#it wasnt planned in my defense

[separatist-apologist]

Throw Me To The Flames

You could drag me through hell if it meant I could hold your hand

Summary: Elain only ever meant to deliver a message to Vassa on behalf of her sister's court. She never intended to see Lucien.

And she CERTAINLY didn't mean to get in the way of a knife that was only ever meant for his chest.

Kidnapped, and dragged helpless to the continent, the two will have to work together if they want to survive.

Note: HAPPY HOLIDAYS to my BEST @acotargiftexchange, @fieldofdaisiies

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have enjoyed hanging out with you!!!

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter | Chapter 7 | It's not Taylor Swift, but it is a banger

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There was nothing but dark, and the occasional pull on Elain’s ribs. Elain would rise towards a pinprick of light only for the pull to recede, allowing her to slip back down. Elain was happy, even as she began to claw her way back up, confused as to why she was so exhausted. Why she couldn’t rouse herself?

It was with a gasping breath of fear that Elain returned. Hand clasped to her breast, she said, “I’m dead.”

A body shifted on the white blanketed bed beside her. “Hardly,” came the rich timbre of Lucien’s voice. “You’re merely taking a well-deserved rest.”

Elain recognized the room—Arina had given it to her when she’d first come to Day Court. Lucien stretched out his long legs, drawing in a breath of air. It was the only one he’d get. Elain flung her arms around his neck, throwing herself into his lap in a desperate bid to reach him. 

“Lucien,” she breathed, pressing her face into his shoulder. 

Lucien groaned, as if the pressure of her was too much but he wrapped his arms around her without hesitation. “You scared me for a minute there,” Lucien told her, nosing her hair just the way he’d done those last days in the woods. Elain could close her eyes and she was almost back. How strange, to wish they were still magicless, hiking through an unknown wood. Elain would have traded almost anything to open her eyes and find them still laying naked on a bed of leaves, skin warmed by the sun. 

“What happened?” she asked. 

“He pulled down the fortress,” Lucien told her with a grimace. “I thought we were going to die. We should have died.”

“But we didn’t,” she replied, tangling her fingers in his hair.

“Eris came,” Lucien murmured, lips pressed to her scalp. “Said he owed me, and afterward we were even. He still owes you, though. A lot more than whatever he’ll promise, so keep that in mind when he comes to you with some uneven bargain. He threw up a shield and saved us both, and in the aftermath, helped me get you across that battlefield. I…” Lucien trailed off, and Elain didn’t need to hear him vocalize whatever fears Lucien had felt during that time. She could imagine.

“Who took him down?” Elain asked instead. “Once he was mortal, who killed him?”

“Nesta and her Valkyries,” Lucien replied. “Lady Death versus a Death God. Nesta was terrifying. She’s waiting to see you, and part of me thinks I shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

Elain chuckled. “Oh, stop. Is everyone okay?”

Another kiss. “Thanks to you. Elain, you were so…so reckless, and so brave, and I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you how much I am in love with you.”

She looked up, dragging herself away from his scent to really look at him. Lucien was working a muscle in his jaw furiously, as if fighting back some wave of emotion—and the expectation that despite everything she’d done to prove otherwise, the feeling was not reciprocated. 

“You doubt me?” 

Lucien cleared his throat. “I believe you care–”

“I love you,” Elain interrupted, impatient with Lucien. That was hardly a new feeling, and she was delighted to learn he could still infuriate her even when she loved him as much as she did. “I am under your spell, Spell-cleaver.” 

He reached for her face, holding it in his broad, calloused palms like she was something precious. “What am I going to do with you?”

“You could start by taking off your clothes,” Elain suggested, reaching for his shirt and tugging at the laces half tied against his collarbone. “Maybe some inspiration will come, then.”

Lucien frowned. “You’re hurt, and I’m too afraid of your sisters to admit I took you when they’ve been waiting to see you.”

“They know what this is like,” Elain reminded him, well aware she wasn’t going to get her way. Lucien was far too noble, and likely still injured himself. Frowning, Elain still unlaced his shirt and pulled out the collar, looking to see if he’d been marked by Koschei—Elain remembered those crisscrossing wounds over his chest, slicing through his perfect skin without care or concern.

It wouldn’t have mattered, she told herself. She would take Lucien in any form, under any conditions. Still, she exhaled with relief when she saw nothing but his smooth, unbroken skin just beneath. The world could stand to be kinder to him, she thought, and if she had to enforce it with the blade he’d given her, so be it. 

“Have you spoken to Helion?”

Lucien, who’d spread his legs every so slightly, blinked at the question. Elain could scent his desire simmering beneath his nobility, betraying him. If he thought she’d behave herself, he was wrong—she ran a finger up the side of his thigh, eyes never leaving his face.

His cheeks flushed. “I—for a moment. I’ve been so worried and I…” he trailed off, catching her wrist before she reached the seam of his hip and what lay just between. “Stop that.”

“We had less than a day together,” she reminded him, creeping closer. “Isn’t it driving you mad?”

“Yes,” he replied, swallowing hard. “And I can wait another. So can you.”

“I don’t want to wait another day,” she complained, but it was no use. A knock on the door didn’t pull them apart, but it did keep Elain from pushing Lucien against the pillows and just doing whatever she liked. Elain was certain, given how aroused he smelled, that his restraint was hanging by the thinnest of threads.

Nesta could too, given the way her eyes narrowed in his direction the minute they stepped into the room. Elain was ushered out, separated from Lucien just like she’d once feared. And Feyre and Nesta did have questions, though Elain thought she may have been uncharitable when she’d worried they would accuse Lucien of forcing her.

It was never asked, and though Elain knew from Azriel and Jurian that they had initially assumed Lucien had kidnapped her, when her sisters asked for an account of her time in the forest, they never once insinuated Lucien was anything other than a gentleman.

She supposed murdering Beron had alleviated their fears that Elain had been coerced. There was no question as to where Elain would live—Feyre seemed to understand without needing to hear Elain say it that she would remain with Lucien. Wherever that might be. Elain told her sisters of their plans to visit the other court, while promising she had no intention of vanishing off the face of the planet. 

They’d still see each other. They’d still be family, regardless of where Elain ended up. It was enough, at least for now. They had an eternity together. Nothing had to be decided at that moment. Elain knew both Feyre and Nesta were looking forward to true peace and a chance to breathe without the threat of danger constantly looming over their heads. 

They all wanted time with their mates. Time with their friends—with family.

It was that thought that sent Elain through the open, warm corridors of the Day Court. She found Arina in the sprawling, expansive personal library of the High Lord shelving a book likely twice as old as Elain. The last time they’d seen each other had been right before Elain left. Arina had been in charge of everyone in the city—had they failed, she would have been the last defense against Koschei.

“Heard you saved the day,” Arina commented, green eyes sliding toward Elain. The white of her dress swished around her legs, dragging over the marble floors just beneath. “How does it feel to be a hero?”

Elain scoffed, earning a smile from Arina. “Hardly.”

“That’s what they’re saying. Elain Archeron—God Slayer.”

“I’m surprised you’re still here,” Elain said instead, heart thumping wildly at the title. She hoped that faded in time. She didn’t want recognition for doing the right thing. Arina made her way towards another tall shelf, running her fingers along the spines.

“Are you?”

“What about Eris?”

“Ah.” Arina turned then, facing Elain fully. “What about him?” 

“I just thought, after everything, you’d want to be with him.”

“I don’t know him,” Arina replied easily, pulling the book she wanted with nimble fingers. “And I doubt the new High Lord of Autumn is looking to further disrupt his court by bringing in a wife from another territory. Eris and I are…we’re complicated. I owed him my life—now we’re even. I think we can leave it at that.”

