#(i say as i mock my own art in the above post)

[chalkrub]

Just so you know, tumblr is currently using art for AI training and the only way to stop them is to go into your settings and turn it off 'third party sharing' manually (on each of your blogs)

i've done it already ty! i doubt it'll do anything, but whatever. i've already resigned myself to my art being stolen by ai - it is what it is

maybe i can destroy ai scraping singlehandedly by only posting my drunk ms paint trackpad drawings from now on

train off THIS, assholes

[fuckyeahgoodomensfanfic]

Good Omens Fic Rec: Can't Fight Back, But I Can Take It

...in those early years, when Crowley would slide a hand between his legs for some relief, the scenes in his mind showed an Aziraphale who gave Crowley what he wanted, yes, but gave it as a favour. As a punishment. That Aziraphale would be mocking, almost bored, as he bent Crowley over a bed or put him on his knees. Poor excuse for a demon, he’d sneer. Look at how desperate you are. Ridiculous. Is this what you wanted? And Crowley would take it, take it gratefully, penance and pleasure both. His desire satisfied by its own consequence.

Length: 10,214 words

AO3 Rating: Explicit/ Spice Level 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Best for: At Home, After Dark

Triggers: Read Tags

Read it here, fic by voluptatiscausa

*Minor Spoilers* This was my third reread of this story, so of course I have to post about it for my Smutty Saturday! Check the tags on it to see if it's right for you! The first time I read it I struggled with the degradation, that's not something that's typically my cup of tea. But I kept thinking about this one. Out of the blue I would think of something from this, so I had to come back to it. More than just deliciously filthy smut, there's deep layers of character exploration that need to be unpacked here. It's rich and complex, and I still think there's more for me to analyze and understand.

On my first read, I think a lot of it went over my head, but coming back and really paying attention to what it's saying has gotten me on the right path. It's gorgeous, visceral, and a little brutal. They're hungry and desperate, "He’d accused Crowley of greed, but he’s the one feeling savage with need." The exploration of Aziraphale's character here is exquisite. He's a being that wants desperately, and for thousands of years has denied it. Never let's his desires be seen, for fear of punishment. His indulgences are, "just keeping up with appearances". Now he's safe, and gets to take and possess. Above all, it speaks to the love and safety he has with Crowley. It takes so much trust for them to be able to play like this. And honestly, I love fanfiction for giving us the space and opportunity to think about concepts like these. I know I still have so much more meaning to discover here!

Clearly, an explicit and after dark read, but I also suggest giving this your full attention. Make sure you're in the right headspace for it!

Oh and the art by @chernozemm that's included?? i'm dead i've died i'm posting from the grave. help

Read it here, fic by voluptatiscausa

[silky-silks]

Okay can I talk?

eric belonging to @night-light-artz

Patches @eve-pie

Okay for the image above I was doing a “mock” warrior cat book. I miss the old covers but anyway

I kinda feel my art is…boring. I mean it just feels that way. Sometimes I feel I rush myself to get things done, and to be honest I hate having to rush myself. I look back at my recent post and they just fall FLAT. Flat as in the colors are just boring as heck. Lineart? I don’t really like. Not only that but everything feels so unpolished

My anatomy/details

I hate the fact I miss crucial details of my chat starts or even other people characters. I mean, HAVE YOU SEEN HOW I DONT EVEN ADD SILKY’s ANTLERS 99% of the time? That bothers me. And I see other people add them and I’m just “well damn I’m so lazy I can’t even add antlers on my own fucking character”.

Not to mention the poses. Everything feels so stiff with me. So dang stiff that you may as well call my art wood and use it as a support beam. I hate how I don’t use references for my art. Maybe If I used them more and actually took my time stuff wouldn't look like your average horrific Netflix Original cartoon of some movie.

Backgrounds/minor objects.

Do not get me started. I hate all of them. They look so low effort. I mean, I know I can do better with them! But it seems like I worry about the main characters so much. In fact, I feel the background just falls flat or blends in too much with the characters that it looks. Messy. If I draw a cup, i'll skip over details and it will look awful! Which isnt good, as it shows im lacking severly.

Time

And for time I rush. I feel like I have to literally push things out by day’s end and well…it affects my art. Lately o just been so focus on the hour and time it just makes the art suffer. Even if no one else sees it I do. I love my painted style, but it takes quite some time. And forgive me but I hate just doing sketches to and posting it. I prefer my art to be colored in and all the way. Now im not saying i dont like it when other people sketch. That would be a dick-head move of me.

Some days I fear if I don’t post or read inboxes everyone is going to think I purely abandoned them. I try to focus on my page. but just giving them a sketch at the end well...it makes me feel as if I just dissapointed them. I think to myself and say "I could have done better than that. Why did you even do that in the first place {Name}. "

I have like so much on my agenda and plans and then i realize I can’t do it all in one day. Hell sometimes I just make one day spefically on one subject.

If that day was animation day; I focus on an animatic.

If a certain day is art day and I want to set up my commission page (which is so messy I deleted it) then that’s the settled day. But I feel like I’m going so slow. It's like I am running out of time, and time is just passing by as I look at my clock.

And I'm not blaming anyone it's just my stupid head that makes me feel this way. I know no one is trying to rush me. But head is like "Oh but what if- and why not-". It bothers me. It clouds my vision and i don't realize in reality...no one is saying the things my brain is saying. Sometimes I feel like I'm bothering people when i draw their charcaters so much and tag them. I fear they just say 'Aw great it's this one person again."Sometimes I feel I need to be MORE original. And some days i feel i just need to give up entirely. Some days I think posting everyday will aggervate folks. Sometimes I envy the attention of others, and when I see what they gain or what following I have i look back at myself and say "Well maybe if you did this better than MAYBE you people will be interested in ya". And damn do i slam my head in a wall. Everyone just seems so happy, and yet here I am fretting over if this fucking dog I drew looks remotely interesting. And I just feel it...blends in. Like what is there so special about my art?

MY BLOG

And for this blog, I don't know if I truly have an identity for myself. There's Silky, there is Minty and Syrup, there is Simon and there is Shrimpy. But who do they belong to? What roles do they even serve in this blog? I want them to be my identity. I don't want them being just some sort of character leech. They lack story, they lack purpose, they are thrown in tropes and gag. But what do they relate to? Nothing. Nothing at all. And yeah yeah I know im thinking to DEEP into this. But it's been on my mind so much. And hell call me crazy for talking about them if they are real, but they mean a lot to me. A LOT.

So I tried to make my art interesting here like, i tried referencing images space. I tried adding more anatomy to Snowy since I am tired of doing the usual standing up pose. I even wanted to make the background feel more detailed. I feel a bit better, but I still fear everything is too...eh...bland. Maybe it is just me.

Sorry for the ungodly word of text. I know I shouldn't vent here.

[crystalrose36]

(I don’t own Bucchigiri or any of the characters. This is a work of fanficiton, all the original characters belong to their rightful owners. The fanficiton new characters belong to me)

Summary: Have you ever wanted something so bad that you would do anything to get it? Could you handle the consequences once you got that wish? Shindo Akutaro wasn’t always the villain we see today. You, Shindo (y/n), are his younger sister who is a witness to his ascension to power and a light during his down fall. Let’s see where this story will take you, a blue diamond in the rough.

Blue Diamond Ch 1

You leave your brother once you get to the schools entrance as you both go talk to your friends. Taking a deep breath, you shakily open your shoe locker. Praying that no one put tacks in your shoes this time. The small door creaks open and you carefully pull out your shoes and try to clean them out. Thankfully, your shoes are clean. Maybe whoever was bullying you got bored and moved on, as sad as it was you weren’t naive enough to think they had a change of heart and stopped bullying all together. This isn’t some teary eyed anime.

“(Y/n)! Good morning! Spacing out again?” You turn around as a girl your age tries to tackle you. Thankfully you caught your footing and didn’t topple over. As you look up to see who it was, it’s Najima Kana, your best friend since the start of your high school life. She is the daughter of family who owned a large shipping company and her grades were a little above average, but her appetite was something to be admired.

“Good morning Kana. And I guess I was a little.” You replied smiling at her. Kana takes her arms off you and inspects your shoes closer. “Did someone bully you again? I wish they would just stop hiding so I can kick their-“

“Okay! Let’s not start this again Kana. I don’t want you to get expelled.” You say as you slip on your school shoes and put your usual ones in the locker. “Come on, let’s head to class. I bet everyone is excited to see the results of our mock midterm exams.” Kana jumped away and looked down, “Oh man! I totally forgot! My Uncle is going to kill me if I get a below average score again!”

As you both enter the classroom you see people huddled together in groups and going over what answers they could have gotten wrong. However, there were a few others who were talking about what kind of vacation they will getting of the results of their mock exams went well. Your desk was in the second row from the back while Kana sat directly behind you……though for her it was more of sleeping.

The bell rings and students slowly return to their seats and the teacher opens the door. “Alright! Seattle down everyone! Let’s begin homeroom and before anyone asks the results for the mock midterm exams will be posted after school today. Now, open your text books to page 94 and Nijima you can start us off.” The class sighs as the results were going to be posted so soon. You turn around and Kana finally found the page and began reading.

Your fourth period ends with the toll of the lunch bell and Kana drags you along to the cafeteria. Since you packed a lunch she makes you in charge of getting a table. You sit down and open your lunch box full of leftovers. Looking around the room you notice your brother is on the opposite end having fun with his friends. They seem to be really interested in the way you’ve chosen to do kitty cats as your food art style today. One of them seems to be……putting him into a chokehold?

Shindo Akutaros P.O.V

“Please! Taro! Let go! I swear I don’t have a girlfriend, the lunch was made by my sister.” I managed to say as my air way began to get tighter and tighter. Thankfully my wild willed friend let go.

“Aw man! I thought you finally got a girl. Speaking of your sister, is she single?” He got a little too close to my face for comfort. I began to eat my lunch as I pushed him away. “First of all! You will never ever date my sister and second no she doesn’t have a boyfriend. Leave her alone Taro, I mean it.”

Taro began to laugh in his chair, “I’m sorry man I just can’t take you seriously when you are like this. I mean what are going to do if I don’t?” He straightened himself out, “Seriously though, don’t worry. I follow the bro code. However, can you hook me up with a cute looking lunch of my own?”

I roll my eyes at him, maybe I should ask (y/n) to not my lunch look so artsy. The guys get the wrong idea despite my many protests. I see Fuji sit down across from us looking nervous, not even touching his curry. “What is wrong Fuji? Afraid of the mock exam results? Don’t tell me your mother is threatening to take away your phone again, we all know she won’t.” He gives the curry to Taro who doesn’t seem to mind having second lunch.

“This is bad you guys and I mean real bad! The gangs from Ichizu High are moving to this part of the city!” He slams his head down on the table, “I really like those walks home too! Having to be picked up in my mom’s stuffy Limo sucks!” I sigh and try to be sympathetic……I wish my family could afford a limo. “Do you know what they want? Money perhaps?”

Fuji looks up, “Probably, but who knows. I guess we all have to keep our guard up.”

Back to (Y/n) and her friend Kana

Kana traded you a few pieces from her Tiger Shrimp pasta for a few slices of the left over chicken. You didn’t think it was a fair trade at first but seeing her beaming smile as she ate it made that thought go away. You really did love that Kana was your friend, but you couldn’t help wonder if she was your friend out of pity. You and your brother weren’t the ‘normal’ type of kids this school usually accepted.

“So (y/n), I was wondering do you have any plans today after school?” You look up from your plate, “No, why?”“Well, there’s this new Dragon Fire dessert at Cafe Deluxe and I wanted to know if you would go with me. Pretty please! I don’t like eating alone!” Kana clasped her hands into yours across the table.

You couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction, “Sure, I mean who can say no to a free dessert?” Kana looked so happy, “Yay! And don’t think I didn’t catch what you were saying. Fine, I’ll pay for your dessert too. Food tastes better when you eat it with other people after all.”

After lunch the rest of your classes seem to fly by and the final bell rang. Everyone ran out of the classroom to see the results of the mock exams. Boys from your grade were on one list and girls were on the other list. As you and Kana made your way to the front people began to side eye you and whisper. You gulped and looked up. Your ranking as Shindo (y/n) was first place. And the results from the other schools were second to your academy.

“Congratulations! Didnt doubt you for a second and I got five places ahead of my usual ranking!” Kana said giving you a high five. “Now we can order double the desserts!” Kana really was an enigma to you sometimes, the heiress of the one of the largest shipping companies in Japan and she spends her time eating food and hanging out with you. Your celebration was short lived when students began to part away. The student council president, Omari Kyoko, with the other members arrived. The student council president looked up at her ranking and smiled, turning towards you. “Congratulations Shindo (y/n). You have bested me yet again.” You became nervous and tried to say something. “No, no, no. I just got lucky! I am- um”

She started to chuckle, “Nonsense! And why are you nervous? Having someone like you and your brother is a blessing to our school! For you carry our academic success. Everyone! Let this be an example to all of you! Our academy will be number 1 again this year in all of Japan! The Shindo siblings will the lead charge and we will be victorious!” The eruption of the students cheering made the glass windows of the hallway shake. You wanted nothing more than to leave the suffocating situation.

[beevean]

me constantly going in the CV tag despite knowing that it's 10% nice game fanart, 40% gifs of the show, and 50% some absolute braindamaging takes, is taking a toll on me

because after blocking the nth post admiring Lenore for playing Hector like a fiddle/saying Hector deserved to be enslaved for his original plan of culling mankind (nvm that babyboy Isaac was far more evil about it and he never got punished for wanting to "purify" the world)...

... I really want to think about Lenore and how I'd make her work with the crumbs that the show gave me lol

Lenore is obviously meant to be a parallel to Hector. Both of them are the animal lovers of their group, and mocked for it. Both of them are the "nice" ones in a group where cruelty reigns. Both of them are the least respected of their group - Dracula and Isaac shitting on Hector vs. Striga and Morana not even thinking about Lenore when they peace out. Both of them got used then discarded - yes, even Lenore, who became useless after enslaving Hector. Both of them are actually more of a threat than they look (allegedly, in Hector's case, but I can tell the intention was there).

Then there's the way they contrast. Lenore is a vampire who still clings on vestiges of humanity: she likes to eat food ("why live forever, if you're not going to live well?"), she rejects brute violence (again, allegedly) in favor of the more human art of diplomacy, she's compassionate about lesser creatures (humans included), and she's horrified at the realization that she is, deep down, nothing more than a greedy beast destined to crave more and more. Hector is a human alienated by humanity, who thinks culling is the kindest option, relates more to animals than his own species, and seems fascinated by the nature of vampires.

Imagine if the two actually bonded over this, and betrayed their "factions" because finally they found someone who respects them. And I mean organically bonded. On screen. With dialogue. Without the gross BDSM petplay. That part 100% has to go, it adds nothing, it's humiliation for humiliation's sake, it ruins Lenore's character, and it's just masturbation fuel.

