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savnofilter · 1 year

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On to Better Things | k. bakugo

Pro Hero!DILF!Katsuki Bakugo x [FEM] Reader

CONTENT WARNING(S): sexual content, angst, strangers to lovers.

sfw — toxic & abusive relationship, toxic baby daddy, mentions postpartum, mental health, arguing, mentions of legal proceedings, counseling, drama, cultural family expectations, love bombing, manipulation, a man being a hypocrite, reader low-key needs a new circle of people around them but that's neither here nor there, reader loves their daughter to pieces </3, reader's daughter is a hand full but we stan!, reader spaces out a lot, "our kids are best friends but we never met before and so happen to be single" trope.

nsfw — sexual content, pro hero!bakugo sorry not sorry lmao, bakugo got rizz, fingering, cunnilingus, groping, praise kink, reader has multiple orgasms (2, hinted 4), reader is a bit shy as it's been awhile and feels nervous, vocal queen reader, clothed sex, protected sex, comforting!bakugo, non-established relationship.

COUNT: 11.4k words (45 mins.)

READ MORE: masterlist + [students | bakugo]

A/N: whooph the warnings… imo, it's nothing too serious, but yk i gotta put the warnings up!! it's not graphic, but it does talk ab the stuff listed. i didnt know how else to craft a toxic ex-baby daddy type of situation, and it divulged into this 😭 also use yalls brains with the sfw & nsfw discernment for the warnings… ofc i do not take lightly about what's written, so dont twist it any other way and the heavier subjects being under sfw. i digress!! ive been wanting to write this request for a while and finally got around to it. unfortunately, i alr want to rewrite. :') despite that, i actually kinda really liked this one so i hope yall fw it too. 🫶🏽 thank you, anon!

"Mommy!" Your daughter, Niyuki, calls out to you as she runs into your arms.

She had recently turned 6 years old and still loves the end of the day on Fridays where she could run into your arms, and recount everything about what she had learned that week. Niyuki is pretty much a chatterbox and you weren't too sure where she got it from considering that even your… ex wasn't quite the talkative one either. As you grew to love this quality about her, you found it endearing. Phone calls with her were always a delight and that was how she had persuaded (begged) you to let her go to the park despite having other plans for the day.

You had promised on Monday that she would be able to go to the park in addition to ending her day Friday night off with having a sleepover with her best friend. Niyuki, being an excitable kid, wanted to go straight from school to the park so she wouldn't waste any more time than she already had.

"Hi, Niyuki!" You beam back, a loving smile on your face as you pepper her face in kisses, and hold her cheeks as she tries to shy away with her boundless amounts of giggles. "How was your da-"

"Great -- Mommy you promised we could go to the park today!" Niyuki lightly pushes away from you, a slight whine to her voice as she attempts to get away from your onslaught of affection.

"We can still go, I can't greet my little angel first before I do that?" You poke her cheek as you stand up straight and hold your hand out for her to hold. "Tell me about your day, pumpkin."

There was a skip in her step as she recounted her day to you. When Niyuki gets started, she never stops. She talked about the first moment her feet reached the school grounds, to before school had started, then she talked about her first few classes, after that what she did during lunch and how much fun she had at recess, the "drama" (very unserious but nevertheless cute) that happened before classes resumed and so on. Niyuki is also the animated type and could often run out of breath when she talks. She would use her hands and voice inflictions just to convey what she was speaking about. Sometimes, you even had to remind her to slow down and that time was going nowhere when talking with you.

It was moments like this when you could take in the rambunctiousness and appreciate your lovable daughter. You two only seemed to have special moments like these—well, at least you thought they were special—because of the separation between you and your toxic ex.

Before you two had split your relationship had been decent. Despite that though, you were incredibly in love with him, but the same wasn't reciprocated in a way that emotionally gave back. He'd make excuses as to why he wasn't open to you, his reasoning that he "loved differently" and that if you really loved him you would believe him. So you did. Over, and over, and over again. Hoping that the days where he showed up like in the beginning would become more frequent, but your willingness to stay was how he knew he could toy with you.

He had been your first when you had finally agreed to be an item when you were in your early twenties and it took a long time to finally separate from him when things got bad. In addition to dealing with the conflicting feelings of your then-boyfriend, your friends who only wanted the best for you, and your close family members, you also had to deal with yourself. Nights and days spent venting and breaking down about the man had become so common that your friends' concerns grew. You had so many negative thoughts at that time and you were naive to truly believe that there was a happy ending to overcome this predicament. That his way of loving could change for both of you. His manipulative questions would often linger in your head if you left him, and who were you to argue? When arguments would start to come up again almost weekly, it always ended up with you an emotional mess while he "proved" to you that he was the only one who could handle you.

When your ex noticed you started to pull away, he suddenly had an interest in starting a family. Late nights where you two would lay in bed after making up, he'd share his daydreams about you mothering his children, how beautiful and perfect you'd be to fit in his little world.

Family this, family that. Family values, family roles, family life. You two had been friends since you both were in high school, and it only made sense that you two were dating now and getting married soon. Hell, he even made you question what would your family think if you were "running around" instead of being faithful to him. Imagine the embarrassment to your family if you threw all of that away and weren't able to find someone else like him?

People talk, people notice. Many of the older women noted how great you two looked together, and he was well off with a great future that could support you both. Neither did it help that you changed your once passionate future for being a pro-hero to a different career that was deemed less reliable than your previous choice. It was in your best interest that you stayed with him to avoid the awful gossip in town.

When you haven't been in a situation like yours with an inconsiderate lover, it's hard to understand why you stayed as long as you did. Consequently from being his friend for so long and dating him for years meant he knew the sort of things to target your psyche. To reinforce the pressures you had of making your family look good, mixed with the hidden fears of the burden of following the footsteps of your successful siblings as well.

It was a lot to take in and it wasn't long before you gave in. You just wanted him to be who he was again. The stress only grew older with you and the more time that passed had a looming connotation that the older you got the more undesirable and unfit you are to find another relationship. Even past that, you gave so many years to him. You were a virgin when you two had met, and he had already been around. He knew how to kiss you right, he memorized your soft spots and remembered the best ways to make you come undone. He'd expertly sweet talk you after each session, and on days when you were feeling down he would be the first person to show up, usually bearing gifts of some sort coupled with affection. You couldn't understand what had changed. Why did he decide to start treating you like this? You were vulnerable and scared, and nothing like the familiar could ease the fabricated feeling of comfort.

You thought that having his child would finally fix things but you were so wrong. So very, very wrong. After your first semester in the pregnancy, you had heard talk about people seeing your supposed boyfriend—the father of the child you were soon to birth—with other women. Of course, you didn't believe it, and you refused to listen when your friends tried to tell you. In this stage, you were mostly shut in, as this was taught to be the best preparation for giving birth. You couldn't fathom the fact he would stoop so low. He had his low moments, but not like this. He would never.

He had disconnected you from everyone who had truly cared for you and even convinced your family that you were safe and protected with him. It wasn't until one evening when he had the gall to meet one of his mistresses outside of your house is when you realized it was all true, but it was all too late.

You were an emotional wreck for days. You had hit your lowest and it didn't help that your delivery date was getting closer every day that passed. You'd weep to yourself when you were sure he wasn't around and soon enough the house that you had (forced) yourself to love had once again become a prison. A night when you were tired of the pain is when you decided to reach out to your friends and family again. It was a shameless plea for help and you didn't care how desperate you looked and you wanted out. At first, your parents weren't supportive of the fact that you wanted to leave the man but you didn't care. You wanted to leave everything behind and not give this horrible chapter in your life a look back ever again. With enough talking and white lies, you were able to make a workaround to at least get back up on your feet after your delivery.

The delivery of your daughter, Niyuki, was thankfully a smooth one. Not at all enjoyable but very few complications came along the way when the time came. You had made a deal with your parents that you would stay with them so you could comfortably recover from the delivery whilst being able to safely be under their vision when your ex and his in-laws would come over. Your friends started to visit when you were healing more and had even convinced you to go out with them which you hadn't done for over a year. You were utterly scared as you had missed such a large chunk of socialization that even you didn't think you could do it. But once the night started, you didn't want to go back.

One night out became two, then three, four, five, and so on. The time you were home lessened and it didn't help that your friends were more than willing to let you take refuge at their homes. It wasn't like you were going crazy but the high that you got from drinking and even sometimes having flings became addicting and it felt satisfactory in the way you felt autonomy over your body once again.

You'd ignore the calls from your parents and family including your in-laws, especially any communication from your ex. You had ghosted the situation. The most emotionally taxing period of your life was now being forcefully ignored. You'd spend your time if not partying, then out clubbing. Even when you weren't out on benders, you'd stay up all night and indulge in the fact you were being taken care of by friends. And while you deeply appreciated their hospitality, it was also a double-edged sword. You had dropped out of college, you were no longer reliable and the flings and high feelings were no longer distracting you from the fact that you had some serious issues to deal with.

It got to a point where you'd lay in whoever's spare room and drown in thoughts about the situation you were in. A year before then, you had been stuck with your ex, and somehow a year and a half later you had no idea what that situation was like in that home.

Anxiety and suffocating emotions would swallow you often as the memories of your toxic and abusive ex would soon follow the baby girl you had given birth to. Niyuki. You'd remember her smile, the way she giggled, and how active she was. Although you had only spent about a few months or so with her, you'd remember her bright smile. You'd remember the way her eyes shone when she looked at new things or heard new words—how her face always lit up when she heard your voice, felt your presence, or saw your face. The emptiness without her would eat at you and it was time to forcefully welcome a new cycle of you falling into a depression once again.

At this point, you had lost your job, didn't have any urge to pick up any new hobbies or skills and you'd lay in bed all day. Going out until early mornings trying to ignore the fact that you weren't happy in your current state no longer worked anymore. It was a draining process to get back up but you were willing to give your life a go again. You started looking for jobs that hopefully had good pay and were willing to hire someone with this big of a time gap in their resume. While still couch hopping, you still had places to stay so fortunately you didn't need to worry about that.

When you eventually came around to wanting to be in Niyuki's life again, it was too late. Of course, when you had finally decided to start to better yourself and the suffocating feeling of postpartum had slowly dwindled over time, he was there to make sure that you couldn't take control back of your life. Your ex had found out why you had been gone for so long and eventually had things filed so that he would have sole custody. It seemed as though no matter what you did, he was always ten steps ahead of you. And this time you knew that your support from your family was even less than before.

He had swindled the courts and your families to the point that he painted you as a deadbeat and to the courts, it didn't seem as though there was any evidence to contradict that. Eventually, as you went through counseling and legal support were you able to at least gain visitation, an absence of early childhood not being any signs or indicators that you were unfit to see your own daughter.

It was humiliating settling back into your life and getting back up on your feet. Your parents demanded that you would stay with them as a reassurance that you were serious about getting your shit together and you didn't want to argue. Although with their calloused nature sometimes, they did take care of you well. You couldn't tell what they were thinking but they treated you as gently as they could. Even your family members would come and help out from time to time and it made your recovery better. As stated by the courts, as long as the grandparents (either your parents or in-laws) were there to supervise, a social worker, or the dreaded last option, your ex, was there you would be able to spend time with your daughter.

Months would pass and soon years would follow. When you had shown no signs of negligence or malice occurring in your visits, the judge allowed that you didn't need supervision. Your ex protested but it went unheard. Plus your willingness to get your life together showed your dedication so it was a blessing that you were able to get back to a somewhat decent and regular life despite what has happened. Of course the label that had been placed on you wasn't fully gone, but you were at least able to see your own daughter again.

Which is why you deeply cherish moments like this. After inspections at your apartment, the courts approved that your daughter has now been allowed to stay a few days at your place, and this weekend she was scheduled to stay with you. She would get dropped off by him on Thursdays after school, but you limited the talk to only what was important. Usually, on the first day you get her for the week, you do something with her that she's been wanting to do. As much as you wanted to do it right away, you did make sure her homework was done (she would do it at school just so she could spend more time with you though). Despite her determination, you would still check her work and teach her the things she got wrong much to her dismay. You'd make sure you're on time to drop her off to her evening classes and still wake up early to cook her breakfast every Friday morning. Then you'd drop her off and then pick her up at the end of the day seeing as she had no evening classes on weekends.

"We're here, we're here!" Niyuki cheered, the sweet but mischievous smile never leaving her face when around you.

"It's so pretty out! Wanna get some ice cream, Niyuki?"

"Yes, please!"

After you park your car you hop out and help her out of her seat, holding out your hand for her to take as she knows the routine already. Niyuki admires the familiar park although she has been to numerous times. The way she gazes at everything looks as though this is her first time seeing the place, and this kind of wonder behind her eyes isn't unique to this particular place. No matter how many times she has been somewhere or seen something, her eyes always shine with curiosity and wonder. You can't help but watch her with a faint smile, never wanting to forget what her face looks like ever again.

"Which ice cream do you want, Niyuki?" You ask once you two reach the truck, an assortment of colorful ice cream pictures is decorated on the side of the vehicle.

"Hmm…." Niyuki thoughtfully hums. She raises her free hand to comically tap on her chin as she thinks, the gesture urging a laugh from both you and the ice cream salesman. "Can I have the one with the," She leans closer and points to it, "SpongeBob with the bubblegum, please!"

You think to yourself as you settle for something that's to your tastes, relaying your order to him and searching for your wallet to pay for the cold, sweet treats.

You look over at the man and he nods before leaving to the back, "Coming right up."

In no time at all you two are grabbing ice cream and heading to the playscape. Today was a bit hotter than what you were both expecting so you made a challenge that whoever was able to eat their ice cream without being messy gets to go to bed late tonight. You knew you'd win but it was still amusing to challenge her as her bright spirit came along with a competitive one.

In the midst of you two finishing up your ice cream, a younger but familiar voice calls out to your daughter. You look around confused before spotting a younger girl running towards Niyuki and then engulfing her in a bear hug.

"Mizuki!" Your daughter squeals as they both tightly embrace, her popsicle long forgotten now.

"I didn't know you were coming to the park today!" Mizuki said as she pulled away, still holding onto her best friend. Their bond started from the mere fact that their names sounded similar.

"Yeah, my mommy brought me!" Niyuki pulls away to pull at your dress.

"My dad brought me as a surprise, so I guess it's okay we didn't know!"

The two of them were pretty endearing you couldn't lie. They had been to the same Pre-K together before attending elementary together.

So far you had only met her mother and she was pretty kind. You only knew so much about her though and to your knowledge, she is happily engaged at this point. You two would talk often when the two played, often sharing play dates when it was your turn to have Niyuki on the weekends. That's how Niyuki and Mizuki were able to twin, have sleepovers, etc. While having other friends at school, those two were joined at the hip.

That's why you were utterly confused to hear about her father.

You knew nothing about him except for the fact that he and Mizuki's mother mutually decided that things just weren't working out. It's not like she knew much about your ex either. It seemed as though the separation of parents helped bond the two kids, but you felt saddened at how completely different the two situations were. You sometimes worried if Niyuki was embarrassed by this knowing it wasn't always easy at school due to the teasing.

"Mizuki!" A deeper voice calls out to the young girl. With the young girl's name being called, she turns around and excitedly waves him over. You pause in your tracks as you take him in.

Ashy blonde hair that resembles an explosion sits at the top of his head smothered in appearance by his hat, while his eyes are also covered by a pair of what appeared to be designer sunglasses. He sported a relaxed fit, a gray tank top with a light mesh patterned throw-over that did nothing but tease the muscles underneath the cloth, the colors on it being black and white. The look is finished off with black baggy pants and some boots. You could tell he was attractive even without the cover-up. As you finish up the assessment of your daughter's friend's (hot) dad, it occurs to you the fact that he had sunglasses on doesn't hide the fact that you were totally just checking him out.

"Mizuki, I told you to stop running off like that." He grabs the young girl and gives her a playful nuggy.

"Sorry Daddy!" Mizuki giggles and slips away from him and runs to hide behind you instead, your daughter following. They both peek from behind you, and you have no other choice but to introduce yourself.

"Hi, you're Mizuki's dad, I'm guessing? I'm Y/N, Niyuki's mom." You smile warmly.

He nods at your assumption, his expression still the same as before. "Katsuki, it's great to finally meet the mother of this other troublemaker's friend." He playfully steps in Mizuki's direction and she immediately runs to your other side, giggling.

Something about him was eerily familiar. You couldn't place your finger on it, but you simply chalked it up to the fact you have probably seen him in passing at a few of their birthday parties or so. But something about that didn't feel right… Either way, you ignore it. It wasn't a bad feeling but the fact you couldn't place your finger on it would later down the road bug you. You decide to ask instead.

"Have I seen you—"

"Daddy, can we go to Niyuki's house to watch movies now?" Mizuki cuts you off in the middle of your question, undoubtedly earning a glare from her father.

"Mizuki, what'd I tell you about interrupting people when they talk?" Bakugo lifts his sunglasses this time, his gaze revealing he was solely looking at her.

She pouts using you as a shield once again before tugging on your clothes. "Sorry oba-san…" Mizuki says with one of the deadliest puppy faces you've ever seen. There was no doubt she was one of the cutest 6-year-olds you have ever seen. How could you be annoyed with a look like that?

"It's okay, Mizuki. What were you asking?" You ask them and turn better, bending down a bit to be at both of the girl's levels.

"Can we please watch movies in Niyuki's playroom? Pleeaaseeee?" Mizuki asks and your daughter steps up to beg as well.

"Please, Mommy!! We'll be good too!" Niyuki reasons.

"I'm not sure, ladies…" You trail off as you consider that maybe Katsuki himself probably planned out for the afternoon and didn't want to forcefully make him commit to an impromptu earlier playdate.

"It's alright." Katsuki pipes up and you three look back at him. He lightly shrugs and answers as if he could read your mind, "We were going to play it by ear for the rest of the day anyways."

The two children couldn't quite comprehend the second bit of what he said, but they did understand that it was a yes from what he said in the beginning. They gleefully look at you and start tugging and hugging at you.

"Please, Mommmyyy!" Niyuki pleads, now joining in on giving you a hard to disapprove of puppy look as well.

You lightly laugh and nod your head, finally pulling them in for a proper hug and then giving them a tickle to fend off their offensive stance. "Okay, okay! We can do the movie night! But I want you two to at least spend an hour or so here before agreeing to let you two be cooped up inside for the night."

"Okay!" They exclaim in unison. The moment they break free of your grasp is when they run to the playscape. You sigh as you stand up and give Katsuki a soft smile before properly sitting down on one of the benches. He's close second to following your lead, you both now watching as the two girls play with each other as well as other kids. It seemed most parents decided today was a great day to let their kids out. Mostly because it would tire them out for the night which was a plus.

"I wasn't expecting Niyuki's mother to be so beautiful," Katsuki randomly says, cutting the silence. You look at him with a surprised look on your face, a blush starting to rise on your complexion.

"I could say the same for Mizuki's father." You bashfully laugh and un-subconsciously move to adjust your clothes. Admittedly you were not as designer dressed as he was, nor were you in your best fit. One thing to notice other than his attractiveness is that he has impeccable style. Something that shocked you a little since men in their 20s (especially with kids) don't seem to care too much these days. It wouldn't shock you if he had some sort of unconventional job.

He turns to you when you respond, a teasing smirk now dawning on his face. You don't miss the look-over he gives you and you're sure that he wasn't trying to hide it either. "You know they'll be all tired before they reach halfway through the first movie…"

"That is true…" You play into his words as you look forward instead. You feel your heart start to race when he rests his arm on the back of the bench behind you. You could feel the warmth of his skin through the cloth and welcome it. The weather was too hot but his touch was something you were starting to get curious about. "I guess that'll just leave us two to relax then."

"I could help you with that, I'm a pro at saving people."

You hum at his words, "You're a chivalrous man, that's uncommon these days," a teasing smile to rival him now finds its way on your face. "What else are you good at, Katsuki?"

"I'm also really good with my hands." Katsuki humors you, his hand shifting near your shoulder where his arm lay. "Pretty strong too."

"Ah, so those muscles aren't just for show?" Feeling bold, you reach to rest your hand on his thigh, his muscles immediately flexing under your touch.

He leans in closer to whisper in your ear as he answers, his hand now resting lightly on your shoulder. "I gotta make sure I'm always in shape to save beautiful women like you."

A buzzing near your touch catches you off guard as you try to not completely fold at his words. A catchy ringtone soon follows the buzzing and it's now apparent that what you were feeling was his phone. He pulls away with a huff and pulls out his phone, excusing himself as he answers it.

