#and the more i try to capture him the more im like. a novel is looking pretty good right now

[sanguinaryrot]

my poll for which comic i should make ended in a tie so i have to lie on the ground now

[spidervee]

hiiii idk if you got my previous message but the two prompts (I believe 45 and 70 I don't remember anymore) were for tangerine but im writing it just in case you haven't got it!!! NO PRESSURE! CAN'T WAIT have a nice dayyyyyy

“we shouldn't do this” but they do so, anyway & an accidental kiss that confuses you both, but only a moment pass before you crash your lips back against each other's 🍊🌻 tysm for this request, sweets! I hope you enjoy it! 18+ only; swears; sexual fantasies; hand stuff

The first time you kiss Tangerine is in your dreams. Absolutely knackered after a job, you fall—into bed at a cheap hotel, into a deep sleep and dreams that are far too close to fantasies. Tangerine’s body pressed against yours, his strong and deadly hands cupping your face with curated gentleness, his lips moving against your neck, his mouth tasting like fresh bread and cigarettes when it finally captures yours.

But then you wake up and Lemon’s playing Tetris in the armchair by the window and Tangerine is still crashed on the floor beside the bed that both Twins had chivalrously agreed to let you use (read: Lemon was happy with the cot and Tangerine grumbled, telling you to piss off and have pleasant dreams). Your lips are decidedly un-kissed.

The second time you kiss Tangerine, it’s on accident. You’re making crepes in his flat in London and you can’t quite reach the cinnamon. Sure, he’s bloody tall, but who doesn’t keep fucking cinnamon on the spice rack? You ask as much and Tangerine sets down the novel he’s been, unbeknownst to you, pretending to read (because it’s much more interesting to watch you move about his kitchen and much easier for him to imagine you making it a regular occurrence even though it’s obviously a bad idea…a terrible idea…a fucking daft notion, truly…).

“Keep your knickers on, love,” he grumbles teasingly, pinning you between the counter and his body as he reaches over your head to rummage in his cupboards. You try not to inhale him too obviously. But something happens as he shifts to the left and you press onto your tiptoes to try to catch a glimpse of what he’s doing. Something bad. Something terrible. Something daft.

Your lips brush against his neck, in the place where his collar droops open and his gold chain rests on taut skin.

Fuck. Fuck shit fuck.

Tangerine tenses, like a deer in headlights. Or a leopard about to spring upon its prey.

His big blue eyes are blinking, surveying you.

“Sorry,” you whisper.

“S’okay,” he whispers.

“Was on accident,” you both whisper, your voices overlapping.

The third time you kiss Tangerine is about eight and a half seconds later. It’s hot and heavy and sloppy, all tongue and teeth and wandering hands, until you’re half-naked in the kitchen with your hands down his pants and his arms caging you against the counter.

“This is a bad idea, right,” he mutters against your neck, mustache scratching at your skin.

“Most fucking definitely,” you reply, giving his cock a firm squeeze. He groans, bites his lip—you could get used to watching him do that.

“Fuck it.”

[adhdnojutsu]

I’ve always thought about this, in the manga, it says it’s been 11 years since Orochimaru left the Akastuki, because of the failed attempt to take Itachi, Itachi made Orochimaru leave. This was discussed when the Akastuki met up, Itachi was allegedly “21” at this time.

But Itachi said to have become the anbu captain at 13, it was mentioned by Kakashi im pretty sure when Itachi and Kisame came to capture Naruto.

Therefor Itachi was around late 13 or early 14 when the massacre was committed, he left Konoha after to join the Akastuki as a spy.

So 13/14 + the 11 years that was confirmed Itachi was in the organization for, that’s 24/25 years.

Is Itachi actually 24/25 years old and not 21 as “official sources” claim?

That would make him around 19/20 when he first came to “capture Naruto” and die around 24/25

I feel changing the “11 years” would be much more complicated than changing Itachis age, Sasuke was 6/7 around the time the clan died, so fast forward, he’s 17 when Itachi is “21”…how did Sasuke age around 11 years and Itachi only 7?

Idk if you already thought of this but it’s just a curiosity I’ve always had, correct me if I’m wrong at all

Glad you asked! Piecing timelines together is a thing I need for closure LOL so I already did it for the brothers!

I don't remember where, but it was said (not by an official source) that the "10 years since Orochimaru left Akatsuki" statement was a continuity error and should be disregarded. Because I could be wrong, but I vaguely remember that this statement was (also) made in the anime when Itachi was only 17/18 (after the chunin exams) and it would make absolutely 0 sense.

As for the massacre, the anime and manga make him 13 at the time. His official age of promotion was only mentioned that one time by Kakashi.

I don't know if you consider the Itachi Shinden novels canon, but personally I like to do so because they don't contradict any manga events, other than where Itachi's hands were when Shisui died... and add a lot of logical context. If we go by the novels, Kakashi only said Itachi was 13 because Hiruzen and Danzo aged him up on paper so as to not stir the pot too much by promoting someone at an age where others barely finish the academy. Itachi was actually 12 at the time of the massacre. It wouldn't be "wrong" for any character to say he was 13 as everyone was fed (and thoughtlessly believed??) the same lies about that poor kid. In his first detailed flashback in part 1 of the anime (on his way to the inn), Sasuke remembers how he was the same age Itachi was when he graduated, after auntie Uruchi (the chubby lady) said he was 7. That was the day of the massacre. It would also make the most sense. Canonically and in the anime, Itachi is 5 years older than Sasuke, and 7 + 5 = 12. In Itachi's first anime appearance, Sasuke just had his 13th birthday and Itachi should just have turned 18 the month before. This would make sense, too, as Sasuke is 16 when Itachi dies at 21 (Itachi's birthday is in June, Sasuke's in July).

Itachi's physical development isn't portrayed proportionately to his age or even true-to-data, which adds to the confusion. From the very beginning, Sasuke's flashbacks of 11-12-year-old Itachi show him much bigger than the Rookie 9. And he gets MUCH bigger within just 1 year. 11: 148 cm. 12 (officially 13 thanks to Danzo: 175 cm. LOL did Fugaku put something in his food to make him bigger faster because he also suddenly looks much more masculine??

But then, you put ANY adult in the room with him, and he suddenly shrinks. Danzo is officially shorter at 170 cm, but always shown taller, while Itachi wears thicker soles (Danzo wears slippers mostly).

Danzo has to bend to make eye contact with the squirt:

This is more than 6 cm difference! (175 & 181)

This was around the time of the massacre judging by Sasuke's size. Ummm... Wasn't Itachi officially as tall as Fugaku (175) here...

And this is just before the massacre, after Itachi got tired of trying:

He was supposed to be 6 cm taller than Kurenai (169 cm vs 175 cm), but he's drawn shorter than her!

And to make it all extra sad, I looked up what Itachi would look like in an accurate live action adaptation of the massacre, because Kishimoto draws him looking way older so the "groomed and exploited child soldier" part is more palatable:

(found on Pinterest)

For comparison, 12-year-old Itachi in the anime (average for Japanese boys that age is 153 cm, by the way, not 175 which is above average for ADULTS):

Naruto was said to be depicted as smol and scrawny on purpose, but while anime styles usually make a character look younger than their real life counterpart, Naruto was probably closest to that?

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk!

[thomine]

search in vain | xingqiu

RELATIONSHIP | xingqiu x reader

TAGS | general audiences, modern au, xingqiu's family owns a bookstore, xingqiu's ugly penmanship, some boss/employee dynamics, also a bit of rich/poor trope, not proofread

SUMMARY | somehow, someone always finds you when you're secretly chilling during work hours.