I'd also change the scene where Lenore beats Hector. In my idea, Lenore flees from Hector's clutches, and then doesn't visit him again... for a week... and leaves him without food and water. By the time she comes back, Hector is desperate and is not above begging for some water, but she doesn't want to come close. "Are you going to hurt me again? :< you hurt me the last time :< you're so scary :< I did nothing to you and you tried to kill me :< I'm afraid that you'll do it again :<"

Basically, treating Hector like a rabid dog until he genuinely apologizes, and not only he learns the lesson that he shouldn't attack the only vampire who visits him, but he feels actually guilty and a terrible person about it. Made worse by how sensitive Hector probably is about all of this, as a love-starved abused child.

You know, manipulation, not just a brute display of strength to admire how stronk the girlboss is.

I don't know how their relationship would go from here, though. I only know that I'm more than happy with Lenore sunning herself: it is thematically coherent for her, her refusal to become like Carmilla, her guilt for hurting Hector, and if the two actually cared for each other, her choice to look at the only man who treated her with respect rather than the sun would be lovely.

Needless to say, we can only get here if she organically grows fond of him and doesn't rape him :^) but if she does, if she's really so cruel to hurt a man at his most vulnerable just to do what her sisters asked of her, then the story should treat her as such - and I'd also love to see Hector just snap, because by this point he's sick and tired of being seen as an object. Give him his big moment of taking down both vampires who hurt him. (in my vision not only he smashes Lenore's skull with his hammer, but he also takes a swing at Isaac - not killing him, just hurting him a little. please)

But I'd rather avoid that. I would like both characters to have agency - not even falling in love with each other, I don't care about that (they'd never be a cute couple anyway, not when she starts out as his jailer), just have a more interesting relationship built on two kindred spirits finding each other, but driven apart by their roles and nature. The vampire chooses death, the human grows and thrives.

There is sadly not going around the fact that Hector fell for two vampires (three if you count Dracula, but I can forgive that one) who employed the same strategy. I don't like the way Carmilla uses Hector either, but I can't be bothered to fix her rn.

[risingoflights]

twitter is...

like. artists have been protesting artstation’s allowance of AI generated art by posting a ‘NO AI’ image right - now if you go to Artstation’s main page it’s mostly those images.

cool!

techbro makes a post MOCKING the protest by AI-generating an image that’s made up of those protest images like ‘oh no my AI art is ruined because this is what I get when entering the ‘trending on artstation’ prompt now!’. The post aims to point out artists don’t know how AI tech works.

Bleh.

ARTISTS takes the techbro’s post as GENUINE, and post screencaps of it celebrating the fact the protest is working. The artists’ posts gets a lot of attention, and are still up despite people pointing out the techbro’s intention was to MOCK artists.

techbros are now seeing this and gleefully announcing how stupid and gullible artists are!

i have screenshots of all the above because apparently i want to remember this moment of feeling both very angry and very frustrated by a number of things this scenario demonstrates about being an artist online and social media, but posting those would increase the chances of THIS post going outside my usual circle which I don’t want.

so, friends, my own takeaway from this so far is,

a. no matter how much techbros would say otherwise, AI art generation depends on having real art to feed into the machines. the fact that techbros are SO HOSTILE to artists - the very people they depend on! - bewilders me, but there’s that pretty common sense of entitlement that people have toward things found online. have myself been told multiple times that if i didn’t want an artwork reposted, repurposed, etc, i shouldn’t have posted it in the first place. ‘found on google/pinterest/buzzfeed’ and ‘credit to the artist’ is a common caption. this is now that sentiment amplified. techbros probably also think there’s no way their well of stolen material will dry up... because artists depend on posting to survive and are not all going to collectively stop.

b. misinformation doesn’t help the cause!

c. waiting, optimistically, for the techbro’s mocking post to actually become true - that artists will flood the well with unusable images that will make AI generation too hard, or at least much harder.

d. waiting for tech to defeat the tech to come along, waiting for more regulations... Feeling, though, as a self-employed artist in this capitalist hellscape that ultimately money will win

e. seeing a bunch of ARTISTS lamenting the ‘no AI’ images on artstation because it’s inconveniencing their usual use of it!

f. artstation’s statement about the protest basically amounts to ‘well we respect artists’ copyright but we won’t ban AI art because we don’t want to gatekeep’. Gatekeep? That’s the wording they chose to use??

g. as a side-note, you know that scene in The Incredibles movie where Syndrome says ‘when everyone’s a super, no one will be’ and like. when everyone’s an artist i guess no one will be? and in The Incredibles 2 where Evelyn says ‘I think people will choose ease over quality every time’ - god isn’t that so applicable?

this is all very stupid and very tiring, but it just feels like something we’ll be dealing with now, i guess, on top of everything else. so that’s cool!

may well delete this later. i wrote this in an uncharacteristic rage! was so happy not checking twitter obsessively last few weeks because i’ve been so busy and this is what i come back to today, christ!

[twilightangel83]

Finally getting around to posting my linked universe gift exchange fits here. For @wispywinds

There’s also related art below the cut. (I made an edit to the pic with the clothes, Windy. Cause I’d forgotten to add her paldrons.

The sound of swords clashing together usually wasn’t a good thing. In fact it would usually have Twilight on his feet and rushing to get involved, but that wasn’t the case at the moment. Twilight allowed himself to relax back against the fallen tree behind him, eyes following the two moving blades as they flashed through the air in a way that was somehow both chaos and poetry in one. The people wielding the swords had been going at it for a couple of minutes now, but Twilight was pretty sure that the match was coming to an end. Especially since the taller of the two was getting visibly frustrated.

Another clang, followed by a thud signaled the end of the fight as one sword was knocked flying from its wielder's grip to land on the nearby ground.

“How do you do that?!” the disarmed man groaned, glaring down at the blade that was pointed just above the bright blue cloth of his scarf. “Your form is a mess and your footwork is sloppy, yet you always seem to get the upper hand over me!”

His opponent huffed a laugh at his expense and stepped back, sheathing his borrowed sword (the golden blade he usually wielded rested in its own sheath, propped up against the fallen tree off to Twilight’s right. Tucked away from even friendly bouts against the other heroes, much like Sky did with the Master Sword).

“You’re a knight, Captain .” He said it like that explained things, but the look he got in return clearly indicated that it did not, so the victorious hero sighed and continued. “Look. All you soldiers fight the same. Soldiers. Knights. Guards. You’re all trained to fight in the same way. So once I figured out how to beat one of you it was pretty easy to use that against the rest of you. I had to adjust it slightly for you, since it looked like your training differs slightly from my time, but it’s not different enough for it to be much of a change to how I fight you.”

“You expect me to believe that you trained specifically to fight soldiers?” Wars gave the other boy a disbelieving look, but his opponent didn’t bother to respond beyond a deadpan look and a raised eyebrow. The disbelief quickly faded to “What the heck, Vet! Why?!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Legend mocked, rolling his eyes. Off to the side, Twilight couldn’t help but frown. It wasn’t much, but Legend had tensed ever so slightly at that question. It had made him uncomfortable, but he was trying to hide it. And it didn’t look like the captain had noticed. Twilight shoved himself to his feet, cutting off anything Warriors might have been planning to say.

“Mind if I borrow a spear, Cub?” he asked, looking over at the champion who had been sitting next to him. Wild paused and looked up from examining the Shadow Crystal that Twilight had finally given in and allowed them to pass around (under strict instructions not to grab the pendant itself).

“A spear?” Wild repeated in confusion.

“Yeah,” Twilight agreed, quicking a smile at the younger hero. “I think our veteran needs some variety in his opponents. He’s getting cocky.”

“I know how to fight against spears!”

“You know how to use a spear?”

Legend and Warrior’s voices overlapped, and Twilight allowed his smile to twitch a bit larger as he raised an eyebrow at his cub.

“Alright then.” Curiosity was burning bright in the champion’s gaze, but he visibly bit back his questions before passing the Shadow Crystal over to the next person in the circle, Sky. Hands now free, he proceeded to pick up his slate to pull out what Twilight had requested. It didn’t take long.

“Thanks Cub,” Twilight grinned as he took the offered spear. He had to bite back a laugh at the obvious Gerudo design to the spear. It was perfect.

Turning back towards the center of the clearing revealed that Wars had moved off to the side, leaving Legend standing alone in the empty space, watching him with undisguised interest.

“I didn’t know you knew how to use a spear, Pup,” Time’s voice rolled easily across the clearing as Twilight stepped into the sparring area. There was a question in those words.

“The spear is actually the first weapon I learned to fight with,” Twilight informed them. Dismissive. Like it didn’t matter. Like that wasn’t a confession in and of itself. “I haven’t had an instructor for it in years, but I made sure to work at it so I wouldn’t lose the skill.” Hours of work every week, hidden deep in the forest, far from prying eyes. Far from any questions he didn’t want to have to answer. Questions people not from his era would never think to ask.

“Ready to get your pride handed to you?” Legend asked him, redrawing the sword and falling back into the stance he always used.

“Only if you are,” Twilight agreed, baring his teeth ever so slightly in playful challenge as he slowly sank into his own stance.

“If you think I’m not experienced fighting against spear users then you’re going to be sorely disappointed,” Legend warned him, but the confidence from earlier was fading as he took in Twilight’s stance. If Twilight understood what he’d learned about the other hero’s adventures, it probably wasn’t a stance he’d ever gotten the chance to see before. Not with how things were in his era. Behind him, Twilight caught the sound of Time’s soft gasp, but he put it out of his mind for the time being.

“Are you both ready?” Wars prompted them, having taken the position of referee. Twilight nodded, watching as Legend did the same across the way.

“Then begin!” Wars stepped back further as the match began.

Legend started to circle, clearly deciding to start off with a watch and see sort of method, leaving Twilight to make the first move. He was fine with that. Twilight darted in, flashing another show of teeth play-challenge-play and they were off!

The match went about as Twilight had expected. Legend was good, with more real-world experience than any of them, but he was unfamiliar with the style Twilight was using. Twilight used that, along with his superior reach and more aggressive fighting-style, to keep the more experienced hero on the back-foot for the majority of the spar. This led to him eventually managing to sweep Legend’s feet out from underneath him entirely before lunging forward to step on the other boy’s blade, pinning it to the ground before he could bring it up to defend himself. Then, while Legend was still processing the fact he couldn’t free his sword, Twilight brought the tip of his spear to the dip of the other boy’s collarbone. Legend froze then, tense, not yet willing to concede.

One beat passed.

Two.

“Fuck.” The veteran relaxed, falling back more fully onto the ground beneath him, releasing his grip on the sword he’d been using.

“You good?” Twilight shifted back, stepping off of the blade and removing his spear from where it had been resting.

“What the fuck, Twilight?” Legend in lieu of answer, glaring up at him. “What is up with your fighting style?”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, offering the other boy his hand. Dismissive. Cool. There was nothing dangerous in that question. It was fine.

Read the rest Here

[lily-janus]

The Hardest Thing

hey guys! I finally did my first Big Bang yayyy! For now I'll post the first chapter and hopefully post the rest soon after! Ty so much for @bonker-bananas for the amazing art she made for this fic! @tss-storytime

summary link (check it out for all the content and trigger warnings for the entire fic)

Word count: 4,359

Chapter 1 - Don't Worry, Virgil!

It was a day like any other. Nothing special or note-worthy about it. The weather was a bit cloudy but there was no storm, no thunder, just a light breeze and some clouds that dimmed the light of the sun slightly.

Virgil was walking on his usual route to school, the familiar sights doing nothing to ease his nerves. 

He didn't know why he felt so anxious, his eyes kept darting around as if expecting some creature to jump from the bushes or… something. And no matter how much breathing exercises he did, his breath kept hitching and there wasn't enough air in his lungs-

"Virgil?" 

He suddenly feels a hand on his shoulder and jumps a few good feet in the air before he realizes it was only Janus.

Wait… Janus? When did he…

Virgil blinked, looking around, he spotted Janus' house a few feet behind them… he didn't even notice he walked past it, never mind that Janus joined him in their usual meeting spot in front of it…

Janus puts his arms up in surrender. "Sorry, you just seem a bit jumpy today." Janus says gently, Virgil's shoulder slumping after his initial panic.

He grabs his left arm with his right, nails digging into the sleeves of his hoodie trying again to do his breathing exercises. "Yeah… sorry, just one of these days…" he mumbles. "I got this vague feeling that something bad is coming…" he trailed off, it sounds so stupid when he says it out loud…

Janus raised a skeptic eyebrow at that and Virgil wanted to kick himself for saying anything. It's obviously just his stupid anxiety acting up for no reason, he should know better than to listen to it.

But still…

 "I know it sounds stupid but-"

"Oh heavens no! I think you're right! Look, behind you!" Janus points behind Virgil.

Virgil rolled his eyes. Of course Janus would mock him for it, what else did he expect? He should have kept his mouth shut… 

"Very funny Janus-" but he's tackled to the floor before he can finish his sentence.

His entire body immediately tenses up even more than before and he feels his lungs being crushed by the weight above him as he struggles to breathe, clawing and writhing on the floor in a desperate attempt to get away, to run from the unknown threat, to-

"Sneak attack!" Remus shrieks in delight.

He slamps in relief and exhaustion when he realizes it's just Remus and his annoying sneak tackles… really, how many times did he need to explain to him that these are not fun for someone with a high functioning anxiety like him?

Virgil groans, struggling to breathe under his weight. "Remus… we talked about this…" he chokes out.

Remus giggles, crushing Virgil even more as he uses him as leverage to get back on his feet, offering his hand to him once he's up.

Virgil glares at him before ignoring his hand and standing up on his own. "You gotta stop doing this, man, I'm jumpy enough as it is." He folds his arms over his chest, hugging himself tightly. That attack did not help his nerves, if anything it made them tense up more.

"Sorry, V, couldn't help it." Remus grinned apologetically at their anxious friend. "Why are you jumpy anyway? Nothing special is happening, just a boring school day." Remus shrugs.

Virgil rolls his eyes at the question. He stopped counting the amount of times he tried to explain to his friends how his anxiety works, they just never seem to listen. The fact that there's nothing happening nor anything to be worried about doesn't mean he won't worry. 

It just means his brain will come up with things that might happen and make him worry about those, which is honestly worse than having one, clear and specific thing to worry about.

"He says he feels like something's about to happen" Janus snickers.

Virgil flushes, he again regrets voicing his imaginary concerns to Janus. "Hey! I was right a few times before!" He protests, tacking his hands into his hoodie pocket. His anxiety isn't always wrong…

"You were also wrong a lot of the times" Janus points out, because of course he did. "Just breathe, Virgil, you're safe, we're all safe, ok?" Janus says soothingly.

For now…

Virgil thinks then sighs. "I know but-"

"Great! Boring talk over! Now let's get to the good stuff." Remus rubs his hands together in anticipation.

Well… those words coming from Remus' mouth never led to anything good, maybe his anxiety was right today…

"Ah, surely nothing bad will follow this statement." Janus smirks, gesturing for Remus to continue.

"Today's a very special day!" Remus starts excitedly.

Virgil frowns as the three of them started walking again towards school. What's special about today? Was he missing something or is Remus just making stuff up for fun? Wouldn't be the first time..

"Tuesday?" Janus raises an amused eyebrow.

Remus pouts. "No silly! It's my birthday!" He says, complete with jazz hands.

Virgil frowns. "Isn't that in two weeks?" He asked as he looked at the date in his phone to confirm his question. It wasn't any of them's birthdays, what is Remus talking about?