You exhale a breath you didn't realize you were holding in as he leaves. You can't remember the last time you had talked to a male, much less flirted. Most of your days surrounded working and finishing up school as you wanted nothing but the best for your kid. You didn't go out often anymore, and if you did, you only stuck around with your friends. You couldn't complain but feeling so affected like this was starting to make you feel nervous, almost like when you had got back out into the dating world the first time. You tried not to think about those thoughts.

Now, you were back to watching the girls again and they seemed to be having a blast. The day's heat didn't phase them at all and they played to their heart's content. It seemed as though they were playing cops & robbers with the other kids, and honestly, you didn't care what they were doing as long as they were being safe. The good thing about the friendship between the two was that they always looked out for each other; never mind the fact that their circumstances brought them closer together.

Even with how hard you've been trying to do this mother thing, inescapable thoughts always plagued your mind. Mainly about the fact if your daughter truly wanted to stay with you. This whole arrangement of only getting to see your child three days a week has been going on for about a year and some change now. You know that it'd be too early for her to get "tired" of you, but you can't help the fear of her getting sick of you. One thing was for certain is that you definitely are not as well off as her father although you did make sure to pick up extra shifts when you wanted to get her something real nice.

However, your moment of contemplation comes to an end when two girls come barreling towards you, their approaching giggles making you snap out of your thoughts.

"Mommy!"

"Yes?" Your eyes refocus and you smile softly at the two girls, their wild energy showing how much they truly were out there on the playground having fun.

"Can we have some ice cream please!" Mizuki asks, tugging your arm.

"Please, please, please, PLEASEEE!" Niyuki begs.

You gape a bit overwhelmed at the two young energies, trying to reason with yourself as Niyuki had already gotten ice cream prior. You were sure her best friend did as you knew that both her parents loved to spoil her—even before you had an introduction to Katsuki. It was a hot day and you didn't seem to mind, you were getting pretty hot as well…

"... Okay, but that's the last before we head home! When you finish, that's enough park time."

Your answer is to their standards as they both shower you with affection to thank you for caving into their cuteness. You roll your eyes but the smile doesn’t disappear as you keep an eye on them as they wander to the truck.

"Sorry 'bout that," The new but familiar voice calls out as he walks up to you. "Important business and shit."

Your brows raise at the casual curse and laugh a little, folding your arms as you look up at him. "No problem, but I did tell them that we will be leaving as soon as they finish their ice cream." You inform, nodding your head towards their direction as you keep an eye out for them.

"Great timing, I was about to talk to you about that."

— ✮ ★ ☆ —

The two girls were happier than ever riding together back to your apartment. They sang along to their favorite songs, played I Spy, and talked about all sorts of things you expect from children. It's easier to tune them out when you're around them long enough.

Their excitement continued when you got to your home. As soon as you reached your unit the two beelined to the kitchen after dropping their shoes and bags at the door. And yes, you guessed it, they had matching pairs too. Niyuki knew to go to the kitchen first thing though as she knew you would make something in the meantime before the movie started.

"You two know the rules! Stay near the island to avoid getting bit by sharks!" You called out to them as you fixed up the entryway. You listen out to hear them, still hearing them squeal and toy around in there. You slip off your shoes, adding them to the rest of the shoes before lazily pulling on your house slippers. "The sharks are coming in five… four… three…!" Your warning does the trick as by the time you reach the kitchen they're both sitting in their respective seats and both looking mischievous and peeking at you behind their hands. You make a show of surveying the room as if you can't see where they are and the girls are now "safe" for following your directions. "It seems as though the sharks are clear!"

They celebrate the win, now eager to watch you work your magic.

You three had a fun time as you tried your best to make sure they were safe (the entire time you were internally panicking to make sure everything was okay). Niyuki liked watching you cook and you were more than happy to help her learn as well as do some hands-on stuff. It was only natural that her best friend would follow suit in her curiosity. Niyuki's sole enjoyment of watching you cook is what encourages you to do it more often and get better at it too.

Now there was an assortment of snacks aside from their main meal. It was true that you spoiled her a wee bit when she was with you, but you couldn't help it. Niyuki was your everything and when times were needed you were able to say no.

Once you set up their bowls with their food, the doorbell rings. You figured it was the man who would make another appearance for the night.

"Alright girls, bring your food to the room." You command and watch them leave before making it out into the hallway, finally answering the door when they are both in the designated room. "Katsuki!" You smile and open the door wider.

The blonde-haired male grins at you and holds up the childishly bright bags for Mizuki. "Sorry for taking so long. This should be everything." You nod and reach for it, his actions making you pause as he pulls it a bit towards him as if to hold it from you. "Is it alright if I see Mizuki before I leave?"

You feel your skin flush in embarrassment, hastily stepping to the side and opening the door more to let him in. "I-I am so sorry! Of course, you can," You close the door and lock it behind him when he finally steps in and gets his shoes off. He doesn't need much introduction when two heads pop out from the doorway of the playroom, one squealing in excitement as she runs up to her father to hug him.

"Daddy you're here!" Mizuki exclaims and pulls him in the direction of the room. "Come look at Niyuki's playroom!"

"I'm not sure--"

"No, no it's okay! Let me clean up the kitchen in the meantime." You smile as the three make their way to the room.

Sticking to your word, you waste no time cleaning up. You have a slight hum as you move around the kitchen, appreciating how well today has gone so far. You even met your daughter's best friend, hot dad… who would've thunk? You bite your lip to suppress a giggle that threatens to escape you, a giddy smile still on your face. Gosh, when was the last time you ever found someone attractive? It felt like forever since you've been focusing on parenting, school, and not to mention having a job.

You think about how well the man dressed and how good he smelled. You had to hand it to him, he was really put together and you could see why Mizuki's mother let him in the first place. He didn't seem too bad personality-wise either. Katsuki was the right amount of cheeky and arrogant that was the complete opposite of your ex. It didn't help that his well-defined muscles and physique showed with his great fashion taste. Luckily for you though, Katsuki felt the same way about you.

When he had first seen you, there was no mistaking in the way he immediately found you attractive. Dressed in your form-fitting sundress surely accentuates everything about your womanly body. The way the cloth hung to your mounds and all the beautiful parts of your limbs. But unlike you, he was able to hide how much he was checking you out. Except while indoors he no longer needed sunglasses and he was sure you were feeling the same way about him.

Katsuki's eyes are trained on your butt as you flawlessly move around, the color of your dress perfectly folding around the two globes of your ass as you move. He leans against the doorway once he finally looks up at the back of your head, crossing his arms. "Hey," Katsuki's voice calls out to you. You whip your head around to look at him, eyes enraptured with how attractive the young man is. "Sorry for the weird behavior earlier at the park…"

"It's okay! Really. Stuff comes up sometimes, glad that you were able to get it settled." You turn off the sink and dry your hands, turning to face him as you place the towel on the island in front of you. You don't miss the way his eyes drag down to check out your body.

"The girls will probably knock before they even finish halfway through the movie," Katsuki predicts, his eyes predatory when he looks up at you. "could make it up to you while they're busy."

You shy as you two make proper eye contact. "How could you possibly make it up to me?" You bat your lashes at him, a faint blush heating your skin at the implications of his offer.

An attractive grin spreads across his lips as he pushes off your doorway. "I could show you but it's better if we do it somewhere private."

It takes everything in you to hide the chill that runs up your spine at how he easily toyed with ideas without being so vulgar with it. As if your body is moving on its own, you walk towards him and flash a smile that has equal parts of mischief and seduction.

"I'm interested."

As soon as that door closes behind you two, there is no denying the tension that fills the room. His lips are soft and hot against yours and the feeling has your body tingling. His heavy and calloused hands are tight on your hips as he pulls you closer to his chest, your hands placing themselves on his biceps to try and steady yourself against him. Katsuki hums in satisfaction, tasting your sweet lip gloss on his mouth, teeth moving to nip at your bottom lip to ask for more. You willingly comply and open your mouth although timid about the experience.

You were feeling fresh in the kitchen but now that you two were getting down to it, you were starting to feel shy again. Up until now, it had practically been years since you dated a man, much less kissed or hooked up with one. There was no denying that you were attracted to this man but your mind was starting to cloud with doubts that you wish would just go away. You try to ignore it erstwhile you feel his strong hands slip down to grab your rump through the beloved sundress you wore today.

You softly groan in the kiss as he pulls away, eyes with innocent determination to see this through. His eyes are hot on you and it takes everything in you not to look away. He walks you to your bed, instantly getting on top of you once he has you adjusted to his liking. In a hurry, you move to untie one of the straps on your shoulder, his heavy hand stopping you as he leans into your ear to convey his true thoughts

"'Gonna fuck you in this dress, princess," Katsuki smirks down at you when he pulls away and stands up properly. He tugs you towards the edge of the bed so that your legs hang off the edge, his hands on your hips. He leans down to give your lips a chaste kiss before spreading your legs and kneeling between them. Katsuki's hands softly grip your ankles, the tips of his fingers disappearing at the hem of your dress. His hands slowly drag the fabric up, his hot lips that were once on yours now kissing their way up on your left leg as took his time exposing his skin. "Keep looking at me, baby." Katsuki directs when you lose eye contact with him as he finally meets your inner thigh, his teeth giving the plush skin a teasing bite. You softly whimper, the apparent wet spot on your panties deepening.

He groans at your scent and slightly pulls away to look at your cunt, his hands now placed on the back of your thighs and pressing it to your body. He takes his knuckle to rub up against your labia, adding more pressure once he reaches the top of your cunt to play with your clit. You wantonly moan as he continues to rub at your clit, the fabric of your panties creating a friction that was heavenly but frustrating you greatly. You needed to feel his fingers on you and this wasn't cutting it.

"Katsuki," You breathe out, hips bucking into his handling. He simply hums at you calling out his name, his rubbing slowing down as his gaze now has a teasing glint to it. "N-Need more, please, Katsuki," There's a whimper in your voice, only barely hinting at the desperation that this man can stir inside you.

"More've what?" Katsuki grins at how flushed your expression is, your face dreamy as ever.

"Fingers, need them." You manage to prop yourself up on your elbow as the other reaches down to tug at the panties on your hip. Katsuki snickers at your impatience, his thumb pulling aside your panties to expose your soaked cunt to him. He gives you one last kiss on your inner thigh before he wordlessly dives in.

Katsuki applies his tongue flat against your cunt and gives you a long stripe up until it reaches your clit, just like what he had done with his knuckle moments ago. A breathless moan escapes your lips as he starts to swirl his tongue against the erect bud, his textured and wet muscle taking pride in its work. He closes his mouth around your cunt, leaning more to taste more of the slick that your cunny produces. The vibrations of him moaning from the taste makes you shiver, this feeling of having your cunt licked like this felt so familiar but foreign at the same time. His eyes stay glued to you as he pleasures you, finding everything you do so damn attractive to look at.

Lapping a bit more he pulls away and spits on your cunt using his fingers to lube you up more. He wraps one of his arms around your thigh and holds it to his shoulder, holding you in place as he finally inserts two thick fingers into your cunt. Soon enough, his mouth is back into your count, the tip of his tongue playing with the sensitive bud at the top of your pussy.

The sounds grow increasingly more obscene as he shamelessly laps at your cunt and works his fingers into you. His digits curl to find your g-spot, softly teasing the spot and eliciting more volume from you. You quickly try to hold back how loud you are, walls clenching around his fingers at how good it feels. You bite your lip and suppress a loud groan from slipping out, hips attempting to pull back with no use. Katsuki keeps you locked in close to him and ups the ante by using the tips of your fingers to continue to stroke at the sensitive spot of your g-spot. His tongue now applies more pressure to your clit to bring you further.

"'Suki--" You call out, your hand coming down to grip and tug at his hair. Shivers rack through your body as a long and drawn-out orgasm hits you, his movements aiding to help you bring you down from it. He pulls his fingers out and presses his tongue flat against your cunt to clean up the mess between your legs. You move your hips back in protest and he loosens his grip to let you do so.

You watch with bated breath as he starts to unbuckle his pants, your eyes glued to what is soon to be revealed. Katsuki's movements to get his garment removed are so fluid that you almost miss it when he pulls the condom out from his back pocket. He tears open the soft foil with his teeth and applies the slippery protection onto his hard cock. You instinctively open your legs when he draws closer, a soft mewl leaving your lips when he aligns his tip to your opening.

"You good?" Katsuki softly asks, his other hand holding your thigh open, thumb rubbing your thigh as he awaits your answer. You nod your head and grind your hips against his tip, hand coming up to pull him closer to you as you answer.

"Give it to me, Katsuki."

The man grins at your plea and lays you on your side, choosing to slowly sink himself into you from your approval. The obscene moan you let out gets covered up by Katsuki's lips finding itself upon yours again, happily taking in your willful noises. At first, he takes long and drawn thrusts, trying to accommodate his size for your comfort. This position allows no remorse and you already knew what you were in for when he put you in it. When you two separate from the kiss, his lips are quick to find your neck, his hands now respectively on your ass and thigh to hold you in place. Amid a deeper thrust, he gives an equally rough bite, the force making you moan. You relax your leg more to allow him to hold you better, him taking your actions as the go-ahead to pick finally pick up the pace.

You feel as though you are on cloud nine with his wet kisses and teasing bites covering your neck, his thrusts and handling furthering your ecstasy. His skin smacks against yours as he starts to get rougher with his thrusts, hands gripping you tighter too. You grip at the sheets below you and tilt your head back, mouth agape as you so desperately try to keep up with him. He gives your ass a spank when he feels your pussy clench around him, an animalistic growl coming from him as he repeats this. He pulls away from your half-covered chest and glares at the top of your dress, now getting annoyed at the article of clothing.

Katsuki doesn't slow his hips for a second as he more than easily rips open the top of your dress and earns a discontent whine from you that gets forgotten when he presses a bit deeper into your cunt. His lips press themselves to your newly exposed skin, his tongue happily taking in one of your nipples to suckle and nibble on. There's no mistaking that he's having free reign in the marks on your skin but you're too wrapped on how everything feels to care. An expletive leaves your mouth in a string of whispers when he angles his hips to hit your g-spot, prompting you to reach down and rub your clit for more stimulation.

"Fuck," Katsuki cusses under his breath as he leans up to watch you take his cock, nails digging into your skin and enjoying the way your pussy envelopes his cock. Not to mention the hot visual of you playing with yourself furthering his contentment. He lifts your leg a bit under your knee and quickens his pace. He watches with hungry eyes as your tits bounce at the force, a pretty face to match and his marks all over your body's skin. He groans as his thrusts start to feel heavier, his orgasm impending. He nearly loses it when you grind back against him to chase your release.

There was an air of innocence that surrounded you but everything you did said otherwise. Katsuki simply couldn't get enough of you and he simply didn't want to. Fuck, he wasn't expecting his daughter's best friend mom to be super hot and sweet.

"C-Cunming…!" You mewl, brows scrunch in concentration as you finish off on his cock. His swift thrusts help in coaxing it out of you, slick dripping from your cunt and messy-ing up your inner thighs. He swoops down to give you an open kiss, tongue pressed against yours haughtily as he follows your climax with his own after a few more pumps.

After a few lazy and exchanged kisses he pulls away, a string of saliva connecting you two. You laugh a little as you wipe the remnants away. "That's the best I've had in a long time." You jokingly cut the silence, a chuckle from him following.

"Could say the same." He softly grunts, pulling out from you, and gently places your legs down. He effortlessly picks you up and rests you further on the bed where your legs can find refuge on the plush mattress. "You okay, need me to get anything?"

The first question confuses you. To your recollection, you had never been asked that before. Not after sex when the deed has already been done and the willing participant has already had their fill. A pang of displaced emotions starts to wrack up inside you, a nervous laugh coming from you when you realize that you spaced out trying to conceptualize what you had just been innocently asked.

"Y-Yeah, I'm good! Thanks for asking," You smile sweetly and the cute expression earns a pat on the cheek from him. Shamelessly, the gesture shot a jolt of arousal straight to your core.

"You got a bathroom around here?"

Following Katsuki's departure leaves you in silence. There was a feeling of dissonance that you couldn't really place your finger on and the fact it was all coming together was undoubtedly giving you the worst post-nut clarity ever. You didn't regret having sex Katsuki, that wasn't the case, but how not sleazy he was certainly opened up your eyes. The male decency that you have been robbed of for so long was finally starting to settle and you didn't like the feeling one bit. Tears start to burn in your eyes and you desperately try to wipe them away the longer you sit in your thoughts.

Fortunately for you though, the doorbell sounds repeatedly which slowly brings you back to the present. Your once feelings of despair and disgust are now turning into annoyance. You take your time slinking out of your bed, you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and huff at how disheveled you looked. The dress that you've been dying to wear was now torn and stretched, the condition bringing a pout to your face.

You undress fully and grab one of your robes to cover yourself up with, the piece is a bit scandalous but covering you well. You quietly make your way down the hall to not wake up the two girls (if they were awake they definitely would've interrupted you and Katsuki) and finally make it to the door. You peer into the peephole and softly gasp at the person behind the door. The doorbell starts to buzz loudly again and you angrily fumble to unlock your door, it now also occurs to you that the noise could be disturbing the two young girls' sleep.

"Are you fucking crazy?!" You greet your ex with much-deserved hostility.

Shindo simply rolls his eyes at your annoyance and crosses his arms as if it were your fault for his impatience. "I called and texted you multiple times. I'm here to pick up Niyuki."

You openly scoff at his demand, standing taller at his attempt at showing his dominance. You mirror his actions and cross your arms too.

"She's staying with me for the weekend. Why are you here?"

Your ex mockingly scoffs at you questioning him, his eyes narrowing as he steps closer.

"I need to explain why I want my daughter to be with me? You know, the parent who never neglected her once in her entire life." Shindo looks you up and down, openly grimacing at how fucked out you look. "You can't even control yourself, you have no shame, do you?"

As much as you try to keep up the strong facade, there is no denying the tightening in your chest. You don't want to admit it but his words hurt you deeply. His toxic words were starting to feel all too familiar and your body was starting to shut down.

"The agreement was that she would stay the weekend with me. Niyuki's having a sleepover with her friend, there's no point of you coming here."

"Do you think I fucking care about a "sleepover" when her mother is busy being a tramp when she's distracted?" He shamelessly accuses and shifts his expression to one of fake pity and concern. "Do you think you deserve her, hm? I mean look at you, running around and can't even stay committed to us even when I've tried."

"Watch how you fuckin' talk to her, asshole."

A voice filled with just as much disdain comes from behind you, the sheer amount of aggression battling Shindo's. You immediately turn to look at him, mind moving faster than your body in your shocked state.

"I'm sorry, who the fuck are you exactly?" Shindo tilts his head and reaches out to push the door further to reveal who the man is. He freezes when a blonde and spiked hair catches his eyes first, his mockery of emotions from earlier now turning into real anger and a hint of fear. "Bakugo-?!"

Katsuki grabs the edge of the door and pulls it open wider to allow him more space to pass, making sure not to harm you as he gets between you and your toxic ex. "You wanna repeat that, dickhead?" He fists up his shirt and backs him away from the door. "Is that how a hero treats a woman, eh?"

Shindo curses under his breath, fighting against him. The mach attitudes between the two start to boil over as it's obvious that they have met prior. When it escalates to more than words, you start getting a bit fearful. A more aggressive push from Katsuki prompts you to call out for them to stop. One thing about your ex is that he hated being out matched and there was no denying that Katsuki seemed like the type of guy to beat that out of him. It wasn't until their exchange seemed to elevate in volume and another light next door turned on. You plead for them to stop again, your hand lightly tugging at Katsuki's arm although knowing your touch wouldn't be able to do shit against a muscled man like him. Eventually they do stop on Katsuki's accord, both breathing heavily as they stare down at each other. Your ex aggressively scoffs and shoves Katsuki away from him as he looks between you two, gathering himself.

"Have fun with the little gold digger, Dynamight," Shindo says lowly and bumps shoulders with Katsuki as he leaves.

A heavy silence is left in his wake between you and Katsuki. You tiredly rub your face and breathe out a sigh, the exhale soon turning into a dry sob. Katsuki fidgets awkwardly before reaching out to you and pulling you close, letting you rest your forehead on his chest.

