#like the more standard backstory would be his family wants him to be a normal dr and he doesn't want to. but that's not Funny yknow

[aprofessionalwithoutstandards]

Favorite thing abt this tf2 prop is how everything on it is pseudoscience. No one can come to me like Uhm Actually Medic Tf2 Is Really Good At- girl his family is selling people radium suppositories

[Image ID: A squarish green sign hanging up by two black chains. It says "Humboldt's Pharmacy" in fancy lettering, and beneath it in plain lettering it reads "leeches, baboon hearts, radium suppositories, humor balancing, phrenological exams". End ID]

[bones4thecats]

If it's okay can I please ask for Loki Beelzebub and Poseidon but how are they react to meeting Kianna's older brother Subaru

In her backstory she actually left Subaru alive since he helped her and they see each other as siblings

Meeting Subaru and Yui (Sibs of S/O)

Type of Writing: Request Characters: Loki, Beelzebub, and Poseidon Name: Meeting Subaru and Yui (Sibs of S/O) Requester: @nunezs-stuff

A/N: Much like with my past work, if you want to find some more information on this ‘Kianna’, you can go to the requester’s account and read all about her OC. Here, Yui is technically alive, since this is set after the events of the story, so they’re all dead and in Valhalla.

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🐍 Loki has a smaller family when it comes to the Godly-standards, he has Odin as his uncle and Thor as his cousin. While in Pantheons such as the Greek, there were four brothers with one being married and having three kids, Zeus’ blood and non, and there was Kronos and Rhea

🐍 So, when he officially met you, he wasn’t very surprised to hear about you having a sister and brother. In fact, Loki basically begged for you to introduce them to his own family

🐍 It took many different tries on his part to actually get you to consider bringing in your siblings in for a visit, but when you told him you gave in and were bringing the two in for a reunion of the Norse Pantheon

🐍 Looking back at the two behind you, you noticed that Yui smiled as she adjusted the collar around her kimono as Subaru adjusted the bow holding his outfit together, and once they gave you their respective nods, you began to walk ahead and opened the doors to the Norse Pantheon’s estate

🐍 Loki was getting bored floating around and pranking his fellow Deities, it just wasn’t the same without his amazing S/O alongside him

" Loki? Are you around? "

🐍 Opening his eyes and turning upside down from the tree branch, Loki looked around for the beautiful eyes of his S/O, only to be immediately met with the sight of mismatching red and pink eyes

" Woah! Watch where ya’ hang there. " " Y/N? " " Hello there, Loki. "

🐍 Okay, this guy was so confused right now…

🐍 Once he caught sight of you, your boyfriend wrapped himself around you from behind, slightly glaring at the man and woman, blissfully unaware of who they were to you

" Loki, meet Subaru and Yui, my ‘adoptive’ brother and my sister. " " Oh… my bad. " " Meh, I’ve had worse reactions than that. Note; don’t go to a church as a vampire, doesn’t end well. " " Yeah. Besides, we understand, you’ve never met us until now, so it’s understandable why you’re weary of us. "

🐍 Loki’s eyes slightly widened at how loose they seemed, while you normally were more tightly bound with superiority issues

🐍 As Yui held out her hand, the calls of Odin’s bird, Huginn and Muninn echoed in your ears, alerting both you and Loki that Odin and Thor were ready to meet your siblings, just to make sure they were alright to visit again

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🪰 He was surprised that this curse has allowed him to even be around you and care for you, nonetheless even come into a full-on relationship filled with love around you without you being harmed

🪰 When you had admitted that you had a couple people you wanted him to meet, Beelzebub was put off, since for many years, he grew up with this curse and because of it, never really had anyone before you and Hades

🪰 Holding your hand tightly, Beelzebub looked down at you and sighed, knowing that you would provide your dearest God with any kind of comfort or space if he needed it

" Are you ready, Beel? " " I suppose… " " Open the doors for my siblings! "

🪰 As the guards of the estate opened the doors in fear of your rage, you noticed the feeling of Beelzebub’s grip on your hand tighten as the doors creaked open further and further until the sight of a tall man and shorter woman were shown

🪰 Smiling gently at the duo, you lightly pulled your boyfriend with you to great your guests, or rather, your family

🪰 Yui looked at your boyfriend and back at you with confusion before Subaru cocked an eyebrow and practically glared at Beelzebub, not fearing that he was a God set to participate in the upcoming event of Ragnarok in a few days

" Ah! My apologies, you must be Y/N’s boyfriend. I’m Yui, Y/N’s older sister. And this is- " " Subaru, their ‘adoptive’ older brother. "

🪰 You sighed as Subaru kept his stern look on your boyfriend, his form not shaking or anything as the Lord of the Flies just stared back without any emotion inside his black eyes

🪰 Gripping his hand tighter and making him slightly flinch at your surprisingly strong grip, Beelzebub lowered his guard slightly, just enough to notify Subaru that he were not going to harm you or Yui

" Would you guys like a tour around the estate? " " That would be amazing, little sibling! "

🪰 Despite the fact that Subaru was still burning holes into the head of the man you were holding hands with, you understood that Subaru was only trying to protect you from harm, and you knew it was fruitless. Beelzebub loved you, even the Gods you have met said so, and they hate mentioning stuff like that

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🔱 Poseidon didn’t even like having to see his own family, nonetheless seeing someone else’s, it just made him feel slightly awkward. But, he could also say he was annoyed, he isn’t fond of social events, preferring to spend most time to himself

🔱 He sat down at the small table on your bedroom’s balcony and heard as the front doors opened with a loud drag from their sheer mass and size

🔱 Just at that moment, you knocked on the door and walked inside your room, alerting your soon-to-be husband that you were going to tell him who had come by for a visit, and whether it was for him or you

" Poseidon, my love, it seems we both have guests. " " And who, perhaps, are these guests? " " They are my two siblings, Yui and Subaru. "

🔱 Poseidon knew that you had siblings, as during one of your first dates years ago, you and him spoke about your family relationships, so parents, siblings, everything like that

🔱 Looking from the dark and colorful ocean to you, the God of the Seas sighed mentally, speaking to some random people was something that he did not want to participate in that day. He specifically scheduled no meetings for said reason

🔱 But, no matter, as long as they don’t try testing his patience, he can hold himself back for you

🔱 Holding out his arm, you wrapped your arms through his and began to walk down to the main room to meet up with the two siblings you hadn’t spoken to for the few months you have lived with your lover

" My dear siblings, to what do we owe the pleasure of your presence? " " Y/N! You haven’t spoken to us in months! What do you have to say for yourself? " " First of all, thank you for the gracious hello back. Second, I would like to introduce you to my fiancé, the Greek God of the Seas and the third-born son of Cronus and Rhea, Poseidon. "

🔱 Yui’s eyes widened and the man beside you could sense her aura slightly depleted in fear, but, he could also tell that the man beside her aura had enlarged with protectiveness

" P-P-Poseidon?! Oh my! I’m so sorry for the rude introduction! I am Yui, your lovely to-be older sister, and this is Subaru, our older ‘adoptive’ brother. " " Pleasure. "

🔱 You looked into your to-be’s ocean-blue eyes and slightly pinched his arm, making him look into your eyes with shock hidden underneath a layer of emptiness glossing his form

🔱 Subaru groaned and had to hold Yui back from running over and hugging Poseidon and you, since he knew that the God of the Seas was one with very little love for physical touch

[bonefall]

Better Bones Profile: Houndleap

"The horrifying eldritch fallen angel likes ME best because I'm hot"

[ID: The Better Bones AU version of Houndleap from Warrior Cats. He is a black-and-white tom with ginger flecks in his black parts, and a fluffy white tail tuft. His ears are burned away, and he has orange, swirly keloid scars. He also has a heart-shaped paw pad.]

Here by popular request! Holy MOLY you all jumped on the offhanded manwhore comment lmao.

Houndleap's a great example of cats who are in the Dark Forest for breaking non-violent commandments. The only thing he's killing is the gene pool, with his 6 known mates and the 16 kittens between them all. No, he wasn't in love with them all either, he just liked to play the game.

He is as close to the ideal Clan cat as one can get, and he knows it, and flaunts it. Tri-colored with beautiful ginger flecks, he fell victim to a terrible moor fire and came out with severe burns. His surviving was already a great mark of strength, but then he became even luckier when his shiny scars raised, and slightly spread from the initial injury.

Clan cats didn't have a word for keloids, they only knew it was gorgeous. As if StarClan had given him a scar that dances and shimmers.

Houndleap "abused" this gift, seeing as many cats as possible and cheating on his 'official' mate back home. In the modern era, he might have just been a very popular Honor Sire, but this was before the Queen's Rights and the Aftergathering. He was eventually caught, and after his death, he was banished to the Dark Forest for violating the Law of Loyalty on more than 5 counts.

Yes. More than 5 counts. StarClan was able to see that he had even more than 5 halfclan mates (and they're not even counting the wife he cheated on) but only 5 got pregnant.

