#the fusing is honestly just kind of a hassle to me

[milf-erasure]

i feel like people have been jumping to attack anyone who says negative things about totk… but i’m kind of……. disappointed in it for various reasons. i’ve played every 3D zelda game (and loved most of them so i’m not a random hater lmao) and this just doesn’t feel like part of the series to me. the dungeons are incredibly lackluster and the whole fusing/ultrahand building stuff is janky and does not work well imo. the depths are cool at first but get old fast. the good stuff about totk is almost exclusively stuff from botw with a few exceptions. idk man. i think i got my hopes up too high

[kysuguru]

fitting in — stsg x fem!reader

synopsis : gojo satoru is overbearing, no matter. you’ll learn to endure

includes / cw : gojo is kind of mean

all mine masterlist

a / n : chapter twoooooo!!!!! nothing much else to say other than i’m not rlly satisfied w my writing… i’ll cope.

You were introduced to your dorm. Yaga informed you that you'd be able to take a day or two off to get to know the place before you started classes. You didn't bring much with you, honestly. Other than any outfit you could fit into your suitcase and some necessities. Everything else was left behind at home in your moments of panic.

It did not bother you much with your families lack of financial stability. You are not allowed much of the little things. But you hoped you could at least try and attempt to make this the room of your dreams.

So for now, a small picture of you after losing a tooth — seven years old — with you in your smiling mother's arms, would be the only decor.

But now that you were settled, you were kind of stuck. You were unsure whether or not to escape your room and mingle or sit here in silence. As tempting as the thought of making friends out of the three other classmates you had was, you remembered how students at your previous school treated you and got cold feet.

You were always socially inept due to the constant distance from others that people and your mother forced upon you.

It's not others fault that they didn't like you, you thought. Maybe it was because you didn't offer to help with their studies, or maybe it's because you always got so scared to try and connect with others that they got the wrong idea.

No matter.

Here, hopefully, you could start anew.

For now, you need to do research. Still, to this day, your mother's words ring through your head.

"Teaching you is such a hassle," she brushed it off as a joke as she kissed your head, but you knew better. Because you could still spot the frustration in her expression. She must've been in a good mood that day, for she didn't blow a fuse.

But you didn't want to make anyone else feel the way you made your mother feel. You didn't want them carrying your weight. So to prevent that, you'll make sure that by the time you start classes, you'd be more than knowledgeable with jujutsu sorcery. And classes were tomorrow so you wanted to start as soon as possible.

A library...

You'd have to leave the room to find that. You became nervous all over again. The possibility of running into someone was unknown, you still didn't want to risk it. To soothe yourself you tapped your knuckle against your mother's face in the photograph. Thinking of her calmed you. If you thought of it as becoming a better person to help her, you could conquer the world if you wanted to.

You wiped the imaginary dust off her glassed face with your thumb before you turned towards the door, a new determination in your veins.

You slid your door open quietly as to not make any noise and alert anyone else. Your mother hated when you got loud. as you were ready to tiptoe around the school, a familiar girl blocked your path as she stood in front of you.

You yelped in surprise, jumping back. You didn't expect her appearance.

"Ogawa [Name], correct?" It was the girl, the model girl. One of your classmates, the only other girl. Even her voice was gorgeous.

"Yes..." You whispered, a finger hovering over your parted lips as you stared.

"I'm Ieiri, Shoko Ieiri. call me Shoko."

Your voice practically shook with awe, "Shoko. I'm Ogawa [Name]..." Before you could fix your slip-up, Shoko looked at you, subtly bewildered, before her lips stretched into a small smile.

"I know." She motioned her head to the side, "Follow me."

It didn't take you much to heed her command. instead of having to go to them, one of them came to you. The idea of her wanting to be your friend made you eager, but you didn't want to get too ahead of yourself. Maybe she was just being courteous.

You walked besides her, falling a bit behind. Even though you knew there weren't many people at Jujutsu Tech, you didn't like the idea of someone catching you walking besides her. People never took to you walking side by side with them, afraid of the accusations of being acquainted with you. as if it was a bad thing. And maybe Shoko would think the same.

You don't think you'd mind. You were always used to being the shadow anyways. So it was okay with you. you were surprised she approached you. That was enough for you. Even if it was simply to be nice it didn't matter, it made you happy either way.

Shoko was such a nice girl.

Shoko turned her head slightly towards you, noticing how you lagged behind. She raised a brow, questioning, yet turned around and continued walking. But you noticed her pace was a bit slower.

The walk was silent, and you weren't sure how she'd take to you sparking a conversation. So you stayed silent and continued to follow her until you both stopped at a vending machine. She inserted coins before looking at you.

"What's your pick? It's on me." You don't think you'd ever get over her smile — as small as it was. You could tell by the stretch of her lips that she probably didn't smile that often. You think she should. She looks beautiful when she does.

"Are you sure? You don't need to do that! I can pay!" You couldn't, but you'd make another excuse. You were good at that (you weren't).

Shoko was already nice enough to accompany you, walk with you, and even talk with you. You couldn't let her buy you a drink, you just couldn't!

Her eyes crinkled and her smile turned somber, as if she understood you a little bit, "I insist."

Your face contorted, your lips downturned as your eyebrows knitted. You hesitated, and then you spoke.

"A strawberry soda is just fine." You fidget with your fingers.

She hums and clicks the corresponding button. You both watch as it tumbles down to the bottom. She bends to grab it before holding it out for you.

"Might wanna wait a bit, could explode on you."

"I promise to pay you back," you whisper, content.

You take it, savoring the coldness of it against your palms. Your mother was strict with what you ate in the house, especially since you guys weren't all that well off. So sodas were a luxury in your home. You couldn't help but let your eyes glitterm your face softening as you gaze happily at the soft drink.

Shoko notices, watching your face change as she sips on her drink. You're extremely odd. She thought that when you first entered the classroom and she still thinks that now.

You're quiet, eager, yet also cautious. You act as if you're stepping on eggshells in the presence of anyone. It irritates her a little, and she thinks she knows why.

She brushes away the seed of pity in her stomach at the way you gaze so happily at a cheap drink before she's calling your name. "Come sit."

Shoko walks to the bench beside the machine, patting the empty spot next to her.

You're perplexed once more. Now she was inviting you to sit by her. You didn't know what to think at this point. You were prepared for her to brush you away with a brief comment of paying her back.

But, not wanting to protest such a kind offer — or demand — you plop down besides her, making sure to put some distance. She sees, yet makes no comment.

You fidget with your soda as you stare down at your lap. The silence isn't uncomfortable by any means, but you're anticipating a conversation. With the invitation you expected her to say something first. but maybe that was asking for too much. You should say something first...

"So.." she turns to you as you look up, making immediate eye contact. You instantly avert your eyes, even more nervous than before. "Are you the only ones who attend this school?"

"Nah. There's the first year and Utahime in the third."

You wonder who utahime is, that must be another girl. You hope you can get along with her. You pop the cap of your drink, bringing it to your lips.

"That doesn't seem to be a lot," you're looking at her now, but she faces forward, sipping her drink.

"Of course it's not. You don't usually attend a school with only seven students. But there's the Kyoto branch as well. They probably have more students, I wouldn't know. I don't care to keep count."

"The Kyoto branch.."

"You honestly should've gone there, it's so much closer to your home. But Yaga is the one who found you so... lucky us." She turns to you with that already familiar soft smile, and you think her words are genuine.

Before you can reply, two pairs of footsteps approach your direction. You can hear their chatter and their voices are familiar.

You look up to meet the gazes of your two other classmates. The black haired boy's expression is more laid-back. He has a small smile on his face — you can see his slight dimples. He waves at you.

Whereas the white haired boy's face is blank, he's staring, but you can't tell what he's thinking. Those black glasses obscure any hint you can get as to what's on his mind. Seeing them eye you so openly makes you nervous. You use one hand to play with the hem of your skirt, your eyes dropping to your nails.

Shoko sighs at Gojo's lack of politeness.

"Of course you come to bother me and my new friend before the day starts," she rolls her eyes and you think she's being sarcastic. But you don't care to find out as you mull over her words, staring at her side profile. My new friend. Did she mean that? You really hoped she did, because you didn't know what else to do with the immense joy in your chest.

She meets your eyes, smiling.

"I'm gonna go for a smoke, alright? Watch them for me," she requests, as if they're babies that need to be sat. You panic at the idea of being with them alone and you think she can tell.

She tries to assure you, "I'll be back before you know it."

She's walking off with a wave, leaving you alone in an awkward silence with the other two. Or you think it's awkward — well it is for you anyways. Maybe you should've asked to go along with her. Even though you hated the smell of cigarettes you would manage if it meant not being stuck here..

Well technically, you're not stuck. But you're also too afraid to leave. They'd probably see that as rude. You merely sip at your drink, trying to appear nonchalant.

You look up at the sound of shoes clicking against the tiles, meeting the eyes of the guy with the soft eyes and odd bangs. He looks kind, he smiles at you and your tense shoulders relax a bit. It seems that's what his goal was, for his smile gets a little wider.

His friend inserts money into the vending machine, ignoring the both of you as the kind boy sits beside you.

"I'm Geto Suguru." His voice is soft yet deep, it resonates with you. You think you can fall asleep to the sound of him.

"Ogawa [Name]..." You try your best to maintain eye contact. It's hard.

"I know. You introduced yourself yesterday," he's smiling.

You don't know whether or not to be embarrassed of your second slip up of the day. So you settle for drinking more of your soda, staring at your shoes, finding a small comfort in the familiar marks that you've become accustomed to over the last couple years.

"When do you start class? I didn't see you today."

"Uhm, tomorrow I think. I'm just getting used to the layout today... or that's what I was told." It's so apparent that you're anxious, with the way that you fidget with your clothes and shuffle your feet. It's so embarrassing you might tear up, but it's all you can do. You really can't stay still.

Geto opens his mouth most likely to try and comfort you and get you comfortable with his presence. But before he can, Shoko calls out to him.

"Geto! I need a light!"

Your eyes trail up from your shoes to his face and you can see him sigh in exasperation. He opens his eyes, meets your gaze, and smiles sheepishly.

"I'll be right back."

As he gets up you realize who exactly you're being left with. Well, you don't really know. But what you do know is that his presence is unsettling, it's suffocating. You don't even have to be alone with him to feel that way.

You almost reach out and ask for Geto to stay, you're not exactly used to him, but he seems much kinder than his counterpart.

But it's silent once more and your eyes are right back to looking at your shoes. You finish off your drink and quietly as you can, drop it into the trash can next to you.

You're sweating, you're sure you are. But you don't make a move to wipe your forehead. You're not sure what to do. you're not used to conversing and mingling with other people. As little as three people is, it's still overwhelming for you.

But how can you excel in this school if you don't interact with others?

That question still doesn't push you, but you reminisce. You think of your sleeping mother, going back home, and you finally open your mouth.

"What's your name?"

Gojo blinks.

"You don't know who I am?" He asks, tone nowhere near condescending, it's genuinely curious, surprised. But you can't tell and feel a little humiliated.

"Oh. I'm so sorry, am I supposed to?" You're sweating once again, shuffling your feet as you speak up in a squeaky voice.

Every jujutsu sorcerer is aware of the existence of Gojo Satoru, the boy who altered the balance of the world on the day of his birth. But it wasn't like this didn't happen sometimes, so he brushed it off.

"Well," he opens his mouth but closes it, "No, it's whatever. I'm Gojo Satoru." He's looking into your eyes now, but due to the obstruction of his glasses, you can't tell. So you don't notice that he's eyeing you expectantly, waiting for realization to dawn on you.

It doesn't.

"What a pretty name. It fits you," you speak with kindness, trying your best to smile softly. You fail. It looks like a grimace. Gojo is close to laughing.

"So you really don't know who I am?"

Gojo was convinced that telling you his name, you'd know. People's jaws would usually drop, as they realized just who they were talking to. But you just sat there, clueless, as you moved your feet around with an empty confused look on your face.

