#the thing is it's not just my childhood as a Prodigy that fucked it over it's also recent work experience

[designernishiki]

okay but. why does it seem like 24 year old majima’s ridden a horse before. why does he talk like he has Experience. what is this lost lore

[pallas-cat]

next therapist appointment im dedicating time to my horribly, horribly frayed relationship w writing and reading before school starts again lmao

[ot3]

The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere

What is it, and why you should read it.

(Art by purple)

The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere is a currently updating webserial by author Lurina. It's one of my favorite things I've read in a long while and I'd like to convince you all to give it a chance.

My elevator pitch is this: A time-loop murder mystery directly inspired by Umineko, with a lot of similar vibes to the Locked Tomb Trilogy - partially due to it's meditations on grief and mortality and partially due to it's far-future magical sci-fi world where we follow a fucked up lesbian necromancer on a task she is determined to see through to the end. A deeply complex, unique, and believable world that plays hosts to one of the best interpersonal dynamics I've read.

In a future so far-flung that it is past the heat death of the universe, humanity has constructed a new society that is post-scarcity but not post-stratification. Utsushikome of Fusai is one amongst a class of prodigious young medical arcanists (essentially grad students) who are invited to visit a recently legitimized conclave of top-of-the-line researchers studying immortality. Accompanying Su is her best friend Ran, a fellow arcanist. Over the course of the novel we begin to slowly unravel exactly what ulterior motives have brought them to this conclave and how events in their childhoods and years of working toward their shared goal has warped their relationship into what we now see. This relationship is the crown jewel of Flower's narrative, and getting to peel back the layers of it as you read is a delight.

Like Umineko, Flower is a murder mystery that prevents itself with in-universe Rules that dictate the murders' parameters, meaning there's a lot to chew on for anyone who likes solving mysteries. For those that don't, like myself, Flower offers instead a richly developed world and plenty of open questions about the sociopolitical and metaphysical implications of its own worldbuilding.

Below the cut, I'll go into more detail about the series (without spoilers!) for those of you whose interest has been piqued.

The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere is currently ongoing, updating every few weeks. It's several hundred thousand words, so if you're looking for something substantial to keep you entertained, you've got it. As you might expect from the length, the pacing is decently slow. I don't see this as a bad thing at all, because within this pacing Lurina dripfeeds the readers enough new and interesting information at a regular rate that it never feels like your time is being wasted. But if you can't handle slow burns, I wouldn't recommend this one for you.

If you enjoyed the Zero Escape series and liked that they stopped solving murder puzzles to infodump about fringe science, I think you'll get a lot out of Flower. Characters are frequently interrupting their life-or-death scenarios to have lofty, philosophical and political discussions. It's a ton of fun if you like reading characters argue.

'People have to sleep.' 'People have to work.' 'People have to die.' But those were just vague rules, phrasing I'd used because it had been easier in the context of that conversation. What really mattered, on the day-to-day level, was the idea that it was all for something. If someone invented a elixir that made people not to need to sleep, it would, in retrospect, recontextualize all nights everyone ever wasted sleeping as wastes of time. Not something that occurred for some inherent purpose, but whims of circumstance, a tragedy of when you happened to be born. If you accepted that all unfair things in the world could be removed, if only someone knew how - fatigue, labor, death - then to exist in the world we had now, with all its grotesque imperfections, was to know that you had been violated by fate.

Along those lines it's just got a sense of humor I really enjoy. Pretty dry and cavalier. It manages to keep the mood light without feeling like it's undermining it's own stakes. I'm particularly fond of Su's penchant for telling incredibly depressing suicide jokes that just Do Not Land.

The peer pressure cut into me like a hot knife. I hesitated a little, biting my lip. "Well, uh, okay. I'll just tell a quick one." I swallowed, my mind quickly scrambling. "Okay, so, there's a woman who runs a dispensary for second hand goods. She sees a man come in who's a regular customer. He's kind of a mess-- Has a big beard, a bad complexion. He buys a razor, and tells her he needs it to clean himself up, because he has a date." I could see that I now had Ophelia's attention and that Kam was looking pleased with herself, but Ran was watching me, too. I could see the look in her eyes. It screamed at me, with such vividity that it could be sold at an art gallery: You better not be telling a suicide joke right now, or we're going to have a talk. But it was too late. The wheels were already in motion.

As I mentioned up top, the relationship between Ran and Su is just one of my favorite interpersonal dynamics ever. Period. The author is playing some insanely complicated 5th dimensional yuri chess and I am absolutely here for it as someone who likes characters who are deeply devoted to each other in a way that is deeply deeply fraught. I cant emphasize enough how obsessed I am with what they have going on.

Additionally, as stated, the worldbuilding in Flower is top tier. The author clearly understands how every part of her world functions, which makes the moral quandaries and politics presented all the more impactful because they're very believable. It's hard to talk about Flower's world without spoiling too much of the specifics that get slowly revealed, but it doesn't fall back on any typical sci-fi standard fare and feels like a breath of fresh air amongst recycled and repetitive worldbuilding tropes.

A lot of really fun side characters. Strong voices for all of the supporting cast (♥♥Kamrusepa♥♥) and even though not every character gets their own arc, they all clearly have plenty of interiority. Once again, another thing that makes Flower feel very believable despite it's absurdities.

Autism

"Did you notice anything out of the ordinary with anyone?" She eyed him. "Anyone who seemed tense?" "Saoite, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but half of our class is so autistic that they constantly seem tense. You might as well ask me to find a specific turd in a sewer." "Just answer the question, please," she replied flatly.

Guys it's really good just trust me I don't want to spoil you for the more intricate plot beats but they're doing some crazy shit here. It's never a bad time to support an independent author's project. If you're sick of corporate mass-media and stuff needing to be marketable, getting into independent works owned and supported by individual creators is a great way to push back against that. I highly recommend it.

[unabashednightmarepizza]

Merula snyde x M/C (no gender)

Soulmate

It is impossible to lie to your destined soulmate.

𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝐼𝑠 𝑁𝑜 𝑈𝑠𝑒 𝐼𝑛 𝐿𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔

Warning: Spoilers for the "Conjure a Patronus" and "Letter from Hogwarts" quests.

A/N: Damn, this took a long time for me to write for some reasons... Perhaps I have a difficult relationship with Merula, not knowing whether to love her or strangle her.

Prompts: I don't care what they say about me, loving you was really hard, I need somebody to hold me, and it's all for you from this

As little kids, people often thought about having their other half. Someone that was destined to be their one and only, decided by some higher power or whatever. Maybe the idea of someone being created just for them amazed them with the metaphysics of the whole system, or not having to seek love and fail over and over benefited them maybe.

Whatever the reason was, in a magical world like yours, it wasn't so unusual to hear such thing.

Most witches and wizards had their soulmate when they start the school, or work, since they spent most of their childhood and teenagehood in the school.

But you? No luck as of late.

It wasn't like you were actively seeking out to find whoever your soulmate was. All your focus was either on Quidditch, the Vaults and your brother, or...

The task given to you, right now.

There was already so much going on in your life, and you were just a teen, so many things that it made you often loose your appetite and just hang your head low while your head pounded.

Adding finding your soulmate and bringing whoever that person down with you into this shithole didn't seem fair to either one of you.

You just wanted... some peace of mind.

" What's that troubled look, Y/L/N? Spit it out."

You lifted your head to see Merula, your kind of enemy, looking at you with her usual snarky and mischievous eyes as a scoff left you. "Nothing, Merula. Why do you care?"

Merula smirked as she sat down in front of you, leaning the upper half of her body on the table as she looked at you with unreadable eyes.

At least for you.

If she wanted to be honest, Merula was in a very big dilemna. On one hand, you have been her enemy ever since you started school. She always bullied you and your friends, constantly duelled you only to be the one who was defeated... But none of them were what disturbed her, no.

It was the fact that they all made her left awestruck at your elegance, power and strength. And as if it wasn't enough, it also changed the beating of her heart too.

Soon, after she begrudginly accepted that "admiration" as the blonde Hufflepuff said, she had come to a frightening realization soon after you helped her with the whole Dementor case.

She couldn't lie to you, no matter how much she wanted or tried.

"You know how the saying that only those who are pure of heart can cast Patronuses?"

This was utterly so stupid and humiliating. At least for Merula. Her? The strongest witch admitting weakness? And as if it wasn't bad already, she couldn't lie to save her dignity?

To you, out of everyone?

Someone she bullied for as long as she could remember? Someone who probably hated her guts and might just do everything she did to them to her in return, and Merlin forbade it, much worse?

Yeah, that was the kind of luck she had.

You, a literal prodigy and the hero of Hogwarts, as her soulmate?

Fucking wild.

" I thought learning the Patronus Charm would let me prove that I'm not the same as my parents... But now that I'm close to achieving my goal, I'm not so sure if I want to know..." she continued and sighed out, relaxed a bit more now. She didn't lift her head to look at you or Tonks, she could already feel the shocked states you were giving her.

And suddenly, she felt like crying because one, you were her soulmate and two, she was being emotional in front of you and wanted you to hug her thightly.

And after the whole mess was over and she was looking at your expecting eyes, shining with a playfull beam, she considered to be... nicer to you, and get to know you better until she was ready to tell you that you were soulmates.

In her own special way.

"Thanks for saving me... both from the Dementor and from an answer I'm not ready for."

You gave her a soft, understanding smile. Hope for becoming friends blossoming in you for the first time.

"You are welcome, Merula.

Back to the present time, she looked at you shaken after you clicked your fingers before her eyes, worriedly looking at her since she never was this much silent. Because your sour expression is making me loose my appetite, that's why.... She wanted to say, snarky just like she normally was but instead...

