#<----- as said by the Number 1 Ghost Fan

[xo-cod]

someone asked for it but the ask got deleted so here it is again :)

bodyguard!simon x popstar!reader

absolutely hated you in the beginning. only tolerated you because price had given him this responsibility and because the pay was decent. otherwise he was just a shadow with one worded responses and grunts towards whatever you said.

used to manhandle you whenever you used to walk slow, pulling you along with a tut and a roll of his eyes. you couldn't really see his face since he still wore his balaclava but his face was definitely screwed up behind it

the loud cheering becomes jarring to him the first few times, he's not used to this environment and there's been a few times where his hands have sprung to his gun ready to unload hell onto a poor excited fan who wanted a signature

but the more time he spends with you, the more he warms up around you. he even knew time brought you on base for when he needed to grab something quickly and you ended up meeting his team members

gaz and soap are basically #1 fans fr. the fact that you're friends with their favourite musicians makes them fanboy, your life is so exciting and they always want to know the latest gossip.

simon watches on unamused but secretly feeling a certain way when he sees you speaking happily with his friends

the dances you have with your backup dancers make simon so jealous ‼️‼️ the way your hips sway with theirs, the way their hands are across your waist, the tight outfits, god he has to physically restrain himself from ravishing you

he watches on with his jaw clenched, body rigid as his eyes feast upon your body like treasure. even through the thousands and thousands of people there, you'll always feel the burning of his eyes on you

and when your eyes meet him on a special part of a song, he's literally entranced by you. his breath held and he feels vulnerable, despite the millions of people there. when you're singing to him, it's to him

his praise to you is usually a nod of his head and a "good" but the more you both grow closer, the more you notice how touchy he can become and the more praise that falls from his lips (though it still can sound a little cold only because he feels awkward and doesn't think you need his reassurance that you're doing a good job)

"wear this pretty number f'me" when you both become super close, he likes it when you wear his favourite outfits. he'll hand them to you offering no explanation, only that it looks really good on you. secretly admiring you on stage when it glimmers and shimmers against the light because you look so beautiful

secretly has a few pictures on you on stage where you look so beautiful, he can't help but flick through them at the dead of night when he's alone.

will also secretly heart and save the videos on a private account of all the fan edits of you and him (a cliche but i like them 🤭)

will definitely notice the little skulls you have dangling from your outfit/jewellery and he smiles to himself, it's like an easter egg no one could guess

begged him to make an insta and after much reluctance and pleading he finally did.

he gained followers very quickly, his dm's full of people wanting to thirst over him to his workout routine

but you're the only one he follows <3

yes, he's also fallen victim to stalking your page and looking at old boyfriend with a smug and annoyed look

you got papped one time with the initials SR♡ on your necklace and it went crazy popular. everyone trying to figure who the mystery person was.

but simon looks on in pride, he might be called ghost to everyone else but between you both he'll always be your simon riley. a secret no one could know <3

cue soap and gaz screeching at the paparazzi pictures, having called on the whole thing when ghost was assigned to you in the first place

[dcxdpdabbles]

Phantom's Number 1 Fan Part 3

John Constantine calls a joint Justice League and Justice League Dark meeting.

It's not something he wants to do. He barely works with the LJD, but at least that lot understands his work and knows what to do and where to go.

The JL members always ask questions and forget proper manners when working with the paranormal- John isn't the most well-mannered bloke around, but even he knows to permanently say goodbye to ghosts so that they don't follow him home- and it's like trying to teach an intern while dodging bullets.

He prefers to avoid the whole origination, especially since Bruce's death; everyone has been walking on eggshells, and there is a sense of disorganization drenched in grief that John breaks into hives just thinking about, but this is big.

Bigger than he can handle it on his own or with just the JLD. Even if the whole group gives the bats not-so-stable glances as they filter in.

John notices that one of Batman's brats is missing- the smart one- but he has heard that the kid suffered some kind of psychotic break from his father's death. It's sad, really, mainly because John used to believe that the third Robin was the one with the good head on his shoulders.

What's worse is that the Third Robin up and ran off, having gone off the grid when he refused to accept Batman's death. The boy hadn't said anything besides, "The portraits told me!" after having a miniature breakdown in his home.

It didn't help that around this time, the boy teammates had all dropped like flies except for one. So yes, John knows it wasn't a big surprise that he lost it, but it was still sad to see. Kid is only seventeen.

He hopes they find him soon to give him the help he needs. John would offer a spell to try and find him, but he needs to learn about the kid better, which means his spell can only point in a general direction.

Nightwing looked downright ragged, but losing a father on the battlefield and a younger brother to his grief did a number on anyone.

John hates himself just a little for dragging the grieving family here. He does, but again, this is bigger than all of them. This is a matter of life and death- literally.

"Listen up. We have a bloody level ten on its way to Earth if it's not already here." His words cut through the muttering crowd, shutting everyone up. A level ten makes even the big, lousy Superman sweat. He snaps his fingers, allowing his magic to shift into the image of a King Phantom sitting on his throne- painted in the early 1200s and the picture that can be used to identify him.

The art style would have been almost modern if it wasn't for the unease that the painting could cause due to the glowing green from his majesty's portrait. They say the green was ectoplasm from the king himself- and that alone should warn others to not mess with him.

Everyone Justice League Dark member hissed through their teeth, sitting up straighter and a few even pale. John is once again grateful that they understand just how deep in shit they genuinely are.

"This is the Ghost King. He is not to be confused with a god or king of gods. He's something else entirely because he makes gods nervous. He is on his way here to kill whoever is dumb enough to threaten his pregnant fiancee, and I fear the rest of Earth will be collateral if we don't prepare-"

"That's Danny Phantom," A young voice cuts John off. He is surprised someone would talk over him in a level ten briefing. All eyes turn to Robin- er, the new Robin.

The kid is frowning at the image, his signature scowl already deeper than usual. He's also heard the new Robin was a spoiled boy who was not a team player.

"You know King Phantom?" John asks.

Robin nods. "Placeholder is obsessed with him. Half his room is covered with King Phantom's heroics."

"Do not call him that.," Nightwing hisses a second later. He frowned when Robin ignored him but returned to the room without further comment on the boy's cheek. "Danny Phantom is a low-level search and rescue hero. He pops up around the world but only sometimes interacts with people. Robin- Young Justice Robin- was obsessed with him."

The room gains an awkward weight as no one is willing to bring up the mentally unsound MIA teenager.

It's too bad for them. John has never cared about making anyone comfortable. "You said his room is covered in images of King Phantom?"

From the corner of his eyes, John catches sight of Zatanna's face. She's pale white, with a horrified expression as if though she was standing before the grim itself. Every other member of the Justice League Dark is in a similar state.

"Yes, he has a whole wall of posters and stuff." Nightwing conforms, and shit John knows who Phantom's after now.

The thing is, one just doesn't have pictures of King Phantom. No one knows why, but the Ghost King can not be documented. Not without having some kind of connection to the King.

Throughout history, the only ones who have ever had even one solid picture of the king- John's magic doesn't count cause he can't well hold the thing up forever- usually meant that the King would appear before them at one point.

There is also a myth if one could beat a member of the royal ghost family, then one wish is granted to them. If one can kill a royal ghost member, death can be overturned.

It's not true, obviously, for death is not easily beaten like that, but John knows that as an expert, would a mentally unwell teenager know the same?

It was also known that if the King appeared before you, something terrible would happen. The sighting of King Phantom often came as an omen and usually right before a terrible disaster.

In the last disaster, they lost Batman, and if King Phantom had shown up, where the Third Robin have spotted him? Where the Third Robin have thought the King could return the dead?

Not to mention the rumors!

King Phantom was hunting down a group of humans known as "The Bats." John hadn't put that much stock in that rumor simply because it could have been anyone- hell, when he looked up the bats seven different groups appeared, varying from boy bands to zoologists.

But if he placed the name "The Bats" next to the Third Robin's psychotic break, his obsession with King Phantom, and his intertwined fates...well, shit.

There is a slight chance that the Third Robin's fate could be intertwined with the Ghost King in a positive light, but John has learned to not be optimistic in his line of work.

"I think the Third Robin is gunning after the Ghost King's fiancee and unborn child in a misguided attempt to bring Batman back to life. He may have kicked started a war that humanity can not win," He announces. He hates to say. hates to even suggest it, but the needs of the many outweigh those of the few. "We have to find the Third Robin and attempt to stop him. If we can't reason with him, we must put him down."

Wonder Girl gasps a sob, pressing her hand against her mouth.

John hates himself a little more as she sobs; a few rushes to confront her, but no one is unaffected by the news.

"I'm ordering a hunt for the Third Robin," Wonderwoman speaks up to her steady leadership, returning everyone from their despair. "Every available hero will help. Do not use lethal force unless there is no other choice. We may be able to find him before King Phantom's armies arrive."

John just hopes they are not too late.

Meanwhile, across the plane of existence, unaware of the manhunt for his head, Tim Drake is trying to stare down a Yeti, attempting to put him in silk clothes that are just fabrics held together by strings.

"No."

"But-But- but you have such a flattering figure! You must flaunt it! The Great One will barely be able to contain himself if he sees you in this!"

"No. It looks like something you wear on a honeymoon to seduce your spouse. I'm not walking around in that."

"Well, you don't need to bewitch his majesty. You already have a child on the way." The Yeit mutters, considering the fabric in his claws with a frown. He is Frostbite's royal tailor and has been attempting to dress Tim for over an hour. Everything he's suggested so far looks like it came from those romantic fantasy games.

It's like they want to make him a sexy consort or something.

Tim's teeth grind against each other. He hates how often his role is reminded, how casually the yetis mention that Ra's expects a child from Tim.

He doesn't even know how that child will come to be, and it makes him sick. He's been bidding his time, waiting for his wounds to heal and to find a weakness in the frozen fortress, but so far, he is unsure how he will escape.

And Bruce is still out there, waiting for Tim to get him. He can't waste any more time here.

"How about this cloak?" The Yeti offers, holding up a dark metallic fabric that reminds TIm of his Robin cape. "If we are going for a more conservative look, something that screams power is just the way to make the masses wild!"

Ugh, he really needs to think of a plan soon.

[yuurei20]

Hello!

Bit of a dumb question

I wanted to know if it was ever mentioned anywhere that Jade ate his siblings.. My sister keeps saying he said that he ate everyone but kept Floyd bc he looked like he'd be funny or something. I've never seen this mentioned before and I wanna prove her wrong

Hello hello!! ^^ Thank you for this question!

“Jade ate his siblings” is one of many unproven fan theories, based on a number of comments in the game that might be hints about something that may or may not have happened!

The theory goes that Jade and Floyd hatched from eggs (moray eels can lay up to 10,000 eggs at once in real life, though in-game is unspecified) at approximately the same time.

Jade then selected Floyd as the one sibling he would spare, and ate the rest. (The reason why he chose Floyd is technically not specified.)

This is based on many things that can be found throughout the game, such as this cryptic comment from Jade: “I’m glad I chose you as my partner when we were but little elvers.”

Floyd responds, “Not sure what that smile’s for, but I’m glad we survived together, too,” which may insinuate that if something did happen, Floyd might not know what it was.

Jade also says, “there are five in my family at present.” One interpretation of this line is that their family used to be larger, and might get even smaller in the future, but five is where they are at now. 

The more optimistic side of EN fandom will sometimes theorize that maybe their mother is pregnant and there will actually be a new addition to the family soon rather than a loss, but we have been given a surprising amount of information about how common it is for people to go missing in the Coral Sea, with otherwise zero hints that they will soon be getting between 1 and 10,000 new siblings.

The evidence used for the “hatched from eggs” part of the theory comes from Floyd insisting that neither he nor Jade are any older or younger than the other.

This might seem vague in English, where which twin of two was technically born first might not come up very often, but in Japanese one twin being born first would mean that one of them would refer to the other as something like “nii-san,” like Ortho does with Idia, or "aniki," as Ace does with his brother and Leona does with Falena.

(For a real-world example I recommend referring to the Twitter account of Jamil’s voice actor, Futaba Kaname. He has (弟) in his username for “little brother,” while his identical twin Yuu has (兄) in his username for “older brother.”)

But neither Jade nor Floyd refer to one another as “nii-san," "aniki" or anything but their first names.

While “bro” or “brother” will sometimes be added to their dialogue on EN neither twin has ever actually called the other “brother” in their original dialogue, because the Japanese language makes you specify older or younger (an age-neutral word for “brother” doesn’t really exist) and, as Floyd says outright in the game, neither he nor Jade are any older or younger than the other.

This makes sense if they both hatched from eggs at approximately the same time, rather than being born like mammals.

Another point that is often referenced in the “Jade and Floyd: Dead Siblings” topic is how, on the subject of ghosts they have seen, both twins mention seeing people on Halloween that looked strikingly like each other, only to realize that they weren’t. 

Floyd: “I once thought I saw Jade in three different places at once.”

The theory goes that they saw the ghosts of their dead siblings.

This may or may not be considered evidence of how the twins might have had other siblings at one point and something happened to them, but even if so, it could have just been a Finding-Nemo style incident with a barracuda or something similar.

So why do people point to Jade as the perpetrator?

(Maybe irrelevant, but Rook’s nickname for Jade in the original game is, “Monsieur Premeditated Crime.”)

Jade is a heavy eater, on par with Sebek (another thing they have in common is they have both threatened to eat Grim), saying that people are often surprised by how much he eats.

Jade says this is because his “fuel efficiency is lacking” (low blood pressure?).

Floyd is aware of this and seems to go to extra lengths to make sure Jade eats properly, encouraging him to relax and fetching food for him during Halloween.

The original meaning of Jade’s unique magic is, “the tooth that takes out a bite,” so this is definitely a theme with him.

And his official, disliked food? Eel.

To the original question: no, there is not a definitive line in the game that states “Jade ate his siblings” that we can point to as proof that it actually, canonically happened.

But we do have many cryptic lines that might possibly be insinuating that a infamously hungry Jade chose Floyd as the one sibling he would spare and ate the rest, Floyd may not know it happened, and Jade might be actively choosing not to tell him 🐬

[taiyaki-o]

HI NEIGHBOR! pt. 2

read pt 1 here!

synopsis: you and Megumi grow even closer, and some new developments have your life changing for the better

tags: gojo x gn!reader, fluff, non curse au

A few days pass, and you’re making breakfast when you hear a knock at the door. You dust off your hands as you answer.

“Hm? Oh, Megumi! It’s you!” You smile as you spot the boy, and he’s clutching the stack of books. He looks away a bit bashful and attempts to hold out the stack.

“I finished them. You can have them back,” he mumbles. You chuckle and take the books out of his hands before he drops them all.

“Did you enjoy them? Which one was your favorite?”

“I liked the book on sea animals a lot.”

“That’s one of my favorites too! The diagrams are really interesting, don’t you think?”

He nods. You notice that his gaze lingers on said book a little wistfully.

“Do you…want to keep it?”

Your heart melts a bit at the way his eyes light up.

“Really?” He asks shyly.

“Of course! I haven’t touched it for some time anyway. I think it’ll be better off with you.” You smile and give the book back to him, and he hesitates, but then grabs the book with two hands and hugs it to his chest.

“…”

You let out a soft grunt as he softly tackles you in a hug, and you quickly lift the books that are still in your arms out of the way.

“Woah, easy there!” You laugh. You find a space to dump the books and bend down a bit to hug him back.

“Thank you,” He mumbles softly but earnestly. You smile softly.

“Anytime.”

He brings his head back suddenly, his nose wrinkling.

“What’s that smell?”