"I'm sorry for repeating myself. But am I supposed to know? I'm new to this jujutsu stuff, honestly. So if you're a renowned sorcerer, I unfortunately wasn't aware until now." Seeing no reaction from him, your head drops a bit. "Sorry," you mutter under your breath, afraid.

You were so used to the reaction your mother gave you when you weren't all knowing. Angry, loud, and condescending. And with your only mother being the most present in your life, was it safe to assume Gojo would react the same way? If so, you were prepared, and maybe you deserved it. You weren't smart when it came to jujutsu after all.

"That makes sense," he says.

It's silent as you wait for him to add on. Which he doesn't. so he just sips on his extremely sweet drink as you stare at him, blinking.

He meets your gaze full force, seeing it as competition, neither of you looking away.

"I-is that it?" You tilt your head confusedly.

He blinks alongside you.

"Was there meant to be more?"

Now you're really confused. But you don't want to be painted as weird, so you try and let it go.

"No, nevermind."

It's silent again, for the third time. But it's not as uncomfortable as it was before. You get the idea that Gojo doesn't take to you. That' okay, Shoko being your acquaintance is enough to get you through this year. Plus, Geto seemed polite enough. Maybe not enough for you two to be close, but enough for you not to be so awkward around him.

Shoko's familiar voice bleeds into your senses and you look up to see her and Geto walking side by side.

"So, Ogawa. What do you want to do today? Since it's your free day." She sits beside you once more, with her here you can feel more relaxed. You didn't realize how tense your body was.

"Oh, I was just hoping to go to the library."

"Who does that in their free time?" Gojo snickers, crushing the can of his drink into a tiny ball. You're in awe at the raw power.

Shoko shushes him, "Cool. What for?"

"Nothing much. Just studying, really. Since I'm new to jujutsu and all."

"Yeah, that makes sense. You don't know your technique either, right?" Geto's voice pipes up, his finger is rubbing his chin as he questions you.

You shake your head 'no' in response.

"I can take you there if you'd like. If you don't know the way, that is." Geto smiles, putting his hands in his pockets.

You look at Shoko for some type of approval, she merely shrugs. It's not like you needed permission to go, you were just unsure.

But you look up at geto and answer quietly, "That'd be nice."

"You know I haven't made a trip there in awhile, maybe I'll find a new book-"

Before Gojo can speak any further, Shoko pulls him down by his blazer to sit. "You barely read, hotshot. Keep me company."

Shoko didn't really want to be alone with him, but she was aware you weren't exactly comfortable in his presence. That topped with Geto would surely make you anxious.

You turn to meet Shoko's eyes and she waves at you. You raise your hand a bit, waving back, before you turn forward and trek off with Geto.

Gojo crosses his arms, huffing as he watches you both disappear around the corner.

"Don't be intimidated by him," Geto speaks up once you're both out of earshot. You tilt your head to look at him. "He's not all that scary once you get to know him."

You're silent, not sure what to say. You tap your lip with your index finger, thinking of Gojo. You remember the knit of his brows when the fact that you didn't know him left your lips.

"I think he's upset with me."

Geto looks at you. "Why do you think that?"

"I didn't know who he was. I mean, I still don't know. But I think he was upset? I couldn't really tell. I guess I just kind of assumed," you say, sheepish.

Geto chuckles, and you're enamored. He seems so bright, you've only known him for a little while, but he's always smiling. You wonder what other faces he can make.

"That's new. He's from the acclaimed Gojo clan, so he's usually drowned in praise. He was probably surprised that you were clueless." Geto finishes with a mutter of how he wished he could've seen it go down.

"The Gojo clan?"

Geto eyes you up and down, as if surveying you. "You really don't know much do you?"

You shrink in on yourself. His voice didn't sound insulting, but you still felt a bit targeted.

He backtracks, "I didn't mean it like that, I promise. I'm just shocked. I've never met someone with the desire to be a jujutsu sorcerer so in the dark."

"But anyways," he speaks up once more, "There's three big families, Gojo being one of them if not the most prominent. They're known for their cursed techniques. Gojo being the limitless and six eyes."

You're still confused, but you think you somewhat understand. "What're the other two families?"

"Zenin and Kamo's. Oh, we're here," he says. You both arrive at the library, it's nothing much but it'll be perfect to study in. The size of it isn't all that big, more than a few chairs to sit in — those look pretty cozy. There's also ambient lit lamps sitting on each of the tables, it casts a warm glow in the room that could make anyone feel comfortable.

"There's no librarian. since not too many people know about jujutsu. So just take whatever, whenever."

You nod, your eyes surveying the shelves.

"Where should I start?"

"Well I suggest you go to that section, so you can learn what cursed energy is, cursed techniques, and how they work."

You nod, "Thank you for bringing me here, Geto."

He smiles at you, eyes crinkling as the hollow of his dimples show on his cheeks. This smile is genuine — all of them are — but there's a gentler, happier feel to this one. You stare for a little while before he finally bids you goodbye.

"Good luck, please let me know if you need help." You say yes, even though you most likely won't go to him. You'd be wasting his time, you're sure.

You planned on being there as long as possible. Of course, you were gonna get in enough sleep. But you need to learn as much as possible before tomorrow mornings class. Plus, not only would you study, you could also think of what to gift Geto and Shoko to repay their kindness.

You beamed thinking about it. You wondered how Shoko would react. If she would adorn that small smile. If Geto's eyes would crinkle again like they did today as his dimples came to light.

You hoped so, their happy expressions were their prettiest. You haven't seen much else from them but you're positive they look better when they're smiling.

You grab a couple of books and make your way to a table. As you open a book about the Gojo clan you think of Gojo. Should you get him anything? Even though he wasn't as kind as Shoko or Geto, you'd feel bad if you left him out.

But you think of his blank expression. How he stared at you as if he was peeling your entire being apart layer by layer and get shifty all over again. You weren't sure so you decide to push that subject to the back of your mind for later.

taglist : @okayiamkassandra

[system-of-a-feather]

How do you know when you've finally achieved a "remissed" state? I keep wondering if my system has finally settled in a state of "functional multiplicity" but I'm hesitant to use that because I know I still have a lot of trauma processing to do and unknown alters who show up every now and then. But it's no longer necessarily distressing, I know how to handle flashbacks and how to help these new alters and my life has otherwise stabilized a lot.

I feel there isn't really a hard definition for this. I was going to say "final fusion is a lot more clear cut" but honestly? As a person who has also finally fused and has honestly been sitting in that for like two weeks more or less straight, even that can be pretty "hard to notice".

And I know - cause I was there - that from the perspective of someone Not There and/or hasnt realized they are there yet that it sounds very anti-intuitive or wrong, because "How would I NOT notice everything fusing into one identity? Wouldnt that be obvious that I'm NOT me?"

But no, its not really obvious, at least not in my experience. In my experience, by the point you start to get closer to final fusion / functional multiplicity the amount of which DID-symptoms (primarily alters, switching, and amnesia) call for much attention or care to be cognoscente of becomes really small and rather nonconsequential. It becomes a lot easier to just exist among your parts and casually let whoever wants to front whenever without too much internal communication or checks and balances or really any cognitive effort.

By the point when switching and amnesia is so not-distressing and minimally invasive, its very easy to fluidly switch between parts and the trust within each part is so large that you really don't have to ask them or communicate as explicitly to make sure they are on the same page as you and will do the best to respect you and your needs as a part.

By that point, trying to keep track of who is fronting and switching and everything - while definitely possible and something we do a lot, particularly when we are not 'roosting in Fei' - can sometimes become a bit of a hassle (not always, sometimes its fun as well when we are just chatting with eachother) and by that point its kind of like... trying to keep track of who is in the lobby of a massive hotel. It can be a bit exhausting, so even when not in Final Fusion, you just kinda stop caring and just go about your life trusting that whoever is out there is probably having a good time and that you don't really mind Not Being there.

Or hell, maybe theyre out there and you wanna be out there with them and chill thats awesome, but again - it doesn't really matter and that internal vigilance over identity and self just is so so so so tiny

And I guess now that I'm writing it, I think that - in my opinion - is the best tell that you are probably at functional multiplicity; is that if genuinely that internal vigilance among yourself, parts you know, parts you know you don't know, possession of the body, switching, etc is really just so so so nonconsequential and such an afterthought to your existence, I think that is probably the best indicator of really any remissed state.

In my opinion the key difference between Final Fusion and Functional Multiplicity is just a matter of how much you engage with yourself as seperate parts versus as a very relaxed and constantly flowing beach.

For me, Functional Multiplicity - at the point of healing that I am now - takes a little bit of mental energy (not a lot, its largely negligible most of the time and we tend to prefer to be closer to the functional multiplicity end a lot of the time) to be that aware of what part is out and if I should get a different part out or if I think someone else would enjoy the moment better. That said, the small amount of mental energy put into that often gives me a lot more insight into myself as I can talk and engage and enjoy life with my better halves / quarters / thirty-ths / etc. It also opens up for more specialized enjoyment of activities, perspectives in life, and engagement in skills. Being at Functional Multiplicity allows me to control and specialize what part of me is presenting at what point in time and live in the moment as my best self for the moment.

On the other hand, Final Fusion is so serene and existing in it is like the coming and going of waves on a beach. Every so often you go "hey thats XIV" or "lol hey thats Riku" or "lol yep theres Chunn" and sometimes those waves are basically just that part fronting, but everything is so damn connected that even if you know that line came SPECIFICALLY from that specific part, hell even if that whole activity was primarily from that specific part, everything is SO damn connected that its still >you< it is still the Beach, that was just a fucking GNARLY wave of XIV or Riku or Chunn or etc

Thus why even though we've been sitting in Fei for like two or so weeks now, you can often see a second tag with it. If a wave is predominant, we will tag it, but *shrugs* it don't matter cause in the end its our overall whole that is here the most.

Final Fusion also has its amazing perks like actually Not having to Discuss much at All. Which as much as I LOVE talking to my parts explicitly and having banter and all, sometimes when life is stressful or I'm over worked or burnt out or what not, sometimes I really would just rather have some simplicity in life and just be able to know and speak for myself without having to go through a counsel.

But back to the point of the question, I think the best way to tell is to just generally reference how much internal vigilance you have over yourself, your system, your concept of identity and self, and see where you fall on that.

An alternative perspective to that same measure is just really, how much do you deeply and internally trust yourself (as a whole) on an emotional level to do the best for yourself and to absolutely never intentionally neglect yourself? How much blind faith - no if ands or buts - do you have in yourself? Do you feel there is any possible part that you don't know of that could in there that you couldn't handle or that would cause you really any notable amount of distress? Does thinking about parts that you don't know stress you out? Do you think there is a world where - for any meaningful or substantiated period of time - any part of you would ever intentionally put themselves wholely before another part?

Are you your first and foremost ally all the way through in and out? Do you feel decently comfortable answering these questions for the system and do you feel decently confident that - even without explicitly asking them - that you can advocate for all parts on these questions?

This isn't to say that if you DON'T check all these off that you AREN'T at a remissed state or anything, because honestly, I didn't realize or even get some of these checked off until AFTER my therapist pointed it out to me and I sat and thought about it. But its some nice food for thought and questions to think about and talk about among yourself because those topics have honestly created some of the most healing and solidification after realizing we were "kinda at functional multiplicity" that had really helped unify us even further than before. (below the cut is more directed towards the ""anon"" themselves)

[**Disclaimer at the end regarding parts underneath this mark**]

Most importantly though, I believe strongly in the principle of self determination (<- this is not a clinical or official thing in literature, its a term and topic I use within my therapy, internal interactions, and what not that is based on my own personal opinion / view of DID; this is not scientific and entirely peer / experience based) - at least in late stage recovery - so if you feel you might be at functional multiplicity and you genuinely emotionally feel as though you are on the fence, I don't see why you shouldn't believe you are at functional multiplicity.

It is a little more risky of a game to play in earlier stages of recovery, but considering I know who asked this cause they DMed me 2 seconds later, if you are not prone to notable bouts of denial or using denial as a means of repression, why WOULDN'T you be at functional multiplicity?

