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spaceless-vacuum · 1 year

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What if the zeldas from the links like sun and sky being yandere for reader too.

Would they Ally with their links are not are would they break those ally with their links if we're to have reader in their hyrule.

Zelda from koridia game is a savage

So I watched all of the t.v show episodes and I can finally start adding some of my opinions on this, starting with Courage and (I don't think she has a nickname yet I think I’ll just call her Wisdom because it matches her Link’s name but correct me if there's a better one).

. . .

To begin, both of these two can Fight! Wisdom often goes along with Courage to the underground realm where Ganon’s lair is and will help him save the day. While she doesn't like to get her hands dirty if she doesn't have to, she refuses to sit around and do nothing when there's work to be done. She still keeps a strict line between her princess duties and that of a knight. She isn't as competent of a fighter as Courage is so she leaves the heavy hitting to him. She stands back and helps out and manages to keep herself out of trouble just enough that her friend doesn't have to worry about her too much. She doesn't want to be overwhelmed or kidnapped after all.

During her time Hyrule is not as powerful or as present as it once was, and only two pieces of the triforce have been found (in the show they just dismiss the triforce of courage and never mention it so i'm going to assume it’s lost, same with the master sword because they never call Courage’s sword by name and it doesn't seal Ganondorf it just takes him away for awhile.) As such it’s hard for Ganondorf to win; but they also can't seal him away just yet. This means Hyrule for her is a peaceful zone until it isn't for a few days and then it all goes back to normal. Action isn't uncommon but most people live peaceful lives thanks to the efforts and worries from the princess and the triforce’s Guardian.

When you roll into town it isn't under attack but there's still evidence of the terror that rampaged through just a few days prior. It’s clear something bad happened but not bad enough to put a damper on the good peoples spirits. You just finished up booking a room in the inn for the night and you're walking around town trying to figure out what to do when Courage spots you from afar. He stops his morning walk in its tracks just to get a good look at you. A new stranger in town is always newsworthy and he just has to know what you're up to, it might be no good and he reasons that such a pretty thing like you shouldnt be left around with no one by your side. He walks over to you and the conversation is friendly enough, but then he finds out you're an adventurer.

This strikes him as funny because Courage used to be an adventurer like you before he got stuck with a job in the castle. It’s been so long since he's been on the open road and he really misses it. He invites you over top of the castle for some tea and before you can reply he points out that it’s just ahead anyways. You have no choice but to accept as he takes your hand and practically drags you along for the ride. Following him down the brick path through the wide open gates into a stunning and painstakingly kept courtyard the stone brick of the castles waits and beckons you to explore.

He walks down the hallways very casually and asks you lots of questions about where you're from, what you're doing here, how the roads were like, and what your favourite food is. The conversation goes from regular chatting to flirting very quickly. He can't help it seeing such a sweet thing like you all by yourself means you must have plenty of stories to tell and he just can't wait to hear them all.

Wisdom bumps into you two not far from the entrance. She was just about to follow Courage to make sure he wasn't going to shirk his duties as a knight. They didn't have many knights around so it was all hands on deck for this one; and then she sees you. A beauty walking into her castle and where were her manners. She looks more smitten than the hero was and quickly resumes the neutral mask as her role as a princess and takes over interrogating. Where are you from, is this your first time in their kingdom, oh it is? Well you just have to stay for dinner and tea! She’d be more than happy to show you around if you’d be so gracious.

Courage follows behind the two of you as Wisdom takes over the talking. He has to admit that she has a way with words. Watching you two he can see Wisdom slowly sink her fangs into you. One hand is placed gently on your back and he can see an unusual tension in her body. It isn't hard for him to realise that he may have fallen for you but she fell harder. The three of you walk to a side room with a table and you all gather around and swap stories. Courage tells you about his adventures, Wisdom talks about the kingdom and what’s going on with Ganondorf, and you fill them in with how you came to wind up here.

All in all Wisdom offers you a place to stay at the castle as it would be a better spot than any for resting after such a long journey. It is hard to turn her down with how sweet she’s being and she's absolutely right about it being much better than the inn you were going to stay at. Courage goes to collect your bags from your old spot and offers you a room by his. Just in case anything happens, that way you'll be safe. Wisdom tells you not to worry as Ganondorf never attacks so soon but agrees that you should stay close to him. You thank her again and she spends some time talking to you before showing you to your room.

Oh true, it is not befitting of her to marry someone of a lower station but she can't help but be mesmerised by you. Somewhere between the tough and gritty shell of an adventure she can see the soft soul of someone like her. A mixture between gentle and heroic; kind and able to get the job done. It just draws her in like a moth to flame but some part of her knows it is in her duties to one day marry for the good of the kingdom. If it’s in her luck they will be much like you.

Not that taking a consort was so out of the question but it's at a time and place in history while Hyrule is starting to rebuild again and she has to plan for the future. When Courage gets back she talks to him about her feelings. She can see how hurt he is at first when she begins talking; but he doesn't say anything as the two have been friends for ages at this point. Even if he does flirt with her and they do fight from time to time nothing can separate them and they know that. The kingdom rests on their shoulders and more than that protecting and retaining the triforce is key for the future of all of Hyrule.

It isn't until she talks about her final thoughts and feelings; about how she wants you here but can't take you for himself that he realises what she’s after. He jumps in joy when he realises he gets to keep the cake and eat it too. He asks offhandedly if having you here means that he can't ask her for kisses anymore and she laughs before lightly punching his shoulder. Joking about how uncivil he can be before relaxing and asking that he keep you here in the castle, that is both a request from a friend and an order.

Courage looks a little taken back and Wisdom lightly lets him know that she wants to see the two of you happy together and doesn't want to take any chances. The endorsement of your relationship seems to be more of a way to have her cake and eat it too and Courage doesn't believe she is as serious as she seems at first. He gets to have you but by him having you she gets you as well? The concept goes over his head and Wisdom has to gently reexplain the concept several times before he comes to understand what's going on.

The aftermath is both of them taking things lightly while whisking you away. You can defend yourself and they often take you on their journeys together. This is an open relationship where you and Courage are officially dating while Zelda gets to keep you in her life and enjoy sweeter moments and company from you. Courage doesn't mind at all and finds himself happy to share, you're his in the end anyways. You and the princess are seen as especially close friends. Of course your willingness to defend the princess in battle is commendable and from the outside all seems calm and normal. You're just another helping hand and dating the hero. Nothing strange is seen.

. . .

I wrote more for those two than I meant to, anyways here's a flash round of how I think the others would go!

. . .

Dot would love for you to join the knights of Hyrule. This keeps you and Four by her side, while allowing the two of them more time with you. You get personal training from Four and to all outsiders you're just another personal guard who spends all their time guarding the princess, as a good knight should. Why all that time seems to be in her chambers and acting more like a pet than actual knight is rumoured but no one can confirm what’s going on as you are rarely seen. When not with Dot Four has you by his side in a chain that matches your armour. All that training doesn't seem to save you from anything as you're in more of a political bind than physical. It keeps you still more than any physical chain can after all. I’m not sure if Dot and Four would also have feelings for each other, rather I see them as close friends with a shared love interest and they never even have to go through that awkward phase of ‘we both like the same person dont we’. They both just nod at each other and understand that it’s not an issue for them.

. . .

Sky and Sun have a house for you! And if it’s not a house out in the woods it's a special room made in the castle that was renovated with a door that locks from the outside. With all the chaos going on on the surface many people soon forget about the strange room that the queen asks for, and it's only there for when you forget your role by their side. Sky, you, and Sun are a power throuple and everyone in the kingdom knows it. You help Sun rule the kingdom by making sure she takes care of herself and her and you often spar together while Sky watches. You don't join the knights because that would mean going out and doing dirty work, rather your job at the castle is more of a personal friend borderline assistant. It crosses the fine line between royal lover and pet but between the two of them always cooing over you and each other you're being so smothered in love it's hard to tell where one line ends and the other begins. Everyone knows all three of you are in a relationship and everyone is cool with it.

. . .

God Artemis and Warriors… Ok so for this one I think they would have a huge rivals aspect to it. Not in a ‘i hate you way’ rather a ‘I can make them swoon way harder than you can’. Both find it funny and it's all in good faith. You for your part are so confused about how you got these two wonderful people suddenly fighting very hard for affection but it soon gets to be very overwhelming. Openly no one can see what's going on, just more banter between the princess and the hero. I don't see them sharing you together rather one will take you for a while before the other will spirit you away. I can see you being a soldier or messenger during wartime; your position is high enough to draw attention but not so much so you're in the active line of duty. Safe enough to not worry them too much while close enough to the fight to make your presence known. This is what sparks envy in them as you aren't close to either of them but they're both keeping tabs on you. You see none of the behind the scenes but Warrior is asking everyone you've ever worked with what they know about you, what your secrets are, where you live, and he passes it all under the rug as official business and your comrades are all too happy to give you up if it's the captain asking.

Meanwhile Artemis just pulled up your records and got all the information from that. Warrior shows up in her office to brag and she's just sipping tea while calmly explaining she already knows all of that and didn't have to work for three extra weeks to find it out. Trouble ensues.

Warrior gets you when he's not on active duty, and after the war he gets to have you when he returns from his missions. Aremis dresses you up in the finest of clothes she can find and leaves you for him as a present; he deserves to come home to his precious darling after all he's been through. He returns the favour by presenting you in much the same way before he leaves to go take care of business; he also handles any of the dirty work such as removing rivals and taking care of punishments that she can't handle herself. The two share you separately and take on the responsibilities of keeping you quiet together.

. . .

Flora Can see you and how close you are with Wild. She swatches from afar as you two grow closer and she feels a little strange watching how closely you two are. Of course she agrees that you are the most precious gem in all of Hyrule and is so thankful for you; both for your huge heart in helping to restore Hyrule to what it once was and also for helping Wild. She knows she can not be there to comfort him like she wishes to be so having you there to be a shoulder to cry on is so sweet to watch. She just wishes to be there too. Her time alone leaves her with a lot of time to simmer over her feelings and she often finds herself wondering if she can make the three of you work out. She wants you by her side and wants him too, god shes so head over heels and knows that he must feel the same way. If only she was there now, please don't make her wait…

When she is rescued she reunites with Wild, and the two of them talk and are so happy. She avoids the subject of you. Rather she already knows you were safely left at his house in Hateno and wants to say hello to Wild first before making the journey there. She has to test the water and say hello to her close friend first. By the time they make it to the village it's nighttime and you are sleeping peacefully. She goes upstairs to check on you and Wild follows behind. It's not hard to tell from the look on her face to know what she is thinking about. All it takes is one look at each other and the two of them know, in the way only two destined to fall in love can know, what the other is thinking.

For this one it’s a slowish burn between Wild and Flora while they also love you. Another polycue that will only have to face more troubles as a rejuvenated Ganon is on the horizon.

. . .

Fauna and Calamity i'm on the fence over. Some people write him as hating the nobility and his involvement in the war and having a sore spot over how he was treated, and while I have to agree I think he's also a forgive but never forget type of person. Like it still hurts but he wont let that change how he acts around others. This relationship is rough but I can see it having a happy ending. With Fauna and Calamity never ending up together I can still see them reaching a conclusion and sharing you. Especially since after all is said and done Calamity is still a knight beholding to Hyrule and the Princess. Him and Fauna can work together to keep you in the castle, but this is where they start to disagree.

Fauna wants to show you off. She wants to have everyone see you hanging off of her arm so they know you're taken. This sets Calamity off because he's the type to want to hide you away from others instead. This results in a fight between him and Fauna and it isn't until she points out that it's smarter this way; as now everyone knows you're taken and they won't be able to make a move on you because of her power. You Are Safer because you've been marked as off limits. Once he hears this and really processes it he relaxes and realises that she's right. She can do things he can't and after this the two have a heart to heart. What happened during the war was the hardest time of his life and he's always been training to be the perfect soldier and now that it's over he's finally healing. He has a life now and no matter what you’re the make upon it. She agrees wholeheartedly and swears she never wants to take you from him. She wants to see him happy and won't ever cross any line without good cause and reason. They both need and want you and even if they go about it in different ways they both agree that the other's way isn't bad; in fact it blends quite well.

When the loud drum of nobles and the castle becomes too much for you Calamity and Fauna will go on a trip to a quieter part of Hyrule and work out well for all three of you! They need to get out and make sure the rest of the country is recovering well and everyone is always glad to see the hero and princess again. It means a lot to the both of them to take you out and about every so often, even if you are now stuck inbetween the biggest power couple in Hyrule that isn't even a couple.

This matchup is funny to me because I can see Fauna and Calamity healing from everything and reforging their friendship afterwards and being really close physically; being touchy and feely but both agreeing there's nothing romantic about it. You can often find Calamity passed out in the lap of the princess and he stands guard over her so happily that everyone assumes it’s them dating, and in reality they are just extremely close and it's you dating them. They love to gush about you to each other and the kingdom just accepts the princess and her knight have a thing for you, and that she's dating you both but nothing has been made official yet. They saved the kingdom, let them do whatever they want.

...

To be honest I headcanon that polyam is accepted in loz because why wouldn't it be, and also its a bit of a matriarch because its the three golden goddesses and Hylia is the patron goddess to Hyrule, and even in Lorule i'm assuming they also have goddesses? To be honest It’s a very female ruled kingdom as well because it’s Zelda’s blood that holds the power to seal the darkness and also she rules the kingdom. So needless to say no one minds Zelda doing what she wants especially when it's an era with a hero, they saved everyone for god's sake let them have some peace.

. . .

Ok so for the others we have Dusk/Twilight, Wind/Tetra, Fable/Legend, Hyrule/Dawn/Aurora, Lullaby/Time, and Koridai/(I haven't thought of a good name for her yet…) and I will get those done on a later date because this is so long as it is. I know I went hard into the Wisdom and Courage part but in my defence I just finished watching the show and I thought it was goofy and fun!

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mariproducer · 2 years

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Miraculous Ladybug really has a major problem of giving the illusion that things are progressing. Like they'll do things to make it seem like the show status quo is changing only for in the long run, not a lot of things change.

The heroes get power ups? Barely uses them.

A bunch of Miraculous Heroes are choosen? The show doesn't even bother exploring these new heroes having to struggle balancing a double life like Adrien and Marinette nor do we see them form bonds with their kwamis (seriously, having the heroes be temporary is frankly dumb since you think you would want as many heroes as possible given how many Akuma attacks there are).

Alya learns that Marinette is Ladybug? it changes thing slightly but not enough to have a lasting impact (and makes moments such as Alya falling for Lila lies at the end of season 4 even more fustrating).

Adrien learns that Nino, his best friend is Carapace? Nothing is done with that.

And that's not even getting started on the snail pace progression of the love square.

Very long ask so I'll be hiding my reply under the cut so this isn't too much to scroll by

Yeah, most development in mlb is either walked back on, forgotten, or purposefully ignored. And it's not like this is some sort of intentional in-universe reason to show character regression. It's moreso the show trying to force specific narratives, even if it doesn't line up with where the characters should be, knowledge and development-wise.

For example, an episode like Animaestro, with its plot of Marinette teaming up with Chloe to sabotage Kagami, shouldn't have occurred after an episode like Frozer, where Marinette decides to put aside her feelings to help Adrien on his date with Kagami. Or another example where specific characters are left out of plotlines because the knowledge they hold could break their desired narrative into pieces (absence of Alya and Su-han in Kuro Neko, absence of Viperion in Strike Back).

Miraculous Ladybug is... well pardon the pun... miraculously amazing at acting like things are changing, that there's drama, that there's stakes. But you look at the show in its entirety and all its really been doing is going around the same circle. The LS still can't move past shallow affection, no progress has been made towards finding the villain (despite the fact that they HAVE information that could easily lead them to the villains identity) and he's only become more powerful, any other character that isn't the main duo or HM eventually find themselves getting screwed over writing-wise for the Love Square. (Though the main duo and HM are screwed over in that department too, it's just more painful with the rest of the cast)

If the cast of this show was ALLOWED to change and grow, to not be puppeteered into specific instances that don't line up what we previously have seen of them, then yes I'd believe there is development in this show. But there's none; you're right in calling it an illusion, because any possible development, even the SMIDGES of it, are eventually erased, as though it was imaginary to begin with. And somehow people eat that up, probably because this show just gives you nothing that you'll take the scraps. That's just sad 😮‍💨

As an aside: I always HATED the temporary hero rule. For me, it was one of the greatest upholders of this status quo yo bs mlb is stuck in. Because, since they're not permanent, they can only exist for a fleeting moment, and then continue on not affecting the plot. I get it I get that this show is gonna be Ladybug and Chat Noir, but maybe don't introduce the idea of other heroes if you wanna be oh so focused on your main two heroes. Then again, I personally wish there was a third permanent hero (the Alya stuff in s4 was poorly executed it could've been neater in an earlier season, not after s3 where she devolved to only shill for the LS) because it would've been a neat way to shake up the status quo in the long run and not be walked back on.

#ask #pedanticat #no worries on sending long asks happy to answer them if i can come up with a response #ml writers salt #love square salt

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writing-with-olive · 3 years

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How to write essays fast

I've been writing a lot of papers, so that's what's on my mind.

So this mostly applies to your standard 5-paragraph paper, though it's fairly straightforward to adapt it to longer (or sometimes shorter) assignments.

One of the main things to note is that essays are VERY formulaic, so knowing the formula and being able to write down your ideas in a way that fit into the formula is probably the number one way to get stuff done fast. Because of that, most of what I’m covering is breaking down the formulas so they’re more accessable.

Also this got very long. If there’s anything you want me to expand on just let me know in the comments or send me an ask/DM and I’ll make another post that goes more in-depth about it.