" I saw that gloomy look on your face from across the hall and could tell you were wigging out about something..." was what left her mouth. It wasn't like her words wasn't sarcastic still, but considering the fact that she "hated" you, it was a shock to hear that the Merula Snyde was worried about you.

You eyed her curiously while gaping at her, completely surprised how she showed... care? Merula Snyde, the ever crude enemy of yours, being soft? Because of you?

You adjusted on your seat, shuffling a bit at your slightly faster heart. You couldn't lie that since the day you two met, she changed both physically and obviously, emotionally. She was much stronger than she was once, definetly had gotten taller and... more pretty.

At first, when you realized that she could be your potential soulmate, you flipped. Literally. Cursing at Merlin and the universe for suddenly throwing you in a cliché "enemies to lovers" trope while the Vaults and your brother was still a huge problem. The girl literally tried to kill you many times, though it might have not been her intention really, and more often than not, looked down at you or what you did. She was always so against you and what you did so why?

Why did she have to be your soulmate?

Merula looked at you anxiously when your eyes hardened, feeling uneasy for the first time like ever. Every minute you spent not answering her and looking into her eyes directly, she got even more anxious and also curious about what was going on through your head.

But she was Merula, and she couldn't show... care and worry. "So? What is it this time? Is there a dragon on loose in the castle and you haven't been able to duel it yet?"

A snort left you at her question, though you didn't hold back from rolling your eyes at her. "Well... It's not like that, obviously. Though it would be fun to see it and have you fight it just to prove me." You smiled softly at her as she widened her eyes at the burning feeling on her cheeks, and looked down shyly. Your heart stopped for a second at the bashfull girl that was sitting in front of you and not the "enemy" you had been dealing with for the past years. Your cheeks flushed and you looked around to see if anyone was watching you two, because Merlin knew it was near impossible for you two to sit still peacefully.

"I just..." you sighed tiredly and leaned back on your seat, taking the sight of Merula, your soulmate, with a heavy heart as you recalled your memories, or at least... tried to.

"I just try to remember my first magical moment, the first time I used magic... I know Jacob was there, we never were apart from each other." Your eyes glazed over, the missing feeling of your brother's disappearance still heavy on your heart.

Amd Merula, for the first time at seeing your face, felt bad about bullying you about him and his "potential death".

Everyone has been telling you to stop, before you also went mad like your brother, especially your parents. They didn't want their only child left to be striken with the same thing as their eldest, they didn't want to loose you too.

But... What if he was just waiting for you to help him? What if only you could help him?

" I know it's locked away somewhere in my head but I can't seem to recall it. I have been asking my friends about their own first time in hopes that it will shake something loose... But so far? Nothing..."

Well, the sight of the usual cheerful and happy you, being all sad... Didn't sit right with Merula and it definetly wasn't because her heart squeezed painfully in her chest as if she felt your pain as her own. What was this feeling of making you smile and annoy her at the same time? Why didn't she like that feeling on your face? Was she getting soft over you already? Did it... annoy her, being soft and loving and considerate, when it was you who she was involved with?

Nope, not at all.

She gulped her nerves down and looked at you for a second. They aren't some Dementor, they aren't gonna suck the life out of you.

"I... remember the first time I used magic."

Wait... Was she helping you?

You lifted your head slowly to look at her, watching as she was looking behind you to avoid your eyes.

" It left quite an impression on everyone involved." You gaped at her, shocked with your hand up in the air with the fork you held, surprised at her... words.

"Merula... Are you trying to help me?"

That made the red alarms go off in Merula's mind as her eyes widened and her cheeks flushed in a deep red color.

Oops, she caught me!

"O-Of course! I'm the Most Powerful Witch at Hogwarts, after all! And you wouldn't be able to get the job done, like... at all! And it's also natural that my origin story is something impressive!"

"And how do I know that you aren't lying?" You couldn't help but question, your words leaving your lips without your control. But you regretted them just the same when Merula's face fell and her eyes looked at you through her lashes sadly.

A sight that you never dreamed even in your wildest dream.

Just when she was opening up to you slowly, you had to go and ruin it, right Y/N?

"Why the hell would I lie to you?"

No, it was your imagination... Merula's voice didn't shake with disbelief at your question.

You shook your head in confusion, everything becoming overwhelming suddenly. "I don't know, Merula. When it comes to you, I don't know anything except you wanting to destroy me... I mean you lied to me when I was just 11 and made me a food for the Devil's Snare... You can't-"

"No matter how much I want to, I can't lie to you... Trust me, I tried."

That... was the bomb only she could drop. A bomb that threatened to ruin everything, one that could destroy whatever nice things she could do or say.

And though she hoped you didn't understand the heavy meaning behind her words, you did...

"You?"

One word, three letters, and the coldest rone you ever had... And soon, Merula's face twisted in anger and she bolted out of Hall, leaving you in shock as you tried to hold onto her shirt with your heart being dropped to your stomach.

"Merula, wait! I didn't mean to-"

But it was too late.

"What do you want, Y/L/N? I'm studying." You winced at the cold tone she used towards you, her eyes never leaving the page before her at the empty potions classroom. You didn't mean to sound so cold back then, in the Great Hall, but... you were just surprised.

Her? Your soulmate?

What kind of a romcom was this?

Besides, you thought she would never care about such thing, yet alone getting emotional over them...

Maybe you were more of a bad person for assuming so...

"You have been reading the same page for 5 minutes already... Do you think I'm deft enough to believe in that?" You leant over the pillar of the class with your arms crossed in front of your chest, with a soft yet sad smile on your face as she buried her face deeper into her book that she definetly wasn't reading anymore.

"Are you sure you want me to answer that question?" She slapped the book close as she teasingly, yet with a hint of anger which was justifiable, looked at you. You sighed guiltily as your arms fell and rubbed your temples with thight circles. You were already done with blaming yourself, you already felt like a total jackass for what you said, but Merula wasn't helping you fixing it either.

"Why are you so annoying... Merula, I'm trying to fix what I-"

"Then, don't bother! You made it pretty clear then how you saw it... saw me."

You sighed heavily as you sat down next to her, already feeling another headache coming. But you didn't care, if this was the last chance you had to have somewhat a happy future...

You had to fix this mess, the mess you created... Especially after witnessing how much this meant to her, how important it was for her to see you accept her.

"Look, Merula, you can keep avoiding the subject all you want," a scoff left her as she shook her head at you, disappointed with angry tears filling her eyes. Were you really going to scold her? Was she that much of not worthy for love?

What was she expecting anyways? That you would fall into her arms? Call her the love of your life? Her, who was the daughter of two death eaters? Who people saw as another potential one?

"But, contrary to what you might think right now, I'm not giving up on you, I'm not leaving you. So you might as well cooperate and talk to me."

Silence scretchted. One minute, two minutes... It was probably right before the third one ended that she spoke, finally gathering her courage.

"Why?"

"Why what?" You tilted your head in confusion, making her shake her head in disbelief at herself for feeling warm at your adorable curiosity.

"Why don't you give up on me? Clearly, I don't mean anything to you by your previous-"

"Merlin, just..! Let me explain myself, okay? No questions until the end. Once in your life, don't throw a snarky comment." You exclaim harshly, your hands flying up to either side of your face with your eyes shut in slight anger. Merula looked at you frozen, suddenly feeling hot all over her body at the intense eyes you were giving to her.

She nodded silently, a first for her, and nodded at you. You sighed nervously, suddenly aware of the weight of your next words would bring.

They would either be the start of something new, or be the reason why everything would go down for good.

You took a deep breath and dived in.

" My reaction from earlier wasn't because of disgust." Another scoff, met with your raised brows as Merula apologized silently. " I know it's hard to believe, especially when I acted like a true bitch. But... What I meant, what I wanted to just say was that..."

Damn, this is harder than I thought...

"Is that there was no possible way that someone like me was your soulmate. That's why I was like that..."

Merula was shocked. Actually that could be a understatement, because she never thought she would see the day that the usual confident you would sound so fragile and insecure of yourself.

Especially because of her... Because, wasn't she supposed to be the one who is insecure? Her parents were Death Eaters, in Azkaban, and pretty much everyone hates her in the school.

Meanwhile you had many friends, was the Quidditch captain and a prefect who was loved by many in the school. There were probably even some guys and girls who would die to be with you...

You had everything to offer to a possible lover, meanwhile she had nothing.

Why were you thinking like that?

Before she could talk and reassure both you and herself, you continued urgently, wanting to let everything go before she threw a "Depulso" or perhaps even more of a dangerous charm at you.

"Loving you was really hard, accepting it after many sleepless nights was even harder. Because I was scared of what others would think, what our families would think. And the fact that you hated me didn't help..."

"I don't care what they say about me, they can throw shit at me for all I care but you... You are the one good thing that might have happened to me in my short years, for now, and I don't want to... loose you."

She held your hand in a thight grasp between hers as she lifted your joined hands to your eyesight, pointing to them. She would show you all those silly worries of yours was pointless, that she was ready to do whatever it took to fight for you, for herself.

She would live for herself.

"This? This means I care about you, not I hate you. Even when we first met, I never hated you... Well, maybe a bit."

You both chuckled at her attempt to be smooth and you squeezed her hand back in response. You really wanted to believe in both of you, that you two could stand together until the very end...

But what if...

"But... How about our families? Continuing the line or whatever? What would others think-"

Merula sighed annoyed before she flicked your forehead almost in affection. That dumb head of yours is gonna be the reason of your end...

"I just need someone to hold me, Y/L/N..." she said sternly. " Love me without any conditions, any expectations. And... If some fate decided that it was you who would do it, I'm fine with it." She looked down to where your hands were resting on the table in deep thoughts before she gingerly smiled after so long.

