#set at some ambiguous point of time in an established relationship...??

[artbychromo]

(little comic + 1.7K words, inspired by chatting about timezones + @swbookerr's fics uwu)

To be honest, Ace had partly forgotten about the Den Den Mushi. It sat on its own little table outside the Spade Pirates’ galley, and the thing hadn’t been touched since Shanks gifted it to him a few weeks ago. It also hadn’t rung yet, and Ace wasn’t certain what was appropriate grounds for calling the Red Force, anyway. 

Maybe it was only meant for emergencies? That had been Ace’s assumption. Meaning, he was startled when the thing first let out its odd, burbling call around dusk one day. He ducked out of the kitchen—he’d been helping Deuce and Skull prepare that evening’s supper, but now the two of them peered after Ace from the doorway.

Heart in his throat, he lifted the receiver. 

Sounds of chaos blared out from the little creature. Ace’s pulse raced even faster. He wasn’t sure what to make of it, until finally, the cacophony resolved itself into songs and shouts—and above that, a slurred, cheerful drawl. 

“Angel! Hello, angel? Are you there, gorgeous?” 

Ace’s nerves transformed into appalled heat, sensing the start of Deuce’s laughter from behind him.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he managed. “Shanks, what’s going on?”

The other captain let out a meandering whoop. “I just missed you, baby! Wish I could see your smile so bad. How am I supposed to dance, when you’re not here in my arms-s-s-s—arm?” 

On his end, Ace wondered if the Den Den actually replicated the waft of alcohol, or if it was just his imagination. At least no one was in danger.

Shanks went on, “The boys here got me thinking about you—”

“More like,” a voice interjected, “he wouldn’t shut up about your ass.” 

Ace flushed, hearing Skull’s chuckles join Deuce’s. It only got worse when Shanks replied, “It’s a lovely ass, I’ll have you know.”

“I didn’t mean his literal ass, Captain, though I’m sure it’s wonderful—”

“It is! Abs-o-lute heaven!” 

“Shanks!” Ace yelled (cutting off the man’s claim of “To die for!”). Chancing a glance over his shoulder, Ace was chagrined to find Skull with a hand slapped over his mouth, trying to remain composed, while Deuce had fully given up on standing and was now doubled over against the galley wall. 

Before he dealt with them, Ace had to address the matter at hand. 

“Look, we’re a little busy here,” he said tightly. “Anything else you needed to say? Otherwise, I’m gonna have to talk to you later.”

After a moment without response save for some shuffling, Ace added a cautious, “That alright, old man?”

Finally, Shanks let out a dramatic sigh. “Stars, but I missed your voice.” The background noise from the other side grew muffled, as if he’d at last found a spot away from the hubbub of his crew. He went on, drawn-out and wistful: “I don’t mean to keep you, sweetheart. Just wanted you to know I was thinkin’ about you all day, and I’ll be dreamin’ about you all night.”

Ace cursed himself for flushing further. Turning away from the galley (and the growing sound of cackling), Ace mumbled, “You’re drunk as fuck, Shanks. …Don’t go falling overboard tonight, okay?” 

“In vino veritas, little flame,” Shanks said with dignity. Then, more groggily, “Or, in sake veritas?” 

Ace put his head in his hands, but couldn’t stop the wobbling, frantic smile pulling at his cheeks. 

“Gods. Good luck with your hangover.” Then, in a rushed breath—because this whole situation was bizarre and new, and his heart was racing, but he was also so, strangely happy—Ace said, “Love you.”

Actually, this situation might be too bizarre and new: Shanks was taken off-guard. Ace heard a swift intake of breath, and then in a flood of boozy admiration, he swore, “Oh, baby, I’ll sail to you tonight! The boys’ll listen—I’ll follow the moonlight off the water, we can be together by dawn—what do you say, angel? We could spend all day together, having just the filthiest, crazed-animal se—”

Ace hung up.

—

Ace sagged against the doorway of his quarters. Even though most of his crew had retired for the day, he could feel his insomnia acting up like a jitter in his limbs. He probably wouldn’t land a good night’s sleep no matter what he tried. 

The issue wasn’t helped by his swirling thoughts. For the sake of restocking supplies, the Spade Pirates had docked in a town with some heavy anti-pirate sentiment. Somehow, the crew hadn’t been particularly bothered. Ace, on the other hand, was on edge the whole time, tensing up whenever he felt anyone’s eyes lingering on him too long.

There was no way anyone knew the truth about him. Even so, he couldn’t help superimposing faces from the rundown taverns of Goa onto those of the locals. Ace could feel the old, familiar unease simmering in his veins, like everyone had just finished hiding a sneer from him; like a knife was waiting to catch him unaware at any turn. 

But he was on his ship, now. Safe. Ace took a deep breath, running a hand through his hair, yet the tension remained. A night like this one was better spent in the open air of the deck. He was just about to make his way out, when the Den Den Mushi reflected a hint of moonlight, catching his eye. 

After a moment of hesitation, Ace gathered the little thing in his arms, and took it with him to the bow of the ship. He stared contemplatively at where he’d set it on the rail. Since that first fiasco, he and Shanks had used the device a few times; their calls made it clear that he didn’t need to wait for some emergency. Still…

Watching starlight glint off the Den Den’s metal trim, he wondered what time it might be where Shanks was. The last time they’d talked, Shanks had been about half a day ahead of him. Who could say if they’d kept pace since then, though.

Stealing a glance at the crow’s nest—he was pretty sure Finamore was on shift tonight—Ace’s hand hovered over the receiver. His thoughts roiled. The tranquil rocking of the ship and the peaceful glow of the moon should have soothed him, but for some reason, they just made Ace more agitated.

He finally thought, Fuck it.

Ace waited, feeling suspended in time as the call went out. Then, he heard a click. 

“Mm… Hello?” 

Ace’s mind stalled. He was thrown off, watching the snail mimic a very sleepy Red-Haired Shanks. It was amusing at times to see the creature capture the other man’s expressions, but a little unsettling for this call; Ace directed his gaze out toward the ocean instead.

“Shanks?” he ventured. “Um. Morning?” 

There was a yawn. Then, “G’morning, little flame.” The cadence of Shanks’ voice was even slower than usual, syllables softly melding into each other. “To what do I owe the pleasure, sweetheart?”

Ace’s mouth quirked, impressed at the immediate smooth-talking. He was also, undeniably, taken in by the calming lilt of Shanks’ words. Ace twisted and untwisted a ringlet of the Den Den Mushi’s cord. 

“It’s nothin’ important, just… checking in.” Ace was unable to keep himself from adding, “What time is it there? I can call back later.” 

He heard a gentle sigh. 

“It’s never too early for you,” Shanks said. “A bit ahead of when I usually wake, but…” he hummed, exceedingly smug. “It’s cute, how you just can’t wait to hear my voice. So precious, baby.” 

Ace rolled his eyes toward the starry sky. “Yeah, I’m hangin’ up.”

Shanks let out a laugh. “Wait, now, come on. Tell me what’s on your mind.”

“It’s just… been a long day.” After a few moments of curling the cord tighter, Ace asked, “Actually, could you talk about your day? What’ve you been up to?” 

A thoughtful hum came over the line, followed by a snort. “You should’ve seen the damn mess Yasopp got us into yesterday. There we were, perusing a market, when the man starts haggling…”

Ace sighed. It was nice, listening to Shanks describe the people he’d run into, the locales he and his crew had explored. Really, it would’ve been nicer to be there at his side for it all, but… the timing wasn’t right. Not yet.

Still, Ace could imagine it. He laid his head in his arms, and let Shanks’ voice carry him over the water.

Finally, as Shanks murmured about dishes they could try “just a few islands over,” Ace felt his eyelids drooping. He gave himself a small shake.

The nighttime breeze was cooler now, biting against his skin. Ace noted the hazy ache of tiredness beneath his eyes; the rhythmic lap of the ocean and its vast, ceaseless waves. Domed above him, the crispness of the stars only added to his sense of the world being yawningly immense. It would have left him unsettled… if not for the sound of Shanks’ steady breathing over the line: a tiny, precious tether in the dark. 

Ace cleared his throat. 

“Thanks, Shanks.”

His conversation partner snickered. “Good rhyme.” 

“Yeah.” Ace smiled. “I mean it, though. For this, and… everything you’ve done. For being you.”

Ace hesitated, stomach churning at his trite words. The night’s darkness helped mute his embarrassment, though; same as the blush on his cheeks. 

“It means a lot,” he finished, voice soft.

There was a brief, yet heavy silence after that, like Shanks was lingering in the pause between one breath and the next. Finally, he murmured, “We’re lucky bastards, aren’t we? I mean—” He waited a moment, so Ace could finish chuckling. 

Then he said, “I’m grateful too. To have found you.”

Ace blinked, staring out into the moonlit night. All he could offer was an agreeing hum. 

After lingering in the contented silence a moment longer, Shanks finally gave a soft laugh, and said, “Guess you should give sleep another go.” 

“Ugh. Yeah.�� Ace wiped a hand down his face, but turned toward the Den Den Mushi with a smile. “Alright. Love you.” 

“Love you too, little flame. Goodnight, Ace.” 

He grinned. “Good morning, Shanks.” 

Shanks’ laugh was just crackling out when Ace replaced the receiver. He heard enough, however, to be flooded with warmth on the way back to his quarters; and as he laid in bed, easily welcoming sleep.

[hannieehaee]

ahh i dont know if this is weird but i was just curious abt how you think svt would react to their s/o using a safeword during sex???

18+ / mdi

their s/o using the safeword during sex

content: mentions of sex, assumed established relationship, mentions of using the safe word, mentions of reader getting hurt, etc.

wc: 873

a/n: thank u for requesting!! i made it kind of ambiguous as to why the safe word was used so u can just use ur imagination for that<3

masterlist

seungcheol -

freaking out internally at having hurt you but!! externally he'd immediately jump into comforting mode and do everything in his power to ensure your safety and comfort. he'd apologize endlessly for having delayed even on second in detecting your discomfort and would spend the rest of the night cooing and pouting at you as he babied you.

jeonghan -

for once in his life he'd be caught so off guard and enter a state of shock, stopping immediately and unsure of how to proceed. even though things didnt go too far and you hadnt gotten hurt or anything, he'd still feel sooo fucking bad. wouldnt be able to joke to lighten the mood either bc he'd just feel so bad to have hurt you in such an intimate setting. would coo at you and caress you the rest of the day.

joshua -

soooo worried and apologetic. the apologies would be endless as he held onto you and ran his hand up and down your back. sex would be the last thing on his mind as he made sure you felt safe and calm. would make sure he knew what made you use the safe word so he'd never do it again.

jun -

he'd go from 0 to 100 super quickly with his brain completely disregarding what you guys were doing just a few moments ago to make sure you were okay. would ask a million questions as he checked with you. if you pointed out his still massively hard dick, he'd grab a pillow and cover it, claiming it was 100% off his mind at the moment.

soonyoung -

super apologetic lol would just mutter apology after apology after apology and hold onto you so tightly whenever you gave him the green light. he would barely even allow you a word in at first bc of how many apologies he'd be blabbering. would thank you for letting him know before things got too far bc it wouldve absolutely broken him if he had actually harmed you in any way.

wonwoo -

he'd be slow at stopping, knowing that if he suddenly were to stop he might run the risk of hurting you or scare you off. he would continue to be slow in his movements as he pulled you closer and held you in his arms, always giving you time and space to create a distance or move however you pleased. he'd apologize if he hurt you and try to do anything you needed to make sure you were comfortable.

jihoon -

irrationally scared he might've hurt you beyond forgiveness at first. this was a first for him, so he'd feel beyond apologetic and like he had committed a capital crime at having hurt you, even if it was an accident. once you both caught your breaths he'd comfort you (and himself) as he held onto you and made sure you were okay, apologizing for whatever it was that caused you to use your safe word.

seokmin -

stops immediately and becomes extremely apologetic about it to the point where he almost cries. he'd NEVER want to let his lust go so overboard to the point of even giving you the slightest discomfort so this instance would stick to him. you'd have to come to him next time u wanna have sex bc he'd wanna give you space to decide if u wanted sex again on ur own.

mingyu -

jumps off you so quickly he knocks himself off the bed with a huge tud, making himself become the actually injured one. the tables would turn, making you have to take care of the bruise he gave himself but would be consistently interrupted by him wanting to tend to you in case he had somehow hurt you.

minghao -

he'd take it so seriously even if you told him it wasn't that big of a deal, that you just felt off for some reason. none of your rebuttals mattered when he entered a zone of utmost worry for you. he'd switch things up completely, telling you to lay down while he made you a warm drink and prepared a bath for the two of you.

seungkwan -

really loud lol. he'd get scared at the situation, having never been through it and not knowing what to do. he'd end up going overboard and overcompensating in trying to tend to you after having accidentally hurt you.

vernon -

another member who would be too shocked to react at first, simply pulling away from you and blanking on what to do. after a few moments of staring blankly, he'd finally move and ask if you needed anything, checking if you were okay or if you were hurt in any way. he'd feel kind of awkward but would still be sincere in his worry for your wellbeing.

chan -

jumps back immediately, eyes wide as he freezes in place. would take him a few moments to actually get close enough to you to check what was wrong and offer his comfort. would feel soooooo fucking bad. would also feel embarrassed that he had somehow hurt you or made you uncomfortable in any way. you'd somewhat have to comfort him to make him realize it was fine since he listened when you used your safe word.

[darlingpwease]

AAAHHHHANDOQLWM YESS YES YES

I love ur mind omgomg–

Locking him up all for yourself,, cherishing him all the time <33

He trusts you, so he knows this is for his own good, right?? You are the only person he can be with. You are the only person who will take care of him the way he deserves. You are the only one for him. And he is the only one for you. He sees that, right??

Although kidnapping bringing him home might have caught him off guard, he will love it, right? He is where he belongs. He knows that. He must.

And when he indulges you?? AAA fuck it's so cute <333 he just can't help but feel so happy when he sees how much you adore him, even if it's in a... unique way.

He adores it so much that he can't help but only want you, so much so that he hasn't even thought about yelling his friends that he's alright (not that they're here anymore to ask, but that's okay)

The kisses exchanged definitely are more enough for him to happily stay here all for you <333

-panna cotta

SEPARATION ANXIETY

next to you I'm not myself; next to you I'm yours

CONTENT WARNINGS: unhealthy behaviour, established relationship, mild touch starvation, kidnapping, pet names (puppy-like♡), power imbalance, fingers in mouth [once; yuuta], from lovers-but-not to lovers-but-red-flag, mild size kink / size difference, collaring [yuuta], mention of drugging [?] [yuuta]

dubious consent (dubcon), heavy petting, mild somnophilia [?], rough treatment, belly bulge + deep penetration, dirty talk + possessive talk, sex marathon / hypersexuality, unprotected sex / breeding, praise (g., r.), multiple orgasms (g., r.), bondage (tied hands, yuuta), hyperstimulation (g.), fingering (g.), cum inflation (g.), mild orgasm denial (g.)

WRITING STYLE: drabble + headcanons (2sfw + 3nsfw), ±6000 words; yuuta's genitals are ambiguous ('cum', 'juice), reader's genitals are ambiguous but implied as a 'dick' ('cum')

DARLINGS: yuuta okkotsu x reader; dom!reader, top!reader, yandere!reader

NOTE: more a random set of thoughts than something conscious, but you know... you know... also thank you for responding,,,,, mwah♡

Yuuta was small and gentle; anxious, timid, but very caring and affectionate, nervous even if you caught a common cold (anxiously asking if you are dying and what he can do for you), clinging to your hand when you watch a horror movie (under Maki's snide laugh when Toge tries to do the same, together with Yuuta, fearfully hiding with the help of you), — but always finding words and actions to calm and caress, as if you were stroking a cute fluffy puppy that brought your favorite thing and now trying to curl up on your lap to remind that you're loved.

Perhaps, for a bigger entourage, he lacked only a T-shirt with your name circled in a heart, and a glowstick — like those that are waved at idols' concerts to the beat of songs. Even if you could not call yourself an idol or any celebrity, Yuuta made you feel that way from the moment when you've met; he looked with doe eyes, having previously managed to make a mistake wherever he could and only hoping that you came with good intentions — and look absolutely smitten when you only offered help and some food, seeing that he couldn't even enjoy his snack, lying somewhere on the ground.

... Maybe you were too involved with him, especially when even Maki points this out, teasing almost reproaching for how involved you have become with your new, hm, friend, constantly dragging everywhere with you — and not that it was a problem that he became a new member, but that you would rather refuse to meet with them than allow Yuuta to be more than a few hours without you, as if afraid that he might disappear if you stay without him for a while.

But regardless of what they thought, you just couldn't stop being maybe a little too involved with him, even if he no longer needed such aggressive patronage — it's not that you asked him and it's not that Yuuta was against spending almost every free time with you, making you feel more and more fascinated by those little things like how he was doing volunteering, wrapped himself in a blanket almost to nose, was constantly freezing, liked to cuddle and often hid a cold nose in your neck, falling asleep as soon as you hugged him, although on normal days he could write to you at four o'clock in the morning because he could not sleep.

(It's not that Yuuta cares about himself more than necessary at all, preferring takeaway food, energetics and not sleeping until everything is done, always looking as if a little more and circles under his eyes will become bags.)

You start 'dating' closer to winter, when "random kisses", hugs all night, timid contact of fingers and pathetic in its obvious flirting starting to annoy both of you (in addition to others), while the courtship was no longer so satisfying, even if things, which he still brought to you like some kind of gifts to the deity, only got better and better. Besides, not only the gifts became more beautiful: it was pointless to deny that Yuuta was only getting prettier and prettier every day, attracting more attention, like a fragile decorative rose blooming, only thornless — and therefore even more vulnerable to anyone who tries to pick and take with them. And the feeling of him, becoming too mesmerizing, only made you more nervous, even in spite of his appearance, saying that he would follow you anywhere and you just had to whistle for him to come running.