Remus shrugs. "Potato tomato, it's the same thing!"

"It's really not…" Virgil tried to say but was interrupted by Remus' annoyed groan.

"Ugh you two are so boring! Let's just skip school and have a fun time together! You know, to celebrate." Remus looks at his friends hopefully.

Virgol huffed, he's not boring, he's cautious. There's a difference, why would they risk getting in trouble for nothing?

"Celebrate what? It's not your birthday yet darling." Janus pointed out.

Remus shrugs again. "It's someone's for sure! So let's celebrate them!"

Remus is being weirdly insistent about this…

Janus chuckles. "That's not how this works."

Remus pouted. "What are you, birthday police? C'mon, let's get out of this stupid place and have some fun!"

Janus was still chuckling, shaking his head. "Sure why not, not like any of my parents will notice anyway… or care, I'm in." 

Not surprising, Janus' parents were usually either too busy arguing or trying to best the other in everything than to actually pay attention to their son and his behavior. Suffice to say, holidays were a nightmare. And Virgil should know, since Janus made him accompany him for some for moral support, he couldn't blame the guy for needing it.

Remus whooped in triumph and they started walking in the other direction.

Did they even think about waiting for his response? Or did they just assume he'll follow them like a puppy?

Virgil froze in place. "W-wait, skip school? My parents will kill me!"

Unlike Janus' parents, Virgil's parents micromanaged every tiny detail in Virgil's life. They weren't too strict like Remus', but they knew everything about everything concerning him and his actions at any moment… or at least tried to. 

Janus and Remus helped him get away with some things in the past, but it wasn't an easy task. The fact that he's diagnosed with an anxiety disorder makes them even more protective of him than any other protective parent he's seen.

Don't get him wrong, Virgil loves his parents to bits… he just wished they'd give him some room to breathe every once in a while…

Janus rolled his eyes, going back a few steps to look Virgil in the eyes. "No one's going to know, ok? We'll fake sick letters from our parents so the teachers won't tell them, it'll be fine, don't you trust me?"

Of course he does… that's not the point he's trying to make. They didn't think this plan through enough… his parents will surely find out…

Virgil hesitated. "Of course I do, I just… I'm worried-"

"You alway are, Scare Bear! Now let's go! School's for losers!" Remus shouted in delight as he ran forward.

Janus sighed. "And now we have to follow to make sure he's not breaking anything… or anyone." He snickers to himself before running after Remus.

Both of them leaving Virgil no choice but to follow.

Virgil looks back in the direction of the school for a few seconds, before shaking his head and following them. Not like he can face school alone anyway.

"What are we doing at a grocery store again?" Janus asked, faking a yawn to show how bored he was. "I thought this day would turn out to be exciting."

Virgil was standing awkwardly next to them, trying his best to look like he's supposed to be here and not like a guilty student who's skipping school. He wasn't sure he's doing a very good job…

There were a few grown ups browsing the shelves, some of them eying the three of them suspiciously… though it might just be in Virgil's head.

"It will! I just need to find… ah ha! Gotcha!" Remus snatched something off one of the shelves and showed it to his friends.

Janus smirked at the sight but Virgil shook his head violently.

"Graffiti? Seriously? Remus, we could get in serious trouble for this, let's just go to the arcade or something." Virgil insisted, looking around fearfully.

What is he thinking? Does he want to end up in prison?

"Ugh you are sooo boring! C'mon it'll be fun, don't be a buzz-kill! Here, I found a purple spray bottle for you!" Remus shook the bottle in front of Virgil's face.

"Yeah Virgil, come on, we won't get caught if we'll be cautious." Janus piped in, picking a yellow spray bottle from the shelf.

"You don't know that! What if someone sees us? What if a cop walks by? What if-" he, once again, tried to get some sense into his impulsive friend. But he was cut off… again. Why does he even bother?

"Virgil, my guy, relax, we're not planning a murder just some silly writing on walls! We can table murder for later." Remus slang his arm around the back of Virgil's neck, grinning wildly.

Relax? Relax?! How is he supposed to relax when his friends seem determined to break so many rules today? And drag him down with them?

You don't have to go with them, you can go back to school and make up an excuse for being late. They're the ones that want to do this, not you…

"No murder, Remus, ever." Janus sighed then turned to Virgil. "If you don't want to join us, you don't have to, but we want to have fun with you too, it's your choice."

Virgil scoffed, there was no choice, it's not like he can go home when he's supposed to be in school, and he can't show up this late to school either, and wondering the streets alone is out of the question.

"Whatever…" he mumbled, taking the purple spray bottle from Remus.

He sighed as he turned the spray bottle in his hands, why is it so hard for him to make himself be heard?

"That's the spirit! Let's go!"

"If we get caught I'm killing both of you and then myself." Virgil said as they paid for the spray bottles and walked out of the store.

"If you're trying to threaten me you're doing it wrong, that sounds like fun!" Remus laughed.

….

"Hey, you! Stop right there!"

Virgil froze, his hand still up in the air with the spray bottle, in the middle of spraying his drawing on the wall.

He knew it! He fucking knew it! This is it, they're all going to jail, their parents will bail them out but then ground them until they're 30! How did he let himself go with this stupid, pointless, risky plan?

He would have stayed there, frozen, if Remus hadn't grabbed him by the arm and pulled him effortlessly with them as they ran before the cop saw their faces.

They stopped after a few blocks to catch their breath and Virgil wasted no time punching Remus in the arm. "I fucking told you! Idiot, we could have been arrested."

"But we didn't."  

"But we could have."

"But!" Janus jumped in. "We didn't, so let's stop this annoying arguing hm?" 

Virgil sighed. "Can we just go to the Arcade now? You know, like every normal kid does when they skip school?"

Remus grinned. "You got it, V-man! But you bet I'm cheating to get all the tickets and buy the coolest prize!" He giggled.

Virgil shook his head. "It's like you want to get in trouble…" but he followed his two friends anyway.

Janus slowed to walk beside him while Remus walked at the front, smirking as he watched their wild friend.

"So, what do you think he's hiding?"

Virgil frowned. "What?"

Janus raised an eyebrow. "Oh please, don't tell me you didn't notice, he's been acting weird all day."

He hesitated. He did notice something was off about Remus' behavior today. He seemed way more insistent and careless than usual but… hiding something? Remus is always so blatantly honest, what would he feel the need to hide from them?

 "It's Remus… he always acts weird." Virgil pointed out, refusing to admit Remus might be hiding secrets from them, making Janus roll his eyes.

"Different weird, trust me, there's something he's not telling us, something he tries to avoid thinking about. I bet his super strict parents punished him again or something. He always acts out in protest when they do that, what do you think?" Janus explained, seeming to enjoy speculating about their friend's personal life, which wasn't surprising.

He remembered one time, he was being more quiet than usual and Janus was utterly delighted when his endless probing finally broke Virgil and made him confess about his fight with his parents the other day.

Virgil shrugged. "How should I know?" He tried to end this conversation as quickly as possible, he didn't like talking about Remus behind his back… literally.

Janus shook his head. "It's not about knowing, the fun is in speculating, c'mon, just guess something." He urged him.

"Ah… I don't know, secret crush or something?" Virgil tried, hoping that's satisfy Janus.

Janus snickered at that. "Maybe, now that will be an interesting development."

"This is stupid, he's right here, why don't we just ask?" Virgil asked, slightly confused. Janus always does this, making things overly complicated instead of just being direct.

Janus looked at him like he just said the dumbest thing ever. "Where's the fun in that? Besides, he could have told us all day but didn't so obviously if we confront him about it he's just going to deflect and get defensive." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

He's also insanely good at reading people and predicting their reactions, it's honestly scary sometimes.

"How have we been friends since forever and you two still manage to confuse me?" Virgil mumbled.

Janus snickered. "It's part of our charm." He said easily.

Virgil huffed a laugh. "Calm down Charming."

"Hey! Are you two done flirting?" Remus joked, "because it's time to get your game face on! We're here!" He gestured to the Arcade dramatically.

Janus and Virgil rolled their eyes with a smile and followed Remus inside.

The Arcade was as loud and colorful as Virgil remembered, with endless beepings and sounds emitting from the hundreds of games that lined up the place, the colorful lighting moving around and changing constantly.

The three friends looked around with growing excitement, looking at all the games and weighing their options.

"Hey! Janny! Check this out!" Remus suddenly shouted, pointing excitedly at the DDR game at the center of the Arcade. "Bet I can still beat you to the ground at dancing!" He grinned provkingly at Janus.

Remus was all talk, no one ever has been able to beat Janus at dancing, in DDR or not, his graceful way if moving his body was unbeatable.

"Now, Remus, I know what you're trying to do…" Janus started, "but we both know, you have never beaten me in the classic game of Dance Dance Revolution, and you never will." Janus smirked at Remus smugly.

"Oh yeah? Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and show us what you got?" Remus challenged, grinning wildly.

"Hm gladly, just you watch and learn, my parents didn't put me in dance lessons for nothing, see how a true master does it." Janus said, walking towards the game with his chin up.

Virgil and Remus watched him go. "You just love provoking him, don't you?"

"Virgil, buddy," Remus put a hand on his shoulder, "it's my reason for living."

Virgil snorted, "you're awful."

Remus grinned at that. "Why, thank you Vee, I try my best. You have to admit how entertaining he is though." He jerked his head in Janus' direction, already deep in his dancing, eyes glued to the screen and legs gracefully going for the right arrows, clearly smiling.

Remus sighed contently, patting himself on the shoulder. "I know how much he loves dancing, you're such a good friend Remus! Why thank you, Remus!"

Virgil rolled his eyes. "Dork…" he muttered.

"Hey! I heard that!" Remus punched his arm playfully, making Virgil laugh.

They then heard a faint ping coming from Remus' pocket and he fished out his phone to check what it was.

As he read whatever message it was, his expression started to change to… something Virgil never saw on him before, and something he quickly decided he didn't like at all. After a moment's hesitation, he tapped Remus lightly on the shoulder.

Remus jumped as if he got zapped by lightning, quickly locking his phone and turning around sharply to face Virgil, looking at him as if he forgot he was there.

"You okay, Re? Who messaged you?" Virgil asked with a frown of concern, he had never seen him act like it before… maybe Janus was right and he was hiding something…

Remus blinked a few times then grinned his usual grin, though it felt… off. "Eh, nothing important, just some stupid chores my parents asked me to do when I come back from 'school' "

"Um… okay? You just seemed a bit-"

"Know what? Changed my mind, this place is boring! I have a better idea, let's go!" He went to grab Janus and dragged him outside with him, Virgil worriedly trailing behind them.

What aren't you telling us, Remus?

…

"Remus, why are we at your house-"

"Shh" Remus shushed, "no one can know we're here, we're supposed to be in school remember?"

Virgil rolled his eyes, "you said that way louder than me but okay mister Stealth."

Janus snorted quietly at the comment as they continued to walk towards Remus' house.

But when they neared the front door, Remus took a sharp turn, going around the house instead.

Virgil and Janus exchanged worried glances behind Remus' back as they followed him.

"Remus, dear, you know how much I love sneaking around but… what exactly is your plan here?" Janus whispered to him as he stopped in a seemingly random place in their back yard.

"Do you know what my dad's job is?" Remus asked, turning to face his two friends.

Confused, they both shook their heads.

"Yeah neither do I, but I do know how to get inside his secret office, no one is allowed in there but my dad, which is why today we're gonna pick inside." Remus explained excitedly, rubbing his hands in anticipation. 

Every part of Virgil's brain and body screamed at him to not do exactly what Remus just suggested, his mind already came up with at least 30 things that could go wrong and quickly going up to 50 scenerios.

Virgil bit his lip in hesitation, "I don't know Re… maybe it's a secret for a reason, what if there's something dangerous inside?"

"Oh c'mon, it's my boring ol' dad! It's probably just some personal stuff he's ashamed of or something." Remus dismissed Virgil's worries, like always… Seriously, why does he even bother? 

"What do you say, Janny? You're usually not as boring as Emo over here."

Virgil huffed at that as Janus considered this. He then shrugged, "I must admit, I am curious to see what your father's up to, though I doubt it'll be too interesting, or even close to dangerous. Remus' dad is… many things, but exciting is not one of them." 

"Yes! Knew you'll be on board, now." He turned to the wall of the house, considering it for a moment before pressing on random places on it. "Saw him do it so many times." He explained when he was done.

For a moment, nothing happened, then a soft beep of approval was heard and a section of the wall sunk down to the floor, revealing a hidden passage.

"That's… kinda overdoing it for just personal stuff you're ashamed of…" Virgil pointed out as he looked into the passageway. Bad potential scenarios are up to over a hundred now.

Remus groaned, "fine, stay here as a look out or something, me and Jay will check it out, I heard chickens like it outside more." Remus teased, making Janus snicker and Virgil roll his eyes.

"Well sorry for being cautious, geez." He tacked his hands into his hoodie, watching Remus walk inside.

"You really want to stay here? Alone?" Janus raised an eyebrow at him.

Virgil hesitated for a moment, glancing at the passage then out in the street… where anyone can walk by… and think Virgil's weird and suspicious for standing in someone else's yard for so long…

He sighed, he can't believe he's actually letting them convince him to do this… But if there's something he hates more than this dangerous plan… it's being alone.  

"...whatever."

Janus smirked and walked inside, Virgil soon following, the 'door' closing behind the three of them. Making Virgil jump and turn towards the once open door… that's not a good sign…

They all walked in silence, trying to be as quiet as possible, and taking in the strange, secret passage they found.

They soon came into a bright lighted room, full of strange looking devices and various tools scattered around each of them, it almost looked like-

"A lab?!" Remus screeched in bewilderment, "I've had a secret lab in my house this whole time?! I should have snuck down here a lot sooner, damn!"

Janus shook his head, "what happened to 'be quiet, no one can know we're here'? " he asked with a smirk.

Remus just shrugged, "there's a limit to how long I can stay quiet and did you see what we found?!" He grabbed Janus' shoulders, shaking him in excitement, "my dad's a secret scientist! How freaking cool is that!" 

Janus broke away from his grip, "apparently cool enough to forget what personal space means." He huffed, straightening his clothes, "but I admit this is… not what I was expecting, I wonder what your dad is researching."

Remus nodded at that looking over the various devices curiously.

"Holy shit, is this for real? …we should probably not touch any- Remus!" Virgil said in a panic when he saw Remus pick up a strange watch, "put that down! We don't know what it can do-"

A secret lab is like, horrible scenario number 122, complete with them accidentally activating some sort of doomsday device and bringing the end of the world!

"Geez, calm down, will ya? Nothing happened!" Remus huffed, putting the watch down.

"Yet.." Virgil added quietly, "this place gives me the creeps, let's get out of…" he trailed off, tilting his head as he looked at a full body-sized mirror… that didn't seem to reflect the room they were in, "...here." he finished quietly, frowning.

Virgil tilted his head, looking at the strange 'mirror' more closely. Its frame had strange carvings and drawings on it that looked like they're depicting battles. At the top of the mirror there were three small figures and a sentence in a language Virgil has never seen anything like it before…

"Vee? Everything- wow what is that?" Remus came to stand near Virgil, staring at the strange mirror and reaching a hand towards it.

