#i tried following both book & show canon when i wrote this up

[flaysmen]

@brokenalibi​  said:  ❝  I  need  more  bastard  content  thanks  Jen.  ❞

     I  didn't  think  anyone  would  be  interested  in  anything  else  bastard  related  but  once  again  Zatan  proves  me  wrong.  In  the  original  post  with  their  sketched  out  concepts  I  mentioned  that  I  was  looking  into  Roose's  book  based  lore.  I  will  be  reading  the  books  as  soon  as  I  finish  the  show,  and  honestly  with  the  information  I  pulled  from  the  book  series  wikis  I  most  definitely  plan  on  basing  Roose  on  the  book  series  rather  than  the  TV  series.  While  glazing  through  the  wiki  I  found  out  what  the  First  Night  tradition  was.  Considering  that  Ramsay  came  to  be  from  this  I  thought  it'd  be  interesting  if  Ramsay  had  more  bastards  because  of  this.

     So  here  are  his  bastard  twins,  Segovia  and  Lucius  Snow.  Their  mother's  name  is  Astrid,  her  husband  is  Nikolai  Ashborn.  Thankfully  for  Astrid's  sake  Nikolai  doesn't  enjoy  having  a  woman  in  his  bed,  their  marriage  a  ploy  to  those  around  them.  A  year  after  the  birth  of  the  twins,  Nikolai  and  Astrid  did  have  their  own  child  since  it  was  obvious  that  the  twins  weren't  his.  On  the  first  night,  Astrid  actually  enjoyed  her  time  with  Roose  and  insisted  that  the  night  go  on  longer.  She  never  told  the  twins  who  their  father  was,  but  Segovia  was  able  to  figure  it  out.  While  she  wasn't  quite  book  smart  like  her  brother  Lucius,  Segovia  learned  how  to  read  and  work  people.  Just  based  off  how  her  mother  would  speak  about  the  Lord  of  Leeches  and  how  she  looked  at  him  when  he'd  pass  through  their  village  for  annual  checks.  After  she  knew  the  truth,  the  next  time  Roose  Bolton  passed  through  the  small  village,  she  threw  a  straw  doll  with  nails  jammed  into  its  head,  hands,  and  feet,  trying  her  best  to  replicate  his  house  sigil.  The  two  made  eye  contact,  and  without  any  words  falling  from  her  lips  Segovia  told  him  ❛  I  know  our  secret.  ❜  She  of  course  told  Lucius  what  she  knew  and  about  two  other  bastards  who  were  clearly  their  half  siblings.

     The  third  bastard  is  Clauneck  Snow,  his  mother  being  Eissa.  When  she  was  wed  to  Ivan  Erikson,  Roose  claimed  the  first  night.  Ivan  had  no  objections  but  was  disgusted  with  his  wife  afterwards,  he  never  laid  with  her.  When  he  found  out  she  was  pregnant  he  abandoned  her,  his  body  was  found  in  the  woods  weeks  later,  his  death  caused  by  being  attacked  by  a  wild  animal.  After  Clauneck  was  born,  Eissa  started  working  in  a  brothel.  She  never  tried  to  make  contact  with  Roose  when  her  son  was  born,  Roose  found  out  about  Clauneck  after  one  of  his  banner-men  had  seen  Clauneck  playing  with  other  children  in  the  area.  Segovia  later  sought  out  Clauneck,  curious  to  who  her  half  brother  was.  Clauneck  thought  Segovia's  interest  in  him  was  because  she  was  attracted  to  him,  he  found  out  the  hard  way  that  it  wasn't  when  he  tried  to  kiss  her  which  resulted  in  her  kneeing  him  in  the  crotch.  She  yelled  at  him  stating  that  they  were  siblings,  Clauneck  followed  it  with   ❝   Just  because  our  last  names  are  Snow  doesn't  mean  we're  related.  ❞   She  kneed  him  in  the  groin  again  then  informed  him  of  who  their  father  was  then  called  him  a  ❝  half  wit  whore.   ❞

     Clauneck's  strengths  are  his  swordsmanship,  his  physical  strength,  and  quickness.  Lucius  is  incredibly  book smart  and  well  versed  in  the  art  of  healing.  Segovia's  strong suit  is  being  able  to  read  people,  figure  out  what  drives  them,  their  intentions,  and  so  on.  The  three  grew  close,  almost  inseparable.  Roose  took  notice  of  this  and  started  watching  them  closely.  Out  of  all  his  bastards,  Clauneck  was  the  first  to  be  legitimized.  After  he  earned  his  father's  family  name,  he  met  Ramsay  who  told  him  the  fate  of  Domeric.  Clauneck  took  this  tale  as  a  threat,  out  of  fear,  Clauneck  ran  off  to  The  Wall  to  join  The  Night's  Watch.  

     Seeing  that  Roose  lost  another  son,  instead  of  just  giving  Lucius  his  last  name,  he  asked  if  he  wanted  it.  Lucius  said  he  wouldn’t  mind  having  it,  seeing  on  how  he  had  planned  on  going  to  Oldtown  to  study  in  the  Citadel  it  wouldn’t  matter,  but  he  would  return  after  finishing  his  chain  to  be  the  Dreadfort’s  maester  if  that’s  something  Roose wanted.  Lucius  did  take  on  the  Bolton  name.  Segovia  is  legitimized  after  Ramsay,  it’s  not  because  Roose  was  particularly  fond  of  her,  or found  her  useful  in  anyway,  his  thoughts  on  it  being  that  he  might  be  able  to  arrange  a  marriage  with  another  house  to  strengthen  an  ally  ship.  Segovia  wasn’t  pleased  with  this  when  she  found  out.

Here  is  a  piece  I  did  of  Segovia  and  Lucius.

     Below  the  cut  is  something  short  I  wrote  up  on  the  twins  and  their  mother.

     Roose  Bolton’s  bastard  twins  may  have  his  blood  flowing  through  their  veins,  yet  they  lack  the  coldness  of  his  heart.  Instead,  what  beats  in  their  thoracic  cage  is  their  mother’s  love.  The  warmth  that  it  brings  in  their  chest  is  one  that  can  combat  the  Northern  winds.  Their  compassion  could  never  be  hidden  by  ghost  grey  eyes  ;  their  only  feature  that  proved  they  were  Roose’s.  Every  other  trait  they  hosted  was  gifted  by  their  mother,  a  lowborn  with  a  queen’s  beauty,  if  only  she  was  born  to  a noble  family...  maybe  her  children  would  be  fully  acknowledged  by  their  father.

[odusseus-xvi]

Doing a Summary of the French ccs' Lore (because we are forgotten)

(this last part is a joke don't take it too seriously)

Making a post with the lore we know about every French ccs for those who don't follow them religiously : (I might forget some things because I'm not an encyclopedia)

BAGHERA JONES :

Has said in the past she does see herself (her character) as human, like in the "Regret" animation but has also talked about "dying her feathers" instead of hair, and discussed with mike about not really having hair. Her species/lineage/anything you want to call it doesn't seem to be something set in stone.

When asked from where she comes from she answers Switzerland. It seems to have been accepted by Cucurucho. (also knows about The Shit Tower from the Team du Lundi server, though that might not be really lore accurate)

Doesn't seem to be interested in leaving the island itself, but is REALLY interested in freeing herself and the others from the Federation.

Considers BBH and Forever as her family alongside the rest of the french. Both Pomme and Dapper are her adopted kids.

Has both an underground Base and a Castle far north.

Dropped out of the election on her own accord, jumping from the top of her castle's highest tower.

(note : Please admins, cook something for her... She needs it... She tried for days to solve the book thingy, and Cellbit ended up having the last clues and doing it himself... Please I beg you...)

ETOILES :

Is a masked anthorpomorphic cucumber. No ambiguity about that.

When asked where he comes from, it alternates between France, and Far Away (if I remember well) (Was also part of the Team du Lundi server, but nothing confirms it is part of his canon lore).

What does seem to be conserved is his familiarity with all the french ccs : His close joke-flirting relationship with Antoine, his friendly banters with Baghera, his kind of disciple in redstone and create relationship with Aypierre, and his friendship with Kamet0.

Actually enjoying his time on the Island because of the challenges it offers him. Particularly enjoys showing the Federation and The Codes how they can do nothing against him. Considers himself a simple Warrior.

Has a cave a la BatCave but spends most of his time exploring and far away from it.

His favorite thing is bringing loot and stuff to the other residents.

Is freindly with everyone, and enjoys every egg, with particular admiration to Dapper.

(note : #EtoilesIsMyPresident)

AYPIERRE :

A simple human (note : a headcanon I like and that his community has kinda adopted is imagining him with Doc Ock style mechanical arms)

Comes from a random place in France he wrote kind of has a joke to Cucurucho. As for a potential server he could come from the guy is one of the oldest mc cc on the INTERNET. I could not tell you.

We don't really know his feelings on the island, but is portrayed as an opportunist and enjoyer of contracts. Absolutely willing to have deals with the Federation, though also interested in helping the others leave the island.

"n° 1 Gegg fan". Built a Gegg generator and is behind the Geggpocalypse of the election dinner.

Has a fun uncle/nephew relationship with Richarlyson, he revealed the Geggpocalypse to him before anyone else, and is building a winery to run with him.

Has a small house with multiple elevators and teleport pads leading to his huge Factory complex he will open to the public soon.

"I'm secretly building a machine.." before being cut off by Slime saying "WTF MAN THIS IS CRAZY".

(note : We don't know what that last part is about though most likely linked to the lore he's been brewing with the admins that is coming early August)

ANTOINE DANIEL :

We have no idea what he is, though might appears "human". "We all have multiple faces, Im just the only one showing them all". *about the face that was on his inside layer on his old skin* "I'd rather not talk about that, it's private."

Comes from France, though his reference to the Shit Tower into the new Shit Palace might mean he comes from the Team du Lundi server.

We don't know his feelings on the island, though distrustful of the Federation.

Lives in his Shit Palace that is currently unfinished, with the Moon and it's ring above. Has a secret room under called "La Fin du Monde (the end of the world)" with (old and not updated) thoughts about the residents of the island.

Is easily distrustful though trusts the french the most, and confides most of his secrets in Pomme.

Has a weird admiration/obession with Cucurucho.

(note : Come back antoine, I miss the kids...)

KAMET0 :

Ah ah ah ah... ah.

Etoiles did say he might come back at some point to do a cameo, tough not regularly.

(note : come back to the village Sasuke...)

[phantomoftheorpheum]

can i ask you to ramble about the artful dodger please?? your gifset is sooo pretty so im curious what its about!

Oh my God, have you come to the right place. There is nothing I would love to do more rn. Okay, so-

The Artful Dodger is basically (pretentious film & tv people are gonna absolutely despise this description) a post-canon/slightly canon divergent fanfiction set in the world of Dickens' Oliver Twist, following Jack Dawkins (The Artful Dodger) 15 years after the events of Oliver Twist.

So, quick recap of Oliver Twist (spoilers, obviously) for anyone who isn't familiar with that story- Oliver is this little orphan kid in England in the 18(30/40s?) << I don't believe the exact date is stated, but it was seemingly contemporary to when Dickens wrote it, which was 1837-1839. Oliver runs away from an orphanage to London and ends up meeting Jack (The Artful Dodger, AKA "Dodger" or "Dodge"), a street kid in London who takes him in. Jack is known as The Artful Dodger because he is particularly talented at pickpocketing/thieving, which is what he and the other kids he lives with do to survive. They are all "looked after" by a character called Fagin, who is basically using this child gang to support himself and his greed (listen, we can talk about Fagin's character in the show vs the books at some point if you want, but I want to keep this section brief), and Jack is the favorite because he is the best. Anyway, stuff happens, Oliver ends up having a long lost inheritance and gets to live a life of wealth, Jack is caught pickpocketing and sent to Australia (at that time a penal colony), Fagin is arrested and hanged.

*This post is relatively spoiler free for the show, but not 100%, since it's impossible to talk about without discussing character's actions, personalities, relationships, etc. However I'm doing my best to avoid any major spoiler plot points.

This show, The Artful Dodger (Hulu/Disney+) picks up 15 years later, with a few small alterations to the Oliver Twist ending. In the canon of this show, Jack was arrested for pickpocketing, but escaped prison, joined the navy, and was taught to be a surgeon. After his time in the navy, he now lives in Australia and is a doctor in a town called Port Victory, but seeing as he is also an escaped convict, he would be hanged if his past were discovered. Fagin (who dies in the original version of Oliver Twist) was spared by Oliver, and has now been sent to Port Victory as a convict. Obviously this will be a problem for Jack, who is hiding his past.

SO, with that out of the way, the premise of the show is basically this-

Jack is now a surgeon trying to live a lawful life, which is disrupted when Fagin arrives in Port Victory and threatens to expose his past and attempts to draw him back into a life of crime. Simultaneously, Jack meets Belle (totally OC for this show), the governor's daughter, who wants to be a surgeon and is willing to go to extreme lengths to get there. Unsurprisingly, Jack and Belle (who are both pretty stubborn and sassy personalities) clash in many ways, but also share common passion & interests, and thus the stage is set for the show.

So you've got two key dynamics to the show- Jack & Fagin, who have a long history (Fagin often tries to claim to be a father figure in Jack's life, which Jack rejects, as Fagin abandoned Jack when he was arrested in order to save himself) and different priorities/agendas, and Jack & Belle, who have just met, and are still trying to figure each other out. They are of very different pasts, class, mindsets/life philosophies, and this dynamic provides a lot of tension/humor/emotion (if your ask is talking about the gifset that I think, then you already know a bit about where this leads).

The show has elements of comedy, adventure, crime, romance, medical drama, etc. There are additional side plots/characters, but Belle, Jack, and Fagin are at the center of it. It's a lot of fun and only 8 eps, so I definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested! TW: blood/surgery shown on screen quite often.

Anyway, on a personal note, this show feels like it was made for me. I had this absolute obsession with The Artful Dodger character as a child; he's one of the first characters I was ever super emotionally attached to, and led to me wanting to write. For this reason, I paid to have an Artful Dodger tattoo designed while I was in college (though I have not gotten it yet, as it's part of a bigger piece that I'm still mentally workshopping) like as a reminder of why I love telling stories. So I was incredibly nervous for this show, since it was touching a character who has been fundamental to my own creative passions, so I am happy to report that it exceeded my expectations. It probably helps that I've been part of the fanfic community for a long time, so seeing "alternate" versions of characters I'm familiar with doesn't faze me too much, and I think all the actors did a great job with their performances/characters.