Structure (I hate this step, so I’ve figured out how to do it very fast becuase it’s still important)

The first thing to consider is prewriting and structure. To start, there are two major paper structures I usually consider. The first goes

Introduction

Main point #1

Main point #2

Main point #3

Conclusion

This is good if you have a lot to say on the topic, or if it's something closer to a summary essay where there's not really an opposing side. In something where there are distinct sides, (or if you have less to say to support your own side), you may want something that looks like

Introduction

Main point #1

Main point #2

Why the other side is wrong

Conclusion

The "why the other side is wrong" side is involves thinking through the MOST credible arguments the other side might make, and methodically breaking them down to show how they don't work. The stronger the argument you choose, the more effective this is.

Since I personally hate prewriting with a passion, I usually do this step very fast and end up with an outline that looks like

Intro [insert thesis statement]

P1: [three word summary]

P2: [three word summary]

P3: [three word summary]

Conclusion

(thesis statement, introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion tips are all below the cut)

Usually, this is enough so when I look at my outline, I can see what I'm trying to focus on for each paragraph - and do so without straying from my main point.

For the prewriting, the main things to do are identify with basic structure of the two will serve your purposes better, and write a thesis statement that solidly supports your argument.

Thesis Statement

There are so many guides about creating thesis statements that are powerful, but I'm just going to quickly go over how to be fast about it.

The first thing to know is that a thesis statement is usually a complex sentence: it's your entire essay distilled down to a single line. The general formula I follow goes something like this:

"In their [media type] [name of specific piece], [creator's full name] explored/demonstrated/other verb [theme you're going to be arguing about] demonstrated/using/as evidenced/as shown by [example 1], [example 2], and [optional example 3]."

For example, a thesis statement that follows this format might go

“In his short film Job at Place, David Davidson explored the manifestations of human stupidity through the absurdity of the main character’s home, school, and office.”

Or, if you're writing a historical piece, it might look something like this:

"In [place/time period], [thing you're arguing was happening]: they had to/the conditions were such that/other thing to set up a list [example 1], [example 2], and [example 3]."

For example, a thesis statement that follows this format might go

“During the Tusken Invasion of 32nd century Tatooine, it was the lives of the children that were most affected, from their social development and connections with others to more personal struggles they didn’t yet have the tools to overcome.”

The examples you give are going to correlate to your paragraphs - example 1 is for body paragraph 1, and so on.

Introduction

I like to think of the introduction as a funnel that gets more and more specific.

First, write a broad statement that touches on whatever theme you’re referencing.

Job at Place is about human stupidity, so something like “while great minds have flourished throughout the ages, so have the not-so-great.”

Tatooine is about war, and about child development, so something like “children’s development has always been impacted by the state of the world around them.” or “war has many effects, many of which impact those not directly involved with the conflict.”

The idea is that it’s a broad statement that can almost be looked at like a universal truth.

Next, you’re going to go deeper - two sentences that narrow down the time and place you’re talking about specifically, and how that time and place fit into your universal statement.

The fourth sentence gets even more specific - introducing how the thesis sentence fits into your first three sentences.

Then the last line is your thesis statements.

Body Paragraphs

Your three main body paragraphs all follow the same formula. (I’ll get to the “why the other side is wrong” paragraph in a minute)

The first sentence you’re going to want is a topic sentence. For this, you’re going to want to look at the example you gave in your thesis statement that corresponds to this paragraph, and see how it relates to your central claim.

If we’re going with the Job at Place example from above, for the second paragraph, you might open with a line like:

“A striking characteristic of Davidson’s short film was the abnormality of the main character’s school, used to showcase exactly what happens when poor decisions get taken too far.”

Everything within the paragraph will then back up the claim you’re making in the topic sentence (which in turn is backing up your thesis).

For each paragraph, you’re probably going to want about three pieces of evidence, either in the form of direct quotes (plucking words directly from the source) or paraphrased quotes (summarizing what happened in your own words). The quote should be used to directly support your argument.

After each piece of evidence, you’re going to want about... twoish lines of analysis (this number can change as you need it to, but two lines is something solid to fall back to).

While analysis can take all kinds of forms, one pattern you can use if you’re stuck is

evidence sentence

what it means

how that meaning ties back into your main point

Following this pattern, a piece of analysis of Job at Place might look like:

“One of the first images of the private school is that it’s a tall spire with creaking stairs and loose floorboards. Despite this, the principal has eight personal cars parked outside on full display. While the first glimpse of the school might indicate that there is little money to care for the structural integrity, the notion is directly negated by the principal’s actions. By using these two images, Davidson demonstrates what can happen to the youth when those in power let greed carry them away.”

After you write your analysis, include some kind of transition phrase, and go onto the next piece of evidence.

The last line of your paragraph is going to transition into the next paragraph while also summing up the main point of what you talked about in the current one. (This line can also get moved down and tacked onto the beginning of the next paragraph, before the topic sentence, but I have found it tends to look less cohesive that way).

You might choose something like:

“While the school was a disaster in its own right, it wasn’t the only example of human folly.”

If you’re writing a “this is why the other side is wrong” you’re going to want to think about the MOST compelling arguments the other side could make. Take the top one (or two), and figure out ways to crack them apart using evidence from your source material.

In this case, your topic sentence might start off with something like

“While opponents might say [insert compelling counterargument], their reasoning breaks down when one takes into account the evidence.”

At this point, you’re going to follow the same formula as above. The main thing to keep in mind is that for the duration of this paragraph, your point is that the other side’s claim of X is wrong.

Conclusion!

If you know what you’re doing, this is actually the easiest part.

(wait, what??????)

The thing is, you NEVER want to introduce new ideas into your conclusion. Instead, you’re summarizing your main points.

The formula I follow per sentence is:

Thesis statement but reworded (you can change the sentence structure too)

Topic sentence for paragraph 2 or 3, but reworded (I’ll explain why you shouldn’t do the sentence for P1 in just a sec)

Topic sentence for paragraph 1 or 3 but reworded

Topic sentence for paragraph 1 or 2 but reworded

Wow sentence or question (i’ll get to this too)

The idea for the middle three sentences is you don’t want them to read as repetitive, so you’re going to mix up the order so it doesn’t match the order of the rest of the essay. This will help to keep it fresh.

The wow sentence is basically the last impression you get to make. I find it’s usually a good idea to go just a tad dramatic (it sounds dumb, but it has never failed me). If I can’t think of anything, a declarative statement on whatever major theme was being discussed throughout the essay usually does the trick.

Examples:

All of this shows that in the absence of friendships and platonic love, humanity will falter.

Fiction may seem far fetched now, but if the world falls into those same mistakes, it’s only a matter of time until it becomes a reality.

Art has existed for as long as humans have populated the earth; it’s not going away any time soon.

A lesson everyone must understand is the most powerful weapon isn’t anything physical or tangeable: it’s the ideas that exist in the minds of those who care.

(I told you they were going to be dramatic) A way I look at it is if you can’t imagine dropping the mic on the last line, it needs to be stronger (yes I found that plagiarized with not even a whisper of credit on Pinterest, but it works).

If you wrote a SOLID essay, consider ending with a question aimed at the reader (this will push your essay in the direction of either the positive or negative extreme: a strong essay will become stronger, a weak essay will become weaker). Questions can be a call to action or rhetorical as a means to drive home your final point. Becuase they’re more nuanced to the content of the essay, I don’t really have great examples to give you though (sorry).

Hopefully this is useful to at least some of you - good luck!

++++

Tagging:@candlemouse

If you want to be added to or removed from any of my taglists (found pinned to the top of my blog) just let me know :)

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ray-green-wicked4good · 2 years

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If you could only take 5 episodes of snowpiercer with you to a desert island, what would they be?

Only five?!!!! Ughh! This is cruel. How can I possibly survive without the utter brilliance of season 1 in its entirety?! Am I to make due with just scraps?! Aggghhhhh!

But, okay, okay. In all seriousness, if I was stuck on a deserted island in desperate need of entertainment, I would choose:

(in no particular order)

1x06 Trouble Comes Sideways

Highlights Include: MY GURL JINJU! Mel and Jinju doing yoga! Besties. Labor strike! Till having her moral crisis and standing up to Osweiller. Josie! Josie being such a good spy! Josie organizing everything! Josie telling Zarah she can't tell her anything because she knows she can't be trusted. Lights and Aus helping Winnie and The Tail see outside for the first time in forever. The contrast of Melanie addressing Third while they shout insults versus later when Ben gives his speech and they're all so grateful not even knowing she saved them. Pelton! Layton being the literal worst patient ever. Melanie listening to the train. Mel and Ben flirting in the middle of a train crisis. Running away to Tahiti. The dream. Audrey's outfits. Boki! Boki and the kids! Melanie mentoring baby Miles! Ruth's speech! Layton and Melanie in the subtrain. Melanie explaining the drawers. They're lifeboats. The emotion in her voice. Melanie saving the goddamned train. Again. Piece of cake. With that little strand of hair out of place. God. Love it. Melanie and Ben hearteyes. Read the room, Audrey. We're alive.

2x06 Many Miles from Snowpiercer

*Highlights include: MELANIE OPENING MONOLOGUE. Her little orange vest. (The one she survives in 😭) Melanie journaling. Her little beanie. Powerful hallucinations. The stupid avalanche. Melanie being smart af for 50 minutes straight. (aka her hot girl summer science bitch winter) The sweeties from Ben. (That's love bitch) The way Melanie says 'i am patched into the climate modeling program'. Flashbacks. Hallucination Wilford being evil and fabulous. Thrilling climate science. Hallucination Layton being smug. Rat kebab. Melanie humming. The calendar. 😭. Hallucination Alex being willing to forgive. Mom, I think I understand, now. Melanie gets a hug. (Sorta) Traumatizing final goodbyes. Everything that is said over the radio actually. Allie...I tried. I really tried. And I thought this time could be different. Gut-punch ending. The fucking train on fire.

2x03 A Great Odyssey

*Highlights include: ALL OF THE Alex and Melanie scenes. The music is nice. Melanie and Ben cuddles. OnE mOnTh 😭. Wilford Monologue. Jupiter! Big Alice is a Ben Free Zone. Wilford on his throne. Actually all the Wilford and Mel banter. Alex trying to see if she has her Mom's train powers. Emilia! 'Hi, I'm Alex's Mom.' Alex's drawings! Also all of the outside train shots. Ruth being salty. Tristan's voice crack. Wilford making Alex drive over the curve--that whole scene. Isn't it wonderful working as a team again, Melanie? I'm proud you're here, Alex. Push her over the hill. She'll be gone again. God, Alex's face when they do make it over because she knows it means she has to say goodbye?! Speaking of--all the goodbyes! Melanie and Ben kiss. 😭 Melanie and Ruth. 😭 Good luck Andre. 😭 MELANIE AND ALEX IN THE COLD LOCK. I wanted to keep you here longer. But we did what we had to do. I love you Allie. I'll see you in a month, Mom. (😬) THE HUG!!!

3x09 A Beacon For Us All

*Highlights include: The split monologue between Ben and Mel. (Soulmates confirmed.) Flashbacks of Mel being the ultimate survivor. Black veined Melanie. The way she cried out for Ben when she was scared and alone. 😭 Smug Wilford. ALL THE REUNIONS. (so worth the wait) Layton carrying Melanie. Melanie and Alex being adorable. You're real. I kept you alive. Melanie and Ben. I knew you'd find me. Mel and Javi hug. Welcome home. Melanie AND HER TRAIN. With the little hula dancer in its spot. Melanie being a science bitch first and a team player never. Melanie and Ben kiss. Layton telling Josie he loves her. THE PARTY. Ruth ordering all the champagne. Alex wanting to look good for Carly. Melanie looking at Alex so adoringly. Melanie's party outfit. The Reveal. And victory strut to the Engine. Twist ending. (Rip Jackboot Tyson)

1x01 First the Weather Changed

*Highlights include: Introductions to so many characters I love! Getting to see the different cars for the first time! Head of Hospitality Mel! Voice of the train Mel! Uppity Lilah Folger. Crazy LJ from the start. Ruth and her furs. Audrey and the Nightcar! Revolution! ALL THE TAILIES! Mamma Grande! Josie! Baby Miles! Murray! Strong Boy! Pike! Old Ivan! Layton and his grilled cheese. Till and Osweiller sibling banter. Roche being a tired dad from the start. Melanie and her strawberries. Jinju and the aquarium! Besties! Melanie being everywhere and scheming. Layton being suspicious. Gotta get back to the Tail. THE REVEAL. You have the train, Mr. Wilford.

#snowpiercer asks #this was fun #but also hard to pick only 5 #thanks for the ask!#snowpiercer

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tossawary · 3 years

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Because my brain does NOT stop even when I’m grounded, today my brain told me, “Hey, I figured out how to make a Hobbit Fusion AU work.” And I was like, “Great! We’re working, though.” And my brain was like, “I’ve figured out how to make it a Pre-Canon Canon Divergence AU for Moshang.”

And I was like, “...I’m listening.”

The Hobbit is another one of my Comfort Media and it got brought up when I was asking about that, but I was feeling kind of “eh” about mixing Tolkien mythology with SVSSS. I mean, the mental picture of Dwarf Mobei-Jun is extremely funny and Shang Qinghua would make a great hobbit! But that interpretation felt a little too direct for my AU tastes.

So, hm, now I have another potential Big Bang contender. My love for The Hobbit is very, VERY strong and looking at my current outline, I have to be like, “Yeah, this could be 50,000 words, no problem.”

It’s a very good outline!

After saving Mobei-Jun, Shang Qinghua bailed A.S.A.P. because he honestly thought Mobei-Jun was going to kill him. He psyched himself out of sticking around before Mobei-Jun woke up. Mobei-Jun didn’t get enough information to track Shang Qinghua down.

Shang Qinghua (who isn’t SQH because he isn’t the Peak Lord) decides that he can’t fucking take it anymore and bails from Cang Qiong Mountain Sect too. The System objects, but also falls into line when Airplane shrieks at it. Airplane is going to go become a humble merchant and inventor and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop him!

It turns out that Shang Qinghua’s presence or help was actually crucial to stop some Emperor of the Abyss from taking over the Ice Palace and the Northern Desert. Airplane is like, “Oh, yeah, I remember… offhandedly writing something about that happening in the past off-screen?” It was one of those things that he just threw in there because it sounded really cool, and it gave Mobei-Jun another reason to “owe” Shang Qinghua and not kill him immediately, but he never got to elaborate on it because he was too busy writing stallion novel bullshit.

So, borrowing the lore from my “Horns” one-shot, an extremely powerful Emperor of the Abyss escaped the Eternal Abyss. This is some devouring horror being from the depths of the abyss, which ate everything in its vicinity in the abyss itself and crawled into the Demon Realm to eat more things. The Emperor of the Abyss was attracted to Mobei-Jun’s father. They fought. Mobei-Jun’s father should have won, but didn’t, because he was too fucked up (thanks to his own hedonism or something) to fight properly. What an asshole.

Mobei-Jun’s father was killed and devoured by the Emperor of the Abyss, which has made it… exponentially powerful. It’s now… basically a calamity. The desolation that it leaves in its wake across the Northern Desert is unspeakable. Mobei-Jun and his family, their allied clans, and pretty much all demons in the Northern Desert have had to flee.

Mobei-Jun is currently essentially a “guest” of the Sha Clan. He’s homeless. He’s lost the power of his ancestors. He’s a “king” without a kingdom. It’s humiliating. He needs to kill the abyssal creature to retrieve: his title, his ancestors’ power, and his kingdom.

While working for other demon clans to support his family and people, Mobei-Jun crosses paths with Airplane. Airplane has become a relatively successful merchant and inventor, and he calls himself Shang Houhua. He lives a very comfortable life and does his best to ignore anything resembling the plot. He’s pretty successful at ignoring the plot.

Mobei-Jun is never in a good mood these days, but he’s especially pissed off to see that human who abandoned him all those years ago. Airplane tries to argue that Mobei-Jun told him to fuck off, but Mobei-Jun is too angry. Airplane makes lots of offers in an effort to get Mobei-Jun to spare his life, one of which ends up being a claim that he can help Mobei-Jun kill the Emperor of the Abyss and make him a king again. Mobei-Jun pauses, now even more pissed off than before, and Airplane just starts babbling desperately to save his own skin.

Mobei-Jun was already forming a company to take on a Quest for the Northern Desert - in the hopes of slaying the Emperor of the Abyss and retaking his homeland. Part of the issue has been that forming the company is difficult. Mobei-Jun wants people who are loyal to HIM and ONLY to him. He won’t owe anyone else anything or promise them pieces of his homeland.

(Airplane is like, “Bro, I don’t know if you can afford to be so picky, but okay.”)

So Mobei-Jun is like… “I still want to kill you, but fine, you can come on our quest and help us.”

So Airplane ends up on the Quest for the Northern Desert, led by his very angry future murderer the “king without a kingdom” Mobei-Jun, to fight the calamitous Emperor of the Abyss who killed Mobei-Jun’s father. Fuck.

Some details beyond this opening premise:

Airplane and Mobei-Jun fall in love over the course of the quest, obviously. They have their own hijinks like each chapter of The Hobbit (equivalents to the trolls, to Rivendell, to Goblintown, to Beorn, to Mirkwood, and to Laketown, etc.).

Oh, damn, I just realized that making a pre-fall Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang the Beorn equivalents would be so fucking funny.

The Emperor of the Abyss is a horrifying Smaug equivalent. It can totally talk because Airplane having a conversation with a draconian horror sounds incredible. I would love to have Airplane outwit the Emperor of the Abyss in some fashion.

Mobei-Jun and Airplane somehow manage to successfully kill the Emperor of the Abyss together. Like, together. Probably using some plot device whipped up or some clever plan devised by Airplane on his feet. Mobei-Jun trusts Airplane at a crucial moment and it all works out. Airplane actually gets Mobei-Jun his kingdom back.

I’m tempted to just skip over the Ring and not having a Ring equivalent. BUT if I made this into a longfic instead of a one-shot, I would have a Ring equivalent (if it was a one-shot, I would ditch the Ring equivalent). I think I would make Xin Mo the One Ring equivalent. During the Goblintown equivalent event, Airplane falls either into the Eternal Abyss or into Bing-Ge’s dimension, where he proceeds to successfully take up Xin Mo because he knows the trick and portal himself out of the Eternal Abyss, or he proceeds to outwit Bing-Ge in some fashion and uses the Xin Mo sword to portal himself back to the right dimension.