"I don't need the money, fame or anything... Though I realized it late. I know I'm rough around the edges but all the love, care, softness and tenderness I have left... It's all for you, they are all yours."

Those dumb romance books really worked...

Wow, I... I never thought Merula had such a romantic side... There is no reason to doubt her.

"Okay." You said breathless, nodding in happiness.

"Okay?" Merula asked in confusion at how easily you... accepted her. Maybe, she shouldn't have made fun of you for being so accepting with everyone else.

"Yeah... Sorry for being an arsehole in the Hall."

She laughed freely at your sheepish look, and you basked in it. She is even more pretty when she laughs...

Behind that laugh though, laid Merula's biggest fear. Now that you two clarified everything... There was only one thing left to do.

"Then... Wouldyougooutwithme?" She hurriedly asked, not wanting the embrassment of asking you out take over her completely. At first, you stood shocked at your seat, not expecting her to talk so fast. And Merula thought it meant rejection, that it was too soon, but you understood her perfectly.

Perhaps what others told you was true: You and Merula were much more alike than neither one of you thought.

"Merula..." you smiled softly at her, " I'd love to go out with you." She was finally able to breathe normally as relief took over and then her mind started to wander. Where to take you...

Black Lake? No, too silent. Hogsmeade? You teo could sit at the teashop and then buy candy and eat it later on the train.

Yes, that was okay... What?

In a spur of moment, you shyly kissed her cheek and bolted out of the class, but not before whispering to her "I can't wait, Merula. For whatever you plan."

Huh..? Well, maybe soulmates weren't that overrated after all, if they gave suxh pure happiness to even the coldest looking girl Hogwarts had ever seen.

[gomacave]

Yessss, thank u! Ok, this is pre written, word vomit incoming

They both come from the same orphanage, Aerith's mom died by natural causes (since there's no shinra) and Lucretia and Hojo... You decide, a lot can be done there. Anyway, they were... Kind of childhood friends/acquaintances; Aerith was younger, but she thought seph was very pretty and insisted on talking with her. Seph thought she was sweet, and indulged her sometimes, and did come to care for her in some way. Then Aerith is adopted by Elmyra, and that's that. Seph is adopted later, and they see each other again at the school that they end up going to years later. Seph initially tries to feel glad that Aerith was adopted and being cared for, though she did feel a level of jealousy. Over the years that jealousy grows, and the more she sees her have so many more friends than her, and a caring mother and a life that she so desperately wants, it grows into resentment. Especially since they come from the same background. (What's so different abt her that she gets to have everything and I get nothing?) it culminates, ofc, in her rejecting humanity in favor of a divine calling, not realizing the warmth and love that she seeks come from the very same humanity that she's disparaging.

Bonus, Aerith tries to be friends with Seph again, starting conversations and searching for her when she tries to hide, but seph reads Aerith's actions as pity or mockery. And/or seph can't let go of her jealousy and talking with her is just a reminder of how effortlessly charismatic and friendly she is, and she hates it

I'm so normal abt your au <3

little comic +

aerti designs...!

OUGGHHGHGHGHG YOURE SO FUCKING REAL FOR THIS MY GODDDDDDDD 🫵🫵🫵 FUCKKK BRO THE SHAME OF COMING IN CONTACT W A GENTLE CREATURE WHO KNOWS LOVE BROOOOO......... UR MAKING MY BRAIN EXPLODE W NEVER B4 CONSIDERED AER/SEPH BRAINWORMS...... GOD the idea that seph who has built up this skill of being able to live w/out love suddenly being offered it by aerith after they grow older and seeing how she hasn't changed while seph herself has just grown bitterer and bitterer BITING MY DESK. ashamed of her life as if it were a stained or threadbare piece of clothing moment <- unwell. but at least she has power. and a divine mission. so she doesnt need love....!

ok more thoughts under cut cuz i dont want this to get monster length

I LOVE THIS IDEA SO MUCH............. aerith and seph coming from the same origins is so crucial to my enjoyment of ff7 and i think making them grow up in the same orphanage is. bites glass. anyways.

i like the idea of maybe the catholic school and the orphanage being connected (maybe through the same wealthy family that has connections 2 both) and so seph grows up and is an exemplary student since she was young and is adopted/sponsored by the family as like. a PR move lowkey. (maybe by hojo, maybe by the shinra fam) but in reality she's treated more like a coworker or side show by everyone around her but she gets the prestige of being a "child prodigy" and "shinra's pride and joy" so she's like a lowkey celeb in the student body but also idk maybe they make her attend outside events like galas and stuff and preach about how shinra has been soooo good to her and her future she owes to the company and family

this vs aerith finding a genuinely loving home outside of the orphanage and escaping it (YELLING) and coming back i love the idea of. like. her symbolizing freedom/hope/love to seph and making her SO MAD AND JEALOUS because what did she work so hard for. she worked so hard to get to the top and escape the shit situation they were in and now she discovers that aerith, without doing anything, achieved the life she thought was forbidden from them (BECAUSE LOVE SHOULD NOT BE EARNED) and has her worldview shattered from this. (the notion that the orphanage is inescapable and that hard work will earn her salvation from this life)

ANHWAHS i think she shrugs this all off w the divine mission thing (HEALTHY THING TO DO) and also i love the idea that higher purpose is the only thing that seph knows how to live for as somebody deprived of autonomy and raised as a human weapon (in canon). aer/seph making me UOOOUGHGH (im craaazzy im insanee gif)

^ seph, to me,

[zanniscaramouche]

No one can claim that I'm fast, but hey! I finally had a moment to sit down and find some fics for a lovely anon who wandered into my inbox looking for classical musician!larry. A few of these are a little bit of a stretch, but hopefully there's something here you enjoy! You'll see little blue hearts along with a lil comment from me on those I have read (admittedly not that many, oops) This is definitely an AU I'd love to see more fic for! It's possible there's more out there, alas it doesn't seem to be commonly tagged. Make sure to tag your fics folks! It makes filtering for things like this so much easier! 💙

🎼 the school of extraordinary lovers // stylinsoncity @stylinsoncity - 191k "We keep telling the other, I love you and I love you, and we do, though we both know where the knives are." - Laura Van Prooyen

harry is a third-year witch and violinist at Laitswold, the only magical academy in the UK, with dreams of taking on the world, and hopefully breaking the centuries-old curse on his family while he's at it. he does not dream of facing off against his childhood rival and duet partner, but louis is back in town after six years abroad, so that's exactly what happens.

🎼 Love Is A Rebellious Bird // 100percentsassy, gloria_andrews - 134k AU in which the boys still make music. Louis is the concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra, Harry is the New! and Exciting! interim conductor/ex-cello prodigy who "has made Mozart cool again" according to Esquire Magazine (Louis hates him immediately, which is definitely why he internet stalked him in his dark bedroom late at night that one time), and Niall is the best. Zayn and Liam are around too.

Don't hum Bolero.

💙 zannithinks: one of those 'classics' that many love! I really enjoyed this fic, and as someone who hears Bolero every year at a local festival I think of this fic often

🎼 Saving Symphony Hall // HelloAmHere @helloamhere - 124k “I think I have an idea,” Louis said. Slowly, and reluctantly, but with a growing sense of the inevitable. “God damnit, I think I have a really good idea.”

“Oh christ, that's the problem-solving face,” Babs said. “Last time we saw that face, he sold a company.”

“Wait, what?” Zayn asked.

“Right place, right time,” Louis said. “Also, fuck my life,”

“What?” Zayn repeated. Niall patted his hand.

“I usually just roll with whatever Louis is about to do,” he said. “It’s better for us all.”

“That’s the attitude,” said Louis, “I’ll tell you tomorrow. Tonight, I need to do some research. Zayn, give me your number. I’m gonna save our symphony.”

💙 zannithinks: I looooove this one! A well developed world and lovable OC's, this is definitely the first fic I think of when I think Larry and Classical Music

🎼 Where Words Fail, Music Speaks // Larry_you_know @larryyouknow - 45k Louis is a world class violinist. He’s one year over forty, living his best life in New York. One day, he comes to a small town in Connecticut where he inherited a house from his late father. The town looks nice and its people welcome him warmly. The problem is that Louis never knew his father and he doesn’t intend to change anything about it - his father can stuff his last will up his treacherous ass. In a strange coincidence, Louis meets town troubadour Harry, who seems wonderful to him just right until he reveals that Louis’ father was like a dad to him.

Even though Louis tries to convince himself that it shouldn’t - it hurts.

🎼 Until You Remember // Throwthemflowers - 21k Talented London pianist Louis Tomlinson moves to a small coastal town to escape the elites of his job and the mundanity of his life. Through the music of Debussy he finds a charming, wonderful friend in Harry Styles, the fiancé of the town's mayor. Louis thinks his pining is in vain until he discovers that all may not be as it seems….

🎼 And I'll Be Here When Only the Silence Remains // louisniall @louisniaii - 19k The one where Louis is a top notch mute violinist and Harry might just be the person he trusts most

🎼 Back to the Sign, and Play Through the End // tomlinsunshine - 17k Louis is a globally renowned pianist; Harry is the worst page turner this world has ever known.

🎼 Take more of my space, why don't you? // otfuckingp - 10k Of course, the universe is not on Louis’ side, nor on the side of his mental health. Just as he starts to think they might get away with this empty seat -- yes, they. He and Instrument Man are in this together, a united front against the forces of any more people-- one more person steps onto the plane. He bypasses the first fifteen rows without so much as a falter, but the fact that he slows around 17 gives Louis pause. There aren’t many empty seats in this section... Surely not. Surely the universe wouldn’t be so cruel as to do this to him.

