#technically she was ~reborn~ to be a weapon. but still

[mixelation]

reborn au plot.... stuff. has plasticity spoilers. also canon characters die!

i said this recently, but i don't have much in the way of an overarching story after tori's, like, 17. part of this is just that i haven't made some major decisions about the premise (like what orochimaru is up to) and part of it is that...... what problems would even challenge these characters. like we have a bunch of weird interpersonal shenanigans but like obviously one appeal of this au is giving tori opportunities for Feats.

so i decided on a Feat.

i think as an ongoing looming threat, i might have some petty proxy war stuff going on. no one wants to reignite a multi-nation shinobi war, but everyone is scrambling to grab things for themselves, especially since konoha just like.... stole from iwa??? ame burned down half of kusa? oto-nin are just? in the wind???? someone probably hires orochimaru. people are out trying to snatch jinchuriki left and right.

so i was thinking thusly: one of the bigger nations captures fuu for the seven tails. ame sends an akatsuki pair which includes tori. somehow, the situation goes completely to shit. multiple nations are involved. the seven tails is released, killing fuu. everyone wants this weapon and they don't care if they had to kill a young girl to get it.

akatsuki's solution is that they should simply control all weapons. tori knows this will fall apart. she also knows that, even if she wrestles the raging seven-tails into a container and gets around the multiple nation's people ALSO vying to capture it for themselves, and she takes it back to konoha, this also solves nothing. and so she thinks: if no one can resist the temptation of a weapon, then i will remove the weapon.

this is the part that's a pretty big plasticity spoiler, but also a few people guessed it so i don't mind sharing. basically, the shinigami doesn't like tori because he can't have her. she's a weird, foreign thing that shouldn't be there. functionally, she can't die. she can be irreparably maimed, so she still has a healthy fear of most life-and-death situations, but she technically can't die. (she's unsure if this still applies in this universe in the earlier parts, but we'll let her figure it out eventually.)

the side-effect of this is that she has more bullshitty leeway with summoning the shinigami than other people. it can't take her soul so it will take things around her more indiscriminately, so she's not going to use it if her allies are around. but if she's fed up and doesn't care if everyone dies? fuck it, we're going to kill the tailed beast itself.

i want how this to be accomplished to be kind of metal and/or gross. you know that scene in plasticity where tori is simultaneously herself AND the shinigami and she's confused? like that but they're eating the seven-tails.

tori comes to later and the whole battlefield is dead, from the shinobi to the plants and wildlife. whatever other akatsuki was with her is either some probationary schmuck, a canon character who got separated, or hidan-but-he's-not-revived-yet (i'm leaning towards this last one). at first i was like "how does she explain she killed a tailed beast" to other people but THEN i decided

tori realizes she's done something she should not have been able to do. she's just created another weapon people will want to use. so she gets up and goes home, and she lies.

the seven tails killed everyone and ran off. yes, even the forest. even the little bugs in the trees. the soil is irradiated. i guess it was pissed off. how did i live? aren't i a barrier specialist..........?

and then of course everyone goes out looking for the tailed beast. like, you can't just have a wild bijuu running around!! but they can't find it. it's nowhere. it will never be found because it no longer exists.

probably at some point she'll tell someone, most likely itachi and/or deidara. hidan might confront her about it. but i just love the idea of her getting a major feat and then immediately denying it.

also she may or may not decide to repeat the experiment

[theprinceofliones]

Omg your headcanon for Lancelot are great! I also got a headcanon for Lancelot....😗....he likes kissing Percival on his forehead when nobody is looking...😚🤭 got some more headcanons for Lancelot or any other character?

Aww thank you hun!!! And yes! I have a ton of more headcanons for other characters! Mainly for Meliodas, Ban, Elizabeth, and Elaine hehe

One more Lancelot headcanon tho that I forgot to mention, something that's kind of au-like but, since he was stuck with the Lady of the Lake for so long, he considers her like a mother almost. She was the one who was with him the entire time he was stuck wherever he was. Of course, had Master Jericho, but Lady of the Lake, /Mother/, was by his side, in his mind, whispering words of comfort in his ear and running her hidden fingers through his hair when he needed reassuring. She was a rock he didn't know he needed. But, she's also the reason for everything he hates about himself. It's why he avoids Benwick, why he doesn't come home. He can't face his mother---his /real/ mother, how could he, when he replaced her so easily?

Very much Stockholm syndromey for sure with the whole Lady of the Lake situation. He feels like he needs her even though she was the one keeping him trapped. He needs her like he needs a limb, but at the same time, he feels like he could make do with never seeing her again because he hates her for taking away those years he could've had with his parents, his uncles, his aunties, with /Tristan/---

But, that's a story for another day...

MELIODAS HEADCANONS HEHEHEHE

Meliodas is a VERY overprotective father. It might not seem like it at first, but he's extremely careful and watchful of his son. That's his baby. The one thing he's been waiting for for nearly three thousand years, the thing that brings him and Elizabeth eternal joy and happiness, the one thing that makes all of their suffering worth it.

When Tristan is born, Meliodas is like "dude I hit the jackpot first TRY" because holy shit THAT'S ELIZABETH REBORN...AGAIN! It's why they stopped at one---they don't need to try again bECAUSE HE ALREADY WON AHAHAHA

(Ban and Meliodas are like sobbing for joy together because they BOTH won man. Sons that look just like their mothers first, TRY. A millennia in purgatory was all worth it for THEM)

He's TERRIFIED of the thought of Tristan training with real weapons when he's a toddler though. Elizabeth is all for it, saying that he'd be fine and they'd be right there if anything happened. She was always willing to let Tristan have the freedom they never did---but Meliodas was biting his knuckles bloody because what if his little boy gets HURT??? Goddess healing or not, his precious boy would still be in pain!!!

Like I said, VERRYYYY overprotective but slowly tries to learn to let go and let his son be his own, although as Tristan grows up, he mistakes his father's overprotectiveness for disappointment and doubt in his own child. But, Tristan couldn't be more wrong...

Hehe onto Elizabeth!

She is a boy mom. A boy. Mom. Not them toxic boy moms, a BOY MOM. She dresses her son up in pretty little outfits when he's a newborn through his toddler ages, almost like a cute tiny doll. He has two entire wardrobes filled with frilly dresses and adorable little fluffy blouses by the time he's four. She braids his hair, lets it grow long and longer still. Ties his silver locks into ponytails, or buns, and even puts little accessories on his head here and there. Tristan surprises her with how much he seems to love it---or maybe it's because his mother's attention is solely focused on him.

SHE IS THE QUEEN OF BRITANNIA! I'm sorry but making Meliodas King makes absolutely no sense to me...probably bc I'm a hardcore ASOIAF fan so seeing a daughter who is technically in line for throne get cast aside by a random male protagonist with no claim whatsoever makes me lose my mind lmfao. BUT SHE IS THE QUEEN! She handles diplomatic and domestic issues all throughout the kingdom meanwhile Meliodas is in charge of the military, trade routes, training Holy Knights, and other little things that the Queen doesn't need to be involved with.

She acts more like the Elizabeth we meet at the beginning of the series, a little more reserved and a little shyer but she will stand her ground and be the Queen her kingdom needs when the time calls for it.

Nakaba, I like you sometimes and all, but that god awful, horrible, eye traumatizing DRESS you put that beautiful woman in is a crime against women. I WON'T STAND FOR IT! Elizabeth wears the most REGAL ELEGANT gowns. Thinking more of victorian and medieval fashion slapped together with some Targaryen fashion sprinkled in as well. She WILL be dressed beautifully with a silver band that wraps around her head with little jewels and crystals hanging from it. Meliodas has a gold band with a single gem, indicating his status as the Prince-Consort to the Queen, and then Tristan has a silver band like his mother with sapphires and pearls, indicating HIS status as the Crown Prince of Britannia and biological relation to the Queen of Britannia.

Oh, final thing. BAN, MELIODAS, ELIZABETH, AND ELAINE HAVE ALL HAD A FOURSOME AT LEAST ONCE I DON'T MAKE THE RULES I'M MERELY A PAWN IN NAKABA'S GAME

okay okay I'm so sorry I went on a tangent BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOYED! I love answering asks so keep them coming! Feel free to ask about Half Light as well! I'd love to chat about it!

[cosmokyrin]

im sorry for really going off the rails but lemme give you even more theories for tonight

people seemed to notice that Little and/or Alyx reminds them of Penny somehow, but here, lemme offer you:

If the Penny split soul theory is somehow in the right direction then maybe the ones that are suspected to hold Penny's soul pieces have some interesting representations too

Floating Array - her as a warrior

Winter - her as a maiden

Little - Penny's innocence and personality

Ruby - Penny's feelings and thoughts

Also I just said pieces and like Penny's kinda been related to that very word in some way, given how Floating Array technically splits into pieces (at least the V1 version).

As for Little, they have been responding to the things that were quite important to Penny’s arcs, for example:

The lack of purpose - behind the Maiden and the warrior, and once she got out of the Atlas military, what is Penny’s purpose? You could say she was even “reborn” in her body (having escaped death), but when you look at Little, what is Little? They’re young and still finding their identity. Just like Penny.

The concept of hope - detail on Chapter 2, Little being the one to steal the jade marionette (which was actually Penny’s weapon), and also the one, together with said item, was framed in the “jar of hope”.

Hugs - and even earlier before the Floating Array scene, Little responded very specifically to this Jinxy hugs scene with “Hugs are very valuable!” and proceeds to hug Ruby’s hair which you might as well think as a good follow-up to Penny discovering how warm hugs can make you feel.

ok idk if im done for tonight but this is all my brain for now LDFJSDFJDS

[trickstarbrave]

squeeee dragon! dragon! cute baby dragon! its so cute, you did such a great job drawing him!

more deets on obsidian please? also!! ansa's interactions w him!

I love Obsidian so much ofc I’ll talk abt him 😭

>she found the egg after a puzzle that required blood, and he was in a furnace. Seems like the cult was trying and failing to hatch him. His egg was smooth and shiny as obsidian, hence his name. Ansa just carried it at first thinking it might be important but quickly learned she couldn’t get rid of it and kept staring at it, turning it over, and gently talking to it. The guild, understandably, thought she was crazy bc they all thought it was just a stupid rock

>egg turns super hot when hatching except to its parents so when brynolf tried to grab it it burned his hand. He still has a slight scar from it that obsidian seems apologetic abt even tho none of them were sure how he could know or how sentient he is

>he’s a little menace as a baby. If Ansa isn’t holding him he will begin crying and wailing like he’s being killed and rip up anything he can reach so. No super important stealthy missions for Ansa for a while

>he has black scales and red horns and eyes!

>loves to ride on her shoulder or in her traveling bag

>when the Helgen attack happens he’s very excited to see his dad and refused to GET BACK IN THE FUCKING BAG

>his first shout is ‘fus’ after Ansa learns it, followed by ‘yol’

>was bottle fed at first b4 moving on to basically eating anything. He loves salmon and apples the most but loves trying to catch dragonflies more

>the second Delphine sees him she knows he’s a dragon and wants to kill him so I imagine she’ll be a problem later on

>begins speaking common like a toddler around the 2 year mark which will. Deffo freak Ansa out as her baby learns full sentences

>obsidian insists on sleeping on Ansa. Even if she tosses and turns he Will find a way

>likes being held like a human baby bc his mom looks human so obv he should be held like humans hold their babies

>Delvin keeps feeding him scraps even tho Ansa told him not to.

>tries to dig up dragon burial mounds if Alduin hasn’t gotten to them yet

>technically has a supernatural sense of where both of his parents are but he’s a crybaby and if his mom is not with him 24/7 he IS going to throw a tantrum. So he could basically function as an alduin detector

>he can’t swim yet :( he wants to swim with his feral mom who catches fishies for him bare handed in her underwear like the freak she is

>actually rly likes foxes and wants to play w them. They don’t feel the same way tho. This I just think is funny bc shor and foxes. Yknow

>loves gold. He wants to learn to pickpocket like his mom, but he doesn’t have hands so it is pretty difficult. He WILL steal stuff from markets tho. Mama is in the thieves guild ofc he thinks stealing is okay

>loves giving kisses. He’s a very sweet boy

>one time ate a bee and his cheek swelled up. Odahviing who is traveling w them found this hilarious. Ansa nearly strangled him for laughing at her baby. He did not eat bees after that but quickly formed plans on how to weaponize hives in combat if he ever needed to

>this is a spoiler but comes up quickly and is hinted at a lot: Ansa is the reincarnation of obsidian’s birth mom and Alduin’s mate. Alduin is stupid in denial abt this, bc ew mortal, even tho he knows a dragon egg can’t hatch unless one of its parents is incubating it and taking care of it

>related to this and also still a spoiler: obsidian’s uncle is Odahviing!! Alduin’s mate and Odahviing were clutch mates (after getting older most dragons normally just consider Akatosh their father and choose to ignore true sibling bonds above all else) and he finds Ansa pretty quickly and goes in human disguise to travel with her. Bc it’s funny and feels bad to leave his reborn sister with a baby alone if Alduin is gonna throw a tantrum and be stubborn abt it. I’m looking forward to these parts

[empressofthesunwriter]

The Queens Gambit: The Story

The most powerful piece in chess is the queen.

When this piece joins the game of Duel Monsters anything will change.

With two dragon sisters, a magician and her descendant, the queen will take her rightful place.

As it should have been.

8th Millenniums Items

Reborn!Kisara

Reborn!Mana

Queen!OC

QueenReborn!Oc

RedEyesBlackDragon!OC

Pairings:

Atem/Yami YuugiXOC

Yuugi MutoXOC

Seto KaibaXReborn!Kisara

Anzu MazakiXReborn!Mana

Here we are now people, in chapter 3 with the first duel :D I admitI took Yami and Pegasus duel as a base and my dear friend Light guardine35 helped me to write it. So if you haven’t read any of her stuff do it now what are you waiting for?! Enjoy the chapter and tell me if the duel was okay if you could follow along, all right?

Chapter 3: Card Games through a TV

Redone: 29/08/24

I mixed a bit of Japanese dub with English dub, I hope it's okay ^^

The next few weeks in Sehrazat's life were… interesting to say at least.

She and her whole family and friends got Afya, the spirit of the Millennium Fragment and her supposed ancestor, to know.

Afya was 100% a queen, no doubt. Her presence, how she moved, how she talked, the way she could command a whole room…it screamed it.

And her soul room was a giant ass ancient Egyptian palace.

Sehrazat had now for a few times visit it and the place seemed to have no ends. What really surprised her, were the Duel Monsters carved on a few doors that wouldn’t open. Not even Afya knew how to open them or what was behind them.

Anyhow, the most important place was the little arena the palace had. There were a lot of weapons, mostly swords, and shields and Afya made it her quest to teach Sehrazat to wield a sword.

