#same with elise even if she didn't die

[beevean]

https://twitter.com/_CallMeDante/status/1758465407357190552

The replies to this post will shock you for sure. All because the actress didn't show her face.

But yeah, usual broad strokes with memes like "the normal parents and kids crying vs the entire sonic fandom hyped to see a child getting shot" and posts like "its time for the scene (tm) people, bring in the sad shadow yaaay"

Yep, this sure is the Sonic fandom.

At this point I'm genuinely uncomfortable with the many, many, many jokes that she put the coat backwards because "she's already in a body bag, yay the body bag fits, she's already in character"

I don't know what else to say. I don't want to accuse all of these people of sexism but I still think that reducing Maria to "Shadow's canon event" is hella sexist - and don't come to me with "but SA2 does her dirty", later on they did try to give her more characterization, you guys are the ones who don't even care. You just ignore it because you only care about Shadow and his perpetual angst. You only care about "ohohohoh remember when sonic was actually peak (read: when i was a kid)??????? and they had the balls to kill a child???????? sega take notes smh smh smh"

But most importantly, this joke has become boring as fuck. I get it. Maria died and Shadow became evil because of it (gerald whomst). When are you going to turn Emerl's death into a meme? Oh, that one isn't funny? Because Emerl isn't a cute white girl? Or because his death is not tied to your blorbo's pain? 🙃

[ha1taniwh0re]

BSD TOPICS

‼️Spoilers,ped0 mentioning, mafia content?‼️

Ready for hate once again

So im back at watching BSD and im currently at season 5, so I want to talk about some things I see on tik tok recently.

Mori effect

We all know about Mori's "children". Dazai, Yosano, Elise, Q and how Mori traumatized them. First Dazai, he was traumatized before he even met Mori so Mori didn't traumatized him but he did gave him some bad memories(aka killing ex boss Infront of Dazai), Yosano wasn't really traumatized directly by Mori. Mori is a person who will try not to make much mess, he would rather make one person to lose mind than millions of people lifes. Let's remember that ADA and PM have same job, they protect Yokohama's people, ADA is light and Port Mafia is dark so Mori isn't really heartless, he killed ex boss so millions of people wouldn't die just like in war(The leader of an organisation is at the pinnacle of the organization and, at the same time, he is its slave. The leader must be more than willing to commit any atrocity in order to insure the survival of the organization.). At the time yosano was traumatized by Mori she was in war. That experience is already traumatising, her ability was really helpful but it wasn't just Mori who traumatized her but also a soldiers too. They started to hate her at some point because of her ability Mori is doing what anyone in military would do if they were in Mori's position while they are in the middle of the war. Elise, elise is his ability. Yeah yeah she was a young girl before Mori transformed into little girl, but now she is just an ability and Mori controls her how he wants she can't be really traumatized as ability, she doesn't seem like she remembers that she was a real person before. Q is indeed traumatized by Mori too but most by Dazai, Dazai was the one who locked Q.

ADA member transfer to PM

Where to start here? There are some of things that are hinting on Dazai being next boss. Mori predicted that Dazai will be boss at 23(now he is 22), Dazai took off his blue thing off (that was sign that he is with Ada), Mori not sitting in openings and Dazai is scene before that and after. All ADA members having white background in outro s5 but dazai has red. And much more that I saw. People also said that Dazai won't be a person will be back to PM because of Oda. Let's remember that Oda was famous mafia member that never killed someone. So Dazai can be like Oda and he is still keeping his promise to Oda but also he will save ADA people from being in PM.

Better villains

BRO YOU GUYS COULDN'T HANDLE THESE TWO AND YOU WANT "BETTER" VILLAINS. They are THE BEST villains you guys just see one wrong thing and you become blind af. You saw for Mori being ped0(still bad not defending) and never saw anything else but he just is soooo not important. If he wasn't important he wouldn't be still alive. Fukuchi was SOOOO GOOD never could guess he was fifth member. Poor Tachihara became blind T^T

[tired-reader-writer]

Why Greylise Is My OTP: An Essay

To preface this, I would like to state that this in no way implies any other ship is wrong or invalid, we all ship what we ship! I merely hope to convey why I prefer Graham* as a love interest for Elise over Linden.

Some of my quips will get on the more negative side, since I do mislike Linden and take issue with the story's writing at several points. However, this is only my opinion and absolutely not intended to put down those who enjoy this manhwa. Hey, I keep rereading it too! Even if it makes me want blood pressure medication sometimes.

Some rare few of you might have vague memory of a post similar to this having made before, by another blog, but surprise surprise t'was I all along! It was my side-blog @a-perfect-summer-storm which I had deleted due to personal reasons. I thought I ought to remake the post since I'm still surprisingly fond of this ship even after all this time, but this time better! I'm even making this on the website instead of the app so that I can fit like, 20+ screencaps in it. The app only allows 10 images per post.

*You may have realized that I kinda spelled Graham's name two ways, that's because I thought Greyham made for a prettier ship name while as a standalone name it looked a little funny. I'll probably only use Graham to refer to him as an individual while still having the ship name be Greylise.

So then! Without further ado, here thus begins my meta!

Part I: Reflections of Each Other

Their storylines and backgrounds are placed in a parallel position from the get-go— Elise as Song Jihyun/Jihyeon's debut introduces herself as a genius young lecturer, and Graham's introduction does the same. This would make for a good way to make the readers start connecting the dots between them.

And the similarities don't end here.

They're both orphans. While we're not told how Song Jihyun turned out an orphan (given up as an infant? lost parents in a traumatic manner?)— actually we hardly know anything about her aside from the fact that she's super smart and is a workaholic which is a writing flaw imo her past life only functions as an excuse to have her be super mega capable but I digress— it is clear that she's consumed by grief and guilt.

The panels I've featured here of little Jihyun were attached to a scene where Elise was musing about how she didn't even have parents to treasure even if she'd wanted to, so that's why she's being good to her family now because she's learnt the true value of familial bonds. Imagine you'd just been burnt to death only to wake up as an orphan in a strange, unfamiliar world where you have no one in your corner and must restart from the ground-up, wouldn't at least part of you think this life full of hardships must be some sort of punishment for your sins?

We know that she specifically became a doctor to atone for her sins— and we can infer that she's buried herself into it out of guilt and didn't allow herself to be happy as her internal monologue during the plane crash says:

“No! I can't die like this! My life is still miserable! Just when I'd decided to live happily!”

This was mere moments before her death. Let that sink in.

Imagine being a young child who'd just lost his entire family to a plague. Remember how the housekeeper told Elise that Graham was the eldest son. Eldest. Meaning he had younger siblings. Imagine the feeling of powerlessness. Imagine the feeling of being useless, imagine the guilt.

While I am a youngest child, I can say with full confidence from watching my eldest sister that... eldest siblings do have a sense of responsibility and protectiveness towards their younger siblings, even if, yes, due to bad parenting friction and animosity can fester between siblings. We're not given any indication of that, though, so I'll assume that Graham's relationship with his younger siblings must've been largely positive.

With Graham specifically, I would theorize that he suffers from survivor's guilt.

What's survivor's guilt, you may ask. Well, worry not! I've got the info for ya:

“Survivor's guilt is the response to an event that some people experience when they survive a traumatic event or situation that others did not.”

×

“Survivor guilt or survivor's guilt (but also survivor syndrome, survivor's syndrome, survivor disorder and survivor's disorder) is a mental condition that occurs when a person believes they have done something wrong by surviving a traumatic or tragic event when others did not.”

It's not stated or shown directly that he suffers from this, but judging from how he, a young boy of less than ten, made it his entire life mission to become a doctor who can cure everything, yeahhh I wouldn't say it's that big of a stretch.

I wish the story would've expanded upon that, given him a proper arc/spotlight instead of having Linden hog all the screentime but I guess that can't be helped when the author favors the male lead so much...

Notice how they both suffered immense loss: for Elise it was her family, her world, her comfort, her everything— and for Graham it was his family and yeah, losing his entire family in a traumatic manner would be the equivalent of his world coming crashing down. Notice how they both (at least by my extrapolation because canon doesn't care enough about Graham to dig into it—) strove to become doctors out of guilt.

Yet another tidbit of similarity between the two. Not much to comment here, only that they both went through immense hardship.

Part II: The Answer To Each Other's Prayer

Remember the deadly plague that killed the entire Fallon family? It rears its ugly head in the narrative once more, and Graham must face the thing that traumatized him to such a degree.

Or, he would, if the story actually gave a shit about him. As it is, he barely even exists in the periphery of this plotline, even as it's something that's so twined to his backstory and character. I will never not be mad about it.

So here on out it'll be extrapolation with what little knowledge of psychology and writing ability I have, some theories, aka My City Now.

Imagine you're facing your demons. The catalyst that sent you down this path, the path you've dedicated your entire being to. More and more patients show up with similar symptoms to the ones your family suffered all those years ago. It's getting harder to deny.

What do you feel in response to that?

You couldn't save your family twenty years ago. Can you save your patients' lives this time?

Or will you fail again?

Remember my theory that he has survivor's guilt. Remember my theory that he became a doctor because of said survivor's guilt.

What is the cost of failure for him here, psychologically?

In an ideal world, his perspective would've been given proper focus, have him play a more active role by Elise's side, but as we've established canon doesn't give a flying fuck about him soooo. Ugh.

In canon Elise essentially one-man armied her way through this plot point and solved everything by herself, but imagine if Graham had been allowed to be by her side. Had been allowed to be something almost like an equal. Imagine if they were shown collaborating. Yes, they did work together, but it wasn't shown and he was shunted into the background.

Imagine them working together, and the plague is stopped.

The plague that had killed his entire family, stopped in only a mere few days.

Imagine if they were allowed to have a character arc. Imagine if their relationship were allowed to actually develop. Imagine if it'd been given the narrative significance it could've, should've had.

Actually, the cholera arc would've been a perfect opportunity for this thread to be resolved. To backtrack a bit to back before Elise took the medical licensing exam, she saved a Duchess's life with a difficult operation, and her identity as not Rose but Elise de Clorance was subsequently revealed to Graham, who is shocked by this development, and ends up emotionally distancing himself from Elise. The cholera arc, where theoretically Elise would've been able to help him confront the source of his trauma and help him defeat it, could've been the perfect point for reconciliation. Elise could've even confided in him about her situation— her giving up her ticket to freedom for her brother's sake, her not being in love with Linden and how the Emperor has been trying to corner her into being betrothed to the prince, stuff like that. C'mon, let her be frustrated! Let her be angry! Also I really despise the king. As someone who was manipulated and coerced into attending medical school, I take severe issue with characters who do what my mother did to me. I guess I would've taken it better if the narrative called it out for what it was: manipulation, but it only ever frames the king as a jolly old good man who just really likes Elise. Ugh.

In an ideal version she wouldn't be in love with Linden but y'know, she isn't exactly in love w Linden at this point in the story (Ron doesn't count) so I'll take what I can get.

I won't get into it in this post but I have Thoughts about how there's two Fake Identity threads that ran... pretty much simultaneously, and how one could've had potential while the other (in my opinion) was completely and utterly pointless... I'll probably make another post just for it.

Despite everything, Elise heads off to war, and what awaits her afterwards is a caged life where she would surely wither. But that's in the future, and right now she's dealing with corruption, low budget, low supplies, not enough staff, and who shows up for her?

Man, imagine how resonant this moment could've been if they'd been allowed to reconcile and grow closer in the arc immediately preceding it. Imagine.

I am so mad about the wasted potential.

Just as she had saved him (in the theoretical version of the story where he's actually relevant) psychologically in the cholera arc, he will be the one to save her physically (and maybe also psychologically as well, by telling Linden who in an ideal version wouldn't be in love with her, about her struggles and pleads with the prince to help her— y'know, break out of the situation she'd been cornered into by his father).

Imagine the narrative symmetry we could've had.

Part III: The Path Forward

I actually had to skip forward to get the screencaps I wanted, my reread had only gotten to the point where he shows up for her, but I digress. I always thought it made no sense that he would've followed her back away from the frontlines where they would've needed a capable doctor to lead the hospital in her stead but oh well.

In the theoretical version where the story gave a shit about him... Elise would've been able to break off her engagement w Linden because he petitioned with his father to do so at Graham's behest, both doctors get rewarded (Elise was given a peerage separate from her family's iirc, and this would be a good chance for Graham to be able to bring honor to his family name like he wanted as well), they both become lecturers at the Royal Cross Hospital, they both get to move forwards, having broken free of the chains that bound them down, hand-in-hand.

I hope I managed to convey why I like this ship more than Linden/Elise— it's the potential they hold, and I'm very irritated that the story never gave enough of a shit about Graham to follow up on that potential. Graham was nerfed to make way for Linden and I stand on this hill.

Anyways, I now have an AU for this story (I actually have had it for a while but just never posted about it) and I have a name for it now! Kinda! Current placeholder title is From the Valley of Red Flowers. The hypotheticals and theories and stuff I mentioned in this post will be canon to the AU!

Was this too much effort for a ship nobody really cares about? Maybe! I know not many have read Doctor Elise, and fewer still use tumblr. This isn't one of the more popular ones like Who Made Me A Princess, even though Doctor Elise somehow got an anime adaptation.

[slutterhaus]

.resemblance

AN: I love F&H and I love angst, so why not mix them together with one of my favorite boys? CWs: Angst no comfort, very light smut, mourning and mentions of death, unhealthy coping mechanisms, light spoilers. Other: Second Person POV, GN!Reader, reader's fate is up to you. Not proofread, we die Moonscorched. Under read more for obvious reasons.

Looking at his eye should have brought you peace, it should've made your heart skip a beat in this intimate moment, yet all it brought were thoughts that made your gut wretch. Ever since you met him in Prehevil you were enamored with Daan, and for a moment, you felt as if he was too. But the realization that you simply bore a resemblance to his late wife made it all too clear that you were nothing more than a placeholder, a what could have been if Elise had never ended up at that stitched up thing. It made your blood boil, teeth clenching as he thrusted into you.

His grunts filled the room, your own noises having died down as soon as your train of thought began. Daan didn't seem to notice either, even as perceptive as he was, perhaps because he was too caught up in his own world and how your hole clenched around his cock. That only served to make your anger and resentment worse.