WORD COUNT | 1.6k words

INFO | au august 2023, day 21 (bookstore) | more

The storeroom of Feiyun Book Store is as bustling as the store itself. Employees rush in and out to meet the demands of customers, yet, despite the traffic, you’ve found a comfortable corner to tuck yourself away from your responsibilities. Behind the piles of freshly wrapped books, there is a tiny area hidden from view for boxes of damaged, imperfect, and vandalized goods. Everything is as still as a graveyard, and your back is pressed against the wall as these boxes act as your fortress.

The book in your hands is one of such books. Its once sharp tips are chipped, spine bent, and it will never find a home outside these grey walls, so you like to think giving it your attention, no matter how brief, is mercy.

It’s marked as a fantasy novel. Once, it was a genre on its own. There were thousands of books with a similar premise: a hero who seeks good and does all he can against evil with flashy superhuman powers, but it has since been clumped with the least liked novels of the century.

The story isn’t that bad, although it has not captured your full attention, and you perk up when you hear unusually loud footsteps.

The footsteps grow louder.

The second son of the founder of Feiyun walks past the tower of boxes. You raise the book higher to cover your face. The footsteps stop and a second passes. The moment you decide to peek, Xingqiu had to turn his head. His eyes meet yours through the slim gap between boxes, and as you sigh in defeat, he makes his way towards you.

“So this is your new hiding spot,” he says. You scoot to your side to make space for him. “Guess it’s our hiding spot now,” he cheekily adds when he squeezes beside you, shoulder almost touching yours.

“Not for long if you don’t keep quiet,” you whisper, narrowing your eyes because his smile is aggravating. “Was anyone following you?”

“I’m not a beginner.”

If middle names are a thing in the city of Liyue, ‘disappearing’ would be his. But that’s beside the point right now. Your new hiding spot of 3 days is at stake, and as large as the storeroom is, you’re running out of options. Plus, the untouched books act like a personal library which makes you fond of this area more than previous.

“Still, the moment you disappear the whole village looks for you.”

As if to prove your point, Xu calls for the young master. Poor Xu. To others, he’s the cashier of Feiyun Book Store, but everyone who works in this franchise knows he’s Xingqiu’s victim. When—not if, because everyone knows that the first son of the founder of Feiyun Book Store might not be reliable to single-handedly maintain the business so—Xingqiu takes the mantle, Xu will be promoted to Xingqiu’s secretary. It’s a lucrative and prestigious role, although debatable if it’s worth the trouble.

You tense, leaning towards the troublemaker till your shoulder collides with his. He doesn’t seem to care, both at your touch and Xu’s presence.

Xu doesn’t stop in his chase. He runs past the boxes, deeper into the storeroom.

Xingqiu nudges you, and when you look at him, he has the biggest smirk you’ve ever seen.

“I told you. I’m great at this.”

“You literally did nothing.”

“And neither did you. We work well in a team.”

You roll your eyes, trying to swallow a smile. Then, you return to your book. Whatever he wants to do is his business, but after a paragraph or so, you can’t focus. You look to your side, curious about the second son of the founder of Feiyun. He should have a book with him, but he’s busy scribbling away on a piece of paper.

He pushes it towards you, and you’re greeted with that familiar yet horrid handwriting. At least it has improved enough such that you can differentiate his ‘h’ and ‘n’s.

Isn’t that the book I recommended?

You take a glance at the cover, mostly for show as if you didn’t know. He passes you his pen, and you reply.

You probably noticed me here because this book cover caught your eye… I shouldn’t have read it.

He holds back a chuckle behind his hand. When he gives you a glance, his bright gold eyes feel like a warning as if he’s pinned down your weaknesses and will pick on them one by one, but there’s also a softness to them you recognise. It’s the same shine when he shares his thoughts on books and chivalry, on dreams and aspirations. It’s reserved only for Xingqiu—not the second son of the founder of Feiyun Book Store.

He slides the note to you, a new line written under yours.

You frown at the penmanship, needing to go through his words over and over again until you get a gist of what he’s trying to say.

Is that an unsold book? You know that’s not how you are supposed to use your employee benefits.

It was in the discarded pile, so it was already in this state before I touched it. I wouldn’t be reading this book if not for finding it here. You should be thankful instead of reporting me to your father. Either way, books here are so expensive.

We pay you well. You’re just stingy.

“Young master?” Xu’s voice echoes in the area. His hurried footsteps return, and it passes the both of you yet again. His desperate calls remain resolute as he dashes away.

You should really return. You give Xingqiu a long, hard stare. Scrunching your eyebrows for added effect.

That’s unfair. Here you are, enjoying the time of your life with a nice book. How long have you been here? I’ve only had a few minutes of fun.

Oh please. It’s not my fault you’re Mr Popular. Why are you here anyways? (P.S. I guess it’s been about 10 minutes.)

A lady wanted to ask me out for tea. (P.S. 10 minutes is significant… It’s still working hours, you know?)

Don’t you like tea? Why are you running away from her? (P.S. Your penmanship sucks so much I can safely ignore what you wrote <3)

“Actually,” you whisper, “I don’t think Xu will return. We can speak softly. Your penmanship is really hard to read.”

Xingqiu shakes his head, writes something down, and passes you the piece of paper.

I need to practice, right?

You roll your eyes but take the paper and continue the silent conversation. In the corner of your eye, you note how he’s entertained by your annoyance.

You didn’t answer my question. You write.

Xingqiu takes the pen from you and pauses. He’s staring at the paper.

Tea is not something to be consumed frivolously, and as a daughter of a high-positioned man, she should know that.

You have a few rebuttals to his claim, particularly on how he carelessly hands you packets of tea to try for a report on its taste. Something about gathering more than one opinion before he sends it to a famous opera singer. But this seems to be bothering him more than usual. He would have opened his own book and read with you if it was any ordinary day.

You know you can say no, right? In that flowery way of the second son of the founder of Feiyun Book Store.

He frowns.

I can’t. Even more as the second son.

He looks at you, and for a moment you forget he’s your future boss. Instead, before you is Xingqiu, someone stuck in a role he didn’t ask to be in.

You return your attention to the paper. All you can write is Oh. You aren’t sure what’s really happening. The world of the rich is a world you aren’t privy too, only that it is a cursed blessing.

He tugs on the edge of the paper, and you surrender it along with his pen.

The situation is complicated, so I won’t bore you, but I just need a little time to rest. Can you lend me your shoulder?

You squint, placing the paper near your eyes. His penmanship truly is horrible, but you’re acting this way because his request is preposterous! If anyone catches his head on your shoulder, you don’t have an excuse. Sure, you can say the second son of Feiyun Book Store is tired and just so happen to have chanced upon you as you’re neglecting your own duties as an employee of his future bookstore…

No, that’s even worse. You really have nothing to say to cover both your’s and his ass—except he probably doesn’t need you to reason for him. Still, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared, although preparing does hurt your brain as you wreck for ideas.

At one point you give up your act in trying to read his message. He takes the pen from your hands and your grip on the paper naturally loosens.

When the paper returns to you, you don’t have time to process his new message. He stands. Instinctively, you grab onto his wrist, only to realise what you’re doing. You release your grip and hide your face behind the paper, this time reading what he says.

I think I will make my leave. We do not want you to lose your job too early, do we?

“You can stay,” you say.

He smiles. When he sits at your side, you tap on your shoulder.

“For Xingqiu.”

His smile grows wider, and once his head connects with your shoulder, his breathing turns slow and heavy.

There are a few who rush through the storeroom shouting for their young master, but they cannot find him.

[psychokeks]

A little headcanon of mine that was inspired by this prompt: https://im-totally-not-an-alien-2.tumblr.com/post/690977597332570112/hey-who-wants-a-really-dark-and-morbid-prompt

Making this its own post so that the world sees it? I guess. Despite being years on this site I still don't know how everything works, especially on mobile.