No kidding!

So Sehrazat got her ass mentally kicked once per day and her respect for Afya grow.

The woman was a merciless teacher, but how she kicked butt was art!

So elegant and deadly!

It doesn’t mean that the blue-haired girl didn’t want to make her ancestor a bit suffer. She could literally feel all the wounds Afya had inflicted on her, even if they didn’t show on her body.

So she did what she could do best.

Challenging Afya to a children’s card game.

Also known as Duel Monster.

Before her father died he had taught her anything about the game. She didn’t want to praise herself, but she was a damn good duellist. She had won the last Europa Championships and if she hadn’t moved to Japan she could have participated in the World Cup.

Sadly you had to still live in Europa to be the champion, so her title had gone to the creepy Paulo Ramirez, the third place in the classify since Kihana played Duel Monster too and was second place.

Anger couldn’t even describe how Sehrazat felt about that.

Stupid technicality.

To get back where we started, Sehrazat was a damn good duellist and would beat Afya’s ass in Duel Monster.

That evaporated in a few minutes in their game since Afya picked it up fast and completely destroyed her.

Afya was even better than her in Duel Monsters!

How the heck the ancient queen managed this was beyond Sehrazat.

After that brutal loss, she had gone to her Mama to get comfort. It was so unfair!

It didn’t end there, Afya wiped the floor with Kihana too and Maja gave up after a few turns.

Afya was not only a formidable swordswoman but also an incredible duellist. Even if she repeated she preferred her sword over cards.

All in all, it was an experience that was not forgotten and Sehrazat asked herself if she and Afya teamed up if they could have beaten Seto Kaiba, the former World Champion.

Yes, the former.

A boy named Yugi Muto kicked the rich kid and three of his Blue Eyes White Dragons behind with Exodia.

If Sehrazat ever met this Yugi he would get a big Kudos from her.

That was impressive.

Today in the Faizan and Schariq household Maja was to guest since they all wanted to watch together how the Japanse Championship ended.

After a nice supper, all were in the living room together.

Sehrazat was snuggled up against her Mama, with Maja leaning on her. Sadiye was sitting on Aunty Rahila’s lap and Kihana had taken one of the armchairs for herself. Afya, as spirit, was also out of her Millennium Item and sat down on the other armchair.

Various snacks and beverages were laid out on the couch table and everyone, besides Afya of course, took some snacks and drinks.

Then it was time for the final duel.

The Announcer was full of energy as he said: ”To the millions of Duel Monsters fans, it's time for the tournament finals! Among the 200 duelists who won their regionals, who will stand at the top? Here come the competitors! Representing East Japan, 14-year-old Insector Haga! Representing West Japan, 15-year-old Dinosaur Ryuzaki! ”

“Are these the guys’ real names?”, asked Maja and bit into her chocolate bar.

Kihana finished drinking her coke answering her: “No, I’m pretty sure that’s are invented names. Who would name his kid Insector or Dinosaur?”

“Someone with bad taste.”, said Amira, which made everyone laugh.

The all-female group watched how Insector Haga destroyed Dinosaur Ryuzaki with his tiny insects.

Sadiye pouted like no tomorrow as she had to give Maja her Yens since she bet that the Dinosaur Dude would win. Her mother and sister hugged and kissed her, so she felt a bit better.

But she wouldn’t bet again against Maja.

 “Presenting the award is Industrial Illusions CEO and the genius creator of Duel Monsters...”, told the announcer. “Mr. Pegasus J. Crawford!”

Pegasus, holding a trophy, was raised by a platform into the middle of the duelling arena.

“The creator personally, what an honour for the young boy.”, said Rahila, stroking Sadiye’s black hair.

“That guy has some serious fabulous hair. What shampoo does he use?”, wonders Maja.

Sehrazat wants to answer her, yet she feels something in her mind. Or more she feels the connection she shares with Afya. Her Yami stares at Pegasus with a frown.

“What’s wrong, Afya?”

“I don’t like this man…something is strange about him. How he gives himself, his posture…it rubs me the wrong way.”

Meanwhile, Pegasus walks over to Insector Haga and kneels down. He gives him the trophy and congratulations, Haga is of course really happy.

That’s when Pegasus says something which turns all attention back to him: “You are granted entry into an upcoming event sponsored by my company.”

“That’s a first.”, says Amira. “Pegasus never hold an event or sponders something.”

“Oh that reminds me!”, shouts Rahila.

She puts Sadiye down from her lap and runs out of the living room.

The rest of the women and girls look all at each other confused.

A few seconds later she returns with two boxes in her hands.

“These packages were delivered today to us. One is for Sehrazat and one for you Kihana, my child.”

Still confused both take their package. Sehrazat shakes it.

“I wonder what’s in there.”

“It’s from Industrial Illusions!”, gasp Kihana surprised.

Amira crosses her arms and Afya’s frown deepens.

“Pegasus announces an event sponsored by him and you get the same-day packages from Industrial Illusions. I don’t like to say it girls, but something about this is fishy.”, says, Amira.

“You think so, Mama?”

“I agree, it is a bit of an obvious coincidence.”, admits Rahila. “But, Mira, both our daughters are top duellists, it’s not strange if Pegasus wants them in his event .”

“Can we not just open the boxes and see what’s inside them?”, whines Sadiye, who is sitting now on Maja’s lap.

“I’m curious too.”, agrees Maja with her.

Well, what else should they do? So together Sehrazat and Kihana open the boxes under the eyes of their family and friends. Both find a glove, two golden stars, and some cards.

Only Sehrazat’s one has a VHS in it. She picks it up with a frown.

“Why do I get a VHS?”

“Don’t make us watch it Sehra!”, shrieks Sadiye and hugs Maja tight. “That thing could be cursed!”

“Did you watch again bad movies, even if I didn’t permit them, Sadiye? You are still too young.”, scolds Rahila.

“Sorry, mommy!”

“We will talk about this later, young miss.”

Sehrazat looks to Afya, who has crossed her arms fixing this strange device with an uncertain look.

“Well, let’s just watch it.”, she decides for anyone. “We will know then what’s it about.”

So Sehrazat puts the VHS in the VCR.

The woman and girls huddle all close together till the static shows Pegasus on the TV screen.

“Greetings, my dear Sehrazat girl. I am Pegasus J. Crawford.”

“Hello?”, greets Sehrazat and waves awkwardly.

“Did you really say hello to a pre-recorded video?”, whispers-shouts Kihana in disbelief.

The blue-haired girl just shrugs her shoulders.

“It’s quite a shame that just because you moved to Japan you aren’t the Europa Champion anymore. You and Miss Schariq are formidable duellists, but you Sehrazat are even more a special case.”, tells her Pegasus. Afya stands now beside her with crossed arms, fixing the screen with a sharp look. “In fact, I've decided to investigate your amazing duelling skills personally. Right here, right now, we shall hold a special duel. We will play with a strict time limit of fifteen minutes and when time's up, the player with the highest life-points will be the winner. Are you ready?”

“This guy nuts, he is on a videotape.”, points Maja out.

“How is this going to work?”, wonders Sadiye.

Suddenly Pegasus laughs really evil. Something behind his hair glows in gold.

“With magic!”

The woman and girls let out a shocked sound. Her mother, Aunty Rahila, Kihana, Sadiye and Maja turn black and fade into the background.

Only she and Afya are still standing.

“Gran-Gran are you feeling this?”, she asks her Yami. “Everything's growing dark and cold and the others aren't moving.”

“Yes, I do. This is some kind of magic I bet with you!”

“Pegasus what have you done to my family!”, Sehrazat demands to know.

“Don’t worry, they are fine, you should worry more where we are now, little Sehrazat!”, tells her Pegasus.

“He is right. This place…this isn’t our normal world.”, informs her Afya.

“Do you want to take over, Gran-Gran?”

Afya just nods.

The symbol of the Millennium Items appears on Sehrazat’s forehead and her Millennium Fragments start to glow. With closed eyes the switch takes place and where once Sehrazat was in control of the body it is now Afya.

The spirit opens her eyes and smirks at Pegasus.

“All right, let’s duel and then you unfreeze my family and friends!”, declared Afya in her more mature and womanly voice.

Pegasus nods.

“Certainly. Let's begin. But you should know one thing, someone like me you never faced in a duel.”

The VCR timer is set to 0: 15.00 and both duellists get their cards ready.

“You will pay for what you did to my family!”, growls Afya and draws the Alexandrite Dragon.

Again something behind Pegasus’s hair glows

“You won't save anyone with that dragon card.”, he tells her nonchalantly.

“How did you?!”

“I told you, you've never faced anyone like me before.”, he reminds her. ”I know every move you'll make. Before you can even make it.”

Afya just growls angrily at him.

“Knowing every move you'll make gives me a distinct advantage, wouldn't you say? For example, I can anticipate your next play and counter it with this Dragon Capture Jar.”

“Hah?”

“It will draw the Alexandrite Dragon from your card and imprison the beast. Trapped. Never to be played against me.”

How can he see my cards and make my monsters real?!, thinks Afya desperate.  There is only one explanation!

“You have a Millennium Item too, don't you?!”, shouts Afya accusing.

“Right you are Sehrazat girl or should I call you queen?”, he smirks at her gasp. “Since you inhabited the body of your descendant.”

“How do you know this?”, wants Afya to know.

“My Item showed me a lot of things, including the little secret of the Faizan family. Now back to our game, my Dragon Piper has his flute of resurrection frees your Alexandrite Dragon, but puts him under my control.”

I have to defeat myself!

“I play Amazon of the Seas!”

The mermaid-like monster appears before her and the Alexandrite Dragon.

Alexandrite Dragon: ATK2000/DEF2100

Amazon of the Seas: ATK1300/DEF1400

The Alexandrite Dragon attacks the Amazon of the Sea.

I can feel the heat of the attack!

Afya’s life points are reduced from 2000 to 1300.

“A bit too hot for you my dear queen?”, asked Pegasus amused. ”I imagine it must be a long time since you played a Shadow Game, you seem a bit rusty.”

“Don't be so sure Pegasus, I will beat you!”, promises Afya and draws a new card.

Pegasus lifts his hair aside to show his Millennium Eye which glints with the image of a woman in a golden dress with six white angel wings. Afya’s eye also glints with the same image.

I have to turn this duel around, maybe with my Wingweaver?

Suddenly Pegasus laughs out loud and the once queen of all of Egypt gets insecure.

Wait a minute, he definitely knows what I'm about to do. I bet it's his Millennium Item that gives him this power. He must see the cards I draw with it, but what if I don't know what I play?

“Hurry up now, Queenie. Time is running out for you and your family. I already know what you will play and have a surprise for your little fairy type.”

Afya looks at him with cold orange eyes and takes blindly a card from her deck.

“Don’t be so sure of yourself, Pegasus! I figured out how your power works. You may be able to see the cards in my hand, but you can't see the cards I pull from the deck.”

Pegasus narrows his eyes at her.

“My next card is... the Dark Magician Girl!”

The Dark Magician Girl appears with a twirl and a cute smile. She hovers protectively before Afya.

“Your little cute Magician and Alexandrite Dragon how the same attack points.”, points Pegasus smirking out.

Dark Magician Girl: ATK2000/DEF1700

Alexandrite Dragon: ATK2000/DEF100

“What do you plan on doing my dear queen?”

“I will use this handy spell card.”, now Afya is smirking and shows him the card. “I play the magic card, Magic Formula which will give my Dark Magician Girl 700 more Attack Points!”

 “Well, if you think this will help you. Then go on.”, say’s Pegasus nonchalant.

“It will do more than that!”

Dark Magician Girl: ATK2700/DEF1700

Alexandrite Dragon: ATK2000/DEF100

“And now my Dark Magician Girl destroy the Alexandrite Dragon!”, shouts Afya, as her monster twirls her staff and sends the dragon to the Graveyard.

Pegasus Life Points drop from 2000 to 1300, yet he seems very calm. Afya narrows her eyes at him.

“I have taken a good chunk of your Life Points how can you be so calm?”, she questions him.

The man just draws his next card.

“Oh my dear queenie, you are so old, yet so naive. But by using your Dark Magician Girl, you've let me manipulate you once again.”

“You are lying!”, accuses Afya, while Dark Magician Girl hovers closer to her with a worried look on her face.

“By playing that one card, you have ensured my victory.”

“You are out of your mind!”

“We shall see, Queenie. Oh, a very rare card. This is the fearsome Faceless Mage.”

“I've never seen that card before.”, admits Afya. “But my Dark Magician Girl never let me down.”

Dark Magician Girl: ATK2700/DEF1700

Faceless Mage: ATK1200/DEF2200

“But how will she fare once I combine my Faceless Mage with the, equally rare, Eye of Illusion?”, wonders sarcastically Pegasus.

“Dark Magician Girl get ready, use your powers to defeat it! Dark Burning Attack!”, commands Afya.

Dark Magician Girl attacks, Faceless Mage holds up the Eye of Illusion and her attack has no effect.

Both the duellist and Duel Monster are shocked.

“How can this be?!”, shouts Afya.

Pegasus does not give an answer, just laughs at her desperation.

It didn’t make any sense. Pegasus Monster should be toast! The ancient queen looked worried at the timer. 0: 05.00. She didn’t have much time left! She needed to end this Duel.

“I attack your combo with my Amazoness Paladin!”

The female warrior appears on the playing field swinging her sword.

Amazoness Paladin: ATK1700/DEF300

Faceless Mage: ATK1200/DEF2200

“My fearsome Amazon will cut your Faceless Mage down!”, promises Afya.

“True, your Amazon is fearsome. But you have once again underestimated the incredible power of my Eye of Illusion! Hah hah!”, laughs Pegasus in her face. “Dark Burning Attack!”

Amazoness Paladin shatters, and Afya's life points are reduced from 1300 to 300.

“How can this be?! The Faceless Mage doesn't have a Dark Burning Attack?”

It’s like lighting struck her as the once queen of Egypt realized what this meant.

It was my own Dark Magician Girl that attacked me. Pegasus is controlling her with the Eye of Illusion.

“Well, queenie, our time together is nearly up, and as I have more life points than you, it appears I am the victor.”, informs her Pegasus giddy.

Fractionally Afya looks for a way out and draws a card, but before she can summon it, the timer hits zero!

“No, please no!”, she screams. “I was this close to ending it!”

“It seems luck was not on your side queenie, but you were a formidable opponent.”, mocks her Pegasus.

“What do you want? Why are you doing all of this?!”, demands Afya too.

“It’s quite simple. As you already guessed right I possess one Millennium Item, the Millennium Eye. My goal is to have all eight, then who shall have all eight of them shall have a power beyond imagination!”, tells her Pegasus passionately. “But I have to win it from you, or his power will not be mine.”

Shocked the blue-haired woman grips her amulet.

