Love your writing! You have definitely sold me on RapgSagi, so for the ask game: 5, 25, 29, 36:D
5. Who is the cheesier one of the two?
Goodness, they're both insufferable lmao, they take turns fighting for the title. Usually it's Usagi.
25. What do they like about each other?
oughhhh this is so complicated...I'm gonna try not to be super long-winded abt this. Usagi loves that Raph is so passionate, he respects him as a warrior, as a son and a brother. He's kind, but he doesnt let people push him around. It helps a little that he's about half a foot taller than Usagi and has the biceps to match and Usagi can't help himself, okay? He can't help who he is (attracted to people who could break him like a toothpick)
Raph loves Usagi's steadiness. He reminds Raph of his father in all the best ways, and he has such a fun-loving, mischievous personality that really took Raph by surprise and fascinates him. He loves how much Usagi loves his family and how well he fits into it, he loves the protectiveness and teasing and cuddling even though he wouldn't admit it under gunpoint. Usagi is just...guiltless enjoyment for Raph. Something that gets to be his. ah fuck I got longwinded
I answered 29 here!
36. Who is more protective?
USAGI. Every day of the week, it's Usagi. See, Raph is used to fighting as part of a team. He's used to trusting his brothers (and father) and keeping track of them during a fight, and he HAS to trust them to take care of themselves. Of course he looks out for them too and is still protective of them, but not to the point where he deludes himself into thinking they shouldn't fight.
Usagi, for a little while...deludes himself into thinking Raph should not fight alongside him. He's a ronin, he's used to fighting alone and watching his own back. He's also incredibly used to seeing allies die. It takes Raph losing his patience and really yelling at him...well, I'll show you this unfinished snippet.
This fic was written by sorrow_key ( @whatevsbla ) for Cornichonrond and can be found on AO3.
Welcome to feels and pining central with two chapter fic that features the post-quarrel sickfic of our dreams and a heartwarmingly precious name-swap 🥰 A truly healing story where Fitz and Beloved’s povs ring very true.
Thank you so much for creating this wonderful pinch hitting gift in record time, you truly are a magical pecksie ✨
Books: The Tawny Man
Rating: Not Rated
Characters: Fitzchivalry Farseer, The Fool
Summary: In which Fitz notices the Fool's illness after their quarrel and in which their return to Aslevjal is hindered by a broken Skillpillar
Excerpt:
“I’m sorry,” Fitz said, so generous now with this word when he’d seemed to have forgotten its existence during your quarrel. “I really am. I’ll call you whatever you like, but first, please let me help you.”
You closed your eyes again and let yourself fall back down against the covers, burying your head under the silken pillow. The peacock feathers attached to it tickled your shoulders. You did not have the strength to fight him, not right now. If he wanted to help, let him.
Short fic challenge - 3 for either Elektra of Hardison, your choice!
3 is character meta and I do feel like I've sort of done that with Hardison in As The Stories Go. It's admittedly just under 3k instead of under 2k but it is short and like mostly about how Hardison views love so we're going to do Elektra!!!! Which is great because I love her!!!!
Also on AO3
Pairing: Matt Murdock/Elektra Natchios
Tags: Character Study, Biting, Scratching, College era, Canon Compliant
Strawberries
Elektra enjoys things to the fullest. When she eats, she dining on food prepared at three star Michelin restaurants; when she books hotel rooms, she stays in penthouses that cost more than some people’s entire life’s salaries; when she buys clothes, she has her pick of designer brands, fitted exactly to her liking.
Elektra enjoys things to the fullest, which is why it’s so insane that this boy, this boy who knows nothing of luxury is the one she falls so hard for.
He’s supposed to be her mission. He’s supposed to be…
“Strawberries, Matthew,” she says. “It’s just strawberries.”
But the look on his face when he takes a bite, when she feeds them to him, the red staining his lips – she kisses the look off his face, bites his lip, hoping he bleeds, hoping he bleeds for this, for luxury, for her.
*
She takes him to a nice restaurant and orders for him.
Including Matthew.
*
She drives the fastest car he’s ever been in and the wind is on his face and he closes his unseeing eyes and she wonders, she wonders what he can sense past the windshield and whirlwind and engine. She isn’t jealous, she’s never been capable of jealousy – not when she’s always gotten everything she’s ever wanted.
They go to bed and she takes and takes and takes and he gives and gives and gives and she bites his shoulder, the inside of his thighs, and he scratches her back, her stomach, and she feels like she should feel like she has everything.
*
“Kiss me,” she says, and he always obliges.
*
“Fight me,” she says, and he grins like the devil in him is set loose.
*
But he doesn’t know, maybe he can never know. He doesn’t know that she was sent to corrupt him, to make him more like her, more like Stick.
“Fuck me,” she moans, and Matthew – darling Matthew – he is so good for her, he is so – so –
*
Stick asks her –
“What the fuck is taking so long?”