Alignment: Dark Forest, ex-WindClan

Time Period: Skyfall Era

Relations: Too fucking many

Houndleap's addition to the Dark Forest is Lover's Beck, a twisted, romantic version of a spot in the Gorge where he used to meet with his secret lovers. It's his worst memory because he planned poorly and two of them showed up at the same time and that's how he got caught.

More trivia below!

Canon said he's solid-colored and I said no. Pretty boy.

There are several minor features in his design that will be seen in modern family lines. I won't point them out but there's 3 total (so far.)

I decided to use him as an example of nearly ideal beauty standards in BB, since I famously overhauled them from canon. He is brightly colored with complicated patterns, slightly chunky, and has a HUGE scar on the face.

Personality is slut. He just wants to flirt, man. Theme song is Mambo #5 he's just like that.

He works with Tigerstar in OotS mostly because it's not like there's anything better to do. Plus some of the trainees are hot, "hellooooo Ratscar"

When Antpelt dies, Houndleap is one of the cats who needs the most convincing to come back into the alliance. It's one thing when it's funny haha Attack And Dethrone God or whatever, but PERMAdeath??

Thankfully, Hawkfrost is a fantastic diplomat.

Generally, Houndleap is motivated by whatever's fun. He was one of the first to fall in line under Ashfur and will do basically anything if he's bored.

"We're teaching people how to kill? sure lmao. Oh we're attacking the living? Ok cool. Guard the prisoners? Not like I had plans anyway. Anyway wanna get evil dinner later, handsome <3 ?"

Likes drama, tea, stories, games, anything that brings him a little excitement really.

He can usually be counted on to join whatever silly project the group's up to this time, like catching Shrewpaw's Pheasant.

I cannot stress enough how much of a normal Crummy Dude he is. He's just some standard jerkwad guy. The Dark Forest in Better Bones contains several people like him, who might be sleazeballs or jackasses, but we would generally agree don't deserve Hell.

When canon comes up with a Houndleap backstory, I'll consider what to do with it. But for now we only know that Hound came from WindClan, which I've included.

[sassy-radio-hazbin-queen]

This is my version of Loonatics unleashed. I decided to do my own version. So some major differences are.

1- The Loonatics take place in 2017 which makes it's a bit more relatable to us. I love the designs of the future but I have to admit I found it weird with all the new technology the phones still look very early 2000s 😂.

2- The looney tunes are there Great Grandparents not 300th Great grandparent.

3- Duck and Rev are Girls. I wonder how come there was only one girl in the team. There supposed to be descendants not carbon copies 😒. I mean we're they saying girls can't be descendants from boys.

4- Ace and Lexi are Fraternal twins. Guys I'm sorry I just can't seem to ship them. They are descendants of Lola and Bugs bunny who are in a canonical relationship. It's a cute ship don't get me wrong. But for me it's just weird.

5- The Loonatics are young adults. Wikipedia says there teenagers but these guys are in universitys?? There ages are. Slam and Tech 22, Ace and Lexi 20 , Rev and Danger 18.

6- Zadalvia is NICE to Danger.

7- There backstories. Starting with Slam Tasmanian.

First off he can Talk. I never understood why they gave Wiles and Roadrunner descendants talking abilities but not him.

He lived in Tasmania and has an Australian accent kinda like Hugh Jackman. Some humans said they were going to take there home unless Slam comes up with 100,000,000,000,000,000 dollars. ( Which is impossible) so he signs up for American wrestling. He goes to America but finds out it's not what he thought. However a meteor changes his life forever. He has a younger kid sister who is his biggest supporter and lived with his mom after there father walked out on the family. Loves to cook. His birthday is May 4th and yes the others do joke and say May the 4th be with you much to his annoyance. Zodiac is Taurus ♉

Next up Tech e Coyote

His backstory is kinda complicated. He was diagnosed with Asperger's when he was 4 and was often bullied to the point where he is TERRIFIED of public speaking. He has lots of stim toys and sometimes didn't feel like talking. During college he befriended a shy bullied girl names Mallory and eventually fell in love with her. Unfortunately there was an accident he caused by mistake and she ended up becoming the Mastermind. He tried with inventing again but after several accidents he was kicked out of the university. However a meteor changes his life forever. Birthday Dec 30. Zodiac Capricorn ♑.

Next up Ace and Lexi

I decided to do these two together since there twins so they basically lived the same lives. Ace is the older twin and is a daredevil who got in trouble with his parents alot. As for Lexi she was a very sweet girl who everyone liked. She was definitely the angel to aces devil personality. However this came at the cost of her getting bullied and Ace getting detention alot in high school. ( Because no one messes with a guy's younger sister especially if she is your twin) at college though he seemed to mature a bit and Lexi learned how to deal with bullies with her one passion Dancing. She loves Ballet. And Ace wanted to be a Actor like his Great Grandpa Bugs bunny. Unfortunately try outs didn't go well for either. But a Meteor changes there lives forever. There birthday is Oct. 13 making them Libras ♎

And now for everyone favorite talkative roadrunner Rev Runner.

Ok so like I said Rev is a girl runner. She had a pretty standard life. However her parents never believed she had ADHD just thinking she was faster than normal or not paying attention to them. Her younger brother Rip is 10 in this world and as far as she is concerned. She is more his mother than there own. Harriet and Ralph are pretty rich and practically use there kids to help make money. Rev being the oldest was put under a lot of pressure growing up. Ralph often would push Rev to her limits. To make things worse he was Willing to Marry her to some Creep to get more money. Luckily she got away. Unfortunately she couldn't take her brother with her. Something that still crushes her. She started work at a diner as a waitress. She was miserable until a certain meteor struck earth changing her life forever. Her birthday is Feb 1. Her Zodiac is Aquarius ♒

For the Final loonatic. My personal favorite Danger Duck

( this is the only gif of him are you kidding me 😂)

Anyway like Rev she is a Girl. And the youngest of the team. Her life wasn't exactly easy at all. Her parents were murdered in front of her by psycho clowns at age 5. Then she went through several foster homes with all of them sending her back cause she was a ' problem child'. None of them realized she was lashing out in grief. She practically grew up in the system. She had only one friend. Pinkster Pig. However when he got adopted he started changing and bullied her throughout high school. When she hit 18 she was kicked out of the orphanage and was homeless taking off jobs just so she can sleep somewhere. Her latest job and place was at a pool place. After a hard day of work. A meteor changes her life forever. Her birthday is July 25. Her Zodiac is Leo ♌

As for Zadalvia. Since she is an alien I decided to make her more like avatar. She has a striped tail. And is green skin. Her outfit is Blue. And she has Orange hair. She is 35 years old. Her backstory is pretty much the same. Except I decided to have Optimus ( I dont know how to spell his name) is possessed by the robo stuff he wears. There parents died when she was young and he became an adult. After years of ruling freleng he found a robot costume and put it on. Unfortunately it possessed him. He imprisoned his sister but she escaped with the help of a rocket. Resulting in the meteor. Her birthday is September 3. Her Zodiac is Virgo ♍.

And that's basically my version of the Loonatics hope you like them 😊

[lilflowerpot]

Heyyy I hope your doing well and I hope your resting and not wasting all your free time answering these! Don't forget to drink alot of water and sleep at least 6 hours night. I just wanted to know your thoughts on how Lotor would react to being at the garrison. Meeting his last bullies, classmates, least favourite teachers and so on. How would he respond to both them and Keith. Would he show him off more or something like that? Again rest plenty and only answer when you feel like it.

@stinkyexhaust: So if Lotor were to find out about how much of a prick James was to Keith, how do you think he would react? I mean I don't hate James in fact I think he honestly could have had way more screentime to showcase more of his personality and backstory, especially in regards to Keith.

-

Honey if I only got six hours a night I would be the living dead, but this is very sweet of you nonetheless ♡

I've been asked something of a similar vein once before, as well as the Garrison's reaction to Keith's relationship with Lotor, and I'll repeat now what I said then: it's an important thread of the keitor dynamic (to me at least) that Keith & Lotor strengthen one another by allowing for personal growth beyond simply fighting on their partner’s behalf. So while Lotor mightn't be fond of certain figures from Keith's past—particularly given the little he learnt in chapter 24 about Iverson's handling of the Kerberos fallout—he knows and respects that Keith is more than capable of fighting his own battles, and wouldn't want to interfere with that (something something, galra sense of honour, you get it).

...All that being said, would our favourite prince be practically chomping at the bit to let it be known that he is the man who gets to stand beside Keith Kogane, Blade of Marmora, Paladin of Voltron, and Love of his Life? Yes. yes he would.

With regard to James specifically, it is my personal reading of his relationship with Keith that it was a very poorly handled mutual crush, and yet it was this very antagonism between them that pinged the galra part of Keith's brain in all the right ways. The altercation canon showed us in s7ep01 (which, despite LB being canon-divergent post s4, does in fact remain canon within my narrative bc I actually thought every insight we were given into James & Keith's past was impeccable) wherein James insulted Keith's parents, was a classic case of projection on his part; James strikes me as a privileged kid whose family expected nothing less than perfection—for him to be the best of the best at everything at all times—so I think that effortlessly-exceptional Keith getting the group into trouble simply because he was bored led to an exceedingly cruel comment,,, but I don't believe James actually knew Keith was an orphan when he said what he said.