“I will never hand you over my Millennium Fragment! I’m done playing games with you!”

“Oh, you will. You see, I have found that given the proper incentive, anyone can be made to play my game.”

The Millennium Eye glows and pulls Sehrazat’s mother’s soul into the television screen.

“Amira?!”, shouts Afya in disbelief.

Amira appears on the TV screen, crying for help: “Sehrazat!”

Afya gets formally kicked out of the body and Sehrazat is again in control. Crying she puts her hands on the TV.

“Mama, MAMA!”

“Yes, we will duel again, Sehrazat. How else will you reclaim your mother’s soul?”, asks Pegasus a rhetorical question, till the TV turns into static.

The world returns to color and Sehrazat’s Family and friends are now able to move. Amira's eyes are blank and she falls over.

“MAMA! MAAAAAAMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Her screams of pain and anguish can be heard even outside of their home.

Next

[xaracosmia]

ꕥ — WELCOME TO NEFE COSMIA, PRINCESS CELESTIA. 🌓

ꕥ  — OOC INFORMATION;

name / alias: Soul age: 23 pronouns: Ze/Zir ooc contact: @sinofodio (twt) other characters in xc: Trafalgar Law

ꕥ  — IC INFORMATION;

name: Princess Celestia age: +1000 pronouns: She/Her series: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic canon point: Post-Canon app triggers: Minor mention of animal death

personality: There's a very firm divide between the two sides of Princess Celestia. One is the side that usually is shown to the public, mostly out of necessity: a strong, careful ruler with a level head and guidance for everyone around her. She's a figurehead first and foremost, a mentor second, and a pony with a life third. She has a keen eye for the people around her, able to read character and see potential in anyone she meets. Pain comes easy and it comes and goes; responsibility and sanity always comes first over the needs of one. The other side is the real Celestia: a fun-loving, impulsive, excitement-craving daredevil who constantly craves new experiences. She hates the boring and predictable crowds, eager to cause havoc behind the backs of others if it means she can make things more interesting.

something your muse struggles with: Celestia's ultimately still a little alien to regular conventions and how to live a normal life. Being an immortal god-queen creates schisms between one's self and the common folk, and it's all unfamiliar territory for the most part. your muse’s greatest strength: Celestia can see a little bit of something in anyone, be it the youngest children or the most hostile of adversaries. She wants to encourage love and harmony, though she knows when to put her hoof down and step in.

history / background: Princess Celestia has been around for so long that not a lot of people can really remember the mythology of her origins; born in a far away kingdom of Skyros (maybe?) she and her sister, Luna, were trained under a great unicorn mage (who knows) to be the rulers of ponykind, their kingdom formed upon overthrowing the tyrant Discord. Celestia would raise the sun in the morning, and Luna the moon at night. For a while, things were happy. With Luna being the representative of the night, Celestia was the sister who got to bask in the happiness and worship and love of her followers, unfortunately scorning her sister in the process. Luna's feelings of being overshadowed would manifest into Nightmare Moon, a darker alter ego who threatened to cover Equestria in eternal night. With no other choice, Celestia would seal her sister away in the moon with the Elements of Harmony, now ruling Equestria alone for the next thousand years. A lot would happen after those thousands of years were up, to say the least, starting with a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, and Celestia receiving an urgent letter... powers / abilities:

Advanced Magic: Celestia is, at her core, the representative of the sun of her world. Thanks to the teachings of Starswirl, she possesses magic capable of affecting the cosmos and the world around her to a level unachievable by most other alicorns.

inherent abilities: Celestia is an alicorn, giving her the power of flight and untold amounts of magic prowess far beyond regular unicorns.   items / weapons:

Philomena: A phoenix that Celestia has had for untold moons. Every once in a while, she gets very sick, immolates, and is reborn anew.

starting ability: N/A starting item: Philomena extra:

hhh horses hhh

the mlp comics are technically part of her canon but i havent gone through all them yet...

discord id: soleil_regina

[keanbeanproduction]

Isekai Story Idea!!!

It’s technically an Isekai but takes place after the story of the “heroes” defeating the big bad.But they aren’t good people especially the kingdoms using them to completely enslave monster folk and other kingdoms and this includes others who happened to be transported to the world.

So a young rookie priestess and her order try to stop it. But all but her are killed and before they were killed they taught her how to use the last artifact of the big bad his book of dark ancient magic. And they had a vision of people who could stop the heroes. These were others from the same world as the heroes but they remained dead because they were transported into area’s controlled by the big bads magic so stayed dead.

The young priestess now being hunted by the heroes mercenaries finds one of the crypt dungeons of one of the people she’s after. Using the ancient magic brings them to undeath since resurrection magic wouldn’t work and made them into an undead equal to a powerful necromancer spell and they could keep growing in power as if they were alive like the heroes.

Now the person she brought back was a cowboy Union soldier with his special magic being gunpowder and explosives as well as being able to summon weapons from his era and use runes on bullets and guns and he protects her from the mercenaries.

He don’t like those who enslave others. Dudes body is all shadowy and Smokey able to explode parts of his body and still evolving this unique form of his since he and the others are first in this world being undead but able to grow and evolve like those reborn.

So they must find the last 3 people who were in the vision to defeat the heroes whilst becoming stronger.

[yourdeepestfathoms]

tooth and nail

ask and you shall receive ;) @denpine14 @strawberrygem21

in which the Dimitrescu daughters exhibit cat-like traits

---------

“Dear Mother Miranda,

The girls have grown well, though there are some complications. Bela seems to have some form of anxiety and very low self-esteem, Cassandra has anger issues, and Daniela, I believe, has some type of hyperactivity disorder. Despite all of this, I love all of them dearly.

However…more strangely…they have…feline-like habits. I expected the hissing and growling, but the other things… Well, I’m not too sure how this has happened, as they were born from insects, but they weirdly act like little kittens in the most absurd ways. These mannerisms include, but are not limited to…”

“…headbutting…”

“Oof--” Alcina blinked in surprise and looked down as Bela headbutted her leg. “Yes, my darling?”

Bela giggled and headbutted her again. Alcina rubbed her head, which triggered a strange sound to fill the air.

“…and purring…”

Purring. Her daughter seemed to be purring.

Alcina’s heart swelled with love. She couldn’t help the smile that came to her lips.

Later that day, Cassandra and Daniela did the headbutting thing, too, both of them bonking her in the legs while giggling adorably. When she scratched along their scalps, they purred, just like their big sister had.

--- --- ---

“…staring when they want something…”

“Yes?” Alcina asked, raising an eyebrow at the trio of girls staring at her. If it weren’t for their different hair colors, it would have been difficult to discern them from each other with their matching black gowns and hoods. She made the mental note to give something to them to help make them out better.

Her daughters continued to stare.

“Is everything alright?”

Still nothing.

“Darlings?”

Cassandra reached out, swatted at her dress, and then they all took off running in different directions, their sock-clad feet making them run in place for a few seconds before they gained traction and streaked away in blurs of black.

--- --- ---

“…and also staring at nothing at all, as though they are seeing ghosts…”

Alcina blinked. Her daughters were staring intently at the wall, their eyes wide and shiny, like they had just witnessed the secrets of the universe. She tried to see what they were looking at but could spot nothing at all.

“What in the…?”

--- --- ---

“…pushing random things off of surfaces for seemingly no reason other than the fact that they like to…”

A loud clatter echoed down the hallway, and Alcina was quick to hurry to the source of the noise: the parlor, where Daniela was perched on one of the tables inside, staring down at a fallen candelabra. Luckily, none of the wax sticks were lit, as they would have sent the red-and-gold carpet over the floor up in flames. Daniela looked up at her, her eyes awestruck and shiny.

“Did you knock that over?” Alcina asked.

Daniela stared back. Then, slowly, reached out her hand and swatted over a cup.

--- --- ---

“…causing utter destruction…”

“Hey! Hey! Hey!” Alcina snapped, shooing Cassandra away from the blinds. Her daughter leaped back, her claws ripping out of the fabric she had been sharpening her talons on. “No. Do not scratch things up, Cassandra.”

Cassandra inspected her claws. “Then what am I supposed to sharpen them on? Look at how blunt they are!” They showed them to Alcina.

They were sharp enough to gut a human in one swipe.

In amusement, Alcina said, “How about tree bark? It’s rough enough to hone them.”

Cassandra considered it, then nodded. “Alright!” She bounded away to go destroy one of the trees in the garden.

That same day, Alcina found Daniela chewing on a branch in her bedroom, creating a small pile of woodchips beneath her jaw. She seemed to be doing the same thing as her older sister: sharpening her natural weapons. Alcina left her be.

--- --- ---

“…sudden hyperactivity…”

The loud sound of footsteps suddenly burst throughout the hallways, rebounding like thunder. They would stop at random, then begin again, seemingly in a sporadic pattern. When Alcina finally stepped out of her bedroom to investigate, she barely caught a blur of black as one of her daughters, she couldn’t tell who, whizzed past her like lightning. She spun around, blinking.

“What--”

At the same moment, one of the others came from a different direction and skidded to a stop in front of her. She whirled to them and saw that it was Bela.

“What are you three doing?” Alcina asked.

“Playing,” Bela answered blithely. She stepped forward, headbutted Alcina lovingly, then zoomed off again, slipping on her socks as she went.

--- --- ---

“…getting startled at the most mundane things…”

The parlor had been peaceful at one moment; Alcina was drinking her tea, while Cassandra and Daniela played chess and Bela multitasked reading and watching the game. It was then that Bela’s thread bookmark fell out and she swiped at it to pick it up. However, when the string seemed to catch on her claws, she got frightened, leaping at least five feet up into the air. Seeing their older sister so unsettled, Cassandra and Daniela did the same, nearly jumping out of their skin and scattering the game of chess as they scampered away in terror. Alcina laughed loudly as her daughters huddled against her sides, shaking.

--- --- ---

“…bringing me dead animals as gifts…”

Alcina was cleaning up for bed when there was a knock that filled her bedroom. She walked to the door and opened it, only to see no one. When she turned around, she saw Daniela clinging to her window sill, a mass of fur caught between her teeth.

“Daniela!”

Alcina quickly opened the window, and Daniela hopped inside. She presented the thing in her mouth to her with great pride: a rat.

“For you, Mother.”

“Ah-- thank you, my dove.”

Daniela purred as her head was rubbed affectionately.

The next day, Cassandra padded up to her, her chest puffed in pride, a large snake pierced by her fangs.

“A gift, Mother.”

“Thank you, my sweet.”

And then, that evening, Bela came to her door with a bird in her mouth.

“Here, Mother.”

“Thank you, my darling.”

And then the bird jerked away when Bela set it down and flew off down the hall in terror. They both watched it go.

“It was too pretty to kill.”

Alcina chuckled. “I see.”

--- --- ---

“…laying on my things when I need them…”

Alcina stared tiredly at the stack of girls laying on the folded clothes on her bed. All that space on her giant mattress that was made specifically for her size and they chose that exact spot. On her clothes.

Well. They were much too cute to wake up.

--- --- ---

“…laying on me and keeping me from getting up…”

“Maiden,” Alcina whispered.

The maid passing by stopped and turned to her instantly.

“Get me a glass of blood. I can’t get up and I am thirsty.”

The maid eyed the form of her youngest daughter stretched out on her lap, asleep, and then nodded, whisking away.

She hadn’t moved for three hours.

--- --- ---

“…they have no concept of personal space…”

Alcina was awake that night, her girls piled on top of her to the point where they were practically smothering her, Daniela and Cassandra under arms and Bela on her chest. Every time she twitched, they would move closer, snuggling in deeper to her heat. She wouldn’t be sleeping very comfortably, but at least her daughters were warm.

--- --- ---

“…sitting in strange places…”

“Are you comfortable?” Alcina asked, laughing.

Bela looked up from where she was reading and wedged inside a basket that was meant for quilts. Despite her small, wiry frame, it technically wasn’t her size, but she managed to curl herself inside, piled by the blankets and indulging herself in a good book.

“Yes,” Bela said, smiling.

Alcina would also go on to find Cassandra napping haphazardly on the banister of the upper hallway balcony, which she picked her up from and placed her back into her bed in fear of her falling off, and Daniela hiding in one of the cupboards in the kitchen.

However, none of these things beat when she found all three of her daughters crammed in a box, murmuring and giggling to each other over something.

--- --- ---

“…did I mention the purring? Because the purring is absolutely endearing. I do believe it has healing properties…”

Alcina wasn’t quite sure what she had come down with that day, but she woke up feeling exhausted and achy all over. She didn’t even think to get up and alert her girls to her condition, choosing to rather wallow in her bed, so it wasn’t a surprise when her room was soon filled by three worried bug-spawn creatures.

“Mother?” Daniela’s small hands were set on her shoulders.

Alcina stirred.

“Mother?” That was Bela, now.

She rolled over and blinked tired eyes at the worried-looking faces of her daughters.

“Hello, my darlings,” she croaked.

“Mother,” Bela said again, her voice thick with concern. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, yes,” Alcina nodded, though her mind was wavering, shrouded in a heavy fog. “I am fine. Just a little unwell.”

“Can we help you?” Cassandra asked, her hands twitching.

“Don’t worry,” Alcina answered. “I’ll be fine.”

Her daughters exchanged looks. A moment later, they were climbing onto the bed, curling up around her.

“We’re helping,” Daniela said.

Alcina had no idea how cuddling was supposed to help her, but then she heard the soft churring that filled the air. The purring in itself did little to actually heal her sickness, but something about the soft sound and the presence of her precious daughters soothed her. Bela, with her head on her chest, filled her heart with a gentle rumbling. Daniela, curled up right next to her, chirred gingerly in her ear. Cassandra, stretched out over her stomach, resonated a soothing burr throughout her body.

She chuckled tiredly. “Thank you, my loves…”

--- --- ---

“…and, at least when they were newly reborn, absolutely hating when I go into a room without them…”

She was just taking a shower. That was all. And yet, she could hear her young, one-week-old daughters on the other side of the door, yowling and screaming and scratching their claws into the wood.

“I’m just bathing!” she snapped.

They wailed louder.

--- --- ---

“…to wrap the letter up, it is certainly a strange phenomenon to the experiment, but I am not complaining at all. They are much more entertaining and endearing this way. I wouldn’t have them any other way. I would like to thank you again, Mother Miranda, for letting me have such sweet daughters.

That will be all for now. I will follow up in another letter if anything new comes up.

-Alcina Dimitrescu”

[zealous-whispers-of-us-redux]

a different kind of song

(A/N: no one ever asked for this, but there isn't enough merman!Bucky/reader fics out there, lol. Also, her song is basically "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood)

Warning- allusions to sexual assault. Do NOT read if that bothers you!

Summary: The sea swallowed her whole, and she was reborn with saltwater on her tongue and webs between her fingers.

🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

She did not remember her life as a human. All she remembered was the war, and the hunger, and the men raiding her village. She remembered the sweat-soaked skin of a warrior snatching her up as she cried out for help. She felt the slide of his body, his blade against her throat. Then when he had finished, she remembered being thrown away into the deepest part of the sea, left to die. But she was blessed by the primordial sea god Phorcys, a child of Artemis, and was allowed to live again. Her new body was formed from misery and blood, and the reward for her suffering was eternal life with the chance to kill as many humans as she wished with no divine interference. The killing of human men, for men were the chosen victims of any siren. Women were not drawn in by their song, and if, by chance, a woman stumbled across a siren, that siren would leave her alone.

Slowly, she began to forget the trappings of humanity, the sound of her mother's voice, and the taste of human food. She aged with the world, hidden deep beneath the waves. Countless men fell prey to her beautiful song, and she learned how to kill quickly. She grew to love the taste of flesh, the sound of someone drowning. She forgot what it was like to be lonely. 

Now, she only knew starvation.

An all-encompassing hunger clawing at her belly made her whine with pain. Humans had avoided this part of the sea for a few years, and she last ate three months ago. She'd had to survive solely on fish, which, while technically food, were not filling nor even tasty. She was beginning to hate fish.

There were no boats; she checked three times in the past hour. It was dangerous for her to be so close to the surface because the air outside was toxic. There was also a very likely chance that she would be spotted by anyone who could harm her. But she was so hungry that she forgot herself. She floated just beneath the surface and sang, letting her voice ring out through the water, enticing any man into approaching. The setting sun shined down on the outcrop of rocks above her.

And there! A flash of something!

She sang louder, opening her eyes underwater. There was a man with darker hair than she had ever seen lying on a gigantic rock. He was acceptable, she guessed. She barely knew what that meant.

He had yet to notice her, dumb as he was. She could see her song was affecting him as his eyes started to close, and his hand inched unconsciously closer to the water. His finger just barely skimmed the surface before she lunged, yanking him into the sea with her. He began to fight back as she dragged him down to the sandy bottom. Thrashing against her hold, he scrabbled to gain purchase on her body, but to no avail. Her skin was as hard as stony coral and difficult to cut. She sang her trumph, mocking him as she brought him up to break the surface, only to bring him right back down.

But this man had a tail, and she did not realize it until it hit her in the face. She squawked in surprise, her song cutting off. The merman twisted out of her slackened grip. She snarled, baring her teeth as she swam at him. Sirens were stronger than mer, especially in deeper waters, so it did not take much to grab him again. They wrestled, flipping over each other. She sliced his side with one of her nails; his tail knocked the wind out of her. He pulled her lure too hard, and she made a pained sound, biting at his hand. He cried out as she ate clean through one of his webs. Blood leaked into the water, making her ravenous.

"This is the one song everyone would like to learn: the song that is irresistible," she began, "The song that forces men to leap overboard in squadrons, even though they see the beached skulls!"

The merman ceased struggling. He stared at her, his eyes growing vast and dreamy. She grinned toothily. She had only had mer meat once before. It was harder to draw in mermen than human men, so because of that, she was only able to entice a single merman. But that was years ago, and he wasn't nearly as delicious to look at as this mer.

She dropped the tone of her voice to a seductive curl. "This is the song that nobody knows because anyone who has heard it is dead, and others can't remember. Shall I tell you a secret? And if I promise to, will you come nearer? I will tell my secret to you, to you, only to you. Come closer, closer to me."

She lifted her finger, tempting him to come over so that she could take a bite. The merman swam closer until their chests were pressed together. He said something in a language that she had never heard before.

"This song is a cry for help, my dear. Help me! Only you, only you can, for you are unique!" she cried sadly.

His tail curled around hers, and she frightened at the gentle touch broken out of her song. She spat and gnashed her teeth, but still, his tail stayed where it was. He opened his mouth and said something, but she still could not understand. She went to bite his nose off, but he leaned forward and pressed his mouth to hers so plainly that she stilled. She was not sure what was happening. She was not sure what she was supposed to be doing. She floated there, letting him mash his mouth against hers. His mouth tasted bizarre.

Finally, the merman stopped. He pulled away only minutely, still looking spellbound. Strange. Her song had ended. Why did he continue to look at her like that? He reached out and lifted her chin to meet his eyes. His own were darting back and forth across her face, searching for something. He spoke more things that she didn't understand.

"Uhh-h- hello," the merman said in a language she could understand. "Hi."

"Why were you crushing your mouth onto mine?" she asked.

"What, never heard of kissin' before?"

His smile was much too pleasant. That was unacceptable. Food was never supposed to look nice. She wanted to claw the smile right off of his face.

"Kissing?"

"Yeah, touchin' lips. Usually done as a sign of love or, you know, desire."

"Desire?"

"Sweet Thetis, you're fuckin' gorgeous," said the merman, ignoring her confusion.

His hand shot out to touch her lure, but he thought better of it and withdrew.

"What does that mean?" she asked.

His smile grew bigger, how funny: "Beautiful. Pretty."

"Pretty? What's that?"

"You know, like when you find a shiny thing, an' you wanna keep it forever?"

"I do not know," she grumbled (How dare this mer make her feel unintelligent!). "I have never had shiny things."

"Never had… Hold on, my pretty one."

Mystified, she waited just as he'd asked as he ruffled through a pouch that she had not noticed before. She had never seen anything like it and wondered where she could acquire one. Of course, she never had a reason to have a bag since she had no use for possessions. Perhaps it could hold weapons! Or bones to snack on!

"Ah-ha!" the merman said, thrusting something in her direction.

She stared at the thing in his hand.

"Looks even prettier underneath your lights," he said, avoiding her eyes.

"What is it?" she replied, her hand darting out nervously to touch it.

She pulled back almost instantly, but the merman grabbed her wrist.

"It's called gold," he explained, tipping it into her hands. "The humans use it to get other shiny things. D'you like it?"

"I am not sure. I do not know what I like."

"You can keep it."

"What kind of trickery is this?"

"No tricks. As I said, you're beautiful, and beautiful things should have beautiful things."

"No tricks, certainly, but what do you want in exchange?"

For the first time tonight, he looked sheepish. She noticed that his stomach was turning pink, but for what reason, she was unsure. She wondered what he was trying to work up the nerve to say.

"Well, er, matin' season is comin' up," he began.

"Not yet."

"Right, it isn't for a few months yet, but I was taught to woo the mer, er, the creature that I choose with shiny things. It's my first matin' season, you see."

"Mhm."

"An' the wooin' part takes a while. An' then there's the courtin' stage, which takes even longer."

"If you need a mate, there are mer all around this area during this time."

"Well- heh." The merman rubbed the back of his neck. "I-I'd like it to be you."

"Why?"

"Because you're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"Ah."

"I have more shiny things if you want 'em," the mer said, reaching for his pouch.

She shrugged. "I have no use for them."

"You don't gotta have a use for 'em. Where's your home cave? I can bring 'em there."

"I do not have a home cave," she said.

"Oh, right, where is your family's cave, then?"

"I have no family."

"No family? You mean, you're out here all by yourself?"

"Yes."

"Aren't you lonely?"

"What is lonely?" she asked.

"Sad, because you have no one with ya."

"What is sad?"

"Whaddya mean, 'what is sad?' It's sad! Don't you know what that is?" the merman twisted his face up like he was in distress, though what kind she was not sure.

"I only know hunger," she told him.

His eyes lost some of their shine. "Oh, yeah, right. How long's it been since you ate properly anyway? You don't look so good."

"I have not caught a human in months."

"D'you need help huntin'?"

"Can you ensnare a human with your singing?"

"No, but I know some good spots for fish."

"I am not in the mood for fish," she said.

"You just haven't found the right kind," the merman replied, closing his left eye.

He turned tail, swimming away from her before glancing back to see if she would follow him. The hunger in her belly was making her act quite strange in that she was willing to go along with this merman. She felt, oh, what's the word, she knew this, like mer, she was curious. She decided to follow him, keeping a bit of distance between them until the merman flipped around in an impressive display of tailfins and long dark hair, and decided they would swim side by side. His hand kept brushing hers, trying to grab onto her fingers for some reason. She tugged away, unsure of what he was trying to do. She still had not yet decided if she wanted to mate with him anyway. Sirens did not mate in the same way that mer did, that much she knew. They called it breeding, and it was over in a frenzy of teeth and claws. There were no gifts of shiny things or "kisses."

"What's yer name?" the merman asked.

The question stunned her. She could not remember her name before the sea took her in, and she had no use for a name now. No one else called to her. Her name was simply another memory, another casualty to add to her list.

"I do not know," she said.

"You know what a name is, right? Like, I'm Bucky, for example."

Her fingers drifted up to her lips, searching for her name. If she remembered the shape of her mouth as she spoke it aloud, perhaps she could remember the correct sounds. She thought back as far as she could, to the feeling of water filling her lungs, to the sounds of screams, to the smell of a fire burning down her village, to her blood staining her tongue. She wanted to remember her name. She had not even realized this was something she had lost until she needed it.

Then there was a flash of memory, jagged and cutting. Her heart began to race. In her mind, she heard it. Her mother had been crying. Her mother had been screaming at the men to stop. Her mother had been shrieking to let go of her, let go of my daughter. Her mother yelling at her to be brave, hold her breath, be strong, my love, my dear. Her mother. She remembered her mother.

Her lips parted, and she whispered the name into the water. The merman, Bucky, repeated it.

"Again," she said.

He did, and oh, she felt something new, something besides hunger. A hole opened in her chest. Her lower lip wobbled, and then she was singing a new song, never before heard from a siren. It echoed around her and Bucky, reaching out to the farthest depths of the sea. It was filled with desperation, isolation, and salvation, but it was hope and home too.

"Is this what sad is?" she asked Bucky once her song was over.

"Yeah, it is," he answered, curling his tail around hers.

When he went to wrap her up in his arms, she let him, falling into his embrace.

[limitlessgojo]

Blood Bound: Red Strings of Fate (Ch 2)

Warnings: Action, Coarse Language, Fighting, Descriptions of Blood

Previous Chapter: The First Meeting

Next Chapter: What's Your Ideal Type?

Tags: Soulmates AU, Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Fem!Reader

Taglist: @lessie-oxj, @rizzo-nero, @whoreuc

Notes: If you want to be tagged for every update, please mention it in the comments below ty.

CHAPTER 2: The Rebirth

You had a hard time falling asleep that night. Your mind is trying to remember the vision, but the images remain blurry. There was a faint heat lingering from the man's body pressed against yours.

‘Could we possibly be…. It’s not impossible but….’, your mind was working 10,000 miles an hour trying to think of the possibilities. There was only one thought that came to mind and it made you blush. You pulled up the covers and snuggled against your stuffed plushies and pillows. You had to pass by the library and get permission tomorrow.

At least the weaponry was amazing. Noritoshi senpai even showed you inside and pointed you to the crossbows he often practices with. ‘He must be a capable sorcerer. The way he holds himself up with such dignity was already a dead giveaway. A natural born leader huh.’ you wondered.

You fell asleep that night dreaming about a lovely Phoenix, being reborn from ashes.

◇◇◇

Noritoshi was pacing around in his room. He had passed by the library on the way back from dinner, and grabbed several books. “The Secrets of Foreseeing the Future, Vol. 1”, “Alternate and Parallel Worlds”, “Past Lives: A Study”, and “The Life and Works of Abe no Seimei".

He paced around his dorm room, looking over the book that was bothering him the most. “The Tales and True Records of Soulmates”.

He scanned through the main parts of the book. It spoke about bonding. There apparently were 2 types of bonding, emotional and physical.

When 2 halves of a whole reach a certain degree of understanding of each other, they establish what's called a half-bond or a phantom bond.

This begins to link their emotions. Intense anger, fear, joy, disgust, sorrow, and love can be felt from the very first stage. As their bond strengthens, they begin to share more emotions, as well as short strong intentions.

Intentions are used to depict a state of being. If they have a goal or a state of feeling over a particular matter, their partner can pick up on it.

The near final stage of a full bond is when they start to share physical sensations. When one gets injured, it will resound with the other.

The strongest bond is known to share special abilities and thoughts via telepathy between a fated pair.

Noritoshi's mind was definitely in overdrive. There was SO MUCH information on soulmates. But the one thing that wasn't explicitly stated was how a soulmate pair found each other.

How do soulmates confirm that they are indeed soulmates? Most of the information was based on soulmates who simply claimed to be. Then what about how they came to be?

So now he knows that soulmates are supposedly able to share emotions and feelings to a certain degree. But there was a lack of information in the book. What about visions? The vision he shared with y/n was one of a kind.

It kept discussing how the known most popular existence were the parents of Sugawara no Michizane. One of the three great vengeful spirits that is the ancestor of the Gojo clan.

He made up his mind. Taking out his phone, he dialed up his father.

Beep. “Noritoshi? It’s so late, why are you calling at this time? It best be an urgent matter.” his father gruffly answered.

“I am sorry to disturb you father. It’s just, there is a new student here in school. A First year called Tsuchimikado y/n from the Tsuchimikado clan.”

“Ahhh, them huh? Powerful group even though there are only a few of them. They don’t really talk about their techniques that much. They are descendants of Abe no Seimei and yet they kept to themselves as a minor clan of jujutsushi… So what about her?”

“She might possibly be my soulmate, but I am still confirming. Do you have any books or records on soulmates at all?”

At this, his father sat up straight in his study. “Are you serious? And what can you say to prove such claims? Do you know how rare a soulmate bond is?”

"I am aware. And I know we may not be soulmates. But I have some suspicions. If you have any info about soulmates, The Abe clan, or the Tsuchimikado clans, I would appreciate it." Noritoshi replied.

"Okay. I'll have a look and get back to you. Feel free to come by the main house this weekend. Look over the main study. There are also some records on Soulmates there."

"Thank you father. Have a good evening."

Beep.

Noritoshi sighed. He undid his hair bindings and combed out his hair. And opened the book again. He read through the table of contents in case he missed out on any major pointers.

He couldn't read the book in one sitting, because he is still reviewing for the TOEIC and improving his English.

He yawned and was about to retire to bed, remembering his promise to bring you around tomorrow, when one particular word jumped at him.

The binding process of soulmates. He quickly flipped through to the page and found out with horror that some of the pages had been torn out.

It wasn't him who did it. (Obviously). But now he has to go and tell Utahime sensei about it.

He took a closer look at the remaining few pages.

"The Binding of Soulmates. It is known to vary per pair. Some pairs found themselves to be born with a matching symbol in the inside of their arms or on their necks from birth. While others form it upon passing the first stage of -" and the page ends with a violent diagonal tear from the upper right corner to the lower left.

