#and since you don't write RPs

[avictimofthejazz]

🌀 face or ba?

Send “🌀” to find my muse, injured and alone after being beaten up

The warehouse was eerily silent, something Face tried desperately not to think about. BA was not a quiet man either by nature or inclination, so Face had expected to just follow all the noises his friend made, using them as a guide for his search. But he had been wandering around this cavernous space for almost an hour now, and the only sounds he could hear were the waves sloshing against the docks outside, the rare nocturnally active seagull, and the hum of fluorescent lights. Cautiously turning a corner around a pile of crates, Face’s eyes shot upward for any sign of a trap or ambush. He never saw the obstruction in his path until he tripped, tumbling onto his knees despite a desperate struggle to right himself against the boxes. The sounds of his bad knee hitting the cement, followed by an obscenity he rarely allowed himself to use these days, echoed through the warehouse. Sitting upright, hands automatically going to his leg, Face scanned the area for the tripwire that must have caught his foot. All he saw was a leg sported camo pants and a red sneaker. “BA?” The foot twitched, its owner still alive at least. Scrambling to his feet, Face followed the leg and quickly located his friend. The muscle man sat slumped and unconscious on a pile of broken crates. From the trail of destruction behind him, Face guessed it had been quite a fight but even BA could not take down multiple assailants by himself. If he had taken anyone with him, which Face was sure he had, their buddies had already dragged them out of there. Smart enough not to get too close to BA until he was awake and cognizant of the world around him, Face satisfied himself with lightly kicking BA’s leg. “Come on BA… wake up. The Colonel’s turning half the city upside down looking for you.” It took several minutes of jostling and prodding but the Sargent finally started flicking his eyelids. Another minute or two found BA opening the one eye he could—the other one appeared to be swollen shut. How bad the injury really was would not be clear until Face got his friend out of the shadow-covered warehouse and into some proper lighting. BA rumbled back to the land of the living with a grumble and a shaky swipe from his fist. Face prudently stepped back until he was out of range. “You with me, BA?” “Face Man?” BA tried to prop himself up with one hand, the one he had fisted and swung at his friend out of instinct. “Yeah.” Face cautiously took a few steps forward now that BA confirmed his identity. “You okay? You look like you went about ten rounds with Muhammad Ali.” “Nine of them.” BA squinted at his friend. “There were nine of ‘em…took three down…” he pressed his other hand into the floor and yelped. “They got my wrist all messed up, man!” “They messed up a lot more than that.” Face observed grimly as he crouched down. “They must have ganged up on you. Do you know who they were?” BA nodded, confirming Face’s suspicion that several men jumped him at once. “A couple of ‘em were low weight muscle ‘round here.. the kinda suckers people hire in bars for ugly jobs. Don’t know who hired them but ain’t that many slugs we’re tangling with right now.” “Oh, I’m sure it was Jim Hansville.” Face stated. “He had a few goons try to jump Murdock at the VA.” BA started but before he could speak, Face held up his hand. “Murdock’s fine—he just used the confusion to sneak out and warn us. According to him, the new head night nurse is on her second career. Her first was bouncing Godzilla out of Tokyo.” Giving BA a minute to finish getting his bearings, Face continued. “Murdock found me at the Hyatt—you know I’m staying there right now—and we called Hannibal from there. One or two goons might have tried to come in—I saw security throwing a few rough characters out when I went downstairs to collect Hannibal. He picked up Amy on the way in case someone decided to draw her in too, but none of us could reach you. That’s why we came looking.” “Those scumballs used a kid, man!” BA snapped at Face. “Had a kid come tell me his little sister went missing down here, and I had to come help him find her! Then I got jumped!” Face grimaced. It was an ugly plan, but not unheard of. Poor kids, especially the ones living on the streets with nowhere to go, would do any number of errands for a few bucks. “Was it a kid you knew?” “Nah.” BA grumbled, trying to push himself to his feet. Face stood up and offered his hand. BA accepted it and, with a firm pull from the con artist and a strong push from the mechanic, they leveraged the muscleman up off the cement floor. BA wavered for a few minutes, having to lean against the crates as he found his center of balance again. “Well… if you see him again, let me know. I don’t think you’d be fit to deal with him, given what happened, but I might be able to get him some better survival options then betraying people to leg breakers.” Grumbling under his breath, BA just nodded. Now that he was upright, he realized he had no energy to spare on idle chitchat. Face accepted that. Reaching out to snag BA’s elbow before his friend could fall over, he started guiding the dazed man out of the warehouse. “Come on—Amy and I were searching through this half the docks while Murdock and the Colonel took the other half. Let’s get you back to my Vette. You can rest while I get Amy and tell Hannibal that we found you. Then I’m taking you to see Doctor Billings.” “The vet?” BA stumbled and caught himself on Face’s shoulder. Face managed to hold steady under his friend’s weight. “There’s not that much difference between animals and people, BA. You know that.” He reminded the mechanic patiently. “Besides, he accepts cash, he doesn’t ask questions, and he doesn’t make me do paperwork. What more can I ask for?” “I guess you gotta a point.” BA agreed after a minute before gruffly adding, “I still don’t like going to a vet though! It ain’t right!” “I’ll be sure to note that complaint in your file.” Face stated drily, spotting the door of the warehouse up ahead. It was partially open, and the silhouette of a woman assured him that help was on the way. A few seconds later, Amy ran over to support BA on his other side. “I already radioed Hannibal when I saw you two coming out.” She explained. “And from what BA said, I’m guessing our next stop is Dr. Billings?” “See BA?” Face stated sweetly as he nodded to Amy. “Amy agrees with me… now just behave yourself and try not to break his arm this time, okay? Understandably, he charged me triple for that the last time I had to take you to him.” Face knew that he was lucky—BA was exhausted enough that his argumentative nature had, for once, been muted to a dull shell of itself. BA stayed silent until they reached the door, squinting against the rich orangey-red light spilling over the docks as the sun slipped below the horizon. “Fine.” BA agreed at last. “Long as he don’t shoot me up with anything weird! I just want him to fix up my wrist and get some ice on my eye so I can see again!” “Deal.” Face stated. “I will request only the most basic of treatments for you, and we can stop at a drug store on the way back to my place for ice packs and pain killers. Amy, you’re my witness.” The trio hobbled down the wharf until they reached the painfully conspicuous Corvette. Amy slipped away to get the passenger door open while Face stayed with BA to make sure he could cover the last bit of the distance. As Face managed to flop his friend into the passenger seat, BA grabbed the con artist’s shoulder with his good hand. “Thanks for looking for me, man.” Face patted his friend’s hand lightly and smiled, “You’d do the same for me, BA. The A-Team take care of each other.” “Yeah,” BA rumbled sleepily. “Yeah, we do. Part’a what bein’ a team is all about, Face Man. Part’a what bein’ a family is all about.”