And she tells him it’s a slow process, that she thinks she has it in him, she just needs more time –
“Foggy wants to meet you,” Matthew says.
And meanwhile, she luxuriates in his presence, in the knowledge that he’s all hers, all hers, all hers.
*
She scoffs. “The roommate?” she asks. “Why?”
“He’s my best friend,” Matthew says, frowning. “He wants to meet you because – we’re – “
He doesn’t say boyfriend or girlfriend; he doesn’t say dating or partners; he doesn’t say anything, because what they are, they both know, is everything. This “Foggy”, with his ridiculous nickname and pathetic existence, is nothing.
“Sure,” she lies. “Sometime.”
And then she asks, “Can I tempt you – “
She wakes up and the bed is still warm, but empty. She can hear a frustrated voice from the other room, but she doesn’t have Matthew’s sense, can’t just hear what he’s saying through the closed door. She tiptoes from the bed, opening the door just a crack, knowing it’s greased to perfection and will not make a sound.
She doesn’t finish the question. She knew - they both knew - he’d say yes. Before she even asked the question.
*
“It’s not that simple, Foggy,” he’s saying. “Of course I – yes, I’m keeping up with the homework. I’m doing fine. Elektra – “ He sighs. “Yes, I know. I know. But I’m really fine. Great, even. I’ll stop by the dorm tomorrow, and we can – we can spend the night out together. Go to Josie’s, even, you know she’ll serve us even without the fake IDs. Foggy. Foggy, you know – you know you’re my best friend. Yes. Right. Love you. Good night, Foggy.”
She’s –
There’s this feeling, inside of her.
Like she doesn’t –
Elektra and Matthew.
Like maybe she never –
*
They don’t need anything else.
They shouldn’t need anything else.
But Matthew’s insistence on –
On holding onto something like –
So inconsequential –
Why. That’s the question. She can’t understand why he’s holding onto Foggy, to his past, when Elektra’s his future. She doesn’t understand why he’s not hers, entirely, the way she thought he was. And most of all –
Most of all, she doesn’t understand why she feels this feeling, so close to jealousy. When she knows she has everything.
*
She has everything.
*
She has everything.
*
And if she doesn’t.
She thought –
*
If she doesn’t have everything.
She’s going to take it.
*
(And when it fails – when he doesn’t kill – when he proves that she never really had him at all –
She takes Matthew to his destiny.
*
She has never known anything worse.
She knows, now. She knows she’ll never have Matthew.
oh yeah, it's Matchan time ! love this greasy man （￣︶￣）↗
Headcanon A: realistic
he's a trans dude. Matsuo does as Matsuo wants, and what he wants is to be a guy who wears nail polish and speaks femininely. anyone who disagrees used to get fed to his precious spirits, but nowadays he's trying the more diplomatic approach known as "scaring them to death"
Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious
he actually meets Pudding-chan, i mean Mogami again after tragically losing him. they stare at each other from across the street. Matsuo takes a step forward, opens his mouth to say something, anything, anything to maybe get his sweet Pudding-chan back, not even as a pet necessarily. he liked being in the presence of such a strong evil spirit, liked having him by his side. loved it. would do anything to feel like this again
he takes another step
Mogami, meanwhile, thinks back to the stickers and the ridiculous nicknames and the way Matsuo rubbed his cheek on the spirit jars sometimes
he vanishes as Matsuo takes his third step, refusing to engage with the horrors of this world for the first time in his unlife
a single, solitary tear slides down Matsuo's face
Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends
he was kicked out of his house as a teenager and spent most of his life between that and Claw on the streets, barely surviving on whatever food he could find, and not even able to rely on solidarity from other homeless people because of his whole evil spirits deal
winters were especially harsh, and to this day he feels a sort of hollow pain inside his bones when it snows. his tolerance for people drops to Mogami levels on those days
and like, Matsuo has never been particularly pleasant to be around, but his teenage years definitely didn’t help him build a healthy outlook on the world
on the other hand, he really wasn’t worried about surviving after the whole 7th Division debacle, since he’d already been on his own for a good while before, so uh. silver linings ?
Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own
ooh, this one is hard.... what even counts as unrealistic in this universe ?? i guess it would be very funny if he just. held a grudge against Dimple. like, kill-on-sight level grudge
he ruined Matsuo’s ultimate pet !! just by being put in the jar !! some things can just never be forgiven
Dimple will probably never know how lucky he was that Matsuo was busy with capturing Mogami back at the Asagiri mansion
(somehow, the only thing he and Mogami could ever agree on was their disdain for that one “booger-like” spirit. not that Mogami actually listened to anything else Matsuo blabbered about. being called Pudding-chan constantly was waaay enough for him, thank you very much)
Wait wait wait, do you hc Jack Vessalius as ace too? (Blond who wears green does somewhat fit the bill) ((My personal opinion on Jack's sexuality ends at "hard to tell under all the trauma & depersonalization" so I'd love to hear your thoughts!))
