are still being discussed within the game and tossed around as possibilities. Astrid is another complicated character, as anyone would be who’s been through the life she has. I can’t say too much. I can say she’s definitely legitimately happy to see Bren/Caleb after all this time.” His reemergence definitely caught her off guard. “We’ll have to see where it goes from there.”

On Cad’s successful Divine Intervention: “He’s definitely hit the ‘on a mission from god’ stage. He’s been that way for the entire campaign of, this, this is what I’ve been waiting for. Even when it sucks a lot, it’s been nice that those things have popped up to remind him, no, no, you’re doing it right, everything’s good. Probably not going to survive the next week, but you’re doing good! Not quite 1 in a 100 chance, but I forget so often to make that roll, and it’s such a great roleplaying roll. I don’t know how at level 20 you could deal with the fact that you can do that every day.” 

On Zeenoth getting his comeuppance: the kidnapping was a concept Marisha brought up for Beau’s backstory, and Matt went with it even though it was opposed to the Cobalt Soul’s philosophy because he knew rooting it out would make for an interesting story. “I felt it was an important beat to bring to her, because it was something that she was wronged by. And to show that there are still some good people out there who are trying to make things right.” After the tentative peace, dealing with this became Dairon’s next focus. “I was glad we finally got to it. So many people don’t have the opportunity in their lives to get that sort of justice and vindication, so if I can bring elements of that justice into our world, even for our own hope, I’m going to do that. Especially for my wife’s character, especially for a character that deserves that.” Taliesin points out that if it had come too early, Beau wouldn’t have believed it.

Cad’s thoughts on the Tomb Taker betrayal? “He knew it was gonna come at some point. There was no way that was gonna last. He was hoping it was gonna last a little longer. He was really hoping they had a vested interest in getting them all the way to the end. Nope, this is apparently as far as we go, and he was not prepared for that.” He was expecting the potential for de-escalation. “Caduceus is the only character in there that doesn’t have a history with Lucien. I think he sees him a little more clearly than everybody else does. They’re all looking for this person that Clay, at least, is of the opinion that he’s just not there. This is a very manipulative, very dangerous infernal human. Just smarter than all of them. Really aware that there is no calculating what the hell is going to happen. Conversation is the only way you can deal with someone like that.”

Fan Art of the Week: An amazing Caleb closeup! (rynn_birb on Twitter)

Taliesin on Lucien: “I’m excited he’s the one that’s going to kill us all. Poetic that this is how the game ends.” Matt was delighted when Taliesin handed him carte blanche to do what he wanted with Molly’s past. “I was like ‘shit... oh, wait!’ The character of Lucien was always intended to be an antagonist so that it would have been Molly being chased by the person who wanted their body back. But then it happened that he got his body back.” Taliesin: “He’s so much worse than I ever hoped.”

Matt, on the Holy Avenger: “I hadn’t thought to initially even give that sword.” The good roll was the only reason Kima handed that over. “Well, sure, you get the sword. It was very reactionary, it wasn’t my intent originally. I was like, well, I mean, there’s two avenues she can take with this.” Multiclass into Paladin, or lean into the fact that her subclass is essentially a barbarian paladin. “This really works out in a uniquely beautiful way. Let me see if I can lay out a path for her to earn it.”

On Cad’s attempt at lying blowing up in his face: “He was like that kid that had a really bad day in high school and was like, you know what? I’m going to let loose. This is it. I’m gonna dye a streak in my hair. And then tries to give himself a haircut and ends up with half bangs. Well, okay, obviously I’m not that person. I was feeling a little distraught and I didn’t handle it well. Maybe I’m going dark... no, I’m not going dark. Nope.” Matt mentions how much he relates to Caduceus.

Matt, on the Eyes: “What can I tell you? I’m enjoying the hell out of it. The moment they began to really push to read that book, I was like, okay, this is on you. I’m excited for the point in the narrative where the march continues back to Eiselcross. I am almost impatient - not really - because we’re on the cusp of getting to more of the meat. There’s so much to learn, so much to see, so much to explore. I love instilling my players with absolute terror.”

Thoughts on Jester’s Tarot reading? Taliesin cackles. “Molly made the cards, so. Did it to himself, he did, he did.” Matt: “Once again, another example of things working out unexpectedly and too perfectly for an improvised moment. Fuck.” Taliesin: “Bless the wisdom of chaos.” Matt: “I love that even at this point in the campaign, Molly continues to fuck with people. I’m just so proud. That deeply shook Lucien, for reasons.” Taliesin: “It’s the everlasting gobstopper smoke bomb.”

[thelargefrye]

YEARNING FOR YOU. kang yeosang (18+)

── summary. you’re just within reach and yet every time he tries to get to you, you vanish right before his eyes... again and again and again.

── roles. mage!yeosang + mage!f!reader (ft. poly!mage!ateez & other idols)

── genre. smut + one-shot + mages + magic shop + supernatural + mythology + historical to modern day + romance + eventual poly relationship + angst + drama + reincarnation (most of these are for the overall story not necessarily this one-shot)

── word count. 3.3k

── warnings. nightmares + language + sub!yeosang & dom!reader + kissing + little hair pulling + one moment of spanking + anal fingering + handjob + degrading + amazon position + y/n is mentioned to have tattoos 

── developer’s note. happy birthday @atiny-piratequeen​ !! this is just a small something that i’m working on that’s inspired by against the tide !! i figured that since i probably might not get the whole story done by your birthday bc i’ve already been working on it for two weeks and i’m only still doing world and backstory building rip then i would just share a small piece that included yeosang. i’m still working on characters and personalities so anything you read here is subject to change by the time i get the first official chapter out. 

when the door to the shop chimed, yeosang didn’t bother looking up from his book he was reading. he knew that usually customers – humans at least – would just look around before leaving or come up to mindlessly flirt with him. it was the same thing every time the bell dinged. 

he could hear the customer’s shoes, heels to be exact, softly thudding across the old wooden floors as they strolled around the small shop. his hearing could pick up where exactly in the shop they were, so when they finally started nearing the back to where he and register were, he assumed this customer just wanted to flirt with him like always. 

“um, excuse me,” yeosang’s head shot up immediately at the sound of the familiar voice. you stood in front of him also with a look of shock from how quickly yeosang moved and his eyes flickered down to the canvas in your arms. 

“o-oh, um, hi. how can i... how can i help you,” yeosang says as he tries his best to relax, but honestly he doesn’t think he can, not when you’re here in front of him and talking to him. 

you smile softly at him before handing over the canvas you had in your hands, “this is the painting hongjoong asked me to paint. he told me i could find him and the rest of you here. is he, um, is he here by any chance?”

“huh? oh, yeah is he, let me go get him!” yeosang had never moved so fast before as he practically jumped off his stool and ran to the back to get the group’s leader and tell him you’re here. 

“y/n’s here!” yeosang says probably a bit too loudly and maybe just a little too excitedly but he hasn’t seen you in centuries. he has a right to be happy to see his missing lover. 

hongjoong isn’t by himself in the back, all the others are basically here too, except for jongho and san who had gone out to get information on how to help you remember your first life.

“she is? why?” mingi asks, a look of shock drawn on his face knowing you’re here just in the other room. 

“she brought the painting hongjoong asked her to paint,” yeosang says and hongjoong is quick to go to the front and yeosang picks up on how hongjoong greets you with a cheery tone. 

at first yeosang thinks about staying in the back and letting you and hongjoong talk for a moment, but his need to see you again overcomes that he heads back to the front of the shop. he hears the others coming up behind him as he does and he figures the others couldn’t wait either. 

a wave of memories washes over him as he sees you and hongjoong interacting so closely. all the times he would see you and hongjoong interacting on the utopia, all the lingering stares and touches you thought no one else saw, but in reality everyone saw.

he misses you. they all miss you. 

“wow, y/n, this is beautiful,” hongjoong can’t take his eyes off the painting you gave him and you have a proud look on your face as your eyes flicker between the male and the painting before you slowly look up and over at where him and the others are. 

“oh, i didn’t know you all worked here as well!” you say and greeted them all with a smile. 

“i actually own this shop,” hongjoong says and you turn to look at him in shock. “my grandmother ran this shop before passing it down to me before she retired.” yeosang couldn’t help but slightly snicker at how hongjoong called hyuna a grandmother. 

“really? that’s so cool! i had actually never been in this shop before until today,” you offhandedly as you glance around the shop some more. “oh!” you say catching the six males off guard as they watched you dig through your bag before pulling out eight envelopes. “siyeon is throwing a party and wants me to invite you all!” you say handing each other an invitation before giving jongho and san’s to wooyoung. “i hope you all can make it!”

“of course! we’ll do our best to be there,” hongjoong says, but yeosang knows that all eight of them are definitely going especially since you’re going to be there. “also, thank you again for the painting, it really is beautiful.”

“oh, of course! i’m glad you like it, i always enjoy painting sea related stuff, so this was a blast to paint,” you explain with a small laugh. “well, i should be going! i promised siyeon i would help her with party decisions, so... i’ll see you all around,” you say bidding the males goodbye before turning on your heels and leaving the shop. 

yeah, yeosang and the other are gonna have to work fast.

𐂴𐂴𐂴

sometimes when yeosang misses you, he’ll find himself remembering the time when you all were together on the utopia. he’ll remember how you use to help him in the kitchen, acting as both a hand and taste-tester to him. 

all the heated gazes the two of you shared being the reason for his flushed face that he would blame on the heat in the kitchen when the others would question him. although he was sure the others didn’t believe because his magic dealt with fire, so some kitchen heat was nothing for him. 

but no matter what the same thought still comes to him. he just misses you. he thinks that over and over again until he falls asleep and you appear in his dreams. 

it’s silly he knows it, mainly using his magic in order to ensure that you appear to him. he has sweet dreams when you are with him and others all enjoying your time together; however, the moment he remembers that none of it is real and that you are living a completely different life without remembering them, without remembering him. it all turns into a nightmare. 

and its always the same. the same day he and the others are forced to remember and sometimes relive again and again for centuries. 

“yeosang, wake up!” 

his eyes snap open and he feels hot, his bangs matted to his forehead with sweat and his eyes are immediately trying to get used to the darkness of his bedroom.

that voice... he thinks as he brings his hands up to cover his face. huh? was he crying? 

“yeosang,” he hears it again and sounds so close to him. right next to him and he feels like he’s still dreaming. but he turns his head and his brown orbs meet your own worried eyes as you sit next to him in his bed. 

“y/n...?” he reaches out to touch your cheek, his hands caressing your face and he gasps when he realizes you’re real and next to him. 

“why are you crying, love?” you ask him watching as he sits up. you reach over to brush his tears away before he suddenly takes you in his arms. “did you have a bad dream, yeo?”

yeosang doesn’t trust his words so he just nods his head as he nuzzles his head into your neck. “it’s okay,” you say softly, rubbing his back in comfort, “i’m here and nothings going to happen while i’m here. i promise.”

yeosang has heard you say those words before and it only makes him cry harder. you said that to him the first time you woke him up from a nightmare. you would always take him into your arms and hold him and wipe away his tears and tell him it’s okay and it’s all in the past. 

when yeosang does finally calm down, tears no longer running down his face, he slowly pulls away from you to lay back down. you lay down right next to him, pulling the blanket up to your chins as you brush hair away from his face. 

“i love you,” he says as he feels himself slowly falling back to sleep. you smile sadly at him, a hand still running through his hair as his eyes finally close. 

𐂴𐂴𐂴 

seonghwa was jealous, yeosang was 100% sure of that. the ice mage’s glare could probably set someone ablaze if he had fire magic instead. and honestly, yeosang doesn’t blame his boyfriend for being jealous because he was as well. 

“and who the hell is that?” wooyoung was the one who spoke up, shocked like seonghwa and himself at the sight of you talking to this unknown male. 

well, unknown to them at least. you seemed to be pretty close to the male, too close if yeosang or any of the others could say anything. 

“do you think they’re...” mingi didn’t want to say it out loud, probably knowing how much chaos he would cause among them if he did. 

yeosang wanted to be upset. upset at you for potentially going and falling in love with someone that isn’t them, but he couldn’t. he couldn’t be upset at you because this you, the one standing not too far from him and his seven lovers, this you isn’t the same you he met all those centuries ago. 

you don’t remember the love you shared and it broke yeosang’s heart. 

his eyes flickered over to seonghwa noticing the furrow in his eyebrows before he looks over to hongjoong who is just staring at you with sadness. then his eyes go back to you and this male who are sitting closely next to each other. the guy looks at you with such a softness that it reminds the fire mage of how seonghwa looks at all of them, with love. 

the male plays with the ends of your hair, running it over your face in a teasing manner that makes you laugh and yeosang would be lying if he said your laugh didn’t make his heart flutter. 

yeosang misses you.

𐂴𐂴𐂴

yeosang can’t help but sigh as soon as his body hit his bedsheets. he felt clean and relaxed after a long day of working in the shop below them and dealing with both humans and supernatural creatures alike. 

while he was staring up at the ceiling, he closed his eyes and started to doze off. he’s not sure for how long his eyes were closed, but he only opens them when he feels his bed dip. 

looking over he was greeted by the sight of you in little to no clothing and a warm smile on your face. 

“y/n, what are you doing?” yeosang was more than surprised to see you in his room. he was quick to sit up with a shocked expression as he moved so he was sitting right across from you. 

“what do you mean, yeo? i’m visiting you of course!” you say cheerfully. 

yeosang looked over you and he noticed the familiar tattoos that decorated your right arm. “you’re not real, are you?” he asked as he bowed his head so you couldn’t see his face. 

one of your fingers reached under to tilt his chin up and you looked at him with a gaze, “i’m as real as you want me to be,” you say with a smile as you leaned over and kissed him. 

yeosang immediately allowed you to take the lead. your lips guiding his as you ran a hand threw his hair and gently tugged on it causing yeosang to moan into your mouth as your tongue explored his mouth and while also teasingly play with his own wet muscle. 

yeosang was melting into the kiss, his hands coming up to your waist to pull you closer to him with your chest flushed tightly against his. when you pulled away from the kiss, yeosang tried to follow after your lips making you let out a small laugh at how cute he was acting. 

yeosang only looked at you with slightly dazed eyes, still not fully believing you are here in front of him which allowed you to push at his shoulders, making him fall on his back and into the softness of the bed. 

“y/n... please,” he whines as you hover over him slightly, both your hands caging his head to the bed as you look down at him. 

“what yeo? what do you want me to do?” you ask with a teasing smile, god, he hasn’t seen this smile in centuries. 

“p-please, please fuck me,” he chokes out and your smile turns into a grin as you trail your finger down the center of his body before it stops at the towel he still had wrapped around his waist. 

“want me to take it off?” he nods without hesitation, “words.”