Naturally, Keith (and we as the viewers with full knowledge of his backstory) assumes James intended to end that taunt with "before they died / abandoned you" but I'm not convinced. James could have just as easily been about to say "before they shipped you off to the military / halfway across the state / out of sight and mind" which I think is exactly what happened to him, leaving him understandably hurt, bitter, and desperate to prove himself. So yes, James—as a volatile teenager with abandonment issues, and oh look, who does that remind you of—fucked up, and payed the price of Keith's fist in his face; ultimately though, I think of Keith as having long since moved past it, and if he doesn't hold a grudge against Griffin, then why would Lotor? Particularly when, by galra standards, that specific instance was been resolved through rite of combat, and the rest of their relationship was, to an Imperial eye, just normal teenage brawling ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[sabakos]

favourite hxh character?

Killua, easily. I mean, I do love all the gay little outfits and the murder shit that the fandom latches onto, but also his whole story arc of breaking free of his family and figuring out how to live for himself and of course also him pursuing Gon (romantically?) is really endearing.

I think most people actually take his story a lot less seriously than they would otherwise because he's 11-13 years old throughout the course of the anime but if we were to imagine that he was, say, three to five years older I think a lot of his actions make a lot more sense as a more traditional "coming-of-age" plot. "Boy sets off on his own and comes to terms with and overcomes the negative weight he carried from his childhood" is a fairly standard plot for such a story, and I think it makes sense to view it that way.

I think part of the reason this isn't as well-appreciated is due to his backstory making him much more precocious and so he has to mature earlier than a normal teenager due to the circumstance he has to deal with, but he's really is the only character who's show as "maturing" at all in the course of the series? Gon is kinda just powerscaling the whole time and by the end he's back where he started since he can't even use nen anymore, Kurapika mostly has new ways to kill people (and the later manga shows he hasn't developed any new sense of self-preservation...) and Leorio is... Leorio. But Killua, who seemed the most mature and independent to begin with, was in reality dependent on and literally being mind-controlled by his family to the point where he forgot that his sister existed! And he only overcomes that family trauma not by embracing freedom and running away, but by realizing that he has someone outside that life that he wants to protect, i.e. Gon.

Excluding Yorknew and the (manga) Black Whale arc which focus on Kurapika's point of view, I think you can make the case that of any of the main four, Killua is also the one whose "perspective" we're seeing the the narrative from. We don't get a lot of insight comparatively into Gon's internal experience despite him nominally being the "more" main character, which could be because he really doesn't think things through and rushes into danger without thinking, or it could be that that's Killua's view of what Gon is like, which is much larger-than-life than the actual Gon, it's much more reminiscent of how someone sees a crush than how an actual person is.

Also I can't write this much on Killua while avoiding having a take on "Killugon" so: my interpretation of how it's presented in the series is that it's basically unrequited; Killua and Gon are both the same age physically but Killua is shown to be much more mature mentally (he even jokes about watching porn in the Heaven's Arena arc!) so I think he has romantic feelings towards Gon that Gon doesn't and wouldn't necessarily reject, but simply isn't mature enough yet to reciprocate. I've been gay and twelve, can relate. And I think much like the more overt arc of Killua breaking free of his family and pulling Illumi's Needle out of his head (subtext is for cowards) so that he can protect Gon, I think the thrust of the Election arc is Killua realizing that, in order to live for himself, he further needs to be free of his obsession with Gon, who he can't ultimately protect without preventing Gon from living for himself. Which overall I find to be a very compelling and satisfying character arc.

[yandere-yearnings]

On top of my last ask I also have a question geared to your sillies

We all know both Sunny and Dice have a serious jealousy problem but I was wondering why exactly that's the case? Like did anything happen in their past to make them respond so aggressively when the threat of potentially losing reader arises?

If you're planning to go into this further in their main stories then you can ignore this ask ofc :)

-Gnawing on your latest posts, 🦢

i do intend to delve into their backstories and why they are the way they are later on down the line in their main stories, but bc i'm being a bit slow with releasing new chapters, i figured it'd be nice to just explain it. also, i'm glad you enjoyed my latest posts swan nonnie🥺 gonna try and answer more asks soon so hopefully that means more content too🥰

major spoilers for sun's and dice's backstories under the cut!

warnings for mentions of cheating, alcoholism, child abuse and neglect❗❗

so, originally sun and dice had a fairly normal life, if not a really happy one — they were in what would be considered a standard family, with a mother and father who seemed to love each other loads and dote on their children. in actuality, their parents' marriage was going stale and their mother ended up having an affair with another woman, soon eloping with her and abandoning them.

that in itself was a point of trauma for both of them, sun especially, bc he was older and had spent more time with her. neither of them really understood how someone could say they loved them one day, only to have left them all alone within 24 hours, not even a note or message to explain.

then, they were forced to take the repercussions of their mother's actions in the form of verbal and physical abuse from their father, who had steadily become an alcoholic. all of the household income was used to fuel his addiction and own living expenses, and sun and dice were neglected for a long time before their aunt came to take them away.

somewhere, they kinda expected their father to at least fight for them, but when he gave them up so quickly — not wanting to see their faces anymore bc they looked so much like her, the feeling of abandonment they had been experiencing prior finally reached a point where it started to define them.

they had a lot bottled up from then; feeling wronged, feeling like they had so much left to say, questioning why. a lot of anger and bitterness and desperation to just feel wanted again fueled them into becoming who they did. sun would fight a lot as a teen, bc he felt constantly frustrated and it was easy to push him over the edge. dice was really passive, and he'd let himself get picked on bc he didn't feel like he was worth enough to speak up against it.

their respective darlings meet them at a time where they've just begun to establish a sense of self-importance, and it's bc they're clinging to that little confidence they finally have, that they're both adamant nothing takes it away from them ever again. sun doesn't ever want to be tossed aside like his mother had done to him all those years ago, and dice doesn't want betrayal to turn him into the monster his father had become.

for those reasons, they'll do whatever it takes to make sure they don't lose you. whenever they see you with someone else, they can just imagine you building a relationship with that person and leaving them behind to suffer in the end. just the thought has every bad memory flooding back. it makes them murderous.

for what felt like forever, all they had was each other and the resigned understanding between them. now they have their darlings, that desire to be seen again has reignited, and they rely to a dangerous extent on the promise that love could make up for all the pain they didn't deserve.

[blanketorghost]

Weeping Wisteria

-Yuu Fujisaki after his debut performance of Fuji Musume, 10 y.o

I've been slowly working on Yuu lore and how it'd affect the current twst story + his relationships and manerisms.

One of the things I've focused the most on is his childhood as an Onnagata trainee.

I think that to follow up on Yuu's literal " a genius that's god's punching bag" trope, I'd do a couple of retconning to his backstory. Most of these are minor changes, but methinks it will impact how he interacts with people— esp a couple NRC students.

(Base info pre-retcon about the Fujisaki clan can be found here)

To start off, Ataru (Yuu's father) would be laid off right before Yuu was born, meaning Yuu wouldn't have known a life before Kabuki training.

This would serve the purpose of reinforcing Yuu's belief that he himself is a bad omen or a bad luck magnet for people, as his family probably wouldn't have struggled so much if Yuu was not born.

Also, though it's common for women in JPN to be housewives after marrying, Yuu's mom, Kanna (環花), would probably also need to resume working if they're struggling. I think Kotonoha would also start tutoring underclassmen for some extra cash to help her parents out + save for college education. His family adores him and each other, of course. And would try to spend as much time together as possible, but sometimes it just can't be done.

This would change Yuu's upbringing in two major factors:

1. He would have spent a lot more time with both his grandfather and great-uncle, which would mean he'd be inducted in two very different sides of Kabuki + also very different, contrasting expectations of what he should be like.

2. He'd have to learn to be independent fairly quickly.

Hiroshi and Nagisa are complete opposites of each other. Whilst Hiroshi gives indiscriminately no matter how little he has, Nagisa is overzealous of the family's wealth─ both knowledge and resources.

Nagisa may have accepted his grandson back into the family, but he only accepted his grandson. He would pay for his education and help with Yuu's needs with a monthly allowance, but that would be it. The rest of the family would still be left to fend by themselves.

Yuu's not dumb, he would notice the difference. After all, why was he given expensive brand-name clothes and attended a prestigious academy that he had to be taken to and from with a private driver, whilst his sister shopped in thrift stores and went to their local public school by foot? Why did his dad never come pick him up from practice and was picked up by his uncle instead? Why were his parents so stressed about pinching pennies to pay next month's rent when grandpa's manor was full of empty rooms?

He would've caught on quick to his position as a very real bargaining chip to maintain his family's finantial stability.

So, I think that Yuu, even though he would grow to hate performing as an onnagata, would not quit Kabuki as soon as possible. In fact, I think he'd continue until high school, were he'd enter an indefinite hiatus just so he could have a normal teenage experience + focus on university before returning to perfom.

Also, I think with how close he is to his cousin Nagihiko, he would not want him to suffer under the stress of becoming the Fujisaki heir— at least not while their grandfather is alive and imposing such standards. He wants Nagihiko to have the carefree childhood Yuu was robbed of because of family politics.