You, however, can't take such a risk, seeing other people's views, even if there is "no reason to worry he's absolutely stunned & would stick to ur hip if could" — and you want to tell Toge that it's a little more difficult, reading words from the phone screen in his hands, but you can't bring yourself to say it out loud, because even if Toge sometimes behaves like a teasing prick, he never writes what he is not sure of less than completely, especially when so psychically guesses thoughts,

and for a moment you think that Yuuta has all the more surely already understood everything from your behavior (this would explain a lot),

but you can't force yourself to relax anyway.

Even when Yuuta reaches out to you, wanting only to kiss until he gets dizzy, ignoring the pain from your nails squeezing him tightly while he moans, fidgeting restlessly from overwhelming sensations that for a moment make him want to cry from how much he adores you, — you can't stop feeling as if under your skin thorns grow; Yuuta hastily kisses your skin, touching with warm lips in blind worship, squeeze so hard that your bones might ache, — but you only feel even worse, knowing that none of this can be long, eternal. Your Yuuta, your kind, sweet Yuuta, with thin red lips, sparkling eyes and the most tender gaze, looking up at you in blissful adoration, will never always be here for you. You still can't call him 'lover' — even after mutually confessed, you still felt so far away from him, as if you first met and are about to get closer,

while irritably kissing-biting in bed until his lips hurt.

In the end, if what you are experiencing is the desire to "infect and be infected", then you are trying to contact the vaccinated, and the thought that perhaps this is not so significant for Yuuta makes you dig into his sensitive skin. He's not so dependent on you anymore, is he? In a sense, you are no longer so important to him — he has new friends, new things to do, new pursuits, and even if you disappear from his life, it will be a blow and a hole, but not to the extent that he will never recover from it.

The only thing you will do is make room for someone who wants to be with him for a long time, being interested in a cute kind boy who is tall enough to make others look up — especially with his affectionate smile and altruistic personality that does not like conflicts or quarrels. It's not that you were so needed or useful; rather, everything that was happening was connected with you more out of pity than out of dependence. Yuuta no longer needs supervision and support; he no longer has a reason to spend all his time with you or to follow like your tail when he can be alone, still attracting people to him.

He is with you simply because wants to; he allows it, but does not need, and when you think for too long that maybe you are too dependent on him, too addicted to the cute, timid boy who does not communicate well with others and likes to hang out with you because you are good, even “cozy”,

then you can't stop the flow of thoughts until bedtime.

“Oh, a trip? No, not really; I thought that, um, it's too long. Even if it would be useful for me, I don't think it's a good idea. I mean, I understand that this is an infrequent opportunity, and it's recommended, but I don't want to be away... uh, away from, from here. Yes.”

“Mh? No problem. I don't quite understand what kind of surprise you want to arrange, but if that's what you want, then I agree to everything... Tell me if you need any help, okay?”

“I know you only want the best for me, so of course I'll wait obediently. If that's what makes you happy, then I'm happy too...”

“The only thing I want is for us to always be together.”

Yuuta has a scattering of freckles on his cheeks and shoulders when summer comes, pale orange kisses of the sun, but in winter they look like little spots that you want to bite, leaving marks, silently convincing him to stop trying to calm you down and accept when you squeeze his hands, continuing to leave your own scattering on skin, looking more like the chain you made him wear.

Your kisses are scorchingly good, as if he is being held on a slow-burning fire, waiting until he understands something important, but Yuuta does not have a single guess even when you do not react to his plaintive quiet whining from the abrupt cessation of affection, only holding in place. But even his heavy breathing and gentle pleas to continue remain unanswered, as if ignoring how needy he remained, excited enough to tremble when you touch his chest, letting him feel your breath on sensitive hot skin. Even his wet puppy-dog look remains without any reaction when you close his eyes, bending down to ruddy ear, forcing him to stop breathing from too close, sweet touch, as if his heart might stop, unable to withstand too much desired proximity.

Yuuta does not know what he is thinking when agrees to everything you say, only wishing that you would not stop, perfectly aware that you would not offer anything bad, you are always so good, so perfect that the only thing that can go wrong is that it was spoiled by his wrong behavior.

Maybe you were wrong sometimes, but harm him? Never — even when fingers touch neck; kissing his wet hot cheeks, assuring that you are doing everything only for him, you are always here only for him, and everything you can, you give only to him. The most dear and precious thing in life that you would like to always have with you, with whom you would like to create a family and a home where you can always return; it would be nice if Yuuta lived as a sweet spouse, wouldn't it?

When he turns his head so sweetly to the side, letting you kiss face and neck, you can't help but think that the most correct thing would be to just keep him in your pocket, hidden from everyone, and know that he will always be there, no matter what happens,

and this makes his head spin too much, as if from euphoria,

but when Yuuta tries to tell you this, you just kiss without letting him utter a word, almost purring about how small and pretty he is, like a toy, and so cute that you would like to bite to cope with all these sensations; but he's already yours, so you shouldn't worry, right? Always and forever yours.

It's all good. He can relax. He's safe. You take care of it.

You know what you're doing,

and when he hears it, he feels too safe to question anything, like how your words sound, or what you're doing besides snuggling up to him.

In the end, it doesn't matter — he feels so tired, warm, wet, so blissful that even an inarticulate whisper that you will bring him home seems like a fantasy created by overexcited brain, so confused and foggy from just a few kisses, he loves you so much, and even when you gently stroke him, assuring that he will soon be good, he wants to say that he is already good, so good, and you are so good, too good for him, and

he loves you so MUCH,

even when his consciousness begins to slip away under your loving touch.

Everything around seems to be a hazy line between reality and sleep, which inflamed tired mind created, looking for something that could make him wake up and be pulled out of the created illusion, but there are no running shadows, no glittering eyes — nothing that would make him wake up from delirium, it's as if he was trapped in this unfamiliar dark room, anxiously realizing that you are not around, but not being able to get up and look for you, unable to move, even when heart starts beating faster from growing anxiety and fear that something has happened to you.

But when your — he knows that your, he feels — hands touch him, stroking his hair, saying that now he is at home, no one and nothing will stop, you will be a family now, Yuuta cannot even mentally refuse, only knowing that you are satisfied with the gentle silence caused by his obedience. Your words sound like through a column of water, and his body is so weak, wadded, and you keep saying something, but he can't even listen, catching the words abruptly, — almost purring when you stroke his face, slowly descending with your fingers to his neck.

But something else is pressing against his skin — what makes him start to come to his senses.

You knew it would look great.

♡ Yuuta lies on the bed, wrapped in a nice blanket, draws in an album, reads books that you bring and leave, and sometimes watches TV; even if there are many more things, lying wherever possible (including a laptop without an Internet connection), which you have prepared to occupy him while he "trying to understand everything" or when you are busy, Yuuta has already noticed that his long passivity is more likely to cause your arrival than the appearance that he is happy, and even if it is manipulative — it is he who is locked up here, isn't it?

Compared to the fact that he can't go anywhere outside the room without permission, the fact that he forces you to come and spend time with him, since you can't see him so sad, are little things that are easy to close eyes to, especially when you sit on the bed, making his heart skips a beat from excitement, and stroke, asking what you can do for him — besides letting out, of course. Why would he leave if you're here, right? He has no need to leave this house, if only here you can always be together, as he wanted. Now it's a new house that you both will make the most cozy and pleasant place, in which you can live together as you wanted, spending all the time with each other, as if stuck together. Wasn't that what he craved, clinging to you and guarding at the entrance, waiting for you to come out to pick him up? After all, he wanted to live together — and isn't this room that you have prepared for him wonderful?

Yuuta shouldn't be too upset; for everyone, he is "on a trip to another country", only you know that he stayed, preferring to be with you, so he should stop being naughty, even if it may cause inconvenience since this is not the room he is used to — but you didn't become different! You still love him and want to stay with him forever, and he will soon realize that, in fact, his feelings have not changed either, even if the situation has become different!

For him, there should be you and only you, even if he could have already weaned himself from this feeling — but when his arms are wrapped around you, poking his nose, curling up around, you know that you are saying all this for a reason. Yuuta hears and listens, knowing that you are doing this for him, and he is not at all as persistent as you thought he would be, saying that 'this is a lie' — rather, it seemed to you that nothing has changed, he will even eat from your hands if you want. And even knowing that it can only be a trap, designed to lull your caution and convince you that he is tame, you can't brush him off, but playing with his hair while he's napping, almost purring with pleasure, like a huge cat, as if his neck isn't chained with a collar with your name on it — and as if he is not the victim who should fight instead of hiding in your hands and calling you just to spend even more time together.

he can only do this to deceive you.

But when you look at his sleeping gentle face, finally finding peace after the restless expectation of your arrival, for some reason you feel too relaxed, involuntarily realizing that yes, he is here, he is at home,

you are at home.

... Yuuta still wraps himself in a blanket when wants you to come, pampering him with your attention and caresses, but you can't help but take a little more things with you than usual, sometimes sitting for several hours, enjoying his measured breathing during sleep or a loving look from somewhere under the blanket while you're working (even if you still can't figure out why everything looks more like living together than semi-forced relocation).

♡ Of course, you spend enough time together every day — besides the fact that Yuuta has to get used to you again and start trusting, realizing that this was done for the sake of your and his love, you just loved to hang out like nothing happened, and Yuuta doesn't mind; putting his head on your shoulder when you speak, offering to play or watch, sometimes just lying on bed and chatting, almost wrapping around you, making sure that you are completely squeezed and caught by him, not being able to escape in any case.

Yuuta is not physically strong, at least not so strong that you would have any problems with it in case of a physical confrontation, but you still can't find the strength to brush him off when he comfortably lies down next to you or on you, poking his nose, as if trying to merge from how insistently Yuuta presses in search of your warmth; when his skin tingles from an unusual sensation, even in spite of how often you caress him, letting him hide face in your chest or hug, holding tight, almost puppy-like poking at you, waiting for you to be able to give him attention. Perhaps from that moment he became even more needy and clingy, even if you can't say that he spends more time alone now than before — but he still whines when you want to leave and diligently prepares for your arrival, just to keep you longer, sometimes trying desperately to convince you to stay with him for the night or hold him until he falls asleep.

And although you can't be too frivolous, knowing that your beloved is more than cunning, you still can't leave the room earlier than a few hours, spending all the time hugging him, kissing his face and saying how good he is, almost shamelessly pampering and caressing, being simply unable to leave until you tell him how glad you are that he is so calm and understanding, especially when he wraps around in response, gently kissing, saying that he is happy to be with you, while your fingers touch his neck, outlining the letters of your name, which Yuuta does not try to hide even if his cheeks are blushing, feeling your slow touch.

Perhaps, he blushes even more only when you start to pamper and cherish him even more fiercely, spending every second to make sure that he feels loved, knowing that only you can love him so much, only you can take care of him and make his head spin with delight, knowing that you are not even planning to stop yet — until you make sure that he definitely remembers something, seeing his dusty look or the rosy tips of his ears when he hides face in the pillow, but does not try to run away or move away.

Not that even running away can help him when you kiss, playing with his hair, whispering about how precious he is, how glad you are that he is where he should be, how good that he is so pliable and affectionate — just like before, when he couldn't live without you, almost crying when you wanted to leave him and clinging so desperately during the goodbye that even if he didn't say anything, you could feel how upset he was. Only now you will not go anywhere and will not leave, just like him — now you will always be together, like the family he wanted so much when begged you never to give up on him, hiding his face in your clothes, drinking too much to even realize that you are not pushing him away, but trying to help, and digging his fingers into your skin so hard that bruises appeared there.

Of course, now you will make sure that this will not happen again — you swear that you will love him and spoil him until he realizes how much you adore him, since you are destined to be together forever now.

And the fact that Yuuta makes your head spin, as if from a euphoric attack, when his thin, hot lips kiss yours, makes you only more intoxicated.

♡ You and Yuuta have never had penetrative sex. Not that it was anything strange, a sufficient number of couples do not do it before the wedding to "be clean", but for Yuuta it was never a matter of innocence or giftedness — your body seemed incredible, exciting, and the thought that you would go even further was connected with something more intimate and deep, which made his heart sink into embarrassment and shame, realizing that he wants a lot; much more than you are certainly ready to give, already overly cherishing someone as needy and clumsy as he is, who might as well spend days in bed with you without getting out. If Yuuta asked for even more, he would simply be greedy, if not desperate, begging you to let him continue and try to take even more even when you are clearly exhausted.

But when your fingers slide over his hips, assuring him to continue rubbing even if his movements become clumsy with excitement, Yuuta is close to drooling, whining your name while you encourage him not to stop, blindly whispering praise and enthusiastic words; when he fidgets nervously, feeling you stop, making him stay a little apart, apologizing in a muffled voice at the sight of his confused, ruddy expression — to immediately pull him on yourself, pressing even harder, hearing only his enthusiastic, amazed moan when your bodies touch again.

Wet, hot, soft — as if every time your fingers squeeze it, Yuuta becomes even more pleasant to the touch, like a cute toy, too pretty to resist temptation, convincing him not to cling so tightly while you hump him, taking care that every movement causes him to moan mixed with whining, every time making you tremble with delight, knowing that it is you who make him feel like this, that it is you who are holding him in your hands now, that it is you who are the center of his attention and the only one he can think of is you.

His arms are hugging you so tightly, trying to move more sharply, more confidently, listening only to your approving words, feeling how his clothes are getting too tight, but not having the opportunity to undress, fearing that you may disappear, slip away, remove him from your hips as soon as he is distracted — almost forcing him to slide on you, making sure that he is not too carried away and moves comfortably, even if you want, need more,

it is not enough,

it's so not enough that you would rather press him down hard and move on your own, but instead say something to make sure that he knows 'everything is fine', even if you can't stop squeezing and grabbing him in a shameless manner, causing him to tremble.

... His waist is easy to wrap around, like a doll's, with unmarked uncovered skin, easily turning red when you press on it — but even if he wanted to somehow hinder you by finishing teasing strokes, it would be impossible. His hands are not tied so tightly that it hurts, leaving red marks, but if Yuuta jerks sharply, he will still experience pain — and it seems more than fair to you, even if he cannot stop twitching from the lightest touch, squirming when you are distracted, trying to attract attention again, almost suffocating when you actually return, carefully exposing his body further and further. But even if his body tries to shrink, hide from the caress, trembling when you deliberately slowly move fingers higher — and immediately grab, changing the tease to a rough grip, until his body relaxes again, humbling, letting you do whatever you want; squeezing and rubbing while Yuuta wants to start squirming again, feeling how everything inside him pulsates and burns whenever you touch.

When you're so focused on him that without noticing (or pretending) gaze, looking into your eyes, wishing to ask you to be more merciful, — but just bites his lips, holding himself in place, afraid that even a hint of a desire to pause will be perceived as a desire to stop everything that is happening "which he simply cannot express openly",

but going insane when you paw his body, squeezing and groping until Yuuta starts whining, trembling from excessive affection, making his eyes water; desperately drooling when you only become even more enthusiastic, as if concentrating on make him even louder; sighs, moans, screams, whining, whimpering, suffocating sounds — everything that can prove what he is now so vulnerable and open to you, afraid only that you will decide to stop when his thighs are so wet and hot. While you continue to kiss, making him feel abnormal with delight, mixed with how sensitive his body is after you play, that even a light breath is enough for him to start wriggling again, trying to crawl away, but being deftly caught by the hips, not allowing to dodge your touches.

Even if tying him up might look a little hasty, you were more than aware of how smart your beloved is and that you can't trust him in this position until you make sure he won't do anything silly or hide dangerous objects somewhere. No matter how much you loved him, being willing to do anything for him, it didn't make sense if he was trying to fight back, luring with false submission and enthusiasm.

However, the way Yuuta whined in frustration when you moved, struggling with the ropes to touch you, awkwardly trying to wrap legs around to snuggle closer — made you feel dizzy, feeling his heart beating feverishly under your fingers from overexcitation and inability to reach the peak. When was the last time you saw him like this? When has he been so horny and adorable in the past, even if he behaved like an puppy? When he was just as desperate to stick in an attempt to find satisfaction, even if you gave him nothing but even more stimulation, from which his body could not stop shaking?

When was the last time Yuuta looked at you like that,

being ready to do anything if only you would start spoiling him again?

He immediately understands what you want when you touch his lips, looking into wet misty eyes and caressing hot cheeks, — and silently agrees, opening mouth, letting you slide inside and pushing fingers further, forcing him to tilt his head back slightly. But when you resume the movement, just so that he feels incredibly good, letting him feel how excited you are, Yuuta gently bites your fingers, urging you not to delay, even when gasps whenever you push it too deep, making adorable sounds mixed with tears from excitement and discomfort, from which he can't refuse, insisting that you don't stop.

If you could, you would capture this moment forever, in this stuffy dark room with Yuuta, for whom you were the center of everything.

And the fact that you whisper praise to him, without ceasing to rub and squeeze, talking about how hot and pliable he is, even better than when you fucked him before, you want to breed him so much right now — it's enough for him to cum in front of your eyes, knowing that you are not taking them away from him.

And Yuuta adores it — even when the ropes dig into his skin again while trying to hug you,

because it doesn't matter so much when you look at him in such a way that he is ready to lose consciousness.

♡ Yuuta has a little belly — such that you can easily cover most of it with palm, especially when stroking, seeing his excited gaze directed at your hand, understanding that you calm him down before start, being ready to stop at any moment. But for someone scared, he is already too wet, especially when your fingers slide lower, getting under his clothes, while lips are gently kissing his ruddy face, carefully preparing him and relaxing under constant caresses that stupefy him no less than your presence so close that he can feel your breath.

Was it his fault that from one kiss he was ready to agree to anything you want? Definitely not — especially when you whisper that you are ready, tearing an intimate touch under his plaintive whining, and slowly spread his hips, showing wet spots and trembling legs; the clothes slip off his legs easily, but you don't let him cross them, stroking soothingly, assuring that everything will be fine, even when your touch is too close to the wet bottom of his stomach, almost teasing, helping him switch from fear to excitement, reminding what you want to give during your first time, letting him feel how serious you are when you snuggle up to the soaked fabric of his underwear.