The label is pretty loose and subjective and if you want to be at functional multiplicity, claim it, believe it, dedicate to it, and I feel the DID subconscious brain - so long as it is within it's genuine realm of plausibility and believably - will let it be.

So to the anon that I know, I personally am of the non-professional completely-peer opinion that if reading this, you still feel you really really might be at functional multiplicity, say FUCK IT WE BALL, and just take that label and smack it on your face. If you are close enough to functional multiplicity to read through this and still go "maybe we are" then you are close enough to "kinda fake it till you make it".

That's just to say that if you say you are at functional multiplicity, I'd absolutely believe it and accept it, but also that if you said you weren't, I'd also absolutely believe it and accept it. Define who you are based on your genuine truth and where you'd like to be go for it. If you have good reason to believe you are at functional multiplicity and you want to be at functional multiplicity and that you feel you are willing to genuinely believe you are at functional multiplicity, make the claim and be at functional multiplicity.

--- [DISCLAIMER]

**These last few paragraphs (below disclaimer mark) are primarily targetted to the anon cause I know them, and there is a lot more nuance to the topic as well as limits to the extent it can work and trying to take it as a "this is completely impossible to missuse" can be risky. So I do want to put a disclaimer that if you are not in mid to late stage recovery and/or have not gotten over the "fakies" or have parts that try to rush things or "rewrite the narrative at the expense of other parts" - the principle of self determination is not something I'd recommend as it can be used for harm as well if not done authentically. It is important to acknowledge this is completely based on my own experience, opinion and perspective of DID that is NOT substantiated past my personal experience. Take this with a large grain of salt.

[c0rpseductor]

honestly aside from like the windows kind of being ready to fall out and not closing right and the faucet leaking (again, even though they just replaced the whole sink) and the washing machine being broken and whatever is going on with the fuse box and the whole place just being kind of like, a little falling apart at all times, what is really annoying me about living here right now is that. ok so basically like

for most of the time we’ve lived in this dumb gay building there’s been one guy who owned it and was the landlord. but he had trouble financially because he was an idiot and also because he couldn’t keep the upstairs apartment rented out consistently and would frequently lease to people who would trash it and not pay rent on time and etc etc. it was a whole thing. eventually he sold the building to some company because he didn’t want to deal with it anymore.

recently we found out that company sold the building to a DIFFERENT company without letting us know, so for a while getting in touch with anybody was a hassle. the last company filed for bankruptcy, apparently, which we know because my mom keeps getting mail about it for some fucking reason???? which i find supremely annoying. and i guess according to the guy who works there that my mom talked to the current company is not consistently paying the mortgage for the building. or whatever. this fucking shitty terrible building that nobody wants. idk it’s really annoying

[kryptsune]

Hi you are an amazing writer i was wondering if you have any tips on salvaging a story that was derailed by a brain fart cause uh i was writing a short story that turned out to be longer and harder to read for anyone thats not myself and now i cant barely look at it... so can i have tips or advice please?

🌼Sorry for the late reply on this I wanted to be able to take the time to give you my own personal advice. First of all, thank you for the kind words :D I am so happy that you enjoy my writing. 

Tips tips tips. Well, there are a couple of things you can do and I have personally done myself. If you feel as though a story has gotten out of hand there is nothing wrong with that at all. I never planned to have either Felldritch or Wonderfell having their own fics in the first place but I enjoy writing for them so much that it was a logical progression. It is difficult for me to assess your personal investment in the project and from what I am reading it seems you no longer are passionate about it?  The truth of the matter is that writing has to be something you enjoy in order to do stories. Sure you can pump out chapter after chapter but it won’t have that spark and why would you put yourself through that suffering in the first place? Sometimes stories are hard to read for others just because of their personality. I have a lot of friends that enjoy my work but haven’t read the story because it is massive. That is something I am keenly aware of often. Welcome to the Underworld is not for the faint of heart or for casual readers and I understand that. It’s not for everyone. I appreciate it when people at least try, however, it is a good way for me to gauge interest at the very least. 

I will break this into 3 parts. The first will be revaluating your current story/project and the second will be things you can do that might make it easier for your readers if you still feel you want to continue it and lastly what you can do to possibly get that passion back if so you can “look at it again.” 1. Evaluating your project: As artists and creatives, we tend to latch onto our work because we put our own personal investment into it. I usually use the analogy that it is like our child and it can be difficult to care for sometimes and yet rewarding at others. This is the first thing you want to do if you are working on a project. Always evaluate. Do you enjoy it anymore?  Do you feel stuck? Is it just not going the way you want it to? Writer's block maybe? All of these can be factors into why you may not enjoy it any longer. 

I felt this with WTU for the longest time and now looking back on it...it was for the wrong reasons. I felt that no one wanted to read it after hours upon hours of writing and editing. It made me sad and I didn’t understand why. The thing is I have changed my mindset when it comes to this. It is hard for me to accurately gauge who reads my work without some kind of feedback but I have a goal. I set out to write an extensive and world built Fell verse and I am going to do it. It’s important to me and it is rewarding just to know that I can do a project as large as the three acts of WTU. Ask yourself why are you writing the story? What are your roadblocks? This will help you come to a decision. 

2. Easing the Readers: If you read my writing you will notice I have a tendency to write a fair bit. Every chapter of WTU ranges from about 15-20 pages of text 11 point font in google docs. That is a lot. I actually have not gone and calculated the word count on it but yeah, a lot. There are simple things you can do however to make the reading a little more digestible for people. 

a. Formating: I never had a problem with reading large blocks of text. That was how I was taught in middle and high school. That said others struggle with large blocks because it makes it difficult to read from a visual perspective (the irony that I am using block text right now). What you can do is break up your paragraphs more often. I have started to do this with older WTU chapters seeing as there are a lot of text blocks. It is a simple and relatively hassle-free way to make it easier. 

b. Pacing: I am by no means the expert of fics however there are some things that I notice in fics that tend to pop up quite frequently. I am not saying to change these things by any means but to evaluate and possibly adjust when needed. PACING. I can’t tell you how many stories I have read with poor or confusing pacing. What I mean by this is that the story is either holding too long in a certain scene or there is no breathing room. WTU and a lot of my fics have dark undertones to them which creates drama and emotional payoff, however, doing this constantly and throwing problem after problem into a story is hard to swallow. The readers need a break. This can be anything from levity to simple character interactions. Not everything is fights or angst. 

This also goes for fics that have none of the former as well. There are so many that are a slice of life and that is fine! Enjoy your cute fluffy fics that said if there is no conflict then what is the point of continuing to read the story? What is holding my investment? Sure the characters can be written well but the point of storytelling is connection. A perfect butterflies and rainbows story is all well and good but you can’t connect to it. That is not how life is. (I am pontificating a little bit but I am honestly really tired of having to explain to people that my fics are M for a reason. No NSFW stuff but rather real-life mental and psychological and emotional situations.)

c. Characters: This kind of also ties into what I was talking about before. A flawless character... is a boring one. Some of peoples favorite characters are the villains, why? Because unlike their heroic counterparts they feel real. They go through things and make their own path. If they just chose differently then things would be different. A lot of times (and no offense to fandom) I find that people make stereotypes of a character. It’s all surface-level stuff. Think about what makes you, you. What have you gone through that causes you to think a certain way or react to things? Our lives are made up of experiences and moments and characters are the exact same way. Most don’t realize this since I hint it throughout the story but everything tells a story. The character's costumes tell a story whether that be the place they live of their own personal style. Why does my Red wear a collar with a seemingly half-broken, fused, and burned chain link? I don’t know... you tell me. 

It’s a storytelling technique called breadcrumbing. This is used to hint to some sort of plot or payoff. A foreshadowing at times. It is an incredibly useful and engaging tool if done properly. I would use my “why does Red do what he does” example but its been beaten to death so I will use Boss as my example instead.   

Boss is the Head of Royal Guard having bested Undyne a long time ago but not everyone was happy with the change of the Guard and that is communicated in character dialogue. In fact, you can use this method to hint to character connections as well. Boss has claw marks in both his scarf and his left eye socket. So.... who could do that kind of damage? If you have read the story *mild Snowdin spoiler* Frisk meets Doggo. An Australian cattle dog-wolf mix that has no love for the current Captain. He was tossed out of the Royal Guard after altercation... maybe attacking a certain lanky skeleton perhaps? It’s not directly stated but certain visual ques could lead someone to that kind of assumption. 

Intertwine your characters, their relationships, their life events. All of this will create far more dynamic storytelling and investment.

d. Planning: Returning back to potential writers' block... I find that something that personally helps me is outlining. I have all of my stories planned out from beginning to end while the middle can be moved around accordingly. That said in every single chapter I outline the main points I want to communicate. It helps with the organization but also keeping your thoughts on track. If you feel you need an extra chapter for character development then you can totally plan that out. Don’t be afraid to change things. It’s your story do what you feel is best for it! 

e. Editors/betas/outside eyes: This is a huge one and can be a little challenging at first. It is helpful to have others look at the work. Those that you trust. Have them look for grammar or even pacing and character inconsistencies. It can be hard to get a critique on your work that you love so much however this makes you far better writer IF IT COMES FROM A REPUTABLE SOURCE. 

I need to clarify this as you cannot please everyone. I have rejected critiques from my beta readers in the past, not because I think I know better but because even they can’t account for your overall thought process. What they think is superfluous may come to have a payoff later on and it needs to be in there for that payoff. That can be anything from character development to plot.  You have to be strong in your conviction. Say yes and no when appropriate and always be kind to your readers. They are taking time out of their lives to help you with your work. The same goes for the betas. Be respectful and kind when giving CONSTRUCTIVE feedback and don’t be offended when the author does not agree. 

3. Breaking the Block: Breaking any kind of block is not easy. In fact, it is a constant nuisance in any creative field. That said there are some simple things that you can do to help. The best example I can give is taking a break. That can range from person to person but generally, sometimes you work on something for so long you need to set it aside and look at it with fresh and new eyes. It is ok to take breaks, hiatus, or just work on something else for your own mental well being. Here are a few things you can do to utilize your break effectively.  a. Don’t even look at it: Some people just need to get away from it all which is totally understandable. I would be farther along in my own fics if I did not break so much but I am determined to put my best foot forward even if it takes me longer. I am also an artist in the drawing and painting sense so I juggle that as well. If you notice my blog right now there has not been much going on in the way of writing because I’ve switched gears. There is nothing wrong with that but I pick my battles. 

b. Work on another project: There is nothing wrong with working on something else just for a change of pace. We are not machines and therefore monotony breeds complacency or burn out in this case. One of the reasons I have 2 other fics is because sometimes I hop from project to project. I know not everyone can mentally do that but it helps me recharge for the main project that I feel worn out on. 

People have also been wondering where TLC (Tender Love and Care) my Red X Frisk fic has been. The truth is that fic is my downtime fic. I do it when I am able to. In fact, as I work on my multiverse boys references lately I have been working on the second chapter of TLC because its a nice change of pace from doing something like Felldritch or the other two.

c. A little at a time:  Any type of project can be overwhelming so taking chunks of it at a time helps compartmentalize it a little easier. Try to write as much as you can a day. It’s not much but by the end of the week, boom, your chapter is done. 

You shouldn’t push yourself or beat yourself up either. I find that I always feel guilty about taking some leisure time because I could be creating more content but that’s unhealthy. Take the time you need and enjoy your games or books. I personally am enjoying the heck out of Animal Crossing right now. 

All in all, I hope some of these tips help a little. Since I do not know what you are working on or why you feel the way you do about it. It is hard for me to give direct advice. What I can say out of all of this is enjoy what you are making. Enjoy the journey and the process. At the end of the day, it is your investment and if you don’t enjoy it what is the point?

 It is nice to get feedback on things, trust me I know sometimes it feels like pulling teeth, and there are clear signs of burn out. We are not art machines, give it some time, reflect, evaluate, and you will find your way. If you really want me to dig deeper to give you specific con crit advice then you are free to DM me. My ask box is also always open! 