[sweetestdumpling]

{ Hey there! Very small and basic advertisement of a Ling Xiaoyu RP blog! After being off for a few years, due to lack of motivation, trying to get back in the swing of things!

If you're willing to give me a chance as I make my way back, it's totally appreciated! I'm open to crossovers as well, fine with pretty much anything.

Hoping to meet some new people so we can all be nerds and write together~ ♥

Here's some OOC things to note but I promise I don't bite. Thanks again! }

[demetrius-haggarty]

Shrub Club: episode 4

'Ah, if only I knew more people that could understand my love for chomping cabbages,' Meech sighs as he feeds one of his 'little' toothy friends.

This particular one grew to be the healthiest in the batch and the Gryffindor still insisted on giving it a little extra each meal. The temperature and humidity of the freshly built greenhouse are close to their Professor's classroom so Demetrius moved his chomps here as soon as he could. He was convinced that they would start biting Leander's ankles if Meech left them in his care for too long. Not that he doesn't trust his dormmate. But he knows his cabbages too well. Whatever the girls did with their charmwork, the cabbages thrived in their greenhouse.

Demetrius didn't realize at first that he talked about his love for cabbages out loud. He turns around to look at the other members of the Shrub Club with his typical frown. Anyone who has known him for long enough knows that he's not really frowning. That's just how his face is.

'That was... rhetorical,' he mumbles. 'How has the decorating been going? I assume everyone agrees with Wren's idea of a beautiful Hawthorne growing under the main dome?'

The Gryffindor doesn't want to sound sentimental when he brings up The Tree but the thought still makes him feel cozy inside. Meech has been expecting a beautiful sapling to arrive all morning today (his gramps pitched in) and now that they are all gathered here after classes he is uncharacteristically nervous. Meech continues.

'I couldn't find a way to get a tree in here that is already as big as on Wren's sketch but I... We got some help with a very powerful fertilizer from Professor Garlick. Our tree should grow in a matter of hours and we get a chance to shape the branches and prune it as it goes. If you guys... want to do it together?'

The flapping of the wings is heard from the outside and Meech hurries over to accept the long-awaited green guest.

'Ta-da,' the Gryffindor says a little awkwardly but surprisingly with a huge grin on his scared face and a delicate sapling in his hands.

@theodoradevlin @justaskmagnoliaellistor @ask-wren-zhang

[thatrandomlittlegirl]

part of spring cleaning includes doing slight redesigns for 8-year old OCs, right

Especially since i've recently drew the KFC Trio, it's now time for more fallen humans!

UTY has gotten me straight back into my old hyperfixiation, so of course i have been thinking about my dear daughter again especially if it helped me develop slight changes in her backstory and fighting style too

oh and also! the small doodle of eva is of course from the lovely @kitsunekisara i simply missed those two girls together again <3

[romulanslutempire]

The Terran Romulan. The Green-Bellied Turncoat. The Pointy-Eared Pretender. 

