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prodigiousvisions · 3 years

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Headcanon/Divergence? [1] (Yosano): Childhood, The Great War, and life after the war.

Initial disclaimer and semi-related note(s)–

So if part of this looks familiar to you, that’s probably because you read it before in its original, rudimentary state. I have quite a few regrets of impulsively deleting my Yosano blog (vivificamortem) tbh due to having an episode, and one of them was not saving the original post of this when I first wrote it. That being said I still think it’s important enough to warrant a rewrite even if I don’t exactly recall the specifics. As this eventually becomes very Fukuzawa and Ranpo orientated/centric, I just want to make it clear this will not apply to your respective muses of these two unless we discuss it. These are considered backstory supplements and characterizations of Yosano and Yosano’s main verse. She does not have mains for Ranpo or Fukuzawa at this time, and I usually... don’t do mains? But for specifics like this, this would probably apply to potential, future mains and warrant mains of these two. If that makes sense. Anyway. This will also include a bunch of new HC details I didn’t have before.

I was going to be mean and not put this under a cut lol but I’ll be merciful since it is extremely thorough and lengthy. 2,300+ words lengthy, and that’s not including this disclaimer. I know I asked people to read this once finished but realistically I cannot ask that in good conscious unless you are genuinely interested/care and actually are into BSD lol. Fleshed out details+conceptualized explanations/characterization below. Content/mention warnings for suicide ideation + attempts, and neglect.

CHILDHOOD

Yosano was an only child. She was not a beloved child, a planned child, nor a wanted child. Her parents would have been inclined to give her away instantly had they not compromised to raise her as a sort of... ‘help’ for the couple’s wagashi shop. It was a regret far before the first sleepless night when she was a baby, but they decided to grin and bear it. Raising Yosano was an arduous task and they made it very clear in how they behaved toward her as she was growing up. Saying that she was simply neglected wouldn’t even begin to describe it. In response to this, as a young girl Yosano developed a loud, brash personality that would more often than not get her in trouble both at school and with her parents. Being punished was never fun, but at least it garnered their attention for a little while before they went back to essentially ignoring her presence. Her adapted personality would not lead to any fruition for her lonely soul at school either, most kids finding her annoying, scary, or would simply view her in scorn for being so outspoken and strange. She began to believe the outlook of her parents: her only use was to be a shopkeep of the family business. The girl debated with herself often what was the worth of life, what was the point to live, if not to live and be frowned down upon at every other moment. Troubled and depressed, Yosano tries her hardest to cope, keeping her chin up but her eyes glued to the floor when in seclusion.

At some point or another Yosano and her parents find out about her ability and the extent of it all. It freaks Yosano out at the start, thinking about how ridiculous it is that someone who contemplated on a daily basis what they truly benefited out of being alive could potentially alter the fate of someone’s life and grant them a second chance. Then for once, she finds worth in herself. It wasn’t something she could actively go and show off of course, but it gave her a purpose. Her dramatized exterior of self-entitlement and loudmouthedness proceeds on of course, but her outlook begins to shift. She has hope. She can do something good for people. And have a (figurative) place doing so.

This new purpose was an open door opportunity not only for Yosano, but her parents as well. At the first opportunity to do so as they are tired of taking care of this child, they’re quick to send her off, knowing how valuable that ability and its potential was. In this case, it was the military (either catching wind of her ability or deciding to now call on her due to the necessary role in their war strategy) demanding for Yosano to take part personally. It was a ridiculously easy feat to get their permission to send her away. She was technically no longer their responsibility while she was away. Hell, they hoped she would never come back.

She wouldn’t. And that was that. That was the last time she ever saw and would be in contact with her parents.

THE GREAT WAR

It’s worth reminding everyone that Yosano was a child, and the gravity of her new circumstances didn’t quite dawn on her before it was too late. At the start, she was excited to show that she could have worth and be surrounded by people that would appreciate her for what she did. It would be the first time in all of her life that would happen. And it is for these very reasons that she has such strong, genuine, sincere reactions during the chapters/times she is midst the war. While maintaining her semi huffy and self-imposed air, she was also able to allow it to falter a little because for once, she didn’t need to resort to that to be paid attention to. In their initial praise, it did freak her out at first, the foreignness being so strange to her. But she appreciated it, she truly did. (Note: this obviously doesn’t apply to Mori lol.) The unnamed soldier that Yosano interacts with at this time especially strikes a chord with her. His kindness makes her think that maybe if she was fortunate enough, she would have liked to have someone like that as a brother. Maybe someone like that could have stopped the pain she’d endured with her parents. But that was in the past! He was lending her more toward the perspective of hope just as he told her that she was doing for him and the other soldiers. The creation of the butterfly clip, again, freaks her out because she’s unsure how to react to kind gestures. It is the first of its kind– a present, meaningful in its weight and sentiment in a way that she would learn later would continue to influence her life in various, monumental ways. His present interest in poetry is also something that Yosano would find herself enjoying, too. At the time.

Honestly, I really don’t even think it’s worth elaborating on Mori cause. Well. That whole ordeal speaks for itself. His manipulation and obsession grosses her out at its minimum / start and would later be the colossal trigger and collapse of her mental stability and lead to lasting trauma even as an adult. But anyways, back to other details worth note in this timeframe.

The war efforts proceed and we reach the point where things are looking grim and soldiers are getting near fatally injured faster, and coming back in droves. She realizes rather quickly that she bit off more than she can chew; to have to bear witness to these men being on the brink of death and quickly ‘revive’ them like some sort of automated robot would, naturally, mess up anyone. Her haughty behavior drops quickly as she becomes more quiet, tired, horror creeping up her body gradually in the form of slowly raising goosebumps. She’s wondering when the war will be over, and starts to second guess her purpose. Is what she’s doing right? But she’s not hit rock bottom, not yet at least, as the unnamed soldier reassures her the second instance. He relays how her saving him would bring him back to his family. He tells her: “I’m glad that you’re here.” And it makes way for Yosano’s first instance of ever crying in front of someone, feeling an overwhelming amount of gratitude to being seen and the need to trudge forward to protect. Protect those who had a life to return to. He’d been living proof of the importance of life– that life wasn’t always so cruel to others, that she had a chance to be surrounded by those who cared about her too. She cries in her vulnerability.

Things turn for the worst. Every day is a living nightmare. She can wipe away blood from her body, others’ body, but she will never be clean of the endless pools of blood that stained her hands after her treatments. Even at the age of 11, she comes to the realization that she is the single force that shackles all these people to the torture of having to throw themselves into battle again and again for futile efforts. She’s on the brink of a nervous breakdown constantly, but consoles herself with the thought that the unnamed soldier will be able to tell her it’s alright, maybe even help her figure out a way to get them all out of there. Yosano doesn’t want her ability, hell, she’d opt to having no purpose over this. She would trade her life for all of these people. She just needed this to stop. It’s all her fault.

The person who was the embodiment of her last shred of sanity and piece of hope commits suicide and dubs her the Angel of Death, and that was her final breaking point. The sliver of belief that providing good for people and having a purpose is ultimately gone. Her worldview that she started to have hope for shatters. It was a cumulative, gradual raise of hope for a better life to have it all smashed to the ground. This tied in with the actual events she lived through, clearly, do not help. Trauma blocks it out of her memory later on, but there are plentiful, deliberate suicide attempts from the young girl afterward, wanting out of this hell that her own hands allowed to bear fruit, but for various circumstances and reasons, her attempts would not work and/or she would simply not be allowed to die at Mori’s hands. She is a hysterical, screaming, crying mess until she is no longer able to cry anymore. If not suicide, then alternative methods. Yosano would attempt to blow the ship up with the explosives that were stored at the bottom – it would have been a far crueler end than prolonging everyone’s destined death, but ultimately fails at that as well.

LIFE AFTER THE WAR

She is apprehended and taken away to an institution where she spends three years in a void of a space, living on earth as if her spirit has long been faded. She is a shell of a person, succumbed to her own despair and doing the absolute bare minimum. Humanity only ever makes itself present in jaded eyes that blink sometimes and the agonizingly slow rise and fall of her chest to indicate that somehow, she was breathing. Living, but not alive. Not really, anyway. She may as well be rotting away, unkempt, unpure, and wishing life would simply put her out of her misery. Devoid of any hope, feeling death would be a start of repenting for her crimes. But it was never that easy. Why would it be?

Ranpo and Fukuzawa rescue her. We all know how that goes. Let’s touch on some details of after that.

After rescuing her, the duo have Yosano reside with them in Fukuzawa’s apartment. While Ranpo and Fukuzawa managed to recover a glimmer of hope in Yosano by rescuing her alone, the hope is discarded as she feels she is unworthy of it and they essentially are put in a position where they have to rehabilitate her. These two people cared enough about her to try to help her– she can see it, despite going about like a walking corpse some days. But guilt is overbearing, suffocating, and it shakes her down with constant night terrors that she is too drained to scream at as well as frequent moments where she blacks out without prompting. At this time, the butterfly clip she dares not to remove from her person is a reminder, a grim heavy burden she forces herself to carry on her shoulders that she was not a good person and that this was her karma and hers alone. She should not forget that no matter how good intentioned Ranpo and Fukuzawa were to her. There was absolutely at least one more time she attempted to take her life. Needless to say, it’s a painstakingly slow process, taking about a full year before Yosano can even start to really improve outside of talking to them here and there.

(I feel like this behavior / state is EXTREMELY similar to how Kyouka starts off as, too, so my Yosano would definitely take to Kyouka more strongly than some others. But that is an entirely different conversation for some other time.)

Once she gets to a point where she can process things again and forcing herself to come to terms with the fact that these two will simply not allow her to remain dormant, Ranpo takes to tutoring her to help get her back on track to where she left off in her schooling, as she was getting stable enough to where Fukuzawa had confidence she could get better. This process was also slow, but Ranpo is quite the good teacher when he wants to be! The endeavor is a success, and she is able to enroll again in public school, where she is still piecing together why she was granted this second chance at life. It feels pitifully ironic, all things considered. As time does, it also grants an opportunity for growth and change. Eventually, she gradually shakes her way out of her shell at snail’s pace. Some days were still harder than others, of course. Getting poetry assignments would make Yosano have full on anxiety attacks where the only solutions of getting her to calm down were to have Ranpo or Fukuzawa at her side, or if at school and neither were present, to be sent home. These instances lessened over time, thankfully, and the episodes would turn to bitter, depressing moments where Yosano would tense up and try to pass it off to Ranpo if she was able in a way that while seemed lukewarm in how she expressed it, certainly held its weight of obvious trauma.

(She never liked to talk about her issues. Never. And instead almost always opted for distractions as her method of coping. It is a major flaw of hers that you can absolutely call her out for even in present time.)

Yosano will never truly return to being 100% normal, but that’s fine, as she really was never at 100% anyway. Schooling in its own right helped her cope with things and served as a distraction from negative thoughts, and she found herself enjoying it and studying harder than ever before. Assisting in the preliminaries of helping around the detective agency also allowed her to grow into the figurative seat that Ranpo saved just for her. No longer did she have to be abrasive to garner people’s attention, either, becoming more comfortable with an occasional snarky tongue when the situation allowed it, and slowly being allowed to live as herself for the first time. It was truly shocking to see that people liked her for her and not the potential of weaponizing the dangerous ability that she had. Once more was her ambition to help people reignited, but it would be done on her own terms. Compelled by her convictions as schooling was coming to a close, she decided that she would go to pursue higher education at a university while formally getting a degree to become a doctor. It is then when she got accepted that her new self would truly shine, becoming as close as she could to be at peace. This endeavor was sped up to lightning fast speeds because of her drilled in skill of being all the more studious and essentially holding the knowledge of what it entailed already.

Not necessarily integral details, but while in university, she did pick up the hobbies of taking up Kickboxing Classes as well as Dance Classes and are longstanding interests of hers that she maintains even after finishing her schooling. These, too, serve(d) as time slot distractions to keep her thoughts at bay when her mind decided to be a little cruel to her at some moments. Poetry no longer leaves a bitter taste in her mouth and is now a newfound interest of hers. She even writes poetry of her own at times. As of present time, her butterfly clip is still a symbol of burden she chooses to carry and a reminder, but it is also representative of metamorphosis, a chance at a new beginning– a new life. That there was value in life, and that you should live on for those who could not.

#unwind the scroll. >> long post.#/ ...what are tags ill figure this out later #/ i always said i suck at writing backstories and stuff and i didnt know what to write for yosano but turns out. i have a LOT to write for #/ yosano. should i put this in her carrd bio? maybe i should.

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demisexualnathanvuornos · 4 years

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The Olivia Experiment

*starts well with the ace group with a nice turn out (and a bit of diversity), having ace discussions. It seems to mean that at least the movie accepts ace as a real identity.

*3 minutes in goes to shit because even after Olivia expresses ace-esque thoughts about society's sex obsession, the leader says "Sometimes people use asexuality to hide. It's about finding the right fit."

What the no-fuck? !?! Ace groups wouldn't turn away questioning people like that.

*Her roommate (?) then gives his two cents: "For the record, I don't think you're asexual." When Olivia says "It's just something I've been thinking about/giving it a try (?), he goes "You might give sex a try. " Then she freaks out and goes "Too much pressure!"

I'm like 4 minutes in. Urgh.

*lots of aphobia, internalized (if I have sex I will become somewhat more typical human being) and external (very sex normative, you don't have the life experience to teach Modernism and Realism, life experience =love and sex) *her mother appears and gives a horrible rant about 'all these damn sexualities'

*early she blew up at her class, kinda making her seem irrational (they don't pay attention to her so she rants at them about only caring about their next date or screw)

*it's incredible uncomfortable to watch her try to have sex. She's uncomfortable and clearly doesn't want it/is repulsed by it. *ETA I do think the overall tone is humorous and affectionate. I'm not sure how to phrase that. It's uncomfortable but also funny in a good way. Because she's never actually forced to do anything.

*and yet everyone tells her to do it (except neighbor Ray, I'm wondering if he's a semi-love interest? At 54mins) (spoiler he is!)

*odd anti-sex work line (what is sex to you? Natural progression -Profession? -Progression -Oh, good. I was scared) *sex work is work

*peer pressure to try weed

*lots of 'how are you a virgin at 27' -I'm currently 32 and happily a virgin

(Had to take a break)

*before I watched this, I knew there was a 'lesbian realizes she's bi' plot. It's very much a YMMV plotline. The character is CJ, Olivia's camerawoman and she does have a bit of a flirty dynamic with Julian, the guy Olivia is experimenting with, and except for being willing to sleep with any woman available Julian is a decent guy, it's maybe not that bad. Part of it is that we don't see Julian with Olivia's friend Felisha a lot nor do we see CJ with a woman (except for a reference to on stage making out between Olivia and CJ in Bye Bye Birdie), and CJ does say 'I think I might be bi' after she's attracted to Julian, so it's not like she's dequeered. But their relationship starts out as cheating. And Olivia has a weird reaction to it. Anyway if you are bothered by that stuff (and that's mostly ok), best to skip this movie.

*Julian and Olivia do end up sharing a good kiss that Olivia describes as giving her a 'je ne sais quoi' feeling, and 'giving her hetero leanings', she wasn't sexually attracted to Julian ultimately

*she doesn't have sex and realizes that it's not for her

*in the end, it's implied she gets together with her neighbor who holds her hand right after she tells him that she'll never be into sex. It seemed he might be similarly inclined

*she doesn't end up identifying herself as anything but she says that 'the gray zone is not a bad place to be'.

*I do wonder about that really weird rejection by the ace group in the beginning. Plus her gay roommate telling her 'I don't think you're asexual', kinda in the same way a fatphobe might say 'you're not fat, you're beautiful', acting like you can't be both. Like, it seemed like James the roommate was trying to comfort her. Like being ace was the worst.

