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#i compiled them while doing the reread
deathsweetblossoms · 1 year
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...I take my stuffed animals and seat them next to me on the rug. Once, they were a reminder that there was a time before Faerieland, when things were normal. Once, they were a comfort to me. I take a long last look, and then, one by one, I feed them to the flames. I am no longer a child. I don't need comfort. (TWK Ch 4)
Only under the (bath)water can I allow myself to weep. Only under the water can I admit that I almost died and that I was so terrified and that I wish there was someone to whom I could tell all that. (TWK Ch 20)
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All I want to do is walk into (Cardan's) arms. I want to drown my worries in his embrace. I want him to say something totally unlike himself, about things being okay. (TWK Ch 21)
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sienne-k · 1 year
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i just spent the whole three days of the easter hols devouring akai x furuya fanfiction in a fugue state and i am not in an emotionally stable mood to go to work tomorrow
like no regrets 10/10 would do it again, i'm just saying reading fanfic should occur in a separate time dimension so that i could have read all the fic i did and still have three days off work to recuperate and nurse my bleeding heart and pick up my damaged brain so that i can actually function tomorrow and not accidentally start sobbing and freak out my boss
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syn0vial · 29 days
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a small list of personality traits observed in boba fett's character in the expanded universe series legacy of the force
i was compiling this list for my own writing reference for older (see: 60+) expanded universe boba fett but figured i might as well share it here as well! so, uh, here's a list of various boba fett personality traits i've observed while rereading the legacy of the force novels!
sarcastic and acerbic way of communicating. often frustrated by his own inability to be genuine and warm with people he cares about.
never raises his voice. gets annoyed when other people yell, esp over comms.
dry, self-deprecating sense of humor. doesn’t mind poking fun at his own ignorance or mistakes. 
cynical. tendency to expect the worst of people and situations. 
emotionally volatile: switches unpredictably between numb “scrupulous detachment” and overwhelming “raw emotions.”
uncomfortable in social/emotional situations. compares even basic social interaction to “a minefield.” “switches off” and/or attempts to flee when emotions become overwhelming. often relies on beviin to “haul him out of the mire” when he hits his limit socially or emotionally.
highly principled; always keeps his word, even when it pains him to do so. that said, in truly dire circumstances, is not above using wordplay to loophole his way out of a promise. like some fucked up fae. 
inner conflict between wanting to reconcile with/help/protect loved ones and deep-seated belief that he will inevitably bring them harm and suffering. 
often has violent thoughts about the people around him, including his loved ones, which contribute to his previously mentioned belief that he will inevitably cause harm to them. for example, he randomly feels the urge to strike mirta when she’s sitting next to him and gets a “predatory” feeling when he’s around a blinded sintas. feels disturbed by these thoughts, obviously never acts on them.
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llovelyclouds · 7 months
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notes on alecto
hii!! so a few months ago i did a full reread of the locked tomb and took note of anything i thought seemed particularly relevant. I want to share what I have but I'm not sure exactly how i want to format everything quite yet- but im just gonna go for it so bear with me if its a little disorganized!
throughout the process i've started coming up with some of my own theories, but i thought it would be cool to post everything i've compiled, so people could use that to make their own conclusions as well :D
I have sections for anything that seemed important about all the original lyctors & their cavaliers, so I'm going to start off with all my information gathered about alecto! buckle in, folks, there's a lot :-)
you can find links to the other posts in the project here!
(also ofc spoilers for the up to the end of nona ahead!)
ALECTO
titles:
Also referred to as “A.L.”, “Annabel Lee,”or “Annie Laurie”  John’s cavalier, the soul of the Earth. (And of course, nona <;3)
Annabel Lee poem  (mentioned htn. pg. 196)
Annie Laurie poem (mentioned htn. pg. 345)
notes from harrow the ninth:
Harrow's psychosis seems to begin after seeing Alecto for the first time (htn. pg. 51)
Augustine describes her as "more lucid" than Mercy as an insult to Mercy (htn. pg 168)
"'God, who did you bury?' [...] 'I buried a monster,' he said." (htn. pg. 195)
(depending on how much of The Body is real) Agrees that Harrow should kill G1dieon (htn. pg. 226)
“Augustine said, ‘To sisters, and to the women we‘ve left behind.’ God’s mouth was cheerful as ever, but his eyes were not when he said, 'Do I have to drink to that?’ For the first time, you were witness to the Saint of Patience discombobulated. ‘Apologies, John. Wasn’t meant as a jab.’ ‘It doesn’t hurt anymore- most of the time,’ said God, and he was still smiling.” (htn. Pg. 277)
"Even the devil bent for God to put a leash around her neck… and the disciples were scared! I cannot blame them! I was terrified! But when the work was done- when I was finished, and so were they, and the new Lyctors found out the price- they bade him kill the saltwater creature before she could do them harm… Oh, but it is a tragedy, to be put in a box and laid to wait for the rest of time." - Teacher (htn. pg. 328)
Says she has to go away for a while immediately after Varun appears (htn. pg. 334)
John says that G1deon doesn’t talk about her, but Augustine and Mercy still feel guilty about what happened (htn. pg. 345)
“When I first met her I just called her First, One. She had a real name, but I buried it with her, and nobody says it anymore.” - John (htn. Pg. 345)
“Annabel Lee was my- what do I call her? Guide? Friend? I’d hope so… [...] She was the first Resurrection. She was my Adam. As the dust settled and I beheld what was left and what was gone, I was entirely alone. The world had been ended, Harrowhark. One moment I was a man, and the next moment I was the Necrolord Prime, the first necromancer, and more importantly, a landlord with no tenants. [...] I was dazed… I was bewildered… and she was my defender and my sole companion, and my colleague in the scholarship of learning how to live again. It was bloody difficult. I had never been God. [...] She lived to see what happened at Canaan House. Not that she took much interest. My first Resurrection was not a normal human being, Harrow, and she struggled to pretend. Anger was her besetting sin. We had that in common. And when the cost of Lyctorhood was paid, when the emotions were at their peak… we found out the price for our sin. The monstrous retribution. To be chased for our crime to the ends of the universe, to have our deed stain our very faces and follow after us like a foul smell. She died after that first terrible assault.” - John (htn. pg. 346)
"That freak would have gone for me already… she could never act human." -Mercymorn (htn. pg. 408)
the lyctors knew some amount of truth about Alecto's resurrection, likely that shes essentially a resurrection beast (htn. pg. 478)
"'A monster, John!' Augustine barked. "She was a bloody monster in a human suit! She was a monster the moment you resurrected her, and then you went and made her worse!'" - Augustine (htn. pg. 478)
Gideon & Pyrrha liked Alecto despite the fact that the other lyctors (at least Mercy and Augustine) didn't (htn. pg. 479)
One of the reasons the lyctors wanted her dead was because the RBs were partially coming for her (htn. pg. 479)
Appears to claim Harrow's body after Gideon "dies" in the river (htn. pg. 500)
notes from nona the ninth
"Sometimes, [...] I don't like when you do- the necromancy word- [...] -but it feels nice at the same time. It's mixed up. It's like when you do that, it makes me sad- not sad that you did it, but sad that you can do it." - Nona, to Palamades (ntn. pg. 65) 
"Nona loved the blue sphere as much as she loved everything else. She, and nobody else, could hear it sing." (ntn. pg. 125)
"'And I'm not scared of dying. Really truly, Cam, I'm not…' 'Why not?' said Camilla. Nona thought about it. 'Because I like letting go of the pull-up bars and falling off,' she said. 'I don't like the part just before you let go and I don't like the part where you hit the floor, but I like the letting go.'"- Nona and Cam (ntn. pg. 125)
"Dust of my dust- such similar star salt- what they did to you and what they wrung from you and what shape they made you fill- we see you still- we seek you still- we murdered- we who murder- you inadvertent tool- you misused green thing- come back to us- take vengeance for us- we saw you- we see you- I see you." - Judith, (as Varun) to Nona (ntn. pg. 164)
Nona likes Gideon's (originally Pyrrhas?? maybe?) sunglasses, but only so long as nobody wore them (ntn. pg. 165)
"then she told herself sternly, Stop it! If she was going to do it, she thought, she might as well do it. She had some vague notion that when you committed to a thing you had to do it all the way. Who had said that to her? Who had taught her that? Once you've stepped in, said the voice in the back of her head, you're in. This isn't the Hokey Pokey. She had remembered something- she had finally remembered something! Only she didn't have anyone to tell." (ntn. pg. 203)
"Nona had thrown exactly two tantrums in her entire life. She couldn't remember anything about the first one, but Pyrrha had told her about it. Pyrrha had been laughing with her mouth, but not with her eyes: her eyes had been very brown and distant and uneasy, as though this tantrum had reminded Pyrrha of something her brain didn't want to bring back." (ntn. pg. 275)
"'But you see, Palamades, I don't mind dying,' said Nona, trying to make him understand. 'I've been doing it for ages. I'm not scared.'" (ntn. pg. 289)
"'I am glad you did not tell us this. We had no idea there was any recourse from Varun the Eater's effects, nor any beast.' 'Its pure theory,' Camilla said curtly. "Something's being transmitted through the light spectrum. Absorption through the eyes is worse for the brain.' This made Nona think of something. It tugged at the edges of her memory and stayed there, nagging.'" - We Suffer & Cam (ntn. pg. 322) 
Nona says that she never liked her hands (ntn. pg. 357)
"She wanted to shout. She wanted to be listened to. She wished the barrier had taken her hands. She wished she had thrust herself into it- become that big seething mass of flesh and meat and tendrils- ruined her body, just melted it; come back messed up, so that nobody could want her body but her, so that it would be hers and nobody else's. This was a horrible thing to think. Nona hated herself immediately and fervently." (ntn. pg. 358)
She hates having just two feet (ntn. pg. 390)
“You were the noise that was everywhere. It was like trying to talk to someone down a phone line with someone screaming through a megaphone in the same room. You drowned everything out. You were so huge and so complicated, and you were screaming, You wouldn’t stop screaming, You were so scared. You were so goddamn mad.” (ntn. pg. 405)
“You were screaming. I wanted you to stop, I wanted… I wanted you. I wanted you like a caveman wants a wildfire… or the sun. I thought you were going to take me, somehow. Purge me. Use me as an instrument. But you didn’t say anything…I was babbling, Show me. Come on. I’m ready. You kept screaming and screaming… like a baby in pain. So I tried to hurt you- I did hurt you. I reached out for you, and it hurt you… but I wasn’t strong enough. The caveman. The wildfire. The Neolithic priest staggering in front of the falling star.” (ntn. pg. 407)
“I wanted to make you the most beautiful body I could think of. He paused and said: “But I was stressed, okay? I was insane. Most of what had made me John had gone somewhere else. There were a few little thoughts left…a handful of things that made me me… a couple scraps of id. It’s not fair to judge me, right? I didn’t do this thinking… I didn’t do it like art. When I was seven, you know, all Nana had to play with in her house was some of Mum’s old toys. And my favourite out of all of them…” He gave a long, shuddering sigh. “My favourite was her old Hollywood Hair Barbie,” he murmured. “I loved her little gold outfit and her long yellow hair. She was the best. She got to have all the adventures. [...]” He said, from my blood and bone and vomit I conjured up a beautiful labyrinth to house you in. I was terrified you’d find some way to escape before I was done. I made you look like a Christmas tree fairy… I made you look like a Renaissance angel… I made you Adam and Eve… Galatea. Barbie. Frankenstien’s monster with long yellow hair. He said, As the world went up I remade us both. I hid me in you… I hid you in me. And when we were together… once the shaman had claimed the sun… I became God.”- John (ntn. pg. 408)
“Do you remember what you said to me once I had done it? When we stood here together?” She looked at him and she said, “Yes.” He said- “You said, ‘I picked you to change, and this is how you repay me?’” She said- “What else did I say?” He said: “You said, ‘What have you done to me? I am a hideousness.’” She said- “What else did I say?” He said, “Where did you put the people? Where did they go?” She said, “I still love you.” He said, "You said that too.” - John & Alecto/Harrow (ntn. Pg. 410)                                                
Nona has some kind of blackout on top of the truck and something happens in that time that convinces Pyrrha of her true identity (ntn. pg. 413)
Also based on Nona’s reaction at that point, maybe Alecto didn’t like Pyrrha even though Pyrrha liked Alecto (ntn. pg. 413)
“She’s scared to die. You’re afraid of so many things, but she’s only afraid to die. Then when the disciples come to you and say the word Lyctor, she does not understand that they want the thing you did to her- she watches as you watch… watch them misunderstand the process.” - Harrow, to John, (ntn. pg. 434)
“In [Aiglemene’s] hands was a huge black-metal pike about the same height as her, with an edge that gleamed in the light. Nona couldn’t stop herself looking at that edge: for some reason it made her palms sweat, and the back of her neck itch again.” (ntn. pg. 454)
“I might not help you when.. I'm back," she said, not quite understanding I. “I'll be different. I'll remember everything. I'll remember the thing I'm trying to forget. And Palamedes-  I won't love him. I won't love Camilla, or Pyrrha, or Hot Sauce, or even Noodle. I won't love anything… I won't know how. I won't be me at all, or.. I'll be the me who knows the thing, and knowing the thing means I'm not Nona- I'm someone else." (ntn. pg. 460)
she recognizes the tower, and the devils (ntn. pg. 440, and 447, respectively)
“You let that monster out of its box," said Ianthe, "and you start us down a path nobody can save us from. If God truly wants her out… if Teacher set this all up… if he wants her…"  “Wants her? He told me to kill her. He said Make it quick, but kill her, said me with my blood could do it- said me with my blood, I was the only one… " [...] “He loves her! " Ianthe howled. “John loves Alecto - John needs Alecto! Without that piece of Goddamn fridge meat, he's nothing- and we need to keep him that way!” - Ianthe & Kiriona, accidentally prompting nona to remember everything (ntn. pg. 470)
“She had been taken down this corridor: she had squeezed through this crack in the rock- not a passageway, not at that point. John had told her he had something to show her. He had said, It's very pretty. You'll like it. [...] John loved her. She was John's cavalier. She loved John. For she so loved the world that she had given them John. For the world so loved John that she had been given. For John had so loved her that he had made her she. for John had loved the world. [...] She hadn't come on purpose; the scrap of black-eyed meat had asked for it- the chain of a kiss: the ice that burnt the flesh of the mouth that had stuck to the mouth that was frozen.The teardrop on the hand. The hand that John had fashioned. [...] John had said, It's so beautiful. Come and look. She had said, There are almost no beautiful things left. where is Anastasia? Let me talk to Anastasia. [...] Glowworms, she had told John. Technically beetles, said John, but I always loved them. Narrow beetles with long strands hanging off them- a carpet of shifting, dead, winking lights at the top of the grave. Greenish, orangish, yellowish, moving over one another silently with those long filaments hanging down. [...] And the water- the huge pool of real salt water, where she had knelt and drank- [...] John and she had swum to the centre hummock rising out of the pool. Not an island, not really. An outcropping. With the marble pillars, and the marble top, and the long low marble table. He said he thought it was a nice place to be. To lie down. She had liked hard things to lie down on. It was hard to endure having a spine.” (ntn. starting page 471)
“There she was; John had made her so ugly, so unbearably ugly. The terrible face, with the terrible arms and legs and the terrible middle part, and the terrible hair, and the terrible ears: the nose too short, the ears too brief. But there she was- and within her the child, asleep, with the strange sword. The sword- her sword- her own edge had been pushed out, her swinging edge, her toy. Her plain bladed sword. And her body was chained up…” (ntn. pg. 474)
“Then Alecto remembered the vow, and turned back upon the altar to face the second child and raised the sword with wrath in her heart, for they meant to bring destruction upon her. But when the black-eyed infant showed her countenance to Alecto, Alecto recalled her, for it was a face one dreamed in Alecto's dream. and Alecto stayed the sword.” (ntn. pg. 476)
“And Alecto said, Pyrrha, he laid me down as an appeasement to them; he fed you to them as an appeasement to them; but he has never appeased me, and now all he has done was teach me how to die." (ntn. Pg. 476) 
"Alecto said, I am very sorry about Samael. The child made no answer. Alecto said, I remember my vows. As I swore to Anastasia I swear to you. I am in your service until you bid me the favour, and whatsoever you appoint I shall perform, and consider the vow rendered. This is what I promised, until such a time as you deal with me as you see fit.” (ntn. pg. 477)
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cerusee · 11 months
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Cerusee’s Jiang Cheng Fic Recs List
@tavina_writes asked for these, and compiling them was a wonderful way to kill a lot of time I would have otherwise wasted trying to catch up on my backlog of The New Yorker. This isn’t really a comprehensive list; it’s primarily drawn from my AO3 bookmarks, so there’s some good stuff out there I read and liked a lot that I’m forgetting about because it wasn’t something I was compelled to bookmark in the moment. But it does mean everything on here is a fic I liked so much I knew I’d want to remember that it existed. Mostly, it’s stuff I love and find hugely satisfying to read and reread; a few of these are shorter fics where the idea itself really stuck with me as much as the writing did, and I found myself thinking, “I wish more people explored this idea, because this is a great angle for Jiang Cheng and [X].”
Many of these are shipfics, pairings including, but not limited to ChengQing, ChengXian, ZhanCheng, and ZhanChengXian. I mostly grouped by author, rather than pairing or theme. (Everything that has a pairing lists the pairing in the description; for the fics labeled “Gen”: the gen pertains to Jiang Cheng and not to background ships.) It is not otherwise organized by any principle, except me moving loosely chronologically backwards through the aforementioned bookmarks.
I mentioned to a mutual I was putting this together and they were like “oh yay! New Jiang Cheng recs!” I did not have the heart to admit at that time that a large chunk of it was either gonna be their own fics or stuff their friends wrote. Sorry! The fandom circle-jerk continues! I have little fresh meat to offer you. But I refuse to apologize for having good taste in Jiang Cheng fics.👅
https://archiveofourown.org/works/45891532
Made to be Undone
twilightarc
This is my favorite ChengXian fic that I still somehow haven’t commented on. It’s Mer!-Jiang Cheng—and can I say, mer AUs aren’t normally my thing, but if they were all like this, maybe they would be—protecting his half-human orphaned nephew Jin Ling from the human cultivation world, while getting drawn towards that world after meeting bright and brilliant rogue cultivator Wei Wuxian (and WWX’s beautifully-drawn and very alive rogue cultivator parents). The essential conflict of the story feels real and significant, the scenario is unique and incredibly engaging, and I love the way the author works certain elements (Zidian as a terrifying lightning artifact once stolen from a sky god in true mythological fashion, the little mermaid-esque “giving up your tail to grow legs is agony and a sacrifice”, everything about the way WWX approaches his life and appreciates his various lovers, and as always, some classic, brilliant, WWX-as-inventor and WWX-as-overbearing-do-gooder). You know how sometimes film critics like to hail a brand new movie as an instant classic? This is an instant classic of a fic. Holy shit it’s so good.
Also it has amazing amazing gorgeous sugar_shoal art and I feel like the fact that I got this far without mentioning that is a testament to the quality of the writing, and how much this fic gripped me.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/45892567
Lycoris radiata
sugar_shoal
SPEAKING OF RECENT NEW FAVORITES USING TROPES I’M NOT NORMALLY INTO. I am haunted by this Chengxian hanahaki fic. The poetry of the language, the raw imagery of it (baskets of twigs and mulch and rotting flowers, surgically removed from the patient’s chest), the something-akin-to-identity-porn nature of Jiang Cheng’s selective amnesia, deliberately hidden from his loved ones, and then tested and almost broken when he and Wei Wuxian meet again—it’s so, so, so good. Everything doesn’t feel okay, at the end of it, but in that deliciously tragic way where you can be pretty sure they’re gonna make the same mistakes again, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Personally I think op should write a sequel. 😃😃😃
https://archiveofourown.org/works/44222813
The Accumulation of Small Happinesses
sugar_shoal
Want a ZhanChengXian modern AU with cultivation and magic and cool teleportation talismans, featuring some Extremely Wholesome Juniors, an “and here’s the moment we almost broke, before we saved it” relationship backstory that I find wholly convincing and wonderfully heartbreaking for this polycule, and an absolute banger of a romantic public proposal? Also, some fucking stunning art from the author, who has no call to be that good at art AND at writing? This is your fic. Also there’s a joke about losing your luggage that just…I love that joke. This fic is very romantically satisfying but it’s also so incredibly funny. Could have been called Love Across Time Zones. People express devotion via organizational binders. Jiang Cheng gets to scoff at appropriate moments, Lan Wangji is a simp, and Wei Wuxian can’t stop obsessing about the time he proposed during sex when the proposee’s mouth was full of his dick.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/34932967
First Blood
sugar_shoal
Oh! My first sugar_shoal fic! I love this one. It’s Chengxian with young teenage WWX and JC on their first semi-unsupervised Night Hunt fighting some water beasties. Every moment of reading this, I was like, “look! you can actually see Jiang Cheng’s brain carving out its future destructive pathways here!” The adolescent infatuation, the sense of danger he and WWX share during the hunt (even though there’s an adult hanging around), aaaaaand also Jiang Fengmian being the pitch-perfect absolute garbage dad, one who isn’t quite mean, doesn’t hit, isn’t quite verbally abusive, and who can show support and affection—but not to his child, and who is leaving big valley-shaped holes in the middle of his son’s skull (metaphorical). (Seriously JFM is barely in this but I actually had that moment of *gasping* because of how effectively he’s deployed as a parent wounding his child.)
Also it’s got ART.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/38249668
Prescription
sugar_shoal
A short. I wrote down in my notes “married ChengQing where they bully each other into healthy behavior” and I don’t think I can improve on that here. It is extremely funny and it’s got art baybee.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/41558082
Pillow Talk
sugar_shoal
Literally nothing I don’t love about this ZhanChengzian fic feat. post-nut LWJ v. JC’s extreme abandonment issues, with a sleeping WWX between them, but actually my favorite detail is that LWJ has cum on his chin for the whole talk, and also JC falls off the bed while attempting to walk-of-shame out of the room and the walk doesn’t go well because WWX is sleeping on his hair. FEATURES ART. LWJ: so you cried during sex. Interesting. JC: did I? Well then, I’m going to yeet myself out of this room, this relationship, and this plane of existence. LWJ, who discovered things about himself during this evening’s sex: no, no…do it some more.
This is funny, it’s touching, it’s memorable, and I love it immensely.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/24946966
You see I'm weaponless
Pingwina
Ooh, more on the vein of ChengQing bullying each other into self-care! I just legit wish this was an entire genre. I also genuinely wish this author had translated more of her very, very good work into English, but I’m grateful she made the effort for the stuff she did.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/23770399
Lifelike
Pingwina
Gen. I’m falling back on notes again here, but the one I had for this was “the one with JC crying because WWX drew them as a happy family” which is a thing that does happen in this fic. Like at one point baby WWX has to coax a crying baby JC out of an inn because he flipped his shit when WWX drew a nice picture of their family where JFM was holding JC, and JC is like “unrealistic. Blocked.” Ouch! It’s good.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/43934664
marked
alessandriana
Who doesn’t love a really good sex pollen/fuck or die romp? With abandonment issues firmly foregrounded? This is some incredibly classic and very satisfying emotionally charged ZhanChengXian “Night Hunt went wrong” fucking. It’s very appealing to my specific ZhanChengXian preferences, in which WWX is JC’s primary preferred sexual partner, and JC’s interest in LWJ is secondary to that, but even if ZhanCheng is your main thing…this is the hot porn with the feelings.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/27455818
the trick is to keep breathing
alessandriana
Gen. HOLY SHIT ALL-TIME FAVE. You have your poisoned Jiang Cheng having his requisite loss of touch with reality during his illness, you have SO MUCH good WWX and Jin Ling losing their minds over him and caring over him, the grief, the bonding, the background vengeance, there’s Jin Ling’s inadequate soup but A+ “soup for the uncles!” instinct…weirdly my favorite part, though, is in the beginning, with JC instantly realizing he’s been poisoned, and throwing up in an extremely practical attempt to mitigate the damage, knowing he might still not survive. There’s something I just dig about that attitude in the face of a crisis. It feels right for Jiang Cheng the-experienced-sect-leader-and-uncle-to-a-future-sect-leader. I am not kidding that this influenced how I think of adult JC and Jin Ling, and WWX’s relationship to them.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/31603913
respire, suspire (all the old white bones forsaken)
alessandriana
Okay this one comes with a caveat: Jin Ling dies. He’s murdered, in early childhood, and Jiang Cheng is suicidal over it. I frankly had a hard time getting past that incredibly tragic premise, but I did, and if you can, this is a wrenching and beautiful story about healing. (Also, things are a bit more complicated than the premise suggests…although to be clear, Jin Ling is dead and is not coming back.) It’s ZhanCheng and they do fuck about their grief, which is like. The best flavor of ZhanCheng. But the overall scenario for the grief is a little more complicated than the usual, in a way I just like.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/28666386
not too strong
fluffysocks
And now we’ve reached the fluffysocks portion of the Jiang Cheng recs! (FYI you will need to be logged into AO3 to view any of their fics.) Holy SHIT this one one of my favorite ever JC fics, featuring what probably sounds like a crack pairing—Lan Qiren/Jiang Cheng—but is written so beautifully as a slow burn, May-December marriage of convenience, entered into for the sole purpose of protecting their respective families from political machinations, and gradually building into genuine intimacy and trust and loyalty, and it works so. well. in this story. It’s got an insane amount of compelling AU worldbuilding, including a lot of Lan Sect lore, tossed out casually in dialogue and description (I am jealous as a writer of how well fluffysocks does this in their work and as a writer, I periodically have to take breaks from being completely immersed in the work to go ‘oh, you can write it this way, to do that’). But more than that, the author just really, really, really gets the complexity of JC’s relationships with each member of his family, and both the loud and subtle manifestations of family trauma as well as some pretty serious PTSD. This is the vanishingly rare fic that convinces me that Jiang Cheng could, under the right circumstances, potentially be happier with some distance his family, especially his parents, without diminishing his intense love for that family in any way.
I know that pairing will probably be a turn-off for most people, but this is simply one of the best Jiang Cheng fics I have ever read, and I found it an immensely engaging, emotionally gripping read in every respect, with every one of JC’s relationships that I’m invested in being given a satisfying weight (including some blink-and-you’ll-miss-it ChengQing).
(The Wangxian and XuanLi elements of this fic are also tremendously fun! They’re not the main focus, but they’re extremely plot-significant, especially Wangxian having an ongoing elopement saga semi-in-the-background.)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/25774423
returning, garbed in silk
fluffysocks
More fluffysocks! This one is pretty much straight up SangCheng PWP, but with more of that throwaway worldbuilding (in this case, no war AU, and political but very much happy and mutually enjoyable marriage) and holy shit, so much clothing porn, in both literal and metaphorical fashion. I love a good creative sex scene, and that is this fic. Also, JC still has issues, because that is what happens when you live in a toxic household with abusive parents, even if you are happily married. (Sometimes, when I think idly about writing that no-war political ChengQing marriage fic that I will never actually write, I think about this fic.)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/26895568
like clean earth and linen
fluffysocks
Sexual/romantic ChengNing isn’t normally my thing, but I am not made of stone. This is your classic sex pollen fuck-or-die, but with a memorable and interesting twist: JC (the victim of the sex pollen) is anorgasmic (he can’t come!). I love every way that that informs the premise, the way all the characters think and relate to it, the way JC and WN ultimately form a new bond over what they experience getting through the sex pollen escapade together. (There’s also a bit in there that will always stick with me—JC essentially swallowing some grief over not being able to serve his ancestors by having children, because his ancestors gave him a body not capable of siring children. Sometimes you run into something really real, in the things people are bringing to their work.)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/27058873
moored
fluffysocks
ZhanCheng. Ah! My first fluffysocks fic! I have read this one eight or nine times, I think. Per usual, it’s a lot of great, evocative worldbuilding built up in the background, an alternate war AU where the Yunmeng sibs all get married out of the Jiang for their own safety after the destruction of Lotus Pier, but without outright war happening just yet. WWX and JC both get married to Lan Wangji, but one of these marriages is true love, and one of them is an afterthought.
Except—it’s SO much more complicated than that! There’s quite a lot going on! The whole story is told from JC’s extremely unreliable, heavily traumatized point of view. It’s an absolute master-class in giving the audience all the pieces, but not necessarily in a way that makes the most important elements obvious on the first pass. (Like, to be clear, this was a fucking delight to read the first time! I loved if right away! But it holds up so, so well not just on a reread, but on multiple rereads; I find new illuminating details every time.)
Fluffysocks just really gets Jiang Cheng’s trauma-warped thinking, in like every iteration of it, and all their JC stories are worth checking out for that, among other pleasures. Huuuuuuuuge fan.
(Also this has some really lovely Yunmeng Bros content in it. JC and WWX may be married to the same person, but they themselves are not sexually/romantically involved. The short version of the marital arrangement was that Wangxian were happy to get married for WWX’s political protection, but WWX wouldn’t agree unless he could bring JC along for the ride, which I think is very insanely devotedly brotherly of him.)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/27221482
a grave so familiar
half_right_writer
Gen. You ever just read some holy shit, hitting every imaginable nerve ending hurt/comfort? Hook-it-straight-to-my-veins hurt/comfort? Blorbos voicing their deepest fears while most vulnerable hurt/comfort? There’s a moment when it seems like someone could die about it hurt/comfort? That’s this for Jiang Cheng, feat. Wei Wuxian, trapped in a cave after defeating a monster. And like. Spoilers, but Jiang Cheng spends about 50% of this fic assuming they’re in complete and total darkness, trapped in this cave, until WWX goes wtf? No of course not, how did you think I could see to hold your hair back while you were vomiting from your concussion migraine?—oh. Uh oh.
That’s the kind of hurt/comfort we’re talking here, baby.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/39259968
For What, For All But Myself
not_rude_ginger
Gen, although with some implied future XiCheng in sequels to come. Oh how I have recced this before. So many times while it was a WIP! I will do so again here.
Okay first of all, I’d be hard out to name a fic that does a better job of digging into Jiang Cheng’s fucked-up, self-sabotaging, self-loathing mindset, while simultaneously showing us what an an effective and successful leader he is in Yunmeng Jiang. The cognitive dissonance is juicy. It’s also a really wonderful portrait of a thriving cultivation sect (populated by such fun, colorful, and extremely loyal OC disciples, that I actually didn’t really register that Jiang Cheng was the only canon character in the first couple of chapters until the author mentioned how much she was looking forward to having JC interact with other canon characters, 😛). It’s a magical mpreg story, but it’s a magical mpreg story with someone whose body is still not physiologically equipped to gestate, so there’s a real sense of danger and body horror that comes with the pregnancy, something I found tense and gripping even when I had some pretty strong suspicions about how that element was going to turn out. I also cannot stress enough how much I adore, ADORE the handling of the Jiang Cheng-Jin Ling and Jiang Cheng-Wei Wuxian relationships in this story. JC and JL’s love and familiarity with each other is so omnipresent, so palpable, and at times, just funny as hell. Similarly, JC and WWX spend the first several chapters of this being deliciously estranged by dint of mutual stupidity (but also more by JC’s emotional trauma), and seeing them go from barely able to speak to one another to fully, joyfully reconciled at the end was satisfying and dramatic and FUN at every stage. (The reverse golden core reveal here is a Very Good version of the reverse golden core reveal. 5 stars out of 5; would reread multiple times, and I have.)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/31832713
The Needle and the Nail
littledust
Oh my gosh what a great ChengQing fic. And what a great WEN QING fic, generally; it ain’t all about Jiang Cheng! But it is also about Jiang Cheng for Wen Qing in this WQ-was-in-JGY’s-murder-basement AU that picks up with some nice in media res for Wen Qing during the post-timeskip plot, when she suddenly regains consciousness with a compromised memory. There’s pining, there’s longing, there’s WQ grappling with her own guilt and desires, while struggling to solve the mystery of her broken memory. (Spoilers: she’s suuuuuuper into Jiang Cheng. They have an amazing battle couple scene at the second siege of the Burial Mounds, and it is. so. sexy.) I could go ON about things I love about this fic specifically for Wen Qing but I’m trying to keep it JC-centric for this list so I’ll just say: love this fic for him, and how it turns out for him and them. And also this is such a great fucking Wen Qing fic!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/38853858
Rumor Has It
roseclaw
Gen. This is a random lil thing to include, maybe, but it made an impression on me for the way it depicts Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling’s relationship in particular. It’s a crossover with Tamora Pierce, mostly from the POV of Alanna, with some fun translation bits, like Alanna’s translation mechanism doing a confusing literal iteration of “Jiujiu”. Jin Ling is a treasure here, and Jiang Cheng is just a perfectly stiff, fiercely protective uncle trying to both teach his teenaged nephew lessons he’s going to need as an adult, and also trying to protect Jin Ling in potentially dangerous circumstances, while circling the wagons about the uncomfortable issue of Wei Wuxian with this foreigner who randomly showed up and decided the local necromancer was her business.
https://archiveofourown.org/series/2600314https://archiveofourown.org/works/28484370
the long way back home
Misila
Another major fave! It’s a modern AU with a very complex, nuanced portrayal of depression, abuse, and toxic family dynamics, as a well as the long, slow, and sometimes frustrating journey towards emotional healing. It’s ChengQing—a really fun ChengQing, too; I’m very fond of this depiction of Wen Qing as a fully realized person with her own desires and motivations and personal flaws, as she deserves—with equal emphasis given to WWX and JYL and their relationships.
It’s pretty heavy material—spoiler/content warning, Jiang Cheng is actively suicidal for a large chunk of the fic, especially in the beginning, and the story does not shy away from some of the spikier, grittier aspects of mental illness. In most stories, I’d raise an eyebrow at a suicidal JC, since grimly hanging on and doing his job no matter what is kind of Jiang Cheng’s Whole Thing—he’s got two motivations, family and duty! However, I think this is a painfully believable scenario for a setting in which Jiang Cheng has no duty to cling to as a lifeline, but is still stuck with the family (abusive parents, a well-meaning sibling unintentionally enabling the abuse in the name of peacemaking and family harmony, and another sibling who vanished inexplicably from their lives seven years ago before turning up and acting like nothing happened).
It’s long, and a WIP, but I can’t think of another WIP I’m following I’m as invested in as this one. Like I said, it’s ultimately a journey of healing, and it’s been massively satisfying to see all the characters get as far as they currently have. Every character feels recognizable to me, too, which is tricky in a modern AU.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/38149420
back by her side
Misila
Speaking of Misila and ChengQing and characters being in character: I’m very fond of this AU short, with a post-canon ChengQing, and JC engaging in reckless night hunting while Wen Qing is pregnant, in order to work out his golden core reveal feelings. It doesn’t really fix anything, but it’s smartly written and a nice look at both of them, and how you navigate a relationship when one person is going through Some Fucking Shit, and the other person is not but is handling their partner’s Some Fucking Shit with the patience and grace you muster for the people you love.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/30061470
the lantern by the door
Lirelyn
AN ALL TIME FUCKING FAVE. I have cited this before as thee fic that turned me into a ZhangChengXian shipper. There are so many things to love about it. The slow burn between JC and LWJ in particular, the way the complexities of JC and WWX’s teenage sexual relationship are revealed over time, the Popo Raising Her Grandchild Rights, the tender handling of the emotional wounds and insecurities of each member of the triad, the specificity of Jiang Cheng’s family inheritance (family boat building business, with a house on the lake they rent out most of the year, it’s PERFECT). This is a fic that actually does found family right, both generally and in the specific terms of adults coming together to raise children together because it’s better for everyone that way. Such an incredibly satisfying read; I think I’ve read it maybe five times, and read selected favorite portions of some chapters more than that. Also I love the recurring joke about Lan Zhan’s stalled dissertation.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/36925639
No Complaints
nirejseki
Gen. This one just lingered with me - a short fic of Lan Qiren and Jiang Cheng having a moment of bonding, when LQR runs into an exhausted JC trying to soothe an upset baby nephew. This is a highly, highly underrated parallel, and I wish I could read more stories specifically about these two.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/27657590
The crowded home of ghosts
muirgen_lys
Gen, and a new addition to the list I was compiling! The premise of this is so simple—post-canon Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng encounter each other in Carp Tower when JC is imminently suffering an episode of PTSD, and then they talk about their mutual damaged mental health, and come to WWX asking to rejoin the Jiang and JC saying oh yes! remarkably fast, like two hungry chickens going at lunchtime grubs. But it’s the particular delicacy of the writing that I loved here—and also, Jin Ling knowing exactly what’s going on, when Jiang Cheng tells him he’s going to his rooms. (I live for those moments of casual familial intimacy between Jin Ling and Jin Ling’s Uncle. 🥰)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/25389874
Five Dogs, One Cat
ryfkah
Gen. This is just straight up dumb yunmeng bros shenanigans involving dogs. It is extremely funny.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/27723368
By Any Other Name
ShanaStoryteller
Gen. A Classique. Everyone knows this one. Everyone has read this one. This turns up on the wangxianficfinder request list about twice a month. The fact that everyone has read this one will not stop me from reccing it, because it’s a great story! It’s a lot of fun, it’s some fine identity porn, and it’s on this list because in my heart, I believe that this is how things would-have could-have should-have played out between the Yunmeng bros if WWX had gone directly to Lotus Pier and identified himself to Jiang Cheng, after his resurrection, which just makes it incredibly satisfying to read on that front.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/24213475
Lynchpin
ShanaStoryteller
ChengQing, although that’s not the focus. The most classic of Classiques! This another “everyone’s read this” fic, but I’m still including it because I love it, and I think about it more than any other time travel fixit AU fic I’ve read. I love the Yunmeng siblings focus on this one, the way Jiang Cheng wants to fix the world, sure, okay…but first and foremost, he wants to keep his siblings alive, and he’s using not just future foreknowledge, but also decades of personal growth as sort of cheat code both to doing that, and also to improving his personal relationships. 😛 It’s fucking great.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/25053970
With Absolute Splendor
Lise
Gen. Another Classique. I believe this was the first Untamed fic I read, probably even before I finished the show (I remember getting to the Take Care flashback in the show and sitting up and going, “Oh so that HAPPENED? That’s not just a fan thing?” before the scene in question rewired my brain to prioritize Yunmeng Bros reconciliation over all other psychological needs). This is the fic that convinced me all Jiang Cheng’s personal beefs can probably be settled if you simply let him plan a sibling’s wedding. Nothing has even dissuaded me from this. Thank you for the brainworm, Lise!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/28713273
on a tight leash
serein
Ah yes, an early ChengXian fic I read through my fingers before I discarded shame. First of all, the horseback sex is hot. Second of all, this is so deliciously unresolved; it’s a Qiongqi Path AU, where it all goes down differently after Jiang Cheng pretty much literally reins WWX in during the banquet scene instead of letting him go off on his own, but even though the short-term disaster is averted, you can still see the long-term one looming on the horizon. This is not the Healthy Happy version of ChengXian, but it’s a pretty sexy one! Atmospheric as hell, too.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/45767035
Even Lie Becomes Truth
LainellaFay
I’m a little hesitant to include this on a Jiang Cheng rec list because it’s not really about Jiang Cheng. It’s ChengXian, but it’s essentially a Wei Wuxian fic where his motivation is about Jiang Cheng. I’m including it because, honestly, it’s just really really good, and if you like ChengXian and the darker, more morally dubious undercurrents of the mutually obsessive nature of ChengXian, this is a great fic for you! It’s a story where Wei Wuxian does some ethically dubious-to-outright-wrong mad scientist experimentation to make sure he gets to keep Jiang Cheng as his chosen person, even if their red strings of fate aren’t naturally intertwined; Jiang Cheng remains happily ignorant of every sketchy thing WWX is doing throughout the fic, right up to the happy-ever-after-from-a limited-point-of-view ending. A story that just made me go oooooooooooooh a lot, before scuttling down and writing a mini essay in the comments.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/32771344
[Refrain]
sugar_shoal
And you know what? If I’m including the prev fic on this list, I’m including this one, too, which is also not actually about Jiang Cheng, just about ChengXian and Wei Wuxian descending into madness about Jiang Cheng, very sexily. Post canon, Jiang Cheng dies of a qi deviation offscreen, heavily implied to be due to not being able to be normal about his core, once he knows. Wei Wuxian comes back to Lotus Pier to investigate and spends days, weeks, months, years, and then centuries/millenia trying to liberate Jiang Cheng’s long-corrupted spirit, gradually losing all his other relationships and also his mind. It’s fucked up! And really good! I think about it a lot.
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mamahersh · 11 months
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Mamahersh’s Post-MAG-200 Fanfic Recommendation Mega Thread
@a-mag-a-day
In celebration of us finishing The Magnus Archives (even if I admittedly fell off around S2 and have been mostly lurking since then), I have compiled all of my fave post series fics for your enjoyment! I will be grouping them in some big, general categories, which I’ll list above the read more here. Depending on the size of this post, it might start looking a bit like that “Do you like the sky?” post But I can assure you that I have read all of these and can give them my stamp of approval!
If you finished the series and were wishing for your best boys to finally be happy, then boy howdy do I have some fanfiction for you!
Time Travel
Somewhere Else
AUs
Uncategorized JonMartin Fluff
By these categories, we should hopefully cover all the recommendations I have, and I hope you all find some new fics! (or enjoy rereading fics you haven’t enjoyed in awhile)
TIME TRAVEL
where there’s a will, we make a way by bubonickitten
"So, what does happen if an Eye learns to See within itself?
What happens is this: the Archive Beholds the Watcher – and the Watcher blinks first."
________________________
Jon goes back to before the world ended and tries to forge a different path.
Probably my fave time travel fic in this fandom hands down; it is also currently the longest whilst still unfinished. While I try not to recommend unfinished fics that I am uncertain of their return to activity, this is a big exception and personally I love everything about it! It’s got Jon dealing with trauma through the lens of his speaking only in Statements, Martin being saved from his downward spiral into the Lonely way earlier in S4, Georgie actually sticking around, Basira having a better grasp of the situation and being more understanding about it, and everyone generally sticking close to character while managing to buck parts of the narrative. I cannot recommend this fic enough, and I very likely already did back near the start of S5.
Something’s Different About You Lately by thesnadger
Jonathan Sims has been head archivist for just a few months, but he has memories of holding the position for years. He remembers monsters, and darkness, and the end of the world. Somehow, he'll have to keep everyone safe from what's coming. Meanwhile, his assistants can't understand why their prickly jerk of a boss has gone sappy all of a sudden.
So TMA time travel fics that focus on Jon going back tend to come in two varieties. There’s the “Jon’s mind goes back and replaces himself/inhabits his past self’s body” and then there’s the “Jon physically goes back so there’s two Jons”. The first two on this list are of the first variety, and if I remember right this was one of the first I ever read. However, I recommend this one specifically because this has an amazing ending. Like, it might just be me, but many of the endings in these feel relatively unsatisfying because there’s magically a third option where Jon comes out unscathed while saving his S1 archives crew from the Horrors. For whatever reason, it was incredibly satisfying having a fic that didn’t shy away from the options presented in S4 and S5 and I love how they characterize everyone in this one as well.
100 Seconds to Midnight by starspangledbread
Jon and Martin find themselves back in 2011 after attempting to release the fears from their reality. The world is the same one they left behind, but now something has come back with them. They have a chance to destroy the fears once and for all, but it proves harder than expected. Who knew that the best laid plans could be thwarted by nosy co-workers, office romance, the inevitable learning curve of being a time traveler turned grifter, and the refusal to believe in subtlety?
Did someone say Extinction!Jon? This also is a part of a series, though the true sequel to this one is currently unfinished (though it should eventually be completed and only has one chapter to go). An excellent romp, I definitely recommend if you’re looking for something kinda dark, some comedy, a little OOC, and Martin being able to embrace his crime side in the name of saving the world.
Yesterday is Here by CirrusGrey
"Who the hell are you?" Jon could feel his hands shaking. The man laughed, taking a step forward and raising a hand to point at him. "I'm you, from the future!" he said, then swayed, eyes going unfocused, and collapsed to the floor in a dead faint. -------- Post-season-four Jon and Martin time travel back to the season one Archives.
Written by my fave (and most prolific) JMart author, we have a perfect example of the other kind of time travel fix it fic in the form of Jon physically travelling to the past to try and save the world. As expected by someone I am calling my fave JMart author, we’re going to be getting double dose on the JMart. I highly recommend if you’re looking for something that starts a little bittersweet, but then ends in copious amounts of fluff.
Reverb (Series) by Wolftraps
Undoing the apocalypse would have been enough for Jon, if all his people survived. Without them, Jon's only recourse is making it so it never happened in the first place. He's going to do better this time.
Summary from the first fic in the Reverb series, I highly recommend the first two fics in this series for different reasons. “The Reverb in These Holy Halls” is a great time travel fic that takes some really interesting turns by the end and unlike most fics actually has Jon try to keep Tim safe by keeping him out of the Archives pre-S1. However “Gossip” I recommend if you enjoy those fics formatted to look like official communication of some kind. It’s got people outside the Archives trying to figure out what’s wrong with them during the events of the first fic, and while it would be very confusing to read without the first fic, I’d almost say it’s worth it if you aren’t feeling the tags on the first one. Really fun and entertaining, you can’t go wrong with either one.
The Triumph of Galatea (for Acis is transformed) by TheOestofOCs
Statement of Hazel Rutter.
Jon couldn’t stop reading.
The Fears, however, are a bit more powerful than Jonah gave them credit for. Jon opens the door, but the world can’t hold what’s on the other side.
Time falls through, instead. Past becomes present, and the future is undone.
Statement begins.
Another fic I definitely recommended back at episode 160, but is well worth the second recommendation and/or re-read. Time Travel, but what if Jon could control as well as go into the dreams of the assistants/other Eye aligned people instead of just his victims’ dreams? Very good, even if unfinished, though the author seems likely to finish someday. Check out their other work as well, it’s all very good and has my fave Circus themed fic written to date.
a map of what matters most by gruhukens
“Is that a body,” Tim blurts before he can stop himself, rising to his feet. Martin looks, if possible, even more scared.
“He’s alive!” he hisses, almost defensively. “It’s not - it’s not Gertrude again, I didn’t kill him, he just – I don’t know what happened to him, I just found him in the stacks like this.”
“And you dragged him up here?” Tim says, and then registers several things at once – the build, the hair texture; the little round scars peppering a pair of thin hands and an awfully familiar face. “Wait, is that Jon?”
----
Jon stumbles back into an earlier Archive, looking for a way to fix the world. (Or, mom says it's my turn for the obligatory time travel au)
Directly inspired by CirrusGrey’s fic that I recommended earlier, this is another: Jon travels physically into the past fic. This one though is far more bittersweet than “Yesterday is Here”, but still an excellent read and does a great job at fleshing out the relationships between all the characters.
Saving the Universe: For Dummies by GhostChoir
Finding a man bleeding out in the alleyway was not what Elias wanted to do today. And he certainly didn’t mean to befriend him. But things never did go how he expected.
****** A Post-MAG200 Jon meets a 1970s Elias, an Elias from before he was corrupted by Jonah. Together, the two of them learn to cope with grief, drink more tea than any two people should be able to consume, and commiserate over shitty bosses. Oh, and just for the hell of it, they stop an apocalypse along the way.
Now for a change of pace: What if Jon time travels to the time of early Gertrude and Elias pre-Jonafying? A very good fic is what! While it’s been awhile since I read this, I do remember it’s quite good and deserves a chance. Note: this is NOT Jonathan/Elias, so my apologies if you were looking for that, but it is two very lonely men getting to just have a reliable friend in times of trouble.
A Little Game of Cat and Mouse by Paptato
“Jonah Magnus.” The cloudy silhouette snarled as it’s hand clamped tightly around Jonah's ascot. That was indeed his name, but Jonah couldn’t begin to fathom what he did to have it spat out with such hatred.
But nonetheless, Jonah was a gentleman and he would kindly address the angry figure as politely as possible, “Yes, and you are?”
“What?” The form spluttered as it slowly came into focus. Ah, yes. That probably wasn’t the proper response to being held at gunpoint by a random stranger. Must have been the blow to his head.
(Or in which Jonathan Sims goes back in time and tries to pull a Terminator, but fails and Jonah Magnus finds a new mystery to solve.)
This is that Jonah Magnus/Jonathan Sims enemies to lovers fic your friends warn you about in a good way. It’s not done, but I think it’s still being updated very slowly. Even if all I ever read is the currently released 11 chapters, I will consider it my one exception to my dislike of Jonah/Jon. As you can probably guess by the description, it’s a time travel fix it where Jon gets shunted back in time to when Jonah was still very human and still trying to figure out the Fears. The Web keeps Jon from explaining his circumstances or anything to do with Jonah’s future in particular, but this is a good thing and they both get to learn how to be more human in a world that previously was very antagonistic to those goals. It’s got a heavy dose of comedy, plenty of romantic tension, and lots of both surprising and unsurprising cameos. If you enjoy Dracula Daily, you’ll probably enjoy this imho.
Déjà Vu by CirrusGrey
Sasha remembers being unmade. Tim remembers being Unknown. Jon and Martin remember being unwound. All of them think they're the only one. -------- The S1 crew wakes up in the past with memories up till the moment they died.
So, here’s another one that’s got quite the spin on it. As you can see from the description, this one is where S1 crew all get their minds sent back in time to the time right around Jon’s first statement if I remember right. Another CirrusGrey fic, so it heavily leans on JonMartin, but otherwise it’s a wonderful exploration of the four S1 characters and ends on a very hopeful note!
oh my darling, just a moment of your time by IceEckos12
The Institute is visited by a pair of time travelers, and Jon has an important question for Tim.
Have you ever had a oneshot that just kinda guts you unexpectedly? While this might not do this for everyone, this is an amazing oneshot that gets right the point. I love it a lot, because of all of the fics where future and past meet each other, it very rarely if ever is addressed that past Jon was a douche. Or well it is but past Jon doesn’t necessarily have a character moment from it. Here he does, and despite the briefness of the fic, the author does an amazing job of giving Jon and Tim a moment while making an almost critique of the TMA time travel genre. Highly, highly recommend, and it won’t overstay it’s welcome if it doesn’t end up being your thing.
The Severing of Webs by chlodobird
After Jon kills the world, he travels back in time. Once there, he gets ready to change the future, to save his Assistants, and to watch as everyone learns to hate him again.
Unfortunately, the tapes wrap around him like a fly caught in a Web—he can't move. He's trapped reliving the original timeline, stuck acting out his past actions like an actor rehearsing his lines.
Sasha will die. Tim will die. Martin—
(Jon screams inside his mind, and someone hears him. Fate is not as immutable as he fears.)
This one is a brand new one! While basically all of the others on the list have been out/updating for over a year at this point; this lengthy oneshot just released this month. tbh, very excellent, which is why it has made the list. Also, quite the twist on the usual premise, where being sent back into his head is actually a bad thing this time. Ends with a giant pile of fluff, but who would I be if all my time travel recommendations were not also fix-its?
-
Somewhere Else
it will be this, always by bluejayblueskies
Jon coughed again, and blood stained his lips and blood stained Martin’s hands where they pressed against Jon’s back and blood stained the floor beneath them and help, they needed help.
Martin doesn’t remember shouting. He barely remembers the faces that had surrounded them, wide-eyed and terrified, all utterly unfamiliar.
.
Jon and Martin wake up somewhere else. Jon begins a slow path toward physical recovery, and several important, long-put-off conversations are had as they begin to navigate a new world that they hadn’t thought they’d be alive to see.
So, I’m sure you all have gathered that I have qualms with how much disparity there is between canon and fanon Jmart. This fic is painful, but is the most in character depiction of post 200 JMart fallout I have ever read. The ending is very cathartic, and takes a “realistic” approach to what happens to Jon and Martin as they begin to navigate their relationship after they both had betrayed each other so thoroughly in the leadup and culmination of MAG 200. If you don’t want them immediately making up, this is the fic for you. They get there, but by all that is good do they take their sweet time getting there.
Out There, Somewhere by Artyphex
"I'm sorry, you were found alone."
Jon survived the apocalypse and now will go to the end of this new, unfamiliar world to find Martin again.
So I think I’m just getting all the angsty ones out of the way first lol. Another slow burn, this fic is Jon’s recovery in the new reality while he also searches for what happened to Martin. Since I don’t post the tags, I will say this ones does feature “Eventual Happy Ending”, and I do promise that both Jon and Martin made it to the new reality and lived. But Jon and Martin both get to pine and cope for a while before that happy ending tag comes into play. It’s incredibly well done and explores their characters really well. Personally, I kinda enjoyed the Reddit saga because people mistaking Jon’s pleas for Martin as an ARG is very typical internet and 100% I would have bought into that at age 13.
Of course I need a therapist. I need ten therapists, working round the clock building me a bionic coping mechanism. We have the technology. by MartinKBlackwoodESQ
A story set somewhere else.
I’mma be real with you all, if I believed that characters could write and publish their own fanfiction, I would be halfway convinced the name is accurate. All joking aside however, this is a “crack treated seriously” fic but with characterization so on point I can consistently hear the voice actors when I read this. Admittedly, it’s made easier by it being written in transcript formatting, but if you’re looking for a hilarious time where TMA is suddenly is turned into a buddy cop adventure where Jon and Martin go to a universe where the Fears hadn’t been till their arrival, and they have doubles that already exist there who are living fairly normal lives till the TMA Jon and Martin crash land into their reality... Well this fic is one I cannot recommend highly enough. It also has a sequel, and it is also well worth the read, even if it appears to be on a bit of a break in it’s updates.
Worlds like phyllo pastry by neworld
After episode 200 Jon finds himself alone in a world very much like the one he left but fractionally different. It's so similar he finds versions of his former friends existing happily in the world. Unfortunately they have never met him in this universe and have no idea who he is.
This one’s unfinished, but personally it’s well worth the read as is. Not sure how I feel about the most recent chapter, but the story up till that point is a really fun spin on “Jon and Martin get shunted to a new reality” where Jon learns how to feed in a way that doesn’t cause problems facilitated by the new reality, and re-meets all the people who he lost till this point and has a very silly antagonistic relationship with his alternate self. While fic might be more of a guilty pleasure, it still is written in such a way that I would rank it high enough for this disorganized list.
Death Is The Easy Way Out by traveller19
After having killed Jonah Magnus and ended the Change, Jon and Martin should finally be able to rest. Rest, however, proves impossible when Jon falls ill. What's more, he begins having vivid dreams of their dead friends - Tim, trapped in the destroyed Archives, and Sasha, trapped outside of them. As Jon's condition quickly worsens and the line between dream and reality begins to blur, love is all he and Martin have to hold on to, because hope is a dangerous thing.
Did someone say sickfic??? But for real, this fic has an amazing balance between an A plot and a B plot, and keeps both at the right level of tension throughout. While this is a sickfic heavy one, it also features Tim and Sasha as ghosts trying desperately not to be. There’s also a lovely sequel and plenty of fluff by the end, but this is a rough ride. ALSO, if you or a loved one had covid / any respiratory illness that caused them to be hospitalized with pneumonia and it could be trigging to read incredibly on the nose descriptions of that experience, this fic is not for you. Or very cathartic. :/
Castaways by CirrusGrey
Welcome to the Castaway Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a safe and secure landing to those lost souls banished from their home worlds by the influence of Fear.
If you wanted saccharine JMart in a new reality where they get therapy and meet old friends from different realities, this series of (mostly) one shots is for you! As you’ve probably come to expect when I suggest CirrusGrey, the writing is fantastic, the ship dynamics are exemplary, and the character are on point. There is so much to say about this series, but mostly, if you want Jon and Martin healing and then settling together and becoming the stereotypical married couple, then this is it. It’s not done, but it is wrapping up, and I hope you all if you haven’t seen this yet enjoy it as much as I do. And for those long time readers who have been reading it longer than I’ve been in the fandom, here’s your friendly reminder that it exists.
Do Before I Die by SupposedToBeWriting
Somewhere Else, Jon can't seem to shake the strange apathy that now plagues his life. Everything reminds Martin of the end of the world. For a change of pace, he and Martin rent a campervan and go on a road trip. Their mission? To fulfill the 'bucket list' Martin made when he was eighteen and lonely. Jon's looking forward to the beach.
Jon and Martin go on a Road Trip accross Britain. It’s just a wholesome and hurt/comfort as it describes. An excellent romp, and the character studies are wonderful. The Planetarium still sticks with me.
ours is a distant shore (series) by pantsoflobster
“If they ever found out about us, we could make things really complicated for them," Jon said. Martin gave a thoughtful hum and then a loaded pause before he said, “Or simpler.” “What?” “We could, you know…” Martin then made mischievous eyes at him in lieu of expanding. “What?” Jon said, thoroughly lost. “Wouldn’t it be a bit fun to sort of... nudge them in the right direction?”
Months after they arrive Somewhere Else, Jon sees himself in the shop.
Summary is from the first fic in the series, this is a fun little romp for those who hated Martin’s defeatism over his and Jon’s relationship in MAG199 and want to see what would happen if instead he accidentally kick started an alternate version and his and Jon’s relationship Somewhere Else. It’s all very silly, tho the last fic does lean more into the hurt/comfort tag than the previous two. Over all though, if you’re looking for a little crack, a lot of fluff, and Jon and Martin being silly this is a good time.
Written in the Stars Will Have to Do by GentlemanCrow
“Yeah well, god knows why, but he thinks you hung the moon, so you might try treating him at the very least like a human being once in a while.”
It was such a small thing. Small words for a small feeling cloaked in a chintzy veneer of idiomatic dismissal. A trembling little bird cupped in his scarred and battered hands and smothered. Or so he thought. Sometimes trembling little birds turn out to be phoenixes, and those who looked to someone else to hang the comfort of a wise, silvery moon in the sky already have the hammer and the picture wire at the ready.
As far as Jon was concerned, the moon only rose on their Somewhere Else because Martin deigned to pull the strings every night, not him.
This is another one of those JMart Somewhere Else fics masquerading as a Safehouse fic that made me want to cry. It’s just, so wonderful, and once again we have themes of healing, but this time through getting a hobby and sharing it with your significant other. The writing is lovely and really gives off the stuffy academic musings I would expect being in Jon’s head (which we are for the duration of this fic) but adds a layer that I didn’t realized I needed till I read it.
On Errantry by ZaliaChimera
Somewhere Else, Jon and Martin discover that their new home has a very special sort of guardian, and Jon seeks judgement from an unexpected source.
They do say that cats purring can heal...
A cute one shot that deals with Jon’s lingering guilt from S5; this is a wonderful tale from Somewhere Else featuring a giant Cat, Martin being supportive, and Jon trying to reconcile his second chance. Very sweet and fluffy, guaranteed!
Lost, Unfound, But Not Forgotten by Elynn
They didn’t find bodies. Or anything pointing to where they may have gone. In the center of the rubble, what Georgie assumed to have once been the top of the tower, was a puddle of dried, crusted blood, and the outline of bodies in the dust and scorch marks. And she knew that wherever the Fears had gone, Jon and Martin had gone with them. The last victims, snuffed and dragged away with them. --- In the weeks after the Eye-pocolypse, Georgie Barker begins the painful process of mourning her best friend.
So, I know I’m very focused on Jon, but I have one fic of Georgie here that’s 10/10. Post 200, Georgie and Melanie eventually goes to clean out Daisy’s cabin of Jon and Martin’s things for Basira (or something like that) and Georgie finds a journal of Jon’s that he kept whilst there. It’s just as bittersweet as you’d imagine, but it’s fantastically cathartic to read and in our MAG 200 feels, this is a good one for closure.
Not Quite Somewhere Else by hawkfurze
Or you can find it on Tumblr HERE
A special entry to finish out this section, I have a long running comic from Tumblr user @hawkfurze who made a TMA x Infinity Train crossover. While I had not watched the show previously (only seen the trailer/pilot from back before it got picked up by CN), the comic is still easy to understand and explains the Infinity Train parts in such a way as to not need any prior knowledge. I highly recommend this comic for anyone who wants a visual treat delving into the relationship and psyches of Jon and Martin as they try to escape into the next reality.
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AUs
Two Graves by SupposedToBeWriting
Jon sends the fears far from Earth and flees London, leaving the others to assume the worst. He settles in a small village and opts to live there quietly until he dies, a self-imposed penance. This plan is foiled when the first former Avatar shows up - and Jon realizes that every domain-keeper in the apocalypse still has some faint connection to him.
After a year of being a shoulder to cry on for confused and distraught former Avatars, Jon leads a moderately happy life. He has a flourishing garden, a cat, and some company. All of that comes crashing around his ears (or his head) when a familiar face shows up to his cabin, demanding answers.
This fic is in my top 5 fics of TMA fandom. No contest. It has some of the best healing from MAG 200 for Jon and Martin and tbh the world I’ve seen. It’s got that incredible hurt/comfort and the ending makes me cry tears of joy every time I read it. If you read any JMart fic on this list, please read this one if you can only read one. While I was tempted to put this in a different category, this seemed like the best place to put it.
What Comes After by Mornrandir
More than a year after the apocalypse, the world is starting to move on. Georgie, Melanie, and Basira have learned to move on and get back to living their lives. Then Martin reappears- without Jon- and they have to learn to begin again.
A series based around the initial above description, each entry in the series follows the healing of first Martin, then Jon, then both of them together. While I am a Jon-centric woman, if you are of a more Martin-centric leaning, this first fic in the series should scratch that itch. The final entry is very sweet, and the second definitely has a unique reason as to why Jon shows up so late to the after-Fears party.
The Watcher’s Cows by lenioia
He still remembers the first cup of tea Martin brought him. That’s where it began, not with the dog incident. A sweet and strong blend, reasons for appearance unknown, how could it taste so good, also unknown. Jon stares at what will be the last cup between them. His miserable parting gift. Where it’ll end.
Alt Mag 200, or in a slightly kinder universe which differs by exactly one cup of tea, Martin is the one who switches plan last minute, and Jon’s last half-backed scheme, for once, works.
An AU splitting off MAG 199/200, where Jon’s plan actually happens, but instead of it being quite so bleak he finds a new path with the help of Martin. I know the original ending of the series is probably the most hopeful one realistically, but we all enjoy our fixits here, so this is a really sappy “by the power of love” Jon and Martin save the universe and still get to live in it AU. Highly highly recommend, and it finished within the last 8 months, so it’s “on the newer side” as it were. If you haven’t read it, give it a shot, and if you’ve read it and it’s been awhile now’s a good time to read it again.
The Eyespot Chronicles (series) by SupposedToBeWriting
To Martin Blackwood's surprise, he wakes up in the ruins of the Magnus Institute. He thought he would be dead. The world is back to normal, the Entities are gone, and everyone realizes that it's finally over. The only sticking point is that Jon isn't exactly the Jon that went into the apocalypse. Never one to give up, Martin is determined to make a life for himself and his boyfriend. Even if he is a giant moth.
Summary taken from the first in the series, this trilogy of fics covers Jon and Martin’s attempts at healing in a world that remembers what happened. The first fic focuses entirely on Martin’s struggles, the second on Jon’s, and the 3rd (as you might guess) focuses on them both. The series is excellent, and if you’ve got the fortitude for canon-typical emotional constipation after having just experienced MAG-200 it’s well worth the read.
Another Guest for Mr. Spider by Dribbledscribbles
Jon isn't eating his statements like he should.
Mr. Spider doesn't like it.
Written in transcript format, this AU considers the idea of what if the Web was more hands on it it’s approach to getting Jon to Become more monstrous; or at least not starve himself out. Incredible read, you need an AO3 account though. But I have never been that spooked by a Statement or encounter before I read this fic. If you DO NOT like spiders on you or in your mouth and you don’t like reading about it either, potentially hold off on this fic, or at least skip from where Mr. Spider says “Open your mouth. Do not move.” to when he says “Wash it down with this. Now.” But yeah if you didn’t get enough spider trauma from canon, this fic gives it in spades! (And if you want Mr. Spider getting his comeuppance, you get that too ;) )
Illicio by ThatOneGirlBehindYou
As the new Archivist debates between life and death, the Eye ponders on what to offer him in order to avoid an encore of the unfortunate situation with his predecessor.
-----
Gerard Keay opens his eyes at what feels like fuck-ass in the morning, inside a room with far too little space and far too much dust.
A long form AU of what if Gerry Keay was brought back by the Eye to convince Jon to stay on team Monster if you will. Goes all the way through MAG-200, has some great twists and turns, and manages to turn into an “Everyone Lives AU” as well. While it is currently updating, it’s updating every week on Saturday till it finishes, and she only has 2 chapters left. If you’ve managed to never read this, now is certainly the time for it! It is Jon/Gerry/Martin, so if that’s not your exact cup of tea I’d still say give it a shot.
we should ride this wave to shore by ClarionGlass
“archives research & statement envestigation” Timothy Stoker renamed the group “drinks drinks drinks” Timothy Stoker changed Sasha James’s nickname to saucy sash Timothy Stoker changed Martin Blackwood’s nickname to martini kart Timothy Stoker changed his nickname to stonked stonked: so how bout it lads saucy sash: oh god. A TMA group chat fic where the worst problems they have to deal with start with "h" and end with "angovers"
Right, I don’t tend to read chat fics, I’m going to be honest with you all. I have two exceptions and this is one of them. It goes interesting places, the characters are not completely OOC, if it they are at least it’s consistent OOC and not in a grating way. But in all seriousness, I recommend this because of how it ties in with MAG 160 and 200; as well as how the sequel deals with canon S5. The sequel isn’t finished and is slow to update, but I am still recommending at the very least the first one. It’s a good romp and I highly recommend.
Ask an Exec: How to Navigate Cultish Colleagues, Soul-Stealing Bosses, and the End of the World at Work by shinyopals
I've recently been unexpectedly promoted to lead a department in my organisation, wrote the anonymous emailer.
As there was no one working here when I arrived, my manager, who is head of the organisation, had promised me the choice of my own assistants. However, without warning, he simply presented me with an additional assistant. This new assistant’s first act on his first day was to let a dog into the office. It took several hours to catch and clean up after this dog and it has only been downhill from there. I admit I'm not entirely sure what to do with this assistant now I'm stuck with him. I'm hoping you have some advice?
Kind regards, New Manager
Abigail Bailey runs a successful management advice blog. One frequent contributor is from a workplace with some... issues.
While this isn’t quite an AU and is basically canon compliant, I’m putting it here because it’s a “what if Jon was an avid seeker of advice on a management advice blog?” AU. It’s beautifully formatted, and features very in character interactions. If you are a sucker for the TMA trope: how do normal people react to the weirdness at the Institute, then this is a great fic for you. I know it’s probably one of the most popular things to have hit the Jonathan Sims tag on AO3 in recent months, but this is just me reminding you all it exists and well worth the re-read.
JMart Fluff
Author CirrusGrey
Literally anything by them. I think I probably recommend them every time I talk about JMart, but I think on AO3 they are both the most prolific and one of the best writers for the tag. Pick almost any fic they’ve written for TMA and it’s probably JMart. There’s too many fics of their’s to recommend, so I’ll just link you straight to their profile and you can go swimming from there lol.
Jon’s Moving Castle by IceEckos12
Martin Blackwood may not have a perfect life, but he does have a good one. That is, until a series of magical encounters leave him with an unfortunate curse. Out of other options, he goes to the wizard who lives in the moving castle for aid.
Life never goes how he intends it to, though.
Basically Howl’s Moving Castle, but with a TMA spin. You don’t need to have seen the movie to understand what’s going on, and honestly while it sticks fairly close to the movie, it doesn’t stick so close that it feels constrained by it in places where it wouldn’t make sense in the AU they’ve set up. It’s a very sweet JMart fic with a satisfying conclusion.
The 101 Kidnappings of Jonathan Sims (and Other Inconveniences) by beetlejoos
Martin Blackwood never applies for a job at the Magnus Institute. The universe seems determined that he meets Jonathan Sims anyway. But is it Fate, or something more sinister, that keeps bringing the two of them together?
Right, this mostly crack treated seriously. It’s got hurt/comfort, but it’s fairly light hearted throughout. As one could guess by the title and description, Jon is repeatedly kidnapped and brought to wherever Martin is living/working at the time. While it’s not done yet, and not on a schedule, the chapters that are out thus far are well worth the read. That and there’s some cute fan art for it that’s linked to in the end notes. But I recommend this because it’s got that vibe of S1 Jon meets S1 Martin outside of the Institute and romance (eventually) happens. Very fun read if you haven’t read it yet.
i think we’re alone now + alone-verse (series) by milliganopen
Just a couple of guys breaking into a basement. What could go wrong?
Getting trapped in your apartment with your boss, that's what.
Season 1 re-imagined if Jon and Martin had been trapped by Jane Prentiss together.
Initially I recommended this back when we had hit MAG039/022 because it was a great AU to Martin’s Statement where Jon also gets trapped in Martin’s apartment during Martin’s no good very bad 2 weeks of worm siege. HOWEVER, the author has since continued this series and is slowly working their way through canon one season/fic at a time. They’re currently on S3, and I am definitely keeping an eye on it for whenever the next update happens. If you haven’t had the time to check it out, it’s got some very good JMart moments, and their relationship manages to move faster than a glacier.
Fate, or Something by HermaeusMora
"You can't be serious." Jonathan Sims raises his eyes at last to properly look at Georgie, expecting her to laugh and make some quip about finally getting him to put the damn book down, at least.
"Well, I am," she shoots back.
He sets his book aside and turns fully towards her, betrayal clear on his face. "A blind date, really?"
Jon makes the frankly terrible decision to go on a blind date with one Martin Blackwood. Fate ensues. AU where Jon and Georgie are still friends, Georgie likes finding dates for her friends, Martin doesn't work at the institute, and everyone is just a bit happier while canon spooky stuff goes on in the background. Takes place juuust barely pre-canon in the beginning but catches up quickly. Inspired as usual by the wonderful conversations with my friend RavenXavier/somuchbetterthanthat.
A fun AU that challenges the idea that Jon and Martin are incompatible a la MAG199. Excellently done and well worth the time to check it out.
Diary by luftballoons99
Not for the first time since they ran away together, a camera reel of all the things they don't know about one another whirs behind Martin's eyes, and he can't help but look at all the sprawling magnetic tape and wonder if they’re going to wind up a romance or a tragedy.
or: Office parties, garage bands, and the joy of being known.
A bit of a bittersweet mostly fluff oneshot focused on Jon and Martin having a night in at the Safehouse and talking about good things from their pasts. (Warning, the sequel is rated E(xplicit) for a reason, so I am only recommending Diary. Both are stand alone however.)
Weaving My Heartstrings by arms_full_of_hyacinths
At least he was someone. Someone who could deal with the spiders. That was probably the source of the nerves unspooling like magnetic tape to fill Jon’s stomach with buzzing static butterflies.
Yes, Martin was much bigger than a spider. He was probably the kind of person who cupped them in his hands and talked to them as he walked them out into the garden, which shouldn’t be giving Jon a burst of warm feeling at all, since his preferred method of spider disposal was simply to squash them on sight.
Martin likes Jon almost as much as Jon hates spiders. When a statement from an institute employee sends them spiraling into the center of a complicated web, they'll need to rely on each other if they want to make it out alive.
Bit of an odd suggestion to close us out, but this one is a fun almost episodic plot about an original Statement and the shenanigans Jon and Martin get into trying to research it. It’s very good, features some very on point S1 Jon and Martin along with a bit of a fast forward on their relationship throughout.
And with that, I’ve probably overstayed my welcome lol. I hope you found something new to read! If not, I at least hope that you had fun rereading some old faves. This has taken me a day or two to compile and format, so I hope you all enjoy in whatever capacity that ends up being! Happy end of A Mag A Day, and it was a joy walking alongside you all. Congrats to A MAG A Day blog owners on all your hard work for the last ~210 days and with this post I wish you all a very fond farewell.
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thyandrawrites · 6 months
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Some language and translation trivia from episode nagi
So, I recently reread episode nagi 1-3 in japanese, and since I enjoy translation trivia a lot, I thought I would compile all my observations in a post. Please don’t take this too seriously! While I do have a language degree, I’m not a professional translator. In no way this is meant as a dig towards the professionals working on the official release! These are just some fun facts I thought I’d share. 
without further ado, let’s delve into it!
On top of his already limited (kinda childish) vocabulary, Nagi’s speech bubbles often forgo complex kanji and favor writing the words out in hiragana. He sometimes does the same with (foreign) words that should be written out in katakana (example: Barou’s beloved “king”). We know this is a quirk of Nagi’s because he sometimes uses kanji for the same words. The most notable example is his favorite one, mendoukusai, “hassle”—mostly written in hiragana, sometimes shortened, sometimes elongated for dramatic, whiny emphasis, and rarely written out in kanji.
Since kanji are taught by grade in japanese schools, the foregoing them in a certain character’s lines can hint that the guy doesn’t have a higher education. However, in Nagi’s case, I think it’s meant to make him come across as unsophisticated or a bit childish. Or maybe just lazy. I think the former, though, considering how all his compliments always circle back to the same, like, 4 juvenile variations of "amazing". 
(more under a cut for length):
Still on the topic of speech patterns, Nagi talks in plain form. For those who don't know what that means, it's an informal register, very common between teens. Nagi seems to use it with his elders, too, though, and that's a bit less common. You're supposed to talk in polite form to strangers and to your elders. Then again, pretty much everyone in blue lock talks that way. There's not a lot of respect for your elders in this series. Or for your peers, lol 
As for Reo, he talks in male speech! Still very much informal and common, particularly between rowdy teens, but if plain form can still be acceptable in a lot of social situations, male speech is distinctly cocky, self-confident and impolite, so not what you'd expect from the distinguished heir of a billionaire who prides himself as a businessman in the making, ahah. He talks that way to Ego as well, btw. 
Both of them tend not to use honorifics. Reo more so. In all three volumes, Reo used them once, to calm Nagi down while he was angry at Barou. Nagi mostly goes without too, but he sometimes uses them, when the situation calls for it, or a bit ironically. If you're curious, here's what I noticed: he uses "san" for Baa-ya when talking to her (when he leaves Choki in her care), but not when he's talking to Reo about her. He calls Zantetsu "dentist-san" when the latter drops his backstory, and "Zantetsu-kun" when the guy scores after listening to Reo's advice. And when all three finally link up, Nagi tacks on a "sama" to Reo's name while calling him a king (in the chess sense. Fun fact, it might or might not have been a pun, since Reo's name contains the kanji for king btw). That's pretty much it for epinagi so far. He just uses surnames without honorifics (or nicknames) for everyone else normally. Same for Reo. 
When talking to Nagi, Reo refers to his mother as 母親 (hahaoya, "mom") and to his father as 親父 (oyaji, "old man, pops") and クソ親父 (kuso oyaji, "shitty old man") respectively. Idk if that changes when he's talking to them tho, as he hasn't yet in epinagi. But so far his contempt seems to be only directed at his father. 
Upon seeing Kira, Reo describes him as "Japan's gem", but the word he uses for "gem" is 宝 (takara), treasure, pretty much the same he uses for Nagi (= 宝物 takaramono, or treasured thing, prized possession). Hence Nagi looking up, unimpressed: 
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To check out what the fuss was about. His face dhsvbdhdhdhsbs When Nagi thinks Reo's talking about Isagi, then, Reo corrects him by pointing his face toward Kira and saying not the dark-haired one, but that "really good looking guy". He calls him an ikemen btw, lmao.
I'm not sure if this was in the eng version too, but Reo calls Nagi and Zantetsu's team up the "neet combo". It's pretty self-explanatory how this relates to Nagi, but I wonder what about Zantetsu screamed "neet" to him.
When Zantetsu adamantly refuses to take Reo's advice, Reo gets super mad and calls him "obaka-sama", which. I can't with his pettiness ahah. Okay, let me explain. He's tacking on an honorific prefix ("o") and the highest honorific suffix ("sama") to an insult. 😂😂 Normally, you use honorifics to pay respect to and elevate the status of whatever or whoever you're tacking them on to. In this case, Reo's using them sarcastically, but he goes extra out of the way to be scathing. Zantetsu hates being called an idiot, but Reo feels he's acting unreasonable with his holier-than-thou attitude, so he upgrades his regular insult to mock that, basically. He's more or less saying, "oh great, revered moron".
Not a linguistic trivia, but. Nagi has a weekly planner for his bread eating habits. The day Reo joins his class to spy on him was a tuesday, cause tuesdays are melon bread days. 
When he's making a confident remark, Reo occasionally speaks with a sing-song in his voice. 
During the match against team X, Barou mocks Reo and Nagi's coordination and mutual dependence with a jab. He calls them a couple who wear matching outfits. Still laughing about this one tbh 
now onto my favorite one
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Ever wondered why Nagi’s response here doesn’t come across as reassuring to Reo? Well, I think I have finally figured it out! 
While the translation above is 100% correct, I feel like the miscommunication lies in a matter of contextual ambiguity. When Reo says, quote, “You were supposed to team up with me,” in japanese it’s more like, “But teaming up with me is a must!” To which Nagi replies, “You and I are going to be the best in the world. That’s a must.” 
The theme (=what is being talked about) of Reo’s sentence is the “must” (zettai) part. Meaning, something that is absolute, unconditional. Reo is making a conjecture, the assumption that they’ll work with each other as they promised, but he’s also implicitly expecting Nagi to agree. He’s saying our combo is the unchangeable condition here. You know this. 
Nagi responds with something he means as reassuring, as a confirmation that he has their promise in mind. But since he echoes Reo’s word choice (zettai), and applies it to something else, it comes across wrong, more like he’s correcting Reo on what the “must” actually is. Not teaming up with each other until the end like Reo posits, but the simple agreement that they’ll be world class one day. With or without each other. 
This miscommunication is made worse by the fact that Reo’s declared ego is making Nagi the best striker in the world. So when Nagi follows this with a remark about how their team up wasn’t the strongest, Reo of course takes the “correction” to mean “someone else can better help me become the best instead of you. bye. nice hanging out with you till now. see you at the world cup, xoxo”
Simply put, Nagi thought he was explaining himself, but what he got across was that he was rejecting Reo’s ego altogether and moving on. That’s why the art then shows Reo’s ego chains falling apart. 
When Bachira asks Nagi if he’s secretly the “super cold type” right after leaving for the 3v3, in japanese it’s a neat, direct callback to the scene in chapter 2 where Nagi tells Reo he's okay with him teaming up with someone stronger than himself, and Reo calls that “heartless.” Both times the word used is the same, 薄情  (hakujou), cold-hearted, heartless, though iirc it was translated differently in english
They both say they feel lonely after their split up. Nagi in response to Bachira’s line as per the previous point (here’s a post I made about it a while back). And Reo when he thinks about Nagi’s change in chapter 13 and says he feels lonely, scared and weak. I will go down with the idea that they’re each other’s first friend. 
Ending this on a less sad note, when Rin calls Bachira “bowlcut”, the original phrasing reads okappa, from the mythical creature’s hairstyle. Now please google what an okappa looks like, lmao 
__
More epinagi language and translation trivia you might enjoy: 
notes on Nagi’s line “I’m gonna say something selfish”
notes (and misconceptions) about Nagi and Reo calling each other “partner” 
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mealfreak · 2 months
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I've seen a lot of interpretations of Ralph's home life and past, So I decided to compile some excerpts from the book that actually talk about it, ft. my own commentary and understanding of it :7
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This entire excerpt reveals a lot of things about Ralph's upbringing and current life. We find out that Ralph seems to have moved around frequently as a child, in relation to his father's position in the navy. It's implied that his mother is "no longer with them", and it can also be taken away that his father nowadays spends days at a time away from home.
Even though Ralph no longer lives in this house, it's the one we see him dream about frequently. A grand total of 3 times, maybe more. I was initially unsure whether Ralph started school after he moved into this house, or after he moved out, but the wording points to this house being memorable exactly because he was still a carefree child with two attentive parents
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In another dream, it's interesting that it's referred to Ralph as "being back to where he came from". Even though, like I said, he hasn't lived there since before he started going to school (Presumably around 5-6 years old)
Another excerpt of Ralph reminiscing of his old home. When Ralph thinks of going home (leaving the island), he thinks of going back to that specific house - and not, his actual current place of residence... That, AFAIK, we know nothing about.
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This all paints the picture that Ralph's happiest memories all reside in this childhood home. And it suggests that, at the moment, Ralph doesn't have a place that he truly considers home at all.
Even though we see him reminisce of this house while on the island, something tells me that isn't when his habit of "nightly games of supposing" began :v)
This is pretty insignificant, but I found it interesting - we see Ralph reference this specific period of his life right in the first chapter too. He's reminiscing of time spent with his father, from that time when he would still "come home everyday":
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These points were mostly at the top of my head, and I still need to do a deeper reread of the book. If anyone has anything to add, I encourage it!
Another small thing I thought I could fit in here: Ralph has the habit of biting his nails. (a habit often associated with stress/anxiety)
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poohsources · 10 months
Note
hi, pooh, is everything alright with you? i hope it's a yes! so, i'm sorry if you already answered something like this, but i just started to follow you right now (because i found your blog really interesting), saw this post of yours and was thinking: do you have tips about "losing our musing while roleplaying"? i see a lot of friends losing their muses, sometimes i do lose mine (which is sad, because we do have affection towards our chars), and i think some tips would help a lot and you seem to have the good ones. i would really appreciate if you could share them with us! the biggest thank you already and have a good, good day!
p.s: if i didn't made myself clear, sorry, english is not my first language ):
hi there! well, i'm sick again but other than that i'm fine, thanks. no worries, if questions are asked multiple times i tend to link them to the original answer. but it's one thing i haven't talked about yet, so you're good.
unfortunately, there is no definitive answer that will definitely help but there are some things i've either done myself or have heard about that are supposed to work, so i've compiled a list of all the tips that would help when you've lost your muse.
look at your muses' source material. this mostly applies to canon muses, but depending on the kind of oc, it might work for them as well. the idea behind it is to potentially watch a few episodes ( maybe ones that heavily feature or develop your character ) of the show your muse is from if you're writing a tv show character; reread the book / certain passages if you have a book muse, or just generally interact in any kind of way with the source material. even if you're canon divergent it might help ignite your muse again when you "see them in action" so to speak.
listening to music. if you're into music, you can probably make a playlist for your character including songs that either remind you of them or are something you think your character would listen to in their own free time. now whenever you're listening to that playlist it can help you inspire your muse.
read fanfics. if you're like me and spend an ungodly amount of time reading fanfics, it's something that can help you get inspiration for your muse. again that mostly only applies to canon muses but seeing the way others write your muse and the different scenarios they can be thrown into, might help with your own muse ( and especially plot ideas / au ideas ) that you can talk about either on the dash, to a friend or someone you'd think could be a great writing partner.
create your own stuff outside of rp for your muse. it kinda ties in into the playlist tip, but there are other ways to "channel" your muse outside of rp. do you enjoy drawing? draw your muse. do you like making mood / aesthetic boards? make one for your muse. there are so many different things you can do for your muse outside of roleplaying / writing that can help you get your muse back. even if it's just by doing other stuff.
talk to your friends. if you have friends or certain writing partners you talk to a lot, it can help to just talk to them about your muse(s). you don't even have to spew plot ideas or discuss things that have to do with roleplay but maybe just some casual talk about specific topics ( or if it's a canon muse, you could talk about their source material and what you like / dislike ).
dream up scenarios. if you're someone with an imaginative mind, one thing that can help is dream up certain scenarios that involve your muse. perhaps certain things that could happen to them and how they'd react, or interactions with other people or just random day-to-day stuff ― just put yourself in their shoes and think about them. ( potentially you'll even have some great plot or verse ideas this way. )
last, but not least, take a step back from roleplaying your muse. i know that this is probably the one people will dislike the most but sometimes the best thing you can do when you've lost your muse is to take a step back from it. if you're forcing yourself to write because you think it's what you're supposed to do, it's pretty much bound to frustrate you and therefore make you lose your muse. we all love our characters and the things we've created for them, but sometimes we have to let go. of course it doesn't have to be a permanent thing, maybe someday you'll get your muse for that character back and make a return to it, but sometimes you'll realize that you can't get your muse back and that is okay.
occasionally, people connect to characters that speak to them during specific times of their life and if these change, it can change the muse for that character because you don't feel as connected to them anymore. you can still cherish that time and love that character but as i said above, if you're forcing yourself to do anything, it's bound to be bad.
anyway, i hope these tips will help! :)
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copperbadge · 10 months
Note
I've been procrastinating by reading all the books you published for the first time, I'm on like a 4th reread (well, re-listening, I'm having the robot in google play books read about loud to me) anyhow I walked past my old high school and was listening to the bit where the school children are at Eurovision and I'm thinking of what an experience it would have been to be a parent, looking at the field trip permission form where one of the listed chaperones is the King Emeritus himself. Like it may as well just happen.
Aw, that's a nice way to procrastinate! I hope you've been enjoying them :) Interested to know how they sound with the google play books reader, I'll have to check that out. For a while I was trying to set up so that I could listen to articles as well as podcasts on my phone but the tech is uh, still evolving.
As for the chaperoning issue, being fair, if your kid attends Maritime then likely you live in Fons-Askaz and if that's the case you have probably bumped into the King Emeritus like....grocery shopping or eating a doughnut or something. :D "Of course he can run a country, but will he make sure my kid wears sunscreen? I've seen him at the beach, he doesn't even wear a hat."
On the other hand there's ample evidence of him being an invested and mindful father. Almost certainly someone has by now put up a youtube video that's just a compilation of every interview, speech, and public appearance he made, 1990-1996, while holding a squirming child in his arms. And the kid's got his job now so he turned out ok....
I do think it must have been a little intimidating when Amani's parents realized that their kid was having afterschool snack-and-study at the home of the King Emeritus. Meanwhile Amani is much more impressed by the super cool and famous Jes Deimos, and thinks of Michaelis as the guy who makes dumb nautical puns and brings cookies home if he knows Noah has friends over.
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eerie-night · 3 months
Text
i always like stumbling across fic rec lists so i thought about compiling a list of some of my favorites and linking the tumblrs of the authors (but if i cant find them ill link twitter or ao3) bc theyre all fucking awesome
BSD
and all i loved, i loved alone- @featherxs
“An ability?”
— on the past, present, and future of one Edgar Allan Poe.
SOOOO GOOD!! its what originally got me so into bsd and its such a good reread too
(don’t) stop the rain- miniekooki
Akutagawa Ryuunosuke finds himself taking care of the Twain family after an unfortunate turn of events.
And he also finds himself considering Mark Twain as more than just an annoying prick.
(ALTERNATIVE TITLE: the domestication of akutagawa ryuunosuke)
i loveeeeeeeeee this and how it goes about describing the family its sooooooooo good
Haikyuu
as bright as a blackhole; and twice as dense- cereal_whore
“Kageyama’s being bullied,” Yamaguchi grits, expression steeled.
Tsukishima lowers his book quietly, and stares, eyes wide.
“As if he has enough social competence to realise he’s being bullied.”
“Tsukki, please.”
Meant to be 5 times Tsukishima accidentally and very reluctantly saved Kageyama from his own social ineptness, and one time Kageyama does the same for him, but we ran into problems bc OP can't count.
(or: everyone is srsly stressed over kageyamas existence, but kageyama, despite having the common sense of a Five Minute Crafts video, is like those buff himbos within the tsundere category. so he somehow ends up wholly unscathed throughout this shit, while everyone else doesnt)
tldr: kageyama lacks forethought, and everyone but him suffers the consequences of it.
i eat this shit up omg omg its great its funny and it makes my day better read it
but not for spring to well up- tookumade
Miya Brothers
Sellers & Buyers of Antiques & Curiosities
Suna Rintarou squints at the small sign attached to the front door of the brick shopfront.
He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. Something flashier? More brass? The Miya brothers could do with a pot plant out the front. The shopfront has one single large window that’s covered by a plain white curtain, so maybe they could open that up and have some of their antiques and such on display so people get an idea of what they buy and sell. Maybe a paint job for the door, which is the most boring brown Suna has ever seen. There is nothing he can say about it—it’s not nice nor ugly, it’s just boring.
Or, maybe Suna could stop giving any more of a damn about this shopfront and just get his appointment over and done with.
After ending a relationship with a fiancé, Suna returns home and tries to heal from heartbreak. Here, he finds friends in the form of the Miya brothers, and learns patience, forgiveness, and what happiness means to him.
this sounds repetitive but…..SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOD i love the emotion and how it deals with sunas ex and like everything about this fic is gold
JJK
“To Chase”- @diggingupgrave
Megumi has never thanked the man who raised him.
god…no words except read it you will not regret it
FE3H
A Fair Day’s Work- featherhearted
“I may have some coffee in the place for you,” said Prime Minister Aegir. “Let me show you how much better I have become at brewing it to your taste.”
“If you insist,” said Minister Vestra but he sounded pleased. To Delarivier, who had literally made it her profession to attune herself to his tone (usually ranging from sort-of-murder-y to extremely-murder-y), Minister Vestra sounded very pleased indeed.
Ferdinand and Hubert's long-suffering aides figure out a way to work fewer hours.
im a whore for outsider povs and this one takes the cake and does laps around my brain when i try and sleep
TMA
a glass essay- fairbanks
Right out of university Jon's run out of time to run from the Web. The only way he knows to escape one domain is to give yourself to another, and he's always been good at being alone.
He really wasn't imagining the Lukas family would take him in at all, let alone arrange him to marry some smarmy ass named Peter Lukas.
yet again something to reread till you memorize every word and still cant get enough
now for authors that i recommend HIGHLY and a fic or two from them:
@blackkatmagic
i recommend everything shes written but my top favorites currently are:
Cor Cordium
Fox dies. He wakes up. And then things start getting weird.
its so so good and kats soooo good at characterization and descriptions and could prob make paint drying interesting
out of night (out of nothing)
It's the duty of the Temple Guard to keep the Sacred Spire, the Force nexus at the heart of the Temple. Feemor's always done his duty gladly, kept it safe, kept the light burning. Order 66 changes everything. Changes him. Changes the Spire, too.
Hevy, Cutup, and Droidbait are just caught in the currents and trying to make the most of their second chances, but an unstable Jedi and new powers don't make anything easier.
the concept is so cool and the execution is even better she could probably sell me air and id go crazy for it
trade your heart for bones to know
A week after an attack that nearly killed him and his son, Jaster Mereel finds Mostross dead on a battlefield. His killer is a Jedi, grievously wounded, who Jaster takes into his care. By Mandalorian tradition, Jon Antilles owes him a life-debt, and Jaster is cunning enough not to let such a thing slip away.
It's meant to be an entirely political arrangement. It doesn't stay that way for long.
not to sound like broken record but god this is fucking fabulous
i totally recommend checking out ALL her works but these were the first ones i thought of out of the ones that are currently updating
@x-authorship-x
she has written sooo many good fics im just going to recommend my favorite series and you can go from there
Eyes
Shisui is way too strong to have his eye taken by Danzo
He's the only one smart enough to master the simplest of techniques to legendary proportions
He was sweet and kind and, despite everything he'd seen and all the things he'd done, he wasn't afraid to hope. To dream for something better.
A series for Shisui
the characters, the plots, the descriptions all add up to something amazing
llamallamaduck
do yourself a favor and check her out, you will not regret it. unfortunately, i will restrain myself to only recommending one fic but DO check the rest out
With no root in the land —(To keep my branches green)
He is not a human and he is not a beast and he is not a creature, but he is. He is a being, then. A being that changes and learns and lives. He thinks his name is Ani.
this is the fic that i first read by llamallamaduck and its a really good introduction to how fucking amazing she is at doing crossovers and writing in general
i hope you enjoy these as much as i have :)
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mae-i-scribble · 5 months
Note
Hi, I hope you're having a nice day - in your author's notes for chapter 2 of The Long Way Home, you mentioned the idea that the story HSY wrote is different from the ORV that we know. I wanted to ask if you've ever written any posts expanding on that? I would love to read more about your thoughts on this (KDJ in your story's last memory being about reading that instead of WoS. Gutted me.)
Hello there! I have unfortunately not written a post detailing this (if you are the very nice anon who has asked me to elaborate on this i am very sorry, if you're not anon i am still very sorry), in large part because doing so in a way that I would be happy with would involve combing through the last 1/3rd or so of the novel. Since the major thematics about authors and characters and readers as one aren't really gotten into until that point. To be honest, I just haven't had the energy for that.
The idea that the novel HSY wrote not being ORV is one that I've always had since first finishing ORV- I can't say where exactly it originated from. Now to be clear, it's an undisputed fact that HSY and kimcom *are* writing about the events they lived through, and I do 100% both understand how and why HSY writing ORV is the more widely accepted theory (them including lines from early orv scenes, the way that it loops right back around into ORV's very meta theming, the way it would match up with the ideas of loop of fate, etc.) I just don't agree with it.
One of the greatest takeaways for me on the author/character theming in ORV is that an author will never fully understand a character they write. HSY and YJH live this out in real time, alongside HSY learning the origins of WoS vs the YJH she has come to know as a companion. In writing WoS she straight up admits that she fudges her memories of him because it isn't as if she could know everything about him- she just wrote the story she thought KDJ needed to hear. (I swear I have a point I promise). HSY as intimate knowledge in how while writing someone, you both grow to understand them intimately while simultaneously remaining clueless. With the experiences she goes through, combined with the fact that KDJ's narration in ORV is so specifically *him* with all its unreliability and the glimpses we get into his past/bits of him on his own without kimcom around, I just don't think ORV is something HSY would have written. To me, she wouldn't have tried to write from KDJ's perspective, already having far too much entanglement in obscuring people and characters with KDJ (and possily from that one scenario where she's almost taken over by the character she's incarnated into, but again, i would need to reread).
Then we reach the point where she writes this novel for the KDJ's across worldlines- or rather, kimcom does. Which I think is another very relevant point, HSY is compiling and spinning this into a narrative, but *everyone* is contributing to it and writing bits and pieces. Now that I type it out, I think that might be part of what makes me so happy with the thought that instead of ORV, HSY is writing that same story but told from kimcom's perspective, not KDJ's like ORV is. The image of everyone coming together to give their own perspective and accounts while HSY compiles and sorts those varying viewpoints into a narrative with KDJ as the focus just warms my heart. In a post I made about the epilogues, I brought up that with this interpretation, you can see it as kimcom writing KDJ as they see him, so that he can understand just why they love him so dearly- which I think is especially poignant considering this novel's true purpose isn't even to bring KDJ back, its to help everyone else heal from the trauma of losing him.
So basically, I can't really give you much of a textual basis for my argument besides for the fact that ORV doesn't straight up say HSY is writing ORV, it's more just was my first takeaway that has forever stuck with me as my preferred interpretation.
(P.S. thank you for taking the time to read my fic, I also loved writing the bit where KDJ remembers that story.)
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prince-kallisto · 5 months
Note
Hey ya!
So I was rereading the "Schemer of the Scalding Sands," and I can across this conversation between Azul and Jamil:
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I'm not sure if you had discussed this previously or not, but I was curious to know your thoughts on this.
Since Azul uses a person's weakness to form "It's a Deal," is it possible he was able to see something in Crowley's past? Or do you think this is a bluff to persuade Jamil to keep talking (considering we know he used Floyd's SM to prevent himself from getting hypotized.)
NABXHXJSJS you, my friend, have opened up the floodgates BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH I LVOE THIS LINE
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But…hm??? I could’ve sworn I mentioned this line in one of my theories but I can’t find it lol…I lose track of what I post and what I don’t Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑) Anyway, these lines are very interesting. I don’t think he got any information from Crowley at all, and it was just a bluff! “I know one thing he would never want others to know” is a pretty powerful statement to say about Crowley of all people…and sense we know he had Floyd UM, Azul was just buying time.
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If I remember correctly, Crowley managed to free all the students who got their magic stolen by letting Azul continue with his schemes- and gets a percentage of the Lounge’s profits. Jack refers to it as “blackmail,” but I wouldn’t say Azul had specific information over Crowley- it was more of how a large portion of students lost powerful abilities.
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His Unique Magic, “It’s a Deal,” can only steal abilities, such as magic, voices, etc., and his contract is just a form of protection against blot. I don’t think even Azul would dare try to steal an ABILITY from the Headmage himself. Azul’s knowledge of “weaknesses and desires” is more like…he knows their weakness because they’re coming to him for help, asking him to grant their desires. But I don’t think he trades in information specifically. Crowley did make a contract though regarding Mostro Lounge, if that makes sense haha. Besides, even if Crowley did give up information to Azul…I have a feeling it would either be false or unimportant. Crowley likes to act like a fool, but I doubt he would give away any information regarding his identity or powers. Plus, I think the “secret” in this arrangement is the fact that Crowley made a ridiculous arrangement with a student in the first place- that wouldn’t sound very favorable to the press, would it? I’d like to add how in the Glorious Masquerade event, even Azul himself is shocked at the amount of personal information Crowley leaked to Rollo- I think Azul underestimates just how much power and control Crowley has over them.
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What I really love about these lines is how, if you notice across Book 4 and Book 5, I think Jamil is LEGITIMATELY trying to uncover something about Crowley- likely for revenge. In those lines you sent me, it definitely sounds like Jamil is trying to get his hands on reputation-destroying or even straight up illegal information to use against Crowley. But in Book 5, Jamil mutters about how he doubts the Dark Mirror is actually part of the Student Selection Process, and that Crowley is likely arranging some back door entries, like in the case of Kalim. NRC students don’t care about these kind of details, no one does! But it’s interesting that Jamil of all people, who got a first hand taste of Crowley’s schemes with Kalim getting chosen as housewarden over him, DOES.
I should probably making a post compiling all the times Jamil does this…because even in the Halloween events, he snarks about how it’s “expected” that the Headmage is neglectful or lazy or does shady things. While everyone else just gets disappointed, Jamil sees it as a given fact. It’s…quite sad honestly haha. But those lines from Book 4 really opened my eyes to this! And if Book 8 is about unraveling Crowley and Grim’s past, I hope Jamil is involved, because he certainly seems dedicated to finding out the truth about Crowley.
I’d like to point out a really old (well not really lmao) theory post of mine where Azul has yet another lore drop about Crowley. Well…it’s not really about Crowley but I think it’s important anyway!
Thanks for your ask, I really love these type of lines because I think there’s a lot of subtleties and “reading between the lines” that reveals a lot of these characters, like in Jamil’s case 💞💞💞🐦‍⬛
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gaybroons · 5 months
Text
Talk Hockey To Me
( @ghostgeno's tag game)
The thing that got you hooked on hockey
Started reading “hey now, you're an all star (get your game on, go play)” by @buckyismybicycle while it was ongoing because even though I was 1) completely uninterested in hockey and 2) also uninterested in Stucky as a ship, this specific author’s works have always been phenomenal and with each new chapter email I started getting more and more intrigued until I eventually gave in and started reading it (literally so worth it everyone should read it). In the end notes of each chapter, HR (the author) would add some fun facts and extra context for the hockey related stuff (considering it’s a whole hockey AU) that made me go “huh that sounds fun” more than once but I was still not super into the hockey thing.
Until. 
I reached the chapter with a beautifully written match and I was like???? Is hockey like this irl?????????? This sounds so good?????????? Cue YouTube hacking into my brain and suggesting me hockey compilations which included the infamous Lick. I saw this random man just being a menace to everyone and decided he is now the love of my life.  (i usually omit the stucky fic part bc ppl have opinions about marvel that i do not want to hear lol. so if i told you abt this before without the full context i'm sorry!!)
Your first ever fandom friend
@hard4softthings !!!! Love is stored in the ao3 comment section uwu 
The jersey you would most like to own
I can’t pick one so I’m just gonna list in descending order: Marchand home jersey (with a C !!!!!!!!😤) ,  Pasternak (also home. Sorry it’s just nicer than the away version) , Quinn Hughes (the pride one because I’m obsessed with the design it’s so pretty) 
YOUR player (you only get ONE so choose wisely)
The rat king himself 🖤💛🖤💛🖤 can u tell I have a favorite 
A pairing that deserves more fic
Sid/Ovi ‼️ tuukks/pasta and Brady/Quinn too, there’s just so much potential for them. 
Your favourite on-ice moment
Picking is difficult so you’re just gonna get a bunch <3.
Bertuzzi stealing cousin’s stick and trying to break it
Marchy kidnapping The Child
pigeon
dancing with the stars
tuukks Exhibiting homicidal tendencies (rightfully so)
flower wanting to feel included
whole team under arrest
Brady Tkachuk: why is there a fucking animal loose on the ice he’s going to give me rabies
marchy waving to a booing crowd
marchy blowing kisses to a booing crowd
flower asserting his dominance tripping TWO first round picks
Quinn Hughes seeing a fight break out and says ✨no✨
Marner spinning like a ballerina
+ link someone else's art/fic/etc that you love & think everyone should check out
ART: 
this ADORABLE mcdrai art by @saviorified
MattMcDrai art by @adelphenium , obsessed with the blushing and the HAIR plz it’s so cute.  
Awfully pretty sid and geno art by @ceanspam
Captaincy transfer by @adelphenium I’m so weak for rat marchy, and ALSO bergy’s eyes <33333 i’m so <33333
the kiss of life by @stillfertile
FICS: 
The “All Caps” series by @makeit-takeit rewired my brain I’ve reread it countless times i think i can recite it by heart. 
“hard to be soft, tough to be tender” The Hanahaki fic by @hardforsoftthings I love love love the emotional progression AND denial in both of these fics (also, horny. Thank u) 
speaking of which, in less emotionally charged and more horny fics, the “spit cup” and “scratch that itch” non-traditional omegaverse doulogy by @ whitchbhitch (i do not know their tumblr)
+ link something you made & are proud of & want people to see
I’m honestly really proud of my flowertalbo fic, “Inevitably you will burn (as all living things do)” it’s really short (646 words) but I think I did a good job on it :>
Also, I find myself coming back to this one McDrai crack fic, “Oh Puck No!” idk what possessed me to write it but I had fun with it and i still find it silly and enjoyable lol
no pressure tags: @lindholmline @darkangel0410 @gilliebee @owchar1ie and anyone else who wanna do this!!!
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egg-emperor · 1 year
Text
Been rereading some IDW and I wanted to compile my favorite very evil and badass things Eggman has done so far and hope to see much more of in the future:
When he ordered for Mimic to kill the Diamond Cutters (most members are just teens!)
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and then he threatened Mimic to finish the job when he finds out Whisper got away in a way that makes me 😳😳😳
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When he was cruelly toying around with poor critters during the testing of the Metal Virus and loving it, which is a great look into how he treats the animals when they're in his grasp that we don't usually get to see.
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When he went back to spit in the face of the people of Windmill Village that took him in as Tinker by pouring the virus goop all over it while saying "no good deed goes unpunished". Ungrateful bastard being an asshole and loving it, gleefully making them regret being foolish enough to give him a chance.
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When Starline dared to try to take out Eggman's prey that's for him to beat and destroy alone after proving his power and superiority. I love it mostly for the way he grabbed Starline's neck with just a finger or two and slammed him against the glass hard enough to crack it as the first thrilling display of his physical strength 😍
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The way he likes making toys and once again combines a fun hobby with evil as he models his awesome creations and uses them to plan and figure out battle plans and strategies
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Plus the reveal of how Eggman made the figurine of Starline a robot, hinting at how he was always either replaceable and nothing more than an underling for him to use just like all his other lackeys
When he fires Starline as a fine example of him throwing his lackeys away when he's finally had it and no longer needs them and just how harsh he is when they disobey his orders
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When he attempted to manipulate Sonic to plant a seed of doubt and make him feel guilt for the tragedies of the metal virus. I love the gorgeous sly smirk on that bastard's face 💜
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When he grabbed his gun like "oh yeah?" and tried to shoot Tails
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The way he was doing evil VR gaming in his evil simulated world, as yet another great way for him to combine a fun hobby with his diabolical schemes!
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When he first met Belle as his real self and was just like "pfft what makes your precious Tinker as good as me when I can do stuff like THIS?" *Shows her his fucked up tower concept*
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When he talked a bit about his delightfully cute but twisted and disturbing reasons behind his theme parks, capturing everything I love about how admiringly charismatic and passionate he is but so messed up about it at once!
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When he fought Starline in the glorious EGG EMPEROR! And the great moment where he said Starline never really had a place of co emperor alongside him because it's all or nothing for him, the world belongs to him alone and nobody else! He said so much of exactly what I've been saying this whole time while in the mech behind my username. I was so happy 💕
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The beautiful creepy silhouette Egg and he way he revealed that Starline has been outsmarted and absolutely dominates him
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and the way he absolutely fucked Starline up with an epic display of his strength that makes me swoon 😍💖💜💘💗💕
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then walked away knowing everything was collapsing and left Starline to his doom, then just announced it like "lol he's dead- so anyway"
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Eggman beat him and it killed his will to go on, then he left him as everything caved in which finished him off. Therefore he killed him, he knowingly had direct causation without a care and I consider it as part of his body count.
When he tried to shoot Surge and then grabbed and threw her- while in his awesome Eggwalker too! 💜💕💗
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When he praised Starline but only after he was dead and gone, so he could use it to praise and prove himself as superior by the way Starline is still a bested enemy that he defeated despite this. God damn, that's cold and selfishly egotistical… My man!!! 🥰
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And everything about Scrapnik Island with it exploring how he's carelessly thrown away so many of his robots and the impact it has on them all- especially the closer look into how much it devastated Mecha Sonic to go from his greatest creation to abandoned trash.
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All these moments bring me great joy and feel like the Eggman I know and love in the games too, I adore his exciting evil and badassery when he gets a piece of the action, proves his skills and strength, and reminds everyone why he's the best!!! 🥰💜
When he's treated well, written with care, and given some of the focus he deserves, he can be fantastic in this comic. His characterization has really been looking up lately, he just really deserves more of a time to shine now as it's been five years and he still hasn't actually been the main villain of a big arc without some twist involving others taking the spotlight. I really hope he gets his turn to really shine in that spotlight for much longer soon!
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zhongrin · 3 months
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alright, i really really wanted to reply the christmas messages with handwritten letters, but as of now i have 0 energy to do it ;;; i've been sick (yeah, again) for a week now and i'm focusing on resting + spending time with my family since i'll have to go back to work next tuesday, so i don't think that's gonna happen, i'm so sorry ;w;
i have an appreciation post scheduled at the end of the year, so that'll have to do for now. in any case, i've compiled all the lovely messages so i can always reread them whenever, and please know that i really appreciate it if you left me something in the tree!!! from a simple '<3' to a whole appreciation letter and even messages from my f/o(s) (yandere or not), know that they all warmed my heart as i read them while i was drooled on by my sleeping niece while i was out for the family christmas dinner <3
ily all, take care, and i hope you all have a good end of the year!!
with love and a warm cup of tea, meirin <3
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