It's full of angst and has the potential to be tragic.

Now, the gist is that Danny gets captured by Batman, who is his Dad in this au, because he misunderstands what a ghost core is and removes it, causing Danny to despise him and try to "go ghost" again. By all means necessary. The whole thing is of course bad because he gets a huge part of himself just taken away.

Batman thinks it's for the best and wouldn't listen to Danny, keeping him in Wayne Manor and getting him back everytime he tries to escape.

I am quite fascinated with this take and I love it. I also thought about it and am trying to get the "science" of how this scenario could work and I am generally trying to discern how I think that cores work in the Danny Phantom world.

Now, the way I think about cores is that as much as they are the brain/body/whole being of a ghost they are at their simplest definition the soul of a person. And this soul can also have two modes of existing, the active mode and the passive mode.

The active mode would be when it is tightly compressed into what is called the core. This mode exists only when the being is made of pure energy. Now when the core enters the more physical realm and aquires a body (most likely being born but you can't exclude revival and such things.) it changes into its passive mode.

The passive mode is not like a compressed core but more like a cloud of energy. It's like taking a breather and just relaxing. While in passive mode the soul gives up all "administrative" work and decisions to the body. The body houses the decompressed core and it's like, swimming or floating inside the cells of the body. This could also be what people perceive as the aura of a person. But the influence of the soul is not really gone, it's just that while the soul might still strive for a purpose to keep it going the body will of course compromise to secure survival and safety.

The passive mode is like vacation for the soul where it can just let itself go. Exist. Take in everything life offers. But in a certain way I think this is also a state where it is most vulnerable.

The forming of a ghost is mostly seen as caused ba a traumatic event. (Excluding the forming of born ghosts). You could explain this by saying that in a way, the soul was so much hurt that it compressed to a core to protect itself, flipping to the active mode to control its own actions better and directly influence what it's doing without the hindrance of a physical body.

If you think about the theory of this active and passive mode you could also explain the dreamcatcher incident. I don't really remember that one episode but Danny went through a dreamcatcher and got split into his ghost half and his human half. Both those halves had quite the opposite personalities and i never liked that because neither of them really felt like Danny. It's more like he was split into his extremes of the active mode and the passive mode.

The phandom established that ghosts have an obsession. Some like this take on ghost and some don't. I think they can have obsessions but those could also change over time. Slowly. Very slowly.

The strongest obsession of a ghost is the one that might have killed them or was influenced by the way they died. The core is just stuck on that one because it was what led to their forming and what was just a dominant part of them at the moment. It fixates on that to protect itself, learn to protect itself or to "control" their trauma.

Some of us have smaller obsessive bouts where we just fixate on a fandom and nothing else really brings joy until we move to the next fandom. Or some people are fixated on a novel/sport/activity etc. until we move on. At the least, our bodies will tell us when it's time to take a breather and just eat something or relax.

But ghosts don't have that. They don't have a body telling them to chill/eat/sleep and so on. They are not hindered by being tired. They have that one thing going for them and nothing can physically stop them living out the thing that gives them purpose, and because they don't get tired doing that, they will not move on to another obsession. Furthermore because they don't move on from their obsession they might perfect it, take it to the extreme. (Best hunter, rockstar, kid just wanting to play).

Going back to Danny, I see many, so so many fics where his obsession is to protect. Some even bind him to Amity Park saying he can't leave because of his obsession. Was this caused because we all saw the pure ghost form as a hero?

I don't really like it when his freedom is bound in such a way. I more prefer the fics where his obsession is space.

(And did noone ever see the beautiful parallel of the ghost of time and the ghost of space knowing each other? Noone ever thought about what exactly Clockwork saw in Danny to want to help him? The one that guides but cannot act and the one who can change so much but needs guidance? I'm sobbing just thinking about this.)

Well....that's just my personal feelings about this.

Now, the Hero Danny or purely Phantom or just Active Danny had the whole thing of protecting the town going on. As this was his 'current' obsession it was the one that manifested on the ghost form. It was also an unnatural state of the active mode so even that might have been tampered with.

The Lazy Danny or Human Danny or just Passive Danny was basically a soul half stuck in passive mode. Not even getting the little drive to really strive for anything a natural passive mode would give him. This was basically a body just thinking about itself. Purely I don't know...hedonistic, wanting to have fun. Not being able to think about future plans and just living in the moment. Both those halves where unnatural and not viable in the long run. I think a split soul would have just killed them in the long run.

Finally Dannys situation could be one where his core was so much tempered by by the portal that he can change between active and passive mode. He has a core that can relax and compress at will. Giving more freedom when in human form and powering up fast (sucking in all the energy) to form the ghost form. It might also never be a conventional ghost core and he would never have a normal aura as a human anymore. Even with the change he would have a halfstate of being. Having a fainter aura as a human that is a bit more saturated in the middle and as a ghost he would have his core, but he would be able to release larger bouts of energy.

It just really came to me why Danny could have a legit reason to be so much stronger than other ghosts. Vlad too I guess. Because of his special core. Ghost may stagnate in their power. They have to stay stable. But Danny is partly kept stable by his body. That's why his core can give out more energy. He can expend more energy because his core is not so tightly compressed like a normal ghosts. They have a limit. His limiter is kind of deactivated. ...now I'm just rambling.

If you think about Danny always being in a state of permanent active and passive mode then getting rid of the core would be like cutting out a huge part of him. Half to be exact and all the connections, maybe like blood vessels would be left open. Bleeding out and killing him. His passive soul would cling to the body to safe itself or the body clings to the soul.

Maybe losing a small part, a fracture, would have been survivable, but being literally cut in two...it aches. Death would call to him, his other half would call. Crying and screaming and bleeding and fading. An open core and a body with an open wound (on a spiritual level).

What do the bats see? What does his family see? A person slowly losing himself. Aching in a way that grows with time. Maybe slowly driven mad by the pain of a slow and painful death. Not even a pain that's visible but one that is deep inside. One he can't comprehend in the beginning. And nothing helps. Nothing can get him motivated. He loses his will to live but is it really that? Is it not the hopeful thought that death will bind his two halves together again? Is trying to kill himself not the frantic behaviour of a being that wants to save its very existence?

What would the ghost see? What would members of the justice league dark see? What would every person with the Sight see? A walking corpse. A mutilated boy, clinging to live and striving for death. Carrying an open wound for the world to see. To feel. Maybe to taste. Maybe to experience. Being in a presence of a being that is surrounded by its own blood. Cloying your senses and constricting your throat. Would they be horrified? Would they even really know what they are looking at when they themselves try not to drown in anothers blood? Would they weep and scream and feel his pain like it was their own, would they not want to destroy all that could produce such horrors?

What could they do? Would they be in time to save him? Could they stitch him back together? Would it take or would he not have the energy to connect what was cut. Maybe a healing sleep? For how long and where...most likely in the ghost zone. It's where he wanted to be. It's where he will fade or keep existing.

The question now is, when everything is over will he ever return? Will this future ghost king ever be himself again after everything that has happened?

[moorishflower]

hi!! im absolutely astounded at the amount of depth and heart thats in all your fics, and im also very floored at the amount at which you write—im at a cross between admiration and maybe jealously lol!! I wanted to ask, are there any fic of yours (sandman or not) that you think are underrated/deserves more attention?? super excited for everything you ever write!!

asdfg anon thank you <3 So I have a Problem where I have a lot of anxiety about what I create, and when that's writing, if I am not writing The Next Great Novel, then I need to sate the brain demons SOMEHOW, and writing a LOT is the easiest way to do that. I want very badly to please people, and fortunately it's not a hardship for me to write the amount that i do, though I AM trying to consciously like. Take breaks if I need? Take a night off? Keep it healthy looool. But that I'm able to write things that people are consistently finding value and meaning in is a continuous and beautiful marvel to me so thank you, thank you very much!!!