However, even when your fingers, wet from lube and pre-cum, gently stretch him, carefully pushing and filling; even when Yuuta whines about how 'empty and ready ', shaking again from the orgasm; even when you feel so excited that you are ready to directly make him to turn on stomach, fucking until such a state that he will definitely breed up to the point of losing consciousness — you know that Yuuta is not prepared yet, that you must continue if you want him to feel good, even if he squeezes you so greedily, as if assuring you to just stay inside, enjoying his warm and pliability. So wet that you can hear squelching sounds mixed with heavy breathing and moans when you are too persistent, while he drools, squeezing again only to cum, fighting the urge to roll his eyes as you continue through the orgasm, not even giving him a possible respite.

If it was an ordinary time, you would have stopped the last time, but you just keep fondling and stretching, feeling that he is still too tight and tense.

By the time the fingers disappear, Yuuta no longer understands anything, experiencing the last waves of orgasm with the realization that this is not the end, even if he physically can no longer, only obediently letting you throw his legs over your shoulders, completely trusting himself to you,

even when he is filled again, much more than before, trembling from the orgasm that has not yet passed and from painful pleasure, feeling how every part of body aches from the incessant fondling — especially when you you lift his hips slightly, making them even more comfortable on shoulders, letting him feel how deep you are, without encountering any resistance from his tired swollen body, sticky with juice and sweat, ideally taking you so deep that with every breath he can see how his stomach bulges.

Some time ago, he didn't even dare to think about how you would fuck him, tying his hands and forcing him to cum until he turns out to be so weak in your arms, — but now the only thing he can think about is how good it feels when you don't stop, gradually becoming rougher, not being shy of wet slaps from which his cheeks seem to blush even more, nor the moans that become loud again every time you drive inside. When he incoherently purrs something, trying to praise, but everything turns into inarticulate screams interrupted by new thrusts, stretching him well and wide for you, like a cute toy, too weak to even help you, let alone 'fight back', not even being able to finish when he shivers from too intense sensations, squeezing you even tighter.

His body is hot, soft, wet, greedy, looking for pleasure even when he has already received enough and should not be so needy, but still trying to make you cum in him to feel good, full, as it should be, even if he can only stick out his tongue, begging you to kiss him, and suffocate while you gently but deeply kiss him, not at all with the same force with which you stuff him, preparing to accept everything you give, forcing him to slide on soaked sheets sticking to the skin from how excited he is, stupidly looking for you in puppy addiction even when Yuuta can't anymore — and when he whines shrilly, choking, seeing stars in front of eyes with delight and painful stimulation while his stomach is filled with you, becoming so hot and rounded that his body relaxes even more, letting the cum flow out while Yuuta blissfully closes eyes, breathing heavily with his mouth open, straining and immediately unclenching.

When you gently press on his stomach, Yuuta just whimpers, begging you not to make him relax and let everything flow when he feels so good with you, filling him to the brim, but you are more than adamant, even when he is still whining audibly, trying to resist, but quickly gives up, knowing that he cannot even remove your hands. Perhaps you just liked to see how his hips and sheets are stained when he can no longer restrain himself, giving you what you want, whining in frustration from resentment, wanting to at least push you away during a rebellious mood, but he hardly even raises head, not that he can express his frustration physically, instead relaxing even more, completely drowning, even when your fingers slide inside, as if checking how well he did, and Yuuta regrets that can't complain about you, but instead tries not to interfere, breathing deeply.

He perceives your turning him over on stomach as something unimportant, but when you push his hips apart, putting him on his knees, the body reacts with a sweet tremor, realizing what you want — but not being able to do anything other than drool, even when he's full again, feeling your hot breath, the way your chest is pressed against his back, so close that he can almost hear your heart beating, so so so close, that he can't help but squeeze you in a last attempt to make you want not to stop, stuffing him anew after everything that has leaked.

And even if it's not normal, even it's absolutely not normal that he gets so intoxicated when you fuck him from behind, the person who kidnapped him and locked him up here, keeping him tied up, leaving him alone and acting as if nothing happened, as if it should be, — then he is even more abnormal, since he is ready to cum only from the realization that it is you who are now breeding him, squeezing and spanking, biting, marking, purring contentedly when he tries to move hips back, even if his whole body hurts, realizing late that you have become even more intense and rougher, whispering something, but the only thing Yuuta hears is the noise of blood when rests his hands so as not to lose balance, belatedly catching himself thinking that he rests his hands, before you press his face into the pillow, lifting his hips higher, getting ready to fill his flexible lustful body again — and reaching a peak when you see how he stretches his hand to yours, trying to intertwine them, cumming when you squeeze his wet palm with your own.

... You don't think you'll be able to get up — not for a few hours, at least. Yuuta doesn't mind — not when you lie on him, pleasantly pressing down on the bed, gently kissing his wet face.

[sadtonight]

"Let me take care of you!"

Summary: you are caring, patient and warm towards a specific boy from Savanaclaw. It's hard not to appreciates it, especially when he happens to have a crush on you;

Characters: Savanaclaw;

Warnings: none, reader is gender neutral, pre-established romantic relationships;

Side notes: I looove Savanaclaw boys because there is like, three of them, which means less work and they are kemonomimi! If you are wondering why I haven't used the word "motherly" is because it doesn't sit right with me....I figured this work would take faster to make due to sudden burst of inspiration so here. Enjoy!

Leona

— was convinced that you were just another weak herbivore that wanted to butter him up and get some benefits from the second born prince when you insistently greeted him each time you saw him;

— fine, if that's the game you are playing, Leona is also in. It's not because he just happened to be observing you for a while and saw your kindness shine through while you engaged with others. He found himself annoyed that you gave away so much time to bunch of nobodies until one day, you waved your hand at him as he was passing through the botanical garden;

— from that point on, Leona let himself be spoilt by the attention, but always reminded you of your position, which was 'just one of his unofficial servants'. Like your habit of leaving your jackets, coats and such on his sleeping form whenever he was resting was stupid, he told you as much;

— however, he would, without a fall, toss your belongings back, usually clean of any dust or leaves. Although, some articles of clothes were not returned for some reason, to which Leona chided you for leaving your stuff unattended and said that he wasn't responsible for your things. In truth, the ones that smelled strong of your soap, washing powder or some sort of perfume were tangled in blankets and covers on his bed;

— one of beastman's pet peeves was you following Ruggie's example and giving him veggies along with meat. Gosh, it was definitely a set-up: hyaena boy served greens while everyone was having a meal in the Savanaclaw dorm and you put vegetables on his tray during lunches at the college building. Leona is chewing on them in your presence but the moment you're out he is hastily getting up and leaving the plate behind;

— one of his favourite things is undoubtedly you brushing his hair. At first, when you asked to comb it he gave a hard no. That is at first, after giving it a thought, male threwn the brush into your hands and told you to get this over with;

— you were so tender with his locks, gently running through them with utmost care, that it soothed Leona so much so he had actually fallen asleep while sitting. Congratulations! Now it's officially your duty to brush his hair because he is not touching it anymore. You both don't mind though, things like moving the loose stands out of his face brings you two delight, despite the snickers behind your backs.

Ruggie

— you passed each other on the college grounds numerous times, though you both had your respective works to take care off. The difference being that Ruggie was having odd jobs and you were helping someone out;

— that's when your paths crossed: in the evening, at the kitchen. The hyaena beastman was scavenging the room for any leftovers and you were cooking some meal for a sick friend. Upon seeing that you had some unused ingredients, he made an ambiguous comment on them getting thrown away being a waste, half-heartedly hoping that you would give ingredients to him;

— what Ruggie didn't expect was you offering to make a separate dinner for him and before he knew, it was served on a plate. Tastiness was off the charts, the male even licked off clean the plate and utensils. Testing his luck, he offhandedly mentioned that it was a real shame he got to eat only one portion, to which you promised to treat him more in the future. Ruggie's heart skipped a beat after those words;

— your kindness extended to helping him out with Leona's tasks, from finding discount detergents to cleaning Savanaclaw dorm leader's room. This time spending resulted in a bonding moments where hyaena would take breaks with you and voice his complaints, knowing well that you could get what he meant;

— it was first time you patted him: Ruggie just finished telling about his rough day, full of labour and annoyances, when suddenly he felt a hand run through his hair, sympathetic cooes leaving your mouth. It kinda scared him and so he scooted away but regretted it later while thinking about the incident at night;

— beastman tried to hint that he actually doesn't really mind getting petted, ya know? Thankfully, you continued doing this gentle gesture. Ruggie loved just plopping onto your chest and feeling you fingers scratch his scalp and ears after exhausting days. He specifically stated to save money to buy hair care products so his hair would be nicer to touch;

— overall, the initial suspicions were cleared and Ruggie remembered how great it feels to be taken care of, just like his grandma would do. But for some reason, this was different kind of warmness, it was incredibly addictive and contagious, making hyaena boy return the affection in his own, little ways.

Jack

— it was impossible to pinpoint exactly when all those mushy, fuzzy, warm feeling begun overtaking Jack wherever he got to meet with you. Your unshakable decency and goodness of the heart made him admire you and feel protective over you, since he was afraid that some scummy people could take advantage of you or cause you distress;

— the gesture itself was rather sweet so you gradually started hanging out with the beastman more, thus sharing your care for him. You often wondered how Jack's days were, what he struggled with in his daily life or studies and what he would want to talk about;

— rarely did wolf male got to speak about himself so much with anyone, preferring to keep things to himself, finding it better to deal with his baggage on his own. But he couldn't deny that once seeing how attentively you listened, he stopped trying to hide his excitement for talking about his passion and hobbies;

— after allowing you to breach his verbal boundaries, Jack didn't mind you breaching physical ones. When you fixed his buttons, collars and straightened his clothes you low-key reminded him of Vil, except you smiled more and added nice, small comments that never failed to make an effect on him. Unless you called him a pretty boy, that's when his brain would short circuit;

— wolf beastman's guilty pleasure was when you massaged his arms, shoulders and back after he had finished the Spelldrive practice or club activities. Before that you would pass him fresh cold water and towels, even though he couldn't stand how some of his fellow dormmates, or clubmates for that matter, would playfully ask if you are together already. So please, just meet Jack somewhere secluded;

— after he had taken a shower and dried himself up you would sit him still on the chair and get to work. He always worries if your hands are not tired and says that he can live without your massages just fine, which was a complete lie;

— cast a look at his tail and ears and you will understand his true feelings: white ears perked and big fluffy tail wiggling like crazy. It was incredibly humiliating at first, Jack going as far as to holding his tail in place because it accidentally kept hitting you. With time he realized that hiding his positive feelings around you was harder and harder thus he stopped doing so, feeling more cozy in your presence from that point on.

[liketwoswansinbalance]

I am really curious to see your take on Aric and Japeth's relationship. I mean, the beloved author and creator of the series have addressed this issue with 'in their own sick wicked way they had loved' so yeah it's cannon cool. But I feel like the further implications of this? We saw evil 'unable to love'/ 'only ever have true love'. From what I remember Japeth mentioned Aric more than once, how they would write letters to each other how Aric 'begged' for Japeth to come to him but Japeth never did so and then bro spent the last of his life trying to bring Aric back to life. There are so many implications, the dynamics, the context, everything, but I love how you theorise and explore all sorts of ideas so I can't help but wonder how you view all of this :D.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and have a great day/afternoon/evening/night!

Sorry to disappoint, but I should probably start off with the fact that I don't ship Japeth and Aric. While I like Japeth, partly in thanks to @discjude winning me over, and further recognizing the tragedy surrounding him, his relationship to Aric never canonically does him any favors. And, with Aric, I think I'm apathetic enough towards him that I don't actively hate him; I just don't care about him. In truth, if not for Aladdin's pitiful existence actively hammering on my nerves, Aric would probably be my least favorite character.

The first thing I want to address is that Evil being "unable to love" or "only Evers have True Love" is actually false, despite the many times the series puts forth this claim. Yes, we are explicitly told this "fact" in book 1, but the book's point was to subvert/deconstruct the myth.

First, by the end, with her self-sacrifice, Sophie proved Evil's capacity to love, meaning: Evil being unable to love is just a commonly-held belief in the Woods, not the absolute, be-all, end-all truth.

(And the belief could've been perpetuated by "Rafal's"/Rafal's way of running his institution that literally shapes the Wood's perceptions and the future. Alongside this claim about love, consider the existence of the Doom Room, created to punish a singular mutinous class of first-years, based on a now-revised philosophy about Nevers' learning from harsh treatment and (probably) disproportionate retribution that an excessively stubborn dead man already too entrenched in his old ways never had the chance to change because he died—and this is all aside from the fact proven by the display at the very first Circus of Talents, that Rafal's students did indeed learn better when he finally listened to them and mentored them as an equal in their position (as Fala). In addition, the statement: "Nevers learn from deprivation" similarly reveals how the Woods really do generalize about Nevers—until Sophie, the "exception" and iconoclast, comes along.)

Second, Sophie's non-romantic True Love at some point was said to be Agatha, and I think this established fact is consistently maintained throughout the series, even if other elements overshadow it, so not only Evers can have True Love.

My take on Japeth and Aric is that Japeth's love for Aric, however twisted or sincere it was, drove him to become the Snake, follow along with Rhian's Camelot ambitions and initial staging-terrorism-and-hostage-scenarios plot, and commit all his other, duplicitous, villainous acts throughout TCY, later by his own will, which is a motive I find fascinating (and contradictory about the nature of the Woods' Good and Evil souls, whenever Japeth is set next to the rather grey Rhian).

So, while Japeth's devotion to Aric could be viewed as romantic, it's just not appealing to me, personally, due to the relationship's ambiguous one-sidedness in particular. And, I think I once may've read something about Japeth as a Never fighting for True Love (or his perception of "True Love") and Rhian as an Ever fighting for power (the Nevers' ideal fairy-tale ending) being ironic or inverted in some way. That's also some world-building fodder to consider, or even just another point that could overturn the Rules as we know them, yet again. I'm not surprised by that subversion honestly. Japeth is very much like his parents. Nearly every SGE villain Soman has ever written has been motivated by the pursuit of love, or by the overwhelming force of their own (often obsessive) infatuations (with the exception of somewhat flatter, less-developed, secondary villains, like Aric, Vulcan, Marialena, and Peter Pan).

Also, thanks for the compliment!

[that-ari-blogger]

Connection (Reaching Out)

In the wind up into a series’ final arc, episodes tend to feel janky. As if they are trying to pad out the series or are unsure whether the arc has started or not. As a rule, these tend to be below average in so far as quality goes.

The Owl House, however, exists by subverting expectations, so these episodes are some of its best. Reaching Out, for example, uses the plot limbo to tell a focused story that is by far my favourite episode of the series, as well as being one of my favourite stories ever put to screen.

This episode deals with family first and foremost, specifically through the lenses of grief and legacy. It’s about memory and tradition, as well as connection and love.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD (The Owl House)

The Owl House has a very specific style of story that it likes to tell.

This is different from genre, and part of why I dislike that concept. It’s simultaneously more broad and more specific. The series plays around in fantasy and horror, it takes inspiration from classical epic fantasy as well as shonen anime, it’s a satire of itself.

But that’s just the breakdown of genre, The Owl House’s style of story is centred around quests and humour. Episodes give you a problem that can be tangibly fixed, and either find a solution or work towards it, Understanding Willow gives you a magical accident and a spell to fix said magical accident. It’s self-contained and questy. "Go do x." "Find y." "Bring back the golden hoop of hoopiness." Etc.

This episode does things differently, in the sense that I challenge you to find a tangible solution to the problem of grief and physical distance. Even in The Owl House, dead people stay dead, and there is no foreseeable way to get home within the next day. You can’t fix that; you just have to find a new way of doing things.

It will not have escaped your notice that the episode’s opening scene is the shortest in the series, and that is because it doesn’t need to be longer.

A cold open needs to do one thing and one thing only. It needs to establish the plot of the upcoming episode. It’s a tidy way of getting across the core conflict to come, and let the audience know what they are in for.

This is the issue I have with Batman Beyond, but it’s a minour issue and not the point, so I’ll leave that for a future post.

Reaching Out opens with an event reminder. The scene has no words in it, but it is sold entirely by the acting. The animation conveys the emotions going through Luz’s mind perfectly, and it’s unclear. Guilt, fear, sadness, its ambiguous to allow for a sense of mystery, but you do know that she doesn't feel good about whatever this may be.

Then she presses “Ignore”, and the scene ends.

That’s the entirety of the cold open, any more would feel cluttered, and yet you know exactly what kind of story you are in for. This will be an episode about Luz’s relationship with her mother and will provide detail into how Luz handles her own issues.

That jacket is a gift in this context from Eda. It may be Luz's technically, but this scene sets up Eda giving it to her to help her. Now Luz has a gift from a maternal figure, its a proxy that she will cling to over the course of the episode.

When the episode actually begins, Luz procrastinates on doing the thing she probably needs to do by making a list of everything else in the world that she would rather be doing. So, we get the defining conflict of the episode spelled out more specifically. She’s avoiding something. You could have got that from the opening, but now we get a little insight into why.

“Every year, me and Mom have this little ritual we do. It's nothing big. I just miss her. That's all.”

This episode has a slow burn to it, revealing more and more of the details of this ritual over time. It’s framed as a discovery, which works with the idea of the audience slowly discovering things about Luz.

I want to dwell a little more on the animation of this episode for a moment. I promise I’ll try to talk about other stuff as well, but this episode is just gorgeous to look at.

Luz doesn’t stop moving until the confession. She’s frantic, but in a really smooth way that I find rather interesting. In just the above shot, she flows from one thought to the next, from one action to another.

This creates a feeling of momentum that diminishes over the course of the scene. It’s dynamic, like the series as a whole, but it's slowing down to something slower paced signifies the episode’s decision to focus in on something small.

