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glassgrasslunchtime · 3 years

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beginner’s guide to getting into non-fate type-moon works

Hello, hello, hello! With all the buzz about the Tsukihime Remake, I thought that now would be the perfect time to help people get into other fantastic Type-Moon works that, perhaps, have flown under many radars on account of not making billions of dollars like FGO.

Therefore, this post will list every single non-Fate Type-Moon work that I can think of, a few bullet points as to why you might like them, a more complete summary, and then detail how to find them. If you could read this post and walk away with even one more interest, then my work is a success, and I would be delighted.

A note before we get started: Where possible, I will provide links to buy these directly from Type-Moon. However, for most of these, that’s just not possible. Piracy, it has been said, is a matter of access. If Type-Moon will not provide any way to access this media legitimately, better to experience it illegitimately than not at all, I think. If Type-Moon deigns to make it accessible, that is the preferred way, and I will refrain from encouraging piracy; where they do not, I say there is no moral or ethical dilemma there.

I have checked every download myself, and they all came up clean. That doesn’t necessarily mean there are no viruses, it could be that Malwarebytes couldn’t find them. It should be safe, but exercise appropriate caution.

Oh, and if I’ve accidentally given bad or dangerous advice, feel free to yell at me and I’ll change it if necessary.

(21/08/25: Updated a couple of links, revised some phrasing in the April Witch section)

(23/12/18): Removed instructions on pirating Mahoyo in favour of official release, added link to the Tsukiweb Tsukihime browser port, added section on Melty Blood Type Lumina

Without further ado:

MAHOUTSUKAI NO YORU

Do you enjoy stories about modern day witches?

Do you enjoy period pieces about the tail end of the 1980s?

Do you like inventive monster design based on classic nursery rhymes?

Do you wanna see some of the best visuals in any Type-Moon work?

Do you want to see (a remake of) Nasu’s first novel?

Would you relate to a bad-tempered teenage witch?

Do you enjoy Suffering because many questions were left unanswered to make room for two sequels that vanished into the ether?

Then Mahoutsukai no Yoru (Mahoyo for short) is absolutely the Visual Novel for you!

Mahoutsukai no Yoru (officially anglicized as “Witch on the Holy Night” but more literally translating to “Magician’s Night”) stars Aoko Aozaki, a temperamental newbie magus with a mean streak; her mentor and best... friend...?, an icy, traditionalist witch named Alice Kuonji; and a painfully naive country boy named Soujuurou Shizuki who is endearingly oblivious and thoroughly sweet and nearly gets himself killed multiple times due to not understanding how things like “the big city” “modern technology” and “windows” work.

And they were roommates. Oh my god, they were roommates.

The story begins with Aoko and Alice living together in a “haunted” mansion on the hill overlooking Misaki Town. For the past nearly two years, Alice has been teaching Aoko (who had quite suddenly been selected as her family’s heir over her sister, who had been heir apparent up to then) magecraft. In this time they’ve formed a fascinating bond in spite of (or because of?) their clashing personalities and occasional homicide attempts. Meanwhile, Soujuurou, living on his own, has just arrived in the city from his tiny mountain town with no electricity or modern convenience at all, and is having some difficulties fitting in due to the insurmountable culture clash. Aoko... does not get along with him. At all. Firstly because she had to go to school on a day off to show him around on only a couple hours’ sleep, and then because he was simply too oblivious and sweet-tempered to notice how mad at him she was because of that.

Anyway, things happen. First, a couple of chapters of sweet slice-of-life. And then Aoko and Alice are discovered by an ordinary person while destroying the familiars of a rogue magus. The unknown person escapes before they can be identified and the witches conclude that, to keep their secrets as magi, that person will have to die. Meanwhile, Soujuurou, while out late at night, happened across what he believes to be a murder - two young girls mysteriously burning a man to death in the park...

Mahoyo is... really, truly incredible. The writing is well-done (especially the character dynamics), the atmosphere is strong, the slice of life is delightful and the action is cool... and the presentation is magnificent. I don’t think I can get across in words just how incredible it is, so please do give it a chance yourself.

The official English localization can be purchased for PS4 or Nintendo Switch on their respective digital storefronts, or on Steam at https://store.steampowered.com/app/2052410/WITCH_ON_THE_HOLY_NIGHT/

KARA NO KYOUKAI

Do you enjoy stories about mystical detective work?

Do you enjoy stories that are heavy on the buddhist and taoist symbolism?

do you enjoy stories with a lot of odd and interesting philosophy and psychology?

Do you enjoy stories examining the innermost natures of human beings and how souls are constructed?

Would you enjoy a story about what it means to live, the value of death, and the importance of compassion and reaching out?

Do you enjoy stories about fundamentally messed-up people and one normal dude struggling to get by?

Do you think Nasu’s loose grasp on how psychoactive drugs like weed actually work is really funny?

Do you want to watch some genuinely fantastic animation?

Do you think fancy-looking magic eyes are cool as hell?

Would you relate to a woman struggling to figure out her identity in the wake of a long coma and the death of her other self?

Then you should absolutely check out Kara no Kyoukai (”Rakkyo” for short)!

Kara no Kyoukai (meaning “Boundary of the Void”) takes place in the run-down and rusty Mifune City, and stars Shiki Ryougi, a yakuza princess with a catlike personality and terrifying supernatural powers, Touko Aozaki, a capricious, spiteful, duplicitous magus with extraordinary talent and skill, and Mikiya Kokutou, the aforementioned normal dude; they form a sort of supernatural detective agency called Garan no Dou. Together, they fight crime well, mostly they go broke a lot because Touko won’t stop impulse-buying useless crap on Dark Amazon.

I’m not shitting you, "Dark Amazon” is literally something Nasu has called it. Despite the name, I can’t imagine it’s less ethical than Light Amazon...

Anyway, in between going broke, they investigate and put an end to supernatural phenomena, especially dangerous people with mystic powers. The first movie/novel, for instance, is about Garan no Dou investigating a series of suicides who all jumped off the same building despite having no other relation, and whose death was mysteriously foretold by their ghosts, hovering above the building since even before they jumped.

It’s a lot of fun. It’s also animated by Ufotable, an animation studio whose work I’m sure Fate fans are quite familiar with! If you’re not, then allow to tell you that Ufotable’s work is among the best of the best. Good, good, good stuff.

If you’re coming from FGO, you’re probably at least a little familiar with Shiki, since she’s, y’know, in that game.

Be aware of explicit subject matter such as graphic violence, incest, and sexual assault.

I’ve heard the fanmade translations of the novels are not very good, but have no real frame of reference myself, so I cannot recommend for or against them. The anime adaptation, however, I can absolutely vouch for the quality of, minor flaws and the entire sixth movie notwithstanding. There’s also a manga adaptation, but having read only the first chapter, I can’t speak for its quality (and the scanlation seemed pretty bad) but it does seem to have some fun nods to Mahoyo and also Shiki wearing leather pants.

Rakkyo is strange, baffling, maddening, and absolutely beautiful. It’s a dark, twisted, and wonderful experience.

... as a side note, release order and chronological order are not the same. Watch in release order. I mean, it’s not like Type-Moon published it in that order by accident! Release order is the experience the story was designed for! Well, there are people who will probably get more out of the experience watching it in chronological, but unless you’re absolutely certain you’re one of those people, my recommendation is firmly release order.

If you want to watch Kara No Kyoukai, then you can find it on Crunchyroll at https://www.crunchyroll.com/the-garden-of-sinners

If you want to read the manga, it can be found at https://mangadex.org/title/6d4e768d-d68a-449f-8983-f7acbc160d9c

If you want to read the novels, then they can be found at https://emptyboundaries.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/kara-no-kyokai-translations-2/

TSUKIHIME

Do you enjoy stories about vampires?

Do you enjoy a story that despite its heavy death thematics is more of a Memento Vivere than a Memento Mori?

Do you enjoy stories about vampires?

Do you enjoy stories with heavy themes of personal identity where almost every character is desperately trying to rebuild their sense of identity after a tragic backstory and/or maintain their identity in spite of their fundamental nature?

Do you enjoy watching the viewpoint character repeatedly spiral in and out of complete insanity?

Do you enjoy stories about vampires?

Do you enjoy stories about a person’s whole life being upended and revealed as nothing but lies?

Would you relate to a lazy, unambitious teenage boy with an incredibly fragile and easily-influenced sense of identity?

Do you enjoy Suffering because most of the sequels and spin-offs were put on hold or cancelled until the remake comes out, and the remake was announced in 2008 and still doesn’t have a release date? NEVER MIND, SUMMER 2021 BABY

Do you enjoy Suffering because the remake will only contain 2/5ths of the original VNs routes to begin with, and no word on when the remaining three and the promised new sixth route will arrive?

Then Tsukihime might just be up your alley. Your bloodstained, corpse-filled, dead-end back alley.

Tsukihime (literally translating to “Moon Princess”) is about Shiki Tohno, a high school boy who for eight years has been cursed with a horrifying and self-destructive power. But really, he’s a normal kid - loves his foster family, goes to school each day, sits at the back of the class, hangs out with his one friend. Normal stuff, right? And then his dad (his real dad who disinherited him, not the foster dad) dies, and his little sister, the heir, calls him back to his childhood home. And one dissasociative fugue later, he’s a murderer - followed a woman to her apartment, used his powers to cut her apart. The next morning, as he’s walking to school and contemplating turning himself in, he finds that same woman waiting for him at the gates. Overnight, his life goes from pleasant to a waking nightmare, and his home, Misaki Town (Souya City in the remake), seems as if to transform from a slow, sunny place into a dark, surreal, den of monsters.

Also, if you do decide to give Tsukihime a chance, there’s something I’d like you to know: The five story routes are divided into “Near Side” and “Far Side” which are very different experiences. Unless my memory is very wrong, the VN forces you to do the Arcueid route, a Near Side route, first, but if you don’t like it, please try either the Akiha or Hisui route before you drop it entirely - as Far Side routes, they are extremely different experiences (and personally, I think they’re leagues better).

Also, if for one reason or another you cannot read the VN but still want to give it a shot, read the manga instead! They have their own individual virtues - the manga follows the Arc route (with details from the Akiha route mixed in) and is more of a complete story than any one route, but much less of a complete story than the full five, with multiple important characters left by the wayside out of necessity. It’s also, on the whole, more visually intense and appealing, with one especially notable example being the final battle’s overhaul; also, it shows a certain villain’s backstory in greater, heartbreaking detail. On the other hand, it adds a couple plot holes (but also fills in at least one of the VN’s plot holes that I can think of, mind you), and the scanlation drops massively in quality partway through. I strongly recommend the VN over the manga, but it’s a perfectly sufficient alternative (or if you have the time and patience, you could read both. Both is good.). Do not watch the anime. Do not watch the anime. If you must know why: it’s the most absurdly flaccid adaptation I’ve ever seen; the artstyle is ugly, the animation is limp, the plot follows more or less the right beats but rearranges or alters them in ways that make the story incomprehensible. It’s garbage.

Be aware of explicit subject matter like graphic violence, incest, and sexual assault. Some of which is shown in a first-person perspective due to the aforementioned spiraling in and out of complete insanity and certain other factors. (some of it is avoidable depending on player choices. Usually reasonably obvious ones)

Tsukihime is a wild ride, to say the least, and let me tell you, it’s a damn good one. Sure, it was made with a budget of two paperclips and a half-eaten pork bun, is incredibly rough around the edges, and almost completely devoid of polish, but that’s part of the charm - this is Type-Moon’s first VN! This is Type-Moon at their most heartful and raw! It’s an experience unlike anything else, and I can only hope you all will enjoy it as much as I do.

Indeed, despite the upcoming remake, I fully recommend checking out the original. The remake promises to make many changes (and not include 3/5ths of the story), and it may be fully worthwhile to know what the original was like. It’s the sort of thing I get a lot out of, anyway. And hey - maybe you’ll find you love the original and the remake separately, and wouldn’t it be grand to find two new loves? Or maybe you won’t like the original, but you’ll appreciate the remake more for knowing that. Or you won’t like either, which, hey, at least you tried something new, isn’t that something? But on the whole, I really am sure you’ll probably like one or the other.

Probably the best way to play the VN is Loïc France‘s incredible browser port fan project, available at https://holofield.fr/tsukiweb/title (make sure to fiddle with the settings to your preference! Particularly, try out the three different soundtracks to find the one you like best.)

If you’d prefer the original, instructions on how to install the VN can be found at https://pastebin.com/8P1uQGG1

If you want to read the manga, then it can be found at https://mangadex.org/title/477800d5-bae8-4adb-b422-23e6cfa7ec87

Alternately, a higher-quality version of the manga in Japanese can be read entirely legally at https://web-ace.jp/tmca/contents/2000013/

I will not be helping you watch the anime. Figure it out yourself, you masochist.

Details on playing the Remake will be added once the official localization releases.

FURTHER READING

If you enjoyed Tsukihime, good news! There’s some more! Nothing new since 2015, but, like, take what you can get, right? This got a bit long, so it goes at the very bottom of the post.

DECORATION DISORDER DISCONNECTION

Do you enjoy stories about demons and deals with the devil?

Do you enjoy supernatural mystery stories?

Do you like stories about people working for mysterious, untrustworthy benefactors?

Do you enjoy baseball-playing villains with effective tragic backstories?

Would you relate to a broke, mentally-ill, disabled college drop-out?

Do you enjoy Suffering because the three-volume light novel series has been stalled on Vol. 2 for more than a decade?

In that case, perhaps Decoration Disorder Disconnection is the thing for you!

Decoration Disorder Disconnection is the story of a mysterious, supernatural disease that preys on the neglected, abused, and forgotten - the people who’ve slipped through the cracks in society - and causes them to turn into monsters with superpowers based on their idiosyncracies and untreated mental illnesses (People with mental illnesses that are being treated or at least have a healthy environment and people who care about them are not affected). Arika Ishizue, a young man with a missing arm, a strange kind of amnesia, and a pathological inability to feel threatened, is regularly roped by his rich employer into investigating the people the public call “Demon-possessed” so that the real demons can feast on the affliction that mutated them.

DDD might sound a bit insensitive to the mentally ill, but as such a person myself, I found it a very good story (I saw it more as a critique of the way Japan treats mental illness than an attack on the mentally ill, anyway) and I absolutely think you should give it a look.

Unfortunately, the only English fan translation, from the second chapter onwards, passed through Russian instead of being directly translated from Japanese, which can seriously be a detriment to the enjoyability of the novels.

Be aware of explicit subject matter like graphic violence.

DDD is an engaging story about a colourful cast of characters painted with a strange and decaying urban veneer. It’s a fascinating novel, and I hope you all love it.

If you want to read it, DDD can be found at https://forums.nrvnqsr.com/showthread.php/2637-DDD

ANGEL NOTES

Do you enjoy bleak post-apocalyptic stories about some schmuck trying to earn his daily bread?

Do you enjoy stories about a dead-inside sniper and his chipper roommate who is also an angel who is also an all-powerful alien entity?

Do you enjoy settings where the people of Earth have struggled and obtained hard-fought victories against a legion of alien lovecraftian terrors that ultimately cannot be stopped?

Would you relate to a grizzled and depressed man just trying to make ends meet?

Do you enjoy Suffering because the official content consists of one fairly short story, two pages in an art-book, and a two-second cameo, and there’s almost no fan content either?

Then please, go ahead and read Angel Notes (technically, it’s actually called “notes.” but many people - especially the older cohort of the English-language fanbase - just call it Angel Notes)

Angel Notes is the story of the last surviving pure human on a dead Earth and his freeloader roommate who, it turns out, is the resurrected consciousness of a monster he killed. It’s the story of a weary man and an ingenue full of hope and love - Godo, a tired, depressive gun-for-hire struggling to survive in an apocalyptic wasteland far too harsh for human life and in a society designed by and for superhumans descended from living weapons, and V/V, an angelic alien born from the death of an all-powerful lovecraftian monstrosity who came into the world a blank slate knowing only love for the living things she was meant to destroy. It’s the story of how they live, as well as...

There’s barely any of Angel Notes to read, even. It won’t take you very long at all. Please read Angel Notes. It’s really good. It’s a very sweet little story. And I love those two and I need there to be more fans of them.

If you want to read it, Angel Notes can be found at https://forums.nrvnqsr.com/showthread.php/73-Angel-Notes-Translation-by-Evospace or at https://archive.org/details/manga_Angel_Notes/mode/2up

MAHOUTSUKAI NO HAKO - STARLIT MARMALADE

Would you enjoy a story about a bunch of high school girls hanging out that takes an abrupt and incredibly sharp swerve into the supernatural?

Do you enjoy stories about an inexorably optimistic (and absolutely oblivious) idiot walking up to an abusive friendship and just wedging herself in between the abuser and victim despite neither wanting her around?

Do you like casts that consist primarily of different strains of lovable moron?

Do you like cute lesbian couples consisting of one lonely tsundere and one unstoppable ball of cheerfulness?

Do you like seemingly innocent, humorous, small-scale stories that have baffling connections to the setting’s deep lore (such as one major character turning out to secretly be a living weapon created by the 27th most dangerous vampire on the planet)?

Would you relate to a dour young woman who hates marching to the beat of anyone else’s drum, lives in the shadow of her hugely popular and successful elder sister, wants to be left alone, and is just completely surrounded by a bunch of energetic and relentlessly positive people?

Do you enjoy Suffering because Vol. 2 hasn’t been translated? Or, if you understand Japanese, because it was supposed to be a three volume series but there’s been no sign of Vol. 3 since the release of Vol. 2 in 2013?

Just a quick note before we start: Hibiki and Chikagi, those two girls at the front, with the orange and green hair? They were created as the mascots of Type-Moon’s now-defunct mobile site, “Mahoutsukai No Hako” (meaning “Magician’s Box,” and referring to Cafe Ahnenerbe, the interdimensional crossroads where the protagonists work part-time). The idea, as I understand it, was that they (and to a lesser extent their co-stars Keitai-san and Sunao Sugata) would be the face, to some degree, of all of Type-Moon’s mobile-phone-related stuff.

... Those of you coming here from FGO can start laughing now.

For a while, Mahoutsukai No Hako consisted of random fluff, basically. The cast had a few hijinks, hosted variety shows starring various Type-Moon voice actors, starred in a special episode of Carnival Phantasm, and so on.

And then Starlit Marmalade wrote their backstory.

Starlit Marmalade is mainly about Chikagi Katsuragi and Hibiki Hibino, a pair of apparently pretty ordinary high school students. Chikagi, a solitary, caustic person with only one friend (and not a good friend, either, a heavily abusive friend who only cares about Chikagi as a tool to get to her sister Chidori), suddenly finds herself set upon by Hibiki Hibino, who, for reasons as clear as mud, has decided she absolutely has to be Chikagi’s friend, wants nothing more than to make Chikagi smile, and who proves to be a special kind of bull-headed where it’s hard to tell if she’s extremely perceptive as to what people need as opposed to what they say they want, or just completely incapable of listening to what people tell her.

Meanwhile, students at their school have been disappearing under mysterious circumstances...

Starlit Marmalade is... one hell of an anomaly. It’s a very, very silly and sweet story, but because it takes itself just the right amount of seriously - not seriously enough that it comes off as unaware of how silly its being, but serious enough that the silly things come off as, for lack of a better word, “real” - it manages to get away with having some surprising tonal twists and lore connections It’s pretty delightful. I’d certainly recommend checking it out.

... oh, by the way, apparently Sunao - an character who makes her debut toward the end of Vol. 1 - appears in one Fate/Extra drama CD as the Nameless Archer’s master and dies in battle against Leo Harway. What the hell?

Anyway, a translation/summary of the first drama CD can be found at https://heavens-feel.com/starlitmarmaladevol1disc1translation.html

the manga can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/e850e497-2d50-40cc-a0da-186e3857e33a

FIRE GIRL

Have you ever wondered what the result of the author of Fate/Requiem doing something ~kind of~ similar to an isekai (except instead of reincarnation it’s more like... spelunking but with an alternate dimension instead of a cave, I guess?) would be?

Do you enjoy parallel universes that have the same name as a popular hazelnut spread for some reason?

Do you think Wasei-Eigo related mixups are hilarious? Because there’s a real big one involving the word ‘trans’ in the second volume.

Would you relate to a mildly narcoleptic, apathetic, over-imaginative teenage girl?

Do you like stories about both literal and figurative exploration of the unknown and pushing boundaries?

Do you enjoy Suffering because the English translation only goes up to near the end of the second of three volumes?

For the Japanese-fluent, I don’t know, there might not be Suffering involved this time, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Fire Girl is about a high school girl named Homura Hinooka, who joins a kinda shady club at her school dedicated to exploring and studying a mysterious alternate universe called “Nutella,” which can only be reached by people between the ages of 9 and 19 (limited further by law to those in the last few viable years).

This so-called “Imaginary Earth,” which operates on rules that are occasionally suspiciously video-gamey, presents numerous mysteries of physics and history: despite being far, far larger than Earth, Nutella’s environment is still Earth-like; magic is a legitimate possibility there, utilized not only by human explorers but even some select specimens of the wildlife; humans who travel there may find themselve metamorphosized into demihuman forms like elves, demons, or slutty cat-boys (to be clear, the only thing added there was the ‘cat’ part. ‘Slutty’ and ‘boy’ were already part of Saho’s character); and most mysteriously, although numerous ancient ruins have been found, not a single other trace of sentient life has been found.

By the way, you might think the ‘tella’ in ‘Nutella’ is an Engrish-ization of ‘terra,’ but the rings around the planet are referred to as ‘The Bagel,’ so maybe Meteo is just being funny.

I can’t give a complete opinion on Fire Girl, owing to my incomplete experience, but I really did enjoy the time I had with it.

If you want to read it yourself, it can be found at https://firegirlthetranslation.wordpress.com/

TSUKI NO SANGO

Do you like stories about stories?

Do you like soft-Sci-Fi renditions of classic fairy tales?

Do you like the tale of Princess Kaguya?

Would you like to read a story about a dying earth, and the importance of love and patience and the inevitable victory of emotion over reason?

Do you like stories about machines becoming human, even when it costs them their wellbeing?

Would you relate to an emotionally crippled princess, who is being pressured to marry but really just wants to do her own thing?