And then there’s another body landing in the seat next to Instrument Man. Well, “landing” might be too polite. Crashing, is more like it. Within the first ten seconds, he’s elbowed instrument Man in the side, dropped something on the floor, and nearly tripped a stewardess with the exuberant flailing of his legs. All in all, completely shattering the tentative silence in row 21 DEF. Fuck.//

Harry and Louis meet on a plane. Louis is not impressed, until he is.

🎼 What is simple in the moonlight, never really is. // judgementdays @judgementdays - 5k And then they're talking, like they always do on late nights. They talk about the future, about the cute girl who was checking Harry out at Tesco's, about the cute boy who asked for Louis' number the other day. They mostly end up talking about their auditions for the school of their dreams, though.

or

Louis plays piano and Harry plays guitar and they're both trying to get into Juilliard but feelings sort of happen.

🎼 Play Me Something Sweet // nonsensedarling @absolutenonse - 4k “Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Louis says. Harry just looks at him and lifts an eyebrow in silent question. “How about if you pretend I’m your cello as you try it out, like we used to?” Or Harry's good at a lot of instruments, but his favorite one to play is Louis.

💙 zannithinks: this one is spicey!!!!

🎼 And I've got something missing tonight. // whisperedbrave @louistomlindaughter - 2k That night, much like many others, he finishes his dinner and falls asleep to the sound of his neighbor and his piano.

-

or the one where Harry's upstairs neighbor plays the piano every night. one night he stops and Harry can't sleep.

[archduke-enver-gortash]

Sorry if you've explained it before, but how exactly did gortash and zeke become aware of each other?

no problem i can summarise!!! (or at least attempt fuck this got long sorry)

so, i often refer to gortash and zeke as the machine vs the wild and the inevitable war that comes with that. so, there’s the time that the machine becomes aware of the wild and then there’s the time it meets its blood/essence in flesh as zeke.

so, if you read any of my fics you know that gortash narrates them in second person, addressing zeke as ‘you’ and this ‘you’ has been addressed by gortash since way before zeke was born. it’s the endless new lives of the wild. ripping out flowers just to rip them out. stomping on ants and destroying their hills. and then the event that made gortash distinctly aware of his antithesis as a young boy of no more than 10—a starling he caught. he writes in his journal about it and narrates to that same ‘you’ about the cage its kept in, the beautiful song and how much more beautiful it got when he clipped its wings. later on i headcanon that gortash takes up a ‘hobby’ (he technically sees it as work) as matador. keeping his own pigs and slaughtering them. making leather and carpets out of extinct animal species. these little things are all encounters he had with his archnemesis, or more accurately aspects of it. paving himself a road through conquest & consumption towards the wild’s beating heart.

he becomes aware of zeke specifically during the blood in baldur’s gate murder series, about 2 years before they meet and 1 year before zeke becomes aware of him. i think he saw baldur’s gate always as ‘his’, so he is highly aware of anything going on in his city, and as a result of zeke’s highly unusual and more importantly completely feral but most effective killing pattern, he starts stalking zeke fervently. i mean visiting & acquiring his childhood home types of fervently. the realisation that zeke is the wild itself and his archnemesis as the machine comes later after careful metaphorical & physical dissection of him. learning to know to invade to conquer to destroy and all. he has finally learned who, or more accurately, what ‘you’ is and digs the machine’s instruments into this heart.

of course zeke has one of these more figurative experiences with the machine too, and that being orin capturing & shackling him in a room for a red room like bhaalist gathering he did NOT want to attend (for no more than 60 seconds no one is capable of restraining zeke except for gortash. zeke ends up killing everyone instead of just the targets he was supposed to kill lmao)

i’m gonna paste an old post here because i honestly couldn’t summerise it better but add on to it, but zeke is essentially this child prodigy detective who gets hired to look into a series of cases that all seem unrelated at first but are actually all have one thing in common: gortash. zeke finding out about gortash not because of his well hidden tracks but because there aren’t any in the end. zeke is a hunter, THE hunter, and he catches every person working for gortash sooner or later, but then there’s this enigma above them, controlling them, and he’s just scared shitless. how he goes from calling him ‘the spider’ to him just being this massive enigma, a blinding light but utterly unknowable to the wild. the apex predator would have been able to kill a spider, no matter how finely woven its web is. but this? this isn’t anything natural. this is like the shackle that bound him, this is the rifle that shoots the apex predator, this is that shackle. it’s the inherent unknown in ‘god’ and the inherent ‘god’ in the unknown. and then there’s the endless fear and terror that comes from this. that comes with perhaps not being able to see the direct source of that light, but to see the god-machine’s work around him everywhere, taking over everything. gortash is and always will be this unknown thing to zeke but there’s one thing he does know, even subconsciously first, that this is true horror.

[pateredere]

ayo what's poppin it's gemma here ( s/h, 21+ ) & i am so beyond excited for opening day! i'll be writing for the park i canon, park jeongho, the mayor's son & current chairman of the urban construction committee! i've got a ton more info under the cut ( mild tw for abuse ) cause as usual i haven't learnt to shut my trap but if you're at all keen to plot with me please hit that LIKE button! would definitely prefer d*scord but i can do tumblr ims too ( just afraid of the shadowban ya kno )! but yes tysm mwah!

speaking directly to my sisters in the church of astrology he's a scorpio sun ( mysterious n evil coded basically ) / taurus moon ( craves stability ) / cap rising ( hardworking & efficient lil bastard ) so yeah he's a bit mad to say the least

only child of park jeongwon, the current mayor! to understand jeongho you need to understand a little bit about the parks, but essentially every way in which they move comes with a political agenda so it's no surprise that his parents' marriage is fully a political arrangement! the point of the marriage was to sire an heir and once jeongho was born his mom peaced the fuck out of parenting and went on her merry way living as the jobless wife of the wealthiest man in town! she probably had intended to care for jeongho to some degree but she peaced out honestly for survival ( more on that in the next dot point )

that said jeongho was brought up almost entirely by his father and what i mean by that is he was brought up by the help and criticised often by his father. jeongwon in a nutshell is a smart man honestly prodigy level smart ( think one of those kids who don't study and gets 100% on a test cause the answer is just "common sense" ) with zero empathy so what you get is a grating narcissist who thinks they're better than einstein and he expects no less of his son! most of jeongho's childhood was his father asking for jeongho's test scores and when it's not up to par he just gets smacked and berated and called an idiot kid and honestly he's not much nicer to his wife which is why she made herself scarce

that was essentially the entirety of jeongho's childhood and it lends to his ocpd which he developed at a relatively young age! most people mistake it for ocd but it's really not that he just has an extreme obsession with perfectionism, order and control so he gets irrationally upset when things are not absolutely perfect like everything in his wardrobe is colour-coded and organised by attire type and everyone needs to wash their hands before interacting with him and the help must clean the parts of the house that any human walks through so yeah it's honestly pretty bad but in typical ocpd style he sees no issue with this and thinks other people are just lazy and unclean

anyway as per usual after high school he fucks off to the army and serves in the navy! he chose the navy mostly because jeongho had found goero's ocean to be really calming and had spent a lot of his youth swimming there when he needed to escape his dad! it's when he's in the army that he finds out his cousin passes which honestly is a shame because he liked jeongbin but at the end of the day jeongho wasn't really super close to him so it was kind of whatever

...which explains why he decides it's a good idea to scoop the late jeongbin's girlfriend and attempt to marry her!? as i said everything the parks do is politically motivated and there is no better political move frankly than to marry a yang to combine the park and yang assets so like sorry jeongbin but yeah! outside of those positives jeongho also frankly wanted to marry yang to "win" over his father in terms of choosing a spouse cause obviously his father did not marry a yang ( now's a good time to slip in that this father and son duo are constantly in competition ) and this was really his first ever rebel moment against his dad ( which if you think about it is pretty pathetic )

until his fiance jilted his ass at the altar so now he's the laughing stock of the town and his father is the striking image of mother gothel! after this whole bout jeongho finally and painfully admits that he's lost in this competition with his dad and he is most definitely dumber than his dad and so from here on out he just does everything his control freak of a dad says

father says go to uni so he fucks off to get an undergrad polsci degree then his dad tells him to marry one of his lackey's daughters so he can maintain control over jeongho AND his wife so he fucks off and proposes to shin and now with the land developers coming into goero his dad tells him to run for chairman of the urban construction committee so jeongwon can fully wash his hands of this land developer business ( importantly, he wants jeongho to put a stop to it and make sure no one sells ) so off he goes and that's the reason why he's currently chairman of said committee

cho jiyeon. as said, jeongwon is a really grating man who puts a lot of pressure on his son and constantly berates and belittles him whenever he doesn't get things done and what his father simply cannot understand is how the land developers are still in goero and chalks it up to how useless jeongho is. jiyeon continually bothers the parks and reminds jeongwon that she's still here and jeongho gets yelled at like he's fifteen again and at some point while jiyeon's talking her head off and says something mildly condescending to a "country boy" like him he realises that things would be so much easier if she just... disappeared. anger gets the best of him and you know how the rest of that story goes

anyway yeah jeongho is an absolute asshole sure but he's genuinely not a psychopath so what happened with jiyeon haunts him heaps but he tries his very best to move past it and live life as though she genuinely skipped town but yeah! few years pass and it becomes easier and now we're all caught up!

ok this was so long like you can stop here if you want below is just a bit about his personality / what to expect in interactions with him! also i don't have any plot ideas mostly because it's a skeleton rp and i feel like his relationship with each canon is unique given the political scene and stuff so generic plot ideas are kinda hard but yeah!

