#the kids r most likely orphans

[naivesilver]

Since it persists on being too hot to focus on my more useful OUAT fics, have a disgustingly self-indulgent Pinocchio Swap AU turned "Please Let Piccolino Have A Loving Family" AU moment 🙃🥰

"Grandfather," Pinocchio asks, standing on his tiptoes to peer over the worktable, "why are there so many clocks here?"

He half expects Mr. Marco to scold him for asking such a silly question, but instead the man just chuckles fondly and pats Pinocchio over the head, earning himself a giddy grin. "Ah, that's just because I like fixing them, lad. They need a more delicate touch than doors and plumbing, you see."

"But only one of them is working. Why's that?"

"That is because I don't have the time to spare for them all." Mr. Marco gestures vaguely towards the single working clock, hanging from the wall on the back of the workshop. "That one, though- August helped me sort it out, when he'd just arrived here. Do you want to see it?"

"Yes!" Pinocchio immediately interrupts his curious poking around the table, all but bouncing with enthusiasm. He likes learning about things August is involved with. August's always doing some really cool stuff, it seems.

As such, he lets the old man pick him up and lift him high enough that Pinocchio can see the clock from up close, and doesn't protest when the boy leans even closer, marvelling at the nice carvings in the wood - Pinocchio doesn't wiggle out so much to risk falling, which would for sure earn him a scolding, but still, it's the principle of the thing. He wouldn't feel so certain that he's safe being held like this, with some other people.

He thinks he knows a little of how things work in Storybrooke, now. Not everything, of course, but at least what he needs to get by on a normal day - he knows he can close the window blinds at night if he's worried someone will enter as he sleeps, and that he doesn't need anyone's permission to do so; he knows he can go crawl on August's lap if he's lonely and the man is writing or talking to someone, so long as he doesn't get too much in the way; he knows that if he wants to go pet Dr. Hopper's dog there are multiple adults who'll hold onto Gina for him, because dogs are so much bigger than her and she gets frightened easily around them.

He still doesn't know whether Mr. Marco is okay with Pinocchio calling him Grandfather or not, but that kind of thing is so confusing here, he's not sure he's ever going to puzzle it out. Back home he was supposed to address all older people like that, but Storybrooke? Beats him. Maybe it's too formal for them, who knows.

The clock ticks by another minute. Pinocchio squints at it, following the moving hands with his finger for a moment - the numbers are written a little different from what he remembers, but it's not too long before he can safely declare: "It says it's six minutes past two. That's it, right?"

"Very good," Mr. Marco praises him, and it doesn't feel like a mockery, even if he does sound genuinely surprised. "You know how to tell the time already, then? What a clever boy."

"Yeah." Pinocchio's chest swells with pride, and he points eagerly at one of the other clocks, the still broken ones. "That one's saying it's half past six, but that's because it's stuck. And that one thinks it's midday. Or midnight, I don't know."

"Yes, that's right. Good job. Say, who taught you so well?"

"An old man in a town. He said that because I had a nice watch, I should know how to read the time."

He doesn't like thinking about that too much, honestly. The old man, yes - he'd met a lot of nice elderly people in his travels, more than he did nice younger ones, at least - but the memory of the watch itself makes his chest clench painfully, like the time he was underwater without air before the dogfish happened.

He wonders what they did with it, after he lost it when he turned into a donkey. He's not even sure it still worked at that point, because it fell pretty hard, and the Coachman didn't give him time to check on it before leading him away with his rope - Pinocchio hopes it didn't break too badly, even if he can't have it anymore. It was a good pocket watch, nice to look at. He'd never owned anything so nice before that, and even though he's received lots of gifts since he came to Storybrooke, it's not the same thing. People are richer there than they were in his old land. They always seem to have something to spare for him, especially August and Mr. Marco and the gruff lady at the diner.

He must have gone quiet for too long, however, because the man gives him a little shake, if not a very rough one. "You alright, lad?"

Pinocchio nods, even though the picture of the golden watch is still flashing in front of him, as if it were the sun and he'd stared at it for too long. "Grandfather?"

"Yes, Pinocchio?"

"Can I see how to fix them, too, when you have time? Like you and August did?"

He's not really thinking he could manage it, honestly. He's not good enough for that. But anything's better than being stuck remembering the same thing over and over again, with no way to stop it. Physically doing something usually works as a distraction, like when he couldn't solve his math problems and he'd just up and start running.

For a couple seconds he worries he won't be able to explain himself if Mr. Marco asks him about it, but the old man doesn't, and instead simply nods, his mouth curling in a warm smile.

"Of course," he says, sounding a little choked up. "You're a smart boy. I'm sure you'll learn very fast."

"Really?"

"Well, yes. Why don't you go look for August and ask him, too? I bet he'll say the same thing."

Pinocchio nods again, allowing Mr. Marco to carefully put him down and darting away towards August's room as soon as his feet have touched the floor. He's not completely certain he didn't say something wrong yet, especially when he was distracted, but it's fine. He's fine. He would have been told, if someone was mad at him. That's how it works in Storybrooke.

And even if he did make someone mad, he can learn how to fix that. Just like the clocks. Just like the golden watch, stuck in another world that it might be.

[kefnut-the-gweilologist]

hm

[whathorselegs]

I think one of my favourite character journeys in BSD has to be Kunikida learning to be better with kids because you'd expect it to be a fun wholesome character arc. Only, it ends up being heart breaking as it's immediately turned against Kunikida.

Despite the 'Dad status' that the fandom has given Kunikida, he was actually terrible with kids towards the start of the manga.

Take how he treated Atsushi in the first chapter. (Yes, Atsushi is not a little kid, but he was a starving and vulnerable orphan when they met.) When Kunikida and Dazai mention the 'man-eating tiger' Atsushi immediately freaks out and tries to run away.

What does Kunikida do? He grabs Atsushi, slams him to the floor and then threatens to break his arm for information.

It's Dazai of all people who has to reign Kunikida in reminding him "The boss himself warned you that the gathering of intelligence needn't be an interrogation". Dazai was the sweet talker and Kunikida was threat, even to a terrified, starving orphan.

Later with Kyouka, he's not much better. He attempts to intimidate her into giving the agency information. Whilst Atsushi now fulfils the role of the gentle approach. She's a mafia assassin after all, even if he knows she had no choice in it, Kunikida treats her as a threat before he treats her as a child.

Even with Aya, the interaction that gave Kunikida his 'dad status', he started off badly. But, it is here we start to see Kunikida trying to be better, trying to take a softer approach, even if he's clumsy with it.

When he realizes Aya was just handed a bomb, he snatches it from her and gets rid of it. That can't be helped it was a literal ticking time bomb, he then phones the authorities to deal with it. He was planning to leave, it's only because he caught sight of Aya sitting alone did he approach her. It wasn't his first instinct.

If he hadn't seen her in that moment, he might not have gone looking for her at all.

He asks her if she's alright and then she shocks him by wanting to hunt down the culprit. He rightfully tries to dissuade her, but again, he's not good with kids, he's blunt and argumentative with her.

Obviously, that's not going to convince a kid with a hero complex to not chase the bad guy.

However, his turning point, in my opinion, is when he realizes he has to choose between Aya and the people on the train. Now, he had already set off the stun grenade and is putting all his faith in Yosano finding them. He trusts her so he knows they are most likely going to be okay.

But Aya doesn't know that and he can't explain it all in the time they have. He sees a child who thinks she's about to die and is trying to be brave about it. And Kunikida comforts her. He needs her to know that she's not alone, that she's not going to suffer, that he is with her and he hugs her.

There was no need for him to step into that explosion with Aya except to comfort her. He chose to do that. Above his own life, he chose her needs.

And that's where this journey starts to get heartbreaking, because Kunikida hadn't always been like this. He was obviously always going to try and protect children, his ideals state as much, but he also didn't believe himself to be a hero. He doesn't see himself as someone capable or even worthy of that role.

So he built up a barrier around himself that made him harsher and more callous. He called it a professional detachment. He had to, it was to protect himself, to keep his sanity in those moment when they couldn't save everyone. Now it's breaking down and he's showing more and more how much he cares.

And it's immediately used against him.

The very scenario that got him to open up is placed in front of him again. A child with a bomb around their throat. Only this time Yosano isn't there, and this time Fyodor is orchestrating it.

And Kunikida does everything right. He tells Atsushi to leave and carry on the mission so he can stay and help the child. He gets on the child's level, makes himself small and none threatening. He reassures the child in gentle voice that everything will be okay.