Even when he finished and cleaned you up, the scowl had already made its way to your face. And when he handed you his cigarette for you to take a drag from, you let the heat of the smoke settle on your tongue. Such an intimate moment, ruined, and he had finally taken notice. The silence of the room was deafening, worse than having all those horrible noises from outside surround you, and the tension was thicker than the fog that engulfed the city. Daan eventually broke the silence by clearing his throat, but it only earned him a glare.

He wondered if Elise ever looked at him that way, if she held the same anger in her eyes when he couldn't save her. And now he's dragged you with him into his misery, because eyes that once looked at him with affection now bore holes into his head, all because he let himself fall for the smallest hope he had of being with his wife one last time. Which ironically, was what happened after he left the building to continue on with this fucked up festival, only in the worst way possible. He couldn’t leave her like that, turned into a monster by some cruel God. And gods did the wound in his heart open again as he held the limp body in his arms for a second time.

Even when it was all over, when he was back on the train, his mind wandered. Your face morphed with Elise's, then to that stitched up monstrosity that he refused to believe was his wife. It was like his own personal Hell, and the devil chuckled behind him with a Cheshire cat grin. Daan knew he couldn't outrun it, could never escape this horrible hole he found himself in.

His chest burned at his last fond memory of you, where you comforted him after one of the passengers had just Moonscorched. Your delicate hands running through his hair at the bar's couch, the way your lips placed a soft kiss onto his forehead, just like Elise did. A scoff left his lips, knowing how much he hurt you with the exact comparison. He knew his wife was gone, and know, because of him, you were too.

[requiescat-in-pace-bastardo]

Codextober Day 7: Ghost

Somewhere in the Gray, there was a group of Assassins. They all sat around together. It was therapy for them. The Assassins of the past would talk and they would mourn what they had lost. They would tell the stories of their ghosts.

Ezio often told the story of his family's massacre. He talked about how it felt to lose Federico, Giovanni, and Petruccio. "My brother, Petruccio, was so young. He was just a boy. Federico wasn't much older. He was only a few years older than I was. He was a young man with so much ahead of him. My father just inducted him into the Brotherhood. I still remember their faces! I remember that even though they knew death was coming, none of them screamed. The closest thing to screams was my father spitting curses. He used his last words to declare that he knew vengeance would come and that the Auditore family would not die with them, but that we would live on and get justice."

Ratonhnhaké:ton would often share his story of his village. You tell about the night of the fire. He would talk about how scared he was and about the last moments with his mother. "I remember rushing in," he said "I remember trying to find my mother as the building burned and as the trees fell. I remember that last moment with her. I remember seeing her eyes for the last time. I remember her last words. I remember that she wanted me to be safe and that she wanted me to run out of there because, in her last moments, all she could think of was me. All she could think of in her dying moments was taking care of me and knowing that I was safe. That's how she was. She would do anything to protect me. That's why she kept me away from my father. She knew that he would try to make me into a Templar and that he would make me like him. She didn't want me to have that anger in my heart or in my eyes that he had. My father had his own ghosts. He had lost his sister and he had lost my grandfather. Somehow my mother knew that he could not handle another loss."

Arno would often share his stories about the love of his life, Elise de la Serre. He'd talk about how they had first met the day that his father died. He'd talk about how her father adopted him because he saw the boy who had just lost everything and who had no father, no mother, and no home. He'd talk about how he spent his youth running through the streets of Paris with Elise by his side. He'd daydream as he remembered how they always made games and had fun chasing each other. He talked about how as they grew older, him and Elise got closer and closer. He talked about how their love had gone from that of friends to siblings to lovers. He'd reminisce about how he eventually started courting her because he loved her so much. "All we had wanted was a future. All we had wanted was happiness, but that wasn't meant to happen because Elise was the daughter of a Templar and I was the son of Assassins. Because of the war between our two factions, Elise died and I'm left alone again. The Creed is not a permission but a warning. It tells us that we have to be careful because if we get too overconfident or too comfortable, we will lose what matters most to us. For me, it was Elise."

Other Assassins shared the same stories. It was a common trait among their kind. Every Assassin had ghosts. Every assassin had lost someone. Some lost more than others. There were people like Edward who had lost their whole crew, people like Ezio and Arno who had lost their whole family, and then there were others who got lucky and only lost one or two people like the Frye twins.

[crusherthedoctor]

📞 a character others dislike but you don’t?

♠️ favorite protagonist?

🕷️a character you feel is underrated?

📞 - a character others dislike but you don't?

Elise has gained more appreciation over time, but you still get people who think she's to blame for everything wrong with '06. She was a decent if underdeveloped character who simply wasn't used in the story that well, and anyone who thinks turning her into a Not-Sally is the only way to fix her isn't trying.

There's also Zor and Marine, both of whom I will always defend. Isn't it wild how I can barely remember anything from The End's three minute tough guy Reddit copypasta, yet everything Zor says is solid gold... shout out to IDW for missing the point and making him an unironic tryhard like every other villain in the comic. As for Marine, people act as though her character development never happened, which isn't helped by Flynn being one of those very people, and I don't understand why they give her flak for her stereotypical accent, yet make no such complaints about Bunnie.

For a couple of non-Sonic examples: King Sombra kind of went through the same arc as Elise in retrospect. As in, nowadays he has more open fans, but back when he made his debut, he received a disproportionate amount of flak for being a mostly silent villain, and the way he was used. I personally appreciated what they were going for with him, mainly cause of how they conveyed his Crazy Prepared defenses and the like, and honestly, by the time FiM concluded, I think he ended up better off than certain other villains lmao.

And of course, Moneybags. Not counting the first game (cause he didn't exist yet), I don't consider it a true Spyro experience if Winnie the Shit doesn't pop up in increasingly improbable locations to make deals in exchange for, *ahem*, a small fee. He also has some of the best lines. ("What are you going to do, sue me?")

♠️ - favourite protagonist?

Gex is unironically a better written character than everyone in Frontiers and IDW put together. This realisation makes me want to drink tap water at Jerry Garcia's.

Tails has always been my main bro out of the Sonic good guys, cause of how smart he is and how much he wants to help. :D It's also why I'm vocal about how much I despise it when fans double down on reducing the franchise to Just Furry DBZ due to super forms and whatnot, since it means Tails and other characters not named Sonic/Shadow/Silver are guaranteed to be treated even more like they're not good for anything meaningful. >:|

Then there's Spyro of course, which I know will be considered ironic to some given my complex feelings on Sonic, but truth be told, Spyro isn't really that similar to Sonic beyond some snark. He does admittedly act like a dude with tude in the first game, but it's clear that he's younger in that one. From the second game onward, where he's slightly older, he's considerably more chill... at least compared to Bubsy and many others from the 90's. And speaking of, despite his dialogue consisting entirely of WOAH, I respect Crash as well, since it was the bandicoot that got little me into the world of video games.

And many things change, but my fondness for Fluttershy will never die. Just as I have a preference for funny robot-loving villains who nonetheless remain a legit serious threat instead of being a joke, I have another preference for kindhearted quiet characters... which is why I also enjoy Trip... and Tikal... look, we all have our types, I'm sure you can sympathise. ;P

🕷️ - a character you feel is underrated?

The Hard-Boiled Heavies have mostly been pushed aside since Mania came out (aside from that one IDW story, but that's not a blessing), and it makes me madder than YouTubers who pretend they're mad because there are villains with dialogue who have less personality than these guys. They're so much fun, and despite all of them having the same Egg Robo template, their designs remain distinct from each other, even in silhouette form.

I also took to Ariem early on. Like the Heavies, "underrated" refers to general lack of fandom buzz compared to other characters, since although she appears to be quite liked, the acknowledgement given to her is somewhat limited due to her being stuck in an Android-only game for the time being. Some people also have an obsession with comparing her unfavourably to either Sage or Lanolin, for reasons I can probably guess in both cases. Me? I love her design, and her interactions with Cream and Knuckles are cute. :> I know it's not likely, but I hope she appears elsewhere so that she can be brought to more fans' attention... provided she doesn't get IDW'd.

Finally, a more complicated example: Metal Sonic. Now yes, he's very popular and beloved, and remains so to this day, but during the last couple of years, I feel I've been seeing two growing sides in the community when it pertains to him: the side who loves Neo Metal Sonic, and believe he's only a threat in that form like Flynn apparently believes (given how he often turns regular Metal into a jobber), and the side who consider him lame or essentially worthless because of his minimal characterization compared to others. He might not say much, and he might be a hedgehog-shaped tool of Eggman's ambition rather than a complete person of his own, but I believe there's a lot you can do with Metal that wouldn't require turning him into Usurper the Elf Shoes. OVA Metal ain't S-tier for nothing.

[plumsaffron]

Ayoooooo, the Miraculous salt fandom really is a different breed of toxic and hateful. They rly ought to tone it down bc Lila Rossi isn’t coming back. I don’t like Lila either but they just make so much hate content and not just slipping past the filters that it’s baffling.

Everytime I read or look for crossover content, this is exactly how I feel bc I don’t want to see any miraculous characters or even a mere mention in them. I feel like going into a trap filled maze these days.

The Miraculous Plague Fandom is filled with a lot people who have nothing else better to do but be oxymorons. Ignoring or taking a break from Lila is not their strong suit. Lila took two breaks why can't this fandom try that instead of consuming their curse of hatred. You even got that Mariah Chloe voice over being asking what with people hate towards Lila. Then you see a gang of losers (even constructing their comments in a mask to shut down her or anyone's interest in Lila) being static same old scrubs but it figures.

It's amusing to me. There's video saying she's an aimless antagonist with the usual crap that reels in Lila haters usually to wank to or increase their extreme seeethery. But what makes me laugh is observing how aimless this stupid moronculous fandom ironically is. The folly of the aimless miraculous maleficent plaguedom.

They are just a bunch of Ripslingers to Dusty Crophopper (if you're familiar with that movie or the game). Or I can say they want to be brave but will disperse when someone says some messed crap against her without realizing that would affect many things. From hating the writers crap and how things are going to wanting the worst done upon Lila by the writers.

Like HUH. They dislike to loathe the ml&cn writers or characters and spam all this here's what I'll do or rewrites AUs whatever but they would want who they hate to make things worse in a leave fandom inducing way, after this Recreation crap. Loathe writers but wants the show to be better or reboot or be within their standards but wants to stuff in their minds some loathsome crap against Lila. REAL INTELLIGENT, EH?

For a plague filled fandom that thinks they truly know what's up. Well... They ironically found a way to be more dumb or pathetic than characters in the show ever can be. Makes since though because they haven't realized Lila's existence is the true attack upon this miracle plague fandom but they are distracted and fooled themselves so badly that they might not ever see or let go.

Sucks though cause I know around several more characters from other series that get treated just as bad or even worse for bigger dumb reasons (Prosecutor Godot/Diego Armando, Shadow in his own game or the game itself, Princess Elise, Wallflower Blush, Broly The Legendary Super Saiyan, Sasuke Uchiha, his parents, and his clan). Fandoms tend to ignore context and latch onto to manure and bandwagon the propaganda against this character train. Even if you show it was never like that, it's almost always too late. Many are just completely incapable of understanding. They pick what they wish is valid. If it doesn't meet their interest... Well Compromise Doesn't Exist. Conform and boot lick or Resist or Die trying (I think I'm gonna start calling the ladyplague fandom, Leaf Villagers or shinobi drones).

That fiance death thanks to this accursed fandom wasn't even enough to gets these buffoons to chill or rethink or lay in grass. Soon as she faded into memory, the true nature of the ladyplaguedom showed their faces. Instability of handling Lila even made some completely turn their back because they didn't get what they wanted despite they could be better and let go but nope as you know the splurge of salt fics through the years (couple to few years on here, like almost every week searching Lila Rossi and there's like a cluster of salt prompts or salt fic links or memes to mock her. It was annoying.)

Other sites the hatred is strong too (twitter reddit but deviantart specifically where Sunset Shimmer makes her bleed or Kagami and Marinette I think punch her stomach and she's damaged. Reactions to Lila by other characters from other shows or being destroyed or harmed by them. Other forms of vilification or dehumanization). YouTube was slightly less until defenders or neutrals vanished or went inactive (1-5 channels).

It's technically worse here.

Though surfing and tragically find people going out their way to have or prompt rape fics of Lila . Guess what? It's the main heroes Ladybug and Cat Noir doing it. And then November of 2023 some scrum prompted scum to make a story of Lila being violated by Adrien because Lila got Marinette expelled. Then later on the recents feed another days later on lila rossi search. A disgusting ask with the user then replied with the after affects. Crap like this related crap on A03 too (but figures heck some person had Adrien violate Marinette too. What is with people making this ruined destroyed one that? Like why?)

Revelation really solidified why this maggot infested fandom deserves to be derided but let them be distracted by Confrontation and think they achieved something. Lila starts doing cosplay and it destroyed this fandom but really it was just a Cerise on top the Lila cake of Revelation. She can do the same dang thing without being Cerise but stupid viewers want to go too deep into it. So deep that they discovered a new reason to want to hate clown or fear her. So deep that they go out their way thirsting her to be an adult and so deep they can't see why that should not be quenched for.

Stupid humans so bored or absolutely pathetic that they actually found the ultimate way to spit on that woman fan of Lila.

Kind of fascinating.

Hating so much without thinking beyond.

TRUE FLOPS

Idk. Perhaps you go on a blocking everyone spree or tag. Tumblr tagging is weird. it doesn't always like specifically show up with results to what was searched.

Like if you search umm "fugly fandom", results may show that or "fandom" or "beautiful fandom" or some ice cube image and one of the tags say "fugly ice" which cross tags it presence. I guess search tags here kind of works like an "and or" statement.

All I can say is do what you can to avoid or ignore ML it on social media.

[avastar-thelastfirebender]

[REBLOGS > LIKES]

I really, really REALLY wanted to put this scenario down on paper for a while.

Character Warnings: Timekeeper Cookie, Roguefort Cookie (Pursuit of Lost Time)

TW: Early Stages of memory loss, gaslighting(?) and manipulation, severe sleep deprivation, nightmares

Other notes: In my fanon, Cinnamon is Roguefort's little brother. Remember this. (Also it's literally 1 AM so no beta we die like goombas)

It wasn't often that Roguefort would remain awake for days on end for anything but a heist. Well, this was a heist, just not one for gems. No, no, the target this time...it was far more precious.