ok so personality-wise i would say that given his dad has drilled into him how useless and stupid he is jeongho is very aware that he is not the sharpest tool in the shed so he honestly is willing to hear people out when they talk to him! don't get me wrong he's definitely proud but he's not proud enough to think that he doesn't need anyone's help because he knows all kings have their advisors and he needs them! no shame in the game! ( also to clarify he's not actually stupid he's probably more just the type of person that gets good grades because he works hard and is organised and does all his assignments before it's due and not the type that gets up the day of the assignment due date and does it within an hour and gets a high distinction for it )

his father is also a really grating man to everyone else because he is smart so he thinks he doesn't need anyone cause everyone's suggestions are always dumb compared to him and his father often burns bridges but! because jeongho is aware of his weaknesses he is not that type of person so while he may feel a certain way about you he definitely is the sort to put on a polite enough facade! one thing he tends to do is the compliment sandwich where he can say something insulting in a not-totally-aggressive way and with a smile then sandwich it between normal conversation to make you think wait... did he just insult me or did i hallucinate it? maybe he just doesn't realise how he's coming across because of his upbringing? yeah

also to tack onto all this he is a very efficient guy and a proud workaholic ( also thanks to his ocpd ) so you'll see in interactions with him that he tends to move rather fast and speak rather direct and just operates at practically 2x speed! very much a say something useful or don't say anything at all type of person and he can be rather dismissive if he feels the conversation is not going to be fruitful within the first few sentences

also re: his ocpd things have to exist in a certain order and he expects a level of perfectionism always and there's a certain set of rules that you may need to learn especially if you're interacting with him frequently ( applies more to people who live and work with him )

all of this is about work but of course jeongho does lighten up from time to time! he has a group of friends who honestly it's questionable if they like him or his status but i imagine jeongho's life is something like the truman show where you have so much power that people are often pandering to you and you just think everyone is like that cause you're great when in reality they want something from you! but point is he does hang out and drink and fuck a lot and he's uhm certainly not loyal to his wife so there's that! will say though that he is very picky about the company he keeps and the people who know the "real" him

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

My thoughts on Mai is probably so irrelevant right now but i love thinking about the wasted potential in exploring Megumi’s dynamic with the Zenin Clan because he had to have some contact with them over the course of his childhood, meaning that Mai had to interact with the kid at some point (which she did I think it’s canon) and for Mai to instantly know that Megumi is a little child genius/prodigy. Also for Mai to have a little crush on Megumi (I know most find this disgusting seeing that those two are family but I think everyone forgets that the Zenin is built on incest)

Mai putting her hopes into Megumi of him somewhat changing the Zenin when he becomes Clan Head only for those hopes to be crushed bc Megumi fucked off? I find that so depressing because she probably didn’t understand (or fully comprehend) the reasoning behind Megumi cutting off contact. I know it probably hurt her for a while because she genuinely wanted to be close to him seeing as he was the only boy (i’m assuming) that was ever truly kind to her and her sister.

I’m clinging onto that Mai tag for dear life because I’m really interested in seeing her thoughts on Megumi. Admittedly, she probably grew out of the hero worship she had for him. Maybe it was replaced with some bitterness seeing as he wouldn’t be the Clan Head now unless something happens to Gojo, so Megumi won’t be her hope in that clan. She’s stuck with Naoya who probably wants her as a wife.

NAOYA. God my thoughts on his dynamic with Megumi…it could be something so complex. Like Naoya could see Toji in the boy, who he has an obsession with but he also see Gojo, and he also see the little brat who may fear him on some level but is not afraid to stand up to him which pisses him off. He also sees his replacement, a boy who has the potential to rival Gojo, making him the potential heir. I could see him being like the only one out of the Zenin who wants that kid gone, out of sight and out of mind. Like everyone else abuses him to make him become something great. Naoya would do it to take out his anger on the kid who is everything he always wanted to be and he doesn’t even know it.

Naobito. I have no thoughts on the old drunk. I do find it interesting how Kamo said something about how Megumi is either more useful or more suitable than Naobito. I forgot the wording. I can see Naobito truly caring for Megumi though in his own fucked up way because Megumi is everything he wanted in a heir. But that care doesn’t really stop him from hurting Megumi.

Maki. Well. Best aunt/nephew duo. If the Zenin ever had a family dinner or get together, those two are definitely the ones who sits in the corner and talks shit. They definitely try and fuck shit up in the house. You would find them in the kitchen spitting in Naoya’s food. You’re gonna look me in the eyes and tell me I’m wrong? I dare you. All in all, they see a sibling in each other. Especially after losing Tsumiki/Mai. Megumi if definitely her favorite kouhai. Some may argue it’s Nobara. But listen. SEE THE VISION. Megumi has the family pass. Megumi gets Maki in a way that most don’t. But Megumi is still Yuta’s boy though. Maki sometimes fight for custody however.

Excuse my rambling guys. I was just in a silly mood thinking about Gege and his….questionable writing decisions lately.

This has been sitting half answered in my asks for like a month. If you have an ask that never got answered please know that it’s probably in my drafts haunting me.

Oh Gege’s sure. Made some decisions recently. And they’re uh. They sure are decisions. That he made. For some reason.

Maki and Megumi are the bio family dream team to me. I simply love their bond. They have identical resting bitch faces. They’re always on the same bullshit. Both are completely insane in the same way. The bio family they each always wanted but never had. Megumi is Yuuta’s Boy but that doesn’t stop Maki from making her own play for the title.

Mai’s entire thing with having a crush on Megumi becomes a little bit more comfortable if it’s framed like “he was the best option.” The Zenin do practice incest, so her entire dating pool was likely framed to her as blood family from the start. She also is the only female (other than Maki) born to that bloodline around clan leadership that we know of, so she was probably viewed as a “desirable” spouse. Marriage was probably used as a means of navigating social status, so her parents are probably planning to use her as a chip for their own political games now that their own future has sort of stagnated. After all, both their kids are sort of failures by Zenin standards, and they don’t have any other kids incoming that could do better. This is basically canon to me—they did try to make a marriage contract with Naoya, who’s very high in the clans leadership and the only other contender for clan head other than Megumi himself. She’s probably spent her entire life knowing that her parents would try for marry her off to the person in the clan with the highest status, and that’s probably been considered Naoya or one of his brothers for a long time.

There’s Naobito, the actual clan head, who appears to have had all sons. Toji appears to be Naobito’s nephew, meaning his father or mother was directly from that same line, and Megumi’s its continuation. And Naobito’s brother is Maki and Mai’s father, who produced the only girls.

The Zenin clan values power above all else, so we can assume that the line that is leading the clan tends to have a lot of cursed energy and skill. Mai and Maki didn’t get that, but they are still close tie to the line.

Mai was never supposed to be a jujutsu sorcerer. She didn’t have enough cursed energy for it. She only ended up going to the Kyoto school because Maki fucked off and the Zenin wanted to make a point. But we know how the Zenin treats women—since she didn’t have enough potential to be a sorcerer but was a member of a powerful bloodline who had cursed energy herself, she was probably viewed as a prime candidate to continue the family line, as seen with them trying to marry her off to fucking Naoya, who was a pretty high candidate for heir to the clan.

Of course, Megumi inherited the Ten Shadows. He actually did beat out Naoya for the position of heir without having put any effort or involvement into the position. He likely would have instantly shot to the top of the list for clan heir the second they knew he existed. Like, he was still installed as clan head when he actively had nothing to do with the clan. When he was a kid, and everyone was assuming they’d be able to bring him back into the clan and raise him as Zenin? It would probably be considered as close to an absolute as anything gets to them.

I could see Mai kind of romanticizing the idea of Megumi as a result, especially when she was younger Naoya was actively abusive to her and had the personality of a used gym sock dipped in shit and left on highway to rot. Megumi 1) wasn’t raised with them, so felt the least like her family 2) was actually nice to her, the one time she got to spend time with him and 3) was nice to Maki. And as bad as it was for Mai, Maki was the least accepted member of the clan at the time. She was a girl and she had little to no cursed energy. Mai canonically idolised her sister as a young girl and probably hated to see how everyone mistreated her.

Megumi intervening on her behalf when Naoya targeted her would have been monumental to her. It would have been the ultimate way of saying “everything will be okay” when she just didn’t have that sense of the future growing up.

For one thing, Megumi was guaranteed to have a position of extreme authority within the clan itself as he got older. But when he intervened on her behalf, he didn’t.

He didn’t save Mai with his own authority within the clan. He didn’t extend his protection over her, because he didn’t have any protection. When they finally all got caught, the first thing Naoya did was strike him across the face hard enough to knock him over.

They all got beaten horribly for that stunt. And they all expected it from the start, because that’s what their family did.

Megumi stuck his neck out for her. He took a beating because he didn’t like Naoya bullying her around. He intervened for Mai when it was to his own direct detriment, and she never forgot it. Her own parents weren’t doing that.

Which meant that she sort of hoped that when Megumi got older and became an authority in the clan, people would stop hurting her entirely.

Megumi didn’t have the authority as a little kid to just order Naoya to fuck off, but he was pretty much guaranteed to have it one day. There had always been people in the clan where, if you had their favor, no one could touch you. Mai had just never had anyone’s favor before. But Megumi was the Ten Shadows, and he was practically cosmically ordained as the most important person in their clan in five hundred years, and he was kind to her, and he said they could be friends. He said they’d stay friends.

It cost Megumi a lot to protect her as kids. It gave her a lot of very real hope that he’d keep doing it when it cost him nothing, and that there would come a day where it would just stop hurting so much.

And it wasn’t just her. It was also a future where Maki could maybe be happy.

One of the central facets of Mai’s character is that she desperately wishes for a world where Maki would have stayed in the clan with her. She wanted Maki to keep her promise. She wanted Maki to just be content doing a few chores and keeping her head down.