And then, it's the line "How about a magic trick?" that really gets me, because he's trying so hard to present himself as someone trustworthy. And a magic trick is exactly what he pulled off with Aya, but it's what goes wrong here.

Because Fyodor planned it this time. He didn't just target children to get at Kunikida, he made a twisted mockery of what happened to Aya. Except she doesn't live this time and Kunikida can't bring this child any comfort or safety because Kunikida is the threat. This child dies alone and afraid because Kunikida was there, just like Fyodor planned.

Fyodor saw Kunikida bare his heart once and immediately reached in his chest and crushed it.

[roguerogerss]

snow lands on top

pairing: coriolanus snow x covey reader

w/c: 3.2k

warnings: just fluff! a few sexual comments but nothing more, mentions of family deaths, reader is just a poor lil soul

(merry christmas my angels! if you’re having a hard time, i feel you! here’s some soft coryo lovin to help you through it. the holidays r a hard time for so so many people, and my inbox will always be open to anyone who needs someone who’ll understand <3 luv you the most, we’ll get through it all)

-

Christmas Eve. The soft patter of snowfall, the breeze from your half open window, the bustle of the Corso below. You'd been listening to the Christmas shoppers - stressed or unbothered - the kids playing in the snow, mothers and fathers dragging their children to holiday themed events. Laying around in bed all day in old silk had become your go-to on the run-up to Christmas.

You’d come to hate snowfall. It meant the sounds of merry families, playing outside together. It meant mourning for when you could do that, it meant resenting others, something that the Covey would never want for you.

Christmas was bittersweet. It had been for years, now. No gifts under your small, sad Christmas tree, no family gathering, no over-the-top dinner event, sometimes no dinner at all. You lived alone, in your little apartment which you could hardly afford, and had no family left since the war.

You remembered the good times, of course, that was the 'sweet' in all of the bitter. Remembering your mother's baking and the smell of sugar cookies and Christmas cake. The lavish real evergreen tree that made the ridiculously high ceilings of your apartment look low. The gifts, the dinner, curling up with a mug of hot milk on the plush sofa. You even thought of your Christmases back in District twelve. Never too fancy, never too many gifts, but a family, the Covey, music, a home.

Life after the war had been cruel to you. What once was a young girl, with a family wealthy enough to move her to the Capitol, had become a young woman with no one to turn to, and not a penny to her name. You didn't have the luxury of pretending like everything was fine, like you had your family's riches to fall back on. Everyone at the Academy had found out when you'd had to ask for a scholarship loan to pay for your tuition, one which you'd never be able to pay back.

That was something you'd always envied of a particular classmate of yours. Coriolanus Snow. Crassus Snow's baby boy. You knew he must've been penniless, as poor as a church mouse. But maybe you only knew that because your own circumstances were much the same. Coriolanus was smart about it, always looking classy from an outside perspective, never asking for money, never acting hungry. But, when looked into closer, you could easily see cracks.

His shoes were the same ones he'd had since first year at the Academy, and they must've been achingly too small for him. He'd eat only small amounts at school and pretend he was full up, but you'd seen him once, with no shirt on, and his ribs stuck out like a sore thumb. Wherever there was an academic prize that involved money, he was always trying his hardest to win, pulling out every stop, but if there was no monetary prize, he'd only do half as much.

You saw right through his act, always had, but instead of exposing him to everyone else out of jealousy, you'd helped him out whenever you could. Us poor orphans have to stick together, right?

You'd share food, give eachother your spare trolley tokens so you wouldn't have to walk the hour back to the Corso, discuss strategy over how to win said academic prizes, and split them with eachother when you did.

You'd become close friends, over the years, even although it was kept strictly as a secret from all of your other classmates. And so, when you heard a familiar voice floating in through your window, you smiled to yourself.

"Y/N?" You could only faintly hear him calling from the street, but you started up from your bed and yanked the window open fully so that you could hang out of it.

There he was, Coriolanus Snow, in all of his glory. Blonde curls full of white snowflakes, wrapped in what seemed to be a ratty fur coat, chittering away. You laughed when you saw him. "Coryo, what are you doing out? You'll freeze to death!"

"Wanted to come and make sure you were okay." He called back, and then looked around warily, almost as though he was checking the coast was clear before asking, "Can I come up?"

You nodded, "I'll buzz you in." And then you swiftly closed the window. Goosebumps had raised on your arms and chest and you'd be paying for the next year if you had to put the furnace on.

You crossed to your bedroom door, made your way down the hall, and pressed the buzzer, which always made the most abhorrent sound when it let whoever was outside, in.

You waited by the door, and soon enough, Coryo was coming bounding up the stairs, fur coat now in his hand, nose and cheeks bright red. You let him in and laughed as you took his coat from him and hung it up. "It's Tigris'. I don't have anything warm enough, but it's the rattiest old thing I've ever seen."

"It's quite something." You turned back to see him shivering, arms folded around his body to try to warm himself. "Oh, you poor lamb."

Your Covey accent had never faded. The Capitol had always looked down upon you for it, but Coryo blushed every time you spoke. "I'm fine, I'll be fine."

"But it's freezing in here, too. Come here." You opened the small cupboard in the hallway, which held a few random seasonal items, and pulled out two, old blankets. You smiled at Coriolanus as you draped one around his shoulders, and he smiled back, close enough to you that his breath was hitting your cheek.

"Thank you, honey." Coriolanus' eyes scanned your apartment, peering through the living room door and then your bedroom door, and he frowned when he saw just one Christmas decoration - your tiny little tree. His family was poor, but Tigris was creative, and they still managed to uphold some joy in the form of tinsel and stockings at Christmas time.

"What?" Your face dropped and you looked worried, placing a tender hand on Coryo's blanket-clad shoulder. "You look so sad."

"You just..." Coryo's voice trailed off, unsure of how to say what he meant without hurting, or offending you. "I mean, you don't have too much, do you?"

"Well, I thought you knew that." A crease had appeared between your brows and you sounded upset with him, dropping your hand from where it had previously sat. Coryo corrected himself quickly, shaking his head at you.

"No, I'm sorry, that came out wrong." He racked his brain for something to say that would make you feel better. The look on your face made his chest sting. "I don't know, would you want to spend Christmas with us?"

You cocked your head to the side, looking at him as though he was going insane. Maybe he was, he wasn't even sure what he was saying. He closed his eyes and ran and hand over his face, which brightened you up a bit. You laughed, and he laughed, and he felt his shoulders relax. Why was he so nervous? He never got nervous, not like this, anyway.

"We don't have much either, but it'd mean you weren't alone. I know how you feel, especially at this time of year." Coryo noticed the slight tinge of pink that had dawned your cheeks, and, on a whim, he reached out and, with two freezing fingers, tilted your head back so that you were looking at him. "You could come to our house, Tigris makes bread pudding, and we managed to get some beef mince this year, too. Maybe you could even sleep over tonight, and we could wake up together-"

"Coryo, you're rambling." You stopped him, you knew he could go on for hours, and, although the offer was tempting, and you enjoyed the idea of spending even more time around Coryo, you planned on turning him down. "Thank you. That sounds lovely, but I'd never want to intrude. No, the Covey wrote me to let me know they've installed a telephone in the town hall, I can call them for a couple minutes tomorrow, lift my spirits. I'll be fine."

You waved him off, and pulled your mother's old silk robe tighter around your body. You started towards the living room door, expecting Coryo to follow, maybe you'd sit together on the flaky sofa and talk for a few hours, but he didn't let you get far. He snatched your hand from your side, and when you turned to look at him, his blue eyes were filled with concern.

"Call them from our house." He wasn't going to let you off without a yes. "Please. I can't leave you alone, that's not fair. Plus, I've always wanted to meet them, haven't I?"

You took a breath and adjusted your hand in his. It felt nice, to have him be so affectionate. You could admit you were closer than most friends, the line between friendship and love always slightly blurred and maybe crossed over on more than one occasion, but it always felt good to have him near.

After careful consideration, and a few reassuring rubs at the back of your hand from Coryo, you finally gave in. "Are you sure? I don't mean to be a pain-"

"You're not. You could never be." He stepped closer and took your other hand, close enough to you that, if he leaned forward, your foreheads would be touching. "Honest, Tigris will be happy to have someone other than Grandma'am."