"You're twitching. Perhaps you should get some rest." Timekeeper's voice snapped Roguefort out of their thoughts. Truth be told, Roguefort hadn't slept in days, weeks...actually...what day was it? Something that started with an F? It didn't matter.

"I don't think I've ever recalled you caring for my wellbeing." Rogueforf wouldn't make eye contact. Something in the back of their mind was telling them not to, but they just couldn't place their finger on why, exactly.

"Your moms weren't the ones who said they could help you find the watch, were they?" Timekeeper's tone had an edge of sugary malice to it as she continued to operate the aircraft. She didn't even need to look to know that Roguefort had flinched at the mention of their mothers.

"You and I both know damn well why they didn't." Usually, Roguefort would've done everything in their power to hode their anger. But a lack of sleep, grief, timeline jumping, and a misguided attempt at closure (for lack of a better term) all did a number on their mind. "You said yourself that I'd be able to fix the family if I went with you, so don't even go there."

"I did say that, didn't I? I'm sure Cinnamon is in total agreement with your decision. After all, he looked up to you the most, so I bet he trusted you to make the right choice."

Okay, that was the last straw.

"You know what? I'm going to bed." Roguefort sounded angrier than they woumd've liked, but at the same time they sounded exasperated. Understandably so.

"Yes, yes, goodnight to you, too." Timekeeper feigned a yawn as she heard Roguefort storm off in annoyance. And as such, they would totally miss the little smirk growing on her face as they left.

Roguefort wasn't sure how an entire guest room could fit in an aircraft, but they had learned to not question Timekeeper's bs a while ago. They wouldn't feel themself flopping down on the mattress, they wouldn't feel their eyes closing. All they'd be able to hear before drifting off was the sound of their own voice humming Für Elise. They knew it made Cinnamon happy...they just wished they could remember why...

~

When Roguefort opened their eyes, they were in a dark, empty void. It wasn't cool or echo-y like voids in sci-fi movies, just one where Roguefort was truly alone.

That was when their eyes landed on Cinnamon.

"Cinnamon...hermanito....is that really you?" Roguefort's voice was shaky with tears and desperation, but Cinnamon wouldn't say a word, only continuing to stare at his big brother.

"Cinnamon...it's me!" Roguefort was met with more silence.

"Hermanito...please..." Silence. The silence made Roguefort feel something they couldn't describe. They just knew they didn't like it.

"Cinnamon...Cinnamon, come on! S-Say something, damn it!" But Cinnamon wouldn't say a word.

"CINNAMON!"

~

Roguefort sat up in the bed with the speed of a rocket, breathing heabily as they tried to regain their bearings. They had definitely had nightmares in the past, but this one felt different. Roguefort sighed, knowing there was no way in hell they'd be able to go back to sleep now. With a sigh, they left the guest room and returned to the main control panel, unsurprised to see Timekeeper still there.

"I thought you were going to bed?"

Roguefort hesitated.

"I'm not tired." They sat in the passenger side of the control panel, seeming determined and bored at the same time.

"We need to find that damn watch."

[eiseryn]

✨🧪HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEI 🧪✨

It's September 17!!! Which means it's the birthday of everyone's (my) favourite pharmaceutical doctor🥺🥺🥺I love her so much 🥺🥺🥺

It's no surprise that she's my current obsession and a lot of my brainrot is based on her orz so ofc I had to do her justice for her birthday! Which is today -- September 17~

Since Sept 17 this year is also Mid Autumn Fest I was hoping to draw her eating some mooncake maybe with Ceres or Vail or Elise 🤔🤔🤔 Let's see if I can squeeze in a sketch tomorrow.

As for how she usually celebrates her birthday? I imagine usually with her friends and Vail XD Maybe this year, they had hotpot and mooncakes 🤣* I imagine her favourite filling might be low sugar red bean or lotus seed. I tried to draw some lotuses in the BG of her birthday art but uhhhh I free handed them so they might not be the best. The flower in her hair is supposed to be a lotus too but I didn't look at a ref before I drew it so it's not accurate LOL SOME FUN FACTS FOR THE UPCOMING CYBERPUNK VIS NOVEL THAT'S DEF GOING TO COME OUT BEFORE 2030 (pls believe and cope with me)

Fun fact 1: The events of the campaign take place right after had a girl's night out with Elise + Ceres 😭

Fun fact 2: In the campaign, her birthday present from Vail is Meng, her ragdoll cat :3

Fun fact 3: The diamond-shaped green gemstone necklace she's often depicted wearing was Ceres' gift to her!

Comparing this year to last year's piece, I'm super proud of my improvement. I tried to keep everything almost the same except her hair is a little longer since it's been a year~ I think the main improvement is me being able to draw hands sometimes now XD (I REALLY TRIED FOR THIS PIECE T_T) Maybe you might notice other improvement I've made? 🥺

Let's also compare last year's Lei bday art (2023) compared to this year's (2024). For some reason last year's art looks really wonky in terms of the face even though I actually drew the sketch on pencil traditionally??? Also ofc there's no hands drawing LOL And the hair is shorter but for some reason there's no green dye? Although in this year's piece note that the green dye migrated cuz she didn't dye her hair so it simply,,, moved down LOL as her hair grew

NOW THAT'S WHAT WE CALL ✨IMPROVEMENT✨

But to blab more about Lei's birthday while we have space 🤔🤔🤔 CONSIDERING THE MODERN AU where Lei + her friends are in university (and med school LOL)... I imagine the first year they threw her a surprise birthday party cuz Gigi is very good at planning parties 💅 But they can't do that every year or she'll expect it!

Lei is half Chinese so that's why it's really cool her bday this year falls on mid autumn fest! It's extra cool cuz she already has some moon motifs with her flower symbolism being moon flower + an unreleased parallel for the witch au/ fantasy au + celestial themed wallpaper i was going to draw... I HAVE TOO MANY OC BRAINWORMS NOT ENUFF SKILL OR TIME

Some brainworms at 2am

smaller party this year and it's a hotpot party!

If it's with her closer family it would be with Gigi + Elise + Ceres + Vail (so a party of 5) + cats

The only reason I might imagine with the Mertalline group (larger group) is so Flash can show up XD BUT ALSO IN THIS AU FLASH IS VAIL'S NEIGHBOUR XD so maybe if they're at Vail's appt he will show up anyways 🤔

I was imagining the party to take place at Ceres + Lei's shared appt BUTTTTTT just for the Flash cameo 🤣🤣🤣 That's going to be the canon

They probably have a dual pot/ divider thing so there's a white broth + spicy broth! I wonder who can handle spice in the group? Def Gigi... maybe Elise? I imagine not Ceres and maybe not even Vail! It's Lei and Flash I wonder of the two if they can handle spice 🤔🤔 I think Lei can, but not super spicy -- just enough to eat spicy food and not die LOL

dessert is mooncakes instead of cakes... DEF MULTIPLE FLAVOURS SO EVERYONE CAN TRY DIFF FLAVOURS -- classics like lotus seed + red bean (low sugar for lei + normal sugar for sweet tooths like vail and gigi) + maybe some unique ones like pineapple or ube or sweet potato?

maybe they do some moonviewing together too 🥺 take a stroll to the local university grass field and enjoy being in each other's presence

I wonder what Lei's friends would give her?

I'm thinking that Ceres would handmake some thing(s) -- maybe an album she worked on for the past year about their fave memories! Maybe a painting of Meng + Cillin, or a keychain?

Elise would likely go with perfume, scented candles, or jewelry like earrings -- something she knows Lei would like or use!

Gigi's gift is her presence in Lei's life (IM JOKING BUT ALSO THIS IS TRUE). She'd probably give Lei a pretty outfit that she'd like Lei to wear + it would fit Lei perfectly -- SHE MIGHT EVEN SEW OR DESIGN IT HERSELF???

Vail's birthday gift for the first year is Meng AS IT IS CANON but for this one I imagine they already have Cillin + Meng so 🤔🤔🤔 maybe this year it's his d- I'm kidding... sorry LOL probably something like earrings actually XD since he's gone shopping with her. He likely recruited the help of Ceres and Elise and Gigi for this tho. Maybe even a fluffy robe or bathcoat... IDK I feel like he's rather practical with gifts and he probably treats her well outside of her birthday / gifts her things anyways so XD

It's really hard to top a cat let's be real here

I kinda want to write a short fanfic... NGHHHHHH if I have time tmr (me doing all these things for tmr 🤡🤡🤡)

[wastrelwoods]

thinking abt my murder family dynamics as always and the specific problem of why abigail doesn't find a way to just escape the whole situation with hannibal and will, because she is definitely physically capable of doing that and she's not stupid, she knows hannibal is dangerous and might kill her

first place! she's an adolescent of an age group typically at least ready to TRY leaving home, but she's established as being particularly attached to her parents and having a close bond with them. maybe she didn't look forward to leaving home any more than her dad did, and she would have gravitated back home any chance she could like elise nichols. when she's orphaned and loses her home at the start of the season it fundamentally unmoors her emotionally. in a lot of ways she's still a child and not really keen on the idea of striking out on her own in the face of all that loss. alana bloom wants to support her to be more self sufficient or at least not to try to replace her parents with substitute figures right away, BUT, CRUCIALLY,

its not JUST that she doesn't want to be alone in a purely homesick sense. she cannot SURVIVE on her own. she's physically powerless, and worse than that she is in very immediate danger of being charged as an accomplice to her father, and that's not a danger she can shake off by being independent and starting over with a clean slate. she ropes alana in to feeling as much like a guardian as a psychiatrist and seems to foster that protectiveness in her, and does the same to hannibal and will. she latches on to all of them as they latch on to her and does everything she can to put them in a position to protect her. even freddie gets the honorary abigail guardian treatment, though the connection is less 'will you be my mummy🥺' and more 'i will be the goose that lays golden eggs if you help me look innocent'

it helps in hannibal's case that he is doing the same work right back and they immediately become codependent as shit. he thrives on making people with less power feel dependent on him, she needs someone to ensure her survival, she lets him know that she has dirt on him, he puts her in a position to get in trouble and then rescues her from it, they hide a body together. its a blackmail based relationship on both sides that immediately turns into playing house and fostering genuine emotional connection.

will fundamentally can't really offer her the same sense of safety because he's visibly unstable and also carries the risk of turning her in if he finds out she's guilty, and then she's afraid that he's just flat out a threat to her safety (and he IS, there is a part of him that feels betrayed by her and wants to kill her in retribution or to protect her by making her safe in death or whatever jumbled up mess of her father's feelings he's stewing in)

so will isn't safe for her and alana keeps a little too much professional distance to protect her the way she needs, and then hannibal pulls the rug out from under her and reveals that he is much, much more dangerous than she had assumed. and in that moment there's an implicit threat that she will let him help her by faking her death or he will kill her outright. evolve or die.

but after that? she could find a way to leave any time, after hannibal hides her away and gets busy with his long-distance flirtation with will and the FBI. she's not tied up in his basement. she's a free agent, she may even be in a separate safe house. but she never runs away. maybe its not totally rational: the emotional connection is there - she reminds him of his sister, he reminds her of her father. but i think she knows very well that his caring about her doesn't make him less of a threat to her safety. still, while the relationship is obviously precarious, he has always helped her and done exactly as he promised to do, and she has no reason to believe he will betray that. AND she has a good reason not to act out against his wishes in any way even if to do so WOULD make her safer and more in control. when she dug up the body they hid together, he gave her an implicit threat: his protection is conditional.

if she stays and does what he tells her to do, she trusts that he'll keep his promises. if she runs, she does not have that guarantee. it's a very smart calculation - but (scorpion and the frog parable) she realizes too late she was wrong about that

[jay-jp-art]

hey hey, do you mind sharing your akiyama headcanons? just saw ur tags talking abt how theyre dark and im very interested!!!! your fem ryuaki fuels me in ways i cannot describe and i havent even played dead souls FHKGJG and your tanimuras have my whole entire heart!!!

Oh wow first of all THANK YOU for the ask!! It's been only couple days since I've discovered I've had them disabled all this time so I'm very happy I noticed it before you found my blog (,:

I've already complained a bit on twt that when I've started to write down ryuaki headcanons, it prompted me to make a 35+ pages google doc with meta on both of them 😅 It pushed me to write more fun drafts tho, so all is well, but it won't fit in this post for sure ahbfght

But ofc, I will share a little about Shun specifically. (TW for implied SA)

Akiyama... I have complicated feelings about him, because on the one hand, he got betrayed by his closest people, lost all the standing in society and lived as a homeless person for a long time, and that's a big trauma to have. But on the other... He's got back up by a miracle, and now he's trying to recreate the miracle for others. He assumes the role of a judge for other people while himself being too young, too flawed, having black and white morals.

(In Y4 I downright despised Akiyama when he refused a loan to an abused woman on the basis that she didn't want to apply for sex work, but in the same substory gave some cringefail guy 4 chances to complete the test just because it was amusing.)

But I've just completed Y5, and it gave me lots of food for thought.

First of all, from what I see, Shun here was written (rewritten?) as a more sympathetic character. For example, now when it's implied that he's gonna make some woman "use her body" for the loan, it means he's sending her to work on the construction site. Well, alright. I'll take the bad taste joke over previous cases.

There's also an important quest when Akiyama meets his former boss, who not only initially fired him on false accusations, which started his downfall, but also married his ex-fiancée. And Akiyama finally admits that at first, he wanted to use his position as a loan shark to be selfish and to get revenge, but got disgusted with himself after seeing some humanity and principles in the former boss.

So, here finally comes self-awareness about his actions. Interesting tidbit.

Another big part of the character building we see now: when he is alone in Osaka, without Hana around, he's a complete mess. His new office is dirty, he barely eats some instant ramen and clearly just uses the place to escape Tokyo and the responsibilities he created himself. If in Y4 we saw him within his element, managing Elise and doing loan business (with a messy table because he's just soooo quirky and lazyyy \s), then in Y5 we get to see a bit of what's inside his head. And it's not pretty.

He's clearly distancing himself - from Hana and his new yakuza friends, because they have their own lives to care about. (Tanimura too mayhaps, but this is a separate friendship that I also like to talk about a lot)

Aaand he escapes to his ugly nook to have his ugly depressive thoughts. Can't let them witness it, can he? They'd lose all the respect for him.

