greyone-miqo

[beanghostprincess]

AU in which Usopp is a storyteller who keeps telling fairytales to kids in the village, and one of his most famous stories is about a lost prince who escaped from home because of how badly his family was treating him. It has drama and death and love and everything. The prince just wanted to be a simple cook, but his past still haunted him even after escaping his fate. And so Usopp keeps drawing him over and over again, both in his sketchbook and also making sculptures of him. It's not that he's, like, obsessed. But it is his favorite fairytale.

And then he meets Sanji.

It's weird, yes. He looks oddly similar to his Sanji (the one of the fairytale) but it doesn't have to do anything with it. It- It doesn't have to be the same guy. Maybe it's just a coincidence and his drawings weren't as original as he thought they were. Besides, Sanji isn't a lost prince.

But he is exactly how Usopp had imagined him. A sweet, caring cook with a strong personality who fights only using his legs to avoid hurting his hands. A cook who feeds whoever's hungry and is fond of rats and small, wild animals without anything to eat. Blond, blue eyes and so, so many scars that he refuses to talk about. A soft spot for women, because of course there has to be romance. A gentleman. Somebody who could save Usopp if needed but would trust him with anything too. He isn't- Usopp is not in love with his Sanji. But maybe this one- Maybe this one is someone he can fall in love with because it's not his creation, right?

And then WCI happens. It would technically make everything make sense, but it doesn't. It just makes Usopp even more confused. Because he's sure it sounds exactly the same as his story. So he keeps wondering if Sanji is real or if he truly was a product of his imagination. Or maybe- Maybe he can see the future. Usopp isn't sure about it and doesn't even have time to think because he's more worried about Sanji's well-being after WCI and Wano than how Sanji was made.

Sanji says it's a destiny thing, maybe, when he sees Usopp's sketchbook for the first time. It's scary too, he also mentions when seeing the little annotations about Sanji's backstory (the one of Usopp's story) being exactly like his past. Usopp is kind of panicking, but for some reason, Sanji isn't.

"Maybe you can see the future, ever thought about that?" Sanji laughs while running his hands through a very accurate portrait of him, that's quite obviously years older than their friendship.

Usopp pouts. "Don't laugh at me! It's scary!"

But Sanji just shrugs and takes a drag of his cigarette, so calmly in comparison it makes Usopp feel like he's taking this too well. "Is it, though?" The sniper hadn't seen Sanji smile so peacefully. Not ever since they got separated. It makes him feel all warm, and he has the need to draw him. "Wouldn't it be nice?"

Usopp tilts his head to the side, frowning and fighting the urge to take the sketchbook off Sanji's hands. "What do you mean?"

"Have you ever..." Sanji stares down at the ashes falling on the deck, brushing his thumb over the corner of one of the pages. His words are carefully chosen, but he doesn't hesitate when pronouncing them. "Have you ever thought about fate?"

The sniper can just chuckle and roll his eyes at that. "You're just trying to make it romantic."

"Maybe I am." And Usopp's heart stops at the sound of Sanji's dreamy voice as if he is asking for Usopp to grant him a wish. "Maybe you made me." He moves his free hand to link his fingers between Usopp's, right on top of the grass tickling their skin. Usopp lets him, even if he feels his heart is right in his throat. "Maybe you saw me before even knowing me." Sanji speaks softer now. Quieter. Even if there's nobody around to see them right now. As if it was just their secret. Usopp closes his hand around Sanji's and lets their shoulders bump against each other, taking in a painful breath. Sanji is too close. "Or maybe it was all by chance. Coincidences happen." Sanji shrugs and goes back to staring at the sketchbook one more time. He rests the cigarette between his lips so he can turn to another page, one where a little boy who looks too much like him dreams of sea creatures, oceans, and freedom. Sanji smiles in a nostalgic, achingly way that can only be described as appreciation. "But I like to think you saved me, somehow. You gave me- Him. Freedom. A family."

Usopp feels a pang in his chest at his words. "That wasn't me, though."

The cook rests his back on the wall behind them, turning his head around to look at Usopp with the brightest, softest of grins. "But wouldn't it be nice to think your heart knew me before meeting me? I think it's..." He sighs, resting his head on Usopp's shoulder. The sniper can only squeeze his hand back and lean his head on top of his. "Maybe my heart knew you too, back then. Somehow. I've always liked shitty, cliché fairytales like this, you know?"

"But-"

"Let me have this." A please goes unsaid. "Even if you didn't save me back then, you did now. So who cares if I want to say you've always been with me?"

Usopp grits his teeth and holds back a frustrated noise. He's aware his hands are shaking, remembering everything he has drawn and everything Sanji has gone through. "I wish I met you sooner. Maybe that way you wouldn't have-"

"You can't change what's already happened, love." Sanji presses a small kiss on his shoulder, which somehow melts every bone in Usopp's body. "But you can keep drawing our future, right?"

The sniper thinks of bright blues and soft yellows and a lot- No. A ton of drawings of Sanji's grins, because he refuses to portray his sadness in one of his drawings ever again. He dreams of a blank canvas filled with Sanji's eyes, hopes, and dreams.

"Right." He kisses his head back. "I can do that."

Usopp knows his hearts are linked together. Whether it's fate. Coincidence. His drawings. Because if thinking so saves Sanji once again, he won't hesitate to capture his happiness in different shades of blue for as long as it takes.

[yuri-is-online]

Hi I love your soulmate au, consider Ace or Deuce as soulmate but not touching each other until much later.

rules for au/prev posts can be found on my masterlist

So I could not quite tell if you meant ace x deuce or aceyuu/deuceyuu but since I am a Yuu focused blog (and you said "or... but not untill later") I am going to focus on x yuu.

I think the first potential time for them to touch Yuu is after beating the phantom at the end of the dwarf's mine. They're cheering, you're cheering, there's a half second where they scoop up Grim and swing him around and half reach for you but... hesitate. It's like everything stops for a moment before he shakes himself out of it. You're just Yuu, some magicless human he literally met today, why's he feeling so... strange about it???

I could see Ace knowing about soulbonds. His best subject is magic analysis/theory, he's far from unaware of theoretical concepts. But he's also Ace. The bratty kid who hates being seen as vulnerable, who thinks romantic things are uncool, whose way more comfortable being someone's friend than he is their boyfriend. He doesn't want a destined mate, he wants someone he can laugh with and likes being around... and he sort of hates how much you fit that description. So! Only solution he can think of is trying to bait you into making physical contact first, that way if anyone makes a big deal about this all consuming need to be close to each other it's you and not him.

Even though he's the one who proposes sharing a bed. It would have been your fault if you said yes! He's unprepared for what it feels like to get his wish, after Vil curses him to spend the night on the floor with Deuce and Grim he expects you to just abandon him to your room... but you creep back with blankets and pillows for your friends and hesitate when you go to give them to him. Slowly, so gently it makes a mockery of the searing undeniable realization that tears through him as you lay yourself next to him and lay your hand on his shoulder and rest.