“yes!” and the towel was unwrapped from his hips and now he was completely bare to you. his cock was only semi-hard when you removed the towel and yeosang watched as your fingers ghosted over the tip, just barely grazing it. “please touch me, don’t tease me,” he begs and you hum before wrapping your hand around his cock and slowly began stroking it until it was fully hard and an angry red, his pre-cum only just slowly starting to appear at his tip. 

he let out a string of whines and curses as you began moving your hand suddenly at a fast pace without warning. yeosang’s back arched off the bed, but your free hand came down to hold him still to the bed before you suddenly stop stroking him. 

yeosang watches you as you move in between his legs before grabbing the underside of his thighs, giving them a good squeeze before hoisting them up to his chest. when you let go of his legs, yeosang immediately went to hold them in place as his face was flushed a bright red. 

you cooed at him as you leaned over his bent body and kissed him before pulling away to look at his ass that was now on full display for you. his hole tight and pink as you played with it, wiggling just the tip of your index into him before pulling out. 

“you’re so tight yeo, does none our boys fuck you open enough?” yeosang moaned at the degrading tone you had laced in your voice. “that’s okay though,” you begin adding a firm smack to both his asscheeks, “i can just fuck you open myself.”

yeosang wanted to come with there and then at your words, but he only settled for letting out a few moans instead. he knew the minute he came then it would all be over. he watched you quickly stand up and go over to his bedside table and dug through the draw before pulling out a bottle of lube. 

yeosang watched as you squeezed the clear liquid substance into your palm before he felt you apply it to his hole. he moaned at the cold feeling it gave him as you rubbed it around his puckered hole before applying more to your fingers. fuck, he couldn’t hold his excitement as he felt your index probe at him before slowly slipping inside him. 

“f-fuck– oh god, please!” he moaned out, throwing his head back as you eased him open. your movements were slow, almost too slow as if you were messing with him and he looked over to meet your eyes. 

when you finally entered a second finger he felt his eye roll back as you started to pick up the pace a bit in your thrusting. yeosang let out a broken fuck as you slowly started hitting his prostate before grabbing his dick with your free hand and stroked him in time to your fingers thrusting in and out of him. 

“does that feel good?” you ask and yeosang can only nod as his head fell back onto the bed. you frown at his nonverbal response and quickly stop both your hands making his whine as you remove your finger from him. “i asked a question yeosang, so answer it,” your voice sent a chill down his back as if it was seonghwa speaking to him. 

“it does, it feels good,” he says, face burning red, “b-but...”

“but what? what do you want?” 

“please, let m-me... let me be inside you,” he says and you coo once more at him before you lean over him once more. your nose brushing his from how close you are. 

“do you deserve to be inside me? you may have a nice dick, but do you think you can use it to pleasure me?” you ask, raising an eyebrow and yeosang felt his dick twitch from between the two of you at you questioning tone. 

“p-please, y/n, please u-use me to pleasure you,” he says out of breath and you let out a small laugh as you sat up and slowly grind down on his dick. the fabric of your underwear slightly damp from your growing wetness and causes yeosang to moan at knowing how close he was actual to you. 

“do the others know how much of slut you are?” you ask with a small laugh, “i’m sure they know how much you like to be used. hm, don’t they?”

“t-they do,” yeosang stutters out as he watches you move off of him to take your underwear off and he feels a chill run down his spine as you hover back on top of him to take his dick in your hand a position it at your entrance. 

“is this what you want?”

“y-yes!” you smile as you sink down on his length with a moan. yeosang lets his mouth drop open as you start to bounce on his length, the sound of your skin meeting his joining the sound of his and your moans. 

“f-fuck, yeosang!” you moan as yeosang takes you all in. his eyes fall on your chest which was still covered and he lets his legs go for a moment in order to unclasp your bra. you take your bra off and throw to the side now allowing yeosang the ability to see you completely bare now. 

god, how he missed this sight and he was glad you were using his legs as support for yourself because this allowed him to roam his hands over your body.  

getting lost in his pleasure he accidentally thrusted up making you glare at him before stopping, “toys don’t move, so still or i won’t let you cum,” you say and yeosang nods letting out a quiet y-yes before you continued between bouncing and moving your hips in figure-eights. 

yeosang felt himself grow closer to his orgasm and you clenching around him doing nothing but bringing him closer. “i-i’m c-close! please y-y/n! let me–

he own choked moan cut him off as he felt you clench around him as you came with a loud moan and a whimper of his name. you coming was enough to finally send yeosang over the edge as he took in the sight of you climaxing, knowing you used him to reach your own pleasure. 

it took you a moment before you slid off of him and next to him. you were quick to get him to put his legs down which felt a little sore from the position he held for so long. 

while he caught his breath he felt you reach over and press different kisses all over his face making him smile. you pressed a final kiss to his lips before cleaning him up and helping him under the covers. 

“i love you, y/n, please don’t disappear,” he says as you hold him close to you under the covers of his bed. you remained silent, only slowly running a hand through his hair and lulling him to sleep.

eventually, yeosang closed his eyes welcoming sleep as he fell asleep in your arms. 

when he woke up the next morning he was greeted by an empty bed and yeosang can’t tell if what he experienced last night with you was even real or just a dream. with a sigh, he gets up and starts to get dressed before heading out of his room and to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for himself and the others.

“i love you, too.”

[corpsedaydream]

paint wars part 2

OKAY HERE IT IS! PART TWO TO PAINT WARS

if u haven’t read part one, i’ll link it right here

word count: 3k (yikes it’s a long one)

_______________________________

paint wars part 2

Things had been rough lately.

Real fucking rough.

You missed Corpse so much. You hadn’t spoken to each other since that fight at his apartment and that was fifty-four days ago now, almost two thirds of a season you’d been without him.

“I miss you.” You spoke aloud into the emptiness of your apartment, noting that the time on your phone now said 12:01am. It was officially now day fifty-five without speaking to him.

You swiped away all your notifications on your lock screen, ignoring everything and everyone that was trying to reach you right now so you could look at the person who was ignoring you. You wanted to look at the photo that was still your wallpaper. That first photo you’d ever taken together.

You went to change it on day thirty-eight of not speaking. On night thirty-seven of not speaking you’d gone out with your friends, they’d finally convinced you after a whole month of trying and you got absolutely wasted. So of course you’d called Corpse. But he didn’t answer, not any of the fifteen times you’d called. So that next morning, when you woke up hungover and saw that same lock screen photo and not one response from him, you told yourself you were going to change it. You tried to tell yourself you were angry, but it was just a coping mechanism to ignore the hurt that had been tunnelling through your heart since being without him. You spent an hour scouring tumblr and twitter for some aesthetically pleasing lock screen, but you didn’t save a single one. Nothing could compare to that photo of you and Corpse.

You then started to wonder if he’d listened to any of the voicemails you’d left the night before. You couldn’t remember them exactly, but you knew you definitely left four of them and how badly you wanted to know if the curiosity became too much to bear and he’d listened to them.

And he had.

On night thirty-seven, while you were out drinking, Corpse was in a deep sleep. He hadn’t been sleeping a whole lot lately, so finally, he’d crashed hard that night and slept through the calls you’d made to him. But even though he wasn’t aware of the calls in his sleeping state, you were still present in his dreamland. Every adventure his brain took him on was with you, maybe it was something that kept him asleep, the fact that you were right there in this fantasy. You were talking to him again, he could see your smile, hear your laugh, reach out and grab your hand, he could kiss you again. It was happiness. But then he woke up and he went to reach out for you in his bed, still caught up in the false wonder his dreams had provided him, only to find it was just him and reality slapped him fully awake. You weren’t there with him. You hadn’t been for a number of weeks. He missed you.

On day thirty-eight, when he spotted the missed calls from you on his phone, he cursed himself for being asleep and missing it. But would he had answered had he been awake? He wasn’t sure. So instead, he heard you speak to him for the first time in so long, even if it was through a voicemail you had left in the space of him not answering your calls.

“Oh, fuck- oh my god.”

That was it. That was the first voicemail, there was a lot of background noise but he had heard you so clearly. In your drunken state, you didn’t know what to say, so that’s what you had left with him, until you called back and left another.

"Hi.” You started it simple. He had the phone clutched so tightly in his hand, the device pressed so firmly against his ear, he didn’t want to miss a word. “I- I don’know what to say.” He noticed the slight slur to your words then, you were drunk when you had called. “I’m’a just go.”

You hung up again, but alas, there was another.

“Can I just ask... are you ignoring me?” Your voice was so meek, his chest hurt at the sound of it. He almost went to say no, but this was a one sided conversation, he’d missed the opportunity. “I miss you.” You hung up again, and he had to stop himself from replaying it over and over again to hear you say that you missed him.

But there was one last voice mail.

“I should stop calling, huh?” You sighed and he could picture you with a sad pout, your eyes all droopy with a mix emotion and alcohol. “But, I just want’a talk to you.” You confessed, then he heard another voice call your name in the background before they spoke to you and he listened. “(Y/N)! Here you are, what are you doing? That guys wondering where you are, he’s fucking hot-”

Corpse hung up then, he didn’t want to hear anymore. Jealousy was surging through him as the unwanted images of you with someone else plagued his mind and he threw his phone across his room. Wishing he hadn’t of started listening to those fucking voicemails.

What he didn’t know, though, is how the rest of that last voicemail went.

“I really don’t care.” You’d told your friend at the mention of the guy. Yeah, he was attractive and he was buying you drinks, but you wanted no one except Corpse. “Give me a sec.” You’d told your friend before walking away again, bringing your phone back to your ear to talk to the only person you wanted to talk to right now, even if he wasn’t on the other end of that call. “I hope you didn’t hear that, but if you did, don’t worry it. I’m g’na go home now.” You sighed and looked up at the night sky, there was no shooting star, or really any stars at all because of the light pollution from where you currently were, but you were still wishing that by some magic happenstance, Corpse would pick up his phone and speak to you again. “I wish I was going to yours.”

On day thirty-nine you cried so hard. You thought you had made it past this violently sobbing stage, this was exact state you’d cried yourself to sleep to each night for the first few weeks. Your heart was in so much pain, it was torn apart and you swore only one person had the power to stitch it back together, but he wasn’t there. You hadn’t heard a single thing from him. Were you two still together? Had you broken up? You weren’t even sure. But on day thirty-nine you cried that hard again because Corpse hadn’t responded at all to your calls or voicemails, so you convinced yourself he truly wanted nothing to do with you.

You’d been avoiding searching his name on social media, knowing it would send you into a spiral and you’d overthink every little thing but on day forty-two you’d noticed on twitter that he was playing games live. He wasn’t live himself, but you watched someone’s stream just to hear him again. You cried again doing this, because he was being exceptionally quiet, he wasn’t his normal self, he barely laughed once.

You wished you hadn’t clicked on it. The guilt you felt was already immense, but hearing him so not like himself made you feel even worse for causing all of this. You stopped watching, you couldn’t bear it. You knew you were to blame for all of this, you pushed him too far, you couldn’t believe how stupidly you had acted, you knew better and you did it anyway. The self attacking thoughts kept swirling your mind until you gave yourself a headache.

On day fifty-six of still not talking to each other, you ventured out to the beach with just your best friend. She’d been there for you a lot lately, she also felt bad about that night, but you tried to assured her it was your own fault. She didn’t know Corpse like you did, she didn’t know him at all, that’s why you felt to blame for not stopping the idea before it was too late.

“You should put sunscreen on.” Your best friend told you. You were laying on your towel in the direct sun, enjoying the warmth blasting into your skin, you hadn’t been to the beach in such a long time.

“Yeah.” You answered her, but you knew you weren’t going to. Another time, you would have, you knew the familiar sting of sunburn well and you normally put it on to look after your skin, but you hadn’t really been taking care of yourself too well lately, you just didn’t care enough.

On night fifty-six, you stood in front of your bathroom mirror looking over your body. You’d spent a lot longer at the beach than you realised and now you were burnt so badly and as red as a tomato. “Fuck.” You said out loud, turning and looking over your shoulder to inspect your back, it was just as red. You should’ve worn sunscreen. You left your bathroom to go find your aloe vera plant, only to find that it was dead. “Fuck!” You repeated, the one hope you had to help heal your skin even slightly quickly vanishing. “Oh, fuck. What am I going to do?”

That’s how you found yourself heading towards a 24 hour store to purchase whatever aloe vera cream or gel you could find, you knew it wouldn’t be as good as the plant itself, but you needed something. It was late and you were anxious as you neared the shop, you knew about this place from Corpse, he would often go there at odd hours to get whatever he needed. It was close to his place and you hadn’t driven around this area since that disaster of a night.

You squinted your eyes as you walked in and the harsh fluorescent lights pierced into your eyes after walking in from the night time. You were walking quickly and you told yourself it was because you were embarrassed about your skin being so burnt and you didn’t want anyone to see you like this, but it was really because you were so anxious over the thought of who you could potentially run into in this shop. Your swift steps brought you to the skin care isle and you let your eyes scan the shelves for the aloe vera you so desperately sought out.

“(Y/N)?”

You froze completely and you swore you even felt your heart stop beating. Hearing his voice speak your name again felt like lighting had struck right through you. This couldn’t be real, this had to be your imagination playing some sort of sick joke on you. Slowly, you turned towards the direction his voice had come from and sure enough, there he was. Dressed in all black, a beanie on his head and a mask over the bottom half of his face, your eyes locked with his. There was a pull in your chest, your heart had heard him, too and it wanted so badly to be with him, to be healed by him. You had thought up this scenario a million times over these past fifty-six days, of what would happen had you and him had a run in like this and in every single one you had so much to say, but right now, you were speechless.

Before you had a chance to even try to say anything if you managed to stop being stuck in silence, Corpse spoke again.

“Fucking hell,” He neared you and you sucked in a quick breath at his sudden movement. “Look how burnt you are.” You were wearing tights and an oversized hoodie, so your entire body was covered, but your face was just as burnt and clearly he had noticed. 

This was another aspect that didn’t fit into your scenarios you’d thought up about this moment. You’d imagined you would’ve look amazing. But instead of looking like some beautiful mermaid, you were the same colour as Ariel’s hair from The Little Mermaid. “I know, don’t look at me.” You huffed and dropped your head down, letting your beach waved hair fall around your face.

“You didn’t wear sunscreen?”

“Obviously not.”

“That was silly.”

“I know.”

“Are you sore?”

“Yeah.” It felt so natural to have this back and forth with him. It was brief, but it was enough for your heart to kick back into gear and speed up.

He stayed silent for a prolonged moment so you looked back to his face and his eyes were on your face but it was his turn to glance away then and you took the opportunity to really soak in his side profile. You’d even missed just being able to look at him. 

“Why are you here?” He asked you.

“I need aloe vera and I knew this place would be open.”

“You’re not using your plant?” Butterflies fluttered inside of you that he remembered a simple mundane fact that you preferred the healing touch of the actual plant for sunburn as opposed to what was bought at a store in a bottle.

“It died.”

Corpse suddenly looked back to you and much to your surprise, he laughed.

“Why are you laughing?!”