At the same time, he throws himself into helping Haruka with passion, because that's the thing he actually cares about, for the first time in a couple years. (He also provides her with some much-needed parenting about the importance of being selfish, because, being raised by Kiryu, she's entirely too self-sacrificing.)

And suddenly - he's lively and energetic again, he's bouncing off other characters, he risks his life for what he deems right, he's helpful, organizing, charming. He's everywhere.

(But he's also afraid to acknowledge that he's got too close to people again. So he's ready to literally die for them and Haruka's dream, but avoids calling them friends, settling for "acquaintances")

Not much needed to imagine that, after everything settles down, he falls apart again. Because in his head he's never really needed or too important for the people around. They carry on with their life and plans. Such as Eri, Arai, Yasuko. Even Hana got fed up and left at some point, and has been keeping him at an arm's length since. (Good for her, that was unhealthy)

He's not only not that interesting, his trauma is "ugly" (by his self-admission). It's not heroic and it's very mundane. There's no clear villains to blame, like with Majima's torture in Y0.

It's just - waking up is hard. Akiyama can't see the point in much of what he's doing anymore. Money is just paper for him now, they might have bought him the freedom of choice, but somehow it didn't help. Even with all the financial help to struggling people he can't buy healing for himself. Most alive he felt actually was when he lost the money briefly in Y4 - it made him work to get them back again.

Now it gets a bit tricky, hence the TW.

I think that a lot of things about him actually make sense, if while living on the streets, he had it bad enough to the point of selling himself for food. Like, I don't want to make it into torture porn or downplay the traumatic experience of homelessness overall, but something for sure ruined him and his self-perception. That's why he's bouncing between playing a self-righteous entity and hating himself.

Aside from his crippling depression from all this being shunned deep inside and not addressed, there's the attitude about sex work I've mentioned he has in Y4. He is distancing himself from the situation yet again. A little bit of a trick to calm his mind: "If I treat it like every other job, it won't feel as dehumanizing applied to myself". And also: "Well, I was not above doing that! I was not too proud to do it! Why should anyone else be?"

Now, of course he doesn't want to subject his former boss (and, by extension, Eri) to the same hardships. Even though he is, actually, a bit of a cruel person.

So here's Akiyama in Y4-5. Not super pretty and kind of greasy, but nevertheless charming, gallant and crazy smart. Fighting and dancing and singing and networking equally well. VERY annoying, because he considers himself an expert in all things he read about even once (I also hc him eidetic memory, which makes it worse). And with every year getting more secluded and miserable.

That being said, fem ryuaki has slightly different tone even in all-fem AU because of gender expectations. Akiyama's upbringing for example.

I hc his parents seeing him as this very "proper" son, encouraging his risk-taking neurodivergent activity ONLY when it helped to build onto that image. They happily bragged about their son - with prestigious business degree, good banking job and pretty fiancée. But ofc, when it's all came crashing down, they didn't want to hear about him anymore. Nowadays they acknowledge his existance with some disdain, because they care about reputation more then about him or his wealth. And he has some "disgusting jobs, no respectable friends and no wife".

(It's all kinda complicated from both sides, mb I'll get deeper into it in fanfic that I'm writing)

(And forgive me for saying this, but fem Akiyama is more interesting for me to write in this narrative, because she needed to balance fitting "proper little quiet Japanese woman" with her loud banking career, and while she was always openly feminine, she was never proper or quiet "enough". And now she's "not enough" among actual living legends.)

Well, that's all I have to say for now!

I'm always open for further questions and discussions 😊

[stillresolved]

💕 For all my blogs, uroborosymphony, geaesaekki, usuhan, yaoogui, devangelis

Dammit I sent without finishing my line : for all my blogs even though we already have many pairings and ships already<3 (2/2)

@uroborosymphony / send 💕 and I will tell you some muses...

HELLO LYNNIE nyahahaha, i'm here to enable you some more my dear friend bc we can never have too many plots/dynamics JFKSLDJFL :'D i'll talk about characters i have on my other blogs and to obligate myself to write out the new muses profiles, i will also include the muses i planning on add in the (hopefully) near future <3 i'll go in order here :3

@/uroborosymphony:

okay so i know that CALISTA is on hiatus, HOWEVER would she like a friend aka can YOOJIN be frends with her bc they are both immortals who lowkey wanna die (yoojin's just better at hiding it :'( )...but they cope with their immortality in opposite ways. whereas calista hides away from society in one place, yoojin is a nomad, can't stay in one place for too long. i could see something in calista resonating with yoojin when it comes to tru feelings....also just thinking yoojin randomly visiting her like once a century bc 'hi i know we haven't talked since like the 1900s so how have you been'. also more opposite vibes in that calista loves reading and you would have to pay yoojin to hold a book :'D

we did talk about this briefly but...ILANA?? being the lu*cy-gr*ey figure for my interpretation of SNOW 🤩🤩🤩 aka being the one person who haunts him for life bc she was the one person who escaped him....and who he could never control. i see them being like toxic lovers ( although the toxicity is probably coming from his side more :'D )...this is also to say though if we're doing something similar to the books, i would love...if ELISE, the mockingjay figure in our THG verse, could perhaps be a descendant of ilana since she had to have heard one of ilana's songs (the hanging tree) from somewhere....i don't think elise would have to be a grandchild of ilana, but you know ilana haunting snow would be a dream come tru of mine <3

still building on that though, PERHAPS?? in the crime verse, since i plan on SNOW being like the mastermind of ANACHRON, maybe he and ILANA could also have been lovers for a brief time too?? before she scams him and maybe it was a while back , but snow also suck at letting things which is probably why he ended up opening base in seoul aka subconsciously looking for her, but also wanting to hm, how should i say this, show her how much better off he is without her anyways if that makes any sense?? basically he's a boy having a temper tantrum about a situationship that didn't work out fjskldfjskl

also obviously GREY and ARA, still gotta work out most personality and backstory stuff for him, but grey would follow ara to the ends of the earth <3

@/geaesaekki:

we talked about this briefly in the dms, but STILL, GAYA in the THG verse being SNOW's wife by arranged marriage, but lowkey those two could be a power couple (panem needs more than just a despotic president uphold the system :'D) BUT ALSO in the crime verse perhaps, after her fall from grace (unless you have other plans for her of course), he offers a means of redeeming herself in the public's eyes aka ANACHRON's front is a charity organization so if you want her to pick the evil side again :3 they can casually date too if you're interested <3

i feel like GAYA and GA-RAM could probably have a connection of some sort too since most likely gaya would have heard of ga-ram's father AND probably about yo-han as well...maybe they were acquaintances since they're technically in the same field.

also i remember!! seeing a plot you once posted with the other muse killing someone and MARA being there to help them through it....what if that muse was ANNIE :3 ( although she might end up going to ARA instead though 🤔🤔🤔 ). this could also be NELL since she wouldn't want to tell myungdae or alfred about this :/ nell could also help mara with mask girl things since that does take place...over the net too!!

on a lighter note though, perhaps MARA could be acquaintances with SUKI since suki does drop by the gangnam police station often to visit her friend there...i think they could get along and also suki is....a fan of vigilantes so she would probably following the activities of mask girl bc she can 🤩🤩🤩

also if MARA is looking for more...illegal information, perhaps ALFRED could be a source of information. i have a thought about him opening up shop in seoul with a coffeehouse as cover for dealing with the exchange of information (it also acts as a community center in the neighborhood tho <3)

more MARA apparently :'D i think you also mentioned looking for undercover threads so perhaps since FELICITY is also undercover as an executive assistant for guess who, SNOW, she and mara could be allies of sort on the field? more on that later!!

@/usuhan:

okay this is where i'll be talking a lot MORE about the muses to be added because i would like for SNOW in his modern verse?? to be a patron of La Rose because one, his favorite flowers are roses, two, he'd be rich enough to get in anyways, but also three, he's deprieved enough to want to be a member there :/ anyways, if you want, he could be casually hooking up with SERAPHINA while being 'pals' with DANTE ( although that might contradict the fact that in his THG verse, he's technically married to gaya...but then again he is a bastard so i'm not putting him above sleeping with sera before switching over to being lovers with gaya :// )

you know how GA-RAM hates rich people? you know how BELLAMY is a textbook example of 'rich people' so what if ga-ram was part of the fighting ring circle bel watches bc ga-ram needs a way to let off steam (they're already rich thanks to yo-han :'D)...maybe bel can sponsor them??

obviously we have SERAPHINA and AERI to develop, but also what about aeri and DANTE's relationship aka in-laws interactions, although i'm not sure what assumptions to make about dante quite yet...although perhaps mama kang made aeri go see dante for like 'therapy sessions' :'D i could see aeri at least begrudgingly respecting him....maybe dante sees her as amusing to be around if only to psychoanalyze her fjskldjfslk

also if SNOW is in la rose, i have a feeling he'd also drag FELICITY into the club too. maybe SERAPHINA and/or DANTE could be suspicious of her since her only connection is through snow and low key i could see felicity wanting to down la rose as well...also just an aesthetic thought but felicity in a fine dress and also pseudo flirt(ish cause she's technically only an assistant) with dante to try and get more information and felicity will be giving the popular girl vibes :D. no feelings on her end though bc she's already in love with you know who <3

@/yaoogui:

gonna be honest, i don't know if i have as many for the muses here since most of my muses aren't exactly involved with straight up ya*kuza crime life...that being said, i still would love?? for DAI and SUKI to like be friends kinda?? since i MUST continue the trend of suki being friends with the most unexpected of ppl...maybe she doesn't have to know about dai's history, but she could become a regular at the octogon club... dai probably invited her bc he thought she was funny and she was like 'well i like free alcohol, can you get me paper too' ...gonna be honest but i feel like this would be more of a crack dynamic :'D

oh!! but also perhaps DAI and ALFRED have a business partner kind of relationship/old comrades kinda relationship?? i'm thinking of alfred deciding to fly solo when it comes to information dealing and maybe he did a favor for dai and they became drinking buddies back in the day....so if alfred needs a favor, dai's the guy to go to unless it impedes on yamazaki clan business

@/devangelis:

alrighty we're on the last one, so obviously if she knows myungdae, then she would probably know about ALFRED and NELL....but also!! i would love for her to meet SUKI as well since suki is friends with myungdae aka the pigeon man ( obviously ONE DAY....i want deva and alex's hyuk to interact too bc those two are both important ppl to patrick :'D )....perhaps deva would be amused by suki as well

since deva is devoted to proper journalism, maybe she could have been looking into GA-RAM's father's death and the circumstances there and yeah there is ga-ram refusing to help at first but also 'c'mon don't you want to clear your family's name once and for all?'

also if DEVA is a friend of patrick, i could see FELICITY approaching her at least once just to say 'thank you for being there for him when i couldn't be' <3

adding one more to this, it's angsty one, but perhaps during the revolution let's say both PATRICK and deva's beloveds are kidnapped by the capitol so the both of them?? are literally just going stir crazy out of their minds with worry and wow, the only ppl who are going to be able to calm them down is each other :'D....either that or they take turns breaking down bc they are mom and dad someone has to keep it together for the rest of the victors :'D

okie that's all i got for now, but we don't have to do any of these if you are not interested!! THANKS FOR ENABLING ME AGAIN LYNNIE and cheers to the 48293048230 plots we will hopefully develop in the future 🤩🤩🤩

[thot-farm]

I finally finished birthright. I hated it, but I am a biased Xander dick rider 🤷‍♀️

I spent Elise's birthday getting her killed in birthright instead of making a shit post edit.

I just don't get how Ryoma stood still so many times. Like I get it, honorable samurai and all, fair fight between Xander and Corrin, but the strongest Nohrian soldier is beating his sister/brother with an ancient magic sword that is as tall as F!Corrin, and Ryoma is standing there staring while he let it happen. (Image creds u/MSGold)

Like, what?! If he, the fast samurai with a lightning katana, just jumped in and blocked the "final" blow from Xander that probably would have killed or at least greatly injured Corrin, 1) Elise would have lived and been able to do Elise things, 2) HE WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN A JACKASS STANDING THERE WHILE HIS SIBLING WAS ABOUT TO DIE! I don't hate Ryoma in every other route, but holy fuck I hate Birthright Ryoma. In the cutscene for the fight against Garon, bro tried to negotiate with Garon, of all people, to let Azura go, then he gets hit by a fucking fireball. Like for fuck sake dude get it together!

Maybe this is all steaming from them making Xander seem unstoppably strong and then the Reddit propaganda that Ryoma is on the same level or stronger. I don't believe that anymore after playing Birthright. Ryoma sucked and sassy birthright Corrin sucks too. Azura slayed, literally, she was the last unit left alive on the final battle for me, she fucked up that overgrown salamander.

And why in the route about justice prevailing and peace did Corrin not just make the Nohrian siblings come with her? Puppy eyes for Camilla on her first appearance and she would probably come with. Elise did come with. Corrin could have just dragged Leo with her or dangled Camilla in front of him and he would have come, or Camilla would have forcibly dragged him. If Xander was pitted against all his loved ones trying to bring peace to the lands or picking King Garon, he would probably pick his siblings, even if it would take a battle of him "knocking" sense into his siblings, looking at his siblings beaten down yet not giving up the fight for peace, and not giving up on hope for him even against his blade would probably let the "real" Xander's feelings out instead of them being stifled by the loyal crown prince of Nohr.

But that didn't happen, instead, Corrin lives with the guilt of Elise dying in her place the blood of Xander's glorified suicide on her hands, and a worse elder brother imo. But at least Ryoma is hotter, right? (Screenshots taken from Hawlo's video.)

Also, I get that Xander would have dismissed Azura's crystal ball probably like he dismissed soothsaying. (Screenshots from Xander/Nyx supports justonegamer)

But in his death quote he admitted King Garon had changed, he knew, and everyone else knew and was telling him so. So maybe that crystal could have given him the final push he needed to break free of his shackles to King Garon. (Screenshots from pheonixmaster1 chapter 26.)

Why oh why of all people did they show it to Leo and not Xander? Leo quite literally just disappeared, killed Lago, then disappeared again then came back and now he was king of Nohr. All could have been avoided if Leo told Xander to stop huffing copium. (ETA om the crystal at the end.)