While he lies there awake cursing Vil (he refuses to blame himself) for denying him the ability to hold onto you like he should.

~~~~

Deuce is different, I don't think he would be aware of soulbonds nor does he seem to believe in soulmates. I don't think he's thought much of romance at all really, so he doesn't fully understand what he's experiencing or why he's so nervous to touch you. He wants to though. Badly. It's all he can think about sometimes, he's never had a friendship this close or intimate. He really treasures you and this closeness, he doesn't want to break it. While Deuce might not know what is driving this desire, he knows that if he touches you he will understand. And that scares him, what if he breaks you with touch? What if nothing good can come from this connection, what if he is unable to let you go? He really wants you to be able to see your home again... but the thought of losing you leaves him strangely listless. Like you would be taking a part of him with you...

I don't think he ever finds the correct word for it. Maybe sometime way in the future Malleus or a professor will make him aware, but somewhere in a dream he finds it; the understanding of just what this bond means. Physically, he is unconscious in a hospital bed after failing to dodge the shards of Ramshackle Dorm's ceiling, but mentally he is wrapped in the warm, heavy sensation of his love for you. When he wakes and you aren't there he almost tears himself in half looking, and when you come back he holds you so tightly you can feel the tension shaking through his body. The only thing that soothes him is your gentle touch on his back, rubbing soothing circles into his soul as he breathes the bond between you in.

[autistichalsin]

What are some of Halsin's flaws, in your opinion?

Halsin's flaws, personality and others, major and minor (note that some of these are a bit circumstantial):

-He can't control his baser/animal instincts, which comes out in his wildshape issues. This corresponds with bloodlust in his animal form.

-He isn't suited for Druidic leadership, as shown at the Grove, which led to disastrous consequences.

-By his own admission, he focuses too hard on the tasks important to him and lets other ones fall by the wayside.

-Due to the above, he struggles tremendously with balancing conflicting obligations; he didn't bother much with the Grove when he was trying to solve the Shadow Curse, abandoned the Grove when the player showed up (though of course that was also due to his trauma and hatred of the Archdruid role), and if romanced to Karlach, is one of the only ones who refuses to go to Avernus with her, feeling that he and he alone can start the commune for the children and their needs are greater than hers.

-He has a self-sacrificial view about what being "good" is, and feels that he has to be unhappy if he's helping; he let himself suffer as Archdruid for 100 years rather than find someone else to take the role, and in the ending, he tries to break up with a romanced player to start his commune both because of his possible abandonment issues and because he doesn't see room for his own happiness when he's trying to help people.

-As I just mentioned, he does have abandonment issues to a degree; if the player dumps him in the ending, he says he knows nothing lasts forever. If the player suggests the party go their separate ways immediately after the battle, he says it was always destined to be so, but it stings nonetheless. He is shocked when the player comes to rescue him from Orin if taken.

-While he is an extremely kind and forgiving person, he has limits, and once those have been crossed, he gets very vengeful (I.E. everyone involved in his captivity with the goblins, or saying he'd like to "do the same" to whoever killed and stuffed a young bear for decoration in one shop in Baldur's Gate).

-He misreads social cues fairly often.

-He seems better able to assert his boundaries to strangers than to his friends and loved ones, I.E., not having much of a negative reaction to a Lolthsworn Drow threatening to sell him back into slavery.

-Because nature is his way of understanding the world, he struggles to understand things through any other lens. He has little interest in other things that can't be considered part of either nature or his Druidic duties.

-He takes things very literally at times, I.E. the phrase "you can say that again."

-He doesn't bother trying to hide when he doesn't like someone (I.E. if the player has incredibly low approval with him).

-He can sometimes be insensitive on accident, such as saying "imagine the horrors" when they're in a tadpoling facility, to Wyll in particular, though he does apologize right away when called on it.

-He is slow to true anger, but sometimes quick to annoyance, at least where strangers are concerned. (This is more so the case if they question him).

-He infamously doesn't trust Drow, and while this is justified in the case of Lolth-sworn Drow, he is initially mistrustful of the player if they are a Seldarine Drow too (though later he shows far more trust of Seldarine than Lolth Drow).

-His objections to some of the evil things encountered in the game are their unnaturalness more than their evilness, fitting with the Druidic belief that evil is as much a part of the world as good. He is more upset at how unnatural the tadpoles are than anything, at least at first, and if the Dark Urge shows off the Slayer form in front of him, he says it's "most unnatural. Most foul," and says that it only serves death/murder. (It's how unnatural and unbalanced it is that it bothers him more than the form being a giant monster, basically.)

-He has a huge case of hero worship to the player, which is why he falls in love with them almost immediately after they break the Shadow Curse, and has feelings for them even sooner than that.

-He despises turnips.

[writingquestionsanswered]

are there correct and incorrect ways to write open endings? do you think you could share some tips on when a open ending should be used, and when it shouldn’t?

thank you!

Open Endings and When To/Not To Use Them

The two main ways to end a story are with a closed ending or with an open ending. In a closed ending, the main storyline is concluded, the story's questions are answered and the threads are tied up. The fate of all the characters is clear. In an open ending, things are tied up more or less, but sometimes not as completely as in a closed ending. There might be some unanswered questions, some loose threads, and the fate of the characters and world are left to the conclusion of the reader.

Let's say you were writing science-fiction with a romantic subplot, where two people meet on a transport ship, get roped into a mission where they have to safely deliver an object to a certain destination, and they fall in love in the process. If by the end of the story the mission is completed, the characters have completed their arcs, and one character proposes to the other and they fly off to start their new lives together on their favorite planet, that's a pretty closed ending. For the most part, the story is concluded and we know the main characters' future trajectory. However, if by the end of the story they still haven't completed their mission, and they're on opposite sides of the galaxy, hoping they'll find their way back to each other, but both with their own side gigs in the meantime, that's a pretty open ending. We know they're still going to try to complete their mission, but will they? We know they're still in love and hope to find their way back to each other, but when and how? What if they don't? Where will their side gigs lead them? We don't know, but if done right, the writer will leave enough clues for the reader to draw their own conclusions.

What kinds of clues would help the reader draw their own conclusions about the potential fates of these characters? Clues about who these characters are--their personalities, their skills, what types of decisions they're likely to make. Clues about whether or not they will be successful in their side gigs, and how those side gigs might lead them back to each other. Clues about the world of the story and the likelihood and/or importance of them having to reunite to finish their mission--these are all things the reader can consider when coming to their own conclusion about where things are headed.

Open endings work best in stories where a satisfying ending isn't necessarily expected or guaranteed. Straight up romance would be a bad place for an open ending, for example, since a "Happily Ever After" ending is expected. A mystery would usually be a bad place for an open ending since the reader will expect the mystery to be solved. (However, you could do an open ending in a mystery where the mystery is solved, but other things are left up in the air.) Open endings also work best in stories that were more about "the journey" than about the end goal, and in stories that are meant to deliver a very realistic story.

Some writers find that they get to the end of their story and aren't sure where to end it, so they may be tempted to use an open ending as a solution. However, this is not a good excuse to use an open ending. Stories with open endings need to be crafted that way from the beginning. They're not a device meant to get you out of having to find an appropriate ending for your story.

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[petpippin]

୨ৎ sweet escape! — chifuyu mats.

it came first with the shoujo mangas he'd bashfully keep hidden under his mattress, vowing to never have that guilty pleasure slip to even his best friend, baji.

there had just been something about whirlwind romances, the fateful meet of a guy and a girl, destined to evolve into something deeper that set chifuyu's cheeks ablaze, having to fight the urge to grin so stupidly.

he'd always considered himself a tough guy, too.

hands shoved into the pockets of his ill-worn pants, hair put up in a way that looked so cool. (there had gone months before baji had set him straight with that awful 'do.)

but there'd always been something about those types of girls, that stayed with him.