"Fuck, he stresses me out," You mumble against his tank, wiping away your tears. "I'm sorry you had to witness that…"

"Hey, he's fuckin' douchebag, alright? Who gives a fuck what he thinks." Katsuki pills away a bit to cup your chin and forces you to look up at him, the gesture warming your cheeks. "Let's get you cleaned up and you can rant about whatever the fuck you want, it's getting cold." He holds the collar of your robe and gives it a playful tug. You softly nod your head then lead him inside.

— ✮ ★ ☆ —

It had only been two days since you had first met and slept with Katsuki and the smile on your face never seemed to disappear.

Thinking about the man easily brought butterflies to your chest, memories of you two keeping you on cloud nine. After you two had gone back inside Friday night, he had comforted you in many ways. It felt silly to say it—that the foreign feeling you were getting in your chest only had one name: a crush. Not full-blown but enough that every time you thought about your Friday night—past the awful interaction with your ex-boyfriend—was one of the best times you have ever enjoyed yourself with a man.

Katsuki did listen to you. He cleaned you up, cuddled you, kissed you throughout, and eventually you two even two more rounds. Never had you felt so comfortable, so… domestic. It was evident that your bright attitude was something your daughter noticed too.

"Mommy?" Niyuki calls out from the doorway, successfully gaining your attention.

You press the small bento box you were prepping Mizuki to take home closed, a smile on your face as you welcome your daughter to make her way to you. "What's up, munchkin?"

"I have to tell you something," She tugs at your pajama pants, a look far from playful or childish in her eyes. You feel your heart sink a bit at how serious she is, bending down to get face level with her.

"Niyuki? What's wrong?" You hold her arms and pull her closer to you, trying to keep contact with her as she avoids looking at you.

"I don't want to go to Pa's this week, I want to stay with you."

You're taken back from her confession, unsure of how to process it. "What do you mean, 'Yuki? Don't you want to see daddy-?"

"No, I want to stay with you," Niyuki regains her courage to look up at you, establishing how much she truly feels. "I heard you guys last night. I want to stay with you more. Daddy's house isn't nice, I don't like it there anymore."

"Niyuki, I…" You shamefully look away at the fact she bore witness to that awful exchange last night. You felt awful that she had seen it, much less found out how dysfunctional your relationship is. You pull her in for a hug and nuzzle her hair and she is more than willing to take in your embrace. "I am so sorry you had to see that, baby. Mommy will see what she can do about how you feel being at Daddy's house, okay?" You hold her cheeks in your palms and she nods her head in agreement.

She places a kiss on your cheek and swiftly leaves the kitchen as if the exchange didn't happen, leaving you by yourself in the kitchen. You stare off into the distance at the exchange, not sure what to think or do with yourself. It wasn't until you felt a wet sensation coating your cheeks that you realized you were crying.

Faintly down the hall, you could hear Niyuki nagging at her best friend and the two giggling and playing around as children do. You sit down on the floor and rest against one of the cupboards as your doubts start to ease themselves, everything in your life turning around so fast that it's hard to grasp.

You had thought for the longest time that Niyuki was simply putting up with you. It is no lie Shindo has more resources than you. The money, house, toys, etc. he has everything you don't. He didn't need to work the extra shifts to make sure she had presents for special occasions, he could easily buy the things she needed and wanted. You thought the only things that could make a child satisfied were the things they could see, touch, and have. You didn't think the small things counted, not when you're an adult where a random Friday could have easily been one of her favorite days in her childhood.

You don't bother wiping the tears from your face as you try to pull yourself together, snot and everything clouding your nasal passage. Oddly you felt numb, like the joy you were feeling was foreign. Nothing felt real but you knew you couldn't stay sitting on your kitchen floor silently crying as you desperately tried to register what the hell your body was going through at the moment. You weakly pull yourself up using the counter to grab a paper towel from the dispenser on the counter and obnoxiously blow your nose into it. You mumble a few cuss words under your breath as you attempt to freshen up as you try coming down from the emotional rollercoaster of this weekend. As much as you wanted time to process this, doing it in a home with a kid who could barge in at any minute was hard. Especially when there are two.

The doorbell rings and you glance at the time on the stove. It was a bit early for Mizuki's mother to pick her up, but you decided you'd just invite her in until the child was ready to leave.

You lazily walk over to the door and peer into the peephole to double-check, your face twisting into an expression of shock as you pull open the door and wordlessly confront the person on the other side.

"... Do you normally answer the door looking a mess?" Katsuki teases, giving you a look over and lingering at the places he seems to like.

You jokingly nudge him and roll your eyes, crossing your arms as you stand a bit taller, feeling your heartbeat pound against your chest. "Haha, very funny." You sniffle and wipe your cheek, the gesture not going unnoticed.

"Did something happen? Did that prick come over and harass you again?" Katsuki grows angrier at the idea, his expression souring.

"No, no, it wasn't that." You quickly ease his concerns and this time remind yourself to look around to make sure there aren't any extra ears before stepping out and closing the door behind you. "This morning, Niyuki told me she wants to stay with me, not just on the weekends." You look up at him finally, your lips immediately curling into a soft smile once you're able to say it out loud.

He grins and pulls you in for a hug, giving you a squeeze when you wrap your arms around his shoulder and squeal. He rocks you back and forth before pulling away while maintaining his hold on your waist. "This shit feels unreal, you know?" You lightly laugh as you look up at him, a radiant smile on your face.

"Her mother is amazing, of course she'd want to stay with you." Katsuki gives your hip a squeeze with his free hand, the action pulling your attention to the solid object digging into your side, the feeling making you look down at his hand.

"Oh," Katsuki steps back and holds up a slim, medium box that had a ribbon tied around it, holding it up for you. "Here."

"For me?"

"Who else, dumbass?"

You snort at his bluntness and shoot him a playful glare as you open the gift. It takes you a few seconds to realize what it is, a gasp following your surprise at the expensive dress, and start to close it back up. "Oh my god, I-I can't have this!"

"Why not? You'll look perfect in it." Katsuki pulls you closer with his hand that was still on your hip, his other landing on your abandoned one. "Pretty girls deserve pretty things."

You playfully push him away and look at the box again before looking up at him. "Seriously, for me?"

"Yes." Katsuki holds your chin up and softly rubs your bottom lip under the pad of his thumb. "And you better get used to it, I'll be buying you a lot of those."

"Why?" You laugh, leaning into him and tilting your head up to challenge him.

"'Cuz I'll be tearing a lot more stuff off of that pretty body of yours," He leans closer to brush his lips against yours with a smirk on his face, "Plus, I need an excuse to see you again."

He seals his promise with a kiss, hands coming up to hold your waist as he presses himself against you.

— ✮ ★ ☆ —

It had been a few months since you and Katsuki had officially started dating. Your mood significantly has changed for the better and made it a lot easier to adjust to having your daughter now finally staying with you instead of her father.

It was hard being able to advocate for yourself but the verdict was in favor since the child should be able to choose where to stay. It did help the fact that your new boyfriend, who you had learned and realized is a top pro-hero in the country, just so happened to bring the best kind of reputation to the courts.

As adults do, you did talk to Mizuki's mother before deciding to fully go through with dating the man. Ultimately it is true that she can't decide what you two do, but you owed it to her for being such a good friend to you and didn't want to step over any toes. She was more than happy to give her blessing and practically threw him over to you, more than happy to let things rest since she is soon to be married anyway.

There was nothing that could prepare you for this turn of events and every day it was easier to wake up feeling happy and blessed. Currently, you just got your culinary degree so that also means one less stress and burden off of your shoulders and another venture soon on the horizon: a head chef.

You just adjusted your graduation gown and looked around for your family, your face immediately lighting up seeing them not too far from where the graduates are exiting. It took almost everything in you not to run in excitement when you were finally able to make it towards them.

"Congratulations, honey!" Your parents are first to engulf you in a hug, the rest of the group close behind. You chuckle as two smaller bodies take your legs, none other than Niyuki and Mizuki claiming each side.

"Congratulations, Mommy!" Niyuki grins up at you.

"Thank you, Niyuki." You lean down to kiss her on the forehead and do the same for Mizuki.

"Do I get a kiss too?"

You look up at the inquisitor, a grin sprouting out on your face as you stand back up. "Of course."

He pulls you in and gives you a kiss, the action getting a mix of responses to the show of affection. Katsuki presents to you a beautifully arranged bouquet along with a promise that there were a lot more gifts back at his place.

Most days in the past you prayed for times like this, but now you were happy you didn't have to anymore.

#bnha x reader #mha x reader #bnha smut #mha smut #bakugo katsuki x reader #bakugo x reader #pro hero!bakugo katsuki x reader #bnha oneshots #mha oneshots #bnha imagines #mha imagines #bnha scenarios #mha scenarios #n/sfw #sav's saucin'

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onskepa · 7 months

Note

Can we get a sully kids x romanian human reader? She speaks english too but her nationality is romanian. In romanian language you pronounce every single letter.

For example

Biscuit - BISKIT (in english)

Biscuit - BIS + CU + IT (romanian)

And they are so dumbfounded about why she pronounces every letter and why no accent.

Hellooooooooo darling~!! Okie so for this I did had to use a lot of google and romanian youtube videos to understand how it sounds. So, hopefully I am closely to being accurate as I can. Lemme know if this is to your satisfaction! Enjoy!

---------------------

Simplu

When you learn a new language, and can now speak fluently, you would feel pretty damn proud. To speak it so well and hold a conversation with a native speaker feels very rewarding and opens a new path of possibilities. And that is how the sully kids felt when they were learning how to speak english. While basic, each of them had their own level of learning it. Kiri and lo’ak were super quick to pick it up, tuk is still learning while neteyam is getting there.

However, they are all in the level of holding simple conversations with the science guys. So every time they enter the labs, it's all english and they can't help but flex their vast knowledge of big words. To say, the sully kids were very confident and think they can understand the human language flawlessly.

“M-am întors din călătoria mea!”

Simplu, the name that comes along with a young woman who entered the human lab. Everyone welcomed her like an old friend. Apparently she was, often leaving the labs to risk her life for the sake of learning new things. Mostly about pandora wildlife. Often going out to follow herds or follow distinct animal behaviors to understand them better.

And she was amazing. Introduced herself to the kids. And the sully children were liking her already, with her welcoming aura and contagious smile. They feel comfortable around Simplu, however there is just one problem.

“Nu veți crede ce am reușit să învăț cu unele dintre animale”

She speaks a language called “Romanian”

But when she speaks english

“Hello children, come along. There is so many things I would like to share with you”

Her english is oddly clear yet has an interesting speech pattern compared to the other humans.

“Umm…excuse me?” Kiri nervously touches the shoulder of the young woman. Turning around, Simplu looks up at her “da?”.

“Da…? Im not da” kiri tells, feeling confused. Simplu shakes her head and waves her hand a bit, “oh I am so sorry, yes? Is there something you would like to say?” simplu tells with such patience. Her smile reaches Kiri, making her smile too. “If it is not so rude to ask but….”

“Why do you talk so differently?” Tuk asks abruptly. Neteyam and lo’ak had to shush her. Kiri made a little hiss to warn Tuk, but simplu simply shrugged. “Sorry, its just….we have mastered the English language and can talk well like how I am. Yet, when you talk, from the fluent sounds of words, you sound it out. Every single letter, "Kiri explains.

Putting down a cup simplu was drinking from, her full attention on the children. “Ah, so you are all curious why I sound different?” she asks, all of the kids nodded in unison. Grabbing a little ball of rubber, she begins to play with it. “Well, before Pandora, I lived in a country called Romania, a place on planet earth. Every country there speaks a different language. So, when you speak your native tongue for so long, it takes time to get accustomed to speaking a new language” she explains.

“Oooohhh….the other science guys!” Tuk concludes.

“Yes, correct tuk” Simplu praises, as a little reward she hands tuk a little piece of candy to which the child gladly accepts.

“Yes, so when I speak as I do now, the sounds of the letters tend to be slightly different. I know there are plenty of fluent sounding words, but with my accent, I tend to sound out every letter. When I know I shouldn't but it happens” Simplu explains further.

“So the language you tend to talk in. Is that your native language?” Neteyam asks. Nodding happily, simplu gives neteyam a little piece of candy too.

“Indeed, often the names of a language are named after the place it is mostly spoken in. So, since I lived in Romania, my mother tongue is Romanian. Much like you all, you are na’vi, so you speak the na’vi language. Or, the Pandorian language. Though, it is not as unique sounding as calling it that”.

“So, your language….how do you speak it?” lo’ak asks. Simplu gives him candy.

“Salut prietene” Simplu says.

“S-saoot…pree…prrrreeee….”

The kids were trying their best to copy and learn the Romanian language. But its a lot harder to learn than it seems.

“S-a-l-u-t p-r-i-e-t-e-n-e” simplu sounds out the word more slowly for the sully kids to catch on. But tuk sighs in frustration, “you make it sound so easy! And without your accent too!” she whines.

Deciding to take a little break from their lesson, the sully kids huddle around simplu as she hands out more candy. “Well, I speak my language well. It is just like how you speak in yours, you dont hear an accent. Your voice becomes clear as day. It is used to speaking that way” simplu explains.

“Your language makes the english language look easy” kiri comments. Her siblings agreeing with her.

“Yes, there are many different types of languages to learn from. Some are easy, and some take a long time to grasp. But, since you have mastered one language, I have no doubts you will master the Romanian language” simplu encourages.

Though, a little idea popped in kiri’s head.

“Romania, you said you were from there. Can you tell us what it was like over there?” she asks.

This sparked a new excitement for simplu. Clapping her hands in glee she replies, “well rațele mele mici, let's start with where it is….”

Okie so this definitely was a little challenging. I hope I got the Romanian its down. Hope you all enjoyed this one! See ya!

--------

Simplu = Simple

“M-am întors din călătoria mea!” = I have returned from my travel!

Nu veți crede ce am reușit să învăț cu unele dintre animale. = You will not believe what I managed to learn about with some of the animals.

Salut prietene = hello my friend

rațele mele mici = my little ducks

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daydreaming-scheming-demon · 4 months

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minecraft doesnt need to be a fucking multimedia franchise, it doesn't even need anymore games than one, there's no fucking point to it, nobody gives a shit about minecraft dungeons, since when was the last time you saw someone go "oh wow, i cant wait for the next minecraft dungeons update" and there's even more minecraft spinoffs that nobody gives a shit about, i cant even remember the name of the latest one because it died so quickly

and now they're making a minecraft movie, and it's live action, which makes no sense but i guess making it animated wouldnt have a mainstream appeal and they need dat money from da masses. and they're having fucking jack black in it. and it's just. please. stop. you couldve made a movie about something original and interesting but instead you need to make a fucking minecraft movie.

i feel similarly about the mario movie and the fnaf movie but like, at least with those games it makes sense. mario games have plot even if simple, and fnaf has a plot even if it's a bad and confusing one. minecraft is a fucking sandbox game with no characters or plot going on unless you're matpat or something. it has fucking nothing. they're making a movie out of fucking nothing. they might as well be making a fucking live action tetris movie.

you know, it could be good. maybe id even like it. but even if it is, it's just so fucking unnecessary, they could've been making something original but nooooooo original is risky, we need a fucking minecraft movie to bring in those shiny fucking dollars to stuff down our fucking throats and choke on and die.

minecraft isn't designed to be anything other than a single fucking game, but because it's big and owned by microsoft it needs to be fucking everything. there needs to be a minecraft movie, and a minecraft show, and a minecraft branded pencil to stab my minecraft branded eyes out of my minecraft branded eyeholes so i dont have to see anymore fucking minecraft.

and to add to this, even if the minecraft movie is good, it's just such a fucking shame that it had to be minecraft and nothing else had any chance to be made. there's been lots of great movies that the big guys up top only allowed to be made because they're based on popular things. the lego movie for example, the barbie movie too. but it's just so fucking irritating that if any creative wants to actually make a good fucking movie they need to do it through this already popular thing. that's how shit like velma gets made. that show feels like an original show with scooby doo slapped on top of it to grab more attention.

everything needs to be appealing to the masses or it's not even seen as worthy of being made. the only movies worthy of being made and the only shows worthy of being renewed are the ones that ceos think will give them enough money to violently shove down their throat and fill their stomach with, fill their lungs with, fill every crevice of their shriveled old body with until every shit they take is hard and full of bloodsoaked gold coins, and every piss they take is shining gold, and every time they pick their nose they pick out gold.

there's just so little space for original works now.

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feathernotes · 1 year

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Hello! My name is Krispy, and I’m the co-creator of the webcomic Ghost Junk Sickness (along with @spacerocketbunny) It's story time!

GJS is a webcomic published by Hiveworks and features two bounty hunters with an unstable dynamic who are pushed to pursue the deadly bounty dubbed the Ghost The current iteration of GJS is about 9 years old (and wrapping up next year!) It’s been an incredible journey full of ups and downs. We’ve learned SO MUCH creating this comic, and I wanted to share some of it’s origins with you all in hopes of inspiring more folks to take chances, make mistakes, and get messy- and make that comic!

The origin of Ghost Junk Sickness came from our love for Magic Knight Rayearth and Final Fantasy 7. Vahn, the protagonist of GJS, was basically a mash up of Hikaru and Cloud from those two series. The very first version of this story has unfortunately been destroyed, and this map is the only piece I have left of that world. Character art still exists though, and it was pretty funny to see how obvious we were with our inspirations at the time.

The original attempt at the story was called Crew, and my sister Space and I worked on it in 2002-2004. We sort of got lost in our own ideas after that, and weren’t as focus on making the comic (now lost). A few years later, I decided to try my hand at it and it looked like this:

This was all done on low quality paper, whichever I could find at the time and some pencil crayons. This attempt was over 600 pages long and had a pretty random story plot, much like the first version. I could not tell you what it was about haha 😅

My second attempt (then called Divine Ace) I wanted to look more 'traditional manga' and kept with just inks and tried my darndest to tone on the computer (it never worked out). This one lasted over 400 pages, and was more allinged with my liking to edgy action anime and games at the time. It was also Trigger's first appearance!

After experimenting and eventually wanting to change- I started to work with Space again, and we collaborated in full on our first fancomic for TF2 called "Be Efficient, Be Polite." It was a good lesson on how we could coordinate our shared skill sets and plan out who did what as far as the whole process of comics go.

All of these comics (save for the very first lost version) were hosted on DA the day we got our hands on a scanner. It was our first taste on being 'webcomic creators' back in the day, and it was very fun! We didn't much care for readers, only the process of completion at the time, so a page done was always a victory worthy to be celebrated (and back then, we had more time to make pages!)

And so, as the years went by and we decided to move on from our fandom roots, Space and I went back to the Crew/Divine Ace project and redesigned and overhauled the entirety of it. (You can see the full evolution here) We wanted to re-asses what the story, comic, and characters meant to us, and how we could convey some pretty important ideas and concepts to our potential readers. From that, Ghost Junk Sickness was born, and began pre-production in 2013.

Years after, we find ourselves reflecting on how much we've learned from the process of going ahead and diving in head first. There were certainly many iterations and years it took to get where we are today, but realising that it all began that day Space and I decided to scribble some pretty mediocire comics in our homework books and papers. Because that is the beauty of comics- The many skill sets, the hats, and challenges that come along with creating them. And how much we've become better at so many things along the way. So if you read this and feel nervous about diving head first into your first comic, I'm here to re-assure you that things will feel tough, but exciting. Things will feel really hard but amazing when you're getting your story out in front of you with such an incredible medium. Webcomics will always be my favourite because of how accessible it is to any skill set. And know in your heart of hearts that there ARE people out that that LOVE to see growth, they love to see the progression of your journey. So get out there and start creating that comic that's occupied your brain for so long, and start breathing that life into your OCs and your world. The only way is up with webcomics, and the only way to start is just by creating now.

#webcomics #webcomic #ghost junk sickness #hiveworks #feathernotes #me talking

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magebunkshelf · 2 months

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Do you have any tips/useful information for people who want to start making audio rps?

(Also love ur content sm!!! Mitch is the most lovable little guy)

Aw thank you so much! Love him too!

This is a great question, had to think about it for a bit;

If you want to dabble with making audios, feel free to start off with public scripts! I think there's subreddits like ASMR script haven (IIRC?) that has public scripts that can be filled by anyone. Just be sure to read the author's conditions carefully i.e. credit, terms of use, what can be changed etc. Right at the start I recorded a public script to try and get started, it's a great way to just jump right into making something to learn the ropes of it without also first having to write an entire script for it too. Filling public scripts is a fantastic way to start off, however I reckon writing your own stories is a major part of the fun!