Having that be the start of her exploration really didn't help. Like, it's possible those things kept her from truly embracing her aceness, because she was told 'you're not like us' and 'you shouldn't be like them'

*Overall I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought. I enjoyed Olivia as a character, and I thought lot of the aphobia was realistic. The plot summary and the beginning were the worst but overall Olivia gained internal and a bit of external (Ray, her mother apologizes for her awfulness, James is an OK friend) acceptance of herself. She doesn't get to define herself with a label but she becomes OK with questioning and not having an answer.

For a 2012 film, it has issues but considering H*use MD's awful Better Half episode came out the same year (Jan vs Nov? ) this is much better. Even compared to On Chesil Beach, a 2017 film about an (assumed) ace woman forcing herself to have sex with her husband on their wedding night, this is a lot better. (The issue with OCB is the fact it loses interest in Florence and her pov disappears in the end when it really shouldn't have)

I can see myself rewatching this a decent amount.

And of course, I am just one ace (double demi). Others can disagree. Especially Olivia's character can rub people the wrong way because she's very socially awkward.

#the olivia experiment #olivia howell #ace representation #ace characters #ace meta #aspec august

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argent-vulpine · 4 years

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A Mystery I Want to Read

Fandom: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Rating: G

Characters: Yuri/F!Byleth

Chapter 1: First Night

Read it on AO3

Yuri prided himself on knowing. Things, people, whatever was necessary. He knew every twist and turn in Abyss, and he could read his associates as if they were children’s books. But the professor… she was something else. He couldn’t get a read on her, this mysterious woman. She and her students had stumbled into his domain and had still managed to best his motley crew in an admittedly unfair fight, and she’d done it somehow without breaking a sweat, that flat expression of hers never once changing.

Even when he’d threatened her, promised to slit her throat if she proved untrustworthy, she hadn’t cracked. Hell, she’d turned around not long after and brought him a gift, asked him for tea, and she’d even found something of his and returned it, no questions asked, no desire for anything in return. It didn’t sit well with him.

And here she was now, sitting across from him in the dim light of the tent, a single candle between them as her quill scratched against parchment, her face just as unreadable as ever. Yuri didn’t know why he’d allowed her to come along. Perhaps as a way to get to know her better, see if he could crack her stony exterior. Or maybe for the chance to see her in action, the Ashen Demon he’d heard so much about. He’d gotten a glimpse of what she was writing and grown bored with it fairly quickly when all he saw were lesson plans and a simple ledger keeping track of her month’s expenditures, though he did raise a slender eyebrow at the sheer cost of… everything. And if he’d read it right, the church - despite their full coffers - weren’t providing all that much. She’d notated several personal deposits to the funds, rewards for missions and bounties. Ever the mercenary, this one, he thought with a wry smile.

He was reading - studying, really - by the candlelight, occasionally glancing up at her through long lashes, pale purple eyes studying her. Sometimes she would pause over her inkwell before gently dipping her quill and continuing her work. She hardly seemed bothered by the quiet, and he found that he didn’t mind it much, either. Abyss could be a noisy place, after all, especially with Balthus or Constance around. Being able to focus on his own studies for once was… nice.

It took him a long moment to realize he hadn’t heard the scratching of a quill for some time, and he looked up from his book to see Byleth watching him, and almost curious expression in her eyes. It did not, he noticed, extend to her face. Interesting. “Can I help you, friend?”

“Do you like arithmetic?” she asked, gesturing to his book with the feathered end of her quill.

“Like it? Well, perhaps, but it’s also useful, wouldn’t you agree?”

She hummed softly, perhaps agreeing with him. He noticed then that she’d put away her inkwell, her work stored carefully away. “The numbers are like the battlefield,” she said after a time, deep blue eyes studying his book. “Everything is basically the same, but if you move them around a bit, it changes the meaning.”

Yuri leaned back a little, a thoughtful look crossing his face. “A little strange but… yeah, it makes sense.”

“Oh. Sorry, I distracted you from your studies, didn’t I?” she asked, with that same careful neutrality that never seemed to go away.

He waved a hand dismissively. “It’s fine. There’s only so much one can do in a night, anyway.” He leaned over and pushed the tent flap aside just enough to peek out. “It’s getting dark. I think we’re safe here for the night.”

Byleth nodded once, sharp. “I’ll take first watch,” she offered, making as if to stand.

“No, no, friend, I’ll do it.” Her lips pursed just slightly, the closest he’d seen to a true frown yet. “You had a long day already, didn’t you? Get some rest, you can have the next. We’ll be out here a few days anyway, right?”

“True. If you’re sure…” When he didn’t seem inclined to change his mind, she nodded again before settling her gear around the edge of her side of the tent, a barrier - feeble as it was - against the night and intruders.

Yuri shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, she was a mercenary by trade. But still… perhaps it was because he’d known she’d traveled with a band, and her father. Surely she’d felt safe enough not to require those sorts of precautions. The fact she took them anyway made him reevaluate his opinion of her. Again.

The professor took that moment to stretch, drawing his eye to her curves, the way her chest strained against her top, how the muscles in her legs rippled beneath the fabric of her tights. He could admit she was attractive. Hell, anyone with eyes could see that, and if they couldn’t, then they’d need to be checked for a brain. But he still didn’t trust her.

“Wake me if you need me,” she said absently, his wayward gaze unnoticed as she slipped into her bedroll and shut her eyes.

“Of course. Good night, friend,” he replied, amused to note that she was already asleep. Or she was really good at feigning it, at least. He gathered his weapon and slipped out of the tent, allowing himself a moment to adjust his eyes to the starlit semi-darkness that blanketed over them.

He found himself thinking back to his studies of her that night, watching for the so-subtle shifts in her expression. She really was good at keeping things from her face, but it was her eyes that gave her away. She really was quite the enigma. He paced their little clearing for an hour or so, until he was sure that there was little need to remain outside the tent. A light sleeper himself, standing watch wasn’t even truly necessary; he’d be awake if a twig so much as creaked.

The professor, though… he wondered.

Yuri slipped back into the tent as quietly as possible, readjusting to the darker confines of the canvas. She was still sleeping, her expression more relaxed than he’d ever seen it before. He’d called her adorable, before, mockingly, but looking at her now, it was somehow the right word. Her deep blue hair spilled about her head like a dark halo, and her lips were slightly parted in sleep.

What would happen, he wondered, if he tried to get close? Would she startle awake? Scream? Panic? Would she sleep through if his hand brushed her cheek, or if, perhaps, he dared to steal a kiss from her? His curiosity got the better of him, his desire to know more about this enigma of a woman making him move toward her, reaching out a hand to brush a stray lock of hair from her face, his knuckles brushing against her cheek. Her skin was surprisingly soft, and cool to the touch. How curious. He was moving to get closer, noting a scar that had caught his attention, when she blurred into sudden movement, a knife at his throat as she pinned him to the ground, fire in her eyes that cleared away to placidity when she saw who she was straddling.

Byleth was off him as quickly as she’d awoken. “Is it my turn for the watch already?” she asked, voice as calm as ever.

He stared at her, wide-eyed and more than a little pleased (and perhaps aroused, though he wouldn’t admit that even to himself). “No, friend, my apologies. You had something on your face. I was merely getting it off.” Not really a lie; let her think whatever she wanted about his statement.

Her gaze studied him for a long moment before she gave a slight nod, settling back in her bedroll. “Please close the tent flap, Yuri. You’re letting the heat escape.” It was all she said before she settled back down, the dagger once more hidden from view.

Damn, she was good.

He laughed to himself even as he did as he was bid, tying the flaps closed to prevent an errant breeze from snaking its way in.

When he finally laid down to get some rest of his own, he did so carefully, so as not to wake the professor. Clearly she wasn’t as deep a sleeper as she’d originally seemed, and while having her on top of him hadn’t been the worst experience, he’d certainly prefer to avoid another knife to his throat.

It was therefore a bit of a surprise when she sleepily turned on her side, one arm flinging out and settling across him, her hand almost instinctively seeking out his beating heart and resting comfortably over it. She gave a little sigh of contentment, and something in him gave a little, traitorous flutter.

He couldn’t like her, dammit. He didn’t know her well enough to even really trust her. Liking her? Out of the question.

But he didn’t remove her arm from his torso, either, and allowed himself to drift off to sleep with her just like that.

#Fire Emblem #fire emblem three houses #Yuri Leclerc #Byleth Eisner #Yurileth #there was only one tent #academy phase #war phase #canon-typical violence

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thegreymoon · 4 years

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Salty Ask list: 9. Most disliked arc? Why?, 20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?, and 27. Least shippable character? The saltier the better!!!

Thank you for the ask, anon!! 💜💜

OK, I will answer both 9 and 10 (because the most disliked arc is no. 10 😅) I have already answered some of these earlier, so I will copy/paste those, if that’s OK!

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

For Merlin:

Agravaine. He’s just the worst. So greasy and sleazy and just, yuck. Yuck, overall. He’s not even one of those characters one can love to hate, like, for example, Uther, who is also simply the worst, but who will preoccupy you in ways you never saw coming! When it comes to Agravaine, everything about him was so thoroughly hateful, frustrating and unenjoyable, the highlight of the entire season was finally watching him go splat against the wall! The second most hated is that girlfriend of Gwaine’s at the very end that was plying him for information. That entire sequence is just so mind-numbingly infuriating, I can’t even think of it without getting angry. It almost ruined Gwaine for me entirely.

For The Untamed:

Oh, finally an easy one!! 😂😂 Wen Chao, Wang Lingjiao and Wen Zhuliu are in a tight race for the first place here and who is winning depends entirely on who I’m looking at in that precise moment! Of course, Wen Ruohan and Wen Xu can get into the hate bucket too, but they were so bland and boring, they cannot really compare. Jin Guangshan is also the worst, I can’t stand him. The only reason I hate the Wens more is that Jin Guangshan is actually a competent villain on a higher scale of villainy than the previous lot. Jin Zixun is also awful, a ridiculously unredeemable character on every front and Su She can also have an honourable mention.

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

For Merlin:

Oooh! There are so many!! But I think the ones that I rant about the most often are those related to Gwen! Everything about Gwencelot makes me rage! I dislike him and how he treated her and just do not see this epic ~love~ there, at least not on his part, yet they kept bringing him back to mess up her life over and over again.

Mind you, I am not the biggest fan of Arthur in this context either, he was a terrible boyfriend (though a somewhat better husband because Merlin picked up the slack), even though Arwen >>> Gwencelot by miles and miles. I hated how he would break up with her every five minutes over nonsense and then come crawling back. I hated how she always immediately forgave him, all grateful and relieved, and I always felt like she didn’t really have a choice because the power imbalance between them was staggering. Plus, the fact that she was the one who nursed Uther in his last months after everything he had done to her, and that Arthur had let it happen, infuriates me to no end.

My loathing for that whole cheating arc is infinite. I hate how the writers could not make up their minds about what they wanted to do with her. On the one hand, they were such cowards in their attempts to keep her ideologically pure, they had already sacrificed a lot of her quirkiness and character to suit Arthur’s needs and wants and to make him look good, so they were reluctant to have her actually cheat because it would undermine him. I don’t understand why they even had to have that entire arc if they were so afraid to go there. She was supposed to be under mind-control, and then they pointed out that the spell works by bringing suppressed emotions to the forefront! Why was that necessary? I mean, you can’t have it both ways! Either do it and own it, or just leave it alone! It would have been so easy to have her choose Lancelot and develop a proper romance there, and then to have Lancelot die, and Gwen fall in love with Arthur afterwards, as he supports her while she grieves. But, no, they had to take this cheap shot at her and humiliate her and have her cleaning pigsties just so that Arthur can angst about it for a few episodes. I am forever mad.

I also dislike the whole evil!Gwen arc (though a part of me did enjoy watching her go apeshit after quietly swallowing so much injustice throughout the entire five seasons of this show). I feel like they were intentionally undermining the character and her entire relationship with Arthur. The whole cheating nonsense so late into season 4 had already done so much damage, then they went and pulled this poorly-thought-out crap in the second half of season 5, when emotions were already running high and nobody was in the mood to be forgiving of someone trying at and almost succeeding in killing Arthur, who was so much more beloved among the viewers than her. Just imagine how much better spent that time would have been if they had... oh, I don’t know, developed Mordred more and given him a proper reason to turn against Arthur!

Ugh 😒

For The Untamed:

I dislike the whole Yanli/JZX romance. I don’t know what he’s like in the novel and the other adaptations, but he gets on my very last nerve in the drama and I never actually saw him do anything meaningful to redeem himself for all the crap he pulled and all the humiliation he piled on to her. I also don’t like the whole Yin Iron nonsense. It just doesn’t tie in properly and the plot holes and inconsistencies it leaves behind are gaping and huge (but, happily, nobody is watching this for the Yin Iron plot 😆). There had to have been better things to do there, especially since it is something that does not exist in the source material. The worst parts of the drama for me somehow always tie back to the Yin Iron.

20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?

For Merlin:

Hmmm… when it comes to the most popular ones, I think none of them, because they all get complicated and dark to some degree. But on a platonic level, when it comes to friendships, I would go with Merwen, Merlance and Merwaine. Merlin and Gwen are delightful together, but I have a hard time shipping them romantically without Arthur, there is just no path forward for me there that does not involve him too, and that tips the dynamic into something much more complicated (but still happy for all three of them because I am so not down for jealousy and competition between Merlin and Gwen, Arthur has two hands and he can damn well use them).

I also think that Lancelot’s love for Merlin was pure, but I just don’t ship it at all and think that there was never anything there except for friendship (I can see Arlance going sexual, though). The same goes for Gwaine, I think that he loved Merlin unconditionally, and as far as friendship goes, it is pure, but if I ship them sexually, then all purity goes out of the window, not just as far as the sex is concerned (because the sex they would be having would be positively filthy) but also because I just can’t imagine a universe in which Merlin does not love and desire Arthur more. The angst, the pain and the darkness are off the charts.

As for the less popular ones, I think the purest is Percival/Elyan regardless of whether you see it as romantic or platonic. There is just so much mutual love, admiration and respect between them! No angst, no lies, no triangles, no drama, just taking care of and supporting each other and living in domestic bliss.

For The Untamed:

WangXian, no contest. They fell in love as kids and continued to love each other for the rest of their lives, even beyond death. The way they love each other is so absolute and so selfless! They both respect and admire the other, they are so supportive and accepting of each other, quirks, flaws and all, and they kind of set the gold standard as far as relationships go!

27. Least shippable character?

For Merlin:

Eh... this is a tough one. I actually had to step away from this question and think about it and I didn’t come up with anything because the entire main and recurring cast is very shippable. There are, however, characters that aren’t shipped as much as they could be (Elyan, baby, you deserve better 😢), and then there are also characters that result in unsavory ships that are best left unmentioned (but because these are salty asks, I am going to mention them anyway).

The first one that came to my mind was Gaius, but he is actually very shippable because there is no rule that says you have to ship him in the canon timeline. He has a serious canon het love interest, and a crack one as well. Also, let’s not forget Uther. I’ve seen the fandom float this one as a crack ship, but it is actually very serious and plausible. There is so much complicated history there, decades of it, and definitely a deep, albeit toxic relationship that can absolutely be (and likely even was) sexual. If I was less busy and more inclined to get anon hate, I would totally be open to writing it myself.