So if you're still here at the end of my ramblings and you think that the show sounds like a fun time, definitely check it out! I'd be willing to do a more spoilery version of one of these at some point, but I didn't want to get into heavy spoilers in a introductory post.

Thanks for asking!! <33

[aziraphales-library]

Lost Fic #157

1. Hello, first of all thank you for all your hard work 🫶 really appreciate! I'm looking for a fic i read about a year ago: unfortunately i can't remember much, so i apologise if it's a vague description. I also think i might be mixing some facts with this fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39533883 so i’m sorry if i’m making it hard to find. Trigger warning from here on (depression, su! c!de): the fic was set in the crowley's flat and the characters were canon (im pretty sure it was set a short time after S1's canon events, but somehow C still had holy water). Crowley had just suffered some sort of physical and emotional trauma (r@pe? sorry, i can't quite remember) and couldn't trust neither Aziraphale nor himself. He fell in a state of depression and couldn't see any other way out but use the holy water in his safe. (Spoilers) | remember a scene where he weakly walked to the safe and wrote a note, then tried to reach the thermos but was stopped last second by Aziraphale. Thank you in advance🫶; and if you manage to find it, congrats😅 - anon

2. Helloo I hope it's not too hard to find but I lost a fic on ao3 a bit ago I didn't finish reading and was hoping someone recognise it, it starts off with post apoca-nope Crowley being confronted by demons in his flat who tell him to stay away from aziraphale and summon a screen through which to view him. buuut since there was no audio they all missed a conversation between aziraphale and god in which god gives him a golden string (I think) and explains that metatron has been giving orders independently from god, then asks aziraphale to go to heaven and stirr up trouble. And that's when I accidentally closed the Tumblr app and lost it :( - anon

3. so theres this fic i was reading where its post canon but basically crozira gets locked up in heaven and crowley does his snake thing and releases them both (was in the beginning ish) but thats all i remember 😭😭 im sorry if this is too much to ask for, thank you in advance!!! - @stars-v3ria

4. Hello! I hope y'all are doing all right in what I imagine is a swamp of new asks from season 2's approach. (Writing this in the final few weeks til release.) I'm writing in search of a lost fic--I've scrounged through the Aziraphale's True Form tag but come up empty. It was T, M, or E rated, and more or less a true form sex fic, but may or may not have included genital sex. The part I remember (which I think was the focus of the story, it being a oneshot) was framed as a divinity/grace kink scene in which Aziraphale revealed his true form to Crowley. It was overwhelming to him (verging on pain iirc), but also very beautiful, intense, and possibly sensual or sexual. The part I really remember, though, came at the end-- Crowley, crying, used their safeword, which was "Amen." And after that I think it was more on the tender side. Would you happen to have encountered such a story? Thank you very much for your time, and potentially that of your followers-- I very much appreciate all the work you do for the fandom. <3 P.S. In case this reaches the author, and you with to remain anonymous, please know that the fic really stuck with me and I was merely searching for it in hopes of leaving a comment to that effect. &lt;3 - @elderly-worm

5. Hello! I was recently told about the (cursed) movie script and was told that there is a fanfiction of Book and Show Crowley saving movie Aziraphale from movie Crowley. The person said they're sure they read it on ao3 but cannot find it now and I'm extremely curious. Any help would be very appreciated and thank you so much for the library you're doing here, helped me to find a lot of gems. - anon

If you know any of these fics please include the number in your reply! Thank you :)

- Mod D

[09232003]

Floyd and Jade Leech headcanons :) Its super messy, I wrote it on a whim. Please don’t think all of my writing is like this, this is just for fun! >:6

warnings: mildly Sexual content, but no explicit mentions of sex | mentions of polygamy, but it’s not explored or meant to be taken at face value | swearing | Canon divergent and armchair diagnosing them :) I’m new to TWST, please don’t take these super seriously. 

Floyd and Jade “date” you together, not in a polygamy, brother-husband way, but they genuinely, happily share everything. It’s not sexual, but you often find yourself hanging out with your “boyfriend’s brother” who’s a little too comfortable being on all of your dates. It’s not entirely on them, really, you’re not actually positive which one you’re dating either. They switch off between head boyfriend and clinger monthly. You find out years later that the other twin wasn’t “third-wheeling,” he was also on a date with you, which is why he paid for everything and tried- and failed, to hold your hand. Too nervous :(

They also talk like Akira and Ryo in the Devilman OVAs like this video when they speak privately. The voices they project to others aren’t forced, but intentionally different. Only they know each other’s true mannerisms and speech patterns. They're constantly, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Also it’s just funny. Floyd talks like Akira and Jade talks like Ryo. When Floyd hits puberty, he talks like Akira post transformation. His voice doesn’t deepen, but he embodies his more abrasive speech.

J: His corpse weighed twice as much when he died... meaning he wasn’t the only thing to die...

F: Oh my god- what do you mean he wasn’t the only thing to die?

Autistic and ADHD... on opposite ends of the spectrum. Floyd definitely picks up on social cues, but he has to remind people that his brain isn’t wired to care. :D He talks loudly about taboo subjects or says off color things, but most people find him endearing or funny. He’ll be in the mostro lounge telling Jade about his wet dreams and laughing loudly. He points at the regulars sitting at the counter and laughs like, “Haha you were there! HUHUHU like the wizard of oz!” Jade just nods and smiles. He’s lucky he’s a big scary guy because anyone else would’ve been beaten up :( Jade hyperfocuses on learning the ‘rules” of society. He’s incredibly polite because it’s easier to follow the script than deviate from it and have to face the consequences. He comes off as passive, but only in comparison to Floyd. He expects other people to know social etiquette to the same degree he taught himself. Not blessing him after a sneeze? A thousand years Jail. 

Floyd is also clingy and always wants to be connected to Jade’s hip at all times. Jade can’t stand physical contact, but if it’s you... it’s okay. *defeated* SAD 4 yuu! Whatever, there is another tweel. Jade will show him something on his phone, or in a book, and Floyd will get increasingly close to test those boundaries with him. He’ll look up and realize that they’re temple to temple when Floyd starts giggling. Jade tolerates this since he realizes that Floyd is somewhat holding back, even if it’s not as much as he would like. 

I think Jade is older, and Floyd’s a very minor case of big little brother. It doesn’t matter to floyd, as far as he’s concerned they probably hatched at the same time, with little difference in their individual development. Although I think Jade is older, I don't think he's smarter than Floyd, I feel like they’re both average students intellectually, but Jade can actually turn in assignments. I think he’s older because he has more mature sensibilities, 

They don’t understand how some people can’t tell them apart. To them, they look wildly different as people. As eels, and other fish, the details begin to blend together, Jade couldn’t tell you where his gill ends and Floyd’s begins. As humans, it’s night and day. (And it really is, like let's be real)

They feel a deep sense of ownership over one another, and the thought of putting someone else in their dynamic makes them both uneasy. Floyd’s fear is that they’ll like Jade more, Jade fears that another person would try to pit them against each other. Unless they have equal stake in that person, they likely won’t make an effort to get to know you. :(  You have to woo both of them, luckily they’re very easy to impress. He screamed when Silver gave him a hiking rope girl... It wasn’t even wrapped

Showing Jade any interest in his hobbies will make him yours. He likes mushrooms, hikes, and dolls. Floyd likes basketball, drawing, and dolls. Literally that’s all. They fell in love with dolls like you fall asleep... quietly, slowly and then all at once... They don’t collect them because whatever, but you know exactly what Jade is looking at in the Antique shop...

As for the media they consume... These girls are readers, they spend most of their time reading. Jade reads about etiquette and social customs obsessively, but it’s not fun for him. Floyd reads manga exclusively, and will have in depth conversations about any and all things manga. His favorite genre is sports shoujo, he thinks shounen is too gay. (KIDDING!! HES GAY) He likes romance, and clumsy heroines, and sultry villainesses, like his all time crush... That’s the only time his mood won’t change drastically, there’s so much to cover. He’ll ask you questions about things that are seemingly random and then bring the most depressed, ran through manga you’ve ever seen. Obviously it was well loved. He’s a walking Uquiz.... Give him a color, a quote, and a 90s pop starlette and he’ll give you a manga rec. He doesn’t care for anime though, neither of them watch a lot of tv. ADHD girls know the feeling of wanting something to just end already, and reading allows them to go at their own exaggeratedly fast pace.  

“Shrimpy... would you rather be born to a parent who wanted a (opposite sex) baby and raised you as a (son/daughter) which ends up actually being okay because you pass well enough and you’re gay.. or would you rather live in a world where hamsters can talk?” And Jade enables him, “Please answer honestly Yuu-chan.” 

Their guilty pleasure is otome games. They start each one by picking a ML for the other and then compare it to who they actually prefer by the end of the game. Jade is predictable, Floyd is always right about who he ends up with. He chooses them based on the traits each time... someone tall and strict. Odd. Jade is baffled how he’s never right about Floyd. He tells him that the heart wants what it wants! 

This is so stewpid but I love you Jade and Floyd.

[rjschoicesstuff]

I've made 2 Immortal Desires oc's so far

The first is a human guy named Miguel, cause I really wanted to explore Ripley's dynamic with a human her age who Knows what she is.

And the second is a vampire girl who shows up in Crimson Beech claiming her whole coven got wiped out by the creator. Which is true but she conveniently leaves out that she joined the creator once it became clear that her coven didn't stand a chance and betrayed them.

I'll drop some more info and art for them below the cut

Both of them are just for little au's I 'write' (more like think of and draw cause I'm Not a writer) cause I love au's yahooo

I wrote all this down at 2 in the morning so idk how much sense it makes + HDDB it's a lot but I found that I enjoy using tumblr as an archive for these things

More about Miguel:

-He's 19, graduated high school in a different city a year ago and recently moved in with his aunt and a cousin in Crimson Beech. He works as a janitor at the hospital.

-I haven't completely figured out the storyline yet cause I mostly just wanted to add a character that's 100% Mine, but so far the gist is that he finds out that Ripley is a vampire, she tries to keep this a secret with him for a while to save both their asses and grow closer in this time because Ripley would go check on him a lot. But eventually someone would find out and they get in trouble. He'd survive his Nexus trial and they keep hanging out. Like I think to Ripley it'd be really nice to have a human friend who knows what she is. And also Ripley gifts him her old talisman bracelet and gradually 'rewards' him with new talismans so he can protect himself if he has to. A lot of this might still change, I'm someone who comes up with characters and the plot follows lol.

-He's a lil shy and doesn't talk a lot, but he's very open about it when he likes people. And he's very Generous with compliments. He's not much of a fighter especially against vampires who are much stronger than him anyway and he'd likely freeze if he ever got into such a situation. He enjoys taking care of people and I think that sorta extends to him Really enjoying giving his blood to vampires lol.

-He has a car that he named Hailey and no one but him is allowed to drive her because he saved up real long to buy her. Like he'll get kinda mad if you even dare to suggest wanting to drive or borrow his car.

-He has a weird sense of humor and often wears shirts with weird/funny/vulgar texts on them.

-Him 🤝 Ripley never completely grew out of their scene phase

-He kinda like Really wants to be part of whatever Ripley, Cas and Gabriela have going on. Like just from the start he has a crush on all of them. He starts out just with Ripley, but eventually the rest follow too.

-He likes how they all make him feel small and fragile in a good way lmao

-I think that while he likes the Idea of becoming a vampire, in reality he doesn't want it. And he knows this. And eventually he would realise it's not going to work with the whole relationship he has going on with everyone in the long run. He'd decide to move out of Crimson Beech and break everyone's hearts lol. Kinda similar to my au where Ripley stays human, tho I haven't shared that one yet..

-I gave him a genderbent version too, just cause everyone else also doesn't have a set gender in the books lol. They are very similar except she feels more freedom in how she can express herself regarding her appearance (like long nails, showing more skin etc.) than canon Miguel.

More about Sabine:

-She's very eccentric and fun to hang out with if she likes you and she's on your side.

-She's a scary good liar and sometimes just makes shit up because it's Funny. Especially because she's definitely over a century old so when talking to younger vampires she'll just make shit up about things people used to do in the past.

-She'd join the Venandi's because she's used to hunting and has a high prey drive.

-She's terrified of dying and will do whatever she has to do to protect herself, she would never put someone else's safety before her own, no matter how important you are to her.

-She betrayed a lot of friends in her old coven, she tried to convince them to join the creator too, so they could all survive, but everyone was set on protecting their coven and town, even if they had to die protecting it. She thought it was insulting that they seemed to suggest she should do the same and left them behind. She feels no responsibility or guilt for their deaths, but rather anger that they didn't make the right decision, like her.

-She's good at reading people and generally knows exactly what to say to make people like her. She'll lose interest in people if they don't 'give back' enough, especially if they aren't fun or interesting enough to make up for it.

-Her love language is stealing shit for people ❤️

-I like the idea that the creations in book 1 could switch between that form and their og human looking forms, so I imagine she can turn into a creature if she wants. I think she has mixed feelings about that form though cause it's kinda ugly 👎 and nowadays she can't switch anyway because it'd blow her cover

[presidenthades]

I am doing very minor revisions of Daemon’s Handbook (mostly formatting and continuity errors), and I wanted to do some behind-the-scenes commentary before too much time passes and I forget my original thoughts. Here’s Chapter 3!

(Note that these commentaries aren’t canon to the verse until/unless the author writes them into the series. I might change my mind on a few points later, but these are the thoughts I had while writing.)

Joff might be a precocious witchy 6 year old, but like any 6yo, she thinks farts are hilarious. Sorry, Gerardys. (Also, notice how Joff dissembles/changes the topic when she doesn’t want to directly answer a question.)

Should Joff be mixing bleach and ammonia together? Nooooo. (And if you’re reading this, please don’t do this at home.)

As mentioned in the Chapter 2 commentary, Jace freaks out about her ruined slippers because they were a gift from Aegon, and now she can’t easily get presents from her not-boyfriend anymore. 🥺

I might write a lengthier scene of the girls’ rebellion re: Daemon and Rhaenyra’s marriage in another installment of the series. Here, I tried to make each girl’s reaction indicative of their overall personalities/mannerisms: Jace tries to be diplomatic, Luce goes for the drama, Baela out-cusses Daemon, Rhaena lets her emotions show through the cracks, and Joff is silently disapproving.

IMO, in the show, Rhaenys takes Baela as a ward because she sees Baela as her eldest true grandchild and the rightful heir to Driftmark. (I’ve also seen fanon in some fics that Daemon and Rhaenyra send Baela as a conciliatory gesture after they elope.) Here, Jace is Rhaenys’s eldest grandchild AND slated for the Iron Throne (and Rhaenys’s secret favorite), so Rhaenys would prefer to take Jace and ensure that a future queen of her blood is properly trained and educated.