"And what about Grandma'am? I'm District, I don't think she'll like that-"

"She respects your family. It's not the right way, I know, but there are very few district people she doesn't mind. She knew your parents, always says they were very respectable people." A grimace crossed Coryo’s face, talking about his Grandma’am’s views in front of you. He’d agreed with her for most of his life, but that was until he met you, and that Covey accent finally made snow melt and changed his mind.

"Really?" Your face had lit up. The idea of anyone from the Capitol accepting you, no, respecting you, was something you’d only ever dreamt of.

"Really." Coryo smiled, now, and then he joked, “What an honour, huh? To have Grandma'am like you."

"An honour, indeed." You laughed. You let go of one of his hands, but kept hold of the other. You started to drag him with you towards your bedroom, but Coryo stayed put, confused. He’d never been inside your bedroom, he assumed it was off limits. You laughed at him, “I’m not trying to get you into bed, darlin’, if I was you’d know about it.”

His face turned a deep shade of red and you approached him and placed a gentle hand on his cheek. “Coryo, I’m messin’. I’m just going to pack a bag, you can come if you like, but if I’m making you uncomfortable you’re welcome to sit in the living room.”

“No. Oh, no. You’re not making me uncomfortable.” Coryo let you lead him to your bedroom, now, and he looked around the almost bare room as though it was a place of worship. There was hardly anything in there, a mattress on the floor, a small, oil lamp positioned next to it. A couple of books, a wardrobe which held your school uniform and your mother’s old performance dresses, which you wore every day you could. He was just happy to be somewhere so intimate, somewhere you allowed only the closest people in your life. “Sorry.”

You got that cheeky look on your face, now. The one that Coryo loved so much. “It’s okay. I know you’re a virgin, anyway-”

“Hey!” He smacked you with the blanket and you giggled and smacked him back. “That’s none of your business.”

“Oh, but it’s obvious.”

-

The walk to Coriolanus’ apartment wasn’t long, but it felt different. You’d never made it obvious that you were close, before, but you walked together, through the snow, chatting away like you’d been best friends for years - which was the case, and now people knew. Even when you passed classmates or their families, you’d both smile and wave, and it felt good to know that people would know.

“Are you excited to meet Grandma’am?” Coryo joked. Your cheeks balled when you laughed and gripped onto his hand in an overdramatic way. Coryo thought his heart might’ve burst.

You bounded forward, still holding his hand, and walked backwards in front of him. “Oh, the most excited. I’m sure she’s got great gossip.”

“Only the best. Did you know she had a fling with the President’s brother when they were in school?” Coryo whispered dramatically, and you gave him an equally as theatrical gasp.

“I hope she’ll tell me all about it.”

You arrived at the apartment cold but happy, noses bright red but laughing. Fingers freezing but locked together. You felt pure joy for the first time in a long time, and Coryo decided he could get used to this.

When Tigris opened the door, you knew this was the right decision. Her face lit up, and she clapped her hands together excitedly as soon as she saw you. She didn’t even bother to greet Coriolanus, just started straight for you, “Oh my! It’s so lovely to see you. Please tell me you’re staying for Christmas!”

“I sure am. Coryo managed to convince me.” You looked up to the boy stood beside you, who’d already been smiling down at you with such love in his eyes.

“Well, we are so happy to have you. Lucky to have you.” Tigris squeezed your shoulder and then stepped to the side, gesturing to both of you. “Come in, please.”

You could’ve sobbed, the feeling of being wanted, not being alone. Coryo touched a comforting hand to your arm as you stepped into the foyer, once grand, but now cracked and tired. Tigris took your coat, and the Grandma’am greeted you with open arms.

“Your dress is beautiful.” Tigris commented, and you did a quick twirl to show off the lace-up detail in the back.

“Thank you, it was my mama’s. I try to wear her dresses whenever I can.” You smoothed the ruffles of your dress, looking down lovingly at the shades of green tulle, handmade by your mother herself.

“And so you should.” Tigris reached out to touch your ruffles, too, and she smiled at you as she did so. “She had great taste.”

Coryo led you through to his bedroom, to let you drop your bag off and familiarise yourself with the place. “Thank you.” You muttered as you placed your bag on his windowsill. “For letting me come here, letting me stay. Your family are just beautiful.”

“Yeah, they’re great.” Coryo stood from his bed to join you as you looked out of his window onto the snow covered Corso, at a fresh snow angel and a family you could hear laughing from the penthouse. “I’m sure the Covey are, too. And your parents.”

“My parents were. And the Covey are. I hope one day, you can meet them.” You turned to him, that crease in your brow back.

“I’d love to.” Coryo took hold of your hand, noticing that you’d taken up an unsettled look. “Should we get some air? Grandma’am keeps roses on the roof, might be nice to see them in the snow.”

You nodded. “Yeah. That’d be nice.”

The roof was nice, you could see the entirety of the Capitol from up there - roofs engulfed in white, and the snow-covered roses were such a beautiful sight. You plucked one of the stems, after Coryo said you could, and simply stared at the thing. Back home, flowers were everywhere, they felt like warm hugs, like trips to the lake, like your mama. It was rare that you saw them growing in the Capitol.

“It’s beautiful up here.” You commented as you took a seat at the edge of the rooftop. “You can see the whole city.”

“It is beautiful.” Coryo sat next to you, shoulders touching, pinky fingers travelling closer to eachother and then pulling back, looking forward but watching eachother out of the corner of your eyes. “You’re beautiful.”

Coryo had let it slip, and he took in a deep breath and held it for a while after speaking. You tried not to let your smile get too wide, worried it would border on psychotic-looking if you let it reach it’s full potential. Beautiful, Coriolanus Snow called you beautiful.

“Oh.” Was all you could say, quietly, only loud enough to be picked up by the soft breeze and carried over to Coriolanus. “Thank you, Coryo. I think you’re beautiful.”

Coriolanus looked down and laughed, shaking his head at you. You let your pinkies intertwine, now. “You’re just saying that because I said it.”

“I mean it. Anyone would be stupid not to think it.” Then all of your fingers were locked together. And you sighed and let your head fall onto Coryo’s shoulder. He smiled to himself, and then, in a quick surge of confidence, he pressed a kiss to the top of your head and decided to speak his mind.

“You know I love you, right?" He blurted out. He didn’t regret it, but he was nervous, now. If he’d learned anything this Christmas Eve, it was that you made him nervous.

"I know." You closed your eyes and breathed in the cold air, “I love you, too."

"But I mean, really love you." Coryo took his hand from yours and, instead, draped his arm around your back, fingers reaching up to fidget with your hair. “You're very easy to fall in love with."

"Hm." You hummed and removed your head from his shoulder to look up at him. Your cheeks were flushed and your breath made little clouds in between your two faces. “I think you're very easy to fall in love with, too, Coryo."

You were so close, noses touching, Coryo’s hand still twirling one lock of your hair around and around. And then your lips were on his, his hand gripping the back of your neck, kissing you with a hunger, a passion, you’d never felt before. Not feverishly, not sexual in nature, just real, raw passion. You’d meant what you said. Coriolanus Snow was incredibly easy to love, and you did. You loved him. And he loved you. Nothing else had ever seemed to simple in your entire life.

Coryo couldn’t imagine a world, now, where your lips hadn’t been on his. Where you hadn’t called him beautiful. He was on a high, an all time high, he was convinced. Snow lands on top.

