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Auriana's Take On Love

Auriana was a romantic at heart. Yes, it's true her ventures in romance were many, and she admits that she may not stick around for long. But she loves love nevertheless. There's just so much to love about it afterall.

Falling in love, for one, is always a blast. A sudden bout of carelessly slipped passion that has her cursing underneath her breath. Playful foot fights and knocking of the knees, leading up to shy shoulder brushes, and the ever hinting touch of the fingertip. The tell-tale rhythmic pulse of rushing blood and drenched palms. Stolen glances from the other side of the room that either break off immediately or turn into heated stare-downs with neither wanting to back off.

Ah yes, the falling. Ironic, seeing as it isn't a fall at all. Rather, when her heart jumps onto the cart, there is no falling but anticipation until the top. Unsure of the new course as she reaches further and further up, until she is hanging off the edge. It's always the highest hill that's first, the one that takes up your whole view because all you can see is down. A guaranteed promise of risk and adrenaline, and a slight bit of stomach turning. Exactly the kind of ride she signed up for. Auriana knew this since her first kiss with the court magician's son. (He tasted like Iris's attempt at lemon curd pie)

But as nice as the metaphor is, whereas a rollercoaster, with all their dips and loops, can never satisfy her needs with a single monotonous attraction, her loves had no such blueprint. They may buck like an untamed stallion and throw her off the rails, damn safety. They may tease her with a swerve as she settles into the dips. They may ease her with steady winds lapping her face as they cruise with leisure. Auriana prides herself to picking only the interesting after all. (Her standards are not recommended to be followed)

So is it all a sport for Princess Auriana of Volta? Does she simply ride until another catches her eye? Or until she decides that this one has not the strength to move her heart no more? Many would say yes, her bandmates included. But nay, the lady herself thinks otherwise.

Although she has been called flippant in her attitude towards love, there's a lovely hope, deep in her heart, that this one would be her last adventure. For them to be her last ride.

Of course, she has had no luck thus far. The trail of broken hearts and cut strings are plenty proof of that. Indeed, there were many sweet Earthlings that pulled at her heartstrings, some rather spicy ones that intrigued her curiosity, not to mention the roughened Ephedians that come by and remind her of home.

Despite that, she still dreamed of cuddles late at night, gazes meant for only one other so often shared by lovestruck couples, holding hands to the annual Dawning Festival in hopes of future luck, sharing scarves to shield from the cold, lazy bedtime kisses…

Maybe her expectations are too high. Or perhaps, as her close friends have hinted many times, too low. In Auriana’s hopeful (albeit unlikely) opinion, perhaps the Great Destinies of Volta had put her in a lover’s path and she has guided them to a better part of life in what seemed at the time to be an insignificant, now fateful action and would thank her for the rest of their life? A stretch, but not one without evidence. They have gathered at least three Oracle Gems from her voyeurs afterall.

For now, as Auriana sips her strawberry kiwi smoothie, she still hasn't quite found "the one." But that’s alright, she mused as she purveyed the small sandwich menu. Iris’s shanila just passed, Talia hasn't murdered her for tardiness yet, and Lolirock keeps getting more and more popular. Time is everything, and everything moves in due time, as her Father always said.

Maybe she should take a break from love. Focus more on sightseeing and taking back her kingdom after they defeating Greymore.

“A steak and cheese sandwich please,” Auriana ordered to the part-timer, deciding on the first sandwich that caught her eye after all. Checking her phone, she realized that for once, the schedule was subjectively free. (subjective because Talia had scheduled a strategy meeting; like they ever actually use any of the strategies against the twins in the heat of the moment.)

Sucking down her smoothie as she waited, she considered her options. Iris and Nathaniel are going on their not-double date with Carissa and Lyna, so she can't risk interrupting the romantic atmosphere. Talia was studying Borealis spell formations back at the house so no way in hell was she going near that place. Ticking off names off her mental list of friends, it was then that she realized that everyone else that came to mind all had plans or were her exs. What to do, what to do…

Skrrrck

Settling down onto the stool, the newcomer looked at the menu nervously. She looked to be around Auriana’s age with long blonde hair and a face that reminded Auriana of Earth’s bunnies.

Turning to Auriana, who was faking choosing a drink but was secretly side eyeing the new girl, she seemed to be quietly debating to herself about whether or not to risk talking to her before making a decision. Stuttering a quick accented greeting and introduction, the blonde turned to Auriana.

“Uhh.. Do you know any... good food?” asked the girl slowly, peering at Auriana through her lashes. Her head was faced down, most likely from the nerves talking to a foreigner. She’s cute, Auriana thought as she turned toward the nervous girl.

“Oui, les smoothies sont à tomber par terre,” Auriana answered cheerfully. Whipping her head up, the girl grinned toothily, happy in finding someone to communicate.

“You know French?” she asked, switching to her mother tongue.

“Yep!” Auriana said enthusiastically, just as happy to find someone to talk to.

“I went to France for work and picked up the language. It’s pretty cool how you can go from sounding like a gorbleck to a swiggle in a sentence, Like right now,” Auriana said, thinking back to the days when she and Talia were still searching for Iris.