You don't need an expensive mic, but audio quality is a very important factor. Do some test recordings and listen back to them (with headphones!) and see how it sounds. This is especially important for whispered scenes (DO NOT get too close to the mic or breathe on it!) or loud scenes (DO NOT peak the mic!). If your mic has a gain / input dial, play with that before recording! Just start with mono to begin with, play with stereo if your mic supports it after you become familiar with it. Aim for your recording to be no louder than -6db at the highest, if you can keep your voice roughly between like -20 and -6 that tends to sound reasonably natural.

Do your best to eliminate external sounds! If you have AC or anything like that on, turn it off. I have to shut down my main PC and record with only my editing Mac on because the PC fans are much louder and my mic is very sensitive! There'll pretty much always be background fuzz, some mics will just have some, but try to make your room as quiet as you can. Your software may have some background noise removal tools, I use filters for that (expensive so I can't recommend them), but DO NOT use the noise removal tool in Audacity! It's terrible!

Speaking of, Audacity is decent to get started with. It's good basic recording software, plus multiplatform. For a while I preferred recording on Windows with Audiodope, also very simple, plus I liked that it asks me whether I wanted to record in mono or stereo first in case I forget to switch, I currently record on Mac with ocenaudio which does the same, while Audacity won't ask, you have to go into settings. Anyway Audacity is okay to start with for editing, it's free, but from what I understand it's a "destructive" editing software in that after you make a change like adding a filter, you can't then go back in and change it other than just undoing, which I really don't like, plus changing the timing of things looks fiddly. I don't know what to recommend to move up from, I've heard good stuff about Reaper but it looks very complicated. Avoid Adobe unless you have a free subscription from somewhere else. I edit entirely in Final Cut Pro so I can't recommend that unless you're on Mac, plus it's my old work software and expensive! If you need sound effects, I use freesound.org, there are other great free resources as well, but make sure you check each individual sound effect's license before use.

Once you've edited the audio and want to turn it into a video, I've heard good stuff about Da Vinci Resolve and Kden Live, both are free! Make a video canvas of 1920 x 1080, FPS doesn't especially matter if you only have a still thumbnail, 25 or 30 is fine, and render it out as a h264 mp4 if you're not sure what to select! Good compression for internet video, good for streaming. Try to record and export your audio as wav if you have enough space, wav is uncompressed audio so it maintains full quality but they can get large.

I also make my thumbnails in-edit but you may want to use external software like Gimp to make them. Avoid getting random stuff of google especially anime boys / girls, and definitely don't ever use an artist's stuff without asking for permission + giving proper credit. Using pre-built generators like Picrew is totally fine, just be sure to credit where you got it from, but 100% avoid AI generators, obviously. Be careful with Adobe stock images, apparently there's AI slop in there too. You don't need art for audios though, they're a nice to have bonus, but many of my most viewed videos have no art at all. If you need background images, I like unsplash.com because it has a free license! Read over it yourself but basically you're able to use pretty much any image they have in your videos!

Just jump in and try making something small, never start with your magnum opus! I started with the introverted incubus character because I'm a very shy person myself, it was an easier role to get started with! If you want to start writing your own scripts too there's a lot we could talk about there as well, just try to picture the scene from the perspective of the listener, what they may be thinking or feeling at any given moment, not just the perspective of the character you're going to be playing!

This was a lot and I don't think I covered much, I hope some of it helps though!!

#audio rp #audio roleplay #asmr roleplay #audio drama

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cuttingpenisblackmetal · 10 months

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here's the full text of the 2006 pre-tv premier IGN interview with dethklok as it's now only available on wayback machine

Premiering Sunday, Aug. 6 at 11:45pm ET/PT on Adult Swim is Metalocalypse, a new animated comedy series from Tommy Blacha (Da Ali G Show) and Brendon Small (Home Movies).

Metalocalypse follows the on- and off-stage adventures of Dethklok, the world's most popular and heaviest heavy metal band. The band is so popular that thousands of fans will travel to a remote area of Scandinavia to hear them perform a single song: a jingle for a coffee company. So popular that these fans will sign "pain waivers" in case anything truly horrible happens to them at a show, which invariably occurs. The band members are also incredibly selfish and stupid, and they create a wave of mayhem, death and destruction wherever they go.

The members of Dethklok are:

Nathan Explosion - Vocalist. The lyrical visionary of Dethklok. Skwisgaar Skwigelf - Guitar. From Sweden. Fastest guitar player alive. Toki Wartooth - Guitar. From Norway. Second-fastest guitar player alive. William Murderface - Bass. No one in the world is full of more hatred than him. And he hates no one more than he hates himself. Pickles - Drummer. Raised in the Midwest, he became the world's most celebrated drummer after fronting L.A. rock band Snakes and Barrels.

The five Dethklok members recently sat down with the press to discuss their music, their influences, and the band. Below are their responses, followed by the pain waiver they require all Dethklok concert-goers to sign.

Q: First, let's start with the persistent rumors that Dethklok has signed a contract with the devil. Can you finally put this to rest?

William Murderface: I'll put you to rest.

Toki Wartooth: The devil is dildoes.

Nathan Explosion: There is no such thing as the devil because there has to be a god in order for there to be a devil. And we all know there is no god. And if there were a GOD then he would have protected us from signing that deal with the devil. And now we're stuck with a deal with some guy who doesn't even exist.

Q: If Dethklok is the heaviest band in the world, and also the most popular band in the world, what does that say about the world?

William Murderface: I'd like to destroy world hunger by destroying the world.

Toki Wartooth: I love questions, and dats a good one.

Skwisgaar Skwigelf: It means nothing because, heavy or not, the world is a black vortex of black Nothingness and I hate our audience.

Q: The band has both the world's fastest and second-fastest guitarists alive in it. Is that a bit of overkill?

William Murderface: I'll overkill you.

Toki Wartooth: No, it's "underlive." Ha ha.

Skwisgaar Skwigelf: Not at all. As the fastest guitarist, I prefer to have someone a little worse at guitar in the band, like Toki. Because I think you would takes it for granted that I am the best. Like you get used to a room filled with the smell of roses until you go into a room with a rotting corpse smell - then you go back to the roses room and extra appreciates it a greats degrees better.

Q: Is it too loud, or am I too old?

William Murderface: I'm too fat.

Toki Wartooth: You gots hairs in your ears.

Pickles: It is loud. It's very loud. Before each show I have liquid concrete poured into my ears so that I don't cause permanent damage. You gotta protect your ears, anyone will tell you that. But what they don't tell you is that you should protect other parts of your body from loudness - for example, we now have to travel with a gastroenterologist.

Q: Nathan, you have a distinctive vocal style. What do you do to take care of your voice and still fill it with anger and hate?

William Murderface: I'm not Nathan.

Nathan Explosion: Two words: Potato chips and chocolate milk. I can go for days smoking and drinking and killing myself staying awake, but have a glass of chocolate milk and a handful of potato chips and I'm good to go.

Q: What's heavier - your music or your lyrics?

William Murderface: The lyrsmusic…shut up!

Toki Wartooth: Oooh, good question, it's like a two-parter.

Pickles: We had them professionally weighed recently and the difference is fractional. But the lyrics actually were heavier. The one lyric that tipped the scales was "I have a hate horse torso whose face is a Corpse/ Lacerated innards and a ding dong doodily dorpse." Now that's heavy.

Q: What kind of gear do you use?

William Murderface: Krank amps and Gibson guitars.

Toki Wartooth: Gibson guitars and Krank amps, but Krank won't give us no hoodies.

Skwisgaar Skwigelf: Gibson guitars. I stick with my Explorer and Toki usually plays a V, Krank amps- right now I'm using the KRANKENSTIEN, Line 6 pedals, Digidesign plug ins. We gots endorsement deals with alls of them. We can wrecks dem all- they just give us more.

Q: What are your influences - musical and otherwise?

William Murderface: Those awesome medical shows about really fat people and tumors.

Toki Wartooth: Depression and wind.

Skwisgaar Skwigelf: My influences is my parent. I hates her beyond beliefs.

Nathan Explosion: I'd have to say I've influenced myself a lot. I listen to myself on records sometimes and think, "I could do that..."

Pickles: The sound of drums influences me. I say that I think because I am a drummer. And cymbals.

Q: What will it take for Dethklok to "sell out"?

William Murderface: We sell out every night, dildo.

Toki Wartooth: We sells out every night.

Nathan Explosion: Selling out is a point of view thing. I've redefined my word definitions of "selling out." I call it making things "more metal," and now it's impossible to sell out. We don't sell out at all. And we never will. I dare you to try. Seriously. Offer us any amount of money. And we'll take it. And we'll make it "MORE METAL."

Q: Death and mayhem seem to follow the band. Unlucky or cursed? Does it affect your music?

William Murderface: Lucky!

Toki Wartooth: Dat's life, deals with it.

Pickles: Death happens whether or not we are there. Though there does seem to be a little more when we are around. That's why we have the audience sign "Pain Waivers" to get into our show. It basically states that the audience is signing their life away should something horrible and "death-inducing" happen during one of our shows. And we can't be sued. Pretty smart!

Q: What is life on the road like for Dethklok? Do you prefer the seclusion of the studio to the adoration of thousands?

Toki Wartooth: Thousands?! You mean billions!

Skwisgaar Skwigelf: The way I looks at it is that you can't f**k studio gear. Well, you can. But it's better to be on the road and f**k things there - there are more options and shapes.

Q: What inspires Dethklok?

William Murderface: A flower with its brains blown out.

Toki Wartooth: Everything must die.

Nathan Explosion: For me, it's humor. The fact that we are rich and that we will die eventually. See, that's kind of funny to me.

Q: Any thought about solo projects? What does Dethklok do to relax?

William Murderface: My solo project is called Planet Piss. Like it or not, who gives a piss?

Toki Wartooth: I likes to answer questions and build models.

Skwisgaar Skwigelf: We relax with alcohol and Drug Buckets. And everybody's working on solo stuff always. That's cool. I'm in a Harry Potter tribute band called "10 Points to Gryffyndor." Also, I'm in a nudist Civil War styled band called "Depantsification Proclamation."

Q: Is Dethklok's music art?

William Murderface: When it's painted on your face.

Toki Wartooth: We gots an album cover of a Mona Lisa with blood.

Skwisgaar Skwigelf: Art is stupid. There is only food and death. So to answer your question: our music is both food and death.

Q: Much is made about Dethklok's penchant for pain and metal. But what about the groupies? Are there special ladies in the lives of Dethklok?

William Murderface: You mean like retarded?

Toki Wartooth: I don't wears no penchant.

Skwisgaar Skwigelf: I have no recollection of most of the women that I've slept with except for the paternity suits, which are null simply because they must sign a "fatherhood waiver," before a screw.

#metalocalypse #mtl #zero thoughts between these guys istg

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femalemonsterhunter · 3 months

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I'm very sorry for the fact that I feel so inactive rn on every social app/site like Insta and DA themselves regarding posting to something like my finished drawings for several reasons 😭💀💀, or somehow I forgot to even post this finished drawing I made in two or three weeks ago.

Also, here's my art style/AU version but (probably or not) the first attempt of CatDog from the eponymous Nickelodeon cartoon show, however, I somewhat deliberately just separated them as instead of trying to draw them as originally conjoined twins, which I can't do for such good reasons. And plus, I even thoughtfully headcanoned their full name, if it's that simple.

Yeah, I more or less remember when I liked this cartoon show SO much when I first saw it on TV with Ukrainian in my school age (and ofc, as I recall, there was also a one Russian language for the voice of Cat), and then ofc in my adolescence, but still in a school age ‘till 2017, somewhere in 2015 to 2016 (if I don’t even know than I remember) as I used to use on big bro’s old laptop as in every way re-watched every episode of CatDog and even drew barely a lot like in my Star Heart Heart (basically known as “Girl and Friends” since was cringy ass old but former name of my Crossover AU project ‘till 2018 or 2019 its name was literally changed to ”Star Heart” atm, apparently) version and others, and ofc I had a constant but weird crush on Cliff, cuz I have no idea how to explain it, but he is still for me a toughy awesome and totally badass dog guy on the list of favorite villains 🙈. And regardless of the fact that he still bullying Cat for all sorts of unclear reasons.

Anyway, any of you guys have also seen this cartoon show before since your childhood or something?

And still, I hope you enjoy my version of CatDog so honestly.

Art and idea names and more for the main CatDog characters are belongs to me (C)

Cat and Dog from the CatDog are belongs to Peter Hannan and his eponymous production/Nickelodeon Animation Studio/Serom Animation/Rough Daft Korea (C)

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batbabydamian · 10 months

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question- do you mind doing fic recs? And if so, do you have any good fics centered around Dick and Damian's relationship? In particular anything that plays with their whole "I'm your brother but also your father/son but not but yes" thing they've got going on? If you see this thank you, you're doing the lord's work <3

anon if you’re still out there, thank you for your patience and hope you enjoy these! there’s MANY Dick&Damian fics i love so i tried to limit it to the “im your brother AND kinda your dad but not really” dynamic!!

3:16 by partingxshot

The knife pushes thin along Dick’s carotid artery, cupping the indent between neck and jawline—forcing him to angle his chin. The metal is warm, pulled with execution speed from under Damian’s pillow. “Okay,” Dick says quietly, tracking the intricacies of his own heartbeat—counting the space between breaths. “Guess I did need a shave.” (With faltering steps, Dick and Damian become Batman and Robin.)

i think every Dick & Damian enthusiast has read this lol it may be ongoing but its latest chapter is left on a very satisfying end for an arc!!

an endless road to rediscover by littlearrows

In the months before Mar'i is born, Dick and Damian take a cross-country road trip together.

if you enjoyed the Dick and Damian tension from Nightwing (2016) #16-20 you might like this! :’) encouraging everyone to read those issues tbh

to be human by newsical

None of his Gotham acquaintances look upon his old life favorably — this, Damian knows. Was his life not noble before? Damian feels like a waterboarded gnat, swirling towards a drain. Gently, as though he has not ripped out Damian’s stomach with his teeth, Alfred says, “Attempting to take his father’s place won’t work, Master Richard…” Their voices peter out, and the last thing Damian can hear is Richard huff and say something that sounds like, “No shit,” and he is alone. Somewhere, a clock ticks. Damian pictures it melting. (Dick and Damian over the years.)

lovely dive into Damian’s personal growth and his relationship with Dick!! reading the poem that inspired the fic, especially again after finishing the fic is a nice touch!

Do You Feel the Way My Past Aches? by fishfingersandjellybabies

Bruce finds a wayward Damian asleep on his couch. Dick then find them both. An unexpected conversation ensues.

a tender Bruce perspective on the dynamic! “Bruce thought back to watching them work, Dick the master of the spotlight and Damian his perfect shadow.” THEM

When You're The One Who's Loved by fishfingersandjellybabies

Damian doesn’t understand why Dick is so upset. Tim does, though.

SO SOFTT ykw just go thru all of this writer's Dick & Damian fics they just exude love and warmth!!

Tea for Two by StormLeviosa

Their apartment is full of smiles now. It is because of Pennyworth, he is sure. Damian did not realise how much he'd missed Pennyworth until he came back. He slotted into their little family like the puzzle piece you do not know is missing. It was pleasant, having a grandfather he did not need to fear, and Pennyworth was all that and more.

part of a series, but easily read as a standalone. they’ve given up the vigilante life and DOMESTIC DICK & DAMIAN + ALFRED!! WHOLESOME!! i also enjoy the other Damian installments of the series, fun explorations of his interests/skills like violin!! and animals (going to vet school!!)

Pop-tarts and orange juice by Ididloveyou_once

‘Do you ever wish that Father had actually died?’ ‘Never.’ And despite the vehemence with which Richard says the word, Damian thinks that he might be lying. But only because he hates himself for the truth. Or: Bruce has been back from the dead for three months. Damian doesn’t know how to feel. He does know that he misses his da- Richard. They talk about it… Sort of.

"He wants to tell him that nothing compares to being Robin at his side. To being Damian at his side." WAILING

The Weight of Legacy by DawnsEternalLight

Damian didn’t think. He didn’t have to, protecting Richard was instinct by now. Darting forward right into the arc of Crane’s scythe as it aimed for his partner’s neck was as familiar to him as breathing, etched into his DNA. For if he lost Richard again, how could he continue to exist? The man was not only his firmest tie to Batman’s mantle, now that Father was home and clashing with Damian, but at some point during their partnership he had inexorably woven himself into Damian’s very being. Through training, and lessons, and quiet nights filled with ice cream. Patience and love–a thing Damian had not hoped to find here when he’d first set foot on American soil. To lose Richard would be akin to losing a limb. And so Damian acted as if that were true. He wove protection of his mentor, Batman, sibling, into every action he took and refused to accept failure as an option.

"We Both Know You're The Last of the Graysons" as a fic prompt is wild...that panel never fails to make me cry... also, another writer with an abundance of fantastic Dick & Damian fics!!

Emergency Contact by DawnsEternalLight

Damian: Apologies for the intrusion into your day, Richard. I need you to pick me up from the gallery trip early, it seems I have been stabbed. Dick blinked down at the message then read it again. And again. His brain not quite processing the words staring up at him, backlit by the phone.

this ventures bit more into parent Dick Grayson, as in Damian explicitly calling Dick his dad at the end but it's a fun fic!! that preview always cracks me up LOL

The Stowaway by LittleLadybugs

There's a cat in the penthouse. Fortunately, Alfred has yet to find out. Now to keep it that way. OR Dick tries his best to parent Damian. Damian tries his best, period. They’re both a bit clumsy, but they’ve got the spirit. There might be a cat Meow ᓚᘏᗢ 💙💚

smiling and laughing through this whole fic THEY ARE SO SILLY I LOVE THEM

as love carries its strength, but not its labels by AlterHarpia

Bruce is on a trip beyond Earth’s Solar System for longer than he intended, making Dick and Damian fall into an old pattern. “I'm not Batman.” A mere reminder, perhaps, but when said to Damian it always sounds like an apology.

basically them putting into words their own funky lil dynamic!!

Let The Right One In by whaleofatime

Hot on the trail of Deadshot threatening mayhem in Japan, Dick and Damian find themselves going undercover as a father-son duo on House Hunters International. Deadshot won't be the only source of chaos in Tokyo this summer, and Dick's only a little apologetic.

okok kinda cheating here since they’re just undercover as dad and son lol BUT it’s such a fun read of the duo on a Japan trip (mission)!

the primacy of personal conscience by birdsofthesoul

"WHAT MAKES IAGO EVIL? some people ask. I never ask." — Joan Didion, Play It as It Lays Or: Dick, his family, and the moral morass of a wishing well.

cheating again bc plot not focused on Dick and Damian’s relationship, but it’s there! really enjoyed the characterizations and dynamics here!!

soft clocks by dustorange

Side effects of being revived by Lex Luthor may include amnesia, going undercover into a high-level espionage agency, not recognizing your family, fighting your family, and dealing with the emotional weight and guilt associated with encountering said family. Ask your doctor if being revived by Lex Luthor is right for you. (a.k.a. Dick has amnesia during his time at Spyral. The family grapples with finding out he's alive. Dick grapples with finding out he has a family. Inspired by this post by bigskydreaming.)

lol sorry another not focused on their relationship but!! came and stayed for the plot, then the Dick & Damian moments KNOCKED ME OUTT!!

#anon #fic #i just realized i never made an ask tag sgdhfh #sorry this took so long ive been hella busy and combing thru almost 400 fics is a lot hahagsfshdj #someone ask me for Dick and Damian during their Batman and Robin days lol THE BLUEPRINT OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP WAHH #but then there’s more fics after that era…ask for those too idk HAHA #ask #dynamic duo 2.0: what would you do without me?

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brunhielda · 3 months

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Because this is becoming THAT blog-

The one where I review old movies we all have already seen, but I personally, have not seen for years until recently.

I just watched “An American Tale.”

If you were a child of the 90s, you just thought- “There are No Cats in America ��? THAT American Tale?”

Yes.

If you had that thought, you likely already know. If you have not had the absolute joy- buckle up. I am going to rant about a classic.

First of all- This is Don Bluth.

His movies do not get worse with age.

They get BETTER.

And American Tale is example number ONE.

No, it is not fond memories or nostalgia glasses, you can breath, and then go treat yourself to a viewing.

Secondly- the man did not dumb down or sanitize his history.

He said “I’m going to tell the immigrant story” and then opened with a fucking ethnic cleansing.

I said what I said.

