#between two ferns with spoiler

[atomosphericnonsense]

The question is not did I write A Between Two Ferns with Zack Galifianakis Batman crack fic but with Spoiler as Zack Galifianakis, no the real question is how long did it take me to write such a thing. The answer is five months LMAO.

ao3 link fic is also below the cut.

The video starts with a screenshot of a YouTube thumbnail that shows several members of the Justice League with the words “what to do during an alien invasion” written across them. Batman is notably absent. The screen shot disappears and reveals a room with two ferns, two chairs, and one Spoiler pacing the room. 

“It was boring,” she says. “Informational and boring.” She turns to the camera. “We can do better, we can do way better.” She spins her cape twirling out behind her and then she sits down in the right chair, seated in the left chair is Red Robin, he just appeared while Spoiler was pacing. “And if Zack Galifianakis takes issue he can fist fight me behind any Batburger.” 

The title card appears it reads: Red Robin: Between Two Ferns with Spoiler

“Today, I have with me everyone’s least favorite place to eat, Red Robin,” Spoiler starts, after saying Red Robin’s name a chorus of Yum is heard off camera. “How many people’s names did you burglal just to end up a fast food restaurant?” 

“Too many,” Red Robin answers, his name appearing on screen along with . “It wasn’t worth it.” 

“Should have been Batburger. How do you rank yourself amongst Gotham’s Capes?” 

“8 and a half.”

“Jason Mendoza scaling or regular?”

Red Robin tilts his head for a moment. “Either way. You?” 

“Oh, I break all scales with my sheer epic power.” 

Red Robin makes an ‘of course,’ sort of gesture. 

“What advice would you give to other aspiring high school dropouts?”

“Do drugs and look into lactose intolerance.”

Spoiler looks down at her notecards. “Do you think explosions kill people?”

“Only if they’re in booty shorts.” As soon as the words leave Red’s mouth a knife flies across the screen at him. Red catches it and tosses the knife aside. 

“And what is the first thing a civilian should do during an alien invasion?”

Red Robin looks directly into the camera. “Cry.”

The Screen cuts to a new title card. Black Bat: Between Two Ferns with Spoiler

“Sitting with me right now is my favorite person ever, Black Bat, do you love me?” 

“You are so sweet.” Black Bat answers, sitting back in the chair with her legs crossed.

“Do you think you could take me?” 

“Of course,” Black Bat says. 

“Wait, in a fight or…” 

Black Bat does not answer this question. 

“Do you ever get embarrassed for the criminals you absolutely demolish?” 

Black Bat shakes her head. “They know what they did.”

“Do you have any advice on how to be cooler?” 

“Not that I can legally share.” 

“Will you sign my petition to start sending the rogues to Queer Eye instead of Arkham? I really think it would work out better. Don’t you think if the Riddler knew what a French Tuck was he’d calm down a bit?” 

“I’ll sign the petition, but I think a French Tuck would make The Penguin worse.” 

Spoiler leans back in shock. “You are so right.” 

Black Bat nods.

“Anyway,” Spoiler moves on.  “What’s the first thing a civilian should do during an alien invasion?”

“Go outside and run around screaming.” Black Bat gives the camera a thumbs up and the video cuts to the next title card. 

Signal: Between Two Ferns with Spoiler

Now Signal is sitting in the designated guest seat. 

“Sitting with me is day time hero, The Signal,” Spoiler turns to him. “How many bridges would you jump off of if given the opportunity?” 

“At least one more.” The Signal answers. 

“You have the impulse control of a god.” 

“Have you met Wonder Woman?”

“Have you?” 

The Signal turns in his seat. “You know I might actually be immortal.”

“Might?”

“I’m not testing that.” 

“What even are your powers? I thought you just glowed.” 

“I am a Prophet.” The Signal stands up, ”PROPHET! PROPHET! I PROPHESY! I HAVE SIGHT! I SEE!” He sits back down.

The camera zooms in on Spoiler’s unimpressed face. 

“What do you have to say to accusations that you’re a reverse vampire and will die if caught in the dark?”

“Unfounded, the darkness loves me.” Signal turns invisible with a wink. 

“Shit, where’d he go? Signal, I still need to ask about alien invasions. SIGNAL?!” 

Signal reappears directly in front of the camera, “just don’t worry about it.” 

The screen cuts to black and then to the next title card. Red Hood: Between Two Ferns with Spoiler 

Red Hood is now in the guest seat. Two large googly eyes and a doodled smile have been edited onto his helmet in post production. 

“Next up is who you’d think would be the real clown prince of crime considering how funny he claims to be. But has never once actually been funny nor committed a crime? Red Hood! Commonly seen helping old ladies out of trees and cats cross the street.” 

“It’s great to be here.” Red hood says in a deadpan. 

“Your favorite book is Pride and Prejudice?” Spoiler asks. 

“Yes.”

“And what lie do you tell your goons?”

“I don’t lie about Austen.”

“Thoughts on fratricide?”

“Getting better.”

“Patricide?”

The Red Hood shrugs, “who's to say?”

“You, that’s why I asked.”

They sit in silence for a moment, the camera shifting between their faces. 

“Have you considered being original?” Spoiler finally asks. 

“Briefly.”

“You wear a helmet?” She asks. 

“You have functioning eyes?” He asks. 

“So when you made that choice did you realize how dumb it would make your whole thing look or were you too busy practicing a monologue?”

“I figured I’d just shoot anyone who mentioned it.” He pauses for a moment considering. “And you called me unoriginal.” 

“If I get the Batman to commit vehicular manslaughter will you finally shut the fuck up?”

“Not likely.”

“What is the first thing a civilian should do during an alien invasion?”

“I would recommend dying at your earliest convenience and then coming back with a vengeance and cooler hair.”

“Fair enough,” Spoiler turns to the camera and then it cuts to black. 

The title card Batgirl: Between Two Ferns with Spoiler appears on the screen. 

The camera never shows both chairs in this section. It cuts between close ups of Spoiler and Batgirl. 

“With me is the sexiest woman alive, Batgirl, how are you doing today, baby?” 

“Oh, please, Spoiler. You flatter me. I’ve been great though.” 

“As a badass supreme goddess of crime fighting and general awesomeness, who has done all three looks. Who does it better, blondes, brunettes, or redheads?” 

“I wish you wouldn’t pit bad bitches against each other,” Batgirl mouths ‘blondes,’ to the camera. Fitting with her current hair color. 

“Does your back hurt carrying all of the caped community?” 

“No, that would imply it was difficult being better than everyone else.” 

“Have you ever confronted Batman for stealing the bat theme from you?”

“Imitation is the highest form of flattery, but I did beat his ass for that one. I did.” 

“And what is the first thing a civilian should do during an alien invasion?”

“Just ask yourself, what would Batgirl do?” Batgirl winks and the screen cuts to black. 

Nightwing: Between Two Ferns with Spoiler, this title card is sparkly. 

Nightwing is relaxed in his chair, one leg crossed over the other in a casual sprawl. 

“This is Nightwing,” Spoiler says. 

“Really? That’s it?” 

“No, you’re right, what am I doing? With me right now is occasional Gotham traitor, frequent flyer, Nightwing. Spotted often in places that aren’t Gotham.” 

“Well, not all of us are cursed to never leave its boundaries.” 

“Sad but true, why are you gaslighting people into thinking Bludhaven exists?”

“Tax reasons.”

“When are you going back to Discowing, it was your best costume.” 

“I’ll change right now.” 

The video cuts and Nightwing is in his classic Discowing suit. 

“Better?” Nightwing asks. 

“Yeah, honestly, your styles gotten really boring recently. It’s almost like you’re an old man or something.” 

“Almost.”

“When are you going to start doing some sort of awareness campaign or fundraiser for geriatric superheroes?” 

The camera zooms in on Nightwing nodding and repeatedly opening and shutting his mouth for a solid thirty seconds. 

“No, take your time,” Spoiler assures. 

“I’m not thinking of a comeback, I'm debating my no kill rule.” 

“Well, while you sort out your morals, mind telling us what the first thing a civilian should do during an alien invasion is?”

“Put on ABBA Gold and pretend nothings wrong.” 

The video cuts to the next title card. Robin: Between Two Ferns with Spoiler

“Seated with me right now, is Gotham legend. The immortal chaos god, the guy that once threw a Molotov cocktail directly at a giant robot while yelling ‘JERSEY,’ Robin.” 

Young Robin nods, he has a sword in his lap. Everytime the camera cuts to him there are more swords. 

“What costume do you regret the most?” 

“I would say the leotard, as it was an embarrassment, however the first rendition with pants disgusts me on a deeper level.”

“Of course,” Spoiler agrees. “How was being a woman for two months?”

“Brief.” 

“Did you name the Teen Titans after you built the massive T shaped tower or before?”

“Those were unrelated.”

“What has been your favorite weapon to fight with?” 

Robin, surrounded by swords, tsks. “Hand to hand always feels the most personal.” 

“Of course, what do you have to say to rumors that you are a little baby man, little boy, little guy, a poor little meow meow who needs adult supervision, some choccy milk and a nap?” 

“Who is saying this?” 

Spoiler shrugs. 

“I will take the chocolate milk, but I am an ancient being of unimaginable power and a,” Robin stops, looks off to the side as if reading something or being told something. He sighs. “And a big boy with big crime fighting pants.” He rolls his eyes.

“And what is the first thing a civilian should do in an alien invasion?” 

“They should feel immense regret at not learning basic self defense or survival skills.”

The final title card appears. Batman: Between Two Ferns with Spoiler

“I introduce Batman, the Dark Knight, founding member of the Justice League, oldest man to ever walk the Earth. How are you doing tonight?” 

Batman is very clearly Harley Quinn wearing the cowl and cape over her typical costume. Batman makes slightly audible noise. 

“When you left Catwoman for Mothman was it an upgrade or a downgrade?”

Batman makes a grunting noise. 

“I’m your second favorite, correct?”

Batman makes another grunt. 

“Were you surprised when your goth phase lasted out of high school or did you know from the start it was a lifelong thing?”

Batman makes a Batman noise. 

“Can I just, real quick, compliment your amazing communication skills. Honestly the entire Justice League could learn so much from the way in which you always answer questions clearly and deliver all necessary information.” 

Batman nods once. 

“Would you like to explain what’s going on between you and Ghostmaker? No? Okay, that’s fine. How about that British guy in the trench coat?” 

Batman does not make a noise. Batman hands Spoiler a crumpled piece of paper. 

“Oh,” Spoiler unfolds the paper, “oh right,” she says. Spoiler looks up into the camera, “Batman, are you really stating formally that the Gotham City Sirens should be excused from all laws and previous crimes in a The Purge (2013) sort of situation and allowed to do whatever they want because they are totally good now and have never done anything wrong ever anyway.” 

Batman nods aggressively and gives a thumbs up. 

“And what is the first thing a civilian should do during an alien invasion?”

Batman’s mouth opens and then the video ends. 

[j4gm]

SPOILERS!!! REFERENCES AND EASTER EGGS IN F&C ep. 2: SIMON PETRIKOV

Let me know if I missed anything!

First of all the title sequence is fucking cool. I don't want to speculate about the various things we see in it, like the apartment getting blown up or the Fern tree growing into its 1000+ version, because I'm sure the show will get round to all that!

The first scene was an awesome reintroduction to the post-apocalypse, showing us the dynamic between Simon and Marcy. The button popping off Marcy's dungarees was a reference to young Marcy's first appearance, Memory of a Memory, when she removed one of the buttons herself to fix Hambo's eye.

Simon was show playing a live set at Dirt Beer Guy's tavern in Obsidian. It seems they've gotten to know each other quite well over the past twelve years. Dirt Beer Guy asks Simon if he's read his new book draft, about a character called Joe Milkshake who was first mentioned in the episode Root Beer Guy.

Despite the fact we saw Jake in the trailers, Finn and T.V. pretty much confirm in this scene that Jake is dead, and has presumably been dead since before Obsidian. I guess Bronwyn wasn't the only Jake descendant who Finn took on as an apprentice, but T.V. doesn't seem all that into it. The Finn and Jake we saw in the trailer are likely from an alternate universe that we have yet to see.

Finn uses his weed whacker to cut through these bushes. A nice way of showing he's fully recovered from his Fern guilt. The focus here is very much on Simon's problems instead of Finn's.

Finn parts with Simon to go and visit Huntress Wizard. The nature of their relationship remains ambiguous and I expect it to stay that way.

Simon has the Island Lady from The Party's Over Isla de Señorita in his phone. I guess they reconnected after he became Simon again. He also has Abracadaniel. I always liked Ice King's friendship with Abracadaniel and the rest of the Order of Giuseppe so I hope they're still friends!

Cute Bubbline scene. Back in the episode Bonnibel Bubblegum, Mr. Creampuff suggested he and PB get matching tattoos. Now she's (trying to) do the same with the girl she's chosen rather than some guy who was chosen for her! Also Marceline is using the same phone she's been seen with in a few previous episodes, including Go With Me and Be Sweet.

I think the flying human city is called Up-Ton.

Choose Goose! He keeps coming back! And he's evil now! People were joking about him being the antagonist of Fionna and Cake after that weird post-credits scene in Wizard City and the fact he was in hell in Together Again. I wasn't expecting that to actually come true. Glob knows why he's hanging out in a cage in Simon's house.

The pattern of GOLB's eyes is reflected in Simon's glasses during the ritual. He is doing the same dance that Betty was doing to summon GOLB in the finale.

Among the objects in Simon's GOLB shrine are the Farmworld Enchiridion, the flying carpet that Simon stole from Ash and was later frequently used by Betty, the crocodile clips that Betty used for her magic rituals, two effigies of GOLB, and what looks to be the shell of the snail who was seen throughout the original series.

In this credits sequence, Fionna and cake are dreaming about the mask being worn by the bear than Finn slew, and a butterfly with a smiley face on it. Perhaps symbolising Finn?