charms that jingle as they skipped by, all soft-spoken, with gentle hands and tooth-rotting smiles. the type of girl that'd shrink under the scrutiny of bigger guys like baji, or draken, yet would curl up so perfectly in chifuyu's palm.

yeah. girls like that, girls, it so happens, like you.

which is why chifuyu is counting every lucky star in the damn sky, when you, fumbling with your hands, let a pink-tinted pencil slip from your grasp.

staring habit ramming into him like full-speed train, chifuyu barely has time to react before he's bending down, nearly making it a race, picking up the jingling little thing for you.

he nearly stares you into the ground, growing red and flustered, shakily handing you back your pencil.

"here's-- your-- pe-en-cil," it's a dire realization chifuyu is quick to make in that moment, that he definetly isn't making the introduction he'd desperately dreamed of.

but you don't laugh at him. you try to smile, just as bashful and shy as he is, just as quick to snatch your pencil back.

it's unfortunate, much to chifuyu's dismay, that mere days after your encounter, baji has him all figured out.

the red thread doesn't even directly lead to you at first, the captain's first clue being the few curious bumps along his vice-captain's bed.

mistaking them for the racier of magazines is baji's very first blunder, as it had only lead to a hefty stack of brightly-lit, cutesy cartoons.

chifuyu couldn't die with dignity after that, but he did decide to make peace with the humiliation that would come of his most prized possession.

it's a sacrifice he would readily make, but with you, that one proved a harder task.

stealing glances, touches chifuyu could sneak, noting each and every of your little quirks. baji has long dug his grave.

it comes to a damning head, one fateful day, one where baji has been smirking so ominously all morning, that chifuyu doesn't even know what to make of it.

they're waddling the dozey early-morning halls, only so happening to pass a certain someone that has him momentarily rearing his head.

that was what chifuyu had hoped, at the very least. a glance at the very pretty girl who's presence he had been graced, perhaps catching the trill of a new charm dangling from your phone.

and yet, with a singular, cunningly placed elbow to the side, chifuyu had went stumbling like an idiot.

knocking into you, death should've never come quicker. but such mercy didn't befall upon him, and baji was only watching on.

it only worsens when something falls out of chifuyu's pocket, and now it's your turn to pick it up. and by god, does he immediately recognize that awful handwriting.

you look up at him, suddenly turned all giggly, a ring so sweet it overrules any of your little trinkets.

you smile, briefly glancing over the note. much to chifuyu's dismay, it's littered with hearts and he's, unfortunately, actually able to make out what's been written.

something along the lines of. . . a confession.

time freezes for such a while that chifuyu doesn't know whether to cry or take off running, in a stupor only managing to freeze up completely.

an angel stands before him, the overhead lights suddenly simulating early death. was it just chifuyu imagining the heavenly light?

"okay. i'll go out with you."

you're grinning so hard your cheekbones ache, and chifuyu soundlessly crashes back onto earth.

the lights even out in the background, and he mirrors your smile with vigour, a short breath of 'really?'

chifuyu doesn't know who he'd rather kiss.

[gayofthefae]

My surprise at the I love you speech was mostly sourced at my first watch casual interpretation of Byler.

Why is Mike behaving this way towards Will? Oh, he reciprocates and is being defensive about it. That would make since. The one thing is how are they gonna break down is relationship with El?...................

oh. like that.

So I really thought it was a done deal I was like "I can't see where this is going but of the two, who has a shittier arc if Mike doesn't have feelings for them. That's who he ends up with" and then was like ok that's the what I just don't know the "how" and then the next episode they GAVE ME THE HOW. So my huge confusion was that the ily speech essentially TOOK AWAY THE HOW???

The thing about that is taking away the "how" doesn't contradict the "what". I knew Byler was endgame when I believed Mike could tell El he loved her in 4x02 just as much as I did at the end of 4x09.

But it's funny because since 4x02, my thought has never been "wow, guess they aren't doing Byler!" It was "wow, guess they're taking a different route to Byler than I expected!"

It makes sense though in retrospect. In simple terms, the pieces were falling into place too early and they need to get together in season 5. (I also didn't know there was a season 5 + past seasons have never had cliff hangers so that adds to it I guess lol). I was taken aback because I understood the destination with my only apprehension being - honestly just curiosity about the path. Then they laid down a path. Then they were like "haha lol that path was unrelated! Psych!" and I was left curious "what's the path then?" with the additional question "what was that for?"

And then I remembered Cyrano and the rest is history but the POINT IS. Since believing in it, aside from occasional queerbait fear, I have never had Byler doubt based on ANYTHING in the story. Nothing in Netflix's "Stranger Things" has given me Byler doubt. I was only surprised to be wrong at how they were getting together.

I thought they were doing the "Mike notices Will overenthusiastically correcting his self-deprecation" romance trope when they were doing Cyrano so I was confused. But as I always say, they were only failing at a goal they didn't have. Was that a failure to execute that romance trope? Yes! Because they were never trying to! I may consider it doubt, actually, during the confession, but then because nothing else resolved in the season either I was like "Oh...that wasn't supposed to be it oh ok that makes more sense"

Anyway, now I know that and this is a long winded way of saying the only incorrect predictions I ever had in regards to Byler were how they would get together. From the second Byler was introduced to me as a viable option of an ending, Milkvan felt entirely illogical as an option and only proved to be moreso as the season progressed. Byler is endgame. Sometimes I'm wrong about how, but that isn't Byler doubt. It's an adjustment and then we are back, baby. The biggest proof against Byler is what I interpreted on my watch (once I realized there would be a season 5) as "a different direction to Byler than I originally thought".

[crows-of-buckets]

Ooutgghh thinking about my ocs too hard.

Anyways isn't it crazy how Aviae and Alistair are always destined to be a tragedy. They're doomed to die, but Morrigan manages to bypass that. But even then, they can never be happy together. Alistair becomes king, and whether or not he breaks up with her, Aviae is ready to break it off (she loves him. So much, she does. But she can't stand the idea of being a side piece, a scandal, an affair. Someone to warm his bed while the queen is away. Being quiet about her love is something she never wants to do again). If he stays a warden, I don't see a world in which he isnt left in the fade. At least considering the canon Inquisitor I have for that worldstate, she would never leave hawke. Doomed from the start, a love that burned quick and fast like a flame. I think deep down Aviae knows it. She knows from the start, it's not gonna end happily. Shes a mage, he was almost a Templar. (Mages don't get happy endings. They get ripped from their loved one's arms and thrown into a fancy prison) They're wardens. Wardens don't get happy ever after. (Their sacrifice is too great. In the end, being a warden is a death sentence. When you drink from that chalice, the noose settles itself around your neck) Yet it happened. The love was there, and what not. And while Aviae gets the chance to move on, and fall in love again, I don't think Alistair gets that luxury. He's king, his love life is a series of political maneuvers. Part of him clings so hard to that romance, that first love that somehow sprung up in the middle of a blight. Oh the tragedy of them

[radiokathryn-if]

how would the RO’s be in a red string of Fate AU? (cut to Nate desperately trying to cut the string off his finger bc he’s engaged lmao)

So the Red String Of Fate is one if my favourite AUs because if the origins of the myth!

In the ancient Chinese myth (and please correct me if I'm wrong!) the string is actually wrapped around the ankle rather than the pinky finger like in Korean and Japanese folklore! That the string connects you to the fate you're destined to have and with the people you belong with to achieve that fate.

My favourite “take” on this story is how it applies to all kinds of people, and even multiple people! I think that because of my understanding as a person who is not only pan(sexual) and open to polyamory but also demi(romantic) with a unique perspective through my best friend in to an aroace mindset that the thout of soulmates being strictly romantic and forever only one person is a bit bizzare──humans are people people, not person people... if that makes any sense.

I love exploring different 'avenues' of what connection means to people and how to push conventional boundaries as to what fate and destiny could be. That you have thousands of strings and they are woven together to create your tapestry of Fate (and this is where my favourite mythology comes in──greek mythology!) that is ever changing because the threads fray when you lose a connection or they gray out when someone dies, not fraying because even though they're gone they're still important to you, that the brighter strands are the people who mean the most to you.

I adore it──the introspection into human connection. (I love reading through aroace and poly story's for that exact reason!)

But back to your question! In the classic sense of the Red String Of Fate AU where it's Romantic Soulmates:

You're right, Nate absolutely detests his string──the whole concept of soulmates really. What really gets him is that he hates the feeling of no control, that there's no choice to be made that his string doesn't lead to the one he asks to marry him. He learnt a long time ago how to ignore his string, how to ignore the tug when you leave his side, how to ignore the tingles on the tips of his fingers when you're closer, how to ignore you... it's sad more than anything else──that his need for control, his vision of life, deprives you of a soulmate connection too.

As stated before, Eva truly is a romantic at her core and the thought that she has a soulmate is something she dreams of. Life, however, isn't a dream world and she also believes in agency and making decisions for herself. Though if there's anything Eva regrets it's saying yes to Nate when he proposed to her. Young naivety can only go so far as an excuse when she long for the tiny ounces of warmth you bring her when you cross paths. She keeps it a secret, but the hope that you'll snap her out of the predicament she's in keeps her heart pumping and her fingers tingling!

Mica is a little bit of a different story, considering your connection to each other already. In terms of the Original Universe, Mica might be the closest thing MC has to a soulmate that universe has, platonically or romantically. Mica loves you. Full stop. The fact that fate says you're destined to be in each others life is just the cherry on top for them. It's always been easy to be in their presence, and they will never push romance on you──if you get there, that's where fate has taken you!

The concept of 'soulmates' is... strange to Detective Han, to say the least. They don't... not believe in it but they aren't particularly bothered to chase it either. I think when they finally actually realise what the tugging and the warmth and the tingling means is when they'll get a bit... tense around MC. They don't know how to navigate this and they'll eventually be ready to try──all they ask if for your patience and with time comes their love tenfold. (As fate would have it, it turns out.)

José likes the sentiment of having a Fated One, but putting it in their real world makes them a bit apprehensive. They don't like the thought of not having autonomy and while there's comfort in knowing there's someone out there just for them (and for them to give their heart to in return) the discomfort of not knowing can be a little much. They don't like the weight of expectations. It's difficult, when they make the choice to leave your side before your connection could really bloom─and it was certainly a tough decision─but they must believe that you'll come together when you're supposed to... they're just not sure if they actually do.

Ji Han grew up listening to the stories of these myths from his mother. It's something he yearns for silently. He wants you so much he'd do anything to keep you in his heart. But he's a gentleman first and lets you take the reigns──to go at your pace. In this world he might believe he can have his love at first sight, and if he has his way the sight of his love would be his last, to bless him for his next life to be with you once again.

With Fauve fate is... subjective. In this world she tends to wear gloves. She doesn't like the way she feels when she sees her string while she's... entertaining others. It's not necessarily that Fauve hates the idea of soulmates, it's just that she can't fathom that she'd ever get to meet hers. When she was younger she used to fantasize about her fated one, and her hopes for who they were always came crushing down when it never was who she thought, in the end. Upon meeting MC she may not even realise she just met her fated one until it's too late and after the decisions she's made surrounding you freezes her heart at the thought you wouldn't want her anymore. Dilemmas, dilemmas.

For Jackson, I've chosen to believe Fate gave him a second chance string. That his first red string led him to his daughter, Cilly, and the second will lead him to you. The problem, however, is that that first experience with Fate has left Jackson both weary and jaded to the idea. That while yes, it gave him his most precious thing, the live of his child, it also left him with a shattered heart and scars on his soul. Fortunately, he's not completely closed off, like Nate is, but like Detective Han he needs time to build up trust and let his walls down──for himself!

??? adores his string and the person on the other end of it. Growing up in the way they did left them alone most of the time, betrayed by their family and sent away. They hold out their hopes of love even when their body is cold from being so far away from you and worships the feeling of warmth as the two of you get closer once again.

Bonus! The Poly Routes

Jauve (Ji Han/Fauve)──They balance each other out very well here. Ji Han allows Fauve to accept and acknowledge her feelings towards Fate sooner than she would on her own──coming to terms with it more healthily and giving her more perspectives on how to goes about her choices around her fated ones than she does on her own. And Fauve makes sure Ji Han takes his time to properly love, to savour the feeling with time and introspection and creating connection before blindly jumping into it. They let's each other believe in more ways to love people, to bask in those feelings and to become better people than they thought they were capable of.

Eva&???──for ???, there's that sort of hurt in his chest at just how much they get to breathe when with MC and Eva. ??? never really thought they'd get to even have one soulmate let alone two! The build up of emotion they feel... is like it could burst out if their chest──explode their very being at any second. So they bask in the feeling of you, fingers digging a little too deep into their hold on your connection. For both of them it's all about second chances. It feels like fate has decreed to spare them more suffering and gifted them something so wholely special. Eva especially thanks whichever god's bound her to two beings, the scars and hurt from Nate seem to just melt away when you're around and she can finally relax her heart once again...

#peoplechangepeople🧡

[hurrl]

@weirdo-canniboy I went to save as a draft, and I accidentally posted too early, so if you saw it, NO YOU DIDN'T!!

Anyways I have so much to say on these two it's not even funny. Worms in my brain. Heavy in my heart.

I went pretty hard with the headcannons, so if things are ooc just let me know 😌 it also gives a glimpse into what I think about Theo, so that's always fun!

28. What's a conversation they'd get overly invested in that nobody else would care about?

Okay so maybe not so much a *conversation* but an argument/debate that could last days on end would be on the topic of fate and soulmates. Kalani is still young, she belives in it wholeheartedly. There are so many little decisions a person can make in their day to day life, all of it comes together and introduces two people who wouldn't have met otherwise- that has to be fate, right! And soulmates, lives that had known eachother in the past doing everything they can to reunite again! It's sweet.

But Theo, being essentially immortal and who has lived through a few lifetimes himself, is a bit more jaded. And who can blame him? Especially considering all the things he had to go through! Would anyone call that fate? Being forced to a lonely life watching friends and family grow old and die while he remains perfectly preserved? That's his fate? Or the sheer fact that he was *created* to be an obedient servant, now with no master, he is forced to live his life questioning if he's truly living life the way he wants or if this is just the life he was *told* to live. If all of that is his fate, then it is a pretty rotten one. And soulmates? While there have been people he has loved dearly, he more than anyone else knows *they don't come back.* Maybe at one point he used to cling to the "in another lifetime" notion but it's been so long that he knows the truth. And that doesn't mean he isn't able to find love in other people, he is, but he's aware that they're *different*, and that's what makes them special. For example, if he was looking for Spencer in everyone he meets, he'd be miserable. I also figure Theo wouldn't like that idea of soulmates and fate because it sort of takes away his own autonomy, I can imagine his relationship with that would be complicated

I feel like they could have this discussion over and over again without it really going anywhere. It doesn't do either of them any good, just makes them upset. At the end of the day, Kalani has her beliefs, and Theo has his, and despite that, they love each other, and that's what matters! And any other person would think that this is such a silly thing to get hung up on! Who cares what brought you two together? You're together! But Kalani will still insist that she was destined to find Theo, and Theo will say he was glad that *he* met her and took the time to get to know her (fate's involvement means nothing, it was his choice to befriend her).

32. What's a book, movie or song one would recommend to the other?

When it comes to music, I know Kalani would like it of Theo enjoyed what she listens too, so I feel like she'd recommend him "Yes to Heaven" by Lana Del Rey, it's a love song, it's pretty, and she does have her eye on him 😌 It's something they could sit and listen to together.

Maybe "Picture You" By Chappell Roan, but it is a tad suggestive, that would kind of be the point, but she's so afraid that she'll scare him off 😭 that man has not been intimate with anyone in a few *decades*, they have to move slow.

I feel like Theo would be more inclined to recommend Kalani a movie over a song or a book, especially since it's something they can watch together. My head says 1989's "Always" because that's a slightly older *slightly* niche romance movie (it's about pilots 😭 the only thing I really remember is the main character making a grocery list in her sleep and I thought that was cute)

[magpiefngrl]

whats the easiest thing you find to write and the hardest? And why do you think that is? e.g dialogue, action, description, flashbacks, letters, chapter titles (LOL), smut, etc?

Hello!

Chapter titles LOL! They can be hard, right? I only ever used chapter titles in 9 ½ Days and they were locations, but I'm actually using them in my original romance. They're not super imaginative or whatever, but my instinct says to come up with a title for each chapter, and so that's what I do.