The movie is set in the early Russian Empire, a time full of anti-Semitic sentiment and enforced laws, also seen in “Fiddler on the Roof.” Fiddler on the roof might actually be tamer on the subject.

Every other historical note in this movie is on point and easy enough to look up in a history book, if you have the common sense to realize that names have been altered.

The Statue of Liberty was not built by a pigeon, for example. It was built by a Frenchman. (Frederic Auguste Bartholdi).

I don’t know of an “honest John,” but I did guffaw out loud when he started taking names of the dead at funerals to add to his vote count. Ghost votes were very real, one of the reasons people are still so twitchy about voter fraud today.

I do not recall a moment in 1886 when the minorities of New York managed to run off prominate members of authority… but with how on point everything else is? It would not shock me.

Thirdly- Bluth DID NOT FLINCH

I don’t remember who said it first, but both Bluth and Spielberg had a belief that you could put very sad and scary things in children’s films, as long as the ending was happy.

This movie has multiple nightmare moments. Cats, monster waves, more cats, bugs and fish, and of course, the horrifying “Mouse of Minsk” (iykyk).

The thing is, it’s not even how they are drawn. Like, yes, the image is scary, but it’s the storytelling around it. It’s the lighting change. The soundtrack. The horrific sound effects. Seriously- whoever did foley on this film deserves all the awards- you make me scared of the kitty kats, and I LOVE cats. 🐈

Some people will question whether or not it is appropriate for small children. I would say maybe wait until they are six, and watch it with them, but they should watch scary things if they can. Being scared in appropriately safe space teaches you how to react to fear and handle moments when you are scared in real life. It is my major argument for Halloween. But each parent has to do as they think is best for each individual child. In any case, watch this one first before showing it to your kids- definitely more scary than you remember.

Finally- the animation on this film is a national treasure. I honestly hope this film is in the Library of Congress collection.

There are animation techniques here that don’t exist anymore.

Sparks. Sparkles. Glimmers. Stars in the Night Sky. Smoke billows.

Actually, I almost paused the film on a smoke billow. Sony is doing some things in the recent “Spiderverse” trilogy that are insane- and part of it is their mixed animation.

All the smoke billows? Hand drawn.

They look the same as Bluth’s smoke in this film, which is making me wonder if one of their artists studied under him. Maybe not- maybe they just did their homework on good hand drawn cloud formations. Either way, realizing how close they got to the master work in this film made me appreciate them even more.

Speaking of insane animation-

I don’t know WHO Bluth felt he had to show off to, but this man could DRAW WATER and he fucking knew it.

Like water is hard to do, ok? Like hands, Da Vinci had notebooks full of sketches of the substance, proving it to be the bane of the artistic existence.

Most water in hand drawn animation comes in two forms-

Flat water color with pretty things floating in it to distract you-

Or drawn over a live video of water that they spliced into the image.

Even that was hard to do, and they used a technology no longer available to us. It looks pretty cool honestly.

But no, not DON fucking BLUTH.

Not only can this man hand draw water without the underlying video, but he draws it moving in multiple different ways. He shows it from the top, side, and sinking underneath (with moving bubbles and shifting light, no flat blue for him).

He turns it into a NIGHTMARE FUEL WAVE MONSTER.

He ADDS it to SCENES it DIDNT HAVE TO BE IN!

The more I watched this film, the more I realized that if Milt Kahl had the head swaggle, Don Bluth had water, and by God was he going to use it.

He wrote plots AROUND the idea of water, so he could showcase it in every scene. “Rock-a-doodle,” and “Pebble and the Penguin” come to mind. “Anastasia,” “Thumbelina” and “All Dogs Go to Heaven” all feature action scenes in water. Heck- the one in “All Dogs Go To Heaven” came out of no where, and makes so much more sense if it was just Bluth wanting to show off.

“An American Tale” had the travel by boat sequence and our main hero being thrown over board. He could have left it there. NOPE. There were puddles and sewers and fire hoses and action scenes at the docks.

And the few scenes without water? Let’s throw some scary sparks in there. Maybe some smoke billowing. For funzies.

Also- we’re going to have a Love Song with the most incredible Night Sky you have ever seen and a Comedic song featuring fun house mirror distorted reflections because WHY NOT???

I think he was trying to make sure Disney regretted him leaving, the way you dress up when you know your toxic ex will be there, and I love that for him. 🩷

Also- the backgrounds are all beautiful water color. I love a good water color.

Also- yeah, the sound track holds up. The songs are just as catchy as they ever were- if you have ever seen this movie you WILL find yourself singing along.

As previously mentioned, when it comes to the scary parts, the composer UNDERSTOOD THE ASSIGNMENT and the music easily fits into a good horror film.

And finally- the music at the finale when everything is made right, and the happy ending is finally here, is the most heart breaking thing you will ever hear. You will cry. Watch the movie, but bring the tissues. 🤧

This movie is definitely worth a watch.

This movie is more than worth a watch, it should be mandatory for elementary history and college animation classes alike.

But also it’s just fun. 🤩

#American Tale #Don Bluth #drawing water #movie review #classic animation #sometimes that movie is just as good or better than you remember #seriously- if this ISNT in the Library of Congress can we petition to get it in?#Fival Moukiwitz #Bluth said they took thier names at Ellis Island we are GIVING THEM BACK in this film #no shortcuts #the more I watch his films the more I love this man #no one tell me if he was a terrible person #My heart would shatter #He also said cultural music and traditions is how you recognize family 😭#“Keep playing! He might hear you! 😭#storytelling #one of the masters #if Miyazaki and Bluth ever met it would be the most beautiful meeting of the artistic souls

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racefortheironthrone · 1 year

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Any chance you have seen and/or have thoughts on Across the Spider-Verse?

I literally just got back from Across the Spider-Verse and sat down at my computer, so this is about as fresh as a take as I can manage.

Short version: it's an astonishingly and relentlessly ambitious film that aims to outdo every other Spider-Man movie, every other multi-verse movie, and even its own first entry in the Miles Morales trilogy. And it succeeds.

Full spoilers below the cut. You have been warned.

The Visuals

Before I get into anything about the story, I want to first give full credit to the directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemo Powers, Justin K. Thompson, and the entire team at Sony Pictures Animation. If you saw the first Spider-Verse movie and aren't an animation nerd, you probably were impressed but didn't realize how revolutionary it was. I'll let Movies With Mikey explain the details, because it's easier if you can see what people are talking about:

youtube

When your first entry wins an Academy Award by thumbing your nose at Pixar, the reigning king of animation, and the principles of animation set down by the Nine Old Men, you have every right to sit back on your laurels.

For Across the Spider-Verse, the Sony Pictures Animation team clearly decided: fuck that. If the first film had wowed audiences by combining a half-dozen styles of animation on the screen at the same time, the second film would drown you in dozens and dozens of Spiders-Men and -Women (and -Animals) drawn in every style imaginable: Da Vinci's yellowing parchments and sketchy penicls, harsh cell-shading, punk rock collage art, 90s-style comic panels full of impossibly rippling muscles, crappy hand-drawn animation from the 1967 tv show, and then for a tip of the hat to Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the man who should have been Spider-Man - live action.

The backgrounds show the same love: from the off-set printing of Miles' world (my favorite detail is that you know that Miles gets sent to the wrong Earth when the color scheme shifts from purple to green), to the dripping painterly pastels of the Gweniverse, to the riotous greens and yellows of Mumbattan, to the clean Pixaresque light blooms of the Spider-Society's technological utopia (which looks a hell of a lot like something out of Brad Bird's dreams).

I am thoroughly in awe of the mentality behind the animation in this film, the absolute determination to challenge one's own limits and exceed one's past accomplishments.

The Story

If there is a single world that defines Across the Spider-Verse, it's "canon." The moment Miguel O'Hara uttered that word, my spidey-senses started tingling and I realized that Lord & Miller came to this film with a sermon. See, if there's one message from the first Spider-Verse movie it's that "anyone can be Spider-Man." But if there's two messages is that "you can't save everyone" - the idea that the thing that unites all Spiders-Folk from across the multiverse, it is a common understanding of loss, a tragic origin that drives each hero to impossible efforts to never let it happen again.

Across the Spider-Verse's message is: "why?" I cannot begin to explain the absolute vibranium balls it took to question not just a core premise of your previous movie, but one of the core premises of the entire multi-media multi-corporate franchise. And yet, Lord & Miller show nothing but confidence executing this turn.

FULL SPOILERS OF THE BIG TWIST AHEAD in 3:

At the beginning of the film, which makes the brilliant move to start by telling Spider-Gwen's story since we already know Miles, we are introduced to Miguel O'Hara (the Spider-Man from 2099) as a badass who leads a secret organization dedicated to protecting the mutliverse...but who secretly is also here to protect "canon."

At the turning point of the film, when Miles is finally invited to join the Spider-Society, we are let in on a dark truth: the safety of the multiverse depends on the suffering of Spiders. Just as Uncle Ben must die, so must a gallant police captain - although almost subtextually, Spider-Gwen hints that so too must the Gwen Stacys who "fall for Spider-Man" - to keep Spider-Man emotionally isolated and solely dedicated to his mission of protecting New York. Trying to avert this lonely fate, to live a happier life, brings about the destruction of all that is.

Through an act of unabashed heroism in Mumbattan - saving the life of a gallant police captain and an innocent child - Miles has inadvertently endangered an entire universe. And unless he allows his own father, the gallant captain, to die as well - the same fate will befall his own. Miles, being a good son and a good person, refuses to accept this and takes on the entire Spider-Society to get home and save his father.

In the chase, we are let in on a second, dark truth: Miles wasn't invited to join the Spider-Society because he is one of the anomalies they hunt, because he was never supposed to be Spider-Man. (You see how this builds on both the speech from Miles' mom about not letting white society tell him he doesn't belong AND the message from the first film?) The Kingpin's collider experiments allowed an Alchemax spider to cross over from Earth-42 to Earth-1610...and as a result, Earth-42 never got a Spider-Man.

When Miles accidentally is sent to Earth-42 instead of his actual home, he learns what that meant. Without Spider-Man, Captain Jeff Davis (Brian Michael Bendis is a real mensch like 99% of the time, but man did he fuck up with that one) died instead of his brother Aaron. Because the intended Spider-Man of Earth-42 was...Miles Morales. Instead, he has become a dystopian Brooklyn's Prowler, a living reminder of the damage the accident of Earth-1610's Miles' creation has caused. This is why you don't violate "canon."

Except...as we learn, Miguel O'Hara is wrong and our Miles is right. When Gwen is sent back to her own universe, which she has been running away from because she knows that it means confronting both her father the gallant captain and the inevitability of his death, she learns that George Stacy quit the force rather than take his promotion: Captain Stacy doesn't have to die. Nor did Captain Singh. Nor does Captain Davis. (For that matter, Miles doesn't have to lie to his family and live a double life as Spider-Man, as we see from his accidentally-misdirected confession.)

We are not the prisoners of the "canon."

Ever since Amazing Fantasy #15, "with great power there must also come great responsibility" has been the indisputable truth of Spider-Man. At this point, it's become a meme: "the Parker luck." Over and over again, Peter Parker must suffer for our sins - Uncle Ben dies, Captain Stacy dies, Gwen Stacy's death ushers in a whole new era of comics and the phenomenon of "fridging," his marriage to Mary Jane has to be done away with because the Spider Office are apparently psychological eternal adolescents, Aunt May has died and almost died so many times everyone's stopped caring.

And that's the problem: we've been playing the same hit for 61 years and it's gotten old. In the process, creators and audience together have condemned Spider-Man to a Sisyphean existence of eternal backsliding, unable to move on, build a life for himself, mature, die and give way to new Spiders. Hell, the best thing that's happened to Peter Parker in the last several decades was an AU in which he has a super-powered wife and daughter and can settle into a middle age of teaching at the Xavier School.

That's the sermon that Lord & Miller came to preach: just as in 2018 it was time for a new Spider-Man, now it's time for new stories that have the courage to try something different.

A Side-Note About the Multiverse

As with the animation side of the story, Lord & Miller could have sat back on their laurels when it came to the concept of the multiverse. After all, they were the ones who made it cool and sent Marvel Studios scrambling to catch up (still haven't succeeded at that, by the way). I don't think Everything Everywhere All At Once needed the creative help, but it absolutely helped sell the movie to producers that a multiverse movie could make millions and win Oscars. (Funny how that works.) Instead, Lord & Miller took it up a notch by asking "what is the purpose of a multiverse?"

Hot take: I don't like the Spider-Verse events. For all that they've given us some amazing Spider designs - and we saw them all up on screen in Across the Spider-Verse - no one cares about the stories. That's because the naked purpose of the comics was to market test Spider designs, see which ones generated buzz, and then make spin-off comics about those Spiders.

Across the Spider-Verse uses the concept of a multiverse, the shiny Macguffin that multi-billion dollar corporate conglomerates will hope will the ticket to riches, to strip Spider-Man down to the essentials by showing every conceivable variation and asking us what they all have in common. Is it suffering, or a commitment to doing the right thing?

Conclusion:

Holy shit, is firing Lord & Miller the biggest mistake Disney has made since Walt refused to recognize the animators' union in 1941.

#marvel #marvel meta #into the spider verse #across the spider verse spoilers #across the spider verse #miles morales #peter parker #spiderman #spider-man #spider-man meta #spiderman meta

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fountainpenguin · 1 month

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130 Reasons Why I'm Fairy Trash

🧡 Orange Train Collection - AKA, High Fantasy

(July 2016 - Ongoing)

"What? Everyone in my family? Including me? No, I'm not a witch." "Oh, but you must be. You see, I only talk to witches, and only when I want to. Ask your grandmother." Kevin bit his lip. "But–but magic isn't real. I'm going to be a scientist who builds robot friends and babysitters. And before I do that, I'm going to be a dentist until I can support myself on robots alone. I can't be a witch!" The cat winked. "Sure, hon. And I can't be a korrigan who broke Da Rules by falling in love with a crazy Fairy-hunting human. Guess we're both a bit insane."

- FOP works with a heavy focus on high fantasy worldbuilding, regardless of character or genre.

- Also, deep dives into bits of lore that I think are acquired tastes.

- I've moved all 'fics that qualify here, even if they're not 130 Prompts, so browse or avoid at your preference.

⭐ Any Rating - Everything in the 130 Prompts is G or T. However, Orange Train is a catch-all that can include M or E

Read on FFN | Read these works on AO3

130 Sums | Full 130 Prompt Series (AO3) | Other Arcs

Cloudlands AU - Detailed warnings & other AU info

#130 arc guides - More posts like this

More Fairly OddParents 'fics

What goes in Orange Train?

- Cloudlands AU Worldbuilding: Condensed Version ⭐ If you're easily squicked, consider reading either the above link and/or the Cloudlands AU warnings above before proceeding. If those are too much for you, you won't want to see what's under the cut. Orange Train details below. This post contains simple explanations of Cloudlands AU worldbuilding, like anatomy and culture. -> Ex: There's an explanation of how to rescue a baby from a pouch, which is the same way joeys are rescued from dead mother kangaroos IRL, because that does happen in a 'fic in the Orange Train series. This and other descriptions below may be upsetting to read unless you're mentally prepared. #Long post [7,800 words]

Author writes about complex non-human societies and does not inherently condone any viewpoints presented by characters or the societies they live in.

⭐ Reminder: Any rating. #ScarletPenguin

Works marked as 🧡 Orange Train contain deep explorations of high fantasy worldbuilding.

The purpose of the info below is to give a heads up for many deep worldbuilding details in case you find something here that squicks you out (so you can decide to avoid Orange Train works when reading actual 'fics).

- C-C-C-Combo! - Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, T.U.F.F. Puppy, and Bunsen Is a Beast all co-exist in the Cloudlands AU timeline.

-> A T.U.F.F. Timeline

-> How the Four Hartman Shows Co-Exist

- War Scenes - Bickering, politics, action, setting damage, manipulative schemes, and main character injury

Ex: The war from Season 7's "Balance of Flour" confirms Anti-Cosmo was an adult with a position of power during the war (He played Tiddlywinks against Jorgen in the original attempt at a truce before they switched to the annual bake-off). Thus, it's heavily implied all our main cast fae were old enough to fight. The May Blossom War messes up the Earth to the point "T.U.F.F. Puppy's" animal races become the dominant species (See above)

-> Wars of the Fae

Timmy's Secret Wish - Timmy freezing time for 50 years is canon in Cloudlands AU. Every 'fic accounts for it as appropriate

-> Ex: People get confused when trying to remember how long ago an event happened

-> The Burger World employee (Kenny) wasn't affected because he wasn't on Earth until Season 7 (See also, "Shouldn't Have Survived"). He appears again in Season 10 and my 'fics depict a slide towards him getting more and more confused. Don't worry about it.

-> Poof aged only when he wasn't on Earth (with Foop tied to his life and aging alongside him).

Jimmy-Timmy Power Hour - The crossover is also canon, but Jimmy Neutron and friends continued aging since they're from a separate dimension. Timmy and his friends call it The Bulgyverse.

Technically, the canon is that there is a Jimmy (and a Carl and a Sheen, etc.) who exist in Timmy's version of the world, but he's not doing high tech stuff on a planet-affecting scale (His chaos is localized to Retroville).

-> The Timmy that does exist in the Bulgyverse doesn't have Fairies, but genuinely does have fairy-like computer programs.

That said, Shirley's pizzeria is canon and it has an entrance in both dimensions. It appeared in Come What May Chapter 4 ("The Pizza Place Where Worlds Collide"), where we saw it had portals to... Well, any Nickelodeon or Nick Jr. show you could think of.

-> No one really uses them, so it's just a giant thing we lampshade. Kevin Crocker finds it baffling, but the popular kids think it's a cool place to hang out.

It's worth noting that Evil Jimmy Neutron jumped from the Bulgyverse to Timmy's universe to escape his dying planet (J.N. episode "The Trouble with Clones").

-> In "Swim," he's seen hanging out with people on Unwish Island. He goes by James and gets a kick out of bothering Nega-Timmy.

24 Fae Planes - Fairy World and Anti-Fairy World have many layers. For example, Pixie World is very close to Earth, and Fairy World hovers above Giant Bucket of Acid World (in line with Season 7's "Crocker Shocker").

My 'fics depict characters traveling up and down. Notably, you need a Bridge (like the Rainbow Bridge) to go up a level, but you can drop down just by jumping.

The lower planes (where the show and most of my 'fic content takes place) are pretty stable, but the higher up the levels you go, the more wild the magic becomes. Nature spirits (such as Mother Nature, Father Time, and the Grim Reaper) live on Plane 23, which is sometimes considered to be Fairy Heaven.

Plane 24 has a magical life-giving fountain and is occupied solely by the nature spirit who embodies Reality. His ex-wife is the Hocus Poconos, who embodies Unreality. He never got over that break-up.

-> In Cloudlands AU, Foop was sent to Plane 24 after "Playdate of Doom" and had to make his way back down. Along the way, he got tangled up with alt versions of his parents from another reality who were very abusive towards him. That's known as his Pivotverse experience and it severely messed him up. He still flinches around his real parents even though he knows they're not the same people.

-> The 'fic about this is called Identity Theft, which has been planned for years but never posted because I'm indecisive :') ... Maybe I should make a separate AU for Pivotverse. I was just gonna keep it in this one 'fic, but it might be fun to do more.

-> Fae Cosmology

-> Overview of the 24 Fae Planes

Foop's alternate personality - Foop's alt personality is canon from Season 7 on (Most obvious in "Playdate of Doom" and "Spellementary School," but if you're familiar with details like their body language, traits like cheeks and eye highlights, and music cues, you can tell when they switch in many other episodes).

-> Ex: "Man's Worst Friend" is a pretty obvious one, and those elements are consistent in "Terrible Twosome" even though Foop was going through the Terrific Twos at the time.

-> In Cloudlands AU, the alter is named Hiccup. He's mostly nice, but very overprotective, VERY jealous, and increasingly bitter over time. He also has a sassy, savage streak and will just dunk on you for no reason.

-> Hiccup has a massive crush on Sammy Sweetsparkle and many other people, especially "bad boys." This includes Cavatina Sanderson (despite Cavatina's deep-seeded desire to kill Foop), so... y'know. It's fine.

The Refracted - Gold and white bird people exist in this universe. They tend to be holier-than-thou and see Fairies and Anti-Fairies as impure. They keep to themselves in the upper planes. They're a hunting and gathering people due to their bird biology; they don't have cities.

