#this one is..... handwaves

[serenescribe]

If the three sentence prompt is still open then would you be able to write that scene from sleeping beauty where Aurora pricks her finger on the spinning wheel? But with overblot Malleus and Silver? (But Malleus still cares for Silver and doesn’t want to straight up kill him like Maleficent did)

[✐meme] three sentence fic meme [✐] ficlet frenzy

At the sight of his precious knight sprawled out against the stone floor in eternal rest, Malleus cannot help but smile.

It had been so easy to twist a meagre sliver of Lilia's dream, to lure away Silver with the drawling whisper of his name, enchantments swaying him along — away from the walls of the castle they're in, down a conjured path of twisting, shadowed corridors that does not actually exist.

And when Malleus conjured the spinning wheel, a curse infused into the prick of the needle, and coaxed Silver to step closer, to touch the tip?

It is a safe way to put the knight out of commission, to remove him from the equation altogether. Malleus does not wish death upon him, but Silver is slippery, his unique magic more trouble than he prefers. But by laying a curse upon him within his domain of dreams, Malleus no longer needs to worry about his unwanted intrusion, his dear knight so hellbent on halting his plans.

With a flick of his wrist, he lifts the slumbering boy up into his arms, cradled close in a princess carry. Silver's head lolls, eyes pressed firmly shut; Malleus cannot held but lean down and press a chaste kiss against the heated skin of his forehead, leaving a bare smudge of blot against his pale complexion.

"SILVER!"

At the sound of a familiar shriek, Malleus turns, greeted with the sight of Lilia, a fire burning in his crimson eyes, the silhouettes of Sebek and the Child of Man behind him. A gloved hand clenches tight around the doorway; "What did you DO to him?!" Lilia screams, anger ripping through his words at the sight of Silver in Malleus' arms.

Malleus only smiles. "I only did what had to be done," he breathes — and says nothing else. No, instead he lets his magic whisk them both away — to his castle in the depths of the abyss, where he shall lay Silver to rest within a silkspun bed draped with veiled canopies, watching over him while stroking a tender finger along his cheek, the boy remaining still and unmoving.

His knight will never wake up for as long as this eternal dream remains, but Malleus shall take care of him for the rest of time.

[iamacolor]

Are you tired? Then you should go home. I'll be fine.

NO GAIN NO LOVE - EPISODE 6

[queenlucythevaliant]

Okay gang, here's a silly little game. I've assembled six teams of blended Narnia and Tolkien/LotR characters. Here they are:

For bonus points, tell me in the tags where you're going on your road trip, who has what role (driving, snacks, aux) on the road, and what you'll stop off and see along the way

[plounce]

thancred blames a lot of shit on himself wrt minfilia that aren't really his fault at all: not saving minfilia's dad from the goobbue (he wasn't the one that intentionally set it loose also he was 17 years old); not saving minfilia from being absorbed into the lifestream at the end of ARR (she very well could have escaped with the WoL and instead chose to listen to hydaelyn and run back); not saving minfilia from getting sent to the first (that was urianger doing Gambits for the Greater Good, and minfilia agreed to go along with it to help the first). and nobody's really mad at him for any of this (save f'lhaminn for not hanging out with minfilia more when she was a kid) and he has piled up all this self-blame and self-loathing about it all that this tangled mountain of guilt causes him to fail his "second chance" in ryne: he's really cold and distant towards her! she is so emotionally neglected by him, because he knows that he feels too strongly about the situation to treat her fairly, so he just doesn't treat her any way at all except for "defensive". i think it's interesting and cool how his self-perception of his "failures" boil over into becoming fueling his major character failure of the entire story so far. which he then of course resolves by nearly killing himself to give her the chance to be able to determine what she herself wants to do. but since ryne chooses to want to live and be with the people she values, thancred also gets to live, so her dad can give her a new name that is wholly born from their time together on the first. he's finally accepted that he did & has done all he can for the source's minfilia. being on the brink of death probably helps propel this acceptance lmao but ffxiv's themes mean that his loved ones arrive in time to rez him. ALSO he has to live because he never actually SAID any of the feelings he expressed during the ran'jit fight to ryne. he's just talking to his villainous paternal foil and himself. after constantly going "ill say smth when the time is right" he HAS to be able to SAY Good Dad Words to her to satisfy the character arc. anyway thancred don't be so hard on yourself except for the thing you directly sucked at for years

[martlet-my-beloved]

I feel like Martlet would want to go with Frisk out of the ruins. After the time she seperated from Clover she would not want that to happen with another human child.