At this time, Maki hadn’t broken her promise yet, but I think that Mai still wanted that as their future. Her and Maki together, with Maki never leaving her, and both of them safe in the compound from the curses that terrified Mai.

Even if Megumi was nice to her, there should have been the lingering doubt as to whether he would also make the clan safe for Maki, but that fear got shattered when she joined them in Mai’s hideout.

He didn’t treat her like garbage. He said that they could be friends too. Maki bossed him around while they played, and the most he did was grumble at her. He treated Maki better than their own parents were treating them, and he did it without a thought.

So yeah. Mai had a lot of hopes pinned on Megumi when she was a very young girl. And I think if she had any feelings for him, it was more trying to force herself to have those feelings, because the world he offered was by far the one she wanted the most. Whether she was in love with him was almost the least important consideration.

If Mai was going to be married off to the heir to the clan, better Fushiguro “respect women” Megumi than Zenin “if she breathes she’s a thot” Naoya. He made her see a future she and Maki could be happy in for once, and then it all got ripped away.

I definitely see Mai as having a lot of bitterness towards Megumi leaving the clan, but I don’t think it was initially against him. I think she was initially bitter as hell against gojo. She was a little kid buying into the propaganda, which is that it wasn’t their Ten Shadows rejecting them, no, it was gojo stealing him away. That’s definitely changed and developed over the years, but I won’t say how.

[uraniumnm333]

heads up i'm writing this while listening to a fuck ton of teto covers so :thumbsup: also want to forward this with Minori !! Is so !!! I love her !!! but also yeah

anyways even though I'm not The Biggest MMJ Fan Of All Time I do want to talk about Minori because not even knowing much of MMJ main story she's ??? so interesting to me ??? like just the way she is also i think she's supposed to reflect idol culture a bit ??

because first of all. minori DOES NOT give up. like ever. girl just keeps going !! and that's so good for her !! but also sometimes you need to Stop. and she gets this determination from her idols !! who are literally also her bandmates !!

and that's all well and good but as per my previous statement, minori is headstrong about her goals and by extension her thoughts and feelings !!! and this can show in so many ways like she compares herself to a bunch of fully trained idols like erm... you are just starting man !! but she doesn't know that because all she knows is that she's not as good and she needs to be good to impress them !! which brings me to my next point

looking up to people is great. but like. minori my darling my sweet sunshine little minnow... these people are your FRIENDS not your superiors. she idolized the shit out of haruka and even in the wiki in haruka's relationship page it's mentioned !!

their relationship !! is not easy !! because minori only sees her as better !! than herself !! and on minori's page

and i'm like 90% minori doesn't even realized this monumental thing she's done !! like babes you made this girl. want to be an idol again. and you still don't see her as an equal ??? you saved her ??? even their trust rank is called "my idol"

and it kind of scares me that minori is so adamant that everyone is better than her !! she's going to work herself to the bone to try and achieve what everyone else has, and eventually determination isn't going to work anymore !!

it's similar to the idol industry and really just young girl's media in general !! you set impossible standards shown by people who have been raised since childhood to fill this specific role to try and show people who weren't child prodigies and whatnot that "you could have done this, but you're too lazy and therefore not as good" because that's what minori thinks !!

she sees baby haruka on TV who has probably been practicing since she was a toddler to smile and woo others, and thinks "why can't i do that ? I need to be better because she can do something i cannot" without knowing that it's because !! girl !!

I just can't get over minori. i want to see her realize that the people around her aren't always better than her and she doesn't have to feel inferior and that's so hard !! but she can use that determination and strong will and she !! can !! do !! it !!!

i want minori to see she's just as good as everyone else ans she doesn't have to prove anyone anything. also i think all the band leaders are so sad once you look into them and it's just :( anyways more more go minori !! go get em girl <33

[ihopethisendswell]

Uuuuuh you know what, mini bios time.

Zara

16

She/They ( demi girl)

Witch/Magi* ( in training)

Aroace

^ in my head, she hasn't fully realized this yet.

Kinda a grump, keeps to herself most times, but is also a little gremlin.

Always wears a witch hat bc she thinks it looks cool + it holds her stuff ( like her baseball bat)

^ has a baseball bat. No she does not play baseball ( I think she would like it tho)

Wants to learn fireball but it's HARD ( she has a natural affinity to plant n death magic than anything else)

Sees that Bo is tired and tries her best to not cause many problems for him.

Molly

16

She/Her ( cis)

Half - Vampire

Pan

Knew Zara ever since they were babies

Very bubbly and sweet. Very popular at school.

As a half vampire she doesn't need to rely on blood as much as her dad, but does enjoy blood based smoothies.

Doesn't like transforming into her more monstrous bat form cause she thinks she looks ugly :(

( currently) has a Interest in photography!

Grace

16

She/Her ( trans)

Werewolf

Lesbian

Childhood friends with Zara and Molly, though she came a little later.

Number 1 Instigator and Enabler

Still the most level headed of the three. She just likes to have her fun.

Is the class president. Has dreams of actually being someone that can cause change in the world. ( She doesn't want to be an actual president tho)

Is the oldest of 4-5( still figuring it out). Really good big sis, love her sibs ( all of them are adopted btw and are different types of supernatural)

Bo

25

He/Him ( trans)

Null*

Gay

90% of the shit Zara likes is bc of him. Unfortunately that also includes her desire to cast fireball. Minecraft.

Works a shit ton of jobs since their moms are constantly busy with work and thus need to be out of the house. So, essentially, he's Zara's legal guardian.

^ so far I know he works in retail and as a freelance bounty hunter ( being a Null means he doesn't get cursed by cursed items). But he works other jobs too.

T i r e d and incredibly depressed but keeps going for Zara.

Hasn't been in a relationship for years after a very shitty ex. Wants to start again ( with Jarah lmao) but is still nervous.

Genuinely a sweet guy despite his appearance ( tall, muscular, rbf and has tattoos n piercings). He dreams of opening a potion shop, since that's the only way he can do magic without having magic.

Aliyah

25

She/her ( cis)

Human

Bisexual

Has been best friends with Bo since middle school or high school. They've been ride or die ever since.

Number One babysitter when Bo is busy or just needs to fucking crash for the day. She's essentially the girl's big sis.

Family came from a long line of Monster Hunters, but uuuuuuh. Nowadays the supernatural and humans are ( kinda) chill and monster hunting like that is looked down upon. She was still trained to fight but overall she doesn't care.

Is an aspiring journalist, but works at a shitty place. How's bounty hunting with Bo to make sure he doesn't die and relieve stress.

Wants a girlfriend ( or boyfriend) so bad but alas. No luck.

Losing braincells over the bo n jarah thing ( she knows)

Jarah

25

He/Him

WizardWitch/Magi

bisexual

^ I don't think he knows this yet.

A prodigy of magic, was pretty much pushed into magic as soon as his parents realized his potential. He went to an elite school and everything. Pretty much the top of his kind.

He wasn't happy however, no matter how much he tried to convince himself he is. He always loved baking. Meeting Bo and Aliyah actually made him quiet his old job and work at a cafe.

^ his parents were not happy about that. Been strained ever since. Though maybe it was always strained

Constantly has restricted his abilities, out of habit and fear of them. Still offers to teach Zara about magic though.

Feelings for Bo is mutual, but he doesn't realize this for a while. When he does he....kinda panics.

Moving in from that, he loves baking, and is very skilled at mixing magic into it, enchanting flavors and emotions. Everyone loves his sweets :)

*Magi is the general term for magic users in this world. Witch, Wizard, and the like are ultimately just titles, but each has their own history with it.

*A Null is someone who is born with an immunity to magic, but at the cost of not being able to perform it. You cannot become a Null just to be clear. Bo was born as a Null, he never became on, got it? Good.

And yeah that's everything I wanted to share.

[auzzzilly96]

Could I learn about your B and James interprets lore 🥺🥺🥺

Errrm well tbh I kinda already said most of the stuff abt my interps the last time I was asked but I guess there r a few more things I could talk abt :3 

Mk sooo more abt B’s whole being way older than he should be thing n more abt what his life was like b4 he got lost in the backrooms. So pretty much he was born in the year 1950 in America around the Texas-Louisiana border[silly goofy projection we will not see more of that later definitely not]. He was pretty poor for most of his life, especially in childhood, but they made it work. He might have had siblings idk, neither does he [boom vague Reagan reference where is my gold sticker/SILLY] He was very close with his mother bc his father wasn’t around a lot, mostly out working bc the whole living in poverty thingg. He actually learned 2 speak japanese b4 he learned english bc that was his mom’s native language so that’s pretty silly :3. Well everything was well and fine for about the next 20 years but then uh oh! B’s mom becomes terribly ill one day and ends up dying a few months later! [how sad] This event is pretty much the catalyst 4 every bad thing that happens in B’s life 4 the next like 50 years. Cuz a bit b4 this he’d found out how to no clip and did it a few times but he was just so distraught in the moment that he just kinda went 2 the backrooms and just walked around 4 so long until he passed out n when he woke up he couldn’t no clip back soo yeah that’s basically his epic backstory yay. On the lighter side this is something I meant 2 explain A WHILE ago but just kinda forgor abt it so sad ik but uhm this dude n his fuck ass jacket omg. Basically his like overcoat thing is like a backrooms artifact n its pockets r basically like tiny little openings 2 an empty pocket [pun not intended] dimensions that just stores stuff n that’s it. As long as something can fit around the opening it can be put in the pocket. That’s y blud was pulling out whole ass water bottles n flashlights from them in my fic [read my fic btw chapter 4 just came out last month] Also this blud is like ADDICTED 2 Almond Water actually………. Like. this guy can’t go 15 milliseconds without a lil sip. Smh this goofy ass guy😔😔[SILLY]…..