Elain wasn’t sure she could—not when she stumbled on Eris mere moments later, clearly making his way to the library. For the flickering second before he saw her, Elain was allowed to examine the new High Lord outside of his awareness. There was a pensive, almost fearful look to him. As if he knew that Arina was not going to leave with him and the knowledge made him nervous.

He smoothed it over when he caught sight of her. “Baby sister.”

“Don’t call me that,” she replied.

“What else would I call you? You were initiated into the Vanserra brood the moment you buried my own dagger in my body.”

“You deserved that,” she informed him primly. Eris offered her a feral laced smile.

“When did I argue I didn’t? Stabbing me with my own blade, plotting to kill a High Lord…it’s very Autumn Court of you.”

“What do you want, Eris?”

He ran a hand over the fine green tunic he wore. Eris was nervous. It seemed strange, given how utterly confident he always seemed to be. Eris jerked his head toward the library.

“Does she want to see me?”

Elain shrugged. She couldn’t get a good read on Arina’s feelings, especially when it came to Eris. “What did you do?”

Eris’s eyes flashed, and Elain expected him to tell her to butt out. That it was none of her business what had happened. 

“She dances,” Eris finally told Elain, his neck straining as if the memory infuriated him. “And Amarantha asked to see. Arina danced for hours—beyond the point of collapse. Cruelty for cruelties sake. Be glad you weren’t alive for any of it.”

Elain waited, nodding for Eris to continue. 

“I put myself in Amarantha’s path as a distraction,” he finally said, his eyes very much warning Elain not to ask what, exactly, he’d agreed to in order to protect his mate. “She didn’t owe me for it.”

“She thought she did,” Elain replied. Eris only nodded. 

“Well. Maybe I could have been clearer in the following days. Thank you,” he added, as if Elain had done anything beyond poking his still healing wounds for her own idle curiosity. “I expect I’ll see you in Autumn one of these days.”

“Maybe,” she agreed, unsure if that was smart. Eris had turned, stopped only when Elain asked, “Why Nesta?”

Eris looked Elain up and down, his lip curling in a sneer. “Nosy.”

And that was that. Elain resigned herself never to knowing why Eris had asked to marry Nesta knowing he had a mate as he walked away, his boots clipping against the marble. 

She’d learn in time. For the moment, all she wanted was to make her way back to Lucien.

And so she did.

LUCIEN:

With Elain gone, there was no avoiding the inevitable. Lucien stared at the male before him, wondering how he’d never noticed their similarities before. Helion, seated in a high backed chair, crossed and uncrossed his legs nervously. They’d been sitting in total silence for the last ten minutes, waiting for the other to speak. 

Lucien smoothed his hands over his pants. “Have—have you spoken to mother?” he finally asked. Helion’s golden eyes flashed with relief.

“No,” he replied, which was just as well. Lucien might have murdered him had the answer been yes. Or worse. Let her grieve, if that was what she was doing. Or breathe, at least, given Lucien couldn’t imagine being genuinely sad Beron was dead. Maybe sad for her children, for her court. The last thing she needed was another High Lord chasing after her. 

“Have you?” Helion added when it became clear Lucien had nothing else to say.

“Not ah…not yet.” He was planning to see her somewhere neutral–Spring, perhaps. Lucien didn’t think Elain would be welcome in Autumn anytime soon. Beron would have had sympathizers and he didn’t know if Eris meant to purge any of them. 

Helion nodded, steepling his fingers. “I…” he trailed off, eyes glazing over for a moment. “I know this isn’t ideal. You’re grown and you don’t need me. But if you need a home…”

“Right,” Lucien agreed, wishing he was anywhere but there. Helion was so clearly trying, so obviously hopeful and curious and Lucien was confused. “Did you know?”

Helion’s cheeks darkened with shame. “I did.”

Anger flared like a spark for only a moment, dying before it ever caught flame. “He would have killed her,” Lucien said, the words curling like smoke in the air between them. “I was better off masquerading as his son.”

Helion kept his eyes on the floor, studying his golden sandals as if they were the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen. “I know it’s not worth much, but I love your mother. And I was afraid, which is not a good quality for a parent, in retrospect.”

Lucien’s mind snagged on an old memory—of Tamlin coming to his bedroom days after Jesminda had been murdered to inform him Helion had come by. Lucien hadn’t thought a thing about it at the time. A lot of courts sent diplomats to try and lure him out of Spring where they assumed he would be wasted. Lucien had been too lost to grief to consider any offer faithfully.

“You came to Spring,” he said. Helion looked up, his eyes so hopeful and earnest that Lucien thought there was some path forward for them. “You weren’t High Lord.”

“I thought I might convince you to come to Day honestly,” he admitted. 

“It’s probably for the best I didn’t,” Lucien replied with a half smile. 

Helion nodded. “There’s time now. If you want it, I mean. There is time.”

“I’d like that. I’ve promised Elain time here, at any rate.”

Helion offered him a smile, backlit by the sun pouring through the windows behind him. “Consider this your home, if you’d like. You’ll want help with your magic as well. I am available to you both.”

Lucien stood, thinking that for the first time, there was nothing but an endless stretch of eternity before him. It had once made him miserable to consider, so much so that he’d often wished Beron had taken his life, too. That he hadn’t fought so hard to escape when he could have let his brothers kill him. 

And now Lucien felt nothing but hope. The future seemed soft—gentle, even. Lucien was grinning by the time he found Elain, stretched out on a chaise as she stared blankly into the void. When he came in, her eyes snapped back to life and a soft smile slid over her pretty face.

“You look happy,” she commented.

“I am happy,” Lucien replied, reaching for her. Elain squealed, legs flailing as he dragged her to the bed. “I am so happy, and do you know why?”

“Helion offered you a job?”

“What? No, Elain, I’m happy because I have you.” 

“That is lucky, Lucien.”

He’d promised himself he wasn’t going to touch her. He’d sworn he was going to leave her be, that he’d swallow the insistence of the mating bond and wait until enough time had passed between Koschei and Elain before he even thought about her naked.

Elain pressed her thigh between his legs, her fingers tugging at the strings of his shirt with an insistence that made his blood hot. 

“Elain,” he tried, but Elain covered his mouth with her own. 

“Shut up, Lucien.” Who was he to argue? He did want to tell her what he’d learned, and put up no fight when Elain pushed him to his back so she could straddle his waist.  

“Helion–offered—us—a—place—to—live,” he tried, forcing each word out between hungry kisses. Elain raked her fingers through his hair, humming in response. That’s nice, stop talking Lucien, her tone implied. Certainly, her body, grinding against him, was demanding he give in. 

“Thought we could stay for a while. Ride out the—fucking cauldron Elain—the frenzy,” he panted, arching into the hand curled around his cock. When had she gotten his pants off? 

Elain smiled, letting him rip the dress she wore clean down the middle. “There you are,” she whispered, stroking him up and down. “I was starting to think I was the only one lost to the bond.”

“I have been lost since the moment I first laid eyes on you,” Lucien replied, his mind too addled to come up with something witty or clever. All he had was the truth, laid bare before her just like his soul. 

“Much better, Lucien,” she whispered, sliding down the length of him without prompting or preamble. Lucien forgot words entirely then, lost to the grip of her body and how it felt to share space in her body again. Time was meaningless—each minute was a second, was an eternity. 

Lucien pulled her against him sometime late into the night, working to catch his breath before he had her again—and again.

“Elain, I–”

“I know, Lucien. And I wouldn’t change any of it,” she added, cheek pressed to his chest, just above his beating heart.

“I would do it all again, to end up like this,” he murmured. Elain smiled. 

“I love you.”

“I know,” he replied, kissing her fingertips. “And I love you.” 

His mate loved him. It was everything to him. 

Everything.