Janus stopped him, "idiot, what do you think you're doing?" He growled at him.

Remus shook his head, seemingly waking up from something, "s-sorry, I just had the weirdest feeling…" he mumbled.

"Okay, this place is crazy, I'm leaving-" he paused, looking around in confusion, "ah… guys? Where's the passageway?"

They all started to look around, but all the walls seemed solid and closed with no openings. Janus and Virgil turned ro Remus, looking at him hopefully.

"Hey! I only saw him get in! I didn't think-"

"Yeah that's the problem! You don't think and somehow you always manage to convince me and… now we're stuck here! We don't have any food and no one knows where we are… I knew I had a bad feeling about today, but you two never listen to me!" Virgil yelled, breath becoming shallower with every word until he was panting.

He's tired of doing things he doesn't really want to do, he's tired of always following his only friends around and feeling as though it's his only choice…

And he's tired of constantly being scared of everything.

"Virgil, you need to breathe-"

"No! I have a right to panic, stop telling me to fucking calm down! News flush, telling someone anxious to calm down is not calming!" Despite that, he tried catching his breath without much luck.

"I'm…" they both turned to Remus at the sound of his unusually weak voice, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

Virgil reached his hand to try and ground himself… and realized a second too late he wasn't leaning on a wall… but the strange mirror. His hand suddenly sunk into it, like it was made of water, and he cried in alarm when it started sucking him in.

Janus and Remus grabbed at his free arm, trying to pull him out, but nothing worked.

Before any of them realized what happened, the three of them disappeared into the mirror, leaving the lab quiet and empty.

[azenkii]

A Long List of Trash Fire Lord Zuko Headcanons

...that i couldn't get out of my head:

(warning: SUPER LONG POST i havent figured out how to trim posts yet)

he's the one who unchains azula despite iroh's protests. she doesn't even try to fight him, just cries into his shoulder and keeps mumbling about how father's going to be so disappointed in her. he takes her to her rooms and has her drink a sleeping draught, then stations the best guards he has left outside her chambers.

his first council meeting takes place literally a day after sozin's comet. he hobbles into the council chamber shirtless with his entire torso covered in bandages and every council member just looks at him like '...what'

he does NOT sleep for like,,a week after sozin's comet and then another two weeks after his coronation. katara, aang and suki try to persuade him to sleep and he doesn't listen. eventually sokka, toph and mai team up to literally drag his ass to bed and tell him he's not allowed to get up until he sleeps (does mai pin him to the bed with her knives? yes. is it kinky or sexual in any way? definitely not.)

he drinks So. Much. Tea. at this point it's practically tasteless to him but he drinks it anyway because he just needs something to do and tea is something familiar. he keeps iroh on his toes because he's constantly asking for new tea blends, uncle, i think i actually tasted the last one,

he flat-out refuses to grow his hair for at least a year after ozai's defeat. the second it starts getting close to his chin he shears it off himself, with his knife, and his stylist has a heart attack every single time

when he's tired he'll occasionally jump up when one of his guards moves. it stops after a bit, but for the first month and a half or so he's really twitchy. when sokka asks, the only explanation he can come up with is that he's not used to having people stand behind him silently and not want to kill him, much less want to protect him (sokka immediately takes him out for a shopping trip and makes a point of walking behind him the entire time, but only on zuko's right side, where he can clearly see it if sokka moves towards him)

when the healer declares azula mentally unstable and in need of an institution, he shuts himself in his office for the rest of the night. no one's allowed in, not even iroh. he finally emerges in the morning, eyes red from crying and sleep deprivation, and tells the librarian that he'd like a list of the best mental institutions in the country, please, the best in the world if you can get them

he loves theatre (is this even a headcanon?). unfortunately it practically died out in the fire nation along with the rest of the creative arts, leaving nothing but small troupes like the ember island players. one of zuko's personal goals (meaning things he wants to accomplish that aren't as important as restoring his country) is to bring back theatre; he finally manages to do it after about eight months or so of being fire lord, along with other arts like dancing, music and sculpture

he establishes a national day of mourning, on the first day of autumn every year, to commemorate the genocide of the air nomads. from 100AG onwards, every calendar printed in the fire nation has it marked. at first it was called the day of repentance, but aang persuaded him to have it changed (by arguing that he didn't want guilt to be a literal staple of fire nation culture)

he introduces literally So Many educational reforms, plus a mandatory class that teaches students about the cultures of the other nations (air nomads included) and how some of their traditions overlap

he turns down the offer of having a statue put up of him in the capital. toph ignores him and does it anyway.

he visits azula regularly, makes sure she's (relatively) comfortable and well-fed, and sometimes just sits down outside her door and tells her about everything that's going on right now ('some of the far colonies have developed their own standardised writing, azula, you wouldn't believe it, and i've asked the fire sages to come visit more often—but you never liked them, did you? oh, well; i'll make sure none of them go into your chambers by mistake')

(he doesn't know it, but when he does this azula sits by the door and listens. she wonders what kind of writing the colonists have developed, and whether or not the fire sages have taken on some new recruits.)

he hates being above anyone else. never sits in the throne if he can help it, nor does he sit on the dais in the council room. when he talks to people shorter than him, he finds himself stooping a little bit to talk to them on their level (the exception to this rule is sokka, who he mocks for being shorter all the way up until sokka grows taller than him, the bastard)

the first time he visits the earth kingdom, the earth king's ministers call a toast. he ends up being the only one who has to sit out, because he's too young to drink by earth kingdom law

once his servants figure out he won't kill them for talking to him, they start becoming a lot more bold, telling him off when he doesn't take care of himself. at one point, they force him to let them take care of him so much that he literally just bolts into the gardens and hides there until the staff rope in mai and ty lee

when he needs to escape, he does one of two things: (a) he dresses up as the blue spirit and does some parkour until he calms down, or (b) he goes to work at the jasmine dragon. (b) happens less often bc the jasmine dragon's in ba sing se, but there's been a few memorable incidents when an earth kingdom diplomat walks in and yells, 'LEE?!' when they see the fire lord

the first court artist who draws him also happens to be the one who drew azulon and ozai. he draws zuko without his scar. zuko takes one look at it and tells him, very calmly, that he'd like him to leave, please.

zuko burns the portrait. he doesn't fire the court artist, but he never calls on him again unless he has to. a second court artist is called, and can't help but be a bit confused when the fire lord tells him to be sure to include the scar

he forgets the crown. a lot. sometimes he walks into council meetings in his sleepwear with his hair tied up in a messy ponytail and a bunch of scrolls tucked under his arm. none of his councilmen have the guts (or the heart) to tell him that this is not, in fact, formal council wear

he goes to feed the turtleducks when he's stressed. he thinks he's being subtle. he's not. the entire palace knows, and they consciously give him space when they see him in the turtleduck garden

most of his staff are older than him, so they look at him and see this teeny tiny fire lord who is So Small and who Must Be Protected. the day after zuko's coronation, the head chef holds a meeting where they commence Operation Do-Not-Let-That-Boy-Turn-Out-Like-His-Father (subsection He's-The-Only-Good-Thing-We-Have)

one night he wakes up to find suki sitting in his room, decked out in full kyoshi warrior garb and makeup, and just about screams blue murder. suki tells him there are suspicions of an assassin in the palace, and would you please stop yelling it's very distracting, we won't be able to hear anyone coming over that racket

zuko gets very, very paranoid of random spirits after that. yeah, suki looks like a possibly malevolent spirit when she's wearing her makeup, what about it? (when he tells sokka he's highkey terrified of spirit shenanigans, sokka just looks at him and says, 'man, the stories i could tell...', and THAT'S when zuko remembers sokka spent like six months more than he did travelling with the avatar)

on his first visit to the southern water tribe, he removes his boots and leg guards, rolls up his pants and kneels barefoot in the snow. even though chief hakoda immediately starts trying to pull him up, he's stubborn as hell and stays kneeling for the entirety of his very long, very sincere apology-on-behalf-of-the-fire-nation speech. he nearly loses his toes to frostbite after that, and both sokka and katara never stop giving him shit for it

the first time he grows a 'beard' is completely accidental. he's stressed over some trade miscommunications with chief hakoda, hasn't slept in a few days...and then when sokka arrives as water tribe ambassador to help smooth things over, he takes one look at zuko and says 'man, facial hair does not suit you'

zuko: facial what now

he checks a mirror to find that he's got stubble covering his chin, dark enough that it almost looks intentional, and holy gods how the fuck did he not notice this before

'UNCLE WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME' 'i assumed you were doing it on purpose' 'WHEN HAVE I EVER DONE ANYTHING ON PURPOSE'

he shaves it all off immediately, of course, which prompts a lot of teasing and rib-poking from sokka until zuko finally snaps that he's scared it'll make him look like his father. sokka stops after that.

(the day after sokka leaves, zuko finds that a mysterious someone has scribbled all over ozai's royal portrait, giving him a frankly ridiculous beard and moustache that literally CANNOT be grown in real life. oddly enough, he can't bring himself to care about the defamation of royal property. he's too busy laughing.)

his paths cross with toph and sokka more than any of the others, because sokka is ambassador and toph is technically still a beifong. most of the time, at formal functions, he ends up sequestered in the corner with toph and a hoard of snacks, and they talk and swear much more than they usually do (zuko's ministers once heard him when he was drunk with toph, and the servants swear the older ministers' ears started bleeding)

he restores fire nation cultural festivals, and in doing so subjects himself to learning a lot of complicated dances

during one memorable week, he wrote so many letters and drafted so much legislation that he ran out of paper. he had to go visit the nearest school and ask for some

he keeps up with his firebending and sword training even though it's hard to fit into his schedule. his ministers refrain from reminding him that he has guards to protect him now; it's still hard for zuko to trust his safety with anyone but himself (team avatar is the exception).

he started sleepwalking about two months into his reign. no one knew why. one time, he nearly sleepwalked right off the edge of a balcony, and one of his guards had to grab him by the back of his robes.

the sleepwalking stopped after around a month and never happened again. at this point it's practically palace legend.

after freeing the war prisoners, he went around collecting every single earthbender-proof wooden cell he could find in the capital and surrounding areas. when he'd gotten most of them, he gathered them into a huge pile in the city square and set fire to them with his own hands.

unfortunately he couldn't do that with the waterbender metal cells but he did get toph to come in and bend them all into pretty shapes (well, toph thought they were pretty shapes. everyone else thinks they're meaningless squiggles)

he learned how to write with both hands at the same time out of sheer necessity (he refused scribes until it became clear that he'd be putting some people out of a job; that was when he started letting scribes write very, very minor things, but all important documents/drafts/letters are still written by him)

he once put the wet end of an ink brush in his mouth instead of the wooden end by mistake. didn't even realise until he bit down to keep it in place and ink went oozing everywhere

when his guards rushed in to find him coughing and spluttering black liquid all over his desk they thought he'd been poisoned but no he's just stupid

on his 17th birthday, his first one after being crowned, he got tackled by team avatar in the middle of the ballroom and ended up at the bottom of a cuddlepile for like ten minutes

this cuddlepile happened at an event that was very much public and very much formal. it was a scandal for weeks

just. fire lord zuko, guys. so much potential

[everythingthemoontouches]

💙Hi there! , First of all i want to tell you that i love your blog! And i love how your posts are so accurate!💙 If its okay with you could you please do me a favor by describing how others see me,my appearance or more specifically the vibe I radiate to others! It would mean alot to me if you you do that💙I'm a cancer sun,leo rising,Lilith sextile asc, Pluto trine asc, Uranus opposition asc, Moon opposition asc, mars sextile venus, mars opposition neptune, asteroid lilith conjunct mc and jupiter in the 1st house!💙

Hola!

Thank you that's really kind of you 💛💕

You know that quote that says Cinderella never asked for a prince. All she wanted was a night out and a dress. You kind of exude a similar vibe but with respect to leadership positions. 'I never asked to be Queen/King, but the people have spoken' kind of an energy. You would be equally happy to be by yourself, learning about the subconscious mind, higher realms and other esoteric science.

For more on Jupiter in LEO I'd recommend watching Astrofinesse.

For jupiter in the first there's KRS.

🌻As a Leo rising you come across as someone outgoing, with a playful energy but you're also somehow someone people would expect to see in a position of authority. You're drawn to people who stimulate you intellectually and love to exchange ideas.

😬If you have an Aquarius saturn you could be having some challenges in your relationships since December 2020 as saturn transits your 7th house. I'd suggest practicing discernment in this area as well as signing contracts with people until it passes( early 2023) ..

😇12th house sun could take on other people's energy. I feel like you need some time away, by yourself, preferably at the beach / pool/ shower to declutter, clear your head and replenish your sense of Self. You could be highly intuitive. If this resonates, I'd urge you to look up empath drain and how to protect yourself from energy vampires.

Ruler of the ascendant in the 12th :

spirituality could be a huge part of your life. For some people this could show a father (figure) who was convicted or worked in a prison / asylum. They could also have a really remote job. Since the sun is also your own personal identity, you could profit off these themes. Working in a mental health facility, overseas, in esoteric crafts.

🌛With your moon in the 7th house, you probably attract a lot of older women, (queen of swords) nurturing energies . Your mom could have a major influence on any business partnerships that you enter.

In relationships you could have a here today gone tomorrow kind of a presence. This is because as the moon waxes and wanes so does your attraction / attachment to specific people?

♒Aquarius moon : it could be really hard for you to express your feelings. So Instead of asking for a hug there could be a tendency to say something like ' ew imagine asking for one?' you leave a place better than you found it. If you watch hindi movies, 3 Idiots could be a movie you really resonate with. ( I pretty much spent the day looking up the lead actor, who has major aquarius placements and his films have always been disruptive with a really nice social message that left people talking for years after they were released. I tell you this because he shares 2 of your big 3 - aquarius and cancer.)

Going off on this tangent you could be a well respected teacher / writer / entertainer. Jupiter in LEO could help with this.

I do feel like you need a certain amount of inventiveness in your relationships. The people you're with are people who introduce you to new hobbies / ideas / technologies. You need to feel like you guys learn something new or create something that matters together. This is enhanced by uranus in the 7th house. You could come across really cold because you always give people the naked honest truth when asked. You do this from a place of love. I'm reminded of the Queen of Swords card in the rider Waite tarot. Not everyone has the maturity to take it. Or maybe they've just had a bad day. It is what it is. Perhaps try to not be so incisive if this is something you struggle with.

In the same vein, if I asked you to write down how you were feeling how long would it take for you to identify the right emotion. How honest are you with yourself?

Moon and Uranus being in the same house could show that stagnation could really hurt your mental health / happiness / satisfaction levels.

With a saturn ruled moon I feel like I need to remind you to not be so hard on yourself. Like. The world won't crumble to dust if you allow yourself to take care of you once in a while.there's only so much you can do.

All those coffee mugs will catch up. There's no such thing as extra hours in the day. A lack of sleep manifests as early signs of aging. No hate for the elderly but arthritis is not a fun ailment to have. Do you wanna be 60 with 80 year old nervous system problems? I rest my case.

Uranus and moon aspect your ascendant so you could have a slightly plump look?

