#meanwhile angel is like the only reason I can make sense of how I'm still 'living' is if I do some damn good

[angel-thoughts-dump]

Cordy's 'you can't change a person, but you can change fate', VS Wesley's 'a person can change, but you can't change fate' VS Angel's 'if I don't change both I don't deserve to live'

[howlsofbloodhounds]

might be a controversial/unpopular opinion but i headcanon that any classic variant of sans has some sort of superiority complex going on. maybe not exactly that, but they're some flavor of self-righteous, i guess?

OKAY LISTEN. i'm not saying sans is a bad guy or anything (i love him very much i swear). canon sans is written really well in the sense that he's intentionally very vague and mysterious so we can speculate a lot on his past and intentions throughout the story. idk, maybe my reading is completely off but sans appears to me as a lovable asshole, especially to someone who is a child (frisk). he likes playing around with frisk - yeah it's harmless but still his advice tends to be vague, especially when it comes to battle tips lmao. just imagine in-universe how terrible his advice comes off to a child.

and like, the restaurant scene. sans is intentionally acting all blithe about letting a child die on his watch, under a promise - like i know it's supposed to be a funny off-hand comment to the player, but in-universe again he addresses this to a child. it's just- lmao this guy has some problems for sure.

i think being self-righteous is just tied to his role as a judge as well. he's always 'right' in his judgement, because that's what he is. i think it's just interesting to explore that particular aspect of sans' personality, that he acts in what he thinks is right, and he's always right, isn't he? maybe that's why i tend to enjoy undertale stories where sans somewhat assumes the role of the antagonist - it creates some fantastic dynamic with people around him who it seems like he never really connects well.

~ crowshipping anon

Crow!! Yayy!!

And I honestly kinda vibe with this interpretation honestly. I haven’t completely finished playing all the Undertale games myself (curse my lack of motivation 😭), but I watched a few playthroughs here and there, and it seems like something that could make sense.

Especially when he’s given such an important position like a being a Judge, his opinions and judgements are likely taken seriously by Asgore.

And the thing is, you can also make an argument for this with our most popular classic variants; the Murder Time Trio. Murder justifies what he does as being better that he does it instead of the human, justifies it with that he will eventually stop the human.

Really, he may even argue that his current actions don’t really even go against his job as the Judge; he has judged that the human must be stopped, and he has to do it because he’s the only one who can. I’ve even seen some ideas going around that maybe he views himself as the Angel from the Prophecy, having judged that the Underground will be free by death.

Horror is the entire reason his Underground started eating humans, and he is also the reason that the Core is damaged beyond repair. He didn’t want to sacrifice himself for the Underground, and he survived the event that took his eye, yet he still judged that Undyne and Alphys had to pay for their betrayal—and in doing so he decided that the rest of the Underground would be doomed to starvation or eating people.

He decided to trick Horror Papyrus into eating human meat even though Papyrus very clearly did not want to, and Horror doesn’t seem all too guilty about it—even as Papyrus goes out of his way to prevent Horror from eating humans at his own request.

I’ve even seen around by bigger Horror/Horrortale fans than me that Horror’s reasons for starving himself may not even be entirely selfless—such as for a moral reason or wanting others to have more food than him. But rather because he views it as beneath him and he won’t go “that low.” How canon that is, im not sure, but it’s interesting.

Then meanwhile there’s Killer. He sneers at Swap and threatens to kill him if he ever attempts to compare himself to Killer again, he holds the beliefs and mindsets of his human that were taught to him very closely and looks down on anyone who views things differently with contempt—especially if they attempt to “force” him to view things differently.

Things like mercy or kindness or hesitation are seen as weakness and things to take advantage of in his mind. Even himself is not free from this nihilistic, fatalistic, violence and apathetic driven worldview—-looking down on himself in Stage 1.

He will go out of his way to prove himself and his views right, even if that means doing exactly what Chara did and coercing/provoking someone into killing, attacking, hurting, etc, either themselves, others, or even him.

This is exactly what he was supposed to be, and it’s pointless to try and change or hope for anything more than what he or anyone else deserves. He probably finds Murder’s attempts to justify his genocides absolutely ridiculous. And Horror to be absolutely hypocritical. (Which is why Color’s specific way of approaching Stage 2, wanting to show him a better life—something new—rather than trying to change or fix him, worked so well.)

[quietbluejay]

Perturabo Hammer of Olympia - Wrap-Up

i wish we'd gotten more scenes with calliphone like don't get me wrong her scenes were incredible but i think there should have been more setup with them

re: Dammekos and Perturabo's relationship, it deliberately leaves some things ambiguous so really you can draw your own conclusions, my conclusions are fairly clear from what I said but I'll expand on it later when my arm is fresher.

(in response to: primarchs all suck at warfare) it seems like Perturabo actually got worse at war as time went on, somehow oh it's- Haley's done it again, if you compare Perturabo fighting in the inter-city wars to his actions against the Hrud, it's the same type of tactics just shifted to their worst and most horrifying extent i say "haley's done it again" because this was kinda a theme in Dark Imperium as well and a bit in Pharos about the Imperium, and the Great Crusade especially basically doing this to people though also this is my pet meta so I may be reading too much into things it's a bit different here which is why I feel like I might be reaching and saying it's an overarching Haley thing

oh yes another thought which is that perturabo gets less and less rational through the book like take the beginning when he's able to debate with the priest, and it's an actual debate, not just him overwhelming the priest with charisma and then, well gestures at all the present day scenes my first thought was, he gets stupider lol but i think it's tied to the whole idea of the Great Crusade basically making things worse like i said re: Mortarion (did I say this on tumblr?), the Great Crusade basically magnified all the faults of the primarchs

on the topic of Perturabo's friends: you know, multiple people talk about him and magnus being besties but it seems like it was mostly onesided perturabo shills thinks about magnus in angel exterminatus and i think one other book i saw excerpts of meanwhile magnus is like "i don't think of you at all" even Horus doesn't seem to like Perturabo (in his POV segments where he thinks about Perturabo it's always with aggravation) and Horus likes everyone!

the best relationships he had were with Forrix and Calliphone with Forrix it really kind of reads like an abusive parent-child relationship and Calliphone they got along okay-ish before he left and then he never called or wrote for more than 100 years and then. well.

he does seem to want to be closer to Fulgrim in Angel Exterminatus but with Perturabo that's basically "doesn't reach out at all, just does whatever is asked and replies curtly" etc etc except for the one scene where Fulgrim got shot i'll bring out this screenshot as well

also. well. we all know how that turned out.

Perturabo: I don’t need Chaos to make bad decisions and damn my legion! Im also still thinking about the juxtaposition of perturabos brute force cf his tactics, the way he fights one vs one and the multiple hand descriptions With stuff like the delicate handwriting, the birds, I’m going to include the clockwork titan here

also I just want to say I hear a lot about the Dorn rivalry but it was touched on only a little in AE, and didn't even come up here

it showed up in the Phall novella but really that one was about Dorn's dysfunction and a lot of that one was just Perturabo going "this is definitely Sigismund we're up against" and then getting bodied when it wasn't okay okay it was a lot closer a battle than i'm making it sound lol

also ONE MORE THING because I didn't screenshot it but we got what was probably the closest thing to confirmation that canon will ever give us that primarchs (or Perturabo specifically) are ace yes there's a whole lot of ways you could read that bit (it's just Perturabo. It's just Perturabo being Perturabo bluejay stop reading so much into it. Perturabo is just not interested in women) but I dunno, I feel like it makes the most sense

wait ONE MORE THING the reason I got invested in Perturabo is he got some great character writing in AE and this has continued here where it's even better it would have been so easy to write him as one note manchild with the depth of a sheet of black construction paper but he was written in a genuinely. compelling way

i want to say something like "this is probably why he has so many fans" except it seems like 2/3 of his fans haven't actually read any books with him that being said I have seen people who read his primarch book and came out completely disgusted with him which, honestly, is a very fair judgement to make! it doesn't try to sell you on him by building up how cool he is or anything or try to make you sad for him by showing us his sad backstory it's just digging into what makes this guy tick, and a great negative character arc i said somewhere else this is basically Angel Exterminatus if it stuck the ending and didn't fall down 13 flights of stairs but anyways, really, this is why I have so much to say about Perturabo because the way he's written gives you so much to say about him

also thinking about how Perturabo went from caring about regular people and trying to build stuff for them to slowly becoming more and more indifferent, to the final nadir of Olympia I think that is a path that might have been avoided, at least partially me earlier: pert is completely unfixable me right now: wait this bit might be fixable, which could lead to positive growth sorry this is all over the place

[vidavalor]

hey I just came upon your meta about crowley's oh moment after talking to nina and I'm intrigued but don't quite understand. I always thought it was about realizing he's in love because he literally mouths 'love' to himself. so could you expand a little? like what scenes do you think wouldn't make sense if he wasn't aware it was love he was feeling? thanks :)

hi! :) thanks for the ask. hope you're having a great day so far today!

to me, the "oh"-looking moments in the series-- 1941's books moment for aziraphale and this scene with crowley & nina that we're talking about-- aren't "oh... i'm in love with him"... they're "oh... *he's* in love with *me*..."

this matters b/c crowley & aziraphale have always had reasons to try to pretend that what they felt wasn't love and they've been pretending for a long time. they mainly do because they are afraid of losing one another or getting one another hurt. but they also have a lot of conflict around whether one another is capable of loving them. crowley knows that aziraphale is an angel so he's a being of love and loves all god's creations, right, but that's very different from loving someone romantically and even if aziraphale can do that... could he love a demon? a literal fallen angel? meanwhile, aziraphale has proof for days that crowley isn't evil but he's a demon so, by nature, can't really totally be *good* and what would it say about him (aziraphale) if he, an angel, was in love with a demon-- a being that is literally the opposite of what angels are supposed to be? this is all while not even yet getting into the idea that angels and demons alike have been socialized to believe that they are above humans and different from them when it comes to things they consider pedestrian and human-- love, sex, sleeping... food is the one that is used as an example the most in the series. The show subtly suggests that while angels and demons are different in the sense that they're magic-- that they don't expressly need to breathe, sleep, eat, etc.. to stay alive-- that they do *need* these things the way that humans do. (I want to emphasize here that I mean "the way humans do" in the sense that not all humans needs sex or need a romantic relationship. They do need to sleep and eat but mah point is dolphins mah point is lol that there is plenty of room here for asexual and/or aromantic interpretations of Crowley & Aziraphale if that's the way you want to go. I, personally, don't see it but I can see where there is room for it. The canon/Gaiman has angels and demons as asexual but it's asexual unless they wish to make an Effort-- which is to say that there are those who do. Crowley & Aziraphale strike me as those who do wish to but that's my opinion and my interpretation of the show, which comes from a lot of the parallels and symbolism they've set up.)

so then ok say they both want to do as the humans do and the things they feel are things they identify as being like what humans feel... they're still pushing up against conflicts here to being together. it's too dangerous, for once. they could get each other hurt. they're each other's only friends so what if it all goes wrong? one of them could end up alone. are they each other's type? these idiots are honestly worried about that lol. aziraphale is insecure about crowley's penchant for the beautiful-- lucifer, stars, gabriel-- and thinks for a long time that he doesn't catch crowley's eyes as much. (he's an idiot lol.) crowley can sense lust but he can't sense love and how could a pure of heart being like aziraphale ever really love a demon like him like that? befriend him, love him in that generalized angel way, sure. want him, ok, yeah. but be *in love* with him? crowley's never been totally sure. he thinks they are. he's almost sure aziraphale loves him but there's then yet another issue, which is will aziraphale *allow* himself to love him? because aziraphale's an angel and this would go against everything he is and crowley isn't sure that aziraphale would.

the scene with crowley and nina is off of nina seeing crowley and aziraphale together for the second time and it's really the first time there's been a human that crowley likes and respects who has been able to see them interact openly in public together... and what that human-- who is smart and observant-- thinks is that he and aziraphale are lovers. while crowley knows he's utterly besotted with the angel and has been for millennia and while he knows that, deep down, aziraphale is in love with him, the idea that aziraphale is now in a place of just acting like that in front of the humans, of not trying to hide what they are, of being more open about it... that's new. that's an 'oh' for crowley because now he's thinking, like...

...the human saw him speaking French at the restaurant and telling me about how he took the lessons the human way. Why is he insisting on speaking the language of love-- oh. He's... trying to woo me. Me. Aziraphale is trying to court me...