You look up to see smoke coming from what should be your breakfast.

“Hm? Oh shit-“

-

After you’ve fanned away the smoke and thrown out your now burnt breakfast, you invite Megumi to come inside instead of just stand outside your door.

“Sorry about that, kid. Forgot to turn the stove off, silly me,” you say as you put the pans in the sink. A smile ghosts across Megumi’s face as well, and he sits politely on the edge of your couch.

It’s then that you notice something else.

“Where’s Gojo? Does he know you’re here?” You ask.

Megumi shakes his head. “He went out to buy some food. He’s probably coming back soon, though.”

“Well, do you have his phone number or anything? I think I should let him know that you’re here in case he comes back to an empty house,” you laugh.

You sit down on the couch next to Megumi, shutting off your phone.

“Do you watch any TV? Or is it just books?” you ask.

“A couple,” Megumi replies. “But mostly books.”

“Which ones?”

You end up putting on a few episodes of Pokémon, and Megumi curls up on your couch as you two sit together in comfortable silence.

-

SMACK!

Gojo groans as he hits his head against the steering wheel of his car, an angry red welt already forming on his forehead.

“That goddamned brat-!” Gojo seethes. He stares forlornly at the red light in front of him, dreading the interaction to come. Not only had Megumi forced him to be in your *angelic, beautiful* presence again, but the kid had the audacity to give you his number?! The mere thought of it made his cheeks turn cherry red.

He taps his fingers against the wheel, and looks over at the takeout bag sitting in the passengers seat. He sighs, rubbing his temples. Getting a new job, taking care of Megumi, moving to a new apartment…it was starting to get to him. Being a single father definitely wasn’t in his life plan.

Ten minutes later, he stood in front of your door, steeling himself for what was going to come.

“…”

He wants to tear his hair out. Why was he so nervous? This wasn’t anything special. He would open the door, pick up the brat, and go home. That’s it. He takes a deep breath.

knock knock knock!

The door opens, and Gojo immediately feels all the air escape from his lungs.

“Hey! Good to see you again,” You smile up at him, and he thinks heart might burst from inside his chest.

“Yeah, I just went to grab some takeout. Is, uh-is Megumi still here?” He rubs the back of his neck.

Megumi pops out from behind your legs, and you chuckle.

“Um-the restaurant gave me way more food than I expected-do you want some?” Gojo asks nervously.

(This is a lie. The second he saw your message he turned his car around and ordered another portion of food in hopes that he’d have an excuse to talk to you.)

“Oh! Are you sure?” You ask. He nods earnestly. “Well, do you want to come inside then? We were just watching Pokémon.” You ruffle Megumi’s hair a bit with a chuckle.

“Digimon is way better.” Gojo blurts out without thinking. He mentally smacks himself upside the head.

Stop being a fucking nerd, Satoru! No one wants to hear your opinions on Digimon!

You scoff in fake indignation. “It is not! Digimon wishes it was half as iconic as Pokémon.”

“Digimon is so much cooler though.”

“Is not.”

“Is too.”

“Are you coming inside or not?” You laugh. He blushes again, but steps inside your apartment. He does his best to ignore the familiar scent of your perfume in the air.

You grab some plates as Gojo unpacks the food, and soon the smell of Chinese takeout fills your apartment. Megumi retreats to the couch again to continue watching while you and Gojo sit at the kitchen counter.

“The kid give you any trouble?” Gojo chuckles.

“Not at all. He’s been great.”

“I think he’s taken a liking to you. At least more so than me.”

“Come on, I’m sure you’re great company.”

“Ahh, not really. ‘Specially because it’s just us. I don’t know what goes through his head sometimes.”

You desperately want to ask about the nature of their relationship, but you bite your tongue. You barely know these people, after all. No matter how much you enjoy their presence, you’d never pry into their private lives like that.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you view it), Gojo notices and he chuckles.

“I know what you’re thinking. And no, the kids not mine. Not biologically speaking. His mom passed away and his dad…isn’t in a good enough place to take care of him.”

Gojo sighs, throwing a look over his shoulder at the boy. “I’m all he’s got.”

You swear you see a pained expression on his face, but by the time he turns back it’s gone. “Pretty shitty to get stuck with me, huh? I’d feel sorry for him if he wasn’t a little shit.”

“Watch your mouth, mister. I might have to call the cops for child abuse.” You snicker as you point your knife at him jokingly. You feel a pang of sadness, however, as you process the information.

“I’d imagine it’s tough for the both of you…” you sigh. “I mean, did you plan on having kids?”

“Not a damn bit,” Gojo confirms. “Kinda feels like my life’s done a complete one eighty overnight.”

“You guys just moved here too, right? Where’d you come from?”

“Kyoto. Got a new job as a teacher at some school nearby. The kid seemed to want a fresh start anyway.”

Your eyes widen. “No way! I’m a teacher too! I teach at a school nearby!”

“Well, would you look at that! You wanna trade tips later?” Gojo jokes. “Wow, that’s…that’s a really crazy coincidence. Where do you teach?”

“Tokyo Tech. Or Tokyo Metropolitan Technical School, if you have a stick up your ass.”

Now it’s Gojo’s turn to widen his eyes. “That’s where my new job is!”

The two of you sit in stunned silence for a moment, before bursting out into laughter.

“Small world, huh?” You say as you catch your breath.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Gojo says as an ecstatic smile stretches across his face.

“I take it you’re the new janitor?”

“Oh shut up, you.”

“Can you two please keep it down? I can’t hear the TV,” Megumi looks over at you and Gojo with a slight scowl on his face. Gojo sticks his tongue out at Megumi, who simply rolls his eyes and returns his attention to the screen.

You let out another one of your angelic laughs, and Gojo physically kicks himself under the table to keep himself sane. He’s barely been keeping it together since he realized you two would be coworkers. The blush that’s fighting to travel up his neck takes all his effort to control. The thought that you’d be his coworker, that he’d be seeing you every day…saying hi to you in the halls…grading papers together….growing closer….

“Hellooo? Earth to Gojo?” You wave a hand in front of his face.

“H-huh? Oh, sorry!” He snaps out of his mini trance. “Zoned out there for a second, haha…”

He shoves a spoonful of rice into his mouth to give himself time to think before he embarrasses himself.

I really am a mess…

a/n: part 2! didn’t expect this to turn into a series, but ig it’s happening lol

pt 3 here!

feel free to message me/leave a comment if you want to be added to the taglist!

taglist: @96jnie

[wolfjackle-creates]

Answer My Call Chapter 2 Part 1

What's this? Two posts for WIP Wednesday??? I said I was gonna spoil you guys. Now, I originally planned to do Carry Your Heart. Figured the top and bottom choices from the WIP Wednesday poll would be fun. But both stories are at a point where Danny is taking Jason to Frostbite and I just didn't feel like writing the same scenario twice, even if the details and POV are totally different.

So I went to the third place option.

If you want a say in what I work on this week, check out the poll!

Story Summary: Jazz, Sam, and Tucker manage to help Danny escape the GIW, but they can't follow him and are under too much surveillance to communicate with each other. Sam snuck Danny a phone as he ran and Jazz sends him a text every day, hoping to hear he is all right. But he's not the one getting the texts.

Jason was away for several months on a mission with the Outlaws. When he finally returns home, he is surprised to find dozens of messages from an unknown number begging a Danny to tell her he's okay. Looks like there's not going to be a break between missions this time around.

Chapter 1: AO3 (user locked), Tumblr

Word Count: 1.5k

-----

Jazz tapped her finger on her phone as she waited for the Dunkin employee to call out her order. Red Hood was supposed to arrive any minute. She’d left her dorm a full two hours ago and led Agents K and O on a merry chase through Boston before finally losing them at Quincy Market. Then she’d doubled back and was now near Northeastern. She had no reason to be here, so hopefully it’d take a little longer to track her down.

And that’s when she felt it—a ghost or liminal was nearby.

Pushing his way in the building was a tall man with a red beanie covering dark hair. He had on an unbuttoned flannel jacket over a Dumpty Humpty T-shirt and jeans with a backpack slung over one shoulder. He glanced around before his eyes settled on her and he grinned.

“Hey, Jazz, right?” He held out his hand. “I’m Todd.”

Jazz couldn’t say anything and just stared in horror. Red Hood couldn’t be liminal. Had she just led another liminal to the guys in white? Did he even realize he was considered an ecto-entity under the anti-ecto acts she’d introduced him and Red Robin to?

“Jazz? Are you okay?” he asked, dropping his hand.

“Order for Jazz!” called out the barista.

Jazz shook herself and grabbed her drink with a smile for the employee. Then she grabbed Todd’s elbow and dragged him over to the tables.

“Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting—” she cut herself off. She had no idea what he knew and what he didn’t. And the agents could come get them at any moment. Instead she pulled out her phone started turning off every security setting. “Never mind. Do you want anything?” she asked with a gesture at her own drink.

“I’m all right. But, are you? What happened?”

Jazz let out a laugh; if the way Todd’s eyes widened was any indication, it was a tad more hysterical that she would’ve liked. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing happened.” She looked down at his shirt. “My brother loves Dumpty Humpty, you a music fan?”

He seemed nonplussed at the topic change but shrugged. “Sure. Music is good, but I stole this shirt from one of my brothers. I don’t know if I could name a single song by them. How about you?”

Jazz grinned and forced herself to relax as she logged out of her school email on her phone. “I’m a huge fan of any sort of self-expression, including music. Actually, my plans for tonight involve music, so I hope you like the indie scene. Might be a bit intense for a first date, but I’ve always figured, why not jump right in? Show ‘em the crazy from the start and see if they can keep up.” She leaned forward over the table and winked at him. “Think you’ll be able to keep up?”

Todd played the game perfectly and looked her up and down like they really were about to start a first date. “With you, sweetheart, I’ll follow anywhere you lead.”

Jazz laughed and stood. “Come on, then. We’re going on an adventure.”

Todd grinned and joined her. “Lead the way.”

Once out of the building, Jazz led them away from the university. This being Boston, it wasn’t long before they came across a homeless man begging on the side of the street.

Wincing internally, she gripped Todd’s arm and said loudly, “Honestly, I don’t know why the cops don’t do a better job of keeping away the beggars.”

Todd looked at her in surprise. “What are you talking about? They have a right to exist and we should help them.”

“They’re probably fine. Everyone knows they only use the money they’re given on drugs and alcohol.” She pretended to glance at her phone before reaching back to shove it in her back pocket. Only to miss so it fell to the ground. “Ew, he’s looking at us. Come on, let’s cross the street.”

She could feel the way Todd tensed at her words, but he let himself be led across the street.

As soon as they were out of hearing shot, he turned to her and hissed, “What the hell was that?”

Jazz glanced back and saw the man picking up her phone. She looked away before he could catch her looking. “Come on, I’ll explain.” She grabbed Todd’s hand and led him down an alley to a much busier street. “I had to ditch my phone. I logged out of everything and left it unlocked so he can use it or resell it. I needed to make sure he wouldn’t try to return it to me and, well, what better way than being the worst person you can imagine?”

And now he was staring, open mouthed.

“They’ve had remote access to my phone for months and I couldn’t let them track us!” she insisted. Habit had her looking around for any sign of a white suit.

“Who can’t find us?”

Jazz shook her head. “The guys in white. Look, this is too public. I can’t say much else here. But meeting you, everything had to change. You’re in danger just by being near me and I refuse to be the reason you get hurt.”

“Why am I in danger?”

“Later!” Jazz hissed before wincing and looking around. She forced a smile back on her face and asked, in as normal a tone as she could manage, “What time is it? Do you know?”

He looked down at his phone. “Uh, looks like it’s almost five.”

“Oh great! Plenty of time for us to get something to eat before I bring you to our surprise destination.”

And from there, Jazz led Todd on a convoluted tour of Boston. They grabbed food at the Pru, then she took him to the green line. Where they traveled four stops before she jumped up in feigned surprise that they were on the wrong branch. So then they got off and hopped on the train going in the opposite direction.

Which was where she wanted to be going all along.

For once, she was happy the orange line was still under construction, because the shuffle of passengers from trains to buses and back just made their journey that much more complicated and harder to follow.

By the time they finally got to their stop, the sun had mostly set. The station was mostly empty and Jazz looked around for any sign of white suits or vans, but even when she didn't see any, she couldn't relax.

“Where are we going?” Todd asked for probably the dozenth time.

Jazz rolled her eyes. “We’ll be there in five minutes and then you’ll find out.”

She led him to the street, the crosswalk had lights over it, but the rest of the road was shrouded in darkness. They ran across without waiting for the walk symbol.

Once they crossed what was basically a divided highway, Jazz led them along the poorly lit and cracked sidewalk. Ahead of them they were approaching a river.

“It’s before the river,” muttered Jazz to herself. “Is this it?” She hesitated at the top of a sloping, unpaved drive that led to an industrial building that sat on the waterfront. “I think so. Apparently this building used to be a coffin factory. Cool, huh?”

“I don’t care for coffins,” was Todd’s terse reply.

Jazz flinched slightly. She knew he was death-adjacent. Should’ve known better than to mention coffins. “Right, sorry. Well, they aren’t made here anymore.” She made her way down the steep drive, Todd a step behind her.

“What is it now?”

“Apartments, I believe.”

Once at the bottom, she looked around and saw the old loading dock. Entering, she looked for the door on the left.

Only to hesitate once more. Two doors were on the left. She hadn’t heard anything about there being two doors. Taking a chance, she opened the first one.

Inside was a table where two women sat in front of a metal box. On the wall were a set of pegs already mostly filled with coats. And inside milled probably thirty or forty people.

The women smiled at Jazz. “Hi, have you two been here before?”

Jazz shook her head and pulled two twenties out of her wallet. “No. But I had a classmate come here and tell me about it. When I realized you had something going on tonight when I had a date? Figured it was a great place to come with my partner!”

She laughed. “We’re definitely unique here at the Night Cap.” She stamped their hands. “Show starts in half an hour, but feel free to mingle until then. Bathroom’s through the kitchen.”

“Thanks! We’re looking forward to tonight.”

Todd nodded his own thanks and followed Jazz into the room.

“What are we doing here?” he whispered in her ear.

“Hiding,” she whispered back. “I’ve never been here before. Never even taken this stop on the T before. When we leave here, we’ll get a motel room or something and I’ll tell you everything.”

“Is this necessary?”

“Without a doubt.”

Jazz could tell Todd didn’t fully believe her, but he dropped it. Jazz found a few people who were discussing that evening’s performers and the two of them joined the conversation.

-----

Part 2

I no longer do tag lists, but please check out the Subscription Post if you want notifications when I update.

So, I had a lot of fun with this section. The place Jazz takes Jason to? Real place. Though Night Cap isn't what the residents call it. Honestly, the real name is also impossible to google. If you don't know it exists, you would never find it (why Jazz runs from the GIW there). Out of respect for the residents of the apartment, though, I changed the name. I went to a show there and it was super weird trying to find it. Like, the directions in my email seriously said "enter the loading dock of the former coffin factory, find the door on the left, and slip the person standing there $10-20 cash. Don't touch anyone's personal belongings, please."

As we waited for the bathroom during set break, two of the residents were cooking dinner at the stove and we were chatting about how Regan was the worst.

10/10 would go again.

Anyone who has spent any time in Boston knows what I mean about the T being under construction. Annoying as hell, but it worked out for Jazz this time.

(The T is the name of the Boston train/subway system.)

The Pru refers to the Prudential building. The bottom level(s) are full of restaurants and shops (basically a high end shopping mall) and upper levels are offices. The top level is an observation deck that's open to the public, though I've never been.