Or, would you relate to an emotionally dead young man with auditory dyslexia, whose only wish is to be left alone?

Tsuki no Sango (”Coral of the Moon”) is a loose adaptation of the folktale of Princess Kaguya, designed as a quote-unquote “Tsukihime 3000.” It is the story of three people, in total: the protagonist, known only as the “Storyteller Girl”; her ancestor, known only as the “Girl of the Moon”; and the person that the Girl of the Moon loved, referred to as the “Man of Earth.”

Some 1000 years from the present day, in a decaying world where the spirit of humanity has been all but extinguished, and people are barely husks of their former selves with only scraps of drive and emotion, the Storyteller Girl lives as princess of an island of fifty people. Many people come to her island seeking her hand in marriage, for one reason or another (such as the Prince of Arishima, who believes her island is “the hope of humanity,” being less affected by the decline of man than the rest of the world). The Storyteller Girl, having no understanding of love, seeks to have her suitors define it for her, by presenting them with impossible tasks. She believes that, should someone somehow succeed, and then be willing to trade such an impossibly valuable thing for her hand, it will prove the measure of love. Naturally, no one has yet succeeded.

One day, a tiny, machine-like merchant riding a strange flying craft appears. Being a merchant, he wants to trade goods - more specifically, he would like the princess to write down the story of her distant ancestor, who legend says came from the moon.

The novel can be found at https://kisalnarchive.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/tsuki-no-sango/

The manga can be found at https://mangadex.org/title/a0880b76-9d26-40b6-94a0-740fe31ead50

CANAAN

Do you enjoy depictions of synesthesia that I’m pretty certain are wildly inaccurate?

Do you enjoy adorable fluff about a hardened mercenary and a bubbly photojournalist?

Do you like cool gunfights and other such action movie spectacle?

Do you like comic-book-y pseudo-science mutants?

Are you one of the, like, five English-speakers who read 428: Shibuya Scramble? Because this is a sequel to that.

Would you relate to a troubled, bull-headed, serious mercenary who lacks a strong sense of self and is on a quest for revenge?

... Yeah, does Canaan even count? Nasu and Takeuchi did do the writing and designs, but it’s a sequel to a visual novel (which I can’t tell you anything about... it’s on my backlog, though) that is definitely not a Type-Moon work. But it’s specifically a sequel to a scenario from that visual novel which was written by Nasu, so... Anyway, here it is.

... also, it’s been a while since I watched it, so sorry if I’m not covering it as well as I should be.

Canaan is about a woman named Canaan and her quest for vengeance against the person who killed her mentor Siam - a terrorist named Alphard, who was once another orphan taken in by Siam before Canaan. Alphard’s organization, Snake, possesses a deadly bioweapon capable of causing horrific mutations (or just death), the Ua Virus. Canaan battles Snake across Shanghai, both in the name of finally killing Alphard, and in the name of...

It’s also about a girl named Maria Oosawa, an aspiring photojournalist, and Canaan’s only friend. She’s in Shanghai to cover a big anti-terrorism conference, and very quickly gets wrapped up in the whole affair with Snake. Canaan prioritizes her safety over everything else, and will stop at nothing to protect her.

At the end of the day, Canaan and Maria’s relationship is probably the anime’s main draw, because they really are adorable, and in-between the action sequences, there’s a lot of just them hanging out and being cute and in love. It’s pretty great.

Canaan can be viewed at your preferred anime piracy site, if you have one. If you don’t, then I happen to use 9anime,me, but cannot vouch for its safety. Be sure to take appropriate measures, such as adblockers.

ROOM OF THE APRIL WITCH

A short one-shot published as Type-Moon’s annual April Fools joke in 2011.

“Shigatsu no Majou no Heya” (”The April Witch’s Room” or “Room of the April Witch”) is the story of April, an immortal witch with the power to grant any wish. Having suffered for her powers, April long ago retreated into her sanctuary, and sealed it away so that no one could ever enter and hurt her again.

But, she was still human, and she still desired human contact. So, one day out of every year, she unlocked the door. Over the many hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, a great many people arrived, with a great many purposes. Some sought to help April, some to hurt her. Some came only to make a wish for themselves, some came for no reason at all. None ever came a second time. Except...

Can be read at https://forums.nrvnqsr.com/showthread.php/308-Room-of-the-April-Witch?p=27884&viewfull=1#post27884 or at https://bimyou.blogspot.com/2011/04/room-of-april-witch-type-moon.html

CLOWICK CANAAN-VAIL

Published in the same anthology as Angel Notes, Clowick Canaan-Vail tells the story of an android courier named Gabriel, who lives in a barren, apocalyptic world that has long since lost the capacity to repair a machine like her, and how she spends the last five days of her life.

Can be read at https://imgur.com/gallery/ZcbYG

TSUKIHIME FURTHER READING

Plus Disc

Basically a collection of little extra stuff. If you just want to follow the storyline, you only really need to worry about the Alliance of Illusionary Eyes sidestory, which introduces a new character and has some nice character moments for Shiki in the climax.

Instructions on how to install can be found at https://pastebin.com/1Z1ibay0

Kagetsu Tohya

A direct sequel... of sorts... to Tsukihime. Kagetsu Tohya (roughly translating to “Ten Nights of the Singing Moon”) is a dream of one endlessly repeating day, Shiki seeks to learn what happened to him and how he can return to his real life - in between a whole lot of cute, fluffy slice of life. Since it’s all a dream, not much actually happens per se - it can basically be summed up as “Shiki gets a familiar” (it’s still a very nice story, mind you) - but there’s some good character stuff (although on the other hand, there’s also a lot of parts where characters are flattened and exaggerated for comedic purposes), lots of fun fluff and comedy, and the sidestories are pretty good - Dawn is a sad little story following a (formerly) unnamed background extra from Tsukihime (and is also the first published work by the author of Overlord!), Red Demon God gives some nice backstory and expands on the Nanaya clan as well as posthumously developing the character of Kiri Nanaya, Crimson Moon does the same for Roa and Brunestud, A Story For The Evening is an extended epilogue to Tsukihime’s Akiha route, and Drinking Dreaming Moon is just magnificent and ought to be required reading for any Tsukihime fan.

... you may want to use a guide. The path to the ending is otherwise a bit of a labyrinth. I think the download I’m linking comes with a flowchart? Although, the game has a built-in help function, and I’d recommend making use of it first. If the help function doesn’t work, and the flowchart isn’t getting you anywhere, here’s a step-by-step walkthrough.

Instructions on how to install can be found at https://pastebin.com/DNRx6RC3

Melty Blood

A fighting game, (in)famous for being played in bathrooms, parking lots, gazebos, and other unlikely locales around the world. As you might be able to tell from the frankly ludicrous dedication of its fanbase, it’s a pretty damn good fighting game, too. As a side note, many of those fans are getting rather sick of the bathroom jokes, so it may be best to refrain from them in future.

Melty Blood’s VN-like story mode takes place the summer after Tsukihime, when an Egyptian alchemist named Sion Eltnam Atlasia comes to town searching for and hoping to put an end to her ancestor, a terrifying vampire poised to wipe out the whole city - naturally, Shiki lends a hand.

Incidentally, while the game’s route map only shows five endings, some of those ending squares can be reached in multiple ways, and actually have entirely different endings for the occasion.

There’s a manga adaptation you can read, if you prefer. Like the Tsukihime manga, it mixes the routes a little while primarily following the “main” route. It also has a sequel manga, ”Act 2,″ adapting the joke endings.

Anyway, unless you’re really keen to see the gameplay in its rawest state, don’t worry about playing Melty Blood, because:

Instructions on how to install can be found at https://pastebin.com/BxPtZwQs

The manga can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/36999805-52e9-451f-94de-ca50e8e7e873

Melty Blood Re-Act

Everything that was in Melty Blood with a new coat of polish, plus a new story, featuring a mysterious villain creating living Jungian Shadows from some of the cast and hypnotizing some of the others.

Instructions on how to install can be found at https://pastebin.com/8QCU3Ayt

Melty Blood Act Cadenza

Most of this is retelling previous stuff. Don’t worry too much about Act Cadenza.

The only story progression is White Len contracting Shiki Nanaya, one of the phantoms she created, as her Master, creating a bizarre perpetual motion machine of Master/Familiar bonds

Installation instructions can be found at https://pastebin.com/ucChcXGS

Melty Blood Actress Again

Ever get that feeling of deja vu? It seems some mysterious enemy is somehow causing the events of the previous summer to repeat themselves - naturally, Shiki and Sion and a miscellany of others head out to get to the bottom of this.

Also, Sion’s Swedish paladin wife comes back from the dead after cameoing in Sion’s evil alternate self’s super move in every previous game!

Also also it’s just a really good fighting game. If you want to get into Melty as a fighting game rather than as part of Tsukihime’s story, this is the one you’re going to want to get. That said, I would, in that case, have to recommend taking a look at the fanmade “Community Edition,” which is the usual standard for online play on account of having rollback. That said, it’s technically piracy, so as there’s a legitimate alternative, I’m going to leave you to find it for yourself.

One thing that’s worth noting is that the official localization is... uh, wonky. For example, translating one of Aoko’s lines as referring to “my little sister” (something Aoko doesn’t have) when it was actually “the little sister” (I.E. what people who only know Akiha through Shiki keep calling her). I’d recommend taking a look at Mirror Moon’s unfinished fan translation, but I’m not sure if it’s compatible with the Steam version. I think it’s compatible with the Community Edition, though.

Actress Again can be purchased on Steam at https://store.steampowered.com/app/411370/Melty_Blood_Actress_Again_Current_Code/

Carnival Phantasm

Comedic fluff consisting primarily of short, standalone comedy sketches. Crossover with Fate/Stay Night. HibiChika are in one episode.

Carnival Phantasm can be viewed at your preferred anime piracy site, if you have one. If you don’t, then I happen to use 9anime,me, but cannot vouch for its safety. Be sure to take appropriate measures, such as adblockers.

Take Moon and Ahnenerbe No Nichijou

More comedic fluff.

Many segments in Carnival Phantasm were adapted from Take Moon.

Ahnenerbe no Nichijou (”Daily Life at Ahnenerbe,” roughly) revolves around the main heroines of Tsukihime, Fate/Stay Night, and Kara No Kyoukai hanging out in the titular cafe and getting involved in humorous shenanigans, often involving their respective extended casts. Also, HibiChika are in it sometimes.

Take Moon can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/c728b682-514e-4490-b099-a43eb9077b40

Ahnenerbe no Nichijou can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/b4101937-158d-496d-95c7-03c540032ed5

Melty Blood X

A comedic spin-off manga that acts as a sequel of sorts to Actress Again. Sion’s attempts to improve her living conditions go extremely awry and nearly get everyone killed.

can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/daf449f6-9f05-480e-858d-4597c9908a1e

Koha-Ace

A super-deformed comedy manga starring Kohaku and Akiha. Mostly consists of self-deprecating shots at Type-Moon.

Long-lasting compared to the rest, bafflingly.

Is actually the source of multiple Servants in FGO - most notably Okita and Nobunaga, who were originally joke characters created specifically for this manga (Okita, in particular, being a recolour of Kohaku). Fate/Red Line is actually an adaptation of Koha-Ace’s one semi-serious storyline, with the rest of the nonsensical comedy and all Tsukihime elements removed.

Can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/223f03db-b8fa-4087-8dfe-9bb04efecd3b

Melty Blood Back Alley Alliance Nightmare

A somewhat bipolar half-comedic half-serious manga acting as a sequel of sorts to Actress Again. Sion and her friends attempt to visit the beach, only for her to get abruptly thrown into a Fate/Grand Order crossover where she is repeatedly forced to experience the lives of her alternate timeline counterparts, who never meet happy ends, while also being harassed by the ghost of Olga Marie Animusphere.

There’s also a subplot about Lev trying to escape from Hell The Great Cats Garden (which is probably a worse place to be anyway).

... a fairly large chunk of the manga has been rendered nonsensical thanks to the Fate Worlds/Tsukihime Worlds retcon. What? No, I’m not still bitter about that shitty goddamn retcon.

He said, bitterly.

can be read at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16jgRv-WneCDBF324U_MFsuguPFTt2J0S (thank you @shadouko for the updated link)

Hana no Miyako!

A lighthearted spin-off manga taking place five years after Tsukihime. Hana no Miyako! (Something like “Miyako of the Flowers!” or “Flowery Miyako!” I think) features the misadventures of Shiki Tohno’s foster sister Miyako Arima as she attempts to make it through high school without getting into too much trouble. And fails. A lot. At least she gets a girlfriend very-close-friend-who-is-also-a-girl-but-not-her-girlfriend-she-swears out of it

Also for some reason one of the most major antagonists is the daughter of Caster and Kuzuki from Fate/Stay Night. She’s very in love with Miyako. It would be cute if she had any sense of boundaries.

Got cancelled halfway through. The author continued it as a doujin work with Type-Moon’s approval, but hasn’t released a new chapter in literal years. Hope you enjoy Suffering.

Can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/9a07cfcf-858f-4e4d-befe-34522a896e46

Melty Blood Type Lumina

The newest iteration of Melty Blood, updated to the Remake’s setting. A sort of out-of-continuity prequel with a pared-back cast, some cool additions like the Remake’s new midboss Vlov Arkhangel, and some less-than-welcome guests. In addition to the standard arcade ladders, it also has a story mode, added in a later update, but I haven’t checked it out yet because I’m still too blown away that they managed to make me actually angry that one of my favourite literary characters ever is playable in a fighting game I like to go back to it.

Can be purchased for PS4 or Nintendo Switch on their respective digital storefronts, or on Steam at https://store.steampowered.com/app/1372280/MELTY_BLOOD_TYPE_LUMINA/

#type-moon #fate/stay night #fate/grand order #fate series #tsukihime #kara no kyoukai #mahoutsukai no yoru #angel notes #decoration disorder disconnection #melty blood #starlit marmalade #fire girl #carnival phantasm #tsuki no sango #room of the april witch #fgo #fsn #kinoko nasu

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onelastbreath-writes · 4 years

Text

I Spy

Pairing: Frankie “Catfish” Morales/Fem!Reader (AFAB, no y/n)

Word Count: 1.7K

Warnings: Brief mention of bad(abusive/manipulative) parents, general adult topics, swearing.

Summary: You meet a cute guy at a bar, you date, you fall in love, and oops, it turns out you’ve both been lying about your careers. Classified only stays classified until you get assigned a mission together. (SpecOps&Spies, with Young!Frankie)

A/N: Hey guys, I was bad and started another fic. Whoops. This one is for Triple Frontier because I love that soft boi Francisco. The flavour of this fic, the vibe if you will, is basically the spiderman pointing meme. I’ve vaguely set the timeline to like mid-2000s? so I’ll be trying my best to stay true to technology and aesthetic of the era. There was so much denim. Anyways, that means I’m trying to write for about a 27-33 year old Frankie and a similarly aged reader. I don’t see this series being more than a couple chapters at best, so it’ll be short and sweet. Also, like, very little angst if I can help it; I just want this one to be a good, cute, fun read. Hope y’all enjoy! Xoxo

[AO3][Masterlist]

“So, you’re coming out tonight, right? You’re not busy or anything?”

“Please don’t say it like that, you know how busy work actually is. And I’m a grown woman; if I didn’t want to go to a shady dive bar with you and your very loud friends from the office, I’d say so,” You loved your best friend, and you missed spending time together, but you really couldn’t say the same for her co-workers.

You had nothing against the women she worked with, and you found that they were all perfectly lovely and usually quite fun to be around… it was just that when the alcohol came out, the volume control and verbal filters disappeared.

You wouldn’t say that barhopping was what you’d prefer to be doing tonight, along with more or less babysitting your friend and her friends, but you didn’t know when you’d next be able to squeeze in a night off to just hang out and have fun, so this was happening. You would laugh and smile and keep the drunk secretaries from going home with questionable people, and then you would look back on your ladies’ night with fond memories until you could eventually attend another.

You had known when you picked your career that it would be an around-the-clock, all-day, every-day sort of thing. You never deluded yourself into thinking you would have much of a social life or long-term relationships. Most partners, hell even most friends, would have a problem with you jetting off for weekends, or disappearing for days at a time under mountains of paperwork and appointments.

It just made your best friend that much more important to you. You’d met as kids, went through years of school beside each other, hung out, did stupid teenager things and then stupid young adult things together. You’d cried and laughed and fought and made up a million times, you’d gone to different colleges and still kept in touch, moved away, moved back, and you were still going strong. She was your ride-or-die, your anchor and your parachute and everything in between, so if you could use some of your precious, hoarded, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it time off to see her, that’s just what you’d do.

“You should take some of that fire, and direct it at your boss. Tell him no for a change. I’d love to see his face at that!” She meant well, always trying to look out for you and your health when it came to your beyond demanding job. You weren’t even allowed to tell her a fraction of what you were doing in your professional life, and she knew it, but that didn’t stop her from being ready to throw fists at your employer at a moment’s notice.

“One does not simply tell the über-rich that they don’t need to fly to Paris, again. Being a PA is a full-time nannying gig, except your charge is an adult who can argue when you say no, and you cannot put them on timeout when they’re being a brat. Where he goes, I go, and unless something drastic happens, it will probably continue on like that for a while.” She laughed at your jokes, and your heart hurt a little less at her glee. You knew she would never give up on you or blame you for your work being unpredictable, but that didn’t make the sting of last-minute cancels and missed outings hurt any less, for either of you.

“But it must be nice, just getting on a plane and going somewhere amazing at the drop of a hat. Travelling the world like a superstar, meeting people, having amazing adventures with mysterious strangers…”

“Easy there, Mamma Mia, your wanderlust is showing. And I’d take you with me in a heartbeat if I could. You were born to be a jetsetter, not to be stuck in this town with nothing but the office cubicle beside you to stare at. And I still think you should apply for one of those immersive culture grants you keep mooning over. They’d be fools not to fund your writing expedition!” She was an incredible person, three full degrees to her name in the time it took a normal student to get one, and a brain that could run miles around the rest of the professionals in her field. But she was tethered to this quiet backwater town, and she wasn’t free to fly like she deserved.

“You know I can’t just… go, like you can. My mom, it’d just break her heart… I don’t want to leave her alone, not after Dad,” You honestly doubted that you’d ever meet a woman more horrible and undeserving of her own daughter’s kindness. Helen was a parasite full of lies and manipulations and greed, and she had attached herself like a bad rash to your friend after she’d chased away the rest of her family members.

Your friend searched for the good in everyone, but you wished she’d stop looking for it at that home.

“You deserve your own happiness and freedom, and she should be encouraging you to spread your wings if and when you’re ready.” Politicking your friend was never something you enjoyed. She was the last person you wanted to use your negotiating credentials and sly subterfuge tactics against, but you wanted, needed, her safety and health more. You considered it almost bribery; dangling her dream future in front of her in exchange of being rid of the garbage in her life.

“Hey now, we’re getting way too deep into sad-drunk night conversations, and this is strictly a happy-fun-drunk night. Please leave all baggage and woes at the door, thank you!” You admitted your defeat and surrendered your verbal power point on Why Helen Needs to Disappear. You would get her next time for sure, give her the accelerant to burn down that bridge. “Anyways, the reason I called was to remind you of our haunt for the night. One of the girls, Kelly, you remember Kelly, found this adorable little hole in the wall. A total boys’ club apparently: darts, pool, sports games on the TV, but Kelly’s sister’s friend’s brother Tyler said the place was a favourite of the local army guys. So, if nothing else, we’ll at least have some hunks to look at for a while. It’ll be great!”

You jotted down the directions to the bar as she listed them, and the time you were expected to arrive there.

“Oh! And wear that cute little blue number you bought last spring; I know you still have it so don’t you dare lie. It makes your ass and legs look divine, and I think you could stand to make a new acquaintance tonight.” That Little Blue Number was buried in the back of your closet where you had hoped it would remain forever, but luck was not on your side tonight it seemed. But it did make you look, and feel, fantastic. It was just so… breezy. “And heels! Real ones, not your cute little personal assistant kitten heels. Those black strappy ones would work like a dream!” You just sighed dramatically into the receiver and agreed to her demands.

“I’ll let you go now, and yes, I suppose I can be presentable tonight, dress and all. See-ya later!”

---

Hole in the wall was right. This place was basically underground it was so on the D.L. It was warm inside though, and in the middle of autumn with so much skin on display, you could not be more pleased to get away from the chilled outside air.

You would describe the interior as comfortable with a hint of rustic; lots of warm dark wood and low lights, mixed with the soft Latin music crooning in the background and the few patrons’ conversations adding to the ambience.

All in all, it was probably the nicest dive bar you’d been to in your hometown.

Your party was easy to spot where they had claimed a group of pushed together tables towards the far side of the establishment, and you carefully made your way over to them in your tricky high heels.

You said your hellos to returning faces and introduced yourself to the new additions, and accepted the chair you were pointed to and the drink pressed into your hand.

And so, the hours rolled.

You had enjoyed two fruity cocktails and a flaming shot before you called it quits on the alcohol for the night. You still had a few hours to sober up enough to drive home safely, and you would be able to help the girls get to their rides and ways home too. You appreciated having a social drink or two, but you didn’t care for hangovers and would happily take slightly tipsy over party-hard drunk anytime. Plus, your contract stated you were on-call, always, and you could be required to navigate high-stress negotiations at the drop of a hat. It was just better to cut yourself off, then reap the consequences of your actions later.

You tapped your friend’s shoulder as you walked past and leaned over to talk into her ear. “I’m getting some water for the table; do you want anything else?”

“Mmmm, no I think we’re good for now, thanks!” She was plastered already, but she had a huge grin on her face and was laughing at her co-workers’ stories, so you considered it a win of a night. You gave her a pat goodbye and swayed your way to the bar.

But you just were not accounting for the uneven floorboards, or how much your heels affected your currently less than steady equilibrium, and before you could blink you were teetering over into a nasty fall.

“Whoa there, easy does it, muñequita” Arms wrapped around you and pulled you back into a warm chest. “Careful now, don’t go twisting an ankle in those fancy shoes.”

You certainly did not account for the man you turned around to face. Wow.

His hands glided respectfully from where he had caught you around the waist to your still bent and held out elbows, steadying you as you swayed dangerously again.