Notice how after the conversation with Nina, where Crowley wound back up? He got a table at the French restaurant and ordered a bottle of red and waited for Aziraphale to come back around from his meeting plans. This is a lovely place-- a place for romance. All the ivy and the roses and the little lights and the French menu and Crowley is heavily flirting. He knows the past tense of 'smite'-- this is an excuse to say 'smut' and 'smitten'. Aziraphale does love it (that look on his face when he says "smitten, I believe"-- he knows exactly what Crowley is up to and is into it)... but Aziraphale is distracted by the fact that he's trying to arrange this whole Jane Austen ball so he can dance with Crowley (and get Maggie & Nina to fall in love, yes, also that lol). He misses Crowley clueing in to what he's doing because he's too busy trying to do more of it.

Just as Aziraphale's "oh" in 1941 in the moment when Crowley saves his books is the realization that Crowley isn't just not evil, isn't just more good than he'll admit, isn't just his friend, but is in love with him-- is *capable* of being in love with him and *is*-- Crowley's "oh" in the moment with Nina is that Aziraphale-- pure of heart angel Aziraphale, just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing-- is in a place where he's capable now of letting himself be in love with Crowley. He always has been-- just like how Crowley always had been before 1941-- but now he's saying he wants the romance Crowley has been trying to give him, more overtly, since the 1800s. He hasn't yet said as much but he's steering towards it and when Nina said "other people's love lives always seem so much simpler than your own", Crowley realizes how she sees them and that she's *not wrong about it*-- he mouths "love", thinking like... "love"... he's really in love with me? Did I not notice because I'm just so... oh yeah, ok great apparently I'm so used to seeing Aziraphale being in love with me that I didn't notice he's decided he's *openly* in love with me now. We look like a couple to the humans and we were just acting like ourselves in public, for once. Nina looks at us and she doesn't know we're supernatural entities, sure, but maybe what she sees isn't too far off from the truth: two older gay guys, used to hiding and secrets, a little unused to being together openly but working on it, who are in love with each other. A couple. With a lot of chemistry, which only happens if *both* people are interested in one another. Aziraphale is trying to romance me. That's what the French and the wanting to drive the car and all of this is. If we can just get rid of this Gabriel mess, we can have more us time and pursue that and...

[7potato7]

So, Xie Lian descends from Heaven without stopping to let Ling Wen get even a single word in. He goes back to doing what he normally does, completely unaware that he just turned literally all of Heaven upside down. He spends several years this way (maybe even decades?? he has an excellent track record hiding from people) but Feng Xin and/or Mu Qing eventually find him and go wtf dude. So, since he's technically a fugitive now (Heaven saw him ascending, destroying everything, then rapidly descending similarly to a terrorist (except terrorism as a term doesn’t exist yet, so the xianxia equivalent ig) attack, oops. Speculation is that he works for Hua Cheng!!! which makes the man himself feel a certain type of way ofc) he flees down the Silk Road and ends up in Rome. He DID spend the time he was still in China (or the territories that would become China, since I'm estimating this at around 0 CE for my own sanity) trying to defeat random ghosts to repay his debt, but quickly realized it was futile.

ofc Feng Xin and Mu Qing now realize that this wasn't a terrorist attack! They already knew that, but Xie Lian's reaction is only proof! They go to Jun Wu, who decides that "Xianle" should be reinstated to his rightful position in Heaven. Yay! Except now they can't find Xie Lian Anywhere. Cue manhunt.

Meanwhile Xie Lian has been enlisted to the Roman army. Which, hey, he'd rather not do that. So he manages to finagle himself into a position on a small northern island which shouldn't see too much conflict. However, this is very much not the case! The Britons relied on the Roman army to defend themselves from the Saxons! So, Xie Lian just deserted and quietly retreated to gather scraps in some forgotten corner of the island. He gets caught in a storm and winds up in Ireland. He's still there when the Romans leave the island in 410 and when St. Patrick comes in 433. Turns out St. Patrick isn't actually an ascended official! How disappointing. For unrelated reasons, Xie Lian returns to Briton, now thoroughly "invaded" (read: culturally integrated) by the Angles and Saxons. He putters around the island for a while longer before heading back to the mainland (read: was exiled to the mainland. For witchcraft. In a boat with rocks in the bottom (very pseudo-historical, as far as I know the 5th century Britons were most definitely not executing people for witchcraft. Witchcraft was a fun hobby they did on the side, not a crime. However, I’d like to see you see someone stand up after being shot in the eye and not throw him in the sea. Yeah, that’s what I thought)).

He hitches up with the Merovingians, who deeply appreciate his rockin' haircut. Clovis (famously brutal and murderous, but then again who isn't), however, Did Not appreciate his ability to walk off a stabbing. Clovis stabs Xie Lian a couple extra times to be sure, then cuts his head off and sets him on fire. It takes Xie Lian about a decade to come back from that, so now it’s 511 and Clovis is dead. Xie Lian decides that he should try some other place on for size.

He ends up in a catholic monastery in Spain. This is where he learns to read Latin, which will later help him learn to read Spanish, French, German, English, you name it. Obviously, he can't pay the entrance fee, so he's a lay brother doing grunt work. He's fine with this. Although he has gathered some knowledge of the local religion, it's not something he can afford to be questioned on (thankfully, literally no peasant ever was educated in the scriptures so he was fine). The atmosphere vaguely reminds him of Mt. Taicang (in literally the vaguest possible sense), and he wonders if this is what Mu Qing had to deal with.

Then the abbot notices he hasn't aged and decides that he's an angel sent by God. Xie Lian decides it's about time for a change of scenery. They've probably forgotten about him in Briton, right?

Unfortunately, he's not that lucky. The abbot isn't willing to let him go that easily, and he and his successors chase him around Spain until 711, at which point they have other problems. Xie Lian reaches Briton and joins another monastery because that was nice. Poverty, chastity, obedience, thy name is Xie Lian!

Fortunately, this monastery is more willing to "overlook" his lack of aging. Unfortunately, this monastery is Lindisfarne, and is destroyed by Vikings in 793. Noticing that Xie Lian doesn't die when killed, the Vikings decide that he's the mortal incarnation of Thor, obviously. They take him with them, fit him out with armor and weapons, and bring him back when they sack Westphalia. He doesn't like killing anyone, but that's fine with them! They're just glad to have the mortal incarnation of... probably not Thor with them! While Xie Lian is still upset that they killed all those monks, he's gotta admit this is the best people have treated him since... his first ascension... ah, shit, he's gotta get out of here. He’s been having too much fun, this was supposed to be penance, mental spiral, etc etc. Maybe just in a bit, though.

They keep asking him to stay just a bit longer, kill just one more sea monster, please, your holiness, until suddenly it's 911 and Rollo is sacking what will become Normandy. When the French king gives it to them as a "please stop, thanks," Xie Lian goes there with Rollo. Then he leaves. The newly dubbed Normans are sad, of course, but they can't keep holding their god back! In reality, Xie Lian is worried that his bad luck is going to catch up to him.

For a while, he falls back into his scrap collecting ways -except, it isn't as easy in medieval Europe. They live in small, insular communities that don't much like strangers. So he eventually decides to just... hide in the woods.

At this point, Feng Xin and Mu Qing have obviously realized that Xie Lian isn't in China anymore (if you're wondering how it took that long, it's because they got distracted by the Warring States Period and the trail went cold). So they follow legends of a strange looking man who didn't die when stabbed to Spain. However, Xie Lian isn't in Spain. He's in the part of the world that will eventually become Germany, trying to avoid being pressed into a Crusade. Yes, it is already 1096. Keep up.

He does end up going on the Crusade as a cook. That lasts a day before they decide to throw him on the frontlines to "soften up the Moors." Xie Lian fakes his death. I could choose a specific battle, but I don't particularly care to. It was probably Antioch. Fine, it was Antioch.

He spends some time in the Byzantine Empire, which is rapidly crumbling. He flees after the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, thankfully with only minimal injuries this time. But on his way out, he briefly sees Feng Xin and Mu Qing in the chaos, fighting on the side of the Byzantine Empire. They also see him, but he leaves before they can do anything about it.

So Xie Lian fucks off to a random island in the Mediterranean. This ends up being the Island of Rhodes. He stays there doing his little scrap collecting do da until 1306, when the Hospitallers move in. Shortly after that, they themselves are booted off to Malta in another invasion. Xie Lian goes with them, bc what the hell, these guys kinda suck, they deserve the bad luck.

Xie Lian is still in Malta when the Black Plague hits in 1349. It... brings some old wounds back up to the surface. Best to just forget about it. He sticks around, anyways.

The Inquisition begins in 1478. The Hospitallers start to give him funny looks. However, he is widely viewed as a living saint, so they don’t really do anything. Xie Lian fakes his death, then barricades himself into a cave and meditates for around fifty years before coming back out. No one recognizes him. He does this a couple more times, with varying lengths of meditation. He should probably just move on, but it’s awfully difficult to get on and off Malta. Also, it’s kind of nice there.

In 1565, Xie Lian almost single-handedly holds off the siege of Malta with the aid of the inhabitants while the Hospitallers cower in their monastery. Really, these monk guys have gone downhill over the centuries. Of course, the Hospitallers and Ottomans rewrite the narrative, but who would expect any less? The truth is just embarrassing for everyone involved.

In a rare stroke of luck, Xie Lian leaves the island after the siege. Just a few short years later, in 1573, the Inquisition moves in.

It is now 1615. Xie Lian is very tired. He returns to the mainland after the siege, and now everyone is fighting over something called "indulgences." He wants to go home. He does go home! Jun Wu finds him immediately, oops. He'd been watching Mt. Taicang (insane behavior, it's been 2,000 years bro) and obviously noticed when Xie Lian went to pay respects to his parents. Xie Lian narrowly escapes and runs as far as he possibly can. Your pick whether it’s just because of the stalker-ish behavior or a Bai Wuxiang reveal. Either way, he runs all the way to the New World.

Of course, he doesn’t have the money to just... book a ship there. He signs on as an indentured servant. What are a few years off his life anyways? Unfortunately, before that can happen, he gets mugged and accidentally murders the guy. Instead of being an indentured servant in exchange for land, he is instead working off his debt to the guy's family. Which is fine, of course.

It's not, in fact, fine. After his service is done, he once more fucks off to the woods. At this point, however, most Native Americans know to be wary of foreigners, so he keeps to himself. If he gets shot by mistake a few times, it's fine, he shakes it off. At least they aren't guns. In most cases. He'll take what he can get.

He finds a cave. He meditates in the cave. He doesn't come out until 1850. It's almost being in the coffin again, except he can leave anytime. He just. Doesn't.

The shackle around his neck cracks slightly under the force of spiritual power he’s cultivated. He doesn’t notice.

The world of 1850 is very different than the world of 1650. Manifest Destiny is real and thriving. Suddenly the relatively friendly local tribes have been replaced by a bunch of other, less friendly people. The mountain used to be called Maskwa Wac, but now it’s Bear Mountain and Xie Lian is in Connecticut, apparently??? Mostly people call him strange names when he tries to ask questions, so he avoids them.

He isn’t used to people anymore. They aren’t exactly willing to get used to him, either. Centuries of dirt don’t wash out with a single bath. After two centuries in a cave, he has to relearn how to talk, write, and generally interact with the world. Culture has changed, language has changed, the entire world has changed. Xie Lian is exactly the same.

In 1863, Xie Lian finally manages to get a job. It’s gotten significantly harder to live without a job, so that’s good (maybe he should invest in this newfangled “identification” thing). Building the trans-continental railroad is a great gig for someone like Xie Lian. He’s strong and more than willing to work. The pay isn’t bad.

Unfortunately, some boulders fall on him after a misplaced TNT blast and his coworkers leave him for dead. But hey, hadn’t he heard of something called a “Gold Rush” talked about nostalgically in bars? He’s pretty sure it’s over now, but it’s worth a shot. He’s already partway there.

He only gets mauled by like three bears on the way over. It was good that he’d seen a few before at that point, or else he’d probably think they were yao. He also got shot several more times, whether by Native Americans or settlers.

The people out West hadn’t gotten a forty-niner in decades, but they’re willing to give him odd jobs mopping at bars and fixing fences and such. It’s almost nostalgic. They hear news about the South seceding and the war that follows, but it isn’t something that really affects them all the way out here. Xie Lian is glad to avoid it.