These were the names people called her by now, among other worse things, although those particular slurs were restricted to being slung by the other last few remaining Romulans that didn’t die en masse with the rest of their brethren upon their humiliating defeat at the second Battle of Cheron lead and won by Khan Noonien-Singh during the second Federation-Romulan war. Their arrival to the battlefield too late. The senate’s decision after the decimation of their military forces and Remus’ destruction upon Khan’s forced entry into the Neutral Zone to enact his most brazen assault yet on that of Romulus itself being the universal agreement to commit mass suicide, to die with honor instead of disagrace, to spit in the face of the Khan Imperator’s offer to be subjugated under his regime being orders that hadn’t quite reached Sera and her fellow temporal operatives, who at the time had been a secret subdivision of the Tal Shiar tasked with slowing down Human progress and making advantageous changes to the timeline in the pursuit of Romulan superiority. 

No one trusted her. Not really.

It felt silly to think it. Was laughable, really. Trust being something that, for a Romulan, was either non-existent or the most sacred of bonds. There was no in-between in her culture of deceit and concealment.

No, that’s not true. Someone did trust her. Manu Noonien-Singh trusted her and Sera had loved him for it, so much so that she had given him not just a heart filled with intensity, passion, and every other strong emotion she carried around with her, but her true name as well. Their exchanges of truths and revelation of secrets the ultimate commitment to someone like her. And then he died — the way James T. Kirk had died in a different timeline: coldly, impersonally, cruelly.  The brilliant light fading from his kind eyes as she cradled him to her chest in her arms, bright red blood soaking through her shirt. And like before there was La’an, flooded with grief, trembling with anger, blinking back tears, applying pressure to the wound torn into his chest by the Gorn with the palms of her hands, telling him to look at her and that it was going to be okay, even though it obviously wasn’t. 

And then he was gone. 

“No…” 

“La’an, I—”

She expected La’an to blame her, to explode like the supernova that, in yet another timeline, destroyed her homeworld, but instead all she did was press her forehead to Sera’s, gripping her tightly by the shoulders, like she was afraid that if she let her go she would lose her, too.

“Don’t,” La’an ordered, her voice firm but gentle. “It’s not your fault. I’ve been there. It’s not your fault. Do you hear me?”

It was a long way from where they’d started, Sera thought, all of it fraught with regret over what she’d done and the suffering her actions had caused to the woman who now called her “family”. 

The only family she has left. 

Khan didn’t count. They shared a name, and his Augmented ichor, albeit diluted to the point where La’an did not possess any of his enhanced genetic abilities, coursed through her veins, but Khan was not her family. La’an had told him as much when she finally revealed herself to be a leader of the Resistance, a coalition movement of several species, including Sera of Romulus and Spock of Vulcan, who had been opposed to his reign of tyranny from the start.

He was a killer who felt no remorse, unlike Sera, who had found herself overcome with it upon allowing herself to feel it rather than compartmentalize it, along with every other pesky emotion that interfered with the mission back when the mission was to wipe out humanity, whereas now… now it was to save them — the people who looked upon her with fear and loathing and suspicion, unable to see what La’an and Manu saw. 

Of course, the only other exception, along with the Noonien-Singh siblings, was Spock. S’chn T’Gai Spock, to be specific. A name, much to her amusement and La’an’s annoyance, only she could pronounce, the Vulcan dialect not so different from her own native Romulan tongue and its variations, some of which, they surmised one evening in the science lab, were an offshoot of the ancient ancestors who bore them both. 

With Spock’s offer to make himself available to her, Sera had learned that it was okay to walk in two worlds but to belong in neither. That she didn’t have to commit to being Terran or Romulan. She could simply just exist. It was harder for him, Spock truly being two halves of a whole with a (dead) Vulcan father and a (safe) Human mother, but on his own personal journey of growth, he had found that he was more than the sum of his parts, that self-acceptable enabling the hybrid to evolve into someone that Sera often sought out when she was struggling to strike a balance between who she had become and the strict Romulan moral code she was raised on regarding who is a friend and who is an enemy, that clarity of what is right and what is wrong no longer applying to a world that had become grey instead of black and white . The understanding he offered invaluable to her. 

In exchange, though he had insisted one wasn’t required, Sera had shared her species’ technique of balancing logic and emotion. Showed him sterility could hinder as much as help. It was something that Spock had largely forgone, leaning into his Vulcan side as per societal expectations, and to control his own anger over everything that had happened, including the complicated loss of his father, whose head Khan had struck from his shoulders on the steps of the Vulcan Science Academy in front of a crowd that contained his wife and son, Amanda and Spock. The act separating the Humans (and Human Augments) of Earth, renamed Terra Nova, and the Vulcans of Vulcan, replacing mutual peace and prosperity with an oath of fealty as the pacifistic, scientifically-minded race of astoundingly intelligent and sensitive beings were subjugated (“united,” Khan had called it) under the rule of the Khanate of Earth and the Imperial Starfleet, whose totalitarian mission was to conquer the galaxy under his iron fist..