They're allowed 3 Robes who sit on the Fairy Council (the Peach, the Rose, and the Lilac), but they never show up as a protest for being "above" this.

Artemis Cairo (Chief Sunchosen) is the de facto leader, but only if you take her seriously. She founded a town called Town. It's going great. Artemis appears as a child in Frayed Knots and an adult in "Think Positive." Jorgen, H.P., Anti-Cosmo, and Anti-Sanderson are all a bit intimidated by her.

Pixie refracts are based on the purple-crowned fairywren, so they're purple and brown (paralleling the canon from "Clash With the Anti-World" where anti-pixies are green with yellow hair).

-> Class Overview: The Refracted

-> #Pious gold and white bird people yep

-> Old art of Chief Sunchosen & Dame Sanderson

Courts - Fairies and Pixies belong to the Seelie Court. Anti-Fairies and Refracts belong to the Unseelie Court.

-> In Cloudlands AU, this doesn't mean much beyond giving us a nice collective term for Fairies and Pixies when discussing their insect biology. Very common terms in 'fic.

Drakes & Damsels - Terms for male and female Fae, respectively. Mentioning because I'll use those terms in this post.

Non-Human Biology - The Fae have insect, bat, and bird biology. This includes reproductive parts. They're technically marsupials and have pouches like sugar gliders.

-> Poof and Foop shed their exoskeletons and took more humanoid bodies in "Evolution Hopeful".

-> My Fae have a very detailed breathing system intertwined with their magic. See also, Fae Magic.

-> Fairies are elastic and heal very quickly. Some of their play can seem very violent to humans (Ex: Wanda playing "Wandaball" in the last 10 seconds of Season 1's "The Same Game," which is a game where she bashes Cosmo's head with a cinderblock and laughs about it). Cosmo demonstrates quick healing in Season 5's "Fairy Idol" by jabbing himself in the eye several times.

-> Fairies can only be killed by non-magical means (Inspired by episodes like "Abracatastrophe" where magic doesn't affect magic along with "Poltergeeks" and "Scary Godcouple" where Cosmo and Wanda nearly die to sharp blades and the Crocker Pot, respectively).

-> Fairies turn to dust when they die (Inspired by "Fairy Idol," where Jorgen thinks Cosmo and Wanda are dead when he finds dust on their beds, his exact line being "No! They've turned to fairy dust!").

--- Anti-Fairies turn to smoke (a nod towards Foop being born from a smoke cloud). Refracts turn to mist.

-> Anatomy is played more realistically than in the show. For example, wings flap. Also, Anti-Fairies have claws and opposable toes. The common anti-fairy subspecies (who are based on Mexican free-tailed bats) have white toes and longer tails than the usual puffs of their species.

--- Fun Fact: My Anti-Fairies are based not only on bats, but also pink fairy armadillos! They have scutes protecting them from Fairy magic (which isn't supposed to affect them in canon) and Cosmo and Wanda's magic bounced off armadillo scutes in Season 7's "Teacher's Pet". However, Anti-Fairy bellies have soft hair and that's where they CAN be affected by magic. That said, I tend to draw them fluffy because I like to.

-> Fairies sweat their excess magic constantly. It secretes from their skin, creating a light magical veil preventing people from immediately recognizing magic unless they look closer. This is called the Principle of Observation and plays into episodes like "Nectar of the Odds" and "Crocker Shocker," where Cosmo released sweat and sparkles that could be used for magic.

--- Baby, You're a Rich Man and Pink and Gray are both good examples of this in practice.

--- Pixies are based on eusocial insects and swarm when they smell one of their own is injured. In Rich Man, Sanderson gets separated from H.P. and cuts his skin on purpose in the hopes his boss will find him. (It IS self-harm, but he's also elastic and heals quickly). Chloe accidentally triggers the swarming instinct in "This Is a Box" when she kicks H.P. in the face.

-> Forehead domes swing open and some sensitive parts are kept in there. Fae have cores, which are bits of magical enamel (like their crowns) that develop to reflect their personality. In canon, we saw that Wanda's is a radar [Multiple episodes], Cosmo's an empty storage chamber ["Mind Over Magic"], and H.P.'s is a laser cannon ["Fairy Oddlympics"].

--- Anti-Fairies' cores match their counterparts'. Also, it's worth noting Sanderson's is a pencil sharpener until he gets a core transplant late in Origin of the Pixies. If you know where this is going then you know where this is going.

-> In Chapter 2 of Frayed Knots, Anti-Cosmo rescues his "unborn joey" of a cousin from his dying aunt by cutting off the teat in her pouch (This is how you rescue baby joeys from dead kangaroos because their mouths are fused to the nipple in this early state).

-> Anti-Fairies have a type of embryonic diapause like actual bats. In other words, Anti-Fairy babies must reach 3 months of gestation, after which they will be born the following Friday the 13th. It's possible for an Anti-Fairy to be pregnant for over a year depending on how far apart Friday the 13ths are.

-> All Refracts are born exactly 3 months after the host counterpart; my lore for Season 7's "Anti-Poof" is that Foop and their Refract counterpart (Poppy) were born the exact same day, so the smoke cloud that absorbed personality traits from Poof was much larger than expected.

Fairy Reproduction - In the old days, damsels would die after mating. Cupid's family prevents this by using arrows to deliver a burst of magic. Fairies don't mate often as it's painful for them (and they have heat cycles anyway, so they're only interested occasionally).

-> There's one scene in Origin of the Pixies where H.P.'s sister begs to know why he's so stressed about intimacy; he finally snaps "My pleasure isn't worth her suffering." Yeah, he's got issues with it...

-> Cupid's arrows force a mating couple's magic to turn yellow when they fertilize eggs. This is the only color of magic that lasts after death (See also, Colors of Magic).

-> One of the plot points in Origin of the Pixies is H.P. having extreme anxiety that his offspring were fertilized with purple magic - which fades after death - because he was unable to hit yellow's joy requirement and Cupid's family never saw him because he reproduces asexually (and thus didn't show up in their records).

Fairy culture leans towards having separate beds for sleeping and mating. In fact, bedrooms have a special connected room for mating (the yidreamu) due to how important and precious it is for them, especially back in the day when a damsel knew she'd die (so mating was reserved for the end of the life as it was).

-> Damsels spend time recovering afterwards and cannot reproduce again during that cycle (though a drake can). Cosmo and Wanda used their yidreamu in "Repeat." In one Frayed Knots chapter, Anti-Cosmo hesitates to barge into a yidreamu even while searching rooms to check everyone had evacuated in a fire; it's so deep-seeded in their culture that he was embarrassed to even look at it.

The Fae have heat cycles; the common fairy subspecies (and the pixies since they're mutated common fairies) come into heat for 18 months just once every 500 years. Most of the time, everyday intimacy is snuggles and some kisses.

-> Fun Fact: Wanda and Cosmo hit their cycle in Season 5 (The season they both express interest in other people multiple times & leading up to "Fairly Odd Baby" as Season 6's debut episode). They're happily monogamous, but hormones are messy...

-> There are 35 Fae subspecies (if you include Pixies who were later separated into their own Class). Back in the day, Cupid's family organized all species in a list according to their heat cycles to make it easier for individuals to determine who was adjacent to them in schedule.

--- Unfortunately, this led to a deeply rooted caste system that still guides their culture today. (See Fairy Social Ladder).

Fairy damsels leave mating plugs (i.e. the part that breaks off and once upon a time would've led to their deaths, in line with their insect anatomy). This gets mentioned on very rare occasion, such as late Origin of the Pixies and Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Pixies.

-> Poof has a small crisis when he realizes he's spent his whole life writing fanfics with Fairies who mate like humans. Also, his roommate teases him by saying some people like to keep the plug as a memento (They do not... I think).

Will o' the Wisps - Wisps are one of the Fairy subspecies. They're a mutation of common fairies whose damsels recover quickly and can mate multiple times a cycle. Their genetics are horribly unstable and a lot of their offspring die, so... /double thumbs up.

-> Long ago, Cupid's family took the wisp holotype (Ilisa Maddington) captive and forced her to reproduce a bunch to preserve her species. Apparently, Ilisa mentally broke and would kill any of her offspring who didn't show the butterfly wing gene (believing they weren't hers), so... she had a rough life. We talk about her life a lot.

Wisp damsels keep harems and that leads to fanfic drama. H.P. was forced into one when seeking milk for baby Sanderson (Origin of the Pixies). He doesn't necessarily resolve the issues that come with this or have a healthy ending to that plot arc, but... it sure did happen.

-> Goldie is in training to be her species' ambassador (and required to uphold expectations regarding her own harem). She struggles with Harm OCD in "Watch and Learn."

-> Poof stresses out in some works (especially Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Pixies & "All I Ever Wanted") due to fears that Goldie doesn't respect his consent. Which he's afraid to bring up with her because of the aforementioned harm OCD she has in regards to her people being stereotyped as aggressive and forceful with their partners (and because his memory is pretty bad anyway since he's on peppermint so often).

--- Yeah, there's a lot going on. Read my Poof/Goldie works with caution 😬

Pixie Reproduction - Pixies have obligate asexual reproduction that kicks in when they're adults due to their Wolbachia pipientis infection (i.e. the real-world bacteria that causes many insects to reproduce asexually). All pixies are genetically identical to H.P. (with one exception).

-> The main plot point in Origin of the Pixies is H.P. trying to figure out what is happening to him and how to take care of all the pixies he produces (1 every 500 years in line with his heat cycle, seeing as he's a common fairy with a mutation).

-> H.P. has one non-identical biological daughter named Commelina. If you can guess how that happened before we get there (considering Wolbachia destroyed his ability to reproduce the standard way)... congrats! It's pretty awful and he's extremely messed up about it :D

-> Sanderson has his eldest (Cavatina) during the Gray Train arc of the 130 Prompts series.

Anti-Fairy Reproduction - Anti-Fairies cannot reproduce on their own, as they're reflections of their Fairy counterparts. 3 months after their counterparts mate, Anti-Fairies are flooded with an incredible amount of hormones and magic (the honey-lock instinct) that immediately sends them out to find their partner and mate.

-> "But doesn't that cause a lot of trauma-" yes. They don't have a choice /fingerguns.

-> One of the main plot threads in Frayed Knots is Anti-Cosmo trying to outfox the honey-lock, with his grand plan being to find someone else to mate with when his instinct kicks in. Thus, he'll sire an offspring born outside these universal rules, who'll go on to be the host counterpart of a new Fairy-Anti-Fairy-Refract trio.

--- Frayed Knots has a lot of theming around this type of thing. For instance, when Anti-Cosmo explains this plan to Anti-Wanda, the first thing she does is point out that he lacks a piece of anatomy he needs to make that plan work (because Cosmo has it). We get nitty-gritty about that sort of thing.

-> Oh yeah, Anti-Cosmo also stole sperm and eggs from the Eros Nest while he was interning and fertilized them with his own magic. Things got pretty messed up. Don't worry about it.

Like bats, Anti-Fairy drakes have barbs on their reproductive organ, and Anti-Cosmo has no shame in narrating that. It's glossed over in Frayed Knots, but blatant in the E-rated versions of "Cageflight" and whatever else gets an E chapter. (Can be found in Red Train or under my ScarletPenguin pseud, but I'm not linking directly in this post).

Anti-Fairy drakes carry their baby for 13 days before passing it to their partner by pressing their bellies together. In "Think Positive," Anti-Cosmo mourns the death of his unborn son because he dropped little joey Foop while transferring him to Anti-Wanda's pouch

Anti-Marigold (Goldie Goldenglow's counterpart) is an anti-wisp. While will o' the wisps are famed for being temptresses who keep harems, anti-wisps often get taken advantage of due to their four pouches to hold four babies.

-> To clarify: Anti-Fairies are forced to mirror their counterparts and some Anti-Fairy drakes forcibly dump their babies on random damsels. This happens a lot with anti-wisps, who are looked down on for being moth-like instead of bat-like; it's also a nod to moths being prey for bats.

-> Anti-Marigold's crop top rides high enough to slightly show her four pouches when I draw her. Poof jumped a bit when he brushed his hand over them while putting a painkiller charm on her stomach in "All I Ever Wanted."

⭐ Fae Culture - #RD species ref - Long, detailed posts for each magical culture. /slaps each one- These babies can fit a good 20k words in each of 'em and they're perfect if you're interested in the nitty-gritty.

Fairy World's population consists of roughly 75% damsels and 25% drakes. Damsels are born more often because back in the old days, they would die after mating (like many male insects, though it's male Fairies who give birth in FOP canon).

-> In modern times, Cupid's family now shoots every couple with a burst of magic to ensure damsels don't die. On very rare occasion, someone slips through the cracks, but his family are extremely devoted to their job.

-> Cupid's family were blessed by the nature spirits and have incredibly intense magic. They split it between triplets and kill any of their own offspring who aren't born triplets (and forbid anyone other than the Triplet of the Morning from reproducing- See also, Cupid's family tree).

-> His family also run the Eros Nest: a zoo containing every fauna species in the universe, which appears in Origin of the Pixies and Frayed Knots when they kidnap H.P. and when Anti-Cosmo interns there.

-> It's worth noting that in Cloudlands AU canon, Cupid's married to a beautiful will o' the wisp named Psyche and his mom is not happy.

> 2020 post about ZZ & ZW sex chromosomes for Fairies & the masculinization effect of Wolbachia pipientis on Pixies [Parallel of IRL Wolbachia's feminization phenotype for infected insects]

-> 2018 post about Fairy, Anti-Fairy, and Refract views of trans members in their culture & types of body adjustment magic

--- tl;dr - The Fae envision several different sexes. Fairies see gynes and drones as sexes alongside kabouter drakes and kabouter damsels. Anti-Fairies have a special designation for neurodivergent individuals [Ex: Anti-Cosmo's divus displacement disorder, which is an Anti-Fairy parallel of bipolar disorder that he treats with pheromones; Anti-Fairy culture believes he has a nature spirit tangled with his soul and sharing his body]... Lots of little nitty-gritty going on there, always traced back to Anti-Fairy zodiac culture].

That said, Fairies are supportive of gender transitions because they believe suppressing yourself weakens your magic and/or causes harm to your health [Magical back-up is part of their culture; they get nervous]. They're very big on being yourself.

--- Anti-Fairies believe in reincarnation and take body dysphoria as proof of their beliefs. They believe souls have no gender, but it's your role as someone experiencing many incarnations to take each one seriously and love the body and role given to you. Some people criticize this belief due to the possibility that this is just a way for the extremely patriarchal Anti-Fairy culture to keep damsels submissive because "it's their fate right now; they'll have their chance when it's their turn to be drakes; we all take our turn."

Generally, Anti-Fairies [who follow Zodii beliefs] consider it an insult to the nature spirits to change your body. This doesn't just mean gender presentation, but everything- Their culture has strict rules about bodies, including only being allowed to shapeshift into one form your entire life (predetermined by lineage), they're only allowed to wear clothes in specific colors, their underwear needs to match the color of their year of birth on the zodiac, stuff like that.

--- Anti-Cosmo has a whole crossdressing arc in Frayed Knots where he convinces himself that changing his clothes is okay as long as he doesn't change his body. The nature spirits are incredibly fluid in their bodies and gender, so idk where the Anti-Fairies got the idea that it would be an insult. Lots of different cultures and beliefs!

--- The Refracted are not very supportive of trans individuals, but I don't know what you expected because they think everything in life is sinful except breathing, praying, and eating. Owning possessions? Learning to read? Practicing magic? It's all bad.

--- Pixies don't really know what's going on in their bodies. They're designated drakes at birth due to having reproductive parts historically associated with ZZ chromosomes, but some pixies have ZW chromosomes and don't know it. That's just the way of Wolbachia! Wilcox and Smith are two notable ZW pixies, Wilcox being the first one Wolbachia pipientis's masculinization property was discovered in (Frayed Knots) & Smith's pheromones giving him an attraction boost both for being a gyne and for having ZW chromosomes. Smith is the only ZW Gen 2 pixie gyne, so his 'double attractive' status is unique and everyone thinks he's sexy.

-> Cloudlands AU only rarely plays with transformation magic and gender (We do have some interesting cases like Foop using a pendant in "Blue Angel," which is a special type of indirect magic that flies under the radar in his culture; I write Foop as genderfluid as he gets older, and one of the most important Anti-Fairies in history [the first High Count] used they/them pronouns, so... It's an interesting culture to explore, but may not be for everyone).

--- If you're interested in gender magic, you might like Reedfilter Rules AU, where Anti-Cosmo flips between gender presentations using magic for comfort and enjoyment (As in, not for a scheme or joke); there are neat details about his culture's naming traditions and how they're fluid with his presentation. H.P.'s spouse in RR AU does a hard reset of identity every 500 years. A very different but equally interesting society to explore in 'fic.

Seelie Courters have pheromone-based cultures while Anti-Fairies have sound-based culture and Refracts have sight-based culture.

-> In "Minion," both H.P. and Sanderson were affected by the Fairy Elder's pheromones, as she is the most powerful individual in Fairy World. Just being in the hallway nearby flipped Sanderson into a calm, authoritative state and H.P. into a flirty one (with Sanderson unable to maintain his gray suit - instead changing it to yellow - and using hand gestures that H.P.'s "no fun" pheromones usually suppress).

-> Anti-Cosmo asked H.P. if he could translate the scents of candles in "Yellow Flower Number 9," to which H.P. replied that he was "trying not to" because "It's gross this close to Valentine's Day."

-> Anti-Fairies who kiff-tie with nature spirits (discussed below) smell strong to Fairies. In late Origin of the Pixies and Frayed Knots, Sanderson waffles on his loyalty to H.P. because Anti-Cosmo's scent is overpowering to him (since Anti-Cosmo is bonded with the Water spirit and Sanderson was born in a Water year).

-> Fairies can smell when a fellow Fairy is no longer a virgin, because it upgrades their pheromones.

Drake Fairies who eat a significant amount of jelly during their first 3 months of life develop into gynes, whose behavior somewhat mirrors queen bees IRL. They have freckles, attract drones to serve them, and fight each other to the death. Drones are attracted to pheromones; gynes and drones engage in preening behaviors (insect-like licking behaviors) that satisfy them both (Ex: It helps them breathe better because it straightens out their magic).

-> By "serve," I do mean things like errands and chores. In Cloudlands AU, gyne/drone dynamics are completely non-sexual (with very rare exceptions such as H.P.'s rival (Jean Reddinski) taking advantage of his drones in Origin of the Pixies, which is considered sexual abuse in-universe and he faces consequences).

-> There is a lot of face-licking and neck-licking in these 'fics; it's a whole thing, baby... They are bugs, your honor...

-> H.P., Big Daddy, Poof, and Finley (see the tomte section below) are all gynes. Most pixies (including Sanderson) are drones. Only one gyne in the immediate area can be dominant; others are submissive. One of the side effects is that they become more pliant to orders. Due to pheromone suppression, gynes are sterile unless they're the dominant gyne.

-> Gynes don't kill on sight, but their instincts flare up when a fellow gyne challenges them. In Origin of the Pixies, H.P. struggles not to kill his vice president and heir (Longwood) many times. Multiple characters die in my 'fics, especially during gyne fights.

-> Finley gets his aggressive urges out by playing video games. Finley is the dominant gyne over Poof and yes, it is incredibly dangerous that they're living together. Poof never refuses when Finley wants something from him because he lives in fear that Finley will see it as a challenge and decide to kill him. Poof would probably win because he's captain of the saucerbee team and Finley plays video games all day. But it's complicated...

-> Gynes tend to have strong-scented pheromones and are usually considered attractive. Insects tend to find non-virgin insects more attractive than virgin ones (If I'm recalling my research from many years ago correctly; I believe it was the pheromone change). It gets a lot harder for gynes not to kill each other if both have the upgraded pheromones; they're way more aggressive.

--- This is mentioned now and then, such as H.P.'s insistence that his vice president must stay a virgin until he's gone, or the huge spike in tension between Poof and Finley when Poof's pheromones flip to their non-virgin state (Finley has a disability preventing him from doing the same; see the tomte section below). It's... never a secret (especially among gossipy high schoolers) who is and isn't a virgin.

-> Reddinski was significantly more dominant than H.P. back in the day, and H.P. was unable to be near him without flipping to a completely different personality (influenced by Reddinski's pheromones) where he was more nervous and submissive (See the Origin of the Pixies chapters "Almost" & "Senseless").