After only a couple years, he decides to go back to the East Coast. He doesn’t want to bring bad luck on these people’s heads, after all. He accidentally zig-zags down into Mexico and into South America, then overcompensates back up into Canada before finally making it to New York City.

It’s 1910. Almost the moment he steps foot in the city, he gets hit by a car. Somewhat delirious, he mistakes the car for a demon(?) and tries to kill it.

Insane asylums are not fun.

The important part is that he eventually gets out (or that’s what he tells himself). He doesn’t have the motivation to bother with a job anymore, so he bums it on the streets collecting scraps like he used to. Problem is, there’s a lot more homeless people in the post-Industrial world than the pre-Industrial one. Lots of competition for food and shelter. Usually, if it comes to a fight, Xie Lian just lets the other guy have whatever it is. It’s not like it’s life or death for Xie Lian, after all.

He gets picked up by the police, who aren’t so bad yet. Corrupt, yes, but this isn’t the Gilded Age anymore. They drop him off with a referral to work in a car factory (Xie Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry) and only a few bruises.

Machinery, ah... it tends to... break around him. He doesn’t last long at his new job. Neither does his job last long with him as an employee. The factory burns down. The owner has Xie Lian dropped in a river with rocks tied to his ankles. What goes around comes around, really.

In 1917, Xie Lian is drafted into WWI. So, of course, he ends up in the trenches. He’s just glad that he’s basically immune to every disease known to man. Most of his comrades aren’t so lucky.

This isn’t the type of war Xie Lian remembers fighting in -though his memories are a bit blurry at this point. They fight for inches of ground in exchange for hundreds of lives in muddy, dismal conditions. The mud kills almost more than the bombs do.

The despair is the same. That much never changes.

Xie Lian leaves. He had to. No amount of martial prowess could help stop this war. Perhaps strategy would, but even if they let some random soldier into the war room, Xie Lian wouldn’t know how to strategize with modern guns, let alone tear gas.

Feng Xin and Mu Qing are still looking for Xie Lian, of course. But the trail went cold years ago.

Hua Cheng is holding on to his existence by his fingernails these days. He’s expanded his influence globally, but he still can’t find His Highness anywhere. Ghosts everywhere tread on eggshells. In one night, he replaces every single carving and painting of Jesus in Europe with one of Xie Lian. The papacy is in an uproar, taking it as a sign from God Himself. The only person who doesn’t find it funny is Xie Lian, who is very confused. Also white supremacists. They don’t like it very much either (that just makes it funnier). It turns out that Xie Lian has been canonized as a saint a few separate times over the centuries. “His bones”/relics are in six separate churches. People start freaking out. A large portion of the Catholic church believes that Xie Lian is either Jesus (and that the rapture had already happened centuries ago) or the Antichrist. This causes a massive schism in Protestant and Catholic churches alike. Islam becomes the main Abrahamic religion. Xie Lian does his level best to ignore the people bowing to him in the streets and shaves his hair off with a bowie knife.

On another note, Jun Wu gave up on finding Xie Lian centuries ago. Turns out Xianle was just a spot of mud on his Heavenly canvas after all.

This is good. It means when Xie Lian sprints his way back across the world, Jun Wu isn’t watching Mt. Taicang anymore. Xie Lian, still a martial god, makes it there in a week at top speed. However, Mt. Taicang isn’t the same as it used to be. There’s a fence around the base, and big fancy houses everywhere. When Xie Lian touches the fence, it shocks him as if he’s been struck by lightning and he blacks out for a second. His first thought is that it’s some type of array (that some other cultivation sect has set up there, an optimistic voice whispers deep in his heart), but it’s just an electric fence of course. He climbs over.

His parents’ well is full of cement.

Xie Lian returns to the trenches. He was only gone for three weeks. His excuse is that there was a messed-up transfer. No one believes him, so he gets court martialed for desertion. It doesn’t go through. If he’d deserted, why would he ever go back to the trenches?

Eventually, he goes back to America. It was the furthest he could possibly get from his problems, after all.

It’s nice to be able to write “homeless veteran” on his signs. The police bother him less. Well, slightly less. People keep saying the economy is bad, but it’s always been bad for Xie Lian. He barely notices the differences anymore. He barely notices anything.

Then another war starts. Eventually, in 1942, Xie Lian is picked up and thrown into an internment camp. He isn’t Japanese, but he can’t exactly say he’s from Xianle, a long dead country no one has ever heard of. This is actually a massive turn in luck, because he meets Banyue and Pei Xiu in the camp. They’ve also been mistaken for Japanese, because that’s what a... misinformed forger put on their green cards when they got off Angel Island.

They all got out in 1946. Pei Xiu manages to get a low-paying job, but Banyue struggles to find work for her skillset (snakes) and Xie Lian still doesn’t have any identification. Pei Xiu quickly loses his job, and they all end up homeless again.

They’re at Stonewall when the riots start in 1969. The first brick was thrown by Marsha P. Johnson, the second by Sylvia Rivera, and the third by Shi Qingxuan, who now goes by Shi Xuan. They’ve had a bit of a rough time of it over the centuries since his brother was killed and they were knocked from Heaven, even losing an arm and leg, but they were kept immortal by her Ghost King. They don’t ever talk to each other, but Shi Xuan knows he’s watching. How else is she still alive? (If she keeps his camps close to waterfronts... well, that’s just their preference. Nothing to do with the head she can sometimes spy poking over the waves).

Shi Xuan recognizes Pei Xiu, but he recognizes nothing of the once-glorious Wind Master in them. She hits it off with Xie Lian and joins their group.

Technology is changing. Everything in the world is closer than it used to be. Privacy is quickly becoming a non-concept, especially for homeless people. There are cameras everywhere. Xie Lian, Banyue, Pei Xiu, and Shi Xuan don’t have access to this sort of technology.

Jun Wu, Feng Xin, Mu Qing, and Hua Cheng do. In 2003, a video of a homeless man telling a police officer off goes viral on LiveJournal and MySpace. On a completely unrelated note, several immortals show up in various American cities. Jun Wu is contemplating moving the Heavenly Court. Scientists are calling the sudden outburst of silver butterflies an invasive species.

It’s 2005, and Xie Lian hops onto the subway. It has been 2,803 years since he was banished. In an empty subway car, he meets a Ghost King in red.

[carrythatwayt]

Before The Beginning ✨️Color Theory✨️

Okay, this will be pretty long, tldr: everything is a mirror of everything. All opinions are my own after I was caught between the twin forces of memories from my art and film theory classes. All screenshots thanks to the great folks at cap-that.com

I'm going to start after "Let there be light" for obvious reasons, up until that point the lighting is bright but cold and white. The nebula gives us a diegetic (in scene) reason for the shifting and intense colors but I think it's really interesting to see how it was used to reinforce this universe-changing conversation.

"Look at you, you're gorgeous!"

The nebula is only beginning to throw off color, and what's the first thing that happens? Makes it appear like Aziraphale's wings are blushing when he realizes the compliment was not meant for him (and seriously, how adorable is he).

As the conversation winds on and Crowley excitedly decribes the nebula, colorful light is increasingly projected onto the angels, but not the background. This visually ties them together and the intensity of colors seems purposeful as well, since they immediately begins to cool and dim as Aziraphale explains the less-than-stellar purpose behind the star factory.

"What's the point in creating an infinite universe.... if you're only going to let it run a few thousand years?"

Two really interesting things happen here. A star-burst reminiscent of a halo explodes and dissipates behind Angel Crowley's head, and when his wings droop in disappointment, a small cloud of red can be seen appearing behind his left wing.

As Aziraphale attempts to explain the ineffable but all-important Earth and humans, he begins to gather an aura of gold, baby pink, and baby blue. Crowley's red cloud of confusion also continues to intensify as he listens.

"But that's idiocy!"

The reddish clouds of confusion and doubt really begin to pick up speed now as Angel Crowley vents his frustration and beats his wings hard in agitation (also, shout out to how ruffled his feathers become because it's a whole mood in itself).

Here's where things get dangerous.

"Someone has to say "Look Boss, this is a really terrible idea..."

The red cloud has become a roiling crimson storm filling half the frame beyond Crowley and casting dark red light on his face. Meanwhile Aziraphale's background stubbornly hangs onto its cool colors, now opal and turquoise.

"I don't suppose anyone could object to me putting a note in the suggestion box..."

The nebula's red gas has now completely filled Crowley's frames, surrounding him on all sides. The next interesting thing occurs behind Aziraphale.

"I don't think it's our place to start suggesting...!"

In contrast to Crowley's red cloud of doubt, I've been calling this Aziraphale's red ball of anxiety (hello my old friend). He is deeply perturbed by this line of conversation and as he is explaining that the Almighty doesn't have, and likely wouldnt appreciate a suggestion box, this red light floats from behind his wing to behind his head (again, mood).

"If I was the one running it all..."

The saturation of Crowley's red background has lessened a bit, but Aziraphale's Red Ball of Anxiety reaches its peak intensity at this statement as Aziraphale nervously casts his gaze around to see if any other angels heard this borderline blasphemy.

"How much trouble could I get into just for asking a few questions?"

While Angel Crowley is still firmly framed by the red cloud, its disrupted by pale light cast by baby stars or proto-planets, as if it was being leavened by his irrepressible optimism.

For his part, we leave Aziraphale in a riot of both warm and cool colors: golds, greens, pinks, purples... This makes absolute sense to me, seing as it highlights the riot of emotions Aziraphale goes through, beginning with raw concern for Crowley's safety but resolving to a frankly breathtaking amount of affection and admiration. Seriously, zoom in and become unwell with me.

Well, that's all folks! Cheers to you if you stuck it out this far, hope literally any of my rambling and possible derangement was interesting to literally any one else 😅

[radiostatik]

Would you consider yourself more of a Hazbin Hotel or a Helluva Boss fan, or are you into the entire Helluvaverse fandom as a whole?? I've known some folks who are fans and care more about Helluva than Hazbin and I've met others who care and love Hazbin more than Helluva, I'm someone who falls into the second category and even when I was a HB fan, I've honestly always loved Hazbin and it's characters more, IMO. I also wanted to ask if you have any concerns and worries for HH since it's not that far from release and we only have a couple of months, HB S2 hasn't been the best and some have expressed their concerns for HH as HB hasn't been the best honestly, I honestly wanted to know your thoughts if you don't mind responding and answering, it's up to you! 💗

I don't mind answering questions at all!

When Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss both released their pilots these were my first thoughts

Hazbin Hotel: I was awestruck by the pretty and unique art style and animation, I thought the jokes were pretty funny, and it seemed to have a lot of heart. I loved Charlie, she makes a perfect protagonist for taking place in hell. She's clever, optimistic, good hearted, but not afraid to throw a punch.

Sir Pentious was so silly, and had such a fun, hilarious dynamic with Angel Dust.

Alastor drew me in with his goofy, non chalant subtle sadistic personality, along with his old times radio voice that sounds straight outta the 30's.

I enjoyed the pilot and had a lot of hope that it would be a good series. An adult comedy with an appealing art style, an lots of heart is hard to find.

Now let's talk about Helluva Boss

I decided to check out the pilot, but it's whole existence weirded me out. I was like, "Why are you making a pilot for another show right after just making one? Why not just make episode 2? Isn't it a bit early to be making a spin off of a show that has barley started? The view count also said a lot, with Hazbin Hotel Pilot having almost double the views of the Helluva Boss Pilot. And I can see why.

The characters... aren't all that likable. They are all just mean to each other. I know Millie loves Moxxie, she gaslights him when he's rightfully upset.

There's a noticeable difference between the main couple in Hazbin (Chaggie), and the main couple in Helluva (M&M):

For example

Chaggie:

Vaggie: *Is rightfully upset at Angel, but is getting a little too worked up*

Charlie: *Agrees with her and tells Angel what he did was not cool, tell Vaggie to try to relax, things will be okay.*

Meanwhile M&M:

Moxxie: *Is rightfully upset at Blitz for stalking and filming him and Millie , but is maybe getting a little too worked up*

Millie: "It's not that big a deal" "Calm down, you're gonna have another panic attack"

👁👄👁 Millie wtf. How do you not validate your husband's concerns and condem Blitzo's action.

The whole Helluva Boss Pilot has terrible pacing. We have a flashback within a flashback, the first few times seeing it I was so confused. When Loona says "Come on, you know why", I expected the next flashback to explain the "Moxxie is fat" joke. But there's no explanation. Just another scene of Loona being mean I guess?