i dont think there would be any circumstance where martlet could ever bring herself to let frisk go alone tbh. its either frisk stays in the ruins with her and toriel as long as they like or they go out into the underground together. by the end of uty's pacifist, martlet definitely has ZERO trust in the guards and asgore to just let a child walk out into a world ready to kill them on sight.

i mean, im pretty sure im not fooling anyone by doing the whole "will they wont they" about frisk leaving the ruins XD. it's really only a matter of time before they confront toriel about it, and martlet wouldnt hesitate to follow right after them. she's brought a human through the underground once, and she'd do it again no questions asked

currently i think this au takes place around 5 or 6 years after uty? so martlet definitely had time to think about her time with clover and definitely knows about what toriel does. she knows the game plan. either she helps keep the next human safe in the ruins or she keeps them safe out in the underground. still a royal guard, after all.

First - Previous - Next - Masterpost

[angelsdean]

imagine cas annoys the empty so much again it spits him back out except...it spits him out into the wrong universe (and time) and that's how *our* cas ends up in the winchesters universe. and at first he doesn't realize it's not the right time or universe and he goes looking for dean and instead finds the Lebanon bunker closed off and eventually finds john + mary and he thinks it's his universe's past john and mary and he tells them he needs help to get back to his time (bc his grace is still too low). he tells them he's from the future and needs to get back to someone and he pulls out his wallet and shows them a picture of dean and they're like "whoa whoa we know that guy!!!!" and cas is like, "that's impossible. he hasn't been born yet." and they're like "no no he was here. he helped save our universe. he's from another universe and he came here from heaven because he's dead and there was this young guy with him, jack? and an older guy, robby or bobby or something...." and cas is just slowly losing his mind, all the color draining from his face because first of all what do you mean he's dead?!!! and then all the other universe stuff and then jack? and bobby??? and yea anyways they team up to help get cas to dean and along the way hmmm what if jack pops in again....only this time he's acting even weirder than before, because chuck / the god power are gaining more control / corrupting him more. and jack becomes the big bad, thwarting their attempts to get cas to dean, and wreaking havoc on their universe, so the winchesters squad help them save jack and then dean and cas can eventually get their proper reunion (which everyone in the winchesters squad is now nvested in, especially carlos, number one deangirl and destiel stan) oh and the whole time they also do not know dean is mary and john's AU kid because cas never gives a last name just keeps calling him dean. and so john also grows invested in seeing these two people get their happy ending and BOY would it be cathartic for dean to see a version of his father who is so happy to see dean happy with a man-shaped person<3

[straightlightyagami]

i think movements calling for the abolition of [given institution] need to address what to replace it with, because it is not at all apparent how society would function without it, and sometimes the proposed replacement ends up being like. well that's literally the same thing under a different name. which is not to say their ideas are wrong btw often times they make very good points. just it's like one of the first things that should be addressed

[galedekarios]

if you are trying to whiteknight mystra, maybe, just maybe, don't blame the child she groomed or try to argue that grooming actually exists on a spectrum

or say that gale already had a bit of an ego before he was found by elminster and chosen by mystra, i just

like idk what to tell you, but... he was around eight years old when that happened...... that'd translate to second/third grade,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

and that might have to do something with the consequent actions he took over the years and growing up into an actual adult.............

just a thought..........................................................

[mabaris]

part of me wonders if “Ghilan’nain and her archdemon” is phrased like that because it’s like how Corypheus made his own, and her dragon isn’t actually Razikale or Lusacan, but something she made out of wholecloth since her release?

[demeterdefence]

i despise and detest how mental health / trauma is treated in lo and more specifically how it only becomes trauma in relation to hp

hades claiming zeus “wasn’t scarred” by kronos and apollo making a quip that zeus was the “least damaged from the war”

demeter not only being abused by every man she’s familiar with but also being gaslit / disrespected to such extent she can’t even approach her sisters for help

thanatos apologizing to his abuser

minthe getting ripped apart for being the victim of a groomer and rightfully pointing out she’s not okay with being cheated on

hera’s trauma with kronos only being brought up as a kind of comparison / segue into persephone’s

artemis’ very clear grief at being lied to by her family and finding out her brother is a rapist

literally NONE of these get addressed as trauma in the narrative and if they do it’s ALWAYS as either blaming them for their own grief or turning it into another hades and persephone love fest

[marley-manson]

Could you expand on your dislike for the Raphael!Crowley headcanon? I'm fairly certain I know why but your meta posts are always so thoughtful and articulate and I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic

Thank you, I really appreciate it! And fwiw I always enjoy reading your thoughts as well!