Sera, who had found solace on Vulcan at the time by posing as one, saw right through his transparent speech. He wanted to enslave the stars, not save them. He was Death, destroyer of worlds, and anyone who dared oppose him would feel the full force of his wrath. 

That wasn’t how or where she and Spock had found each other, though. Her confession that she had been there that day and bore witness to Khan’s unending brutality came later, a lot later, after La’an had offered her a place aboard the ISS Puget Sound as her Chief of Security, the position she once held on the USS Enterprise before moving on and up (in terms of rank, anyway) to the USS Farragut to serve as first officer to James Tiberius Kirk. 

The real James Kirk. 

James Insane-Middle-Last-Name Kirk who Sera had shot dead in another life, only to gloat about it, bragging over the achievement that she had been the one to kill (a version of) Starfleet’s most famous captain. (A captain that, in this universe, had been stripped of rank and moved from prison planet to penal colony to prison ship for his opposition to Khan’s rule.) Just thinking about it makes her feel sick, her cheeks turning green as a wave of nausea flips around in her belly. That was then. This is now. With her mantra — Manu’s mantra — coming to mind, Sera forces herself to swallow the bile in her throat, grimacing as she chokes on the taste, her face abruptly turning to the side as she splutters and sobs with unimaginable grief before sagging against Manu’s chest just beneath his chin. 

“Mr. Scott, beam us out. Beam us out now!” were the last words she heard before everything went dark.

When her eyes reopen, she’s greeted by the overhead fluorescent lighting of sickbay, blindingly white, with Doctor McCoy, better known as Bones, peering over her as he applies a hypospray into the shell of her right ear. She’s about to ask what happened, but before her mouth can even form the words all of it comes back to her in violent flashes of red, yellow, and shades of green.

They had been fleeing from Khan. Trying to regroup. The Puget Sound needed time for Montgomery Christopher Jorgensen What-A-Mouthful Scott, more affectionately known by the crew simply as “Scotty”, to repair her engines and other starship necessities like weapons and shields. His attack leaving them stranded in space — Gorn space. Not that they knew it. Gorn territory was ever-expanding and though Manu, being the self-proclaimed expert on the bipedal reptilian species, had mapped out as much of their hunting grounds as he could, not even the elder Noonien-Singh could have predicted, much less warned of, the arrival of a Gorn raider ship before it was too late. 

Beaming aboard the ship was a suicide mission. Sera had told him as much, but Manu being Manu had only smiled and kissed her before stepping up onto the transporter pads, his trusty Gorn-dispatching sword strapped to his back. 

“I have to do this,” Manu had said, willing her to understand. “I’m the only one who can.” His experience outlasting them for six cycles as a boy coupled with his personal crusade against them throughout his adult life inspiring confidence in his capabilities, but Sera could see the fear behind his eyes. That never went away and after the ordeal he endured, Sera had to admire his courage to face such a terrifying enemy again and again. And it was never once about revenge. No, it was always, always, always about helping people, sparing them from sharing his fate. His unconditional compassion the very reason Sera was still alive today.

“You’re not the only one,” Sera insisted, taking her place beside him. “Where you go, I go. Remember?” Unholstering her Romulan phaser, Sera powered it up in preparation, its sole setting that of a killshot. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

“I’m coming, too,” La’an said, appearing before them in her own tactical uniform, and wearing a look that brooked no argument, which Manu knew better than to protest against. After all, La’an was just as protective of him as he was of her, maybe even more so, considering she had spent over half of her life convinced she’d lost him when they’d lost their parents. A team of three other security officers followed behind her. “Mr. Kyle, if you please.”

“Aye, Captain. Beaming you down in three… two…”

The memories get murkier from there, but Sera wades on through. Sees herself blasting holes through lizardlike bodies, painting the ship’s walls yellow with their blood. Manu striking off a Gorn head and having to use all his might to do it, the physical exertion leaving him breathing hard. La’an unused to the stifling atmosphere aboard the starship, wiping blood and sweat and grime from her brow as they ventured deeper into the bowels of the ship, fighting their way to command central. Sera’s ears pricking up to the sound of strangled wails and terrified cries. All three of them investigating, only to discover a cell full of captives — men, women, and children. La’an contacting the Puget Sound for immediate evacuation. The Gorn surrounding them, hissing and clicking and spewing their infectious venom. A skirmish like no other. Primal. Instinctive. Unrelenting. It’s predators versus prey and neither the Gorn or the trio of crew from the ISS Puget Sound know who is which until Manu takes a wound that was meant for Sera, and all she can do is watch as his guts are yanked out of him.

“Judging from that look on your face, I’m guessin’ you don’t need me to tell you what happened,” Bones commented as he waved a dermal regenerator over her skin, absent of his customary cranky attitude as he did so.