[rareficsnstuff]

A Different Kind of Challenge [Tendou, Bokuto (Kuroo)]

Summary: It’s an average night at the apartment and Bokuto is in the middle of his at-home workout routine. But when his roommate comes in, he has a brilliant idea to challenge himself further. Except… this wasn’t quite the challenge he was expecting.

Words: 2,111

 AN: A sequel to this

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

“Nine hundred eighty-seven, nine hundred eighty-eight, nine hundred eighty-nine…” Bokuto counted aloud from the living room floor. He was in the middle of the sit ups portion of his daily workout session and he paid no mind when one of his roommates walked in, pausing to stare at him skeptically.

“Yeah right. You just started counting at a really high number when you heard me coming, right? There’s no way. Quit showing off,” said Tendou dryly as he moved to lay on the couch. Bokuto only grinned and continued.

It was a regular thing at their shared apartment. Every night, Bokuto would monopolize the living room floor for his workout while one or the other of his roommates was away at their evening classes. It made for less of a hassle all around that he be in only one persons way rather than both. Mondays and Tuesdays were Tendou’s class nights and Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays were Kuroo’s. Saturdays were Bokuto’s break days where he didn’t workout (aside from his morning stretches).

“Nine hundred ninety-nine, one thousand!” he finished spiritedly, flopping down and letting out a dramatic sigh.

“Honestly, don’t you think it’s a little much to be doing this every day, Bo-Bo?” As he chided the larger of the two, Tendou tucked his arms behind his head and closed his eyes. Bokuto chuckled.

“Not at all! It’s fun and at the end of the day, it makes me feel better. And I actually think it helps me sleep.”

“Is that right?” Tendou said dryly.

“Hey, do you think you could help me out a little?!” Bokuto asked, suddenly very excited. Tendou peeked at him through one, lazy eye.

“How do you mean?...” he asked cautiously.

“Get on my back.”

“…”

“…”

“Come again?”

“Get on my back while I do my one thousand push ups! I could use the extra challenge!” Bokuto’s eyes were sparkling with the enthusiasm of his great idea.

“I’d rather staple my tongue to an active missile.”

“Oh, come on, Don’t be like that! All you have to do is sit there,” he pleaded.

“No.”

“Please?”

“Nope.”

“Pretty please ~ “

“Not gonna happen, big guy.”

“I’ll do the grocery shopping for you for a month!” Tendou tensed.

“You know what? I’ll do it to keep you from doing the shopping,” he said, rolling himself over to sit upright and fix a judgmental gaze on Bokuto.

“…Whaddya mean?”

“Do you actually think I’d trust you with that responsibility? For any amount of time?”

“I can shop – !”

“You suck at shopping, Bo-Bo!”

“I – … What?” said Bokuto dejectedly.

“Bokuto, my bud, you’re a kick-ass cook, but you can’t shop to save your life – and it could.”

“Yes I – !”

“You don’t know how to look for bargains, you don’t pay attention to expiration dates, you under or over-portion… and… man, you impulse buy snack foods and protein powder. No human on this earth needs to consume as much protein as you’ve got infesting our pantry.” There was a heavy pause in which Bokuto seemed to grow a cloud over his head. Oh good, now he was pouting.

“Dude, don’t. Look, I said I’d do it so skip the drama, wouldya?” Tendou said in his best attempt to ease the tension. Bokuto didn’t respond as he only continued his sulking.

“Hey… Okay?” Bokuto sighed.

“…Okay.”

“Okay! So how does this work?” Bokuto moved to the plank position before he looked over his shoulder at Tendou.

“I do push ups, you sit on my back.”

“Criss-cross?”

“Sure.”

It was an awkward process as Tendou tried to get comfortable and balanced without digging a heel or a knee too painfully into Bokuto’s back. As he finally settled, he leaned forward a bit and placed his hands on the larger’s shoulders to keep his balance. Bokuto waited patiently for the shifting and squirming stop, and when he heard a confirmatory sigh of ‘there’ from the red-head, he began.

“One, two, three, four…” Tendou was surprised at how smooth this was. He expected to struggle with his balance, but for the most part he was pretty stable.

“This is like one of those coin-slot carousel horses you find at a convenience store. It smells funny and it’s full of disappointment,” Tendou snarked.

“Don’t be mean! Shut up! You’re gonna make me lose count!” Bokuto whined.

“Alright, big guy, don’t blow a fuse now.” As Bokuto continued, Tendou remained silent well into the two hundreds. He was getting bored, though, so out of pure curiosity, he shifted his hands below Bokuto’s shoulders and rotated them so that the heels were together and gently curled his fingers into his ribs.

“Two hundred sixty-eigaaAA! Hey, watch it! That tickles!” he shrieked. Tendou’s curiosity was sated and he grinned.

“Honestly never woulda pegged you as the ticklish type, Bo-Bo.” Bokuto chuckled.

“Yeah, well, I don’t think I’m as bad as Kuroo, but… Where was I?”

“Two hundred sixty-eight.”

As casual as anything, Bokuto continued, completely oblivious to Tendou’s hatching scheme and wicked grin. The red-head scanned the larger’s broad back, thick neck, and exposed underarms, trying to determine where might be the most effective spot to strike. He opted to press this thumbs into the meat between his shoulder blades. The effect was satisfying enough. He yelped as his back tensed and his elbows gave out, nearly causing him to face plant but he caught himself just in time. The jostle almost made Tendou topple off.

“Hey, common, man! What are you doin’ up there?! Take it easy!”

“Sure,” said Tendou passively before he quickly started squeezing the back of Bokuto’s ribs.

“Gahahah! Hehey! Alright yohou’re doing this on puhurpose!” Bokuto chuckled as his arms betrayed him and slowly lowered him to the ground.

“Nothin’ gets past you, champ,” teased Tendou as his fingers slowed to a stop.

“Lohook, Tendou, I’ve got seven hundred and eighteen more to go. You can tickle me after, but just let me finish this, please?”

“Well, you said you wanted a challenge…” He dug into his shoulders again, drawing startled laughter from Bokuto.

“Whaahahaho! Naha-stooop!”

“Okay, so here’s how this is gonna work: you’re currently in the ‘down’ part of a push up. Up, down, and back up again. You do that, and I’ll stop,” he bargained.

“Noho-that’s insahahaine! I ca-haha, I can’t!”

“Sure ya can; you’re a hulk. Now c’mon, up ya get!”

“Noho, no! I reheally cahahan’t! Please dohon’t!” It was only then that Tendou noticed the extreme lack of struggling Bokuto was doing. He looked behind him and saw how weakly he was kicking. He thought he’d be thrown off right away if Bokuto really wanted him off. Tendou grinned. This just got a whole lot better.

“Oh my god~ You’re the type that can’t move when someone tickles ya, huh?~” His laughter went up when Tendou wriggled his fingers under his arms. “So you don’t think you’re as bad as Kuroo... I donno, man, you seem plenty ticklish to me. At least Kuroo can move.”

“Daha-Please stohop!”

“You know how to make it stop, Bo-Bo. C’mon, up you go!” Bokuto’s arms had contracted in on himself when Tendou got under his arms, but the pure desperation to make the torture stop had him pressing his palms against the floor again attempting to heave his body and Tendou’s off of it. With all his concentration focused on the effort, his laughter deteriorated into throaty giggles. Tendou saw the near success he was having and redoubled his attack, digging in full-force. Half-way up, Bokuto’s laughter was renewed and his body lowered to the floor once again.

“Tehendou, I can’t!”

“Sure ya can. Try again, big guy.” But the poor guy really couldn’t do it, so Tendou decided to ease up and move the assault back to his shoulders. Snickering, Bokuto tried again, making it halfway when Tendou moved once more, this time to Bokuto’s neck.

“Tsehehehe! Staha-!” Bokuto tossed his head from side to side, tucked his chin, and pressed his ears to his shoulders, giggling like mad but finally straightening his arms in a full push up.

“Atta boy!” Tendou cheered, still tickling his neck. “Now you just gotta lower yourself down and push back up again and you’re good!” As easy as he made it sound, Tendou had no intentions of making it so. Bokuto shrieked when the red head suddenly clawed at his very vulnerable stomach, making him crash gracelessly to the floor and practically crushing Tendou’s hands as he wormed them into the sensitive flesh. And judging by his reaction, this was definitely a weak spot.

“Nahaaa! NONONOHO! Pleahese-Tendou! Sta-nahat thERE, THAT’S THE SPOHOHOT! PLEAHESE!” Bokuto cackled. Tendou could say one thing about him: he certainly wasn’t as timid about this as Kuroo was.

“Hey!” 

Speak of the devil. Just then, Kuroo walked in the door, having come home from his evening classes.

“Hey there, putty tat ~ “ said Tendou, not stopping his assault on Bokuto’s belly. When Kuroo came into full view of what was going on, he tensed, looking a little nervous.

“Don’t call me that…” he said dismissively, hurriedly making his way out of the room. Tendou grinned at his poorly hidden panic. Meanwhile, Bokuto continued to die.

“KUROOOOHOHOHAHAHA! HEHELP, PLEASE!” he pleaded. Kuroo stopped and glanced worriedly over his shoulder at his two roommates as all Bokuto seemed to be able to manage in defence against the attack was a weak squirm.

“No power on this earth could convince me to get into that mess.” Kuroo left and the sound of a door being closed in the back of the apartment could be heard.

“Well, so much for that plan, huh, buddy?” Tendou teased.

“Tehendohohou! I-hi, I cahan’t get uhuhuhup!”

“That sucks. Guess I’m just gonna have ta tickle you ta death,” he said passively, wiggling his fingers in the little dips where his stomach meets his hips. Bokuto had had his head turned to the side, but in a moment of sudden bashfulness, he turned his face into the carpet, pressing his nose to the ground and muffling his laughter in the most hilarious way. Tendou almost fell of his back from the distraction of his own laughter.

“One more, man! One mohore!” he cheered, now tweaking and pinching the sides of his stomach.

“StaHA! Sohomewhere else! TIHICKLE SOMEWHER EHEHELSE!”

“Nope. Up.”

Part of him hoped that Tendou would just get bored and stop when he realized Bokuto really wasn’t going to get back up. But the other part of him knew how stubborn Tendou was. Once he set his mind on something… There was no way Bokuto was getting out of this without doing that damn push up. The guy was currently full-on torturing his absolute worst spot and it was honestly more than he could take. At this point, he wasn’t even thinking about it anymore – not that he could; all his brain could focus on was the incessant tickling sensations – but his body did all the work on its own, lifting him off the ground to sweet, sweet freedom.

As soon as he felt his elbows lock out, the tickling stopped and his mental paralysis dissipated, leaving him crashing to the ground once more. Tendou was giggling like an imp as he rolled off the exhausted Bokuto’s back.

“Wayda go, champ!” he praised teasingly as Bokuto struggled to collect himself.

“Youhu troll! You were ahactually gonna tickle mehe ta death, weren’tcha?” he chuckled breathlessly.

“Hey, that was all on you, Bo-Bo. If you had just done the two push ups like I’d said-“

“Ahare you kiddn’ me, man! Thehere’s no way I could’ve done thahat!”

“Sure you coulda!”

“I kinda couldn’t move with you tickling me, string bean.” Bokuto rolled onto his back, a wide grin still firmly in place as he wrapped his arms limply across his chest.

“So I noticed. That’s some handicap you got there, big guy.” Tendou chuckled, scribbling his fingers over Bokuto’s belly, making him twitch and snort. “Aaaaall that muscle and it’s toootally useless when someone tickles ya ~”

“Stahapit- stahap!” Bokuto snorted again, loudly, and Tendou withdrew his hand laughing as the other recovered once more.

“So, really: nothin’? You can’t move at all?”

“Nohot enough to do any good.”

“Why?”

“I donno. Tickling’s just an energy sucker for me, I guess.” Tendou laughed again.