Warm brown eyes, soft brown curls, and the sweetest smile you’d ever seen. It felt like your heart was going to beat out of your chest, and you knew that it wasn’t left over adrenaline from your near wipeout. He was gorgeous and handling you so gently, and you wanted to spend forever in that moment.

“Hey there, palomita, I’m Frankie, can I buy you a drink?”

[Next Part]

#triple frontier #frankie morales x reader #frankie morales #frankie morales x you #Pedro Pascal #triple frontier fanfiction #pedro pascal x reader

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sneakydraws · 4 years

Text

Well, here it is - a lengthy explanation of each card in my mdzs major arcana deck and what I meant to convey/what i would have changed in retrospect/what alternatives i considered! It’s a bit messy and my typing style is lazy but hopefully it will be an interesting read to some of you :)

And so you don’t say I didn’t warn you - jiang cheng’s section (11 justice) is absurdly long lmao

0 the fool I elaborated on this in the post itself but yeah basically jin ling is kind of representative of all the damage and trauma caused by the past, and there’s a kind of danger there of him falling victim to the same vices as the older characters and repeating the same mistakes and perpetuating the cycle of war and misery (the cycle that we already see with how the jin sect became the new wen sect, and later with how jgy became the new wwx) and he has a lot of room to grow! He grows so much over the course of the novel, comes to realise the complexities of the past and gets a harsh life lesson in how nothing is as black and white as it seems. But ill save talking about his progress for the end, for now whats important is that he has room to grow and also a dog. I don’t really have a justification for the sun, i mostly just thought it looked sick? It made its way to the next card as well, where it makes a bit more sense, but then i realised it was a dumb motif to include 1 the magician I still very much like wwx for the role, and that illustration would have probably had him raising a corpse on his left and pointing threateningly to the sun on his right. I considered including the table as well, with some mdzs relevant items replacing the card suits. Anyway, like i said wwx got a few cards to himself already so i went with the alternative wq design, since i think she fits the card as well. Both she and wwx are highly skilled people, extremely driven once they set their mind to something. The card to me symbolises the creative mind as well as a general drive for action, which fits them both - wwx was famously a prolific inventor, and wq came up with a previously unheard of surgery, after all. This card strays pretty far from the rider-waite deck design, largely because i was still figuring out how i wanted to approach this series, but you can still see the influence. 2 the high priestess I was actually going to skip this card at first because I couldn’t think of a fitting character, but once i considered a qings character post death, it all fit pretty well. She was already a highly intuitive person in life, and in sharing her memories with wwx she is, in a way, relaying a kind of secret knowledge. Anyway she’s one of my fav characters so im glad i got a chance to include her. The coffins could be interpreted to be xxc and sl or xxc and xy 3 the empress Theres other mother figures in mdzs who got to be mothers for a longer time, but jyl definitely embodies the positive aspects of this card the best. She’s nurturing, kind, emotionally supportive, she already mothered wwx and jc quite a bit when she was young. Plus i liked that the rw card had both water and flowers, making an easy lotus connection. In retrospect the stars look kind of out of place and i should have replaced them with something more relevant... Also, i should have had her hold a lotus seed pod instead of a flower, haha 4 the emperor Like i said I considered jc for the role but hoching bullied me into admitting that nmj was better… they’re both more of an inverted emperor than an upright one but then again theres hardly any character in mdzs who would fit upright emperor so. Jgs was also considered but he’s even uglier than nmj so i couldn’t bear to draw him 5 the hierophant It was pointed out to me that lqr would have fit this card better and the truth if that statement haunts me to this day. Unfortunately I have no space in my brain for lqr so lxc got the role instead. My main reason was his role during the wen destruction of gusu lan, when he ran away with the contents of the library - this is why there’s bookshelves behind him. The keys, take, from the rider-waite deck, are meant to represent the gusu pendants that allow you to enter 6 the lovers Im sure many people would have chosen wangxian here but I uhh don’t really care abt wangxian personally? And also their love story is so convoluted that jyl and jzx seem idyllic by comparison lol. Also i didnt really have an idea for who to put in the angel’s place for wangxian… mme jin certainly did not get these two together in the end but undeniably she and mme yu did initially give them a chance to fall for each other so. Thats something i guess. Anyway the trees became their sects’ flowers and the mountain became the burial grounds - an omen of their tragic fate, basically 7 the chariot There might have been other characters who fit this card better but i couldn’t really think of another card for lwj and i thought it would be weird to not include him… anyway i don’t really care for current timeline lwj BUT i do like that he was clearly influenced by wwx to walk his own path in life based on his moral convictions rather than follow his sect’s rules blindly. The chariot is to me a card of self control, self determination and focused action, so it seemed fitting. The composition felt kind of empty without the actual chariot so i padded it out with the guqin, the cloud recess in the bg (it doesn’t look great but i tried to replicate the drama design….) and the bunnies which conveniently fit the colour scheme of the sphinxes in the rider-waite design 8 strength Like i said before, my interpretation of this card is more… morally ambiguous than the quote unquote official meaning, so i thought about manipulative or duplicitous characters more than kind characters whose strength is expressed through gentleness (though i did consider jyl briefly for the latter interpretation). As such, i considered both jgy and nhs, but ended up going with jgy largely because i couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put the nie sect’s beast as the lion. 9 the hermit My thoughts immediately went to bssr lol. It may be an overly literal interpretation but whatever, i like it just fine. And i like that i managed to echo the rider-waite silhouette in the mountain and the tree (and even in bssr herself) 10 wheel of fortune God i love the parallels between these 2… this card to me is about how you cant trust your current situation, good or bad, to last forever, and these 2 embody that perfectly imo. Wwx went from son of a well off servant and a powerful cultivator, to street rat orphan, to adopted son of sect leader jiang, to double orphan, to MIA, to terrifying but admired warrior, to terrifying and despised traitor, to dead, to, at the very end, suddenly respected and trusted again. The dishonesty and cheapness of whatever the public’s current opinion of him is is portrayed beautifully as far as im concerned. And jgy of course claws his way up to power only to instantaneously become public enemy number one, to the point that he’s probably blamed for stuff there’s no reason to believe he had a hand in. Wei wuxian’s silent astonishment at how quickly the cultivation world turns against jgy and towards him again is a delicious moment of thematic resonance. 11 justice I settled on this card for jc after he got booted from the emperor seat but i do think it fits, in a somewhat convoluted way. I turned both the sword and the scales into visual representations of the golden core transfer (can you tell im obsessed with it). According to biddy tarot, the justice card is partly about searching for the truth, and the scene where jc finds out about the transfer is of course a big deal. I was also very influenced by the reversed meaning again - which is about being reluctant or unwilling to face or accept the consequences of your actions. I feel on an intuitive level that this fits jc but I’m not sure how well i can explain it - it’s something about how he’s a little too comfortable scapegoating wwx for things that were also, if much less so, influenced by his actions, and also something about the way he keeps wwx at an arm’s length emotionally but still leans on him and accepts his support when he really needs it, and somewhat hypocritically expects wwx to put the needs of him and the jiang sect before the needs of others. And also something about the core exchange is the consequence and proof of wwx’s deep - terrifyingly deep, even - love and care for him, which is something jc doesn’t seem to let himself acknowledge. Maybe even something about how you could argue that the way all of the jiangs acted around wwx - jfm’s favouritism that left him with the feeling of a debt he needs to repay, mme yus insistence that he be a servant more than a brother to jc, prepared to give his life for jc, and jc’s own unwillingness - or inability, he was a child after all - to clearly acknowledge wwx as an equal to himself, enabling wwx’s self sacrificial and protective tendencies - that all of this was what caused wwx’s complete and unquestioning willingness to do whatever it took to protect jc, and therefore paved the way to the golden core transfer. And i don’t mean this to be scapegoating jc - especially considering how young he was when this all went down, it wouldn’t be fair to expect this level of emotional perceptiveness, awareness and maturity of him - but i think adult jc has to grapple with the fact that the chain of cause and effect was not as simple as wwx fucking everyone’s lives up to be a martyr, and that both jc and his parents had a role in that story as well. I don’t even necessarily think this is something that jc only realised in the current timeline - i think it’s something he felt on some level this whole time, and it probably led to a lot of feelings of guilt - but the suibian reveal definitely puts it in sharp focus, and i think he’s now better equipped to handle this introspection than he was as a recently orphaned, traumatised teenager, lol. ANYWAY the window with the fabric is both a nod to the rider-waite design and a reference to the destruction of lanling - i actually did some basic ass research for this, and it seems that in ancient china fabric would indeed be hanged in a window if the normally used paper was damaged. The design of the window, as well as the very idea to use it to imply the reconstruction of lanling, was taken from this great piece of jc angst by my pal moroll1! Oh yeah also the covered window kind of works as a denial of forgiveness for jc because it’s like a halo but covered up... Also I completely forgot to put a blindfold over his eyes which would be perfectttt because blind justice and the core exchange......... ok moving on 12 the hanged man I always have issues with this card because i cant find a satisfactory summary of what it’s really about. Best i can tell it symbolises a need to hit pause, surrender or let go of something… ive also seen it tied to sacrifice? So mo xuanyu doesn’t fit perfectly, but sacrifice is definitely there in a surface level reading kind of way, and the idea that you have to surrender or let go in order to achieve your goal does fit the whole deal of getting revenge but giving up your life in exchange and not being there to see it 13 death This is probably one of my favourite cards, definitely not because I have huge issues with change or anything…. I see this card as signalling the necessity of change or putting an end to something / leaving something in the past in order to start anew? At first i considered putting past wwx, mxy and current wwx here as a kind of transformation and one cycle flowing into the next... But firstly, I’d already used mxy in the very previous card, so putting him in again would feel like overkill, and secondly, the longer I thought about it the less convinced I was that this would even fit with the card’s meaning? Because coming back from the dead doesn’t like... trigger an internal transformation within wwx or anything? Anyway, fun fact: the design I ended up going with was actually originally intended for judgement! I thought I was being very clever with the whole “figure plays an instrument and the dead rise” parallel, but apparently I’d just completely forgotten that the judgement card had a completely different composition... Truly I was boo boo the fool... But yeah anyway at the end of the day I figured the design would kind of work for death as well, with Wen Ning and the theme of transformation, (since in his case coming back as a fierce corpse does actually mark a certain transformation in behaviour) and Wei Wuxian’s protection of the Wen people essentially signifying an attempt to break the cycle of oppression if that makes any sense? Like, wwx is trying to revolutionise the way the world works a bit, if you catch my drift 14 temperance The centrist card! Again this is probably going off track from the “official” interpretation, but to me this card has a certain “don’t commit fully; do everything in moderation; don’t take either side” flavour to it that i personally find infuriating irl and that i very much assign to lxc. It’s entirely possible that I’m misinterpreting his character because i didn’t really pay him (and the 3zun in general) much mind while reading, but hell, I’m allowed to pick favourites and choose who i want to interpret deeply vs shallowly. Again, i wish id chosen lqr for hierophant because its so annoying for a character i don’t care about to get two cards…. But oh well 15 the devil My alternative idea for this was jgy as the devil and lxc plus nmj as the figures, but since all three had been featured already (multiple times, even!) i figured I’d go with xy instead, especially since he’s among my faves lol. I think the devil signifies something along the lines of unhealthy attachment, obsession or addiction, which isn’t 100% accurate in the case of xxc and a-qing, but if i stretch it a bit to cover toxic relationships in general, and especially manipulation or negative influence, i don’t think it’s half bad. My main struggle here was to choose who amongst the xxc/sl/aq trio to choose for the human figures. 16 the tower Arguably jin zixuans death and the following massacre of nightless city were the final and most direct reason for the siege of burial mounds, and the tiger seal is good shorthand for wwx’s loss of control over his powers, which led to the deaths of jzx and jyl. When reimagining major arcana i like to feature some kind of building in this card (spoilers for a possible future project but in my rose of versailles major arcana set the tower is bastille) and even if it’s not a tower, the image of wwx looming over the gathered crowd from atop a rooftop is so good i couldn’t resist 17 the star Struggled with this one - considered both jin ling and lsz for it, as symbolising a hope for the future, but that was kind of covered by the world so it wouldn’t make sense to include here as well... As usual when I struggle with interpreting a card (as opposed to understanding it but struggling with matching a character to it, like with death or moon) I went to biddy tarot and read all the details about its meaning. What i got was that this card signifies an incoming period of introspection and inner peace following a time of turmoil, as well as a general moving on into a new, better phase of one’s life or finding new meaning and purpose. The figure also suggests someone vulnerable, but possessing a keen sense of intuition as well as a good degree of practicality and common sense. Given all those, I settled for mianmian because IM LOVE HER..... I also kind of see her as a prelude to the “just one person is enough” theme present in tgcf!! And i think her decision to abandon her sect because she saw the toxicity and corruption in it is a very inspiring action - even if it didn’t make a large visible impact, i think the appearance of her and her idyllic family at the very end of the novel - paralleling and mirroring wangxian - implies that at the end of the day, it was a meaningful one 18 the moon Another card i ALWAYS fuxking struggle with - this time less because i can’t grasp its meaning and more because I can never find a character that fits it well. I usually get fixated on the “dreams and subconscious” part, but if i lean more on the “disguise, deceit, anxiety and fear” part, i eventually figured the whole yi city arc wouldn’t be a bad fit. I say the entire arc because it really does encompass all those themes if you include both the past and the present - xue yang’s disguise, his tricks with the villagers, a-qing’s lies and even xxc’s reluctance to talk about his past as well as xue yang pretending to be xxc all fit the disguise and deceit angle, and the general mystery and creepiness of the current timeline yi city work well with the anxiety and fear - the mist, the slow uncovering of the past, even a-qing being revealed to be an ally after scaring the shit out of the protags. I definitely struggled with including all the elements and characters, and even moreso with making them vaguely fit the rider-waite composition, but i think it ended up okay ish. OH and i completely forgot to draw mist swirling around them :( 19 the sun I was considering mianmian’s family for this one, but since I used her for star, I ended up with wwx and his parents instead. Once again I’m reinterpreting the card a bit - normally I think it symbolises incoming times of pure happiness and abundance, as well as a connection with the inner child, but I gave it more of a nostalgic or sentimental twist - wwx looking back at the brief glimpse of his happy childhood. 20 judgement another card that i struggle to interpret a bit... Here i actually used the tgcf tarot zine as a reference! In it judgement is summarised as “rebirth, following duty, absolution” SO i figured that nhs, mxy and wwx all together would fit pretty neatly... wwx achieving (public) absolution through clearing his own name after being reborn, and nhs sort of calling on wwx to expose jgy’s crimes... It’s a bit messy but not bad I think! 21 the world This ties very closely to my read on mdzs as a story - which is that it’s, at the end of the day, largely about cycles, and about how hard it is to break them, but how we gotta keep trying and have hope anyway. Or maybe more precisely, that the people directly involved with and influenced by the trauma of the past might not be able to get over said trauma and that the hope for healing from it will be shouldered by the new generation. Or something like that… Basically what i mean is that jc and wwx and lwj and lxc and nhs and jgy and all these people who were in the thick of the sunshot campaign and the siege are so profoundly affected by it that it genuinely feels by the end of the story like there is little hope for them to ever truly overcome that trauma and build a better future without repeating the same old mistakes - but there is a glimmer of hope in the new generation, specifically in jl and lsz. And it’s a bit paradoxical, because they have also been directly impacted by the past tragedies - lsz having his entire clan wiped out after wwx failed to protect them, jl losing both his parents to wwx’s mistakes - but despite that loss, and despite coming from arguably the two opposing sides of the past conflicts, they are both, in the end, capable of moving past that tragedy, of recognising the complicated nature of those conflicts (jl’s moment of clarity at the end is both heartbreaking and hopeful) and forging friendships between clans in the process. I honestly think that the extra where jl is struggling to assert his authority as sect leader, to treat his subjects well and to cooperate with other sects in a truly amicable way is the single hopeful ending note for the larger themes of the novel - it allows us to imagine that maybe these kids can learn from the mistakes of their elders rather than getting sucked in by resentment at those mistakes, and actually build a brighter future for the cultivation world. And sidenote, this is also why i have a soft spot for jin ling and lan sizhui as a ship... speaking of which their poses were directly referenced from the lovers card ehehe

Looking back, I’d like to add some symbol of jin ling’s trauma so that it mirrors baby wen yuan in the tree stump... maybe his father’s sword?

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #tarot

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jeffandcyrusgetrevenge · 3 years

Text

The ecological arguments of the Untamed

I’ve been thinking about solarpunk lately and how it’s barely a genre (no major motion pictures, I have to explain what it is to most people, unlike with steampunk or film noir or found footage horror, etc) and how shocking that is, given…*looks around at the fires and the floods*…everything — anyway, at one point I scribbled a note to myself about “the ecological argument of the Untamed” and it’s been on my mind. Like, I’ve been learning a little about social ecology, a leftist philosophy (or collection of leftist philosophies? ecosystem of philosophies?) concerned with the intersection between (and inextricability of) economic justice and environmental justice. And they kept talking about how, in a society that lives in harmony with its environment, we would have no waste, because in nature, all waste is used, and “waste” is sort of a false construct, a toxic byproduct of a capitalist society that consumes much faster than it creates.

Anyway, in the Untamed, there is an early scene in Lan QiRen’s classroom in which Wei WuXian questions the received wisdom that resentful energy should never be used. He thinks it’s wasteful, and that sure, it has consequences, but it doesn’t mean that it should be utterly taboo and that no one should ever make use of a force that is already there, just that it should be engaged with responsibly. And then of course he is punished for this heresy. But later, he does use it, because he has no golden core and therefore no access to any other kind of magic. The Patriarch of the Burial Mounds, our king of ghosts. One of the really compelling things about this, for me, is that even though he harnesses this ghoulish type of power, and uses it to achieve his own ends, it never seems exploitative in the way that Xua Yang’s manipulation of the undead seems, or ruthless and power hungry in the way of the Wen Clan. It doesn’t seem like a normal use of magic, for sure, it’s dark and spooky…but it’s not cruel, or evil. I have thought a lot about why this is and I think it’s because he never stops acknowledging the source of the power, which is suffering and injustice. When he meets a restless spirit who is full of rage at being murdered and forgotten, he doesn’t immediately lay them to rest as a Lan disciple might, but directs their rage as needed for his purposes for a while, before allowing them to disperse. In a way, this seems more cathartic and may provide more closure for a restless spirit than the kind of immediate dismissal they might otherwise receive: their rage isn’t impotent, nor does it cause useless destruction. Rather, it is used to build a farm for refugees, or defend the helpless, or maybe, perhaps less constructively, for some revenge unrelated to the one the spirit set out to get. On the whole, this seems more ecological than banishing them. It reminds me of Princess Mononoke, kind of, where the unjust and immoderate exploitation of natural resources created a whole lot of resentful energy and demonic forces and curses that proceeded to wreak havoc far beyond the factory operations that generated them. But they weren’t evil, and neither was the factory, really, it just all needed to be put back into balance. The YiLing Patriarch is kind of a revenge god figure, but really more like one that restores justice in ways that are sometimes ruthless and violent rather than narcissistic, immoderate, and purely malevolent. Xua Yang represents narcissistic revenge, as does Jin GuangYao, but Wei WuXian is content to murder the oppressors directly responsible for inhuman cruelty, and then move on to harboring a bunch of fugitives in a haunted graveyard. Making life out of death! He’s like one of those mushrooms they put in landfills that turns plastic waste into food. There is no waste; all outputs are inputs; everything has a purpose.

I don’t have a real conclusion for this, except that I guess I’m saying that the Untamed is like…solarpunk for goths??? What I really want is to envision what solarpunk and socially-ecological ideals could look like in a narrative, and how that changes the kinds of stories that get told, and the lessons we can learn from them, intuitively. Storytelling is a useful moral device! It’s a far richer tool of persuasion than political rhetoric or philosophical treatises. And if we want to build a utopian future we have to be able to tell interesting stories about it!

Plus, the actual physical land is so much a character in the untamed, particularly in the TV adaptation, with all the gorgeous shots of the mountains wrapped in clouds and the misty river choked with lotuses…even in the haunted graveyard, all they do is farm. The story is profoundly influenced by its relationship with nature, and I think that really comes through in the complex ecosystem of social relationships and shifting political forces.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #social ecology #solarpunk #yiling wei #the undead and philosophy #yiling laozu #king of ghosts #king of turnips #king of all things buried in the earth #I’m just so obsessed with how Wei WuXian is not just a sexy goth prince #but also this humble nurturing farmer #and also an inadvertent political revolutionary #maybe I’ll come back to this idea later in a less incoherent way lmao

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crossdressingdeath · 4 years

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I can't say that there's much about CQL that I care too much for, but 1 thing that I really like is (it's been a while since I watched it so my memory might be foggy) the scene where LWJ is kneeling in the snow holding the cane after his visit to Yiling. It implies that LWJ did say something in WWX and the remnants favor and was punished for it. Either as a warning in a "this is what will happen if you stray again" or they were actively deciding whether to physically punish him as he knelt outside. It would also make some sort of sense on why he didn't seek WWX out anytime after the Yiling visit if he was on a tighter leash. I like using this in my fics when dealing with the time between his visit and the 1 month celebration.