The next scene is of Loona telling Blitz he has a phone call. These flashbacks are supposed to show us how mean Loona is. But the Stolas phone call... doesn't show that. It just shows how Blitz has another problem because this one night stand is acting really clingy. We then get the flashback, within the flashback, of Blitz stealing the book.

Blitz says the line "If I hadn't slept with that privileged asshole, non of us would have access to the living world." Nothing wrong with this line, but the way it's delivered makes it seem like having access to the living world is a bad thing?? Maybe the line would make more sense if he said "Sleeping with that privileged asshole is the ONLY reason we have access to the living world." It still works even with Moxxie saying "You what?😶"

There are a few funny lines in the HB Pilot, but a lot more gore. The only "gore" in Hazbin are egg yokes, and some blood from an insect Katy kills with her pen.

The gore in Helluva is amped up and a bit disturbing. A child is shot, then mutilated. That scene made me sick to me stomach.

The kid wasn't even that mean. He said to Moxxie "If I wanted to hear from a spineless jackals, I'd Rip out your spine." Implying that Moxxie DOES have a spine.

Speaking of the kid, how did he enter hell without turning into a demon? How are they able to shoot him without him responding back into Hell? Why did I.M.P. even take him with them? Give him back to his mom or just leave him where you found him! It's weird to think they cared enough to take him with them, yet they'd kill him despite not getting any money for it.

I'd love to get into the other Helluva episodes, but maybe if I get another ask about it.

There are some thing I like about Helluva, but a lot of things I dislike. So, yeah I'm more of a Hazbin fan, but I still somewhat enjoy Helluva and look forward to new episodes coming out. (No matter how disappointing some of them have been)

Do I have any fears about Hazbin Hotel coming out?

I'm glad it's finally coming out, but I'll be honest, I wish it were under better circumstances. This is not the way I wanted it to happen. The entire voice cast has been replaced, the animation style has changed, the main characters all received major downgrades with their redesigns, and major characters that were part of the original lineup (Baxter, Mimzy, + Crymini) all appear to have been dropped from the series. So much for female focused.

I'm still excited for it tho because it will still have Charlie and Vaggie, and we will hopefully get to see more concrete proof that they are a couple within the series.

I'm hoping the new voice actors will do the characters justice, but I'm still not over how Viv screwed the pilot cast over in the way that she did.

[demonsfate]

Ah yes the (or some i guess) Kazuya stans wanting Jin to be treated like Kazuya AS IF Jin is meant to be the bad guy villain of the story. Have we played the games??? Tek6 was an outlier he never acted like that before, and I blame Harada for that mess. Isn't it obvious they want to fix that disaster with Tek8? Like I understand people disliking Jin, but let's be real, it was out of character and just plain bad writing. It's very different from Kazuya's development, you know the guy who gradually became the villain??? I'm sorry but I will defend Jin as well. People just say anything these days lol

"Jin knew full well what he was doing/was in control" lmao. Yeah, at the time, "he was." But the point the fans are making is that it's a poorly written game, and Jin doesn't behave like Jin in it, hence why we want it to be retconned. Like bad writing, it exists. It would be like if you were playing Mario and Mario suddenly told Peach he wasn't going to save her because he got tired of constantly doing it, and then laughing at her situation with Bowser right in her face, and now he's actually helping Bowser terrorize Mushroom Kingdom and shit. Like yeah, Mario knows what he's doing in the context of this story, but it doesn't mean fans won't call it out for being drastically out of character and saying it makes no sense for the character to make such a sudden turn in personality.

And maybe some fans do say Kazuya did all his evil wevil things and Jin didn't. But that may be because of Kazuya's downward spiral and how many can still debate Kazuya's struggles in Tekken 2. The main thing being that Kazuya was kinda on a tight rope that was leaning toward the bad side (he was already doing tons of criminal activities. But Angel and Devil were supposed to represent the good versus the bad in him) and he just happened to fall off the rope to the bad side. Other than some parts where he acts cartoonishly evil, there isn't a noticeably major change in Kazuya's personality / behavior. Meanwhile, there's a VERY noticeable change in Jin's behavior, especially when he's never been established as a bad person, or even much of a potentially bad person.

You can't look at these and tell me this is the same guy. It's not. This isn't Jin. He goes against everything his character was in the previous games. Also, idgaf if some try to use the excuse "well he was just PRETENDING to be bad 'cos the war needed it!!!111!!" It's like I think the whole world's in enough despair to awaken Azazel that he doesn't need to be cruel to a couple of his friends, or people who were on his side (Alisa). Like he was unnecessarily cruel, to the point where I think the Pre-6 Jin would literally cringe at it LOL.

Harada is also to blame because yeah he was the only one who wanted this, upon realizing it wasn't just the writers who didn't - but also the fans, they're finally getting back to Jin's roots and making him the rightful good hearted man he was and God I fucking hope they retcon Tek6 to oblivion (at least Jin's characterization, y'know)

I guess I'll end with this note: You can absolutely dislike a character, and you can be annoyed by their fans. But you can still acknowledge when a character you dislike is being written poorly and is behaving out of character. I don't care for Ganryu, but if he's skinny and suddenly acts like he hates Julia with no given reason in the next game, I'm definitely gonna question it and say "that's not how Ganryu would act wtf"

[livvyofthelake]

cassie protagonists ranked TO ME

emma..... my most beloved emma.... she's like if a boy was a girl but totally normal about being a girl she just acts weird. that didn't make sense. she's like girl jace basically. which makes her a billion times cooler and deeper than jace could ever try to be. she's like if there was a girl who kind of sucked and was an idiot but she loved her friends so so so much and she was a genius and super cool and awesome and badass but also she's like kind of stupid with emotions and bad at handling personal relationships... and she has a sick ass sword!!! she's like if katniss was a shadowhunter. she's like if a knight from any fairy tale was kind of a loser. she's like if liv moore was monogamous. hard to explain any of that just trust me that emma is cool as hell. and she loves clary sooooo much...

clary. we would be nowhere without the og.... she's literally like if an angel was just some dude. and she had Protagonist Disorder. and she was blessed with divine visions. you know i love clary you know i'm a clary girl do i even need to get into it further...

it hurts me to do this, i didn't want to have to make cordelia number 4 but. ok and rememeber that this is conceptual still because twp doesn't even exist yet it's just well i can't make my special girl number 4 out of 5 i'm not a monster. anyway yeah. dru <3 she is so dear to me even though collectively only like 30 pages have ever been written about her. i just know she's going to slay the house down in the wicked powers is the thing i know it i KNOW it... people are afraid of her slayage and believe it or not she already has haters but they are NOT me and they are NOT welcome here... i don't give a shit if you wanted kit to be the protagonist of twp he's not a girl. being a cassie shadowhunter protagonist is for girls only. he can be second like jace and james and will and jules. kinda crazy how historically all the secondary mains have been the love interest. rip ash lmao. anyway. literally do not care if you wanted kit to be the main main character you will fucking survive and you don't know it yet but it's better this way. dru is taking so many hits for him it's crazy. cassie's gonna make her do love triangle drama and annoying miscommunication and we're all gonna be so pissed off about it like we always are when cassie does this with every single on of her primary couples. and meanwhile kit and ty are gonna be fucking normal in comparasin. say thank you to dru and get over it.... also i literally love her to pieces she's soooo funny and kind and she loves her family more than anything and she hates being the second youngest and she just wants to be included in ty's ridiculous schemes and she loves her silly little horror movies and she has a blue streak in her hair and she wears ironic t shirts and she hates school and she's soooo mad that jules and emma restored their haunted house before she could visit it.... and she's my friend.....

cordelia <3 it's not her fault the final book in her trilogy was kind of a flop. she slayed it though... except for the love triange stuff that pissed me off an unreal amount you guys know you were there. but i love cordelia she's soooo protagonist... she's so remember that you can't save everyone remember that you have to try..... also her gay ally swag is unbeatable. she loves her gay friends more than she loves herself....

tessa sorry girl it's just well i haven't read tid since 2014. you're cool to hang with in sobh tho even though you're cryptic as hell for no fucking reason.... i love it tho she's like hm well things happened in the past that might actually be relevant to your situation emma but i can't tell you about those things because they make me sad. good luck tho! like go girl give us nothing....

[azazelsconfessional]

(Can I just say admin that I love your long posts? Its sorta like a RP but not really? If that makes sense?)

I'm the same one who asked about Michael.. Were you around when samael was around? The one before Michael was considered the leader of angels. Also have you met Mettatron? The human turned archangel after death? Mr. Enoch?

Also... Who is the Lamb? From the book of revelations? You? Or Christ. Have you met Christ himself?

(Sorry for all the questions admin)

((Aaa, thank you! ;U;; I wish I could make shorter posts really--but I'm glad you enjoy them! \o/ For me personally making roleplay like answers is great. I feel like it lets me show off more of the character if I can show actions, reactions, the world around them, if they can be interacted with even if you're not an rper yourself, etc--so I hope it adds some fun for everyone that way lol. I've been rping for like. 18 years on and off. So it just comes naturally for me.

And never apologize for lots of questions!! 💕 That's what this blog is all about! /o/ If he ever says something that you wanna respond to or you wanna ask follow up questions or you notice something and wanna comment on it, do it!! Even in cases like today where I’ve been gone all day and didn’t answer questions, I’m always happy to come back to more to answer, so feel free to throw whatever comes to mind his way lol.))

"Welcome back. I apologize again for my earlier. . .outburst." Borderline outburst. He seems to be okay now, at least. "Samael, Enoch, and the Savior, then?

"To start with, I am a goat, not a sheep--so I am not the Lamb of God, though you're not the first to suggest we're the same.” Now that he thinks about it. . .some transients are turned into therians upon being transported to Tokyo.  If Jesus were to arrive someday. . .would he be a sheep? It’s an amusing thought. “As for Yeshua, I'm not certain how much he'd appreciate any suggestions that I may be him or vice versa, though I’m certain he’s used to being misidentified at this point in the construction of the faith of Eden in the world of humans.”

A large portion of it did get named after him, after all. Meanwhile, the Christ himself is Jewish.  Some wires got crossed somewhere, but what matters to the Almighty is that there are more believers.

"I have met him. I was bound to the human world long before he was born, after all. Understandably, we didn't get on the best. He was human, but not so sinful as the rest. . .he wasn't as appreciative of my advances.  However, I must admit, I worry for him sometimes.  He, too, is a victim of Eden’s System.

"Enoch. . .I still don't understand." Ah, another sore spot, though quite one not as bad as the Archangels. "When God decides a human is special and gives them knowledge and secrets known only to angels, they get taken to Eden and made into the highest of Archangels and personal attendant and spokesman of God himself. But when I decide humans are special and beautiful and give them knowledge of all secrets in Eden I "hath taught all unrighteousness on earth" and "the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel" and I'm the progenitor of sin?

"That seems awfully unfair to me."

He's pouting. He's trying to resist going beyond pouting and instead into speaking more--Metatron is the reason he can fully no longer return to Eden after all. . .which gets him back on the subject of Michael and that incident and these chains and--

"I've gotta focus. I'm shifting into Wrath mode.

"And Samael you said?" Azazel smiles, amused. How long it's been since he's been asked about that one. . . .

"Samael is. . .someone close to me. I value him greatly and I enjoyed working with him a long time ago. . . . Yes. . .that seems about right." He chuckles, as if thinking of a fond secret, but doesn’t elaborate on his mutterings.

[gildedmuse]

Anonymous asked:

do you like any of the one piece manga colorspreads? if yes, which ones?

(Apparently you cannot answer questions more than once which seems like a flaw. People can always change their mind.

Let's see, where did I leave off? Oh that's right. the Strawhats are a acid punk rock band now . So the obvious next step is...

Devil Fruit's Angels

That's right, in this universe the Strawhats aren't marauders of the sea. They're marauders of the open road.

Look at this badass biker gang. And I'm not abbreviating for motorcycles. Luffy heard there were such a thing as a biker gang and took it very literally. Best of all, he got eight people to go along with this.

Eventually, he accidentally tore the bottom wheel rim from his bike, the Going Merry, but then they met Franky and since he was unaware of Luffy's stupidity innocence at this time, he built him an actual damn motorcycle. Zoro painted the sidecar to look like a shark (okay technically Usopp did the painting and Zoro bitched about it but he loves it if anyone scratches that paint job they immediately find themselves with their blades in their face). He just lays there, sleeping, sometimes doing weights while letting Luffy drive a fucking motorcycle.