Confession: in a VERY early draft of this fic, Baela and Rhaena had much smaller roles. I was going to send them both to Driftmark so I could focus on Daemon getting to know Rhaenyra’s daughters. But I’m very happy I went with the blended family aspect in the end.

Lucera has dyslexia, AKA “an affliction of letters.” I enjoy the trope in a lot of Aemond/OC fics that they bond over a shared love of reading, but I wanted to do a twist. Luce likes stories and learning, but she has trouble working through the books on her own, which means Aemond reads aloud to her a lot. 🥰 Now that she’s at Dragonstone though, she has no Aemond to read aloud to her (and she’s mad at him anyway).

I reallyyyyy wanted to write a scene where Luce explains her “marriage = whoring” argument to Alicent, but it never fit into this fic. Maybe one day. But I think Luce has this thought (marriage is about money and copulating) in the back of her mind when she deals with all her suitors later.

I was fascinated by the range of commenters’ reactions to Daemon’s argument about not letting the girls marry the Targtowers. Some people 100% agreed with him and others thought Daemon was being stupid. Which is the kind to reaction I was hoping to get, so yay! I wrote this fic with the intention of conveying that Daemon THINKS he’s right about a lot of things, but he’s not omniscient so take it with a grain of salt.

I wanted the boys’ handwriting and writing styles to reflect their personalities. Aegon is messy and unstructured, and he doesn’t always follow proper grammar/syntax rules. Aemond keeps up appearances and is finicky about grammar/syntax but adjusts his script for Luce. Daeron is still very young but tries to imitate the neatness he sees in his primers.

The gift that Aegon mentions Luce is helping with is supposed to be a song he writes for Jace. (Much more wholesome than the wedding song lol.) I was going to include it in this chapter but it seemed forced so I tabled it. He’s also pretty talented at drawing. I like the idea of Aegon being an artist/romantic at heart, but those aren’t traits appreciated in a potential king so Otto (and maybe Alicent) tries to quash those traits.

Chapter 4 commentary here

[celestie0]

any tips on starting a story?? i created my account cuz i wanted to create small fanfics and gain a following but idk how 😭

hiii love thank you for your ask i’ll try my best to give the tips from what i’ve learned so far!

i also answered a similar writing tips ask for another lovely you can find here. and if you do post your works n you’re comfy w it i’d love to support you!! feel free to tag me 🫶🏼💕

story planning. this is more applicable to lengthier fics, but don’t get too caught up in planning that you don’t actually write the story! it’s okay to have a general idea, or even a multiple paths idea for your story. i did this for kickoff but i wrote alternate chapter ideas branching off from some of the chapters n ended up just choosing which ever one i wanted n thought fit best lol. but basically things are subject to change, so you don’t need to have a scene-by-scene in order to start a story, just a general idea

central theme. i think to start any story and have it be engaging throughout, it’s important to have a recurring theme that gets brought up often, or something that ties two characters together, etc. from the very beginning! could be a physical proximity thing (ex neighbors) or a mission thing (ex bodyguard), choosing something like that can get a story started and create environments btwn characters that feels necessary rather than forced just for plot (assuming you’re writing for romance)

inspiration. if you’re just looking to write fanfiction, there’s nothing wrong with just starting off w a concept or idea that you already know you like from a tv show or book! for example if you like spiderman, then just write a canon-adjacent spiderman au w your fave character from an anime or something haha. and then maybe once you start writing, your own original ideas start to come into play and you go off of those. i think in the fanfic community, people adore spin-offs & mainstream concept ideas bc it’s just nice to have fun with it

high stakes. creating high-stakes within any conflict or decision is really simple, even though it may sound difficult, but it could be as easy as having a character take up a certain job because she really needs the money, or another character’s inability to quit a toxic workplace is because they need health insurance for a certain illness, etc. i think conflict is necessary throughout a story, rather than just one major conflict at the climax, but introducing little ways to up the stakes is a great way to make things more real

logistics. i think to build a following it’s also necessary to know when to post, how often to post, etc., but at the end of the day it’s just a hobby and you should be writing what YOU want to write!! and just get started! ☺️ that’s the easiest way to write—is to just write

i hope this helps my dear i wasn’t sure if you were referring to long-fic or short-fic stories but i tried to keep my recs relatively applicable to both 😭🫶🏼💕 good luck im rooting for you!!

[justmy-account]

Suspicious Minds thoughts

I finally got to read one of the Stranger Things books!

Suspicious Minds is a book written by Gwenda Bond and its Stranger Things prequel. It takes place in June 1969-September 1970 and it’s mostly about Dr. Martin Brenner and Terry Ives. We see how Terry started with this project and her experience with it. Don’t forget that everything thats in this book is secondary canon, that means that it may or may not be truth, or that if the show says something otherwise, it doesn't mean the book is complete nonsense.

I just wrote down some important information from the story, or some interesting facts. There’s a lot of them, so I color-coded them, bc why not, it’ll be better ig.

Terry’s personal life, her friends etc.

Brenner’s personal stuff

Kali’s personal stuff

how the experiment worked

terry trying to figure out whats the experiment abt

abt El

Brenner sorts out people into categories immediatly as he sees them(gender, hight, weight, race, intelligence estimate, potencial estimate)

Kali was 5 in 1969, so she was born in 1964, therefore was 20 in s2

b4 kali came to the lab, “the powers of other subjects we’re unsatisfying”

kali insisted on the name kali, didnt like when people called her “eight”

in 1969 terry had a boyfriend named Andrew, they and their friends used to smoke together(tho terry rather just drink, bc when she smoked she literally felt like seeing ghost)

terry worked as waitress

her roomate stacey told her abt some study where she participated. stacey said it was very weird and it wasnt worth the money(15$). terry didnt have that much money, so she tried it

becky was very protective over terry, but she approved bc they needed the money

becky lived in their parents house while terry lived in collage. it’s the same house as the one where they live now/in the show

terry was known as person who asks million questions

she pretended to be stacey at the experiment(it took place in psychology hall at their campus) bc she didnt sign in or sth and stacey was already signed up

terry wanted to change the world, she wrote letters to the congresmans etc., so she participated in the study bc she wanted to be “part of something big”

she was studying in bloomington, the following experiments took place in hawkins, where they(terry+other ppl that participated in the experiment)drove once a week

brenner was impressed by terry from the very start

in the first sitting they gave terry drugs and brenner asked her abt the worst day of her life(the day of her parents’ funeral-they both died in car crash) and tried some psychological stuff like “put all that pain and grief to a box and then throw the box away”

next time she went to the sensory deprivation tank

becky is four years older than terry

terry had the talent to leave good first impression

later terry didnt have to go to school thursdays bc the lab freed her and she got credit for the study(therefore she couldnt just leave the study cuz her grades depended on it)

terry participated in the study with three different people from her school;

Ken: even when they were looking for women to participate in the experiment, he said that his psychic abilities told him to participate

Alice: she wasnt studying, but she worked with her uncle in his auto-mechanic shop(idk hows it called), she tried to look as dirty as possible, so people would trust her with fixing their car

Gloria: was from a pretty rich family, studies biology and participated in the study bc she wanted to see how it works in labs. later she realized that the hnl may not be doing stuff as they should be

they didn’t know what’s the experiment for, but their theory was that maybe they’re trying to find some usage for LSD-that would explain why they gave them the drugs and did some like “excersises” with them

Alice was getting electro-shocks, once she saw “a monster with too long arms and flower-like head” in her mind, which could be demogorgon

once terry went to the wrong door in the hospital and met kali

kali said she likes secrets

terry thought kali might be brenners daughter(she called him papa), and maybe the experiment is for her, that shes sick and theyre looking for medicine for her

terry went to library and found mentions of three brenners but none of them was martin. got me thinking abt richard brenner theory

brenner thought he hypnotised terry and told her to bug phone at gloria’s parents’ store

terry wasnt hypnotised, so she remember it, and told gloria abt it. gloria was okay with putting it to the phone, cuz it wasnt their home phone, and didnt want terry to have a problem

kali eventually told brenner that “a nice pretty lady visited her and promised she’ll come back”

brenner didn’t want kali to meet other people except doctors, so she doesn’t lose her powers or sth

after she tried sensory deprivation tank, she got angry and didnt like it there, and that made her powers work

terry and her lab friends(+andrew) started to doubt abt the experiment and wanted to take some of the drugs they use at them to analyse them, go to brenners office and stuff like that

terry managed to get to brenners office(ken was pretending that he’s choking so everyone was distracted with him), she found files named “secret”, “mk ultra” and “indigo”.

she also found files named “001”,”002”,003”,…,”010”. after them she found file “project indigo”, so i assume that el, kali, henry etc. were all part of project indigo.

brenner later found out through camera footage where terry went

andrew dropped out of school bc he publicly stood up against Nixon during his speech abt the war in vietnam

since he wasnt in school anymore, he couldve been chosen to go to war

brenner wanted to “punish” terry for going around the hospitala nd stuff, so he called his friend in washington dc so they pick adrew to the war

during one trip, alice seen to the future and she saw El. she saw how she refused to do some experiment and then killed the guards(we saw this scene in the show in s1)

when kali was using her powers, she didnt struggle with starting, but it was hard for her to stop

brenner doesnt understand children(his words), but he considers himself to be “dad type”

six months after the start of the experiment(july-december 69) brenner noticed terry is pregnant(they were doing some tests on her and noticed it)

brenner didnt want terry to know that she pregnant(father is andrew btw), he told her that if she gets stomach pain, she shouldnt go to the doctor, bc they wouldnt know what to do with it, bc he said its bc of the drugs and gave her some medicine for it

terry was using “the void”

they thought the girl that alice saw(el) was in the hospital as some other children(we know it was in the future), so they decided to look for her(in alices mind)

they later figured out that alice saw the future, bc brenner was older, she saw cars she didnt recognize, machines that didnt exist yet…

in february terry was eating a lot bc of all the stress, so she thought shes gaining weight bc of that(but she was pregnant)

it kinda doesnt make sense that she didnt notice that she didnt have her period for like three months but idk

terry tells brenner to leave her alone, and thats exactly what he wants(he wants to make her angry, have emotions)

she talks to kali often in the void, they’re pretty good friends

kali used her powers to visit alice once(terry told kali abt her friends)

brenner was worried shell use her powers to escape

b4 andrew left for vietnam he broke up with terry(or they went on a break idk how to call it)(but andrew was very great boyfriend dw)

ken has some issues with his family, they never minded “weird” till he started dating a boy

terry asked kali to distract brenner

she went to brenners office again, she took pictures of the files, in the mk ultra file there were their files

kali told papa that she was talking to terry and he found the pictures she took(wasnt really mad tho)

he just gave her another manipulatational speech abt theyre the good guys

also the things with terrys period was solved that she still has her period, so ig the drugs messed sth up, but i dont think its biologicaly possible, but what do i know, ill just go with it

terry called some reporters from hawkins to come to hnl and werie artcile abt it

brenner said hes busy so they were with another doctor

the photograph suggested taking picture of him with the subjects and thats when the infamous photo was taken

at some point terry connected the dots and realized she’s pregnant

ken predicted that it’s girl

andrew died(i fucking cried)(terry found out by calling his parents)

terry didnt go to the lab bc of it

she wants to start a new life and disappear

ken named her baby jane(bc of jane goodall)

kali told brenner that alice sees in the future so he managed to get some form to permanently move alice to the lab

rest of them had a plan; glroia turned on the fire alarm, kali used her powers to make alice look dead, and terry went to alices room and started blaming brenner for her death(she knew that shes not dead btw). ken waited outside with a car. gloria pretended to be a doctor that took alices body to autopsy(brenner and his team probably never found out that alice actually didnt die). alice went to canada where part of her family lived and she stayed there. the rest of the gang went back home.

earlier that day brenner gave terry some drug or medicine and that made her water broke

i like it was “show-accurate” that her water broke in the kitchen, same as in the show, even the dialouge was the same

brenner was one of the doctors that were there and he just took el

thatd mean that els birth day is somwhere in june 1970 btw

terrys friends believed her that el/jane is alive

ken’s new boyfriend was a soldier and he worked for the hnl(what a coincidence) and he got a photo of El from somwhere(btw, ken said that he thinks/predicts that he’ll find love in hawkins so ig he was right)

that’s pretty much it

i really really liked this book, id love to read other stranger things books, but i dont think ill be able to do that cuz i cannot get any where i live. id recommend this book to everyone interested in stranger things, there’s no like mind blowing new facts abt the experiments, but it definitely gives you interesting information on how it actually might be. im the kind of person thatd like to know everything abt everything, so reading this book made me gain some new information abt my fav show, so it was really worth it. it was a very quick read, the book has like 317 pages, i managed to read it in like two days, so it was really anyway thats it ig yeah

[wetcatspellcaster]

A few questions, which obviously can be answered at your convenience because I don't want to add to the burn-out you're experiencing (I hope you get some rest and relaxation soon!).

1. Do I need to know anything about Dragon Age to read your other fics? I'm desperate to read anything you've written because you're so talented, but I haven't played and don't know much about it.

2. I just reread Pieces again, and am so curious to know what Rosalie's dad is like and what he thought of Astarion! Also, "Rosie" 🥰

3. I'm American, and my attempts to write English/British characters make me cringe a bit because my American-ness seems glaringly obvious. I suppose this is a bit of weird question, but I've read my share of fics where I'VE thought, "Oh, this author is DEFINITELY American" so I would imagine you have, too. Do you have any advice for writing more... authentically, I guess?

Thanks, in advance!

hey anon! sorry for the delayed reply - i was sick and trying to leave the asks with more complex answers until a time when i had more than one unhappy braincell!

honestly, a mix? my dragon age fic was the first fic I ever wrote, so it was more reliant on existing plots and I also retell a bunch of stuff, particularly in my longfic? which means that it's actually more accessible than my current fic, which tries to avoid too much replay of canon dialogue and canon scenes and so expects the audience to know them, I suppose? But I'm not good at gauging how easy they would be to read with no knowledge of say, the concept of Grey Wardens. I do have one dragon age modern AU though, which is entirely independent of canon :)

Ahhhhhh, you're the first person to ask this!! To be honest, I chose to show Rosalie's mother rather than her father bc the aim of the final scene was to give this timeline's Astarion a chance to use the Charm My Ascension Turned Evil for an utterly harmless use, as a wholesome resolution to the story! Rosalie's father is a handyman (he met her mother doing repair work for the store she worked in at the time) and so he's slightly taller/stockier than you would perhaps expect (of course, in Pieces, he's now more of a wiry and lean old man). he's soft spoken and stoic, the kind of man who deliberately wouldn't raise his voice for being seen as intimidating (particularly with the canonical treatment of tieflings by WotC) but who's opinion is often valued and taken seriously when it is offered, because it's rare for him to speak up. To be honest, I think a meeting with him and Astarion would be hilarious for different reasons, I think both parties would mostly be befuddled on first meeting bc Astarion is very performative and her father is the opposite of that. If Astarion found canon timeline Rose's 'no ulterior motives' infuriariting, I think 'no front whatsoever but also no clear indication of his opinion of me' would also cause him to have a minor meltdown.