Tune in next week for episodes 3 and 4!

[inaflashimagine]

(i’ll love you) til’ the day that i die

pairing: nagumo yoichi x reader

wc: 5k

features: a piece that is part of a multi-chapter nagumo x reader x akao rion story i've been working on–i found it fitting that this section talks about his birthday! the only present he'll be getting here though is angst. includes manga spoilers, numerous mentions of akao. no use of pronouns. and for some context, reader was a poisons-making student at the JCC

The harmonious union between Sakamoto Taro and Aoi is slated to happen during the middle of the worst heat wave in years.

It’s also the same week as Nagumo’s birthday.

Within a hand’s length lies a mini swiveling fan working its best in spite of the brutal conditions. When the weak breeze finally hits the front of your face you let out the most contented sigh. 

Today you’re supposed to water the bountiful assortment of plants decorating your living room and balcony–some cultivated for fun, like the tricky fern a doting, elderly neighbor had given you recently, and others grown for work, like your newly blooming sacred datura–but completing such a task would require you to stand up. And since moving from your current position requires energy you cannot manage to expend, you continue lying on the wooden floor of your apartment, limbs sprawled out lazily like a lounging starfish as you try to ignore the perspiration forming on your forehead. 

Staring at the ceiling, you think about the outfit Asami helped you choose a few days ago, an alarmingly expensive one that’s currently hidden in the corner of your packed closet–a simple, but elegant chiffon fit that flows down to the ankles. Unfortunately, you fear that a feather-light fabric won’t stop you from sweating buckets if your current get-up of a loose tank top and baggy shorts has anything insightful to offer on how you’ll fare the weather in the coming days.

You also regret not buying a present for Nagumo the day you went shopping. The wedding is not for three days, but his birthday is tomorrow. There’s no shot you’ll be able to leave your place today unless someone drags you out of it.

Even if you somehow manage to get outside, you’re still not sure what you’ll get him. Though he denies your accusations of him being a scrupulous person with refined tastes (“Me? Picky? Never!”), you’ll never forget almost choking on your dinner the one time you decided to search up the price of those shiny custom leather boots he likes to wear on assignments. The same missions where blood splatters all over the place.

Not that it matters. Unlike Asami, you don’t have the uncanny ability to distinguish and pick out good designer items, so purchasing anything in that realm feels pointless when he likely already owns that piece or will return the ones he dislikes. You guess being a professional assassin with a lot of money to spend means you can afford to be more deliberate with what you wear.

It also feels cheap to repeat presents, although there are a few golden ones to choose from the previous list. When he turned nineteen, he was initially wary of using the hefty supply of medicine you made to treat his motion sickness, considering you first gave him a similar concoction in high school that only had him hurling more violently. (A genuine mistake, you swear. Perhaps just as much as he swears his car sickness is genuine and not an excuse to get out of driving duty.) But aside from a mission that Sakamoto said would’ve been a disaster without Kamihate, lately you haven’t heard any complaints about him feeling carsick.

(Though two weeks ago, Shishiba picked up the batch of incapacitating agents and truth serums he needed for a target before randomly telling you that Nagumo still takes the pills whenever there’s a particularly long car trip. It almost felt like the blond was indirectly thanking you, since he said he was grateful that the rental cars could now stay tidy, but that small, knowing smirk irked you enough to tell him to get going with his mission unless he wanted to be forcefed an onion salad.) 

Maybe Nagumo would like an air conditioner. You sure would like one. 

There is one other option. It wouldn’t be particularly fancy or brand new, but perhaps the sentiment it brings will suffice. Slightly lifting your head, you stare at one of the only two pictures hanging on the otherwise blank wall. You swear you had a copy of it, but now you’re doubting yourself. The more you mull it over, the more complicated it seems, and you groan in frustration as your head hits the hard floor rather forcefully.

Just fretting over this makes you laugh. Your high school self could never imagine this being what you’d spend your waking days thinking about. Back then, the thought of calling Nagumo your friend made you instantly gag, and while now you sometimes hate admitting it aloud, it would be childish to outright deny your friendship with him. 

You only started getting him presents when someone suggested a group one for his eighteenth, begrudgingly agreeing to the idea because you figured a smiling, happy Nagumo was significantly better than dealing with a version that would resort to theatrics to lament the lack of receiving a present. Strangely enough, gifting him something not only celebrates his day but also feels like you’re keeping the spirit of another alive.

“Care to share your thoughts?”

Your lips pull into a slight frown, finding that the comforting canvas that is your ceiling has now been blocked by Nagumo’s large forehead.

“No wonder why you grow out your bangs.”

“Hurtful!” But his smirk hints that he’s not too offended, even when a freakishly long arm stretches outward to flick your own head. “Whatever happened to a simple ‘Hello’, dare I even say, a cordial ‘How are you’?”

“Oh. Right. I guess I can say that.” You blink slowly, a gesture he returns. “But maybe after you tell me how you got in here?”

That question is a moot one, considering he’s become an expert at discovering new ways to break into your apartment without causing a ruckus. To tally the number of times you’ve opened the front door just to see him lounging on the couch–smooching off your snacks and streaming subscriptions despite having his own–would require more than the two hands you currently have attached. Unfortunately, there’s no point in changing the locks when he knows how to pick each one.

He remains bent over from the waist up, hands placed on hips as his eyes idly roam across your face. From this position, falling strands of his jet-black hair look like icicles that are on the precipice of impaling your head.

“You know, you really should shut your windows when you’re not in the room! Who knows when a psycho might sneak into your lovely home?”

Entering through your bedroom window is a new method. Though you’ve only started living here for half a year, eager to move into a place that wasn’t directly above your’s family perfumery. After the JAA News Channel and the JAA Times deemed the shop the second-best fragrance store in the Western branches–tragically losing the coveted first-place spot to the Nishimuras–clientele has been an all-time high while privacy has been abysmally low. (Yet perhaps you’ve overestimated your ability to find the latter in the first place.)

You’re just glad you don’t have to go to the locksmith again–the poor old man started to worry for your safety when he saw you for a third time in less than a month. 

“Did you say hi to Mochi? He’s been enjoying his free roaming time.” 

He appears as if his brain stopped working, blank doe eyes as wide as ever. A nervous laugh leaves his agape mouth that becomes frozen into a forced grin. “He’s what?”

“What’s with that tone?”

“Oh, you mean my perfectly normal reaction to finding out your poisonous snake is outside its tank?”

Your dejected sigh is a long one. “For the millionth time, he’s venomous, not poisonous.”

The footsteps of professional assassins are quieter than that of a seasoned ballerina, so the fact that you can easily hear Nagumo’s hurried ones as he retreats to the hallway shows how dramatic he’s being. Your assumption that he’s heading to the guest room–which currently holds all your reptilian enclosures, including a safely stored Mochi–is right as he exclaims, “Oh, you think you’re a comedian now?”

Though the joke was short-lived your amusement thankfully lasts longer. “You still haven’t greeted him, that’s so rude! My, oh my, whatever happened to a simple ‘Hello’? Don’t hurt his feelings.”

“Killing the birthday boy is ruder! I can’t believe you’d do that to me.”

While Mochi is a boomslang, a snake whose venomous bite can have you bleed from all your orifices until you die, his previous owner made the rather unethical choice to have its glands removed. He’s probably the most timid snake you’ve rescued–and one of the most beautiful with such vibrant green scales–but you’d never free handle him. Of course, Nagumo doesn’t need to know that important tidbit. With how rare it is to successfully prank or lie to him, you secretly enjoy pulling his leg once in a blue moon.

“Not sure if you know this, but your birthday isn’t for another twenty-four hours,” you say with closed eyes, trying to picture yourself on a cool island rather than the sweltering oven that is your living room. Talking right now feels incredibly draining. “So at this very moment, there is no obligation to keep you entertained.”

Nagumo draws out a weary exhale. “Must you make our relationship sound so transactional? I just wanted to relax with a friend after a busy work day.”

When you no longer feel the faint wind from your fan, you crack an eye open and turn your head, only to see that the precious item has been moved so that he can direct it toward his own face while he places himself next to you.

His body lies in the opposite direction to yours, but both your curious gazes match at the same level. He’s replaced the suit and tie for an unbuttoned and eccentrically patterned camp collar shirt over a baggy black tank top and bright blue shorts, meaning the scorching heat outside is no fluke. It’s the first time you’re noticing how long his hair has grown, a small knot poking out from the nape of his neck.

“I’m not sure if our relationship is transactional since that implies a two-way model,” you explain slowly, like a teacher introducing a complex concept to their students. “I give, you take, and then I take when you give. If that’s actually the case, what will I get after you’ve stolen my hair tie?”

You just bought a new pack of them, too. The urge to head to your room to see if they’ve all been swiped from your vanity is strong, but the will to stay still is stronger.

He grins largely, the pale skin on his neck pulling taut as your glance falls to the Fibonacci spiral. That was the first tattoo he got after receiving the hefty commission that comes with being a member of the Order. It seems to glisten with small beads of perspiration, and you’re surprised the only enemy that triggers him to break out into a sweat is this unbearable weather.

“Well, I figured my presence was enough for you. Maybe more than enough, even.”

The snort that leaves you is less than graceful. “That’s a line all your targets must love hearing.”

He hums, stroking his chin. “I wouldn’t know, since I just came up with it today, and I took the day off.”

“You said today was a long work day.”

“Did I?” His carefree laugh sounds like chimes rustling in the soft wind. “Ah, you know me, I always take the week off for my birthday.”

“You’ve never done that.”

“It’s a new tradition. Thought it would be fitting with the little wedding happening in a few days.” His fingers lock together when he places them atop his chest, exhaling a wistful sigh. “Sakamoto-kun, getting married! They grow up so fast.”

Your body tenses at that. You know it should be good news–you’re happy for Sakamoto, too. It’s the implications that come with marrying a civilian that makes you worry.

Hyo brought it up during the last time he stopped by the shop, needing to pick up domoic acid for a mission; the sight of one of the tallest men you’ve seen cradling a miniature bottle would’ve provided more comic relief were it not for his questions that followed. When he commented that the quiet man was taking more time off and following through on fewer assignments, you figured he was mildly complaining about the need for other Order members to pick up his slack. Then he asked when was the last time you talked to Sakamoto.  

It would’ve seemed random–especially since you and Hyo seldom discuss anything beyond fragrances and poisons–had you not made that unspoken agreement with Nagumo months ago. Since that night, you’ve been careful with running into Sakamoto, or any 7-Eleven for that matter. 

And from what Nagumo has told you, no one else in the Order knows about Aoi, much less the fact that you two have met her. You hope it stays that way. The last thing this wedding needs is a splash of red.

Especially when you know the JAA doesn’t take well to assassins exposing the cracks in the association’s carefully constructed structure, and particularly when those who disrespect the rules causes others to question whether they could do the same. Almost two years have passed since Yotsumura’s defection, but his absence still looms over like a dark cloud in the distance that no one wants to acknowledge. The members first pointing out the fresh jagged scar on Shishiba’s chin was the last time anything connected to the founder of the Order was mentioned. 

His death serves a dull, painful reminder. A threat. Yotsumura was the one who hired you as a poisons expert retainer for his organization, a deal you only accepted after he assured you that you were chosen not because of Nagumo’s unabating–and Sakamoto’s sporadic–recommendations, but solely for recreating a highly coveted poison that was last made by your father. (“I don’t trust those two and I’m not the type to do favors. Besides, people who can make decent poisons are short in numbers these days.)

If the JAA treated their former No. 2 man like that, you fear how they might dispose of others who forget their loyalty. It’s a warning those like Hyo heed, and those like Sakamoto will ignore, especially if it contradicts what they want. 

So with Hyo being such a stickler for the rules, you simply shrugged at his question before changing the subject. If anyone is going to announce a JAA violation, it should be Sakamoto himself. Your job requires you to be okay with helping others kill, a fact you’ve never challenged, but you refuse to cause the death of an innocent civilian.

Thankfully, Hyo didn’t think much of your lack of an answer. Maybe he caught the visible discomfort in your shifting figure before dropping the topic, asking how your grandparents were instead. You sincerely hope his soft side–which you swear you’ve seen before–allows him to be more understanding of this delicate situation Sakamoto’s placed himself in. 

But the real concern lies in how long everyone will continue believing this false narrative that one of the country’s most formidable assassins won’t call it quits the minute he gets hitched to a normie.

“I still can’t believe it,” you say after a hot minute, eyes fixed back onto the ceiling. “They seem like complete opposites.”

Nagumos laughs, sounding quite amused. “Well, you’re definitely convinced they’ll stay together…”

“It’s not that, I just–” Where are you going with this? “Marriage is such a foreign concept to me.”

Even the way the word rolls off your tongue feels weird. Sounds off. 

“Foreign? Haven't you been to a wedding before?”

“Have you?”

Although he doesn’t respond right away, you can feel him burning holes into your face. 

You continue to stare straight above. 

“Well, I guess I crashed one, but that counts, right?” He bites his lip in contemplation. “The bride didn’t appreciate me killing the groom before their photoshoot, though.”

It takes restraint to not laugh darkly at what you ideally hope is a joke, but are cynically aware could very likely be the truth. “Gee, I wonder why…”

“Anyway, you act as if people in our profession don’t get married.”

“They don’t.” You won’t. At least, you don’t think you will. But telling him that feels wrong, so you stick with the unpleasant, sour taste in your mouth.

“And your parents? Mine?”

You can’t recall the last time he’s mentioned his parents. In fact, you don’t think he’s ever brought them up before.

“I mean, married to civilians.”

The sound of the fan whirring back to life makes you switch your gaze back to the floor. To Nagumo positioning the petite contraption next to your face.

“Man, this heat has you all depressed! We gotta make sure you’re not behaving like this at the wedding–no one likes a party pooper.”