-> The Anti-Fairy parallel of a gyne is a pilot. They don't have pheromones or special behaviors, but they have purple freckles and are born with black stripes on their face (two things Foop has in canon- his stripes of course being his mustache and goatee).

-> The Refract version of a gyne is a plume. They're born with blue "ribbons" above their brows that usually go down to their hips or even past their feet (think bird-of-paradise courtship decorations). No pheromones or behaviors here either, though pilots and plumes are generally considered flashy and attractive.

-> Frayed Knots Chapter 7 - "Full House" - Spellementary-aged Anti-Cosmo visits a hive estate after accusing his gyne principal of being abusive to his drones.

-> Preening Signals

-> Freckle Distribution in Gyne Fairies

Wishbirthed individuals are uncommon, but not unheard of. Their official designation is luz mala, or "bad light." Their magic is highly unstable and strong emotions affect their surroundings (as in "Fairly Odd Baby" or "Anti-Poof").

-> If I'm remembering canon correctly, Juandissimo and Poof are the only Fairies who've been shown to do magic without a wand (Poof in both "Terrible Twosome" and "School of Crock," Juandissimo when he snaps his fingers and sends a blast of magic from his fingertip to Cosmo in the latter half of "Fairy Fairy Quite Contrary."

-> Canonically, Juandissimo was unable to hold a job for long after he and Remy separated because he was constantly crying ("Remy Rides Again"); dialogue heavily implies Juandissimo's tears ruined the food he cooked even though such a thing presumably would've been subtle if he had human tears.

-> In Frayed Knots, Juandissimo interns at the Eros Nest and babysits Cupid (and his siblings). In both Knots and Origin, Juandissimo's arc is about his journey to becoming more confident after a lifetime of being shamed and looked down on for his status as a luz mala. In "Whatever," he has a breakdown and wails that he's good, not bad.

- Some Fae are born tomtes, meaning they can't use magic. In their society, this is considered a disability. Finley - the pixie who rooms with Poof, Foop, and Sammy Sweetsparkle at boarding school - is the most notable tomte character. His hat doesn't float and he can't fly because his wings can't sustain his weight.

-> Finley will die if he engages in intercourse because his body would not have enough magic to sustain his life. This comes up now and then, such as when his roommates chat about their love lives.

-> He will also die if he gives birth, which is bad news for a member of a race that reproduces parthenogenetically when they come of age :')

-> Finley can only use magic on Gray Tuesday, when the Head Pixie takes Santa's powers and splits them between all the pixies. Finley looks forward to this every year in his youth (Ex: "This Is a Box"), but grows sour as he ages since it reminds him of what he can't have.

-> As mentioned, Fairies (who have insect biology) must adhere to specific reproduction practices (i.e. Cupid shooting them) or they risk dying after intercourse. Finley's disability means Cupid's arrows won't save him (His body can't process that magic).

When they become godparents, Fairies link their magic with the appendixes of their godchildren. This helps them locate their godchild, get a better understanding of what they're wishing for, and allows them to draw energy- Wishes made by children are drastically more powerful than random spells Fairies can do otherwise.

-> Juandissimo screeched in pain in "Whatever" when his godchild was injured. In the opening flashback in "Looking Back," Juandissimo passed out when Remy went into shock from extreme pain.

-> Fairy Court removed Gary and Betty's appendixes at age 8 after the Pixies won the right to adopt them (Pink and Gray).

Anti-Fairy culture revolves around fate and the Fae zodiac. The zodiac plays a big role, so it's a good idea to become at least a bit familiar with this part of the lore. (See #RD nature spirits)

There are many nature spirits (Father Time and Mother Nature are good examples), but the zodiac spirits - 7 brothers who were imprisoned in their cloudland temples during war - are a very big deal.

The zodiac culture influences everything from what colors an Anti-Fairy is allowed to wear to whether they're allowed to be more dominant or submissive in intimate relationships. Childhood betrothals are very common, and seemingly random due to Anti-Fairies trusting in fate.

-> Anti-Cosmo (born in the Water year) has a crisis in Frayed Knots when he realizes he prefers being the submissive partner and is stuck in a culture where he's forbidden to do that except with Anti-Fairies born in either the Love or Fire years.

-> Foop wasn't betrothed as a child since he was in Abracatraz, but Anti-Cosmo discusses this in Frayed Knots (and is paired with a woman who isn't Anti-Wanda). Fairies find child betrothals especially strange, but it's important to the Anti-Fairies.

-> Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda really want Foop (a scientist born in the Breath year) to marry Anti-Coriander (a doctor-in-training born in the Leaves year). Healthcare falls under the Breath spirit's domain and science under the Leaves spirit's domain, so in Anti-Fairy eyes, Foop and Anti-Coriander are in perfect balance and thus... their society's OTP.

In Frayed Knots, Anti-Cosmo turns his body over to the Water spirit once he becomes High Count (as is custom; this is called a kiff-tie). They struggle a lot to make that work.

-> Throughout the 130 Prompts (and other works about Foop), he grumbles about being raised with the expectation that he'll turn his body over to the nature spirit of Breath. He'll almost certainly be shunned if he refuses.

The Anti-Fairies who were dining with Anti-Cosmo in "Fairly Odd Baby" are called the camarilla court. There are 14 members if you include Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda, so each of the 7 zodiacs are represented twice. The camarilla court advises the High Count and Countess; they play special roles like planning events and watching the border.

-> If the camarilla is gridlocked, ties are broken by another party: the First General (who wears a red cloak to represent Tarrow, the father of the zodiac spirits).

Karmic Weaves

Anti-Fairies care a lot about karma and the influence you have on others. A karmic weave is an ethereal manifestation of your influence on other people and when it shimmers into view, it takes the form of glowing rainbow clothing.

-> H.P. is known for having an especially dramatic one since he runs a shipping company (and because he's a head of state, and because all pixies can trace their ancestry to him, and because he influenced Flappy Bob who made the wish to change the planet, etc.)

-> See also, Karmic Weaves

-> Frayed Knots is named for Anti-Cosmo's karmic weave, which becomes tangled, frayed, and knotted as he spends his life lying about things that grow increasingly complicated. Anti-Cosmo is notable for deliberately "acting against his fate" (in his case, he lied about who he was betrothed to and it spiraled from there): something Anti-Fairies generally don't do, as trying to "dodge fate" is extremely taboo in their culture... which means he can never admit to his growing web of lies.

-> Foop and Anti-Marigold tangled their weaves during their Tarrow dance in "Watch and Learn." When their solid bodies reformed, Foop's hand was stuck inside Anti-Marigold's skin. They fixed it, but it was uncomfortable for all involved.

-> Anti-Cosmo took some of the Head Pixie's karma in Frayed Knots Chapter 27, "Tangled Threads", and used it to boost his own magic... which went poorly, since Anti-Cosmo's meddling tangled their weaves (and thus bodies) together, so they both fell off a building when A.C. tried to fly.

Anti-Fairies and bad luck - Anti-Fairies' role in the universe is to bring balance. They're genuinely cleaning up Fairy messes, but they're portrayed as the ones causing messes. Sometimes they do cause messes, but a lot of the time, they're the cleaning crew.

-> Anti-Fairies disperse stinky magic. If left to fester, it will become violent and attack; in Frayed Knots, we see this presented as if evil spirits or demons are leaping from another dimension to hunt people, especially Anti-Fairies (their favorite food). Fairies can't see these spirits (umbrae), so they don't really get it.

-> In other words, Anti-Fairies take something that could cause devastating harm to a person and disperse it into much smaller pieces of bad luck. They ARE sending you bad luck, but they're preventing things that could kill you.

-> They still do evil things, but I often portray Anti-Fairies as jealous, bitter, and lonely more than truly evil. The vibe I'm going for is people hating bugs or scavengers for being "gross and creepy" when in reality, they're important in the ecosystem. Sometimes they get angry and lash out... especially at Fairies (who've hurt, imprisoned, and shunned them for a long time) and humans (who can't really fight back).

-> In Frayed Knots, Anti-Cosmo trains as a demon summoner. He doesn't show much of this onscreen because... honestly, it's not as interesting as it sounds, but it basically means he's the emergency cavalry for his friend group to call in if things go wrong. He gets to call the shots and (against all odds) he's good at it.

Anti-Fairy culture is sociosexual (mostly themed around IRL bonobos). Physical touch is a very big deal for them, and they tend to be more open about sexual things since they can't reproduce unless their counterparts do.

-> "Physical touch" covers things like pressing bodies together, nipping at each other, roosting together, snuggling, bundling (i.e. wrapping wings around each other), and sexual things.

-> Fairies are stereotyped as "brawn over brains," especially since gynes fight to the death sometimes. Anti-Fairies are stereotyped as "brains over brawn"- Their culture isn't big on fighting. In "You'll Never Know," Foop challenged Anti-Cosmo to a duel and Anti-Cosmo remarked that he'd "raised a fairy."

-> There are 13 levels of intimacy important in their culture, ranging from friendly to letting nature spirits possess your body.

-> The iris virus is a sexually transmitted disease with a side effect of adding color to Anti-Fairy eyes. It's passed ceremonially between noble families, although Anti-Cosmo and Foop were born with theirs. Anti-Wanda got hers when she gained higher status.

--- In Frayed Knots, Anti-Cosmo has a meltdown over Anti-Wanda passing the virus to important figureheads in ceremony despite this being extremely ingrained in his culture for many generations... He's very jealous. "But doesn't he chronically cheat on her-?" Yes.

--- Anti-Cosmo's first heir (Talon) was born with red eyes. Foop displaced him by being born with colored eyes, as it's considered a blessing from the nature spirits (despite it being an STD he inherited).

--- Refracts also have red eyes unless they get the iris virus. In their culture, it's shameful to have the virus (even though they're also bound to the whims of the honey-lock and can't always choose their partner). Yay, victim-blaming! (We do not yay for that).

-> Anti-Fairies have a tongue-piercing culture... It's a nod to bats being one of the only animal species to practice oral, so you can probably guess how their barbs play into this.

-> Frayed Knots discusses sociosexual things, but glosses over some details (Ex: Anti-Cosmo tells us when he does ceremonial things with his friends, but doesn't give the nitty-gritty).

--- You can find alt versions of some chapters (Ex: versions rated E) in Red Train or under my ScarletPenguin pseud on AO3. It's not something I've posted much of historically because I think it's funny to write something as extreme as a sociosexual culture while censoring it, but maybe in the future.

-> We gloss over this culture pretty hard in the 130 Prompts, which is strictly G and T works. The in-universe explanation is that after the War of the Angels (Season 7's "Balance of Flour"), touch culture tapered a bit and during Foop's youth; it's currently in a numb "socioromantic" era and picking up its broken pieces.

Anti-Fairy culture is very patriarchal and much more sexist than Fairy culture (while Fairy culture tends to be more racist than Anti-Fairy culture).

-> They also have the 75% - 25% gender split, but interpret this as "Nature says drakes should have multiple damsels..." which is pretty in-line with their bat biology.

-> Colonies are led by creche fathers. In modern day, Anti-Cosmo heads the Blue Castle Colony and one of his responsibilities is looking after all the pups, even if they're not related to him. In his youth, that colony was led by High Count Anti-Bryndin, whom Anti-Cosmo considers his step-father (despite them not having a very close relationship... the feelings are not necessarily reciprocated).

-> When drake Anti-Fairies come of age, it's expected they leave their birth colony and join a bachelor colony. Anti-Cosmo depicts this in Frayed Knots. Damsels stay with the birth colony and technically become "one of the creche father's damsels" at that point until they're legally married to someone else.

-> In Frayed Knots, one of the reasons Anti-Cosmo chooses to overthrow Anti-Bryndin is A.C.'s discomfort with his leader coming on to people who don't want him to.

-> "Was it Anti-Wanda-" Yes (More or less). And his mom. And obligatory jealousy regarding his fiancée.

More Anti-Fairy details - They roost upside-down, their native language is Vatajasa (a language themed around clicks and squeaks), and they're forbidden to shapeshift into any form other than the single animal associated with their family line.

-> Changing yourself away from "your fate" is very frowned upon in Anti-Fairy society (and Fairy culture is all about embracing yourself).

Names are very important in Anti-Fairy culture; I believe Foop has 6 different names. Technically he's in the records as Nebula; Foop is a nickname, plus he has names like Anti-Poof and so on.

-> Anti-Fairies use names given by their parents when they're young (which is also given to the Fairy counterpart as their middle name, thus allowing Anti-Fairy parents to name their kids). They switch to their anti-names when they become adults. Those given names then become their "private names" and are to be spoken aloud only with intimate partners.

-> It's a running gag that Foop doesn't know his betrothed's private name because they were only introduced to each other as adults and she can't tell him until they're married. He has a very bad habit of calling her his mistress's name instead (i.e. Anti-Marigold's private name is Kelsia) because he grew up with Anti-Marigold since he was a baby and called her Kelsia for 150,000 years. (RIP...)

-> Foop is very defensive of Anti-Fairy name culture even though he sometimes thinks it's stupid. Poof has a hard time remembering Goldie's counterpart uses the name Anti-Marigold; he always calls her Anti-Goldie. Funnily enough, he also did that when they were young, so Foop would always correct him with "Kelsia." One of these days, he'll probably call her Kelsia when he's trying to switch to using Anti-Marigold and Foop will throw his arms up in frustration.

It's worth clarifying that Anti-Cosmo runs the executive branch of Anti-Fairy government (He runs things like search and rescue, military, and infrastructure) while the Anti-Fairy Council handle judicial things (like crime) and many interracial politics (like scoring Foop the right to have a "scary godchild," which is one of the truce-related things they have to negotiate with the Fairies).

-> Fairies have Da Rules, but Anti-Fairies have their Traditions and Customs book, which their Council manages.

-> Fun Fact: All members of the Anti-Fairy Council seen in the show are pilots.

Yugopotamian Culture - Not much to mention here beyond "Hey, things that are unpleasant to humans are often desirable to Yugopotamians," in line with show canon.

-> It's worth a reminder that Mark comes from a violent culture. He likes when Vicky hurts him and states in the show that what she does to him is in line with his planet's courtship customs (except the kissing).

Potentially, we could delve into this in 'fic and it might be violent or upsetting, but I don't have specific plans. If we see specifics, I expect canon-typical Vicky things like blades (since it's canon that she gave Mark a ton of scars somehow), so heads up.

Witches - First generation witches are individuals with one magical parent and one non-magical parent. Their descendants are also classified as witches. Season 3's "Which Witch Is Which?" canonized an old relative of Crocker's (Alden Bitterroot) as a witch.

-> The Fae can't reproduce outside their own species (special rules about magic and breathing don't allow them to shapeshift while they're that aroused), so no witches have Fae parents.

-> Notable witches include Denzel Crocker, Kevin Crocker, Elmer, and Happy Peppy Gary. Being male witches, they have XYZ chromosomes; they pass as having Klinefelter syndrome on human scans, but there's a lot going on under the surface.

-> In my lore, male witches are sterile and witch heritage only passes through the mother's line, so technically Alden is a great-something uncle of Crocker's and not a direct ancestor. Elmer's mom, Crocker's mom, and Crocker's half-sister (Kevin's mom) are also witches.

-> Ed Leadly's motivation for hunting magical creatures is the reproduction ("Opportunity" & "Trying Too Hard") and/or just because he thinks random magical creatures are neat (hence offering to pay 17 million dollars for Sparky in Season 9's "Dog Gone"). This terrible man has been divorced multiple times and at this point he just wants a partner who's interesting and fun, and I respect it.

-> Witches of the Fire Tribe (i.e. those who are genie-descended) can pass their magic to others through body fluids like kisses. In Pink and Gray, Gary is pressured to kiss Betty throughout his life even though in his own words, it makes him "feel like rental equipment." This plays a lot into their messy relationship as they get older, especially after Betty loses her magical memories and forgets WHY Gary was so reluctant about kissing her.

-> While not discussed in detail, it's heavily implied Gary was born with an STD (considering that H.P. and Anti-Cosmo took one look at his DNA and immediately switched their plan from "let's transfer blood to Betty so the magic transfer is permanent" to "Uh... We're gonna stick with kisses."

-> Witch magic is so powerful, it can't really be destroyed. Come What May is a Kevin-centric 'fic about life in the Crocker house, where generations of stinky magic buildup (See Season 5's "Talkin' Trash") have caused it to essentially become alive.

-> Witches are very long-lived (hence Alden still living at the bottom of his well at the end of "Which Witch Is Which?" - Living hundreds of years is expected. Because witch magic can't be destroyed, they're reborn as animals when they die... familiars, in fact!

-> Denzel and Kevin Crocker are Foop's familiars in future 'fics like "You'll Never Know" and "Approval."

-> Witches

The Fae also have magical kisses; each race has their own.

-> We know from canon that Anti-Fairies have acidic tears ("Timmy's Secret Wish"), so I gave them acidic saliva as well.

-> Fairy kisses spike your joy/pleasure and Pixie kisses clear the head.

"Power Pals" confirmed candy and soda get Fairies drunk; soda is sometimes seen during celebration scenes (such as H.P. and Sanderson kicking back after they took over Fairy World and Earth in "School's Out! The Musical").

-> It's impossible for Pixies to get blackout drunk because they rebound to the sober state when they start to tip. They tend to be sugar addicts because of this (paralleling how the wasps I based them on are also social addicts).

-> In Cloudlands AU, I play with the idea of sugar as substance use. As he gets older, Poof develops a peppermint addiction because it gets him high, which allows him moments of respite from his incredible amounts of trauma. In "Repeat" (before he really started), he pleaded with his dad not to think he was "taking mint" because "he's a good kid."

-> He's tried to quit multiple times. Anti-Marigold was surprised when she found Poof peppering up in "Temptation." He had a breakdown in "All I Ever Wanted" when explaining why he struggles to quit.

... That's everything I can think of that falls in my mental category of "deep worldbuilding people might not want to be surprised by because it might squick them out." My apologies if there's anything I missed.

-> That said, don't forget to check the AU warnings linked at the top- There are things I warned for in that post that aren't deep worldbuilding and thus aren't stated here.

Orange Train's works delve deeper into this type of content than 'fics without this series label, so keep an eye out and and browse or avoid as preferred.

You may also like the Riddledeep Masterpost, which contains links to all my worldbuilding posts (More polished on that sideblog than my initial musings on the main blog). -> That said... Some links are still broken due to a Tumblr update years ago that broke my tagging system (I believe by changing the character they were using for a space, which I used in all my tags). The update also compressed the the spacing of my posts so they're more difficult to read & then we gained a wordcount limit in the new post editor, so... :'D. It would be cool to clean the sideblog by the end of 2024, but it wouldn't surprise me if it takes until 2025. -> Before I used the name Cloudlands AU, I called this FOP worldbuilding Riddleverse Classic, so you may see that term in some posts. -> I'm in the process of copying Riddledeep posts to the AO3 work So, You're Studying the Cloudlands... - You can subscribe to it on AO3 if you would like to read there instead.

Read on FFN | Read these works on AO3

#Fairly OddParents #FOP #Cloudlands AU #Kevin Crocker #ridwriting #130 arc guides #130 Prompts #Little Crock #apparently art #FAIRIES!#Origin of the Pixies #Frayed Knots #ScarletPenguin #Long post #ridwork guides

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unlimitedtrees · 1 year

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making character sprites as a one-person indie game developer

(huh. turns out this post on cohost didnt have a “read me” section”. o well. i will put the read me section Here, before any of da actual text. click it if u dare !!)

so, i've been meaning on making a Big post talkin all about how i actually Make my games and my processes n such ,but also ive been procrastinating on making it for so long that i thought i might as well just make One part of that post now .. and its about making the Character Sprites for my games .

So. these images are the (mostly) full sprite sheets of the three characters from my game UNITRES Dreams, taken directly from the big giant 'charactersprites.png' image that i used for nearly every sprite for Most of the game's development. some quick things to make note of: First off, Trees (the first one) was one of the earliest things i made for the game, and had their sprite sheet redone Twice since then.. this first picture doesnt contain the latest sprite sheet as the new sprites were done on aesprite and im too lazy to make a sprite sheet out of them right now.

Secondly, the Second character (the pink one), had two different designs, being completely redesigned as i didnt like their first design all too much. their redesign's animations was done in aesprite, but i made a sprite sheet out of em before so i was able to just put them here. Lastly, the Third character (the blue one with the big silly hat) remained mostly unchanged as their original sprites and design were pretty good, but they needed to be cleaned up and given better colors so i ended up polishing all of their sprites.