So I read your second part of the ask wrong at first and had gathered uh several fics which I think are underrated that are NOT mine

One Half of a Whole by @violetequus8 - Absolutely REMARKABLE post-apocalyptic literature. Equus captures an entire world and history in 4000 words. There are sentences in this fic that rewrote my brain chemistry.

The entire like this slumber that creeps to me series by @tobrokenstone - THIS. This is survival the way I fucking LOVE IT. Bleak, stark, hard decisions, lasting consequences, surprisingly tender cannibalism (this last may be...specific to me and a few select others lol)

Once again repping the point-set-triangulation series by therm0dynamics, which is singlehandedly the series that got me into Hob/The Corinthian (it's about MIRRORS it's about PARALLELS)

And at this point I realized that you'd asked about which of MY fics I think are underrated, and I was just so caught up in the thought of repping my friends that I lived in a world where I did not write for a moment loool

Salt and Rye is the result of a prompt on tumblr. I wanted to try and capture that feeling of recreating a parent or grandparent's recipe and failing, because it's SUCH a disheartening moment, but I wanted to make it lighter, because Hob has someone there to share the comedy of it with him.

Here there be dragons is my latest fic in the Siren AU and I do think that people who aren't into scifi in general will be more likely to give it a pass, but I'm very proud of it, and very proud of the emotions it evoked in ME, and I promise it's not hard scifi like The Martian or even really pervasive scifi like Star Trek! I just tried to think realistically about what our planet would look like and feel like in 1500 years, and how we might need to leave it. Also, Dream's still a carnivorous octopus man.

an act of faith is the vampire fever dream that struck me at like 3pm on a Saturday and I blacked out for like two hours and this was what I'd written during that time. I enjoy writing obscene levels of devotion and you can't really get much more obscene than "willing to tempt death year after year even though no one's asked you to in order to prove to YOURSELF that your lover loves you"

Honestly I don't think many of my fics are underrated! They're all written at different points in my development and my understanding of myself as a writer, and they range pretty widely in terms of theme and genre sometimes, so some, statistically, are going to be kind of niche! And that's okay! I guess the only thing I'd say is that even if you think something isn't your jam, unless the tags are specifically triggering you give it a try! The worst thing that'll happen is you get a paragraph in and then back out again. An extremely smart person (it was @xx-vergil-xx <3) recently said something along the lines that part of healthy interacting with art is also knowing when to put it down, but it's also important to give different things a chance so that you learn more about yourself and your preferences. I myself am trying to expose myself to and write more angst? Because it makes me deeply uncomfortable to do so! But that's a valuable feeling to know and recognize! Idk i just think we all get different stuff out of writing and it's just nice that I've been able to provide something to so many people <3

[kaleidoscopic-quiddity]

TSATS thoughts

spoilers obviously, you have been warned

yeah wow i am glad i didnt spend money on this book

im not sure if it was the WORST rrverse novel but uhhh,, its definitely up there

ive read fanfictions that better captured the vibe of the rrverse and solangelo specifically than this book did

so many different things about tsats bothered me so im gonna list them off to make myself feel better

will felt ooc, not in the way annoying ppl who only like fanon solangelo say he was but in the i actually read TOA and enjoyed it way

i get that going through the underworld and tartarus was going to be rough on will but he was just SOOO whiney and judgey it was really annoying to read at parts

also the whole storyline of will being a hater about the underworld was so uneccesary like youre telling me will solace, bisexual 2000s/2010s texan boy, healer to a couple dozen diverse kids at chb, literal battlefield medic, would find death and darkness inherently bad and untolerable?? rather than something to reconcile and make piece with??? even though hes literally dating the son of hades????????

like, something very interesting COULDVE been done with will’s character and his feelings towards nico’s past/trauma

picture this:

will, who bases his self esteem on how ‘useful’ he can be to people feels that he has to care for and ‘fix’ nico for nico to love him, he feels inferior because he cant fight as well on his own but he CAN heal people but nico isn’t letting him do that so he feels rejected and insecure

whilst nico doesnt want to let his trauma consume or define him, he also feels like its an inescabaly horrible part of himself that he cant get rid of, and will’s urge to ‘fix’ him makes him feel both unaccepted and that he cant share the worst parts of himself with will

they argue because from nico’s perspective it feels like will is trying to be his therapist and not his boyfriend, and from will’s perspective it feels like nico is pushing him away and if will isnt able to be ‘useful’ to him he fears he wont be loved any more

reconciliation comes in the form of will learning that his self worth isnt determined by how much he can do for other people and that nico loves him for him, and nico learning that part of accepting his darkness is letting people see the worst parts of him and trusting them to still love him not in spite of, but because of who he is

boom, i just came up with a way better, more in character, relationship conflict storyline off the top of my head if i do say so myself

okay back to the other shit that bothered me

why did will not have a weapon?? like??? we literally have that scene of him and chiron stress packing for tartarus and neither of them thinks that will should be armed in some way???

yes obviously will is primarily a medic not a fighter but still, its just such a dumb choice narratively

related to will’s abilities or lack thereof, what was with all the singing will did? he literally said himself in BOO that his sonic whistle was one of his only ‘musical’ abilities and that his talent lied with healing, we’ve seen him heal people w/out siging numerous times, why was this a thing??

also, the fucking care bear stare light blast thing, WHAT

will giving nyx hay fever also bothered me but i’ll admit that has more to do with me just not vibing with plague!will as a concept rather than it being a bad writing choice

speaking of nyx she was so boring

boring villain, boring motives, boring fight, all just boring af to me

the pacing of the book was so weird too

like the jumping back and fort between the trip to/through tartarus and the flashbacks with gorgyra was grating but dealable

but the fact that it took like HALF THE FUCKING BOOK to even get to tartarus was excruciating

there was NO need for all the underworld shit to take that long im sorry

nico also felt ooc, like over the course of TOA he obviously gets a bit softier and dorkier and i really genuinely like that but in TSATS i swear he was laughing or crying every 3 paragraphs and traumadumping to anyone who was (or wasnt) willing to listen like it just didnt feel like nico

all the solangelo pet names, gags

like significant annoyance and glow in the dark boyfriend and will’s various ‘death boy’-esque nicknames worked because they were (affectionate) digs at each other and not used every other sentence, ‘my little ball of darkness’ had the same energy as pookiebear

hazel only getting mentioned like twice was a fucking violation and im genuinely mad that reyna was only kind of mentioned once

like,, i already think thanks to fanon the friendship between jason and nico was/is given way more relevance than it actually has, but reyna was the one who felt all of nico’s pain, who shared her own trauma with him, who watched him kill bryce lawrence, who joined the hunters just like bianca, youre trying to tell me she wouldnt be on nico’s mind literally just as much as jason???

nico and piper have literally never been friends any idk why this book tried to make it seem like they are

im not against a nico/piper friendship or anything but like,,, nico ‘will not share my pain with others unless its literally forced out of me’ di angelo calling up a girl hes barely friendly accquiantances with and crying in front of her as he tells her all about his latest traumas, as her gf who is quite literally a stranger is also there? wack

speaking of bad writing and ooc-ness from nico the story of how he asked out will was terrible

‘i wanted a private date but the dyrads misunderstood and set up a big extravagant public gesture’ feels like something id find in a wattpad fic circa 2015

also theres no way nico went from his levels of internalised homophobia and shame and self loathing in HOH/BOO to publically coming out in front of the entirety of chb and asking will out in literally less than 6 months tf

the real-but-not-real dream with bianca and maria felt so uneccesary and disingenuous to nico’s character like he’d already accepted bianca’s death and that his old life was behind him and to have hades somehow ‘break the rules’ to bring them back to talk to nico was just so fucking jarring

also HADES being the one to send nico the prophecy, putting the responsibility of rescuing bob on his shoulders and retraumatising him and putting him in a position where he could very much die??? the fuck happened to ‘i want you to be happy’???