“How do you kill a succulent?”

“You know I’m not good at gardening and shit like that.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d be able to kill a succulent.” He laughed harder and you started to smile, he was teasing you but it felt so right. And hearing his laughter filled you with a warmth you’d been missing.

“Shut up.” You told him, but you were beginning to laugh too. “It’s hard to keep plants alive.”

“(Y/N), succulents are pretty much impossible to kill.”

“Okay, I get it, I didn’t purposely murder my aloe vera plant.”

“Oh, baby.” The pet name slipped so easily from his lips but it caught you both off guard, so the both of you stopped laughing and your postures stiffened.

Briefly, your eyes met but each of you darted your vision elsewhere. However, neither of you made no effort to move away from one another.

“Sorry.” Corpse said softly.

“It’s okay.” And it was, so okay. You wanted to tell him that hearing him call you baby was all you’d been wanting to hear again over these almost fifty-seven days without him. “I should really get this aloe vera gel on me, though.” You really didn’t want to leave him, but you couldn’t stand in this store forever.

“Are you sunburnt all over?” He asked.

“Yeah.” You sighed

And just as instinctively as the pet name had slipped out, his hands started to move towards the sleeve of your jumper. But he stopped himself when you flinched slightly and he quickly realised what he was doing. “Sorry, can I see?”

“I mean, you can, but I don’t want you to do it because it does really fucking hurt. That’s why I jumped, not because I don’t want you to touch me.” You answered him quickly. “I do want you to touch me- wait, I mean, no.” If your face wasn’t already red from the sunburn, it would have become red then from the blush you could feel forming. And if your skin wasn’t in pain you would have facepalmed yourself. “Sorry.” You apologised then.

“It’s okay.”

Shaking your head, you began to gently slide the sleeve of your big hoodie up.

“Fuck, (Y/N).” Corpse cursed, concern filling him as your skin was practically glowing from the burn it had copped. “You can’t do that to yourself.”

“I know.”

“How long were you at the beach?”

“All day pretty much.”

“You’re that burnt all over?”

“Yeah, I mean, some spots are worse. I think my back and shoulders are probably the worst. They hurt the most.”

He moved to step around you then, disappearing out of your sight as he was now standing behind you. “Can I?”

“Yeah, just be careful.”

And he made sure to keep his movements cautious, he decided on looking from the top, his hands grabbing the neck on the back of your hoodie to pull it back ever so gently so he could inspect. His eyes widened in a combination horror, worry and sympathy. He’d seen you get sunburnt before, but never to this extent. “Oh my fucking god.” The contrast between where the strap of your togs sat over your shoulder, blocking a sliver of your skin from the sun to keep it its natural colour versus the red that was brought from the burn was insane. “It looks like someone has painted you.”

“I mean, I guess the sun did. Just in a really painful way.”

“You’re not planning on going to the beach anytime soon, right?” Corpse carefully released your hoodie then and stepped in front of you once more. Distress was so present on his face, despite most of it being covered. He was so worried about you in this moment.

“Definitely not. The only thing I’m planning on is not going outside in any sunlight until my skin is healed.”

“Living like me.”

“Guess so.”

“My aloe vera plant is alive.” He stated.

“Wow, you’re really just going to flex that right now? Trying to kick me while I’m down.” You joked back, assuming he was teasing you.

“No, I mean...” He trailed off, his eyes struggling to stay on yours as he continued. “You could come over and use it, I know you like the real stuff better and I could help do your back, or wherever you can’t reach.” He was nervous, but he really didn’t have to be.

You could feel it happening, your heart beginning to heal.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Do you want to?”

“Yeah.”

[stopbeingrude]

I've been working on this for a while now. Since my one-shot on Gruvia-day went over pretty well, I figured why not? Probably another fanfiction about Juvia's past, but how could you blame me? Her backstory has so much potential I'll try to publish new chapters , every week or maybe more ( we'll see) So without further ado , i present you my newest work. ( Feedback is welcomed of course)

,, I like the rain, it always seemed like the only thing that was like me..."

Chapter 1. ,,Where are you?"

-"Juvia…." - he said quietly -" this is the last time you will be seeing me…"- For the moment she felt like she couldn't breathe. Until a little while ago, everything was fine. He visited her as usual, they talked as usual. However, she felt that something was wrong, she could see it from his behavior. He was terribly tense, but...

- "You're old enough to understand the situation I'm in. I've chosen this life, so I've always been aware of the fact that one day I would be in danger. But you have nothing to do with it. I won't let anything happen to you…"-he said with a shaky voice.

It was probably the only moment in her life ,when Juvia saw fear in his violet eyes. Who would have thought that unbeatable Jeremiah, the guy with a sharp tongue, incredible self-confidence and enormous power... would be standing in front of her unsure and quiet...

-" I came to say goodbye…"

'No...please no..' - she felt tears running down her cheeks. He was joking , he had to be joking. It was another one of his pranks , he never went that far , but it couldn't be truth....

- "That's not funny…. Stop...You're joking right? You can't.... you can't be serious.. No…"- the girl sobbed. She looked at his face again, hoping he was wrong....The man turned his gaze away from her.

...No...

-"You want to leave Juvia alone?...No..please..I'll be training harder, I'll become stronger…you can't!..." - her voice broke down. She hugged his legs.

The girl was still trying to convince him with all her strength. She begged , she pleaded , she cried...but nothing made him change his decision.

-" Juvia!" - this time he spoke to her in a cold, firm voice. The voice that was always directed at his opponents not her. It wasn't his usual feisty, slightly sleepy voice. For the first time in her life Juvia was a little scared of him.

-"I will not accept any objections from you. You will do as I have told you. Do you think your mother would be proud of the way you behave?"- he looked straight into her eyes.

........

Mother?.. Every time she was mentioned, Juvia wasn't sure how to react. She didn't know what to think about her…nor did she remember her….she knew practically nothing..

Every time someone mentioned her, Juvia felt like she was being told about some character from legends, or fantasy books…., not a mother she should feel some kind of connection to, not even a REAL person.

A wonderful and beautiful mage who, after arriving to Tempeville together with Jerry, saved the village from an attack of bandits. And that's all.

No one except Jerry really knew who she was, nor where she came from..

Only information that Juvia had was that the golden-haired man was on one of his missions, when he saw Eliana Lockser for the first time.She helped him and after that they started to hang out with each other, to the point they were practically inseparable....

Though, he always said that he felt like Mother had never completely opened up to him. He stated that there were many things that Eliana never shared with him and he couldn't do anything about it.

Juvia never understood that, weren't he and Eliana supposed to be…..friends..?

Well, Juvia never got their relationship, till she grew older.

-We…were close- that was all he would always say. They lived, ate, trained together, spent time with each other and he took care of her child after her death..

......................................

What would her mother think?

Honestly Juvia didn't care...In the end ,she would still end up being alone. Why would that matter?

-"Fine…"- said the girl quietly- "Go...but please don't die and take care of yourself.." - she said , this time devoid of any emotion.

Her guardian looked at her strangely. Then hugged her for the last time.

-"Farewell froggy…"-Funny, she used to hate this pet name ,but now, the thought that this was the last time he would ever call her that, destroyed her completely - "Don't let them push you around, you're strong girl..."- he whispered. Then disappeared into the darkness, leaving Juvie all alone in front of the orphanage door.

So that's it, now she was left completely alone . No mother, no uncle, no friends....no one.

The girl could not stand it any longer. She fell to her knees and started crying as loud as she was able to, drowning in her own tears.

Her screams didn't stop until she heard someone calling her name.

……….Juvia!...

'Who's there?'

….Juvia!….

'What do you want…!'

…..Juvia!.....

'Leave me alone!

....Juvia!....Juvia!...

The girl watched as everything around her began to fall apart

-Juvia...Juvia…JUVIA!!

She knew that voice... Gray?....Wait, he wasn't there at that time...he couldn't be..

-"Juvia, please wake up!" -yelled her terrified fiancé.

Woman finally opened her eyes. Tears were streaming from them, she felt a huge pain in her throat, caused by the screams. She couldn't stop shaking.

'Dream….stupid dream….'

She felt the hands of her beloved on her face. She looked up into eyes that were looking at her with great concern. She couldn't help but whisper his name

-"....Gray…?"

'It was just a bad dream, a meaningless memory from the past'-she told herself.

They looked at each other like that for a good amount of time, until Gray spoke up, in a very quiet and gentle voice.

-" Please..tell me what the nightmare was about," he asked, pulling her into his arms. It had to be a nightmare, he knew that well. But it was the first time he had seen her like this and Gray was petrified.

-"Juvia doesn't remember anymore..."- she knew that lying wasn't the best idea, but she didn't want to tell him about her past now. She was sure that he would be angry at her for hiding it from him.

-"I know you're lying, now tell the truth"- said Gray firmly. Did she really believe Gray would let her go so easily?- "...Please.. be honest with me. You know you can tell me anything."

- "A childhood memory" she said vaguely. It wasn't a lie.

-" I'm sure you didn't dream about the usual bullying you have been through. Please...Juvia..I have a right to know.."

She took a deep breath

-"Juv..I dreamt about my uncle leaving me alone at the orphanage…."- she said quietly, lowering her gaze towards the pillows, she wouldn't be able to look straight into his dark eyes.

- "Uncle? What Uncle?....But you told me you had no family left, that you were all alone.."-he said, shocked.

He has always been sure that he knew everything about his Juvia. She was always very open and straightforward with him. After they became a couple, Gray stopped hiding his thoughts and secrets from her. He thought that she did that too…

And now he finds out about some uncle... who... left her? In the blink of an eye, his mood changed.

-"All this time you've been covering the ass of the asshole who abandoned you?" -he asked, filled with rage.

Gray imagined the silhouette of a man dropping a little, crying Juvie at the door of the orphanage. He felt both anger and hatred towards the mysterious man. He would find him, tear him apart, and make him beg Juvia for forgiveness.

-" No, no...you have misunderstood me.."- he looked at Juvia's red but still beautiful face and all the anger disappeared instantly.

' She stopped using third person'- he noted

-"Firstly he is not my relative, but my mother's companion and secondly he didn't abandon me "- she started- "He's been taking care of me since I was baby. He took care of my needs, he taught me how to use water magic, he basically raised me…But because of his job, he had to travel a lot. Jerry -that's his name- said that it would be dangerous for a weak child like me to stay with him , so I started living in an orphanage. He would always visit me or the other way around...Till.."-she stopped for a moment to compose herself -" Till one day he told me that he needed to leave and that It was for my safety. After that I have never seen him again. "

For a while they sat in silence , hugging each other. Gray wasn't sure what he should say to her…

-"You never saw each other again?''-he asked. 'She just told you that, idiot...Why are you asking her again? To make her cry even more?' - Gray mentally scolded himself.

-"Yeah... I wanted to know how he was doing, i tried to find out what happened to him but..there was nothing"

- "Juvia... he can be…"- he didn't want to finish his sentence. His beloved was already devastated enough.

-'' I know"- she answered-" I have always been prepared for that.. That's why I've stopped looking for him. I accepted that…Until I met with Mrs Revee this afternoon. She used to work at a library in Tempeville - my hometown.

We started talking about old times , then she brought up the topic of Jerry. She asked me if I knew what happened to him….After that I couldn't stop thinking about him…...I guess that's where nightmares came from."

- "Juvia….."- Gray tried to find the appropriate words- "If there is anything I could do…"- He was desperate to do something...He hated being so powerless.

- "No and nothing can be done anyway, he traveled all his life. Trying to find him or his grave would take months if not longer…"

- "Juvia…"

-" It's nothing, darling. Good night"

The girl lay down on her right side and covered herself with a blanket. She tried her best to fall asleep as quickly as possible. She needs to forget all of this, so she can go back to being her happy and positive self. Not gloomy, scary Rainwoman.... Suddenly she felt Gray's breath on her neck and his strong arms around her.

- "I know I don't say this often...but I love you…...and I hate to see you like this...I will do everything in my power to find out what happened to him..."- he whispered ,- "We will start with your home village."

- "Gray...I.... - she didn't know what to say. How dare he make her fall in love even more...-Thank you..Juvia loves you too."

After that both of them were finally able to fall asleep. Tomorrow… they will start preparing for their journey..

************************************************

Author's note: This is probably the most upsetting thing I've ever written , especially the scenes with little Juvia....Ouch..

[kind-of-crazy-butthatsokay]

Mischief and Teaching

(or "teaching mischief"?)

Summary: You have a natural talent for Seidr, the magic of the nine-realms. When your powers grow out of every teacher's control, your parents seek help at the palace. Will you find a teacher?

Pairing: Loki x fem!reader

Word count: 1.7k (God, I was so worried I would end up with more than the word count allowed, but I thankfully managed. Phew)

Warnings: 18+ even though there's nothing for this. All my work and my blog is 18+, Minors dni. Apart from that, there's a lotta fluff and humor in this one.

Author's note: This is my first submission for @syntheticavenger's 5K Follower Celebration "How it started - How it's going" Challenge! It's a really cool drabble challenge. Find the post about it here and check it out.

The prompt I received was: "Loki/'Magician's' Assistant'"

Now, I admit that had a lot of smutty potential but for once in my life my brain decided to go down the funny, fluffy road instead of the angsty, smutty one. There's gotta be a first time for everything, huh?

...

How it started:

“No, mother. I don't have the need for an assistant and neither do I want one. I work best alone,” Loki said, voice tight as he tried to keep his tone polite but firm.

But Frigga kept nagging. She wouldn't be the Queen of Asgard if she gave up simply because someone had told her no. Looping her arm through Loki's she pulled him close to her side as they walked through the corridors of the palace.

“She wouldn't be only your assistant. You would also be her teacher,” she replied and steered him down a wide hall, smiling politely at the Lords and Ladies passing them.

“I don't have the desire to teach anyone. I'm certain she can find someone to teach her elsewhere,” he dismissed.

“I'm not telling you to commit to anything just yet. I merely want you to meet her. She and her parents travelled all the way to the palace to request our help in this matter,” his mother said in an attempt to appeal to him.

Loki sighed, barely keeping his eyes from rolling back in his skull in annoyance.

This girl his mother kept talking about was the daughter of a lowly Lady and her wife. They came from the furthest branches of Yggdrasil all the way to the golden palace just for an audience with the queen.

Frigga was widely known for her magical powers, so she was the first person the family turned to. People rarely requested audiences with the Queen. Usually it was Odin who attended to any matters brought to him by the Asgardian citizens.

Loki felt a spark of satisfaction at the thought of Odin's irritation when someone asked specifically to see Frigga and not him. He was so entitled to his position of Allfather and King of the nine worlds, he couldn't wrap his head around the possiblity that he wasn't all-knowing and not fit for every task.

It was that brief moment of petty joy over his father's irritation that made Loki reconsider his options. Sure enough he was known for his magical powers, even if not as renowned as Frigga. But either way, it gave him something he could hold over Odin's head, something he was able to do neither the old man nor his golden haired brother could.