So then Airplane is stuck with this super powerful sword that he doesn’t want to use again because he KNOWS that it will fuck him up. He KNOWS that it will FUCK HIM UP. So Airplane has to go through the rest of the quest ignoring the temptation of the Xin Mo sword that he is absolutely not supposed to have and can’t possibly let anyone else have.

(Oh, man, imagining the influence of Xin Mo giving Airplane extra horny thoughts about Mobei-Jun on the rest of the quest is very funny. Like, Airplane was already hot for Mobei-Jun, but now it’s worse and he might never have a normal thought ever again.)

Bagginshield Movie Hug when Airplane turns up again, for sure. Mobei-Jun thought he was dead. Mobei-Jun smiles and everything, until he remembers to frown again.

I’m feeling like I don’t want Airplane to use Xin Mo to help defeat the Emperor of the Abyss, but it makes sense if he does. Him not using it doesn’t make much sense. I do like the idea of Airplane dealing the killing blow and Mobei-Jun’s pride being hurt by Airplane being the one to kill it. I also like the idea of Mobei-Jun being a little smitten by Airplane just… loyally handing him his kingdom and restoring the power of his ancestors. I also really like the idea of Airplane just… not having some super powerful plot device up his sleeve on the quest.

Like, instead of Airplane’s Author God knowledge totally setting him up to deal with this thing no problem, Airplane had NO FUCKING PLAN when he set out with Mobei-Jun. He was talking completely out of his ass when he said he knew how to help Mobei-Jun. That this all worked out at all is almost completely due to luck and improvisation.

That feels MUCH more true to both Shang Qinghua and to Bilbo Baggins. Lucky lads of fast-talking, complaining, lying, not knowing what the fuck is really going on, thirsting after kings with tragic backstories, and somehow not dying despite winging it all the time.

Instead of goldsickness, Mobei-Jun is forced to deal with some side-effects of consuming the Emperor of the Abyss to regain the power of his ancestors. (Demon cannibalism rituals. Yeah.) He starts acting really scary and out-of-character and forceful, until Airplane loses his nerve and runs away. Maybe under the influence of the late Emperor of the Abyss, Mobei-Jun actually tries to kill him? I could see Mobei-Jun trying to kill Airplane for the Xin Mo sword which dealt the finishing blow on the Emperor of the Abyss.

(I need a better name for this thing. If I can’t come up with something that actually sounds good, I might just call it “The Calamity”, but that’s giving me BOTW vibes so I don’t like it. Maybe I’d call it “The Desolation” or something? Ehhhh, I don’t really like that either.)

I want to have a Battle of the Five Armies equivalent, if only so Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang can swoop in as benevolent helpers as the Beorn equivalents. Currently, I’m seeing three options. 1) The orc army equivalent are neighboring demon lords who want to strike while the new Mobei-Jun is getting established. 2) The orc army equivalent is Linguang-Jun trying to kill his nephew and take power at the last minute. 3) The orc army equivalent is Bing-Ge here with an army and he’s pissed off and wants his sword back.

On one hand, 1 and 2 would be SO MUCH EASIER to pull off. I could be really lazy about the whole thing. On the other hand, 3 would be much fresher (more surprising and links back to the Xin Mo element), more challenging and the idea of pre-fall Tianlang-Jun facing off with Bing-Ge delights me. Kick his ass, Tianlang-Jun!

(Su Xiyan gets involved? My brain says YES. Kick his ass, Su Xiyan!)

Also, I was sad about there being no Fili and Kili equivalents, because Mobei-Jun has no friends, and I’ll have to make up a company pretty much from scratch. (Sha Hualing is too young and Luo Binghe hasn’t been born yet.) BUT then I was like, “Where’s Linguang-Jun in all this?” And I would absolutely have Linguang-Jun be a part of Mobei-Jun’s Company. Instead of nephews, Mobei-Jun has a sketchy uncle who might be trying to kill him. Keeping Linguang-Jun out of it might be easier, but actually doing some character-building with him sounds fun and challenging, and I’d rather limit the number of OCs if possible.

Mobei-Jun manages to shake off the goldsickness equivalent somehow, probably through “the power of love” (and/or straight-up “dual cultivation” with Airplane?). Moshang makes up while Mobei-Jun is apparently mortally wounded from fighting Bing-Ge and Airplane thinks this is all his fault. But Mobei-Jun doesn’t die! It’s all good!

It’d be pretty funny if there was a “Returning to the Shire” equivalent where Airplane leaves because he thinks Mobei-Jun hates him now and never wants to see him again. So then Mobei-Jun has to track his man down like, “Get back here and marry me. (Also I am so sorry for trying to kill you. Please forgive me. I hate myself so much for that.)”

And they all live happily ever after!

Holy shit, this wasn’t in Proud Immortal Demon Way.

#svsss hobbit fusion au #tossawary updates #tossawary svsss #moshang #mobei jun #shang qinghua #comfort media fusion aus #fic ideas

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strange-lace · 3 years

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Misunderstandings

I HAVE FINALL MADE CONTENT FOR MY SPIDER MONKIE AU! And SURPRISE, it’s angst!

Despite his best efforts, MK knew that he was a terrifying image to humans when he dropped his glamor. He loomed over most people due to his size, lower body plated with a dark exoskeleton with long legs which were sharp enough to impale someone without much effort. MK had tried to make it look less intimidating by painting bright little doodles all over his lower body. Soft and precise strokes decorated his exoskeleton with a couple of noticeably lower quality, lines shaky and uneven as if done by a beginner. Yet they were the ones he treasured the most. Particularly the large purple and orange hourglass symbol dead center on his spider abdomen.

"Am I doing this right sweetie?" She asked, long black hair pinned back to keep it clean yet it was still stained with streaks of paint. The same can be said for her worn robe, the faded fabrics speckled with rainbow flecks of paint. Her lips were pursed in concentration as the paintbrush shook in her hands.

It was certainly an image of the feared Spider Queen that few had the luxury of seeing and living to remember it, MK being one of them.

"Yeah mom, you're doing great. Try focusing on where you want the brush to go instead, it'll help smooth out your strokes," he suggested, having to contort a slight bit to see what she was doing. She followed his advice and happily finished the symbol.

"There! Now everyone will know to fear my little spiderling the moment they lay their eyes on him," Spider Queen cooed, putting the paintbrush away to pat MK on the head, accidentally staining his dark hair with the purple and orange paint which had gotten on her hands.

MK held a brief smile at the memory before letting out a sigh.

Unfortunately, bright colors and cutesy symbols could only do so much against the large collective fear of demons, especially big ones with fangs and multiple legs. Which he was unfortunate enough to find out when fighting a demon who's whole speciality was glamor magic and could see right through him.

"That must be uncomfortable, squeezing yourself into such a small form. How about I give you a chance to stretch your legs for a while?" The demon said mockingly and before MK knew it, he was enveloped in a cloud of shimmering dust. Suddenly, everything was a lot smaller to him and MK was left to clumsily stumble as his two legs became eight without warning. He squinted as the world was now a lot brighter through his four eyes, colors even more vivid than before to the point it nearly gave him a headache.

Yet it all only registered to MK when he heard people start screaming about a giant spider demon.

“Oh no…” He whispered to himself, wincing as his vision cleared only to see civilians running away from him. And while he understood why, it still felt like a stab to his heart to see people terrified of him. The hurt quickly became panic once he hit what felt like a blockade to his magic, preventing him from re-activating his glamor.

MK was stuck like this for the time being.

“This can’t get any worse,” he hissed, freely skittering through the now empty streets now that he wasn’t at risk of accidentally stepping on someone. He was instantly proven wrong when he heard the twin sound of motors headed right him and MK had to dodge quickly to avoid getting hit by Mei’s bike head on and from Pigsy’s truck from crashing into one of his legs.

It just got worse.

"Alright demon, might be best to give up now-!" Mei froze mid-boast, face going pale underneath her helmet. She was soon joined by Pigsy, Sandy, and Tang who looked at what had her so shaken and their own confusion quickly transformed into their own individual shows of shock. Pigsy looked genuinely sick, Tang didn’t seem to be breathing with wide eyes behind his glasses, and Sandy’s entire being seemed to bristle as if to make himself look even bigger out of self-defense.

It dawned on MK once he saw they were all staring at the staff still clenched in his clawed hand.

That he was still holding while in his true form. Which wouldn’t look out of place as part of the Spider Queen’s forces, skin now covered in purple fur and eyes a dizzying bright green. And was still wearing his easily recognizable orange and purple jacket and headband now draped around his neck from the chaos.

MK now realizes that this did not paint a good picture in his favor.

“I… can explain,” he stuttered, wincing at the sound of his own voice: hoarse and deeper to his own ears.

He had no way of explaining this.

“What did you do to my boy?” Pigsy was the first to break the silence, eerily calm yet everyone could tell that his rake was close to snapping with how tight his grip was. Following behind him, everyone else’s shock and horror morphed into rage and MK felt his stomach tighten further and further in fear. Tang’s eyes were hidden behind the glare of his glasses with a stillness to him that made you fear he would strike at any moment before you could react. Sandy’s entire demeanor had changed in a way that made MK understand Pigsy’s past descriptions as him being a feared warrior.

And Mei?

Well Mei’s entire being was wreathed in green and vibrating with barely restrained wrath.

MK stumbled back on his eight legs, feeling incredibly small in the face of his family’s anger despite towering over them.

They didn’t know it was him. As far as they knew, he was just another demon.

He didn’t know if this was better or worse for him.

“We will not repeat ourselves, demon: What did you do to our kid?” Tang demanded with a glare as sharp as knives. MK soon found himself surrounded, breath turning shorter and shorter as his family came closer and looked ready to tear him apart if it meant getting the answers they wanted. Yet he could only see the image of the calabash copies of his family and mentor pouncing at him to prevent him from escaping, countless nightmares of them successfully trapping them in his “perfect” world weighing on his spine.

So it was only natural that he panicked when they all descended upon him as he remained silent, throat closed up in sheer anxiety. It had happened so fast but before MK knew it, he had bound them all in web cocoons without even meaning to.

Yet he took the opportunity while they were struggling to free themselves to go for the most logical course of action according to his panic-ridden brain: run away, far and fast. He didn’t even know where he was going, all MK knew was that he had to make himself scarce around the city until he could finally use his glamor again. If he wasn't sick from panic, he could almost laugh at the image of himself struggling to balance all eight of his spider legs on the staff as he pogoed through the city.

So it shouldn’t really have surprised to find himself on the beach of Flowering Fruit Mountain, the monkeys scattering away in fear at the sight of him as he created a small crater in the sand.

The following silence was deafening, allowing his thoughts to continue to run wild without anything to focus on. He only faintly realized that tears were running down his face as the mountain breeze gently blew against him, as if trying to offer its own form of comfort as he spiraled.

MK couldn't stop seeing the faces of his loved ones, his family, as they looked at him with such hatred and rage. He tried to keep reminding himself that it was only because they didn't know it was him, as far as they knew he was a random powerful demon who managed to get their hands on the staff. But tell that to his heart, which felt like it was genuinely breaking into pieces. The pain was enough to put MK to his knees, choking on his tears and grip on the staff tight enough to make the joints of his exoskeleton-plated hands ache.

"Kid? You here kid?" MK didn't even think, he found himself scrambling towards the familiar voice of the Monkey King, desperate for comfort. Sun Wukong grunted as he found his arms now full of a panicked spider demon but was able to adjust his footing before he could lose his balance. He let out a sigh of relief, no longer struggling to hold since he had lifted far heavier people in his long life. Questions died on his tongue as the sound of muffled sobs entered his ears, his successor’s face buried in his fur as if wanting nothing more than to hide from the world.

“What happened bud? You wanna talk about it?” MK was silent for a moment before he gave a garbled response in the Monkey King’s fur. “Sorry, what was that?”

“A demon messed with my glamor, leaving me stuck like this and they saw me. They didn’t know it was me and they saw the staff and they thought… they hated me,” he rambled, a fresh round of tears leaving his four eyes. Wukong remained silent but silently walked towards his home, MK still in his arms.

“Oh kid, I’m so sorry. You know that they wouldn’t be that way if they knew that it’s you. But that definitely explains why Pigsy called me, threatening to eviscerate me the moment he saw me if anything had happened to you,” Wukong gave a smile at the wheezy chuckle MK let out at the image of his boss and father figure calling the Monkey King just to rip into him. Yeah, that sounded like Pigsy alright. “I think I can fix up whatever that demon did to your glamor. Then you can hang out here for a while, if you want, before going back home. That sound good bud?”

“Yeah… sounds great Monkey King,” MK answered before letting out a yawn, now left exhausted now that the anxiety and panic has leaked from his system with the presence of his other father figure mentor there to comfort him. Wukong gave a chuckle, gently placing MK down on his couch and putting on Monkey King: The Animated Series without a second thought. Seemingly realizing that he was no danger to them or their king, the monkeys quickly began to use MK as their personal jungle gym without any fear. That seemed to do the trick, as he was now chuckling at the sight of the little monkey’s looking at the doodles on his exoskeleton with curiosity.

Wukong watched the scene before him with a warm look in his eyes before it quickly hardened as he slipped out of his home for a moment. Pulling out his phone, he gave a deep sigh to calm himself before tapping to call a very specific number.

“Sun Wukong, to what do I owe the pleasure?” A velvety voice answered upon the third ring.

“A demon severely messed up the kid and I figured you’d like to… return the favor,” he answered, voice dead serious.

The line went silent, the echoes of enraged hissing barely audible in the background.

“What did they do to my baby?” Any hint of playfulness was gone in the voice, the Spider Queen enraged to know that someone had harmed her son in such a way to make the Monkey King willing to contact her.

“Messed with his glamor and the others saw him, nearly attacked him thinking he was a demon that had managed to get the staff. He’s fine physically but he’s an emotional mess. All the kid was able to tell me was that they specialize in glamor magic. Think you can work off that?”

“Of course I can, what do you take me for?! But… is he alright?” Wukong smiled, almost quipping about her getting soft over the years but she could very easily call him a hypocrite.

“I have him with me and have everything under control. Just do what you do best S.Q. and I’ll keep in touch, ‘kay?” Everything about him was casual yet the look in the Monkey King’s eyes was nothing but fire that promised he would have burned whoever harmed his kid without mercy, if he wasn’t “retired”.

“Of course, might as well make use of your “retirement” after all. I’ll make sure to make our… displeasure to that foolish demon evident for the both of us. Take care of my spiderling Wukong, otherwise I will figure out a way to make you mortal to end you.” Despite her tone, Spider Queen was only half serious since she knew ending the Monkey King would make MK upset with her. And the last thing she wanted to do was lose her spiderling after searching for him for so long.

“Sure you will S.Q., I totally believe that. But until later, see ya!” Wukong said before hanging up, satisfied but antsy which was typical after every occasion he spoke with the Spider Queen. Walking back inside, he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of MK now fast asleep with the monkey’s cuddled around him.

Totally worth it.

#lego monkie kid #monkie kid #mk #sun wukong #spider queen #pigsy #tang #sandy #mei #spider monkie au #my writing #fanfiction

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eijie-cavies · 3 years

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Wen Kexing and the great divide.

So as we all know Episode 32 and 33 has left us with a plethora of questions and the fans are divided in terms of their view on Wen Kexing's plan. Tbh that is to be expected if you look at it. It was an asshole move to hide everything from A-Xu and leave him to find his soulmate's dead body only to find holy shit this motherfucker is alive still what the hell. And so a lot of the fans sided with the argument that Wen Kexing never learned and was acting like a selfish lone wolf. But today i am here to try to analyze the plan between Scorpion king, Wen Kexing and Ye bai Ye.

Please keep in mind i haven't watched the entirety of the show yet and so some theories here might not fit in with the rest of Kexing's explanation for the next episode.

Also thid will contain spoilers so please be warned.

Alright let's start. I will be dividing this analysis into parts. 1st part is the show's script and budgeting and why they chose the route that the went with.

2nd part is my theories on the heroes conference and why it was rushed as well as the timeline.

And lastly Wen Kexing's POV and the analysis for his plan and why he did what he did keeping A-Xu in mind as well.

A few extra bonuses is the romeo and juliet plot and why i think it had to be in the plot somehow.

So lets start, sit down and grab a drink for this you will need it.

1st part.

Scriptwriting and budgeting.

This show was supposed to have 45 episode and so the plot would have had more time to marinate and kick in if it weren't for the shortening of the epsiode.

With this in mind the scriptwriter had originally planned for this 45 episode and sadly we won't probably know what was supposed to happen if it weren't cut to 36 episode. But we do have Wolong nuts to thank for giving the drama sponsorship and making the drama into 36 rather than 32. If we had only 32 episodes in this drama everything would have felt too rushed and fast paced. And so to have to cut 9 episodes worth of plot the screewriter was put in a tight spot on how to cram three different events. Namely the kidnapping, the exposing of Zhao Jing and of course the wedding plot as well.

Thus the Romeo and Juliet plot was born. We will be discussing this plot in depth later on in the analysis. Nonetheless if they have had all the freedom and budget it would have been nice to see a plot of Zhou Zishu, Wen Kexing and The Scorpion King all work together to bring Zhao Jing down. For now let us work on the plot given to us.

2.) Timeline.

The heroes conference is a huge deal, this is where EVERYONE of big sects and names gather in the martial arts world, its the equivalent of the whole world witnessing everything. This event is a big part of the plan that the three accomplices had, if they didn't act right away Wen Kexing and Xie'er (Scorpion King) wouldn't have had the chance to expose Zhao Jing in the future, because like what the beauty ghost relayed, once the heroes conference is over Zhao Jing planned on killing Xie'er and eradicating the ghost valley. There would have been no other time to take him down, no time to wait for another heroes conference as Zhao Jing would have risen in power already, they would have been too powerful to stop and the merits he would have gained by then would be multiplies, the people wouldnt see him as evil anymore. Therefore it was crucial to strike at the time where they are most vulnerable and the seed of doubt was still fresh, if they had waited, everyone would have disregarded Wen Kexing as a mad man and praised Zhao Jing for saving them from the purges of the ghost valley.