That's pretty much all that he can take away from the book so far. Frustrated, he decided to go to sleep. Nothing about sharing visions was mentioned so far. Maybe they weren't a fated pair after all.

But deep in his gut, Noritoshi knew that you were an important person to him. That was for sure. As he fell asleep, he shared the same dream with you. A lone Phoenix, being reborn from its ashes.

◇◇◇

The following morning, you didn't know where to meet up with Noritoshi senpai so you simply went to the same place he left you last night. On your way there, you passed by a tall robot kind of thing which spooked you. You stared at it, wondering if it was a kind of automation that serves the technical school.

To your surprise, it turned towards you and bowed while greeting, "Hello. I'm a 1st year student here at Kyoto Jujutsu Technical College. You can call me Mechamaru. Kokichi Muta is my real name, but I use robots to fight."

Your eyes widened in surprise and curiosity. "My name is Tsuchimikado Y/n, also starting here as a first year student. Pleased to meet you!" You bowed back.

“So… is your body inside that robot?” you asked him.

“No, as a result of heavenly restriction, which if you haven’t heard of yet is a means of exchange/ a binding contract, my body is elsewhere. I am controlling this robot from afar.”

Your eyes bugged, “That’s incredible! To have that much cursed energy, plus it is over such a long distance.” You were jealous as long-ranged techniques are something you try to work hard and specialise on.

“It’s not that fun being physically stuck in a basement.” Mechamaru didn’t sound too amused.

“Ah, I’m sorry about that… “ you floundered as you mentally hit yourself for being so inconsiderate.

“No need to apologize. I am used to it.” He waved it off coolly.

"You're the first other 1st year I've met Mechamaru. I wonder when the others will come. I've heard of 2 others." You wondered.

"I've already met one of them. Miwa is her name. You won't miss her with her bright blue hair." He replied. His voice was so stiff and robotic, a strange feature.

"Ohhhh I see. I'll keep that in mind!" You smiled. "I'm afraid I have somewhere to be right now, but I'll catch you around for sure! Please take care of me."

"Don't let me keep you waiting. Please also take care of me and see you around." Mechamaru waved as you ran off.

More students to meet huh. Your heart pounded in nervousness and excitement. So it was Miwa and Mechamaru so far. ‘Ugh, I’m so bad with names. I’ll surely get used to it.’ you thought to yourself.

You rounded the corner and nearly plowed through Noritoshi senpai in your haste. “Whoa there, careful,” he held his hands out in case you slipped, but you were fine. You caught yourself just before you hit his personal space.

You were surprised to see him already there, in the same clothes he was in yesterday (was that his uniform? You had yet to get yours, which had custom arrangements).

"Good morning Noritoshi-senpai!" you beamed up at him. He looked down at you amusedly, liking your bright energy. “Good morning y/n.”

Your smile grew wider upon hearing your name fall from his lips for the very first time. For a moment the both of you just stood there smiling. Then Noritoshi beckoned you to his side as you walked around the campus.

"Did you sleep well last night?" He asked.

"Ah yes, though it might take some time getting used to the dorm rooms here. But everything is pretty much convenient. Especially the kitchenettes in our rooms." You were still excited about starting classes.

“Did you have your uniform tailored to your liking?” You asked him.

“Ah yes, I requested a looser fit. I am used to wearing a kimono and wooden sandals at home. I simply requested for them to be made in a similar fashion for comfort. And it gives me enough space to hide all of my weapons.” He smiled gently down at you.

“Ahhh I see. I have also put in a request for my uniform, but I don’t have it yet.” you said.

“Well, it shouldn’t be too long now, classes start in 2 days after all.”

He brought you around the main gardens. “It’s so big,” you gaped, excited to train here. There was so much open space, it would be good for flying practice. “The other buildings are offices for the staff, and warehouses for special tools and materials.” He explained.

Then Noritoshi led you to a corridor with tons of doors. “These are the 3rd year classrooms. First and second year classrooms are upstairs. We can have a look if you’d like?” He asked.

You agreed. And on your way to the staircase, you came face to face with a man going down the stairs. He was incredibly tall and ripped. With his hair tied up, a scar racing down on his left eye, he grunted at Noritoshi in greeting.

He came down and faced you both, before addressing Noritoshi. “You ready for class? Is this a new student?”

“Of course I am. And she is a first year. Tsuchimikado Y/n.” Noritoshi introduced you and you quickly bowed in greeting. “You can call me Tsuchi san or just Tsuchi as I know my last name is long. It is very nice to meet you!”

Noritoshi noted that you didn’t offer to be addressed by your first name this time and felt weirdly happy.

“Todo Aoi, 2nd year. So… what man or woman is your ideal type?” He asked as he loomed over you menacingly. You barely came up to this man's chest.

….. What in the world are you getting into?

Fun fact: The Tsuchimikado Clan are indeed a real clan descended from the Abe Clan and Abe no Seimei the Onmyouji himself. I chose Abe no Seimei as a parallel to the three great vengeful spirits from whom the big 3 Jujutsu families are descendants of. As Abe no Seimei was also a major figure during the Heian period. But of course my story is a work of fiction so other than the onmyouji himself, everyone else is not real^^.

Blood Bound: Table of Contents

[eriisaam]

Old scrapped concept of Ephrel, the dokkalfarian summoner.

Ephrel might have some tweaks done to their hair shape eventually, but otherwise, they were mostly as I hoped they'd be, especially given the context. In general, I wanted to strike more of a balance between how closely they resembled one of the possibly-generated Robinsonas in Awakening, but also have somewhat of a strong resemblance to Robin and Sparrow respectively, further going with the idea of what drew Chrom to the two (their similar looks). Otherwise, I was definitely planning on redesigning their clothes completely, where this was originally one of many ideas on open-back clothes with neutral tones to them that I'm still not entirely satisfied of.

I also did eventually want to draw their fully realized state as Spectabilis at some point too.

Character details under the cut.

---

Having been a summoner prior to Chrom and Sparrow, Ephrel was eventually succeeded (unknowingly) by Chrom, who later then became more officially succeeded by Sparrow as summoner. Having came from a world heavily tied with the Digital World, Ephrel would've originally been teleported to Zenith through Breidablik's power as their chosen. But right before they could be taken, Eitri among other forces from the Digital World all tried to intercept Breidablik at the same time, only to all simultaneously fail to retrieve the weapon, but in the process, heavily impacted Ephrel into an unstable, in-between state of existence. A part of them became a robinsona-esque being dumped into a World of Awakening, where they completely replaced Robin's role and went on to befriend and assist Chrom as their tactician. In this state, Chrom heavily bonded to, and fell in love with this version of Ephrel, whom they initially identified as 'Robin' as a name Chrom gave them in their memory-scrambled state, but would later reveal to him in private their actual name as 'Ephrel' when they had enough time to process and remember. In a desperate attempt to try to go after Ephrel in this state when their physical body became lost and distorted in their home world, and Breidablik itself displaced with them, it completely threw this World of Awakening off the rails of the original destiny laid out for Chrom, ultimately leading to Ephrel gaining forewarning of their fate to betray and kill Chrom, only for Ephrel to die to protect him instead, all while the fate of all Chrom knew were killed in ways neither could prevent, leaving Chrom as the sole survivor of his world.

Their death as a robinsona had the adverse effect of heavily corrupting what remained as a digital "echo" of their state as a robinsona (often dubbed "Mirage Robin" or "Digi-Grima"), which led to a rogue ghost of this robinsona-Ephrel wandering lost, confused, and in an unstable state of constantly seeking Chrom, but not having the "programming" to retain full self-awareness of themself or their surroundings (there's a few times they even technically found Chrom, but were so broken they couldn't realize and process it). Their fragile mental state when forcefully mashing the pieces of both Ephrel's actual persona, yet Robin's scripted fate as Grima's vessel, led to a very unstable "Grima" whose obsession heavily betrays the actual Grima, only wishing to seek Chrom and regain his love and approval again. At the same time, the actual Ephrel was restabilized, and Breidablik resurfaced once more, but in lingering mental corruption from their split displacement, Ephrel, in a psychotic break, completely disregarded their role as summoner or an ally of Zenith in favor of returning home in a near daze, only wishing to seek Chrom out at both lingering remains of the damaged state of digi-Grima as well as their confused, mental exhaustion from the sudden split. In their attempt to try and fail to get back to Chrom, the end result let to catastrophic damage in bursting Breidablik's power, sending the weapon to Chrom and displacing him into Zenith, but ultimately killing Ephrel's actual self in the process, along with one of their digimon partners, Leona (a Grappu Leomon, eventually reborn as Hina, who eventually was fully realized as Leopardmon. She came full circle.). Before Hel could get to them, Freyja, having witnessed Ephrel from the start of their intense wish to reunite with Chrom, stole them instead to force-feed them her nectar just before Ephrel's soul would've given in, causing them instead to be reborn as the dokkalfar Spectabilis and join her for a time as their right hand. Though they were eventually drawn by Robin's deep-seated insecurities and desperate dreams for a normal life with his found-family, this led to a domino effect of being sought out by Robin with Chrom and co, and piecing back together the memories they broke from all their intense stress and trauma, eventually finally reuniting Ephrel and Chrom in full.

As Spectabilis, Ephrel is regarded as the Dokkalfar of Longing Dreams, whose focus are on dreams that are the strongest wishes from the heart that the person whose source of the dream thinks is impossible to achieve, whether or not it truly is. Due to the ambiguous nature of their nightmares, Spectabilis maintained a neutral approach to dreams, rather than be inclined to cause the greatest negativity in a victim like Triandra and Plumeria initially do, being ambiguously inspiring in reminding a subject that the impossibilities are entirely on them and their ideals. Two instances they brought up such is recognizing Robin's impossible wish was to live a normal, peaceful life with his newfound family and lovers after hailing from a background of grief, misery and uncertainty, or Lyon's wish to reconcile with Eirika and Ephraim among their other party, but his deep-seated fear to ever actually face them, despite their expressed interest to speak to him. Despite being dismissed and antagonized by Peony for being a dokkalfar and misinterpreting the nature of their dreams, Spectabilis maintained a neutral opinion of all alfrs, including the ljolsalfar, and they eventually befriended Peony and Mirabilis throughout the events of Book IV. Freyja initially trusted and looked up heavily to Spectabilis and their advice in recognizing their inherent maturity from having been turned into an alfr as an adult (rather than as children like the other alfrs), which wound up deeply upsetting her when Chrom "stole" them from her, only for Spectabilis to be a key part in stopping Freyja's nightmare onslaughts and calming her and Freyr into surrendering. Despite recognizing Freyja's negative aspects and their supports' (especially Chrom's) justifiable misgivings to her in particular, they still hold some regard of respect for her enough to protect her and Freyr's life over the course of Book IV and reconciling with Freyja in her defeat, despite them having a tentative, distant relationship in caretaking for the other alfrs while having otherwise parted ways with the siblings, give or take minor visits. In her absense, Ephrel retained the role they served as an older sibling figure to the alfrs, but especially in helping Triandra and Plumeria better process their past traumas and struggles in transitioning to normal lives again in Askr.

As Ephrel, while they eventually gained the ability to regain their original form as a human through Eclair's stones and Lyon's heavy research in inventing a fae stone with it, the side-effect to this unusual craft led to them still retaining the unusual pigments of their hair color as Spectabilis (minus the floral details), an issue Ephrel never cared enough to fix, and thought it was neat enough to keep. They held a very lax, calm, "going with the flow" attitude that led them also to hold very little interest in reclaiming their role as summoner from under Sparrow, and in fact holding pride in both her and Chrom while engaging more to help them or guide them when needed. Instead of take back Breidablik, they primarily use their weapon, the Flower of Fate, still leftover from their time as Spectabilis that they could still call upon on a whim. When combined with Breidablik, however, it can turn into the unusual, unique digimental of Fate, fulfilling the role that Sparrow was originally exploited and tricked by of the original crest of Grimeal. Even after their time under Freyja, they still regularly use their powers of dreams and sleep-based powers to otherwise support and help others through complicated thought processes and issues, and have otherwise rekindled their partnership with their surviving digimon partners, Angie and Devi while realizing their lost partner Leona was reincarnated into Hina. This assistance with dream-based advice and focus eventually influenced other alfrs, in particular Triandra and Plumeria, who shifted their own powers to more neutral focuses between clarity and love in general. Though their eventual daughter in Lilium (a ljolsalfarian Lucina) eventually yielded another Flower of Fate, their flower and Lilium's are composed of very different flowers, likely sharing the same loan name due to Lilum being naturally born as an alfr, rather than be converted to such by Freyja or Freyr.

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA FIC PROMPTS

A collection of all of the fic ideas from that ask game, as of now. I’ll throw in new ones if i get any and when I remember. Feel free to use any of them, I’d love a link if you did!

with hands to the sky, I beg (what will save us?)

Izuku is a god who asks to be reborn as a human to try and help. He is warned he can’t return to being a god and will join the mortal realm, ever reincarnated. He agrees.

Izuku is a child with faint memories of a life he never lived, who knows too much about the world but not enough about the people around him. He’s not listed as having a quirk but he’s never gotten sick, never been hurt. He scares the other children and the adults don’t like his precocious nature. Inko loves her little miracle.

 My Soul is Like a Supernova

Things happen around Izuku. Always have. Everything from earthquakes and villain attacks to miraculous healing and lottery wins. He’s always attracted big events like this - as if even the universe can see how important he is and it warps itself around him.

He sees this as perfectly normal. 1A is begining to notice a stressful pattern.

This one regret of mine

Character study of Inko and how she deeply regrets so many things she’s done in her life, from her husband, to giving up on her carrier, to telling Izuku he couldn’t be a hero and then letting him keep going to UA.

But no matter what she’d never regret her son.

Of souls and lost causes

A good ol’ Izuku sees dead people AU, focused more on his younger years when he’d wander around the city helping as many spirits as he could, only to return home at the end of the day exhausted and dirty to an increasingly worried mother who believed the doctor when he said seeing ghosts as a quirk would be impossible.

my life.your choice

Underground heroics AU (i dont think ive ever posted that au huh): Izuku is the well-known son of japan’s immortal emperor, All for One. Born quirkless, he’s been emotionally abused but violently protected his whole life by his father, his mother killed before his eyes for trying to take him away. He’s never been able to make a choice for himself save for his bodyguard - his childhood friend, Bakugo Katsuki.

Katsuki made a pledge to protect him when they were in kindergarten and he’ll be damned if he breaks it now. And if it takes the two of them joining the resistance, meeting a vigilante by the name of All Might thought long dead and Izuku receiving a near-mythical quirk? Well, that just makes it more exciting, doesn’t it?