“What you need is a healthy distraction from your problems.” “I have a problem, and it could distract us all day!”

That’s a very specific word choice to happen twice in twenty seconds, it's almost as if the there’s a theme going on here, and there is. Luz is seeking that distraction from her issue.

Which brings me to the subject of said issue, the grief ritual.

According to a Psychology Today article titled “The Power of Rituals to Heal Grief”:

“Rituals are an important way for people to find meaning when they lose a loved one. Everyone is familiar with rituals. Perhaps you’ve performed them during holidays, in church, or even before ballgames. You may have performed rituals to acknowledge important life changes—graduations, retirements, and even funerals... The power of rituals lies in their symbolism. Consider the ritual of graduation. Walking across a stage and shaking someone’s hand is no big deal as an act in itself. We walk all over the place and shake people’s hands all the time. But this act takes on special meaning when it’s performed at graduation, symbolizing an important transition.”

A grief ritual is crystalised emotion, allowing you to act upon it and let the pain out in a healthy way. In Luz’s case, the picking of flowers brought about a connection between her and her mother. The two grieved together, and now their physical difference means that Luz doesn’t have anyone who understands her pain exactly to share the moment with.

Enter Amity, and I want to cover that scene last, because I believe it to be the series’ magnum opus, and it needs some more build up.

Please remember that this guy helped with the experimentation on the Basilisks. He wasn't just complicit; he was an active participant. Remember that when talking about Warden Wrath.

Amity is going through what I hesitate to call a generic The Owl House plot, but it's definitely something more in the series’ general wheelhouse. She has identified two problems, those being a rift between her and her father, and the decision that was made for her about joining the emperor’s coven; and she has decided upon a solution, win the Bonesborough Brawl.

This is achievable and presents room for hijinks. Its self-contained. But it’s also an example of how well The Owl House handles theme exploration.

Each episode of the of this series has an idea that it wants to explore, and every plot point within it delves into something about that theme. In this case, it’s connection and drifting apart. Amity is drifting away from her father, Luz can’t get to her mother, and the two of them are being driven away from each other by Luz’s increasingly desperate attempts to distract herself.

You would think that grief is a secondary theme here, but it’s not. Connection is a facet of grief as an overarching idea. That’s why this is about grief rituals rather than just the feeling of loss.

The article I mentioned earlier has a passage that goes into this concept in more detail, but from a slightly different perspective.

“For Donald, this ritual was meaningful because it shared his great love of nature with his dad. For his father, it was meaningful, because it kept a piece of his son alive and well. Eventually, Donald passed away. To this day, however, his father visits the preserve four times a year, once for every season. There, he speaks to his son, takes a few pictures, and doesn’t show them to anyone.”

It's about connection to the deceased, with the person gone by. It’s a way of communing with the only thing left of that person, their legacy.

Which reframes Alador a bit here doesn’t it. He’s set up as a mirror to Manny, and yet he’s still alive. Except, is he?

In a physical sense, yes. But the person whom Amity wants to connect with is long gone at this point. Young Alador and Old Alador are very different people, specifically in terms of agency. Young Alador acted, Old Alador reacts.

So, Amity tries her own ritual to connect with the Alador that once was. Alador gets to see this and is forced to think for a moment. Suddenly, his world has been rocked just far enough for him to start listening.

The conversation is all well and good. But for my money, the look of abject pride on Alador's face here sells the connection more than anything. This is someone who, for the first time, has looked at what his daughter is rather than what he wants her to be, and he is proud of what he sees.

“What? You don’t want to join the Emperor’s Coven anymore? But that’s always been your dream.” “No, that’s always been Mom’s dream. And you went along with it. I bet you didn’t even know I was dating Luz!” “Edalyn’s kid?” “See, you don’t talk to us anymore! You’re too busy making these monsters for the Emperor, and Mom’s been too busy trying to dye my hair green.”

Turns out, when you stop listening to your kids for a while, you miss things. Your assumptions might be wrong. Your understanding of who they are might be way off the mark.

That’s what Alador realises here, that the thing he’s been trying to connect with his daughter over was never truly there. So, he takes a different approach.

“I like your new hair colour. Its abomination coloured.” “Finaly someone gets it. Can you tell Mom that?” “I’ll talk to her.”

The hair dying has been a symbol of agency for Amity over the course of the series. It was green as she sought her mother’s approval, then that faded and she was given the choice of what to do, and she chose the pink. It’s an expression of her own wants and desires, and she wants to be like her father.

Alador’s new approach isn’t to bond with his daughter over expectations, its to take an interest in something she does, and find common ground there.

I like the act of reaching for a hug and getting subverted. The relationship has mostly collapsed, and they’re now rebuilding it almost from scratch.

“It’s a start.”

Connection, relationships, love, loss. We have some key themes, let’s get into that tree scene.

I’m not going to give you the entire scene here, watch the episode. Writing out the words doesn’t have nearly the same impact as the stellar voice acting.

Instead, I want to highlight how this episode achieves its nuance, and that is through the grief rituals that I have kept mentioning. Any story can talk about how loss makes someone feel, but this doesn’t mention that at all. Instead, it highlights how the physical separation interrupts with the process.

Luz’s grief centres around sharing that emotion with her mother, she expresses it through the practiced motion of picking flowers with someone else who can share her pain.

“I don’t know what rituals you have in the Human Realm, but, I’ll help you pick some flowers, and we can do something here!”

Amity doesn’t know what Luz is going through, but she can empathise. She can see her girlfriend is going through something and help her out. She can take the place in the ritual and allow Luz to grieve.

Love isn’t about the good times, it’s about everything. Love is about joy and heartbreak and triumph and loss. Its about sharing emotions together, lifting each other to new heights, and supporting each other in the lowest moments.

The episode doesn’t give us a fix to its issue. Luz is still separated from her mother, but it gives us a substitute, and that leans in to a theme I haven’t really mentioned yet at all in my coverage of the series, distance.

Yes, the obvious of Luz being away from home and wanting to get back has been a core part of the plot, but the series hasn’t really engaged with what that means up until now.

Sometimes distance separates people, whether it be through forced movement, or just the twists and turns of life. And sometimes that comes in the way of rituals like this. Do you bottle up the emotions until you get back? No. You find a new way of doing thing, you adapt, you change. You find the light.

Light, do not faulter.

Final Thoughts

This episode also establishes lore for how the Wild Witches work, specifically through that idea of connection again. The Wild Witches are a group of people who accept and protect each other, you don’t have to be skilled at anything to be a Wild Witch, you don’t have to meet any criteria. Which is good, because Edric is awful at potion magic. But that’s not the point, the point is that he has an interest in going outside the box, the point is the effort not the execution.

Considering how the Emperor made wild magic illegal, the Bad Girl Coven takes on a ton of queer/pride coding. They support each other because nobody else will. Anyone who slips through the cracks has a home in the Bad Girl Coven. Just like pride, where there isn't a bar at a parade that says: "you must be this gay to enter", it's about accepting everyone for who they are.

Next up is Them's The Breaks, Kid, so stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[emeritusemeritus]

Vulnera Sanentur [Weasley Twins x Reader]

Part 8

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Title: Vulnera Sanentur

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Reader x George Weasley {established relationship}

Timeline: DH1&2- Initially set during the battle of the seven potters. Canon and certain plot points have been altered for the needs of the story.

Summary: The battle of the seven Potters throws your world into chaos when one of your boyfriend’s is cursed. As Snape’s ex-potions assistant and previous protégée, you recognise the inflicted curse immediately and demand answers from your mentor.

Warnings: Angst, mentions of war and Voldy, descriptions of injury and blood, descriptive smut, p in v sex, shower sex, tension. Outside sex. Semi public sex. None sexual nudity. Crying. Snape has a soft spot for reader. Arguments. Probably some cursing. Mentions of nightmares. Reader is part of the Order of the Phoenix. Mentions of death. Snakes. Mentions of Tonks’ pregnancy. Oh it got a angsty. So much angst I can’t tag it all. Not spellchecked nor beta read, we die like Madeye.

"It seems, despite your exhaustive defensive strategies, you have a bit of a security problem, Headmaster."

The doors to the Great Hall open before you and each Order member steps forward in formation, a beacon of strength as you all stand resolute, prepared to fight. You stand in front of Fred and George, beside Bill, finally feeling safe and secure despite facing your opponents head on.

Snape stares in stunned disbelief as he looks upon the Order, his gaze flicking through the formation of people before landing on you. He does an undeniable eye twitch as he looks into your harsh gaze and for a moment you forget that you are on opposing sides of this fight as you catch each other's eye.

"And I'm afraid it's quite extensive."

The students move back instinctively, stood in strong lines and divided by their houses. Snape turns back to Harry with one last lingering gaze at you, still mute and looking stunned.

The Carrows, who had been stood behind Snape, move to stand a little further apart, no longer blocked by their headmaster, though they look at him for guidance, unsure of how to proceed.

Harry's eyes narrow with malice as he stares at Snape, allowing the rage inside of him to overwhelm him as he spouts his next line.

"How dare you stand where he stood! Tell them how it was that night. Tell then how you looked him in the eye, a man who trusted you... and killed him. Tell them!"

Snape's eyes convey nothing, his face a mask. He moves with an ambiguous flare that suggests he is reaching for his wand. Professor Mcgonagall, who had stood to the side with an ashen face all this time lunges forward with her wand outstretched, shoving Harry aside as the two professors stand off. You instantly withdraw your own wand, followed by the other order members who stand with rapt attention, ready for the singular catalyst. The students shuffle back further in fear and Snape momentarily lowers his wand, his resolve slipping briefly in a move that suggests he had not anticipated McGonagall's bravery nor her intention to protect Harry.

Suddenly, a volcanic blast erupts from Mcgonagall's wand that momentarily causes him to lose balance as he deflects the spell just in time. It's clear to you that it was a warning spell, a taster of what he would face should he enter a duel with her, her loyalty and devotion to protecting Harry and the rest of the school was not to be understated. Severus looks at her with wide eyes, the realisation that whatever cordial bond had been formed during their years of teaching was to be broken within seconds. She doesn't give him time to recover and sends another, more harsher, spell in his direction which she repeats over and over, slowly advancing with a stone cold look in her eyes. He manages to deflect the spells with a few near misses, sending the spell richocheting around the room as the students watch on with a mixture of fear and disbelief. His deflection hits the Carrows' standing behind him straight on, their bodies falling to the floor in two resounding thuds, their lives merely collateral damage in the chaos.

There's a singular moment when everything pauses, Snape having deflected the last of the blasts as he stands panting at the epicentre of the room, his eyes briefly meeting yours. It's brief but meaningful and no sooner had you registered his glance before he waves his wand in a circular motion in the air, the sweeping motion reducing the flames in the wall-fixed torches as a black smoke clouds surround him.

There's a whooshing noise as you watch Severus' body twist and formulate into a bat-like form of black smoke that flies with forceful velocity upwards and straight through the glass window as the figure escapes, flying out of the castle and into the night. 

Cheers erupt from the students and staff alike as Professor Mcgonagall lifts her wand once more and lights the torches once again to their full capacity, brightness illuminating the room once again.

You and the Order members move forward to shield the students, with you, Bill, Fred and George spreading out around the students at the back, Harry still stood in the middle.

In start contrast to the celebration around you, the feeling of impending doom slowly trickles in to your subconscious mind and quickly takes over your entire body like a venom spreading through your veins. Coldness spreads under your skin, the hairs at the back of your neck standing up as your insides mix with a cold, ominous feeling. And then, the pain starts.

A burning sensation fills your shoulder, a pain so hot that it feels ice cold, striking your raw shoulder, shooting up your neck and into your head. It's overwhelming and you feel yourself sway with dizziness, hardly able to breath as the pain strangles your senses. In your peripheral vision, you see Harry wincing and stumbling over and for just a second your eyes meet, drawn to each other, both of you realising that you were feeling the same thing. The pain in your shoulder only increases, your skin feeling like it was ripping open and someone was pouring acid into the wound, your hand and fingers tingling with pin sharp pricks with the intensity of the pain. The back of your head throbs, white hot pain searing through your skull and constricting around your temples; you can no longer pretend to be fine as your legs give out, your body not able to keep you upright any longer.

You clutch your shoulder trying anything to rid yourself of the agony, your eyes scrunching tight as the pain intensifies again both in your head and your shoulder. You don't notice that the lights have once again extinguished in the hall until you open your eyes, the pain in your mind suddenly stopping though your ears have begun ringing, the base of your ears already sore.

You see Fred and George panic as you collapse, desperately trying to reach out for you but they are stopped when the ceiling of the hall immediately clouds over with a worrying black cloud, thunder rumbling quietly as the room continues to darken.

You and Harry, both on the floor, share another look though this is pure fear, realising that you had both been targeted by something that had quickly disappeared, leaving you to question what was going to happen next.

A girl's scream rips your gaze away as you struggle to your feet, helped by George who scrambles to reach out for you and pull you up. You turn to look for the girl screaming but you can't see anything. Harry has gone to investigate the noise that seems to stop only moments later, when another girl screams from just behind you. You rush over to her through a sea of horrified students, stumping on shaky legs and find one of the Patil sisters clutching their head, hands over their ears with tears running down their face.

Suddenly you freeze as a snake like voice whispers in your ear, goosebumps raising onto your skin as the familiar pain blasts through your shoulder once again making you breathless. You look around for Harry to see if he was hearing this too but to your surprise, you instead see the people around you all with the same stricken and horrified expression, some with their hands over their ears and trying to shake their head. You realise then, that everyone was hearing the same thing, Voldemort entering each and every individuals mind.

"I know that many of you will want to fight. Some of you may even think this wise. But this is folly.

Give me Harry Potter. Do this and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter and I shall leave Hogwarts untouched. Give me Harry Potter and you will be rewarded. You have one hour."

The whisper recedes and you can slowly feel the blinding discomfort in your shoulder subside, your body beginning to tremble from the intensity of the torturous pain. It slips away from you in a slow moving wave and you try and take deep breaths as you regain control over yourself, your shoulder now aching and sore.

The clouds in the ceiling begin to disperse and return to normal, torches lighting once again as you look around once more, seeing everyone's focus on Harry, except for George and Fred who look worriedly are you.

There's a tension in the air as Voldemort's words resound in your mind, replaying like an evil haunting loop.

"What are you waiting for? Someone grab him!" Pansy Parkinson says from the Slytherin block, pointing her finger at him with wide eyes, clearly having been swayed by Voldemort's threats.

Instinctively, you step towards Harry at the very same time that Ginny does, blocking him from view. You stumble over to him, still weak and dizzy though you persevere as George reaches out for you as you leave his side, wordlessly protesting but you know what is right and what needs to be done. Your wand is in your hand ready but not aimed.

Hermione moves only a few seconds behind you, as does Ron. The members of Dumbledore's Army all flank you and surround Harry, as do some of the closer Order members, showing a fear of defiance. Fred and George keep you firmly between them.

Just as the tension builds, ready for a stand-off against the Slytherins, Filch bursts through the open doors holding Mrs Norris and runs through the centre of the hall, limping and bobbing as he runs.

"Students out of bed! Students in the corridors!"

You couldn't help but laugh, seeing that maybe not everything had changed at this school. The tension is broken immediately and you can't help but turn your head to see Fred also looking amused.

"They're supposed to be out of bed, you blithering idiot!" Mcgonagall says.

"Oh. Sorry, ma'am," Filch says dejectedly, keeping a firm hold on Mrs Norris, shrinking a little as he moves to turn back.

"As it turns out, Mr. Filch, your arrival is most opportune," Mcgonagall says as she briskly walks down the podium stairs towards Mr Filch, who eagerly awaits orders. "If you would, I'd like you to lead Miss Parkinson and the rest of Slytherin House from the Hall."

There's a disgruntled murmur from the Slytherin house which falls silent with one murderous look from Professor Mcgonagall.

"Right away," he says with a nod, beginning to turn before pausing, "Er, exactly where is it I'd be leadin' em to, ma'am?"

"The dungeons should do," Mcgonagall says coldly, though her eyes shine with a sort of victorious amusement as cheers erupt in the hall.

The Slytherin students are marched out of the hall towards the dungeons, leaving all the students remaining to be pro-Harry.

"Baby what happened?" George says quickly, reaching out for your arm, searching your face with wide, worried eyes.

"What was that princess? Are you okay?" Both of them look horrified but you put on a fake smile, trying to ignore their looks of concern.

"Just heard him first that's all," you lied, looking to find Harry in the sea of people.

"But your arm, you-."

"I need to get to Harry," you drag them along with their hands, hoping for them to follow you towards the Order members and fortunately enough, Remus intercepts once again, flagging them down to join the circle, thus giving you time to find Hermione.

The tone suddenly shifts once again and it's now time to raise the defences, to be prepared for the oncoming attack. You had to find the diadem. Students begin fleeing and the Order members gather once again, the plan falling into place. Harry, you and Hermione start off towards Ron who stands with the Order listening in to their plans. You can feel Fred looking at you but you wait for Harry, trying to think of your own best course of action.

"Potter," Mcgonagall says, stopping Harry. "It's good to see you." Her face flicks between Harry and you, a small smile tugging at her lips.

"You, too, Professor."

"Harry we need a plan!" Hermione says, trying to catch his attention.

"Our plans don't work Hermione, how many times do we have to prove that?" He says, rushing out to join you all. In the background you hear and feel giant thudding and see the statues and suits of armour coming to life from their plinths, dropping down with a resounding thud as they thunder past towards the viaduct, blocking off any entrance to the school.

Bill walks over to you and gives you one look that shows he knows exactly what the frown on your face is for, his eyes flicking to your shoulder having seen your pain only minutes ago.

"It's fine," you say quietly, trying to focus on the grouping, neither of you looking at the other but quietly whispering between yourselves as if you'd be reprimanded like a child in class hiding from the teacher.

"Okay tough girl," he says quietly with a smirk, "you know where I'll be if you need it numbing," he adds, turning away and focusing on Kingsley who addresses and delegates.