OK so easiest things for me to write:

--dialogue. Idk if "easy" is the right word, because I do spend a ginormous amount of time revising it. It's A. a very important aspect of writing for me, B. something I always notice in other stories whether good or bad, and C. I'm pretty pleased with my dialogue in many fics and I consider it a strength of mine. So, Idk if I it's an easy thing for me to write, or simply something I care a lot about and so I don't mind the effort required to get it right.

--descriptions. I enjoy writing descriptions and making a setting evocative and vivid. I often see people on tumblr say that they struggle with them, but for me it was never an issue. Idk why this is an easy thing for me. Possibly because when I went backpacking a long time ago, I'd write regular emails to a list of friends and I'd have to describe where I was? (it was before social media, so no insta or facebook with the uploading of images to show what a destination looked like. No cheating. I had to rely on words.) Perhaps that was good training. I was away for months. I also love creating atmosphere and mood in my stories, and descriptions are a way to do that. I enjoy them--maybe it's as simple as that.

Hardest things for me to write:

--plot. Ugh. UGH. U G H . I'm mostly a pantser, I discover the story as I write, which is often a joy (I was so surprised at how some of my stories developed), but it's also, very often, a nightmare. I think I'm getting better at coming up with plot, but it's not something I do easily.

--exposition. I do wonder: does anyone find this easy? Exposition is such a fkn nightmare. There's zero joy in this lol. Figuring out how to let the reader know necessary information in an organic way, at the moment they need it, without overwhelming them with details or underwhelming them so they're lost, and to make it as seamless and invisible as possible: this is so fkn hard. And it's something fanfic doesn't really prepare one for, so I've no skill for it.

Hard but enjoyable challenges:

--voice. When I get the right voice for a story, the words flow. That isn't particularly hard. The hard part is coming up with it. Figuring it out. Involves a lot of trial and error.

--the relationship progression. 9 ½ Days took forever to write, precisely because it required taking two people who hated each other in chapter one and gradually, organically, slowly but not too slowly because I wasn't planning to write 200k, making them fall in love. It's tricky. I've read publ. romances where this falls flat. Either they get together too quickly or too slowly or too abruptly. One day they're at each other's throats, the next they're in love, and you feel you missed a step or a chapter or something. In fandom, many fics often begin with the two characters already in love with each other, but that means the most significant part of the romance has happened off page. It's not something I'm interested in writing. I mainly write romance these days, so nailing a good relationship progression is my main challenge, but one that interests me.

Thanks for the ask!

ask me about writing

[septembersghost]

What do you think is the actual deal between Harry and Taylor? Because they seem to be each other's muses- and with the lyrical back and forth that's been going on, EVEN AFTER A DECADE- it can't be nothing. They give off major soulmates vibes (musical-wise) and even relationship-wise (although they could also be star-crossed lovers) with such shitty timing everytime 😂 i've supported joe and taylor for years, but I've got this inkling in my mind like someway and somehow, H and T might still find their way back to each other. Joe just seems meh :/ tbh.

i almost feel like i shouldn't answer this because it's a bit loaded, but it's 3:30 am so why not 😅💕

i'm going to first defer to my friend @cowboylikedean who said:

"they can be soulmates, but not romantically. Consider: their whole relationship has been leading to a friendship which was always destined, but needed a contextual foundation that only an ill defined on again off again/only communicating through sex then song could create. Consider that. Joe is Taylor's forever person. doesn't mean Harry has to be nobody."

we don't know if they've forged a friendship behind closed doors or not, and whether we ever know anything about that is up to them. their interaction at the grammys was warm and familiar, which at the very least speaks to their feelings of respect and kindness towards one another as artists and people. taylor's support for him was clearly genuine (though you could say that of her support for basically everyone in that room). i think it's really important and meaningful to acknowledge that there are a vast array of dynamics that can be considered a soul connection - not only romantic, but familial, platonic/friendship, artistic, those can all be transcendent and vibrant relationships too. i personally feel there's a soul element and connection within their music that needed to exist as a spark to get them where they are today. (had they not been what they were to each other, what would their careers even look like? what would 1989 be? what would hs1 be? etc) and they were also, in many ways, peers when they were together, and in unique positions of fame at a young age that most other people couldn't understand. their timing was consistently wrong/off, but that connection in their hearts and art still came through clearly. to me, it's part of the invisible string - they had to meet and have that complicated on/off thing and have love for one another to be on the paths where they were supposed to go, in different ways, and to be able to stand in a room together where they're both succeeding and both feeling gratitude for what all of that meant.

i think it's a disservice to joe to...not pay attention to what taylor has explicitly said about him, and why that relationship is so different and profound for her. i've seen a LOT of commentary lately about him being boring and not "getting" their connection, and it strikes me as somewhat unfair because we don't see it, we're not privy to it, and we shouldn't be, that is very much by their design. (she did say romance isn't dead if you keep it just yours!) but because someone like h is sparkly and charismatic and a musician, and joe is somewhat more reserved and less obviously visible and an actor, there's this sense that we "know" him less, which can easily seem less interesting, but keep in mind that how any fan sees him and how taylor herself sees and describes him are totally different. he's home to her, he's that gorgeous dream to her, he's the daylight to her, and that's what matters. he's who she's built her life with and found her peace with for many years now, and vice versa. h hasn't found that yet, but i hope he does. but that doesn't necessarily mean harry has to be nothing to her. whether that's fondness and recognition of their influences on one another and gentle nods to the past, or whether that comes in actual friendship, i think it's really important and valuable to acknowledge that the soul connection can happen and NOT be romantic, or initially be romantic/sexual and then transform into something else later, and it's no less of a cosmic pull. in one way or another, they'll always be connected, even if it remains in lyric and melody - and that's also always going to keep having a life of its own.

[rachelfoleyisntdead]

About your character bingo...

Each Legion member ?

Frank

he reeks of mommy/daddy issues. might be the foster care thing.

i prefer my idea of him as a more caring leader. he's still a total fuck-up but he does care about his friends.

sorry but i don't HC him as queer at all. his ass is so straight. bhvr can tell me if I'm wrong but my gaydar goes radio silent on him.

the entire legion is pretty much the best when you consider that they are teenagers. they didn't even want to be killers. everything they do is teenage bullshit bc they're bored and Canadian and it's the 90s.

i would mega dislike him irl and if julie was my best friend i would tell her that he ain't shit. but i love him as a character who causes Problems.

Julie

making Julie go full teenaged girl thinking she and Frank are some destined romance is the funniest fucking thing and so accurate

i got the vibe from their old tapes that Julie was actually the nice one and Susie was the secret brat. Sadge that bhvr is going the other way. I don't like girlboss Julie.

the fact that Julie is so self-involved with her romance with Frank that she's pretty oblivious to Susie and Joey's problems at home would make me dislike her irl but I love it for her as a character. toxic teenaged romance ftw.

Susie

i have pink hair, grew up poor and dressed like Susie in high school. yeah. I project on her a bit.

I think she should get to go full psycho. For fun. I think she should get to be the scariest one in the gang and have the highest killcount. no one else agrees. : (

bc I relate to Susie, she's the easiest for me to pick on. Joey's a close second tho.

i know deep in my soul she is jealous of Julie. She loves her to death but Julie has everything so. she's jealous. teenage girl things.

I feel like people get weird in both directions about her assumed age. Stop overthinking it.

cutie. and then she stabs you : )

Joey

joey has the best cosmetics, don't @ me

he should get to murder a lot. bc he has the most style points.

i think he's gay. idk why. vibes. gay black and poor in the 90s, no wonder he latched onto frank.

he and Susie are mlm/bi besties.

he's my second favorite. i want more lore of him.

I really wish more people remembered that they are shitty little teenagers and let them do teenaged shit instead of always trying to make it. like. deep. It's not. They're horrible bc they're teenagers from rough situations (sans Julie, who is there for the drama) not bc they murdered a guy (who deserved it) and dumped his body in the woods.

[trillscienceofficer]

harry and b'elanna for the ship bingo? o:

ANOTHER VERY GOOD ONE

I finally check the 'they're fucking the same guy' box and I don't even get bingo smdh