This question is difficult for me to answer, because I unfortunately have the Posh British Accent Download and additional DLC due to certain things that happened to me in life. But to be honest, my advice here would maybe be the following: 1. try to fact check any idioms or speech quirks with either a UK friend or something like reddit, or lift them directly from British TV/film dialogue. just bc I have seen certain turns of phrase used a little off-centre and that's what tends to give it away for me? not the 'oh you're clearly american' but the 'oh, you've clearly never heard this used in an actual conversation' 2. Read authors that have a 'British' voice (I cringed, but it is true!) I'm not Neil Gaiman's biggest fan, but authors like Gaiman and Terry Pratchett have a little bit more British English in their writing and so immersing yourself in one of their novels for a bit might help you emulate the stuff I do subconsciously (others might be Sarah Rees Brennan, Kieron Gillen's comic book The Wicked and the Divine, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, the Skulduggery Pleasant series... this all depends on what kind of British you're aiming for!!) 3. The way I still get into 'character voice' to this day is just by listening to youtube clips on loop. I can't do impressions but I can try to imagine the voice saying the line i've written!

[gui1lermodelacruz]

There are a lot of vampire hunters out there. Any human can be a vampire hunter, not anyone can be good at it of course, so many have died even trying to get close to a vampire.

But I think it’s different to be a Van Helsing. They are definitely more dangerous to the vampires and it is of course against the rules to have an intimate relationship with them for both sides (not having anyone in mind, just saying of course, it’s not like there is a canon thing on the show or anything).

The first Van Helsing was born relatively recently, in the 18th century, called Abraham Van Helsing. He wrote a book with all the ways to kill a vampire and everything about the vampires he knew. The book still exists, notes added as the new hunters follow his steps. Whether they were Van Helsings or not, vampire hunters often raised their family that way...

Being a Van Helsing basically makes you a natural vampire killer: you don’t need proper training and your first instinct is to kill them, they could kill one before they are even aware of it. Even before Van Helsings encounter their first vampire, there is a part of them that always knew they exist… They don't have to train to kill, but if they are, if they study about it... then well, it really makes them number one vampire enemy...

When it comes to Guillermo, he was not raised as a vampire slayer, his grandma tried to shield her family from it. He didn't grow up hating them, on the contrary. Still, years later, he started killing vampires, first in self-defense and then to protect the ones he cares about. He has never talked to his family about it, even though now he knows they are Van Helsings too. He doesn't know that there is a book and perhaps a society out there. But still, he has killed more vampires than any other vampire hunter in decades, perhaps ever since Abraham. And... He uses his lineage to protect vampires.

[allthingskakashi]

Head canons if Kakashi had an older brother/sister? Pretty please?

I LOVE the thought of kakashi with an older sibling, poor bb could've had a better childhood >_< he really deserved that. Someone to share his grief with, someone to guide him when he felt lost, someone to come home to, someone to love him dgsgaj HELP

I gotta say though i feel super out of touch with kakashi cause its been a while since i watched the show or wrote about him and i have half a remaining brain cell buuuuuut I'm gonna still try to give you whatever raggedy scrap i can cause you said pretty please and i can't say no to that <3

• Kakashi With an Older Sibling Headcanons •

as a child, most of kakashi's time was spent with his sibling because sakumo would be out on missions for the most part

They'd be kakashi's biggest role model and he'd would often turn to them for help with his studies or to teach him new jutsus

A lot of their time would be spent training together on the grounds and despite being several years younger, kakashi always put up a good challenge. His sibling would often joke that kakashi would make jonin before they did, which as it happened, Kakashi did end up being

Kakashi has no memories of his mother but his sibling, having spent a few years in her presence, would tell him little of what they could remember of her. Kakashi always had a lot of questions to ask about her and never seemed to be quite satisfied with the answers he got

His brother/sister tried their hardest to satisfy his curiosity the best they could but would eventually tire out and put him to bed with a "time to go to sleep"

Even as a kid, kakashi had a tendency to push himself too hard. Sometimes he'd spend the entire day poring over his books and his sibling would have burst into his room, shut his books and pull him out of the chair saying "thats enough studying for the rest of the year, stop being a such a geek and let's go have some dango"

After sakumos death, the two became inseparable. They'd sleep in the same room, go to the market together, cook together, eat together. His sibling would drop him off and pick him up from school every single day. Everywhere they went, people stared at them. Some with sorry glances, some with contempt and disgust. But it was easier to brave the looks together than to be subjected to it alone, and his sibling wouldn't keep from hitting people back with a death stare if they looked too long, especially at kakashi

They didn't share a lot of words in the initial days following their father's death, neither of them could bring themselves to talk about it. Instead, they'd simply make sure to look out for one another. When his sibling was so swamped with the task of assorting bills and filing paperwork that they forgot to have breakfast, kakashi would fix a plate and bring it up to them. And on nights when kakashi could only toss and turn, they'd stay up with him and talk to him, tell him about stories from their own missions, keep his mind from wandering until they heard kakashis drifting off to sleep with soft breaths

As he became a little older, Kakashi would often lash out about stupid it was of sakumo to abandon his mission, but his sibling, being older and harnessing every value sakumo had imbued upon them, knew that what their father had done was the right thing to do and they'd try to reason with kakashi to make him realise that

I'd like to think that if he had a sibling, they'd have discouraged Kakashi from joining the Anbu and he wouldn't have had to witness everything he had to in those years which added to his trauma

I also dont think he'd have been as closed off to the world as he was, had he grown up with a sibling

Over the years, both of them would lose people they cared about- friends, comrades, it's inevitable in their world. but at the end of the day, they'd have each other. And that would be enough

His sibling knew that Kakashi preferred being left alone whenever something bad happened, he's never been much of a talker. And they'd heed his wishes for the most part. But not without making sure to tell kakashi that he could, of course talk to them if he wished to and to assure him that mishaps do occur sometimes on missions and he is not to blame. They'd bring kakashi his meals in his room, and check in every night to see if he was in bed and not out in the middle of the night, sitting by some grave in the cold

His sibling would definitely see how much gai cared about their little brother and they'd encourage kakashi to give him a chance sooner

As adults, i see them both being very strong shinobi, both with exceptional skill and intelligence. and definitely a great team together. Years of training together has taught them to work impeccably in accordance with each other. The two of them are sent together for only the toughest missions and there hasn't been one failed mission on their watch

His sibling is also the ONLY ONE who's seen kakashi without a mask so they're constantly ambushed by all sorts of people asking for a description at the very least, or a picture. Several of them have even offered to pay up a bribe. Kakashis genin team is of course begging for a picture at every chance, and the adults genma, kotetsu, izumo are no better.

Kakashi's sibling is also the only one who has witnessed him lose his cool

"Is it really THAT hard to close the cap once you're done using the shampoo?"

"You wouldn't happen to know why there's only two bento boxes instead of the three i kept aside would you? THOSE WERE FOR MY TEAM!!"

"THAT'S MY VEST, do your own laundry"

Like every other sibling, they do ofc have their ocassional squabbles and disagreements. It's in the fineprint when you get a sibling. but at the end of the day, they're both fiercely protective of one another and they know they can count on each other, always

There's honestly so much that can be done with this concept but this is all that my brain could come up with right now so pls accept this piece of crap <3

[ikeromantic]

Hi, May I request one for Ikeprince where MC is a nanny for princes when they were kids and they start fighting for her attention. Thank you

Ok, this idea is too cute. I wrote this completely disregarding tragic pasts and canon route info. Approx. 3300 words of adorable little princes.

Belle forced a smile as she signed off on the hiring contract. She wasn’t sure she was up to being the royal nanny, but kids were kids, right? And being a nanny at the palace paid better than the same job in town. This was her chance and she wasn’t going to ruin in with nerves.

“Fear.” Sariel’s gaze settled on her.

“What?”

“The little beasts can smell it on you. Don’t walk in to the nursery afraid.” His amethyst eyes had a fell glow to them as he smiled. It was not reassuring.

“Oh. O-of course. Kids can always tell what grownups are feeling.” Belle stretched her smile wider as if that would cure her anxiety.

Sariel studied her for a moment and then nodded. “For some, less so for others. Now sign this last page and come along.”

Belle sighed and then let Sariel guide her to the nursery. As it turned out, the nursery wasn’t just a room for the children to play in. It was an entire wing of the castle, complete with its own kitchens, gardens, and bedrooms. Belle had her apartments there, along with a host of servants to see to the boys’ needs.

After showing her where she would sleep, Sariel walked her to a central hall and sent the servants scurrying to gather the princes. There were nine boys in total, none older than six, and they couldn’t have been more different from each other if they tried.

One of them, a tall boy with platinum blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. He lounged against a wall, reading, as if he didn’t notice or care that anyone else was present. Sariel gestured to him. “That is Chevalier. Chev, come say hello to the new nanny.”

“I don’t need a nanny. Go away.” He didn’t even glance up from his book as he said it.

Belle refused to be intimidated by a child barely out of diapers. She crouched beside him to look at him from his eye-level. “Hello Chevalier. I’m glad you don’t need a nanny. Maybe that means you can be my helper. I’ll bet we become best of friends.”

He glanced up from his book and his gaze was so cold it made Belle shiver. “I don’t make friends with fools. I give you . . . three days before you leave like the rest of them.”

Belle stood, feeling a bit put out.

Sariel smiled thinly. “Polite as ever.”

“Shut up, four eyes.”

“Yes, well. Moving along. Let me introduce Rio. He’s a charity case rather than a trueborn prince. Come and say hello, Rio.”

This one was very short and a little pudgy, with honey-blonde locks and wide, innocent eyes. He stared up at her in awe. “H-hello Ms. Belle.”

Belle turned her attention to Rio, crouching down again to look him in the eye. “Hi Rio! That’s such a nice name. I hope we’ll be friends, hm?”

Rio reached out and grabbed her fingers in his chubby little hands. “Yes! I want to be your friend, Ms. Belle. You’re beautiful!”

Sariel sighed and adjusted his glasses. “He’s a simple minded boy. A bit like a dog. Cuddly, loyal . . .” He cleared his throat.

“That’s very sweet Rio. I’m sure we will be great friends then.” Belle ruffled his hair and then followed Sariel to the next.

There were two boys with hair as white as starlight and crimson eyes. Identical twins dressed in similar clothes. One of them avoided her gaze, fiddling with a toy soldier. The other met her gaze with a mischievous look of his own.

“I’m Nokto,” the smiling boy said, “and my brother is Licht.” He held out his hand to shake hers.

“Pleased to meet you both. I am Belle.” She took the little hand and let Nokto shake with her. Licht glanced at them and then back at his toy.

Sariel pointed at the two of them. “They’re twins, but you won’t get them mixed up unless you really are an idiot. Nokto is the one to watch out for. A natural born jester, while Licht is generally quiet.” He was about to lead them over to the next boy when Nokto grabbed Belle’s skirt.

“Ms. Belle, is it ok if I ask for a hug? We aren’t allowed to hug the staff and we never get to see our mother and father . . .” His lower lip trembled and he looked as if he was on the verge of tears, a complete switch from the naughty grin of a moment ago.

Belle couldn’t deny such a sweet appeal. “Of course I’ll hug you.” She bent down and let Nokto wrap his arms around her neck. He squeezed her tight, and she swore, he tried to pinch her breast through the bodice. She quickly stood, not sure if that had been a childish accident or intentional.

Nokto tried to hold onto an innocent expression but it lasted only a second or two before a wide, naughty grin spread across his cheeks. “I like you, Ms. Belle. I hope you don’t run away like all the others did.”

“I don’t plan to,” Belle replied, trying to sound confident.

Sariel raised an eyebrow. “As I was about to say, this fellow over here is Yves.”

Belle smiled down at the little boy. Another blonde with a haughty glare.

“You may refer to me as young prince, or highness,” Yves told her.

“Alright, young prince.” Belle giggled. It was adorable how regal he tried to look.

Yves frowned. “I see nothing here to laugh about. Sariel. I demand a new nanny.”

Sariel ignored the request with equanimity. “Yves can be quite difficult. I would particularly be aware of -”

His recommendation cut off as a colorful glob of pudding splatted against Belle’s skirt. Another landed on Yves cheek and a third smeared the wall. The three of them looked toward the source of the bombardment.

“Ahahaha! Oh - Oh god, your face Evie! Perfect shot!” The boy’s amber eyes were full of mirth. He held out a contraption of spoons and string. “Sorry about that. Really. I was aiming for the nanny. But look! I shot three times with one pull!”

Sariel eyed the mess. “The dark haired prankster is Clavis.”

Yves was staring at his half brother with loathing. “You’ve ruined my afternoon suit. And the nanny’s work clothes as well. You should be more than just sorry.”

Clavis shrugged. “Maybe but I’m not. And I’m not really sorry either!” He flung another bit of pudding at Yves and then ran off laughing as Evie chased him.

“Yes, well it seems Clavis already made you aware of himself.” Sariel smiled thinly. “This little one here is Luke.” He gestured to a small, chubby toddler surrounded by teddy bears.

The little boy looked up and smiled happily.

“Aren’t you a cutey. You look like a little teddy bear yourself.” Belle reached out to pinch his little cheek but he caught her hand. His grip was quite strong for such a small child.

“Luke. Not cute,” he said seriously.

Belle laughed. “Yes, your name is Luke. And you are very cute.” She managed to get her hand back.

Sariel sighed. “And the fellow approaching us is the oldest brother, Jin.”

This prince was a little taller than the others, with a bold, mischievous smile. He walked right up to Belle and held out his hand.

She held hers out to shake it, but the child kissed her palm instead. Belle pulled it back in surprise. “Ah, nice to meet you. Jin. Can I call you Jin, little guy?”

“I’m not that little.” He stuck his tongue out at her.

“Are too,” said another dark haired boy from behind Jin. This prince shared Clavis’ golden eyes but his smile was sweet and friendly. “I’m Leon. Nice to meet you, Ms. Belle.”