"Bridge is being destroyed as we speak, the teachers are casting defensive charms, Arthur you will lead the troops, Fred, George, you are on defence duty of the passageways," Kingsley instructs. "Madame Pomfrey is setting up a makeshift infirmity in the great hall."

"Is that wise?" You say, your words coming out before you could register them as the rest of the group turns to you. "Setting up medical relief in the atrium of the school? If the death eaters get past the defences it's the first place they'll attack, the most damage to inflict."

"Then we ensure they don't get past the defences," Kingsley says, but you don't agree with him in the slightest, knowing it was risky. You sigh but keep silent, turning to look at Hermione who looks zoned out completely, no doubt already setting a plan for what your group needs to do. "We meet in the battlements once our jobs are completed."

"Angel, come on," George ushers you to move with him and Fred but you don't move, casting a glance at Harry who watches on with a sorrowful look on his face, knowing that you must make your choice.

"I, can't," you say, diverting your eyes from George's insistent pleads. Fred protests, trying to reach for you but you stay put, knowing you can't go with them.

"No, we just got you back," Fred says, reaching for your hand.

"We can't lose you again," George adds, his eyes more pained than you'd ever seen them.

"You won't lose me, I just can't give up now, there's something I have to do first," you say, finding strength and trying to ignore their confused and pained eyes at your words. "As soon as I'm done I'll find you."

They protest but eventually relent as they see the determination in your eyes, first with Fred launching forward to press a strong and passionate kiss to your lips before hovering over you and pressing a lingering kiss to your forehead.

"I love you, be safe."

George mimics Fred's actions though his hands paw at your waist and for a moment you wonder if he'll actually let go.

"I love you," George says, his hands loosening but not quite pulling away.

"I love you both, so much. I'll be back with you soon."

"Don't keep us waiting Mrs Weasley," Fred says, bumping his brothers arm as he uses your words from before against you. Tears fill your eyes but you don't let them see, watching as they run out of the hall and towards the staircases. You feel lost again, the pain and loneliness from the months away slipping right back into you as they leave your side, but you don't have time to cry. You walk over to Hermione and Ron and run to catch up with Harry, finding him amongst the chaos of students running around.

"Harry, Y/n, Hermione and I have been thinking. It doesn't really matter if we find the Horcrux."

"What're you saying?" Harry says, frowning you at Ron.

"Unless we can destroy it," he explains. "So we were thinking."

"You were thinking. It's Ron's idea. And it's completely brilliant."

"You destroyed Tom Riddle's Diary with a Basilisk fang, right? Well, we know where we might find one, don't we?"

Harry ponders this for a moment before nodding, "okay." turning to you, "you with me?"

"Common room," you say with a nod of your head, and immediately turning up the stairs.

"West side, top of the spiral staircase!" You shouted down to Harry who had never even been near the Ravenclaw common room. You approached the eagle shaped knocker in the centre of the door and waited for it to speak, explaining that you must answer the riddle to get through.

"Glittering points that downward thrust, sparkling spears that never rust. What are they?" The knocker asks mysteriously, prompting you to think of the answer.

"Icicles!" You say quickly and you sigh a breath of relief when the door creaks open, allowing you entry.

Harry looks at you with raised eyebrows and your shrug with a smirk, "should have been a ravenclaw."

You find the Grey Lady eventually with Luna's help after finding nothing in the common room of any intellectual value and Harry speaks to her privately as you and Luna watch from the windows to see the protection spells forming and creating an orb like glow around the school. It's ominous and threatening though you can't deny there's a strange beauty to it and your thoughts drift to George and Fred, hoping that wherever they were, that they were okay.

"If you have to ask, you will never know, if you know, you need only ask," Harry mutters, walking out of the space he'd occupied with Helena. "Ravenclaws and riddles!" He mutters with a frown, seemingly not understanding what she was saying.

"Harry!" You call, chasing after him. "The room of requirement."

You and Harry run towards the room of requirement on the seventh floor, trying desperately to cut through the ever more frantic crowds.

Suddenly, from all around there was a giant bang, followed by multiple others and your stomach dropped in realisation that the defences had broken. Death eaters were inside the school.

You bolted with everything in you, trying to keep in line with Harry as you twisted and turned until you reached the seventh floor corridor, the bricks tumbling with explosions as the structure collapsed around you.

"Y/n!" Harry screams as you fall behind, tripping over the rubble underfoot and only a moment later do you manage to exit the dust and rubble, having stopped the debris falling with your wand at the last second. It was a close call, much too close for your liking and you heaved as you approached the blank wall to join Harry, entering the room of requirement as the door magically appeared.

You step inside and see the wall to wall treasures piled up. Almost immediately your shoulder begins to tingle, making you wince and attempt to roll your shoulder to alleviate the ache. Harry notices immediately and turns to you.

"You can feel it too can't you?" He states, though his eyes are questioning. You nod, looking away, in complete denial that you'd been somehow inflicted, cursed by the bite.

After facing Draco, Blaise and Goyle with the help of Ron and Hermione and narrowly avoiding death by fiendfyre you all managed to escape the room of requirement with the Horcrux. The diadem was promptly stabbed by Harry and kicked into the fire by Ron, destroying the Horcrux completely.

As soon as the basilisk fang pierced the diadem, your shoulder burned with an excruciating pain that made you fall to your knees, tears welling at your eyes. Hermione dropped down with you in concern as Harry looked on, his own exhaustion and pain overwhelming him as he looked at you, realising that something was wrong with your connection to the snake.

"She's a Horcrux," you bit out, the pain ebbing away just slightly, your voice strangled and breathy. "The snake, it's a Horcrux isn't it," you asked, turning to Harry. He gives a solemn nod, having seen that exactly information during his momentary connection to Voldemort as the now broken Horcrux killed off another piece of his fragmented soul.

"The last one," Harry confirms, his breathing laboured. You'd feared that very information since the moment you had woken after removing the venom from your arm, remembering the snarky remark you'd made about the snake being a Horcrux then, only now it was decidedly not funny anymore.

"So we need to find the Snake," Ron says, looking just as defeated as Hermione did at the revelation, knowing that Voldemort would keep an even closer eye on the snake now he was vulnerable, which meant either trying to pry the snake away or having to take on both of them together, a daunting thought which would inevitably be fatal.

As you rose up from the floor, you noticed that Ron and Hermione were holding hands and you found your smile, happy for them. Hermione blushed slightly as she noticed you looking and you looked between them with happy smiles, thankful for something good to come out of this hell.

"So where do we start?" Ron asks, keeping up with you, Hermione and Harry as you walk down the staircases, trying to sort your next plan of action.

"Hold up! We've forgotten someone!" Ron says suddenly, causing you all to come to a quick halt, looking around to see no one you hadn't anticipated to be with you.

"Who?" Asked hermione.

"The house elves! They'll all be down in the kitchen won't they?" He says, making Hermione freeze before pulling him by the jacket into a kiss, her arms flinging around him. It occurred to you then that Dobby had been working in the kitchens for a while, would the other house elves be able to decode Dobby's cryptic last words to you?

"Yes, let's go to the kitchens," you say with determination, already turning and setting off down towards the kitchens in the basement. The sea of frantic Hufflepuffs were hard to navigate as you descended the last of the stairs and rounded the corner leading to the brightly lit corridor lined with broad stone, multiple torches and vivid paintings of food. You walked with purpose towards the fruit bowl painting half way through the corridor and reached out to tickle the pear, as you had so many times before. The green door handle appeared almost instantly as the pear giggled, which you opened and stepped through, guiding the trio behind you. You were immediately met with nearly 100 hours elves still working away by the four replica tables from the great hall, some huddled around the huge fireplace on one side and some linked together to reach for the pans over their heads.

"Master," a gravelly, familiar voice says, causing you to turn in their direction.

"Kreacher," Harry says in surprise, looking at the house elf adorned in frayed, black clothing. It was a surprise to see him here, though you supposed that he found his way here after you didn't return to Grimmauld Place. "We've come to get you out, the war's starting, anyone who doesn't want to be here should go to safety now."

Kreacher looks around at his elf companions and mutters under his breath, taking one look at Harry before turning away. The truth was, you'd never been a fan of Kreacher, found him inordinately rude and untrustworthy. The comments he made about Fred and George being 'unnatural little beasts' some time ago had always stuck in your mind and calling Fred a 'nasty little breat of a blood traitor' didn't do him any favours in your eyes either.

You looked around, hoping to see one specific house elf that you favoured and squinted through the bustling bodies, trying to find the elf that was like finding a needle in a haystack. But then you spotted her, praying as you made your way over to her that she wasn't drunk on Butterbeer.

"Winky!"

"Miss y/n, how may I serve you? Is good for winky to see you miss y/n," she replies, face lighting up at seeing you walking towards her.

"Winky, I'm sorry I don't have much time," you explained, crouching down so that you were at similar heights, not ever watching to talk down to the hard working house elf. "I'm afraid I don't have good news, Dobby was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange." There was no easy way to break it to her and you couldn't let her carry on without knowing what had happened to her greatest friend. As predicted she immediately erupted with sobs, tears flowing down her little cheeks at the news.

"Winky, Winky, I'm sorry, I know how close you were. If I had more time," you veer off, reaching into your pocket to feel for the Lebetum. "Before he died, Dobby said that his boss had sent him, that he knew Harry and his friends were in danger, do you know anything about that?"

Trying to calm a house elf was exceedingly difficult and you could just about hear your words over her dramatic but warranted sobs. Surprisingly only a few moments later, she let la out a loud and nausea-inducing sniffle to clear her nose and nods gently, looking up into your face with the saddest little eyes you'd ever seen.

"The boss sent for Dobby, said he needed him to find you, that Harry was in danger, that you were in danger. Winky couldn't sleep that night, much worry for you," she hiccups, trying to hold back more tears.

"Winky," you say softly, trying to comfort her as you rest your hand on her bony little shoulder. "Winky who is the boss?"

She sniffles again, toying with the skirt of her makeshift dress, "the headmaster of course."

You freeze, her words slowly sinking in and you realise now how foolish you'd been. Dobby worked at Hogwarts and had been given an allowance for his work by Dumbledore, of course he would then see Severus as his boss, being the new headmaster.

"Winky, thank you so much. I'm very sorry about Dobby. Look, there's a war going on and I want you to be safe, you must get out of Hogwarts and go to safety. One day when this is all over, I'll take you to Dobby's grave if you'd like that."

Winky begins to cry again but it's not just sad tears any longer as she flings herself around you. You hold her sobbing form and try to console her for a moment but you know that you need to go, that time was against you.

"Will you help the others get out safely for me?" You ask, just as she begins to peel herself away from you. She nods and wipes her eyes with her arm.

"I have to go, be safe," you say, casting a glance at the trio who you can sense are watching you. You stand slowly and hold her shoulder one last time before turning away, feeling awful for leaving her but it was all you could do at this moment in time.

"It was Snape," you say, walking back to the group, seeing that Kreacher had now left. They look at you with confused faces and you realise that you'd left out some rather critical information. "The doe, it was Snape. Snape sent Dobby to Malfoy's murder mansion."

Harry begins to protest, his mouth opening but you shake your head, pulling out the Lebetum.

"I tried to summon the doe remember? That night outside the tent, I summoned the doe and it led us to the sword and then in the dungeons, I tried to summon the doe to help us get out but it never came out of the Lebetum, it disappeared from the glass. Then Dobby turned up and saved us, he said that his boss had sent him, remember?"

"Snape was helping us?" Hermione says with a disgruntled face, frown lines plucking at her forehead.

"Yeah he really helped George when he cursed his ear off," Ron says pointedly and you sigh.

"He didn't mean to, it was a misfire," you say, your eyebrows shooting up when you realise that you had just given away your secret as they all look at you with wide eyes. "I went after him that night, I screamed at him, he explained. There's something more to him, I don't believe he just turned his back on Dumbledore and the Order."

"Still, he's a deatheater," Ron argued, spitting the word out in indignation, ignoring your explanation entirely which you were thankful for.

"A deatheater that's saved our lives twice," you countered, crossing your arms over your chest, wincing a little from the movement which agitated your shoulder. "All I'm saying is that he might be able to help us now, maybe if we find him he could use his standing with Voldemort to distract him whilst we get the snake? Then it's just him."

"She does have a point," Hermione says, though you could tell the others were largely unconvinced, their perception and history with the Professor tainting their view now. "Maybe if we knew where the snake was?"

"Can you look mate, see inside of him? Maybe that would show us?" Ron asks, turning to Harry. Harry looks conflicted, not liking the idea of bridging the connection to Voldemort, even in this situation but he reluctantly agrees, shoulders sagging as he takes a deep breath, closes his eyes and tries to focus.

"I can't see the snake," Harry says a minute later, his eyes dark and weary as he opens them, the strength of connection to Voldemort's mind had exhausted him. You all sighed, feeling a little defeated. You saw Harry look at you and you turned your head to face him, wordlessly conversing.

"No, not a chance," you said strongly, rejecting the idea completely that you could see Harry was trying to convey.

"You might have a link to the snake, a link he doesn't know about."

"What?" Hermione says, looking at you with wide eyes.

"Her shoulder, where she was attacked, every time Voldemort tries to connect to me it hurts her, doesn't it? When we destroyed the diadem you felt it too didn't you," Harry presses. You look away, nodding gently as your fears are brought to life, knowing that somehow you'd been cursed by the snake.

"It's okay," Harry says, trying to comfort you. "Just try to picture the snake, see if you can see anything."

You looked at the faces of your friends and briefly thought of your boyfriend that were somewhere on the castle, hopefully unharmed. If you could do this and slay the snake, you'd be back with them as soon as possible. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath to calm yourself and empty your mind, allowing the darkness behind your eyelids to remain so. You pictured the snake, your shoulder and the night in Bathilda's house, the night your connection had been made. And suddenly, like an old muffle cinema screen, the darkness behind your eyes changed until you were slithering along the wet ground, grass moving along with your body until you happened upon wet, creaky goodness floorboards. You were in the body of the snake, slithering along the ground, the thoughts of the snake translating into your kind as it thought of returning to it's master, having heard the call to return. Panes of glass passed your peripheral vision and you caught sight of your body, the green hue and uniform blotched lighter patches across the main stump of body.

You opened your eyes and gasped, a cough choking your throat as you panicked, eyes blurry and unable to focus.

"It's okay, y/n, we're here, you're safe," Harry says, kneeling down beside you. It takes your eyes a moment to focus but they do eventually, though you were left panting and breathless, you're whole body fighting the urge to let out a shuddering sob.

"The boathouse, she's going to the boathouse."

You tried jumping to your feet but your legs were weak and you stumbled a little, a cold sensation still covering your body that you couldn't fight off, the feeling of being the snake was all over you.

"Do we have anything to kill it with?" You asked, turning to look at them. "Not even a basilisk fang?"

Hermione looks sheepish as Ron looks down at his feet.

"We sort of lost them in the skirmish, only managed to save the one we used to destroy the tiara thingy," Ron says, speaking for Hermione as he rubs the back of his head. 

"Griphook had the sword," Harry says, relaying the deal he'd made for information.

"Griphook is dead master, had you not heard? Goblins were massacred after they informed Voldemort that Miss Lestrange's vault had been broken into."

You felt awful, your stomach sinking as you realised that your actions had caused this massacre.

"That means the sword is no longer in his possession," Hermione whispers to Harry.

Suddenly, the Lebetum in your pocket begins shaking, a new feature you hadn't been come across yet. You pulled it out and looked at the glass, seeing the doe already at the glass window, without any need to think of a pleasant memory nor recite the words. In that moment, you knew something was very wrong, Severus was in danger.

Next

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[that-wizard-oki]

This turned into a big autism info dump so have at it kids:

There’s obviously a couple like. ‘Wizarding school’ franchises out there, big and small, but I think what makes Wizard101 stand out compared to so many others in the “genre” is that it is set exclusively it’s own universe. Something I personally never liked about the world of say, Harry Patta, was it’s connection to a distinctly “human” or non-magic realm.

While our wizard is stated to be from earth in much later established lore (something i personally am not a fan of but that’s just a me thing i think), I really liked that, when the game was first established, that yea, it was hinted that you were from “a world that does not even believe in magic”, but NEVER clearly stated. 

I liked the IDEA that the Wizard COULD be from Earth. Maybe they’re not. It was always up for the player’s interpretation, and i do think having it be canon now a days makes the Spiral’s lore feel a bit more stiff. 

I like when The Spiral let certain things be ambiguous or unexplained- I think that’s part of the charm. Not that complex magic systems are bad (heck one of the reasons i also love the game so much is it’s unique magic system), but when you start establishing things more concretely, you inherently make it les flexible, and in some cases less imaginative in certain ways.

I always found myself being able to imagine things with Wizard101′s lore. There was always an interesting IDEA, and it was up to the player to draw their own conclusions. I think generally this is still held up pretty well in the current lore’s establishment, but yea that 2008-2014 time stamp for lore hit a nice sweet spot of being specific enough to establish it’s own ideas, yet still let the player build their own relationship with what was given to them. 

Anyway this is to say that I think a LOT of this has to do with the absence of earth/a non-magic realm- because frankly, I am never interested in the non magic realm in these genre’s. I always would much rather see how our protagonists explores the magic world, the other world. 

In Wizard101′s case especially, It makes for a more interesting plot point in terms of the hero’s journey- in the fact that we can never actually complete that journey. There is never a “return” for us to go back to our “home” because the spiral, at this point, has become our home. 

I also think the absence of “backstory” for the wizard, or rather, the incredible vagueness of it, is that it lets ANYONE relate to this character. They are nameless outside of their literal function as The Wizard, The Savior. The player, the one who literally DRIVES the wizard, creates their own ideas. We literally create alongside what others have created for us, and if that’s not so beautiful and so personal and so MAGICAL i don’t know what is. 

I also think that’s why the game is so successful as a GAME- you can’t quite create alongside a book or a movie- yea you can make fan art, fanfiction, but a game you are actively part of, like you literally play a hand in experiencing the story by having to complete actions to carry you through to the next stages. 