“Well… you ready for those other seven hundred and eighteen other push ups?” he asked but was startled by Bokuto’s sudden full-out laughter.

“Are you kiddn’?! There’s no way! I’m pooped!”

“...Wanna watch that trashy ghost hunter show?”

“Sure.”

As Tendou stood to fetch the remote and switch on the TV, Bokuto didn’t even bother to sit up from his position on the floor, merely turning his head lazily to the screen as it blipped on.

“Tendou?”

“Hmn?”

“I’m thirsty.”  

[psychosistr]

FOWL Facets- Chapter 5

Summary: While their hostage is a bit more cooperative now, his mouth still lands him in trouble with Domino and Loony. At least the two of them can have a good laugh about it and fondly remember how they nearly gave the real Steelbeak the same treatment!

Notes: Time for some backstory that DOESN’T involve Liquidator xD

-First Chapter-

Their prisoner had apparently learned his lesson about mouthing off to the F.O.W.L. agents. He was more direct with his instructions and gave them less attitude in hopes they wouldn’t shock him again.

They still shocked him again. Repeatedly.

Domino, Loony, and Gandra got into a fairly easy routine when it came to dealing with the captive melanite: Loony would tie him up with one of her arms (or her leg at one point because she was bored and wanted to mix things up). Gandra would give him a mild jolt with her hand to re-stabilize his body and allow him to wake up. Domino would ask for their next heading. Then, at the end, Gandra would shock him again to destabilize him once more. They continued taking turns guarding him, just like before, keeping two people in the room at all times while the third gem went to the control room to make sure they were still on course.

By the time they’ve almost reached their destination, it’s Loony and Domino’s turn to guard him while Gandra steers the ship. The melanite told them that the next set of instructions were shorter, so they’d need him awake. To make things easier on all of them, Domino keeps a communication line open with Gandra to relay the directions while Loony keeps their prisoner firmly tied up.

“Just passed the three islands.” Gandra says through the speakers in Domino’s watch. “What’s next?”

Domino looks to their captive expectantly. “Give us the next direction…and it had better be the last one.”

“Relax, bright eyes.” The melanite rolls his eyes a little, but keeps his tone from getting too snarky. “Hang a left and head west- you’ll know when you’re in the right place.”

“For your sake, you had better hope we find it sooner rather than later.” Domino gives their prisoner a warning glare before relaying the information to Gandra. “Turn left and head west. Keep an eye out for anything that looks remotely suspicious in the water.” After hearing the star-sapphire’s confirmation, he returns his attention to the rooster. “Did your ‘acquaintance’ leave you with any instructions for the exchange?”

“Just two.” The melanite meets the loon’s red-eyed gaze unflinchingly, despite knowing that the threat of shattering him at any moment was still a very real possibility. “First: You gotta bring me out in one piece.”

“Only one piece? That’s doable.” Domino smirks when he sees the brief look of nervousness cross the melanite’s dark eyes before being covered up.

“Second: He mostly just wants t’ talk to YOU.” The melanite manages to keep his voice calm and level, even with the snowflake obsidian’s expression promising pain in his very near future. “Ya gotta leave the star-sapphire on the ship, but he said you can take your spine-” He doesn’t get the chance to finish his sentence, as he’s suddenly struck across the face in one direction by a white-barrier-gloved fist, and then immediately struck back the other way by a gray-gloved fist from his other side. “?!”

He’s about to ask what he did to deserve such harsh treatment, when the gray-gloved hand stretches around and grabs him by the back of his head. He’s forced to face Loony’s decidedly UNhappy face directly in front of his own. “I’m not ANYONE’S spinel, thank-you-very-much!” The arm binding the melanite begins to constrict and coil around his body even tighter, squeezing it like a boa constrictor. “I’m my own gem. Nobody gets to own me.” She continues squeezing the wide-eyed melanite’s body until it disappears with a poof, leaving his gemstone behind on the seat. Looking at the stone, her earlier anger fades away and she gives Domino an apologetic frown. “Whoopsie-doodles. Sorry, Dommy- I got a little carried away…”

“It’s fine, Loony.” He holds his hand out above the black stone and a white translucent bubble appears around it, allowing him to pick up the gem while keeping it contained. “I was about to shoot him, anyway.”

“Oh, goodie!” The other loon’s words are enough to restore the spinel’s cheer, making her giggle. “Hey, remember the first time Steely called me that and you nearly shot HIM for it?”

“Vividly.” He answers with a quiet chuckle. After all, how could he forget the first time he met the loud-mouthed melanite and everything they went through over the course of their first few missions?

It had taken Domino and Loony a week to reach the rendezvous point. They’d had to “borrow” a ship, fly through three asteroid belts and the debris of a broken planet, and been forced to walk for two days after crashing their ship too far from the appointed coordinates. All of this just to make sure they arrived promptly to meet Domino’s new partner.

The least the clod could do was show up on time.

With a glare that was becoming more irritated by the second, Domino pulled back his sleeve and checked his watch for what must have been the twentieth time since they’d arrived.

EIGHT HOURS. Domino and Loony had been waiting EIGHT HOURS for his new partner to show up.

To be fair, to most gems eight hours was a pretty insignificant amount of time. However, with the day (day/week/month/year/CENTURY) that Domino had been having, he was hardly in the mood to be kept waiting. What made matters worse was the fact that he had nothing to distract himself from the passage of time, so all he had to do was check his watch and look up at the sky. Loony had at least found her own entertainment in chasing around the small, colorful organic creatures that popped up from holes in the ground nearby, but that was hardly the sort of thing Domino could find enjoyment in. Seriously, he didn’t even have any data pads to read or a communicator to call F.O.W.L. for a status update on his new partner’s whereabouts, or ask what kind of gem it was, or-

He noticed something shiny break through the clouds, descending rapidly towards their location like a shooting star. He nearly mistook the object for one, too, until it slowed down enough to let him see the pronounced but rounded point on the front and the sharp, angular protrusions on the back were all actually just part of a gleaming golden ship that managed to shine and sparkle even in the low light of the planet with nothing but the stars and two moons available for illumination.

The flashy (and honestly a bit gaudy) ship landed less than ten feet away from them, causing a strong rush of air that nearly blew Domino’s hat off of his head. Keeping one hand on his hat to save himself the hassle of retrieving it later and the other in front of his eyes to shield them from the wind, Domino squinted at the mass of gold as it landed on the ground.

The air settled after a few seconds and a hatch on the side opened up a minute later. A tall silhouette stood in the lit opening, the lights making it hard to get a good look at what kind of gem it was. “Hey, you’re with F.O.W.L., right?”

“Depends on who’s asking.” The loon squinted up at the figure, trying to discern any details about the new comer.

“Oh, a wise guy, huh?” The person on the ship asked sarcastically. “Come on, snowflake, we got work t’ do.”

Domino scowled at the nickname. He’d been called so many names because of his gemstone- people loved to joke about how fragile obsidians were- and, while he’d gotten used to it and proved the hecklers wrong many times (usually by shooting one of them in the face) he still didn’t enjoy the teasing. Whoever this gem was, he was making a horrible first impression-

“What-?!” Domino was startled by a black, diamond shaped platform suddenly appearing under his feet and lifting him up towards the ship’s entrance. He barely managed to keep his balance, his look of surprise turning into an offended glare when he was brought up eye-level with the ship’s owner. “……”

Finally getting a good look at the other gem, Domino took in his new partner’s appearance properly: A black ball-cut melanite that looked like a rooster in a tailored suit with a large red comb, green tail feathers, and a metallic beak.

Oh, great- a GARNET. Every garnet that he’d been forced to interact with in the past had been stuck-up, spoiled, upper-crust elites that looked down on “lower-class” gems as if they were all mere pebbles by comparison. They pretty much always had a superiority complex and treated gems like Domino and Loony as if they were either cannon fodder or servants. Domino was already mentally cringing at the thought of having to work with the other gem.

“Quit with the starin’, red eyes.” The melanite told him with a roll of his own dark eyes as the platform roughly deposited Domino in the ship. “I already told ya, we got work t’ do and we’re runnin’ behind, so move it.”

“My name is Domino.” He continued to glare at the obnoxious garnet. “And maybe if YOU weren’t EIGHT HOURS LATE, we wouldn’t have to rush.”

The rooster wasn’t even remotely bothered by the loon’s hateful look. He merely rolled his eyes. “Oh, I’m SO sorry, I must’ve lost a few hours goin’ across the galaxy line.” That was possibly the most sarcastic, least apologetic apology that Domino had heard in his entire life. “Now, if you’re done snappin’, short fuse, we gotta go.” He pushed a button by the hatch and the door started to close.

“Wait.” Domino raised his hand, making a white barrier shaped like a rectangle appear and block the door’s movement. Before the melanite could ask him what he was doing, he cupped a hand by his beak to help with the volume of his voice. “Loony! Time to go!”

“Comin’, Dommy!” The spinel called back before her hands suddenly stretched up to the doorway and she pulled herself inside, Domino allowing the door to close once she was fully in the ship. She saw the melanite and gave him a bright, excited smile as she took one of his hands into both of her own, shaking it vigorously. “Hiya! My name’s Loony Toony, but my friends call me Loony! What’s your name?”

“..Steelbeak…” The taller gem answered after a moment of confusion, staring at the stretchy, smiling gem. “Didn’t know there’d be two of ya…”

“We’re a packaged deal.” Domino explained to the confused rooster. “Where I go, Loony goes.”

“Oh..” Steelbeak finally managed to free his hand from the prolonged and overly enthusiastic handshake, taking a moment to flex his fingers. “High command didn’t say nothin’ ‘bout it, but I can deal with it. So, she your servant or-?” He ducked, barely avoiding a gunshot aimed right at his face. “Hey, what’s the big idea?!” He glared at the snowflake obsidian and the pistol in his hand. A gray-gloved hand punched him in the back of his head before he got an answer. “Yeow!” He rubbed at the sore spot, shifting his glare over to the spinel this time.

“That’s rude!” Loony told him, putting her hands on her hips while she was stretched up to be slightly taller than him. “I’m Dommy’s FRIEND, not his servant!”

Steelbeak was about to say something else, but a white barrier forming a small bubble around his beak stopped him. “Let’s set a few things straight, right here, right now.” Domino grabbed the melanite by his bowtie using a white barrier-gloved hand and roughly yanked him down so that he could look him in the eyes properly and more easily press his gun to the side of the rooster’s head. “Loony is her own gem. She doesn’t take orders from me, and she certainly won’t be taking any orders from you. And that goes for me, as well: I am here on High Command’s orders as your PARTNER. I’m not some disposable amethyst for you to throw to the front lines and sacrifice. I’m not a pearl you get to boss around. If you even try talking down to me or Loony, you will disappear before you have time to blink. Are we clear?” The barrier dissolved with a snap of his fingers, his gun disappearing momentarily to allow the action.

“Wow, touch-y.” Steelbeak’s sarcastic tone was back the moment his beak was free. “Can’t a gem ask a question without gettin’ his head blown off?” He stood back to his full height, fixing his bowtie once the shorter gem let it go. “If you’re done bein’ all sensitive and offended over everythin’, we gotta go.” He began to walk off, presumably towards the cockpit, not sparing them a glance as he spoke. “And for the record, snowflake, I don’t really care what the deal with you and stretch is- I was just askin’ ‘cause I felt like it.”

Domino understood in that moment that working with Steelbeak was going to be one of the most mentally frustrating and exhausting things he would ever do in his life- a fact that the rude melanite would go on to prove time and time again as they spent the next few decades together on a series of missions assigned to them by High Command.

To the rooster’s credit, though, he was very strong and extremely competent in the field. The two of them made a surprisingly good team in battle with Steelbeak using his ability to quickly lift and maneuver them to better vantage points while Domino’s barriers protected them from enemy fire, leaving them both free to gun down the enemy from a secured and steady location. He was still generally rude and unpleasant to be around, but Domino managed to ignore that part about him as long as he could avoid being around him anymore than what was necessary for work.