[accio-victuuri]

Somebody Else’s Arms : Timeline + Analysis ✍🏻 and a tiny bit of clowning…

as what the title of this post says, let’s talk about this song and everything that goes with it. i didn’t expect him to actually do something like this but i’m not mad about it. there were already some rumors about it before the release, which personally didn’t come by my weibo feed so as soon as the poster teaser was out, everyone had their own thoughts:

1. It might be related to intercross, because of the water imagery and angsty title.

2. It’s a song he bought and at the time people were pointing to an existing track by cool heads prevail. and others were saying it may just be the same name.

3. some cpfs getting nervous cause it seems to be a breakup song, as if you all didn’t know he and xz love bittersweet songs!

4. connected to #2 cause a cpf station sister commented on this song before we knew anything like she had an idea that this will be performed all along.

AND NOW THAT THE WE HAVE LISTENED TO IT, it is a completely different one from the track people were referring to. oh well. rumors are rumors.

yibo-official first released the teaser for it at 16:00 which to me relates to the “fact” that 16 is bobo’s favorite number. also the play on words and how they associate with each other is so interesting SEA = somebody else’s arms then using that as an overall theme like deep in the sea. not to be that person — but it’s so xiao zhan.

then the hair reminded people of his style @ tencent starlight in 2019 with xz. but i have to say, when the douyin video was released, it made more sense because of the 80s vibe he ( along with other yh family stars ) was going for. the clothes and the hair definitely complete the look. i mean come on, he already had the vincent vega hair.

the similarity in the caption, once again! xzs 🤝 ybo

Now let’s move on the song itself ⬇️⬇️⬇️

i can only find information on this songwriter, so i guess it’s true that he bought it. the lyrics is actually giving ghost by justin bieber which is a personal fave. it’s like acknowledging you love someone but they are gone now. also it’s interesting that he chose an english song! i’m gonna be a totally delusional fan here and think that this is because he is becoming more and more popular with the international stage so he chose this to connect more.

the choreography is also by his fave Franklin Yu who also did the dance for Rules of My World and Burn It All Down. backed up by Made in V which is a usual group that collaborates with him and XZ. 💚❤️

i think we are all surprised cause it’s in ENGLISH. like i understand if the chorus is, but as a whole. wow.

You're still in my heart

But you're in somebody else arms

You are still in my mind

But you are in somebody else's life

A part of you got left inside my chest

I try and I try to forget

You are still in my heart

But you are in somebody else arms

Memories that we said we made

Memories I can't never let go

How do they torture me the same

Memories that we won't even know

Let me out

Na na na oh My love my love

Na na na oh Let me out

Na na na oh My love my love

A part of you got left inside my chest

I try and I try to forget

You are still in my heart

But you are in somebody else arms somebody else arms

the lyrics are so heartbreaking 💔 and as i said, something we know will appeal to yibo. and as an artist, or any kind of creative i feel like this kind of emotion connects well to the audience. it’s the perfect choice! but that doesn’t mean it don’t hurt!

i know there might be some part of the fandom who will look at this and be like — oh they broke up! “see how sad his face was performing?!” and well.. dude, he is performing this song and singing those lyrics.. what should he do? smile? lol. his dance is an interpretation of it, did you see that bit where he was alone and everyone had partners? In the meantime he was all alone and cradling no one 😭😭😭

it’s a performance. no matter how much we think everything has a personal connection.

anyway, it’s beautiful. his voice is amazing. i’m just imagining xz totally lovin this song and putting this on repeat! 🎧

and oh, the style of his clothes look like there are XX on it. hahahaha! a CPN fave!

DISCLAIMER: this is all the information available at the time of writing. I will post separate ones if ever new information comes out related to this song. 🎶

[gwenyn28]

The "real" reasons why these actresses left 9-1-1

Because it is a common accusation Buddie fans have to deal with I wanted to talk about the reasons why the female love interests for Buck and Eddie left the show.

I already talked about it on twitter but due to a limited space I couldn't post links and go deeper into the stories. Therefore I will talk about this a bit more on here.

I will admit that there might have been some fans out there who were really mean and acted weird/rude towards these women. But still... there are real reasons for leaving the show, not "the Buddie fans bullied them and they couldn't handle it anymore so they left".

Connie Britton (Abigail Clark)

When 9-1-1 started in early 2018 Connie Britton was part of the main cast. She was casted as the dispatcher "Abigail Clark" so that the viewer could have not only the firefighter's view but also the dispatcher's. After an incident at a rollercoaster where Buck lost a person Abby looked up his number to ask if he was okay. They started to talk and soon after got into a relationship.

To begin with, her contract was just for one season and she left when her contract was up. Ryan Murphy said in an interview that they were renogotiating her deal because she loved the cast and wanted to come back for a couple of episodes (what we later got with the train wreck in the season 3 finale). But just as a guest star, not as a main cast again. In the meantime, for that dispatch connection, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Maddie Buckley (now Han) was cast.

It was also the plan NOT to bring her back in season 2 so that Buck could grow on his own and that this growth won't be connected with Abby anymore. After all, they just had a brief relationship and she left him at the airport and ghosted him afterwards.

(Source)

So, all in all, she was just supposed to be there for one season only. She didn't want to have a longer contract because she prefers to work just for one season of any tv show. And because she and Ryan Murphy are good friends, he agreed on this, wanting her appearance on his new show in 2018 to help him get the series off the ground.

(Source)

Tiffany Dupont (Ali Martin)

Buck and Ali met in season 2 during an earthquake where she was rescued by him and Eddie. Later on they met again and started to date. When Buck was crushed by a ladder truck and severely injured she broke up with him afterwards in the hospital. She told him that she couldn't live with him being in danger and that he wanted to continue with this risky job after his leg would be better again.

Tim stated in an interview 2019 that he loved Ali but she wasn't his first choice. Because she had chemistry with Buck and Eddie he decided to bring her back for Buck. Their relationship would have to go through the "make it or break it" because she knew that Buck's job was hard and dangerous and Ali wasn't a first responder. So, it had to be decided if she could live with that or not. In the end Tim wanted to keep her as an option for the next season as he reintroduced her but the relationship didn't make it.

(Source)

Megan West (Taylor Kelly)

Megan West was already one of Buck's former hook-ups who was introduced in an earlier season but came back in season 4 and 5 to play Buck's love interest. The possibility to give her a bigger role was there due to Jennifer Love Hewitt being on maternity leave. Therefore her character could get some screen time and she got a whole backstory.

Kristen Reidel, showrunner at that time, stated in an interview the inevitability of the couple's separation because of the people they were. Their characters were the complete opposites and even though sometimes opposites attract this didn't happen with Buck and Taylor. The break-up was the only logical conclusion.

Since Taylor's story arc came to an end with this break-up and the narrative of the show didn't demand another independant character, Megan West left the show after her story was told.

(Source)

Annelise Cepero (Natalia Dollenmeyer)

At the end of season 6 Buck met Natalia, a death doula, and started to date her. It seemed as if they had a connection (a weird one, but still a connection) and so she was Buck's girlfriend at the time season 6 ended.

In an interview mid-March Tim Minear said that he wasn't really interested in going down the road with Natalia when he took over again from Kristen Reidel as previous showrunner for season 5 and 6. He decided that it was time for Buck to stop talking about death, it was boring. He wanted Buck to live some more and to pursue joy. Buck should finally find happiness.

It seems like it was not just a creative decision. Not only storywise Tim decided to break up Buck and Natalia over hiatus. Annelise is based in New York. After the end of season 6 there was the writer's strike happening and season 7 was postponed. During that prolonged hiatus she got a contract on Broadway for "Hotel Happy" that premiered in February 2024. Therefore she couldn't join 9-1-1 again.

And since Tim was also fine with her not coming back storywise... it was mutual for her not to return.

Gabrielle Walsh (Ana Flores)

Gabrielle Walsh was a guest star and played Ana Flores, Eddie's love interest. When they first met when she was Chris' teacher, they really didn't get along. But later on, in the "Jinx" episode, Eddie asked her out and they started dating.

In an insta video (uploaded on youtube) she stated that she liked being on the show and that she loved her role, praising all the cast members. She admitted that she was sad to go but in the end everybody deserved to be with who they really loved. Some people interpreted this as a comment towards Buddie because directly afterwards she also talked about the Buddie fans and that there are no hard feelings concerning them, that she loved them.

Edy Ganem (Marisol)

Edy Ganem played Marisol and was brought in last-minute. She was kind of a hardware store fling for Eddie in the season 6 finale. Back then nobody knew if 9-1-1 would be renewed (or taken over by abc) so Kristen Reidel wanted to give every character a partner and love interest in some kind of closure if the show had ended back then. Marisol who was introduced earlier on on a call seemed to be a fit for Eddie in Kristen's eyes.

Coming to season 7 she was not planned to come back at first because Eddie was supposed to start dating Tommy Kinard. But then, as already stated above, Annelise Cepero wasn't able to come back as Natalia. This would have left Buck without a storyline. So Tim decided to switch from Tommy dating Eddie to Tommy dating Buck. Edy Ganem was free and could come back as Marisol for season 7 to play Eddie's love interest because Tim Minear didn't want both Buck and Eddie without a partner.

In an interview in April 2024 he stated that he had no clue about Marisol and her character. (She doesn't even have a last name.) He didn't want to give her screentime to explore the character and went with what he had. Or better, what Kristen gave him - the nun storyline. The idea was amusing to him and he thought it would help to learn more about Eddie.

In the end Marisol didn't stick around. She didn't even get a proper on screen break-up, just vanished after the end of the Vertigo storyline for Eddie.

It might have to do with the actress behind the character. She showed her true self more than once, posting trans- and homophobic things on social media and kind of victimized herself. Therefore it was a win-win to let her go after season 7, story- and personwise.

In conclusion: I read it very often that people say that the actresses left just because they were harassed by Buddie fans. Like I said in the beginning, there might have been some fans that have acted that way.

But the reasons I listed above where the cause for them to leave or not to return to the show - other obligations, wrapped storylines etc. And not just because "Buddie fans were mean to them".

[slavghoul]

Font of all Ghost knowledge, please help! It’s a controversial one….

I’m seeing lots of people saying “stop calling Papa III ‘Terzo’ he’s Papa III” - yet I’m sure I heard him introduce himself as Papa Emeritus Terzo? Am I imagining that?

Also, did Copia ever announce himself as Papa IV in any way?

Second part - probably more controversial. I hear people say “Stop naming the ghouls, they are nameless ghouls!” Yet… Didn’t Papa name Alpha and Omega? And use their names on stage multiple times? Where did Alpha and Omega come from as names?

*Runs and ducks for cover*

Aw don't worry that's pretty tame as far as controversial questions go lol I expected worse.

1) He did cause he introduced himself in Italian. Like these are just ordinal numbers in Italian right? He simply said "I am Papa Emeritus the Third." Either way, it's an old v. new fans debate. Old fans find it odd because no one ever referred to the Papas as such in the past. Up until recently probably the only place you'd come across it was fanfiction. For me personally to see it in regular context and serious discussions is extremely, extremely odd, I'm simply not used to it. I assume that's why some people have a problem with it.

2) Papa IV never had a fancy Italian introduction unfortunately, he simply walked onto the stage looking hot as fuck.

3) All ghoul names were fan given. Omega came about because of a sticker Martin had on his guitar of the omega letter. Then people started referring to Simon as Alpha since he was the other guitarist and, you know, it just fit. "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last" and all that. Around 2013 ghouls had their elemental symbols sewn onto the outfits and so we started referring to them based on that. Papa indeed called them by those names occasionally. That stopped in 2017 and since then he only referred to them as "ghoul" on stage. Again, this is somewhat of an old v. new fans debate and one that has been going on for over a decade (the then-new fans are now the old fans 🤔 lol). I never understood it though. It's just a way to tell the ghouls apart easily, no big deal.

[human-for-tonight]

the thing about watcher is I think buzzfeed unsolved fucked them over. both in terms of numbers but also in terms of output. if you go to buzzfeed unsolved network and sort by popular, you have to scroll past 84 videos before you get below 10mil views. and a lot of those are 5-7 years old, so those are numbers they would've been looking at when deciding to break off from buzzfeed (the first watcher video was posted 4 years ago). they thought they could get big numbers without constantly churning out videos, because that's what they'd gotten with buzzfeed unsolved. and I'm sure they adjusted their projected numbers to account for people not following over to the new channel, but I doubt they predicted their top videos would be in the 8mil views range (which is still a lot, but not what they had pulled in the past).

so they aren't getting old buzzfeed unsolved numbers, but that's okay! look at the try guys - they aren't putting up millions of views every video and they're able to have a company with a decent amount of employees. and this is where the output issue comes in. between their main channel and their various podcasts, try guys is putting out 5 videos a week, with 2 being main channel videos. watcher is putting out 3 with 1 being a main channel video. plenty of people who have been making videos for a while have talked about the youtube grind and the algorithm - there's a reason daily vlogs and content houses got so big. and watcher didn't want to do that grind. from the beginning they've said they want to do seasons of shows. which is feasible! again, this is something try guys does with without a recipe. but the difference is try guys has quick and cheap videos they can put out in between and concurrently with those big shows that help support them. eat the menu is their best example of this because it gets big numbers. watcher doesn't really have filler videos.

to further the try guys comparison, buzzfeed unsolved limited the type of content fans were looking for in a way try guys was never limited because trying new things is a really fucking broad category. try guys was always more about the people than the specific thing they were trying. obviously a lot of fans of watcher like ryan and shane (and to a lesser extent steven, based on how many people are blaming him specifically for this). but I'm sure there were also people only watching because they liked true crime and/or ghost hunting content, which makes it harder to branch out and retain ghost files numbers on their other shows.

overall, they thought they could be buzzfeed with just unsolved, and that's not how youtube works and now it's fucking them over that they got too ambitious too fast

[toiletwipes]

Whenever I'm Alone (With You) | clinic!wilbur

MOUTH SO SWEETLY TELLING LIES — PART TWO

5k words. / [Two months after the festival you're left in the dust of what to do with yourself when you've been ghosted by a really cute guy. Depression hits and it's not a good mix.] [watch out for self-deprecation, slight suicidal ideation, kind of an unhealthy relationship brewing out of pain]

Part 1 — Masterlist

fic title from Lovesong by The Cure but the chapter title is from Cut by The Cure

thank you @drop-of-void for proof-reading!! and i'm tagging some lovely folks now. @sleeby-anon @loversj0y @struggling-with-delia @l0veb0mb1ng @boiled-onionrings

xxxx

After the first month, it’d been easy to slip into the same old routine. Wake up too early, stare at the wall until your alarm goes off, manage either the longest shower ever or brush your teeth, then go to work and come home exhausted. Maybe eat. Stare at the wall a little more, go to bed. Music was optional.

And Seff wasn’t having it after the second.

“If men do this to you, then they don’t deserve you.” You grunted, listening to him ramble as you sat on the couch, arms feeling like noodles as you fold towels that sat on your bed a little too long, with Seff mopping your floor, the rugs rolled up and against the wall. The room smelt like fabuloso. “I’m serious. They don’t get to have a great night, express that they want to get to know you more, exchange numbers and then do jackshit with it.” He stops mopping, opting to lean against the length of it, eyes staring straight at you. You don’t make contact.

“Well it’s not up to me what they do, remember?” It’s hard not to be mean about this, you’re all too aware that when men do this, it’s not your fault. (...Entirely.)