Love that Nami weighed up her choices and her and Robin decide to ride with Usopp. Let's face it, he is easily the most responsible rider. Well, that's why Nami choose him. Chopper has two designated seats: Usopp's basket and Zoro's lap. So of course Robin has to sit where she can see Chopper.

Also, LOOK HOW FUCKING CUTE CHOPPER IS IN A BASKET.

Brook seems to be riding a penny farthing which is pretty amazing. He probably just had one in his garage from his youth. Sanji has wisely decided to ride backwards bitchseat so that smoke doesn't fly back in his own face. I am unable to see what Franky is driving. I assume his bottom half turns into a motorcycle. I mean why not?

The Strawhat Gang does pretty much the exact same shit they do as Pirates. I mean, Luffy even falls into water just as often. How? It's Luffy that's how.

Law's little group of anarchist ride around in a yellow Volkswagen Beetle. Fight me.

Winter Wonder Island

IS THAT PENGUIN WEARING ZORO'S HARAMAKI? HOW DID HE GET IT? DIES ZORO KNOW? DID HE GIVE OT TO HIM? DID ZORO THINK THE PENGUIN'S BELLY MIGHT BE COLD?

I love Nami and Chopper playing, though Chopper looks less pleased. Plus the polar bear and Luffy are just the same person/bear. And nothing can convince me Robin isn't currently getting a back massage by a walrus. That is how my bitch roles.

The Straw Helmets

And we're back to the AUs.

Total honesty time: I picked this less put of love (though I enjoy most the AU ones) and more to annoy a friend.. See, I know many a Norwegian. They are a super nice country, you guys.

Who get super pissed at popular depictions of Vikings. Which are wrong.

And yet this particular reimagining is so wrong it's like gone full circle. I mean it's still nowhere near accurate but damn is it awesome. Are they riding walruses? Oda knows the Vikings had horses, right? And reindeer?

And yet he's gone with the well known domestic walrus. Huh. It's a choice.

Honestly, Franky and Usopp's costumes look more gladiator than Viking (also, I know you are a pervert Franky, but you literally gonna die of hypothermia.) Chopper is apparently one of those famous Japaness Vikings based on his costume design while Luffy is wearing something I can 100% imagine Doflamingo owned at some point. And Zoro....

Well, there is a reason I have a tag called Zoro's sense of direction and/or fashion. Look at that thing. That is a mess. I love it.

Get Wet

Nami, babe, me, Brook, Sanji, and apparently Robin a appreciate how sexy you're being right now.

But all I see is Zoro's damn fine back with water forming little riblets around his muscles. Also, love the boy's smile as he watches Luffy. He totally knows what's about to go down and thinks it's fucking hilarious.

They Call It The Grand Line

Every member of the coward trio (plus guest member Brook) is freaking the fuck out and I love it. Chopper and Nami are cling to one another, Brook's soul has left his body, and I'm pretty certain Usopp has half climbed into the seat in front of him to grab Zoro. Which I cannot blame him for.

Meanwhile, Robin is watching this whole spectacle with mild amusement, Sanji is straight up grilling... While on the back of a rollar coaster, Franky is chowing down on some of that food and Zoro... Zoro is getting drunk. On a rollar coaster.

The only one who seems to be having any fun is Luffy, sitting, of course, on his special seat. Look at that kid, he's having a blast. Well now we know how all the other Strawhats ended up here.

A Game Of Chicken

There's a lot I could say about this picture, but all I'm going to say is this: Zoro is clearly riding a weird ass chocobo.

What else can beat that?

Pirate Olympics: Where Everyone Is Winner Wanted Man

Oh, look, it's another AU one!

Look, over all, everyone has a sport that is either well suited to them (except maybe Brook. I mean soccer? Really? Not, like short distance sprinting since he's the fastest strawhat or fencing? If it were winter he could participate in the skeleton - yohohoho!).

Let's just amire Zoro playing baseball THREE BAT STYLE. LIke a goddamn boss.

You Know What's Awesome? Drugs.

It doesn't even matter what's going on in this one, it's goddamn beautiful.

Just Another Sunny Day

[You know when I said I haven't read the manga yet? Well, also terrible with visual images - the world should be in words in my opinion. So this, it turns out, is not a colorspread but fanart by the very talented Frayten who I deeply apologize to for not crediting earlier. I'm keeping it though, because it's amazing art, it's been reblogged and at least now it's properly credit on the main post. Many thanks to @blueriza to for being a better fan than I am.]

I really enjoy this little switch up. I want to believe it isn't just Law fucking with them but they've all inhaled some kind of mind switching pollen of something. So one day Law just came out to find Robin making breakfast and heart eyes at all the men, Sanji eating nothing but meet and bouncing around like he was made of rubber, Franky trying to play the violin, Chopper taling wild stories about when he was captain, Usopp training for a couple hours before passing out, Brook worrying over everyone's health, Nami striking posed while talking about how SUPER it all is, and Luffy, for once in his life, perfectly calm as he sits there reading.

That would be hilarious but, yeah, obviously it was Law. Look at how Nami Zoro is threatening him. She know exactly who pulled this shit. And look at Law's smug little smirk.

Hey, you suppose Law flirted with Nami Zoro? I know it's Nami but she's still got Zoro's abs and ass. Just throwing that out there.

[belphegorbillickin]

Okay, but I can definitely imagine Barb/Dia doing that. It seems like quite a possibility. But wasn't dying mc's own fault though? Like,, Barbatos did warn,,, unless he knew this was gonna happen and mc was DUMB AND STUPID enough to show up to everyone like: "hi." and possibly be dumb enough to get killed. Idk lol I forgot this part.

But what you said about Beel, I really like that. I think you even mentioned belphie guilt tripping you in your yandere hcs, and trying to make you completely depend on him?? I like those possibilities. Mammon though,, too soft. Like you said, they've robbed him a lot. He could have had so much potential to be a dark character. Similarly Levi omg.

The brothers are the embodiments of the 7 deadly sins, yet, tbh, I haven't seen too much of this side of them. At least, not like how'd I expect. Leviathan, for eg. Envy. I don't recall seeing his sin playing out anywhere except in the TSL Quiz thingy. I mean, it's been toned down a lot for someone who's the literal embodiment is envy. Idk I just don't feel he's like that? As from what I found: Envy (Latin: invidia), like greed and lust, is characterized by an insatiable desire. It can be described as a sad or resentful covetousness towards the traits or possessions of someone else. The struggle aroused by envy has three stages: during the first stage, the envious person attempts to lower another's reputation; in the middle stage, the envious person receives either "joy at another's misfortune"(if he succeeds in defaming the other person) or "grief at another's prosperity" (if he fails); the third stage is hatred because "sorrow causes hatred".[38]

Envy is said to be the motivation behind Cain murdering his brother, Abel, as Cain envied Abel because God favored Abel's sacrifice over Cain's.

They toned him down a little too much?? If this game has actually been inspired by demons and the 7 deadly sins, they could at least make them similar to the demons, at least in some way. I'm not that far into the game yet, but so far that I've played, I haven't seen much. As for a demon who is the embodiment of envy... I wish to see more. Levi is capable of A LOT.

Similarly, Satan. I sometimes wonder why is he even called the Avatar of Wrath when we hardly see it?? The only time I remember is him losing his calm during the whole body swap event. The fact Satan got mad at us refusing a pact actually made me think that he was the sin "wrath", but idk now. And the way it was said that "every smile is an act", I really like that concept too. But I don't think I've paid much attention to see where it played out. Sigh now Satan simps for cats like,,, please show me your dark/evil side sir.

The way you said Barb and Dia took part in a torture dungeon, I want to see more of that too. If they're demons, wouldn't they have caused SOME sort of bloodshed in a way? Especially if they're the strongest demons. Killing humans, eating them, or I even like to think doing the same to their own race. Torturing... Seems like something that every demon's blood would contain lmao, I'm not answering questions bye.

And I believe so too. The human seems like a pawn... I feel the demons would use humans for entertainment and their own purposes, while keeping up the facade of loving them. It's easy, since demons are manipulative. In that case, losing the human whether by their own hands or not would go like: "Oh well, that's unfortunate. Time for another human."

But if they REALLY did love you, I feel they'd still be manipulative. Like you said. Corrupting/spoiling the human so much to the point that they'd just HAVE to depend on them. I feel they'd also have yandere tendencies, or be "protective". Like, then I feel they really wouldn't want to let you go, despite knowing how much it can ruin your innocence.

I also don't like how everyone is after mc like "uwuwu master". The human is still a weakling despite having pacts, plus, the pacts aren't even demanding the human's soul or anything. I don't get why they let mc walk over them when they are CLEARLY much stronger? If I were a demon I'd do the opposite lmao. Making the human seem as if they are controlling me, but it's the opposite. I don't think a mere pact can change the fact that the demon's stronger,,, esp if the pact didn't demand the human's soul/life/whatever.

Also, thank you! Things got better for me :)) and also,

💫✨💕send this to ten bloggers you think are wonderful. keep the game going 💕✨

Ofc you don't have to do this, but I got this, and it really made me happy, so here ^^

Oh btw in lesson...56 I think?? Just gonna tag this as a spoiler, but where for whatever reason Satan was "Sully" and the angel Lucifer asked him whether he liked books, let me just say I haven't even played it that far yet, but Satan going, "...Every book here is precious."

TOUCHED ME SO BAD LIKE. I DON'T KNOW IT REALLY MADE ME SOFT LMAO HE'S JUST SO okay I'll stop 🏃– 🍹

It's been a while since I've thought in-depth about the whole time traveling thing tbh, but couldn't Barbatos generally see the outcomes of the world?

We went back because they wanted to know who opened it, but considering Diavolo's the ruler of hell who turned Lilith human and Barbatos is basically the ruler of time & practically the universe I believe they already knew Lilith did it since it had to be "blood related" basically.

Barbatos also knows he can stitch together timelines and get of "extra" MCs essentially, so I believe he'd take that into account. I'm not saying MC getting killed was 100% part of the plan, but that they didn't care of MC was traumatized because they knew they could bring them back if necessary.

Imo the real goal wasn't to find out who did it, but to avoid breaking the family's bonds and devotion to Diavolo. The way it worked out was incredibly convenient and "coincidentally" a huge upgrade for Diavolo that kept the status quo and made him look good (or at least better) to Belphie and Beel without making Lucifer choose.

We see that kind of repeat later when Diavolo withdraws from the play because he was worried Lucifer wouldn't be as loyal. That's also why Lucifer gets that warning from Barbatos.

I think a huge part of why Levi's characterization is like that is because not enough people like him enough to tolerate it tbh. Even Mammon and Lucifer stans complain about the other characters hogging screen time and a lot of them admit to feeling bad for other fans. Levi is pretty much always second to last popularity wise.

I think he'd actually be more liked if they focused more on the jealously instead of making almost every interaction otaku/Ruri-chan related, but it's a bit too late now. I really, really hate how they just pretend otaku culture always existed and that's all Levi ever was. Like at least make him have an obsessive personality and be hyperfixated on novels instead of talking manga in an era before Japan even existed. It's so unbelievably lazy and really takes me out of the story.

Another problem is we only really see him interact with family or people that could enact severe consequences like Diavolo & Barbatos or people protected by the exchange program. He never gets a chance to shine or be cunning. The closest we get is things like him purposefully trying to ruin Christmas for random people online in his Christmas card. I think if he genuinely got jealous of MC and some random demon he would summon lotan almost instantly.

It's especially painful knowing what we had & being so excited to get more only for all of that to get dropped.

In an early devilgram, Be You, Satan gets jealous and feels bad about not having much unique to him and Lucifer comforts him in his own way when the others make it worse. Mammon is the most empathetic though ofc. They also talk about horror movies and Mammon says he doesn't find them scary (& the way it's framed sounds honest, idk if it's a retcon or a lie,) and Satan says "I'm sure we've all witnessed plenty of real-life horrors worse than anything in the movies."

Then when Lucifer asks for a time when he was really angry Satan first casually then gleefully talks about torturing a family to death because a kid set him up to get scolded by their parents. Meanwhile the brothers act wary of him and worry about him getting out of control while Lucifer tells everyone to take cover for their own safety with a smile. Satan happily talks about them begging for their lives and says he wishes they saw it too.