yet another instance of bizzare ooc-ness in this book ig

bob reffering to nico and will as his sun and star is just,, never rlly explained lmao

also bob is just, kinda, there, despite being the driving force behind the quest in the first place

i thought we’d get some actual will backstory, get to know more about his relationship with lee and micheal and his time at chb or his experiences growing up queer but no

all we got was that will used to travel around the country with his mom and they were attacked by evil pidgeons in nyc once which is how will’s satyr found him in the first place, cool i guess

i didnt mind the story of will and nico’s first kiss as much as their getting together but it still felt really fanfiction-y and cliche ngl

percabeth were WAYYY too fucking chill about solangelo going to tartarus and shouldve tried much harder to disaude them from going

also ik obviously the book isnt about them but it wouldve been nice for their survior’s guill re: bob to be expanded on a bit more, or even just,, better than rick and mark did it

i fucking hate the cacodemons i hate them SO much its SUCH a dumb narrative choice like literally who tf convinced them this would be a good idea and how can i fight them

i refuse to call them cocoa puffs, the REAL nico di angelo would never, do you hear me

also for a hot second there i thought the implication was that nyx had sexually assualted nico and i was like WOAH thats a bit much for a book for 11yros

honestly it still kind of reads that way since taking nico’s trauma, a part of him, and making something else living out of it without his consent is certainly a violation

not necessarily saying an SA-esque storyline has no place in the rrverse or middle school fiction, i think those topics can be tackled in a way thats appropriate for kids, but it felt out of place in TSATS to me

tartarus want nearly as scary or despair evoking this time around, it was just a dredge to get through and only a bit less boring than all the underworld stuff

i do appreciate that rick and mark were obviously having fun with all the body horror elements

i find it weird that will was, like, THAT broken up about him and nico ‘murdering’ octavian when in BOO he literally spoke about how he’d shoot him if he was better at archery lmao

i get hes a healer obviously there was gonna be some complex emotions there but idk it felt uneccesarily melodramatic

why was chb empty?? no like genuinely why

it contributed nothing to the story and doesnt even make sense since surely some of the year rounders have dead or abusive guardians

like??????? im genuinely confused by this writing descision what purpose did it serve to have chb empty????

i genuinely laughed at the geryon reveal because it was so out of left field, gay rights i guess

the fact that will didnt tell nico abt his talk with persephone felt weird and the talk itself was weirder

yeah overall id give the book a generous 4/10, it if was a fanfic id probably rate it higher but this was a real published book written by rick so im pretty disapointed

heres to hoping chalice of the gods is better

[taegularities]

let me start by saying I apologize for the novel I’m about to write.

RIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

OH MY FUCKING GODDDDDDD

this was. hands down. the best chapter so far. and I am NOT just saying that bc IT finally happened, ok?

like… everything about it was so beautiful and I usually hate pregnancy scares/arcs but it didn’t feel out of place or forced at all and oh my GOD jungkook !!! like I cried literally the whole way through from when she went missing until the end of the chapter. I didn’t think it was possible to physically feel how much two fictional characters loves another but you did it, Rid. you have breathed so much life into them that I felt like it was playing out right in front of me.

and even before the angst when it’s just them appreciating being together after the move, it was so wonderful to read. sometimes stories get boring when the drama ebbs but it isn’t like that with them bc their emotions are just beautiful to see play out.

and then… you sly cutie… he finally fucking SAID it. and it was so worth the wait of course, and it just made me cry so hard bc I think we all need to hear that right? that even if we stay broken forever someone will still love us? and more importantly SHE needed to hear that. and she better say it back after that stunt she pulled 👊🏼

also usually I don’t really think of the real life counterpart when reading fanfics, at least not unless it’s meant to be set in our world. but this chapter was so jungkook, wasn’t it?

like… in the bathroom scene, when he’s asking to be let in and telling her he’s gonna stay I started thinking about how that’s what his lives are for us, ya know? at least I know for me when i’m at my lowest and metaphorically locked in a bathroom I get that notification and it’s exactly like him knocking on my door. and even the ily confession just reminded me so much of things he’s actually said about him wanting us to be happy and that he loves us unconditionally. maybe I just miss the real jungkook too much… either way. you’re characterization is magical and I will probably never move on from him.

I feel like I actually have so much more to say but my brain isn’t spitting it out… i’m sure i’ll be back.

also, not to brag(?) but these last few chapters of them being official have really reminded me of my boyfriend and I and I think that’s why i’ve loved them even more than the past chapters. it just makes my heart really warm.

anyway…. you’re a goddamn genius and I love you (that’s a reference now 😂)

the best chapter so far?? ALYSSA 😭 also not using the ily as a reference im gonna sue you fkjshjkfaasf

ahhh i know, a lot of people do not dig pregnancy scares and i totally understand, but i'm still so happy you guys gave it a chance and enjoyed it. honestly, kook's reaction to it was my main concern and point, and i was low(highkey lol) excited to finally get to it bc he's just so… ugh. a dream. i cried a lot, as well </3 i'm so emotional bc everyone's been saying they could feel the love through that scene alone and it makes me sooooo ahhhh 😭

and the fluff 🥺🦋 ngl, i was extremely scared that cmi might get boring or less interesting now that the angst is over, but… it's really so encouraging to know that you still love it so much. and also to know that the wait for THAT THING was worth it!! i agonised over that scene bc i needed that big moment to be super special eeee 😭 he'll be here, no matter how broken she is, and… vice versa :( she better say it back fr lmaooo!!

that chapter was so jungkook? this is the biggest fucking compliment ever 😭 i always try sooo hard to capture their personalities well (especially with cmi11.5!!), so this makes my heart flutter :( <3 reassuring her and loving her is definitely a jk thing to do. he has so much affection in his heart for the people around him sigh.

omg you already said so much, but if you wanna come back for more,,, gladly hehe 🥺 you and your boyfriend sound so so sweet together!! happy you could see glimpses of yourselves in this one. here's to so much more.. thank you again, love <3333

[quietbluejay]

Ahriman: Unchanged

So all this is from January before I'd read...well most of the stuff I've covered here with the exception of Know No Fear

Inquisitor Iobel is great and honestly I want her and Ahriman to get stuck in the pear wiggler a bit longer my beta said i should write them getting stuck as Shirou so true, past bluejay, so true

A figure of white-hot fire sat on a throne at the centre of the tower top. Blazing light sketched the shape of bare limbs and smooth muscle.

suns out guns out is the only thought i had upon reading this line (and Magnus makes his first appearance) ah, a more innocent time, when i didn't break out in hives at the mention of Magnus muscles

this isn't my first run-in with him lol, he did have an appearance in a couple of the samples but he and the TS did nothing to endear themselves to me in those samples

it's funny though i thought based on descriptions that i'd like Magnus a lot more lol but he's been fairly annoying/insufferable in all his appearances that i've seen

the hubris levels are off the charts i've been constantly spamming quotes at my friend with "hey, that's hell you're walking into" attached i will say i thought i was emotionally removed and no longer caring about these horrible people except in the intellectual sense and then I got gut-punched by Astraeos remembering being a kid and being taken on the black ships and also his negative character arc is so great except im not super fond of the stable time loop element there

im suffering so much (in a good way) he's become what he hated and there really were no options for him to choose another path (context rn is I'm literally at a scene where he's torturing a guy to join him, and cut out his eye) (when we met him, he had just been captured and made into a slave and had his eye cut out) he's trying to get revenge on Ahriman, and in the process he's become Ahriman (well, a more personally violent Ahriman)