“Where’s La’an?” Sera asked him, sitting up and swinging down off the biobed, uncaring that she’s missing half of her left ear or that her shoulder is dislocated or that her cheek is cut wide open, a trickle of bright green pouring out of it. 

“In her quarters,” Bones supplied, his eyes narrowing as he watches her. “Goddammit, Sera! Would you sit back down?” he grumbled, his tolerance for impatient patients next to none.

“I have to see her,” Sera explained as she made her exit, half-expecting Bones to chase after her, medical instruments in hand, nagging her about his duty of care as a physician, no matter how big a pain in the ass Romulans, like Vulcans, can be. But instead all he did was sigh in exasperation, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

“You get back here the second you’re done, got it? Don’t make me come and find you.”

Upon arriving outside La’an’s assigned quarters, Sera stiffened. The sound of agonized screaming and the breaking of furniture letting her know exactly what she’s in for as she overrides the lock on her door and slips inside, sealing it shut again behind her. The oriental vases that once decorated the shelves are shattered completely, just like the glass coffee table they used to play Mahjong together while drinking kali-fal. Plants have been upended. Lamps broken. Trinkets wrecked. And in the center of the chaos is La’an pacing back and forth like a lion in a cage, looking for something else to unleash herself upon, but all that’s left is Sera.

“I have to go back.”

“What are you talking about?” La’an asked, not understanding. Her rage morphing into confusion and concern.  “Go back where?” 

“In time.” Something that she hasn’t been able to do since Romulus found a new ruler in Joachim, Khan’s right hand man, who gifted him the planet after the Augments sacked it, stealing their technology, including their plasma weapons. “The Department of Temporal Alterations on Romulus has the device I require to do it, but…”

“Romulus is a no-go zone.”

Sera gave a shrug. “You can’t turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again.” It was one of the first lessons she learned as a time traveling assassin. “Commander Charvanek and Sub-Commander Tal can take me there. No one knows their way around the former Neutral Zone like them. We just need a big enough to distraction to draw Joachim's attention away from the drop zone. And since Krinn still owes me a favor or two... I figure he and I can work something out. Khan doesn't know about the technology and even if he did he'd never be able to access it. The security system wouldn't allow it.”

“Imperial Starfleet knows your tricks. You’ll be shot out of the stars before you can get boots on the ground, you know that,” La’an informed her, walking through the wreckage. “I’m not sanctioning this.”

“Well then,” Sera started with a smirk that didn’t quite reach her eyes, “I guess it’s a good thing I’m not asking for your permission.”

“Sera.”

“What are we even doing?”

“Surviving.”

“And what about living? Sure, we’ve had moments of it, but this war with Khan is unwinnable, and even if it wasn’t by the time it’s over there won’t be a world to live in. Not like there was before. That is what we’re fighting for, isn’t it? The way things used to be before Admiral Pike made the wrong call, not just with the Romulans but with the Botony Bay.” 

“It was a grievous error in judgment,” La’an stated terseley, her tone indicating the words she does not say: It was stupid. He should have known better. It got him killed. “One that he paid for with his life,” she reminded Sera, referring to the reactor explosion that had killed a number of others as well, people that Pike had tried (and failed) to save while she struck a deal with Khan, agreeing to join him in exchange for him saving the lives of those who were still left to save onboard, including Spock and Samuel Kirk, both of whom now served with her on her own ship: a gift from Khan that she’d christened the Puget Sound II in honor of her fallen family, the starship Imperial Starfleet’s finest after her flagship the ISS Khan’s Wrath. But where Khan had intended for her to use it to do harm, La’an had used it to help, the vessel an essential resource to the Alien Underground and the Resistance. 

“I never thought I would say this,” Sera began, hefting out a sigh and settling her hands on her hips, “but… the galactic universe needs the Federation. It needs—”

“—hope,” La’an finished for her, fresh tears stinging at her eyes.

Sera nodded. “I used to hate Starfleet for its shining optimism. On Romulus, I was raised to believe that it made you weak and foolish, but I realize now how wrong we were. It was never a weakness. It was strength.”

The Federation sought knowledge and understanding. Khan sought power and domination. The Federation charted the unknown to explore strange new worlds. Khan charted the unknown to conquer new territory. The Federation embraced new civilisations. Khan made them bend the knee. The Federation taught that if you could find a way to empathize with an enemy then they could one day become a friend. Khan taught that if you tested him then you would feel his unbridled fury.

“If you change the timeline, you and I will be enemies again,” La’an whispered, averting her eyes at the crack in her voice. It wasn’t a reason for Sera not to go through with her plan, but it warranted pointing out all the same. “You’ll remember all of this, but I won’t.”

“Which is why I’ll use what I know to make sure it never happens again,” Sera promised. She then closed the remaining distance between them, extending the arm that she still had complete use of, and out La’an reached with her own, the two women clasping each other by the forearm, a Roman handshake. “As for you and me, I won you over once — twice, if you consider the time you thought I was just a sad conspiracy theorist believing in little green men from Mars,” Sera laughed. “I have every confidence that I’ll be able to do it again someday. Time is my speciality, after all.”