I have seen a lot of people list Uther as an answer here, but Uther is very, very shippable! Anthony Head is handsome and charismatic, and he has so much presence as Uther, he could have chemistry with drywall if the script called for it. Again, there is no rule stating that a ship should be wholesome and happy, so let me go over the most obvious ones. When it comes to m/m ships, I already mentioned Gaius, plus I definitely felt it whenever the neighbouring kings came over to visit Camelot (my personal favourite was Lord Godwyn). Uther also has three canon het ships (why, yes, I am counting the troll), most notably Ygraine and Viivienne, and he is 100% shippable with Nimueh (though I prefer Nimueh with Ygraine). Last but not least, there is Morgana. It is squicky incest, yes, but it is also very obvious, if you have the inclination to go there. My jaw was on the floor on my first watch when he confessed that she was his actual biological daughter, because up until then, I totally thought that things would get sexual between them in canon.

Agravaine is also an obvious (I would even go as far as to say a semi-canon) ship for Morgana. Do I hate it? Yes. Do I think she slept with him to get him to deliver her Arthur’s head? Again, absolutely, yes. Even Kilgharrah is very shippable and he is a giant firebreathing lizard (obviously, laws of physics require transmorphing him into something smaller and (hopefully) human-shaped for the p0rn).

For The Untamed:

Jin Zixun and Jin Zixuan. I am forever mad Jin Zixuan (somehow) ends up having sex in canon anyway. My first thought for this was Wen Chao, but no, he is absolutely shippable. Like I said, the ship does not have to be nice, and Wen Chao is very nasty, but also very sexual (plus, there is always Wen Zhuliu).

The one character that I personally am the least inclined to ship is Wen Ning because he is so childlike and it feels like he never mentally developed into an adult.

Salty Asks

#salty asks #merlin #the untamed

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agatharights · 4 years

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Okay so the bastard warlord dads au. I just adore it? That's amazing! I just wanna hear more stuff about Star and Megs trying to be dads to Orion. How does that all go?

It’s actually part of an AU called Transformers: Toku, largely based off of tokuketsu tropes and stories, that I share with @drawma-king but the warlord dads were one of my contributions- a combination of the common trope where one of the protagonists turns out to have an Evil Dad (or two, in this case) and the fact that every so often I look at Optimus Prime and Starscream and remember that it’s funny they have the same color scheme.

(if there’s anything I re-use from this AU into others, it’ll probably be the warlord dads arrangements because *chef’s kiss*)

Also because I wanted to post it- here’s a little short story about Orion’s first “real” face to face meeting with Megatron and Starscream! It goes about as well as you’d think.

UNDER THE CUT because long. Sorry, mobile users.

As for how it goes...it goes well at times, poorly at others? They’re trying, but also the kind of people who look at conquering a world because they’ve decided they have the Divine Right of Kings are gonna have some issues from the get-go. After the supposed death of their kid, Megatron and Starscream decided very actively to never approach the concept of family again- it hurt terribly, neither of them have much emotional maturity, and they had a war to run. So unfortunately they don’t actually know how to deal with kids, having avoided them for so long.

Not to mention that Orion(at the time named Guiltaur)’s loss was overtly traumatic. A Decepticon fortress was hit in a surprise attack by Autobot forces that outright destroyed the entire structure and sent the high-ranking Decepticons who were holed up there scattered- it was a tremendous step in destabilizing the Decepticon empire for the Autobots, a good move tactically. The Autobots who were combing through the rubble afterwards were horrified to find a sparkling- miraculously unharmed, and ushered the child away in secret- in no small part to hide the fact that they’d operated on bad intelligence and attacked a building that was not just military, but apparently domestic as well.

Megatron and Starscream, believing that their child had died as a result of Autobot attack, kicked the war into high gear, and that’s when stuff started getting real interesting. Meanwhile, Orion’s past was scrubbed to keep him safe from both autobot retribution for his parentage, and to keep him hidden from Decepticons, and he was placed into the care of the Order Pax- a religious order that took in a lot of war orphans, and eventually he was taken in by Alpha Trion, an archivist looking for an apprentice who definitely didn’t fortell all of this happening that would be silly you’d have to be, like, a prophet or a prime to tell that stuff :)

Anyways

Megatron struggles with treating Orion like a new recruit- he’s deeply impressed when Orion turns out to have excellent combat and self-defense skills for sparring (thanks to Orion’s secret life as Optimus Prime, Hero) and tries to bond with him through training- but inevitably pushes too hard because he can’t tone it down. On the flip side, Megatron’s preferred method of showing affection is just by giving people things, so a whole-ass lost library is an appropriate present for a kid, right? Right????

At the very least, Megatron gets that parental relationships are hard (given his own rocky family relationships) and isn’t really sure how to be attached to Orion. He feels like an interloper, and the fact that Orion is very clearly not interested in sticking around only makes it sting- but Megatron at least tries to convince Orion that sticking around is worth it. Sure, things are a little nasty right now, but wouldn’t you like to be crown prince of an empire? Wouldn’t you like to someday rule? We are from royal stock, and you carry the blood of kings.

Starscream instantly becomes attached. And covetous and overprotective. He hovers over Orion, and while Orion’s more or less okay dealing with it because he likes physical affection, Starscream is *very* touchy, literally. He’s constantly touching hugging him, touching his face and shoulders, kissing his helm or outright grooming him like he’s a youngling. Skywarp and Thundercracker are more casual, but still super affectionate towards Orion- especially since they basically become defacto babysitters for the most part, and Orion finds himself surrounded by a triad of very loud, broody birds a lot.

Starscream’s also a little disappointed that Orion’s favoring a grounder altmode, seeing as Orion also has the “genetics” more or less to become a Seeker as he’s still a youngling (I’ll probably post my lil thing about genetics in this setting) but is damn proud that Orion’s inherited a lot of his appearance- they both have longer faces and bright yellow optics/biolights, he has Starscream’s color and long legs and Orion even has little semi-thrusters on his heels (that give his truck altmode a jump-boost)!

Megatron is afraid of becoming attached, because losing those he loves is standard fare. Starscream is afraid of not being attached enough, as if raw love and want could keep Orion safe this time.

Orion would like to leave. This is terrifying- he’s been moonlighting as a power-armored hero fighting the Decepticons- including Megatron and Starscream themselves, and if they found out he’s pretty sure it would be catastrophic. Even without that, though, he’s an Autobot kid- he wants to be back in the Archives, with Alpha Trion and his friends. He’s been dragged out to basically a castle in the middle of nowhere, halfway across the planet from his home, and he can’t get out. It would wear on anyone’s nerves.

Megatron is terrifying and stern and way too eager to throw other people around literally, not to mention that Megatron is pretty intense in his growing megalomania, and Orion picks up on the fact that this dude legitimately believes it’s his divine right to rule and that’s not just a story to unite his forces. Seeing as Orion has interacted with the spirits of several ancient Primes at this point, he knows EXACTLY how that sort of thing usually goes down. It never goes down well. And then Starscream is overbearing and obsessive, treating him like literal treasure, but not toning down the inherent violence of his inclinations in the slightest, while still insisting on grooming him, touching up his paint, and constantly feeding him.

The part that freaks out and ultimately hurts Orion the most is that he can see how much they both desperately want this. He’s shown Megatron and Starscream not as monsters to fight on a battlefield, but as broken, wounded people who’ve turned their pain into brutality, but treat him like he’s made of precious crystal. He learns about grand-creators and family histories he never knew, he learns about Decepticon history and how these people all came together.

Worst of all, he learns that Megatron and Starscream love him.

And that love can truly sink some people to unspeakable depths.

Knowing that someone would do anything for you is a terrible curse, when that person is willing to literally turn people into mindless monsters to fight for their cause.

#tf: toku #transformers: toku #warlord bastard dads au #my writing #answers #listen stuff gets very interesting #and orion is just 1/3 of the main case #so lump this in with Ariel and Dion's stuff #and you have a POWDER KEG of story #overlordraax

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miller-day · 4 years

Text

hi everyone!!

during the semi-hiatus i took from tumblr i became obsessed with psych (people who follow me on twitter know) and i even started writing about it. i thought it would be so funny to see how a crossover between shawn/gus and sherlock/watson would go, so i took it upon myself to make it happen. i’ve only written 6 pages of it but i’m thinking about going forward and writing more, but firstly i wanted to know if it’s actually worth it so i’m posting what i wrote on here and i hope that if ANYONE actually reads it and enjoys it, then let me know <3

(none of the characters are mine)

“Shawn Spencer. Psychic detective.” Watson shifts his glance from the open newspaper on the coffee table to Sherlock, who’s standing in the kitchen and looking like a misplaced giant, his 6 feet of flesh and bones (or just bones) still forming a comical comparison with the small-dimensioned furniture of their apartment, most of it bought by equally small-dimensioned Mrs. Hudson. “I see you’re now interested in the supernatural?”

Sherlock scoffs. “Please. You know my demon-hunting days are long past.”

Watson waits for Sherlock to develop his last statement, even though he’s not sure he actually wants to hear more of it, but his roommate’s attention seems to have been captured by the stirring sounds he’s making with the teaspoon against the glass of his mug. “What’s this doing here, then?”

Sherlock doesn’t look at him to know what he was referring to. He goes about as though Watson’s presence in the room is as dispensable as a fly on a summer day, something you dismiss with a single hand motion and move on, and sits on his usual red sofa. Watson rolls his eyes, not yet immune to Sherlock’s peculiar way of being even after almost two years of friendship, and throws the newspaper onto his lap rather angrily, to which Sherlock replies, “Hey!”

“Shawn Spencer,” Watson says, pointing at the bold black letters on the top of the page that’s facing Sherlock, the phrase PSYCHIC DETECTIVE SHAWN SPENCER SAVES THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA FROM ANOTHER KILLING SPREE making its loud announcement above a picture of two guys proudly smiling in front of a police station. “You were reading this.”

“How observant,” Sherlock replies, rolling his eyes. “Maybe you should be the one solving the crimes and I should be the one writing about it on my blog.”

Watson exhales angrily. “Why are you avoiding this topic?”

“It’s not so much avoiding this specific topic as much as it is me avoiding you,” Sherlock stops to take a sip of his tea. “I’m busy.”

Watson rubs his left temple in an attempt to soothe the vein he’s foreseeing popping in a couple of seconds. “If you say so.”

He ends up sitting dramatically on the opposing couch. They’re both silent for a while, Watson with his eyes closed and his head resting against the cushion, Sherlock noticing the rhythm of his best friend’s chest rising and falling as he approaches, slowly, the realm of sleep.

“Alright, fine. Do you want to discuss this?” Watson opens his eyes in surprise at Sherlock’s sudden rupture of the room’s previous quietness. “I think the guy is obviously a con-man.”

Watson blinks, noticeably distressed. “What makes you so sure?”

“Oh, come on. Please don’t tell me you believe this bullshit.” Sherlock says, his sarcastic laugh creating an itch on his roommate’s skin, then places his mug on a table nearby. “You’ve believed worse, though, so I’m not exactly shocked.”

“I just asked a question. I think the guy deserves the benefit of the doubt.”

Sherlock’s expression is void of any inclination towards an agreement with Watson and giving the psychic even the tiniest bit of credibility. Crime-solving, as far as he is concerned, is an art, a study of the human brain, a test of one’s skills in terms of impulse-control and harmony of the senses, a practice no one can ever master in its entirety, and for someone to taint its name with something so low and idiot as an alleged psychic ability only makes him furious. The worst part, he thinks, is that people aren’t contesting it at all — the guy managed to make his name go from Santa Barbara to London after all, and from the looks of it, he has the entire local police department on his side.

“Oh, don’t start,” he says, a tone of annoyance dripping from the edge of his words.

“With what?” Watson asks, a little amused.

“With your whole thing,” Sherlock gestures vaguely with his hands. “You’re free to think what you choose—”

“How kind of you.”

“—but I won’t let you waste my time with arguments in his defense. He either has someone on the inside or he actually solves the crimes, but I won’t acknowledge any talent on his part if he’s doing something so stupid as hiding under the pretense of ‘communications with the supernatural’,” he does the air-quotes mockingly, “or whatever term he uses to call it.”

“Are you jealous because the spirits like him better than you do?” Watson asks, a smile of mockery slowly taking form on his lips. “I’m sure if you’re kinder to people they might just come around to talk. Y’know, if you’re a good bloke and all that.”

“You’re thinking about Santa Claus, Watson, but given that he’s not any more real than whatever powers your little Shawn Spencer claims to possess, I suppose it’s a valid assumption.”

“He has a partner. You know that, right?”

“Who? Spencer or Santa?”

“Shawn Spencer, obviously,” Watson replies. “You said you think he has someone on the inside, and he’s not alone in that picture. He works with someone.”

“Oh, but I meant inside the police department, to give him information and such. The man on the picture is his...” Sherlock sighs. “Best friend, I guess. As if they couldn’t get more embarrassing.”

Watson throws his head back in laughter and Sherlock stares blankly at him. “What?”

“Nothing! It’s just...” He puts his hand over his mouth, then itches the back of his head, still smiling. “If you think about it, they’re kind of like us.”

Sherlock’s face has an expression about it that makes him look as though he’s taken a bite out of a lemon. “What do you mean?”

Watson hasn’t stopped giggling, and Sherlock looks at him with puzzlement, expecting an answer.

“I mean, they’re two friends who solve crimes together.” Watson replies, his tone an indication of how obvious the comparison is.

“I don’t suppose you’re suggesting I’m the Spencer in this scenario?”

“Well, you’re the one who’s always going on with the ‘you see, but you don’t observe’ bullshit. I always thought you meant it literally, but perhaps you meant something more... metaphysical? Seeing like a psychic, maybe?”

Sherlock stands up abruptly. “This isn’t funny, Watson.”

Watson chuckles. “Agree to disagree.”

“You know, I’m positive I could expose that Spencer within seconds of meeting him,” Sherlock says, and starts pacing around the room like his thoughts are too fast in his mind for him to be still. “His partner, for instance—”

“I think you meant his best friend.” The smile of mischief is still there.

“Is a pharmaceutical salesman. What does this tell you?”

Watson furrows his brows in confusion. “That he has a discount on paracetamol?”

“You’re useless. Utterly, completely useless,” Sherlock replies. “How did you even manage to get a medical degree?”

“Oh, well, they just give it around these days,” Watson rests his elbows on his thighs and places his face on his hands, a Little-Mermaid-like position that weirdly fits him. “Showing up is pretty much the only requirement.”

Sherlock ignores his roommate’s response and continues, this time more to himself than as a contribution to their conversation. “Shawn Spencer’s partner having another job is an indication that their whole business isn’t as solid as they make it seem. It might be to help with the money for rent and transportation and such, but it could also be that the financial guarantee he’s seeking is preparation for the moment when Shawn is inevitably exposed for being a fake.” Sherlock stops and scans Watson for an indication of him having been convinced. “Or he just had that job before this scam started and doesn’t trust Spencer to keep it for much longer, at least not enough to make him quit.”

Watson rests his back against the cushion again. “I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish with this bit, make me hate the guys?”

“No, of course not. I just want to show you the other side of things, the real side. But you can choose to live in this delusion as much as you want. I mean, go ahead. Keep thinking the supernatural actually exists! I’m sure it helps you sleep at night.”