Levi also says he hates hearing about people being happy, but likes hearing about the negative things. While Asmo and Mammon are freaking out he also calls Satan cool. Which shows at least a little bit of his envy for once. Satan also says just the aura of his rage is usually too much for humans which is also interesting.

But back to Diavolo and Barbatos, I don't hate how the whole torture thing isn't super open, it makes sense imo, but I would like to see hints of them hiding it. Especially if Satan or even attic Belphie was the one you could go to to learn more about it. If anyone would defy Diavolo for that it'd be them trying to bring Lucifer down with them, or even just Satan rewarding the hunt for knowledge and not understanding the human psyche fully.

Imagine if instead of a paper thin lie about being human we got a Belphie manipulating us by pretending he was locked up because he was against hurting humans and the whole exchange program was a scam? Or at least if he told us things no one else would about Diavolo that were true so we wouldn't trust him and etc. That's the angle I'm going with in my fanfiction at least, the original story is just so lazy and boring imo.

Yeah I'm not a huge fan of how they handled pacts either, especially considering they don't even get MC's soul. It's way too one-sided to the point where I don't believe someone like Satan would ever offer it, even if the first offer was a trick and he'd get your soul or something. I agree on the whole manipulation thing too, like how is it partnership if one side has complete control over the other?

Even just making it so that demons can fight against if they really don't want to do something like harming each other and having it corrupt MC would make it a million times better.

And that's so sweet, thank you! You've made my days a lot brighter too. Not much makes me happier than infodumping and complaining about Obey Me rn lol.

I really liked Satan's line there too, although I did wish he had more a reaction to everything tbh. That whole section felt a bit too easy imo though, like I kept waiting for it to all go to shit or something. I am glad they went back into more story-based chapters too. I hope they keep that trend and expand on it.

[oftenderweapons]

Cold Nights - Hoseok

Pairing: Hoseok x reader (nicknamed Giggles)

Wordcount: 1.5k words

Genre: (hinted/mild) smut, fluff, lowkey angst

Rating: suggested 18+

Hiya! It’s Hobi’s turn! I have finally finished writing my dissertation, which is currently being checked by my professor. There might be some editing to do, but I’ll have to hand it in on Monday so I’ll feel more relaxed after that. Last step will be presenting it to a commission from my university that will give me my final grade. And then GRADUATION (supposedly November 4th)!

But let’s move on to more pleasant stuff! This fic is set a couple days after Hoseok’s Love Talk and it deals with Hobi’s feels for his Giggles. The end of this drabble is ideally the beginning of Hobi’s Wild Nights.

Word count: around 3k maybe, didn’t check 🤔

Here you can find my Masterlist

Enjoy!

————————————————————

Hoseok stared at his feet.

He had just left your place and he felt messy.

Yoongi opened the door almost immediately. "Hey."

"Hey." He responded quietly.

"Are you busy? Is Kitten around?" He asked as he entered his apartment and took off his shoes.

"No, she's with Angel." He said.

"They're hanging out a lot together." He noticed. "If I were you I'd be worried."

"Who told you I'm not." Yoongi quipped, shaking his head with an exasperated laugh.

They both entered the kitchen and sat down at the table. "Beer or soju?"

Hoseok exhaled. "Beer."

"Cool." Actually, fuck. He silently grabbed two cans. Maybe he should directly go for all six of them. This conversation was about to get heavy. "Listen, I love talking about Kitten--"

"You love Kitten, full stop."

"I do, but that is not the point." Yoongi remarked. "What is going on?"

Hoseok laced his fingers together, placing them on the table. "I think you know by now but I'm seeing someone."

"As in dating or hallucinating?" Yoongi asked with a serious, concerned tone which made him even more hilarious.

Hoseok shook his head.

"Just kidding, go on." Yoongi said, happy that Hoseok was hiding a smile. He was glad he could instill some happiness even though he looked so lost.

"Giggles."

"Oh, is that your Kitten?" Yoongi asked. "I mean is she to you what Kitten is to me?" In the meanwhile he put two glasses and the drinks on the table.

Hoseok laid his forehead on the back of his hands. "I don't know. I think so?" He sat up straight again. "She's a masterpiece. Cute and kind and bright and so, so lovely."

"But?" Yoongi nagged. Usually this was the point when Hoseok said he didn't feel anything or that she was boring or that he needed something different.

Hoseok shook his head, laying down again. It was slightly hilarious. "No buts." He rose up again, skittish. "But maybe it's temporary and I'll grow bored or she'll get tired and maybe it's just too early to find out about buts and maybes."

Yoongi opened his bear and poured some as Hoseok merely mirrored his gestures without really thinking. "How long has this been going on with the two of you?"

"More or less... Three months?"

"Mh." Yoongi meditated. His arrangements were usually a few weeks, maybe a couple months. This was the point where his interest just disappeared. From here on it was all uncharted territory for him. That's why he looked so scared, Yoongi thought.

"I don't know if I've been — like — swept off my feet by the sex or if this is actually affection."

Yoongi pouted and nodded.

"I've never had someone like her, Yoongi. I've never felt this need to protect and just gush all over someone. I want to tell everyone about her. And then I want to keep her all to myself."

"Does she make you happy?" Yoongi asked.

"Yes." He didn't hesitate one second. "I've never felt my life so full. It just... It feels like I don't even have to try. Like she needs to be in my life for some reason because she makes it better."

"What do you expect from your ideal partner?" Yoongi asked taking another sip of beer.

Hoseok looked at the glass and drank too, reflecting on his answer. "I think other than love and respect, maybe... Peace? Serenity? Someone who can pick me up when I feel down? She's just... She's ticked all the damn boxes so far and I can't help but be continuously reminded of how fucking perfect she is." Hoseok scrunched his face. "If she's not the one, then I don't know who could possibly be."

"And I bet you haven't told her about this, huh?"

Hoseok let himself go, his elbows propped on the table, his head in his hands. "How could I? I don't even know what the fuck is going on.".

"You do know though."

"How can I, Yoongi? How can I ask that?" Hoseok raised his voice. "This started as sex, Yoongi. I'm not like you wrapping my emotions in gift paper and handing it to my partner whenever I start seeing someone new."

Yoongi stayed still, blinking.

"Sorry. I overreacted. I think I'm in panic mode." Hoseok frowned. "It's... I'm afraid she'll throw me away?"

"You should be having this conversation with Namjoon. Do you remember what he put himself through for that precise fear?" Yoongi poured all the beer left in his can. "I think you should tell her you want to be with her. Call it what you want. Maybe Kitten and I did it the traditional way, went on dates, did stuff together, said our "I love you"s and got together, but that's not the only way to do that. You know how it went with Joon and Vixen."

"They were dating too. Giggles and I are not like that."

"How did it happen?"

"Mickey's vet was on holiday during an emergency, I took him to the vet and she was the substitute. It sort of spiraled out of control."

"I wanna ask how, but I'm not sure I wanna know." Yoongi snickered.

"I asked her number, she gave it to me. Went to a sort of a date but things got kinky and we hit it off..." He slipped into silence.

"Hobi, I think you should just find the nerves to tell her you want more. I know it's scary as fuck and everything, but I'm pretty sure she's a sweet girl who'd love to be by your side."

"She is sweet." Hoseok said with dreamy eyes. "And caring, and loving and funny and so, so soft."

"Just ask her out already. Simply tell her 'Hey, you, I know we've been going at it like bunnies for months but do you wanna go out for dinner or whatever, see if we work as something more?" Yoongi resolved practically.

"Do you think she'll say yes?" Hoseok asked, a little anxious.

"I think the right way to approach this is, what happens if she says no?" Yoongi reasoned.

"I don't want to think about it."

"In my opinion she would just say 'thanks man, but I'm not interested' and you'd just keep fucking like bunnies."

"And what would I do with my feelings?" Hoseok asked, frowning at his empty glass.

Yoongi smiled bitterly. "I am not the greatest advisor with this but I'd say you either keep them on the low or let them go. If you can." He perched himself on the chair, bringing his knees to his chest. "Personally, if she said no, I would let go of her and find someone new. It hurts but usually you cannot kill feelings for someone. The more you go on, the more it hurts. But just talk it out with her, casually."

Hoseok nodded and stood up abruptly. "I can't keep living with the doubt. I can't go on like this. Gotta go. Thank you, Yoongi."

Hoseok dashed for the entryway, Yoongi at his heels. "Guess if it goes sour you'll text me for a drunk pity party?"

Hobi was already putting his shoes on. "Guess so." Left shoe.

"And if it goes well you'll just go AWOL for a couple hours?" Yoongi suggested.

"More like a couple days, but we'll see." Right shoe. He stood up, grabbing his coat. "Thanks a lot. You know you're the best friend in the world, right?"

Yoongi nodded with a soft smile. "You are, too. Good luck."

"Thanks, see you!" Hoseok sprinted out of the door.

Yoongi simply closed the door behind him, shaking his head with a smirk.

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

"Hey." One sweaty, breathless Jung Hoseok stood at your door. His call had caught you by surprise: when you had picked up your phone he asked if you were home so he could stop by. You told him you had just arrived from your shift. And now you were at your doorstep, staring at each other.

"Hello." You said with a confused smile.

"I'm in love with you." He declared, still breathless, hunched down, standing with his knees bent and his hands propped on them for support.

You blinked a few times, asking yourself where all of this was coming from.

Fuck it. "I love you too." You said, ignoring the common sense and reason suggesting you asked an explaination for this.

He went wide-eyed with incredulity, standing up straight. Next thing you knew he was kissing you desperately, pushing you back in your apartment and closing the door with his foot. "I love you." He purred.

"I love you too, Hobi. I'm in love with you, baby."

He growled. "Bedroom. Now."

[milasartblog]

Demons' fight (part 2)

We used to imagine that bosses and leaders are so brave, responsible, ready to solve any critical situation that pops out any moment. We could always rely on such people. But what would you do...if all those leaders suddenly show their side of fear, anxiety, when things are not really under control? That side that they will never show to anyone but themselves in a mirror? Unfortunately, it is real. And Lucifer was not an exception. After what happened to guards, he couldn't stay calm and focused. He even didn't let others know about it, avoiding panic in Hell. Only Lilith knew about it.

Lilith: I still can't believe that he managed to do it. Your chains were impossible to break without any higher and more powerful magic.

Lucifer: I'm stunned myself. Plus the message he left on the wall....Damn it!

He slammed the table with his fist so loud that could be heard in entire Hell, grinning. Lilith carefully and gently put her hand on his shoulder.

Lucifer: Loosing guards like this....And he is not even the strongest demon....

Lilith: I know, Lucifer. But somehow he escaped, and I have a guess who did it, who "helped" him to do it.

Lucifer: I have a guess too, however "she" would not do it by herself.

Lilith: Do you mean-

Lucifer: One of the missing angel or demon could do it under "her" order. But why would "she" need this bastard all of a sudden? He has no use for her.

Lilith: Don't forget that "she" can manipulate people, and thanks to this cause a chaos. Plus, thinking about his past, it makes sense why "she" chose him.

Lucifer: Yeah, but for what reason? Moreover, it's not in his style to walk away like this. He only needs me. I'm his target......"I will take away what is dear to you"......

He thought for a moment as Lilith kept looking at Lucifer. Suddenly, their eyes got wide, in horror.

Lucifer: Do you think what I think?

Lilith: But it's impossible! How did he-?!

Lucifer: Call the guards to the jail and make sure that none of the demons finds out about it!! Not even angels!!

With a speed of light he rushed out of the castle, way to the human world, almost knocking out Vylixia and Colan, who were walking in a hall, watching a new episode of human's anime on InfernoTube. He kept repeating to himself only one phrase: "Not him!". He tried to reasure himself that it was just a thought. But when it's about a demon and its games, nothing can be just a thought. Meanwhile, in human world another demon, Liya, was waiting outside of the school.

Liya: Nazeel said that lessons were over already. I wonder what takes him so long. Bathroom business, maybe.

She tried to be patient a bit more. Couple of minutes passed and Nazeel still didn't appear. Then a bad feeling covered her.

Liya: Did these bullies disturb him again? Ugh, they will never learn. I better go and check before anything bad happens.

But when she got inside the building, there was no one. It made her worry even more, so she went outside to playground. But even there no signs of Nazeel were visible. Liya gets scared.

Liya: Nazeel! Nazeel, where are you??