The girl giggled, thinking it was some kind of joke. As the two talked, it wasn’t until she got the French girl’s number that Auriana remembered that she had left her sandwich at the smoothie bar.

Doug and Nathaniel’s Friendship: The Start

According to what I saw on the official Lolirock tumblr @teamlolirock , Nathaniel and Doug were apparently best friends, so I thought I would give a go at attempting to figure out/add on to the story of their friendship.

They met in middle school, 6th grade perhaps. 

Doug was really shy back then and just listened to music secretly by himself on breaks, insecure because of past bullies and jealous of people like Nathaniel who always seem to have people around them laughing with them.

That was until little Nathaniel came by and saw he was listening to anime theme songs and then got super excited to find a fellow fan. At first Doug isn't very open thinking that he's just there to make fun of him for something, but slowly after more and more interactions he starts to trust Nathan

After getting over Doug's initial mistrust, they just generally click together, as surprisingly they have a lot of shared interests as well as a shared sense of shock humour.

Nathaniel, as a result of having made friends with Doug, drags out his new friend to meet his many other friends and helps Doug further his social group.

Till this day the pair still hang out all the time, whether at Doug's flat or at the smoothie bar

By now Doug’s mostly grown out of his shyness although he's kept his shyness for meeting new people. He can fake confidence pretty darn well though.

And after years of dealing with the blond, Nathan is still thoroughly befuddled at his long time friend, longing for those days where he wouldn't be assaulted by text messages at 2 am in the morning about the extinction of honey bees.

Note: If I were to assign them an irl friendship counterpart, I would say Josh and Ollie from Korean Englishman and Jolly. Their interactions are similar to how I imagine Doug and Nathaniel interact.

I posted this on my oc blog (surprise, I have an oc blog! mostly because I panicked when I posted an oc on here for some reason. I think because of the discrepancy?) but I like how I inked it, and even though I can't photograph for shit I still think it's good enough to share.

This is Marcus, my oc. He was originally supposed to be a werejaguar (hence the moon) but now I'm not sure if I want that or just a regular ol' shape shifter. The flame thingies with eyes hanging off of him are supposed to be the embodiments of the creatures he turns into. The lack of eyes and mouth are there because I think it just looks cool.

A general summary of his role in my story, is that basically he was tricked into joining Agent Tatsuo (I'm working on something for him rn) in his mission to hunt down a rogue spirit with a huge bounty on his head all because he saw a little too much.

Wild horses crossing a river in Iran Photo: Eydi Heydari

meet the archons

better quality

Meilin of Zhong [Spirit Animals] Doodles

A doodle session of Meilin from Fall of the Beasts in really inconsistent art styles. (And an unnecessary story below about her clothes)

According to Google, Zhong (Meilin's country if you're unfamiliar) is based primarily on China and a few other Asian influences. While looking at the cover art on some of the Spirit Animal books, I've determined what Meilin is wearing kinda resembles a white cheongsam under a blue puffy parka looking thing.

(I'm not an expert on clothes, just a rabbit hole diver)

Looking up what dynasty would have their women wear cheongsams and blue parkas, Google says that women apparently wore cheongsams in the Ming Dynasty. So I said great, I'll base off her clothes off of the hanfu (Chinese historical clothing) from the Ming dynasty.

But then I got deeper into the rabbit hole and thought, "Wait... The Tang Dynasty looks pretty cool and pretty accurate to her outfit in the beginning"

You know the fancy ceremony outfit that Meilin wore for her Nectar ceremony? According to the book, she applied gold flakes, rouge, and white face paint among other things to her face. Tang Dynasty women wore gold flakes on their faces too (I looked up Ming Dynasty and their makeup seems totally different)

Tang Dynasty is also more accurate to what I imagine Zhong was at the time, open to the other three countries and flourishing in trade. It reflects in the fashion, as women's fashion became more diverse with so many different influences. I've also read articles that the fashion was seen as more aggressive, which suits Meilin.

However, I cannot ignore that the cover art Meilin's fashion was most likely made in the likeness of Ming Dynasty clothing. (As it turns out, the not-cheongsam is actually an ao)

And that's how I ended up deciding that (headcanon) Zhong's fashion is mainly inspired from the Tang Dynasty, especially the outfits popular in the imperial court, but there's Ming-esque athleisure I guess. (Conveniently ignoring that women wore pleated skirts and preferred pastel colors)

For her court outfit, I decided on a qixiong ruqun, which uniquely has the waistband above the chest paired with a scarf. As for her casual Hero of Erdas outfit I have her wear a double layered top called an ao (well, ao is the shirt in aoqun the word, so I'm assuming it's just called so), which is worn untucked above the waist over a skirt or in this case a pair of pants.

Obviously I took artistic liberty in literally everything, so please forgive me if I am inaccurate in anyway in the explanation. Just looked up a bunch of stuff and tried to piece everything together, so don't take this explanation too seriously.