This blank space in LWJs story is both fun and frustrating. Fun cause a fic writer can do so much here writing from his pov. Frustrating cause like bro... What were you doing whilst the love of your life was raising a child on Haunted Corpse Mountain? He specifically sought out WWX 3 times after the SSC and eventually committed treason for him, even if the last one was more impulsive IMO this scenario seems in line with what LWJ would do and start him on the path of questioning things he had taken for granted as true

I guess? But also I’m... not sure I actually like it. See, it kind of gives this sense that LWJ is being punished for associating with WWX. Like, that is pushed so hard in CQL, “Do not associate with evil” and all that. But that’s not the vibe I got from the novel. LWJ was punished for his actions in relation to WWX, yes, and LXC and LQR both blame WWX for “corrupting” LWJ, but I never got the sense that LWJ was being punished for caring about WWX. He was punished for attacking his elders, not because he attacked them for WWX. And that feels important to me? Like, LWJ’s family doesn’t approve of his relationship with WWX but they accept it and don’t punish him for it. I don’t know, maybe I’m just being queer, but a gay man in a society that is explicitly homophobic never getting punished for his love for and later relationship with another man even when he’s punished for the (genuinely and understandably Very Much Not Allowed) things he does because of those feelings feels important. LWJ gets punished, but not because he’s in love with WWX; it’s because his love for WWX leads him to commit treason. WWX is blamed for that, but he’s not actually the reason LWJ is being punished. Meanwhile in CQL... yeah, LWJ is very much being punished for his association with WWX, especially if you’re right and in the scene with the cane he’s being punished for arguing in WWX’s defence. I got the sense that the reason why any attempt LWJ made to argue for WWX and the Wens never comes up is because the Lans kept it quiet because LWJ would be in deep shit if it came out that he’d tried to protect the Yiling Patriarch. No one knows that LWJ was whipped for fighting his own elders to protect WWX (or even that he was whipped at all, as far as I remember) because again, the Lans protected him. There were consequences, but the Lan sect very much did close ranks around him and defend him from what would happen if the sects found out that he was in love with and had tried to help the Yiling Patriarch. Again, maybe this is me being queer, but the idea of a group punishing a member of that group for their actual wrongdoings but also not letting them be punished by an unfair and bigoted world for something they did out of love and that didn’t do any serious or lasting harm (sect leader’s brother or no, if LWJ had done serious and/or permanent damage to the elders he would’ve been in even deeper shit than he was) feels really really important. So CQL changing that and making it clear that LWJ is being punished for his feelings for WWX with the repeated “Do not associate with evil” line and if I remember right removing the fight with the elders from the story... in a version of the story that censors the gay relationship and makes it just Straight With Subtext... well, I do not like that. To make it a little more blatant, I’m pretty sure the “Do not associate with evil” rule only appears in CQL. It may exist in MDZS, but it never comes up.

The blank space in LWJ’s timeline between visits to the Burial Mounds is interesting, and there’s a lot you can do with it, but... making it so that the Lan sect, the sect that defended him from the consequences the other sects would make him face for being in love with WWX and helped raise WWX and LWJ’s kinda-sorta son and sheltered WWX when LWJ brought him back to the Cloud Recesses (even if most of them didn’t know about those two things) and accepted LWJ’s marriage even though they really didn’t like WWX, kept him from helping the Wens and punished him for trying to defend the man he loved isn’t exactly how I’d do it. Especially since there isn’t actually anything suggesting that LWJ was punished for going to Yiling in the book, mostly because... well, why would he be, there’s no rule against it and no mention of him being ordered to stay away from Yiling or WWX, and there’s no word about a rule against trying to defend someone from accusations (except the rule against lying, which the Lans know him well enough to know he wouldn’t do; at worst they’ll assume that he’s letting WWX lie to him and letting himself be convinced that the Evil Yiling Patriarch isn’t actually evil). At this point LWJ has done nothing worthy of punishment. LWJ doesn’t have to be punished for being in love with WWX to start questioning what he was raised to believe, he starts questioning what he was raised to believe because WWX dies! LWJ loves him and believes in his moral compass and he dies anyway! Righteousness alone isn’t enough, because WWX was one of the most righteous people LWJ knew and the sects killed him! So actually, making it so that he reconsiders what he’s learned when it negatively affects him instead of because he tried every rule-abiding method he could think of to help WWX and it did nothing actually weakens his character a bit. By the time he’s committing treason for WWX he’s started to change; he’s given up on following the rules and is willing to do whatever it takes to save the person he loves, and even then it’s not enough. That’s what changes him, not his punishment. It’s the realisation that the sects are not righteous, at least not when acting as a collective with mob mentality in full swing. Every individual Lan we meet is righteous! But only as individuals. As a group they’re just as bad as everyone else.

...This is getting away from me a bit. I guess what I’m trying to say is that while I see your point I think the scene where LWJ is punished with having to hold that cane up is just another aspect of CQL shifting from LWJ being punished for going against his sect’s rules to LWJ getting punished for his feelings for WWX, which wouldn’t be a good look even without the censoring of any aspect that was explicitly gay, so I find it hard to look at it in any sort of positive way.

Also, it’s not as fun as handstands.

#mdzs vs cql #lan wangji #what could wyb not do handstands or something? you've got wires #was it too undignified? if so: COWARDS #the lan sect can be a little undignified #as a treat #anon #asks

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comfyswitcherblanketfort · 4 years

Text

Snowed In p9

guys. its the second to last part. the slow smutty burn is almost over. (this isn’t smutty tho i promise)

Pairing: Geralt x fem!reader

Warnings: wallowing in self pity? I don’t think theres any

Summary: They find the bard, the bard smells some bullshit. (kinda)

part 8 here!

__________

Geralt followed you down the mountain in a daze. He'd woken early and prepared everything to leave before the sun had come up. He let himself brush a lock of hair out of your face before gently waking you, savoring every last moment in this odd little paradise.

You both settled into silence as he rode behind you but his mind refused to be quieted. The night before played over and over in his mind like one of the bard's stupid, catchy songs. He could still feel your breath against his lips and your hands in his hair, lingering ghosts of your touch all over his body.

When the two of you found Jaskier sitting on a fence that marked the beginnings of civilization, Geralt thought he could resume the normal rhythm. He even succeeded for a while, Jaskier noticed nothing until your trio settled into a clearing to make camp.

He caught Geralt staring first, just raising an eyebrow, but letting it go easy enough. When you came up behind Geralt and fixed his hair as he was building the fire Jaskier's eyes lit up. He tried to catch Geralt's eye but, ever the stubborn one, he kept focused on the fire. As the three of you sat on a log and ate, you leaned against him and he instinctively moved his arm to pull you closer and Jaskier nearly choked on his food. Though, to Geralt's surprise, the bard kept quiet.

Jaskier laid out his bedroll between you two and Geralt did his best to hide his disappointment. Jaskier grinned, babbling on about his winter adventures as if he didn't know exactly what he was doing.

Doesn't matter. Couldn't hold her anyway.

"Jaskier?" You interrupted his retelling of a bar fight he'd had, to Geralt's relief.

"Yes, dear?"

"Shut the fuck up I'm tired." You shimmied into your bedroll and curled in on yourself.

Geralt snorted but Jaskier just rolled his eyes, "I see you've picked up the brute's sour demeanor over the winter."

You reached out and flicked him where he sat next to you, earning a laugh but no follow up as Jaskier let you doze off in peace.

His eyes followed Geralt around the campsite as he went about his nightly ritual but he pretended not to see. He knew his friend was waiting for something, knew he was in for some kind of lecture, but giving Jaskier the satisfaction of the moral high ground was something he wasn't keen on. Finally Geralt ran out of busy tasks and settled down for the night, fighting the urge to check if you were warm enough and lay his cloak over top of your now sleeping form.

Jaskier laid on his side, head propped up on his hand with a shit eating grin on his face as he whispered, “Is she asleep yet?”

Geralt just nodded, closing his eyes in the hopes his friend would let him be.

“I heard the rumors but I didn’t think they were true.”

Geralt sighed, wishing to be anywhere but there, “What rumors?”

Jaskier poked his shoulder, “Of you two getting together! And some more descriptive stories, well done by the way. I mean I am a little hurt that you wouldn’t just tell me. I am your best friend after all, I don’t see why you’d need to hide this from me. I think you two are lovely to-”

“Shut up Jask.” Geralt grunted, turning on his side to face away from the now rambling ball of excitement. The assumption hurt enough, knowing it wouldn’t happen, but he didn’t want to hear anyone finish that last sentence. He agreed, no doubt, but the words stung.

“Oooohhhh, I see. Protecting your lady’s modesty. I get it. I’ll ask her about it tomorrow then.”

Geralt rolled back over, a panic rising in his chest that he hadn’t felt in decades, “Don’t you dare.”

Jaskier’s brow furrowed, “The fuck not?”

This thick bastard.

Geralt dragged his hand over his face, doing his best to settle the nerves in his gut, “We aren't- I… it was just sex.”

The dawn of realization on Jaskier’s features was replaced with pity, “Oh Geralt. You didn’t?”

He just nodded, somehow someone else knowing made it all the more lonely.

“Well does she know?” Jaskier lowered his whisper even further, craning his neck to look over his shoulder, double checking you were still asleep.

Geralt wanted nothing more than to go to sleep, well that wasn’t entirely true, but at the moment he just wanted to escape, “Know what?”

The silence from his friend made him curious, sparing the bard a glance. Jaskier was looking at him like he’d tried brewing his tea with hemlock.

Geralt sneered, “Know what?”

“That you love her?”

Something tingled behind the roof of his mouth, his eyes stung in a way he almost didn’t recognize. It had been so long since he was close to crying he wasn’t entirely sure what it felt like anymore. He hadn’t even admitted it to himself and here Jaskier was, throwing the fact back in his face after less than a day. Sure he knew he was infatuated with you, a little too attached perhaps, but love? Yeah, that was it. Only was love supposed to wrap around your heart and constrict like this? Was he supposed to be this miserable?

His face must have told Jaskier everything, “You should tell her,” he whispered, laying back to look up at the stars, “Even if you think it might kill you.”

Geralt swallowed back the knot in his throat, “Why in the spheres would I do that?”

“Because it has to be better than wallowing in your heartbreak alone.”

Fuck you.

Geralt once again rolled away from his friend, staring off into the trees. He laid like that all night. No blessed sleep came to him.

He missed the smell of your hair and how it would stick in his stubble when you nuzzled into his collar bone. He was cold for the first time in what felt like ages and longed to be back at that wretched inn. He missed the feeling of your fingertips brushing against his skin, lulling him to sleep. Your giggles and squeals of delight seemed to haunt him now and there was nothing he could do but sit in the pain, letting it cover him like a fresh blanket of snow.

He sat up at first light, annoyed by the wetness on his cheeks, but not necessarily surprised.

Jaskier stirred when he got up, reaching out to grab his arm in his haze, “Did you sleep at all?”

Geralt shook his head, letting the bard keep a grip on his wrist.

“You need to tell her.”

__________

Part 10 here!

Tag list💕💕

@ab-haya @fire-in-her-veinz @cavillhavoc @baliebay19 @highladyofelfhame-remastered

#oops i got angsty #the witcher #geralt of rivia #jaskier #jullian alfred pankratz #the witcher fic #the witcher fanfic #geralt of rivia fic #geralt of rivia fanfic #geralt fic #geralt fanfic #soft!geralt #sad geralt #angsty geralt

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arofili · 4 years

Text

Worldbuilding Exchange Letter 2021

Hello lovely creator, thanks for creating for me in the Worldbuilding Exchange! I’m very excited and grateful for whatever you create for me <3

This letter will restate my DNWs, list my likes, give you a brief rundown of my canon preferences, and then dive into specific prompts for each of my requests.

I’ll warn you upfront that I tend to ramble, so feel free to skip prompts that don’t interest you and/or use ctrl+F to search for whatever it is you want to write for.

My requests are divided by fandom, and in the case of the Silm + Middle-earth Legendarium, by topic too, so hopefully that will be helpful for you! Also, my TAZ request is waaay down at the bottom, so if that’s what you’re here for, just go to the bottom of the page.

Housekeeping:

DNWs:

Non-con

Unrequested dub-con

Abusive/Neglectful parenting (especially wrt Fëanor)

Sibling incest, parent-child incest (cousin pairings are fine)

Unhappy/Unhopeful endings (unless otherwise specified)

Jealousy/Possessiveness

Cheating

Character or ship bashing

Hanahaki/any scenario where unrequited love is physically damaging

Soulmates, especially soulmate AUs (soul bonds are OK, if there is choice involved)

Porn without plot (Porn with plot is fine!)

Food involved in sex

Unrequested Modern AU

Non-trans mpreg

If you’re writing a slash ship where the characters are/were married to/involved with someone outside the ship, please don’t have the character(s) hate their spouse or not have been actually in love with them (the one exception is Finrod; I’m fine with him and Amarië not having been actually in love, but please don’t do this for anyone else, especially not Fëanor)

Hobbit/LOTR-specific DNWs:

The concept of a dwarven “One”

Any Fíli pairing

Alfrid

Legolas or Gimli paired with anyone other than each other

no smut for these fandoms, please

Silm-specific DNWs:

Evil/irredeemable/incel Maeglin

Elwing bashing

Fëanorian bashing

Over the top Fëanorian apologism (they did bad stuff; it was at least partially their fault. you don’t have to address that, necessarily, but don’t rewrite the story to claim they were blameless)

Fingon with a wife

Fingon or Maedhros ships that don’t take Russingon into account (polyamory, an open relationship, Mae with someone after Finno dies or vice versa for an AU, them with other people while they’re separated on the Ice/in Angband - all of these scenarios are fine, but in the end I need them to be with each other first and foremost)

Dark!Maedhros

Elvish re-embodiment after death being an actual, literal rebirth that requires the characters to have a second childhood; I much prefer them being granted a new hröa in their prime (feel free to explore what “in their prime” means, though, especially wrt scarred and disabled elves)

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Likes:

(these might not all apply to worldbuilding, but they might give you a place to start from!)

Gen fic

Found family

Family dynamics

Loving families, even when things get complicated

Friendship, intense/important platonic relationships

Relationships that defy categorization

Queerplatonic relationships

Polyamory

Queer headcanons (especially aromantic-spectrum headcanons)

Trans/nonbinary headcanons (genderbending is also fine, but I prefer trans/nb hcs)

Angst with a happy ending

Gray morality

Explorations of magic

Most tropes

Fanon and fandom tropes

Deconstruction/Inversion of fanon and fandom tropes

Interspecies relationships

Peredhil

Secret relationships

Secret relationships coming to light

Secret kids (especially secret peredhil!)

Giving ships OC kids

OCs interacting with canon characters

Confessions of love

First times

Hurt/comfort

Redemption, forgiveness, mercy

Ironic foreshadowing

Canon divergence AUs/X Lives AUs

Politics and scheming

Resolving conflicting canonical details

Historical/Narrative bias affecting what is and isn’t “canon” (to an extent; changing motivations, consequences, etc is great, but please don’t ignore canon entirely)

Elrond & Elros having complicated relationships with both their bio and adoptive parents

Names fitting the time period (Quenya names in Valinor, please; if this is difficult for you, that’s okay, no pressure, but I do strongly prefer it)

Names having a lot of thought put behind them (does the character go back to their original Quenya name upon rebirth? or do they keep their Sindarin name? or come up with something else entirely? do they hate their new Sindarin name and resent having to use it, or do they embrace it? As long as you put some thought into it, I’m sure I’ll like whatever you decide!)

Author’s notes where you explain your thought process, if you want; I love hearing how the story took shape!

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Preferences re: Canon:

LaCE compliance is always completely optional (except if you’re choosing a prompt that is specifically about LaCE, lol). If you do want to include it, that’s great, but if you just want the characters to fuck without having that be an issue, go for it. I love explorations of LaCE that take into account the exceptions, boundaries, definitions, etc; I also love takes that emphasize that they are Laws and Customs, not biological imperatives.

I’m not picky about my Amrod deaths. He can die at either Losgar or Sirion (or, hell, some other time/place if you make it interesting enough!), whatever works best for the story. I do like Lightly Toasted Amrod, aka he almost burns to death at Losgar but survives/gets rescued at the last minute.

Gil-galad theories are all very fun. Please don’t make him the son of Fingon and a wife; if he’s Fingon’s son, I want Maedhros to be involved at least a little bit (adoption or trans mpreg are both fine in this scenario). Otherwise, I don’t have a particular preference, though if it’s not really relevant I usually default to the son of Orodreth (who is in turn the son of Angrod). Also, I’ve requested “Origins of Gil-galad”; there’s more information on him in that section.

Honestly, when it comes to theories and headcanons, my rule of thumb is “convince me”! I’m down for whatever, for the most part, as long as you can justify it :)

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For all of these, “suggested characters” pulls from the list of characters I requested with that signup, but if you’ve got an idea involving other characters then go for it! And in the end, all characters are just suggestions, this exchange is more about the worldbuilding :)

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The Hobbit (Book)

Adventuring Hobbits Before Bilbo: Who were they? Did they ever come back, or was Bilbo assumed dead because of precedent? Were they all Tooks, or did some other hobbits tag along on adventures, too? Suggested Character(s): Belladonna Took

Dragon Magic & Dragon-hunting: Talk to me about dragons! I’m interested in dragons & dwarves, especially in relation to the first time dwarves were driven from Erebor and into the North and the War of the Dwarves and Dragons. What kinds of dragons set their sights on the mountain? How old was Smaug when all that was happening; did he learn anything from the failures of his kin? Who were the dragon-hunting dwarves who fought in that war? Suggested Character(s): Smaug, Original Dwarf Character

Dwarven Craft and Magic: Enchanted weapons, enchanted armor, runes and spells...all so interesting! Borrowing from the movies a bit, did Kíli’s runestone from Dís have any magic power? What’s the deal with the Arkenstone’s thrall? How do elf and dwarf magics intersect when it comes to objects like Bilbo’s mithril coat? Suggested Character(s): Dís, Frerin, Thorin, Original Dwarf Character (perhaps a craftsdwarf?)

Dwarves and Gender: We need more dwarf women! And I’d love any takes on nonbinary dwarves and/or dwarf-specific genders. Were there female dwarves in the Company that Bilbo mistook for male dwarves? Are dwarven women really only a third of the population? If dwarf men and women are very similar in appearance, how do they differentiate between them, or do they differentiate at all? If you included something about dwarvish braiding styles indicating gender, class, marital status, I would be delighted. Suggested Character(s): Dís, Frerin, Thorin, Original Dwarf Character; in this case I’d prefer a focus on canon characters, but OCs interacting with them would be marvelous, especially people like Dís’ spouse.

The Black Arrow: Bard’s little pep talk to his arrow has always intrigued me. I’d love to see your take on the origins of the Black Arrow. Does it really come from Erebor, and if so, who made it? How did Bard and his forefathers come to acquire it? (I like the movie version that ties it into Girion’s attempt to kill Smaug, so feel free to incorporate that if you feel like it.) Is the arrow enchanted? (Perhaps that could be tied to the Dwarven Craft and Magic tag!) Suggested Character(s): Bard, Original Character from Dale, Original Dwarf Character

The Stone Giants & Were-worms: I don’t have many thoughts on these guys except “neat! tell me more!” I’m fascinated by the creatures Tolkien only gives us a passing mention of; if you feel like it, maybe you could combine these tags with some of the creatures in the LOTR tagset (crebain, cold drakes, Watcher in the Water, Mearas, Kine of Araw, etc...I didn’t sign up with all those tags, but it would be neat to hear about them anyway!)

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The Lord of the Rings (Books)

Cold-drakes and Fire-drakes & Crebain & The Watcher in the Water: Like with the Stone Giants and the Were-worms, I just think they’re neat and I’d love to hear your take on their origins and how they affect the history of Middle-earth. Feel free to combine this with other creature-related requests. Suggested Character(s): Scatha

Ghosts and Hauntings: Barrow-wights? Nazgûl victims? Just your crotchety old hobbit neighbor who still holds a grudge about losing the biggest pumpkin contest despite having been dead for 20 years? There’s a lot of potential for stories here; maybe you could combine a ghost story with some other prompt to add a murder mystery or haunting plot to a relationship you’re exploring!