Jupiter in the first house people usually have prominent thighs. I had a friend with this placement and when we were growing up she used to complain of chafed thighs a lot?

Mars sextile venus you could be your own type? The way you act and the way you want your future partners to express love could be quite similar which is good for healthy relationships.

There could be a tendency to spend impulsively.

With Mars sextiling venus you could be someone who earns more the more active their lifestyle is? Like, you may need to be an agile learner to keep money flowing in .

Jupiter in LEO in a woman's chart usually shows they'd have a financially well off spouse so money may not be a huge concern. He could be a sailor or earn via exports/ navy. It's hard to say without knowing where your Saturn is.

The image you project to the world could be a lot more outgoing than how you actually feel. You're more private than people think.

With a fire rising, water sun and air moon you could either be a really balanced person or just have a number of clashing ideas on who to be, what to do and achieve.

Descendant : The people that hate on you could attack your need to stand out /try to dim your time in the spotlight. Think aquarius themes of standing out to improve community clashing with Leo's need to stand out solely because it helps their ego. Like your confidence could trigger the part if them that felt judged negatively for expressing their individuality.

Do you feel like you thrive in chaos? I'm guessing you're atleast in your late 20s if not older, so you might have gotten better at dealing with people acting unexpectedly. Your mom could have been unpredictable. Really intelligent, but forgets to eat ..

🥤🦀As a cancer sun, you could be the friend your friends come to for advice. There could be a tendency to be a little too selfless. I think your aqua moon really serves as a shield to those who try to take advantage of your caring nature. Have you considered a career in psychic medium ship? Or any spiritual art/ past life regression / you get the drift..

Is there a family craft or hobby that you could monetize? Jupiter in LEO could signify ancestral gains.

Lilith and Pluto aspects to ascendant can make you come across really sexy / a bit unapproachable because people feel like you have some kind of power that places you above them?

Due to this, people with Pluto / Lilith aspects can feel some kind of hurt around people clearing up the path around them if that makes sense.

Jupiter opposite moon : there could be a clash between you want to do VS what you feel you should be doing.

Jupiter in the first house : you could have been born rich? Or people just perceive you that way. They also see you as someone wordly wise and lucky in general. You could know a lot about a wide variety of things. Specially on topics related to appearance, personal development, image consciousness etc. Since the ruler of the first is in the 12th I feel like some of your wisdom comes from a divine source. Like you're tapping into some kind of a collective reservoir of knowledge. In starseed terminology we would refer to this as downloads.

Jupiter rules the 8th house and 5th house.

So love, romance, games, early education may have been a bit of a breeze for you.

Jupiter is usually a bit of a celibate spiritual person. So, while it may make you really wise with respect to things like the occult / tarot / other 8th house themes, I'm not sure how it would impact your sex life with a spouse. Sex could be either a deeply spiritual experience for you or take on more neptunian traits. Addiction / alcoholism / drug use the works. Jupiter expands the themes of the house it rules so a word of caution there.

Travelling could bring you luck. Or even love.

Did I hear Mars opposite Neptune?

This could be a literal battlefield. You could feel like you need to work for love.if Neptune is unconditional love and Mars is your drive, then you could literally match to get to taht elusive unconditional sense of belonging /love / acceptance. But what are you marching towards really? A mirage? With this aspect I'd really be on the guard against addiction of any kind. Neptune is enticing, alluring, mocking Mars for its need to conquer. It could lend a really nice swagger to your walk. A runway model could benefit from thus placement. At uts best this aspect imbues you with creativity, inspiration, otherworldly imagination and the energy required to turn your abstract ideas of art into something tangible.

Here's a source for more on this placement. Sometimes I find that the comments really help me make sense of my own placements

Toodles

Before I sign off, I just have to say this :please try to restrict asks to 2-3 placements. You can send in multiple asks if you'd like, but answering them all in one ask can get a bit cluttered and I'd hate to miss out on something 😊

Hope this helped 💕as always, I'd really appreciate your feedback on this take on how these placements affect you.

[lalaangeldust]

𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲'𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮

𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬 & 𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬

[ 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 ] : none :)

[ 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 ] : kaminari denki // bakugo katsuki // sero hanta

𝐤𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐢 𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐤𝐢

ah yes, the bakusquad's resident pretty boy

he would definitely be the most obvious about his crush

two words: shitty flirting

horrible pick-up lines and just overall bad flirting

he pulls through sometimes though ( with sero's advice ) and his ego inflates through the roof if he can get you flustered and blushing

but if you give him the same energy, he will immediately combust

all function out the window

congratulations, you broke denki

none of your possessions are safe when denki is within the vicinity

shirts, hoodies, skirts, hats, jewelry, hair accessories

if he can grab it, he will have it

he has worn / stolen everything in your closet at least once, if not it is most definitely his goal

it does not matter if he fits it or not, he will make it work

he has no shame

but one time he stretched out one of your favorite skirts and it tore a bit and he felt soooo bad

"it not my fault i have a fat ass, y/n"

but he brought you to the mall on a date with him to get a new one, so it's all works out ;)

denki honestly just lives to make you laugh

every time he's the reason you're laughing, it makes his chest puff up so big

DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON MF TICKLING

if you two are close, he will without a doubt start a mock wrestling match and it always turns into a tickling fit with you pinned underneath him and wailing

but do NOT under any circumstances tickle him

he with shriek like a girl and accidentally activate his quirk

you nearly died

HE FELT BAD FOR THAT TOO

he's also just so infatuated with like- everything you do????

it doesn't matter how mundane you think it might be, as long as you're doing it, denki is so enthralled watching whatever it is you're doing

it's rather endearing

in all honesty, he'd probably blurt out he likes you outta no where while in the middle of a convo

he lights up every time your name is so much as mentioned

or- or

he'd be day dreaming, completely lost in his own world and someone would come up to him and ask him what he's thinking ab cus he looks basically dead to the world

still in a daze from being abruptly brought back to reality he'd just dreamily sigh, "y/n~" without even realizing

mans was SO embarrassed afterwards

face was beet red

*frantically looks around to see if you heard him or not*

----------------------------------------

bonus: love languages!!

physical touch // giving

words of affirmation // receiving

----------------------------------------

𝐛𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐠𝐨 𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐬𝐮𝐤𝐢

he's so emotionally constipated

that's not to say we wouldn't know he'd have feelings for you

he's actually pretty emotionally intelligent, and would be very perceptive of your emotions contrary to popular belief, he's just oblivious to his own feelings and emotions

he'd just ignore them

try his best to ignore you

key word try

but he always gives in and he'd make up dumb reasons to come bother you like-

he'd barge into your dorm while you're studying and he'd be like

"y/n i need a pen,"

"oh? uh ok, here you can have this one," you hand him a pen that you happened to have tucked behind your ear

"no not that one,"

...????

"can't you go to momo and ask her to make the pen you want..?"

bakugo starts to get grumpy at this point lmao

"no, she doesn't know how to make it,"

"well, what pen do you want..??"

bakugo hesitates cus he doesn't wanna admit that he doesn't actually want a pen, he wants to be with you

"that one," he lamely points at a beat up tinkerbell pen that you've had since you were like twelve

"really?? out of all the pens you choose that one?"

"shut up and just get it"

"... you can grab it,"

he goes and grabs it and goes to walk out the door without a word and right before he leaves he leans back and looks at you

"i need a pencil"

"OH MY GOD BAKUGO"

he kept the tinkerbell pen btw

like denki, bakugo would steal things from your dorm and not just anything, things that are actually inconvenient to misplace

he'd take your bobby pin container or your favorite brush so you'd come to him to ask where it went, he'd give it back ofc but not without a fight

he'd act totally clueless and he'd wait till you actually start to get pissed to tell you where he actually put your thing

so back to how he'd actually be very aware of your emotions

he'd notice the smallest changes and can always tell when you're upset but he wouldn't exactly know how to help you

so instead of using words, he'd use actions

you had a really bad day and he walked you to your dorm and when he came in he's like

"shit, your dorm is a fucking disaster, how do you live like this," you scowl at bakugo cus like- wtf i'm rlly emotional here you're not helping

he scoffs and bends down to start picking up your shit

"seriously, i have no idea how you find anything in here, nothing is organized" and he'd just keeps grumbling like an old man while completely cleaning and reorganizing your room

dont you dare try and help him though, he will yell at you

-----------------------------------------

bonus: love languages!!

acts of service // giving

quality time // receiving

-----------------------------------------

𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚

I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE

sero SCREAMS besfriends to lovers troupe

like- you two are already practically dating without even realizing it

the romantic tension

you guys banter and flirt with eachother so often, you both have no idea whether you're serious when you jokingly call the other sexy or not

the oblivious idiots troupe

sero makes everything a competition

not nearly to extent as bakugo would, but still goes a bit over the top

he'd use anything as an excuse to show off for you

one time, like the spiderman fanboy he is, he challenged you to see who can hang upside down the longest without passing out ( literally the stupidest idea, sero, you're going to loose braincells )

sero won, obviously and he takes full advantage of bragging rights

everyone says how denki's the flirt and whatever but NO

sero is the biggest mf flirt and denki got his game from him

so with that being said, you are not safe

HE IS A BULLY

he respects boundaries of course but that doesn't mean he's not gonna try and test his limits a bit and mess with you

he's always trying to get you flustered

god forbid you're shorter than him because he will tease the shit outta you for it

when you two train together, mf goes on overdrive ESPECIALLY if you two happen to be sparring together

he'd hover over you and lean his face in ever so slightly while your talking to him just to get a rise outta you

TILT YOUR HEAD UP WITH ONE FINGER

"could you repeat that? i'm having a hard time hearing,"

SHEEEEEEEE

but you also make fun of him for being tall, so it checks out

whenever he says some slick shit you're just like-

"I'm sorry, what? That's funny coming from someone who's above the national average height. you're disgusting, tall man; shrink perhaps" ( if anyone knows what tiktok audio i'm referencing, i'm in love with you )

hope you have your casket ready because sero's gonna slaughter your ass for that shit

ok but one time while you two were partnered up for hero training, you got on his nerves and he tied you up and left you hanging and the mf just left

maaaan were you livid

15 minutes

15 minutes you were left up there while sero was doing god knows what

you gave him the silent treatment for the rest of the day and sero was genuinely distressed cus he didn't mean to make you so mad

but lucky for him, he always knows how to get you to smile no matter how sad or are or how angry you are with him

he shoots you a piece of tape with his handwriting on it

he made up some stupid, horribly written poem asking for your forgiveness and he's just looking at you the entire time you're reading it with an exaggerated pout

how can you say mad at him?

on the topic of him sending you notes on his tape

he'd totally leave pieces of his tape in really obscure places in your dorm or even under your desk

they'd be really stupid messages too like-

"you stink"

or a really random inside joke you two have that makes literally no sense but even just the thought of it makes you laugh to tears

he'd also leave little origami figures he made with his tape in random places for you to find too

or he'd just give them to you

you have a shelf specifically dedicated for the things sero has made for you ( and he's really touched you actually keep all his shitty arts and crafts projects )

in conclusion, sero is the best and he is my favorite and i'd die for him

-----------------------------------------

bonus: love languages!!

gift giving // giving

physical touch // giving and recieving

-----------------------------------------

If you guys want, i can elaborate on their love languages in another post! <3

𝒇𝒊𝒏 . ✩

[mandareeboo]

ok now im curious what your most petty thing is (regarding the dp post)

Oooh boy, here we go! Buckle up fuckers this is gonna be a longer one.

My senior year of high school, I took a creative writing class. Partially because I needed to fill the slot, mostly because I wanted to improve my writing (spoiler: I did not). Now, my high school was a three floor building- first was mostly gym, second was general, and the third was senior lockers and art classes. I spent a good chunk of my schedule senior year on the second and third floor, going between an art class to my earth science (I took that one entirely as filler, but also bc I like science) to my locker and so on.

Creative writing? Creative writing was in the fucking basement. Go to the first floor, go to a corner generally used for health and development classes, to another corner, follow a ramp and some stairs, and boom there it is kind of basement. (Side note but this teacher was REALLY into attendance and would get you in trouble if you were late which was really annoying since basically no other class was in that part of the building).

My creative writing teacher wasn't bad, per se. I've had worse teachers. I had an algebra teacher who delighted in making freshman girls cry and mocking them for it. I had a journalism teacher who would use her class time reporting how Hilary was secretly ill during the election. I had a history teacher say trans people weren't real to an openly gender nonconforming student (I didn't know them well enough to ask for specifics on their alignment, but they were using they/them at that point) and set up assignments just to mock students on the take they were told to make. It was more that she was uncreative and took it out on the kids doing creative writing.

She gave us two books to read. Basically “how I write” by published authors. I don’t remember the first one well enough and I donated it ages ago, but the second was Stephen King’s “On Writing”. It was 3/4′s personal stories about his life and 1/4′s “also write a bit every day”.  I mostly remember the first author bc she had those fake dreadlocks white people do when they destroy their hair and she gleefully told a story about making her son have a meltdown at a party or wedding or something bc he got overwhelmed and she wanted him to learn that “sometimes you don’t get what you want”. So. You know. Not much there.

She also instructed us to write in a journal every day, which she would check every few months or so. It had to be at least half a page. She would leave little comments in every one else’s journals when she checked them, but not mine- I realized pretty quickly she was a bit uncomfortable with LGBT+ content, so I made it my mission to make every journal drabble as gay as possible bc I was bored and she couldn’t mark them WRONG when she just stated we needed to write.

But it doesn’t end there! Through the entire class, we got exactly five writing projects. Stories that follow very specific guidelines that we would then read in front of the class, group proofread, and then have the teacher give final grades for. These things were approximately like a thousand words a piece, and I was writing out my 10,000 word “It Starts off Small” story in class when I got bored, so it wasn’t difficult. 

Our first project was a character going through a difficult decision. Or... something? I honestly forget the criteria. Anyway, I was HYPE. I’d had this idea for a long time now a human choosing between peaceful death or reincarnation, and this gave me the push to write it! I had a whole thing planned with death being a deer and reincarnation being a wolpertinger (bc reincarnation leads to many possibilities, ed boy, so a Frankenstein bunny made sense to me). Anyway I poured my heart and soul into this bastard and, bright eyed and bushy tailed, handed it in. My classmates all thought it was pretty good. Not to toot m’own horn, but there was some pretty bad ones going in, so I thought I’d get a solid B or something.

I got a D. I guess the struggle was too metaphorical, or it didn’t perfectly fit her criteria. I was devastated. Then I was mad. Bc I was a bored senior who thought they’d made something pretty decent for this completely optional class and her refusal to see that really hurt me at sixteen (I was always a year younger than my other classmates, so despite being a senior I didn’t turn eighteen until almost a year after graduation)

Well, fuck it, I decided. I’m going to parody the shit out of this class.

Our next project was a fantasy story. I was bitter and grumpy. The other fantasy stories read aloud were stuff like “yeah this dude fought a wizard and got a girl, then they went home and banged” (this was not hyperbole, he would’ve written and read the smut if allowed, I knew him personally) and “this girl that NO ONE UNDERSTOOD was called CRAZY but this S@!$ cheerleader who Stole Her Boyfriend so she killed them all” (fun fact: the girl who wrote that was my age and a sort of half-friend from middle school. She was a yaoi fangirl who didn’t mind lesbians as long as they, you know, didn’t FLIRT with her or something.) 