“Vividly.” He says, before finishing up the last corner and putting the mop back in the bucket and putting it off by the laundry room. When he joins you, you’re halfway done. He helps you with the rest of the towels, getting you off the couch and forcing you to tuck the towels into the cabinets. When you get back almost ten minutes later, you find the living room fan turned on high and the floor drying faster, Seff himself back on the couch with gummy candy. He offers some to you when you join him on the couch. You dig a hand into the bag and pop them into your mouth, chewing on them as you let the cleanliness of the place wash over you.

“Doing anything feels like I’m moving through- through a thick goo, like tar. And I can’t get out of it.” The words come out only a smidge louder than a whisper but it was so loud between the two of you. Seff doesn’t say anything. So you continue. “It wasn’t… just him. It was all of those guys. Like, how could all of them have one night and change their mind so fast, like it wasn’t real for any of them.” But it was him. He was the last straw. He made the choice to come up to you and spend the last of the festival with you, it was him that wanted your number. It was all him and then- and then- tears prick your eyes again.

And it was him again, ghosting you, just like the others. They were so different from each other, how could they all do the same thing? There had to be a reason and the only logical one is that it was you. They regretted what they did, what they said, and they regret you.

You feel the hazy feeling wash over you, the tar-like substance coating your limbs and mind as Seff hums, wrapping an arm around you. He knew you so well, you wondered why he stayed. “They’re jackasses, don’t forget that, no matter how nice they were or how they smiled at you, they decided that being a coward was easier, it had nothing to do with you.” You nod, not really listening… but still, it’s a little nice to hear the words. Even if they didn’t stick like they should’ve.

He rubs your shoulder, offering you more candy and letting it sit in his lap when you decline. “Here, let’s finish up cleaning and then you hop in the shower. Vick wants you over for dinner tonight, she’s making your favorite, okay?” You nod, Vick was always so nice and sweet to you, snarky towards her husband. And on good days it didn’t hurt to be around them, to see them in love like crazy people.

“How’d you do it?” You don’t recognize the words coming out of your mouth, foreign and sickly tasting. He hums, sighing as he breathes out while he looks around the apartment.

“How’d I do what?” He asks.

“How’d you know it was her, I mean, you guys moved so fast, how did you- just- how?” Words failed you and you wanted answers but even on autopilot, you’re unsure of what you want to know. Of what you want to hear.

Silence grows as he mulls over the answer. Then he starts standing, getting you up on your feet with him, speaking as he pushes you to the shower, “I’ll tell you when you’re done, how about that?” He smiles as you reach the middle of the tiled bathroom floor, turning to him helplessly as you shiver.

He’s about to close the door when you stop him, reaching out with a hand. He stands there, unmoving, eyes moving up to meet yours and you gulp.

“Thanks.”

He smiles and he shuts the door with a click.

You undress, making no attempts to look at the mirror as you step into the shower, closing the curtains. The water hits your scalp and you try to picture your ails being washed away with the oils in your hair. You try to follow your old routine as best as you can but when thirty minutes pass and all you have to show for it is clean hair and nothing else, you turn the shower off. You’ll take a win where you can. You don’t entirely know it’s been thirty minutes to be fair, but when the water turns from hot to cold you can take the hint it’s time to get out.

Getting dressed and drying your hair with a shirt, you exit your room to find Seff on the couch, finishing the bag of gummy candy off. The corner of your lips twitch up as you toss the shirt at his head, snorting when he shouts and somehow falls onto the ground. “And after all that I’ve done for you!” He says as he wrenches the shirt off his head, throwing it right back at you. “I’ve rolled the rugs out AND I’ve got your bag and keys, and this is the thanks I get?!” A small smile plays on your face, wrapping your arm around his neck in a limp headlock as he continues to mumble about how unfair it was.

“Come on, you big baby, let’s get you back home to Vick,” and at the mention of his wife, he perks right up, handing your things over as he rushes to the door. You follow after him but as you lock the bottom lock, you hear a banging on your window. Your head snaps to the living room, just barely catching the dimmed blue sky of the night, nothing to be seen in the glass. You’d check it out but then you hear Seff call for your name. Turning away, you finish locking your door, following your best friend down the stairs and breathing in and out as your thoughts try to race ahead of you. Despite the genuine fear of a burglar… you couldn’t be bothered to worry too hard about it. One, there wasn’t a thing you could do now, pulling the seat belt over you as Seff started the engine. Two, and you’re sure it’s a bad thought but your mental health has never been known to be particularly okay, but you almost hope there’s somebody waiting for you. Whether they’d kill you immediately or to kidnap you, you’re clueless to which you want more, both are fine options. Maybe torture. Maybe you’d come out of this haze your mind seems to be stuck in.

You hardly notice the car parking, only when the door unlocks and you, automatically, take your seat belt off, opening the door and watching with blinking eyes as Vick, the beautiful woman she is, finds the two of you and hugs both at the same time. It’s a nice hug. Her soap smells nice. Makes you feel sleepy again.

Dinner is filled with laughs and despite your small fears, she doesn’t bring up Wilbur and she doesn’t bring up anybody and she doesn’t say that you deserve better. She just finds ways to make you laugh, make you gasp with the drama she’s heard, helps you with setting the table as Seff finishes off the toasted bread.

Wine is poured in your glass and Vick’s, juice for Seff. You quirk an eyebrow at him and he raises both in return, “what?” he asks as he lifts the fancy glass to his nose, swirling the liquid and then smelling it, with a satisfied nod.

“Pregnant?” He hangs his head in shame as Vick snorts, getting the salt and pepper from the kitchen.

“We wanted to be sure it was hers,” he sends a wink your way before beaming at Vick, accepting the bowl being passed for bread.

The night passes fast and before you can soak the warmth and happiness in for the long run, Seff is already dropping you off, double-checking that you’ll be okay for the weekend. “We’ll be at her mom’s place and you know her mom, middle of nowhere. No signal and—” you cut him off with a tight hug. He doesn’t say anything else until you let go. Until you’re sure the wine isn’t the only thing warm in your chest and belly. You’re slow to pull away but when you do, you walk backwards into your apartment, hand tight around the doorknob. The fear from before is back and though you know he has to leave, you wished he would stay. But that would mean asking. And you can’t ask that of him, not when he’s done so much for you already.

“See you when you get back.” He nods, tight-lipped.

“See you.” He starts the walk back to his car when you call out to him.

The words choke up in your throat but you manage to force them out, tasting bitter like vomit, “love you, be safe.” He parrots it back and tears blur your vision as you wave, watching as he disappears down the steps and then out of sight when his car drives away.

You swallow the lump in your throat, hoping you wouldn’t throw up on the floor after he mopped it, the fear of a familiar pit in your stomach as the door closes behind you. It’s quiet.

Way too quiet.

You turn your TV on, just loud enough to cover the ringing silence in your ears as you sit on the couch, not daring to check your bedroom or the kitchen for any intruders. You’re not sure what you want to find.

Head falling to your lap, phone open, your hand trembles as you press the icon for Wilbur’s contact. Despite him not answering before, you kept texting him and everyday it would stay on delivered, nothing would change. It felt maddening. Lonely. Desperate. You start typing a message out, speaking as your fingers moved, “Seff came over… helped clean and everything. I don’t know… where I’d be without… him.” Tears dripped onto your cheeks as you felt stupid and pathetic and- and- you couldn’t breathe, not around the sobs that escaped your mouth, covering it with one hand as you sent the message. He was just a guy and he only spent one night with you. It wasn’t even that special- you weren’t that special- why would he ever think-

It’s hard to focus but when the tears stop falling and you can breathe, at least through your mouth, you wipe the snot off with your sleeve.

Burglar be damned, you walk into the kitchen, tearing a paper towel off the roll and blowing your nose. It’s loud and it’s warm when you pull it away, groaning at the sight. “Fucking hell,” you mumble, tossing it into the trash.

The floor is cold beneath your feet walking back to the couch and when you sniff, you catch a whiff of that fabuloso again, pressing a hand to your forehead as you reach down to grab your phone. Your breath catches in your throat.

They’re- the messages- they’re not delivered anymore. He’s opened them. Thousands of emotions run through you in the matter of seconds. Air lodges itself in your throat, leaving you dizzy and unable to breathe as you think about it. Shame, humiliation. He’s seeing this pathetic, sad and lonely person vomit in his messages. Shock. Did he- did he lose his phone? Briefly angry, why couldn’t he just open it that night why did he have to wait till now? Staring down the phone screen, you can hardly recognize your thumb pressing on the call button. Without question, the cold press against your ear brings you to the moment, your mind clears of the haze as you’re forced to think, in milliseconds of a game plan. You thought of one over the last two months, wondered what you’d say to him, given the chance, but with your self-deprecating ass it was hard to think at all right now. Taking him back so quickly definitely was wrong, as was assuming he wanted you at all. Oh what to say?

As the call goes through and rings, hearing a vibrating noise outside the window you stiffen up. The one where you heard a noise from-

And the phone picks up, the vibration stops and all you can hear is the distant city noises, and perhaps the quietest panting you’ve heard. You approach the window, holding both hands at your phone, clutching as you whisper, “Wilbur?” Turning around until your back meets the wall beside it, you try to see if looking out would do anything. It doesn’t. It’s just as dark as it is inside of your living room, the only thing disturbing that inky blanket of darkness is your TV. You’re almost scared to turn it off. “Wilbur, what- are you there?” You didn’t know if you meant in general or right outside your fucking window but you can only imagine the answer when you see a phone drop onto the fire escape, a body falling to its knees, you can barely make out the silhouette. You drop your own phone when a hand smacks against the glass, dragging down as it smacks again and again. The shake in your hands makes it hard for you to flip the locks and you slide it up, just barely asking the question: just what in the hell are you doing??

But the hand falls off and a head of fluffy brown hair sticks in and he falls in with as much grace as a limp noodle, groaning all the way. You move him enough only to reach out and grab his phone, looking around to make sure nobody caught him sneaking in. You hope that in the case they do, they assume you’re only sneaking in a boyfriend— even if the assumption hurts to ache for.

“Fuck, Wilbur, what happened to you?” You hiss as you close the window, crouching as you help him sit against the wall, trying to look over him as his head rolls back. His eyes stare up at the ceiling as you look back at the window, catching sight of the red tint dragging down in the shape of his hand. Picking his wrist up, you do see the drying blood coating his skin. Your chest coils tight, thinking the worst of the worst. You try asking him what happened, where’s he hurt before his eyes drift down and find you, his face softening and a deep sigh rattles out of him, interrupted by a hiss and an attempt to press against his ribs. You need to call the ambulance, hell, take him to the hospital yourself but the way he’s sitting on your floor, already adjusting himself seems a little too… relaxed. As one can be relaxed when, no doubt, pain is at the forefront of your mind. “Wilbur, say something,” you beg with gritted teeth. You need a reason to not kick him out, to not pull him into your arms and kiss the wounds away no matter how tempting and how useless it would be. “Say something before I kill you myself.” And then he passes out.

You groan out in frustration, having caught his head in a panic when his body slumped over again and making a dive for the tile. “I cannot be doing this, Seff will kill me-” and then the sudden reminder, of oh yes, as of right now, you cannot call him. Despite more than likely being in the city together, you didn’t want him worrying over you again. You cannot keep doing that to him, he has a life of his own, Vick needs her husband and they’re going to visit her mom— and in your panic, a minute has passed and his head is still in your hand. You, out of nerves, started carding your free fingers through his hair, finding it… wet. You sniff close to his head and nearly groan again, yeah, his hair is wet with sweat.

You push his head back and reach around him, mumbling to yourself about how you should do it. Picking him up by the waist doesn’t do you any favors, neither does pulling on his arms. Bad idea in the first place. Sighing, you make a note to apologize later if he doesn’t die on you when you drag him to your room. It’s no question that he lies on your bed- after a towel has been laid out for him. If he’s bleeding, you don't want too big of a stain. You had considered leaving him on the floor… but then you couldn’t do it.

You check his arms, pushing his sleeves up and finding none of that. You check his head, nothing bleeding there. You take his shoes off but… that’s about all you do besides getting the first aid kit and setting it next to you, along with water and painkillers. If he was bleeding in the legs or chest or hell, even his feet, you needed him awake for that. And despite him literally being on your fire escape, which raises all sorts of questions mind you, you couldn’t undress him. You couldn’t.

After a few minutes, you shake his shoulder, giving his face a few smacks when he wakes up with a jolt, looking around until he finds you and then he groans, clutching at his side again, eyes shut tight. Then he tries to sit up. “Hey slow down there,” you say, holding onto his shoulder when it seemed he would stand up.

“Please, I should-” he swallows and you despise yourself for looking at his throat move, “I should go.”

“You shouldn’t be moving at all, now where’s the blood?” You speak fast, hoping to hide the shake in your voice if you were mean about it. He tried to fight you on it but when you pushed on his chest, stepping between his legs, he couldn’t move, head flung back as he tried to reel the grunts of pain in, trying to be quiet. “If you needed the hospital- or- or a clinic, you should’ve gone there first. But you didn’t, so you’re gonna tell me what’s hurting so I can help you.” He lays limp on your bed, unable to look at you as his mouth dropped open and snapped shut several times. “If you don’t tell me where it hurts, I’m going to stab you and then stitch you up myself and then throw you out my window so fucking- say something.”

It’s silent. Until it wasn’t. “Everywhere,” he rasped, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. “It hurts everywhere. I can’t-” he gasps, hand coming up to where your own still processes, in the middle of his chest and over yours“-think.” You retract your hand immediately, backing up as you give him space. Space for yourself.

“Is there anything bleeding?” You ask and when he shakes his head, you think back to the clear blood on his hands, on your window. It doesn’t add up but taking it with a generous fistful of salt, you want to scream. “Okay- okay. Fuck.”

In the end, you have him sit up, half-apologizing for the pain and the other of you lets him have it, he can handle it just this once. He could’ve called, he could’ve texted, anything, but no, he had to wait until he was literally too hurt to move.

“Did you break anything?” You ask, digging through the first-aid kit while you waited for him to take his shirt off, “because with the way you’re bitching about these bruises—”

“—bitching?” He cuts you off, shirt halfway over his head.

“— yes, bitching, you’re not bleeding, if anything was broken you would’ve, surely, gone to a clinic. A healer, just, fucking anybody. No, you had to come to me.” You say, pulling out the self-adherent wrap and opening it up, unable to fault yourself in finding a battered, bare-chested Wilbur on your bed and losing your voice for it. The hair on his chest that leads down his stomach that leads further down into his pants… you breathe in as he himself is quiet. Starting at his ribs, you have him hold it down as you begin wrapping it around his torso, dedicated to ignoring the heat of his skin, how close you are to him. How you have to stand with one leg between his and lean into his space.

With each go-around, you make sure it’s not too tight, just enough to keep pressure and when you tape it down, you have him lay back down, gathering the first-aid kit to put on the nightstand. Heading into the kitchen for an ice-pack. In the middle of making one in a ziploc bag, you wonder what the fuck you’re doing. You’re patching up a guy who fell into your living room after having ghosted you for two months.

You want to be mad at yourself, you want to punish yourself so badly for letting him in so easily.

“Listen, I just wanted to say—” he says when you walk in and you couldn’t help yourself, you chucked it at the bed and snatched the throw blanket on your dresser, ignoring any other attempts at conversation.

“Get some rest, don’t call for me unless that bag is melted.” You say over your shoulder, closing your bedroom door shut and you can’t help the pathetic slide down against it. Tears try to fall but you wipe them furiously. He does not get to wander in and fuck everything up. For goodness’ sake, you’ve just mopped.