“Nagumo, be serious for once,” you plead wearily, hating that it sounds like you’re whining.

“Oh man, I can’t be the only one feeling this sense of deja vu!”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t be daft. Haven’t we talked about this before?” There’s a mirthful glint in his gaze that accompanies that teasing tone.

Right, the ‘tranquil’ nightly stroll featuring a civil conversation that felt more like some absurd ultimatum. “Not to the extent we should’ve.”

“Hmm, I remember calling it silly. A tad foolish. Ridiculous, sure. What else will fit…I’ll have to pull out a thesaurus at this rate.”

“I’m worried for her.”

He immediately stops ticking off his senseless list of words, sharp eyes studying your concern. “Hah! Worried? Come on, you know he’ll protect her. Will probably teach her a few moves, or maybe it’s the other way around. He did mention that she’s a Bruce Lee fan.”

The steady thrum of the spinning fan matches the rapid beats of your heart as you look at him imploringly. “And you know that’s not what I’m concerned about.”

His lips press firmly, a sudden grim expression saying more than his words ever could.

Nagumo may be as skillful as Sakamoto, perhaps even more adept than his old friend, yet his inability to move on hinders him. He can lie about no longer being affected by it. Can masterfully hide his need for closure. But any hypocrite can spot when someone else is relying on the methods they also use.

He’s like you, in that way. The thought strikes your head so abruptly it begins to ache.

It’s his turn to look up, hands behind his head as he sighs. “It’ll be okay! Seriously. She trusts him.”

“As if that’s enough.” In this world, it isn’t. If Sakamoto attempts to leave, it will only follow him. 

He has to be aware of this. Right? Blind trust is reserved for idiots who enjoy getting hurt.

“Hmm, who’s to say? But being so guarded sure makes for a boring life.”

Your stomach twists into knots, cognizant of who that’s directed toward. “At least it guarantees safety.”

“Please,” he chides, not unkindly, “then why stick to poison-making? And nothing in life is guaranteed. You know that more than anyone.”

He must catch your slight wince–of course he does, who are you kidding?–because he quickly adds on, a bit higher in pitch and certainly more lively than how you’re feeling, “One never knows when there’s an assassin about to cut off your head, after all!”

“I’m talking about Aoi, here.” Yet you aren’t fooling anyone with how defensive you sound.

“You really are the worst liar I know.” He turns his body to face you in the same direction, calling your name when you’re reluctant to do the same. His voice is so quiet your ears strain to hear the low mumble. “What are you so afraid of?”

It doesn’t help that when you close your eyes, you only see her face. Can even vividly picture every single strand of blue hair that hides the tiny dark flecks in those annoyingly golden eyes.

This really is the last conversation you want to have with anyone, least of all him. 

You suck in a short breath before rolling to your side, growing increasingly aware of how stuffy the room feels. How close he is to you. 

“I’m not afraid, I’m…” You falter. “I’m just tired of losing people.” 

Your face burns as you continue to be met with silence, a quiet that you doubt with how loudly your heart pounds against your ribs. The confession is incredibly shameful to say aloud, considering what you do for a living. It’s more embarrassing to admit it to another person, specifically to someone who will undoubtedly respond with one of his classic facetious remarks. (Though you argue such a reply is warranted.) 

But still, finally getting it out in the open, after sitting with it for so long, makes you feel a bit less lonely. 

He doesn’t say anything, his uncharacteristically sober gaze searching yours.

You feel him grab your hand gently, your muscles initially flexed when you see him place it on top of his cheek.

Yet there’s no other resistance on your end, and you’re frightened by how quickly your body reacts to the movement. Your palm even seems to have a mind of its own with the way it cups his face immediately. As if some primordial instinct just kicked in.

Nagumo stays still as your fingers trace soft lines across his smooth skin. From the delicate slope of his nose and the high set of cheekbones to the sharp edge of his jaw and the long lashes that frame round, dark eyes. Eyes that hold a void you’re never able to tap yourself into, unless you risk getting sucked into that black hole. 

You feel starved, unable to stop admiring a beauty so alluring. Inviting. He’s warm to the touch. 

Alive. 

And despite your brain reminding you that he’s here, right in front of you, another part of you can’t believe it until you’ve committed every feature to memory. The intimate action requires all your concentration that you nearly forget the light trail of sweat forming at the back of your neck, or the insufferable heat threatening to swallow you two whole.

Your fingers hover right above his lips with a slight waver, though you unabashedly stare at them and the way they twist upwards when he catches you in the act. 

“Go out with me.”

A mere whisper, terribly low that if you aren’t sharing the same breaths you might’ve missed it.

It feels like you just got the wind knocked out of you. Looking up, you blink away the reverie you slipped yourself into, trying your best to forget the moment when those exact same words were said by someone else so long ago. “What?”

“Go out with me,” he repeats, a bit louder this time, and that’s when you notice his hand is on your hip. “We can go to the wedding together. Be the hottest couple.” He pauses, thinking that over again. “Well, second hottest, I suppose. That’s what we’d tell them, anyway.”

You’d laugh from the shock of it all if it weren’t for your unsteady heart attempting to jump out of your chest. “How…forward of you.”

Even his snorts are graceful. “You say that as if it’s a new trait of mine.”

“That’s because I don’t know what else to say.”

He smiles enthusiastically, and there’s a rare hint of nervousness to its boyish character. “How about ‘yes’? That’s not only the easiest answer but the right one, especially for the birthday boy.”

“Hey, you can’t pull that card.” You’re surprised your racing mind can currently form a coherent sentence. “Not yet, at least.”

His eyes crease with the smug smirk playing on his lips. “Huh, I guess you’re right. Not that I need to use it. Because we both know you feel it, too.”

The tip of his thumb skirts under your shirt and a shiver wracks your body from the contact. 

To steady the slight tremor in your hand, you flatten your palm against his face. Grasping fingers find purchase in his hair, a light exhale falling past your lips upon realizing how soft it is. Uncaring for how you cause it to fall loose from the tied knot. You know you shouldn’t, that you should stop. But it’s the only thing grounding you at the moment.

You can see your conflicted expression reflected in those big brown eyes that you get lured into far easily. The cascading sunlight makes them appear as a rich, coppery chestnut you can’t, or rather, don’t want to tear yourself away from.  

For a brief second, you can picture it clearly, can sense it with every fiber of your being. His comforting embrace after a long, tiresome day. The curve of his lips against your own. Entwining his hands with yours. Taking in his scent until you can distinguish no other. Him having you all to himself and you having him all to yourself. Where no one else, no thing can reach. The image is so vivid that you can touch it with a stretch of your arm, feel it brush against the edge of your fingertips. Closing your eyes, you feel yourself lean in, almost allow yourself to give in, to be swept by the grandeur of it all.

Almost.

You’re not sure what exactly pulls you back, but the uneasy dread that begins pooling in your stomach becomes harder to ignore with each sharp breath. You swallow the lump in your throat, a dull ache in your heart as you painfully pry your heavy hand off him and shake your head.

“I can’t.” Air leaves your chest. “I’m so sorry, but I can’t.”

The instant those words leave your mouth you know you’ve made a mistake. You desperately wish you could tell him why–to provide him some sort of explanation beyond the half-assed ‘it feels wrong’. Or at least something, anything, that doesn’t teeter between the straight razor edge of unnecessarily cruel and downright insane.

But when his smile no longer reaches his eyes, you doubt a clarification would’ve prevented him looking this sad. 

And then it’s gone in an instant. His well-worn mask is back on, the sunny disposition written so well across his face you wonder if the slightest inkling of disappointment was simply a figment of your imagination. 

He truly is a master of his craft. 

The room suddenly feels frigid and sterile, and panic begins to rise in your chest the moment he starts getting up. 

You find yourself standing, lamely trailing behind as he begins to open the door. “Wait, hold on–”

“Now, no need to look so guilty,” he says casually, back facing towards you. He tilts his head so you can only catch a glimpse of his face. Save for the thin stretch of his lips, you can’t begin to read his expression, much less fathom what’s going on in that head of his. “Not when I was just kidding!”

The cheerful delivery of that last line sounds so feigned you much prefer being stabbed in the gut multiple times than being the one to blame for all this. 

“Nagumo,” you try once again, voice getting weaker, “We should talk about this.”

He’s less than a few steps away from you but you’ve never felt this distant from him. You hate how good he is at making it seem like you’re an acquaintance he can now cross off his yearly check-in quota. Oceans apart would be a generous underestimate.

“See you at the wedding!”

The door closes before you can register that he’s left, not giving you the chance to study even the slightest change in his face. 

Then again, you don’t think you’ve ever been able to read past his facade. 

In such a short amount of time, everything seems to have flipped upside down, anxiety gripping its claws into you while you pace back and forth in search of a solution. You worry it might be too late to mend the gaping hole you recklessly created. 

In your frenetic pacing, your shoulder bumps into the wall, two pictures no longer in view as they fall onto the floor. The shattered glass punctures the silence that weighs in the air. Cursing under your breath, you bend down, careful to not cut yourself with the broken shards as you pick up the first photo and stare at the four people looking right back at you. 

It was Asami’s first photograph on the new digital camera you had gifted her for her birthday. She told all of you to smile and look at the fancy device, but (shockingly) only you, the poisons student who treated a lab manual like scripture, followed her instructions. 

Sakamoto ended up blinking in this one, and the last time you checked, a frown was not a smile. A squinting Akao was right next to him and to your left. Her black jacket slipped past her shoulders as she poked Nagumo in the cheek after she caught him wiggling his hand behind your head with two fingers up. One of his eyes was closed, the other one looking at you, but at least he was grinning from ear to ear. You can’t even remember what she was shouting at him, her open mouth–with the slightest upward curve at the corner if you examine it long enough–remaining frozen in time. All you can recall is their bickering making you laugh hard enough that your smile felt effortless. 

You try your hardest not to cry but realize it’s a lost cause when a teardrop dampens the photo paper.

[m1d-45]

opportunity arisen

-> warnings: minor spoilers for the first sumeru archon quest(like very minor, mostly names and titles of things), set during the imposter au, you’re technically on the run

-> lowercase intended!

part 2 >>

if tighnari hears that the akademiya is looking for somebody with an uncanny resemblance to his god, he’s immediately asking the rangers bring them immediately to him and not to alert any other authority.

who knows what the akademiya is up to? knowing them and all the messes they’re involved with, it’s clear there has to be something going on behind the scenes. he’s not about to let an innocent get caught in the crossfire. he already has a plan for if a ranger brings you in: where you’ll stay, how he’ll act if a sage comes by, what he’ll do if the akademiya tries to search the village.

but if he finds you?

he’s checking the lampposts on the road to gandharva ville when he hears you off the side of the main road. he hears you, in what sounds like distress, rushing to draw his weapon- but no, now that he’s closer.. that’s definitely laughter.

tighnari lessens the tension on his bowstring, but still keeps the arrow nocked as he approaches. ferns part to allow him through, and he startles at the sight of you. sun streams down through the leaves, illuminating a group of fungi around you. his fingers falter on the string in shock, “hello?”

you turn, fear immediately coloring your face. you try to stand- only to stumble, tripping over your own feet, and he ditches his weapon to step forward around the fungi and catch you with a gloved hand on your shoulder.

“what’s wrong? did you pack enough water? did you eat an amanita mushroom?” his head is already running the familiar track of common cures for poisonous mushrooms, planning the shortest and safest route through the forest back to gandharva ville. “here, come with me, i’ll-“

you jerk away and he nearly falls trying to keep you upright, finally noticing the fear in your eyes. dirt streaks your skin and the mask you wear is ragged and torn, alongside the rest of your clothes. you’re a mess, ragged around the edges, and he feels like the forest air dropped a few degrees.

“d- i don’t- please, i don’t mean any harm i swear!”

two options flash through his mind.

one: you’re lying. you’re a threat running from the law, hoping to persuade him into giving you his resources. evidence is a bit scant, but it’s a possibility he has to consider.

or two: you’ve been wrongfully accused of something, a victim of the—admittedly quite biased—justice system in sumeru city. evidence consists entirely of your behavior: he’s not sure anybody could emulate the panic in your eyes quite that well.

either way, you’re hurt.

either way, he needs to do something.

“hey, you’re okay. i’m not gonna hurt you, and i’m not accusing you of anything.” his eyes flick over your form, checking for anything that could keep you from walking; you’re leaning heavily on your left foot, it seems, the right almost hovering above the ground with how little weight is on it. “but you’re hurt, and you’re not going to get far from whatever you’re running from-“ you flinch “-with a hurt leg, alright?”

you don’t want to agree, that much is obvious. your eyes shift away from him, you lean away subtly even as he’s fairly certain he’s the only thing keeping you standing. the fungi crowd you, almost forming a shield between you and him, and he wonders how long you’ve been out here that you manage to befriend actual fungi.

“all… alright. …thank you.”

the careful and hesitant speech reminded him of collei, somewhat, when she’d first arrived. the conparison makes his heart hurt.

he slings your right arm over his shoulder and keeps it there with one of his, the other moving around your waist to hold you against him. warmth floods into his skin where you make contact… are you perhaps running a fever? it had been raining more frequently recently, and considering the state of your clothes..

as you walk, he does his best to keep an eye out for any tall roots or protruding rocks on your path, but it’s like they don’t exist. whenever he sees one that looks worrisome and considers steering you away, it seems to shrink as he gets closer. any bugs or insects fluttering around also seemed to vanish as soon as you get close, mosquitos surprisingly nowhere to be found.

he wonders if it’s a result of his vision, but quickly dismissed it. he always sees bugs around, even with his best repellents.. do you have a vision, he wonders? he didn’t see one on your person, but given the value of such an object, it makes sense you would keep it hidden when on the run.

he wonders what you’re running from.

he hopes you’ll tell him.

when you arrive at gandharva ville he feels you tense, your arm tightening slightly around his neck, and he makes a note of it. thankfully, collei wasn’t on her bed—her eleazar had been growing awful these past few weeks, putting her under his care more frequently than he would have preferred—so the medicinal room was empty.

he guides you to sit on the bed, mentally tallying up everything he has to do as he collects medicinal supplies from around the room.

he doubts you’ve had a good meal for a while, and the rivers in sumeru arent as clean as they look all the time. mushroom spores or some from a fungi can quickly contaminate a water source, so food and water are an immediate need.

also, find out what you had eaten prior, if anything. mushrooms were serious business, and if your symptoms were caused by one of those instead of malnutrition, that would need to be addressed swiftly.

he pulls over a chair with his free hand and dumps the supplies on the nightstand, reaching for your injured foot and pulling it into his lap. “so, what are you running from?”

you tense, then start to scramble for a response. your eyes search your lap like it holds the answer, lining up what he assumes is, at best, a half-truth in your mind. he can easily assume you don’t want to talk about it, and carefully sets about treating your ankle while he waits.