She looked around, every place that was visible and not. But no success. The fear covers here completely.

Liya: No....Don't tell me that-

Lucifer: I'm too late.......

The familiar voice could be heard from behind as Liya turned around and saw Lucifer, standing with scared face.

Liya: Late? Late to what??

Lucifer: He actually did it....

Liya: Who did what?? What's going on??

But Lucifer didn't hear her as he walked pass her to the playground. Then he noticed a paper on the ground, written in latin language, as he picked it up and read it.

Liya: Hey, don't ignore me! What's going on here??

Lucifer: This bastard kidnapped Nazeel.

Liya stood shocked while Lucifer crumpled the paper.

Liya: What?? Who?? How did it-??

Lucifer: No time to explain, I need to get him back and fast.

He was about to walk away, but Liya stopped him with strong grab.

Liya: Hey, you could at least tell me what's going on!

Lucifer: I want to, but we have no time for it.

Liya: Just at least let me go with you! Nazeel is my responsibility and I have to-

Lucifer: This is not the case now!

He shouted angrily as Liya let his hand go, stepping a bit back. Realising what he did, he changed his expression.

Lucifer: Sorry, just....the enemy is not easy as it seems. I have to do this alone.

Liya: You don't have to. Just tell me who is this bastard and I will tear his one thing apart.

Lucifer: Liya, listen, i know you're strong, but this enemy is....my past problem, and the only way to solve it is that I go there myself. Plus, you will not like this place.

Liya: But-

Lucifer: No buts, Liya!....Please.

She stepped more back, looking at anxious Lucifer. She didn't want to listen to him, but he was too stubborn to let her go with him, so she nodded.

Lucifer: Thank you. Now, make sure that no one finds out about it yet. I will bring Nazeel back. I promise.

And quickly he vanished to demon world. Liya was about to go, but noticed that a paper fell of Lucifer's hands. She picked it up and read it. It was the one that was addressed to Lucifer.

Liya: Huh, Inferno Arena.....So there is our kidnapper.....Heh, sorry, Lucifer, but I have to break the promise.

And she vanished to demon world too, searching for the place where the meeting was suppossed to be and where two demons will face each other in a battle.

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

And here is next part for the story^^ Things are getting tense for our crew c': How will our characters deal with it? Will they save Nazeel?

Lucifer and Liya belong to @wildstarfan and @milasartblog (both me)

Lilith belongs to @wildstarfan and @captainthane

Vylixia, Colan and Nazeel belong to @captainthane

Okaria et Feria belongs to @wildstarfan and @captainthane

[wickedbarnes]

Forbidden Fruit (Pt. 3) | Keanu Reeves x Reader

Part 2

WARNING: Daddy kink/issues. Age gap. Smut (18+ readers ONLY).

NOTE: 2nd picture above is the picture of your outfit.

--

If Keanu was a good man, he wouldn't be doing this. If he was anywhere near as good as people told him to be he wouldn't be standing in the shower, letting the cold water run down his back while he had his calloused hand wrap around his own cock.

He wouldn't be stroking it to the thought of his girlfriend's daughter. He wouldn't be hissing and cursing her name underneath his breath. And he definitely wouldn't be fantasizing about her all the time. But here he is, teasing his twitching cock by swirling his thumb around his tip, whimpering at the thought of you being on your knees for him and just being the best girl by running your soft warm tongue on his thick length.

Keanu should be thinking about your mom. Not that he didn't find her attractive, he did. Your mom is very beautiful and there was certainly no denying you got your good looks from her but... Keanu already felt their relationship was reaching its end.

There just wasn't anything left to fight for anymore. They both lived in the same house and yet they acted like complete strangers. Yes, Keanu is busy with his motorcycle company and your mom is busy with her own job, but he couldn't help but feel as if your Mom no longer put the same effort in the relationship. It felt completely one sided.

But they had come to the agreement of trying again. Of trying to see if this would still work. So they had tried to go out for dates, tried to spend more time together and everything was going well so far. Keanu loves your mother, there's no doubt about that. But then you came in.

Not that he's claiming he loves you. But Keanu is certainly lusting over you. Your beauty and innocence is so refreshing to him. And the fact that something filthy hid underneath that innocence drove him crazy. He tried his best to distance himself from you, he really did. But something about you just drew him in. And he couldn't even pinpoint what it was.

So for today, Keanu has made the decision of going out and visit Arch, the company he had co-founded, finish what needs to be finished today instead of working at home. With your mother away for work, he wouldn't even know if he could control himself around you. Not that he didn't like your company, but deep down he knew he needed some time apart from you.

Once he got out of the shower after he just finished a sinful activity in there, Keanu began to dry himself off and began to get ready for work.

Meanwhile, after your interesting encounter with your mother's boyfriend this morning, you had decided to catch up with some of your old friends here in town since it had been quite a while the last time you saw each other. Thankfully, your boss was kind enough to let you get about three weeks off at work. And in all honesty, you deserved to have the break. You worked your ass off in order to have the chance to go back home.

It was already 11 AM and you had took the chance to start getting ready. Rummaging through your closet, you had eventually found an old flowy white mini dress that had cute little puff sleeves. You had completely forgot about this dress and immediately regret that you didn't pack it with you when you moved away. Thankfully, it didn't have any stains on it so you decided to wear that one since it was perfect for a weather like this.

After changing into the dress, you quickly did your make up, making sure you opted for a natural look before you let your hair down from your bun, letting it fall into loose waves. Once you did one last check in your mirror, you grabbed your black purse and shoved in your essentials inside before slipping in a pair of white sandals on.

You were going to meet up with your chilhood friends, Layla and her older brother, Landon who just came home from a business trip in Greece. You were very excited to see them again that when you got out of your room, you immediately collided with Keanu's body causing him to almost lose his balance before his put his other hand on the wall to steady himself while the other grabbed your arm to keep yourself from falling.

"Woah, easy there, sweet girl." Keanu chuckled and you blushed a light shade of pink from embarrassment before you gained your balance and stepped back from him a bit.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you there." You replied sheepishly, refusing to look at Keanu in the eye after the conversation you two had earlier but it was so hard standing there when you felt his eyes on you.

Keanu took in your appearance and how... innocently tempting you look. The white dress looked so good on you and the fact that it stopped mid-thigh drove him closer to the edge. You looked like a delicate little angel and Keanu wanted so badly to ruin you then and there. To corrupt you like no one else has. But he quickly pushed those sinful thoughts away before he could actually push you up against the wall and devour you.

"You're going out, I see." He spoke after some time, clearing his throat in the process and you nodded your head, finally having the courage to look up at him and Keanu had to fight the urge to cup your face and kiss you roughly on your plump lips.

"Mhm. I'm spending the day with some friends. I'm meeting them downtown at the pizzeria." You smiled and Keanu seemed to perk up at the news.

"Is that so? I'm on my way to work and I usually pass by there all the time. Alberto's Pizzeria, correct?" He asked causing you to nod.

'Oh God, please don't tell me he'll give me a ride.' You silently thought but fate is never at your side.

"Lemme give you a ride, it'll save you some time and effort." He offered and you immediately shook your head causing him to frown a bit.

"N-No! No, it's okay, I can manage. It's not really that far and I don't want you to be late for work." You quickly reasoned out, hoping he would just drop it.

"Nonsense, sweet girl. They can't really scold me for being late if I own the company." He joked, causing you to widen your eyes a bit. You had no idea he owned a company.

"Wait, you own the company you're working at?" You saw the slight blush on Keanu's cheek as he averted his gaze to the floor and smiled bashfully as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I do. I co-founded it with my friend. It's a motorcycle company called Arch." His answer caused you to look at him with amazement written on your face and Keanu chuckled at how adorable you looked.

"That's amazing, Keanu. How many motorcycles have you manufactured?" You asked, genuinely interested with the topic and Keanu's heart swelled in pride once he saw how curious you are to know how his company worked.

Your mom had never been interested with these kind of things. Although she'd listen to Keanu ramble about his love for motorcycles, he could see and sense her disinterest towards the topic that he would just eventually stop talking about it in front of her. He didn't want to bore her with a topic she's not bothering to listen to.

"Well, I can't really count it on my fingers anymore but if you want, I can show you the latest motorcycle we just launched. It's the one we're riding today." His words caused your eyes to lit up as a smile made its way to your face.

"Really? I've never ridden a motorcycle before, I actually want to try it but I don't think my outfit is appropriate for motor riding." Your pouted at the realization and Keanu couldn't help but let out a laugh at your expression as he shook his head.

"Don't worry too much, sweet girl. Come, I'll show it to you." Keanu nodded his head over to the stairs and you followed him down just in time for the door to open to reveal your Mom coming in looking tired as ever.

Your Mom's schedule had recently changed from day shift to night shift. And now, she just came home from work after going overtime. Usually, she'd be home by 8 AM but that wasn't the case today.

"Mama." You greeted softly and made your way towards her and kissing her cheek.

"Hey, baby. You going out?" She asked and you could perfectly see the bags underneath her eyes. She looked so tired. You nodded your head and stepped aside as she went over to greet Keanu.

You silently watched as Keanu dipped his head down and pressed a soft kiss on your mom's lips before giving her a quick hug. It seemed that Keanu already knew how tired your mother was that he immediately let her go upstairs so she could get some rest. But you somehow caught the flash of sadness on his face.

You weren't dumb. You saw how things between him and your mom seemed quite rough lately and you somehow felt guilty for lusting for Keanu behind your mother's back. You quickly looked away when Keanu turned his attention back to you. You two eventually made your way outside the house afted Keanu locked it, making sure no one would break in especially with your Mom at home all alone.

"Wait here, sweetheart." You watched as Keanu made his way to the garage and disappeared inside. You looked around and softly hummed a random song under your breath as you waited patiently for Keanu to come back.

And when he did, your jaw dropped at the sexy looking motorcycle that Keanu rolled out. His company logo plastered on the vehicle. You stepped closer and lightly ran your fingers over to the ride and Keanu stood there, silently watching you observe the vehicle he had proudly made with his partner.

"This is amazing, Keanu, it looks great, it's beautiful." You smiled and Keanu smiled sheepishly at your comment.

"Thank you, sweet girl. This is the Arch KRGT-1. It sounds great and it rides amazing. This one has different other colors of course but I chose to take home the black one." He chuckled.

"It suits you though." You replied causing Keanu to raise his eyebrows at your comment.

"Really now? How so?"

"Uhm... well, it looks sophisticated. It looks great for adventures, I take it you're an adventurous person. It also looks vintage in a way." You paused and looked into his warm brown eyes, "Fast."

Your last word caught Keanu completely off guard. He was old enough to know that was a secret code for something more. Fuck, you were such a huge fucking tease and he couldn't do anything about it although he damn wished he did.

You saw the change in Keanu's expression and how his eyes somehow got darker. His stare eventually got more piercing and you had to look away, gulping. Eventually, Keanu handed you a helmet.

"Put it on for me, baby." He gently ordered you, his voice deeper which made you press your thighs together a bit. He had no idea how badly that voice did things to you.

Taking the helmet from him, you put it on and secured it on place before you stepped aside for a bit and let him get on the vehicle. The sight of him on a fucking motorcycle almost made you fall onto the concrete floor on your knees.

You knew Keanu wearing a white v-neck shirt, jeans, boots along with a black leather jacket made him more delicious than he already is but him wearing that outfit while riding a motorcycle, you were thankful your panties weren't hitting the floor at this moment.

Keanu put his helmet on and secured it on his head before looking back at you.

"Hop on, baby, just grab onto my shoulders." He smiled and you nodded your head as you placed your foot on the footpeg before grabbing onto Keanu's shoulders as you swung your left leg over to the other side until you lowered yourself down onto the seat.

"Good girl." He praised, his lips tugging into a smirk and you were thankful you're sitting behind him so he couldn't see the blush on your face.

"Put your arms around my waist, honey." Keanu instructed and you immediately obliged as you wrapped your arms slowly around his waist and you somehow felt his body tensing a bit under your touch before he relaxed. Interesting.

"Hold on tight, baby. We're going fast today." You giggled at his comment and with that, Keanu started the engine and rode away from your house, smiling at the feeling of the wind hitting his face while your arms were securely wrapped around his waist.

This was the first time you had ridden a motorcycle and you couldn't believe you hadn't tried and done this before. You had co-workers who offered you a ride on their motorcycle passed up the opportunity since they had always got off before you did. You were happy Keanu had offered you to ride with him.