Unfortunately, the fact that they often took Steelbeak’s ship on missions meant that certain interactions were unavoidable. One particular case-in-point happened a little less than a year into their partnership when the “Lucky Star” (which he still felt was a pretentious name for a spaceship) suffered some damage after a narrow escape on their last mission. While they’d managed to shake off their pursuers fairly easily thanks to the melanite’s piloting skills (yet another thing he had to give the taller man credit for- his flying maneuvers and intuition behind the controls were both top-notch), the damage to the power crystals meant that they had to stop off on a moon a few billion lightyears from homeworld for much needed repairs.

This led to Steelbeak lying on his back with the upper half of his body under the ship’s power converters. “Uggh, would ya look at this mess?” He complained, though it was mostly to himself. “The stabilizer’s trashed…gonna need a new one..” He ripped something out of the machinery and slid out from underneath the large converter. Looking around to the only other two gems on the ship, his eyes landed on Loony. “Hey, doll,” He tossed the metallic object he’d pulled out of the machinery towards the spinel. “Grab me another one o’ those from the supply closet- top shelf, on the right.”

Loony caught the object with ease, but she gave Steelbeak a confused look over the nickname. “My name’s not ‘doll’- it’s Loony, remember?”

“And we’ve been over this before-” Domino said while looking down on the melanite with a warning glare. “-she is not a servant. You’re not allowed to give her orders.”

Steelbeak rolled his eyes, the snowflake obsidian’s glares working about as well as they usually did on him (which was not at all). “Not this again…” He didn’t bother getting up from his spot on the floor, but he did counter the glare with one of his own. “Look, short fuse, I know ya got hang ups over your whole ‘we don’t take orders from you’ shtick, but you’re forgettin’ one thing: This is MY ship-” He gestured around them with one hand to the ship as a whole. “-and I ain’t a friggin’ chauffeur! You two wanna keep gettin’ free rides outta me, then ya gotta pull your weight around here.” He held up one finger when he saw the darker bird’s beak begin to open, already predicting what his protest would be. “And before ya say anythin’, it ain’t got nothin’ t’ do with ‘rank’ or ‘class’, or whatever ‘cause I DON’T CARE ‘BOUT THAT JUNK. I’d be tellin’ ya the same thing if you were sapphires or garnets- shoot, I’d even tell White Diamond t’ get off her lazy butt and do some work for a change if she was here!” He got back down under the power converter, waving his right hand in the general direction of the tool box located right next to Domino. “Now, ya can either spend a few years tryin’ t’ hitch a ride back t’ homeworld on a comet, or take five seconds t’ hand me a 155 micro-inch laser cutter so we can get there in a few days- your call, red eyes.”

Domino seriously contemplated shooting him in that moment (not that it was the first time he’d considered doing so), but he had to, reluctantly, admit that the loud-mouthed melanite had a decent point.

“Fine.” The requested tool (though he wasn’t entirely sure if it was the right one or not) was tossed so that it landed on Steelbeak’s stomach rather than placed neatly in his outstretched hand. “Though it wouldn’t kill you to say ‘please’ once in a while.”

Even with his face hidden under the machinery, Domino could practically HEAR the smirk in the other gem’s voice as he grabbed the laser cutter. “I dunno, snowflake- it might.” The nickname earned him another glare that likely would have had the same effect even if it was actually seen by the other gem.

“It’s Domino.” He stated for what had to have been at least the hundredth time, as he always did when that nickname came up.

Once they actually got back to homeworld and started interacting with other gems again, Domino learned that Steelbeak’s words held quite a bit of truth to them. He really didn’t care about a gem’s rank or purpose. From the lower class warrior rubies and quartz soldiers, to the servant-grade pearls and peridots, all the way up the chain to the commanding elite emeralds and his fellow garnets, he ultimately treated all of them the exact same way. Granted, the way he treated everyone was RUDE (High Command being the only obvious exception to his attitude), but it was at least a little reassuring for Domino to know that the melanite really didn’t view him or Loony any lower than he did any other gems in the universe.

While that fact helped ease his tension a little bit, there was still one thing that continued to rub him the wrong way- something that became increasingly harder to ignore until it finally reached a boiling point.

They had been sent out on another mission to a far off planet. It was a standard “wipe out the inhabitants and claim the planet as a base for F.O.W.L.” assignment. Everything had been going well until one of the creatures had revealed his race’s ultimate, last-resort weapon- a series of explosives buried deep within the planet. The bombs had gone off before they had time to get away. The pair ended up falling into a crevice that quickly filled over with rocks and debris, unintentionally leaving Loony up top before she could stretch down to reach them.

Reflexes guiding both of them, Steelbeak summoned one of his black diamond shaped panels below them to slow their descent into the bowels of the planet while Domino formed a white dome-shaped barrier above them to keep the quickly growing pile of rubble from crushing them. Their combined efforts worked in keeping them in place and alive, but it also left them stuck in place, forcing them to either wait and see if an opening presented itself or if someone was able to dig them out since the rubble above was too heavy to be pushed back up out of the hole and there were no tunnels visible nearby to offer them a way out.

“Well, ain’t that just SWELL.” Steelbeak said sarcastically while waving his hands in indication of their surroundings.

“You just HAD to take your time tormenting those last few survivors, didn’t you?” Domino’s voice was equally sarcastic, though his tone was laced with more annoyance than his partner’s.

“Oh, gimme a break...” Steelbeak rolled his eyes, leaning back against the white barrier behind him with his arms crossed. “How was I supposed t’ know they rigged this rock with a buncha crazy suicide bombs? I mean, who DOES that, am I right, snowflake?”

That was it. That was the last straw.

The rooster let out a startled yelp when he was suddenly grabbed by his collar and yanked down harshly to be eye-level with a pair of VERY angry red eyes. “My..name..is..DOMINO!” He snapped at the taller gem, years of pent up frustration finally surfacing. “Not red eyes, or short fuse, or stripes, or wise guy- and definitely not snowflake!” He tossed the larger gem to the ground (well, to the black panel below them) with ease, allowing him to look down on the melanite properly. “It’s been 100 years now and I’ve told you thousands of times! ‘Dom-i-no’, it’s not that hard to remember! Honestly, at this point it’s almost like you’re doing it on-!” He stopped, blinking twice as the anger in his eyes suddenly changed to realization. Oh stars. It all made sense now. “You are doing it on purpose..” He said slowly, crouching down so he was next to the other gem as he began to sit up. “You’re actually trying not to remember my name.”

“……” Steelbeak didn’t say anything to the accusation at first, but the way he avoided eye contact with the shorter gem was answer enough. “Not much point rememberin’ your name if you ain’t gonna stay.”

Now there was a statement that certainly got Domino’s attention. “Why wouldn’t I stay?” He shifted from his crouching position so that he was now sitting in front of the melanite. It wasn’t like they had anything else to do while they were waiting for a way out- he might as well get comfortable.

“I don’t do well with ‘partners’. I’m more of a solo-act, ya know?” Steelbeak shrugged with a heavy sigh, sounding like he’d had this conversation before a hundred times (maybe he had). “But every few hundred years, High Command insists on stickin’ me with some new gem, sayin’ ‘try and make this one work’, but it never does. They either do somethin’ stupid and go gettin’ themselves broke, get on my nerves enough that I throw ‘em out the airlock, or I get on their nerves enough that they transfer somewhere else first chance they get.”

Domino cocked a brow, his curiosity piqued. “How many partners have you had?” The thought of going through enough partners that you’d become used to essentially working solo was foreign to Domino. As an obsidian, he was originally intended to be part of the general labor force and work in large groups of his own kind. Then, as a F.O.W.L. agent, he’d only ever had one partner before, and they’d been together for nearly ten thousand years- not to mention the seven thousand years he’d had Loony around.

“I dunno…five…six hundred, somethin’ like that..” He answered so casually despite the loon staring at him in pure shock. Five or six hundred? How was that even possible?! “They all go away eventually, so learnin’ their names just wastes time. It’s like….” Steelbeak drummed his fingers on the panel below him, trying to find the right words. “Ya ever had a pet?”

Domino almost said no, as he himself had never actually “owned” one. But, after giving the question some thought, he supposed that assisting in the day-to-day caretaking of the various small creatures that both Loony and his previous partner brought home with them over the years somewhat counted. “Kind of.”

That seemed to be enough for Steelbeak to continue with his analogy. “Well, if ya got an animal livin’ with ya, at first it’s just some stupid little thing runnin’ around your place needin’ ya t’ do stuff t’ keep it alive. Then, suddenly, ya go an’ give it a name and everything changes- it ain’t just some random animal no more, it actually means somethin’ to ya. Ya get attached to it.” He began to look frustrated the more he spoke, moving his hands in a way that Domino had begun to realize was somewhat of a nervous tic for the larger bird. “Then BOOM! Next thing ya know it runs away or gets itself killed or tells ya you’re nothin’ but a worthless bucket of slurry and no one’s ever gonna like you anyway, so why bother-?!” He caught himself, realizing that he’d gotten out of the simile somewhere, so he lowered his hands back down to his lap and tried to cover his slip with one of his usual sneers. “So…yeah..it’s easier if ya just don’t bother namin’ ‘em…that way you don’t go gettin’ attached…it just make sense…”

Domino…really didn’t know what to say to that for a while. While he didn’t like that he was essentially the pet in that comparison, he could understand where the other gem’s attitude stemmed from a little better now. The idea of going through that many partners in a relatively short amount of time was still hard to imagine (seriously, in the time that he’d been with just one partner, Steelbeak must have gone through at least two or three hundred), but he could see the impact it left now: He could see the guarded posture, the distant look in his eyes as he even now tried to avoid the loon’s gaze, and the walls he was trying to cover up with snide comments and sarcastic quips. He could see it all now.

“Well, I’m not one to crack under pressure.” His simple statement was enough to make Steelbeak glance back over to him, if only just a little. “I can handle myself in a fight just fine, so unless it’s an enemy that can destroy an entire planet, then I won’t be taken down that easily.” The corner of his beak lifted slightly when the taller gem turned his head to look at Domino properly. “I also doubt you’d be able to throw me out of the airlock- I’d just put a barrier over it.” He saw the corner of the other bird’s beak shift a little as well, looking close to a smile before he could stop himself. “And I’m certainly not the type to run from a challenge.” He smirked, trying to come off as challenging but the usual aggravation he would have in his eyes was replaced with something closer to understanding.

Steelbeak seemed to be at a loss for words for the first time since- well, since Domino had known the normally talkative gem. After a few seconds, though, a few simple words left his beak. “A hundred and ninety-nine years.” At a curious tilt of the loon’s head, a silent prompting for more, Steelbeak elaborated on his statement. “That’s the longest I’ve ever had a partner stick with me. You beat that record, and I’ll think about rememberin’ your name. Deal?” He extended his hand towards the other gem, giving one of his usual cocky smirks but with something a bit more sincere showing in his eyes and the way he carried himself.

A small white barrier appeared around Domino’s hand like a glove before he shook the offered hand. “Deal.” He narrowed his eyes warningly, not letting go of the other bird’s hand quite yet. “But you have to stop calling me snowflake. I’ll tolerate the other nicknames until you remember to call me Domino, but if you continue using that one I cannot guarantee your safety.”

Steelbeak blinked in surprise as the other bird finally let go of his hand. “What’s wrong with snowflake?”

“Oh, don’t play dumb.” Domino waved him off, the white barrier dissolving to expose his hand again. “I know you’re only doing it to make fun of me and I won’t tolerate it.”

“Huh?” Steelbeak only looked further surprised, and now confused, by the obsidian’s words. “I call ya snowflake ‘cause you’re a snowflake obsidian-”

“Yes, yes, and I’m ‘fragile’, I get it! I’ve heard all the jokes a thousand times already: ‘Obsidians are so delicate!’ ‘Obsidians are just dark glass!’ ‘Obsidians are so disposable- they’re practically made to be broken!’ ” Domino scowled, holding his head as he closed his eyes for a moment. He seriously hated all of those stupid, juvenile jokes. If he heard one more, he would-

“People actually say that?” The genuine confusion in the melanite’s voice startled Domino right out of his thoughts.