And scorpion king? Who would believe him if he was the only one to take a stand? His Godfather no doubt would have acted as if he didnt know what Scorpion was saying and act innocent. Even if he was spared Scorpion had no allies other than Wen Kexing who's allies was also born out of the same hatred they had for Zhao Jing. Everyone was forced to act swiftly, it was an all or none kind of situation. Now if we backtrack to the previous episodes, not two episode ago Zhou Zishu was heavily injured because of the kidnapping and was given no time to properly heal before everything needed to be set. As you can see in episode 31 Wen Kexing was in a hurry to meet Xie'er, don't you think it was iffy that he would leave A-Xu like that if he was still injured? The Wen Kexing that we all know would not have moved a single inch from Zhou Zishu's side if he were injured. And this is because of a lot of things which we will be getting to in the third part of the analysis.

Now on the subject of the plan and how Chengling had somehow gotten a hold of it. Simple, Ye bai Yi. He is free to roam around, sending messages and talking to people behind the scenes, we never really knew what he did after he left Wen kexing at four seasons manor and the reason why he had agreed on the rushed reopening of the heroes conference. but if you think about it it fits with the timeline. Zhao Jing wanted to reopen the heroes conference and Ye Bai Yi was sure that they were out to hunt down the chief of the ghost valley. If you remember the letter in episode 27 you will understand.

Why did they get that letter in the first place when the four seasons manor wasnt even fully restored yet? The martial arts world didnt even know that Zishu was on the road to reopening it and yet he got an invitation. This is Ye Bai Yi's first clue and a nudge for Wen Kexing to take action. This leads us to part 3. Wen Kexing's plan.

3. Wen Kexing's plan.

Now the question is why didn't Wen Kexing think to tell Zhou Zishu his plan? Simple. He is heavily injured. Now i was stuck here as well because i would have thought, why couldnt he just trust Zishu of his plan? BUT you all have forgotten this.

Wen Kexing has asked this two times, he wanted tell Chengling already so the kid could process it before he could stage his plan and possibly even tell Zhou Zishu on how he can use the heroes conference as an event where he can expose Zhao Jing. But Zhou Zishu was kidnapped, tortured and injured. There was no time to tell him of the plan without him having to stop Wen Kexing from doing it. At first i thought this didnt make sense, Wen should have trusted Zishu enough to carry on without distrubance right? Well a very nice person in Youtube provided some very interesting and eye opening points for me.

And they are right, if i were Wen kexing i wouldn't want to burden Zishu of having to wait around thinking where i went off to, why do you think he told A-Xiang to take care of Zishu and promised to go back in one piece?

A-Xiang was also kept in the dark of the plan, the only plan she knew was that Wen Kexing is planning to have an alliance with the scorpion king and thats it. He didnt fully disclose everything either.

Wen Kexing's plan was simple, after he was regarded as "Dead" he probably would have went home to tell Zhou Zishu he was completely fine and it was all a ruse to trap Zhao Jing. BUT the problem was that Zishu set out to find him, Bei Yuan and Da Wu couldn't stop him either as they had no time to explain everything without Zishu panicking. Like i said this was all too rushed of a plan for Zishu to comprehend specially when he needed to heal as fast as possible.

What they could only do is give Zishu a medicine to ensure that if he ever did take out the nails he would still be okay. And that was the downfall of Kexing's plan. He didnt expect Zishu to have escaped his friends watchful eyes and go to the siege, ever wonder why Kexing said this when Zishu arrived?

He was trying to convince Zishu to leave, make him believe that Wen Kexing is out for blood. But Zishu didn't fall for it, instead he stayed which was NOT a part of the plan at all. There was nothing Kexing could have done now, the siege was happening and he could only play along and move forward. And if you look closely again just as they were about to attack Kexing, Ye Ba Yi came to fight Kexing at the VERY right time, and who fought Zhou Zishu?

The three ghosts WuChang, his subordinate and Happy ghost. Why didn't anyone else go for Zishu? They could have had the scorpions attack him but they chose the Ghosts who are a part of Wen Kexing's valley, mind you these three ghosts were there when they rescued Zishu wouldn't it just sound stupid if they were fighting Zishu to kill him? No. What they tried to do is separate Zishu from Wen Kexing. Ye Bai ye could have eliminated Wen in 10 moves, he said this himself. But they had this complicated dance that somehow landed Wen Kexing at the edge of the cliff and left Chengling to do the rest.

And so he fell and Zishu followed. If you look closely even Ye Bai Yi was surprised that Zhishu jumped. NONE of it was part of the plan. From the moment Zishu entered to the moment he jumped no one planned for it.

And if you are upset of Zishu having to see Kexing's dead body and breaking his heart, this again was NOT A part of the plan. Beauty ghost was there to protect the corpse, if the corpse had not been burned it would have been presented to the martial art world and Kexing would come back as a different person and telling them "They got it wrong. That corpse is the chief of the ghost valley, i am Wen Kexing the disciple of four seasons manor" and it would have been more belieavable. But plans went south, Zishu found the corpse further solidfying that Kexing (in his mind) is dead and so he took out the nails. Ke xing couldn't show himself to stop Zishu either, there was so little time and he couldn't risk himself be seen.

Some others had been in the dark of the plan as well, not just Zishu, and the reason Wen Kexing didn't dare tell him was not because he didn't trust Zishu to stay away and let the plan carry out, instead he know EXACTLY what this will do to Zishu. Wen Kexing's plan was to HIDE Zishu away until the conference ended. Because with Da Wu and Bei Yuan, there would have been no news about Ke Xing dying that would have reached their place and Zishu would have had all the time to recover as Ke Xing took revenge and finally come back home as a new person.

He NEEDED Zishu to stay away from the fight to help himself heal just enough to get the nails out.

His revenge done and his new goal to be with Zishu for the rest of their lives. But unfortunate events happened, Zishu found out and there was other way to go but forward.

Ever wonder why Kexing had this look on his face on episode 33?

He wanted so bad to explain everything but the spotlight was on him and this was the only time he will be given the chance to take a stand. This is now between him and the Zhao Jing. Like everything there was nothing to do but move forward.

Now for bonus part.

Romeo and Juliet plot.

Romeo and Juliet plot is basically person A percieved as "Dead" and person B endagering their life to the brink of death only to find person A was alive and well but Person B is for real dying.

Now tbh i wasn't a big fan of the Romeo and Juliet plot, this was the reason why fans became so divided and saying Kexing didn't learn his lesson therefore lossing their faith in Kexing and Zishu's relationship. He was pervieved as childish and selfish, And tbh they would have had so many plot devices that they can use to maximize full on plotting and bringing down Zhao Jing. But going back to my first point of the budgeting im guessing the scriptwriter had struggled to cram it all in. It was already episode 33 and they still had two more plots to cram in (the wedding and curing Zishu) so im not as upset as much. In the end the whole staff gave their best and poured their heart and soul into the drama. On an ending note i'll just let this nice person do the talking for me

Thank you for reading! If you guys have your own theories feel free to discuss or voice them out.

#wenzhou #wen kexing #zhou zishu #word of honor #shan he ling #faraway wanderers #analysis

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hypnobyl · 3 years

Note

could you do some fic about swanqueen.. like where regina and emma are friends but secretly have feelings for each other and one of them confesses after having too much wine?

also wanna ask if you have any advice or starting to write fics? i’ve found that i just really like to rush when writing and find myself in writers block a lot because i always want to get to the point and the exciting stuff. also just suck at wording things and writing in general lol

I thought a lot about your question. What I did was just write a lot of little short things. Not everything has to be a novel. If you have a huge idea and get stuck on exciting moments, follow that passion and write those moments first. Build from whatever inspiration you have.

So, write a bunch of really short things, just little moments, to get the hang of your style and voice. It's a great way to practice wording. If you ever want prompts for these moments, hit me up!

And if any of those little pieces strike a chord with you, start asking how did the characters get there? Where are they going? And build the context from there.

---

“I would not have guessed you’d be into this sort of movie,” Emma said between bites of popcorn—the snack, too, was surprising: buttery, salty, and totally unhealthy. She couldn’t quite parse how the woman who limited Henry’s fast-food intake was so enthusiastically enjoying a microwaved bag of heart-attack fuel.

“I’m full of surprises, dear.”

Regina likely hadn’t meant that to sound flirty. Like, definitely hadn’t. Emma stared at the television screen, a piece of popcorn held in front of her lips for a moment too long. In the few short months that she’d been coming over on Friday nights for movies and drinks, she’d been forced to confront the fluttering of her emotions caused by Regina’s attention. But now, she realized her feelings were taking too much control. She was seeing and hearing what she wanted, not actual reality.

“Definitely,” she replied after tossing the popcorn into her mouth and crunching away. “You’re very mysterious.”

“Sarcasm?”

She glanced over and caught Regina’s wry smirk. “Oh, no, definitely not.”

They returned to the movie, and Emma gnawed on her lower lip as she tried to banish the enticing image of Regina being happy. She didn’t offer up genuine smiles often, although Emma was seeing more of them lately. Of course, Henry could evoke them at the drop of a hat, but Emma found various ways of provoking positive responses—like texting silly emojis during meetings and bringing a bag of Skittles on tough days.

An explosion flashed on the screen, and Emma attempted rather futilely to refocus on the plot. She reached for another handful of popcorn and brushed against Regina’s hand. The small touch jolted through her, and her mind dove back into reassessing each of their interactions.

She cleared her throat. “I think it’s time to break open the wine.”

Regina stood to fetch the bottle from the fridge, and Emma followed after to snag a few glasses from a cabinet. She knew her way around Regina’s kitchen by now, and they moved around each other with practiced ease. Regina shifted behind her, placing a hand just over her lower back to establish her position and presence, and Emma hated how much she felt at home.

She was too sober.

“You got the white I like,” Emma noted as she placed the glasses on the counter.

Regina huffed. “I thought a safe pick was better after the faces you made last week after each sip.”

While Emma hoped this was some sign that Regina paid attention to her wants and needs, she took Regina’s explanation at face value. It was more likely that Regina wanted to avoid her acting out. Whatever the reason, she was grateful for the kindness because she could all but chug her glass without wanting to scrape the taste from her tongue.

“Thirsty, hm?”

“That popcorn was super salty.” Emma could feel the warmth already spreading through her, and some of the tension bled away. “Super good, too, but that salt, y’know?”

“Perhaps some water would have been a better choice, then.”

“No, wine is good,” she said too quickly. “Super good.”

Regina gestured back to the living room. “Shall we?”

“Oh, yeah, sure.”

As the movie crept toward its climax, Emma downed another glass. Feeling bolder, she scooted a little closer on the pretext of easier access to the bowl of popcorn. Their thighs came into contact, and Emma tried to sit as still as possible to avoid drawing attention. She really didn’t want Regina to inch away.

The main character delivered a powerful line before enacting a magnificent feat of physical prowess, and Regina snorted. Emma echoed the noise, which sparked more of a real laugh. Despite the movie’s tension, they laughed, and Emma tossed a bit of popcorn across the centimeters between them. It landed in Regina’s cleavage, and the wine helped Emma decide to try and retrieve the food. By the time her brain caught up with her actions, she had her hand down Regina’s shirt.

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry.”

She jerked her hand away, leaving Regina’s blouse tugged low to reveal the edge of a lacy black bra. Stop staring, she commanded herself. Please, she amended a moment later when her eyes refused to travel back to Regina’s face. Everything felt very warm.

“Emma?”

“Yeah?”

Regina gingerly adjusted her blouse, and Emma finally looked up.

“I think you’ve had too much to drink.”

Emma’s emotions tumbled around her stomach, sloshing through the alcohol and getting mired in past pain. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to be a burden. I’ll go.”

Regina’s hand settled on her knee, effectively holding her down with the barest of touches. “You’re not a burden.”

Lip trembling, Emma shrugged. “It’s okay. I’ll—It’s…”

“What’s upsetting you?” Regina paused the movie and turned to better look Emma in the eyes. “I may poke fun at the cricket, but his advice has… it’s helped a good deal. I need to better express myself, or so he says. I enjoy our evenings together, but I’ve noticed you’ve become jumpy as of late. Have I done something to cause you to drink more? Do you need to be drunk to bear my company?”

“No!” Emma shook her head too fast, causing the room to spin. “I just…”

“You just?”

“You’re so hot.” Her face flushed bright red, but she was too unsteady to get to her feet and flee the emotional moment, like she wanted to. Instead, she let her verbal vomit fly. “That’s like too rude, but it’s true. I like you. Like a lot. And I want you to want me, and my brain is like reading everything too much. Between the lines, or whatever. I don’t even really watch the movies anymore. I can’t. I’m just thinking and thinking about like oh god, our hands touched, and you did your make up so good and your lipstick is so red and I can’t stop looking at your lips and what if we kissed?”

To stop the flow, Regina answered the question by leaning in. Because she interrupted Emma’s tirade, the kiss was mostly teeth at first, but Emma was quick to shut up.

#swan queen #fanfiction #fanfic #ouat #short fic

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the-clari-net · 3 years

Text

A Mother’s Intuition

AO3

Maddie Fenton prides herself on being a woman of science. A woman full of reasoning and logic who has spent her entire career working on showing her credibility by proving that ghosts exist; not only that, but to show the dangers that they hold to the living. After so many years of being mocked and belittled she finally got her big break with that ghost portal. Once ghosts started coming into Amity Park, she knew she had something tangible that would shake the foundations of the scientific community that have been perceived as Law. Everyone would know that there exists a space that these laws don’t apply (in more ways than one). She and Jack would finally get their brilliance recognized, and her children could finally look at their parents with pride knowing that they’re the first to discover and pioneer this new branch of science never before studied by mankind.

With that being said, Maddie was the one who always brought a more realistic approach to the ideas Jack came up with. They made a good team like that, covering each other’s blind spots to the best of their abilities. Maddie was seen as the rational one, less emotionally swayed compared to her jovial and at times overly enthusiastic husband. That’s not a bad thing really, since it keeps Maddie grounded in not becoming too absorbed in observing at a microscopic level and he forces her to step back and relook at her project with new eyes with a wider perspective. This is all to say that Maddie is an observant person. Her profession relies on her ability to analyze and being able to report and reflect on those observations.

All this needs to be mentioned because Maddie has been feeling strange lately. Well, perhaps lately isn’t the right word. This is a feeling that has existed within her for awhile, it’s just become impossible to ignore the longer it stays. This is a blind spot that has grown too large to push aside.

Dread is one way to describe this feeling. Anxiety is another. At its worst peak, paranoia might be more applicable.

Right now Maddie is sitting at her dinner table with her family. It’s a Sunday night, she had ordered pizza earlier in the evening because the radioactive hot dogs are holding yesterday’s leftovers hostage. It’s a normal evening for the Fentons all things considered.

Except for the slightly shaky hands, which is strange for a woman who has skilled precision with a scalpel. Except for the pounding in Maddie’s chest, her pulse has been quickening the longer they’re having dinner, and she’s starting to hear that same pulse pounding behind her ears. Except for the slight chill that never leaves her despite sitting next to her husband who runs so warm he might as well be a personal heater.

There’s the tightening of her chest that leaves her struggling to breathe properly. It feels as if at any moment she may have to start gasping for breath like her sister Alicia used to as a kid before she got an inhaler to treat her asthma.

Ultimately, these are all the signs Maddie feels when she’s scared. It’s been a while since she’s felt true fear that wasn’t outweighed by adrenaline and excitement. She usually can hold her own against any human and she’s smart to never fight a ghost at close range. She can’t remember the last time she had felt helpless enough to fear like this.

As a woman who is a master at martial arts, she’s had a lot of past experience in her training going up against powerful opponents. There were certain opponents (especially in her early years of training) that made her feel like she was prey, that if she lost her focus for a moment, she would be pulverized. This is the same feeling only a thousand times worse.

Maddie has been trying to deny the connections she’s been weaving since the first prick of nervousness first reached her. She was a woman of science, she needed evidence to support her conclusion; correlation does not equal causation. However, her martial arts background has told her to trust your instincts; it’s a survival trait warning of a potential danger. The conflict of these two perspectives have been arguing in her head about the odd common thread with these spikes of anxiety.

These feelings only seem to appear whenever Danny was around.

It was such a silly observation at first, more of an offhand thought. But as time went on, and her nerves were worsening, the thought stayed with her in the back of her mind.

Maddie’s mind tries to be rational about the ordeal, trying to convince herself that these feelings of anxiety could be due to stress, or some effect of the ghost portal. The fact that something primal is screaming at her that her son –the boy who currently has a piece of pepperoni stuck to the side of his lip and is pouting at Jazz—is a threat to her livelihood is what worries her.

Could he be possessed by a ghost? No, that’s ridiculous; his eyes are blue, he can’t be possessed. They look a little brighter than normal. That’s the kitchen lighting, Danny is NOT involved in this.

It feels like it has to be ghost related. This feeling of dread is common with several of the ghosts that have appeared in Amity Park before. She’s noticed that the more powerful ones are more likely to cause this instinctual feeling compared to the little ghost blobs who only cause a shiver to your spine once physical contact is made.

“—right Mom?”, Maddie jumps a bit and looks up to realize that Jazz was looking directly at her. She notices that the pizza box is empty, and the table’s been cleared, except for her own plate. Was she out of it for that long?

“Sorry honey, I didn’t hear what you said. Could you repeat the question?”. She tried to offer a smile, but she could tell looked more like a grimace. Jack was looking at her worriedly, but he knew better than to push her to talk in front of the kids. Jazz looked back with a soft smile, but her brows were furrowed.

Maddie didn’t look in Danny’s direction.

“I was just saying I should have the leftover slice of pizza for tomorrow instead of Danny because I have seniority rights, right?”