The snowflakes continued falling, landing on your heads, noses, the roses. And you let them, with no resentment, no upset. Because Coryo was there, everything was easy, now.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Gay wrongs tournament, semifinals of the losers bracket

Propaganda:

For Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu:

you've got the founder of the fantasy ancient Chinese CIA and the leader of what is essentially the mafia and then they're soulmates and in love. they're both willing to kill anyone who dares hurt the other while also just wanting a soft domestic life together

Zhou Zishu is an assassin and spymaster who put the current Emperor on the throne, and then quit his job by faking his death (kinda, hes still dying but not as fast as he was supposed to). Had done A Lot on his old job, including murdering children (more than one, and at least one of them in a way I can't even describe without several trigger warnings), exterminating whole families, war crimes (and i dont mean this in a buzzword way, i mean "organized a public execution of foreign diplomats during war time")… btw he doesn't feel particularly bad about any of this, because he believes it was necessary. Like he wouldn't do it for fun, but he thinks the ends (putting a good Emperor on the throne) justified the means (all of the atrocities). As a retiree, he definitely cut down on the amount of morally reprehensible murder, but not murder in general. He still routinely kills ppl, he just doesn't go out of his way to kill more. Wen Kexing, meanwhile, is the Ghost Valley Master - Ghost Valley being a place where the worst of criminals are exiled. Even in such a place, he has reputation as a complete lunatic, owed partially to the fact that he either skinned a man or fed him his own flesh or both at one point, and partially to him having a rule where he would kill anyone who came closer than 3 meters to him. But in truth, everything he'd done was to survive the Ghost Valley and eventually take revenge for his parents, who were brutally murdered when he was only nine. By the start of the novel's timeline, he put his plan in motion - the plan that would drown jianghu in blood, but also deliver poetic justice to all responsible for his parents' deaths, as well as all who'd commit the same crime given the chance. And these two men, these two murderers and schemers, meet - and unexpectedly, find in each other the person who /understands/. The person who is just as ruthless and whose hands are just as bloody, but also the person who knows standing at the top of the world is not worth it, who seeks the same freedom of leaving it all behind, and who is still, underneath it all, a human, with human heart seeking connection. So you have this couple who understand each other with barely a word, and who want the same things - who are so hungry for domesticity and for people they can just goof around with when all their lives they had to measure every step and word - but ALSO where one half a couple is like "i gotta go murder hundreds in revenge" and the other half is like "ok pick you up at 6". (This btw is why I'm submitting novel's iteration of the couple in particular. Show wenzhou with their ridiculous breakups over morality could Never.) Also they were both hiding who they are when they first met, and later flirted about having figured each other out. Finally, I'll leave you my favorite quote that just. perfectly sums up their relationship: "And just like that, they fell asleep in each other's arms, steeped in the smell of blood."

You’ve probably already had submissions for them but I’ll add on. One of them founded an assassin’s guild and killed a staggering number of people. His malewife is the leader of a sect of insane murderous outcasts, and he attained his position by proving to be the most crazy and murder happy of them all. Most of the plot involves him wandering around watching his schemes get more people killed. Together they adopt a kid that was only orphaned due to said scheming (oops). They’re terrible and I love them.

For Legolas and Gimli:

They literally have a running competition between the two over who has more kills. And non-canon my ass, Legolas took Gimli to valinor

They kill alot of orcs together. They make it into a competition. Better minds than i have spoken about the couple ness

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Jack, Malleus: Beasts, us Both

Alright, TWST... you friggin' troll 😭 You got me good with those Jack frames... No wolf inspo reveal, I see how it is-- 😂

Because of the angle we're staring at the image from... that macaron Jack is holding looks like a massive GMO green grape… AM I JUST SEEING GRAPES EVERYWHERE BECAUSE OF R*LLO... This would mark the first Disney100 art with some notable changes (how he’s holding the macaron and the angle he’s bending at), most likely to make it look better for a card layout.

A Tale as Old as Time.

A young lion prince and his hornbill attendant were captured in a photo frame. With finger-like feathers, the bird had plucked a strand of fur from the large cat. He lacked amusement, beak poised in a manner that suggested a light telling-off. The cub, for his part, looked upset at the lecture.

That’s right, lions don’t grow their manes out until they’re older.

Jack sometimes forgot that—with his dorm leader prowling around, the most prominent image he had of a lion was that of Leona. Strong, cunning, and self-assured. Nothing like the prince in the painting.

“How cute,” a low voice drawled. “To think that Kingscholar too was once this small and helpless… Fufufu.”

Jack’s eyes cut to the tall, dark man next to him. With long limbs and regal horns protruding from his head, Malleus Draconia resembled a gazelle.

“It’s hard to imagine Leona-senpai like that,” Jack awkwardly confessed. “I met his nephew once, but that only took me more out of it. He was… energetic and bright.”

“Implying that Kingscholar is lacking in energy and a cheerful disposition?” Malleus smirked. “Ah, yes. Much change occurs between childhood and adulthood, some of it attributed to social influences. That child had best be cautious. Perhaps Kingscholar’s attitude will rub off on him, smothering that sunshine.”

“Leona-senpai has his good points too!” Jack blurted out. He didn’t catch himself in time—the words just came, a reverberating bark in the museum.

“Oh? You’re rather quick to defend him.”

The wolf beastman gasped and reeled himself back in. “Y-You don’t see it because you’re not in Savanaclaw, but I can tell… Leona-senpai cares about his students a lot. He’s looking out for us in his own way.”

“Such as when he attempted to have me trampled?” Malleus suggested, his tone quiet yet challenging. “I do so fondly remember that.”

“Urk!!” Jack’s ears flattened. “He does take it too far sometimes. I don’t agree with everything he does. The idea of doing everything you can to protect others, though… that’s something I can understand.”

"It is?”

The first year nodded firmly. “There are stories about wolves working together to chase off invaders who wandered into their snowy territory. Once, a wolf family even took in an orphaned kid. I have my own younger siblings to look after, too.”

“It appears as though you and your ancestors feel a strong sense of duty to your packs,” Malleus noted. Something akin to amusement danced in his eyes. It quickly flickered out, giving way to a deep melancholy. “Family… Hmm. I cannot say I can relate. I have no siblings to speak of. There is my grandmother, but she is my only living relative."

There was a shift—a small, imperceptible change in Jack's stoic face.

"... Sorry to hear that."

"Think nothing of it." Malleus waved a dismissive hand. "The circumstances are as they are. We cannot rewind the threads of fate, only weave new ones.

"Still, it is strange. I have not had the chance to meet my mother nor my father. They were already gone long before my hatching. I should feel no attachment to such strangers. Even so, I feel as though something is missing without them."

He gave a dark chuckle, curling fingers over his heart. "Perhaps there is a part of me that longs for that kind of a family, too."

Jack frowned. His chest throbbed with a dull pain.

“That's..."

Sad.

No brothers, no sisters. No parents, not even aunts or uncles or cousins. Just one big, empty castle, and the creature caged inside of it.

Pacing past ruined wings, furniture strewn about as if a mad beast had run through it in a frenzy. The space filled with loneliness, a hollow feeling that couldn't be fended off.

He shuffled his feet. Resolve slowly solidified. Jack reached for his voice.

"... I don't think you need to worry, Malleus-senpai. You still have people who care about you. Family isn’t all in the blood." Jack bashfully rubbed at the back of his neck, his eyes averted. "It's in the bonds too."

He gestured to the painting before them. "The lion prince lost his dad, the previous king. In grief, he ran away from home--but he still had friends that guided him when he was lost and scared. A warthog, a meerkat, a baboon, a hornbill, the lionesses in his pride. They all came together to show the prince he was loved and needed. Because of that, he was able to come home with his head held high."

Jack clenched a hand into a fist, offering a stiff smile. "Family's something that everyone has, one way or another. They're the ones who always have your back, blood or not.”

Malleus’s face momentarily lit up with surprise.

“My, I didn’t expect to hear such a motivational speech from you. I hear from Sebek that you’re quite standoffish.”

“D-Don’t get me wrong!!” he sputtered, face heating. “On any given day, I’d tackle things on my own. But doing that all the time is pointless.”

“Which is why you choose to follow Kingscholar’s leadership?” Malleus asked teasingly. “You seem to admire him a great deal and acknowledge him as the leader of your pack here at Night Raven College.”

“N-No!!” Jack snapped. “Th-There are just some things I’m not strong enough to do by myself, times when I have to team up with others for a common goal!! Until the day I have the strength to act completely on my own…!”

Malleus laughed softly, his lips lifting into a mysterious curve. "Be at ease, Howl. You needn’t be so defensive. I see your point with crystal clarity.”

“You… You do?”

“That is correct.” The dragon prince’s eyes creased. “You, who seeks strength, shall surely find it—and with that strength, you will not be daunted from protecting what is most precious to you, family and friends alike. You’ve helped me to realize the same. We are both the same kind of beast, fufu.”

Jack took one look at Malleus’s ominous smile and shuddered. It could have decimated the stars, wiping out all the light in the night sky in one fell swoop.

“I’m not so sure that’s a good thing…”

He glanced back at the painting of the lion prince and the hornbill advisor. The distress on the cub’s face suddenly resonated with him.

Jack groaned.

It looks like I still have a lot to learn.

[phosphorus-12]

Wakfu headcanons

We all know that Iop society puts a heavy emphasis on strength and skill in combat, but what do the other cultures value?

Cra's also value combat skills, but they admire strategy a ton too.

Because of their closeness to the Sadida, they value nature, though not quite as heavily.