Because of this fact, I think Yuu would be much more prone to sacrifice his happiness if it brought out a greater good. I don't think it's out of pure selflessness, though. He's very pragmatic about the pros and cons of things— and ifthe suffering of one ensures the happiness of many, he does not see any problem with it. I think he would also see his self value in what he is useful for, hence why he would eventually hone his abilities to the point of polymathy.

Then, there's uncle Hiroshi. God bless his man because he actually tried to give Yuu a normal childhood. Whenever he wasn't at his grandpa's slaving away at different subjects, he would be at his uncle's theater office or exploring the backrooms of the place. Hiroshi was a busy man, of course— he had his own business to run, but he did his best to keep him entrtained with what he could. He also was the one to notice Yuu's academic potential as the little bugger would rather read his uncles dusty finance and politic books than the fairytales and picture books he bought especially for him. Hiroshi would have been Yuu's biggest advocate, and since Ataru didn't have the money or leverage to fight back against Nagisa, I think Hiroshi would take that place instead. Hiroshi is described to be extremely generous to a fault, so, as a result, I think Yuu would've witnessed the various times his uncle was backstabbed and taken advantage of, yet still managed to rise back and continue working on his passion.

That's what Yuu's goal was before he got interloped; he wants to bide his time and keep his head down, so once he has enough strength and leverage himself, he can finally stand up for his family... or at least the side that genuinely cares about him.

Yuu loves and admires his uncle, but he does not want to be hurt as many as he was. So Yuu would end up being much more closed off and stand-offish than his own personal hero. He would be reluctant to have close friends and confidantes, effectively making most his relationships superficial except for maybe 3 or 4 close friends he holds very dear to him. None of which are from TWST. I think he's the type of friend that listens to all your problems and knows so much about you, but when you look back— Yuu's NRC friends would realize they don't know anything about him other than the very rare nuggets of trivia he allows them to have.

Yuu is also observant and patient. Let's be real for a second— Yuu is at an infinite disadvantage. He has no magic, no money, no family name, and his smarts can only get him so far in a world he knows nothing about. He knows he needs to play things safe if he wants to survive NRC and its students— at least until he finds something he can fight back with. Humans are endurance predators, after all. (He's still a piece of shit with a big mouth, though)

There's so much more I want to elaborate on, but much like Galatea, it'll take me a while organize all my word vomit. Either way, Yuu's backstory and family dynamics are something I have so much fun of thinking about, because his life was so rich before twst! He had friends, a family and responsibilities to take care of. It's both tragic and freeing that he got taken just at such a pivetal point in his life, where he would have to make the choice to continue living for others or start living for himself.

[wall-legion]

Follow up for those of you who read the Odetta story

If you want to know what happens with the Duke and Lady Elena it’s going to be below. There will be spoilers in here for the Odetta backstory so you are warned if you haven’t read it yet! Also before I go further, trigger warnings for sexual assault, necrophilia, and pedophilia/ephebophilia. Yeah. I don’t like it either.

Right then. So last we left Lady Elena, she was begging Countess Anise to intervene after Odetta ran away from home and there was a comment about Duke Andry Vasseur being “very cross” with them. Now before I get into that: all the rumors Odetta overheard around Divinity’s Reach, and from the scullery maid, about the Duke? 100% true. Duke Andry Vasseur is the worst kind of perverted, deviated, twisted little worm of a man, and saying that much is an insult to worms because they at least contribute something to the world. His servants are routinely used for his amusements, and frequently without their consent, but since he utilizes gifts after the abuse he essentially buys their silence. More often than not, his eye is drawn to his younger servants: the kitchen and chamber maids, the stable and garden boys. At this point, his head of staff is desperately trying to not hire anyone younger than 20 if he can, and if he must he’s warning them to not be alone with the Duke if they have to be. And yes, there is a dedicated room for his “special guests”. Right now it is still occupied by an Awakened from Elona, the same one that was referenced in the scullery maid’s gossip to Odetta. The Duke claims he was on a hunting trip and captured it one night when it attacked his party’s camp, and is keeping it for research purposes. His staff would argue that his “research” does not sound reliably scientific in nature. Previous to the Awakened, there were a serious of Risen occupying the room, as well as one Icebrood norn. They are all in there for varying amounts of time for “research” before he kills them they die suddenly and he has his servants take their bodies out of the city under the cover of night. As for the hold he has on Lord and Lady Jeffer... well who do you think the Queen’s Minister of Economy is? That’s right light, medium and heavy armor wearers, the only reason Lord and Lady Jeffer ARE Lord and Lady Jeffer are because of this living sack of excrement. He holds Lord Jaquin’s livelihood, their comfortable standard of living, their very home in one of the nicest neighborhoods, their social ranks, their entire world, in his greasy hand. On a whim he can destroy them. Lord Jaquin, being entirely too pure for his own good, has never known the arrangement: he has simply done his job (and Duke Andry’s to boot) exceedingly well, while believing everything is absolutely Normal and Fine. Lady Elena however knew that her husband’s family did not have the connections to pull the kind of job that he did. And she certainly was not born into nobility- she was the third generation of a circus family, the daughter of the tight rope walker and magician. It was thirty seven years ago now that she had seen Lord Jaquin in the crowd and was taken in by how handsome he was. She was 18 years old, and training with her father’s magic: she thought she could ensnare him for one passionate night with a spell. She would be able to boast of how she had spent an evening in bed with a Divinity’s Reach noble at the next town, and maybe have a little blackmail material in a few months if she needed. The spell backfired on her. He was hopelessly, utterly in love with her after their one night together. He proposed in front of her parents, who were overjoyed that their daughter was to be married to a member of the nobility. Elena smiled and swooned outwardly but cursed herself for thinking that she was ready to cast something that powerful yet. But she would be someday... They were wed before the circus left town, and she set to work finding a job for Lord Jaquin, “to make certain that the family we’ll have will be provided for” she told him. He just nodded at her, beaming. He told her he was so proud of her for already caring about the children she had yet to bear. She could have vomited at that. It took some work (and some... work) with Duke Andry Vasseur, but once they were done and both dressed again, he agreed to take her new husband on his undersecretary under the condition that when he asked for her help with something she would oblige. Ten years ago, when he mentioned that he was thinking of taking a wife, Lady Elena thought of her ward Odetta: of how headstrong she was, of how pretty she was getting, of how old she was making her feel... of how Elena could tell every time Odetta walked by her bedroom wall, because the mesmer wand and focus mounted on it would glow and rattle in response to the girl like they used to for her. “I do believe I can finally satisfy that condition you gave me, my dear Duke,” she purred. With Odetta not only pushing back against the idea of the marriage but running away that same night, everything Lady Elena has so carefully built for the last thirty plus years has completely shattered in her face. What will the consequences be for her? You’ll just have to find out.

[punchandspade]

kaktus-po

Hallo :) Ich hab gesehen dass du gepostet hast dass deine Ask offen sind, und ich hoffe es ist okay wenn ich dich jetzt anschreibe. Ich hab in letzter Zeit eine Frage die mir so im Kopf rumspukt und ich weiß nicht ob darüber schonmal irgendjemand was gepostet hat (wenn du was weißt könntest du das gern teilen ), und zwar was wäre passiert wenn Adam nach dem Spaten-Angriff nicht weg gegangen wäre? Also so Roland wäre trotzdem im Koma, die beiden Jungs wären wahrscheinlich erstmal trotzdem total freaked, Adam wäre vllt trotzdem kurz abgehauen aber was wenn er zurück gekommen wäre nach ein paar Tagen? Meinst du die Freundschaft von den beiden hätte das ausgehalten? Ich find es total schwierig sich vorzustellen wie es dann weitergegangen wäre, weil wir von den beiden auch so wenig wissen über diese Zeit. Ich denke Adam hätte das Abi und so vielleicht noch einigermaßen anständig durchgezogen, aber ich seh ihn danach irgendwie nicht in einer normalen Ausbildung oder Studium oder sowas, oder was meinst du? Ich glaub nicht dass er dann trotzdem zur Polizei gegangen wäre. Ich könnte mir irgendwie eher vorstellen, dass Boris oder irgendjemand aus dem Umkreis mit der Aufgabe weitergemacht hätte, Adam "auszubilden". Die Frage ist nur ob und wie lange er das noch ausgehalten hätte. Aber ich find es irgendwie total interessant darüber nachzudenken also wenn du irgendwelche thoughts dazu hast würde ich mich freuen :)

Hello friend!

Thank you for this very interesting ask! There's a lot to think about in a case where Adam would have never left. So many things would have been different. Their entire lives would have been different!