Ok now James’s epic backstory yippie 😁😁💥💥!!!!!!! oke so like I already talked abt his sad backstory where he lost his eyes n stuff but ig I'll talk abt what he was like b4 that :3. So basically growing up she was treated as like a child prodigy. Like. VERY good in school. Skipping a couple grades type beat. With her being so “gifted” n all she wasn’t really ever given a chance to be. like. a normal kid. Everything throughout her life up until the “accident” was always just focused on just “being the best at everything™” bc that was the mentality that was instilled upon them by their parents. And oh boy. The parental issue I gave this mf. Unreal. Someone needs 2 lock me up[JOKE]. Bro’s whole life he was constantly told over n over again “work work work study study study get into a good collage be successful be somebody important” nothing but that for like 15 years. Like bro had no friends until the age of 26. shitz crazy[silly]. So like time goes by n he’s successful in school n college n gets his job as a professional chemist. So fun n good she did what she was suppose 2 yippiiee nothing could go possibly wrong!! But then the whole explody eyes go bye bye thing happens [not as fun]. N so now this is the catalyst 4 their suffering yippie <3 [sarc] N it’s kinda ironic bc the reason he ended up being so careless in that moment was bc his upbringing made him so unreasonably confident in his abilities that he disregarded even the most basic of safety protocol. So anyways bro wakes up in the hospital blind, scared, confused and alone. Is told what happened. Is so mortified that she has a meltdown right then n there [things r not off 2 the best start]. Not just over the life long facial disfigurement but also over the fact that they failed. They failed to be the perfect scientific prodigy they were supposed 2 be. N in the process, didn’t just fall themself but failed everyone who ever believed in them[At least that’s what they thought at the time]. Like bro didn’t even get fired he CHOSE 2 resign bc he was so ashamed of himself n what he’d done. a lot of this built up trauma n self resentment is y she’s so attached B n Hashely bc they were rlly like 1st ppl in her life 2 show her any kind of unconditional support or affection. Bc after the accident when she was at her absolute lowest point her parents like just softcore cut her off. Like. she tried multiple times after the fact 2 try n contact them but nothing ever came back so they just stopped trying after a while :( Also kinda related is that I think their hair is like naturally curly but they straighten it bc it being curly reminds them of the past n they HATE being reminded of the past. 

Erm ok kinda ended in a doomer note but erm oh well :33

[welldonebeca]

Miss, PhD (XI)

WC: 900+ words Warnings: Fluff. Steve being a dumbass. Slow burn. Mutual pining.

If you like my work, consider buying me a coffee or subscribing to my Patreon. It’s just $2 a month and helps a lot while I go through these hard times.

Masterlist

“Text her,” Bucky spoke by his side. “What are you waiting for?”

Steve pressed his lips in a thin line.

He was… waiting.

He didn’t know what for, obviously.

So, Steve had said he was going to text you, and you had both agreed you would be going out for a meal - or a coffee, or a snack - whenever you were free and not tangled in your research.

“She is probably busy,” he rolled his eyes.

You had a whole PhD to take care of. The last thing he wanted was to disrupt your process of studying.

“She hates her PhD subject, you said it yourself,” Nat stood by his side, crossing her arms. “And that’s what texts are for, Steve. You text someone, and they answer when they are able to.”

Bucky scoffed.

“He won’t say anything, he won’t text her,” he saw on one of the chairs in his classroom.

It was one of his office days, when he didn’t teach and students just came over to discuss school matters. No one had shown up today, except, of course, for Natasha and Bucky, who apparently had nothing else to do with their lives.

“He has a crush on her,” his childhood best friend stared at him. “And when Stevie has a crush, he gets paralysed, because he feels like that old skinny, bony, asthmatic boy who was too shy for his own good.”

He wasn't a child anymore, why was he even bringing that up?

"Give me that," Natasha snatched his phone out of his hands. "I always gotta do all the work with you, fucking hell."

As she walked away, he turned to look at Bucky.

"Don't call me that," he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Well, you are acting like that," he crossed his arms. "It's not like I'm wrong."

"This is different," he tried to argue.

You were just a friend of his. Sure, Steve thought you were beautiful and extremely clever-

"What is different?" Bucky insisted. "You are interested in a pretty girl and is afraid of talking to her, and you are putting all those barriers between you two."

"I'm not," he argued, already feeling his face flushing in embarrassment.

"You literally convinced yourself she was just 17, Steve," Natasha spoke in the other side of the room. "She clearly isn't. I've been around her a bunch of times, and she has grey hairs already, she looks like someone in her mid-twenties."

Alright, so maybe he had willed himself into thinking you were someone unavailable, but they couldn’t blame him. You were a prodigy, a genius since a young age, how would he know you weren’t young anymore?

His best friend turned to her, intrigued.

"Grey hairs, really?"

She was right. Your hair was peppered with a few grey hairs. There was nothing wrong with it, obviously, but they were there.

"She is under a lot of stress," she remarked. "I'm surprised she doesn't have forehead wrinkles like Steve over there, and you."

Steve shot her a confused look just as Natasha looked at his phone with curiosity.

"You are 32," he remarked. "Why don't you have wrinkles?"

"Cause I moisturise twice a day and get Botox injections twice a year, and I'm 33 and not 53," she rolled her eyes. "She's been typing and stopping for five minutes already."

He made note of the age correction, but jumped closer to her to see what the hell she was talking about. Had she said anything?

Were you trying to say anything?

"Did she say anything?"

No. The chat was completely empty.

"Text her," Bucky added quickly. "She is trying to gather courage to do it. Text her! Say hi!"

Natasha tapped a ‘hi’ quickly, and his heart quickened up in his chest as a little bubbly of text answered very fast with a little hey.

So maybe you were waiting for him to text you?

Did you think he was  taking too long? That he wasn’t interested?

“There you go,” she gave it over to him. “You have your conversation started.”

Steve scoffed, rolling your eyes, but was quick to move his attention away when his eyes fell on another text from you.

‘How are you?’

‘I’m okay,’ he answered back quickly. ‘Just finishing closing my classroom after my office hours.’

Natasha and Bucky hovered over him, looking curious, and he rolled his eyes.

“Well?” he asked.

“Ask her out,” Natasha answer, simply. “What are you waiting for?”

A message popped out on his phone, and he moved his focus back to it.

‘I’m leaving the lab now. Do you want to maybe eat something?’

“Say yes,” Bucky said quickly. “You got nothing to do after that today.”

Steve typed down a 'yes' before he could think of anything else, eager to see you.

"See?" Natasha elbowed his side. "That wasn't so hard!"

He rolled his eyes, but looked back at his phone when a text popped up again.

'I'll see you in the main quad?'

Bucky pushed his shoulder, already carrying his backpack.

"Did you just shove everything inside?" he frowned.

"Nothing broke on the way," his friend rolled his eyes. "So don't worry."

Steve scoffed, but took it from his hand, throwing it over his shoulder.

"Don't leave her waiting," Natasha crossed her arms. "And take your head out of your ass, Stevie."

"Don't call me that," he rolled his eyes.

Bucky, however, just ignored it.

"Come on, Stevie. Let's lock this room up and get you to your date."

Yeah, he really wasn't ever going to drop that.

“Fine,” he rolled his eyes. “Come on, let’s go. You two, get out.”

. . .

"Miss, PhD" was posted on my Patreon back on January! To read the full story before anyone else and have early access to all of my works, subscribe to my page! It's just $2 a month!

. . .

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[soulvomit]

It's one thing when you're only one generation removed from The Discourse. But when it's more than that, even the pushback on the pushback, looks weird.

The big thing in autism discourse is that female Zoomer and Young Millennial ND activists are pushing back on optics that were a 90s/00s thing (the genius boy for example) but absolutely weren't a thing in my childhood. Those dudes were just gifted kids who were golden boys, "high functioning autism" was associated with Rain Man, etc. Like, really, "white male autistic genius" was not a thing. My generation still had the prodigy/highly gifted optic. A big optic problem though was always that "male genius" was a thing to begin with because the culture had a fraught relationship with female intelligence.

Also, at some point in the last two decades, feminism stopped talking about how the culture gaslights intelligent girls, right from the get go, and produces trauma and mental illness in those same girls over a lifetime. And we stopped talking about how feeling like you're constantly being watched and judged, is not specifically an autism symptom (because now I ONLY see this discussed in female ND space and that makes me bristle.)

"Female autism" is not a special kind of gender essentialist autism for girls, it's an intersection of autism with the demands of compulsory (privileged white) femininity, often and usually policed by other women, and with the de-relevance (not really canceled, just buried under the heaps of newer and more media/internet friendly discourse) of lots of topics we talked about in the 90s and authors like Deborah Tannen... it is almost impossible to talk about this now

Finally, I don't know how to tell you that it's time to talk about a modern culture bound disorder that I think is evolving because of social media and interconnection, you're not imagining things, you really ARE being watched and judged on the slightest infractions/hurt feelings/offenses and in how weird you act or look in public, please don't gaslight yourself or allow therapists to. Of course this is much harder to live with when you are ND and basically just one walking microaggression. Please go back to pointing the finger outward where it belongs, like we used to do in these discussions. People are somehow conditioned to lie to you and comfort you when you admit to "paranoid" or "socially anxious" feelings but damn, at the same time, People of Wal-Mart exists.

Sometimes it's autism and sometimes it's "we live in a fucking dystopian panopticon"

[x-authorship-x]

Ooooooh, #84 for the Angst/Fluff prompt list? I associate you with Shisui always but obvi whoever you want :)

#84- “Going somewhere?”