“the sages,” you finally say. “they… think i did something i didn’t.”

he can see the need to clarify, to rush and reassure him that you didn’t, and he feels it as an ache in his chest. he’s watching the way you curl in on yourself at the question, gripping the sheets tightly and looking away. clearly, this is a sore subject, and he understands as he digests your response.

the sages?

the akademiya did this to you?

his ears flick in irritation, though he’s careful not to squeeze your ankle too tight. it’s definitely sprained, and he doesn’t want to make it worse. every little detail on you stands out more, from the dirty bandages around your arm to the ripped clothes, torn in such a way that was too precise for any thorn.

he hasn’t said anything. he thinks your shoulders have risen even higher.

“i’m not going to turn you in, if that’s what youre worried about.” your grip on the blankets loosens. “for monitoring the akasha all the time, they can be quite.. dense.”

a flicker of a smile crosses your face, but it fades fast. he watches emotion after emotion cross, slowly twisting your features further into sadness. he waits for a few moments for you to say whatever is on your mind, giving you time to collect your thoughts, but nothing comes.

he finally decides to break the silence, folding his hands over the finished bandage. “what is it?”

your eyes meet his. “you.. you’re helping me.”

your voice is rough around the edges, dry and hoarse, and he makes a mental note to give you some medicine for what has to be a sore throat. despite being in a rainforest, there aren’t that many clean sources of water.

“i am.”

“you’ll get in trouble with the sages.”

he barks a laugh, surprised. “oh, don’t worry about that. i’m far too important to the akademiya for them to discipline me with any level of permanence, and nobody here is going to rat you out either. besides, who’s to say they’ll even look here for you?”

there’s an implication to his words that you don’t quite catch, and he sets your leg back on the floor.

“don’t worry about it, alright? at least for now.”

when he asks you to take off your scrap of a shirt, you barely hesitate.

after treating the numerous wounds across your person—he does his best to keep a neutral expression, but you can see the disdain on his face as clear as day—he gives you clothes from another forest ranger. they’re a little small, something he apologizes for, but you don’t mind. you’re in a bed, with clean clothes, even if you yourself aren’t. a week- a month ago, even, this would just be a fever dream. he lets you rest, bringing cold water—a blessing with the humidity of the forest—and a soup. though you don’t particularly like it, the inescapable bitterness of medicine ruining whatever he put in, it’s warm and so much better than zaytun peaches that you drink all of it.

when he stands, you half-expect him to start questioning you on the specifics, but all he does is take the empty bowl and spoon from you to set it elsewhere before sitting right back down at your bedside.

“thanks.”

“not a problem at-.. all…” he frowns, and you wonder for a moment if you did something wrong. “i don’t think i’ve ever properly introduced myself.”

it’s such a non-issue a laugh bubbles out of you, sounding more like a cough. “n-no need, i already know you.”

“oh?” too late, you catch your words. whoops. “well, then consider it a formality.” his hand extends, and he smiles when your shake it. “i’m tighnari, forest watcher of the avidya forest. what’s your name?”

you hesitate before answering. he has a feeling it’s a fake name, but repeats it anyway.

“it’s my pleasure to make your acquaintance. i hope that i can be of help to you during your stay here, and i promise that i will do everything i can to ensure your safety.”

you smile.

[just-eyris-things]

Eyris's outfits masterpost

So at the beginning of May I started drawing Eyris in various outfits that she wore throughout her life. Adding a Read More because this will be a long post.

NOT SPOILER FREE

We start with casual clothes she wears for the first year before she grows her first plant set.

STARTER OUTFIT / CASUAL OUTFIT 1

I added the Hero word card, which I later on regretted - I should have added it on the second outfit (plant armor), but I will elaborate on that later. She can be seen wearing a similar outfit in her early teens in my comic.

In the first year of her life, she studies under Caithe, learns how to wield daggers and a bow and also acquires a fern hound, which she later on names Airost. The two are inseparable. They are almost like one being in two bodies.

FIRST PLANT ARMOR 1: HERO/NOBLE

Eyris wears this plant armor when she's still the Valiant. As mentioned earlier, she studies under Caithe and is preparing for her task of slaying Zhaitan next to the two Firstborn. Eyris completes the White Stag story line alongside Tiachren storyline. Her eye scar comes from Gavin. Thanks Gavin :) I still love you, even if you are the reason Eyris is scared to trust people and that's why she chooses to go with Tiachren instead of saving the village - she doesn't want to lose a friend to Nightmare again (babygirl Gavin was NOT your fault...)

She then attempts to help the Order of Whispers to retrieve Caladbolg, but she fails. Eyris slowly loses faith in herself after that failure. She uses it as an excuse to escape and become a Soundless - if she cannot retrieve a sword, then how can she possibly battle a dragon? Furthermore, that failure only quantifies her fear of death (reminder: she's seen in her Dream that a dragon consumes her and as a result she wakes up prematurely from shock and fear). So, she thinks that as a Soundless she will be safe.

She stays with the Soundless for a while until their village is raided by the Nightmare Court. Eyris is one of the very few that manages not to get caught. She does not wait for her fellow villagers to escape - she packs her bag and leaves to travel the road.

SHIVERPEAKS!

During her travels Eyris eventually reaches Shiverpeaks. She is not as "green" (pun not intended) as she used to be when she first began her journey, but she's still quite young, naive and inexperienced. She meets Ragnar Bjornskin, who adopts her and teaches her not only important survival skills, but also a bit about the world, especially about norn culture. Eyris sees Ragnar more as a parent figure than she sees the Pale Tree.

Unfortunately, Eyris and Ragnar get ambushed by the Sons of Svanir. Eyris gets her nose broken and Ragnar... Ragnar dies, which devastates her and eventually... leads her down the path of crime.

CASUAL OUTFIT 2

Eyris still travels, but her most common "hunting" ground for goods and money is Lion's Arch. She becomes quite infamous there at some point, but more as "the unknown person that we KNOW is responsible for all of THOSE crimes". Eyris, girlie, you're using the skills that Ragnar's taught you the wrong way... he would NOT be proud.

But it would make someone else proud, and by someone else I mean...

THE ORDER OF WHISPERS

Eyris is recruited by the Order of Whispers. She uses them as a kind of "reputation reset" card. She is good at her job, and after she gains trust of her coworkers, she begins plotting. She betrays the Order many times by selling classified information or using the Order's resources for side hustles, or other stuff. When she's caught, she knows she has to disappear - The Order chases after her in every possible way.

Around that time Eyris meets Freya - a vigil soldier with whom she has Beef TM. The Beef TM doesn't last long though.

Eyris then switches between Casual Outift 1 and 2 most of the time, when she's forced to join the Zhaitan war she wears a slightly more fortified Casual Outfit 2 (to protect herself from the undead bites and scratches, as well as to protect herself from weird Orrian weather). And then... we're back to plant fits.

PLANT ARMOR 2: IN THE JUNGLE

Eyris doesn't really show up during LWs1 and we see her come back in LWs2 right before the Summit. She is accused of bringing the Mordrem in, despite her actually coming to warn the attendees.

After that Commander Airell has to do a lot of work to get her in their ranks - they believe they could use her skills but they also want to minimise the risk of in-fighting within the Pact ranks.

Eyris also wears this outfit during HoT - Eyris plays a minor role in the expansion, in LWs2 she mostly chases after Caithe and the egg, and after she gets the egg in the expac she just stays in Tarir until LWs3. She doesn't participate in it much, she heads to Divinity's Reach for Head of the Snake, where she is supposed to attend a wedding as Freya's plus one in this lovely dress:

After the wedding, Eyris travels to Elona with Canach and we get...

THE DESERT OUTFIT 1

Eyris heads to Elona to find Vlast, she considers that task an extension of her Wyld Hunt that she clearly can't escape. She reunites with Kasmeer, Rytlock, Canach and the new commander, Nia Furaha at the time of Vlast's death. Eyris does not tag along with the group, but they meet again in Kesho. After that, Eyris and Nia face Balthazar. Nia escapes, Eyris...gets burnt to a crisp, which brings us to...

NECROMANCING EYRIS BACK TO THE LAND OF THE LIVING, COURTESY OF AIRELL!!!

When Airell rejoins the group in the desert and learns of Eyris's death, they go to the place of her demise to pay respects. Since Airell is now, unknowingly, the new Jungle Dragon, and they also absorbed Zhaitan magic....yeah, they accidentally bring her back by accidentally sprouting a blighting tree. Well, the tree doesn't get enough nutriens from the rock so when Eyris falls out of the pod...she's a bit unstable, and her body is covered in necrotic energy that keeps the body safe from harm and lets it finish regrowing. Since, yknow....there was nothing left.

Death still leaves a mark on Eyris - she now has a big scar around her waist, at the place where Balthazar has cut her in half. In the Necrotic Form, the wound glows ominously. The extra eyes were added as a simply stylistic choice to point at her connection to Airell (the connection replaced the Dream), just like this flame that's in the middle of her stomach. Hands are in a different colour just because I wanted to draw them like that, so probably not canon.

Anyway, eventually Eyris is done regrowing her body, especially her face, which leads us to

THE FALLEN HERO ARMOR

Eyris wears this post resurrection and during Joko arc. This is a simplified version of the haunted armor outfit, I was at Tyrian Pride so I'll admit that I got lazy with drawing the outfit perfectly and just simplified it.

The hole in the armor glows with Airell's magic (I might get rid of this part). For majority of time, Eyris wears a skull mask to hide her face which is..well, gone for majority of the story. She has a Grand Face Reveal during the final Joko Face-off. Yes, the differences between the eyes on the face close-up were drawn on purpose. Also new hairstyle, more accommodating the desert heat.

I'll update the post with the last 7 outfits when I'm done drawing them :) For now - enjoy some Eyris content.

[chameleonspell]

HTDC commentary - 4: falling

[Looking back at HTDC after nearly ten years: comments on lore, character notes, influences, art, whatever. May contain spoilers for later chapters.]

chapter text: 4: falling

These early chapters tend to be short and jump forward in time lot, because I was just skipping to the next turning point, and Iriel isn't spending enough time with other people for there to be much interesting going on between. Especially now, because he's gonna be unconscious for a lot of it.

Much later, certain people would gravely refer to this period of Iriel’s life as one during which he “lost himself”

I had no idea who was supposed to have told Iriel this, later, and I still can't think who would be a plausible candidate. I said this purely for rhetorical effect. I feel like this makes me an unreliable narrator of my own story, though I'm not sure that's technically possible.

His conscious mind, cast adrift on an overwhelming ocean of sensation, became reduced to scattered thoughts and isolated impressions.

Seems like Ire was tripping on nature, before he was even tripping on sugar. I probably should have been less dreamily effusive, here, and saved it for the on-drugs bit, but I just really love the Bitter Cost! You don't need drugs to appreciate the Swamp! Despite the apparent similarities of the Pit being Iriel's shame and depression, Iriel being in the swamp was never at all the same metaphor, though it took until chapter 153 for me to really explicate this properly. Being in the swamp is mostly positive, if soggy. The swamp is comforting and accepting. The swamp doesn't judge.

The spongey texture of the luminous mushrooms he collected obsessively, and the ssschlucking sound they made when he yanked them out of the damp soil to lay them out in order of size and colour on the moss.

I got really into mushrooms (as organism, not drug!) after I wrote Iriel an obsession with them. Be very careful what interests you give fictional characters, because if you identify with them too hard, it's very easy to catch it off them.

All Ire knew was that he had found two small cloth bags of crystalline white powder underneath a crate on a small jetty, and that when he put a finger in and licked it, everything got better.

The story started with a concept and a shape, but no detail - that mostly came out of gameplay, at the start. The moon sugar was a happy accident, finding the bags in a random smuggler loot sack, and realising...  why wouldn't he?

Moon sugar is described as a numbing and euphoria-inducing drug, similar to an opiate. It's also the soft option, compared to its more refined form, skooma, so Iriel's still in the narcotics kiddie-pool, really. That said, we also know these drugs affect TES races differently, with men and mer being affected far more strongly than Khajiit. And we know that Altmer specifically are more sensitive to magic (for better and worse) than other races. Thus, Iriel is having quite an extreme reaction.

he found himself falling: into the glowing colours, into the soft, yielding swamp, and not caring, because when he spat mud and rolled over onto his back, he found himself falling into the sky.

The whole "sad elves falling in swamps" thing is, I admit, a private joke. Because someone once (somehow, unaccountably) found my website by googling for the string "sexy women falling in swamps", and when I saw it in the search referrals, I laughed about it for days.

The night skies of Morrowind are stunningly beautiful, viewed sober. Moon sugar rendered them a religious experience.

Morrowind skies being best skies is just facts. @valtheimm illustrated this scene beautifully:

If I say that he spent long hours lying in the mud, staring at the fractal patterns at the end of fern fronds, I’m sure you can fill in the rest for yourselves. Let’s skip to the end.