So I get up there. It’s the last day of presentations. And I present with a polite cheer. My story is about two magical shepherd type figures who are called Sister Brighten and Brother Dick as they chase down a werewolf who was drunk off his ass and accidentally bit someone else. They then revealed they were basically supernatural designated drivers for the whole town. I made Brighten mention that Dick’s name wasn’t even Richard. I titled it “His Favorite Brand is Grayhound”. It fit every single criteria. I got an A. I could tell she didn’t want to, because there was no comments or anything like everyone else’s, but she had to follow her own criteria.

Our third was a conjoined effort thing so I didn’t pull any fuckery there, but the fourth one was about common myths and spinning them into real or fake. One girl did the hook-handed door handle thing and the boyfriend ended up above his truck hanging (somehow???). I think someone did the age-old adage of a haunted wedding dress? I kind of read through those presentations. 

Now, I’m salty-salty at this point. I wasn’t expecting His Favorite Brand is Grayhound to get me a good grade. I half-assed a lot of it. I am in full Not Happy Teenager at this point. I grab a daddy long leg and settle in.

My fourth story of the year is “Paperskin.”

Paperskin is about a boy named Billy with the thinnest skin membrane ever. Just full on body horror. You could see his teeth behind his lips. Billy gets bored one day and wanders out of his house, tries to kick a soccer ball, and breaks a leg. As he’s laying in the grass a daddy long leg bites him- and his skin is so flimsy the fangs sink in and he dies. I’m actually still pretty proud of Paperskin. It’s a horrifying, Edgar Allen Poe of a monstrosity, but it made people squirm, which was the point. The teacher is clearly a bit unnerved at this point, but she gives me another A. 

I wrote a more “normal” story after that of a contentious objector forced to house kids going to see if any confirmed soldier deaths were any of their parents as my final one and I could feel her spite as she gave me a B.

So, yeah. That’s the story of when I tormented my creative writing teacher with The Gays and my weird ass sense of humor after she called one of my best works at that age a piece of shit.

 Here’s a google drive of these bad boys, because yes I do still have these things. I turned these fuckers in for grades, people.

[serendipityjxmn]

Chapter 12

TW: None

Words Count: 1.4k

Link to Masterlist

Link to Chapter 13

The air is tense that morning. Your brows furrow, thinking that you have to share the ride with Jimin now that everyone knows he’s your husband. Nearing the car, you notice there’s unfamiliar face among Jimin’s security. He usually has two with him, one is his bodyguard and the other being his bodyguard as well as his driver. You never really get the chance to know them apart from their name, considering you’ve never shared the ride with your husband.

He doesn’t say anything through the ride, his eyes glued to his tab, no doubt reading the morning news. You stare outside through the window, lost in your own thoughts.

Once you reach the company, you stand behind your husband but Jimin looks back and grabs your hand in his, startling you. It takes you a moment to process everything but not long for you to realise it’s just for show yet you can’t help having fluttered heart, walking hand in hand in public with your husband for the first time.

Reaching your desk, Irene simply watches the two of you as he speaks several things to Mina who’s at the desk as well, but haven’t yet let go of your hand.

He turns to you then and you stiffen immediately. “See you at lunch.” He says, way too soft and you feel like punching him for how he’s making you feel. His thumb and index finger cups your jaw briefly and gently before he leaves for his room.

It’s just a show, you tell yourself.

Another cons of all this travesty, is that Irene is handing you a lot of things that require you to personally see Jimin. She seems keen to let you handle him entirely.

“What do you think about this?” Jimin’s voice echoes in the whole room.

Huh? You look at him, puzzled. Is he really asking for your opinion? “I- I don’t really know all about- umm, maybe you should ask-“

“If I need a professional’s advice I would’ve asked Jinyoung. Besides, you sat through the meeting with me as well. I need your opinion.” Jimin says firmly.

You look at him hesitantly. You honestly have no idea about business world. But since this relates slightly about art, which you might know an inkling about, you answer him. “I think it’s good if you accept Wangji Co to handle the cover. They’ve been in the industry for long yet they always have fresh ideas. Apart from that, you can ensure you have a good term with Taiwan since you have their company involved.”

He remains silent for a moment, staring at you so deeply you silently pray you’re not flushing. Then he nods. “We will be meeting one of the arts director in charge. You will accompany me.” He glances at the watch. “I’ll be done in 10 minutes.”

He simply says and you take it as a sign you’re dismissed.

You take one last look in the mirror. This is your first time going out in public with your husband. Although it is work related, you’re still nerved out. You’ve never accompanied him to any event. Irene apparently never does too. Sure enough. When you google your husband, he never seems to have pictures taken with other women.

When you head downstairs, you feel your heart skips a beat when you see your husband, dressed smartly in impeccable black suit. His ash grey hair had been styled and he looks so good looking you almost want to cry.

Jimin on the other hand though, has his brows furrowed and lips pursed when he takes in your appearance.

“What on earth are you wearing?” He asks once you’re close enough.

You gulp. You’ve searched through every dress in the huge closet in the limited time Jimin gave you and this was the most modest dress you could find. You’re wearing a long dress that has a huge slit in front from your thigh to bottom. Luckily, the slit is not high enough to reveal scars you have on your upper thigh. To make it worse, the dress has such huge cleavage opening space, you’ve tried bringing your long hair to front in an attempt to cover your cleavage as much as you can. “I- I’m only wearing what’s in the closet.”

He tongues his cheek and you swear he looks so hot. “I’ll speak with Mrs. Lee about your wardrobe,” is all he says before you’re ushered into his car.

Even by looking at his side profile, Jimin looks so stunning you can’t help but stare in awe.

“Take a picture, I think that’ll last longer.” He snaps and you look away immediately. How does he even know without even looking at you, you shake your head.

It’s a launching event as well as exhibition by the director Jimin’s supposed to meet, Mr. Choi.

He speaks with several people and you just obediently follow after him, taking notes of who they are. A while later, you feel the urge to pee but you decided to wait until the main launching event is done before excusing yourself to the washroom.

As soon as you’re done, your eyes seek your husband immediately between the rows of art and crowds of people. As you make your way through the hallway, you find yourself drawn to an art hung on the wall, illuminated with a warm light above it, further enunciating its creativity.

It’s a woman, alone and she’s sitting down hugging her knees.

Something tugs your heart and the more you stare at the painting, the more you feel your eyes are watery.

“It’s called the Isle of Sorrow.” A voice beside you says, making you jump. You turn to see Jimin, his eyes towards the painting in front the both of you.

“They say she lost her will to love again that’s why she’s wallowing in sorrow.”

“It could also be she’s unable to love the person she desires.” You hesitate but continue to say when Jimin remains silent. “The painter.. I think he’s potraying contradiction. She’s in sadness and the background should’ve highlighted that as well, maybe monochrome settings? Yet the brushes are bold and the colors the painter chose are strong. Her love.. is strong. But she can’t give it to the other person. Perhaps because she loves someone who she shouldn’t, like an irony the life is.” You finish. Seconds later, your eyes widen and you bit your lip. What on earth did you just say?

A heavy silence sets between the two of you in the midst of casual conversations and regular laughter heard in the hall.

“Didn’t know you’re into art.” He says after several moments.

You only smile sadly. You don’t know a lot of things about me.

“I think art’s fascinating. I like when I can have control on it. What it can become. How it turns out. I don’t have a lot of it, growing up.” You say softly.

Jimin looks at you. “A lot of what?”

Your eyes find him too and you both lock gazes briefly. “Chance to change things.”

He holds your gaze steady before you look down first. You don’t think you’ll ever be able to hold his gaze for a long time, it’s hard enough to breathe as it is with him around.

“Me too.” He says quietly and you slowly look at him again. You notice his eyes has sorrow in it too, like the ones reflected in the painting before you. “I’ve always had to live the path set for me. Kinda funny, cause I’ve never been close to my parents but they expect me to receive everything blindly. There’s always pressure on my shoulder and I can never let myself fail,” he laughs as if mocking himself. “The moment I show my weakness, everyone flocks around me to take what I have. And anyone close to me can easily turn away from me.”

You stare at him as his expression hardens. You have to say something to comfort him. “Jimin.. I.. I would never.. do that.. to you.”

He looks at you then. Eyes pierced into yours. “You will. Once you know the reason behind this marriage. You’ll hate me too.”

You don’t know what to say to that but the coldness behind his words make shivers run down your spine making you shudder.

Jimin draws his breath before he shrugs his coat out of him. He then pulls you towards him, making you gasp. “It’s okay, you don’t have to-“ you start when he put his coat around your bare shoulder.

“Just stay still.” He says.

His hands are in front of you, fixing his coat snd dangerously close to your breast. You look up and there’s no mistaking his eyes that roam over your curves so you awkwardly struggle to look anywhere else.

He’s your own husband for god’s sake.. why do you have to feel so shy?

A/N: So I actually ended up posting this chapter as scheduled 😂 there’s a sudden surge of things to be done this weekend and it was pretty hectic 🥺 I’m sorry guys I’m a mere human I hope you guys aren’t mad 🥺

Oh and i’m not really the most knowledgeable about art, but art is subjective and it all depends on how one intepret so yeah 😂

anyways, hope you guys enjoy this chapter I thought it ended in a pretty cute way hehehehe

Link to Chapter 13 Posted on 210426 9:00PM

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Love is a Bundle of Contradictions.

This artwork was a piece I commissioned from @shimmeryspark​!

... There is no explanation for this other than my friends encouraged me to write Valentine’s Day Raven and Jade fluff, since the main saga is a bit lot of angst right now. (Special thanks to @twstpasta since they let me borrow their twstsona for plot reasons :9)

Imagine this...

“You WHAT?!”

“Ehehe~ Sorry...!! I guess I went and made a bad decision, heehoo~” Mac stuck out their tongue and lightly bonked their own head with a fist. “Silly me~”

“Making a deal with Azul is the very definition of a bad decision,” Raven groaned, slapping a hand to her face. “I... I cannot believe you. Dare I ask what the conditions were?”

“I gave him my taste buds! He said he’ll give them back if you help out with stocking up on supplies for the Mostro Lounge.”

“That’s... suspiciously simple. And you really just handed over your taste buds just like that? You can’t taste your beloved cheese anymore.”

“I know!” Mac pouted. “It’s so sad, so you’ll help this rataroni out, right?”

“I find it odd that Azul is demanding my assistance, seeing as how I am not the one that made the deal with him to begin with. However... I cannot turn my back on a friend in need. I will lend you a helping wing—er, hand.”

“Sweet, sweet!!” Mac clasped Raven’s hands happily. “Just remember to show up this Sunday afternoon. Meet up’s in the town square. Oh, and be sure to wear something cute!”

“Something cute? Why would...”

“It’s part of the deal—so you just gotta, okay? That’s what Azul said!” Mac paused, before adding, “Oh, oh! And bring some homemade choco in a heart-shaped box!! That’s another contract condition!”

“Oh... O-Okay...?”

Raven leaned back against a lamp post, anxiously winding a finger around the string of small pearls at her collarbone. In her other hand was a bag, and in that bag, a heart-shaped box of homemade chocolates—just as Mac had told her.

A silver heart-shaped charm dangled from the necklace, lying still against her real hammering heart. Rarely did she venture out into the local town—and, standing there by her lonesome, the raven felt out of place and awkward.

An addendum to a story that had already been penned.

She watched as her silver charm caught a wink of sun and guided the light down its curve. Reflected back in the charm’s surface was the raven herself.

Today, her inky hair was cast up in a high pigtail and secured with a cobalt ribbon. She had traded her usual outfit for a pale blouse with billowy puff sleeves, white stockings, and a high waist skirt in a plaid pattern—cobalt, like her ribbons.

I hope this satisfies the conditions of the deal.

Raven checked the time on her phone; any minute now, Azul would be showing up, and they’d get this over with. Then she could return to her attic to roost, and Mac could return to feasting on cheese and inhaling poison—

“Oya. Do my eyes deceive me, or is that you, Miss Raven?” a silken cadence called out to her, rising above the hustle and bustle of the town.

“... You,” she responded flatly, narrowing her eyes at a certain eel as he parted from a crowd.

Ah.

Jade, too, had abandoned his typical uniform in favor of casual comfort. He wore a pair of dress pants and a grey turtleneck—and over it was a brown trench coat, unbuttoned to show off how snugly that sweater fit against his lean, muscular body.

Raven squinted. His earring was slightly different today as well. Rather than three diamond shaped sturgeon scales dangling from his ear, there were heart shaped ones. Blue and glassy, like the calm sea after a storm.

His hands were polite folded behind his back... hiding something. Whatever that something was, petals of pink, red, and yellow-orange were poking out.

If she didn’t know any better, she would have said he looked handsome—and innocent—enough. But she did know better.

“What are you doing here?” Raven demanded, no longer playing with her necklace. Her hands went to her sides, curling into balls.

“Fufufu. The town is a public space. I am free to come and go as I please, the very same as you.” Jade tilted his head to one side. “Although today, I am here on an errand. The Mostro Lounge is short on centerpiece supplies, you see. I have been sent to restock.”

“What a coincidence. I’m also here to help the Mostro Lounge restock,” Raven said, a bit of bitterness slipping into her voice, “as per a contract.”

Jade attempted to appear sympathetic—but he allowed a cruel chuckle to escape him. “I see now. I was not aware that you were the one indebted to Octavinelle, Miss Raven. Had I known sooner, I would not have hesitated to summon you to fill in for Kon-san’s morning shift.”

“I’m not a waitress for you to order around.” Raven jutted out her chin defiantly. “I’m here strictly on business, so if you would kindly leave me be...!!”

“I believe you said you had to assist the Mostro Lounge. Would it not be prudent, then, to go about tending to that duty rather than standing about and looking like a lost lamb?”

“Sh-Shut up! It’s not my fault that Azul is running late...!!”

“You were waiting for Azul?” Jade said, his brows pinching together briefly. “You are terribly mistaken. It is not Azul who is assisting you with the restock, but myself.”

“... Beg pardon?”

Wear something cute, bring homemade chocolates, Mac had said. And it has to be you, Raven, not me! But why? Slowly, slowly... The pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

A thought dawned on Raven:

I’ve definitely been tricked.

“Well!! That’s all fine and dandy, but I think I shall be on my way home now. I really must be having a chat with a friend of mine,” she babbled, turning on her heel. They’re going to be buried in tomato sauce when I get to them.

“How cruel of you to abandon those in need, Miss Raven. And to think that Mac-san shall be without their taste buds... and I, burdened with the task of restocking by my lonesome. What a tragic way to spend Valentine’s Day,” Jade exhaled deeply and wiped at an imaginary tear. “Shikushikushiku...”

Raven’s left eye twitched. “Don’t you paint me as the bad guy here...!!”

“Aren’t you?” Jade challenged, a smile still plastered on his face despite his mocking tone.

“Grrr...!!” She whipped around, thrusting an index finger at him. “Listen here... Leech!! The only reason I am even here was to help someone out of a contract your shady boss roped them into!”

