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liyawritesss · 1 year

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summertime crushin’

Characters: MCU!Shuri Udaku x Black!Fem!Reader

Type: Fic

Word Count: 1.7k

Synopsis: In Shuri’s attempts to follow in her brother's footsteps and continue his work with the Wakandan International Outpost Facilities, she finally takes up Riri’s offer to visit Chicago. However, she isn’t sure if it's the intense summertime heat that has her face burning or the incredibly talented dance choreographer Riri is friends with.

Warnings: cursing

A/N: For the two dances mentioned: the first is “Killing Me Softly” by Lauryn Hill, choreography by Evan Miller (0:08-2:10), and the second is “BMO” by Ari Lennox, choreography by YeoJin (0:00-1:15), of which (Y/N) is the middle dancer with coloured hair. I’ve had this idea since FOREVER and finally had enough of it swimming in my head, so I finally wrote it down. Hope you all enjoy!

Tags: @inmyheadimobsessed @babyboiboyega @badass-dora-milaje @6-noir @playhousedistee @shuririsdefenseattorney @shuriszn @zayswriting @wrendermedone @writingintheshadowsforever @mbakuetshurisprincess @verachii @shurisbigtoe

“So the arts are a prominent aspect of the city’s identity?”

“We don’t got our own Broadway title for nothin’, Shuri.”

Shuri could admit to herself that she never thought much of the US outside of the horrible government leadership and the plethora of pathetic white supremacists who hid behind a thin veil of patriotism. She admired her brother’s work, though, with wanting to provide more than adequate resources to black communities all over the US, and as her new title required her to take up the work in question, it only made sense that she’d cut her vacation in Haiti short to get acclimated to the work her brother and mother maintained.

Shuri could also admit that the immense creativity and artistry from members of the Lost Tribe gave her a culture shock she didn’t know she needed to prepare herself for. Even in her mid-twenties, the queen-presumptive had so much to learn about the people who had been stripped of their lineage and ripped from the motherland. No amount of reading or digesting news reports could amount to actually witnessing it in person.

Which is exactly why Riri, Shuri’s self appointed guide to all things Chicago, was escorting the scientist around all the most notable establishments pertaining to all this visual and performance art. From the Chicago Art Museum to watching bands play on corners of sidewalks, Shuri never found herself bored or tired of the activities. And next on the list of places to visit was a storefront dance studio belonging to a friend of the young engineer, of which Riri was rather ecstatic about, as she hadn’t seen this friend since their highschool days.

Shuri didn’t know what to expect when she entered into the storefront dance studio, following Riri in close pursuit so as to not get lost amongst the other bodies leaving the space. Her only exposure to black American dance was from short clips online she had searched up as a child. Though in an ever changing society, the dark skinned woman was sure that what she had been exposed to prior would surely not be the same as what she would be walking into now.

Shuri is pulled into a room that’s blasting music from the speakers, a song from a voice the queen-presumptive remembers belongs to that of the infamous Lauryn Hill. The robust deepness of the rapper’s voice rises goosebumps along Shuri’s skin, bare and showing her deeply melanated tone. She’s in a forest green tank top that emphasizes her shoulders, her golden necklace housing her panther suit rested neatly around her neck. Black shorts clothed her legs, stopping just above her knees, and on her feet for a pair of strapped slides similar to ones her brother wore long ago. Of course, one could not forget the black shade which hid her eyes, and the majority of her identity, from everyone around her.

Compared to Riri, who wears a white cropped tank, black jogging pants and white AF1’s, the engineer looks much more prepared for a dance class than Shuri is, but she was quickly assured that they wouldn’t be dancing, but rather, watching a few of the dances done by the students within the class. It eased Shuri for a moment, until she walked into the dance space with the loud music reverberating through the walls of the studio. With the melody and bass over taking her body, Shuri couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed.

“This is one of the best dance studios in the city,” Riri says over the music as the two make their way to the front of the crowd of students, “they do everything from Hip-Hop to R&B, and everything in between.”

Shuri nods along as she takes note of the three men standing in the middle of the crowd. They seem to be hyping themselves up up as the first part of the Lauryn Hill song plays, preparing for their routine.

“You about to get a taste of what real art looks like.” Riri muses, as the aforementioned men take their places as the first chorus of the song ends, and the second verse, and ultimately, their routine, begins.

Firstly, Shuri hadn’t expected for the male dancers to have such languid movements. The smoothness of their steps and transitions between each move seemed flawless, and she soon found herself entranced by the dance routine paired with the music playing. Much more, she notes just how happy they are at the moment. The popping and locking is precise, each one garnering a roar from their audience, in turn spreading smiles across the dancers faces. It feels their energy, keeping the precision consistent with the execution of each move. Even as one dancer falls off at what seems to be the end of the official routine, two of them stay on the main floor. They feed off of each other’s energies, dancing around each other in a near touch that shows the trust in each other and the intuition of each dancer. They move as if they’re reading each others mind, circling and molding around each other in a way Shuri had never seen before. And by the end of the performance, the queen-presumptive finds herself yearning for more.

“Bast”, Shuri gasps in shock, “I’ve never seen anything like this. Not even back home!”

Riri encourages Shuri’s amazement, engaging with her in reveling about the choreography they had just witnessed. Her attention is taken when she feels a tap on her shoulder, and when Riri turns around, she releases a shriek of happiness as she embraces the person who’d come up to her.

Shuri is able to get a good look at the person when Riri pulls away. A woman of melanated skin, sun-kissed and glossed over undoubtedly by perspiration, sporting a gray jogging suit set with the hoodie bunched up and hiked over on one shoulder, revealing a black sports bra underneath.

“You made it, Ri!” You exclaim in your embrace of the engineer, hugging her tight as a long lost friend should. “Fuck, I’m so glad youre here; it’s been years!”

“I heard you were back in town, I knew exactly where yo’ ass was gon’ be.” Riri replies, gesturing for you to step forward to be introduced to Shuri.

“This is the friend I told you I was bringing.” Riri reminds, earning a gentle smile from you to Shuri. “Shuri, this is (Y/N). (Y/N), Shuri.”

You held your hand out for a handshake, but Shuri is too distracted by how pretty you are. “It’s nice to meet you,” you greet, “I’ve never met a queen before. Hope it’s not awkward…?”

“No, no,” Shuri quickly reassures, raising her hand to finally take yours in your greeting, “not awkward at all. And the pleasure is mine.”

Shuri isn’t sure what caught her attention first - the fact that you’re half exposed with your hoodie only properly being on half way, exposing your toned stomach from what Shuri suspects is years of dance, or the way your eyes glisten with excitement, or the way your skin is glowing. She just knows that you’re very pretty and it’s making her look like a fool in front of someone she just met. And she doesn’t do well when that happens.

“My piece is up next,” you say, which brings Shuri out of her head and causes her ears to burn slightly, as she was so stuck in her thoughts, she hadn’t realized that her hand still held yours in a firm grip. She quickly pulls it away, muttering a quiet apology in return, but you reassure her that she was alright, “you guys sticking around after?”

“Hell yeah we are,” Riri hurriedly answers, “you owe me lunch, cuz you got some explaining to do about how you just dipped and ain’t say shit.”

“Fine, fine,” You relent, “lunch on me. We’ll figure it out when I’m done, cool?”

Though you don’t give them much time to respond, as you’re already backing away as you hear your song being played over the speakers, and your dance partners already in place. Riri throws you a quick thumbs up, granting you the relief you need for jogging out onto the dance floor.

Shuri’s eyes follow you intently as you meet up with the two other dancers located on the floor. She, however, feels a pair of eyes on her, and turns to meet Riri, who has a look on her face that Shuri can only akin to smugness.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Shuri questions slowly, eyebrows furrowing together.

“Hm,” Riri humans, “nun’.”

“Don’t do that!” Shuri groans.

“Do what?” Riri asks. “I ain’t do nun’...I just peep shit and keep it movin’.”

“Exactly,” Shuri responds, “and what exactly did you ‘peep’-?”

“Shhhh,” Riri shushes Shuri as the melody for the verse comes in, “they’re starting!”

It doesn’t take much effort for Shuri’s attention to shift directly onto you, and she’s actually glad she has these shades on, because she has an idea of what Riri says she ‘peeped’, and the intensity of her stare would have given Riri all the proof she needed to confirm her suspicions.

From the very start of the music, your body moves fluidly, as if you were a deity of water, at home in your element. There’s a certain aura you carry - one of power and respect that you’re sure has earned you your place in this studio. Each and every one of your moves garners a roar of encouragement from the audience, and it spurs you on more and more, feeding off of the crowd's energy. The suave and swag that oozes from your persona has everyone on the edge of their seat. It becomes clear to Shuri that you weren’t just a dancer for entertainment. This was your very lifestyle, and you’ve made it your identity in every way imaginable. She watched as life was breathed into you on the dance floor, spurred on by the crowd’s hype, feeding into your ego.

And by the time your set has finished, Shuri finds herself falling in love with Chicago a little bit more, and experiencing her first summertime crush.

If you enjoyed, please leave a like, comment, and reblog for others to see! And don’t be shy to send in a request!

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anarcheamor · 10 months

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So... About Erzebet...

I'm pretty sure most people agree that there is something a tad underwhelming about Erzebet and a few have waxed poetic about why but I want to add a couple of things.

For one, to get the distaste out of my mouth, there's something about a European woman being the incarnation of an Egyptian goddess and being serviced by a dark-skinned priestess that rubs me weird. It's... Fine, given that she herself isn't a goddess proper, just knows powerful magic and the association with a goddess seems to be closer to being a matter of delusion of grandeur rather than an actual truth about her. It really just comes down to the fact that none of the big powerful vampires in the first show needed any association with deities to be at all threatening. Big Daddy Drax and The Spice Girls were just outright badasses on their own and we're met with immediate displays of their power and not even in combat. Dracula had a huge fucking castle built with machines and magic that he ran on his own with no help at all and Carmilla pops into the scene literally silencing an entire room with her mere presence. Miss SekhySekhySniperwolf needed a whole two episodes for us to finally see how powerful she is and this is after we've all grown tired of different characters sucking her whole ThunderCats-looking puss-puss (that probably meows) while one of them has us praying on her downfall cuz there's no way the writers thought having an indigenous person acting against her was gonna have us still somehow intimidated by her when he was told to bow and he still only did it half-assed at best.

But, for me, and this is the second thing that bothers me, there's this thing about messianic characters being super powerful entities that ruins the point of the whole thing. There's a reason why it fails when it pops in superhero media and that's because the whole point of a (Christian, have to specify because Jewish messianicism doesn't follow the same standards and sure as hell isn't being represented in mainstream media) Messiah is that they are weak and powerless. Literally, Jesus. Just look at Jesus. Home slice wasn't out here boxing with legionnaires and straight up said if he did get slapped, he would turn the other cheek. Plus there's the whole revolutionary aspect that's conveniently forgotten about. Jesus wasn't a Messiah because his morals were just that great and he had god-given superpowers, he was given that title because he was challenging the powers that be at the time. The Vampires in Castlevania are the fucking elite! They don't need a damn messiah, they're just throwing a tantrum because they can't eat din-din at the time they want to. So whole thing just feels shallow when a vampire messiah would be a great source of atory-telling. Imagine if Erzebet wasn't some grandiose vampire queen but a humble lady who is somehow working a now vampire underclass back into the fold of the world because they've been hunted down to such dwindling numbers that humans have went beyond the realms of resisting being food but now have just settled back into their own oppressive ways. Sure that would get rid of the ever-so-satisfying trope of "vampires = upper society" but I would rather trade that for a more compelling villainness who isn't some less- compelling redo of Dracula or The Sisters.