This opportunity might open up new doors for him in the future and help him build his reputation to, in the end, rise above Odin and his childish ploys or Thor and his brute strenght.

“Fine, I will agree to meeting her, nothing else,” Loki gave in. His lips twitched into a little smile when Frigga smiled up at him widely and squeezed his arm with hers.

“That is all I wanted to hear. I am certain you will like her,” his mother said cheerily and pulled him along into the direction of the potion room where she had told the girl to wait with Thor to keep her company.

“Tell me what I have to know about her, mother. I want to know who I am talking to before I face her,” Loki said just as they rounded another corner and drew closer to the room the girl and his brother were waiting in.

“The girl's mothers are Ladies of lower nobility. Their daughter always seemed to have an affinity for Seidr, but the last years her powers grew and became harder to control. They tried to find teachers to help her, but no one could handle the extent of her powers. They were at their wit's end and the last resort they could think of was the palace. They hoped to find help here, so they came and requested an audience to explain their situation,” Frigga informed him.

“So she's powerful? How powerful exactly?” Loki asked, diggign deeper to get all the information out of his mother he could.

“Powerful, yes. You'll see for yourself. But she's inexperienced. Not one of her teachers could keep her contained for long. She needs someone who is able to hold a candle to her and I daresay you are fit for the job,” his mother answered before finally stopping in front of the room the girl was waiting inside.

-

You heard voices outside the door and started to panic.

The room was a mess, potion ingredients strewn across the floor, broken vials and furniture scattered in the whole room. Your magic was nervously swirling around and inside you, waiting to be used, to help, but unable to because you didn't know how.

“My Lady!” Thor boomed in front of her, his voice nasally and laced with panic. He was sitting on a small stool, his huge frame curled on top of the tiny piece of furniture. “Fix this, quickly! Before they see and-”

His words were cut off by the creak of the double doors.

Silence filled the room and you turned around slowly, face growing hot as you saw the other Prince and the Queen taking in the mess. Their gazes simultaneously moved from their surroundings to you and you cleared you throat as you curtsied awkwardly.

“Your highness, my prince,” you greeted them and then continued to introduce yourself. Maybe you could salvage the situation with your more or less decent manners. But before you could set off to a lenghty apology, Queen Frigga tilted her head to the side and tried to get a look at her blonde son hiding behind you as much as his broad frame allowed it.

“Thor? What in Asgards name are you doing hiding behind our guest? Step up and explain what caused this chaos,” she demanded, her voice not allowing any protest.

You stiffened when you heard Thor get up from the stool and step next to you. You could see him in your periphery and had do bite your cheek to keep from breaking into laughter. Keeping your gaze carefully trained on the pair standing in front of you, you waited for someone to break the stretching silence.

What you saw as you watched the pair surprised you.

Frigga's lips curled up into a smile and she quickly reached up her hand to hide the curve of her mouth behind her palm. The Prince was staring at his blonde brother, lips slightly parted and eyes wide. Then his lips, too, curled up into a smirk, but unlike Frigga he didn't bother to hide it.

“I, uhm... I was just curious and wanted to see what she could do, so we...well,” Thor stuttered trailing off when Loki started chuckling and Frigga cleared her throat in an effort to conceal her laughter. She looked at you and nodded, giving you permission to talk.

“Well, your highness,” you started, laying out your words in a way that would shift most of the blame to Thor. “Prince Thor was curious about my magic, as he said himself and asked me to show him what I was able to do. I declined politely, knowing I am not fully the master of my Seidr but he kept nagging me and gave in. It would be rude to deny a Prince, I thought. So I tried my best, I really did, but... I didn't go that well.”

“Obviously,” Loki stated, gesturing vaguely at his brother whose head at this point had turned crimson. It clashed horribly with the bright purple trunk that grew where his nose was supposed to be and dangled down all the way to his navel. The gigantic elephant ears sprouting from his head not all too unsimilar to the wings of his helmet were of the same vibrant colour.

The raven-haired Prince eyed you closely, his eyes narrowing a fraction. You did your very best to keep the amusement off your features, because really, Thor was just asking for it. He kept nagging you, getting on your nerves until you gave in and gave him a little show of your powers. It's not your fault you couldn't fully control them.

Despite trying very hard to look apologetic, you were sure Loki saw through right your facade going by the almost imperceptible upturn of his lips. He turned to his mother and nodded.

“I'll do it,” he said firmly and unhooked his arm from hers to approach you. He bowed down a little and reached out to take your hand. Bringing it to his lips, he brushed a soft kiss to it and smiled charmingly.

“It is very nice to meet you, My Lady. I have heard of your search for a worthy teacher. I am all too happy to offer you my services as your teacher and master,” he said pompously and you suppressed the urgle to giggle bashfully.

“It would be my pleasure to be your student,” you replied with a smile.

Loki nodded, more to himself than you and said, “You will make for a fine student and an even better assistant. I am sure of it.”

How it is going:

“Quick now! We have to be ready when he appears,” Loki called to you from the other side of the corridor.

You ducked into an alcove and got into position, sticking your head around the corner to give Loki a signal that you were ready. He did the same and then mirrored your movement, silently molding back into the alcove and cloaking his figure with an invisibillity spell he had taught you early on.

The two of you waited, hearts beating faster as excitement took you over, mixed with gleeful anticipation. Your Seidr twisted and twirled under your skin, almost making you vibrate with the contained power. And this time, you knew how to use it to your advantage, how to make it obey your commands and aid you in your often mischievous schemes.

'He's coming' Loki's voice sounded in your head and mere moments later you, too, heard the loud stomp of Thor's steps followed by his entourage of warrior friends.

You smiled gleefully.

'Let's turn him into a real elephant this time'

Loki's chuckle echoed in your thoughts.

'Shall we make him green?'

And again, congrats on 5K! That is such a huge achievement and you definitely deserve it, seeing how hard you work for it through all that content and amazing stories <3

'I'll leave that to you. I am open for anything. A pretty pattern would hurt either' you replied and then shifted into a more alert stance when Thor came closer. Your Seidr spiked with your excitement and when Thor reached the mark you and Loki had agreed on, you got to work.

...

There you go, my first entry! I hope you like it @syntheticavenger, it was a delight to write, hehe. 

[luminouspoes]

until the poets run out of rhyme

pairing: poe dameron x f!reader (modern au)

summary: poe and the reader go out for drinks with their friends, but soon have to make a detour in their evening plans. (based on the prompt: if you want to leave, we can)

word count: 4k ~

warnings: swearing, mentions of anxiety, sensory overload

You curl and uncurl your feet, burying your toes into the plush of your carpet, gnawing on your bottom lip as you stare at the dress on your bed. In just under an hour, your long-time best friend Poe Dameron will be showing up to pick you up to take you to Maz’s for drinks with Snap, Jess, Kare and Sura to celebrate Sura’s most recent journalism award. 

You aren't as close to them as you are to Poe - they were more his group of friends rather than your shared one of him, Finn and Rey - but they’d welcomed you with warm arms long ago, much like how your group of friends - Kaydel, Beaumont and Rose - welcomed Poe.

Which means that you really want to go to Maz’s bar and enjoy drinks with him, his friends, and celebrate Sura’s big moment because you know how much ass she kicks at her job and just how hard she's worked to get where she is today. But familiar icy ribbons of anxiety have coiled in your gut, spilling up and twisting around your heart at the idea of going out.

You close your eyes, breathing out slowly. Briefly, you remember something Poe once said, half as a joke, half as a genuine reassurance to himself, and you mumble it out loud to yourself in the empty room, “Happy beeps. You can do this.”

It doesn’t erase your anxiety, but the memory of your best friend is enough to bring a sense of comfort to you, and you grab the dress with a gentle smile on your lips to get dressed. The skirt flares out at your knees, and is a deep shade of red, with a sheer neck and sleeves. It’s comfortable, and once you add a pair of flat heeled ankle boots to the look, you think you’re just about ready.

You grab your purse and duck out of your bedroom into your living room, stopping by the bookcase to make your decision on which book to take. Finn and Rey were at first baffled by this trait of yours (then immediately started joking about how you really were perfect for Poe), but you never left home without a book within reach. Most of the time, you didn’t actually get a chance to even read it, but knowing you had one...helped your nerves. It was like carrying a miniature hug in your purse.

It took you longer than you expected to land on a decision: by the time you’re shoving your selected paperback into your purse, there’s a familiar knock on the door. Your heart does a quick somersault in your chest, and you bound to the door. You peer out the peep-hole, to see Poe standing in the hallway, waving a cheeky hello in your direction.

You grin as you unlatch the door, opening it with a swing. Your greeting flees from your mind as you take in the sight of him. It’s not so different from his usual attire, but he’s ditched his usual tee-shirt and beat-up leather flight jacket for a black button-up and black leather jacket. The jeans, however, are the same.

“Wow,” Poe breathes, beating you to the compliment as he gawks at you. “You look...really pretty.”

Heat rushes to your cheeks as you duck your head, giving a slight twirl so the skirt will flare out around you as you spin. When you come back to a stop in front of him, Poe’s still got that gobsmacked expression on your face that sends butterflies soaring in your gut. “You think?”

“I know,” Poe affirms, composing himself. “You ready for this?”

You nod once, “Just let me get my purse, I forgot it on the counter. You can come in, you know. You don’t have to wait outside every time, you’re not a vampire.” You don’t look behind you as you move through your apartment, but you hear the door click behind Poe as he follows.

“I could be, you don’t know for sure.” Poe calls. 

You bark a laugh as you pull your purse over your shoulder, twisting to face him as he crosses the room to you. “Mhm, I’ve seen you doing your hair in the mirror before, you have a reflection. You love the sunlight, and you always eat the garlic bread I make when we have dinner parties.” 

“I could be a recent vampire?” Poe tries with a lopsided smile, and you giggle again. His eyes light up at the sound; he loves hearing your laugh but especially loves it when he’s the cause of it. He’ll be purposely ridiculous for it any day of the week. “Got your book?” 

You pull it from your bag to show him the cover, and he clicks his tongue appreciatively, “Good taste.” 

"I always have good taste in books.”

Poe hums in response, taking a step closer to you. Moments like these come easily, where the rest of the world just...fades away until it’s just the two of you. It drives your friends up a wall, but you couldn’t care less when Poe looks at you like you’re his whole world and his lips are quirked up in a little bit of a smirk as he banters back. “I don’t know about,” he says in a low tone, dragging his gaze from the cover back up to your face and you swear for just a moment he pauses on your lips, "you like horror novels.”

Your heart thundering against your ribcage for a much different reason now, you fight to keep your eyes in a safe zone. The way he’s looking at you makes every possible response you could normally think of fly right out of your mind, as your mouth goes dry. Finally, you take another step forward, challenging him with a smirk of your own, "That’s because I’m not afraid to read them like some people, Dameron.”

“I’m not afraid,” Poe protests automatically, the argument a familiar one, but neither of you are really focused on running through the motions of it right now.

The room seems to crackle with energy and potential around you, and part of you so desperately wants to take that leap, but the other half is terrified that if you do, then you’ll lose this magic, this friendship you’ve nurtured with Poe for the last five years. So you dip your head at the last second, folding first. 

Breaking out of his own trance, Poe takes a slight step back before he holds out his arm to you, “Ready?”

There’s that spike of nerves again, but you brave through it, nod once and loop your arm through his. “Let’s rock and roll,”  you hesitate just a moment as you think of the moment before and how easily the two of you still managed to fall into each other’s personal space again. Maybe you really don’t have anything to worry about. “Oh and Poe?”

“Yeah?” He asks as you step out into the hallway, cocking his head towards you.

“You look pretty wow too,” you tell him, leaning forward to press a kiss to his stubbled cheek. 

-

It goes well, for the most part. The others grabbed a booth in the corner of the bar, placing you away from the brunt of the noise and crowd. You knew this wasn’t a coincidence: Snap, Kare, Jess and Sura were always accommodating for your anxiety, and it wasn’t as though they didn’t have their own to contend with either. 

Poe leads you to the booth with a hand on the small of your back, a wide grin on his face as he nears his friends. You drink in the sight of his joy, as you do every time you meet up with them, in between reunion hugs with everyone. Then, the two of you settle into one side of the booth, you at the wall and Poe sliding in next to you, his arm winding around behind you on the back of the seat, as he always did, but you surprise him by keeping one hand on his thigh the entire time. 

The conversation comes easily between the six of you, laughter flooding through the corner as you knock back cheers for Suralinda’s accomplishments. By the time you’re halfway through your first (and only) drink, you’ve nearly forgotten about your apprehension. 

It comes back quickly before you hit the bottom of the glass when a new, far rowdier group enters the bar. They aren’t doing anything malicious, but their loud rumbles and hollers are too much combined with the rustle of silverware and clinking of glasses and the noise of the pool table and the radio blaring above, and the tv stationed by Maz’s bar.

You tense up as you try to tune out the rest of the noise to focus on your friends, but you can already feel your nerves beginning to fray, and you just want to run away to somewhere quiet, and that only frustrates you more because you want to be here, in this corner and -

“Hey,” Poe’s voice was but a concerned whisper to get your attention and it cuts through some of the haze in your mind. You turn to him, opening your mouth to...say what you have no idea, but recognition flashes behind his eyes. Poe has an incredible sense for when you’re getting overwhelmed. “If you want to leave, we can.” 

You want to protest, because you’ve barely spent any time here, but before you can, someone drops a glass from across the room and you jump at the sound. “Alright,” Poe says as he locks eyes with Jess, tilting his head toward the door and jerking his thumb in your direction as Snap, Kare and Suralinda continue their argument over a show they all watch. Jess nods in understanding, and then Poe’s standing up and offering you his hand.

You take it after a beat of hesitance, and then he guides you away from all the noise, back outside toward his car. He was one of two designated sober drivers of the night - Snap being the other one.

You slide into the passenger seat, Poe closing the door behind you, before coming around to sit in the driver’s seat. He twists around to face you. He wants to reach out for you, but he knows sometimes touch can make things worse when you’re overwhelmed. “Better?” he asks.

“Yeah, thank you. Sorry for messing up the evening.” You tilt your head back against the seat-rest, eyes closing with exhaustion. This is far from the first time you’ve all had to cut an evening short or take a breather from things, but still...you were hoping tonight would go by smoothly for the celebration.

“You didn’t mess anything up,” Poe assures you, giving you a pained look that you miss. He hates how you blame yourself for things that aren’t even your fault, how you seem to think taking care of you is some horrible burden he and the others have to deal with. He can’t even begin to count how many times you’ve taken care of him when he needed it, how in the last five years, you’ve come to understand and know him in ways that so few could, that you knew exactly what to do to calm and ground him. 

How many times had you held him after he woke up from a nightmare while you were staying at his apartment, or him at yours? How many mornings had he woken up feeling safe and loved, still in your arms in the morning light? He could only hope he made you feel the same way. “We’ve all had a great time already, we got to celebrate Suralinda’s big moment, and if you want, when you’re ready, we can go back in for more fun - and if you’re not up for that, then that’s okay, too.”