Keanu had even gone a little faster which caused you to squeal and playfully hit him on the shoulder and you could hear his melodius laugh over the noise of the busy street. You had eventually reached the pizzeria and you could see Layla and Landon waiting inside as they conversed with each other, they hadn't seen you yet.

As Keanu parked his motorcycle to the side, you carefully got off and took off the helmet he lended for you and gave it to him with a smile on your face.

"Thank you, Keanu, that was really fun." You giggled and Keanu bowed down his head for you.

"The pleasure was all mine, mi lady." He replied in a posh british action which made you burst out laughing.

"Hey, that was a great British accent." He says, his lips pouting and you had tried your best to stop your giggles and the sight caused Keanu's lips to tug into a grin.

"Never said it wasn't." You teased before you looked back at the restaurant, "Well, I best be on my way. Thank you for the ride, Keanu, I really appreciate it."

"It was no big deal, baby. Just gimme a call if you need a ride home, okay?" You blushed at his offer but nodded your head in response as you watched him start up the motorcycle once again.

"Drive safely, okay?" You said in a soft voice which made Keanu smile.

"I will, sweet girl. Have a nice day today. And be safe."

"Same goes for you." And with that, Keanu rode away with his motorcycle and you gave him a little wave which he saw in his side mirror.

This was a very good day for him.

--

It was around 10 PM by the time you got home and thankfully, Landon had brought his car with him and gave you a ride home. You had thanked them for a wonderful day before you had walked up to the front door and opened it with your keys.

Your Mom is already at work by now and you assumed Keanu is already asleep since he went to work today. You guessed he was just as tired as you are. Dropping your purse on the coffee table, you made your way to the kitchen to drink some water when you heard some noises upstairs.

After taking big gulps of water, you put the empty glass in the sink and carefully made your way upstairs where you heard the noises starting to progress louder making you freeze in place. It was Keanu.

You heard his muffled groans and his moaning and despite the fact the noises caused your cunt to go wet, you really weren't planning on walking in on him having sex with your Mom but that seemed impossible. Your Mom was at work and you didn't hear anyone else with him. Unless your mom or whoever it is with him is good at keeping quiet.

You took a deep breath and silently tiptoed your way to the master's bedroom where Keanu had made a mistake of leaving the door slightly open. You didn't know what you were expecting. Did you expect Keanu having sex with your Mom? Yes. Did you expect him having someone else in the bed with him? Perhaps. But did you expect to find him stroking his own fucking cock with his eyes closed and brows furrowed as sinful noises escaped his lips? Certainly fucking not.

This was a sight to see. It seemed that Keanu didn't hear you come home because if he would have, he would've stopped what he was doing. Or maybe... maybe he knew but he decided to continue.

You bit your bottom lip as you watched his hands go up and down on his cock, his thumb swirling around the tip of his cock, smearing the oozing pre-cum all over his shaft and you wanted nothing more than to run your tongue across it, wanting to know how he tastes.

You quietly pushed the door open more to get a much clearer view of Keanu pleasuring himself. You didn't know what came over you but you found yourself hiking up your dress and slipping your hands in between your thighs and teasing your folds over your white laced panties.

The noises he made caused your breathing to go erratic but what completely made you whimper right then and there was when you heard these exact same words that came out of Keanu's lips.

"Oh God, I- Y/N, doll, you're so fucking good, how are you so good, baby?" Keanu groaned as he cupped his balls with his other hand and threw his head back as a growl emits from his mouth, "Fuck, Y/N, you make daddy feel so good."

Your name. You heard your fucking name from him. He was moaning your name. He was masturbating to the thought of you. The fact made you whimper and Keanu's eyes immediately shot open to find you standing at the doorway, hand in between your thighs and lust swimming in your eyes.

You gulped nervously as you saw his dark eyes staring at you. Keanu knew he should get dressed and apologize for whatever it was that he was doing right now. Apologize for letting you see him like this. And apologize for masturbating to you. But he couldn't find himself to do it. Not when you were standing there in front him, possibly touching yourself while he was stroking his own fucking cock.

"I-I... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I just-" You stammered, not really knowing what to say as you pulled your hand away, embarrassment slowly seeping its way into your body when Keanu had cut you off.

"Come here." His words caught you off guard causing you to stop and stare at him for a moment.

"W-What?" You watched as Keanu smirked before he shifted on the bed as he sat upright with his back against the headboard, his gaze never leaving you.

"I said come here." He repeated himself, his voice gruff and husky.

"You knew better than to watch me, baby doll. You're such a naughty girl, aren't you?" Keanu asked, giving you a shit-eating grin.

Oh, you were fucked.

--

TAGS: @fanficsrusz @a-really-bi-girl @fan-wicktion @baphometwolf666 @mikaneonox @coloursunlimited @ficsnroses @autumnsoidier @paanchu786 @thatonemultifandombeast @glamorizedtrainwreck @keanuvibe @laura-doitnow-rememberitlater @lillytalebi @wiskey-chaser @jokersdoll

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 3x17 Enemies

aka bad break-ups

Welcome to this dailyish text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and rant about it in 10-3k words. What you can expect: long run-on sentences and disjointed observations, often focused on one tiny detail about the episode. What you shouldn’t be expecting: actual reviews that make sense.

And today’s episode finally brings Buffy and Faith’s relationship to a breaking point, in all of its subtextual glory. Meanwhile, I kept rewinding as I tried remembering where the layers of deception started, and the “they don’t know that we know that she doesn’t know that we know” games ended.

And I guess the honest answer is that I still don’t know. The episode doesn’t really end with a flashback answering at what point did the characters realize that something was off… But that’s also part of the fun, as one tries to look for the small signs they could’ve noted as well.

First of all, let’s just all acknowledge this delightful outfit:

We’re entering the stage of truly iconic Willow looks, folks.

Anywho, back to the Fath/Buffy/Angel mind games

Not to toot my own horn and say I told you so (like some characters), but by the end of the episode, I once again got stuck on the deliberate parallel drawn between Angel and Faith as Buffy’s love interests. It’s no coincidence that Buffy asks for a break between her and Angel just when her relationship with Faith has completely fallen apart.

During this rewatch I definitely got the impression that Buffy’s decision there was more of a result of where the whole thing with Faith left her emotionally, than Angel pretending to be bad for the episode. His betrayal was fake and pre-agreed upon. Faith’s was real and devastating.

I guess there’s also a weird BDSM theme here with the comments they make around the chains… So if we roll with that, the comparison is that Buffy and Angel had their safe words there. With Faith… not so much.

To drive the point home that Buffy’s conflict here is with Faith, and this is all about that broken trust, let’s also look at the scene between her and Willow, where she’s talking about seeing Faith and Angel together the night before.

Willow: No way. I know what you're thinking and no way! Buffy: You're right. Faith would never do that. Willow: Faith would totally do that.

We again see here Willow’s clear dislike of Faith, which I find especially fun as we also have Xander voicing some of his classic anti-Angel sentiments in the same episode. I do hope that I’ll have the energy to delve a bit more into that a few episodes from now.

But more importantly, look at Buffy’s line. Her response to the idea of Angel and Faith getting it on isn’t that Angel wouldn’t do that. (Remember, Angel, her boyfriend, the one who’d be cheating on her?)

It’s Faith wouldn’t do that. Faith wouldn’t do that to her.

The conclusion one can draw from that is that either she doesn’t trust Angel to begin with, or that her trust and faith in… well, Faith, is much more important to her right now. Personally? I’m leaning towards the latter.

There’s once again a lot of innuendos as well. (That we’re calling subtext for some reason, even though the sexual and romantic undertones are essentially textual at this point…) Like after Buffy and Angel come out of the movie theater, all full of pent up sexual frustration, and Faith shows up to steal Buffy away literally saying “Don’t worry big guy, just keeping her warm for you”.

I’m…

Faith: *does or says something that defines her relationship with Buffy in an undeniably sexual / romantic way*

me:

And then when they meet up at the library afterwards, and Faith does her usual routine of calling Buffy “girlfriend”, and is all touchy with her… Buffy shies away from her touch, and the rest of the Scoobies note how chilly the atmosphere suddenly became.

All that is to say that while Angel plays a prominent role in how this episode unfolds, and the parallel raised between him and Faith aren’t just serving the theme of Buffy’s relationships with them, but both of their characters as well… The real conflict itself plays out between Buffy and Faith, with all of its subtextual and romantic undertones that the show is once again leaning into.

It’s a break-up. It’s Buffy and Faith breaking up. That’s what’s happening here.

Something that I was struggling with however, is pinpointing where Buffy or even Angel and Giles started suspecting that there was something else going on with Faith. When Faith goes to Angel first, I was still unsure on where he was coming from, so I kept looking for signs that he was already reading her intentions. In retrospect though, I assume that Angel’s reactions there were actually genuine, despite Faith laying it on all pretty thick.

On the other hand, she also appeared with bloody hands after killing sympathetic demon guy who tried to help against the Mayor. So that was probably a dead giveaway once Buffy and Angel started putting two and two together.

With Buffy herself, there’s a pretty great little detail that happens when she and Faith discover dead demon guy in his apartment. (Which I wish I noticed myself, but was pointed out to me by someone else.)

Faith reaches into the other room for the light switch, not even looking, and Buffy sees her doing it. She completely gives away herself and the fact that she was in this apartment before, and the show smartly doesn’t draw our attention to it.

So when Buffy afterwards comments about how the way the demon guy was killed was ‘somebody’s idea of a party’, I couldn’t help wondering if that was a pointed jab at Faith. To get a reaction out of her and confirm whether or not she was involved.

Still, I remained unsure as we actually get the scene between Buffy and Willow after this happens. It’s also implied that Buffy hasn’t actually talked to Angel about what she saw between him and Faith the other night at that point, so they haven’t yet had the chance to cook up their Faith reveal plan.

On the other hand, she’s talking to Willow here, and we find out later that Buffy, Angel and Giles were all keeping their suspicions and the plan a secret from the rest of the Scoobies. So she wouldn’t have told that Willow quite yet either way.

Willow also comments about Buffy being “on edge”, which once again points to her probably thinking about Faith going rogue already here.

I do believe that Buffy’s “Faith wouldn’t do that” line is genuine though, even in that case. Buffy still wants to believe in Faith, even if they’re preparing for the worst.

So when Angel and Faith show up in her room, part of her must be devastated as the confirmation of Faith’s betrayal sinks in. As well as just being on edge, knowing what’s coming.

And what’s coming is a whole lot of classic posturing and sexual innuendo from Faith’s part, as she’s tempting Buffy with making out with Angel in front of her just to spite her (we already established which of their betrayals sting for Buffy more…), and being very up-close and personal with a supposedly chained up Buffy.

There’s a lot more going on in this scene of course, with Faith somewhat sarcastically rambling about her horrible childhood, and Buffy delivering some pointed jabs about being better than Faith, or Faith only being able to turn Angel to her side with a magic. We once again see proof of just how low and fragile Faith’s self-esteem actually is, and how easy it is to hurt her, despite what she claims.

I guess Faith’s speech about how she constantly felt inferior to Buffy is especially worth repeating:

Faith: You know, I come to Sunnydale. I'm the Slayer. I do my job kicking ass better than anyone. What do I hear about everywhere I go? Buffy. So I slay, I behave, I do the good little girl routine. And who's everybody thank? Buffy. Buffy: It's not my fault. Faith: Everybody always asks, why can't you be more like Buffy? But did anyone ever ask if you could be more like me? Angel: I know I didn't. Faith: You get the Watcher. You get the mom. You get the little Scooby gang. What do I get? Jack squat. This is supposed to be my town!

It’s one of those lines, where you’re not exactly sure how much the character actually believes of what they’re saying. Faith putting on Buffy the fact that she was unable to connect especially rings false, when you think about just how hard Buffy worked to have that connection with Faith.

But there’s also no denying in that Faith feels like the world let her down. And that includes Buffy. Because despite Buffy’s best efforts, she could never take Faith’s side unconditionally. She could never be just like her.

Buffy doesn’t have the luxury of losing herself in someone else, or to choose them over her responsibilities. (Well, I guess we’ll have to re-examine that in a few seasons from now though…) She needed Faith to meet her halfway, but Faith was already too far gone to turn around for that.

But hey, at least Faith’s got a new apartment out of the deal as of last episode. Evil does take MasterCard I guess.