#castlevania nocturne #castlevania #castlevania anime #castlevania netflix #erzebet bathory #but also who designed her to look like kitt from the damn ThunderCats?

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yumomia · 2 months

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So now I obviously know what Mia, Mo, and Yuko all look like.

But I know for certain people they might vision them differently in their own head/fic stories.

So in your Mia and Me fanfics what am I supposed to be picturing when thinking of more specifically Yuko and Mo. Mo especially I’m interested to know.. like every little detail so please do describe them all to me 😭what’s his hair type? Did you make his skin darker? (Brown would look lovely if u ask me) what’s his nose shape like? Any beauty marks? Same for Yuko?? What’s going on appearance wise?

OH MY GOD I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO ASK THIS

roughly, this is what the trio looks like, including mia's human form! but i'll do a quick rundown of specifics!!

mia: mia is the SPITTING IMAGE of her father, especially when she's in the human world. she has loose brown curls that reach down to about her upper back and her ears pierced. light brown freckles are on her cheeks, and she has a bigger beauty mark on her right cheek (the picrew i used didn't have that option lol). she's the shortest of the trio. in the human world, she has little pink streaks running through her hair that she usually has to use a spell to cover. there's a scar that can be seen stretching above her elf dress (which is the same as canon), almost reaching her neck, from fighting panthea. she likes to wear long sleeves to cover her bracelet, but as it's the middle of summer where we currently are in the story, she doesn't get that option much. her ears are a LITTLE bit pointed in the story when she's in the human world, and her wings are light pink, like in canon!

yuko: yuko is lithe and muscular. she has red hair that just brushes her shoulders when she lets it down, though she never does. she has a small mark shaped like a sun on her right cheek. it's not as obvious as her star from canon is, it glows gold when yuko uses a lot of magic. it's shaped like this!

her eyes are sapphire blue, and she tends to wear small blue gemstones in her hair. just because she's a badass warrior doesn't mean she can't look cute! she's also the only one (in canon as well) that wears real shoes! yuko wears gladiator sandals that lace up around her calves (whereas mia basically wears thigh-high socks and mo has half his foot out). when she can, she likes painting things on herself, like poetry and other little doodles, though she tends to only do that if she knows she won't have to fight anytime soon, so mia hasn't gotten to see the doodles. yuko has a roman nose, because i have a roman nose and i WILL project onto every one of these characters, so she has the small bump in the bridge of her nose. she has the most scars as well, from hundreds of fights over the years. her wings are the same yellowy-orange as from canon, though they are longer than mia's. she's the second-tallest in the group.

mo: mo is the one i changed the most, obviously. he's got dark brown skin (as does mayla, btw. they aren't blood related but in my heart mayla has dark skin and wears her hair in long braids). his curls are about 3b and his hair is like canon, so black it's almost blue. he has a rounder face than yuko does. his nose is flatter than the other two (and as stated in s1e20, they think it's adorable). he has way less scars than yuko. most of his tend to be on his hands from muncs' snakebites. technically, he's supposed to be wearing his crown everywhere, but mayla and raynor realized long ago that that's a lost cause and gave up lol. he's the tallest of the trio, beating yuko by about two inches, but his wings are shorter than hers, longer than mia's. his eyes are an indigo-sort of purple, the same as his friendship ring. he fidgets when he's uncomfortable, most often playing with his friendship ring or opening and closing his water glare. he wears ear cuffs up by the tips of his pointed ears as well, most of the time.

i hope this helped!! i got this less than a minute after you sent it so i've been making sure to include everything i can think of!!

story they're referencing

picrew i used

star tattoo source

#mia and me #miyumo #uttu #mia x mo x yuko #yumomia #everyone read uttu please. for my sake

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tag-that-oc · 6 months

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ok long ramble up ahead — tw kinda gorey descriptions, eye stuff

so i have what i call ‘solo’ ocs - which are ocs that i created without a story (at first at least) and they don’t really have a fleshed out cast of supporting characters and ive been sooooo obsessed with them lately so here’s what tarot cards i think fit them best and what the designs of them on those cards would be

Devil’s Advocate (D.A.) / Daisy as The Devil - okay this fits too easily but you must also know that she’s a LAWYER. and i decided that The Devil fit better than Justice. why - other than the fact that she just is a devil, one of the meanings attributed to the card (from a quick search) is shadow selves and Daisy’s thing is all about how she’s escaping all the expectations and the image of this ‘sweet, innocent’ little girl who can’t be taken seriously, to instead be this free devil, when everyone thinks the old Daisy is dead. some of the other meaning (especially the reverse ones) also kinda fit too !!

but ANYWAY onto the design of the card : she’s (of course) the devil and i imagine her leaning on the judge’s stand very lazily. she’s in this classy angular suit and has grey skin and fire hair billowing up. her sharp teeth are bared in a grin and she’s a got a hand with pointed claws gestured up beside her. on one side of her is the shadowy figure of the prosecutor (yeahhh she’s an attorney), who is much smaller than her on the card, and on the other side are the reporters (also shadowy figures, also small. chains are connected to each, held in her hand. the courtroom behind her is barely lit, as though at dusk, her fire being the brightest thing in there. shadow-people line the walls like in pews - they’re the jury. the way the little bit of light is scattered around the room and through the window makes it seem like there’s a stained glass window behind her and it’s a cathedral. you may see a glimpse of the bright, human daisy. behind her in the light

Shrike as Justice - and HERES a character that fits Justice SOOOO extremely well. and shrike is all about 1) hunger, and of much more relevance, 2) vengeance. she is LITERALLY eye for an eye..

I imagine Shrike emerging from her basement prison, dirtied and bloodied and cast in a heavy shadow. she’s dressed in a very dirty, very bloody, brown butcher’s apron, trousers and linen shirt. on one side she is missing an eye, a dark gorey cavity left instead, her face also heavily scarred on that side, but a shrike’s wing is extended in its full beautiful glory. on her other side, there is an eye, looking dead on and murderous, but her wing on that side is torn in half, sinew flesh and bone pressing out from sparse ruffled feathers. she is holding a knobbly cane that’s pretty much just a stick on the side of her bad eye, and she holding a massive, menacing axe on the side of her bad wing. blah blah all of these im making metaphors for vengeance and justice blah blah

AND FINALLLYYYY Sunada as Strength - my newest oc !! and her whole thing is being strong in all senses of the word and having influence. she is also incredibly intimidating but that may be less relevant lmao

the beast most associated with her is the phoenix, so in this i imagine she’s wrestling a phoenix. and i MEAN wrestling. they are brawling - she is pinning it to the ground and wrenching its beak open. Sunada is at a side profile and her black hair falls in curtains in the far side of her face. she is determined as she stares down the phoenix. she’s dressed in dress trousers, a blazer hanging half-off, and a shirt that’s loosely tucked and half unbuttoned. she has a bulky, top heavy build and is SOO butch it’s unbelievable. the embers and feathers of the phoenix fly everywhere and the card is so so red.

anyways yeah im so normal about them. D.A. I made a while back and i haven’t really revisited but i still love her so much while the other two are a LOT more recent and im still actively thinking about them… sighhh badass women save me

this is SO cool i LOVE tarot card imagery. youve put so much thought into this its super cool!!!

#cinocappu #oc show and tell #moss answers #gore #tw gore

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mysticstarlightduck · 1 year

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WRITEBLR BATTLE ROYALE - Ophelia vs. Julyan Full Fight!

Hi, there! I am taking part in @your-absent-father's amazingly fun event, Writeblr Battle Royale, where I and other cool writeblrs choose our most powerful OCs and make them fight in an interdimensional arena. It's chaotic, it's badass, and more importantly, it is FUN (:<

Important: These events are not canon to our stories! They're just something very cool we as writers have decided to subject our characters to, for the sake of writing practice and Fun tm, though it is completely unrelated to our projects and the characters' actual experiences in the books.

Check out the rules and other amazing fight scenes at @writeblrbattleroyale!

In this fight, my young Sunscryer Mageborn, Julyan Ashiren, fights against Ophelia, a magical girl and shapeshifter (character from @the-arigen) in the event's arena.

“Welcome to the battle my dear audience. Welcome to the bloodshed. I am M, your humble game master. In front of me are our contenders. Their weapons are in front of them. The enemy is on their opposite. Their only way out is either killing their opponent or dying. These two are a very interesting duo. I just can’t wait for the show.”

It was hardly the first time Ophelia had ended up somewhere she didn’t want to be, but the massive headache was new… especially because she hadn’t actually needed to have a head, these past six months. A quick inventory of the area showed no signs of attacks from the young man on the opposite side. He was fairly tall, human-looking, with all of the typical limbs, a standard skin color, and normal-looking strawberry-blond hair tied into a long ponytail. The overcoat was interesting, but the rest of it– ruffled sleeves, black pants, leather boots– she’d already practiced. The most distinguishing feature seemed to be something like tattoos on his hands, red-gold lines that she’d need to see closer up.

On the other side, Julyan blinked open his eyes, feeling a little nauseous. He wasn’t at home and he knew for sure he didn’t portal to wherever this was willingly - which was bad, very bad. He looked around, trying to figure out where he was. An arena, by the looks of it, though it didn’t look like anywhere he’d been before in Agrannor.

There was a young woman standing across from him.

Ophelia carefully managed her gaze so she was just watching him, rather than staring, as she went down the list of her own form. Two arms, two legs, a head. Some of her skin had melted in the transition, returning to the molten silvery substance that had become so natural to her, but it was mostly hidden underneath the parts of her shifted to look and feel like clothing, which were still correctly assigned. She felt a small glimmer of pride at the best teleport-recovery she’d managed in weeks, patching up her form even as she spoke.

“Hello? Is… well, does anyone have a good idea of what’s going on?”

Julyan didn’t know her, so he quickly did a discreet once over, checking for weapons, or any sign that she could be working for the Secret Court. When he found neither, Julyan immediately felt a wave of relief, only then taking in the other details.

She was average height, around as tall as his little sister, with dark skin and long hair, though her eyes struck him as strange, a glowing silver hue, almost the same color as her attire.

Is she a mage too? Who is she? He thought to himself, but didn’t voice.

Julyan noticed that she seemed to be watching him, uncertain. Gently, he tried to make his posture more friendly and non-threatening. It wouldn’t do to unnecessarily provoke the anger of the person who was trapped in this arena with him.

Julyan thought. No, he had no clue what had happened. One moment he was walking home, the other, he was here. He hadn’t even been using magic or anything of the sort. This was positively confusing to him, too. Of one thing, however, he was certain. He needed to find a way to go back home, his siblings needed him alive. So the quicker and smoother this situation came to an end, the better.

He cleared his throat, only a bit, as if to catch her attention.

“Um, hello,” Julyan called out. He found himself tempted to give a small wave, but ultimately decided against it. “To answer your question, I know as much as you do. I don’t really know what precisely is happening, nor do I know why.”