And yeah I'm happy to! I mean first I should say that I don't actually like, hate-hate it in fanfic, it's not like an instant back-button for me if it comes up, and I feel like I've seen one or two fics after season 1 where I thought it was fine and it didn't take me out of the story.

But yeah in general I just don't like Crowley being special lol. I like the book vibe where Crowley and Aziraphale are just two... not quite nobodies, given their roles in Eden and the spy allegory of the present day, but certainly not particularly powerful or impressive demon/angels. Crowley and Aziraphale's "superpowers," such as they are, are just their adaptability thanks to living on Earth so long. That's what defines them compared to the rest of Hell and Heaven and sets them apart as uniquely capable of giving a fuck and doing something about the apocalypse. Eg Hastur and Ligur are explicitly more powerful than Crowley, but Crowley escapes them by the skin of his teeth because he's able to break convention by weaponizing holy water, and he's familiar with technology, and more capable of thinking on his feet in general.

I like that all their uniqueness comes from living on Earth with humanity. It resonates with the thematic core of the story, it's fun, and it's interesting. Crowley now being able to perform super impressive miracles and casually resurrect people (something presumably not every angel can do since Aziraphale can't resurrect Edinburgh girl) and read heaven's secret files and potentially stop time in season 1 because he's a former archangel diminishes that vibe to me.

Another con of Raphael!Crowley as a headcanon is that a lot of the time, ime, it feels similar to lost scion of royalty headcanons in other fandoms in an unpleasant way - the way that kind of leans into the idea of someone being inherently superior and worth more by birth (or creation I guess in an angel's case lol). I don't think this is necessarily inherent to the headcanon, or an aspect I think Gaiman will definitely emphasize, but there is that worry lol, especially considering how gary stu-ish Crowley felt to me this season.

Like, why is him being a former archangel meaningful or significant at all? Why does the headcanon exist? What makes Raphael!Crowley different enough from Random Angel #2398!Crowley that it's even brought up as a character detail or plot point that excites people? And I'm not implying that there are no valid reasons (eg exploring why a high ranking angel specifically would fall, or to add some drama for Aziraphale if he finds out and it matters to him, or to add drama between Crowley and the other archangels, etc), but quite often the vibe I get from this headcanon is that Crowley's just inherently more interesting and cool if he used to be a high ranking angel instead of some rando, which is a vibe that puts me off.

Ultimately I just tend to prefer mundane origins to surprise significant origins, and stories about average people (at least in their own context, as angels or w/e) moulded by life who make interesting plot-driving choices rather than inherently unique and special people. And Crowley being Raphael doesn't necessarily make him special, but it does lean in that direction, especially if it's treated as a surprise significant reveal and yk, a source of superpowers.

And to be fair I actually have been thinking about directions this concept could go in season 3 that wouldn't annoy me, and one is to emphasize that archangels aren't inherently special at all and it's an arbitrary designation, and Crowley doesn't give a shit and anyone who does (like other archangels or w/e) is going to be painted as naive and silly and too into hierarchies.

And/or, yk, emphasize that "Anthony Crowley" is emphatically NOT Raphael, regardless of who God created him as. Choose your own destiny. All that jazz. Especially if the Metatron is offering him angelhood again I could see former identity and status being brought into play and held up as extra significant by the antagonists and treated as something to be shut down and dismissed by the narrative, which I would enjoy.

So yeah, at the end of the day I just prefer Crowley as just some guy who happened to get the Earth Agent assignment, rather than the mysterious only fallen archangel.

[gen-is-gone]

my for some reason unpopular opinion is that it's boring when Fitz remains unhinged levels of self-deluded and closeted actually. Why does he have to be doctor who's answer to dean winchester, huh? why would this man in his mid-thirties who has spent at least a decade traveling in time and space still have weird insane hangups about being attracted to dudes? why does that need to be the thing about the text that we all collectively think is worth taking at face value? it's boring and fucking depressing and honestly doesn't make sense when the future of humanity in doctor who is that bisexuality is the cultural default and completely unremarkable.

[wannaeatramyeon]

Xialong x Reader: Webtoons

Your boyfriend has some catching up to do

"Who's that?"

You look furtively at Xiaolong catching you simping over your little fictional guy. Actually, what the hell. There's no way he knows how weird you are over these characters.

"Oh, um. It's Seong Taehoon from Viral Hit."

Xiaolong takes it in, nodding once, then asks, "What's Viral Hit?"

"The webtoon! It's pretty popular."

Like a curious puppy, Xiaolong tilts his head, "Webtoon?"