“Huh?” He lowered his hand so he could look at the other gem’s face properly. He was surprised to see that the confusion written across Steelbeak’s face matched his tone perfectly. “The elites say it all the time.”

Steelbeak’s confused expression turned to a scowl that could have rivaled Domino’s a moment ago. “Ugh, do NOT get me started on those good for nothin’ snobs! I can’t stand those jerks!”

Those words surprise Domino yet again. “But..you’re technically an elite, aren’t you? You’re a rare, high-ranking garnet in White Diamond’s court.”

Steelbeak rolled his eyes, making a gagging sound as if the very idea disgusted him. “Not by choice- I try t’ limit my time around those over-polished rocks t’ almost nothin’. Those buckets of slurry got everythin’ handed to ‘em the second they popped outta the ground- they didn’t earn any of it and wouldn’t know a decent gem from a mud ball! They take one look at your gem and think they know EVERYTHIN’ about ya.” He jerked his thumb upwards in the direction of the planet’s surface high above them. “That spinel ya got with ya-”

“Loony.” Domino corrected automatically, though it didn’t stop the other bird’s speech.

“-she’s supposed t’ be a ‘playmate’, far as those elitist jerks are concerned, but she’s got a punch that’d put any amethyst or topaz down with one shot! And you-” He gestured now to Domino- specifically to his gemstone. “You’re an obsidian! You came out of a friggin’ volcano! Just to be alive, ya had to climb out of something that would’ve melted down most of those ‘elite’ gems and be smart enough to get out of there without fallin’ in another lava pit. Obsidians ain’t fragile, they’re sharp- both ways.” He pointed to one of the white spots in Domino’s gem. “Plus you’re a snowflake obsidian, on top of that! Those white spots ain’t just for lookin’ good, they’re made of quartz- so that means you got the sharpness of a regular obsidian PLUS the strength of a quartz soldier.” He lowered his hand, feeling that he’d more than made his point. “If anyone calls YOU fragile, then they deserve whatever ya shoot ‘em in the face with.”

To say that Domino was taken aback by the other man’s words would have been a gross understatement. Never, in his entire life, had he heard anyone describe his gem type in such a positive manner- least of all someone who, by all rights, would be considered an elite according to the diamond’s hierarchy.

What made the other’s words all the more meaningful was how ACCURATE they were. He could still remember the day he was forged: How he’d come out of the volcano and just barely avoided stumbling out into the lava below. How he’d had to climb out of the steep terrain while a couple of the weaker or more careless gems fell to their doom. How those gems screamed in agony and how some tried to grab onto him for support, or climb over him to save themselves, or even attempted to forcefully drag him down with them. How he’d fought for his right to live and climbed all the way to the top so he could see the sky for the first time. And how he’d navigated his way through the streams of lava down the side of the mountain to find the gem base set up miles away, only to instantly be put to work with no regard for what he’d endured to get there.

He hadn’t thought about it before because it was how all obsidians came to life, but Steelbeak was right in his assessment. Domino survived because he was strong enough to live. He continued to survive because he was intelligent enough to keep himself alive. Thinking about it that way, being a snowflake obsidian sounded like something to be proud of-

“Wait..” Once again realization dawned on him. “When you call me snowflake..is that your attempt at a compliment?”

Steelbeak looked away from the shorter gem’s inquisitive gaze once again, absentmindedly scratching at the feathers on his cheek with one finger. “I mean..if ya wanna take it that way, sure…whatever keeps ya from shootin’ me…”

Huh…

This man continued to surprise Domino in new and intriguing ways. Perhaps being partners with him wouldn’t be as bad as he thought.

They’d eventually been dug out by Loony, who’d had the idea to use even more explosives to blast away the rubble long enough that Steelbeak could raise their platform out of the hole while Domino’s barrier took on a more pointed shape to help push the debris away when it came back down. Their job was essentially completed after that and they returned to Steelbeak’s ship as usual, neither of them bringing up what they’d discussed beneath the planet’s surface but both certainly feeling a shift in their dynamic.

Things had begun to change between them gradually after that day. While Steelbeak was still rude and sarcastic, his attitude was more joking than insulting as it had been before. Also, now that he knew why the other gem resorted to nicknames, Domino felt less offended over hearing them constantly, which ultimately led to fewer fights between them. Around 150 years into their partnership, he noticed the nicknames “Dee” and “Dom” making their way into the lineup (Loony also got “Loons” added alongside the usual “stretch”, “doll”, and “super stripes”), a sign that Steelbeak was starting to remember his name even if he wasn’t saying it out loud yet.

Then one day, after they’d returned to homeworld following a decade-long mission on the other side of the galaxy, the two had stayed with the ship while Loony went off to go see a friend and the dynamic between them shifted yet again.

Steelbeak had been doing some minor repairs to the Lucky Star, mostly just buffing out some dents and welding together some minor tears in the hull. While he was welding a particularly deep gash on one of the wings, he blindly waved in the direction he’d left the toolbox a few feet away. “Hand me that laser cutter, would ya?”

Domino kneeled down to better reach the item in question. “The 155 or the 240?” He’d gotten more familiar with the various tools and methods of repairing the ship over the years- he’d even gotten better at flying on the odd occasion Steelbeak felt like letting someone else touch his precious vessel’s controls. It had been an interesting learning experience for the loon, seeing as his previous position was more focused on maintaining one of F.O.W.L.’s northern planetary bases and coordinating missions from there rather than flying all over the galaxy for different assignments like his current job.

“The 155 oughta do it.” Steelbeak said, holding his hand out expectantly. Once the correct tool was placed in his hand, he turned it on and got to work. “Thanks, Domino.”

A standard, generic reply had almost left the snowflake obsidians beak…until his mind registered the second word that had been said.

Domino.

Steelbeak had just called him Domino.

Not snowflake, or stripes, or red eyes, or wise guy, or short fuse.

Not even Dom or Dee.

He’d called him Domino.

With anyone else, he would’ve assumed it was a slip of the tongue. Steelbeak, however, was not one for letting his words come out so carelessly, despite what some gems might think. He’d said the loon’s name on purpose.

Pulling back his sleeve to check his watch, he took note of the date and couldn’t stop the smile that effortlessly formed on his beak if he’d tried: It was 200 years to the DAY.

Craning his head to get a better view of the taller gem’s face from his spot beside the wing, Domino saw the smile on Steelbeak’s face. How long had he been waiting for a chance to say the other’s name? Knowing him, he’d probably been looking for the right moment all day.

Leaning against the ship’s wing, Domino gave the only reply that seemed fitting in that moment. “Anytime.”

Steelbeak glanced away from his work, their eyes meeting, each with a knowing smile on their beaks. They both understood the meaning behind that single, simple word:

Anytime Steelbeak needed something, Domino would be there, and Steelbeak would do the same in return. They were partners now, and neither of them were planning on going anywhere anytime soon.

“Hey, Domino, think I found what we’re looking for.” Gandra’s voice says through the speakers on Domino’s watch, bringing him back to the present.

“Right, we’ll be there in a moment.” He replies before nodding towards the door while looking at Loony. “Shall we?”

“Yep! Let’s go save Steely!” Loony says with a smile, already jumping over to the door.

Domino follows behind her, glancing down at the bubbled gem in his hand. They were going to get Steelbeak back. They would not fail. They couldn’t.

After all, he’d promised to be there anytime his partner needed him..and he would not break that promise, now or ever.

<-Previous Chapter Next Chapter->

End Notes: This was another chapter that I had a lot of fun writing :) Getting to show the progression of characters’ relationships is something I always enjoy!

My favorite moment was definitely the one where they were essentially caved in together and Domino got the chance to see that, despite his cockiness and own personal insecurities, there was something worthwhile inside of Steelbeak that just needed some patience and understanding to be brought out.

[kingdomblade]

Long, long final thoughts on Digimon Tri

Now that Digimon Tri is mostly over, you know, barring the dubs of the last two movies and all, I’ve been chewing it all over for the past couple of days and decided to post my thought here in one giant word vomit.

Good points:

Regardless of the quality of the series it was great to see all of the characters again and see how they’ve started to change. Don’t tell me you didn’t tear up a little when Tai and Agumon were reunited.

The Digimon themselves got a lot of great moments too, from Gomamon’s conflict with Joe, Gabumon comforting Matt, to everyone watching Gomamon comforting Matt. Tentomon’s snark in the dub is a gift.

If we're being honest then everything Gabumon did was gold though

The dub getting a good chunk of the cast back down to random characters like Tai’s mom and Ogremon, with most replacement actors either able to honor the original voice while putting their own spin on it (Kari), or do a completely different take on the character but still be able to portray them well (TK, Joe)

The dub singlehandedly redeeming the dialouge in Loss and improving the movie (Fingers crossed for Coexistance!)

Seeing all eight kids have their Digimon reach Mega level is every 90′s kids dream come true

Brave Heart Tri version is amazing! Easily

Joe, Tai, TK and Mimi had some nice character development moments - even if Mimi’s had little to do with the overall scenario - with Joe being the standout for me. While Meiko’s story was handled rather clunky, it wasn’t a bad arc either - I'm lowkey Meiko defense squad.

The art style was a departure from Digimon as a whole but was fitting for the tone they were going for with the series. While the art and animation wasn't always consistent by any means it could get quite nice when they wanted to, with Vikemon/Rosemon vs. Imperialdramon and the bit with Meiko and Meicoomon near the end of Future being some of my favorites.

Maki is confirmed for weapons alchemist

"Little Matt"

Bad points:

The characters are written in a way that makes them seem like they don't care about anyone but Meiko for a huge chunk of the series. Leomon dies in front of them and the only one to mention him after the fact is Meiko once - the only one who truly reacts to Leomon's death is Kari, who wouldn't have even met Leomon beforehand.

Tai seemingly dies and there is barely any reaction from the kids for quite some time. Gatomon and Meicoomon fuse together into Ordinemon and only Meicoomon is mentioned until halfway through Future - not even Kari brings her up!

That's not even getting to the 02 kids. Keeping them out of Tri and focusing on the original 8 + Meiko is perfectly fine, but the way it was handled only drew attention to the fact that they were missing more and more. You can't tell me that Mimi wouldn't get in contact with Yolei right away after moving back to Japan, that Izzy wouldn't send word to the others that they met a new Digidestined, or that anyone wouldn't reach out to them after several Digimon battles and getting their own partners back because hey, maybe they know something or could help. Even seeing the Digimon Emperor was treated as seeing an old villain again rather than seeing their friend betraying them. Every instance of finding them or every hint we got towards them was glazed over so much that it reinforces the fact that the Digidestined just Don't Care about anyone anymore. If the 02 characters got the exact same vague MIA treatment and lack of relevance except the kids were actively worried about them, then that would have changed things drastically for the better.

Even with all the characters having grown apart at the beginning of the series, it's out of character that at the least TK and Kari aren't in contact with Davis and the others, considering they were closer with the 02 kids, go to the same school and TK lives in the same apartment complex as Cody and Yolei.

And we have to assume like how nobody noticed the 02 kids were missing, neither did their parents so they didn't reach out to anyone or call the police or anything.

Also the 02 Digimon partners aren't saved because Joe and Mimi just straight up murdered them

The writers had a habit of bringing a lot of lore and callbacks into the series but either not doing anything with them (Ophanimon Falldown Mode and Wizardmon are completely removable) or not doing enough with them. Leomon dying in Mimi and Joe's movie -the two who watched him die before. TK doesn't directly bring up losing Patamon for a second and maybe final time which could add to the overall emotion, and TK/MagnaAngemon battling Devimon again in Future would have been an amazing way to bring his character full circle, defeating an old fear and moving past it. But they consistently decide that bringing up an reference is all they need to do.