Maddie blinked at Jazz for a moment before recollecting herself and standing up from her seat and moving to the sink to wash the dishes, forcefully ignoring the back of her mind screaming at her to run as far away as she can from here and never look back.

“Now you two, there’s no need to fight like that. Why don’t I just give you both some lunch money for tomorrow and we’ll call it even?” She smiled at Jazz, subtly angling herself so her back wasn’t facing towards Danny and kept him in her peripheral vision.

She doesn’t want to think of why she did that.

Later that night, Maddie couldn’t sleep. She managed to convince Jack that she was feeling better after dinner, and now she’s wide awake trying to remember why that fear felt so familiar. She recognized the unease that only comes from being in close contact with a ghost. It’s the same feeling that lingered in her system after having a ghost possess her; there’s a specific rolling in her stomach that comes from it. The feelings she got during dinner tonight felt like a specific ghost, something about it felt familiar but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

When she finally went to sleep, she was restless with dreams of sharp bright blue eyes, looming shadows that suffocated her, and sweet awkward smiles that slowly turned into menacing and haunting grins.

The rest of the week had been a pretty regular one. Jack and Maddie had spent most of the week building some new weapons that could help capture Phantom once and for all. Because of this, they had been eating in their lab. If Maddie felt relief at using her work as a shield to avoid family dinner, that’s her secret to keep.

The week had been quiet with no battles or major ghost sightings until a massive ghost battle broke out between Phantom and another one of the reoccurring ghosts on Friday. Skulker was the name of the ghost if what she had overheard from her sonar dish on the family RV was correct. It was all the way across town. Jack was behind the wheel, and Maddie was checking over the new prototype they had been working on all week that would hopefully weaken a ghost’s powers. They were hoping that Phantom could be their first test subject.

As they were about halfway to the battle, Maddie suddenly got a prickly feeling in her neck. She was well acquainted with that feeling when nearing ghosts, so she dismissed it as usual. But it got worse the closer they reached their destination. Her body slowly began to tense up, more, her breaths were becoming shallower, and her mouth had suddenly run very dry.

No… it can’t be…

There they were in front of Skulker and Phantom and all Maddie could do was tense up in terror and barely stop herself from letting out a whimper. This feels too familiar, he feels like…

Phantom suddenly crashes on top of their windshield, he groans and begins to lift himself off the hood of the RV when for a brief moment, his eyes meet Maddie’s. He sends a sheepish smile and begins to fly up towards Skulker, immediately striking him down with an ectoblast.

Meanwhile, Maddie feels all the blood drain from her face and she feels her eyes begin to fill up with tears. Jack is yelling about that darn ghost damaging his RV, but she can barely focus. She recognized the feeling now. The interaction between the two of them didn’t even last a minute, yet it is staying with her all the same.

The smile Phantom gave reminded her of a black-haired boy who would get caught staying up late looking at his telescope. A boy who would give her that same smile whenever he was confronted about skipping class and missing his assignments. She sees that smile every day in her own home.

It looked so odd, having that smile come from a boy with bright white hair, and eyes that glowed toxic green. The smile was sharper, with incisors that were just short of becoming fangs. But it was still recognizable.

She can no longer deny it, Phantom and Danny are connected. Danny even leaves her with the same sense of terror and fear that only a ghost as powerful as Phantom could do. It feels more potent with Phantom; looking him in the eye for that moment almost made her scream bloody murder.

Jack was never as attuned to the emotional effects that ghosts brought on due to his natural bravery and confidence (she has a theory about his family bloodline having adopted some traits that could block out these senses of fear which leads them to being better ghost hunters). However, even Jack had once mentioned that he felt unnerved by Phantom, which says a lot about the power that child ghost must hold. But to think that powerful monster is somehow connected to her son was a situation she never would have considered. Was he possessed?

When did it happen? Was it around the time that Maddie first began feeling unnerved?

How didn’t you notice? The back of her mind whispered to her. You’re his mother, aren’t you?

The weight of her realization begins to set it. The burden of fearing her son with no tangible reason for doing so. Her own neglect and obliviousness about missing this massive part of her son’s life fills her with guilt. Suddenly the weapon in her hand, ready to be used against Phantom (Danny?) makes her nauseous.

She feels her body beginning to shut down and go into autopilot. Maddie dazedly notices that she and her husband are parked in the middle of a street, in easy range to get blasted or crushed, or incinerated or possessed by these ghosts. She is in no condition to fight.

She feels a little hysterical thinking about her own safety when her son (or some possessed version of him) is out there fighting a ghost after literally crashing into an RV with military grade protection.

“Jack, we should go home”, Maddie hoarsely interrupts her husband’s tangent.

He looks like he was about to protest until he saw his wife’s bloodshot eyes, holding back tears and white as a sheet. Without further prompting, he turned the car around and as soon as the stiffening fear had melted away from Maddie’s shoulders did she finally allow the tears to fall.

#Danny Phantom #maddie fenton #phic #idk man #have fun with ghost vibes

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tarantulas4davey · 3 years

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HELLO BESTIE I am currently having Ralbert Brainrot and you're the best person go come to for this, obviously,, so PLEASE share! I would like to hear about ufc albert or youtuber race, or dancing partners!! I love them smm

HI YES HELLO USING THIS AS AN EXCUSE TO WRITE UFC FIGHTER AL PART 2 THANKS BABES

i just witnessed a literal crime and i’m Feeling The Rage (boxing judges at mma events can catch these hands) so here is. my brain on anger.

also the first half of this is pretty fight-talk heavy but the second half is more al/ralbert central so message me/send me an ask if i don’t explain something well enough <3

here is the ask i sent to @we-are-inevitable (thanks jac i’m in love with you mwah) and here is part 1 for this au if you haven’t read that one yet !!

also,,,,, this is fairly obvious. but trigger warning for violence/physical fighting, as well as blood. (it’s a rough gig y’all fjdhdb) oh and swearing but that’s pretty much just me LMAO

here i am, bein mad and writing ralbert. therapy time with chandler ig

OK SO

this is after his debut. duh. continuation

i think he’s probably 5 fights in with 5 wins. he’s been running people through, especially with four full camps after a short notice start, and he’s never even seen a decision in the ufc

let’s just say the hype train is moving FAST and it’s moving LOUD

everyone has to have those people that watch their fights just to see them lose, on top of the majority male fan base that have to have a little bit of toxic masculinity and homophobia in there

so there’s A LOT of people that are waiting for him and his hype train to get derailed. but there’s also a fair amount of fans, so you win some you lose some (the way i would die to see this be a real fighter pls)

now albert’s not always the most confident guy, and he’s never been cocky, but none of this shit gets to him. he’s got his coaches, he’s got his friends and he’s got race behind him. he knows he’s got the skills, and he’s got his support system, so who gives a shit what a bunch of cowards on the internet have to say?

and then they put him against someone known for his grappling and stamina. and the “it’s a wrap for dasilva!” bandwagon starts. it happens every time a rising striker and early knockout artist fights a well known grappler with any semblance of later round power (even if al has a background in wrestling and has gone 5 rounds and won outside of the ufc. it’s a bandwagon for a reason)

and it’s not Upsetting, it’s not really getting into his head in any way that’ll make him do worse, but it’s kinda pissing him off. which is bad for his opponent

the last person on earth you want to be fighting is an annoyed albert dasilva who thinks he has something to prove

he works his ass off in camp, and the press tour is a self-assured albert vs. a loudmouth who thinks he’s hot shit cause a few people on twitter think he’ll sweep

and, to be completely honest? it’s starting to look that way 2 rounds in.

it’s a 5 round fight, co-main event on a big card, and so far all al’s opponent has done is pinned him to the cage and kept him there. a few strikes worth anything - at least enough make al’s cheek bleed, no takedowns, which would at least give him some activity, and so submission attempts, so he can’t even gain any ground that way. he’s just- Stuck. and if THIS is how he loses, he’s gonna be pissed

the bell for the second round sounds, and you can actually see al’s chest heaving on camera as he walks to his corner - not because he’s tired or out of breath, but because he’s MAD, and fuck if he’s not going to do something about it

not only that, but he can not only see race and jack standing up by the cage - plus race’s expression, which is slightly annoyed and super anxious, which hurts his chest to think about - but he can hear them too

jack is yelling profanities, as per usual. he doesn’t that regardless of how the fight is going, but it’s less encouraging when you’re the one losing.

race though,,,, race isn’t really yelling, he’s more talking to himself than anything, but he’s close enough to cage and al knows him well enough to figure out what he’s saying. and if the muttered almost-prayers while he paces back and forth weren’t enough, the shiny gold engagement ring on race’s hand definitely is

round 3,,,, let’s just say it goes a little differently than the first 2 had gone.

he opens with a spinning back kick, of all fucking things, and that truly sets the pace

he’s the taller guy by a few inches, like usual, which makes his arms longer. the only reason crushing his against the cage worked is cause the guy he’s fighting cuts weight like a wrestler, so he’s easily got 20 pounds on albert come fight night

but once he finds his rhythm and starts throwing, he starts connecting too. he manages to stay out of range of his opponent and stay his comfortable distance to start t-ing off

this isn’t a one punch power ending. this isn’t a beautiful head kick, or a giant knee, or even just a clean right hook.

this is albert, who’s arms are starting to feel the 3rd round a little bit, hitting this guy with everything he has cause he refuses to lose this fight.

i mean- everyone watched him get up at the start of the round with a set jaw and a scary determined glint in his eye. he’s not a person you fuck with, and he’s definitely not a person you publicly ridicule before being locked in a cage to fight with

the guy he’s fighting is absolutely battered, but he manages to survive until round 4. the first of the championship rounds, something al’s never seen in a ufc fight before, and it feels like the arena is holding its breath

so when al comes out and does the same thing as round 3 to better results - fight ending results - everyone’s a little shocked, honestly

the commentary team’s in disbelief, cause albert is NOT a slow starter, regardless of what this fight would tell you, and the fact he managed a win at all, let alone such a phenomenal one, is fucking astounding

he gets his hand raised, obviously, but the really interesting part is the post fight interview

“albert, man, what changed between round 2 and 3? what second gear did you find?”

“bro, i just— it was pissing me off, honestly. i don’t come in here to get pinned down for 25 minutes. and, y’know, my team gave me good advice. i had all the pieces, straight from the jump, someone just had to force me to put them in place…”

and then he looks over at race, who gives al one of those half grin, half smirks and winks at him, and al just chuckles to himself and finishes answering the question

“the thing that really forced my hand is race. i won’t get cheesy on you, but watching someone who loves and supports you through everything panic cause he’s scared for you - it’s a big motivator. everyone would figure out a lot more of my motivations if they went and watched race’s expressions back instead of whatever the hell i’m doing in here. he’s always been the brains, i’m just the brawn.”

and that’s a better answer than anyone was expecting, plus he’s just had the fight of a lifetime that’s probably earned him a title shot, so he’s done soon after that and gets to have his little in-cage celebration

he hugs his team and jack, who razzes him a little bit as per usual, and makes some dumb quip about going over tapes later like he’s a coach. and then comes race

he hugs him, all tender and cute and also very sweaty cause That’s How It Works, and the camera’s focused on him, so they can tell they’re whispering back and forth. but there’s no mics on them, so what’s said is missed entirely on the audience, but it’s their usual cheesy, in love mess

“congrats, baby. i’m proud of you.”

“oh please. it was 90% you anyway. i meant what i said, it wasn’t just for the cameras.”

“i know that. i’m gonna have to get you back somehow for telling everyone to go back and watch my awful anxious expression. i’ll think of something.”

“i’m sure you will, sweetheart.”

and then al does that awful, adorable lil nose bump thing, and then kisses race. and then jack covers his eyes and whines until they stop like the actual 12 year old boy he is inside

and then they leave the octagon, race and al holding hands, and al throws his arm over jack’s shoulder and shoves his head down and pushes him, cause even though he was just in a literal cage match he’s still a roughhousing teenager at heart

and he’s got interviews and press shit that separates him from his people, and he’s gotta slide that bulletproof mask back down over all the happy and in love shit he’s feeling so he can not smile like an idiot on camera constantly

but every once in awhile he’ll catch jack giving him the finger and laugh before returning it below view of the camera

or he’ll catch race’s eye from where he’s standing behind all the studio lights and do a little wave under the camera and return the wink from earlier, and the unbothered fighter facade will crack a little bit

but he’s not completely convinced that’s such a bad thing

GOD THIS POST IS SO MUCH LONGER THEN I MEANT IT TO BE IM SORRY

but Yeah. Them.

i love this au a helleva lot more than i should but that’s Fine cause i’ve got thoughts for days on it

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path-of-my-childhood · 3 years

Text

Taylor Swift: Pop Star of the Year

By: Jonathan Dean for The Sunday Times Date: December 27th 2020

Rather than hunker down, the singer put out two albums in 2020 and won over new audiences. She’s the pop star of the year.

Taylor Swift met Paul McCartney in the autumn for a big interview in Rolling Stone. The two would have headlined Glastonbury this summer. Who knows if they will do that next year. Anyway, both recorded albums in lockdown, working from home like the rest of us. When they spoke, though, Swift had a secret. As well as Folklore, released in July, she had a follow-up record in the pipeline — Evermore, which was released this month.

Swift noted that the former Beatle was still so full of joy. “Well, we’re just so lucky, aren’t we?” he said. “We’re really lucky,” Swift replied. “I can’t believe it’s my job.” And she is right. Being a pop star is an extraordinary way to earn the living she does. But rather than accepting luxury and letting this tough year tumble on, Swift is also keenly aware what music means. Sad songs soothe, happy songs make us dance, but as fans of most artists waited for something — anything — this year, this 31-year-old released two albums that broke chart records, were critically adored and introduced her to people who once thought that she wasn’t for them.

“I’m so exhausted!” she said to the American chat show host Jimmy Kimmel, laughing, a few weeks ago, when asked if she had a third new album planned. “I have nothing left.” In addition to Folklore and Evermore, she filmed a TV special and even started rerecording her back catalogue, after a volatile dispute over who owns her work. By October I’d just about cobbled together my first sourdough loaf.

A decade ago Swift moved firmly into the limelight thanks to a squabble with Kanye West entirely of the rapper’s own making. In 2009, when Swift — then a nascent country music star — won the best female video award at the VMAs, West stormed on stage, grabbed her microphone and said that Beyoncé should have won. Swift was 19 — West was 32 — and she looked scared. This wasn’t just about her biggest moment yet being stolen, but also about her position in the pop hierarchy being questioned, very publicly, from the off. She stood there as that man bullied her. Apparently she left the stage in tears.

Years later West released Famous, with its infamous lyric “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/ Why? I made that bitch famous.” The alt-folk singer Father John Misty also wrote about sleeping with her. Every time that sort of thing happened, a powerful man in Swift’s industry was reducing a successful, talented, younger female to the level of a sex object. It was back-in-your-box belittling — as it was when a TV host groped her. (She successfully sued him.) While Swift herself would retort to West, as her music became less country, more slick pop, such retorts felt forced and gave the rapper too much of her oxygen. A nod to him on Folklore comes with the “Clowns to the West” line, but it is a sideshow now, not a headline.

Not that Swift’s life is entirely her own. She’s been one of the world’s bestselling female artists for a decade, coupled with curiosities such as a well-orchestrated relationship with Tom Hiddleston that kept her in the spotlight. Like many twentysomethings, Swift spent her youth apolitically, only to receive flak for staying silent during the 2016 US election. This year she endorsed Joe Biden, but what if she had wanted to stay quiet? Would the media have let her? She is under so much scrutiny that, after she made an innocuous hand gesture in a recent TV interview, similar to one women make to draw attention to domestic abuse, this headline ran: “Some people think Taylor Swift is secretly asking for help in her latest interview.”

Like many at the start of the pandemic she felt listless. The world we were used to was a wasteland, and we could only find the energy to watch Normal People. Swift’s ennui, though, was, well, swift. Stuck in LA, she emailed Aaron Dessner of the beloved beardy indie band the National to see if he fancied writing with her. No fool, Dessner said yes and, mere weeks later, the duo — with help from Swift’s regular collaborator Jack Antonoff as well as Justin Vernon, from the beloved beardy indie band Bon Iver — released Folklore. The gang just carried on working and, five months later, gave us Evermore.

Creativity is not on tap. Indeed, this year is not one for judging what others may or not have achieved. However, the silence of many big pop stars is striking because they know that even a single would make someone’s day; distract for a while.

Everyone needed to adjust to working from home, but Swift was one of the only musicians who did and, by eschewing the arena pop of recent albums for something more subdued, organic and folky, she gave the sense that she was letting fans in more than ever. She was at home, like us. This is who she is, and the first single from these sessions was so cosy, it was even called Cardigan.

“I just thought, ‘There are no rules any more,’” she told McCartney. “Because I used to put all these parameters on myself, like, ‘How will this song sound in a stadium?’ If you take away the parameters, what do you make? I guess Folklore.”

Maybe it is tedious, for a deft writer with a career of varied, brilliant songs — Love Story, I Knew You Were Trouble, Blank Space — to find respect from some people only when artists who appeal to middle-aged men start to work with her. On the other hand, pop has never been particularly welcoming to many until it sounds like something you are used to and, with delicate acoustics and gossamer-like piano, Swift’s two new albums recall, sonically, Nick Drake or Kate Bush. Thematically, lyrics seem to come from anywhere. Daphne du Maurier, for one. Even the Lake District and its poets.

Some songs are personal. She is dating British actor Joe Alwyn, and on one track she sings, “I want to give you a child.” Make of that what you will. But these records’ highlights are not about herself, but others. “There was a point,” she told Zane Lowe on Apple Music, “that I had got to as a writer, [where I was only writing] diaristic songs. That felt unsustainable.” Instead, she does what the best writers do and mixes subjective with objective. The Last American Dynasty is a terrific piece of writing about the socialite Rebekah Harkness, who lived in a Rhode Island house that Swift bought and was, by all accounts, a bit scandalous. Swift tells her story almost with envy. Imagine, she seems to say, that freedom.