[altruistic-meme]

*HEAVY BREATHING* WE'RE GONNA GET IT DONE ON TIME I SWEAR ON MY LIFE-

anyway woohoo look, I've got the front and back panels done for an ace flag shirt :) now I need to attach them at the shoulders and sides and then add sleeves :'D before this weekend!!

[spookaorionart]

He's thinking about the cost of donuts vs the cost of bullets

[thecontainerstoreofficial]

ashamed to admit that i tried to start hbo chernobyl back in 2020 and got bored after 3 minutes of that dude puttering around his apartment. giving it another go tonight and unsurprisingly it really is as good as everyone said it was. i havent felt dread so potent from a TV show in a while

[sunlightfeeling]

I finally started MiraTen after…how many weeks has it been since I re-reblogged @woundedheartwithin’s gifs?

actually its my first time watching anything this week…the last things were the BtS of GwtF and ND last Sunday 😭

anywho~ how am i actually meant to focus on Yasuda Ken giving the plot of the show all while Takuya’s off…being…Takuya?

like…

[birbtails]

.

[shwarmii]

me: i am not dramatic ‼️

also me, texting my big brother:

image ID: first text in teal bubble says "bad news: i have a seriously terrible cold, maybe even the flu, but more likely what ive been struggling with the past 3 or 4 days is a cold. good news: took a covid test at mama's request and it was negative. bad news: my cold by itself is so bad that mama was convinced i might have covid" second message is a screenshot gif of Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service in bed, sick, and the caption/subtitle of the gif reads "*has a headache cold* Do you think I'm gonna die?" the texts were sent at 1:31 and 1:34 AM, respectively. /end of image ID

[ratcash-wasgud]

hi! i just came by your work last night, loved it! stayed up reading it! 11/10 *cheff kiss* Are you up for a petition? maybe another mizuxreader, perhaps villainxhero kinda situation. the reader could be one of the money/sex hungry affiliated with the white man (not a white men herself but like a lap dog of someone with higher power than Abijah Fowle). instead of mizu taking Fowler she takes the *reader*, keeps her alive and makes her speak 7u7 maybe scream. they end up helping each other in the end after much fighting. ofc adding some nsfw there pfff if that wasnt obvious.

hope you see this! lmfao

Omg, yes!! Genius. This set something ablaze inside me (especially since I love witty villain characters). I was thinking about making this a one shot tho, but if yall want a second part tell me, and i'll try. Try. Anyways, this'll be more lighthearted than my other works. Oh, and I'm sorry if this isn't how you imagined the story to go. I interpreted some of the originaly show's story, but mostly I just wen't along with what's the easiest to get my own story going, and I probably got some cannon info wrong too, but please don't yell at me lmao.

Btw!! I'm really glad i got a request!! So thank you! If anyone has any other ideas, I'd be glad to try and working with it!!

Okay, enjoy!!

ℕ𝕖𝕜𝕠 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕨𝕖𝕤𝕥.

When Mizu pulled up to tea with Heji Shindou, instead of the half-blad old guy, she was faced with you. Some woman in strange clothing. It seemed like it was a mix of western clothing, and some japanese casual wear. You even had your hair down, letting it flow freely. How unusual.

"Ah, the infamous samurai who is tearing through anyone in his way!" You say with a smirk on your face, opening up your arms. "Come, come. Oh, and I see you've bought a dog too." You add, looking smugly at Taigen.

"How dare-" He starts, but gets shut down by Mizu quickly, and the two follow you to sit down.

"So, I've heard you're after the white men, huh?" You say, not sitting on your knees, but sitting down criss-cross style. "Why? What is it that you're after? Money?" You ask, starting to pour some tea.

"I don't need things like that. I have a vow. I swore revenge." Mizu says simply. "And what is it that you need from me?"

"Oh, nada." You shrug. "I'm just willing to offer a deal." You shoot the both of them a smirk. "I'd love to have that fat bastard dead too! My loyalty isn't with him at all!" You say it like it's the most exciting thing ever. "You see, that sack of shit has everything in the world! Money, power, connections...and he's still complaining! Ha! Meaning, he doesn't deserve it." You say as you lift your tea and take a sip. "I, on the other hand, would take much better care of his privilages."

"So you want me to kill him so you can take his place?" Mizu asks, highly suspicious. She glances at Taigen, who is still giving you a dirty look for your comment from earlier.

"Yap." You nod, tossing down your cup. "Fowler wouldn't be an easy target, so without my help, you could already start planning your funeral." You say, but now a small dangerous glint appears in your eyes.

"And why should I trust you?" Mizu asks, her eyes narrowing at you, but your smirk doesn't falter.

"You shouldn't. Didn't you mother tell you not to trust strangers?" You say with a chuckle and Mizu rewards it with a small glare. A small, but cold one. "Still, it's up to you. Do you wanna kill that bastard so much you're willing to take the risk?"

"And how do we know this is not an ambush? That you won't just kill us if we say no?" Taigen cuts in, putting his hands on the table which you reward with your smile getting smugger.

"Oh, please." You put your hands up in defense. "You really think I'd waste weapons and men on you?" You say, looking him straight in the eye. "And besides, you won't say no." You look back at Mizu. "My deal has only benefits for you. You'll just have to gulp down some self respect."

Mizu raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" She can't deny, having someone close to Fowler himself helping her would be a huge positive, but...you just seem so sly. Like a cat.

"Ah, you see, I can get you inside Fowler's little residence." You stand up to pull of a blanket off a big barrel. "You'd fit inside quite well. You're a scrawny thing anyways." You say with a taunting smirk.

"It's a trap!" Taigen says to Mizu right away, but Mizu seems unfazed and steps closer. "How exactly would you get me inside?"

"Aw, I wanted that one to be a surprise." You say with a mock pout. "Fowler thinks I'm out getting a good deal on sake, and I kinda am." You take the barrel's to of, revealing that it's half full of sake. "I'd have you delivered right to his nose."

"You'd die." Taigen cuts in again, and Mizu can see your eye twitch at that.

"Could you shut your lil' pet up? The adults are talking." You say, your smirk disappearing.

"She's obviously untrustworthy!" Taigen draws his sword on a whim, but he's met with a revolver to his head right away.

"Don't try that shit with me." You say, tilting your head at him, but you then seel Mizu's blade at your nape. "Touché." You mutter.

"So what now?" You ask with a smirk breaking out on your face again. "Kill me and lose your only chance at killing the man you swore to slay down? Ha! Go on then." You say, glancing over at your shoulder at her, and you see Mizu tense up.

Suddenly, you feel a sharp pain in your head and you fall to the ground. Mizu hit you with the hilt of her blade, stripping you of your conciousness.

The next thing you see is a capmfire and a siluette around you. As you blink a lot to clear your vision, you notice Mizu and as you look down, ropes around you. She tied you up.

"So you didn't kill me after all." You say out loud, getting Mizu's attention. "The other guy? The one with a bald spot and a funny glare. The dog." You look around.

"Away." Mizu shrugs simply. It's the truth though, Ringo is away in a nearby town, getting supplements for the road, and she left Taigen with a promise of a later duel.

"So...What is you plan now, big bad samurai? Try and torture me into telling you shit? Ha!" You say, wriggling in the ropes.

"I'm planning to exchange you for information." Mizu says simply, staring at the campfire. "I'm sure Heji Shindo would like to have you back."

You grit your teeth. "That old fucker doesn't give a shit about anything but his money and his dick. I'm sure that power hungry bastard is happy I'm gone." You say, scoffing. "But go on, try." Suddenly, you realize something. "What did you do with my gun?" You ask in a hurry, trying to feel around at your hilt.

Suddenly, Mizu lifts your gun, holding it between two fingers. "This?" She asks, looking at you from the corner of her eyes.

"Don't you dare lose it! I want it back when you're done with me!" You stomp your foot as much as you can.