Watson rolls his eyes and angrily grabs the newspaper, which, at this point, is on the floor, having been stepped on by Sherlock at least five times, and his eyes immediately fall on the picture. The one whom he reads is Shawn is on the left, plaid shirt and cocky grin giving him the appearance of an average guy you wouldn’t be surprised to see eating chicken wings or making obscure references to movies from the 80s. His hand is up as though he’s waving to the crowd in front of him, not even a little bit worried about his unconventional methods being an easy target of judgment. He looks like he belongs there, Watson realizes, and for a second he almost wishes he knew those guys. The best friend/partner, Burton Guster, is on the right, his hand placed on his chest in a gesture that would suggest humbleness if it weren’t for his facial expression, a look about him that seems equally receptive of the recognition and praise as Shawn is. He’s wearing a buttoned shirt that’s tucked under his pants with a belt, and the two of them form such a distinct contrast to each other that Watson finds it rather amusing. He can’t help but think about the many pictures of him and Sherlock that have appeared on the newspaper over the years, and he wonders if people have analyzed them the way he’s analyzing Shawn and Guster at this moment. They can undoubtedly notice Sherlock’s arrogance and Watson’s shyness from the capture of a lens, but can they also see his excitement, Sherlock’s determination, the deep and unspoken connection the two of them share but hardly ever acknowledge? Can they understand what motivates them from within, the drive for justice, the thrill of the chase pumping in their veins?

“I think you’re being too harsh with them,” Watson says simply, putting the newspaper on the couch next to him.

“How come?” Sherlock replies. “I think I’m being perfectly adequate.”

“I don’t know,” he crosses his arms. “It’s just... Okay. Let’s suppose he is indeed faking his powers.”

Sherlock points a finger at him. “Which he totally is.”

Watson ignores him and continues, “Does that inherently mean he’s a bad person?” Sherlock stares at him, silent. “He has put a lot of bad people in jail, and no doubt has saved a lot of lives in the process... Doesn’t that give him a little bit of credit?”

Sherlock takes a deep breath. He doesn’t respond immediately; instead, he walks to the window and gazes at the street below, strangers passing by with shopping bags and dogs on leashes and briefcases on hand, the sounds of London fading away as background noise as he concentrates on details of the everyday life. He notices the mark of a ring on the girl with the dog’s finger, the dust on the shoe of the guy with the briefcase, the small tear on the shopping bag carried by the woman. He absorbs all of it in, knowing none of this information is relevant to his existence, and takes a deep breath.

He’s reminded of a babysitter he used to have back in the day. Susan Carter. She was, in theory, hired to take care of both him and Mycroft, but Sherlock’s brother, even in his youth, acted like someone older than his age, someone who could take plenty of care of himself even though he was still sleeping with a night light on and occasionally peeing his pants. Sherlock didn’t like Susan very much — he actually felt that way about pretty much everyone at that time, but with her it was especially intense because she’d spend the entire day checking in on him. He couldn’t just simply tune her out diving into the depths of his mind castle, because it was a guarantee she’d be there too, her high-pitched auntie voice asking him questions like, “Do you want some tea, Lockie?” or “Want me to read you a story?” Never mind the fact that she was merely doing her job, one which he was aware she was being paid for incredibly well (it wasn’t easy to find someone willing to accept employment in the Holmes residence those days): he wanted her out of his sacred place, expelled out of his house like a virus after an antibody attack.

His will ended up being his way, in the end. Susan decided to quit after Mycroft put laxatives in her tea one day, and all of this happened because she had entered his room, without knocking, and caught him during one of his private costume sessions. Mycroft would sometimes spend hours alone in his room doing this — one day he’d be a king from the Victorian times, ordering the toys in his room to attend to his commands, and the other he’d be Britain’s first astronaut setting foot on the moon. Sherlock was never allowed in, even though he’d usually want to, much to his own dismay, and when his nanny caught Mycroft dressed up as Shakespeare in the middle of a reenactment of his own play, Mycroft decided it was best to put matters into his own hands. Or, really, the poor lady’s digestive system, which got torn to shreds after that tea. Sherlock was glad to see her gone, but it sadly wasn’t much long before another nanny stepped in to take her post, and the others after her blended together to create one amorphous being in his mind, all identities a dense cloud of memories he, to this day, associates with despair and annoyance.

What made Susan stand out amongst them was the fact that she liked tarot cards. Sherlock always thought of it all as rather stupid and tried to avoid her “sessions” as much as possible, but sometimes she managed to catch him in the sofa, staring at the ceiling or memorizing the patterns of the paintings on the wall, and she’d say “let’s have a reading, Lockie! You’re not really doing anything much now, aren’t you?”, to which he’d have no reply. He’d sometimes run away to the garden, but other times he’d admit defeat and sit next to her on the dinner table, and she’d spread the cards and explain the meaning of every one of them, even the ones which weren’t chosen by Sherlock. Surprisingly, he’d sometimes find himself enjoying those moments, especially when Susan’s eyes would sparkle with excitement and he’d wonder if one day he’d ever feel that way about anything. She’d maneuver the cards with the utmost gentleness, like they were thin pieces of glass she could drop and break at any moment, and he’d almost let himself smile. He never would, though, because he was still a Holmes, therefore still genetically indisposed for such an act.

Sherlock later in his life learned that Susan had died not long after she quit her job as his nanny. She was murdered by an ex-boyfriend who needed some money and was leeching off of her and the tiny, almost inexistent amount she had. She was stabbed eight times in her own living room, the very same Susan who would put an extra spoonful of sugar in his afternoon tea even though his mother’s orders were of strictly one. Sherlock hated himself the day he found out. When his mother told him over the phone, bile crawled up to the back of his throat and left in it a bitter taste that lasted until the next morning. Sherlock wanted to punch someone, punch himself. The murderer had already been caught by that point, but Sherlock wanted badly to be the one who had found him, perhaps because he felt like he owed something to Susan. He couldn’t catch his own eyes in the mirror for a while after that discovery.

“I think I’m going to bed.”

Watson blinks in surprise. “It’s five in the afternoon.”

Sherlock wraps the belt of his robe on his stomach. “I am very tired.” He gives the reply as though it was an act of courtesy on his part, unneeded.

“You said you were busy about three minutes ago.”

He slumps his shoulders in a dramatic gesture like there’s a sudden weight on them he can’t bother to carry, and then straightens his posture again. “Haven’t you heard of procrastination, Watson? My being tired at this very moment doesn’t exclude my desire to sleep.”

Watson narrows his eyes, bites his lower lip. “You’re planning something.”

Sherlock fakes an appalled look. “I am going to bed. Think of that what you will.”

He starts making his way across the living room and Watson says, “Tell me what you’re thinking!”

“Ask your friend Spencer to tell you that! He’s a psychic, he’ll figure it out!” He’s halfway through the hallway by now, his screams reverberating against the walls.

“You’re forgetting your tea!”

“You can have it, it’s too sweet for me anyway!” is the reply before Sherlock closes the door and creates a vacuum in the room from the instant end of the conversation.

Watson groans in frustration. “I could kill him. And I think I could get away with it. Except he’d solve the bloody thing in the afterlife. Oh, Watson, you were such a fool, left the clues right there for everyone to see!” He mimics Sherlock’s posh way of speaking.

He picks up the mug Sherlock left on the table and takes a sip. “A perfectly good tea, also. That bastard.” Watson’s tone of voice is annoyed, but as he takes another sip, there’s a smile on his face.

#psych #psych fic #sherlock #bbc sherlock #psych au #sherlock au #writing

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philologer-mosaic · 4 years

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Hey! Fellow writer here! I was curious as to how you learn to write characters and /keep/ them in character without it being overly stereotypical or stiff? I've read your work and I'd love to learn from you ;^;

Hi! Glad to meet you, and wow, I am so flattered to be asked this. Happy to help out a fellow writer, and I’m always down for rambling about writing-related stuff! I’m not sure how helpful some of this will turn out to be, but here goes.

I’m not sure if you’re asking about characterisation in general including crafting OCs or specifically about writing canon characters, and a lot of this advice will be relevant to both, but I will say this straight off: I’ve seen a fair amount of quibbling about how fanfiction won’t teach you how to worldbuild and maybe that’s true, but there is nothing like writing fanfiction for teaching yourself how to craft character voices. Especially when your source material is a movie/ TV show/ whatever definition RWBY falls under. So: rewatch! Pay attention to all the little details. What turns of phrase do they use? How do they stand, how do they move? What’s their usual emotional range? Pick a line they speak, think about what descriptors you’d use to get across their tone of voice or their emotional state if you were writing the scene in a fic. When you’re writing new dialogue for them, try to hear it in the actor’s voice (if that’s a way your imagination works; some people don’t have great auditory imaginations. Mine can be kind of hit and miss!).

Rest of this advice is going under a cut, because this got looong!

With canon characters: start from what you know, then extrapolate. Especially with characters we don’t see all that much of, boil them down to a handful of personality traits/ ways-they-present-themself first, then consider what might underly them. And in reverse: take the things we know about their status and backstory, consider what that implies about them as a person.

So, Clover: I think I boiled him down to ‘confident, friendly, professional’, and what’s underlying ‘confidence’ is really obviously his semblance: he’s never had to hesitate about anything, he always knows he can rely on himself. So in his internal monologue, he’s not going to second-guess his decisions. He calls Qrow out on deflecting compliments, so he’s good at reading people and also wants to help them; I assume that applies more broadly than just to Qrow. He’s leader of Ironwood’s flagship team of Specialists, and semblance or not I made the assumption he didn’t get there without working for it [that is an assumption, though! People less inclined to think well of Clover will make a different assumption, in-universe as well as out, and how he responds to that is also something to consider], so he’s got to be smart, dedicated, a good tactician, a good leader. And building from that: he’s smart and perceptive but we know he’s also loyal to the bitter end (very bitter); what sort of personality can we project that reconciles those two, what sort of person would respond like that? What I went with is that he trusts the system because he understands enough pieces of how/why it works that he trusts the bits he doesn’t understand are also created with the best interests of the people at heart. (Even when that’s really not true.) So then that’s a consistent philosophy-like thing that underlies a lot of how I write him: he understands the reasons for a lot of why things are how they are and then assumes the best of all the rest.

– This looks like a lot, now I’ve written it out. I thought all this out while working on the early chapters but I never put it some of it into words really. In coming up with the plot or story idea you’ll have made plenty of these assumptions and extrapolations already. Take a second look at them; take them further, find places to link them together or pit them against each other.

And remember, these are your interpretations. There’s not a right or wrong way to flesh these out. Work with semi-canon stuff like the mangas or discard it as you wish; follow fanon or argue with it or throw it out entirely. I interpreted Yang as ‘normal outgoing teenage girl in a non-homophobic world’ and wrote her as having dated people from Signal before she got to Beacon; the other day I came across a tumblr post interpreting her as “a rural lesbian”, by which standard she definitely didn’t have any romantic experience before canon; they’re both entirely plausible takes! Where we don’t know stuff for sure, slot in whatever your story needs, or whatever you think seems interesting. I settled on Clover’s backstory for Soldier, Spy mostly by going ‘ok, what’s an interesting way to contrast him with Qrow?’ And in some of my other fic ideas, he’s different.

Limited third person perspective (or first person, if you can pull if off) is the best for dropping in characterisation smoothly. Though I’m probably biased because I love it so much. Omniscient third person POV is when the narration’s impartial and uninvolved, and skips between person A’s thoughts and person B’s thoughts and pure description of what’s happening, objectively speaking; limited third person is – when the camera’s always over one person’s shoulder in a given scene. It’s less close in than first person, but we get the POV character’s thoughts and no others, we only see/notice what they notice and pay attention to, descriptions are coloured by the way the POV character thinks about the world. I don’t want to be setting you homework, but, a neat writing exercise, if you want it: pick an object, place or person, and consider how two different characters would see it differently. Write those two descriptions. For fun, pick something that at least one of the characters is going to really look down on or dislike parts of! (Qrow’s snark is so much fun.)

This is cynical, but: people lie to themselves a lot. When you put yourself into a character’s head, they’re going to be telling themself a narrative in which what they’re doing is the best thing to do and makes them a good person. (With a few exceptions, the big ones being depression- and anxiety-brain, which instead do their best to convince you you’re the worst.) Get your characters to justify themselves to you.

Goals, motivations, priorities. It feels like a massive oversight to write about how to characters and leave that one out, but honestly I can’t think of anything I can say here that hasn’t been covered better by tons of other writing advice. [Incidentally: https://www.writersdigest.com/ . Subscribe to their email newsletter, it’s free, they will try to get you to buy their how-to courses but there’s no need to, the website has all kinds of articles about the craft and details of writing and the newsletter will send you all the new ones plus curated picks of what’s already there. And also: https://springhole.net/writing/index.html . There’s some stuff specific to fanfic in there, and also general writing advice.] Just: keep it in mind.

Related to that, but a separate thing and one that I haven’t seen other writing advice talk about so much: how does the character try to achieve their goals? What are their skills and resources? And more than that, what’s their preferred approach? In the simplest terms. It’s a matter of mindset, and what options they see as available to them. So the things I would keep in mind for this are: Who’s got social skills/ is good at thinking in social terms, and who isn’t/doesn’t? (Not just interpersonally speaking. James “not really concerned about my reputation” Ironwood is a good example of a character who always thinks in terms of hard power over soft power; even when public opinion is an important strategic consideration he only thinks about it in the broadest and most simplified strokes.) Who would rather work within the system, and who prefers to do an end-run around it? (That doesn’t have to correlate with who’s actually got power, though obviously there are trends. I’m writing Clover as tending to take charge even when he officially shouldn’t because he’s more concerned with solving the problem than with rank, and that’s a case of circumventing the system, it’s one of the things he’s got in common with Qrow.) Who’s more analytical about their approach and what they’re trying to do (which means their failure mode is overthinking and decision paralysis) and who reacts with their gut instinct (which means their failure mode is getting in over their head)?

… I could talk about this one at length. There’s a whole framework I use to categorise characters in this way (I came across it in, of all things, the flavourtext of a supplement to an RPG no one’s ever heard of and it just stuck with me, and I’ve made it my own in the years since) and I could go into all sorts of detail about how it works/ what it means. But I think this is enough to be getting on with, on that topic. If you want to know more, send me another ask? But no one else talks about this thing in writing advice, it might be completely orthogonal to the writing process of anyone but me.

So! Related to the topic of characters’ skillsets, a really great tip I can’t remember where I picked up: how do you write someone who’s smarter/wittier/better at tactics than you? Spend minutes or hours turning something over in your head that the character is going to come up with in seconds. The great advantage of writing: it’s so much easier to be eloquent when you’ve got time to think. [If you had asked me this question in person you would have got ‘i don’t know?’ and then half an hour later I would have thought of half of this stuff and kicked myself. A week and change later, you’re getting the other half too :p ]

And lastly: you said you were worried about your writing getting “overly stereotypical”. And my immediate response to that was stereotypes bad, yes, but archetypes great. The difference being: stereotypes are lazy and offensive writing that let ‘membership of a social category’ stand in for ‘actual characterisation’ and if you’re asking for advice on characterisation you’re obviously too thoughtful to commit them; archetypes are pre-made sketched-out personalities that you can take as your own and flesh out into your own thing. Tropes are tools. No one ever said ‘They were roommates? Ugh, how unoriginal’. By the same token, ‘lone wolf who pretends he’s fine and doesn’t dare trust anyone no matter how much he secretly wants to’ is a fantastic trope that exists for good reason, the CRWBY used it for good reason, and when we found out Qrow’s semblance I went yes please I will have some of all that angst and then laughed at myself because when it comes to fictional characters I have A Type. I’m pretty sure I’ve never written the exact scenario ‘pushes themself way too hard and passes out, wakes up in unexpected safety and immediately condemns themself for not sticking it out longer’ before the opening of Soldier, Spy, but I know I’ve come up with plenty of things that were like it, and if they’d made it to a state of publication you’d be able to see that.

It’s like artists using references. Just because they looked up how to draw that hand and that pose doesn’t mean the final product’s not their own. There’s no reason not to start with your ideas of the character (no matter how ‘stereotypical’ they feel) or a collection of traits you’ve grabbed from other characters that seem like they’d fit – or, for OCs, an MBTI type or a roleplaying class/background combo or one of these or some other personality type you feel like you can find your way around the basics of – and just take it from there. When you start writing/outlining/daydreaming-about-ideas you’ll run into scenarios/setups you can’t copy across from but you can see what responses might come up, and that’s how the template becomes your own unique iteration of it.