I guess I wasn't too consistent with the first person narration, but the narrator was there from the start! It just fell into the background, when other things were happening, or the scene didn't want that sort of external comment, only to re-emerge later, and make people question me about where it came from.

Who is the narrator? Me, just me, the author. Nothing complicated. I was used to books where that kind of thing is common, as a random interjection. I was reading a George Eliot book at the time, and she's always interrupting the action to discuss her characters in first person. It creates a sense of ironic distance, so you don't want to have it all the time, usually you want to be right there in the characters emotions. Other times, you want to add that distance, and deliberately get out of the character's head.

Here, we are watching Iriel flopping about the swamp from a distance, because he's out of his mind, so we are, too. We can go back closer when he returns to himself, try and feel the shock of that with him as much as we can.

Where he came from, the gods were not thought to actively involve themselves in the lives of their worshippers. This was part of what made them so admirable.

TES sets up a whole lot of metaphysical binaries, but the key one is Anu and Padomay, which for our purposes means stasis and change. This comes in a lot more later, but that bog body metaphor is already looking a bit prescient, innit? Here, we can just note that Iriel's home gods are the Aedra, which are Anuic, and therefore both unchanging and incapable of intervening or causing change themselves. Iriel thinks that in Morrowind, where other gods apply, things might be different.

Lying back down and dying was tempting, but Ire hadn’t survived this long by letting that part of his brain have its way.

Iriel is physically unimposing, cries easily and doesn't exactly tick many boxes on the socially-mandated "ideal masculinity" chart. He's scared of everything, because many things have hurt him, and life hasn't equipped him with many tools to defend himself. Does that make him "a weak person", as he himself believes? Or is he strong, for surviving, despite the odds stacked against him, for persisting regardless? What does it mean to be weak or strong, and is weakness even a bad thing? Questions I kept on coming back to, throughout the story.

Iriel is far from morally perfect, and sometimes does selfish things, especially while he's addicted to drugs. There wouldn't be much of a story, if he didn't make a total mess of his life, and have to try and clean it up. But he is strong, in lots of ways, and he will manage to be a hero, in lots of ways. Making him "an effeminate gay stereotype" was very deliberate. Because sure, that's a stereotype, but not for the hero. It's for villains and cheap-laugh side characters, where it gets laced with a lot of other homophobic tropes. Queer heroes, where they exist, tend to be indistinguishable from straight characters, beyond their sexuality - and that's nothing like the real people I know, it's nothing like me or my friends! Femme gay men exist, and are wonderful and diverse and incredibly powerful, actually.

Real-life queer people can't be stereotypes by definition, instead they have to constantly live with how their personal expression is interpreted and policed and refracted into cheap stereotypes by the dominant culture, stereotypes which are then used against them. I wanted to write a character going through that experience, that negotation of an imposed stereotype that has some truth to it, albeit in ways that the people using it against you don't understand. To be up-front about this: I'm queer, but I'm not a gay man, so I was always aware of the danger that I might misjudge something, and screw up. I tried to keep Iriel's specifically gay aspects as grounded as I could in non-fictional people I knew, or had read things by. In the case of real-life friends, I pray I changed enough details on any embarrassing anecdotes I stole that they can't recognise themselves here, and get mad at me.

Iriel set out in search of structure.

The moon sugar was extremely useful, narratively speaking. See, the wonderful thing about an addiction to hard drugs -- this sounds like I'm being facetious, but I've heard heroin addicts say exactly this -- is that it gives you something to do, when your life has no meaning. It forces action. You can't just lie face-down in the swamp forever. You have to go out, and get money, and get drugs. Which forces you, especially if the money part is challenging, into situations.

Playlist pick: Sparklehorse - Spirit Ditch. This is a song to lie in a swamp and get high to. By Mark Linkous, another junkie. Died by suicide in 2010. You always hope when someone writes songs that sad, that it means they have some kind of… answer. A different one, I mean.

next: 5: slide & 6: trap previous: 3: breathe

[ririya-translates]

Kai Mutsumi's Short Story

For Kai's birthday, September 23rd, I translated his short story from the official Jack Jeanne website. They were all written by Shin Towada, the main writer of Jack Jeanne who worked closely with Ishida in creating the world. Concept art by Lownine (who I mistakenly referred to a Ronin before). Spoilers are minimal since it takes place before the first performance.

From a thick tree trunk, countless outstretched branches and leaves blocked out the light from the sky. Moss carpeted over its roots as the the fern leaves swayed up and down, still clinging with moisture despite an absence of rain. "….." On that shaded mountain, one person lingered as if melting into the silence. This person was Kai Mutsumi, although most people just called him Kai. Rather than following the cheeping songs of birds, his eyes remained fixed on the scenery. He stood in place like the trees, their roots stretched deep into the earth over tens, even hundreds, of years to mark the passage of time.

In ancient times, Mount Oodate came to be an object of religious worship. While once considered a sacred mountain separate from the human realm, it presently stood as the backdrop for Univeil Drama School. In an unimagined turn of events, it now ushered in crowds of people for the brilliantly captivating performances.

Kai was also a student, entering into his final year. He was part of the Quartz class. Their class theme was 'transparency' since many were unexperienced actors who had yet to fully develop their true colours. Kai was like that once too. "…Start of classes, hmm" It was spring. A fresh group of students had just enrolled in the Quartz class. ― How are this year's new students looking in your eyes, Kai? The words flashed clearly through his mind. It was only natural since they were from just a bit earlier that day.

The one asking was Kokuto Neji. He had a unique background as the Quartz class lead as well as the script writer and a performer. He was responsible for many aspects of setting their stage and was a man of immense talent, but had some strong peculiarities. The eyes behind his glasses were always seeking out things of interest. Today was no different. Kai closed his eyes to the remember the conversation with Neji.

"What I see in the first-years?" "Yes! I'm curious how the determined attempts of these baby birds to fly in the Newcomers' Performance look in your eyes." Did he have a reason for asking this or was it just on a whim? Regardless, Kai knew that trying to resist him would just be a waste of time. He surveyed the first-year students while sorting his thoughts. (Those three…) His eyes stopped on the three first-years who had grouped up and seemed to be discussing something. The one who attracted notice everywhere through his brightness was Suzu Orimaki. Another who was reserved, but listened intently to everyone else with a face of careful consideration, was Soushiro Yonaga. And finally, standing between the two of them, was the one speaking with the sincere expression ― "Ah, they're fascinating, those guys." The sharp-eyed Neji adjusted his glasses and looked at them. "When starting here, it's easy for people to have the mentality of 'I'm number one! Get outta the way, classmates!' But those three are always together. For better or worse, they stand out." Excitement spread to the corners of Neji's lips. "Well anyways, whether it would bring us good luck or bad…" The eyes deep behind the glasses looked over the new students as if appraising them. "…Don't put on an act to try to test them," Kai warned. "Hey! You think I have that kinda free time? I only use use my time for creating the best performance possible!" "…." "Ohh, is that a look of concern I see? Can't you trust me, Jack Ace?" Neji's words triggered an unconscious grimace. At Univeil Drama School where both male and female roles were played by male students, male roles were called Jacks and female roles were called Jeannes. Being blessed with a tall stature, strong physical ability, and sincere acting talent, Kai was given the lead role among Jacks: the Jack Ace. Next to the lead Jeanne, known as the Al Jeanne, they formed the face of the class. But unlike the current Al Jeanne, Sarafumi Takashina, Kai never adjusted to the title. "I will always be just a vessel." A vessel was meant for the purpose of making the Al Jeanne flower radiate even more brilliantly. He was the shadow to contrast Sarafumi Takashina's sparkle. Kai felt that this was his role. And the one who put Kai in this position was the same Kokuto Neji. "Are you unsatisfied with something?" "…No." There was nothing unsatisfying about supporting Fumi. Kai felt fully determined to dedicate himself to the Quartz class with every ounce of his ability. That being said, he felt a painfully large disparity between himself and the title of Jack Ace. He was well aware of the amount of talent Fumi possessed in order to be an Al Jeanne ever since joining the school.

Kai looked again towards the trio of first-years. He felt a twinge of jealousness seeing them standing as equals as they seriously discussed their acting. However, he was unsure when their equilibrium would be thrown off balance. "Hmm, I wonder who will show results at the Newcomers' Performance."

Wind blew past carrying the scent of greenery and rustle of leaves. Kai opened his eyes and calmly observed the drizzle of sunlight falling through the trees. The blinding light emitted at Univeil from people pursuing their dreams was at times too brilliant for Kai's eyes to bear. For that reason, he surrounded himself in nature where he could be his honest self. He took in a breath. (…I'll just do what is required of me). With this thought in mind, right as he was about to close his eyes, something white suddenly appeared in the corner of his vision. "…? Ahh…" Once he got a better look through the gaps in the fern leaves, he saw a white weasel peeking its face out. It shot a glance at Kai then dashed off down the mountain. A number of wild animals lived on Mount Oodate. But out of all of them, the weasel was said to be the most important to the mountain worshippers. That being said, they almost never approached people but… "Whoa!" He heard a voice from the behind the corner where the white weasel had just disappeared. "That voice is…" Kai headed in the voice's direction. On the other end was one of his juniors, a person from the first-year trio. Compared to Suzu Orimaki, Soushiro Yonaga and the rest, he had a smaller frame and no Adam's apple. It was as if he hadn't been made to experience puberty. The white weasel began to affectionately circle around the student's feet. After enjoying this for a while, perhaps satisfied, it left with a leap. After watching it move out of sight, the first-year opened his script. It was probably the script for the Newcomers' Performance. He made a complicated expression as he stared intently at the same page. Maybe something wasn't coming together. Having big eyes on a delicate and petite frame was a valuable asset for boys performing as women at Univeil. Naturally, it was assumed he would be living as Jeanne from here on. (But…) Seeing such passion for the stage slip out on this student's face, Kai felt a strength that wasn't just limited to being a Jeanne. Jack Ace and Al Jeanne candidates were generally chosen during the first year. Those with talent had something different that set them apart from the beginning. For Kai's grade, Fumi was one of these people. In that case, this first-year might… "…? Oh, Kai! Great practice today!" After possibly noticing Kai's gaze, the younger student popped up his head. A particularly soft air brushed across Kai's cheek. He had come here to be alone, but he felt a relaxing atmosphere even with his junior here. Kai opened his mouth and said, "If there something you don't get, we can practice together."

[aspec-manga-snom]

Aspec Manga Rec: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

This post will contain mild spoilers for the plot and character dynamics of the Manga. Sorry about the long post, but its a lot.

Contains a romantic subplot not involving the main character. Some evidence for an Aspec Protagonist. Reference to Sexual themes but no explicit imagery or sexualization of characters.

Remember, panels are right to left.

Written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End follows the journey of Frieren, the elf mage of the hero's party after their victory over the demon king. She travels to speak to the now dead hero Himmel in Aureole, where all souls rest. Currently being released as an anime by Studio Madhouse, now seemed like an apt time to talk about it.

The manga explores themes of loss, grief, found family, coming to terms with your emotions and the importance of non-romantic relationships. Especially with our protagonist, Frieren, bound to live a life of near immortality from a human perspective.

Immortality and Relationships:

As we follow Frieren on her journey north we are told directly that she herself doesn't understand the nature of relationships. Her perception of the world is stuck in how she will long outlast the people that she cares for. Below this appearance is someone who truly care for others.

She learns to cherish the time she spends with others and we can see that with how she treats Fern, her apprentice. The adopted daughter of one of her former companions, who she begins her journey solely with.

We are shown in a flashback to the end of her previous journey that she would never consider an apprentice because their life would never amount to much of her own existence:

Frieren often conflicts with the ideas of relationships and it is the main conflict of her returning journey north. Fern very quickly becomes incredibly important to her, taking care of her needs and very swiftly looking after her apprentice's condition instead of continuing her own journey northward. Frieren defies her own beliefs and worldview because she has learned that the people that she does care about will eventually disappear; as it is the nature of her lifespan for them to be nothing but fleeting moments. She chooses to spend time with her companions because she wants to carry their story and memory for the rest of her life, something that she never felt with the hero's party.

How is this Aspec Representation?

Clearly more depictions of unfeeling characters as aspec isn't progressive in making aspec people seem more "human" but I think how Frieren subverts this trope demonstrates a great aspec character.

At this point, this representation is, and will probably continue to be a headcannon more than it will be actually confirmed, but it has some pretty good foundation.

Early on, Frieren directly tells us this about elves:

This is a pretty overt statement of her romantic and sexual orientation as early as Chapter 13 of the manga as the journey was just beginning. There are some questionable parts of this claim that "all elves" lack romantic and sexual attraction, but the author directly displays elves later on that hold or are implied to have romantic feelings for other characters. It reminds me of how some aspec people believe that everyone is like them, having an understanding without knowing fully that they have different experiences.

*Note, they kept the panel above in the anime.

So where does this leave Frieren as she is perceived by others?

No one questions this about her. It never comes into question if she had found the right person or if she was interested in the relationships herself, it is just accepted. In a later chapter exploring the romantic subplot between her two companions, she is asked for dating advice to which she responds:

The interaction is treated very naturally which mirrors realistic assumptions of these feelings and experience with them that might come with age.

The only claim to her holding romantic feelings towards another person was towards the hero Himmel. Which is suspect to say the least. Most of these assumptions are based on their close emotional bond, how much Frieren grieves his death and how Himmel treated her.

Throughout flashbacks, we can see that Himmel almost constantly was flirting with and then subsequently denied by Frieren along their journey. It isn't played as hurtful or annoying, just as a form of endearment that wasn't reciprocated; something that neither character seems to grieve in any fashion. They had a close emotional bond, but the manga doesn't display it as anything but platonic and I believe that to be true.