Xander's death hit me harder than any other death in the game, I knew it was coming so I was tearing up the chapters leading up to it and through his death speech. Ryoma's I teared up a bit. Takumi I didn't realize died so it never set it. Elise I didn't cry, I was frustrated. Azura's death in Birthright was sad, but I was still recovering from Xander's death, and all of Ryoma's yapping afterward just made me angry. Who else dies? A bunch of side characters and enemies? Characters I couldn't give less of a shit about since I don't remember?

I don't know why, but I feel like the salamander form and the goo form should have been swapped for the route but I don't know how they would do that story-wise. I found birthrights last battle much harder than I did Conquest, but I did totally over level all the royals on Conquest, but I still had a level 30 defense boon Corrin with a strength/defense backpack get fucking obliterated on Birthright along with all my other units, which included my over-leveled Xander and Siegbert. The only survivors at my 2nd to last turn were my over-leveled dark flier Leo from my conquest run and my dark flier Azura with 8 hp left, but they beat down that ugly salamander anyway! But I was playing very aggressively in endgame (I sent all my units in different directions and expected it to be an easy sweep like conquest endgame was for me.) (Edit: I played endgame right and it was an easy sweep, I don't know what I did the first time to make it so hard, it may have been the grief of Xander's death clouding my brain's capabilities.)

If they ever remake fates for the switch, they should make it so we as the player get more impactful choices, similar to 3 houses, but I feel like there are so many instances where the player could make a choice that gives you a different avenue to the end or multiple endings instead of the only decision beings what side you pick, and if you pick conquest kill shura for boots or let Azura's kidnapper join you, hooray.

And if they remake the game for the switch they should show Xander with his cheeks out in the hot springs 🤭

(ETA: I was playing Conquest and Azura says to access the power of the crystal at will they need a 'powerful mage like Leo' or a person with 'potent dragon blood like Corrin', so they did give an actual reason as to why the crystal was given to Leo in birthright but you only get that explanation in conquest (I don't believe Azura explains jackshit in birthright but I could be wrong). But this does not explain if Corrin or Leo were to use the crystal, would have Xander been able to see it in some way? All of this just makes me wish there was like a Telltale version of Fates, it would fit the whole 'what if' theme so well and I would eat it up, even more than I ate up warriors 1.)

[sanguine-salvation]

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️?

[ For each “⭐️” I get, I’ll write a headcanon about our muses. - ACCEPTING ]

Despite Elise being a healer, someone utterly opposed in purpose and perspective to them, Viktor is... confused by their feelings on her. It feels strange to allow someone so close as to mend their non-tally wounds despite the fact that you're both working in opposing directions. But deep down there is a curiosity in them, a yearning to understand why she does it and why she can't see the suffering she's prolonging, and why she helps someone who would only give her more work. She's not Batman, she's closer to Leslie, another person they have trouble understanding. At this point, it's more a silent debate carried out in every wound and stitch, a conversation that hasn't been put into exact words yet, but one that they're convinced is on both their minds. -

Viktor has stabbed Elise a couple of times now, but yeah, that didn't go anywhere. And it kind of messes with Viktor's head still. They've started wondering if there's other people they've 'saved' who didn't actually die, they wonder what it feels like to be made to die but just... not dying. They wonder if Elise ever wants to have an end, and if they'd ever be able to deliver her to it. They wonder what people who can't die even do, what there is for them and therefore what is there in life, and that might open more doors than they're ready to deal with. Really, the doors might already be cracked... -

Viktor has a tendency of just... touching things. They will poke at Elise's packs and try to peek in her journals (to what success, who knows), they'll roll potions and bottles around trying to guess what's inside, seemingly never too bothered to think of MAYBE NOT JUST TOUCHING SOMEONE ELSE'S THINGS WITHOUT PERMISSION. But the fact that Elise is seemingly of and not of this world at the same time fascinates them. She is in it, but she seems lost. She isn't detached, but she isn't really moored either. And they want to learn more. Sometimes in sort of inconsiderate ways, but it's coming from a not-so-creepy place, despite you know, still being weird.

[neoninky]

TWST Fanfic "Her Lost Voice" Chapter 7

Hello readers!

A few things first before we dive into the very intense chapter that is Numbah 7:

First of all, I've been hearing all the buzz about Diasomnia Part 3 dropping tomorrow on the JP server. Congrats to all my fellow TWST fans who can actually read/understand Japanese lol. Speaking of our final boss dorm - my poll for the possible third Sacred Crown, decided by YOU, story is up for another three days. Tell yo friends, pass it on, and please vote.

Second of all, this chapter legitimately has a trigger warning for violence, abuse, character death and the Tweels going feral...all the fish bones lol. You have been warned.

And lastly (cuz I'm working another 10 shift tomorrow), Happy Birthday to @nuitthegoddess's OC, Aurelian Hawthorne. I hope your boyfriend makes it out of the Blot-o-Sphere and everyone can laugh about this later lol.

Chapter 7: Daughters and Sons

The evening had been fairly calm on the walk back to the tunnel hub. Azul ignored the odd looks he got for walking alongside Elise in a ‘human suit’ as she gently floated through the water next to him. Yes, it was a little more difficult to move in this form but he always felt so uncomfortable in his octopus form…which, looking at the current situation, Azul now felt a bit ridiculous feeling that way but old habits die hard!  The princess didn’t seem all that bothered by it. She was too busy fluttering her tentacles through the water, softly propelling herself through the water with a look of pride at her progress. Any time she ended up jetting ahead at a suddenly faster pace, she’d always float down to the sandy ground and wait for Azul to catch up, grinning at him the whole time like an excited child. Her enthusiasm was infectious. Azul couldn’t bear to hide his own smile. “You’re taking to this form very well, Your Highness. Most humans would be pretty clumsy with it, barely able to figure out up from d…d-down…” Before Azul could properly finish his words, Elise playfully swam above him and turned herself upside down, nearly making the boy walk his face right into hers. She had never gotten that good of a look at Azul’s eyes before. For one thing, he was always hiding them behind those glasses. But now that she was up close, she could see they weren’t just blue: his nervous eyes were greyish-blue, like a stormy sky. They almost had an icy sheen to them. They were more than beautiful. Azul was just as ensnared by hers.  “Your Highness,” he murmured quietly in such close proximity, “Were your eyes always that bright…?”

Elise's deep blue-black hair framed her face in fluttering waves as she slowly shook her head with a coy grin. She realized how close in proximity they were to each other one heartbeat later. That same feeling Elise felt before started to buzz in her chest as she turns herself right side up again. She felt a bit dizzy...fizzy...and a bit self-conscious. Azul cleared his throat without much success before walking ahead, "It's getting late, I better get you back to the Leech's, or Mother will have my hide."

Elise giggled to herself as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and continued to follow behind Azul. Even if she could speak, Elise was too kind to tease the poor boy any further lest the tips of his ears grow an even darker shade of pink. 

Once they reached the hub, Azul stopped at the main entrance. Unfortunately, he couldn't navigate the maze of tunnels very well in his human form which irked him greatly. Elise could see the hint of frustration on the boy's face and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder before gesturing that she could make the last leg of the journey on her own. Azul felt conflicted over the notion of leaving the princess alone. The ocean in general was a dangerous place and leaving a non-native all alone could be disastrous. On the other hand...she didn't seem to need his help. In fact, any amount of help he had tried to give her since they all began just ended up in failure over and over again. Azul suddenly felt like a cold lump of lead had fallen into his gut. Elise furrowed her brow as she watched an invisible maelstrom from behind his distant gaze. Azul Ashengrotto seemed, in Elise's experience at least, to have different faces: the first and most common was his charm and suave ambition that he had at the ready in most cases when he was coming up with an idea or pursuing something and then the second, more secretive face...this one he wore right now. It would sometimes surface and then wash away as quickly as seafoam pushed onto the shore. 

Azul's eyes lit back up as the princess' soft touch on his arm anchored him back into the present. His first face was suddenly thrown on and locked in place, "Ah, forgive me, Your Highness. My thoughts seemed to drift away there for a moment. You're sure you will be alright going on alone?" 

Elise nodded and scribbled a quick note in the sand with one of her tentacles, 'Jade and Floyd showed me the way' 

The octopus boy crossed his arms with an annoyed expression. He had messaged the twins earlier telling them that Elise would more than likely need one of them to escort her back...so where were they?!

The twins were both sitting in their home's dining hall, getting an earful from a very upset Madam Leech. Floyd leaned lazily on his hand as he poked at the food on his plate, tuning out his mama's irritated voice as much as he could while his brother sat straight up across the table, at full attention. 

"Honestly, you boys! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?! No call, nothing, you just up and disappear overnight without so much as a word! I had no idea where you were-oh Floyd, eat your food, darling! You're so skinny! As much as we're paying that school, the least they could do is make sure my baby boys are eating properly! I swear you keep growing more every time I look at you-"

Floyd just groaned before shoveling food into his mouth and giving Jade a pointed look. Jade reassured their mother that both he and Floyd were always well fed on campus but that did little to stop her motherly rant. When their father's absence was finally noticed that started a whole nother wave.

"And where is your father?" she huffed, "He's always here for dinner on the dot..."

It was true that Don Leech insisted on eating his meals with his wife and sons, regardless of how busy he was, and he wouldn't leave the table until everyone else had finished eating. Tonight, however, he was a bit more preoccupied. 

Don Leech hovered outside in front of the mansion with his eyes glued to the horizon. Something in the stir of the currents seemed off. It made his fins bristle to a fine point. All reports his boys had given in within the last hour up to a few minutes ago didn't raise any red flags but his instincts were still on fire for some reason. For one, his sons' friend hadn't returned yet. The Don called one of the guys that had just returned over to him.

"Head into the tunnels and make sure the young miss makes it back safe and sound. I don't want anyone under my watch coming to harm." 

He left his associates to watch the front as he turned inside, knowing his wife was probably already upset with his tardiness.

-

"Cowrieeee....

 ...where...are..yooouuuu...."

Cowrie could hear their voices calling from around corners. She was in a part of town she knew she didn't belong in, hiding inside a tight, dark nook, her hand over her mouth to hopefully keep the burly shark mermen from hearing her. When the chase began there were only two of them. Now there were at least four. Apparently, Proteus was hiding a couple of his thugs to make the hunt more interesting. The young eel tried to keep her breathing steady and her mind clear. Panicking now would only lessen her chances of escape. She used to run espionage missions for her father and would sometimes find herself in situations like this where she had to hide or run. She escaped then, she would now. Cowrie just kept reminding herself of this over and over in the dark, listening for their voices to judge how close by they were. 

"Come out, little worm. We just want to talk..." one of the voice chuckled.

They were getting closer. Damn it, DAMN IT! Stay calm. Don't move. Cowrie felt the ground beneath her hiding spot. Sand....soft sand. This she could work with but she had to be fast. The shark with a missing eye slowly swam around the corner sniffing about. His mouth spread into a big sinister smile showing off his multiple rows of sharp teeth as his nose lead him to a small opening in the side of an abandoned building. 

"Hello...gotcha."

He peered inside and his smile quickly turned into a grimace when the only thing he saw was a hole in the sand that seemed to lead further into the actual building's interior. He silently signaled the others to move around the building and go inside as quietly as possible. The building was made from the remains of a sunken ship. Inside were odds and ends of random things and remnants of whatever business was there previously. The burrowed hole definitely lead inside the innermost room but when all four of the sharks lurked inside, it was completely empty. It wasn't until the entryway to the room was slammed shut did they realize it was a  trap. Cowrie quickly jammed the biggest rock she could carry into the door's bar handle to keep it from opening and swam as fast as her tail could manage straight out of the main exit, knowing it wouldn't hold them for very long. She didn't look back as she heard their snarls and the crash of metal sounded from behind her. The mermaid sped through the main street trying to find her way amongst the confused and hurried crowds. Cowrie quickly sped away as soon as she heard screams from the mermaids in the area. She could hear the sharks' one-eyed leader yelling for everyone to move out of his way and when he spotted her.

"Come here, you lil' viper!" his snarl was full of malice. 

The small eel quickly darted down the side alleys, over and under fences, anything to put distance between her and her pursuers. The whole Leech territory was one huge maze to her but she couldn't stop. Her heart beat at the speed of light as her eyes never stopped searching for another exit. Escape. Escape. Cowrie's laser focus on this was the only thing keeping her nerves from overwhelming her. She knew what Proteus' sharks were capable of. She had seen it first hand...and she did not want to be their next little 'accidental' chew toy! 

"Come back here, you little bitch!!" 

Cowrie shrieked as she felt large claws swipe at her tail seconds before she darted through another small opening through a tall barbed fence. Shit, the gashes burned and her blood was seeping into the water, leaving no chance of her hiding from them now. Her body was growing tired but Cowrie knew she couldn't stop. She flopped for only a second back into the main road, skidding a bit against the ground with a grunt. A few onlookers swam up to her to make sure she was alright but scattered as soon as they spotted just who was chasing her. Her tired eyes looked about the area for another escape route. When she spotted the tunnel hub at the end of the next turn, she went for it as fast as she could. This could be her only chance at actually losing them for good. 

A few members of the Leech muscle were seen entering tunnels right as Cowrie sped past them in a blur. She crashed into one of them, nearly knocking him over. 

"What?! What the hell, kid?!" The larger eel growled until he saw the much smaller, striped eelette who was nearly out of breath and looking absolutely terrified.

"P-Please! Please help me, sir!" Cowrie felt all of her emotions begin to bubble over all at once. She was shaking like a leaf.

The older merman quickly assessed the situation as two of the sharks were barreling towards them, looking pissed and even a bit hungry. He let out a high-pitched whistle that brought two more of his cohorts over to him and ready to deal with the situation at hand.

"Get inside the tunnels, kid, go down the first left and keep left. Hide if you get lost. We'll come find you. Get movin'!"

Cowrie muttered a quick thank you and torpedoed straight into the tunnels as the sounds of an intense scuffle began right behind her. It was dark. She didn't have any glowing spots like the twins or even Luna did thanks to her mixed-breeding. It was great for hiding which is another reason why her father used her the way that he did but when she was lost in the dark? It was distressing beyond reason. Cowrie paused to take a couple of quick breaths before continuing forward. You can do this...you're alright, she told herself. She had to remain calm if she was going to make it out of this situation. Cowrie couldn't see but her sense of smell was impeccable. She sniffed the surrounding water and walls, searching for anything among the many scents left behind that might be familiar. Suddenly, there it was. To her left. It was faint but it was definitely one she knew very well.