… Because really all writing advice does come down to: just write. In your head or on the page, try things out, see what works, see how it goes. I’ve been doing this a long time; most of it never made it to words on a page, let alone to the internet at large. Read across genres, read things people write about themselves and how they live and think and feel, and just – go for it.

I hope this helps! Once again, I was really glad to be asked; feel free to ask me to elaborate on any of this, or about anything else you want advice about. I wish you all the best in your future writing!

#writing #my thoughts #posting into a void

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mshermia · 4 years

Text

No. 03 - Nothing Left To Lose - Part I

Whumptober Prompt No 3. MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY

Manhandled | Forced to their Knees | Held at Gunpoint

The reversal of the Snap added 3.5 billion people back to Earth’s population. 3.5 billion more people to house somewhere, 3.5 billion mouths to be fed, 3.5 billion people who return to a world that was not expecting them to ever come back.

In the aftermath of the victory over Thanos, Peter Parker finds himself in a bit of a situation. Instead of helping the "little guy", what is he supposed to do when the "little guys" start helping themselves to the property of others. Tony finds out that his billionaire status doesn't really help that particular situation.

###

I'm using my own Fix-it to Endgame "Like You'd Know How It Works" as a basis for the timeline, though the prompt will work fine without having read that story. The important part is, that Tony's not dead.

Baseline: 2 weeks after Tony is brought back from the multiverse.

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AO3 Link

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People never did tell you what it would feel like to come back from the dead. Possibly because people had very little experience with things like that. The odd person being found after they had gone missing for a long time, maybe even been presumed dead, that was one thing. Something like that might happen from time to time. But full-on coming-back-from-the-dead? Well, Tony had always been a pioneer when it came to living through the weirdest shit.

To be fair, to him it wasn't a resurrection per se. He hadn't been dead after all, just his other-dimensional self. Well, just... And the other version of him remained quite dead still, thank you very much, and in all honesty, he wasn't anywhere close to being cool with all that yet. Possibly ever. So there was no way he'd let that big brain of his even start to muse over what was basically his corpse that lay buried not too far off their house. Chances were, he'd never be cool with thinking about that part. So, he didn't. Didn't think about it. Didn't talk about it. Just waiting for it to go away. Which it would. In a few years. 50, give or take.

He rubbed both hands across his face, an active effort for his brain to change the channel. He was supposed to be paying attention to the furry beasts in front of him.

"Seriously, Gerald, you're acting as if it wasn't in your best interest to keep your neck un-wrung. Fluffy, Tiny, let's go."

Gerald didn't like the barn. He was used to grazing wherever and whenever he wanted, nobody's schedule to follow. A free spirit after Tony's own taste. But there was a reason why their stock had grown from one fairly independent alpaca to a flock of three. Damn poachers. Or rogue hunters. Something along those lines, he hadn't inquired in that much detail. They had decimated the two herds in the near-by village, only Gerald's new barn-mates had been able to flee.

And apparently, the Stark's had expanded their life-saving services to the community's life stock now. Well, Pepper had decided they would and Tony wasn't going to question whatever it was that made Pepper happy, not any time soon. His family was the only thing that mattered now. Not the village's life-stock-politics, not any kind of politics. He had retired from everything that didn't directly involve making the people he loved forget about that little death-mishap.

Tony grimaced to himself. Semi-officially retired at least. Yes, in the long run, he was likely to consult for the team and there was always Peter's neighborhood-avenging to support. He'd never leave the Spiderling hanging, no pun intended. But right now, there was some healing he had to supervise. Emotional healing that could only be done with lots of hugs and kisses. With hot chocolate by the fire and glasses of cold wine by the lake. With breakfast in bed and comfy afternoon board game sessions. With nights spent sitting next to his kids' beds, for their benefit of course, not just his own. That was why he had come back with his little protegee after all. For them. And Tony would do whatever it would take, even if it involved wangling three alpacas at once.

Those very alpacas who were very reluctant to move into the barn. Even with how remote the cabin lay, they weren't safe outside anymore, not with the sun slowly setting in the west. But all the pulling on Gerald's head-collar just didn't get him moving, not until Pepper took pity on her dear husband and lent a hand. While she was pulling on the leash, Tony was pushing against the stubborn buck's backside. Alpacas didn't usually tend to kick with their hind legs. That was horses... right?

He groaned, rolling his stiff neck from one side to the other as the gate clicked shut behind Pepper. "Remind me again... Why did we agree to this?"

Pepper didn't bother to send him a scolding look as she wrapped the security seal around the gate's locking mechanism. "Because we're good neighbors?"

"We are?" He smelled like damp fur. When did wet fur and barn animals become his life? "Since when exactly? Was there a house meeting? Did I miss it?"

"Mh... do you need a reminder of the process of negotiation?" She took a step towards him, one hand in his shirt pulling him close against her, their lips almost close enough to touch. "You smell like wet alpaca."

He pulled in an affronted gasp. The hand that was still holding his shirt pushed him away from her, her lips stretched wide in amusement. "Come on, Cesar. Maybe I'll remind you after a hot shower."

"Hey!" He followed after her. "Cesar? Really? First of all, Gerald is not a dog, second... how about during the hot shower?" He had caught up with her, his eyebrows wiggling suggestively. "I could think of a couple of other things that—"

"Boss." Tony froze as FRIDAY's voice rang in his earpiece. "Captain Rogers is on the line."

"Oh, but whyyy?" He cringed, not just because it was evident from Pepper's face that whatever road that moment had been leading them down on, was gone. Replaced by the kind of dread he was supposed to shield her from.

"He is asking to speak to you. Immediately."

As Tony groaned again, Pepper blew out a shaky breath. "Everything okay?"

He only pulled a frown as he told FRIDAY to put the man through and didn't bother with any niceties. "What's going on?"

"We need you." Rogers' voice was low and solemn.

"Excuse me? I'm retired." The nonchalant quip was second nature to him but he couldn't deny that the Captain's voice gave him the creeps.

Pepper stepped a little closer and whispered a pained "No!", worry radiating off her like someone had flipped a switch.

"Yeah, we don't really have time for that right now, Tony." Rogers seemed even less inclined to take Tony's demeanor in stride than he usually was. "It's your pet project."

Deep down, Tony had suspected something like this. They knew not to call him for anything but this. "What happened?"

"He's in the middle of a bit of a situation. You need to get here. Now."

"Tony, what's going on?" The way Pepper's hand curled painfully tight around his wrist, she seemed to instinctively know what was up.

There should be a process, how he made those decisions. There should be but in all honestly, it was likely redundant since there was no question as to what he would do if the kid was in trouble. Whenever the kid was in trouble. He didn't hesitate, not even for a second thought. "I'm sorry, honey." He pressed a kiss on Pepper's cheek - any light-hearted banter about alpaca-smell forgotten - as he tapped the nano housing unit hidden underneath his shirt.

"Gotta make sure the kid's safe." He pried Pepper's fingers off his arm. "I'm sorry, honey."

The thrusters engaged before Pepper could draw a breath to argue. He was so retired. He was so retired and they all knew that. It could only mean one thing: the kid was in deep shit.

His heart was racing. This shouldn't even be happening. The kid... he had given the kid the best protection anyone could imagine. The Iron Spider had held up against the ugly purple Grape. Nothing on Earth could... he swallowed hard. He had just been back for a couple of weeks. He was just getting some normalcy back. His family.

Time seemed to crawl by as he shot across the New York sky. The route took him straight to the coordinates that FRIDAY had extracted from Peter's suit. Tony had sent out a call to the kid. When Peter didn't answer he sent out another. This one Peter rejected outright. Still too far out to access the team's comms, Tony and his thoughts had another couple of minutes to imagine the worst until they finally arrived in Queens.

The location was a rather unremarkable looking warehouse, some windows smashed, a couple of doors off its hinges. A little more prominent was the number of police cars parked around the property. There were at least 12 of them, more sirens approaching from the distance. None of them attempted to intervene or even talk to him after the suit had touched ground within the police's perimeter and he made to walk into the building. The picture that presented itself in front of him didn't match what Tony had been expecting. Not in a good way. In fact, it came very close to giving him a heart attack that was going to get in the way of all the supervised healing he still had to do.

Rogers and Barnes in full Super-Soldier outfits stood opposite his boy. His boy had his back turned toward his teammates and stood smack in the middle between them and a whole group of people, their faces mostly covered with scarfs or other contraptions. Some of them were frozen, eyes wide as they were staring at the Avengers in front of them. Others behind them were quietly emptying the shelves of the warehouse. Boxes upon boxes were ripped open and their content vanished in backpacks and large carrier bags. One of the looters however had a very tight grip on a middle-aged dude, a handgun pressed against the man's temple.

Tony froze where he stood, still hidden in the shadows of the entryway.

"...and I get that." Peter's arms were stretched wide. One in front of him at the crowd of people, the other towards Rogers and Barnes like he was urging them to stay back. "This is just not the way to do it, okay?"

With a pressing need for more information, Tony's eyes roamed across the warehouse. Besides the guy on his knees with the gun to his head, a few more people - he counted 10 of them - had been cuffed to three of the large storage shelves. Only a couple of people were standing guard over them. Most of the other intruders were busy stuffing their bags with everything they could— Food. It had just dawned on Tony what was stored within this facility. Canned goods and boxes of what looked like pasta, beans, or rice. These people were stealing food.

"You get it? You don't get anything!" It wasn't the guy screaming those words, just someone else in the crowd, a young woman. "When's the last time you had a warm meal, huh? We came back to nothing!"

"You have every right to be angry." The kid had turned a little away from the hostage, his arm still signaling for calmness. "Coming back to this was a shock. For me too, okay? But this... you don't want to do this. Just... just take the food and you can let him go, okay? This isn't you!" Tony's eyes shot back towards his Spiderling, frowning. "This is— hey... stop! Don't!"

The guy with the gun was pulling on the hostage's shirt, forcing him to balance himself a little more upright on his knees, squirming in his hold.

Rogers had shuffled a little closer. "You don't want to do anything rash now, son."

"Fuck off, traitor," the man spat back at the Captain.

"Stop, just..." Peter's eyes were still on the hostage and his abductor. "I told you to leave, Captain! You're not helping!"

"Spider-Man—" Rogers was interrupted, Peter's voice echoing off the warehouse walls.

"I said, leave!" The boy almost seemed to be panting.

"FRI," Tony whispered inaudible to anyone else because of his suit. "Vitals on the kid."

His heart rate was high, unnaturally high for Peter even during a mission. A close-up provided by FRIDAY confirmed that the boy's hands were positively shaking.

"I can help you, okay?" The kid swallowed hard. "I know that you wouldn't do this if you didn't have to. I can help you and I will, but you have to let this man go. Please."

The group's leader turned from Rogers back to the boy. "You don't know shit about what we want! People are dying because of this jackass! Because of people like him!"

The guy's eyes had found Tony and that seemed to be his cue to advance out of the shadows.

"What the fuck is this, Robin Hood?" Eyes still studying the scene in front of him, a murmur went through the crowd.

Peter spun around, his spider-eyes wide as he looked straight at Tony. "No, no, no, no, no!" He mumbled, his voice echoing in Tony's earpiece.

"You know I can still hear you on the comms, right?" Tony shook his head, sticking to the team-only communication himself now. "Kid... what the fuck is going on?"

"It's... it's fine." Peter's head spun back and forth between Tony and the looters. "Just go home. I got it all under control!"

Tony kept his eyes on the kid, fighting the urge to step any closer. "The dude over there has a gun pointed at this other dude's head. Nothing about this looks like anything's under control. Can we just..." Tony dipped his head to the corner of the room.

"How about I drop, erm..." Peter swallowed hard, still looking back and forth between Tony and the ongoing hostage situation. "I can just drop by when I'm done with all this, okay?"

"How about no?" Tony made a face even though behind the face-plate, it was only for his own benefit. "How about you web this dude up and get some actual control of the situation instead?"

"I got this!" Peter's voice walked a tight rope between urgency and badly suppressed panic. "Just go home, Tony! Please, please just leave!"

There wasn't much that could stun Tony Stark at this point, but an outright dismissal by his intern slash mentee would do it. "Excuse me, did you just—"

"Get the fuck away from us!" Tony's eyes shifted to the looters behind the kid, the guy with the gun was getting antsy. "This is none of your business!"

To Tony's right still a little ahead of him, Rogers inched a step closer to the scene. "Let's just stay calm and figure this thing out, hm?"

"S-stay back!" Another guy from the crowd of looters stepped a little closer toward the main action. He, too, was holding a gun though his arm was dangling loosely next to his body. At a closer look, Tony could spot quite a few weapons, shotguns, knives, and bats in the hands of everyone not currently ransacking those shelves. The group was made up out of a variety of different people, young and old, he could even see some children stuffing tote bags in the back. It was starting to dawn on him, why neither Peter nor the two Super-Soldier's to Tony's right had jumped in guns blazing, not yet.

A whole group of seemingly normal people brought their children to loot this warehouse for all the food they could carry. All of a sudden, the decimated numbers of his neighbor’s alpaca flock left him with a different kind of headache. There seemed to be more to this than he was presently privy to.

Tony cleared his throat, speaking to the whole room. "Unless you want to eat this dude, too, how about we talk about some of your demands, hm? Find a compromise everyone is happy with and nobody gets hurt over?"

For a second, the man's gun twitched towards Tony before he pressed it back against the temple of the man kneeling in front of him. "Shut the fuck up, you murderer."

Ouch. Tony pursed his lips. He hadn't heard that one in a long time.

"Hey!" Peter stepped closer to the crowd, clearly an attempt to shield Tony from their view. "Watch your fucking mouth, asshole."

His jaw popped open and Tony was quick to make an abortive motion towards Rogers and Barnes to stop them from advancing like the kid had done. This was escalating quickly.

"Of course, you're protecting your sugar daddy, you insect. You stopped being a hero when you started wearing this guy's fancy suits. You don't give a shit about us! You haven't in a long time!"

The Spiderling flinched back from the open hatred spewed at him. "I... that's not..." He shook his head, pulling in deep breaths. "I don't want to hurt you, okay? I want to help. We can still all walk away from this."

"Hurt us?" The young woman's voice from before was shaking but still rang harshly through the otherwise quiet building. "We haven't eaten in 2 weeks! We have no place to stay, nowhere safe to sleep!" She pointed a hand at the man on his knees in front of her accomplice. "People like him are selling the little food that is left in the city for 10 times the regular price. We have no money! Nobody helps us!"

"We're here to help now, young lady." Rogers' deep voice always rang with such sincerity, they could only hope it would convince at least some of them. "What you're doing right now is not going to help you!"

"You're not helping us, you want to help him." She pointed at the man on his knees in front of them. "You care more about his property than about the fact that we're starving!"

"Right now," Barnes' low growl surprised Tony more than most of the things happening around them. "We care more about the gun that your buddy there is pointing at the man's head, darling."

"I'm not your darling, jackass!" She spat at Barnes.

"Stop. Stop this." Peter sounded almost scared. "Please."

"He doesn't deserve this kind of money." She barked out before her eyes landed on Tony. "Nobody does."

Tony's eyes stuck with the young woman, his mind racing. Money... was that what they wanted the guy for? His money or plain revenge... maybe a little bit of both. Time to find out what their priorities were.

"You want to take all this out on someone, huh? Alright, Let's do that. How about you let the civilian go and take this up with a bigger fish, hm?"