‘You were a warrior son of Prospero,’ said the Oathtaker, his true voice low and steady. ‘You saw your home world burn. You were there when everything you had was destroyed by the Imperium which created you. You endured, clinging on to existence, while watching your brothers fall one by one. You clung on, waiting, one half of your soul knowing that no salvation would come, the other half searching for it. You allowed yourself to believe that there was a way to save your brothers, to save yourself. You trusted and let that trust become loyalty, become hope.’

this is fine im fine Astraeos is talking about both himself and his prisoner here okay it's time for me to take a break and lie on the floor or something

I like Ctesias but I worry about getting attached to him Also on a side note I love how while the characters may not really care about the suffering of the street level npcs, for lack of a better term, the narrative does I mean they’re not the focus at all but there’s all sorts of background details and bits and even a few pov segments to be like “yeah all these slaves are people!” Which I’ve found often doesn’t get done well in…other dark stories

this is also a weird thing to say maybe but i like how all the deaths matter and have consequence I know I have said this multiple times but this was actually the first time I articulated it! I'm at the bit in the third Ahriman novel on Prospero and the whole planet is basically a giant scar filled with ghosts because of what happened there and this is thousands of years later timeline is still ambiguous which is annoying me since i do like my nice and tidy timelines but at least we know it's well after the formation of the Black Legion so Ahriman was wandering around being miserable and letting himself be a minion for gross chaos sorcerers for a few thousand years huh

also i've just met Khayon this dude is great I mean okay like most of the TS have been very fun characters in the series Ctesias being the sole voice of common sense, Ignis and his autistic coding and his killbot r2d2, Sanakht and his uh, current suffering I guess, sucks to be him so badly and now Khayon shows up with a super dramatic entrance

cute warband but i have cool new friends now

Ahriman's also one heck of a speech writer/giver but like

+And if they would stand against what you intend. What then?+ The thought voice turned every eye to the darkness at the edge of the ruined square. Cords of purple fire ran through the air. The lines joined, forming a triangle which then folded into a space which was not there. A figure stepped through the triangular hole, and down to the ground. It was a Rubricae, but its armour was coal black and edged with gold. It came to a halt, its head turning slowly as its eyes ran across the gaze of its blue-clad kin. A second figure followed. +Have you come to try to stop me again, Khayon?+ Iskandar Khayon, Chosen of the Despoiler, Lord Vigilator of the Black Legion, and once a son of Magnus the Red, turned his gaze on the glowing eyes watching him from across the square and beyond. +I like your little warband,+ he sent.

that's the kind of entrance that makes you a character to keep an eye on

also

At the core of the waiting ships hung a vessel with a gold and black hull. On her bridge, the Changeling saw the mind of her master burning cold and bright, and it heard the command slip from his lips. ‘Fire,’ said Khayon, and the black ship spoke the first word of the battle.

the one to fire the first shot at the inquisition

okay yesssss things have been going way too well for Ahriman the past couple books that's been one of my complaints lol but now he's really on the backfoot and he's got so much to lose now!

tzeentch is currently hunting him for sport (not a joke, he sent assassin daemon after him to kill him after he manages to succeed) he's gonna give ahriman the gift he needs but doesn't want eternal rest! oblivion

The horns set in its head bellowed. It was laughing at him. And he knew why. He knew it. Long ago, in an age of different masters and different mistakes, he had bound nine daemons into its broken body. He had created it, and now on the planet he had been exiled from, he faced it and knew that he should have given it to the lava seas after it had fallen in battle the first time.

Ctesias: I should have left you on that street corner where I found you Czethertihor, Fallen Warlord Titan of Legio Tempestus: but ya didn't

dsjfkhlsadf this is just magnus vs magnus vs magnus magnus is playing 4d chess against himself except also magnus is eating both their pieces

but wait! it was all part of magnus' plan or was it…

I'm kind of mad about this plot point but it is objectively funny:

[gabessquishytum]

i see u all talking about Hob being The Dreaming's lending toy and honestly good for him but i read some angst so in my brain here's this: Hob has always been aware how much work Lucienne does and how much Dream appreciates her and how she's one of the few who stayed for him. and anyone who's loyal and loves Dream as much as he does - well, deserves, because it's different lmao - is someone Hob's eager to show his thanks to. So. he tries to figure her out to offer himself in the best way (1/?)

possible because she deserves it quite a lot. and he doesn't really have much to offer other than himself, and while he's already verbally expressed his gratitude it doesn't feel enough. i can't figure out if Dream would know about this plan of his or if it being solely something Hob plans would add to Dream humming in almost purr of pleasure because he's being such an endearing pet, such a good boy wanting to be the best to one of Dream's closest friends (he's had character development okay, he can see Lucienne is a friend and calls her so) and rewarding him before helping or what. perhaps there's a week where Hob is just, free to use for Lucienne for an entire week when Dream is visiting some other realm and since Lucienne will be left as basically in charge well, Hob's gotta be there for who's ruling, right? i just love Lucienne quite a lot and think they deserve the best things and an eager to please and follow instructions immortal who's all dolled up in whatever is Lucienne's favourite fashion style, following her around to help with books or whatever the Dreaming needs of her is compelling. maybe they just cuddle and kiss, maybe Lucienne tries whatever they've come across the many books and novels and dreams they've read in The Library, maybe Hob is a little surprised at first but not later to learn that what Lucienne needs is to not think for a while and let someone else take control because being left in charge of a decaying Dreaming for more than a century plus the stress that came in the very first months after Dream's return also took a toll on her and he's nothing if not a people pleaser and wanting to help and if he feels a little unhinged and feral with anger again over the whole situation of Dream being imprisoned but because of how it affected this fantastic raven-turned-human(ish) that's become his friend too well... I AM SORRY I KNOW WE HERE FOR SLUT HOB BUT WHAT I'M TRYING TO EXPLAIN HERE IS LIKE, EMOTIONAL SUPPORT FREE TOY HOB WHO, AS THE HUSBAND OF THE SHAPER OF FORMS WILL SHAPE HIS OWN NEEDS AROUND OTHER'S HE CARES ABOUT and Lucienne deserves such an obedient guy, as a threat 😌 have a nice day (2/2)

UMM HELLO IM OBSESSED WITH THIS??? Lucienne deserves all of the above. I’m thinking of Hob having a week as her assistant/PA so she can take time to actually like, breathe for a moment and also process her own trauma from Dream’s capture. Also Hob gives the best ever hugs (this is an indisputable fact) and probably trained as a massage therapist at some point in the 1960s for whatever reason. So he gives Lucienne a spa day all to herself with just the right level of planned activities so she’s not thinking (tm). And we all just know that Hob is good with his mouth and very willing to use it on whatever genitalia Lucienne prefers to have. Just. Hob helping Lucienne relax!! And Dream very much approving of the whole thing!!!! Fucking yes!!!!!! Hob as Husband Of The Whole Dreaming!!!!! Ahhhhh!!!!!!