He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, looking around, then back at her. The young mage took a tentative step forward, not wanting to be too sudden.

“I believe we haven’t been properly introduced.” He began, trying to keep his voice at an even tone, even though he was about as anxious as he could get. “My name is Julyan Ashiren, so hi.” He does the small wave he’d held back earlier. “And, um, who might you be?”

She smiled in response. “You caught me in uniform, so you may call me Magical Girl Mirrorwoven or Ophelia.”

His confusion was interesting to her, both putting her worries about it being a planned assassination to rest and bringing a much wider conspiracy into play. That… she hesitated to think of the collection of shadows that was M as a person, but he definitely wasn’t a Nihilus… was almost certainly at fault, but his ability to teleport her here meant that a lot of other people were also at threat. The exact reasons were unclear, but the missing squad-sight in her vision meant that Casey and Elysia were probably not involved.

That’s good. I just wish I had some way… Ophelia thought, looking up towards M and then back at Julyan. “Do you have an escape method?”

Julyan hesitated. He hadn’t thought about that. Did he have an escape method? No. he did not, Julyan realized. He didn’t even know where he was, and he was starting to get the sneaking suspicion that he wasn’t even in Agrannor. Gods, he just wanted to go home.

But how?

Julyan looked up at the young woman - Ophelia, he reminded himself - and shook his head. “No, unfortunately, I don’t.” He followed her gaze, only now realizing that the person who’d announced this tournament was standing above them, watching, behind the parapets of the arena’s tallest wall. Julyan suppressed a shudder, but quickly turned his attention back to Ophelia.

“What do we do now?”

“According to him,” Ophelia said, trying to keep her voice steady for him, “we fight. Well, one of us dies, at least. Fighting is the usual way to achieve that, but hardly the only one.” His shudder at the announcer… is he a civilian?

That would make this much more complicated. She was supposed to save civilians, not kill them. But she also had no idea how long she’d be here, or whether the winner was going home at all. If they weren’t, and a civilian was put up against a Nihilus, her dying here would have achieved nothing. If she even could.

The thought occurred only at the end, and she almost winced. No fire in the arena, nor electricity or endless void nor ice nor acid… if he was a civilian, she’d need to ask whether he preferred to starve or for her to kill him.

Julyan winced. “Fight…?” He started, voice hesitant but not shaky, just slightly appalled. He’d heard the announcer quite well, but he was hoping there was another option.

“Is there not another way?” Julyan asked, half-hopeful, though he knew the answer. Not that he was afraid, though his opponent seemed like she could more than hold her own in a fight. Violence wasn’t something he wanted or liked, and he’d lived through his fair share already. He sighed, nervously wringing his hands together for a brief moment, before resigning himself to waiting for her inevitable response.

Ophelia grimaced in response. “If you had been placed here with someone else, perhaps we could wait until one of us starves. As it stands? I… can’t. An unfortunate consequence of this.” She waved her left arm through the air, momentarily loosening her control so the limb extended, losing its shape and color to the undifferentiated silver whip-shape before putting it back.

“I don’t have any particular way out, either. If I did, we would both be out of here as soon as I could manage.”

Starve… The word echoed through his mind like a bad omen. He was no stranger to the pain of hunger and starvation. When he heard the word, it sent a familiar jolt of terror down his spine.

Plus, he couldn’t die and leave his siblings alone - he promised he wouldn’t do that. He needed to come home, alive.

“I can’t do that.” He answered. “I won’t starve to death, I… I know how much hunger hurts, and I won’t do it again. Not if I can help it. I can’t let myself die in here. I have a family, my younger siblings. They need me. I can’t do this to them.”

Julyan took a step forward, a fatalistic look in his eyes, and shakily reached under his overcoat, hesitating for a moment as his slender fingers grasped the handle of his dagger, hidden by the worn-out clothes.

“You need to understand. I don’t have this choice.” He paused, looking her in the eye with genuine sorrow as he aimed the sharp weapon. “I’m so sorry.”

A dagger. He’s going to try to kill me with a dagger. Ophelia thought, sighing internally. He didn’t look like the type to believe her when she said it wasn’t going to be enough. He deserved something of a chance, but if he didn’t have any other weaponry it was going to be very awkward to explain.

“Neither of us does.” Ophelia said calmly, then ran towards him, keeping her human shape primarily but turning her arm into a blade almost as long as her body was tall, swinging down at him in a diagonal slash.

Julyan barely had time to block her blow, moving his dagger upwards to hold his guard up, and stumbling backwards. When she hit, it wasn’t that hard for him to stand his ground. This went on for a while, her longer reach not nearly enough to overcome his greater skill. Growing impatient, he weaved his way through her attacks with practiced ease, stepping sideways to parry a poorly-placed diagonal strike, before moving to slash at her side, opposite her guard. But there, instead of meeting blood and bone, his sword cut across a strange mixture underneath that looked like molten silver.

What is this? Taken aback, Julyan stared at it in confusion, forgetting to even step away from his opponent as he tried to figure out what the hell was happening. If my weapon doesn’t hit her or cause any harm, then I will have to figure out another plan. But how? Can I find a way out? No… His mind wandered on as he leveled his blade at her, urging her to keep her distance and not try anything, ready to continue fighting if she pressed an attack.

Ophelia stepped back with him, matching his distance. “Another consequence. You could stab me all you like, but it would hardly make a difference. To actually do any damage… I need to be denatured. Acid, radiation, molecular-level destruction. Fire. Without those? I can’t die.” She smiled at him, sadly. “Whether I would like to or not.”

Julyan took a hesitant step back, not lowering his sword as he listened to the harrowing information she’d just divulged. She couldn’t die from knife wounds, which made this even worse than it already was. Fire. The word echoed in his mind. She could be killed by fire. Julyan grimaced, managing to hold back the instinctive shake of his head. He had the power. There was fire - sunfire, to be precise - running through his very blood. It didn’t mean he liked to use it, or that he could guarantee his control over it. He hated using his fire to fight, the charred remains in the aftermath were always a sight he could never truly banish from his mind. Sunfire was an awful way to die.

But Julyan knew he didn’t really have a choice. Not if he wanted to win this, and get through alive. If this was what he had to do, so be it. He sighed, carefully sheathing the dagger. He hoped he wouldn’t accidentally melt it when the true fighting started. This dagger had been difficult to make.

“Fine. Godsdamn, fine.” He muttered, under his breath. Why is it always, every single damn time, the unpleasant route? Did I upset a random pantheon or something? No, no, that’s just my luck, isn’t it? At his side, the runic markings in his hands start to glow, bright and dangerous like molten gold. He took a deep breath, looking up to the sky as if willing himself to have patience, before fixing his stance. Julyan looks up at her. “Let’s just get this over with.”

His hands lighting up drew Ophelia’s attention for a second, and she made her decision. “If it’s any consolation, I’ve been holding back as much as you have.” Already away from melee as she was, she didn’t need to bother making distance… not that she would have had to, anyways. The human form was what required a constant effort to maintain.

So she just… let go.

Her entire body, head to toe and including the gown she was wearing, rippled in a wave of mirror-bright silver as she split in two, then again, then once more– each copy as large as the original had been, though hollow on the inside, and now a bright silver shadow more than a defined person. Then, they started running to surround Julyan, striking toward him in turns while he started back.

Julyan took a couple of stumbling steps backward, blinking rapidly as the person before him just… split. Into a dozen copies all around him. With a frown, he hesitantly regarded the silvery forms now moving toward him, disturbingly. He barely remembered that she was probably expecting an answer to what she’d just said.

“… I had hoped it wouldn’t um, come to this, because Gods I hate doing what I am about to do, so much”. Julyan stammered, a tired bored bitterness to his voice, trying to piece together a coherent answer after what he’d just witnessed. He winced internally. Oh, this is about to be one of those days that just hurt like hell. As the weirdly-formed weapons made of… whatever she was, shot closer, he closed his eyes for a moment and brought his arms protectively over his face as a wall of fire surrounded him, sweeping into a growing spiral of sunfire that boxed out the offending weaponry.

No longer bothering with the facade of normality, Ophelia’s duplicates distended their legs and bodies to take impossible steps, arms shifting mid-swing to strike from strange angles in-between the whirling fire. Not that it seemed to be helping much. Even the ones that got through, managing to make contact with his body, had their edges burned away by the heat rippling across his skin.

Julyan stood his ground as his opponent attacked, burning away any of the weapons she threw his way, careful to keep the perimeter of fire wide enough to defang the sharpest of them, but restricted just enough that he would not lose control. Still, some of her strangely-shaped weapons managed to get through the barrage of fire around him, and though they were, luckily, dull and blunt by the time they reached him, it still hurt. Like getting pelted with rocks.

Wincing, Julyan stepped away from the incoming attacks, though they were rather relentless and he found himself growing distracted with each hit, his control over the flames becoming slightly more fickle.

Screw this, He thought, after barely stepping away from another rather painful hit. Julyan focused on the copies of her that surrounded him insistently, annoyance growing as they continuously tried to get through to him.

Taking a deep breath, Julyan focused solely on the sunfire he was casting, strengthening his control. The spiral glows brighter, almost blinding, as he wills the flames to burn hotter, and the spiral to widen, engulfing the copies closest to him.

They’re going to keep coming at him, he knows. Careful not to lose any of the protective spirals around him, he starts shooting out more calculated, careful attacks - like long arrows of fire reaching out to the copies farther from him, finally doing a true attack of his own.

While his attacks had proved useful, it had taken Julyan a while until he was able to burn hot enough so that the copies couldn’t hit him at all, and at this point, everything was starting to ache a bit - though he didn’t know whether it was from overusing his powers, or from the weapons’ prior attacks. Likely both.

Sidestepping a lucky strike from one of the shadows, he shot a bolt of sunfire towards one of the larger copies’ head, which had been floating above, behind the others, observing more than participating. The head split in a moment, allowing it to sail through harmlessly.

Ophelia whistled, and the myriad duplicates of herself shot a part of themselves at their closest neighbors, bringing their thoughts, memories, and adaptation back into the whole. Not even a chance, that way, and he might notice. Collating the experiences of her other selves had her shift a much larger spear to shoot out from her stomach, aimed at the right side of his chest, then moved towards him again, modifying herself into a low cross between a cheetah-like lower four legs and a hollow, human upper body for the extra legs and maneuverability.

As Ophelia dodged his attack, Julyan watched as his opponent’s copies came together, morphing and twisting into one once again. Narrowing his eyes, his breath hitched as he saw it turn into a spear - which shot towards him at remarkable speed, aimed at the side of his chest.

With not much time to think, Julyan pulled at the flames in the spiral around him, quickly shifting them all towards his front, and blasting a large wall of fire between him and the incoming spear. It was insistent, and terribly strong, and Julyan could see that it would get through his fire sooner than later. He forced it to burn stronger, as hot as he could muster without losing control, as his mind raced to find a solution.

Come on! Okay, what was that spell, what was it - Oh, yes, right, holding runes. Now, if I remember this correctly…

Keeping one of his hands pushed forward, holding up the burning wall of fire in front of him, he freed his other hand to draw the runic signs in the air, the glowing red runes appearing and quickly, agonizingly rearranging in front of him. Remembering the correct words in ancient magespeak took a couple of tries, as his mind had started to get fuzzy, the intense heat he’d surrounded himself with beginning to take its toll in the form of confusion.