I forgot that you existed

Izuku gets hit with a quirk that not only makes people forget him, it prevents them from seeing him as well - all but erasing him from reality for everyone he knows. He can still interact with things but all it manages to do is just UA shut down under fear of villain infiltration. They find Izuku 18 hours later when the quirk wears off - a motion tracking gun trained on his forehead.

certain uncertainties

No one can predict the quirks trapped in One for All or when they’ll show up. Anthology fic of Izuku discovering each of them, some being rather helpful, and at least one piece of merch being sent into a low orbit.

Sometimes goodbye is a second chance

Set in the same universe I wrote console reset in; during the two heroes movie: they never defeat Nine and he slaughters the whole island and his class, leaving Izuku till last. He comes back at the start of their first day on the island and doggedly makes friends with every islander he can because while it hurt seeming them die, it hurt even more knowing he’d never even learnt most of their names.

They win this time the first time they meet him, even if it’s a marathon fight of 8 hours with him and Bakugo doggedly wearing him down. No one dies. Izuku thinks it’s worth dying as many times as he has to to keep the people he loves smiling.

The immortality of the heroic spirit

One of the quirks in One for All is determination: if you have something you desperately want to do, you can’t die - no matter how much blood you lose or home many pieces your body is crushed into - you’ll just heal back to where you were before you died. All Might and Aizawa find this out to horrifying effect during a brutal villain fight they are stuck watching on the news with the rest of a terrified UA.

In hindsight this makes a lot of sense to Izuku. Aizawa wants to scream. All Might has coughed up more blood than is probably healthy and all of 1A bruised hands from where they were clutching each other’s when it got too tense.

Shine on you invincible legacy

Izuku becomes a top 10 hero before hes even out of high school, hitting No.2 the second he graduates and taking No.1 from Hawks literally the next time the ranking is counted. 1A will not stop throwing him parties each time he moves up in the ranking, even if in 3rd year it was every other week. All Might comes to ever one of them.

Shake the Dirt from Your Shoes

Izuku will be a hero and no one will stop him - an AU a fair bit like the beginning of canon except Izuku fights back, remains unending optimistic and maybe engages in a light bit of technically legal vigilantism, accidentally befriending a vast array of heroes and a student or two.

To his horror, they recognise him out of costume as soon as he speaks to them, resulting in a very eventful first day at UA.

do you feel with a heart of steel

Original Sin AU, young Izuku finding feeling emotions difficult and not knowing why. He finds a dying animal on the way home and sits with it, patting it until it passes away. He doesn’t think he feels anything, but his cheeks feel wet.

all you want is milk and honey

Villains have been trying to use Izuku his entire life, much to his annoyance and confusion (I wonder who in his family might make him known to villains? hm). He’s gotten very good at being intimidating, even as a child.

When he gets kidnapped with Bakugo on a primary school field trip he decides to hell with it and breaks out all the stops. Turns out villains don’t tend to want a 10-year-old who can describe in great detail how they would hang you with your own intestines.

Bakugo decides that fuck Izuku being quirkless, he’s kind of amazing.

Even the stars

Izuku dies young and no one but the stars cry for him. They bring him back, but his body is cold and he has a nova burning where his heart should be. A four-year-old who has known death and walked among the stars is a terrifying thing. His skin has a shimmer to it, his eyes look like planets with no visible pupil, and he knows far too much.

The stars still speak to him, and they see everything.

bitter dreams and optimistic nightmares

Bakugo and Izuku grow up good friends, until Izuku is taken by villains age 9.

Bakugo’s determined to be a hero to save Izuku, even if it hurts to be at UA without him.

Izuku hates hurting people but he’s determined to make the most of his horrible situation by leaking information to heroes whenever he can. He’s given to All for One to serve as a lab hand to the doctor when All for One finds out this rag tag outpost of his had been hiding a valuable resource.

They meet at the USJ.

Mind Games for Two Shinsou and Izuku are both gen ed students in the same class, but with Shinsou stubbornly refusing to make friends and Izuku being the vice president they are almost strangers. UA has a no quirkless students policy and Shinsou has accidentally discovered that he student in his class with an analysis quirk, doesn’t, actually, have one. Izuku is aware Shinsou knows. They both want to get into the hero course but are under the impression there is only one spot.

It’s tense.

The Melody Stuck in My Soul

Izuku has an empathy/emotional control quirk that hears other’s emotions like music. He uses this both to read people, to defend himself, and, because hes Izuku, to ramp up his adrenaline/motivation/anger to kick ass. He and Bakugo are friends because baby Bakugo was lowkey impressed Izuku managed to weaponize his tears.

Advantage of the musical element: it gives him something concrete to latch on to and change, and it was very easy to work out which emotions were which. Also he has his own theme song, even if he’s the only one who can hear it.

Disadvantage: He cant turn it off. The stronger the emotion the ‘louder’ the music (it doesn’t cover up natural sounds because its not technically there, you get me?)

Error 404, childhood not found

A Hero’s Son AU, snapshot’s of Izuku’s childhood with No.1 Hero All for One as his abusive father.

Age 4 when his quirk never comes in and All for One abandons all pretences of loving him. Age 6 when he realises his son is intelligent and has a use as a lab assistant for the doctor. Age 8 when Bakugo first realises something is wrong. Age 9 when his father is almost killed by the No.1 villain All Might. Age 9 when he’s made to work in the labs with the doctor.

Age 14 when he meets All Might. Age 15 when he makes it into UA.

Darkness Growing (The Light Ever Smaller)

Villains take over Japan after the current arc, leaving all heroes and students that don’t switch sides on the run. 1A is instantly separated with a few of them  being killed, most of the living students with Aizawa and Izuku and Bakugo by themselves, both too stubborn to leave the other.

Aizawa is desperately trying to get to Izuku and Bakugo in an attempt to keep them safe, while the two of them are avoiding Aizawa to keep the rest of their class safe(er), all while avoiding the villains, turncoat heroes and police out to get them. Public support is spotty at best with anyone found ‘harboring a criminal’ given the same punishment as the hero.

Lost soul of last hope

The first wielder has been Izuku’s imaginary friend since he can remember. He’s not very imaginary.

Featuring Izuku with the world’s strangest older brother, Inko coming to the realisation her son can see a ghost, but only one ghost and no one will believe them, Izuku’s quirk being listed as Inko’s because the first wielder can help him fake it, and Izuku wondering why first looks so much like that picture of his father on his mother’s bedside table.

The kids the system failed

100% The 1A run aways au with 1A, Aizawa and Mic being runaways kids of various ages that band together to stay alive and maybe do a little vigilante work on the side.

Izuku has All for One and uses it like you’d expect a traumatised kid to - cautiously at first but when he gets the hang of it there are suddenly no more criminals with quirks in their area, and it looks suspiciously like Uraraka can fly.

Just a second to soon? For the Fic thing?

Aizawa struggles and gets knocked out just before Shigaraki lunges at Tsuyu. She and Izuku are left horribly injured by his quirk with massive facial scarring, and in Tsuyu’s case, the loss of an eye.

Daze

An illusion/fear quirk makes his teachers look like villains and convinces him he’s in danger. They try and stop him without hurting him but it’s difficult considering Izuku is convinced he’s protecting his friends, considering he can only see them broken and bloodied with villains he thought were locked away loaming over them.

Even as Aizawa cuts out his quirk Izuku still tries to shield his friends, snarling ferally.

Morning Glories and Forget-me-nots

A memory quirk of unknown duration hits Izuku, leaving him remembering none of his life. 1A starts to fall apart without one of their pillar’s.

hopeless but not broken

The Long Con au where Izuku asks All Might if he could be a hero without a quirk - he’s really asking if he can stop pretending to be a villain, if he’s worth anything without the quirks he’s been given, if he’s worth something as himself rather than the limited use he can provide. He doesn’t know how to say all of that, so he just asks if he could be a hero.

All Might says no. And Izuku basically decides right then that the only way he’ll ever be able to help people is by being a mole for the heroes like he’s been since he was 10 - that he isn’t worth anything because he’s quirkless and to be considered just as valuable as the people around him are he needs to give his life and more.

He shows up to the bar crying because of All Might and Shigaraki moves his murder plot forward a few months.

Sunflowers and Summer Gardens

All Might starts a garden on campus and 1A like to help. He uses it as a nice place to chill and as physical therapy. He likes to give the different classes bunches of flowers when they sprout.

For Dos and For Donts

Izuku runs into some of his old bullies when out with some of his friends. Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki, Shinsou and Asui intimidate the fuck out of them, and Izuku realises hes not scared of them any more. Then they get frozen yoghurt!

your mistakes, my unbecoming

Aizawa assigns a project on quirk related issues, Izuku ends up with quirkless discrimination, Aizawa assumes his discomfort is just him being upset he doesn’t get to talk about quirks. He doesn’t realise his mistake until he finds Izuku dissociating on the roof.

one and one into the vast

Original Sin AU, All for One and Izuku seeing the vestiges together. One for All sees his brother for the first time and Izuku learns a lot about the voice in his head.

All for One has a mini-crisis about his not son learning he’s a horrific villain, especially considering he has the power to cast his soul out at any time, killing him at will. Izuku doesn’t kill him. He admits its probably not right of him to let AfO remain considering the things he’s done, but All for One is a part of him now and it would be like killing a friend.

All for One quietly decides to hold off on the villainy until all of 1A is dead, for Izuku’s sake.

between the stars of our souls

Izuku and All Might are old gods who keep getting reborn into human forms with their memories regained when they turn 4. Normally finding each other takes a while, and their last reincarnation they never found each other, so this time he resolves to make himself as easy to find as possible, all while saving as many people as he can.

Izuku, aged 4, memories fresh in his head, makes it his mission to get into contact with the man he knows is his father/mentor’s reincarnation. All Might’s agency was not expecting a 4 year old to repeatedly try breaking in to their office, and they especially weren’t expecting him to be so good at it.

you really should have thought this through

Different (and ill-advised) attempts at special moves or team up combo moves. Featuring:

Izuku managing to break Kirishima’s nose.

Uraraka sending Bakugo so high he broke the sound barrier coming back down to earth.

Kaminari and Shouto managing to electrify ice.

Izuku, Todoroki and Bakugo levelling a whole suburb (at least it was condemned???)

I'll Break Anything You Give Me

Different times Izuku desperately tried to repair his relationship with Izuku over the years and the one time Bakugo fully grasps how much he fucked up and reaches out his hand to try to fix it for the first time. Probably includes a lot of screaming, Bakugo learning how to say sorry, a field trip and them having a conversation on Aldera’s roof.

Sinking

One for All kind of possesses Izuku during a quiet night at the dorms. One for All, made of 8 people, 7 of which are dead and had their last experiences in life be rather painful and violent, breaks down, Izuku alone not enough to drown them out. They lash out at anyone who tries to touch them, their quirks tearing Izuku’s body apart.

All Might’s vestige reaches out a hand to Izuku to keep his mind from being torn apart as 1A set about both trying to protect Izuku and get Aizawa who was off campus on patrol.

Feat. Bakugo and All Might being the only people with any idea about what’s going on and getting more and more stressed each second that passes. Iida, Uraraka and Todoroki being good heroes and even better friends. Blood King deciding he’s never watching 1A for Aizawa again, and Aizawa deciding he’s never leaving 1A alone ever again.

A Long Way From Home

Shirakumo wakes up in Kurogiri’s body in Tartarus with only shadowed memories of his time as a villain. He’s scared and alone and he just wants to see his friends again, even if he’s scared they hate him because at least that’s something he knows.

Too Far Gone

The other side AU, it comes out Izuku is a villain with (knockoff) All for One and he has a showdown with Mirio. He and Izuku trained together under All Might and Mirio tries to plead with him but Izuku has to basically tell him to go to hell to not ruin his placet as crown prince of the underworld.

Of course, he’s not only doing this to save people, he’s also doing it with All Might’s blessing - taking over from All Might himself serving as a villain after he killed All for One to prevent a power vacuum.

Doesn’t mean that his friends in 1A know that.

Snowy hills and sunlit peaks

Probably an AU about All Might being a mountain spirit with a little shrine that Izuku is the only one who visits - Izuku gets in trouble and All Might manifests himself, saves him, and tells everyone to keep their hands off his human son.

Wilting

Izuku gets sick and he tries to hide it because he’s scared its something serious but he just gets worse and worse. His friends are the ones who eventually step in and comfort him.

I’d probably write two endings with one being a bad end and the other a good end.

My wish came true without me realising 

Izuku wakes up one morning, comes downstairs and just starts crying. Everyone panics and he reassures them they are happy tears and that he's just glad to be here. They all call him sappy and give him a hug. Later in the day he and Bakugo chat and Izuku reveals he never even expected to live this long, let alone become a hero. Bakugo grumbles that he’s too stubborn to die, and not to get too cocky. Izuku promises he wont.

[seafleece]

haha remember that one time i started making a soul eater au because here are the takes:

beau’s a weapon trained by the cobalt soul, a monastery of self-sufficient weapons. as opposed to followers of ioun that would serve as her deathscythes, they believe that by being strong enough to fight alone they ARE her deathscythes

fjord was turned into a weapon by uk’otoa (a kishin egg) both to spare his life and to use him— he’s scared that because he was made by uk’otoa he could only ever be his weapon, but it turns out he can resonate with caduceus

yasha (grigori soul?) became obann’s weapon out of grief after losing zuala (her first meister, they were Not supposed to be partners), she’s been able to find new purpose training to become one of kord’s deathscythes but obann trying to get her back was so they could keep collecting souls to feed an elder kishin, tharizdun, disguised as the angel of irons, a kishin egg

jester’s a meister whose weapon is the traveler (who’s definitely NOT just green excalibur) but she occasionally will fight w beau or yasha if things are getting rough, and because the traveler is isn’t always around (again, definitely not excalibur). beau is convinced that by wielding the traveler, who’s classed as a deathscythe, she’s technically a shinigami (and. is maybe mulling over the idea that maybe, just maybe, she’d be willing to be someone’s deathscythe if it was jester)

caleb’s a witch whose soul was experimented on by trent for. insidious kishin/black blood purposes, probably. the funnier alternative is that he’s a meister and his weapon is frumpkin, and honestly why not both

veth was a human (read: halfling), or at least lived believing she was one until she died (??) and was reborn as nott, a weapon. grew up in a rural area that had zero weapons and that definitely emphasized the demon part of “demon weapon”, so she fled, hoping to find out she could be changed back, which would also mean her child couldn’t be a weapon, because that’s an even scarier prospect. after traveling with caleb she realizes she’s probably always been one and that she is. actually really good at something for the first time in her life it

caduceus is a meister in a family of meisters and weapons specifically in service to the shinigami melora, got stuck at home while the rest of his family left to serve as/wield deathscythes in the fight against an elder kishin that’s always been an enemy of melora’s. after decades of absorbing the idea that he was the weakest, the one to leave behind, he ends up being the one to save his family with fjord as his partner after killing the kishin egg uk’otoa, and it’s all very cathartic

molly was a black blood meister/weapon created from the weapon lucien by the witch vess derogna, but the process kind of backfired, resulting in amnesia. without any knowledge of why he had black blood or what it really was, he traveled with the carnival and used his regeneration/powers as entertainment. black blood also allowed him to essentially control himself both as meister and weapon.

the whole kinda vibe is that none of them are REALLY partners? fjord and caduceus are the closest but they all kinda fly solo and can pair up to resonate in most combos of needed— a lot of the early eps and filler would absolutely be them having issues within the group and it manifesting as an inability to resonate at the most inopportune time. jester and caduceus have some meister ability that works more like an amplifier for the group when they resonate, and caleb is. a full on witch, so he can do all kinds of fun stuff. beau straight up doesn’t transform, her body just is the weapon, yasha becomes either the magician’s judge (which caleb gives a wide berth) or the skingorger, fjord was the sword of fathoms, which changed appearance to include the souls it consumed, but after being killing uk’otoa (and eating his soul) he becomes the star razor, and veth is definitely a crossbow but i think she somehow gains the ability to become a gun ONCE and uses it to shoot beau. i think essek is also a witch, and dunamancy has something to do with the study of the components of a soul and even changing one into another— caleb goes to do this for veth and realizes that underneath the reborn/goblin vs halfling part, she’s always been a weapon. beacons i think pertain more to resonance and allowing it to occur even without a link, kinda acting like. a surrogate soul to resonate with, if you have a mote on you. they can also trap your soul and return it to a new body after you die, but in its most basic form, so you could be a weapon in one life and a meister in the next, and so on. in the current iteration, leylas kryn is a meister and quana is her weapon, but it’s definitely been the other way around in the past. yussa is still a dragon.