[homophyte]

okay im going to be vulnerable and admit though ive owned house of leaves for a few months i was spurred to start reading it the other day after watching that video on myhouse.wad . no one make fun of me. that being said.

im not necessarily going though it super in depth and more just trying to unravel some stuff for funsies with some various help from old forums and what strikes me as sometimes glaringly missing from discussions on the book is the way it relates to women. like the fact that the house itself is treated as though it has a female identity will get talked about but theres not rlly discussions about the ramifications of that--how will and holloways posturing--named as explicitly about 'male dominance'--is essentially a fight over who gets to get the girl. wills early venture into the house is literally likened to karen kissing wax, like theyre BOTH infidelities, and thats not nearly the first time karen herself treats the situation like the house is her romantic rival or at least rival for wills attention (im not far enough in to have too solid a grasp on the implications of the name delial--but lets just say i have a suspicion?).

anyway whats maybe even more interesting than that is the way its kinda ALL about gender--its men who keep entering the house desperate to know what its about, its men driven to write about it and uncover its secret knowledge, and it drives them fucking crazy. like...you can read that--VERY EASILY--as men 'discovering' the ""hidden"" interiority of women, like, the very idea that women are complex people with their own ideas and emotions and inner worlds. the fact that the house has a secret inside is huge fucking news and just about every man in the novel reacts to it as such, but the reactions from women are like...not that. idk im not done with it by any means but the similarity between the conversations between karen & wax at the end ch VII and johnny & thumper at the end of VIII really apparent. when thumper is listening to johnny, seeking to understand him, being really invested and interested and not reacting with annoyance or disdain or boredom like he expects, it genuinely really knocks him out to the point he nearly cries--and then he bottles it up, writes it off, even when she echoes karens exact words flirting with wax he doesnt register it.

the text displays a consciousness around gendered expectations here, particularly bc thumper is a sex worker, that she cant be expected to intellectually engage w it, but she can and does...and then johnny doenst know what to DO about it, how to engage w a real moment of understanding between the sexes or whatever so he very consciously falls back on gender expectations for men and refuses to feel that connection, severing the tie he inadvertently built w her and consigning the moment to unknowable blackness. the void is invented by people determined to treat it as foreign--which often means treating it as hostile (holloways gun, johnnys suspicions when thumper didnt call him back).

that she ends with the comment 'you just need to get out of the house' is like...almost laughably on the nose especially w the way chauvanist culture has proliferated on the internet. like in the book too, dont get me wrong, its just so startlingly accurate to whats going on it seems like she really must UNDERSTAND in a way johnny fails to capture in his narration but still comes through due to her being kinda fucking great--sorry i REALLY like thumper in this actually she may be my favorite. its sort of difficult for me to look at the line and divorce it in my head from the phenomenon of the incel--read a certain way, you have johnny ranting and raving about how he just cant ever figure out what the collective 'woman' is thinking and all this time hes spent driving himself crazy about it, and thumper listening and understanding and very sympathetically and honestly saying 'that wouldnt be a big deal if you interacted w women instead of holing up inside trying to theorize about it.'

i dont necessarily think its a mistake that johnny is the kind of person he is, a partying womanizer or whatever, bc sex becomes his only interaction w women (his failure to talk abt the book w kyrie in favor or fucking her) just as entering the house becomes wills only interaction w it (or at least he rages when he cant have that interaction, he values it above others). the book is pretty clear about both of these acting as forms of penetration. as johnny gets more invested in the text he interacts more and more w the women zampano used as interpreters and comes more and more into contact w women and less and less able to deny their interiority.

the reaction from men that women are people is simple and plain disbelief, followed by disconnected, invasive, rigorous study, study that is likened to war, to surgery, to expedition--anything but understanding. its kind of baffling idk maybe im just not looking in the right place to see people talking about it but this sorta feels like...the point. hell even earlier in ch VII on page 91 you get will and holloway excitedly talking about calling the press about their huge discovery that no one will believe...and then just, karen, living her life, treated like an enigma. i literally have this written in my notes as "men discover women have internality; their wives decline to comment"

[chiyoso]

In today's episode of underrated hoyoverse men, we got welt joyce. Welt's Predecessor. Someone that the hsr players should try learning about because without this dude welt yang would've been the nanami of hi3 and maybe hsr, he kinda already is-

Anyway, he was the first character I simped for in hi3. Because before I played the game my friend recommended me to read the manga + visual novels and get to know the lore first and I was looking through the visual novel I think and saw him and I just started giggling and twirling my hair.

I love both welts equally but this one captures my heart more for some reason even though he looks like any regular blue eyed dude with dark blue hair in those royalty/fantasy webtoons.

THIS IS MY DREAM BTW 😋

so, fatal warning, i may not have seen this art of the infamous original (?) bearer of the herrscher of reason, BUT ITS OKAY IM NOT ONE TO GET UPSET AT SPOILERS (also hes eye candy as fuck)

i have yet to really truly understand where the APHO timeline really resides, i just played that open world cause AI chan keep persisting me to play open world 😭 “Captain! you can-” yada yada yada like yeah yeah ill get my rewards n shit hngh

is there like, heavy deep lore regarding to him besides uhh fucking up a whole ass country ☠️☠️ he tryna speed run destroying things or what 😭

THAT AND. LOOK AT THE FUCKING OTTO APOCALYPSE BELOW THE SCREEN OMGMGNGNGGJGKTMG AND SHIT I SEE KALPAS PEEKING IN THE CORNER

I DIDNT KNOW THERE WAS AN EDIT LIKE THAT, SOME PPL ACTUALLY WANT THIS TO HAPPEN????? OMG

[neige-leblanche]

tell the people about mica? 👀 saw the tags of ur last reblog and i am Intrigued

aaaaaaaaaaa 🥺

mica is a character from a novel idea im proooooobably gonna try to do for nanowrimo! they are a young adult faery with white eyes, dragonfly wings, and a vein of shimmering silver running down the right side of their face. they are a hereditary general of the fey military (Swarm), and so they've never been called anything other than Mica (civil + military officials in this story all have stone names; they can be granted them as a marker of their entrance into the aristocracy, or born with them like mica). they were raised in the swarm, and take their duty very seriously, and in spite of having already seen many battles by the time the story opens and, well, hangining around soldiers their whole life, they are very introverted, ideologically sheltered, and know little outside of their warrior's way of life.

there's a bit of a romance between them and one of the soldiers from their unit, a faery named Tamias; tam is very extroverted and romanticizes everything, including mica, and when mica defects from the swarm and tam vows to follow them, this solidifies mica's viewing him as a possible special someone/person with feelings for them. after they are assigned by the puppet fey queen's evil advisor to go oversee the massacre of a human town, they start losing faith in their obedient lifestyle and the validity of the crown. they stall for a while, before being lured through the forest to an ancient cursed spear (potentially belonging to a backstory villain, idk yet lol). the spear slowly begins to ideologically twist mica into someone who is more aggressive, less obedient, and much more willing to take risks, and they then resolve to defect from the swarm and face the villain head on. they and tamias break into the faery queen's midsummer revels, believing her to be an imposter, and almost succeed in killing/capturing her before another character, the queen's childhood friend, convinces them that it's her and she's being puppeted. they escape with the queen, but are caught by the villain, and placed into a psychological prison. the spirit of the cursed spear goes with mica, and they have violent, bloody dreams until tamias successfully brings them to a brief moment of peace and wakes them from their dream. my current plan for the ending is for some other characters to bring down the bad guy, but for mica, seized by the spear's violent spirit, to deliver the killing blow, and then repeatedly stab the corpse until the spear breaks, taking a part of mica's own soul with it in destruction. tamias then goes to the queen and attains what he's been looking for the whole plot (officially recognized honor for his dead sister + a courtly stone name of his own); mica begs him to let them stay with him for the rest of their lives, but instead, in their broken state tam picks them up and takes them back to their parents, the swarm generals who birthed them into a military life.

originally i had planned for a really sweet and fluffy ending to mica + tam's story hahaha; im honestly Still debating whether i wanna go w this kinda-tragic one but i think i might like it better this way; mica's position is above tamias for most of the plot + i like the switcheroo @ the end; also i rlly love the "oh my god it was unrequited THE OTHER WAY" trope and want to see how well i can write it myself lol. on a more personal level i think they kinda are a metaphor for what its like as an introvert growing close to an extrovert lol, like so much of the time it feels Really Special but its just another friendship to them which i think has a rlly tragic quality that i'd like to convey w mica's story :')