You exhale deeply, focusing on his words and the sincerity behind them. You know it’s true - really, you do. You know it’s not as big of a deal as your brain is trying to make it out to be, you know that your brain can lie to you, make shit up that simply isn’t true to make you feel alone, but sometimes it’s hard to rationalize through that, sometimes it’s hard to remember what’s true and what isn’t.

But Poe knows that.

You turn your head to face him; Poe’s half washed in golden light from an overhead streetlight, half cloaked in shadows, and the smile on his lips is rueful. You don’t know how you lucked out at having such an amazing best friend in your life, but you’re suddenly choked up with some soft, overpowering emotion as you realize - not for the first time - how much he means to you.

You duck your head. “Thank you, for always having my back.”

Poe reaches out for you, catching your wrist lightly and his touch burns in the most wonderful way as he grazes his palm down over yours, interlocking your fingers together. “Thank you for the same,” he tells you, before adding with a lopsided smile, “what are best friends for, right?”

You shake your head, a laugh bubbling from your lips before you can help it, and you echo his words in agreement, “What are best friends for?” 

-

You head back into Maz’s long enough to say goodbye to everyone and congratulate Sura again, and then you’re climbing back into Poe’s car. You kick off your shoes into the floorboard, tucking one leg under you as Poe offers to drive you around town to help clear your head.

Most nights when you’d go on drives like this, the car would be filled with songs from your favorite playlist and the sound of you and Poe singing along to them. However, tonight it’s filled with a gentle silence occasionally broken by Poe filling it with stories from work that week: he worked at Alderaan Books, a small mom and pop store that’d been a staple in the town for years. It was run by the gentle powerhouse of a woman, Leia Organa, who’d inherited it from her parents Bail and Breha. 

Alderaan Books was entirely the reason why you even had Poe in your life. When you moved into town five years before, you’d decided to familiarize yourself with the various shops and stuff. Eventually, a storm had caught you, and the bookshop was the nearest dry place within quick walking distance. You’d burst inside, shivering and soaked from head to toe, and then there was Poe: with black as midnight curls and twinkling eyes and a soft, friendly smile as he offered you a towel to dry off with.

You’d spent the rest of the afternoon in the shop, talking with him - because of the storm, you were pretty much the only customer there - getting to know him. By the time he was offering you a cup of coffee and a book recommendation, you knew Alderaan Books and Poe Dameron would become an important part of your life here in this town, and you hadn’t been wrong.

Eventually, he’s turning down the road that leads to his apartment and you feel the rest of the tension in your body deflate. You didn’t fancy the idea of going back to your own apartment, empty and quiet as it was, after tonight. Which Poe would’ve known because you’ve asked to stay with him after being overwhelmed for that exact reason before; still, something warm stirs in your chest as he does so instinctively. 

He does spare a glance at you, to double check if that’s alright, and you give him a grateful nod, reaching out to squeeze his hand. He twists his so that your palms are flush against each other, and he interlocks your fingers together.

(He wishes he could pull your hand up to his lips, press a kiss to your knuckles, and maybe in another life, he could. But in this one, he doesn’t).

You’re both practically leaning against each other as you walk up the stairs to his apartment, your shoes in your hand, as Poe tells you about a book he’d found in their stock that he thought sounded up your alley. This was, in a way, a love language for the two of you: sharing music and books were as much a staple in your relationship as your banter and lack of personal space.

As you reach his door, Poe’s still describing the plot as detailed on the back cover as he unlocks it to let you in. You smile gratefully at him as he holds it open for you, letting you in first. Immediately, you look around the living room to see if you can spy Poe’s beloved cat, Beebee, but he doesn’t seem to be in the room - probably curled up on one of Poe’s bookshelves in his bedroom, since that was one of Beebee’s favorite haunts.

You collapse onto Poe’s couch as he heads to the kitchen to start boiling some water in the electric kettle. You sit your ankle boots neatly between the space between the couch and the little table beside it, and then crash back against the soft pillows. 

“Why is your couch so comfortable?” You call to the kitchen. Poe leans out from the window frame that bridges the kitchen to the living room, his curls falling haphazardly over his brow at the sudden movement.

“Because I have excellent taste,” he reminds you, before he pulls his body back into the kitchen. The ridiculousness of the man that is your best friend makes you laugh, and you slowly haul yourself from the comfort of the cushions to pad to the kitchen. You’re still a little worn out from the evening, but there’s a quiet thrum of energy in you now that you’re somewhere that feels safe and cozy.

He’s pouring water into two different mugs for you both, tea tags hanging loosely at their sides. Your heart warms as you realize he’s pulled out your favorite mug - a dull orange one that you always used for tea, because you’d unconsciously adapted a system at his house and had a different mug for coffee and tea - from the cabinet. When Poe turns around, there’s a gentle smile on his face as he motions at the mugs. “They’ll be done in about four minutes,” he announced unnecessarily, because you knew how long it took for his favorite brand of tea to steep. 

Wordlessly, you pull your phone from your dress’ pocket, and pull up your music player. You press the shuffle button and sit the phone down on the counter, letting the room fill with soft tunes as you wait for your tea, leaning against the counter and letting your head roll back and forth.

Poe’s hand skims down your arm, leaves goosebumps in his wake, “You feeling better?”

“Yeah, I am. Just kind of restless now, you know?” 

“Well,” Poe drawls out, his eyes flicking over to your phone and back at you, a mischievous smile lighting up his handsome features, “we’ve got some time...and you so helpfully gave us a soundtrack,” he presses his hand over his heart and gives you a small bow, flourishing that same hand out to you in offering, “would you allow me this dance, sweetheart?”

Your cheeks warm, a smile rising to your own face and you accept his hand. “I’d like that a lot.” 

He tugs you closer to him, linking both your hands together, and you both begin to dance around the kitchen - clumsy, dorky movements that follow the beat of an Abba song, laughing each time one of you bump into each other or step on each other’s feet. Eventually, you collide against each other, still swaying and bouncing to the music, and you rest your head against Poe’s shoulder.

As the first song fades out, your shuffle immediately begins the next — which just so happens to be “Can’t Help Falling In Love”. Poe shifts into a slower dance and you follow his lead. He presses his nose against the side of your head, and you can feel his breath against your earlobe as he begins to murmur the lyrics of the song.

Like earlier in your apartment, the air between you grows weighted. This isn’t just him singing along to a song, the way he’s reciting the lyrics feels like a confession: a gentle one, one that you could easily ignore if you wanted to - and a thrill of anticipation thrums under your skin as you realize you don’t want to ignore it. You’re not sure you’ve ever known someone so beautiful before: not just in appearance, but in soul. He practically radiates light and love, a constant source of warmth and sunshine in your life that you’ve come to rely on. You can’t imagine life without him: he’s who you picture beside you whenever you think of the future: late night car rides with him, bickering together in the kitchen, cuddling on the couch reading together. He’s your best friend, he’s -

You swallow hard. He’s more than that. You want him, more than anything, and it’s suddenly imperative that he knows that.

“Our tea should be done,” Poe says when the song comes to a close, pulling back to search your eyes for your reaction. 

“They were done by the time Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! ended, Poe.” 

“So they’re really strong cups of tea now,” Poe offers with a lopsided smile. His hands have found a home on your waist, and their warmth seeps through the fabric of your dress. When you still don’t move out of his arms, but rather shift closer to him, placing your hand on his cheek, his breath hitches just slightly before he says your name.

“Yeah?”

He opens and closes his mouth a few times, like he’s internally debating something. Finally, he whispers, “You’re beautiful.”

“So are you,” you reply as you run your thumb along his cheekbone. You lean up on your tiptoes, searching his gaze for any signs of hesitance at your closeness, then you finally ask what you’ve wanted to for a fucking long time: “Can I kiss you?”

“Please,” Poe replies but he doesn’t move any closer to you, instead just asks, “You sure about this?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” you tell him lowly and the heated look he gives you in return, paired with a dazzling smile you want to remember for as long as you live, is enough to give you the courage you need to crash your lips against his.

He gathers you up in his arms to draw you closer, a warm expansive hand sliding up your spine,to cradle the back of your neck as his other hand grips your hip, fingers bunching around the fabric of your dress. You move your hand from his cheek up into his curls, dragging your fingers through them experimentally, dragging a hum from low in his throat that you want to pull from him again.

You move forward, intending to nudge him back against the kitchen counter, but Poe has other plans, and at the last second, he spins you around so that the counter presses against your back as he presses flush against you. He pulls away from your mouth to pepper kisses everywhere he can reach: your brow, the tip of your nose, your eyelids, your jawline, and finally, your neck, where he stops and stays, burying his face in the crook of it as you hold him against you as you try to catch your breath.

Eventually, with one last brush of his lips against your skin, he straightens and fixes you with a bashful expression. You loop your arms around his neck, smiling up at him, feeling warm and happy. “Poe?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

He leans down again, and when your lips meet a second time, you can feel his smile pressed against your own, as he murmurs, “I love you too.”

[goodlucktai]

enough here to survive

@natsumeweek 2021 day 3; seasons/change

read on ao3

(previous part)

x

It will take almost a full year to convince his father. 

Shuuichi has to throw around words like “recruitment” and “investment” and “contingency” that taste like ash in his mouth, feeling like some kind of sleazy salesman. 

But that’s what it takes to get the man’s flat refusal to move into reluctant consideration instead. 

Explaining Takashi’s situation at home—describing his bruises and the way he flinches when someone raises their voice—isn’t enough to make his dad think it over, but his own family’s health and safety certainly is.

Shuuichi paints him a picture of a potentially powerful protector, should those vengeful spirits they’re all so afraid of come knocking someday; and, if that fails, a fall guy. A patsy. Someone to take the blame.

This is as much as Shuuichi can do for now. 

In the meantime, he picks Takashi up from school, as promised. 

Sometimes they end up in the park where Shuuichi will help him with his homework, and sometimes they end up at a combini where Shuuichi will cajole him into spoiling his dinner with expensive ice cream. Sometimes Takashi will have marks on his arms from human hands, but at least there are none left there from random yokai anymore. 

He comes out of his shell more and more every day, like a brave little hermit crab. It’s amazing the difference it makes just having someone around who sees the same world he sees. It makes a difference to Shuuichi, too. It peels him out of his bitter, angry armor, piece by piece.

Now and then, they encounter some of Shuuichi’s classmates around town. He doesn’t talk to much of anyone at school—and no one goes out of their way to talk to him, either—but apparently he’s much more approachable when there’s a little kid clinging to his hand. 

“Is this your brother, Natori?” Hinata, a girl from his homeroom, asks one day. They ran into her outside the convenience store and her eyes lit up when she saw them. Crouching in front of Takashi with bright eyes, she coos, “Oh, he looks just like you! You both have such fair hair.”

Takashi glances up as if to gauge Shuuichi’s reaction to this assessment, but at that moment, apparently, the lizard chooses to slink across the bridge of Shuuichi’s nose. Takashi dissolves into giggles, and Hinata clearly thinks he’s the cutest thing since Cinnamoroll. She refuses to let them leave until she’s bought Takashi some candy. 

After that she seeks Shuuichi out in class to ask about his brother—and then somehow that evolves into heated discussions about a TV drama they both follow religiously—and within a month Shuuichi ends up with her cellphone number and a standing invitation to watch new episodes with her and her boyfriend every Sunday. 

“My life has gotten a lot weirder with you in it, kid,” Shuuichi tells Takashi one day, only half-joking. 

He’s sitting in the grass with his arms spread out in front of him while Takashi conducts an experiment with the lizard tattoo, asking yes or no questions for it to respond to—right arm being ‘yes’ and left arm being ‘no.’ So far nothing much has come of it, the lizard curled up in the hollow of Shuuichi’s throat instead, but it seems to like the attention. It keeps wagging its head or tail when Takashi talks to it. At one point it appears to roll over. This is a magical development as far as the kid is concerned. 

“Good-weird?” Takashi asks hopefully. 

Rolling his eyes, Shuuichi says, “Obviously. You don’t have a bad bone in your body, Takashi.”

Takashi beams, as delighted by that as he is by the stupid tattoo. 

“You should give the lizard a name,” Takashi adds a beat later. 

“Absolutely not.”

Then one day in late September, Shuuichi stops by Takashi’s school only to find out he never showed up that morning. Takashi’s homeroom teacher recognizes him and seems to have made the same assumption everyone else has made. 

“Your parents called him in sick today,” she says, looking faintly worried. “I hope it’s nothing serious.”

Shuuichi doesn’t even remember to say goodbye. He just spins around and starts running. Sasago appears beside him, and he says, “Find him!”

For a shiki that doesn’t truly belong to him, she obeys swiftly. Takashi just has that effect on people.

Sasago has never had any trouble finding Shuuichi no matter where he goes. It’s not something he’s ever thought to test, it’s just something he counts on. He doesn’t know how he knows that she’ll be able to locate one little human in a city of about one million humans, but he knows she will. 

And she does. 

She returns to Shuuichi not even five minutes later and guides him to a nearby hospital.

He’s almost fifteen years old and entirely frantic, and if everyone is going to take one look at them and decide they’re family, then Shuuichi is going to make that work for him. 

“My little brother is here,” he says, his words coming out in unsteady lurches as he gulps for air. He doesn’t even have to fake the plea in his tone. He really doesn’t have to act at all. “Natsume Takashi, where is he?” 

Later on, he’ll scoff about the thin veneer of patient confidentiality, but he’s hardly going to complain about it now, as he’s almost immediately ushered down the hall. He outpaces the nurse when he sees Takashi’s name on a temporary door placard, and lets himself into the room without waiting for permission or approval. 

Some adults are lingering in the corner, talking in low voices, and they barely glance at Shuuichi when he barges in. Whatever, Shuuichi doesn’t care about them either. His eyes fly straight to his shiki, where she hovers protectively over a tiny figure huddled in the chair next to the window. 

Takashi has two black eyes and his arm is in a short cast. He doesn’t even lift his head when Shuuichi stumbles over to him.

“Oh my god, kid,” Shuuichi whispers. “Hey, look at me. Takashi?”

It takes a minute, but Takashi finally glances up at him through his fringe. Shuuichi sinks to his knees in front of the chair. It almost feels like the moment they first met, except it’s a different manner of monster that hurt him this time. And it’s not just cuts and bruises.

There are shadows in his face that have never been there before, ones that look as though they’ll cling to him permanently if no one does something about them. He seems so vacant and forgotten. None of the adults are even looking at him. It’s like no one sees him. He might as well be another ghost. 

“There’s nowhere else to send him,” one of the strangers by the door is saying grimly. “We might have to look into an institution.”

“Actually,” Shuuichi blurts loudly, “he’s coming with me.”