Dwarf-Elf Relations: I don’t believe All Dwarves and All Elves hated each other! We have famous elf-dwarf friendships across the ages, and really it was just the Sindar vs. the Broadbeams/Firebeards that had the feud. Still, Legolas (a Sinda) and Gimli (raised among Broadbeams and Firebeards in the Blue Mountains) are caught up in that, so their friendship is quite remarkable! I’d love interrogations of how that feud continued across centuries and discussions of what really went down in Menegroth, perhaps with one of the Durins having an elf friend at some point in the past that sheds light on how Legolas and Gimli can get along. (I am here for any and all Gimli and Legolas combinations; I love them as friends, I love them as boyfriends or husbands, I love them as queerplatonic partners, I love them as anything in between! Do whatever you’d like with them!) Suggested Character(s): Gimli, Legolas, Original Elf Character, Any of Durins 1-7

Elvish and Mannish settlements in post-Ring War Ithilien: How do Legolas and Faramir get along, both living in Ithilien after the war? What do Legolas’ people think about being neighbors with a bunch of Men? Faramir and Imrahil were Aragorn’s chief commanders after the war, and Legolas expressed admiration for Imrahil; I imagine Imrahil visited his nephew in Ithilien, so what are the interactions of those three like? I’d love to see an exploration of Silvan elves and their culture here, with Legolas leaning into his Silvan heritage and maybe some Silvan OCs who have spent their whole lives in Mirkwood up until now and have never met Men before now! Suggested Character(s): Faramir, Legolas, Imrahil, Original Elf Character

Relations between the Dúnedain and Rivendell: Talk to me about the Grey Company, or Elladan and Elrohir fighting alongside their distant kin, or Rangers taking breaks in Imladris, how the Rangers think of Aragorn who was raised among elves, etc. I’d love an outsider POV here, such as an OC observing the oddities of a canon character. Suggested Character(s): Original Elf Character, Original Ranger of the North

The Glittering Caves of Aglarond: More Gimli and Legolas stuff - but with a focus on Gimli this time :) Gimli as a lord in his own right, Gimli who takes elves on tours of his dwarf-kingdom and weirds out his people (is it just Legolas, or does he take any Silvan elves with him, or like...his elvish in-laws??), Gimli as a craftsman... Or, alternatively, you could explore the caves before Gimli gets to work on them, what the Rohirrim thought of them and how they were created - by natural processes, or by magic, or a mixture of both? Did Aulë make them for the dwarves to find, perhaps? Suggested Character(s): Gimli, Legolas

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The Hobbit (Movies)

Dragonsickness/Goldsickness: The parallel to mental illness in the movies was really interesting. I’d love to see lingering effects of the goldsickness on Thorin after the Battle (Everyone Lives AU, probably), or an AU where Fíli or Kíli inherit the throne of Erebor and are afflicted by it as well. Or, sticking to canon, how did Fíli and Kíli and the rest of the Company deal with Thorin falling into madness? Were the other dwarves affected by the thrall of the gold? Bard and Thranduil were observers of Thorin’s madness; what did they think of him? Did Thranduil remember Thrór under dragonsickness? Or, since movie!Thranduil is a far cry from book!Thranduil when it comes to going to war over jewels, was he affected by the dragonsickness even from a distance? Was Bard? Suggested Character(s): Thorin, Fíli, Kíli, Bard the Bowman, Thranduil

Dwarves who "choose craft"/Aromantic-Spectrum and Asexual-Spectrum Dwarves: This is pulling more from the books than the movies, but I didn’t have enough nomination slots to include any book nominations, so it went here, lol. Anyway: as I’m sure you can tell from my tumblr url, I headcanon Fíli as aromantic, and I love seeing that in fanworks! It’s really wonderful that Tolkien mentioned that many dwarves choose their craft over marriage, and I’d love to see an exploration of that aspect of dwarvish culture, and how Fíli fits into it. It seems to be fairly common/accepted, but are there different cultural pressures around marriage for the crown prince? How does Fíli figure out he’s aromantic? If aro and ace dwarves are expected to be choosing a craft over romance and sex, what’s Fíli’s craft? Or does he not have one, and people judge him for that? The “choose craft” language I use is very much inspired by this post and the Neo-Khuzdul word “bijebtorva” :) Suggested Character(s): Fíli, Original Character(s)

Governance and Politics in Mirkwood: How did Thranduil and Oropher come to power in the Greenwood? I hate the “lowly Silvan elf” line from the movie; can you somehow justify that with worldbuilding, or show how it’s not accurate? Is Legolas half-Silvan like is implied in the LOTR books? Who are Thranduil’s advisors? Is Tauriel really the only one who dislikes and defies Thranduil’s isolationist policies? Is Mirkwood very patriarchal, and is Tauriel’s appointment to Captain of the Guard something she faced opposition or competition for? Are the Sindar elite colonizers, or did they integrate into Silvan society? How does the average Silvan elf feel about their king, or do they not even think about him? Suggested Character(s): Thranduil, Tauriel, Original Character(s)

Poetry and prophecy: Bard uncovers that tapestry that turns a song from the book into a somewhat ominous prophecy; there’s a lot of discussion of fate and signs from the thrush at the door to the last light of Durin’s Day; Thranduil has seen enough in his thousands of years to have had time to brush up against a prophecy or two. What do these three believe about fate and prophecy? Are any of them prophets in their own right? How does poetry/music lend power to prophecy? (Bonus points if you tie it back into the Ainulindalë...) Suggested Character(s): Bard the Bowman, Thorin, Thranduil

Poisons and antidotes: I love Kíli/Tauriel and the scene where she heals his wound...but the worldbuilding around morgul poison and athelas is a little murky. It’s a decent parallel to Frodo’s condition in the LOTR movies, but it’s confusing lore-wise. Can you make sense of it? If Tauriel is a warrior, where did she learn healing? (In my own headcanons, her foster family are healers, which is how she learned those skills even though she’s primarily a warrior - but feel free to take it in whatever direction you’d like!) Suggested Character(s): Tauriel, Kíli, Original Character(s)

Rebuilding Erebor & Relations between Dwarves + Elves + Men: (I’d prefer an Everyone Lives AU for this situation.) How do Thorin and his Company put Erebor back together again? What are the renovation projects like? How long does it take Dís and the rest of the Longbeards to arrive in Erebor and help out? How long does Dáin stay to help his cousin? I would love to see some politics both internally within the Longbeard dwarves and externally as they relate to Mirkwood and Dale. Smaug’s corpse is just lying in the Long Lake...how do the dwarves feel about their old enemy’s body so close by? Do some Men want to re-establish Lake-town, and demand help from the dwarves who flushed the dragon out of the mountain? Do the dwarves want to harvest Smaug’s corpse for resources? (He’s probably got gold and jewels stuck in his scales, and dragon-skin/scales is probably a good raw material for crafting things.) What’s the process of Bard becoming King of Dale? Does he face any opposition? I love the idea of Hilda Bianca challenging him for leadership, or maybe insisting on some kind of democracy/representation in Dale! And if she doesn’t get her way, maybe it’s her leading some people back to Esgaroth and founding a democracy there that would make the old Master roll in his watery grave... How do Bard and Thranduil and Thorin reconcile after the battle? Does Thorin pay up like he said he would? Does Tauriel hang around, or does she go somewhere else? Are any elves inspired by her, or is she a total outcast? If you choose to explore the Kíli/Tauriel relationship, how does that affect politics between Erebor and Mirkwood? Suggested Character(s): Thorin, Fíli, Kíli, Bard the Bowman, Hilda Bianca, Thranduil, Tauriel, Original Character(s)

Tauriel's fate after the Battle of the Five Armies: This is for exploring what happened to Tauriel in canon. Does she wander the world and explore new places? How long does she mourn Kíli? What does she do with the runestone? Does she return to Mirkwood, and if so, how does she manage to get back into Thranduil’s good graces? There are a million different ways to take this, I’d love to see your take on her! Suggested Character(s): Tauriel, Thranduil, Original Character(s)

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The Silmarillion: Magic & Spirits

Houseless Elves: Why did they refuse the call of Mandos? Do Avari even go to Mandos? Can Melkor and Sauron ensnare these spirits for their necromantic purposes? If the call of Mandos is refused once, does that bar them from listening in the future? What kinds of ghosts are haunting Middle-earth in the First Age? What kinds of ghosts haunt Aman? Suggested Character(s): Original Character(s), Melkor

Magic as a connection to the Music/the Song: Magic isn’t always the best-explained in Tolkien’s universe, but what we do know is the incredible power of the Music. How do the Maiar and Valar, who are not technically beings of Arda, interact with the world? How do elves and men (and dwarves! and orcs!) tap into the Song and manipulate it to their benefit (or detriment)? I have the headcanon that Elemmírë, the elf who sung the Aldudénië, is a priestess of Varda; what was the power of that mourning song, and how was it received by her patron Vala? Suggested Character(s): Elemmírë, Varda, Melian, Melkor, Original Character(s)

Nature Spirits: These holes in Tolkien’s worldbuilding are fascinating to me. What role do nature spirits play? How many are there? I’m thinking particularly of river spirits, like the River-woman and Goldberry, but there are probably also mountain spirits and water spirits and-and-and... Are they Maiar? Lesser beings? What do the Maiar we know of think about them? Gandalf seems the kind to listen to them and learn their stories, but perhaps Melian sees them more as servants in protecting her realm... Suggested Character(s): Melian, Original Character(s)

The Shadow-shapes in the hills above Cuiviénen: What were these shapes? Melkor’s prototypical monsters, Maiar who didn’t know how to interact with the Children, something else entirely? What did the original elves believe about them? Did they fear them, did they try to appease them, did they try to confront them? I headcanon that Elemmírë is an Unbegotten elf, so perhaps she lost friends to the Shadows, or thought she did. If the Shadows did take elves, was it out of malice or curiosity or a desire to protect them from whatever Melkor was planning? Suggested Character(s): Melkor, Elemmírë, Original Character(s)

The Void: Melkor spends a whole lot of time here. Does he have any company? Something or someone he makes to pass the time with? Do the Valar (like Manwë or Námo or Varda or Nienna) visit him there? What is the nature of the Void, is it pure emptiness or chaotic magic or a nightmare machine? Is Melkor being punished or is he being contained? And where are the boundaries of the Void? Varda rules the heavens; does her realm bleed into Melkor’s prison? Suggested Character(s): Melkor, Varda, Original Character(s)

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The Silmarillion: Elven Relationships

Note: This request deals with relationships, and while I’m open to pretty much anything, please keep in mind my DNWs. Exploring these topics using canon relationships is a safe bet; I adore Maedhros/Fingon so having a look at them through this lens would be amazing; I have Aredhel as a character request here, and I see her as aromantic (“to none was her heart’s love given”) so while showing her in a relationship is fine, I’d love it if you could take her lack of romantic feelings into account; if you have a question about another ship, you can check to see what I’ve written and/or send me anon message! Additionally, a lot of these talk about soul bonds, which I’m very interested in, but one of my DNWs is soulmates. To me the concepts are very different things; it’s the destiny and inevitability and universal assumption of romance that really squick me out about soulmates. Soul bonds, on the other hand, have an aspect of choice to them that I really dig. So, please don’t make characters Fated For One Another, but please do explore what joining souls is like!

Laws & Customs of the Eldar: Boy do I have a lot of feelings about LaCE—and I’m always intrigued by other people’s feelings, too! I’d love to see an exploration of how these laws and customs came to be, which parts of the rules around marriage and children and re-embodiment are social constructs and which are innate to the fëa and hröa, and/or relationships that defy the norms. If your take on the laws is hetero/cisnormative, how does that affect queer elves? If your take is free of bigotry, what are the flexibilities around queerness, including asexuality and aromanticism? Laws and customs and rules always have loopholes and exceptions, so what do elves who don’t fit into the expected relationship mold do about these norms? Suggested Character(s): Aredhel, Maedhros, Fingon, Elrond, Any Unbegotten Elf Character(s)

Arranged Marriages among the Eldar: Russingon arranged marriage AU?? Orrrr....Maedhros or Fingon are politically engaged to someone else, and they have to deal with the ramifications of that? (Please don’t have them actually go through with the marriage if you go that route; I’m not interested in a story with Fingon having a wife, even if she’s a beard.) If elves (usually) only love once, and by declaration of the Valar can only marry once (Finwë being the somewhat disastrous exception), how is an arranged marriage justified within the cultural emphasis on these bonds? Are they more like arranged romances, people pushing their children together in hopes that they’ll fall in love? Or is it a stricter rule about “you do what’s best for this family”? (Note: Bad/cruel parenting is one of my major DNWs, so if you’re going that route, please don’t make the parent uncaring or malicious. Stubborn and narrow-minded is fine, as is the genuine belief that this is what’s best for the child, but ideally they’ll learn from their mistakes or perhaps everything will be interrupted and derailed by Canon Events. This is especially important wrt to Fëanor.) Suggested Character(s): Maedhros, Fingon

Creation/Discovery of soul bonds: How do soul bonds work on a metaphysical level? Can they be broken? Do they have to be nurtured and maintained? What’s long-distance communication like? Heck, what’s short-distance communication like, is it like talking in your mind or sharing your feelings or more abstract than that? Can elves form soul bonds with mortals? And most importantly—how did elves figure out they could soul bond with one another?? I can imagine that would be quite a shock when they’re discovering sex and then suddenly they’re inside each other’s minds! Suggested Character(s): Any Unbegotten Elf Character(s)

Non-romantic/sexual soul bonds: I’m good with practically any relationship here. Explore sibling bonds, twin bonds, parent-child bonds, queerplatonic bonds, found family bonds, adoption bonds, the bond between a Vala and their Maia...any kind of soul bond that is familial or platonic or chosen without regard to romance! (Feel free to take a canon romantic relationship and turn it queerplatonic, I live for that shit!) How are these bonds formed outside of sex? What are the rituals and ceremonies around forming them? Is it a public or private thing? Are non-romantic soul bonds taken seriously, or are they seen as less important than marriage bonds? Since elven parents literally give part of their soul in the creation of the child, is that parent-child bond innate? Suggested Character(s): Aredhel, Any Unbegotten Elf Character(s)

Elven adoption: I nominated this with Kidnap Dads in mind (if you go that route I love fluff for them as well as more nuanced/complicated takes on the situation, but whatever you do don’t make M&M cruel, and please include Maedhros as a parental figure alongside Maglor)...but hey, it could work for Fingon (and Maedhros) adopting Gil-galad! What are traditions around elven adoption? Are there soul bonds created between the adoptive parents and children? Was adoption even a thing in Aman, or is it only practiced in Middle-earth? Did elves adopt mortals and vice versa? Is adoption extended to found family other than a parent-child situation? How is adoption viewed by elvish society, especially if inheritance/succession is a concern? Suggested Character(s): Maedhros, Fingon, Elros Tar-Minyatur, Elrond

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The Silmarillion: Noldorin Politics

Original Fëanorian follower(s) who turned on their lords at Sirion: Okay, this is a character tag, but I’m absolutely obsessed with this line: “For the sons of Fëanor that yet lived came down suddenly upon the exiles of Gondolin and the remnant of Doriath, and destroyed them. In that battle some of their people stood aside, and some few rebelled and were slain upon the other part aiding Elwing against their own lords (for such was the sorrow and confusion in the hearts of the Eldar in those days).” Who were these people who followed the Fëanorians into exile, into a Kinslaying, through the burning of the ships, through 30 years of Maglor as a king-regent incapable of treating with the Nolofinwëans, through the scattering of their lords and the harsh conditions of the North, through the Bragollach and the Nírnaeth and a “wild and woodland life” and the Second Kinslaying (where some of them went as far as to abandon children in the winter woods to die because they thought it was what their lord/s would want), through isolation and hatred from every other elven group, through the plan to attack a refugee camp—through ALL OF THAT, and THEN they turn on their lords at Sirion??? Why betray your lords NOW? And the people who DID keep following them after that (after kidnapping children!!!), what were they thinking?? — I firmly believe that Maedhros has many escapees from Angband in his service who are ride or die for him and whose morality was somewhat warped by Angband, but what about Maglor’s followers? Caranthir’s? Ambarussa’s? Even Celegorm and Curufin’s?? There’s just SO MUCH potential for story here, I’m dying to read about them!

Noldorin lines of succession: Was It Sexist Or Was It Not: The Eternal Question aka Why Didn’t Idril Become High Queen After Turgon? Also, what does “eldest of the house of Finwë, and not the least wise” even MEAN, Maedhros?? How did Gil-galad come to power? I find it hard to believe he became king immediately after Gondolin fell; was it a wartime power grab? A battlefield promotion? How did the kingship get established in the first place? Why was Finwë chosen to go with Oromë to Aman? Was Maglor ever really king, or did he only rule as a regent for the missing Maedhros? Suggested Character(s): Finwë, Gil-galad, Maglor

Origins of Gil-galad: I am always so interested in takes on Gil-galad’s parentage. My favorites are Russingon baby Gil (through trans mpreg or adoption, both are good) and secret peredhel Gil (probably an Aegnor/Andreth baby adopted by Orodreth), but I also love Finduilas Is Gil-galad and honestly, any situation is fascinating here—just convince me! A possible way to explore this is through Outsider POV; some noble or historian trying to figure out just what the heck is up with Gil-galad. His parentage being confusing in-canon is so fun!! Suggested Character(s): Gil-galad, Original Nobility of the Noldor

Maglor's Kingship between Maedhros' capture and rescue: Was Maglor ever really king? Did he give up on Maedhros early on, or did he cling to the hope that he still lived? Did his brothers turn to him for support, or did they connive to take responsibility from him? The rift between the Noldor wasn’t healed until Maedhros’ rescue; did Maglor try to cooperate with Fingolfin, or did he keep his people isolated? Was he relieved when Maedhros came back and took responsibility, or was he resentful to lose his power? How does this situation (and Maglor not going to rescue Maedhros) affect M&M’s relationship later on? Suggested Character(s): Maglor, Original Fëanorian follower(s)..., Curufin, Caranthir

Dwarf-Elf relations in the First Age & Dwarf-kingdoms: Dwarf-friends!!! Yes!!! I love elves and dwarves being buds (or partners if you’d like to go that route!) <3 IIRC, Curufin learned Khuzdul, and I’m sure Celebrimbor did too; Caranthir was supposedly rude to the dwarves, but what if that’s just his (and their!) love language? How did relations between the Sindar and the dwarves sour over time? Maedhros was friends with Azaghâl; how did that relationship begin? How did Finrod’s contract with the dwarves blossom into a real friendship? Eöl was also buddies with the dwarves; did he ever bump into Curufin or Caranthir while at a trade festival or something? And the dwarf kingdoms of the First Age are fascinating on their own, too; what was the political structure like? Did the dwarves bring items from the other side of the mountains into Beleriand? How did the petty-dwarves get exiled? What happened to Nogrod and Belegost in the War of Wrath, and were they ever re-established after the sinking of Beleriand? Suggested Character(s): Curufin, Caranthir

Guilds and Noble Houses of Tirion: Give me a Tirion political drama! Finwë trying to appease his lords and craftseldar? Indis integrating into Noldorin society and making connections with the noble houses? Arranged marriage situation between Nolofinwë and Anairë? The younger princes running amok and causing chaos in their elders’ carefully-laid plans and delicately balanced alliances? Suggested Character(s): Finwë, Indis, Original Nobility of the Noldor, Curufin, Caranthir, Maglor

Roles and Responsibilities in the Noldorin Royal Family: There were oodles of princes in Valinor. What did they all do? How did they get the followers who came with them to Middle-earth? Were they free to pursue their own crafts, or did they have responsibilities to the common people? How did this change in Middle-earth when suddenly everyone was in danger and had more pressing needs? What is it like being a re-embodied royal in a society that’s adapted to life without you? Suggested Character(s): Finwë, Indis, Maglor, Curufin, Caranthir, Gil-galad

Fashion as Political Statement: This is an excuse to request Color Coding Politics. Fëanorian red! Nolofinwëan blue! Findis wearing Aggressively Neutral White! Lalwen in orange? Arafinwë in yellow? Finwë in an amazing technicolor dream-coat...or more likely just red, showing his bias once more? Art of this would be absolutely fantastic. I have lots of headcanons about color politics; feel free to ask me about them if you choose this option. Suggested Character(s): Curufin, Caranthir, Gil-galad, Finwë

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The Silmarillion: Trauma & Religion

War of Wrath: For a war that took so long and had such wide-reaching repercussions, we really don’t have very many details about this. It’s free real estate, basically! I have my favorite characters (Maedhros, Maglor, Elrond, Elros, Gil-galad...) that you could use to explore this time period, but literally anyone who’s alive at this point is fair game. And OCs! What do the Noldor and Vanyar (and Telerin sailors) feel about the War and interacting with the war-weary exiles and Sindar and Men of late-stage Beleriand? What kind of culture shock/culture clash is there? Were re-embodied exiles permitted to return to Middle-earth, or were they barred from going to war again? Suggested Character(s): Original Noldorin Character, Original Vanyarin Character

Trauma after the War of Wrath for elves and humans & Exiles adjusting to life in the Undying Lands post War of Wrath & Dealing with psychological trauma in Valinor: Trauma was commonplace in Beleriand, but not so much in Valinor. What’s it like for exiles who sail West to be in a society that doesn’t know how to support them? Are the Valar having to learn how to deal with the trauma of living elves super quickly, or are they reticent to change? How do the exiles interact with their re-embodied kin? What do the Vanyar and other Amanyar think of these elves who have been so deeply hurt? What kinds of treatises on psychology are penned by scholars with little to no previous experience? What is therapy like in Valinor? Do the exiles get together for support groups since no one else understands them? Or did the trauma of the Darkening and the First Kinslaying wake up the Amanyar and get their act together before then; are the exiles surprised by the structures already in place to support them? And what about Avari who have been dying steadily all this time from accidents and incidents in Middle-earth? If they’ve been re-embodied, how do they engage with the Eldar who have similar traumas? Suggested Character(s): Estë, Finrod, Maeglin, Original Noldorin Character, Original Vanyarin Character, Rúmil, Any Avarin Elf Character(s)

Worship of the Valar and Religion & Avarin religious culture: Do the Vanyar really worship the Valar, or do they seem them as hyper-powerful neighbors? What are priests and priestesses like in a world where the gods walk among you? How does each kindred of the elves interact with the Valar? Are Maiar viewed as equal worshippers/servants or as deities in their own right? Do the Avari even know about or acknowledge the Valar? Do they worship the stars, or simply Eru? Suggested Character(s): Pengolodh, Rúmil, Any Avarin Elf Character(s)

~~~

Middle-earth Legendarium: Magic & Spirits

Afterlives: This is pretty vague, but I think it’s referring to the various kinds of afterlife. What are the Halls of Mandos like? What happens to spirits who don’t go to Mandos? Do Men pass through Mandos on the way to Beyond? What happens to Men? Are they reincarnated in the more traditional understanding of the word, do they go to some other realm similar to Arda, are they just endlessly partying it up with Eru? Do dwarves really go to the Halls, or is that just a superstition? And of course, what about orcs? Suggested Character(s): Námo

Fate of orc souls after death: Yeah, really, what about orcs? If the orcs were originally elves twisted into Morgoth’s servants, are their spirits still elven? Are they reborn as they once were, elven despite their life as an orc? What about orcs who are many generations removed from their elvish ancestors? Do they have fëar? Can orcs be rehabilitated? I refuse to accept that all orcs are inherently evil; but what does everyone believe in-universe? Suggested Character(s): Námo, Original Orc Character(s)

Foresight and Prophecy and Doom: I’m honestly not sure if this fanon or canon, but Finarfin and his line having foresight through Indis is a wonderful concept and I’d love an exploration of that. How accurate is foresight? Can fate be circumvented? Are prophecies like the Doom of the Noldor self-fulfilling, or are they warnings about possible futures, or are they curses upon people? If you have a high Doom upon you, does that end with your death, or does it follow you to Mandos and beyond? Suggested Character(s): Námo, Finarfin

Songs and Words of Power: Rap battles with Sauron! ...joking aside, song as magic is just fascinating to me. How does this connect to the Ainulindalë and the Song of the World? The elves named themselves Quendi, the Speakers; how do they view the power of words and their ability to change the world around them? Can music be used as a force of destruction or a weapon (battle bard Maglor)? Can it be used to manipulate someone’s mind (Sauron)? Suggested Character(s): Maglor, Sauron

Stars and Starlight: “All light is sacred to the Eldar...but wood-elves love best the light of the stars.” Okay, sorry for being a Hobbit movie apologist on main, but I do love Tauriel! How do elves view starlight? Is it holy, or are the stars more like their friends and guides? Did the Avari choose to remain in Middle-earth partially because of their love for the stars, which were drowned out by the light of the Trees? How does Eärendil feel about being a star; does he feel blasphemous or holy? What legends and superstitions are there among Avari and Men and others who don’t know the origins of Gil-Estel about the new star in the sky? Suggested Character(s): Morwë, Eärendil

The Unseen Realm: This is the in-between world where Frodo goes when he wears the ring, the world that the Nazgûl in their half-life inhabit. Are Ainur able to slip into this realm at will? Did Gandalf walk invisible in Gondolin? How does Sauron manipulate this realm to his purposes? Is this where elves go if they fade? (I don’t usually like Maglor fading, but it could be an interesting way to explore this...) Suggested Character(s): Námo, Sauron, Nazgûl, Maglor

Magical Artefacts & Magical Communications: Palantíri! Galadriel’s mirror! Ósanwë! All sorts of cool ways to talk with magic. Do the Rings of Power enable long-distance ósanwë? Did the Silmarils contain pieces of Fëanor’s soul? What other marvelous magical creations were there that didn’t make it into the Legendarium we know? Suggested Character(s): Sauron, Maglor, Eärendil

~~~

Middle-earth Legendarium: Politics & Lore

Feudalism between Eldar and Edain: We have Edain entering into the service of Noldorin lords (Bëor and Finrod, Hador and Fingolfin, Amlach and Maedhros) and land being given to Men by elves (or not, in Haleth’s case)...how far did this feudal relationship extend? Were the Edain mostly autonomous or were they very much bound to their elven lords? Were there common elves who paid tribute to Edain lords? Can any relationship between elves and Men truly be equal if this is the way they originated? Fealty kink? Suggested Character(s): Curufin, Original Elf Character

Fourth Age Tirion: What’s Tirion like with a bunch of dead people walking around living again, and a bunch of weird legends now imposing in daily life? What’s the first meeting of Rúmil and Pengolodh like—who geeks out over whom? Are the Fëanorians back yet? Is the average elf even really aware of all the nonsense that happened in Middle-earth, or are they extremely unimpressed with King So-and-So of a square of land that’s now underwater trying to cut them in line at the coffee shop? Suggested Character(s): Original Elf Character, Pengolodh, Rúmil of Tirion, Celebrimbor, Elrond, Galadriel

Relationship between Noldor and Dwarves: See “Dwarf-Elf relations in the First Age & Dwarf-kingdoms” in my Silm request for a starting point...but also, was Elrond’s Last Homely House open to dwarves? How did Galadriel come to respect the dwarves, especially after her Sindar kin grew to hate them? Suggested Character(s): Curufin, Celebrimbor, Elrond, Galadriel

Timekeeping between the Death of the Two Trees and the Rise of the Sun and Moon: Tolkien’s math drives me ABSOLUTELY INSANE. His timelines are contradictory, I get headaches just thinking about the length of elf pregnancy, what does aging mean for an immortal species, WHY ARE TREE YEARS LIKE THAT and WHAT IS A YÉN? Please try and make sense of this for me, I beg of thee. I’m especially interested in the time period between the Death of the Trees and the Rise of the Sun and Moon. Did the Noldor wander the Helcaraxë for 3 years or 30? How long was Maitimo in Angband? Did the Sindar even realize something was different? How did people start calculating Sun years? When was the calendar of the First Age adopted? Who did all this math? Is there an in-universe explanation for these contradictions? Do people fight over math? Do the Ainur experience time the same way the Children do? Did some Noldo genius come up with a timekeeping system that worked with the Moon, only for the Sun to come along and muck it up? Suggested Character(s): Pengolodh, Rúmil of Tirion, Original Elf Character, Fëanor - really any scholarly character, tbh!