"...Online comics? Naver? It's a pretty big deal in South Korea. I thought you might have heard of it." No response. "Sort of like manhuas? Mangas?"

You thought that might have provided a spark of recognition but Xiaolong continues staring blankly at you.

"Seriously Xiaolong, have you been living under a rock?" Honestly, how has he never-

"Any spare time we had, we were told to train. I haven't ever- I've never read..."

Xiaolong looks away, ashamed at his lack of knowledge. You feel like a complete asshole. You didn't even think. The guilt digs deeper when you apologise and Xiaolong acts as if it's his own fault for his shitty past life.

Trying to make it up to him, you download the app on his phone, show him the series and make a few further recommendations. You are determined to do this for him. Give him a do-over for his horrific childhood and teenage years.

It's a small gesture but it's a start.

.

.

"Huh, Xiaolong? Did you come to bed last night?" Rubbing the sleep from your eyes, you stumble into the living room.

Your boyfriend is in exactly the same spot you left him. Has he even moved an inch in the last, you check the time, 8 hours?

Looking extremely sleep-deprived with revealing bags under his eyes, you wonder if he has even registered your voice as you wait for his response.

A pause too long as his brain catches up, then, "Sorry Y/N. I've just been catching up on this."

You stifle a giggle, knowing the grip of a good story and comic all too well. Maybe you can make him a coffee to give him a boost. Or a night-time tea as a strong hint to please go to bed, at least take a nap.

As the water boils, you check your phone. A notification catches your eye:

"XIAOLONG! You spent HOW MUCH on coins for Webtoons?!"

[shitpostingkats]

Been playing through aa4's final case and despite being framed as a back-and-forth in time, most of the investigation makes sense chronologically, with Phoenix only presenting evidence he could have already acquired. EXCEPT his conversation with Zak about Apollo. This is because he only learns Thalassa had a previous marriage from Spark Brushel, after the posioning of Vera Misham. At which point Zak has been dead for 6 months.

[thevioletcaptain]

🙍🏽‍♀️🐷🪷 (i scrolled and picked three random emojis pls enjoy)

“You wanna run that by me one more time?”

On the other end of the line, Patience lets out a long-suffering sigh — as though Dean’s the one making unexpected phone calls at quarter past three in the morning — and says it again. The words don’t make any more sense than they did the first time.

“In fourteen hours and — now seventeen minutes — a pig in Lotus, Illinois is going to die, and unless you save her life, she’s taking everyone in a 50 mile radius with her. And yeah, before you ask me to say it a third time, I am acutely aware of how stupid this sounds.”

“And when you say pig, are we talkin’ Babe, or—?“

“My visions aren’t symbolic, Dean. It’s an actual pig. Her name is Princess.”

“Right. Just… wanted to be sure before we started trailing all the cops in uh, where’d you say? Lotus?”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t find one there anyway. Internet says it’s an unincorporated community — looks like there’s maybe three farms there, total.”

“Looks like?”

“Satellite images,” she says.

“Right. Hey, hold on a sec.”

“‘Kay.”

Rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palm, Dean pushes the rest of the way out of bed and throws on the same jeans he took off two hours ago. Switches out the ratty t-shirt he’d been almost-sleeping in for a fresh one, and yanks on his boots.

For once, he’d been planning on sleeping a solid seven hours. He was going to make maple bacon with blueberry waffles in the morning. Jack was going to help him mix the batter.

Depending on how things shake out with Patience’s vision, he might never be able to enjoy bacon again. Or for a few months, at least.

Fully dressed and heading out into the hall, he puts his phone back to his ear.

“I’m back,” he says, making his way toward the kitchen. He thumps twice on Sam’s door as he passes it, barking out a gruff hunt in response to Sam’s bleary huh? “Please tell me you’ve got some idea of how exactly Peppa’s gettin’ popped so we can try to do something about it.”

“I have no clue.”

“And you didn’t see anything else? Any details at all. A barn, a farmer, anything? Because this is…”

“Impossible. I know. But that’s all I’ve got. The pig just keels over, then bursts in a blinding flash of light, and ten seconds later Illinois has a brand new crater the size of New Jersey.”

“Okay, well — that’s something.”

“What?”

“The light. What color is it?”

“White, mostly,” Patience says, then hums a little to herself. “But… huh, actually, there is a bit of purple. Right in the center. Right before it goes supernova.”

“Purple light usually means witchcraft,” Dean says, approaching the kitchen. He can see the light on; can hear the telltale sound of Cas stirring sugar into coffee. “Maybe the pig is the final ingredient in some kind of magic bomb?”