"You know, for someone talking so big earlier, you're quite pissy now." Mizu says, rolling her eyes and you huff in response.

Then...as you glanced back at the fire, you noticed a small pot, boiling. You tried to lift yourself to see what's in it, but the ropes didn't allowed you to.

"...if I starve to death, I'm just gonna be a waste, you know." You mumble under your nose, and Mizu snorts. She then reaches for the pot, and pours out some what seems like soup into a small bowl and she puts it beside you.

You stare at the bowl, your eye twitching. "I can't reach it." You say, your eyebrows creasing together and she just looks at you with a small, amused grin.

"Huh." She says, leaning back on her hands. "Really?" She taunts you. Oh, this woman is horrible. Fine, you think. In one swift motion, you move your leg as much as you're able, and kick the bowl, spilling it all on Mizu.

Mizu's eyes widen and she looks down on her clothes. "...oh, you little bitch." She hisses at you.

"Come, kill me then!" You stick out your tongue childishly.

"You know damn well I could!" Mizu huffs back, throwing the bowl at you.

"Ha-ha, your whole little quest depends on me!" You laugh right into her face and wriggle your legs. Mizu almost growls at you and suddenly she picks up your gun again, and holds it above the fire, threathening to drop it.

"No!" You yell out, and fall forward, and bite into her ankle. Mizu yanks her leg away with a hiss and reaches down to pull you up by your collar.

"Okay, what's your fucking deal?" She says from behind greitted teeth.

"What's yours?" You ask right back, snarling right back at her. "If you'd wanted to kill me, you'd have done it by now. So, want me to talk? Earn it!" You say, getting closer to her face, trying to stand your ground.

"The fuck you want?" Mizu tosses you away, and sits at a reasonable distance from you. "To have Fowler dead? Then just tell me how to get in, and where he is!"

"I want you to untie me, and hand me back my gun!" You demand, and lift your nose, refusing to look at her.

"What's so great about this gun anyways?" Mizu picks up the gun again and looks at it more closely. It's obviously a western gun with a leather grip and engravings along it's barrel in the form of some kind of bird.

You scoff in response. "That was my first gun. It's special." You say like it's the most obvious thing ever. "I will bring it with me when I finally travel aboard, away from this stuck-in-the-past land."

"Huh?" Mizu raises her eyebrows. "You wanna leave Japan? For what?" She asks mockingly.

"Because! This place isn't wide enough for my potential! After Fowler is out of the picture, I will visit take his money and go to London. Start a new life and all. I will really bloom there." You say, rolling onto your back. "People will understand me there."

Mizu narrows her eyes. "I don't think people in Japan are the problem, you're just a common lunatic." That earns a chuckle from you.

"Says the guy who is set out to kill four men he doesn't know shit about." You says, glancing at her, and Mizu can't help herself, cracks a smirk.

"You have guts to talk back to your captor, you know." She says and lifts her eyebrows in amusement. She glances up at the sky too. The stars are very bright tonight.

"You won't kill me." You say, tilting your head so that you're looking straight at her. It's just now that she notcied how nicely the stars reflect in your eyes. Your eyes now look calm, and they don't have any slyness, or mischief in them at the moment. "It wouldn't benefit you." You shrug. "And torturing me would be useless. Pain passes."

"Say," Mizu starts, looking back at the fire. "You said that you're not loyal to Fowler. So who are you loyal to?"

"Me." You say withouth hesitation. "The one who I want the best for and I trust the most is myself. I'm not loyal to any old, egostical bastard with money, like most people in this country are." Say say it with disgust. "I never was and never will be loyal to anyone else, but me."

Mizu scoffs. "What are you, a stray cat?" She asks with a hint of amusement as she looks down at you. "That just makes you even more untrustworty."

You scoff back. "Who said that I want to be trustwhorty?" You ask, rolling your eyes. "Plus, I'm free. Well, not yet, but I will be. And it's not like you can say the same."

Mizu can't help but snicker. "Is that it? Freedom? I'm free enough, thank you."

"Naaaaah." You shake your head. "You're tied down by your own revenge. It tells you where to go, what to see, what to feel...if I told you where's Fowler, you'd get going by tomorrow. Even if I told you you'd die, you'd still go. Not because you want to die, but because that's the only thing you know. Revenge and rage. You'd jump in the well if I said Fowler's at the bottom of it." You say boldly, and look her straight in the eyes before you smirk slyly.

"You think you know everything, huh?" Mizu frowns and gets up to you, grabbing you by the hair. "You know nothing of me. I need this. I will throw my life away if I have to, to finish what I've started, so I won't think twice about taking yours too."

"You're all talk about killing me. Deep down, you know you need me." You taunt her. "You won't find that bastard withouth me. I work under his arm, I could get you there soooo easily, but you're throwing it away because you get too emotional." Your smirk gets even more smug. You kinda look like a cat, Mizu notices again. A cat that has just pushed off something expensive off a shelf, breaking it, and knowing it too.

Mizu noticed that sometimes you force that smugness into your little smirks. She sees it because the corners of your lips twitch. In reality, you are scared of her, but you'd rather die than let her see that. She never met a woman like you. She doesn't know how you got to the place you are, but she respects it. And still, you kow she could take your life. You're tied up, tripped of your weapons and vulnerable, yet you still taunt her. You're very annoying but somehow she can't help but admire your bravery. But the moment you're cornerned into a corner, you hiss and scratch.

After that, she lets you go and walks to be at a good six and a half feet away from you before she lays down, and decides to sleep withouth another word. Not much time passes when Mizu stays sleepless, but she hears you snore. And for some reason, she can't help but smile. You breathe through your mouth when you sleep. It's kind of cute.

The next couple of days are spent with Mizu travelling with Ringo and Taigen, and she drags you along too. Literally. She drags you while you're tied up. During those days, you managed to talk to Ringo a lot. Most of the time he's the one who's assigned to watch over you, and it doesn't seem like he has even as much as a mean bone in his body. You could even call some of your conversations pleasent. The other two on the other hand...you sometimes talk to Mizu and you two always end up in a neck to neck situation. Mizu wants to get you to talk, but she hasn't hurt you yet. She just always threathens you, yells and curses. You just flat out insult her at every chance you get though. It's not because you hate her, persay, but because you find it funny. You're being held captive after all, you need to use every chance you get to have fun.

Currently, you are left alone for the first time in weeks, as the others left your outside of town while they get something done. When you're sure they're out of seeing and hearing range, you start to rub the ropes on your wrist against a bigger rock you've found, trying to "saw" through it. When that irritating thing finally snaps, and you begind to get yourself free, you suddenly hear a very menacing sound from behind.

"The fuck are you doing?" You turn your head and see Mizu, glaring and gripping her sword. Fuck, you think and as she charges at you. You quickly throw away the rest of your ropes, and dogde out of the way. You didn't got to where you are now withouth knowing how to stand your ground, and defending yourself...and knowing how to cheat, of course.

You jump to your feet and get behind Mizu, and with one swift, forward kick to her side, you don't just get her to grunt and almost fall, you also send your gun flying from her side. By now, you've learned that that's where she keeps it. You're still just happy she didn't outright get rid of it. As the gun slides on the cold ground, you jump after it while Mizu regains her composure, and finally obtain it once again.

"Yes!" You silently cheer to yourself and point the gun at Mizu, who just looks at you, her blade covering half her face.

You gulp. Do you really wanna fire at Mizu? Kill her even? You did kinda want to kill her and betray her at first, but now you're...not sure. Sure, she's an asshole but...over those days as being her captive, you learned some things about her...she's not as heartless and cold. She fed you herself, she managed to keep you safe, even if she kept you in robes, and she just wants revenge...she even kept your gun safe.