[ao3feed-obikin]

heaven in his eyes hell behind mine

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/40197990 by pastelpumpkins Count Dooku's perversion and twistedness had no bounds, Obi-Wan knew that. Yet he never expected the Sith to go as far as bring him a gift from the Outer Rim. “This is the chip for the cell where your…” Count Dooku faltered trying to find the right word to describe it, “prize is waiting for you. I must admit this isn't really a present more like a chore but I have faith it will bring you pleasure. It will make you ache and you’ll love it. You will have no choice but to destroy it and you're going to love every moment of it. Doesn’t it sound lovely beyond belief?” Obi-Wan blinked, utterly baffled. He pushed down his growing concern from Dooku’s sadistic words, “What in the name of the force are you talking about?” Or the one where Dooku thought it would be funny to give Obi-Wan a 6ft twink he captured as a thank you present. Words: 3276, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Star Wars - All Media Types Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/F, M/M Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Dooku | Darth Tyranus, Satine Kryze, Asajj Ventress, Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Barriss Offee, Padmé Amidala Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker Additional Tags: Sith Obi-Wan Kenobi, Dark Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker is a Disaster, Top Obi-Wan Kenobi, Bottom Anakin Skywalker, BAMF Obi-Wan Kenobi, Dom/sub Undertones, obi-wan satine and vetress are a sith girl group sorry i dont make the rules, Sith Satine Kryze, Dooku hates his sith coworkers, star wars but make it a trashy romance novel, Whose Canon? sorry I dont know her, many many rescue missions, gays in space, Aged-Up Character(s), ahsoka tano is in her fuckboy era no i will not elaborate but so is obi-wan mlahhh, im sorry this fic is gonna be a dumpster fire read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/40197990

[meili-sheep]

Kaeya, after reading the bl darknight light novel: diluc have you seen this shit?! Some "anonymous author" just-- dECIDED TO MAKE FICTION OUT OF US. And now, im usually not to opposed on some certain fictions surrounding us but this-- this thing (aggressively shows him the novel) is too much.

Diluc, internally: HE TOOK THE BAIT--

Diluc: (sighs) its just some short story made from gossip and rumors about me and the darknight hero Kaeya. Why are you fretting so much over it? What, are you mad that the book didn't describe you as "devilishly handsome" or something?

Kaeya: ...okay that may be one of the things im mad about bUT THATS NOT RELEVANT RIGHT NOW-- despite the... atrocious misunderstanding of who everyone in this book is, i mean Jean not giving it her all and slacking off? Seriously?, its just-- archons, let me just read you a line--

Kaeya, reading it out loud: " "Your falcon is eternally loyal to you my king, and yet i never hear you call out its name... either to call it back to you or just in fond recognition..." Diluc smiles with his arm outstretched, said falcon landing upon it. "You see, my falcon has gone through many a name in its time-- Dawn, Venessa, Crimson are but a few of the names I've given it." He pets the bird, a strange sort of look in his eyes as he smiles. "No name has ever suited her... no name I can bestow upon her can ever capture her in its entirety. And i think, i think she prefers it that way." The night beside him shifts, squeezing his hand. "

Kaeya, whisper screaming: nO ONE BUT FATHER, ADELINDE, YOU AND ME KNOW THAT YOURE A FUCKING SAP TO YOUR FALCON-- AND HERE THIS BOOK IS, LAYING IT OUT FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO SEE--

Diluc: well-- that certainly is... something but anyone couldve just asked Adelinde. Its not really something i keep secret

Kaeya, sputtering: FHSKDBFAKXB-- the author knows about the Tree Diluc. OUR TREE--

Diluc, knowing Kaeya is talking about the hollow tree they used as a secret base as kids: ...hrm. i-- i mean, they couldve just wandered into the forest and found a hollow tree--

Kaeya, deadly serious: Diluc. Diluc, you sucked his dick in it--

Diluc, not expecting him to say it so bluntly: (chokes) wHAT-- give me that--

Diluc, reliving the experience that is writing smut while Hillie and Moco watch and critique him: (not even fighting the blush on his face) " he brings him closer... hands on his shoulders... the feeling of grass on his knees as he watches him-- " (chokes) oh archons the illustrations-- (shuts book and hands it back)

Diluc, as red as his hair: (clears throat) that was... certainly accurate. Apologies, i meant detailed-- a slip of the tongue.

Kaeya, falling for it hook, line, and sinker: (voice cracking) a--accurate?

Diluc, embarrassedly waving him off: as i said, a mere slip of the tongue-- it just... surprised me how many details it got right. O-Of our lives, i mean--

Kaeya, taking it the wrong way all the way til sunday: (high pitched voice) okay. Okay. Okay. Diluc, ill just-- uh-- gO--

Diluc, watching him run off: Hillie, Moco, why do i feel like ill regret this.

Hillie: i think its because you, in a way, desecrated a pillar of your childhood Master Diluc.

Moco: and before you say anything Master Diluc, you were the one who wanted to "really get him off your back" when me and Hillie wanted to write... that part.

Diluc: (groans into his hands)

So I don't think Diluc would let them do anything too hardcore or really graphic. Because these are real people, and main a real Diluc, they are basing this off of. And While trying to through Kaeya off. I think Diluc would like to keep others from assuming it's him.

And I see Diluc as a private person, so opening up about his performance somehow is really a step for him. But he's not gonna let anyone that close.

So personally, I think it would end put being more high-quality erotica than a full-on hard-core smut book. But maybe that's my preference showing again.

[tobeornottotc]

i’m so excited to see more of Bible as Vegas but at the same time i’m scared!!

Hi!!!

Um me too what the fuck??actually I don’t recognise this scene in the novel and so im shook, obviously Vegas is/comes off a sadomasochist and he enjoys torture and seeing people writhe in pain (not really who he is but who he comes off as) and so this might be an introduction to us seeing him intrigued by that, I don’t think he’s hurting anyone we know, but he’s maybe seeking out information from the people they capture at the casino who they believe is behind Kinns kidnap and mole? Because in the trailer in the outfit he’s wearing underneath the bloody get up, he says he has a plan so this could be showing them like how the minor family deals with traitors or rebellion. I wonder if we’ll see Pete show an expression during this scene (I think he will because he’d meant to be also a sadomasochist, so this might be another foreshadowing of their arc starting since Arm is watching it from the outside but then I don’t think Vegas would show this side to Porsche so that’s I’m unsure about this theory cause like is he only showing it to Pete, Arm and the other guards apart from Porsche maybe Porsche hadn’t yet joined at that time? I just don’t think he will expose this side of himself to Porsche when his mask is meant to be loving and victim of the mafia family.

I’m honestly worried about my self because I was so turned on by that picture not goanna lie whilst still being frightened for my life but like Bible needs to like stop looking the way he does as Vegas because a whole different side of us is just being exposed but like I don’t fear Vegas in the book was upset and annoyed at his actions but like I never saw him as a monster but this picture makes me think different 😭😭 all I can say is from peoples pov we should be frightened for Pete but then knowing who Pete is I wonder if in the show we won’t be more exposed to his dark side… either way show Vegas show a passion and intrigue for torturing which you know will then make sense that when he’s ready to no longer hide the monster in him he first goes to that as an option. Interesting poor Pete.

I’m digging him though being very dark cause I do want the show be a bit more darker especially in case of the ending not to sugar coat a lot of things this two families have done, and they have softened KP a bit so yeah hopefully we get more darker conflicting themes and I hope Vegas is who they do that with despite my fear that the moral police will try and cancel the show because of their choice to expand on his darkness. Yep.

Thanks anon! We’ll scream about it together later when we see what happens in this scene but right now the wait is killing me and im losing my mind