Jade. Jade had been this way before. Cowrie listened for any sound of either the sharks or other eels that had helped her. Nothing. She quickly and quietly followed Jade's scent through the twists and turns of the giant stone maze. She would stop for only a split second to make sure she wasn't being followed before continuing. Every once in a while there would be tiny shafts of faint light drifting in through smaller holes in the walls. When the scents began to change, Cowrie suddenly clasped a hand over her mouth and clung to the wall. The light was faint but slowly passing by the opening ahead of her was the very distinct shape of a shark's dorsal fin. It slowed to a halt as its owner's voice called to her.

"Oh, little Cowrie...I know you're there. I can smell your sweet blood, little worm~" 

Her heart was pounding in her ears so hard that she didn't even realize that another familiar smell was even closer to her. The shark's fin started to move as the merman started to turn around. Just before he could face the tunnel Cowrie was hiding in, a familiar black and aqua-blue tentacle wrapped around her waist and pulled her into the opening right above her. It happened so quickly that she didn't even have time to freak out. Above in a small little nook, Elise was waiting and caught the shaken eel in her arms. The princess pressed a finger to her lips to tell her friend to keep quiet. Elise could see the first and second shark floating along the stone underpasses through a couple of smaller openings around her. It was only a matter of time before they noticed two mermaids hiding above them. Cowrie kept one hand over her mouth but pointed to another passage behind Elise's head. The princess quickly squeezed her octopus body through before pulling Cowrie in after her. There were only two sharks that they could see. Hopefully, that meant that the other two were still outside or were at least chased off by the eels at the gate. Cowrie's hopes were dashed when she saw a third shadow lurking from around the corner. She knew it was the leader from his gravely, hunger-pained voice. 

"Stop hiding, you little shit, you'll only make your punishment worse!" 

He was blocking the closest exit forcing the girls to hide again but the other direction was a dead end. Elise could see the panic start to rise in Cowrie's eyes. She didn't know who these sharks were but obviously, her friend was in great danger...and she'd be damned if she let them have her. The princess pointed to one corner of the dead-end that seemed to be deeper than the rest. Before Cowrie could argue, she pushed the smaller mermaid into the dip and tucked her long tail around her, trying to make her as small as possible. Elise put on a brave face and mouthed the words 'trust me' to Cowrie before covering her with as much of her body as possible like a mother hen would her baby chick. Granted, Elise wasn't 100% sure this would work but what other choice did she have? Elise pressed herself and Cowrie as close to the wall as possible. The tips of her fingers and the suction cups of her tentacles felt the stone wall and slowly she felt her whole body adapt. Her skin turned a darker gray and formed the same smooth but strong texture as the wall with the same grooves and look as the stone itself. Even the ends of her hair clung and morphed into an extension of the wall until her whole body just looked like another lump of rock. From there, Elise shut her eyes and prayed that this would work.  

The one-eyed leader hovered around the corner, sniffing about, followed by another. He slowly peered into the darkness with his one good eye, narrowing it in frustration. He elbowed his partner and gestured to him to get a closer look at the dead-end while he swam down another passage away from the hiding girls. Elise felt her muscles start to burn as she stayed as still as possible. Cowrie stayed curled tight and held her breath as the large shark merman swam mere inches away from them. The bulky shark nearly grazed them with his tail as he sniffed every single corner...but after several long minutes, he followed his leader down the opposite direction. The minute he was gone, Elise grabbed Cowrie and jetted away into the next tunnel with silent urgency.  Jade's scent was getting stronger, Cowrie let out a quiet breath of relief. Elise seemed to know which direction to go and was moving non-stop, pushing off of the walls if she had to. Anything to gain more speed to propel them through the tunnels. The light was getting brighter. They were so close when several things happened at once. Elise heard the voice of the eel sent by Don Leech to search for her and just when she and Cowrie made it through the final passage into open water, Cowrie let out a scream that made the princess' blood freeze. There was a smell of blood...

The scream could be heard from inside the Leechs' house and Jade's entire body felt a hot rush of adrenaline as he heard Cowrie's voice. Both he and Floyd were out of the dining hall and rushing down the main corridor faster than any land animal could muster. When they reached the front gates, Jade's vision burned hot fiery red. 

Elise was surrounded by the four large shark mermen and in her arms was Cowrie, shrunken in on herself and looking filled to the brim with dread. The end of her tail was covered in gashes and a large bite mark. Her own blood leaked out into the water around her. The one-eyed shark had the same blood on his grinning mouth. 

"You're lucky I didn't take a piece off, you little snake. Proteus told us not to hurt you too badly...but he didn't exactly specify the limits." 

The other sharks laughed mirthlessly around the two girls. Elise kept whipping her tentacles at them to try and get them to back off but the men just laughed even harder as they dodged. One took the hit straight across his face which only made him budge ever so slightly. It felt like she was punching a brick wall. "Ooo! This one has some spunk! I like her!"

Their leader grabbed the next tentacle that tried to whack him across the face and yanked on it hard, pulling Elise to the ground, "Easy there, lass. I wouldn't want to havta take a bite outta you. Or maybe I would. Octopus is quite delicious after all." His mates bared their teeth and snarled out harsh laughter in agreement, "Although..."

He turned his attention to Cowrie and grabbed her face, forcing her mouth open as two other of the thugs grabbed Elise and dragged her away from the younger mermaid, "I hear that this one has a nice poisonous bite. And what pretty teeth. I bet they'd make a nice necklace, wouldn't they, boys-"

A loud crack rang through the water as Jade's long tail struck the brute across his bloody maw, sending him and a couple of his teeth tumbling backward. Cowrie fell to the sandy ground as Jade suddenly covered her tiny body with his in a tense arching guard. Floyd made quick work of the two holding Elise with his own tail and pulled the octopus mermaid to safety behind him. Both of the twins' eyes were bright and wild with fury, their teeth bared, claws out and ready, and deep throated growls rumbling out of them. The fourth shark was quickly struck down with a sharp bolt of lightning magic as Don Leech wasn't too far behind with his own crew. If the twins looked furious, their father looked downright murderous. Electric magic was still cracking between his fingers in prickling sparks, ready to explode at any given moment.

"Who the hell do you think you are coming into my territory and harming these girls, like some back alley trash?" His tone was laced thick with venom even though his words were steady.

He saw the injuries on the small female eel's tail and the way his son held her protectively to his chest without taking his eyes off the enemy. He didn't know who she was but seeing her trembling form cling to Jade only made his blood boil even hotter. The same deadly, wild-eyed look Floyd got whenever he was pissed grew on his father's face, tenfold.

"Normally, I'd have the decency to give you two seconds to get the fuck off of my property with your shitty lives intact...but you bastards clearly have no decency yourselves so why should I?" His soft thunder of a snarl sent cold shivers running all through Elise and Cowrie's already shaken bodies. This was the fearsome Don Leech that Cowrie had heard stories about all of her life. This was the dangerous world below that Elise barely knew and now had a front-row seat to. Jade and Floyd's snarled grimaces slowly turned to feral, sharp-toothed smiles. Their fins stood sharp on end as they knew what was coming next. Jade slowly leaned down to speak to Cowrie without breaking his gaze, loosening his hold on her shivering body.

"Cowrie...go inside with Elise, please." 

Cowrie didn't argue. She quickly swam over to Elise and booked it towards the large house without batting an eyelash. Elise was out of her depth, a foreigner in this world, but she knew better than to try to stop it. It was something much bigger than her or even Cowrie. She didn't dare turn around as the sound of wet crunching and mangled shrieks reached her ears. Madam Leech was at the front double doors, watching the scene with a cold yet furious gaze on her face. She quickly ushered the girls inside before shutting the doors behind them. Her words didn't register to either of them but her voice was soft and gentle as she guided them both back to her parlor after telling a few of the staff to bring medical supplies to the room immediately. 

"Don't worry, my dears. My boys will take care of those beasts. You're safe now." 

She cooed and held them both close to her as Cowrie finally broke down into a loud sobbing wail. Elise just felt frozen. Completely and utterly frozen in shock. 

"Everything will be alright, my pearls. There,  there..." 

-

Outside the mansion, Jade's ears were ringing with how angry he felt. His teeth pierced the rough shark mermen's hides as he threw them to the ground, tearing at them as if they were just paper dolls. Floyd's wild cackle could be heard close by as he continued to wrap his tail around one of their throats tighter and tighter. Jade Leech was never really one to lose his temper but all he could hear, smell, feel in that moment was a sickening replay of Cowrie's distressed scream and her blood filling the water as he held her traumatized form to him. He knew of Don Muraeni's cruel reputation since he was very young but this...it was unforgivable. Jade only came to his senses when he realized the one his father had pinned to the ground was the same one-eyed shark that had threatened to rip his beloved Cowrie's teeth out. He dropped his current target like a two-ton ragdoll, leaving his father's muscle to deal with him, and breathed heavily as he glared over at the main offender. Floyd saw the look on his twin's face and got a ruthlessly delicious feeling of glee.

"Hey, Jade..."

"Yes, Floyd?"

"That one-eyed bastard is the one that bit Cowrie-chan and threatened her, isn't he? Let's deal with him properly."

"Yes, Floyd..." Jade snarled coldly as he swam over to his father. Floyd followed suit with a wicked giggle.

"Father...let us handle this one." Don Leech looked over his shoulder at his two sons. Their faces were even more frightening now that both of them were covered in shark blood. His sons: deadly, cunning, and ready just like he taught them to be. He felt an instinctual sense of pride swell in his chest as he eased away from his prey, letting his twin boys take over. The future Don Leech quickly replaced his father's steel trap grip around the shark's neck with his own as he and Floyd bent down to smile wickedly into his one good, scared eye. 

"You are the sea scum filth that hurt my Cowrie...you're either real ballsy or real stupid," Jade's voice cut like a dagger right through his serrated smile. His assertively protective tone when he spoke of the girl didn't bypass his father's ears.

"My money's on both," Floyd giggled, tail swishing back and forth as he poised himself, ready to attack at any given moment. 

Jade hummed and tilted his head to the side as he pried the shark's lips apart with two fingers on his free hand, "My, my....what impressive teeth you have...don't you think, Floyd?"

Floyd's smile couldn't get any bigger, "Oh yeah...they'd make one hell of a necklace, right Jade?"

Their laughter shook the shark merman to the core. If he had even a hint of what coming onto Leech territory would mean for him today, he would have left town hours ago. Don Leech ignored his pleas for mercy as he ordered his associates to clean up the rest of the mess as if this was nothing more than a pitcher of milk that had spilled. 

"Spare a few pieces, boys," he called to his sons, "Don Muraeni is going to be receiving a nice message from me personally this evening..."

-

"Just a little bit more, my darling."

Elise's mind was reeling from everything that just happened but she did her best to comfort Cowrie, petting her hair as she held her close. Cowrie's crying had ceased but she kept wincing and whimpering as Madam Leech put some form of odd medicine over the cuts all over her tail. The mother eel insisted on treating the wounds herself. She kept cooing words of encouragement to the girl as her elegant hands moved with precision and a true healer's touch. 

"Almost done, sweetheart. It'll only sting for a little bit."

Once she finished, Madam Leech wrapped Cowrie's poor abused tail up in some sort of bandaging material. Elise kissed the top of her friend's head as she felt Cowrie start to relax in her arms. 

"Madam, your husband wishes to speak with you in his office," a female maid had quietly entered the parlor as her mistress was finishing up, "Your sons are there as well." 

The mother nodded and handed the remained medical supplies to another one of her maids before turning to Elise and Cowrie, "Elise dear, I think it would be best if you girls return to your room for now. Don't worry, I'll make sure to have my husband's men on watch all night. In the meantime, you need to rest." 

The princess took the mother's gentle smile to heart and nodded. Madam Leech asked the two maids to escort the girls back to the princess' room before leaving the parlor herself.

-

"Who is she, Jade?" 

His father cut right to the chase, still heated from all the commotion. Jade was still on edge himself but now for a different reason. This was definitely not the way he wanted to break the news to his father but after everything that had happened, and considering what could have happened, Jade Leech's previous doubts were put to rest once and for all.

"Cowrie Cerith. Otherwise known as Cowrie Muraeni. My mate."

Floyd's eyes flicked curiously back and forth between his father and brother. The tension in their gazes alone could suffocate a blue whale. Jade stared his father down with a serious but cool gaze while Floyd could see the heat rising in his father's narrowing eyes.

"Muraeni...Muraeni?!" Don Leech's fists pounded on his desk as he practically jumped from his seat, "Of all the girls you could choose from, you pick that bastard's spawn?!" 

Jade knew fighting his own father would not end well and thus tried to keep his temper in check and his words clear, "She never asked to be his child so I see no point in holding it against her, Father. Cowrie isn't of age yet but once she is, I have every intention of making her my proper mate for life. Please don't try to change my mind. It won't happen." 

Floyd was waiting for his twin's head to explode with how intense their dad's glare bore into him. Before that could happen, their mother made her entrance and read the room. 

"Darlings," Madam Leech's voice was velveteen and soothing, "Goodness, what is with this stifling atmosphere?"

Her husband didn't end his glaring contest with Jade as his beautiful wife swam over to him and placed a comforting hand on his back, "Your son...has just informed me that girl is a Muraeni and that she...is his intended mate." The whole time Don Leech seethed out each word his tail angrily smacked the floor. Another trait Floyd had picked up on. 

His wife gasped and placed a hand to her chest as she addressed Jade with a shocked look, "Jade darling, is this true?"

Jade's eyes didn't pull away from his father's but a soft smile did adorn his face, "Yes Mother, it's true. I've already made my intentions known to Cowrie and asked her to stay with me. She agreed." 

Don Leech and the twins nearly popped off their fins when a loud, delighted shriek erupted from Madam Leech. She was positively beaming.

"AT LAST! Oh, sweetheart, this is WONDERFUL news!"

Her husband looked as if he had just been slapped sideways with a jellyfish, "W-WHAT?!"

His mother immediately pulled Jade from his seat and into an excited hug, leaving him to blink in surprise as the wind was basically crushed out of him, "My sweet Jade has found a mate and such a pretty little thing! Oh, you two will have the most beautiful babies!" 