Grudgingly, La’an gave a snort. It wasn’t Sera’s finest hour, no, but it was where it had all began. And until Sera could make good on her irritatingly charming promise, it would be where it ended, at least as far as La’an was concerned. Her fakery of her death at the Noonien-Singh Institute of Cultural Advancement to cover her tracks the last time La’an would see her until years later when rumors of an all too familiar Romulan brought the ISS Puget Sound to Freecloud to chase down a lead that would eventually bring her to Sera.

Sera who had pretended not to know her. Sera who had her convinced that she was the prime universe counterpart of the Sera she had met in 21st century Toronto. Sera who had joined La’an because it was the only chance she would ever have of saving her people and her homeworld, if not in this life then another. Sera who had initially only gone along with her to finally get her shot at Khan. Sera who had agreed to help because she knew what La’an was capable of. Sera who pissed her off. Sera who made her smile. Sera who had come through for her and for her crew time and time again. Sera who had changed so much. Sera who had gone from being a rationalization (the enemy of my enemy is my friend) to a true ally who was loyal to her. Sera who loved her brother and became her family, too. Sera who was willing to sacrifice herself for the hope of a better tomorrow. 

“We have our work to do.”

[technofinch]

what’s your favorite situation to put characters in? au or otherwise. esp for mulligan bc i am just entranced by how that guy’s mind works

my FAV situation to put characters in is always the worst case scenario <3 looking at a character's morals & ideals and just. Making them do the opposite of that. It's my bread and butter tbh.

For nico especially, before she turned, I had a whole elaborate au that lives exclusively in my mind (& notes app) of her choosing to trade her life for her friend's freedom (they've been captured by a vampire or something dw about it) with the expectation that she would be killed. Instead, of course, the vampires keep her, making a mockery of her pride and using her skills as a hunter to their own ends :p It's uh. Pretty dark. But also a fun thought experiment. Everyone needs a little whump in their life <3

For mulligan my favorite scenario is imagining different ways his court martial could go >:3c but that's one we might actually see in play, though possibly with a happier ending than I'm imagining bc our gm is not nearly as mean to my characters as I am. In my mind he gets sentenced to hard labor, assigned to a dogcatcher (alien hunting) squad, and has a Very Bad time lmao.

For the sake of levity, though, I will touch briefly on the oft-mentioned cowboy polycule AU, where everything works out much better for everyone. That one has the crew living together on a ranch, with Jack & Mulligan as cowboys, Miranda as a horse therapist, Karina as a vet, and Reese and Reed doing... whatever it is they do in that au lmao. It's not particularly fleshed out, but the important part is that mulligan is dating both jack and miranda (and they amiably tolerate each other) and it's very wholesome (in comparison to canon at least)

[abyssembraced]

(Plotted starter for @succiduxus!)

They had been trapped in this realm for an uncountable length of time. The Godseeker had claimed this was where they belonged now, in this Home of the Gods, to be attuned to and ascended by their ever-loyal followers and worshippers.

They had helped her and her people, she said. Saved them. Brought to them the “God of Gods” they had been searching for for all their lives.

They were an ascended deity now. The Lord of Shades. The Void united and given focus through divine ritual. Though they had split off from their siblings after defeating the Light at the height of her strength, manifesting themself in their familiar, miniscule form as the excess Void laid dormant in the pits of Godhome, their divine power and control over the substance remained. This place was where they were meant to stay.

...

They didn't want to.

The Godseekers offered praise and adoration, but little in the way of companionship. One would think that, given their past as a lone traveller, they would be accustomed to such solitude, yet they found themself becoming... Lonely. They longed to see their friends again. They were the Ghost of Hallownest, as their sister had once dubbed them, not Godhome's ultimate God of Gods.

Yet, no matter how hard they tried to cut themself free from this dream, nothing seemed to work. Normally, their Dream Nail allowed them to traverse between the realms of waking and sleep with ease, but this time the tool apparently proved insufficient. Sometime after their ascension and subsequent (accidental) destruction of the original Godhome, the nail had lost its Awoken status, and the essence once contained within the blade had scattered out across the Dream Realm. Perhaps that was the reason they were now trapped in here? With no knowledge of what had occurred in Hallownest following the defeat of the Absolute Radiance at the Pantheon's peak, Ghost didn't understand what was so different about this reconstructed Godhome compared to any other dream.

Still, they needed to keep trying. With enough persistence, maybe eventually they would create an opportunity to break free from this land, or at least find a way to contact someone from the outside world.

...Wait. Though most of the “gods” they'd faced in the Pantheons were merely illusory constructs—stronger imitations of the opponents they'd slain in Hallownest, summoned only to fight—perhaps some of them had truly been alive, aware. Ghost recalled their battles with Sister Hornet, and the inner thoughts her mind had relinquished to them in the moments she had staggered and stopped to catch her breath.