Anyways. it's going to be hard for me to explain my actual process, as i am Bad With Words, but i will try my best.. So. for Most of my time as a game dev, I've used Paint.NET for Everything. This includes backgrounds, tilesets, and every animation ever in all of my games. For my character sprites specifically, i usually start with making the color palette (which is a whole different process where i mess around with the RGB values until i get a specific color that i think looks pretty ... its hard to describe). When making a new character, i usaully start with an Idle animation, just so i have a good base to make all the other sprites on. I just make a sketch of the character, then i do the flat colors (as my games dont have line art), and once i have the colors i start doing the rendering , where i try to pull off a sort of Sonic CD-esque , celshaded style while Also including a bit of anti-aliasing and other modern pixel art techniques to give the sprites more Depth and make them look Sharp. Idk. it's hard to describe my process in words ... i Did make a video Years ago showing off my process, but its old and my editing in that video isnt the Greatest.

So., that's my process Lol . the only thing thats really changed is that Now i use Aesprite for making the Actual Animations , as making animations with Paint.NET is Really Difficult and Annoying , as i have No Idea how the animation will Look until it actually appears ingame .. which results in the early versions of each character's animations looking a little weird (such as Trees' first two versions, the first version of the Pink character, and the Blue character's animations.. .though the blue character isnt as bad as the other two and i kept their animations mostly the same in the final game LOL).

Something that people have kind of criticized about UNITRES Dreams' animations is that some of em dont exactly ... Look Good. a lot of animations are pretty Inconsistent , with characters like Trees having inconsistent sizes in some animations and the movement in animations such as the Pink character's walking animation and various other animations (Especially the ones made in Paint.NET) looking Unnatural.

And Well .. here's the thing about making animations and sprites for something like this. When you're the Main person making an indie game, you have Tons of different parts of the game that need to be worked on while having Very little time to work on others. On Top of making every single animation for UNITRES , i had to make every single Tileset and background for every single level, On Top of making the Level Layouts , Programming , and even making sprites for things like the UI. And you have to constantly Test the game to make sure everything works and things Look good.

So. i had very little time to work on the sprites, and i Knew this. Something you have to consider is that, not only are you making the animations for the main character , you Also have to make Tons of animations and sprites for Literally Every Other Aspect of The Game . this includes Enemies , Level Gimmicks , NPCs, And the UI .. so you end up having to work on Thousands of sprites by yourself in such a short time.

I ain't the best animator , nor the best sprite artist . But , for this game I chose an art style which is Kinda simple and comfortable for me, which made making things like tilesets and backgrounds so much easier for me. The character sprites specificially only use a few amount of colors ,but also i tried my best to give them as much depth and make them as Colorful looking as i could. Also , something you might notice is that all of the playable characters dont actually have a whole lot of animations .. each of the characters only have the Exact amount of frames and animations necessary for them to Look Good moving around the levels. Aside from a few Gimmick Specific animations that arent in the sprite sheets i posted , there arent many Extra animations or animations with Tons of Frames that i wish i could have added .. and it Kind Of Sucks . Having to split my time across Three Different Characters , i had no time to make any animations Too Crazy or Too Smooth , and i couldnt include any extra animations that could add a bit of personality to the characters ... In Fact ,the Idle "animation" isnt an animation , its just a still frame. I didnt have time to even make a simple waiting animation !!

It Is What It Is. For what its worth , Ithink Im pretty proud of the animations i did for UNITRES Dreams. while i think ive become a much better artist and animator since then, i still think some animations and some of the frames look really good ..just looking at some of the still frames is really nice .. so i think i did a good job, especially for a game that was made in 2 years and is Free. And Hey, while the animations in UNITRES Dreams may not be the best or have the most smooth animations , i Did get to experiment with making more smooth animations for TREES' ADVENTURE. while ,now, i think some stuff could use some work, i am Really Proud of how some of the animations look .. ididnt get to make Too Many extra animations (there still isnt even an Idle animation), i Did get to make some cool extra animations , such as individual animations for your Jump that are based on how fast you're moving . (the original post on cohost had a buncha gifs of da animations but im Too Fuckin Tired 2 post em here LOL !!!)

So Yea . the moral of the story: making video games is kind of hard and time consuming , Especially when you're like , the Only one working on them. just make sure to plan ahead and try not to overwork urself .. make what you can and do it when you can. Thats what i think , anyways.

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bluberimufim · 11 months

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Cool and spooky-ish Portuguese legends and mythological creatures because it's nearly Halloween!!

I've been wanting to do this for a while now, because I've felt disconnected from Portuguese culture lately and I'm trying to get into it. So I wanted to share some cool things I found because Portuguese folklore is something no one talks about and I love to share my culture with people! Please be warned that the translations may sound kinda awkward and that this is almost 100% from Wikipedia since Portuguese mythological creatures are a super obscure topic, and the only other big resource I could find was a super expensive book. That being said, the Wikipedia sounds pretty legit because it sounds like it was written by an old person.

Now let's get into some of my favourites!

Werewolf

This is a basic one but I still find it pretty funny. When I visited Cova do Lobisomem (trans.: Werewolf Cave), I learnt that the legend there is that, if you have twelve kids, the eldest son (in the story it was a son, but I don't know what happens if your eldest is a girl) becomes a werewolf and has to go live out in the wilderness. Another closely related legend mentions they have to serve some kind of penitence, but I found nothing on it.

Peeira (or "werewolf fairy")

Known as the "female version of the werewolf" and is able to control wolf packs. Her power seems to be guiding these wolf packs by being a reasonable and more human-like figure in the group, and is described as "lovely and wild" (omg that sounds sooo pretty). Information contradicts in this bit, also saying that she either has feelings for the werewolves or that she lures men into the woods to feed them to her ghost-wolves. A girl becomes a Peeira by being a couple's seventh oldest daughter, or by being called upon by her "predestined/soulmate werewolf".

Bisarma

Ghost of colossal size that can stand over valleys with one foot on each mountain, and sing monotonous tunes in "huge voices" (idk how else to translate it). This mythological creature also shows up in parts of Spain.

Jã

Weaving spirits. If you leave out a bunch of linen and a cake, they'll make you a linen cloth as fine as a hair, but if you forget to leave out the cake, they'll burn the linen. Apparently, people used to claim their ancestors had sheets made by the Jãs.

Zorra Berradeira (trans.: "Screaming Fox")

Shows up in Algarve every 7 years and, when it's not there, it's theorized that it visits other countries. It's a fox spirit that screams all the time but can be heard better at midnight or midday and, if you mock it, it will chase you down until your death.

Velha da Égua Branca (trans.: Old Lady on the White Mare)

Appears in Algarve on full moon nights and makes a lot of noise in the fields with pots and pans. She rides a white mare, wears a white cap with red ribbons that look like lightning, and holds a knife in her left hand. She's been called a "personification of the night".

Homem do Chapéu de Ferro (trans.: Man in the Iron Hat)

Another spirit from Algarve, but evil. He appears at midnight on the sides of roads and fountains, or under olive or fig trees. He's always accompanied by an animal, which is the Devil in disguise: either a black pig, a huge black rooster, or a deer with antlers as tall as a church tower. He has a gigantic frame, is "bronze-coloured" (whatever that means) and wears an iron hat. He'll run away when he sees the Old Lady on the White Mare (oooooh Algarvian connected universe).

Hey, people who live in Algarve, blink twice if you need help with all the supernatural shit because this seems disproportionately hardcore

Okay, this next one is gonna be longer because it's a whole legend with a plot, but I still want to tell it because it's kinda spooky and I love it!!

The Golden Lamprey

On full moon nights, on the banks of the Minho River (northern border with Spain), you can see a very beautiful Moorish girl with golden hair caressing a giant golden lamprey. The girl spends the night combing her hair with a golden comb or singing a sad melody, and the lamprey swims close to her.

According to legend, the lamprey had once been a Portuguese knight, and the girl had been engaged to another man. The two had been sentenced to death for their forbidden romance and had both been cursed - he turned into a fish and she can only gain physical form under the full moon.

There were men who set out in boats to search for the girl, either to seduce her or to steal her fine silk dress, but none ever found her.

Until one night, a young man disappeared after being heard in the tavern, clearly drunk, declaring that he was going to search for the golden-haired Moorish girl. His plan was to make her fall in love with him, sell her comb, and then open an inn where he'd let curious travellers take a look at this supernatural river girl in exchange for large sums of money.

The next day, the lantern he'd set out with was found on some rocks near the river by a few fishers, and his body was found in the water, a bit further ahead. On his neck, there were the marks of small, sharp teeth, similar to the shape of a lamprey's mouth. But what startled the fishers more was the satisfied look on the young man's face. (not posting a pic of a lamprey's mouth bc it feels like it would warrant some kind of content warning but pls do look it up if you're curious, it's horrifying)

There was also another legend of another cursed Moorish girl but on a rock this time that I remembered reading in school, but I genuinely cannot find it. If you know anything about a story named "A Moura do Penedo" (not the cursed snake princess one) pls hit me up, I remember loving that one as a kid. "Cursed Moorish girl" is such a common trope in Portuguese legends that it's almost unsearchable.

And if you want to add anything or correct any of the information I presented, please feel free! This is very much "baby's first dive into Portuguese folklore"

That being said, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did! There are other less-spooky legends I'd love to share, if you're interested! Happy Halloween/other coinciding spooky holiday!

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mrs-gauche · 1 year

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Hi! Any thoughts on the 'hidden track' at the end of the Bonus DLC Tracks for the new Dragon Age Vinyl set? "D'Read Koda" can be interpreted so many ways but 'dread bear'? Coda, the musical notation? (Do you suppose there's any connection to the bear and maiden graffiti art we see several places in Inquisition [or any connection between that mural and the one from The Missing {moon atop the bear and halla horns on the maiden?}])

Hi! Thanks for the ask! :D And yeah, I've been super curious about this as well! (And also the pre-sale for the vinyl now starting at the same day that the final volume of The Missing is coming out, May 10th 👀 but ALSO everything about the cover, like the GOLDEN CITY (omg???), the enormous DRAGON (Mythal???), the vines/tree branches (like Mythal's vallaslin/visions of her conquering in Trespasser??), the ECLIPSE in the background (according to Dalish mythology Mythal "created" the moon/"An Eclipse as Fen'Harel stirred"??), the summit/mountain beneath it (!!) and that single hooded person (with a staff resembling the headpiece of one of the two figures in the 2020 teaser mural/symbols in the new cinematic)?? The potential LORE revelations on this thing are absolutely bonkers, but I digress! 😂)

Anyway! I actually thought something similar when I first saw that mysterious hidden track name, that it has to be some kind of anagram or wordplay, given how much BioWare LOVES to do those and also with the musical term "coda" being spelled with a "k" for some reason, but what stood out to me especially was the random apostrophe that's in there, since the devs are also known for their (internal) "disputes" about the extensive use of apostrophes in DA for the elven language and names. lol

So to me the odd spelling plus the random apostrophe points more to it being an anagram for a specific elven term, but I have yet to decipher what it could be. 🤔

My second thought was if this "hidden track" could actually just be the final part in the "extended version" of the Lost Elf theme (starting at about 10:13), but then I looked up the game's files and noticed that this specific tune actually plays (though only once) when you first get to the Darvaarad and the full piece is about 2:40 minutes long (the hidden track being only 1:08), leading me to think this is probably what's titled "Qunari Atmosphere" on the tracklist. And after going through all the Trespasser music files I could find, there was nothing hinting at something like "D'Read Koda" either. :/

But you're right, "Koda" is also a term in the Dakota language meaning "friend/ally" or "little bear", but I'm completely at a loss as to what that could refer to. For all we know, it could be a reference to frigging Storvacker. 😂

As for your second question though, since you brought up "The Bear and the Maiden" painting/mural in connection to the mural in volume 3 of The Missing, there are actually a few other interesting aspects to this that I've been thinking about, but before I start rambling get to that point, let me just put the rest under a cut so people don't get spammed with an exhaustingly long text post. lol

First off, for reference, this is the painting we're talking about, featured in various places throughout DAI!

People have made quite a few speculations about this imagery over the years. For one, given that it is not exclusively found in elven ruins and filed under "Fereldan art" in the game's files, some people assume it could depict an old legend of the Alamarri. Others have suggested that it's actually just a little easter egg in reference to the "The Bear and the Fair Maiden" song in ASOIAF. lol

But by far the most popular take on this, is that this is depicting the elven gods Dirthamen and Ghilan'nain. Based on Ghilan'nain's sacred animal being the halla and the lady with her all white appearance and her antlers kinda resembling one as well. And Dirthamen's sacred animal being a bear (among others, I think). Which would pose the question though, why these two are portrayed in such a way, when there's nothing in the lore that could give us an explanation?

To me, it almost looks like the maiden is trying to calm the bear down/keep him in check, who has gone out of control and is now turning into a wild beast (that can apparently also breath fire? lol). With what we know of Ghilan'nain now, it's definitely possible that her horrifying experiments and creation of all kinds of freaky creatures might have inspired such imagery.

So, while I can see how you could draw a parallel to the mural in volume 3 with the way they're positioned/embrace each other, I don't know what else to derive from this, other than that it would point to the bottom "red one" being Ghilan'nain and the "green one" being Andruil and not the other way around, or that Andruil was maybe able to shapeshift into a bear? lol But if we're going with my assumption that the bear is losing control over itself, maybe it could refer to the stories of Andruil succumbing to madness from hunting the Forgotten Ones in the Void. As opposed to the mural in the comic, where they seem to be rather peacefully in love (to me at least).

But while we're at it, let us go back to Ghilan'nain and Dirthamen's potential connection real quick (because I've been thinking about it 😶)! What's interesting to me, is that these two have actually been mentioned together in the lore, too, looking at this ancient elven writing for example that is only revealed to you when using Veilfire at the Temple of Mythal:

"His crime is high treason. He took on a form reserved for the gods and their chosen, and dared to fly in the shape of the divine.The sinner belongs to Dirthamen; he claims he took wings at the urging of Ghilan'nain, and begs protection from Mythal. She does not show him favor, and will let Elgar'nan judge him."

"For one moment there is an image of a shifting, shadowy mass with blazing eyes, whose form may be one or many. Then it fades."

So there we have the two being involved in what appears to be a judgement on someone serving under Dirthamen, because of Ghilan'nain's actions. While we don't know how much of this actually happened, it definitely makes you wonder about their intentions here. Why would Ghil do this? And why specifically to someone serving under Dirthamen? What was the outcome? And what does this tell us about their relationship? (And now that I think about it, what if this sinner was actually the bear in the mural? lol)

As for the sinner himself. Now, I don't know about you, but when I reread this codex again after several playthroughs, particularly the “shifting, shadowy mass with blazing eyes” at the end, I thought “Wait. That kinda reminds me of something......”

Look, I know it doesn't appear that way when looking at my blog for like five minutes, but I certainly don't think that every single codex entry on elven myths should be automatically assumed to be about Solas. 😂 That being said, I can't help but feel like there's a connection to be made when looking at this other ancient inscription, that can be found in the final chamber of the Solasan Temple:

Faintly carved into the stone is a figure bound in chains. Two other figures have turned their gaze from the central image.

The script below the image is ancient, though Solas is able to provide a partial translation:

Pride in our accomplishments and in our hearts. That same pride became (a word meaning corrupted or altered) within him, he sought to claim (indecipherable), cast from favor and so he was bound.

Hidden from mortal eyes, death lies within.

To me, this text always seemed to perfectly match up with the ancient writing in Mythal's temple. A person being judged for claiming (godhood?)/daring to fly in the shape of the divine (a dragon?), put in chains and "bound" as punishment (by Elgar'nan?). And again, there are two figures involved. If the events of these writings do connect, was this "sinner" the one belonging to Dirthamen, taking wings by the urging of Ghilan'nain and them now silently accepting Elgar'nan's judgement, making those two the "figures turning their gaze"?

The thing is, if I'm presented with an ancient elven text about someone's PRIDE being corrupted in a place called SOLASAN temple, how in the world am I NOT supposed to draw an immediate connection to Solas here? 😂 I'm not saying that the sinner in this story had to be him per se, but if the age-old theory about Solas having been a spirit of Wisdom once who somehow turned into Pride is true, then there's still the question of how or why exactly this corruption occurred? And, if anything, the story of this sinner would provide at least one possibility for what happened to someone who had been corrupted in ancient times.

"Cast from favor and so he was bound."

If Cole's cryptic comments in Trespasser are actually about Solas (and Mythal?), then it's safe to say that Solas was himself bound ("He left a scar when he burned her off his face"), which does make SO much sense, considering that he values free will above everything, his furious reaction to the Well of Sorrows is SO telling, oh and also, he lead a motherflippin Slave Rebellion. 😂

But if we're looking for further potential connections between Dirthamen, Ghilan'nain and Solas... Well, Dirthamen is not only called the Keeper of Secrets, but is also always associated with sharing wisdom, knowledge and giving counsel to those in need. His symbols also include two ravens. Wolf and raven being known for pretty cool 80s synthwave music having a special bond in many real life myths and legends.

And Ghilan'nain is the only elven god we know of who was a "huntress of the People" before she ascended to become the youngest of the elven pantheon (possibly because of her relationship with Andruil or her ability to "create" things). As far as we know, Solas was also one of the People before he "became" Fen'Harel. So they were very much alike in that sense.

There's also the tale in which Fen'Harel gets captured by Andruil, because he had angered her by “hunting the halla without her blessing”. Some people have taken this to mean that Solas made a move on Ghilan'nain or that they had something going, so naturally, given that Andruil and Ghilan'nain are believed to have also been lovers, she was not very amused about that. lol (Which would make the rest of the story even funnier, where Andruil declared to “punish” him by making him “serve in her bed for a year and a day to pay her back”. lmao)

Which brings us finally back to the mural in The Missing volume 3, that could depict Andruil and Ghilan'nain embracing each other, perhaps even romantically (btw, if you want to know why I think so, check out my post on volume 3. :D).

I kinda joked about it at first, but if we assume that this mural was actually made by Solas as well, then you do have to wonder why he would even choose to paint such an intimate moment between Ghilan'nain and Andruil, people he arguably despises? Though it'll be interesting to learn what their relationship was like before his rebellion and Mythal's murder. I mean, who knows, maybe the before-mentioned tale actually happened and all three of them made out afterwards (willingly or not). 😂 (I mean, we're still talking about immortal beings here, so what else are they gonna do all day? lol) Or maybe Solas was just the Evanuris' personal portrait/mural painter at one point. lol

Anyway, to conclude, all of this is partially why I assumed for the longest time, that the two figures seen in the 2020 teaser mural could be Ghilan'nain and Dirthamen (also the fact that Dirthamen's vallaslin matched up perfectly with the silhouette of the right figure and obviously everything about Ghilan'nain and her horrifying experiments in Tevinter Nights).

...but with everything we've learned since then, I'm now actually leaning more towards it being Ghilan'nain and Elgar'nan (if you want to know why, I highly recommend watching this fantastic analysis!).

The only thing that still kinda irks me with this, is the fact that the only elven god that's known for wielding a spear like this is actually Andruil.

However, it is super suspicious to me how the "goddess" seen in this concept art seems to break out of what looks like huge ocean waves and how this "grey sludge stuff" from Ghil's ancient "pools" in Tevinter Nights was described to have "smelled like the ocean" AND the mention of (capital P) Pride in elven myths having "stopped Ghilan'nain's hand when she was about to destroy her creatures of the deep sea". 👀👀 (Also, is it just me or does the figure in the 2020 mural look like she's having algae hanging down her headpiece? Not to mention the tentacles. lol) So there's that.

Also, and I know this is the silliest reason, but I don't know if BioWare would expect new or casual players to keep up with all these long "complicated" elven names, since "Ghilan'nain" and "Elgar'nan" do sound kinda similar and people might get them mixed up. lmao So having Elgar'nan and Andruil might be a bit more distinguishable, just for the sake of making it a little easier for new players lol (I mean, they have changed names before to avoid this problem, like when the Tevinter city "Qarinus" was turned into "Ventus" because it sounded too similar to "Qunari", I think? 😂).

I don't know if any of this actually answered your question, I feel like I got carried away by like a mile. 😂 I don't know how I got from "D'Read Koda" on the vinyl to tentacles, but here we are. 😂 Those are my thoughts on.... a lot of stuff. lol

#dragon age the missing spoilers #tevinter nights #dragon age the missing #solas #ghilan'nain #dirthamen #andruil #tinfoil time #da4

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