“Could be,” Patience agrees. “But hey, listen, I gotta try and get a couple more hours sleep — huge test in the morning. But if anything else comes to me I’ll call you, okay?”

“Yeah, sounds good. And uh— thanks. And good luck.”

“You too.”

The line goes dead just as Dean steps into the kitchen, and Cas looks up at him from the table, where he’s reading an article in one of the Men of Letters’ old issues of The Farmer’s Almanac. He frowns at the sight of the phone in Dean’s hand. Frowns harder still when Dean heads directly for the coffee machine with nothing but a brief brush of a hand over his shoulder.

“Is something wrong?”

“It’s a day ending in Y,” Dean says with a sigh, pouring a cup from the thankfully still-hot jug. “You up for a road trip?”

“Of course. Where are we going?”

"Illinois," Dean tells him, leaning back against the counter as Sam arrives, his hair sticking so far out to one side that Dean suspects it’s generating its own electric charge.

He eyes it over his mug and has the grim thought that all that static electricity might be the thing to light Miss Piggy's fuse. Oblivious to Dean's train of thought, Sam lets out an explosive yawn. Dean bites back the kind of mildly-hysterical laugh that can only come when sleep-deprived and preparing to drive toward impending danger.

"What's in Illinois?" Cas prompts him, and Sam yawns again as he waves a hand for Dean to explain, and Dean takes a long sip of his coffee as he searches for a better way to put it than Patience had managed on her first try.

He's not sure that he succeeds where clarity of substance is concerned, but as far as style goes? He thinks he's nailed it.

“Short version? Royal rescue mission, but the Princess is a pig."

Cas squints at him.

“I think,” he says, looking over at Sam, who is blinking slowly as he tries to parse Dean’s words, “We’re going to need the long version.”

[written for this prompt game] [find me on ao3 as imogenbynight 💚]

[tcfactory]

A little sneak peak from my daemon AU fic.

I think I'm doing an okay job keeping it on track so far, so it won't turn into another overly long monster of a story. :D

“See to it that this little beast is properly situated and cleaned up. I want to see neither hair nor hide of him until he can behave befitting of my peak!” “Understood, Shizun!” Ming Fan swiftly pulls Luo Binghe to his feet and half-pushes half-herds him out the door, but he stays lingering behind. “Asking for Shizun’s forgiveness, but the seniors at the library couldn’t provide Luo-shidi with a manual. They wondered if Shizun might spare one from his own library until they can rectify this shortcoming.” Shen Qingqiu doesn’t even deem that statement worthy of a verbal comment. Like a vengeful god on a warpath, he storms to his bookshelf and without even really looking pulls out a manual at random from a cluster of similar books. “Don’t bother returning it,” he says as he throws the book to Ming Fan. “Now, get out of my sight!” Clearly sensing that his master is one wrong word away from a temper tantrum, Ming Fan makes himself scarce with impressive speed. (...) When Shen Yuan arrives back at the bamboo house, he finds the front door ajar; likely the result of Ming Fan’s hasty retreat not much earlier. He’s just about to knock when he realizes that he can hear the scum villain pacing and muttering angrily inside. “...Of course it had to be that book. What else would it be?! This has to be karma, or-” He falls silent all of a sudden. There’s no other voice that Shen Yuan, but the way he goes on makes it clear that he’s talking to someone. “You are right. Let’s not lose our heads. Somebody will notice it eventually and Ming Fan is smart, he will help us cover for it if it comes to that. And if not-” He falls silent again, listening. He must be speaking to his daemon, Shen Yuan realizes. The daemons of high level cultivators can speak aloud, but in their natural state they communicate through a telepathic bond with their human and their family. It was always a huge party (ending in papapa, of course) in PIDW when Binghe could first hear a new wife’s daemon, because Xin Mo could draw upon these bonds to become even more OP.  Shen Yuan’s musing is interrupted by a brittle, chilling burst of laughter. “'What if he dies?' Who cares?! He won’t be the first or the last. Who am I to try and fight fate?” Shen Yuan stares at the door, his hand frozen halfway to a knock. So it was a mistake - Shen Qingqiu didn’t mean to give Binghe the false manual - but he noticed and he’s just going to… leave it be? Let Binghe ruin his cultivation - let him die rather than correct his mistake?? What kind of Shizun are you?! And the worst of it is that he doesn’t sound malicious or gleeful, oh no. Shen Qingqiu sounds upset and resigned. Like this really is some divine act of fate that he couldn’t possibly fight. Well, tough luck, because Shen Yuan won’t stand for this!