Treatment of Angband's Escaped Thralls: Which kinds of escapees choose to go to Himring with Maedhros the Tall, and which choose to go to Gondolin and the House of the Hammer of Wrath? Was Rôg an escapee too? Can Maedhros really tell who’s been turned by the Enemy? Does Thingol have the right of it in turning away thralls from Doriath? (If he even does that, I’m now researching this and I’m not sure it’s actually canon...) What was it like for Maedhros and Gwindor to readjust to elven society? Did Elrond grow up surrounded by Fëanorian followers who escaped Angband, and is that where he learned healing? Suggested Character(s): Original Elf Character, Elrond

In-universe authorial bias in historical texts: All of the Legendarium is a history, which means there’s bound to be unreliable narrators. Was Maeglin really as evil as the story says? What gets left out of the narrative? What gets lost in translation? Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? Suggested Character(s): Pengolodh, Rúmil of Tirion

Trade in Middle-earth: What was trade like in First Age Beleriand? What about Second Age trade between Númenor and the mainland? Was Ost-in-Edhil a trade hub? After Sauron returned and traveling became dangerous, what intrepid traders braved the wilds for the sake of goods and money? How was currency developed around the world? Suggested Character(s): Curufin, Celebrimbor, Elrond, Galadriel

Orcs Surviving the Wars: Again, I don’t believe that all orcs are irredeemably, inherently evil. Were they persecuted and stamped out after the Ring War, or did some escape and adapt to a life without a harsh overlord? What’s orc agriculture like? Would Elrond take a chance on rehabilitating an orc in Rivendell? What if orcs were more complicated all along, and it’s the histories that simplified them to cardboard-cutout villains? Suggested Character(s): Original Elf Character, Pengolodh, Celebrimbor, Elrond, Galadriel

~~~

The Adventure Zone: Balance

My only non-Tolkien request, oops. Don’t think I’m not as interested in this request, though; I’m the only one who nominated for it, so I picked my very favorite concepts and I’d love to see what you do with them!

Angus McDonald’s Grandfather: This guy’s name was lost to time, and he loves silverware, and he has a grandson, and that’s pretty much all we know about him. Was he involved in the Relic Wars somehow? Did his name get eaten by the Voidfish? I imagine he’s a rather eccentric fellow; how much of that did he pass on to Angus? Is he even real, or was Angus lying to Tres Horny Boys about his destination?

Any Wonderland Adventurer(s): I’d love to see what happens to the other people who go to Wonderland before our boys. Do they all die? How many get what they want and get out? Do any of them have weaker moral compasses than THB and agree to advertise for Edward and Lydia? What if Edward or Lydia fell in love with an adventurer and trapped them there? What kinds of things do people sacrifice to the Wheel? We know about the Escape Game and the Healing Game; what about the Recovery Game? How long has Wonderland been around? How has it evolved over time? What was it like before Edward and Lydia got ahold of the Animus Bell? How did they get ahold of it? (Personally I think Barry just gave it to them...but did he have to go through the trials first?)

Differences within species between the Two-Sunned World and Faerun: I love the fanon that Two-Sun elves are juuust a little different from Faerun elves...like Taako’s echolocation, for example. But what if this applies to the other species like gnomes and dwarves and even humans? How are the Seven Birds just a liiiitle off from everyone else around them? Also, Cat Elves. This is an excuse for Two-Sun Cat Elves. GIVE TAAKO A TAIL. (I mean, or not, do what you want, but I’d love to see that, lol.) Suggested Character(s): Any Member(s) of the IPRE, Original Character(s)

Reclaimers before Tres Horny Boys: Who were the other Reclaimers? Who did Lucretia trust to carry out this dangerous mission? How did they all each, inevitably fail? What if Magic Brian was a Reclaimer gone wrong? What was the last straw for Lucretia, the last failure that made her scheme to get her boys back? And the other Reclaimers weren’t officially disbanded right away; how did they feel about the new guys in town, and losing their jobs to these doofuses? Suggested Character(s): Lucretia, Original Character(s)

The Relic Wars: There were wars about the Relics!!! Wars!! That everyone forgot!! Wars where people that THB knew died!! And then we never get into this in canon! It drives me nuts! I would love to see an exploration of this chaotic time period, what the IPRE did to mitigate the damage, which relics were obvious and terrifying and which were secret and terrifying, etc... I’ve written a bit about Relic War-era Hurloane, but what were the other NPCs doing? (Or Hurley and Sloane too, I’d love to see your take on them too!) When Lucretia wiped everyone’s memories, what was lost? (I suspect Angus’ Grandfather got caught up in that...) How did those missing memories lead people to the Bureau of Balance? Suggested Character(s): Lucretia, Any Member(s) of the IPRE, Angus McDonald’s Grandfather

The Robot World's crystal post-Story and Song: The IPRE promised to return the Robot World’s crystal if they ever managed to defeat the Hunger...and we know they can plane hop from the casino liveshow...so, did they ever return the crystal? How did that go down? How does the Robot World rebuild itself? And if we’re going into it being the (K)nights Arc’s setting, are there other characters than Troth that we might recognize? Suggested Character(s): Magnus Burnsides, Lucretia, Any Member(s) of the IPRE

Worlds that survived the Hunger: In the worlds where the IPRE found the Light of Creation before the Hunger arrived, what was it like for the people there who had to endure the Hunger’s attack? What was the scope of the destruction? How did they rebuild afterward? Does uniting against a common enemy bring the people of the world together and create more Tesseralia-like societies? How many people knew about the IPRE, and what did they think about them? When they hear the Story and Song, what’s the reaction? If they didn’t know about the IPRE what myths do they create to explain the Hunger? Suggested Character(s): Lucretia, Original Character(s)

~~~

Alright, that’s the end of my prompts/requests! Thanks for reading this far, and whatever you end up writing for me I am super excited to read it!! And if you have questions or ideas or something, my askbox is open and I have anon messages on, I’d love to talk! Thank you again for creating for me, you are the best! <3

#tmi anna #worldbuilding exchange #exchange letter

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teaplease1717 · 4 years

Text

Story: Ashes of Love and War

Chapter: 11 / ?

Couple: Todoroki Shouto / Yaoyorozu Momo (TodoMomo)

Rating: M (for language and violence)

Betas: @flourchildwrites (Link) & C’s Melody (Link) and 666-HyuugaNeji-999 (Link)

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21638800/chapters/63366469

XXXXXXX

49 days post the fall of Troy

Shouto adjusted the wooden crate on his shoulder as he pushed his way through the suffocating hallway and out into the courtyard.

The pirates had arrived the evening prior, bringing with them much needed food and supplies. And, with the additional bodies, the house was overcrowded. A cacophony of curses and shouting ricocheted off the walls as fifty or so pirates spilled out of the various rooms and into the courtyard, unloading wooden crates and setting up quarters.

It made the house feel more like a military encampment or a shipyard than an orphanage. The whole scene was nostalgic, and Shouto was surprised by how at ease he felt.

He dropped the crate on the ground and drew in a deep breath as he ran a hand through his damp hair. He could feel sweat beading his forehead and sliding down his neck. He straightened and looked up.

The summer had been unnaturally hot, and that day was no exception. Even in the shade, Shouto felt the abrasive heat dancing along his skin, searing his flesh.

He wondered briefly if he could actually burn. His magic had always protected him from the heat in the past, but now that he couldn't access his powers, he wondered what would happen if he stood out under the scorching sun all day — or if he had to face Dabi again.

He looked down. Turning his arm, Shouto studied his skin for that telling reddening, but, as far as he could tell, it appeared the same. Perhaps his magic was still inside him? Shouto drew in a deep breath and tried to focus, but as he suspected, he still couldn’t feel anything.

Sighing, he looked up as movement across the yard drew his attention; his eyes immediately gravitating towards her, like they always did. Like the earth was pulled towards the sun.

Yaoyorozu stood at the fountain filling vases with water. She set one down and gathered her long, dark hair up, lifting it off her neck and fanning herself with her other hand. A light sheen of sweat coated her skin.

Shouto stared at her, and his fingers twitched. In the back of his mind he wondered, with how his eyes were pulled to her, if the story about soul mates were true. Had the human body once been composed of both male and female halves? Perfectly balanced, with the male half created from the sun and female from the earth, before Zeus separated them. Forcing the separated souls to roam the earth looking for their other half?

He pressed his lips into a hard line and dismissed the thought. It was only a myth, and while some myths were rooted in fact, this one couldn’t be true. It would mean that he was capable of love and being loved.

As if feeling his gaze, Yaoyorozu looked up, and her onyx eyes met his. They stared at each other for a long moment before her expression abruptly flickered, and her lips thinned. She dropped her hair and turned back to her task.

Shouto’s chest tightened, and he looked away. His hands twitched slightly at his sides, and he brought his left up to rest on Endeavor’s hilt. What was he thinking? He knew Yaoyorozu didn’t want anything to do with him.

She may have started speaking to him again, but it felt forced. He could see it in her expressive face. She spoke to him with a cautious air, as if she thought he’d transform into a monster at any second.

And could he blame her?

He'd fucked up.

Shouto rolled his jaw. He hadn’t meant to force himself on her that night. But, when she looked at him so vulnerably under the moonlight, the curse had activated, pushing him to kiss her. Or at least, he had thought it was the curse that had forced him to lean down and capture her lips -

Fuck. He closed his eyes and pressed his right fist into the center of his forehead. He was no better than his bastard of a father.

Shouto felt his insides curl at the thought. It had been haunting him since the incident, swirling in the back of his mind. He inhaled slowly as the sour taste of guilt, which was becoming all too familiar, filled his mouth.

Where had he gone wrong? Hadn’t he promised himself that he would never be like his old man?

What a fuck up.

He unfurled his fist and rubbed at his temples.

It had been their first real conversation too, and he had ruined it by acting impulsively on imagined feelings.

He didn’t know why the curse had made him think that Yaoyorozu would be okay with him suddenly kissing her. Shouto reasoned it was some misplaced fantasy derived, most likely, from the magic and the hope that she’d felt the same pull as he had that night.

But, of course, she wouldn’t feel the same way. Yaoyorozu wasn’t under the influence of a curse. She was only entertaining him to maintain her side of their bargain. That’s why she had apologized last week and why she still forced herself to speak to him. It was because she thought she had breached their agreement, not because she cared for him.

Shouto dropped his hand and raised his head to watch some of the pirates set up tents in the courtyard. Slowly, he loosened his hold on Endeavor’s hilt.

Fuyumi had raised him to be better than this. Even if it was within his rights as Yaoyorozu’s master, was he really so weak that all it took was a little push from a spell for him to start forcing himself onto an unwilling woman? Hadn't he promised himself, after seeing what that bastard had put his mother through, that he'd never make a woman do something against her will?

And not only that, he had kissed her twice. Shouto sighed. He should have apologized properly last week when she had.

And maybe he should’ve told her about the curse.

The thought made his stomach twist viciously, and he clenched his jaw. It was hard enough for him to admit to himself that he had been cursed, but thinking of speaking it aloud made him feel sick. And angry. It felt like a moral and physical failing on his part.

Sparta’s top warrior brought to his knees by a low-level fucking god.

Shouto swallowed over the bitter taste of pride that had lodged itself in the back of his throat like a stone. He ran a hand through his hair before unconsciously glancing back at Yaoyorozu as she continued to work.

Maybe there was another way to apologize? It wasn’t like he expected her to ever fall in love with him, but maybe they could have a tactical peace. And, if he ever could get the magic under control, maybe they could even be on friendly terms.

The sound of cursing and grunts from the doorway broke through Shouto’s thoughts. He turned to watch as two pirates emerged from the hallway carrying crates identical to his own. Shouto stepped to the side as the men dropped their boxes on the ground next to his with heavy grunts.

“Fuck, that was heavy,” one of the pirates said, as he straightened and cracked his back. He was slim with short brown hair. “I can’t believe this is only vegetables. It feels like Emi has stuffed a body or two in there as well.”

“Stop complaining, Haimawari.” The other man looked up at Shouto as he wiped at his brow with the back of his arm. He had black hair down to his shoulders, which he had tied into a low braid. And the skin on his arms looked dry and flaky, reminding Shouto of a reptile’s scales. “Hey, Todoroki,” he said hesitantly.

The other man, Haimawari, turned to look towards Shouto as well and smiled. His expression lacked the hesitation of his companion’s.

“Thanks for the help, Todoroki. I’m Koichi Haimawari, but you can call me Crawler, and that’s Rin Hiryu,” he said, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder to the man with black hair tied in a braid.

Shouto nodded slowly. “It’s not a problem.” He dropped his hand from Endeavor’s hilt as he turned towards the two.

Haimawari’s expression flickered, and his eyes glittered as he took a step towards Shouto. “But you’re a beast, Todoroki!” he said excitedly. A genuine smile spread across his face. “Being able to carry your crate so fast up the mountain. We were struggling.”

“You were struggling,” Hiryu emphasized under his breath.

Haimawari ignored him as he continued. “And you are unexpectedly nice,” he said with a laugh. “When the aurai showed up and told us that you’d be here, I placed a bet with some of the other men that you would be an actual monster — like the stories — but you’re a lot nicer than people give you credit for.”

“Crawler, you can’t say things like that to people’s faces,” Hiryu whispered behind him, grimacing.

Shouto’s lips twitched. He had never been the social type, but he found himself not hating the two pirates. If anything, Shouto felt the weight of his earlier thoughts fade slightly. “And you don’t seem particularly like pirates.”

Haimawari grinned. “Well, most of us weren’t. Emi saved us.” He lifted his chin in pride. “We are living upstanding lives now.”

Shouto snorted; he highly doubted that.

“Most of us were slaves or from overtaken villages in the South,” Hiryu clarified, stepping up next to Haimawari. “You wouldn’t think it, being a pirate and all, but Emi makes us decent. Unlike others, we only steal from the Persians.”

Shouto nodded but didn’t know what else to say to that. It wasn’t his place to judge others; the gods did that enough for everyone.

At least, they didn’t seem that bad.

“Hey,” Haimawari said suddenly, clearing his throat. “Todoroki, you seem to be the type that’s really popular with the ladies. What do you do when a woman’s angry?”

Shouto blinked. “What?”

Hiryu rolled his eyes. “Here we go again.”

Haimwari ignored him. His eyes glittered as he looked at Shouto. “I’ve got this really cute girl back in Crete. We actually met when we were younger — I saved her from drowning. Anyways -” He waved his hand. “I was thinking that it's about time I settle down and start a family, but I haven’t been very good at staying in contact with her, so what does a man do to win a lady’s affection and say sorry for not being around?”

“Beg for forgiveness. And pray to the gods that she doesn’t kick you out,” Hiryu said seriously, without missing a beat.

Shouto’s lips twitched.

“Hey!” Haimawari’s eyes narrowed. “I’m being serious.”

“Okay. Okay,” Hiryu said with a soft laugh. Then he tilted his head back and rubbed his chin. “Well, when I get on boss’ bad side, I usually get her a present,” he said thoughtfully.

“A present?” Shouto echoed, tilting his head slightly to study Hiryu.

“Yeah, women love getting things,” Hiryu said with a firm nod. “Like fancy outfits and jewelry and food.” He counted on his fingers.

“Oh, I see,” Shouto said.

“Why? What do you usually get women?” Haimawari asked, his expression intent.

Shouto tilted his head back in thought. “I don’t know.”

Haimawari’s expression flickered in annoyance. “Oh, the life of a good-looking man. You have it so easy.”

“Crawler! Scales!” someone called from inside. The two pirates looked up.

“Anyways, we’ll talk to you later,” Hiryu said. Shouto nodded, and Hiryu smiled.

“There’s a couple more crates we have to grab before it gets dark,” Hiryu said in conclusion, pulling Haimawari after him back into the house.

Shouto watched them disappear inside before he turned his attention back to Yaoyorozu.

While they had been talking, three pirates had stopped pitching tents and had instead moved over to Yaoyorozu’s side, crowding around her as she offered them water. They smiled shyly at her and rubbed at their necks as they spoke to her.

Shouto’s jaw clenched, and he felt his hand touch Endeavor’s hilt again as he watched.

His lips thinned. Red anger built in his throat, and he swallowed thickly as he tried to push the feeling down. Yaoyorozu could take care of herself. He'd seen her ward off a group of soldiers alone, so she could handle three men. And they weren’t doing anything but speaking to her.

The thought didn't make the knot of annoyance in his throat any looser.

Shouto sighed and looked away as he tried to shift his thoughts back to what Hiryu had said about women. Presents, huh? He tried to remember what he used to get Fuyumi whenever she had been upset.

Flowers.

And bugs.

He snorted slightly at his childhood memory before his expression hardened, and he looked down at the ground. There was a haze dancing above the earth. Everything in the yard had shriveled weeks ago. Flowers weren’t going to be an option. Shouto tilted his head back in thought.

He really wasn’t good at this.

"What's on such a handsome man's mind that he’s just standing out here?” a feminine voice teased from behind him. “Were you waiting for a beautiful lady, like myself, by chance?"

Shouto stiffened and looked down as a petite woman slipped up next to him. His lips twitched. “Shouldn’t you be helping?” he asked dryly.

“That’s a man’s job,” Emi Fukukado said with a light, airy laugh. She pushed green-dyed bangs behind her ear and turned her head to stare up at him from the corner of her eye. “Besides, I don’t want to break my nails.”

Shouto lifted an eyebrow. “Seems like you only like to say that when it’s convenient.”

She giggled, her eyes turning into crescent slits as she placed her hands on her hips. “Perhaps,” she said in a singsong voice, lifting her chin. “But I’m the captain, so I get to decide the rules.”

Shouto snorted softly.

Fukukado shifted, dropping one of her hands from her hip. Her expression flickered, and she changed the subject. “I heard from Nejire that most of the Greek soldiers are still fighting their way back home. The gods weren’t happy with their temples being ransacked and have been making it difficult for the troops sailing home. Have you heard anything from yours?”

Shouto nodded faintly. “Yeah, the aurai said that Bakugo got our troops back to Sparta, fortunately.”

The pirate captain’s eyes flickered. “That’s good. I’ve heard the king of Ithica has practically disappeared off the face of the earth. I would think your father wasn’t too happy to lose either.”

Shouto’s lips twitched. “No, he wasn’t.” His fingers tightened around Endeavor’s red hilt, and he could feel the metal biting into his skin.

Fukukado hummed. “I see,” she said thoughtfully, tilting her head back. “I was actually surprised to hear you fought for the Greeks instead of aligning with him.”

Shouto studied the pirate captain. “I may have Ares’ blood, but I was raised in Sparta. My loyalty lies with the two princes, Bakugo and Midoriya,” he said after a moment, avoiding her gaze.

Across the yard, the three pirates were still speaking amiably with Yaoyorozu. One said something, and she brought her hand up and laughed softly.

“You know,” Fukukado said. “If you keep glaring like that, my men are going to catch on fire.”

He turned around and scowled down at the pirate captain.

“Eep! There it is! The fierce glare of Sparta’s top warrior. Just kidding.” She laughed, holding up her hands in a placating gesture. “But why don’t you go to talk to her?”

Shouto rolled his jaw and looked away. “She doesn’t want to talk to me,” he muttered under his breath.

Fukukado raised an eyebrow. “Why do you say that?”

Shouto sighed. “I made her angry.”