But you can't show weakness. That's not what you stand for, so you shoot, but aim at her leg. She dodges of course, and manages to pin you down with her blade at your neck, but your gun at her stomach.

You just stare at her eachother, panting, not sure who's gonna kill who first. Mizu stares into your eyes, seeing her own reflection in them. Suddenly she notices that familiar glint in them, and how you swallow while panting, and how nose moves when you take a deep breath...and she feels her stomach fluttering. With adrenaling flowing through her veins and her skin haven't feeling contact with someone else's for so long, she makes a decision. A quick, and a little foolish one.

She pushes her lips against yours, her eyes closing and her breathing speeding up even more. And to her biggest surprise...you kiss back right away. It's all happening so fast. One minute you're nearly killing eachother, and in the other, you're passionately making out with her hands under your clothes, feeling your skin with your weapons thrown to the side.

"Asshole. You fired at me." Mizu mumbles into the kiss, her hands firmly feeling up the skin on your sides, while you rin your hands down her spine.

"Dickhead. You kept me tied up for weeks." You mumble back, gently biting into her lower lip, which Mizu rewards with a small gasp. Suddenly, she feels your hands under her clothes too.

"I knew it." You whisper. "A man could never have a soul like yours." You say and pull her back into a kiss. You feel her knees between your legs, pushing at your core, and in response you squeeze one of her breasts. Mizu starts to get rid of your clothes one by one, and as she does that, you quickly strip her of her own too.

Mizu's slander fingers slowly travel to your slit, but as she does, you grip her wrist and stop her. "No." You mumble. "Not like this." You flip her over (not easily though, she fights back even now), and look down at her naked form, quickly throwing away her chest bindings too.

"Fuck..." You mumble as you carefully align your core with hers, your clits touching, and moving together with every breath. And as you start to move gently, holding yourself up on your hands next to her head, you can hear her moan. She grinds back against yours, your juices mixing together. Even in this moment, it's as if you're both fighting for dominance. You don't know when will Mizu just reach up and choke you to death, but honestly? That's the best part.

You feel her hands around you, one clawing at your back, the other on your jaw...then cheeks, then lips, then the last thing you know is that she's forcing a finger inside of your mouth while you quietly moan and bite down on it. In response you push harder against her, almost squishing her clit with yours, which end in a louder moan from both of you.

"Can't...can't fucking take it..." Mizu moans, pushing her finger deeper inside your mouth before she retreats it, and uses her other hand to pull on your hair instead.

"What? Gonna cum? Ha." You manage to murmur out, not being able to stop your hips, feeling yourself getting closer to the edge too.

"You...fucking wish...ah!" Mizu's whole body twitches as you angle yourself a little differently, giving a whole new sensation to both of you, making you bite into her shoulder while she grips a handful of your hair thightly. And with that, a louder, choked back moan escpaed from both of you...being in perfect balance with eachother, and reaching your climax at the same time.

You stay there, just quietly panting and laying there, on top of eachother in silence for a while. You ahve your face burried into Mizu's neck, basking in her scent while Mizu still has her hand in your hair, feeling it's texture against her cheek.

"...you gotta go through a tunnel." You mumble.

"What?" Mizu perk up, lifting your head by your hair to look into your eyes.

"To get into Fowler's castle. You gotta go through a tunnel that is like...twenty steps away from the road's end and is filled to the brim with traps." You mumble, having your eyes open only halfway. "You gotta head East after you leave the last small village before the forest."

Mizu takes all that in. Now she knows how to get there...now she knows everything. "So that's what it took you to talk? For me to fuck you?"

"I fucked you." You say with a huff and get off of her, putting your clothes back on. "Well, I guess you got what you wanted, and I'm free too." You say, not really sure why. There are no ropes holding you back anymore, so...íthis is your cue to leave, isn't it?

"Wait, where are you going?" Mizu sits up, looking after you.

"Back to Fowler." You shrug. "I'm still his right hand. He probably sent men to find me." You sigh as you finish dressing up. "See you...at the castle." You say, look at her above your shoulder.

"..." Mizu narrows her eyes. "Fuck you." She spits.

"Check." You put on that so familiar smug smirk and hold up a thumbs up. "Spare me a seat in the audience when you cut his head off." You wave as you start walking away.

"...like a fucking stray cat." Mizu sighs, and before you dissappear, the last thing she sees is your wink.

[aihaitahm]

Hello! Do you mind doing headcanons of dan heng, blade and jing yuan with a reincarnated s/o?? Like their s/o died in the past long ago in a war or something but got reincarnated again, the s/o doesn't remember them right away, thank you so much in advance ❤❤❤

hsr men and how they react to reuniting with reincarnated! s/o!

cw death, ooc? gn! reader, more in depth abt blade’s lore so i hope its correct !! been looking into it. kinda angst —> comfort.

sorry for the wait!! been busy but hope u like it:3

characters: dan heng, blade, jing yuan

dan heng

up to this day, he remembers the promises you both made, what you liked, disliked and everything about you. although reminiscing does not hurt him like it used to, it still makes him long for your presence.

the type to get dreams of you and when you tell him in his dreams that you will most certainly meet again, he is patient enough to wait. maybe it was foolish to rely on dreams but his desire to meet you and love you again is immeasurable.

time passed by and dan heng was still waiting, wearing the bracelet you always wore. he would always fiddle on it when he is worried. maybe he should stop waiting? but what if you appear when you stop waiting?

when himeko and welt came back from an expedition, they brought in a new member of the astral express. their name happened to be (name) and they happen to have similar features to the one dan heng has always remembered.

dan heng’s eyes widened as he realized his dreams were correct. you were correct. he continued to stare at you while doing your introduction. you looked ethereal, you looked timeless as if youve never aged the last time hes seen you and it was like youve always been alive.

you caught up on his staring after you introduced yourself to the astral express and vice versa. you somehow cant put a finger on why he does look familiar but you felt at ease just being with him.

“um… dan heng correct? we have the same bracelet, can i ask where did you get it from? also do i know you?”

“i got this from someone who i used to know and their name was also (name). they made it for me.”

blade

after sacrificing himself to become a blade, his memory of you was not the best however he still felt the same intensity of emotions he held whenever he remembers your name. he doesnt know if its a blessing or a curse.

despite being blade, some parts of him is still ren. and ren has intense feelings for you. blade for some reason remembers the last argument you both had before you died. you were concerned about him possessing and delving into more power which lead to him being defensive and arguing with you.

as much as blade likes remembering you, your touch, your love and you in general, he cant help but harbour some guilt and sadness. he’d prefer if he left your name alone in peace. even though he wants to get to know you again and apologize, what was the point if you were dead. if your lives werent meant to meet each other again in any universe? it would be best if he just forgets about you.

fast forward and his bad luck struck him or this is probably in elios’ script but he was now arrested by the cloud knights of xianzhou alliance. it wasnt much of big of a deal to be honest but while in his cell, one of the cloud knights didnt have a helmet on, guarding his room.

he caught a glimpse of your face and this unlocks a lot of his memories as ren. how… timely, ironic it was to be held captive by your own reincarnation. its as if the heavens really planned it from the start.

you felt him staring at your face and which you snarled asking if theres something wrong. he just continously stared and smirked. you couldnt shake a feeling of familiarity with blade but aeons its an unbearable feeling but why would you say this to the general or other cloud knights… they might just interrogate you.

“you know if youre not going to answer my question well so be it. i know ive seen you in my dreams. i know we’ve met before. i know you know me from somewhere. but who are you?”