TLDR:

Frieren exhibits multiple aspec traits in how she perceives others and her relationships to the people in her life. While her traits may be seen as "inhuman" on the surface, she deeply cares for others without needing to be in a romantic or sexual relationship. The manga puts very little focus on romance and merely on the nature of relationships of all kinds and meanings.

This is my first large-scale post like this, so I would appreciate any feedback people are willing to give me. It is a very long post so I hope I didn't ramble too much

[i-didnt-hate-it]

I didn't hate Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, honestly it was awesome!

I just got done watching it so I'm still digesting it, but here are my initial thoughts. Any potential spoilers will go under a break.

I went into GxK that it would be similar to GvK and the other Monsterverse films: big monkey hit big lizard, big lizard breathe laser, big monkey block laser with big axe, and so on. And don't get me wrong, it definitely was all that, all pro wrestling but with big monsters, but in a cooler way than what I thought. I'm still trying to figure out what all made GxK more than what I was expecting, but I think this is the main bit.

In today's media, there seems to basically be two options. Either you make a show on streaming, which means your seasons are too short so you have to sacrifice character to plot. Or you make a two to three hour long movie, which uses a big budget to explain either characters or concept, hopefully with something of a plot to tie it together.

But GxK is a secret third thing. Worldbuilding. Adding to lore. Letting the landscapes they paint and the creatures that inhabit them speak for themselves. There were long stretches of screentime where the titans weren't necessarily fighting, they were just doing their thing, exploring their worlds.

Now obviously we need some humans to A, be able to connect to the story some, and B, know what is actually going on. Because while I would love a completely dialogue kaiju movie, the concepts and gimmicks of the Monsterverse just get too convoluted to figure out without Exposition Lady.

I can confirm that Legendary realized that the less human characters they have the better. The cast was relatively small, and while character development was minimal, they did make me feel some feelings toward some of the humans. But they made the right call not giving them too much of the story. What is this, Godzilla Minus One?

It's not, and if you can go into it knowing that it isn't even close to being the same movie as Minus One, and just watch it as a fun Monsterverse entry, I think you'll love it. The music is great too, better than GvK, imo. VFX were awesome too.

Okay, now for some spoilers, just random extra thoughts:

Godzilla really did the OMG MOTHRA!!! thing from that one meme! And I did too tbh, our Queen is back and beautiful as ever!

I love how it wasn't an instant father/son connection between Kong and Mini-Kong (I don't remember his name). Kong tried to help him out a couple times, but then gave up after MINI KONG TRIED TO KILL HIM LIKE MULTIPLE TIMES! Like come on, this little guy is just chaotic. But like they actually had growth in their trust and relationship, it wasn't just like "me big, you little, I dad now".

Scar King was actually a lot cooler than I was expecting. Shimo/Shimu whatever her name is did not have as big a role as I was expecting, but I'm glad she's okay.

Shout out to Mothra for stopping her boyfriend from killing Kong, helping them in Hollow Earth, and then just chilling when they all went to Rio. She said, "you guys got this, right?"

When I saw there was another hollow earth inside Hollow Earth, I'll admit I had a bit of an eye roll. But they explained it away pretty well.

SCOTTISH GUY THAT SAID SHIT IN STAR WARS. Alex Ferns is literally the same character he was in Andor.

I love how they imply that they basically imply that the Iwi had something to do with building the pyramids in Egypt by having the portal thing open RIGHT NEXT TO THEM. Made a cool setting for the fight, too.

At this point, I have no idea how big the Coliseum actually is.

Last thing, for now. For having top billing, Godzilla wasn't in it as much as I thought he might be. I think Legendary is realizing that if you have a character like Godzilla who can just level up his powers instantly to take on anything, and just kinda does his own thing, you've gotta limit that screen time. Since Kong is kinda humanoid, it's easier to empathize with him and thus add character development. Godzilla can only convey so much emotion that most humans can relate to (obviously Shin and Minus convey a lot of emotions, but anyway). Godzilla is in the movie, but Kong is more of the star. Honestly the world of the Hollow Earth and the Iwi people and their history are almost as much of the focus.

[starrysmiling]

my theory on jax's parents

i've been sitting on this one for a long while and finally got the push to write this up. i want to write about this in the future, but there's bits here that have got to wait until cube corp releases, so... i'm just going to talk about it while i'm here.

anyway. as we all know, jax seems to be raised by arthur, and neither of them ever mention his parents.

so where. the fuck. are they.

spoiler alert: just between you and me, i think they're dead. not that it's confirmed or anything...

so... let's begin with a preword. the jax in my canon is 22, since unlike ace and the player, he doesn't have a canon-implied age. (this did not stop me from making fern 21.)

this makes him just slightly older than the meteorite strike on crater town, which happened 20 years ago. it's important to note this, because he needs to be alive for his parents to die in the aftermath of the meteorite strike.

whoops. did i just say that?

let's just change tracks for a bit.

arthur is training jax to be the next champion. that's quite obvious from the story, he says it outright, there isn't any question about that. but i think that originally, arthur wanted his own child to succeed him. it's also something to think about if you consider that he stepped down from the champion's seat before the events of the game, which prompts me to think that he wanted a successor before he stepped down, but he couldn't train jax in time bc jax was still too young.

so let's go with that: arthur intended for his child to succeed him as the next champion after he steps down. thus: arthur's child, and one of jax's parents, would likely be a ferociously strong trainer.

i'd like to think that they met someone while they were training or journeying, fell in love, eventually decided to marry them, and have a child. why didn't they decide to become champion? this is just a hc, but considering elias is Still there and the league hasn't found a replacement and arabella is working there because her dad doesn't make money... yeah, i think the league is kinda understaffed. hell, i make fern struggle with his champion duties, but even if arthur is a better fit for the role, being the champion's child means they would be able to see how harsh the role is on arthur. and maybe they don't really want to be the champion just yet, when arthur still can do his job well.

and they're still young, after all. they want to have a bit of fun in their life, journey around as a trainer, raise their kid with lots of care, then maybe go get that champion role once arthur's done his term.

so now, little jax is two years old. the meteorite has just been shattered over valley city, and the residents have been transported back to help clean up the town. volunteers and volunteer pokemon from nearby cities, like dresco town, are called to help with the restoration efforts.

and jax's parents are part of those volunteers, naturally. they're both pokemon trainers, after all.

and here's where it starts going to shit.

remember that two pokemon came down to earth with the meteor? jirachi was sealed away after the residents realised its power, but another pokemon landed a little to the northeast.

and deoxys is powerful. pksp red, one of the strongest trainers, if not the strongest in the series, is almost powerless against deoxys when he first battles it. it takes him a bit of a bond with a rogue mewtwo and several tough battles, some difficult enough to shatter his mentality, to defeat it, and even then, it's an uphill struggle for him.

that's the pokemon that jax's parents find: a ridiculously strong pokemon from outer space that nobody's seen or recorded before. remember, it immediately fights you if you talk to it, so i suppose... they fight. and if they can see the utter destruction that could come out of deoxys's power, there's no way they're letting that pokemon get to the town, where unarmed people are working on clearing the rubble. so they fight, and they fight, but deoxys is strong, and clearly not even two people are a good enough fight against it, and soon their pokemon are worn out and deoxys's attacks are injuring the pair themselves.

they put together a plan. one holds off the strange pokemon from outer space — for the sake of my canon, this is the stronger one, arthur's daughter — and the other runs back to the town to alert the guardian of borrius, who is overseeing the restoration efforts. if anyone can beat this pokemon, it's the legendary aros.

and so jax's father flies back to crater town. he'd been persuaded to go, being more heavily injured by the fight, and desperately searches for aros, explains the situation, and immediately brings him to the crater where they found deoxys.

but it's too late by then.

they find jax's mother, barely conscious and mortally wounded, being fiercely protected by her pokemon who are only barely standing. aros thanks her, and with their combined efforts, barely manage to defeat deoxys and seal it in sleep. jax's father returns to his wife's side, only for her to sigh her last breaths before they can treat her wounds.

aros notices that jax's father's wounds can still be treated, but though aros hurries him back to town... perhaps the loss of his wife weighs too deeply on him, and he doesn't make it.

and jax, still only two years old, is left in the care of his grandfather.

his parents are called heroes — they fought so that crater town would not suffer a second disaster in quick succession, and that's why jax in my canon is so set on being a hero. his admiration for aros is also partly from seeing how he handled the incident, making sure that he didn't take the credit for holding off deoxys and ensuring that people wouldn't forget that jax's parents died in order to keep the town safe.

and, also, aros is basically the local superhero. he's cool as hell. no wonder he's kinda jax's idol.

anyway. i really want to write more about this concept, and there's a scene where i want jax to meet aros and for aros to tell him, properly, about his parents. that'll be the first time that i've ever written jax crying in canonverse, because hearing aros, his idol, apologise to him for not being able to save his parents and recount that they genuinely were heroes in his eyes is a lot to process. (it's also really funny considering that jax hasn't cried in front of fern, but he has cried in front of fern's dad.)

as a way of finishing this arc of jax's life, i really also want to suggest that after fern captures jirachi, jax tags along with him to fight deoxys.

and this fight — this is jax's fight. fern can tell that this jax is different from seeing him stare down deoxys across the crater. there's something twisted about the fact that jax is now facing it with his own partner, twenty years later.

jax, heightened by raw emotion, seems to fall back into his more reckless, daring tactics. he plays fern's hyper-offensive role, actually, and fern plays jax's support, making sure that jax doesn't run himself ragged, following up after his strikes, covering when they're in trouble. it's not like they made a name for themselves as an unstoppable duo for nothing.

the conclusion of this arc is jax's capture of deoxys, after a grueling battle that whittles at his strength and mental state. in a way, earning deoxys's respect, being able to capture it in a ball, and being able to say that he finally, finally defeated the pokemon that killed his parents, is a sort of closure that he probably didn't know he needed.

did you see that, mom, dad?

i beat it. you can rest easy now.

[kasplonkable]

Foxma HC's

I love these bitches so much. I've finished Gotham now and lemme just say... You know that scene (spoilers for season 5 from here I guess lmao) when Ed breaks into the GCPD and is going through the files, and Lucius catches him and pushes him back with a hand on his chest?? Yeah, I've been thinking about that scene a lot. This list breaks from canon a little bit (as in, it exists in a world where they would realistically date), but oh well. Enjoy :-)

I reckon they're one of those couples where people don't even realise they're dating until something obviously lovey-dovey happens

like, they'll be at a dinner party or something and one of them maybe gets a little too drunk and kisses the other, and everyone else is like "lol that's embarrassing, Lucius and Ed just kissed" and they're like "???yeah??? We've been dating for 3 years now???"

Like, between all the hand holding, and the sharing food and clothes, everyone just thought they were really friendly with each other (but in hindsight they probably should have guessed)

they have nights where they challenge each other at board games all night. Like, they'll cycle through about 15 games in one night, and have an ongoing tally of wins pinned up on the fridge

on their anniversary, they'll buy each other a new game to add to the tournament

predictably, if they ever watch a game show on TV, they'll race to answer the question first (but every now and then, Lucius lets Ed win just to see how excited he gets about it (Ed knows this of course, but he doesn't mind so much when Lucius looks at him like that))

because they're interested in the same sort of subjects, info dumping is always a fun time for both of them (even if it's unrelated, it's still fun)

while Ed's hanging up the washing, he'll listen to Lucius rant about the intricacies and beauty of biomechanics

and then while Lucius is cooking, he'll listen to Ed rant about epigenetics

This happens a lot though, with pretty much anything...

"so they've basically got a ton of chromosomes!! And there's this one fern that has the world record for having the most!! It's called the adder's tongue fern, or Ophioglossum reticulatum, and it has up to 1,440 chromosomes!!! That's way too many!!" "And what was this called again??" "Polyploidy!! Wait, I haven't even started on Oxytricha trifallax yet!! So basically-" *heart eyes*

Ed always forgets to carry his ear defenders around, so Lucius makes sure he has a spare pair in his bag just in case Ed needs them

Lucius likes to tinker with things when he's bored

one time, Ed came home to find him surrounded by a mixture of cogs and screws only to find that he'd taken apart their toaster

"it stopped working..."

"oh, okay!! Can you fix it?"

"Yeah! It was a fairly common problem, all I needed to do was- what? Why are you looking at me like that?"

*absolute heart eyes* "I just love you is all"

there are so many books and papers around their house that it could be mistaken for a library

well, it's like that right up until the moment Ed gets overstimulated by it all, and then Lucius helps him clean it until everywhere is spotless again (this usually happens late at night, leading to the two of them cleaning until 2 AM and they can finally both sleep)

their whole house is a mixture of dark wood and warm colours. It's really lovely when one comes back and can smell a home cooked meal wafting through the corridors. That's when it especially feels like home

They have a coat hanger by the door that is always overflowing with jackets. When it finally fell over, they both had to reevaluate how many coats they actually needed

one time Ed learn how to quilt so he gave Lucius a massive quilted blanket for his birthday. It was big enough to cover their bed and checked with reds and yellows and the occasional dark green. He loved it so much that it became a permanent fixture in their room

in the winter months, when their small flat can't keep out the Gotham cold, they'll bundle under the blankets and hold onto eachother until they fall asleep

there's not really a strict big spoon or little spoon, just two people clinging to eachother in a tangle of limbs

Lucius has one of those alarms where you have to solve a maths equation before it turns off. Normally Ed would love it, but not at 5 AM...