“...Do they watch us struggle?..”

“Little Ghost... What dreams we share...”

“Do you haunt my dreams... Or I yours?”

Maybe... If the real Sister Hornet was truly aware of and remembered their dream battles, maybe she would be able to help them.

With that thought in mind, Ghost dashed over to Godhome's Hall of Gods, paying no heed to the Godseekers that bowed to them as they passed. There, they could contact Sister Hornet directly, without any need to scale one of the Pantheons beforehand. Standing in front of the Sentinel's statue, they drew their nail in a stance that signified a challenge, transporting them to the arena at the sound of a bell's chime.

Though it retained Godhome's signature architecture, the battlefield was also littered with piles of ash, reminiscent of the clearing in Kingdom's Edge where Ghost had once fought Sister Hornet in a similar battle. Crowds of smaller Godseekers surrounded the arena on all sides, eager eyes watching the two combatants' every move as they waited for the battle to begin. Among them, sitting high above on her golden throne, was the Seekers' leader, leaning forward in anticipation, surely expecting a glorious fight between her “God of Gods” and their demigoddess sister.

However, this time the Godseekers would not be getting the grand battle they craved. Ghost would have preferred that they not be here spectating at all, but there wasn't anything they could do about that. So, they simply ignored the audience, just as they had done in the Pantheons, and focused entirely on their sister as she dropped into the arena from above.

Rather than draw their nail and fight, as they normally would have done, Ghost took it and tossed it to the side. They looked back at the other expectantly. If this was the real Sister Hornet and not one of Godhome's simulations, then surely she would take notice of their behaviour and cease to attack, right? The action left them vulnerable and would put them in a dangerous situation should their attempt at communication fail, but it was a risk they needed to take. Besides, even if they were to perish, they knew that they would simply wake up in front of the statue anyway, as though the encounter had never happened at all.

[hannahchronism]

do you think the people making "tumblr is going to poison the AIs lolol" just. don't know about the decade+ many hundreds of old writing blogs that were writing genuine short fiction and no longer have the ability to login / even know that this is happening to toggle the thing on their old blogs and so are about to have their words scraped in what will be a hugely valuable Get for programs that are actively trying to supplant creative pursuits through parsing the works of every creative they can find, good and bad, or

[ranger-kellyn]

someone: so why have you spent the last 10 years obsessing over a niche pairing that was only recently on screen for a few seconds???

me:

[reginrokkr]

Anonymous asked: In the past few days I saw more people open to share their ship preferences for their muses, but most of the tiers (more like all of them) don't include Dainsleif yet. So question for the mun! what do you look for in order to ship? and if it's easy for you to respond, who would you ship Dainsleif with?

I hope you know what you're in for, nonnie— as this is going to be a ride that may contain some salt.

What I look for first and foremost when it comes to shipping is plausibility. Yes, I'm aware that some muns may go like "oh, I like this character so I'd like to ship them with my muse and see if that works" and that's perfectly fine. I am no different in having these thoughts myself, but 95% of the times I ignore them for other reasons that will be stated later. Dain himself is a complicated muse with unique circumstances and background. If the likelihood of him not interacting with a great part of the cast in ways that it becomes meaningful and under normal circumstances is high, you can imagine how it must be the case of shipping.

Which leads me to the next point: because of Dain's complications it is hard to build something with strong foundations that won't crumble at the earliest scenario of him not providing what's expected in a healthy relationship. He has many ghosts of his past and the present time, a mission that was given by someone else or self-imposed that goes above everything —even himself, as he clearly states that doesn't relish his solitude in Shenhe's miscellany or that he knows about the heartache of the Adepti in Xiao's miscellany, which clearly belies the fact that he's ignoring things he would've preferred for himself for the sake of a grander scheme than himself—, a great trauma of the past that intertwines with self-hatred and guilt. He won't accept easily that someone in the know of all these things would still choose him. There is the Abyss that can warp his senses even if he's done a great job for the past centuries in remaining sane. There is a curse that goes with a chronic physical pain and even more ghosts to add in his mind that exist or the abyssal factors of the curse will ingrain in his mind. And there is the possibility that the Sinner is part of said ghosts in his mind, given that he might be the one who narrates Dain's introduction based on Chinese word choices to say who the author is.

In order for a ship to work with him, the other part has to be aware of all these things and even so be willing to stay by his side —more metaphorically-speaking than personally, because they'll be in for long periods of absence from Dain's part alone and most certainly that other person will have their own responsibilities too—. I love to ship romantically as the next person as much as it looks like I'm adding layers and layers of difficulty to do that, but I don't want to step over key aspects of what makes Dain who he is just for the sake of shipping at risk of making it incredibly shallow and without substance. Because one of the things that I look for in a ship is also development: for every muse in particular and in a personal way and together as a pair.