“you are bold as ever… but you should maybe figure out things on your own? its no fun giving you all the answers is it not? my new appearance is a clue, i’ll give you that.”

jing yuan

you knew jing yuan as your sparring mate whenever he was under jingliu and you under a different master. you both trained to becoming the strongest and maybe compete for the highest title of the alliance.

you sparred almost everyday with him. he enjoyed every moment he has with you. whether it was going for walks or eating food with you, it is a cherishable moment for him and you too. as you both grew into your teen years, you both happened to confess at the same time and became official.

unfortunately, your death caught up with you quickly. jing yuan was still quite young to experience grief but it didnt hinder him to train the hardest. jingliu wasnt in particular fond of you in the first place since you were distacting him.

without letting his master know, jing yuan would write letters to you everyday about what hes doing and how much he loves you. wherever you are he knows you both are in the same world or universe one way or another. he keeps most of your possessions because he believes it is his goodluck charm.

when he became general, he still wrote letters to you and even ask some of his servants to make a mini statue of your weapon to be displayed, in exchange for great amounts of money. he deeply misses you and he knows he carries a great amount of responsibility now that he is a leader. he secretly prays he gets to meet you again, even for one last time.

one faithful morning, he stumbled across a familiar face while shopping miscellaneous stuff for his cute mimi because he accidentally bumped into you pretty hard.

“ouch! be mindful of where you’re…. i-i apologize! i didnt mean to.”

“oh its alright it is actually my fault, i apologize. sorry to ask you this question but is your name (name)?”

“yes it is… why do you ask?

… on second thought i think you look familiar asides from the fact youre the general, i feel like i’ve known you before.”

[thedomesticanthropologist]

In one of my playthroughs, my Tav is having a TIME with Astarion, and it's a version of his romance I don't see represented online as much and I want to talk about it.

If you choose more lightweight dialogue options, if you don't dig into his mind at the bite scene, if you get his Araj confession instead of his impromptu one,

Then by the end of Act 2, you do *not* have a secure relationship AT ALL, he has never said he's in love, and everything feels REALLY rocky.

All through act 1 he lays on the seduction heavily, but in act 2 a bitch is MAD. He is stressed, he needs to figure out his scars, he feels hunted and un-safe and because of this, he starts to take it out on Tav a bit.

SPOILERS FOR ACT 2:

when Raphael shows up to talk to him, he snaps at Tav saying "don't get in my way". When you do his quest and kill the orthon, you have to PRY a thank you from him by literally telling him to parrot your words ('thank you for helping me, it was very... Kind') and he spits it out like he really, really wasnt intending to say anything in the form of gratitude.

When you talk about what to do about Cazador, my Paladin chose 'youll never be free while he lives' because it's true. If he runs, cazador will hunt him. If cazador lives, he will never stop looking over his shoulder. His reply 'i hate that you're right'

Even when you say you'll join him to hunt his master down, you can watch his facial expressions and see: he's not convinced. Of course he isn't. He's terrified. And is he grateful? Yes, but again, it's guarded.

I then went to moonrise and talked to Araj, and I defended his autonomy 100%.

When his Araj-confession happened, it was absolutely NOT a LOVE confession. It was more like:

"thank you. This made me realize I was still acting like a slave even in freedom, and you supporting me there made me feel like I can start to snap out of that kind set. Sooooo... I should tell you, since you did me a solid, that I was using you for protection and manipulating you up until now"

If you DONT choose the top options, the MOST he tells you about how he feels about you is a single line of dialogue

'imagine my surprise when I started to actually feel... SOMETHING... For you'

This could be friendship, crush feels, etc. It's VERY vague, and important things to note is while WE THE PLAYER know more about him and what he may feel at this point or what he's gone through, YOUR TAV DOESNT.

He does not apologize for using you. He states his regret that his plan failed because he started to value you as a person instead of a tool for him to be used. That admission is his gift back to you for defending him in front of Araj.

If you then choose 'what do YOU want' he approves, but says he doesn't know. And then he defends that 'isnt it nice not to know?' You still get soft faces, your hand held. He's trying to *silently* communicate what he can't bring himself to say, but he *DOESNT* SAY anything to affirm you two are a couple/in a relationship/etc. Just a vague 'lets not talk about it but see where it goes'

Honestly, based on this experience via dialogue choices for this character, it almost seemed to me like "sounds like you need a friend not a lover" makes the MOST SENSE. Of course this is my Astarion Romance run, so my Paladin instead said, basically, I'll wait for you until you're ready. (She chose the 'what do you want,' and let it lay there as is)

Afterwards you can ask about your relationship with him and again, he's flustered, he's hedging, he's defensive, and he brushes it off. He's not ready to talk, he's not ready to commit, he's fully focused on Cazador and his safety.

You enter this waiting period where Tav has been manipulated, spoken down to, snapped at, bitten, and responded to without gratitude, but is ALSO given just the faintest, BAREST glimpse at the vulnerability beneath the surface. The player is being asked at this point to REALLY trust and WAIT without ANY evidence that this relationship could become healthy, or could turn into love, or could because a real relationship. And that's SO NEAT

If you don't romance anyone else and aren't put into the position to choose him, you never get a confirmation of dating. If you get the Araj scene and don't choose hug, and don't force him to confirm he was attracted to you etc, you can literally end the talk on "thanks for defending me, also haha I was using you this whole time just so you know, thanks for being nice about it"

From a Tav point of view, this *could* be fairly devastating, and even if Tav decides to wait and keep supporting him, at this point, even post "confession" there is VERY little evidence that things are gonna get better between you.

We know it does. WE do. We get the access to other dialogue and choices or the other confession IF we chose that. But this, this scene, these dialogue choices REALLY emphasize his Act 3 confession

"you were patient. You waited, through blood lust etc /even when it was an objectively stupid thing to do etc"

Cause yeah. He's RIGHT. If you don't choose VERY specific dialogues to get more out of him, most of his romance up until the Act 3 confession,most of how he treats you, most of how he responds to your decisions in game (if you're playing fairly good and not evil/durge) gives Tav no reason beyond faith to continue to pursue him.

I think he knows this, and it's why he's surprised when you state you don't want him for sex. Because up until Act 3, he KNOWS how he's been treating Tav and even HE wouldn't have stood for it if the roles were reversed, so h thinks 'it must be because I'm good in bed'. Then he takes the sex away and you still stay? Even when he's chasing power, hunting for revenge, snapping at you, refusing to commit?

It's a powerful story line. It's so engaging. And it has room for SO MUCH ANGST

Anyways thanks for coming to my Ted Talk

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for talking shit about and leaving a friend with severe mental health issues?

(CW for mental health issues, self harm, and transphobia)

For context, everyone in this story is pretty young, in Year 11/12 (American equivalent would be sophomore/junior year) and we live in a pretty religious country

I (16M) met a friend (15F) through her approaching me and saying my pins (including a pride pin) was cool. We clicked immediately, i went over for sleepovers and became close with even her mom. I only once brought up politics offhandedly, and she got quite uncomfortable, but i thought nothing of it at the time.

She constantly told me that I was her only friend who "understood" her, and would be there for her, so I never brought it up again. However, when I was introducing her to another friend (who is very gnc and identified as transfemme at the time) we opened up her youtube reccomended and it was quite literally disgusting.

JK rowling, terf videos and tradwifes galore. Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro, you name it, she had literally nothing except videos titled shit like "trans people mutilate themselves".

I was very hurt, because I happen to be trans, as well as most of my friends and my partner. I questioned her, but she pulled the "mental illness" defense. I was scared of her hurting herself so i apologised (to my other friend) and tried distancing myself from her, admittedly made a few jokes at her expense to others.

She began being more radicalised, positing insane, borderline qanon stories, but my plan to cut her off was interrupted by her going missing and me having to be the one coaxing her back to school, i felt she was too dependant on me to be as harsh as i shouldve been.

The final straw came when she 1) said she thought of my (healed) scars as something that encouraged her to self harm and 2) when i found out she outed me and my partner as T4T and queer to a random transphobic youtuber to put in a cringe compilation. this was not only immature but really dangerous to us.