"No." Peter spun around. "What are you doing? Don’t!"

Tony got a step closer, his focus shifting back to the man that was the group's apparent leader.

To Tony's undeniable satisfaction, the guy's feet shuffled back a couple of inches though his eyes never strayed from Tony. "While you're hiding behind your tin can?"

He had expected as much and his hand was ready to fly up and tap the nano-housing unit. Jaw set, his PR mask in place, the nanites retract just enough for Tony to exit the suit, leaving his armor behind him but still perfectly ready to engage if necessary.

"Stop!" Peter's voice was far from strong now, only a panicky high-pitched squeak. "Mr. Stark, don't!"

Rogers was next to Tony with a couple of long strides, his voice low. "What do you think you're doing?"

Tony cleared his throat before he dragged his gaze away from the looters towards the Captain. "Hostage negotiations?"

"Put that suit back on!" Rogers growled next to him. "That's not why I asked you here."

"You asked me to help." Tony was holding his hands up just below his shoulders, fingers spread wide. "So, I'm helping."

Roger's chest was heaving with deep long breaths. "Getting yourself killed is not helping, Tony."

"I'm not getting myself killed." He had his eyes still steeled on the group leader, careful not to be caught off guard by a trigger-happy hippie. "I'm taking a calculated risk."

"No, you're not." The Captain's hand shot out, holding Tony back with a strong grasp on his arm. "If anyone will be offered up to trade places it—"

"I don't think your bank account will be as attractive to them as mine," Tony hissed. "No offense, Capsicle." He pulled his arm free from Rogers' hold and advanced a few more steps before the kid could get a hold of him. "So, here I am. Let this dude go."

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Thank you guys for reading!

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I'm always happy to hear everyone's predictions and theories, so let me know how you think Peter and Tony might get out of this one in the comments. Likes and Reblogs are really appreciated!

Hope you liked it! More whump and more for this timeline will come soon! You can find more from this timeline on my WIP Page.

The Fix-it this is based on: Like You'd Know How This Works

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emeraldtawny · 5 years

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Can you tell us 10 random facts about you? I would love to get to know you better but I'm not sure what you are comfortable sharing with us. Thanks I love you so much you're the best writer in the fandom (in my opinion)

nbkdfjchgndkf aww you’re so lovely, thank you ;w;

Now the fun part.....thinking of 10 things pffbhfjg. I cannot for the life of me think of interesting things about myself so I just googled ‘icebreaker questions’ and found ones I liked (then threw in some otome questions at the end uwu). Hope this will suffice ^w^~

Under the cut cause oops I rambled~

1. If you could go back in time to any era/period, when would that be?

Probably the 1920s. Great music, movies and radio are these new and fancy things and its right before the stocks crash so everything is alright! For real tho, for the jazz music alone, the 20s, yes pls.

2. What’s one food you cannot stand?

I must align with Fenrir in our stand against tomatoes. I just cannot eat them and how people can eat them raw is just so gross to me. If I can’t taste them, all good. But when I can, they taste like a bad cordial drink that’s too watery. No tomatoes in this household.

3. What’s your favourite non-otome game?

At the moment, I’ve been in love with Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Never played a FE game before so I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I love it. Of all time, though? Pokemon. I am SO excited for Sword and Shield. Team Sobble all the way~!

4. Where in the world do you most want to go?

I want to go back to Japan now that I appreciate more anime than I did when I went 4 years ago. Would also love to go to Greece, I feel like that would be a nice pretty place to go to.

5. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

I’ve always been an “I want to read minds” type of person, but recently I’ve liked the idea of either telekinesis (making myself or other objects float would be hella useful) or ice magic (through no other reason except for instant ice cream).

6. Between IkeSen, IkeRev and IkeVam, which world would you want to live in the most?

...just to torture myself hrekdfndf. As much as I love the warlord boyos, being in constant danger with the wars would just not bode well for me. So it’s either magic....or aphrodisiac vampires.....honestly, Cradle sounds amazing, but 19th century France and the chance to talk to historical figures AND the worst danger I’d likely have is being goddamned kidnapped like MC always seems to be...yeah, I choose IkeVam.

7. What’s a useless talent you have?

I’d argue writing but I think some of you would yell at me for saying that hridkerdts. uhhhhhhh....I can do a relatively convincing Togepi noise from Pokemon..woo!

8. Of the Cybird characters based off of real-life people, who was the most interesting to learn about?

Little background for this. I personally enjoy researching and learning about the IRL counterparts to the hot anime men they’re based on, both for curiosity and also research for writing to make sure they’re in character (is that weird? idk). For IkeSen, Mitsuhide and Motonari were super interesting to read about, even if the info on them compared to the others is relatively sparse. Ieyasu and Mitsunari’s big historic fight was my personal favourite event to learn more about, though. As for IkeVam, definitely Dazai. I already knew a little about his character from BSD, but this version of Dazai had me much more inclined to look up articles and even buy his book No Longer Human to read (which I highly recommend, it is such a good book and study for his character since it’s considered a semi-autobiography). I actually intend to do a big speel on Dazai and his character like I’ve done with my other favourites because I honestly think his life was just...tragic. They all are but...bias gredknrd.

9. Favourite fanfic troupe?

Mutual pining is my blood and soul. Fake dating and ‘there’s only one bed’ coming in close behind, but in truth I love them all~

10. What inspires you to write?

I just like sharing my dumb ideas with people who might like them. It’s still insane to me that people like what I write and knowing that makes me want to produce the best fics I can. It’s just a positive feedback loop and I’m here for it :3

#tawny q&a #dumb random questions for a dumb random peep #you're very kind anon thank you v much ;w;

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haikyuulovercompany · 5 years

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The Beauty & The Monster Pt. 1 Tendou x OC.

I’m so happy to know you were interested in read this old piece about Tendou and one of my OC’s !!!

So, here it goes!!!! I hope you like it <3 <3

---

If she had to describe their relationship with one word, it would probably be ‘empathy’: The capacity to identify with one another’s emotions, and mental state.

She was sure neither one of them was crazy. They seemedcrazy, but they weren’t. People would look at them and wonder. Oh, how much they wondered. They inquired all the time about what was going on under the surface. Some bet they were having it behind everyone’s back. Others clarified they were just good friends. The answer laid somewhere in between. They weren’t sleeping together, but man, it would be cynical to say there wasn’t any tension between the two.

They touched all the time. When they walked together he would sometimes drape his arms around her shoulders, or they would constantly bump against each other. The hall was large enough for them not to, yet they were always invading each other’s personal space. They sat so close together their legs would be pressed together. If they were talking, she wouldn’t be able to help herself from holding his forearm. She was aware of it all. All her friends assure her he was aware as well.

That’s why she had made a stupid bet. It was so obvious that they liked each other; no one understood why they weren’t a couple yet.

Everyone was expecting Shiratorizawa to win and go one more to nationals. And she truly meant everyone. In three whole years the volleyball team hadn’t lost one match—not even one match. It was insane. They were beyond good. They were extraordinary.

When she became part of the cheerleading team on her first year in high school, she could only imagine in dreams to cheer as much as she had to for those three years. There had been times she was left voiceless for how much she had shouted the chants game after game. Now they had to experience something new: the bitter taste of defeat. It was their last year in high school. The team wouldn’t be playing another game, nor she was going to cheer again.

It had been simple. Shiratorizawa never lost, it was a safe bet. She would confess to Tendou once they qualified once again for nationals, being too confident of the outcome of the match. They would go as the typical, cheesy, sporty couple. A star player and a cheerleader. What a cliché. She was up for it. She was so fucking ready.

Then, they lost. At the last minute, at the last set, they lost. Her heart sank. Satori might have been the light of her eyes, but she was close to the whole team to hurt for the others too. Watching Taichi and Lion cry was too much. She ended up shedding tears, too. Her dear Shiratorizawa, how could that be?

On their way back, they had to take separated busses. The whole mood they had brought at the start of the event dead and gone.

After a match the coach would let the cheerleaders ride the same bus as the volleyball team. They had always won, so it was some kind of price from his part. Satori and she had already arranged they would sit together like every single year. In her mind she would have already confessed by then, so they would be together, hand in hand filled with the ecstasy of qualifying for nationals once again.

She stared at the cold night through the window. The whole bus was dead silent. She zipped up her jacket to the top. She was still in her cheerleading uniform and the night had gotten noticeably colder.

“Are you okay?” her best friend asked.

She shook her head while she sighed. “Is any of us okay?” she quizzed, looking at Akane.

“Yours is a special case.”

Michiko gazed at the nothingness. Akane was one of the two persons who knew what she was going to do that day. “I had spent the last month imagining how this day would play off,” she inclined to the front, and rested her forehead on the front seat. “Believe me when I tell you it was the opposite of what is happening now.” She felt her back being stroked gently.

“I know, babe, I know.” Akane‘s voice was as low as hers.

Michiko turned her head to face her. “Is this a sign of destiny? Was this the way life told me to not do it?” She was feeling beyond hopeless and it showed. Her heart had been broken in more than one way that night.

Akane stopped stroking her back. “Bullshit. I think it still is the best you can do today.”

Michiko sat straight, her eyes full of skepticism. “Really?” she said sarcastically. “They lost. The only thing Satori surely wants right now is to go home and watch fucking anime. Not to be part of a romantic tragedy.”

Akane sighed tiredly. “Or it can be the best thing to make up for this whole situation. Maybe he lost the final, but he got the girl.” Michiko looked away from her, and to the ceiling. “You’d be a total liar if you say you’re not dying to be in his arms.” Michiko notably blushed, and covered her face with both hands making Akane giggle. “You know how people affirm Tendou and you are obviously sleeping together? If only they knew what an innocent and pure snowflake you are, they would stop. I believe Tendou might be a pervert, but you, you are a saint.”

“Stop it, Akane.” She quarreled her, and gave her a slap on the arm.

“Then do it, Michiko. Or at least give him a clue.” Akane grey-blue eyes went wide open, and she jolted on her place. She twisted her whole body towards her friend.

“Oh no,” Michiko gasped. “Now what do you want me to do?” she asked defeated. The person who had come up with the idea that the qualifiers final was the perfect occasion for her to confess was Akane. She was constantly plotting every one of her moves. It was her thing.

“I swear this is genius. You can totally pull it off,” she said excited.

“Spit it out.”

Akane squealed taking the attention of a couple people. Their team lost. What was she so animated about? “Say something obvious to him, and then, walk away. It’s okay if you don’t want to straightforward confess to him given the situation, but c’mon. It’s been two years. You need to let him know.”

Michiko gave it a short thinking. It didn’t sound all that crazy. “But what can I say?”

“I don’t know. You have your inside jokes or codes. How do I know what goes on with you pair of weirdos?”

“Our secret jokes are that, Akane. Jokes. There’s nothing romantic, or erotic, or whatever.”

“Okay, let’s think. We’ve still got time before we arrive to school.”

They both went to complete silence. Michiko couldn’t think of anything. She was nervous and depressed at the same time. She could have a panic attack at any given moment, and she would let herself suffocate to death due to the lack of energy in her.

“I know.” Akane said.

“That was fast.”

“Oh, Michiko, I’ve been rooting for you two to be together since last year. I’ll do anything for you to just get over it with.”

“Since last year?” Michiko asked amused.

“The year before that doesn’t count because you kept denying you were head over hills for him.”

“Well, what’s your new brilliant idea?”

“A kiss.” Akane declared provoking Michiko to choke on her own saliva.

“I’m not going to kiss him, what the fuck. That’s a blunter move than say I like him.”

“No, a kiss on the cheek. You two roam around each other like starving wolves, but I’m sure you have never gave him any kind of kiss.”

“Well, no. I haven’t.”

“Say something sweet like only you know how to, and give him a kiss on the cheek and walk away. If he doesn’t get the memo, maybe it will encourage him to go for you for once and for all.”

“If that works, you’re officially a medium.”

“I have seen the way you two look at each other like helpless lambs all through high school. I don’t need to be a medium to know it will work.”

“Let’s hope I can do it.”

“When you are near him you become a flirting machine. Both of you have a chemical reaction to the other. Without noticing you’ll say the perfect thing, and the current of the moment will lead you. And what’s the worst that can happen, anyway? Shiratorizawa just lost to a bunch of nobodies from an unknown school. That’s the ultimate all time low.”

And so there she was. She had unzipped her jacket since the school was a lot hotter than outside. Akane gave her blessing to her and went home. Michiko promised to call her right after to let her know every single detail.

Michiko had stayed for Satori. Not only for the whole confession thing, she also wanted to hug him and see how he was. Satori had only told her he would drop volleyball after high school, and she was sure Satori thought he had had more time. He was the god of reading people but he was completely unreadable.

After long twenty minutes of waiting, the doors of the gym opened and the volleyball team went out. Stoic faces adorned with sad eyes, and dried streams of tears were everywhere. None of them were surprise to see her. One by one hugged her. She gently clutch Semi’s forearms before hugging him and squeezed Goshiki in her arms a little bit tighter than the others.

“Next year is yours,” she told him. Goshiki nodded with a broken smile.

“Of course, Amai-senpai. I’ll do my best to make you proud,” he said, and went on his way with the rest of the team.

“Take care of things here,” Lion whispered to her after they hugged. With his head he signal to the back, where she was sure Satori was waiting for her.

The last one was Ushijima. They gave each other a simple hug, and without words he softly smiled at her and kept walking. He was the second person of the only two who knew what she was truly doing there.

Tendou was already siting on the floor with his back against the wall and his long legs stretched. She went up to him with a slow pace.

“Look who’s here,” he started saying without looking at her, “if not Shiratorizawa’s sweetheart, Amai Michiko.” He turned to see her then. His face had an unaffected expression, his usual half a smile and sleepy eyes were unchanged. She moved in front of him with his eyes following her, and knelt before him.

“I’m sorry you won’t get to do your pretty dances at nationals this year,” he said.

She gave a subtle, small laugh. “Like it matters.”

“It matters to me,” he said. “I like to see you dance.”

“You’re a cheeky bastard.” She felt shy, and crossed her arms over her stomach.

“Not only me. I promise you tons of people were waiting to see our cheerleading squad at nationals.”

“They’ll be left hanging, then,” she said in almost a whisper.

They stared at each other. It was a bittersweet moment. They had a bad taste from losing, but being close to one another always felt great. Satori knew her face by memory. She had waist-long hair in an intense chocolate brown shade and special hazel eyes—they were the type of hazel eyes, which were a lighter tone than the usual. “You could have been the cheerleading captain if you wanted, ya’ know?” he declared after observing her.

She scuffed. “Akane is gorgeous, and she is the most charismatic of us all. She was born a leader.”

“Mmm. I’d like to defer.” He trapped one of her locks in his hand, and gently played with it. “You are the sweetheart of this school for a reason, not her.”

She had to do it now. She could even just kiss him on the lips. Akane was right. They had a chemical reaction that pulled them together—like opposite magnets.

She just had to do it.

She looked down hiding her intentions and searching for the right words. “I’m especially happy to know you of all people think that of me.” She raised her gaze again and pressed a soft kiss on Tendou’s cheek. “Thank you, Satori. Good night.”

She quickly stood up and began to walk. She hadn’t seen his expression and hadn’t wait for him to say goodbye back to her. She had missed his stunned expression. She only knew he hadn’t gotten up and went after her. She was too focused on getting away from the school. She considered maybe she had been too vague, or maybe he wasn’t really that into her.

She had done what she could, and had been scolded by Akane when she called her on her way home to tell her. Maybe she could have been a tad clearer but what was done was done.