I'm pretty convinced that the only reason the Digimon lost their memories was so Sora could have some kind of story - the other Digimon end up rekindling their relationships with their partners so quickly that in both movies 5 and 6 I forgot a memory wipe even happened until it was brought up in the dialogue. Basically the only ramification it has is Biyomon's intense personality change for the movie. While it's still one of Tri's best moments, the whole bit of Gabumon telling Matt that they will always be together loses some impact when Gabumon has technically only 'known' Matt for a couple of days at this point.

Coexistence in it's entirety - not only stopping the movie one too many times to have the same reassuring 'everything will be ok' reassurance for Meiko, but then having her suddenly turn around after all that and decide out of the blue that Meicoomon needs to die anyway so it was all just pointless in the end.

The series ended with a lot of loose ends, which in context of a potential sequel isn't a bad thing but in context of Tri makes for somewhat of an empty experience.

RIP Tokomon and Koromon's dub voices, MetalGarurumon's Digivolution sequence and Garudamon's height

Joe's girlfriend unrevealed, 0/10 series

Bonus:

Making a blatant callback to Tai and Matt holding hands during the VenomMyotismon battle, except not letting them hold hands this time because That’s Gay Now.

All in all I don't regret Tri and there are a lot of things to enjoy, a lot more than I wrote even. But the whole thing has been such a hassle from the beginning - If we 'nade nade' the egg enough then we'll get an announcement - but we did it too fast so they just full on stopped the counter. The teasers were sparse int he beginning, it ended up being a movie format where we had to wait several months between 'episodes' when what we got was still a TV quality show. And our reward for all the waiting was more bad writing, more inconsistencies, more handwaves and unexplained nonsense. It ended up being a mess similar to 02 with the difference being Tri was being written for people who grew up with the original cartoons and this was the result. It honestly kinda sucks that my list of dislikes is so much longer than my list of likes but it is what it is.Ironically enough despite all that, what they did worked. I watched all of the episodes as soon as they aired, went to (almost!) all of the movies in theaters, I'm definitely buying all the Blurays, and if they make a sequil with the 02 cast I'm going to be right there for that too. So I guess despite not putting out a great product, they're getting exactly what they're fishing for. I can only hope that things will be different next time, either better writing or making a TV anime like normal people. We'll see what the future has to hold!

[daemon-knight]

Allen’s Rambling 37: Alternate Universes

For a while now I’ve been thinking of making a Fate Verse for Claudia. After all the research I did for that magus OC that never came to be and a planned Fate retrospective I have for December on my personal blog, I feel like it’d be a waste to not do anything with all this Fate lore I’ve got in me. And on a side note, Fate/Grand Order now pisses me off even further for how much lore/rules it breaks for the sake of fanservice, but that’s a rant to be had on my personal blog. I think Clauds would make a good Beserker and/or Lancer, and I’d love to plot a Holy Grail War, but... I’ve been hesitant to make a Fate Verse, and just Verses in general.

I don’t usually make verses and AUs for my OCs, and specifically my OCs. Back when I did Canon RP blogs I had a few verses for different time periods like feudal or futuristic verse to interact with other muses from those time periods, and even different Canon points for characters like Tsubaki Yayoi, who had major personality changes throughout their series. 

I found doing things like that for my OCs would be a hassle, but lately that opinion has been changing. I honestly think I’ll be working on some Verses throughout this month while working on my other things, but first I’d like to just... get some of my worries of my chest before diving into the world of AUs. 

Keeping Track of Timelines and Relationships

This is the main reason I don’t make AUs for my OCs in the first place. Keeping track of multiple timelines and universes and relationships is a pain. I’ve played Blazblue and Fate/Extella all the hellish, time traveling, alternate reality nonsense that entailed them and I don’t want to do that for my goddamn OCs of all things. However, I think I could probably mitigated that pain with a Relationship page that covers every verse, and I’ve been thinking of adding one for awhile now, so there’s that. I do this all the time for my forum RPs, so... this wouldn’t be anything new to me. 

Another way to get around the timeline thing is to just limit the kinds of verses I have and who interacts with those verse so I wouldn’t have me stretching Claudia’s character to its limit.

Maintaining my Muse’s Character

This is another thing I’ve been worried about when thinking about AUs. I don’t want to lose what my character stands for in order to make them more lore-friendly. That’s not to make Claudia sound like an extremely deep and serious character, she isn’t. It’s just that certain universes would be difficult to keep her character intact. 

With Claudia specifically, I would always want to maintain the fact that she is a high-level warrior with a violent reputation and known for wielding a demon spear. That would work fine for Fate, and I could probably stretch it into a RWBY Verse and even a Soul Eater Verse if I made Scathach her own character. However... I wouldn’t do something like stick Claudia in a Dangan Ronpa Verse with her as the Ultimate Knight (I wouldn’t do this for a number of reasons). Dangan Ronpa takes place in is a modern world where for someone like Claudia to fit in it I’d have to change quite a bit about her. Same thing with something like Tokyo Ghoul, I wouldn’t just make her a CCG member with a Spear-like Quinque... actually, could probably keep Clauds’s character intact given how fucked up the TG world is, but... you get my point. 

Sticking Claudia outside of her Medieval-esque setting would make it difficult to keep her character intact unless that world still had enough medieval-esque parts in it to make Claudia’s background believe. Claudia, in a nutshell, is a young girl that was originally suppose to be married off as a trophy wife/concubine to a noble/prince for her family’s reputation and standing, but became a warrior instead to avoid an arranged marriage. In our modern world, arranged marriages only happen in very few cases, most of which being outside the West (where Claudia is based around), and those arranged marriages that do happen in our modern day can’t be undone just by joining the military. Changing that reasoning behind Claudia’s action of becoming a knight means I might as well make a new character entirely.

Also, just real quick, just to get it off my chest, another reason I wouldn’t make Tokyo Ghoul and Dangan Ronpa Verses for Clauds is because those mediums are heavily based in Japan either in location or concept, and I’m not turning Claudia Ivora into Kotone Shirogane just to keep things canon-friendly. I’ve already talked about character ethnicity and why I’m leaning away from making all my characters Japanese in some sense without a damn good reason, and I’m not talking about it again unless asked.

What Kinds of Verses to Make

This is more 'where do I stop making verses’ than what kinds I want to make. There are the obvious verses I’d make so she’d be more lore-friendly to other characters and canons, like the aforementioned RWBY, Soul Eater, and Fate. These series don’t require me to change much of Claudia’s character and goals, but I would just have to tweak her a little so she’d a be a better if. For RWBY, I’d make Scathach’s transformation more mechanical than demon. For Soul Eater, again, Scathach would just be her own character and Claudia would be a meister avoiding arranged marriage by becoming miester. For Fate... well, she’d just be a Servant, but I’d be very tempted to make an OC master for her to keep things simple (more on that when I talk about multi-muse blogs). Any other series like Tales of, Fire Emblem, Berserk, and the like I don’t really have to change anything about Claudia, so she wouldn’t need verses there, only tweaking here and there that could be recorded in a Relationships page.

And then there are some verses I’ve been toying with in my head for a while. Mainly, verses of Claudia at different points in her life. Her as a soldier, her as an actual knight, and even a future verse for when she just turns into a demon after fusing with her spear. I’ve also been thinking of makings things like a Fairy Tail Verse for her since she’s involved with Dimaria and her gang, and probably a specific verse of her being directly under Anima and her kingdom, but that’s a Rambling for later.

So yeah, those are my thoughts on Verses. I’ll probably get to work on a Verses page after this and go back to working on that Dangan Ronpa fanfic of Kirumi Tojo storming Kokichi Oma’s Fortress of Evil... yeah, this fanfic’s gonna’ be wild.

[nowyouowemeafavor]

meta + ... existing since The Beginning?? is this too huge?? this is an interesting thing that Francis tries to think about a lot

i literally just stared at this like wait wtf is the question? but i’ve had coffee now, and food, so buckle up lovely it’s time to ride Tibby’s crazy multi media meta train!!!

alright so the way this works, because i’m just… it’s me, i’ve mingled in a lot of different ideas from a lot of different places. for Lucifer the beginning of Existence was the moment he opened his eyes with Michael at his side and the two were conduits used by God/Adonai/Yahweh/pick a name to create the universe. Lucifer was the light bringinger and Michael gave everything form through the power that was put into their creation by Him. alright so fast forward the two of them doing their job like proper little drones, and then all of the sudden Yahweh tugs Michael away and creates Raphael, a counterpart to help with the work. and then Lucifer gets Gabriel, before Yahweh goes into ABSOLUTE overtime creating angels because someone has to watch over all this shit that Lucifer and Michael have brought to light and breath by His Grace. which means we got dirt and water, before the other Angels are made, and then they HAD to be made because suddenly we got grass, we got trees, we got algae, we got these weird bacteria in the water and it’s causing a ruckus. oh wait??? what the fuck it’s coming out on land??? why is it in my dirt, go get that weird thing back into your water right now! so, because evolution is important to me as a general rule, it wasn’t just suddenly TADA Garden of Eden, oh no, everyone got a build up for that with the other animals, and apes, and all that great shit right?

now up to this point Lucifer is kind of just fuck off i’m tired, come bother me in another millennia just let me rest! but of course he’s also as mad curious as everyone else, though his purpose is done. he brought the light, and now everyone else is like oh shit this tree, i will defend it until i die! good for you bro, glad you found your purpose, i wonder if i’ll ever- oh man do you hear that? that sound that… music??? holy shit i am HERE for that. like they all slowly but surely were drawn to what they had guardianship over y’feel? and then i there were animals walking upright, and animals losing fur, and the angels were kind of like???? and Lucifer was definitely “the fuck is this shit??? HOLD UP” so of course there’s that whole thing as well, and the Eden, and then the Tower of Babel, and then fuck there’s so much going on, but it wasn’t until Christ showed up that Lucifer even bothered going topside for a while, he was too busy trying to keep ship flowing in some sort of fashion down in Hell where he is ABSOLUTE ruler. there is no, “let me talk with my Dad real quick.” if Lucifer says shit it gets done. if Lucifer decides that field of human souls isn’t large enough raze those homes to the ground, it gets done. there’s no eviction notice, there’s no “hey guys, i feel like the feng shui’s a bit off y’know?” he just shows up, points, “tear it down” and it’s done

and then he winds up getting curious because some of the people coming down are talking about if only i’d listened to him, and cue eyes rolling because that’s not why they’re there. they’re there because they can’t forgive themselves, God doesn’t give a fuck unless you mess His stuff up. you commit murder? yeah you’re going to hell because you killed one of His creatures. but there’s also people down there who believe they DESERVE to be there for what they’ve done and Lucifer’s surprised they’re singing a new tune. but then you got this hippie walking around talking about love each other and be hind, and Lucifer’s kind of just “oh Dad’s on the sauce…’ and fucks around with him while getting caught up on what everyone else is doing. oh, the same thing, following Dad’s orders, and in general just worthless, i’m going back home. (random side note: no one is ever going to be able to convince me that Jesus and forward wasn’t some kind of mid life crisis where God went too far in the other direction trying to be the Cool Dad) his attention isn’t dragged back to earth up until Gabriel stages his little rebellion and Lucifer’s just “…………… for fuck’s sake!” but obv Dad’s gonna have Michael cast Gabriel out, though he’s not sure where, except it doesn’t happen and Lucifer does it for him.

and THEN he decides he NEEDS a freaking vacation. which brings us up to the present so i mean, he doesn’t have a lot of good feelings towards humans in general, but he’s not a complete stone, some of those in hell crying out hit a nerve, struck a chord, all that jazz. and i mean he didn’t Not go aboveground the whole time but it was always in spurts like someone having sworn off human company, stepping outside their house, seeing people, listening to them, and just “yeah… no not even worth this hassle” and back home he went. he’s watched them evolve from slimy molecules fused together to things on all four legs to things on two legs to losing a lot of fur to creating cities to destroying cities. honestly get the boy out in some deserted area on earth and he’s happy, surround him with sin he’s happy, but if he has his druther’s his bitch ass is goin to somewhere like Nepal and Mt Everest to just ignore EVERYBODY and just not for a while until he gets bored and wants to mess with someone’s day.