Family is not really the most important thing

They protect the people they love the most, which can be colleagues, family, friends, or whatever

Speaking of the Sadida, they are stubborn af

T R E E S

Hurting anyone they care for is an awful decision, as they tend to be very unforgiving of transgressions committed out of malice

Classism? What's that?

Very charitable, kind people

Very united as a people

Enutrofs value gold, ofc

But they also value💖Love and Romance💖

Enutrofs aren't all big cheapskates(look at Alibert!)

They still tend to want their money's worth

but some go to more....extreme lengths than others

Wealth is usually passed to the person that they love the most, which is usually family, but can be anyone, really.

Eliatropes value family, like, a lot

There isn't nearly as much pressure put onto people to be in love

Being somewhere on the aro/ace spectrum is common

Family is sooooo important, whatever form it comes in.

Bio, adoptive, and found family are all equally recognized

If you're like, an orphan, you will inevitably be adopted

The whole community helps raise kids

Parents care for children, mainly, but everyone helps out a bit

It takes a village? Nope it takes an entire ship of magic space people

Hurting your family/being abusive is pretty much unheard of

If it did happen though...

Yikes

Feel free to add on!

[artificial-ascension]

Reading through the wolrds surely most accurate source, Death Note fan wiki, I have accumulated a list of Wammys kid letters that are confirmed in some source to have an individual associated:

A- First successor of L, dead by suicide, mentioned in Death Note: Another Note

B- Beyond Birthday, number two of the first known successors behind A and a main character of Death Note: Another Note

D- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

E- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

F- Appears in the opening of L: Change The World film on a massion for L, dies via helicopter attack*

G- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

H- Sends L an email informing him of F's death in L: Change The World

I- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

J- Appears in the game L: The Prologue To Death Note, the game is unavailable in English so little is know of them, presumably a Wammys kid based on name, a separate J appears in the second episode of Death Note: A New Generation, she is not out right stated to be a Wammys kid, but she is assumed to be

K- Antagonist of L: Change The World book and film

L- If you do not know who L is why are you here, also Linda is a child who appears briefly in the manga and is responsible for the drawings of Near and Mello (I belive that is only presumed but I may be wrong, I can not remember where it was said)

M- Mello, second successor of generation four and a main antagonist of Death Note's main series and Matt, unranked member of generation four appearing as Mello's comrade in both anime amd manga

N- Near, successor of L and number one of generation four, appears in half the places L dose

P- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

Q- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

R- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film, their letter is greyed out, presumably indicating they are dead**

T- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film, their letter is greyed out, presumably indicating they are dead

V- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film, their letter is greyed out, presumably indicating they are dead

X- Alluded to in Death Note: Another Note as helping in a detective war with L

Y- Alluded to in Death Note: Another Note as helping in a detective war with L

Z- Alluded to in Death Note: Another Note as helping in a detective war with L

Unused letters- C, O, S, T, U, W***, possibly J as both instances of the usage are for individuals only presumed to be successors

Letters with known duplicates- L and M, J(?)

------

Conclusion:

1. L: Change The World introduced a shit ton of Wammys lore for apparently shits and giggles.

2. Alot less dead Wammys kids than I expected. (Only 9/24, that's only over a third. Maybe 10/24 if you count Watari.)

3. I can understand not finding a U or V, but how the hell were there no genius orphans with S or C names??

4. It is impossible for a Death Note title to not have a : in it.

------

Notes:

I got this information from the fan wiki and my brain. If it is wrong I'd like to know. I'd also love to hear of any more orphans the fan wiki or I missed.

------

*I can verify that that happened. I remember it vividly. Only known Wammys kid to die from a helicopter.

**A greyed name implies death as B's name was also greyed out. However, this also implies L could readily email B whenever he wanted, which is extremely funny.

***W is often totoed as Watari's letter. However, I am not considering him a Wammys kid but this may mean some of the letters shown do not indicate successors but rather other Wammys higher ups.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Imo I’d suggest writing it bc some people haven’t read everything (me tbh) and so idk who ur guys r or what their personalities r etc, but most importantly for u, if u wanna write it then u totally should, no matter what u think other people will think❤️

Anon, thank you LOL, I was going into quite the silly spiral. Anyway, I have A LOT of things to say about blorbos, so I’ll just talk about two who probably won’t get much fleshing out because I write piecemeal for them and their story isn’t really something that’s gonna be on AO3 or anything because they’re backstory characters.

Rambles under the cut :D

Orik/Link, Hero of Power – Born of a Hylian mother and a Sheikah father, Link lost his mother to childbirth and his father to illness shortly after. He was raised in his father’s culture, collectively raised by multiple families that pitched in to look after orphans after the illness that killed many in their tribe. Link went by the name Orik during his childhood, as Sheikah viewed the name Link as sacred, and not to be given to Sheikah children. He liked the name Link, though, and wanted to have something of his mother’s. He kept a shawl she wore and used it as a blanket when he was little, and later as a scarf when he was older. The cloth and the name were all he had of her.

Throughout his childhood, Link could tell that while he was considered part of the tribe, there were some who viewed him as being beneath the others. He once heard his father’s best friend say that Orik was his father’s greatest mistake, and it stuck with him. Link naturally seeks the approval of others (he is a MAJOR people pleaser), and he wants to prove himself to his people, so he strives to be the best warrior in the entire tribe. He makes a name for himself by becoming the youngest to pass the trials into adulthood, doing so at the age of 12. Once he does, this, he basically has to fend for himself now.

When Link turns twelve, his entire life changes. He has earned some respect from his elders, and he’s eager to continue doing so. He was always a quieter boy, and when he becomes a guard, he’s dutiful, obedient, and generally a little shy and not talkative. It makes him come across as either incredibly stoic or unnervingly/annoyingly lifeless. Despite his quiet, demure nature, though, Link is very keen and observant. He’s vigilant of his environment, and is pretty good at getting a vibe for people. However, he’s now forced into a position of responsibility given to adults, and he kind of just… skips over the development he should get in adolescence. Link has spent a good portion of his childhood trying to prepare himself for adulthood before he even became a teenager, so he’s internalized a lot at this point. He keeps his emotions to himself. He bows and obeys. He doesn’t argue, even if he doesn’t like something. It isn’t until Hemisi drags him out of himself, and until the war forces him to step up, that he really starts to come into his own.

As such, Link’s entire life centers around and stops at the war. He was so stifled as a kid, self-imposed but very much affected by his environment, and so the war is both horrible and freeing. He finally stepped forward to make his own decisions when he saw the casualties at the Battle of Hyrule Field, despite King Ozen’s orders for all the Sheikah—his best warriors—to remain at the castle. Link chose to join the war, and when he was going to sneak off to do so, acquiesced to Princess Zelda’s wish to sneak out with him so they could investigate something. What she sought was the Master Sword, as she suspected Link was the Hero, and he only drew the sword because ordered to. Being the Hero to him is a privilege, and granting him the approval and attention he sought as a child, but he really doesn’t know what to do with it once he has it. It does give him something he isn’t used to having: agency. While he obeys his queen, his status as Hero gives him the ability to befriend her as well, not just follow her orders. While he has a heavy destiny on his shoulders, he chooses to fight against Ganondorf, despite his feelings for him, because he wants to do what’s right. His agency slips through his fingers as the war progresses, as he loses himself to the constant fighting, and it isn’t until the war’s end that he feels like he finally has a chance to make his own life in marrying Hemisi, someone he is madly in love with, and rebuilding together.

And it’s all taken away when he has to marry Zelda instead.

Link’s marriage to Zelda… basically destroys him for a long time. He lost Hemisi, someone who treated him like a person and didn’t bother with the formalities and protocols that plagued his life, someone who made him feel like he could break the rules and have fun and be himself, someone he had just gotten back in the war after losing her initially to it, someone who shared his pain in losing a father figure, in having to kill said father figure. He feels like he shackled himself to the throne, having to obey every whim of the queen to make Hyrule look strong. More than anything, though, he feels like he finally did what he’d been trying to do his entire life: the Sheikah were more proud of him than ever, Hyrule adored him and recognized him and his abilities, Zelda needed him… and he felt completely powerless. He finally got the approval he sought and then realized it was pointless.

This, in turn, leads him to completely spiral. What’s the point of his life, if everything he sought was for nothing? He’d never had a father figure in his life until Ganondorf, only to lose him and have to kill him. Hemisi was his entire world, helping him discover himself and he adored her, only to have to abandon her. He’d tried again and again to make the Sheikah proud, and when he finally did he felt like he’d enslaved himself more than ever. And more than anything, it was his choice – Zelda didn’t force the matter. But he’s always done his duty, and really, why wouldn’t he try to help? He wasn’t going to abandon his entire country for his own needs and wants. That’s selfish. He can’t possibly put himself first like that. It’s wrong. It’s wrong.