“I’m glad to meet you as well, Leon. And Jin, don’t worry - you’ll grow up big and strong. I can tell.” Belle ruffled Jin’s hair.

“That’s all of them, and I’m afraid all the time I have. Please keep them occupied until dinner. A servant will fetch you then.” Sariel gave a quick nod and retreated from the nursery.

Belle looked around at the boys. Nine was a lot for one nanny, especially nine little beasts. But she’d given her word and signed a contract. She had to make it work. So, first things first, kids needed to burn off energy. She cleared her throat, “All of you, come along! We’re going outside!”

“I like outside,” Luke smiled and grabbed a teddy bear almost as bug as he was.

Chevalier grumbled from his spot but straightened and walked toward her, still reading. Leon started rounding up the other kids, and for their part, most came quietly.

Rio took one of Belle’s hands and Nokto took the other. Then all together, Belle and her nine little beasts walked out into the garden. It was beautiful, with flowers and shade trees, and a small play area that held a slide, a merry-go-round, and swings.

The boys immediately split off in their own groups. All but Chevalier, who sat next to Belle on a little bench, book in hand.

“What are you reading, honey? That looks like a big book for such a little guy.”

Chevalier glanced up. “And that looks like a big head for such a small brain. Now hold still. I can’t read comfortably when you’re moving around and talking.” He settled against her, his little brow furrowed.

Belle decided to let that go. She kept track of where each of the little ones were. Jin was pushing Luke on the swings. Clavis was spinning the merry-go-round while Licht rode on it. Nokto was going down the slide, chasing after Yves. Leon was playing with a toy sword, fencing a pretend opponent and Rio . . .

Where was Rio? She stood up, earning a grumble from Chevalier. “Rio?”

Then she felt a little tug on her skirt. Rio was standing beside her, holding up a ragged bouquet of garden flowers. She was sure he hadn’t been there a second ago.

“H-how did you get there, you little scamp? I didn’t see you.”

Rio smiled sweetly. “You must have missed me ‘cause I’m short.” He held the flowers higher. “I picked these for you, Ms. Belle.”

She took the flowers. “Aww, you are such a sweetie, aren’t you? But you don’t need to give me anything.”

“I wanted to.” Rio tugged at a lock of his hair, looking nervous. Then he lifted his gaze to hers and asked, “Will you marry me when I grow up?”

Belle did her best not to laugh. “That’s such a cute thing to say. But I’m just your nanny. You’ll find someone-”

“Shut down!” Clavis laughed from the other side of the bench.

“Clavis, that wasn’t a kind thing to say,” Belle gently scolded.

“It wasn’t? Oh, then I am so sorry! Let me make it up to you. And Rio.” He smiled cherubically, but something wicked sparkled in his eyes. “Let me spin you on the merry-go-round. It will be fun.”

Belle glanced over and saw Licht wandering away from the merry-go-round looking a bit dizzy. “Alright. Let’s play together.”

She and Rio got on the merry-go-round and Clavis began to spin them. Faster and faster, round and round. The world spun and she felt giddy and dizzy.

Rio held onto her skirt with one hand and the ride with the other. He looked a little scared. “I . . . I don’t feel good, Ms. Belle. My tummy is . . . bubbly . . .”

“Clavis! Clavis, stop spinning us!” Belle waved a hand at him.

He grinned and just spun them faster.

Rio burped alarmingly, and Belle realized she didn’t have long. “Clavis! Stop right now!”

“Or? Come on, Ms. Belle, you have to threaten me with something. Make it interesting.” Clavis laughed.

“Stop the merry-go-round, fool.” Chevalier looked up from his book. “All this shouting is distracting me.”

Clavis pouted, but he stopped pushing too. “I never get to have any fun,” he sighed.

“That wasn’t fun for me and Rio,” Belle told him. Then she helped Rio down and gave him a little ginger candy to settle his tummy.

“I want a candy,” Nokto spoke up. He materialized at the sound of the little candy tin opening.

Belle nodded. “Of course.” She held one out to him, but he shook his head.

“Can you put it in my mouth please? My hands are dirty.” He held them up and they were smeared with dust and grime.

She still remembered his . . . hug from earlier but reminded herself that he was just a child and meant nothing by it. “Ok, open wide.” Belle popped the candy into his mouth, pulling her hand away just before his lips closed over her fingers. She wasn’t sure if she imagined it or not, but she thought Nokto looked disappointed.

“I would like a candy too,” Yves told her. He stood a little ways away, arms crossed over his chest. “Do you have strawberry?”

Belle smiled at him. “I’m afraid I only have peppermint and ginger. But if you like, I can ask one of the servants to bring some strawberries. That would be a great afternoon snack.”

Yves frowned. “No. I want one of your candies.” He stepped closer, not meeting her gaze. “Could I have peppermint?”

“Of course, young prince.” She took out a peppermint and handed it to him.

He took it and smiled up at her. “Thank you. And . . . I guess it’s alright if you call me Yves.”

“You’re welcome, Yves.” She returned his smile, feeling proud of herself for winning this little prince over.

“Well. Don’t think too much of it,” he looked away, his little cheeks pink.

Belle smiled. “Alright, I won’t. Now why don’t you go play with your brothers?”

Yves sighed, but wandered off to the slide again.

She thought she might get a breath, but before Belle could even turn around, Jin grabbed her hand. “Oh, hello there li-ah, biggest brother.”

Jin grinned up at her. “I want to show you something. Will you come with me?”

Belle nodded. “Sure, but let’s not get too far away from the others. I need to keep an eye on everyone.”

“It’s just here.” Jin pulled her to the paving stones of the walkway. He’d made a picture in brightly colored chalk. Two tall figures, a boy and a girl.

Belle realized the girl was wearing a dress the same color as hers, and the boy had Jin’s blue coat. “Is that me? And you all grown up?”

Jin nodded. “Yep. And see? I’m taller than you. In my picture. And we’re going on a date. To the pub.”

“The pub, hm? What if I told you I’m more of a bookshop girl?” Belle laughed.

“We’d go there first, of course.” Jin smiled widely.

She ruffled his hair. “That’s a very nice idea, Jin. And you made such a pretty picture!”

A small, high pitched voice sounded behind her. “Ms. Belle?”

She turned to see Licht standing there. He had his hands behind his back, and was staring at his shoes. Compared to his brother, or really any of the other princes, he was so shy and quiet. Belle crouched down to be at his level. “What is it, Licht?”

“Can you . . . push me on the swings? Leon was gonna but he went to play monster hunter with Clavis.” Licht glanced at her and back down again. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to though.”

“Of course I want to. Come on, Licht. Let’s go swing.” She held out her hand and he cautiously took it.

“I’ll come too,” Jin said, and followed them to the swings.

Licht and Jin took turns being pushed in the swing, with Jin trying to teach Licht how to move his legs and make himself go even higher.

Belle couldn’t help but smile as she saw Licht’s sweet face light up as he flew through the air. His solemn expression briefly disappeared with each swing into the sky. And when he figured out how to make the swing move on his own, he grinned widely. Eventually Belle didn’t need to push him anymore and so she sat nearby on the soft grass to watch.

Jin wandered off after a little while because he was ‘too big for a kid swing’.

Belle didn’t have long to rest before Leon came charging up. He looked as if he’d been rolling around in the bushes, with leaves on his clothes and twigs caught in his hair.

Leon held his toy sword in one hand, and a flower in the other. He smiled at Belle. “I fought the monster and won you a treasure!” He swept as low of a bow as his little legs would allow. Then he held out the flower.

That was when Belle noticed a bit of blood on his hand. “Oh! Leon, you got hurt!”

“No, it’s just a scratch.” He pushed the rose at her. “Are you going to take your treasure?”

“I’ll make you a deal. How about, I will accept that beautiful flower but only if you let me look at that scratch.”

Leon considered it for a moment and then nodded.

Belle took the rose and pushed the stem into her braid. “Ok, let’s have a look.” His hands had several scratches, but only one was bad. A little thorn from the rose bush was stuck under his skin. “I’m going to have to get that out and then wash and bandage your hand, Leon. Are you going to be brave for me?”

Leon squared his little shoulders. “Yes!”

And he was a brave little guy as she pried the thorn out and sanitized the scratch. When she wrapped his hand in a bandage, he smiled up at her.

“Thank you Ms. Belle. All the pain was worth it to see that flower in your hair.”

“Ahhh you are so adorable,” she smiled and patted his head. “Now go play, and stay away from the other rose bushes, ok?”

Leon ran off and Luke toddled up.

Luke plopped down next to Belle and set a teddy bear on the ground. He began to walk it around on the grass, making funny little growly noises that might have been words.

“Are you playing with your bear friend?” She sat down, pulled her knees up to her chest, and set her chin on them.

“Yep. I’m a bear too.” Luke looked at her and pretended to growl.

“A teddy bear, I think,” she laughed.

Luke thought about this and then nodded, breaking out in a wide, gap-toothed grin. He began walking around on all fours and pretending to dig at the ground. “Bear! I’m a bear!”

“The cutest bear,” Belle agreed.

He jumped at her shoulder and nuzzled her arm. “I’m a tired bear. Can I sleep on your lap?”

“You know what, Luke? I bet everyone is a little tired by now. Let’s all go in and have a snack and take a nap.” Belle picked Luke up and called the other boys in. Surprisingly, they came along without much trouble.

Of course, snack time was a nightmare. Each of the princes wanted their own special snack and drink. Thankfully, the servants knew their tastes and it was really just a matter of getting them to sit and eat. Even Clavis caused just minimal devastation with the frog in his pocket. Belle made a mental note to check his pockets before letting him back into the palace next time.

Sariel found them a little while after that. Belle and the nine princes were piled together on a large, soft rug in one of the playrooms. Chevalier lay with his head resting on his book. Nokto and Rio had their heads resting on Belle’s chest. Luke was snuggled against her leg. Yves and Licht lay sprawled nearby, while Clavis was curled up around a pillow. Leon and Jin looked like they were wrestling each other, holding onto the same small stuffed bunny with both of their little fists.

“It appears the princes approve of this one,” he said to himself. Then with a smile that was almost gentle, he left the Belle and her beasts to their nap.

[yuyuntianyu]

[2HA analysis blog] To love you is torment but leave you I cannot

I wanted to write this (hopefully not-too-long) blog to give 2HA fandom a different perspective of the events in the past timeline. I noticed that there are many little things that could not be carried over to the English language. These little things can give more explanations to our characters’ actions so I hope sharing this would help the novel make more sense. This blog focuses on Taxian-jun and Chu Fei.

Warning: Spoilers ! ! ! Taxian-jun and Chu Fei are their own trigger warnings ! ! !

Despite the novel having 350 chapters, we really know little about what happened between Taxian-jun and Chu Fei besides the abuse and mistreatment and that little is relayed to us by the Most Unreliable Narrator of the Cultivation World - Mo Ran Mo Weiyu. If we only take Mo Ran for his words then a lot of his and Chu Wanning’s decisions told later on would seem irrational and almost silly. So let’s dive deep in the past so we can understand how the great cultivator Beidou Xian-zun could raise such a dumb husky since the events in the past would explain the more irrational decisions made by both main characters.

Given Mo Ran’s narrator is about as reliable as his character in the first 120 chapters, we have to look at other more subtle clues and some of them are due to cultural and linguistic differences.

1. I used to like you a lot

At his coronation day, Taxian-jun stated that he once greatly looked up to Chu Wanning and that he used to love and respect him dearly. Maybe I am reading into this too much but this is my theory: The flower could erase the memory itself but cannot erase the feelings associated with the memory. He had his memories of the good deeds Chu Wanning did for him erased but still remembered that he used to love and respect him. It doesn’t make sense unless it is indeed that the flower could not erase its host’s feelings. So throughout the novel, Mo Ran’s complicated emotions are complicated possibly because he could not remember how he came to have these feelings. Similarly, Hua Binan could mess with the undead Taxian-jun’s memory to a great extent but could not erase his obsession with Chu Wanning.

2. I gave you a new title

Chu Fei. 楚妃. In the Imperial Chinese harem hierarchy, “Fei” means consort and not concubine (嬪 “Pín"). Consorts were highly respected positions in the palace weidling much political power and were only seconds to the Empress Consort. Another major difference is a consort would be married to the emperor while a concubine would not. So if Taxian-jun had truly wanted to only humiliate Chu Wanning and keep him for the carnal pleasures (I am intentionally ignoring his breeding kink completely), he would keep him as a concubine but he gave Chu Wanning the Consort title and hid him from the world. At this point, Taxian-jun had almost lost Chu Wanning once and had spent a lot of effort to bring him back from the verge of death after hearing Chu Wanning’s apology so his anger might have softened a bit. Also, given that Chu Wanning is a man, having a legitimate offspring ( (I am still intentionally ignoring Mo Ran's breeding kink completely) is not an issue so although this is not clearly stated, I believe Taxian-jun wanted to force a relationship and somewhat proper marriage on Chu Wanning. Another hint of this is in an Extra chapter where Taxian-jun tried to get Chu Wanning a birthday gift. He recalled that in his past timeline, he had wanted Chu Wanning to give him something on his birthday as well and that he had wanted Chu Wanning’s heart.

3. Shizun likes to write letters and poems

On Book 3 Chapter 247, Chu Wanning sat down and wrote a few unsent letters to the people he used to know. He also wrote a few lines of poetry. In the first few lines taken from different literature works, he expressed his sense of helplessness and his wish to remain untainted despite the circumstances. The more important two lines are from a poem written by a real poet named Fàn Chéngdà ( 范成大) who lived in the 12th century Southern-Song dynasty. The two lines read:

“May I be like the stars, may you* be as the moon. Night after night, may we shine together side by side.” **

*In the original work, the character used instead of you is “jun” 君 (as in 踏仙君 Taxian-jun). 君 could mean king, emperor, lord, or gentleman ** This is my rough translation - I haven’t found an English version of this poem

These two lines are commonly used in romantic novels as a way to express one’s unchanging love and loyalty to another person despite the circumstances. He compared himself as the stars and wanted to remain by Taxian-jun whom he viewed as the moon. Chu Wanning wrote this to express his willingness to stay but he would never voice this out loud. In the next timeline, he did the same thing by quietly loving and caring for Mo Ran 1.0 despite the mistreatment and was content with never expressing his feelings vocally. Mo Ran was rather uneducated and thus could not fully comprehend these two lines and misunderstood that Chu Wanning was missing Xue Meng.

4. You are all I have left

In chapter 252, after Chu Wanning returned to The Red Lotus Pavilion, he found Taxian-jun already waiting for him. Taxian-jun told Chu Wanning about a dream he had and said:

“I am afraid I don’t resent you… I want to resent you… Otherwise, I…” “In the end, it’s just you and I”.