But he got it right, and the runes moved to surround the spear, which was insistently pushing though the wall of fire before him. They latched onto the silvery material, holding it in place right in the middle of the burning flames, and just a few centimeters away from him.

After a couple of seconds, the weapon started to burn away, disintegrating into nothing in the searing heat. The smell was vaguely sweet, and though it did not make him as nauseous as it might have otherwise, it wasn’t exactly pleasant.

Though it was a mere instant until it was completely burned away, Julyan could feel his fire twist toward strangeness, slipping away from his control like sand through an hourglass. When the last sliver of the weapon dissipated into the air, he took a stumbling step forward, trying to steady himself.

A sudden surge of his own sunfire washed over him, and Julyan winced, closing his hands into fists, closer to him, tightly gritting his teeth as he willed himself to control it. Across from him, on the other side of the arena, Julyan saw his opponent changing form once again, turning into a vague centaur-like shape, with long slender legs, though it still looked more like a shadow than anything else. There was something off about it that Julyan couldn’t help but feel unsettled about.

She charged toward him, just as fast as any of her prior attacks. Shaking away the fire-induced haze from his head, Julyan braced himself for what was to come.

“You’re really quite good at this,” Ophelia said, forming the words with part of her even as she searched for a way through the fire. In a lot of ways, the fight was already decided. She didn’t have much of anything that could get through without sacrificing a part of herself to do it, and anything that did would need to be the sort of brutal that she hadn’t used against anything but the toughest Nihilus, let alone a person. A quick strike down the center was almost immediately followed from his left side as she dropped the moving form, surrounding him in a ring.

As his opponent’s ever-shifting form surrounded him, Julyan was careful enough not to let his fire waver, nor cool down, as she began actively striking him from multiple directions, though he kept the flames smaller, and therefore more manageable. He tilts his head slightly at her compliment.

“Well, I have to be.” He answered, dodging another one of her piercing strikes. None were quite strong enough to get through his fiery defense, but he wasn’t about to take any chances, even if the fire was becoming a bit too much to handle.

“There are weaknesses, of course, but so difficult for me to exploit.” She stabbed out from three different places, two that he would be able to see and one at the small of his back.

His vision swam a little as he spun around, but he saw the two different spear-like shapes breaking away from the ring to shoot towards his chest. Pushing forward a smaller wall of fire to hold them both away simultaneously, he failed to notice the third one coming up behind him until a sharp pain scraped the small of his back. He cried out, briefly.

Shit! I shouldn’t have dropped the spiral, shouldn’t have. A surge of sunfire promptly surrounded him from all sides, burning away the weapon that had managed to strike him. He felt warm blood trickle down his back before it too sizzled to a stain, but thankfully the wound felt like it was on the smaller side. He had just gotten very lucky.

I’m going to die here, Ophelia realized. Well. Hardly the first time.

The fire, now surrounding him from all sides, was pushing the point where it would be impossible to maintain his control over it, and the heat was starting to become far too much to handle, at least while conscious. Knowing he was running out of time, Julyan decided to put an end to this fight. He sighed, looking at the ring around him, hoping that she could understand him.

“Are you not…” Julyan paused, as if reconsidering his question, before continuing, voice hesitant. “… afraid to die? Do you not feel pain?”

Ophelia felt the question more intensely than any of the burns had managed. It wasn’t that they hadn’t hurt, but that was the sort of pain she was accustomed to. She pulled all of her material– now noticeably diminished by the flames, though not yet at the point where she couldn’t mimic colors effectively– back into the facsimile of humanity she tried to maintain.

“Pain? All of it. Every time, from each and every one of the copies as they become part of me again.” It was true enough, though somewhat ignoring the actual reality that each and every one of those copies was her, experiencing the pain for the first time when they were burned and again when they recombined with her main body. She stopped for a moment, taking a breath she didn’t need to steady herself.

“But fear? Fear is an old flame. We don’t speak much anymore, and always of old times.” She stared at Julyan for a moment. “We all know how this is going to go.”

Julyan watched, eyes narrowed, as Ophelia once again morphed back into a human form, standing right in front of him once again and calmly answered his question.

For a moment, he found himself wishing she hadn’t turned back to her human shape. Knowing what he would have to do only made it that much more difficult to accept. But he knew it was, probably, for the best.

As Ophelia explained that she did feel pain, though fear was a distant reality, he frowned slightly. Julyan could not imagine what that must be like - to not be afraid anymore, be it of death and oh, so much worse. It sounded like both a blessing and a curse wrapped into one. He really didn’t know how to feel about it, especially in the scenario they found themselves in.

With the heat of his own fire starting to make him feel rather feverish and borderline drowsy, Julyan just wanted it over with. The less he had to think about what he was going to - what he had to do - the quicker this would be finished. Still, nothing about this felt right.

At all.

Ophelia struck, throwing all of her remaining mass into two real attacks and half a dozen hollow fragments meant only to draw his attention, and Julyan let go. All his fire now flowed freely in every direction, dancing around him taller than any of the flames he’d purposefully cast before, as the waves of fire washed over the arena and engulfed his opponent completely. Julyan closed his eyes, growing dizzy as the world around him became a muffled roar of impossible glare.

He wasn’t sure exactly how much time had passed when he blinked his eyes open again. It stung to open his now-dry eyes, and it took some time for his sight to painstakingly adjust to the lack of heat. His ears were ringing, and his skin was so hot he may as well have rolled on a lava field. He didn’t like that at all.

Puffs of smoke rose from his shoulders, and though his fire-resistant clothes were still intact, Julyan could smell the singed fabric, which had worn out at the edges and ripped at some small seams.

Overall, the attire still fared better than most of his clothes back home.

For a moment, he dreaded the sight he thought would greet him once he looked up at the arena, but his opponent was nowhere in sight. It was just him, standing in an empty concrete arena whose stone walls had been charred black.

Completely alone.

I won. I really won… Julyan thought. He felt a wave of relief wash over him, but at the same time, there was a terrified feeling building up in his chest. He was one step closer to going home, to keeping his promise to stay alive. But he’d also just killed someone.

Not knowing what to think, or what to do, plus feeling like he was dunked into boiling water for an hour, Julyan just sat down on the floor of the arena, trying to take up as little space as possible.

And waited. He wasn’t sure he was ready for whatever came next, but he knew that at least his powers were - for better or for worse. That was something the world never seemed to let him forget.

#writers #writeblr #character writing #writing #writerblr battle royale #creative writing!#writers on tumblr #writerblr

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mahou-furbies · 2 years

Text

Now for initial impressions of the character designs.

Cure Sky is an immediate winner in my books. Obviously the Blue Leader aspect alone makes her a standout but even with a different palette this would be a great design. I am a sucker for asymmetrical and gradient hair so this serves me well, and the hairstyle is also good; pretty simple twintails but the stray strands (both short and long) make it more memorable, and the bangs are fun too. Plus the wing decorations are super cute. And then there is of course the half cape which is the standout detail of the design, capes are always badass by default and especially long capes, and having it be a half-cape makes the design more airy. The dark red inside helps the overall palette by making it less monochrome.

Even if Cure Sky wasn’t such a praiseworthy design there would be plenty to like in the Hirogaru designs since I like Cure Prism too. A cute pastel palette and lovely poofy shape with the skirt. Fun heart braids. The ribbon behind her has a nice detail with having different decorations on the front and back side, and I really like the oversized ascot. The most noteworthy detail to me is the dark part of the dress, the peeking night sky makes for a great contrast to an otherwise very light colour scheme.

Cure Wing I didn’t really feel at first but upon closer inspection I like the design more. Pants in Cure form is an immediate plus and the overall suit-like look is cool too. Plus this is almost a short-haired Cure, I wish they had dared to go through with that but at least the ponytail looks like it’ll look good in action. Colour-wise the design feels a little too monochrome for me, but the inside of the jacket has a great combo with the teal and yellow.

For Cure Butterfly I really like the colour palette, especially for something else than the main character, and there are individual parts of the outfit that I really enjoy too, but I’m not sure how well everything fits together. Now the huge bow on her back gets a little lost in her hair. However like with Milky I’m a fan of one-leg gradient tights, and she has the same kind of gradient that merges into her skin with her gloves, which is weird but I liked it in Flip Flappers and I like it here as well. The frilly layered top is cute too.

Overall I like them all, no duds this time around. It is a shame that there’s not much of a common theme but I guess that hasn’t been a thing in Precure for like a decade so there’s not much of a point in complaining about it here specifically. One thing that’s a little meh is how some of them have multicoloured hair while others don’t, I think that’s the kind of detail that should be consistent in the whole season. Or I guess if you count Prism’s hair having two different tones that are like one shade apart and that tiny strand in Wing but I’d rather have a more noticeable theme. At least Wing puts the gradient in the clothes, but if gradient is supposed to be the theme, Prism should have it a bit more noticeable.

#Hirogaru Sky! Precure #Precure #precure spoilers #hirogaru sky! precure spoilers

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stayoutofitnick · 1 year

Text

I really really want to like the wheel of time show but

(negativity under a read more)

I am really frustrated by how the show is handling race and gender. I appreciate the increased and explicitly racial diversity. But the colorism of the most evil characters in the show having the darkest skin is only slightly better this season than last.

While the women are more complex, I feel like 30 years after the books, the women are actually weaker than in the books and it breaks my heart to see it. instead of powered by rage, Nynaeve the most powerful channeler is just…useless at channeling most of the time. And she doesn’t lead well. Basically what does she do. And changing it from angry to angry or afraid feels diminishing to me. Look at the scared girl. Especially since she’s almost never able to use her power. And choosing Lan over going through the arch also infuriated me. The person who is full of rage and power and dedication and can heal so well basically tags along and is in love and I hate it. I understand people mock the braid tugging and low cut dresses for good reason but at least she was a badass. Moiraine is literally depowered and sad most of the season. She isn’t leading, she isn’t planning, she isn’t powerful she’s mopey and weak. Lanfear is not clever and her scheme is basically try sleeping with him. Her power is only that she can come back from being stabbed thanks to the Dark One. We don’t even get to see her contrive a meet cute. (Also why does she wear black?) That she turned to the Dark One because of ambition and brilliance and science is turned to no she liked a guy and got rejected, when the books clearly acknowledged she was basically using that as an excuse.

why does the evil woman have to hate men after being a rape survivor???

also, the lack of drawl/southern or Texas accent for the society enslaving people. It’s such a good comment removed (also the light skinned dessert people…)

And while I support changes to make a coherent, tv, modern story, in addition to changes above there are several this is not my wheel of time and my beloveds changes/moments for me (the he would not fucking say that)

Min working with the dark side. Mat not comforting Egwene. everything with Perrins love life. I don’t like Faile or their romance but the whole dead wife in love with Egwene thing is annoying to me. Egwene killing. Egwene not being good at school. (She’s a gunner.) the way the collars work. That it’s a one to one bond that breaks if the sul’dam dies, that the distinction is weaker versus stronger not those who can learn versus the innate spark. The downfall of the Seanchan empire is not seeded. The three oaths aren’t named, and the one power is regularly used as a weapon and to kill, especially by Moiraine. And I overall feel the white tower, Aes sedai, and oaths while being more heavily featured are not explained so the Whitecloaks view of them as dangerous is more supported and the betrayals of paths hit less hard. Very curious how tv only people understand all of that.

also curious how tv only view the whitecloaks. I’m concerned Dain Bornhald may be combined with Galad and we don’t see the insidious appeal of what is at heart an evil group, or understand why they are evil and not just a few bad apples. ..