It turns out they have a lot of opinions about that but he doesn’t care. He scoops Takashi up and sits down in the chair Takashi was sitting in and holds him in both arms. Just refuses to get up or let go. His heart is rattling in his chest the whole time, but this is important. 

And Sasago is right beside them, where she always is. She’s ready to attack in whatever direction Shuuichi points her in. He won’t let it come to that, but it’s reassuring to have the option. 

Eventually, when it’s clear he won’t be reasoned with, someone calls his father. 

His father takes one look at Shuuichi and sighs. Shuuichi lifts his chin. His father calls the family attorney. 

Afternoon passes into evening. All the adults are having a heated, complicated-sounding conversation behind a closed door. When it becomes clear no one will be home in time for dinner, a receptionist stops by with sandwiches and sports drinks for Shuuichi and Takashi. Her eyes look ancient with sadness when she takes in Takashi’s battered little face. 

Takashi’s guardians finally show up when the supervising doctor and the Natori attorney start making noises about getting the police involved. By now, Takashi is asleep, but Shuuichi is still wide-awake. He glares at them with all the hate he keeps saved up in his heart for monsters. They don’t even glance at the boys on their way past.

“He’s a clumsy kid,” Shuuichi overhears the woman saying frantically, through the door she and her husband left cracked open behind them. “He fell down the stairs.”

Bullshit, Shuuichi thinks, and is surprised to hear his father say it at the same time. 

“Apparently the child has made quite the impression on the staff here,” their attorney says amiably. You’d never guess how blood-thirsty he actually was from his tone. There’s a reason the Natori family keeps him on retainer. “We’ve got quite a few people willing to come forward if this situation goes to court. Maybe there’s a way we could settle this peacefully.”

By midnight, all the papers are in order. Bureaucracy moves quickly when you have enough money to throw at the right people. Takashi’s guardians sign him away like he’s a used car they don’t want anymore and arrange a time to drop off all of his possessions, and that’s it. 

Shuuichi is no longer an only child. 

It might not stand up if a long-lost relative comes along and presses for custody, but relatives like that seem to be in short supply in Takashi’s family. 

“He’ll be your responsibility,” his father says on the ride home, as if he’s not talking to a teenager who shouldn’t even be responsible for himself, let alone a five-year-old. 

Shuuichi nods anyway. Takashi is asleep against his side again, a heavy reminder. Shuuichi will do whatever he has to. He’ll be whatever he needs to be. 

He promised Takashi he would keep the monsters away, and that’s what he’s going to do.

[tiecladartist]

Okay, spoilers beneath the cut because I have some issues with Rise of the Titans.

Tales of Arcadia is one of my favorite series ever. It handled the "Kid is the chosen one" situation brilliantly, every character had depth (even characters like Steve, Eli, the teachers, etc). Theme was expertly handled with each part of the series. Destiny, heroism and sacrifice for Trollhunters; Family, duty and home for 3-Below; Legacy, prejudice and family (again) for Wizards. Every season brought me to tears, made me laugh, made me fear for the safety of the characters and want good things for them after watching them sacrifice over and over again. It is a comfort show for me and always will be.

Now, the movie...

So, I don't think it was bad. I also don't think it was good, unfortunately. The animation took a bit of getting used to after bingeing everything else leading up to this, but I can't deny it was incredibly beautiful. It was especially nice to see places other than Arcadia and Akiridion-5. It started off strong with the train fight, and admittedly there were a lot of scenes I quite liked during the movie. But, just the scenes. I liked moments, but overall it didn't come together quite as well as the shows did.

The biggest factor is likely time. I doubt making this a movie was the initial plan since I know production companies enjoy snubbing out strong series for various reasons. Honestly, I was surprised we got an "ending" at all based on the trends of recent shows being forced to wrap things up prematurely. Even Wizards felt rushed compared to the others and as a result a lot of interesting concepts were brushed over quickly. I mean, I for one would've loved to see more Camelot "filler" shenanigans since those less plot-heavy episodes that we had throughout Trollhunters and 3-Below helped us explore the characters and grow to love them, and we didn't get quite as much of that with Douxie, Archie, Lancelot, Charlemagne, etc. But I digress, this post is supposed to be about the movie, not Wizards.

So yeah, I think Rise of the Titans should've been a show rather than a movie. We could have more time before Nari is captured, focusing on the "where are they now" of all the characters after the year we skipped. Jim gets to cook and eat human food after losing that passion when becoming a troll, adjusting to being human again! Maybe him and Toby talk about Barbara and Stickler being together and how it's kinda weird (Toby could compare it to having conflicting feelings over his Nana dating an alien). Krel and Aja have a call about how it is being the Queen and Steve interrupts because he misses Aja. Perhaps we hear Eli in the background doing something related to the "Secret weapon" and the call gets cut off quickly because this leads to a small disaster on Aja's end that she needs to go fix. Claire is practicing her magic with the help of Zoe while Douxie is off with Nari. NARI AND DOUXIE INTERACT WITH EACHOTHER AND WE ACTUALLY GET TO SEE IT! (Like, I know that they were travelling together for a year and that that is why Douxie is sad when Nari dies, but it didn't impact at all outside of empathy because there was no emotional investment on my end towards their friendship). But yeah, we get to see what's going on with everyone, and then perhaps this first episode ends with the reveal of them being ready for a plan of sorts (luring the arcane order and cutting off their magic. That wouldn't be revealed though). Cut to the Arcane Order in their super secret clubhouse saying they're close to finding Nari and you get a decent cliffhanger.

Episode 2 would start with the train fight and go fairly the same way. We see Jim struggling with fighting with no armor. Or perhaps he has akiridion armor, but it's too rigid or keeps malfunctioning (doesn't fit, so to speak). Only difference is that Jim's arc wouldn't be about whether or not he's still the trollhunter, because we've been through that already and he knows. I could get having moments of doubt, but his full on denial was kinda out of place after everything he went through. Instead, it could be that he feels useless due to now being a burden in a fight. Or perhaps instead he's wrestling with guilt. He's blaming himself since the arcane order got the seals due to them trying to rescue him. Maybe both? Maybe he even misses his troll body and feels that he's too weak now. Yes, he's still the trollhunter, amulet or not, but he's feeling less and less capable of answering this particular call, and that bothers him. He doesn't want to be a burden after all. Fight ends with the train crash, arrest, Douxie swapping with Nari, all the same.

Now, this is where things would go very very differently. Have more time before Douxie and Nari switch back. Let the Arcane order monologue a little more. They want to reset the world because the balance has been shifted? Cool! Tell me more! Did they used to try to get along with the humans? Did they try diplomacy in the past only to fail due to the stubborn humans, and that's why they've decided to take drastic measures? Or if not, explore why they believe they're the ones allowed to decide the balance is off. Is it because they're powerful? Or how long they've been on Earth? Did they reset it in the past and thus know through experience? I don't mind not knowing, since not everything needs to be spelled out for the audience, but there was potential to make them characters rather than obstacles, and it wasn't really utilized to its full potential. Allow Douxie to pick their brains a little instead of immediately swapping him and Nari back and only succeeding in delaying things a few more hours. Hell, if it was a TV show I honestly would've had one or two episodes before doing that while we address how that initial failure (and the fact that magical creatures/aliens were revealed to the world) affected everyone.

Maybe I'll go through and like, actually plot out episodes and stuff, but since I only just finished watching, here's just some various things I'd change:

-Get rid of that whole Steve pregnancy. That was just out of place and rather than the "comedy" breaking the tension, it shattered it completely and distracted from everything. If you wanna explore his father-based character arc, maybe have him and Aja discussing the fact that now that she's queen, she'll need heirs. And maybe Steve isn't sure he could be a good dad due to his history with paternal figures. You could even have it that he's taking care of Nari while her and Douxie are switched, and that leads to a situation where he helps her out and realizes he may be a better dad than expected. Or perhaps Blinky gives him paternal advice. Or Strickler. Or even BARBARA AND JIM like, Steve couldn't be worse than Jim's dad, and letting Steve and Jim bond over that would be nice. There was so much potential, but instead, Steve was reduced to an out of place running gag instead of getting a resolution to his character arc. And hey, if you wanna keep the whole male akiridions give birth thing that's cool, but it's gotta be done in moments where it won't distract. Or, you could even have it be that it means Aja and Steve need to adopt because uh... she's inorganic and he's organic? His body likely isn't actually built for akiridion childbirth despite the movie glossing over this fact? And maybe Steve has mixed feelings about someone else being the dad of his kids, but Coach and him talk about how Coach isn't his biological dad, but that doesn't mean he loves Steve any less.

-GIVE DOUXIE MORE SCREEN TIME! Seriously, had this been a show he would have the most potential for character growth out of everyone. His series was the shortest, so really all he got was a confidence boost and moving past needing Merlin's approval. But there was so much to explore with him still. What was up with that extreme burst of magic after Merlin's death that was never brought up again? How has he been mentally handling singlehandedly guarding Nari against the Arcane order for a year? Once he and Nari switch back, does he feel guilt over not being able to protect her? "Merlin wouldn't have failed like that. He kept her safe for thousands of years, I lasted a little over one". Perhaps, in his constant desire to prove himself to the people he cares about, he takes risky moves to try and save Nari again and make up for his mistakes, similar to how Jim was acting in the movie. Eventually, when he and Nari meet up again when trying to break her controlled state, Douxie is apologizing and talking about how he wants to make things right. He sees Nari as a friend; as family, just as much as Archie, and he doesn't want to lose her like he lost Merlin. He doesn't want to lose anyone else (which would make Archie getting stuck in the other Trollmarket, and Nari's sacrifice even more painful later on if that still happened).

-Krel, Eli and Stewart also needed more time. I get it was a movie, so time was short, but still. Krel's entire thing is that he grew to see Earth as his true home, and we didn't get to address the fact that he was immediately at risk of losing it at all. Not to mention the sheer amount of stuff he'd built for everyone. Like, could you imagine an episode where, to break up the tension (in a proper way, not a weird pregnancy way), in the midst of everyone trying to figure out how to stop the titans, Krel has overworked himself fixing and managing everyone's tech. He has to spend a day resting and disasters ensue as no one knows how to fix any of the stuff he usually manages. Like the tech keeping Camelot afloat, for example. Stewart and Eli could be the ones that end up stepping up to fill the Krel sized gap for the day.

-And I know that these fillers would lower the tension a bit, but like, having the titans need to charge up after awakening (like, absorbing elemental energy or something), or perhaps making the Arcane Order have to collect certain things to break the seals in the first place that they had on their fortress but lost when that was destroyed , or any other kinda obstacle to give time between the train fight and the Titans waking up would give time for less plot-heavy, more character focused episodes. And even after the titans wake up, they were moving super slowly and walking across the planet. It's not like they'd be short on time despite the movie making it seem like walking from china to america was a short jog at most.

-Don't give Toby the amulet. Don't get me wrong, I love Toby very much and literally bawled out loud at his sacrifice scene. But like, it made no sense to give him the amulet? Jim doing everything again with years of Trollhunter experience would help solve a lot of problems from his first go around (and I'm not fully on board with the whole time reset in the first place. Resetting to the start of the movie, or even just the fight with Bellroc would be better). Jim knows the burdens of being a trollhunter first hand, and you really think he'd be okay dumping all that on Tobes? Toby, the guy completely content with being the wingman and helping the people he cares about. Toby, the guy who never worried about not having a grand destiny up until the movie. The guy who in his biggest dreams was a Duke, not a king. I think Toby was well aware of how important moral support is and wouldn't see it as a lame superpower. But even if he did, in a tv show they could explore that in a way where he comes to learn just how much that moral support does for his friends. And if you still want his moment of glorious sacrifice (because I count that as one of the well done moments), then do that! But rather than going back in time to save everyone, make it so they sacrifice the stone to turn back time a bit. Risk their victory to try saving Toby. Have them fight Bellroc together instead of it being just Jim, because it's trollhunters, not trollhunter. It always has been, always will.

-And if you're like "But if they don't go back then Strickler and Nomura stay dead!" Then how about they don't kill them for shock factor in the first place? Have Strickler badly injured instead, because by god Barbara deserves some happiness. And think of the potential scene of her treating his wounds, and the two of them think about how things have changed since that visit to trollmarket when they were both hurt. About how Strickler stuck around, and when Barbara thought she'd lost him it scared her. How she's sick of almost losing everyone she cares about. She could talk a bit about Jim's dad then too, and it could be revealed that Jim was outside because he was going to check on them, but stopped when he realized they were talking. And then later on, he asks about his dad, admitting he overheard, and we get that conversation they had in the movie. And if you keep the Nomura sacrifice, give her more of a moment ffs. Like, she deserved better! Have the death be a sacrifice to save someone else instead of just "oops I got caught and I'm in the sun now". Make it deliberate. Make it her decision after a life of serving others. Finally, she got to be the one in control of her fate, and she chose to protect the people she cared about.

There's so much more I could say about this and the potential that was killed by the lack of time, but this is getting long and I should probably try actually doing the work I need to do today.

Edit (Because this just popped in my head and I need to add it).

THEY WERE LITERALLY AROUND THE ROUND TABLE! THE NINTH CONFIGURATION (which like, screw that there are more than 9 heroes here to save the day) WERE THE NEW KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. They were there to protect the world, and like... did the bond between Lancelot and Steve just not exist anymore? Did that get timeline erased too? Could you imagine Steve fighting to protect the world, doing his best to protect the people he cared about so that he never loses someone like he lost Lance again? He gets to keep his promise to carry on the legacy of the Knights even after they died. THE POTENTIAL WAS THERE!!! THE SET UP WAS THERE!!! BUT NO! WE GET MPREG STEVE INSTEAD!!

[beginagainhq]

Something strange is afoot in New York City. On the morning of OCTOBER 15th, residents of the city and surrounding areas awoke to an unfamiliar energy in the air. The energy itself is no isolated incident — and the events that its presence manifests go from weird to weirder in record time.

It starts simple. The stray cat in the alleyway says hello in a surprisingly human voice instead of its usual meow. A skeleton decoration hung on a front porch in anticipation of Halloween begins telling jokes to everyone who passes. But in New York, things never stay simple for long. In the graveyards, benevolent spirits rise from their tombs, eager to make contact with the people they left behind. Jack-O-Lanterns on fire escapes grow arms and legs and quickly devolve into acts of petty crime throughout the city. Broomsticks once used for simple sweeping gain the ability to fly at the most inconvenient of times.

This Halloween, nothing is impossible and magic is to blame. Unbeknownst to her, Zatanna Zatara’s pregnancy has made the magic in her veins unstable, and the effects of it are being seen all around the city. Alone, none of the events are especially dangerous, but together? The world of Begin Again is in for a whole new brand of chaos.

WHAT’S HAPPENED

Zatanna Zatara ( @mistressofmagic )’s powers are on the fritz due to her pregnancy’s interference with her magic. Because she is unaware that she’s causing it, she’s unable to consciously stop it from happening.