I know that in the fandom, we're still wondering why they both became cops to begin with, and not even as a common goal. Or was it? Did they ever imagine themselves becoming cops when they found refuge in the tree house? Were they dreaming of justice? Were they thinking they could stop Roland, and any other man like him, by becoming cops? We just don't know and I'm sure they'll never talk about that in the show so it's up to us to imagine it haha

We can also imagine without Adam leaving, they would fall apart. The weight of the secret could be too heavy and they would fight a lot because of that. Even as an adult, Leo is a ball of guilt and fear, which doesn't sit too well with Adam actually. The anger Adam feels toward his father is projected onto Leo in a way because he feels guilty too. Leo did what he did to save Adam, it's a heavy thing to carry for Adam too. Your best friend sacrificing himself for you at such a young age is something that change your life forever. They were lucky the cops believed in the arson thing (which was ridiculous, didn't they find out about the fuel they poured everywhere? lmao)

But realistically, I can see them go to school "like normal", finish high school then maybe plan some higher education. I can see Adam dropping out at some point though. Without his father to literally beat him into doing anything, he must have a new sense of freedom and why not use this to do whatever he wants since his mother won't say no anyway? Leo is more conventional, we have no family backstory for him except for a sister, but we can imagine his family to be pretty standard. So maybe he's going through university then get an office job maybe. Honestly, him being a cop in canon has an OOC feel to it. He can't even use his gun because of his trauma, how did he even pass all the tests to become a cop?! lol Also, please give me Vladimir with glasses. And whatever smart but quiet job would suit him. Adam, on the other hand, has been raised on chaos and violence. He'd probably repeat that one way or another, so maybe a job where his own safety is not guaranteed. OR an unassuming job but he's a gangster on the side. Leo would know about his illegal activities, he would also keep trying to make him quit but they both know Adam hasn't been wired to lead a peaceful life. Which would give us moments when Leo is patching up Adam after a fight gone bad. I mean, we deserve it.

I never really put some real thoughts into this "what if" scenario so it was fun!

[ddyfckr-a]

at  the  moment,  i  am  undecided  on  several  things  regarding  Striker’s  characterization,  so  forgive  me  if  certain  aspects  are  not  made  clear  in  my  portrayal,  as  i’m  currently  waiting  for  such  information  to  be  revealed  by  the  actual  show.     these  include…

sexuality :     by  default,  it  seems  everyone  in  hell     (   not  necessarily  sinners,  mind  you   )     seems  to  have  a  very  wide  spectrum.     but  it  gets  a  bit  confusing  because,  clearly,  there  are  feelings  of  homophobia  within  hell-borns.     also,  of  course,  they  have  to  reproduce  somehow.  so  there’s  heterosexuality,  somewhere.  on  one  hand,  i  like  the  idea  of  Striker  being  heterosexual;  it’s  the  sexuality  i’ve  identified  for  a  majority  of  my  life     &.     i’d  feel  like  he’d  almost  be  the  odd  one  out,  so  to  speak,  compared  to  the  rest  of  the  cast.     it  goes  well  with  his  intended  portrayal  of  being  toxic  masculinity  bigot,  but  i  don’t  want  to  necessarily  promote  the  idea  that  heterosexuality  equals  inherently  bad / automatically  means  one  is  a  bigot.     heterosexuality  is  a  sexuality  like  any  other.

but  the  thought  of  him  being  closeted homosexual,  or  at  the  very  least,  bisexual  male  leaning,  makes  me  👀👀  because  that’s  always  a  fun  topic  to  explore     (   something  i  also  am  familiar  with,  as  well   ).     it’s  interesting  to  think  that  perhaps  he  was  raised  a  certain  way,  forced  to  conceal  certain  parts  of  himself     &.     to  conform  to  societal  standards…     but  that’s  the  part  i  get  tripped  up  because,  again,  the  default  in  hell  seems  to  be  10x  more  open  to  sexuality  than  Earth / the  human  world.     so  unless  he  was  raised  in  a  cult / small  town  of  sorts  where  that’s  all  he  knew,  i’m  not  sure  how  well  him  being  closeted  would  even  work.

or,  alternatively,  him  being  asexual  is  an  idea  that  tickles  my  fancy  but  that’s  more  or  less  debunked  already.     on  a  different  note,  the  thought  of  him  being an inexperienced  virgin  dude  who  pretends  to  be  a  Chad  is  actually  pretty  hilarious  though.  would  have  loved  to  have  seen  NR  portraying  that.

backstory :     yeah,  there’s…     way  way  way  too  many  ideas  swirling  in  my  head  regarding  his  possible  background.     what’s  worse  is  that,  depending  on  what  Viv  is  trying  to  go  for,  most  theories  would  be  able  to  work.     but  i  don’t  want  to  solidify  ANY  OF  THEM  lest  it  gets  debunked  extremely  hard  in  canon.     i  do  hope  we  get  mention,  at  the  very  least,  of  what  he  went  through  that  led  him  down  this  path.

for  one,  he  could  have  lived  in  a  small  town  somewhere  in  Wrath,  his  family  having  been  massacred  in  front  of  him  by  royals  or  even  exorcists.     perhaps  if  it  was  exorcists,  royals  refused  to  assist,  seeing  as  it  was  a  small  town  of  imps.     they  didn’t  fund  to  rebuild  shit.     of  course  with  his  luck,  he  was  the  only  remaining  survivor.     think  Sasuke  from  Naruto.  it’d  be  interesting  to  see  given  that  the  opposite  holds  true  for  the  main  cast :  Moxxie     &.     Blitzo  had  shit  fathers,  but  good  mothers     &.     they  turned  out  to  be  ‘ good  guys ’.     Striker  would  have  good  parents / a  good  father,  but  turned  out  to  be  a  ‘ bad  guy ’.

second  general  theory  that  i  personally  like  is  that  Striker  isn’t  actually  a  ‘ real ’  cowboy  at  all.  by  which  i  mean,  given  his  confirmed  hybrid  status,  he  was  raised  by  a  couple  native  to  the  sloth  ring     (   the  ‘ normals ’  of  the  hell  world,  from  what  i’ve  seen   ).     perhaps  his  mother  was  a  young  sex  worker  native  to  Envy / part  shark  or  snake  who  was  taken  advantage  of  by  an  older  Wrath  imp     (   or  switch  the  species  around   ).     he  never  met  his  biological  parents,  but  naturally,  he  wanted  to  learn  more  of  his  biological  roots,  so  like  any  child,  he  really  honed  in  on  the  whole  cowboy  motif.     to  the  point  where  he  probably  went  to  Wrath  once     &.     faked  an  accent,  stuck  with  it.     he  wanted  to  be  a  big  bad,  just  like  in  the  old  cowboy  movies.     he  wanted  to  be  famous.     he  learned  whatever  he  could  from  his  ethnicity     &.     quickly  learned  of  the  severe  power  imbalance  regarding  imps  versus  royals.     maybe  his  bastard  of  a  father  was  part  royal,  having  used  that  to  take  advantage  of  his  mother.     perhaps  he  was  raised  by  an  abusive  father. maybe he had to protect younger siblings : maybe royals killed his older siblings.

another  theory  i’ve  seen  is  that  Striker  was  raised  normally  in  Wrath,  not  unlike  Millie.  had  a  relatively  normal  life,  whatever.     but  perhaps  he  fell  in  love  with  a  royal,  maybe  even  had  a  family  with  her  or  was  going  to,  but  the  woman’s  father  wouldn’t  let  it  happen.     or  perhaps  he  had  a  family     &.     royals  killed  them  off,  for  whatever  reason.     very  Rick  Sanchez,  almost.     though,  this  appeals  to  me  the  least,  to  be  honest.

there’s  a  lot  more  possibilities  beyond  these  of  course,  but  i  don’t  want  to  go  along  with  any  of  them  until  i  get  confirmation.

motivation :     from  what  i’ve  seen,  a  lot  of  people,  naturally,  like  the  idea  that  Striker  is  justifiably  angry  in  his  pursuits  for  equality     &.     that  he’s  secretly  a  sweetheart  who  has  a  soft  spot  for  kids,  or  something.     while  i  understand  this  theory  to  a  point,  given  that  Viv  indirectly  confirmed  that  well…     she  doesn’t  like  him     &.     he’s  supposed  to  represent  the  ‘ toxic  masculinity ’  ideal     (   in  addition  to  my  personal  preferences   )     i  don’t  think  that’s  the  case.     from  what  i’m  seeing,  Striker  is  a  shitty  son  of  a  bitch  who  probably  let  his  own  ideals  warp  into  something  extreme.     i  don’t  know  why  people  don’t  like  to  say  it,  because  it  does  happen  IRL.  being  a  minority  does  not  automatically  make  you  unable  to  be  a  bad  person.

initially,  based  on  the  HMF  episode  alone,  i  liked  to  think  he  was  actually  self-serving  using  the  guise  of  pursuing  equality.  i  liked  to  think,  although  he  himself  has  experienced  several  injustices,  at  the  end  of  it  all…     he  only  cares  about  himself.  he  clearly  doesn’t  much  care  for  others  of  his  kind,  to  the  point  where  he’ll  kill  them  for  a  job.  he  has  no  problems  using  royals     &.     imps  alike,  so  long  as  he  rises  to  the  top.     fuck  everyone  else,  he’s  the  only  one  that  matters.     i’m  hoping  that  doesn’t  change  in  canon.     i  really  hope  they  don’t  pull  a  Blitzo  thing,  making  him  ‘ secretly  misunderstood     &.     he’s  been  trying  all  this  time  to  be  a  good  guy ’.

i  do  want  to  add  though,  that  him  working  for  royals  isn’t  exactly  a  ‘ gotcha ! ’  moment  in  the  slightest.     of  course  he  has  to  work  for / with  royals  to  get  to  the  top.     Striker  knows  how  to  play  the  system     &.     he’ll  do  whatever  it  takes  to  win.