“In my anxieties,” she said in Rolling Stone, “I can often control how I am as a person and how normal I act. But I cannot control if there are 20 photographers outside in the bushes and if they follow our car and interrupt our lives.”

Then there is Epiphany. The first verse is about her grandfather, who fought in the Second World War; the second about frontline workers in hospitals now. Sung in a high register, it is suitably choral. Marjorie, on Evermore, is even better. It is about her grandmother, an opera singer who died in 2003. “What died didn’t stay dead” is the repeated line, and it is eerie, gorgeous. Swift sings how she thinks Marjorie is singing to her, at which point some vocals from the latter’s recordings waft in. Touching, but the real power is in Swift writing about vague memories of a relative who died when she was young. “I complained the whole way there,” she sings. “I should’ve asked you questions.”

In person she is warm like this, and funny. When Kimmel told her there were far more swearwords on Folklore and Evermore than previous records, she replied: “It’s just been that kind of year.” She is also odder than people realise. In the way pop stars should be. Obsessed by numerology, she wrote, on the eve of her birthday when announcing Evermore: “Ever since I was 13, I’ve been excited about turning 31 because it’s my lucky number backwards.” When I turned 31 I just wished to be 13 again, with all that youth, but then, maybe, she is just joking. “Yes, so until I turn 113 or 131, this will be the highlight of my life,” she said. “The numerology thing? I sort of force it to happen.”

Swift, of course, is far from the first pop star to become public property, or have a close bond with fans. This year, however, she was one of the few to show that such adoration is not one-way. She is, simply, a fan of her fans — from planting secrets in her artwork and lyrics, to recording two albums of new music as a balm for them when real life became too deafening.

“One good thing about music,” sang Bob Marley. “When it hits you, you feel no pain.” The 80.6 million who streamed Folklore on its first day will attest to that idea. So will the four million who bought it. Swift is pop star of the year, no doubt — leaving her peers in her wake, on their sofas, rewatching The Sopranos.

#thanks to anon who brought this to my attention!#🖤#taylor swift #the times #article #about taylor #folklore album #folklore era #evermore album #evermore era #twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1342959069792002050

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flufflepuffle296 · 4 years

Text

Heathers au: Beautiful Songfic

This is more centred around Veronica/Marinette so not really any mentions of Heather/Heather/Heather. Sorry if someone’s done this before I apologise I just got into Heathers like two days ago. Also I changed some lyrics and took others out to make it more “realistic”. Sorry I suck at endings, it’s 5:30am rn and this is my first fic so be nice please! (I’m on mobile so I can’t add the keep reading tag so sorry if you don’t like this) xxx

I brushed down my dress: I couldn’t give them anything to criticise me over. Everything had to be perfect. I had to be perfect. Chloé sat next to me, my beautiful fiancée, slipping on her kitten heels. She may be 3 months pregnant but no Bourgeois woman would be seen wearing flats. I was in a red floor length a line dress — I grew out of my childish pink years ago, before it even went out of fashion! My hair was twisted into two plaits that were knotted together into a stylish bun at the back. Chloé meanwhile had stuck to her white and gold aesthetic, currently in a slim fitting white dress, showing off her small baby bump, decorated with gold jewellery. I rummaged through my drawers, trying to find a lipstick, when a thin book toppled out. I picked it up, and laughed fondly when I saw what it was.

My old Collège and Lycée diary.

I flipped through it, landing on the page that stuck most clearly in my mind. It was the day my class reminded me of my current reality at that time, shocking me out of a bubble that had surrounded me during the summer holidays that year.

September 1st, 1989.

Dear Diary: I believe I'm a good person. You know, I think that there's good in everyone, but—here we are! First day of senior year!

And uh... I look around at these kids that I've known all my life and I ask myself—what happened?

I bit my lip. What happened? I knew darn well what happened. Lila Rossi. She came in, flaunting her friendships and connections, a new disability every other week to cry about, another rumour about me coming out every 3 days.

Alya ended our friendship, Adrien continued to cry about Lila’s feelings. Lila just kept doing what she did best. The class gave up on changing my mind and instead decided that calling me names would be better. Because logic?!

“Freak!” “Slut!” “Burnout!” “Bug-eyes!” “Poser!” “Lard-ass!” Were the insults they liked to yell daily. Yeah, they weren’t the most creative...

We were so tiny, happy and shiny. Playing tag and getting chased. Singing and clapping, laughing and napping. Baking cookies, eating paste.

Nino and Kim used to come over to the bakery when we were kids, where we’d gorge ourselves on sweets, before celebrating our sugar rushes by chasing each other in the park and then crashing on my sofa, cuddled in blankets and laying on top of each other.

Then we got bigger, that was the trigger. Like the Huns invading Rome. Welcome to my school, this ain't no high school: This is the Thunderdome. Hold your breath and count the days, we're graduating soon. College will be paradise, if I'm not dead by June!

But I know, I know, life can be beautiful. I pray, I pray for a better way. If we changed back then, we could change again. We can be beautiful...Just not today.

I scoffed at my optimism back then. Them changing? They never did, I don’t know why I bothered trying at that point. I should’ve moved on but hey! We all make mistakes. It’s just that sometimes you make 11 friendships worth of mistakes.

“Freak!” “Slut!” “Cripple!” “Homo!” “Homo!” “Homo!”

I cringed as I read their old “insults”. They would write homophobic messages across my locker, getting Alix to spray paint a few slurs across my work after I came out as bisexual.

Things will get better soon as my letter comes from Harvard, Duke, or Brown. Wake from this coma, take my diploma. Then I can blow this town. Dream of ivy-covered walls, no smoky French cafés. Fight the urge to strike a match and set this dump ablaze!

I had purposefully sent out applications to universities far away from these people, from Paris. All three schools accepted me, something I can’t say about my classmates, most of whom were rejected for essays on false information (sourced by Lila) and a quick scan over the Ladyblog meant not a single newspaper would even consider my ex-best friend. Gabriel Agreste, as I later found out through my internship in America, had to bribe several schools with double tuition to get even one to accept Adrien, after he got exposed as sexual harasser and disgraced hero “Chat Noir”. I turned back to my diary, having to peel off rock hard gum from the page that someone had smeared in “revenge”.

Le Chiên Kim. Third year as linebacker and eighth year of smacking lunch trays and being a huge dick.

“What did you say to me, skank?” He would yell, his fist raised in the hallway.

“Aah, nothing!” I then cowered. I may be Ladybug, but he was 150lbs of pure rage. No one can compete with that!

But I know, I know... Life can be beautiful. I pray, I pray, For a better way. We can be beautiful...

“Marinette! Wide load! Honnnnnk!”

He was the smartest guy on the football team. Which is kind of like being the tallest dwarf.

“Hey! Pick that up! Right now!”

“I’m sorry, are you actually talking to me?” He used to snarl, his hands covered in sauce from knocking my tray.

I stood my ground, I had been practising for this moment. “Yes, I am. I wanna know what gives you the right to pick on me. You're a high school has-been waiting to happen. A future gas station attendant.”

Kim then smirked, crouching down to eye level and pressing a finger to my forehead. “You have a zit right there...” he pointed out, causing the cafeteria to laugh at my expense.

I used to ask myself “Why... Why do they hate me?”

And hear Adrien whisper “Why don't I fight back?”

Watch as Max Googled “Why do I act like such a creep?”

Listen in on Lila stamping her feet in the bathroom asking “Why won't he date me?” Clearly frustrated.

Kim panicking as he wondered “Why did I hit him?”

And Chloé sob down the phone “Why do I cry myself to sleep?”

I would stay up late, screaming, begging. At my lowest points I would cry out “Somebody hug me! Somebody fix me! Somebody save me! Send me a sign, God! Give me some hope, here! Something to live for!”

I remember when I first met my real friends. The famed trio had gone into the bathroom and I followed after them, clearly my throat.

“Who are you?”

“Uh... Marinette Dupain Cheng. I crave a boon”

“What boon?” Chloé asked, filing her nails.

“Um. Let me sit at your table, at lunch. If our class think that you guys tolerate me, then they'll leave me alone...”

Chloé threw her nail file out and began circling around me, running her hands through my hair, commenting that “For a greasy little nobody, you do have good bone structure!” Before coming to a conclusion.

“And ya know, ya know, ya know? This could be beautiful. Mascara, maybe some lip gloss, and we're on our way. Get this girl some blush; and Kagami, I need your brush. Let's make her beautiful.” Sabrina and Kagami, chimed in, echoing her words.

“Let's make her beautiful...”

“Let’s make her beautiful...”

“Make her beautiful...Okay?” Chloé ordered, dragging me out with Kagami and Sabrina, driving me to her hotel. They sat me down, taking my hair out of its bunches and brushing it out. Kagami painted my nails a deep navy with surprising precision, manning my cuticles. Sabrina twirled my hair into a high bun, leaving a few pieces at the front to frame my face. Chloé came back from her wardrobe, throwing a blue blazer and grey skirt at me. I changed into my outfit for them, to which they clapped their hands in glee. They dragged me back to school, taking in everyone’s reactions to the new and improved me. This became my new daily outfit for the rest of the year — the class couldn’t find anything bad about it, and even if they did Chloé would threaten them with her father’s power.

I was happy with my squad. Kagami taught us Japanese and Chloé taught us American English that she’d picked up from her mother. I taught them self defence, under the guise of learning it from my mum, unknowingly training them for the day I would rip Chat Noir’s miraculous from him, before slamming it into Kagami’s palm. I needed help that day, so thrust them bee and the fox miraculous at Chloé and Sabrina respectively. They became permanent heroes, Kagami under the name “Noirette”, Chloé under the new guise of “Buttercup” and Sabrina “Renard Rouge”. Akuma attacks have never lasted more than 15 minutes since we got rid of that alley cat, and we’ve been closing in on Hawkmoth recently.

I shook my head, snapping the crude book shut, throwing the diary in the bin. Today was going to be the day I made peace with all that happened, our 10 year school reunion. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna make up with anyone, just that I will finally leave everything behind. I found my lipstick and smeared on the crimson lip, smacking my lips together. I grabbed my clutch and helped Chloé stand up, though she wobbled a little in her heels. I slid her miraculous into her updo, blowing a kiss at her as to not ruin her makeup.

We met up with Kagami and Sabrina in the hallway, Kagami in a wine red suit with gold jewellery, and Sabrina was in emerald green to compliment her red hair. We stepped into the limo awaiting us outside and set off, arriving at the school 10 minutes later. We walked up the steps, hitching up our dresses and arrived in the courtyard. It had been lit up with fairy lights, with stands of food and drinks scattered around the court. Our old classmates were huddled in small groups, whilst Mlle. Mendeleiev’s was in a large group, enjoying each other’s company after 10 years apart.

No one noticed us, until Rose pointed at me and whispered “Who’s that with Chloé?” The group turned to stare at us, trying to place my face. Adrien looked up from talking to Lila, who seemed to be flaunting a rather tacky Gabriel engagement ring, and whispered,

“Marinette?!”

The class began gossiping amongst themselves, “Marinette? Marinette? Marinette?!”

I ignored them, their childish ways were behind me, and walked up to Aurore and Mireille, fawning over their relationship. They turned Kagami, asking her about her life and squealing over her Olympic medal for fencing. I grinned as I watched my old class, happy that they had moved on from each other — well apart from Alya and Adrien, who were still hooked on Lila. I was finally, content! I thought back on my diary, one particular paragraph standing out to me at this time.

And you know, you know, you know, life can be beautiful. You hope, you dream, you pray, and you get your way! Ask me how it feels, lookin' like hell on wheels...My God, it's beautiful! I feel so beautiful... And when you're beautiful...It's a beautiful frickin' day!

Chloé boasted my achievements, my business, my awards, and the entire of Mendeleiev’s class started chanting “Marinette! Marinette! Marinette!”, much to my embarrassment. I boasted her’s in return, Sabrina revealed how far she’d come as a lawyer, Kagami swung her prized sword from side to side as she listened to us all catching up, laughing at the memories.

It really was a beautiful day.

#lila salt #adrien salt #class salt #marinette deserves better #alya salt #mlb #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #chloe sugar #kagami tsurugi #sabrina raincomprix #heathers au #beautiful heathers #songfic

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corpsentry · 3 years

Text

ao3 mirror

fandom: age of calamity, botw rating: g starring: prince sidon and mipha note: spoilers for both games

"You know, Daruk’s my idol,” Yunobo says. He pumps his fists in the air like a kid at a fun fair in line for the big pirate ship ride. “They say he was the coolest Goron there ever was. Plus he had a beard. I think beards are awesome.”

“Great,” Sidon says. He stops peeling the mandarin in his hands for long enough to look up blankly at him. "Mipha was my sister."

the age of calamity, side b.

The thing about time travel is, even if someone stands in front of you and tells you point-blank that there’s a way to bring your dead sister back to life, you’re probably not going to believe them.

“I don’t believe you,” says Sidon.

“Okay,” Teba says patiently, fluffing his feathers with an absent glide of his wing. “Try harder.”

Sidon stares at him. He tries harder, though he’s not sure what that entails and so doesn’t end up really doing anything. “I don’t get you.”

“Which part don’t you get?”

“I get to see Mipha again?”

Teba’s eyebrow twitches. “Let me put this as simply as I can, Prince,” he says, a little too loudly. The soldier stationed at the bottom of the staircase turns to look at them. “We’re going to go back to the point a hundred years ago at which the four champions were killed in their divine beasts. We’re going to save them. We’re going to make sure they defeat Ganon before he can send Hyrule into ruin. And then we’re going to leave.”

By now, they’ve caught everyone’s attention. It’s been a long time since a hundred years ago, but here in Zora’s Domain it still feels like the events of last Tuesday, to be recounted over salt tea and fish skewers, to be mourned over an empty coffin. Everyone’s staring at the big white bird with the angry eyebrows, a little curious, a little apprehensive. For what he’s worth, Teba is indifferent. This much will not faze him.

Sidon twiddles his thumbs behind his back, where Teba cannot see them and the guards at the bottom of the staircase can point and laugh all they want. To be honest, he heard nothing. His heart stopped when he heard ‘killed in their divine beasts’, at which point a watery monster punched its way into his skull and crushed his brain. The monster is nothing concrete, nothing crystal-clear, just what little Link has told him, bits and pieces of a history he was prevented from taking part in. It’s been several months since the kid dragged his beaten-up body halfway across Hyrule and kicked Ganon’s ass, though they’re still feeling the after-effects of that particular calamity today. Mipha’s statue still looms over their heads, a reminder of what it means to die alone and far away from home.

“So,” Sidon starts, hearing his voice echoing in his ears like metal slicing through air. “What you’re saying is, I get to see Mipha again.”

Teba looks like he wants to grab one of the guards’ spears and stab Sidon in the face, but for what he’s worth, he reigns it in. “Yes.”

“Okay.” He grins. “I’m in.”

He tried to fight a lynel when he was fifteen. The domain had been overrun with monsters who had arrived for the pre-party to Ganon’s return, including an outstanding number of wizzrobes, several moblins, and a tall, intimidating figure which spat electricity from its pink-tongued mouth and whose name he couldn’t recall. While his father, the king, and his sister, the princess, breezed through the area like a lightning strike, reclaiming keeps and stabbing moblins with silver teeth so their generals could forge a path ahead, Sidon reveled in the wonder of being left unsupervised at four a.m. in the morning. And then heard the familiar, haunting roar of a lynel. And then decided to go and say hi.

It was a mistake, of course. The lynel was so tall he couldn’t make out the gear on its back. Its face was all squished up, like a birthday cake that had been stepped on, and its horns were too big for its thick, blocky nose. This was funny for all of five seconds. Then the lynel extracted a bow from that unknowable space behind it and aimed the sharp end of an arrow at his face, and it became a problem.

“H-h-h-hi,” said Sidon, holding up his Kid Spear, which was strictly for Kid Use Only, and had the offensive capabilities of a stick.

“RHOOARHGHHGHH,” said the lynel.

He jabbed the Kid Spear at the lynel’s leg. The lynel spat at him, though probably unintentionally, as it seemed preoccupied with the arrow it was trying to send into his face. It was stuck. The big scary lynel’s bow was stuck.

Emboldened by the stupid scary lynel’s broken bow, Sidon decided to try again. “Please go away, Mr. Lynel,” he said in his best and most charming Kid Prince voice, twirling his Kid Spear like a sweet jellyfish skewer.

“RHOAHOARHAGHOGHHHH,” said the lynel, who sounded significantly angrier than before.

“I understand,” Sidon said politely, and then closed his eyes and sent a prayer to the goddess Hylia (the way he had been taught to since he was old enough to speak, the way every child in Hyrule knew that there was a place for them to go to after they left this world behind). He braced for impact, which he hoped would be of the violent sort, earth-shattering and brisk enough to break his bones and leave nothing breathing in its wake. He was fifteen, not five. This was Ganon’s era. Every living creature in Hyrule knew this, the way their ancestors woke up and knew which direction the sun would rise from. Not if, but when. When the Calamity strikes. When your people die. When the knight emerges from the woods with the sacred sword in his hand, and saves you all.

But none came. When he opened his eyes, and he did so reluctantly, adrenalin coursing through his veins like thunder, the world was pitch black. In place of the cool blue moon was his sister, her ceremonial gear glittering darkly, the Lightscale Trident glowing like a star in her right hand.

“Holy shit,” whispered Sidon the kid. Mipha stabbed the lynel in the face.

She hugged him when it was all over and they had put the moblins and the wizzrobes and the electric moblin (so that’s what it was! Terrifying) back to sleep. Their father was upset, but he was frequently upset at Sidon and so it didn’t bother him as much as it could have. Sidon was not Mipha. It was all right if he got things wrong, as long as his sister never did. Coincidentally, the Hylian princess had been in the area at the time of the attack, accompanied by a knight with blue eyes and a Sheikah warrior who looked like she would throw a knife at a fish for sport. It was a good thing Mipha had been at home, and not visiting one of the other tribes or hunting for crabs near Lurelin. It was a good thing she had intervened when she had, lest the pre-party become the real thing.