She hummed. “I see. I see,” Fukukado said sagely, crossing her arms and leaning back on her heels as if she knew all the answers. Perhaps she did. Women were a mystery, no one understood them except other women. “Yet, she keeps looking over here.”

Shouto’s heart skipped, but he pushed the feeling down and twisted his mouth into a thin line. “She’s probably scared and wants to make sure I’m not going to get angry.” He narrowed his eyes at Fukukado and changed the subject, “What did you want from me? I can’t imagine it was just talking about the Greek troops returning home.”

“Oh, you’re observant.” Shouto jerked as Fukukado slapped his back. “Nothing much. I’m bored. Aizawa and I were supposed to catch up on our future marriage over drinks, but he’s not here.”

“He’ll be back soon. He just went to put out another bushfire,” Shouto said, adjusting his chiton.

“Yeah, yeah. He said that,” she added with a playful pout. “It seems like he’s been busy, though. With the new kid and hosting you three, it sure has been active for that old man.” She laughed.

Shouto shifted. “If you don’t have anything important to talk to me about, then I’m going to go help unload more crates. We only have an hour or two before the stymphalian become active,” he said, taking a step back.

“That’s no fun,” Fukukado whined. “I need a drinking buddy.” She tilted her head back and looked up at the sky; muted hues of orange and red surrounded the sun as it slipped closer towards the horizon. “But — it is strange — the stymphalian were never like this before, that’s why Aizawa liked this island.”

Shouto stilled for a moment, but Fukukado didn’t say anything else.

XXXXX

Shouto made his way back to the front of the house, the pirate captain’s words sitting heavily on his mind. He had been paying extra attention to the monsters’ activities ever since his conversation with Yaoyorozu a week ago.

It was subtle, but it was becoming apparent that the stymphalian were acting strangely; it was as if they were saving their strength for something. And the fact that Fukukado also seemed worried troubled him more than he wanted to admit.

Shouto briefly contemplated whether a god was involved, but it was too hard to tell. The island was filled with the scent of magic. But it was unlikely — the gods favored using humans to do their bidding; using monsters was considered beneath them. Still, it was strange. With the bushfires that the stymphalian had been setting and the recent prints around the orphanage, it was hard to argue that they weren’t up to something.

Shouto stepped outside. The aurai was busy playing ball with Eri and Hime as the men brought up the last of the crates. He could make out the white cloth of the pirate ship’s sails docked over the hills to the south.

“Todoroki! Come play with us!” the aurai called playfully.

He looked back at the nymph as she floated over the girls’ heads. She had faithfully told Midoriya his message, so perhaps she wasn’t as bad as he had originally thought. “Not right now,” he said absently as movement from the east side of the mountain caught his attention. Shouto turned to see Aizawa and Tokoyami making their way back up the winding path.

Eri dropped the ball they were playing with and ran towards the orphanage master. Aizawa crouched down as she held up her arms, and he leaned forward to hug her. “See? Nothing to worry about.”

Shouto looked to Tokoyami as he walked past him. “How was it?” he asked.

Tokoyami paused, his yellow-bird like eyes hardening for a moment as he surveyed Todoroki. Then, he shook his head and answered. “The stymphalian have figured out how to be even more annoying than they already were -” He hesitated. His gaze flickered towards the children before looking back at Shouto. “They left some half-eaten boar carcasses for us with the intestines all pulled out and arranged in strange shapes,” he said quietly.

Shouto’s jaw tensed. "Do you know what they were?"

Tokoyami shook his head again. "No, but I have a bad feeling. We must do our utmost to stop them."

Shouto nodded, and Tokoyami dipped his head and swept past him back inside. Shouto turned his attention back to the orphanage master.

Aizawa slowly stood up, holding Eri in his arms. His black eyes flickered towards him. “Todoroki, I need to speak to you. Nejire, take Hime and Eri back inside.”

“Okay!” the aurai said, smiling brightly and returning to the ground. She took Hime’s hand and reached out for Eri. The little girl wrapped her arms tighter around Aizawa’s neck.

“It’s okay. I’ll be right there. I just need to speak to Todoroki.”

Eri looked up at Aizawa’s face and then nodded faintly. He put her on the ground, and she took the aurai’s hand as she followed the nymph back inside.

Aizawa watched them return inside, before motioning for Shouto to follow him. They walked out to the edge of the hill, and then, Aizawa stopped and pulled a leather pouch from his chiton.

“Here.” Azawai tossed him the bag.

On instinct, Shouto caught it. The pouch tinkled as it landed in his palm. Shouto hesitated and then opened the purse to find a handful of silver drachma. Enough to live comfortably for a year. Shouto looked up at Aizawa and raised a brow.

“Change,” Azawai stated. “For the gold bracelet and your help.”

Shouto nodded and drew the strings on the pouch closed and tucked it into his belt. He looked back at Aizawa. The older man seemed to be studying him. “How’s your eye?”

Shouto shrugged slightly and looked away. “Better. It’s not perfect, but I can see out of it.”

“Good.”

“And your magic?”

Shouto stiffened. “What about it?”

Aizawa turned and looked back out at the ocean. “You haven’t used your magic since you arrived.”

“It’s fine,” he bit out, avoiding the orphanage master’s gaze as he looked out at the pirate ship in the distance.

The bright light of the sinking sun began to cast soft rays of red and orange across the blue sky. As Shouto looked out at the pirate ship, a shadow flickered in his periphery.

Shouto froze. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

It was only for an instant, but he was sure he had seen something move in the fading light. He brought his hand to Endeavor’s hilt and squinted into the brush.

“Todoroki, what is it?” Aizawa asked. His voice was tense.

Shouto’s lips thinned, and he tightened his hold on his sword. “I don’t know. I thought I saw something.” The words had barely left his mouth when it hit him.

Dark magic.

It was so thick in the air; he could almost taste it.

Stymphalian.

They had never come out this early before; Apollo hadn’t even finished pulling the sun across the sky yet, but the magic was unmistakable.

“Get inside!” he shouted.

Aizawa nodded sharply. “Hold them off!” He turned and took off back towards the house.

Another shape flickered. Closer. To his left.

Shouto pulled out Endeavor and took a step forward. Aizawa was almost at the door. He just needed to keep the stymphalian busy until they got inside.

Razor-sharp feathers suddenly shot out of the bushes on his left. Shouto raised Endeavor, blocking the stymphalian’s attack, but his spatial awareness was off, and the attack knocked him off balance. Shouto twisted, catching himself from falling. He looked up. The hillside was filling with stymphalian. They had used the bushes and shadows of fading sunlight to surround the house.

From his right, a shadow emerged, launching itself at Aizawa’s retreating back, its talons outstretched. Shouto lunged forward, and with a quick movement, cut the legs off the creature. The stymphalian screamed in pain as its body skidded across the ground.

Another stymphalian leapt at him, and Shouto spun and buried Endeavor in its throat. From the corner of his right eye, he saw the rest of the stymphalian dash after Aizawa into the house.

Shouto cursed. He pulled Endeavor out of the creature’s neck and rushed after them.

The house was a war zone. Screams ricocheted through the hallways, and the tile was already slick with blood. Bodies and limbs lay scattered throughout the rooms. They had been caught unaware.

He wondered if any of them were Yaoyorozu’s.

Shouto's stomach plummeted. He hoped she had stayed outside. He hurried along the corridor, checking each body quickly. None were her. He almost breathed a sigh of relief but forced himself to move on.

He knew that she was smart and a fairly good fighter, but that didn't lessen the sudden worry he felt for her well being. Shouto ground his teeth.

A woman’s voice sounded from the courtyard. It was Yaoyorozu’s. He was sure of it.

Shouto rushed towards the back door.

Sharp-edged feathers suddenly shot out of one of the side rooms to his left. Shouto twisted, but not fast enough.

He stumbled back, glancing down, and found feathers embedded in his arm. Blood was flowing freely down his arm. He hissed through his teeth as he pulled the feathers out.

A couple of stymphalian had emerged from Aizawa’s storeroom. The corridors were too tight for their winged bodies, but they were also too narrow for Shouto to be able to swing Endeavor around easily. He snarled and slid into a defensive stance.

One of the stymphalian sprang forward. Shouto readied himself, but before the stymphalian’s talons could clash with Endeavor, two pirates jumped in front of him, paring the creature’s steel feet.

Shouto’s eyes widened as the men pushed the stymphalian back. It was the pirates from earlier.

“Don’t worry,” Haimawari said, bringing his sword up.

Hiryu moved closer. “We got this. Go help everyone else,” he shouted, stepping up next to Haimawari. “We’re used to fighting in narrow spaces.”

Shouto nodded and turned, rushing out towards the courtyard and the sound of metal clashing.

The yard was bathed in dusty blues and reds of the setting sun and the thick stench of blood. The tents that the pirates had erected earlier were torn piles of cloth on the ground. The flock of stymphalian had climbed over the wall and roof and destroyed everything in their path.

Shouto looked up, and his eyes immediately fell on Yaoyorozu fighting on the second floor. Asui and Eri were with her.

Immediately the tightening in his chest lessened as he watched her slash one of the creatures. She could do this. She wasn't weak. Shouto took a quick breath and forced himself to survey the rest of the chaos.

Everyone was spread out.

Some of the pirates were on the roof, trying to keep the stymphalian from landing. Aizawa and Tokoyami were taking down the few in the courtyard, but with the sun not yet set, Tokoyami's power wasn't as effective.

He tightened his hold on Endeavor’s hilt and rushed forward. A stymphalian turned to attack, but the creature wasn't quick enough. Shouto's blade slid through its chest. He twisted and pulled his sword out and jumped back as feathers rained down onto where he had stood.

There was a scream. Shouto spun. A pirate fell back, metal talons embedded in his chest. Shouto leaped at the creature, cutting its head off with a clean movement.

He knelt down to check the man’s pulse. It was faint but still there. He was lucky.

A child’s high pitched scream rang out through the yard. Shouto looked up sharply. A stymphalian had grabbed hold of Eri. It had sunk its talons into her shoulder.

“Eri!” Aizawa roared, shooting knives at the creature, but it flexed its steel wings, and the knives bounced off.

Eri screamed in pain as she tried to pull herself free. The stymphalian moved, beating its wings as it pulled her from the veranda. Asui tried to jump for her, but it was too late — the monster was already out of reach.

The aurai darted at them, aiming some sort of sparkling, yellowish magic at the creatures, but as if in sync, the flock suddenly took flight, filling the sky with their steel wings. The aurai’s magic hit against their wings and bounced off, ineffective.

Shouto’s breath caught in his chest. His mind raced. It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be possible. The stymphalian weren’t supposed to be smart enough to think of strategies like this, but they had.

The stymphalian carrying Eri climbed higher into the darkening sky.

There was no time to think further. The creatures were focused on blocking the aurai and the pirates shooting at them from the roof. The window to take down the monster with Eri was closing. Shouto tightened his fingers on Endeavor’s hilt, pulled his arm back, and flung his sword.

Endeavor whirled through the air, cutting through the stymphalian’s unprotected neck. Its head toppled off, and the creature’s talons released Eri. She plunged towards the ground.

Shit.

She’d hit her head and crack her skull open.

Suddenly, Yaoyorozu jumped from the veranda and grabbed the girl mid-air, tucking her head into her chest. They hit the ground together with a loud thud.

Shouto’s eyes widened. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of his lungs. He couldn’t breathe. His insides felt like they had cauterized as he staggered towards them.

Then, Yaoyorozu sat up slowly, and Shouto almost fell down in relief.

She was safe.

He drew in a deep breath when a feral screech of rage sounded to his left. Shouto wiped his head around, and his eyes widened as his gaze landed on the last stymphalian.

It was rushing across the yard towards Yaoyorozu.

Her eyes were dazed as she stood up shakily, Eri in her arms. She hadn’t noticed the creature yet.

Everything within him went cold. Shouto’s vision narrowed, and he stumbled forward.

He needed to get to her. He needed to save her.

Shouto broke out in a cold sweat as he lunged forward. He grit his teeth. He could taste a metallic tang on his tongue. There was no other sound besides the rushing of blood in his ears.

His heart was beating rapidly. Everything around him blurred as he bolted across the yard.

It was almost on her.

He wouldn’t be able to make it in time.

Yaoyorozu’s eyes suddenly widened, and he could see the fear flicker across her features as she finally registered her surroundings.

Then something white and hot exploded inside him, and Shouto felt inhuman strength rush through him.

XXXXX

Notes:

Sorry, I know there wasn’t a lot (any) of TodoMomo interaction in this chapter, but hopefully it was enjoyable enough. ^^; I always feel bad posting when TodoMomo doesn't interact, but this chapter was needed to set up the climax. I promise next chapter there will be more!

Notes: 1. “Sun to the Earth” - this line, used earlier, is actually in reference to a Greek myth around soulmates. According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. The gender of humans had to do with their origin; the Men were children of the Sun and Women were the children of the Earth. In this state, humans were said to be incredibly powerful. And fearing their power, Zeus split humans into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves. Apollo, feeling bad for them, sewed them up, leaving just the navel as the only reminder of their original form. So, humans went from double face and double sex creatures with eight limbs, to single faced ones of a single sex, with two arms and two legs. And they forever longed for their soul and physical other half. Their physical nature would feel a burning desire to be completed with the physical nature of the other sex, and their soul alike would yearn for their soul’s other half be complete, their soulmate.

2. Persia - Persia, which would have been in modern day Iran, built their empire around 550 b.c. At the empire’s height, would have encompassed modern-day Iran, Egypt, Turkey and parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were generally considered the enemy of Greeks.

3. King of Ithaca - this is a reference to Homer’s epic poem, Odyssey. The story is about the King of Ithica, Odysseus, trying to get back home after the Trojan war. To sum the story up, he angered the gods on his way home, and so they blew him off course and he spent 10 years trying to get home. Harsh...

4. Koichi Haimawari “Crawler” - is from the spin-off Vigilante series of Boku no Hero. In this he’s a pirate. I’ve actually never read Vigilantes so sorry if his personality is completely off.

5. Hiryu Rin - is from class 1-B. In this he’s a pirate.

#todomomo #todoroki x yaoyorozu #shouto todoroki #Yaoyorozu Momo #ashes of love and war #My writing #My Story

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dashimba · 5 years

Text

THE 100 my thoughts of 6.07.

Well, me, finally, calmed down and rewatched the whole episode again.

The first thing is that this episode was splendid! I loved it all from first minute to the last once, basically was glued to the screen all the time.

I enjoyed the idea of space minds, because, firstly, it allows to see character deeper and feel their intention, fears and feelings through simple objects of reality, pictures, things. It also gave us a link to ‘Inception’ movie and pointed to Freudian concept of the unconscious. Besides, it also guides us to the Eric Burn theory that each person contains ‘child’, ‘adult’, ‘parent’ personality.

It was smart to use the rain as a metaphor of Clarke swings moods, chest with the code for her secret memory, also show us her dads video and Jasper glasses inside of it.

Her mind is constructed by series of locations. The reason behind is that Clarke really changed through all of her stages in life. Each one has its own meaning for her, as she grew from a young idealistic teenage girl to a grown woman, complicated and contradictory person. She became not only leader to her people, but also a parent figure. We could equate it to the thing of becoming a real mom to a child, who needs care and protection.

Clarke character this episode, her development was really thought through.

Lets try to analyze main locations.

First, we should compare how Clarkes personalities are connected with each stage of action. Second, we ll try to have a general concept of each mind space.

1.Spaceship

This place is where all Clarke memories lies, her story. I guess its just a hard drive to the whole computer, shortly her brain. There she is represented as ‘the princess on the spaceship’ and also as Wanheda, also as The Clarke ‘Madis mother’ ( Read it that way ‘child’, ‘adult’, ‘parent’) . These three parts of her personality show us the two parts of Clark, the peaceful one, rebelious one, guilty one. It’s her three sides, which are struggling to fight each other to prevail in behavior. She still has her child hopes. She still tries to be rigidity and consistency in her solutions. She now is accepting her responsibility, drowning in a blame for her decisions.

The Clarke on the spaceship is the Clarke, who believes that there is so much more than survival and fighting for life. She appears to be the most vulnerable one. Wanheda has the power of being more dark for the purpose of the survival and life. She is the dark side of Clarke who was formed by conditions of her living. Clarke from season 5 and 6 is Clarke who is trying find a peace for herself as a human, suffering inside from two sides of her world.

The lights and the colors in this mind space are truly melancholic and blue. I feel her depression and longing for sadness through this location. Clarke at the moment does not feel right at all, she is feeling down and she is losing hope.

2. The forest

Its totally the most dark place, therefore dark lights and night forest as the symbol of loss and deprivation. Its kinda blurry here too. The ruined throne of Lexa is her pain, which hides under the layers of self-control. There she loses her hope after fake memories of Bellamy. He is still that person, who has that strength and hope for her which she seeks. He is her last pillar of energy to survive and live, as the leader of her people. Because of him shes still trying.

‘You still have hope?”

‘Were still breathing’

But after the fake memories, she doesnt see any benefit to live as someone who can look for her people. Shes already dead, why bother?

3. The fighting pits and the Mountain weather.

Sharp and bright light. The fighting pits is another symbol of her guilt, though Bellamy forgave her, she coudnt do it herself. She didnt win her war with her demons. The BloodRena represent rage, anger for herself, crawled inside Clark. The Maya is the sigh of her moral system confused, her inner guilt for what she thought she would never have done as a child on Spacekru ship.

4. The home

The place where Clark feels most safe, focused and calm. Warm,

light colors and drawings not from her memories, bur from her feelings. The most significant drawings are Ebby, Madi and Bellamy. Its her family now. There she meets Monthy, there she finds her dad alive.

Its her heart in this home.

Her last hope is to live for Madi, as Monty reminds her. To be a mother to a child she raised. I mean, obviously, Madi is the last reason, why Monty as her mind protection appears. Monty was her friend, who truly figured that sometimes good and evil are twisted, and having burden of blood hands doesnt mean ure a bad person, but still means that its the best way to live and find peace.

There she is a ‘parent’.

Anyway, this Clark destination is to forgive herself and to start create something new through the ashes, to find something beside Madi, her people and Bellamy to live for. To heal and become more balanced.

Whats about Josephine?

Her line is connected to Clarke one, as their minds are tangled.

Let me say one thing, she is really hell of sociopath. I do not hate her as a character, but I do see the motivation of her behavior.

The thing is that in Josephine minds her father is the really important figure, affecting her the most through all stages of life. His voice is everywhere, in the library(her voice from childhood memories, calling him. reading letters). Through the door. He is shouting ‘The Sanctum is mine’. This pair could be compared to Odin and Hela relationship. Same spirit there.

Her brain structure is the library, completely rationalized and sorted. She doesnt feel mercy or regret, pity or happiness, pain or pleasure. She doesnt understand human emotions, as she is not able to comprehend them fully. By all sort, she is freaking genius(knows various language, deep in biology and science, gifted for art) but by the cost of her mental disorder. In her memories she adored herself so much that she could stop drawing her first body. She doesnt know what moral is. Its a blurry concept for her.

Her moral is to provide herself the immortality on all costs. She doesnt find it right or wrong to murder, to betray, to tortue. She doesnt care about anything but about herself. Not life of a newborn baby, her friends lover, her father could prevent her from achieving the goal. Its truly frighting and dreadful. She shouldn't be in the lead at all.

Read this to insure yourself that Jo is in fact sociapath https://www.mcafee.cc/Bin/sb.html.

And she knows that. Her hidden thing is the awareness on that. She doesnt accept it at all. She is savoring it, not trying to control or to restrict herself. Its caused by the trauma of guy who kills himself , but still not completely.

I also liked the referral to the predator behavior( dialogue of J and R, when they are haunting Clark), as the main concept of Lightbourne views.Besides, they regard science as the God for them, it means the complete refusal to moral question and ethics.

Josephin: I studied all species, insects are almost fascinated me the most,...ruthless. People theyre so messy, theyre too emotional.

Josephin: You, nulls, are more than worthless, you all don have positive value. You are less the useless. U delude the bloodlines...

So on.

From Clarks side theres a lot of talking whats right or what wrong, even with ALLIE. What defines God.

Its not a coincidence that she tells Monty about the God question, overshadowing Lightbournes things. About connection of moral and real life.

‘I dont want to decide for everyone, Just for myself’

Its a good thrust that through her mind projection of Monty she still thinks:

The end does not justify the means

Murder is still murder, whatever it brings after, peace or war.

She doesnt devalues the human life. Thats why Clarke is the best leader from the start. Her moral compass is always there to remind her that leadership should be based on clean hands, true intentions to help and grow, not in dark night, but in the light of a new day.

Clark also says: ‘Theres no joy without pain’.

For me, it sums up all of her personality. Meaning - to have something good, first sacrifice. To earn happiness you should feel the real anguish. But even after the pain, you are capable of finding hope and peace. Thats why she agrees to go with Monty and fight J.

That what differs Clark from Lightbourne.

She is still in a process of defining what decisions shed like to make, what person she should be. She senses and appreciates.

Lightbournes are in stagnation there.

The last few senconds

Bellamy is just the ‘heart’ all over the place. He is back to his natural statue.

That means head and the heart in work, which, I remind you, always the best.

Thanks for reading.

All the love :)

#the 100 #the hundred #bellarke #bellamy blake #the hundred watch #bellamy x clarke #clarke griffin #spacekru #russel lightbourne #theorythe100 #josephine lightborne #primes lightbourne #series #the hundred season 6

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surveys-at-your-service · 5 years

Text

Survey #227

“it’s my party, and i’ll die when i want to.”