I LOVE THEM... I can take either friendship or romance when it comes to Harry and B'Elanna but I 100% believe they've fucked at least once. There's a post that says 'they're het TO YOU, I know they're both bisexual' and that encapsulates the way I see Harry and B'Elanna together very well.

I love the way they meet in “Caretaker” and how that just solidifies in this friendship were they can both be their best (worst?) mad scientist selves. They're just so in sync, practically from the start! I love that Harry finds nothing wrong with B'Elanna's ideas and objections, and that his respect for her comes through very clearly so that B'Elanna has no issue with trusting Harry and that if he has a different perspective from her own he's not objecting to B'Elanna herself.

As @clementine-kesh has pointed out multiple times, it's interesting that these two people became fast friends because their backgrounds could not be more different. Harry is the gifted kid destined for great things, whose family always had his back; B'Elanna's life is a succession of adults and authority figures telling her that there is something wrong with her and that she'll never be able to fit in anywhere, which has destroyed her sense of identity almost completely. It's fun that they're foils this way but the whole 'being 70 years away from getting back home' levels the field and allows them to form such a loving connection.

Of course this not to say that their differences don't come through sometimes. Harry seems to have trouble understanding B'Elanna's stubborn efforts in trying to 'make things right' (think of “Prototype” and “Muse”), as he perceives them as futile while B'Elanna stakes a lot of her self-worth on being able to correct what she finds wrong in the world. Conversely B'Elanna makes fun of Harry still holding out hopes that she considers naive, though in reality I think it's just because those hopes were the same she used to have and can't bear to be reminded of. I love when these little jagged edges come out in a friendship that is generally unproblematic.

It makes me INSANE that season 3 gave them both essentially the same plotline with Tom, ie they almost lost control of themselves entirely and hurt Tom in the process. That's so fucked up and they never talked about it! Nevermind the fact that I think them discussing it could have lessened the racist framing of “Blood Fever” (Harry is obviously not Klingon and yet he lost control as well when push came to shove, what does this say about being human?), but I also would love to make it more fucked up and have them hook up post-“Blood Fever” for maximum angst potential as I've talked about here.

Angst aside I think this is the kind of really loving, devoted relationship I wish both B'Elanna and Harry had been allowed to have (more) on the show. Even in a throuple with Tom I consider the Harry/B'Elanna side to be of extreme importance and value, to the point that without it I don't think Harry/Tom/B'Elanna would hold much interest to me, whoops

[here are the other ship bingo meme entries]

[acourtofthought]

I love that e/lriels like to ignore the fact that azriel’s inner monologue during his chapter in his moments with elain were literally about how WRONG it all felt and how he had to forcefully ignore that lmao. Which is absolutely not how the mating bonds or long term relationships were ever described. They both know they’re not meant to be and will never work out. The whole chapter made it feel painfully obvious to me that they are destined to fail. I personally think they’ll have a brief fling (or not so brief considering there’s three books left💀) but elain will realize that this man does NOT value her as a person and just wants to tradwife her and kick him to the curb for someone who actually sees her as a person real quick 🦊

"Letting his scarred fingers touch her immaculate skin" "Wrong - it was so wrong" "Such terrible things that it was sacrilege for his fingers to touch her skin, tainting her with his presence" "Just this taste in the dead of the longest night of the year" "This was a mistake" "He hadn't gotten that far with his planning, certainly not beyond the fantasies he pleasured himself to." I mean, that language regarding E/riel in the bonus chapter is concerning. There is no hope in that, there is no joy. It really doesn't matter whether Az has feelings of self doubt because ALL SJM endgame males have felt the same. They questioned their worth, whether they deserved to be happy. But none of them sounded so problematic and put the female on the pedestal Az has with Elain. He literally treats her like a mint condition doll who cannot, at any cost, be blemished, especially not by his own dirty hands. No female should EVER feel like a male views her with such purity because we're all flawed and messy and imperfect. Az has already elevated Elain to an unattainable standard and the entire relationship between them would be Elain needing to constantly reassure Az she thinks he's worthy and then Elain beginning to question her worth when Az finally realizes she's not the fragile, perfect creature he thinks she is, and what will that mean once he does? You're right though, Elain would get sick of being treated like glass pretty quick. Could SJM still go the route of E/riel? Sure. But I would bet money on the fact that they're not happening as she's currently written them. The way they are now is not SJM romance and the way Az speaks of her is cringey. I'm not talking about the sexual aspect, there's nothing wrong with being physically into someone. The other stuff though......his thoughts are very immature (and quite concerning to be honest, he's got a lot of emotional stuff he really needs to deal with rather than focusing on a female right now) and he's putting a kind of purity language on her that is very problematic. When you think of the type of male love interest that SJM prefers, Az with Elain isn't it.

[theangrypokemaniac]

Part Two

Best enjoyed with a cup of tea and some biscuits.

What I've explained so far is merely the intellectual portion of my hatred.

I don't think it's too much to ask for something to make sense and respect the history and laws of its own universe.

I haven't even started talking about my emotional reaction, which is somehow even more volcanic.

Little T.A.P. had what's known euphemistically as 'the artistic temperament' (nutter) and as such, was the most hardline, take-no-prisoners Rocketshipping extremist you'd ever have the misfortune to meet.

Worse than everyone on Tumblr, combined.

If anyone reading this considers themselves an obsessive, then no, mate, you're not.

You ain't seen nothing compared to my psychotic prime.

Glorious, it was.

I, but a simple, unassuming child, had a clear vision in life:

I will kill anyone who comes between you.

And I wasn't one o' these wishy-washy 'Oh there's nothing there now but it has potential' dishcloths, I was the Real Deal.

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! IT IS UNSPEAKABLY BEAUTIFUL TRUE LOVE OF MYTH AND POETS AND SONGS AND DREAMS!!!!!!

As far as I was concerned, it deserved to ranked alongside the great romances of history and legend.

• Romeo and Juliet

• Lancelot and Guinevere

• Anthony and Cleopatra

• Tristan and Isolde

• Victoria and Albert

• Orpheus and Eurydice

• Nicholas and Alexandra

• Hero and Leander

• Heloise and Abelard

• Pyramus and Thisbe

But, you know, without the death.

Besides which, I had no internet, and no friends who liked Pokémon, so I sincerely believed I was the only Rocketshipper in the world, and felt it more intensely on top of the rest as compensation.

And if you watch the early Indigo League in the view that Jessie and James aren't just destined to be in the future, but a fully-fledged, when-can-we-be-married legitimate couple, but it's never mentioned much because it's not relevant to the main story of Ash's quest, then it bloody works!

Suddenly you start thinking that maybe they want that one big heist so badly so they have enough to retire on and set up home together.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See talking about brings it all the bastard memories back and how they all died and led to nothing and now I want to sit in the corner and cry for the love that never lived.

Imagine me, in such a state, watching this utter abomination, matching Jessie with a man, and it's not James, and thinking I would ever take it well.

I don't understand how anyone could.

The best (THE BEST!) explanation I have is that these writers, now needing to string it out until the final moments of Johto, realized they'd taken the romance too far and wanted to hold back, but did it in the most cack-handed, clod-hopping fashion, undermining it so the whole ship collapsed about their ears, from which it's never really recovered.

This team, after all, thought Tracey was a good idea, so how much could we ever expect?

I'm not saying it died that day, as I still found things (the second film, by Shudo), but this was the first inkling I got that, well maybe it won't end happily after all.

And that hurt.

I should've seen it in Bad to the Bone, but this decision made the uneven writing far too plain, so how could I ever put my faith in it all turning out alright, if it's so dependent on an individual writer's whims?

What if the last-ever-episode was written by the wrong person, and it was left to his decision?

I dunno. Maybe the success of Pokémon went to their heads and drove 'em doolally, thinking they could coast serving up any old tripe.

Or they never wanted Rocketshipping to be so big, and deliberately set about a sabotage to put people off.

After all, the dearth of shipping content come Hoenn, the first region after Shudo left, can't really be explained otherwise.

And everything beyond that is the most paltry, blink-and-you'll-miss-it table scraps, like Jessie touches James back for half a second and the fandom flies out of its mind about it because they're so deprived of proper nourishment.

Then the supposed big stuff always comes with a catch that yet again chips away at their formerly established personalities, giving with one hand but robbing with the other.

I once heard someone defend XY063 (AND DON'T START ME ON THAT!!!) with talk of how:

For something shippy to happen, something anti-shippy needs to happen first.

We can't take one step forward before we've took a step back, so nothing ever moves.

In the present anyway. The canon gets ripped to ribbons.

Well who says it should?

'Cause I don't remember any price paid in the golden age of Rocketshipping. Back then it was just allowed to happen.

So what changed?

It can't only be they cut down on the romance to give it greater appeal to children, thus turning a bigger profit, as what do they think we were?

But here is where you start to see the almost brainless willingness to ignore all that's gone before.

Anything to keep it going, eh?

The entire reason Jessie and James was special is because it's two kids adrift from the worlds they were born into where no one understood them...until they met.

You go by the original canon, and it's them chancing upon their soulmate, realizing it, and never parting from that day.

They was only ever going to be the other in their lives, and they knew, and IT WAS SO BLOODY BEAUTIFUL!!!

The idea there's one person for everyone is the magic material woven into all the highest dreams of humanity, and it made Little T.A.P.'s tender heart sing hosannahs to its holiness.

Oh, but yer can forget that now, 'cause it's all gone to shit.

Turns out Jessie DID have one of them connections (honest!), but it was some other random knobhead named Darren who sniffs glue round the back of Netto.

Oh-ho, I bet Keats, Byron and Shelley are dusting off their immortal quills as we speak, keen as mustard to commit these wholesome snippets to paranormal paper.

Get this: she, apparently, knew Darren practically from the maternity ward, and spent her whole life with him, which is longer than her own parents lasted (supposing that bit of her past stayed the same, and I'm not sure it did, but anyway) meaning he's the biggest relationship of any kind she ever had, the one constant source of emotional support and companionship throughout her younger years, twinned with her as no one else ever could be (PFFT!!!) but he's never been bloody mentioned before!

And he's never seen again!

And he's got No Fookin' Eyes!

He's SO important, but he also doesn't matter at all, as them writers don't care no more.

James not only isn't The One, he ain't even The Two after Osstin got invented, and The Three is Darren part two, for Jessie's slummin' it for sloppy seconds.

James is well down the rankings of First Ever Love Evah in the modern configuration, which is nice.

And they just keep twisting the knife!

Pokémon Tech. is a school for Trainers, so first-year pupils must be at least ten, therefore I surmised that's how old Jessie and James were at their fateful encounter.

BUT she's evidently younger than ten here, so not only have they killed off her joint history with him, they've gotta mock it too by making out it couldn't even come close to the depth of dependency she had on ding-dong-merrily-on-high Daz, since they go way back!

As I said, Jessie's established past is oblitered by this scene, but so too is James's, and now he didn't abscond from school to join a bike gang, and I don't know where he comes from either because Holy Matrimony! is out too.

If I'm generous however, and overlook that, presuming the 'rich kid' theme still applies, there's no telling why, when or how he ran away, but I'll guess he was ten when he did, for that's the traditional age of majority here.

As the Training Daze version of events now takes precedent with everyone who isn't me, and those lauding it want to hammer yer into submission about how Duh Twenny Fyve, this makes a fifteen-year gap from James leaving home to swanning up at HQ, which is just an enormous black hole of cold emptiness.

Has there ever (EVER) been an episode dealing with what happened to him then, who he met, what jobs he had, how he survived?

NO!

With Indigo canon binned (apart from the following, apparently, which is convenient), I'm supposed to accept that James, who wasn't just a small boy, but a preened, pampered only child and precious son and heir, fêted and catered to by a household full of servants, with no life skills or survival instincts to speak of, somehow scraped by on the streets on his own FOR FIFTEEN YEARS, with no Jessie to take care of him, or Chopper, or Tyra, or any kindly biker?

As if! He'd have been dead within hours!

Of course, he caught no Pokémon during this period either (being most of his life) and consequently had no form of self-defence to hand, but this colossal plot hole doesn't seem to trouble anyone.

Who knows, maybe in this timeline he stayed home until the night before Giovanni snapped him up, which I suppose makes Jessibelle his own personal Darren in significance.

Except people never mind if, by default, every new Jessie backstory comes replete with endless gobshite wasters queueing up to give her Forgotten Major Trauma, but if James has another woman, and it's Jessibelle, there's hell to pay.

Well no wonder she's miffed, staying with him for decades only to watch him walk out the door as soon as she slipped on the veil.

I reckon it's only the good humour of Vileplume that keeps her from tipping into full Miss Havisham mode.

Whilst I'm at it, the art style of Training Daze is a bit...off, and doesn't resemble the rest of Hoenn.

I suspect it's an imitation of how they looked in their earliest scenes, in fact the above screenshot is suspiciously like this one, even if they haven't bothered fixing the colours.

See? They can draw better. They just won't.

My theory is the crew knew retconning the past was playing with fire, so deliberately designed 'em as close as they could to early Kanto, thereby easing fans into accepting it, as if now it's obvious Indigo Jessie and James really went through the prequel, and were originally invented with this past in mind.

Yeah. Not that it makes sense, for if the Kanto style was that important to anyone they'd still be going by its canon backstories come what may, and certainly wouldn't have rolled over blithely accepting the mushed-up faces on 'em recently, but then, who really cares about coherent thinking?

It's so overrated.

And I can't deny it worked. People tie themselves in all sorts of weird knots insisting Training Daze ackshully does fit with canon...if you just shut up and stop noticing.

Once that got through, in their view we'd swallow anything, so why even try making it match?

Who is this supposed to be, man? 'Cause it don't resemble any Jess I remember.

If this picture had gone round labelled as 'Young Nurse Joy' before Sinnoh, no one would've doubted it.

What's wrong with yer bloody eyes, love? They ain't even the right shape!

How can I believe a backstory that happened to someone else?

Now I, being a calm, mild-mannered sort of soul, don't ask for much in life.

But he should die.

Incidentally, years after the fact I skimmed a Cori Falls story where Darren knocked Jessie about, and although I would never once suggest that happened (but it did) I can't say I have a single ounce of sympathy for him.

I mean, if he didn't want that sort of representation, he shouldn't have bloody turned up.

Please understand, I haven't relentlessly insulted him merely from a shipping perspective (die), but also with a fine artistic sensibility.

Firstly, he has No Bloody Eyes, which, logically, constitutes some sort of Shadow Dæmon, but more importantly, and much worse, is the brown hair.

Brown hair.

You're in an anime, and yer got brown hair.

...

YOU COULD HAVE ANY COLOUR IN THE WORLD AND YER PICK BROWN???!!!

Even worse ('cause it's personal now), it ain't even arranged in some ker-razy spiky display as compensation.

Oh no. He's too good for that. Instead Darren's got his barnet all nice and smooth, like a human haircut.

...

See what I'm saying?

He comes swaggering in here, throwing his weight around and upsetting everyone, and hasn't even got the decency to look the part.

Not even an inch of sideburns on this oaf.

I wouldn't mind nearly so much if we were dealing with some ultra-cool world-class titan, the sort of shining star suited to front any other anime, where you could understand Jess taking an interest, but I am not putting up with sticking this bog-standard, penny-pinching tow-rope, with his all-over even wood finish and cow lick, into her past without so much as a by-your-leave, and thereby casting aspersions on her character.

Just consider the insult:

You're telling me Jess has gone from bagging herself James, who's not only young, good-looking, carrying the classic anime style, AND actually matters in the grand scheme with a massive fan following, because he's well-designed and interesting enough to pull a crowd (plus, let's not forget, HE'S FOOKIN' LOADED, MAN!!!) to settling (and come on, it's settling) for eyeless, bland background filler, who wouldn't even pass muster as a one-time guest character?

Yer can piss off!

Indigo Jess had some flamin' standards and wasn't gonna compromise 'em, but Orange Jess apparently has no taste whatsoever, and is just bloody grateful when any old slobbering air thief shows interest.

And I'm not 'avin it!

See that's why she's on the floor. He hit 'er.

All I said about Darren being Jessie's main source of stability also applies in reverse, as she is that to him.

And still he effed off.

Arsehole. Complete arsehole.

What a classy moral-of-the-story routine this was for the romantically-inclined Little T.A.P.

'Used t'be Jessie crossed paths with her everlasting soulmate (James) and stuck it out through thick and thin.

Message: True love is real, kids!

Together forever!

No matter how long!

From now until the end of time!

Now? Oh yeah, she had a thing once, and thought it was the proper stuff, but...meh.

'Cause even after years together you just can't trust 'em not to leave.

Message: Never feel secure!

Not for one second!

You don't know what he's plotting!

Oh, kill the dream, why don't yer?

Let's not aim for something higher anymore, trying to convey the soaring ideals of love, so that, despite their misery and poverty, Jessie and James have a little beauty to cling on to through the darkness.

Nah, mate, kick 'em when they're down!

Thus Darren departs continuity, oversized coat and guide dog in hand, as Orange Jess sinks to her knees, pleading for his return.

Have some bloody self-respect, Jess!

You're so invested in a walking Cuprinol advert you're actually begging him not to go?

You like minimum-effort mediocrity THAT much?

And you're STILL sorry it didn't last?!

Fuxake, woman!

For if I accept it, I think less of her.

There once was a time when our Jess pictured herself as an earthbound goddess served devotedly by adoring slave boys.

Ooooh. Some of them lads have brown hair.

They've all got curtains, perms and mullets, man!

That's the default setting of anime!

Being mere fantasy figures, they don't really exist in this universe, and thus I'm cutting 'em some slack, given this whimsy never buggered up canon.

They know their place.

But watching her debase herself like this, crawling across the scratchy nylon carpet, clutching at the tan polyester seams of Darren's best waterproof ensemble, really got my goat, as that ain't the Jess I loved and idolised.

Old Indigo Jess wouldn't have stood for any of that nonsense, as her lovely little speech in The Ghost of Maiden's Peak makes plain.

Oooh, but she's just trying to save face because of what she did in the past.

A. You're only saying that in hindsight, wanting to believe Pokémon has a solid continuity where both Barren Darren and Austin Powers fit, even when it's impossible.

B. Where's the evidence for this in original canon?

C. There's nothing wrong with learning from others' mistakes instead of going there yourself.

D. Orange Jess evidently doesn't regret it, what with telling us all about sinking so low she's hankered after Spirits From The Nether Realm, and giving it good woe-is-me in the aftermath.

Back in the first series, all the fellas Jessie wanted waiting upon her had James's lean physique, with the majority sporting some variation on his hair colour.

Is it really just a coincidence that since then, none of her supposed beaus look remotely like him?

Each one has either brown or dark grey hair, making 'em as boring as possible:

• Darren

• Aston Villa

• Dr. Shite

• Speccy in the Lucario film.

• Him from Mewtwo Returns, whatever his name is, the sub says Penicillin.

So the art department's going out of its way to tell us:

1. James is NOT Jessie's type.

2. She has really low standards, yet he STILL doesn't meet 'em.

Now Darren doesn't really matter too much, since everyone else who hasn't been nursing a grudge for two decades forgets him.

Even I don't care until he comes up in screen shots.

Osstin however is the real shithouse.

He gets an entire bloody episode nurturing his canon balls.

See here's where the slippery slope knocks yer down:

• Make Team Rocket look Indigo for Training Daze.

Once accepted, don't bother letting Jess resemble herself in Crossing Paths!

• Introduce other men in a minor flashback.

Now the past is broken, have whole episodes pissing on its memory.

And how the quality has sunk in the meantime.

Darren, whilst a massive step down from James, is at least reasonably masculine, and probably as attractive as shape-shifters get.

Osstin meanwhile...

I'm gonna ignore the brown barnet, being a tangle of jagged edges, evidently over-compensating for what lies beneath.

'Cause he is ugly, man.

Jessie's tastes have degraded so badly they've slipped into the perverse, juvenile blood throbbing at the sight of a squeaky, short-arsed four-eyes barely bigger than herself.

Why, God? Why do you curse me?

James was a wealthy effeminate fop, in his day, Darren was a normal, middle-of-the-road incubus, in his day, both of which are a sight load better than whatever this is supposed to be.

You want me to believe Jessie's gone from either of them to a squinting, emasculated and vertically challenged dweeb, fogging up at the mere sniff of Reddit and SY-UNCE, and truly hideous to behold?

She left Darren for him, did she?

Takin' liberties here!

Remember it, tho?

Back when she was taking expensive dance classes in an unspecified region paid for by her indulgent moneybags parents with those familiar best friends of hers?

You know, that pair we keep seeing on the road.

Never not on our screens, are they?

I'm sick of hearing about 'em.

It's always Jessie getting dumped, you notice. Never her kicking the useless sod to the kerb, realizing she can do better.

Nope. Only James is low enough for that.

But do they really expect me to still love and admire Jessie, look up to her even, as I once did, when now I'm told she's so pathetic even nerds don't want her?

Bastards!

Oh, you're sorry this didn't work out, are yer Jess?

You're crying because you didn't marry the gormless incel and birth a dozen bi-focal babies?

Just look at yerself, girl!

Worse, Darren left her when they were reasonably grown-up, about the age she was in the Orange League, meaning if it happened (which it didn't) it had to be not long before Kanto began, so I might understand her still being upset over a man she'd known since childhood, supposing I did believe it.

BUT Osstin buggered off when she was at best, about bloody eleven, and so they had no romance in the first place, yet she's still moaning about The Geck That Got Away well into Sinnoh, meaning she regrets losing him more than Darren!

You're rapidly going down in my estimation, Jess!

Of course, the irony is James morphing into said revolting breed of 'male' in the later eras, so by rights Jessie ought to be on him like a pigeon on Monster Munch.

I marvel at anyone who kept their Rocketshipping hopes up this long, given just how many warning signals the writers put out over the years.

Nothing blatant, obviously. They're not stupid.

Even the quote above quietly kills off any hint of Jessie and James's then-relationship, and as usual with retcons, once said, you're expected to apply them to the past and pretend it was always this way.

No one loves Jess, kids!

And certainly not James!

All that Indigo evidence was just in your head!

There's never a positive reflection of her being glad she met James and Meowth, that these various conflicting pasts led to them, and so it all worked out in the end.

Every time she bemoans a 'lost love', it's a tacit admission she wishes she was anywhere but here, and with anyone but them.

Anyone but James, in truth.

Oh, that's cheered me right up.

How miserable she looks.

If nothing else proves Holy Matrimony! is out of continuity (barring bits of it, when useful), it's that her Orange League whining come after this scene.

And this one.

And this one...

...When she is plainly in a relationship with him.

Jessie's first action after staring into James's eyes for an unnecessarily long period of time is to move closer and wrap her arms about his neck, for one of those entirely platonic embraces, no doubt, both so captivated by the moment they've forgotten Meowth exists.

But it never happened, did it?

They've always been Just Friends, haven't they?

See when I rule the world (it won't be long now), and people ask why I did all them war crimes, I'm gonna point 'em to THIS for setting me off.

The End

[thespacelizard]

for shen & rizeth: sfw 10, 14, 15; nsfw 9, 11?

these are all so good i am sinking my teeth in let's goooo (this got so long thank you for the opportunity to monologue about my boys yet again)

SFW

10. Any pets? Or plants?

The closest Ashenivir has is the riding lizards his family own. House Velkon'yss had a giant spider in Menzoberranzan, but that belonged to the priestesses and Rizeth never enjoyed that creature.

14. Who is the highest maintenance? Does the other mind?

oooh this is tough. because Ashenivir is/can be very needy, but he's also pretty self-sufficient, as is Rizeth, and they're both idiots who hate inconveniencing each other (for various reasons).

I think i'm gonna say Shen is the highest maintenance, but Rizeth doesn't mind because he likes giving him things, and if he's too much of a brat, well…we know what happens then.

15. Vacation ideas: who decides them? Where would they go, if anywhere?

By the time they get to a point where vacations are A Thing they can actually consider, the number one destination is always the surface. I have Arc 4 on the brain rn, so Waterdeep is gonna be a super important place to both of them.

As for deciding, Rizeth is probably the one who does all the deciding and organising, just because he knows how better, but Ashenivir would be the one throwing darts at a map of Faerûn picking a million places to see new things.

NSFW

9. Quickest turn ons? Immediate turn offs? most of these are probably very very evident in the fics XD

For Rizeth: quickest turn-on is Ashenivir with something in his mouth. his top thing i have in his kink/sex notes is oral, that man has a bit of a fixation, what can i say.

immediate turn offs are probably things that ping up shit from his past, because he's otherwise pretty fine with most things. stuff he will not do he just won't start in the first place. his big Absolutely Not is CNC play, because for a variety of reasons he just will not touch it.

For Ashenivir: quickest turn on is 100% having his hair pulled. also being restrained in any way - pin that boy down and he will just melt into a puddle.

he's very much not into anything that has Female Connotations because he still has a lotta gender issues. but the less stressful turnoff is when someone isn't rough enough. like, come on, pull my hair and push me around already, what are we even doing here?

11. Favourite romantic gestures during sex/orgasm?

Rizeth loves eye contact a lot. It's an extra intimacy on top of whatever elaborate sexcapade has gotten them to this point - it's not flashy, it's not loud, it's just connection. (and there's another thing that i can't put here because it's a huge ass SPOILER so all i can say is he likes to have his hand on or kiss the [redacted] on Ashenivir's [redacted])

Ashenivir loves a hand in his hair or stroking his face. he likes the soft little parts that come after, the preludes to aftercare - he likes his post-fuck kiss, this is true, but when they (finally, fucking finally) get into Romance Land, it's that little stuff, the almost absent touches, that make him feel most loved.

OH and they BOTH love pet names. using your scene title in a soft, cute voice 10/10 absolutely incredible feeling.