“Thank you,” said the Hylian princess, trying her best to smooth her brow and failing. She looked anxious, though she had only come to pass on her father’s word, though the word that she had brought was victory.

Mipha smiled at her with a face full of sun. “It is my pleasure.”

He wishes the egg could talk. If the egg could talk then Teba would have less reason to talk, and if Teba talked less then Sidon would have less of a raging headache, which which would make him less of an asshole, which would make their discussions go much more smoothly than the janky, sputtering mess they’ve been all week.

“As I was saying,” says Teba, continuing whatever train of thought he picked up on their way up to Goron City and then dumped unceremoniously by the side of the road. As he does this, Death Mountain spits a chunk of lava out of its steaming gaping top, which lands a few inches shy of his breastplate. He hops backwards without missing a beat and begins fanning himself with one wing.

Riju stops fiddling with the diamond circlet in her hands for long enough to give him a look of inquiry. “As you were saying?”

“I can’t wait to see Daruk.” Yunobo scratches his arm. It makes a sound like two large boulders grinding together. Riju drops the circlet.

“You’re only going to see him for a short while,” Teba comments over the sound of the egg blowing its top at Riju and Sidon plugging his ears with his fingers. “No point getting all worked up about it.”

“You’re just as worked up yourself,” Riju counters. Patricia barks. Teba flinches.

This is true. There are two things Teba won’t shut up about. In ascending order of importance, they are 1) when they should depart for the alternate timeline in which they will prevent their respective ancestors from getting their spirits trapped in giant mechanical monsters for a hundred years, and 2) how incredible Revali is. Because Revali was the most powerful Rito warrior that ever walked the land (or flew over it, or blasted bomb arrows at it, whatever). Revali singlehandedly invented an entire style of aerial combat which involves launching yourself into the air with an updraft that defies the laws of the universe and then setting your surroundings on fire. Revali killed god.

Teba looks like he wants to go back to his wife and kid in Rito village. Good for him. Not all of them have bodies to put in coffins. “I just want to meet him once,” he says quietly.

Yunobo laughs, and it sounds like two extra large boulders grinding together. “Me too, brother.” He picks up the diamond circlet from the floor and puts it on his head like some kind of weird hat. “I’m going to tell Daruk how great he is. And then I’m going to go home.”

One time when they were much, much younger, before he woke up one morning and Mipha was three times his height, one of the guards brought back some durians. The durians were misshapen and spiky and smelled intimidating, though Sidon wouldn’t go as far as to say that the smell was unpleasant. The guard had obtained them from a merchant in the Faron region. He hadn’t meant to purchase them, but they were the last of her stock and she said she could only head home once she had sold everything. He empathized her.

At first they tried to open the durians with their hands, but this only produced several pricked fingers and left ominous and eerily substantial bloodstains everywhere, so someone brought out a spear, almost drove it through the table, and someone else brought out a carving knife. Halfway through the spectacle of watching one of the guards, who was thirty-seven and enjoyed collecting glowing stones as a hobby, attempt to de-spike an entire durian, the crowd parted abrutpyl.

“What are you all doing?” Mipha put her hand absently on Sidon’s head. He had been watching the ongoing debacle out of some kind of morbid curiosity, standing on tip-toes so he could peek over the top of the table, though now he had apparently been relegated to armrest.

“Trying to open this durian, your highness.”

Mipha laughed. His sister’s laugh was a delicate, heartrending affair, like trying to pull weeds from the bottom of a lake without breaking them at the stem. The weather at home was always more or less divine, but whenever Mipha laughed, Sidon swore it blasted a hole right through the clouds. If there were no clouds, then the hole appeared in the fabric of the sky instead. Mipha, at her brightest, was a walking catastrophe of sun.

Still chuckling a little, like she’d been made privy to a secret that none of them knew about, Mipha stepped up to the cutting board. “You have to do it like this,” she said cheerfully, digging her fingers into a seam in the durian’s shell like she’d been dealing with danger all her life.

Cue gasping. Cue the horrors of childbirth.

The durian was sweet. It was also a little goopy, but Sidon was no stranger to things which stuck to your fingers and refused to let go (he was one of those objects when it came to his sister, who he could rarely be found more than an arm’s length away from on any given day), so he felt for the little spiky fruit, and decided that he would make an effort to bring some back home when he went traveling himself in the future. While he examined the inside of the durian’s shell, which had been hollowed of fruit and had the texture of rough sandpaper, the guards crowded around Mipha and demanded that she share her secret to not getting stabbed to death by the fierce and terrifying durian. But either she didn’t know how to explain it to them, or they weren’t very good at listening, because she remained the only one capable of cracking open a durian with her bare hands for many, many years, up until she died while fighting a watery manifestation of Ganon inside the divine beast she had been told by the king of Hyrule to pilot to victory’s end. Then it was someone else’s turn to take over.

Painkillers for fish are a tricky affair. To begin with, charmingly little research has been conducted into the biology of the fish-person because the Zoras simply aren’t interested in how their bodies work, and while others have offered to do so in their place, among them several enthusiastic Sheikah researchers and one Hylian with a thing for huge glowing orbs, his people have never cared enough to give their consent. It’s a unique kind of apathy, one which stems from a place of privilege, or denial. They are, as a general statement of fact, very good at both.

“This will help.” Yunobo hands him a rock roast. Where did Yunobo get a rock roast from? Sidon frowns. They’re in the middle of the desert.

“Thanks,” Sidon says. Smiles. Kind of, like, holds the roast up to his mouth and gives it a sniff. It doesn’t smell half as good as durian. He puts it down.

It takes him several days to make sense of the convoluted sequence of events that Teba presented to him that day on the front door of the world he had rebuilt from scratch, surrounded by mystique and glamor and promising, in a breath of cold air, to bring his dead sister back to life. This makes it sound like he’s finished making sense of it all and will thus never be confused ever again, but if he’s to be entirely honest, he still doesn’t get it. He wants to. He’s scared to. He won’t look Teba in the eye.

“We should get going soon, don’t you think?” says Riju, who is twelve and somehow more put-together than all four of them combined. She pulls another book from the shelf and leaves it on the pile on the desk.

Yunobo shrugs loudly. “Doesn’t make a difference when we leave, does it? We could leave for Hyrule in twenty years, and we’d still end up at the same place.”

“But I want to save them,” Riju says earnestly. The pile behind her has been growing all afternoon, and will soon overtake her in height if she is not stopped. Mission preparation looks like archaeological excavation when you’re traveling backwards in time, and not forwards to some yet unknown destination. Ancient Sheikah records. Research journals. The writings of people who were obsessed with the events of a hundred years ago despite having no personal investment to speak of, and whose words carry with them a hint of reverence, even as they choreograph the funeral song of the old king. This is all that’s left of those ruins, aside from Link, who they’ve all quietly decided to keep uninformed of the current proceedings. Hyrule itself has been kept in the dark. No need for them to know about the maybes and the what-ifs and the could-have-beens. No need for more people to go crazy.

Sidon shuts the book in his hands with a thud. “But why?”

Riju’s eyes go wide. Drama queen. “Why what?”

Sidon opens his mouth, closes it, and opens it again. There’s a heat rash on the back of his neck which he can’t quite reach on his own. The elders had warned him about the desert, but the charm he received from Link has proven to be effective in all areas except for maintaining good skincare. He blinks dumbly at Riju, who has begun to flicker like the glassy surface of a pond. His eyes hurt.

“I mean, why do you.” His eyes hurt. His throat hurts. There’s something large and horrible stuck in his chest, and he can’t get it out. “Why do you want to save them?” There’s a durian in his rib cage. It must have lodged itself there when Teba glared at him like he was an idiot as he came face to face with the cruel reality of the universe, and it dawned on him like a dead body falling out of the sky that he would get to see Mipha one last time, and then he would have to come back. To a Hyrule without her. To the stupid stuck-up world that had to try again and again and again, coughing up blood and dragging itself through the dirt on bruised knees, before it could defeat the monster. “It’s not like they’ll come back to life,” he says, each word a silver knife in his mouth. “They’ll stay dead here. They’re already dead.”

Silence.

Riju has let everything go, including the diamond circlet, the topaz earrings, and three volumes sheathed in gold. Yunobo’s mouth is open so wide, you could stick your head inside and take a look around if you leaned in close enough. For the first time since he met him, Teba is at a loss for words. His chest rises and falls erratically, his hand on the bookshelf quivering, his eyebrows doing a little dance on his forehead. He’s sweating. Of course he is. They’re in the desert.

Riju, Hylia bless her soul, is the first to speak.

“It’s the spirit of things,” she says softly. She looks sadder than any twelve-year-old should ever have to look. But then and again, Sidon was barely old enough to hold a spear with both hands when his sister died and everything went to shit. Then and again, everything goes away eventually.

Sidon stares at her helplessly for a moment, gulping the humid air of the library like a fish out of water, then gives up and walks out of the room. He spends the rest of the afternoon blowing bubbles in the pool beside Kara Kara Bazaar while the other three continue their work, and then buys a durian from one of the vendors and hacks it open with his spear. You can’t crack open a durian with your bare hands, unless you’re Mipha, in which case you can do anything. It’s a good thing, then, that she’s gone.

When they were children and they got into trouble, his father would always scold Mipha far more harshly than Sidon. Mipha was the older sibling, after all. She should know better. This dynamic remained firmly established between them even as Mipha grew into her role as princess, future ruler, and eventually, champion. Of course, the reprimandings grew less stern, but Sidon had a penchant for winding up in places he wasn’t supposed to be in and Mipha had a penchant for being with him whenever this happened. He secretly resolved to pay her back when he got older and was finally able to stand up to his father, and therefore explain that most of the things they got into trouble for were his idea. He would be the one to weep at his father’s feet while his sister looked on with a horrified expression, and in that moment she would understand how much he loved her.

Then she died. You can’t tell the story of Mipha without this part. Mipha was a humble, kind girl, and then she died. Mipha could crack open a durian with her bare hands, and then she died. Mipha was the pride of their people, and then she died, and she died, and she died.

You can’t change the past with the wave of a hand. You’re not a bird. You’re not a fortune-teller. You’re a fish-person with an empty coffin for a sister, and in a few weeks’ time, you’re going to save her specter.

“...What if I brought her back with me?”

“Huh?”

“Hahajustkidding. No way I’d do that. Not a chance.”

“Um. Do you need painkillers?”

“Thanks, but they don’t work on me. I’m over a hundred years old, you see. Us Zoras, we’re different.”

The day before departure. They’re back at Zora’s domain. It’s raining. Teba is running through a checklist of items to bring with them which is so long, he has to hold it above his head to prevent it from touching the floor. Riju is feeding Patricia mandarin peels.

“You know, Sidon.”

Sidon looks up from his mandarin. “Mm?”

Yunobo grins at him. “Daruk’s my idol,” he says proudly. He pumps his fists in the air like a kid at a fun fair in line for the big pirate ship ride. “They say he was the coolest Goron there ever was. Plus he had a beard. I think beards are awesome.”

“Great,” says Sidon, as enthusiastically as he can, because he genuinely wants to be happy for Yunobo who is finally going to meet his idol and has clearly dreamed about this moment for some time. He wants to be happy for all of them. He fucking wants to. This is a rescue mission, not the imprisonment Princess Zelda walked into in Hyrule castle, not the hundred-year nap Link took on the Great Plateau. This is a happy ending, even if it’s not theirs.

Daruk the idol. Urbosa the warrior. Revali the bird. Sidon pictures them in his head, the way Link described them to him once, his voice carrying across the water like beams of light.

“Mipha was—”

He stops peeling the mandarin in his hands, his nails still embedded in the soft skin of it, the white-tinged flesh peeking out like a wound. Outside, the rain keeps falling. A river of tears from the sky.

Yunobo tilts his head to the side. “Mipha was?”

Mipha was the pride of their people. Mipha was the first person he wanted to live forever. Mipha was the only one he knew who could crack open a durian with her bare hands, like she was peeling open the heart of a monster, only to reveal that it had been something soft and scared all along. Mipha was a flesh-and-blood person. Mipha was the light of their world. Mipha is an empty coffin with a name inscribed on the lid, a house with the lights off, a memory drenched in ocean.

Yunobo prods his shoulder, though he barely feels a thing. “Mipha was?” he repeats kindly, herding him along to the end of the line, to the boat at the edge of the water.

Sidon puts the mandarin away. He stares long and hard at Yunobo, and hopes that his eyes will convey the wound his body no longer knows how to carry.

“Mipha was my sister.”

Let’s say you’ve been entrusted with the future of your kingdom. There’s a bad guy coming, and everyone’s scared to death, so you learn how to pilot this big robotic elephant which shoots turrets of water like a machine gun, and you get really good at it, and when the bad guy arrives on your new friend’s birthday suddenly you can’t do it anymore. You’re trapped inside the giant elephant. You’re bleeding out all over the floor. Your chest hurts like something awful, and your vision is beginning to blur. Sensing your despair, the monster closes in on you, wielding that big blue trident like fury. It holds the sky up over your head, and as it does so you close your eyes. You send a prayer to the goddess Hylia (the way you have been taught to since you were old enough to hold your little brother in your arms, the way every child in Hyrule knows that there is a place for them to go to after they leave this world behind). You brace for impact, which you hope will be the gentle sort, a slap to the wrist that’s conclusive enough to break your bones and leave nothing breathing in its wake. You’re twenty, not five. This is the end of all things as you know it. Every living creature in Hyrule knows this, the way their ancestors woke up one day and knew that this world would come to ruin. Not if, but when. When the Calamity strikes. When everyone you’ve ever loved dies. When you walk into the mouth of the elephant, and the elephant changes its mind, and decides to keep you in its belly forever.

None arrives. You open your eyes slowly, hesitantly, fear a living memory in your bones, but you are not faced with the stinging end of a trident. In its place is a boy almost three times your height, his eyes glittering darkly, the spear in his right hand shining like a star.

He is not your brother. But, Hylia bless you all, he is.

So what can you say, when the evil has been defeated and you are standing on the balcony of the castle, smiling up at him through tears while this big overgrown baby stares at you like you’re the answer to the universe, except:

We’ll definitely meet again, won’t we?

He flinches, but you don’t ask, and he doesn’t say why. He pulls you into an earth-shattering, bone-crushing hug. It’s a beautiful day to be alive, the sun shining like sin, Hyrule’s beaten but stubbornly breathing carcass laughing up at you from the fields below. He takes your hands in his. He’s shivering. He’s shaking from head to toe.

Of course, he says in the kindest, saddest voice you’ve ever heard, though he has only come to pass on someone else’s words, though the word he has brought is salvation. From now on, I’ll always be by your side.

: : : : :

You smile at him with a face full of stars.

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spaghettiquette · 3 years

Text

Tenacity: Brittle [Tony Stark x Reader]

Summary: You still weren’t accustomed to maneuvering in your newly acquired gemstone form, leading to many, many accidents. Thankfully, someone was there to help.

(reader's powers inspired by houseki no kuni, themes of body horror)

(i planned on making this a 5+1 fic, but after a month of writing, i lost motivation. decided to just post the first part, if any of you are interested, please tell me, i might finish the rest of the parts ;-;)

ao3

Moving around in your new body was a pain, to say the least. It was similar to trying to punch something in a dream, only being able to slightly lift up your arm no matter how hard you tried. Or, when you’re walking, it’d be more comparable to walking on stilts. Really heavy stilts. Though it made sense, a whole body’s worth of tourmaline would be really heavy. How you managed to control it in the first place was beyond you.

Has your life become a living hell ever since what happened to you? No, of course not! You could always turn this ability on and off (with some elbow grease, of course), the only reason you’re flailing around in your gemstone form in the first place was to get the hang of it… and also because it made you look absolutely gorgeous. Your skin remained the same, so it just looked like every other part of you was a bright, vibrant crystal, and who wouldn’t want to have lovely, teal, crystalline hair, eyes, and nails 24/7? Plus, the inclusions in your body get energy from light, meaning you only need light to stay energized. How cool is that?

Ah, right, the incident. It was S.H.I.E.L.D. who found you stuck under the collapsed cave. You were a simple on-field geologist before that, doing your best to get things done and pay the bills. However, something happened to you to make you stray far off course and away from the others. One thing led to another and you got crushed under some mystical ancient rock (despite S.H.I.E.L.D. explaining to you what it was, their pool of knowledge far exceeds your measly bachelor’s degree). When they found you, you already turned into a gemstone, unconscious, crushed, and in pieces. You had let them test out some experiments on you after that because, well, you were curious.

Whenever you get wounded, you’d turn into a sentient Paraiba tourmaline, and when you’re put back together, you’ll become a normal human again. You’d developed some characteristics of a tourmaline too: pyroelectricity, piezoelectricity, and magnetism; you could even control some of your smaller fragmented pieces somewhat.

Unfortunately, you’d developed all characteristics of a tourmaline, meaning, yes, you were still a heavy yet fragile gemstone at the end of the day. Even if a tourmaline’s hardness is relatively high with a 7.5, its toughness is brittle. Hardness doesn’t dictate a mineral’s toughness. Like how a diamond is considered the hardest material in the world (with a hardness of 10), it could still be smashed into bits if you strike it with a hammer.

Despite this weakness, S.H.I.E.L.D. still had hope for you and assigned you to work with the Avengers, since your new abilities could be of use to them. Plus, adding another scientist to the team is always a good thing!

Your hands gripped onto the furniture around the main living area as you stumbled around, each successful step a monumental feat. After about your 14th lap around the couches and coffee tables, you finally looked up from staring at your feet all day and let out a sigh. All of this walking back and forth around the same ol’ places was starting to get boring, suffice to say. Even if you were a mineral, your back still felt tired.

Now that you think about it, you never really had a chance to look around the tower ever since you first got here, Nick had just left you with the Avengers and let you chat up some awkward introductions. Other than the living room, kitchen, and your private quarters, you’d never been in any other room. Now’s probably a good time to get started on that.