ALL  THIS  TO  SAY,  if  you  ask  me  how  i’m  portraying  Striker,  i’m  just  gonna  be  like  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[tagapagsalaysay]

Incomplete Irenator Gender Analysis Ramble

First things first. Irene is a trans woman and pretty much anyone on here knows this. The gender analysis isn't about his transition specifically, or proving reasons that he's trans. This is actually about gender roles that come up specifically about parenthood, traditional unit of the family and major medium of patriarchy and whatever. I was thinking about his whole approach in the usual but I felt like jokingly looking back on dumb shit so here we are.

I went with interpreting narrator's role in the equation as a parental figure, but it came from an odd place I think. I saw a while back someone trying to discredit romance between narrator and Stanley because narrator was a paternal figure to Stanley and well that's just dumb and I don't care. But the individual idea of narrator being a paternal figure not for spite is kind of interesting to continue on.

I'm gonna build a picture of mod nator first. Pre-gamergate, masculine voice leading masculine character. Would I say this is before he would examine his gender, yes probably. But my focus is on family dynamics. What advice is he giving, what expectations is he setting, etc. Even if he's not an actual canonical father, he operates as both a guardian figure and like, dad giving dad advice to another. The expectation of someone being as much of a macho hero as possible and then the other half where narrator manipulates him using his obligations as a father. Working for your family. Pleasing your wife. Being a strong man, which also translates into being a good father.

The male action hero archetype was shunned but for different reason. You simply needed to be rational and normal and wish for your own autonomy. It wasn't an outright reaction to harmful gender roles but it's close enough.

The dynamic doesn't change much in the first game either. The weight of the familial social structure is still there presented in altogether the same way. What next?

Tangent: Novelty. The mod/game was novel in terms of gameplay, but it can't be novel in everything. It was also Okay social commentary, but what I'm saying here is. Being ahead of its time isn't an objective goal to be self conscious about as a creator. It's something that depends on what is and isn't being discussed. And what people talk about is... subjective, more often than not. You can be ahead in terms of meta but lagging behind on everything else, things like gender. And that isn't a moral or creative failure. Nor an excuse.

Okay, from here, there are a lot of details I am missing. I wanted to bring up Irenator easing over nicely on the gender self-realization and presentation thing with no problem (Again, still outside the whole family discussion, and just personal interpretation) but realizing that he has yet to examine gender externally, especially through the familial structure. Or even just gender roles in general. Would he consider shifting his own moral guardian schtick as well?

And that comes in a lot on... untouchable ground. Yeah, like, I'm not playing the new game in a billion years at least, but it would have some of my answers. All I get is this picture of narrator examining not only Stanley's family and relationships but himself as well, and it would probably be so funny, but would also complete this entire analysis. But it's radioactive and I'm not touching a damn thing until I redeem myself in some arbitrary way.

I can only guess. Narrator envies Stanley's near-perfect (to cisheteropatriarchal standards) relationship, and somewhat realizes there could be unconventional ones outside a paternal and maternal figure. He then proceeds to either be envious or vain about it, because that's just what he does. The only context clues I get are personal hells.

I was wondering about this for the usual Irene distant backstory stuff, but it turned into an interesting exercise to practice for gender class. It's likely still shallow. But I also wanted to put an arc about Irene's journey of becoming pretty much a matriarch. Yes he's everyone's favorite funny grandma. But we would all like to hear how he's become one. And so it goes 💥

Man if you read all of that have a burger. I know there's probably also still the usual bias so feel free to fill me in on what your take is. -> 🍔

[1cindyschineselitblog]

Week 16 Blog

Everything I Never Told You

Celeste Ng

Pages Read: 113-153

Word Count: 480

Summary:

Going from the present to the past, the backstories of all the family members continue to unfold. James (the father) wants Nath (the son) to be more sociable and stop spending so much time being invested in reading and knowledge since that’s what he was. He wanted his son to have more connections, but instead of being supportive, he gave passive-aggressive comments. Marilyn (the mom) left the house at one point to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor, but she couldn’t complete it because she was pregnant. So she ended up pushing her dreams on her daughter, Lydia. Nath just wanted to be recognized but his parents were only recognizing Lydia’s accomplishments. Lydia wants to make her mom proud so she doesn’t leave again. Then there’s Hannah (the little sister), who is basically forgotten. 

Critical Analysis:

After Marilyn left to achieve her dream, it left a clear dent in the household. Lydia clung to Nath and their father was too out of it to be a proper parent. After so long, Nath finally found an interest instead of waiting and longing for his mom to come home. Yet when he shows his newfound interest, it doesn’t end the way it should’ve. “On Sunday evening, Nath said, ‘Daddy, can you believe people can go practically to the moon and still come back?’ and James slapped him, so hard Nath’s teeth rattled. ‘Shut up about that nonsense,’ he said.” (120) It’s insane how parents react to their children sometimes. It’s normal to be stressed when your wife isn’t coming home, but I think Ng is trying to give a realistic reaction. Though the family is too messed up to be fixed anymore. Ng’s writing is like a foundation in today’s families. Parents push their dreams onto their kids, and kids could accept it in fear or something else. Some feel neglected because they want to go on their own path. Then there are the ones that are completely forgotten, learning how to stay small to be out of sight.

Personal Response:

Personally, this book hits home too hard. It’s a bit upsetting to know what it feels like to be the siblings not up to standard, but it is what it is. Right? I like how everyone’s perspective is considered, but I just can’t seem to grasp some of them and sympathize. Lydia was given all the attention and love because she was going to be the dream child. The child who would complete her parents’ dreams. But with that, she was also internally stressed because if she didn’t do good, she thought that he mom would leave again. Yet when the attention is on Nath, she just had to jump in and get the attention on her. Marilyn’s absence did so much to the children psychologically that she doesn’t even notice. It makes me really mad how fixed and close-minded these parents are.

[zapgraptrash]

1) What is the character’s go-to drink order? (this one gets into how do they like to be publicly perceived, because there is always some level of theatricality to ordering drinks at a bar/restaurant) Masuyo – I just spent ages trying to like find something Safe that they’d order every time they were somewhere that does Not have Japanese things. I can’t really pin down something specific but it WOULD be something specific. Something strong, probably a whiskey. If there ARE Japanese drinks available they would actually take more time to decide on something rather than just getting something safe and easy. I feel like they’d like melon flavoured drinks

2) What is their grooming routine? (how do they treat themselves in private) Ricky – she spends the most time on picking out a hat (if not at work). She wouldn’t spend like hours getting ready before going out but she would make sure that she looks impressive, or at the very least just noticeable. In private though she’ll just wear pyjamas all day if she can. If there is nobody to see then it’s not important to spend all the effort on looking presentable. The guinea pigs won’t care lol.

3) What was their most expensive purchase/where does their disposable income go? (Gets you thinking about socio-economic class, values, and how they spend their leisure time) Zapper – guaranteed his bike(s) are the only thing he’s ever spent a lot of money at once on, he will never just drop a load of money on anything. Even the bike took saving and planning and negotiating lol. He’s one of those people who will put 10% of every paycheck into savings immediately. Most of his disposable income probably goes on things like gardening supplies or fuckin. Cleaning supplies. Or bike maintenance. And maybe committing to the bit of annoying Grappler.

4) Do they have any scars or tattoos? (good way to get into literal backstory)  Dom – her standard issue tattoo is right in the middle of her chest just because. I don’t think she’d be bothered about getting any others, maybe covering that one up with something post-trashland. But she is always covered in like, small burns and scars and shit because that happens when you like to play with fire and explosives.

5) What was the last time they cried, and under what circumstances? (Good way to get some *emotional* backstory in.)  Slyger – slyger cries most often when he’s stressed. So it was probably recently. He makes everything out to be really high stakes so it could be literally anything lol. His pc keeps crashing because skyrim has too many mods loaded. He can’t find that ONE type of salmon at the store but he KNOWS they have it. He wants to watch the new episode of the telenovela he's obsessed with but REALLY wants to watch it live and probably won’t get home in time.

6) Are they an oldest, middle, youngest or only child? (This one might be a me thing, because I LOVE writing/reading about family dynamics, but knowing what kinds of things were ‘normal’ for them growing up is important.) Jeffrey – he’s an only child of a single parent who put like All her stakes on him. Has to live up to super specific ideals and if not You Are Making Me Look Bad In Front Of The Rest Of The (surprisingly large) Family. Like this is only his mother’s side of the family too, he has cousins and second cousins all over the place. He might have some half siblings from his dad but he’ll probably never know I guess!

7) Describe the shoes they’re wearing. (This is a big catch all, gets into money, taste, practicality, level of wear, level of repair, literally what kind of shoes they require to live their life.) Thaddeus – they’re good quality leather biker boots with a bunch of decorative buckles. He spent a Lot on them and they’ll last ages, unlike the boots he used to get which were like ok but they wore out really easily and he Had to replace them because it’d fuck up his prosthetic foot otherwise. Before he lost his foot he’d just wear shoes until they disintegrated.