#tendo satori #shiratorizawa #The Beauty & The Monster #tendou x michiko #tendou x oc #michiko amai

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maddie-grove · 5 years

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Bi-Monthly Reading Round-Up: November/December

Playlist

“When I’m Gone” by Brenda Holloway (Gone Girl)

“I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston (At the Queen’s Summons)

“Doctor My Eyes” by Jackson Browne (The Ask and the Answer)

“I Can Love You Better” by the Dixie Chicks (Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow)

“The Bad Touch” by Bloodhound Gang (Storm)

“Suspicion” by Terry Stafford (Trapped at the Altar)

“Smokey Places” by the Corsairs (The Diamond Slipper)

“You’re My Best Friend” by Queen (Someone to Trust)

“Praying” by Kesha (The Hostage)

“Castle Rock” by Barnaby Bright (Bledding Sorrow)

“The Circle of Life” from The Lion King (Monsters of Men)

“Disturbia” by Rihanna (I’ll Be Gone in the Dark)

“It’s All in the Game” by Tommy Edwards (Doomed Queen Anne)

“Locking Up My Heart” by the Marvelettes (Beware, Princess Elizabeth)

Best of the Bi-Month

The Hostage by Susan Wiggs (2000): In the chaos of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, backwoods trader Tom Silver kidnaps heiress Deborah Sinclair, hoping to make her industrialist father compensate the victims of his greed and negligence. Nothing goes according to plan, however, and these two people who should be enemies become anything but. I absolutely loved this book; the combination of slow-burn romance and action-packed non-romantic plot was perfect, and Deborah’s arc is just beautiful.

Worst of the Bi-Month

Bledding Sorrow by Marilyn Harris (1976): The cash-strapped heir of an ancient Yorkshire estate, his improperly medicated American wife, and a working-class coach driver are forced to reenact a Tudor-era tragedy, because of...reasons, I guess. I wasn’t too disappointed when I realized that this was Gothic horror instead of Gothic romance--I like scary stories, too--but this isn’t so much a novel as a long parade of pointlessly dismaying incidents. The characters are generally powerless to avoid their fates and, what’s more, they don’t have the opportunity or inclination to struggle very hard. Their helplessness might work if there were a compelling explanation for it, but Harris only makes a few vague suggestions (i.e., “Reincarnation?” or “House evil?”). Also, one of the supporting characters is such an egregiously offensive gay stereotype that he would probably make Jack Chick exclaim, “Whoa, tone it down!” The style was decent, though, and I had a few good laughs along the way.

Rest of the Bi-Month

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara (2018): In this posthumously published true-crime book, McNamara details a series of burglaries, rapes, and murders that plagued Sacramento and Southern California during the 1970s-1980s, believed by her and many others to be the work of one man, dubbed the Golden State Killer. McNamara does a wonderful job capturing the strange false tranquility of Californian suburbia circa 1980, and she presents the (often convoluted) facts clearly but never salaciously. The good taste and empathy of her style kind of undercuts any passages along the lines of “perhaps researching serial killers is deeply unsavory,” but that was my only issue with the book.

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (2009): In the first sequel to The Knife of Never Letting Go, young Todd Hewitt, having left behind the world he knew forever, deals with increasingly morally complex and traumatic situations. Meanwhile, his new friend, [redacted], wrestles with similarly thorny and upsetting issues. This is a worthy sequel to one of my favorite books I read this year. I missed the road narrative of the first installment, but the complicated ethical dilemmas and the ever-switching power dynamics very nearly made up for its loss.

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness (2010): In the final book of Ness’s trilogy, [redacted]. This was the weakest installment, but only because of some fairly minor structural issues, such as some initial narrative choppiness, that I probably wouldn’t have noticed if the first two books hadn’t been so well-structured as well as thematically fascinating. The payoff is pretty fantastic, in any event. Also, Todd’s whole...thing with the Mayor is one of the most gloriously weird, fascinating relationships I’ve seen in a YA novel.

Someone to Trust by Mary Balogh (2018): In Regency England, twenty-six-year-old Lord Hodges decides to do the proper thing and get himself wed; however, his narcissistic mother, not content with the significant emotional damage she’s dealt him over the years, keeps interfering with his search because she’s worried he’ll marry someone who’s not hot enough by her standards. Meanwhile, his thirty-five-year-old BFF, Lady Overfield, has resolved to accept the suit of a staid but pleasant acquaintance...but something just doesn’t feel right. You know what does feel right, though? Waltzing and talking about deep shit with Lord Hodges...and the feeling is mutual!!! This isn’t the most action-packed romance, but it’s super-cute and I was 1000% sold on Lady Overfield’s subtle awesomeness.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012): Unhappily married and resignedly living in his Missouri hometown, Nick Dunne suddenly finds himself as the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance and apparent murder. What the fuck is going on? I spent like five years of my life debating with myself whether to read this book, and I’m glad I did (long after its relevancy had peaked, of course). It’s easily the weakest of Flynn’s three novels--its sense of place isn’t as strong as Sharp Objects or Dark Places, although I understand that’s somewhat intentional, and neither main character works as a representation of an actual person--but it’s a propulsive read and it’s pretty damn funny.

The Diamond Slipper by Jane Feather (1997): Lady Cordelia Brandenburg travels with her BFF, a teenage Marie Antoinette, so they can get hitched to the Austrian ambassador to France and the Dauphin, respectively. Two problems: Cordelia’s new husband is a fucking monster, and she’s fallen in love with the grieving brother of the husband’s mysteriously dead first wife. This novel probably isn’t to everyone’s taste; it kind of zigzags between a semi-cutesy fairy-tale feel and depictions of horrific abuse, and the effect is somewhat jarring. I enjoyed its use of historical details, though, and I liked the heroine a lot.

Beware, Princess Elizabeth by Carolyn Meyer (2002): In this historical YA novel, Elizabeth I narrates several incidents in her life from cradle to throne, focusing on all the times that her half-sister Mary came super-close to having her executed. Although I found the structure of the novel somewhat choppy, I really liked the portrayal of Elizabeth’s complicated relationships with her pious, increasingly suspicious half-siblings, plus the plot had plenty of action.

Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer (2001): In another installment of Meyer’s Young Royals series, Anne Boleyn explains her journey from awkward child to unconventional, controversial courtier to VICTIM OF TOTAL RAILROADING. This novel was even choppier than Beware, Princess Elizabeth, mostly because Elizabeth’s story is better-suited to the episodic plot structure, but I have to say I love this portrayal of Anne Boleyn as much as (if not more than) I did at twelve. Her motivations aren’t high-minded or altruistic, but she’s got feelings, damn it, and she has a right to fight against being treated like shit! Also, Meyer gives her a sixth finger on one hand, which was probably not the case historically, but it’s cool that Anne is portrayed sympathetically while also having a body that’s stigmatized by society.

Trapped at the Altar by Jane Feather (2014): In the early 1680s, Catholic Lady Ariadne Daunt and Protestant Sir Ivor Chalfont live in Daunt Valley, a makeshift community of loosely related lawless aristocrats who lost their lands in the English Civil War. Ariadne and Ivor are force to wed by the community “elders,” who hope to send them to the royal court as a religiously flexible power couple. This already-tense situation is made more awkward by the fact that Ariadne is in love with another man, while Ivor is in love with Ariadne. This novel is part of a small subset of romances that would be better as historical fiction. I loved the unique (albeit nightmarish) setting of Daunt Valley, the exciting journey to London, and the well-portrayed court intrigue. I even quite liked Ariadne. However, Ivor was such a shit. Ariadne is upfront with him about her love for another, but, because Ivor “loves” her, he acts like she’s morally obligated to go along with the whole thing. He never really forgives her for not being a virgin on their wedding night, and his reaction when he finds out she’s been using birth control is bloodcurdling. Also, Feather throws away an interesting dynamic where Ariadne has genuine feelings for two complex men in favor of making Ivor’s rival a creepy stalker (but also an embarrassingly ineffectual sissy).

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George (2008): A nameless Norwegian girl who can talk to animals agrees to live with an enchanted polar bear for one year in exchange for her family’s deliverance from poverty, secretly hoping to find the answer to her beloved brother’s sadness as well. She finds herself way in over her head, though, with a curse that goes back centuries or longer. I enjoyed this retelling of “East of the Sun, West of the Moon,” and I thought a lot of the concepts were really clever (hint: this is neither the first girl nor the first polar bear). In execution, though, I didn’t like it as much as Edith Pattou’s retelling, East, which has a stronger sense of place and better-developed minor characters.

Storm by Donna Jo Napoli (2014): Sebah, a sixteen-year-old Canaanite girl, loses her home, her family, and her entire way of life in a sudden deluge that drowns the whole world...almost. After weeks of surviving in trees and on rafts, she manages to stow away on Noah’s Ark, where she rooms with some bonobos and learns way too much about Ham’s marital problems. I thought this was a very creative book with some delightfully weird earthiness, but it becomes somewhat static once Sebah boards the ark and meets a character who kills too much of the tension.

At the Queen’s Summons by Susan Wiggs (2009 update of 1995 original): Pippa, a street performer in Elizabethan England, claims the patronage of Aidan O Donoghue, a minor Irish king, in order to save herself from arrest. Aidan, a goodhearted fellow, goes along with it. This was a pleasant story, but I can remember almost nothing about it. I love Susan Wiggs, but her Tudor Rose trilogy is kind of a snore.

#books #reading

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mylife-foryours · 4 years

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gratuitous screencaps & questions for an’dante

1. What is their gender? ... woman-ish?

2. What is their sexuality? Ace-ish, bi-ish. Complicated by a combination of trauma & who she is as a person.

3. Do they have any siblings? How many? Are they older or younger? Which sibling are they the closest with? No siblings; when she was 3-4 she was... fostered? by her grandparents, and there were a few cousins who lived in the same apartment complex, but she was a very solitary child.

4. What’s their relationship with their parents like? What about other relatives? Her memories of her parents are vague and patchy - her father’s callused hands, her mother’s deep voice singing a Zabraki lullaby. On the other hand, she remembers her grandparents very well. She understands them well enough to know why they left her on the streets of Sobrik, and on good days she can even sort of sympathize - starvation is a hideous way to die. So she isn’t going to, like, hunt them down and murder them, but she has no interest in ever seeing them again, either.

6. What would they give their life for? Orro.

7. Are they in a romantic relationship? With who? How did they meet? She’s in something with Orro. When they first met, Orro had been cornered by a group of offworld thugs, and An’Dante went after them like a feral alley cat. She won more through the element of surprise and nascent Force abilities than anything else, but it was still enough to begin a fast friendship with Orro.

8. What do they believe will happen to them after they die? Does this belief scare them? Either she’ll stop existing entirely, or she’ll become a Force ghost. As appealing as it might be to continue to influence the galaxy even after she’s dead, the fact that ghosts can be bound & their entire self made into a battery for someone to tap makes that prospect singularly terrifying. Even when she was a slave, it was only ever her body that could be broken and fucked and drained of blood. Death wasn’t an ideal escape, but it was always there. No such luxury if her ghost is bound. Nonexistence isn’t ideal, but it’s preferable to that.

9. What is their favorite color? Favorite animal? Her favorite color is sunset red, and her favorite animal is a tooka cat, but the one that I associate with her is a snake, both for the obvious reasons and because of the death/rebirth symbolism.

10. What are some of their talents/skills? Rhetoric, blackmail, politics in general. On a more benign note, unearthing/handling delicate artifacts and translating ancient texts in a way that’s both faithful and aesthetically pleasant.

11. If they could make a mark on history, what would they like it to be? Empress of the Sith Empire, Conqueror of the Republic, the Great Liberator of Korriban. (Practically, she understands that she’d be better off as a combination shadow hand & eminence grise, but she’s not above the appeal of shiny titles).

12. How old are they? When is their birthday? She’s nineteen during the Sith Inquisitor prologue, but not exactly sure when her birthday is.

13. What do they do for fun? Watch drama-heavy serial shows (ideally w/ Fene or, later on, Talik’ime) and snark at them.

14. What is their favorite food? How often do they get to eat it? She’ll eat pretty much anything and enjoy it, but she really loves seafood and rare meat.

15. What was something their parents taught them? Not to get too ANGST-HEAVY, but by omission, probably “you’re an unwanted burden, and will be left behind as soon as it’s physically possible”.

16. Are they religious? Sort of - she’s Sith, and takes the code seriously, but her own interpretation of it is pretty heretical.

17. Where were they born? Small farming village on the outskirts of Sobrik.

18. What languages can they speak? Where did they learn these languages? She’s a native speaker of Basic & Zabraki, picked up Huttese and snippets of Mando’a in her early-mid adolescence, and learned Old Sith during her apprenticeship to Lord Volcari. Later on she tries to pick up Chenuch as part of her bid to insinuate her power base into Imperial Intelligence, and expands her knowledge of Mando’a with Fene’s help.

19. What is their occupation? Dark Council member.

20. Do they have any titles? How did they earn them? She blackmailed Darth Vox into promoting her to Dark Lord of the Sith before murdering her and abandoning what was left of her corpse in a decaying orbit around Korriban’s sun. Approximately two years later, she escaped Jedi custody with a fair number of stolen relics and detailed knowledge of Tython’s defenses, earning the name Darth Moriah. She became the leader of the Assassin’s Pyramid after defeating Darth Rictus in a Kaggath, and operated as Empress Acina’s unofficial Hand between the destruction of Ziost and the end of KOTET.

Personality:

21. What is their favorite thing about their personality? Her wit.

22. What is their least favorite thing about their personality? Her sensitivity.

23. Do they get lonely easily? Yes, but she’s relatively good at dealing with it.

24. Do you know their MBTI type? INTJ

25. What is their biggest flaw? God, so many. But probably the worst, ethically and in terms of her relationships, is that she’s cruel.

26. Are they aware of their flaws? Sort of. She knows that she’s cruel, but she thinks that her greatest flaw is that she’s weak-willed and dithers over Doing What Needs To Be Done.

27. What is their biggest strength? Her adaptability.

28. Are they aware of their strengths? Yes - some of her arrogance is bravado, but not all of it.

29. How would they describe their own personality? That would depend entirely on who was asking.

30. When frightened, will they resort to “fight” or “flight”? http://pete-walker.com/codependencyFawnResponse.htm

31. Does this character ever put somebody else’s needs before their own? Who do they do this for? How often do they do this? She’d do just about anything for Orro, including framing & executing her own apprentice for treason, but she’d put a lot on the line for Fene, too. She tries to be sparing with displays like that, though - it’s an expenditure of resources, emotional and otherwise. Cryptarch’s qualm and all that.

32. What is their self esteem like? Not great.

33. What is their biggest fear? How would they react to having to face it? Being enslaved again - no surprises there. She’d go nuclear if faced with that - no concern for collateral damage or her own survival, just fighting her way out with claws and lightning and teeth, or, failing that, putting her own lightsaber to her heart.

34. How easily do they trust others with their secrets? With their life? An’Dante’s secrets stay under lock and fucking key.

35. What is the easiest way to annoy them? In terms of annoyance (rather than blind rage), probably telling her that she’s overreacting to something.

36. What is their sense of humor like? Give an example of a joke they would find humorous. Dark & ironic, with a particular fondness for wordplay and last-minute twists. Pretty much any of these would have her howling.

37. How easy is it for them to say “I love you”? Do they say it without meaning it? Very difficult. She’s said it to.... maybe two people in her life, probably?

38. What do others admire most about their personality? Either her intelligence or her tenacity.

39. What does their happily ever after look like? After winning Orro over to her cause, crushing the Republic hypocrites and their Jedi lackeys, uniting a reformed empire under her rule (with someone else as a figurehead, naturally), freeing the slaves and hanging the masters by their own intestines, I imagine that she’d like to spend her time researching poetry fragments and teaching freed slave children to read.