Yes, I do.
:D
I don’t even have a long, well prepared answer for this one. I’ve probably given that impression already, but just to confirm it, my headcanons about any given character’s sexuality are quite arbitrary. It’s true that I associate the “blonde guy with green clothes” archetype with asexuality. I also have a tendency to see it in highly sexualized characters as well. I see “mimicking socially expected sexual behaviour” as an ace thing if it shows too much, you see they’re trying hard. And then, well, there’s just the vibe you know?
The vibe. That’s it, that’s my highly scientific conclusion 😂
👀 tma or psych, happy second to last day of the year!
a million zillion years ago I was writing a tma season 2 fic where martin Goes The Fuck Off and it never went anywhere but here’s a bit of argument:
-
"what are you so afraid I'll find down there, Martin?"
"it's not about what /you'll/ find," martin snaps, rapidly nearing the end of his rope. "it's about what /I'll/ find. or tim, or Sasha."
"and what's that?"
"your /body/, Jon! I'm afraid one of us will find your goddamn body in those tunnels, and I'm even more afraid we /won't/, that you'll just disappear and no one will have any idea what's happened to you. you're barely even supposed to be at /work/, and you just keep... charging off into danger like nothing can touch you!"
"That's not-"
"it is, though, Jon."
"what difference does it make to you anyway?" jon says. "if you're not hiding anything then why -"
"God, Tim's right about you, you know? you really are an idiot. I can't believe I..." he breaks off, blowing out a breath. "fine. if you want to get yourself killed, fine."
"I'm not trying to get myself killed," jon snaps irritably. "I'm just trying to find out what happened."
yess i love ask games, thank you :)
raven: what do people assume about you when they meet you?
People assume I’m quiet. I’m not, but I definitely need a warm-up period before I can start behaving like myself around new people. Asked a roommate and she said people assume I’m weird. That’s fair.
magpie: what are you most likely to get in trouble for doing?
Nothing really, as I’m not much for mischief. This summer a man did try to call the police on my roommate and me because he thought we were dumping garbage in an empty construction lot near his precious townhome. I’d seen him eyeing us so I was prepared with dismissive and jolly confidence so he’d be too cowed to call. We were just collecting big rocks for our garden. They were so, so heavy. Based on this perhaps I’m most likely to get in trouble for trespassing. I wouldn’t do it on purpose though. I’m always doomed to “lawful good” on those alignment charts.
fish crow: what’s an unusual talent you have?
Hm. I’m double jointed in both thumbs. I think that’s kind of boring though. I also have a good sense of smell? I did an exercise with my family where we were left in a completely dark grocery store and had to do our shopping. I thought it was very easy to smell out the onions etc, but apparently it was impressive, haha.
Not an ask game, but I would love to hear more on how Wintrow's and Malta's arcs mirror each other:D
Oh it’s actually a pretty simple parallel! They share a fatal flaw - selfishness and indifference towards the needs of others. It’s a little more obvious with Malta because Witrow is so wrapped up in his ‘holier than thou’ attitude, but it’s pretty clear in how he never finds any friends among sailors or pirates, and specifically in how his disposition to slaves changes after they rise up (he’s cool and supportive to them while they are just victims, but as soon as they try and take their fates in their hands he gets super judgy)
They both go through journeys that gradually deconstruct their beliefs. They start off feeling trapped in their circumstances and are forced to learn new skills that they have no interest in acquiring. Narrative purposefully rids them of the things they value the most - wealth, social stature and beauty for Malta; freedom, artistry, and sense of inherent goodness for Wintrow. (I also want to mention a nice mirroring in how Malta, a woman who specifically values her beauty, is forced to bear her scars very visibly and pretty much mutates to reflect her choices; while Wintrow, who’s been getting strength and respect out of his scars, has been forcefully ridden of any physical remains of his traumas. I just think it’s neat (and scary))
But both of their arcs reach a high point where they decide to help another - not even just another human, but an alien being, that could potentially be very dangerous, - because they resonate with the experience of being trapped and don’t want in for anyone else.
Still, the most brilliant decision for me is how these characters never… get rid of their flaws, I guess? They learn to overcome them and learn other skills, but their flaws remain a part of their personality. You can see it at the ball in Jamaillia, when they get to interact with each other in a non-threatening environment and immediately opt-out to “Ah, brother dear, I see you’re still too short to make a proper partner for a dance” and “Oh, my sister, nice to see you’re still a little bITCH”. But it’s exactly this pettiness and theatricality, in combination with great insight and education, that allows Malta to become a brilliant diplomat. And it’s the distance that Witrow keeps between him and other sailors that allows him to fit seamlessly in the captain’s shoes, while his education and tactical mind help him to make great use of this position. And without that feeling of great self-worth that they both possess, they wouldn’t be able to step up on the occasion!
So like, they pretty much battle with the same issues through the series, even though the specific troubles and themes of their arcs are vastly different. It’s pretty brilliant writing!