[fireproofheart]

Endgame Speculation

So I accidentally wrote a three page essay.

Tldr:

Caleb is consecuted,

the city(tm) is full of evil mages doing blood sport who want to unlease the chained oblivion,

Molly and Lucien are totally separate souls,

The empire knows more than it should about the beacons and the city

Ok so I decided about ten years ago that the astral city was actually where the souls that are stored in the beacon exist while they’re waiting to be reborn. Initially, I’d thought that they’d find Molly there, but clearly his body is already up and running. Anyways I think the city is some kind of phantasmal double of Aeor that they created to store the souls of mages who had reached umavi. Now I know there’s been lots of talk of a god killing weapon, but what if it’s that all these super powerful mages souls are in the city waiting to be unleashed. And then if you take to alpha and alpha to be a reference to the rebirth cycle (I go into that in this post) “We trek 'til homeward bound we be” makes sense as something like we drag ourselves through life after life through the rebirth cycle until we reach enlightenment and head back to the city and I think Lucien has figured this out, but Vess hadn’t (remember she was so close to figuring out the book).

I also think it’d be fun if the mages do actually have a god killing weapon up there but what they have is that they think they’ll be able to control the chained oblivion (I don’t think they actually can) but like what if they want to set it free so that it will destroy the divine gate and go kill a bunch of gods so that they can ascend? They might not even think that they can control it, they might just be banking on becoming gods and being able to defeat it.

So like what if there’s all this talk about umavi and perfecting your soul in the Dynasty, but that’s not it at all. What if it’s actually go through lives until you get powerful enough that the mages in the city are like oh hey come on in. We also know sometimes if you go through too many of these cycles you can go nuts. So like I wonder if the black city mages are just nerfing people who get too powerful and who aren’t good candidates to join them, or if they’re like trying to shape a world they want to come back to.

Like maybe ‘umavi’ is really just a shitty club running around hunting shit, like Halas had dreadnaught chained up in his basement essentially and also was messing around with using astral projection to achieve immortality, so why wouldn’t other mages be doing similar bullshit? We know something related to the city is hunting through the planes like Vokodo was Terrified. And if these beings are so enlightened why would they be sitting on top of like some kind of literal hell and engaging in blood sport??  Also what if the wizards knew it would be a hell city so they're all asleep and everyone who wasnt prepared to go is having a miserable time being hunted through an otherwise empty city? And this also works with Matt’s themes about false gods and blind faith!!

So, If we follow the line of thought about the city, it makes sense that the beacons are ancient Zemnian artifacts, created by the mages to ensure their immortal life. Halas was obsessed with immortality, so I think this tracks. I also have a suspicion that nine eyes is related to the governing structure that the mages used pre-calamity, possibly like a Cerberus Assembly type deal, like one for every school of magic.

Anyways! I think at least one of the assembly members possibly more have figured that out and that’s what they’re actually trying to do with the beacon. I think that initially, the assembly thought that the beacon was the ancient weapon, but I think they’ve realized it isn’t. So I think Trent is trying to recreate the consecution process so that they can continue using the rebirth cycle. That man has made some weird comments that hint about immortality, like how he doesn’t ever plan to leave his office, how he wants caleb to kill him etc. I think this raises the possibility that he’s already figured out consecution I also think it’s an interesting possibility that Trent himself is consecuted and has the memories of a pre calamity wizard, but probably the only way that’s possible is if he wasn’t that powerful, otherwise he’d know all these secrets the Empire is trying to decode.

I think what he is doing is looking for Zemnian kids who might be consecuted souls. We all know Trent loves to fuck with memories, he does this shit constantly. So he’s picking up kids he thinks might be cycling souls and trying to extract or trigger their memories while he trains them to be loyal to the empire, so he can command some real powerful mages. I think it’s also very possible that some of the experiments he ran on them were to try and discover or recreate this consecution process. We know he was up to some Bullshit, but not what exactly. We also know that he’s doing all this when they’re teenagers, which is when their memories are supposed to be returning.  

My guess is that only Caleb is actually one of the souls from the city. Also it’d be super fun if he was the soul of Mr. Destruction council member because I think that’d be a fun motive for Trent to be beating destruction magic into him (aside from the practicalities of course). But if Caleb is consecuted, it explains his dream when he slept near the beacon. Where he saw a dark sphere, which I think was the city, and multiple versions of himself. Matt  also  particularly said there were 17 selves which is a high number of rebirths (the bright queen has like 8 and shes starting to lose it) which goes to my theory that he has a super powerful soul. Also aligns with Trent telling him that ‘he has unlimited potential, unlike Astrid and Eodwulf’. And another thing he saw which tends to get overlooked, is a flame and when he looked at it, it felt familiar and overwhelming and he had to stop focusing on it bc he could feel all of his selves pulling at him. Which brings me to my next point.

Trent said that he traumatized Caleb to help him grow and that man basically never lies, he just talks around the truth. He also said that he thinks Caleb could be an assembly member and that other assembly members have been through similar situations. In the Dynasty, the memories don’t come back automatically, it’s just little flashes and then you have to have someone train you to remember your past lives. But the Empire doesn’t know about that process bc its super secret, so they have this other one that uses trauma to trigger the memories.

So I have two thoughts, one that maybe this works for some of the other souls that have gone through it, but if Caleb is one of the Pre Calamity assembly members who had reached a state of ‘umavi’, there was too much information coming through and his mind broke. And now he can’t access those memories at all, not because they’re magically supressed, but because they’re too wrapped up in his trauma. He started freaking out a bit in the dream when he felt the souls pull at him and looked into the fire and I think until he deals with allll that, he’s not going to be able to remember, if he ever can.

Or! I think it’s also possible If his soul was up there in the party part of the city and was like oh hi I don’t feel like hunting people for spORt anymore and got reborn on purpose and actively doesn’t want to remember.  Who really knows.

But if this is the case and Trent was trying to run that process, it would also makes sense as to why he would keep Caleb around for that long in the asylum if he was still trying to dig them memories out. If the second possibility is right it also provides an interesting possibility that the woman in the asylum went nuts when she healed his mind, because if she tried to heal the second part and his soul was actively resisting and lashed out… like heyooo. Caleb being secretly super powerful and evil in his soul, but choosing to act against that also is a nice tie in with the themes around identity that we’ve seen so far.

Where do Vess and Lucien come into this?

I think Vess is trying to release the souls from the city and hadn’t quite figured out how. I think that she used Lucien as a test run for being the nonagon and sent his soul to the astral plane to go into the city using the book and then as part of the ritual, cut the tether to his body so he could go off and do whatever. So it tracks that he killed Vess if he thought that she tried to kill him/did kill him/didn’t tell him that he could die or whatever. It also wouldn’t surprise me if she was prepared to be the nonagon herself even at that point, but wanted to use Lucien because the risk of death was so high.

So anyways, the ritual failed technically, because an ‘umavi’ mage didn’t pop into Lucien’s body to come tell her how to release the souls (possibly by unleashing the chained oblivion lmao) When you cut someone’s tether, they die instantly so I think she did that, a soul didn’t appear and she went fuck ok so that didn’t work. They tried to resurrect him, didn’t work, so they left. But I think the ritual did work in a way. I think they called a soul from the city, just not the one they  wanted and it took longer than they’d expected.

So Molly wakes up, has no memories of this nonsense, because as he said the entire time he was alive, whoever he was before isn’t him. And if the souls can’t interact with other souls there and they think it’s an empty hell city what if that’s why Molly came back saying empty because that’s how it seemed to him??

So Lucien accidentally gets stuck wandering around with all the other trapped souls. And what if that speaks to Lucien’s motivation to try and bring them all back. Like he’s been wandering around the shitty part of the city for years while Molly was up and running and the black city mages have promised him that he won’t have to go back there if he brings them back to the material plane. So I think Lucien mostly knows how to do this and like maybe needs that book for the technicalities, but I also think he’s going to Aeor to go find another beacon to use for the ritual. And obvi when Kree resurrected Lucien, he actually came back this time because his soul was willing and Molly’s wasn’t.

So I think Vess was trying to figure out how the ritual had failed, but I think after the nein told her about Molly and shit, she’s probably figured out that really the only piece she was missing was how to get the soul she wanted.  I think that missing piece is probably a beacon and that you could possibly use them to communicate in a way or draw the specific souls from the city. But I think it took her too long to figure it out because the beacons are super important to the peace effort, and I don’t think she’d be able to sneak off with one right now, so I think she was going to Aeor hoping to find another one. I think if she had, she would have become a vessel for an umavi mage and she would have learned how to bring back the city and I think right now, we’re in danger of Lucien doing exactly that.

My final point is that a lot of people have been saying it feels like we’re getting into the endgame of the campaign with the stuff that’s happening now. I agree. I also think it would be very tidy if Matt had wrapped Molly and Caleb’s story arcs around each other to end the campaign. Also having them defeat the literal past, the assembly and possibly a god would be a baller way to end it.

[gofancyninjaworld]

Meta: What rough beast slouches to be born?

Right, webcomic chapter 125 has raised quite a few questions about cyborgs and I purposely left it aside. Until now.  I’m sorry for the length, but I’m only allowed one ‘readmore’. :(

What we knew

Many moons ago for us, 9 or so weeks ago for them, Genos showed up at Saitama’s doorstep like a refugee from another world, telling a tale of destroyed towns, rampaging cyborgs, and desperate revenge quests.   It’s seemed rather far-fetched, particularly as not much has happened on that front.   Over the course of the story, we’ve had little bits of independent corroboration about the veracity of his story.  The town that he was born in was definitely erased from the map.  Yes, a cyborg is wanted in connection with the incident. 

But where is that guy? Does it have anything to do with the powered suit-flogging cyborgs seen early on the series? Does it have anything to do with the ‘glimpse behind the scenes’ chapter the manga offered us with Drive Knight (but no context as to how that glimpse fitted into the wider story)?  Come to that, where are all the cyborgs?

To start with, there are a lot of cyborgs of various sorts in OPM.  Quite a few moons ago, I wrote a bit about them, drawing a distinction between those who used parts to replace lost function and those who looked at it as a change of identity: “Is the Organization a Claw Analogue?”

 Chapter 125 has been surprisingly good about confirming some of what I surmised about cyborgs, but it’s brought some very good additional information!  On we go!

There are cyborgs; and then there are Cyborgs

Our ambassador through the world of cyborgs is new Neo Hero recruit Koko (Solitude), who modified his body for the world of cyborg fighting, only he was a little too successful and no one would bet on him.  We see him scanning various people and passing commentary on them.

The first to give him serious pause is Webigaza, who lost six months of life to getting her body modifications done -- no wonder she’s pissed off that her rival has self-destructed in the interim.

Koko is shaken by her having 71% of her body modified.

obsessive determination is terrifying to look at

Percentage body modification of the sort Koko is used to seeing, 30% maximum, you can do right here right here and now.  It’s equivalent to losing a leg and most of the other. Here and now, we can also do brain implants to control tremors or fits or some neurological conditions,  replace part of the heart, spine fusions, quite a few bits and pieces.  The sort of modifications Koko is used to seeing are very functional ones that make sense for someone looking to get an edge in fighting for money.  They’re also along the lines of what we’ve seen with One-Shotter or Death Gatling.

If you lose and replace all four limbs, that's 50% of your body modified. While quadruple amputees unfortunately exist IRL,  I don’t know if anyone has had the kind of money, physical fitness and pure grit to do that.  Nevertheless it’s not technically impossible. 60% sounds about right before you're now looking at breaking into the more vital parts of your body.  The point at which the risk involved just can't be justified in terms of restoring function or health. I’m emphasising that because I’m going to come back to this point.   He’s shaken because modifications that extensive aren’t about simply gaining an edge; they’re being willing to exchange serious bodily harm for serious power.  It says a lot about who Webigaza is.

Within the Hero Association, I think we do know a hero round about that 60% mark.  Jet Nice Guy comes to mind.  He sports an armored exterior, powerful artificial limbs (which will need internal reinforcement to not just rip up his body), but his innards are all human. After the way he started to bleed out after Nyan slashed him, I realised that the reason it looked like intestines when the Deep Sea King ripped him open is because they were... >.<  Sorry, dude. 

the worst of both worlds -- too modified to have an easy life, still too weak to deal with the real monsters that exist

Scary enough, but then the security staff come in to stop the kerfuffle that Koko and his buddy, Mars Leo, were causing.  Koko scanned them and was stunned into horror:

as disciplined and ruthless a pair of killers as you could never hope to lay eyes on.  Definitely not frothing at the mouth, these two!

These two have modified themselves so extensively they’re almost inhuman. 94, 95% body modification is equivalent to having only 3.5 - 4.2 kg of live mass left assuming an original live mass of 70 kg.  And, if the similar naming convention didn’t tip you off to it, it’s around the sort of hyper-extensive modification we see Genos having. [See under the readmore for a first-principles estimation I did a long time ago.]  Maybe Drive Knight too if he’s a cyborg.   What kind of power have they exchanged their human bodies for?  What kind of people are willing to do that to themselves? Koko is very sure that he does NOT want to know.