Note: @ziseviolet is a good source for those who want to learn more; I simply browsed through their stuff this time, but I plan on reading more cuz it's super fascinating

How Nathaniel got his job at the smoothie bar: Part 1

It all started with a tradition

Every week, without fail, since seventh grade Nathaniel and Doug have been coming to the same smoothie bar down the street.

Always the same routine; sit down at the counter, wait for the other to come back from whatever club activity kept them, order a smoothie, and dive into fandoms, school, the latest middle school drama, and in general just hang out.

They were there since during the cafe's early days, so the owner, a nice middle aged dude who just had his first kid (congrats!), and them are friends thanks to their long time patronage

And so, one day in freshman year of highschool, Nathaniel was complaining to Doug about how he doesn't have any money and that his mom had really been getting up in his business about college now that he's in highschool.

The owner overhears and tells Nathaniel that he's been thinking about hiring a new employee since his last one quit on him and says he could go for a trial run. Nathaniel of course jumps on the opportunity. How could he pass up the chance to work at one of his favorite place to be?

It was a disaster. Pineapple chunks spewed everywhere, strawberries mashed in the sink, mangoes tossed into the fan, and in the middle of it all was Nathaniel, on his phone, furiously questioning Google.

As it turns out, Nathaniel was terrible in the kitchen. Well, more like he's scared of everything in the kitchen. Ovens, knives, and, you guessed it, blenders. (A past trauma from one of his older, more rambunctious cousins.) The only kitchen appliance/tool Nathaniel wasn't scared of is a microwave and that's not very helpful in a smoothie bar.

As much as the owner would like to hire Nathan, the owner really doesn't want or have the money to hire someone who can only do cashier work.

The owner helps him clean up his mess and in his gentle tone, albeit with more then a hint of exhaustion, to maybe find a job as a cashier at a McDonald's instead.

Giving the newly fired Nathaniel a pity smoothie, the owner waves to the embarrassed Nathaniel goodbye. The man himself was too busy dreading his mother's response after he had bragged about the job to wave back.

Thinking that maybe he should run away to Hawaii, he walks by Doug's house. Wait.

Backtracking in an almost comedic fashion, Nathan finds himself just standing there in front of the house as he argued with his inner voices.

On one hand, if he goes in he'll have to tell his best friend that he's afraid of blenders. On the other, if he goes home then he'll have to tell his mom that he got fired on his first day. In the end Nathan chose the short term option.

Smiling as the door opened, his smile twitched when Doug's jaw dropped.

"Heyy Doug! Um, do you mind if I crash here for a bit until I figure out how to tell my mom about-"

"Holy shit dude what happened."

"I'm getting to that."

So starts the 4th longest weekend in Doug's entire life.

So, some facts to consider:

-> Katsuki Bakugou sweats nitroglycerin from his palms

-> He sweats a lot of it, particularly when in combat/excising (see: the giant bracers he can fill on his arms).

-> Quirks often have negative side effects on their users, usually related to not being immune to some element of the quirk ex: being able to create fire but not being fireproof.

-> Nitroglycerin is used medicinally as a strong vasodilator (lowers blood pressure).

-> Nitroglycerin can lower blood pressure dangerously even at low dosages.

-> While people can build up some immunity to it over time, high exposure like Katsuki would have would still be dangerous. Unless his body had some sort of counter.

-> There’s lots of ways a body could raise blood pressure. One of them? Stress.

-> Stress (adrenaline and cortisol) can significantly raise blood pressure and do so fairly quickly.

My conclusion? Katsuki having No Chill Ever is actually his body’s way of keeping his blood pressure even. He’s constantly at 99/100 stress level for everything because of this. It’s why he does everything so intensely, he’s got near max levels of Adrenaline in him at all times.

Now whether or not this is canon or what canon intended is up in the air, but it’s now my personal canon. Ideal results of this:

-> Katsuki’s stress levels are discovered when he and his classmates/maybe teachers are exposed to a fear/panic quirk that shoots your adrenaline and cortisol through the roof. His classmates are sent into a panicked frenzy, running around and hiding. His teachers are either also panicked or just barely holding on to rational thought through many years of practice. Katsuki…. is just fine? Mostly he’s confused as to what the hell is wrong with everyone else. Whoever they’re fighting isn’t actually that tough without their quirk, so Katsuki takes ‘em down. Everyone is put through medical to determine what happened and why Katsuki wasn’t effected. They discover the quirk didn’t work because like, the quirk is made to take someone from 5-10% stress to a sudden 90-95%. Katsuki has a resting 96.7% or something. The extra 3.3% doesn’t change much.

-> They try to put him on anti-anxiety meds or something to help. He starts to calm down for the first time in his life which lasts all of 5 minutes before he passes out and almost fucking dies from the blood pressure drop.

-> “So you’re telling me being calm for once in my life literally almost fucking killed me?”

“Basically, yeah.”

“Hang on, I need to call my mom. I have an argument to win.”

So THAT'S where the twin Barbatos fanart came from! I knew he didn't have a secret twin.

if Gilbert Gottfried isn’t voicing this slamming power bottom then what are we even doing here