8) Describe the place where they sleep. (ie what does their safe space look like. How much (or how little) care / decoration / personal touch goes into it.) Granox – if slyger wasn’t around to decorate and such there wouldn’t be that much around, mostly just one or two cool things he found on the ground. Also it’d just be a mattress. Because he keeps accidentally breaking bedframes by jumping onto them and not realising how fucking dense and strong he is. Funnily enough though he actually keeps the bed made way more than slyger does. So long as it’s comfy enough he can sleep, he doesn’t Need much else.

9) What is their favorite holiday? (How do they relate to their culture/outside world. Also fun is least favorite holiday.)  Grappler – Valentine’s Day because it’s the easiest day of the year to have sex (hooking up with other single people whilst single)/easiest day of the year to commit to the bit of annoying Zapper while also being genuine about it. But also boning Zapper. It’s like a whole day where the “objective” is to show affection to your partner and tbh that is how he thinks he shows affection the best. His least favourite day is Veterans day/memorial day because he just (correctly) associates them with his dad and the US fucking around in southeast asia/his dad treating his mum as a trophy wife. He probably doesn’t like have the ability to articulate WHY he hates them so much, but his default answer is that it’s a scam that vets get 2 holidays for being pieces of shit.

10) What objects do they always carry around with them? (What do they need for their normal, day-to-day routine? What does ‘normal’ even look like for them.)  Vilius – she always has cigs, a lighter and a taser on her. maybe a knife too. Probably operates off cartoon logic since I never draw her with pockets or a bag lmao. But like she almost always has a fuckin glass of wine or something on hand. If she’s not like, inside where there are glasses to pour booze into she probably has one of those tiny little bottles of something. This is fine.jpg

[emberthestoryteller]

Jared Dragonstooth

i want to redo a series i wrote a while back that was lost to the great online presence purge of when i realized i wasn't going to be making enough money on writing commissions to be worth maintaining that sort of online presence anymore, but doing character intros in the story itself is a pain, so i'm just going to do physical descriptions and summaries of their backstories and hope you can just pick up on enough of their vibes from that for the series to make sense first. i plan on giving this backstory a proper go and doing it well later, but for now here's the rough draft of the summary

Jared Dragonstooth is a warrior of draconic descent. He's about 7 feet tall, with silver scales, and a long tail that helps him keep balance with his double-jointed legs. You know, like a non-bipedal creature would have. He doesn't have wings, and is technically still within a normal human height range. He can technically breathe fire, but it's just a bunch of sparks. Still useful, just not in a fight. Really all his draconic descent gives him is scales and a really long lifespan (and the constantly-growing teeth that are needed to keep a creature going for that long, so he has to constantly gnaw on stuff). He grew up in a pretty big town that had grown around a place where two major trading roads intersected, starting as a resupply stop and quickly growing into a destination all on its own. He had always lived by a simple motto: if we always work to be better than we were the day before, the world will keep getting better. Whether or not it was true (people have gotten upset at me about how that motto oversimplifies things, and i don't want people to yell at me for my silly goofy cozy fantasy series being silly, goofy, and cozy, so i'm not going to commit to a stance on whether or not i believe that motto), he lived by it. He constantly tried to get stronger, because being able to see that you have definitely improved in a given area and how much you've improved is pretty great. He worked at a local supply store, mostly loading bulk orders onto the customers' wagons, and unloading shipments. He found it pretty boring, but it paid well enough, and had good hours. (i don't have the spoons to be clever about saying time passed, so you get an eventually) Eventually, some bandits showed up. This group was untrained and particularly poorly equipped, so they couldn't take on the mercs the wealthier merchants hired to protect them, and just robbed the poorer merchants. This was quickly making critical supplies like food and clothes nearly impossible for most people to get, but it wasn't affecting the wealthy very much, so the crown ordered the guards not to "waste resources" hunting them down. A group of townsfolk decided to break into the guards' armory, steal some gear, and do it themselves. Most of them were untrained, so there were heavy casualties. Among the casualties was one of Jared's best friends (they've got their own story going on, but i'm in the middle of reworking it, so for now i'm not going to get into detail. i'll tell their story later, and if and when i retell jared's, they'll get properly credited). Jared swore an oath to hunt down and kill the bandit who had killed his best friend. Standard lone wanderer trope shit ensues, but i don't intend to ever get particularly in detail on this for reasons that will probably become clear later. Jared had found out the town his mark was living in, and made his way to the town. He found his mark in a bar, drinking with his friends and telling terrible jokes. One of the bandits told an awful pun Jared's friend would make a point to tell almost any time they hung out, and Jared realized that getting his revenge wouldn't just cost the ex-bandit their life, it would cost the ex-bandit's loved ones someone they cared about. It would cost a lot of people he had no issue with their friend, and probably a few more their family member. He wasn't willing to inflict that much hurt on that many people just because he was angry. He sat down at the bar and introduced himself to the ex-bandit, and explained why he'd come, and the decision he'd made. The ex-bandit introduced themself as Sare, and explained that they'd come to a similar situation. They shared their story with Jared (probably the next one i'm sharing, that rework is going well, but maybe not. we'll see). They had decided to try to turn things around and help people wherever possible. Specifically, they wanted to help the people that the nobility and the crown were refusing to help or were oppressing. They'd already teamed up with a mage and a thief. Jared decided to join the group

[skvaderarts]

Petrichor Chapter 26 Procured

Chapter 26: Procured

Note: This was a fun little chapter to write. It put a smile on my face when I was working on it at 2:00 in the morning lol! Hope you guys enjoy it. Let me know if you've been liking this little backstory between Vergil and V's mom. I hope it hasn't been dragging on too long smh! 

(-~-)

A few months later…

The early morning hours had proven to be miraculously cold, even by the standards of early to mid to December. A freezing wind had settled in and the grass crunched underfoot as ice crystals caused it to freeze solid, a sure-fire indication that winter was well and truly here. 

Along all of the street decorations, lights wrapped around posts and trees and ribbons hung between buildings. It seems that the holiday season had arrived, something he gave little thought to considering his solitude, but he did briefly recall making crafts for winter window decorations and the like during his childhood, something that he had always been rather excited about because it meant that he got to sit down and do something intricate with his hands for once. And that was to say nothing of how happy it always made his mother to get a chance to hang them around the home, even if the irony of decorating for this kind of holiday while having a family that consisted mostly of demon creatures was probably not lost on her. She had just wanted them to have a mostly normal childhood, something he only realized more as he got older.

Vergil had been spending a considerable amount of money on lodgings for the last little while now, his demonic resistances to temperature quite useful but not totally infallible. And although he enjoyed cold weather, he couldn't say that he enjoyed hypothermia. It had regularly dipped well below 0° in the last few days, and so he had taken refuge at a nearby motel, the standards of which were not to his liking but were better than being outside. Just barely. At least breakfast had been included if you could call that disgusting slop that they served food. But he'd had worse. Much worse.

As he walked up the street having returned from a local archive that he slipped through the window of the night before to peruse some of their records, he found himself taking silent note of the fact that many people were walking around in winter coats and drinking warm drinks. He himself was dressed the same as he always was, something he imagined would be quite strange to other people if they bothered to pay attention to his existence. Thankfully they hadn't, although there wasn't much that they could do to him that would inconvenience him to begin with should they choose to. 

And besides, they actually couldn't see his regular coat under his cloak anyway, the khaki-colored fabric concealing his bright blue and gold coat from the public. One could question the validity of wearing such an ornate and eye-catching garment when trying to lay low, but Vergil refused to compromise on aspects of his personal appearance. It wasn't so much that he was vain as it simply was that he knew how to moderate comfort and necessity. Only this garment brought him pleasure, so that was enough reason and of itself. But that being said, he would be lying if he said that it was anything remotely close to a winter garment, and he would be lying even more if he said that he wouldn't enjoy a warm drink right about now. And that thought caused something to well up within him that he couldn't deny.

To say that he had fully left behind the events that had transpired in that small town would be a lie, and while he was accustomed to not giving unwarranted information, he didn't generally indulge in deceit, especially when that deceit was to himself. There were fundamental things that he had convinced himself of over the years that were untrue for numerous reasons and various degrees that mostly pertain to his mental state and continued survival, voluntarily or otherwise, but the simple matter of the fact was that he had enjoyed his time with that young lady, and he felt a disproportionate amount of desire to return and see her again, something that he had come to the horrifying realization meant that he might have more feelings for her than he was willy to admit to himself.

But as he came to a stop on the sidewalk and turned his head towards the direction of a shop on the other side of the street that had caught his eye, he could no longer deny it. He wasn't sure what sort of affection he held for her, but there was something, and although he wasn't sure whether or not he should follow through on his innate desire to be in her presence again, he saw no use in denying it to himself that he desired to, even if he didn't fully understand his reasons for feeling the way that he did. Perhaps it was her overwhelming kindness or her fierce demeanor; her tastes and interests or her mannerism and intelligence. Maybe it was the fact that she had thrown a brick at a demon and hit him in the head only to just continue to stand her ground instead of cowering in the face of her imminent death. Perhaps it was all of the above. But regardless, he found her compelling in a way that he had felt towards virtually no one else ever, and there was something strange about that to him. 