Setting up camp on your couch, you lie down with the knowledge that yeah your neck will be shit in the morning, but you don’t care. You don’t care. It won’t matter in the morning because in the morning, he’ll be okay enough to get up and stand somewhat straight and maybe without help and he’ll insist on leaving. That’s just how it’ll go. He’ll say he never meant to end up on your fire escape and in the morning, he’ll apologize for taking up your bed. Because that’s just how it’ll go. And then he’ll go. And you’ll never see him again.

That’s how it’s going to be. It’ll never be anything more. You sniffle, can’t even stop crying for a night. How fucking useless. You bury your head into the throw pillow and shiver under the thin blanket. It’ll be over soon. It’ll be over and he’ll be gone and you can pretend that you never intended on letting someone murder you. You can pretend that you’re normal and pretend everything is okay. Breathing out, you let sleep fall over you.

You rub the ache in your neck, grimacing as you flip another pancake, successfully burning it. It goes onto a stack of burnt pancakes. Turning off the stove, you don’t even pull butter or the syrup out of the fridge. Maybe your bitterness will fade away with time… maybe you’ll be able to look back in time and say, it’s okay. It just wasn’t meant to be. For right now, you get to be petty and serve your bruised guest burnt food.

Opening your bedroom door, you halt in your footsteps; finding him fast asleep. The ice-pack is nowhere to be found. A sigh falls out of your mouth, the sound of the plate that knocks against the dresser is almost as loud as your defeat. You take the blanket you’d slept with and drape it over him, tucking the edges under him. The idiot slept on top of the cover. Standing up straight, you look at him. This is the first time you’ve seen him in two months, and you feel hopeless. He looks so peaceful, so handsome, so pretty, so helpless you can’t help but want to stay. But he’s hurt you. No matter what he has to say.

You breathe in deep before turning to leave and you would’ve made it out the door had he not reached out for you, grasping your wrist with cold fingers. You shiver under his touch as his head falls to the side, his hair falling into his closed eyes. “What you do to me is cruel,” you whisper, sliding down to the floor and letting him hold your wrist. You don’t know how much I regret meeting you and you don’t know how much I cherish meeting you at all.

It takes twenty minutes for him to wake up, two minutes after that for him to let go. You stand up, throwing a new shirt at him. This one happened to be completely oversized and old for you, perfect for him. “Get dressed and eat, I’m either taking you to a hospital or a healer you know, fifteen minutes.” You don’t give yourself time to loiter in the room, you don’t give him time to explain himself. (You know that maybe, just maybe, he didn’t mean to ghost you but let’s be real, you’re you. And he’s Wilbur. The math isn’t adding up. He just wasn’t that interested.)

About ten minutes after you walk out of your room, he stumbles out, gripping onto the walls and he groans with his mouth closed. You don’t let him see your flustered face at the sound, just walking out and letting him follow you to the stairs. You pull one of his arms over your shoulders and make a point not to talk to him, even when he tries to get you to let go. Saying all about how he can walk on his own and stairs are no problem… you couldn’t resist it though, he was pretty insistent that he’d be okay and maybe you’re still upset. You let go and watch as he falls down one step, catching him before he scraped himself up even more.

“And you said you had it under control.” You mutter and you can see he wants to say more but you send him a look that has him clenching his jaw again.

“Look, you don’t need to take me to a hospital.” He begins after the two of you are settled in your car.

“So you know a healer?” You turn to him, giving him a blank stare.

“Well- maybe- I-” he stumbles over his words as you start the engine.

“You have very limited options right now. Either I take you to someone who will help you or I will dump your ass on the front step of the nearest doctor. Pick one.” His jaw sets and you make it a point to stare ahead as he gives you directions.

In no time, you find yourself in front of an apartment building, helping him get out of the car and into the lobby. You barely helped him into the elevator before turning to leave, watching as he leaned against the elevator doors. He stumbled over his words again.

“I couldn’t text you. I wanted to, so badly.” He says, with the wettest eyes known to man.

“So you’re telling me, you saw I was texting, couldn’t respond  for some mysterious reason and you expect me to tell you it’s okay?”

“I’m not saying it was.”

“Two months, Wilbur, you left me alone for two months.” You say, throwing it out there and he wants to say more, you can see it so clearly. You can see he wants to say why, wants to tell you everything. His big, sad eyes stare you down, tears close to falling. You look behind you, holding onto the elevator doors as you lean closer into the enclosed space. “And we’re only talking because you showed up at my window, bruised to hell and back with someone’s blood on your hands. Talk to me when you’re healed. Because yeah, I have questions. And if you can’t answer them when you’ve healed up, just go back to ignoring me. It worked perfectly fine for the both of us, didn’t it?” You don’t know why you said any of that, bitterness and hurt chokes you up, your words coming out stilted or too fast. Because no way in any version of reality were you okay. You wanted the truth. You wanted to know exactly what went wrong that night for him to ignore you.

And if he’s being honest with you right now, you’re not sure what to make of it.

But you’ve said your piece and the first tear falls down his cheek. So you lean in, palm smacking the button for the doors to close. You don’t wait a second before turning around and heading back to your car. Breaking down right in front of it.

You were so far from being okay, so, so fucking far.

[goodoldfashionedengineer]

TUA Tumblr Simulator pt. 2

Find more here: pt. 1

—

💩is-reginald-hargreeves-dead-now Follow

10/01/2007

NO

💩is-reginald-hargreeves-dead-now Follow

21/03/2019

YES, HE'S DEAD NOW!!!

938,649 notes

🤲health-and-goodness Follow

RIP Sir Reginald Hargreeves

🌄chanceschances Follow

HA, no

FUCK Reginald Hargreeves, all my homies HATE Reginald Hargreeves

256,803 notes

🏰study-hall-monitor Follow

Wait, how old is Reginald Hargreeves? Did he not age? Seriously, look at this photo from 2002 and look at this photo from this year

🦕dino-nuggiez Follow

If you were on Facebook, they'd say he was a lizard person

🐊florida-shaped-being Follow

Fortunately, we're on Tumblr

Which means that people will say he's a crab person

🎃helloqueen Follow

🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

🍁chaos-is-my-peanutbutter Follow

You fools

OBVIOUSLY he's an alien

👾codey-for-everyone Follow

Wait. Omg. It makes sense!

It would also explain their powers, think about it!

You're an absolute genius, I can't believe no one has ever thought about that before!

🍁chaos-is-my-peanutbutter Follow

Lmao I think you're taking this too seriously buddy

🖍️memecent-van-go Follow

You are ALL wrong

He is actually created in a lab by the government and they said he "died" to surprise us with the biggest April Fool's prank in the history of mankind next week

498,737 notes

🪩 traumallama Follow

Congratulations to all the Hargreeves siblings, I am very happy for you. May you lead a very peaceful and cheerful life now that your dickhead father is gone

🌌 jupiters-moons Follow

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

🌨️ twirlingandwhirling Follow

I just feel bad for The Séance. Wouldn't like to have my abusive dad following me around

👥 lurkeringlurrlurr Follow

By that logic his dead brother, The Horror, would also be following him around

🌌 jupiters-moons Follow

Their names are Klaus and Ben.

🚵 rolly-molly Follow

Can we go back to The Séance thing? I mean, his power is that he can see ghosts iirc, who is to say he can't see Ben? (Also, seriously, The Horror? That must be so bad for a child)

👥 lurkeringlurrlurr Follow

Sure, I guess it wouldn't be impossible

But if *I* had my dead brother following me around all the time, I think I'd lose my sanity

9,734 notes

🪷sweet-sweet-sweeter Follow

Why Reginald Hargreeves kinda hot ngl

🥐food-up-with-this-croissant Follow

Dude, he JUST died

🪷sweet-sweet-sweeter Follow

What? I like old guys!

🌾crying-in-bed Follow

Tumblr user not simping over a white rich dude challenge: FAILED ❌

👾codey-for-everyone Follow

Also he's probably an alien

🪷sweet-sweet-sweeter Follow

Even better for the monsterfuckers

🐍nessiesmuse Follow

The monsterfuckers don't want him either

💟singthissong Follow

Abi, I say this as your friend, your mutual...

Get a better taste in men

🪷sweet-sweet-sweeter Follow

Maybe when I can afford rent, food and bills with one job I will

5,679 notes

☂️brellies-fan Follow

Is that Number Five, aka, The Boy, the one who disappeared 17 years ago?! Why does he still look like 13!? What's happening?!

1,139,580 notes

[fernsnailz]

January 2024 Review Roundup

hello everypony‼️ something i want to do through 2024 is a mini review series where i recap some of the media i watched/played/read at the end of every month. this was inspired by tumblr user ponett’s 2023 media wrap-up, it's a great collection of quick reviews so go check it out!

i’m doing this partially as writing/analysis practice, but mostly because my memory is really bad and i want to keep track of what i've seen this year. with that said, my thoughts on everything i finished in january 2024 is under the cut :]

Portal 1 + 2

yyyup i beat Portal and it only took me (checks watch) 13 years

the first time i played Portal 2 was at a friend’s house when i was in middle school, and i had a fuckin blast. but after all that time... it still holds up! i don’t think anything i have to say about Portal will be particularly new since people have been praising this series since it came out. the writing, the level design, even the controls feel tight and engaging the whole way through. i played on switch and expected a bit of jank, but i was pleasantly surprised at how smooth it felt to play. the only part that dragged for me were the levels through the old aperture labs, but i think i would like them a lot more on a second replay. Portal 2 is fantastic and one of my new favorite games, the artistry behind it is truly incredible and i’m really glad i finally finished it. while i was playing Portal 2, i described Glados and Wheatly to a friend and said “they’re like if a ceiling fan could be passive aggressive and if Fozzie Bear was an evil golf ball”

I Think You Should Leave

finally. i can truly understand and appreciate Subspace Dubbed Over

i think one of my favorite things about I Think You Should Leave is how it utilizes horror. beyond sitting slack-jawed in disbelief at the crazy events unfolding before my eyes, a number of the sketches dipped into bits that genuinely kinda scared me. like the one sketch that circulates on here where the guy (pig?) in a mask crawls through a dog door, which is. genuinely terrifying. but so many of the other sketches have slow, nerve-racking pacing leading to crazy shit that would be perfect in a horror film were the context different. idk i like dissecting how horror and comedy are essentially the same thing and I Think You Should Leave was very good at enabling that <3 favorite sketches are probably “then let my wife eat the damn receipt” and “55 BURGERS 55 HOTDOGS 100 FRIES 100 TATER TOTS”

Sonic Prime Season 3

man. ohhhh man. i didn’t go into this with high expectations and i still feel let down. Sonic Prime Season 3 was definitely my least favorite “season” of the batch - abysmal pacing, very few character moments i actually enjoyed, and the things i praised about the show felt very underutilized through these episodes. Nine is the shining star of Sonic Prime and i was looking forward to seeing his more villainous side, but his character took such a sharp turn into pure evil and it felt like he spent the entire season repeating the same three lines. and as much as i praise Shadow’s writing in Prime, it doesn’t really matter when he spends half of the season trapped in a hole that he just… runs out of later.

lastly, i cannot stop thinking about how bad the pacing of this season is. three episodes for a repetitive final battle feels like such a waste of time when you see just how much they rush the emotional resolutions in the last episode. however, there is one thing i truly love about Sonic Prime Season 3 - i love the Sails and Mangey fakeout death. it's so fucking funny. like you really expect me to believe that two cartoon animals in this Y-7 rated show EXPLODED?????? absolute comedy gold.

overall, i just… don’t really know what to think of Sonic Prime. anything i enjoyed in the show was often fleeting, and much of it felt like its only purpose was to waste my time. also Rouge i can’t believe they did you so dirty oh my god

Ghost Trick

i was so proud that i figured out the secret behind Sissel’s memory loss like halfway through the game. however i also kept getting caught during the prison escape sequence like an idiot

Ghost Trick is in a similar situation as Portal where 1. it’s incredible and one of my new favorite games, and 2. there’s nothing i can really say about it that hasn’t already been said or just. shouldn’t be said. Ghost Trick is a fantastic mystery game, and because of that i think it’s best to go into its story as blind as possible. the narrative unfolds in such fascinating ways - even though the actual object manipulation gameplay isn’t directly about solving the mystery (like in Ace Attorney or other mystery games), it still ties wonderfully into the story in some incredibly unique ways.

i also really love the artstyle of Ghost Trick - i love 2D character artwork with that sharp lineweight, it reminded me a lot of Sonic Battle (another game with an artstyle i love). i was also really impressed by the 3D character models and animation - despite the limitations of the camera, you get a wonderful sense of everyone’s personality from the limited body language expressed in the overworld (even though the models lack much facial expression which. i guess they don’t really need? idk that was the only thing that threw me off). anyways yeah everyone should play Ghost Trick so Ghost Trick fans can be freed from their curse and talk about it without having to tag like 10 different spoiler tags. and for Missile

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

ok bear with me. i went into Scott Pilgrim Takes Off without reading the comics first. and i fuckin loved it

my understanding of Scott Pilgrim before SPTO was mostly from the movie (I KNOW I’M SORRY), but even with my base understanding of the series i really enjoyed this show for what it was. i found myself appreciating the time they dedicated to further develop every single character in the show - especially Ramona. she’s fantastic as the lead, i really loved watching her reconcile with her exes and seeing all of them grow instead of exploding into coins. my favorite episode was probably the one with her and Roxie - not only did i adore the movie-jumping set pieces, but you really understand the weight of Ramona’s mistakes in their past relationship and how much it hurt Roxie. despite the big climactic fight, the flashbacks are quiet, subtle, heartbreaking. Ramona’s apology is genuine, and it feels so wonderful to watch her confront her past throughout the show. also i think it’s really funny that for all these characters to become the best versions of themselves, they had to kill off Scott for most of the story

and holy shit the artstyle and animation. oh my god. i love watching something that makes me immediately go “i need to see the storyboards for this RIGHT NOW.” SPTO is such a visual delight to watch, it elevates the artstyle of the comics while also keeping what makes that style so appealing - i love the line weight on the characters, i love how much forward energy the animation has, i love the fucking. virtual boy section. as soon as i found out Science Saru was also behind Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, everything made immediate sense. i was destined to love this show.

another worry i had going into SPTO (besides the fact that i hadn’t read the comics lol) is that the original cast from the movie was returning. i think the movie cast is fine, but i wasn’t sure how some of them would fare with voice acting for animation. however, i thought they all did a good job - i think the whole cast loves these characters and would be able to fit into them fairly easily no matter what form their performance takes, and they definitely had a good voice director in the studio with them. the only thing that felt off about the voice performances to me was that sometimes it sounded like some of their mics kept peaking?? idk some of these episodes i watched high as balls and i felt like i could hear and see every single sound and frame of the show. so that might have just been me.

god i did not. expect to have this much to say about Scott Pilgrim. i really loved this show and i’m currently reading the comics to fully catch up on the general Scott Pilgrim experience - i think reading the comics AFTER Takes Off is making me appreciate even more of the character work that went into the show. like they do so much with Mathew Patel in SPTO, a character that was. not originally around for a long time from what i’ve gathered? also i like the funny little robot. oh my GOD i cannot talk about this show anymore whatever it’s good get me out of here

Sword AF Season 1

i put on the Smosh cast’s D&D series to play in the background while i was drawing. i did not expect to think much of it. instead, i had one of the most enjoyable D&D podcast experiences since i listened to The Adventure Zone Balance???