This is not the first time he expressed that Chu Wanning was all he had left or they only had each other. I believe that at this point, Taxian-jun might have somewhat believed Chu Wanning and recognized that his memories were missing. His words and behaviors seemed a lot more gentle and he mentioned they did have periods of time where their marriage was easier. I believe it was after this point. He told us about the numerous times he attempted to spoil his consort or expressed his affection through gifts, a trip outside the palace, goods, jewels, and even teaching Chu Wanning how to cook or personally taking care of Chu Wanning when he was sick. At one point, Taxian-jun expressed his wish for a more peaceful marriage with Chu Wanning through his breeding kink by saying that if they had children, perhaps they would be more civil towards each other.

Edit: I really wanted to go about this blog without having to refer to their particular taste in bed

5. Are you still mad?

This is a smaller detail but in the original text and the Vietnamese official translation, the way they talked to each other had a bit more of the “husband-wife” dynamic. Especially Chu Wanning ( l┐(︶▽︶)┌ ), the comment section said he sounded like when your wife is mad that you didn’t take out the trash but still says: “I’m not mad” and Taxian-jun, the husband, would come around and ask “Are you still mad at me?” after every fight.

6. I did not think you would really leave me.

On Chapter 99, Mo Ran recalled the fight between him and Chu Wanning after an assassination attempt. In order to convince Mo Ran to not go to Taxue Palace, Chu Wanning said:

“If you destroy Taxue palace, if you kill Xue Meng, I will die before you”.

Now the line “I will die before you” in my language is less of a suicidal ideation but more of a threat. It's used when a person already knows that they are important to the other person and is using their own death as a threat to make the other person do something. This line is thrown around a lot during heated arguments between people close to each other but they almost never mean it. (Even my mom said it numerous times before T_T . I personally think it’s manipulative). Therefore, it is understandable Taxian-jun did not take this line seriously and replied almost mockingly. After all, they had been married for almost a decade at that point, Taxian-jun probably felt somewhat comfortable that Chu Wanning would not do anything reckless. He could not foresee that Chu Wanning meant what he said and actually followed through with his words. I believe that if Taxian-jun had known that Chu Wanning was serious, Taxian-jun would not have gone to Taxue Palace. 7. Don't leave me, ok?

Then Chu Wanning died and Mo Ran spent two years alone. In those two years, we know he basically went insane because of grief, talked to a corpse everyday, and deep fried his Empress Consort. But strangely enough, Mo Ran 1.0 did not immediately mention this after being reborn although it was the main reason he committed suicide. And at that point, it had been well over a decade since Shi Mei faked his death in the past timeline, yet Mo Ran 1.0 seemed to still hold a lot of resentment towards Chu Wanning. Also, he said he could accept Shi Mei’s death but would never accept Chu Wanning’s. So honestly, it did not make sense to me the first time I read the novel and I believed Mo Ran resented Chu Wanning for a different reason.

The answer was first hinted at in chapter 9 when Mo Ran scolded the sleeping Chu Wanning. He called Chu Wanning a donkey hoof (lol) and this is actually an idiom to scold someone who is disloyal and unfaithful in love. The puzzles came together when the undead Taxian-jun showed up and immediately went after Chu Wanning (and not Shi Mei). He believed Chu Wanning used his death to hurt him and was angry at Chu Wanning for leaving him. This is the resentment Mo Ran 1.0 carried over to the next timeline. He hated Chu Wanning for abandoning him. This is solidified in chapter 262 by the undead Taxian-jun pleading to Chu Wanning:

“Don’t betray me” “Don’t leave me the second time. The first time you left, I could choose death as a relief. This time, even death is not an option any more… I won’t be able to bear it…”

So there it is! I hope this blog brings some new information and feel free to discuss! Let me know if you have any questions for me ＼(￣▽￣)／

Disclaimer: Plenty of this is my conclusion drawn from the already ambiguous original text and various translations. Unless Meatbun says it, it’s not canon. I am looking at the novel in three different languages so I might have made some mistakes. Pls forgive. Also, I am not making excuses for Mo Ran 0.5’s actions nor am I justifying the abuse in any way. Chu Wanning never said Mo Ran 0.5 was innocent of these crimes nor will I.

[preemshots]

the definitive post of WHERE IN THE WORLD IS JOHNNY SILVERHAND’S BODY?

AKA the post of HERE’S WHY I WANT TO BELIEVE WE ARE GONNA GET JOHNNY’S BODY BACK IN DLC. 

buckle up, gamers. it's time for some lore. this is a very long post. 

warning: this will contain a million spoilers. both for details of multiple game endings, a wee bit of the “where’s johnny” comic, and the cyberpunk RED book. if you want a sparknotes version this is the post for you. my main source here is the cyberpunk RED book as well as as some references to the cyberpunk 2077 world book to cross examine the lore. 

i have no idea if someone has made this post before or what anybody else has been finding in their own lore diving. this is just me documenting my own findings from the sources i’ve been using.

it would be disingenuous not to preface this with the ways in which cyberpunk 2077's telling of the arasaka assault differ from the version told in the TTRPG books. the books =/= the game. pondsmith acknowledges in the intro of RED that this is a bridge between the old cyberpunk world and the new world of cyberpunk 2077. 

we also know that johnny's an unreliable narrator and his memories presented to V are often different than real events. but on top of that we don't know if the reason why many elements are changed is simply CDPR editing/adjusting/condensing the storyline for their own canon, or if it's due to johnny's construct being manipulated by outside influences such as arasaka.

some of the main differences you need to know from cyberpunk RED canon:

in 2023 johnny doesn't bring the nukes to arasaka tower. he's solely there to free alt.

johnny and rogue and their team from the atlantis/the aldecaldos are actually hired by morgan blackhand. 

morgan blackhand is the one who plants the nuke, unbeknownst to many members of the team. 

morgan blackhand promptly disappears after this event and no one knows if he's alive or dead. (claire confirms this fact to jackie and v before the heist in 2077 canon)

johnny's silver cybernetic arm is its own character, separate from himself. it seems to have a mind of its own and johnny interacts with it and/or is influenced by it.

when he, spider murphy, rogue, thompson, shaitan, and a team of los lobos from the aldecaldos (who are there in place of santiago, as he’s busy as the leader of the aldecaldos at this point) are attacked by adam smasher, johnny and his arm actively choose to draw smasher's fire in a deliberately suicidal move. smasher downs him instantly, but the distraction is enough to also save his friends.

spider murphy shoves a mysterious chip in johnny's dying head as they escape that alt had downloaded to her a long time ago.

johnny's body is later "rumoured" to have been retrieved from the rubble by a full-body borg groupie that was a first responder to the ground zero of AHQ and then hidden away in a nearby garage.

here comes the political lore that makes my eyes cross, so hopefully this accurately summarizes it: the 4th corporate war begins to end. arasaka is ultimately blamed by the NUSA government to have nuked themselves in a political move to protect their secrets and promptly banished from the USA. arasaka denies this all the way back to japan, then eventually returns to “liberate” night city in the unification wars.

but what the public doesn't know is that kei, saburo's oldest son, had actually hidden an EVEN BIGGER MORE DEVASTATING NUKE at the bottom of the tower to, well, do exactly what they were being accused of doing, even though blackhand was the one who actually dropped the smaller nuke on them. and luckily the bigger one didn’t go off.

arasaka tries to find their nuke in the rubble so they don't get in even bigger trouble, only to discover that it was moved and hidden away to... surprise! a nearby garage.

to compare with 2077:

in RED: we have no johnny loading the nukes into the elevator. no johnny being carried off the premises. no meeting saburo. no johnny getting soulkilled.

in 2077: there's a parallel moment to RED's version of events right after johnny uploads "liberator" from alt's old cyberdeck with spider's help into the arasaka mainframe in saburo's office. adam smasher comes for him as he's trying to escape, knocking him off the second floor of the atrium into the rock garden below.

visually this is the same atrium we always meet alt in in cyberspace and also where V meets johnny for the first time. hmmm. meaningful, perhaps.

not unlike what happens in RED, johnny unloads a clip into smasher at that point, but from there the scene instantly cuts to him running to the roof attempting to board the AV with rogue, where smasher shoots him down again. it’s possible johnny actually died to smasher in the atrium and we have some fabricated memories going on. 

either way, in 2077, we lose the character beat of johnny dying for his friends, and the current-day general consensus from rogue and others is that he’s perpetually a selfish asshole with ulterior motives. 

and, just to wrap up the politics of it all: morgan blackhand is rumoured to have been secretly hired by the militech-backed NUSA government to help end the 4th corporate war by... you guessed it! nuking arasaka.

HERE'S WHERE JOHNNY'S BODY ENDS UP IN CYBERPUNK RED (SPARKNOTES VERSION):

RED ends with a story called "black dog" set in 2045. black dog is the last song johnny recorded right before the assault on arasaka tower, but the final copy is a bootleg copy of the song and only a fraction.

we're introduced to a fun group of cybernetic-enhanced characters that represent the classes in the TTRPG and based on/designed by real people in collaboration with CDPR.

this group includes trace santiago, santiago's son, who is a media that is curious about the mystery surrounding the circumstances around his father and the arasaka bombing. 

just connecting lore here: if you talk to saul at the aldecaldo camp in 2077, he confirms that santiago was killed for his involvement with johnny and the bombing, something that rogue and johnny reference when they talk about their now-dead crew from the afterlife, and in chippin in, santiago is a friend that johnny lists as someone he had disappointed.

the group sets off to find any info about black dog, and meet up with a full conversion chrome woman named samantha in a garage who is blatantly a johnny silverhand fangirl. trace discovers she has a history with johnny, having rescued him from a studio fire at some point in 2015 and speculates she could have been a groupie also.

she mysteriously has a more complete recording of black dog, though not perfect, and offers to trade it for a service: she wants the group to transport a large crate to a facility in new mexico, asking them not to open it.

shit goes down. evidently everyone in night city wants to kill them for this package once it starts moving. eventually they open it. it's the arasaka nuke that had been hidden and never went off, emblazoned with warnings.

trace inquires about the circumstances surrounding the arasaka assault with an older member of the lobos who had been present with rogue and johnny. the man mentions that it was weird, because morgan blackhand organized the whole thing and then ran off immediately with a mysterious bag that we now know contained the nuke. 

michiko arasaka intercepts the gang, explaining the situation around the bigger nuke, that other factions in arasaka want to utilize it for their own goals (presumably hanako and yorinobu) and her father's legacy, that she feels responsible for. she escorts them to new mexico so that the nuke can be dismantled once and for all.

they meet up with a woman named angel in new mexico that takes the crate from them, at a facility that specializes in nuclear material. she gives the group the full recording of "black dog". the group leaves successful.

this woman is also a johnny silverhand stan. once alone, she calls up samantha, who says, "i promised i would get him to you in the end" and reveals that she had already gutted/dismantled the original nuke and discarded the material into the bay.

angel opens the "nuke" to reveal a hidden cryochamber, and greets the face of the person inside with, "hello, my love."

i mean, holy shit. okay! so that’s DEFINITELY johnny’s body. cool!

now let’s go into all the references to this story in the actual game of cyberpunk 2077 that SUGGEST we are going to pursue this story AND johnny's body since it’s such a HOT FUCKING TOPIC. 

and i know many of the following can just be considered easter eggs. but my personal interpretation of this game is that it has a really delightful way of intentionally glossing over important story details—and not by ONLY putting them in shards (which people tend to dislike because lol reading) but by also hiding them in plain sight, constantly deferring to V's own ignorance, distracting us with shallower, shinier things, encouraging us to actually play as the fool hero of this story. 

so here's the fun list of “””evidence”””:

this one’s a reach, but fun. in the initial arasaka assault flashback in 2023: we can interact with the groupies at kerry's show as johnny. samantha doesn't appear to be present, but the first person and groupie you can encounter in the flashback has a passing resemblance to angel in that she has a cybernetic arm.

in chippin' in, where we go to johnny's "grave" in the oil fields: if we are to take the 2077 retelling of events as truth, the story could instead be pretty easily be changed that samantha procured his body from there.

mike pondsmith, who wrote these stories and created the TTRPG can be heard on the radio narrating various conspiracy theories. and sure, these can just be easter eggs, intended to reference the differences between the TTRPG lore and the game, so take it with a grain of salt:

johnny. bro. tell him it was morgan blackhand

to top it all off, mike also directly references the actual WORSE nuke arasaka had hid in another arasaka conspiracy: 

SPOILERS FOR GAME ENDINGS AHEAD.

in the rogue ending of the game we discover rogue has a son. it's possible her son is trace (edit: nvm NOT LIKELY, since in RED’s black dog story rogue is listed separately from santiago’s mom in conversation) OR possibly one of the other characters. she tells her son to "pull over and look at the stars" or something along those lines. maybe just details, so that screams nomad to me.

rogue also has a photo of herself and johnny with mike pondsmith in her apartment/office in the afterlife. i initially read this as a delightful cameo but it also can mean mike the CHARACTER knew johnny and rogue, and rogue therefore has some kind of relationship to him and these conspiracies on the radio. and why the fuck not make him a full on character? we have a smattering of streamers and personalities already integrated into quests in the game. the creator of all this should be no exception. fuck it! 

rogue and johnny constantly dance around this accusation of her “selling out”. it’s repeated over and over that she and adam smasher worked for "the same people". i'm beginning to wonder if this wasn't meant to imply only arasaka since smasher mysteriously disappeared after the AHQ assault in 2023 and returned to SOMETIMES take jobs from arasaka... but possibly morgan blackhand and/or by extension, the NUSA or any other greater influences. (like nightcorp? we still don’t know where all this shit with nightcorp/the peralezes/sandra dorsett’s discovery about their research into mind control is gonna go) this also doesn’t account for the multiple factions inside arasaka with VERY different motives. 

morgan blackhand and adam smasher are rivals in the TTRPG, a role that appears to be at least partially filled by johnny instead in 2077. in relation to the arasaka factions, it’s worth nothing that smasher specifically works for yorinobu as his bodyguard at the beginning of the game, in part i assume because yorinobu is avoiding working with arasaka security details as he stole the relic and is plotting against his father. he is then promoted to head of security by yorinobu when yorinobu assumes power. 

in the ending as you work your way through arasaka tower with rogue and shaitan and johnny, rogue remarks:

michiko at this point in 2077 is the leader of the more “liberal” faction within arasaka, so it’s possible we’re seeing that while rogue and smasher work for the same people/family, they couldn’t be more different. 

you can also encounter rogue more than once on the phone fighting with wakako, who has apparently crossed her. wakako also seems to have her own ulterior motives and works mainly with the arasaka-backed tyger claws. she notably gives v/takemura the parade security info for “play it safe” without asking for anything in return, enabling hanako’s kidnapping. my theory is that yorinobu intentionally leaked the parade info to her to give away to put hanako in danger or at least continue to destabilize arasaka. 

in the takemura/devil ending of the game, there is a point where violence breaks out at the arasaka board room meeting when yorinobu-allied security open fire on them. one of the only people that survives along with hanako is michiko arasaka, who was at odds with hanako’s decisions, but  very involved in the preceding discussion.

and now for is my favorite detail! in the afterlife AT ALL POINTS IN THE GAME (but it can only really be inspected in the rogue ending when we are allowed behind the bar), we can find a photo of the squad that transported johnny's body from samantha to angel on the shelf below johnny's tequila, of them hanging out in front of the afterlife sign:  

this implies rogue has some relationship with them, and sentimentality, if we're to judge by the placement. she maybe even took the picture. i don't know, it's charming, it could be all easter eggs. who fucking knows.

either way, rogue and these kids both have in common that they worked with or at least interacted with michiko arasaka. 

and you know what my final evidence is? more wishful thinking! black dog plays on the radio in game. we got a full recorded version of it by refused. if not an oversight, i go ahead and take it to mean the final version was finally released to the public by those kids that were looking for it. 

i haven’t the slightest idea how this is gonna wrap up in future DLC. who has johnny’s body now in 2077, decades after it was dropped off in mexico? what is the truth?? where the fuck is morgan blackhand?? from the devil ending, we know that arasaka stole jackie’s body and put his soul into mikoshi, so the idea that they would just toss johnny’s corpse has always been laughable. the “where’s johnny?” promotional comic was even about thompson unsuccessfully trying to find johnny’s body. i know i am biased here but i cannot fathom all this talk about johnny’s body ending off with us NOT finding it, whether it’s just to bury it, shove johnny’s engram back in it, make out with it, or WHATEVER.

if you made it through this slog, congrats. thanks for reading! 