The concept of love had become so foreign to him that it felt like a nonexistent thing, this fallacy spoken of to children to encourage them to take an interest in the continued survival of their species. A biological mechanism that some people possess that he simply didn't. And yet that was the only thing he could imagine he felt towards her, the tolerance he had shown for things she did that would normally drive him crazy and his treatment of her overall revealing the depths of his inclination towards her. The second he had shown care for her he should have realized it. The moment he had seen tears rolled down her face and had felt anguish had given it away.

Pushing this revelation aside for a moment, he crossed the street to get a better look at the building he had been observing from a distance, realizing as he grew closer to the building that the shop was indeed open. Perhaps stepping out of the icy weather for a moment would do him some good. And as he walked up the few steps that led to the elevated shop entrance, he pushed the door open and was greeted with the scent of a menagerie of incense, the carpet-covered floors more than likely having absorbed the smell of thousands of previously burned scent sticks over the course of countless years.

Along the center of the store were several short aisles with slanted tiered shelves allowing for the customers to browse each of the products without any of them being buried behind one another. And somewhere further back into the store, a soft rock ballad was being played from a standing speaker, The lyrics of which he couldn't make out, but the presence of which he noticed. And along all the walls were posters of different musical groups and records, news articles about them and the establishment littering every available space.

Oh yes. This was most certainly a record store.

Over the last week or so he had checked a few thrift stores, music boutiques, and antique and pawn shops in search of what he was looking for. He had come to be quite adept at seeking out things that were difficult to find, but even by his standards, this particular item had been rather tricky to pin down thus far. And it didn't help that he had only been able to allocate time to search for it between searching for traces of his missing father and his largely unknown past. But perhaps the search would finally end here?

Making his way up to the counter, he glanced around the store. It was mostly metal and rock albums with a bit of jazz and classical mixed in. He passed the counter and headed off to the classical section, giving it a once over for a few minutes before coming to the conclusion that they did not have what he was searching for. Perhaps he could ask? It wasn't his prerogative to speak with people if he could avoid doing so, but considering the size of the building, he was willing to believe that this wasn't all the stock they carried.

As he approached the counter, a man who looked to be in his early to mid-20s or so glanced up from a magazine that he was reading that laid on the counter, taking note of his presence and greeting him politely. The Darkslayer couldn't honestly say whether or not the man had been there when he had entered the shop since his singular focus had prevented him from noticing him, but he most certainly hadn't sensed his presence, so he was willing to bet that he had probably been in the back until just a few moments ago.

"Hey man. Welcome in. Sick coat! Can I help you with anything?"

Vergil glanced down and noticed that his coat was actually exposed, the front of his cloak probably having shifted when he leaned over to peruse the available stock. He adjusted it suddenly before taking a glance at the magazine on the counter. It appeared to be some sort of catalog that the young man had been sifting through, perhaps out of boredom since he was the only one in the store. He couldn't imagine having a job that allowed this much idle time, though he imagined it was a perk in some ways. He would go mad simmering in his thoughts for that long, but the true deal breaker was obviously the fact that he would have to interact with the public. Still, it was probably more steady money than he made taking the occasional demon-killing gig to top off his funds so that he could move to the next location and secure a place to sleep.

"Do you have anything by Claude Debussy?" He inquired, eager to move on to the next location should he say no. There were other shops in this city, and the fact that he was in a settlement big enough to even have multiple record shops in of itself made him uncomfortable. He liked to stick to the outskirts of smaller towns. Heading into bigger towns or large cities was not his forte. It was hard to lay low when there were so many eyes on you.

The man gave him a strange look, seemingly surprised to hear anyone mention that particular composer. It probably wasn't every day that people came into a record shop like this one and asked for classical music if the majority of the selection was anything to go by. "I'm pretty sure we do in the back. People don't really ask for classical music most of the time, but I've seen that name pop up a few times. What are you looking for? I can go dig through our stock."

It took the Darkslayer more time than he was comfortable with to recall the name of the song. He could easily remember the names of the ones that she had played for him easily enough, but the only thing he could recall about the song in question was that it started with the letter R. Unfortunately, however, that was about the only thing he didn't remember. It would have to be enough. How had he suddenly managed to forget the name of the only thing he was looking for?! His memory was normally much better than this!

"... Something that starts with an R. But I can't recall… "and then it hit him like a bolt out of the blue. He couldn't grasp the specifics as to why he suddenly remembered, but he did. And he was grateful for it. Something told him that the people who worked in this record store might not have an encyclopedic knowledge of every song written by every artist. Who could expect them to? And to be fair, he didn't feel like waiting for them to search the entire store anyway, and he was certain they didn't want to. "Reverie. I believe that's what she called it."

"Ohhhh… a lady friend recommended it, hu? So what made you decide to-" the man suddenly stopped speaking as Vergil shot him a subtle and silent but provocative and disapproving look that wordlessly signaled that this topic of conversation wasn't one that he was going to delve into. The look wasn't so much a threat as it was a declaration; a manifesto, if you will. And what it was communicating was that he wanted him to stop talking and asking about his personal matters. And the man seemed to realize that very quickly. "I'll go see if we have it."

Vergil nodded in confirmation, moving to make himself more comfortable by taking a watchful stance, leaning his back against the counter so that he could glance at the front door and the entire store by simply turning his head. He was on alert at all times, even in a place like this. While it was rare that demons would attack during the middle of the day and destroy an entire building, it was something that happened from time to time. And as such, it was even rarer that he had the opportunity to fully relax, and the last time that he had done so he'd chastised himself about it for a particularly long period of time. In fact, that relaxation had led him to being in this situation to some degree. Now he wasn't sure how he felt about it anymore.

After about 10 minutes of near silence with nothing but the sound of a ticking clock and a quiet rock record of some sort playing on the record player he now realized was in the far corner of the store by the bathroom on display, the man returned and sat down a box on the counter, a somewhat satisfied look on his face. Perhaps this meant that his search had born fruit? Or perhaps the young man was simply looking forward to telling him to get out? It could be either one, if he was being honest.

"You're not going to believe this, but we had one. And when I say one, I mean it's been back there forever. Still shrink-wrapped and in mint condition and everything, but dusty as hell and under about 10 other boxes. Probably been here longer than I have, and I've been here forever." The store clerk said with a chuckle, leaning over the box but not pressing on it. He then opened the lid and removed it to reveal about 20 records before filing through them and pulling out the one and only copy of Reverie in the entire store. And although he didn't acknowledge it, a part of the devil slayer lit up as he realized that despite the odds, there was at least one group that still printed records for some of these songs. Or that had at one point.

"Craziest part is that I checked our inventory since we have other stores and we're the only one that has it. Probably the only location in the whole town that does. You got lucky." He scanned the record and placed it into a bag, not needing to ask whether or not Vergil wanted it. He was rather positive that he did since he had gone to the trouble of asking him to search for it. And considering the price of the record, he doubted that he wouldn't buy it. "If you need anything else that's impossible to find, let me know. Some of my friends go to estate sales and buy storage units and stuff like that. Trying to open our own shop at some point. Might be able to find something for you. There's finders fees and stuff like that, but you know."

Without hesitation he purchased the record and nodded in silent recognition of the efforts that the man had put into finding it for him, allowing him to keep what little change there was leftover. A rare kindness on his part, especially considering that he wasn't exactly swimming in money, to begin with. He walked over to the door and stopped in front of it as his hand reached out and grasped the handle, glancing over his shoulder at the younger man. He had been helpful. Perhaps he would return should he need to. "... I will keep that in mind. You've been helpful."

The man at the counter shrugged nonchalantly, seemingly pleased with the statement. He wasn't sure what this man with the white hair in the blue coat's whole deal was, but he was an interesting customer, that was for sure. "No problem, man. Just doing my job. You have a good one."

Vergil nodded then exited the store and headed up the block towards the local train station, a destination in mind. He had procured the item that he sought, and now it was time for him to make haste. He didn't like to turn up uninvited, and he most certainly wasn't going to do so empty-handed. But now he needed to find a phone booth. 

He had a phone call to make.

(-~-)

Fun fact if you've ever watched the DMC anime: do you remember the episode about the vinyl records and the woman who was Rockstar? I like to think the guy who works at the record store probably hangs out with those guys. 

Do you guys want to know something funny? I was writing this chapter and I was worried for a second that it was super short because I got done so fast, so I checked the word count. It was literally like 80 words shorter than normal lol! WHY AM I LIKE THIS?! Anyway, I hope you like the chapter! I've already written half of the next one, and I've been giggling like an idiot the whole time hehe! Hope you guys have been having a good week! I'll see you on Friday! And sorry for the slow speed in regards to getting through your wonderful comments. I've just been busy doing other stuff, and every time I sit down and start answering them I realize how far behind I am and only get a few done! I do see them, and I will get to them. I'm trying to answer any questions I see first. Thanks, everyone!