Also very curious how tv only people view the prophecies or understand the Dragon. Do they understand the fear of the work being broken?

anyway all of that makes me sad because the show is pretty and it’s trying and I do think adaptions should make changes and I was always going to be annoyed by some but these feel like they fundamentally don’t get the nuance of the world or the power of my favorite characters. (In contrast, changes that annoy me but don’t actually matter: ok fine Lanfear can wear black. Closing your eyes to channel.)

there are things I like! There are changes I like! I think combining characters makes a lot of sense. I honestly wish cadsuane were written out but if she won’t be introducing her a lot sooner as a concept is great. Having Nynaeve spend time as a novice makes sense. Alanna as a character and her development. More warders with personalities. Fewer Foresaken. Recognizing a hero of the horn as a friend. Combining some of the books journeys. More time with Elyas.

just. Feeling very frustrated because I want to be like there’s my blorbos and be happy.

#wot book spoilers #wot show spoilers #wot show negativity #wheel of time #wheel of time s2

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a-master-procrastinator · 1 year

Text

OC Tag Game

Tagged by @raven-of-domain-kwaad, thank you! I'll be keeping it within SWTOR characters since I just focus on them here.

No pressure tag (if you feel like it): @vespertine-legacy, @astrifer-bound, @mmigrainee, @chaoticspacefam, @spitzobsessed

Favorite OC - Jett

Not surprising. As much as I love my other characters (Auletta don't kill me), Jett just gotta be my favorite. Bounty hunter storyline being one of my favorites definitely affects this, but there is much more to this. She is this 'tough on the outside, softie on the inside' type of character that I just adore, I love her personal arcs about trauma, meaningful connections and leadership. And of course strong badass Mando women are just cool and get an instant liking from me :) I can go on for hours on this, but let's move on.

More under the cut.

Newest OC - Beirya and Zin

I had more ideas for new characters after I made Rya and Zin, but they are not yet actual characters that I plan to develop. So these two are my newest at the moment.

Oldest OC - Auletta

Technically, the first character I ever rolled in SWTOR was smuggler, but I didn't keep her in any way, so it's Auletta. Although she looked slightly different and was assassin instead of sorcerer in the game (which doesn't fit her background), the core of her character remained the same.

Meanest OC - Jaria

It's a tough spot between some of my characters, but when others can be polite or maybe it's not their nature to be rude (they just do it for others reasons), Jaria is unapologetically mean to people almost all the time (only shutting up if it saves her skin or gives an advantage).

Softest OC - Shailla and Lorri

(there are actually two more but I wanted to keep it short)

They are just so kind and gentle, striving to do more good in this imperfect galaxy. I mean, there is a reason why Lorri is often considered the heart of her little found family.

Most aloof/standoffish OC - Xaele and Jaria

Xaele in general is pretty distant from the world and even her own actions, which fit well for agent's life. And Jaria is, honestly, pretty mistrusting, and after being separated from her sister, probably the only person she gave a Hutt about, Jaria couldn't form meaningful connections with other people, so she's a loner. Plus she's mostly interested in self-gain and money, and she doesn't care how she gets it.

Dumbest (affectionate) OC - Vintu

Well, there may be others, but no one radiates chaotic dumbass energy like Vintu (yeah, not even smugglers, though they are close). Just look at his dumb face.

Smartest OC - Auletta and Elixess

I would betray Auletta by not including her here. She is a quick learner, a schemer, always hungry for knowledge and information. She's very good at using all available knowledge and information to get the best out of her situation, whatever it might be (back in slavery, in Sith Academy, Dark Council, you name it). The only period when Auletta made kinda dumb decisions was around chapters 1 and 2 of Inquisitor storyline, mostly bc she was drunk on power and freedom, testing how far she can go. But when she failed to kill Thanaton for the second time, Auletta adapted and got the best out of it.

Elixess is similar in many ways, except she doesn't have the same malicious intent as Auletta and maybe not as nerdy. She is a quick thinker, which helps her talk her way out of most trouble and see possibilities for profit. Also, I just thought having a smuggler as one of the smartest characters is funny.

(actually, there are more characters who are on the same level, but I wanted to mention these two)

Horniest OC - Vintu and Jaria

Jaria just likes to flirt around and have one-night stands almost every time she visits a new place (Mako got tired of it real quick). Shame that bounty hunters don't have a lot of flirt options with NPCs other than companions. And Vintu... well, for my own sanity we have an agreement - he doesn't tell much about his private life, and I don't get to know much about it. Let's just say that when he's with Jaesa they are very active, and even after he's done with her, Vintu still hits on a lot of people.

OC you'd bang - none

I'm way too asexual for that.

OC you'd be best friends with - Raen and Alaine

Both of them are great friend material. Raen shares some of my interests (that weren't a bit of self-insert to begin with, no no), so she can tolerate a bit of infodumping about special interests from me. She's generally fun to be around, except for maybe when she's being chased by law enforcement or when she's sleeping. Plus we might have 'introvert adopted by an extrovert' dynamiс in a good way.

Alaine is someone I could trust to discuss a lot of complicated topics without being judged harshly. And she's a good person and a reliable friend in general, so great to have her as a friend. Alaine is more of "calls me out on my shit" friend, and Raen is more of "tags along with my shit" friend, and I definitely need both these types of friends.

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quiveringdeer · 7 months

Note

Give me a character and I will answer: Dazzler!

Thanks for giving me a chance to rant about my fave Badass Diva, babe! Others feel free to send in a name and choose particular things

Why I like them: I really loved how tenacious and driven she was to reach her personal goals and doesnt like to compromise on that but she's still such a caring person that she cant help but jump in to help or save people as a hero, even tho she continually said she didnt wanna be a hero. Just her compassion for people in general, even who I wouldnt think deserve her compassion:

Her first thought in both instances with her stalker, Karl Fredricks (Dazzler #26 & Uncanny X-Men ‘63 #260), is to reason with him and try to keep him from getting hurt. Also when battling him one of her main concerns is him hurting anyone else before she thinks of him hurting her.

Why I don't: There arent really points about her I don't like. I guess my biggest gripes are that writers tend to relegate her to a gimmick cameo character more often than not and miss opportunities to showcase her immense powerset range and the deep connections she has with a large portion of the not just other X-Men characters but the other marvel heroes as well.

Also just the original fact the editors didnt allow her to be based on Grace Jones, like John Romita Jr. intended. It would've been noce to have another dark skinned Black woman hero, with star power outside of Ororo Munroe. And gosh the way they probably couldve bonded and had eachother to lean on. There's just so many "what ifs" that woulda probs changed not only Ali's trajectory but the Xmen/Marvel universe at large. But I still love Ali as she is now too.

Favorite scene (imma do arc): The "What If" arc of Ali as Galactus' long time herald. The way she found away to discover new planets for him to devour but made sure that they didnt have sentient life that'd be destoryed in that consumption! Ugh says so much about her character!! Also that in her time as his herald he grew compassionate to the plights of other beings, seemingly. Because of her leading by example and what not. It's just soooo good and what I want more of in stories starring her. 🥹

Favorite season/movie (portrayal): My rp days version 😏 --But for real, she's only been in a couple adaptations and I dont know if any do her justice. I havent fully watched the episodes of them in the Outback but yeah

Favorite line (too many):

“Sometimes you have to stop running from who you were and find out who you are truly meant to be.” (Dazzler 2010)

“...It doesn’t matter how everyone sees me. I’m not just a mutant or a singer or any one thing, all of this is me.”

“No way Prophet! We’re not leaving! We’re X-Men, not cowards. We SAVE the world. We don’t abandon it because the going gets rough!” (X-Termination #2 2013)

“You know Barb, a lot of people will see you only for what makes you different--and not for all the good things about you--things that make you a human being just like them! And if you let them, those people will make you into what they think you are! They’ll force you to be a toy...a clown...or a monster...or worse.” (Dazzler #35)

“Hey Doomy, misplace the family jewels again?” (Dazzler 2010)

Favorite outfit:

Basically ANY of Daniel Mcnea's designs

OTP:

In general: Ali and "The Loves" polymonogomous rp ship of Ali with Wade Wilson, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes (and not just saying that cause Koi wrote them and also sent this ask! Truly got to explore so much of Ali's character through those interactions and forever grateful 🥹 -also key piece of opening my mind to poly relationship dynamics tbh)

In canon: Ali x music -Her first and most consistent love and relationship

BroTP:

In general-- Ali and Julio "Rictor" Richter, another rp exploration with the lovely @myvalentina Ric's technically Ali's, son-in-law but through lots of interdimensional travel hyjinks and stuff. I never know what canon ages truly are but I feel like Ali is less than 10 years his senior and so she's like a big sister and friend to him and it's just really wholesome

In canon-- Ali and Longshot, they've been through so much and if im not mistaken, literally share pieces of eachothers' souls and while things never work out romantically with them in all the times they get back together, I just love the idea of them still being besties regardless

Headcanon:

Gives amazing hugs, doesn't let go till the other person starts to pull away. Read somewhere once about being this way with kids cause you never know how little someone gets of contact and how they might need that physical reassurance.

Unpopular opinion:

Prefacing that to each their own and no hate to other people's preferences 🙏🏽

Personally I don't wanna see Queen B or Taylor S. portray Dazzler in any future media

While Dazzler had global reach and star power in her prime within the Marvel universe, I just would love others to portray her. My top pick was and always will be Kylie Minogue, but that ship has probs sailed, so more contemporary picks are Janelle Monáe, JoJo, Kesha or Zara Larsson

A wish: She gets to be in some arcs where the writers truly understand her and let her shine fully--iving on top that it happens with an artists that stays true to her strawberry blonde haircolor

An oh-god-please-don't-ever-happen:

Writers continuing to use her as a gag character or portraying her as a washed up singer

5 Words to best describe them: Compassionate, Stubborn, Driven, Optimistic, Dazzling (😉)

My nickname for them: Ali (super generic), Light of my life and Queen of my heart 😌

#dazzler #alison blaire #ask meme #dash games #koi tag #thank you babe! 🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡#i coulda put a readmore but to heck with it

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azure-clockwork · 9 months

Text

Late Night Book Reviews with Bluejay — the Night and its Moon

Time: 1:43 pm

Regret: low. I was able to put this book down and finish it during the daytime

Summary: I’m honestly not sure why people like this. I’m not sold on the prose nor on the world building nor on the characters nor on the plot. If you’re one of the people who likes this novel, I’m glad you enjoyed it, but I really don’t understand why. Perhaps it will inspire me to create some stuff of my own.

Full thoughts:

I’m really sorry; I don’t want to be critical of this book, especially since I know people like it. I hope this doesn’t come off too mean spirited.

In theory I should have loved this thing. Two orphans, Nox and Amaris, experience trauma and then get shipped off to learn about their magic powers and become badass. Also, they’re gay for each other. Fantasy, magic, queer female leads, hell yeah!

The only problem was that it lowkey sucked.