These waves of unstable magic have wreaked chaos throughout the city. Some things caused by this event include (but are not limited to):

Animals gaining the ability to speak English, thus inspiring them to strike up conversations with their human neighbors and roommates.

Halloween decorations coming to life, and humanity learning that Jack-O-Lanterns are mischievous beings with a knack for petty crime.

Benevolent ghosts rising from graveyards and traveling to the people they knew in life. (Note: Because the cause of this is Zatanna’s unconscious use of magic and she has no unconscious desire to do harm, only friendly spirits have been raised from the dead for this event; malicious ones will remain in their graves.)

Broomsticks taking off in flight… often at times you really wish they wouldn’t.

If you would like your character to encounter something magical not listed here, please run it by us first so we can keep an eye on all the threads in motion!

No one, not even Zatanna herself, is aware that she is causing the influx of magic… making the events much harder to stop.

POTENTIAL PLOTS

Your character arrives home from a long day at work to find their pet in an unusually chatty mood. Chaos ensues when they try explaining the situation to a friend who has not yet encountered any magical side effects, thus leading them to believe their friend has lost it.

While sweeping, your character’s broom takes off into the sky, and they must hold on for dear life while awaiting a hero with the ability of flight to assist.

Your character encounters the ghost of someone they lost in life.

Your characters band together to stop a robbery, only to find that the perpetrators are… pumpkins. Gotta love New York!

For this event, we will also be asking for characters within the group to help stop the events taking place. Because they don’t know the cause of the events, they’ll be tackling them individually! If you’re interested in your character tackling one of the issues at hand, please contact the main. These will likely not require discord threads (unless the muns involved want them), rather short writeups of how the events were resolved. Keep in mind that we want everyone to get a chance to be involved, so if you play multiple characters, please try to limit the number you want involved in the main solution to one or two! All characters are welcome to be involved in the plot as a whole, of course, but this is one event where we’d like to give every individual mun a chance to shine!

This event will commence on OCTOBER 15, 2021 to allow for plotting. It will continue for a little over two weeks until OCTOBER 31, 2021, however threads started during this time (as well as Discords, if you are kicking off a longer plot for example) can be continued on after the event concludes. This is just the time period for starters to be posted!

Please tag open starters for this event as #beginagainhalloween (please don’t use this tag for private, closed starters!). As usual with events, we will lift the usual “reply to three starters before posting your own” rule, although make sure that every starter receives equal attention to the best of your ability.

As always, if there are any questions, please feel free to contact the admin team through the main or use the questions channel in our group Discord. We can’t wait to see what you will do with this event!

[jokertrap-ran]

(时空中的绘旅人—For All Time—) Clarence Route Translations (Chapter 16-2 阿萝拉: Aurora)

*For All Time Master-list / Clarence’s Personal Master-list *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Maintaining Si Lan’s name as Clarence *Route Tag is #Chapter of Legacy

I carried the napping Aurora back to the Mage Tower.

Seeing how her body was becoming horribly cold, I held her with my own body as she slept.

It was a while later that she turned, looping her arms around my neck.

Aurora: I'm a little cold… Uncle told me that I should sing loudly whenever I'm cold...

Saying so, she started singing in a gossamer-like voice by my ear.

Aurora: Stars are sleeping, snow gently falling. Where has the butterfly gone; for my hand still holds the fragrance of flowers…

She sang in short bursts. Maybe it was because she was still unfamiliar with it, or perhaps it was because she was distracted by something else.

Aurora: That Uncle sings it so well. Sadly, Aurora hasn't completely learnt it…

She hugged me tighter to her because of how cold she felt. Her other hand reached over to press itself against her stomach. I knew her stomach was still hurting.

Clarence said that these were all drawbacks of being a Mage.

But for a child so young? On what grounds, does she have to be bearing this immense burden for the sake of the world?

I didn't know what to do. All I could do was to hold her small body tightly within my arms…

A night passed.

It was very quiet when I awoke.

No, something's wrong. Aurora should be beside me, and she's gone! Did… Did Clarence deal away with her already, since she was on the verge of losing control?

I hurriedly got up and recalled what Sun Zhuoyi had told me yesterday. I felt a gut-dropping sense of unease. I MUST find her!

⊹ ˚✩ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦ ✥ ◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ✩˚ ⊹

I quickly smoothed out my clothes and went hunting for her up and down the Mage Tower.

The carriage was already ready and waiting outside the Mage Tower. Clarence was giving Aurora the instructions to her assignment in front of it.

I got a little closer to them and listened in on their conversation.

Sounds like Aurora’s mission this time is to clear out the Rebel Mages who worked under the Silver Knight.

The Silver Knight had managed to rope some Rebel Mages into his plans and allowed them to attack the Palace, as well as the residences of Nobles. I’ve also vaguely seen the aftermath of the chaos caused by the Rebel Mages before, in my previous journeys.

To my knowledge of the matter, they’d managed to successfully scare the Aristocrats, but they were all quickly dealt away with by Clarence himself, so nothing particularly serious happened.

But this time, upon overhearing Clarence as he explained Aurora’s task to her, I knew; This wasn’t the slightest bit simple at all.

The Silver Knight has been pulling out all stops and laying out the groundwork every step of the way in his plans to attack the Capital. Not only did he have Ordinary Mages under his control, but also a team of Mages that were already out of control.

The Silver Knight utilized potions to forcefully alter the Mages into a half-butterfly metamorphosis― He coerced the Mages to consume the potion of their own accord, making them willingly fall into a state of nearly losing control, before maintaining this state through the use of another potion.

A Mage in this state had icy wings in place of arms and their entire body covered in ice crystals. Their sanity will be on the brink of madness, yet they still hold a sliver of consciousness.

Of course, when under excruciating pain, the only thing they can process is to kill, destroy, and freeze everything. And Clarence’s method of dealing with this impending “destruction”, was to “engulf” it all.

He’d decided to send out Aurora, one of the “Nine Seats'' to deal with the matter. He told her that she didn’t need to care about who, or what was on the other end, merely to treat them as Ice Butterflies and devour them all.

Aurora: Wow. Aurora can eat till she’s full if there are that many monsters this time. Right?

Clarence: That’s right. You’ll be able to eat to your heart’s content this time. And then after you’re done… Do make sure to get a good night’s sleep. You will not feel cold anymore, and neither will your stomach hurt ever again after you fall asleep this time.

I felt my eyes dampening.

Aurora… She really doesn’t know, does she…?

This was a death sentence in the farce of a mission. However, Clarence was as calm and unwavering as ever as he delivered Aurora the details of her mission. While Aurora, on the other hand, was only worried about whether she could “eat till she was full”.

The fate of all Mages was to be born in the throes of desire, pain, and suffering; and also, to fall into the spiral of madness and depravity.

It was then that Clarence breathed a light sigh.

Clarence: Do you hate me, Aurora?

Clarence actually asked another about their thoughts on him? I’d long since thought that he’d forgo how others saw him, given his personality...

Aurora wore a blank look of utter confusion. She looked up at Clarence, unable to come up with an answer even after thinking for a good long while.

Clarence: I am the Master of the Mage Tower. I should be the one guiding and protecting all of you Mages.

Clarence: However, you are all nought but tools to me. I use you, I sacrifice you… I watch you all die, one-by-one… Yet, I do not bat an eye.

Clarence: It would only make sense if you were to hate me for what I did.

With how he was bemoaning with lament at this point, rather than talking to Aurora about it, it might as well just be him, criticizing himself with his own monologue.

He was blaming himself for being as icy and closed-off as he was.

— Does this mean that somewhere deep down in that heart of his… Clarence has a heart that feels for all the Mages under him?

Aurora: Hate…? You mean, not liking you? Aurora doesn't dislike you, Master Clarence~

Aurora: Aurora doesn't like being hungry. Aurora has always been hungry before meeting you.

Aurora: Aurora cried back home and kicked up a fuss, asking dad for food. Dad took Aurora and dumped Aurora by the river, picking up many hard pieces of bread to eat.

Aurora: Aurora doesn’t like hard bread, but Aurora was just so hungry… So, Aurora ate them all down anyway.

⊹ ˚✩ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦ ✥ ◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ✩˚ ⊹

… I could guess what the “hard bread” she was talking about really was. I’d heard of a distant legend about the olden times, where the poor would feed their offspring stones in place of food during times of famine...

The children who ate stones will die, but at least that would save some food for the rest of the family.

⊹ ˚✩ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦ ✥ ◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ✩˚ ⊹

Aurora: Aurora always got a tummy ache whenever Aurora eats the hard bread, but Master Clarence gave Aurora medicine to drink. It was bitter, but Aurora’s stomach no longer hurt after drinking it.

Clarence: I’m not doing a good deed. Your strong desire for food, “gluttony”, was what drew me in. I merely thought that you had the potential to become a Mage.

Clarence: I took you under my wing, taking you to the Mage Tower. I offered you all the delicacies that Yemsaiel has to offer. Yet, at the same time, I required you to devour Ice Butterflies. Your stomach still hurts all the same.

Aurora tilted her head in thought. She patted the sides of her head, seemingly trying to make sense of what Clarence was trying to say...

After a while, Aurora started sucking on her thumb in thought, apparently none the wiser.

Aurora: Err… I still have stomach aches, but I can’t blame you for that, Master Clarence. You’re a Mage… not someone who treats bad tummies...

Aurora: I heard that you’d get a stomach ache from eating too much, and I can’t stop myself from eating… So, I think it’s pretty normal for me to be getting tummy aches...

Aurora: So be it then! I like to eat! And I’m super happy when I’m eating! You let me eat all I want, Master Clarence! Of course, I like you!!

Clarence: ……

Clarence stays silent for a while before sighing gently.

As pure and innocent as Aurora was, there was nothing Clarence could say to make her understand the truth.

It was probably only because of her naive earnestness as a young girl that allowed her to concentrate as much as she did on her Magic, hence the reason why she was able to attain the rank of one of the “Nine Seats” at such a young age.

Suddenly, Aurora jumped in front of Clarence and patted his face.

Aurora: Stop pulling such a long face, Master Clarence...

Aurora: The Mage Tower is very noisy. There are always people yelling and crying, but everyone also has times where they smile. Only you, Master Clarence. You've never smiled.

Aurora: Aurora smiles when Aurora's full, and the others smile when their wish is fulfilled.

Aurora: Aurora is thinking that Master Clarence's wish hasn't been fulfilled yet. Aurora hopes that it'll be fulfilled soon~

Aurora: Although, even if Aurora might already be asleep by then… Aurora will still be happy! Just like when Aurora has a full stomach!

Hearing Aurora's words, the realization finally dawned on me that she never truly understood anything. She was as clueless as they came.

Clarence paused for a moment before reaching out, caressing her hair and touching her face.

Clarence: How cold… The skin of all Mages is always cold to the touch. I apologise for making you turn out like this.

Clarence: I create all of you, let all of you grow and indulge in all of your desires. And in part, I've also made all of you the very thing feared and hated by the world.

Clarence: But at the same time, I'm also aware that all of you are the true victims, the true sacrifices, of this world.

Clarence: I am incapable of saving you all. But not letting your sacrifices be in vain is the least I can do.

After that, Clarence's lips parted slightly into a faint chuckle.

Clarence, he… he's really laughing…

Aurora was elated, skipping in front of Clarence and jumping up to pull his cheeks upwards.

Aurora: He’s laughing… This is the first time I’ve seen Master Clarence laugh!

Actually squishing Clarence’s face like that… Only Aurora would ever dare to do such a thing…

Clarence wasn’t mad, only maintaining his smile.

Clarence: Aurora. I treat all the Mages here in this Mage Tower as my pawns, with no emotional attachment whatsoever. But that is only because I do not want anyone to influence my emotions, and the decisions I make.

Clarence: — But that doesn’t mean that all the time I’ve spent with all of you is meaningless to me. I do not regret the time I spent with any of you.

⊹ ˚✩ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦ ✥Chapter of Legacy✥ ◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ✩˚ ⊹

Previous Part: (Chapter 16-1) | Next Part: (Chapter 16-3)

[wizardouxie]

Okay but do you realize how terrifying and heartbreaking it would be if  Hisirdoux was the apprentice that became corrupted? 

“Magic is mastery over life.”

Those words mean nothing to Hisirdoux; an immortal being such as him is fated to never see the end of life, so how could he master it? Ha, of course, leave it to Merlin to say such rubbish.

Soon enough the apprentice begins to grow impatient with each passing day. There’s no reason for Merlin to wave him off, push him aside, dismiss him, and make time for everything but him. It simply didn’t make sense. Intrusive thoughts swarm his mind, and he begins to think that Merlin is simply using him as an attendant. A servant.

He feels humiliated. He is meant for so much more than sweeping the floors and sorting books. And if Merlin couldn’t see that, so be it. 

Hisirdoux begins to learn magic on his own, much to Morgana’s concern. In fact she starts to notice that he’s... changed. He seems more bitter, blatantly disregarding Merlin’s wishes and doing whatever he pleased. She always remarked that a little rebellion didn’t hurt anyone, but this wasn’t what she had in mind. However when he asks her to teach him shadow magic, it seems innocent enough and she obliges, curious to see what he would do with it.

In the distance, the Arcane Order observes quietly. They sense darkness in him. Pride. Envy. Lust. For them, it’s a favorable advantage, waiting to be exploited.

Hisirdoux returns to the castle with a stunned Morgana, the tips of his hair turned white. Archie hisses when the boy slams the door harshly but quickly cowers upon seeing his hardened face. Something was wrong. 

The boy paced back and forth, a bead of sweat trailing down his cheek. This vision that he saw, of him and Merlin, was it true? That ultimately they would become each other’s greatest enemies and battle each other?

He lets out a hollow laugh. It had to be. Of course Merlin saw him as a threat. Merlin knew he had the potential to become a powerful sorcerer, a sorcerer capable of besting him. In order to prevent that, he made sure the boy submitted to him.

But not anymore. 

A few days later, Merlin is turning the castle and kingdom upside down in search for Hisirdoux. He’s gone. Nowhere to be seen. And when night approaches, never to be found again. The knights return, proclaiming the boy dead. Merlin is never quite the same after that.

Morgana blames herself. First Guinevere and now him. How many more people was she going to lose because of her mistakes? She renounces shadow magic and starts to learn other forms instead, standing by Merlin’s side for the next 900 years. 

With Camelot long gone, they settle in Arcadia Oaks, hoping to live a simple life. But life is anything but simple when they run into Jim, Toby, and Claire. After they reveal everything from the Trollhunter amulet to the existence of changelings, trolls, and other magical creatures, Merlin and Morgana agree to be their guardians. Merlin is still a little prickly but Morgana usually helps deescalate any tension between the kids and him.

There is an instance where she withdraws slightly when she sees Claire wield her Skathe-Hrün, an artifact she had sealed away for centuries. To her surprise, Merlin encourages her to start mastering shadow magic again. She doesn’t understand. How could someone who detested shadow magic suddenly accept it? He pats her shoulder and tells her that at one point or another she needs to learn to embrace her past rather than fear it. Guinevere is gone. Hisirdoux is gone. It’s time to move on.