[x-fizzyp0p-x]

Lost Promise | Robin Arellano/The New Boy

TW - Canon-type violence, heavily implied CSA

https://archiveofourown.org/works/41352417

A pinkish-orange sky, seemingly only just having been bright blue, became a momentary point of distraction. It was beautiful - the perfect kind of gradient painting that you’d see hanging up in a doctor’s office to relax patients. Robin Arellano quickly turned back to Finn though, glad to have gotten so much done. Although he was still worried about the test tomorrow, he was more confident that he’d be able to pass, at the very least.

Robin always felt so lucky to have someone like Finn. He just… Made everything better. Easier– or, maybe just worth the effort. He’d be expelled by now if he didn’t have him as a tutor, and even just as a friend. Since they began hanging out more often, he’d found that he was trying harder in school, actually caring about not getting suspended. And he was actually getting into less fights. 

With the exception of today, of course.

It took Robin a moment to realize he was staring until he quickly looked back to the textbook.

“You think you’ll need any more practice?” The boy looked up at him, “I could just come up with some more problems off the top of my head.”

“I think I’ll be okay, actually. I understand it a lot better now, I can actually run through the process, y’know?”

“Yeah?” Finn smiled, “Good, glad it paid off. I’ll write some notes for you to memorize before the test, okay? Like flashcards.”

“Alright, thanks Finn.” 

Smiling softly - not even visibly - Robin closed his notebook and folder, throwing them in his book bag carelessly followed by a loose pencil. He stood to stretch and grab his bottle of water. This gave him the opportunity to watch Finn as he wrote the notes on an index card. Robin found that he was gorgeous in the moment, just as he was every other. The sunset showing from the window next to him only complemented his natural beauty. It was a sweet moment he wished he could capture on camera if he wouldn't look like a creep while doing it.

But, who was he to be thinking these things about his best friend?

Taking a large chug of water, he tried to focus his attention elsewhere. Noticing it was only 6pm, he knew it was still two hours until Finn had to get back home. Wanting to take advantage of this opportunity, he thought of something to do in the meantime. 

“You wanna stay for dinner? We can listen to the mixtape I made the other night.”

“Oh, I would, but I don’t wanna be walking home after dark. Cause…” Finn paused for a moment, hesitating and rephrasing what he was going to say. “The kidnappings.”

“Don’t worry about it, my mom can give you a ride.”

“Would she be okay with that?”

Robin chuckled, “You know she loves you like her own, Finn. She won’t mind.”

Laughing and rolling his eyes, Finn finally agreed and put the index card in Robin’s backpack, notably doing so in a more organized manner than the bag was used to, as it was tucked neatly into a folder. He didn’t seem to mind the mess, despite his own bag being much more orderly.

It was only a few minutes until they were called down for dinner. Finn always seemed to love eating with the Arellano’s. Even if it was kind of chaotic - he seemed to like the fact that they were all able to talk to each other without someone getting annoyed. And the food was amazing, of course - Stella was an amazing cook, and it was obvious she put a lot of effort in it.

It seemed to have everything his own family lacked.

Robin remembered a time where Finn was crying to him, rambling about how much he hated his father. He’d almost suggested the boy grab Gwen and a few important items and stay here, but he knew how the system worked.

 It wasn’t legal, and his mom would get into trouble for it. Plus, getting caught would just get the siblings into even more danger.

For the time being, he just let them both stay the night when they needed to.

And everyone loved having them over anyways, so it wasn’t like it was a problem. Finn, especially, fit right into the family. It was almost too perfect to have a best friend like him.

Even if he wished sometimes that it was more than that.

Trying to continue pushing the thought from his mind, Robin tried to enjoy dinner like any normal person would. He stuffed his face full of food as if it were his last meal while Stella was in the kitchen, preparing dessert. Finn did the same though, sitting right beside him, enjoying one of the rare moments he actually got good food.

“Ew, Robin.” Cecilia playfully rolled her eyes.

“Oh shut up,” He spoke with his mouth full, “I don’t say anything when you’re being gross.”

“At least I don’t shove my face full of it like that.”

“Oh please, at least I don’t suck faces with Chris Showalter–”

She lightly kicked him under the table.

“Right in the living room too.” Finn added, laughing slightly.

“Hey!” Cecelia lowered her voice, “If you two don’t keep your mouths shut, I’m not taking you to the arcade next week.”

Not calling her bluff, the pair didn’t mention what they saw earlier as Stella came back to the dining room.

The rest of dinner went well. Finn thanked Stella profusely, as per usual, grateful to be included - especially on such short notice. She was always so accommodating and never complained - it would’ve felt wrong for him not to. Robin brought some soda and cookies upstairs for them while they listened to the mixtape.

“It’s just something I put together really. Just… Shit that reminded me of you, y’know?”

Robin tried to keep himself chill, and didn’t make a big deal out of it, casually putting in the tape and hitting play. Finn seemed interested, though - as he always did - and smiled as they both sat on the bed and listened to the music, the first song being from Fleetwood Mac. He and Finn had some slightly differing music tastes - Robin being more into rock than anything, but his friend never seemed to mind. 

In the midst of it, Robin noticed him holding something small in his hands, and looked over, smiling.

“You still carry that around with you?”

Confused at first, Finn paused for a moment, then smiled. “Yeah, course I do. It’s helpful for– if it’s like, dark out, or I need self defense…” He started to stutter slightly.

“Good.” He took one last look at the spaceship. “Use it however you need. That’s why I got it in the first place.”

Finn smiled and nodded, holding it tightly in his hand.

“Oh, by the way, you can take the mixtape when you go.”

“Wait– are you sure??”

“Yeah. I’ll make another one - we can both have a copy that way.”

This moment in and of itself - just sitting and hanging out with his best friend, eating and talking about life - was beautiful. He didn’t always get moments of peace like this. Anything in school or in public always felt tense, like he had eyes on him. But this was different. It always was, with Finn. And he cherished that. 

He hoped to have that for as long as possible.

»»——⍟——««

Counting up his cash, Robin was glad to seemingly have enough to get some decent snacks. It had taken a while to save up for this, and he was just glad to have enough for a night with Finn. He shoved the money back into his jean pockets, now looking straight ahead as he walked closer to the direction of the convenience store, taking in the fresh air. 

After only a few moments, he saw a black van. He thought nothing of it, really. It was probably just some company van that a dude parked to take a bathroom break or something. But, as Robin approached, a man stepped out of the van. And… A weird one at that.

The man was pale, and wore a top hat with dark colored sunglasses in the middle of a dull fall. But his outfit - that was what weirded Robin out the most. He wore some kind of ugly black and red suit with a black cape that flowed softly in the wind. And, in a weird way, he thought the stranger looked ready for some kind of performance.

This man seemed headed in Robin’s direction - he knew there was no other person around, and this was probably bound to be incredibly dangerous. With the way that four boys had already turned up missing within the last year, he knew in his gut that something was wrong. He’d only wished he hadn’t been so stubborn to fight with his instincts.

Before he knew it, he and the man were only a few feet away, and Robin could immediately tell he had bad intentions. Something about his mannerisms… Was off. Besides, what was he even doing out here, if not heading to the convenience store in the opposite direction?

Robin clenched his fists tightly, preparing to plant his feet when he stopped walking as he kept an eye on the man who grew closer with a fake welcoming smile.

“Hey there, would you like to see a–”

“Not interested, I’m busy.”

Keeping himself on guard, Robin walked past the man, who now sighed and caught up to him. This made the boy immediately turn and force his arm back, elbowing him in the throat. That didn’t stop the man, though, as he only made a noise of distress and grabbed him violently, keeping the kid in his arms tightly as he reached in his coat for a canister.

“LET ME THE FUCK GO YOU–”

The man sprayed some kind of bug poison or cleaner into Robin’s mouth, forcing his throat to stop the cries for help, and then into his eyes, making his vision go dark and blurry. Still, though, he didn’t give up on fighting for freedom, even if he had to blindly run into a nearby store. He threw vicious and frantic punches, which, although well aimed, didn’t get him out of the man’s grasp. Instead, he felt something stab him in his upper arm, only making him more panicked and desperate. Despite his efforts, he was thrown into the back of a van, fighting until the moment he inevitably passed out.

»»——⍟——««

Robin wasn’t sure what exactly woke him up, but when he did enough to be able to see, he found the man – his kidnapper, was sitting beside him. He now wore a mask, though, and ditched the whole outfit he was wearing earlier.

…It was still the same day, right?

Mostly out of instinct, Robin sat up and prepared himself to fight. But his vision only got more spotty, and his head felt like it was vibrating. He found he could hardly even breathe right, and suddenly became aware of every little function his body was performing.

“Oh good morning,” The man laughed lightheartedly, “Sorry about the whole uh… Needle situation, you are quite the fighter! You know you even kinda remind me of someone…”

Robin stared at the man for a few moments, slowly putting the pieces together in his head. He felt stupid in hindsight, realizing that this was The Grabber. The same man who had taken Griffin Stagg, Billy Showalter, Vance Hopper, Bruce Yamada… And now him.

“You’re… The fucking Grabber.”

“The who?” He laughed again, “Sorry, I’m not sure I know who that is.”

Robin slurred his words slightly, “Everyone knows The Grabber dumbass, he’s… Everywhere in the papers…”

“Hmm, must be some other guy.”

He only felt himself become more pissed off. As he tried to look around, the room spun, and he couldn’t get an exact idea of what to do. He was obviously drugged, but had no idea with what, or how long it would last.

“Th-they’re gonna find me… You can’t get away with this, you pedazo de mierda.”

“Aw, calm down… Nobody’ll find you down here, but I’ll let you go eventually anyways.”

“I don’t believe you…”

The Grabber laughed, “Well you don’t have to believe me, José.”

Robin scowled at the remark, trying to connect his body with his consciousness to get some kind of fight in him. It only worked for a few seconds at a time, before he just became dizzy and nauseous again.

“Well I’ll leave you to your own devices there for a little bit… To get yourself together, there.” The Grabber chuckled, “But don’t worry, I’ll be back soon. I’ve just got to… Take care of something.”

“Vete al infierno, maldito pedo.”

The Grabber seemed to pause for a moment, but then went silent and left the basement, slamming the door behind him.

Robin leaned against the wall behind him, slowly starting to lose consciousness again.

»»——⍟——««

When Robin woke up again, he was less dizzy - not by a lot, but enough to get up and move around. It was also dark out now, as he could see from the window, and the entire basement was extremely dark. Of course the fucker would leave no kind of lighting down here… So he’d have to get up and walk extremely carefully, getting a close look.

Standing up from the bed, Robin moved his hand along the wall, feeling for anything notable, and found his hand touching something cold and hard hanging on the wall. He stopped and further investigated it, and getting closer, he realized it was a phone.

He knew there was no way The Grabber would leave him down here, alone with a working phone. There was a cord not connected to anything that just confirmed his suspicions. But still, he didn’t rule it out, and picked the phone up off the receiver. He heard nothing, but still tried to dial the three magic numbers.

Nothing. Obviously.

Robin felt stupid for even trying it.

Whatever - he had to continue investigating before that bastard came back down here.

In the dark, Robin couldn’t exactly find much of anything. A small hallway, a toilet, some random carpets… But nothing really useful to him right now. He figured he could get a better look and figure something out once it was daylight again. 

But honestly, he had no idea how long that would be. And he was starving.

It was weird - even to him - to find himself hoping that man would come down here. He hated it. The thought of that sick fuck made his skin crawl, but god was he hungry, and wanted to fight him.

If he was more on guard this time, he’d at least have a higher chance of winning this time.

Why was he so weak in that fight outside the van?

What did he do wrong?

Robin had no idea how long he was sitting there, rethinking the moment he was kidnapped, going through and criticizing his own every move. But, after however long it was, it was still dark out, and the basement lights had suddenly turned on.

He immediately stood and planted his feet, facing the door and clenching his fists tight, preparing himself mentally.

When the door opened, The Grabber walked through, holding a tray with a plate of eggs and some bottle of soda. The bottom half of his mask was now blank - a contrast from the smile he had on earlier.

“Well hi there. Are you up and ready for supper?”

“The fuck did you put in that?”

“Oh please, I’d have no reason to tamper with your food!” 

The Grabber laughed, now placing it down on the floor. “Now I know I promised to keep you some company, but I’ve got a few… Errands to run real quick, shouldn’t be longer than half an hour.”

Robin didn’t respond, staring at him as he waved.

“I’ll see you soon!”

The man left without another word. Robin was so glad to finally have something to eat that he almost didn’t notice that the door wasn’t shut all the way.