So why the hell does everything feel so wrong now?

Link spends years trying to figure out his life after this, to figure out who he is and whether he even has freedom or not. He feels like he doesn’t, and given that he never really had a full childhood, he does not know how to cope with it. Despair, confusion, loss, hopelessness and frustration brew into bitterness and anger, and he does not know how to stop it. He’s prone to melancholy, usually being depressed and sluggish, until he’s pushed to a point of rage, because he doesn’t know how else to express his emotions anymore. He was trained to fight and kill. It’s all he knows. And now he’s stuck in a position where that isn’t entirely needed, and he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do aside from bow his head and do everything Zelda says.

He tries to pick himself up. If nothing else, for the sake of the children he made with the queen. They deserve better than what he’s doing. But it takes him years, and a lot of his anger and hurt is focused on the queen since she, buckling under her own pressure, orders him around expecting him to be okay with just obeying blindly since he agreed to the marriage.

Someday, Link learns to live with everything. Sort of. For the most part. At the very least, he learns to live. He focuses on helping the Sheikah, on developing their technology. He gets Terrako as a gift from the scientists for all the effort he puts into it. He tries to rekindle a healthy relationship with Zelda, though that takes much longer as they’re both hot messes with too much baggage to know what to do with. He tries to be a good father for his children. But he struggles hard, and sometimes he gets angry at himself for doing so - he’s not a child anymore, why can’t he just deal with this? (Because you never learned how, Link. You moron.)

Link loses himself when the war ends, what little he’d managed to find. It takes him over a decade to get that back. He doesn’t entirely succeed… not in time for his early death. But he does try. And he looks out for his family and his kingdom as best he can.

Queen Zelda, the Sacred Diplomat – Zelda spent her childhood mostly in solitude. Her father, King Ozen, was the second son of the previous monarchs, and watched his older brother get assassinated because his claim to the throne was viewed as weak both due to his weak magic and the fact that he was a man. As such, when Ozen had Zelda, he flaunted her existence like a badge of honor and a certification of authenticity. Zelda, however, wasn’t really given any leeway to do anything as princess. She was kept in the castle, like a bird in a cage, to be admired and viewed but not touched or spoken to. Her mother died when she was little, leaving her entirely under her father’s rule. While her father was weak and paranoid, though, Zelda has an inner strength that is not to be trifled with, and she dreamed of gaining her birthright and becoming queen.

During her childhood, Zelda really wanted to make sure she was ready to rule, thinking that her father would of course give her the throne when she came of age. She tried to seek his approval as best she could, and while she seemed to get it in some ways because she’s the princess, it never felt completely genuine. So she stepped up her game to be the best princess ever, learning everything of the politics of Hyrule, learning especially how to wield her magic as best as possible. She dreamed of becoming queen, of being the best queen there was, and of protecting and taking care of her people. Her family history and responsibilities were seen as stories of heroes to her, and she wanted to add to that story, proud of being able to take care of so many.

As the years went by, Zelda saw her father systematically tear Hyrule apart by allowing anyone who sweet talked him to gain power. She tried arguing to no avail, and by the time she was in mid adolescence she started to realize that maybe her father did not have the kingdom’s best interests at heart. She tried to hold on to hope, though, until she saw him fumbling the war and not taking Ganondorf’s threat seriously.

She took matters into her own hands. On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, fueled by confidence over the fact that she bore the Triforce of Wisdom, she overthrew her father with the help of Impa and half the Sheikah. Zelda regrets to the end of her days how her relationship with her father unraveled, as he wasn’t always particularly bad to her (they had plenty of good moments, but his paranoia outweighed everything), but she still thought the duty of her family was more important than her father’s approval.

Because of her mostly isolated upbringing, Zelda is very naïve to the emotions of others. She learns how to manipulate people quickly, but can sometimes lack empathy – she will 100% trample someone’s feelings if she thinks she needs to in order to accomplish a goal. She has a compassionate heart, but it hardens if the objective and the emotions clash. Most of the time, it isn’t even on purpose – she’ll order Link to bring their daughter and accompany her on a tour of Hyrule because she knows the people of Hyrule will want to see the royal family, because marrying Link and creating a family was for the benefit of creating stability and bringing hope to her people. She doesn’t bear in mind that Link’s suffering—she doesn’t even realize it for a long time, too caught up in her own stress and duties—or that showing their daughter off to the world to make people happy is exactly what her father did to her. She doesn’t understand why Link is so melancholy initially, and as for her his relationship with Hemisi, Zelda knew they were close, but clearly they couldn’t have been that close if Link chose to marry her anyway, right? Duty comes first anyway.

Zelda struggles in being a mother. She wants to be there for her children but she doesn’t know how – her parents were never there for her, after all. She spends time with them, nourishes them, loves them, but sometimes the best way she shows she cares is to drag her daughter into politics to teach her so that the nobles can’t take advantage of her, and Link hates that.

As for her personal feelings for Link, he’s one of the first people around her age to ever act normal around her. She loved his friendship during the war, and she doesn’t understand why it’s changed – she knows she isn’t necessarily in love with him, and that he isn’t in love with her, but he agreed to the marriage, so why is he acting like he doesn’t like it? It was his choice, after all. This frustrates her, and sometimes she can’t help snapping at him when he seems to be slacking off. After all, she’s got nobles nipping at her heels trying to take back the power she’s slowly siphoning away from them, given to them foolishly by her father. Sometimes Link helps her out, but most of the time he’s still struggling with his own issues and trying to raise their children while she’s consumed by her desire to take care of everyone. Zelda finds her happiness through protecting others, and she really enjoys the satisfaction of seeing her plans work, and it can make her enjoy manipulating people a little too much sometimes. Despite this, she genuinely wants what’s best for Hyrule, and she wants to make her husband happy too, even if she’s not sure why he isn’t already. (Talk to him, Zelda. Talk to him. Oh, wait, they both suck at expressing their emotions.)

Zelda is not a trusting person. She has too many enemies for that. So she keeps her thoughts and feelings close to her chest, which can cause hiccups with Link. However, she trusts Impa implicitly, considering the Sheikah chief literally had to overthrow the king and her own people in aiding Zelda’s coup. Impa fills the void of a mentor and mother figure for Zelda, and she is eternally grateful for her counsel, but sometimes, having been told her entire childhood that she knows nothing and should keep her head down whenever she tried to advise/talk to her father about matters, she gets fairly defensive. She does not appreciate being corrected by anyone aside from Impa, and she can get a bit dicey about it even with the Sheikah chief sometimes. But she tries to recognize that wisdom means knowing when one doesn’t know something – it’s just a sore spot for her.

Despite her not trusting easily—at all—and despite her having a difficult time figuring out what’s wrong with Link, she does try to reach out to him multiple times to extend an olive branch. Sometimes she rescinds it with her own mistakes, and sometimes he smacks it out of her hand with his own flaws. But eventually, they rebuild a friendship, partly with the help of Impa being injured in an attack organized by Ozen’s loyalists (nobles who know he’ll give them power if he’s back on the throne) – Link and Zelda both love Impa dearly, and they’ll put aside any differences to protect her (Link will burn the world to the ground if he has to, Zelda will temper that but inadvertently cause emotional damage, Link will temper her lack of empathy in turn).

In the end, Link and Zelda have similar backgrounds with very different results. Both wanted to prove themselves, one to his culture by becoming the best warrior and a dutiful servant, the other to her father and herself. They both have a lot of grit. Link’s far more sensitive, basing his identity on the approval of others, while Zelda bases her identity on her ability to take care of her people. This means Link was drowning when he got married and realized that the approval of others only left him feeling more enslaved than ever and unable to make decisions for himself, while Zelda was thriving when she got married because she was doing everything to save everyone. The roles reversed as time passed, when Zelda started to wonder if her efforts truly were worth it when problems continued to arise and she saw Link suffering, while Link started to step up and try to take advantage of the situation he was in and help Zelda.