One of my biggest problems with this book is its prose. It’s overly wordy, does not flow very well, and frequently is either redundant or confusing. The book will frequently spend two paragraphs hammering in a point that could be told in a sentence and then jump to another action so abruptly I keep thinking I’ve missed a detail. I was often left wondering where hands or weapons or people were located because it just wasn’t mentioned that character X picked up Y and then the next paragraph begins “Using the Y in her right hand, X began to…”.

I was also frequently bothered by the word choice. Most of the sex scenes have lines like “his stick of serotonin and dopamine entered her” and I gotta say, please just say “dick”. Please. Stop listing neurotransmitters. This is fantasy and also the bedroom. Why do these characters know what oxytocin is and why are they bringing it up now. I’m not kidding when I say that multiple sex scenes used specific neurotransmitter names. It doesn’t sound fancy, it just sounds strange. Also, ‘guise’ doesn’t mean that at all. Please get an editor.

I think a lot of other people have talked about how Nox being written as one of the only dark skinned characters and also being a succubus who kills/puppets men around after fucking then is A Choice, and I gotta say, I liked young Nox’s POV a lot, but once the book gets to the succubus section of her life I just fell off. It feels like the book is trying to be very ‘girl power’ and ‘look at this woman weaponizing her sexuality’ and it all falls very flat for me. “She’s so hot and can manipulate any man” ok please tell me something interesting. In general, I felt like both main characters were a bit like this, with Amaris being so badass and good with a sword and having powers and clearly being somewhat of a chosen one, but tbh, I have a lot more tolerance for montages about how Amaris knows lots of demon facts cuz she studies hard than I do for poorly written seduction.

One thing I really crave from stories like this, especially if I don’t love the characters, is a cool magic system. I’m a sucker for hard magic, but I also love soft, emotional magic that erupts at a dramatic moment. And I think that would work much better here in the story. Instead, this book delivers a magic system that I really can’t tell you about because it’s not really fleshed out, and what is told doesn’t seem to gel neatly into a single Thing. I feel like the magic (and more broadly, the world building in general) is just cobbled together from the leftovers of a few different other fantasy stories. Do people hate the fae or not? Is magic taboo or not? What gifts are possible? What the hell are demons? I’m really not sure. And more broadly, the map feels very empty and like it was concocted from tropes and not much else.

I just want this thing to be good. I really do. And it’s just. Not. I was at turns bored and annoyed by it and I still don’t get what I was supposed to love. I would honestly rather reread ACoTaR.

#Late night book reviews with Bluejay #the night and its moon #piper cj #books #book review

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heynikkiyousofine · 2 years

Text

I posted 8,743 times in 2022

That's 7,547 more posts than 2021!

178 posts created (2%)

8,565 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@shinidamachu

@serial-doubters-club

@coquinespike

@fandomobsessions016

@superpixie42

I tagged 524 of my posts in 2022

#inuyasha - 220 posts

#inukag - 199 posts

#kagome - 193 posts

#inuyasha x kagome - 83 posts

#fluff - 52 posts

#mirsan - 43 posts

#angst - 37 posts

#inukago - 35 posts

#miroku - 27 posts

#inuyasha fanfiction - 27 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#avoiding contractions is an easy way to make kaede's speech sound more formal--and therefore older--without going ham with words like 'ye'

My Top Posts in 2022:

Sundown

A little badass Kagome one shot, with some InuKag feelings. Enjoy my beautiful people! 💕 ~ao3~

“Dark Priestess!”

“Demon Whore!”

“Stone her!”

Kagome held her head up high as the crowd pushed in around, doing her best to ignore the demeaning phrases being slung at her from every direction. I hope everyone else is okay. The ropes, bounding her hands behind her, dug into her wrists as two village men dragged her through the angry crowd. As they pulled her to the front, she could see a small raised platform with what looked like a headman standing front and center.

Gritting her teeth, as the men holding shoved her down and she hissed as her knees dug into the hard dirt. Doing her best to calm herself and keep an eye out in her surroundings, she knew she needed to figure out a way to find the others and get out of this forsaken town. If only I had my bow and arrows…. Feeling an evil aura, she froze as the yelling around her began to quiet down.

“My fellow villagers, we have brought forth an evil that needs to be eradicated from this world. Tomorrow, at sundown, we shall sacrifice the dark priestess and celebrate!” The tall, dark headed man announced, holding out his arms. This man, something isn’t right about him. Kagome listened to the villager’s cheers around her, focusing on the headman’s aura, a sickening feeling in her gut. Looking up, she made eye contact with the man, his brown eyes sending shivers up her back and when she tried to focus and push her aura out to find out exactly what he was, she gasped. He has a barrier up! If I can just work my way into it, I can see what kind of demon he is.

Brows furrowing, masking her pain as the men holding her pushed their thumbs in her skin, she silently worked her way through his barrier as the headman turned back to the crowd.

“Burn her tonight!” a man to her left yelled, while another screamed about the demons they captured.

“My dear men and women, we will have many nights of celebration for our sacrifice. First this priestess, then the demons. The kami will smile upon us this season!” The headman continued to speak and Kagome focused on the task at hand.

Once she was able to make her way through the demon’s barrier, she realized that this demon preyed on spiritual powers and youkai. What seemed like flashes of a story, she saw faces of priestesses, monks, and even small demon children this man had “sacrificed” for his own gain. Swallowing the nausea, she pulled back, so the demon wouldn’t suspect a thing. She had to find Inuyasha.

Suddenly, she was yanked to her feet and dragged up a small set of stairs by her upper arms, wincing as the men roughly threw her up against a wooden pole. Freaking out a bit, she looked around with wide gray eyes as the men tied a rope around her waist, securing her to the wood. Oh no, oh no, oh no….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Shippo, please stop crying. Everything is going to be alright.” Sango soothed the small fox as best as she could. Inuyasha sighed, glancing around the small cell as Shippo’s sobs slowly quieted, so the only sounds were of their chains rustling. Kagome, hang on, I’ll save you. From what he could see in the dark, they were all chained up to the walls with their weapon nowhere in sight. Ever since they arrived in the village, things were fuzzy and later, he awoke to chains around his limbs and Kagome gone.

“Oi, monk, you got a plan?” he gruffed, ears wiggling as the crowds outside cheered about something. He could faintly smell Kagome through the overwhelming stench of fear and urine in the cell they currently resided in. Snarling as he pulled on his own chains, his own demonic power draining.

“Give me a minute, Inuyasha. Are you able to break these chains?” Miroku answered from his left.

“If I could, I would have already. They are draining my strength or something. How about you?”

“They are pulling on my energy as well. However, I’m feeling a different sort of energy from outside these walls, one that isn’t so great.”

“An evil aura again?” Sango snorted, rolling her eyes as she stroked Shippo’s head as he began to doze next to her.

“I’m so misunderstood.” Miroku sighed and Inuyasha smirked. “Something is different about this village. I have a feeling that thai also has to do with why Kagome is not here with us. I felt a strange presence from the headman’s home when we arrived.”

“You think she’s involved in his plan’s somehow?” Inuyasha asked, his brows furrowing.

“I do.”

Inuyasha perked up, the sounds outside quieting and he could hear footsteps approaching. Growling under his breath, the door swung open and a tall man stepped in, eyeing each of them.

“I see the small demons have succumbed to the chains already. It seems you humans and the hanyou,” the man sneered, small fangs appearing, “are stronger than I previously thought. That’s alright though, once I devour your priestess’s soul, I will take yours next.”

His golden eyes widened, freezing as his words sunk in.

“You bastard!” he snarled, “If you touch a single hair on Kagome’s head, I’ll cut off yours.”

“I suggest you find a way before sunset.” he chuckled, heading out, leaving him and his friends in the darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kagome couldn’t hold her head up much longer, the drowsiness taking over as her limbs ached. She couldn’t tell how long she had been tied up for, but judging by the stars in the sky and the faint light coming from the east, she figured it was almost dawn. Licking her cracked lips, she swallowed the lump in her throat, her mouth dry. Inuyasha, where are you?

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77 notes - Posted January 11, 2022

InuKag Week Day 1: Domestic

l AO3 l

New Home, New Life, Old Dreams

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Inuyasha looked over his handiwork as the hot afternoon sun beat on his back. The hut that stood in front of him, that he would be sharing with Kagome, his soon to be wife in a matter of days, was finished after months of hard work. The worst part about it though was that he, and his friends, had been lying to her about it. He was just so excited to give it to her as a wedding gift. Tossing the mallet on the ground, next to the pile of tools the villagers loaned him, he decided to do one more walk through before heading over to Miroku and Sango’s house for dinner.

Leaping onto the porch, he admired the way the front door swung open and close, the metal hinges squeaking only a little at the movement. Their porch, larger than most of the other homes, was covered as it wrapped around to the side, giving Kagome a walkway to her garden that was shielded by the sun. He thought about adding a few pots for her herb making, but figured she could pick which ones she wanted at the next market day.

Running his hand along the wall as he walked through their living room, he pictured tiny frames with their faces hanging all over the place, just the same as her mother’s house in the future. He also wondered if they would stay in this house for years to come, maybe expanding as time went on and their family grew.

When he asked Kagome if she would stay with him forever, he literally meant forever. It had taken her a minute to grasp the age concept once they would be mated, but when she realized she would see her family again, she almost passed out from the shock. He blushed, remembering his embarrassment when she had launched herself at him after she understood, her tears soaking his cloak, but pushed past his own pride to hold her.

Smiling at the small kitchen he had managed to create, after some difficulty explaining to the others, they helped him put it together. He had wanted a small area for her to be able to make her herbs and ailments, along with cooking meals, whether she wanted to stand or sit. A small stool sat nearby, her largest basket sitting atop reminded him to grab the others she had from the small hut nearby he would use for future meat preparing. He imagined Kagome, barefoot and pregnant with his pup, cutting vegetables, sending him one of her breath-taking smiles as he stood over the fire, stirring the rice.

Bending down to make sure the fire pit was deep enough in their floor, he imagined Kagome leaning against him as they stayed warm near the fire throughout the winter months. He would wrap her in his robe, doing his best to make sure she survived the cold temperatures and the harsh winds, their home nestled in the forest and tucked away from the snow as it blew in.

Hearing the birds softly chirping outside brought him back to his task, striding into the dark hall, listening for any air coming through the roof. When he heard none, he turned into the small “bathroom” as Kagome would call it. When he first mentioned this type of room to Miroku, knowing the villagers wouldn’t understand a lick of what he was saying, he had somehow conveyed to his friend that he wanted to be able to have baths in here.

They had built a large tub, big enough for both he and Kagome to sit in it together, Miroku suggesting some inappropriate things throughout the building process. He almost, the idea of knocking Miroku out once too many times, didn’t get it finished in time. While he would still have to fill the large water basin a few times and heat up the water in the living room to use it, but the idea of an indoor hot spring for Kagome was too good to pass up.

Passing a small room used for storage, he leaned against the door frame of the next one, an empty room. Imagining the floor littered with their future children, sleeping on their own futons, he smiled. Hoping she wanted as big of a family as he did, he pictured their children with long hair in a range of shades, from midnight black exactly like their mother to the pure silver of his own.