i haven’t really enjoyed other D&D podcasts since i dropped off of The Adventure Zone, and i wasn’t expecting much from Sword AF of all things. then i saw that Shayne was playing as a druid warforged made of plants and his name was fucking Fernie and i sat my ass down and LISTENED. while i think Sword AF is currently lacking in its world and larger story, those things just. aren’t really what Sword AF is really trying to provide at the moment. it’s main focus is comedy, and the players are genuinely such a delight to watch play together and build off of each other. they mostly focus on bits and goofs for the sake of she show's comedic tone, but i still found it thoroughly enjoyable because every player embodies and performs their characters really well. idk Sword AF was an unexpected hit for me this month, i thought it was fun. and i love Fernie so much

Plastic Death - Glass Beach

so originally i wasn’t going to include music reviews in these roundups at all, but then i was entirely surprised by a new Glass Beach album and oh my god. holy shit. oh my fucking god jesus christ. holy shit. its preddy good

Plastic Death gets the low point of the album out of the way immediately. it starts with the “phone call/conversation audio” trope that i don’t particularly enjoy - HOWEVER despite me disliking this opening, 1. it sets up the overall themes of Plastic Death very quickly, and 2. the rest of the album blows this 40 second opening completely out of the water. from there, the album grows into something beautiful and uncontained, and i just. i really like it

Plastic Death captures the beauty of the temporary, asks what it means to be created for a cause you can’t fulfill, questions if you can reclaim yourself from cycles and constraints designed to destroy you. and is also about being transgender. the lyrics are abstract in a way that requires a conversation with the listener, many of the vocals obscured and smooth like waves - this album is definitely one that needs to be listened to a few times. i wasn’t sure how i felt about the vocal style at first before realizing the vocals were the main reason i was relistening to this album, allowing myself to find even more that i loved about it. the instrumentation is also incredible, i love the use of marimba in a number of songs - distant, eerie, almost skeletal. and the fucking. 8-bit section?? which kinda rules???? and that’s the only point in the album it ever shows up??????? incredible. a fleeting, somewhat silly moment that i love every time.

this album left my heart aching, in part from my connection to it and in part from the pure love and joy emanating from this music. i can feel just how much fun this music was to perform and create, a cohesion of time and sound that just clicked for me. Plastic Death made me miss playing music, which is something i haven’t felt in years. all from an album that starts with a conversation about CrankGameplay’s dead youtube channel. good lord

i like this album a normal amount. go listen to it a few times. my favorite tracks are cul-de-sac and commatose

Wish

i watched Wish with a couple of friends and knew i probably wasn't going to like it. with that in mind, i gave myself a challenge: i wanted to find one thing about this movie that i genuinely really loved. it could be anything, and loving it for ironic reasons was allowed.

here's the complete list of things i loved about Disney's Wish (2023):

i love the one shot where King Magnifico stirs an evil caldron evily. i thought it was hilarious. what was he cooking

i loved that the end credits included a reference to Dinosaur 2001 at all, and i loved that they paid homage to Big Hero 6 by showing the forgettable villain of that movie instead of their Baymax cashcow for some reason. my friends and i saw him show up in the credits and were like "who's the trenchcoat guy??"

you may notice that this list is very short and 50% of it is about the movie's credits. so yeah this movie is not very good

Wish is an empty husk of a movie. everything about it feels so, so hollow - lifeless town squares, uninspired character designs (to quote a friend: "i have all of these characters' hairstyles in The Sims"), characters whose existence is only justified to fill empty space or an overused archetype, and an "evil" villain who lacks charisma and spine in a futile effort to remind the audience of previous disney villains with actual character. even the artstyle lacks any sort of sauce, the watercolor effect they were trying to go for only makes the backgrounds and character textures run together, and the dull lighting makes things look even more faded. it's like disney was scared of making a movie that made its audience feel... anything. all to celebrate 100 years of Disney slop, baby!!!

Some YouTube videos I liked in January: 💥 An Exhaustive Look at Pokemon Brilliant Diamond 💥 TomSka's Guide to Plagiarism 💥 Paradise Bombed (this video is a great piece of journalism and i’m definitely not doing it justice by throwing it into the youtube vid list) 💥 Surprising Our Friends with Zoo Animals 💥 Did FNAF Ever Have a Good Story?

thanks for reading! next month’s roundup will be wild because i’ll likely be reviewing House of Leaves and Hazbin Hotel. can you guess which cursed house gives me a worse headache? WHO KNOWS! (hint: it's Hazbin Hotel)

[zeroaddzero]

Top 10 Horniest Bruce Springsteen songs, ranked

Yes there are more horny Bruce songs. Too many horny songs for one list. I don’t know if his game was good because he knew how to write horny songs, or if his game inspired him to write horny songs. Either way, we’ve been blessed musically with a lot of horny songs. Here’s the horny songs I managed to fit into a (very biased) list:

1.  I'm On Fire

THE horny Bruce song. A fever fantasy of a wet dream smushed into one moaning, sweaty mess. Before I was a fan, this (coupled with the below performance) was the song that made me go "OH. I get it now."

Spotify LINK

At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet And a freight train running through the middle of my head Only you can cool my desire

2.  Pink Cadillac

About as subtle as Lady Gaga’s “Disco Stick.” Even better paired with the BITUSA tour intro (said intro got noticeably more sexual after Bruce got married in 1985).

Spotify LINK

They say Eve tempted Adam with an apple But man I an’t goin for that I know it was her pink Cadillac

3. Fire

Originally written for Elvis, the bass line alone for this #problematic 70s “don't play coy with me” number will make you reconsider feminism for 5 minutes. The 1986 performance is downright NSFW.

Spotify LINK

You had a hold on me right from the start A grip so tight I couldn't tear it apart

4. The Fever

Bruce is king of the “lying in bed thinking of how horny this person makes me” genre, and this is one of his finest examples. At almost 8 minutes, it’s the tantric equivalent to the more concentrated "I’m on Fire". Anybody noticing a “burning” theme here?

Spotify LINK

Well now the day grows longer The love just grows stronger, baby And the fever gets so bad at night I got the fever for the girl

5. Because The Night

Bruce never finished the lyrics, and this song arguably belongs to Patti Smith now. Bruce has even said as much. However, I am biased and enjoy this banger too much to let technicalities get in the way of horny. On the list it goes.

Spotify LINK

Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to lust Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us

6. Red Headed Woman

I'm Going Down may seem raunchy until you realise it's about a bad breakup. For the other thing, we have this entry. Folks, this song is literally about eating pussy. Bruce even introduced it as such during his Ghost of Tom Joad tour. I’ve yet to recover from the whiplash of hearing him say the word “cunnilingus” while performing at his old Catholic high school.

Spotify LINK

Well listen up stud Your life's been wasted 'Til you've been down on your knees and tasted A red headed woman

7. She's The One

Speculated to have been written about the violinist who played on the album Born To Run, this tune shows our boy is down baaad. Best paired with the excellent "Mona" intro, which is included in the Houston '78 live performance below.

Spotify LINK

With her killer graces and her secret places That no boy can fill with her hands on her hips Oh and that smile on her lips Because she knows that it kills me

8. Part Man, Part Monkey

My Tunnel of Love tour knowledge is woefully lacking despite the tour being his most explicit, and the accompanying album being in my top 3. In the eyes of the public, Bruce was still with his first wife when this video was shot in 1988. Only the band knew he was recently separated, so imagine watching a presumably married man on stage eye-fucking his backup singer. The gossip mill must have been insane after each show.

Spotify LINK

Well the night is dark, the moon is full The flowers of romance exert their pull We talk awhile, my fingers slip I'm hard and crackling like a whip

9. Crush On You

Another genre this Jersey dude excels at is “horny to the point of funny.” Bruce himself has called it "the worst song we ever put on a record" but hey, what does he know.

Spotify LINK

For one kiss, darling I swear everything I would give 'Cause she's a walking talking reason to live

10. Cover Me

I just realised this is only one of four songs on this list included on an official Springsteen album (if you don't count the outtake compilations.) And how fitting it is to start and end this list with Paris '85 concert footage!

Spotify LINK

Now promise me baby you won't let them find us Hold me in your arms, let's let our love blind us Cover me, shut the door and cover me I'm looking for a lover who will come on in and cover me

Honourable mentions (song/album):

Rosalita / The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle Candy's Room / Darkness on the Edge of Town Ramrod / The River Cindy / The River (outtakes) Ain’t got you / Tunnel of Love The Fuse / The Rising

Let me know if you think I missed any! I won't change the list, but more horny song discourse is always good.

[itsohh]

Death Goes to Disco Part 4

A/N: Female reader, righhhttt so NEXT chapter should be the last chapter. For real this time you guys.

Summary: In the middle of winter, the three of you debark into the never-ending darkness of Greenland's winter. Not used to the cold, you struggle to adapt to the cold but Ghost and Soap are there to help.

Word count:  3038

Warnings: not smut but not exactly sfw either

AO3 Masterlist Part 1 Part 3

Cold. So. Freezing. Cold.

In the seemingly permanent darkness, you trekked through the snow. The jacket that covered every inch of your skin really did try. It kept you going, get you mobile, kept you combat-ready. Yet, you knew later at night when you had to stop moving its wetness would become a detriment.

In-between the two men you followed Ghost while Soap walked behind you. All three of you had night vision goggles on to cope. "You alright there Disco?" You heard Soap ask when you clutched your jacket a bit tighter.

"It's fucking cold!" Your voice managed to get out despite the fluffy jacket hood that covered most of your face.

"Not used to the cold eh?"

"Not used to extreme weather."

"Prefer being in the desert?"

"Fuck no, at I can warm up. Only so many clothes you can take off."

"In extreme heat, it's wiser to wear many layers. Polyester is not recommended." Ghost spoke in front of you.

"Fuck are you serious?" You hissed and Ghost looked back at you for a moment with his brow raised. "My uniform back when I was in Afghanistan was made of teredo. In the middle of the goddamn summer."

"What's teredo?" Soap asked.

"Polyester cotton hybrid." You answered with a huff and Soap let out a laugh before your head snapped back at him.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I- that's horrible really. They didn't have anything else?"

"Not really, my uniform fit shit anyway." You looked forward and soon caught up to Ghost who looked down his scope. Johnny joined the pair of you and you copied Ghost's action.

At the end of your scope, you could see what he was looking at. A small cabin, more of a shack than anything. Hidden away in the side of a mountain. If you didn't know to look there, it was extremely easy to miss.

"See that?" Ghost asked.

"Sure do."

"Affirmative."

"That's our destination. Our base of operations."

"Think they have a fireplace in there?" Soap asked.

"No fire."

"Negative."

Both you and Ghost spoke at the same time much to each other's surprise.

"Even if it has a fireplace we should avoid using it. The smoke would give away our location." You swallowed and explained. Ghost gave you a nod at your explanation and you couldn't help but feel pride sweet inside your chest. Like you were a fresh rookie again.

"How long are we staying here LT?" Soap asked.

"Estimated two weeks." Ghost looked towards him.

"Two weeks?" Soap was surprised and he glanced at you for a moment.

"Will we have the supplies for that? I'm not a fan of reindeer." You muttered the last part under your breath.

"Should be, let's get out there and find out."

Despite the close proximity of the building, it took the three of you about half an hour to finally reach it. Ghost took point and was the first to enter, Soap right on his tail. Soon came the call for all clear. Safe as safe could be.

"Hey, Ghost?" You asked as you shrugged off your back onto the sofa. His head turned to face you as he removed his own bag. "You said in the briefing we were here on the odd case that Willem took this path through Greenland. What if he doesn't?"

"Then that's up to the Denmark government."

"No I mean, what do we do?"

"Wait until the call."

"Huh really shelled us out for something so boring?" Soap popped up next to you.

"They need Willem caught, numbers on this path aren't an option. They needed to make sure that if he came this way it was someone that could deal with it."

"Why two weeks?"

"His mobility is slow. Careful but slow."

"You would think that they would work fast with the darkness and all that." Soap took his backpack off and played it on the table to unpack.

"Willem and his men aren't familiar with the land. It was a risk to flee here. We are here to make sure it doesn't pay off."

"Sure thing. Supply check?" Your eyes went past him to the cupboards in the kitchen.

"Inventory, count it." He nodded and you got to work.

In about half an hour the three of you grouped up again. With a list in one hand, you sat down on the couch and Soap joined you. Ghost eventually turned up with a stack of blankets in his hands.

"Ooo that's what I like to see." Your hand went to snatch the top one and you heard Soap laugh next to you under his breath. The room was cold, not as cold as it was outside but still really cold. With your jacket now off to dry, you would take anything you could get.  This meant while you weren't in active danger, you were keeping that blanket like it was a lifeline.

"Report?" At Ghost's voice had you looked up at him and nodded.

"Not including our own supplies we brought, this place could realistically easily supply us for about a year in canned foods. Whoever normally looks after this place does it well. Water is something we will need to get ourselves but with the snow and ice outside I think we should be fine. There's a gas oven in the kitchen hooked up to some propane bottles under the cabinet. Counted four of them."

"Right. I counted our supplies. Among us, we have about 800 rounds, 12 'nades, 3 flashes and 6 smoke."

"Add another 40 rounds. There's an unmodified Marksman which was on the wall of the master. There are four bedrooms with outside windows. Jumping from them is not advisable. There is an attic with an escape hatch. Found out there's also another ladder under that rug over there which leads downward. It's a one-way trip. So only use it in the case of emergency. About our warmth situation, the fireplace is buggered. Couldn't use it if we wanted to."

"Any other type of heating aside from these?" You asked Ghost and he slightly shook his head.

"The building is well initialized, in the bedrooms I've reinforced the windows with blankets and tape. The longer we stay here the warmer it should get."

"Great." You mumbled and pulled the blanket closer around you. Perhaps they would warm up quickly, you certainly weren't.

"We got power here?"

"Negative on that Soap. This place seems to be designed for the summer. While it has the capability to get power from the solar panels we don't have the sun on our side. Everything's dead."

"Our batteries on all our equipment should easily last two weeks right?" You asked and Ghost gave you a single nod.

"Inventory done, now, after we eat we will be doing shifts. Four-hour blocks. Two sleep, one awake."

"I call the first shift." You said.

"Soap you take second, I'll take last."

"Rodger that. So." Soap turned to face you. "Whats allocated for tonight's dinner?"

You pushed off the couch and headed to the kitchen and pulled out some cans and placed them on the island. "Beef." You smiled at him and gestured to the next can. "Beans."

"Have we got seasoning here?" Soap gave you a slightly hopeful smile that was in vain. It was lucky the group of you had food at all and didn't have to rely on MRIs or the local fauna.

"No." You gave him your own bitter smile.

"Just like when it's Ghost's turn to cook then." John made sure to look directly at you and avoid Ghost whose head slowly turned to look at the man. A death glare in his eyes.

"Do you have a problem with my cooking Sergeant?"

"Maybe use a little bit of oregano in the future? Just a thought. Perhaps a bit of chives on spuds. Now that I think of it, maybe some paprika on the chicken. At least it's not dry." Soap kept his eyes on you and you couldn't help but chuckle slightly with your brows raised as he dug himself into a hole.

"I will take your advice into consideration." Ghost's shoulders dropped and he turned back to face you.

"Since Johnny has demonstrated his culinary expertise. He can cook for us today." Soap opened his mouth and shut it. You pushed the cans towards him and grabbed a couple more.

"Thanks Soap."

-

First shift wasn't easy. With the eternal darkness of the night, it made it impossible to know what time it was without looking at your watch. Ghost had instructed you that you didn't need to specifically look out a scope just keep an eye out for anything.

Which led to boredom.

It was three and a half hours in that you felt another presence. Your eyes flicked up from the game of solitaire that you had set out in front of you to see Ghost there. His eyes went to yours. Even though you could barely see him with the small lantern next to you, you were able to see that his greasepaint was removed from around his eyes and he was left just in his mask.