[aihoshiino]

Reading spica and about how much Ai wanted a family, specifically twins, sometimes I think about is if she never got into a relationship, how would that have worked...would this girl have gone and adopted twins lol

But even if she only had one child, knowing Ai she would've cherished and spoiled them just as much (still makes me wonder about her reaction from I want twins -> I got one child) Maybe get another sibling for this child...possibilities are so endless, I have an unhealthy amount of obsession over this lovable, amazing character...HELP

I'm going to be fully honest and admit that. i. don't really take anything from the spica epilogue into account when aiposting LSKKNSKSJS. In general, Spica falls flat for me in most regards but the OMG WOULDN'T IT BE CRAAAAZY IF I HAD TWINS SOMEDAY thing is just so hamfisted and so transparently leaning on pre-existing emotional setup from the series it did not earn that I just cannot take it on board as organic, additive characterization LOL. Especially because this idea that Ai always wanted twins/to be a mother full stop… idk it's hard to explain, but it feels kind of gross and in line with the weird misogynistic way Spica handles all the other women, too. I think Oshi no Ko handles Ai's r/s with motherhood in a way I think is really warm and lovely and nuanced but Spica is so shallow it ends up with this really "well of COURSE she wants babies because she's a girl ^_^" ass take on things. KDKSJSSNA SORRY, ANYWAY…. THAT WAS SO NOT WHAT YOU ASKED I'M JUST A HATER

Anyway, the timing of me finally getting around to this ask is funny because I've had second-time mom Ai as a concept on my brain lately… Aqua and Ruby kind of Happened to her and she found an incredible amount of fulfillment in loving and being loved by them, so it's interesting to imagine what a second/planned pregnancy would be like for an older Ai…

I definitely think she would need to be in a long term, committed and happy relationship with someone for it to happen, just because she's so caught up in being Aqua and Ruby's mom that I don't think it would really enter her brain otherwise. But like she says in episode 1, motherhood is so much about creating family and joy for herself and the people she loves and for herself that I do think that if she ever found a second love and they were happy together and in a position to make it happen, she'd want to take that to the logical extent of them having their own kid together. A big family is a happy, busy one, right?

The idea of her adopting a kid is also super interesting… we were chatting about something unrelated on the OnK Brainrot discord when a link was made between Ai being a foster system kid abandoned by her family and Aqua and Ruby being essentially orphaned by her death and it kind of made a little !!! ping in my brain lol. As I've interpreted her, an adult Ai is one who has extremely strong feelings about the responsibility of adults to care for and protect children which leads to her being generally big sisterly/motherly towards kids and teens because she wants to be the kind of adult who was never in her own life. But for some reason, I'd never actually followed that thought through to the idea of her adopting a kid… it's a neat idea though and I think you could do some interesting digging into her own feelings as a kid left behind in the system.

[olddustorange]

THINKING ABOUT B&R BECAUSE OF THIS EXCELLENT FIC. and what it gets so right that u don’t see in other fics and i think it is that many other newly orphaned dick Grayson characterizations are not calibrated right, specifically when they make him TOO rebellious/spiteful/angry/childish/crybabyish. I also don’t think that he was overwhelmed by the responsibility of robin or by the insane quantity and intensity of training. I think he really respected the whole enterprise and took it sincerely and seriously and viewed, as the others do, it as something sort of sacred. He was used to high stakes and excruciating training with his parents. And in the early years of robin with bruce is so new and bruce has doubts in the back of his mind so dick DEFINITELY does not get frustrated or scream or lose his temper at bruce because he’s tired or overwhelmed when he’s being corrected because that is a sign of not being ready worthy or mature enough for the enterprise. And he’s very conscious of that but i think the whole dick-has-a-temper reactive-to-fanon discourse has diluted the fact that he is also very responsible and steady. So i think he took his knocks and when bruce criticized him and explained what dick did wrong after knocking dick to his back on the training mats, dick nodded silently and got back up and did it again and he didn’t go cry about it. Like he is an angry traumatized kid so you would not expect him to take Bruce’s training—i mean Dick is seriously getting his ass kicked and pushed beyond his already far limits, to approach what Batman is, which is canonically the “[embodiment of] everything Man can ever hope to be,” as in the apex of physiological and mental human achievement and endurance which is obvi a laborrrrrrr—with that maturity and diligence or humility because no other child would. BECAUSE ANY ORHER CHILD WOULD SNAP OR JUST NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE IT. most adults too. but dick does take it and he runs away it with it too because he is not any other child and he is different and he is I THINK like bruce in some deepdown implicit way as in the soul way or just the fact that they both operate and have operated their whole lives with simply more spiritual moral and mental horsepower than other people but just that DRIVE and MOTIVATION and desire for precision and excellence is something they both & i don’t think he would whine or kvetch he would drink every second of education he could get from bruce and enjoy it and that’s why the whole Batman and Robin experience and relationship is SO EDIFYING for both of them.

And dick’s preternatural ability to humbly learn and push past his limits and actually and sorry to use a 3rd grade teacher lessonplanning word here but SYNTHESIZE what bruce is teaching him is not just unlike what any other person could put forth in Bruce’s training—but it is also the reason for Bruce’s fatal miscalculation with training a young Jason, who is also intelligent discerning and BRILLIANT but who doesnt have That.

[pixiecactus]

day 7: future speculation or au

honestly i think this is a mix of speculation and of an au, because the speculation part is that my shipper heart hopes to see gendry becoming a stark, now i don’t think we could possibly see any gendrya offspring in the books, if they end with arya being a 14 year old in ados, but i'd like to think that they get married and decide to start a family/pack of their own, we are talking about the girl who fiercely defends the people close to her nevermind if they are blood related to her or not and we are talking about the boy that honored this trait of the girl he liked when he lost her from his side. i did talk a little about this in an ask i was sent, but i want to draw another parallel between lyanna and arya, with both of them having pregnancy complications, most particularity in the birthing part of the deal, currently we don’t know what made lyanna die at her birthing bed but we know that arya went through large periods of malnourishment during her developing years, so i can imagine that with every birth of a new child arya gets a little bit closer to meet lyanna’s fate, so arya and gendry decided together to stop trying for more children after the third one (i choose this number because arya and gendry both are the third child from what we currently know and if r+l=j is the truth) but arya and gendry still have a lot of love to give as parents so they start to adopt orphans and any person would meet arya and gendry’s combined fury is they dare to say that those kids are not starks as well as their biological children are.

[gonedreaminggg]

ITS TIME ITS TIME

my unhinged laurance zvahl headcanons 🫠

- Laurance has a BUNCH of ear piercings. Candenza made him swear not to get any facial piercings, and she's one of the only people he listens to. He did get a belly button piercing to spite her tho :)

- He has a lot of nervous ticks. He used to play with his hair when it was long, but when Cadenza cut it, he started cracking his knuckles and picking at his nailbeds. When Aphmau notices him doing this, she lets him play with her hair.

- GARRANCEMAU. POLYCULE. It was kind of unspoken for a while, and then Garroth got left behind in the Irene Dimension. So, Laurance and Aph got really close. However, nothing was official so she got with Aaron. Laurance and Garroth only ever realized after he had died. Garroth understood, he knew that the polycule wasn't too serious. However, Laurance on the other hand, didn't understand that. Plus, he was dealing with the calling and whatnot. There was a rift in the relationship for a while after that.

- All of the kids in the village love Laurance. I mean, we know he was one of Malachai's biggest role models, and Laur had also grown attached to him. But, he also kinda becomes Naoki (Nekoette but less problematic) and Dmitri's babysitter. He's always been good with kids, but MY IRENE he cannot handle Naoki. Leona also likes to hang around him, as well.

- Laurance used to have a fascination with fire when he was little. (i mean the man has adhd and u know how we r with fire.) He would stare at it for hours. It was the only thing that really calmed his brain. But now, he can't stand it. He can stay near a fire for warmth of course, but he's never the one to start or feed it. He can't look at it anymore. Too many memories. The fire is literally a part of him now. His new body was forged from it. There's no need to stare into the flames. He just has to look in the mirror.

- He's still blind, somewhat. His eyesight wasn't miraculously healed. He has to wash his face in the fountain of Lady Irene every so often, or his vision will completely blur. Even then, there's still spots that never go away, mostly on the outer field of his vision. He has reading glasses, as well.

- He's very physically affectionate. He plays with Aphmau's hair. He grazes over Garroth's hands constantly, running his thumb on all the marks in his palm or his scarred knuckles. When he was younger, he would always find something to fiddle with on Cadenza's clothes.

- He would model for Cadenza a lot. Before becoming a Shadow Knight, he was very comfortable in his body and his masculinity, so playing dress up was honestly very fun.