"Dearest..." Don Leech groaned in exasperation as he slumped back in his chair, "I know you're excited, my love, but you can't be serious about allowing this..."

Madam Leech released Jade from her death grip of a hug and turned to her grumpy husband with a tut, "Darling, really, listen to yourself! You're acting like we're planning a funeral!"

"If Jade mates with a Muraeni, it will definitely come to that," he snarled. His wife's enthusiasm was undeterred as she swam back to his side, running her fingers along his spiked dorsal fin.

"My love," she purred sweetly, "That poor girl being a Muraeni is even more reason for her to become our Jade's lovely bride. You saw how that monster's thugs were treating the poor thing! We cannot allow her to stay in such a ghastly situation!" 

Jade and Floyd just sat back and watched their mother work. Their father was one of the most powerful mob bosses on this side of the reef but their mother was a professional mastermind in her own right. Even the formidable Don Leech couldn't win against her charms and steel will. Floyd chuckled as he imagined Jade and Cowrie having the same dynamic a few years from now. Their father looked from his wife's sweet gaze to his sons' amused ones and groaned in defeat.

"I...will consider it..." he grumbled, "She can stay tonight. I'll give my final decision in the morning." 

His wife placed a sweet kiss on his cheek with a satisfied grin making her sons chuckle. 

-

The area outside the Leech Mansion reeked of lingering shark's blood as Don Leech's men cleaned up what was left after the fight out front. From the edge of the cavern of tunnels, Seven had seen the tail end of the skirmish. He had known that the Leech family weren't ones to mess with but seeing it first hand? His stoic face didn't show it but it turned his gut to rot. His sister had certainly picked a strong family to mate into. It was his sister that had brought him here and now he wasn't so sure he could get close to her without ending up in the same sack the sharks were now being dragged out in. He didn't doubt that Cowrie was safe for a second, it was just that now she was here on enemy turf and Proteus' thugs were thoroughly...dealt with...things were going to be far more complicated. 

The front door to the mansion was up the slope a way so anyone paying attention could see anyone exiting the caves and vice versa. So when Floyd Leech swam back outside to see how the clean-up was going, Seven spotted him right away and decided to take a chance.

Seven's sudden appearance at the gate caused a stir right away as he expected. What he didn't expect was for Floyd to make him an offer. The second twin waved his father's boys off, signaling that there was no danger which confused them but they knew better than to question the more wild Leech son. Floyd casually swam over to the opened gate and looked Seven up and down with a curious grin.

"What's up, Sven? You missed the fight."

Seven narrowed his eyes in annoyance at the strange younger eel, "It's SEVEN..."

"Eh. Whatever. It's a weird name."

"Anyway," Seven huffed, "I saw the end result. Where's Cowrie? Is she alright?"

Floyd stretched like he was getting ready for a workout, "Yeah, yeah she's safe inside. Jade and I made sure to take care of the bastard that hurt her. He's over there, nice and snug," Floyd giggled eerily as he pointed to a large sack two of the other eels were dragging around the other side of the fence. Seven noticed that it'd move slightly before going still again. "He ain't gonna be swimming properly for a while. Or ever." Floyd chuckled as if he told a funny joke. Seven didn't bother asking what happened to the other sharks. He didn't want to know, honestly.

"I need to see Cowrie for myself."

Floyd's face split into a sharp grin, "Yeah. Ok. I'll let you inside to see her...on one condition. I'm still pumped from the last fight. Those sharks were big and tough to bite into but they weren't very fun..."

Seven picked up on what Floyd was asking immediately and rolled his eyes. Seriously what did Luna see in this guy? He was just as reckless and wild as his stupid younger brothers who had too much energy and were always itching for a scrap. 

"You'll let me in the door as long as I go a round or two with you, is that it? ...Fine. Let's get this over with. Just keep in mind, I'm six years your senior...so don't expect me to go easy on you." 

Seven's warning fell on deaf ears as Floyd practically vibrated with excitement as he jumped into position, posed, and was ready to start throwing down. The older Muraeni eel just sighed and swam into the open space, looking more bored than anything. Floyd bolted at his opponent at breakneck speed to sink his sharp teeth into his tough shoulder. Floyd's excitement quickly turned into confusion as he found himself face first in the sand before his teeth could even break the skin. Seven's thick tail uncurled itself from Floyd's arms and smacked the back of Floyd's planted head. 

"Seriously? You think you can protect Luna with such amateur moves?" Seven asked dryly, "Honestly she could have done more damage and in half the time..."

Floyd didn't bother taking that bait but instead whipped his tail around to grab Seven by the throat and threw him down on the ground. 

"Better," the Muraeni eel coughed.

- 

Don Leech swore his family was going to be the death of him. He felt his head pound as he pinched the bridge of his nose. A roughed up Floyd and less-so Seven sat across from him in his office. 

"If we get any more of you Muraeni's coming in here tonight, I'm going to have to open up a slaughterhouse..." he snarled.

"I apologize for the intrusion, sir. I just wanted to make sure my sister was safe," Seven's polite tone was unexpected but the Don's guard refused to fall, "...and I also apologize for fighting with your son. It was the only way he'd let me in." 

The Don gave Floyd an exasperated look, "I admire your spirit, boy, but there is a time and a place! Get yourself cleaned up and back to your room before your mother sees you like this!" 

Floyd just grumbled something about being bored as if he wasn't covered in scratches and bruises and swam out of the office. Seven was left alone with the Don and his muscle standing watch by the door. Don Leech sized the young merman up with a scrutinizing gaze, "I suppose you're here to make a bargain for your sister's return, hmm?"

Seven's expression was stoic, his tone even, and his head cool, "Actually, sir....no, that's not why I'm here. I want to ask that my sister be taken into your household indefinitely. I'm afraid her safety would be forfeited if she returns to our father's house. Especially if he finds out about her intention to become your son's mate." 

Don Leech wasn't surprised so much as he was disgusted by Seven's words. This boy only confirmed his suspicions that Don Muraeni's cruelty knew held no boundaries. But for Muraeni's own son to ask this of him?

"You know about your sister's connection to Jade? And you're not opposed to it?" He watched Seven carefully, waiting for his reaction. Seven remained as poker-faced as ever. 

"I am not, sir. I know our father would absolutely not feel the same, however. To be frank, Don Leech, I'd rather my sister be safe in the arms of her mate even if it means never seeing her again than for her to die at the hands of her father because of a feud that started before she was even born..." 

"And what about you, boy? I sincerely doubt that your father will handle this betrayal with any mercy." 

Seven knew the moment he agreed to keep his sister's happiness a secret that he was walking a dangerous line. But did he regret it? No...he couldn't say that he did.

"Let me worry about that, sir. Please just consider what I have asked of you, instead." 

Don Leech took a deep breath and pondered to himself. So much for waiting until morning to decide. His heart grew heavy as he looked into Seven's serious and worn-down expression. He took stock of each scar this young man bore and could tell that he knew exactly what the costs of his actions were. Seven's resolve had been pressurized into a level of strength that rivaled cut diamonds. This Don Leech could respect at the very least.

"Very well, then. We have an understanding. And you were never here, Mr. Muraeni."

Seven rose and bowed his head to the Don, "Thank you, sir. I'd like to see my sister now before I go." 

"Of course."

- 

The twins were waiting outside of Elise's door. Now that they had calmed down and gotten all of their aggressions aired out, they worried that perhaps they had scared the princess to the point where she no longer felt safe in their home. This weighed on Jade as he frowned, hesitating to knock on the door right in front of his face. Floyd also felt a bit guilty but also frustrated with himself and his brother. More so Jade.

"Hey, Jade. Stop acting like you regret doing it." 

Jade gave his twin a hollow chuckle, "You know I don't, Floyd...I'm just a little worried."

"Uuugh you worry too much!" Floyd growled before knocking on the door for his brother. There was a pause before they heard a click of the latch from the other side. The door slowly opened a bit before Elise's turquoise eyes blinked up at them. They widened just before she slammed the door shut, making Jade feel like his worst thoughts were confirmed right then and there. Before his ear fins could start to droop, the door suddenly opened up all the way and Elise was there with a worried look on her face and more medical items in her hands that the maids had given her for Cowrie. She grabbed Floyd's hand and dragged him inside before he could argue and waved Jade to come in as well. The princess made Floyd sit by her vanity as she started applying that same medicine Madam Leech had used before to the cuts and scratches all over Floyd's face and shoulders. He fussed and hissed about how it stung but Elise just silently scolded him with her eyes and continued her work. 

Jade saw Cowrie's curled up form on Elise's bed. Her back was to him. He watched the gentle rise and fall of her breathing. Her tail was bandaged up and laying limp over the side of the bed. He quietly swam to the other side of the bed to see her sleeping face. Only then did he exhale. His relief didn't last long as a second knock came to the door, sending his protective instincts through the roof once again.

The door was opened by one of their father's bodyguards to reveal Seven waiting on the other side. It wasn't that Jade didn't trust him, per se, just that every cell in his body screamed at him to protect his injured mate from this male that could potentially try to take her away from him and right back into harm's way. Seven recognized this look in Jade's eyes and entered the room with caution, "Relax. I'm not here to take Cowrie back. I just wanted to see that she was safe." 

This seemed to put Jade at ease to an extent and he relaxed his body to show that it was alright for Seven to approach his sleeping sister. Elise wasn't sure who this new eel was. Seeing her confusion, Floyd filled her in.

"This is Sen, he's one of Cowrie-chan's brothers. We fought outside."

"It's Seven and you started it, you weirdo," Seven said flatly over his shoulder as he looked down at Cowrie's sleeping form. A quiet snarl rumbled from his throat when he saw the bandages, "What the hell...they've never been this rough before."

"This has happened before?" Jade tried to hide the irritation in his voice but failed.

Seven gently sat himself on the large bed next to the small eel, softly brushing her dark bangs out of her face, "Our father...well more like his underlings...they carry out any disciplinary actions whenever any of his children or thugs get out of line. We don't get special treatment just because we're family. But I've never seen them be this rough with Cowrie before. Cowrie's never run from our home turf onto yours either. Doing so is suicide." 

"So what happens now?" Floyd asked from his side of the room, wrapping his tail around Elise like a blanket. 

"Cowrie stays here with you. Permenantly. She can't come home after this. Our father wouldn't just punish her. He'd kill her..." 

Elise clung tightly to Floyd's tail as her body seemed to freeze over once again. Intruders were one thing but did these mafia bosses really kill their own children simply because they ended up on the wrong turf?! Jade and Floyd's faces were stone cold. They never had to fear that their father would kill them simply because they broke some rules but they also knew that these things happened a lot more in their circles than many liked to talk about. Cowrie stirred awake and looked up at Seven like she wasn't sure if she was still asleep or not, "...Sevy?"

"Yeah, it's me, Cowrie." 

If she wasn't so out of it, Cowrie swore her brother had a bit of a half-grin on his face. She suddenly jumped up and threw her arms around her brother's neck, her voice shakey, "S-Sevy!" 

This wasn't going to be easy, he could already feel it. He shushed gently to his baby sister, reassuring her that everything was ok. That she was ok. Then came the hard part...

"Cowrie....you're going to be staying here from now on. With Jade and with Floyd. You'll be much safer and happier here." 

The young mermaid pulled away and gave her brother a distressed look. She knew what he meant and part of her loved him for what he was doing while the other didn't know how to process this at all, "B-But why?!" 

Seven sighed as he pulled her tiny body close to his, "Hey, hey, come on...please don't make this any harder than it already is, Cowrie. I'm not dragging you back home just so I can watch you get ripped to shreds. You're staying here, understand?" 

He had been through hell and back several times since he was barely a teen but somehow hearing his younger sister cry was the most soul-crushing experience of all. What she said next nearly broke him.

"What about Luna?! She's all alone! I can't leave her there! And what about you?!" her muffled sobbing seemed to ripple through the whole room. The twins looked frustrated and defeated. The princess looked absolutely heartbroken. Seven knew he was thinking like a madman. Just being there in that house was already the biggest risk he's ever taken. But...there was still one loose end left.

He gave Cowrie a gentle kiss on the top of her head, "Don't worry about me, Cowrie. Don't worry about Luna either. I'll make sure she's ok, got it? You..." he turned and gave Jade an icy glare, "...you better give my sister the best damn life you can, you hear me you smug punk? I'll come for your head myself if you don't." 

Jade just accepted the title of smug punk as a compliment and gave his future big brother-in-law his usual grin as Seven handed Cowrie off to him. Seven rose from the bed and looked to Floyd, "Walk me to the door. We need to talk." 

-

Floyd hadn't said a word the entire time he and the bodyguards took Seven to the front gate. The Muraeni son was tense and silent the entire swim there but stopped as he waited for the gate to be opened. 

"You're both insane. You and your brother. I don't know what the hell my sister or Luna see in you two...but as far as options go, you're their best bets. So I'll accept it." 

Floyd giggled at the older eel's gruff attitude, "Ehh really really? Does that mean I can call you 'big brother'?" 

"Don't push it," he growled, "You want to get Luna out, yeah? If that's the case...I need two favors to start with." 

Seven jerked a thumb over to sack Don Leech's men were getting ready to be delivered, "Gimme that first off. If your dad wants to send mine a message, I'll deliver it for him. But it needs to be realistic or my old man will never buy it."

Floyd was intrigued by this plan but still a bit skeptical, especially since it involved getting his Luna back, "Sure. But how does this help us get Luna out?"

Seven crossed his arms and sighed, "Use your head. You can't just bust into the Siren's Cove and whisk her away. You'd be dead before you even got within a mile of the place. You need someone with a brain on the inside. The VIP performance is the night after tomorrow. I know Cowrie was plotting to sneak you and your brother in...and no she didn't tell me. I just know my sister. She can't do it now. So I will. But first, I gotta keep up appearances so my dad thinks I'm still loyal to him. So I need a second favor."

"What's that?"

"I need you to punch me in the face a couple more times...."

-

Elise decided to give Cowrie and Jade some time alone for the rest of the night and didn't argue when Jade took Cowrie into his room. She could understand their feelings and desire to be together after the terrifying events that happened earlier. Being all alone in her own room felt harrowing somehow. She felt like she'd go mad if she spent another second cooped up and made her way outside. Granted she had to ask for directions but eventually, the princess found her way into the large garden behind the house. It was the most colorful and brightest part of the estate: a large chunk of reef teeming with life that Madam Leech had been carefully curating since before the twins were even born. It was gorgeous and just distracting enough to help Elise feel even a tiny bit more normal. She found an open space with a flat stone structure that she propped herself upon. It was quiet...well outside her on-fire brain, it was, anyway. 