Walking closer, Robin paused. 

The door was unlocked.

This fucking dumbass left the goddamn door unlocked while leaving the house.

Knowing he’d end up having to run, Robin took advantage of the food that was left here, trying to get as much excess energy as he could. He had a limited time window so he ate and drank as fast as he ever had before, taking one more swig of faith before standing up and opening the door.

The basement entrance looked pretty fucking normal for a shithead creep of a person. It was unsettling, but he had absolutely no time to dwell on it, confidently walking up the stairs and swinging the door open once more. And only a few steps out, he paused, losing all color left in his face as he saw The Grabber sitting there, knowingly, waiting for the biggest fuckup of Robin’s life with a belt in hand.

Shit.

This was it, wasn’t it? He was going to die in this ugly fucking house and there was nothing he could do about it. 

He wouldn’t ever get to say goodbye to his mother. His sister.

To Finn.

Finn was probably worried sick, already paranoid about the local kidnapper, and had no one else aside from Gwen to defend him. They couldn’t have any more movie nights, or days at the arcade, or lazy days just watching TV or listening to music.

This was it.

But it didn’t have to be.

Robin planted his feet and raised his fists, watching as The Grabber approached.

“I didn’t say you could leave yet, did I? Naughty boy…”

And Robin tried. He was a great fighter - he could’ve sworn that he would’ve won at some points, but he just wasn’t enough. He was still a kid. Fighting Moose was different than fighting a 40 or 50 something year-old man.

It just wasn’t enough.

Robin wasn’t conscious through all of it. Similar to when he was drugged, he kept falling in and out of consciousness. The last solid memory he had was being grabbed and thrown down into the basement, hitting the floor with enough force to break skin in multiple places, and create a stabbing pain all throughout his head.

In the next moment, and for many after that, he felt himself being beaten brutally with that fucking belt. He’s never been in a fight that hurt this bad. Even his earlier ones weren’t this bad. It made sense though. Everyone he’s ever fought was around his age, and didn’t use belt buckles like some fucking creep.

There were points where he tried to fight back.

Robin did manage to get in at least a few good punches and kicks. He’d only wished he had enough strength to put him in a headlock or something. Anything that would give him some kind of advantage.

But he only grew weaker and more limp as he passed in and out. It got to the point where he had no more fight left in him. Physically, and mentally. He gave up. He’d done what he could, and still ended up failing. All he could think to do was try to space out or lose consciousness again as he felt himself be undressed and violated. He tried not to think about it. He tried to think of happier moments in his life than… This. He tried to remember his mother, sister, and uncle. When he had recently watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and had gotten the idea to invite Finn with his uncle, who was completely down to the idea. And how he and his mother would go shopping together when they got a decent sum of money. And how he and Cecelia would bicker, but always bounced back and defended each other. Like when Robin covered for her when she snuck out for that party. And of course, the few memories he had of his father, all held in the bandana he always wore.

And Finn.

He never really even got to tell Finn the truth - why he had lingering stares, and always wanted to hang out, and gave him good gifts nearly every suiting holiday despite not having a lot of money to buy them with.

Why he made that mixtape.

Despite that, Robin needed this to end now. He wasn’t strong enough for this kind of thing - he could’ve never prepared himself for something like this. All he knew at this point was that the more he fought, the more The Grabber got violent.

And he did have a knife with him, too.

The Grabber could end this for good if he were pushed far enough.

Robin did everything he could think of. He spit in the man’s face, bit him, kicked him, hit him, and tried to get away. He watched as the man’s temper worsened, despite the fact that the boy couldn’t even do any kind of damage in this state anyway. He was pissed and fed up with the inconveniences, and that much was easy to tell.

It didn’t feel quick, though.

He had always watched characters in movies die pretty quickly from stab wounds in the abdomen area, like how he was. But his death did not feel that fast. He could’ve sworn that he was laying there, bleeding out under The Grabber for hours.

But then again, he didn’t actually have a way of finding out.

Robin Miguel Arellano gave into the darkness, only wishing that Finn wouldn’t end up making the same mistake that he had.

»»——⍟——««

He found himself confused as he sat on the bed again, having to watch as his body was carried someplace else while he, himself, couldn’t actually leave. He tried to leave the basement, which shockingly worked, but he found himself stuck in the house. It was bullshit - he was dead for fuck’s sake, what more did the world want from him? Because god fucking forbid he check on Finn or his family.

Burying his head in his hands, he soon heard some soft voices approaching closer. He almost ignored it before he realized that all those other kids The Grabber had kidnapped were probably stuck here too, for god-knows how long. He… Wasn’t exactly thrilled to find out he had roommates, but it’d at least give him some company while he waited to… Move on? Or whatever was bound to happen after this.

He looked up and saw an array of four other kids. One of them was literally just that - a kid. He looked like he could’ve been in elementary school or something. Another was the local paperboy, and Cecelia’s boyfriend’s brother; Billy Showalter? The one who was sulking in the corner went to school with him, and got into a lot of fights. The kid standing right next to him was some baseball player he recognized from one of Finn’s games.

He was… Weirded out as he found out that he only remembered one of their names. And yet, as he tried to introduce himself with his own… Nothing came to mind.

How does someone forget their own name?

The new boy was frankly glad that he wasn’t alone in not remembering his own identity. The group seemed to have their own way of referring to each other though, and the system was working so far. They were… Weird nicknames, that was for sure, but it worked for the time being. Though he… Wasn’t exactly fond of his.

Hell, it was better than what The Grabber called him, though.

The new boy sighed, “So we just… Have to sit and wait?” 

“Basically,” The paperboy nodded, “Not like we have another choice. Trust me, we’ve all tried everything…”

“But I’m sure someone will come around and escape.” The baseball player added.

“That’s so… Morbid? And kinda sad.” 

“Well, we can’t do anything else about it.” The paperboy stood, looking at everyone sadly.

“We tried the phone with almost everyone, and no one ever hears it.” The kid mumbled.

The new boy was silent for a few moments, trying to take this all in. And it was… A lot, but he knew this couldn’t be it for them. Someone was bound to hear the phone, or outsmart The Grabber. He just… He had to be the last to die. He hoped to be, really. No one deserved to go through this. Not even the rockstar, who, although had a mean streak, was still a kid like the rest of them.

Despite all that, he didn't want to have to outgrow his nickname.

“But if the… Even if the next person hears the phone, what do we even tell him?”

Everyone looked at each other, confused.

“I guess we never really had the chance to think about it…” The kid shrugged.

Nodding, the new boy thought for a moment. “Well, let’s make a plan, then… If– when someone hears the phone ring, we need to be prepared. We can’t waste a life like that… Whoever he ends up being, we need a plan that works for him. Something versatile.”

“...I found out there’s a freezer full of meat in the storage room next to the bathroom.” The rockstar, who was sitting in the corner with the baseball player, mumbled.

Everyone looked over at him before he spoke again. “I think– I know he ended up putting a lock on it after he killed me, and he just got a dog. If he brings that thing down here to attack some kid, he could use that to his advantage.”

The new boy nodded, “That’s good, we could use that… Now we need something that could take that hijo de puta down.”

“What if he fell into a hole?” 

The words of the baseball player caught everyone off guard.

“...What?” The rockstar finally asked.

“No seriously! When I was down here, I dug a hole really deep to tunnel out, and that’s what… Y’know. But I struggled to get out of it when he caught me.”

“It could be a point of vulnerability,” The new boy nodded, “You’re right, that could work. But we need a way to get him in there. And… Well, keep him in there long enough.”

“What if they put the thing on the window in the hole?” The kid suggested.

“Yeah,” The baseball player nodded, “At an angle… That could probably get him stuck down there. Maybe even break his ankle if we’re lucky. And he has carpets, so the hole could be hidden in the meantime.”

“But wouldn’t that make it harder to get him stuck?” The new boy shook his head.

After a few moments, the paperboy sighed. “What if something tripped him and made him fall in?”

The new boy hesitated, “What do you mean?” 

“Well, I mean, I hid a cable, right in that wall over there.” He pointed to the wall opposite the bed, “If it’s set up a certain way, he’d surely fall in. But he’d probably have to be chasing his victim.”

“It could still work… I think. As long as whoever’s next thinks about it enough.”

“Yeah, if the next one hears it.” The paperboy said doubtfully. “What even really is the chance that someone hears it…?”

“Who knows?” The new boy shrugged, “But if there’s a chance someone does, we need to be prepared.”

Everyone was silent for a few moments as they all had a streak of hope in such a long time. All they really had to do was solidify their plan, and wait. It was simple enough. There was a reason they were all forced to be kept there, and this was why.

To break the pattern.

And to give that son of a bitch what he deserved.

»»——⍟——««

A few days in that basement felt like centuries. It was hardly tolerable, but the new boy had no other choice. Their only current option was to wait and get to know each other in that time. It sucked. Obviously. He couldn’t think of a situation that would suck any more than this. But, he was frankly just glad he wasn’t alone. He had four other people that had been through almost the exact same thing as him. And they all got along decently.

It could’ve been worse.

In the few days the new boy had been there, he noticed something… Crucial about the rockstar and the baseball player. Something he would’ve ignored under normal circumstances.

Those “normal circumstances” being if he didn’t think he was in love with his best friend when he was still alive. 

The new boy and the baseball player found themselves in a rare moment of being alone together upstairs, watching the neighborhood from the window as everyone else was downstairs.

After many moments of hesitation, the new boy finally spoke.

“Hey um… I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

“Yeah sure, what’s up?” The baseball player turned to him.

Taking a deep breath, he avoided eye contact. “So you and uh, rockstar… You guys are like, dating right?”

“Yeah…” He almost seemed scared to answer, “Why?”

“I-I’m not against it or anything, I promise it’s nothing like that.”

The baseball player seemed relieved by this, “Oh, cool.”

“I was just wondering… How did you know?”

“That I like guys?” He thought for a moment. “Well… I dunno. I mean, it all started when I first met him, I think. I noticed one day that he always had a bandana in his back left pocket. So I did some… Research… And figured out what it meant.”

“What does it mean?”

“It’s… Basically a discreet way of saying you’re queer.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. So I ended up making a move on him one day. Then we started sneaking out and seeing each other and… Yeah. We started dating. I never knew what it was about him. Everyone else was scared of him, y’know? But… He never scared me. I never feel threatened, and he makes me feel… Like nothing else matters. And I get this weird feeling in my stomach whenever I see him… I think, in your heart, deep down, you just know.”

The new boy was silent for a while, thinking as he looked out the window into the street. He knew this feeling all too well, and it made his heart feel heavy. The silence was only broken when the baseball player spoke again.

“Why do you ask?”

“...I think I’m queer too. I think… I was in love with my best friend.”

»»——⍟——««

A gust of both sadness and hope flew into the new boy’s soul when he heard that another person had been kidnapped, only a week after he had been. Everything in him was crushed and filled with despair when he saw who The Grabber’s next victim was, though. Everyone else noticed when he was at a full stop, watching the sixth victim sleep on the tattered mattress.

“Hey, what’s wrong…?” The baseball player slowly asked.

“It’s him… He fucking got Finn…”

By then, the new boy had told everyone about his best friend. The baseball player, though, was the only one who knew how much this guy actually meant to him.

At that moment, the new boy felt as if he had failed Finn. Sure, he technically didn’t know that he’d be next… And he had no way of warning him. Or protecting him. But something must’ve gone wrong somewhere, where he could’ve done something. Finn was terrified of the idea of The Grabber - he wouldn’t even speak the name - and he was cautious. Always. 

So what could've happened in the time he was gone?

Had Finn grown careless or rebellious after his disappearance?

Without a second thought, the new boy picked up the phone and called. But, it seemed like Finn was deep asleep from whatever drugs The Grabber had been giving them all.

“We’ll try again.” The new boy said with a tremble in his voice. “We’ll try again when he’s awake.”

»»——⍟——««

After the last call, the new boy - Robin - was noticeably more quiet. He had to come to terms with the fact that this was the last conversation he’d ever have with Finn. And that this was the most closure either of them would ever get. It was fucking devastating. And all he could do was watch, and hope, and root for him. 

Just as he told him to do, Finn practices for hours, and just as Robin promised, he never left his side. There were moments in those few days where he couldn’t bear to be down there in that basement while that… That man hurt him. As much as he did want to be there with him the entire time, he couldn’t just stand there and watch everything while being unable to stop it. It made him too angry. Too sad. It was too much - to go through it himself, and to watch the boy he fell for go through the same. 

When that fight did finally end, Robin couldn’t be more proud of him.

Out of everyone there, he was so glad that Finn was the one to have not only survived, but killed that bastard.

It was all he could’ve hoped for.

All he could do now was follow Finn up the basement stairs and hope he’d finally be able to leave and follow his best friend to safety with the others following behind them.

Robin squinted at the light - which frankly, wasn’t even really bright, as it was still fall - but took a moment to adjust as he finally left the house. Though, he knew that everyone else was trapped in that place for much longer. Still, it was a lot to adjust to, even after two weeks. 

Across the street, where The Grabber supposedly kept the bodies, police officers and EMT’s came out with stretchers that had full body bags on them. He had honestly expected to move onto whatever was next at that moment, but was too focused on Finn to listen to the conversation the others were having across the street. He only followed as Gwen and Finn were reunited.

Robin smiled very softly, his heart fluttering as he finally realized that Finn was safe from everything that happened within the last year. He didn’t have to worry anymore - the boy was able to take care of himself now, and that’s all he’s ever wanted since he realized he wasn’t leaving that basement alive.

He didn’t even realize he was starting to fade away until the kid spoke to him.

Robin wasn’t… Exactly fond of the fact he didn’t seem to have a choice in when his soul was going to move on. Even though Finn was safe, he still wanted to be there. He wanted to stay with his friend, just as his father had done in ‘Nam. 

But making a fuss over it wasn’t going to change anything.

It was his time.

He hid this disdain he held as he said his goodbyes to the friends he’d made in the past two weeks. It was weird being the last to arrive and first to leave, but he was sure they’d be able to handle themselves now too, until it was time for all of them to leave. 

And in a weird way, he’d miss them.

Robin went back to Finn in his last moments, watching him, remembering all the good times they had before this. All the years of friendship. He was sad he wasn’t able to see him grow more - that they wouldn’t be able to grow together. They wouldn’t be going into high school together, or graduate, or drink together for the first time. 

But no matter what happened in the moments leading up to Finn’s own death, Robin would still wait with open arms. Even if he took another person to prom, or married someone else, or had his own kids. Even if he didn’t know the truth, and never would. Robin was okay with that. Or, at least, he knew he had to be.

“I love you, Finn.”

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