His eyes were on your hand that rest on the pistol next to you. "Can't sleep?" Your voice was soft slowly he came up to you.

"Checking on you."

"Me? Worried I'm going to murder you in your sleep or something?" You laughed and he sat down on the ground in front of you.

"No. If you were going to kill me it would have been back in Las Almas." Your laugh died down and your eyes fell a bit at his mention of the past.

"Well, I'm still kicking if that's what your wondering. A bit cold but I'll deal. You should go back to sleep. I have to wake Soap in a bit anyway. Unless you swapped shifts with him?"

"No." His eyes looked down at your game of cards which was set up.

"I keep losing, I suck at solitaire."

"Surprising, heard from Soap you would have fleeced him dry if you were playing with real money."

"Oh, I'm great at poker and other games you play with other people. Solo games, ugh." You looked down to see you had fucked it up and let out a huff. “Half of the game isn’t about the cards but the way you portray yourself.” You shuffled the cards and paused. “Want some water? Still have some melted from dinner.”

“I’m good.”

“Suit yourself, Lieutenant. Did you wish to play a game then? Since you don’t seem like your heading back to bed yet.”

“You play a lot of cards, why?”

“Something to pass the time.” You glanced down and swallowed. “I used to be really bad at it. When I joined NZSAS I became rather close with a Sergent. Hina was her name. I always ended up assigned under her even when she became a Lieutenant. She always used to stress the importance of staying sane in the military. Downtime was the big part. She always believed that we needed to keep our minds as clear as possible. Preventing paranoia was a big one. So she would always have a pack of cards on her.”

Ghost seemed content to listen so you started to start another game in front of you. “Of course, I was terrible so she made it her personal mission to coach me on the matter. Wasn’t the only thing she coached me on.”

“Hand-to-hand?”

“She taught me how to be a marksman. No, that came from our Captain. Captain Hommeys. Hommeys was an interesting woman,  sort of a good cop bad cop thing with Hina. Our Captain was a scary ass woman. Far scarier than you.” You glanced up and gave him a wink. “Which could be a problem with recruits and rookies. People would be too afraid to bring up matters so, we would get people to go to Hina. They were a great team.”

“Were?”

“Hina died a few years back and Hommeys lost a leg. Still tough as nails.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“Part of this life isn’t it? Makes every day that much more important ‘cause you never know when it's gonna be your last. One second’s all it takes. One day all you’re going to be left with are memories of your loved ones so it's best to make those memories good right?” You gave him a gentle smile. You looked down at the cards.” From what I heard Hommeys still works on base. Works as an adviser but I didn’t see her when I was there.” You paused when your watch let out a small beep.

“Mmm four hours already? I still feel so awake, maybe I should let John rest more.”

“No. It’s important you get rest.” Ghost narrowed his eyes at you and you put the cards back together.

“Should take your own advice. You need sleep too Ghost.”

“I will.” Ghost followed your lead when you got up and stretched. With Ghost behind you, you found your way to the master bedroom where John was fast asleep. He had stretched across the large bed. His hand lay on the missing area where Ghost had been. You wondered if they would still share a bed when others were around or if it was because it was only the three of you.

Gently you shook John's shoulder and he blinked his eyes open with a groan. “Disco? Mmm, swap time already?” You nodded at his question. “Fuck, your fingers are cold. Like ice.” He shivered away from you and started to get up. Your eyes fell on Ghost who seemed rather interested in what Soap had said.

“You're still cold.”

“It’s like -6, yeah I’m cold.” You smiled at him and started to walk away from the bed. When you passed Ghost he caught your wrist and you practically jumped at the action. His hand was warm, really warm. How he managed to stay this warm surprised you and subtly you leaned into his touch.

“Get in.”

“Pardon?” Your eyes went wide and darted from his to Johnnys.

“You need to stay warm. Our bed's still warm and you will heat up far faster with the pair of us here. Get in.” He explained and you could see John’s lips curl up and snicker. You passed John the lantern and cautiously got onto the bed.

“Have fun you two.” You could feel your cheeks heat up at John's comment. Ghost was right though, the spot was really warm from John. The light disappeared from view and the door clicked closed behind him. You pulled the blanket close and let out a breath. Then you felt him. Ghost move closer towards you and wrapped an arm around your midsection while his now face pressed against your neck. “Ohh.” You let out a sigh of relief and pressed back against him. “Your so warm.” You hummed.

“Should have said something.”

“I did say I was a little cold.” You muttered and he pulled you closer.

“This is not a little cold. This is concerningly cold. I’ll have to remember you downplay things. It's my job to look after you.”

“You sound like my old doctor.” You whined and he made a sound of disproval.

“Not something I want to hear Disco.”

“No scolding me right now Ghost. Not when I’m about to sleep.” Ghost made a sound against you, a sound that rumbled against his chest and through you. He didn't continue on the matter and soon you closed your eyes.

-

The sleep you got that night was probably one of the best sleeps you had in a very long time. When you awoke you weren’t surprised by the weight that pressed against you. What you were surprised by was who it was. John had swapped with Ghost during the night and now had an arm locked around you. You start to move a little only for his grip to tighten and pull you flush against him.

A firm ‘object’ pressed into your ass.

…

…

His cock. John's cock pressed firmly against your ass and he let out a little unintelligible mumble. You moved a little and he let out a deep hiss against your shoulder. “If you keep moving your only gonna make it harder.” He groaned- more like moaned- in your ear. “Unless that's what you want?” He practically purred.

“John- you're in a relationship. That was a one-time thing.” You swallowed and stayed perfectly still.

“You didn’t have fun?” He pushed his chest further against your back.

“I did, I just- there's a difference between a one-night stand and- ” You let out a sigh of frustration. “I’m not going to be the third wheel to your relationship, some toy.” Your voice went quiet at the end of your sentence. Almost impossible to hear. If he hadn’t been right next to you, there would have been a very high chance that he didn’t hear it all. A pregnant pause surrounded the pair of you for what seemed like a lifetime. In reality, it was maybe a minute or less.

“Then don’t be. You can make this whatever you want it to be.” You felt his thumb gently rub the front of your waist.

“What?”

“If you want us, you can have us. Anyway you want. Ghost and I talked about it last night. If you don’t want anything that's fine too. Won’t change anything professionally between the three of us. Can pretend it never happened if you want.” Soap breathed under your ear and you felt his nose brush against your neck. “Won’t lie though, I’d like it if you joined us. Ghost feels the same.”

“What, like a throuple?”

“That's what they call it eh? Despise that word, but yeah.”

“And your not just saying this because your dicks pressed into my ass?” You felt Soap laugh against you.

“Trust me if that was my motivation I’d go find Ghost like I do most mornings.” Soap let out a breath and continued. “If you want to think about it we can give you time or-”

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll date you and Ghost.”

[ajearthlinggg]

My opinions on all Will Wood music videos

momento mori MAP: the first Will Wood related thing I saw thanks to my brother. I remember seeing it and being like "Wow this is so okay." Not really one of my fav songs but still really good animation from everybody

Mr. Capgras: (oh my god this is my end) honestly in my top 3 favorite music videos (number 2 and 1 are even more sexual 😭 the karma music video ain't shit idgaf) I have dressed as Will from this video (the outfit when he looks like an auntie) and I will NOT be posting the photos BC y'know, underage. But just it matches the song's vibe so well and is incredibly visually interesting. Will's makeup is on point (as always) and him and his band's outfits (or lack of) also manage to fit the vibe of the song perfectly. I read an interview he did about the music video and had to look up like, ten words. Someone make this man an English teacher. Anyway, amazing video. Give Mario more screen time.

Dr Sunshine: somehow WAY more uncomfortable then Mr. Capgras. Once again, Will's makeup is great. There are so many goddamn colors I don't know if I love it or if I want the video banned because of it. It's great how the video goes from a normal kinda weird WWATT video to incredibly uncomfortable and strange as soon as he goes bald. Great video. William, the cones in my eyes feel great resentment towards you.

Hand me my shovel: OMGG I PLAYED A BIT OF THIS ON PIANO AT MY PIANO LESSON AND MY MUSIC TEACHER PUT UP THE MUSIC VIDEO IN FRONT OF MY DAD AHAJSJJZJ (he luckily stopped after the intro) anyways I fucking hate this video for creating one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. 10/10. Fuck you.

Euthanasia: no. Don't even remind me. Please. *incredibly loud ugly sobbing noises*

Laplace's Angel : haha this video has so much bones that it should be called Skeleton Appreciation Day! *gets booed of stage* anyways great video. Wills outfit is so cool. You know the one. Bnoes bnones bnes. Lemmed ssee yior bneons.

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll : GUYS THIS VIDEO IS MOSTLY SATIRE PLEASEEE. watching Will throw tomatoes at himself is beautiful. 10/10 viewing experience

Love, Me Normally: First WW video I watched as a real fan of his music. Omg I love this video. He said in a YouTube comment that the rats were his girlfriend's at the time. I can just imagine the conversation "Hey can I borrow your RATS for my MUSIC VIDEO about CONFORMITY?" Also the first WW fanart I drew was of this video so that's pretty cool. Anyways I love the ghosts and the hat falls off his head like every 2 seconds go watch the video you'll see what I mean.

2econd 2ight 2eer: this used to be my fav WW song before I was a WW fan. Anyways THE MAKEUP ONSGDJAHSJ this video made me question my lesbianism like HIS EYELINER AAAAAA. But anyway once again lots of colors. Like, LOTS of colors. I already have eyesight problems William once again THE CONES IN MY EYES HATE YOU. AHSJSJKAAKA. Also thank you to this song for giving my lovely mutual his username. (Hi Syd)

Chemical Overreaction: This song and music video is my new aesthetic. That's all I have to say.

6up 5oh: I remember when my brother was obsessed with this song back in 2020 😭 HOLY SHIT I HEAR POLICE SIRENS RN THEY'RE ON TO ME DELETE THIS SONG FROM MY WATCH HISTORY RN FUCK FUCK FUCK. Ig this video is pretty good. Not one of my fav videos but its alright.

You Liked This: You even both like Subway, Eat Fresh!

Well, better than the alternative : omg the filter and artsyle is so cool. Also the Stranger Things references, the masks, the outline of the filter, it's so 2020 and it makes me sad. WHAT'S SO WRONG ABOUT WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME? I'M JUST TRYNA DO WHAT'S RIGHT BY YOU?

Tomcat disposables: please I'm gonna cry again. OH MY GOD WILL IS SO FUCKING TALENTED

Cicada days and Marsha, thankk you: not really a fan of lyrics videos. Decided to group the lyric vids together to say this.

White Noise: as somebody who's struggles with the topics this song speaks about, there really is no Will Wood song that affects me emotionally more than this one. Not Against the Kitchen Floor. Not Tomcat disposables. Hell, not even Euthanasia. This song in particular is so underappreciated and pushed aside instead of being recognised as an emotional, hard hitting, meaningful, lyrical masterpiece, and the video only adds to that. The symbolism from the excitement the people get over nothing makes so much sense after paying attention to the lyrics. Also holy shit he's bald again.

2012: the way his fans treat the topic of this song kinda is so weird. Like, he did so much drugs that he FORGOT A WHOLE FUCKING YEAR. and his fans are just like "haha funny I don't remember hehe" anyways this video for some reason is like Criminal by Fiona Apple if she took 12 edibles and believed in aliens. Not saying it's anything like that but that's just the vibes it gives me. I love Fiona and Criminal is top 2 fav music videos for me so I have no complaints 👍

Wealth and Hellness: not really a WW music video but I love this song so much and Will did an awesome fucking job directing the video. I love Human Zoo and can't wait to see if they ever will collab with Will again. Also all that conspiracy bullshit was insane.

Wealth and Hellness (censored version): Wonderful video! Perfect for my Christian family! Praise the community guidelines! 🙏🙏😇😇😇

[archiveikemen]

Abe no Yasuchika • Sutokuin/Akihito Main Story: Chapter 1

This is a fan-made translation solely for entertainment purposes with no guaranteed perfection; expect mistakes, grammatical errors, and some creative liberties. All original content and media used belongs to Cybird. Please support the game by buying their stories and playing their games. Reblogs appreciated.

Warnings & FAQ

Yuno: … The names of the two heroes are—

Yuno: — Yasuchika-san and Akihito-sama.

Yasuchika • Akihito: …!

The orb’s mysterious glow intensified.

Yuno: Ah.

Something small formed at the centre of the orb, and all the light around it was instantly drawn in.

(Too bright!)

At the same time I squinted at the blinding light, it suddenly faded away—

Two hard objects fell into my hands.

Yuno: These are…

(Forehead ornaments? They seem to come in a pair.)

Yasuchika: — Those are sorcery tools.

Yamata no Orochi: Indeed.

Yamata no Orochi: When the two chosen ones put on these ornaments, they will be granted the Hero’s Power.

Yamata no Orochi: To avoid your life spans being shortened, do not put them on unless absolutely necessary.

Akihito: … Heroes, huh. I never thought Yasuchika and I would be chosen for something like that.

Akihito-sama gave a faint smile.

Yasuchika-san stared silently at the Yamata no Orochi.

(I wonder what they’re thinking about.)

Yasuchika: Yuno-san. We’ll have those.

Yuno: O-Okay…

I gave Yasuchika-san and Akihito-sama one ornament each.

The ornaments glimmered once as if in response to their touch when they received them.

Kagetoki: I have a question, Yamata no Orochi. What are the conditions for the undead to spawn?

Yuno: Conditions?

Kagetoki: If the undead are to spawn endlessly, no matter how powerful the Hero’s Power may be, the people of Japan¹ will perish overnight.

¹The word Kagetoki used here is 日ノ本 (Hinomoto) which is an archaic name for Japan, which literally means “Origin of The Sun”. In the third century, Japan went by 倭／大和 (Yamato) before changing to 日ノ本／日の本 and eventually 日本 during the Heian Period.

Sources: https://kids.gakken.co.jp/kagaku/kagaku110/science0543/ ; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Japan

Kagetoki: Since this is a trial, there must be some sort of condition to be met.

(I see…)

Yamata no Orochi: The undead will not appear in the living world from the underworld on their own.

Yamata no Orochi: They are summoned by entities known as Necromancers².

²屍遣い (shikabane tsukai) literally translates to “control/tame/use corpses” or in this case, the undead. As 屍遣い is a fictional term coined by Ikemen Genjiden, there isn't really a definite translation of it in english and the closest english word to it would be “Necromancer” aka a sorcerer who practises black magic by communicating with the dead. Necromancer in Japanese can also be called 死霊術師 (lit. “ghost sorcerer”). Credits to my friend @/kurishiri for helping me with this!

Yamata no Orochi: However, Necromancers can only summon new undead to their immediate location… and there is a limit to the number of undead they can command.

Yamata no Orochi: Moreover, only one Necromancer can be present in a single battle.

Ibuki: If we defeat the Necromancer, we can stop more undead from spawning during that battle, right?

Kurama: And then all we have to do is kill the remaining undead.

Yoichi: But from the way you said “only one Necromancer can be present in a single battle”, it sounds like we're about to fight multiple battles. Right?

Benkei: If another Necromancer were to appear after we defeat one, the battle will never end.

Yamata no Orochi: You will not be given a trial that is impossible to conquer.

Yamata no Orochi: Through the cruel battles, should the underworld acknowledge that the living have the right to live, Necromancers will cease to appear.

Yamata no Orochi: However—

Yamata no Orochi fixed its eight pairs of eyes onto Yasuchika-san and Akihito-sama.