Carefully, you let go of your hold on the couch and wobbled over to the nearest wall, the awkward feeling never leaving you. Your face rammed into the wall, a loud clinking noise sounded upon collision. Being in gem form didn’t cause you any pain, but it was still best to avoid getting any unnecessary damage.

The Avengers tower was unbelievably huge, it took ages for you to get anywhere. But, that wasn’t even the worst part, as you found yourself face to face with a big staircase that led down. A daunting feeling crept up your spine. You looked around to see if there was any other place you haven’t been to yet, but alas, downstairs was indeed unexplored territory.

Despite the alarm bells in your head blaring, you weren’t going to give up that easily. You clutched onto the railings with feigned confidence, taking in a deep breath. How bad could it really be?

Your first few steps down were easy enough, though each step you took from then on quickly heightened your sense of anxiety. Rather than lifting your foot to take a step, your foot slowly slipped down the edge of the steps with the weight you put on it. It began feeling a lot less unnerving. This simple, repetitive movement had raised your self-confidence somewhat, you were even bold enough to hover your hand over the rails instead of gripping onto it so tight—

“Would you like me to get some help?”

In one fell swoop, all your confidence had gone with a jolt of your body. Your feet tripped on one another, your eyes closed in panic. Instinct took over as your hands flew in front of you to minimize the damage the fall would create.

The loud crash of the plummet rang in your ears. Everything went still for a while as you struggled to process what just happened, though eventually, you gathered the courage to open your eyes. Bits and pieces of your gemstone body scattered across the ground of the stairway landing. Both your legs had completely broken off, one from the knee and one from the thigh. Your body suffered awful damage, cracks and fractures snaked across almost the entirety of your form, your right arm worse off than the rest.

“I’m incredibly sorry for startling you. I’ll alert Mr. Stark at once,” the same, masculine, robotic voice said.

You shoved yourself up to respond to the voice, only for your right hand to break off under the weight of your body, sending you crashing down once more. Accepting your fate, you curled your body (or, what remained of your body) into a tight ball, waiting for your inevitable demise.

The thought of such a powerful person like Tony Stark seeing you like this terrified you.

He was a scary man, but not in the conventional type of scary; it’s the sheer amount of skill and experience he had that scared you. You knew it was irrational to feel this way, but just the thought of a person like him seeing your failures and faults embarrassed you. You were going to be fighting alongside him at some point, what’ll he think of you then?

“Good God… okay, just so you know, I’m not gonna scold you for this, because wow, you look like a kicked puppy right now,” the voice you’ve been absolutely dreading came from above you, only, you didn’t feel as bad as you thought you would feel.

Slowly, you peered up at him from your position on the floor, nervous to meet his eyes. “You’re just reinforcing my previous point. Come on, get up,” Mr. Stark smirked, offering his hand for you to take. You went to take it with your right hand, only for a sharp, teal stub to come in place of it. Mr. Stark followed your gaze to the floor where almost all of your fractured limbs laid out in disarray.

“Oh wait— yeah, right, amputee,” he realized his mistake and retracted his hand. “You said something about having some control over your fragmented pieces when you first came here, right?”

He continued, not giving you a chance to respond, “Okay, I’ll drag you down to my lab while you use your magical abilities to bring the broken pieces with you.”

“...Not strong enough to carry me?” You murmured, then rushed to cover your mouth with your remaining hand at the accidental slip up. “No no, I definitely can, but I wanted to see how your powers work first hand,” Stark excused.

Sure...

This time, you gave him your not-on-the-floor hand for him to grab, which he does, putting an extra hand on your wrist for security. You flipped yourself over so that you were facing upward because the thought of your face bumping on each step of the stairs doesn’t sound so appealing. Then, you stared up at the tall ceiling, waiting for Mr. Stark to start.

“...Are we gonna stay here all day? Or was this your master plan to get me to hold your hand? Because if that was the cause, you could’ve just asked.” You could hear the smile in his voice, even without facing him.

“Oh, uh, my ability is always on, so I was waiting for you to start.”

“Right, I knew that, just testing you.”

He began to drag you in slow, repetitive movements, taking his time to make sure he doesn’t cause more damage. And just like you had said, your cerulean fragments followed alongside you to the beat in which Mr. Stark pulled. The first step down the stairs made you jump, though it got less surprising and more irritating the further you went down. Your descent came to a sudden halt.

“Does your power not bring your limbs with you?” Stark let go of the hand on your wrist to point to the spot you landed on, your legs, hand, and a few big pieces of tourmaline still remained unmoved on the ground. “Only my smaller pieces come with me, those ones are too heavy.” “I’ll get them later, then.”

He continued to pull you along, and eventually, you both made it to the bottom of the stairs. An exhale left him as his grip on you loosened a bit.

“You sure I’m not gonna rip out your arm if I keep doing this? Don’t want to have to add more to my plate than I already have,” Mr. Stark asked.

“Wait, you’re not planning on fixing me yourself... are you?” You dared to look up at him, only for him to be looking back. He might have looked like he was upside down because of the way you stared up at him, but even so, you couldn’t help but notice how his soft brown eyes looked at you. In an instant, you avoided his gaze and went back to staring at the flight of stairs you had just gone down.

“Pfff, how hard could it be? You just put this and that together like a jigsaw puzzle, right? I’ve done a couple hundred of those when I was 5.”

“No, it’s not that simple. Some of the pieces are really really tiny and the breaks are inconsistent and unpredictable because my fractures are conchoidal and my indistinct cleavage and—”

“Cleavage, huh?”

“—and the pieces can be sharp, so it’ll take forever to put me back together—”

“—Still haven’t answered my question, sweetheart.”

You stopped yourself from continuing any further, and instead, let out a sigh. “Mr. Stark…”

“Please, call me Tony. It feels weird to have someone I’m supposed to be getting closer to call me that, kinda furthers the distance, doesn’t it?”

“...If you really want to fix me, then… thank you, Tony.”

He tugged at your arm.

“Oh, uh, my shoulder still feels pretty intact, so you can continue,” you murmured.

“Good.”

Tony continued to drag you to his lab. It felt pretty great to have someone else move you instead of you moving yourself, especially after today. It’s a similar feeling to having someone carry you to bed and you pretending to be asleep just so they would continue to carry you. Sleep...

Your eyes began to flutter close but then shot up to keep yourself awake. You were pretty sure it was still the afternoon, why were you so sleepy all of the sudden? This wasn’t the first time you had practiced moving around in this body, you don’t remember being this tired after all those times.

Tony had stopped, the sound of beeping came from behind you, then a door opened. He continued to drag you once more, this time, walking inside a room. It was significantly brighter in the room than it was outside the room, so you were thankful for that. Maybe the light could keep you awake for much longer, though you weren’t sure anymore. Everything in your head was all muddled up...

With great care, Tony dropped your arm down on the floor and went to get something from inside the room. He came back wearing the hand part of his Iron Man suit then effortlessly lifted you up onto a metal work table.

“I’ll be right back, don’t have too much fun without me,” he teased, before walking out.

You stared up at the bright light on the ceiling. If you were in your normal body, this would’ve blinded you by now. But instead, it was a pleasant experience.

“Woah, what happened to you?” Dr. Banner had come into your peripheral vision, blocking out the light with his shadow.

“Oh, haha, just a little accident…”

“Little accident? Nearly all of your limbs are gone. Do you want me to call Shield?”

“It’s fine! Tony said he’d fix me!” You smiled up at him.

“...Just between you and me, I think Shield would do a better job of fixing you up than Tony,” Dr. Banner joked, earning a tired chuckle from you.

Speaking of the devil, Tony had come in with your amputated limbs right when Dr. Banner had finished his sentence. He glanced over at the two of you with a questioning look, “Okay… what did I miss?”

“It’s nothing, Tony,” Banner assured.

“I’m really starting to feel left out.” He placed the legs and arm that he was holding onto the metal table, making a small clinking sound. Tony then went somewhere else in the lab, presumably to get some tools, leaving you with Dr. Banner once more. The doctor bent down a bit to examine your limbs.

“Huh… that’s really something…” He adjusted his glasses and looked closer at the cross-section of your separated leg. “W—would you mind if I took a closer look at it?”

“Oh, go for it...” you really didn’t mean to sound that displeased and uninterested, but it was getting harder and harder for you to stay awake that even putting some emotion in your voice would be a herculean task.

He attempted to lift up your broken-off leg, and while he did manage to lift it up, he was only able to do it for a few moments before needing to put it down again. Instead, he settled on rolling it from side to side to inspect it. The lustrous stone glistened and gleamed in the artificial light of the room, its conchoidal fractures shined with brilliance. As he rolled it back and forth, the colours of the teal crystal shifted accordingly; it became darker when Banner rolled it to the right but went to its original shade when he rolled it back. He stiffened when he noticed that small shards of you fell off each time he did that, so he kept his hands to himself.

“Alright, playtime’s over,” Tony came back to your work table with gloves, resin glue, and popsicle sticks, wearing some special-looking glasses as well. He shooed Banner off, saying something about doctor-patient confidentiality. The actual doctor sighed and went outside the lab with his empty coffee mug.

Tony set up his tools on a nearby table, put on his gloves, then mixed up some of the resin glue in a container. He activated his glasses, which allowed him to see which of the pieces connected to which, super useful for patching up your local accident-prone gemstone friend (if S.H.I.E.L.D. had those glasses, they would’ve saved countless hours of a never-ending game of 4D jigsaw). He brought a chair over to the table and sat down. With that, he was ready to begin.

The resin stuck your pieces together perfectly, becoming a seamless bond. It appeared that whenever the shards were glued back, it completely fixed the damage done like nothing had ever happened to it in the first place. Some of the resin leaked out from the bond when he attached the pieces together, to which Tony wiped all that up with a towel. No matter how simple it seemed, it was still a time-consuming task; fiddling his way around the smallest shards was no easy feat, even frustrating.

“Not much of a talker, are you?” The silence was fueling his frustration somewhat, so he wanted to strike up a conversation. You remained silent. “Hey, still in there?” Tony had looked over at you, surprised to see your eyes closed and head lulled over the metal table.

If it were any other person doing this, he would’ve chalked it up to them taking a snooze. But you were different; you weren’t breathing. Just a few moments ago, you were walking, talking, laughing at Banner’s little quip. But now, you weren’t breathing.

Tony was confident in his abilities and he knew you’d been patched up before, but what if— what if this time, it was different? What if this time, he had gotten you killed? What if... it’s his fault?

A small prick on his chest broke him out of his trance-like state. He looked down to see what it was. Your gem shards were all gathering against his arc reactor. You did say that you were magnetic. A ghost of a smile rested on Tony’s face as he picked out one of them, only for it to snap right back to his arc reactor. That was, to him, a small, small indicator that you were still there. That you were still alive, still—

He stopped in his tracks.

Were you even breathing before?

He’d been paying attention to only the parts that made you human, but what about the parts that made you, you?

Tony took a look at you again. Your teal, crystalline hair shined with its usual brilliance, reflecting off of the ceiling light. Your skin was like how it usually was, rigid, yet soft-looking. Even your shards were still clinging on to his arc reactor. Everything about you was the same, only, you were cracked and fractured.

And, last time he checked, gems didn’t need to breathe.

Tony shook off his anxieties and went back to work, maybe he should patch you up first before pronouncing you as dead.

---

A nice sherbet now painted the sky.

Though, inside Tony’s lab, the hours bled into each other with his bland, white, LED lights.

For hours and hours, he had been focused on one and only one thing: putting you back together. The process was always the same; slather on the resin glue, attach the piece on, wipe off the excess resin, rinse, repeat. Occasionally, he would mix up more of the resin glue, though that became more sparse the smaller your shards became, not needing as much glue.

“Sir, I suggest you take a break, you’ve been working for over 6 hours,” Jarvis had said.

“Jarvis, who overrode my command for you to not pester me about how long I’ve been working?”

“Dr. Banner, sir, he expressed concern for your health, as am I.”

“Well, tell Dr. Banner I am almost finished and that he’ll get his science buddy to talk to soon.”

“Very well, sir.”

He wasn’t lying about being almost finished, only a couple pieces were missing from your body. Though he was lying about talking to Bruce later, he still had another project to finish.

---

In one swell movement, your last missing piece had been attached. You were whole once more. Tony watched you with bated breath, waiting for the moment you’d wake up, the moment you’d open your eyes.

But, that moment never came.

Instead, something even better happened.

Right before his eyes, your hair, your skin, your body regained a newfound life. Your hair turned back to what Tony presumed to be its original colour, no longer having an overwhelming shininess. Your skin had looked the same, though there was a slight flushness that wasn’t there before. Every part of you has been restored.

And finally, you took a breath.

The corners of Tony’s lips lifted up, his eyes crinkling. He exhaled a breath he didn’t remember holding and sank into his chair.

---

Your eyes flickered open. The bright ceiling light from above you was absolutely blinding, making you shut your eyes closed. You hovered your hand in front of your eyes to block out the light and tried again on opening them. Sitting up, you hesitated; why were your arms so squishy? Oh, right, Tony fixed you. The feeling of your actual hair brushing against your fleshy face was refreshing after feeling the solid gemstone on your head for so long.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Tony had said, his back turned to you as he was tinkering with something on another table.

The transition from becoming a stone person to a human person was still jarring to you. You gripped and ungripped your hand, feeling how your soft flesh rubbed against itself. Though, despite how jarring it is, you got over it because you could finally move better! It didn’t feel so heavy anymore!

Your eyes landed on an advanced piece of tech Tony was tinkering with. Actually, everything in the lab was advanced. While you were being dragged in here, you didn’t have the chance to look around the place. The white interior, the tech, the lights, they really instill to you a feeling you usually feel while you watch a sci-fi movie. Super futuristic. Your previous job would’ve been a lot easier to do if you had all of this.

Tony stood up from his chair and came over to you, leaning on the metal desk you sat upon.

“So, how are you feeling?”

“Pretty good! I can move better now!” You demonstrated your better movements by stretching a bit and crossing your legs on the table.

“See? I’m a miracle worker, it’s a crime I’m not allowed to put ‘Dr.’ before my name.”

You chuckled and turned to look at him, but from your peripheral vision, you took notice of the windows. “Man, how long was I out?” The sky was jet black, only the moon and the city lights illuminated the outside.

Tony rested his hand on the table, “About 8 hours.”

“Huh,” that was all you could reply as you stared out the generous window. The city was brilliant, vivid. Being this high up and seeing a view such as this was new to you. Never in your life did you expect to be sitting in the Avengers tower and having to see this view every single day from now on. The reality of the situation hasn’t hit you yet, you supposed.

Tony cleared his throat, “I was… worried… about you.” He looked out at the bright city lights.

You turned to look at him, “...Worried about me?” Chuckling, you replied, “Tony, you don’t even know me all that well.”

He turned to look at you like something clicked in his mind before he turned away once more.

You were right, he really doesn’t know you all that well. He’d been so worried about you dying, but… you two have just begun to get to know each other a few hours ago. You were still acquaintances. Why was he so worried?

Tony took an unusual amount of time to respond, but instead of replying, he pinched your now soft cheek. “Hmm… yeah that’s definitely better than before.” To make sure he really drove that point home, he then ruffled your hair.

You groaned in pretend anger and pulled away from him, rubbing your cheek. Stretching your body, you stood up from the desk to make your leave. “Welp, I gotta go, duty calls, or something.” Your feet led you to the exit of Tony’s lab.

“Woah woah woah, don’t you think you can just leave on out of here, I think you’d owe me something after that. As generous as I am, I still do have my limits,” Tony called out.

Crap.

You turned around, sheepish, “Uh, I’m not exactly looking that great in the money situation, could you maybe put it on my tab so I could pay it at a later date? Maybe?”

“No, it’s not money I’m asking for.”

He patted the metal table you were just at, to which you came back and sat down next to him.

“How does it—” Tony paused and gestured to you, “—exactly work?”

“...You wanna know all about it?”

“Sure, I just spent all day fixing you up, why not spend some more time actually talking to you?”

You explained to Tony in great detail about all the things that you’re able to do and the events that transpired that made you the way that you are now. He had grabbed whatever he was working on and tinkered a bit, but still made some eye contact with you to let you know he was still listening.

“Okay okay, that’s great, but what is this ‘Paraiba tourmaline’?”

“Hold on… You want me to talk about tourmalines in great detail?”

“Sure,” Tony said absentmindedly, but little did he know, he stepped right into your trap. You had avoided going into detail about what a Paraiba tourmaline is to make him ask you! Finally! This was your one chance to ramble on about gemstones to someone willing to listen!

But… you still felt a bit bad…

“Are you sure? Do you want to call your lawyer before you agree to this?”

Tony looked up at you, “I’m intrigued,” he smirked and tilted his head. Well, he asked for it.

You cleared your throat for dramatic effect, “A Paraiba tourmaline is a type of tourmaline typically mined in Brazil. It’s considered the most expensive type of tourmaline there is and is known for its bright, neon teal, coloured by the amount of copper in it.” You were really proud that of all the gemstones you had the power to turn into, it was a Paraiba tourmaline.

“As for what tourmalines are; tourmalines are a group of boron silicate minerals. It has a hardness of 7 to 7.5, an indistinct cleavage, with uneven to conchoidal fracturing. It also comes in a large variety of colours.”

“Oh! And, what I really like about tourmalines is how they exhibit piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties! It can produce electricity when under pressure and when there's a drastic temperature change! It’s really neat!”

You began to come to your senses, “I should stop… I’m rambling…”

Tony’s eyes lit up as if he understood.

“If it makes you feel better, what if I let you ramble on about gemstones and you let me ramble on about my projects? Sounds like a deal?”

You leaned back somewhat, “Hey, I’ve always wanted to learn about what you do. Thanks, Doc!”

“Actually, y’know what? Don’t call me that.”

With the anxiety he felt before, not knowing if he could fix you, his next words were from the heart.

“I’m never becoming an actual doctor.”

#tony stark #tony stark x reader #iron man #iron man x reader #the avengers #reader insert #avengers x reader #marvel x reader #bruce banner #june's tourmalines

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