He could see them sporting gold eyes that mirrored his own and others with large, doe eyed, brown ones that reflected their hearts like the woman he so dearly loved. Remembering how Kagome’s mother tweaked his ears the first time they met, he really hoped it was one of the traits that would be passed along from him. Before Kagome, he never thought he would have the option of having a family, being a half demon and all, but ever since she pulled that arrow from his chest, all of this domesticity suddenly seemed possible for him.

Heading to the one room he was extremely happy to give his future wife and mate, he opened a large wooden door, matching the one to their home but with a small lock on the outside and stepped inside their own private little den. Looking at his prized possession sitting against the far wall of their bedroom, a project that he worked on night and day, he admired the lifted bed, twice the size of the one he remembered Kagome sleeping on in the future. Briefly wondering which surprise she might like best, he hoped it was the bed.

It had taken him a while to figure out how to stuff the linen to make it comfortable, but feathers and hay seemed to do the trick. On the last visit to market day, he had managed to find the perfect cloth for the bed, making it soft as he sat on it. Running in his hand over the bundle of small pillows, he pushed back his growing insecurity about their wedding night.

Closing his eyes, he replayed their last intimate moments and relished the look of Kagome’s flushed cheeks when she came up for air. He had to stop himself from going too far once again, his demon demanding that he go ahead and mate her before the chance of her disappearing again. Ignoring the squeeze of his heart at that final thought, Inuyasha refused to let that thought cross his mind, that Kagome was here to stay with him, forever.

He opened his eyes, his gaze zeroing on the chest he had recovered on the visit to his mother’s former home. During the three year gap, he had forced himself to visit the castle he grew up in, hiding in the shadows as servants passed by, wondering why the hell he was here. Locating a small room with storage, he had found the chest he was currently staring at filled with his mother’s things. The jūnihitoe his mother wore, though only the top layer, a few papers about her previous engagement to Takemaru and a small necklace that he had never seen before.

It sat at the end of their bed and he hoped Kagome would store her things in there as time went on, especially the few things from the future that were left behind from before. Briefly wondering if he should get all her things moved over, he shelved that thought for later on. There were still a few things they needed to get done before the wedding.

He still needed to ask Myoga about the chest and its contents the next time he came into town, probably for the wedding since Kagome wanted to invite every person in their life, including his brother. Rolling his eyes at the thought, he smirked, knowing the simple life was something Sesshomaru would never be suited for.

Flicking his ear, he heard footsteps approach and sniffed the air. When Snago’s scent, mingled in with Miroku's, filled his nose, he sighed thankfully, relieved his secret was still safe for the time being. Closing the bedroom door behind him, he quickly met her on the porch, wondering what she needed.

“Hey, I was wondering if you were out here. Dinner is almost ready and Kagome should be coming back with Kaede soon.” Sango smiled, her hand settling on the swell of her stomach. Hisui had just passed his first birthday when Sango announced she was pregnant again and now she was almost halfway along. An image of Kagome, pregnant in his arms, as they watched the sunset in the Sacred Tree filled his mind.

“Yeah, just actually finished up.” He nodded, crossing his arms over his chest.

“The house looks amazing. She’s really going to love it.”

“Keh, thanks.” He stuttered, refusing to meet her gaze.

“You know, she loves you, even if you are a man of few words, your actions show that you love her too.”

“Sango!” he sputtered, his cheeks matching his firerat as he gaped at her.

“Inuyasha, it’s okay. I understand.” Sango laughed, waving her hand for him to follow as she turned back, heading towards her home. Miroku mentioned having him help add a room to their hut as well, since she was expecting again. He jumped, landing beside her, making sure she didn’t trip over her feet and together they headed into the town they both now called home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Holding his wife in his arms, he stared out into the yard, watching his pups play a game of tag with Miroku and Sango’s. Moroha was chasing Hisui, as the twins were running from Mitsuki, their second born. Even the youngest children were joined in, a beautiful mix of hanyou and human playing. The sun was setting across the sky, giving the forest a soft glow, and Shippo was sitting near them, chewing on a piece of tough meat. Sango and Miroku were talking softly nearby, smiling at the same scene.

A soft nudge from Kagome below his chin had him looking down, smiling softly at her pursed lips as she silently asked for a kiss. He chuckled, gently stroking his hand on her swollen belly as he leaned down to give her what she wanted.

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78 notes - Posted June 12, 2022

The Hanyou Of Kenchoji Shrine

Dedicated to @chit-a-to Thank you for always being so excited about anything I write.💕

Summary:

“It shall live with you then, on the shrine, since you deem it so worthy.” He sneered, thrusting it into Kaede’s arms and he leapt onto his horse, pulling on the reins as the storm raged on. “Just so it stays locked away where no one can see. The Gods work in mysterious ways and may have some use for me in the future.”

Priestess Kaede nodded, huddling over the bundle and bringing the blanket around him tighter, protecting his small, downy ears.

“Oh, and Priestess, his name shall be Inuyasha.”

l AO3 l

Enjoy a piece of art by @mamabearcat 💕

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83 notes - Posted June 29, 2022

been struggling with finding any inspiration this week to write, but this little soulmate one shot came to me in a dream, haha. now, i can get back to writing smut, muhahaha. enjoy lovelies!💕

“Ah, it seems Lord Kouga and his mate, Lady Ayame, have invited us to the Summer Solstice Festival this year to welcome their first litter of cubs.” Lady Izayoi hummed, flitting through the stack of letters as Prince Inuyasha rolled his eyes. Their home always stinks. Maybe I can come up with some kind of excuse to not go.

“Son, do not roll your eyes at your mother.” Lord Toga pursed his lips without ever looking up, continuing to write out responses to the never ending letters and proposals from various kingdoms. How did he..? “And you are coming, no excuses.”

Sighing, he crossed his arms and slid father down his seat, catching his brother’s smirk. Bastard.

“Inuyasha, maybe this time you will finally get to discuss things with Lord Koga.” Inuyasha wanted to swipe the knowing grin off his face, but clenched his jaw instead. The last time he brawled with his older brother, the asshole almost put a gaping hole in his gut.

“Sesshomaru, stop teasing your brother. You will be attending as well and I expect you both to be on your best behavior.” Toga looked up, giving both of them a stern look that said “If you don’t, I will be the one to punish you.”

“Yes, Father.” They replied in usion.

“Sesshomaru dear, how is Kagura?” Izayoi smiled, her tactic of changing the subject relieving to him. Inuyasha glanced down at the small stack of invitations in front of him, the idea of reading each one exhausting and tedious. It was debut season and while he himself had been announced years ago, many courts were reaching out with their own invitations and secretly hoping he would choose their princess as a bride.

“She is doing fine, resting as much as possible. I expect her to give birth in two month’s time.”

Inuyasha tuned out their conversation, gazing out the window. It was nearly sundown and Miroku and Sango should be back soon, after visiting her family for the day. His cousin had managed to find his soulmate pretty early on and even though Sango was hesitant at first, Miroku never strayed. The monk’s still a flirt, but he’s loyal to her.

Hell, his parents and even his brother and sister-in-law were soulmates. While it was a little different for demons, they had mates. Someone they could bind their life span to, a bond that couldn’t be ignored. He had even heard of mates sharing emotions and similar thoughts, that’s how strong the bond was.

He sighed, his heart aching for his own as he leaned on his arm rest, propping his chin up with his fist. Being a prince was great and all, his father encouraged him to learn about more than just the typical Lordly duties, and that he even declared Inuyasha could marry whomever he wanted, title or no title. Even with all of that, he was still the only one around that didn’t seem to have a soulmate. Maybe it was because he was a hanyou, he didn’t know. All he did know was that it was lonely sometimes.

A flash of dark hair, followed by the softest of giggles, appeared in his mind. Straightening, he looked around, his brows furrowed in confusion.

“Inuyasha, is everything alright?” Toga glanced his way, sealing a letter with the royal wax seal. Shaking his head, Inuyasha muttered he was fine, wondering just who that was.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three days passed and Inuyasha was still confused about the woman popping up in his thoughts at the most inconvenient times. First, it was her hair and laughter, then he swore he could smell her, the faintest scent of wildflowers fluttering across his senses. A brief glimpse of pouty lips or a cute button nose. Sometimes it would be a whisper of his name, causing him to shiver. It wasn’t until he saw her chestnut gaze while he was eating dinner with his family that he knew something was going on.

“Mother, can you tell me again how you knew Father was your soulmate?” He prompted, taking a bite of the garlic chicken.

“I’ve told you that story about a dozen times and you still don’t remember?” Izayoi giggled as Toga patted her hand, proudly smiling.

“Can you tell me once more?” He asked once more, earning looks from everyone.

“I would love to hear it as well, Aunt Izayoi.” Miroku added and Rin agreed, her little smiling dazzling.

“Of course dears, let me start at the beginning. I was enjoying a lovely afternoon in my garden at my Father’s palace. You all know my dear husband was traveling back and forth between Lady Kimi’s home and our own, discussing matters about Sesshomaru when that very afternoon, I found myself staring into the koi pond with the brightest of golden eyes staring right back at me. I thought I was dreaming!” She laughed, Kagura and Toga smiling at her. “It took me a minute to realize that I wasn’t staring at my own, but his. That was the first time I knew my heart belonged to someone else’s.”

“Now, the thing is, human’s eyes rarely have any strange color, so I knew this man wasn’t human, but I didn’t care. From that day on, I searched everywhere I went for golden eyes. After about a week, I saw flashes of silver as I looked in my reflection, but I never stopped searching.” She continued on, “I found out later, I usually saw images of him whenever he was close, as he would fly over my home whenever he was traveling.”

“I also saw flashes of her in my mind as well, but it took me a little longer to put two and two together.” Toga chuckled, intertwining his hand in hers. “After a few months of traveling and getting Sesshomaru situated, my youkai would call out to her and it was then, I knew she lived in the village. The very next day, I introduced myself to her father, your grandfather, and he almost had a heart attack. He certainly didn’t expect for me, a Lord, to just show up unexpectedly.”

“You had the whole castle in an up heap. Servants were running around, trying to make sure the place was perfect for you.” Izayoi shooked her head, her childlike laughter filling the dining room. “When my father introduced me and I stepped into the throne room, it was as if nothing else mattered. I felt myself being pulled towards you and the moment I looked into your eyes, I knew you were the one for me.”

“And you are my heart, tsuma.” Toga smiled, leaning down to give her a small peck on the cheek. “Son, why do you ask?” Here goes nothing. Taking a shuddering breath, Inuyasha met his brother’s gaze and when Sesshomaru nodded, he spoke.

“I think I’m beginning to see my soulmate.”

“Seriously?” Kagura and Sango asked at the same time, Inuyasha nodding silently.

“Oh my!” Izayoi gasped, while Miroku grinned. Sesshomaru even smirked a little, but Inuyasha knew it was his way of showing his affection.

“This is something to celebrate.” Toga announced, holding up a cup of wine in congratulations. “Do you know who she is?”

“If he did, I think he would know, dear.” Izayoi smiled, patting his arm.

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85 notes - Posted July 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

With All My Love, Kagome

Summary: Mama Higurashi suggests Kagome writes letters to deal with her grief in InuKag’s three year separation.