40. Who do they trust most? Is that trust mutual? She trusts Orro & Orro doesn’t trust her, but Orro is quite trustworthy (& predictable) while she’s decidedly neither.

Physical Profile:

41. What does their laugh sound like? Do they snort when they laugh? How often do they laugh? Quiet and spiteful; if she laughs, it tends to be at people, not with them.

42. What is their favorite thing about their physical appearance? Thanks to her Zabrak mother, she has very sharp, prominent canine teeth, which make her sneer look much more intimidating.

43. What is their least favorite thing about their physical appearance? Probably the brands on her face. But for the same reasons that she doesn’t have any tattoos, she’s not going to get any kind of surgery to remove/cover them up. They’re a reminder.

44. Do they have any scars? If so, what are the stories behind those scars? Per her in-game appearance, she has brands/burn scars on the left side of her face. She also has heavy whip scars on her upper back, a fractal lightning scar that wraps around her torso (result of the one (1) time she mouthed off to Overseer Harkun), and some minor chemical burns from her experiments with poisons and forbidden artifacts.

45. How would they describe their own appearance? She probably wouldn’t, honestly.

46. How easily can they express emotions? How easily can they hide emotions? Hiding her feelings is pretty much second nature. She can express Sith-standard emotions quite well, and quite genuinely - she’s got a lot of anger and fury bottled up, even if it isn’t really directed at heretics - but sadness, fear, and the rest are more difficult.

47. What’s their pain tolerance like? High.

48. Do they have any tattoos? What are the stories behind those tattoos? No tattoos, and no plans to get any - she’s played with the idea of getting Sith tattoos to deflect from criticisms of, ahem, heterodoxy, but that would require allowing someone very very close to her face with very very sharp objects, and that’s a hard nope.

49. Do they have any piercings? Nope.

50. How would you describe their style of clothing? How would they describe their style of clothing? Semi-ceremonial light armor with flowy bits & a pronounced inclination towards the dramatic vs. “Robes befitting my station”.

51. What is their height? Weight? 5′3, 210 pounds.

52. What is their body type? Are they muscular, chubby, skinny, etc? Fat, with some core muscle strength.

53. What is their hair color? Eye color? Skin tone? She has warm brown skin and black hair. Her eyes are naturally brown, but intense dark side use shifted them to a molten gold color by the end of Act I. Faded back to brown while she was on Tython (Light Side-suffused environment + force-nullifying cuffs), then went orange/gold again after she escaped. At this point she’s had enough corruption/redemption whiplash that they’re kind of eerie pale grey with red limbal rings.

54. What is their current hairstyle? What have been some of their past hairstyles? Which was their favorite hairstyle? For the first sixteen years of her life, she kept her hair short, both for practicality - she couldn’t wash often, and didn’t want it getting caught in anything - but also so that no one could grab it. Upon being taken as Lord Volcari’s apprentice, she began growing it out. Mostly she left it down, but Fene would sometimes put it up in braids, which was her favorite. After being held captive on Tython, she chopped her hair off to about chin-length, and kept it there until she made Darth. It started coming in white after Ziost, but that was largely a moot point, since by then she had signed on as Acina’s left hand & was wearing a mask and hood. After her final break with the empire, she cut off the few inches that were still dark brown/black, so her endgame haircut is a blunt, chin-length bob.

55. What is their alcohol tolerance like? What kind of drunk are they? How bad are their hangovers? It’s not so much

56. What do they smell like? Why do they smell like this? (Is it the things they’re around or a perfume they wear?) If she smells like anything, it’s mostly old books and tomb-dust. Doesn’t actually smell like blood as often as you would think - she usually kills people via some sort of proxy, and even if she's in a straight-up duel, lightsaber wounds tend to cauterize quickly.

57. How do they feel about sex? Are they a virgin? Doesn’t like sex, not a virgin, the specifics are predictably related.

58. What is their most noticeable physical attribute? Probably her nose; it’s not very noticeable on her in-game model, but I always draw her with a big beaky nose.

59. What does their resting face look like? Do they have RBF? Carefully blank.

60. Describe the way they sleep. Deeply and overlong, now that she doesn’t have to wake at dawn or earlier. It’s one of the few luxuries she can partake of without any guilt.

Environment:

61. Which season is their favorite season? Obligatory “seasons work differently on other planets” stipulation aside, probably autumn.

62. Have they ever been betrayed? How did it affect their ability to trust others? She was baited into an “escape attempt” by one of the overseer’s quislings when she was about thirteen, and never made that mistake again.

63. What is always guaranteed to make them smile? Ironic reversals of fortune.

64. Do they get cold easily? Do they get overheated easily? Gets overheated more easily than she gets cold.

65. What’s their immune system like? Do they get sick often? How do they react to getting sick? Since she’s half-Zabrak, her immune system is hella weak. She hates the vulnerability that comes with being sick, and tends to shut herself up in her compound with enough reading material for several weeks and enough painkillers to wipe out a small army.

66. Where do they live? Do they like it there? She has a compound on Korriban with one of the larger collections of Old Sith epic poetry in Imperial space.

67. Is their bedroom messy? What about their bathroom? Kitchen? Living room? Probably her quarters as a whole have a comfortable level of clutter - there’s some automated cleaning, but she refuses to use cleaning droids, and doesn’t have much time to clean on her own.

68. How did their environment growing up affect their personality? Significantly, but not indelibly.

69. How did the people in their environment growing up affect their personality? The fact that her grandparents wanted nothing to do with her and regarded her as a burden, and

70. How do they feel about animals? Do they have any pets? She likes them well enough, but feels uncomfortable with the idea of owning a living creature - she has some friends among the desert cats around her compound, though.

71. How are they with children? Do they have any? Do they want any? She’s okay with children, if a bit overprotective, but she’s never had any, and even if she physically could (like most half-Zabraks, she’s infertile) pregnancy is a terrifying idea for her. She’d even feel guilty about adopting a kid, since being associated with her would be Absurdly Dangerous - almost none of her rivals would hesitate to go after a child.

72. Would they rather have stability or comfort? Comfort, largely because she doesn’t really believe that stability exists.

73. Do they prefer the indoors or outdoors? Indoors.

74. What weather is their favorite? Do they like storms? Her favorite weather is dry and slightly chilly, with a bit of a breeze. Enjoys thunderstorms as long as they’re not on Dromund Kaas.

75. If given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and nothing to do, what would happen? She’d practice her Old Sith calligraphy.

76. How organized are they? She’s a wee bit paranoid about committing things to paper, so her things are as organized as she can keep them in her head. When she’s doing well, it works fine. When she’s not...

77. What is their most prized possession? Either her saberstaff or the holocron that houses her ghost friend. Probably the saberstaff, since thinking about what’s essentially someone’s phylactery as her possession would probably make her queasy.

78. Who do they consider to be their best friend? Fene.

79. What is their economic situation? Probably pretty good - I imagine that Dark Council members get a hefty salary.

80. Are they a morning person or a night owl? Night owl.

Miscellaneous:

81. Are they bothered by the sight of blood? Sort of, but she’s had lots of time to get used to it.

82. What is their handwriting like? Neat & cursive-adjacent, but she writes with a very heavy hand, since she was almost twenty when she learned how.

83. Can they swim? How well? Do they like to swim? She can Sort Of stay afloat, and enjoys swimming so long as she can keep doing that. Deeper water makes her nervous, though, mostly because she’s spent so much time on Dromund Kaas: deep water is where the fish made entirely of teeth and pincers live.

84. Which deadly sin do they represent best? Fucking hell. Gonna say it’s a three-way tie between Pride, Envy, and Wrath.

85. Do they believe in ghosts? She literally keeps one in her pocket, so yeah.

86. How do they celebrate holidays? How do they celebrate birthdays? Hmmm... as a member of the Dark Council, there are probably certain state holidays that she’s expected to publicly celebrate, but on her own time I imagine that she keeps things low-key.

87. What is something they regret? Stabbing Orro in the back, physically and metaphorically. It’s worth nothing that this is at least partially because she didn’t actually get anything out of it - Jorgan recaptured her in fairly short order. (Part of her hadn’t really... adjusted to the fact that there were other people in Orro’s life by that point)

88. Do they have an accent? Xanthe Elbrick’s performance has grown on me a lot in my billion-odd playthroughs of a female Sith Inquisitor, but in my heart of hearts, An’Dante has a Slavic accent.

89. What is their D&D alignment? Neutral Evil.

90. Are they right or left handed? Left, but she’s trained herself to be ambidextrous.

91. If they were a tweet, what tweet would they be?

92. Describe them as a John Mulaney gif.

#char: an'dante #making Very Productive Use of my quarantine time

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xenosaurus · 7 years

Text

OKAY i’m posting the entire draft of that grey area thing because @octobig and @aquajellyprincess were interested in it, it’s below the cut! Note that this is still in progress and I might change stuff before I actually run any campaigns. I’m also going to include actual image references.

The Civilian's Guide to Alien Life

A Companion to Your New Translation Software!

Written by Richard Tucker (Head of Human Language Translation) With assistance from Starr rra Rruhi (Rrutatarri Language Library Curator)

First Contact

So, you've been assigned a job in an interspecies environment! But you've never met an alien before!

I've been there, and so have most of your human coworkers. Our goal with this booklet is to provide you with a crash course in the species you're likely to encounter during your work, whether directly or in reference. As much effort as possible has gone into getting opinions and advice from friendly, trusted sources within the cultures themselves. Accuracy is important!

If you have questions or corrections, please email us at lifeguide@[REDACTED].gov!

Your humble author served aboard The Heroic for the entirety of the universal translator project, and was privileged enough to develop friendships with many different species. As such, this guide is dedicated to the following people:

Starr rra Rruhi, who tolerated late nights of questions, some of them deeply personal. They rose above and beyond their role of library curator to become the lifeblood of this project. I pray for many pups born to you and yours, my friend. Zorri of the Northeast Kelp Forest, who knows exactly what he did and deserves far more than this simple shout out. Colleen Jackson, who once knocked out three of my teeth and who is probably the only reason I have survived to reach my 30s.

Squids/Squidiks

The Quick Version: Squidiks (as scientists wish we would call them) or "Squids" (as we actually call them) are a friendly race with no history of animosity with humanity. The males are smaller and more socially involved than the females, so if you're about to meet one and they aren't a soldier, it's almost certainly a 'he'. Nine times out of ten, the Squids on site at your new position are extensively trained for human socialization, so mistakes will be given a great deal of leeway. If it feels like someone is trying to be your friend, they probably are!

The Long Version: BIOLOGY-- Squids are amphibious, with a preference for damp or fully aquatic environments. Most Squids aboard The Heroic kept their quarters semi-flooded, so be careful before accepting an invite to spend time in their personal space. While the mass of tentacles that make up their lower bodies may seem alarming, Squids are a slow moving species in dry places, and almost never aggressive without cause. Squid beaks have garnered similar reactions of fear and uncertainty, but the species hunts much like humans do, preferring weapons to "hand-to-hand" (tentacle-to-tentacle?) combat. Male squids are about two-thirds the size of a female, with males averaging about four feet tall and females averaging about six feet.

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR-- Squids are absolutely a social species! Friendships, including cross-species friendships, are vital to their culture and are often involved in both work and child-rearing. Most of their social groups are gender-based, with mixed-gender groups existing almost exclusively as families. However, very few of them apply these rules to their interspecies friendships! Gender roles are more strict than most modern human cultures, but not to the point of complete rigidity. Friends and family are seen as equally important, and there is little cultural difference between "friend" and "sibling" in terms of social standing. Female Squids, being larger and stronger, often perform labor such as combat and construction, while the males tend more towards domestic work. This isn't a rule, however! Just like humans, plenty of individuals take "gendered" jobs that go against the expectations of their culture.

MATING AND FAMILY-- Squids mate for life and treat courtship with almost religious significance. Unlike friendships, they don't extend mating permissions to species outsiders! Sexual intercourse is not physically pleasurable and involves the exchange of sperm packets. There is no cultural taboo on discussing it. They have a concept vaguely similar to the human idea of a soulmate called a "fit", someone who is a perfect match for you and thus 'fits' with you. Unlike the soulmate concept, it is considered less a matter of finding a single person made for you and more a matter of finding one of the many people who can 'fit' with you. Polyamory is exceeding rare, though in the case of same-sex couples, arrangements are often made for sperm donation that involve co-parenting between two couples. Both parents take part in raising young, although children start spending most of their time with their same-gender parent once they reach adolescence.

COMBAT-- Squids use weapons similar to humans, and have a preference for long-range weapons to make up for their poor mobility. Traditionally, warriors are female, but this is not an ironclad rule. Most Squids in labor or combat roles on interspecies ships have chosen them to stay with a more domestically-inclined mate who is aboard the ship.

The Rrutatarri

The Quick Version: The Rrutatarri are a fairly insular people with a culture oriented around their large, complex mated groups. A lot of their communication is done through pheromone signals that are only understandable within their own polyamorous group. If you feel like you're missing social cues, you are, and you're intended to be! If you're about to meet a Rrutatarri, be prepared to treat them like you would a respected superior, ESPECIALLY if they have earrings! More details to follow, but assume, for now, that more earrings = more social power.

The Long Version: BIOLOGY-- Rrutatarri are large and very physically intimidating by human standards. By adulthood, they will have reached around nine feet tall. There is very little height variation, and all smaller individuals should be assumed to be children or suffering from some variety of genetic disorder. Rrutatarri have a more complex gender system, as they have three gametic categories and need 3 individuals to produce children. The two associated social roles are "Lords" and "Adored", roughly analogous to females and males, respectively. The thick, lion-like manes of most individuals are a gender identifier associated with their gender category of "Adored". Adored fall into two categories based on their gametic type, but it's impossible to tell what category an individual is without genetic testing. DO NOT ASK ABOUT THIS. It is considered the worst social taboo possible to ask an Adored their gametic sex, as it is forbidden for even them to know this information. Lords provide a chemical base that is needed by Adored to continue proper brain function, so adult Adored are all attached to a Lord. The injection of this chemical base also attunes members of a harem to their Lord's social pheromones to allow communication, and is very physically pleasurable.

MATING AND FAMILY-- Lords take on Adored as mates throughout their lives, taking their first during their adolescence and usually not taking another for a few years. Once they have reached adulthood, however, conflicts over mates and the social status of having a great deal of mates becomes the main concern of most Rrutatarri Lords. The "First" is a social position within a harem, as the first mate is considered to be something of the second in command. While sex is not pleasurable, the injection of bonding chemicals is similar enough to how humans treat sex, minus some of the stigma of being witnessed in the act. This injection is called "The Bite" and is done by a Lord biting an Adored's "nose", actually a receptive area. Gendering of children is done by what kind of teeth they have. Lords have an underbite to facilitate The Bite, while Adored do not. Child rearing is a shared endevour and the primary social support of any given individual outside of their harem is their adult siblings. For each mate a Lord has, they gain another earring. Adored within a harem often have loving, intimate relationships between them as well as with their Lord, although this is not universal.

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR-- Rrutatarri do not form friendships easily, as 90% of their positive connections come from their closed mated groups or siblings. Close Lord-Lord friendships are fairly common and often exclusive, with the Lords often forming special pacts to take in the other's children and mates if they die. This connection between Lords is considered the highest of relationships, and interspecies friendships are also considered candidates for these "Lordly" relationships. Adored-Adored friendships outside of their Lord's harem are often considered looser regardless of their closeness, and most social conflict comes from Adored developing feelings for another outside of their harem and the subsequent fighting between Lords over whose harem a given Adored should belong to.

COMBAT-- Rrutatarri are fast, physical and favor close combat. It is not uncommon for them to refuse to use projectile weapons in their entirety.

#grey area

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