Yamata no Orochi: With your current condition, the fight will be a tough one.

Yamata no Orochi: While the two of you are in possession of the Hero’s Power, you are still incomplete as heroes.

(Huh?)

Yuno: What do you mean…?

The moment I asked that question, the air around us suddenly started shaking.

Yasuchika: I don’t know about this “Hero’s Power”, but are you saying that you’re putting an extra burden on Akihito-sama’s shoulders and sending him to the frontlines?

Yasuchika: I won’t allow for such a thing.

Akihito: Yasuchika…

(…! What on earth—)

Who knows when a talisman appeared between Yasuchika-san’s fingers.

Yasuchika: Yamata no Orochi, you said that it’d be impossible to defeat you, even if all of us attacked at once…

Yasuchika: But that won’t be the case if I have this power.

(Yasuchika-san has been waiting for a chance to attack all this while…!)

Yasuchika-san chanted something under his breath and a gust of wind swirled around us.

Tamamo: Goodness. I was just thinking about how he’s being unusually quiet. What a bothersome man.

Tamamo: Everyone get down.

(…!)

However, the very moment we braced ourselves—

The rising intent to kill dispersed without an advance warning, along with a ray of light.

Yuno: Huh…?

Yasuchika: … I-impossible.

The talisman slipped through Yasuchika-san’s fingers and fluttered to his feet as he stood dumbfounded.

Yamata no Orochi: It is no use.

Yamata no Orochi: You have been under control of the Hero’s Might from the moment you were chosen.

Yamata no Orochi: The spiritual power from your Onmyō magic conflict with the cursed powers of the Hero’s Power.

Yasuchika: Could it be…

Yamata no Orochi: The Hero’s Power is derived from the cursed powers of Ayakashi.

Yamata no Orochi: As you have just experienced, the Hero’s Power and the spiritual powers cancel each other out when in the same body.

Yamata no Orochi: If contained within someone like you, who was born with extraordinary spiritual powers that define your existence—

Yamata no Orochi: There will naturally be repulsion and counteracting.

(So this is what it means by “incomplete as heroes”…)

Akihito: Then why give Yasuchika the role of a hero?

Akihito: You said we wouldn’t be given a trial we can’t conquer, and yet…

Akihito: Isn’t this to our disadvantage?

Yamata no Orochi: The two of you were chosen by the Hero’s Power itself. Its reasons remain unbeknownst to me.

The Yamata no Orochi turned its gaze to Akihito-sama and narrowed its eyes as though it saw something of interest.

Yamata no Orochi: You look like a unique human being too…

Yamata no Orochi: But your abilities are not suited for carving out a future for the living.

Akihito: …

Yamata no Orochi: As much as possible, you should prepare yourself before the battle against the Necromancers.

Yamata no Orochi: There is some time to spare for you to bid this world farewell.

Leaving us with that ominous prophecy, the Yamata no Orochi’s massive body vanished into the fog.

Until its shadow was nowhere to be seen, we were enveloped by a heavy silence.

The moment the Yamata no Orochi left, the fog cleared up—

…

Feeling as though we just had a bad dream, we returned to the palace.

Yoritomo: Firstly, let us confirm the situation we have on hand.

Yoritomo: A “Hero’s Power” capable of fighting against the undead was bestowed upon Yasuchika and His Majesty. Correct?

Akihito: It appears so. Although, I don’t feel especially different.

Akihito-sama’s gaze lowered onto the forehead ornament in his hand.

Yoritomo: As for Yasuchika, neither his Onmyō magic nor the Hero’s Power are working well for him at the moment.

Yasuchika: Indeed. They seem to cancel each other out.

(So it really is that way after all…)

Ibuki: Yasuchika who can’t use his Onmyo magic, huh.

Tamamo: No longer a weirdo Onmyōji, just a weirdo now.

Yasuchika: Ouch. But should you really be saying such things to me?

Back to his usual playful self, Yasuchika-san joked as he looked at everyone.

Yasuchika: I believe the fates of everyone in this room now lie in the hands of Akihito-sama and I.

Tamamo: Still, it’s as good as nothing if you can’t fully use the most essential powers.

Kagetoki: If the power given to the two to fight against the Necromancers can only be used by one of them—

Kagetoki: We can expect the battle ahead of us to be a tough fight.

The tension in the hall increased tenfold.

(… We just made peace not long ago, so the trust between the factions is still fragile.)

(And now we’re faced with such a situation.)

However, Yasuchika-san grinned confidently despite having everyone’s eyes on him.

Yasuchika: No need for those dark expressions on your faces! I’ll have a way to deal with this right away.

Yuno: Eh…

Yoritomo: Do you have a plan?

Yasuchika: Yes. When I tried it once earlier on, I realised something…

Yasuchika: Up till the invocation stage, using Onmyō magic felt the same as always.

Yasuchika: However, once it reaches the stage whereby it leaves my body, the Hero’s Power interferes and cancels it out.

Yasuchika: Which is to say, both the sources of the Hero’s Power and Onmyō magic exist within me—

Yasuchika: If I were to consciously manipulate the cursed powers and my spiritual powers to prevent them from interfering with each other, I might be able to use my powers without problems.

Having listened to the chattering explanation, Yoshitsune-sama spoke up.

Yoshitsune: While I don’t quite understand it… are you saying that you just need to learn to control each power individually?

Yasuchika: As expected of Yoshitsune-sama. That’s correct! I’ll need some time to do that, though.

(Thank goodness there’s a solution to the problem…!)

Benkei: That sounds suspicious. Can you really do that?

Yasuchika-san nodded in response to Benkei’s look of suspicion.

Yasuchika: I certainly can.

Yasuchika: I don’t know about ordinary Onmyōji, but unfortunately, I’m THE prodigious Onmyōji!

Yasuchika: When I was a child, I was trained to use techniques that enhance my powers—

Yasuchika: So, theoretically speaking, I could use those techniques to take control of the spiritual powers and cursed powers.

Tamamo: … There’s nothing loveable about this man in every possible aspect.

Tamamo: I thought you’d be weakened now that you can’t use your Onmyō magic.

(Yasuchika-san is truly a man with no limits…)

Yasuchika: Nah, it’s rather burdensome to be so capable that I have no weaknesses.

The tension in the hall loosened up slightly when we saw hope.

However, Akihito-sama appeared melancholic as he stared at Yasuchika-san.

Akihito: …

(Akihito…?)

It only lasted for a brief moment before his usual elegant smile returned to his red lips.

Akihito: I expected no less from my trustworthy Onmyōji.

Yasuchika: Yes. So please be rest assured, Akihito-sama!

Yasuchika: … I will absolutely ensure you remain out of harm’s way.

The second half of his words carried a heavy resolve.

Yasuchika: That’s why Yuno, who just became a medium of the underworld, can feel at ease too.

Yuno: Huh?

Yasuchika: To be frank, I’m not at all interested in being a hero, but…

Yasuchika: It’s a whole other story if it involves Akihito-sama’s future.

Yasuchika: I can’t stand the idea of those nonsensical undead creatures disrespecting Akihito-sama.

Yuno: Yasuchika-san…

Akihito: I will do everything within my power too, as I have no intention to die so soon.

Akihito: Besides, if Yasuchika and I can tide this over,

Akihito: We might be able to secure ourselves a favourable position amongst the three factions from now on.

Yoritomo: It’d be nice if you were a little more secretive about your schemes.

Yoshitsune: Your side is as untrustworthy as ever.

Akihito: I wish you’d deem my honesty for saying it aloud as praiseworthy.

(These two…)

The presence of two reliable people helped to ease my anxiety.

Yuno: I’ll give it my best too.

Yuno: I’ll make the necessary preparations so I can contribute as an apothecary.

Yoshitsune: Taking into account that you’re not used to being on the battlefield, you’re really amazing.

Yuno: I’m not… it’s thanks to everyone here that I’m able to muster up the courage.

(The Yamata no Orochi said that the world was originally destined to fall into an even greater chaos.)

And so if we were to lose this battle, the countless lives that were saved by the change in destiny would be lost.

(We came a long way to finally have this peace. We can’t let such a thing happen.)

(I may not know what I can do yet, but I’ll do everything I can to support the future everyone is working towards building.)

Akihito: That said, I still don’t understand how to use my powers…

Yasuchika: I instinctively tried to merge the Hero’s Power with my Onmyō magic,

Yasuchika: But perhaps the user’s usual fighting style influences it.

Yasuchika: In order to naturally draw out the power, I think it’d be more effective to merge it with a method of fighting that the user’s body is familiar with…

Yasuchika: Akihito-sama doesn’t use any particular weapon, so this might be a little difficult.

Akihito: … I see. But if that’s the case, there’s something I want to try.

Akihito-sama muttered and looked around at everyone in the hall.

Akihito: It seems that Yasuchika and I will require some time to get familiar with this Hero’s Power.

Akihito: Yoritomo, Yoshitsune. If the Necromancers appear before then, will you be able to handle them?

Yoritomo: Somehow or other, as we will have no other choice but to do so.

Yoshitsune: We should prepare ourselves for that.

Yoshitsune: We don’t know when the undead will start to appear. Firstly, we must send notices to all regions. Afterwards—

Kurama: … This is stupid. I’m leaving.

(Wow.)

Kurama stood up, seemingly unable to bear with his boredom much longer.

Kurama: I’m done putting up with these boring discussions.

Benkei: Oi, Kurama. Yoshitsune-sama hasn’t finished talking.

Kurama: Call me when an enemy that’ll amuse me appears, yeah?

Just like that, Kurama ignored Benkei and left the hall.

Yoichi: Ahh, he’s so short tempered.

(As always, nothing fazes Kurama.)

Sueharu: I was listening obediently and I’m not even part of the combat.

Yoshitsune: Sueharu, can you handle the gathering of information? Alert us the moment you notice anything suspicious.

Sueharu: Sure. I guess I can’t completely wash my hands off this either.

Sueharu: War is expensive, I’ll be sure to make as much money as possible.

Yoritomo: We’ll also arrange for troops to be on standby and deploy them immediately when the undead appear.

Shigehira: Leave that to me.

Kagetoki: Morinaga and I will handle the procurement of war supplies and sending notices to each region.

Watching how quickly the roles were being delegated made me reflexively straighten up.

Yoshitsune: For the time being, the two holders of the Hero’s Power are unable to be effective in battle. It’s risky to stretch our forces too thin.

Yoritomo: Indeed. We can’t afford to lose our trump cards without a proper plan.

Yoritomo: His Majesty and Yasuchika should stay here for a while.

Akihito: Apologies for the inconvenience. Please take care of us.

Yasuchika: We shall leave ourselves in your care.

(Living under the same roof as these two… it’s giving me a different kind of nervousness…)

Unable to imagine life with the two people who seemed to lack wordly sense, my heart stirred with unease as though it could sense the tumultuous fate.

Kagetoki: … However, we can’t deny that we have insufficient military strength.

Kagetoki: We’ll be placed in a significantly disadvantaged position if outnumbered by the undead.

Kagetoki: It would be somewhat easier to form a battle strategy if we had someone who can carry out wide-ranged attacks like the ayakashi.

Tamamo: Hmm. Strength, huh…

At the same time Tamamo muttered under his breath, there was an angry yell coming from beyond the sliding door.

???: Oi, stop staggering! Behave yourself and follow along, you fishy fellow!

(Eh?)

Yoritomo: What’s going on?

Morinaga: I’ll go have a look.

Morinaga-san stood up and opened the sliding door.

In the hallway right outside the room, a black-haired man with his hands bound was being dragged by an official.

(I think I’ve seen that kimono somewhere…)

Official: S-stop right there…! That’s Yoritomo-sama!

Not sparing as much as another glance at the official with his hand on the hilt of his sword, the man looked in our direction through his long bangs.

???: Oh, so you are here.

(Oh, this man…!)

= Flashback Start =

Black-Haired Man: … want to….?

Yuno: Huh?

…

Black-Haired Man: You’re sensitive. Does the cold make you feel good?

Yuno: …

Yuno: W-What are you doing all of a sudden…

= Flashback End =

(What is he doing here?)

Tamamo: Isn’t that Rikka? Long time no see!

Yuno: Huh… Tamamo, you know him?

Tamamo: Yeah, he’s an old friend of mine. I didn’t think I’d run into him like this.

With a somewhat pleased nod, Tamamo turned to face the man named Rikka.

Tamamo: As much as I want to celebrate our reunion after so long, why are you here?

Rikka: I came to meet you, Tamamo. I found this place by following the trace of your cursed powers on this girl.

(Who on earth is this person who’s capable of doing that?)

Rikka: It was a hassle to get in due to the tight security, so this person guided me in.

Official: G-Guided you…!?

As if in an attempt to calm the increasingly agitated official, Yoritomo-sama put on a seemingly amicable smile.

Yoritomo: You did well. I’ll handle it from here.

Yoritomo: It appears that he’s a guest of Tamamo’s.

Official: …! My apologies.

After the official bowed hastily and left, Yoritomo-sama turned a calm gaze toward Rikka.

Yoritomo: So, who are you?

Rikka: Rikka. Yukijorō³, a friend of Tamamo’s.

³ According to some legends, 雪女郎 (Yukijorō) or more commonly known as the 雪女 (Yukionna) is the spirit of someone who died in the snow. In many stories, the Yukijorō would appear before people trapped in snowstorms and turn them into frozen corpses with her icy breath. She is often described to be a tall woman with long black hair and blue lips, her skin so pale she blends into the snow.

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuki-onna#:~:text=Some%20legends%20say%20the%20Yuki,almost%20uniformly%20portrayed%20as%20evil.

(An ayakashi…!?)

Ibuki: Hm. Pretty rare to see a male Yukijorō, isn’t it?

Akihito: Is it?

Yasuchika: Even for me, this is my first time meeting a Yukijorō.

While Rikka became the centre of multiple curious stares, Tamamo seems to be thinking about something.

Tamamo: … Rikka. There’s this troublesome matter I got entangled in that I can’t turn a blind eye to.

Tamamo: Once it’s dealt with, I’ll drink and catch up as much as you want.

Tamamo: So, what do you think about lending me a hand to get it done faster?

Yuno: …!

Kagetoki: Tamamo. We don’t know if this ayakashi can be trusted, it’s not good to share information on our internal situation with him.

Tamamo: Even so, we’d want even just a little bit of additional fighting power, right? Rikka is extremely strong and at least, he doesn’t have anything against human beings.

Next to Tamamo, Rikka languidly spoke up.

Rikka: Helping out with a troublesome matter, huh. … Sounds tiring.

Shigehira: He may not be hostile, but he doesn’t exactly look friendly either.

Morinaga: But he’d be helpful if he’s strong.

Morinaga: With Tamamo, Kurama, and Ibuki who are also ayakashi… we should be able to handle it if any problems arise.

Tamamo: What do you think, Rikka?

Rikka: Well, I could lend you a hand if you’re stumped.

Akihito: You’re not going to hear the details?

Rikka: Don’t need to, since it’s a request from Tamamo. Besides…

Rikka walked towards me.

(Uhh…)

By the same I realised it, his face was right in front of mine.

Rikka: If I help you out for a bit, I get to befriend this girl, right?

Rikka: I heard about Tamamo forming a deal with a human being, but I’m curious to know what kind of person that girl is.

Yuno: Umm, I’m merely an uninteresting human being.

Rikka: Really? You don’t look that way, though.

His seductive smile up close made me reflexively back away.

Only for him to close up the distance between us again.

(W-What do I do…!?)

Yasuchika: Okay, that’s enough!

(…!)