Elise looked up towards the water's surface that seemed miles upon miles away with a silent sigh. She felt stuck in between two places she didn't belong in. She was a human princess that no one on the shore seemed to be looking for, in love with a mermaid prince that didn't want her, now stuck under the sea in a very beautiful and very dangerous world that both amazed and scared her, in a body that wasn't really hers. Elise looked down at her tentacles that seemed to curl and unfurl on their own like a sea anemone flowing in the currents. It was a strange place to be. How many days had it been since she had changed? How many hours has she spent in this form? Was it...unpleasant? Is that why Azul hated being in his true form so much- 

Elise suddenly tensed up. Azul! She had told him that she'd let him know when she made it back ok! She huffed in frustration when she realized that really had no way to do that. Then again, should she tell him everything?? He'd probably freak out. She didn't want to worry him but either way, her phone was back on land. Along with her magic pen and other personal belongings. She bet no one bothered to look in her room either. If they had, then they'd know she was actually MISSING! The princess crossed her arms and pouted as she felt a bitter taste stew in her gut. Was she really so forgettable? 

"Octi-chaaaan?...Octiiii-oh there you are!"

Floyd poked his around the coral hedges with a big smile on his poor bandaged face. He seemed to be talking to someone on his phone, "Yeah I found her, Azul, she's fine."

Speak of the devil. Maybe Elise had some sort of psychic abilities now that she was an octopus. She could hear Azul's hurried tone coming from the phone. Judging from Floyd's bored expression, the octopus boy was nagging at him. 

"Ehhh? I said she was fine, geez. She punched a shark in the face earlier! It was awesome!" Floyd burst out laughing, ignoring the shocked outburst that most definitely came from Azul's side of the phone. If nothing else, it did make Elise laugh to herself. In the heat of the moment, she had completely forgotten that she, Princess Elise Coralette, had most definitely punched a shark merman in the face. Absolutely legendary. 

"Yeah, yeah I'll tell her. Calm down," Floyd pulled the phone away from his ear to relay the message, "Azul wants you to wait here for him tomorrow. No leaving the grounds without him." 

Elise gave the eel a playful salute in response. Floyd just grinned and continued talking to Azul, "Octi-chan says ok and that I should get off the phone so we can cuddle and make out and stuff since I've had a very stressful day. Ok byyyyye!" Azul's spastic chatter went unheard as the mischievous eel ended the call.

The princess shook her head at Floyd's devilish giggles before yanking the phone out of his hand. She opened up the messaging app to text Azul while Floyd made himself comfortable on her very spacious lap of curled-up tentacles. She played with his hair with one hand so he wouldn't start fussing about not getting any attention while texting the no doubt exasperated Mr. Ashengrotto with the other.

F: It's Elise. Floyd's just being a brat. Don't worry. And yes I am fine, I promise. 

Across town, Azul rolled his eyes. Leave it to Floyd to fool around even in the most strained situations. He started typing a message back as he sat in the living room of his mother's house. His home was a fairly large one not too far from The Leviathan Club. His parents were in the next room. He could hear his mother's worried voice sound boarding off of his step-father's much calmer notes. 

A: Is Cowrie alright? Mother has been very worried about her since word spread around the Square.

F: She's been injured but she's going to be alright...it's a lot but she's going to be staying here from now on. She's with Jade right now.

A: Probably for the best. I will let Mother know not to worry...or to try not to anyway. Are you sure you're alright? You weren't hurt, were you?

Floyd noticed the tiny grin on Elise's face as she read whatever it was that Azul was saying. She was really pretty when she looked happy. Floyd internally scoffed, knowing that Azul had no idea and wouldn't even if the twins sent him a framed wall-sized photo of the look Elise had on her face right now. Azul was one of his best friends in the world but good grief was he dense...on the other hand, Floyd wasn't sure if the princess was aware of her growing glow either. Eh, it seemed like too much work to butt in right now so Floyd just resigned to rest his eyes and enjoy the feeling of her delicate fingers comb through his hair. He figured if he shut his eyes, he could at least pretend it was Luna instead. 

-

Cowrie felt exhausted, too exhausted to keep crying. So instead she just breathed in her mate's soothing scent as she stay nuzzled into his chest, letting his soft voice caress her in comfort as he continuously planted kisses on her hair, face, and neck. 

"I'm so sorry, Cowrie..." Jade's voice sounded weirdly uneven now that it was just the two of them. It was like he had been holding himself together until the millisecond they were curled up on his bed, alone, behind the closed and locked door. 

"I promised you that nothing bad would happen and yet-"

Cowrie couldn't stand it a moment longer. She had lost count of how many times he had apologized to her and how many times she reminded him that none of this was his fault. Eventually, she just let him say it for no other reason than to maybe put his heart at ease but this was too much. So she stopped him from finishing that thought with a kiss on his lips. She looked straight into his eyes when she ended the kiss, pulling barely an inch away from him.

"You saved me. You, Floy Floy, and Ellie. And we're all ok. It's just a few gashes. I'm ok. And now I'm here with you. Now we can make sure we're both safe. Always." 

Jade exhaled and planted another soft kiss on her lips before pulling her back into him. Neither one of them said anything else that night. They didn't see the need. So they just fell asleep, curled into one another as the rest of the house fell into a peaceful quiet. 

Across the reef, on the Muraeni turf, things were not so peaceful...

The entire house seemed to explode into a rage of confusion and anger at the 'present' that had been dropped off on the family's doorstep. Don Muraeni snarled at the commotion disturbing his late-night and burst out of his den, "What the hell is going on?!"

He glared down from the second level at the sight in the large mansion's entrance hall. His sons were circled around a batten and bruised Seven and tearing open the large sack that had arrived with him. Once it was opened they all seemed to rear back in disgust. Ventuno gnashed his sharp teeth with boiling fury, "What the fuck is this?!"

Inside was the one-eyed shark beaten to an inch of his life, barely conscious, what was left of fins torn to shreds, and without a single tooth left his broken maw. The only thing left from his partners was their dismembered tail fins. Seven sported a fresh black eye and a couple more gash on his face in addition to the scratches and bruises Floyd had already given him from their little brawl. He crawled into a sitting position and coughed, wincing from the stinging pain. 

"C-Cowrie's gone..." 

His younger brothers look at each other in shock but the eldest only scoffed, "Oh is that all? Eh, one less brat to look after." 

He snapped his sharp fangs at his younger brothers as he shoved through them, snickering at the ones who flinched. Seven looked up into the searing stare his father was giving him. The Don barked at his thugs to clean up the mess before yelling down at Seven. 

"Get up here now, boy! You have five seconds before I mount your tail on the wall!" 

Seven groaned as he sluggishly pushed himself off of the floor. He felt Proteus' gaze from somewhere in the hall. He didn't know exactly where the ray was but knew that he was definitely watching every little interaction as it was happening. As soon as Seven crawled into the den, Don Muraeni found Proteus in a matter of seconds and stared him down.

"Proteus. Get to the Cove now. Put the whole place on lock down. Luna is to stay there permanently. She isn't to leave her room or take a breath out of her goddamned window unless I say so." 

The door to the Don's den slammed with an echo of finality as his right hand grinned from his hiding place in the shadows.

"Yes, sir..."

Tagging: @wysteriadelights @honey-milk-depresso @1ndigowitch @evieyouknow @iscarlettappel @foxwitchaine @victoria1676 @marcepanna @feldya @aiimee9 @espada188 @zstargalaxy

[colleitheglidingchampionofsumeru]

Chuuya Nakahara x fem!reader

The Reason?..

Characters:Chuuya (obviously) Mori,Elise,Dazai,Kunikida,Ranpo,Yosano,Fukuzawa (mostly everyone xD and a made up person)

Warings:cuss words?,death,very detailed death(s) or injury(s) and just Dazai

Word count:1558

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*The Past In The Port Mafia*

You Dazai and Chuuya were "friends" more like you and Dazai are friends and so are you and Chuuya but they were not other than for Dazai and Chuuya dressing like they do you kinda dressed like it but what you wore mostly all black you had black fishnet tights with a black skirt that wasn't to long or two short and brown boots than was a bit below your knees and you had a white shirt that was tucked in your skirt a bit and a black jacket that went around your shoulders like Dazai's and Chuuya's your dad is Mori Ōgai you and Chuuya met when you guys were about 4 years old and you guys were the same age so we're you and Dazai you,Dazai and Chuuya were all the same age your Ability was "mimic" you actually had Dazai's ability "No Longer Human" you knew that your Ability can have about four or five Ability's at the same time you and Chuuya liked each other since you were both 12 young age yes but the two of you didn't know you liked each other after a long while Dazai knew the two of you liked each other since you told Dazai and Chuuya told Dazai so Dazai knew he knew even before so around the age of 15 you and Chuuya started to date it was good You and Dazai had a friend group with two guys one of them named Ango Sakaguchi and the other one Oda Sakunosuke the four of you would talk and stuff and yes you did talk to Chuuya as well but than that thing happened with Oda he died you saw a friend die but Dazai pulled you back when you tried stopping the blood from escaping from Oda's arm after he died you looked at your hands the past came back to you...

*The past (The Incident)*

You got news that your friend Ivy Wolf had took a dangerous mission you and Dazai and Chuuya went to get her than you saw fire.. fire?! You ran to the fire Dazai and Chuuya running after you you saw your friend and was glad she was okay so you stopped and so did Chuuya and Dazai but than she covered her mouth and nose and ran in you yelled for her to stop but she didn't listen you ram but Dazai grabbed you and held you back you told him to let you go bt that time Oda and Ango were there than the place blew up when Dazai let you go Chuuya grabbed you and pulled you to him and blocked any thing that can harm you after a bit you stepped in his foot hard he let you go and you ran to find your friend they ran after you than you found her you ran to her she was laying down on the ground her stomach got stabbed badly you ran to her and fell to the floor and tried to stop the blood Dazai,Chuuya,Oda and Ango were just watching they couldn't do anything you friend said "y/n..no" you kept trying to stop the blood you called your dad for him to bring back up it seemed they haven't arrived yet your friend grabbed your hand and said "y/n...I'm sorry- it was my last mission....before I left... but hey I guess I won't make..it" you said "no no no you will make it" after a bit she said "your a great friend y/n.." and than she stopped moving and let go of your hand you sat there she had stopped breathing and by that time your dad came you looked at your hands your hands were covered in her blood you started to cry and cry a lot you put you head down and it felt like you were going to scream it got worse and worse and your cries became screaming you wanted to kill everyone your friend didn't deserve death..your throat started to hurt a lot Chuuya and Dazai went over to you and hug hugged you they took you back Oda said he would set a funeral after that it just wasn't the same...

*Back With The Port Mafia (Oda's Death*

The past just came back you just looked at your hand Dazai said "y/n no" he went to you than pulled you into a hug the both of you hugged for a good while you now crying you felt the whole world fall apart you talked to Chuuya after that happened you told him you were leaving the Port Mafia he understood but you followed Dazai you and Chuuya were still dating have been since well you guys were 15 you and Dazai and Chuuya are now 19 you and Dazai were getting a knew job and well someone cane for you when you were alone... it did not end well

*At a Ball (On A Roof Alone)*

You and Dazai went to a ball through you guys or well you didn't dance so you just had your normal outfit on it was a new one to you have black small boots the same fishnet tights a white black skirt and a white shirt with a white jacket a bit different but it was something you had your jacket off you were just on the roof when someone came up to you the two if you talked you knew what they wanted so you used one if your Abilitys to put a shield around or on every escape place locking you and him on the roof you went to turn but than he stabbed you in the stomach and took the knife out you fell to the floor and held your hand on your stomach he Saud "sorry y/n I killed Ivy now it is time for you" he killed your friend?.. you stood up and said "y-you killed her?.." he laughed and said "she was a easy kill" you were with the ADA/Armed Detective Agency you and the guy talked until Dazai and Ranpo came to the roof door but it has your shield the only way to remove it is by killing you or making you pass out the guy stabbed you again you used your ability and the knife broke in your stomach he threw it and yelled at you he grabbed you by your throat by now Dazai told everyone I the ADA Kunikida and Yosano were at the floor of the place it was really up high so they had to look up Dazai and Ranpo were by the door Dazai on the phone with Kunikida Dazai didn't want anything happen to you he couldn't Cuuuya trusted him a lot with letting you go with Dazai but when the guy grabbed you by your throat than walked to the edge and pulled out another knife than stabbed you in your stomach again but then took the knife you and held you over the roof he made sure you were okay but than the guy dropped you he was going to ask Kunikida something but he than said "she didn't fall she is hanging onto something " he was relieved than you pulled yourself up and got on the roof the guy when to push you off again than you grabbed his hand than kicked him away he fell to the floor you two were fighting for a long while Dazai couldn't do anything about the shields all he could do was watch the guy stabbed your hand with the knife it went right through your hand you kicked him off the knife still in your hand you knew you had to make sure thus man went to jail it was for Ivy you took the knife out if your hand and threw it you ere in pain it was a long while than a helicopter came down you were standing the guy looking for the knife you threw he found it than when he turned around the helicopter landed and guys had a gun pointed at him you felt dizzy and fell the shields slowly disappearing it disappeared from top to bottom Dazai ran to you and Yosano went up the ladder with Kunikida you were laying down in the ground Yosano couldn't heal you the knife pieces were in your stomach you need surgery than it all went black...

*you were sent to the hospital got surgery but you were in a coma for a month Dazai was blaming himself Chuuya was there he wanted to kill that guy but after the month passed you woke up you were told you had to stay in the hospital for a bit and after that you were in the ADA and so was Dazai you only did that whole thing for a reason..you did recover yes and you and Chuuya were still dating and well after that the rest is the rest but you may be wondering

What was the reason?.. well that is simple

It was for Ivy and Oda..

The friends you lost due to people... it was for them and it was for Cuuya and Dazai as well but..mostly for Ivy and Oda after them dying due to the people you just lost your smile...you did smile yes but only in front of Dazai and Chuuya

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The End

note:it says the end by the way