#but i actually havent seen anyone point this out?

[fkapommel]

[lunarin64art]

That feeling when he can't stand to see you that way, no matter what you do, no matter what you say😩😭💔

[starwhipnspin]

the boy knows how to hide

[elisedonut]

I want more of those fics where multiple Percy ships are tagged where perciver is not actually end game

gimmie more perciver as friendly exes who still care about each other a ton but just are not together anymore or something

I've seen it like once? with Sexetera, Ad infinitum but considering that's the first fic I can remember reading that was Percy focused i don't think i got the true enjoyment of it that i would of had if i had read it later on after I started to have opinions

[i-cant-sing]

YRG pt 7

 

“Is it- true?” One servant asked. The knight raised a brow, as he fixed his armor. “What?”

“That she’s alive? The princess? Why the king is gathering his army?”

The knight shrugged. “Does it matter? We obey the king. He tells me to sharpen my sword, I do. He tells me to clean the horse shit off his horse’s ass, I do.  He tells me to go to war with an enemy in a place no one knows? I don’t ask questions, I just fucking do. Or else he burns me to crisp. So I suggest you do the same, Berta.” The knight spat as he began polishing his sword, the servant leaving to join the rest of the busy workers, all running around the castle after Dabi had ordered that they were going to war. They didn’t know who or where they were going to war, and they didn’t dare ask the king, well aware of his temper. But they’d figured out this was supposed to be a rescue mission for you after they’d seen concubine Keigo finally sober up after weeks (if not months since your disappearance. Dabi forbade the word “died”) and he surprised them a little when he prepared (and he actually was good at it).

“Is the cavalry ready?” Dabi asked Shotou, who nodded. “Yes, as are the ships prepared to carry them. Well equipped and with enough space for everyone.” Dabi hummed in acknowledgement, before looking over the maps again, trying to figure out where exactly is AFO’s kingdom. The last time he went there was years ago when your mother was still alive. And at that time, he remembers going through land, but he cant find that route anymore, probably due to some quirk AFO used to hide his kingdom. “Did the spies find out where this mysterious island is?” Shotou shook his head. “Havent heard from them yet. They’re still at Emperor Kai’s castle, I should think that Kai isn’t announcing the whereabouts out loud. He’s not stupid.” Dabi shot him a glare. He knows Kai, knows he has spies there, all kings have spies in their homes. “Sure, but he is stupid enough to not come to me the instant that traitorous rat came to him.” Shotou was well aware of who he was referring to- your servant Tomura. “Well, then you know that if  the emperor is aware that you know that he’s also preparing for war with AFO,  then he must have a good reason for not telling you.”

“Yeah? What could possibly be a good reason to tell me that my daughter, my only child is alive?” Dabi was not in the mood to be accepting any excuses. “Don’t speak for others Shotou.”

The younger brother didn’t press further. “I still want to come along, help you find Y/n.”

Dabi shook his head. “I know you do, but you’re more helpful to me here. I cant trust anyone else with the kingdom while I’m away.” Shotou would bring up that their father, Enji, could help with overseeing kingdom affairs in their absence, but Dabi is already on edge as it is and… well Shotou’s not stupid.

“You’ll find her.” Shotou patted Dabi’s shoulder.

“I know.”

“Don’t be mad at her.”

A soft smile formed on his lips. “I’m not.”

At this point, all the man wanted was to wrap his arms around you and never let go.

 

The emperor had already reached the port. Kai remained on his horse as he watched his men board the remaining stuff on the ships, Hari by his side who made sure everyone was doing their job. Though Hari couldn’t help but let his eyes wander to Tomura who stood to the side, face expressionless, which annoyed Hari because he couldn’t read him.

How could he just stand there as if he hadn’t made the grave mistake of losing you, the emperor’s most important treasure?

Hari was well aware of Kai’s favoritism towards you, and anyone who really knew Kai would easily see why. Your innocence, naivety, everything- it reminded him of the emperor’s late daughter. Though Kai only came to know of her value when she was no longer in this world, Hari knew how much it pained him. The emperor may be good at covering his feelings, but Hari, his confidant knew- and saw what the emperor had gone through when he had lost his young one. That’s why Kai had been working day and night to find you.

That’s why Hari couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t just kill Tomura, the man who was responsible to bring you to the empire as promised.

But as much as he wanted Kai to reconsider killing the traitor, he knew better than to question his emperor.

With everything now loaded onto the ship, it was time for Kai to board it, only to halt when he heard the sound of horses galloping in distance.

Turning around, he saw black flags with blue flames-

“King Dabi.” Hari said, and Kai gave him a nod and Hari looked back at the soldiers, calling them to take position.

“Be alert! Protect the emperor!” The army took their position, pulling their weapons out, ready for a massacre.

Kai never broke contact as Dabi’s knights neared, neither did his neutral face expression change when he spotted Dabi looking furious on his mighty dark horse.

When Dabi and his men reached them, the silence from both sides were deafening. The rulers locking eyes with each other as soldiers on both sides could feel their hearts beating loudly.

Kai didn’t break a sweat as Dabi glared at him. Why should he when Kai isn’t doing anything wrong?

“Going somewhere?” Dabi sneered.

Kai gave a nod. “I am.”

“Where?”Dabi asked, the smile dropping.

Kai remained silent. It was clear that Dabi was aware of his secret rescue mission. All that remains now is whether Kai should lie and possibly cause a war right here, right now, or tell him the truth and cause a war right here, right now.

“To AFO’s kingdom. I’m going to rescue princess Y/n.”

It was so terrifyingly quite, that not even sounds of nature could be heard. As if the birds and the bugs, the leaves and bushes, they were all holding their breath in anticipation.

“Oh? So you’ve known where my daughter is all this time?” Dabi pulled out his sword, as did his men. “And you decided to keep this information from me?”

Kai held up a gloved hand, signalling his men to hold, to not attack. “The information is news to me as well. Princess Y/n’s royal servant Tomura came to me a few days back and told me about her whereabouts. I only didn’t tell you because I am not sure if this information is true as well.”

Dabi’s glare shifted from Kai to Tomura. “Why should I believe you when that traitor still has his head?”

“Tomura hasn’t been killed because he’s the only one who knows where the princess is. With him dead, the chances of ever finding her slim to none. He came to me instead of you because you would’ve killed him the moment he set foot in your kingdom.” Kai explained, watching Dabi’s eyes full of distrust shift between him and the servant. But with distrust, there was also doubt.

What if Kai is telling the truth?

The seed of doubt had been planted, and now was Kai’s turn to change the narrative.

With his hand pointing towards the ships, Kai spoke. “You’re welcome to join us, King Dabi. We certainly have enough space for you and your men. The more, the merrier.”

Dabi stared at him for a few seconds before snapping his fingers and his men began retreating. “No need, we have our own ships. You may give us the servant so he can lead the way.” With Kai’s orders, his men also began retreating as the emperor got off his horse to speak privately with Dabi, who had also gotten off his horse.

“That is a reasonable request, but I must deny it. You see, I cant risk you chopping off the head of the one person who knows where this mysterious kingdom is. You can follow us.” Kai said with a small smile.

“Follow you? The man who hid knowledge of my daughter’s existence? Every single fiber in my body is screaming at me to kill you and that traitorous bastard!”

“But Y/n-“

Dabi cut him off. “You think you care more about Y/n than her own father?”

Kai shrugged. “I said no such thing. But if these past months have been clear proof that you’re making actions based on your feelings, and right now, that is not the best strategy to save Y/n. I know you think I have ulterior motives, and if I were you, I wouldn’t believe a word coming out of my mouth. But we have to put our differences aside, Dabi. Don’t be so distrusting of the man you would send your daughter to for training. Besides-” The emperor’s smile dropped. “-everyone knows about your strained relationship with Y/n. I’ve heard the last spat between you two was… very damaging. And for who?” 

Who- referring to the little feathery whore Keigo.

“Careful, Kai. I can still bury your empire right here, right now.” Dabi threatened.

Kai didn’t waver. “You could try, but now is not the time to be blinded with your emotions.” He turned around, but casted a glance back. “And lets not kid ourselves, Dabi. You and I both know my men can harm you just as much. But Y/n wont benefit from unnecessary bloodshed.”

Dabi grit his teeth as he watched Kai return to his ship. The emperor puts on his gilded beak mask on.

If Dabi ever thought it was okay to prefer a concubine over his own daughter, then maybe I do care for Y/n more than her own father.

-

Soon enough, Dabi and his men, accompanied by allies like Bakugo and the barbarians, and Empresses Momo and her army set sail, following closely behind Kai’s ships.

Dabi stood on the starboard of the ship, gazing downwards at the water. His mind is occupied by multiple things- you, AFO, Kai’s intentions with you, the supposed “allies”, military strategies, but mostly you.

Are you well? Are you hurt? Do you miss him? Are you still mad at him-

“Dabi?” Keigo called, coming beside him. “What are you doing here? Come inside and eat.” Dabi didn’t move, and Keigo could see that his mind was elsewhere.

Wrapping his arms around Dabi, he kissed his ear. “We’ll find her, Dabi.” Keigo whispered. “We’ll find her and we’ll bring her home and then we will have a huge celebration and everything will be alright again.”

“None of this would’ve happened if I didn’t yell at her.”

Keigo looked at Dabi and he could see the guilt swimming in his eyes. “If I just hadn’t- made her angry, let her go- she would’ve been safe.” He paused. “What happened to us? She- she used to love me, was a proper daddy’s girl, Kei. Her eyes would lit up whenever she saw me and I would pick her up and waltz. She would tell me about her day, ramble on and repeat everything twice. But now… she won’t even speak to me more than a few words- those too out of courtesy and respect for the crown. Not me. She loathes me- I can feel it. And it fucking hurts because I know I’m the one who created this distance between us.”

“Dabi-”

“I put my only child in harm, Keigo. This is all on me.” He confessed remorsefully.

The two of them remained silent, the ocean air blowing through their hair.

Until Keigo dug his nails into Dabi’s arms. “Then you will find her.”

“Kei-“

“No.” Keigo pursed his lips. “No- I refuse to let you- you must find her Dabi, more so now. You must- you must and make amends with her. All is not lost. We can- you can still have everything. Y/n- she needs us right now, and when we find her, she will need you and she will love you more, and she will think the world of you. So get it- collect yourself. Be at one with yourself and find Y/n. I don’t care who you have to hurt, what you have to kill, burn the whole fucking world as long as you bring Y/n home.” He looked at Dabi, the king who’s pupils had dilated. “You understand? Fucking promise me Dabi-!” Keigo spat but was cut off as Dabi crashed his lips against his, Dabi’s heart swelling with love at hearing how much Keigo adored you.

“I promise you.”

 

“Position the cavalry here, and make sure the archers are present here. Make sure that there are soldiers surrounding the parameters of the island. The enemies could attack from any side.” AFO ordered his generals as he discussed military strategies. With Tomura escaping, AFO knew that he would be leading Dabi right to the island. But AFO was not worried. Not at all. He was prepared, and even if Dabi brought a couple of allies, they wouldn’t be able to defeat his army of Nomus.

What he was worried about was, well, you. Ever since your failed escape attempt, you’d been crying and refusing to eat anything at all. Your hunger strike is doing nothing but harm your own health.

And now that he sees a servant that was sent to your room with food return with a distressed look, AFO sighed. “She didn’t eat, did she?” The servant bowed before replying, “No, my King. The princess- she refuses to eat lunch. And the dinner sent to her last night, it also remains untouched.” AFO closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. How much longer will you keep this up? He cant focus on the war when all he can stress about is if you’ve eaten or not?

Sensing the distress of the ruler, Kurogiri stepped up to help. “My King, if you allow, may I handle this matter?”

AFO knows you’re not… exactly fond of him or Kurogiri at the moment but… what else can he do now?

He nodded.

Its worth a shot.

 

The Nomu watched in silence as you laid on the floor, tear streaks now dried on your cheeks, hair unkempt and greasy, complexion sickly pale, disheveled appearance over all. A chain around your ankle, long enough for you to move around the room, yet you continue to lie on the floor, mostly because you just don’t have the energy to get up. The lack of nutrients and dehydration, it was starting to take a toll on you, not only physically but mentally as well. How do you know?

Well, for starters, you could see your dead mother standing in the corner.

“Y/n?” She called out. You blinked.

She was right next to you, on her knees, a very concerned look on her face.

“Mama?”

“Oh baby, what have you done to yourself?” She whispered, blowing cold air on your sweaty forehead.

“Mama?”

“Hm?”

“Don’t leave me.”

“I cant stay for long, Y/n but-” She smiled sadly. “-I’m here now.”

You smiled back at her, even though you knew she wasn’t real, you still believed for a moment that she was.

“Y/n.”

“Yes, mama?”

“Have you been taking care of dad?”

“Mine? No. Yours? Also no.” You mumbled. “Dad and I fought, we always fight it seems. And grandpa? I- well- I’m mad at him. He kept me here, created more misunderstandings between me and dad and now wants to kill dad for revenge and apparently for “my sake” too.”

She brushed your hair with her fingers. “Seems like you’ve been busy.” She booped your nose. “Still, you’re the only one who can fix it all.”

“How?”

“You’ll figure it out. But the war mustn’t happen, Y/n.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“Well I am a figment of your imagination, aren’t I?” She chuckled. You smiled as well. You missed her laugh. Its so delicate.

“I have to go now, baby.” She whispered, a cold kiss pressed to your cheek.

“Mama?”

“Hm?”

“I miss you.”

“I know, honey.” She pointed at the door. “You have company, darling.”

Just then, the door slammed open and your pupils widened at the sight of him.

“Y/N!”

Dabi.

“Dad?”

He rushed towards you, eyes wild as he took in your form. “Oh my- are you hurt?! What did he do?!” He asked checking you over for injuries. You looked so weak, as if the air itself was harsh enough to hurt you.

“You’re here.” You whispered. Dabi’s eyes softened, as he nodded. “I am. And I’m sorry that it took so long. But I’m here now, and I’ll get you out of here. Can you stand?”

With tears of relief in your eye, you shook your head. “I- I cant. Too tired.” Dabi nodded again before pulling out his water container, supporting your head as he helped you hydrate. “Better?” You hummed, smiling at him weakly as he laid your head in his lap. You missed him.

“I have an energy cube- this.” He pulled out a small blue cube. “It should give you enough energy to walk. I’d carry you, but I cant use my quirk without hurting you.” He pushed the cube towards your lips. You turned your head away. “It stinks. Like shrimp.”

He chuckled. “So? Come on, eat it. Then we can get out of here.” You stared at him, brows knitting together.

“Are you still mad at me?” you asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Dabi smiled sadly. “I never was, Y/n. I never truly could be. You- you’re a part of me-” “-and mom.” “-and your mom. You’re my daughter, my pride and joy, my most treasure jewel. You’re the most precious to me, Y/n.”

“I-.” You smiled sadly, nuzzling into him. “- can I ask you something? If you allow-“Always.”

“Did you- did you visit her? Mom?” You asked softly. “I know- you don’t like her, nor do you believe in talking to the dead but… I just wanted to know if you visited the royal cemetery behind my back? The caretakers sometimes forget to clean her tomb.”

Dabi looked into your hopeful eyes, his blue orbs just taking in your appearance. “I did.” He answered. “I talked to her, well I mostly confessed, begged her and god to help me find you. Don’t worry though, the caretakers looked well after the cemetery.” He brought the energy cube to your lips again. “Now, eat this so that we can get out-”He was cut off by you smacking the cube out of his hand and laughing dryly at him.

“Do you take me for a fool?”

Dabi’s brows furrowed. “Y/n-”

“Princess Y/n. How dare you talk to me like we’re equals?!” He shook his head, his hand coming to cup your cheek but you pushed yourself away from him, practically throwing yourself away.

“How dare you try to touch me?!” You shrieked. “HOW DARE YOU PRETEND TO BE A KING, YOU IMPOSTOR?! SHIFT BACK NOW! SHIFT OR I SWEAR TO GOD, I WILL DECAPITATE YOU MYSELF!! SHIFT!” The door opened and Kurogiri walked in. He nodded at Dabi.

“You can leave now, Himiko.” The impostor shifted back to a blonde girl. You remember seeing the servant before, when she helped Tomura with ironing your clothes. Kurogiri kneeled in front of you, looking at you with a slightly unamused look you imagine. “How’d you know?” How? How are you to explain that you know your father well enough to know that he would never visit your mother? How do you explain that he hated her so much that he didn’t even think she deserved to be buried in the royal cemetery, but rather in an unguarded, unmarked grave without anyone but you and Tomura to care for?

You laughed dryly at him. “What? You didn’t think I wouldn’t recognize my own father?” Kurogiri shrugged “You haven’t been showing many signs of intelligence; escaping, defending your father, going on a useless hunger strike are just a few examples.”

“Its pissing you off. I’d say they were pretty intelligent decisions.”

“All you’re doing is worrying your grandfather. He can’t focus on the war because he’s concerned about you.”

“Good. I don’t want the war to happen.”

“The war is going to happen, King AFO will win and your father will die-“ “No-” “Yes. And deep down, you know your he deserves to die. You know that it’d better for you to stay here, because you will never be a priority to him, just like your mother never was.”

“Dad didn’t kill her-”

“Perhaps not. But he never loved her, he humiliated her and you publicly when he started sleeping with that concubine. He made your mother unhappy, he kept you in the dark about your maternal grandfather, refused to let him contact you- his only grandchild, his only heir to this kingdom, his- his daughter’s only reminder. Are these not crimes but punishable by death? King Dabi may have not directly killed your mother but he was an accomplice to the murder, he never believed, let alone punish his concubine. He didn’t even believe you, his own daughter, his blood and flesh! What father would allow a murderer around his own child? He does not care about you, never has and never will!” Kurogiri told you. “This war? He’s not fighting it to save you, he’s fighting it to hurt King AFO! You mean nothing to him!’

“No!” Tears escaped your eyes. “You don’t know anything! But I’m telling you to stop this war. If you don’t- countless lives will be lost! Innocent people will die!”

“The people are prepared to die. Not that they will, your dear grandfather is very strong. You shouldn’t underestimate him. He will defeat King Dabi, and he will avenge your mother.” He pulled out another energy cube, placing it on your bed. “Eat it or not, I’m going to tell your grandfather that you’re well. I won’t let your stubbornness distract him.” He turned to leave, halting at your voice.

“Kurogiri, please. This war… it cant happen.”

He looked over his shoulder. “Your father has been begging for a war for a long time. Its about time he pays for the consequences, princess.” He said before leaving.

One of the knights rushed into AFO’s busy court, just as Kurogiri returned. AFO of course looked at Kurogiri first, the latter’s calm demeanor assured the king that he had taken care of the errand he was given. Then he looked at the knight who was trying to catch his breath.

“A-apologies for running in unannounced, my king! But they’re here!” He took a large gulp of breath in to compose himself.

“King Dabi is here!”

The court went silent as they looked to their king, awaiting his panic for Dabi had reached earlier than expected. But AFO remained collected, nodding his head as he turned to address his court.

“Prepare yourself. Alert the people about this as well, so that they may take necessary measures.” He started giving out orders to his generals, pausing to tell Kurogiri to release the several Nomus that are under his control.

“They won’t hurt my subjects, assure the people of that will you?” Kurogiri bowed his head before teleporting to carry out his orders.

By the time he returned, AFO sat alone on his throne, wearing his armor. Kurogiri walked closer to him, and couldn’t help but notice a certain amount of sadness in his eyes.

“Your majesty?” He called out, but AFO didn’t look up at him.

“Y/n reminds me so much of her.” Ah, the late queen. “From the way she looks, to her having the same mannerisms, the same affection for animals-” AFO chuckled. “-they even have the same furrow in their brows when their mad. Y/n… she’s just like her isn’t she?” Kurogiri agreed, because he thought so too. In fact, if it weren’t for your painfully annoying naivety, your rebelliousness, your incessant need to defend Dabi and your urge to make everything unnecessarily difficult for your grandfather, he’d say you were your mother reincarnated.

“I wanted to see her, talk to her one last time before leaving, just to assure her that I’d win, that she need not to worry her head over this matter because I’d take care of everything. Because I’d protect her. But-“ AFO paused, as if the words got caught in his throat. “-I couldn’t. I couldn’t because she’d beg me not to. She’d cry and cry and I just cant- I cant go to war with the sight of her like this Kurogiri. She used to cry like that for him too; my daughter- and now Y/n. They were always blinded by their pure hearted nature, always loved that bastard too much to see that he does not care about them.” Kurogiri will never forget the day your mother had died. King AFO, he was absolutely crushed. He had never seen him like this, the look of utter despair, utter defeat, as if someone had dethroned the king and cut off his limbs with an axe and left him to be feasted on by vultures. The king loved his daughter very much. She was the apple of his eye, his light, his only heir. He never wanted her to marry Dabi, but when she claimed that she had fallen in love with him, he couldn’t help but give in. He would’ve given her the world if she’d asked, but just a few months into the marriage and AFO sensed that he may have made a grave mistake. He gave her several opportunities to escape that marriage, to help her leave that ungrateful bastard, but despite everything, your mother just smiled and continued to claim that she loved Dabi until her last breath. AFO doesn’t know for sure if your mom really loved Dabi as much as she claimed to, especially after concubine Keigo came into the picture. He thinks that you may have been the main reason why she stayed in that unhappy marriage. Perhaps she thought that by birthing Dabi a heir, she might get the love and respect she deserves. But Dabi… he didn’t get rid of Keigo, or even tried to hide his affairs, not even for your sake. You were a child, a product of a broken marriage. AFO wasn’t sure how he felt about you initially, mostly because he thought you’d tied her daughter down in this nightmare of a marriage. But the first time and the only time your mother brought you over to her homeland, AFO (as well as others) were immediately enamored by you. You looked like your mother when she was an infant. When he first held you in his arms, he knew instantly that he was wrapped around your tiny finger for the rest of his life. He swore to himself and to your mother that he would protect you for eternity. But then, Dabi had the audacity to forbid you from visiting AFO, and a few years later, he banned AFO from ever visiting his kingdom, effectively cutting his contact with you, his only grandchild.

That should’ve been enough reason for AFO to start a war with him, but your mother managed to convince him otherwise, promising that she’ll talk to Dabi about this matter.

Later that year, your mother was killed.

And AFO never truly recovered from that loss. What father could?

“This war, she thinks isn’t necessary. She thinks I’m some monster who has it out for her dear father. But she’ll never accept it that Dabi- he isn’t participating in this war to save her. He’s coming because he wants to hurt me. He wants to take her away from me and rub it in my face that she will face the same fate as my daughter did. He wants to take her away so that he can tell me that I failed to protect them both.” He finally looked at him. “I won’t make the same mistake again, Kurogiro. I wont.” AFO stood up from his gilded throne. “I will kill Dabi today, and I will win this war. Your job is to protect princess Y/n. Teleport her to safety if need be.” Kurogiri bowed his head, as AFO continue. “And if things go south due to some unforeseen circumstances, I want you to prioritize Y/n’s life over mine.”

Kurogir’s eyes widened. “Your Majesty, that won’t be-“

“I know, but still. I want you to promise me, Kurogiri. Her life over mine. Prioritize Y/n over me.”

Kurogiri bowed, placing a hand over his heart.

“I promise, my king.”

 

AFO watched the shore from a distance, his army in position with him. His main order was to distance the enemy away from the castle where you were trapped in, guarded by a Nomu, some knights and Kurogiri.

“They’re near, my king.” One of the generals said, watching through his binoculars. “I count about 300 ships, about 200 baring King Dabi’s flag, 70 belonging to the imperial house of Yaoryuzu, while 30 belong to some barbarians.”

AFO didn’t respond for a few moments, simply staring ahead, before his lips quirked ever so slightly. “There’s more. Look again.” He said. The general was confused but he looked again, now with a few soldiers also searching the waters, tilting their heads a little and that’s when they saw it.

Like a mirage in the desert, when the heat starts to play tricks on your eyes, the wind dancing around to create an illusion, they were able to make out the faintest silhouette of very large fleet. It was as if there was a curtain, produced by nature to hide the enemy.

But AFO knew better. It was no natural phenomenon, but actually an invisibility quirk.

Tomura had mentioned about an emperor who was going to take you in before you came here. Perhaps, its him.

Its time to put an end to all of this.

 AFO began giving out orders. “Prepare the canons! Archers, take position! Sakura regiment and Ume regiment, take formation A and charge forwards at command!” The soldiers took their respective positions, holding their breaths as they awaited the king’s next command. AFO wanted to attack first, end the war before it could really begin.

AFO counted down as Dabi’s ships came closer.

5.

4.

3.

2.

I love you, Y/n.

1.

“FIRE!” The canons blasted, followed by- “DRAW!” The arrows flew, but neither the cannonballs nor the arrows ever hit the enemy because they all disintegrated in the sky high fire wall surrounding the entire perimeter of the island.

“What the…” The soldiers, and even AFO was momentarily shocked, and the enemy used that element of surprise to strike. One second the boundaries of the island were surrounded by hellish blue flames, and in the next, thousands of men suddenly lunged through the fire, completely unharmed and charged towards AFO’s army from all directions. On his left, he saw loud explosives going off in the sky, and he immediately spotted the brash blonde roaring as his hands fired blasts after blasts.

Must be a barbarian.

He heard another loud crash behind him, and there he spotted a massive army comprising mainly of female warriors, who were being led by a fierce woman wearing red and gold armor, indicating that she belonged from the imperial house of Yaoryuzu.

And then he heard the screams.

Whipping his head back to the front, he saw the villager’s house up in blue flames, Dabi appearing through the smoke, a manic grin on his face as he locks eyes with him.

Of course, leave it to Dabi to attack the women and children first. He’s a heartless bastard.

With a wave of his hand, heavy clouds appeared over the burning houses and poured rain. AFO’s face remained neutral as Dabi began inching his way closer to him, slaughtering anyone and everyone that stood in his way, even his own men. AFO stared at him dead in the eyes before smiling suddenly because right in the next moment, a Nomu flew and jumped right onto Dabi.

Guess he’ll have to wait for a bit until he can kill Dabi.

Although Katsuki and Momo were tearing through the crowds, swinging their swords and killing enemies easily, and had this been any other war, they might've even enjoyed it. But right now, all they could think about was finding you, both parties have the same motive but neither will attempt to work together to find you quicker. No, not when they wanted to play your "Knight in shining armour", because clearly, whoever saves the princess gets the favour of king Dabi and the love of princess Y/n. Clearly, when they find you, you will throw yourself at them and practically beg them to marry you.

Somehow they had found their way to the high towers where you were locked in, individually taking the opposite routes and hoping the other one dies before they reach you. They killed all the knights and the devoted servants that blocked their way until they stood at the opposite ends of the hallway, bloodied and staring at each other. Words did not need to be shared for the threat to heard-

Back off.

Of course, neither one would. Not when they're this close to making you theirs forever. The two charged at each other, swords drawn and quirks going off, all while neither one of them knew that Kurogiri had already teleported you to the secret passageways underground the moment he saw them coming for the hightower, and now all that was waiting for them in that room up there was the Nomu assigned to protect you.

So, whoever wins Bakugo VS Yaoryuzu battle will have to die at the hands of the Nomu.

Kurogiri almost wished he could watch it all unfold with AFO.

But no, he has to carry you to safety- he promised his king. He paid no mind to you sluring out threats as you went in and out of consciousness, clearly still persistent on starving yourself.

"I'd kill you... my dad- d-dad will kill you and the the- villagers-" you mumbled, eyes closed as your cheek rested against his chest, the man carrying you in his arms.

"Yeah? And then what?" He hummed.

"He'll kill- kill everyone and- and burn thi-s place to- to the the ground and it'll be-" you choked on a sob "-it'll be all my fault!"

"Well, you don't need to worry about that. Your grandfather is a skilled fighter, he will easily decapitate Dabi. Have some faith!" He cheered while you whined into his shoulder. "Now, now, princesses don't whine. I must say, I am excited for your princess training when the war is over. I'll personally see to it that you learn all the manners and ethics of royalty, your father didn't do a good job at finding you a good teacher."

"The late queen appointed me as her teacher, personally. You would be wise not to say anything about the princess's training lest you want a painful death, Kurogiri."

You both looked behind at the source of the voice, opposite emotions coursing through you both as you caught sight of him-

Tomura Shigaraki.

"Tomu~" you whispered, getting teary eyed as you looked at the once gentle eyed, lanky armed, always presentable, invisible servant to now a far more bulked up warrior with his hair unkempt and his eyes wild yet clear.

Kurogiri didn't waste another second as he opened the warp gate and teleported you out of there, Tomura calmly promising you that he'll find you soon. While it would've been easy for Kurogiri to escape along with you, he preferred to deal with Tomura now and be done with it.

Tomura charged at the man, and Kurogiri had his sword drawn out, teleporting just when the former neared. The shadowed man appeared around him and sliced the skin on his arm.

"So weak, its pathetic. How you were allowed to be near the princess is beyond me." Kurogiri said, dodging the swing of Tomura's blade, before kicking him in the stomach, making the latter cough blood. "You were never strong enough to be the princess's guard, or a servant. But I always did think that you'd be smart-" Tomura grunted before quickly jumping and stabbing the sword into Kurogiri's abdomen, but the taller man remain unfazed. "-Guess not." Kurogiri said, before swallowing the sword into his body, warping it to an unknown destination, Tomura's eyes going wide as his hand started to get warped too, but then... he smiled. A sinister grin stretched on Tomura's face as he spoke.

"And your biggest mistake Kurogiri is that you underestimate me." He said before grabbing Kurogiri's neck brace with both hands and disintegrating it until he reached his neck, destroying it too.

Kurogiri was now a pile of ashes at Tomura's feet.

What a waste... of my time.

Tomura thought before he began looking for you again.

On the other side of island, right in the middle, Dabi had just spent the last hour fighting the Nomu that was cannon balled on him. He finally defeated the monstrosity, and it had taken a slight toll on his body. And since AFO saw the battle, he was more than happy to send a couple more his way.

While Dabi began fighting those brainwashed giants again, AFO's mind was still preoccupied by the enemy fleets that were hiding behind an invisibility quirk. They were still nowhere to be seen, and AFO could sense they were plotting something.

AFO looked towards his castle, thinking whether he should call Kurogiri and deal with this hidden enemy and also check up on you, but decided against it because he did not want anyone to know where you were.

He looked back towards Dabi, to see if he'd been crushed to death or not, but instead found him hovering up in the sky, body ablaze and his eyes staring right back at him.

And then... he flicked his wrist.

In just a few seconds, the entire island was covered in smoke. It was dark and suffocating, and when AFO heard people screaming in pain, he could only imagine the horrors Dabi was inflicting on them.

The thick black air made it impossible to see more than just a few steps ahead, and everyone was swinging their swords at anyone and everyone, and those who weren't fighting, were killed by the lack of air.

AFO used his quirks to aid him in breathing and killing, years of training finally coming to use. But truthfully, he couldn't see where he was going even with his quirks. And that's how he ended up in front of you.

You were lying on the ground, unconscious, the side of your head bleeding slightly because after Kurogiri teleported you, your knees buckled and you hit your head on a tree branch.

With neither Kurogiri nor Nomu in sight, AFO couldn't help but wonder what possible trouble could've found them to leave you so dangerously near the battlefield.

AFO kneeled and placed his hand on your cheek, activating his quirk so you'd be able to breathe and not inhale the deadly fumes your father has spread.

He caressed your cheek, silently praying that you didn't inherit your mother's asthma. AFO was sure you hadn't, from the detailed reports he had gotten you never mentioned anything, but... he wouldn't put it past Dabi not to notice you dying to catch your breath.

Poor baby. AFO sighed before calling one of the Nomus (through telepathy) to come. He'd need someone to carry you to safety while he fights.

"Get your filthy paws off her!" Someone yelled from above, AFO barely missing the sharp feather that shot past him.

Keigo.

The winged concubine was hovering above him, wearing battle armour, a sharp contrast to the whore clothes he usually wears. The king remembered him from the last time he visited his daughter at Dabi's place, trying her absolute best to contain her tears while Dabi refused to welcome AFO because he was "busy with important affairs", only for them to hear Dabi and Keigo committing adultery in the court room, your mother hanging her head down in shame as she ushered AFO to move so that she could show him your nursery.

AFO never forgot nor forgave the humiliation he and your mother had to face, and it was even more insulting when he finally saw the bitch Dabi was sleeping with. AFO did consider at first that your father must be either blind and deaf or under the affect of some quirk to be brainwashed enough to think that Keigo was an acceptable replacement for your mother, or even for royalty. It wouldn't be wrong to say that years of resentment had AFO plotting for revenge against him as well.

Another feather shot past him, AFO only tilting his head slightly to dodge the arrow.

The corner of AFO's lips quirked a little.

This ought to be fun.

AFO looked back at your face, still unconscious, and a small part of him wished you'd be awake for this. You'd definitely enjoy this. Oh well.

"I said, get the hell away-!" Keigo's voice got caught in his throat, as if some invisible force was squeezing his throat. Like a fish out of water, Keigo thrashed in air, his hands on his neck trying to release the compression so that air could reach his lungs.

Without looking away from you, AFO spoke.

"Dont yell. I don't want you to disturb my granddaughter." He flicked his wrist and a small domain formed in which all of Dabi's smoke was vacuumed out instantly. The sky was clear, and so was the way he was about to torture Keigo.

AFO further constricted Keigo's throat, making him start to turn blue. In retaliation, he shot many of his feathers at AFO, raining down at him like arrows, but they stopped mid air before they could ever reach him.

"Now that could've hurt Y/n. Involuntary manslaughter... how should I punish you for that?" The king thought outloud, getting up on his feet and looking at the bird that was gurgling for air. "Perhaps, return the attack?" The feathers that had stopped mid-air slowly turned to face Keigo, all glintingdangerously. AFO grinned before suddenly opening his hand (that were controlling the feathers), prompting the feathers to shoot at Keigo.

The feathers revolved and attacked Keigo from all directions, and Keigo felt like he was trapped in a hurricane full of sharpened knives that slashed his skin from all sides.

A few moments later, the feathers stopped and Keigo fell to the ground with them. His armour had protected him from most stabs, but he was still bleeding.

"On to your next offence- killing my daughter and humiliating the royal family. Now, I don't have any evidence for the former except that Y/n accused you, and I don't really blame you completely for either crime because Dabi was mainly involved in it, you were just following orders. Still-" He sighed. "- You were an assailant. You assisted in a crime against royalty, you deserve to be punished." AFO flicked his index finger, lifting Keigo up in the air.

"I've always wondered what Dabi saw in you. Surely, there are prettier sluts than you- thats why he keeps his harem around, eh? It couldn't be possibly that you're strong or smart... and then it clicked! It's those larger than life wings of yours. The fiery red wings that compliment his blue flames. And not to mention how rare your quirk is... haven't seen any other winged humans that could actually fly. And knowing Dabi, that's all he views you as- a rare antique to own. A bird to keep in a gilded cage, if you will. So, thats how I'm going to hurt you and Dabi-" AFO chuckled, his hands making small movements to spread open Keigo's wings.

"I'm going to pluck you like a chicken."

AFO snapped his fingers as feathers began to be pulled slowly, one at a time, from the base painfully, making Keigo scream in agony.

You'd finally woken up by the sound of screams, heart pounding as you saw Keigo strung up in the air with his feathers being pulled out.

Too weak to move, you didn't realise someone was behind you until they covered your mouth, eyes widening in terror before calming down when you saw it Tomura. Placing a finger on his lips telling you to remain quiet as he began lifting you up to carry you out of there, only to stop when you let out an audible gasp as you looked behind him.

Nomu. The one AFO had called just minutes ago.

Tomura only had to take one careful step back to make it banshee scream, making Tomura drop you back down to cover his ears. At the monster's scream, AFO looked back, eyes narrowing at the sight of your traitorous servant.

"Oh, it's just you." He looked at Nomu nodding his head at Tomura. "Take care of him, will you?" You flinched when Nomu punched Tomura, throwing him far away from you. Tomura fortunately softened his landing and jumped back up, pulling out his sword. In order for Tomura to disintegrate the Nomu, he needs to get his hands on him long enough for him to turn into ashes but just before Nomu can crush his skull.

"Dont..." you whispered, eyes fixated on Tomura fighting for his life. Your gaze shifted to AFO,tears forming in your eyes as your lips wobbled. "Please... not him..." you begged, AFO's heart melting a bit at your pitiful sight. He'd give you the world if you'd ask, but getting rid of anyone that stood in his way to protect you was necessary. "Grandpa, please! I promise, I'll be- I'll be good! I won't leave! Ever! I'll do everything you say, just don't hurt Tomura! Please-!"

"Stop it, Y/n. The sovereign never begs." You heard someone say from behind you, making you turn your head to look at the familiar voice.

Dabi stood behind you.

"Have you learnt nothing from princess training? Or has someone been polluting your mind?" He looked at you, his gaze stern but you could see the way they lighted up when he saw you.

Daddy's here.

"Dad." You breathed out. His eyes softened visibly at the word. Oh how he had longed to hear that name again.

He smiled briefly at you before looking back at AFO and then at Keigo, who was still being tortured.

"Let him go. This is between you and me." Dabi said, hands set lighting up.

AFO raised a brow. "How brave of you to man up." He said before throwing Keigo so hard that his body slammed against a big tree, knocking him out. He looked at his Nomu and pointed at Tomura and Keigo. "Get rid of them both. Protect Y/n."

Dabi then launched multiple fireballs at him while AFO jumped back, dodging them all while making sure that you don't get hurt in the crossfire.

Seeing that as Keigo was unconscious and Nomu's full attention was on Tomura, you knew you had to butt in before it kills him.

With all your might, you got on your feet and staggered towards them, picking up one of Keigo's feathers. With unfocused eyes, you walked towards the Nomu, gripping the feather harder as you neared.

"Princess!" Tomura yelled. "Stay back! Stay back, Y/n!" Hearing your name, the Nomu turned around, only to find you holding the razor sharp feather against your neck.

Eyes cold, you stared at the Nomu.

"If he dies, so do I." You threatened, the Nomu's eyes widening. "I'll fucking do it, I swear to god I will. I'm so tired of this "protect Y/n" bullshit, I'm gonna end this stupid thing right here, right now." You slowly inched near the monster. "I should've died, should've killed myself years ago, right after mom died. You all failed to save her, made her life a hell, just like mine is now. My death, my doom is inevitable. But no one else should suffer because of me." You closed your eyes, hands moving to drag the deadly weapon across your neck when the Nomu screeched, falling to its knees, continuing to screech long after you'd dropped your feather.

The Nomu began crying, fat tears dropping down its face as you hugged it, the mutant wrapping its buff arms around you and lifting you up and close.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry I had to do this, but you wouldn't have listened otherwise." It- or well, his tears continued to wet your clothes as you patted his head, and you signalled Tomura not to activate his quirk and kill Nomu. "Its okay, I'm- I'm okay. But you can't protect me without protecting the people I care about. Do you understand what I'm saying?" The Nomu sniffled before nodding, almost like a child. "I care about Tomura, and I care about the villagers. So you must go back to the villagers. The village is under attack, and its burning down. Won't you save them for me? Protect the people I care about?" The Nomu seemed hesitant to leave you at first, but you continued to manipulate him. "If something happens to them, I'll never forgive myself. I'll die-" that was enough for Nomu to agree and leave you behind with a very heavy heart, only after you convinced him that Tomura wasn't a threat.

As soon as the Nomu left, your knees buckled and Tomura caught you before you could fall on your head. "That was... incredibly stupid." He commented. You smiled lazily, nuzzling your cheek against his chest. "I missed you too, Tomu." He pulled you closer to his chest in response, having trouble mustering up the words to express how sorry he was for taking so long, to apologise for not recognising AFO's intentions from the beginning, for being the reason why everything was happening.

But you just looked up at him, staring into his eyes with a soft expression as you whispered "Its okay, Tomura. Its not your fault." And just like that, all was well in the world.

But your happy reunion didn't last long, as Tomura sensed that you were in danger, and in the next second, he'd spun you around to the other direction, gasping as the air got knocked out of him.

You pulled away from him immeadiately, eyes bulging at the large red feather protruding from Tomura's stomach.

"I-" Tomura coughed up blood before falling to his knees, you quickly catching his head before it could hit the ground. Tears falling down your face, you found it hard to breathe as you stared at the crimson staining his shirt

"I knew you'd move." Keigo's voice made you look up, confusion evident on your face. Did he... do this? Keigo walked towards you two, smiling warmly yet with an unsettling look in his eyes, before he grabbed you by the shoulders and hugged you. "I know it looked like I was aiming for you, but I wasn't, love. I could never hurt you!"

Oh no.

You pushed away from him, sobs wracking your body as you tried to help Tomura but far too perplexed as to whether or not you should pull out the feather stabbing him.

But you weren't given much time to ponder upon it as the moment your hands touched his blood, you were instantly yanked back.

"Oh no, honey. You can't let yourself get dirty by his filthy blood. Your father will think you got hurt. Come on, now. Don't fight me on this. Let's go back to the ship." Keigo cooed as he began pulling you away from an unconscious Tomura, and you dropped to the ground to resist Keigo, but he continued to drag you by your arms before eventually picking you up and carrying you. And even though both of you knew that you were far too weak to escape his grip, you still struggled to break free.

Luckily for you, AFO was able to hear your distress calls for help. The moment you wailed to be let go, the instant you called out for Tomura, AFO's head whipped in your direction, veins popping at the sight of that murderer's hands on you, not even looking at Dabi as he blasted your dad away to a distance.

The mere sight of Keigo carrying you crying and sobbing pushed him over the edge, because for a moment he imagined it was his own daughter that was crying.

He is not losing you again.

The deafening sound of AFO's blast made Keigo look back, just to be punched in the face with enough force for him to drop you (as your grandfather caught you and placed you to the side) and land a couple hundred meters away. You immediately scrambled back to Tomura, but the sight of him lying in a pool of blood made you hyperventilate and cry as you prayed and begged for him to wake up while holding his hand in yours, heart dropping to the pit of your stomach as you realised....

There was no pulse.

Meanwhile, AFO jumped over to Keigo again, punching him over and over again until he was an unrecognisable pulp, before flipping him over and he began ripping out the rest of his feathers with his bare hands.

"HOW DARE YOU LAY HANDS ON HER?!" AFO roared, all sense of control out the window as he grabbed hands and snapped them like twigs, Keigo howling in pain.

Suddenly, AFO was kicked off the bird man, Dabi being the culprit of course, who was equally as blinded with rage as AFO.

The battle of quirks began, but as Dabi had one quirk and AFO had an amalgam of quirks, the winner here was clear.

Dabi's fire turned black as he surrounded the two of them with high walls of flames before releasing powerful fire based attacks, only for AFO to use his quirk to create a vacuum and suck out all the oxygen to not only put out the flames but also deprive Dabi of air.

With not being able to either use his quirk or breathe, Dabi didnt have any other choice but to try his luck with hand to hand combat, but the lack of air was getting to him and AFO was a skilled fighter who was able to dodge all of Dabi's punches before he fell to the ground clutching his throat.

AFO stood over him, years of hurt and anger poorly concealed on his face. "Suffocating, isn't it? You've only had to suffer through for a few minutes of something you made my daughter go through for years. For fucking years!" He punched Dabi, who was turning blue now. "She was my daughter, my beautiful daughter and she didn't do anything to deserve what you did to her! You and your slut killed her for what?! For hate? For jealousy? Even if you hated her, had you no heart to have mercy for the mother of your child!? Hell, you could've divorced her, left her, thrown her out of the damn castle if you hated her guts but you could've left her to me alive! YOU DIDNT HAVE TO KILL HER!" He grabbed Dabi by the collar, kicking him in the face. "I've waited to avenge my daughter for years. Today, you will die." AFO pulled out his sword, aiming at Dabi's neck to behead him.

"DROP THAT DOWN OR Y/N DIES!" Keigo threatened, who despite the beating he just took was standing on his feet with one of his sharp feathers against your neck. "I swear to fucking everything, if he dies, so will she!" He yelled as he yanked you by your hair back, and pressed the sharp edge harder against your skin.

AFO's eyes met your face, but you didn't even react as Keigo shook you by your hair, the catatonic state you'd just slipped into as your eyes never left Tomura.

"You wouldn't. You'd never live-" AFO's words died down as Keigo began dragging the feather, drawing blood. "STOP IT! Y/N- OKAY! OKAY!" AFO dropped his sword and released his quirk to allow Dabi to breathe, but AFO couldn't stop staring at you. It just- why didn't you struggle or even flinch at the blade being dragged across your neck, however superficially, it still must've hurt.

Did Tomura's death really affected you this much?

That blank face, that hundred yard stare- it all pained him greatly because it was exactly how he caught your mother when he saw her the last time. And it haunted him all these years that he was so powerless and blind to help his child. That she was so clearly in need of his help and he didn't save her.

But not you. No, no. Even if he has to rewind time itself, he will do so to help you.

"Y/n, Y/n, princess- look at me! I promise you- ill fix this! I'll fix everything! You want Tomura? I'll fix Tomura- just tell me what you want-" but AFO was left at a loss for words once more when you looked directly at him, with the same blank stare but with big fat tears rolling down your cheeks, as if to say that you've lost everything and it can't be helped.

You've failed to protect me.

AFO really did love you, with all his heart and that's why that hopeless, dead look in your eyes hurt him far more than the sword driven through his chest because his heart was already broken by your state. He was far too concerned with you to be aware of his enemy taking advantage of his distraction.

As Dabi began burning AFO, whispering things in his ear, AFO was for once slightly greatful to Keigo for covering your view of your grandfather being burned alive.

He did not want that sight of him to be in your memory.

With AFO being dead and no one to control mind control the Nomus, they stopped fighting and the remaining army of AFO, despite knowing that their king was dead still fought hard until the end to protect their new ruler- you. But with the large armies of the enemy and without Nomus help, they lost.

After finishing off AFO, Dabi walked towards you and Keigo, cold blue eyes staring at you before furrowing his brows as he pulled you in for a hug, you remained limp against him, even as he stroked your hair and said soft words of affirmation to you, giving Keigo a victory kiss.

With your eyes meeting Tomura's dead body, your mind allowed you the mercy of relieving you of consciousness.

Soldiers on both sides, along with the villagers that had now been captured, all watched as King Dabi carried his daughter with one arm, while his other supported Keigo's frail body, walking towards his ship, where his allies stood.

As he was about to climb on the ship, one of his generals asked "Your Majesty? About the prisoners of war, should we sell them or keep them as slaves?" He was referring to the army and subjects of AFO who were still alive.

Dabi didn't look up from your asleep face, smiling softly as you reminded him of when you were a baby.

"Burn them."

What? Even his own allies, even the barbarians, even the ever insane young Empress Momo was surprised at that. Surely, King Dabi would follow the code of conduct for war. Surely-

"Your Majesty-"

"Burn them. Burn it all. Burn the entire island." He then looked up at his assassins/spies Aizawa and Hizashi, nodding at them to see to it that his order is followed before boarding his ship, where Kai carefully took you from Dabi's arms to heal you while other healers came to help Keigo.

With Dabi and Keigo being bandaged and you lying on their in between them, they smiled and kissed once more, their victory only sweetening more with screams of people being burned alive in the background.

War is over.

So... what do u guys think???

PART 8 IS HERE

[animentality]

if you have ever gone really really really thoroughly through moonrise towers looking for every single readable scrap of paper. you can find this sequence of letters between gortash and ketheric that i havent seen anyone talk about but if i have the order right its REALLY funny to me. kicking myself cause i can’t find the screenshots at the moment but it’s like

the first one (in ketheric’s room) is gortash writing to ketheric very formally and commandingly in proper letter format telling him to retrieve the artefact and not to fail in doing so. and it’s super overbearing lol

the second one is a copy of ketheric’s reply (near z’rell’s desk i think) wherein he tells gortash that his “tone” in the previous letter is “inappropriate” lmao. and to not order him around like that because he doesn’t answer to him or bane and also he’s working on it.

the third one is gortash’s reply to that i believe (one of the alcoves on the roof where the first round of ketheric’s fight is) and it takes the form of a small unformatted informal thing that goes something like “k- just a note to say i can’t believe the artefact is still missing! i hear even the githyanki are after it!!! i sure hope you find it soon! -g” with exclamation points and everything and it just comes off as the most sarcastic patronising thing bsgshsgs

and so this, plus the way he kicks you in the shin at the morphic pool, and then the way he petulantly shoves you and yoinks the netherstones (at such a critical moment too) because the brain is pissing him off. AND all the intentionally hurtful things he goes out of his way to say to karlach even when she’s so supposedly beneath him. it has all brought me to the conclusion that, for all his posturing, gortash genuinely has the emotional maturity of a grape and it makes for a very very funny dichotomy to his character

(but also kind of sad. because he kind of still the little kid his parents sold out to the devil all those years ago. he never grew up he just learned how to puff up his self esteem with hot air and it takes so little to cut through the performative sophistication)

Anon...

why did you have to hurt me this way?

I have seen all of those notes, actually, but I never thought anything of them...

But you're right.

Gortash is fundamentally a child tyrant... a miserable little wretch, who was an abused slave for most of his childhood, and who swore he'd never let anyone treat him like that again.

And then he swore HE'D be the slaver and the bully.

But maybe that was because he never had the opportunity to grow to his full potential.

And the parts of him that were able to grow, grew wrong.

He was twisted up and gnarled inside like a plant forced to grow through the bars of a small cage.

My poor Gortie.

Evil boy. Tragic boy.

The pettiness is funny but god now I'll think of it as sad too.

[festivalsofmargot]

Gall of a Gryffindor {Sebastian Sallow x GN!Gryffindor!Reader}

Introduction: This one was actually a request!

“Can you write something with a Gryffindor reader? I always see for the other houses but havent seen anything specifically with gryffindor. Something among the lines of a gryffindor he can finally tolerate witty banter like that” - from cloudroomblog

Heads up, I went a bit off script from the game so some dialogue might be different and things may seem a little out of order. So sit back, relax, and have fun with it. 😉

Word Count: ~ 2,900

Warnings: Kissing

Author’s Note: I’m definitely open to requests if anyone wants to throw them my way but no pressure haha. They just might take a while since I only like to work on one story at a time and really let myself head cannon, blasting music to throw myself into it.

Songs (if interested):

So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings - Squirrel Flower Cover

Dark Red - Steve Lacy

When I’m Small - Phantogram

Black Out Days - Phantogram

The castle was endless. You knew you were in for a challenge finding your classes with how large it was, but at that point it was ridiculous. You were convinced new rooms were being added every day to throw you off, which probably was happening if you thought about it.

As you were walking one way, you thought back on the directions you were given, and promptly turned on your heel to go the other way. But then you thought back again and realized you probably weren’t in the right area to begin with. You summoned your field guide and scrambled to look at your map, finger tracing the page to find some sort of route. The look on your face clearly gave away you had no idea where you were going and Sebastian Sallow rolled his eyes at you from afar.

“It would be a Gryffindor who was the late bloomer.” Sebastian cracked and laughed along with some fellow Slytherin students, not caring if you heard, maybe even hoping you heard. He glanced back at you and saw you were no longer fumbling with your field guide, but instead you were looking right at him. You didn’t seem bothered, quite the opposite actually. You were smirking at him like you were amused by the joke too. 

You looked him up and down through your lashes, gave a little hum, and went back on your way. He stopped laughing and swallowed thickly in his throat. He snapped his attention back to his friends and tried join back in on the laughter, but all that came out was a nervous chuckle. He glanced back over his shoulder and watched your form walk away. What was that?

-

He found the two of you had charms class together, and couldn’t help but stare as you walked in. Your hustling around the castle had made your cheeks flushed and given your uniform a disheveled look, robes falling off one shoulder slightly. Observing your state and thinking back on how you looked at him earlier made him shift uneasily in his seat.

Natty had called you over and you went to sit by her side. When you sat down, you gave her a thankful smile and then your eyes roamed to take in the classroom. Your gaze landed on Sebastian and his eyes darted away in hopes you didn’t catch him staring.

I’m just a little curious about you is all, nothing to get your hopes up over. He imagined himself telling you if you had caught him staring. 

Professor Ronen had the class go outside for that day’s accio lesson, putting you on the spot. In your first introduction to the Summoner’s Court board, you furrowed your brows together, fully focused on getting the spell right. Sebastian felt a little flame catch fire in his stomach. You make a cute face when you focus, big deal. He cleared his throat, having felt it suddenly go dry, and kicked at the grass at his feet.

Then Professor Ronen called up Natty to play you in an official game of Summoner’s Court. The way you laughed with her and seemed to have so much fun effortlessly had him rubbing the back of his neck. As the class went on and you were getting invested in the game, you loosened your tie and unbuttoned the top of your shirt a little, revealing a bit of your collar bone. Sebastian’s eyes glazed over, his thoughts taking him somewhere he shouldn’t be going in the middle of class. Oh no. He made himself think of Madam Scribner and that seemed to bring him back. Alright, that’s it. He needed to avoid you at all costs.

-

“Hello Sebastian.” 

Sebastian glanced up from his book to see you smiling at him sweetly, maybe even a little mischievously.

“Hello.” He eyed you with suspicion and tossed his book to the side, the two of you had never spoken outside of class before. Why were you coming up to him then?

“I heard a rumor that you like to go to the restricted section of the library.” You lifted a questioning brow, taking a step closer to him.

He shifted his gaze away from you. “That so?” What was going on with him? A Gryffindor was not making him nervous like this.

“Oh yes. And I was hoping, if it was true, you could take me next time you went.” You took another step towards him, causing him to take a step back and hit his back against the wall. He was trapped. He tried to play off the awkward position as if he had wanted to lean against the wall, folding his arms and looking down to the floor.

“Say it was true... You’d really be okay with breaking the rules? Being a Gryffindor and all.”

“Well, this could be life or death. So, maybe I can break the rules just a little.” And people called him a flirt.

A thrill shot through Sebastian and he finally met your gaze again. You were giving him a look of you in or out? It made him panic slightly, this aura you carried of showing interest yet still having one foot out the door.

“Meet me outside the library tonight. And tell no one.”

You raised your eyebrows slightly at him, then gave a small nod of your head and left without saying anything more. Sebastian released a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He hated that he felt a bit exhilarated at the thought of impressing you.

-

Teaching you the disillusionment spell and getting the key to the restricted section went a lot smoother than he thought. It was as if you didn’t need him there at all. He could have told you everything you needed to know and you would have handled it yourself. But in the end, it was best he came along so he could browse the restricted section some more himself.

“What kind of book are you looking for any way?” He asked as the two of you walked along the shelves. Free to talk without having to whisper now that you were passed the prefects, Madam Scribner, and some monitoring ghosts.

“I’ll know it when I see it.” Was all you said, brows furrowed as you carefully looked at each book you passed.

He rolled his eyes at your cryptic answer and went back to inspecting the books himself. Though, the act was actually making him more agitated. He hadn’t realized how often he had been down there until he found he wasn’t stumbling across anything new.

Sighing and looking away from the books, he glanced over to you. There you went, making that face you always did when you were focusing. He thought back to the day he first saw it. Then he started to think about how you loosened your tie and unbuttoned your shirt. His eyes dipped subtly to your chest then, noticing you did the same to your uniform that night too.

“I’m not having any luck here, Sebastian. Is there any more to the restricted section?”

Sebastian darted his eyes away and made it seem like he was thinking intently about your question. Just as he had composed himself and was about to answer, the giant set of armor near the two of you fell apart and crashed to the floor. And out came Peeves.

“Who have we here? Sebastian Sallow and his new little friend, out exploring where they shouldn’t be. Naughty Naughty, you’ll get caughty.” He taunted.

“Peeves, don’t you -” Sebastian warned, but Peeves flew off in the direction of Madam Scribner anyway.

“I’m going to tell! I’m going to tell!” The poltergeist sang.

Sebastian growled. “Blasted Peeves! I got to go stop him or at least get to the librarian with a good excuse for all of this.”

You grabbed his wrist before he could leave. “How do I know you won’t go to the librarian and blame it all on me?”

The feel of your hand was hot on his wrist. “Why would I do that?”

You let go of him and crossed your arms. “Are you telling me you’d take the fall? How very, dare I say, Gryffindor of you that would be.”

“Oh don’t flatter yourself. I like having friends who are in my debt. Now go, good luck in your search.” Casting the disillusionment spell on himself, he was off, the feel of your hand still lingering on his wrist.

-

With one more detention added to his record and a brand new fifth-year now in his debt, Sebastian laid sleepless in his bed that night, his thoughts swirling with you. There was something about you that, though he couldn’t put his finger on it, drew him in like no other. 

Merlin’s sake, you were a Gryffindor. That was usually enough to make him annoyed with someone already. But now? Not only was he tolerating a Gryffindor, he was aching to be with said Gryffindor at all times it seemed. He found himself eager to impress you, standing up a bit straighter whenever you entered the room, and disappointed whenever you weren’t around.

Alright, he’d admit it to himself at least. He seemed to have developed a crush on you. But he didn’t let himself freak out about it too much. Crushes were flimsy, maybe all he needed to do was get you out of his system. After all, the two of you had barely interacted with each other. He might have just put you on a pedestal in his head and needed to bring you back down. But how would he do that? Maybe he could take you on a date without letting you know it was a date? He’d have to disguise your outing as something unromantic. 

Crossed Wands popped into his head. That would be perfect! You had held your own in Defense Against the Dark Arts so it wouldn’t be a shock to invite you. Though he was taking it easy on you, he felt you knew what you were doing with a wand. He could partner up with you for a few rounds, and then who knows? Maybe you’d stumble a bit and embarrass yourself so badly he’d have no choice but to lose his crush on you. He at least hoped you’d knock yourself down a peg or two in his mind.

It was settled then. He’d invite you after class the next day. It was a great plan.

-

Bringing you to Crossed Wands was a horrible plan, and had backfired on him spectacularly. You were a natural duelist, and on top of that the two of you were a dueling dream team. The way you seemed to make it look like a dance made his neck and ears burn with blushes. At one point you had asked if you could compete in a few rounds by yourself, taking on all your opponents with ease. And down he went, falling even more under that spell you seemed to cast on him so effortlessly.

At end of that day’s Crossed Wands session, you ran up to Sebastian and thanked him profusely for inviting you. Your cheeks were flushed and you were glistening in sweat. He felt like he was being tortured.

“Don’t mention it.” His voice was strained. “You’re a natural, it seems.”

It was as if you were on some sort of dueling high. “I’m so eager to learn more spells for this. Do you think you could teach me anything? The faculty is taking their time with me, and I don’t think I can bare to wait.”

He had never seen you so excitable and passionate. He always thought you were coolheaded about things from what he’d seen. Yet, it was only making you more endearing to him.

“I might be able to show you a thing or two.” He tried to avoid eye contact and began thinking about his quick escape out of there. He needed to get away from you fast.

“Sebastian, this was amazing. Glad you weren’t too ashamed to fight alongside a Gryffindor.” You jested. “I think I made you look rather good today, no?”

“Right... Sorry I tease you so much about being a Gryffindor.”

“It’s alright. Maybe I like getting teased by good looking Slytherin boys.” You gave him a quick wink.

Sebastian almost choked. Did he hear you correctly? He tugged at the collar of his shirt, feeling hot all of a sudden. “Pardon?”

“Oh relax, I’m just messing with you.” You laughed and playfully pushed him. As you began to walk away, you called back to him, “And don’t forget, I still owe you for the library.”

“How could I forget?” He replied just loud enough for himself to hear. He rubbed at his forehead, annoyed at how the day ended up for him.

-

What in Merlin’s name was he doing? He had become so eager to be alone with you under the guise of “showing you new spells”, that he invited you to the undercroft. Ominis would kill him if he found out. But he couldn’t think of a better place. And watching you make that face when you focused helped put the thought of an angry Ominis to the back of his mind.

“You’re getting it. Seems you got the wand movement down. And don’t forget, the incantation is ‘Confringo’.”

“Confringo!” You recited, and a blast of fire left your wand, setting the nearest candle fixture ablaze. “Ah! Look at that!”

Seeing you master confringo so easily and your excitement over it flustered Sebastian. Then to make things worse, you ran up and threw your arms around him. “Oh, thank you thank you thank you, Sebastian!” Pulling away slightly, you beamed up at him, “This is exactly the kind of spell I want to learn.”

He could only stare back at you. The air felt so thick, he couldn’t speak. Without thinking, he pressed his lips to yours. You were initially taken by surprise. But it didn’t take long for you to register what was happening and start kissing him back.

His arms wrapped around you tighter, hands slowly moving up your back. You opened your mouth slightly, wanting more of him, and he took that opportunity to bite at your bottom lip. The act made you feel light headed in the best way, and you were relieved Sebastian had such a strong and sturdy hold on you.

He walked the two of you back until you were up against one of the pillars in the undercroft, pressing his body more against yours. You could only continue holding him with your arms wrapped around his shoulders as he held you securely in place. He turned his attention to your neck and you couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped your lips.

“What's gotten into you?” You asked breathlessly, yet a pleased smile graced your lips.

He pulled away, breathless himself, and couldn’t pull his gaze away from your mouth. “I-I wanted to kiss you is all.” Still holding you in his arms, he leaned in for more and you met him eagerly. His hands moved to your hips where his thumbs began rubbing in small circles. Being with someone like this was uncharted territory for the both of you, but it was thrilling all the same.

One of your hands moved down to grab his tie and pull him closer, the feel of it excited him. His eyes shot wide open realizing where this could lead and he had to pull away. “We have to stop.” He placed his forehead against yours, squeezing his eyes shut.

“What? Why?” You asked as you went after his lips with yours.

He kissed you back briefly, allowing himself to enjoy how soft your lips were just a little longer. But the feeling of his insides constricting reminded him why he needed to pull away again. Be a gentleman, Sallow. It was inappropriate, too soon, and in the undercroft of all places? This couldn’t happen.

He let you go completely and walked a few feet away, rubbing his hand down his face. He glanced back at you as you were straightening out your uniform and he had to look away again. He couldn’t help but relish in the fact that he was the one that caused you to become so disheveled.

“Well, now what do we do?” You asked.

Still unable to look your way, he gave a breathy laugh. “Would you like to go to The Three Broomsticks for a butter beer with me this weekend?”

“You mean on a date?” This was the most unconfident he had ever heard your voice.

“Yes.” He answered, finally able to look at you again. “A date.”

“I would love to.” The two of you stared at each other, smiling sheepishly as if he wasn’t just kissing you senseless against the pillar. Grinning and looking down at your shoes, it hit you. “Oh no, I have to go.” You began speed walking to leave the undercroft. “I promised Poppy I would help her with something.” 

Sebastian wanted to reach out and stop you but he made himself let you go. Before you were out of sight you looked back at him with a soft smile. “Three Broomsticks, don’t forget.” And then you were gone.

He let out a chuckle. “How could I forget?”

[ind1c0lite]

FINALLY yall get to see this lmao, basically Ive had an au (??) rattling around in my head where Apollo decides to hire Kay, a private investigator, to help him find and track down his birth mother, shenanigans ensue, some more things abt it under the cut (feel free to ask anything abt it it lives rent free in my head JHKLJ)

-Most likely takes place a year after SOJ- Though I havent actually watched it for myself yet so Im just going off of info from the wiki HGJKHL

-Kay is 26! shes been a PI for about 3 years now and has gained a rep for being VERY good at her job

-Apollo approaches her with basically nO info or leads and while its gonna Make their job MUCH harder, Kay decides to take it on anyways on the condition that Apollo acts as her assistant during this case

-Basically this is just Apollos lil secret mission for himself, he doesnt tell anyone else abt it since its so emotionally heavy for him

-Im not sure exactly /how/ theyd do it, but I do know that Apollos bracelet would be the best bet after looking through way too much paperwork, probably via finding out what its made out of it since its a special kind of metal

- Basically it'd go like: Find out who commissioned said bracelet > turns out it was Magnifi Gramarye > Uh Oh.PNG > Theres only one woman who was in Troupe Gramarye > Apollo crisis whenever he sees Trucy now > He needs more proof though beside that > Kay finds an older recording of Troupe Gramarye, Thalassa is seen out of costume, wearing both bracelets > Well it cant be just coincidence now > He Is Now a lil Magician man > Now they have to find Thalassa > Turns out shes dead > find out that she didnt ACTUALLY die, Magnifi faked her death> not sure how they would get from here to finding out Thalassa is Lamiroir > Also find out that Phoenix has knwon this entire time and didnt tell either trucy or Apollo > mixed emotions over aLL of it but GOD Apollo is just happy to know his mother is still alive

-I like to think that Trucy joins Apollo and kay at some point in their investigation since shes directly involved at that point

-Maybe a small side plot where Apollo hasnt told Kay about the perceive thing and so he knows shes lying about /something/ unrelated to their case (the whole being the yatagarasu deal)

-overall I think Kay and Apollo would be good friends they could ABSOLUTELY match each others energy and it'd be a good time, they're trans girl trans guy solidarity

-It /c o u l d/ be like an Investigations like plot wheres theres different cases that all tie into the greater mystery OR finding his mom is the focus of it Im not totally sure yet hjgkhlj

[argumate]

been following you for a long time but the ai shit really disappoints me. i havent seen you make a particular stance on ai but the fact is that the more prompts you feed it the more it steals from others’ work to give you results. as ai grows more and more people are at risk of losing their livelihood to another machine that doesnt actually care about the work it produces.

this is not in fact how it works at all, the network does not change once trained regardless of how many prompts you give it, but I think this detail isn't relevant to your main point: that this will put artists out of work if they are currently employed making really repetitive and uninspired overly literal interpretations of silly ideas for me to post on my blog, to which I can only say "good"? but I don't think that applies to many artists as I'm not paying anyone for that now.

[quicksilverlightning]

So I binged Centaurworld and have spent the last week processing and need to get it out of my system because I havent seen anyone else with this take -

I find it weird that the crimes of the General and Elk are laid at the feet of the Elktaur. After the split, the Elktaur no longer existed; the Elk and General may have each encompassed a half of who he was, but became separate entities by splitting.

The Elk and General were of the Elktaur, but weren't themselves the Elktaur. It's entirely possible I'm digging too deep into what was meant to be a Y7 kids show, but it really bugged me because intention, potential, and action aren't the same things. The Elktaur may have always had the potential to become what the Elk and General did, but he didn't commit any of the actions. Because he no longer existed. We can argue about intentions all day long without getting anywhere; partly because the show never really got into that aspect, but mostly because, in the end, what matters is action. You can intend to cause hurt without ever actually doing so - intention and potential do not make one evil/ a criminal/ etc.

Like, if I clone myself and that clone goes on to become an interdimensional war criminal, am I supposed to be punished as well? Of course not - the copy was me, until it wasn't.

This is a classic Mind-Body Problem and fits the scenario around the Elktaur - can his two component parts really be considered to be a single entity? But if they actually were a single entity, none of this would be happening at all. If we brought a whole version of the Elktaur to stand before his components, would he also be considered part of that conglomerate?

Is one not the sum of their experiences? How then, can two beings with very different experiences be said to be the same? Isn't that why, post-unification, the Elktaur has two voices?

Just to be clear, I'm totally on board with the actual events of the ending - I think killing the guy was a mercy, but that's a different discussion - but I find the reasoning to be questionable. I blame Netflix and thier pattern of canceling shows too early for the writing team not being able to delve further into some really interesting philosophical conundrums surrounding the plot. I did enjoy the show overall, but the Elktaur and his pieces were by far the most interesting thing going on. I totally understand that the juxtaposition of wacky and serious was 100% the point, but that plot thread was simply too good - it made everything else feel like a distraction 😂

[gibbearish]

wanted to throw my hat into the ring specifically in regards to james responding to the bigotry claims bc i havent seen anyone address the aspects i wanna talk abt in full yet, it kinda got long as fuck for a p short excerpt so putting it under a readmore

so here's the section (text from @storagebay29 's v helpful transcript):

"I never ever intended to hurt anybody. I never thought that that's what I was doing. Before I went- before I went to the hospital,¹ I read a lot of stuff from people who were really hurt, not just authors and stuff but people who watched my videos who were hurt by stuff in them. People think that I hate ace people and women and bisexual people and lesbians and that's not true. It's really- it's just- it’s not true. And I’m sorry that stuff made it into videos² that just shouldn’t have been there: misinformation and lies... But I promise you I did not write that stuff.³

I should have been a lot more exacting when Nick and I would be editing scripts but I promise you that those are not- I don't think those things.⁴ I specifically want to apologise to asexual people who feel⁵ that I just completed delegitimised you. Nick being ace, I- I know that it's kinda like you know, no two gay people are exactly the same, no two ace people are exactly the same, but I kind of, when it came to that I just kind of ran with Nick's judgement⁶ and his observations and stuff like that. And I’m not trying to throw Nick under the bus,⁷ which a bunch of people are saying that I was setting him up as doing, which is not true…"

so! let's break this down

¹ "Before I went- before I went to the hospital" - firstly i want to be clear of my position with the "did he actually attempt" question bc ive seen some people being absolutely vile already, which is that while i understand doubting his story considering his history of lying and manipulation and obviously skewed moral compass, i also feel like it is VERY much plausible enough that publically speculating abt whether it's true or not is shitty, especially telling HIM you think he's lying. best case scenario you're right, worst case scenario you're crossing a hell of a line, and he's obviously done enough stuff that the situation can be addressed pretty comprehensively without risking getting that coin flip wrong. i think we should proceed under the assumption that lying about that is one line he wouldn't cross, and if proof comes along that he was lying then obviously fuck him, but otherwise i think that aspect should be off limits. and having said all that, even under the assumption he is telling the truth, the way he brings it up in this apology is still manipulative, as many have already pointed out, and this is an excellent example. by bringing it up right before addressing his bigotry, he a) implies to the audience that these comments in particular are a notable part of what sent him there, and therefore plants the idea that if they continue to address it while knowing how badly it's already affecting him, they'd be deliberately trying to hurt him or push him to attempt again, and b) tries to distract the audience from the fact that he's addressing his bigotry and get them to go easy on him, since clearly he's already punished himself over it enough. but harming yourself does not actually make up for harm caused to others, and even if it did, unlearning the bigotry that caused the harm in the first place doesnt end at "feel really bad about it," that's actually step one. and as i'm sure you're already aware and i'll get into more in points 4 and 5, whether he's even at step one yet is doubtful!

² "And I’m sorry that stuff made it into videos" - others have covered his passive voice the whole way through so i won't dwell too long beyond pointing it out, it's mostly just highlighted here bc of how it ties into the next point

³ "But I promise you I did not write that stuff." - just, beautiful in so many ways. performance art, even. firstly, the fact that one of the closest places he comes to calling it plagiarism is in defense against a second allegation? just lmao. and secondly, this is about the most solid proof you could get that he indeed did not watch hbomberguy's video (or at least the whole thing) because hbomb very conclusively showed that if there are /any/ original thoughts of James' in his scripts, it is the bigotry, because he showed multiple examples of James /specifically/ rewording things he plagiarized to ADD IN the bigotry. so then tying back to point 2, his passive voice then becomes about ten times funnier here because he was just. blissfully unaware we all already knew exactly how it "made it into" the script and that his next statement would be a lie. just incredible

⁴ "I don't think those things." - notice the lack of specificity here, the most he can say is "people think i hate these groups" and "i don't think those things" and not "this is exactly what i said that was harmful, here's how it was harmful, here's the correct version of it, and here's how to avoid similar pitfalls in the future", yknow, like what people do when they actually accidentally say bigoted things bc they don't know any better? and again this point ties into the next one:

⁵ "I specifically want to apologise to asexual people who feel that I just completed delegitimised you." - ah yes, nothing says apology like "i'm sorry you felt like what i said was hurtful," where the message is less "i did something wrong and hurt you, i regret this and want to fix it," and more "you were too sensitive and got your feelings hurt by something i didn't intend to be hurtful, but i GUESS i'll be the bigger person and say sorry even though i didn't actually do anything wrong🙄". and see again 4, if he actually had looked into it and learned why it was wrong, he wouldn't be saying people "felt" delegitimised. he would be explaining why people reacted that way ie what it was a reaction to, why this reaction was correct, and providing actual information about asexual people. but he doesnt, because he didnt, because he doesnt care. which is all ESPECIALLY fucked because in saying it this way he's. delegitimising what they were saying. like some kind of fuckin aphobia ouroboros

⁶ "when it came to that I just kind of ran with Nick's judgement" + ⁷ "And I’m not trying to throw Nick under the bus" - here we are, the crown jewels. so obviously ppl are already talking abt the performative allyship of "but my best friend is minority and they said it was fine!!1!" which is fucked up on its own, but then the fact that he immediately jumps to "and also i'm not throwing nick under the bus" shows us that within the greater context, point 6 did indeed mean "the bigotry in the scripts that i am currently apologizing for and explaining the presence of in this section is there because i repeated the things nick told me were true, these ideas originate from him." aka blame nick, not me. but then he remembered that scapegoating nick is also something people are accusing him of so he had to backtrack over it, which if it was actually an innocent statement, it yknow. wouldn't need to be backtracked over? it's like he thinks just because he doesn't outright say "nick has bigoted ideas that i parroted so basically its his fault" that no one can pick up on the subtext? and frankly i don't know much about nick (or james beyond this whole thing tbf so obv take everything i say with the whole shaker of salt) so this very well could be the truth to a degree, but if nick does hold bigoted views too, that's TOO. not instead. for james to repeat them without question to the camera means he doesn't disagree. even if hbomb hadn't proven the bigotry did originate from him, it would still be meaningless, because if it came from nick then that would just mean james decided to stay close working friends with a shitbag and repeat all of his garbage to his fans uncritically!

so in summary, in just this one chunk he: reminds you to be extra niceys to him because hes delicate right now, immediately lies about where the bigotry came from, talks around what he actually said wrong or that he was in the drivers seat for it, then blames nick for it before hearing himself say it out loud reminds him people are picking up on that now too and has to walk it back.

to spoof the roblox oof video: when we look at the sum collective of all of his claims regarding his bigotry, and we put it in context with. the fucking everything about him. when james says the bigotry didn't come from him, this might just be me. but I don't believe him!

[the-gayest-sky-kid]

what's your take on odasaku and dazai's idealization of him?

also any takes you want to share about bsd/bsd in general?

(If you don't mind, I'm also interested in your thoughts about verlaine if thats ok 😭) tyty

who's your fave bsd character and whose the character from bsd you want to have more screen time?

i think its another case of projecting onto someone and it fucking things up. like notably how kouyou projects her own feelings abt light & dark onto kyouka. we just dont often see it that way because what oda does is like. stereotypically good? he uses his dying words to push a friend out of the dark. a death motivating others to act and furthering their character development is classic storytelling. you go into bsd knowing dazai is on the "good guys" side (not that the ada are "bad" but obviously reading bsd as a good guys vs bad guys story is. wrong), so clearly it worked out. so you kind of overlook the surrounding events yk? plus dazais own idolization of oda hammers that in. dazai tells atsushi that "He was a friend of mine (...) He’s the reason I quit the Port Mafia and joined the agency. I’d probably still be killing people for the mafia if it wasn’t for him" in dead apple (the lightnovel. im not going to go through pulling up the movie for this fhfhtndj). and so aside from previous bias people are going to take what dazai says at face value. hes thankful oda showed him the "side that saves people" and of course we're going to agree with that. the thing is. again. projection. now i havent actually finished dark era (i am working through it) but a lot of the time it feels like oda is just shoveling off all his feelings about being "someone meant for the darkness" onto dazai when thats something thats not going to be true for. well. anyone really? and his final conversation with dazai is very influenced by that. he says "You told me if you put yourself in a world of violence and bloodshed, you might be able to find a reason to live... (...) You won’t find it (...) You should know that. Whether you’re on the side that takes lives or the side that saves them, nothing beyond your own expectations will happen. Nothing in this world can fill the hole that is your loneliness. You will wander the darkness for eternity". now the thing is this is kind of a fucked up thing to say to an 18 year old with suicidal tendencies, but odas view of dazai makes it seem like a well needed wake up call. he obviously had good intentions. hes trying to "step into that solitude" but because of his flawed view of dazai he kind of. stumbles. dazai up to this point has been clinging onto the hope that he'd find a reason to live by observing the entire human experience. now oda comes along and dazai thinks hes found someone who understands him better than anyone, and oda tells him hes not going to find that. ever. so he should become a better person and make the world a good place. and also he's dying. so dazai, as we've seen, takes these words to heart. so hes not going to find a reason to live but he should also make the world a better place. good cool got that. so i think he gets a bit too comfortable being collateral for a good cause. and hes already convinced hes not going to find anything here, so of course hes not going to find anything. does that make sense.

i dont think ive phrased anything correctly here but like anyway i think with all his other friends around he'll be able to sort things out there. i cant see bsd ending without any sort of resolution for him in this regard yk.

[hostilemuppet]

Saw the JD & Floyd post and was about to say “Maybe he should” but then it just made me sad. Like damn he cares about his family to the detriment of himself, what does that say about his relationship with Creek. I think I remember you writing something about Floyd realizing he’s genuinely fallen in love with him.

you want me to show how much thought ive put into tdau floyd? the funny cokehead with commitment issues? the guy who posts thirst traps out of spite? okay (keep in mind that most of this is just what *I* think and hasnt been cleared with alex, but when i write for floyd its genuinely what i consider in the back of my mind)

i think he was 13 y/o when he went out on his own (1999), began seeing the rest of the troll tree for himself, until he finally escaped on his own at around 15 (2001), a year before the entire tribe was evacuated (2002). he hitch hiked a bit and got to see a bunch of tribes but he only really got to see techno reef and volcano rock city, staying in vrc a lot longer (LONG before barb was in power and turned rocks view on pop from "they fucked up a really long time ago but were safe from them now" to "we need to colonise them back") and discovering a lot about himself in the process

he turned 18 (2004) and, as most ex-child stars do, immediately went IN on hard drugs and sex with strangers, as if thats the test for proving your adulthood. and he had a good time! he spent most of his life drugged to the gills and unable to look himself in the mirror the rare moments he was sober, but, yknow. details. then he got bored. and he went travelling again

at the age of 20 (2006) he left troll kingdom entirely. obviously he stayed CLEAR of bergen town (and silently prayed to whatever god pop trolls typically believe in that his family were safe and undigested). but he saw all sorts of places! places we havent seen yet, with species we havent seen yet, of extremely varying sizes! hell, he mightve met a species or two that are smaller than trolls! imagine that. but spending years travelling, it gets lonely. he never got to connect with anyone. hell, he never even had a real boyfriend! the most he had was that situationship he had that lasted 5 weeks before he got ghosted when that techno troll got back with his girlfriend. (its okay though, he channels his pain into his art, and that was one became his most popular song on bandcamp by a significant margin!)

at 27 years old (2013) he arrived in mount rageous. sure, they were huge, and he was terrified of being eaten, obviously. but they didnt want to eat him! they thought he was cute. and, he wont lie, he liked the attention. he became a novelty, that tiny little creature with his even tinier guitar, who apparently built up such a tolerance he can handle mount rageon drugs. imagine doing blow with stewert little. they loved him, as entertainment. he still didnt have anyone who loved him as a person, but at that point he was willing to settle.

when hes 36 (2023) he gets kidnapped by velvet & veneer, and of course no one thought to look for him. you wouldnt notice if the mouse in your house suddenly went missing. at most youd think someone you live with finally took care of it, and youd move on with your life.

the events of the movie happen, hes reunited with his siblings, he actually feels valued as a person again, AND to top it all off, those two months in the bottle did WONDERS for detoxing. next time he tries pop troll coke he actually feels a buzz! he never thought hed see the day!

brozone reunite, we see the early days of their career carry out in the au. floyd feels like hes on top of the world. hes got his family back, hes back in pop village (albeit, its a different pop village than he knew. hell, they used to all it troll village back then!) hes releasing actual music again, and not just busking for tips (its okay he didnt need much, he rented out a mouse hole for cheap). but he wants an actual connection. he wants a relationship. but hes never actually had that! hes never even felt respected by a potential partner! so he goes back to random hookups. and, yknow, its fun, he guesses. but he wants more

the first troll who seems to actually take interest in him as anything more than a hot piece of ass or "that guy from brozone" rocks his world. hes ashamed to admit that after knowing the guy for 3 hours he already thought about spending the rest of his life with him. he just wasnt used to being spoken to like a person by anyone other than immediate family members! its okay though, he couldnt scare him off, because he was being paid to be there, and after recording himself getting in floyds pants (the only way he knows how to show affection at this point) it was all over the internet

so, you know, obviously floyd wasnt doing great. hes gotten good at hiding his feelings (not like anyone really cares about them anyway) but he was clearly struggling. he did what he does best, and turned it into a joke, so maybe itd hurt a little less. he probably made it worse, but at least he was numb now. he goes back to hookups, deciding hell never have an actual boyfriend, hell never get married, and hes okay with that. well, hes clearly not, but its not like anyone ever asked, so he has to deal.

then he meets creek. and at this point hes not stupid. hes not that naive little kid anymore, and when he wakes up the next morning and realises his newest one night stand was that guy, the asshole, the one who everyone hates, he knows hes the butt of the joke, again. theres probably a camera, again. he leaves before creek wakes up.

but then he meets him again, a few days later. and creek says how much of a shame it is he never got his digits. and floyd doesnt know what to make of this. but he knows he shouldnt trust him. he heard everything riff said about him, everything BRANCH said about him. he knows every one of creeks crimes. but maybe he just wants to have some fun, yknow? everyones always fucking with him, maybe he wants to play around sometime. show the world hes not some little helpless doll.

what follows is about a year and a half of gay chicken on expert mode. creek pretends to love floyd. floyd pretends he doesnt know creeks pretending. floyd feels in control, almost. he gets comfortable. he refuses to believe its love, how could it be love? theyre awful to each other. but its, technically, his first real relationship. he tries not to think about it.

maybe encouraging creek to propose was a little more than seeing how far he can push him before he snaps. maybe he wanted to prove that hes worth it, even if the other guy wasnt. maybe he genuinely cried when he got angelinas egg, even if hed rather die than let creek see him express genuine emotions. he knows hes the sensitive one, but hes more than brozone. hes a person. a person that people dont ever seem to want to know.

then he realises. hes not the only one whos gotten comfortable. creek looks... not happy, exactly. but content. and floyd thinks thats terrifying. its too far, thats not how any of this was supposed to work. it was REVENGE. floyd was fucking with him, because creek was fucking with him first! now hes married, hes MARRIED, with KIDS, TWINS! THAT HE NAMED! and he loves them! and he loves creek! and creek loves him! hes gonna be sick. he cant do this. he cant be here. he lives in a mansion but its suffocating him. he leaves. he divorces creek.

hes miserable again. jd doesnt notice bc hes "the sensitive one", and his other brothers dont know how to bring it up without making it worse. branch is the only one who asks how hes holding up, but he just says hes fine, hell bounce back. he doesnt bounce back

when he meets creek again, he wants to cry. he wants to get on his hands and knees and beg him to take him back, but he has a LITTLE bit of self respect left. when he finds out creek missed him too its more than he can take. when they get drunk, and floyd forces jd to re-marry them, floyd actually feels like a person. a broken person, who healed in a creek-shaped mould, but a person nonetheless. and maybe thats all he can ask for

[alien-ally]

Few final(?) musings on unknown:

i think the flashbacks interwoven bw the nc scene was a great touch. and not weird at all (but that's the point isn't it, what we've been trying to work around in our heads this whole time the shows been airing) because it shows; what was between them was between them and what is between them is between them. if that makes sense. like, the brothers thing is the main conflict, and the show hasn't shied away from its implications till now, so i dont get why it would weird anyone out atp, as in, if you've made it this far. Plus, it was to depict the journey. to highlight emotionally what is at stake when they take this leap in their relationship. seen varied opinions, this is my takeaway.

San pang has been a great character. i think it's been true this entire time, but now more people agree cause of the positive push he gives Qian in the last eps. his contribution has been invaluable pretty much throughout i'd argue. lol even though, it wasn't very agreeable in some parts.

i love wei lili.

i'm glad they dint actually go into showing the surgery. i gotta clarify; i feel like usually when this kind of reveal is made towards the end of the show, either the emotional weight of it is not unpacked properly i.e it feels rushed, or it gets sorted out within one ep with some kind of hospital montage that takes up 10 mins of the last ep. overall, just ruins the pace of the show. in unknown tho, they never undermined qian's fear, and showed a few stages of his responses too: stubborn, terrified, resigned, defeated (+most importantly, the reveal of his fear to turn out like his mother) and so on. i think that was more important than yk showing the surgery procedures itself. but it also worked to show that yuan knows how to deal with all of these qian phases and snap him out of them. plus his unwavering devotion to stand by him (and bite sense into him as per necessity). [Book spoiler(i havent read it, but know this much); Qian actually has a benign lung tumor and it is removed via surgery safely. its a hea]- So i think we can safely assume, show qian's surgery will also go safely without any complications. we got to see him consult a major doctor and hear their opinion, it's all fine, i think. (as long as he doesn't keep delaying it. but i trust yuan to take care of that)

[aquaquadrant]

literally just zoomed through yalls htp au and i havent seen anyone talk about it but i find it SO interesting how Bravo, who is supposed to be the GOOD overworlder, is rather prideful and honestly just a dick while Tango, supposedly his EVIL counterpart, is just the sweetest guy. i cant imagine how Tango is derived from the worst parts of Bravo, if im understanding hels correctly. Tango is such a good person, while Bravo is rude to everyone with the worst attitude. it was just something i picked up so quickly. if the universe put him in hels in the first place, there must be a reason why the universe swapped his place with his overworld counterpart.

on another note! with the release of secret life, and what we've seen so far, how do you think htp!tango would fare in this new killing game? i cant help but imagine that with the entire gimmick being keeping secrets that he would be rather stressed, knowing he had hidden stuff from his friends already-- lying doesnt make him feel like a good person (but he isnt supposed to be that, some small part of him is whispering, knowing hes from hels, is all of the "bad" parts of bravo)

anyways! this is all i will be able to think of for the rest of the week /vpos and i hope you (and everyone who may be reading this at any given time) have a great rest of spooky month!

well THANK YOU this was a lovely message to receive, and i’m glad you’re enjoying the au ^^

i’ve talked a little bit about this here and there, but i’ll never pass up the chance to ramble more. there are a few key things about bravo and tango that make them different from the average overworld-hels pair.

ANALYSIS/RAMBLE BELOW

first off, most of what we’ve seen of tango has been set during double life, which is ten years after he escaped hels, so he’s had ten years of growth. we see very little of him before this, and in those scenes he’s got the benefit of being largely alone. the only player he interacts with is xisuma, who tango immediately realizes he needs to ‘trick.’ so his interaction with x in part one isn’t how tango would’ve interacted with virtually any other player in hels at that time.

we see from the flashback in part five that younger pre-hels tek tango was borderline feral- he chose to attack atlas on sight instead of trying to hide, or leave before he was seen, or even see why atlas was there. now, atlas wins him over fairly quickly because tango is young and naive and secretly craving positive interaction, but even in that brief interaction tango is a bit more prideful than his older self. that, of course, got beaten out of him at hels tek.

bravo, on the other hand, we follow closely during his ten years in hels. when he first arrives in part two, he’s a little snide and privately judgemental, sure, but he starts out perfectly decent towards timmy. he tries to maintain that civility and ‘niceness’ as he interacts with more and more hels players, but gradually loses his willpower as he gets beaten down and frustrated, even losing his temper. and after he fully snaps and gets his first kills, he all but abandons the notion of being ‘nice’, though privately he still thinks of himself as inherently better than hels players (atlas’s manipulation certainly doesn’t help matters, either).

but perhaps the biggest point is to look at what traits tango actually got from bravo, and that would be his rage. bravo is most similar to tango when he’s angry; his first little temper tantrum in part two is where it’s best illustrated, because all instances after that have been influenced by his time in hels. but you’ll notice that we have yet to see tango truly angry in the HTP series (he did revert back to an almost feral mindset when the ranch got attacked, but that was an instinctive defense mechanism. there was no conscious thought behind those decisions, and they were purely fueled by fear, not anger). that will be where his ‘hels’ really shines through.

there’s one other bravo trait amplified in tango that i haven’t revealed yet. it’s something that tango has figured out how to sort of ‘mask’ via other more acceptable coping mechanisms- if you can call it that- and actually forms a fairly significant part of his personality. stay tuned :3

as for secret life, it’d be a complicated situation for sure. on one hand, their goals are less outright malicious- just complete the tasks and try to survive (at least for now). in a way, it almost takes away accountability for their actions if they turn out to be harmful- “i had to, it was my secret task!” so that’s nice to fall back on. but still, tango would be very on edge. not only with the discomfort of having to lie to his friends, but never knowing if they’re lying to him, too. boi’s got them trust issues fr.

[nanistar]

may i ask why you hate mapleshade? like is it more of a fandom thing/author thing or do you just not like her character? sorry if thats a weird question lol

i think the idea behind her character is cool but the erins are the erins and they fucked it up imo. also the way the fandom treats any discussion about her and other characters in her book is so annoying i cannot stand going into the mapleshade tag on tumblr

which is a shame cause like i said, i really like the concept of her character and i feel like it had alot of potentional

not a weird question, i get it. i gotta start by saying i have no ill will against people who like mapleshade or even like the points i'm about to say. btw! sorry this is long i got really into it

starting chronologically (according to canon, not publication)(publication order is: all ivypool darkforest books (2011 and prev) crookeds promise (2011), great battle (last hope 2012, she permadies here) and maples vengeance (2015)

i actually really liked mapleshade's vengeance, all things considered. it comes last in the mapleshade storyline according to publication date, and up until then we really didn't know much about her, and i believe this is where she gets a personality other than "random DF lady" and "rude ghost villain". the erins are not good writers by any means, but i felt that mapleshade's internal monologue and the way she saw the world was genuinely pretty decent. they portrayed her as obsessive and manipulative and as an unreliable narrator. it was one of the first books i read upon returning to the fandom in 2018 and it was a thrill to read, because i hadn't been spoiled on it.

the erins have a habit of writing surprise/accidental pregnancies as plot points, which has the implication of like… flings/one night stands. it's best not to think about it. it's pretty obvious upfront that appledusk is not as in to her as she is in to him, but she doesn't see it. she talks about him in her narrations as a sweet and loving man and talks about their family and future together, but when we the readers finally see him, he's calloused and doesn't really care about her. i think she even sees him with reedshine at a gathering and gets mad before she thinks "oh he's just doing that so no one gets suspicious" (not quoting or anything, i havent read the novel since 2018) girl. their relationship was obviously just a fling to him, but to her they were in love. i liked the way this was written as opposed to all the other times in warriors weve seen a man have a hissy fit because a girl rejected him. (ashfur is the glaring example but also crowfeather, brambleclaw) her denial and refusal to accept what she was seeing (that she was the side piece) was the interesting part.

she has her children and then ravenwing spills the beans. why on earth would he do that? why would it benefit the clan or anyone? from a logistical standpoint, thunderclan lost 3 potential new warriors and mapleshade never implied she was going to riverclan. anyway, he didn't even have proof. he just assumed. i think he rightfully got what was coming for him, since if he would have kept his mouth shut, 7 cats including himself wouldn't have died. sorry mini rant i don't like him. anyway we know the rest of the story. kits die, maple kills ravenwing for telling her secret, she kills frecklewish for not helping (no, she couldn't have jumped in to save the kits without probably dying herself but she COULD have stood up for maple in thunderclan, and she was upstream so she could have yelled out and warned maple of the flood but im NOT getting into that and i dont care) and then she goes to kill reedshine but kills appledusk instead. did he deserve it? he was kinda a dick but mapleshade was like stalker-obsessed with him (i think she uses the phrase "my appledusk" in her narration but i might be wrong) after what was ostensibly a one night stand. perchpaw wounds mapleshade to the point where once she flees the scene, she dies of blood loss. cool

the story of a mothers love (and a mother's loss) is an age-old tale. in a franchise where all female characters are doomed to become boring cookie-cutter mothers, this loss and violent rage was awesome.

everyone told me to read crookedstar's promise, because it was the best super edition. i.. do not agree with that. tbh i thought it was long and boring and went nowhere. crookedstar suffered many tragedies in his life, and he lost everyone he loved, and then the book suddenly ends with him going "im ok (:" and dying. (i was reading a pdf and not a physical copy so it was VERY abrupt for me. i legit sat there like.. so that's it? i read 500+ pages for that?) i can't really blame mapleshade for this (since shes not real) but it does factor in. her idea of revenge against appledusk was to torture an injured baby? who then grew up and had no idea who the fuck appledusk was? why not raise him and give him the love he craved so that when the time came, he would be more likely to do her bidding?? her motives here make no sense. not super important. anyway.

and then she's seen occasionally in the dark forest and she tries to drown ivypaw for no reason once. idk she was obviously just a background character in these scenes (since they came first) but the fans saw a female in the dark forest and were like. thank god a woman. can you blame them. then the erins built her up from that.

anyway mapleshade has this generations long story of manipulating younger cats, and a POV book where she's obviously obsessive, controlling, stalkerish and chooses brutally uncommon violence as a way to get back at those who wrong her. (she unburies ravenwing's body so crows can eat it, and she uses adders to kill frecklewish, despite the fact the snakes could easily go for her.) she puts HERSELF in danger to do these things because she's impulsive, she justifies all her actions to herself by saying its revenge for her children and in the end, she pushes the last remnants of the kittens she thinks she's fighting for away. this is a cool story about a woman who's pushed to the edge and takes everyone down with her. for ONCE its not a man with deadwifepain.

and what does the fandom do

they girlbossify her. they fight over if she's in the wrong or not (she is. she killed people.) they take everything about her that made her compelling and turn her into "grr my husband cheated on me and me kids are dead. sad." she gets turned into the most basic, boring, cookie cutter "evil" lady. she kills people for fun and not because she had a reason to or a goal (in her mind). she suffers the most tragic kind of loss that there is and gets no time to grieve before she is run out of her home, and her reaction to this is pure RAGE, and the fandom turns her into this boring, slay QUEEN!!! (not the pregnant cat kind), always been evil, always been hardcore, ~So CrAzY~, "my eyeliner is sharp to stab men" girlboss. where's the nuance. where's the passion!!? she's a miserable, impulsive, manipulating failure. she blames others for her mistakes and bad judgment and punishes others for her shortfallings. she can't be vulnerable and broken, she can only cry because dead kids and then kill evil husband and evil husbands wife. she's even sometimes portrayed as like "boss" of the dark forest, wrangling all the men. barf.

so to answer your question, it's the general fandom* portrayal that i hate, but i honestly wouldn't trust the erins with her at this point. (the erins are influenced by their fans, for example (old person voice) back in my day, firestar and scourge being brothers was just a fan theory.) i'm glad they permakilled her in the great battle so they cant bring her back to ruin anything. actually thinking about her to write this out and reflect on why i don't like her made me sympathize for her. i like text mapleshade with a little bit of fanon sprinkled in for flavor.

and hey. usually when the fandom adopts a character, they're right. the fandom likes to get really in to random bg/side characters and give them lives they would never have in canon. but sadly (or not, depending on your opinion), when those get popular and breach containment, they spread everywhere and suddenly people think this IS canon. look at how many of us thought that brambleclaw killed hawkfrost directly after he killed hollyleaf, because that was the easy way to portray the great battle in MAPs, only to have someone point out, years after this has become the common sequence of events, that brambleclaw actually hunts him down, brings him back to camp, and then murders him POW style!!!

*btw. im in no way saying that all mapleshade-based projects or aus or whatever are bad, even if she is sexy girlboss in them. some of my favorite maps portray her like that.

anyway. TLDR:

everyone say "i'm sorry mapleshade"