"nghh can you just turn it off already"

"give me a second, this one's a bit challenging... actually, I'm just going to grab some paper quickly-"

"can you at least taKE THE ALARM WITH YOU?!" Ed groans as he rolls over and tries to hide from the noise in his pillow

Lucius likes to go on runs early in the morning. He enjoys the fresh air and lack of people. That and the fact that Ed is only just waking up when he gets back, sleepily kissing him and handing him a warm cup of coffee with the promise of breakfast soon after

That being said, sometimes he'll go to get up for his run only to find Ed curled into his side. It's those mornings when he decides to snooze his alarm and spend another hour or so dozing next to the love of his life

they go on cute dates to their local museum, sometimes checking out the occasional lecture happening there

They enjoy comparing notes afterwards to see what parts each of them found most interesting

But sometimes if the lecture is boring (and it's rare for either of them to find a lecture boring) they'll forgo the academic notes, and instead send messages back and fourth across the desk

Ed always expects Lucius to throw the notes away afterwards, but he keeps them at the back of his notebook

This lecture is kind of boring. He's just ranting about Crayfish?

Yes, it is slightly strange. I think I heard him say something about invasive species, but honestly I drifted off about 10 minutes ago

Do you want to grab a Chinese after this?

Yeah sure! The usual place?

Obviously

...

Love you

I love you too

[reallyghostlypost]

New Lance dialogue in the newest beta?

The newest update wasn't supposed to have any new content from what I know but I found some dialogue I don't remember ever reading. My memory isn't the best though, so I'll post it here to see if anyone can double-check.

So, potential spoilers for Lance's late game events (including marriage).

"Lance.Marriage.001": "You're a welcome sight, my love. Today's been quiet." "Lance.Marriage.004": "Hello, my love. What brings you to Fable Reef today? I need to replenish my mana potion supply." "Lance.Marriage.005": "Jolyne has many adventurer stories… Just when I think I've heard them all, she has a new one to share." "Lance.Marriage.007": "This is a marvelous tree. I'm looking forward to the feast tomorrow. I would never miss it…" "Lance.Nightmarket.001": "I'm an acquaintance of the wizard selling totems. We've had several expeditions together." "Lance.Nightmarket.002": "Every merchant here has their own story to tell." "Lance.Nightmarket.003": "There's something about that mermaid boat…" "Lance.KrobusDialogue.001": "Krobus was just sharing a charming tale. How is your evening? You look as if you've been running around all day." "Lance.KrobusDialogue.002": "Shadow people are misunderstood. Perhaps we are the monsters…" "Lance.KrobusDialogue.003": "I see. Yoba plays a big role in everything… Lance is busy talking to Krobus." "Lance.KrobusDialogue.005": "There's an ugly history between dwarves and the shadow people. What some do for the pursuit of riches… Greed can be a fickle thing." "Lance.KrobusDialogue.006": "I thought I would see you out here this evening. brought void roots for Krobus." "Lance.KrobusDialogue.007": "Some tribes of shadow people use the darkest time of year to migrate to far away caverns. It can be a dangerous journey if not planned well…"

The first two lines and the one where he brings Krobus void roots sound familiar, but I'm not sure it they were in the mod already or they are basically variations of already existing dialogue with some small changes.

Everything else is new to me. And there are interesting bits of lore here, like humans being at fault for the war with the shadow people (hinted at only in the event with Krobus), migrating shadow tribes, Lance's friendship with the Night Market wizard (wasn't the wizard from the Fern Islands? Shouldn't they be part of the same guild?), more info about Jolyne... really cool stuff :D

So what do you guys think?

[lgbtally4ever]

Rewatching, THE BEST STORY, starring Mark & Vee from LOVE MECHANICS

It’s a series that I watched (2 years ago), but inadvertently left off my list.

I wonder where it will wind up on my list?

It’s only 3-2 part eps. So bingeing it.

PS I LOVE War Wanarat! He’s adorable. And a pretty decent actor! 😻 A, very, natural actor.

PPS Too bad, Fern!!!

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

(Unfortunately, near the second half of ep. 3, 1/2, the series loses English subtitles! )

Spoilers Ahead (Do not read on if you don’t want to get a taste of the ending!!!!):

F*cking Fern outed Best & Dew to Dew’s mother!!!!! NOBODY SHOULD EVER DO THAT!!!!! Heinous move, FERN!

(Subtitles came back for a little while, then gone again!

I hope they’re there for all of the second part of the final episode! I’ll let you know! Frustrating!)

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

SPOILER:

Finale was tragic, heart-breaking, which is probably why I left it off my list!

More Spoilers:

Fern NEVER admitted to destroying the possible future relationship for Dew & Best and Dew never found out about her betrayal!

The outcome of Fern’s outing of Best (and the possibility of feelings between him & Dew) to Dew’s mother: the mother decided Dew would go live in Chiang Mai with his father & go to Uni there. The last day of H.S., she packed his bag and told him he was leaving the next day—thus, preventing any possibility of a final contact between the two boys.

THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Such a sad, tragic ending.

Couldn’t they, at least have fast forwarded 4 years and had them meet again? Or shown them getting together, over the years, somehow in Bangkok or Chiang Mai?

Real life sucks—I want my fairy tale happy ending!

😢 😭

[a-love-for-movies]

Jawbreaker

Jawbreaker (1999) is a dark comedy starring Rose McGowan (Scream), Judy Greer (13 Going on 30) and Rebecca Gayheart (Urban Legend). It involves a group of four characters, three planning to prank another on her seventeenth birthday (Liz), soon, it turns into an accidental murder. The girl dies from acute asphyxiation due to getting gagged by a Jawbreaker -hence the name- and it getting lodged in her throat.

(worse spoilers under the cut)

After making it seem like the girl was raped, a fifth main character gets introduced (Greer) as a shy, unpopular girl. She spots the dead body and screams, running away. eventually the other girls catch her and coax her to become popular. She gets a makeover and changes her name to "Vylette", two of the girls -one quite sinister, Courtney, (McGowan), the other like a puppy dog, Marcie (Julie Benz)- drop another, Julie (Gayheart).

The situation escalates massively as "Vylette" becomes egotistical and starts to get passive aggressive with Courtney and Marcie, which inevitably leads to the two getting revenge by pulling up her past self and showing the entire school. "Vylette" faints twice, hurting herself the initial time.

While this entire thing happened, Julie bloomed a new romance with a boy from drama club and desperately wants to show that Courtney is a murderer and liar. As her mother passes her a bag that contained a few of Liz's items, a card is one of them. It's a card that is able to record messages. Turns out, Courtney accidently recorded herself admitting that she killed Liz. Julie uses this to her advantage, immediately informing her boyfriend.

The second time that "Vylette" (Fern) faints, Julie and her boyfriend find her and help her. A small argument between her and Courtney break out. Afterwards, they plan to ruin prom night (a small reference to Carrie is involved) by plugging the card to the speakers.

They ruin prom night as Courtney becomes prom queen and it's a happy ending. 7.5/10, I recommend to people that enjoy Mean Girls, Heathers and/or Drop Dead Gorgeous.

[ya-world-challenge]

Book Review - The Sun and the Void (🇻🇪 Venezuela)

[image 1: book cover: the title is topped with antlers and framed by two jaguars, and surrounded by decorative illustrations, including ferns, flowers, and comets; image 2: a map showing Venezuela in northern South America; image 3: the páramo of the Andes - a shrubland landscape with mountains and flowers; source: wikimedia]

The Sun and the Void

Author: Gabriela Romero Lacruz

World Challenge read for 🇻🇪 Venezuela

Review

It took me around 3 months to listen to this in entirety, since I only listen to audiobooks in the car lately. Being able to slowly absorb a story in small chunks and listen to it in the background vs. actively reading, I think makes it easier for me to simply enjoy a story.

This fantasy has a unique S. American-inspired world and a history of colonialism. There are animal-people - ones with antlers and ones with jaguar-like features and tails - and though this themes of biracial/bicultural experience with mixed characters caught between the human culture and who they are.

I'm not a reader to say 'this personality shouldn't exist because I don't like it'. I can imagine the reviews that say Celeste is too stuck-up or Eva is too impertinent or Reina too naïve or whatever they want to make up, reviewers that read too much fantasy and are overly picky about it. I tend to just be excited to find an interesting world. I enjoyed that Reina was a muscular, trousers-wearing lesbian, and I liked the unconventional development of Eva and Javier toward the end.

There wasn't much development in the sapphic romance department*, but hopefully that will pick up in the next book (which doesn't seem to be announced yet).

I recommend it for a slow-burn magic adventure with a Latin setting!

★  ★  ★ ★    4 stars

Other reps: #wlw #lesbian #m/f #biracial (well, bispecies) #plus size love interest #catholic (fantasy version, one character)

Genres: #fantasy world #magic #adventure #family

*spoiler footnote

Except I do love Evil Old Lesbians, yay

[with-love-from-hell]

5 Sides of Human

{Part two}

Genre: Mixed

Character profiles for the Mc’s featured in this series

Wc: ~4k

CW: swearing, anxiety/panic, depictions of anger and verbal aggression, Storm has a stutter but I am not depicting it with written word consistently, pining, spoilers for season 1&2!

Part one  <<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>  Part three

©️ artwork commissioned by @vivi8bit ©️

“So lemme get this straight.” Fern crossed their arms over their chest, giving the large, handsome demon before him a once-over. “You’re the King of Hell, these other people...er, demons...are your royal court, and this...place...is your school?” 

Diavolo chuckled. “Yes it is- and you four are here as part of a continuation of our Exchange Program.” 

“So...like...we’re dead now..?” Heart glanced between the other three humans around him, trying to make sense of how the hell they winded up here. 

Diavolo let out a hearty laugh. “No, not at all. You four are here to serve as a tether to the human world and the Devildom. We only want peace between the three realms and for us to cohabitate and collaborate on imperative matters of these three realms. I promise you will learn more as you stay here.” 

“Okay but like. Is there at least going to be fun stuff for us to do like on a normal exchange trip?” Sarah paced around the room, eyeing each of the Seven Lords of Sin with hunger. “I want to have a good time, if you know what I mean.”

Asmo grinned widely as she flashed a cheeky smile. “Ohhh, I like this one.” 

“No more questions.” Lucifer huffed in annoyance, frustrated with how many times Diavolo had to explain himself to the humans. He wasn’t exactly hopeful about adding more students to the exchange program, figuring they had gotten extremely lucky with Storm, Solomon, and the angels on the first round. Now though, it would only be these four humans, divided into two rooms in the House of Lamentation. 

Vivi huffed in exasperation. “I was in the middle of something before you snapped your fingers and brought me to this stinky, crowded place. Didn’t your mothers teach you to ask permission before doing some bullshit like this?” 

“Watch your tongue in the presence of Lord Diavolo, Human.” Lucifer hissed, narrowing his eyes. “Let this be your only warning.” 

Vivi turned to him, clenching their fists at their side. “Wanna run that by me again, you vampire lookin-ass?” 

Lucifer felt anger bubble up in his chest, a dark aura beginning to surround his body. Before he could retort, Diavolo let out another hearty laugh. “Easy now, Lucifer. Vivi has a point, it was quite rude on my part to not give warning. But this will be your lives for the next year. I expect you to learn to get along, just as the last round of exchange students had. I expect this to be just as successful of an endeavor as last year.” 

“If Lucifer doesn’t kill one of them first.” Satan snickered under his breath, earing an irate glare from the eldest. 

 “Please tell me I ain’t gotta cart around any humans like last time. The Great Mammon doesn’t have time for that crap again!” 

“Oh, please.” Belphie retorted, rolling his eyes. “You wouldn’t stop sobbing for a whole week after Storm Left 3 months ago.” 

Mammon’s face burned hot with embarrassment. “Oi! Shut ya trap!”

“4 of you will be assigned a human to monitor.” Lucifer sighed, shooting a glare across his brothers. “If no one volunteers, I will pick at my own discretion.” 

Asmo shot to his feet, hand raised eagerly in the air. “OH! Me! Me! Pick me!” He giddily leaped over the table when Lucifer nodded with disdain at his eagerness. He ran up to Sarah, grabbing her hand tightly in his. “I pick this one!”

Sarah wiggled her eyebrows at him and let out a sinister giggle.

“No, Asmo.” Lucifer yanked him away, protesting whines sounding from both him and Sarah. “I will pick the human you get assigned to.” 

Asmo crossed his arms in frustration, mumbling about how it wasn’t fair to his reputation to be assigned someone like homework. Lucifer ignored him, eyeing the humans before him curiously. His gaze landed on Heart, who’s eyes had wandered to the decorative paneling on the ceiling. There was no doubt in his mind that this human would be the least troublesome, and would be a better fit to Asmo than the other three. 

“Heart.” Lucifer smiled as Heart’s attention jolted to him. “You will be paired with Asmo. Any problems or concerns you have will be directed to him first. He will be showing you around and helping you to adjust to life here.” 

“Sure, sounds fine I guess.” Heart wandered over to where Asmo stood, extending his hand in a greeting. 

Asmo took Heart’s hand in his, eyeing them for a moment. “I suppose this works.” He squeezed their hand tightly, pulling them flush against his hip. “I just hope you’re as darling as Storm was.” 

Lucifer shook his head, turning his attention back to his brothers. “Anyone else?” 

There was a pause, followed by awkward shifting amongst the council. Lucifer sighed, turning his attention to Belphegor. “Belphie. You will be paired with Fern.” 

“What?!” Belphie roared in anger, slamming his fists on the table. “Are you fucking kidding me?” 

Fern rolled their eyes. “Relax bro. I’m not to eager on this myself.” 

Belphie glared at Lucifer, staring him down to try to get his way. After a tense minute, he figured resisting would lead nowhere. Grumbling in frustration, as he made his way down to Fern’s side. 

“Satan.” Lucifer cracked a knowing smile, eager to see his reaction. Satan quirked an eyebrow, eager to see which of the remaining humans he would be stuck with- either the eager flirt, or the temperamental hermit. “You will be in charge of Vivi.” 

“I don’t need anyone to be in charge of me, Count Dracula.” Vivi hissed, crossing her arms tensely.

“Too bad.” He snapped back, gesturing for Satan to approach as he eyed his remaining 3 brothers. Vivi gritted her teeth as Satan stood by their side, throwing a glance in their direction. 