Little did they both know, Hisirdoux was very much alive in those 900 years, training with the Arcane Order, transforming into a sorcerer unlike the world has ever seen. Skrael and Bellroc are greatly impressed; their champion has come a long way indeed. 

Surely he’d be able to bring back Nari and break the Genesis Seals, ushering in a new era of magic. 

And so it isn’t a corrupted king burdened by his sins that finishes off Merlin, but a young sorcerer driven mad by his hatred for being underestimated.

“My son... what have you become?” Merlin whispers with a broken smile. Morgana screams in grief, a blast of gold light blinding the room.

Douxie doesn’t know why he feels so empty afterwards.

[britishassistant]

The Villainous Paranoiac Did Not Ask to be a Senpai

It’s been maybe two weeks since you woke up with a blade to your throat in a strange, ninja-and-pirate themed afterlife, and then woke up in a maximum security prison the next day. On the third day, thankfully, you woke up again in your bed in Ramshackle dorm with Grim snoring beside you.

There was even a surplus of food in the fridge and pantry, and some recipes for it in one of your notebooks, which you appreciated.

After three days, you let your guard down enough to assume you weren’t going to travel to anywhere else in your sleep and began to work on your essay for Professor Trein again.

On the seventh day, however, you woke up to an attempting smothering that was only foiled by Grim screaming and a second preteen tackling your would-be murderer off of you.

You then had to separate the two brown-haired children who were fighting on your bedroom floor and looking more and more like they would actually kill each other with every blow.

You got a broken nose for your trouble.

That was how you met the two brats who you temporarily swapped places with, and who are currently living in your dorm with you as “hopeful potential students” as the birdbrain headmaster put it.

It’s clearly just a clever way for the dumb bird to avoid taking direct responsibility for the lives of under sixteen years olds. If they die from a magic mishap or getting squashed by an overblot, he can pin the blame on your incompetence instead of the school’s.

Joy.

Epel’s still sulking about you “swiping his kohai” from him. Vil-senpai acts as if he doesn’t care, but the number of times he’s dropped by to complain about your standards of beauty care begs to differ.

Honestly, they and Pomefiore can have Nana if they want him so badly... is what you would say if Crowley weren’t increasing your funding per temporary occupant. You were quite pleased with negotiating that, as previously the birdbrain acted like he expected you to somehow feed two growing children plus yourself and Grim on just your paltry allowance.

Grim and the ghosts would be glad to see the British boy who introduced himself to you as “Johnny-Powers-but-call-me-Nana” gone in spite of the added money. They’ve made sure to tell you so, multiple times.

Even without hearing about how well he played ghost exterminator first time he was here, you can kind of understand what they’re talking about. That kid can go from homicidal to ingratiating so fast it feels like you’ll get whiplash, and he’s disturbingly quick to bring up maiming as a solution to your problems. You attribute this to him being an incarcerated thirteen-year-old gang leader in addition to a model Pomefiore student and resolve to keep him as far away from Octavinelle as humanly possible.

He and Leech-senpai would either give each other ideas, or he’d overthrow Ashengrotto-senpai and have him served as calamari by the end of the week.

You quite like Ashengrotto-senpai where he is, whole and healthy, so you stay vigilant.

At least he can speak Japanese well enough despite being a foreigner, and does his share of the chores around the dorm without complaining. You’ve even caught him doing Grim’s share with no fuss, because of the sudden increase in quality of the finished job. He responds well to praise and is very bribable with chocolate, which makes your life a lot easier in many circumstances.

Now if you can just find him a good child psychologist for all the issues he clearly has, Nana might make a passable dorm-mate.

You’d keep Mayu in a heartbeat though, even without the added benefit of payment.

Ketsugi Mayu’s an absolute sweetheart, if a bit on the... straightforward side, to put it nicely. She’s an amazing cook, able to create feasts out of the barest essentials and haggle with Sam to get groceries for a much lower price that you’re able to. You’re not sure if you’ve ever eaten better. If not for how clearly homesick she is and the fact that her mother terrifies you, you’d offer to let her stay here forever.

Of course that’s not to say the kid doesn’t have some quirks. She keeps making odd remarks like, “it feels weird to be watched only some of the time” and “oh right, you have lawyers here” that make you very concerned about the ninja afterlife she was in. And a bit about the place you’re currently living in.

She’s also obsessed with this one comic about pirates to the point where she puts Shroud-senpai’s fixations to shame, claiming she wants to become a pirate chef when she grows up and praying to the main characters. This has given her one of the weirdest moral compasses you’ve ever seen, which treats theft as an excusable offense but wasting food as a crime that she needs to go and beat up people for.

This would be less of a problem if the child wasn’t strong enough to break bones.

You’ve had to break up more fights for her than you have for Nana honestly, just because she’d spotted someone throwing something away half-eaten in the cafeteria and quietly made a beeline for them before you wised up to her shenanigans.

Nana was no help on that front because he immediately tried to join in, only to play innocent bystander the moment the teachers and dorm leaders came.

The fact that her mindset has a lot in common with Deuce’s and Kalim’s is just the cherry on top of the problem sundae. Ace and several other students have already tried to con her into giving them free food, because apparently this child thinks it is her gods-given mission to feed the world’s hungry.

Which is noble and all, unless you don’t have a lot of food that you can afford to share around in the first place. Especially not to greedy freeloaders who call themselves your friends and claim to want to test Mayu’s gullibility “for her own good”. Grim’s perpetually rumbling stomach and puppy-eyes have been some of your best allies in thwarting these attempts.

At least your guests get along with each other after their rocky start.

After a few days of him refusing to eat anything on his plate unless Mayu or you had eaten a bit of it first, the twelve-year-old roped Nana into helping out in the kitchen to try and get him to be less picky. Amazingly, it worked, and you usually seize the opportunity work on your homework while they’re distracted preparing meals.

From there, they became friends pretty quickly, though you think that has more to do with Mayu being a reliable source of chocolate than anything else.

Nana flips between nervous child and overprotective gang leader on a dime for her, which isn’t helpful when you’re trying to stop any more Cafeteria Incidents. Mayu at least has the maturity to help you talk Nana down from some of his more extreme responses to problem-solving and keeps him entertained by telling him more of that pirate story she’s always going on about.

It’s nice that they both found at least one friend around their age to help them survive here in Twisted Wonderland.

Now if they could stop teaming up to make you go grey before you turn eighteen, that’d be swell.

[local-triggerhead]

[Theory/Analysis] The Motives of Each Eugenicist

Wow, look at me rising from the graves and dusting off this account after 800 years like it's nothing. Your Trigger hype beast is back baby, if any of you still remember me.

This post contains spoilers for both Gridman and Dynazenon.

Ahem. I want to make this post to gather my thoughts and better understand the antagonists of the show, as they aren't heavily featured and explored like Akane. It's just my own analysis based on what I can observe in the show, so some parts would be more vague and generate different interpretations. This analysis may seem obvious to some and not so much to others, but I hope it'll offer some clarity regardless. Tl;dr at the bottom.

The General Motive

It's pretty much given in the show. The Kaiju Eugenicists wanted to destroy humanity and create a world where themselves and kaiju can live and be accepted. They believe that the world is a better place as you're no longer being tied down by human bonds, granting you unrestricted freedom beyond even the laws of physics. This is their shared goal. However, each of them have separated purposes and things they want to achieve along with this.

Onija

Let's start with the 2 more obvious cases. Onija clearly stated what he wanted to do - kill all humans. How many times did he yell this out? It's kind of shoved-in-your-face. No other Eugenicists expressed this desire as strongly as he did. At the base level, he simply wanted to live. He was brutally killed once and was determined to not let it happen again no matter what. This is why "I thought I was dead" was a constant running joke. It's also why Onija had a deep personal grudge towards Gauma and humans, who were the cause of his death 5000 years ago.

Juuga

Juuga had a deep admiration for Gauma and looked up to him. Unlike Onija, he didn't wish to oppose Gauma, but to make an alliance instead. When the Eugenicists first appeared, Juuga said:

It's clear from this line that he wanted things to be the way it was 5000 years ago, where they were a group of friends working towards the same goal. He missed and yearned for that carefree time. The original Eugenicist group was the most important thing to him. You can see that he never fought with any other Eugenicists, but remained calm and passive towards them at all times. This attitude only extended towards the Eugenicists, as he had no qualms about killing anyone else for his goal, including the Dynazenon crew.

Even when Mujina stole Dyna Striker, the first thing that came to his mind was using it to negotiate with Gauma and get him back.

Mujina

These last 2 Eugenicists are slightly more complicated to pick apart, as they process things more internally.

At first, Mujina was very indecisive and didn't buy much into this kaiju thing. All she wanted was to finish it quickly so she could leave. She was lost in life and just followed the other Eugenicists around because she had no directions of her own. Then Mujina found Koyomi, someone who also didn't have anything going for himself and just plainly a loser in his life. He was someone she could feel related to. Mujina's attitude supposedly changed after she was tackled by Koyomi, but I believe this just pissed her off and only played a part in her personality shift. The other cause, I think, was Sizumu's encouragement, where she "realized that kaiju is all [she has] got" and that she had to take responsibility for her actions.

Koyomi came to play a major role in episode 11, when Mujina witnessed him starting to look for a job. The only person who she could feel related to was unaffected by the aftermath of the kaiju and moving forward with ease. Meanwhile, Mujina, who had just found her purpose in life, lost it once again and was now completely stuck, as the future where the Eugenicists could live and be accepted was destroyed. When facing such a crisis, one would seek to put the blame on something for all of their problems, and Koyomi just happened to be the perfect target.

Sizumu

Toughest one to crack here, but I'll shoot my best shot. In the beginning, he opposed the Dynazenon crew the least among the Eugenicists. He suggested against killing them, had the most interaction with Yomogi and Yume, and suggested Mujina to return Dyna Striker for seemingly no reasons at all. His main reason for not killing Team Dynazenon was to see more kaiju, and getting close to Yomogi and Yume was for his kaiju to absorb their emotions. However, I believe there was another underlying reason that tied his actions together. He was looking for an alliance.

Contrary to Juuga, the alliance he was looking for didn't only include Gauma, but Team Dynazenon as a whole. To understand why he searched for this, we must first look at what he was. He had an ability that allowed him to hear kaiju voices, which gave him a much deeper understanding of kaiju compared to the other Eugenicists. Due to this, while the others more or less thought of kaiju as a mean to create a world where they can live and be accepted, Sizumu would consider kaiju as his own kind, so much so that he had a severe disconnection with humans. He distanced himself away from even the Eugenicists, almost as if he only tagged along because they shared the same basic goal.

He didn't seek to understand humans, but instead for humans to understand kaiju. His goal was to create a world where not only the Eugenicists were accepted, but kaiju themselves were accepted. He believed that the world was better off like this, because, from his perspective, kaiju could liberate people from human bonds and offer them unlimited freedom. To me, this is rather hypocritical as he never understood why people tied themselves to these bonds in the first place, so he wasn't in a position to say what was better and what wasn't.

Sizumu was the only Eugenicist to mention this kaiju power and express his distaste towards human bonds. He explained this very early on to Yomogi and Yume, and why did he do this, you may ask? Why, to help them understand his views and create an opening for a potential alliance, of course. If his only purpose was to absorb their emotions, then that's quite a lot of unnecessary effort to make himself look friendly and approachable to an uncanny degree, especially when being "friendly and approachable" wasn't his forte. No, he was testing the water to see if he could get them on his side.

Then came an unexpected opportunity for him to determine once and for all if Team Dynazenon can understand and accept kaiju. He let a failed kaiju run free and distracted the Eugenicists away from it (with a tactic he learned from Chise) to see what the Dynazenon crew would do. Some people said that it's to test if any of them were kaiju user, and while that's possible, I think it's a little unlikely. Sizumu only observed them at 2 instances, first was when they started the search for the kaiju, the second was when their beam destroyed the kaiju. Unless the kaiju voices could tell him, there would be no way for Sizumu to know if any of them used Instance Domination, until the very end when Yomogi used it on him. The likelier hypothesis would be: he saw them searching for the kaiju > he saw the kaiju being killed > he surmised that kaiju couldn't exist peacefully with Team Dynazenon, and didn't seem to be particularly happy about it.

From then on, Sizumu decided that they couldn't be his allies thus no longer approached Yomogi or Yume. It seems that he arrived to this final conclusion:

And this is where the series itself left off. Kaiju simply can't co-exist with humans. They are irregulars to the human society. Furthermore, the freedom that they offer can't be allowed to exist as running away from society and real human connections is wrong, even if reality is ugly and difficult to face. This is what make the series similar to Gridman. However, unlike Akane, the antagonists of Dynazenon failed to realized this and didn't get their happy ending.

(A detail that I'd like to mention is that Sizumu was silent during the entire final battle in contrast to the other Eugenicists who were pumping themselves up. It was like he was saying, "Didn't want to do this but I guess you left me with no choice". Though silence can mean anything so it's not a concrete evidence.)

TL;DR and Final Words

This is so much longer than I thought and I really apologize for it. I just don't want to make anyone do logical leaps when reading this post.

Tl;dr:

- Onija wanted to live and had a grudge towards Gauma and humans for causing his death.

- Juuga wanted Gauma to join them again and for things to be back the way it was 5000 years ago. He cared for nothing outside of the Eugenicists group.

- Munija wanted a purpose, found one, then lost it again. She envied Koyomi for regaining his sense of purpose and moving forward with his life.

- Sizumu wanted humans to understand kaiju and a world where kaiju can set humans free from their bonds. Initially considered an alliance with Team Dynazenon, but concluded that them (and people in general) couldn't understand kaiju after all.

- Final message of the show: Go touch some grass and talk to humans you fucking weebs.

Misc

When using Instance Domination, the palms of the Eugenicists always face towards the kaiju. The only exception is the last battle where Sizumu's palm faced towards himself, indicating that the kaiju was inside him. I believe that it was located at the center of his chest, where he shot out that weird magical light beam. Just a small thing I find interesting.

If we want to take it a step further, I believe the seed inside him had already grown into a kaiju, but it was still relatively small until he used Instance Domination on it. Eerie, huh?

And this is more of the theory territory and leaving the analysis, but this could possibly be why he was able to hear kaiju voices. Chise was able to understand Goldburn and translated for him at the end, so maybe having a kaiju inside of you would allow you to understand other kaiju somehow? If this is the case, he would probably have had the kaiju inside of him since 5000 years ago.

There's also this big brain moment from a 4chan user. The resemblance between Yume and Juuga is kinda uncanny considering they're both obsessed with the past.

That's it boys. I'm gonna crawl back into my hole until next century, or until Trigger drops Edgerunners. 8/10 show, VERY underrated gem. Trigger won't stop saving anime.

This post but on Reddit: