#i should mention that this isn't ONLY final battle stuff

[taifenggg]

hii I'm not exactly sure if your request is open, but nonetheless, I'm just going to drop it here. feel free to do or ignore it.

requesting for solomon, simeon, and satan hcs : they're currently out going to a bookstore with their s/o. y/n is a huge fan of reading and loves to take their time reading the contents of a book before buying. so imagine at that time, the guy spots them being lost in deep of reading, and he decided to sneak up behind them, only to discover their s/o is currently reading a steamy part of the book while smiling and blushing. make it NSFW or not is up to you. thank you and have a nice day! :)

Content Warning(s): NSFW duh, semi-public sex, mentions of exhibitionism but you don't actually do anything(Satan), spanking(Satan), probably ooc Simeon? idk

Character(s): GN!Reader, Solomon, Satan, Simeon

Authors Note(s): hehe hawhaw horny, anyways my first nsfw request! tysm for reading my guidelines <3.

MINORS DNI OR I WILL BLOCK YO ASSES IM BEING FR, interact with my sfw stuff instead <33

Please keep in mind I'm still learning how to write smut so please bear with me LMAO

nsfw under the cut!

Reminder to abide by my guidelines for NSFW content tysm :]

Guidelines for NSFW Content [ ◇ ]

Solomon [🪄🤍]

Solomon adores your adorable reactions whenever he sees you reading a book that you're invested in. You're his adorable apprentice and lover after all! He finds many things to appreciate about you. From the way you squeal with excitement after getting to the part where the main character finally kisses their love interest after what feels like forever, or your little gasps as your eyes race across the page taking in an exciting battle scene, he loves it all.

Solomon could just spend all day watching you react over your favorite books and it strangely gives him a sense of satisfaction as he watches you gush over your favorite books to him.

Solomon isn't that surprised when he sees that you've reached the spicy part of the book you were reading, your reaction gives it all away. The two of you had decided to take an impromptu date to one of the newly opened bookstores by Ristorante Six. You had split from Solomon for a bit, opting to look over the numerous books they had in stock. One moment you were there and in the next, Solomon turned around, noticing that you had disappeared from his side. When he did find you, he discovered you sitting in a secluded corner, your eyes wide as you read the contents of a book. You didn't notice him as he walked up to you and leaned in close, a knowing smile on his face.

"Wow, you look awfully familiar, although it isn't like me to not recognize someone as good-looking as you," Solomon laughs softly, teasing you as he takes a seat next to you, draping an arm around your shoulder. Your face grows flushed as you angle your book away from him. "Hi handsome," you laugh softly, pressing a kiss to his cheek, feeling your face grow warm as you try to discreetly set the book to the side but you wince as you accidentally let go of it too early and it clatters against the floor.

Solomon stares at you a slight smile on his face before reaching over and picking up the book, faster than you can stop him. "Solomon give it back!" You reach over and grab his arm, but he opens it, his smile splitting wider on his face as he holds it above you preventing you from taking it away from him. "No, I don't think I will," he laughs more continuing to read the contents relishing in the way your face flushed even more.

"So..." he leans over you, a playful smile on his face as his hand starts trailing down to your waist where he squeezes it gently. "What should I do with you hm? Would you like me to reenact the very scene you were reading, my dear apprentice~?" His nose brushes against yours and you shrink back, your breath hitching in your throat as he cages you in against the chair. Your mouth feels dry and you clear your throat to speak up, "Don't-" You press a hand to his chest, halting his movements. You feel your face grow warm as you turn to the side, "We'll get caught."

Solomon stares down at you, laughing softly as he ruffles your hair. You pout at his actions, moving to grab his hand, but instead, Solomon interlaces his fingers with yours. "We'll only get caught if we make noise." His free hand moves upwards from your side, his fingers brushing against your collarbone and you squirm, your legs shaking slightly, from the anticipation of getting down and dirty or the thought of getting caught by some bystander passing by, you didn't know. You could feel a warmth pooling in your nether regions, and against your better judgment, you pulled him closer.

"Dammit...but you better make this up to me later for making me lose my page," you scowled. Solomon chuckles softly his bangs hanging over his eyes, "Oh trust me, I always keep up my end of a deal."

Satan [😾💚]

He enjoys his outings with you, especially when the two of you visit his favorite bookstore in the Devildom. There are vintage and rare tomes that you're unable to find anywhere else. They also host a variety of different books.

Satan himself fancies romance novels. He likes to envision himself and you as the main protagonists in each. Of course, he also indulges in the more risqué novels, and his face flushes at the thought of committing such acts with you.

So imagine his surprise when he finds you reading that type of novel. A grin splits open on his face and soon he finds himself pressing himself on you against the bookshelf. It wobbles and the numerous books threaten to cascade over the side onto the two of you. Satan doesn't miss the small gasp of surprise you make as you feel his body rocking against yours. His breath ghosts over the shell of your ear causing you to shudder underneath him and you feel your legs grow weak as he continues rutting against you.

"You feel so good~" Satan smirks as he rubs his hand along your ass before smacking it lightly causing you to jolt up, "Already so wet for me, are you so eager for this? Or perhaps you're enjoying the thrill of potentially being caught hm? Or would you rather like it if I took you against the window where everyone walking past can see you drooling from how good I'm going to make you feel?" You can't even utter a word, focused on the feeling of his fingers prodding at your hole.

"Satan please-" you whine softly, trying to keep your noise level down so you don't get caught by the other customers within the bookstore. Your grip on the bookshelf tightens as you try to keep your balance, some of the books have already fallen out and are strewn haphazardly over the floor. Normally, Satan would have let out a scandalized gasp and would have picked up every single one but in the situation the two of you were in at the moment, it seemed he couldn't bring himself to care. You bite your lip as you feel his erection rub up against your ass, trying to keep your moans under control.

"Do you feel that? That's what you do to me," he laughs softly, pressing his face into your neck, nipping lightly. This causes you to squirm more, inadvertently rubbing against him more, eliciting some breathy groans from Satan's end.

You can hear him muttering to himself and the sound of him fumbling with his belt as he flips you around so that you're face to face. "Why don't you take some responsibility and...help me out? Does that sound good to you?"

Simeon [🥞🩵]

Simeon loves his outings with you, especially when your dates with him are unhindered by the presence of the brothers who constantly crave and demand your attention. Simeon knows that you're immensely popular in the Devildom, not that he minds. But there are times when he prefers silence and just enjoying his time with you.

Simeon is not naive by any means. He's more than aware of the types of books that you read and look for whenever the two of you visit your favorite bookstore, not that he minds. After all, who is he to tell you what you can and can't read.

Today's date isn't any much different than what the two of you usually do when you plan a bookstore date. Have a nice dinner at Ristorante Six, walk around for a bit, then end the date by spending some time reading at your favorite bookstore. Seems nice right? Thankfully it doesn't seem too busy.

"Simeon-" you gasp out, fingers digging into his shoulders. "How naughty, reading this where anyone could just walk up behind you." Simeon teasingly scolds you. You bite your lip, averting your gaze from his. Simeon laughs, pressing his hand against your cheek, "You're adorable, do you know that?" You huff, feeling your face grow warm. "Well you can't blame me for being interested in reading that sort of thing, especially when my boyfriend is so hot. It's not that hard to envision it's us doing what the characters are doing.." you mumble, feeling your face grow warmer from embarrassment.

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about," Simeon smiles softly, tilting your face so that you're looking at him, "These urges are completely normal, though I do wish you had told me sooner so I could have done this." You stare at him in confusion, until you watch him lean in more, the feeling of his lips pressing against yours. You groan softly in the kiss, arms pulling him in closer as you deepen it. Your tongue brushes against his bottom lip and you feel Simeon shiver against you. His hands rest against your hip occasionally dipping underneath the hem of your shirt but never further. When the two of you break off the kiss, you're both gasping for air and there's a thin string of saliva connecting the two of you.

You cling to him, pressing your cheek against the crook of his neck. You lean up, lips brushing his ear, your tempted to bite his earlobe bjt you hold off...for now. "Fuck...I need you so badly," you whine softly into his ear, feeling his figure stiffen against you. "Can't you feel how much I need you?" you smirk, taking one of his hands and pressing it down there. You bite back a moan, watching for his reaction. Simeon's eyes are closed, but you could sense his resolve wavering.

"Please~"

And that's all it takes for Simeon's last semblance of control to snap. He's tugging you out the door and back towards Purgatory Hall, his footsteps hurried.

To Masterlist [ ◇ ]

Guidelines for NSFW content [ ◇ ]

Back to Navigation [ ◇ ]

[diahire]

Anyways I wrote this post on my private blog but decided I'll share it with the whole fandom and add a few more thoughts to really throw salt about this down on the salt pile with the rest of the Villain fans. (This post isn't for the hero stans, I'm not here to argue with you guys, if you like the ending good for you! I wish that could be me!) I thought about it all night and tbh its literally the worst outcome for the entire manga imo? Because it doesn't feel like the resolution everyone was fighting for can be reached now, or as if Hori's gonna just gloss over it the same way and pretend its a happy ending. (Sorry if I sound like a hater, I sung his praises and trusted him so much so excuse me if my trust has been completely shattered with this) This post sums up a lot of my feelings on the last chapter Surrounding AFO and stuff like that, which was actually satisfying. But oh my lord, everything else is one of the most bitter let downs I've ever seen in any piece of media ever. I'd like to believe the fan theories that this isn't it for the LoV are true but tbh I refuse to be fooled by Hori again so at this point I'm actually fairly positive that the league is dead save for Mr Compress who, I guess, will just be spending the rest of his life ass-cheekless and in jail. (Unless we're meant to think Compress has been executed or is going to be. Who knows. Wouldn't be surprised at this point.)

Like I mentioned, I think the whole "Give Shigaraki back. His friends are waiting for him" thing was alluding to the fate of the League. It would explain why we haven't seen them again. Why Ochaco was the only one shown to be lifted into the helicopter to the hospital even though Himiko should have been right there with her. I made a post about it back then saying how worried I was that they didn't show or even mention Himiko at that point. Well, yeah, my fears of the worst I think were confirmed there. Like the reality here seems to be that Hori literally directly pulled a bury your gays on her. Like ?? I think its probably also safe to say Spinner is likely already dead. We've seen or heard nothing from him since he went down either. Due to Shigaraki's final words I want to think maybe he's not but at the same time I can't imagine him being the sole survivor. Unfortunately, this means Dabi is likely already dead as well. I'm low key taking a little bit of spiteful satisfaction in the fact that if Dabi has died his last words were telling his family to fuck off and honestly, good for him. Its like he said. This was all lip service and saving face and why did it have to go so far / take so long for anyone to even try? Why did he have to burn himself to death for his family to give him the bare minimum of acknowledgement? He spent his entire childhood literally crying and begging for it and being harshly rejected because the moment his dad found out he was disabled he pulled the rug out from under him and decided his existance was pointless. He spent the entire battle desperately trying to get his father to recognize him and talk to him and see that he wasn't a worthless son and could have done so much had he not done epic ableism to him (which, yeah we agreed this was correct within the narrative, omg!) and all Endeavor did was avoid him until he was backed into a corner and couldn't ignore / avoid him anymore, which is at large why Dabi was so badly injured in the first place. This isnt a W for the heroes or for Endeavor anymore. Once again our great hero drove his literal disabled abuse victim son to death in a desperate attempt to receive some type of validation from him. The easiest thing in the world for Endeavor to have ever give him and the one thing he really wanted was once again withheld from him until it was too late. A fucking "Sorry I didn't come to Sekoto Peak :(" isn't good enough anymore. Like I say this as someone who isn't even an Endeavor hater, the opposite, that just isn't good enough anymore. I mean, wow, Himiko and Shigaraki both essentially "sacrificed" themselves for the purity of people who actually didn't really care about them and actually just failed them one last time in the grand scheme of things so I just don't see how I'm suppose to really feel like its a satisfying outcome for them. We can't let our little centrist heroes get blood on their hands, what a crappy cliche way to end their stories. The tragic, outcast, well intentioned extremist lefty "villains" self destruct so the designated, privileged "good guys" don't need to feel any guilt or real consequences for their deaths or weight of the things they were trying to achieve. (Even though they are undeniably responsible!) Ugh, genuinely its so gut wrenching that all Shigaraki wanted in his last moments was for Spinner to know that he died trying. Like I'm sorry but they weren't "saved" as they should have been and as Hori had been suggesting to this entire time. I understand every one of them was shown to have achieved some morbid, tragic sense of peace before they died but I just hate that's all they got. Himiko and Shigaraki let themselves die ultimately because people said some nice words to them and did the bare minimum for them that no hero would ever do before. How far they had to go to get the bare minimum out of some fucking kids no less, not even actual licensed heroes, bruh like. Yeah, such a win for the heroes... /s.

I think a lot people miss the fact that the reason the LoV wanted to "destroy" the world was to create a better one, and this has a lot of tragic impact when characters like Spinner are canonly being murdered and mutilated in literal hate crimes to such an extent Spinner was unable to leave his house back in his home village without being attacked. But of course this is fine cause Shoji moved to the big city and is going to become a licensed hero one day so that'll def end all racism toward mutant presenting quirks, no flaws in that logic at all, why didn't Spinner just think of that himself. /s

I mean this is really just a salty rant because I know other people have articulated, I think, better than me, why this ending sucks ass, sends a crappy message, shits all over the whole narrative of Izuku and his friends becoming "The worlds greatest heroes" and overall feels to be out of the left field, and honestly is just a lazy and bitter cop-out with all the build up surrounding it and the fact that it absolutely DOESN'T tackle or resolve any of the social issues that the series has done nothing but make commentary on and that the LoV were all tragic victims to, which is why they took up the fight with the heroes in the first place. (Aka, government dogs, literally we've learned all of Hero society basically exists as a distraction and a shitty band aide for the oppression and demonization of people with quirks by governments who refused to actually adapt to the society of the supernatural and instead continued to systematically oppress people who were considered to fall outside of the social norm which is now more rigid than ever because society becoming supernatural should have REMOVED all said oppressive "norms" but instead it heightened them because people in power won't/wouldn't let go of what they considered "normal" no matter how outdated and defunct that "normal" was. ) Anyway, yeah, no the status quo has been upheld and the rebellious minorities who fought so hard to end their oppression have been killed and will surely be forgotten as little more than crazy terrorists. Huzza, the day is saved! /s

Idk man. I suppose we can hope that the UA kids put measures in place to try and correct hero society through taking on board the villains pain and their rightful and just complaints moving forward but IMO that feels unrealistic now because now they're dead. The war is won, history is written by the victors and it will be much more convenient to everyone WHO ARE STILL IN CHARGE (The UA kids are still kids who are still in school mind you, they have no real say or power in anything.) to just continue as normal as if we weren't given a clear idea that as long as hero society exists things will not improve for Meta-humans and their rights and the unfair prejudices against people and their quirks so... Yay.

But hehe funny super hero manga, yay the villains were defeated and the day was saved, the rain stopped, the sun is shining and the birds are singing! -powerpuff girls animated heart -

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

what would megumi’s life have been if he was actually raised by the zenin from day one? like either gojo lost the custody battle or they were able to scoop him up before gojo ever reached them. i doubt they would want to keep tsumiki with them so she’s not there for little baby megs.

i think it would be really cool to see a zenin raised megumi interacting with his fellow classmates when he attends the school, not to mention the contrast between him and gojo. like on paper they both should have gotten the same treatment-being pampered and spoiled rotten but we also know that the zenin think that hurting little kids makes them stronger so it would be super interesting to see megumi realise that the stuff that happened to him wasn’t normal and for gojo to have a guilt trip bc he wasn’t able to help megumi when he needed someone to help him the most.

So I have a fanfic that I’ve half written (no idea if I’ll ever finish it—I’d love to, it’s just hard to find the time) about EXACTLY THAT that I talked about in this post for an ask game.

That being said, that entire thing happens from Tsumiki’s perspective, and I agree with you—I don’t think the Zenin would have ever actually taken her too. They don’t want her. She’s not Zenin. She’s not a sorcerer. They only bought Megumi. For the most part, Megumi is absent from that post, and you asked about Megumi. So this is what I think would happen on Megumi's side of that post I linked.

It comes down to two things:

1. He is never, ever happy with the Zenin.

2. He never lets go of his sister.

Megumi’s old enough to remember Tsumiki when the Zenin take him away. He's old enough to love her. And I think that Megumi loves very quietly, but he also loves very violently. He wouldn't let his sister hold his hand on the walk to school, but he would sacrifice himself for her future.

I think the Zenin took him from his sister, and I think he kicked and screamed and wasn't strong enough. I think they thought he would forget her eventually.

And then I think he bit most of the Zenin Clan.

At the end of the day, what Megumi wanted was the one thing the Zenin were not willing to give him. They were never like the Gojo clan, they were never going to pamper him, but there are a great many things in this world that they would give the Ten Shadows finally returned to them. But they would not give him a non-sorcerer, non-Zenin sister who would only be a weakness to him. They refused to let him have any contact with his sister, and that was the source of a lot of what soured.

Any Megumi that was taken in by the Zenin would have been taken in to Naobito's household directly. He would be announced as the one who finally inherited their most cherished technique, and he would be declared heir, and the Zenin would call him beloved for it.

They would keep him in a room that was large and empty and almost always dark, and he wouldn't be allowed to decide when he slept or woke, and the door would always be locked from the outside. They would give him a wardrobe of expensive clothes that he hated, and he would never get to pick which of them he wore.

Megumi would hate them. He would hate all of them.

He's just not the type to be comfortable with or enjoy the adoration of others--especially when it's not backed up by genuine love. Megumi is someone who very much values sincerity and depth to emotion--it's one of the reasons why he seems to respect Yuuji so much. Yuuji is a good person who follows through with what he says. He's not just going to talk about wanting to save people--he's there making the sacrifices as he does it.

The Zenin do not actually love him. And he knows it. He's experienced love before, and this isn't it.

They love the idea of him. The fantasy of him that lives in their heads. He has no interest in being their little god prince to contend with the Gojo's own. He knows who he is, and it's not this. He wants to go home. He wants to find his sister again. He doesn't want to do this anymore.

And I think that's a feeling Megumi never escape: he just didn't want to do this anymore.

Megumi would feel like a bug pinned beneath glass in the Zenin compound. He would constantly have people managing him--when he ate, what he ate, what he wore, when he slept, when he woke, when he trained, what he did. Having to become a jujutsu sorcerer signified an inherent loss of control, but it's nothing compared to the sheer objectification that he goes through when the Zenin have exclusive control over him.

He has no power of what clothes he wears. How his hair is styled. His schedule, his diet, the people he speaks too--he's suffocating and the Zenin are just increasing pressure on him.

I don't think Gojo ever thought that would be Megumi's life.

We’re gonna just have this imagining exist in the same world as the Tsumiki centric fic described in the linked post, and in that, the reason why Gojo never took him in was because he didn’t know Megumi had a sister. He showed up, saw the divine dogs, realized Megumi had the Ten Shadows, and decided he couldn’t do this. He was a mess. He was grieving Suguru and Haibara. Megumi looked just like the man who killed Riko, and apparently inherited the fucking Ten Shadows of all the goddamn things. The Zenin would lose their shit, and Gojo didn’t have the energy to fight and told himself he didn’t need to, because if Megumi was the Ten Shadows he’d be cared for like a prince with the Zenin. He turned around and left and spent the rest of his life with Megumi in the back of his mind, always nagging him with whether he made the right decision. It wasn’t until Maki got there and made a few worrisome references to Megumi's standard of living that he started to really worry that he had made the wrong one, and it wasn't until he found out about Tsumiki that he knew it was the wrong decision.

It's like this: The Zenin hurt Megumi in every world.

It would be bad no matter what, but it really gets bad because Megumi refuses to stop trying to get back to Tsumiki. She's his sister. They didn't have anyone or anything in this world, but they had each other, and he couldn't let these people just take her away. He’s feral about it. He refuses to fit the mold they keep trying to cram him in. He’s trying to scale the walls to escape. He’s increasingly desperate and angry and the Zenin are getting more and more frustrated the longer he fights them. He’s the heir to the clan, and he can’t stop trying to leave it to get back to some random girl who isn’t his real sister and isn’t someone they’ll ever allow him to have.

It gets bad.

They put him under increasingly strict levels of control. He’s constantly being trained, which means he's constantly being hurt. He’s not allowed to speak to anyone without the clan head’s approval. He is under absolutely constant guard after he manages to get over the wall and halfway to his old neighborhood before they catch him again. Tsumiki’s name is not allowed to be said aloud, or his old name. He forgets his name used to be Fushiguro, but he doesn’t forget Tsumiki. He doesn’t let himself.

I think it escalates until it hits a breaking point. Megumi becomes increasingly self-destructive and non-responsive to everything they try. They push him to extremes that start risking permanent damage.

I think Megumi would try to hurt himself, eventually.

He wouldn't be in his right mind. He's in the most shit situation possible. He's undergoing pretty severe abuse. He'd be at the end of his rope from the lack of control over his own life, and he'd be spiteful as hell towards the Zenin. And the only thing he has to hurt them with is himself.

As a character, Megumi has always considered his own sacrifice as an acceptable means to the end of getting back at someone. Mahoraga, intrinsically, requires him killing himself as a way of killing someone else. He'd hurt himself if it was the only way he had of hurting them.

Naobito would cover it up. He'd never, ever want the rest of the clan to find out that it happened. It was already bad enough that Megumi openly hated them--he couldn't have the Zenin seeing any vulnerability in what was meant to be their most powerful member. He'd put Megumi in total lockdown until he could make it all go away.

Then they'd make a deal.

A binding vow. Megumi could never purposefully hurt himself again. He could never again try to leverage his own safety against the clan.

And in exchange, Tsumiki would be taken care of.

The last time Megumi saw his sister, she was on a sinking ship. They were running out of food, money, options--he doesn't know if she even has food anymore. He doesn't know if she lost the apartment or if there's still running water.

They're not letting him see her. But they are letting him take care of her. He can sacrifice another piece of control over himself, and she'll never have to worry about money again. They'll pay for her housing, her food, her education, for her every desire for as long as she lives. The trust the Zenin set up for her will be a generous one, and it will be managed meticulously by a trustee who can make sure she'll be provided for until she's old and grey. And Naobito will vow to never hurt her or send someone else to hurt her. She'll be safe. She'll be taken care of.

Megumi makes the deal.

In the end, the deal's what sort of breaks him.

Because he doesn't promise to stop looking for her, but the Zenin manage to make it a part of the terms anyway. When they approach Tsumiki's mother with the offer to be her family's beneficiary, they include a requirement that Tsumiki be moved to another city entirely with no forwarding address given. She needs to be somewhere that Megumi can never find her again.

The Zenin keep the old apartment. They pay the rent every month. And the next time Megumi manages to make it off compound, they let him make it all the way there before dragging him home. They let him see the empty apartment with all its empty rooms.

Naobito wants him to know that Tsumiki's gone. He wants him to know that he'll never find her again.

He tries to run a few more times after that, but he never makes it very far. He doesn't have anywhere to go.

In the linked post, Megumi finds Tsumiki, just once. She's on a class trip. He's on one of his very few and far between allowed excursions off the compound grounds, and he sees her in the crowd and recognizes her, and he ducks away from his escort before anyone can stop him.

She remembers him. He didn't think she would do that.

She tries to save him. He didn't think she would do that either.

She still loves him. And he was always too afraid to hope she would do that.

It goes the same way it did the first time. There's a car, and the Zenin shove him in it. She's on the outside, and he's trapped within, and he wishes she didn't scream so loudly when it happens. The sound never seems to leave his dreams.

His sister still loves him. Naoya hits him in the back of the head. He wakes up, and it was like she was never there at all.

But they hit him harder, after. Like they're trying to beat the memory of her out of him. He has even less freedom, when he already had next to none at all.

But he still has a sister. He has a place to go that isn't here. He just has to figure out where that is.

He wouldn't really have anyone in the Zenin clan. Most people are just... weird about him. Naoya's violently abusive. Naobito's weird and violently abusive. Everyone wants him to be someone he's not.

Maki would be his favorite.

He doesn't care about whether she's got cursed energy--his sister didn't have any. And she's obviously strong. She doesn't treat him like a divine blessing or try to force him to act a certain way. I think they would have genuinely liked each other, but kept each other at a distance. They're both trapped in an abusive situation and keep themselves safe by keeping everyone else at arm's length.

He would have been happy to see her get out, though. He would have told her that she could have his spot as heir or head or whatever when she came back if she wanted it. She would have told him that if he ever got out... well, fuck it. They could be something then. Family. Whatever the fuck they weren't allowed to be here.

She would have told him she's sorry, and she would have meant it. The only one she she regretted more than Megumi was Maki. He would have told her not to be, that if she dared to be sorry for getting out that he would never forgive her, and he would have meant that too.

I think his relationship with his own techinque would be very different in a world where the Zenin raised him. In canon, his issue is that he doesn't view himself as someone who could be powerful or win in the long run, but in this world, all he ever hears is how powerful he is. Pride of the fucking Zenin. The most powerful of them in centuries. Meant to rival Gojo fucking Satoru himself.

I think his real issue would be controlling it.

His technique would be a source of negative associations for him. It's the reason why the Zenin took him away. Most of his interactions with it have involved getting beaten and hurt by either his family or a high-level curse they shoved him in front of. I think he'd have a lot more firepower under his belt than at the start of canon, but he'd have less of a fine tuned control over it.

He lost control over his own life because of his shadows. It think that would manifest in struggling to control his own shikigami at times. he's not as in-sync with them as he is in canon.

Eventually, he'd go to Jujutsu High. He would be the only one in the first year class at the beginning, just like in canon. And he'd finally meet Gojo Satoru, the man he's supposed to topple.

He looks at Megumi really goddamn weird.

He's... enthusiastic. About. Teaching. He guesses. And constantly asking prying questions about the Zenin, but not in the sort of way he'd expect from a rival. In the sort of way he'd expect from someone concerned about him. Which is stupid. And annoying. And weird. He keeps a distance from everyone. They've all heard about the Zenin clan heir, and he has no interest in having to fit or break whatever mold they've already cast him in. He's better off on his own.

Maki's there. She's cordial where other people can see it, and in private, she takes care of him in a way that's terrifyingly close to familial. He's not sure if he likes it. He's not Mai, and she's not Tsumiki, and they both want someone they can't have.

She isn't sorry she left. She is sorry she left him. He can hate her for it all he goddamn pleases.

Of course, if this is in the same world as the linked post, Megumi finds Tsumiki again. He finds her in Sendai.

He gets to keep her, this time.

Gojo Satoru, of all the goddamn people, intervenes and becomes his sister's benefactor. It's super fucking weird. He won't stop looking at Megumi strangely. He won't stop insisting that he didn't know he had a sister, like that matters.

That would sort of be the first time in a long time that life actually gets better for Megumi.

I think he would ask to go by Fushiguro again, once he asks Tsumiki what his name used to be. He'd ask her if she minded it, him taking the name again, and he'd ask the rest of the school to call him Fushiguro instead of Zenin.

Predictably enough, Naobito loses his shit when he finds out, but it's not nearly as big of a pain in the ass as he thinks it is? Because Gojo intervenes.

Gojo keeps intervening.

It drives Megumi nuts, because if anyone was supposed to hate him, it was this guy. If anyone was supposed to be against him, it was this guy. This is the guy he was supposed to rival. This is the guy who killed his shitheel bio dad.

Gojo's just... good to him. He keeps him safe. He keeps him safe from his own goddamn family, and that's--no one's ever done that. No one's ever protected him from the Zenin.

The Zenin try to remove him from the Tokyo campus and move him to Kyoto the second they find out Tsumiki's there, and Gojo just... says no. It causes an uproar, and he doesn't fucking budge. It's treading dangerously close to him kidnapping the Zenin clan heir, his refusal to let them remove him from the Tokyo campus, and he doesn't care about whatever problems it causes him.

Megumi's his student. He doesn't want to leave. So Gojo won't let them take him.

He personally goes to Kyoto and collects him, the one time the Zenin force him into a car and move him when Gojo's off on a mission. He tells the higher ups to get fucked. He changes Megumi's student I.D. to read Fushiguro, and he causes problems for Yaga and the assistants until they start calling him Fushiguro as well.

Megumi's different with the other students once his sister is there.

He's more connected with them. He becomes best friends with Kugisaki and Itadori. He gets closer with the second years. He's visibly happier, and it sort of casts in sharp contrast how unhappy he was before this.

And Gojo? Gojo's so goddamn sorry. He didn't know megumi had a sister.

The thing is that now that both Tsumiki and Megumi are on campus, it sort of haunts Gojo with what could have been. They're both fantastic kids--funny, smart, resourceful. And it's painful watching them try to rebuild what was taken from them. And it could have just. never happened. Because he could have saved them both. He could have been their family.

It's sort of painfully obvious the Zenin abused Megumi, and it fucking haunts him. He doesn't even have to read into Megumi's behavior--he sees it happen, right in front of him, with how they try to control him and push him around. He wants to kill them for it. He wants to hate himself for it. He could have saved Megumi and he just. He didn't.

He wishes he did.

[doubleodonut]

i really did want to like this season going in but ugh. like hearing oh it's written by burnie directed by matt, the seasons i don't like got entirely retconned (petty. i know. no shade to people who like the shisno trilogy i was just eh on it), clearly meant to be a return to reconstruction-era format in some way. all sounds fantastic. unfortunately

basically everything from sarge's death onward felt entirely un-earned and un-genuine. this is probably my biggest sticking point with it all. rvb has been extremely good at making these incredibly silly characters do emotional moments well in a way that feels true to the characters- the finale to season 13, for example, is one of the best bits in the show, imo. and that's a really delicate balance! because fundamentally, these characters are built on comedy, and often being mean to each other, and making genuine interpersonal moments between them can be a really tricky business. the emotional moments in restoration, for me, leaned way too far into the sappy side and as such felt entirely un-genuine, starting with sarge's speech and continuing for the .. most of the rest of it.

now, some other bits would have felt really good if it weren't for their surrounding stuff, if that makes sense? like. after sarge's death, simmons becoming first-in-command and immediately discharging grif. that's really good. that's REALLY GOOD it feels true to their characters and earnest in a way they would be. but the surrounding problems that i mentioned already made it land a looot softer than it should have.

the whole retcon thing was...really unclear, frankly. like, it was sort-of-stated in the trailer, but when the season opened with dylan, as well as the reveal of wash in the hospital, carolina doc and donut being gone, i'd figured that oh, the retcon implied in the trailer HADN'T actually happened, church's simulations just included the stuff that happened. (and also, you should be able to tell what's going on in a piece of media without having watched the trailers..) but no, the retcon was apparently real, this season took place directly after the chorus trilogy. just not communicated well.

where were carolina and donut. like, we know doc'd died but, like. where are those two. donut just ISN'T there (only just mentioned by dr. grey at one point and simmons at another), and carolina is. missing, for some reason, until she's needed for the final fight. given carolina's absence for most of the thing, her moments with tex also felt very underbaked.

the "doc's been dead the whole time!" twist was stupid i'm sorry. i feel like it could have been done well if the rest of the season was better but as it is it just feels cliche. i think i get what they were going for- we never saw the final climactic fight of season 13 because church never saw it, now coming back after however-many-months, we as the audience weren't filled in on how that battle happened, making a surprise "actually, x died!" thing narratively interesting. it just wasn't done well, imo

the meta as a villain was .. just strange as it was played out. the idea of meta!tucker? tucker stuck in his own body while being puppeted by the epsilon-fragments-as-meta? or even, like what epsilon thought was going on, tucker straight up heel-turn? that fucking rules. i am SO into that idea. but i really didn't like how it was done. epsilon-meta was just..goofy. their lines all sounded like a cartoon villain. so much threatening and so much..talking? like, compare to alpha-meta- silent save for the interconnected whispers of the ai, focused, driven, not having long protracted villain speeches. not that villain monologues are BAD, they just don't feel right for the fucking meta! it made them as a villain feel weird and, again, pretty cliche. also, like, the bit where they held the sword to simmons' face and started monologuing threateningly at him? just didn't fit with what we know about the meta at all. the meta would have fucking stabbed him without hesitation that was some felix-type shit

(now, maybe this was the influence of the "host" between either version of the meta. like, maine is silent, so maine-meta is silent. tucker is super chatty, therefore so is tucker-meta. that would have worked if a) tucker was actually the meta rather than just A Meat Puppet and b) the dialogue actually had any resemblance to how tucker talks rather than Stock Villain)

jumping off the topic of epsilon/tucker!meta. tucker was so stiffed this season. the meta could have been piloting a robot body and it would have made 0 difference. the torture scene didn't land and had basically no actual purpose. as others have pointed out, an ACTUAL villain!tucker could have been pretty fucking cool if done right, and would have been a really interesting twist on the meta. i think meat-puppet-tucker could also have been done interestingly, if we saw more of tucker and his conflicts with the ai, or, like, even what happened leading up to the meta Happening after the end of s13. but tucker, one of the imo most interesting and best characters in the entire show, just had almost no influence, purpose, no character development, nothing.

perhaps most damningly of all, it just. wasn't funny. there were a couple little jokes here and there that got a laugh out of me, but there was no sustained comedic energy throughout the thing, and a lot of the bits (church's youtube exposition, the zoom bit) dragged on for WAY too long. i cant believe they did the "ehh.......it's right behind me isn't it" bit entirely straight.

overall, i felt this season is overall underbaked. there were some very cool concepts, bits, and ideas, but all together just did not work.

[am1ca]

You know, I've been thinking about this lately, but for a Cybertronian, it must be TERRIFYING when someone like Elita-1 or Arcee walks into the room. Because not only are they extremely intimidating individuals in their own rights, but these are mechs that have specifically chosen to paint themselves in the same color as energon. (At least in Elita's case, but I like to think Arcee's was a conscious decision as well).

Like. The gall you have to possess in order to walk around every single day, wearing the same shade as your people's lifeblood, is INSANE. (And I think in some comics it's mentioned that this is exactly the color of innermost energon, which is SO METAL).

Even after the war is good and done with, she continues to keep up with that *very specific* shade of pink. And I think this is often discounted by the people consuming Transformers content because to us, it's just a silly little shade of pink on a girl robot. This subversion in her color scheme is especially cool to me in continuities where Elita-1 is a known threat, like IDW. Hell, during the whole Carcer debate thing it's shown that she literally TOWERS over Starscream. She may not be a tank, but she's huge, and she makes sure to use this to her advantage. This isn't even to mention how utterly brilliant she is. I'd be willing to bet that if things had gone differently, she could've made an absolutely ruthless leader of Cybertron. In my mind she rivals Megatron and Optimus in all aspects.

It's no wonder the Council is so afraid of her. Elita-1 is a mech that's proven time and time again that she's wickedly intelligent, ruthless in battle, and knows how to make a statement. She's spent her time intentionally making herself as big of a threat as possible in every way. She literally acts as her own warning sign (that paint just SCREAMS 'I know how dangerous I am, and so should you'). Honestly, I'd piss myself if I ever met her on a battlefield or if I ever had to debate against her.

One last note, I really enjoyed the way Elita's character was handled later on in the IDW comics. It was amazing to finally get her out from Optimus' shadow and not only give her some actual characterization but to see her become so vastly DIFFERENT from her earlier counterparts. This Elita means business. She's independent to an insane degree. I really love the way she got to reclaim the pink as something that's no longer just a color she was given because she's a girl robot, but as a critical piece of her character and a part of WHY she's so feared. I just love Elita-1.

I'd like to really explore this whole concept (when I have some more time for it) within my own AU. Because this kind of stuff is incredibly fascinating to me. I have some very specific ideas on both Warframes and Femmes, and this is one of those perfect tie-ins imo. Love it when women get to be evil <3

[megaderping]

Persona 5 Royal Spoilers!!

I think there's a lot that can be said about whether Akechi should live or die, but at the end of the day, I feel like where Royal leaves him is just too nebulous to really be satisfying as it is. To start... - His last line of dialogue in Royal is complaining about the helicopter being cramped. - The interaction with Muhen, where Ren reaffirms that their battle isn't over yet. - The postcredits if you max his confidant. Who are the men in suits?? What is going ON?

There are just too many hooks. And so while I can definitely see an argument for poetic and thematic poignancy, because the game leaves the door open, it just leaves too many dangling loose ends. To that end, I think they might as well just run with his survival instead of relegating him to November stories that'll just be forgotten by the end. I think there are also a lot of really interesting angles you can explore with him like... - Expecting for it all to end, only for it not to. Now he has to live, has to find new purpose, and has to figure himself out. What do you do when you expected a dignified death, but in the end you're left alive? - The men in suits... where are they taking him? Are they related to Mitsuru? Toshiro? Something else? Because they left us with an unresolved cliffhanger, I'd rather they do something with it, and I genuinely think a Persona 5 Arena game would be the perfect way to give Akechi a proper sendoff by way of a duel with Joker and finally answering that question. - There's just a lot you can do with him in terms of interactions with other characters, e.g. Zenkichi, Toshiro, and others to a point where, if Atlus really wants to be able to keep using him, I think there's still room for cool stuff. I think the biggest issue is that Atlus just... didn't commit one way or the other, and because of this, it's just not clear-cut. I mean, the devs even gave this rather ambiguous answer:

So it's just... yeah. Ultimately, because of how the game handled it, without really sticking to a conclusion, it's just a dangling thread, and that irks me personally. There are a lot of interpretations, like the mentioned endure skill shown in the interview, or Jose's star keeping him around, or any number of explanations, but a straight up confirmation one way or the other would cut back on a LOT of discourse, if P5 is to continue getting spinoff sequels. If Royal were the final Persona 5 title, I think Akechi's ambiguous fate would be less of an issue. But since we live in a reality where games like Tactica exist (and debatably Strikers, but that one was in development alongside Royal and thus couldn't acknowledge it as much), it just makes the lack of resolution more awkward.

[justlarkin]

Continuation: The reason why Monomasa wanted to talk to MC was because he was hoping that they'd be able to convince Drovain to absorb the rest of him because Drovain will die if he doesn't. MC isn't really down with this request because their job is to observe heroes' dreams and Drovain's dream is for Monomasa to be able to come out and finally live his life without being controlled by others. Asking Drovain to give up on his dream would go against their job and, quite frankly, Drovain seems to care more about Monomasa's wellbeing than his own, so he wouldn't be down with it regardless. Monomasa and Drovain are both eventually going to be screwed if this doesn't happen though, unless MC pulls some shenanigans, so MC has some stuff to think about.

Danzo was actually listening to their conversation, so in the morning when he sees MC internally stressing about the situation, he decides to distract them from it by being obnoxious, which is nice of him imho.

Galvo finally ends up remembering that he's actually heard about an observer named MC from Exio. About them being a Unique, bringing back Mt. Fuji, that their power and skill are a mess, but they're on their way to becoming something... which shouldn't be possible since that all occurred in the present world and MC should be the only MC present. Exio would also tell Galvo that he couldn't meet MC when he asked about it. Exio was telling others about how based and OP MC is, ain't that sweet? Or ominous? Why not both? It's interesting how much he divulged to Galvo since he's usually so secretive, even around Seiichiro and his gang. MC wasn't even something he would have to mention at any point since Galvo didn't know about them, it was unprompted. Maybe Exio feels comfortable mentioning the things going on in the present world to him because he figured that it was a separate world and nothing would come from it if he knew. I'm choosing to believe he just uses Galvo to vent and traumadump on because he doesn't want to pay for therapy.

So anyways, the gang comes to the conclusion that Galvo's Exio and their Exio are most likely the same guy and bro has been using his power to world hop or that Galvo's Exio and their Exio have been communicating. According to Monomasa, this seems to line up with Exio making random schedule changes as if he knew the future, which would be possible if he already experienced these events in other worlds or if he's getting a heads up from someone.

The current objective is to flip Exio's bricks and get back to their own world, and by extension Danzo can back to his master. MC starts getting the feeling that Seiichiro's order for Danzo to protect MC might be getting in Danzo's way, which seems to be true since he seems to be hindered in battle while protecting them. MC can finally understand what Monomasa meant by Drovain being incomplete and weaker while he's around.

MC ends up talking about feeling bad for getting in Danzo's way, which Danzo "nuh uhs", and this leads to a conversation about the relationship and trust between heroes and operators, trust being a two-way street for them. Galvo asks MC who is that ideal hero that they can put their trust in and the game makes you choose between Akashi, Mokdai, and Sui. As you can see, it's red, so this option is important and the game WILL REMEMBER it for later. I would've picked Sui, but went with Akashi since I know that from a narrative point, Akashi is the one who desires MC's trust and faith the most.

Galvo requests that MC put the same trust they'd put in that chosen hero in all of them for now and work together. Monomasa seems to take his words into consideration, so maybe they'll work things out between Drovain and Monomasa at some point with a collaboration of some sort. Galvo then suggests that MC just order Danzo around, so they won't feel like a hindrance to him and, you know, teamwork, which both of them go along with.

They get to the place Exio and Galvo crashed, so that MC can try to open up a path to their world, but they discover that the area is too unstable to do so. Danzo shows them that the facility stats Grigory showed them earlier are waaay over what they should be and ominously says something that can be summarized as "we're probs boned" before the screen statics out.

[color-cacophony]

I was going to make a Big Official Review Post about Rayman in the Phantom Show but I don't really have enough complete thoughts to make something comprehensive and organized, but I still want to share some points from my experience with it so uhhh without further ado, here's a bunch of thoughts on what dazzled me and what I thought could have been done better.

Here I go...

I'll start with the stuff that bugged me first because I don't like to end on a bad note:

I think the biggest issue is that giving the player the option to complete each set in any order diminishes the opportunity to have a linear story. Without a series of events building up to the finale, the actual climax doesn't feel as grand or substantial as it should be (it definitely feels like a few lines were cut from the moments before Phantom's first verse with how abruptly it starts). It would have felt more immersive to see actual scenes of the heroes trying to play their roles and have more varied quests based on puzzles or even characters and dialogue (like the search for Sweetlopek's stolen axe), all whilst gradually putting the pieces together that they were led into a trap.

Speaking of putting the pieces together, it would've paid off to have Beep-0 learn from his own arrogance in the past instead of repeating his assertion that he knew what Phantom was up to all along. That part made me kind of sad because I really like Beep-0 and it seemed like they were setting him up to eventually become less uptight and more open to admitting his mistakes, which would be more satisfying and obvious!

As we all know, Beep-0 isn't the only one who repeated himself. I remember an exchange I had with @randomrabbidramblings about our predictions for what would happen in the climax; they were hoping the final showdown with Phantom would not be redundant with his first encounter, having the same battle gimmick as before. Unfortunately that is, in fact, what they ended up doing. While framing it as Phantom being unoriginal or making a callback helps it a little bit, ultimately it made me feel let down (although I love Beep-0's delivery when he reiterates his line from Kingdom Battle. he means business).

As for the aftermath of the battle, I want to know where Phantom went. There doesn't seem to be any sign of him anywhere in the studio. It's really odd, given how this was supposed to be his grand comeback (alongside Rayman, of course), but we don't get even a simple explanation of what happened to him after he was defeated for the second time, unless I missed something. I presume this is his last major appearance in a game (unless they decide to do something completely different with him in the distant future??? wishful thinking but not ruling it out!), so it's a strangely underwhelming and mysterious send-off to our beloved ghostly diva. I would have been bummed that we didn't get lore paintings for him, but the memory entry summarizing his surprisingly short-lived career actually made me laugh and honestly, the thought of him only releasing one album and becoming so well-known just because he's notoriously a huge jerk and a producer of incredibly terrible films is so in-character for him.

Another choice I found unusual was the lack of any explanation as to how he got his voice back, since it's been established that he screwed it up by overdoing it. Although, they must have dismissed it knowing that not everyone is going to find the mural containing the only source of that detail. His voice could have healed over time anyway, but it just doesn't entirely make sense that they don't acknowledge it at all (I did see @bramble-scramble 's post mentioning a detail @randomrabbidramblings pointed out where a gramophone can be seen in a box in the studio's control room and it is supposedly the one Phantom replaced with a new one when he messed it up, but even if that's true, it's still a bit easy to miss).

I understand that a lot of these issues were due to restraints since it's only a DLC and they could only fit so much in, but that goes to show that this concept is a little too big for a DLC, but not quite big enough for a full game.

Now, for the things I loved...

I must give massive props to the artists and animators for taking reference from multiple Rayman games and essentially making the pinnacle of his goofiness. Rayman was HIGHLY entertaining to see (and listen to, thanks to David Gasman) and very lovable in this! And the way his dynamic with Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Mario changes up until the end where he becomes friends with them and realizes that he can work with the Rabbids now instead of against them it's just 🥺 awgh... It feels cheesy to talk about it but it really does make me happy now that Rayman has a chance to be an equal to the Rabbids and have something resembling a mutual understanding.

I appreciate them bringing back characters from the main game and giving them their own sets. Fittingly enough, it's like a curtain call for the final installment of SoH.

The return of Beep-0's swearing. SERIOUSLY IT'S SUCH A SMALL THING BUT IT DELIGHTED ME

The studio's lobby is gorgeous. Absolutely STUNNING I love all the details and the music notation motifs on everything.

Honestly the rest of this is just going to be me gushing about Phantom hehehe...

First of all, I was completely awestruck at the decision to give him a swing/jazz sequence because I love the aesthetic of the whole sassy big band musical number kind of thing so when I saw that Phantom was going to do that I went INSANE. The animation in the song sequences is absolutely top tier. Phantom is ALL OVER THE PLACE, very charming, very energetic. The swing bit made me realize just how unbelievably coordinated he is. Like when he's zipping and spinning around the stage and it doesn't affect his singing at all? Holy crap. Then, I went even MORE insane when rock/metal Phantom showed up. I would have wanted a verse in that style too, but I get that it was cut because it would mess up the pacing of the battle.

I love Phantom's inability to contain his excitement at the start of the battle, his annoyed lines when you destroy the lights, his smug remarks even when he's taking damage. He's just so- I'm just gonna say it- so freaking cute in this! His line deliveries in general made me fall so hard for him, especially "were you EVER a thing, Rayman?". The way he drops his voice sounds so cool...

Regarding his abilities, I thought they were going to explain why he could turn people to stone in Kingdom Battle, but they simply took that detail away. I don't have a big problem with this, as the Stone Deaf ability could have been part of the Megabug's influence (and it makes him at least a bit less OP lol). I'm also satisfied to finally know that he can indeed phase through things like any other ghost and isn't limited to just teleporting.

His death acting has definitely improved since last time, in that it's silly and makes me smile instead of just making me feel embarrassed lol.

So uummmm yeah that's all the noteworthy stuff I can think of! Overall I thought the DLC was delightful during my playthrough, but after I finished it I felt kind of sad because it just didn't feel "thorough". However, given that Sparks of Hope generally improved on so many aspects from the last game, I'm confident that they'll keep adding and experimenting with more characterizations and scenarios and make something even better if they decide to continue with Mario + Rabbids. And even if they don't, we'll always have the amazing fans to continue the story and put even more wonder into this wild crossed-over universe!

Anyway, thank you for reading through this highly disorganized rant/gush! And while I'm at it, thank you to everybody in the Mario + Rabbids community for making such amazing art and just being here to share our love for the series. That means thank you to @randomrabbidramblings @bramble-scramble @salamifuposey @hostess-of-horror @phandrow @pastelprince18 @critterzone13 @hostdoozy @majorpepperidge and more! You guys are super cool and I appreciate you even though I've never directly interacted with all of you, hehe. I suppose all I have left to say is goodnight, so goodnight/day everyone! Until next time I decide to dump more nonsense onto your dashboard :D

[angelofrainfrogs]

Going Back: Ch. 21

~Coauthored by @zeitghest~

Fandom(s): Five Nights At Freddy’s: Security Breach

Description: Things are looking up for Gregory. After putting the soul of a formerly-immortal killer to rest, he and his new family can finally begin their lives anew. Sure, Gregory might have been cursed with mysterious Remnant in exchange for being involved in this mess—not to mention his caretakers consist of sentient robots and ghosts… But there’s no doubt that the bond they share is unbreakable. They love him, and he in turn. 

All in all, life is finally starting to go right for once. 

…Unfortunately, true peace is a hard-won battle. There are other things to contend with besides William’s decrepit soul, and Gregory will learn that his role in the lives of the Aftons and Emilys is far greater than anyone could’ve imagined. 

Rating: T

Read on Ao3

After an uneventful walk back to the office, Michael found it somewhat alarming to find Charlie and Freddy inside waiting for him. Alone and without Gregory, Charlie was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed a worried expression on her face as she listened to their resident Papa Bear. Her pinpoint focus was distracted only when Michael’s familiar shape fell over the doorway.

“Speak of the devil,” Charlie remarked, interrupting Freddy’s quiet train of thought.

“Hey,” Michael greeted with a wave and a curious tilt of his head. “You gossiping about me behind my back? My office isn't exactly the best place to do that, y'know."

“Hello, Michael,” Freddy responded with a chuckle, expression softening at the appearance of the trustworthy night guard. “We were not talking about you specifically, although you are a relevant part of the conversation. We were discussing Gregory's future.”

“...Ah.” With a low exhale, Michael plopped into one of the swivel chairs. Just one thing after another tonight. At least this was far less stressful than trying to wrangle Ennard through the Pizzaplex.

Hopefully.

“Well, the kid's got a long future ahead of him,” Michael remarked, crossing one knee over the other. “Anything in particular you're fretting over right now?”

“For one,” Charlie said, her voice gentle as she didn't want to particularly stress out her family. Well—not overstress them. “His sleep schedule. The kid's eyebags have bags at this point... It’s just one more thing that could attract unnecessary attention.”

Numbering the items off on her fingers, she moved onto the next from her mental list. “His eyes glow now. You can kind of see it in the light, too, so… We should be prepared if more things change about him.” She grimaced. “Not just physical stuff, either.”

It was something she’d feared since the incident in the bathroom: if Gregory's mental state may begin to deteriorate just as William's had. She'd like to pretend that Gregory was strong—that he could fight and suppress any unhinged thoughts or urges. Michael had seemed to be alright in the end, if a bit more melancholy than she remembered... but those subjected to Remnant were so few and far between, they only had case studies to work from rather than standard bullet points of what to expect. It scared Charlie not knowing exactly what this Remnant serum was going to do to their little brother in the long run.

“...You guys noticed the eyes, too?” Michael asked.

“Yes.” Freddy nodded, unease returning to his features. “At first I thought it was just a trick of the light, but there is definitely something otherworldly about them. It does not bother us, of course, though it is certainly something to be wary of if we wish to reintegrate him into society someday.”

“Freddy... I think that kid is as far from 'reintegration' as one could get at this point,” Michael pointed out, and the ursine man had to concede with a sigh.

“I am aware. However, we can at least try and give his life some semblance of normalcy—as Charlie pointed out, his sleep schedule is a good place to start.” Freddy idly glanced at the cameras, catching sight of the Glamrocks yet again huddled together making plans. A faint smile ghosted over his lips. “On a side note, as much as I would love to provide him with a standard education, I simply do not think that will be in anyone's best interest. I have heard mention of 'online schooling', which I will look into. Tangentially, as far as his sleep schedule goes... until we figure out a few other aspects of all our lives, I believe he may be better suited to fully commit to a night-shift schedule.”

“Yeah?” Michael perked up at this. He'd been gearing up to accept only seeing his brother in passing, but if Freddy deemed the nightlife was Gregory's future, that would be fantastic.

“There is really no reason for him to be awake during the day—Charlie and I will soon be working come next week, so he will either be only with you or alone,” Freddy explained. “It is not safe for the children to roam during the dayshift, and since everyone except Sam and Gregory himself are robots or ghosts, we do not have to worry about sleeping nearly as much as he does. Therefore, I feel it would be more beneficial to his well-being to come here at night like we have been—at least for now.”

Charlie had agreed somewhat, though she was biting her lip in anxiety. She was clearly off-put by something but refrained from speaking of it until now so Freddy could get his thoughts out first.

“About the online school thing,” Charlie said, clearing her voice as she looked between the boys. “So, this is going to sound hypocritical and weird. Trust me, I know, but... We should try to encourage Gregory to make friends like him, and that might be a good way to do that."

He was already shaping up into an oddity, but what Charlie saw earlier that day had legitimately brewed worry in her, causing her to strike up this conversation with Freddy in the first place.

“I noticed he plays very roughly when he's with the twins. Cassidy, too. They can't feel pain so I’m not worried about their safety or anything, but... I just don't want Gregory getting the impression that hurting people is some kind of game. I don't know; maybe we can talk to him about being a little gentler?”

…What an awful time to be accidentally eavesdropping.

Gregory stood like a stone, back pressed firmly against the wall near the office door. He strained to hear everything they were saying with their hushed voices, and managed well. He almost wished he wasn't really hearing it though; it felt like he should just walk back to his friends and continue their hang-out session. But the way Charlie spoke about how he played made him feel like some sort of monster...

“...Ah. Right.” Freddy's face twisted in worry. “I am sorry, I got so caught up in the idea of trying to make things easy for him... but you are right. He must understand that he cannot interact with other children the way he does with those living in the Pizzaplex.”

He paused, chewing his lip in thought. “Perhaps we can shift his schedule so he does get a bit of interaction time with normal children, through whatever means we can. I will speak to him about roughhousing with the others.”

“I can try and talk to the kids, too,” Michael added, trying to help. “Or at least ask Henry to talk to them—not sure how well they'll listen to me.”

He gave a half-hearted laugh, though it only garnered a small smile from Freddy. Putting his feet flat on the ground, Michael leaned forward and grasped his hand. “Hey. It's gonna be okay, Freddy. We might not know exactly what that stuff's going to do to him down the line, but we can handle it. Alright?”

“I know,” Freddy nodded, squeezing the reassuring grip. “Of course I know we can. I just do not want Gregory to feel as though he is... not normal—not more than he already does.”

That cemented it. If he wasn’t a freak, they wouldn’t even having this conversation. Gregory needed to chill out. With no one to calm him down and run their fingers through his hair, it left only himself to do the job and attempt to self-soothe. Though it really didn’t feel right; maybe he was becoming too dependent?

They loved him now, he didn’t doubt that. But based on past experience, “love” generally came at a price. What would happen if his condition got worse? If it morphed into something they couldn’t deal with?

Inside the room, Charlie agreed with Freddy. “Yeah! Baby steps, you know? One day, Gregory’s going to want to be more independent. It’s our job to make sure he’ll be fine on his own when that time comes. But for now, we’re going to show him how much he means to us and be there as a family.”

It won’t be a long time from now, Charlie could see it. In four years, he’ll be able to drive. In six, he’ll legally be an adult. Soon enough, Gregory might not even need them anymore.

Charlie tried not to think this way. If they treated him well and raised him right, Gregory would always be their friend.

“Of course,” Freddy agreed immediately, frowning as an unfamiliar emotion burrowed itself in the base of his heart.

Charlie was right—Gregory was a child, and that meant that he was going to grow up someday. That had been their goal last weekend, after all—to keep him alive so he could have that opportunity. It was what they all wanted, and even though Gregory might not be “normal” anymore, he was still just a growing boy deep down. It was clear he cared for his surrogate family, of that Freddy had no doubt, and he loved the boy more than life itself.

So why did he feel a dull pang of hurt in his chest when he thought about the future?

It wasn't that far off—according to his records, children technically reached “adulthood” when they turned eighteen. That didn't necessarily mean they were all ready to set out in the world on their birthday, but it did for some. And Gregory was already such a resourceful, smart boy...

Freddy had literally given up his old life and body to take care of his son. Would there ever come a day when Gregory didn't... need him anymore?

“Fredbear? You okay?” Michael asked, watching the man have what appeared to be a major internal crises. Freddy had been staring at the ground for quite some time, looking utterly distraught. When Michael spoke he glanced up with a gasp, though he quickly composed himself.

“Yes, I am fine; my apologies,” the ursine man reassured.

No more thinking like that—we have many happy years together ahead of us.

Suddenly, a sound attracted Freddy's attention: the unmistakable squeak of sneaker against linoleum floor. His eyes flicked towards the open doorway, through which a tiny shadow could be seen ducking out of sight. “...Superstar? Are you out there?”

Wipe that sad look off your face now, Gregory thought to himself, pretending someone else was shouting at him to push down those emotions. You weren't about to see your dad and sister cry because of you. You were just walking over to ask for a few bucks for chips.

Gregory sure could play the part when he wanted to, poking his head around the corner and forcing an easygoing smile; he would pretend that he wasn't walking in on the most emotionally turbulent conversation he'd witnessed from his family.

“Heeey, can I get a few bucks for the vending machines? No one else had money on them.” Them meaning the dead friends his family seemed to suddenly have an issue with. “Surprisingly. Hahaha...” Gregory laughed at his own joke, throwing away the key to his feelings on this one.

The trio simply stared at Gregory for a moment, all of them looking very guilty. How much of that had he heard?

Soon, their gazes turned to each other. United in the face of not upsetting Gregory further, they telepathically agreed that Freddy would be the best one to handle this.

“I can get you a snack, Gregory,” he said in his gentle tone, pulling out a few bills from a back pocket that Sam had lent him earlier for this exact situation. Freddy didn't hand the money over though, instead holding it close to his chest with a questioning tilt of his head. “Do you mind if I come with you? I feel as though I have not seen you in a while, since you have been having so much fun with your friends!”

He gave a soft laugh, hoping the boy would agree to spend some much-appreciated alone time with his dad.

Gregory did tell the ghosts he'd be gone for a minute to catch up with Freddy and whoever else the bear may have been hanging out with. They shouldn't be expecting him back soon, but the kid couldn't help but think this might be a ploy for some lecture.

Gregory then thought that maybe he should trust his dad more, considering all they’d gone through together. Yet how could he when the things he was hearing behind closed doors was suspect?

The boy gave Freddy a pinched smile.

“'Course you can, Dad,” he said, attempting to be playful. Gregory hadn't heard a thing. “I was feeling one of those ready-to-eat taquitos by El Chip's?”

“Whatever you would like,” Freddy said amiably, pressing a gentle hand on Gregory's back to urge the boy forward. He sent a quick wave over his shoulder to Mike and Charlie, who gave him an encouraging thumbs-up when Gregory turned away.

The pair walked in silence for a short while. For once, the quiet was strained. They both knew that the other knew something was going on. Of course, it was Freddy who broke the peace, glancing down at his son while they strolled idly towards the main atrium.

“Gregory... I do not know how long you were standing out there, but I can guarantee you heard something of our discussion,” he remarked slowly, not wanting to push too much, too fast. Gregory had a tendency to shut down or turn his feelings inwards when pressured—it was something they were working on together, even if neither of them said it outright. Instead of being angry or upset at him for listening in, Freddy's gaze held only inquisitive concern. “May I ask what you were privy to?”

I'm a weirdo with no friends. I'm going to grow up and be a monster, and there's nothing anyone can do to help me. I'll be like my shitty foster dad. Or like William... Or WORSE.

Gregory appeared to gather his thoughts, when it was really just him trying his best not to shout the intrusive ones aloud. He didn't want to freak out his bear-dad. Gregory didn't even know if he had something to really worry about to begin with. When it came to his health, everything they mentioned seemed like a concern.

“I'm... different. Too different to have living people around,” Gregory said, not sugar-coating what he overheard. Gregory's arms came up to hug himself as he repeated what he interpreted from the chat he'd barged in on. He spoke with a powerful melancholy in his voice, like he already accepted that one day, he might wake up different or straight up dead altogether. “I might not live long as a real person, 'cause of that dumb purple stuff I was shot with...”

Freddy pursed his lips. He hated hearing Gregory talk like this—plus, some of his interpretations were just wrong.

“...Follow me,” Freddy said, leading the boy into an alcove nearby. Perching on a bench, he patted the open spot next to him. “Sit with me for a moment, superstar.”

As Gregory did as instructed, Freddy thought over how best to explain this. The last thing he wanted was for Gregory to feel unimportant or that he was a burden.

“First and foremost, please know that we were only talking about what is best for you,” Freddy reassured, grasping one of Gregory's hands in his own. “And I also want to assure you that I will never make major life decisions for you without consulting you first. Your siblings and I were simply discussing 'what ifs.' And speaking of—” His face melted into a kind smile. “—you are not too different to have living people around. That is not what we were saying. Yes, the Remnant altered your body in ways we do not fully understand yet—but that does not mean you are unable to be around others. It simply might be a bit of an adjustment interacting with 'typical' children due to your strength. That is all.”

Gregory was a little confused, so sure they’d been speaking as if he was too strange to be kept around less “specialized” kids. Not only was that the opposite of the truth, but they weren't planning on separating him from his old friends either. In that moment, it really hit Gregory just how much he may be overthinking things because of his former living arrangement...

“I... I think I get it now.” Gregory nodded his understanding to Freddy, his trembling hand clutched tight around his dad’s. Tears threatened to break as his lip wobbled while trying to work his way through his next question. “You promise you guys don't think I'm weird or that I'm going to turn into a monster?”

Freddy's face ran through a range of emotions in quick succession: confusion, understanding, regret, compassion.

“Oh my goodness... Gregory, you are not a monster,” he reassured, reaching over to scoop the boy into his lap and wrap him in an all-encompassing bear hug. “We love you so much and we would do anything to make sure you are safe and happy. No one thinks you are 'weird' or 'evil' or whatever other negative word you might come up with to describe yourself. And also—” He tightened his hold, pressing a quick kiss to the top of Gregory's head. “—you are going to live a long and prosperous life. If anything, you will live longer than expected due to the Remnant—so please do not speak of... of dying anytime soon.”

It was hard for Freddy to say the word aloud, as if that would somehow manifest the concept into existence.

Gregory relaxed against his dad quietly, time passing where it was merely him just trying to calm his breathing down. Freddy wouldn’t lie to him—in fact, he was almost certain that Freddy was incapable of leading him astray.

“I’ll be fine…,” Gregory said, speaking it out loud. He was fine physically, especially when he had his robotic guardian here to tell him that he was going to be a-okay. Even so Gregory didn’t know how to feel about the future. It was slowly approaching—soon he would be thirteen. While the changes in him had slowed down after the initial night he was injected, who knew what’d happen when teenage hormones were mixed with the chemicals flowing in his veins.

Still, Gregory had to let go of those fears for now if he was ever going to have hope.

“Thanks, Dad,” he murmured into Freddy’s soft sweater. “I feel a lot better…”

“Good; I know it is hard to talk about these things, but I am always here to listen,” Freddy let him know. “And I am sure anyone would lend you an ear, especially Charlie and Michael. They absolutely adore you, you know.”

For another moment they lapsed into silence, simply enjoying the company of family neither thought they’d ever have. Eventually, Gregory’s patience for sitting still was nearing its end, and Freddy smiled when he felt him start to wriggle.

“Alright—let us go on a little adventure,” he announced, shifting Gregory to his feet and grasping one of his hands. He shot the boy a look of playful chiding—

—not anger. Never anger when it came to Gregory’s curiosity.—

—and asked: “Now, were you actually hungry, or was just that an excuse?”

Most kids his age might be embarrassed at their parents trying to hold their hands. Gregory was just elated that he had one who cared enough to keep him at his side. Gregory wouldn’t ever complain about it; it showed him that Freddy cared.

“Oh yeah, I came up to ask for money for real,” Gregory insisted with an excitable nod. He was starving. “I have to get back to my friends right after. We’re playing Manhunt and they think I suck right now.”

Freddy chuckled, glad that Gregory was having fun with the others. Though it’d be good for him to make human friends as Charlie suggested, at least he’d always have the ghosts of the Pizzaplex to spend time with no matter what. As they climbed one of the powered-down escalators to reach El Chips, a flash of turquoise whipped out in front of them.

“Oh! Hello, Foxy!” Freddy called brightly. The animatronic had slipped out of Bonnie Bowl and was walking in their general direction. With a smile, Freddy waved him over. “I am sure you are busy getting the run of the place, but would you like a small break? I was just taking Gregory to get a snack—care to join us?”

Freddy knew the real reason the fox was rushing about, but he figured the party planning would be okay without him for a few minutes. Plus, Freddy had barely gotten to spend any time with his new-old friend without the Glamrocks, and was curious to know how he was coping with everything—especially with Michael’s influence ruminating in the back of his mind.

Foxy jumped, as if he was scampering about doing things he wasn’t supposed to. Which, technically, was true. Sun wasn't aware that Foxy plundered a lot of his candy or his Fizzy Faz supply. Though Foxy was sure that if he knew it was going as a contribution to Gregory’s party, Sun wouldn’t mind at all! Hiding the fat stack of soda and candy inside his chest compartment before turning on his peg, Foxy opened his arms wide with excitement.

“Absolutely! You’re both heading to Chip’s?” he asked, curious and trying to distract from the fact he was hiding something. If Foxy could get them to avoid walking through Music Man’s dance floor, the better. They didn’t need Gregory asking questions they simply couldn’t answer…

“We are,” Freddy replied with a nod. “Speaking of—here, superstar.” He pulled out a few bucks from his pocket and handed them over before sidling up to Foxy. He patted the pirate’s arm in a friendly gesture, grinning up at the animatronic brightly. “How are you adjusting to life at the Pizzaplex? I hope the others are not giving you too much trouble…”

Gregory was excited to see the familiar fox. While he knew that Michael no longer resided inside of the animatronic, Foxy had already proved himself to be a loyal friend. As the kid gave his leg a quick hug, Foxy carefully patted Gregory’s back while speaking to Freddy.

“Adjusting for certain! Been havin’ a few night terrors... Though Bonnie’s apparently been havin’ them, too,” Foxy replied with a casual and wholly unstressed shrug. “I think it’s my nerves! Having to perform on Monday and all—it’s going to be my first big gig!”

“Ah… I am sorry to hear that,” Freddy said empathetically. He felt a weird sense of guilt about the whole possession thing, especially the after-effects. Though he knew it wasn’t his fault in the slightest, Freddy’s intense involvement in the situation gave him an extra sense of responsibility towards those friends that were so greatly affected.

“Well, I am always here to talk if you need—but like you said, I am sure it is nerves,” the ursine man added calmly. Someday they’d tell Foxy what happened, but for now he could focus on his impending debut. Freddy patted the back of the pirate’s hook with a hearty laugh. “I know you will do fantastic, though!”

Talking about the band’s impending performance made him realize there was another factor he’d been meaning to discuss with Sam: what in the world were they going to do with his old model? They couldn’t just take Freddy Fazbear out of the line-up…

“It's fine—nothing more than my CPU keeping things interesting while I'm charging,” Foxy chalked it all up to be. Even if the deceptively smart robot had an inclination that the dreams really weren't normal, he was being coy about it.

Foxy walked beside his old friend, traveling with him as Gregory chose to run up ahead in search of his highly sought-after taquitos. He and Freddy moved at a leisurely pace, watching Gregory scamper in the distance.

“By the by, Fredbear...,” Foxy muttered quietly, lifting up his eyepatch to wink an unlit eye. “Make sure Gregory avoids the Dancefloor and DJ's place while we're setting up. We wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.”

“I can’t wait to hear you play drums!” Gregory remarked, Foxy’s attention snapping to the child mirthfully. He didn’t realize how quick it took Gregory to get back with his snacks, already pocketing Freddy’s change for himself and unwrapping the hot and ready taquito.

“I am excited as well!” Freddy said, his little smile signaling he understood the pirate's warning perfectly. “We have not had a drummer in the Glamrock Band yet, so I am very curious as to how things will work out!”

Yes, technically “working things out” on stage would soon be Freddy's job. But according to his employee log he'd only been hired a few days ago, so he was slotted to be trained for a little bit before he was given full creative control—despite the fact that Sam knew the former lead singer of the band could put on a better show than all the previous stage managers combined.

Sam had sort of found the dream team he always needed for the new admins of the Pizzaplex. With Michael and Charlie there to help, along with Freddy still leading his band from behind the thick velvet curtains, he'd have a lot less to worry about. After all that seemingly went wrong in one weekend, he couldn't risk another major loss.

“We'll have tomorrow morning to practice and figure it out! To be honest, Bonnie's had his head wrapped up in recent activities,” Foxy said with a flick of his wrist. “So we haven't been able to practice much! Aside from that, we're still technically missing our front-man.”

All this didn't help Foxy's nervousness, but he was programmed to be the best drummer ever conceived for the Pizzaplex.

“Roxy let me play her keytar! The ol' wolf got jealous over how much better I am than her at it. Now I'm not even allowed to look at it,” he half-joked, and Gregory could've sworn he'd heard this same story before though with the name changed from Roxy to Lizzie. Gregory found himself laughing at Foxy like he would at his brother for antagonizing their siblings.

“Sounds like you deserve it!” Gregory pointed out, munching on his taquito.

“—Yeah, you've got a point,” Foxy conceded, following the family on their lazy hike through his new home.

Freddy chuckled at the anecdote, happy that Foxy seemed to be doing just fine with his new companions. Michael's influence was strong in his personality, and Freddy idly wondered if Foxy would be able to sense the connection before it was blatantly pointed out.

“Ah, speaking of your missing front-man—” Freddy began, his brow creasing ever so slightly. “—I should speak to Sam about what exactly we are going to do come Monday. I do not know if he will have another animatronic up and running by then...”

It was weird to call the lead singer “Freddy,” and the ursine man knew it'd be even weirder when the bear was functional again. Looking to Gregory, Freddy inquired: “Do you want to come with me, superstar? I have a feeling Sammy may enlist your help when it comes time for it—this will be a slightly different process than re-activating the rest of the Glamrocks.”

Gregory had balled up the paper wrapper that the taquito came in, aiming for a nearby trash can as they passed. “Sure; if Sam needs my help, I'm there.”

“I'll tag along, too; that way I can report to the others later,” Foxy said, using his claw to brush through the long mane of hair on his head. Freddy was always the leader—even if this iteration of Foxy was new, he knew this intrinsically. It brought him to a state of unease not knowing what they’d do if they didn't have someone up there singing. Certainly they wouldn't let such a thing happen on opening day—that would just be irresponsible on Sammy's part.

“Of course—the more the merrier!” Freddy replied cheerfully. Now satisfied they had a direction, he led the charge to Sam's office. The door was closed as usual, which either meant Sam was working on something inside or he was out.

“Sam?” Freddy asked, knocking a few times. “Do you have a moment? I would like to ask you about something work-related!”

“Door’s open,” Sam called. This time he sounded wide awake, wired even. As the small group peaked in, Sam was clearly in the middle of something, though he wasn't so engulfed that he was unable to greet them with more than a passing question tossed over his shoulder. “Everything alright, Freddy?”

Sam was bent over the small work desk stowed into the corner of the larger office space, tinkering on the inside of a virtual reality headset. It looked as if he’d gutted the thing and moved on to reintegrating it's components with new parts.

“Yes, everything is fine.” Freddy led the others inside, making sure the door was closed behind the trio. He eyed Sammy's back curiously, wondering what in the world he was thinking up now. “Since the re-debut is fast-approaching, we wanted to ask you about your plans for my old body? I am assuming he will be up and running at some point, though I know it will be a different effort to get him to that level since I am no longer available...” He paused, tilting his head. “...What are you working on, if I may ask?”

Sam let out a small sigh. He was once again reminded of their deadline, and the clock was unforgiving.

“Remember when I said I was going to get some sleep?” Sam answered them with a question, finally turning around to scan the group.

“Yes?” Foxy answered, vaguely remembering Sam having to retire to his office to get some shut-eye. His sleep schedule was just as messed up as poor Gregory's at this point.

“—Right, well, I didn't.” Sam shrugged, heaving the half-conceived invention in his hands. “This is a Virtual Reality headset; it’s from an old venture that never panned out. I thought that maybe by taking some of its adapter capabilities and retro fitting it into Freddy—not you Freddy, but old Freddy; your old body—maybe you could control the empty animatronic!”

He spoke in an excited manner, which melted back into frustration with how long it'd taken him to even get this far. He sacrificed a lot of time on it—too much, really.

Sam carefully put the headset down on the workbench, eyeing it with a frustrated huff. “It's taking longer than I expected, though. The goal was to let you control your old body from offstage... If I can't get it working decently by tomorrow afternoon, I'll have to resort to plan B.”

Gregory raised his eyebrows, worried as Sam seemed to sway a little on his feet. He knew the feeling of nearly falling asleep while standing up all too well. Gregory helped steady his friend, and Sam looked surprised for a split-second before Gregory asked him: “What's plan B?”

Sam gritted his teeth and looked away, maybe a little worried about bringing it up. “Well! Uh... It would be re-downloading Freddy's old, basic programming back into the model. The issue with that would be obvious: two Freddies.”

“Samuel... you are a genius,” the redhead breathed, looking over the headset with wide-eyed fascination. If he could still control his old body and perform on stage that would be amazing.

His bright grin fell ever-so-slightly when Sam mentioned he was nowhere near done though. The man was right—it was a great concept, but they needed to have something Freddy-related working by Monday or there might be a riot from the patrons.

Helping Gregory steady his hard-working creator, Freddy listened to the alternative. There was a pause in which everyone looked at the ursine man, clearly expecting him to speak on the matter first. It would be his body double wandering around, after all.

“It... would be a strange circumstance, that is for certain,” Freddy said after a moment, his words slow as he processed his thoughts aloud. “But... our AI is made to learn and adapt to the world around us. Each day we are powered on, the more distinct our personalities become.” He gave the room a soft smile, pressing a hand lightly over his heart. “I think I can safely attest that due to my extraordinary experiences, I am nothing like the bear I was when first given life.”

Would it be bizarre to interact with what was essentially a past version of himself? Absolutely—but Freddy thought he could get over it. However, he wasn't the only one that would be weirded out by the situation. Sparing a glance down at Gregory, he asked: “Would you be alright with another Freddy wandering around, superstar? Our base temperaments are the same, though he may be rather, ah... stilted in the ways of dealing with people until he gets some practice in. It may be a bit jarring to interact with him.”

Gregory didn't really know if he could answer that. With everyone staring at him and waiting for an answer, he turned inwards to think. How would that make him feel? Two people who were essentially the same, only one doesn't know who he is at all. The other is the same guy, but also Gregory’s dad?

“Uhhh...” Gregory gave up a shrug. It would be cheesy for him to say it in front of everyone, but to him there would only ever be one real Freddy Fazbear. “Whatever you have to do, I guess! I’m cool with it.”

Foxy crossed his arms and shook his head. “No way! There can't be two Freddy's running about doling out orders!”

Besides, there’d be less opportunity to sneak around. Word has it that Fredbear used to be a real stickler for the rules.

Sam would give Foxy a playful role of his eyes. “Yeah, but then there's another bear for your pirate crew.”

Foxy considered this, scratching his chin in thought. “Aye, maybe then... Maybe...”

Freddy's lips had pursed at Foxy's mini-rant, somehow knowing the underlying meaning was that he wouldn't be able to cause as much trouble. It's not like Freddy wasn't any fun, though—he just wanted to make sure everyone was safe while doing so. It wasn't his fault Sam had given him the strictest child-safety protocols besides the Daycare attendant...

When Gregory and Foxy had given their agreement, Freddy looked back to Sam with a nod. “Then that seems to be the solution we must go with—for now, at least.”

They could always try the VR thing once it was up and running, although who knew how long that would take Sam to finish up once the Pizzaplex was actually open for business. Sparing a glance at his phone, Freddy's eyes widened at the time.

“If we do this, Sammy, when were you planning to port over my old programming?” the redhead asked. “If possible, I would like to be there to assist.”

And to assure everything is alright, he left unspoken. If there was going to be another Freddy walking around, the original wanted to make sure it was up to his standards.

“At the latest, noon on Monday. That's about as long as I can keep any kids from seeing you—er, him,” Sam replied, glad to see Freddy and Gregory were mostly unfazed by such a drastic change. He was also curious to see how the two bears would end up getting along. “From there, we can see what needs to be worked on; make sure that there's nothing screwy going on with his motor functions or programming.”

After all, it would be a real problem if even a smidgeon of William’s twisted soul was still hiding somewhere in a character profile... Sam and Gregory did a deep, comprehensive wide-scale purge of the Pizzaplex's entire data system, and while the chances of the old fuck hiding in there were very slim it didn't hurt to be careful.

“Hmm... alright,” Freddy mused, thinking of the timing of everything. “Perhaps we can port him over tomorrow night? That way you will not have to worry about such a big task during opening hours, even if the guest count is low. We may be able to get some of the other children to help test his interactions as well before letting him out on the floor come Monday morning!”

Some of the mild-tempered children, at least, like Evan and Hannah. Maybe Lizzie, if she begged to come along. Besides, Freddy would prefer he and Gregory have a little time to get used to his old-new counterpart before getting swept up in the hustle of entertaining kids and their demanding parents.

Seeing this place bustling again was what Sam wanted more than anything in the whole world. Foxy did in a way too, nervous the more that their afternoon shows went unpracticed for.

“The sooner he's awake the better,” the fox remarked, seeming just a little worried as he gently tussled the hair at the back of his head.

Without Freddy here all the time, the group barely wanted to get together and practice. While it was fun to slack off, playing video games and planning for parties, Foxy was aware that if they didn't run through the set list at least once before the real show they might eat it out there. Even if they were programmed to play perfectly, he’d yet to get a chance jamming with the band.

“You guys are gonna do great on your gig,” Gregory assured, reaching up to hold Foxy’s hand without a hint of the shyness he’d shown Monty and Bonnie.

“I sure hope you're right, bucko.” Foxy gave Gregory's hand a firm squeeze of appreciation, trying not to infect the others with his issues.

“Foxy—” Freddy began, one eyebrow quirked up to go along with the smile on his face. He'd had a similar thought to the pirate regarding the band's practice time, although he was a bit more confident they would do just fine. All the same, it certainly wouldn't hurt to have a test run. “—you do realize that I can still perform as I am now, right? It will not be quite the same as having my old body on stage with you, but my voice is still intact—and I guarantee I have not forgotten any of the dance moves.”

They still had some time tonight; maybe he could corral his bandmates and run through a song or two, for old times' sake. It would almost be like a send-off, in a way—not that Freddy couldn't ever perform with them again, but someday they'd be programmed with new routines that he wasn't privy to unless he specially requested Sam upload them into his android brain as well.

Yes... running around the stage with his old friends was just what Freddy needed to work off the lingering melancholy from earlier.

“FREDDY! That's why you're the leader—why didn't I think of just asking you?” Foxy laughed to himself, slapping a hand over his eye as the patch flipped up of its own accord. Holding his arm out for Freddy to latch onto, he offered to lead him to the others. It was about time they all hung out together without the kids around, anyway!

“Hey—I gotta go back to playing Manhunt anyway,” Gregory announced, knowing Freddy liked to be aware of where he went. Hopefully his dad would be cool with him dipping out for a few hours to finish the game he’d started with the ghosts. “See you guys back at the stage in the morning?”

“Of course, superstar,” Freddy replied, crouching down and pull his son into a hug. He let the embrace linger a bit longer than usual, silently reminding Gregory that he loved him unconditionally no matter what happened in their futures. When he pulled back it was with a wink and a grin. “Feel free to bring your friends by the stage tonight if you would like to watch part of the performance.”

With this out of the way, Freddy slipped his arm into Foxy's. “Alright, let us go round up the others. Goodness knows where they have all wandered off to... But first—” Before he started for the door, he was sure to grab onto Sammy's hand, sounding not unlike Mike when Sam refused to settle down despite how absolutely exhausted he was. “—we are taking a detour to the Daycare so you can get another rest in. And no, that is not a suggestion. Let us go.”

“Ooooh, you're in trouble, Sam!” Gregory teased, goading them on as they parted ways and Sam was forced to keep up with his creation’s pace. 

“Yeah, yeah—have fun, Gregory!” Sam bid, waving a hand dismissively and ultimately deciding to listen to Freddy. He was certain that no one looking at him assumed he had his eyes open; they were squinted so bad behind his glasses that anyone would have reasonable suspicion to ask whether or not he was sleepwalking.

By the time they got the Daycare, poor Sam was practically being held up by Freddy, most of his weight slumped into the former bear's side. It seemed like all his exhaustion had hit him at once on the way over, and Freddy was happy he'd forced the CEO to take a break. After dropping him off with a quick check-in with Mari and Ennard—who were practicing “human conversation” over a plastic tea party, Freddy figured the best place to start looking for the rest of the crew would be Rockstar Row.

“So, Foxy—” Now that Gregory was no longer around, Freddy was free to ask: “—how is the party planning, by the way? I regret that I cannot take a more active role, but I need to be available in case Gregory needs me to keep up appearances.”

Foxy knocked a hand against his chest plate, watching it open and revealing the large cache of snacks and beverages he'd been smuggling throughout the Pizzaplex for Gregory's party.

“We've nearly got all the supplies ready! But no sweat, Fazbear—” Foxy replied, closing himself back up to clap his friend's shoulder in a supportive manner. “That's the reason why we're doing it! Bonnie said you, Mikey, and Charlie are all busy with everything, and we happen to have the time! We are professional party animals, remember?”

It only came natural to want to throw a huge shindig the moment that they heard a child's birthday was taking place, especially one so important. Foxy peeked inside Roxy’s room to see her doing nothing that he considered particularly important. Roxy was putting her hair into curlers for the night, carefully and strategically rolling the very last plastic tube into place before taking her silk cap and stretching it over her scalp (she didn't need to do any of this, of course, but it made her happy). Foxy looked bored just by watching it, so he quickly hoofed it over to her door and kicked it in, making the wolf jump and shout at the intrusion. Apparently this wasn't the first time Foxy had done this; Roxy even looked to be half expecting it.

“Foxy, get OUT OF MY ROOM!” she shouted, standing up and wholly embarrassed as they saw her nightly beauty routine.

“Band practice is in fifteen minutes!” Foxy shouted back, ignoring the wolf coming at him threateningly with a curling iron. Roxy gasped, yellow eyes flicking to Freddy and widening at his nod of confirmation.

“I'll be ready in ten!” she yelled, pointing the iron at Foxy's nonplussed head. “Now leave so I can get ready!” She may have sounded mad, but Roxy was fighting down the urge to smile very badly.

Having lived with the Glamrocks for his entire existence until a week ago Freddy had seen it all before, though some of their little quirks never failed to amuse him. While Roxy pointlessly curled her always-perfect hair, Monty was busy sitting on the couch in his room practicing his solos. This wasn’t necessary either, as he was literally programmed to play perfectly every time unless there was a major malfunction. Still, it made the gator feel better about usurping Bonnie as the bassist if he at least pretended to try and improve.

“Huh?” The sick guitar licks came to a sudden halt at the knock on the gator’s door. “Door’s open—come on in! Fredbear!” After placing the bass reverently in its stand, Monty stomped forward to give the ursine man a big hug.

“Hi, Monty!” Freddy laughed, doing his best to pat the gator’s arms until he was released. “We are getting the band together in fifteen minutes for a practice session at the main stage.”

“Oh! Well I shouldn’t’ve put my bass down then,” Monty remarked with a raucous chuckle. He snatched up the instrument and hooked it over his shoulder before following Freddy into the hallway.

Catching sight of Chica through her half-open window, Monty knocked a claw against the glass to get her attention. When she turned to him with a curious squawk, he pointed to his guitar and mimed playing it, then jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the vague direction of the stage. Freddy watched the pantomiming with amusement, wondering if Chica would have any idea what Monty was trying to tell her.

Chica herself had been doing jumping jacks. Exercising was… pointless. At least to her it was. No matter how much Chica ate, or how inactive she was, she would stay the same unless she was majorly junked up by some bad pizza. Still, Chica had to set a good example. Former versions of herself framed childhood binge eating as something to aspire to—and in turn, Glamrock Chica was given an interest in healthy habits despite her continued love for pizza.

Pulled away from her cardio, her eyes widened at what she was pretty sure Monty was asking of her. Ceasing her activities, she ran to grab her guitar. She’s been itching to jam with the band for a hot second. She held up her axe to make sure that was what Monty was actually asking for. Upon receiving an enthusiastic thumbs up, Chica’s smile brightened. With her guitar strap securely around her shoulders, she was the first to bolt out of the hallway, heading off to go tell Bonnie that they were putting on a show.

“Alright everyone!” Freddy said once they'd all gathered together, projecting his voice to be heard in the echoing atrium as he hopped on stage. The rest of the band lulled around in front where the crowd would stand, tuning instruments and chatting until Freddy made his appearance. Naturally, all eyes turned towards their stalwart leader.

“First, before we get to practicing I have an announcement to make,” Freddy said, grasping the wireless mic at the front of the stage and unhooking it from its stand. It felt both familiar and foreign in his hands—he’d been using a variation of this same mic forever, but it’d always been held in paws. Without a dragging cord, Freddy was able to pace the stage freely as he spoke.

“I am sure you all are wondering about the elephant in the room—or should I say bear.” There was a collective groan at the lame dad joke, though Freddy thought he heard a distinctive snicker from Bonnie and Foxy’s direction. “I spoke with Sammy about what we are going to do now that I am in this body. Unfortunately I cannot switch back and forth at will, so my old form will need something to keep it running to entertain the guests and put on shows with you all.

“We toyed with a potential idea where I would still be in control behind the scenes, but it is not quite ready yet. So… We have decided to upload the base coding of my original personality into the animatronic instead.” He paused a moment to let this sink in, awaiting the inevitable flood of questions.

Bonnie was the first one to respond. Perched atop a backless stool that he nearly fell off of with the news, the wide-eyed rabbit gasped at the idea of there being two of his best friends walking around.

“Wowee, Fredbear,” Bonnie exclaimed, all bushy-tailed and chipper. “That'll be neat!”

“I don't know, Bon-Bon,” Chica remarked, idly thumming the frets of her electric guitar. “It's sounds kinda confusing to me. Like… Two? How are we going to know which one's which?”

Roxy gave her friend an incredulous glance, holding in a laugh. “…Are you kidding me? One's going to look like a bear, and the other one is a human man, Chica!”

Freddy gave the group an easy smile, but when he opened his mouth to speak Monty chimed in.

“So... does that mean you're gonna be hangin' with us, or... not you?” The gator scratched his head, clearly in a similar boat to Chica.

“We will both be around,” Freddy tried to explain. “But as Roxy said, I—the Freddy you are familiar with—will retain this body, while the new one uses my old animatronic.”

“Huh...” Monty looked contemplative for a moment, the tip of his tail flicking ever so slightly from side to side. Then he shrugged, tapping an idle claw on the bass around his shoulders. “Alrighty then—as long as y'all don't team up to get on our cases, we'll be good!”

“If you do not cause trouble, we will not have to,” Freddy pointed out with a stern eyebrow raise.

Monty just huffed and looked away with a grumble to the effects of, “...still annoyin' as heck, that's for sure...”

“Aw heck, Montgomery.” Bonnie bumped the big gator's arm with his own, feeling that Freddy's tendencies to overthink and care about the wellbeing of his friends were a blessing in disguise. “Freddy's just a good pal! Making sure none of us get in trouble with the Boss, always keepin' us safe and up to code... In fact, where would we be if not for Freddy and the kids today?”

“Yeah!” Chica agreed, cocking her head to the side as she remembered the times Freddy had personally helped her out. Too many pizzas and the cheese could easily gunk up a girl’s voice box controls... “Like what Gregory says: he's got total 'Dad Energy!’”

Roxy and Foxy were a little smarter than to put in their two cents. Yes, they loved Freddy dearly, but those two always thought they could handle themselves regardless of whether or not Freddy was present. Still, it was obvious to everyone how much they always wanted Fredbear around!  

“Alright, alright!” Monty held up his claws with a laugh. “I'm not sayin' it's a bad thing to have two Fredbears—'course I love him just as much as y'all, even if they're both lecturin' me in stereo!”

“Thank you, everyone,” Freddy chuckled once the commotion had died down. He had one hand pressed over his heart and a big smile on his face. He knew they all cared for him, but it was still nice to hear aloud. “I just wanted to let you know what would be happening so you are not confused when the bear starts wandering around and I am not in it.”

A tiny crease formed in his brow. “We will need to upload a base personality that had not been exposed to guests so it may take a bit of adjustment, which I am hoping Gregory can help with—and you all, of course. I am trusting you to show new Freddy the ropes!”

“Oooh man! Freddy's not going to know what's even going on! It'll be like when we first got activated...” Roxy reminisced, back when things were just a little more simple: few stores and places to eat, with one big stage to perform on. Now things were so hectic. They were local celebrities with a legion of fans now dedicated to them. “Hope we don't overwhelm the guy.”

Foxy gave an exaggerated shrug. “Doubt it; Freddy will know exactly what to do! It'll just take a second for him to get to know you all again. Just like me, remember?”

Only a few days ago did Foxy really “wake up,” yet he felt like he'd been here for a long time already. Accepted so instantaneously by his peers, Foxy was sure that new Freddy would fit in just fine.

Bonnie leaned back, paws behind his head as he thought aloud to himself. “I hope he likes bowlin'...”

“I am sure he will, Bon,” Freddy said with a bright smile. He clapped his hands together, wary of the mic still in his grip that he now spoke into. “Now, onto the real reason I gathered you here—just because my old model is currently deactivated does not mean I cannot practice with you!”

“Aw, heck yeah!” Monty exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air. “I've been itchin' to perform again!” He jumped to his feet, grabbing the closest robot and tugging them forward—which in this case happened to be Roxy. “No time to waste—let's goooo!”

“Bonnie, would you mind activating the sound booth?” Freddy asked as everyone took their places. While the rabbit might not be back in the lineup yet, he could still help them out in so many ways. Freddy looked down at his old friend with a preemptively thankful grin. “Pick whatever showtime set catches your fancy, and we will work from that lineup!”

“It'd be my honor!” Bonnie hopped up quickly from his seat, doing a little half jog to make his way off the stage—but not before smacking Foxy's good arm as he passed. “Break a leg out there, Foxy!”

“Too late, bunny-boy,” Foxy pointed out, sticking out his peg leg as he began to unscrew the hook attachment on his arm. He was quick to replace it with another tool: an attachable drum stick that made it a little bit handier as a drummer. That way he didn't have to sacrifice skill for speed while keeping the beat.

Bonnie threw back his head in laughter as he climbed towards the top of the sound stage, readying the lights and the fog machine to give it the appearance of a real show. Speaking into the microphone, he directed his friends. “Alright y'all—everyone's instruments tuned?”

Chica gave her guitar a quick strum before finding the right power chord for her amp, then sent Bonnie a thumbs up to the sound booth above. There was a test of the mic, and Foxy experimentally smacking the electric drums at the very back of the stage while Roxy warmed up her finger joints over the keys of her synth. Then, the sound of live music finally filled the long empty halls of the Pizzaplex...

It was a wonderful feeling to sing on stage again. Wonderful... and bittersweet. Freddy knew he could always have late-night performances like this with his friends, but it'd never be the same as before.

He wasn't the same as before. And while he'd certainly improved for the better, this truly felt like the final step in accepting that his life as Freddy Fazbear, official mascot of the Mega Pizzaplex, had come to a close.

But hey—he'd gained a family out of this whole adventure. And really, that's all he'd ever wanted.

***

Previous Chapter ~~ Next Chapter

Looking for more? Check out the Chapter Masterlist on Tumblr!

Or check out the entire Wires that Bind Us Series on ao3!

[zazzander]

Did you enjoy tsats? I've seen you posting and rebloggin some critics, but was the book enjoyable?

So I haven't actually finished the book yet but at this point... I'm not sure that I will. But I have a lot of thoughts anyway. And I've been reblogging the posts that match up with my own reading experience (mostly because it's becoming clear the book continues to follow this pattern I've already noticed, so I'm not concerned about spoilers anymore).

The thing is, I went into the book with low expectations. I'm not a big fan of Will Solace - though I like the Apollo cabin in general. I was really hoping to pick up the book be shown why I should like Will. Instead, I got a character assassination. Will is flawed, and I appreciate those flaws, but not in the way Oshiro (and it was clearly Oshiro at this point) protrayed them.

I was actually prepared for the mismatched lore and some minor retcons - because every Riordan book includes those! Plus, I'm not opposed to a character-based narrative, in fact, I generally prefer stories with a lot of angst and drama. I also wasn't bothered by the lovey-dovey way Will and Nico interact, I found it sweet.

Unforunately, the book, on a technical level, is poorly written. For one, the central metaphor of the story "darkness vs light" is not done well. It lacks concrete examples.

Is it about their powers? It shouldn't be - that dynamic is more about "death vs life" than anything else. If that is the case - it's odd that Will reacting to "death energy" now. Other characters found Nico's "death energu" creepy, Will found it cool. So the entire conflict wouldn't be in character, that's what the metaphor is angling towards (again, it seems purposefully misleading to rebrand "death vs life" to "darkness vs light").

Is it about their personalities? It could be. Nico often describes Will as unfailing kind in this book, always smiling, always warm. It harkens back to Nico's description of Will as a chill cat bathing in the sunlight. Now, we all know that Will isn't like this, at his heart. The flaws beneath that persona could be his "darkness". However, Nico seems to hate that part of Will. The part that's arrogant, that sees his way of doing things as best, etc. Furthermore, Nico is apparently "all darkness" to Will, but like... what does that mean? Nico is a bleeding heart, he's giving and he's caring, and does Will not realise that? Like, if that's the case, why are they dating? How have they been dating for an entire year and Will doesn't know that? It's just... not good.

But that's not where the problems end. The pacing is slow, the entire book drags. I feel like the characters the couple run into don't push the drama / angst as far as it should, considering this is a book focused on that. There are many more characters who could show where Nico and Will's worldviews fundamentally misalign!

Finally, this is an example of a wider plot / set-up issue: Will's backpack. At the start of the adventure, Will fills a large backpack with "stuff". The only real item we're told about is a Sun Lamp. That's an issue, because if we don't know what's in the backpack there's less chance that Will will actually use the stuff inside. And if he does use any items, it will feel contrived. Furthermore, by this point in the book, Oshiro seems to have forgotten that Will is lugging a heavy bag around. When Will gets tired he doesn't mention it nor Nico does offer to carry the bag.

We know that Will has never been on a proper quest, but he has fought in three wars at this point. He is a veteran! I think the backpack would have been an excellent opporunity to show Will's character and experience. Maybe he knows that he tends to freak out in battle when he doesn't know what he should be doing (if someone's injured then, well, it's obvious his job to fix them) - so he's overcompensating.

Have Will pick up items from various campers as he prepares to go. Maybe he gets grenades from Clarisse, traps from Cecil, a magical flare gun from Lou Ellen. There - now we know what Will is taking to the underworld. We are also reminded of Will's friends at camp. And these items would help make Will more useful! Instead of giving Will random new powers, just... have him use the items he brought with him!

I have no idea if Will does, in fact, pull something out of his bag at some point. But at this point, I'm really doubtful.

((I actually have so many more issues with this book but these are some examples))

I hope you don't mind the rant! I really did go into this book with an open mind - I was really to give it a chance. But pretty much every writing choice Oshiro made is one I disagree with, and that's hard to put aside.

[vanillaverses]

soooo I've never talked about any of my cr aus on here before... but today that changes! finally sharing my horrors with the world in a very long tumblr post that probably nobody will read! yay!

tw for a lot of murder crimes and also a mention or two of self harm. also just a lot of generally Mentally unwell behaviour that I'm not going to fully list here but. if you think there's a chance u might not be okay with stuff falling under the category of 'mentally unwell behaviour' then u should probably leave because. this au contains many horrors. you have been warned!

soooo the au is actually the one my blogs named after! I think before I get into explaining all the lore I should explain the name first, since it doesn't really relate to anything in the au specifically so I wanna explain why it's named. that. me n my friend beep (who also is the one who made this au with me! yay!) made an au of a similar name for another fandom like wayyy before either of us got into cookie run, and the name actually fit that one! we named this au the vanillaverse au as like a kindof homage to the other older au since the vanillaverse au was out first cookierun au and the other one is just like. extremely iconic to us and Only us so it felt right to name it after that. so the vanillaverse was born! and with it the pv in that au and his many diseases! hooray!

so the actual plot of the au goes like this. In the final final battle with everyone vs dark enchantress, pv gives the finishing blow to her and kills her, along with lily. you just have to trust me that in this act of de murder exploding it like reverts her body back to lily so that's what they're left with. lily corpse. which isn't fun especially pv because to me purelily is REAL and that's the dead body of his wife he's currently looking at. not a fun time for old peepaw...

both lily's burial and the victory celebrations for winning the war against de are held in the vanilla kingdom, and it probably gives pv so much whiplash to have to go between mourning his dead wifey and like. celebrating happily woo hooray victory party!! and he just really misses lily. like a lot. an overwhelming an amount. and so he comes to the conclusion that with magic as strong as his, just as he was the one tasked with dealing the final blow to and killing de/lily... he's also the only one who can bring her back. so in the dead of the night, he sneaks out of his castle, shovel in hand, and goes to lily's grave to steal her body away for his lily reviving scheme.

because of how recently the grave was actually dug, I doubt that anyone would notice the fact that the soil had been freshly tampered with, assuming pv did a good enough job at putting everything back in place. so he now had lily's corpse, the rest of the kingdom none the wiser to it's disappearance. which he kept in a secret room I've decided is accessible through somewhere in like. his study or something. someplace he would normally be a lot but also not be disturbed so he can sneak away and do various. things.

you see, the way I imagine it, healing magic of all forms generally speaking is something that needs to be actually practiced. and through pv's many years of helping and healing others whenever someone gets hurt, he's gotten extremely good at it. but it still stands that he's never revived someone before, and would need some way to practice in order to obtain the skills needed to revive lily. and as much as he can do various things to preserve lily's body as long as possible, he's still on a timer, having only a relatively short window of time before lily's body starts to rot (or mold?). and he can't practice on lily's body itself, since if he messed up in any way (which is bound to happen on first attempt), then lily's body would be ruined and he wouldn't be able to revive her! so he needs other avenues to practice his magic. and he doesn't have very many options with the time constraints considered.

at first, he tries to hurt himself in order to heal his own wounds as a form of practice. but it becomes clear very very fast that he'd need to do more than just healing his own wounds to gain the skills needed to achieve his goal. he can only hurt himself so much, even with the power of his soul jam, there's a limit still to how much he can hurt himself before it ends up being fatal. and it's just so incredibly draining, and well, painful to have to continuously receive and heal all of these wounds... so he concludes there's only one other option. if hurting himself isn't an option... maybe... just maaaaybe... a few other people hurt wouldn't be such a terrible cost. as long as in the end he has the love of his life back, it's worth it, right? he'd do anything for her, which also extends to... this. and since there's so many people in the vanilla kingdom right now, both citizens and people visiting just for the celebrations... it wouldn't be too hard to just pin it on someone else if the situation requires it!

so, he kidnaps his first victim, feeling extremely guilty, but still carrying out the act out of pure desperation for any chance to see lily again. he brings them to his secret room I mentioned earlier, and carries out his plan. hurting them, healing them, hurting them, healing them... until their body can't take the torture anymore, and the cookie passes away. pv tries, and fails to revive them until their body breaks and crumbles beyond any sense of repair, making the revival impossible. it seems like his plan has failed... but as they say, if you fail the first time, try, try again.

as pv continues to downwards spiral into complete madness, he starts loosing track of how many peoples lives he's ended, how many peoples lives he's unrightfully spent for nothing more than the chance to see lily again. he's already gone this far, he'll see it out until the very end. if he can't revive lily, then what were all these deaths even for? he needs to get his lily back. not only to see her again, to feel her loving embrace... but to give all the lives he's stolen in his massacre some sense of meaning, to give all these deaths a reason for happening. despite pv trying to target the cookies that the least number of people would notice missing, after a while people start to take note of the disappearances. soon the kingdom goes into lockdown, not letting anyone, including the visitors leave until this kidnapper and potential serial killer is caught. what this means for pv is more people to use for his lily reviving schemes. what this means for the rest of the kingdom though is what soon starts to spiral into what could soon surely be a mass panic.

pv has no choice but to go out and comment on the ordeal publicly, in an attempt to calm the kingdom down. with his status as a beloved figure of peace, love and hope, and his just generally calming nature, he manages to calm the kingdom down to an extent, though people are still uneasy. an unknown killer on the loose... people needed someone to blame, and because of... well, almost everything about pv and how people perceive him really, he wasn't going to be the person taking the blame. on the other hand, there's a cookie a lot of vanillians know to be dangerous and willing to hurt people, with an entire warehouse/hangar/lab almost entirely to themselves that they know the ins and outs of more than any other cookie...

strawberry crepe. even with espresso there to testify for their innocence, it wasn't enough to stop people from suspecting them. even with no evidence and therefore no justifiable reason to act on these suspicions in any reasonable way, it still stand that they are one of the main suspects. and it does change how people treat them, especially the raisin villagers. just as them and black raisin was starting to get on friendly terms, this happens, and now she's back to feeling uneasy being even around them. this angers crepe, so they decided they now only have only one choice: to find the real kidnapper/killer and prove their innocence one and for all. it is at this point I should note that in this au, pv is crepe's adoptive father, which makes things all the more all the more terrible for crepe as they start to realize that their dad is in fact! the person behind all of this. betrayed by now both people they've chosen put their trust in to... oh god.

I haven't really decided on how things play out after crepe decides to go detective mode and try to solve the case, but that's basically the au concept as it is right now. im sorry for this being so long but!! if you got here I just wanna say: thank you for reading!! I would draw art of this au but it's hard because pv just looks like. normal pv here. and so does anyone else. the au doesn't call for funky cool au designs so there's just none to be found. but I really hope people enjoy hearing about this au :] also I might've forgotten some things but I'm not reading through this all again to check so um. sorryyy about that also sorry about any typos I'm not going back to fix them sorry not sorry!

but yeah. pv accidentally cancels purelily and then spams the undo button so much and so hard that everything explodes and the horrors take over/JOKE

[meraki-yao]

Omg I don’t like the live adaptions for Disney movies across the board so I just didn’t want to watch the little mermaid and I was so worried people would think it was because of racism! I’m sure she was great in the role and I absolutely did not care that they cast a black woman in the role but I wasn’t going to watch the movie for a million other reasons! None of them having to do with Halle! (Sorry Halle!)

I... I can freaking write an essay on my opinions on live-action Disney remakes. The only one I see of any actual value, which ended up becoming one of my all-time favourite movies, is 2015 Cinderella. It wasn't a one-to-one remake of the original, the costume and cinematography actually looked like a fairy tale book. It also improved upon the flaws of the original, namely giving the Prince a clear personality and backstory, giving Ella and Kit a chance to connect before the ball, cutting down the animal bits, giving Lady Tremaine an understandable yet logical reason for her behaviour, and give Ella a stronger, clearer character as well. It might as well be a new Cinderella movie, separate from the 1950 animated one.

The rest have a lot of flaws and do not add much to the original story while actively diminishing certain messages in the original.

(Spoilers for live-action remakes of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, also I went on a rant again lmao)

In Beauty and the Beast 2017, Gaston is painted more sympathetically as he actually helped Maurice, and Belle comes off as arrogant and impolite. Instead of the library being a gift from the Beast to Belle which was a monumental change in their relationship, the library was just Beast judging Belle's taste in books and showing off how well-read he is. It isn't endearing.

In Lion King 2019 (holy shit I'm mad at this one, I mentioned this before but I was such a Lion King fangirl when I was younger) they removed Be Prepared, one of the best Disney Villain songs ever, and took away the menacing factor of Scar. Scar bitch slaps Mufasa and “Long Live the King” was more or less shouted, which just takes away the horror of the sudden, quiet betrayal of the original whispered "Long Live the King" and killing Mufasa by letting go and having him fall to his death. Daylight was present throughout the entire "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" scene. Mufasa didn't appear as this almost religious, God-like figure in the clouds, it was just the clouds because of realism, and that makes the scene so much weaker because there's not a figure to visualize. The CGI was so focused on getting the anatomy right that they completely forgot how animals emote (animals can be extremely expressive) so all of them appear expressionless

In The Little Mermaid 2023, the musical numbers were arranged and filmed/edited in a way that takes away the charm of the original. For example, in "Under the Sea", during the bridge where Sebastian ticks off a list of different sea creatures performing, instead of showing said sea creatures during each line like the lyrics intend, it just shows random stuff randomly. They added an instrumental break that slowed down the song's momentum and didn't rebuild it. And why is Ariel singing Under the Sea when she's trying to leave the sea??? Also, I usually love Lin Manuel Miranda's songs, big fan of In the Heights, Hamilton, and the music of both Moana and Encanto, but the new songs he wrote for the movie didn't add anything, and actually dragged the movie in places that should have been quicker, like Scuttle butt. The reason Triton came to terms with Ariel's longing for the land and gave her legs in the end is because he saw Eric kill Ursala for Ariel, which disproved his original opinions of humans being selfish, dangerous creatures. In the remake, 1, Triton straight up died when Ursala took his trident, so he didn't see the final battle at all 2, Ariel, a mermaid who has never been on a ship's deck before, heck from the movie I don't she even saw a functioning steering wheel, somehow managed to accurately steer a ship, in the middle of a storm and a giant whirlpool, while having no legs, that's not reasonable 3, even if Triton was there to watch, Eric didn't do shit in the final battle and was basically useless, so why would Triton change his mind? The whole point of Triton's trajectory in the original was him getting over his prejudice towards humans and learning to understand Ariel's perspective. That entire arc was rushed and more or less gone in the remake. And see how none of the issues I mentioned above have to do with casting Halle? It's entirely about the storytelling and the musical arrangements

Ok I did not mean to make this so long, I got carried away lol can you tell I'm passionate about the subject

Someday I think I'll write proper Disney essays

Tagging two of my Disney friends/mutual cuz I kinda wanna hear your opinions: @pippin-katz @lfg1986-2

[fishys-still-writing-smut]

Sayaka is transported to the world of Pokemon and ends up meeting Sabrina the Kanto Psychic Gym Leader by chance and befriending her. Especially since both were psychics! Though as time goes by Sabrina uses her powers to be more 'aware' of Sayaka's needs and goes to remedy it~

Warning: lewd content below

“Wow, I can't believe battles are so fun!” Sayaka cheered as she got into another fight.

“I still can't believe that battles weren't popular where you're from.” Sabrina commented while watching the fight. Apparently, Sayaka was a visitor from “out of town”, and needed a job. Lucky for the both of them, Sayaka was a natural born psychic, so she bonded quickly with the psychic type pokemon in Sabrina's gym. One thing lent to another and Sayaka ended up becoming a gym trainer for Sabrina. Not that she was complaining, the extra hands were helpful, even if they had no experience with battles.

‘She’s probably a nervous mess.’ Sabrina thought to herself. ‘I should read her mind to check up on her. It’s her first battle against a stranger, so her thoughts are probably-’

‘Arceus please let me lose this battle so the trainer can rail me.’

What.

‘Oh, you're in my thoughts Sabrina?’ Sayaka asked, not entirely confused considering the psychic trainer's background. ‘In that case could you help a girl out? Make me lose with your mind powers so I can get some cock please?’

‘...I’m seriously worried for you and I've only known you for three days.’ Despite her complaints, Sabrina used ‘psyshock’ to faint Sayaka's pokemon, resulting in the idol losing the fight. The bluenette shot Sabrina one last wink before being dragged away by the challenger since she “ran out of money” (in reality she had her wallet on her, but just wanted to get dicked down in the back of the gym).

—--------

‘So could you tell me how to get cool psychic powers like you?’ Sayaka telepathically asked Sabrina.

‘We can communicate with each other using just our minds. Isn't that cool enough?’

‘Yeah but that's like kid psychic stuff, I wanna do the cool stuff like…’ Sayaka ran into the middle of the street. ‘Flip up my skirt using the wind!’

‘Do all your psychic power ideas come from pervy manga? I'm not doing that.’

‘Please? For a friend's sake?’

Sabrina rolled her eyes, before finally using “attract” on Sayaka, causing Sayaka to shake her ass in the middle of the street, attracting the attention of several young men, all eager to steal a glimpse of the sluts white panties. Sayaka bounced her ass faster, rubbing it against some select crowd members, inviting them to cop a feel or even go for a bold spank. Sabrina sighed. What does twerking for an audience have to do with being a psychic trainer?

—-----

“I really can't thank you guys enough for this.” The lucky student responded as tea was poured for him.

“Don't mention it, any friend of Sayaka's is a friend of mine.” Sabrina smiled. Apparently, Sayaka wasn't the only one to visit from ‘out of town’. Her childhood friend also tagged alone for the ride, but instead of ending up with a gym leader, he joined forces with a strong yet silent gym challenger named Red.

‘This is great.’ Sabrina thought. ‘Sayaka finally reunited with her long lost childhood friend. And he's not even a pervert like her. There's no way she could corrupt this innocent sou-.’

‘Both cocks, my mouth, let's do this thing!’

‘Oh son of a bitch!’

Sayaka smiled innocently as she telepathically asked for the lewdest request yet. Already giving up the urge to resist the idol's commands, Sabrina used “hypnosis” on the two boys, controlling their minds and dropping their pants.

“Thank you so much Sabrina!” Sayaka exclaimed out loud, since both boys were stuck in a trance. “This is a dream come true. Even though he's my childhood crush, I've always loved him since I first- Damn! Did this Red guy use “growth” on himself or something?”

“How romantic.” Sabrina remarked with an eye roll as she watched Sayaka put 100% of her focus into sucking off Red’s massive dick. Sabrina ignored the slut to make herself a cup of coffee. Never in a million years would she think someone would ask her to use her psychic powers like this. Especially not so…pervertedly.

As Sabrina watched Red fuck Sayaka doggy style while she made out with Makoto, she shook her head smiling. Say what you want, Sabrina is glad she made a new friend

[citrusreadstoa]

Reading The Dark Prophecy: Chapter 29 (SPOILERS)

I got a glimpse of the "You villain!" and "Ssssstand assssside! . . . I will ssssswallow him whole!" on the next page and immediately thought they were talking about Apollo. My bad. It was Lityerses. Coulda been either of them at this point, though.

"'I thought you--' His welding visor fell shut, making the rest of his sentence unintelligible." Lmao

"You have to wonder about your chances in combat when even your dead friends are worried about dying." Oh yeah, I forgot Brieanna's already dead. And even he thinks they should flee? Yeesh, things are not looking up. Eh, they'll be fine.

"But I hear much talk about us and them." Jamie! We're about to die! I think we can spare a little "us and them" talk.

"Hunter Kowalski brandished her screwdriver. 'Not likely.'" Death by screwdriver.

"Commodus won't leave this net alive." I hope he doesn't die in this book. Shouldn't the final battle in the final book have all three Triumvirate members there? I know it's called The Tower of Nero, but everyone should be there, right?

"They have ìgboyà." Yoruba for courage/bravery. "I would have to purchase some ìgboyà as soon as possible." Yeah, Apollo does need a little ìgboyà to strengthen his bones.

"the Hunters of Artemis had to clean the cow pens" Maybe Emmie and Jo are still salty about having to leave the Hunters.

"brothers named Deacon and Stan" I'm sorry, Stan? Ok. "IV drips of nectar." First of all. Do we know their godly parents? Second of all. I didn't know you could inject nectar directly into your blood. Isn't that supposed to be food? I don't see anyone ingesting soup via bloodstream.

"a few dozen mortal mercenaries, about the same number of demigods from the Imperial Household, a few hundred assorted cynocephali and other monsters, plus the usual hordes of blemmyae" *toaster oven dings* How many Hunters do we have?

"Leo, stop." Let him cope, Calypso! Y'all're about to die. Let him let off some steam, both figuratively and maybe literally.

"Also I should mention the giant bronze dragon in the corner" Oh, yeah. So maybe things aren't as bleak as they seem.

"what about your magic? Has it returned?" "This morning, I moved a coffee cup across the counter." clap clap clap

"I would have made popcorn and watched the bloodbath from a distance on Mount Olympus, or simply caught the highlight reel later." I wonder if that was supposed to sound as demented as it did. "But as Lester I felt obliged to defend these people" Is it because he's Lester or because he's seeing this stuff happen firsthand and in the middle of the fray? If it's because he's Lester, then once he regains his powers, will he no longer feel these things?

"not-so-little Georgina" I reiterate: are we sure she's not half Germani? Apollo could've gotten with a Germani person and had a kid. 'Cause Georgina's giant.

"bounce it off his nonexistent head." As a ghost, do you not have all your body parts if you died without them? Like, you'd think that he'd have his head reattached once he became a spirit, but no. Maybe only if they're in the Underworld. But he'd at least, like, carry his head around or keep it in his inventory or something, no? Guess not.

"Was it payback?" I hadn't even considered that. I highly doubt it. Apollo's type of payback is much more obvious than that. *eyes Halcyon Green*

[arklayraven]

I really want to continue playing nb and the og obey me, but my main issue is the events that not only because they happen so often so you have to choose between story progression or getting the cool new thing! There is also the fact that unless you have time to grind and grind and grind, have money, and/or saved up a bunch of devil points there is little to no way to get what you want especially if it’s a cool card. Also the boxes piss me off cause I’ve been cheated out of a card so many times because of the boxes that I’ve just given up on the games.

Sorry for the rant I’m just really pissed I can’t play a game I like.

It's alright, I'm fine with ranting over this.

And I completely understand ya here and agree. The events are honestly too much, little breathing space in between, and they are becoming more stressful and draining by how much you have to grind in them. Especially for the CB events, which look to be becoming constant near month long events, but are so much more stressful. As well just chances to get what you want are near impossible. Unless you are very lucky in both the event, and if you try, summoning in Nightmares to get those needed cheat cards.

Yes, Lonely Devil is a thing now, but with these constant events, its hard to give LD a chance because it'll be a decision on using resources on LD, or the current new event, and of course as you mentioned, the main story lessons if they happen to release during those times.

Like its very clear, whether some players(devoted PTP solmare supporters) like to admit it or not, both og OM and NB have become very PTP only and anti-FTP with all the restrictions and all. Like if you really want to make real progress in the game, get all the rewards/cards you want, etc. You'll have to throw real money in for guarantee wins/gets. And I'm sorry to PTP players but your advice to FTP players is kinda pointless now. I've seen it given to others a couples time now to make things sound easy or possible through FTP means but in reality, it really isn't. Also the fact FTP players have to jump through many loops to get event a taste of good stuff compared to PTP players, is just ridiculous at this point to me.

So I completely understand ya for not being able to continue playing the game. Tbh, I want to drop it too, but just can't, it sadly has a hook on me, and I'm a FTP player. As well, my love for Asmo is just too much now. lol Yet, Solmare treats him so bad in these events/nightmares(I mean look at what happened to his bday event/nightmare).

If Solmare cared about their players, all types. I feel story battles should be very easy to beat, and more story driven focused than battles progression focused.

Also, don't run so many events during the times main story lessons drop? Yes, some say we can just take our time. That the main lessons will still be there, but they don't take into account if you don't read it on release it, you will be spoiled hard and that ruins it for many to keep playing.

Also Nightmares, should have better new cards got rates, and less annoying repeats. Especially for new special limited time Nightmares. I don't even know when we'll get revivals now, if we do....Which is why I feel so desperate to try to get my fave cards while I can. But my luck has been worse since their supposed increased gacha rates and I fear I won't get my Asmo again...

lol I started ranting myself here, so will end this before I go on too much.

I'm sorry Solmare driven you, and many players, away with their greedy and selfish changes and decisions. I can only hope they will listen finally and change/improve things for players but...I really doubt it now.

[thyandrawrites]

I kind of wonder what message hori. Is going for, with the mutants and everything else in bnha. Because the mutants stopped fighting, so presumably is that it for this part?

They were never going after the hospital staff or the patients anyway, it was even implied that the heroes weren't gonna be killed by the mob (they just wanted to tie up rock-lock right?), and the mutants bail because shouji told them not to be 'mere avengers', without giving them anything else and it works???

The heroes seem to be as flexible as they want to be in terms of morality, in doing what they need to do to win. Hawks, nagant, using the hero kids in the battles (wars), sticking by endeavor way more than what was necessary (I get that they still need him, but no hero has expressed anything negative at all towards him for all he did, hawks and jeanist are even worse).

I just wonder what the end game is, if the story and specifically the heroes aren't going to take responsibility for anything (something ironically the villains get called out on a lot) and not make any changes that would prevent all this from happening again.

Also I get that the next gen. Hero kids are supposed to fix things and be better, it's just that even if hori. Said we're not that close to the end yet, this is still the final arc. Right?

Do you think there'll be a bnha part 2?

No, I don't think there will be a part 2. The manga opens on Deku telling us this is the story of how he became the greatest hero, and I think he's going to achieve that by saving Shigaraki. I don't think we're going to see much after that, if not just a short timeskip to address any remaining loose ends.

I have similar perplexities about the direction of the writing as you do. But over time, I've come to terms with the fact that Horikoshi isn't really building up toward any significant systemic change. If he was, a lot of things would've been written differently. For example, Deku would've had a much more critical stance on Nagant, instead of blanket forgiving her for all her past crimes because she still displays a willingness to make society a better place. As you also mentioned, heroes always get that faith and support by default, without anyone on their side actually expressing anything negative about their pasts, and the further the story goes this is starting to sound more like a feature than a bug. For better or for worse, Hori isn't building up towards the heroes acknowledging their wrongs on a societal scale, but rather on them being the pillars of any "change" we might see in the future.

In other words, instead of depicting the flaws of hero society as systemic, as engineered by the Commission to keep the system functional, he's building a resolution that hinges on heroes themselves "saving" society by being better people than their predecessors.

Because of that, we see conflicts that should have repercussions on the civilians' perception of heroes get solved far too easily and with zero long lasting effects. So for example we have stuff like the press conference where civilians put faith back in the top three instead of holding them accountable for the stuff that was just exposed, or this mutant subplot where the rioters are won over by an argument that frankly has very little to do with the points they raised. It seems like any plot point that might lead to a reflection about the circumstances that lead people to villainy is always shut down before it can grow into a major issue, and this tells me that Horikoshi doesn't really want to explore it past superficial worldbuilding and foiling fodder for backstories.

We might like that choice or not (personally I find it cheap), but I think at this point hoping for a more nuanced ending is a set up for disappointment. After all, as you said, we're at the last arc, or very close to the ending anyway. Expecting Horikoshi to delve deep into topics that he only introduced this late in the story and provide solutions for them without a proper organic development first... is kind of a stretch imho