“Don’t worry, we can get him back later.” Satan whispered, grinning mischievously. Vivi refused to give a response, though would be lying if they said their interest wasn’t piqued. 

“Well, I suppose that leaves Sarah.” Diavolo mused. “Who will she be left to?” 

Lucifer sighed. “Well...I suppose it would be good for Leviathan to do some socializing-” 

“NoooooooooooooooOOOOOOO!” Levi howled, hiding his beet-red face in his hands. “You can’t do this to me Lucifer!” 

Lucifer let out an angry sigh, quite fed up with the behavior from his brothers. His voice came out at a volume barely below a yell. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense. When I tell you to do something, you better dammed well do it. No more complaints, no more whining. Just stick with your assigned human and show them around. That’s it!” 

The room went tersely quiet for a moment- so quiet that a pin could drop and echo throughout the room. Sensing an opportune moment to make their personality known, Fern smirked. 

“Okay, mom!” 

There was a pause as the words registered to everyone in the room. Suddenly the room erupted into cackling laughter amongst everyone but Lucifer, who stood with balled fists and rage brewing in his heart. Oh, how he wished Diavolo would have just asked Storm to come back to them.  At this point, he was unsure of if his blood pressure could handle the misfortune set to befall him with this set of hooligans.  

Diavolo gestured to Barbatos to retrieve a few seats for the two humans now in his audience. “Allow me to explain, Storm.”

Storm sat amongst the council as Diavolo explained “Phase two” of his exchange program. Ideally, He would have liked an exchange student from every continent, though the “random selection” process he tried seemed to be...inefficient. Not only did the random selection generate 3 exchange students from the mid-western United States, but those individuals where all the same race of human. Fortunately, they managed to get one from Spain, but it would seem that Diavolo’s methods were far from perfect in gaining perspectives from a variety of human experience. Regardless, the humans were embraced with open arms, and a lesson was learned about how to approach the next batch - should there be another. 

Storm plucked the light hairs on her knuckles as Diavolo spoke, anxiety rising at the idea of barging in on 4 strangers’ experience in Devildom. She found herself trying to fight off the intrusive thoughts about being selfish for wanting to come back without considering that the brothers had moved on with their lives without her. 

Perhaps she should too.

Storm stole a glance to Lucifer, unintentionally locking onto his intense, vermillion eyes. She immediately snapped her gaze away to a spot in the other direction, a blush forming on her cheeks. How long had he been staring at her like that..? Storm plucked faster at the hairs, anxiety rising in her stomach as her thoughts continued to race, realizing she had missed a chunk of what Diavolo had said. She hoped it wasn’t important...

“-and so we divided them equally amongst the two dormitories. Fern and Vivi are holed up in the House of Lamentation with the Brothers, while Heart and Sarah are in Purgatory Hall- though the Celestial realm was adamant in their denial of adding two more Angels for the exchange program.” Diavolo chuckled to himself. “Perhaps they were intimidated by how much Simeon and Luke enjoyed their stay.” 

Storm smiles, nodding in agreement. “So...these four exchange students...what are they like?” 

Lucifer sighed in- sudden frustration, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Where do we even start with that hellish question?” 

Storm’s smile fell into a frown. “A-are they that bad?” 

Diavolo clasped a hand on her shoulder suddenly, causing her to nearly jump out of her seat. “Nonsense! Lucifer just hasn’t adjusted to their personalities yet. I find them delightful.” 

“Perhaps it would be best if you made your own judgements without us giving our thoughts.” Satan noted, nose deep into a book. Storm found herself wondering how much he had even been listening while so distracted, but somehow it seemed he had been able to process a majority of it. “That should be the best way to acquaint Storm to them.” 

“It’s hardly fair though.” Belphie murmured into the desk, slowly peaking an eye out from where his head was nestled into his folded arms. “We have told them all about Storm, so shouldn’t we tell her about them?” 

Storm’s stomach jumped to her throat and her inflection did nothing to hide the anxiety that was now omnipresent. “W-what?” 

All eyes fell on her, forgetting how anxious Storm was in the past with all of the new chaos that had clouded their minds. Malice inched closer to Storm, resting his head on her leg in an attempt to sooth her. Belphie clamped his mouth shut, burying his head back in his hands. 

“We just...we missed you so much, darling!” Asmo attempted to reassure her, but he saw his efforts were fruitless. 

“Yeah, we weren’t saying anything bad about you!” Levi added, a blush tinting his cheeks. “Just about how much you impacted us and stuff.” 

Storm took a deep breath, attempting to ease the turning motions in her tummy. The brothers looked amongst themselves, unsure of how to convince her that they had only said adoring things about her and gave the new students insight to her personality. Beelzebub stood from his seat and approached her. Malice grumbled softly, but made no move to stop the demon from wrapping Storm into a bear hug, squeezing her just enough to get her to wheeze out a breath. 

“We wouldn’t ever think of talking bad about you behind your back, Stormy.” Beelzebub whispered, giving her another gentle squeeze. “We just wanted them to love you just as much as we do, even if they didn’t get to meet you. Actually, they’re all seemed kind of bummed when we said we didn’t know if they’d get to meet you.” 

After taking a moment to chew on his words, Storm relaxed further into his hug. The growling from Malice subsided, nudging his nose against Storm’s leg to signal that it was going to be okay. As Beelzebub pulled away, his warm smile put Storm further at ease. The room collective breathed out a sigh of relief, grateful to Beel for always knowing what Storm needed to calm down. 

“Well, no more beating around the bush! We’ll put a pin in the remaining topics for this evening until next week, and I’ll let the brothers take you home to meet the Fern and Vivi. Barbatos and I will take Solomon to meet the other two at Purgatory Hall. Let’s convene tomorrow evening so we can all come together as a group and make formal introductions- that gives you some time to rest, Storm, and spend some much needed quality time with the brothers.” Diavolo leaned into her as he walked forward, ushering Solomon and Barbatos to follow. “Welcome back, Storm. We’ve missed you very much.” 

She smiled as he exited the chambers, feeling warmth spread through her. She was excited to be back, and she was glad that it appeared the others shared in that excitement. 

Storm chewed the inside of her cheek as she approached the House of Lamentation, anxious to know what the first two students would be like. Would they actually like her? Or was Beelzebub just trying to put her mind at ease...She found her thoughts wandering so fast that she could hardly here the arguing already starting between Mammon, Levi, and Asmo about who got to spend time with her first. Her gaze was fixated on Lucifer’s hand as he walked, trying to find comfort in the gentle sway as he gracefully moved across the sidewalk.  

Lucifer held the door as she, Malice, and the brothers flooded into the main foyer, all eagerly chatting away at how excited they were to have Storm back with them once again. The warmth that greeted her when walking through the threshold almost took her breath away. She paused for a moment, taking in the welcoming energy of the place she had called home. 

Lucifer watched as Storm’s lips spread into a delighted smile, the shine glistening in her eyes making his heart skip a beat. He smiled back as her feet finally moved forward, almost seeming like she was walking on air. He followed close behind, seemingly mesmerized by her contented attitude so soon after returning to Devildom. The presence of her Service Dog seemed to not bother him, despite the fact that the dog was always monitoring his every move. 

“Satan, would you mind grabbing Fern and Vivi from their rooms?” Lucifer requested, earing a glare from the 4th oldest. “Tell them they need to convene in the common area.” 

Satan grumbled, as he turned and trudged up the the stairs. Lucifer placed a hand to the small of Storm’s back, giving her a reassuring smile as he guided her to the common room. Storm took her place on the couch, Mammon, Levi, and Asmo immediately fighting for a seat on either side of her. It wasn’t until Lucifer’s gruff yell and Malice’s firm bark sounding off at once that they yelped, running to find another near-by place. Lucifer chuckled, finding humor in the personality of the dog matching his own. He settled in next to Storm’s side, awaiting the impending chaos that was sure to ensue.  

“Satan- you twink ass toe-head bitch- Let go of my arm or I’m ripping yours off!” 

Storm jumped at the intense yell from the hall. She swallowed the Lump in her throat as Satan’s smirking face appeared in the door way, dragging behind him an individual with long black hair streaked with purple. Their face was pale with dark makeup streaked across their eyes, piercings placed strategically on the bridge of their nose, their eyebrow, and their bottom lip. Their clothes were dark and baggy, reminiscent of late 90′s Punk fashion.  Following close behind, laughing manically, was another individual with messy moss-colored hair and numerous tattoos. Dirty denim overalls hung loose over mismatching socks and an asymmetrical button up. Both were relatively slender and around a similar height, both presenting themselves as the epitome of androgyny. 

“Whatcha need, old man? I wanna get back to my project for class so make it quick.” The green haired human snickered, smiling when Lucifer’s previously content face fell into a frown. Their eyes shifted to his side, where the small red-headed woman sat with an anxious smile on her lips. “Wait...Is this..?”

"Fern; Vivi- I would like you to meet our previous exchange student, who you already know much about. She is returning for a visit and will be staying with us while she's here."

"Hi..." Storm waves nervously, trying to make her smile a bit more confident. "I'm Storm."

Fern and Vivi both blinked back their surprise, the addition of another human completely unexpected. Though, for both of them, it wasn't completely unwelcome.

Fern returned Storm's smile with a toothy grin, immediately hopping over the coffee table and extending their hand. "I'm Fern!"

"Its nice to meet you." Storm extended her arm, which fern grabbed in a handshake and shook a bit too aggressively.

Vivi tilted their chin up from behind Fern, simply stating "Vivi. Or Vi. Either works." But made no effort to move forward.

Storm smiled back and them, giving them a nod. "Pleasured to meet you."

"IS THAT YOUR DOG AND CAN I PAT HIS GOOD LITTLE NOODLE?!" Fern blurted the words out as they squatted, gesturing out toward Malice, as if preparing to pat his head.

Storm giggled, raising an eyebrow. "Uh, yes. Just one second." Storm turned to the dog, muttering something to him before unhooking his harness. As if a completely new personality took over the previously calm and over-protective dog's body, Malice began excitedly wagging his tail and whining. Storm looked to Fern, gesturing to Malice. "He's Off-Duty now. Go right ahead."

"AW YEAAAAH!" Fern screeched, immediately patting the dog rapidly on the head. Malice's tail wagged faster at the action, excited to finally be receiving undivided attention from the other humans in the room. Fern ruffled his fur while yelling praises. "AHH YES. WHAT A GOOD BOY. A STRONG WORKING MAN, UNLIKE MOST OF THE MEN IN THIS HOUSE."

"Oi!" Mammon crossed his arms over his chest in a huff. "It ain't like you work either!"

Fern squished Malice's face, his tongue sticking out as his tail continued wagging. Their voice turned into baby speak, cooing at the dog while insulting the brothers in the process. "Whos the most useful man in this house. Is it you? Ooooh yes it's you!"

Storm could barely contain her laughter any more, nearly doubling over into Lucifers laugh as she let out the most ungodly snort. Fern was already growing on her, much to Lucifer's chagrin.

Vivi approached, pupils wide with excitement. She glanced at Storm, as if awaiting permission to also shower the dog in affection. Once she collected herself, she gestured toward Malice, smiling at Vivi. Vivi took the opportunity to kneel next to Fern, ruffling the fur on Malice's back while Fern continued to squish the droopy jowls of Malice's cheeks. The dog seemed to not be able to get enough, only growing aggressive when a few of the brothers tried to touch him. The exception was Beelzebub, who scratched just the right spot on Malice's rear, earing a few leg kicks in pleasure. Eventually, he was completely on his back, getting belly rubs from all three individuals who were cooing praise to the dog the whole time.

Lucifer finally had enough, clearing his throat, re-centering the focus of the room onto him. "Fern, you will be moving into Vivi's room and returning your old room to Storm. We are unsure how long she is staying, so we will assume it will be for the entire semester."

"WAIT." Vivi jumped to her feet, abandoning the joy she felt in petting the dog and assuming a fighting stance. "FERN WILL DO WHAT?"

"AW YEAH!" Fern screeched jumping to their feet in a similar squat to before. "ROOMIEEESSS!"

"No. Nonononno NO. NO! Lucifer, you cannot be serious!" Vivi yelled startling Storm with such a drastic change in demeanor.

"I will not be arguing with you about this Vivi. Storm is like family to us. Thus, she deserves her own space."

Storm felt her heart flutter at Lucifer's words. He saw her as family too??

"This is completely unfair!" Vivi balled her fists in rage, as if ready to begin pummeling the eldest at any moment. "She just drops in and uproots our living situation? Why can't she share a room with Fern?"

"EVEN BETTER!" Fern made grabby hands toward Malice, eager to continue petting the huge dog.

"I would be willing to do that..." Storm added, meekly, gently touching Lucifer's forearm. "I would even sleep in the attic, o-or the couch in the library....I don't want to cause a fuss over-"

"It's been decided." Lucifer interjected, eyeing Storm from his peripherals. "This is the end of this conversation, Vivi. Switch your room with Fern while we fix dinner."

"But-" Vivi and Storm attempted to argue, but Lucifer stood and walked out of the room without another word.

Vivi snapped their attention toward Storm, the once indifferent eyes now showing pure disdain. They scrunched their nose up in anger, their fists shaking slightly before immediately turning and stomping out of the room. Storm swallowed hard, her hands now shaking as anxiety slithered through her body.

Fern sighed, clasping a hand to Storm's shoulder. "Ah, don't worry about them. They'll get over it. They just have a short fuse is all, and they value their space."

Storm nodded sadly as Fern turned and walked out of the room, presumably to begin moving their few belongings to the spare bed in the room Vivi was living in- which Storm assumed to be the room previously dedicated to Lilith. Soon after, the room was alive again with the brother' chatter- save for Mammon, who was called in to fix dinner for everyone.

Storm sighed. Perhaps this wouldn't be as easy of an adjustment as she was hoping it would be.