A huge shout out to @geda-art for this amazingly, talented, beautiful banner she made me for this five part story. I cannot expresses just how much I love it and that she was able to capture what I wrote perfectly.💕

Chapter One

Dear Inuyasha,

I don’t know if I ever told you about my father, but he died in an accident when I was young, so young that Souta hadn’t even been born yet, in a very similar situation with you and your father. I remember my mama used to write these letters, as if she were talking to him, and now she suggests that I do the same with you. She said this is supposed to help me with my grief, whatever that means, but how do I write a letter that you will never see, words that won’t ever be read? I have so many things I want to tell you, most of which you probably wouldn’t understand, but I guess I should begin somewhere.

Continue Reading On AO3

tag list below the cut

@blairex ; @mamabearcat ; @enchantedink-ag ; @splendentgoddess ; @mandirox89 ; @sailorlolo ; @mustardyellowsunshine ; @hny-moroha ; @knittingknots ; @yukinon-writes ; @clearwillow ; @keichanz ; @serial-doubters-club ; @malditamigs ; @zelink-inukag ; @shinidamachu ; @bonny2323 ; @banksdelivers ; @that-one-nerdy-gal ; @sarahk21 ; @dchelyst ; @anisaanisa ; @lavendertwilight89 ; @otaku-108 ; @sailorbabydoll92 ; @inukagbot ; @queerkagome ; @bluehawaiicat ; @chit-a-to ; @liz8080 ; @lightmidnight

If you would like to be added, just let me know :)

125 notes - Posted August 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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elshells · 1 year

Note

Happy STS! I hope you've had a good week! What pokemon would each of your characters have? Is it what people would expect them to have?

Happy STS!! The week has been pretty swell! Just got an official summer job so we're sitting pretty there <3

This is the PERFECT question for me. I just started a replay of Soul Silver a couple weeks ago (my first Pokemon game!), so I've had Pokemon in my brain lately. It's only natural that my WIPs should intersect! So here's what I've got!!

I decided most of these based on vibes, and some characters were harder to decide than others. Let me know if you were surprised by any of these!

Sophia - Lucario

I've come to the realization that Lucario is the perfect partner for Sophia! He would accompany her on her cases, and they would be sparring buddies in their downtime. And with its ability to sense other's auras, Lucario would be able to not only read the moves of their opponents, but it would know by reading Sophia's thoughts when she was in a dark place, and then encourage her to take care of herself.

I do also get the feeling that she would be a Dragon-Type trainer, or at least she would be drawn to powerful Pokemon who hit their opponents hard.

Honorable Mentions: Ampharos, Flygon, Braviary, Kaputops

Janus - Zorua & Gengar

Zorua and Janus would definitely be friends, if nothing else. As a shy, lonely punk kid, he would love the cute shapeshifter fox, and probably even see a lot of himself reflected in the little guy. As an adult, I'm sure he'd still be fond of Zorua, but I can't deny that he absolutely radiates big-time Gengar energy. Change my mind, I dare you!

He'd love Dark-Types and Ghost-Types best, and end up getting way too invested in the game. Everyone from Team Rocket to Youngster Joey is going down!

Honorable Mentions: Houndoom, Banette, Sneasel, Pancham

Harley - Gible

I have so many feelings about this one. Harley would absolutely dote on her Gible, feeding it tons of treats and giving it pets after every battle. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that she needs a baby land shark in her life. They'd be such good friends, plus just imagine them down the line! Harley and Garchomp? Badass. Immaculate. Utter perfection. My skin is clear and my depression is cured.

It's also worth mentioning that part of my decision to choose Gible was that I always thought Harley behaved like Lilo as a kid, and Gible reminds me of Stitch!!

Overall, I think she would be a bit of a wildcard trainer. She was the toughest to match by far, but I've listed my favorite selections down below!

Honorable Mentions: Riolu, Volcarona, Arcanine, Heracross, Aerodactyl

Jade - Buneary & Dragonite

Buneary pretty much represents how Jade is as a person, so in that way I feel like she and the lil' bunny would be kindred spirits. However, Dragonite would be her partner Pokemon, which may surprise people, but hear me out! They would be best buds, and I love the idea of Jade being a shockingly powerful trainer. She looks so sweet and unassuming, until she sweeps the floor with a literal dragon. No big deal 💅🏻

Besides, once you picture them flying above the city and napping together in a sunny field, you will never be the same. I know I still can't get over the cute.

She adores the cute baby Pokemon, and she probably has a pack of Eevees that have all imprinted on her like ducklings. She would be the type of person who would collect every Eeveelution and form a kickass battle squad.

Honorable Mentions: Phanpy, Milotic, Cubchoo, Aurorus, Altaria

Max - Psyduck

When trying to imagine what Pokemon Max would have, Psyduck came to mind immediately. They are one and the same—both plagued by constant headaches (both literal and metaphorical), and both possessing a hidden power that they unleash in times of distress! They understand each other, and so they have each other's backs. It's just Max and his derpy duck against the world.

I think Max would probably have the most Psychic-Types and Fairy-Types. He likes the company of a bunch of strange little guys <3

Honorable Mentions: Togetic, Breloom, Goomy, Abra, Phantump

#Agent Ace and Pokemon???#THIS is my Multiverse of Madness #thank you for the ask! <3 #storyteller saturday #pokemon #wip: agent ace #oc: sophia colbo #oc: janus #oc: harley manalis #oc: jade de soto #oc: max ahn #ella's writing

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exlibrisfangirl · 2 years

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1 and 13 for the female characters asks

*rubs hands together*

Putting this under a cut, because it's going to be LONG...

1 - Protagonists

There are... WAY more than 5... but I will pick 5 for whom I can easily articulate why.

In no particular order:

Fanny Price (Mansfield Park by Jane Austen) - People like to call her "the boring one" or "the forgettable one", but she's actually my favorite Austen heroine. Here's why: she shows us that strength of character doesn't have to be bold or forceful or charming or witty to be worth something; integrity can be quiet and meek and humble and still win. And even if she hadn’t received any recognition for doing the right thing - or won the guy's heart - in the end, it still would have mattered to her that she did what was right. I've always related deeply to Fanny's internal struggle to balance her fierce sense of justice with her gentleness of spirit, and, out of all of Austen's heroines, I admire her the most.

Delenn of Mir (Babylon 5) - Delenn is one of the fictional characters I relate to on the deepest, most personal level. At her core, she is genuinely one of the most gentle, kind, compassionate, empathetic, wise characters on television, but as the series goes on, we see that there are incredible depths to her dark side as well. As we gain insight into her past, we learn that she has a disturbing capacity for selfishness and anger and violence, but she chooses to exercise compassion and diplomacy and selflessness instead; as a result, she is deeply respected and trusted by everyone who knows her. She still makes mistakes, but she learns from them, and I love the beauty of her complexity.

Kara Danvers (Supergirl) - I've never been a big DC person, tbh, until the Arrowverse shows were created, and then I got thoroughly and completely sucked in by Arrow, Supergirl, and Superman & Lois (the last of which is apparently no longer part of the Arrowverse... but I digress). What I love about Melissa Benoist's portrayal of Kara/Supergirl is the fact that she is unfailingly kind and good and optimistic, while still having depth. It's very easy for characters like that to remain one-dimensional, but, despite her cheery optimism and dedication to choosing kindness and goodness, we also see her grappling with a heavy burden of guilt because she can't fix everything and save everyone... a dilemma I can relate to, even if her outgoing, go-getter, peppy persona is a bit beyond my realm of experience.

Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery) - Anne was one of my earliest fictional faves, and probably the first fictional character I related to on a deep, personal level. As an adult, I can see now that she is very clearly (albeit not knowingly) autistic-coded, but, as a kid, all I knew was that this character thought and felt just like me; she daydreamed constantly, her imaginary world was always bleeding into reality, she felt everything so intensely and so deeply, and everyone thought she was peculiar. Anne taught me that it was okay to be who I was, and that the people who truly loved me would love me for who I was, without trying to change me.

Lydia Martin (Teen Wolf) - Lydia's character arc is honestly one of my favorites in all of television, and one of the best in the show. She begins the series pretending to be something she is not - a ditzy, bitchy, cold-hearted, two-faced, party-throwing, nymphomaniac - and ends the series comfortable in her own skin and confident in who she truly is: an actual genius, one of the "good guys", a badass banshee, and deeply, painfully, beautifully human. She learns to face her insecurities with vulnerability and grace, rather than cover them up with make-up, and she proves herself to be unbelievably strong and resilient when faced with unspeakable horrors and fear. I just love her so muuuuch.

13 - I wish had better development/writing

Daenerys Targaryen (ASOIAF/Game of Thrones): *side-eyes Benioff and Weiss so hard my eyeballs pop out of my skull* They ruined her. They destroyed her. That last season of GoT was honestly one of the most upsetting examples of character assassination I have ever had the misfortune to witness, and I will never forgive them for it. DRACARYS. If we ever get the rest of the ASOIAF books - and that's a BIG "if" - Mr. Martin had better do her justice... OR ELSE.

Eowyn of Rohan (LOTR movies) - I was disappointed with Eowyn's character development in Return of the King. The film made it seem like she meets Faramir as she's recovering from her battle wounds and then just sort of... fades into the background, which feels so bizarrely anticlimactic after she played such a vital role in defeating the enemy on the battlefield. In the books, we see her realizing, after the war is over, that what she thought she wanted - to be a warrior and fight and live a life of glory - could only lead to loss and death, and it ultimately leaves her empty. She decides to dedicate the rest of her life to rebuilding and rebirth, as her uncle gave her stewardship of Rohan before he died. There's something subtly powerful and beautiful about her character arc to me, and the movies just didn't do a very good job of showing it.

Caroline Forbes (The Vampire Diaries) - I adore Caroline. She is my favorite character from TVD. However, I hated hated HATED her ending. She has such deep-seated insecurities about love and relationships throughout the series, and then, after bouncing her around from love interest to love interest, they finally give her "true love" and have her marry Stephan (ugh)... only to KILL HIM OFF ALMOST IMMEDIATELY. Why couldn't they just let my girl be happy?! I will be bitter about it forEVER.

Raven Reyes (The 100) - Another favorite who was unfairly treated by her writers. I loved Raven's early storyline around her injury and subsequent permanent disability, because it's not often that you see 1) a disabled TV show protagonist, much less 2) a disabled TV show protagonist dealing with depression and chronic pain as a result of their disability. That aside, Raven, like Caroline Forbes, was bounced around from love interest to love interest (all of whom die) and then ends up alone, which is one of her greatest fears and most deep-seated insecurities. She has her found family (well... what's left of it, anyway) to live out her days with, but it still left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Bella Swan (Twilight by Stephenie Meyer) - It is very possible for Mary Sue characters to be done well... but Bella is NOT one of them. She is honestly one of the most boring book protagonists I have ever read, and her movie counterpart is no better. Edward has more personality than she does... and that is a low, LOW bar. She had the potential to be interesting - I like the fact that she tells Edward she wants to become a vampire for herself, not for anyone else, because she feels like she was meant to become one and it feels right to her - but most of her potential was wasted and never explored. One of the perks of the main character being so, unbelievably bland is that the side characters are all fascinating by comparison... so at least she's got that going for her, I suppose?

Send me a number and I'll write out my top 5 fictional women.

#angel in a big blue box #tumblr friends #the derek to my chris #brotp: pass the rump roast please #answered ask #fictional characters #ask meme #protagonists #SEND ME MORE SEND ME MORE

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