Anywho. Wizard101 is, in my opinion, one of the best and most interesting “wizarding school” pieces of media out there and you can quote me on that.

[felassan]

Some more snippets of interest and insight from Mark Darrah, from some older Mark Darrah on Games YouTube videos where he was livestreaming playing Dragon Age: Origins some months ago. (Multiple videos are covered in this post, so the source video of each bullet point is included there) -

"I'm pretty sure that the [in-world] Dragon Age will be an age that lasts a suspiciously long time, as long as there are Dragon Ages being made. I don't think they will drop 'Dragon Age' because it's such an identifiable part of the franchise". [source]

"I totally cannot spoil what the original Black City was supposed to be. I'm pretty sure that the approach to lore in DA has always been to leave it ambiguous to allow the future to go where it needs to go. Though that being said, DA:O was definitely built with the assumption that it was not getting a sequel." [source]

"The Calling is presented as taking decades to kill you on its own. So Alistair would still be alive in DA:I and DA:D if he went that way. I think, if I remember the lore correctly." [source]

"DA:O introduces a lot of hanging plot threads that aren't necessarily resolved. Orzammar potentially sets up a civil war, there's potentially werewolves running around. There's a lot of stuff we've been able to kind've ignore, but there's a lot of stuff that's still out there. The line of succession for Ferelden is open isn't it." [source]

[on the Warden's quest for a cure for the Calling] "I don't think it's established that the cure is actually found is it. Or just that they're looking." [source]

"Likely any cure for the Calling would be to extract the Taint from the person, so you would basically cease being a Grey Warden at that point." [source]

"I think they're treating the Trespasser epilogue slides as canon." [source]

[during DA:O epilogue slides] "You can see, this leaves a lot of threads in a lot of potential different directions that Dragon Age has been dealing with since then, since 2009." [source]

"The resistance that there was for toolset for Frostbite was a feeling like, 'this engine is proprietary, it does a bunch of stuff that we don't want other people to be able to steal'. That's basically not even true anymore. There's actually a feeling now within EA that user-generated content, UGC, is incredibly good, that it's basically free marketing. Like you say, Skyrim has been going forever. So that's why, EA has a really complicated relationship with UGC. What they want is basically, everyone to make TikTok videos and things about how great the game is. They don't necessarily want you to make DLC or Twitch stream the thing but they also recognize that this is not a, you don't get to have one without the other really. Yeah, the 'cost of free ads from fans is fan DLC'. That's pretty much, sums it up perfectly." [source]

"CD Projekt uses slightly different language than BioWare did for DLCs, expansion packs etc. I would not classify the free DLCs from The Witcher as expansion packs, they're DLC. They called them expansion packs but from my perspective, an expansion pack is larger than that but it's a spectrum for sure. The thing I would say about CD Projekt in general is they're amazingly good at picking the right language. So what they did on Witcher 3 is they said, they added a tiny bit of content to each of their patches and said 'this is DLC, we're going to give it away for free, aren't we amazing?' And then they made their DLC a little bit bigger and then said 'these are expansion packs, we're gonna charge for that', brilliant. Honestly brilliant. Because it makes them, it's a great PR move, it also meant that they got a, every time they released a patch they essentially got an article on the gaming sites. It's something that BioWare and frankly DA in particular is pretty bad at, like, naming things, and using language that makes things sound better." [source]

[on The Sims] "'Buy a thing and then later they release more stuff to add to your thing', it's an amazing business model. It's also a business model that EA does not understand, they, like BioWare, suffer from being a thing that exists within the sports-focused EA ecosystem that, constantly trying to explain that 'our players are not the same as your players, you need to let us do what we know how to do'." [source]

"We had a free-to-play version for DA multiplayer, that was Hendrix. It's not on the, EA didn't want it to exist so it was only on the servers for a little while, a couple of months, but it was actually there. I'm sure it's not up anymore." [source]

"I don't know if Frostbite is gonna die. I think there's a very good chance that what's going to happen is, it may become the next sports engine. FIFA is a monolith and has taken over the driver's seat for that engine. I don't think they're gonna be very interested in switching again. Even if active Frostbite development in general goes away, FIFA will keep going and then a bunch of other games live in the rain shadow of FIFA, like NHL." [source]

"If it was up to me, I'd probably have forced Mass Effect onto Frostbite. And I would be strongly inclined to keep Dragon Age on Frostbite for at least one more game because you've built the foundation. The best engine to use is the one you just used. But I don't know what's gonna happen after DA:D to be honest. BioWare seems to be addicted to throwing away work they've done in the past. And it was never up to me." [source]

"Frostbite isn't a recruitment negative but certainly it's a lot easier to find people that already know how to use Unreal. What you actually see in programming is some people, it's not a universal, but some programmers, they don't wanna work in Unreal because they feel like someone else gets to do all the cool programming bits." [source]

"The question for Awakening is should it have even been an expansion pack, or is a different solution to have made it, say, 40% bigger and made it a full-sized game. This is, I think, the reason why expansion packs are so rare these days is because, it's easy to imagine a path from an expansion pack to a $60 or $70 game and then you're getting somewhere between 80-120% attach as opposed to 30% attach. I suspect this is the primary reason why expansion packs have kind've faded away, because 'I'm gonna ship every year' is fairly accepted within games these days. So honestly the pitch for Joplin's live service was 'we're not gonna do a live service, we're gonna do a game, and then we're gonna do another game in 18 months and another 18 months after that. And maybe we'll do one piece of DLC in there, but we'll just be like dunk-dunk-dunk' and the economics for that are great. So that's why expansion packs are gone I think." [source]

"That's the fundamental problem of DA:O not knowing it's gonna have sequels, it leaves the world in a very quantum state. There's still stuff that's hinted at in those [epilogue slides] that are happening sometime in the future that I think are gonna probably at this point be ignored. Probably the biggest issue of DA:O is that it leaves the world in a state that probably wasn't intending that there would be a sequel." [source]

"When we were discussing doing a remaster for the trilogy, my pitch was to essentially retcon it [DA:O, DAII and DA:I] into a trilogy, to make it the 'Champion's Trilogy' or something to that effect, where you group the three games together, imply that they were always intended to be a trilogy kind of, and then that does a couple of things. It packages them into something that stands on its own a bit better, but also lets you potentially change what you're doing with the player character going forward. If you've decided that, okay, we've changed player character every single game up until now, but maybe we're not going to do that going forward, by packaging them together in a remaster you kind've give yourself permission to do that. Certainly DA:D is gonna have a new player character, given that the one from DA:I is missing a limb." [source]

"We probably oversold the Wardens in the marketing for DA:O. Because essentially, what we did was establish them as the coolest thing in the world and then yeah, so the series has definitely been dealing with the aftermath oh 'but not Wardens? Therefore not cool' forever since then." [source]

"But a new player character means you have a harder job every single game, because you have to get people interested, you don't get the shortcut of 'Shepard is Shepard, you know Shepard'." [source]

"Anders is the one that made us rethink how we introduce romances, because a lot of people ended up in romance with him that didn't mean to. We'll see if they come back to that in DA:D, but I think that because of Anders in DAII, DA:I was definitely trying to not 'accidentally do anything to you'. But it does mean that it is very player-controlled and very player-initiated. But maybe they'll be willing to go back to that a little bit." [source]

"Tevinter Nights does a really good job of staying away from violating canon. The thing with, the further you go away from what's in the games the more you are, the less well it's gonna do, so that's not necessarily a problem but it is something to keep in mind that you don't, you're trying to make money with your novels. Setting it in a time period that people don't know is great for the core fans but isn't necessarily gonna do super amazing. The advantage that Tevinter Nights is, because it's an anthology, you're able to just, everything kinda just stands on its own and therefore you're able to just stay away from the major characters to a large degree." [source]

"Varric's definitely not quantum, he's in good shape. Dorian, I feel like Dorian is guaranteed to be around [as in quantum], but maybe not, maybe I'm wrong about that. But the games have gotten better or at least more conscious of what they do with companions as it's gone on, in terms of trying to, being at least aware of the fact that you might want these people to come back, so maybe at least understand the quantum you're putting them in. There's a bunch of followers in DA:I that you might just not recruit. Like Blackwall's pretty easy to miss. Dorian can show up but he doesn't die if you don't recruit him, he's alive. The biggest thing for quantum is 'are they alive', in which, in DA:O there's a lot that don't make it. Then you have to deal with, well they might be [killed/not recruited?] or something but the biggest thing is, if they're alive you can probably make it work." [source]

"I have a feeling that Desire Demons are going to be just, ignored, or, honestly I mean one way to, I think, Desire is seen in a very narrow light in DA:O. I think if you go, if you move into Desire being a much broader concept, you have a lot of options there. I think if you approach Desire in a broader sense I think you have some opportunities. But then you kind've end up with the DA:I problem with the Fear." [source]

He also talked more generally about DA:O and the franchise and things in general. These bits are collected under a cut due to length -

"Orzammar is definitely the place in DA:O that actually looks like Dragon Age. Everything else is kind've generic late 2000s fantasy, pretty much the same as The Witcher. For example, Ostagar has a more generic fantasy visual" [source]

"You know, other than DAII, DA does involve a lot of crossing the entire country to turn around and go back doesn't it" [source]

Chat asked "How well does the vanilla game DA:O play on modern hardware?" Mark replied, "I'm playing it on modern hardware, I don't have everything cranked way up and currently I'm running it in a window. It's running really well. The only thing that happens is if you turn the graphic settings up too far it will blow up because it will run out of memory. It's a 32-bit game and so if you cross 4 gig it will explode. But there are some mods out there that get you around that. That's the only problem with it is that, if you turn it up too far it will become unstable. I'm worried about stability problems during the [Battle of Denerim] part of the game" [source]

"I always found Redcliffe Village in DA:O a bit confusing to move around" [source]

Chat observed that the soil in Redcliffe would be be bad because of all the darkspawn and undead that were there. Some users theorized that the people there moved to a different part of the nearby land to make 'Redcliffe' again. Mark commented, "One of the reasons we felt okay pretty much redesigning Redcliffe in DA:I, because it's kind've broken. You know, we don't show it completely destroyed here but certainly it's hard its struggles" [source]

"I don't know who came up with the ogre-sync kill. Sync kills are really cool for bosses, they become a lot less cool for things when they're constantly happening but they're usually, unfortunately sync kills are often something that end up being de-prioritized as a feature, because they don't actually have a gameplay effect so they're kind've just aesthetics. So they often actually get cut for time reasons" [source]

Mark mentioned that he "certainly [has] some degree of lingering crunch trauma" [source]

[during the Battle of Denerim, when many creatures are on-screen] "DA:O does a good job of selling large groups for a game of its time. We must be doing a trick, something to get all this, because this is way over the creature count limit for DA:O. It's possible that we made special creatures that are way cheaper. Or it's a mixture. Waves is part of it. They aren't dropping any loot so there's definitely something going on" [source]

"Shouldn't there be people in the Wardens who have a bit more training in dragon killing?" [source]

"We probably should have auto-levelled unlevelled party members before the Battle of Denerim" [source]

[on the elves in the alienage during the Battle of Denerim] "Where'd they get the bows? Pretty sure it's frowned upon for elves to have weapons in alienages" [source]

"People do play DA solo which makes it difficult to have any sort of puzzle or anything that requires a group" [source]

[on Sandal] "I told the team if you put him in DA:I you gotta put him in everything because he basically then becomes a central figure of the franchise. So they gave him a rest. So you can blame me for him not being in DA:I" [source]

Chat asked "I'm curious why BioWare never brought back the army spawning mechanic from DA:O to DA:I, I always thought it was epic and underrated". Mark said "We talked about it in DA:I, it was actually a UI thing, we didn't have time to do the UI properly. I mean there's a lot of reasons why you don't get to play with your Inquisition well in DA:I, like to play with the organization, which is actually too bad" [source]

[while fighting baby dragons during the Battle of Denerim] Chat asked "Why are the baby dragons there in the first place?" Mark said "Someone wanted another addition to the combat. But it doesn't really make a lot of lore sense" [source]

[on lock bash] "I like what we tried to do in DA:I, giving you different things for different classes. Didn't really get used effectively. But it does strike me as weird, it didn't at the time, but playing through this, is like, you go into a space, all the chests are locked, you kill everyone, no-one has a key. Like, whose got the key to that chest?" [source]

"DA:O really does do some impressive army stuff given the chunkiness of its engine" [source]

[at end of DA:O] "Probably should have shown Morrigan leaving" [source]

"Alistair would be a fine/adequate king. He just needs a policy wonk to give him ideas" [source]

[during DA:O epilogue slides] "These are the ones that set up the quantum for the rest of the game" [source]

[during DA:O epilogue slides] "It's interesting that we called Dagna a mage" [source]

"I think DA:O still holds together. I mean it wasn't a very attractive game in 2009 and certainly it doesn't look better now than it did then, but I think it holds together. Some of the storytelling choices are problematic from a now perspective, almost everything in the Pearl, and then the whole broodmother bit could be, I mean it's a bit too far, it was probably a bit too far even at the time honestly. The combat holds up pretty well, because it's not 'push a button and immediately do an action' it has aged pretty well. The animations are kinda clunky and things don't line up very great but that's not that bothersome. It would be much more noticeable that it was a problem if things were a bit more direct" [source]

"DA:O has WASD in large part because Oblivion had WASD controls. I remember the transition and being kind've confused as to why you would do that, but yeah it's the right call. In the time that this was in development it became pretty universal" [source]

"How involved was I in Anthem? I was in charge of Anthem for the past 16 months. So a damaging amount" [source]

"Will I do an Anthem stream? I will probably do at least 1 Anthem stream. I might play through the story, I'm not gonna play multiplayer. I might play through the story and play it in pure dark pattern, forcing it to let me play it by myself, but we'll see" [note this video is several months old] [source]

[on Awakening] "Other than Destiny, this is pretty much one of the last expansion packs there ever really was with a retail presence. It's honestly a way better business than DLC. DLC you're attaching, maybe 10% of your people are gonna buy it, whereas expansion packs, 30%. You can spend a lot more money and make a lot more money with an expansion pack" [source]

"I think the idea for DA multiplayer getting harder when somebody died was to try to make the match start to end so that you weren't waiting. I don't know how effective that is, probably not very, but I think that's the thinking" [source]

"I don't think we really were, pretty much I think DA became a series when BioWare got bought by EA. I don't remember the exact moment but you can see by the slides at the end of DA:O there's a bunch of stuff that isn't really completely thinking about the fact that we're gonna have to pick up this ball in future" [source]

"Frostbite shares a lot with Unreal as well from a tools perspective. It wasn't done quite as intentionally. It's funny because the tools for Eclipse for DA:O, there was a specifically-designed wall between the two project streams to prevent this engine from taking too much from Unreal. There was a worry that Epic was going to get mad at us and sue us. Which given everybody elses' engine development was probably unfounded" [source]

"I imagine that a Blight probably increases Warden recruitment. I think it makes sense that people would be interested [right after a Blight was stopped] because you're the heroes on the block, but given what the Wardens know about Blights and things you would think that the responsible thing would be to actually cut recruitment way down, keep the order alive and then as they sense a Blight starting to come, ramp the recruitment way back up again. But I don't know that they know that a Blight is coming early enough to do so, so I guess the worry would be that if they don't keep their order relatively large then they wouldn't have the forces necessary to fight a Blight. Though of course you wouldn't expect another Blight right now, we just finished with one [Mark was playing Awakening's opening sequence at this time]. I think it's, there's darkspawn to fight and despite what they may claim, it's about being big enough to have a political impact on the world so that everyone doesn't ignore their existence and then they show up and no-one remembers who they are. Duncan talks about knowing it was coming but everyone not believing him so it does imply that they know at least some time beforehand. But you probably don't wanna wait til 1 year before it starts happening before you start rebuilding your forces" [source]

"The reason why Awakening was able to ship so close to DA:O was because DA:O moved a huge amount really late in development to do the consoles. So Awakening was pretty much mostly built in 2009, you know in the last 9 months of DA:O development, which was mostly porting it to the consoles. There's no way you were getting an expansion pack out within five months of that size without [this]" [source]

"Awakening is a masterclass in 'people who are familiar with the fools using the tools at their disposal to do some amazing stuff" [source]

"One of the challenges with expansion packs is they kind've have to fit inside the umbrella, even if they're taking place afterwards like this one does [Awakening], they can't raise the stakes too much. Whereas if it was a full-fledged sequel it could kind've do something new, kind've has to. Which is part of the problem with Awakening, given where DA:O leaves the world it's kind've hard to, we didn't really know where we were gonna go for our sequels yet, so that's probably why" [source]

"The problem with not sequel-ing Dragon Age is then what you would have been doing is probably trying to make a fantasy RPG in a new setting and then having this impossible comparison to DA constantly happening, and every single difference being a potential criticism, you can see why that, being a potential big problem. Much as I wouldn't want to wish it upon other dev teams, DAII is what allowed DA to be a series, because it kind've is the one that eats the rock of 'this is not like my previous game' and it kind've gets rid of the worst bits of continuity errors. And so to a large degree I would say that by DAII being this sort of thing that's rushed out to fill a financial gap, it allows the series to become a series. But you know, I wouldn't say that's the fix that everyone should take" [source]

"The problem you have to remember with DAII and 'more time' is very quickly you run into Skyrim releasing, and releasing DAII then, regardless of much much extra effort you put into it, after Skyrim is not a good thing. It has to kind've live there in a pre-Skyrim world. There is stuff that can be done for sure, but there's a limit to what you can do" [source]

"Mass Effect has, Shepard is too tightly associated with ME, so what do you do? Do you just keep bringing him back and making clones of him or something? That was definitely a problem in the case of Mass Effect: Andromeda because you had a younger player character, so therefore the tonal differences were seen as problematic. So it's something that you definitely have to think about" [source]

"With Justice, you do a pretty good job of explaining away anything that happens to Anders" [source]

"Oghren is here in Awakening in part because of again, quantum. Because Wynne could be dead, Leliana could be dead, Alistair could be dead, Sten could be dead or not even recruited. So you don't really have a lot of choices if you wanna bring a companion back." Here chat mentioned that Oghren can be dead. "Oh, so they do [in-game] respond to it [if Oghren was killed in DA:O]. He must have been the least quantum then. The place that you were most likely to kill Leliana in DA:O was at the Urn of Sacred Ashes, and I think we just sort've were like 'the Urn's right there so. She's fine'. Yeah, there needs to be a warrior [in Awakening]. I mean, we could've made a brand new character but. Sten was really likely to die. Lots of people didn't even recruit him. Hers [Leliana's death] is probably the most plausible retcon" [source]

"One of the things that kind've frustrates me a bit about the lore in DA moreso than ME is because it's so quantum, is the linear stuff in the comic books and novels have had, just picked canons on occasion. Which I get because you wanna have Isabela or Sten in the comics, but it does mean that it undermines the player agency there because it's like 'what you did isn't real, because here's what's real because we put it in a comic book'. I really don't like that but given the branching in the games you would've just had to have stayed away from those characters completely, which undermines the storytelling, so I don't know. I don't know what the answer is honestly. It's a good point that it's hard to imagine that Leliana's gonna be like 'sign me up for the Wardens' [source]

[on secondary media] "I don't disagree that you could do lots of prequels, but I think there's a limit" [source]

"The biggest reason why the darkspawn design changed from DA:O to DAII is that the DA:O darkspawn, mainly honestly the ogre, but they don't quite fit into our artistic palette, and there was a strong push from the art team on DAII to move the art direction into something that was ownable and so that's the main reason. It's really just an ownability perspective. But you can kinda see it in Awakening, because like The Withered is starting to look a lot like the DAII darkspawn, or at least he's headed in that direction" [source]

"One of DAII's big art direction things, Eclipse is really good at pushing polygons, so a lot of things in the art direction of DAII are pushing polygons. So they're spikier and they just have a lot more polys in them because it's one of the things it's really good at" [source]

"If you were doing a remaster you would keep the same engine. If you were doing a remake you would switch engines. It's not a remaster if you're switching engines, that's for sure" [source]

"I still maintain that Dog was essentially put through the Joining, but whatever. Technically probably everyone who has had contact with darkspawn blood is not a Warden, but it is a bit, I do think it's one of the things where the Taint and the Blight is a bit, is presented as being more bad than really is pulled off in the games" [source]

(pls note that in places there is a bit of paraphrasing of the info, the best source is always the primary source with full quotes in their original context)

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

What does Éminence Grise's Darkling think of Alina?