- Laurance always has to do something with his hands, so he takes up a lot of different crafts. Tying knots, woodcarving (thank you @xerith-42 for that one lmao), making jewelry. (In my hc my OC taught him how to make jewelry, but we don't have to get into that now haha)

- Laurance has Brazilian heritage, and even though he was an orphan, there's a large Brazilian population in Meteli and he was raised around the culture. Hayden kept Laurance very informed on his roots, and in turn Cadenza got to experience all of this as well. (I wanna go into this further at some point but I want to do the proper research first.)

- Since SKs don't need as much sleep, most nights Laurance just wanders Phoenix Drop. That's why he's usually the first to know when something's wrong.

- Before Laurance became an official guard, he was sort of a... vigilante. Bringing justice in the dead of night type beat. When he was younger, in his early teens, there was a high crime rate in Meteli. So, if Laurance saw someone stealing, or trying to break in somewhere, he'd tie them up and leave them outside the guard station for the authorities to deal with them.

Alright have fun with this one crazies

[slashingdisneypasta]

Count Olaf's Death Scene.

There is so much about this that I'm obsessed with:

First of all just the huge irony of the Baudelaire children begging Olaf for help after y e a r s of him doing nothing but tracking them down over and over to try and steal their fortune?? Of bring their Big Bad???

Olaf's insistence to always just refer to them as orphans 😅😅😅

His perpetual insistant goofiness XD 'king of olaf-land' ☠️☠️☠️ Oh goodness. And Violet shutting it down immediately XD 💜

'An enormous amount of money I didn't earn' 'even the boat with my name on it' XDDD

'I've done lots of good things in my life, I once took in three orphans' - just the GALL of this man!! XD

Klaus finally saying it. What we all expected about their parents death.

The fact that Olaf MAY NOT BE AT FAULT FOR THAT ACTUALLY??!

How he steps the fuck up as soon as he realises that Kit is in trouble. Oh my God oh my god-

The kiss!! The kiss!! The kiss!! It sounds disgusting (especially since his mouth has already been described as 'poisoned' in this scene from the fungus- and just the fact its Olaf) and absolutely perfect.

'I told you I'd do that one last time' AHHHHHHHHHHHH I'm just ok.

'You're a wicked man' AHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'm just ok (part 2).

Man hands on misery to man, it deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, and don't have any kids yourself.

... 'Then the villains story came to an end' (this is the MOST CRUSHING villain death e v e r)

The fact that the Baudelaires don't even see the last time Olaf closes his eyes?? I don't know but that h i t?? Thank you so much, Lemony!??

[offorestsongs]

Swallow ― fun facts

so i made a post like this for Lysander/my Yuu and i since i had a lot of fun writing it, i thought i'll make them for my other OCs as well since it's a nice and low effort way to let you guys learn more about the OCs i don't talk about as much (even tho i really should). so this time: Swallow Reynard aka my Robin Hood OC aka my beloved fox boy who i think about so much yet never post about </3. enjoy!

he's actually an orphan; when his father was coming back from night shift at work, he had found tiny baby Swallow in a bag at a train station and took him home. Swallow treats his adoptive parents as his real family in every sense of the word and has no interest in trying to find his biological parents

his parents are working class people, not especially wealthy, and they live in a more rural area. he had grew up in a house full of people since beside him and his parents, a few other relatives of them live there as well (one of his grandmas, a few of his aunts/uncles, his cousins). his family is also very close with their neighbours; the place they live in is one where everyone knows eachother. it's mostly why Swallow is so community oriented

he doesn't have actual siblings but he basically treats all of his cousins as his siblings. he's the oldest kid at their house and so naturally he was always the "leader" of their little group and would always come up with what games they would play. he's also very protective over them and did get into fights with any kids who would make fun of them

despite coming from the Queendom of Roses, culturally Swallow is the fantasy equivalent of Polish — his parents are immigrants (i mean, what's a fantasy version of the UK without Polish immigrants?). they taught him a lot about the culture and they would usually speak Polish while at home, so Swallow knows the language as well (you can imagine that he says everything with rolled r <3)

also Riddle collared him once for trying to teach the first years Polish swear words LMAO

fox beastmen tend to be on the smaller side (since, you know, foxes generally aren't know for being super big animals) so he's actually the shortest person in his family

has a lot of scars all over his body — when asked about it, he will tell you many fantastic tales about how he got them while doing something cool and heroic but the truth is that they're either a result of extremely stupid accidents that happened while he was playing outside or getting into fights with other kids

he has a septum piercing and a nose percing — both were done at home with the help of his cousins (the fact that he didn't get any infection and they generally healed pretty okay is a miracle)

like Ruggie, he had worked A LOT of odd jobs around the neighbourhood to help out his family

he's actually the only person in his immediate family that has magic — his parents boast to EVERYONE about their mage son who got into a prestigious magic school <3

his signature spell, Merry Thief, allows him to walk without making a sound or casting a shadow and appropriately to the name it had manifested when he was on the run from authorities

story-wise, the Heartshackle gang would first meet him after they got kicked out of the first Unbirthday party; he was sitting outside of the dorm, because he "refused to take part in Riddle’s tyrannical ways" as he'd say it. he doesn't really do much as far as the plot goes but he does provide some exposition on Riddle’s magic and why nobody was able to stop him before (also depending on the Yuu you put in the situation, he may shamelessly flirt with them LMAO)

to the surprise of everyone, he remembers most of the Queen's rules; back in their freshman year he would learn them so he could purposefully break them to prove a point to Riddle (not that it worked in any way but it didn't stop him from trying)

[the-ellia-west]

WIP OVERVIEW

For @supercimi - (By order of Most Prominent and most worked on to least)

The Cursed One's Throne (TCOT) - Is my in-progress book series. It's Low fantasy, with high action, high sass, and some nice fluffy romance, but yeah... there's Violence. Quite a bit. No swearing, though! Hell or Damn is the worst it gets. (And yes, that is an accomplishment compared to my other 3 main WIPs)

See more TCOT here

Next is Jakkon & Rose (J&R - Has no actual title) - A High fantasy Plot-less story centered around the characters. Mostly around Jakkon (Jak) and Roselia (Rose) My favorite characters, who are not actually supposed to be the main characters. I'm just obsessed with them. It is WAY darker and more fucked up than TCOT. (LOTS of swears) I Have a Whole Side Blog for it @jakkon-and-rose-topic

If the @ link doesn't work here's the pinned post

Then Stereotypical Fantasy (StF) [ignore the shitty acronym, StF was better than SF] - Basically a Little kids show 'take down the evil overlord mr. chosen hero' but with excessive amounts of whump and violence. (Also light swearing) themes of trauma, just like TCOT and J&R) High Fantasy

Oh shit I'm noticing a theme with the trauma... um... no link for StF, but I've written some stuff for it

Then Finally, Cowboy Drama (C4) - Starring a travelling Performer thief (dancer and singer), A priest's daughter, and an orphan Violinist who are all trying to chase each other down to get answers - Historical Fiction

No link for this either.

Since there's no link for StF and C4 I'll give you An overview of the characters here

StF

Mennel - Protagonist - Chosen Hero - Basically a Fire/Lava Genasi - Sassy teenager who's been trained under a wise old mentor his whole life - 16

Evellias - Supporting Character - Mentor #1 - An Old human - Wise level-headed mentor who has acted as Mennel's father figure his whole life - about 88

Raavas - Antagonist - Villain's Right hand - An extremely temperamental Harpy - A spiteful angry former apprentice of Evellias who is now gunning for him and Mennel - About 27-29

Oirwyn - Secondary character - Supporter and Team Business guy - A kind and understanding working class guy who owns an inn - About 36

Euania - Secondary Character - Supporter and team Caretaker - An extremely kind and caring yet feisty working class woman from a second country (Oirwyn's Younger sister) - About 34

Alkain - Primary Character - Mentor #2 - Extremely tired previous advisor to the dead king of Mennel's country, now slave to the queen of this new country who just wants to go to bed. He's mean as fuck. And I love him - About 35

(There's more but they're not as important)

C4

Vix - Main Character - Thief - A traveling performer thief and hothead with a prideful streak, who has lightly questionable morals (Male) - About 26

Emurra - Primary Character - Priest's Daughter - An energetic young woman who has never left her hometown and wants desperately to go on an adventure - About 23

Azenis - Primary Character- Orphan Violinist - A bright and observant but timid boy who nobody seems to like very much, bur who has a tendency to keep himself into trouble - About 17