This is why I'm terribly iffy about ships that not only erase Dain's autonomy, but also ignore completely his own principles for the sake of shipping such as Dainsleif / Kaeya when the latter goes the Abyss road and in all this design Dain is just someone who is there without any word in anything other than to serve. Yes, he was a knight that served royalty in Khaenri'ah. But he isn't some mindless puppet who would throw away everything he worked for or the honor of others who he believes is being walked over unfairly like, guess what, the Abyss Order does. And something in a similar vein happens with the ship of either Lumine or Aether as the Abyss counterpart of the Traveler and Dain in a romantic ship, only that I've seen worse here to the point where they would do with him as they please and treat him unkindly while ignoring completely that he's not only an intelligent individual with vast knowledge, but also strong whose power is indirectly praised by someone of the likes of Skirk.

The last thing I look for in a ship (but not any less important) is communication. Extensive communication with the mun. For one I like to build ships from the very beginning and see how they evolve over the course of time and events our muses are subjected. But I'm also aware that we're adults with responsibilities and priorities other than a hobby that might make this incompatible, and still the interest of creating a meaningful ship is there. Which is why, for me, communication is equally as important as the aforementioned points. If I can't talk with the mun, how am I going to know their feelings on what's happening as our muses progress? There is a void left in my chest at the thought that I can't gush about things that happen with my RP partner in question which I have encountered in the past when I was less experienced in RP and more driven to what the majority used to do— but it simply doesn't work with me. If we won't be able to do things from scratch in a linear way, I want to have the opportunity to talk to my partner and at least build it through extensive discussions. Later on we can always jump in various points of our muses' timeline to observe in IC ways how certain things go. But... communication is simply a must to me. And if I happen to not mesh well with the mun for whatever reason (but still not to the point where IC interactions becomes incompatible, as we can still do IC things without necessarily ever talk if that's how it works between us) or lack that chance to talk things through with them... as much as I hate to say it, I won't ship it no matter how compatible our muses are.

Lastly, and this will be complicated to say so I'll just stick to what I've found the most compatible with Dain to have solid examples. The most 1:1 character I've found that Dain can be compatible with in Genshin is Neuvillette, without a sliver of doubt. There are others that would work well and that I don't necessarily ship (although I wouldn't turn the other way if it were suggested to me) like Xiao. Another 1:1 character I've found compatible with Dain that hilariously is all the way in HSR is Blade.

[arcgeminga]

♚— Damn. I have 10 ongoing Defteros threads (with 1 halted), and like... 3 ongoing Aspros threads.

It’s all the same RP partner (because the StS Fandom is dead), but like... Defteros is so popular.

[notnarvvhal]

●

[the-perfect-scientist]

((Everybody got Harry Potter blacklisted? Good.

[superlustersnew52]

it always weirds me out for people to not like it when men rp as women and vice versa because I feel that weirdly enforces a rigid gender binary for no reason at all

like maybe some men just like getting into the headspace of a woman, nothing wrong with that

now, as for myself, I don't write men because I spent too long in life coming to terms with the fact that I don't have the headspace of a man, I ain't going back to trying to do that for fun, but that’s just me personally

[pcetstcrtured]

tell me why i just deadass forgot my sister isn't on tumblr/in the rpc & just had the thought 'i just posted that starter (on my sideblog to be clear), she's gonna see that & know that i'm active & think i'm ignoring her texts'

[in--noctem]

((Hello! I have a few new followers over here, so I'm just leaving this as a notice for anyone who may not have seen my rules or whatever:

I use this blog VERY sparingly. I don't generally have much muse over here unless someone gets me REALLY intrigued with a thread. I love these muses but they're on the side blog for a reason 😅

That doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't send asks over here or ask for plots! I just can't guarantee replies more than maybe a couple times a month 😅 (Also it's okay to send smutty stuff if we've written together before, but please don't if we don't have an established ship! I'm really, really, fussy about smut, and don't feel especially confident in writing male characters in sexual situations most of the time). It's unfortunate, but I've mostly just had a lot more bad experiences writing male muses- namely people only wanting to write with my male muses and heavily prioritizing them to a point where I feel burnt out and, admittedly, used.

Please also note that I'm very picky about m/m ships! I have a number of reasons for this and you're welcome to ask why- just please do so off of anon so I can respond to you privately. So please don't approach with the intent on writing m/m ships with me straight out of the gate. I do have a muse or two who are gay (and most are bi or pan), but, again, please don't approach them specifically with the intent of shipping.

If you want more consistent writing, please follow me over at @in--somnium, @astral-athame, and/or @abrushwithdeath ! I've been barely active on any of those, too, because I've been busy. But now that the move is done and wifi is back up, I'll be trying to get back to those blogs specifically 🙂 I'll show some love to this blog over here once I get a grip on those blogs again 🙂

Also- here's a link to view the muses on this blog! The rules are the same here as they are on in--somnium, so please refer to the pinned post over there for rules <3 ))