“If you are as selfless and loving as you claim to be, then you should have no issues with shopping with me,” Jade countered smoothly. “After all, they say that actions speak louder than words.”

The little bird vibrated with irritation, her cheeks puffed out in a pout. Her stomach coiled tight, uneasiness brewing. As much as she hated to admit to it, he was right.

Raven clenched her teeth and sent a glare his way. “Fine...!! But I will be keeping an eye on you to ensure that there is no funny business!”

“Then by all means, ‘keep an eye on me’, and do not let your gaze stray for even a single moment,” Jade chuckled, somehow sneering through his smile. “I welcome it.”

The eel held out a hand to Raven. “We’d best not be separated while on our errand.”

She stared hesitantly. Her eyes flickered between his eyes and the hand he offered. Subtle changes in her expression occurred in rapid succession—the raising of her lids, the tremble to her lower lip, the tinge to her cheeks.

“... Yeah. We’d best not,” Raven finally agreed, her grip on her bag—the bag containing her chocolates—tightened. “Which is precisely why I will follow you at a safe distance.”

“Ah, but that would ruin the surprise.”

“What, the bouquet? You’re not exactly doing a masterful job of hiding it.”

“Nor are you doing well to hide your little surprise, Miss Raven.”

“I was deceived. This chocolate is not meant for you.”

“I didn’t say that it was, now did I?”

“... I’m going to eat them myself, then. That’ll show you!”

“Do with it what you wish, for selfish purposes or not,” Jade laughed, revealing his bouquet—all the colors of the setting sun. “These flowers, on the other hand, are meant to be gifted...”

He pushed the bouquet toward Raven. Up close, the flowers seemed even more vibrant and beautiful. Their warm hues enveloping the raven, enchanting her senses. Mesmerized, she reached out to accept the flowers—when Jade suddenly clicked his tongue and pulled them away.

“But alas—not to you,” he teased, pressing a finger to his lips. “Do try to keep up with me now, Miss Raven.”

Jade turned and dove into a sea of townspeople, leaving a trail of sunset-colored petals in his wake. And, like the fool that she was, a fuming raven stormed after him—chocolates still in hand. Heart quivering.

Terrariums—the flowers were meant for terrariums all along.

Jade had taken his sweet time leading her down a winding path and to an art supply store tucked away in a corner, and even longer to observe the shape and feel of each terrarium container. Spherical, cuboidal, prismatic... Holding up the bouquet every so often to compare how the flowers would look in each.

In the end, he had gone wild with his purchases, electing to buy a selection of shapes, along with other supplies—just to keep himself amused. Jade had paid with a platinum card embossed with Octavinelle’s logo. Mostro Lounge Master Cash Card, it read. Azul’s property; do not steal! Sign the loaning form if you must borrow.

It was all for the terrariums, for business as usual.

I should have realized sooner. Stupid, stupid, Raven scolded herself.

She grunted, struggling to carry the bagful of terrarium supplies that Jade had saddled her with, while he carried one of his own without any trouble. The eel cast her a mocking glance over his shoulder.

“Are you in need of a break, Miss Raven?”

Bite me, she wanted to snap back—but a bark of pain shot up her arms, silencing her defiance. “... M-Maybe.”

He sighed in an exaggerated fashion. “Very well. I see a café up ahead. We can rest there for a few moments, though it may require the purchase of a food item if we wish for a table.”

“Sounds peachy.”

Together, they swept through the café doors. The duo was immediately greeted by the smell of sugar and the hum of the other patrons, many of them couples.

Raven stiffened at the sight, turning a deep shade of red. Suddenly, she was very, very aware of how she—and Jade—looked.

“I think I changed my mi—“ Raven was cut off when he grasped her hand and held fast. She jolted back, her skin turning clammy. “Eeep! Wh-What are you...”

“Table for two,” Jade requested of an employee. “We do not intend to stay for a large meal, so just an ice-cream parfait will do.”

“Certainly, sir. Right this way.” The server quickly seated them, and with a bow, departed to retrieve their order.

“... You can let go of my hand now,” Raven hissed, attempting to free herself. To no avail, initially. She tugged again, and finally broke free, aggressively rubbing at her hand to ward off the residual eel cooties.

Jade chuckled, tucking his strand of black hair behind his ear. His earring glimmered in the afternoon sunlight pouring in through wide windows. “Play along. You are aware that today is Valentine’s Day, yes?”

“Yes, but I do not understand what that has to do with... physical contact, especially seeing as how we are not engaged in that kind of a relationship.”

“It is simple.” He laced his fingers together, resting his chin on them. With the most serene of smiles, Jade purred, “We should take advantage of the couple discounts being offered at eateries such as this. An excellent way to save on spending, especially after that particularly large purchase made on the Mostro Lounge’s coin.”

“You’re a shrewd one.”

“Why, thank you.”

Raven’s hands curled in her lap. Her lips pursed, she found her gaze trained on the white lace of the tablecloth, rather than on her dining companion.

Time and time again, she has been tricked today, told white lies. Teased and deceived. It was simply how he was—and though it did irk her in some ways, it also never made a moment dull.

Hot and cold. Push and pull. Bitter and sweet. That was Jade Leech.

“Your parfait is here!!” The server from before popped up in her periphery, startling the raven from her thoughts. They set it down and stepped back. “Here you are—enjoy your date!”

“Thank you. We certainly will,” Jade reacted before Raven could and dismissed the server with a wave. “... Well, let’s dig in.”

“You didn’t correct them.”

“We won’t get the discount if they don’t believe this farce,” he replied calmly, nudging the parfait and a spoon toward her. “Now then, less talking and more eating. You need your strength if you plan on helping me haul all the supplies back to campus.”

She let out a huff, but dug her spoon into a frozen mound. The parfait was massive, composed of several scoops of pink, blue, and green ice-cream, flanked by chocolate wafer bars. With a smattering of sprinkles, a crown of whipped cream, and a maraschino cherry on top, the dessert looked absolutely picture perfect.

Raven steadily brought a spoonful of pink goop into her mouth, allowing a sweet bubblegum flavor to spread across her tongue. Her eyes cut to Jade, who had not bothered to sample any for himself. He smiled back, gaze half-lidded as if recalling a fond memory.

“Have some, too. I feel weird eating it alone—and you must be hungry too. I know how big your appetite is.” Raven pushed the parfait glass toward him.

“If you insist.”

The head of his spoon sunk into a green scoop with shards of chocolate chip weaved throughout. It pulled away cleanly with a large mound, which was soon consumed. Then another bite, and a third, a fourth... Before Raven knew it, a good third of the parfait was missing.

Jade patted his mouth with a napkin, eyeing her expectantly.

“Are you still hungry?” Raven asked, eyebrows raising. She retrieved a scoop of blue this time—vaguely flavored like a medley of fruits.

“Perhaps... though I do not plan on taking more of the parfait for myself. Were I to, there would be none left for you.”

The fruit seemed to sour in her mouth. It was true that she was hungry, yes—but at the same time, she did not wish for Jade to be left dissatisfied.

She frowned, setting her spoon down and reaching into her bag. Seconds later, she produced a heart-shaped package and shoved it at him.

“Here, chocolates. They’re yours now, since I have no other use for them,” Raven mumbled insistently. “You can eat them now, or save them for later. Just hurry up and take them before I change my mind.”

“Oya, it is rather bold to profess your undying love to me in such a public space.” Jade teased, chuckling lightly into his hand.

“B-Be quiet...!! We... We can’t get that couple’s discount if one of us passes out from hunger.”

“Fufufu. I doubt that either of us would.” His mismatched eyes twinkled with mirth. “... Thank you for the sweets, Miss Raven. I will be certain to savor every last bite.”

The town became even busier in the late afternoon, filing with the sound of street performers and spectators. A monkey in a vest and a small hat barreled by Raven’s feet as she and Jade exited the café, nearly causing her to double over. A chorus of children’s laughter chased after the monkey—and she, the raven, stumbled on her recovery.

“Perhaps now would be a good time to reconsider my offer,” Jade suggested, a hand on the small of her back to support her. That same hand trailed around and tickled the back of hers. “It would be a shame if we lost one another in this crowd.”

Raven regarded him with a pointed look, but slipped her hand into his without further resistance. “... Only because I have to.”

“Of course, of course.”

Together, they braved the bustling streets.

A new world unfolded before Raven’s very eyes. Costumed performers of all kinds paraded about, garnering attention from passerbys. Some tossed confetti and candies, others brandished instruments. Brass, strings, percussion—all their notes floated up into the festive atmosphere.

There went a dancer, leaping like a lithe deer, limbs outstretched and the flowy fabric of their uniform like a curtain of smoke. And here was an artist perched on a stool, sketching the outline of a woman posed on a wooden crate. A young man jingled a tambourine, trying to catch coins in his cap.

A number of food carts patrolled the roads, calling out their wares. Crepes, sandwiches, sodas... Families, friends, and couples lining benches, exchanging bites.

Love was truly in the air and oozing out of every pore of the community.

Raven couldn’t keep her head still. She turned this way and that, trying to soak up every last sight and sound. Her golden eyes sparkled with wonder.

Jade, of course, took note. “Excited, are you?”

“It’s very different than Night Raven College,” she replied shyly. “Almost like a magic kingdom.”

“Magic kingdom? You can be rather melodramatic at times.”

“Yeah? So can you and Azul and Floyd, with all your fake tears...” Her wandering eyes caught something bright red as she spoke. “Oh...!! Look.”

Raven tugged on Jade’s hand, urging him to a halt. Her gaze was transfixed on a lamp post with a multitude of red strings. At the other ends of those ribbons were heart-shaped balloons, as red as blood.

His eyebrows pinched together in mocking sympathy. “You truly are fascinated by the simplest things. Is it true what they say? That ravens are attracted to shiny objects?”

Her mouth flew open to protest, but she was interrupted by a woman by the balloon-bearing lamp post “You there!! Sir with the earring and ma’am with the blue ribbon! Care for some balloons?”

“Er... What are they for?” Raven asked.

“For love, of course,” the woman laughed. “Today’s all about appreciating one another, right? This is my way of spreading love.”

She separated three balloons from her bundle and offered them with a flourish. Raven eagerly accepted them, staring up in wonder at their floating bodies.

“Oh, and one more thing!!” The woman produced a red ribbon from her jacket pocket and nodded at the duo. “Your pinkie fingers, please!”

Raven held out her hand as directed, letting the woman secure the ribbon in a neat little knot. The balloon bearer extended the length of the ribbon, glancing to Jade. Raven, too, looked at him expectantly. Jade expelled a quiet sigh and allowed the red ribbon to be tied to his pinkie.

“There you go!” the woman declared triumphantly. “You’re all set now! Enjoy the rest of your Valentine’s Day, folks!”

“Thank you!” Raven shouted over her shoulder—even as Jade started to lead her away. The woman waved and waved until she was out of sight.

“... It has been a while since I have seen you this enthusiastic,” Jade remarked with a glance to the balloons. “I do suppose it is a departure from the monotony of daily life, but to think that such little things bring this amount of joy...”

“It reminds me of a story a little birdie once told me,” Raven chirped with a small giggle. “The story of the Red Thread of Fate.”

“Oh?” Jade raised an eyebrow. “Do tell.”

“The Red Thread of Fate is said to connect ‘destined people’. It can tangle, twist, or stretch, but it can never break. From the moment you are born, you have an unseen thread flowing from your pinkie finger, tying your fate to that of the person on the other end,” Raven recited, her tone turning solemn—her storytelling voice.

“Someday,” she said, “you will cross paths with the one that shares your thread, and your lives will be forever changed by the encounter. It could be a meaningful battle between rivals, the loss of a loved one, the promise of marriage... but the course of their stories will never again be the same.”

“How sentimental. And what, pray tell, does this red thread of ours mean, Miss Raven?” Jade questioned, lifting his end of the ribbon—the crimson shining in the sunlight.

“How would I know? I’m not a god,” she huffed. “It’s just fun to imagine the possibilities.”

“It is, indeed. Even so, surely there must be one favored conclusion to the story of the Red Thread of Fate in that pretty little head of yours.” He brought a hand to his mouth, yanking Raven toward him.

She glanced up with a glare. “I’d have to have a bird brain to tell you that.”

“Is that not the duty of a storyteller? To stand on stage and tell the tale until the curtain closes. Your adoring audience awaits.”

“You’re being booted from the metaphorical theater before you get to hear or see the ending.”

“I would like to see you try.”

Jade slowed to a stop, Raven following suit. They were back in the town square, by the lamp post where they had met up. Ending where it had all begun.

He pulled out his phone and consulted the time. Jade unlocked his device, quickly wrote up a message, and tucked it away again. “I can take it from here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Besides,” Jade cast a pitiful look at Raven’s trembling arms, “I doubt you would be able to haul those supplies the remainder of the way, and certainly not in an efficient manner.”

“... Then what was the point of stating in the contract that you needed a helping hand?”

“I am afraid that even I am not entirely privy as to Azul’s intentions,” he chuckled, gently prying a bag from her hands. “I will be certain to let Azul know that Mac-san’s end of the contract has been fulfilled.”

“Eh...? But—“

“You have our thanks for lending the Mostro Lounge your time. You are free to go now, Miss Raven. I’ve already summoned Floyd in your stead to assist me.”

“Th-The ribbon, you fool! I can’t leave if I’m still bound to you!”

“Oh? You don’t say.” His singsong held no concern whatsoever, only amusement.

“S-Stop playing dumb! You know very well what you are doing!!”

“You said it yourself, Miss Raven. Our lives have been forever changed since our encounter. There is no going back now.”

“Stop manipulating the narrative to suit your needs.”

“I haven’t the faintest clue what you mean. Jade smiled, feigning innocence. “You’ve resigned yourself to spending the rest of the day with me—at least until Floyd arrives to relieve you of your burden. Ah, but given his moodiness, who knows when that will be.”

“Just because your surname is Leech doesn’t mean you need to suck the life out of me like one,” Raven snapped. She reached for the red ribbon, intending to undo it—

—only to be met with a bouquet a second time. Flowers the color of the sunset, smelling like the drip of sunshine and a cut of meadow.

“For you—no strings attached this time.”

“Those are for the terrarium centerpieces.”

“I can easily replace them,” Jade insisted, “and I must repay you for your kind chocolate gift. Consider this... ‘favors for favors’, so that neither one of us is left indebted to the other.”

“... Alright. I’ll take them, but only because they might be useful for brewing some new inks.”

“I’m glad to see that you are being agreeable.” Jade slipped the flowers to her. “Take good care of them.”

Raven leaned against a lamp post, cradling the large bouquet in one arm. Her heart fluttered, and her limbs felt as light as air. Warm and floaty, like the balloons in her hand. 

Favors for favors—but it still counted as a gift from Jade, and that very thought sent her mind spiraling. She took a shaky breath, and focused on the confetti and laughter in the distance, the song and dance of the street performers.

Waiting and waiting for Floyd.

“Miss Raven.”

“What now? Haven’t you bullied me enough for today? Are you still not satisfied, you sadist?”

She dared to lift her eyes to meet Jade’s—and her heart stood still, for he looked back. His sharp eyes soft and shrouded by long lashes, his lips pulled into a tender smile.