Heres where I might be TA: my partner confronted her because he was worried about my mental health, and she apparently showed up to school and cried. I felt bad, but when i first found about it i laughed about it, and didnt support her even when i knew she had no other friends.

My partner asked her to either stay away from me or not express her beliefs, and as a result she called me crying that night, borderline suicidal, and in a panic I soothed her and said I wasnt going anywhere. A couple days later, a mutual friend sent me the screenshots of her outing us, and I think that sort of made me snap.

She used her religion as a shield against finding us "disgusting" and wanted a video made against us etc etc, describing horrible statistics and threats, describing "mutilation" and I felt like i couldnt endorse that attitude towards trans people in good faith, so i argued with her over text, with her accusing me of manipulating her multiple times.

Again, I mightve fucked up here because I called my friends while texting her and talked shit about her during this confrontation, sending screenshots of our private dms to them, and afterwards she became a bit of an inside joke within our friend group- she also left the school because i think she had barely any other friends.

I cant help but feel like i shoudve been more mature about it, and especially because she was ill, i dont want to be That Guy that makes fun of vulnerable people, even if she sucked herself. So, tumblr, AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[dullahandyke]

N e way nrmt showdown was soooo boring and unattached in aa5 so heres my fucked up 5-5 courtroom setup for guaranteed mental illness

Defendant athena. This is the same.

JUDGE AURA. this is so so fucking important to me. She got 14 LINES TOTAL in that trial, she is supposed to be RUNNING the show!!! Itd be cooler if she entirely subsumed the judge, but she does want it to be somewhat legitimate so she probably just menaces the judge into asking permission to tell the prosecution to call its witnesses

Apollo on defense. You dont even have to change damselling trucy (even though you should). I think itd suuuuper fuck w him that not only is he hesitant to accuse athena as in canon, he is also her only line of defense. If he turns on her then it is game fucking over and so he HAS to push through it even though he doesnt believe it and he is for sure gonna crack on that midway thru the trial. Plus it extends the way aura kept plying him w evidence n shit.

Simon on prosecution. Imagine. Fucking IMAGINE. You spend YEARS in prison to protect a little girl from a death sentence and only a day before you are executed and take 'the truth' to your grave, your sister explodes onto the scene and smashes your plan into nothingness. Aura is burning all her fucking bridges with this one. Simons facade is PAPER thin at this point, because he suddenly has to pivot hard into 'hardened criminal narrowly escaping execution by throwing athena under the bus' so nobody suspects the bias is in the other direction, because, well, hes a death row criminal, surely he would be ecstatic to be freed! Itd be odd if he wasnt. He is the only person in this court unwaveringly opposed to her being found guilty and he is the one in charge of getting her found guilty. Aura is ruining everything he ever planned for by getting athena found guilty to save himself, except instead of actively taking the blame, he is being forced to actively blame her.

Do you understand me do you see my vision. Havent played 5-5 in a hot minute but I'm always rotating this in my head

[altruistic-meme]

beep boop for the ask -> 💗

hehehe

💗Is there a scene you can’t wait to write for a WIP?

a few! I'm actually lowkey excited to write the smut scenes in dare and nstk lmao (still terrified but also excited)

also one of the very important scenes for nstk but that's mostly bc I wrote a different characters POV of it (while planning dare) and not the character we'll be following in nstk OR in dare :') so I've got a completely outside POV that I can't wait to translate into the other POV.

I've also already,,, half-written a few scenes for dare accidentally when I was outlining that I'm excited to fully flesh out and properly incorporate into the story once its actually being written

AND I'm excited to write the scene in (wit)jitp where Andrew learns Nathaniel’s whole plan aaaaa that's going to be Very Fun I think, especially with the developments that will happen between them from now to then >:]

[hdra77]

Hello, I just browsed your whole disarray AU tag and I think it's really cool. It's a little hard to tell what is it about but from what I can tell everyone is evil and corrupted for some reason (except for NSH?) There was an old ask talking about Pebbles and NSH's friendship, and I wanted to ask if you could tell more about that their friendship in this AU is like if you feel like it

Hello anon!! Thank you so much for taking your time to look into my au that means a lot to me!! 💗💗 sorry if some parts may be a bit confusing lol ive had pmvs planned to explain the plot better but thats been on the back burner for a while

To explain it simply, the triple affirmative occurred except that its something that could possibly make their kind turn on against each other.

Triple affirmative is a type of virus that spreads throughout the iterator's system and they would slowly rot on the inside as time passes. And the process is very very painful imagine your insides getting fried and there is nothing you can do about it but to lash out at others and infecting your kind in a desperate attempt to dull down the excruciating pain.

Basically this virus would just straight up kill them in the end it would keep on infecting their system until they shut down and collapse. Because of this others finds a way to search for the cure and some others accepts this fate.

Soo not everyone in the au are evil! Atleast for the first half of the plot.

All of the cast would have atleast one or two major flaws in them and it depends if you see their actions justified or just plain right evil.

Focusing on the early timeline where pebbles wasnt infected yet. If you noticed some of the pebbles asks recently the sign that this takes place before his corruption is his white eyes and sometimes seen with his golden irises!

Not exactly sure where im going with this lol but explaining more about pebbles and nsh's friendship:

Pebbles met sig through suns and he only grew to tolerate NSH because in his own perspective, taking in the false belief to see the image of his administrator infront of him instead of his friend is his way of coping from the abandonment of his creators. Which isnt..a good way to start a friendship if he only treated sig as a manifestation of someone else honestly

Slowly,but eventually sig managed to get pebbles to let him show him around outside his can and encouraging him to explore the places together and this was enough for pebbles to snap out of his delusion and see the iterator in front of him. NSH, the real him. not just a tool for him to cope with.

They became close, having a supportive friend that always pulls him out of his hole and encouraging him to have a more positive take in life despite the dying surroundings around them that makes it harder for pebbles to even believe that theres something beautiful in a world who wants to die. This is basically just a opportunistic friend and the pessimistic friend. NSH isnt always that opportunistic type of guy though, even after the ancients left the entire ecosystem in destruction he still finds beauty in things and he shows pebbles signs of life seeping through the cracks still finding its way back to reclaim the dying world.

Their friendship became more strained right after pebbles got in contact of his sister once again. Pebbles had become a lot more defensive and pushing others aside until his disappearance and the last time he had been in contact was with suns. This reason tear their friendship apart especially how sig suspects that suns had been keeping secrets from him and that they could even be involved in his disappearance.

So in an attempt to search for pebbles, sig sent hunter to investigate pebbles' superstructure. And it all goes from there

I may have gotten carried away like most of the time! But thats a simple explanation of how their friendship came to be! Friendship lore !! Hope this clears things up 💕 if you got any questions just ask me!

[that-one-paintbrush]

Hey, Paintbrush here!

Recently noticed that a few others at Hotel OJ have made some tumblr blogs, so I decided to as well! Welcome to my blog, all :)

I'm Paintbrush (they/them) and I've competed on three seasons of Inanimate Insanity! Season three just ended and I've just been chilling at Hotel OJ for a while. Not doing much else, so I'll probably be answering asks frequently.

DISCLAIMER: this ask blog has (unintentionally) become an au

if you want to get the full context, feel free to scroll down certain lore tags or check out the archive! -mod

Tags of interest:

#painty yapping: Paintbrush answering asks, sometimes used for reblog convos

#painty posting: explained here!