Sasuke jolted like the words - drifting casually from the roof - were a thrown sandal that had bounced off the back of his head. He spun around, pink already blossoming across his cheeks, and his mouth pinched in frustration when he caught sight of the figure peering down at him.

"What are you doing up there?!"

Shisui quirked a funny little smile, eyebrows lifting; despite being a perfectly friendly expression, he managed to convey a perfect blend of amusement and incredulity. One hand moved from cushioning his head, sprawled like he was sunbathing on the tiles, as Shisui pointed a finger at his own face.

"Shinobi."

Then, he twisted to point at Sasuke, squeezing one eye shut in a wink.

"Grounded."

And that really got Sasuke's back up, nostrils flared and jawline tensed under the force of clenched teeth.

"You're what? My jailor? Did Otou-san tell you to stand guard?"

Shisui had a way of smiling like an angel even when his eyes sparkled with mischief. "I'm a Shinobi, actually."

"... you're a pain in the ass."

"What was that, Sasuke-kun?" Shisui sat up to lean over the eaves, sunlight haloing his curls and casting his profile into sharp relief. "I don't think that's the attitude you'd want to take... Well, not if you want your super cool cousin to help you break out."

The magic words and, suddenly, the aggravation was melting from Sasuke's face, his little shoulders twisting back to face Shisui head on. He seemed to spark back to life, that lightness that had been missing since Fugaku had grounded him in the first place.

Honestly, Fugaku hadn't thought 'over training' was a thing back when he'd been forcing Shisui through gruelling kata at all hours of the day. The same with Itachi. Ironic.

(Shisui couldn't tell if Fugaku thought that old approach had fucked the two of them up or, maybe, worked a little too well.)

Maybe if it had been Mikoto 'laying down the law', Shisui wouldn't have offered to undermine Sasuke's punishment. But Fugaku? Shisui had a whole missing childhood of his own to make up for. Frankly, at this point, both Itachi and Shisui were living vicariously through Sasuke's Academy days. The joys of being repressed child prodigies, eh? Stick it to The Man, and all that.

"You'd help me?" Sasuke double-checked, wide eyes narrowing a little. "Why? Otou-san said-"

Shisui jumped from the roof, landing with barely a thump, and planted a hand in the middle of Sasuke's hair just to scrub it up. Itachi's hair was like his mother's, smooth and thick and long, but Sasuke's was just stubborn enough to resist styling and that meant it was an open target for messing with.

"A bit of rebellion is healthy! Plus, questioning orders is what Jounin do, so it's technically training you to be critical and independent and shit...!"

"Why do I feel like this is a mistake..."

"Because you need to lighten up- hey!"

[beevean]

Just post your Hecula rant you coward >:(

LET'S GOOOOOOOOO

I am embolded by the sheer amount of Dracula/Jonathan (harker, not morris) content floating around, I think people have realized by now that I'm a disgusting degenerate who very much likes the trope of "creepy ass old man falling in 'love' with a young boy/girl under his thumb" :'D

So this is a translation of this post, which I translated because I noticed some people seem to be interested in Hecula :)

Obviously there's going to be extensive talk of grooming and abuse.

It's hilarious how I fell into this rareship hell simply because

I memed too much about everyone in CoD wanting to fuck Hector (which is true and I can prove it);

no i will never stop using this image it awakened something in me worse than the Stabbing Scene

And then yeah, everything fell apart :'D

First of all I just want to say one thing: if CoD was more famous in the fandom, many more fans would accept the idea that Dracula fucked his Generals in between genocides. C'mon man, the set up is perfect. Y'all are cowards, I tell you :P

But other than that, it is interesting to compare the differences between Isaacula and Hecula.

Isaacula is your typical villain/simp ship. Isaac adores Dracula, he's literally crazy for him, he would destroy himself for him, and Dracula is like, "okay". Personally I like the idea that Dracula is perfectly aware of how much Isaac worships him (not that Isaac even tries to hide it lol), and takes the opportunity to manipulate him just the right amount... and c'mon, if a pretty boy offered himself to you like this, what would you do, not take advantage of the situation? 👀 But he sees Isaac as he would see… I dunno, his throne? It's there, it belongs to him, no one would touch it, he doesn't have to do anything else. It's not interesting.

Hector is interesting. Hector is a prodigy in the art of Devil Forging. Hector is a skilled fighter. Hector is smart (and so is Isaac, but he's a lot more emotional so he may seem dumber). Hector, after a childhood spent believing he didn't deserve to exist, is now realizing his own worth. Cold, proud, obedient Hector, without Isaac's fanaticism but far more efficient, and just as grateful to his benefactor.

I think there is a possibility for Dracula to be attracted to Hector. And yes, the mental image of him suddenly realizing one day that the shy little boy who one day knocked on his front door has grown to be such a handsome man in a short time makes me want to bite the flesh off my arms and it drives me insane <3

Not only that, but if I really wanted to be cynical, I could also point this out:

:)

Speaking of Leon, I can now get to the point of what I call the Bride Hector AU: Dracula, gone insane with grief over the loss of Lisa, clings to Hector tooth and nail (literally lmao) and insists on using him as a substitute for his wife.

It has been pointed out to me that, in that scene in LoI where Mathias proposes to Leon to join him in immortality, his goal may also have been to replace Elisabetha with his best friend. Mathias was clearly out of his mind with grief, and he trusted Leon, and he couldn't even comprehend that Leon maybe didn't want anything more to do with him. He just wanted company. He didn't want to experience his immortality alone.

But Leon was free to tell him to go fuck himself, rightfully so.

Hector, who is as handsome as Leon, as strong as Leon, and as dear to Dracula as Leon used to be (although in different ways, the two are not friends obv) does not have this freedom. Hector swore allegiance to Dracula, Hector became one of the strongest creatures in the world thanks to Dracula, and he still trusts the only person who granted him the right to exist.

Hector should be grateful to Dracula.

So, don't you think that kissing him isn't the least he can do to his Lord to compensate for all that he has given him? Or offering his neck? Or accepting to be brought to Lisa's old bedroom? :)

It's very, very easy for Dracula to get Hector to give him what he wants, even if Hector doesn't reciprocate Dracula's feelings at all. He doesn't need tricks or magic, he can simply exploit the loyalty of a poor boy who has no one else, and who by now is so used to being his Lord's favorite that he can't even consider disappointing him.

On the other hand, at the heart of it all there's an old man unable to move on. As a vampire, he's frozen in time, and it's very difficult for him to accept change. He became a vampire in the midst of grieving the loss of his first wife, and now he has lost his second one too? He can't do it. He can't handle the pain. He breaks. He needs someone.

And Hector just so happens to be right here, this pretty boy who can be seduced, who can help him feel less alone.

After Lisa's death, Dracula becomes... protective. Very protective. He will no longer allow anyone, not even God Himself, to take away the only light of his life. Which not only means protecting Hector from all the beasts that would dare to harm him or worse, but also making sure that the boy doesn't slip away from him. Dracula has complete control over his castle and all its residents... so Hector, love, you better be nice and don't do things that might displease your Lord :) like, for example, running back to Isaac, who meanwhile he's dying inside of jealousy :) oh, but don't worry, you're the favorite, so nothing will happen to you! But Isaac will take the fall :) so he will hate you even more, and your relationship will break down, and Hector will truly have no one left but his Lord :)

Or his husband :)

Dracula loses it more and more, he needs Lisa, he needs to feel sure that he will never be left alone again. He gets the morbid idea of marrying Hector and calling him his wife, even giving him the wedding ring that used to belong to that poor woman whom Hector might have seen as a mother figure. He can't escape. Now his Lord is his husband and Hector must behave accordingly, and if Dracula wants to be called by his first name and pet names while he fucks Hector on Lisa's bed, well, he has to do it. What can he do about it, say no? Hahahaha you're so funny <3

(A little appreciated perk is that, as a Devil Forgemaster, Hector is far tougher than a normal human, and he can conjure Fairies to heal most of his wounds. A perfect match for a ten-feet-tall cold vampire with sharp fangs and claws :) you're welcome, Hector dear <3)

Hector, needless to say, has a hard time clinging to his sanity. He doesn't want any of this. He doesn't want to be the sex toy of the person he once could have seen as a father, he doesn't want him to suck his blood so often that he's practically anemic by now (because, among other things, let's not forget that he still has to work), he doesn't want all these scars around his neck that almost form a collar he can't take off, he doesn't want Isaac to hate him and envy him for a situation he refuses to understand, he wants to be seen as Hector, as a person.

But he can't hate Dracula. Dracula isn't cruel with him, he just needs some help. Dracula did some good things too after all, and it's true that Hector can't live anywhere else, because only Dracula appreciates and accepts him. There is still a small part of Hector, the boy who was stoned by his peers and slapped by his mother, who still loves Dracula, to a certain extent.

But the more Dracula degenerates, the more the outside world doesn't seem so terrifying, compared to the madness of his Lord...

He's not Isaac. He is loyal and obedient, but he's not willing to objectify himself to this extent.

In short, I really really like this kind of dynamic, an older man seducing a younger person into a relationship of trust and dependency, until the younger person escapes and takes their life back into their own hands <3 and yes, while the idea of the older man thinking of the other as simply a warm body to fuck is appealing in its own right, I'm growing to love the alternative of him instead falling in "love", but it's a twisted, selfish, all consuming love.

tl;dr: hecula hot

And just in case, I have written 4 fanfics to explore these ideas :)

If you have a good tool, you use it, don't you?

It is forbidden to touch the Lord's belongings

Honeymoon (technically a spoiler but I long gave up on that)

Shame (the only fully SFW fic so far lmao)