“Contract or no, I always enjoy my time with you—I enjoyed today,” Jade murmured. “I hope that we are able to do this again sometime.”

“... Shut up. J-Just shut up already, i-it’s embarrassing listening to you speak...!!” She buried her head in the flowers, concealing her pink face. Still feeling floaty, like a balloon, high on happiness.

“Fufufu. Happy Valentine’s Day, Miss Raven.”

[the-ghost-king]

the term malewife isn’t a very nice term to use...

A man who acts as a wife and is inferior to his #girlboss girlfriend.

Person A: I just got myself a malewife. He's gonna clean my kitchen and watch me download custom content for the sims.

Person B: Sweet! You must be such a girlboss

^^urban dictionary. It’s just confirming to the sexist stereotypes that perceive and expectation of what a wife should act like. It’s quite harmful

It's a parallel to girlboss which is conformity to the sexism within corporate America:

"it becomes inescapably clear that when women center their worldview around their own office hustle, it just re-creates the power structures built by men, but with women conveniently on top. In the void left after the end of the corporate feminist vision of the future, this reckoning opens space to imagine success that doesn’t involve acing performance reviews or getting the most out of your interns." (here)

The word girlboss comes from a book quite literally called #girlboss, in parallel to the negative aspects of this book people eventually rebranded the term "malewife" to parallel it (malewife was originally an nsfw type thing)

In the malewife/girlboss "system" it's essentially the swapping of the problematic aspects, expectations, and socialization of men and women within a relationship

"Girlboss, gaslight, gatekeep" was a meme started to pick on the idea that women should become men and enforce the sexism within corporate society, and I'm sure it was a jab at the book the word came from as well.... "Manipulate, mansplain, malewife" was created to parallel the original meme

So yeah, the whole concept is mocking sexism within corporations and and modern relationships and showing how ridiculous it is. Girlboss mocks the idea of 2014 (largely) white feminism within America.

In example the original meme (created on Twitter) is intended to make mockery of Karen-types:

On January 12th, 2021, Tumblr user missnumber1111 posted, "today’s agenda: gaslight gatekeep and most importantly girlboss," garnering over 43,500 notes in a month (shown below). On that day, Twitter user @CUPlDL0VE posted, "my agenda is gaslight gatekeep and #girlboss," the first instance of the phrase on Twitter.

And a day later on January 13, 2021 Tumblr user a-m-e-t-h-y-s-t-r-o-s-e reblogged the post along with a photoshopped image of "Live, Laugh, Love" wall art instead reading, "Gaslight every moment, Gatekeep every day, Girlboss beyond words" (shown below). On January 18th, the image was reposted to Twitter for the first time.

Malewife doesn't hold those same implications however... The term malewife which is now being used to parallel girlboss achieves it's origins from p*rn, now I'm not an nsfw blog or someone who blatantly discusses nsfw concepts on my blog so I'm not getting super into it but there's a few places it comes from: femdom, bdsm, and feminization kinks... All of which have a connection to queerness in their own right but I don't feel comfortable going into the complexities of that with so many younger people following me.

On February 15th, Tumblr user @relelvance posted, "Manipulate, mansplain, malewife" as a male-themed opposite to "gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss," garnering over 27,000 notes in four days. The post was screenshotted and reuploaded by Twitter user @nortoncampbell on the same day, garnering over 14,200 likes and 2,800 retweets in the same span of time (shown below).

Urban dictionary's explaination of "malewife" is not only harsher than what malewife was intended to mean, but also removes the context of origin from the word- making it something new, different, and erasing the history of who originally used this word.

Because of Malewifes origins vs Girlboss origins, malewife is a less problematic term than girlboss and is more "affectionate" because the term malewife and it's use (up until recently) involved the man acknowledging that he wanted to be the "wife" in his relationship. There's a variety of reasons someone might do this, but it can generally be summed up as a mixture of personality and also personal wants.

I do think it's important to also note that although these words are being "glamorized slightly" they're still intended and being used in a memeing manner, but they're also used to quickly denote arbitrary traits in an individual and categorize those traits...

Although there's lots of conversations to be had for a variety of reasons about the origin and use of the word "girlboss" in relation to sexism, up until recently the world "malewife" was something claimed by men, something men wanted to be called, and something that men who used the term wanted to reference them.

Malewife is about "stepping-up" to "take on" "female" social roles, and it's something that at least some women would be happy to see in society:

"...We have been told that we can have it all, but so far we have noticed that it is extremely hard work having it all, because you still have to do everything that your mother did but now you have to do everything your father did as well. Except that your father had your mother waiting at home with a gin and tonic and his slippers when he came home from work, and you have the washing up and the shopping and a few screaming brats as well as a bloke with his feet up on the sofa watching the football... " (via. Victoria Mary Clarke)

And I don't think that she's wrong at all. Women are still expected to do so much more than men in society without equal reward.

Malewife exists as a a sort of fantasy removed from the truth of society. It's an idea that a husband can be waiting at home to care for his wife, and in this instance it benefits the woman- unlike Clarke's situation above, the woman comes home from a long day and is able to relax without the pressures of society and her life.

Where housewife is a word that holds its origins in forced subservience, malewife is a term that is showcasing men "picking up the torch" in regards to housework- where housewife is socially forced, and girlboss is reversed social compliance, malewife is the rejection of social expectations.

Malewife is about men finding a place in their life's and relationships to make themselves more than a paycheck. To say "I can be emotionally there for my spouse, I can clean a toilet, and drive kids to school, and I don't treat my spouses wants as something expendable". In a society in which men are often demeaned, mocked, and scorned for picking up socially female roles (say hello to misogyny and gendered contamination!)

The Urban dictionary definition, is not only too harsh- but not the way in which the word is intending to be used, because that's ignoring the origins of this word, and the fact that men had a choice in becoming malewifes where women didn't have that choice. It should read more like:

Person A: Ah yeah, I have a malewife waiting for me, he's going to clean my kitchen because I've had a hard day at work and need a break, and then he's going to watch me download custom content for the Sims because I enjoy the game so much and it helps me take a break from life!

Women's wants were often ignored in favor of men's wants, so by the malewife saying he's going to watch his spouse play the Sims, he's really saying "I care about her interests" and by him picking up the kitchen cleaning after she's had a stressful day he's saying "I have a lower stress job so I can handle that for her and make her life a little easier" (because malewife doesn't mean he doesn't have a job).

In a society in which a man's worth is tied to his ability to bring home money and be emotionally distant, malewife is the rejection of this norm. Malewifes are going to be there for their spouse, they're going to step up and take on traditionally women's roles and they're doing it because they want to, because they like it, and because dividing chores into pink vs blue is wrong.

I also want to say, you can't flip a word around and say it does "this" because that's not how it works... Men and women are forcibly socialized in very different ways, the two binaries have very different treatment, and expectations within societies social constructs. If you could flip the forms of oppression that men vs women face (because yes, the patriarchy oppresses men) then you could also flip the forms of violence faced by trans masculine people vs trans feminine people- but that doesn't work either, because women will always be oppressed in the most public way to "make an example of them" while the patriarchy expects anyone who is male to "keep his mouth shut and fall in line". (I know that's worded poorly, but I've just written at least a couple hundred words and my brain is a bit fried already from various other things today- basically anyone perceived female or male will be treated in a certain way as a result of others perception of them)

Anyhow, all this isn't to say that the term "malewife" is inherently free of any form of flaw ever... Malewife is a newly mainstream word, it wasn't popularized until February 15 of 2021... So?? 5 days ago?? The origins of malewife and the social implications of malewife combined with the history of the word, don't make the word bad or impressive and it's not "upholding the ideals of a housewife" but instead a word which provides men freedom from male social expectations.

Can the word malewife come to be a word which enforces expected female social behavior? Yeah it absolutely can become a word to mean that, erase the history from the word, and give it to someone who doesn't know the history of the word, and someone who doesn't have an intimate understanding of gender theory, and you've got a recipe for hundreds more asks like the one you've sent me...

I can't find a single positive reason to use the word girlboss in an empowering way, but I can find more reasons to use the word malewife in an empowering way than not to do so.

So at the very least if all you come away from this with is that I don't personally use the word malewife to uphold female social expectations in a relationship but instead I use this word to provide space for guys to be allowed to be feminine, soft, caring, emotionally present, and worth more than their monetary value, then I guess that's okay.

[iamanartichoke]

(This post was inspired by a recent post by @kayura-sanada​ that I was going to reblog, but my own addition became so long and, frankly, off-topic to the original post’s content that I figured it was fairer to create my own post. But theOP I’m referring to can be found here and is a good read.)

Okay, so: this is a wonderful analysis of Tony Stark, @kayura-sanada​, and I agree that it’s concerning seeing this written by a psychologist (although I think there has to be a little wiggle room in the fact that said psychologist is basing their diagnosis on their own interpretation, and - I would hope - it would probably change if Tony Stark were a real person who was their patient. I gotta hope that).

I agree with all of your overall points regarding Tony, but I wanted to reblog this specifically because this post is such a perfect example of a larger problem within fandom and fandom wank. The problem is that fictional characters can be interpreted any way you want, sure, but there’s a line between supporting your interpretation with evidence from the source, and supporting your interpretation with stuff you just kinda made up. There is a right and a wrong interpretation. 

Here’s what I saw happen with this post: your response to the OP is lengthy because it dissects the OP bit-by-bit; it responds to the claims made in those bits with evidence from the films that supports a completely opposite interpretation of the character. And the response you got largely ignores all of that evidence and analysis in favor of a surface-deep response about open interpretations and how it’s “all just fiction anyway.”

And I see the same pattern repeat itself over and over in fandom:

“Character A is Trait B and that’s why they do Actions C, D, and E.”

“Actually, character A is more Trait F, and examples of Trait F are shown in Action G, H, and I.”

“Okay, but when they do Action H, they’re responding to Event J, but with Actions C and E, they clearly demonstrate Trait B, along with Trait K and L.”

“Well, but, saying they are/have Trait K is kind of a reach, and when they did Action H it was out of character, because in the same situation in previous films, they responded to Event J in a different way. For example, .....” (long post)

“I’m not reading all of that, it’s open to interpretation, and it’s just fiction anyway.”

Later, rinse, repeat.

And it’s like, look, yes, you can interpret the characters however you want. Fandom is supposed to be a fun, engaging space where fans are inspired to create new works and discuss all aspects of the source. Headcanons exists because of open character interpretation. Shipping exists because of open character interpretation. Rarepairs and alternate universes and ‘there was only one bed!’ and lots of tropes exist because of open character interpretation. 

Without that open freedom to engage with the source/characters in whatever way makes you happy, fandom wouldn’t be what it is, and I would never want to discourage that. 

That all said, it is possible that someone’s interpretation is wrong. That the way they imagine the character or the way they’re interpreting the character’s words and actions is a contrast to what’s really supposed to be going on in the scene or with the overall arc. The wrongness can come from any number of things - interpreation being colored by personal experience, preferences, projection, whatever.

In the case above, the psychiatrist is viewing Tony Stark through a lens of what they already decided the character is: a case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. They took that lens and picked out (vague) examples of how the character portrays those traits.

This is fine. If that person wants to think Tony is a narcissist and that’s how they want to engage with the character and subsequent works (pretending that this was a meta post instead of a published article), then that’s their prerogative.

But upon closer analysis, the original interpretation kinda falls apart. The contrasting analysis takes a deeper look at the material and says, I don’t think what you’re saying is going on here is actually what’s going on here, and this is why.

But people don’t want to be told they’re wrong, especially in a fandom space, especially with something they hold dear to them (as interpretations can be intensely personal, and I know this). When the two interpretations clash, and one interpretation doesn’t really hold up to closer analysis, then suddenly, being critical of the source equates to disliking the source, and analysis is reduced to people just being negative and wanting to find things wrong with the source. Disagreeing with someone’s interpretation is taken as a personal attack. People get offended personally. The discussion devolves into ugly rhetoric, insults, or simply dismissiveness (”that’s nice but whatever,” “it’s just fiction,” etc).

And you might say, well, if you think someone’s interpretation is wrong, why are you trying to rain on their parade? Why are you trying to prove them wrong? Let people enjoy things! Let people fandom how they want! Let people write and create and be inspired in their own way!

To which I say, absolutely! Please, continue to enjoy the Thing and your interpretation of it. Continue to create through the lens of that interpretation. Create what makes you happy, fandom however you want to. I am a big proponent of “fandom and let fandom.” What other people like and dislike makes very little difference to me, and I’m certainly not under any illusion that everyone must see things the way that I see them or else they are Doing it Wrong. Nor do I take it personally if someone doesn’t agree with my take. 

None of that is my point. My point is that it becomes an issue that splinters and fractures fandom spaces when criticism and discussion are discouraged, when long analysis posts are mocked, when threads are hijacked, when it gets to a point where disagreeing with someone’s take on a Thing cancels them - to you - as a person. Because you miss out. You miss out on discussion, and on engaging with creative fanworks, and widening your fandom circle.

Instead, the circle just narrows, and there’s an underlying sense of hostility that colors every interaction you have. And it makes it not fun for anyone.

People need to be more open to the idea that there is, in fact, a right and a wrong side to most arguments. They need to be willing to defend their argument in a way that holds up and, if they don’t want to defend their interpretation, that’s fine - more power to you - but they need to then stop making fun of and being generally shitty to those who disagree.

People need to stop pretending that analysis and critical thinking don’t matter. They need to stop pretending that “fiction” is this vague concept that has no bearing on the real world and shouldn’t be taken seriously. Fiction shapes our world, and art imitates life. Being unable to think critically about fiction indicates a larger issue of being unable to think critically about the things that do matter in the real world, like science and poltiics. 

Just look at what this country has become. Each side believes it is the correct side, the “winning” side, but one of them is supported with verifiable facts and evidence and one isn’t, and when the one that isn’t is confronted with the fact that they are wrong, they either dismiss the argument entirely or go and find “alternative facts” from unreliable sources they can point to and say, see? A, B, C, D, and E may say I’m wrong, but F says I’m right, so fuck you.

I’m certainly not saying that fandom should be taken as seriously as politics, but I am saying that if people were more amenable to changing their minds or even just recognizing that criticism isn’t an attack and it’s not personal if someone dislikes a Thing that you feel passionate about - or vice versa - then maybe we’d have a better fandom space for all to enjoy. 

And I do try not to be a hypocrite. I am open to changing my mind on positions I’ve taken in fandom - if the analysis and the evidence convince me that there’s another way to look at it. If someone is telling me I’m wrong, and they tell me why it’s wrong (yes, in detail), then I’m more than happy to take a second look. Maybe it will change my mind; maybe it will simply be something I’m cognizant of while I continue to enjoy the material in the way that’s most fun for me. Either way, I’m not trying to hold fandom as a whole to any kind of standard I wouldn’t also expect myself to meet. 

That being said, this post is 90% me venting. Ironically, I don’t expect this to change anyone’s mind. I’m not saying there’s any one solution that will work for everybody or even that everyone sees a problem that needs solving. I’m just saying that I don’t enjoy fandom as much as I used to, and this particular pattern of "wank” (for lack of a better word) is the reason why.