#misc asks: Asks that don't particularly have anything to do with a plot line

#bristle blather: Asks or convos specifically related to Paintbrush's bristles

#burnt-out brush: Posts where Paintbrush aint doing so hot... also includes the mini arc where Painty ran away and Backgroundy temporarily took over answering

#magic anon: Temporary events that can be applied on the blog

#rough sketch duo: Posts that feature both Paintbrush and Animatic (from Animatic Battle), Animatic usually played by @animaticaskblog

#backgroundy: A character introduced through a magic anon event, backgroundy is a friendly face on the wall that occasionally shows up on this blog. ....or are they? friendly i mean. backgroundy clearly has a lot to hide, and becomes quite defensive upon being asked about their past

#torch/inner flame: angry paintbrush? wrong! a completely separate character!! torch is a secretive and smooth-talking individual that possesses paintbrush at seemingly random times. also narrates paintbrush's actions

#flooding memories chronicles: Posts taking a dive into Backgroundy's obscure past!

#rediscovering fire chronicles: Paintbrush has an inner flame now. WHAT!!! oh just kidding theyre just possessed. hi torch!! whats your backstory?

#false contract chronicles: AAAAAA SPRINGYS HERE HES GONNA HIRE US ALL AAAA

#painty yapping and yapping: posts where Paintbrush rambles for an extended amount of time, usually not dialogue

#animaticified saga: paintbrush gets ab animaticified. that's it

#art imitates life chronicles: paintbrushs past wasnt ALL sunshine and rainbows... if only they knew what happened!

#backfire arc: paintbrush makes a terrible no good absolutely horrible bad decision. they suffer the consequences accordingly!

#still waters runs deep chronicles: torch and backgroundy FINALLY talk things over like civilized adults

#history repeats itself chronicles: another life has been created via m!a,,,, waow

#mod kit: Posts from the mod! me!!

hey, mod here! (pandemonium, he/they/she)

there are a few things id like to mention:

this is my first ask blog. in the history of EVER!! so pls be patient with me

dont plan on including ships on this blog! but i dont mind ship-related asks ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ please just dont be weird or mention proships

like i said, dont be weird in the asks! please no nsfw or fetish-y asks either

dont be an asshole pretty please- i dont mind jokes and sarcasm but if ur only here to be a haterade pls leave 🥺

yall can do magic anons if you want! please try not to send too many tho 😁

i made the paintbrush asset myself! pls dont use it or steal it :')

i may not answer asks immediately so please be patient and dont spam or pressure me into answering! i may ignore and refuse to answer any asks if im uncomfortable as well

keep in mind some of what i say may be personal headcanons or made up on the spot! ill stick to canon as much as possible but if theres an opportunity to add a headcanon, ill likely do so

thanks for reading!

[kijosakka]

Thoughts. okay so the total drama drama drama drama island special is interesting mainly bc of team e-scope but im going to take a moment here to ramble about his dynamic with other people here,,

(oh and i didn't have anywhere really to slot it into the other post or segue into it here but dodgebrawl as a Moment demonstrates how [this AU] noah can play the social game, just in a very very different way than how it's normally seen.

he knows what he's doing is going to bother his team and incentivize them to vote, i'd say in this au he even plays up the cockiness and makes veiled personal slights against specific people

(mainly those who would be annoyed enough to vote him off, see: heather, justin, leshawna, cody/trent to some extent if he said smth about gwen? < and gwen herself in that scenario. and to another extent beth, since hes playing up his outright mean traits, which would make lindsay vote with her. i dont think he would do anything specific to/with owen or izzy, since he may see izzy as too volatile and owen too genuine)

in the opposite way of whats expected, sure, but it is a social play. he can pick apart what these people are and what they show and push at it to achieve his own ends (and maybe its even some sort of way for him to regain control in this fundamentally uncontrollable situation he's found himself in; he can be the punishment in foucalt's imagining, to a much smaller degree))

so his teammates,,, do not like him tbh. his flagrant display during dodgeball and everyone being pissed at him after the fact is true in this AU, just coming with different motivations. even after the fact when the frustration of everyone fizzles out, hes still majorly offputting because of his detachedness, and deliberately makes his shown traits very unpalatable to experience in person combined with that.

the only two exceptions are izzy and owen respectively: owens mostly coming from a place of genuineness and im going to say while he wouldnt be able to verbalize it, in some manner owen would clock noahs behavior as a defense mechanism. maybe in the sense of 'hes just scared to open up to people!!' or something similar, but he definitely has a lot more faith that noah really isnt that cold and flat.

[*]izzy feels much the same -- except maybe it comes off more to her as strategic. izzy can act, and might recognize that in noah. if you wanted to you could write this in as to why she was eager to swap teams in the first episode, but it wouldnt change that he does get eliminated and thats all she sees of him until the special -- which, her intrigue in his lacking and the fact that it apparently wasnt strategic to get him further in the game, could help explain why she picks him in the team-up.

[*i have soooo much to say about izzy in this au actually. but ill save it for a diff post]

and speaking of the team-up: team e-scope!!!! :0

my au my rules eva and izzy became really good friends on the playa; izzy isn't afraid of eva (and curbing her anger before it reaches a boiling point) and eva is physically adept enough to restrain izzy from Shenanigans that might be a little Much. but eva doesnt really?? know anything about noah?? but izzy insists on teaming with him for the special (and unbeknownst to her noah wasnt even planning to participate initially) so he must be some level of Not Too Bad if izzy wants anything to do with him that doesnt seem to be related to tormenting the guy

and she thinks hes Fine. apathetic and detached and unpalatable (but then again, everyone in their little trio really is to some degree), but can kind of understand izzys intrigue: hes still A Guy, hes just hidden behind 20 layers of non-substance that are so offputting from the first meeting it makes people steer clear of him.

now with tddddi comes two other pertinent details: the justin line, and the Thing With Duncan.

i personally thing noahs 'he's the anti-me' line is really funny in the context of canon but if you squint it kinda works here? wherein justin is non-speaking yet flaunts himself to be the center of attention and clearly shows intent and capacity to scheme (underdeveloped or no, see: awakeathon), whereas noah speaks a lot yet lets himself fade into the background, showing vague hints of the capacity to scheme but no intention or palpable ambition behind it.

^ am i reaching? maybe. the other option here is noah somehow has seen him in-person before on a modeling or red carpet kind of gig and dislikes him on principle because of it/its a jab at it (smth smth they are both opposite ends of the same industry? justin is the face of it in a manner where noah stays behind the scenes and out of sight)

and the thing with duncan,, hear me out here okay noah does his whole song and dance, goes up to him and patronizes him, and duncan retaliates. however, he curses like a sailor and in noah's head has ruined the footage, therefore instead of further retaliating and potentially invoking actual physical harm he just. doesnt react. at all. duncan looks up at him and hes just dead-eyed staring down at him -- and then he leaves.

^ the scene has been ruined, and everyone else is doing so much that theres no reason to play it up any more. duncan and him arent plot important like how heather and lindsay were, theres no reason for the crew to painstakingly edit his swearing out. they just wont let it reach the final cut. duncan is understandably very confused by this, but at that point noah was already gone to find eva and izzy again (< this is when the cast having a running bet that noahs and android becomes Not a Joke)

but life goes on!!! and in the worlds worst comedy of errors (for noah), izzy ends up dragging him along into the lake, thereby leaving him as a confirmed member of the next season.

^ noah is so angry at this. popping blood vessels. he argues with chris endlessly, straight frothing at the mouth at only having two days of real reprieve before he has to deal with the Same Shit again. and chris gets this, to some degree, but also knows that if theres no explanation for noahs non-appearance to hand the producers, theyll be pissed (since all things considered, noahs pretty damn popular among the fans)

luckily for him, courtney just filed a lawsuit against the show!! and since chris is busy running said show, the producers do not want to deal with it and are willing to hand off the case to anyone else -- hence, chris officially signs noah on as his PA, and noah takes over the court settlements and whatnot.

< though i do imagine the producers would see it as a 'get out of the show' scheme, and thereby push way harder for his involvement in WT as a result

but noah does get a break!!! for now, at least.