OMG idk if it’s a formatting error or a tumblr glitch but the bold is killing me So we have established that this is not a formatting error and actually I love that more 😂😂

I find this surprisingly difficult to answer, because I keep falling back on describing the relationship/how he actually treats Alina as opposed to his thoughts. His thoughts are trickier to articulate because he has multiple levels of bias going on.

The fic is set an ambiguous number of years after when S&B takes place but with the big difference that the stag never was in imminent danger of being found and therefore Baghra never did the thing. Alina never ran away, and they never had a big gloves off, falling out.

A lot of my typical interpretation of Alarkling as a ship, and how I view his feelings about her, hinge on him having preconceived expectations that don’t really match her personality. But I do think, as the series progresses, who she really is and how that surprises and confounds him, solidifies their dynamic and does make him more wretchedly obsessed lol. There’s some cognitive dissonance between the sort of white knuckle control he wants, and what he actually responds to as a person.

This fic is basically a scenario where he’s been able to get to know her under far less dramatic circumstances, and has had several years to try to force her into his preferred mold. And before the actual events of the fic, I think he’s basically been as successful as he can possibly get?

His standards are simply unattainable, and he’s baseline moody and inconsistent, but he has pretty much eroded nearly all of her boundaries. She is entirely emotionally dependent on him, though she’s mostly content to let him be cold to her and keep her at arm’s length. His values are the main standard she holds herself to— both simply because they are his, and his good opinion is practically the only one that matters to her, but over time she has genuinely absorbed a lot of his opinions. She appears to be fully content to remain within the constraints of the power dynamics of their relationship, where she’s basically forever a pupil learning at his feet. If they disagree— which they basically have not in any material way, they’re fighting in the story rn but it’s not really been disagreement— she’s learned to capitulate and assume she’s incorrect. Their primary conflicts stem from his inconsistency and temper, which she’s learned to mostly just wait out.

So in short, he thinks the relationship is going great! Or at least that it has been until the engagement nonsense that will obviously blow over soon. (lol. lmao)

Moving past their dynamic in practice to what he actually thinks of her, I think he primarily thinks of her, very simply, as his. That possessive element is the defining aspect. She’s his like girlfriend-protégée, diamond in the rough who isn’t anywhere near her final state yet. She’s only in her malleable first century or whatever, like she barely even counts as a fully formed person yet ajdjfhffd

He likes her, and has genuine rapport with her— I think that’s something that exists in canon. And while I cannot speak to the success of it, I’ve definitely tried to write them here with a lot of genuine familiarity and intimacy. I think he’s already pretty damn emotionally compromised, but from his own point of view he’d only really allow that he’s fond of her and feels indulgent of her youth/willfulness/silliness etc. But at the end of the day, he mostly thinks of her as something that is his to mold.

She asks him in one of the recent-ish chapters whether her feelings matter to him, and… basically they do not tbh. She has been literally trying to break up with him for multiple chapters and her input matters little enough that he’s not even actually registering it!

What he’s responding negatively to is more that she’s acting in ways he doesn’t like, that she seems genuinely invested in her engagement, and that she’s actually holding a grudge when he treats her poorly. She’s also completely correct in surmising that he’s so cold to her mostly because he is feeling jealous, and insecure, and wants to hurt her just to know that he can, as proof that she loves him and can be hurt by him. He’s only comfortable with a dynamic that’s dramatically in his favor. So being on any sort of emotionally even footing, let alone uneven in her favor, where he would be the one feeling jealous, results in him lashing out at her to “get even.”

But he’s not genuinely internalizing that she wants to end their relationship, that that is something she can even do or have a say in. He just doesn’t take it seriously enough to even get mad about it.

Anyway, this is something that’s not really specified in canon, and seems to be easy to interpret either way, but Grisha longevity seems to hinge on how much power they have. And S&B seems to imply Alina actually isn’t that powerful before the amplifiers. So for the purposes of this fic, to lean into the fundamentally transformative nature of his designs on her, Alina isn’t immortal on her own, and they both know this. Without the stag, she could have a, not necessarily ordinary, but at least uh… fathomable life, that’s probably somewhat long lived, but not anything that’s unheard of for Grisha. But he’s planning to elevate her to basically an immortal, unknowable state, that is going to inherently cut her off from all former, mortal, peers— because he also assumes there’s no merit in forming any real attachments if everyone you know will die in the blink of an eye. I don’t think Alina would necessarily reach that conclusion? But we’re talking about what he thinks.

Meanwhile, I want to stress that immortality has not been a particularly positive experience for him! He might think it’s genuinely an honor to elevate someone like that, that she should be grateful for it, but it’s also not not a cruel act, even from his own perspective. And that’s of course not even getting into how he very much stil intends to kill the stag himself so that he can take control of the amplifier, and her power.

[goingbuggy]

Thank you for answering my “how much did it impact mihawk” question. I kinda felt similar but wasn’t sure how to say it and you did so perfectly. I just never read mihawk as someone who would hide or be unable to understand his emotions/feelings? For me he always felt straight forward, not ambiguous. He has mystery around him with his past, but I think maybe it can easily be confused with him having the same mystery in his personality. I don’t know, it’s mine reading of this character, definitely bored and not hiding it. The same I don’t find confusing why he left marineford and didn’t fight shanks? I heard many theories, but I genuinely think it’s exactly the reason he said. Not part of the deal. I like him for being this blunt tbh, it could be easy to just make him speak in riddles but he’s not? Does that make sense? You would expect this type of character to have hidden motives or something going on but he seems too open about what he think for that?

I also wonder how his story in cross guild is going to end. For years everyone were expecting mihawk to either join RHP or be the past RHP swordsman, so that was unexpected to a lot of people. I do find it interesting how we saw entire cross guild in the execution, did it mean anything or just “oh it’s them bye” moment? Doflamingo I think was also there and people do think he will join cross guild, so it could be symbolic. I really don’t see another reason for mihawk to be in cross guild other than to get him to fight Zoro at the end but hey, maybe you have different ideas? Past rivalry with shanks seems to be a stretch rather than a reason, whatever you consider them true friends (not sure about that ) or still rivals (also not sure). I’m actually not really sure about this whole relationship there and whatever that rivalry meant in grand scheme of one piece things? Maybe just to make shanks seem cool idk. I have no idea why people are still so hang up on whoever is stronger, since we don’t see it going anywhere? But maybe you do and see the reason. First of all we would still need mihawk backstory which some parts got revealed in SBS so a lot of people got scared he will not be fully fleshed out.

Well it gotten long. Your thoughts just always make me think even more. Sorry for bothering you!

Not bothering me at all! Thanks for sharing. I agree 100%; Mihawk is reserved, sure -- he has his rocky past, things he keeps to himself -- but he's not the type of character to necessarily hide or lie. He just has trust issues.

About where Cross Guild is going: I think it would be so fun if Doflamingo or even Moria joined the fray, whether as members or just those with ties to the Cross Guild. Oda did tease Crocodile and Doflamingo's shared past and Doflamingo's desire to team up with him during Marineford, but I'm not sure if he would do that now knowing Buggy is the figurehead of the organization. In general, though, I think Oda's main intention with Cross Guild being at Roger's execution is to show how monumental of a moment in time it was. Many prominent characters in the story were present, too (Dragon, Shanks, Smoker, Doflamingo) -- not just them. It's a cool way to tease Cross Guild's future role, but I don't think the panels are there just for us to go, "Hey, look, those people I recognize!" Roger's execution was a world-changing event that set forth the journeys of all these characters, Luffy included, and having them present for it makes that feel real.

As for why Mihawk is still in Cross Guild... well, because he chose to be. Crocodile's plans spiraled out of control due to Buggy's influence, but Cross Guild was always intended to be a joint-endeavor between them both. I don't think Mihawk explicitly wants a "utopia" and a "strong military state," but the establishment of those things would provide him with the quiet, peaceful life he's always wanted.

And finally, your point about Mihawk and Shanks' rivalry. Honestly, I just think Oda is the kind of writer who likes multi-purpose exposition. He doesn't want to tell you information -- he wants to show it, in interesting ways which further build his world and interconnect the characters within it. Their rivalry is a perfect example. Through this moment and Mihawk's fight with Zoro, Oda organically shows us that Mihawk is an extremely powerful character looking for someone worthy of fighting him, and that he has ties to many other powerful forces in-universe. Not only that, it kicks off this recurring idea that Shanks follows Luffy's journey from a distance, only intervening where he sees fit. It also leaves the door open, adds intrigue -- will they fight again? If so, why? As you mentioned, though, people are hung up on who is stronger instead, which was certainly not his intention.

I mean, look at Oda's response to those sorts of questions. He doesn't care. He will troll you just for asking.

I don't think Oda is going to sideline Mihawk -- but then again, Law got an entire arc for his backstory, while Kidd's was relegated to an SBS response (although my fingers are crossed for Elbaf). Crocodile's backstory also really isn't at the forefront yet, but Oda exploring those two together would make a lot of sense, considering they're both disillusioned, cynical men with trust issues. Either way, Mihawk still has more to do.

[whypolar]

Gundam Unicorn OVA 2: The Second Coming of Char

It's time.

Here comes a special boy!

If you don't cheer and clap for him I'll blow this whole building up.

(You can read my previous post here, if you want.)

I was grinning every time Frontal was on screen. I'm so easy. He's perfect.

The music continues to be excellent.

The percussion in Frontal's theme is fucking crazy. I don't even have the vocabulary to describe what is happening here musically, but I like the aggressive synth and that there's a xylophone. Maybe multiple xylophones. Imagine.

I also particularly liked this one track with the chanting vocals before the hostage negotiation-- apparently it's the Sinanju's theme.

The main theme associated with the Unicorn itself keeps getting caught in my head.

The robots remain very cool.

Combat plays out almost beat-for-beat as described in Novel 3, right down to the automatic cockpit functions and Banagher throwing up in his helmet. Gross.

Environments: effectively conveying information.

The backgrounds in this one didn't wow me as consistently as the first one, but that's fine. They're in space. They're on closed ships. They have other, more important things they want you to look at. Sterile corridors communicate information about the setting, even if they're not necessarily exciting.

They do some cool stuff with the lighting on the bridge. I also like that they have an inexplicable vaporwave room to put the civilians in.

I'm pretty sure I have this exact room in my house in Animal Crossing.

After Banagher gets captured we start seeing more variety again, since there are more different places for us to visit.

Those are my big surface-level impressions.

From this point on, there will be novel spoilers up to the equivalent point where this OVA ends (which will include some things that I assume will show up in OVA 3).

One of my favourite background nobodies, Lieutenant Commander Liam. I love that the main thing we know about her is that she's big and constantly side-eyeing her blustering boss.

In terms of novel comparisons, there's a lot more I can potentially talk about in this one than the first.

Judging by these first two, it seems like each OVA covers about 1.5 novels worth of material, which sounds about right to cover all ten in seven episodes.

They swapped a number of scenes around. They've been skipping over a lot of little Vist family stuff that will have to come up later. I don't think that will be a problem. I assume they had two priorities:

Establish key details of Frontal's character, such as his self-identity as a vessel and his ambiguous relationship to Char, in the same OVA where he's introduced

Set up the hook of Banagher getting rescued for OVA 3

They've held off on introducing Martha for now, which is fair. She hasn't really done much by this point, she just exists as a vaguely menacing figure. I assume she'll be in the next one. Please?

They also skipped over Cardeas' memories of Syam arranging to have Cardeas' father killed. If they intend to tell us that later, it will probably be through another character, such as Martha or Syam himself.

Alberto hasn't figured out Banagher is his half-brother yet. Martha is the one who tells him this, so that makes sense. I could see them making that scene Martha's introduction.

Have I mentioned I love Alberto? I really do. I like him even better without a judgmental narrator describing his fatness, so there's an unambiguous point in the anime's favour, lmao.

Banagher

I'm glad they kept the flashback of Banagher's childhood 'training', but disappointed that they cut off the nightmare at the end. I wanted to see how they'd do it.

Caught my not-husband zapping our son so he'll be good at killing people in the psychic death machine when he's older. He does it in the piano tapestry room, to make sure the repressed traumatic memories are as poetic as possible.

We don’t get to hear Banagher's mother confront his father about putting him in the newtype pilot torture simulator, so we miss out on Cardeas' incredible defence of "don’t worry, I'm not using drugs on him in the tests." Father of the year.

In the novel: we hear the fight, it moves on to memories of Banagher leaving home with his mother, and then it eventually degenerates into the horrible withered body of Banagher's dead father grabbing his ankle and trying to make him go to the Gundam. The Gundam is described as a giant bleeding demon that wants to eat him.

It's important to me that a Gundam should always be at least a little monstrous. They should let the Unicorn be evil. As a treat.

At this point, I think anime Banagher comes across as mostly in line with his novel counterpart's characterization. The change in situation means a change in behaviour. Events have forced him to start openly expressing his doubts and fears-- which means the audience can actually know what they are.

There is still one difference that stuck out to me, because they chose to cut a particular scene:

OVA Banagher feels less genuinely attached to his friends.

I don't think this is a worse characterization. It's interesting in its own way. It's just like... a notably different one, imo.

There's a very sweet scene in the novel of him reuniting with Micott and Takuya. They're all overjoyed to see each other again alive. They hug, floating through the air in low gravity. Banagher feels warmth and a sense of belonging, and seriously considers never getting back in the Gundam again. They get so caught up that they end up hitting a wall and getting grabbed by gravity again, so they all collapse and start laughing. Then Audrey comes in, and the moment ends, as Banagher is compelled to go to her instead.

In the anime, they're all at his hospital bedside when he wakes up. Micott directly calls out to him in concern. He totally ignores her and addresses Audrey instead. Bro???

Given that he mostly ignored the other students and stared into space for a lot of the previous OVA, because they cut a lot of their casual school interactions from that one, too, well... Audrey doesn't just feel like Banagher's most powerful connection, but possibly his only real connection.

They also cut Micott being the one who approaches Mackle about Audrey, which makes him decide to look her up. Instead, he recognizes her face on his own. I was surprised by this one, since it felt like they were setting it up, but I guess not.

Audrey / Mineva

Mineva translates flawlessly to the screen. It helps that she's central both to the plot and to our protagonist's motivation. An element of mystery is also already important to her portrayal, so not getting direct glimpses into her thoughts doesn't feel like losing something. Much like last time, we basically know what the protagonist knows, and it works.

This is the best case scenario, but it also gives me less of an excuse to talk about her. Now I have to talk about Riddhe instead. I can't even believe how much I feel the need to talk about Riddhe. I did not think I cared about Riddhe.

And yet.

Riddhe

We find out who he is by the end of this one. Kinda. Depending on how much attention the viewer pays to character surnames, they may have figured it out earlier, or might even still not have grasped exactly what was being implied.

Again: I don't especially care about Riddhe, so I'm hesitant to say I want them spending time on him that could be used elsewhere, but the thing about reading the novels first is that I know his significance to the plot going forward. I'm worried things might end up more frustrating in the long run if they don't do enough with him early on.

When I think about scenes centred on Riddhe from the first 4 novels that I found particularly memorable… a lot of them were removed!

That good luck charm he has? In the novel, he doesn't have that. He has model biplanes, like actual hand-sized toys. In his introductory scene, he's sitting in a cockpit with one and basically zoning out, pretending to make it fly around. He thinks about wanting to be a pilot growing up, and it really gives the distinct impression that he's a bit mad that planes are mostly obsolete and he has to fly in a mobile suit instead. People roast him for being a rich kid playing with his toys.