Where do you hang your towel to dry after showering? On the rack that's on the bathroom door. What kind of mouse pad do you have? It's just a simple black one. Do you brush your hair with a comb or a brush? A comb. If you had a choice to be a unicorn or mermaid which would it be? Probably a unicorn? Idk. I think unicorns are cooler, but I guess being a mermaid (as depicted in the media, however) would be fun. Can you do a hand stand? No. If you were the opposite sex, how would you style your hair? Fuck man emo hair is the way to go don't even try to change my mind. What movie are you embarrassed to admit you’ve watched? None, really. Would you rather spin upside down going 30 miles or drop 400 ft. into water? Well, dropping 400 ft. into water would literally result in your body exploding upon impact with the water; at that height (I'm pretty sure that's high enough, anyway), the water's surface would be like concrete at the velocity you land. Soooo, the former. I'd like to live. What's your favorite shape? "I don’t really have one. I guess the shape of women’s bodies? Like, all kinds of them? Whooooopsie gaysie!" <<<< HAHAHA YOOOOOOOOO THIS. If you were put in a room with nothing except for a pencil and paper, what would you write? Doodle meerkats or write poetry. Do you use deodorant? Does anyone who can afford it and in America not? I'm ignorant to if that's a societal standard in other places in the world. Do you think you’ve grown as a person since this time last year? I honestly don't know. If you could change one physical trait about yourself, what would it be? Can I PLEASE weigh around 120 again??? Have you ever gone out with someone you didn’t like? Well, I didn't not like him. I kinda had a crush on him in high school for a brief period, but we lost communication throughout school. When he asked me out a few years ago, I only agreed to it as a test, I guess. He was a good person, and again, I had liked him. It was a "get to know one another (again)" thing. It was still very, very unlike me, though; I usually date people only when I know I'm into them. Looking back, it really was mostly an "I don't want to hurt his feelings" thing. What are some of your morals? "I wouldn’t say I have any unique morals or things like that. I just…don’t do harm and treat people like I’d want them to treat me." <<<< Pretty much this. I don't see my morals as unordinary. Just hopefully the usual good person. Would you ever take a bullet for your significant other? I wouldn't even fucking hesitate. Do you like your smile, or are you unhappy with it? I hate it. I look high when I smile. My eyes squint too much. If you were starving on a freezing mountain, would you eat your friend? No. Some things aren't worth living after. Out of all your friends, who can you count on the most? Sara. Do people who say they’re depressed bother you? I actually don't think any other survey question I have EVER come across boils my blood like this one. Fuck no they don't. Depression isn't a goddamn choice. Rot the fuck in Hell if depressed people "bother" you. Their mental illness is far, far, far fucking more an inconvenience to the victim than to you. What do you think of hunting? By this point in my animal/wildlife conservation and welfare eruption, I'm perfectly open in calling you a goddamn asshole if you hunt for any reason other than survival. There is something seriously wrong in your head if you get fucking pleasure out of ending a life without reasonable cause. Damn man, this surveys getting me fired up, lmao. White lies aren’t dangerous; true or false? They can be. Do you pretend your crush is with you when you’re home alone? I mean, I can daydream? But I don't actually like, pretend they're present. How many times do you go behind your parents’ back weekly? Never. Do you tend to go for people older or younger than you? Older or the same age. I don't mind if they're slightly younger though, so long as they're of legal age of course. If you became a doctor, would you help your patients kill themselves? I am 110% in favor of assisted suicide when a patient is diagnosed with a terminal malady. Forcing a human being to suffer 'til their inexorable death via the hands of their illness is, to me, torture. I genuinely do think I'm a very compassionate and gentle person, so while it would be ABSOLUTELY heartbreaking and probably scarring, I actually feel I'd be a good option for a doctor euthanizing a qualified patient. Are you good at haunted houses, or do you scream your head off? I haven't been to very many at all, actually. The one I remember that I've attended a few times, I handled just fine. They're fun to me. If you’ve seen it, what did you think of the Twilight movie? I didn't watch it, so I really can't make a fair judgment, but from what I've seen and heard (so take this with a grain of salt), the acting is horrid and the romance is very poorly composed. Would you rather be called babe or darling? The latter. Does the movie Titanic make you cry? Oh Lord, yes. We (surprisingly) watched it during one of my psych hospital stays, and even some of the guys were teary-eyed. What is your favorite thing to do on your phone? Play PokemonGO when I'm in enough of an urban area to be able to lmao. Which Disney princess resembles you the most? *shrugs* Which fairytale seems closest to your life story? Rapunzel being trapped in her home, lmao. What color was your first phone? Hm... I believe it was blue? Was your first phone a flip phone? I don't believe so; it slid upwards. What is your favorite pizza parlor? I'm a basic bitch that finds Domino's to be the bomb diggity. What is an old website that closed down that you miss? Hm... I'm not sure. Well, the site itself didn't close down, the Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor forum and games are dearly missed by me. Have you ever had an embarrassing period story? If so, what happened? Not that I recall, thankfully. What was your worst experience in high school? My depression. How much did your senior prom dress cost you? I don't remember, but I know it wouldn't have been all that expensive. Did you cry at your high school graduation? I only teared up very slightly. Did you cry at your college graduation (if applicable)? N/A, but I'm sure I will out of so much pride and joy. Do your parents try to stop you from chasing your dreams? Hell no. My parents are so, so supportive Who is a former friend that you wish would come back into your life? I miss Megan so, so much. Have you ever been in a serious romantic relationship? Two. What instrument did you play in the marching band? I wasn't in the marching band, but rather the normal one. I played the flute. Who got kicked off of your favorite talent show that you were mad about? Okay, so I remember one year, there was this very quiet, shy, and darkly-styled young man with a love for metal on America's Got Talent. Everyone was expecting a screamo mess, and then he belts out FUCKING BEAUTIFUL opera. Everyone lost it, myself included, and the sweetheart started crying. Sadly, he was eliminated the next round because his nerves got to him, poor thing. Do you own the entire series on DVD of any TV show? If so, what? Meerkat Manor. What show did you always want to be on when you were a kid? None, really. Can you tell the difference between Mary-Kate and Ashley? I think I could as a kid? I haven't seen them in forever and half. Who is your favorite set of twins? *shrugs* What is the grossest thing you have ever vomited up? Idk? Have you ever thrown up in public, in front of someone else? If yes, was it embarrassing? Yes, but I was in kindergarten, so it wasn't too embarrassing. I was just surprised. Did you ever take your dog to school? Whoa... this brought back memories. I believe I did bring Teddy to school one day in elementary school... 5th grade, maybe? I can't recall what the occasion was, though. Name one person you know who had a baby in high school. I don't remember her name. Describe your dream wedding in three words. Autumnal, personal, memorable. What do you hate the most about summer? The fucking heat. What is your favorite thing to do in a swimming pool? Just swim around. Which part of your body is the most muscular? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA BOY I couldn't even GUESS. My legs are recovering from muscle atrophy, so OBVIOUSLY not them. My arms aren't impressive. Neither is my stomach at all. I honestly don't know. What was the last race you ran called? Brittany??????????????? running a?????????????????? r a c e??????????????????????????????? Which major holiday is closest to your birthday? Valentine's Day. Do you find kite flying boring? I haven't done that since I was a kid, but BOY did I LOOOOOVE it back then! I'd probably still find it kinda fun. What is your favorite musical? Musicals make me cringe. Have you ever seen a Broadway show? No. What is the best summer camp you have ever been to? Well, I remember as a kid, one of the vacation Bible schools I went to was pretty fun. It was Hawaiian-themed. Have you ever ran a cash register? Never. Ever. Fucking. Again. Do you like the feeling in your stomach on a big drop on a roller coaster? I've never been on one, but I hate even just the sensation you get when the elevator goes up or down. I immediately get dizzy and nauseous. It's so bad that I even experience this in video games if you have to jump from a large height. What is your favorite roller coaster? N/A How and when were you baptized, if applicable? Hell if I remember. Have you been baptized more than once? No. Would you rather paint or carve a pumpkin? Carve it. Have you decorated for fall yet this year? No. Do you own pumpkin earrings? No, but now I want some. That sounds so cute. Have you ever asked someone to be your Valentine? I mean, not really? I've had s/os on Valentine's Days, so being each other's is kinda just... a given. What was your favorite video game to play with your brother? My older half-bro, when he lived with us anyway, used to play this mercenary game (I don't remember the name) that I LOVED watching him play. Idk why. Really when he played anything I would sit right beside him and watch. What computer game did you used to play all the time? Amazon Trail 3 was my cocaine, hunny. Do you like the name Ellery? I guess it's kinda cute... but it reminds me of celery. Do you find cemeteries pretty? "Pretty" isn't the word I'd use, but I find them aesthetically pleasing. They're more like... mysterious, enchanting. Does your phone screen freeze a lot? Often enough... Who is the better cook in your household? My mom. What by your definition is the naughtiest thing you have done? I guess the time I was entirely naked and him just in boxers going the fuck at each other on the chaise in the living room when we were home alone one night. Or maybe when we "slept" in my sister's room one night (can't remember exactly why) and we just fooled around the entire night instead. He came on her bed multiple times, hence why I guess it fits "naughtiest." (Yes, yes, he cleaned it up, calm down.) I honestly haven't done anything too wild. What is one thing you’d never want your parents to find out? The Joel situation I've told before. Which room of your house are you in? Mine. How many blankets do you sleep under? One thick one. I miss my school lunch menu.. what’s the fave thing on yours? Okay real talk, my high school chicken sandwiches were The Good Shit. Do you like your best friend's parents? Could you even tell me their names? I love them, and I could, but it's not my business to share that online. Anything silly that annoys you? (I hate hearing nails being clipped) I really hate people going in/out the opposite door. Why are you where you are right now? I absolutely have to take a mental health day from school, so I'm home in my room. Did you used to watch Blues Clues? Of course. What's your opinion on people wearing high heels to school? I feel very sorry for your feet, aha. But I don't care if you do, go for it. What difficulty do you play on Guitar Hero? I used to play like, everything on expert, but now if I do, I can barely manage expert on most and have to do hard. Do you stutter when you get nervous? BADLY. You’re at the grocery store, what 3 fruits do you get? Strawberries, apples, grapes. If you died next week, what would be the cause of death? Sleep deprivation lmao. Love these night terrors + nightmares. What do you think about dating websites? Whatever. I definitely think there are better, safer ways, but it's not a huge deal. Just go into it with a genuine heart and mind of wanting to find love. There's nothing wrong with wanting a partner to enjoy life with. Do you wear contacts or glasses? I wear glasses. I wish I could do contacts, but noooo sir. I had them very briefly again earlier this year, but I just couldn't; all I could do was feel them there, mainly the weighted one in my left eye because my vision is so bad in it. They just bugged me too much. What is one memory you have from elementary school? Making our own butter in 4th grade came to me first. We walked through school singing this annoying song while we shook our jars. Do you own a pair of converses? A few. How many fridges are in your house? One. Are you easy to get along with? I hope so, but idk. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you? She's over 800 miles away lmao. What kind of people are you attracted to? Platonically or romantically? Well, with either, I'm drawn to compassion, a tranquil mind, empathy, gentleness, romance if we're talking romantic attraction, a deep thinker, wisdom, creativity, uniqueness/individuality, just, funny, thoughtful, charitable, concerned with nature/love and kindness to animals, intelligence... There's a lot. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now? I don't see why I wouldn't be. Do you like it when people play with your hair? My hair's too short now for that. It'd feel weird. I used to like it, though. Do you think there is life on other planets? Probably. Do you like bubble baths? I don't enjoy baths period. Who are you most comfortable around? My mom, or Sara. Depends on the subject matter. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up? No. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with? I wouldn't. I'm strictly monogamous and to me would feel like cheating. Have you ever liked someone and never told them? Yeah. What do you say during awkward silences? Nothing, but I panic inside. What are you paranoid about? My loved ones secretly hating me or leaving me, being raped, people thinking I'm weird (and not in a good way), stuff like that. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about? I don't think so. Been suspended/expelled? For what? No. Been arrested? For what? No. Craving something? What? Nothing. What color are your towels? They're varied. How many pillows do you sleep with? Two. Favorite animal? MEERKATS. Opossums are #2. Favorite character from Mean Girls? I don't remember the characters at all. Favorite actress? Betty White. Favorite actor? BITCH Markiplier, lmao. But okay if you mean a "real" actor, probably Johnny Depp. Last time you were in an elevator? Thursday when I had to go upstairs to my Writing class. It's absolutely humiliating, but I can't make it up two flights of stairs due to my muscle atrophy without people asking if I'm okay. Even going down is dangerous for me because my legs ABSOLUTELY QUAKE and I have to go extremely slow. I go down via stairs anyway though for practice. I'm going to fall one day, I know it. I’m sure we all know what your name is… so, tell us what your boss’ name is? N/A Do you actually read your friend’s surveys, or do you just copy paste them and fill them out yourself? Yes; I love learning about my friends. When you were a kid, which comic strip was your favorite? I didn't care for them. Would you feel guilty about cheating on your taxes if you got away with it? Well yeah. Have you ever thought about getting your lip pierced? It is pierced. What woke you up this morning? A nightmare that resulted in me screaming almost the loudest I ever have in my life. My throat hurt for quite a while. What was your favorite sweet as a child? Reese's cups. Still are. Do you own a lunch box? Yeah. How many times a day do you brush your teeth? Once, oops. If there was a fire, what would you take with you? The very first thing I'd grab would be Teddy, then Roman, Venus, and then my laptop, probably. How many people have the same middle name as you? The majority of the white female population lmao. Does your house have a white picket fence? The backyard does. Have you ever needed to call the police? 911 when we thought my mom was having a heart attack. What are you best at? Writing, I guess.

#survey #quiz #questions #random #bored

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shinneth · 6 years

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The Gem Ascension Reference Tour 1: Fatal Frame series

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The above is referenced in what I consider to be GA3′s signature scene (or one of them, definitely a top 3), which happens very early on in the chapter (as early as page 33 can be considered for a 299 page part). I had a surprising number of Fatal Frame references in the series overall, so let’s go into detail further down.

Since Tumblr apparently ignores time stamping, the relevant bits for this top video start around 4:07.

Fuyuhi Himino’s unfortunate unintentional suicide in Fatal Frame V is very similarly in an early pivotal moment of GA3, as it directly causes Peridot to let down her guard just enough to allow for White Diamond to put a cap on her willpower, which allows her to succeed in making Peridot ascend to Chartreuse Diamond soon after. Very very similar scenario, though in Peridot’s case she’s directly resisting a giant blade of energy coming for her neck, but like Fuyuhi, she only has her bare hands to intercept the threat.

Being a gem, of course, this doesn’t spell the same consequence for Peridot as it does for poor Fuyuhi, but it does kind of fuck her over for life. Since Peridot’s got a hard light body, this isn’t actually physically hurting her unless it hits her gemstone - and doing any lasting damage to Peridot is counter-productive for WD since she’s wanting to make a diamond out of her. Even the “superfluid light” I describe in place of blood from the reference, and the pain that comes from Peridot nearly getting her fingers chopped off by continually resisting this blade, is visual trickery on WD’s part to make Peridot believe it’s real. So, a Your Mind Makes It Real trope, as Peridot does feel a great deal of pain from this. Then again, gems can’t bleed and that was purely for visual effect to instill panic in a gem trying not to get her neck lacerated with something that’s big enough that looks more like it’d behead her.

Peridot’s been resisting WD for almost a week at this point, mind you, so she’s been worn WAY down to the point where she’d actually fall for this. And how Peridot ultimately succumbs to getting her neck “sliced” is just like how it happens to Fuyuhi: the latter has a very close friend named Haruka who’s gone missing. She’s SUPER adamant about finding her, even if it means traipsing about in a mountain infamously known for being a popular suicide spot with regular hauntings. So this mirage Fuyuhi sees of Haruka in the distance makes her so relieved and happy, she completely forgets a ghost is this close to possessing this girl’s knife-holding hand into killing herself. So the moment she lets her guard down, Fuyuhi ends up slitting her own throat on accident. And it turns out it wasn’t even really Haruka at all; kind of a plus that Haruka (who at this point in the game WAS still alive) didn’t have to see her friend die like this directly, but it’s a pretty shit deal that Fuyuhi ends up losing her life over nothing.

In GA3, of course, it’s Steven (or more specifically, the imaginary Steven built from Peridot’s subconscious who gets to feature in all her daydreams about him) who takes up Haruka’s role. Peridot specifically told ALL the Crystal Gems not to go back for her if she’s the only one left behind in the mission. She’s had no way to gauge how much time has passed since they were forced to abandon her, and after 6 days she’d be considering the possibility that they listened to her if she knew that for a fact, but her gut tells her they’re not going to ditch her. And they don’t, of course. Unfortunately, it’s implied this happens literally hours before the Crystal Gems land on Homeworld for their Peri rescue mission, if not sooner. So yeah, this all could have been avoided if the CGs just took off a little bit sooner, but of course they had no way of figuring out what was going on in Homeworld while they prepared for their trip back. It’s all just one big unfortunate mishap, and it’s sort of to drive home the point that Steven, despite being the source of Peridot’s strength and resolve in the story so far, can just as easily become her biggest weakness under certain circumstances.

This scene is later showed to Steven when he does reunite with Peridot later when he’s aiming to fix her since WD sealed away the sharpest bits of her wit and willpower (which consequently made Peridot and the initial Chartreuse Diamond pretty gullible fools, prone to panic and indecision, as well as self-doubt and greatly lowered self-esteem). He needs to see exactly how WD pulled this off to get an idea of how to get the 100% Peridot back, which meant he pretty much HAD to see this scene. While later the CGs are also “treated” to this when Peridot catches them up on the plot later, it traumatizes Steven. The moment Peridot slips up is replayed constantly in his head and not even closing his eyes can make him un-see it. It’s a pretty reasonable thing to get someone riled up about, especially if it’s a loved one (and even though they’re not officially a couple yet by this point, they become one very soon after this, if that’s any indication of how hard Steven really takes this) and it just keeps playing in your head and you can’t make it stop. It actually triggers a mental civil war in his head where part of Steven just wants to forego his morality and kill the shit out of WD for this, but there’s still the part of Steven who won’t let go of his pacifism no matter what. But no side is really gaining on the other, so it’s an endless fight while this clip keeps playing in Steven’s head.

It has adverse effects on his human/gem hybrid body, inducing a growth spurt on said body so that Steven actually looks his age and various traits of his Pink Diamond part trying to dominate his body and power him up, because HE IS PISSED. This kickstarts the alternate form Steven can later take in Pink Diamond 2.0, where visually it looks like a fusion between Steven and the Pink Diamond iteration of his mom, but it’s not a fusion at all and is more of Steven’s “fully awakened” Diamond form where he can utilize 100% of his potential. It basically replaces Pink Steven from the canon finale, since GA is supposed to be a “Bad Ending AU” version of Change Your Mind where Yellow/Blue/White don’t survive and not every single loose end is neatly tied up.

So yeah, it’s a very pivotal scene for the protagonist and her late-game deuteragonist (since Steven had no role in GA1 and a pretty limited role in GA2, and there isn’t really a main character at all for the side-story). Still surprised one of the overall story’s pivotal moments comes from a relatively minor early plot development for Fatal Frame V.

Speaking of the side-story...

Fatal Frame I & II

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The tragic story of Fluorite when the Crystal Gems discuss gems prior to Peridot emerging with heterochromia naturally is a mish-mash of Kirie from I and Sae Kurosawa from II. More leaning towards Sae since it involved a friendship that many identified as twin-like and Fluorite’s described maniacal cackling comes from this little lady. This is the shit most gems on Homeworld heard right before they got shattered during the Lone Twin Massacre. Sae’s tragedy that led to the obliteration of her hometown and everyone in it (save for her twin, ironically, who escaped and never came back and had her own life and family... then ended up dying a few decades later via hanging, which is how Sae died) doesn’t exclusively have Sae’s missing twin Yae as the cause, though it is a prominent one. Long story short, hometown needs ritualistic sacrifices every decade or so that specifically require one twin to kill another - somehow this has worked in the past, don’t ask how. Still fucked up enough for one set of twins to try running away from this fate, but only one makes it out successfully. So the hometown is on the verge of collapse and they still have the twin who was set to be sacrificed anyway, so hoped they could salvage the situation by hanging Sae, but the Pits of Hell are PICKY and this results in Sae’s vengeful spirit killing indiscriminately. But she is REALLY fucking hung up on her twin sister never coming back for her.

Of course, in GA the twin of Fluorite wasn’t that much of a savage - the diamonds just dragged the twins apart since one was special and the other wasn’t, and later the diamonds had the not-special twin killed off behind the other’s back to put an end to the distractions.

That all lines up more with Kirie’s backstory, where in a mansion built over ANOTHER Pit of Hell, there was a scheduled sacrifice that started with rounding up girls to play demon tag, and the winner gets ripped from her family to become the head family’s rope maiden where she’s completely cut off from the outside world and not allowed to partake in anything that might give her a connection to worldly things, since a maiden sacrifice requires said maiden to be completely detached from earthly desires. Somehow Kirie got out for a short period of time not long before she was scheduled to be sacrificed and met a young man who she quickly fell in love with . The family caught on to this; after Kirie was solidly back in custody (I don’t think she ever actually tried escaping; she just somehow found a way to get out of the house for the first time in 10ish years), the man was killed in secret and tossed in the river. Kirie was never told about this, but she suspected it and had sixth sense-like feelings that he was murdered. She wasn’t able to maintain her maiden duties since she now had an earthly attachment to the man, so when she was finally sacrificed at the altar, her blood-soaked ropes weren’t enough to quell the gates of hell, and Kirie came back as a vengeful spirit who drove the head of the family insane and let him kill every single member of the household for her. And she would go on to kill anyone stupid enough to step inside the house after the fact. This one can be solely faulted on one singular incident, so GA Fluorite was basically the Kirie backstory, but Sae’s mannerisms, savagery, and the twin factor was also in there.

Fatal Frame III

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Time Stamp: 038

There’s actually not much from Fatal Frame III to take away from this, save for the final line in the scene where Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-9FC is shattered while in the middle of brutalizing our Peridot. Once Peridot’s not only seeing her assaulter get brutally murdered right after being beaten within an inch of her life, but the remains of 9FC land right on top of her as well as the limb enhancers.

It’s an echo to the aforementioned times Peridot mentioned casually no-selling brutal shatterings that happened right next to her in her early Homeworld days where she’d just shrug off any gem chunks or dust that got on her.

It turns out present-day Peridot is extremely bothered by this and went into catatonic shock after the narrative expresses this desire that paraphrases one of Reika’s noteworthy lines:

“I don’t want to see anymore.”

Which Reika rightfully expresses when her lover who finds her doing her maiden duty (her backstory is heavily similar to Kirie’s) gets killed right in front of her and she’s forced to look at his dead face for all eternity...

Yeah, you wouldn’t want to see anymore either, would you? Let’s leave off on a fun clip that demonstrates how fucking batshit Sae was and I’ll readily admit she scared the shit out of me as a teen.

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