When he tells you who he is, believe him

That’s dating advice often given to ladies overlooking obvious red flags  but it goes with great force in OPM. ONE has characters tell us who they are early on, even if it doesn’t mean anything to us for a long time. 

And he’s had Genos be a particularly straightforward and truthful character.  He doesn’t always interpret things correctly, but he says it exactly as he sees it.  Looking at the way the high percentage cyborgs we’ve met thus far either be very inhuman looking or completely disguised as regular human beings,  he’s chosen an appearance that puts both his humanity and mechanical nature on display.

Something that the chapter has brought up that I've kept saying to people on the Discord and on Reddit: there is no medically justifiable reason for Genos to have a body as modified as he does.   Which Genos TELLS US for fuck’s sake.  His giant wall of text is a synopsis, no more and no less.

When he says that “...I asked Professor Kuseno to perform a procedure to modify my body. Then I was reborn as a cyborg for justice...”  (Viz)  “...I begged Dr Stench (sic) to transform me into a cyborg and I was reborn as a cyborg who fights for justice...” (Boon scanslations, who copied verbatim whoever did the webcomic version). It’s nothing to do with health.  Feel free to have whatever headcanons you like, but please don’t confuse them with the story.

But it doesn’t end there.  I look at Destro and Erimin and realise that there’s another perfectly truthful statement that’s been staring us in the face.

Genos knows. Why would he ask a mechanical engineer who uses a wearable battle suit and pilots armed drones to modify his body, let alone modify it to such an insane degree?  Because he knows that Dr Kuseno knows how to build cyborgs like the one who destroyed his town.

We don’t know if Destro and Erimin have any responsibility for the destroyed town, but someone of their ilk does.   Which brings us to a third nakedly truthful statement. When Genos talks of not believing that he could be defeated by anything other than the rampaging cyborg, he’s not anticipating winning because he’s suicidal.  It’s because he’s aware that if he’s throwing rock, so too is his enemy: mutual annihilation is the best he can hope for.

At least until he met Saitama. And started to hope for not mutual destruction, but victory (check the difference in chapter 108 of the webcomic).

a world away from the attitude of mutually-assured destruction he started with.

Stepping away from the text a bit, it casts a different light on why he’s been so desperate to learn from Saitama. Learning Saitama's secret is his balance-breaker. He wants something other than rock, that is guaranteed to smash whatever rock his enemy might throw.    But that’s not all there is.   As Garou said, once he discovered Blue Fire’s flamethrower, once you know how a freakish weapon works, you know it.  Any edge a new weapon might give Genos is liable to be studied and replicated  (see how quickly Dr Kuseno was able to reverse engineer and adapt the principles of G-4′s curving energy beams).   But Saitama’s strength is unphysical: no matter how closely you inspect his body, you can never relate the physicality of Saitama’s body to the power he can generate.  That unphysicality, that’s what Genos wants too.   It also puts in context why he’s been so fascinated by psychic power and wants to learn it if at all possible.

neat trick, I’ll take two!  Genos dodging G4′s beams in chapter 38, and putting the principle of them to good use in chapter 120

And finally, since in his world, knowledge is literally power, it gives yet another layered reason Genos is so determined to keep anyone else from becoming Saitama’s disciple.  If they learn his secret too, then the advantage he seeks will be lost.  (that it doesn’t work quite that way for Saitama is a fact for us to enjoy and for him to find out).

Nothing is as scary as a human being

Nothing is as scary as a human being is one of the things that Reigen says to Tome on occasion. It’s in full force in OPM.  Monsters may be strong, but they all live in the now.  Only a human being could have put together the Monster Association.   When it comes to cyborgs, their abilities may be inhuman but their thoughts, imaginations, morals and appetites are all 100% human.   It’s a terrifying combination.

There’s something I missed when I likened The Organization to a Claw Analogue. In Mob Psycho 100, the protagonists are children and they're fighting an organisation made up of over-grown children -- adults who have refused to grow up. In One-Punch Man, the protagonists are adults and the bad humans in the story are very much adults too.   With calculated cruelty and depravity to match. When The Organization bares its claws for real, this is going to get so brutal.

If Genos has not been standing still, then neither has his enemy.  From the manga, even if we hold Drive Knight blameless and independent of all this mess, his besting Nyan told us that cyborgs can indeed come crazy-strong and highlighted how much more work Genos had yet to do. It also highlighted how very clever and calculating cyborgs can be -- well, they’re human, duh!  If I was worried for his prospects then,  in the webcomic, Genos is nowhere near as psychologically, physically or emotionally ready as his manga version is.   And the guys who look to be his enemies aren’t going to be cutting him any slack.   They’re very real.  They’re not mad.  And they’re closer than he ever imagined.

Fighting monsters is barely adequate preparation for whatever it is that’s to come.

Whenever Genos gets dragged into whatever it is those cyborgs are up to  -- or runs into it, since he claims he’s still hunting the rampaging cyborg -- ‘rough’ doesn’t begin to describe it.

Extra Stuff

Edited from an answer I gave on Reddit to the question of how much of Genos was still organic about 2 years ago.  It’s unexpectedly relevant!

Short answer: by mass, under 10% , assuming he would have weighed  approximately 70 kg. By function, quite a bit.

 The long answer.

I’m going to write this starting from what is most readily observable and readily inferred to the least. In appreciation of this being a work of fiction that treats physical laws lightly, I too am taking a more-or-less approach and will keep technical terms to a minimum. I'm also not a medic and I don't play one on TV -- assume generous hand-wavium. Items in {curly brackets} are incidental notes you can skip.

Level 0: Canonically observable.  The least controversial observation is that Genos does have an organic brain. Genos does not live in a lab, but is able to live largely independently, including being able to eat whatever he likes with no ill-effect. Not just that, but he lives an active and hard-fighting life that appears to do him no permanent harm (I will return to this in a few paragraphs).  What can we take from this?

Edit: There is also ONE’s initial settings for Genos, which I quote here from the Hero Data Book

ONE: There's no need to visit Dr. Kuseno's place every time when his wrist break down, because he got his own spare parts at hand. Dr Kuseno's Lab is there In case for a big reparation job, a drastic upgrade or an examination.

It’s tempting to think that because we see that he definitely has a brain that’s all there is – the brain in a jar phenomenon, so to speak. Something a lot of people miss is that the spinal cord proper isn’t optional either -- it’s a core part of the central nervous system.  Spinal cords are a lot shorter than most people think they are, averaging 12 inches long for women and 15 inches for men.  The rest are nerve processes that can be cut and will regrow (within limits). We’re also happy to allow for nerves and their endings -- there must be an interface for the prosthetics so they're under the fine voluntary control that we see. However, that’s not all that there can be. The Cartesian mind-body duality is completely wrong when it comes to physiology. Our brains are intimately bound with our bodies and our bodies with our brains. So what does one need?

Level 1: Perfusion. This is the most obvious one. Without a blood supply providing oxygen, glucose and removing waste products from our brains, we have 4-5 seconds of consciousness available, 2-3 minutes in which we can escape brain damage and 8-10 minutes in which not to die. So, number one is a reliable blood supply.  Absolutely necessary therefore are a means of generating the various blood cells, perfusing and distributing them and disposing of damaged cells (red blood cells have a lifespan of 1-2 months). While not as acutely important, a self-sustaining blood supply is also the basis of a functioning immune system.  It's a bit of an oops moment when your super-killer cyborg catches a cold and dies.

Accordingly, bone marrow is essential as a source of hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells. A suitably reduced blood vessel and lymphatic vessel system is also needed to run the blood where it needs to go. {An awesome feature of living beings is that new blood vessels will be recruited to where they need to go and redundant branches pruned back, a process known as vascular remodelling}. A reduced liver and possibly spleen will be needed to appropriately destroy worn out blood cells. At least one functional kidney, in the role of producing the hormone erythropoietin, without which red blood cells will not be formed. Not essential: a heart and lungs, which he definitely doesn't have. How much blood is needed?  I’ll come to that answer once we’ve tallied how much body is needed.

Additionally, since part of perfusion is getting rid of metabolic waste, a liver and kidney will be absolutely indispensable.  

Level 2: Homoeostasis. A living organism has a very narrow range in which its internal environment, such as oxygen saturation, temperature, pH (acidity or alkalinity) amongst other things can vary without harm.

There are around 40 or so hormones, the signalling molecules that keep us going as functional concerns, regulating such things as blood pressure, salt/water balance, available energy, sleep cycle, body temperature, mood, immune system... the list goes on. Each has a stupid number of secondary functions and interacts with others in a ludicrous number of ways (note highly scientific language). Their levels vary and change on the order of seconds to hours. It's a good job that the main organiser of homoeostasis, the hypothalamus, is part of the brain. {Incidentally, this is why a brain-dead cadaver cannot be kept ‘alive’ on life support indefinitely – everything falls out of sync and eventually to pieces.} To do this artificially is to have your cyborg never leave the lab: if you're not constantly monitoring and adjusting levels, then they will die. Fortunately, as mentioned, a living, functional brain has the control network needed to keep everything working without the extensive and expensive effort. Just add air, water and food (in that priority).

At this point, we've already met most of the organs needed to maintain homoeostasis in their capacity of maintaining a blood supply. We need to add some bone, not just to serve as a niche (living environment) for the bone marrow and its stem cells mentioned previously but as a source and sink for minerals, the adrenal glands and the thyroid gland. Finally, one must not forget pancreatic islets -- or it'll be for nothing as he goes into a diabetic coma.

Level 3: Energy.   Speaking of food, a brain needs essential fatty acids for turnover and lots and lots of glucose for energy. It’s entirely possible to supply nutrients as total parenteral nutrion (TPN for short).  People whose digestive systems have completely failed get individually formulated TPN solutions, which requires that they spend several hours a day feeding it into their blood supply. Not something we see Genos do.  And yes, you heard it here: not everyone poops, but everyone sure as hell pees.  While a brain only weighs about 1.5 kg, it uses up about 500 calories a day as glucose, so 700 ish calories a day should suffice for all the needs of his live mass. This bears no relationship to the amount of food we see Genos put away on occasion. Why hasn’t he wrecked his liver in a matter of weeks? The answer would appear to lie in the artificial digestive system Dr. Kuseno has given him which turns food into biofuel. It must be patched into a feedback loop which allows it to only supply what’s physiologically necessary at any given time. Lucky for some!

Level 4: So how much body does that add up to exactly?  Nothing says you have to keep the necessary organs and blood vessel network the same size. With only a 1.5 kg brain to support, many can be shrunk a good 50% if not more. A total living mass of 7 kg would be quite feasible. We know from organ-on-a-chip experiments (and from unfortunate people who have lost part of their organs) that provided the essential architecture of the tissue is respected, they will work fine. Nothing says you have to keep them in the same place as the original organs were -- you can encapsulate it all in a can and shorten the nerves serving the organs to a more rational, manageable length. It's nice and compact and can be protected as heavily as the brain is.

Now we’re in a position to answer how much blood Genos has. There are about 70 ml of blood per kilogram of body weight, so at ~ 7 kg, we’re talking about 500 ml of blood. For comparison, the typical 70 kg person has 5 litres of blood. Why does this matter?  Because it allows us to answer a question many may be curious about: how often does Genos get hurt?

The answer is: Almost Never. With so little body, and with most of that body consisting of aptly named vital organs, even small injuries can turn catastrophic in no time.  Genos will bleed out with around 150 ml of blood loss, which is less than half of what is donated in a typical blood donation.  Horrible and dramatic as the smashes he gets into are, it’s more akin to a Formula 1 race car tumbling end over end and catching fire, only for the driver to walk out unscathed.  His cyborg parts are replaceable and can be sacrificed to protect what’s irreplaceable if need be.

[avani008]

Miscellaneous Mahabharata Thoughts....

While I’m thinking about the epic, I would comment that:

A) I’ve realized that my dream Mahabharata TV adaptation would be a miniseries called Antarmahal, made in the vein of BBC TV serials from the 1970s-1980s (i.e., Elizabeth R and The Wives of Henry VIII); which is to say, minimalist sets and costuming, but a range of top-notch talented actresses (Imagine Ratna and Supriya Pathak playing off each other as a comic/quirky variation of Gandhari & Kunti!) and excellent, well-written and -researched scripts. As the title suggests, the setup would be that it is set entirely in various women’s quarters of the epic; we start with “Ganga and Satyavati,” move on to “The Princesses of Kashi,” “Gandhari and Kunti (1)”, “Panchal,” “Gandhari and Kunti (2)”, the fan-favorite special “Dwaraka”, and so on. Notably, for the most part female characters feature--yes, we hear about the epic’s male-dominated events off-screen, but much of the alliances, interactions, relationships, and overall plots that we care about are all between the women, rather than just their thoughts on The Doings of Men (TM). Other marginalized characters occasionally cameo, i.e., Shikandi and Ekalavya, but the only time a major male character enters is Dushasan during the vastraharan, and he’s an almost incoherent, bellowing, crude figure who clearly doesn’t belong in the elegant and refined world we’ve come to see. When Draupadi demands he be put down, it’s more in the sense of disposing of a rabid beast than revenge, and in-universe, we heartily agree with her. Finally, much in the vein of a old BBC teledrama, I imagine it would have an audience of five people max, abysmal ratings, and is doomed to survive only through a blurry Youtube recording. Such is life. :/ But still! If any TV producers want to make this happen, please do!

B) Less seriously, for those of you who like absurd fic prompts/setups, it’s recently come to mind that perhaps the most awkward circumstance might be an earnest set of Ram-Lila players performing the Uttar-Kand in the royal court of Dwaraka.

Quite aside from Krishna, Rukmini, and Balarama’s angsty and painful flashbacks, consider:

* Satyabhama, Sita’s mother Bhumi reborn (and also, notably, Bhumi is the one person who defends Sita, to the point of defying an divine-weapon-wielding Rama to keep her daughter safe) is suddenly furious and not sure why;

* Jambavati is very loudly appalled that her dad has all of three (3) lines and a terrible costume besides;

* Kalindi vaguely remembers this going down back when she was a river, but there were way more interesting things happening at the time, just saying;

* Nagnaniti is getting tired of pointing out that just because she’s (distantly) related to these people, that doesn’t mean she necessarily approves of their actions;

* Krishna and Rukmini’s non-Pradyumna sons are currently engaged into a wild argument/impromptu wrestling match over the question of who actually is Lav-Kusha reborn (assuming that, for purposes of comedy, they’re aware of their parents’ prior incarnations); 

* And Revati, technically born thousands of years ago and before Rama ever was, has no idea who these people are, or what is even happening (or, alternatively, for those who believe she is Urmila’s....pre-incarnation, she is also  inexplicably furious and unsure why)

...Needless to say, said players are not invited back.