That's the kind of idiosyncratic and slightly cringe enthusiasm that makes a character feel real to me. I don't even know if it would have been better to keep that in, I just know that I personally would like it.

The little things are what let me engage with him as a specific character, as opposed to an archetype I'm not personally invested in. I'd rather have a more detailed character than a guy who feels like nothing, whether I personally like him or not.

This is how the novel version of Riddhe meeting Banagher played out:

After the battle, Riddhe is feeling survivor's guilt, since they lost a lot of pilots during the battle. He goes to check on his machine. The mechanic inside is one of the older crew members, and he's crying.

When Riddhe tries to speak to him, he turns around and screams at him. He found the airplane model in the cockpit, where Riddhe accidentally left it. He's furious that Riddhe brought a toy onto the battlefield. He tells him to his face that he wasn't taking things seriously, and that's why they got massacred in the battle.

He throws the plane out of the cockpit, Riddhe chases it down as it glides through low gravity, and Banagher ultimately catches it, which is how they meet for the first time.

It's just much meatier than what we got.

I also feel like we've seen less conflict with others and emotions from Riddhe about his family so far. We don't know what his relationship to them is like at all, really. We miss the scene of him biting the bullet and asking his father for help, even though he really doesn't want to, because he believes it might save lives.

Maybe that will feel more present going forward, now that Mineva knows who he is?

Still, it's not like we didn't get any character moments for him. We get a bit of banter between him and other members of the crew. He reacts to stuff. I thought the scene where he confronts Mineva about Zeon and recalls Garma's funeral was very good.

Just... I want him to be interesting enough for me to get something from his arc.

Imagine me pacing around my room and gesticulating wildly for this next part, because I finally get to talk about Full Frontal

This scene. This specific scene is the one I most want to talk about.

First of all, it has Frontal in it. Second, there's a lot of information conveyed in the novel scene that does not make it to the screen at all. Third, the anime makes its own strong visual choices that are entirely original and not drawn from any kind of novel description.

This shot of Frontal's mask is downright fascinating to me. The outside of the mask is pristine and smooth, but the inside has all these gnarled ridges. The lines around the eyes remind me of wrinkles on an old man's face. In-universe, someone decided it was important to make it look like that, where nobody but Frontal himself will see it. Was it designed this way at his request?

This scene in the novel is written from Banagher's perspective. There is no camera, it's just Banagher pointing out whatever he thinks is important to comment on. When they decided how to frame it in the anime, they pulled the camera way back, for all these extreme distance shots in this huge room. Everyone looks so tiny. This is, obviously, an unusual framing for an intimate conversation between three people.

There were so many cool and very deliberate shots in this scene; I'm kind of obsessed with it. The separation of spaces in this massive room and how they kept showing Frontal moving back and forth between them... I wish I could include them all, but tumblr has a 30 image limit per post.

When Frontal is wearing the mask and sitting next to Angelo, he is visually separated from Banagher. When he moves to speak to Banagher, he is then separated from Angelo. This is a sentiment that Angelo expresses in the novel-- that when Banagher was around, Frontal suddenly 'left him out of focus'. This is one of the things that drives Angelo to fixate on Banagher out of jealousy going forward.

Aside from depicting emotional distance between characters and showing off the absurdity of how big the room is, it's possible that the camera choices are meant to evoke another detail from the novels.

There is something very important we learn about Frontal that is conveyed solely through narration, and which has not come up at all yet in the OVA: the way characters describe his appearance, and the emotional response they have to it.

Specifically: Full Frontal looks exactly like Char Aznable, but he doesn't look like a convincing human being.

How does Banagher describe Full Frontal in this scene?

Well:

Is he a human? This was the first impression Banagher had. He could not detect any sense of life from that man, not just from the mask covering his eyes, but also the vibe that he was artificially created. He stared at the masked man who sat on the Mahogany made office table, and seriously thought that it might really be part of the decorations in the room.

The hand under the glove felt rather hard, causing Banagher to remember the first impression of a puppet ...

Perhaps I might not have seen the true appearance of this man? Banagher recalled the beautiful blue eyes, and felt that he was following an illusion ...

He also describes his stare as "machine-like" at one point.

After removing the mask, he describes Frontal's face as handsome and without identifiable flaws. "His cheekbones did not reflect his age" -- he looked younger than expected based on the age of Char Aznable, I think is the implication.

Anyway. The point is, he's good-looking and there's nothing specific anyone can pinpoint that's obviously wrong with him, and yet this is a consistent reaction characters have to meeting him. He doesn't feel real.

Honestly, this is one of my favourite things about Frontal, and it makes me a bit sad that it doesn't translate at all. I'm sure it would be difficult to visually convey-- any attempt runs the risk of looking like an error, or just 'bad'. It could also be they were worried about going too hard with it and making him read like a monster, rather than someone who could plausibly be a charismatic leader.

I get it. I just miss it, man. It's such a good little detail. He'll always be a beautiful creepy puppet to ME.

I love that Angelo's always two seconds from going on the attack. He's like a beautiful fluffy dog that's human-aggressive and keeps biting people. He's Frontal's feral rescue persian cat.

Angelo doesn't go for Banagher a third time in the novel. In that version, these lines are delivered (less violently) by Frontal himself.

The change makes sense. It's in character for Angelo, and it still implies something about Frontal-- he speaks about Banagher sympathetically, but he pretty much just lets Angelo do this, not even chastising him or telling him to stop like the previous two times.

Banagher still falls over in the novel, despite not being physically assaulted. He almost passes out from the horror of realizing he killed someone, and then he spends the entire rest of the scene dissociating and feeling physically ill. Marida and Zinnerman pretty much have to drag him out of there.

The scene with Angelo and Frontal on their own discussing the possibility of an attack on Palau is gayer in the novel. Being inside Angelo's head is always gayer. We might get the full version of this scene in the next one, since they started talking about certain exposition-related things before getting abruptly cut off.

Concluding scenes

I really like this scene with the family. The designs of these characters and how they interact with each other is very endearing. Marida casually holding the little girl upside-down and handing her over to the mother is unbearably cute.

They don't fully explain the logistics of where and how Banagher is being held prisoner, leaving it to you to intuit what the arrangement is. This works just fine for me, but I did wonder if it might throw some people off. Maybe not-- I feel like most UC Gundam stuff I've watched occasionally leaves gaps like this and trusts you to connect the dots on your own.

It's just very different from reading the novel, where it leads you through the whole process of him being kept on the ship, brought to Palau, being taken to see Frontal, etc. It gives a history of Palau as a mining colony, including how and why it was built, why the guy who bought it most recently renamed it Palau, the population size, the dimensions in kilometers... you get the idea. Completely different approach.

Marida.... the next one should have a lot more of Marida, I think. I'm glad. I want more Marida. She's one of my favourites.

Her big scene in this one is a good one with a lot of thematic and emotional weight, but the reordering of scenes did skip over a lot of smaller moments between her and Banagher that I really love-- big fan of her grabbing his face to check his eyes and then telling him about the effects of g-force on the human eyeball.

I'm hoping at least some of those casual interactions make it into the next one. They can be shifted around pretty easily, so long as it's before the attack on Palau begins.

I think that's everything I wanted to go over... either way, I'm done. This post took me a lot longer to edit than the first one.

I can't believe they made me write fifteen paragraphs about Riddhe.

[copper-16]

AO3 Tip Number 4: Posting A Work 

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This is the last part of this series, but I’m open to answering additional questions if need be!

[kimium]

I wrote a 10051 snippet that's so short and so fragmented I don't want to put it into my Warming Up in Snippets compilation. So, I'm going to post it here. Let me know what you think if you like this. I might expand on this idea later as it's rare for me to write in Byakuran's POV.

Warnings: Timeline? Ambiguous. Good or bad? Who knows? Established relationship. Usual Byakuran possessive thoughts. Kissing.

~

A bright firework burst against the darkness of the sky in a flash of white yellow light. In an instant the red in Shouichi’s hair glowed and green in Shouichi’s eyes burned, as if an emerald had been set ablaze by a single match. Even behind the glasses that despite the lightly out of style frames, Shouichi refused to change no matter what Byakuran tried to say, the clear lens did nothing to obscure the brilliance of Shouichi’s gaze. A gaze that never wavered or faltered from its destined path.

Another firework burst in the sky, this one louder, brighter, and more colourful than the last. Shouichi gasped and leaned forward, their boat rocking gently in the smooth darkness of the lake. A bit of water splashed up the side and threatened to spill inside, but receded a moment later.

Byakuran leaned into the boat, his gaze never straying from Shouichi. The jacket Shouichi was wearing was dove grey with silver buttons and accents. While unbuttoned and unzipped, the jacket was formfitting and hugged Shouichi’s body in a way that made Byakuran’s heart pound rapidly in his chest and his mouth dry instantly.

Who was this siren, this temptation sent to earth sent to lure Byakuran towards ruin? Why had some divine force decide that Byakuran’s downfall would not be the vices of other powerful leaders that had come before him? When did the threads of Byakuran’s fate slowly unravel at their seams? Which one of the multiple, endless timelines had it been? Did it even matter at this point? What had Byakuran done to deserve Shouichi?

A burst of light filled the sky again, this time in shades of red and orange. It made Shouichi’s lips appear more red, more tempting than any forbidden food described in mythologies. Byakuran lurched forward and grabbed Shouichi’s arm. Instantly Shouichi turned his head and leaned closer, eyes widening. His lips parted and whatever sound lingered in Shouichi’s throat was silenced by Byakuran pressing his lips against Shouichi’s.

Shouichi tasted divine and his moans pierced through the gaps between Byakuran’s ribs, crushing his heart and lungs in a single strike. Gasping, Byakuran tangled his hands into Shouichi’s hair and deepened their kiss.

Byakuran’s chest tightened and his blood sang in his limbs. Sky Ring or not, he’d kill anyone who dared to think they could have Shouichi. His Shouichi. His forbidden fruit. His. His. His.

The boat tilted and their center of gravity shifted. A moment later cold water rushed around them. Byakuran pulled away from Shouichi and gasped for air. Shouichi shot a look that was obscured by his askew glasses which slid off the bridge of his nose. Water dripped from his matted bangs and with a huff Shouichi brushed his bangs aside and adjusted his glasses.

“What was that for?” he huffed.

“I wanted to kiss you.”

“I’m aware of that.” Byakuran couldn’t see it, but he knew Shouichi was crossing his arms. “You have all the power in the world and you can’t stop us from falling out of a boat.”

Byakuran tilted his head. “Did you want me to kiss you while levitating? It shouldn’t pose a challenge.”

“You know that’s not what I mean,” Shouichi sighed and began to swim towards the boat. “Guess we’ll have to cut watching the fireworks.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

Shouichi shot a look. It made Byakuran’s blood tingle. “Don’t be obtuse. We’re wet and cold. I’m not sitting out here.” He tried to climb into the boat but it floated away.

Byakuran snapped his fingers and soon they were both in the boat, warm Sky flames dancing around their bodies, drying their clothing. A bit of stiffness from the minerals in the water lingered, but it was a small price to pay for being dry. Shouichi patted his jacket and pulled his phone out, pressing a finger to the screen. It turned on.

“Thank goodness for our tests,” Shouichi muttered. “I’ll have to let Spanner know those hours were not in vain.”

Spanner. Byakuran could see the blond mechanic in the back of his mind, lollipop stick in his mouth, a cold cup of tea at his elbow. Weeks and hundreds of phones had passed and died before their research concluded. Byakuran hadn’t been present for the actual experiments but he’d seen the bill and happily signed off on it. Much to the disapproval of Kikyo who, like any professional right-hand man, held his comments silent but his gaze judgemental. Not that Byakuran cared. So long as Shouichi was happy Byakuran would spare no expense on whatever experiment Shouichi’s little heart desired.

“Even if the experiments were a failure, I could buy you anything you desired.”

Shouichi raised an eyebrow. “I’m well aware of that, thanks. However, I’d never let an experiment end in complete failure.” He pocketed his phone and looked up at the sky. “I think the fireworks are ending soon.”

“Already?” Byakuran glanced at the slowly darkening sky. Between kissing Shouichi and falling into the lake the sound and light had somehow muffled themselves into the background. “Apologies. We seemed to have missed majority of the show.”

“It’s fine. I was able to go out and see some of it.” Shouichi shrugged. “Thank you, for taking me here. Even if you nearly ruined my clothing and phone.”

“My pleasure,” Byakuran extended his hand, his sky ring glittering in the dark. “Shall we?”

Shouichi wrinkled his nose. “I hate traveling by Ring Teleporting Systems.” He still took Byakuran’s hand.

“You say that but you helped me fix the system.”

“I don’t have much of a choice in the matter,” Shouichi dryly said. “I was told we were going to see fireworks. I thought you meant at a local festival in Namimori not in a boat in the middle of a random lake in Italy.”

Byakuran stifled a laugh. “I was told that surprises are romantic.”

“If that was Bluebell, I’ll have you know she has no clue what she’s talking about.”

“Nonsense,” Byakuran said as he pulled Shouichi into his embrace. “Just because she’s young doesn’t mean she is unaware of romance. Now, shall we go home?”

Shouichi leaned into Byakuran until his breath tickled Byakuran’s neck. Byakuran smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of Shouichi’s head. On his ring orange sky flames began to gather, glowing like embers dancing in an inferno.

[ladyluscinia]

OMG, I read your essay on Destiel and that person yelling "how dare you" was absolutely hilarious! That's some meme material for TvTropes. I didn’t realize Suletta was a quite ambiguous ship like Victuri. What are they even bragging about while calling Destiel queer baiting? Both ships had the same "will they be canon or not" rocky path, but theirs with less homophobic writers.

At least that person apologized and admitted they didn't actually have any background knowledge on Destiel, which is easily the best interaction I had off that poll. They were mad at meme voters and I was quipping about different meme voters and maybe meme voters that love to flood polls to talk shit are the insufferable element here, you know?

The whole canon details thing was something to realize - though I don't think "ambiguous" is the word. Like, they are a pretty clear part of their show's canon, same as Destiel and Victuuri. I don't think lacking an onscreen kiss makes them less canon or anything. If we really want to get into it, trying to pretend there's a clear dividing line between undeniable canon and not (or blessed text vs barbarous subtext) is a mindset that probably causes more harm than good.

Like - subtext is part of the text. It's an element that writers, actors, set designers, etc. put into the story deliberately, and things can be both subtext and really obviously conveying a specific thing (ex: romantic feelings). Not all subtext is equally "open to interpretation" yeah.

If we say "no actually your really blatant subtext is still not real canon unless it's textual in these ways" then we raise the question of what even counts as textual. Is living together and wearing wedding rings textual if we don't acknowledge a marriage any other way? What about if it's from a culture that doesn't wear rings? It also kind of insultingly bakes in a certain level of assumed audience stupidity, where something can be the most obvious conclusion to the information you've been given by the writers but you still have to pretend you don't know it for sure because...? Like the main things you accomplish with arbitrary lines are a) making it easier for bad writing to count as canon than good since it's more likely to be blunt / shallow, b) giving the people with the least creative control (censors) the most say over who gets to cross the lines, and c) devaluing ships that actually try to build up a relationship over time (like well-written straight couples have done for ages) because they are "just ambiguous subtext" until they aren't.

It's a lot more accurate to recognize canon comes in various forms, and "plausible deniability that isn't actually plausible at all if you watch the show" is a big one.

Like I haven't seen the anime so I won't make sweeping claims, but basic example from multiple sources explaining the show premise - the fact that the girls get engaged in episode 1 as near-strangers because of a whole pre-established political / business marriage arrangement between the best fighter and the prized daughter... if you're a writer trying to make sure you can have your f/f ship married in the endgame, having it be a plot point to guarantee access to Bride/Groom queercoding through the whole series is a really good way to do that! And it's specifically queercoding with a "straight explanation" even if it's insulting to both the writers and audience to pretend that holds up to scrutiny in the context of the whole series. I know this because I've seen those sorts of tactics a lot.

It's just really interesting how the difference between a queerbait, a will-they won't-they, and a canon slowburn can often be determined by how positive any given fan's feelings toward the ship, show, and writers are. It's hardly objective fact.

(EDIT: Oh and I didn't use wedding rings as an example because of the anime - it wouldn't even be a good one because they also have people referring to the girls as in-laws - I used it because it's a broadly understood cultural shorthand but also fundamentally "wearing literally any ring on this finger = dedicated romantic relationship" is super subtextual.)

[transfemstarscream]

how come the fandom at large sees mtmte/idw criticizers as homophobic/transphobic? most people that dislike the series are lgbt but I see posts all the time talking about how anyone that hates the series is some creepy freak who wants to fuck sari sumdac

during the initial run of MTMTE, the criticism targeted at IDW post-the death of optimus prime was perpetuated by a lot of intolerant audiences. unlike transformers material beforehand, 2012– IDW was a lot more explicit about topics like romance, sexuality and etc. in a way where there was little ambiguity. MTMTE at the time wasn’t the best written IDW comic but it was definitely the most popular, the most engaging—largely due to its expansive cast and settings—and gained traction from both sides of the transformers fans spectrum.

as much criticism as i give IDW, it was the first ever western transformers installation to establish official, uncensored gay romance between the characters. other times it had been a result of a translation mishap (japanese tigatron/airazor), toned down or erased in localization (mirage’s crush on galvatron in energon is censored, though the imagery is there), or confirmed offscreen/kept ambiguous. IDW did not do that—the robots are explicitly attracted to each other, and there are multiple canonical relationships.

a lot of the “criticism” at first was in bad faith as a result of this, boiling down to people thinking gay robots and female transformers in their toy franchise was the end of times.

of course, it’s false that everybody who criticizes IDW and/or MTMTE is like that—and i think it’s idiotic to think so. but at a certain point, there was a reason to think so, given how a lot of the flack was just grown men upset at fictional robots saying “i love you”.